Undistilled
Sakada is: Mattin (computer feedback), Rosy Parlane (computers and radio) and Eddie Prevost (percussion). "Undistilled was recorded at live performances in London and Rotterdam in 2002. Components are a restricted range of percussion (Eddie Prevost), electronic sounds confected earlier for intuitive, tweaked release (Rosy Parlane), and nervous hyper-attention to every noise present, allowing spontaneous digital transfiguration of some (Mattin). The product is a formidably dense mesh of textures …
Crow Country
Australian Ross Bolleter's new disc features five compositions. Four of them are solo works: "Unfinished Business" for ruined piano; "Under Rookwood" for double bass; "Labyrinth Tango" for accordion; and "Piano Dreaming" for ruined pianola. "That Time (Simulplay II)" is for a duo of prepared piano and double bass. Of course, with Ross, this thumbnail description tells not much of the story. So we'll let Ross say a few words. Step on down.
"During the drought that never ended at Nallan Sheep Stat…
Morphei
Morphei is a soundtrack to a dream. A nighty-night record designed to make you WAKE UP and listen! Inspired by that in between state of wake and dreaming, when you’re not quite sure whether you’re asleep or not, this record presents a stream of realities seamlessly floating into each other, layers of events of acoustic and digital nature mingle; hear the Light-switch singing a duet with the Feedback-mixer, traces of Scandinavian wildlife intertwine with a tropical forest of digital insects, or h…
String Quartet
"'String Quartet Describing The Motions of Large Real Bodies' was composed as the potential orchestra for a Robert Ashley opera based on the text of 'In Sara, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven There Were Men And Women'. When the work was composed, in 1972, it was clear that a huge change in electronic instrumentation was just beginning, a change that would involve computers and sound producing devices as yet undreamed of. The piece consists of an electronic orchestra of 42 sound producing modules. T…
Natural Selection
Tip! 2000 release After Paradigm Discs released the 1976 LP by Anal Magic and Rev. Dwight Frizzell, the true scope and diversity of this man's activities became more apparent. First, there were the countless unused remnants from the original LP recording sessions, then the many films and their soundtracks, the regular radio shows, the dreamlanddiaries web page, the large scale Intermedia events, performing weddings and leading the live group Black Crack Review. For 25 years there has been a dyna…
En Concert À La Salle Des Fêtes
QuintetAvant is comprised of members Lionel Marchetti, Jérome Noetinger, Jean Pallandre, Marc Pichelin and Laurent Sassi, five leading lights of the French improvised, electronic, electroacoustic scene. This recording sees them combine electronic tape, analogue synths and a united love for strange sonorities. Like its predecessor, the vinyl-only release Floppy Nails on Mego, this is an exciting display of concrete improvisation. Taken from a live session at the Musique Action Festival, and maste…
Plays Brötzmann
How to improvise on an existing work of improvisation? American outfit Pillow took the plunge by carefully placing European free jazz legend Peter Brötzmann’s group improvisation piece Images on the rack. Don’t expect any tortured notes or twisted chords, though, as Pillow respectfully and patiently square up to Brötzmann’s music. Written especially for his Tentet and released on Okkadisk, Images is one of Brötzmann’s most meditative collective works of improvisation. Tentet member and cellist F…
G2, 44+/x2
"Yep, in this day and age, there's money in this minimalism thing. Which is nice for a fellow like Phill Niblock, a man who's been out in the field for over thirty years. While some may be happy to dabble in approximate music, or that only hinted at in whispered tones by those who still subscribe to the idea of the 'tonal auteur,' Phill Niblock makes the very stuff around which this particular world of music revolves. Thusly (and finally and thankfully), a finished record, to add to the handful …
No mo
"In the summer of 1966 I worked in the classical Electronic Music Studio at the University of Toronto for six weeks. The system I used to create No Mo and Something Else consisted of Layfette tone generators, noise source and tape delay. In the Fall of 1966 I was the newly appointed director of the Mills Tape Music Center formerly the San Francisco Tape Music Center and now the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College. Bog Road was created at the Mills Tape Music Center in the Summer of 19…
Tocsin - 6 Thru +2
