Reissues
Just Another Diamond Day
Recently voted one of the Top 100 British Albums of all time by the OMM, this CD re-release of Vashti Bunyan's 'Just Another Diamond Day' features the likes of Robert Kirby (of Nick Drake fame), Robin Williamson (Incredible String Band) and the Fairport Convention's Simon Nicol and Dave Swarbrick, it is also regularly cited as inspiration by Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Scout Nibblet... Possibly sounding a bit naïve in retrospect, much of 'Just Another Diamond Day' seems to exist somewher…
Studies for Player Piano
The definitive recording of Conlon Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano, originally released on LP by 1750 Arch Records, newly remastered in spectacular sound, representing the most faithful reproduction of what Nancarrow heard in his own studio. This is the only available recording utilizing Nancarrow’s original instruments: two 1927 Ampico player pianos, one with metal-covered felt hammers and the other with leather strips on the hammers. The 4-CD set includes a 52-page booklet with the origin…
How to Make a Happening
Historic release. Originally released as an LP in 1966 by Mass Art, this is Allen Kaprow, father of The Happening explaining how to do it, and what is - and is not - a Happening. Simple in construction, yet profound in context, How to Make a Happening is Allan Kaprow delivering 11 rules on how, and how not, to make a Happening, an movement begun by Kaprow in the late fifties that is known for its unpredictability, open scores, and constantly-evolving form. On the first track, Kaprow speaks plain…
Beziehungen
The second and the last album by Annexus Quam originally released in 1972 on the Ohr label. Sound engineer: Dieter Dierks. Reissue with elaborate miniature paper sleeve of the original LP (full color print, coated sleeve). 2008 digital remaster version, limited to 1,000 copies!After the release of their debut album Osmose and much playing in jazz festivals, Annexus Quam fronted some personnel changes and settled down to a quintet. The band was now Hans Kämper (trombone, Spanish guitar, flute), H…
Frowny Frown
EXCLUSIVE ADVANCE RELEASE! A could-have-been classic from John Terrill, cofounder of Bloomington's the Dancing Cigarettes. Unlike the wiry art-punk of his late-'70s band, "Frowny Frown" is a far more intimate set of homespun pop-psychedelia, recorded between 1989-99 and only hand-pressed for close friends. A halcyonic journey with rich layers of vocal harmonies (perhaps a sly nod to "Smiley Smile") that fans from Bobb Trimble to Galaxie 500 will find much to love. Includes a bonus track from '84…
J’accuse Ted Hughes
Another great installment in Sonic Youth's SYR series, this one features two engrossing, lengthy pieces : 'J'Accuse Ted Hughes' and 'Agnes B Musique'. The former was recorded at All Tomorrow's Parties 2001, when the band were premiering material from their NYC Ghosts & Flowers album, and takes the form of a ragged twenty-two minute noise jam featuring free association lyrics by Kim Gordon ("I sent my poem to Good Housekeeping. They paid me ten dollars" she imparts). Meanwhile, the more composed,…
Love & Lamentation
It must have been quite some years since I last heard music by Simon Wickham-Smith, but there was a time when I played it a lot, especially the various albums he recorded with Richard Youngs. But I guess that's how things go. Interest shifts I assume. To be honest, again, I have no idea when I left off, or why. But its good, as well as strange perhaps to see him back on Pogus Productions. On the cover I read that 'not satisfied with making music, he has also been a Buddhist monk in the Tibetan t…
Overhang Party
Stellar duo head on collision bet ween Kaoru Abe and free hitter/ skin mangler Toyozumi. The interaction between the t wo of them creates fire works of improvisational exquisiteness, free rambling seat sniffing combustion that on some occasions instigated Abe to divert his attention from his beloved sax to wards marimba and piano hammerings joined with harmonica blo w-outs. Ferocious, ghastly and kerosene charged head slamming action bet ween t wo of Japan's first wave free jazz terrorists.. Tak…
Mort a Credit
Mort à Credit shows Kaoru Abe in a fascinating period of transition, moving forth to something complexly and identifiably new, yet intransigently rooted in what had come before. It consists of two alto improvs from a show on October 18, 1975, and five more (three on alto, two on sopranino) from another performance a couple of days earlier. Released by Kojima on 2LP in 1976, it can be said to mark a significant change in Abe's style. Abe is here a little soften from his usual urgency - this can p…
Will Make You Ill
Alga Marghen presents Modern Shit, a very singular chapter in the Amos/It's War Boys / Milk From Cheltenham / Homosexuals history. Directly taken from the original It's War Boys catalog, here is one of the most obscure sonic works of the early 1980s, Modern Shit! First "issued" on tape, this work circulated only privately among the close friends of the label and was never officially distributed. Actually, it represents one of the most intense and experimental outputs of this creative London…
Trio In Concert
Amazing music by one of the French piano legend Georges Arvanitas, in the company of George's fantastic rhythm duo of Charles Saudrais on drums and Jacky Samson on bass
Electro-Acoustic Solo Works 1984-95
Electro-Acoustic Solo Works (1984-95) collected assorted compositions of musique concrete and interactive computer music (Chatterlings of april 1995 for sampler and drums, and an excerpt from Aivilik Rays of may 1990, originally more than one hour long).
