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.
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new release available now:

Giancarlo Toniutti cover

Giancarlo Toniutti "Bàardum Guùmuse (For Your Red Tongue)" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM33
I have been lucky enough to release through Anomalous Records many of my favorite artists that were active in the 1980s such as Hands To, Total, Andrew Chalk, Agog, Ellen Fullman, The New Blockaders, and founder of P16.D4, Ralf Wehowsky. Now I am able to present a new composition by Giancarlo Toniutti, whose work I first heard on the compilation LP "Never Say When", which also introduced me to the music of the aforementioned Andrew Chalk and Total. His track there, "Covar Peste in Cagna", sounded like nothing else, and set me wanting more. While releases of his music started sporadically, with years between some early titles, he has been more active in recent years. I am proud to present a new work of his recorded in 2022. Here he presents a single track of almost 50 minutes length. Always difficult to place, this could best be described as "electroacoustic music" and comes closer in composition to the late works of Luigi Nono or early György Ligeti, without sounding like either of those or getting lost in their academic language. Generally Toniutti does not reveal how the sounds of his compositions are created, but here gives us a clue saying they come from self-built idiophones made of glass, brass and wooden frames, metal tines and steel plates, which nonetheless use no string, membrane, or air. That said, the original high pitched sounds were transposed and treated to reach their final form, which is more muted and mysterious. Moving slowly and delicately, tones ebb and flow with contrasting densities creating constellations which do not hold as still as first listening might suggest. Listening to this repeatedly, I have been drawn to how the development is seen in a microscopic view not what might appear initially as an exposition of a few tones. Put plainly, it is a work that appears simple on the surface but holds a great complexity when paying attention to the details. None of the sounds lasts more than 10 or 15 seconds, although they overlap in varying ways creating an illusion of relatively still surface. This work rewards the careful listener.
Edition of 302 copies in digisleeve with 8 page booklet.
"Bàardum Guùmuse" sample

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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 Musica & R. Carlos Nakai "Atlantic Crossing" LP $20
La Scie Dorée (Belgium) Scie 3523
"Edition of 500 copies. The strange thing about the music of Anima is that it’s often considered as strange, while it’s actually very natural. It has a free spirit, analog to nature. For this release the natural spirit is strengthened by the participation of indigenous American flute player and composer R. Carlos Nakai who did a series of concerts in the US and Europe with Paul and Limpe Fuchs in the 1980’s. As with almost all Anima work, the natural feel manifests itself not only by the musical approach but also through sounds generated by natural materials as metal, wood, stone and air, and of course the absence of electronic devices. This LP is a reissue of a rare privately released cassette from 1988 and was recorded by the Bayerischer Rundfunk. May this slice of timeless free spirit be a trigger to more awareness concerning our decaying freedom." - label description

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.

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.

Michèle Bokanowski "Cirque" LP $27
Kythibong (France) KTB80
"First time on vinyl. The Circus is a place of lights and colors, but also of shadows, even darkness. Admittedly, it delights children and makes adults laugh. But you only need one rainy autumn evening near a circus tent and the smell of fodder to think of the sadness of the clowns, the endless training of the animals and the freaks who are hidden in some caravan... cinema, the essence of the circus – movement, light, danger and burlesque – will have been admirably rendered in 'Notes on the Circus' by Jonas Mekas (1966), one of the inventors of the filmed diary. With 'Cirque', Michèle Bokanowski does similar work, entirely dedicated to spinning, in the musical field.
She distinguished herself in particular in the composition of musique concrète, among others 'Tabou' and 'Trois chambres d'inquiétudes', after having studied with Pierre Schaeffer and Éliane Radigue. The latter, great lady of drone and minimalism, fell under the spell of 'Cirque' and wrote the booklet for the piece as a poem.
The piece, divided into five movements, is based on the handling and editing of recordings captured within one or more circuses (this is not specified and is of no importance) between 1988 and 1993. The initial allegro reveals the gallop of a horse joined gradually by other images. The idea of the circular space of the circus tent is immediately and magnificently rendered and will be constantly recalled by an insistent use of the loop technique. Children's laughter, applause and drum rolls are thus sheared, repeated before being brutally interrupted. Accordion interludes and the distortion of sounds create a dreamlike atmosphere. This beautiful nightmare reminds us, to quote Éliane Radigue, the 'Magic of childhood still living in the heart of man even beyond its abrupt end.'" - words by Alexandre Galand, from the book 'Field Recording – L’usage sonore du monde en 100 albums' (ed. Le mot et le reste, 2012)
edition of 500 copies.

John Cage / Aaron Dilloway "Rozart Mix" LP $22
Hanson Records (U.S.) HN-ROZART21
"Back in the extremely strange year of 2020, I was approached by Wave Farm and John Cage Trust to stage a performance of this seldomly performed piece that Cage wrote for Alvin Lucier. The piece is comprised of 88 tape loops (one for each key of a piano), spliced together with multiple non-musical sounds played back on 12 reel to reel machines. In January of 2021 I spent a wonderful and intense week researching 'Rozart Mix' at John Cage Trust at Bard College. It was the first place I had visited during the pandemic. On October 23, 2021, with the assistance of Rose Actor-Engel, Twig Harper, C. Lavender, Quintron, Robert Turman, and John Wiese, I presented a 6 hour performance of 'Rozart Mix' at John Cage Trust. Six hours of 12 individually amplified reel to reel tape machines, placed around multiple floors of a house, playing 88 tape loops spliced together by 5 to 175 splices, created an overwhelming and joyous environment of cacophonous sound. The performance culminated with John Wiese touching a frog for the first time as the final sound croaked through the speakers. The frog contact was just one of many magical moments that occurred during the preparation and presentation of the piece." - Aaron Dilloway, May 2024

Andrew Chalk "Dreams" CD $16
Faraway Press (England) FARAWAY37
almost an hour of peaceful, pastoral instrumentals with guest appearances on piano by Tom James Scott and Timo van Luijk. edition of 300, comes in a mini handmade gatefold jacket.

Andrew Chalk "The End Times" CD $11
ICR (England) ICR 96
"The first new solo album by Andrew in five years, completed in 2022 at Impression Lointaine.  Thirteen beautiful melodic tracks that weave in and out of focus in an almost hallucinatory manner, evoking many different moods and emotions. 13 tracks in a digipack sleeve, mastered by Dennis Blackham with artwork by Andrew."

Andrew Chalk "The Golden Road" CDR $19
Faraway Press (England) GoldenRoad
recorded in 2007. limited edition.

Andrew Chalk "The Sun Ages" CDR $19
Faraway Press (England) SunAges
a soundtrack for a short film recorded in 2005. limited edition.

Citipati LP $29
Hypnagogia (U.K.) GOG04
Citipati were a brief project that quickly turned into Metgumbnerbone. they released two compilation tracks and did one concert before that change of name. this album was recorded on April 26-27, 1983 at Morden Tower in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and apparently was meant to be released on LP by Flowmotion at the time, but has been in the vaults ever since. the sound is essentially the same as what they did under the new name: acoustic ritual / tribal music played in a reverberant space. featured performers are Sean Breadin, Paul Coates, Clive Powell, Richard Rupenus, Philip Rupenus, and John Mylotte. limited edition of 250 numbered copies. all copies I received have creased corners.

Aldo Clementi "Collage" LP $18
Alga Marghen (Italy) 49NMN167
reduced from $25 because of a 1.5" scratch on side A that causes an audible tick.
"Alga Marghen presents the previously unreleased 'Collage 2' and 'Collage 3 (Dies irae)' for magnetic tape, both realized at the Studio di Fonologia Muisicale RAI in Milan with the technical collaboration of Marino Zuccheri. These pieces are precious testimonials to Aldo Clementi's intense and ongoing interest in electronic music in the 1960s. The electronic composition 'Collage 2' dates from 1960. It was the first experiment with electronic music for Clementi whose original and consistent adherence to structuralism is reflected in several of his instrumental works written around that time. The first idea of 'Collage 3' dates back to 1966, in the form of a short electronic collage on the Beatles' song 'Michelle'. The composer wanted to replace old concepts and clichés which had become popular and common, through the use of 'natural wells of timbre, live and organic, springing from a world of symmetry and fixed blocks.' This original idea underwent a drastic transformation when the RAI (the Italian radio) commissioned Clementi to write a longer work. To his initial desire to start from scratch was added the problem of a longer duration. It was only when Clementi had almost completed the piece that he gave it its final title of 'Dies irae', owing to the extreme tension that accompanied its composition."

Coil "Love's Secret Domain" 3 x LP $48
Infinite Fog Productions (Austria) IF104LP
"Commissioned artwork by Steven Stapleton. Released in deluxe hardcover triple-gatefold with lyrics and notes. Includes 24" x 24" poster of cover art by Steve Stapleton." contains three sides of alternate versions not on the original release.

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.

Dried Up Corpse C15 $5
Gnarled Forest (U.S.) GF23
noise project from Stan Reed of Blue Sabbath Black Cheer and The Broken Penis Orchestra. released way back in 2009 in an edition of 100. packaged in an A6 sleeve.

Dried Up Corpse / Slates C15 $5
Gnarled Forest (U.S.) GF24
Dried Up Corpse are a noise project from Stan Reed of Blue Sabbath Black Cheer and The Broken Penis Orchestra. Slates are a mysterious project that only did a few other releases aside from this. released way back in 2009 in an edition of 100. packaged in an A6 sleeve.

Fallen Sun "Beyond the Flat Earth" CD $9
Fourth Dimension Records (Poland) FDCD151
"Fallen Sun, the noise/industrial moniker of Reverse Image from Malaysia, approaches the creation of noise music through the layering of sonic textures aligned with a sense of space and movement. Using Harsh Noise Wall as distant inspiration, she takes the seed of an idea and expands and contracts it, before further compressing and then twisting it, layer upon layer, until the idea has morphed into itself. 'Beyond the Flat Earth's ten concise tracks explore this perpetual movement of noise, each with its own spine, the total auditory fabric of the music presents a gothic beauty to submerse oneself" - by Richard Allan Bates

Ferial Confine "Meiosis" CD $15
Siren Records (Japan) SIREN 22
"A debut release on CD of the second part of the trilogy of recordings by Ferial Confine dating back to 1985. Here sensitively remastered by Denis Blackham from the original master tapes at Skye Mastering and with a beautiful facsimile mini LP style sleeve, made in Japan. 'Meiosis' was initially published via the Broken Flag label in England in late 1985 on C60 cassette and deleted shortly afterwards, although there appeared some copies in circulation. In view of the high sonic range of much of 'Meiosis', it was clear that a duplicated cassette was an inferior release format-already in that period when CD was not really yet familiar. Even though 28 years' is perhaps a lengthy wait, Siren Records is pleased to finally present a fully remastered version of 'Meiosis' on CD. It follows the same production quality of the initial release 'The Full Use Of Nothing', and 'Meiosis' forms the bridge between that and the subsequent album 'First, Second And Third Drop' (released in 2007 on CD). Amidst the chaos of the first two albums appears a sense of order and melodic structure that is already strongly established by the close of 'Meiosis'.Early experimentation in acoustic percussion and primitive multi-tracking techniques shaped the sound and spirit of these formative recordings, somehow very tentative but leading to an on-going fascination with subtle shifts in balance and nuances of sound within a limited palette, albeit in a wild and free series of performances here. As the second part of the projected Siren re-issue trilogy ; 'The Full Use Of Nothing' (1985), 'Meiosis' (1985) and 'First, Second And Third Drop' (1986), the primitive energy and somehow primeval expression of the first two albums is a vital key to the distinct changes and subsequent refinement that would follow afterwards and contains the pure essence of the project, from a different period almost 30 years past. 'Meiosis' is in an edition of 500 copies with Japanese language obi and features the original reproduced artwork by Andrew Chalk for the album. The CD was manufactured by in Japan. Layout by Magda Stepien, translations by Daisuke Suzuki."

