Reissues
Mechanical Fantasy Box
"Patrick Cowley (1950–82) was one of the most revolutionary and influential figures in electronic dance music. Born in Buffalo, Cowley moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study music at the City College of San Francisco. By the mid '70s, his synthesizer techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco diva Sylvester, including hits such as "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)." Cowley created his own brand of peak-time party music known as Hi-NRG, dubbed "the San Francisco Sound." Hi…
The World's Worst - A Guide to the Portsmouth Sinfonia
"Butchering the classics through avant-garde amateurism: the Portsmouth Sinfonia embodied the joyous collectivism of 1970s British counterculture. In 1970, galvanized in part by the musical experiments of avant-garde composers Gavin Bryars, John Cage and Cornelius Cardew, students at Portsmouth College of Art in England formed their own symphony orchestra. Christened the Portsmouth Sinfonia, its primary requirement for membership was that all players, regardless of skill, experience or musicians…
Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse)
"Over 16 years, beginning in 1965, John Cage compiled anecdotes, observations and koanlike tales, originally typing everything on an IBM Selectric and using chance methods to determine the formatting of texts that twist down each page. The Siglio edition preserves the graphic effects, but, more important, it gives a sense of the company he kept during these years—Marcel Duchamp, R. Buckminster Fuller, D.T. Suzuki—and of his passionate feeling about a world locked in a state of perpetual warfare.…
Intermedia, Fluxus and the Something Else Press
"There are few art-world figures as influential—and as little known—as Dick Higgins (1938-1998), co-founder of Fluxus, “polyartist,” poet, scholar, theorist, composer, performer and, not least, the publisher of the Something Else Press. In 1965 he restored the term “intermedia” to the English language, giving it new dimension to recognize the dissolution of boundaries, the expansion of liminal spaces between traditional modes of art making, and the open field for new forms that cannot be compart…
Changes, Notes on Choreography
"On the occasion of the Merce Cunningham Centennial, we are pleased to offer this special, limited edition reprint of Cunningham’s own unique presentation of his choreographic ideas Changes: Notes on Choreography.Originally published in 1968 by Dick Higgins’ iconoclastic Something Else Press, the book can be viewed as a 170-page print version of an art performance piece. Just as Cunningham spent most of his career approaching choreography and movement in time and space from an original point of …
Sud e Magia
**100 copies transparent green vinyl, also available on standard black vinyl** Maestro Egisto Macchi (Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - The Group) recorded this mystical ethnographic trip to the South of Italy imbued with its rites, superstitions, magical symbols and popular mythologies in 1977 for the TV Documentary Sud e Magia.Astoundingly evoking the intensity, magic and psychedelia of its subject with the use of inventive and unconventional techniques (aerophones, crystal glasses,…
Aurora
LP version. First vinyl reissue. Souffle Continu Records present a reissue Le Théâtre du Chêne Noir's Aurora, originally released in 1971. In 1972, Steve Lacy recorded Solo, one of the gems in his discography, in the Théâtre du Chêne Noir in Avignon. The previous year (which was also the year in which Aurora appeared), the eponymous group of actors led by Gérard Gelas, took up residence in what was a 12th century chapel. The Théâtre du Chêne Noir is therefore not just the name of a space open to…
Miss Madona (EP)
First vinyl reissue. Two years after having recorded Aurora, which Gérard Terronès released on his Futura Records label in 1971, the Théâtre du Chêne Noir put on another show, Miss Madona, first at Avignon, and then at Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil. From this play, Gérard Gelas's group took three sound extracts which they made, with no further ado, into a single. Miss Madona is thus the second recording by Théâtre du Chêne Noir. The two sides (and three tracks) offer up an unbelievable i…
Ike Yard
Ike Yard remain a legendary band of early '80s New York City – at once immensely influential, yet obscured by a far-too-brief initial phase. Their debut EP, the dark and absorbing Night After Night, sounds almost like a different group, so rapidly would Ike Yard evolve towards the calmly menacing electro throb of their self-titled LP. Originally released on Factory in 1982, the album put Ike Yard's indelible mark on the synth-driven experimental rock scene then emerging all over the planet. Whi…
W.W.W.
