Charlemagne Palestine

Charlemagne Palestine
Charlemagne Palestine
	Palestine at De Appel, Amsterdam, February 2014
Background information
Birth name	Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine
Born	August 15, 1947 (age 77)
Origin	Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Genres	Maximalism Minimalist; Experimental; Visual art
Occupation	Musical performance artist / Visual artist
Instrument(s)	Vocals, piano, organ, harmonium, spoken word
Website	Official website

Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine (born August 15, 1947),^[1] known professionally as Charlemagne Palestine, is an American visual artist and musician.^[2]^[3] He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initiated by La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Phil Niblock, although he prefers to call himself a maximalist.^[4]

Formational years

Born in Brooklyn, New York,^[1] Palestine began by singing sacred Jewish music and studying accordion and piano. At the age of 12 he started playing backup conga and bongo drum for Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Kenneth Anger, and Tiny Tim.^[5] From 1962 to 1969, Palestine was carillonneur for the Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Manhattan,^[2] eventually creating a piece that consisted of 1,500 15-minute performances.

From 1968 to 1972, Palestine studied vocal interpretation with Pandit Pran Nath,^[5] experimented on kinetic light sculptures with Len Lye, composed music for Tony and Beverly Conrad’s film Coming Attractions, taught at CalArts with Morton Subotnick,^[5] created the sound and movement piece Illuminations with Simone Forti, and developed his own alternative synthesizer: the Spectral Continuum Drone Machine.

Throughout the seventies Palestine created records, videos, sculptural objects, abstract expressionist visual scores, and performed long piano concerts regularly in his loft on North Moore Street^[6] in Tribeca in the company of his bevy of stuffed animals.^[7] From 1980 to 1995, Palestine performed only rarely, exhibiting instead at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and in documenta 8. During that time, he also founded the Ethnology Cinema Project in New York, which is dedicated to preserving films that document disappearing traditional cultures.

After moving to Europe in 1995, he settled in Brussels.^[8] In addition to creating exhibitions, Palestine performed regularly, re-releasing older material and developing new videos and sonic projects.^[9]

Selected discography: solo works

Body Music 1973^[10]
"Strumming Music". Shandar, 1974.
Karenina. 2 CDs. Solo performance with Indian harmonium and falsetto voice, rec. March 1997 in Paris. London: World Serpent Distribution.
Schlingen-Blängen. Solo performance for organ. US: New World Records, 1999.
Four Manifestations on Six Elements. Solo pieces for piano and for electronics. Belgium: Barooni Records.
Godbear. Solo pieces for piano. Belgium: Barooni Records.
Strumming Music. Solo piece for piano. Felmay, San Germano, Italy, 1995; reissue of New Tone recording nt6742
Three Compositions for Machines. Staalplaat, 1997.
Schlongo!!!daLUVdrone. Organ of Corti, 2000.
Jamaica Heinekens in Brooklyn. Piece for found sound and electronic drones. Belgium: Barooni Records.
Alloy. Alga Marghen, 2000.
Continuous Sound Forms. Alga Marghen, 2000.
Charlemagne at Sonnabend. 2 CDs. CP, 2001.
Music for Big Ears. Staalplaat, 2001.
In Mid-Air. Alga Marghen, 2003.^[11]
Old Souls Wearing New Clothes. VPRO, 2003.
A Sweet Quasimodo between Black Vampire Butterflies: For Maybeck. Cold Blue, 2007.
The Apocalypse Will Blossom. Yesmissolga, 2008.
Voice Studies. LP only. Alga Marghen, 2008.
From Etudes to Cataclysms. 2 CDs. Sub Rosa, 2008.
"Relationship Studies". LP. Algha Marghen, 2010.
"Two Electronic Sonorities". LP. Algha Marghen, 2012.

Selected discography: collaborations

Charlemagne Palestine and Pan Sonic. Mort aux vaches. Staalplaat, 2000.
Charlemagne Palestine, David Coulter and Jean Marie Mathoul. Maximin. Young God Records, 2002.
Charlemagne Palestine, David Coulter, Michael Gira and Jean Marie Mathoul. Gantse Mishpuchach / Music in Three Parts. Fringes Recordings, 2004.
Charlemagne Palestine and Tony Conrad. An Aural Symbiotic Mystery. Sub Rosa, 2006.
Charlemagne Palestine, Terry Jennings, Tony Conrad, Robert Feldman, Rhys Chatham. Sharing a Sonority. Alga Marghen, 2008.
Charlemagne Palestine and Christoph Heemann. Saiten in Flammen. Streamline, 2009.
Charlemagne Palestine and Janek Schaefer. Day of the Demons. Desire Path Recordings, 2012.
Charlemagne Palestine and Rhys Chatham Youuu + Mee = Weee. Sub Rosa, 2014.

Art exhibitions

Charlemagne Palestine, who has long incorporated bears and plush toys into his performances, created the art installation Bear Mitzvah in Meshugahland^[12] at The Jewish Museum in New York City in 2017.

References

^ ^a ^b "Charlemagne Palestine Songs, Albums, Reviews, ..." AllMusic. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
^ ^a ^b Hickling, Alfred (4 March 2010). "Charlemagne Palestine – a man who plays the whole building". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
^ Pontegnie, Annie (1 September 2002). "Charlemagne Palestine". Artforum International. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
^ "15 questions | Interview | Charlemagne Palestine | The Bare Maximum". 15questions.net. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c Gray, Louise (1 September 2002). "Invisible Jukebox: Charlemagne Palestine". The Wire (223): 21–23.
^ "Charlemagne PALESTINE | "The Lower Depths"". Corticalart.com. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
^ "Charlemagne Palestine's Strumming Music". Bachtrack.com. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
^ "How New York art and music pioneer Charlemagne Palestine found his way to Brussels". The Brussels Times. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
^ Guzman, Antonio (April 1, 2004). Sacred Bordello: Charlemagne Palestine. London: Black Dog Publishing. ISBN 978-1901033793.
^ Ira Schneider, Beryl Korot -Video art: an anthology 1976 - - Page 249 "Palestine, in an early tape entitled Body Music, produced a fixed-camera recording of his performance piece, during which he developed a progression of body sounds while moving in an ever-expanding spiral toward the edges of the gallery ..."
^ Marley, Brian (1 June 2003). "Charlemagne Palestine: In Mid-Air". The Wire (232): 67–68.
^ "Charlemagne Palestine's Bear Mitzvah in Meshugahland". The Jewish Museum. Retrieved 2017-04-04.

Bibliography

Johnson, Tom (1989). The Voice of New Music: New York City 1972–1982: A Collection of Articles Originally Published by the Village Voice. Eindhoven, Netherlands: Het Apollohuis. ISBN 90-71638-09-X.
Palestine, Charlemagne (2004). Sacred Bordello. Book with CD. Milan: Alga Marghen.
Voegelin, Salome. Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art. London: Continuum. 2010. Chapter 2 Noise, pp. 50–52.