Michael Ranta
American percussionist (born 1942 in Duluth, Minnesota) based in German. From 1973-1979 he was prolific with concerts, recordings, sessions and other works. Since 1979 he settled down as the resident composer, percussionist, and instrument handler, at Asian Sound in Cologne.
American percussionist (born 1942 in Duluth, Minnesota) based in German. From 1973-1979 he was prolific with concerts, recordings, sessions and other works. Since 1979 he settled down as the resident composer, percussionist, and instrument handler, at Asian Sound in Cologne.
Transits: Volume 1
Big tip! American percussionist and composer Michael Ranta is a legendary figure who has worked with some of the most significant names of 20th century music but despite this and impressive body of work of his own, he has remained an obscure figure....
Important Records and is pleased to present Transits: Volume 1 the first in a series of releases by composer/percussionist Sarah Hennies documenting never before heard chamber works mostly composed in the 1970s while Ranta was living in Taiwan.
B…
Multiple Musics
**500 copies** Previously unreleased live recording from the Ranta archives. The creative duo of Michael Ranta and Takehisa Kosugi performed many times in the 1970’s and 1980’s. On this outstanding performance, recorded at the Japanese Culture Institute in Cologne in 1987, the application of an advanced multi delay system, independently utilized by both players, plays a central role. The smartly treated cyclic tapestry of the delay system (modulated, transformed, harmonized) injects additional d…
The Great Wall / Chanta Khat
* Original 1991 edition on Ranta's own Asian Sound Records imprint * Michael Ranta has collaborated with Takehisa Kosugi, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Jean-Claude Eloy, Conny Plank, Mike Lewis, and Hartmut Geerken, just to name a few. He was also assistant to Harry Partch and performer in the Gate 5 Ensemble in the 1960s. Additionally, Ranta performed in Stockhausen's ensemble during the 1970 World Expo in Osaka. Ranta's resume also includes recordings by Helmut Lachenmann, Herbert Brün, Toru Takemitsu, Jo…
Azabu
Edition of 500. CD and 8 page booklet in gatefold cardboard sleeve * Even though only being fully terminated 50 years after its conception, 'Azabu' can be regarded as the starting point of Michael Ranta’s creative self-discovery. The recordings that form the base of 'Azabu' were mostly made in the Tokyo district with the same name (Azabu-Juban). Next to abstracted field recordings 'Azabu' is also pervaded by a rich variety of percussion, string and wind instruments, all played by Ranta himself.
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MU V / MU VI
Original 1984 copy of self produced studio album from 1984. Recorded and mixed at Conny’s Studio. Insane instrumentation, expanding the boundaries of percussion. Michael Ranta is an american percussionist based in Cologne since early seventies. Known for his one off collaboration with Toshi Ichiyanagi, Takehisa Kosugi, live performances with Hartmut Geerken and his own improv group Wired. This one is a solo recording of Ranta playing Sha-tik, Mu-yu, Mok-eo, Mu-ban, Bamboo Tubes, Bungkaka, Tongat…
Improvisation Sep. 1975
** Limited edition of 125 copies with mounted text on front and back (as the original 1975 LP), silkscreened by Alan Sherry. This edition includes two inserts, a Japanese text sheet and the English text, translated by Alan Cummings ** Toshi Ichiyanagi, Michael Ranta and Takehisa Kosugi originally got together in the summer of 1975 for an open-air concert in Sapporo. The concert felt like a great success but was unfortunately not recorded. As the desire arose to record together, they managed to a…
Yüen Shan
Michael Ranta is one of those rare composers able to organically melt his wide artistic span into a singular but yet diverse universe morphing his rich vocabulary as a percussionist with the Oriental esoteric tradition, the psychedelic underground and the realm of electronic minimalism.Yuen Shan (Round Mountain in chinese) was conceived in 1972 and finalised in 2014. It’s a major work in Ranta’s oeuvre (his first solo release in almost 25 years), highly personal and spiritual. A musical cosmogon…
Taiwan Years
A stunning journey into the archives of one of the most fascinating composers / percussionists working today, Michael Ranta’s Taiwan Years, issued by Metaphon, is nothing short of a revelation, seamlessly binding acoustic interventions with a subtle pallet of electronic and electroacoustic ambiance in a landscape threaded by East-Asian esotericism, psychedelia, minimalism, and outright experimental avant-gardism.
Au Delà
Au-delà is a collaborative record by La Scie Dorée and Meakusma. It features eight pieces of music by La Scie Dorée affiliates. For the 2018 Meakusma Festival, La Scie Dorée and Meakusma set up a collaboration that brought performances by Timo Van Luijk, Steven Stapleton, Christophe Heemann, Daniel Denis, Bart De Paepe, Kris Vanderstraeten & daniel duchamP to the festival in Eupen, Belgium. This was followed up with a night organized in the province of Limburg in Belgium featuring performances b…
Die Mauer
**500 copies** Die Mauer is a collection of previously unreleased music composed, performed and recorded by Michael Ranta in 1988/1989 for a ballet choreographed by Philippe Talard. CD is housed in a 6-panel fold out sleeve.
