Sound Art / Fluxus

We're absolutely thrilled to offer a small handful of freshly unearthed copies of long out of print volume, "Composer, Fluxist and Out of Order", arguably the most comprehensive monograph ever dedicated to the life and work of the Danish multi-disciplinary artist and composer Henning Christiansen. Issued in a heavyweight, hard-cover bilingual (English & Danish) edition, stretching to a stunning 578 pages, containing numerous texts and anecdotes by Christiansen and others, as well as extensive do…

The definitive vinyl edition of Henning Christiansen's 1985 sound installation at the Rome Zoo, made with Lorenzo Mammi from recordings of the animals, remastered by Rashad Becker, with a 20-page booklet.

Two of Henning Christiansen’s tape works from the 1980’s, Peter der Große op. 174 (1986) and Gudbrandsdal op. 178 (1987), are now released for the first time by the Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology.

Hardcover, 364 pages. Photographic/Artist book, with little text contribution (mostly written in Italian). Fra zero e infinito is a comprehensive monograph published by Fondazione Mudima in 2018, dedicated to Giuseppe Chiari, one of Italy’s most influential conceptual artists, avant-garde composers, and a central figure in the Fluxus movement. Edited by Gino Di Maggio, Achille Bonito Oliva, and Daniele Lombardi, the volume gathers critical essays, archival documents, and photographs that trace C…

At Last! The new edition of this milestone release, the collected text-sound compositions of Åke Hodell, in what would have been his 100th birthday year. Åke Hodell (April 30, 1919 - July 29, 2000, Stockholm, Sweden) was a Swedish fighter pilot, poet, author, text-sound composer, and artist. Hodell was trained as a fighter pilot, but after a crash during practice July 17, 1941, he had to spend the next few years in hospital. This became a turning point and he became a dedicated antimilitarist. I…

2002 release. Alga Marghen proudly presents the first record ever produced by Ben Patterson: "This is not only my first CD, but also the first recordings of these works available to the general public." Starting as a virtuoso double-bass performer of classical music, Ben Patterson was one of the very first founders of the Fluxus Group in Wiesban. This digipak CD will introduce you to some American neo-avant garde music classics, a crossover between John Cage's exploding influences and the experi…

Published for the opening of Ben Patterson's first large retrospective exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, this double CD anthology includes both historical recordings taken from the Early Works, from 370 Flies CDs as well as the first digital version of the no longer available LP titled A Fluxus Elegy and a previously-unpublished track. The first CD starts with the first-ever recording of "Ants" (1960), one of Ben Patterson's first graphic scores, pre-dating the Fluxus group. …

For the first time a full album with recordings based on Yoko Ono’s 1964 collection of texts, event scores and drawings “Grapefruit”, a foundational cornerstone of what became known as conceptual art, and enveloping the orbits of Fluxus and experimental music. Performed by The Great Learning Orchestra which has during the 25 years of its existence worked with Gavin Bryars, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, J.g. Thirlwell, Arnold Dreyblatt a.o. Originally self-published in 1964 in a limited edition …

**Edition of 300** Henning Christiansen's handwritten score for 'Grundtone' [fundamental tone], opus 161 from 1984. Offset printed 1:1 reproduction in two colours. Format: A2 – 420 x 594 mm. Includes download code for Henning Christiansen's own recording of the piece. Released in collaboration with The Museum of Contemporary Art and The Henning Christiansen Archive.The piece 'Grundtone' [fundamental tone] (op. 161) is of central importance in the oeuvre of Henning Christiansen. It marks both his…

Homemade noise made by, among others, Philip Corner, Max Neuhaus, Steve Reich, James Tenney, Malcolm Goldstein, Jackson Mac Low, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, Carolee Schneemann, Jerome Rothenberg... the Technicians of the Sacred. Gift Event III: A Celebration for poets, musicians, and dancers, based on the orders of the Seneca Indian Eagle Dance and performed at the Judson Dance Theatre, Judson Memorial Church, New York City, March 21 and 22, 1967. A part of the Spring Happenings. The legandary…

Edition of 120 copies. The missing chapter, at last. Two of the most elusive records in the Alga Marghen catalog - one-sided LPs pressed in editions of 80 and 29 copies, available only inside long since vanished boxsets - are finally united on a single LP. Oeuvres sonores completes the series of records issued in relation to alga marghen's presentation of the work of Charlotte Moorman at the Centre Pompidou between 2008 and 2013, and appears in a final edition of 120 copies only. Moorman remains…

*Rare original arist' book - Music scores and instruction for performance* Sonata for Prepared Piano (1982) is a short work which, again, uses photoderivations as parts of the notation—this time nature with incomplete figure photographs, mostly obscured by the natural objects around them.      (Dick Higgins, "The Strategy of Each of My Books" from Horizons, 1984) "Four movements make up this thirteen minute work. Each uses a very different method of interpreting its materials, a set of four phot…

