★Sub Rosa

The Master Musicians of Joujouka are often credited with being the first "world music" group. The Joujouka music for Boujeloud, or the Father of Skins, is frantic and has several movements which would equate to a symphony or the score of an opera if it were European classical music. The festival and ritual originate in the worship of the God Pan. In 1994, Frank Rynne began a two year long project recording the Master Musicians of Joujouka in their village. Sub Rosa released two CDs from these re…

I Could Never Make That Music Again is a choral album, a sound collage crafted out of interviews, where artists, musicians, DJs and sound makers talk openly about their work, their visions, their hopes, their moments of doubts and their regrets in a loosely constructed narrative. Most of the people interviewed have all participated in the making of the history of electronic music; from the early tape experiments in the 1950s to the latest trends in techno. Derrick May and Stacey Pullen, the pion…

'Autumn 1982, Brixton, London, Brion gysin, the eternal accomplice of William Burroughs, renews the methods of performance by reciting texts, hastily brought together: Tessa, a member of Slits, Steve, of Rip, rig and panic, Jail, of Penguin café orchestra and Ramuntcho Matta on guitar. Ramuntcho, in the style of Brion, called this session 'white funk'. Most of the texts were written upon meeting Burroughs, at the time of the invention of the cut-up. The influence that Brion gysin has had on cont…

This is the fourth Henri Pousseur CD in Sub Rosa's Early Electronics series, exploring the work of this Belgian theoretician and experimental/avant garde composer. Along with previous releases in this series, Musique Mixte will cover all his electronic music and his most radical works between 1953 and 1988 -- 35 years of research and experiments. These recordings are a continuation of Sub Rosa's earlier releases, namely: Liège à Paris (a piece composed thanks to Luciano Berio and premiered at th…

More that 30 years had passed since our last experimental duet. Tony arrived and decided he could stay for several days in Brussels and we casually started to play together one afternoon Aude, my wife, remarks about that special moment that in 5 minutes if not less she heard a natural musical chemistry of beauty and power that greatly impressed her yet. Tony and i hadn't played discussed or conversed about sound or anything in over 30 years None the less the result were totally surprising dazzli…

Morton Feldman (1926-1987) remains a legendary and key figure in modern American composition. A pioneer of aleatoric and indeterminate music, he was a master of minimal improvisation. Despite many thematic fluctuations in Feldman's compositional style throughout his career, a significant turning point took place in 1949, when he met John Cage, commencing an artistic association of crucial importance to music in America in the 1950s. Cage was instrumental in encouraging Feldman to have confidence…

This Romanian-born composer is noted for having developed the technique of 'spectral composition' during the 1960s. According to the man himself, this is defined as a "variable distribution of the spectral energy, synthesis of the global sound sources, micro- and macro-form as sound-process, four simultaneous layers of perception and of speed, and spectral scordaturae, i.e. rows of unequal intervals corresponding to harmonic scales." If you're any the wiser as to what he's on about do drop us a …

an awesome sound art compilation featuring Guillaume Apollinaire, Antonin Artaud, Julian Beck, Camille Bryen, Augusto de Campos, E.E. Cummings, Marcel Duchamp, François Dufrêne, Pierre Guyotat, Brion Gysin, Richard Huelsenbeck, James Joyce, Ghérasim Luca, Vladimir Maïakovski, Kurt Schwitters, Gertrude Stein, Tristan Tzara.

deluxe digipack cd with booklet (english and french) : lecture in Houston, Texas - April 1957 some texts from à l'infinitif (1912-1920) ; lecture in New York, shortly before his death musical erratum (la mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même) ; long before John Cage, the first  aleotory composition ; an interview by George Heard Hamilton recorded in New York (1959) ; an interview by Richard Hamilton recorded in London (1959) ; musical erratum (a score for 3 voices) only score written by du…

