★Important Records
Alessandro Cortini and Merzbow
Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails) and Japanese noise legend Massami Akita (Merzbow) bask in their mutual love for the EMS Synthi, a British synthesizer from the early 70's notorious for it's patch matrix, portability and distinct tone. Astonishingly, these two disparate artists meld into a single sound as they flex the analog circuitry of the EMS Synthi in new ways; giving this classic synth a modern workout and proving that, in capable hands, a 40 year old analog synthesizer is a tool for th…
The New Backwards
LP version. The New Backwards, created in 2007, was originally included in the Ape Of Naples box set released on Important in 2008 and was constructed by Peter Christopherson using material from the Backwards sessions (CSR 203CD/LP), recorded in the early '90s for a planned release on Trent Reznor's Nothing Records label. The New Backwards, like The Ape Of Naples, is an intense fan favorite and an essential part of the Coil catalog.
Live At The Stone
Live At The Stone was intended to be Pauline Oliveros’ tribute to the life and work of pianist Connie Crothers who passed away on August 13, 2016. Sadly, Pauline Oliveros passed away on November 25, 2016. This CD, Pauline’s memorial for Connie, is now a memorial for both women. Pauline’s original dedication: “This recording resulted from my one and only performance with Connie Crothers at her invitation during her amazing residency at The Stone in August 2014. I was honored to play with Connie a…
Electronic Works 1958-1995
2016 repress. Triple yellow LP version. Pressed on audiophile grade heavy duty vinyl. Else Marie Pade, born in 1924 in Denmark, is a precious golden gem in the world of contemporary electro-acoustic music. She is a true pioneer of electronic music and musique concrète. Pade is Denmark's first lady of electronic music and her piece "Syv Cirkler (Seven Circles)" became the first electronic piece performed on Danish radio. Pade's fascination with sound began in early childhood. Isolated in her bed …
Vergers
Vergers is Sarah Davachi's third full-length release following Barons Court (2015) and Dominions (2016). It marks her second appearance with Important Records following 2014's August Harp cassette on the Cassauna imprint (SAUNA 017CS). In Vergers, she meditates on a single electronic instrument, the EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer, while also weaving sparse acoustic elements - her own voice and violin - into a series of three long-form, muted gestures. Elements of distance and alienation are certa…
Radiant Intervals I
Important Records present the first part of a re-release of Eleh's influential Radiant Intervals, originally released in 2010. Radiant Intervals is a meticulously nuanced and restrained exploration of the rhythmic and harmonic relationships inherent in pure analog frequencies, using a blend of intuitive and mathematically based tunings. Dense patterns of sound slowly unravel and are woven together again in new ways while harmonics hover and shift overhead. Radiant Intervals is a purely anal…
Overtone Ensemble
Tim Catlin formed the Overtone Ensemble in 2012 in order to perform works using his self-made "vibrissa" instruments. Each instrument consists of 12 vertically mounted aluminum rods that are longitudinally stroked by hand to produce ethereal singing tones. The long sustaining nature of the rods' sound and microtonal tunings allow players a sonic palette of complex textures and harmonic complexity. Other instruments used include massed hand-bells, quarter-tone bells, EBowed acoustic guitars, re-t…
Radiant intervals
Radiant Intervals' is the first Eleh LP on Important since '08s 'Floating Frequencies/Intuitive Synthesis Vol.3', and follows one of the Wire magazine's (and our) top records of 2010, the incredible 'Location Momentum' for Touch. Continuing with investigations into physically tactile tones and drones, this LP offers four further modular synth expeditions eternally moving towards the distant point depicted on the gorgeous, letterpress printed sleeve. After a stoically inert start 'Night Of…
Further West Quad Cult LP
Prefigured by the inclusion of a secret extra pocket in the original packaging of Far West (IMPREC 386CD/LP, 2013), this painstakingly crafted complimentary LP is intended for synced playback with that release. With two turntables or other playback devices, the listener can experience fully unique quad playback. Further West Quad Cult LP offers deeper journeys into the cave where the self dissolves. It also stands alone as an inverted Far West universe, and the listener is invited to enjoy it…
Far West
On "Far West," the Master Musicians of Bukkake mark a turn from their Totem Trilogy. If the Totems were an expression of yang energy, then the "Far West" cycle is the yin that took seed within the trilogy. What happens when you travel so far east looking for enlightenment that you pass your destination and are headed west again? The mania of being lost in the mountains of the Cascade Corridor, searching aimlessly for the Northern Pacific coast. A spiritual Donner party of sorts, feeding off fant…
Anoxia