* Rare original artist' book - Music scores and instructions for performance * Variations on a Natural Theme (1982), as in Dick Higgins words, is a large orchestral work, in some ways a companion to the Ten Ways, since this time it uses gamuts (in this case selected by the individual musicians) and photo derivations made from a female model; she was insistent that she not be recognizable, since she was a teacher and was afraid that it would be damaging to her professionally if it were known that…

* Rare original artist' book - Music scores and instructions for performance * After folding Something Else Press in 1974 due to financial difficulties, founder Dick Higgins would move on to other publishing projects for the remainder of his life and career, mostly under the imprint of Unpublished Editions and later Printed Editions. From 1980-1983, Higgins produced a remarkable series of publications using the format of common sheet music books. Within are experimental musical scores and instru…

Rare original artist' book - Music scores and instructions for performance Ten Ways of Looking at a Bird (1981)...is a playful variation on the name of a poem by Wallace Stevens whose work I have always admired, though, goodness knows, there is no modern poet more different from myself. This is a piece for violin and harpsichord; the harpsichord part is developed in “live time” (that is, during the performance) from what the violinist is doing, according to a set of rules. The violinist uses mu…

* Rare original artist' book - Music scores and instructions for performance *  This score by Dick Higgins consists of letters and arrows arrayed across one sheet of musical notation paper. A cover sheet provides the instructions for the four-minute, fifty-two second performance, stating that any number of people may interpret the score simultaneously if they do so independently of one another. Guidelines for interpretation are fairly specific, but the piece is different every time it is perform…

Rare original artist' book - Music scores and instructions for performance ** Twenty-Six Mountains for Viewing the Sunset From (1981) is for a small        ensemble, including three dancers. It is a different kind of notation, not using photographs but using an indication of what kinds of tex- tures and patterns are desired. The title comes from a trip I took late one night with a teenager from Vermont, who brought me to some of his favorite places to view the sunset from; it was magical evening…

* Rare original artist' book - Music scores and instructions for performance * Although Dick Higgins is best known as a performance poet and artist, his creative life began with music, he studied with composers Henry Cowell and John Cage, and he has even made a phonograph record of compositions by himself and by Erik Satie. In fact, some of his Happenings and Fluxus works are essentially musical, such as the 1965 “Opera a Gogo” Hrusalk. For him music sometimes seems to be a matter of behavior ( …

Yoshi Wada has often said that The Appointed Cloud is his favorite of his own works, and listening to this remastered edition makes clear why. Staged at the Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science in 1987, the piece was Wada's first large-scale interactive installation, featuring a custom pipe organ and homemade instruments controlled by computer through an interface and software designed by engineer David Rayna, known for his work with La Monte Young. The space itself—designed for the 1964-6…

First-time vinyl reissue is limited to 750 numbered copies. Comes with poster. Yoshi Wada's Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile, originally released in 1982 on India Navigation, remains one of the most remarkable flowers to grow in the rarefied air of American minimalism – akin to Terry Riley's Reed Streams and Pauline Oliveros' Accordion & Voice, yet with a wild, liberated energy all of its own.  After graduating from Kyoto University of Fine Arts with a degree in sculptur…

Big big Tip! Green Vinyl edition, it comes insert/score print, hand numbered. Edition 150 + 50. Live recordings from World Fair, Vancouver 1994 at Indonesian Pavillion Gamelan-IX-March prelude, featuring Gamelan Son of Lion.

A vital tape work returning to circulation thirty-six years after its private cassette debut. Mieko Shiomi's 1990 memorial for George Maciunas, self-released that year on a privately circulated cassette and unheard in proper edition since, now receives a first ever CD reissue, mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. In accordance with the composer's wishes, this edition presents the work's two sides spliced together into a single continuous piece. By 1990 Shiomi had already lived several musical lives. A f…

This extremely rare and long out of print LP from 1983 documents a remarkable multidisciplinary artistic collaboration between Philip Corner, one of America's most important experimental composers and Fluxus pioneers, and Klaus Peter Brehmer, a leading figure of German conceptual art. Selected by Ursula Block for her legendary gelbe MUSIK label in Berlin, this work represents a unique translation between visual art, music, and scientific analysis. Philip Corner (born 1933, The Bronx) is internat…

**Massive hard-cover catalogue, nearly 800 pages, big size** This milestone volume maps fifty years of artists' engagement with sound. Since the beginning of the new millennium, numerous historical and critical works have established sound art as an artistic genre in its own right, with an accepted genealogy that begins with Futurism, Dada, and Fluxus, as well as disciplinary classifications that effectively restrict artistic practice to particular tools and venues. This book, companion volume t…

This CD highlights an exceptional document, a performance recorded by radio station WBAI in New York on September 12th, 1964. This event superbly represents the type of repertoire that Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik cultivated and proposed in the U.S., in the years following their meeting, in their memorable "duo" exhibitions. The program of the concert presented several true war-horses of their exhibitions like "26'1.1499 for a String Player" by John Cage, "Duet II" by Toshi Ichiyana…

Of the famous "TV Cello," conceived by Nam June Paik for Charlotte Moorman as a "living sculpture," this CD offers an in-situ recording released on one of the three days inaugurating the Paik retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, on the 11th, 12th and 14th of September in 1982. This version contains, respectively, the "TV Cello Duets" with Paul Garrin and the "Concerto for TV Cello and Videotapes," largely improvised, "including a tape collage by Ornette Coleman prepare…

**500 copies** The third release on the Henning Christiansen Archive features a previously unreleased work from 1991. The Wandering Human Being – The Wandering Voice, as the title suggest is a piece for voice and featurues Carlo Quartucci, Carla Tatò, Ursula Reuter Christiansen and Henning Christiansen. Ursula and Henning met the couple Carlo Quartucci and Carla Tatò through the curator Johannes Gachnang on a visit to Genazzano in Italy 1983 and became close friends, collaborating on a variety o…

Previously unreleased Henning Christiansen work from 1984. A dedication to George Orwell.

