NEW YORK CITY

has always thrived on its ability to merge glitz with grime, creating products that incorporate both high-brow

idealism and raw, gritty experimentation. From art to architecture, New York has built itself upon this odd alchemy. The proliferation of
trends that spew from the five boroughs each offer forth different takes on the City’s life. From punk to no-wave, art-rock to folk and all
other jumbles of creativity, New York births more inspired art than any other modern city. Composer Rhys Chatham’s powerful,
uncompromising body of work, his exploration of noise, chaos, composition and calm is in many ways the most direct, passionate
musical manifestation of this postmodern way. Chatham exhibits an exceptional ability to bridge together the intricacies of classical
composition with the kick-in-the-gut whallop of rock ‘n’ roll.

The hour-long Two Gongs fills the entirety of [this] disc with its ethereal, droning psychedelia. While written in 1971, the ’89 recording
documented here features Chatham, along with fellow composer Yoshimasa Wada coaxing heavy, overlapping tones out of a pair of
Chinese gongs. The instruments buzz and hum, moving in waves from deafening rattles to soft, muted drones. The monstrous noise that
Chatham concocts is far more akin to the seismic crashes of monstrously distorted guitar feedback than that of two unprocessed slabs
of metal, and it proves the composer’s interest in creating a similar world of sound out of whatever instrument currently proved his
muse. On disc, the performance is jaw-droppingly powerful, a monumental chunk of glorious noise.

— ETHAN COVEY, DUSTED

“The resulting investigation of these gongs sounds not so much like an idealized Music of the Spheres as it is a ‘Music of Two Enormous

Fucking Ball Bearings the Size of Jupiter Grinding Together like Electric Teenagers’. Heavenly, yes, but with enough sharp metal shavings
and distorted sparks as to spray in your eyes over its sixty minutes.”

—PITCHFORK

“Two Gongs is a gem of minimalist composition, and is reason enough to sing Chatham’s praises. . . . the music swells and clangs, an

ocean of squirming metal capable of simulating heroin stupor and root canal in equal measure.”

—BRAINWASHED

“Oceanic clang.”

—ROLLING STONE

“Moments of exotic quiet and floor-shaking fortissimos.”

—NEW YORK TIMES

NEW RELEASE

ON

FORMAT: CD
RELEASE DATE: 10 October 2006
FILE UNDER: Rock
CATALOG NO: TOE-CD-73
UPC: 600401073124

TWO GONGS (1971) 61:39

TWO GONGS

(1971)

RHYS CHATHAM

TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS

TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS

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