2005 release ** "Into the Void is a reflection upon the history and the recent changes in the Krakovian neighborhood of Kazimierz. The center of this meditation is the seemingly contradictory development of the last few years, which shows the attempts to re-animate Jewish culture. This piece is an attempt to reverse the seasons from summer to winter in the 700-year-old Jewish district of Krakow. What struck Meissner at first sight, was the glaring contrast between the rich, the rise of the mater…

This release is the third and last in the three-part Aerial series. Tod Dockstader is one of the all-time great figures in the world of musique concréte composition, with his "organized sound" works from the 1960s being amongst the most radical ever conceived -- in league with Schaeffer, Henry, Stockhausen, and Varese. Aerial is a rare new work in the realm of shortwave radio, from one of America's most experimental composers. Volume 1 was released in March 2005 inside a slipcase. Volume …

Featuring Raoul Hausmann, Kurt Schwitters, Hans Arp edited by Marc Dachy (Dada specialist), this is a complete cd build on the 3 axes of the european Dada avant-garde: 3 major artists who read their own texts. Hans Arp was close to Tristran Tzara when he created Dada in Zürich. Kurt Schwitters one of the major figure of the german avant-garde and Raoul Hausmann one of the creator of Dada in Berlin. this is the first time that the 3 mighty artists appear together on one record.

This release is the second (Volume 2) in the three-part Aerial series. Tod Dockstader is one of the all-time great figures in the world of musique concréte composition, with his "organized sound" works from the 1960s being amongst the most radical ever conceived -- in league with Schaeffer, Henry, Stockhausen, and Varese. Aerial is a rare new work in the realm of shortwave radio, from one of America's most experimental composers. Volume 1 was released in March 2005 inside a slipcase. Volu…

Tod Dockstader is one of the all-time great figures in the world of musique concréte composition, with his "organized sound" works from the 1960s being amongst the most radical ever conceived -- in league with Schaeffer, Henry, Stockhausen, and Varese. Aerial is a rare new work in the realm of shortwave radio, from one of America's most experimental composers. This release is the first (Volume 1) in a three-part series. "I've written before of my interest in shortwave radio. When I was ve…

"These life conditions lead to a radical conclusion: the traditional definitions of music are irrelevant and music theories and music as a cultural concept must be destroyed. That is what we find in his latest works, in which his main concern is to produce pieces out of electronic sounds and acoustic walls on scores developed from the architecture of ruins. His last opus called One and many is the exact development of years of theories and practices. As many of Karkowski's pieces, this is a high…

Circulations is an impressive hourlong electro-acoustic work by composer Pierre-Yves Macé and his second album (after a lukewarm debut released on Tzadik). Making the best of a residency at Euphonia (Marseille), he first wrote four solo pieces for percussion, electric guitar, harp, and clarinet. At Euphonia, he rehearsed these solos with musicians Frédéric Doumas, Rémy Décrouy, Rafaëlle Rinaudo, and Agathe Fourneau (respectively) and recorded them. Then, Macé composed a tape part for each solo, …

this second volume aural document is devoted to the Brussels Surrealist Group, 1926, following in the surrealist footsteps that Dada, Pansaers et Correspondance Volume 1 (1917-1926) established. On this compilation you can hear rare documents, including the voice of magritte explaining why it's impossible to answer the questions of journalists. As a nucleus started forming in 1924 around magritte, Nougé, Lecomte, etc., dissension arose, spawning Correspondance (1924-26). This release documents t…

this second volume aural document is devoted to the Brussels Surrealist Group, 1926, following in the surrealist footsteps that Dada, Pansaers et Correspondance Volume 1 (1917-1926) established. On this compilation you can hear rare documents, including the voice of magritte explaining why it's impossible to answer the questions of journalists. As a nucleus started forming in 1924 around magritte, Nougé, Lecomte, etc., dissension arose, spawning Correspondance (1924-26). This release documents t…

'Music in Fifths' (1969) from Phillip Glass. 'Pendulum Music'(1968) from Steve Reich. 'Dorian Reeds' (1964) from Terry Riley. '1 + 1' (1968) from Phillip Glass. 'Reed Phase' (1967) from Steve Reich. 'Walls of Sound' is about what I call: 'static music' - music that isn't semantic, gestured, or narrative, that doesn't move or change atmospherically, and isn't dramatic or has a development in the traditional European sense. If it changes it does it very slowly. The emphasis lies on the 'aural scul…

