Track Listing

1. Sinking of the Titanic
2. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued)
3. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued)
4. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued)
5. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued) - Dan Barrett
6. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued)
7. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued)
8. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued)
9. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued)
10. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued)
11. Sinking of the Titanic (Continued)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #275636 in Music
• Released on: 2007-12-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .10 pounds

Amazon.com
Bryars's The Sinking of the Titanic is one of the oddest and at the same time most mesmerizing works to come out of this end of the century. It began in 1972 as an abstract art piece that kept on building and changing in the composer's mind. It's a ghostly tapestry of eerie echoes, distant sounds almost like whale songs, and interjected rifts representing the band that was playing even as the boat sank. This is a masterpiece that rewards repeated listenings. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews

probably perfect...
This music destroys me. I'm a huge fan of pretty much everything Gavin Bryar's has recorded, but this one probably beats out all else. It's a tough call between this and 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet', but I think this one wins out. 'Titanic' is some of the most beautiful, haunting music that I've ever heard. I've heard it called good ambient music, good music to play in the background. I couldn't disagree more. This is music that -demands- every iota of your attention. Put it on, lie down, turn out the lights and just listen to the whole thing. It is a truly overpowering experience. Bryar's has a way of doing this.

Meditative
I wonder how many people bought this recording thinking it had something to do with the "Titanic" movie? And if so, how many kept the recording? Their loss. This is a great work, well performed and recorded. Repetitious without being monotonous, it's the aural equivalent of watching light move across the water as seen from beneath the surface. Recommended to fans of Eno, Philip Glass, and their contemporaries.

Plaintive, haunted and hypnotic.
As Bryars explained in the sleevenotes, The Sinking Of The Titanic is a musical equivalence of a piece of conceptual art, I couldn't agree more. The plaintive, haunted and hypnotic piece creates a three-dimensional music-scape and effective draws the audience into it. Bryars is a minimalist, his mastery shines through the no nonsense arrangement of the piece. The Sinking, with its languid melodies, dreamlike tones and environmental noises, is reminiscent of the Ambient genre. But is should be noted that the piece was originally written in the late sixties, a time when the term "ambient" was yet to be coined. Also, The Sinking consists of mostly live orchestra sounds, which is way more sophisticated and transcendent than electronic sounds. Recommended!