Just for the Record: Conversations with and about “Blue” Gene Tyranny (2020)

A rare look into the music and life of the Lovely Music Ltd. composer, musician, and teacher.

Just For the Record: Conversations with and about “Blue” Gene Tyranny is the first and only documentary film to survey the legacy of one of our greatest avant-garde composers. From playing John Cage pieces in high school and touring with Iggy Pop to then studying at the groundbreaking Mills College under the tutelage of Robert Ashley, Tyranny was a musical polymath with interests in all genres and a conceptual rigor most exemplified on his coveted debut album, Out of the Blue. It’s a juggling act of 70’s FM pop radio sensibility — with equal parts tone poem, gospel and funk explorations and new age inspired philosophical ponderings.

Music to Tyranny, as he says in the film, was a source of solace but also a means “of deeply informing myself that there’s another world. Music is my way of being in the world.”

In addition to Tyranny, the film features conversations with composer and musicians including: Joan La Barbara, Peter Gordon, Kyle Gann, David Grubbs, Philip Perkins, Jeff Berman, and Bill Ruyle, writer Nicole Gagne, artist Pat Oleszko and Unseen Worlds owner Tommy McCutchon, the label that reissued Out of the Blue in 2019.

Tyranny passed away just two months after the film’s premiere on December 12th, 2020. Here is the film in full. In addition to Out of the Blue, we also encourage you to listen to his other incredible solo work and Lovely Music appearances, and introduce yourself to one of America’s most brilliant and enigmatic 20th-century composers. 

Watch the full documentary below:

Find more information about the film here: https://www.ubu.com/film/tyranny_record.html

Read our deep dive on Lovely Music Ltd: https://insheepsclothinghifi.com/lovely-music-ltd/