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Home , Disillusioned, Highly Evolved, Keith Levene, Modern Sounds, Oscar Niemeyer, Prairie School

in consonance

THE COMMON LANGUAGE OF MUSIC+ WALK INTO A MODERN HOUSE. WHITE WALLS AND BUFFED FLOORS. QUIET EXCEPT FOR FOOTSTEPS AND ECHOES. SOUNDS MORE LIKE A MUSEUM THAN A PLACE TO HANG YOUR HAT. BUT TURN ON THE STEREO, AND THAT PLACE INSTANTLY GETS A PULSE. MUSIC BESTOWS LIFE UPON OUR HOMES, TRANSFORMING INANIMATE OBJECTS INTO SOMETHING MORE HUMAN. SURE, SOME MUSIC IS JUST NOISE—A DAILY SOUNDTRACK OF RADIO JINGLES AND ELEVATOR ACCOMPANIMENT. BUT PLAY THE RIGHT TUNES IN THE RIGHT CONTEXT AND YOU’LL MOVE PEOPLE, IN ALL SENSES OF THE WORD. The building itself is part of that harmony. Some songs are designed for stadiums, others for the bedroom. But the connections between architecture and music run deeper than the venue. Look at terminology used by the creators and you’ll see overlap: words like rhythm, accents, theme variation. and musicians often speak the same language. View the two art forms through the lens of , and you’ll observe more common DNA. Both embraced new materials, questioned assumptions, and stripped down structures to their cores. “Before the modernist period, a cutting-edge musician tried to make melody and harmony even more expressive,” said Jack Sheinbaum, a professor of musicology at the University of Denver. “But then, the questions change to: ‘Wait a minute, why do I even need melody and harmony?’” STORY BY: KEVIN JANOWIAK Architects asked similar questions and rewrote the rules over the last 65 years. Why not break down the barrier between indoor and outdoor space? Why not put a kitchen in a living room? For example, look to the Denver Art Museum (DAM) with its jutting triangles and deviant geometry. “The museum is very abstract and jarring,” said Michael Knorr, an based in Denver and Las Vegas. “It reminds me of electronic composers at midcentury who used atonality and didn’t follow formal structure.” Daniel Libeskind, architect of the DAM extension, was once an accomplished pianist and accordion player. And so he often invokes musical analogies when describing his projects, calling them precise and emotional compositions where one wrong note can ruin the mood.

Of course, music and architecture do not always run on parallel rails. A saxophone solo requires a very different skill set than designing a high-rise, but their growth comes from the same petri dish of culture and technology. IMAGE: “ 14” Pioneers in both fields became modern by pushing boundaries. Dip into Danae Falliers musical history from modal to Hip-Hop and you’ll see that creativity Courtesy of the artist evolves faster than we do. and Robischon Gallery danaefalliers.com

