Anomalous Records
To order: please to hunahpu@ribexibalba.com a list of what you would like to purchase and where it will be shipped. I will respond with a quote. I accept payment by PayPal or money order.Items ship from Seattle, USA. Shipping starts at $4.00 for a single CD or $5.00 for an LP sent in the US. Canada is $14 for one CD or $21 for one LP. Most other countries it is $18 for 1 or 2 CDs or $25 for 1 LP. Japan and Australia are $17 for one CD or $27 for one or two LPs.
brand new release from my label:
- Little Skull "Untitled" LP $27
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM32 - "First full LP of new material from Dean Brown's Little Skull project since 2019's 'A Light in the Window Will Guide Us Safely Home' on Planam.
Little Skull began in the mid-2000's, shortly before Brown relocated to London. Although the trademark NZ/Aoteara underground sound is evident, comparisons to the contemporary Gothenburg underground or outliers like Richard Youngs & Genghis Cohn can also be drawn.
This particular, 'Untitled', LP began while Brown was preparing for his first London performance at the end of 2021. It's stripped-down, mainly improvised, sound was dictated by practical rather than aesthetic decisions. Despite his economy of means, Brown has a keen sense of sequencing and narrative with both his live sets and recorded output resulting in an immersive and engaging listen. The set incorporates piano, organ, saw, harp, and guitars (both ebowed and played with a screwdriver) bathed in tape hiss and amp hum.
Although it's probably the darkest and most minimal Little Skull LP to date, there are still moments where the light shines through. Similar to Andrew Chalk, for example, even when Brown is in pastoral, melodic territory, his noise roots are still evident. Perhaps it's this inner tension that gives Little Skull releases such an irresistable sound?
The LP comes in a handmade concertina style pop-out cover featuring a caged bird suspended in mid flight. Edition of 210."
Nick Hamilton
The Little Skull LP Is available outside the US from: Soundohm (IT) Bis Aufs (GER) Penultimate Press (GER) Discreet (SWE) Out of Print (BE) Knotwilg (BE) Souffle Continu (FR) PopCulture (FR) Tobira (JPN)
Download available for purchase from https://horn-of-plenty.bandcamp.com/album/untitled-2
most recent additions to the site (see main catalog for full descriptions):
- Jeph Jerman & Steve Jansen "Composite Washes" 5 x CDR & DVD-R box $40.00
- Jerman / Nordwall "Topology" CD $12.00
- RLW "Agnostic Diaries" CD $10.00
- RLW "Satanic Inventions" CD $10.00
- RLW "Tunnel" CD $10.00
- tac "source tapes" cassette $0.00
- Ralf Wehowsky & Richard Francis "R" CD $10.00
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available now:
- AMM "at The Roundhouse" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) ICES 01 - The first release from the ICES concerts from August of 1972 in London. The International Carnival of Experimental Sound, or ICES '72 for short, was an ambitious festival sprung from the mind of Harvey "Job" Matusow (1926-2002). Jumping off from his associations with Source magazine, Harvey brought together over 300 artists from over 21 countries to perform in London, England over the course of two weeks in August of 1972. Based on the theme of Myth, Magic Madness and Mysticism, he assembled an amazing diversity of performers working in diverse range of audio-visual arts. Encompassing happenings, films, dance, a train ride, and the phantom soft pool table, the focus was on sound - specifically that of artists who were both composers and performers. Most of the concerts were held at The Roundhouse, a cavernous structure that was formerly a railroad engine house, and recorded by John Lifton and his assistants. Now, for the first time in 30 years, these recordings can be heard. AMM was formed in 1965 by Lou Gare, Eddie Prevost, Keith Rowe, and Lawrence Sheaff. The line-up swelled to also include Cornelius Cardew and Christopher Hobbs, and sometimes composer Christian Wolff. From 1971 up until 1976, AMM found itself stripped down to the duo of Prevost and Gare. After that time, Rowe replaced Gare, and Eddie and Keith have continued making AMMusic ever since, mostly with the help of John Tilbury, and occasionally others, and are still a powerful force. The aesthetic of AMM is that of improvised music freed from the constraints of musical style. Their sound is ever evolving and free from the ego of individual players. "Music from half a lifetime ago - that was a very good creative time musically and maybe a new generation will appreciate what we were doing then and still are doing now. Playing with Eddie in that format, just the two of us, was my most rewarding musical experience after the break up of the AMM quartet. When Eddie and Keith tried to get it together again with the four of us I could not go back to that after the freedom of the duo." - Lou Gare.
- Anima "Monte Alto" LP $20
Youdonthavetocallitmusic / Play Loud! Productions (Germany) Youdo 06/pl-48 - price reduced from $25 to $20 because of a slight split on the top and crease on top left of the jacket.
"Limpe Fuchs is a legend in the experimental music scene. In the late '60s, this percussionist drummed on self-made instruments, together with her then-husband Paul Fuchs, in the Ensemble Anima, working on the periphery of krautrock and free jazz. During that time, Limpe and Paul Fuchs worked with the classical pianist star Friedrich Gulda, as well as with jazz luminaries like Albert Mangelsdorff, and continually attracted the interest of their audiences in new constellations. Limpe Fuchs's solo performance with 'variable wood and stone rows, ringing bronze in the pendulum strings, and a variety of skin and bronze drums' is a rare occasion to witness one of the early avant-gardists of the scene from the old Federal Republic of Germany. She attempts, while playing live, to develop her musical ideas from the 'resonance of the location where the performance takes place' and 'to make music in the flow of time, with simplicity and emotion.' Her main concern is to sensitize the process of hearing: 'Every tone is a sensation. Listening instead of shutting one's ears. Establishing silence.' The album 'Monte Alto' was released in 1977 on the band-owned label Alter Pfarrhof. It may be the best Anima album ever, if for no other reason than the wonderful freely improvised piano piece on the B-side. This is the first reissue of 'Monte Alto', and it is presented in an elaborate silkscreen print, hand-numbered, and limited to 500 copies, co-released by Play Loud! Productions and Youdonthavetocallitmusic. This reissue appears in advance of Limpe Fuchs and Play Loud! Productions' release of Limpe Fuchs's archival back catalog, along with some previously unreleased recordings and films, and new recordings, and follows many previous Anima/Limpe Fuchs releases that have been made without the permission of the artists." - animist orchestra "wuwei" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM14 - studio recording of Jeph Jerman's small sound orchestra with Dave Knott, Mike Shannon, Jeffery Taylor, Robert Millis and Marina Granger. "in seattle in 1996, i began giving performances using mainly natural objects as my 'instruments'. after many such performances, two friends suggested (independently of one another), that i might try doing it with a group. as this idea had occurred to me a few years previously, i thought perhaps they were right. in june of 1999, the animist orchestra began its history as a working group. we got together nearly every week for the next three months, to play and discuss our playing. our first performance was given in eric lanzillotta's living room for a small group of friends, and was well received. from the beginning, the focus of the orchestra has been on listening, and improvising in the moment. a group of people truly playing together and focusing intently on the present can be a powerful thing. the use of natural objects (stones, shells, pine cones etc.) as opposed to more conventional musical instruments, can help the players to not fall back on learned habits of musical play. there is no canon or book of rules to refer to when using everyday things as sound makers, and this may facilitate the removal of actions arising from taste and memory. during the initial period of discovery for the orchestra, dave knott made the observation that, when when playing and focusing on the sound being made, it was 'like the spirit of the thing is telling you how it wants to move'. mike shannon once told me that when i play i seem to be animating the objects with my hands. i think these comments explain the name of the orchestra better than i could. i wanted to make a CD of the orchestra to document our work together, and to show my admiration and gratitude for the friends who have agreed to join. i don't think they knew what they were getting into." - jeph jerman.
- Armpit "Suns Movement Across Darkening Skies" 7" $10
I Dischi Del Barone (Sweden) IDDB029 - "Unearthed 1993 recordings caught on melting master tapes in the back of a second hand bookshop in Hamilton, New Zealand. A rare and temporary teen heat trio-incarnation of Armpit, which besides Clayton Noone and Jon Arcus also had Gordon/Nodrog joining in on drums. 4 or 5 tracks were apparently recorded with this line up that also performed live once or twice. Some 25 years later, the hazy magic that occured in the back of that bookshop falls in somewhere in the middle between a more sluggish, wobbly Sun City Girls and a Les Rallises Denudes played on 16rpm or something, though in the end 'Suns Movement Across Darkening Skies' and 'Down The Trail Of Aching Hearts' are both unmistakably Armpit and nothing else in all their glory. Some other stuff from these sessions ended up on various Plop Recordings releases, the label that Clayton and Jon had with Stefan Neville, and a slightly different edit of 'Suns Movement Across Darkening Skies' also landed on the A-side of a lathe cut 7" on Insample in the mid 90's. The photography comes from their zine Plop It Up! which ran for about 12 issues 1993-1994. 200 copies pressed as usual, black vinyl and stamped white labels, postcard attached to the cover, insert. 45rpm." - label description
- Tim Barnes / Jeph Jerman / Joachim Nordwall "The Oortcloud [It Wasn't Until Weeks Later]" LP $13
Stellage (Russia) STELLAGE016 - "Recorded by Joachim Nordwall (iDEAL Recordings), Tim Barnes (Royal Trux etc) and Jeph Jerman (Hands To) in Gothenburg on 12 February 2017."
- John Bender "I Don't Remember Now / I Don't Want To Talk About It" LP $15
Superior Viaduct (U.S.) SV101LP - "John Bender recorded voraciously between 1978 and 1980 at his home in Cincinnati, Ohio. Not even song titles could slow down his creative pace, as he named all the tracks after their position on the original tapes. '36A2', for example, was cassette #36 side A, piece #2. To close the DIY aesthetic circle, Bender made sleeves by hand with no two covers alike and pressed the LPs in hyper-limited editions on his own Record Sluts imprint.
'I Don't Remember Now / I Don't Want To Talk About It', Bender's first album from 1980, is the holy grail of minimal lo-fi electronics. Layers of fractured melodies, distorted synthesizers, hollowed-out rhythms and claustrophobic vocals unfold over the 40 minutes of this lost masterpiece. 'It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl', one of Faust's greatest songs, is perfectly deconstructed by a distinct punk-meets-experimentalist sensibility.
While 'I Don't Remember Now' is impossibly rare and the man behind the music remains shrouded in self-imposed mystery, the real surprise is that it has taken 35+ years for listeners to discover Bender's warm, art-damaged immediacy.
This first-time standalone reissue is recommended for fans of Pere Ubu, Brian Eno and Robert Ashley. Liner notes by John Bender." - label description - Biota / Mnemonists "Musique Actuelle 1990" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM25 - Biota was founded in 1979 in Fort Collins, Colorado, as the Mnemonist Orchestra. Over the years, the Mnemonist Orchestra developed into Biota (the musical contingent) and Mnemonists (the visual contingent). Both Biota and Mnemonists work as one on productions of musical and visual components. The group has released nine LPs, one EP, and four CDs in addition to several cassettes and compilation ventures, on both their own Dys label and Recommended Records UK. Heard on this CD is the first live adaption of their studio-based recording techniques since 1981, as presented at Montreal Musiques Actuelles - New Music America 1990. For their live performance they composed a set of material specifically for the concert and virtually relocated their studio to the stage to properly recreate it. Nine musicians playing only acoustic instruments (aside from electric guitar) were heard natural and unamplified from the stage while extensive electronic processing, heard through the speakers, rendered radical tonal, timbral and temporal modification creating an incredibly unique and strange sound world. For the first release of this music, Biota have combined the best recordings from both the rehearsals and the concert itself. Added to this, the two-dimensional graphic work that Mnemonists have become so renowned for was transformed into stunning video projections - beautiful examples of which are now included in the full color booklet accompanying this CD.
- Blod & Miljö 7" $10
I Dischi Del Barone (Sweden) IDDB030 - "Inevitable collaboration from Arv & Miljö and Blod, two decent examples of the Gothenburgian bullheadedness that has occured around the FFFM/never gonna fit in circles in town. A weird 9-minute collage split up over two 45rpm sides, cuts from the past fades in and out with Svensk Sommar I Stilla Frid session leftovers straight from the floor tangled up with spicy snippets from limited to 14 cassettes, some 2018 live action and newly recorded nonsense. It's a poor man's mash up, an emotional coming of age/sucks-to-be-a-teenager/religious paranoia slowmo rollercoaster going backwards. Featuring Cobweb Iris, Hans Villius and Snapper samples for a good measure. Mastered by Viktor Ottosson and artwork by Charlott Malmenholt. 200 copies pressed as usual, black vinyl and stamped white labels, postcard attached to the cover, insert. 45rpm." - label description
- William S. Burroughs & Brion Gysin LP $29
Cold Spring (U.K.) CSR293LP - "Rare recordings of beat/cut-up writers and artists William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Comprises the complete recording of Burroughs reading live in Liverpool in 1982, plus performances by Gysin of a selection of his permutated poems, as well as home recordings made by the pair in Paris in 1970. All recordings are taken from original tapes in The British Library collection. 180 gram vinyl."
- R.A. Cantius "Playing in the Dirt" 12" $20
Feeding Tube Records (U.S.) FTR201 - "This LP exists through an act of sheerest serendipity. Scott Seward of John Doe Jr. Records up in Greenfield, MA, was talking to one of his regulars, an Amherst-based photographer named Bob Cantius. In the course of their conversations, Scott learned that Bob had - in a former life - done some experimental sound recording, portions of which featured his own homemade string instrument: the Brunt-Milter. Eventually, Bob was able to turn up tapes of two finished pieces. Both were begun with the Brunt-Milter in 1964, then finished off with added sound sources and mixing in 1968. When they were started, Cantius had just finished his arts degree at Montclair State University, and was working in a dirt-floored studio in Paterson. He then spent three years getting a Masters at NYU Film School, and that's when he added the new work to his instrumental beginnings. The music is a great collage of strange strings, street recordings (some made by Bob while he was doing sound for film shoots), and various effects, techniques, and radio manipulations. It's a rather remarkable find, and documents a style of experimental thinking and creativity that was common at the time, but usually ended up in the dumpsters of history. Includes text related to the little-known Happenings scene at Montclair State and other secret histories" - Byron Coley, 2015. Includes booklet by Scott Seward and Byron Coley; limited edition of 200.
- Cornelius Cardew "Stockhausen Serves Imperialism" book $15
Primary Information (U.S.) 978-1-7320986-9-5 - "Originally published in 1974, 'Stockhausen Serves Imperialism' is a collection of essays by the English composer Cornelius Cardew that provides a Marxist critique of two of the more revered avant-garde composers of the post-war era: Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage. A former assistant to Stockhausen and a champion of Cage in England, Cardew provides a cutting rebuke of the composers’ works and ideological positions, which he saw as reinforcing an imperialist order rather than spotlighting and serving the struggles of the working class.
The author also provides constructive criticism of his contemporaries Christian Wolff and Frederic Rzewski for utilizing politically progressive content, yet failing to work in a musical form that would appeal to the proletariat. Cardew’s music does not escape his own scrutiny: the book contains critiques and repudiations of his canonical compositions from the 1960s and early 1970s, 'Treatise' and 'The Great Learning'. Complimenting Cardew’s essays are writings by Rod Eley, who contributes 'A History of the Scratch Orchestra,' and John Tilbury, who contributes an 'Introduction to Cage’s Music of Changes'.
126 pages, 5.5 x 8.75 inches, paperback, edition of 2500." - Don Cherry "The Summer House Sessions" 2 x CD $20
Blank Forms Editions (U.S.) BF-024 - "In 1968, Don Cherry had already established himself as one of the leading voices of the avant-garde. Having pioneered free jazz as a member of Ornette Coleman's classic quartet, and with a high-profile collaboration with John Coltrane under his belt, the globetrotting jazz trumpeter settled in Sweden with his partner Moki and her daughter Neneh. There, he assembled a group of Swedish musicians and led a series of weekly workshops at the ABF, or Workers' Educational Association, from February to April of 1968, with lessons on extended forms of improvisation including breathing, drones, Turkish rhythms, overtones, silence, natural voices, and Indian scales. That summer, saxophonist and recording engineer Göran Freese invited Don, members of his two working bands, and a Turkish drummer to his summer house in Kummelnäs, just outside of Stockholm, for a series of rehearsals and jam sessions. Long relegated to the status of a mysterious footnote in Don's session-ography, tapes from this session, as well as one professionally mixed tape intended for release, were recently found in the vaults of the Swedish Jazz Archive, and the lost Summer House Sessions are finally available over fifty years after they were recorded. On July 20, the musicians gathered at Freese's summer house included Bernt Rosengren (tenor saxophone, flutes, clarinet), Tommy Koverhult (tenor saxophone, flutes), Leif Wennerström (drums), and Torbjörn Hultcrantz (bass) from Don's Swedish group; Jacques Thollot (drums) and Kent Carter (bass) from his newly formed international band New York Total Music Company; Bülent Ateş (hand drum, drums), who was visiting from Turkey; and Don (pocket trumpet, flutes, percussion) himself. Lacking a common language, the players used music as their common means of communication. In this way, these frenetic and freewheeling sessions anticipate Don's turn to more explicitly pan-ethnic expression, preceding his epochal 'Eternal Rhythm' dates by four months. The octet, comprising musicians from America, France, Sweden, and Turkey, was a perfect vehicle for Don's budding pursuit of 'collage music', a concept inspired by the shortwave radio on which Don listened to sounds from around the world. Using the collage metaphor, Don eliminated solos and the introduction of tunes, transforming a wealth of melodies, sounds, and rhythms into poetic suites of different moods and changing forms. 'The Summer House Sessions' ensemble joyously layers manifold cultural idioms, traversing the airy peaks and serene valleys of Cherry's earthly vision. The double-CD version includes a bonus CD with a track featuring Jacques Thollot joined by Lindqvist, Tommy Koverhult, Sune Spångberg, and others."
- Don Cherry's New Researches featuring Nana Vasconcelos "Organic Music Theatre Festival de Chateauvallon 1972" 2 x CD $20
Blank Forms Editions (U.S.) BF-023 - "In the late 1960s, the American trumpet player and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry (1936-1995) and the Swedish visual artist and designer Moki Cherry (1943-2009) began a collaboration that imagined an alternative space for creative music, most succinctly expressed in Moki's aphorism 'the stage is home and home is a stage.' By 1972, they had given name to a concept that united Don's music, Moki's art, and their family life in rural Tagårp, Sweden into one holistic entity: Organic Music Theatre. Captured here is the historic first Organic Music Theatre performance from the 1972 Festival de jazz de Chateauvallon in the South of France, mastered from tapes recorded during its original live broadcast on public TV. A life-affirming, multicultural patchwork of borrowed tunes suffused with the hallowed aura of Don's extensive global travels, the performance documents the moment he publicly jettisoned his identity as a jazz musician. The five-person band - Don and Moki Cherry, Christer Bothén, Gérard 'Doudou' Gouirand, and Naná Vasconcelos -- performed in an outdoor amphitheater and were joined onstage by a dozen adults and children, including Swedish friends who tagged along for the trip and Det Lilla Circus (The Little Circus), a Danish puppet troupe based in Christiania, Copenhagen. The platform was lined with Moki's carpets and her handmade, brightly colored tapestries, depicting Indian scales and bearing the words Organic Music Theatre, dressed the stage. As the musicians played, members of Det Lilla, led by Annie Hedvard, danced, sang, and mounted an improvised puppet show on poles high up in the air. In a fairly unprecedented move, Don abandoned his signature pocket trumpet for the piano and harmonium, thereby liberating his voice as an instrument for shamanic guidance. The show opens with him beckoning the audience to clap their hands and sing the Indian theta 'Dha Dhin Na, Dha Tin Na,' and the set cycles through uplifting and sacred tunes of Malian, South African, Brazilian, and Native American provenance - including pieces that would later appear on Don's albums 'Organic Music Society' and 'Home Boy (Sister Out)' - all punctuated by outbursts of possessed glossolalia from the puppeteers. 'Relativity Suite, Part 1' notably spotlights Bothén on donso ngoni, a Malian hunter's guitar, prior to Vasconcelos taking an extended solo on berimbau. A vortex of wah-like microtonal rattling, Vasconcelos's masterful demonstration of this single-stringed Brazilian instrument is a harbinger of his work to come as a member, with Don, of the acclaimed group Codona."
