Black Angels and Makrokosmos III
This CD combines two classic Georg Crumb compositions of the 1970s expertly performed by members of The Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic under the direction of conductor Juan Pablo Izquierdo. 'Black Angels' for string quartet was written as a response to the Vietnam War. The work draws from an arsenal of sounds including shouting, chanting, whistling, whispering, gongs, maracas, and crystal glasses. 'Music for a Summer Evening' is scored for the classic Bartok combination of two pianos and two percu…
Pondfloorsample
These two discs represent some of Gen Ken Montgomery's sound art and compositional work from 1981-2001. Pondfloorsample is a collection of sonic explorations utilizing common devices meant to hold something other than sound. As with much of his sound work, the sonic material contains many sounds of everyday life. Having composed extensively for multi-channels, Pondfloorsample was specifically designed as a stereo audio piece enabling Montgomery to reach a larger audience."His work always begins …
Ballgames & crazy
Improvisations by the transatlantic duo of London based trombonist Gail Brand and the San Francisco based vocalist Morgan Guberman (best known as a double bassist in other contexts). Guberman's use of somewhat meaningless words and Brand's very vocal approach to her horn make for a very distinctive music. 63 minutes.
Pathetic
The fourth overall release by Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha group (following the Double Live LP (PSF 3/4), Double Live CD (PSF 15/16) and Allegorical Misunderstanding (Avant 008). This has 4 long tracks, 74 minutes of music; stylistically it's in the heavy over the top guitar trio mode a la PSF 15/16 and absolutely the dream Fushitsusha release that everybody was waiting for. Packed again in a gorgeous black fold out, with a first: English lyric translations
Homeward
Second album from Frans De Waard (Goem, Shifts, Kapotte Muziek, Beequeen) under the Freiband name after the Microbes album on Ritornell. This one is more poppy and less dark, 15 songs full of melody, experiment and inspiration.
s/t
Back in stock. Highlights of the groups presented by Emanem: GAIL BRAND trombone - PHIL DURRANT electronics - MARK SANDERS percussion - PAT THOMAS electronics (LUNGE). JOHN BUTCHER saxes - JOHN EDWARDS double bass. VIV CORRINGHAM voice - ANGHARAD DAVIES violin. RHODRI DAVIES harp - MARK WASTELL cello - SIMON FELL double bass (IST). MILO FINE percussion - HUGH DAVIES electronics - PAUL SHEARSMITH trumpet - TONY WREN double bass. STEFAN KEUNE sax - JOHN RUSSELL guitar. ALAN TOMLINSON trombone - ST…
Dialogs
For his second solo CD, the Chicago-based musician adds small speakers, test amps, piezos and motors to his cello to make some remarkable improvised music. As Michael Zerang says in his notes: 'This is a solo recording, yet I hear an entire ensemble.' 55 minutes.
That House We Lived In
It was a long wait, but, 12 years after the fact, Fred Frith put together a live album of his group Keep the Dog, which had previously gone undocumented. Comprised of sax/flute player Jean Derome, guitarist René Lussier, keyboardist/harpist Zeena Parkins, sampling artist Bob Ostertag, and drummer Charles Hayward, Keep the Dog was formed by Frith in 1989 to perform a best-of repertoire of his career and remained his last rock group. By the time of this 1991 European tour, the unit had grown beyon…
Speechless
This is one of the most important experimental guitar-based titles from avant guitarist and founding Henry Cow member Fred Frith. Frith's second solo album, Speechless, includes appearances by Etron Fou Leloublan, Massacre, and Bill Laswell.