66 SUMMER 2014 | MODERN IN DENVER modernindenver.com 67 MUSIC+ARCHITECTURE: IN CONSONANCE

VELVET UNDERGROUND // WHITE LIGHT / WHITE REBELS WITH A CAUSE HEAT (1968) Picking your favorite album is harder than picking your CUT THE CHORD you would hear in your There were many modernist pioneers but This attack on pop sensibilities is favorite child. And anytime you rank artists of any kind, Let’s start with the Jazz life was only the music few matched the massive strides of German- relentless, a brutal sludge of guitar American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. distortion and feedback. Recorded you’re asking for a fight, or at least a vigorous debate. album that everybody of your generation, but So, don’t consider these pioneering musicians and now we have all of music His abandonment of flourish created a tidal wave in only two days, “White Light / knows about, “Kind of of influence over the avant-garde and, eventually, architects to be a definitive best-of list. Instead, look history at our fingertips,” White Heat” shows a band fully Blue” by Miles Davis. mainstream culture. With efficiency as his muse, divorced from Andy Warhol. Its to them as fine examples of risk takers and boundary he said. In other words, his aesthetic trickles down into every detail, like pushers. These iconoclasts probably wouldn’t do well And let’s start at the sloppy experimentation and “anti- postwar musicians the Barcelona chair designed with Lilly Reich. beauty” paved the way for avant- together as roommates. But as a group they broke beginning of that record. carved out a distinction His pared-down “skin and bones” concepts garde Rock and Punk to come. ground and built modern wonders. The first track “So What” dot the international landscape, with a heavy lives up to its defiant between popularity concentration in . and quality that survives KING CRIMSON // title by subverting IN THE COURT OF THE DAVE BRUBECK // traditional Tin Pan Alley today—a new ambition JAZZ AT OBERLIN (1953) CRIMSON KING (1969) song structure. Normally, beyond concert and Blues chords are the building This live album of Jazz standards album sales. was recorded years before Brubeck horns lead the melody, blocks of Rock. But this tinkered with time signatures. But but Davis freezes them landmark prog album used it’s far from a paint-by-numbers That unconventional atypical construction materials in a two-note loop, while instead: military music, Jazz affair. Listen to the subtle solos the bass lines are thrust streak led to natural allies and you can hear great forces at noodling, Classical antiquity and to center stage. Skip with architecture. Miles Psychedelic bluster to name a work: BeBop shifting to Cool Jazz Davis met , and a younger generation along to track two, “Freddie few. It’s modern music that can for the ride. Freeloader,” and you’ll a largely self-taught sound old, with room for both Mellotrons and harpsichords. hear an abstraction that chair of the School of CHARLES MINGUS // Architecture at the > breaks Blues conventions; MILES DAVIS // PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS chord progressions are (1956) BITCHES BREW (1970) In the title track, Mingus and his thrown out the window. Davis reinvents himself adventurous musicians evoke the “It’s an intellectual again—out with Cool Jazz, in story of prehistoric man. But the modernist exercise,” said with an electric orchestra and improvisations and tempo changes supersized rhythm section. Sheinbaum, “but it’s still Although unpalatable to some of are highly evolved. beautiful and enjoyable.” were taught by ear, yet structured his followers, the wild grooves into movements. The lesson: created new strains of funk and Why did Cool Jazz fusion. Listen carefully and you Jazz