- Coil "Astral Disaster Sessions Un/finished Musics Vol 2" LP $28
Prescription (U.K.) Drug 19 - limited edition of 500 copies, already sold out from the label.
"These rare recordings were recorded as part of the legendary Prescription label subscription-only album series in the late 1990s that resulted in the 'Astral Disaster' album. Halloween 1998: Coil were invited to record at Sun Dial's studios beneath the London Bridge Hop Exchange - a studio first known as Samurai Studios, originally built and owned by Iron Maiden. The premises in Victorian times had been a debtors prison, with three underground levels - and the original chains, manacles and wrought iron prison doors. This caught the attention of John Balance, who was very keen to record there. With Gary Ramon's help, Coil developed a number of tracks, some of which resulted in the 'Astral Disaster' album. But there were other tracks recorded during those Halloween sessions, including the recordings on this very limited LP release, 'Astral Disaster Sessions Un/finished Music Vol. 2'. The album includes all previously unissued mixes and alternative versions, and includes 'The Mothership,' which was the first version of a track which was later remade and re-named during the sessions as 'The Mothership and the Fatherland'." - label description - C103 "NVR1" C60 $5
(U.S.) NVR1 - an obscure Seattle trio featuring Dale Sather, Nick Chatfield, and Stephen Beytebiere. released in 1991, this cassette is the only evidence of their activity, although they were once listed in a Petri Supply catalog as having a forthcoming LP on that label. they also played at the Incubator space, where they opened up for Merzbow. so they have a few connections to the Yeast Culture camp. numbered edition of 103 copies.
- Tony Conrad with Faust "Outside The Dream Syndicate" CD $10
Superior Viaduct (U.S.) SV048CD - "Violinist, composer and filmmaker Tony Conrad started his career in New York in the early 1960s. As a member of the Theatre of Eternal Music (a.k.a. the Dream Syndicate) alongside John Cale, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and Angus MacLise, he participated in now-legendary and often legendarily loud drone performances with many pieces having no beginning and no end. During a fateful trip to Germany in 1972, Conrad met with avant-rock visionaries Faust and made the very first record to bear his name.
'Outside The Dream Syndicate', originally released in Europe only in 1973, is a stunning debut. Two side-long tracks – 'The Side Of Man And Womankind' and 'The Side Of The Machine' – show just how far Conrad had moved beyond his minimalist peers. Werner Diermaier's repetitive drum beat and Jean-Hervé Peron's stripped-down bassline conjure a tense, ascetic groove, while Conrad's seamless violin, initially so controlled, reveals a surprising adaptability. The music shifts almost on a subliminal level, pushing and pulling to the drone's internal pulse.
It is hard to imagine Conrad's trajectory from downtown Manhattan to a farmhouse in the German countryside that ultimately resulted in 'Outside The Dream Syndicate', yet no other record captures – so completely and instantly – the intersection of avant-garde and rock forms. 'Outside The Dream Syndicate' remains ahead of and bracingly outside of its time.
This long out-of-print CD release has been carefully mastered from the original master tapes and includes liner notes by musician Jim O'Rourke and author Branden W. Joseph." - label description - Tony Conrad with Faust "Outside The Dream Syndicate" LP $15
Superior Viaduct (U.S.) SV048 - "Violinist, composer and filmmaker Tony Conrad started his career in New York in the early 1960s. As a member of the Theatre of Eternal Music (a.k.a. the Dream Syndicate) alongside John Cale, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and Angus MacLise, he participated in now-legendary and often legendarily loud drone performances with many pieces having no beginning and no end. During a fateful trip to Germany in 1972, Conrad met with avant-rock visionaries Faust and made the very first record to bear his name.
'Outside The Dream Syndicate', originally released in Europe only in 1973, is a stunning debut. Two side-long tracks – 'The Side Of Man And Womankind' and 'The Side Of The Machine' – show just how far Conrad had moved beyond his minimalist peers. Werner Diermaier's repetitive drum beat and Jean-Hervé Peron's stripped-down bassline conjure a tense, ascetic groove, while Conrad's seamless violin, initially so controlled, reveals a surprising adaptability. The music shifts almost on a subliminal level, pushing and pulling to the drone's internal pulse.
It is hard to imagine Conrad's trajectory from downtown Manhattan to a farmhouse in the German countryside that ultimately resulted in 'Outside The Dream Syndicate', yet no other record captures – so completely and instantly – the intersection of avant-garde and rock forms. 'Outside The Dream Syndicate' remains ahead of and bracingly outside of its time.
This first-time vinyl reissue has been carefully mastered from the original master tapes and includes liner notes by musician Jim O'Rourke and author Branden W. Joseph." - label description - Cranioclast "Cract On Sail" LP $19
Auf Abwegen (Germany) aatp56 - "'Cract On Sail' is the first new album from the mysterious German project Cranioclast since 1993! 'Cract On Sail' is an epic work spanning two sides of an LP. The piece is deliberately divided by a harsh cut in the middle, thus refreshing the listeners impressions after turning the record. 'Cract On Sail' progresses intuitively in an almost linear way and includes strong guitar riffs, flexing bass and synthetic rhythms and sample-laden electronic scapes. It is the most accessible Cranioclast today – CoC in 2018 sound almost like pop! The record is released in a edition of 300 LPs on grey vinyl with cover disgn by Cranioclast. The LP includes a download code. Cranioclast is a project which produces various artistic endeavors, most commonly music. Active since the 1980ies." - label description
- Andrew Deutsch "Lung Cleaner" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM24 - "I created Lung Cleaner for Eric Lanzillotta when he was sick with a serious lung infection which lasted for months. I hoped to help him recover by imagining a 'sonic cure', an 'art pill'. The work continued after his illness and the notion of using metaphor as a compositional starting point has, at this time, formed the basis for all my sonic research and composition. Some other points of departure: digital structuralism, modular systemic processing, solitary parameter based interactive performance, image drones, contextual music, glaze/kiln music, analog/digital hybrids, granular synthesis, headphones, time grafting, modular synthesis, micro tonal clusters, moment clusters, destructive improvisational editing, rate of change patterns, logarithmic processing, filters, time sweeps, restricted randomization patterns, Iannis Xenakis, Merzbow, John Cage, and Gyorgy Ligeti. source materials included: wine glasses, baby toys, pure tones, bells, music boxes, gears, water, etc... track 2: 'Dizzy From the Cold Meds' contains samples of 3 unpublished early electronic works by Pauline Oliveros dating from around 1966." - Andrew Deutsch, 6/29/03.
- Bruce Ditmas "Visioni Sconvolgenti" 10" $19
Dead-Cert (U.K.) VCR-010 - "With roots in the early developments of modular synthesis and free jazz and revered amongst the most discerning collectors of international jazz, electronic music, and American avant-garde, the experimental drummer known as Bruce Ditmas occupies a firm branch on contemporary experimental music's family tree. As the one time romantic partner (and artistic collaborator) of sound poet Joan La Barbara (later to be Miss Morton Subotnik) and the stand-out session drummer for both Robert Mason's mutant synth Stardrive project and Gil Evan's legendary Jimi Hendrix tribute band, Ditmas is best savored as the first recorded solo artist to utilize Robert Moog's lesser-known Moog Drum controller - an instrument which over the course of two 1977 independent LPs ('Aeray Dust' and 'Yellow') would become synonymous with his blooming reputation. Raised in Miami, nurtured in New York City, and willingly exploited internationally, Bruce's public life as a child prodigy-cum-world jazz crusader (drawing similarities with the likes of France's Jacques Thollot) has seen him spread his select discography over many imprints, including Joan La Barbara's own Wizard Label, Enja, and ECM - socializing with sound designers like Suzanne Ciani and collaborating on projects penned by Annette Peacock, Paul Bley, and his long running collaborator Enrico Rava. Spending the last thirty years travelling between America and Italy as a full-time jazz musician whilst working with inter-communal music initiatives, film directors, and theater groups, Bruce has retained the same maverick passion and macabre creative influences channeling brutalism, futurism, science fiction, and psychological horror through his percussive mantra and avant-garde approach to instrument manipulation and recontextualization. The selected titles on 'Visioni Sconvolgenti' are extracted from various recordings made over the last three decades, comprising field recording techniques and percussive manipulation resulting in gritty tonal soundscapes and angular sonic sculptures, while drawing theoretical comparisons with European proto-industrial units like Germany's Faust, Swiss electronic jazz pioneer Bruno Spoerri, Czech sonic illustrator Milan Grygar, and sprawling generation of Parisian musique concrète informed anti-melodic luminaries. Reflecting a lifelong career in active melodic drum exploration and vivid existential sound design, 'Visioni Sconvolgent'i provides an alternative, darker, meditative, glimpse into the work of a proactive composer at his non-conformist best in the uninhibited confides of his own home analog studio. Artwork by Andy Votel. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering."
- DNA "A Taste Of DNA" 12" $10
Superior Viaduct (U.S.) SV099 - "New York's DNA have had a massive effect on alternative / indie rock around the world, despite the trio never releasing a full-length studio album during their four year tenure (1978-82). Various groups citing them as an influence have included Sonic Youth, Boredoms, Big Black and Blonde Redhead (the latter taking their name from DNA's most-famous song). While the band's explosive live performances captivated audiences, extant recordings captured DNA's dynamic sound and savage economy in songwriting.
Originally released in 1981, 'A Taste Of DNA' remains a primary source for No Wave archaeologists. Singer/guitarist Arto Lindsay and drummer Ikue Mori are joined by bassist and Pere Ubu founding-member Tim Wright. Across the EP's six anti-epic tracks, the band charges forward with jagged guitars and dislocated grooves, while Lindsay's guttural screams create a thoroughly personal semantics.
As Marc Masters writes in the liner notes, 'A Taste Of DNA has a kind of sum-of-parts insanity, wherein every musical element sounds conventionally off, like puzzle pieces purposefully jammed together at the wrong ends.'
This first-time vinyl reissue is recommended for fans of The Contortions' Buy and Red Crayola's 'The Parable Of Arable Land'." - label description - Dried Up Corpse C15 $5
Gnarled Forest (U.S.) GF23 - Blue Sabbath Black Cheer side project. edition of 100. packaged in an A6 sleeve.
- Dried Up Corpse / Slates C15 $5
Gnarled Forest (U.S.) GF24 - Dried Up Corpse are a Blue Sabbath Black Cheer side project. edition of 100. packaged in an A6 sleeve.
- Jean Dubuffet "Experiences Musicales" LP $25
Cacophonic (U.K.) 22CACKLP - "Cacophonic present an abridged reissue of 'Experiences Musicales De Jean Dubuffet', originally released by Jean Dubuffet in 1961. If ever a phonographic accomplishment could encapsulate the precise modus operandi of the Cacophonic label, then the 'Expériences Musicales' sessions made by French born painter, sculptor, music maker, wine merchant, and founder of the Art Brut movement, Jean Dubuffet would be a prime candidate. Originally released as an impossibly rare six record box set containing Dubuffet's first long anticipated forays into sound sculpture and spontaneous artistic noise, these intimate early 1960s recordings show a lesser-known side of this important artist's personality and stand up as a vital document in both fields of contemporary art and experimental music. Finally released to a wider audience and presented complete with Dubuffet's signature style artwork, this abridged vinyl edition includes specific selections curated by the artist himself, in conjunction with experimental music pioneer Ilhan Mimaroglu, and showcase what the two leading lights of modern art consider to be the best moments of this historic session. On this limited vinyl pressing Dubuffet succeeds in translating his unique spontaneous creativity and active support of Low Art into musical forms, a process with which he would also collaborate in his dual compositions with Danish avant-gardener Asger Jorn (for a separate series called 'Musique Phénoménale'). Utilizing a wide range of orthodox acoustic instruments ranging from violin and open piano to duck whistles and not musical apparatus this set of eight pieces (culled from a potential twenty tracks made under the 'Expériences Musicales' banner) sees the work of the artist approaching music from the perspective of 'a man of 50000 years ago'. Recorded at Galleria del Cavallino in Venice Italy during the first months of 1961, these primary experiments with music followed over twenty years of Dubuffet developing his own unconventional artistic persona as an instantly recognizable pioneer of post-war artistic abstraction. The recordings you will find within the grooves of this LP were created without any reference and in the artist own words 'without any discipline, without anything that would present the artist from expressing himself freely and for his own good pleasure'. Almost sixty years have passed since this sonic objet d'art was first realized, and with all the technology and the advanced science-of-sound, decades of so-called experimental musicians are still struggling to find that Brut energy within their creative endevors making this early example one of vital existence."
- Luc Ferrari "Complete Works" book $44
Ecstatic Peace Library (U.K.) 9781787601536 - "French composer Luc Ferrari (1929-2005) was one of the progenitors of Musique concrète and a pioneer of and resolutely idiosyncratic voice within electroacoustic music. Ferrari was an early participant in the Groupe de Musique concrète and, with Pierre Schaeffer and François-Bernard Mâche co-founded the Group de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in 1958. Throughout his career, Ferrari worked in multiple forms: instrumental works, vocal music, text scores, electronic and electroacoustic music, Hörspiele, theatre and films. This is the first English monograph on Luc Ferrari and includes writings, original compositions, notes, text scores, artworks and interviews. Edited by Brunhild Ferrari. English translations by Catherine Marcangeli. Foreword by Thurston Moore. Introduction by Jim O’Rourke. Preface by Brunhild Ferrari. Afterword by David Grubbs. Flexicover, 19 x 26.7 cm, 406 pages." - publisher description. a hefty tome, this weighs in at just over 4 pounds. $65.00 cover price.
- Fibrillation "My Axis is Undone" 3" CD $6
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM22 - "Holding a deep love of refraction in all things, luminescence at night, of childhood memories blurring with time..taking on their own significance through abstraction. Becoming aware of the animistic nature of the landscape via dissociative episodes, paranoia mutating into awareness. A series of dreams etching strong images deep into the mind long after waking, floating in dark blue water while looking at a glowing gold sky. The feeling of absolute *now* during an electrical storm. Using kirlian photography as postcards to communicate the vividness of a new space. All these things and more.." This collection of six pieces is the first official release by Fibrillation, following his appearance on the Anomalous Records compilation LP "Electrically Induced Vibrations". Constructed with great care, these will reveal many layers over repeated listening. Though he works largely in the realms of electronic music, no source is considered outside of his realm, and in fact many fragments of sound important to his life are incorporated in the complex weave of aural communication. Fibrillation aims to create a sound compliment to mental images and evoke important personal experiences. Each sound is in the place where it belongs to create the desired whole. So while initially, one may be taken in by the beautiful swell of warm harmonic drone that opens the disc, you will eventually find that below the surface there lies much more. Packaged in mini-DVD case with full color cover and insert.
- 15 Kinder & Brötzmann, Van Hove, Bennink "Free Jazz und Kinder" LP $25
Tochnit Aleph (Germany) TA164 - "12" vinyl reissue of the rare and infamous double-7", originally published by FMP in 1973. Recordings from a workshop at Akademie der Künste, Berlin, April 1972, featuring 15 children (aged 8-11) and Peter Brötzmann, Fred van Hove, Han Bennink." limited editon of 500.
- Henry Flynt "You Are My Everlovin'" CD $10
Superior Viaduct (U.S.) SV144 - "Philosopher, musician and anti-art activist, Henry Flynt has long foregone the academicism often associated with “serious music” in favor of a uniquely intuitive, emotional approach to composition. In the 1960s and 1970s he was a part of NYC’s vibrant avant-garde scene, studying with Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath and developing his own proprietary technique on violin. You Are My Everlovin’, Flynt’s first published musical work, finds the composer in peak form at a lower Manhattan loft in late spring 1981. Featuring solo electric violin and pre-recorded tambura, this sinuous performance elegantly brings together disparate vernaculars—Southern blues, modal jazz, Appalachian fiddle, North Indian raga—into a new and bracing whole. As Flynt writes in the liner notes, “The electric violin timbre is crucial; it allows me to crush the diverse styles into a unity. I imagined the genre as open, radiant improvisation…an open plain that could absorb anything.” Incorporating themes and melodic phrases from his earlier work, Everlovin’ becomes Flynt’s own Gesamtkunstwerk—a work that is at once rooted in and liberated by the drone, revealing the profound mutability and utter singularity of this American iconoclast." - label description
- Brigitte Fontaine "Brigitte Fontaine Est...Folle" CD $10
Superior Viaduct (U.S.) SV041 - "CD includes liner notes by Richie Unterberger.
French poet and chameleonic vocalist Brigitte Fontaine's career spans over four decades. Only a few years before her 1968 debut, 'Brigitte Fontaine Est…Folle', she moved to Paris to become an actress and took her prodigiously mature voice into the studio. Rich in the drama she brought to theater, Fontaine synthesized chanson (French pop song) and world music, which eventually won her international acclaim as a performer and collaborator with a variety of artists from around the world (Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sonic Youth and Stereolab, to name just a few).
On 'Est…Folle', Fontaine takes flight over conductor Jean Claude Vannier's brilliant arrangements. Vannier, best known for his work on Serge Gainsbourg's 'Histoire De Melody Nelson', is in fine form, using what would become his trademark stylings: lush strings, taut rhythms culled from across the globe and a healthy dose of whimsy. 'Il Pleut' swings from understatement to rapturous delight. 'Une Fois Mais Pas Deux' is an infectious pop song that could have been culled from a French New Wave soundtrack. Fontaine is adventurous and multi-dimensional with sophisticated lyrics, poignant melodies and enthralling delivery. Such artful handling of meter and rhyme (or lack thereof) is rare in pop song. Far from the era's yé-yé phenomenon, but never fully removed from its traditions, 'Est…Folle' is an essential link in French pop music, exuberantly pushing the genre into more conceptual and experimental sounds." - label description - Formanex with AMM, Christian Wolff, Keith Rowe, Phill Niblock, Michael Pisaro and others "20 Years Of Experimental Music" 10 x CD box $93
Mikroton Recordings / Fibrr Records (Russia / France) MIKROTON CD 76-85 / FIBRRX01 - one copy with dented corner available for $5.00 off; one copy in mint condition available for full price.
"Limited edition of 300. Nantes trio Formanex celebrates 20 years of activism in experimental music with a 10 CD edition full of amazing collaborations with ONsemble (contemporary music group from Nantes and Saint-Nazaire) and composers they have worked with. The box set includes early works by Formanex’s own Julien Ottavi, unique compositions created by Keith Rowe, pieces by Kasper T. Toeplitz, Ralf Wehowsky, Seth Cluett, Michael Pisaro, Radu Malfatti, as well as other giants of contemporary music from the last 50 years; such as Phill Niblock and Christian Wolff. A rare collection of CDs, this box set represents a broad vision of experimental music from noise to electronic abstract composition, radical minimalism, contemporary and improvised music." - label description. included on the first disc are two recordings of Cornelius Cardew's "Treatise" performed with AMM. - Ellen Fullman "Staggered Stasis" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM29 - Since the early 1980s, Ellen Fullman has been perfecting her Long String Instrument. This unique instrument of her own design is some 80 feet in length and played by literally walking through it. The resulting sounds are beautiful gliding tones with a rich harmonic content. The CD presents two works from her time in Austin, Texas in the late 1980's which beautifully display a sound you can get inside of. These long tracks envelope you in their cascading overtones. Even though she has performed widely in the United States and Europe, this is only Ellen's third solo CD, following previous releases on XI Records and New Albion. So hearing these gorgeous and important pieces from her archive is cause for celebration. "'Staggered Stasis' (1989) was commissioned by the Deborah Hay Dance Company for part 1, 'The Navigator' in Hay's trilogy, 'The Man Who Grew Common In Wisdom'. Microtonal shifts in the coloring occur in a staggered fashion, traveling on an axis of Pythagorean intervals, (the circle of fifths). Chords created by stacking 3/2s, or fifths, are referred to as 'suspended chords'. There is a flatness in this drama, what I imagine it must be like in the middle of an ocean, continually moving yet appearing the same. The four part score was plotted on a timeline. Each track was recorded and performed by myself. An excerpt of 'Staggered Stasis' was released on the Aerial CD series. 'Duration' (1986) was composed as a 13-limit study for the Long String Instrument, in the key of C. The fundamental tone is continually sounded, under chords constructed with pitches from the overtone series. The intention of the piece was to listen to the variations within each chord, as it is sounded continually while the performer walked the length of the instrument. As the performer's position changes, one clearly hears a cascade of overtones. 'Duration' was never previously released. The original recordings were made direct to a PCM digital processor using a vintage AKG C24 stereo tube condenser microphone placed about 15 feet from the resonators." - Ellen Fullman. the cover features a photograph by Rachael Jackson.