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.

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.

gcttcatt "AmpErase" CD $9
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 $8
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.

Rolf Gehlhaar "Wege / Ways" LP $27
Metaphon (Belgium) METAPHON020
"Rolf Gehlhaar (1943-2019) was an instrumental and electronic music composer, and a pioneer in computer controlled interactive music. He grew up in the US where he studied philosophy and composition at Yale University. In 1967 he moved back to Germany to become Stockhausen’s personal assistant and member of his performing ensemble. In 1969 Gehlhaar co-founded, along with Johannes Fritsch (Metaphon 012) and David Johnson, the Feedback Studios in Cologne, a new-music performance center and publishing house. He later moved to England, where he became in 1979 a founding member of the Electro-Acoustic Music Association and later on senior lecturer in design and digital media. Gehlhaar’s compositions include symphonies, instrumental works, experimental and electronic music, interactive computer controlled music and everything in between. The three previously unreleased tracks on this LP only show a glimpse of the versatility of his adventurous and innovative musical ideas. The LP comes with a foldout insert including photos and extensive program notes. Edition of 500 copies. Cover design by Vahakn Gehlhaar Matossian. Mastering by Stephan Mathieu."

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)."

Janice Giteck "Breathing Songs from a Turning Sky" CD $9
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), Thomasa 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

Nikita Golyshev "Solaris" CD $9
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 $7
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 $11
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 $8
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 $12
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".

H.H.T.P. & Portablepalace "Cavitation" CD $10
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." featuring Dmitry Gelfand (prepared piano), Andrey Savitsky (electronic sound), and Kirill Domnitch (special effects). limited edition of 500 copies released in 2005 by this now defunct label.

Hubbub "Hoop Whoop" CD $10
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 [performed by Eye Music] "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); Michael 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.

In Camera "Arrival" LP $27
La Scie Dorée (Belgium) Scie 3624
music by Christoph Heemann & Timo van Luijk. "Four years after we got 'Lost in Spice' we reached the point of 'Arrival'. An altar on the surface of the water is burning with flames. Behind it you can see a half of the Earth’s globe, and on it there’s a bright throne. A pale, translucent ruler wearing a crown sits in the throne. The globe is surrounded by a ball of shadows on which sits a larger dark ruler on a dark throne. Behind the globe are mountain peaks, and all of it is reflected in the water. Above the mountains are clouds which merge into rivers and end in a curved horizon on which forests stand, and the sun rises between them. Above this horizon is another sky with lunar crescents and comets. Above this sky are rows of angels bent over, above which the stars shine. The sun shines in the top left corner and the crescent moon in the right. Edition of 400 copies. Cover image by M.K. Čiurlionis: Rex, tempera on canvas, 1909."

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.

Intermodulation "Connections (1970-1974)" 4 x CD box $41
Paradigm Discs (England) PD 40
"Formed in Cambridge in 1969 by Tim Souster and Roger Smalley, Intermodulation started out as a four-piece group with the addition of Robin Thompson and Andrew Powell (who soon moved on to other Cambridge projects, including a pre-Chris Cutler Henry Cow). Powell was replaced by Peter Britton, and this incarnation of the group remained for the duration of their existence. Having released a box set of works by Gentle Fire, it felt necessary to do the same with Intermodulation and thus complete the other half of this missing chapter in British experimental music. Intermodulation had quite a different line up than Gentle Fire, most notably with Peter's percussion, Robin on bassoon and soprano sax, and the shared use of VCS3's and electric keyboards. Nonetheless both groups covered similar ground, appeared at the same European festivals, travelled together with Stockhausen to Iran, and they were generally concerned with a similar repertoire of experimental scores. Although Intermodulation released no records during their existence (and Gentle Fire only the one LP), both groups did appear side by side on the recording of Stockhausen's 'Sternklang'. This four-CD set aims to cover a wide range of their work. CD one contains the entirety of their 1971 concert at Ely Cathedral (a six-minute excerpt of which appeared on the 'Not Necessarily English Music' compiled by David Toop). CD two focuses on their BBC recordings including excerpts from two Prom performances, one of which is the famous 1970 Prom which had Soft Machine taking the stage in the second half. CD three features material held in the archives of three German radio stations and the fourth disc consists of one work; 'World Music' by Tim Souster, the 72-minute opus written for the four players plus tape. In summary, Intermodulation plays five Stockhausen pieces (four of which are realizations of his intuitive text pieces), two Terry Riley pieces and one by Cardew. They also play two compositions by Tim and one by Roger, as well performing two group improvisations. The set comes with a 48-page booklet detailing the groups history. This is a numbered edition of 500."

Jeph Jerman "Burn-im-rag" LP $22
Buried in Slag and Debris (Canada) BISAD 046
"Buried in Slag and Debris is proud to present 'Burn-im-rag', a new LP by Jeph Jerman (Cottonwood, AZ - Hands To / City of Worms). Akin to his previous work, there is a tactile and territorial awareness that shapes Jeph’s sound: wandering, listening, recording, and reassembling. 'Burn-im-rag' continues this investigation dredging a cluster of vibrations, clatter, squeaks, malfunctioning chatter, and familiar-yet-unfamiliar audio. Mastered by Grant Richardson. Edition of 209. Black vinyl with fold out insert. Download card included."

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 & Ted Byrnes "Passenger" C39 $6
tsss tapes (Italy) tst039
edition of 125.

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.

Jeph Jerman & Tim Olive "Pancakes" C30 $9
Buried in Slag and Debris (Canada) BISAD 045
noisy collaborations with each taking turns providing source recordings (percussion, metal objects, prepared turntables, magnetic pickups, circuits) while the other one provides the final mix.

Yves Klein "Symphonie Monoton-Silence” LP $30
Edition Bierammer (Austria) KleinSymphonie
"Edition of 250 copies with Yves Klein Blue innersleeve and insert with score. First ever release of Yves Klein’s groundbreaking conceptual symphonie 'Monoton-Silence' conceived 1947-1948. Scored for 20 singers, 10 violins, 10 cellos, 3 double basses, 3 trumpets, 3 flutes and 3 oboes, the piece consists of a single 20-minute sustained D major chord followed by a 20-minute silence. The Symphonie 'Monoton-Silence' was a precedent to Klein’s later monochrome paintings and to the work of minimal musicians & composers, particularly La Monte Young’s drone music or John Cage’s 4′33″ and transforms Klein’s monochromatic paintings and sculpture into a monotone auditory experience. Performed April 1998 at Chapelle Ste Reita, Paris. Conducted by Philippe Arrii Blachette."

Dave Knott "Natura naturans" CD $8
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

Last Light "A Bridge Over The Lagoon" LP $25
Carbon Records / What Lies Beneath (U.S. / New Zealand) CR294/WLB12
"Last Light is the glorious confluence of the UK-based and Aotearoa/NZ born Dean Brown and Ben Spiers - names that might be familiar to anyone who has followed the post-Corpus Hermeticum school of hiss and klang as it's spread out across the world to coalesce in little pools here and there. Their album 'A Bridge Over The Lagoon' is the latest stop on a trajectory set flowing out of small town Aotearoa, hastened by the fire lit by 'Le Jazz Non'.
Dean Brown is best known as Little Skull. A basement Florian Fricke, creating grainy chamber miniatures with the same latticework intricacy as the delicate handmade dioramas that serve as the covers of his records. He was (is?) also a member of Nova Scotia, purveyors of reed-heavy skree clouds - a band whose existence feels more like a rumor than a fact and one of the final acts on Peter Stapleton's Metonymic label.
Ben Spiers mostly performs solo and has produced a spartan architecture of lonely electricity since the late 90s. He offset the romanticism of his contemporaries in Wellington (Campbell Kneale, Antony Milton, Bill Wood) with a skeletal directness. His guitar: hard edges hidden in gray shadow. Wood and metal ringing out into a void, the air charged and alive. He is also a member of ecstatic free maximalists Glory Fckn Sun and a number of duos (Seen Through, Tea Dust etc) imbued with the same dark intimacy as his solo work. He moved to the UK where his solo voice became further and further refined, taking on a melancholic halo – late night semaphores floating on winter sleet.
Last Light shines differently from it's members' respective pasts – it is not the earth rending blaze of Glory Fckn Sun, nor the candlelight glow of Little Skull. There are hints of the burnt out star cinders of Total or the rumbling flow of Flies Inside The Sun, but with much more of a sense of optimism than those comparisons would imply. The first side is a travelogue of movements over which the spirit of Peter Stapleton hangs heavy – long rolls of low percussion creating fields over which the guitar crackles and hangs suspended, carving the air. Much is written about alienation and isolation as being foundational to the underground arts originating in Aotearoa/New Zealand, but 'A Bridge Over The Lagoon' is a testament to optimism and connection. A testament to acceptance and patience. This is the sound of two bottom-of-the-worlders, now decades deep into their own respective sound rivers and hemispheres away from their homes striking a vein of triumphant unity again and again and again. A guitar and amp producing sounds that sit like hard facts smoldering in space. Instruments pass by, continuously re-contextualizing each other – a series of silhouettes in grainy half-light. Let this last light billow out from your speakers into the darkness of this horrendous year. Let guitars and drums and electricity tumble gracefully. 'A Bridge Over The Lagoon' is a bloom in the night."
edition of 292 copies.

Little Skull 7" $17
Horn of Plenty (U.K.) hop30
"Aotearoan expat Dean Brown has been slowly growing the Little Skull catalogue for the last 21 years. His sound belongs to the Aotearoan underground tradition, folding in elements of portastudio rock, folk and noise. As well as HoP his works have appeared on Planam, Elica, Digital Regress and Anomalous. These two tracks find Little Skull staring into space with his toes in the sand as he conjures a tumble-down cosmic blues dusted with tape hiss and distortion. As usual there’s no titles, just a sun or moon to guide us. Ltd. 200 copies on black vinyl 7" in handmade & written fold-over sleeve."

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.

Kiyoshi Mizutani "Cemetery" LP $27
Ferns (France) frond_13
"Mizutani was a member of Merzbow in the '80s and has done solo work since 1989. He has recordings on Ulcer House, ZSF Produkt, Shirocoal Recordings, NEdS, Sounds For Consciousness Rape, Pure, Artware, Kaon, e(r)ostrate, Povertech Industries, and Flenix Records. Reissue of a cassette released in 1993 on the Ulcer House label. Ltd to 150 copies. A track has been added to the original, and the artwork has been reworked."

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 "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

Nurse With Wound "Bar Maldoror" 2 x CD $22
United Jnana (Canada) UJ0034
"'Bar Maldoror' is the new and expanded double-CD edition of the classic Nurse With Wound album. Disc one is a remastered version of 'Live at Bar Maldoror', originally recorded between 1984 and 1986; disc two features a previously unreleased 2007 live show from Ghent, Belgium. 'In our very short spell as a "live band" Nurse With Wound performed eight times, five in public, between the years of 1984-86. These events were shambolic, chaotic and uneven affairs, sometimes as boring for the performers as the non-plussed audiences but at other times reaching an amazing intensity. Some were quite amusing - I remember one in particular, a Christmas event in Amsterdam. We had decided no electric lights, just hundreds of candles around the stage and, in amongst the audience (who were busy arranging them in circles) we began. I had a vast array of little noise making objects - toys and things - and I started inviting members of the audience to help us wind the clockwork stuff when suddenly about 50 people descended upon us, all very eager to help. Soon there was no room and we discreetly left the stage to watch the show from the comfort of the bar. Nobody seemed to notice. The audience played well and some of that gig made it on to this CD, which contains the high points of our Bar Maldoror happenings (sic).' --Steven Stapleton, February 3rd, 1994"

Nurse With Wound "Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella" LP $30
Rotorelief (France) ROTOR 0084
numbered edition of 700 copies on black vinyl in silver foil gatefold sleeve. "Official reissue. New remastering vinyl of the 1979 LP by Colin Potter. Gatefold cover plus complete Nurse With Wound list on gatefold inner. This is the long-awaited vinyl re-issue of the timeless Nurse With Wound debut release from 1979. Described by Sounds at the time as a record that 'makes The Faust Tapes sound like Carousel,' nothing has changed to alter this view over the last 30 years, and to say that this work is the 'Sgt. Pepper of the avant-garde' would not be hyperbole. Members include: John Fothergill (synthesizer, guitar, keyboards, wind), Heman (synthesizer, guitar, keyboards, wind), Nicky Rogers (guitar), and Steve Stapleton (synthesizer, flute, guitar, keyboards). The album has been included in the '100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)' by The Wire in 1998, and is one of the records that have had a lasting impact on avant-garde, experimental and psychedelic music. It was on this record that the famous 'NWW list' appeared for the first time, featuring dozens of names of musicians and groups who had influenced Nurse With Wound - a list that now serves as a treasure map for many collectors of the genre and fans of outsider music. It's been replicated here in the inner-sleeve of the gatefold. The album contains three lengthy tracks and Stapleton has stated that these were edited from improvisations with some overdubbing. Stapleton designed the sleeve using an old pornographic magazine."

Nurse With Wound "Deadlined" CD $13
United Dairies (Ireland) UDNEFIII
"Reflections on reading 'Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death' by Otto Dor Kulka. 'Deadlined' is an unfinished 2019 album stopped in it's tracks by Covid, making travel and recording plans near impossible for the unjabbed leper. Thanks to Colin Potter and Andrew Liles for their help and contributions."

Nurse With Wound "The Grave And Beautiful Name Of Sadness" LP $30
ICR (England) ICR104
"This features two archive mixes of the original 1984 recording. A 2007 epic variation recorded for possible inclusion in Peter Strickland's film 'Katalin Varga' and a unique 'psychedelic' version from 2012 which until now has never been heard."

Nurse With Wound "Gyllensköld Geijerstam and I at Rydbergs" 2 x LP $37
Rotorelief (France) ROTOR 0077
numbered edition of 900 copies on black vinyl in silver foil gatefold sleeve. "This 1983 period in which 'Gyllensköld' was recorded was a fantastic time for the evolution of Steven Stapleton's audio art. His collaborations with Diana Rogerson, Robert Haigh (Sema), David Tibet, and Thirlwell around this time elicited some of the most exciting work Nurse With Wound had yet recorded. Listen to this material and compare it to 'Chance Meeting' and it becomes clear that in just a few years, Stapleton's art had grown by leaps and bounds. The production quality on these tracks is remarkable, and the widening out of the NWW soundworld opened up a whole new audio toybox that Stapleton has continued to experiment with up to today. This new sound encompasses vocal experiments, vintage LPs of easy listening music, demented nursery rhymes, lateral references to disposable pop music, avant-garde jazz and minimalistic piano composition, all glued together with evocative atmospheres redolent of things unholy, troubling and perverse, but always oddly indefinable and puzzlingly misshapen. In retrospect, 'Gyllensköld' can be seen as the beginning of the 'mature;' period of NWW, and thus it is an indispensable release for fans of the project. Perhaps influenced by the obsessions of his friend and collaborator Tibet, Stapleton also began weaving religious and occult references into his usual name-dropping of avant-garde artists and movements . . . NWW's 'Gyllensköld' comes across at times as the soundtrack to a schizoid episode: disembodied voices intoning nonsense, floating subliminally across the stereo channels, or cackling in evil delight. The sounds are denser here than on earlier works such as 'Homotopy To Marie'. Areas of silence are mostly gone, replaced by layers of drone, cartoonish noises and mutated voices. 'Several Odd Moments Prior to Lunch' opens the brief album, setting the stage with its lysergically altered vocals and a frightening, yawning chasm of haunted, spectral sound. Stapleton, Thirlwell, and company learned how to wield the studio like an instrument on these and other recordings of the period. Effects such as reverb, delay, ring modulation and backwards tracking are utilized to create evolving textures and darkly psychedelic dreamspaces. 'Phenomenon of Aquarium and Bearded Lady' utilizes a number of instruments, including horns and piano, to create a bizarre dislocated funeral dirge in which the sounds of a slowly cycling jack-in-the-box are not out of place. For fans of musicians like Jacques Berrocal, who prefer their free jazz with a heavy dose of whacked-out eccentricity, this is about as good as it gets. 'Dirty Fingernails' is something else entirely, a longform exploration of outré textures, combining mysterious trebly noises with percussive bleeps of mysterious origin." --Brainwashed

Nurse With Wound "Opium Cabaret" CD $11
ICR (England) ICR 94
"Contains the full 'Opium Cabaret' album plus an additional 40 minutes previously unreleased studio material. Housed in deluxe full colour digipack with new art by Santini. 4 tracks, 74 minutes. Steven Stapleton, Andrew Liles & Colin Potter."

Nurse With Wound "Stoned In Stockholm" CD $14
United Dairies (Ireland) UD103
"Digipak. Recorded Live in Stockholm 2016. Steve Stapleton, Colin Potter, Andrew Liles and Matt Waldron. Contains extra material for CD format. New art by Babs Santini."

Nurse With Wound "The Sylvie And Babs Hi-Fi Companion" 2 x CD $18
United Dirter (U.K.) DPROMDCD113
"Re-press of the long sold-out deluxe re-issue of this 80's classic from Nurse With Wound. Expertly re-mastered by Denis Blackham. Now packaged in six-panel matt laminated digipac, with special matt 12-page booklet with artwork by Babs Santini. Includes a bonus disc of outtakes, unreleased material and remixes."

Nurse With Wound "Thunder Perfect Mind" 3 x LP $48
Infinite Fog Productions (Austria) IF-119LP
contains three sides of material not on the original CD release. "The original release of Nurse with Wound’s gargantuan 'Thunder Perfect Mind' in 1992 coincided with that of Current 93’s homonymous genre-defining album. Legend has it that the gnostic name initially appeared to Steven Stapleton in a dream as the title of Tibet’s then still nameless upcoming album. Both records feature contributions from David Tibet, Colin Potter, Rose McDowall, John Balance of Coil, Alan Trench of Orchis and Joolie Wood, amongst others. The title and the partial overlap of the personnel on both albums isn’t quite where the similarities end. Both albums have since become undisputed milestones in their respective artists’ oeuvre. At the core of the definitive 2023 Infinite Fog re-release, fully overseen by Steven Stapleton, are the two original tracks 'Cold' – a classic unsettling rhythmic Nurse collage-fest, significantly closer to jittery psychelia than the oft-cited 'industrial feel', and the epic 'Colder Still', easily one of the most mind-bending breathtaking NWW compositions up to this point and well beyond. The track soothes with its ghostly atmosphere, and reveals new surprises with every listen, not least of which is a direct link to its sister release from C93 as well as the first appearance of the signature rhythm loop that would mutate and re-emerge on several later tracks. The album also is the first full-length collaboration with genius sound wizard Colin Potter who has since become a ubiquitous sidekick both on Nurse albums as well as in live performances. As a follow-up to what is widely acknowledged as one of the best-loved exercises in drone of the 20th century 'Soliloquy for Lilith', 'TPM' is a much more varied but at least equally rewarding experience. Infinite Fog are beyond pleased to be able to offer a significantly enhanced, remastered and extended 3 LP version for old and new fans alike."

Nurse With Wound with Bladder Flask "Backside" CD $14
United Dairies (Ireland) UD286
"Digipak. New studio album featuring Bladder Flask. Originally issued as a limited edition LP lathe cut. Steve Stapleton, Andrew Liles and Richard Rupenus. Contains 20 minutes extra material. New cover art by Babs Santini."

Nurse With Wound & Graham Bowers "Rupture" CD $16
United Dirter (U.K.) DPROMCD93
"This CD is the first collaboration of Steven Stapleton's Nurse With Wound and composer/sculptor Graham Bowers. It is, without doubt, one of the best things United Dirter has ever released. It's an extremely unnerving, but also hauntingly moving listening experience. The work is an attempt to create a musical illustration of the 'goings-on' in the brain during the last hour and three minutes of life after suffering a major stroke. It is multi-layered and is primarily concerned with the internal chaos caused by the loss of control of thought processes, responses and consequential actions, with all types of incoherent disjointed memories and present real-time events - as well as moments of lucidity, panic and fear - clashing, merging and evolving. It's essentially one long piece, but is presented in three parts: 01. '...A Life As It Now Is' 02. '...Is Not What It Was' 03. '...And Will Never Be Again'. It arrives packaged in a beautiful 6-panel gloss-laminated Digipak, featuring artwork from both Babs Santini and Graham Bowers. The edition is limited to just 1,000 copies in this format." - label description

Nurse With Wound & irr.app.(ext.) "A Topography of Lucid Confusion" 2 x CD $23
United Dairies (Ireland) UDCD417
"In a super deluxe digipak, with gorgeously mind blowing new art from Mr Santini and MS Waldron. Just under 3 hours of insane sonic exploration to fry your synapses."

Nurse With Wound / Octave Mirbeau "Alienation / 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"

Omit "inSec LP $25
Siltbreeze (U.S.) SB-200
"Omit’s 'in/Sec' is 'new', but not new. Recorded in 2013, the masters lost in the label’s murky somewheresville that always shows up when moving. For those who don’t know, Omit is an experimental electronics artist from New Zealand’s south island who, since 1990, has released thirty-some xerographed cassettes and CDrs in the Dead C orbit for those who do. It’s not enough to say that 'in/Sec' is an ambient masterpiece bringing to mind a John Carpenter soundtrack performed by the Hub because listening to it engineers new species. The infectious and corrupting sounds synthesize new life forms in your brain's enzymes. If you specialize in a niche too much, you are prey to predators outside, but Omit never goes for low-hanging fruit and isn't simulating anything. I can vomit a better looking face than the ones on these little fuckers eating my brain right now.
In this century that flatters itself to be of drinking age, it is a queer thing we haven’t come face to face with aliens. There is a time for everything and they're all intermixed. Besides the xenobiological effects, Omit constructs your sentiment through timbral concepts that repeat and shift with minimal reference to harmony, melody, key, or mode. Streams jump and skitter, knitting tightly high and low in a dense rattling driven to the long and most plaintive tones amongst the countless gizmos (that’s including you, but not 'you'). This one is for big fans of Anode/Cathode, Ikue Mori, Papa Srapa, Fronte Violeta, and Insignia refrigerators." - label description

Ora "Time Out of Mind" CD $11
Shining Day (Poland) shine 13
“'Time Out of Mind' represents a most important chapter in the recordings of Ora, during the years 1986-1994 and here almost all entirely unheard before. They represent unreleased studio pieces, field recordings and sketches, significantly made to portable recorder. This working method would become the basis of future and more elaborate studio pieces and in itself clarifies an important formative stage of the work of Ora, of often using outdoor performances and location sound in an entirely spontaneous way. 'Time Out of Mind' is not some 'lost' album of that period, but it collects and reworks, after the passage of some 20 years, what might have been and has now been mixed, sequenced and arranged by Andrew Chalk into a full- length album. It inevitably captures, with the gift of hindsight, the spirit of the past. Line-up changes followed and working methods changed, which perhaps make 'Time Out of Mind' a missing stage in the evolution of a group that should have, though never actually did, exist in that period. Ora here was: Andrew Chalk, Darren Tate, Colin Potter and Daisuke Suzuki."

Organum Electronics "Fearceness" CD $14
Siren Records (Japan) SIREN 32
intense industrial drones.
"Digisleeve
Edition: 500 copies
An abandoned silence
Dreams of drifting, living a fateful solitude
Wrapped around a grey and foaming voice
Reaping impulse and mass like a forgotten beast
Lost to countless days and nights
Rocks and soil, sand and stars
In the sadness of being
Standing apart
Remember the rising flame from time long ago
A sound that shook deeply from the bottom of a boiling ocean
One voice of Mother Magma
Formless lava fashioned a primeval landscape
Ash, smoke and seething seas
A red-hot avalanche cascades endlessly
The Awakened Voice
Predestined from beyond the FEARCENESS"
part four of five installments of the Organum Electronics series.

Organum Electronics "Solitude" CD $14
Siren Records (Japan) SIREN 31
for the third CD under the name Organum Electronics, David Jackman presents almost 38 minutes of shifting drones that balance intense electronic tones with a slow moving beauty.
"In the everlasting silence of the universe
Dark clouds reflect upon shimmering water
The voiceless radiance of solitude
Dissonant overtones in dark clouds
Pierce the eternal veil of night
The rivers rage ceaselessly
Burst
Swiftly, cloud-shadows and sunbeams
White flames burning through a dark sky
Wrapped in its own eternity
Wild and forsaken
No sound is tamed
Release and rebirth, revolve, subside and swell
Inescapable and incessant in motion
The path of that unfailing sound
A harmony
Ancient and solemn
The voiceless radiance of solitude
Edition: 500 copies, Digisleeve"

Francis Plagne & Andrew Chalk "The Painter's Family" CD $16
Mould Museum (Australia) MM 03
"Recorded 2008-2016, released on cassette in 2018. 'The Painter’s Family' is the first duo release from Andrew Chalk and Francis Plagne, recorded intermittently, both together and apart, over eight years, in Hull, Melbourne and various places in Japan. Eight pages from the sketchbook, sequenced into two languorous side-long suites. ‘He tried by every means to come close to nature, lying in the fields before daybreak and until nightfall in order to learn to represent very exactly the red morning sky of sunrise, sunset and the evening hours’." edition of 300, comes in a mini handmade gatefold jacket with obi.

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."

P16.D4 "Distruct" CD $12
Sonoris (France) SNS-23CD
originally released on LP in 1984 on Selektion. "Assemblage of transformed, organized and (re)structed sound material submitted by: Bladder Flask, Déficit Des Années Antérieures, De Fabriek, The Haters, Philip Johnson, Hiroki Kocha, Merzbow, Fredrik Nilsen, Nocturnal Emissions, Nurse With Wound, Onnyk, Harold Schellinx, Die Tödliche Doris, Vortex Campaign."
“On this, their second LP, P16.D4 solicited tapes from several artists from Europe, England, the U.S., Canada, and Japan, and mixed that with their own material. Though in the current digital age collaborations from artists thousands of miles apart is quite normal, this was a quite radical approach back in 1982, when work on this LP began – an interesting concept that actually works quite well, since these artists, which include Bladder Flask, DDAA, the Haters, Merzbow, Nocturnal Emissions, Nurse With Wound, and several others – work in a similar free-ranging experimentalism as P16.D4, and their particular elements, usually just vocals or one instrument or noise implement, blend well without diluting P16.D4’s own peculiar brand of avant-garde post-industrialism, but merely give it another facet. One of the best tracks, 'Aufmarsch, Heimlich', consists of a choir submitted anonymously from Eastern Europe phasing in and out of static while a skronky alto sax bleats away. Most of the pieces exist somewhere just beyond the borders of free jazz, industrial, and even classical avant-garde, full of jarring noises and strange transitions and with a heavy overlay of electronics. What started out as an experiment yielded one of P16.D4’s best albums.” -
Rolf Semprebon / AMG

P16.D4 "Kühe in 1/2 Trauer" CD $12
Sonoris (France) SNS-22CD
“Though this German group started out as a the new wave band P.D., by the time of 'Kuhe in 1/2 Trauer', their first LP under the P16.D4 name from 1984, they had developed far beyond into extremely experimental music similar to other post-industrial artists working with abstract avant-garde soundscapes. There’s a bleak industrial feel to the gritty, lo-fi electronics and tape loops, while the group throws in enough curve balls to keep it interesting. On some pieces, strange, looped choirs bubble out of throbbing pulses and drones of feedback, while others have clanging and clattering, and elements of musique concrète and improvisation blur the boundaries even further. The opening track, 'Default Value', is one of those disorienting pieces with noises flying everywhere, while 'Paris Morgue' takes excerpts from one of their old P.D. tracks and messes it up with additional instruments, while the ungainly titled fourth track throws in a heavy texture of percussive noises to create an edgy ambience about to teeter off the edge, and the even darker and more ambient title track takes the tension even further. Arrhythmic and amorphous and capable at moments of becoming quite noisy and abrasive, while at others far more somber and quiet, 'Kuhe in 1/2 Trauer' is quite a fascinating release.” - Rolf Semprebon / AMG

Eliane Radigue "Elemental II" CD $10
Recordings Of Sleaze Art (France) r.o.s.a._07
performed by Kasper T. Toeplitz. “'Elemental II' is the first ever piece Eliane Radigue wrote for an instrument, without any pre-recorded sounds, without the use of her ARP synthesiser. I took a very long time to convince her to do so, the piece was some two years or more in the making – discussing about the sound a mountain makes after the rain. The first recording was released just after the premiere of the piece, in 2004. In 2011, seven years later, after having played the piece more 30 times in concert, after having spend a long time with it, after having 'domesticated' it, it seemed interesting to rerecord it – something very common in classical music, but almost inexistant in those 'other', electronic, musics. However those musics also live, change, evolve ; the same score another point of view”.

Éliane Radigue "Naldjorlak" 2 x CD $18
Saltern (U.S.) SLT-008
"Saltern presents a thrilling new live recording of 'Naldjorlak' for solo cello, composer Éliane Radigue's first piece for an acoustic instrument, paired with a remastered version of the long out-of-print, original 2006 recording. Composed in 2005 in close collaboration with cellist Charles Curtis, 'Naldjorlak' marked a striking shift in the music of Radigue, who has since composed exclusively for instrumentalists with her celebrated 'Occam' series. This double-CD album brings together two complete performances by Curtis, recorded nearly 15 years apart (Paris in 2006 and Los Angeles in 2020), drawing attention to the evolution of the piece and to its inherent mutability. The sound and spirit of 'Naldjorlak' are centered around the re-tuning of the entire cello to the wolf tone, a uniquely unstable frequency, creating a haunting, almost feedback-like resonance within the instrument itself. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu with custom packaging and screen printing by Alan Sherry. Includes extensive liner notes by Gascia Ouzounian, Radigue, and Curtis, and a reproduction of Radigue's never-before published original drawing of 'Naldjorlak'."

Eliane Radigue "Occam - Hepta I / Occam XX" CD $13
Montagne Noire (France) MN7
"In Eliane Radigue’s work, one distinguishes or contrasts the electronic works (composed until the early 2000s) with those written for acoustic instruments. From 2002 onwards, the artist began a series of compositions, the 'Occams', in which, in her own words, she fully realised what she had always sought to achieve in her electronic works. The disc devoted to her here brings together two pieces written at the same time; one for an instrumental ensemble (Dedalus) and the other for analogue synthesizer (Ryoko Akama). If the means seem to be opposed, this concordance of time lets us glimpse the deep unity that brings them together."

Éliane Radigue "Œuvres électroniques" 14 x CD box $74
INA-GRM (France) INA 6060/74
major retrospective of this pioneering minimal drone composer and performing featuring her major works spanning several decades back to the 1970s. this focuses on her electronic work done with the ARP 2500 synthesizer. really essential material. "2024 repress. With a 80 page booklet (French/English). Track list: 'Chry-ptus (version 2001)', 'Geelriandre', 'Chry-ptus (version 2006)', 'Biogenesis', 'Ψ 847 (version concert)', 'Adnos', 'Les Chants de Milarepa', 'Jetsun Mila', 'Trilogie de la Mort', 'L’Île re-sonante'."

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

Michael Ranta & Takehisa Kosugi "Multiple Musics" LP $27
Metaphon (Belgium) METAPHON019
"Previously unreleased live recording from the Ranta archives. The creative duo of Michael Ranta and Takehisa Kosugi performed many times in the 1970’s and 1980’s. On this outstanding performance, recorded at the Japanese Culture Institute in Cologne in 1987, the application of an advanced multi delay system, independently utilized by both players, plays a central role. The smartly treated cyclic tapestry of the delay system (modulated, transformed, harmonized) injects additional dimensions to the highly coordinated improvisation with voice, percussion, violin and electronics, creating interactive ‘composition-like’ textures being ‘Multiple Musics’. Edition of 500 copies. Cover painting by Wayne Jacob. Mastering by Stephan Mathieu."

Jean-Noël Rebilly et Andrew Chalk "Tsilla" CD $16
An'archives (France) An'41
“On 'Tsilla', Jean-Noël Rebilly and Andrew Chalk pay homage to the late French writer and engraver Cécile Reims. While she may be best known as interpretative engraver for surrealist artist Hans Bellmer, and she also worked with Leonor Fini and briefly for Salvador Dali, Reims’ most powerful and enduring works were made either in collaboration with her husband, the writer and artist Fred Deux (who signed their collaborative work 'cf deux'), or by herself. Later works by Reims, like the 'L’Elan Vitale' suite, or the 'Histoires Naturelles' series, manifest denuded, obliterated landscapes; spiralling abstractions; engravings that shiver with an unearthly radiance, where etchings of great intricacy hint at intimacy and the velocity of rapture, before opening out to aching empty spaces. The music on 'Tsilla' is similarly evocative, a tender weaving of emotional complexity carved with the hand-held and simple tools of artisans. Much like Reims, Rebilly and Chalk enact a similar transfiguration of base materials. For Reims, natural order is made 'more sinuous and curious through the rounded flow of her graver,' Kate McCrickard once noted. For Rebilly and Chalk, these seven pieces, cast under the shadow of a great artist, inhabit that sinuousness, and tease out the eternal flow of tone.” - Jon Dale gatefold sleeve, handmade by Andrew, an edition of 300.

Reverse Image "The Silence That Does Not Exist" CD $9
Khatulistiwa (Malaysia) KTW001
"Reverse Image is a sound artist from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She builds her works using analogue and digital equipment looking for the intersection between repetitive motifs and disjointed incidences. The title is inspired by the search for moments of silence amidst the discord." 4-panel Digipack. limited to 300 copies.

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 "The Radio - Airria (Hanging Garden) - Vein Stem Is Calm" CD $10
Sonoris (France) sns-18
"In the tradition of John Cage’s Cartridge music amplified objects, Steve Roden extracts a fine and delicate music through his manipulation of specific objects, with an apparent simplicity that hides a captivating magic. Whilst reinventing a form of ambient music which is discreet and atmospheric, Steve Roden delivers sound textures, gives shape to color swatches, traces vibrant frequencies and creates visual art objects.
• 'The Radio' (1996): The sound sources are derived from the object itself: the airwaves as well as the internal mechanics (aerial,springs, knobs …). Originally released as a miniCD by Sonoris, this work centered on Roden’s voice and found sound loops is now unexpectedly considered a classic and was seen as 'a particularly modest form of genius' in a review by The Wire at the time.
• 'Airria (Hanging Garden)' (2003): Arnold Schönberg's work 'The book of hanging gardens' haunts the piece, and is used as a backbone over which a ghostly and exhilarating vocal hovers. Both unsettling and relaxing, this track from the 'Speak no more about the leaves' CD has strangely become a mini phenomenon on YouTube with its number of views and comments.
• 'Vein stem is calm' (1996): A few seconds taken from a Ralf Wehowsky piece are shaped into a nocturnal raga imbued with substances of an indeterminate nature."

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.

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

Daisuke Suzuki "D.D.D. " CD $12
Siren Records (Japan) SIREN 13
"Edition: 200 copies, card sleeve. ‘D.D.D.’ is a field recording album recorded by Daisuke Suzuki and was originally released by Texas based IDEA in 2001 in an edition of 300 copies on LP. Sometimes field recordings can be appreciated in relation to the conceptual art form, or as an on-site sound study and documentation of a very specific phenomena. However, Daisuke had no concept of the idea of building sonic panoramas and was specifically only concerned with gathering lots of intriguing sound matter for his personal listening. ‘D.D.D.’ was mastered by Gary Todd, who was the founder of the Cortical Foundation. Gary and Daisuke became good friends when Gary visited Japan as Red Crayola live sound engineer in the late 1990s and they developed a mutual trust with each other after that. Sadly in September 2001, Gary fell from his apartment balcony, which left him hospitalized ever since. On June 25, 2022 Gary passed away at the age of 59. Daisuke said, 'Gary was always generous and had a kind heart. He gave me a lot of friendship and warmth. I’ve decided to re-issue 'D.D.D.' to keep him in memory and heart.' The CD includes an expanded version of ‘Cricket Voice’ which did not appear on the original IDEA LP release. The CD is in edition 200 copies and is presented in a facsimile card sleeve of the original release, newly designed by Andrew Chalk." - label description
"D.D.D." sample

Daisuke Suzuki & Andrew Chalk "Drifting" CD $12
Siren Records (Japan) SIREN 35
"Edition: 300 copies, card sleeve. A collaboration does not mean you have to share everything or to do each and every activity together as a team. If your words or sounds inspire someone to open a challenge to something new, or open the door of possibilities-you can call it collaboration. Your personally recorded sounds never fail to reveal your true face and the sounds always speak more than words can. ‘Drifting’ is the very first collaboration between Andrew Chalk and Daisuke Suzuki, which has remained unsurfaced since then-their private recording in 1996. In early 1996 Daisuke sent Andrew a DAT tape which included some unedited pieces that he recorded with found objects in his garden. Those fragments of recordings inspired Andrew to make a spontaneous recording and he made a live mix directly to cassette recorder with his instinct and archaic vision. ‘Drifting’ is a kind of archaic low-fi recording, but it has great atmosphere and perfect unison in texture. ‘Drifting’ was also a prelude to their long-term collaborations and the beginning of the change of direction in Andrew’s approach to music. Remastered by Denis Blackham in 2023, and CD comes with glossy card sleeve in edition 300." - 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."

Giancarlo Toniutti "Bàardum Guùmuse (For Your Red Tongue)" CD $12
Anomalous Records (U.S.) NOM33
I have been lucky enough to release through Anomalous Records many of my favorite artists that were active in the 1980s such as Hands To, Total, Andrew Chalk, Agog, Ellen Fullman, The New Blockaders, and founder of P16.D4, Ralf Wehowsky. Now I am able to present a new composition by Giancarlo Toniutti, whose work I first heard on the compilation LP "Never Say When", which also introduced me to the music of the aforementioned Andrew Chalk and Total. His track there, "Covar Peste in Cagna", sounded like nothing else, and set me wanting more. While releases of his music started sporadically, with years between some early titles, he has been more active in recent years. I am proud to present a new work of his recorded in 2022. Here he presents a single track of almost 50 minutes length. Always difficult to place, this could best be described as "electroacoustic music" and comes closer in composition to the late works of Luigi Nono or early György Ligeti, without sounding like either of those or getting lost in their academic language. Generally Toniutti does not reveal how the sounds of his compositions are created, but here gives us a clue saying they come from self-built idiophones made of glass, brass and wooden frames, metal tines and steel plates, which nonetheless use no string, membrane, or air. That said, the original high pitched sounds were transposed and treated to reach their final form, which is more muted and mysterious. Moving slowly and delicately, tones ebb and flow with contrasting densities creating constellations which do not hold as still as first listening might suggest. Listening to this repeatedly, I have been drawn to how the development is seen in a microscopic view not what might appear initially as an exposition of a few tones. Put plainly, it is a work that appears simple on the surface but holds a great complexity when paying attention to the details. None of the sounds lasts more than 10 or 15 seconds, although they overlap in varying ways creating an illusion of relatively still surface. This work rewards the careful listener.
Edition of 302 copies in digisleeve with 8 page booklet.
"Bàardum Guùmuse" sample

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, Deison, Massimo Toniutti "Due Scritti Imperfetti" CD $15
13 (Italy) sps2486
"The location chosen for this collaboration was primarily the recording studio in Udine where, in a two-year timespan, the authors met to discuss, compose, record, trim, listening back, sifting out sounds and adapting their electro-acoustic mixtures. The music or rather ‘musics’ that emerged during this progress, represent different versions of ongoing experiments, a whole construction focussed on details, those presented by ordained processes, then liberated from the order to find it again in the myriad of sound elements. Details arising while they replace and displace and reorganize vanishing fugues, and again details derived from the reinforcement of one-to-one performances, their proliferations and rarefactions in a space, unfettered. Pâte de verres, invisible spikes and wires scrape, the blend grows and gets together tapping strings, with ribs and stretchers and blowing on the borders, oh excited foils, bows and hairs are skipping, slats and staves rebounds, self-built air streams, gliding tiny machines, buzz and dives, fast, faster in the space like tape and knot, stripes and stitches, and fine-tuning timbres, using chisel and timbre and detail and hundreds more modes and means, alloys and montgolfiers, groups or clusters slide away to the boundaries and details tell tales. Otherwise and inversely balanced, a true electroacoustic work before mastic, before illiteracy. 6-panel digisleeve, ltd. 300 copies."

Massimo Toniutti "The Clear Observatory (Eyepiece Musique)" CD $17
Klanggalerie (Austria) gg465
"Massimo Toniutti is an Italian sound designer and experimental musician. He is the brother of Giancarlo Toniutti who is best known for his electroacoustic 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 Museo 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. On his new album, Toniutti deals once more with space and silence with an immersive, spacious long track. A loose-knit sound structure moves in a cyclic but unpredictable way embracing macro shapes, empty spaces and sound dust. While running crystal clear it invites you to observe it in depth and focus on distances. Details/events are spread along the piece like in a landscape, still and changing at the same time. A deep listening that can easily become 'my personal musique d’ameublement', to quote the composer himself. A model of this work has been part of a permanent installation in a museum since 2013. 'The Clear Observatory' is a sort of never ending piece, the enlargement/development of a bunch of seeds. Sound sources (acoustic material and field recordings) are treated in a specific configuration of reverbs and delays to create this roomy 'eyepiece musique'. The CD comes in a 4 panel digipak w/booklet. Limited edition of 300 copies." - label description

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" CDR $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."

Timo van Luijk, Kris Vanderstraeten, Daniel Duchamp & Luis Ferin "Traces du Hasard" LP $27
La Scie Dorée (Belgium) Scie 3824
"This album is a bit of an accumulation of coincidences. It is the first recording session I did with Kris Vanderstraeten, back in 1994, together with Daniel Duchamp and Luis Ferin. The session recording had since disappeared from attention and 30 years later, while going through old DAT tape archives, I came across it by chance, initially even not knowing who/what it was… The tape started with a recording of cars, captured from my balcony in Brussels, where I lived at the time. I decided to integrate the cars as an intro to the music session that fitted in seamlessly. Both the recording quality and the musical performance were remarkably good. A lost and found little treasure. It was a refreshing time for me, playing with people from a jazz and free improvisation background. We became good friends. Kris Vanderstraeten: Drums, percussion, sounds, electronics. Daniel Duchamp: Double bass, (prepared) cornet, effects. Luis Ferin: Soprano sax, electric guitar. Timo van Luijk: Autoharp, percussion, sounds, effects. Edition of 300 copies. Recorded chez Kris, 1994. Collage by Timo van Luijk."

Harry Van Essen & Fred Gales "Sounds Of Egiali - Amorgos" CD $16
Art Into Life (Japan) AIL035CD
"Sound Reporters was a Dutch publishing company that specialised in anthropology, religion, and history, releasing unique documents of the cultural multiplicity of human societies and their importance. These recordings were originally released on cassette in 1988, and consist of field recordings made on the Greek island of Amorgos, part of the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea. The release was jointly credited to the painter Harry Van Essen, who lived for several years on the island and recorded its soundscapes, and also to the ethnomusicologist and founder of Sound Reporters, Fred Gales, who mixed the recordings. The recordings consist of sketched amalgams of local sounds from Egiali, a port in the northeast of the island. The first half is a soundscape deeply rooted in the island people’s daily lives, alternating sounds of the sea with popular music, recitations of poetry, the sounds of fishing boats, people playing boardgames, a party. The second half takes us out of the village and into the mountains, unveiling the island’s unadorned natural environment: the sounds of cicadas, the buzz of honeybees, the bells of the large herds of goats left out to pasture, etc. Remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. The LP includes an A4 insert of the text that came with the original release (including detailed recording location notes) and a download code."

Harry Van Essen & Fred Gales "Sounds Of Egiali - Amorgos" 2 x LP $48
Art Into Life (Japan) AIL035
"Sound Reporters was a Dutch publishing company that specialised in anthropology, religion, and history, releasing unique documents of the cultural multiplicity of human societies and their importance. These recordings were originally released on cassette in 1988, and consist of field recordings made on the Greek island of Amorgos, part of the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea. The release was jointly credited to the painter Harry Van Essen, who lived for several years on the island and recorded its soundscapes, and also to the ethnomusicologist and founder of Sound Reporters, Fred Gales, who mixed the recordings. The recordings consist of sketched amalgams of local sounds from Egiali, a port in the northeast of the island. The first half is a soundscape deeply rooted in the island people’s daily lives, alternating sounds of the sea with popular music, recitations of poetry, the sounds of fishing boats, people playing boardgames, a party. The second half takes us out of the village and into the mountains, unveiling the island’s unadorned natural environment: the sounds of cicadas, the buzz of honeybees, the bells of the large herds of goats left out to pasture, etc. Remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. The LP includes an A4 insert of the text that came with the original release (including detailed recording location notes) and a download code."

Enno Velthuys "A Glimpse of Light" LP & CD $31
Dead Mind Records (The Netherlands) DMR47
"Repress on clear vinyl. Comes with insert and an expanded CD version that includes the 3 missing tracks from the original tape. 200 copies. In 1984 Velthuys released his classic tape ‘A Glimpse of Light’ on EXART, the label of Veldman, who stayed in close contact with Enno after hearing one of his private tapes being played on the radio by Willem de Ridder in 1980. During a live-broadcast event random tapes were played. 'From Enno Velthuys, The Hague', was written on the package. Willem introduced the tape, played it and a serene silence filled the studio. Present was Rob Smit, who visited Enno and his mother a few weeks later. This eventually resulted in Enno’s first release ‘Ontmoeting’ on KUBUS Kassettes in 1982. In those years, Enno was living a solitary life and rarely left his mother’s apartment. He managed to release 4 albums on cassette of introvert, melancholic music from another dimension. Atmospheric melodies backed with sparse percussion, showing an excellent handling of the synthesizer.
This gifted musician with two souls silently passed away in 2009. Now we present, with involvement of the few once close to him, the first reissue of probably his most beloved work. Using the original master tape from the EXART vaults, carefully transferred, edited and remastered. Just Enno with his stripped-down compositions and fragile ambient sounds. An intimate experience celebrating bedroom-music and the glory days of do-it-yourself counterculture."

Vogelscheiß Und Seine Verrückten Kröten CD $13
Art Into Life (Japan) AIL027CD
"John Hubbard, who is also a book designer and based in Finland, had released the sole recordings of the legendary project 'Vogelscheiß Und Seine Verrückten Kröten' in 1989 in a limited edition of just 50 copies on his Strength Through Joy label. Now these rare recordings are re-issued for the first time. In 1988, upon meeting Steve Stapleton while on vacation in Europe, John then went to Aachen and visited Christoph Heemann & Andreas Martin, and the enigmatic sessions they recorded are revealed here. Remastered by Jos Smolders, who has worked on projects by Takehisa Kosugi, Pierre Henry, and titles on the Come Organisation label. The CD edition differs from the LP edition in that each one has its own unique handcrafted paper jacket, differing in color and texture. Limited to 200 copies."
"Born at the intersection of space, time and absurdity... After years correspondence with various musicians in UK and Europe (resulting from fandom and the process of co-publishing the 'BirthDeath' compendium about Come Organisation), the opportunity arose for me to spend three months traveling in the Fall/Winter of 1988. UK travels included a brief but impressionable stay with Steve Stapleton and Diane Rogerson in London, with visits to John Smith (Interchange magazine) in Newcastle, and Mark Durgan (Birthbiter, Putrifier) in Oxford. Following this, a lengthy stay with Christoph Heemann (HNAS, DOM Records) in Aachen, Germany, with a side trip to Ivrea, Italy to stay with Andrea Cernotto (The Sodality). Christoph and I whiled away our time listening to records, talking of records, shopping for records, and discussing the process of making a record together. While dining in a local Thai restaurant in Aachen we heard a warbly, distorted background music tape that had likely been playing for ages, thinking, 'we can do this...' and took it as inspiration for the opening track on the LP. We invited Christoph’s brother, Andreas Martin, to join us in the fun, to which he graciously agreed. We booked the studio and rehearsed at their parent’s house the night before with violin, banjo and recorder. We transferred a piano piece I had recorded in Seattle, a field recording of toads, created the radio/sound collage for 'Jolly Jumble' from the tapes I brought, and completed the album with an ambient piece. We took our master tape to Belgium to have the lacquer cut and shipped it off to the pressing plant in Germany. I flew back to Seattle and patiently waited for my copies from the 'test pressing' ... 50 copies. Christoph kept 8-9 copies for himself, Andreas, and friends." - John Hubbard

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.

Trevor Wishart & friends "Beach Singularity / Menagerie" LP $28
Trevor Wishart (England) YES 8
arriving unannounced at the beach in strange costumes and erecting a maze, they proceed to play straight forward popular seaside tunes, but as an audience gathered their music developed with a bizarre twist, with additional sound-effects, tape-collage and electronics. also includes soundtracks for small assemblages by performance artists.

Yeast Culture "Dueterium: Yeast Culture Improvacoustic Series Vol. 1" C60 $6
Regional Bears (U.K.) RB20
known mostly for their "IYS" LP which blew minds when it was released in 1989, this group was based in Seattle and disappeared from sight for many years. this cassette shows a different side of Yeast Culture activity with archival recordings from 1991 featuring one side vocal and on the flip improvisations on upright piano. released in 2019 and now out of print.

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.

"Et si c'était le vent qui avait raison" CD $12
Ferns (France) stem_16
"The idea was to send a drawing of Small Cruel Party aka William Ransone to certain artists so that they could be inspired by the drawing and the title to create their piece. The participants were: Vincent Jehanno, Alice Kemp, Brb>Voicecoil, Leif Elggren, Jeph Jerman, Yeast Culture, Aliénor Golvet, Anne Gillis." limited edition of 200 copies.

"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."

"The Sounds Of Sound Sculpture" CD $16
Art Into Life (Japan) AIL034CD
"In 1973, the Sound Sculpture Show took place at the Vancouver Art Gallery. An LP audio catalogue (with a booklet) of the exhibition, entitled 'The Sounds of Sound Sculpture', was released in 1975 under the supervision of the Canadian sound sculptor John Grayson and US composer David Rosenboom. Grayson had edited an important early book on the field, 'Sound Sculpture'. The LP included rare takes of Rosenboom and Grayson, amongst others, playing famous pieces by pioneering sound sculptors including the Baschet brothers and Harry Bertoia, the latter best known for his Sonambient series. It also included some of the few recordings by Stephan Von Huene, who had begun to create his kinetic sculptures, and the profound atmospheric pressure systems constructed by the New York sound artist David Jacobs. All tracks were remastered in 2024 by David Rosenboom." also includes a short track by Reinhold Pieper Marxhausen.

"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."

"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.

coming later (pre-orders recommended):

[Note: If a price is not listed, it means I don't know the final price yet.]

Michael Barthel "Two im Teer" CD $
Recordings For The Summer (Germany) TwoimTeer
Recordings for the Summer, Germany 2024. Edition of 300 copies in 6-panel digisleeve. 14 pieces, 80 minutes
Concept, Poems, Collages by Michael Barthel in 2020 with contributions by Alice Kemp - voice, Hans Essel - violin, Anna Schimkat - voice, Inge Salcher (Phren) - violin, Mara Genschel - voice “'Two Im Teer' ('Two In The Tar') contains five cycles of poems spread over fourteen tracks, always implemented differently in terms of sound. Poetry and sound poetry turn into fragile and lonely noises. An excessive collage of voices, piano, and increasingly distorted and destroyed tape recorders. Solo and in duet with the voices of Alice Kemp, Mara Genschel, Anna Schimkat, and the violins of Hans Essel and Inge Salcher.
Perhaps the most naked, embarrassing and most indeterminable recordings until now. In contrast to the previous poems, which used the topic of relationships as a symbol to describe social and political togetherness, the poems and pieces on 'Two Im Teer' are exclusively focused on the relationship between two people. Nevertheless, this 'we' end up in an individual position. What remains is desire and failure. For the first time, four English poems are released here, next to the German ones.”

Harry Bertoia "Mechanization 1 & 2" LP $31
Sonambient (U.S.) FW 1040LP
"On this new LP, Harry Bertoia shows why he may have been the first industrial musician. Bertoia often referred to his sound sculptures as a 'collaboration with industry' and on this new LP Bertoia is intentionally creating heavy, rhythmic music he described as 'mechanized', 'mechanical', and 'factory like'. This first edition is packaged in a full color sleeve with metallic inks. Mastered by Tom Eaton at Sounds & Substance. Recorded in 1971, percussion and repetition emulate the pounding rhythms of machinery on this unique pair of conceptual Bertoia compositions. Bertoia utilizes innovative performance techniques to create new sounds unheard in his ouevre. Even in the busy factory of Bertoia's mind, distant stillness rises up as Bertoia exhibits the massive amount of control he possesses over his many looming sculptures. Mechanization is just one of the many sonic directions Bertoia took while composing and recording between the late 1950s and his death in 1978. He documented all of his ideas and directions in notes accompanying the hundreds of tapes discovered in his barn. This first edition of 500 is printed using metallic inks. Bertoia's recordings are as much a celebration of sustained tones, intervallic relationships, healing vibrations, deep listening and shimmering harmonics as Indian Classical music, singing bowls, The Well Tuned Piano or Benjamin Franklin's glass armonica. Through these rich harmonics and pulsing pure tone, Bertoia was able to more clearly articulate his inner spirit than he could with sculpture alone -- a point he made himself many times in interviews. Bertoia was an obsessive composer and relentless experimenter, often working late into the night and accumulating hundreds of tapes of his best performances; his brother Oreste, too, would explore and record the sculptures' sounds during his annual visits to his brother's home in rural Pennsylvania. Learning by experimentation was common for Bertoia and he mastered the art of tape recording, turning the Sonambient barn into a sound studio with four overhead microphones hanging from the rafters in a square formation. He would experiment with overdubbing by performing along to previous recordings, sometimes backwards, constantly improving his methods while also honing his performance skills. The story of Sonambient barn collection will slowly be told through the release of recordings from the archive as well as installations and performances built from Bertoia's own recordings, lectures and a book."

Michele Bokanowski "Musiques De Concert" 4 x CD $44
Sonoris (France) SNS 024CD
"This four-CD box edition collects all concert music by Michèle Bokanowski, a composer of electroacoustic music living in Paris, France. Passionate about music from childhood, it wasn't until later, at the age of 22, after reading 'À la recherche d'une musique concrète' by Pierre Schaeffer, that she decided to study composition. After classical training in harmony, she met Michel Puig, a pupil of René Leibowitz, who taught her writing and analysis upon Schönberg Theory. In 1970, she began a two-year internship at the Research Department of the ORTF under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer. Between 1973 and 1975, she took part in a research group on sound synthesis, studied computer music at the University of Vincennes as well as electronic music with Éliane Radigue. She mainly composes for concert and for cinema (music for Patrick Bokanowski's short films and for his feature films 'L'Ange' and 'Un Rêve solaire'). She has also composed for television, theater and dance. In her music, often infused with a mysterious atmosphere, she uses evocative and poetic concrete sounds, with a mastery of looping and feedback techniques and with an art of cinematic editing."
"Why musique concrète is so attractive to me, as opposed to written music? To write music implies that an idea or a thought is at the origins of the composition and that the final thing is the sound rendering of this thought. The sound is at the end of the line, in other words. Musique concrète is the exact reverse of this process: you start from sounds... sounds that will perhaps lead you to a constructive thought. Here, it's the material that induces the thought, or the writing. The possibilities of finding or inventing new sounds and, therefore, new forms are tremendous, infinite... Moreover you can use chance to a much greater extent." (Excerpt of an interview with Michael Karman for Asymmetry Music Magazine, 2007)

Andrew Chalk "Dioramas" LP $27
An’archives (France) An’47
"LP ltd to 350, black vinyl, 180g, offset jacket with obi, large insert and a postcard. On Andrew Chalk’s new album for An’archives, 'Dioramas', he returns to the art of the miniaturist, after the long-form exploration of 2024’s 'Songs Of The Sea'. It’s an appropriate mode of address given the title – each of these fifteen pieces indeed feels like a replica of a specific scene, rendered in miniature. As with much of Chalk’s music, they set out to explore humble terrain, a thread of melody in slow motion, or a weave of texture, sometimes in aquatic repose, moving like slow tides. There’s a becalmed warmth to much of 'Dioramas', along with some curious developments: a pronounced folksy lilt to the melody that’s turned over and over, like a jewel slowly spinning on a dial, in 'The Carrach'; the lush churchiness of the organ in the hymnal 'The Changes'; the stretched strings that quiver and whisper on the closing 'Lonely House'. These subtle changes can seem profound at first blush, but they simply highlight aspects of Chalk’s music that we sometimes miss; they eventually settle into the scenery."

Hartmut Geerken "Requiem for the Snake of Maidan" 2 x LP $43
Holidays Records (Italy) HOL 138LP
"Towards the end of the 1970s, a film about me and my work was made in Kabul for the South German TV program. The director was Arpad Bondy. In order to find a venue for my music that is typical for Afghanistan, it was agreed that my 'percussion environment,' a tubular cube of 2x2x2 meters including the associated instruments, would be transported on a barren, stony ridge in the Hindukush mountains. The people called the place 'Maidan,' which means nothing but 'place.' While a couple of men dragged the frame pipes and the instruments up the hill, I decided to carry my large Wuhan gong (100 cm diameter) up the mountain, in a kind of ritual. Michael Ranta sent me this gong from Wuhan/China to Kabul. With slow and careful steps, carrying the heavy gong like an umbrella on my head, I walked over the difficult rocky terrain without a path up. Suddenly a snake about two meters long came out of the rocks towards me and hissed aggressively at me... As I later discovered, it was a very venomous snake... I had to bring myself to kill the beautiful animal... I decided to name my solo performance 'Requiem For The Snake Of Maidan'... While I was playing I only had one musician with me: the wind. I hung my metallophones on the linkage so that the wind could touch them and create sounds. The recording captured a few parts where I didn't have to lift a finger and the wind did everything that was necessary. The room was a wide landscape without any echo. If an echo can be heard in the recording, it is the reverberation from the big gong. Only a few noises came, apart from the wind, from outside... The big gong and the boo chals (Tibetan cymbals) produced a whole series of overtones. The string instruments, the metallo- and lithophones dominate the recording. In addition to the acoustic environment of my instruments, in some parts of my improvisation I used a battery-powered tape recorder (Uher 4400 report stereo IC) with a pre-recorded feeding tape that I had pre-recorded before alone or together with Michael Ranta in Kabul. The stones of the lithophone were collected by Ranta and myself in the valley of Goldara around an old collapsed Buddhist stupa. Almost each of the hundred stone plate we had lifted was ringing." - Hartmut Geerken

In Camera "Open Air" CD $16
Robot Records (U.S.) RR-36
"2008 remastered CD edition of the 2006 second album by In Camera (a collaborative project by Christoph Heemann and Timo van Luijk). 'Open Air' features very dynamic live material recorded outdoors, under the moon, in March 2004. Live improvisation integrating a stream of acoustic elements with continuous modulation. Packaged in a full-color digipak.

Jackman "Flames Of Fire" CD $
Die Stadt (Germany) DS136
"6th part in the Die Stadt OE/DJ CD series. Again a continuation in style of David Jackman 'A Cloud Of Light' (DS132)." distinguished from the recent CDs as Organum Electronics, which are noisier and intense, this album under his own name is more contemplative with one long track of droning tampura, what could be an organ or electronics, and the occasional deep bell and lone piano chord.

David Philip Jackman "Schining" 2 x CD $
Die Stadt (Germany) DS133
"5th part in the Die Stadt OE/DJ CD series. Similar in style to David Jackman 'A Cloud Of Light' (DS132)." distinguished from the recent CDs as Organum Electronics, which are noisier and intense, this album under his own name is more contemplative with two long tracks of droning tampura, organ, and the occasional church bells.

David Jackman "Up from Zero" CD $16
Robot Records (U.S.) RR-31
"2003 reissue. Originally released in 1982 on cassette (Aeroplane Records), 'Up from Zero' was David Jackman's third album of compositions. Integrating tapes, loops, shortwave radio signals, guitar tones, voice, and a host of percussion elements, each piece accumulates into a complex collage of cycles that create a haunting set of 'movements' and bizarre spatial relationships. These are the most sought-after of Jackman's first solo recordings. The proto-Organum sound. Also included is 'Offshore' (1980). This track, recorded with the assistance of Philip Sanderson (of Storm Bugs/Snatch Tapes/Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey fame), is Jackman's earliest piece to appear on CD to date. Fluttering tones along with sustained slabs of bowed guitar create a droning crest and a fitting 'outro' for these essential gems from the vault. Expertly restored from the original master tapes by Robert Hampson (of Main). Packaged in a card mini-jacket."

Paul McCarthy "A&E, Adolf & Eva, Adam & Eve, in the Garden of Eden, Picnic" 2 x LP $
Tochnit Aleph (Denmark) TA175
"Edition of 400 copies. Double vinyl LP, full color gatefold sleeve, full color inner sleeves. Artwork & design by Paul McCarthy. This recording is roughly 80 minutes of the A&E three day performance superimposed. Performed by Paul McCarthy (Adolf / Eva) and Lilith Stangenberg (Eva / Eve)."
"Paul McCarthy is widely considered to be one of the most influential and groundbreaking contemporary American artists. Born in 1945, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, he first established a multi-faceted artistic practice, which sought to break the limitations of painting by using unorthodox materials such as bodily fluids and food. He has since become known for visceral, often hauntingly humorous work in a variety of mediums—from performance, photography, film and video, to sculpture, drawing and painting.
During the 1990s, he extended his practice into installations and stand-alone sculptural figures, utilizing a range of materials such as fiberglass, silicone, animatronics and inflatable vinyl. Playing on popular illusions and cultural myths, fantasy and reality collide in a delirious yet poignant exploration of the subconscious, in works that simultaneously challenge the viewer’s phenomenological expectations.
Whether absent or present, the human figure has been a constant in his work, either through the artist‘s own performances or the array of characters he creates to mix high and low culture, and provoke an analysis of our fundamental beliefs. These playfully oversized characters and objects critique the worlds from which they are drawn: Hollywood, politics, philosophy, science, art, literature, and television. McCarthy’s work, thus, locates the traumas lurking behind the stage set of the American Dream and identifies their counterparts in the art historical canon.” - Hauser & Wirth

No Neck Blues Band "Formally Haywire" LP $38
Daksina (U.S.) DAK 017LP
"Within this interference pattern, to the contrary, any similitude dissolves and hence the dependence of space on a reference frame is no longer maintained. Orientation is now relative and arbitrary, for the dismantling of the fixed-point strips fifteen years of, let's call it, empirical reality of its novel status. Fear not, this is small-scale stuff! Should your future, whether protracted, brief, or fluctuant in relation to your daily needs, include any examination of the appearance and disappearance of things, this document of a divergent path will, most likely, have no impact on your experience. If one were to speak candidly, innocently, there's a possibility that a statement such as the following might be uttered - 'There is no longer a linear chronicle, there are only shards of a perceived history, a formless sludge made up of endless neutral particles. Malleable, yes, but with increasing frequency recombined under a set of standards dictated by the obligations of a collective unlived memory, never mind by a commercial venture, although it remains implied.' Fear not, servitude is still conditional! In this instance, at least. And, you'll still need some form of cash - cold, hard or subjective - and you'd do well to consider what methodology of relinquishment you plan for these slabs of plastic after your inevitable departure. Consider the serenity of your executor! Recorded, mixed and edited by Jason Meagher in 2007. Rejected by the powers that be shortly thereafter. Limited to 100 copies."

Orchid Spangiafora "Eel Asp Flaps Feet" CD $15
Feeding Tube Records (U.S.) FTR 780CD
"Fifty years after I first encountered the music of Orchid Spangiafora, it is a pleasure to be listening to new work by this most bonny of modern sound manipulators. Like 'Flee Pasts Ape Elf' (FTR 096LP), which we reissued in expanded form in 2013, 'Eel Asp Flays Feet' (the title of which is an anagram of the earlier set) is an assemblage of immaculate invention. It manages to produce a unique splotch of confusing analog surrealism in an increasingly digital world, and Robert Carey (aka Orchid himself) deigned to provide these notes on creating the music: 'This album is a combination of some new material and ideas and some older stuff that had not found its way into a tangible (non-online) form.' 'Syllabus,' 'Dyad,' and 'Retroscope' were an attempt to return to an older style of electronic music. I put these on bandcamp, but they did not attract much attention. In mid-2021 David Greenberger provided me with the voice recordings he had made for the 'Everybody's Home' project he did with Tyson Rogers. He asked if there was something I could do with them. I put together 'Holding Pattern' and 'In A Fog.' These two pieces might be considered the 'dub version' of 'Everybody's Home.' I put them on bandcamp as 'Nobody's Home.' The rest were originally made up of typical Orchid snippets. When I first took an electronic music course in 1972 one of the things that struck me about tape loops was how readily they produced interesting rhythms. Since then I got more into selecting them for the rhythm, but rather than repeating I tried to convey it in a single shot followed by slightly modified versions. In a number of these pieces I tried returning to actually repeating phrases enough to hear the natural rhythm of each loop. The mechanical sounds combined with vocal loops in, for example, 'Interlude One,' probably were influenced by the collaboration with Seymour Glass on Cous Cous Bizarre. The rapid streams of syllables in the 'Ur Sonata' came from playing around with an audio batch processing program. I used it to cut up regular loops into very short bits and string them together. Then, as with most electronic or 'tape' music, the real work consisted of removing the parts that didn't belong. The title comes from Kurt Schwitters because I felt the piece shared some of the same motivation or aesthetic, although the implementation is not at all alike.' Well, those are the component parts, but to truly grasp the whole, you must hold your brain tight and jump right in. There is just nothing like an Orchid Spangiafora album. Tell your friends." --Byron Coley, 2024

Organum "Sanctus" CD $16
Robot Records (U.S.) RR-35
"2006 release. The first album in a mid-2000s trilogy, followed by 'Amen' (2006) and 'Omega' (2007), 'Sanctus' represents the new architecture of the Organum sound. Recorded utilizing an implicit graphic score, the album comprises four discrete parts, each a variant of the others. These are not parts as in a movement or continuation of the composition, but rather four distinct audio canvases that represent a continuum of the elements at large. Composing in the spirit of the early Organum material, David Jackman has resurrected the drone-based, percussive turbulence of earlier years with a distinct new form of compositional systems. These new systems are scored for grand piano, Hammond organ, tower bell, and gong. While each element retains its distinct acoustic quality, the whole of each piece resonates with the art of its totality. The results convey an ecstatic sense of presence, vast expanse, and, ultimately, infinitude."

Organum / David Jackman "Penguins Eat Fish / Little Dark Wing" 7" $8
Robot Records (U.S.) RR-33
"2005 release. Split single of compositions by Organum and David Jackman. 'Penguins Eat Fish' features a metamorphosis of the Organum sound, integrating more punctuated, real-time acoustic elements with a diverse cacophony of 'chordal' loops of fog horn and bugle band. The penguins march to the horizon. 'Little Dark Wing' is the first piece to appear from a series of mid-2000s piano works by Jackman. Here Jackman's extensive graphic and visual background reveals a new palette of chordal systems."

Angelo Paccagnini "Musica Elettronica 1969-1971 allo Studio di Fonologia della RAI di Milano" LP $35
Die Schachtel (Italy) DS 046LP
"Imbued with the political tensions of the moment - this collection takes great leaps toward illuminating the brilliant output of one of Italy's most remarkable and neglected avant-garde, electronic and electroacoustic composers of the 20th Century. The first ever release dedicated to this profoundly important figure in the history of European electronic music has been fully restored and mastered by Andrea Marutti from the original tapes, housed in a matt silver cover with silver foil design, specially created by Bruno Stucchi/dinamomilano. It contains some of the most singular and emotive electronic and electroacoustic music ever recorded, which is presented to wide audiences for the very first time. A student of Bruno Bettinelli at the Milan Conservatory, and a collaborator of Bruno Maderna and Luciano Berio, Angelo Paccagnini (1930-1999) remains one of the most unjustifiably obscure figures who emerged within Italy's early Electronic Music scene during the 1950s. While Paccagnini worked with a wide range of instrumentation and sound sources over the course of his career, among the most engrossing of all his works are a series of electronic and electroacoustic compositions created during his early years as director of the Studio di Fonologia Musicale, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, three of which are comprised for the first time across the length of this album. The LP comprises three works; 'Flou II', composed in 1971 for tape, piano, improvised percussion, and orchestral groups; 'Partner', composed in 1969 for female voice and electronic sounds; and 'Underground', composed in 1971 for four synthesizers. Unquestionably drawing on the political ferment of the era during which they were created, each is astoundingly tense in their structural arrangement and tonal and dissonant relationships, culminating as some of the most emotive avant-garde music created anywhere during that period. Historically significant in countless ways, this release takes huge leaps to illuminating the brilliant output of one of Italy's most remarkable and neglected avant-garde, electronic and electroacoustic composers of the 20th Century. 200 copies featuring a deluxe cover with handmade silver foil printed on 450g paper. Includes a 30x30cm double-sided insert with detailed notes, pictures and more."

Selten Gehörte Musik "Das Berliner Konzert" 2 x CD $
Tochnit Aleph (Denmark) TA172
"stimulated by our first public performance of 'rarely heard music' ('Das Münchner Konzert'), we at once planned another concert in which the tight circle of performers was to be enlarged by a couple of dear friends, and once again the location had to have the lure of the special. Oswald Wiener suggested the church of the holy cross in Berlin as our place of action, for we had learnt that it could be hired for public performances. everyone was most enthusiastic about playing a venue like that, and so 'rarely heard music' came to be performed on 27 September 1974 on a grand scale before a large audience. the participants this time were Attersee, Günter Brus, Hermann Nitsch, Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm, Dominik Steiger, Oswald Wiener, and Arnulf Rainer, who contributed to the performance as silent face-puller and contortionist. not only did the event assume almost monumental dimensions in terms of outlay, preparations, resonance and duration, at times it rose to unbridled, almost ecstatic climaxes; at one point Brus, who had been manically blowing the one and same note into a kind of alphorn, even momentarily lost consciousness." - Gerhard Rühm "Über Selten Gehörte Musik”
"Edition of 300 copies. Double CD, full color 12” LP gatefold sleeve, printed inner sleeve, two A3 size posters, flyer. Includes previously unpublished archival photos & artworks. 'Das Berliner Konzert' was first published by Hansjörg Mayer, Studio Morra & Pari e Dispari in 1977 as a 3 x vinyl LP box. This is the part six in the Selten Gehörte Musik reissue series curated & produced by Daniel Löwenbrück / Tochnit Aleph. The 7th and last part 'Abschöpfsymphonie' is planned for release in 2025."

Smegma "The Smegma Christmas Album" LP $29
Alga Marghen (Italy) S 24TES.178
"On this album, Smegma was: WhateverWoman (Amy, Amazon Bambi), Chucko-Fats (D.K.), The Quackback Kid (Dennis Duck), Ju Suk Reet Meate with Reed Burns, Richard Wagner, and Danton Dodge. At the end of October 1973, Ricky Reets Hubba-Hubba Band was disbanded. It had been decided that what was needed was 'a band without musicians' and many wild experimental jam sessions took place. Finally on November 23, a particularly inspired jam was named 'Cat Cheese' and the band Smegma was born. Although they had only been playing music together (or at all) for a few months, they decided to record a full length 'live in the studio' Christmas album that included three original songs and an Elvis Presley cover. Budding sound engineer Mike Lastra offered them their first studio recording session in a garage in San Diego, and after a few rehearsals every track was recorded in one take and history was made. They wanted to do some old fashioned songs so they asked two willing 'musicians', Reed Burns and Richard Wagner, to help, and since only four Smegma members could make the session 'Danny' Danton Dodge (14 years old) was recruited as well. Of course, at the time only two or three copies on cassette were ever dubbed. The 'Ace Of Space' received one and promptly became the first person to join the group, but now 50 years later this album is finally made available to public for the first time!"

Laetitia Sonami / Eliane Radigue "A Song For Two Mothers / Occam IX" LP $34
Black Truffle (Australia) BT 122LP
"The first ever solo release from Laetitia Sonami. Born in France in 1957, Sonami studied with Éliane Radigue in Paris before moving to California in 1978 to study electronic music at Mills College. Sonami is perhaps most closely associated with one of her inventions, the Lady's Glove, an arm-length tailored glove fitted with movement sensors allowing the performer fluidly to control digital sound parameters and processing, as well as motors, lights and video playback. Having performed with the Lady's Glove for 25 years, Sonami retired it in 2016, turning her attention to the interface/instrument heard and pictured here, the Spring Sprye. After decades of aversion to documenting her work on recordings, 'A Song for Two Mothers / Occam IX' treats listeners to two side-long performances with the Spring Spyre: the very first piece developed for the instrument and the most recent, the two contrasting remarkably in sound palette, energy and form. 'A Song for Two Mothers' (2023) spins an intricate web of rippling synthetic burbles, rapid sweeps and fizzing textures. Performed in real time with the sensitive and partly uncontrollable Spring Sprye, the music is delicate yet chaotic. Abrupt gestures hover against a backdrop of silence, 'devoid of spatial or temporal direction.' After several minutes, the sound-world becomes metallic and percussive, tapping and ticking in pointillistic flurries before a wavering harmonic cloud emerges, sprinkled with resonant drips and pops. 'Occam IX' is a radically different proposition. At the outset of Sonami's exploration of the Spring Sprye, she asked her former teacher Éliane Radigue to compose a piece for it - and her: like all of Radigue's work since she ceased working with analogue electronics at the beginning of the 21st century, 'Occam IX' is written not only for an instrument but also for a particular performer. These scores are developed verbally, through meetings and conversations between performer and composer; each is grounded in an image (usually kept from listeners, to avoid influencing their experience); all magnify the subtlest acoustic phenomena and require great commitment and patience from the performer. Beginning from a rumbling low tone, the listener is gradually immersed in slowly lapping waves of synthetic tones, eventually thinning out into delicate bell-like pings against a background of white noise. Accompanied by notes from Sonami, her longtime collaborator Paul DeMarinis, and Radigue, and illustrated with scores, photographs and images of the Spring Spyre, 'A Song for Two Mothers / Occam IX' is an essential document celebrating an under-recognized pioneer of electronic music and performance."

Studio di Musica Elettronica di Torino "Musica Elettronica / Computer Music 1966-1972" LP $35
Die Schachtel (Italy) DS 045LP
"The Italian early electronic music scene has been at the core of Die Schachtel's activity since their very beginnings in the early 2000s. The Milanese label now returns with a new chapter in their celebrated Silver Series, a long-due first-time reissue of 'Musica Elettronica / Computer Music 1966-1972' by SMET (Studio di Musica Elettronica di Torino). Augmented with three previously unreleased bonus tracks, this is early '70s Italian electronic avant-garde music at its best. The SMET was born in Turin in 1964, from an idea by Enore Zaffiri. In the beginning the Studio worked with rudimentary equipment, aiming to disseminate knowledge of this avant-garde musical sector through conferences and auditions and, at the same time, developing its own sound experiences. The year of this (nowadays super rare) vinyl's publication was a turning point in the evolution of electronic music in Italy. 1972 saw the publication of 'Introduction to Electronic Music' by Armando Gentilucci, the first volume written by an Italian, in Italian, to examine technological advancements, by the renowned publishing house Feltrinelli. During this period, Pietro Grossi, Enore Zaffiri, and Teresa Rampazzi had the opportunity to develop their most significant compositional experiences. They engaged in a variety of activities, and this vinyl release marked a turning point in the evolution of electronic music in Italy, such as exchanging works, collaborating with each other, participating in itinerant exhibitions, traveling, writing, and organizing broadcasts. Zaffiri and SMET's shared ideology is clearly summed up on 'Musica Elettronica / Computer Music 1966-1972': electronic music, with its meticulous control over sound and form, is the only way to break free from the constraints of traditional compositional methods and instrumental mastery. It is an experimental endeavor that can only be achieved through a spirit of exploration and collaboration. Originally issued in 1972, and featuring the unmistakable sound of the iconic EMS VCS3 synthesizer along with tones generated on an IBM 360 computer, 'Musica Elettronica / Computer Music' was privately pressed in a handful of copies at the Fonit Cetra studios. Carefully remastered, this collection now features three previously unreleased extra tracks. Pressed on black vinyl in an edition of 210 copies, the album comes packaged in a deluxe cover with handmade silver foil printed on 450g paper, and also includes a 30x30cm double-sided insert with detailed notes and a SMET/Enore Zaffiri exhaustive chronology."