Minimalist sound artist CM Von Hausswolff gives his two cents on the state of overdevelopment in various urban environments the world over in this, his second disc for the Sub Rosa label. It's hard to say precisely how the music here relates to town planning: Von Hausswolff concentrates on conjuring the kind of stark, austere glitch-driven soundscapes found on his work for labels like Raster Noton, using what sounds to be entirely synthetic sources, so again, it's difficult to establish any conc…

2004 CD-only release on Sub Rosa of the evocative 2002 radio piece composed using recordings made during trips.

The story continues with volume 2, featuring slow explorations of the past and the present. Given the present system of production, there are reasons, some of them identifiable, why only a few names emerge in each period. There may also be a preference for concentrating information rather than letting it pile up in disordered fashion. Over the past 40 years, the same ten electronic music composers get mentioned again and again (including in music dictionaries and histories). Yet behind the…

From the Joyce archives with the exclusive permission of the Joyce foundation, the only two recordings of the author, reading from "Ulysses" in Paris during the twenties and from "Finnegans Wake" in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

2019 repress. "This is a wide panorama of Nam June Paik work as musician -- 'Hommage à John Cage' (1958-1959), 'Étude for Pianoforte' (1959-1960) and 'Simple' (1961) are good exemple of neodada music and de-structuration in the late 50's, this is basically irreverent audio-collages. 'Prepared Piano for Merce Cunningham' (1977) captures an improvised performance by Paik on a de-tuned piano. While 'Prepared for Merce Cunningham' was later mixed and edited for use by Merce Cunningham, this raw, str…

Subtitled: First A-Chronology 1921-2001. At last, the Sub Rosa label re-issues the highly-acclaimed Anthology Of Noise & Electronic Music collection. Containing early and contemporary classics as well as pieces that had never been heard before. Volume 1 begins in the 1920s with the Russolo brothers, and examines each decade in turn -- Varèse, Cage, Schaeffer, Xenakis, the great pioneers crafting the first traces of a music that was markedly revolutionary: electronic music, created from no…

2002 release ** "Most music in Japan has little to recommend it; it is a sonic equivalent of those brutal concrete towers or the transitory chaos of multi-storey teen-fashion emporia in Aoyama. But a sonic underground thrives, creatively if not financially, and perhaps it should be compared with the shabby Golden-gai drinking dens of Shinjuku, faint reminders of a lost time when desire and transgression shared endless cups of sake with political and artistic radicalism... How is it possible to l…

2CD feat 4 unpublished tracks based on "Parabolic studies" (SR174) the idea was to ask other musicians, of different generations, to attempt a new mix on the basis of these 8 studies: Oval, Main/Robert Hampson, Philip Jeck and Henri Pousseur himself.

New York pop-art archival cd document from the 60's to the 90's featuring Andy Warhol, WS Burroughs, Iggy Pop, Thurston Moore [Sonic Youth], Jack Kerouac, dj Olive, Allen Ginsberg, Angus maclise. Gerard Malanga [the bronx, 1943- .... ] writer, filmmaker, performer [with The Velvet Underground] and Andy Warhol's main assistant, superstar & and closest friend at the Factory from 1963 to 1970. also know as a seminal photo archivist of the pop culture, Gerard Malanga edited for Sub Rosa a selection …

the principle of musical erratum is simple: you choose a keyboard - any keyboard - you draw each note at random - no note can be struck twice, but all are struck - the resulting whole is played without any particular modulation, "a uniformity de rhythm, anaccentuation" says Duchamp.tThe premises of minimal and aleatory art are thus expressed in "the green box", published in 1934 (although the writings date back to 1912-15). to do this, we chose to use a piano (a bösendorfer)7 VARIATIONS ON A DRA…

