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Stone Academy
The latest addition to the fast-growing Digitalis catalogue comes from Zelienople, a band from Chicago who have a certain knack of making that other-worldly folk ambience we've all grown so addicted to sound totally singular and incredibly beautiful. Maybe it's because they aren't afraid of occasionally breaching into the odd pop structure or two that 'Stone Academy' is so inviting, in fact if you hear it at a distance you might even mistake it for a decomposed cassette recording of an old Pavem…
Baku: Symphony Of Sirens
RESTOCKED! An incredible artefact from ReR, this double-disc release comes housed in a beautifully detailed book, all dedicated to the pioneers of the Russian avant-garde in the early twentieth century. The first disc captures a modern-day reconstruction of Arseni Avraamov's Symphony Of Sirens, a public sound event originally conceived in 1922, made up from factory sirens, military regiments, steam locomotives and choirs, all representing the lively sonic signature of the port city of Baku. In a…
The Shipyard
Tor Lundvall has graced us with yet another remarkable album this year. Previously, Lundvall had introduced himself to Dais with his masterpiece album Sleeping & Hiding and struck lightning twice with the resilient The Seasons Unfold box set and now we are humbled to be crafting the strings with the curation of his most recent effort. The Shipyard was recorded during the dramatic season change-over of '09/'10, during which time Lundvall was immersing himself in portrait studies of local maritime…
Reuters
Latest work by swiss artist Marc Zeier presents 9 musique concrete compositions based on ice, wind, plankton, a whip, a bow, a suitcase, and other recordings made in the last few years, reminiscent of his 90's albums 'Seismogramm' on Schimpfluch and 'Yack Park' and 'Geopod' on Zabriskie Point.
Simulacrum
On his third outing, Jozef Van Wissem, with his ten-course Renaissance lute (aka retrograde lute), employs not only his notion of using palindromes and backwards reading of music for the instrument, but also brings electronics and field recordings into the discussion. Van Wissem applies mirror images in compositions for solo lute. He inserts a microphone into the body of his lute, records the sounds inside (known as "wolftones"), and then electronically alters them by sampling, cutting, and past…
Qvaris
Their first label release in many years & represents their most polished work to date. One of the most enigmatic, mysterious, & defiantly anti-commercial groups to emerge from the NYC loft scene during the '90s. Incorporating elements of folk, drone, psychedelia, free jazz, noise, & just about everything else, NNCK has nevertheless carved out a distinctive sound despite the seemingly random component elements.
Catalyse
Reissue of the original 1970 album on the BYG label (one of the label's few entries in the rock field), and a classic period piece, like Gong at their heaviest. Ame Son is the pioneer group of French Underground born at the end of the 60s. The band is made up to two former members of Banana Moon, Daevid Allen's band on his arrival in France in 1967. Their music was harsh and scathing with vocals in both French & English, sometime with an outside layer of 'formal beauty', rapidly devastated by st…
Nunatak
The Type label reissues German music producer Thomas Köner's debut album, the first in a set of three, on vinyl for the very first time. Originally introduced to the world in 1990, Nunatak (then named Nunatak Gongamur) was shockingly ahead of its time, and it is hard to believe that it has been out of print and difficult to obtain for so long. Köner created the album with mood in mind; he has since been described as a "media" artist, and it's easy to see why. While the music can be descri…
A Safe Substitute
Originally released on cassette by Snatch Tapes back in 1980 or there about but now re-issued on red vinyl by Harbinger. Had heard a couple of the tracks before on previous Storm Bugs comps but nice to have the whole original tape as it was meant to be sequenced. Also good set of liner notes detailing all the recording process. If you haven’t heard any Bugs before this makes a great introduction.Slightly more eloquently this what the Mutant Sounds said about A Safe Substitute ‘…this is eve…
Seven Of Wands
As a composer, John Wiese is an elusive one. Employing a very healthy range of conceptual framework throughout his oevure, he's unmistakably recognizable, but rarely easy to predict. No matter what the sound, we find it always sounds like Wiese. Seven Of Wands contains a romanticism only hinted at previously. Comprised of pieces from a range of eras and sequenced into a narrative arc, this very unique album has a quality of being beautiful, listenable, immersive, and transportive all at on…
'Brud: Volumes I-III
Brud is a three volume compilation of recordings from 1995 to 2011 by Andre Vida, morphing seamlessly between a sense of total irreverence and the sublime. His spontaneous compositions and notated works are the angled mirrored counterparts of a transient saxophone driven performance language, drawing on elements of 1970s performance art, new music, improvisation cult, folk and pop hybrids, channeling them into asymmetrical tunes of feral beauty. BRUD traces the development of Vida's wayw…
Berlin Symphonie MND 1968 - 72
Legendary recordings by Johansson and friends, precursor of today´s minimalistic impro. Includes 30 minutes solo by sax player Frippe Nordström. CD I recorded at Club Litfass, Berlin, 1968; CD 2, track 1 recorded at SR, Stockholm, 1970; CD 2, tracks 2-4 recorded at Club 7, Oslo, 1972.Sven-Åke Johansson, drums, voice; Norbert Eisbrenner, guitar, alto saxophone, voice; Bengt Nordstöm, tenor saxophone (CD2 track 1); Werner Götz bass (CD 1, CD2 track 1); Peter Dyck, cello (CD2 tracks 2-4).
