It’s hard to believe now, but until the mid-1990s, many of the most important figures of American musical minimalism - Tony Conrad, Henry Flynt, Charlemagne Palestine, and even, to a certain extent, La Monte Young, were almost entirely forgotten and lost. Had it not been for the early efforts of labels like Table Of The Elements, Ampersand, and Locust Music, who helped return them to the public consciousness, it’s impossible to imagine what our current vision of history might have been. But, more importantly, during this period, many of these artists returned to activity and began to collaborate with a younger generation of peers. Among the notable documents of this fascinating development is Charlemagne Palestine’s incredible album, Mort Aux Vaches, made with Pan Sonic, the duo of Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen. Issued in a small CD edition in 2000, Mort Aux Vaches has been out of print and virtually unobtainable for nearly two decades - a legend waiting in the wings. Now, at long last, it reemerges for the very first time on vinyl, remaining as fresh and radical as the day it was made.

Mort Aux Vaches is a remarkable joining of worlds and ideas, part of a larger movement of cross generational collaboration instigated during the mid-90s by Tony Conrad’s seminal work with Jim O’Rourke and David Grubbs, and Charlemagne Palestine’s slightly earlier work with Mika Vainio and Pita, issued as Three Compositions For Machines in 1997 - his first recorded release since 1974’s legendary Strumming Music. He came back with a force - issuing 12 full lengths in just 3 years, and has remained nearly as prolific ever since. This is where his seminal voice came back to our ears, culminating with his current regard as one of the most important and influential in 20th century avant-garde music.

Comprised of 5 untitled durational works, executed in 1999 by the trio of Mika Vainio, Ilpo Väisänen, and Palestine, and commissioned by VPRO Radio in the Netherlands, Mort Aux Vaches takes each of these artists far afield into droning, tense landscapes of sound - shifting organ tones abrading against electronic oscillations, and unplaceable hints of acoustic intervention - each seemingly goading the next toward new extremes.

Beautiful and shimmering as much as it is aggressive, challenging, dark, and gothic, Mort Aux Vaches remains one of the crucial documents of the inter-generational collaborations which began to unfold across the 90s and early 2000s, pushing experimental music toward the heights where we encounter it today.