compositions can be both University of Oklahoma. “Jazz is like a river,” Knorr organized and open-ended. musicians want to be can hear Davis give instructions Far from smoky clubs said. “You can go off on to his crew on the fly. different? Partially on the coasts, Jazz interesting tangents that ORNETTE COLEMAN // because for the first time, icons performed private are not strictly bound by THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO musicians in the 20th PATTI SMITH // concerts for Goff and the course of the river. I HORSES (1975) COME (1959) century acutely felt their As a founding father of avant his students. Goff dotted think This debut album launched place in history, argued garde Jazz, Coleman has a the prairie with eclectic is the same way.” Smith from club Sheinbaum. “Before darling to the poet laureate of polarizing reputation. Anytime and organic homes, but you ditch chord changes and the 1950s, most music Punk. is recast for he also experimented ROCKING THE BOAT hormonic structure, you risk a grittier age, starting with her sounding abrasive. But this with player- rolls. The sea change snarling take on “Gloria.” It’s a prophetic album ushered in a Goff didn’t bother with eventually flows from Jazz frenzied assault on gender roles new era of jazz soloing, one proper musical notation; into , spilling and tired Rock clichés. more like a flowing conversation FRANK he simply sliced triangles over into the roots of than a set script. Arguably America’s most cherished and circles into the paper Punk and New Wave in architect, was as prolific rolls and let the piano do the ’70s. Modern music as he was influential. With a voracious the work. It was music again flips expectations RAY CHARLES // work ethic and boundless imagination, he designed visually—an MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY left an indelible mark via residential, office, and flips off protocol. AND WESTERN MUSIC (1962) religious, hotel, and mixed-use structures. adventurous mix of Think of minimalists like With a melting pot of sleepy He’s synonymous with the of careful planning and the Ramones, armed with Country classics spiked with Architecture, but Wright’s organic random results. three chords, two-minute Gospel, Charles broke down racial residence and Eusonian homes also show songs, and one cohesive barriers in music. This album that geniuses can evolve. His internationally How did it turn out? fashion sense. The lesson: flew off the shelves, a crossover celebrated Guggenheim Museum in New hit at the height of the Civil Rights York City further cemented his legacy and “Not too bad,” Michael You don’t have to be a Movement. The songs may be playfulness with shapes. Since Wright’s Knorr said with a laugh. virtuoso to have a band. about loneliness and heartbreak, death in 1959, he’s had many imitators but He heard them at an You can use brute force, but “Modern Sounds” is ultimately few detractors. about common ground. exhibition in Washington rattling off anthems like a D.C. Goff wasn’t trying to machine gun. But simple Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer was obsessed with curves, a natural trait born from a country of crescent beaches and the snaking Amazon emulate Miles Davis. But doesn’t mean stupid. River. By pushing reinforced concrete to its pliable limits, he created bold both took bold risks and Johnny Ramone was contours and monuments more sensual than monolithic. When named blazed their own trails. once asked why his songs chief architect of ’s new capital city Brasília in 1956, Niemeyer had the rare opportunity to design an urban environment from scratch. He thrived under the pressure, transforming cattle country to a modernist laboratory with bleached structures that seem to levitate.

