Die Mensch-Maschine by Kraftwerk

 

 

The 1978 album Die Mensch-Maschine (English: The Man-Machine) is the seventh studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. It was released one year after the album that is generally considered their best, but which I decided not to include in my list although I like it (Trans-Europe Express). I went for the German version of the 1978 album, which I slightly prefer over the English one. The theme of the album is future and urbanization, with the music moving more to dance rhythms. Their influence on the later synth pop bands of the eighties was tremendous. Although Die Roboter and Das Modell have rightly become famous in their English versions, my personal pick of the album would be Neonlicht.

 

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The devil wears Prada

David Frankel's 2006 movie The devil wears Prada is very good, and the poster is even better. A stylish design, forsaking the stars' faces for an image that may well become an icon.

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Gubaidulina's Jetzt immer Schnee and Perception

 

Sad news: yesterday we heard the news that Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina has passed away, aged 93. She had been my favourite living composer for decades, taking over from Tōru Takemitsu in 1996. In her memory I'm posting the very first CD that I bought of her works in 1995. Two outstanding works, Jetzt Immer Schnee (for Chamber Ensemble and Chamber Choir, on Verses by Gennadi Aigi) and Perception (for Soprano, Baritone and Strings, on Verses by Francisco Tanzer). They are performed by Stella Kleindienst, Siegfried Lorenz, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, and the Schönberg Ensemble under Reinbert de Leeuw. R.I.P. .

 

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Flowers in a Windowsill by Jan Sluijters

 

We came across this painting many years ago (pre-Corona) at a visit to Den Bosch to see a special exhibition of works by Dutch painter Jan Sluijters (1881-1975) in the Brabants Museum. This still life from 1913 may well be the most beautiful painting of flowers I've ever seen.

 

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Weimar chic

Some time ago I came across this beautiful fashion illustration at an Art Deco blog. There was no information provided, but I managed to find out that this illustration is for publications on Jews' fashion in the Germany of the twenties. It was created by Annie Offterdinger (1894 - ?), and although undated, it is quite in line style-wise with her dated works from around 1920.

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Firth of Fifth by Genesis

 

About the band: Genesis are a British rock band formed in 1967, whose output in the period 1970-1976 (the Gabriel and/or Hackett years) is among the very best of prog rock. After the departure of first Gabriel, and then Hackett, the remaining three members (Collins, Rutherford, Banks) opted for a more commercial rock sound that was highly successful for about 12 years. The band released 15 studio albums. One of my favourite bands for their prog years, even though I also appreciate some songs that came later. 

 
About the song: Firth of Fifth is the best song on the brilliant 1973 album Selling England by the pound. It is cited by many as the best prog rock song of all time. This majestic song of the sea weaves a magic spell for almost ten minutes, alternating between Peter Gabriels magnificent vocals and Tony Banks' keyboard virtuosity, and with Steve Hackett pulling off an amazing guitar solo in the middle section. 

 

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Bonniers (January 1929)

 

Bonniers Veckotidning (Bonniers Weekly) was (is?) a Swedish magazine, but unfortunately I cannot find much information about it on the internet. Great Art Deco covers though, like the one above, created by Georg Klinghammer.

 

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Windmill in Ice

This freeze frame from 2009 is one of my most popular shots from the years I spent on Flickr, and a personal favourite as well. This is the windmill in Rijssen (the same spot where our wedding shoot was done in 2000), reflected in ice and flipped upside down. 

 

Copyright statement: image created by myself. Copyright Hennie Schaper.

 

Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt

Spiegel im Spiegel (lit. 'mirror(s) in the mirror') is a work for violin and piano from 1978 by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (1935). He composed it just before his departure from Estonia (then part of the Soviet Union) to Austria, and later Germany. This minimalist piece is short, and also somewhat controversial. I've seen classical music lovers deride it as a snooze fest, or 'boring as hell', while others (including me) fall for its hypnotic qualities. It has certainly reached a wide audience, having been used in dozens of movies and TV series. The version shown above is by Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe on an EMI CD. 