- gcttcatt "AmpErase" CD $14
Mego (Austria) MEGO021 - "gcttcatt is a duo comprising of: Martin Ng (Grob, Staubgold - Turntables + DJ tools) and Mathias Gmachl (farmersmanual, Skot, Fuckhead - real time data processing). gcttcatt reference many tactics familiar to the 'movement' seekers of this overly documented world. We can see the headlines now! - 'turntablism dsp', 'hyperkinetic hands on beat boy meets doppler shredding maker' or maybe 'crab scratch tackles electroacoustic evidence in cross continent battle blitz!' Regardless of potential pockets it's in the outer where gcttcatt reside. Taking time to spit fury, often enveloped split-axe like (inside a realm channeled through Shaeffer, Xenakis, Marclay, Q-bert and the like). This disorienting duo practice an extreme exploration of their chosen tools. What becomes of such activities when they fold into one united, albeit fractured mass, is what makes this release so damn special! The relationship between machine + man is blurred on numerous counts via the symbiotic set up of 'live' turntablism meets 'real time' processing meets virtual turntablism - ( i.e.: the violent skips of Ng's restless stylus' morphs into splinters of feisty electroacoustics courtesy of Hiaz' acoustic modeling program). Taking an easy route one can cite: inward / outward turntable-acoustics (think cells, thick cells, thin cells), virtual equipment - midnight dual with land and hand battle tactics, detached syntax - yards of shards, hyperkinetic improvisation, schizophrenic mechanical duality, fuzzy robotics, & aching turns: fluctuate, vary, waver, flounder, flicker, flitter, flit, flutter, shift, shuffle, shake, totter, tremble, vacillate, wamble, turn and turn about, ring the changes; sway to and fro, change and change about. The Visual component 'u r the sony of my life' is a total audio-visual recombination. Entirely generated from real time digital rearticulation of vinyl manipulation. The 'DJ' footage is taken and 'scratched' live to produce a hyperreal synchronization with the live music." - label description. with guest appearances by Oren Ambarchi and Joe Linschinger. Digipak.
- Gianni Gebbia "H Portraits" CD $12
Rastascan Records (U.S.) BRD 037 - solo alto and soprano saxophone. "Gebbia is quickly becoming known as one of the most innovative young improvisers in Europe today. His playing is as much reminiscent of the music of the Mediterranean islands (such as his native Sicily) as it is of European free jazz. In fact, much of the inspiration for his circular breathing and rustic scales come from a little known Sardinian instrument called the Launeddas, which is capable of playing a number of tones simultaneously. Gianni Gebbia builds on this principle and adapts it to his own saxophone work. 'H Portraits' contains 12 solo improvisations recorded in the studio in Oakland, California during Gebbia's first trip to the US in 1997." - label description. packaged in card wallet.
- Gentle Fire "Explorations (1970-1973)" 3 x CD $36
Paradigm Discs (England) PD 35 - "Gentle Fire were a six-, then five-member group of composers/improvisers/performers based in London and Yorkshire. Most of the writings that cover the pioneers of experimental, electronic, and improvised music have given them scant attention. In addition to this, their recorded output is slim, the main item being an out-of-print LP, featuring their interpretations of graphic scores by Cage, Earle Brown, and Christian Wolff. Most of the existing Gentle Fire archive was kept privately by Hugh Davies. After Hugh died in 2005, it was shared between various institutions. This release owes much to Hugh's meticulous record keeping as well as the archives at the British Library and Special Collections at Goldsmiths, University of London. Listening sessions at the British Library were a revelation, it was like discovering a missing link in the evolution of experimental music, but above all it sounded so undated and fresh. The release is divided into three sections. The first CD, recorded between 1970 and 1971 contains four studio and two concert recordings of graphic and text scores: two parts of Stockhausen's 'Aus den sieben Tagen', and one piece each by Earle Brown, John Cage, Toshi Ichiyanagi, and Christian Wolff. Gentle Fire were active between 1968 and 1974 and were especially active during the early '70s, appearing at numerous European avant-garde festivals. They even ended up in Iran playing in Stockhausen's 'Sternklang', and improvising at dawn at Hafez's tomb. The second and third CDs focus on their own works; disc two dates from 1973 and was recorded during a two-day residency at Radio Bremen. The five pieces on this disc cover a wide variety of styles and include a 23-minute version of 'Group Composition VI' which is their only text-based piece and uses processed and filtered speech. Disc three is a recording of their appearance at ICES 72, a legendary festival that took place at the Roundhouse in London. Over the course of two chaotic weeks a vast number of the world's experimental musicians took to the stage. Miraculously, the whole of the Gentle Fire concert has been preserved. It consists of a performance of their 'Group Composition IV', centered around a large metal sculpture that all members of the group could play at the same time. The piece actually had its première the previous year on the original pyramid stage at the first Glastonbury Fair. There are several photos of the event included in the booklet that accompanies the CDs. 48-page booklet; edition of 500 (numbered)."
- Carlos Giffoni / Prurient "Heavy Rain Returns" CD $11
Ideal Recordings (Sweden) IDEAL030 - deep throbbing analog power electronics noise.
- Janice Giteck "Breathing Songs from a Turning Sky" CD $14
Mode Records (U.S.) mode 14 - "First recordings of these works from Seattle-based composer Janice Giteck, supervised by the composer. Greatly influenced by Native American music, her compositions are in turn rhythmic and meditative, ritualistic and serene. Ms. Giteck's works strive to recapture the ancient musical attributes of ritual and trance, exploring ways in which music can be a truly healing experience. Giteck has studied with Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud, with subsequent studies of Indonesian Gamelan music with Daniel Schmidt and percussion with the master drummer from Ghana, Obo Addy. Guest artists with the New Performance Group of the Cornish Institute (Seattle) include the popular Windham Hill recording artist Andy Narrell on steel-drummer and tenor John Duykers, who appeared as Chairman Mao in John Adams' 'Nixon in China'. Released 1988." - label description. other performers on this disc are Jane Lenoir (flute), William McColl (clarinet), Bruce Grainger (bassoon), Roger Nelson (piano), Walter Gray (cello), Matthew Kocmieroski (percussion), Jarrad Powell (percussion), Thomas Eckert (soprano), Jana Hawley (chanter), James Madara (chanter), Susan Seneft (chanter) and Deborah Deloria (string-bass). "'Callin' Home Coyote' reminds me of Harry Partch's good-humored eccentricities, without sounding in the least like watered-down Partch. The ten 'Breathing Songs from a Turning Sky' (there are no vocals) are purely delicious. 'Thunder, Like a White Bear Dancing' with instrumentalists and voices, achieves a dream-state, while Coyote, no less fantastic, indulges in jazzy hi-jinks." - Mike Silverton, Fanfare
- Glands Of External Secretion "Backlit Colander With Holes Shaped Like Numbers" 7" $10
I Dischi Del Barone (Sweden) IDDB017 - "Two six-minute montages of reversed mitosis episodes, in which scaly pods, ruptured eggs, and clumps of partially digested hair smush through one another and glom together in unstable strains of S-Glass-spanktified dad-noise. 'Backlit Colander With Holes Shaped Like Numbers' crawls with bacteria from munched electronics, murmurs of a chimney-entrapped Frampton (plus camel, but that should go without saying), tape yoont teetering on the lip of a magnetic abyss, and piercing splats from tiny automatic paintball guns. “High” and “lonesome” are the operative descriptors of 'Bok Choy Festival': Barbara Manning’s guitar loops backfire and self-annihilate in private spritz-overdose orgies; avian-constructed effigies of Annie Hayworth curdle; narration on the topic of body dysmorphia is provided courtesy of thrift store cassettes and a Sister Rosetta Thorpe quotation. Cover artwork by Karen Constance. 200 copies. Black vinyl, white cardboard sleeve with postcard attached, stamped white labels, insert. Plays at 33rpm." - labe description
- Nikita Golyshev "Solaris" CD $13
Monochrome Vision (Russia) mv20 - "Combining the deep layers of machine-like hum and minimal melodic keys, Nikita creates highly emotional and dramatic journey to the netherworld. Two parts of this one hour long suite are the partly presented in the program of Add Noise II festival on May 15th, 2007. Beginning in 2003 as the part of duo aptly titled CD-R, Nikita Golyshev quickly became the one of the most promising electronic musicians on the Russian underground scene. His output progressed from rhythmic noise mayhem to diverse and heterogeneous experiments, ranging from machine improvisation through bleak drones to pure processed acoustic minimalism. He released some CD-Rs and published many works online, as well as on his own Musica Excentrica, Electrosound and Share My Wings imprints."
- Laurent Grappe "Le luxe de la réflexion !" CD $11
Metamkine / Sonoris (France) MKCDYYY / SON-32 - "This work is a 'sound being; and the result of my meeting with Isabelle Bassil. After several stays in Lebanon, and having experienced the country's permanent tension, we wanted to address the complexity of representation that communities develop towards their own language when facing domination from an outside culture. 'We have forgotten something, but to learn what has been forgotten, we need to access the suffering from those who haven't yet accessed to oblivion', says Philippe Vaernewyck in the last interlude of the work, and a fragment taken from one of our numerous discussions on the luxury of reflection. Through Isabelle's life, a Lebanese girl using Arabic speaking with all the distance of a foreigner's experience, we can recall the idea of a poetic phonography of intimacy with texts and culture. Behind each of Isabelle's choices (Khalil Gibran, Najib Mahafouz, or a popular tale like 'the heart of a mother' for instance), lies a portrait, a souvenir, an emotion, a claiming, an Arabic memory in any case. For each piece, we carefully positioned the microphones to create the situation that would allow the necessary gap to the reception of this expression. From a musical standpoint, we tried and built a sound dramaturgy to bring the listening on the course where the voice creates the movement. We hope to trigger off imagination, opening to a poetic interpretation of sense by overtly playing on the recognition of the sound sources that evoke both journeys and (y)our native language. Our music includes electro-acoustics and concrete aesthetics. We let sounds exist by themselves. The sounds and sequences were often played using our memory of our first stays there, adding an idealized perfume to it. 'Le luxe de la réflexion!' is an attempt in valuing the Arabic language, presented as an oral and written language, and beyond this, represent when languages are experienced as stigmata. We tell of people whom ghettoized native language involves insecurity. This piece was first conceived as a work for a tape and a comedienne, and was first shown on January 6 1996 at L'Embarcadère in Lyon, as part of the collective event 'comme un murmure' ('as a whisper'). It was then decided to use it as a training material (Inter Service Migrant) around this concept so 'Le luxe...' has been shown around 20 times in France. The acousmatic version has been created using high-end sound techniques to ease focus on the qualities of listening, and played in Le Festival d'Albi, Les 38èmes Rugissants, Futura, Le Festival. Inter. Musi. Impro. Libre in Beirut, Le 102, Les Instants Chavirés, Le Vandémiaire, Le nomade's land, Le Cirque clandestin des frères Kasamarof. This version is now a CD on Sonoris / Metamkine." - label description.
- Guillermo Gregorio "Degrees of Iconicity" CD $17
Hat Hut Records Ltd. (Switzerland) hat(now)ART 134 - 10 avant-garde works performed by this Argentinean born composer with various friends from his new home of Chicago. "Much more directly than, for example, Webern, Feldman or Tristano, who have often been cited as influencing my work, I think that the most important elements acting on my music come from the visual arts - more specifically, from the so-called 'constructive' tendencies of 20th century art, namely, some varieties of Constructivism and Concrete Art." - Guillermo Gregorio. performed by Guillermo Gregorio (clarinet, alto saxophone, conductor), Carrie Biolo (vibraphone, marimba), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello, cornet), Michael Cameron (acoustic bass), and Kent Kessler (acoustic bass). edition of 3000. packaged in a Digisleeve (a sort of card gatefold sleeve - no plastic) with extensive liner notes from the composer.
- Randy Greif "Verdi's Requiem" CD $12
Soleilmoon Recordings (U.S.) SOL48CD - "Randy Greif is a composer and musician working in the field of electronics and sound manipulation. His work defies easy categorization because it straddles a number of different genres, including experimental, noise, ambient and even classical music. 'Verdi's Requiem' is not in any way a re-working of the 'Requiem' by the composer Verdi, but is meant simply as an abstract biography, without text but full of misinformation on the life of the great Italian composer. Various key events in the life of Verdi as concocted and imagined by Greif are interpreted musically. Greif admittedly has very little knowledge of Giuseppe Verdi's life or musical structures, and is basing all other imagined events around the only one he is aware-Verdi's alleged affair with the young Amadeus Mozart. While Randy Greif's earlier interpretation of 'Alice in Wonderland' squeezed the actual text into its darkest corner and added a suitably psychotic soundtrack, here he dispenses with all but the merest notion of the original and takes a mighty leap into the mind's abyss. It's interesting, fascinating, captivating and weird, all at once. Randy Greif has recorded with Static Effect, His Master's Voice, Stylus, and Dan Burke of Illusion of Safety. He is currently collaborating with Robin Storey of Rapoon and Nigel Ayers of Nocturnal Emissions. However, he has primarily worked as a solo artist. He is truly a child of the cassette underground, rising out of the depths of obscurity through sheer hard work, persistence and originality. His first cassette releases were issued on his own Swinging Axe label beginning in 1983. These early solo works were soon followed by releases of indigenous recordings he made in Papua New Guinea, Amazonia, and Thailand. Some of the material recorded in those locales were used as source materials for future Greif releases. Throughout the 80's and 90's he has had numerous LP and CD releases on various labels including Staalplaat, RRR, Complacency, Old Europa Cafe, Freedom In A Vacuum, and Swinging Axe. Among these releases were his 5-CD set 'Alice In Wonderland' released on the Staalplaat label serially over a 4 year period. Due out sometime next year will be a CD by Drift, of which Greif is founding member and which includes vocalist Anna Homler. There will also be some new solo material under the alias Shadowbug 4." - label description.
- Tom Hamilton, Mike Silverton & Al Margolis "Analogue Smoque" 2 x CD $17
Pogus Productions (U.S.) P21029-2 - "A truly surrealistic pillow of a text/sound work, 'Analogue Smoque' combines poet and La Folia honcho Mike Silverton’s epic poe(m) (with Mike recitating) and the sounds (both electronic and not) of Tom Hamilton and Al Margolis. Sounds combine and contrast, highlight and ignore, as Silverton's opus unfolds in all its glory. Mike Silverton will only say that 'At first blush, the alert listener detects a link between 'Analogue Smoque' and 'Madam Blavatsky'. The magi demur. Rather, they say, the text reveals its author's interest in cryptorchidistics, i.e., states of non-descent.' Tom Hamilton has composed and performed electronic music for over 30 years. Rather than addressing traditional modes of presentation and observation, Hamilton prefers to explore interaction and simultaneity as aspects of 'present-time listening' on both the performers' and listeners' parts. Al Margolis [If, Bwana] has been working with electronics/sounds since New Year's Day 1984. His work can best be described as 'sound finger-painting'." - label description. track titles include "A Rift in the Ceiling" and "Laundering Butt Floss".
- Hands To "Bio Electric" 5 x CD box $45
New Forces (U.S.) NF129 - "New Forces is proud to present the first in a series of CD boxsets reissuing the catalog of Hands To, the legendary recording project of artist Jeph Jerman. 'Bio Electric' collects the five 'body sounds' tapes released by Hands To in the late 1980s while Jeph was living in Colorado: 'Maesh', 'Decesh', 'Invesh', 'Aggresh', and 'Recesh'.
As Jeph recollects in the linter notes, 'I had begun investigating the use of human body sounds after noticing a definite physical effect while listening to one of my earlier pieces which had used them. I can only describe the feeling as an alert calmness. I found it very odd, and wondered if anyone else would be affected. As I am often want to do, I became mildly obsessed by the question and set to work amassing a small library of (mostly) human body sounds. These were collected, from myself and a few understanding friends, using small hand held tape recorders and various cheap microphones. A tape of heartbeats found in a thrift store was used extensively. Michael Moynihan kindly sent me a recording of his Tibetan thigh bone trumpet, and I got sounds off the television and a few video tapes. I used these to create audio collages with different combinations of sounds, and ended up with about 5 hours worth of stuff. With these tapes, I was a attempting to make something other than entertainment, and the suggestions included were intended to prod a listener into paying attention to the sounds, as opposed to using them as background noise or trying to parse their musical structure.'
The resulting cassettes represent the finest of the Hands To discography, pushing 1980’s 'cassette culture' experimentation to its absolute peak in ways that predict much of what the modern experimental listener takes for granted. 'Harsh noise', 'tape music', 'sound art', 'ambient', 'textural noise', these are only some of the now-codified genre markers that careful listeners will find in 'Bio Electric', but these recordings stand alone in their approach to recorded sound. An absolutely mandatory collection for any fan of noise, industrial, and experimental sounds that continues to inspire after more than three decades.
Each disc is housed in an individual slip-case that reproduces the original artwork. The collection is contained in a hard clamshell case, and includes an 8 page booklet with liner notes by Jeph Jerman and additional artwork, flyers, and pictures. The recordings were expertly mastered for CD from Jeph Jerman’s archival tapes by Grant Richardson, and the boxset was designed by John Wiese." - Catherine Christer Hennix / Karlheinz Stockhausen "Unbegrenzt" LP $29
Blank Forms / Empty Editions (U.S.) BF-011/EE007 - "Unbegrenzt is the third in an ongoing series of archival records of the unheard music of Swedish composer Catherine Christer Hennix, co-released by Blank Forms Editions and Empty Editions. It follows Selected Early Keyboard Works (2018) and Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku, named the #1 archival release of 2019 by The Wire (BF 007LP, 2019), in addition to a two-volume collection of Hennix's writing titled Poësy Matters and Other Matters. Recorded in February of 1974 and featuring Catherine Christer Hennix (recitation, percussion, electronics) and Hans Isgren (bowed gong), Hennix's realization of Karlheinz Stockhausen's 'Unbegrenzt' (German for 'unlimited') from Aus den Sieben Tagen is an elaboration both rigorous and radically different from the canonical 1969 recording issued by Shandar. The collection of 15 text pieces written in Paris during May of 1968, Aus den Sieben Tagen, denies its performers notated direction and instead provides poetic cues that hinge upon Stockhausen's conception of 'intuitive music,' a Eurocentric perspective on improvisation antithetical to the vernacular forms Hennix had engaged with as a young drummer performing in Stockholm jazz clubs with musicians like Bill Barron, Cam Brown, Hans Isgren, Lalle Svenson, Allan Vajda, Bo Wärmell, and many others. While both Hennix and Isgren saw the formal prospect of Aus den Sieben Tagen as a productive development of and beyond La Monte Young's event scores, she here steadfastly counters his rationalization of intuition with the Principle of Sufficient Reason. (Cf. Brouwer's Lattice.) Eschewing the busy, conservatory-addled lapses into idiomatic citation of Stockhausen's 1969 recording, Hennix's alternative realization of the 'Unbegrenzt' score's instructions to 'play a sound with the certainty that you have an infinite amount of time and space' is based on her concept of 'Infinitary Compositions', the trademark of her ensemble The Deontic Miracle which, at one time, considered adding Stockhausen, La Monte Young, and Terry Jennings scores to its repertoire. Taking a mature, minimal iteration of Stockhausen's compositional method of 'moment-forming' to heart, her version's dark, controlled feedback and amplified bowed gong subtly shift through an immanent sequence of formative moments, step by step. Its bubbling computer noise, percussion, and repeated ominous transient sounds of temple blocks over the bowed gong terminate with the integrated recitation of exotic text fragments from Hevajra Tantra which faithfully take Stockhausen's score into deeper vistas of the unconscious and a more devastating opening to the unlimited time and space of a dreaming mind. Audio restoration and mastering by Stephan Mathieu, with an essay by Bill Dietz."
