Experimental / All styles

second and last effort from this criminally underrated band in the same style as their first

an underrated band, rich experimental progressive music with some jazz influences, close sometimes to canterbury sound. complex themes, elaborate arrangements give solemn aspect to the long instrumental constructions

On The Radio is a compilation of rare BBC recordings, including 3 John Peel studio sessions and a live concert. The band includes Dave Sinclair (ex-Caravan), Phil Miller (Hatfield & The North and National Health), Bill MacCormick and Dave MacRae. This special digipack format features an original cover photograph by Robert Wyatt, who also compiled the running order. The accompanying 12-page CD booklet features extensive liner notes by Matching Mole bassist, Bill MacCormick, plus rare period photo…

This is another one of Franco Battiato's amazing recordings from the 70's, and it features two extended pieces -- "ZA" and "Café Table Musik". "Za" is a long piece for solo piano, with lots of spare minimal moments, and haunting trancelike lines of chords that build very very slowly. It's a beautiful exercise in restraint, and the kind of haunting soundscape that Battiato is legendary for. "Café Table Musik" is a bit more complex, although it's still got minimal piano progressions as its core. T…

Works by three composers ("Quartets in Pairs / Quartersines / Mudget: Monologues By A Mass Murderer" by J.K. Randall, "Synthesism" by Barry Vercoe, "Changes" by Charles Dodge) realized in the computer centers of Columbia and Princeton Universities. Only one copy available.

Morphogenesis, made up of: Clive Graham, Roger Sutherland, Ron Briefel, Micha, Fred Sansom, and Andy Courdry, was formed in 1985. They were interested in exploring the possibilities of live electronics and collective improvisation. The members have diverse musical backgrounds, including teaching electonic music at Morley College and playing in other groups ranging from Cornelius Cardew's Scratch Orchestra, Nurse with Wound and Organum. Only one copy available.

What?? was composed in 1967 in the electronic music studio of Swedish Radio, and was originally released on the German new music label Wergo with Bo Anders Persson 's Proteinimperialism , another static drone piece. What?? is based on Folke Rabe 's intense interest in monotony and harmonic overtones. The work is based on deep drones and their partials, where each partial is separately manipulated. Sometimes this coalesces into a beautiful chord, sometimes into more dissonant structures, but is c…

Zoltán Pongrácz (5 February 1912, Diószeg - 3 April 2007) was a Hungarian composer. Pongrácz studied composition from 1930 to 1935 with Zoltán Kodály at the Budapest Academy of Music. He became professor of composition at the Debrecen Conservatory in 1947 and continued in that position until 1958. For a time he ceased compositional activity, until attending the Darmstadt summer courses in 1964, 1965, and 1972, and the third Cologne Courses for New Music in 1965–66 with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hen…

Recordings from '76/77. "Songs..." is a suite of solo voice pieces, showcasing her various extended techniques. Some excellent experimental vocals, some a bit too whimsical perhaps. "Tablet" is a 23 minute ensemble work for 4 female voices, piano & soprano recorder. Only one copy available.

Pieces By A. Roldan, L. Harrison, W. Russell, H.Cowell and J. cage, performed by the Mahattan Percussion Ensemble under Paul Price and John Cage. Only one copy available.

Cincinnati native C. Spencer Yeh has been releasing records under the Burning Star Core moniker since 1993. A classically trained violinist, Yeh is the center of the amorphous free noise group whose past collaborators have included: Comets on Fire, Hototogisu, Chris Corsano and Thurston Moore. Operator Dead... finds BxC as an extremely loud four piece who waste no time and get right down to business creating massive, looping, head-splitting drones and titanic walls of sound. Calculated and contr…

Melissa St. Pierre tosses classicism and post-classicism overboard, utilizing the prepared piano -- John Cage's notorious instrument of choice -- and electronic enhancement to sail resolutely in the direction of rock & roll. Peppering the strings, hammers, and dampers with a variety of objects, she transforms the piano's typical timbre: sparkling gamelans chatter; harrowing voodoo drums call out in the night. Specimens, St. Pierre's debut, features production and performances by Collections of C…

Percussionist Jon Mueller works with rhythms that come from gong frequencies, from vibrations of the bodies of bass drums, and the surprising sonorities that occur with the combination of these elements. Now he applies these techniques to his latest solo effort, to stunning effect: Metals is, as its name suggests, a bold, all-percussion foray into heavy metal. No theatrical silliness here; just sheer exhilaration; the fundamental power of loud, organized, precise rhythms; ringing, heavy anti-mel…

As members of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo continue to pump the most radical tenets of American experimentalism into the heart of rock music; in recent years they have also extended their reputations as world- class improvisErs. French phenom Jean-Marc Montera records for the legendary FMP label, and has collaborated with an amazing host of free-music luminaries, including Evan Parker, Paul Lovens and Han Bennink. However it is the keening blues wail of Loren Mazzacane Connors tha…

Sound Works is the first collection of Jed Speare's long-form musique concrete compositions. Speare is a crossover artist who has been working in sound, video, and performance for over thirty years. The music here reflects his investigation and uniquely expressive practice of analogue sound-field recording, editing, combining and mixing during that era. He is the creator of the Smithsonian Folkways LP Cable Car Soundscapes (1982). In the early 80s he recorded with the San Francisco groups, Resea…

"Smegma man, fucking Smegma. They started the whole damn thing. Sure there was Lee Rocky & some soundeffects 78s that set the crew in motion but screw it.. you wouldn't be blasting The Beast or any Weird Handdrawn LP with rotten ears if it wasn't for this truly motley crew. In high school my sweet momma would give me ten bones a week for lunch, come Monday by noon that shit was blown at the local rec shop. When I only had a couple of raggedy bux left from gripping Zorlac stickers, the only optio…

  Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann, the core members of Mirror, have churned out countless expensive, gorgeously packaged LPs in highly countable numbers (typically under 400). The duo’s strategy has baffled me almost as much as it’s put me off, because their atmospheric music could easily find a much wider audience than the cabal of record collectors who are seduced by the bogus romance of self-imposed scarcity. Solaris departs from Mirror’s usual MO; it’s their first CD (albeit one packaged …

Third volume in MIO's Besombes reissue program, following Libra & Pole. First time on CD. Features recordings made in France 1972-1979. A chemist by training, Philippe Besombes was engaged in the French avant-garde scene from the early 1970s. Abandoning his doctoral degree for his pioneering work with new electronics in different musical contexts, he supported himself through the seventies creating the sounds for theater and ballet, and was a well-known audio engineer in the French contemporary …

Philippe Besombes is an underground but now cult french artist from the 70’s avant garde-prog scene. After a student doctoral degree to become a chemist he turned to music and was partly formed by Stockhusen and Xenakis. He rapidly showed an interest to electronic synth dispositifs (AKS, MiniMoog, Polyphonic ensemble Korg...). In 1976 Philippe Besombes had opened his own recording studio with Jean-Louis Rizet. He produced three major albums under his name. He recorded his most notorious effort i…