Experimental / Abstract

eRikm: 1 turntable + FXMartin Tetreault: modified turntable + surfacesOtomo Yoshihide: 1 turntable + guitarRecorded on 22th may during Musica Genera Festival 2004 by Artur Nowak.Edited & mix : erikm.Cover artwork : Trace Cut / eRikm

As after the first Musica Genera Festival here goes the release from the 2nd edition. First performance together by Dörner, Fuhler and Noetinger gives to the listener an unexpectable approach to the electroacoustic improvisation. Sounds of acoustic, analogue and digital instruments form together unique amalgamat of micro details, quality and energy.Axel Dörner: trumpet, computerCor Fuhler: analogue synthesizer, linguaphonesJérôme Noetinger: tape recorder Revox B77Recorded on May 22nd 2003 during…

"The improvising trio Monopiece lists its instrumentation as guitar, percussion, and electronics, but electronics describes far more than one third of its texture, since both guitar and percussion are amplified and electronically processed. On this release they are joined by the Dutch vocal artist Jaap Blonk in recording spontaneously generated music, edited and subtly processed to reflect the communal nature of its creation without interrupting the strong, improvised narratives of each piece.In…

Phil Julian lives in London, and has been active in the experimental music underground since the late 90's under the alias Cheapmachines and lately under his own name. He is dedicated to analogue electronics as well as computer noise. Contact microphones, feedback and modular synthesizers are basic tools to what, after much work, could lead to the perfection of 2014's Trace LP or the excellent Quiet Trade tape. A wide spectrum from harsh noise to academic minimalism. An "anything can turn into a…

Taximi is the improvisation during the performance of traditional musical pieces, using soloistic folk instruments. It has roots in the eastern Mediterranean and Arabic culture and can be commonly found in Greek music and specifically in rebetiko. Taximi is a free rhythm melody, an author's imagination, alternating between various emotional paths with a passion respective to each one who carries it. The main prerequisite in order to play a taximi is not to have excellent technical knowledge, but…

Tonal whiplash is a dissonance between tones, a lack of narrative coherence or the evil headache caused by a nonsensical explanation. One might argue that this is the defining characteristic of modern political discourse. Zbeen (Gianluca Favaron and Ennio Mazzon) translates this jarring disconnection into music, daring the listener to locate patterns and linear equations. But the mind is more creative than one might think. The more one plays these tracks, the more one detects some overall…

After crossing wastelands lost in oblivion (Everything Collapse[d], Aagoo, 2014), and being skeptically moved by listening to pulsations of a weak life (Weak Life, Aagoo, 2015), Cristiano Deison and Andrea Gastaldello (aka Mingle) are arriving at their final destination, Innersuface, the last stop on their journey. They suddenly fall into a hole and are trapped in a slimy pit overflowing with mud and industrial liquids. Everything is dense and oppressive. Their physical movement stops, the chaos…

At the end of the 1960s, perhaps due to its proximity to Paris, Barcelona had become the forefront of the avant-garde and the entryway in Spain of new forms of cultural expression from Europe and the United States. Musically, that characteristic resulted in a middle-class underground that would play the part of a late local counterculture which gave birth to the so-called Barcelonés progressive rock of 1969-1973. It featured bands such as Máquina!, Om, Música Dispersa, and so on. Material from t…

CD comes with a 12 pages 8” booklet with paintings by Richard di Santo and photos by Stefano Gentile. Edition of 250 copies. Tomas Phillips is a composer, novelist, and teacher whose sound work focuses on improvisational performance and minimalism through composition. He began composing electronic music in the early 1990s, releasing limited editions under such monikers as Sea Optic, Lisbon and Eto Ami (with Dean King), and has since created music for installations and collaborations in dance an…

Barricade, already known as the roots of ZNR, were a radical French commune formed in 1969 by over thirty musicians / non-musicians around François Billard (saxophone, voices, harmonica) and Gérard Lapeyre (violin) in Marseilles. They had wandered from place to place, changed their members one after another, and gigged on various stages in France around 1970.In 1973, they were split into two Barricades - one is a radically political & anarchic music outfit around François named Barricade Crève-V…

