Reissues
Partitas for long strings
Restocked. "Two aspects were of central interest to him: different tunings and density of sound. He made an installation in the large space of Het Apollohuis, stretching four strings lengthwise and attaching them to the wooden wall on the far end, which served as a resonator. He did not use automatons or electric amplification. He played the strings by brushing them, walking back and forth at an even pace. His aim was to make his playing as continuous and even as possible. For each partita he re…
Ec(o)logues
During the seventies writer/poet/essayist Peter Lamborn Wilson traveled extensively in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal. He spent several years in Iran where he translated Persian Sufi poetry and worked for the Shiraz Festival of Arts. In the early eighties Wilson went to Southeast Asia studying Javanese mysticism, Kebatinan. He published numerous books on topics as pirate utopia’s, Irish soma and Islamic heresy and his philosophy is influenced by anarchism, situationism, …
The Ecstatic Exchange
A rare chance to hear Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore reading (and accompanying himself on zither) from his classic collection of shamanic poetry ‘Dawn Visions’, originally published by City Lights back in 1964, when the author was in his early twenties. The poems were written during explorations of mind and space in Mexico and California. As Moore describes it, a period of “immersion on the ocean of poetic inspiration, my near drowning in a sudden flood of imagery and pushing further and further, almos…
De Leeuwerik 1979
1979 performance of Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Steven Taylor and Harry Hoogstraten recorded live at De Leeuwerik, a small bar in Eindhoven (Holland). Everyone takes turn reading poems and singing songs accompanied by harmonium, percussion and guitar. The set starts with Ginsberg’s ‘Plutonian Ode’ and ends with a wasted ‘Copulation Blues’. Orlovsky reads extracts from ‘Clean Asshole Poems and Smiling Vegetable Songs’, Hoogstraten from his book ‘Boxing Days’. Awesome archival find that…
Earth Horns With Electronic Drone
Triple LP version of the entire 162-minute performance -- the vinyl
version therefore contains approx 85 additional minutes of music. Yoshi Wada and EM Records presents the first-ever, world-premiere release of Earth Horns With Electronic Drone,
recorded live in 1974. Combining four of Wada's self-made "pipehorns"
(made from plumbing materials, over three meters in length), with an
electronic drone tuned to the electrical current of the performance
space, this is a lost masterpiece of earl…
Vero
Restocked, special price. Leo Nero is the assumed name of Gianne Leone, the keyboardist and mastermind behind the legendary band Il Balletto Di Bronzo, whose 1972 album 'Ys' is considered one of the true classics of the serious Italian Prog aficionado. That band split shortly afterward and Nero/Leone left for the United States in the mid 1970s. He recorded this album in 1976 in New York City before moving to Los Angeles for a few years, eventually heading back to Italy. He played all of the ins…
La Finestra Dentro
CD edition. Juri Camisasca, a reclusive and mysterious musician from near Milan, despite a very limited discography can be considered a cult figure among the progressive music followers: his “La finestra dentro”, issued in 1974 by Bla Bla, is one of the best albums on that label, strongly influenced by his collaboration with Franco Battiato, who signed Juri to the label and produced the LP, also playing the VCS3 synth on it.Though not musically as complex as Battiato's early works, “La fin…
Nothing is Real
The focus of the pieces by Alvin Lucier on this CD is on the phenomena of resonance – sympathetic vibration – in many variations. “Time and again I find myself having to pare away any musical gestures in a work in order to uncover the true idea in a piece,” says Alvin Lucier. The composer knows which ideas he wants to liberate. But the process of causing the environment to resound is always a collaborative, interactive project. It needs someone who is creatively engaged, even obsessed, to…
John Cage 100
This year, on 5 September, the music world is going to celebrate the 100th birthday of the American composer John Cage. WERGO very early turned to the oeuvre of the avant-garde musician and to the release of his most important works on LP or CD – including “Etudes Australes”, “Roaratorio” or “Sonatas and Interludes”, his “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra” or his “Diary: How to improve the World (You will only make Matters worse)”. The label now presents outstanding productions of the compo…
Spatial Music
Władysław Strzemiński's unism as well as functionalism are to be found at the roots of the first sound installation in Poland. Prepared for Galeria Współczesna in Warsaw, it is a piece signed by an architect Teresa Kelm, composer Zygmunt Krauze and sculptor Henryk Morel. "Spatial-Musical Composition" is a follow up of Morel's and Krauze's explorations initiated in 1966 together with Cezary Szubartowski and Grzegorz Kowalski which resulted in an action titled "5x". The sculptural elements of the …
Colofon & Compendium 1991-1994
