★Paradigm Discs
I.D. Art #2
When the Los Angeles Free Music Society 10 CD set came out I eagerly flipped through the contents to see what treasures had finally been made available again. Much to my surprise the early compilation I.D. Art #2 was not included in this otherwise major overview of the LAFMS. I.D. Art #2 was the second LP release on their label, coming after Le Forte Four’s ‘Bikini tennis shoes’ LP, and before the 2LP ‘Live at the Brand’, a split album between Le 44 and The Doo-Dooettes. It dates from 1976. It i…
Menagerie - Beach singularity - Vocalise
Releasing electroacoustic music in this country has historically, always been a dedicated persuit. With no national record labels and very few electronic music studios to support this music, the UK has always lagged behind its counterparts in both the United States and throughout east and west Europe. Trevor started releasing his own music in 1973 and continues to do so to this day. Much of this CD was originally privately released in 1979. Whilst other maverick British composers (Nyman, Bryars,…
Journey into Space
York University's music department houses one of the UK's first-ever
electronic music studios, and during the early '70s, it was a hotbed of
creative activity. Much of the released output from the studio at this
time revolved around the work of the dynamic composer Trevor Wishart. Journey Into Space
was his first release, composed between 1970 and 1972, and was
privately-pressed (shortly before the formation of YES records), as two
separate LPs in 1973. (The CD cover amalgamates the two or…
Natural Selection
Following the reissue of the Beyond the Black Crack LP, Paradigm delivers a second installment of outsider art from this American experimental showman. Collecting the offcuts of his numerous deranged sessions, this Kansas City tape collage artist turned electronic composer has an entirely unique vision, which is presented here as an overview of 25 years of work. A wide range of musical background informs the varied works on this collection, from Sun Ra-inspired space jazz to multi-channel electr…
Day for night
This CD represents a 25-year collaboration between renowned British avant-garde improviser Peter Cusack and instrument builder and sculptor Max Eastley. Cusack and Eastley have made these short episodes together between busy careers recording experimental music alongside artists such as Nicolas Collins, Steve Beresford, and David Toop). With numerous releases on ReR and Incus, the two musicians are mainstays of the British improvised music world, and Eastley is particularly prominent for his wor…
Electronic Works
One of our favourite "pure drone" album consisting of 3 amazing long tracks by Pauline Oliveros. I of IV was made in July 1966 at the University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio and was first released by CBS alongside works by 2 other young composers - 'Come out' by Steve Reich and 'Night music' by Richard Maxfield. It is really only in recent years (born out of the more radical elements of dance music, Electronica and ambient music) that music like this is being rediscovered by a growing numb…
In Streams (Volume 2)
Morphogenesis started recording in January 1985 and this is our sixth CD release, coming 3 months after the release of Volume 1. Like Volume 1, this CD also contains excerpts from 3 concerts (all in London this time) and a studio piece. Morphogenesis play a few concerts a year, almost always in London. In fact we have only ever played outside the UK twice. Concerts have always yielded our most varied material, but until now our CD's have mainly documented our studio work. Both volumes of 'In St…
In Streams (Volume 1)
This is the fifth CD release by Morphogenesis, and the first since 1998. Although Morphogenesis do not play live very often, it is certainly our preferred working situation, where the interaction between the space, the people present and the available equipment create a variety of different situations. Substantial extracts from nearly all of our recent concerts appear on this, and a second volume. There is also the inclusion of one studio recording per CD. Perhaps one reason for our infrequent a…
Charivari music
The second album by Morphogenesis finds the British improvising group continuing its exploration of unrecognizable sounds. Between the electronics that all group members play and the homemade instruments of Michael Prime (water machine and biofeedback) and Clive Graham (amplified springs), the listener is somewhat disoriented, adrift in a sound field of unknown origins. However, the music evolves in a very organic fashion, without the sudden harsh transitions that characterize some contemporary …