 

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New York Central System

The New York Central System, nowadays better known as New York Central Railroad, was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid Atlantic regions of the United States. This poster by Leslie Ragan is stunning in its blue design and industrial theme - it's probably from the thirties.

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Fur and Gold by Bat for Lashes

 

 

Fur and Gold is the 2006 debut studio album by Folktronica singer Bat for Lashes (real name Natasha Khan), a Pakistani British singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. It is a melodious, moving, and at times experimental Art Pop gem. There are obvious influences (Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Siouxie), but there is also some foreshadowing of later artists like Lana del Rey and Agnes Obel. There is not a weak song on the album, but even better than the other songs for me are Horse And I, Tahiti, Sad Eyes, Prescilla, Seal Jubilee, and I Saw A Light.

 

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Not Quite Decent

  

Going back about a century, when this Irving Cummings movie hit the theaters, accompanied by a beautiful jazz age poster. The movie itself is largely forgotten nowadays (it has zero reviews on IMDB), but the poster still appears in Art Deco sites on the web.

 

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Concertos by Gerald FInzi

The term "second best" often sounds a bit disrespectful. However, when I state that to my taste English composer Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956) gave us the second best concertos for cello and for clarinet (behind Moeran and Mozart) it is very high praise indeed. Lyrita made the wise choice to combine them on one album, played by Yo-Yo Ma with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and by John Denman and the New Philharmonia Orchestra, both under Vernon Handley. A magnificent CD.

 

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Lady in an Evening Gown by Charley Toorop

Last month we visited the Museum More in Gorssel, and this beauty was on display as part of their permanent collection. Dutch artist Jan Toorop (1859 - 1928) is relatively well known in the Netherlands, but fewer people have hard of his daughter Charley Toorop (1891 - 1955), who created this stunning portrait in 1923.

 

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San Yan and the Black Tiger

 

This is a book cover from our own collection - we bought it at a second hand market a few years ago. I could not find any relevant information on either the book or the author, but I love the Art Deco style cover.

 

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Give up your guns by the Buoys

 

About the band: The Buoys were an American pop/rock band from the early 1970s. Their career was short-lived, they never got to record an album. They are remembered for two singles: the notorious Timothy about cannibalism, and Give up your guns. 

 
About the song: for some reason, Give up your guns from 1971 is appreciated much more in Holland than elsewhere: it featured regularly in the all time top100 organized yearly by a Dutch radio station in the period 1970-2000, peaking at 22 in both 1974 and 1975, and getting a last entry as late as 1996. This story song with its desperado motive ("Shooting here or hanging there - and either way I lose") rather remarkably foreshadows later Eagles songs. 

 

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Judge (October 1926)

The magazine Judge is well known for its stunning covers, but this colourful Art Deco extravaganza is one of the best. It's based on work by Holmgren.

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Organ sonata in the modern style

 

Over the years, we visited the organ museum in nearby Elburg a couple of times. A lovely experience, and I was particularly impressed by this colourful modern organ. With these lines and colours, the shot becomes quite abstract.

 

Copyright statement: image created by myself. Copyright Hennie Schaper.

Symphony No. 4 by Franz Schmidt

Symphony No. 4 in C major was completed in 1933 by Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Schmidt (1874 - 1939). It is the best known of his four late romantic symphonies. The composer called it "A requiem for my daughter", referring to Emma who died unexpectedly after the birth of her first child. Schmidt is often seen as a Nazi sympathizer, although the facts do not support that point of view. Anyway, this symphony is an excellent one, and can be considered the last in the long line of great Romantic symphonies from Austria and Germany. The version shown above is by the London Philharmonic under Franz Welser-Möst on an EMI CD.  

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Agfa film

 

This 1930 poster is a prime example of why vintage posters is a category in this art blog. A beautiful design and execution, the work of Marcello Dudovich.