55 Historical Recordings is not exactly “come on and sing along” vocal music. A trace of the collective exuberance heard in much traditional West African vocal and percussive music is here, but isolated in an the individual’s voice. The Inuit occupy one of the harshest, coldest, most desolate regions in the world, the area in and around the Arctic Circle in Siberia, Canada, Greenland and Alaska – the Land of the Midnight Sun.These songs, mostly traditional drum-songs consisting of one vocalist s…

At the very beginning of Survival Research Laboratories in 1978, the group's founder Mark Pauline predicted that people would eventually start building their own technology in order to seize control of the very violence that characterizes the age we live in. Survival Research Laboratories was conceived and founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. Since its inception, SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of…

1995 release ** Joujouka Black Eyes is a CD by Moroccan Sufi trance musicians Master Musicians of Joujouka. It was released in May 1995 on Sub Rosa Records. It was produced by Frank Rynne and includes the song "Brian Jones Joujouka very Stoned" written by Joujouka born painter Mohamed Hamri. This song commemorates the third visit of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones to Jajouka. On this visit Jones recorded Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka. The group on this CD includes veteran …

Sole album by Belgian electronic duo with the industrial/electronic soundtrack to the William Burroughs novel, released by Sub Rosa in 1988.

EP by Belgian electronic duo with dance-y reworkings of the industrial/electronic soundtrack to the William Burroughs novel, released by Sub Rosa in 1988.

This is the first album from Wang Changcun, who is a member of the China Sound Unit, a group dedicated to investigating aural phenomena in various urban centers. Blurring the distinction between noise and the avant-garde, it also marks the first release of a Chinese composer by a Western label with international scope. Of the two tracks on this disc, of more interest is the lengthy opener “Grand Hotel.” In this 40-minute composition, Changcun relies on expansive texture to create an ever-shiftin…

A name totally unknown at its introduction. Where did they fetch it from ? Instantly the floor falls silent when the four mentally retarded musicians, Johan, Linh, Kim and Rudy together with their artistic mentor and drummer boy Damien, all ill at ease, clear their way among drums, trumpets, violins, melodica, samplers and an electric guitar. Concentration, suspense, beads of sweat, a sigh, a cough, and then...'the scream'. For over forty minutes they are pouring a sauce of punk, rock, noise and…

Luc Ferrari's diverse work and aesthetics continue to have a singular impact on the young generations of electronic musicians and artists. The corpus of his work is immense and includes hundreds of compositions of all kinds. Les Anecdotiques - his last composition - is a vast sound-film of more than an hour who explores in 15 steps the intensity of re-composed sounds from his continual travel around the world - with electronic additional structures. 'I have made works that more or less depart fr…

Sub Rosa presents a CD which contains fragments and reworkings of the legendary Raudive tapes. Who was Doctor Konstantin Raudive? Dr. Raudive, a student of Carl Jung, was a Latvian psychologist who taught at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, before devoting the last ten years of his life to electronic voice phenomenon (EVP). He published in his book Breakthrough in 1971. His early collaborator F.Jurgenson, whom he met by the very beginning of 1965, awakened Dr. K. Raudive's interest in EVP rese…

As the inventor of the Dreamachine ("the first objects made to be viewed with closed eyes"), a prolific writer, painter and calligrapher, Brion Gysin also found time amongst his cramped schedule to set up a restaurant (The Thousand and One Nights) in Tangier, where he proceeded to provide a stage for the best in Moroccan groups specialising in exorcism or trance (particularly the Master Musicians of Joujouka who enjoyed an extended residency). An archive album comprised of these recordings, the …

Finally available, in full-lenght original audio piece (71 minutes) on 24-bit / 48kHz digital USB flat memory-card with non-audio blank etched vinyl. Limited 500 pieces edition, numbered and signed by Francisco Lopez. La Selva' is an immersion into the sound environments of a tropical rain forest in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica. An astonishing natural sonic web created by a multitude of sounds from rain, waterfalls, insects, frogs, birds, mammals and even plants, through a day cycle d…