★Important Records

*2023 repress* Recent repress."Deluxe double LP. Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails/How To Destroy Angels) composed the Forse series using a Buchla Music Easel. Forse, meaning 'maybe' In Italian, is a series of three double LP releases Cortini recorded for Important to release in 2013. "All pieces were written and performed live on a Buchla Music Easel, in the span of one month. I found that the limited array of modules that the instrument offers sparked my creativity. Most pieces consist of a …

11 Dec 1980 is a two CD set containing Eliane Radigue's live performance of Chry-Ptus (1971), her first work for modular synthesizer, and the world premier of parts one and three of Triptych (1978). Triptych part 2 is also performed. Upon hearing these performances for the first time in many years Radigue declared them to be the best versions she'd ever heard. Radigue's sublime renderings of these major pieces are full of illusory stasis, slow change and dense, slow motion drone that has charact…

First time on CD for this classic Merzbow duo album from 1983. Material Action is a favorite among early Merzbow free-music, junk-noise workouts. Psychedelic improvised instrumental energy abounds on this essential early recording that is Pure Merz. Masami Akita plays tapes, percussion, electro-acoustic noise, organKiyoshi Mizutani overdubs tapes, synthesizer, violin, machine noise

*20th anniversary reissue!* Merzbow's Merzbeat is one the most unique and legendary titles in the artist's vast archive. This 20th anniversary reissue is being issued at the same time as CD reissue of his 1983 album Material Action 2 and a brand new collaboration with Arcane Device, all on Important Records. Originally released in 2002, Merzbeat contains over 50 minutes of aggressive, psychedelic, organic, analog beat oriented Merzbow compositions. Drummed rhythms, massive looping samples, a pun…

Japan's leading noise luminary Merzbow meets American electro-feedback artist Arcane Device as they mix and manipulate each other's work.

In 1970 Harry Bertoia had been developing his sonic sculptures for over ten years. He had only been composing/recording for two years and the four long pieces chosen for this CD find him starting to arrive at the sonic forms he had been searching for. Hints Of Things To Come is one of the most unique and melodic pieces discovered so far in the Bertoia tape archive. In this piece we hear him slowly create and articulate a musical riff.  Bertoia builds this phrase patiently until the composition r…

*300 copies limited edition* Golden Leaf is the 19th album by the Italian experimental band Larsen here exploring free-form sounds and spatial dynamics by real-time composing and creating a sonic and social environment. 
It also confirms the love and interest the band has for collaborations as ongoing dialogues and portals to new paths. This album documents a four-hour site-specific performance by Larsen and Alessandro Sciaraffa featuring interactive sound totems designed by Alessandro Sciaraffa…

Tod Dockstader's Aerial series, an electronic/drone masterpiece, is cherished among fans of the artist's work.15 years in the making, Tod Dockstader's Aerial series is sourced from his life long passion for shortwave radio. Dockstader collected over 90 hours of recordings, made at night, and comprised of cross signals and fragments plucked from the atmosphere. Opening with airwave drones, Dockstader gradually allows elements to slowly come and go, summoning an ominous atmosphere of ethereal clou…

*2022 repress* Pauline Oliveros (b. 1930) is an accordionist and composer who currently resides in Kingston, New York. Her instrument is tuned in just intonation and she often includes it in her meditative improvisational music. Her music is not meditative in the sense that it is intended for listening to while meditating, rather each piece is a form of meditation, such as her aptly-titled "Sonic Meditations." "Accordion & Voice was the first of my recordings as a soloist. I was living in an A-f…

11 CD set adapted from 12 CD edition. All tracks included. This dense 11-disc retrospective of Pauline Oliveros' early and unreleased electronic work includes her very first piece made for tape in 1961. Organized chronologically, this set not only documents Pauline's earliest electronic music but it also functions as an early history of electronic music itself. Follow as she participates in the establishment of the legendary San Francisco Tape Music Center and then moves to University Of Toronto…

"Wizards was my first deep trance electronic music album. This album was inspired by Terry Riley, one of the earliest people ever to compose and perform long, extended, cyclic pieces in the electronic format. This music was composed and performed in '81 and '82. I consider this album my best work. The instrumentation is three Sequential Circuits PRO-1s, Crumar Traveler One, and a Yamaha SK-20, all real time recording to a Teac four-track reel-to-reel. I mixed the four tracks to a Teac A-7300 Mas…

Tony Rolando's debut "Breakin' Is A Memory" could be your soundtrack. This worldbuilding album of electronic music leaves room for the listener to make big personal connections through subtly complex music resembling a sonic mobile which, as it spins, reveals new forms and colors......