This new release from the UK label Consumer Waste features four untitled improvisations from Glasgow guitarist Neil Davidson and Norwegian double bassist Michael Duch. Although unusual on the face of it, the combination of mostly bowed acoustic guitar with a likewise mostly bowed double bass is a felicitous one. The four tracks, although differing from each other in sometimes significant ways, have in common an architecture constructed of overlapping planes joined or separated by varying rhythmi…

Trost starts a new 7" series called Jukebox Series, specially for one-time collaborations & projects. The paper-sleeve stays the same, labels are changing, and there's artwork by Lasse Marhaug. This time Christof Kurzmann teams up with Sofia Jernberg (Fire Orchestra) on one side, and with Ken Vandermark and Martin Brandlmayr (Radian) on the other for two versions of the beautiful song "Beggars." The lyrics are written by Joe McPhee.

Limited edition of 20 copies which contain a photographic reproduction of the five Polaroids used for the cover. "Decomposed Days" is the new collaborative effort by Corrado Altieri (Candor Chasma, Monosonik, Uncodified) and Gianluca Favaron (Ab'she, Under The Snow, Zbeen), two major artist in the experimental electronic scene. Released one year after "The System of Objects", a tribute to Jean Baudrillard, "Decomposed Days" relates to the possible connections between space, time and memory,…

"Cheerful Mats was dragged into the studio last year by David Grubbs for the ostensible purpose of contributing to a Thicket-in-the-works. The pair instead became terminally sidetracked with recording the two lengthy duets for harmonium and tenor saxophone and harmonium and fluteophone (Mat's invention -- a flute with a reed mouthpiece) that make up Apertura. Listening to Apertura, the first question is 'who is doing what?' It's not certain that even the artists themselves know." Two long …

"The Koeln concert shows us these positive vibrations marching through "the complete continuance of creative music," and on towards the next millennium. The "success of the future" is not a lost cause as long as there is music like this in the air."-Graham Lock"Although Anthony Braxton does not play on this double CD (whose contents were released for the first time in 1995), his presence is certainly felt. He conducts the band through a fairly free improvisation and five of his compositio…

Fushitsusha Tokyo underground legend Tamio Shiraishi in solo alto saxophone solos from different subway stations in Queens, NYC, a unique voice interacting with an extreme urban environment.  "Alto saxophone - Tamio Shiraishi. A set of unique site-specific live recordings from one of the true legends of the Tokyo underground, taped at a number of different subway stations in Queens, NYC. Tamio Shiraishi is one of the legends of the Japanese underground. For over thirty years he has continued to …

Back in stock. Helge Sten, aka Deathprod, sat through over 30 hours of live material to compile this 70 minute collection - widely regarded as Supersilent's most subdued work. Often compared to the fusion aesthetic favoured by Miles Davis in the early 70's and the post-modern compositional structure of Stockhausen, the result here is once again surprising and breahtaking, new sounds unearthed around every corner, you get the feeling that the ground beneath you is about to collapse with the sheer…

Limited edition of 300 copies. Heavy Vinyl. Schnack is the Live-Duo of improvising musicians Paul Hubweber (Cologne) and Uli Böttcher (Wiesbaden). The play a fascinating and restless mix of trombone noises and real time sampling and electronics.Paul Hubweber began with trombone studies in 1971 mainly concentrating on improvised music.He has developed his own special "trombone voice" and his musical focus. It is the special affinity for the balladic and the noisy, i. e. the non-separable combinat…

Since the very beginning 13 years ago Supersilent have always moved forward with the greatest integrity. No albums, or indeed concerts, sound the same, yet there´s always a strong signature present. So also with this album. Mostly recorded by Jan Erik Kongshaug at the famous Rainbow Studio in Oslo, this was their first session after drummer Jarle Vespestad lef the band. This time they have moved slightly towards a more acoustic landscape with Ståle Storløkken, for the first time with Supersilent…

Keiji Haino is an individual that never ceases to provoke new ideas in the minds of those that meet him. And so, although he is usually surrounded by amplifiers, a myriad of effects pedals, and cables plugged into his guitar, he nonetheless amazed his audience with the power of the simplicity of his purely vocal performance and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, in 2008, as part of the InFamous Carousel Festival. The following year I had the opportunity to get to know him a bit better, acting as inte…

Quartet improvisations by Jennifer Allum (violin), John Butcher (saxophones), Ute Kanngiesser (cello) and Eddie Prévost (percussion), recorded on 29 April 2013 at Addey and Stanhope School, Deptford, London, for Stewart Morgan's film Eddie Prévost's Blood.

