MORTON FELDMAN - Rothko Chapel/for Frank O'hara (50th Anniversary Vinyl)

If you could actually hear an abstract
expressionist painting, it would probably
sound a lot like the work of Morton Feldman.
And that's no accident: Feldman hung out
in '50s and '60s New York with Jackson
Pollock, Philip Guston (whose work graced the
cover of Feldman's first album), and Robert
Rauschenberg. Like the paintings of his visual
artist peers, Feldman's work emphasized
tonal color over structure, rhythm, or melody,
the traditional building blocks of music. It
also employed the musical equivalent of
painterly "negative space" with its use
of silence and stasis; that Feldman and
John Cale were enormous influences on each other
will come as no surprise. So, it makes sense that Feldman would dedicate probably his two
most celebrated compositions to two giants of the New York scene: abstract expressionist
Mark Rothko, whose famous Chapel adorns this LP's front cover, and writer and critic Frank
O'Hara, whose own work drew inspiration from the same sources as Feldman's. Rothko Chapel
and For Frank O'Hara first were released in 1976 on a seminal album from the Odyssey imprint
on Columbia Records; for its 50th anniversary and first LP reissue, we've had it pressed on
180-gram black vinyl at Gotta Groove Records for the quietest listen achievable, using new
transfers from the original master tapes. Profound, career-defining work that opened the
door for latter-day ambient composers like Brian Eno to walk through.

Vinyl release of Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel/for Frank O'hara (50th Anniversary Vinyl). Released through Real Gone Music and available on LP.