Obstacle #79: Memory Is Current
Tip! * Edition of 250 * Obstacle #79: Memory Is Current offers a sequence of works for player piano, a device which captured Rick Myers’ imagination in 2017. Divining a method from mathematical measurements and intuitive drawing systems, Myers obstructed piano rolls using adhesive tape. Performed in this altered state on a player piano in the hallway of Easthampton Machine and Tool in Easthampton, Massachusetts, the music embedded in the rolls was extricated from its history and given fresh life…
Arch of Motion
In recent years Swedish musician Linnéa Talp has grown interested in liminal spaces of sound, increasingly searching for her breath deep within passages of a song when instruments gently and patiently bridge the verses. In 2020 she released Cochlea, a brooding pop-rock record made under the name Deerest. “I’ve been trying to work with my body, my breath and my listening,” she says of her work since finishing that release. “I wanted to integrate a sense of slow and simple movement into the music—…
almenrauschen
These five albums by Klaus Janek appear to have been originally released in 2018, but were bundled together under the title almenrauschen in 2019 in nice colour-coded sleeves designed by Stephanie Roderer – I’ll refer to this aspect at the head of each review section – in an edition of 300 units. The name “almenrauschen” derives from the aural sensation perceiving a non intentional sound world and transforming it to musical sense-making.
This bundle includes the following albums on vinyl:
- Casp…
Prospecting
'The first track on side A is “Violeros Revisitados”, which is a fight between the sounds made by Brazilian traditional musicians and the UHER Report 400 tape machine the sounds were recorded on. This source material was recorded by Gunther Kipfmüller in Northeast Brazil in the 1970s. Kipfmüller’s daughter, Milena , processes the raw material while Janek adds his contrabass and electronics to the mixture. Brazil born, Milena is also Berlin-based and works as”… a freelance soundartist, dramaturgu…
Reciprocum
Magenta. Road at night. Its probably worth quoting from the sleeve-notes so you get an idea of what the intention is on this disc: “The album consists of music chosen from a pool of recordings made over a time span of 10 years and according to its expression composed ‘together’. All of the music was created through a practice of combining the compositional and performative act. The album making process consists of two levels: the music created in the past functions as material and is put into fo…
Libellule Ebouli
*300 copies limited edition* Two guitars heard, one played that listens to the second. Two superimposed timelines that are replayed through the disc. Libellule: One side with use of drone. Ébouli: a side where the guitar is detuned as the piece progresses. Guilhem Lacroux designed this disc so that it could be listened to in 45 rpm and 33 rpm. The 45 rpm, as a version of real time - I live - and the 33 rpm version that of the state of suspension, the invitation to slow time. Interview between Gu…
Out Of Standard !! France 4
*Limited edition 100 copies* 4th compilation of French unconventional projects on Out of Standard!!, ADN side label. Mastered by Ruggero Tajé. Dedicated to Chris Marker.
Stellan Veloce's Complesso Spettro
Tip! *200 copies limited edition* Stellan Veloce’s first record for Hyperdelia is not only their debut album but simultaneously the inception of a band: Stellan Veloce’s Complesso Spettro. At Veloce’s disposal, the players have turned into a Frankensteinian super group: with Andreas Dzialocha on electric bass, Bridget Ferrill doing electronics & processing, Julia Reidy on guitars, Marta Tiesenga on baritone sax, Earl Harvin and Jesse Quebbeman-Turley on drums, Elena Kakaliagou playing horn, Carl…
Merzbeat
*20th anniversary reissue!* Merzbow's Merzbeat is one the most unique and legendary titles in the artist's vast archive. This 20th anniversary reissue is being issued at the same time as CD reissue of his 1983 album Material Action 2 and a brand new collaboration with Arcane Device, all on Important Records. Originally released in 2002, Merzbeat contains over 50 minutes of aggressive, psychedelic, organic, analog beat oriented Merzbow compositions. Drummed rhythms, massive looping samples, a pun…
s/t
Japan's leading noise luminary Merzbow meets American electro-feedback artist Arcane Device as they mix and manipulate each other's work.
Again Alors?
