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Alas The Madonna Does Not Function
Tip! 1988 saw the release of several timeless and remarkable EPs from Nurse With Wound, one of those classics is Alas the Madonna Does Not Function. Madonna in some respect was a turning point for NWW. It’s a record that whilst unmistakably retaining that ineffable NWW character brought rhythmic and almost ‘musical’ elements into play. Madonna could be seen along with the Soresucker and Cooloorta Moon EPs as the bridge between the old and the new, the natural precursors to Thunder Perfect Mind a…
Waka and Other Compositions: Contemporary Music of Japan
2024 stock. This 1960 release is a selection of compositions by Japanese experimental composer Michiko Toyama. The 12 compositions are drawn from traditional Japanese musical forms with additional influence from many of the experimental composers in the West that were active during the twentieth century. Some pieces are sung with instrumental accompaniment; others are spoken poetry. The instrumentation consists of a mix of traditional Japanese and modern Western instruments, including electronic…
Brained By Falling Masonry/Cooloorta Moon
Tip! It could be argued that Brained and Cooloorta are the definitive Nurse With Wound E.Ps. Both classic and timeless fan favourites appear for the first time together on one single album. Both E.Ps marked a distinctive change in the NWW sound. Brained from 1984 showcases NWW at their mid 80’s finest. The relentless churning and uncompromising music of Brained by Falling Masonry is complimented by the eccentric mania of JG Thirlwell’s vocals. A Short Dip in Glory Hole takes us into the murky de…
Travels Over Feeling: Arthur Russell, a Life (Book)
The music of Arthur Russell defies classification. From his pioneering compositions as part of New York's vibrant avant-garde scene (alongside artists including Philip Glass, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, John Cage, and Allen Ginsberg) to his genre-expanding disco productions, from his new wave and art pop to his posthumously released folk songs, Russell crafted timeless and foundationally influential work until his premature death in 1992 from AIDS-related illnesses.
Now, in a landmark publicat…
Reelizations 2
2024 stock. This 1982 recording builds on Barton Smith's previous Reelizations release, incorporating acoustic and electronic instruments with tape-recording technology into a unique one-person orchestra. The ability to create and perform music with the use of new technology and without large and expensive orchestras made sharing creations easier, especially for accompaniment in film, radio, and television. Liner notes include descriptions of how each track was composed, instrumentation, and sug…
Reelizations 1
2024 stock. This 1980 recording explores combinations of acoustic instruments and recording technologies. The increasing cost of large ensembles performing new works led composers to experiment with inexpensive alternatives. Barton Smith creates his own orchestra mixing recordings and acoustic instruments with everyday items such as swivel chairs and glass bottles. Liner notes include descriptions of how each track was composed, the composer's biographical information, and suggestions for how ea…
Tract: A Composition Of Agitprop Music For Electromagnetic Tape
*2024 stock* Created by Turkish musician and electronic music composer İlhan Mimaroğlu, Tract is dedicated to fellow countryman Nȃzim Hikmet, whom Mimaroğlu regarded “as the greatest poet of the revolutionary struggles.” Utilizing the voice of Turkish singer Tülay German (identified as Tuly Sand on this recording), Mimaroğlu creates an audio collage of political messages in the propaganda style (agitprop) of the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. Although his text is based on “direct and …
Travelon Gamelon: Music For Bicycles
2024 stock. This early (1982) project from Arizona “Audio Artist” Richard Lerman presents musical composition performed with bicycles. Lerman explains: “A gamelan orchestra is a large group of percussive instruments, usually metallic, from SE Asia. In fact, the sound of such a group is not unlike the timbre of amplified bicycles.” With such an idea, he embarks on a project that captures the amplified sounds of moving bicycles in harmonious rhythms creating songs. Liner notes include detailed inf…
Navajo Dedications
**2020 stock** This 1976 Folkways release by David Cope presents modern music based on Cope’s intensive research into—and respect for—Navajo ceremonies, and Navajo music in particular. Ranging from pieces for large chamber ensemble to a work scored for a single performer, the four compositions are unique interpretations of Native American Indian myths and culture. The liner notes include detailed explanations of the inspiration, organization, and arrangement of each of these complex works.