The Henning Christiansen Archive is proud to present a collection of previously unreleased ‘classical works’ by Henning Christiansen, a large part of his oeuvre which has remained out of sight, until now. This 2CD compilation encompasses a variety of stylistic approaches written in the years from 1963 to 1988.

Essential and visually stunning 1963 anthology edited by Young and Maciunas featuring most of the artist who would be take part in Fluxus. Very rare second edition published in 1970 of this important book.

The first survey of the Fluxus cofounder’s prolific avant-garde output, from eight-foot-tall books to make-a-salad performances

** Edition of 220 copies, it comes with a 16-page pamphlet ** Recital label head Sean McCann on Stones : Dreams: "The first audio document ever published by Fluxus artist Geoffrey Hendricks (1931-2018). There is a romanticism found in Geoffrey, that, in my mind, sets his work aside from his Fluxfriends. Known for his timeless sky paintings, applied to canvas, cars, clothes, and so on, the conceptual married the majestic. He was a master painter, whose work could have filled cathedral ceilings. I…

2026 stock.  Fylkingen Records in collaboration with the Swedish Radio released a series of LP records with text-sound compositions between the years of 1968-77. All of these were documentations of the international festival Text-Sound Compositions. A Stockholm Festival, which Fylkingen presented in Stockholm several times during these years. Most of the LPs were only pressed in batches of about 400-500 records, and most of the LPs sold out during the festivals. A re-release had long been planne…

Edition of 150. This ultra-limited 7" presents the first audio documentation of Henning Christiansen's Potato Opera, a conceptual masterwork that stands among the most radical gestures in Fluxus history. Originally performed in 1969 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, this piece embodies the radical questioning of musical convention that defined the post-1968 avant-garde. The inaugural performance in 1969 brought together Henning Christiansen with artist Lene Adler Petersen and painter Ursula Reute…

Primary Informatio is happy to announce the reissue of the LP by The Guerrilla Art Action Group titled Action-Interview at WBAI Radio Station-N.Y, orginally released by the legendary Radiotaxi imprint, and now impossible to obtain. The recording documents a live action/interview by the group on January 5, 1970 on the progressive radio station WBAI. The LP consists of a series of spoken statements describing the problematic relationship between art and business, art and the military, art and clas…

Brimming with equal parts humor and rigorous art, iDEAL Recordings delivers one of the most fascinating and historically important archival releases that's aver graced our hands, Charlie Morrow, Sten Hanson, and Carles Santos' “The Heavyweight Sound Fight”. Documenting a never before released performance staged in NY during 1981, three seminal artists join forces for a battle in sound, delivering raucous vocal utterances against the backdrop of dualing band and wild experimental interventions, m…

This CD restores three documents from the Charlotte Moorman canon. One happy example is a choral work performed on the 3rd of September 1964, during the second New York Avant Garde Festival, a performance of Jackson Mac Low's composition "The Long Hot Summer." This very relevant concert, distinguished by a marked ethico-political intonation and valence, sees in an exceptional reunion the names of Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, Philip Corner, and Malcolm Goldstein, as well …

This CD presents a concert from July 25th, 1966 in the Theatersaal in Aachen, Germany. In addition to the New York concert on September 12th, 1964, the recordings of this European concert well represent the kind of performances that Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik presented in Europe in the second stage of their historical "duo" exhibitions. This Aachen event, in fact, is testimony to the progressive and always more pronounced emergence of meta-musical elements deliberately turned toward the…

It’s hard to overstate the importance of Philip Corner. For more than half a century he has been a cornerstone of the American musical avant-garde. A once student of Otto Leuning, Henry Cowell, Olivier Messiaen, and Dorothy Taubman, who went on to inherit John Cage’s legendary Modern Music class at the New School for Social Research. A founding member of Fluxus, Corner made waves fast, creating a body of singular work, both on his own and within ensembles like Gamelan Son of Lion and Tone Roads,…

Taking a deep dive into some of the most important works ever created by the Italian avant-garde, Alga Marghen returns with a much needed and long-overdue brand new edition of their towering 5LP collection, “Il Divano dell'Orecchio”, dedicated to the work of Walter Marchetti. Gathering the composer’s seminal work for Cramps, issued between 1974 and 1989, and a host of archival material, scores, texts, and photographs, it’s an unprecedented dive into this truly singular voice, issued in a brand n…