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

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TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS

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