68 SUMMER 2014 | MODERN IN DENVER modernindenver.com 69 MUSIC+ARCHITECTURE: IN CONSONANCE It’s easy to spot a building by Canadian-American RHYTHM SECTION architect Frank Gehry. Just KRAFTWERK // TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS Rock embraced new look for tourists taking pictures (1977) To witness a waking dream, look no technology in the ‘70s of it. With his penchant It’s been called “modern further than the work of Zaha Hadid. for unusual materials and and ‘80s, but it took postmodern amorphous Electronic music’s birth Her neo-futuristic constructions Hip-Hop and Electronic shapes, Gehry stands out certificate.” Four Germans, bend the mind and fool the eye. Music to seal the deal from the crowd. The one-time armed with the latest sequencers With progressive detail and optical movement, her imaginings are as with a kiss. Grandmaster truck driver earned money and synthesizers, pound out from cardboard furniture then minimalist melodies in three muscular as they are functional. Flash invented a new As the first woman to receive the renovated his Santa Monica different languages. The album science for the home in 1978. Its novel use of Pritzker Prize, the Iranian architect chugs along mechanized corrugated steel jump-started is an unrestrained model of free- floor, scratching vinyl tracks, like a sleek train to new his career, one with decades thinking. Even her yacht concepts and redefining turntables destinations in dance music. of praise for high-profile works are mind-blowingly original. She is into instruments. The like the Walt Disney Concert a true visionary and an important secret was extracting Hall in Los Angeles and the TALKING HEADS // contributor to the built environment. the “break,” what Flash titanium-clad Guggenheim FEAR OF MUSIC (1979) called the short, catchy Museum in Bilbao. David Byrne squeezes poetry parts of records that out of robotic rhythms. Loaded with one-word song titles, this grab hold of your ears and never let go—Hip- album gets to the point quickly were so short. His reply was Of course, plenty of with hard-hitting production. But Hop samples from the THE ART OF NOISE // that they were actually musicians still revisited the behind the weird textures and best sounds available in INTO BATTLE WITH THE long songs played very past. bleak urban lyrics are plenty of any genre, at any time, of downtown Chicago. ART OF NOISE (1983) infectious hooks. It’s dystopia quickly. Modernism can bands like Pink Floyd These Brits left a large wake, period. Like a modern Traveling DJs could return you can dance to. come across as stark, and King Crimson aimed rippling all the way to nascent architect who seamlessly there to fill up on hard-to- but a closer look reveals for the old grandeur of breakdancing culture in America. combines styles, rappers get vinyl. They mined the This enlightened EP pulsed with complexity within all symphonies and operas tinker with recipes to racks for gems and novel sound collages, digital // the open space. For but used the latest tools. SECOND EDITION (1979) show that apples and brought them to the technology pushed to its max at Sheinbaum, Punk is a Like modern architecture, the time. “The Art of Noise” got its Never mind the , oranges sometimes do world. It’s a geographical here’s John Lydon’s reaction to the “hot” natural and synthetic name from an early 20th century go together. dispersion like the way Experimental Post-Punk phase. emotional passion of materials are woven manifesto, but the ultimate goal Electronic Dance modernist architects was to leap ahead. This album has a metallic Classic Rock. together. “Quiet acoustic Music stretched out like Cliff May and sheen, from the all-aluminum sections contrast with guitar played by Keith Levene the concept of the imported PUBLIC ENEMY // to the innovative packaging, a Next in line is New Wave, loud electric sections,” IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS 16mm film canister. Enigmatic which cools down the said Sheinbaum, who has TO HOLD US BACK (1988) lyrics are set to a bass-heavy temperature even more. published several articles Chuck D made the Hip-Hop sound that meanders. “We expect soaring on Progressive Rock. equivalent to Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” a combustible intensity from classic If architecture is a language, “It’s a statement on the mix of political commentary and rock,” Sheinbaum said, then Santiago Calatrava has an // 20th century condition accent all his own. The Spanish- multilayered production. Flavor SANDINISTA! (1980) “but New Wave strips all of and lost born architect and structural Flav provides comic relief, but this Joe Strummer stuffed three the emotion out of it.” innocence.” Again, engineer has taken the color white is a serious fight for the underbelly of America. The weapons? with risk-taking and musicians and architects to new heights with gleaming genre-hopping: Dub, Reggae, Guitars are no longer a bridges and cultural institutions. Revolutionary rhymes and a “wall feel the burden of history of noise.” Rockabilly, Calypso, and more. given, and synthesizers let His first American work, at the “ Calling” is usually and have something to say Milwaukee Art Museum, appears you squeeze out new tones, perched higher on best-of lists, about it. > to float above the lakefront like a DE LA SOUL // 3 FEET HIGH AND but this ambitious album is a impossible to produce sinuous beacon. The building’s RISING (1989) beautiful mess. It’s a brazen without machines. “wings” open during the day De La Soul’s debut is anti-Gangsta romp through a volatile world. and fold at night, proving that Rap, brimming with positivity and architecture doesn’t have to sit still. light-hearted sketches. Samples are mined from surprising sources like Steely Dan and Johnny Cash. These East Coasters sounded Californian lifestyle to totally different than any of their “break” even further— peers and sparked a golden age of Dutch architect and city planner the rest of the American Rem Koolhaas tries to downplay his whole songs with only Jazz Rap. celebrity status in interviews. He’s percussion and rhythm, landscape. “Much more interested in urban density and vocals stripped off like of Electronic Dance well-oiled infrastructure than himself. MASSIVE ATTACK // an unwanted distraction. Music is fascinating BLUE LINES (1991) But with masterful and massive and avant-garde and projects like the CCTV Headquarters Originally dubbed “hard It’s not often a debut album gives in and a train hub in northern disco” by Rock journalists, noisy on purpose,” said birth to a new genre. “Blue Lines” , global attention is a given. Chicago House hammers Sheinbaum. “It’s as much captivated and sedated listeners His first big splash in the United a modernist approach to with its ethereal mix of Soul, out repetition with no time Symphony, and Rap. Although the States was the 2004 Public making art as anything Library, a striking “Books Spiral” for melody or subtlety. Trip-Hop capitol is in England, the bathed in natural light. Koolhaas Like any new genre, that happened in Jazz.” sounds are global from American once wrote screenplays but now House had a mothership: To its detractors, Funk to Jamaican Dub. devotes himself to the serious study