Gatefold double LP version. Telephone terrorism tactics and voyeuristic ambience from the Scanner archive 1991-1994. Exclusive unreleased material. An eavesdropper's delight. "In the summer of 2010, I worked through my extensive archive of DAT tapes, cassettes and mini-discs, which had accumulated since 1977, and with the help of my ever-capable and patient interns, began the process of digitizing these materials. The result -- over 600 hours of largely unreleased material -- was overwhel…
Programme Commun
Sub Rosa presents two volumes of work from French composer Luc Ferrari and his wife and closest collaborator, Brunhild Ferrari. These two volumes are being released together and simultaneously, as a sign of continuation. For Luc Ferrari, this is the first full-length CD to come out after the trilogy Sub Rosa developed with him. What we have here is three substantial pieces: "Programme commun pour clavecin et bande magnetique" (1972), performed by Elisabeth Chonacka, "Didascalies" (1993) per…
Musique pour l'Odyssee
LP version: This second Art Zoyd cult album has been unavailable for many years. Originally released in 1979, it is now re-released with new artwork and additional tracks. Released almost three years after Art Zoyd's first LP, Symphonie pour le Jour où Brûleront les Cités (SR 330CD/LP), Musique pour l'Odyssée (trans. "Music for the Odyssey") presented a slightly different version of the band. The nucleus of Gérard Hourbette (violin), Thierry Zaboïtzeff (bass guitar, cello, vocals), and Jean-P…
Microtonal works by Partch, Cage, LaBarbara, Drummond
The debut recording of Newband, an ensemble specializing in microtonal music and focused around a unique instrument, the zoomoozophone. Invented by Dean Drummond (who was a student of Harry Partch and played in his legendary Gate 5 ensemble), the zoomoozophone looks somewhat like a marimba withwith aluminum tubes-except that it is about 20 feet long and consists of 129 tubes tuned to a 31-note scale in just-intonation. For the purposes of these recordings, the basic four-piece group, wh…
Solitude Of Sounds (In Memoriam Tomasz Sikorski)
"Solitude of Sounds: in memoriam Tomasz Sikorski" is a collection of works created in Polish Radio Experimental Studio by Polish pioneer of minimalism, Tomasz Sikorski and by his friends and followers. The American flavour of minimalism has an "urban" soundscape that emerges from frenetic human interaction. It is the environment that informs a lifestyle and thus, informs the composer. On the other hand, the Dutch style of minimalism is what I'd call "Hippie minimalism". It is informed by culture…
Collection 009
This amazing early Merzbow work (reissued for the first time) comes from the legendary 10 tape set Merzbow - Collection. Originally self released as C46 cassette, Collection 009 contain some previous studio and live sessions & raw-material. This earliest music was made with recorded tapes, audio feedback, percussion, metal and other acoustic instruments as source. All sounds were mixed by Masami Akita at Lowest Music & Arts Studio, Machida, Tokyo in 1981 and Kiyoshi Mizutani played several instr…
Velours
In the late 70s, the Italian industrialist Maurizio Bianchi under the name Sacher-Pelz self-published a handful of cassettes for super primitive musique concrete recordings culled from turntable / needle abuse upon LPs by Kraftwerk, Neu!, and Conrad Schnitzler. 'Velours', his fourth and last tape, was recorded between February and March 1980. Tracks remastered from analog tape with supervised by Maurizio Bianchi. The record has been pressed on 140 gr black vinyl with black label and black inner …
Cease to Exist
Before starting the complex and compelling production of many records and tapes in the early eighties under the M.B. trademark, Maurizio Bianchi was documenting the new music scene writing essays and reviews for independent magazines. It was August 1979 in Milan, Italy and his sound was strengthening when he felt the time had come to prove his desire for something new. So he started his first solo project, under the name Sacher-Pelz. He assembled a concrete equipment and during the following few…
Und so weiter / Music Promenade
With the legendary “Studio Reihe Neuer Musik” series, Wergo created a trademark of advanced contemporary music in the Sixties of the past century already. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the label now releases these highlights of 20th-century music history in an excellent sound quality on CD for the first time.In "Und so weiter pour piano électrique et bande magnétique", the piano and tape sounds become interwoven in a complex dialogue. "Music Promenade. Mixage originale“ – created in t…
Fremde Zeit Addendum 4 · solo III fur Orgel
Beautiful new Jacob Ullman Organ composition of subtle gradations in sound performed very softly forcing the ear to notice the smallest variations. "Thus, Ullmann creates a quiet music in order to give himself and his listeners the opportunity to hear more, and better. This comes about because our ability to hear is augmented when listening to quiet music. We hear better because we make an effort to hear better. That is why Ullmann likes to locate his sound sources at the periphery, so as not to…