Dancing/Listening (UP15) celebrates and contextualises music for contemporary dance. The 80-page hardback book, designed by Marcus Ainley, comes with a 73-minute CD. Dancing/Listening contains thought-provoking essays, sixteen tracks of intelligent, creative music, with extensive notes and credits, and stunning dance photography, presented in a semi-animated ‘flip-book’ format.
The term ‘dance music’ can refer to art music, functional music, commercial music, folk music. The CD contains music made with dance and dancers in mind, including Steve Blake’s work for the Featherstonehaughs and the Cholmondeleys; Reuben’s Train by Martin Simpson (Rambert Dance Company), Gavin Bryars’ Biped Part IV (made for Merce Cunningham) and an extract from Scanner’s Nemesis, commissioned by the Random Dance Company. Plus music by The Tractor’s Revenge, Borut Krzisnik, Stomp, Jocelyn Pook, Robert Wyatt, David O’Higgins, Michael Nyman, Sidestepper, Penguin Cafe Orchestra and a Julian Swales soundscape produced for the Charles Linehan Dance Company. Essays by Orlando Gough, Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner), Perry Louis, Michael Nyman and Shobana Jeyasingh, discuss and describe the ways in which composers, listeners, dancers and choreographers play and work and communicate with each other. Sue Steward contributes ‘Improvising with Records’, an outstanding memoir detailing her life-long obsession with music including her time as a Latin music DJ. Stunning photographic work, by Chris Nash, Hugo Glendinning, Dirk Buwalda, Christophe Lanzenberg, Herman Sorgeloos, Ravi Deepres and Hash Varsani, completes the package.
Tracklist
| no. | time | artist title (composer) |
| 1 | 2:38 | Steve Blake Steve's Big Organ (Steve Blake) |
| 2 | 6:41 | The Tractor's Revenge (Ilan Green, Avi Belleli and Ophir Leibovitch) Kir (The Tractor's Revenge) |
| 3 | 4:52 | Julian Swales Tunnel (Julian Swales) |
| 4 | 2:50 | Martin Simpson Reuben's Train (Trad. arr. Simpson) |
| 5 | 3:03 | Borut Krzisnik Dancing Machine (Borut Krzisnik) |
| 6 | 8:39 | Gavin Bryars Biped Part IV (Gavin Bryars) |
| 7 | 5:31 | Scanner Nemesis (extract) (Scanner (Robin Rimbaud)) |
| 8 | 2:21 | Stomp Underwater, Rooftop (Steve McNicholas and Luke Cresswell) |
| 9 | 6:34 | Jocelyn Pook Ensemble Voice Games (Jocelyn Pook) |
| 10 | 3:30 | Robert Wyatt Left on Man (Robert Wyatt) |
| 11 | 5:48 | David O' Higgins, Mike Outram, Tom Cawley, Sam Burgess, Simon Lea and Pete Eckford Demons (David O'Higgins) |
| 12 | 1:31 | Steve Blake The Lost Dances of Egon Schiele (extract) (Steve Blake) |
| 13 | 3:15 | Lyric Quartet (Jonathan Carney, Edmund Coxon, Nick Barr, David Daniels String Quartet No. 2, movement 1 (Michael Nyman) |
| 14 | 2:51 | Lyric Quartet (Jonathan Carney, Edmund Coxon, Nick Barr and David Daniels String Quartet No.2, movement 6 (Michael Nyman) |
| 15 | 4:57 | Sidestepper Bacalao Sala'o (Richard Blair and Ivan Benavides) |
| 16 | 7:43 | Penguin Cafe Orchestra Numbers 1 - 4 (Simon Jeffes) |
