“Whatever the individual or the group undertakes against the totality of which they form a part is infected by its evil — no less the one who does nothing. This is the secularization of original sin.”
— Adorno, Negative Dialektik
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A Klaus Lang moment
This same work appears on a gorgeous new disc from another timbre, geschrieben in wasser, with Apartment House.
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Wagnerism alert
The extraordinarily problematic A.I. executive Sam Altman writes on his blog: “My personal takeaway from the last several years, and take on why there has been so much Shakespearean drama between the companies in our field, comes down to this: ‘Once you see AGI you can’t unsee it.’ It has a real ‘ring of power’ dynamic to it, and makes people do crazy things. I don’t mean that AGI is the ring itself, but instead the totalizing philosophy of ‘being the one to control AGI.” Altman may think he’s referring to Tolkien, but, as I note in Wagnerism, the concept of a world-conquering, soul-destroying ring was invented by Wagner and then appropriated by Tolkien. The twilight of the tech-billionaire gods can’t come a moment too soon; let’s only hope that they don’t take the rest of us with them.
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Orbán out
Perhaps there is still faint hope for democracy in this part of the world.
Previously: “Notes of Dissent,” 2014.
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Nightafternight playlist
New and recent releases of interest, im Stil Steve Smiths.
Mahler, Symphony No. 7; Paavo Järvi conducting the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra (Alpha Classics)
Clémence de Grandval, Mazeppa; Tassis Christoyannis, Nicole Car, Julien Dran, Ante Jerkunica, Paweł Trojak, Mihhail Gerts conducting the Munich Radio Symphony and Bavarian Radio Chorus (Bru Zane)
Bach, St. John Passsion; Julian Prégardien, Huw Montague Rendall, Ying Fang, Lucile Richardot, Laurence Kilsby, Christian Immler, Etienne Bazola, Raphaël Pichon conducting Pygmalion (Harmonia Mundi)
Shostakovich, Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5; John Storgårds conducting the BBC Philharmonic, CBSO Chorus (Chandos)
So Poétique: mélodies of Saint-Saëns, Vierne, Dubois, Gounod, Godard, Lamartine, Fauré, La Tombelle, Massenet, Holmès, Musset, Franck, David, Thomas; Cyrille Dubois, Pierre Dumoussaud conducting the Brussels Philharmonic (Alpha Classics)
John Luther Adams, Horizon; Australian Chamber Orchestra (Cold Blue)
Timothy McCormack, the hand is an ear / the ear is a heart, your body is a volume; JACK Quartet, Austin Wulliman (Kairos)
Elsa Barraine, Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, Song-Koï, Les Tziganes; Cristian Măcelaru conducting the Orchestre National de France (Warner Classics)