Following their maxi CD »Tinnitus Vu« on Touch in 2004 »Tocsin« is the first full lenght album produced together by these two renowned sound artists. Whereas »Tinnitus VU« was mostly the result of Z'ev reworking material by Jackman, »Tocsin« is the result of the artists agreeing to meet and work together in the studio. They created and recorded sounds from a piano (which can be found at RMS Studios London) and a stainless steel instrument (built by Z'ev circa 1989), over the course of several ho…
Second souffle
Brocoli will release Second Souffle, the second album of the trio ON (distribution : Metamkine, Cod&S, Ear-Rational). ON was born in July 2003 with the meeting of Chicago-based Steven Hess and French musician Sylvain Chauveau when they joined for a lowercase improv session recorded by Jeremy Lemos (member of White-Light, collaborator of Jim O'Rourke, Town and Country, Sonic Youth...). Their first album, 'Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night' was mixed by Helge Sten aka Deathprod, the illustrious…
Pure Gaze
“Block is an electro-acoustic and modern instrumental composer whose recorded compositions combine layered, processed wind and string instruments with processed sounds from sections of field recordings she has collected from various natural landscapes. Her performances include minimalistic scored musical sections played live by a quintet accompanied by taped material , often sounds of field recordings, or the same quintet previously recorded and electronically manipulated. block herself “…
Shipwreck Radio Volume Two
Volume 2. Eight enigmatic episodes from Utvær. A double CD in a full-colour 6-panel digipak. Between June & July 2004, as guests of Kunst I Nordland, Nurse With Wound broadcast twenty four unexpected radio transmissions from the Arctic Lofoten Islands. Seven of these transmissions are included on this double CD, packaged in a six-panel digipak. Bringing no instruments, they were left in the tiny fishing village of Svolvær with minimal equipment, and told to get out and make whatever they wanted,…
Paura
N.A.D.M.A. was officially born between August and the beginning of September 1972 during time spent in a little village in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. The identity and musical orientation of the collective centered on the convergence of heterogeneous interests and sensibilities coming from avant-garde jazz experiences liberated by post-free currents, from classical studies, or from musicians also active as visual artists who had cultivated an instrumental practice utilizing spontaneous …
Silver Pyramid
Matchless Recordings presents an historic recording. Eddie Prévost's Silver Pyramid performed by Music Now Ensemble directed by Keith Rowe in London in 1969. Includes Cornelius Cardew, Lou Gare, Keith Rowe and others. The music is continuous. Time codes have been inserted at intervals to assist retrieval. Pre-Scratch Orchestra Ensemble formed by / for the occasion of the four day 'Music Now' event at the Roundhouse, 1969. The motley crew perform Eddie Prévost's 'composition' 'Silver Pyramid'. En…
Deep voices
Recorded live during the "Total Music Meeting '77", Berlin, Quartier Latin on November 2nd and 3rd by Bernhardt Arndt.
Gyromancy
Mnemonists eventually evolved into the incredible Biota band. Before they did they released a series of LPs, including the art work that surrounds and informs their approach to improvisation. As Mnemonists their work is darker and more ominous than that of Biota, but the process was still the same: post-processing live improvisation to construct larger works that stood on their own two feet as compositional pieces. Think AMM, Organum, Faust; Mnemonists embraced their strategies but created somet…
Triptych of poisoners
2005 release. Milk From Cheltenham is the first in a series of Alga Marghen editions documenting the activities of the It's War Boys underground label, founded by Amos (of The Homosexuals fame) in the late 1970s. The original LP was issued in an edition limited to 300 copies. The material was recorded from 1979 to 1981 but wasn't released until 1983 due to problems with the silkscreened sleeve. The band only put out this record, a real hidden gem. Lepke said that he wanted it to sound like …
Metal Box
Mike Cooper: For the past 40 has been an international musical explorer, performing and recording, solo and in a number of inspired groupings and a variety of genres. Initially a folk-blues guitarist and singer songwriter his work has diversified to include improvised and electronic music, live music for silent films, radio art and sound installations. He is also a music journalist, writing features for magazines, particularly on Pacific music and musicians, a visual artist, film and video maker…