- H.H.T.P. & Portablepalace "Cavitation" CD $13
Monochrome Vision (Russia) mv04 - "The interaction between computer science technology and freeform musical creative process becomes a central point in this international collaboration of three artists from Belarus and USA. The abstract soundscapes are obscured by intricate structures, acoustic phenomena and electronic effects, it's going to infinity and never repeat itself. The finest harmony of soundfield is credited to the principles of intuitive simulation, realised through the system of computer-aided instruments."
- Kosai Hori "Reading-Affair" CD $27
Edition Omega Point / Japanese Art Sound Archive (Japan) OPS-002 - "Born in 1947 in Japan. This collection is the first selection of Hori’s sound works from the 1970s, a time in which he organized an art movement called Bikyoto REVOLUTION Committee together with artists like Naoyoshi Hikosaka, Nobuo Yamanaka and Yasunao Tone. In those days, Hori’s performance pieces employed various media such as tape recorders, typewriters and video cameras. Texts are in Japanese and English, limited to 150 copies." - label description "On the table is a newspaper of the day, which the pair alternatively read up letter by letter. Their voice is played by the two tape recorders with a little delay. The sound from the devices is picked up by the microphone and taken into the loop again with a delay. As this process repeats, the voices of the performers are, as it were, accumulated in the space. As time goes on, the howling from the sound equipment becomes increasingly louder." packaged in 7" sleeve with 12-page booklet.
- Hubbub "Hoop Whoop" CD $14
Matchless Recordings (England) MRCD53 - improvisations by Paris based ensemble with Frederic Blondy, Bertrand Denzler, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Jean-Sebastian Mariage and Edward Perraud. "Hubbub means 'clamor', 'commotion', 'confusion' but also 'agitation', 'excitement'. 'Sound and fury', but also culture fluid and brownian motion: a name with many echoes in sound, in physics, in biology and yet nobody's name. It is a sign. The horizon which was revealed by such an idea of improvisation (since the very beginning of AMM) is entirely open. By establishing new continuums in the functioning of the group and the flow of play, from within the music matter-but also from between its inside and its outside- this music calls forth new dispositions, new organic contiguities. 'Hoop, Whoop' is not a work, it is a process. The only relationship possible for us with this process is a vital and passionate experience which opens up to it. What follows is no longer ours." - from the liner notes.
- Toshi Ichiyanagi "Sapporo" CD $13
Edition Wandelweiser Records (Germany) EWR 1801 - Toshi Ichiyanagi (1933) is a Japanese composer that studied with John Cage. Cage's influence can be heard in the piece "Sapporo" which mixes sustained tones with sharply attacked sounds. Each performer plays from a different page of lines and points with the only synchronization being in the form of notations to listen to or watch the other players. performed by Eye Music: Dean Moore (air pressure tom, prepared snare, cymbal tree, shakers); Jay Hamilton (cello); Carl Lierman (analog synthesizer); Mike Shannon (dilruba, erhu, harmonium); Dave Knott (korg DS-10, monochord, rocks, voice, kitchen faucets); David Stanford (electric guitar, e-bow), jonathan way (khaen, yueqin, autoharp); Robert j Kirkpatrick (prepared wire-strung harp, iphone oscillator); Stuart Dempster (trombone); Eric Lanzillotta (acoustic guitar, uncut nail, contact microphone, psaltery bow, ring modulator, singing bowl, telephone bells, light bulb, spring, umeboshi pit, shell, resin, glass, marble, button, glass fuses); Esther Sugai (flute, two fue: japanese bamboo flutes).
Eye Music is a Seattle based ensemble specializing in the interpretation of graphic and text scores. The group was begun in 2006 with the aim of playing a student composition by Sune Smedeby and since then have expanded their repertoire to include pieces by Cornelius Cardew, David Toop, Michael Parsons, Clifford Burke, Bob Cobbing, Michael Shannon, Steve Peters, Malcolm Goldstein, Boguslaw Schaeffer, Mieko Shiomi, Christian Wolff, George Brecht, Alison Knowles, Earle Brown, Stuart Dempster, Stephen O'malley, William Hellerman, Takehisa Kosugi and Jeph Jerman. The openness of these compositions allows Eye Music to draw its membership from a wide range of musical backgrounds, instrumentation, and musical skill. The ensemble has worked with guest artists Keith Rowe, Jeph Jerman, Richard Lerman and Clifford Burke. Members of the ensemble not on this recording are Amy Denio and Susie Kozawa. - Tetsu Inoue & Andrew Deutsch "Field Tracker" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM 9 - "'Field Tracker' was recorded at the Institute for Electronic Art, Alfred NY during the Winter of 2000. Inoue, utilizing his digital sound processing systems in combination with bells, guitar, and other odd sound making objects, constructed tiny improvisational sound moments each one having a shape and gesture of their own. These 'micro compositions' were at times highly abstract and noisy and at other times extremely melodic and calm. Many of these micro compositions were used in the production of his recent release 'Object and Organic Code', the others (almost 2 hours worth) were handed over to Andrew Deutsch who was to construct another release combining sounds of his own. Being responsible for the overall 'Auskomponierung' or 'compositional unfolding' of the work, Deutsch combined synthesized sounds, drones, chatter, loops and other DSP techniques to produce what he hoped would be a kind of 'Gebrauchsmusik' or 'useful music' that one might use in the home. The work has a notion of 'ambitendency' built into it, that is, the tendency toward change combined with an equal tendency toward stasis. The work could be described as 'meta-divisionism', 'Baroque Minimalism', or 'expanded systemic digital minimalism'. Sound works for our new recombinatory world." second pressing with black label.
- Jeph Jerman "Alluvium" C40 $6
Grisaille (Germany) GRISAILLE-24 - two performances recorded at Trunk Space Phoenix, AZ. limited edition of 60 copies.
- Jeph Jerman "Errant Gyres" C40 $6
Buried in Slag and Debris (Canada) BISAD 020 - "'Cpone' is one of the very first pieces I recorded, taken off the air at KRCC in 1983. 'Tkray' features the voice of Tom Ray, my first musical partner. Sadly Tom passed away in 2021. This piece is dedicated to him. 'Dones' was assembled using Eric Lunde’s opycay device. 'Copenda' used sounds from Tim Barnes, circa 2016. The remaining two pieces were recorded in and around Cottonwood, AZ 2021–22."
- Jeph Jerman "Keep The Drum (Concussion Solos)" CD $10
New Forces (U.S.) NF103 - "Originally released on cassette by Apraxia in 1990. Since the 1980's Jeph Jerman has been a key figure in experimental music, from the textural noise of his legendary Hands To project, to more recent studies in field recording and acoustic sound recorded under his own name. On 'Keep the Drum' Jerman explores what he calls 'concussion music', working with a pile of hubcaps, sheet metal and 'other bits of junk' to rethink the traditional drum kit. The sounds on this disc crackle, pop, and thud. Each tactile scrape conjures up the rusted edge of some bit of scrap-metal as the ambiance of the physical space hums in the background.
As Jerman tells the story, these recordings were a continuation of his interest in 'using things other than musical instruments to construct sound works… I think 'Keep the Drum' was also the very beginning of my interest in small sounds. One afternoon Darren Soule brought over a bunch of tiny metal pipe pieces which he had mounted on bent paper clips so that they could be played. They rang like bells, but were very difficult to control. I loved that about them. There’s also a short piece wherein I played small bones, foreshadowing a lot of my later live work.' Recorded on a borrowed 4-track with two battered old mics, 'Keep the Drum' is full of Jerman’s trademark textural intimacy. The recordings have been remastered by Grant Richardson to bring them to life without sacrificing their individuality, making these extremely rare recordings once more available." - Jeph Jerman "Popular Fictions" C30 $7
tsss tapes (Italy) tst017 - "Recorded throughout the spring and summer of 2020 in and around Cottonwood, AZ, utilizing mouth, stone, wood, glass, metal, paper, plastic, radio and the contribution of Doug Theriault, Chris Reider, Julie Schubert and a bunch of people I don't know. Assembled at Estudio Sonor, October 2020."
- Jeph Jerman & Tim Barnes "Versatile Ambience" LP $15
IDEA Intermedia (U.S.) IDEA19 - "On the second side of Versatile Ambience, Jeph Jerman utters an all too accurate observation of our overheated culture, describing us at 'the smithy's forge, replacing art with scrutiny.' Throughout their new record, Jerman and Tim Barnes show us another, alchemical possibility - fusing art and scrutiny together. Across a dozen years, the duo of Jerman and Barnes has offered powerful, minimal music rooted in a shared dedication to the creative act of listening. Jerman is a veteran of the creative music scenes in Denver and Seattle, and in more recent years has been thoroughly investigating the sonic possibilities of the desert southwest where he lives and works. Tim Barnes's resume as a percussionist, engineer, and curator is studded with all-star collaborators including Tony Conrad, Sonic Youth, Ken Vandermark (who appears here as a guest), Royal Trux, and Tower Recordings. Versatile Ambience is their second record in as many years, making this one of the most productive periods in the duo's history. The pieces on Versatile Ambience highlight the ingenuity and intense physical economy found throughout both artists' repertoires. What sonic and performative possibilities are held in these few found objects, in this environment? What music is already here? What music is hidden in the subtly shifting motion of a hand? Explicitly or implicitly, Jerman and Barnes have spent their careers asking these questions. The latest answers are found here, in creative percussive and electronic improvisation by the duo, in the minimal but impactful contributions of a handful of guests, and in field recordings ranging from the call of a stranded cricket to the roar of a distant airport. The spoken section (a first for the duo) sounds as though it is a poetics being conceived, written, recorded, and edited as you are hearing it. But if at first it sounds like a cut-up, passages like 'and you, the anvil? / I am the hammer!' promise at the very least a Mad Libs-worth of structure and play, and quite a bit more depth. Despite its appearance so soon after their last effort, this record feels more considered, more complete than any Jerman/Barnes release to date. Like a snake's path through the sand, if the duo's trajectory holds, Versatile Ambience will soon be seen as a remarkable point along a fascinatingly meandering line." --Aaron Rosenblum Louisville, KY.
- Jeph Jerman & Steve Jansen "Composite Washes" 5 x CDR & DVD-R box $40
Unhinged (U.S.) UNHINGED 007 - wooden box with 5 CD-Rs, a DVD-R (with 3 videos), track list and a polaroid photo. limited edition of 34 copies.
- Jerman / Nordwall "Topology" CD $12
New Forces (U.S.) NF144 - "Jeph Jerman (Hands To) and Joachim Nordwall (Organ of Corti) present 'Topology', a stunning collaboration that brings out the best from both artists. Jerman's trademark field recordings are accentuated by Nordwall's electronics in a seamless fusion that simultaneously evokes the mechanical and the environmental. There are moments of subtle tension, but longtime fans of Jerman will note several instances of heightened intensity in his contribution that harken back to some of the more aggressive Hands To recordings. Nordwall is surgical on 'Topology', a masterclass in blending two divergent approaches. An incredible album of sound exploration that is not to be missed." digipak.
- Ariel Kalma "French Archives Vol. II (1974-1985)" 4 x LP box $90
Black Sweat Records (Italy) BS063 - "The new magic compendium of Ariel Kalma: a box with four-LPs, including different color inner sleeves, a large booklet with credits and beautiful unreleased photos, illuminating perfectly the depth of his traveling soul. Few, like Ariel, have really been able to dedicate their life to a tireless experimentation in music. In according to a subtle plot, between his experiences in the World and the restitution of them, he has always found multifaceted combinations of sounds. Kalma uses anything that can stimulate his impressions, expanding his action without boundaries: church bells, dilated flutes, tape machine, drum machine, Revox loops, flanger, reverberations, War drums, modular and wasp synth, Yamaha Ps.20, Farfisa. etc. Through the 4Lp of the collection, his mind undergoes significant changes, almost corresponding to 4 different moments or states of consciousness. In 'Delirium GRM' he paints his personal dark side of the trip, operating for crazed de-temporalizations and de-specializations: obsessive hallucinations, wastelands of spectral visions, fractals of darkness or alien caverns. Conversely, in 'Dream Stars', the galactic ascension (Schulze/Ash Ra Temple) becomes happy and luminous in its take-off and landing phases. The cosmic electric-Gnawa, in 'Rue De la Gaite', reveals an even more calm spirit, with amazing stylistic intersections between India, Turkey and Morocco, and makes use of some exceptional guests including Loy Ehrlich (Hadouk Trio). 'Kula Confidential' translates the vibes of his journey on the island of Maui, between mantra sax and ocean waves, memories of primitive and ancient populations and silent archaeological atmospheres."
- K-Group "Accueil" 7" $10
I Dischi Del Barone (Sweden) IDDB035 - "K-Group is Paul Toohey, previously of noted NZ geological drone ensemble Surface Of The Earth. The two tracks on this 7", 'Accueil' and 'Over-Future Shop', were recorded 2018/2019 in New Zealand, New Caledonia and Solomon Islands. A prime example of dense and droning down-under ecstasy. Previous releases includes a classic self-titled album on Corpus Hermeticum and a collaboration LP with Omit on Fusetron. This is the first new K-Group release since 2003, though there was a digital-only album titled "2" in 2015. 200 copies pressed. Stamped white labels, postcard attached to the cover, insert. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. 45rpm." - label description
- Dave Knott "Natura naturans" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOT 1 - vastly underappreciated in the world at large, Dave Knott is highly respected and enjoyed by those in the Seattle area that have come into contact with him and his sounds. he has long running (as in over a continuous decade) collaborations with Jeph Jerman, Matt Shoemaker, Stuart Dempster, Sir Richard Bishop and Climax Golden Twins. a music therapist by trade, Dave studied to be a luthier (that's someone that builds stringed instruments) and plays very skillfully in many styles. this recording documents what might now be called a sound art installation, although unlike a lot of things with that label these days, Dave's "stringboards" were a part of the space they were in and not just some CD player in a room. quite simple and raw looking, the stringboards were complex aggregations of various types of musical strings often augmented by preparations in the manner of Keith Rowe or John Cage, and likewise revealed the same large array of non-typical string sounds. when plucked, bowed, strummed, rubbed or hit they could sound like any one of the numerous string sources (guitar, double bass, cello, etc.) or more surprisingly like gong or bell. and this is what is unique about these - the instruments literally are boards - the resonator is the wall and structure the stringboards are mounted to. they are part of the room they are in and change greatly depending on what wall or structure (one of them was attached to a railing) they are attached to. as they were installed for a period of over six months, Dave was able to visit from time to time and alter and re-tune them giving odd melodies to a strum across one board. ranging from about one foot up to eight feet, as well as in various parts of the building, the instruments offered up a small orchestra that could be freely played by other musicians and visitors. this should appeal to people with an interest in Harry Partch, Derek Bailey, Akio Suzuki, Jean Dubuffet, Hans Reichel, Harry Bertoia, Damian Bisciglia, Philip Corner, Hugh Davies (they once played together), Tetuzi Akiyama, Fred Frith's "Guitar Solos", Kazuo Imai, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Gravity Adjusters Expansion Band, etc. an overlooked classic.
"Now here's a find: Knott was first introduced to fellow improvisor Jeph Jerman as a 'guitarist', which wasn't entirely misleading, since his homemade instruments did at least occasionally use guitar strings. But these unpretentious slabs of wood have a frank physicality and grounding in space that the guitar lacks, and this record of Knott's solo improvisations offers a highly personal vision. Plucked, tapped, struck, bowed, rubbed, teased, it's easy to hear the unaffected thrill of invention and discovery as Knott pulls formless, unpretty pings and shimmers from the stringboards. Natura Naturans is a motley, playful encyclopedia of strung-out tension, ranging from jittery rhythm through to soft, washed out, glinting tones. At once ugly and beautiful, the music is always open, unpredictable and rather marvellous." - The Wire
"Most everyone should have this album and cherish its wheezing glissandi, asymmetric and atonal arpeggios, and discombobulated dances." - Bananafish - Komare "Got To Stop Me" 7" $10
I Dischi Del Barone (Sweden) IDDB028 - "Stark electronic abstraction from the London-based duo Komare which consists of Dominic Goodman and Peter Blundell from Mosquitoes. Two tracks of industrial DIY minimalism creating an organic sound world from broken rhythms and extraneous sound generated by modular synthesis with minimal bass figures and voice that is both an instrument and a cloudy narrative. With 'Got To Stop Me' and 'Hot Tarmac', Komare somewhat draw blurry lines between the weirder sides of the Door And The Window cassettes and Storm Bugs/Snatch Tapes stuff, while keeping the skeletal, crooked atmosphere of Mosquitoes. 200 copies pressed as usual, black vinyl and stamped white labels, postcard attached to the cover, insert. 45rpm." - label description
- Ferdinand Kriwet "Hörtexte Zwei" 2 x LP $61
Edition RZ (Germany) ED. RZ 9008-9009 - "Ferdinand Kriwet (b. 1942, Dusseldorf, Germany) is a German visual and audio artist who has produced films and sound works for radio and television, in particular throughout the 1960s and 1970s. As a sound artist, Kriwet is more known for his Horspiele (radioplays) series named Hörtexte (Radiotexts) produced for German public radio stations and composed with edited sound bites taken from mass media broadcasts. 2LP picture discs housed in a luxury sleeve. Includes a booklet in German."
- Ned Lagin "Seastones: Set 4 and Set 5" LP $23
Important Records (U.S.) IMPREC479 - "First copies on transparent blue vinyl. Ned Lagin's 'Seastones' is a pioneering electronic composition interweaving metaphors from nature, science, art and music and the origins of music. Reflecting the technology, science, modern art, new ecological awareness and optimism of the times and culture, 'Seastones' embodies the history of electronic music by taking full advantage of tape music, analog synthesizers, and computer technology. Originally released by the Grateful Dead's Round Records in 1975, 'Seastones' reputation as a gem of electronic music was further enhanced by the celebrity of the musicians who contributed to the source material. 'Seastones' musicians include Ned Lagin (processed piano, clavichord, organ, prepared piano, electric piano, synthesizers), Jerry Garcia (processed electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, voice), Phil Lesh (processed electric bass), David Crosby (processed electric guitar and vocals), Grace Slick and David Freiberg (processed vocals), and Mickey Hart and Spencer Dryden (percussion). This new LP presents two crafted 'Seastones' sets ('Sets 4 and 5', 18 tracks) drawn from the entire 'Seastones' composition and contains gorgeous extended processed vocals by Garcia, Crosby, Slick, and Freiberg, and beautiful abstract instrumental passages by Lagin and all. Lagin is considered a pioneer in the development and use of minicomputers and personal computers in real-time stage and studio music composition and performance. 'Seastones' was influenced not only by modern jazz and forms for improvisation, but also by Lagin's studies of early, Renaissance, and 20th century music. He was a touring, studio, and guest keyboard player with the Grateful Dead from 1970 to 1976. 'Seastones' composition began in 1970, while Lagin was attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1974, with a minicomputer and an E-mu modular analog synthesizer, Lagin was able to play a polyphonic keyboard and hybrid computer-controlled instrument, as well as create simple generative musical processes. The normal controls found on the analog synthesizer were customized to accept computer control and the system was large enough to input audio and control voltages from the other musicians' instruments. This means that the synthesizer controls which were processing the incoming audio from the musicians could be controlled by what the artists were playing. These control voltages and timing signals derived from the amplitude envelope shapes of what the musicians played. Each track on Seastones is what Lagin refers to as a 'moment form'. Each track is self-contained, like a sea stone on the beach. Lagin: '... Like real sea stones, the 'Seastones' moment forms are each a placetime, a time island, a droplet of time. They are composed and synthesized and skeletal improvisational forms...' 'Seastones: Sets 4 and 5' is available in this audiophile edition of 2000 copies. This audiophile quality LP was cut by Golden Mastering and pressed at RTI to insure excellence in reproducing 'Seastone's' rich analog sound."