Duo of Daniel Kordik (synthesiser) and Eddie Prévost (percussion), five improvisations recorded by Edward Lucas at All Saints Church, High Laver, Essex, and released by Earshots in 2024.

"This is listed as a Farmers LP, but it's actually a survey of Daved Hild's earliest work after the dissolution of Boston's best-ever band, The Girls. Chronologically, the earliest recording here is 'The Fear,' recorded at Sorcerer Sound in NYC for a proposed Lust/Unlust EP called A Dog's Prayer. Daved is joined by another ex-Girl, Robin Amos, and ex-Mission of Burma multi-tasker Roger Miller. After that come the Farmers tracks, recorded in Cambridge. Daved had been doing solo work in NYC, dress…

"The latest stop on the brilliant arc of the Guerilla Toss trajectory, Live in Nashville captures the unpredictable ecstasy of the band in live performance. From the Fat Worm-like form-breakdown of 'Drip Decay' to the irresistibly lop-sided groove of 'Diamond Girls', this is how Guerilla Toss was meant to be heard: very live and very loud. Although they change bass players the way Spinal Tap went through drummers, the core of this Boston combo - vocalist Kassie Carlson, and guitarists Peter Negr…

"Zach Phillips was a fixture in the Brattleboro scene for a good many years. As a member of Blanche Blanch Blanche and Big French (among others), as well as the creator of many solo projects under various guises, runner of the OSR label, and all around Renaissance handyman, Phillips moved to Brooklyn a while back. Once ensconced there he began playing as half of CE Schneider Topical, and generally stirring up the same kinds of mytery-aktion which had marked his northern existence. Four Thing is …

"One of the highlights of early Devo live shows was a song Booji Boy sang called, 'The Words Get Stuck in My Throat.' It was kind of a sappy tune, about little hidden microphones and View-Masters and shit, but it made a huge impression on Angela Sawyer when, still in swaddling clothes, she heard it on a bootleg tape recorded it at Max's Kansas City. She would sit in front of the family Walkman all day and play that song over and over again. It became, what she calls, 'the theme song of my youth.…

"This is the vinylization of the fourth solo album (originally released on cassette by Ramp Local) by Nina Ryser, she of the trio, Palberta. Palberta's releases have all been quite amazing - ragged bags filled with musical lumps of the finest kind imaginable. Comparisons have been drawn (and quite rightly) between Palberta and units ranging from Kleenex to Aunt Sally to the Raincoats, so anticipation for this new album was kite-high and rising. I Hope All Your Dreams Come True veers from the roc…

"Michael Turner, famed resident of Louisville/Lexington KY, main cog in the splendid Warmer Milks and valuable presence in many other ensembles, has recently migrated to New England. And we are honored to have him amongst us. As a way of making him feel 'to home,' Feeding Tube has released his most recent slab of insane solo aktion, Heavy Death Hand, as splendidly 'out' an LP as anyone could ask for. Mazozma is a recent nom de musique assumed by Turner, following a passel of albums released unde…

"Nudge Squidfish is one of the singular figures to emerge from the Columbus sub-underground rock scene of the 1970s. He was a member of The True Believers (along with Mike Rep & Tommy Jay). He cut a single for the New Age label in '82, and a couple of odd solo LPs while he was living in Nashville later in the '80s. He was a member of V-3 (along with Jim Shepard) after that. He also released a bonkers full-length cassette on Old Age that was subsequently vinylized by Columbus Discount. More recen…

