Magazine Sixty Music Review with Changing My Scene – Art Music and The Beatles

Greg Fenton reviews Changing My Scene – Art Music and The Beatles – From Stockhausen To The Goons – Él Records

I’ve been especially eager to write about this collection of treasures, nuggets, and unconventional brilliance, so much so that I’m at a loss for words about what more to add. Apart from the fact that the artists involved are an inspiration to musical discourse, to sight and sound, and to the culture of emotions since their inception and passing.

In some ways, the radical rewiring of impulses created by figures like Stockhausen, Berio, and Cage transformed the first CD into uncharted territory, yet it remains completely compelling many decades later. Classical selections by Stravinsky, Bach, and the wonderful Gustav Mahler similarly continue to feel fresh and impactful. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram are equally part of that conversation, while Jane Asher’s narration of Lewis Carroll’s – Looking Glass Insects (excerpt), from Alice Through The Looking Glass, is eerily timely – listen to the way the voices have been treated.

The next disc navigates through classical waters alongside the delights of Ravel, Debussy, and Erik Satie. There is little dispute.

The final CD becomes jazzy with Ornette Coleman and heats up with John Coltrane’s rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s My Favourite Things. The mysteries of Ravi Shankar then unfold like an expansive consciousness. Enlightening speech from Aldous Huxley, followed by a recitation by Dylan Thomas.

This is a historical exercise woven with a learning experience, but it’s also an exhilarating journey into the power of music and its diverse, thrilling effects, which are too significant to overlook if you are reading this for the same reason I am writing it. But back to the title and the interconnected ideas between different artistic disciplines and The Beatles’ brilliance…

Release: March 27
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