a record store called Electronic Music can

of modern cities. > Imports Etc. just south sound like wall-shaking

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FRANKIE KNUCKLES // I.M. PEI BEYOND THE MIX (1991) The breakout career of I.M. Pei Originally a student of textile has roots in Colorado with his design, Knuckles swapped design of the National Center scissors for turntables in for Atmospheric Research in the ‘70s and never looked Boulder. He established his back. After a decade of lofty reputation by combining working Chicago clubs like inspiration from natural the Warehouse, his audience surroundings with the singular ballooned from mostly gay spirit of the project at hand. black men to international fame His modernist constructions and a prestigious title—the launched an era, the zenith “Godfather of House Music.” being his famous pyramidal addition to the . Still WU-TANG CLAN // contributing his prowess to the ENTER THE WU-TANG world of design in his 90s, Pei (36 CHAMBERS) (1993) is an inspiration inside and With RZA as lead architect, outside the drafting room. this album set the blueprint for modern Hip-Hop production and moved Rap’s headquarters back to the Atlantic. A great return on investment for $300 worth of studio time. All nine members mindless hypnosis. But laugh. Most of us have like . In the ooze charisma, along with the there are brains behind a hard time thinking end, modern music and unusual backdrop of Soul and the beats. Look at Daft beyond next week’s architecture do not hit kung-fu samples. Punk’s carefully crafted schedule, but Soleri and dead ends. Sound waves image—it’s a fully Daft Punk looked way can be stretched and DJ SHADOW // synthesized vision for beyond the horizon. twisted into unlimited ENDTRODUCING… (1996) Sampling had been around for music that also happens forms. Steel, wood, and a long time when DJ Shadow to sell out arenas. With Thanks to digital glass can be rearranged crafted this instrumental Hip- their faces hidden by production, fanciful to match evolving Hop record. But never had an helmets, the French duo designs can now be lifestyles. And technology album been composed entirely removes the human churned out in warp does more and more of of sampled content. It’s like element to sound speed. But we should be the heavy lifting. Like oral turning a spice into the main ingredient—overwhelming and and transports their careful to not drown in tradition, the languages exciting at the same time. audience into an alien theory, said Christopher of architecture and music future. An architectural Herr, an architect based adapt and thrive. END Radiohead // equivalent could be in Boulder and Denver. SOUND STYLE Kid A (2000) Paolo Soleri, with his “Both architecture Disillusioned with guitar anthems massive hypercities and music are artistic FACT: Author Kevin Janowiak has listened in full to every Wireless speakers have come a long way and well-worn conventions of that seem ripped from expressions, but both Rock, Thom Yorke started over. one of ’s 500 a science fiction movie need to be founded from the tinny-sounding plastic boxes that Boldly dropping the instruments Greatest Albums of All that made them millions, the set. His floating upon technical mastery,” Time—although that number looked like they belonged next to a desktop band cooked up a new recipe of and urban beehives said Herr, who also plays is actually 515 albums. It electronic dissonance and nervous were more imagination principal horn in a local took him four years to finish computer. With new and improved features energy. Turns out fans like a than reality, but wait a symphony. In other album number 515. challenge: Kid A debuted at No. 1 few thousand years and words, art shouldn’t scare like Bluetooth 4.0 technology, wireless in the U.S. Soleri might have the last away an audience—it can be challenging yet speakers sound better—and look better! approachable. Clearly there are no straight lines to be drawn Brazen and imaginative, Jean in music history. Any SIMPLE STYLE Nouvel is one of the most attempt at a rigid family The speaker series mixes classic looks with experimental architects alive today. tree does a disservice The unconventional textures, modern appeal by combining a custom-weave by textile drama, and scope of his work to thousands of sub- maker Kvadrat and the convenience of wireless, high- show that high risk can yield high genres and permutations. fidelity sound. Created by Vifa, Denmark’s venerable rewards—and he’s got the 2008 Garage Rock Revival pioneer of sound technology, the portable speakers Pritzker Prize to prove it. From his and Neo-Soul are signs shape is reminiscent of the old, black ‘80s stereo. But with gravity-defying cantilever on the that the history can minimal control buttons built into the case and its colorful Lucerne Culture and Congress repeat itself. Musical options, the Copenhagen is anything but boom box. Centre, to his white-speckled Tower 25 in Cyprus, to the rainbow collages and mash-ups +vifa.dk/#copenhagen capsule Torre Agbar skyscraper in poke holes in traditional Barcelona, his enterprising work categories. Bands can speaks loud and clear. reinvent themselves

