Gold
Magda Mayas, piano. Tony Buck, percussion. Recorded 21st December 2007. Magda Mayas is a pianist and curator currently based in Berlin, Germany. Mayas studied jazz and improvisation at Universität der Künste, Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2001 under Misha Mengelberg and completed a diploma at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler under Georg Graewe in 2005. During this time she began developing a specific set of techniques for inside-piano performance. Mayas has concentrated her musical investigat…
Presque Rien Avec Luc Ferrari
RESTOCKED The first DVD release on Elica is a beautiful 50-minute portrait of composer Luc Ferrari made by his friend Jacqueline Caux with Olivier Pascal, which is fully informative and acutely representative of Ferrari's spirit. Featuring Elise Caron, as Luc Ferrari and herself, and Luc Ferrari, as himself only, going through archive documentation, intriguing dialogues, invented autobiographies, music performances, evocative installations, sidewalk accidents, encounters with sound-sculptor Chri…
Mev 40
Utterly fantastic and indispensable overview on 4 CDs. "Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) was begun one evening in the spring of 1966 by Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace, Carol Plantamura, Frederic Rzweski, Richard Teitelbaum and Ivan Vandor in a room in Rome overlooking the Pantheon. MEV’s music right from the start was also totally open, allowing all and everything to come in and seeking in every way to get out beyond the heartless conventions of contemporary music. Taking its cue from …
Exploding blue floor Martin Denny
Here we are, with the new full-length album from Leeds-based underground legend Ashtray Navigations, featuring ninbe new tracks recorded in studio during 2008 and dedicated to the memory of the great american composer Martin Denny, father of Exotica! 'Exploding Blue Floor...' is one step ahead into Phil Todd's hallucinatory travel into the galaxies of the Unknown. A cornucopia of what he has been doing for more than 15 years with unique dedication and passion. Passion is in fact, the first word …
Ornitologia
A talisman, a living mandala. Recorded in Buenos Aires, 1992-93 (!) and now brought to life by the chants of birds, this is Anla Courtis 'Ornitology', a poem about the secret forces of nature and the most sublime forms of communication hidden in the forest. Earth, Water, Wind and Fire the elements that are all living inside these three gems, starting with a spectral ballad, Quetro, and exploding into the second track, 'Escua', 16 minutes of epic guitars flying over an endless sea of visions. The…
Shleep
The history of Robert Wyatt’s music gained a new and wonderful chapter in 1997 with the release of SHLEEP, his first album since 1991. With contributions from guest musicians Brian Eno, Paul Weller, Phil Manzanera, Evan Parker, Annie Whitehead and others, Robert has created another classic album : inimitably Wyatt, but adding new colours and textures. A truly memorable work.
Free Improvisation
Gray-area reissue of this rare album previously only available in the legendary 3LP set only Free Improvisation (together with New Phonic Art and Iskra 1903, on the Deutsche Grammophon label, issued in 1973); analog re-recording. LTD. edition 180 grams. Karl Heinz Böttner: electric guitar, 'Vox Organ Guitar', vocals, ocarinas, flexatone, zither, electric bass, guitar, framus; Mike Lewis: Hammond (and Leslie) organ, vocals, percussion; Michael Ranta: percussion, home-made plucked instrument, voca…
Cluster 71
First reissue of this one in many years; this is first Cluster (w/ a "C") album (following the 2 Kluster albums: Klopfzeichen & Zwei-Osterei), originally issued by Philips in, yes, 1971. The 2 equally classic albums that would follow this (II & Zuckerzeit) have pretty much always been available, but 71 has mostly languished (although it was reissued at times by Sky). Reissued here w/ original cover art (not the inferior Sky art), nice booklet of photos and new liner notes, no unnecessary bonus j…
Five A\'s, Two C\'s, One D, One E, Two H\'s, Three I\'s, One K,
The Snow/Licht/Onda concert was proof that the most unconventional of instruments can be used to create imaginative soundscapes. Canadian pianist/electronic manipulator Michael Snow has led a life of diversity as a celebrated avant-garde filmmaker and improvising artist. New York-based guitarist Alan Licht has operated in a variety of musical spheres, influenced by everything from the minimalism of Steve Reich to no wave bands like Sonic Youth. Japanese-born, New York-based Aki Onda is an equall…
Kikuri/Pulverized Purple
Two living legends of extreme Japanese music sharing the stage for the first time outside their country. Recorded live at the Victoriaville Festival, May, 2007. Nice tracklisting: 1. That which will rise from death here tonight will go hand in hand with a glittering echo burdened with the sin of joy (10:15) 2. By mischance that soul I devoured was a transparent, vertical blues (10:03) 3. Give me back that color you stole from my guts (12:44) 4. That place into which you fell was lined with a cus…
V
Recorded live at Victoriaville, 5/20/02; one 68-minute piece performed by Masami Akita, Mika Vaino & Ilpo Vaisanen. The festival's closing act, Pan Sonic vs Merzbow, was worth the long wait. Their complete absence of stage presence notwithstanding, the trio orchestrated glorious cascades of white noise that sporadically collapsed into fat dirty beats -- a gut rumbling excursion into the inner depths of sound and an indication of where the true spirit of improv lives in 2002.
