Sunday 6 March 2011

Memento mori

I was without any home internet access for virtually the whole of December 2010. Therefore I missed hearing about the deaths of three creative people whose work I enjoyed (and still enjoy) until very recently.

Firstly Boris Tishchenko died on the 9th of December. And then Jean Rollin on the 15th December. Finally Don Van Vliet died on the 17th December.

Tischenko was a pupil of Ustvolskaya and Shostakovich. They both influenced his own music but he did have his own voice. His music was uneven in quality but when he was good (as in the two violin concertos and the harp concerto) he was very good.

Jean Rollin has long been a favourite film director of mine. His dreamlike vampire films are so different from either Hollywood or Hammer horror.

And Don Van Vliet - Captain Beefheart - was simply a one-off. There's nothing in rock music quite like 'Trout Mask Replica'



No comments: