Robert Ashley
Robert Ashley (1930 to 2014) wrote operas for television, with characters who talk rather than sing over a slow electronic pulse, and in doing so invented a form that still has no proper name. Perfect Lives (1983), a seven part story about a bank robbery in a small Midwestern town, is its masterpiece; Automatic Writing (1979) turned his own involuntary speech into a whispered, hypnotic score. Born in Ann Arbor, he co-founded the ONCE Festival there in the 1960s, was a member of the Sonic Arts Union with Alvin Lucier, David Behrman and Gordon Mumma, and directed the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College.
Robert Ashley (1930 to 2014) wrote operas for television, with characters who talk rather than sing over a slow electronic pulse, and in doing so invented a form that still has no proper name. Perfect Lives (1983), a seven part story about a bank robbery in a small Midwestern town, is its masterpiece; Automatic Writing (1979) turned his own involuntary speech into a whispered, hypnotic score. Born in Ann Arbor, he co-founded the ONCE Festival there in the 1960s, was a member of the Sonic Arts Union with Alvin Lucier, David Behrman and Gordon Mumma, and directed the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College.
Private Parts (LP)
Rare original edition on Lovely Music of the first installment of the 1978 revolutionary and extraordinarily beautiful electronic opera for television Private Parts, released in 1978, an essential masterpiece. Yellow cover version.
Automatic Writing (LP)
Rare original edition on Lovely Music of the 1979 unsurpassed psychedelic electronic avant-garde masterpiece, one of the greatest experimental records ever made and absolutely essential.
Music Word Fire And I Would Do It Again (Coo Coo) (LP)
Original edition on Lovely Music of the third installment of the 1978 revolutionary and extraordinarily beautiful electronic opera for television Private Parts, released in 1981, an essential masterpiece.
Extended Voices (LP)
1970 re-press of the 1967 fantastic, mind-blowing and essential compilation of pieces for chorus and for voices altered electronically by sound synthesizers and vocoder, conducted by Alvin Lucier and released on Odyseey's "Music Of Our Time" avant-ga…
Eight Lectures on Experimental Music (Book)
In this brilliant collection, path-breaking figures of American experimental music discuss the meaning of their work at the turn of the twenty-first century. Presented between 1989 and 2002 at Wesleyan University, these captivating lectures provide r…
Songs Of Milarepa (LP)
Very rare first LP by Radigue released by Lovely Music in 1983, a minimal masterpiece featuring Robert Ashley. Please note the condition.
Full Spectrum Voice
1991 release ** Works by six composers from new music's acclaimed baritone, Thomas Buckner who's been called "the voice of the new". Works written by: Robert Ashley, Jon Gibson, Nils Vigeland, Peter Gena, Annea Lockwood, and Roscoe Mitchell.
Il Gesto Del Suono
2009 release ** Featuring: Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Steve Jansen, Demetrio Stratos, Emanuele Casale, Robert Ashley, Stefano Scodanibbio, Edoardo Sanguineti, Nine Horses, Walter Prati, Robert Wyatt, Fred Frith, Massimiliano Viel, Picchio Dal Pozzo.
Automatic Writing
Original 1979 Lovely Records first edition of the breathtaking album by Robert Ashley at his most extreme and uncompromising, as furious as he can get in your wildest dreams!
Private Parts
Original 1978 Lovely Records edition of Robert Ashley’s masterpiece from the late 70s, a deeply hypnotic and powerful record.
In Sara, Mencken, Christ And Beethoven There Were Men And Women
Glorious 1978 first edition with gatefold cover and original innersleeve on Cramps Records' Nova Musicha series of the first ground-breaking LP by fundamental composer Robert Ashley.
Robert Ashley
*2024 stock* This book explores the life and works of Robert Ashley, one of the leading American composers of the post-Cage generation. Ashley's innovations began in the 1960s when he, along with Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, and David Behrman, formed …
The Nova Convention
** Original copies of this rarity. Factory sealed. Few copies available ** In 1978, Semiotext(e) founder Sylvere Lotringer approached John Giorno about organizing a tribute to William S Burroughs, bringing together European and American academics fo…
Big Ego
** Original copies of this rarity. Factory sealed. Few copies available ** The seventh in the Dial-a-Poem Poets LP series. Iconic cover featuring Giorno posing with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, and two children in a park. It also features Robert As…
Perfect Lives
2023 upgraded and remastered version of Robert Ashley's Perfect Lives -- in 1080P full HD video format, pressed on double-Blu-Ray (175 minutes; stereo; Region 0/worldwide). Perfect Lives has been called "the most influential music/theater/literary wo…
Spontaneous Musical Invention
*350 copeis limited edition. Comes with 16-page booklet of program notes * In the 1960s, Robert Ashley pioneered the American avant garde with the ONCE Group and festivals, before irrefutably changing the face of American opera later in the 20th cen…
The Guests Go in To Supper (Book)
Rare 1st edition from 1986. Nearly 400 pages, large size, paperbound, smythe-sewn. Texts, scores and ideas of 7 American composers using language in composition: John Cage (Mushrooms et Variationes), Robert Ashley (Improvement), Yoko Ono, Laurie Ande…
Qicksand (Book)
Quicksand was written to be an opera libretto. But it was written in the form of a novel. . . . I am devoted to "mystery" stories. I read them one after another, mostly two or three times. Some of the best writers today are writing in this form. So, …
Atalanta (Acts of God) (Book)
Rare 1st edition hard cover. The definitive text of Atalanta (Acts of God) is followed by an Afterword by Robert Ashley. An excerpt from the Afterword: "I had already decided who the three characters of Atalanta (Acts of God) would be: Max Ernst, a l…
Sign Of The Times
Centered around the mesmerizing voice of Robert Ashley, presented here is early version (released on LP by Lovely Music in 1979) of "The Park" and "The Backyard", a masterpiece in its simplicity of form and in the purity and intensity of its effect o…