These companion pieces have similar orbits as they were not only both composed in Middletown, CT (where Alvin and Jordan lived for a number of years), but are about Middletown, at least from a starting point. Alvin’s piece — a homage to the location of the house in which he recorded “I am sitting in a room” back in 1969 — continues his study into slow-moving glissandi and carefully crafted beating patters by interweaving three string players within a minor third (voiced by two vibraphonists). Th…

A forgotten classic! Created between 1981 and 1985 by JD Emmanuel, a new age composer who has received a lot of praise from people like Lieven Martens and John Olsen. These recordings signify Emmanuel's praise to the course of the day. Starting off slowly with morning synth meanderings, walking through midday, running in the evening, and closing the day with midnight meditation. "Somewhere hidden in the deepest part of the Self is that special place, where One can go within to the most ancient p…

Duane Pitre's Varolii Patterns was made with an eight-voicesynthesizer, tuned in just intonation. These consonant pieces exploreshifting polyrhythms that slip in and out of rhythmic focus and "Common Rhythmic Pulses" that carry over as the pattern evolves withina piece. Artist statement:"While experimenting with microtonal electronics for a piece I waswriting for Zinc & Copper, which would eventually be titled Pons, Icame across a process-based technique that I was quite keen on.Although I would…

*100 copies limited edition* No Date Tapes 2 is the second official cassette release from Harry Bertoia's tape archive and, like the first cassette, these recordings were chosen from a small collection of tapes in Bertoia's archive missing recording dates. This cassette is packaged in a metallic shell and produced on super-ferro tape for incredible analog sound.

On Rain Forest Music (1981) J D Emmanuel builds gentle, short cycles of notes into floating clouds of sound, mostly improvising around single chords. The "minimalism" in his music lies not in repetitive patterns that barely change but more in the spare arrangements that  focus the listener while also taking them on a sonic journey.  A tape loop technique used by Brian Eno, Terry Riley, Robert Fripp (and likely many more)  called Continuous Looping was used in the creation of this album and a loo…

*2022 repress* The Wanderer is based on a single modal scale (B C# D D# E F# G#) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of 3/4 and 3/8. Part I, "Song," is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, "Dance," demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of cross rhythms characteristic of jigs, reels, batucadas, Bulgars, Klezmer fo…

Every new St. Abdullah record is an attempt to present new ideas and To Live A La West is no exception. Spread out over a CD on Imprec and a cassette on sister label Cassauna, To Live A La West is simply moving, a collection of profound and spiritual tracks miraculously existing at the impossible intersection of free jazz and electro where mystery and clarity exist together. Neither complicated or complex but profound, St. Abdullah’s new work is partially inspired by their love for Jon Hassell’s…

Five pieces for justly tuned piano and electronics. After a trilogy of long-form records, Pitre shortened the pieces, which gave him more harmonic room to move rather than less.

Alessandro Cortini's acclaimed 'Forse' series is available for the first time on CD including an exclusive disc of 'Forse' performed live. Packaged in matte coated digipacks housed in a heavy duty tip-on style outer box. 2021 digital master by Stephan Mathieu.  Composed using only an original Buchla Music Easel, an incredibly rare electronic music instrument designed by Don Buchla, the Forse series features long, romantic compositions full of voluminous, bombastic tones and dripping with thick t…

* Double CD edition. Metallic silver ink printed on high gloss paper * Eliane Radigue's complete Opus 17, her finest and final work created using feedback, is contained on this double CD. With Opus 17 Radigue perfected her slow mixing technique with sublime results. Imperceptible transformations envelop the attentive listener who is confronted with an immensely physical experience. Time is suspended in powerfully poetic and artful ways as Radigue masterfully sculpts the physical matter of sound …

Pauline Oliveros's Tara's Room has long been a favorite at Important Records and here they rerelease it on tape for the very first time. Originally released on cassette in 1987 following the 1986 release of Sounding / Way with Guy Klucevsek, also reissued by Important Records. This cassette edition features two long sides of infinite depth and sensitivity. Oliveros performs these pieces using a just intonation accordion and her Expanded Instrument System in order to bend both time and pitch. "Bo…

* This replica tape presents Pauline Oliveros & Guy Klucevsek's collaborative Sounding / Way as it was originally released, on tape, in 1986. Sounding / Way is being released at the same time as Oliveros' profound Tara's Room is released on tape for the first time since its original release in 1987 * Pauline Oliveros and Guy Klucevsek's Sounding / Way was originally released on cassette in 1987 and has been out of print ever since. The Sounding / Way concept was simple. Each artist would write a…

Atsuko Hatano is a contemporay classical Viola player who works with electronics to add textures and layers to her sound. Located in Tokyo, Japan, she is a commanding instrumentalist and composer who constructs innovative compositions with strings and layered electronics.Cells #5 is an orchestral collection and sequel to her previous album Cells #2 which will also be released on cassette via Imprec’s Cassauna label. Cells #5 required three years to complete and the work features the artist’s sig…

Musician and composer Sahba Sizdahkhani serves as a unique crossroad of East meets West. Influenced heavily by both 1960’s spiritual free-jazz and Persian Classical Music, he channels the fire-energy and longing for connectivity these two stormy histories represent. At age 12, his self-proclaimed “aha moment” occurred while listening to The John Coltrane Quartet for the very first time. He was hooked and immediately began studies on jazz drum set and classical snare drum.As the years passed, how…

A collection of long-form works in just intonation by Kali Malone, Duane Pitre, Catherine Lamb, Tashi Wada, Byron Westbrook, and Caterina Barbieri. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu

Saturations is a composition by Danish multidisciplinary artist Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard, and features a clarinet choir consisting of 19(!) clarinet players. Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard (b. 1979) considers his work to be a basic research in realities working within the domains of imaginary & physical sound as well as other non-sonic media, and since 2012 Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard has experimented with creating music that lets the instruments transcend their inherent sonic norms and reappear in another for…

** Packaged in a deluxe, heavy duty tip-on gatefold sleeves printed by Stoughton; cut by Golden Mastering and pressed at RTI ** Alina Kalancea's Impedance is an entirely instrumental album spanning four sides, contains powerful rhythmic sequences, heart-beating frequencies and hypnotic loops that are paradoxically encapsulated in carefully crafted compositions which are full of secret passages and hidden doors. Kalancea's work creates ungraspable sonic experiences, which overtakes you, immersing…

The Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle presents the first entry of their trilogy for Imprec, dedicated to telling the story of the climate crisis and its effects on coastal areas around the globe.....

**re-cut and re-press** To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Deep Listening, Important Records offer a definitive double-LP combining the classic, complete original 1989 release with selected tracks from the Deep Listening Band's 1991 album, The Ready Made Boomerang. Recorded in a cistern, this double-LP reverberates with brilliant sonic clarity and masterfully improvised performances combining live electronics, vocals, trombone. and accordion. Deep Listening is a classic in the fields of improv…

**Black Vinyl** Ned Lagin's Seastones is a pioneering electronic composition interweaving metaphors from nature, science, art and music and the origins of music. Reflecting the technology, science, modern art, new ecological awareness and optimism of the times and culture, Seastones embodies the history of electronic music by taking full advantage of tape music, analog synthesizers, and computer technology to create pieces that are dynamic, rich, and deep. Originally released by the Grateful Dea…

* Picture disc edition of 300 copies * Maja S. K. Ratkje is at the forefront of the musical avant-garde. Her music is bold, original and it is meant for sharing. At its heart lies Ratkje’s own voice, an open door to her individual musicianship and a constant tool for realigning her work with natural expressions and human truths. On Mara, layers of vocals overlap and layer their way through the reverberant woodwork of an early baroque parish in Austria. At times slow and beautiful, other times fr…

Tod Dockstader's Aerial series, an electronic/drone masterpiece, is cherished among fans of the artist's work and this first volume is available in an audiophile quality double LP edition of 500 copies. 15 years in the making, Tod Dockstader's Aerial series is sourced from his life long passion for shortwave radio. Dockstader collected over 90 hours of recordings, made at night, and comprised of cross signals and fragments plucked from the atmosphere.

ELEH's Harmonic Twins is a slow moving monophony tuned to the overtone vocalizations generated by a particularly beautiful sound sculpture made by Harry Bertoia. These two pieces are inspired by early music, choral masses, motets, the cathedral reverberations of sacred geometry and deep bass. Harmonic Twins was originally debuted by ELEH at Unsound, Krakow in 2017.Harmonic Twins was pressed in an audiophile edition of 500 copies and is packaged in a heavy duty sleeve printed with metallic inks. …

David First likes to use the phrase "the virtuosity of slowness" to describe his musical philosophy. In The Consummation of Right and Wrong, he and his eight-piece ensemble, The Western Enisphere, practice this virtuosity to great effect in closely examining the universes that fall between the cracks of convention, reflecting a wide continuum of complex relationships, all the while creating music that is simply ravishing to listen to. This is "drone music" as dynamic organism, moving from compac…

‘Function’ is an aesthetic exploration of digital audio at an elemental level: a sequence of quantized amplitude values. The entire sonic material in this series are generated through a custom-designed program that takes a mathematical function as input, and based on a set of pre-defined criteria, outputs the function as a digital waveform. Accordingly, each track in this series is named after one mathematical function, where the function itself is used as the only sound-generating engine. These…

Split release between ELEH and NYZ (David Burraston). Released alongside a full-length from NYZ via Important Records (IMPREC 453LP).ELEH: This side is possibly the artist's most complicated electronic composition. It navigates myriad timbral, tuning, and temporal processes while winding itself to completion. It was composed / constructed over a period of months in early 2019. NYZ: Two crunchy microtonal drone meditations in mono, using techniques of digital FM and hybrid analog / digital modula…

Shasta Cults is the musical project of Canadian electronics technician Richard Smith. For almost two decades, Smith was the official Buchla & Associates go-to repair person for studios, collectors, and musicians around the world, having worked with artists such as Aphex Twin, Suzanne Ciani, Mort Subotnick, and institutions such as The Library of Congress and Mills College, Smith has had the unique experience of restoring and interacting with nearly every model of Buchla instrument constructed ov…

Jessica Ekomane's debut LP, Multivocal, is brilliantly original, and will appeal to fans of Caterina Barbieri, Alessandro Cortini, Shasta Cults, ELEH, and the strand of minimal electronic music that runs through the Important catalog. Multivocal is a polyphonic maze that unfolds to both the body and the mind. A generative take on rhythm and spatial perception, it presents the same events in different configurations. The two pieces of the album, "Solid of Revolution" and "Never Odd or Even", mirr…