This is a studio Frankenstein of live clips and found sounds. While Frith attests to the occurrence of many "happy accidents," the album comes across confidently and more often more coherent than merely challenging. This is often cited as Frith's best sol…
Middle of the Moment
Continuing the definitive Fred Frith edition, this is the CD based on Fred’s music for the second film he made with Humbert and Penzel – following nomads – that features, along with Fred’s compositions and re-workings, a restless and gripping unfolding of atmospheric locations, tuareg and other musics, ethongraphic material and times captured. A collage or a soundwork rather than a straightforwardly musical composition, this is a serious and unfairly marginalised piece (because it falls between …
Accidental
Fred Frith has been heard in all possible contexts, from solo improviser to composer of orchestral music, but he remains at his best when trapped in a studio, alone or with a few musicians, building layered pieces. This process previously yielded stunning albums such as the delicate Middle of the Moment or the avant rocking Speechless. Accidental features Frith performing all instruments and voices, mostly guitars, violin, junk percussion, and random radio tuning. This music was commissioned by …
Vol. 9 & 10 Son vitesse-lumière
A major work by Francois Bayle, 'Son Vitesse-Lumiere' ('Sound Speed-Light') was composed in parts during a period of several years. Of 'Grandeur Nature' (1980), Bayle writes, "Imagine an 'object' that is coming to 'visit' us from many light years away ..." Of 'Paysage, Personnage, Nuage' (1980), "It comes in snatches, like interference on a radio. The scene continues ..." Of 'Voyage au Centre de la Tete' (1981), "The object moves inside us ..." Of 'Le Sommeil d'Euclide' (1983), "This piece descr…
Live in San Francisco
With his ongoing pursuit of an 'absolute concrète music,' Francisco López has recontextualized the sounds of the world around us by pushing these sounds to their polar extremes. At times, he has imposed gaping silences and eradicated all but the slightest traces of musicality; at others, he has turned the placid wash of rainforest insect chatter into mechanically toxic drones and twisted a gentle breeze into a hurricane force blast of raw sound. The ambient din of the urban environment, human vo…
Argh!
Seven pieces, seven possibilities to discover the work from these two swedish composers. 'Argh!' tape collage, 1965 (Rabe), 'bolos' for trombones quartet 1962 (Bark & Rabe), 'bar' electroacoustic music 1968 (Bark), 'joe's harp' for Chamber Choir, 1970 (Rabe), 'ach chamberlin' tape collage, 1965 (Bark), 'to the barbender' tape collage, 1982 (Rabe), 'memoria in memoriam' for ensemble, 1975 (Bark).
Atolón
Ferran Fages: acoustic turntable ; Ruth Barberán: trumpet ; Alfredo Costa Monteiro: accordion. Recorded and mastered by Ferran Conangla. Mixed by Ferran Conangla and Ferran Fages. October, 2003.
The rainbow mirrors a burning heart
Fear Falls Burning - With all the power, noise, aggression and subtlety that comes from a single man performing real-time on the electric guitar through a maze of pedal effects, notes and chords shifting and multiplying over time into dense and trance-inducing walls of sound. Fear Falls Burning succeeds in uncovering a new language that stretches time and brings the listener to the edge multiple times, entrancing with the repetitive yet pure sonic presence of the electric guitar. Fear Falls Burn…
Same same
"The relentless sounds are absolutely spell-binding. The music is vibrant, immediate, and compelling; it fills the air with a tangible presence that you can almost reach out, grab, and embrace." --Dean Suzuki, Option Fast Forward is a composer and performer best known for his compositions for percussion, and music theatre works for diverse instrumentation. His compositions push the juxtapositions of structured rhythms and total chaos to their limit, delivering a sonically dense and thea…
Live document 2003-2005
Third release on PSF by Exias-J (Experimental Improvisor's Assocation of Japan), Japan's most conceptually determined improvising collective and their first DVD. Containing three performances from Tokyo and New York, this is a challenging clash of methodologies and sonorities, hugely exciting in its electric power and formal heft.
Avant-garde
This live recording presents Exias-J as a quintet (Hideaki Kondo and Takuo Tanikawa-guitars, Shin-Ichiro Kanda-piano and synth), Tetsuya Miyazaki-computer and electronics, Naoto Nishizawa-drums). In a huge departure from their previous releases, this is a massively loud--alternating with pin-dropping quiet--dark, cavernous work.
Order: Spoil The Entire State
Incredible archival recordings from the 1980s by the noise orchestra of Brad Laner (Savage Republic) and Jim Goddal (Medicine, Whitehouse), featuring LAFMS superstars such as Solid Eye’s Rick Potts and Joseph Hammer and unknown San Fernando Valley noise geniuses. Epic spontaneous compositions created with tape recorders, short wave radios, cheap synths, random orchestral instruments and circuit-bent gear—all unleashed in front of an unsuspecting Wall Of Voodoo audience.