''Joan of Arc'' is a 2006 album by minimalist composer

Tony Conrad Anthony Schmalz Conrad (March 7, 1940 – April 9, 2016) was an American video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician, composer, sound artist, teacher, and writer. Active in a variety of media since the early 1960s, he was a pioneer of both d ...

. The piece, which lasts unbroken for over an hour, was originally written by Conrad as a soundtrack to accompany

Piero Heliczer Piero Heliczer (June 20, 1937 – July 22, 1993) was an Italian-American poet, publisher, actor and filmmaker associated with the New American Cinema. Life and career Heliczer was born in Rome to a German mother and a Polish father. His film ca ...

's short film of the same name.

Track listing

#"Joan of Arc" - 64:31

Overview

''Joan of Arc'' is something of a stylistic departure for Conrad, who is best known for his work with minimalist

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, exemplified by his most famous album ''

Outside the Dream Syndicate ''Outside the Dream Syndicate'' is a 1973 album by United States avant-garde composer Tony Conrad in collaboration with German krautrock group Faust. The album marks Conrad's first and only musical release for many years, and remains his best kno ...

''. ''Joan of Arc'' instead showcases Conrad's improvisational technique on the

pump organ The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

. The album is one of a series of lost-and-found minimalist recordings released by the independent label

Table of the Elements Table of the Elements is an American record label. It concentrates on re-released and specially recorded experimental music, including many Avant-garde music, avant-garde musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries: such as John Cale, Tony Conrad, ...

. Conrad originally recorded the piece in 1968 for the soundtrack to Piero Heliczar's 11 minute short film ''Joan of Arc''. However, he was not aware of the length of the film, so he played continuously for the length of an entire reel-to-reel tape in the hope that it would be enough for Heliczar.

References

External links

* http://outerspacegamelan.blogspot.com/2006/11/tony-conrad-joan-of-arc-table-of.html

{{Authority control 2006 albums