New Arrivals
Elektron Musik Studion, Dokumentation 1-4
2018 repress. Issued privately by Stockholm’s "Elektron Musik Studion” (EMS)
between 1966 & 1973, the four “Dokumentation” LPs were something of a
seasonal report card of the studio’s charter output, “internally”
issuing key early works. Composers Ralph Lundsten
& Leo Nilsen - whose side-length “Aloha Arita” & “Kalejdoskop”
have only been issued in severely excerpted form in the interim, -
Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Bengt Emil Johnson, Jan W. Morthenson, Arne
Mellnäs, Lars-Gunnar Bodin, and Sv…
Keyboard Music
Handy, double-pack reproduction offering a pair of Compilations on the Greek Music Box label, the first comprised of key Magnetic Tape & Spectral Computer Music pieces by Iannis Xenakis, Dimitris Kamarotos, Xaris Xanthoudakis, & Vasilis Riziotis, the latter of, essentially, Dark Ambient & assorted "Wave" & "Age" fare by Vangelis Katsoulis, Lena Platonos, "Antitheseis" alum Michael Grigoriou, & Minas Alexiades, each on its own disc inside a "Gatefold" booklet. Released pretty much back-to-back - …
Electro/Acoustic, The Referee Has Vanished, Zaat
Lovely set of tape-music by composer Jack Tamul, issued in 1980
by Spectrum - not the Wergo sub-label, but the same Bear Mountain-area
powerhouse that released William Hoskins’ “Galactic Fantasy” &
William Strickland’s “An Electronic Visit to the Zoo” the year prior -
“recorded at the Jacksonville Museum of Arts & Sciences."Starting with a series of pieces incorporating acoustic
materials: “Genesis” is a choir piece peppered with synthesizer &
tape-manipulation; “Lament for Gettysburg” is …
Radiophonic Tape Compositions
Replica edition of this impossible-to-find, internal compilation of
early-mid-80s Australian Tape Collage & Digital Assemblage, issued
privately by Sydney Classical radio station 2MBS & consisting of
five extended pieces; one each by Composers Peter Mumme, Peter Schaefer,
Robert Douglas, Jon Rose, & Michael Hannan. There is a fair
deal of the Fairlight's timbral & formal palette across the album's
otherwise conceptually disparate offerings; understandable given
the era & geographic associ…
Soliloque I, Soliloque IV, Match, Antifonia
Nicolae Brînduș was born in Bucharest in 1935 and swiftly
matriculated through his studies in Piano & Composition at
the National University of Music before embarking on the life-changing
seminars at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt
throughout the late 60s & early 70s; even working at Ircam for a
spell in the mid-1980s. How this formative music, composed & recorded largely during his
Darmstadt phase, has remained so relatively unknown is insane to me; it
has all of…
Ciclul „Cosmofonie”
The second title in Creel Pone's 23x survey of Romanian Early
Electronic Music, offering both pieces from the lone Electrecord LP by
Composer Dinu Petrescu, along with a composition from one of the many
Corul Madrigal offerings, here conducted by Marin Constantin. "Space Doina", or possibly "Doina Space (1978)", "music
for symphony orchestra, mixed choir, children's choir, synthesizer,
magnetic tape and electronic modulation" starts off with a gaseous drone
of distant reverberance, seguei…
Groupe De Recherches Musicales
This is the last of the 199.x titles, a great diversion
into those that were endlessly divisive amongst the C.P. cabal; so much
so that common ground had to be carved out & explored... I'd heard legend of this internal-issue-only "White Label" GRM
compilation, from trusted source "Ravi" Ben, of La Dame Blanche fame,
but had never heard nor seen a copy until one literally landed in my lap
at a soirée recently. Largely consisting of alternative & revised
versions of prime 1973-era GRM pieces…
Maté/Vallancien
One thing I've learned as I've grown and progressed
through music is that there is an incredible wealth of largely
unheralded & seldom-heard music buried deep in the expansive Saravah
catalogue, largely due to the street-level largesse of in-house
engineer Daniel Vallencien, who aside from engineering a large portion
of the canonic BYG catalogue - Don Cherry, Anthony Braxton, Musica
Elettronica Viva, Sonny Sharrock, Sunny Murray, etc. - was crucial in
the development of the label's sound …
Magnetic Fields
Reproduction of this obscure 1977 Private Press stunner
by Extradition, Company Caine, & Phyl Vinnecombe sideman & early
18th Century Quartet member Stephen Dunstan, a key part of Australia's
Electronic Music history alongside Val Stephen, Bruce Clarke, Keith
Humble, Felix Werder, & Ian Bonighton. Steve was a tragic figure; operating across multiple disciplines
before disappearing under suspicious circumstances in the mid-80s while
out retrieving a Moog Modular system, Dunstan was both a c…
Electronic Etudes (Op 18) Songs For Synthesized Soprano (Op 19)
Issued on the Composer's Private Doria imprint in 1982 & featuring two side-length suites of music; "Electronic Etudes (Op. 18)" & "Songs For Synthesized Soprano (Op. 19)" this debut LP of music by American Composer & Improvising Thereminist Eric Ross was well off of my radar until one of the core C.P. Cabal brought it to light.Featuring a salacious bevy of instrumentation: Buchla 200, Serge Modular, Moog III, Moog 10, Brewer Custom Synthesizer, Theremin, etc. this set transposes & processes aco…
