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William Burroughs

“There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.”

“There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.”

Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales
Tip! "Originally released in 1993, on CD only except very few promo vinyls, Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales is a collaboration between famous -- and infamous! -- beat writer William S. Burroughs and politico-rappers Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, whose Television, Drug of the Nation picked up the baton from the Last Poets and Gil Scot Heron. With Hal Willner in the producer's chair, the album sits at the unusual intersection of literature, spoken word and music, as Burroughs is reading excerpt…
Nothing Here Now but the Recordings
*2023 Restored Edition* In 1980, Genesis P-Orridge and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson (then of Throbbing Gristle renown) travelled to New York City to meet up at the fortified apartment, known as The Bunker, of famed beat writer and cultural pioneer William S. Burroughs and his executor James Grauerholz to starting the daunting task to compile the experimental sounds works of Burroughs, which, up until that point, had never been heard. During those visits, Burroughs would play back his tape recor…
Decoder - The Soundtrack
A cult classic of sci-fi dystopia, Decoder saw Neubauten’s members working alongside Genesis P-Orridge and William S. Burroughs. It’s one of the strangest (and most prescient) films of the decade
Break through in grey room
2023 Restored edition. Clear vinyl. Inspired by the original Industrial Records release of William S. Burroughs’s Nothing Here Now but the Recordings, Belgian record label Sub Rosa worked with Burroughs to release another album: Break Through In Grey Room. Originally compiled in 1986 by producer Bill Rich, the album features Burroughs's experimental recordings from 1961 to 1976, featuring field recordings by Burroughs of the Master Musicians of Jajouka, experimental collaborations with mathemati…
Drag Marks
In (heavy and over-sized) wooden box of 40 handnumbered copies. Includes one handnumbered insert. 10 audiotqps with interviews/statements, experimental and electronic music by William Burroughs, Henri Chopin, Terry Fox, John Giorno, Glenn Blanca, Gruppo 70, Vito Acconci, Richard Friedman, Michael McLure and many more 1. Sarenco / Ori / Marcucci. Gruppo 70Side A: - Sarenco, "Hommage To Lin Piao"- Luciano Ori, "Situazione Blanca"Side B:- Sarenco, "Kein Gott"- Lucia Marcucci, "Poesia Auditiva" (Exc…
Häxan
Through satanic possessions and rituals, the extravagant Häxan, a film directed by Benjamin Christensen in 1922, draws the parallel between the witch hunts of the Middle Ages and the persecution of women at the turn of the 20th century, via psychiatric hysteria. In 1966 Burroughs narrated the movie in his usual style.
Ali's Smile
This record is divided into two sections. The first part is the title track and takes up most of side one. Ali's Smile was first published in 1971 and was privately released as a one-sided LP, in an edition of 99 copies. It came in a plain sleeve with a hardback copy of the spoken text, and was sold exclusively through Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, UK. Bill Butler, the bookshop owner, was still paying off a viciously punitive fine and associated court costs imposed in 1968 after a guilty verdict…
William Burroughs & Brion Gysin
** Limited Edition 180g vinyl. No digital. Officially licensed from the British Library, The Estate of William S Burroughs, and The Estate of Brion Gysin ** Rare recordings of beat/cut-up writers and artists William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Comprises the complete recording of Burroughs reading live in Liverpool in 1982, plus performances by Gysin of a selection of his permutated poems, as well as home recordings made by the pair in Paris in 1970. All recordings are taken from original tapes…
Soft Need 23
**Edition of 431 copies**  Alga Marghen in collaboration with Expanded Media Editions is proud to present the final issue of “Soft Need”, a publication centered on the work of William Burroughs and expanding its deep influences into contemporary consciousness. Founded in 1973 as a reaction to the aftermath of a three weeks’ stay across Xmas and New Year’s with Brion Gysin and Burroughs by their confidant Udo Breger, “Soft Need“ had its roots in the underground press of the previous two decades a…
Soft Need 23 (Art Edition)
**Art Edition. De-luxe edition of 69 signed and numbered copies  including two 7” records and two Baryt-Fine-Art photo prints (18x24cm) “William Burroughs in the Bunker, NYC 1981” and “Ian Sommerville at 8, Duke Street, London 1973” signed by Udo Breger.**  Alga Marghen in collaboration with Expanded Media Editions is proud to present the final issue of “Soft Need”, a publication centered on the work of William Burroughs and expanding its deep influences into contemporary consciousness. Founded …
The Acid Lands