LP version in combination offset/screenprinted jacket. Edition of 500. The second L A N D album, Anoxia, sees Daniel Lea return alone with an outing that marks a shift from the industrial-inflected jazz-noir of 2012's Night Within into distinctly new terrain. Mixed by Ben Frost at Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavík; mastered by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin. CD packaged in a combination offset/screenprinted jacket. "Anoxia" means "total absence of oxygen," and in Lea's hands the term heralds aural e…
Sonambient : Recordings of Harry Bertoia
Harry Bertoia's Complete Sonambient Collection features all 11 of Bertoia's original records newly restored from their master tapes and housed in replica jackets. A heavy duty box, printed with metallic inks, holds the 11 discs as well as a 100-page book containing a lengthy historical essay, an interview with Harry Bertoia from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, exclusive Sonambient-era material from the Bertoia archive, modern and archival photos of the Bertoia barn, and reflections on …
Harry Bertoia 100th Anniversary
Experiential Recordings, Sonambient and Important Records are honoured to present a tribute to Harry Bertoia's 100th year anniversary. The project intends to celebrate the artist and his sound sculptures through a collection of recordings realised by EMG. The package consists of a limited numbered edition of 100 copies, 180g vinyl record and a DVD, both enclosed in a hand-crafted and engraved wooden box produced by an artisan located in Naples, Italy. A booklet giving an insight to the project i…
Stop Time
Robin Hayward plays microtonal tuba in Catherine Christer Hennix's ensemble and Stop Time is his first composition to be released on Important Records. Stop Time was commissioned for a festival of the same name taking place in Leuven in 2013. It is the first piece to use a subset of the three-dimensional physical version of the Hayward Tuning Vine, invented in 2012, as a musical score. The harmonic space implied within the four cubes contained within the subset, based on prime numbers two (octav…
New Songs Of The Humpback Whale
Packaged in a deluxe, heavy duty 6 panel digipak and insert containing an essay from David Rothenberg and Michael Deal designed whale song visualizations. What record album was so important that ten million copies of it needed to be pressed at once? You guessed it. Songs of the Humpback Whale. In 1979 National Geographic Magazine inserted a flexible "sound page" inside the back cover of all of its editions in twenty-five languages, and that is supposedly how many they printed. No human pop star …
A Room Listening to Itself
Adam Basanta is a Montreal-based sound artist and experimental music composer. His sound installations investigate intersections between sound reproduction, consumer technologies and the activity of listening. In A Room Listening to Itself, the artist produced sound exclusively through amplification techniques which make audible the physical relationships between microphones and reclaimed speaker cones within a gallery's surrounding acoustic environment.
 In this work, eight iconic SM58 mic…
Live At Issue Project Room
BLUES ALIF LAM MIM IN THE MODE OF RAG INFINITY/RAG COSMOSIS is a new composition from Catherine Christer Hennix's expanded just-intonation ensemble, the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage. This expanded ensemble includes vocalists Imam Ahmet Muhsin Tüzer, Amir Elsaffan and Amirtha Kidambi, an expanded brass section with the addition of Paul Schwingesnschlögl and Elena Kakaliagou as well as the additon of Marcus Pal and Stefan Tiedje on electronics.Packaged in a lavish, oversized letterpressed jacket …
Central Palace Music
Central Palace Music, performed by Catherine Christer Hennix's just-intonation ensemble The Deontic Miracle, is the first in a series of archival Hennix releases to be issued via Imprec. This previously unheard piece was taken from an eight day festival organized in the Spring of 1976 at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. The group features Catherine Christer Hennix on Renaissance oboe and custom sinewave generators, Peter Hennix on Renaissance oboe and Hans Isgren on sheng.Central Palace Mu…
Ambient Loop for Vancouver
"Ambient Loop for Vancouver (2004) is a single, full length track (53'43"), with contributions from Alan Licht on guitar, Christian Marclay on turntables, and William Hooker on drums. It was originally assembled as the 'tape bed' for a performance in Vancouver, Canada of DRIFT, my collaborative film and music presentation with partner Leah Singer, in April 2004. This slowly changing, low volume ambience has since been used in various performance, reading and installation situations over the y…
Triptych
2021 small repress. "Back to music after three years of silence... On the suggestion of Robert Ashley, Douglas Dunn commissioned this piece from Éliane Radigue for choreography. Only the first part of Triptych was staged at the premiere at the Dancehall/Theatre of Nancy on February 27 1978. Recorded in the composer's studio in Paris. After the premiere of Adnos I (IMPREC 028CD) in San Francisco in 1974, a group of French students introduced Éliane Radigue to Tibetan Buddhism. When she returned t…