- Roberto Laneri, Alvin Curran, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Francis-Marie Uitti, Tony Ackerman, & Bruno Tommaso "The Beat 72 Lost Date" LP $23
Eargong Records (Italy) EG01LP - "An unearthed treasure from the '70s Italian avant garde archives! A previously unreleased recording from the legendary Beat72 club in Rome in 1973, featuring a one-off Italian-American all-star ensemble with Roberto Laneri founding member of the experimental vocal group Prima Materia, maverick American composer Alvin Curran co-founder of Musica Elettronica Viva. Trombone specialist Giancarlo Schiaffini from the historical Gruppo di improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Cello virtuoso Frances Marie Uitti, close collaborator of the likes of J. Cage and G. Scelsi. Bassist Bruno Tommaso from the legendary Gruppo Romano Free Jazz and American composer Tony Ackerman from the obscure Suonosfera group. Highly creative music which defies categories and boundaries. A historical document! Additional booklet contains extensive liner notes and photos."
- Jacques Lejeune "Early Works 1969-1970" LP $27
Robot Records (U.S.) RR-43 - "This LP of early compositions by Jacques Lejeune features three seminal works: 'D'une Multitude En Fête' and 'Petite Suite', originally released in the Perspective Musicales series in 1970, and a previously unpublished composition, 'Géodes', from the same period. These three pieces (not included in Robot's 2013 'Parages and Other Electroacoustic Works 1971-1985' three-CD set (RR-42)) are some of Lejeune's earliest music for tape and may be considered a 'prequel' to his later, more thematic works. Still, his concise musical narrative is ever-present in these first recordings. The side-long 'D'une Multitude En Fête' (1969) refers to multitude, number, celebration, and any crowd situation as a form of ceremony - all evoking a circular gaze, as topics of the different aural events and their anecdotal development emerge, leading to the dream, as a story we tell to ourselves. 'Géodes' (1970) features percussion improvisations by Lauréat Dionne with Lejeune's tape work inflecting prisms deep into its thundering, rhythmic core. This concert version appears on vinyl for the first time. Concluding the album is 'Petite Suite' (1970), with each section referencing a traditional musical form using both anecdotal as well as instrumental flourishes. The original drum and guitar elements are performed here by Michel Foudrinoy and Jean-Pierre Vassout. These pieces have been compared to Pierre Henry's bold rock themes in 'Messe Pour Le Temps Présent' and also recall the peculiar atmospheres of some of the great early Nurse with Wound records that would follow. In contrast, Lejeune's early approach was heavily steeped in sonic narratives, combining unusual and ambiguous events to create a sound world uniquely his own. 'Early Works 1969-1970' explores the first precision splices by one of the true visionaries of musique concrète."
- Little Skull "Lower Hope Reach" 10" $28
Horn of Plenty (U.K.) hop6 - "Another sublime installment from Dean Brown’s Little Skull. This 5 track 10” moves through minimal, naïve, folk/chamber territory on into darker, more twisted waters. Hand-made (by the artist) covers and inserts featuring three different lino-cut images. Each record comes with three inserts on transparent stock and features one of those images on a handmade envelope cover. Therefore there's three variations of outer sleeve design. Edition of 200 on black vinyl."
- Little Skull "Untitled" LP $27
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM32 - "First full LP of new material from Dean Brown's Little Skull project since 2019's 'A Light in the Window Will Guide Us Safely Home' on Planam.
Little Skull began in the mid-2000's, shortly before Brown relocated to London. Although the trademark NZ/Aoteara underground sound is evident, comparisons to the contemporary Gothenburg underground or outliers like Richard Youngs & Genghis Cohn can also be drawn.
This particular, 'Untitled', LP began while Brown was preparing for his first London performance at the end of 2021. It's stripped-down, mainly improvised, sound was dictated by practical rather than aesthetic decisions. Despite his economy of means, Brown has a keen sense of sequencing and narrative with both his live sets and recorded output resulting in an immersive and engaging listen. The set incorporates piano, organ, saw, harp, and guitars (both ebowed and played with a screwdriver) bathed in tape hiss and amp hum.
Although it's probably the darkest and most minimal Little Skull LP to date, there are still moments where the light shines through. Similar to Andrew Chalk, for example, even when Brown is in pastoral, melodic territory, his noise roots are still evident. Perhaps it's this inner tension that gives Little Skull releases such an irresistable sound?
The LP comes in a handmade concertina style pop-out cover featuring a caged bird suspended in mid flight. Edition of 210." - Nick Hamilton - Little Skull "Untitled" LP $26
Horn of Plenty (U.K.) hop13 - "Necessary, and slightly expanded, vinyl edition of the first Little Skull long player which was originally released as a micro-edition CD-R in 2009. Written, performed and recorded by Dean Brown on borrowed and home made instruments during a year spent living in a cold colonial-era house across the street from Len Lye's childhood home in Aro Valley, Wellington NZ.
Fashioning a bass from a coffee can and elastic band, using the home's antique doorbell, and unavoidably including the seeping sounds of domestic hum and clutter; Untitled is a raw and vital document cognate with later Little Skull offerings as it teases elemental folk, noise, rock and chamber music from the barest of tools. Presented on clear smoke effect vinyl with a printed foldover cover and handmade semi-opaque cracked outer cover." - Maciunas Ensemble LP $28
Edition Telemark (Germany) 785.08 - "The Maciunas Ensemble was founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1968 as a free improvisational music group that set out to realize the score 'Music for Everyman' by Fluxus initiator George Maciunas, which they interpreted as allowing total freedom in the sounds being produced. In the mid-1980s, after a number of personnel changes, the group settled on the line-up of artists Paul Panhuysen and Mario van Horrik, musician Jan van Riet, and scientist Leon van Noorden, which remained stable until Panhuysen's death in 2015. The group met and played on a regular basis, usually improvising on instruments that were at hand and recording every session. Before playing the next session, the previous recording was listened to and discussed. In 1980, the Eindhoven art initiative Het Apollohuis, also the home of Panhuysen and his family, became their home base, a place that subsequently gained fame for being one of the first and longest-running venues for sound art and experimental music in Europe. In the recent years, the Maciunas Ensemble has begun to go through its vast archive of recordings and to select material for publication that remained unreleased so far. The first bundle of archival recordings, dating from 1968 to 1980, was released on an 11-CD set on Apollo Records in 2012. For their 50th anniversary in 2018, the second part of archival recordings is to be published, its first instalment being this LP on Edition Telemark comprising unreleased tracks recorded between 1982 and 2012. More archival material will be released in digital format by the ensemble. This LP allows a glimpse into the musical directions the Maciunas Ensemble has been undergoing during those 30 years. Side A features 'Ice Cream Man' and 'Toxic Metals', two repetitive, thundering tracks from the early 1980s played on guitar, piano, and cello, and heavily inspired by minimalist rock and post-punk music. Side B contains four shorter tracks: 'Russolution' (1985), played on self-built aluminum monochords, 'Stamples' (2002), employing sampled voices, and 'ZENder' (2009) and 'Dèdeboum' (2012), both improvised tracks on vocals and a number of instruments. Standard edition of 250; brown Kraftpak sleeve with printed inner sleeve and liner notes by Mark van de Voort and Werner Durand."
- Metgumbnerbone patch $3
(U.K.) MET patch - red on black design. "The sigil is a version of a pattern that was painted on my favourite drum. I believe I based the original on a runic wishing circle." - John Mylotte
- Metgumbnerbone "Metgumbnersigil" metal sigil $5
(U.K.) METsigil - approximately 4" diameter rusted metal pendant with attached cord for wearing as a necklace or hanging on your wall. an edition of 200, this was previously only available with the deluxe edition of "Anthropological Field Recordings For The Dispossessed". the design is the same as the badge and patch.
- Metgumbnerbone "Out of the Ground" CD $15
(U.K.) METCD002 - seven previously unreleased acoustic tribal tracks divided into the headings "Tunnel" and "Culvert". rhythmic, chaotic and reverberant rituals from underground. "Enacted by an uncertain light the celebrants descend past bone white nitre and through malodorous exhalations of damp and decay invading the sepulchral silence with a ponderous and doleful clamber and setting the tenebrous shadows to dance." limited edition of 500. Digipak.
- Hiroaki Minami "Kumo no Ito (The Spider's Thread)" CD $18
Edition Omega Point (Japan) OPA-019 - "Hiroaki Minami was a professor of top-hierarchy art college in Japan 'Tokyo Geidai'. However, he was also one of pioneer of self-built synthesizer. 'Kumo no Ito' ('The Spider's Thread', 1977) is electronic work with reading of Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short novel. Also new work 'Chaos' is compiled. It was composed as quite different revised version of his earliest electronic work 'Taiyo-fu' ('Solar Wind') which was composed for modern dance group in 1966. Both are world premiere issue." - label description. limited edition of 300 copies. cardboard paper gatefold sleeve.
- Mirror "Some Days It Rains All Night" LP $21
La Scie Dorée (Belgium) Scie 2620 - Andrew Chalk, Christoph Heemann, Vikki Jackman and Timo van Luijk recorded at the Loft, Cologne. artwork by Andrew Chalk. reprint of 200 copies on black vinyl.
- The New Blockaders "Changez Les Blockeurs" LP $28
Urashima (Italy) UMA 154LP - "Limited repress. Urashima present a reissue of The New Blockaders' 'Changez Les Blockeurs', originally released in 1982. Within the history of noise music, there are few artifacts, as seminal as The New Blockaders' 'Changez Les Blockeurs'. Anyone who has even a casual interest in noise music should need no introduction to The New Blockaders. Hailed by Ron Lessard (of legendary US noise label RRR) as, 'the first truly devoted noise artists,' TNB self-released their debut LP in 1982. That original LP is now one of the most sought-after (and expensive) noise records ever. The fact that 'Changez Les Blockeurs' is held in such high esteem by the likes of Steven Stapleton (Nurse With Wound), who was the first person to hear the LP back in 1982 and reworked the album as 'NWW Plays Changez Les Blockeurs' (DPROM 138CD,2018), David Jackman (Organum), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Masami Akita (Merzbow), Toshiji Mikawa (Incapacitants) and countless others is testament to its greatness and well-deserved legendary status. Lying in wait for almost 40 years, the LP emerged again in 2004 as a limited edition on the German Vinyl-On-Demand label, and since then has remained rare, elusive, and coveted - until now. 2022 will mark the 40th anniversary (or, more accurately, anti-versary) of 'Changez Les Blockeurs' and in celebration of this, Urashima present a limited reissue which has been expertly remastered at Audiplex Studio in Hamburg by Asmus Tietchens, himself a well-known German avant-garde composer. Black virgin vinyl; includes 12x12" insert."
- The New Blockaders "Live At Cafe OTO" CDR $14
Opal Tapes (U.K.) TNB-OTO - crunching, grinding noise with lots of texture and layers for that trademark TNB sound as created here by Rupenus and Durgan in 2017 and recorded in great fidelity. a limited edition of 200 copies in a jewel case with full color artwork by Rupenus and photos of the hooded performers by Baby R.K.
- The New Blockaders "Live at Morden Tower Newcastle-Upon-Tyne" CD $12
Old Europa Cafe (Italy) OECD 316 - "'Live at Morden Tower' was first released in 1983 and re-released many times through the years but never into CD format.
Finally here comes the very first CD re-edition of such seminal work including as bonus also the track 'Live at Anti-Fest'. NB: all sounds remastered for CD production from original tapes recordings! Cover designed using original art-works and statement used for the venue - comes in six panels digipak. limited edition 300 copies."
"The crackle of broken amplifiers precipitates a whole new order of independently morphing soundforms, all giving shape via flashes of metallic lightening, smashed glass, trashed microphone feedback and acoustic low-end pellets that scale the walls like slugs. Gradually accruing hypnotic significance, they birth spontaneous form in the shape of textures and recur with such accumulative force, they threaten to collapse the performance under its own weight." - David Keenan (The Wire) - The New Blockaders "Seinsart: Live At Morden Tower" LP $21
menstrualrecordings (Italy) LH68 - "First ever official vinyl re-issue. Black vinyl LP with printed labels. Paste on cover. It includes replicas of the original performances flyers. Numbered edition of 150."
- The New Blockaders "Simphonie In X Major" CD $16
menstrualrecordings (Italy) LH127 - "Re-issue of noise classic 'Simphonie in X Major' (1989) plus 'Simphonie in O Minor' (1991). 'TNB certainly make one hell of a racket. Simphonie In X Major makes Whitehouse sound like minimal art!' Audion 'Simphonie In O Minor is, depending on your point of view, the sound of tape-hiss, an unheard scream in the dark, or the entire history of Noise put through a shredder and reversed back into oblivion." Idwal Fisher Edition of 300 copies in digipack." - label description
- Phill Niblock "Niblock For Celli / Celli Plays Niblock" LP $15
Superior Viaduct (U.S.) SV157 - "Composer, filmmaker and photographer Phill Niblock is a true pillar of the New York avant-garde. In the past 50 years, he has curated over 1,000 performances at his Centre Street loft and steadfastly built a massive, multidisciplinary body of work. While his earliest musical compositions date back to 1968, Niblock waited until the early '80s to release any recordings. 'Nothin To Look At Just A Record', a powerful debut with densely layered trombones, would be the first to unfurl his unique approach to sound.
The second album and perhaps the most rare in Niblock's vast catalogue, 1984's 'Niblock For Celli / Celli Plays Niblock' is a meeting of two great minds. Working with reed player Joseph Celli (a composer in his own right, who has collaborated with John Cage, Pauline Oliveros and Ornette Coleman), Niblock nimbly removes the breathing pauses from Celli's oboe and English horn to create seamless, enchanting drones.
Niblock insists that his music be played loud: only in this way can one experience the visceral ringing of these long instrumental tones through the speakers and their natural overtones generated by the room. Niblock For Celli remains deeply absorbing.
This first-time reissue is recommended for fans of Alvin Lucier, Yoshi Wada and Dome." - label description - Phill Niblock "Nothin To Look At Just A Record" LP $15
Superior Viaduct (U.S.) SV033 - "Phill Niblock has pushed the boundaries of sound and visual art for over 40 years. While dutifully producing experimental films and curating multi-media loft performances in New York's 1960s avant-garde circles, Niblock developed a composition technique informed by American minimalists such as Tony Conrad and La Monte Young. His music consists of long instrumental tones, closely pitched together to create beat patterns and multi-tracked into dense layers.
'Nothin To Look At Just A Record', originally released on esteemed 20th century / jazz label India Navigation in 1982, is Niblock's recording debut and often cited as his masterpiece. 'A Trombone Piece', the first of two side-long tracks, was recorded by Richard Lainhart and Richard Kelly (both music innovators in their own right) at SUNY Albany in the mid-'70s. Breathing pauses from instrumentalist James Fulkerson's trombone were spliced out to unravel the drones spatially, rather than according to metered rhythm. The overall effect is mesmerizing and beautifully envelops the listener with each tonal subtlety.
To celebrate Niblock's 80th birthday, Superior Viaduct is honored to present the first-time vinyl reissue of 'Nothin To Look At Just A Record', a high-water mark in 20th century music and listed as #5 on Alan Licht's Minimal Top 10." - label description - Noise "Tenno" LP $19
Moone Records (U.S.) MR046 - "For over four decades, Reiko Omura and Tori Kudo have endlessly woven themselves throughout the avant-garde and underground scene of Japan. While internationally appreciated in countless incarnations and contexts (Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Guys & Dolls), if one were to seek out an early moment in which the two artists created something truly awe inspiring, 1980's Tenno would be it. As Noise, the duo experimented with the juxtaposition of Kudo's extended organ-based dirges (be they eerie and/or harmonious) and fragile, meditative harmonies found in Omura's voice and more abstract moments of minimal trumpet, sparse drum and atonal guitar. Simultaneously tense and beautiful, echoes of Tenno can be found resonating in the work of their contemporaries and countless others spanning the past 40 years and an infinite amount more to come. The LP was originally released by ALM and subsequently reissued in 1997 on CD (Pataphysique) and LP (Org), and on CD again in 2005 (Alchemy). Just past it's 40 year anniversary, Moone Records is elated to announce the first edition of Tenno released outside of Japan as a LP in a limited first run of 500 copies -- bringing the monumental release back into print on vinyl for the first time in 23 years."
- The No-Neck Blues Band "Gitanjali + The Nascent Stigma" LP $25
Ri Be Xibalba (U.S.) OQ'EBAL 005 - Long delayed, this LP is one of two vinyl releases from recording sessions at the Chummery late in 2006. The Chummery was the Seattle home to Sun City Girls, Sublime Frequencies, Abduction, and The Sea Donkeys. In fact it was the last residence of Charles Gocher who passed away in there only a few months after this session. Along side this there is the highlight from NNCK's concert in Vancouver, British Columbia on that same trip.
This record follows the 10" called "Gitanjali". Despite the similarity in title, the two records contain completely different material from the same session. It is a record in two parts, much like their "A Tabu Two" released as two separate LPs on the New World of Sound label back in 1997.
From Alan Bishop's liner notes: "One night when I slept on the sofa, serenaded to sleep by the polyrhythmic purring of our guests, I dreamt that Lyndon Johnson sent this outfit into the jungle all alone to battle the Viet Cong. A giant cargo plane parachuted them in with their ceremonial gear and Bob Hope’s PA system. After three or four days of producing slow burning sound signals curling in and around the foggy Mekong, Charlie fled en masse to Cambodia to do a photo shoot with Dennis Hopper."
NNCK's activity was the first documented in 1994. Since then they have gone on to be represented by The Shadow Ring's Dry Leaf Discs, Ecstatic Yod, SER/SERES, John Fahey's Revenant, Kill Rock Stars sub-label 5 Rue Christine, Staubgold, Les Disque Victo, Locust Music, Alga Marghen side label Planam, Kelippah, and their own Sound@One imprint. They have toured North America and Europe although have rarely played live in later years. Members of NNCK have been involved in a wide range of other musical projects including Angelblood, Sabbath Assembly, D. Charles Speer & The Helix, Enos Slaughter, Rhyton, Suntanama, Coach Fingers, K-Salvatore, Izititiz, Malkuth, Test, Key of Shame, Decimus, Raajmahal, and Ki.
Limited edition of 300 copies on 180 gram vinyl pressed by RTI. - Nurse With Wound / Octave Mirbeau "Un homme sensible" book & 3" CD $12
Lenka Lente (France) lkl-l47 - the included disc features a recording from a 2017 sleep concert in Ireland with vocals by Aurelie Lierman. "In 'Un homme sensible', Octave Mirbeau tells the story of a murderer who, in the name of world harmony, is determined to rid the world of 'all organisms unfit for a strong and harmonious life'. This inspired Nurse With Wound, which, as an illustration, gives us here a new piece of unpublished music. French writer and critic, Octave Mirbeau (1848-1917) is notably the author of 'Abbé Jules', 'The Garden of Tortures', and 'Diary of a Chambermaid'. A British music project formed in 1978 by Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak, Nurse With Wound is an essential figure of experimental and industrial music.French [language] edition, 10 x 15,5 cm (softcover), 64 pages"
- Nurse With Wound / Tristan Tzara "On the Edge of the Outside / Minuits pour géants" book & 3" CD $12
Lenka Lente (France) lkl-l43 - eighth in the series of 3" CDs accompanying books, this ten minute 2020 recording features Steven Stapleton, Andrew Liles, Colin Potter, and Matt Waldron.
