Accidentals, Vol. 01: Borrowed Time cover

( accidentals, vol. 01 )

BORROWED TIME

Music made from older music.

17 tracks, 82 minutes, best heard in order

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Almost everything here started life as something else. Rachmaninoff turned a Paganini tune upside down. Daft Punk built a love song on a George Duke record. Radiohead found a song in a 1973 computer piece, and that piece took its name from Wagner. We put the borrowers and the lenders side by side so you can hear the seams.

Listen for

  1. 05 → 06Wagner, then RadioheadIsolde’s last aria gave its name to a 1973 computer piece. Radiohead built Idioteque from it.
  2. 07 → 08Daft Punk, then George DukeThe sample first. Then the 1979 record it came from.
  3. 16Nino RotaThe Godfather love theme was disqualified from the Oscars. Rota had used the melody before.

Side A

35:30
  1. 01Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)The Avalanches4:36

    The Avalanches built their first album out of thousands of other people's records. Here Stereolab remixes the title track. Borrowed twice before we've even started.

  2. 02Moiré (Piano & Organ)Jan Jelinek6:54

    Made from tiny loops of jazz records, on an album that says so in its title: Loop-finding-jazz-records (2001).

  3. 03Spring 1Max Richter2:30

    Vivaldi's Four Seasons, taken apart and recomposed in 2012.

  4. Pier Leone Ghezzi, caricature of Antonio Vivaldi, 1723 · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
    Pier Leone Ghezzi, caricature of Antonio Vivaldi, 1723 · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  5. 04Different Trains: America – Before the WarSteve Reich9:00

    Recorded voices, with the strings following the melody of their speech.

  6. 05Tristan und Isolde: LiebestodRichard Wagner7:18

    Isolde's final aria. Its first words, mild und leise, became the title of a 1973 computer piece by Paul Lansky…

  7. Franz Hanfstaengl, Richard Wagner, Munich, 1871 · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
    Franz Hanfstaengl, Richard Wagner, Munich, 1871 · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  8. 06IdiotequeRadiohead5:12

    …and Jonny Greenwood found that piece on an LP of electronic music. "Idioteque" is built from it, along with Arthur Kreiger's "Short Piece".

Turn it overB

Side B

46:18
  1. 07Digital LoveDaft Punk5:00

    Built on a sample. The source comes next.

  2. 08I Love You MoreGeorge Duke3:06

    The 1979 original.

  3. 09AccordionMadvillain2:00

    Madlib's beat comes from Daedelus's "Experience".

  4. 10Don't CryJ Dilla2:00

    From Donuts (2006), cut from the Escorts' "I Can't Stand (To See You Cry)".

  5. 11Police & ThievesThe Clash6:06

    Junior Murvin's 1976 reggae song, on a punk band's first album.

  6. 12Pulcinella Suite: SinfoniaIgor Stravinsky2:12

    Stravinsky rewriting music that was credited to Pergolesi at the time.

  7. 13PassepiedPunch Brothers3:30

    Debussy's Suite bergamasque, arranged for a bluegrass band.

  8. 14Entr'acteCaroline Shaw11:00

    Shaw wrote it after hearing the turn from minuet to trio in one of Haydn's last string quartets. It starts in his world and slowly wanders out of it.

  9. Thomas Hardy, Joseph Haydn, 1791 (Royal College of Music) · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
    Thomas Hardy, Joseph Haydn, 1791 (Royal College of Music) · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  10. 15Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini: Variation 18Sergei Rachmaninoff2:54

    Paganini's theme, turned upside down. It's the variation most people know.

  11. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Niccolò Paganini, c. 1818–31 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) · CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
    Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Niccolò Paganini, c. 1818–31 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) · CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
  12. 16Love Theme from The GodfatherNino Rota2:36

    It was disqualified from the Oscars when the Academy learned Rota had used the melody in an earlier film, Fortunella (1958). We let it play anyway.

  13. 17Clair de LuneIsao Tomita5:54

    Debussy, rebuilt note by note on a Moog synthesizer for Snowflakes Are Dancing (1974). The oldest kind of borrowing, done with the newest machine of its day.