Mu
** Last copies... ** Previously unreleased studio material from 1970 recorded a few months after the legendary Wired session. Hardboard linen CD box contains 2 CDs and a 28 page booklet with biography, text and notes (in Dutch, German and English) from Michael Ranta.The only time this ensemble got together before was for the singular and legendary Wired session recorded in 1970 and published on the Deutsche Grammophon box set Free Improvisation in 1974. The Wired session also included Karl-Heinz…
Live in Kabul 1976 (Art Edition)
Art Edition with an additional LP, issued in 26 copies onlyThe highly influential Sagittarius A Star label return with a prime piece of Eastern-tinged Improviation dated 1976 from Hartmut Geerken and Michael Ranta... then in Nov. 1976 we started our Far East Tour from Kabul to Teheran, New Delhi, Calcutta, Dacca, Bangkok, Manila, Seoul & Osaka (as documented on qbico 101 box set & qbico sigma). the very 1st Helio recording (on a Uher Report 4000 reel-to-reel tape machine), before this 4 weeks t…
Heliopolar Egg Live in Kabul 1976
The highly influential Sagittarius A Star label return with a prime piece of Eastern-tinged Improviation dated 1976 from Hartmut Geerken and Michael Ranta... then in Nov. 1976 we started our Far East Tour from Kabul to Teheran, New Delhi, Calcutta, Dacca, Bangkok, Manila, Seoul & Osaka (as documented on qbico 101 box set & qbico sigma). the very 1st Helio recording (on a Uher Report 4000 reel-to-reel tape machine), before this 4 weeks tour, was our dress rehearsal in my house in Kabul on Nov. 2…
The Heliopolar Egg
Documentary recordings of Hartmut Geerken and Michael Ranta’s November and December 1976 tour of the Middle East and East Asia. Geerken is known for his long relationship with Sun Ra (including compiling a discography), but he wears many other hats too: musician, film-maker, archivist. Ranta is a percussionist best known for his famous “Improvisation Sep.1975” collaborative record with Toshi Ichiyanagi and Takehisa Kosugi. This is a CD reissue of an LP boxset, originally released in 2010 as the …
Yuen Shan
CD edition. Mindblowing!!! A gorgeously dreamlike album, suspended in a timeless, spiritually resonant space ... Yuen Shan (Round Mountain in Chinese) was conceived in 1972 and finalized in 2014. It’s a musical cosmogony in four cycles based on different levels of ancient Asian spiritual principles and mechanisms. A major work in Ranta's oeuvre (his first solo release in almost 25 years), highly personal and spiritual. 16 track composition for pre-recorded sounds and live percussion perform…
Galaxies full-electro
Galaxies' (Warsaw version), electro-acoustic alone. Fully electro-acoustic version of Anâhata / Galaxies realized on the composer's personal computer from the original electro-acoustic recordings of this work.Electronic music studios where the original Anâhata / Galaxies were produced (1984-86): Studio of the Sweelinck Conservatory of Music, Amsterdam (1984 and 1986): the entire production (pre-recorded material processing, new material generation, premixing) and all final mixing processes. Toky…
Improvisation Sep. 1975
Originally released on the Iskra label in 1975, Improvisation Sep. 1975 is a mind-bending slice of drone improv from two of Japan's post-war heavyweights; former John Cage student, Juilliard graduate, and Yoko Ono's former husband, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Takehisa Kosugi, considered by many to be the father of what some called "Japanese Krautrock," and Stockhausen percussionist Michael Ranta. Heavy layers of reverbed ring modulators, threaded vocals, melodicas, pianos, violins, gongs and Japanese biwa…
West Africa Tour (Sierra Leone, Liberia & Guinea), April 1985
special box in 26 copies, made in high quality leather various African objects/artworks from various African tribes, stunning booklet with many rare photos (30) of the Tour (mostly color and b&w) cola nuts (to break the colanut with somebody african saying, which means to make friendship) an extra one-sided LP (I side) on gold and gold/green wax, - ALL recordings available here for the 1st time! "One of music's most amazing powers is its ability to tell a story. In the case of The African Tapes,…
Anahata (1984-86)
Subtitled: Primordial Vibration / Sound ceremonial with a contemplative character. Composed in 1983-1986. Sound ceremonial with a contemplative character for two voices of Japanese Buddhist monks (traditional Shômyô techniques - traditional temple chanting - in a larger, modern and creative form), three Japanese Gagaku instrumentalists (traditional court music in a modern and creative form), one percussionist (with a percussion instrument orchestra) and electro-acoustic (fixed interactive sounds…
Yo-In (1980)
First world publication for the seminal Yo-In (1980) an electro-acoustic work produced in Japan and revisited by the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris in 1981. “Sound Theater for an imaginary rite”. Yo-Inleads to a sort of “celebration-ritualization of the day of man on Earth”.Jean-Claude Eloy discovered the meaning of Yo-In by going deeper into the culture of Japan where he had been invited by Toru Takemitsu in 1970: “Yo-In, echo, rhyme, resonance, psychic reverberation”. Karheinz Stock…