The Acid Lands, created by the Prague-based Opening Performance Orchestra, was first heard in public in 2014 at the Movement-Sound-Space festival in Ostrava, to mark the centenary of William S. Burroughs's birth. The piece was performed live by Opening Performance Orchestra and their guests, the theremin player Martina Potucková, and the poet, musician and performer Pavel Z as the narrator. The studio version of The Acid Lands was made in late 2019/early 2020 in collaboration with Bill Laswell a…
The Cut Ups
** Private edition, limited to 150 copies ** Side A is a dizzying montage of quirky shots of legendary Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs and noted surrealist artist Brion Gysin in 1966, this nearly 20 minute avant-garde short features repeated articulations of such random things as “Hello,” “Where are we now?,” and “Look at that picture” instead of music or standard dialogue. The narrative is decidedly nonlinear and perplexing, with no discernible plot whatsoever as we see images of Gy…
A Man Within
2010 Release. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage of Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with colleagues and confidants including John Waters, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Sonic Youth, Laurie Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, and David Cronenberg, WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS: A MAN WITHIN is a probing, yet loving look at the man whose works at once savaged conservative ideals, spawned countercultural movements, and reconfigured 20th century culture…
Let Me Hang You
“Twenty years ago, William S. Burroughs was asked to record an audio version of his favorite parts of Naked Lunch. Longtime associates and producers Hal Willner and James Grauerholz produced several sessions, and they recruited a team of world class musicians to help. Famed for their Naked City involvement, Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz contributed their genius, as well as Eyvind Kang, just to name a few. The recordings were then abandoned and collecting dust on a musty shelf, as forgotten as a…
Curse go Back
Paradigm Discs presents Curse Go Back, tape experiments from William S. Burroughs. William Burroughs was in and out of London from the mid-50s to 1974 and for several years quite settled in a flat near Piccadilly. During this latter time he developed and refined the techniques he used for creating cut-ups on tape. Working closely with Ian Sommerville, who helped acquire, and no doubt maintain, the various tape recorders that Burroughs used and abused in these experimental works. The work here is…
Call Me Burroughs
Originally released in 1965 by The English Bookshop in Paris and later by ESP-Disk' in New York, Call Me Burroughs marks not only the recorded debut of William Burroughs, but also for many the first encounter with his inimitable voice. While Burroughs has had pervasive influence on counterculture in the past 50 years – from the Beats to punk rock and even hip hop – no other figure today is so widely considered the epitome of cool. Call Me Burroughs features the author reading from Naked Lunch an…
Words Of Advice: William S. Burroughs On The Road
In 1983, the counter culture icon and author of the cult classic Naked Lunch (1959), William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), traveled throughout Scandinavia making a series of personal appearances. Twenty years later, filmmakers Lars Movin and Steen Moller Rasmussen found never-before-seen footage of his Copenhagen visit and set out on the road to record new material, telling the story of the acclaimed author's later work -- especially what is known as The Last Trilogy -- and his unique perform…
Dead City Radio
In 1988, genius producer Hal Willner (best known, perhaps ironically, for his Disney tribute album STAY AWAKE) traveled to Lawrence, Kansas and taped NAKED LUNCH author and Beat Generation legend William Burroughs performing excerpts from his ...    Full Descriptionwork. He then enlisted the likes of Donald Fagen and Sonic Youth to create accompanying musical collages. To this end he also unearthed Aaron Copland-esque music recorded in the late '40s and '50s for various radio shows by Toscanini'…
Spare Ass Annie And Other Tales
A collaboration between Burroughs, producer Hal Willner, and politico-rappers Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. It features Burroughs reading excerpts from seven of his books set to music by the Heroes, mostly a slow, lazy funk that sounds like it was lifted from a '70s blaxploitation soundtrack. Highlights include the 16-minute, decidedly Burroughsian holiday treat "A Junky's Christmas" and "Words of Advice for Young People," which first appeared on the Smack My Crack collection, minus the music…
The Instrument of Control
Rare recordings of William Burroughs in conversation and readings from the 1970s - 80s. This is an essential insight into the mind and writings of arguably the most influential writer from the Beat generation. Through his mordant satire of cultural aspirations, homosexual eroticism and political power, Burroughs focuses our gaze into the abyss. His cold language creates beauty through a terror that we are just able to bear.
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