Admira
Previously unreleased recordings from 1971. Admira is sourced from original master recordings discovered by Kluster member and Tangerine Dream engineer Klaus Freudigmann. Along with Vulcano, also being released at the same time on Important, Admira is presented here for the first time in this deluxe package. These intense sessions were made with Schnitzler at the helm, as always, after the departure of Mobius and Roedelius from the group. Conrad Schnitzler founded Kluster in 1969 along with Roed…
Tibetan Bells
Tibetan Bells was a legendary 1971 album by Henry Wolff and Nancy Hennings and Drew Gladstone, originally released by Island label (while in Italy it went out on Bla Bla records, of Franco Battiato fame). It was the first recording to use traditional Tibetan bells and singing bowls, and it's a true estatic listening experience. In 1972 the world was listening to heavy, intense, high-energy music. In the midst of this rock explosion Chris Blackwell of Island Records released Tibetan Bells in the …
Mimidokodesuka
Originally released on CD in Japan in 2006. CD version. Released on LP & CD by Drag City on May 20, 2008. Features Jim O'Rourke on electric guitar, Darin Gray on doublebass and Chris Corsano on drums. Recorded live at the Pit Inn in Tokyo during a 2005 residency that included sets with alto sax legend Akira Sakata (recordings of which have been released separately and elsewhere).
Floret Silva
2006 reissue. 1977 progressive avant-folk masterpiece from minimalist composer Kay Hoffman. Includes collaborative performances from Jacqueline Darby and Gaio Chiocchio, members of the legendary Italian progressive group Pierrot Lunaire.
Originally slated for release on RCA/IT (Italy) in '78, the album was
later rejected due to recording deadlines, release schedules, and
requests by RCA for other artistic/musical considerations. However, many
years later, Floret Silva did end up surfacing on…
Key
1995 release. Originally released in 1971. Key contains Meredith Monk's earliest compositions for voice. The songs that make up Key
were composed and performed in a three year period between 1967 and
1970, when Monk collected them into this 45-minute "invisible theater"
experience. Meredith Monk on the release: "In Key I wanted to
create a constantly shifting ambience. Each song dealt with a different
vocal character, landscape, technical concern or emotional quality. I
was trying for a vi…
Organic, Playco 1969
The stable Quartetto that pianist Davide Mosconi, saxophonist Enzo Gardenghi, percussionist Marco Cristofolini, and cellist and violinist Gustavo Bonora brought to life beginning in the late '60s constituted the core of what would, in the early years of the next decade, become the larger improvising ensemble NADMA. The group was also an elegant and accomplished expression of the musical objectives of its members. This music expresses the rich yields that Davide Mosconi cultivated from his explor…
Spacecraft / Unified Patchwork Theory
Originally released in 2001. In the fall of 1966 a group of composers that included Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, Allen Bryant, Jon Phetteplace, Giuseppe Chiari and Richard Teitelbaum organized "Avanguardia Musicale I," a festival of several consecutive nights at the Accademia Filarmonica Romana. The program included tape music, Fluxus performance art pieces, and live electronic works. It was also the beginning of the group MEV.
One year later, the group was in Rome, Italy, but also involved i…
Concrete
Concrete follows from Robert Ashley's preoccupation in two previous operas with the kind of speech that has not been explored in opera -- in Dust (LCD 1006CD), the speech of the homeless; in Celestial Excursions (LCD 1007CD), the speech of people living together in a home for old people. The three operas are not a "trilogy" in any sense, but they all come from this preoccupation with or fascination with special kinds of speech and special kinds of states of mind. "The characters I'm interested i…