"Tristan Tzara (1896-1963) is the poet through whom Dada arrived. In Zurich, he animated the Cabaret Voltaire with Hugo Ball; in Paris, he then inspired some surrealists in the making. If he was a great lover of Villon and Rabelais, his poetry is as iconoclastic as the music of Nurse With Wound, who composed for this edition of 'Minuits pour géants' an unpublished piece lasting about ten minutes: 'On the Edge of the Outside'.
Writer, poet and essayist of Romanian origin, Tristan Tzara (Samuel Rosenstock, 1896-1963) is one of the founders and the main representative of the Dada movement.
A British music project formed in 1978 by Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak, Nurse With Wound is an essential figure of experimental and industrial music.
French [language] edition, 10 x 15,5 cm (softcover), 40 pages" - Nurse With Wound / Adolf Wölfli "Lea Tanttaaria + Great-God-Father-Nieces / Courte autobiographie" book & 3" CD $9
Lenka Lente (France) lkl-l07 - "A seminal text (and introduction to some 25000 pages of drawings, collages, autobiographical writings and compositions by Adolf Wölfli), this 'short autobiography' of a major figure in the history of art brut is accompanied by a mini-CD containing the two interpretations of Wölfli's graphic scores by Nurse With Wound (Steven Stapleton, Diana Rogerson, and David Tibet), first published in 1986 in the legendary 'Necropolis, Amphibians & Reptiles' LP, for the first time on a seperate release. Second edition (2019). French [language] edition, 10 x 15.5 cm (softcover), 38 pages." - label description. edition of 300 copies.
- Charlemagne Palestine "Dingggdongggdinggg vs. Singggsongggsinggg" LP $27
Matière Mémoire (Belgium) MATME001LP - "Singing songs while playing ding dongs, Charlemagne Palestine’s solo voice over the bells of his studio carillon is a premiere in his recorded works, and possibly the first voice/carillon record in musical history. All the little shamanic stuffed deities inhabiting the carillon added their souls to the spirit of the reverberating songs, including a song in memory of Mika Vainio." - label description. limited edition fo 1000 hand numbered copies on yellow vinyl. includes printed inner sleeve.
- People Skills "Magnet Hill" 7" $10
I Dischi Del Barone (Sweden) IDDB032 - "Jesse Dewlow from Philadelphia follows up two great albums on Siltbreeze (Tricephalic Head, 2014) and Blackest Ever Black (Gunshots At Crestridge, 2016) with his first vinyl 7". Compared to earlier recordings, Magnet Hill is rather minimal and mainly based on guitar, that "a murky sub-underground feel resembling South Island NZ pop played inside of an armored car" line may still be somewhat on point, but these two downer gems are deeply rooted somewhere else. Both sides ends with two short pieces ending up in locked grooves. Magnet Hill is to coincide with new cassette releases on Alien Passengers and All Gone. 200 copies pressed, black vinyl and stamped white labels, postcard attached to the cover, insert. 33rpm." - label description
- Phew / John Duncan / Kondo Tatsuo "Backfire of Joy" LP $29
Black Truffle (Australia) BT071 - "A previously unheard recording from Phew, John Duncan, and Kondo Tatsuo, documenting a concert at Tokyo's Hosei University in 1982. Though the fertile exchange of 'zines, tapes and records between the Japanese underground and the Los Angeles Free Music Society meant the artists were familiar with each other's work, this performance (occurring on Duncan's first visit to Japan) was their first meeting and only performance as a trio. Duncan is heard on his signature shortwave radio set-up, while Kondo performs on synth, tape loops and echo-drenched piano, providing a spacious backdrop for Phew's astonishing performance of spontaneous, free-associative song moving between Japanese and English. A testament to the unhinged exploration of the 1980s experimental underground, the trio careen wildly between crashing percussive tape loops, deluges of shortwave noise, insistent piano figures and playful synth melodies. On the B side, you are treated to a remarkable ten-minute sequence moving organically from spaced-out synth and radio textures to a stunning finale of improvised balladry centered on piano and voice, unexpectedly broken up by electronic interjections. Beautifully recorded in crunchy vintage fidelity, Backfire of Joy arrives accompanied by archival photographs and newly authored liner notes from all three participants. Vinyl only; comes with printed inner sleeves."
- Points of Friction "Sackcloth and Ashes" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM10 - "Points of Friction scrapes together a mind-bending menagerie of sound from the panorama of objects and equipment they work with. Their process-oriented artistry invokes apparitions of the ear, with multi-dimensional sonic textures that span from quirky, seductive lullabies to revolting sensual assaults. Points of Friction made contact in the extremely beige but earthquake famous San Fernando Valley, a suburb of Los Angeles and home also to the infamous Manson Family. Tim Alexander and Kenny Ryman (Paper Bag) served together as psychedelic altar boys at the age of nine. Kenny was from a musical family, so he had developed a set of ears from an early age. Damian Bisciglia (Agog) and Tim became acquainted in Cub Scouts around eight years old. Becoming reacquainted among a few self-described social outcasts at Los Angeles Pierce College around 1980, they gravitated to the art department where they encountered a cast of characters. Among these were the profoundly talented Jeannie Cohen (Sprout Mountain) and the profusely bizarre Joseph Hammer (Dinosaurs with Horns, Swan Trove, Solid Eye). Relieved and excited to discover other freaks, they soon evolved an excuse for converging: making noise. Originally inclusive and spontaneous, their noise was extracted from everyday objects, and recorded with built-in condenser mics on primitive equipment. They soon adopted some recording gear and musical instruments but no musical training. When Kenny replaced Jeannie, POF was born. Inspired by free musics from Beefheart to Harmonia, they met in Joe's or Kenny's bedroom to exchange sound and interact in private naïve noise/rock ecstasy. Originally released by the LAFMS offshoot label Solid Eye [who were also responsible for releases by Doo-Dooettes, The Romans, Tom Recchion, Dinosaurs with Horns, and Fredrick Nilsen] on cassette in 1984, Sackcloth and Ashes is the most electronic and perhaps most polished incarnation of this multimedia collective. The unorthodox exploration of keyboards, guitars, toy instruments, the assemblage of field recordings, noise improvisations, and tape loops tantalize the senses with arousing emotive power. The opus title track is a compendium of improvisational soundings and field recordings that include a chorus of squeaky swings, a cat's purring, snapping shrimp, a diseased lung, and cacophony on a yard sale card rack. Exquisitely abrasive and haunting tracks 1 through 6 yield to the perfumed machinery and melodious hypnosis of the remaining tracks. All were originally performed under cover of live film and slide projections with optical manipulations at alternative music venues in and around Los Angeles including Al's Bar, the Anti-club, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions(LACE), etc., and aboard the U.S.S. Cormerant ("Noise at Sea"), with bands such as the Minutemen, the Meat Puppets, Whitehouse, and the Monique Experience in the mid-1980's. Every piece on this album has such (currently archived) visual underscoring. Re-released on CD, the disc is lavishly packaged in beautiful silver and black in an eye-rattling multi-paneled silk-screened die-cut cover that undermines perception in the friction manner. The low-key intensity of Points of Friction may affect heart rates and breathing patterns. It is probably best listened to in a darkened room."
- Eliane Radigue "Triptych" CD $16
Important Records (U.S.) IMPREC260 - "Back to music after three years of silence... On the suggestion of Robert Ashley, Douglas Dunn commissioned this piece from Éliane Radigue for choreography. Only the first part of 'Triptych' was staged at the premiere at the Dancehall/Theatre of Nancy on February 27 1978. Recorded in the composer's studio in Paris. After the premiere of 'Adnos I' (IMPREC 028CD) in San Francisco in 1974, a group of French students introduced Éliane Radigue to Tibetan Buddhism. When she returned to Paris, she began to explore this spirituality in depth, which slowed her musical production up until 1978. 'Triptych' marks her return to composition, and draws its inspiration from 'the spirit of the fundamental elements,' water, air, fire, earth... Éliane Radigue likes to add that this has often been useful to her in her moments of research and transitions. This three-part composition, with its great humility and contemplative simplicity, heralded a new period of work and was the first in a series of masterpieces inspired by Tibetan Buddhism: 'Adnos II' (1980); 'Adnos III' (1981) [both included on IMPREC 028CD]; 'Songs of Milarepa' (1983), with the voices of Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Robert Ashley; 'Jetsun Mila' (1986); as well as the 'Triologie de la Mort' (XI 119CD): 'Kyema' (1988), 'Kailasha' (1991), and 'Koumé' (1993). Archival images included in the accompanying booklet." - Manu Holterbach
- Robert Rental "Different Voices For You. Different Colours For Me. Demos 1980" LP $18
Optimo Music (U.K.) OM RENTAL 01 - "On an unassuming cassette, just labelled Robert Rental in green Dymo tape, these demos have lain unheard for years amongst his family's treasured possessions, cared-for artefacts of a life cut short far too soon. These songs, which Robert recorded in his council flat in Battersea in 1980, provide an enticing glimpse into his all-too-infrequent solo work. On most occasions, Robert worked with Thomas Leer, Daniel Miller, or other collaborators. These are rough recordings, tape hiss still in evidence, but his creativity shines through the murk, like uncut diamonds. With these recordings Robert appears to be moving towards more recognizable song structures than most of his earlier work, which could be wildly experimental and would often involve found recordings taped directly off television. We know two of these tracks from their later re-recording for the Mute Records single 'Double Heart' late in 1980. Robert spoke to friends of his frustration at being unable to replicate his sound in a commercial studio - it was these demos' sound that he wanted to recreate. Sometimes having only access to the most rudimentary of equipment can hone the creative talent into something sharper and more focused - necessity is the mother of invention, indeed." --Simon Dell, 2018
- RLW "Agnostic Diaries" CD $10
Black Rose Recordings / Dirter Promotions (U.K.) BRCD 20-1016 / DPROMCD156 - "The common factor linking these recordings are projects that were never fully realised. The basic recordings started in 2005, however the period of reworking and transformation (2016 to 2017) is more important. All vocal parts and general revisions were done during this period. Agnosticism was the basic idea for the vocal/musical re-working of the pieces with the vocals implanted into the basic pieces, not just as simple overdubs, but inserted in a dialectical confrontation with the basic sounds and structures.
Track 1 relies on George Antheil's 'Ballet Mecanique'; track 3 on a co-operation with Anla Courtis using some sounds by Ovary Lodge planned for the Gerald Jupitter-Larssen series which stopped far too early. Track 4 includes RLW’s parts for a collaboration with Marc Baron whilst track 6 includes vocals by Dylan Nyoukis, also used for a collaborative CDR with him.
Ralf Wehowsky is one of the most respected electronic composers of our day and was also a founder member of the seminal German group P16.D4 and label Selektion whose ground-breaking releases influenced many working in today’s experimental music scene. Previous releases have seen him collaborate with such well known and diverse artists such as Merzbow, Bernhard Guenter, Jim O’Rourke, Achim Wollscheid and Lionel Marchetti. His music is impossible to pigeonhole into one simple bracket. It is neither industrial or musique concrete, nor computer music nor improvisation. In fact, it could be all of these.
Ltd to 500 copies" packaged in mini-LP sleeve. - RLW "Satanic Inventions" CD $10
Black Rose Recordings (England) BRCD 22-1021 - "This album from Ralf Wehowsky (aka RLW, founder of P16.D4) is a critical examination of COVID-19 as a cultural phenomenon and a comparison to the black plague of the Middle Ages: 'Denial of reality, conspiracy theories, searching for scapegoats, etc.' The result? A true festival or irrationalism, telling us more about the human mental state than about the pandemic. In the 14th century, Ars subtiloir (subtler art) became a musical style. It was rhythmic and notional, more complex. Therefore, it seemed natural to combine documentations of actual madness with songs from that past. Condensed by RLW into 15 tracks, this is a challenging journey of heavy deconstructions, transmorphed drones, and treated source sounds. Surrealistic musique concrete! Ltd x 200 copies in a digipak."
- RLW "Tunnel" CD $10
Sonoris (France) SNS-20 - "RLW (aka Ralf Wehowsky) whose work deals in the transformation of prerecorded sound material, the permutation of the senses and the metamorphosis of the sensitive, has been a proponent of long-distance collaborations for decades, long before lockdown made this manner of working popular. This goes way back to his beginnings with Permutative Distortion or P16.D4 and the Selektion label. He is a strict and disciplined composer, a formal organizer of discernible objects. 'Tunnel' presents five pieces built using fragments of Annette Krebs's voice. Far from being anecdotal, the work reveals a true alchemy. Vocal prints are converted into roaring metallic textures lost in an endless sonic vortex, both sculptural and masterful." digipak.
- RLW "Views" CD $8
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM27 - In the 25th year of Ralf Wehowsky's recording career, Anomalous Records presents his first truly solo release featuring four new compositions based on instrumental improvisations. Using simple devices (tone-generators, percussion toys, music boxes, an electric toothbrush and an electric guitar) played in unusual ways, he builds up layers of each sound to create a suite of textural pieces. Each of the four tracks takes on an identity unique from the others, as the first three each focus on one of the sound sources while the last combines elements from the previous three to make something else. The disc opens with a 21-minute piece of mysterious and drifting electronic tones. Other tracks highlight very tactile sounds and bring a much more 'live' element to his work, while retaining his skillful use of dynamics and placement of silence which have gained him so many fans. Previous releases by RLW have seen him collaborate with such diverse artists as Achim Wollscheid, bernhard günter, Andrew Chalk, David Grubbs, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, and Bruce Russell. He is the founder of the now defunct group P16.D4 and the still active label Selektion. Other releases of his work have appeared on Table of the Elements, trente oiseaux, Streamline, Perdition Plastics, Swill Radio, Meeuw Muzak, and Metamkine.
Spontaneous event and reconstruction shadow each other closely here. Four self-programming occillators, controlled by wheels rather than a keyboard, interact to create a densely striated corridor or sound on the protracted opening composition. Shorter, more understated but no less arresting, the next two pieces have the feel of secret rituals conducted in private. On the first, four spontaneous musical actions, mostly involving Orff percussion instruments designed for children, are reworked into a profoundly meditative sequence, marked by the chiming of bells. The second, in which two music boxes are manipulated, squeezed and muted, transforms the mechanistic renderings of half-forgotten tunes into a series of encrypted memories. Coming in on a single thin line of feedback, the fourth and final composition combines elements of the previous three, plus recordings of electric guitar run backwards and forwards into an uncluttered but complex series of structures and interactions.
Serious minded yet subtle, unhurried and unforced, Views is a work of deep coherence, vitality of content and unquestionable richness.
Ken Hollings in The Wire issue 243 May 2004 - Steve Roden "o.t.r. and u.t.r." 7" $18
Anomalous Records (U.S.) ANO2 - limited edition of 157 copies (of which only 100 are for sale) with unique hand made collages on every cover.
"a few years ago, my mother gave me a small stack of 45s of some of her favorite songs as a kid; chuck berry, the platters, and others. when i began to listen to the records, i was not only excited about the music, but the surface-scuffs from my mother’s repeated listening over the years of wear and tear.
the source for u.t.r. and o.t.r. is a recording of 'somewhere over the rainbow' by the dimensions.
what you are hearing are the processed sounds of the surface noise at the beginning and end of the record - the first and last notes of the song.
the experience of listening to a vinyl record is not only a durational experience, but a physical experience. when the needle is dropped upon the record at the beginning and picking it up at the end, it is a kind of performance.
in this piece, i wanted to explore the unintentional sounds - to emphasize the 'before-song' and the 'after-song'.
in the final seconds of listening to a 45, when the needle becomes trapped in the repetitive rhythm that is born of a locked groove, these clicks become a process of disintegration. the constant clicks offer a kind of lullaby like the aging process of a human being’s body and skin as it changes. every time a piece of vinyl is played, new wrinkles, scars, scratches, scrapes, chips, and detritus are created and so here, i wanted to highlight the unintentional soundings caused by handling, to move away from the perfect veneer.
the more a record is handled, the more the music is transformed to an entirely different atmosphere - where disturbances and interruptions can overwhelm a song.
listening to the sound of a needle trapped within the final groove of one of my mother's records, i think i must be hearing the exact thing she heard while listening to the same object possibly 10 years before i was born. as the record continues to offer the clicks and nothing else, i imagine my mother falling asleep to one of her favorite songs. there, in her darkened bedroom, she sleeps to the after-sound of the needle stuck in a groove. as she sleeps, her ears absorb the minimalist rhythmic click, like a lullaby - and as the needle endlessly circles the outer realm of the record label clicking until morning..." - Philip Sanderson "Reprint" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM23 - Reprint was originally released on cassette by Snatch Tapes in 1980 and was credited to an unknown duo called Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey. A press release accompanying the cassette painted a picture of two pre-Raphaelite synthesizer knob-twiddlers who in between repatching their VCS3's went for long walks in flowing robes on Blackheath. Intrigued, the record label Cherry Red included the duo on their compilation LP "Perspectives and Distortion" alongside such luminaries as Matt Johnson, Virgin Prunes, Lol Coxhill, Lemon Kittens, Eyeless in Gaza, Mark Perry, Ben Watt, Thomas Leer, Morgan-Fisher, Robert Fripp, and David Jackman. Cherry Red furthermore wanted to release an LP by Thomas & Vezey. Until they realized that all was not as it seemed. Claire and Susan were in fact a figment of Snatch Tapes founder Philip Sanderson's imagination. In addition to running the label, Philip was one half of the DIY electronic group Storm Bugs, and regularly collaborator with a then unknown musician by the name of David Jackman (one of these tracks they did together was recent issued on a 10" by Die Stadt). "Reprint" was in effect one of his few solo recordings. The first track Bright Waves ( an earlier version of the track on the Cherry red LP) with its fragile wispy vocals that blow in and out on a tape delay breeze certainly adds credence to the Claire and Susan subterfuge. However the rest of the music on the CD suggest that this was more than a Situationist prank. The description on the sleeve of the music as "a study in repetition and change using two different sources and two different treatments..." was a nod towards the materialist approaches being used during the 70's in most (fine) art forms. "Reprint One" and "Reprint Two" use the loop formed by a tape delay to build up busy percussive patterns. Recorded live, the VCS3 triggered by a sequencer feeds in a set of constantly chattering rhythms. As the loops pass repeatedly over the tape heads the sound gradually degrades turning eventually into pure white noise. What starts out as a polyrhythmic perversity, somewhat akin to electronic tap dancing, builds into a wall of sound. Also here is the piece "Under Press of Sail" (which was featured on the compilation "Snatch 3" and the "0° North" tape by David Jackman and Philip Sanderson), and the secret bonus track "Nein Nein Nein", which was only included a few copies of the original tape release of "Reprint". Unlike the other tracks, this was done in collaboration with fellow Storm Bug Steven Ball. Using a low-tech five-minute answer-phone cassette loop with the erase head disabled, the two built up a montage of sounds which were fed through a home-made ring modulator. The music of Reprint is a peculiar combination of academic rigor married to an inverted pop art aesthetic. For whereas pop art incorporated the cheap intoxication's of consumer culture into the supposed lofty rooms of high art, here was an attempt to incorporate the form or perhaps just the smell high art into the low brutality of DIY electronics.