Mystic Siva
It's the rebirth of Mystic Siva, who are without any doubt one of the ultimate US psychedelic underground bands from the earliest 1970s. Finally, this album is now available with a more superior sound than anyone of us could ever have expected. The original album release featured guitar overdubs on three tracks, done with the intention to give the sound more power. However, the band wasn't entirely happy with the result. This Lp is remastered and remixed from the original tapes, with all the ori…
Solar Music - Live
Remastered reissue of German prog rock band Grobschnitt's 1978 live
masterpiece "Solar Music-Live" is without a doubt one of the most intense, and downright mindblowing German Acid Krautrock live
album of the 70s. Ranging from blistering guitar solos to intricate
jazz patterns weaved into subtle spacey keyboard dynamics coupled with
vocals that range from beautiful melody to monstrous freak out vocals
straight from the void, "Solar Music-Live" has everything
acidhead/space rock fans, prog…
Zora
32nd Anniversary Edition of the legendary occult prog album by Antonius Rex, with an unreleased song (Monastery) and original "nude witch" cover. Probably the most charismatic figure of all the Italian prog scene, Antonio Bartoccetti (Antonius Rex) began his career going to Milan from the Marche, forming Jacula, Dietro Noi Deserto (even with a single on Decca in 1971!), and Invisible Force (another lonely single in 1971). Not real bands but just a group of musicians working beyond the leading fi…
African Rhythms & Blues
Classic and sought after afro jazz. Essential and hard to find album with tons of true killer afro funk breaks: First reissue of original debut LP by African jazz band “Mombasa” led by Lou Blackburn and recorded 1975 at Cornet studio in a Cologne. One of the really shining recordings in the genre - deep spiritual jazz with pulsating african rhythms, funk bass and heavy brass, including nice DJ-spins “Nairobi”, “Kenia” and “Shango”, comes with original cover artwork. Some used to call it “a strip…
Monstrance
Monstrance documents Mika Vainio & Joachim Nordwall reshaping guitars, drums and incendiary electronics at Einstürzende Neubauten’s Berlin studio back in 2010. The results were originally issued by Touch in 2013, with this new 2LP edition now arriving on Nordwall’s iDEAL label five years later as a posthumous tribute and reminder of his erstwhile collaborator. In our opinion, it’s one of Vainio’s most crucial and absorbing collaborations; moving away from ice-cold electronic precision and into a…
After Vacation
Swans’ influential guitarist Norman Westberg returns with his most substantial album to date on the expansive, personal panoramas of After Vacation, a profoundly beautiful set of windswept soundscapes amplified by production from Lawrence English. For the last 6 years Westberg has rendered a one-take representation of his studio performances, effectively presenting a series of naked meditations on the electric guitar with little or no over-dubbing. Now, breaking with tradition following the end …
4 Geomungo Sanjo Vol II
New compositions for ancient Korean instrument: the Geomungo. Follow-up to Baudouin de Jaer's highly-acclaimed Compositions for Geomungo and Gayageum (SR 373CD, 2012). Baudouin de Jaer tells... his large hands stir the air, drawing soft and assured lines, they connect distant planets and micro-particles in a space that does not exist yet. There is the encounter with the Geomungo. a traditional Korean instrument, the geomungo is an ancient table zither, an improbable association of wood and tense…
Learn To Love Solitude
The Verge of Ruin is a research in sound and poetry that started in December 2015 by Stefano de Ponti and Shari DeLorian, in Milan. A view that lives in the present and at the same time is strongly connected with several guides and experiences out of the past. Constantly looking for new vanishing points and responding to creative impossibility which are caused by contemporary collapses of media. The framework referred to, is the one drawn by concrete music and acousmatic art of the XIX Century, …
Gallery Of Air
Self-taught composer Larry Chernicoff began writing music in the mid 1970's for a dance troupe in Woodstock New York, where he worked and taught at the legendary Creative Music Studio. On his 1983 debut album, Gallery of Air, he began blending improvisation with long-form compositions, minimalism, orchestral instruments, multi-layered counterpoint, the warm textures of synthesizers, and a diverse range of international sounds. Throughout Gallery of Air, his ensemble delivers both a high level of…
Before We Were Foam We Were Unbridled Waves
Erasure of the contradiction between real and imaginary. Temporal layers are juxtaposed with different speeds, creating polyphonies of sound spectrums. The time flux is not regular or linear, it's bent."The latest dispatch from Los Angeles experimental cassette imprint Dinzu Artefacts comes from the duo De Ponti / Moretti. Their tape, Before We Were Foam We Were Unbridled Waves, is out now on its own or as part of the label’s July Batch. The clip, a live studio excerpt, provides a glimpse of the…