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SOUND WAVES (ABOVE LEFT) For those who like to mix their audio technology with water, the sporty Urchin speaker by Boom comes equipped with its own ALARMINGLY SUBTLE (ABOVE) silicone wet suit to resist splashes (though it only promises to be Soundfreaq’s update to its minimalist Sound Rise alarm clock water-resistant). Urchin is also built to be shockproof and dustproof now has a smaller footprint—about one-third smaller than the so it will be as active as you want to be. original. There’s no more charging dock, but a USB port to plug in a smartphone at night. The limited Novo Freaq pictured is part of +boommovement.com The Novogratz Collection for Soundfreaq. Black and wood/taupe options are part of the permanent collection, which features an ULTIMATE SOUND (ABOVE) alarm that increases its volume as you wake. Audio-technicians at Devialet mixed analog and digital into a high-end system to create a hybrid amplifier that is winning raves +soundfreaq.com/soundrise from audiophiles. The systems start with the Devialet 120 and go up to the Devialet 800—the numbers represent the wattage. It has phono and analog line inputs plus USB, Ethernet, and digital coaxial, not to mention a few boasts like, “Distortion is no longer even measurable.” LON LITTLE SPEAKER (ABOVE LEFT) +en.devialet.com The petite Little Speaker from Boulder’s LON Little Shop is a mere 2-by-2 inches. But don’t judge it by its size. For such a pint-sized system, the sound is MINIMALISTIC MUSIC (LEFT) impressive, especially for the small price of $38. The best part: It’s capable of The best-looking home sound system is often one you don’t see. streaming music for up to 5 hours on one charge. And Bang & Olufsen has hidden the new BeoSound Essence quite +lonlittleshop.com nicely. The only hint is the round controller attached a wall. It looks like a thermostat, only simpler. Attached wirelessly to a hidden SCULPTURAL CASE (CENTER LEFT) component box and linked (wirelessly if using a special BeoLab Encased in white porcelain, the UnMonday Model 4.3 speaker is sculptural, transmitter) to the company’s speakers, the spherical controller elegant, and audiophile-worthy. And if you pair it with up to five others at simply responds to touch. Or use the free app to control your music home, you can set up a five-channel surround sound system in your living on a smartphone. room. There’s a motion sensor inside each speaker so, depending on which +bang-olufsen.com/en/beosound-essence of the six sides you tilt it, Model 4.3 turns itself into a front, rear right, center, or other surround option. Tilt it upside down to mute. Everything is linked wirelessly via AirPlay (WiFi). Just set up and enjoy. +unmonday.com

SMARTER SOUND (LEFT) NOCS YOUR AVERAGE EARBUD When Justin Kaufmann put Glowdeck on Kickstarter, he hit a nerve with Fresh out of (June 15 release date), the Nocs people who realized they needed this “smartphone companion.” Glowdeck NS500 touts a tangle-free cable and a three-button remote for raised 700 percent more than it asked—and no wonder! Glowdeck is a sleek seamless iPod, iPhone, and iPad control. Its aluminum housing box with a real-wood finish that charges your smartphone by touch using has been refined, and the silicon microphone removes burst Qi wireless technology. No cable needed! Plus, it has Bluetooth to stream noise and picks up speech 360 degrees. The sounds is pretty music out of its built-in speakers or broadcast phone calls. The crowdfunding swell, too, with impeccable balance, rich detail, and a deep project enlisted supporters as beta testers so now the wait is on to see when base in equal measure. Glowdeck hits the market. +nocs.se +glowdeck.com

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