Alan Licht's minimal Top Ten
Alan Licht's revelatory lists of rare and obscure minimalism as published in Halana Magazine issues one (March 1996) and three (Winter 1998), Volcanic Tongue (June 10, 2007) and Tumblr (June 16, 2020).
"I do not necessarily consider any of this to be "music and sound of a profound nature," nor do I find it "uplifting" or "theraputic." I like minimalism because it rocks."
Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions
*2022 stock* "These two need no introduction, but "Cambridge 1969," which takes up all of side one, is a completely unheralded classic. For twenty minutes Yoko vibratoes her way around a single note while Lennon provides terrifying power-drone feedback accompaniment. This is the ultimate punk/metal take on La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's Black Album (which, considering Ono & Young's history together, might be both figurative and literal). Towards the end John Stevens and John Tchichai chi…
What?
"What?? is a focused and grounding work produced by Swedish composer Folke Rabe in 1967. From his interest in sound phenomena and harmonics Rabe was able to make one of the most deep, moving pieces of sustained sound generated in this formative era of minimalist electronic composition. Initially reissued on Dexter's Cigar in 1997 and now available on Important with expanded packaging including archival materials furnished by the composer. Amplified infinity."
"My interest in the makeup of variou…
Advent
Jagjaguwar is now proud to reissue this very important work on vinyl as well. Advent became a true underground success story, a critical darling, with Alan Licht, for example, putting it on his 'minimal top ten list' in the publication Halana. 'It is a record by an intense young man,' writes Richard Youngs, in an essay packaged with the record." Kinda amazing to have this record back on vinyl, in the year 2006. Originally recorded in 1988, it features Richard on electric guitar, piano, oboes and…
Propellers In Love
Arnold Dreyblatt has been called "the most rock 'n' roll of all the composers to emerge from New York's downtown scene in the 1970s." Arnold Dreyblatt founded the Orchestra Of Excited Strings in 1979, harnessing unusual tuning intervals to an exuberant performance style. Propellers In Love, the Orchestra's second album – originally released in 1986 on the Stasch imprint, in conjunction with the contemporary art space Künstlerhaus Bethanien – develops Dreyblatt's rhythmically exacting exploration…
Soothing Sounds for Baby Volume 3
Third of three mini-albums to soothe babies by, composed and performed by Raymond Scott on self-designed electronic instruments.
Soothing Sounds for Baby, vols. 1-3
The legendary proto-minimalistic Soothing Sounds For Baby series by Raymond Scott were pressed in limited quantities and have been out of print for almost over a decade. Designed for babies one to six months old, the first volume of Raymond Scott's dreamy, engaging Soothing Sounds for Baby series emphasizes soft synth tones, repetitive melodies, and relatively simple arrangements. Keeping in mind a young baby's attention span, Vol. 1 also contains shorter, more numerous pieces than the following…
Brainwave music
Small repress available. Black Truffle present the first ever vinyl reissue of David Rosenboom's legendary Brainwave Music, originally released on A.R.C. Records in 1975. This is an expanded double-LP edition with over 40 minutes of additional contemporaneous material. Pioneer of live electronics, innovator in music education, collaborator with artists as diverse as Jon Hassell, Jacqueline Humbert, Terry Riley, and Anthony Braxton, Rosenboom is renowned for his ground-breaking experiments with t…
Visitations
MASTERPIECE!!!"Since the mid-1960s, Jon Gibson has played a key role in the development of American avant-garde music. No other artist has performed in the world premieres of Terry Riley's 'In C,' Steve Reich's 'Drumming,' and Philip Glass's 'Einstein on the Beach,' three major works that changed the course of musical history. While his expertise on woodwind instruments made Gibson a go-to collaborator in Reich's, Glass's, and La Monte Young's ensembles, less known are his remarkable contributio…
Four Manifestations On Six Elements (Golden 5)
2015 remastered version of Alga Marghen's 2010 reissue of the Sonnabend Gallery's 1974 limited edition double LP. Presented in digipak sleeve with full-color 12-page booklet including two essays, originals score, and visual materials relating to the composition. Alga Marghen presents the fifth installment of its Golden Research Charlemagne Palestine archive series: Four Manifestations On Six Elements, one of Palestine's most well-known works. In 1973 the Sonnabend Gallery in New York commiss…
Graduation
2020 repress. Necessary vinyl edition of some of the greatest minimalist/hillbilly/rock/psych music of the century, the goddamn motherlode from violinist/composer/philosopher/artist Henry Flynt: Flynt penned a bunch of amazing texts across the years (check the special issue of Richard Grossinger’s Io journal dedicated to his thought, 1989’s Being = Space x Action for more on that), he studied with Terry Riley and LaMonte Young and was briefly associated with The Velvet Underground, though Lou Re…
Snapshot: Jazz Now Jazz Aus Der DDR
Song Cycle presents a reissue of Snapshot: Jazz Now Jazz Aus Der DDR, originally released on FMP in 1980. In August 1979, East German musicians were invited to perform a three-day festival in West Berlin. Billed as "Jazz Now," this landmark meeting was recorded and initially released in a limited edition. From stunning duos to challenging small-group performances, from large rave-ups to Mingus nods, Snapshot: Jazz Now Jazz Aus Der DDR provides much more than that name suggests. It's as complete …
Two Solo Pieces
For his second album, Two Solo Pieces, Jon Gibson forgoes the dense, multi-layered timbres of Visitations in favor of simple textures and tone. While Two Solo Pieces serves up further evidence of Gibson's centrality to American minimalism – witness its inclusion in Alan Licht's famed Minimal Top Ten list – this profoundly intimate record also reveals the beauty of enclosed spaces and infinite harmonic vistas. As its unadorned title suggests, Two Solo Pieces consists of a pair of side-long track…
Soothing Sounds for Baby Volume 1, 2 & 3
A beautiful re-release on vinyl of these three great albums. Designed for babies one to six months old, the first volume of Raymond Scott's dreamy, engaging Soothing Sounds for Baby series emphasizes soft synth tones, repetitive melodies, and relatively simple arrangements. Keeping in mind a young baby's attention span, Vol. 1 also contains shorter, more numerous pieces than the following albums. Vol. 1 begins on a minimal, hypnotic note with "Lullaby," an appropriately trance-inducing, 14-minut…
Nothin To Look At Just A Record
Immersion. Everything and nothing, suspension is supreme. A visceral listening experience.
Soothing Sounds for Baby Volume 1
First of three mini-albums to soothe babies by, composed and performed by Raymond Scott on self-designed electronic instruments. To be enjoyed by infants of all ages. As ambient music, it predates Eno and Fripp. Reissue produced by Gert-Jan Blom, liner notes by Irwin Chusid.Included in Alan Licht's minimalist top ten! "I've paid zero attention to the Scott "revival," but these ultra-weird items are surely among the most startling rediscoveries of the digital age. Consisting of extremely repetit…
New American Ethnic Music Volume 1
The classic double CD release that really renewed the interest in Henry's Flynt's idiosyncratic music (linked to Conceptual art and minimalism) -- at least 10 other CDs have followed since the release of this one. It is listed as #6 on Alan Lichts' "Minimal Top Ten" list, which says a lot. First volume in the series subtitled: New American Ethnic Music. "Recorded in '80 and '81, two mind-blowing disks delivering flowing, trance-inducing violin solos of extreme beauty and seriousness. In these in…