 

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Snow Borne Sorrow by Nine Horses

 

Snow Borne Sorrow from 2005 is the only studio album by the art rock band Nine Horses, a cooperation between David Sylvian, his brother Steve Jansen (also ex-Japan), and electronics musician Burt Friedmann, with a number of guests, most notably Stina Nordenstam and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Although not marked as such, this very much sounds like a David Sylvian album, returning to his jazz-influenced melodious best after the somewhat disappointing highly experimental 2003 album Blemish. Some highlights are Darkest Birds, The Banality Of Evil, Atom And Cell, A History Of Holes, and The Librarian. 

 

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The way of a girl

 

An early Art Deco masterpiece, this Danish version of the movie poster for the 1925 Robert Vignola movie starring Eleanor Boardman and Matt Moore. The poster was designed by Sven Brasch.

 

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Death and the Maiden by the Takács Quartet

One of my favourite chamber music CD's. The two most famous Schubert string quartets (No. 13 in A minor 'Rosamunde' D804 and No. 14 in D minor 'Death and the Maiden' D810), for me two of the best three string quartets ever composed, in impeccable performances by the Takács Quartet. Top notch Hyperion sound (as usual), and impressive cover art by Adolph Hiremy-Hirschl (1860-1933).

 

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Laura by Vilmos Aba-Novák

 

A few years ago I came across this artist I had never heard of before: Vilmos Aba-Novák (1894-1941). This Hungarian master painted frescoes and church murals, but also masterpieces like this 1929 portrait of a flapper girl. 

 

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Rhapsody in red

 

It's a nice picture of a girl in an orchard in full bloom, and the red parasol really stands out. Still, what's so special about it, why did I want to include it in the blog? Well, it was taken in 1907 by Louis Lumière, and it is one of the very first colour photographs made with a commercial camera (link).

 

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The Watchmaker by Steven Wilson

About the artist: Steven Wilson (1967) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer, most closely associated with the progressive rock genre. He became known as the founder, lead guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield and No-Man. He released his first solo album in 2008, followed by many more over the years, mostly to great critical acclaim. 

 
About the song: as good as his first solo albums were, he outdid himself with the 2013 album The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) - a beautiful but spooky homage to seventies' prog. Genesis and Pink Floyd are the main influences on the track The Watchmaker. The lyrics are extraordinary even by Steven Wilson standards with lines like "You were just meant to be temporary while I waited for gold" and "I never really loved you but I'll miss you anyway". An extraordinary track from a brilliant album. 

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Vogue (March 1932)

 

One could argue that the best vintage Vogue covers were in the twenties, but this one from 1932 is right up there with my other favorites. No wonder, as it was designed by the famous Georges Lepape.

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Xinhua Bookstore

This is without a doubt the most beautiful bookstore I've ever visited: the Xinhua shop in the Aegean Place mall in Shanghai's Minhang district. The design is by famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando. What made it extra attractive from a photographer's point of view is that large parts were not used yet, making for stunning abstract shot opportunities. I've flipped this one upside down for an even more interesting effect. One of my favourite shots of that year (2018). A square version is on display on our gallery.

 

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The Curlew by Peter Warlock

The Curlew is a song cycle from 1922 by British composer Peter Warlock (actual name Philip Heseltine, 1894 - 1930) on poems by W. B. Yeats. It was written for singer and an unusual accompanying group of flute, cor anglais and string quartet. There are four songs, with a short instrumental interlude between the third and the fourth (see also its Wiki entry). When I bought the CD decades ago, it was to get the two Vaughan Williams cycles, but as good as they were, the Warlock turned out to be the real find. For me, bleak as it may be, it is one of the most beautiful song cycles ever composed. The version shown above is by Ian Partridge with the Music Group of London, including Janet Craxton on cor anglais, on an EMI CD.

 

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Amherst Villiers

Some years ago I bought a box of airplane-themed vintage posters reproduced on postcards. This was one of the most striking. Amherst Villiers (1900–1991) was an English automotive, aeronautical and astronautic engineer and portrait painter - a 20th century renaissance man. The poster depicts one of his projects, a (failed) attempt to break the world air speed record.

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