Impossible Symmetry
Impossible Symmetry is the third full length record by Helm, the project of London based artist Luke Younger. It marks a new chapter in the artists' canon as it's his first to be informed by live performance rather than studio experimentation. The recording and engineering was primarily a solo venture, with some technical assistance from John Hannon on a few tracks. Most of the compositions were created out of ideas / improvisations that were conceived in a live context and then fed back …
Imperial horizon
RESTOCKED! Truly an outstanding new album, Imperial Horizon examines sustained tone in greater depth than KEVIN DRUMM’s previous Hospital Productions benchmark album, Imperial Distortion, stretching out minimalism to unreached heights of serene ambience. Lulling electronic drones slowly transform over the course of the hour-plus piece in constant flux, echoing both an existential terror and Zen calm. Mutations grow so quietly, only the body opens to identify this change while the mind closes. Th…
Circle X
Formed 1978 in New York, Circle X was born out of the ashes of No Fun and the I-Holes as Louisville’s first punk rock band. Once the lineup of Circle X solidified, the formerly-punk band lunged headfirst into weirder, artier territory. Whether the big city’s burgeoning No Wave scene influenced Circle X or they influenced the scene is unclear; what is clear, though, is that Circle X was the most unique, most mysterious, and most un-heralded band hailing from that place and time.In France for nine…
For 2
RESTOCKED Four years after the release of his dedicatory for record, Carsten Nicolai as alva noto returned to assemble a second recording of compositions devoted to a number of creative figures including industrial designer Dieter Rams, filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky and German dramatist Heiner Müller.Opener "garment", inspired by a translucent textile designed in connecting sections, may serve well as a metaphor for this collection of tracks that take as their source of inspiration shifting zones a…
Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin
Alarm Will Sound, a young 22-piece new music band featuring voices, strings, woodwinds, and percussionists, received high praise from around the world for their debut release on Cantaloupe featuring the music of Steve Reich. Now the band takes on the music of twisted techno master Aphex Twin on Acoustica. Alarm Will Sound has, with a cadre of ten arrangers, painstaking recreated and rethought Aphex Twin's legendary electronic work for an all-acoustic ensemble. From creative new transcription ide…
diabolus in musica
Half-book, half-screen, this François Bayle's composite work is meant not only to be read, but also to be heard-seen as well as perused in order to navigate through it more easily. The reader’s ear is solicited through diverse modalities that will bring into play the rapprochement of two intertwined approaches, however very different and opposable with the goal of observing the listening”. Bilingual : French-English. 151 musical examples grouped in 53 themes
L\'Enorme Tragedia
rare original tape by LA 1919 (aka La 1919 Spontaneo) were a Milanese avant-progressive band that first started life in September 1980. Their sound is electronic-based, but still consists of traditional rock-band instruments, such as electric and bass guitar (with assistance by clarinets and saxophones on later releases). Mostly though, the band uses keyboard effects and tape looping, combined with a Frippian and Frithian guitar sound, supplied by Margorani (much more evident on their second an…
Superstitions
Amazing early P. Bastien tape Pierre Bastien (born Paris, 1953) post-graduated in eighteenth-century French literature at University Paris-Sorbonne. In 1977 he built his first musical machinery. For the next ten years he has been composing for dance companies and playing with Pascal Comelade. In the meantime he was constantly developing his mechanical orchestra. Since 1987 he concentrates on it through solo performances, sound installations, recordings and collaborations with such artists as Pie…