- Somei Satoh "Mandala Trilogy + 1" 2 x LP $38
WRWTFWW Records (Switzerland) WRWTFWW055 - "WRWTFWW Records announce the full official reissue of Somei Satoh's magnificent Avatamsaka Sutra inspired Mandala Trilogy with one additional never-released piece. Sourced from original masters and available on double vinyl in heavy 350gsm sleeve with liner notes by passionate Japanese music connoisseur/collector/critic/DJ, Masaaki Hara. Deep deep deep into the abyss... The Mandala Trilogy blends Somei Satoh's own slowed down Buddhist chant vocalization and early electronics to create a radiant and meditative atmosphere conveying serenity and timelessness. It includes three pieces recorded separately. "Mandala" was recorded at the NHK Studio of Electronic Music in 1982 and was included on the album Mandala/Sumeru, released on Kojima Recordings' ALM. "Mantra" was an NHK commissioned work, recorded at the same studio in 1986. "Tantra" was recorded at Victoria University of Wellington's Lilburn Studios for electronic music and recording in 1990. Included as a bonus is the 20-minute "Mai", a composition commissioned by harpist Ayako Shinozaki and recorded at the Kioi Hall in Tokyo on November 11th, 2004. The piece was conducted by Tetsuji Honna and performed by the Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo. Satoh says: "The harp is one of my favorite instruments. Also, by combining my affectionate percussion instrument, the chromatic gong and steel drum, with the harp's most beautiful tone, I attempted to bring out a mystical sound." Although it is not an electronic music piece, the stunning composition elegantly complements the deep mystical world that Satoh expresses in his Mandala Trilogy. Mandala Trilogy + 1 is reissued in conjunction with Somei Satoh's Emerald Tablet / Echoes LP (WRWTFWW 044LP)."
- Carolee Schneemann "Uncollected Texts" book $15
Primary Information (U.S.) 978-0-9915585-5-1 - "Uncollected Texts draws together a number of Carolee Schneemann’s earliest writings—many exceedingly rare and several that are published here for the first time—ranging from letters to the editor, dream journals, and film criticism, to satirical poems, detailed discussions of her art, and pointed feminist critiques. Edited by Branden W. Joseph, the book includes 30 texts by Carolee Schneemann written between 1956 and 1981, as well as an introduction by Joseph.
First published in short-run magazines like Caterpillar, Film Culture, The Fox, Manipulations, and Matter; academic journals such as Performing Arts Journal; and mainstream publications including the New York Times and The Village Voice, the writings gathered in this volume shed light on some of Schneemann’s most important artistic achievements. Schneemann writes about her most famous 'kinetic theater' piece, Meat Joy; anti-Vietnam War works such as Snows, Viet-Flakes, and Divisions and Rubble; the multimedia performance Up to and Including Her Limits; and the double-screen film Kitch’s Last Meal. Frequently referring to one another, the assembled writings produce a densely interwoven tapestry of cross-references that provide unique insights into Schneemann’s artistic development while also foregrounding the artist’s uniquely poetic style.
5.5 x 8.5 inches, 164 pages, Paperback, 8 B&W images, Edition of 2000." - publisher description - Matt Shoemaker "Isolated Agent | Stranding Behavior" LP $18
Elevator Bath (U.S.) eeaoa31 - "Layer upon evolving layer of sonic phenomena is still the methodological trademark, but the content is almost entirely electronic, lending a great deal of vivid color to a description of blackest space. The two works presented here are powerfully mysterious, unsettling examples of Matt Shoemaker's prowess as a composer of details, of moods and tenses.
The improbably relevant artwork for this picture disc consists of two collages utilizing Shoemaker's own hand-dyed paper. The images, as well as their meanings, are essentially abstract and yet remarkably familiar. On the A side, the 'Isolated Agent' scuttles in a circular motion, forever locked in an endless search for the unknown element. The B side depicts the constant retreat, the 'Stranding Behavior' inevitably resulting in/from confusion.
This picture disc LP has been released in an edition of 233 copies." - label description - Matt Shoemaker "Mercurial Horizon" CD $10
Elevator Bath (U.S.) eeaoa050 - "Previously unheard brilliance from the late Matt Shoemaker. Work on 'Mercurial Horizon' was largely completed during an incredibly fruitful period from 2008-2012, during which Shoemaker produced albums for The Helen Scarsdale Agency, Ferns Recordings, Mystery Sea, and Elevator Bath. He went on to finalize the material which would become 'Mercurial Horizon' in 2015. Though unreleased until some five years after completion, 'Mercurial Horizon' is undeniably a fully-formed declaration; a meticulously crafted display of layered grotesqueries, as elegant as it is disturbing. This is classic Shoemaker at his most mesmeric: elongated metallic resonances, metamorphosed field recordings, expertly harnessed modular electronics... These elements may seem familiar, but Shoemaker's strange magic lay in his ability to imbue these disparate pieces with a kind of natural tension, fusing them into a seamless puzzle. The results are both startling and beautiful, and always with a tangible sense of unease. 'Mercurial Horizon' may well be the last new music to emerge from Matt Shoemaker's extraordinary aesthetic. It is an assemblage to be explored, interpreted, and treasured. 'Mercurial Horizon' is released in an edition of 200 copies. Matt Shoemaker's probing and mysterious ice photography graces the six-panel digipak, inside and out." - label description
- Matt Shoemaker "Soundtrack for Dislocation" CD $10
Elevator Bath (U.S.) eeaoa34 - "For those unfamiliar with Matt Shoemaker's work, Soundtrack for Dislocation is absolutely the ideal place to start as it is arguably the most fully-realized project in his catalog. All the necessary elements are present: The enigmatic cover and interior images, the cryptic track titles, and of course the recordings themselves - densely packed and elaborately evolved aberrancies. Shoemaker seems to have provided more than enough clues to the puzzles he offers in his works but, like the most effective tales, these subtle indications cannot quite account for all that happens. The rest is up to the astute listener who accepts this very inscrutability as the reward.
Packaged inside an extra thick, full-color, matte finish, 6-panel Digipak featuring Shoemaker's beautiful photography, this compact disc has been issued in an edition of 509 copies." - label description - Matt Shoemaker & Eric Lanzillotta "4/25/05 @ mshoehome" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM30 - Matt Shoemaker was a talented electronic musician and visual artist who sadly passed away in 2017. As a memorial tribute to him, Anomalous Records has been brought back to release this archival recording of Matt in collaboration with Eric Lanzillotta. This duet was recorded live at Matt's apartment and consists of one hour and fourteen minutes of reverberant cosmic music created with Moog synthesizer and other electronics. The sounds are abstract and beatless, easily dissolving time in an atmosphere thick with tape echo. Influenced by early electronic music and German Kosmische Musik (such as Kluster, Klaus Schulze, Popol Vuh, Conrad Schnitzler and early Tangerine Dream), this should appeal to fans of inner exploration. Pressed in a limited edition of 200 copies and packaged in a cardboard wallet.
- Skullflower "Draconis" 2 x CD $20
Cold Spring (U.K.) CSR190CD - "Synapse scorching occult industrial prog noise folk from the strings of Matthew Bower and Samantha Davies. Churning mantras and drukpa elegies for two erased darkside tree limbs: that of the Draconian in Khem, and of Drax Priory in West Yorkshire, which together with Bhutan are the Dragon Lands. The twilight language of flowers is spoken and wolves are raised, finally, Kali dances. For fans of Bathory and Popul Vuh. Comes in a deluxe 6-panel outsized double-digipak with a 16-page booklet." - label description
- Small Cruel Party "Cervorum Simulacra" CD $12
Ferns (France) stem_12 - "The first piece was released in a 12" lathe cut edition limited to 30 copies. So here it is available for a larger number. The second piece is unpublished, performed live in 1992 for Radio KSER."
- Small Cruel Party "Do You Believe in a Pencil?" CD $12
Ferns (France) stem_14 - reissue of his first CD from 1991 with new artwork by Abo (Yeast Culture). limited edition of 200 copies.
- Small Cruel Party "È Vago Fior Del Tempo" LP $26
Ferns (France) frond_08 - "This record presents some work from the late 1980s, originally self-released for friends on various cassette editions of about 5 to 7 copies. These pieces, along with others from the same period, were then later released on limited cassette editions by Petri Supply. This vinyl edition presents them with the intended playing order on side one, in a silkscreened sleeve printed by Charlotte at zyx-éditions, at Bretoncelles in Basse Normandie." (William Ransone). limited edition of 200 copies.
- Michael Snow "Musics for Piano, Whistling, Microphone and Tape Recorder" 2 x LP $14
Song Cycle Records (U.K.) CY999 - "Musician, visual artist, composer, writer, and sculptor Michael Snow is also one of the world's most highly acclaimed experimental filmmakers. In 1975 he released this album under the record company Chatham Square. The label was founded by the owner of Michael Snow's gallery, the Bykert Gallery, which also issued the first Philip Glass recordings. This reissue is released in collaboration with Michael Snow. 180-gram vinyl; gatefold sleeve." limited edition of 1000 copies.
- Sterile Garden "City Lights" C36 $5
Zen Enthusia (U.S.) Zen Enthusia 3 - slow motion heavy noise from Levi Berner’s label. limited edition of 50 copies.
- Peter Strickmann "Mellow Toes" LP $20
Ana Ott (Germany) AO 018 - "Mellow Toes comes as the second excerpt from my Schnarcharchiv (snoring-collection). This growing collection contains audio-recordings of sleeping humans, friends, and animals in all places and states of rest, sleep and nap, captured during night- and daytime since 2009. It all started during my daily afternoon-naps when I observed my own body getting hyper-sound-sensitive on its way to sleep. In these situations my chest, my arms, my toes turned out to become my biggest ears. It made me search for ways to share and reproduce these hallucinatory and enjoyable states of awake fatigue and airy interspace. Now, the two compositions on Mellow Toes are an attempt to do so. They contain parts of the snoring material that I collected during the last eight years, as well as some sounds of my prepared objects instruments. The instruments noise may appear as the cheeping bird outdoors that pokes your sleepy mellow toe. All the snoring and sleeping rhythms here, they may help this bird to have a much stronger voice then commonly known." - Peter Strickmann. hand-numbered edition of 300 with printed cardstock inner sleeve and download code.
- Sun Ra "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra" 3 x CD $31
ESP-Disk' (U.S.) ESP 4062 - "Together for the first time, ESP-Disk' is proud to present all three volumes of 'The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra' in a gorgeous fold out digipack. Originally released as two volumes in 1966, and with a third volume uncovered in 2005, the landmark sessions recorded by Richard Alderson on April 20th and November 16, 1965, have been hailed as a '...masterpiece of free jazz.' To further delve into the 'Heliocentric Worlds' of Sun Ra and his Orkestra, each enhanced disc in the set contains archival photos, critical writings and historical videos including the 18 minute documentary Sun Ra 'Spaceways'. Digitally remastered from the original tapes."
- Akio Suzuki "Zeitstudie" LP $23
Room40 (Australia) RM4119 - From Akio Suzuki: "In May 1984 I appeared at a German festival called Pro Musica Nova, organized by Radio Bremen. I then travelled to Berlin by car with Rolf Langebertels, the owner of Galerie Giannozzo who had driven to Bremen to hear me perform. I still remember very vividly the experience of passing through the checkpoint to enter West Berlin, a city that floated like an island in the middle of the still socialist GDR. I had previously visited Berlin in 1982 to perform at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien at an event that Rolf had organized. This time too Rolf had organized a concert for me at the Technische Universitat. Playing off the title of the piece ('Study Time') I had performed at Pro Musica Nova, I titled the piece for this concert 'Zeitstudie'. I owe Rolf a great deal of gratitude, as it was him who encouraged me by releasing my very first cassette tape, 'Zeitstudie von Akio Suzuki'. In recent years it has become difficult for me to carry heavy instruments around with me, and I have started to do simpler performances with objects assembled on site . . . On 'Zeitstudie von A.S.' I used an Analapos, the echo instrument I invented in 1970, and the Suzuki-type glass harmonica that I created in 1975. The Analapos resembles the tin-can telephone that children used to play with: two metal cans, open at one end and connected by a coil spring. You play it by stretching out the spring horizontally and then projecting your voice into the open end of one of the cylinders. The second piece features a variation, where I would suspend several Analapos vertically and play them like a percussion instrument. The Suzuki-type glass harmonica is in a simpler form than the pre-existing glass harmonica, and consists of five long glass tubes of varying diameters suspended horizontally in a metal frame. As well as rubbing the tubes with wet hands, I developed my own style of playing it using sticks. Once when I was practicing with it in the Netherlands, outside the window I was surprised to hear a bird imitating my sounds. However, later I discovered that the bird always sang that way, and as a token of my regret for having ever doubted it, I borrowed the bird's Dutch name, De Koolmees, and I still use it for my instrument..."
- tac "source tapes" cassette $0
tac (U.S.) tac-source - "edition of 50 cassettes
these tapes were recorded between 1984 and 1999
- tapes may consist of:
raw source recordings that were used to construct tracks released on tac tape releases,
processed tape experiments,
some finished but unreleased tracks,
mixing/processing tapes for collaborations, so may contain recordings by other people that were processed by tac,
4-track master tapes – so if listened to on a standard tape deck one side will be backwards,
some tapes were obtained used/second-hand before I recorded on them, and have some non-tac related materials,
tapes may have only a few recordings, or may have both sides full of recordings,
tapes could be any length, but are mostly C-60s & C-90s
- package consists of:
letters, correspondence, art work, and peripheral materials all from the same era and related to some of the tapes.
These materials were cut-up and collaged around the tapes, so each tape is covered in a unique collage." - The Taj-Mahal Travelers "July 15, 1972" LP $29
États-Unis (U.S.) etat11 - "For over half a century, Takehisa Kosugi was one of the most unique and enduring figures in the Japanese underground. As an art student in Tokyo in the early 1960s, he joined the Fluxus-styled performance unit Hi Re Centre and founded the improvisational ensemble Group Ongaku, but his most legendary project was The Taj-Mahal Travelers – a multicellular organism that included Kosugi, Ryo Koike, Yukio Tsuchiya, Seiji Nagai, Michihiro Kimura, Tokio Hasegawa and sound engineer Kinji Hayashi. With a penchant for long psychedelic jams (some lasting 12 hours or more) The Taj-Mahal Travelers lived up to their name. Touring in a Volkswagen van across Europe and Asia in the early '70s, they eventually reached the actual Taj Mahal in India. Upon their return to Japan, they held a concert to raise more touring funds and released their very first recordings. Their debut album, July 15, 1972, would extend the band's matter-of-fact titling: all the tracks were named precisely for the times they began and ended. With a grab bag of instrumentation (electric violin, double bass, santoor, vibraphone, harmonica, radio oscillators, sheet iron, etc.), The Taj-Mahal Travelers weave together mesmerizing waves of sonic texture. Featuring longtone concepts that Kosugi discovered while working with sound generators in New York in the mid-'60s, July 15, 1972 remains just as much a collective tone poem as psych workout. These leader-less sounds coalesce into a unified whole that feels both subconscious and sublime, as if the waveforms bypass the listener's ears and land directly inside one's synapses. This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 1,000 numbered copies. Comes with poster." - label description
- Steve Thomsen "Report of Golden Chromosomes" CD $21
Neurec (Japan) NEUREC-SR - too dark and mysterious to be New Age, these 2019 ambient recordings mostly move away from the overtly melodic and rhythmic style of his earlier solo material yet still retain a skeletal musical structure that keeps the tracks from falling into drones and moves to the forefront for the final track. different from his work with Monitor and Solid Eye, this music shows a new chapter of his development. packaged in 9.25" by 6.5" by 1" box with attached full color artwork and an envelope containing three inserts featuring liner notes in English and Japanese by Steve Thomsen and Takuya Sakaguchi. the CD itself is in a plastic case with color artwork and is wrapped in gift paper. an edition of 500 copies. "As daylight wanes, diaphanous clouds of meteoric dust suspended high above the atmosphere gleam with iridescent splendor."
- Tolerance 4 x LP & 7" $100
Vinyl-On-Demand (Germany) VOD167 - the complete works of this Nurse With Wound list group containing both of their super rare LPs from 1979 ("Anonym") and 1981 ("Divin"), the "Today's Thrill" flexi disc from 1980, an unreleased album from 1980 ("Dose") and further demos. the 7" also features a previously unreleased track exclusive to this vinyl box set. limited to 500 copies with a numbered card.
"Tolerance is a solo alias of Junko Tange from Tokyo. Its sound is made of Tange’s electric piano, synthesizer, and simple electronics playing alongside the whispering of her poetry and the noisy slide guitar sounds of Masami Yoshikawa. The combination of of Yoshikawa’s slow guitar playing and Tange’s parts swirls into a haunting, monotone abstract sounding animus. The album cover was created by Toshimi Kamiya who published a photo book called 'Tokyo Kitan'. Worth noting that the distinguished English experimental/collage music artist Steve Stapleton (Nurse With Wound) took the title of his 1980 album 'To the Quiet Men From a Tiny Girl' from the credits of 'Anonym'." - Giancarlo Toniutti "Qwalsamtimutkw?italuc'ik (And Now He Almost Did Make Himself Into Hemlock Needles It Is Said)" CD $11
Alluvial Recordings (U.S.) A27 - "Comes in an LP-style sleeve with 16 page booklet. A single, hour long work. Recorded on 18 January 2001 in Udine, the Red Room [Sound-source: Rattle-harp (drift metal, string, wire, bells, bone, wood)]. Treated & composed on 9-12 February 2002 in Udine, the Black Room. All photos have been taken at Caneo natural reserve, Fossalon di Grado, Isonzo River Mouth, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, 0 m. asl. The very occasional faint crackles are digital faults from the original recording; as part of the document they have not been erased."
- Giancarlo Toniutti & Tiziano Dominighini "Counterchronology" CD $15
FinalMuzik (Italy) FME7 - two archival recordings made at a glassworks in 1979 rescued and mixed by Giancarlo in 2014. sources used are electric chord organ, bells, acoustic guitar strings, pipe, flutes, metals, trestles, rattles, sticks, Sudanese harp, chronometer, air, lids, water, percussion, gong, machineries, bottles, workbench, wood, glass, scrapers, ambient noises, rods, large metal door, tambourines, environment, portable recorder, tape, prepared electric guitar, pedal, jingle bells, and copper. the main track, clocking in at over 33 minutes, is "The Circadian Organization Of The Loom From Mueç", which features a succession of textural improvisations on acoustic sources over the bed of a chord organ drone. the second track, which is just under 10 minutes, is a more subtle affair, with slow moving wisps of sound developing into distant sounds of percussion. limited edition of 300. packaged in gatefold jacket with liner notes by Giancarlo.
- Massimo Toniutti "Variation Séculaire Géomagnétique" CD $16
Klanggalerie (Austria) gg298 - "Massimo Toniutti is an Italian sound designer and experimental musician. He is the brother of Giancarlo Toniutti who is best known for his dark ambient masterpiece 'La Mutazione' which was originally released on the Broken Flag label in the UK and later re-issued by Klanggalerie. Massimo started working with sound when he was a teenager, collecting and playing recordings of all kinds. In the 1980s he released four cassettes on his own label, all heavily influenced by the experimental music scene of that time. He soon developed a strong relation to electroacoustic structures, space/environment and silence. In the 1990s, he began investigating radio, creating his own sound archive and producing unusual broadcasts. He released an album entitled 'Il Museum Selvatico', which was re-issued in Australia in 2018 on Oren Ambarchi's label Black Truffle. A documentation of his radio work can be heard on the CD 'Le Gabbiette Di Faraday', collecting radio pieces from 1996 to 1998. After a twenty year break, the cassette 'Antidocument/Groundwork' was released in 2016 in a tiny edition of only 100 copies. Klanggalerie asked Massimo Toniutti to re-issue this composition on CD to which he agreed. When work was started, Massimo decided to extend it to a much longer piece which became 'Variation Séculaire Géomagnétique'. if you are into Musique Concrete, Dark Ambient or simply beautifully crafted atmospheric music, then this release is for you." - label description
- David Tudor + Composers Inside Electronics "Rainforest IV" CD $15
Neuma (U.S.) Neuma 158 - "Rainforest must be one of the few totally sui generis works of art ever created — truly one of a kind: a collection of whimsical everyday and crafted objects, suspended in space, set into audible vibration by small electro-magnetic transducers. Each object responds to the input signals in uniquely non-linear, unpredictable ways -— a roomful of transmuted sculptural loudspeakers. They are activated by the players behind electronics-laden tables, and made to seem like an ecosystem of chattering and squawking critters talking an alien language between themselves. Together they represent a ‘performed installation’ that invites human visitors to explore the space using their ears. This is a magical forest of sight and sound, using deceptively ingenious technology.
