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Automatic Writing
A 1996 CD compiling three early Ashley works from the years 1967-79 -- some of his most experimental and out-there works. A classic electronic music collection and an ideal intro into the somewhat foreboding oeuvre of Robert Ashley's recorded works. The title piece is a 46-minute classic from 1979, which rather famously formed the basis for Nurse With Wound's A Missing Sense. Steven Stapleton's commentary upon this summarizes the intense vibe of this recording: "A Missing Sense was originally co…
Bospaadje Konijnehol I
1992 release ** Misha Mengelberg's large ensemble, the ICP Orchestra, wends its way here through a program in three parts. Following the brief, whimsical title piece (helpfully translated as "Forest Path Rabbithole I"), the band launches into a series of loose, decidedly off-liter takes on Ellington, generally tackling the real war-horses. Mengelberg's approach is always oblique at best, however, so even as the band sounds semi-traditional in one respect, the harmonies and written elaborations o…
The Sea Between
1993 release ** "In October 1987, keyboardist/computer wiz Richard Teitelbaum and violinist Carlos Zingaro performed at the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. The next year the label Disques Victo released The Sea Between, comprised of three improvisations from that show. For the CD reissue in 1993, the label added 18 minutes of material in the form of three excerpts from a performance in Lisbon during November 1992. Playing with electronics -- especially with computers…
Obliquity
2007 release ** "Obliquity is a free jazz record, if you'll forgive the use of such a hoary, old-fashioned phrase. Its scorching, heads-down momentum, rhythm and drive, places it in direct line of descent from the fierce originators of the genre: Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, Milford Graves, and Frank Wright. It also swings. At times it dances. Obliquity is a free jazz record through the prism of the improvisational movement in Europe, though. This is no attempt at polite revivalism or looking …
Acini
2018 release ** "In this new album, Saporiti chooses a register that resembles a caress on a defeated face, a balm for past wounds that still hurt, reflected in the incisive yet never overbearing arrangements, with a balance that ends up appearing completely natural when in fact it is an extremely difficult goal to achieve. In Acini (from the title of his father's unpublished novel), an overall delicate quality prevails that resembles a state of mind more than the actual product of artistic choi…
Bisognava Dirlo A Tuo Padre Che A Fare Un Figlio Con Uno Schizofrenico Avremmo Creato Tutta Questa Sofferenza
2014 release ** "A few months after his self-titled album, he returns with another great work. The 2014 album was the one of full manifestation, this one, the one of explosion. Faced with such a "hunger to express," there's never a lack of substance and intensity, at most a few flaws in the aesthetic organization of a project, which is more evident here than in his previous work, but it's something that makes both works, in different ways, perfectible in each individual's mind and therefore all …
Paolo Saporiti
2014 release ** "Fifth studio album and year zero for Paolo Saporiti. An absolute masterpiece, a near-perfect album, the epitome of the most cultured Italian independent rock, but also, and above all, something new and focused. The lyrics, for the first time, are in Italian, exposing veins, nerves, and blood. On the cover, Paolo, a mere child, stands with his father. From the opening of "Come Venire al Mondo" to the absolute perfection of "Io non ho pietà," which seems to evoke the best of Alice…
Akustisches Abreaktionsspiel
2020 release ** CD version limited to 200 copies. Reissue of Hermann Nitsch’s very first release, originally published 48 years ago by Edition Galerie Klewan in a limited edition of 100 copies. Produced and recorded at the WDR Radio in Cologne, Germany, the Akustisches Abreaktionsspiel (Aktion 38b) is "neither a radioplay nor a work of music. it merely portrays the acoustic part of an "abreaktionsspiel“ (a play of abreaction). the special and specific usage of the acoustic possibilities are in t…
Atolón
2004 release ** "Atolón, whose four tracks are further proof that the barriers that once existed between free improvisation and noise are coming down fast. And in the sunshine of Barcelona at that. Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Ferran Fages have released several albums as Cremaster (though not using the same instrumentation), and trumpeter Ruth Barberán previously teamed up with Costa Monteiro and Matt Davis in I Treni Inerti (now sadly disbanded, but not before leaving us the splendid Ura album on…
Al voltant d'un para.lel
2008 release ** Ferran Fages: electric guitar. Recorded live by Pablo Rega, january 19th 2007 at Almazen, Barcelona. Some tracks are versions or new approaches of pieces released before in the album 'a cavall entre dos cavalls'. 'Al voltant d«un paral.lel ' brings to light a tension, which matches that of the previous two guitar albums of Ferran Fages. It's probably because a parallel could also be thought of as the lanes of a horse race, as a permanent conflict, or as a trait of one's character…
Choice-Chase
1995 release ** "Choice-Chase dives into abstract guitar textures, looping soundscapes, and noise-based improvisation. A must-hear for those who appreciate avant-garde music that defies easy categorization."
