Bells Studies

Edition of 400 copies. Includes original photos from the recording sessions. High up in a tower, accessible only by a spiral staircase that led to a concrete platform above the whole city, Charlemagne Palestine's Hells Bells became the sonic mainstay of 53rd Street and 5th Avenue, NYC, from 1963 to 1970. In 1963, while attending The High School of Music & Art in New York, the 15-year-old Palestine was asked if he'd be interested in playing a 26-bell carillon at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church. He decided that he loved the voluptuous Taylor bells, and played them every day from 1963 to 1970, when he left New York to study and teach at CalArts. During his time above 53rd and 5th, Palestine became known as the Quasimodo of midtown NYC, and his dissonant and klanggdedangggebannggg style of playing attracted a diverse group of fans, from Moondog to John Cage to Tony Conrad, among others. Palestine was able to continue playing his clanging-bell soap operas for seven years, dinggdonggingggg every late afternoon and Sunday mornings. This LP collects some of the most relevant recordings from those early days. Side A presents the complete reel-tape Bells Studies, an intense, pulsating work in five movements. It begins with slow, hypnotic, large sonorities and accelerates into more dense and maximal explosions. Side B collects some shorter studies: Bells, the two parts of Confiscated Bell Tape, and an excerpt from Dumb Bell Tape. Each track was recorded by the composer in single takes around 1965 and unheard since, until now.