The Crucible
The legendary Moonchild trio returns for another intense journey into the worlds of magic, alchemy and witchcraft. Following one of Zorn's true masterpieces Six Litanies For Heliogabalus, this fourth volume streamlines and simplifies the music with new melodic elements, bringing Zorn's sax and the lyricism of Masada into the power and structural complexity of the patented Moonchild sound. With Patton using his prodigious voice to sing melodies in addition to his preverbal screams and howls, The …
Mutant Theatre
Dynamic and colorful music for percussion, prepared piano and electronics from a marvelous young Australian composer. Anthony Pateras has studied composition academically, toured extensively throughout Europe, North America and Asia and has collaborated with numerous improvisers and electronica musicians the world over. Mutant Theatre is a twisted cornucopia of driving rhythms and wild sonic explorations. Creative insanity from down under.
Slope
Former Japan band member and regular David Sylvian collaborator Steve Jansen releases his astonishing solo album on Samadhisound this Autumn. On Slope, tension underlies the crisp rhythms and intricate programming, while a collection of distinctive vocalists draw out the sentiment and expression in his songwriting. As Jansen explains, 'with this album I approached composition attempting to avoid chord and song structures and the usual familiar building blocks. Instead I wanted to piece together …
Money For All
This mini-album is the follow-up release to the highly acclaimed debut album from Nine Horses Snow Borne Sorrow. Nine Horses is a collaborative project that brings together David Sylvian, his brother Steve Jansen (ex-Japan), and the well-respected Burnt Friedman. They have created a suite of remarkably poignant songs that are part social commentary and part self-analysis. Sylvian and his collaborators have never sounded better nor the material more immediate. Money For All is a mini-album that i…
Sound body
David Toop's Sound Body hums and glows with life, five gorgeous morphing electronic tracks that continue Samadhisound's exploration of quiet, minimal, melodic music worlds created by the likes of Harold Budd, Akira Rabelais, Fennesz, Derek Bailey, David Sylvian and others. These remarkable soundscapes have only become possible in the twenty-first century, when improvisation, digital composing and mixing, and traditional music forms from around the globe all mutate and fuse in ways that surprise …
Full Steam Ahead!
Reel Recordings presents a collection of newly discovered recordings from Harry Miller's Isipingo -- originally recorded 1975-78. South African bassist Harry Miller (1941-1983) retains stature as an internationally recognized player who possessed both technical virtuosity and limitless musicality. One needs to only consider his gorgeous bass playing within the Mike Westbrook Concert Band and the legendary Brotherhood of Breath, to cite but two. During the mid-'70s, Harry Miller formed Isipingo, …
Crossing Borders
This is a previously unreleased recording from the late '70s by Bob Downes Open Music. Bob Downes is a multi-instrumentalist composer possessing a distinctive musical personality and prowess. Through bodily breath emanates sublime sounds from an array of flutes, poignant patterns from his alto and tenor saxophone performances, and engaging expressions of complimentary vocalizations. Open Music is the moniker under which Bob has produced an eclectic range of records since 1968. However, none of t…
Secret Asylum
Ray Russell is a composer whose wild explorations and sonic extensions of the electrified guitar set him aside from the famed British guitar heroes of the late '60s and '70s. Ray's rhythm and blues roots with The John Barry Seven, Georgie Fame, and the Graham Bond Organisation were set aside by the urgent call of the free jazz movement, and a succession of classic recordings (Turn Circle, Dragon Hill, Rites & Rituals, Live at the ICA, The Running Man) gave rise to his most challenging and ultima…
DNA on DNA
New York's seminal no wave band, DNA, makes it's highly anticipated American CD debut with this definitive collection of studio and live recordings. Surviving two line-ups over a brief period of four years; this highly influential, strikingly original and extremely under-recorded band left a huge void in its wake. Formed in 1978, Brazilian-raised singer/guitarist Arto Lindsay hastily assembled an international trio of non-musicians. Robin Crutchfield played keyboard and Japan's Ikue Mori played …