Assassin Reverie
2005 release ** Arte Quartett: Beat Hofstetter, soprano saxophone; Sascha Armbruster, alto saxophone; Andrea Formenti, tenor saxophone; Beat Kappeler, baritone saxophone Terry Riley, vocals, piano and harpsichord (Uncle Jard) A free spirit, maverick par excellence, creator of a personal compositional style that has spawned entire generations of epigones, Terry Riley (b 1935) embodies the best aspects of the American pioneer spirit, the positive and uncorrupted image of America (and California in…
The Suite Unraveling
2014 release ** "Brooklyn based Lily Maase is a guitarist and composer of powerful originality. Influenced equally by Ornette Coleman, Morbid Angel and electronic music, she has created a modern jazz-rock fusion that captures the funky edge of Blood Ulmer with minimalism, indie rock and a touch of psychedelics. Powerful riffs, spontaneous conducting techniques, searing solos and a unique lyricism from this exciting New York based trio!"
5 Years
2006 release ** ""5 Years" is the venerable duo's first release since "Lammergeier" (vhf#58) in 2000. After recording and releasing nearly 20 albums between 1990 and 2000, Richard Youngs and Simon Wickham-Smith decided to try a novel and opposite approach to music making - they met once each year to record a solitary 10 minute track. The results show the duo remarkably unaffected by the half decade that elapsed - the tracks on "5 Years" reflect their long established signature mix of "real human…
Loré Ipsum
2015 release ** A piece for voice(s) an dead electronics with Loré Lixenberg (mezzo-soprano). Edition of 500 copies. Lore Lixenberg is an English mezzo-soprano that lives in London and Berlin. She has worked with contemporary composers such as Stockhausen, Aperghis, Ligeti, Earle Brown, Wishart, Acquaviva, Turnage, Phill Niblock or Pauline Oliveros, as well as poets or artists like Stelarc, ORLAN, Heidsieck, Lemaître, but also pop bands like Radiohead. She has released the first complete record…
Drums Along The Pacific
2003 release ** "People uncertain about the appeal of an album of percussion music should know two things up front. First, the three longest pieces on Drums Along the Pacific feature a non-percussion solo instrument. Second, Lou Harrison's interest in percussion music was split equally between rhythm and melody. In percussion-only pieces like "Simfony #13" and "Song of Quetzalcóatl" -- both performed here by the William Winant Percussion Group -- he uses sets of instruments with different pitche…
Staring Back At You
2007 release ** "Subtitled "A collection of rare tracks and demos," this latest reissue remains just as essential as the others. "Staring back at you" offers true rarities. Most of the tracks present are from almost impossible-to-find compilations, but four tracks are also present in the form of demos, whose distinction from the original versions, when they exist, gives them a completely new content. A different reading that brings additional value to the Megaptera collection, which has seen a s…
Composition 3
2008 release ** Second release in Flying Swimming's Composition Series. This is a 3-way split release with new & exclusive works by Trevor Wishart, Russell Haswell & Hecker, and Rashad Becker. Edition of 500 copies with cover-artwork by Unika Zürn. Electroacoustic/electronic noise.
Explicit Isolation
Tip! Explicit isolation is the third album by the international collective E/I, led by composer and percussionist Szymon Pimpon Gąsiorek. The group’s seven core members came together while studying at Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. For this latest release, they are joined by Slovenian musicians Samo Kutin (hurdy-gurdy) and Kaja Draksler (organ), alongside Danish tuba player Rasmus Svale. The three compositions distill sound down to its essential e…