Lingual Music
Britain’s best known sound poet is Bob Cobbing, but it’s hard to come up with a list of other sound poets working in Britain in the 60’s and 70’s. It’s equally difficult to think of any female sound poets working anywhere. Lily Greenham was Danish, but spent her childhood in Vienna. After several relocations across Europe she settled in London in 1972 with her British husband (musician and poet Peter Greenham), where she lived until her death in 2001. Nearly all of her own writings and compositi…
Dar-As-Suhl Vol. 1
Dar-As-Sulh, Vol. 1 regroups four works by Kymatik, with environmental recordings (crickets, bees) acting as interludes. The best piece opens the set: 'Dentists for Mice' lies somewhere between sound collage, electroacoustics and techno. It gradually evolves as new sound channels replace old ones - work well done. More conceptual, 'Excerpt from Kandinsky's 'Im Blau'' has less to offer. Kandinsky's painting is interpreted in RGB values transposed into signal output. Each color is assigned a tonal…
One
Originally released in 1973 as a private press LP, 'One' is the first document of GAEB, a mysterious sextet of Californian improvisors. Formed in the late 60's by artist Richard Waters and jazz drummer Lee Charlton, the group made music using Waters's kinetic sculptures. His most important creation was the waterphone, a sort of acoustic synthesizer which used water in its resonators to produce warbling, tone bending vibrations similar to th edeep sea harmonies of humpback whales. Together with t…
s/t
This avant-garde Croatian composer and pianist's obscure experimental '70s work with his Acezantez Ensemble drew from all aspects of avant-garde music, including electronics and group improvisation. This release on Paradigm is the first available in the Western world since his LP on the Phillips Prospective series, which in the '70s was the most credible house for innovative compositional names such as Xenakis and Pierre Henry, who opened the doors to such avant-garde musical invention. This CD …
Oramics
Restocked; 2007 release. Daphne Oram is best-known for the design of her Oramics system, and also for co-founding the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1957, but until the release of this material, the only easily-available piece of music by her on CD was the 8-minute long "Four Aspects." There was also a 7" EP from 1962 on HMV, released as part of the Listen, Move and Dance series that was specifically designed to help children dance. Although the short pieces on this record are very basic, it could …
Debon
Brast Burn was a legendarily obscure Japanese ensemble that existed in the first half (I presume) of the 1970s. For many years, they were known only as an entry in the notorious Nurse With Wound list, with no way for anyone to check them out. Thus this CD. First off, I'll say that it sounds really good. One would never guess that it was a transfer from vinyl. Brast Burn has been cited/promoted at various times as the "Japanese Faust". I feel that this is incorrect. A better analogy would be to …
Time drops
This mini CD follows on from her previous electroacoustic composition on 'Variations 2 - a London compilation' Paradigm Discs (PD 05). It includes one new piece and a reissue of 'Ab Ovo', previously released on '5 composers second coming' Fylkingen (FYCD 1003). The 2 pieces explore a broad range of traditional electronic techniques, both subtle and powerful. Time Drops (2000). A single stroke of a bell, in its decay, sometimes evokes a sense of infinity in our mind. Time Drops is an attempt to e…
Bunhill Row
*500 copies, numbered edition, few available* 1980 was an incredibe year for London’s experimental music scene with many different strands. Recommended Records were rereleasing the first two Faust LP’s, L. Voag had found ‘the way out’, Swell Maps were ‘in occupied Europe’. Throbbing Gristle and other industrialists were giving plenty of live actions. Nurse With Wound had just released their first LP, as had This Heat. The other great LP on Piano Records by Steve Beresford was also on the shelves…
Music and Words
As a member of British experimental group Morphogenesis Adam Bohman was no stranger to wayward sound experiments when recording this solo CD. Favoring acoustic sounds over electronic he explores the minute tendrils of sounds coaxed from any number of non-musical instruments. The standout on this Paradigm CD is a cassette piece which the artist made of candid recordings of mundane experiences and conversations, using the stop-start technique to construct a collage of text and environmental sound.…