This …
To Kill a Sunrise and La Ruche
**2020 stock** Turkish-born musician and composer Ilhan Mimaroglu worked extensively with electronic (tape) music. The two programmatic pieces paired here are "To Kill a Sunrise," a dirge subtitled "Requiem for Those Shot in the Back" with words borrowed from a poem by Guatemalan guerilla poet Marco Antonio Flores, composed in Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (New-York, N.Y., 1974). And "La Ruche" composed at Groupe de Recherches Musicales (Paris, France, 1968) an experiment of reminis…
Visions - Music for Orchestra, 2 Pianos and Computer-Generated Tape
**2020 stock** This 1979 record is a five-movement composition for large chamber orchestra by David Cope. First presented by the Santa Cruz Chamber Symphony in 1978, the work attempts to demonstrate the relationships between sound and physical space and to translate them to recorded sound as well as performance. The tapes in the piece were composed at Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and were “spliced” digitally rather than physically. Liner notes contain drawings of the way that Co…
Music for Synclavier and Other Digital Systems
**2020 stock** Electro-acoustic musician/composer Jon Appleton plays a variety of digital instruments which, in his words, “obtain timbres and textures which convey expressive character through my work.” Instruments used in this recording are the Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer, the Synclavier, and the MUSSE of Sweden’s Stiftelsen Elektronmusikstudion Stockholm. The five pieces span the years 1974 to 1977 and include Appleton’s first digital piece “Zoetrope.” Liner notes include short introduction…
The World Music Theatre of Jon Appleton
**2020 stock** This 1974 recording by electro-acoustic music composer Jon Appleton is designed to take the listener to different musical landscapes. Appleton notes differences in context that will make the music more and less effective (“not everything I intended will be heard by the listener because no two listeners share the same aural experiences…because we are continually expanding our aural vocabulary, the sounds used assume a different significance as time passes”). Liner notes contain a b…
Eight electronic pieces
**2020 stock** Chance combinations, accidental themes, chaos in general—these are the musical modes that Tod Dockstader uses in composing electronic pieces. Blending oscillating electronic sounds with natural sounds is like being "confronted with a potential orchestra of thousands of instruments," he says, and the task becomes one of "improvising."
This CD is a custom made copy from Smithsonian Folkways collection. Every effort has been made to preserve its historical and aural integrity. The or…
Mushroom Ceremony of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico
**2020 stock** Recorded on the night of July 21/22, 1956 by V.P. & R. Gordon Wasson, these are rough and ready field recordings featuring the voice of Maria Sabina (1894-1985) a Mexican curandera who would perform healing vigils known as veladas in Huautla de Jimenez, Oaxaca where all participants would ingest psilocybin mushrooms (Maria's holy children), as a sacrament to open the gates of the mind and communicate with the sacred. María Sabina (July 22, 1894, Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, Mexico …
Gamelan in the New World, Vol. 2
**2020 stock** Gamelan in the New World: Vol. 2, released in 1982, is a teaching album, providing the listener with lyrics, scales, and a history of Indonesian music culture. Gamelan Son of Lion play keyed instruments that are constructed in the Javanese style. The group uses both the pelog and slendro tuning systems, sometimes in conjunction with one another within a single composition. The group is composed of ethnomusicologists and instrumentalists who are dedicated to playing and preserving …
A Different View
*2024 stock* Contrabass (double bass) solo virtuoso Bertram Turetzky performs seven solos on the contrabass in this 1981 release. Using bow, plucking strings, tapping on the instrument’s wood body, and employing a little audio technology, Turetzky demonstrates the full range of musical sounds that can be produced on the contrabass. His repertoire on this recording includes a piece dedicated to him (“The Last Contrabass in Las Vegas”), two of his own compositions, and the Lennon-McCartney ballad …
Computer Music
*2024 stock* Computer Music serves as the official musical documentation of the November 1981 International Computer Music Conference, held at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. The album features five compositions with music that ranges from electronic sounds to female vocals, flute and horns, stringed instruments, and percussion. The composers include Larry Austin, whose early works were recorded with the help of Leonard Bernstein; Bruce Pennycook, who now teaches music at the Butl…
Computer Music From The Outside In
*2024 stock* A 1983 Folkways release, Computer Music from the Outside In showcases three composers narrating the ideas and processes behind their computer music compositions, as well as the compositions themselves. The first two pieces are by Barton McLean: “Etunytude” is an etude-like piece made of gradually changing harmonic sounds, and “The Last Ten Minutes” is meant to be an abstract representation of the devastation of “the last nuclear holocaust.” “The Whistling Wind,” by Karl Korte, is ba…
Music From Hell
Nervous Gender’s legendary synthpunk LP Music From Hell burbles up from infernal depths to resurface on Dark Entries! Confrontational, unhinged, and unabashedly queer, Music from Hell is an unholy grail for fans of the strangest underbellies of post-punk, minimal synth, and early industrial music, and is presented here newly remastered and on expanded double LP. Nervous Gender (de)formed in LA in 1978 at the hands of Phranc, Gerardo Velaquez, Edward Stapleton, and Michael Ochoa. Phranc, the andr…