Burnin Red Ivanhoe in their most fertile phase of existing from 1969 till 1972, were one of Danish finest groups from this period. Their innovative and powerful mixture of Psychedelic and Progressive Rock along with mild experimental or Jazz influences gained some international recognition in Germany, UK and the U.S.. Comparisons might be drawn to Traffic, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd and Colosseum (Dag Erik Asbjornsen).W.W.W. from 1971 was the band's third album with an unchanged line-up. It was the…
Burnin Red Ivanhoe
Burnin Red Ivanhoe in their most fertile phase of existing from 1969 till 1972, were one of Danish finest groups from this period. Their innovative and powerful mixture of Psychedelic and Progressive Rock along with mild experimental or Jazz influences gained some international recognition in Germany, UK and the U.S.. Comparisons might be drawn to Traffic, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd and Colosseum (Dag Erik Asbjornsen).Their eponymous second album from 1970 was recorded in London with famous DJ John…
Weiss Der Teufel...
Weiss der Teufel (1971), the first Rufus Zuphall album has gradually gained legendary status. All tracks were recorded live in the studio, resulting in a raw and unpolished sound. The side-long title track developed into a very twisted and frenetic flute solo! Some people regard this track as one of the finest moments of German rock. Weiss der Teufel is a great album, typifying the raw-edged, largely instrumental early progressive rock. Here it comes with original album sleeve cover art and inse…
Thoughts
Originally released in 1971 on famous German Pilz Label, Thoughts was the second and last album of a band which is often regarded as one of the most legendary krautrock bands. While 1st album Revelation was full of inventions and surprises within long tracks with extensive guitar workout, swirling organ and lots of improvisations, Thoughts showed a different style to the debut. With two different lead vocalist (Jürgen Schäfer and Werner Vogt) Virus' music was now more song oriented, more hard-ro…
Mémoires
A true fusional object, Béliz moves us to new horizons, both imaginary and poetic.
Mega Wave Orchestra
**500 copies. Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered from Master tapes** The music on this compilation was, for the most part, originally released privately in Geneva as a box set containing five LPs by The Mega Wave Orchestra and five prints by the artist Richard Reimann. The Mega Wave Orchestra, the brain-child of musician, mathematician and composer Christian Oestreicher, was conceived as an multi-media electronic music big-band. It was comprised of seven keyboard players Christine Schalle…
The Ultimate Collection
**CD collection in gatefold sleeve LP-cover size** "This set contains all previously released Improved Sound Limited 5 CDs (eponymous double album, Catch a Singing Bird On the Road, Rathbone Hotel, Road Trax, The Final Foreword) and one bonus CD entitled Bell Cantos, Ezra Pound Revisited with music the band recorded in 1969 for Bavarian Radio with heavy fuzz guitar, moog synthesizer, music of that time, a little bit experimental but constantly melodic (no white noise). This is the ultimate colle…
Voices Of Haiti
**2020 repress** Fantome Phonographique present a reissue of Maya Deren's Voices Of Haiti, originally released as a 10" record in 1954. Maya Deren (1917-1961) was a Russian-American filmmaker and one of the most important voices in avant-garde cinema of the mid-20th century. She was a muse and inspiration to such up-and-coming avant-garde filmmakers as Curtis Harrington, Stan Brakhage, and Kenneth Anger, who emulated her independent, entrepreneurial spirit. Throughout the 1940s and '50s, Deren a…
Approdi 2, Avanguardie Musicali a Napoli - Volume II
**300 copies** Avant-garde and experimental musics are intrinsically connected to community, collectivism, support, and collaboration. Audiences and artists, stretching to every corner of the globe, continuously rely on each other to push into ever more ambitious realms. This spirit of discourse has always been central to the multigenerational contexts of avant-garde and experimental music from Italy. For decades, neglected and over looked by their international peers, the country’s musicians an…
African High Life
Pioneering percussionist Solomon Ilori was one of the first Nigerian artists to record with American jazz musicians, travelling to New York in 1958 to introduce African music to American audiences. After appearing on Art Blakey’s 1962 LP The African Beat for Blue Note; he recorded African High Life with members of Blakey’s ensemble, including guitarist Jay Berliner, bassist Ahmed Abdul Malik, Hosea Taylor on alto sax and flute, and percussionists Montego Joe, Robert Crowder and Garvin Masseaux. …
Fantasias For Guitar And Banjo
Folk musician Sandy Bull took an unorthodox approach to stringed instruments, influenced in part by sharing an apartment with Nubian oud master, Hamza El Din. His 1963 debut LP for Vanguard, Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo, saw him backed by Los Angeles-based jazz drummer Billy Higgins: side-long epic Blend is influenced by eastern and middle-eastern music forms; Little Maggie displays a lightning-fast picking style, Gospel Tune hearkens to the American South, medieval classic Non Nobis Domine is…