On one evening in 1977 at the former military bowling alley turned Center for Music Experiment at UC-San Diego – where Rainforest IV (the fourth incarnation of the concept) had been set up at the invitation of composer Pauline Oliveros – two intrepid young musicians, David Dunn and Warren Burt passed through the space wearing binaural microphones attached to their heads. The result is this mind-warping recording released here for the first time; not a definitive documentation of the work but as close an experience as you might get with headphones." - Yoshi Wada "Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile" LP $25
États-Unis (U.S.) etat13 - "Yoshi Wada's 'Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile', originally released in 1982 on India Navigation, remains one of the most remarkable flowers to grow in the rarefied air of American minimalism – akin to Terry Riley's 'Reed Streams' and Pauline Oliveros' 'Accordion & Voice', yet with a wild, liberated energy all of its own. After graduating from Kyoto University of Fine Arts with a degree in sculpture, Wada moved to New York City in 1967 and quickly fell in with the community of artists known as Fluxus. In the early '70s, he began building his own instruments and writing musical compositions, studying with La Monte Young and Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath. Recorded during an epic three-day session in an empty swimming pool in upstate New York, Wada's first album brings together two of the oldest drone instruments – the human voice and bagpipes – to simple and glorious effect. A visit to the Scottish Highlands spurred Wada's interest in bagpipes, which the composer integrated into these sparse, otherworldly sounds heard on Lament. 'That swimming pool was quite hallucinatory,' recalls Wada. 'It was another world. I felt it in terms of resonance. I slept in the pool, and whenever I moved, I woke up because of the reverberations.... The piece itself is an experiment with reeds and improvisational singing within the modal structure.' This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 750 numbered copies. Comes with poster." - label description
- Ralf Wehowsky & Richard Francis "R" CD $10
Auf Abwegen (Germany) AATP88 - "First collaboration between Ralf Wehowsky (Germany) and Richard Francis (New Zealand). On a trip from Auckland over Worpswede to Eggenstein Richard Francis visited Ralf Wehowsky on the weekend of September 28th and 29th, 2013. For the recording sessions taking place during these two days Richard used his analogue synth and electronics, while Ralf had a desktop and a laptop for producing digital electronic sounds at hand. For bridging the antagonistic sound worlds the input of one sound system was fed with the output of the other and vice versa. For this release two of the tracks (Piece 1, Untitled 1) are presented as they were recorded, with only slight pan and volume adjustments. The third track (Piece 3) is composed of fragments of a longer improvisation, time-shifting the contributions of the two artists against each other to constitute a system of non-simultaneity. Ralf Wehowsky is a German experimental composer, active since the 80s (with the group P16.D4 then). His work is split between solo releases (under the moniker RLW) and collaborations, exploring all fields between media exchange and realtime presence recordings. Collaboration partners include among others Lionel Marchetti, Merzbow, Jim O´Rourke, Bruce Russell, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Anla Courtis, Contrastate, Kohei Matsunaga, Annette Krebs - and Richard Francis. Richard Francis is a sound artist from New Zealand working with electronics and found recordings. He's released solo and collaborative albums on Senufo Editions, Entr’acte, Glistening Examples, Korm Plastics and Aufabwegen. Recent collaborators include Ralf Wehowsky, Frans de Waard, Anla Courtis, Bruce Russell, Mattin, Jason Kahn and Francisco Lopez." gatefold sleeve.
- Yeast Culture "Dueterium: Yeast Culture Improvacoustic Series Vol. 1" C60 $6
Regional Bears (U.K.) RB20 - archival recordings from 1991 with one side vocal and on the flip improvisations on upright piano.
- C. Spencer Yeh "Helsinki FI / Berlin DE / 09-10" 3 x C34 $12
Drone Disco (U.S.) fig. 97 - insanity from the main member of Burning Star Core. "Two complete live sets of violin and voice spread out over four sides, from Helsinki Finland and Berlin Germany, in 2010 and 2009, respectively. Amplified hands, bow, mouth, throat, air, etc. In chunky vinyl case with insert. Edition of 75." packaged in molded plastic case with two inserts.
- :zoviet-france: "Châsse Volume 2" 17 x LP $303
Vinyl-On-Demand (Germany) VOD165.1-17 - I have one set of the 10 :zoviet-france: titles (17 LPs total) released by Vinyl-On-Demand in their stand alone form. This is everything in the instantly sold out "Châsse Volume 2" box set as individual titles without the box. Included are "The End of Nothing, the Beginning of Everything" (previously unreleased), "Shouting at the Ground" (1988), "Just an Illusion" (1990), "Russian Heterodoxical Songs" (previously unreleased), "Look into Me" (1990), "Shadow, Thief of the Sun" (1991), "Collusion" (compilation tracks recorded 1983-1990), "Vienna 1990", "What Is Not True" (1993), and "Further Collusion" (compilation tracks 1992-1996). Eight of these titles are being released on vinyl for the first time. There are only 300 copies of each title in their stand alone form and they sold out from the label immediately when they were first announced back in October 2020. The price for the set is $303.00 plus postage which would be $15.00 for media mail with insurance inside the USA. (For comparison, the boxed version of these LPs sold for $360).
- :zoviet-france: "Châsse Volume 3" 16 x LP box $360
Vinyl-On-Demand (Germany) VOD172 - includes "in.version" (1996), "Digilogue" (1996), "Feedback (Mort Aux Vaches)" (1998), "The Decriminalisation of Country Music" (2000), "A Long Walk" (2011), "7.10.12" (2012), "The Tables Are Turning" (2013), and "A Third Collusion" (new). most of these are appearing on vinyl for the first time. packaged in a wood box with a t-shirt [size M only] and booklet. limited edition of 500 copies on black vinyl.
- :zoviet-france: "Look into Me" 2 x LP $34
Vinyl-On-Demand (Germany) VOD165.7/8 - reissue of 1990 album. includes part of the soundtrack to the film "Loud Visual Noises" by Stan Brakhage. limited edition of 300 copies.
- :zoviet-france: "A Third Collusion" 2 x LP $34
Vinyl-On-Demand (Germany) VOD172.15/16 - tracks from compilations appearing for the first time on vinyl. white vinyl.
- "Manifestation 9" CDR $0
Awe Full Records / C.I.A. Records (U.S.) AWE-CD030 / CIA-030 - FREE with any purchase.
includes tracks by Sunday Shock, Pleasure Center, The Popeboy Collective, The Pollychains, Eric Lanzillotta, Michael D. Johnson, Scott Ayers, Antiquated View of the Future, Poison Gas Research, Señor Bubba, Defecit Des Anterieures, Aktion, and Van Kaye & Ignit. - "Manifestation 9" LP $0
Awe Full Records / C.I.A. Records (U.S.) AWE-LP029 / CIA-029 - FREE with the purchase of any other LP (customer responsible for any extra postage).
includes tracks by Sunday Shock, Pleasure Center, Eric Lanzillotta,The Pollychains, Michael D. Johnson, Scott Ayers, The Popeboy Collective, Antiquated View of the Future, and Poison Gas Research. full color gatefold jacket. translucent orange vinyl. - "Mien (Yao) - Canon Singing in China, Vietnam, Laos" LP $23
Sublime Frequencies (U.S.) SF117 - "Other-worldly Canon singing from Mien (Yao) hill tribes in China, Vietnam, and Laos. Raw, ethereal, and cosmic - for fans of Bulgarian choir and Javanese Court Gamelan and Sundanese styles of vocal ascension. Although their name comes from a pejorative Chinese expression that means 'dog' or 'savage' - stemming from a legend that they were founded by a dog who saved the life of the daughter of a Chinese emperor and thus was rewarded with her hand in marriage - the largest branch of the Yao minority call themselves Mien, which means simply 'people'. They number four million and are spread over the southern Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi, Yunnan, and also migrated to Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand over the last centuries. Part of the Miao-Yao (Hmong Mien) group of the Sino-Tibetan ethnolinguistic family, they have many subgroups, usually defined according to colors of their traditional clothes. Because of their Chinese origins, the Yao consider themselves to be culturally superior to other hill tribes, having incorporated elements of Taoism into their own beliefs as well as adopting the Chinese written system for men. The Yao women produce wonderful embroidered cloth and that's the main reason why they're being noticed by outsiders. Recorded and produced in the field by Laurent Jeanneau (Kink Gong), this limited edition LP comes with a two-sided insert of photos and liner notes with extended track descriptions by Laurent Jeanneau. Features Keo And Na (Laos), Deng Fu Mei And Zhang Wu Mei (China), Yang Chun Jin And Yang Bao Cheng (China), and Gap Choun (Vietnam)."
- "Nekrophile Rekords" 10 x LP + 2 x 7" box $340
Vinyl-On-Demand (Germany) VOD173 - reissues all 8 cassettes originally released by this occult themed Austrian label from 1983-1990 as well as two unreleased albums. includes Korpses Katatonik "Subklinikal Leukotomy", Genesis P-Orridge / Stan Bingo "What's History", various "The Beast 666", LAShTAL "Thoum Aesh Neith", Zos Kia / Coil "Transparent", various "The Archangels Of Sex Rule The Destruction Of The Regime", Zero Kama "The Secret Eye Of L.A.Y.L.A.H.", Ain Soph "Ars Regia", Coming to Now "Closer to Silence" (previously unreleased), and Metgumbnerbone "For the Raven" (previously unreleased). contributors to the two compilations include Korpses Katatonik, Coil, Hunting Lodge, Kathan Spiss, Toy Muzik, Stigma Diaboli, Mr. Vile Thumb, Zero Kama, Post Mortem, Sleep Chamber, Ain Soph, Ewald Spiss, Metgumbnerbone, and Coming To Now. packaged in a wooden box with 240 page book and t-shirt [XL size]. limited edition of 666 copies on black vinyl.
- "Poesia Sonora" LP $12
Song Cycle Records (U.K.) CY994 - "Originally released in 1975. Sound poetry emerged in the early years of the post-war avant-garde and pioneered phonetic art forms that explored the relationship between human speech and sound, experimental music and structures of language. Affiliated to concrete poetry, fluxus, minimalism, conceptual and performance art, the first generation of sound poets questioned the meanings of 'music' and 'poetry' using interferences as source of new phonetic art patterns/compositions. 'Poesia Sonora' represents one of the first international sound poetry compilations. The record came out in 1975 for CBS under the label 'Recorthings & Zona Archives', curated and edited by Maurizio Nannucci. The anthology collects pieces by some of the most important pioneers of the sound poetry movement: Bob Cobbing, François Dufrêne, Henri Chopin, Ernst Jandl, Franz Mon, Arthur Pétronio, Arrigo Lora-Totino, Brion Gysin, Bernard Heidsieck, Sten Hanson, Maurizio Nannucci, Paul De Vree. 'Poesia Sonora' is an indispensable reference anthology that sensitizes the ear for extraordinary pieces/compositions of sound and literary experiments. Released in collaboration with Maurizio Nannucci. Fluorescent artwork; Limited edition [500 copies] clear vinyl (hand-numbered)."
- "The Sacred Entertainment: Réak, Ceremonial Horse Trance Music from Priangan" LP $21
Discrepant (U.K.) CREP65 - "Kasenian Réak is a genre of performative art from the Priangan area of west Java, organized during hajatans (life-cycle celebrations) and nowadays primarily held during weddings and circumcisions. The style, known as a seni lungsuran, is part of the greater family of Javanese horse dances, originally known in their most famous forms of jathilan and kuda lumping. Javanese horse dances, which could be as old as animistic Java, may already have been practiced before the eighth-century, traveling through the island and reaching Priangan in the thirties, when Réak is believed to have been originated and popularized by musical groups Juarta Putra and Maska Putra. While bearing more than some resemblances with its family, Kasenian Réak benefits of structures and aesthetic tracts of its own, being not only one of the newest developments of horse dance if not the newest, but also its rawest and most extreme outcome. The shows usually last up to nine hours, starting at nine o'clock in the morning and finishing between five or six o'clock in the afternoon. The morning part is dedicated to the pembukaan (ouverture), lasting up to one hour and dogcing or dogdog cicing (playing the dogdog on spot), while the afternoon is the time during which the arak-arakan (parade) takes place. After the arak-arakan goes around the village gathering people and announcing the celebration, it returns to the lot where it had begun and the show ends with a shorter dogcing. During the first dogcing it is possible to witness the dance of Bangbarongan: an animal-like creature costume representing a spirit and an ancestor, worn by a dancer who brings it alive for some hours. This is among the most exciting parts of the show. Sometimes it is also possible to witness a symbolic fight between the pimpinan and the Barong. Trance and possession obviously represent two of the main attractions of the style. The music as a sonic signal given by the speeded tempo, along with an Adorcistic practice conducted by the ma'alim are capable of inviting spirits to enter bodies and take control of them. When possessed, the individuals can, according to the entity they host, exhibit superhuman capacities. This release aims to provide a spectrum of Kasenian Réak and its music. The first side is a classic réak ouverture, played by one of the two founding groups, Juarta Putra. On the other side is Putra Jaya Melati: one of the groups that most attempts to push towards a contemporary, aggressive, and experimental version of Réak music."
- "7 & 7 Vol. 1" 2 x 7" box $12
SpleenCoffin (U.S.) SP-51-EP - "Volume 1 of the series features a bewildering side of 10 interlaced roulette groove miniatures from French synth duo Femme (featuring members of Opera Mort and France Sauvage), a performance of melting intensity by NYC’s Sunk Heaven, a hand-mangled cassette recording by Jeph Jerman (from a group improvisation with Tim Barnes, Bill Hutson, and Ted Byrnes), and kaleidoscopic jitter from Romanian outfit Somnoroase Păsărele. Each volume contains two 7″ records with an art booklet and download code, lovingly packaged in reclaimed 7″ audio reel boxes with repurposed vintage wallpaper covers."
- "10+2: 12 American Text Sound Pieces" CD $14
Other Minds (U.S.) OM 1006-2 CD - "The best-selling recording in the history of American sound poetry, '10+2' was a novelty at the time of its release in 1975, when unpitched speech was rarely used outside of literary circles as performance material. Out of print for 20 years and available now for the first time on CD, this definitive anthology of speech music by composers, writers, and artists contains examples of the best work of Charles Amirkhanian, Beth Anderson, Robert Ashley, John Cage, Clark Coolidge, Charles Dodge, John Giorno, Anthony Gnazzo, Brion Gysin, Liam O’Gallagher, and Aram Saroyan."
- "An Uncommon Nature" LP $10
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM 6 - Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of Anomalous Records' existence in 2001, we are released a compilation album based around recordings from the outdoors, and featuring artists we released. Included on this LP are recordings from: Jeph Jerman, Mirror, Agog, Climax Golden Twins, Jonathan Coleclough, Mike Shannon, Monos, Richard Lerman, and Dave Knott. Throughout the packaging, and on four enclosed postcards, are beautiful black and white photographs taken by Rachael Jackson in the Olympic National Park in Washington state. While unified by a common theme, the tracks are quite varied including desert contact mic recordings of rain and wind on a tree [Jeph Jerman], processed sounds of a gate [Jonathan Coleclough], erhu played on a beach [Mike Shannon], mysterious singing 'water babies' [Agog], a mixture of wild celery stalks, tundra grass, a cord made from sinew, a whalebone roof support and the seals [Richard Lerman], and the straight recording of an approaching thunderstorm [Dave Knott]. This attention to detail in audio is matched by the close up photographs of fungi, dripping sap, and trees which surrounds it. With over 700 copies sold, this is one of the most popular Anomalous Records releases.
- "Vanity Demos" 6 x CD box $69
Kyou Records (Japan) Remodel28 - an amazing collection of unheard sounds from the archives of the legendary Vanity Records label out of Japan that was active from 1978 to 1981. this contains one disc of previously unreleased demos by Den Sei Kwan, one disc of previously unreleased demos by various artists, one disc with the track "Love Song" by System from their sole flexi-disc release, and three discs by Tolerence including an unreleased album from 1980, a collection of demos and their flexi-disc "Today's Thrill" from 1980. artists on the "Demos" disc are Salaried Man Club, Onnyk, Tozawa + Onnyk, Excerpt from HMN Session and Den Sei Kwan. limited edition of 500 copies.
- "When You Think It's Butter But It's Snot" LP $0
Booger Records (U.S.) PICK-003 - FREE with the purchase of any other LP (customer responsible for any extra postage).
songs by Pip Squeek and The Bar Bells, Deep Pewter, Unknown Trucker, Sherri Schuman, Vanilla, Ultra-D w/Genocide Rapers, Carbolic Enema, The Disgruntled Von Erichs, Scholastica, Ralph Semprebon, Sounds of Natron, Touch Pong, Rectal Pizza, Locust, Agenbite of Inwit, and Nostros Los Ochos. screenprinted cover. white vinyl.
coming later (pre-orders recommended):
[Note: If a price is not listed, it means I don't know the final price yet.]
Used:
grading: media (vinyl, disc, etc.) first; cover second
- "Being On The Beat" CD NM/NM $5.00
- with Apregarde Dub Orchestra, Jürgen Ploog & Alfred 23 Harth, Tarwater, !The Same & Bob Rutman, Herbst in Peking, Jürgen Ploog, William S. Burroughs Hurts, !The Same & Kai Pohl, Mimetic Field, None Ho & Allen Ginsberg, Column One, Machine de Beauvoir & Rex Joswig, Papenfuß & Trötsch, Dim Locator, Jan Herman & Carl Weissner, !The Same & Gregory Corso, Thomas Antonic & MIchael Fischer, and !The Same & Jürgen Ploog. digipak with artwork by Robert Schalinski. Moloko + (Germany) PLUS 100
- "Fluxshoe" book VG+ $150.00
- "The Fluxshoe was originally conceived about two years ago as a small travelling show, with the intention of exhibiting the published work of the many artists, non-artists, and an-artists who have published or performed with Fluxus." published in 1972. included are one or two page contributions from Ludwig Gosewitz, Eric Andersen, Dana Atchley / Ace Space Company, Ay-O, Joseph Beuys, Andre Boucourechliev, George Brecht, Ian Breakwell, Ugo Carrega, Monte Cazazza, Marc Chaimowicz, Giuseppe Chiari, Robin Crozier, Felipe Ehrenberg, Anthony McCall, Neil Felts, Robert Filliou, Albert M Fine, Allen Fisher, Henry Flynt, Terry Fox, Ken Friedman, Gayor Tibor, Bill Gaglione, Jochen Gerz, Paul-Armand Gette, Mick Gibbs, Klaus Groh, Guerilla Art Action Group, Myor Hayashi, Dick Higgins, Davi Det Hompson, Alice Hutchins, Joe Jones, Hans-Werner Kalkmann, Milan Knizak / Aktual, Takehisa Kosugi / The Taj Mahal Travellers, Yoko Ono, Barry McCallion, George Maciunas, Tim Mancusi, Tom Marioni, Dora Maurer, Joan Mathews, Jean-Claude Moineu, Opal L Nations, Ben Patterson, John Plant, Jock Reynolds, Takako Saito, Carolee Schneemann, Paul Sharits, Chieko Shiomi, Endre Tot, Takahashi Shohachiro, Janos Urban, Ben Vautier, Wolf Vostell, Yoshimasa Wada, Bob Watts, Chris Welch, Zaj, and Knud Petersen. also included is an appendix of biographical and bibliographic facts. paperback, 144 pages, 8.25" by 11.5". slight bumps to corners, two creases on spine, crease on lower right corner which is visible in most internal pages. Beau Geste Press (U.K.)
- "Highlights of Vortex" LP NM/VG+ $40.00
- with David Talcott, Henry Jacobs, William Loughborough, and Gordon Longfellow. includes 6-page booklet. originally released in 1959, this is a mid-60s or mid-70s pressing with darker red cover, track listing on back cover, "For Additional Information About..." text on back of insert, and 701 Seventh Avenue address. hole drilled through top right corner of jacket. Folkways Records (U.S.) FSS 6301