Eclectic Maybe Band is the creation of Guy Segers, a player / composer / producer first prominent as bassist with legendary band Univers Zero, and subsequently active in many live and studio projects. “Again Alors?” is the third release by EMB which brings together detailed studio work with the creativity of real time improvisation. Using different groupings from within a large ensemble cast, which includes many well-known names, Guy has created an album where half the tracks are drawn from live…
Sunrise From West Sea
** 500 copies ** Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the first-ever release of 'Sunrise From West Sea', a mesmerising performance by Stomu Yamash'ta accompanied by Jazz pianist Masahiko Satoh (well known for his involvement in the New Herd Orchestra and his 'Belladonna of Sadness' soundtrack) and Taj Mahal Travellers founder Takehisa Kosugi on Electric Violin. The line up, also comprising Hideakira Sakurai on Electric Shamisen, is a spaced-out improvisational soundscape over the two LP sides. …
The Mermaid's Purse: Live at Chatham College, 1976
In 1976 the Entourage Music and Theater Ensemble reached a creative zenith. The nomadic troupe had just released The Neptune Collection, its iconic second album for Moses Asch’s Folkways Records, and decided to present the music to audiences across the rust belt in its most miasmic, elemental form. Extended stretches of full-group improvisation mingled with folk-tune like melodies during these performances, which featured multiple dancers spontaneously interpreting the music, at times in elabora…
Gospel Et Le Râteau
* Digipack CD edition * Ghédalia Tazartès left us in February 2021 when we had just finalized the editing and the cover art of his new album with him. Unfortunately he will never see the finished object. This record is therefore particularly important for us. He opened his archives to us so that we could select unpublished pieces with him and organize them in two long suites. This work took almost two years (finding the pieces among dozens of sometimes very old CD-Rs, checking that these pieces …
Work
Chicago Research presents the latest release on tape by History of Leather.
CCTK Music
CCTK Music combines Gabriella Isaac's exploitative use of laptop as feedback loop / sound source / physical device and James Fella's electro-acoustic / tape as instrument approach. The duo incorporates each other's material in real time (on Side A), cutting the content onto 6 singles-sided reference lacquers. The lacquers were used to assemble a collage in a performance setting in late 2019, and again in a studio setting for Side B. The result is a record that is both scathing but at times harmo…
As Slow as the Stream
*75 copies limited edition* "After several stand out collaborative releases, including a duo LP with Mark Shippy and another duo LP with Claire Rousay, violinist Alex Cunningham returns to solo form with As Slow as the Stream, an album made up of one 33-minute cat and mouse game titled "As Slow as the Stream Cuts the Dirt from Beneath." If you've ever watched a cat sneak up on a mouse, you've seen the cat making its way towards it's prey so slowly that you barely even notice the cat is moving at…
Sound Journeys: Switzerland
Sound Journeys: Switzerland is the culmination of a series of diital EPs focusing on artists engaged in the Swiss experimental music scene, here presented as an 11-track compilation on CD and digital. Airplay so far has been on BBC Radio 3, Resonance FM, WFMU and more. It has been compiled by producer, broadcaster and Nonclassical A&R Nick Luscombe (BBC Radio, Late Junction) following a visit to the country and research into the current activities of Swiss academic music.Nick Luscombe says: "The…
Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut / a lot of tiles (trivial scan)
XI Records is very pleased to announce the release of a 2 CD set of Michael Winter’s music organized by guitarist Elliot Simpson. Each CD features a single composition, demonstrating different sides of Winter’s work. The first, Counterfeiting in Colonial Connecticut, is a socially-engaged piece written for Simpson and in honor of George Floyd. The second, a lot of tiles (trivial scan), derives music from a set of mathematical tilings (often referred to as tessellations). The album art features r…
False Flag Rapture
** 42-minute lime green cassette with full-color six-panel j-card in clear Norelco case, plus full-color outer o-card featuring collage art by Rrill Bell ** Following up on 2020's critically acclaimed "Ballad of the External Life" LP, Rrill Bell's latest outing on Elevator Bath is a complex amalgamation of acoustic source materials (metallophones, winds, strings, and brass), (cassette) tape treatments, and digital assemblages, which coalesced over a period of six years, starting from the artist…