"Second boss LP by this bossest of Western Mass trios. Comprised of Jenifer Gelineau on violin & electronics, Omeed Goodarzi on guitar, and Edward 'Ted' Lee on bowed cymbal, Donkey No No create the sort of instrumental hallucinations you'd expect to hear in the background of a film by Jodorowsky or Arrabal. It's very cool, because they use the very instruments you'd hear in some shitty Ken Burns documentary, in order to play music that would make Ken's sallow head explode if he tried to wrap his…

"In the world we inhabit (the world of the underground), one of the easiest ways to categorize people who fall into our gutter is by analyzing their motives and history. Viewed by this light, people are either lifers or careerist fucks; dedicated to the cause now and forever, or stupid moths attracted to the occasional flashes of light that emanate from the pit. By this measure (and all others), Tarp are lifers. The duo, Conrad Capistran and Joshua Burkett (look up their glorious histories onlin…

"Debut vinyl by the guitarist of Donkey No No presents two different sides of this mysterious maestro. 'Zoltar Hid All the Locks' is a full on studio quintet session where Jeremy Latch (formerly of the Grudges) played clarinet, Adam Langellotti (ex-Grudges, Sore Eros, etc.) played percussion and ran the board, Matt Robidoux (ex-Speedy Ortiz, Curse Purse, etc.) played guitar and drum box, and Jen Gelineau (Donkey No No, Egg Eggs, etc.) handled the fiddle. The sound on this ranges from Donkey No N…

"Split LP by a couple of bands who have more tricks up their collective sleeves than most outfits you could name. Metabolismus are a musical collective from near Stuttgart Germany, who have been actively corrupting the minds of everyone around them since the 1980s. The number of players on any given session, as well as the style of music that will be generated, is almost infinitely mutable. About all you can count on is that it will be intriguingly fried. Mono Pause began as a duo in River Falls…

"In 1975, the critic Lester Bangs was seen moaning in the pages of Creem about the anti-emotionalism of the German band, Kraftwerk, and their whole concept of the man-machine. Skip ahead 43 years. Bangs is long dead, and the man-machine is thriving. As proof of this, one need look no further than the new Tarp LP, Part. Trapped inside its insanely lovely cover art (courtesy of Greta Svalberg), one finds the two hulking man-machines (Conrad Capistran and Joshua Burkett) attempting to figure out if…

LP version. "Eugene Chadbourne is one of the great guitar players of the modern era. At the time he began recording in Canada in 1975, his music was a unique syncretic formulation. While its most obvious component was free improvisation in a style then most widely associated with English and European players, his music also contained elements of jazz, country, folk, blues, psychedelic and international sounds, referencing these threads in ways that were so diverse and intensely personalized it w…

"Glorious vinylization of this 2022 ­duo session, originally issued as a cassette, documenting the first time Suzuki and Noyes ever collaborated. Ayami Suzuki has become known to cognoscenti for her brilliantly imagined vocal improvisations, through recordings with like-minded folks such as French vocalist/polymath Delphine Dora and avant hurdy gurdy player, TOMO. Rob Noyes has developed a parallel reputation as a master third-generation acoustic guitarist in the post-Takoma tradition. Originall…

Gathered as a three‑disc bundle, Adam Bohman’s Music and Words series reads like a sprawling, decades‑deep diary of the British underground. Domestic cassette experiments, found‑object acoustics and stream‑of‑conscious monologues mutate across volumes 1–3 into a fiercely idiosyncratic universe where language, noise and everyday detritus share equal weight, turning one man’s tape habit into a major work of experimental autobiography.This Bohman’s Bundle contains:- Music and Words- Music and Words…

Mega Tip! Between her elaborately conceptual Drag City singer-songwriter albums and celebrated soundtracks for Ryusuke Hamaguchi, in recent years Eiko Ishibashi has quietly self-released a significant body of solo and collaborative work on her Bandcamp page. At times resembling her solo live performances in their organic interweaving of instrumental, electronic, and concrete sounds, each of these less feted online releases offers a snapshot of the experiments always underway at Atelier Eiko. Som…

1994 CD on Odd Size with the experimetal/electronic improvisations of the Cologne supergroup composed of C-Schulz, Frank Dommert, Georg Odijk, Hajsch, Marcus Schmickler and Monika Westphal.