Ramasses-Miettes, Nouveaux Modes Industriels
Long on the Creel Pone radar has been this pair of LPs by French bandleader Philippe Doray, recorded in conjunction with the aid of his five "Asociaux Associés" & issued in 1977 & 1980, respectively, via Jean-Marc Patrat & José Serré's Gratte-Ciel & Invisible, the house-label of the inimitable Jacques Pasquier's Société Coopérative d'Ouvriers-Producteurs Artistiques. Centered around Doray's Synthi VCS3 playing & sprech-stimme vocal stylings, the selections here run the gamut from puerile, absurd…
Automare
From the city that brought you LSD comes a new album by Marco Papiro, a Swiss-Italian musician and graphic designer who has gained some notoriety with his album covers for the likes of Panda Bear and Sun Araw. "Automare" is Papiro's seventh solo album, recorded on 4-track cassette, on hard-disk, in public and in private, entirely self-produced and now released on Nikolaienko's Muscut label. The five hauntingly evocative tracks offer a variety of atmospheres from surreal to arcane, from ce…
Cosmographie
Once again, i’m reminded that one can twist & turn, uncovering rocks looking for stray Paleozoic lifeforms one’s whole life and still never find 0.01% of what’s out there. To my knowledge, the early 70s platter replicated here is the sole LP by one Bruno Menny; he’s mainly known for his endless CV of engineering, arrangement, and production credits for people like Mouloudji - yes, the voice on the Jean Genet / André Almuro "Un Condamne a Mort" LP - Michel Portal, Benoît Widemann, and a little-kn…
Conrad & Sohn
Thus far the creel pones have all been academically-inclined in some way. by contrast, here’s a repro of a very bizarre one-off private-press lp “released” in 1981 by one-time tangerine dream / Kluster associate Conrad Schnitzler and given only to friends and family ...The b-side is pretty odd, even for schnitzler, with its pitched up vocals & arbitrary lo-fi synth drippings ; but the real prize is the a-side featuring his teenage son gregor on electric bass and completely fried vocals (in en…
Parmak Çocuk, Çizmeli Kedi
While there’s no explicit date listed anywhere within, I’m guessing the pair of 45rpm 7”s in question - released only in Turkey - date to the mid-60s, with each featuring Solmaz Sporel reading a different fairly tale over a completely amazing Musique Concrète tape-backing by Ilhan Mimaroglu, produced at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York. Personally, these particular outings are some of the most gratifyingly zonked things I’ve ever heard, having much to do with the langua…
Le Crabe Qui Jouait Avec La Mer, Conte De Noël
"Le Crabe Qui Jouait Avec La Mer" is a beyoot of a radio-play, based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling, narrated by Jacques Gripel & featuring one of the only full-length bits of Musique Concrète by the ORTF / INA-GRM aligned composer Philippe Arthuys. While heavy french texts pervade the goings on throughout, with it’s all-ages appeal, it’s kind of the first Creel Pone that’s for everybody; "Crabe's" absolutely gorgeous cover - with it’s depiction of psychedelic crustaceans - only sweetens…
Independent Electronic Music Composer
Now that the Creel-Pone series has reached its teens, its time for an irreverent late-60s blast of heavy Synth-Freakout / Tape-Psych weirdness from this Cicero, Illinois based composer Edward M. Zajda, about whom i can’t find a single bit of information - other than that he has a piece included in a 1964 radio program called “Electronic Music in America” that’s archived in the Brandeis library. Originally issued in the late 60s on the regional Ars Nova / Ars Antiqua” label, “Independent” star…
Music From A Small Planet, Paths Of Motion
Two discs covering three self-issued LPs of 8-bit digital grind by Boston-area composer John Holland; as unheralded and unbeknownst as they come. Despite living in the hub for 24 years, and being a rabid fanatic of exactly this sort of thing, I had never seen nor heard head nor hide of either release, proving all too well that there are still gems out there waiting to be mined. On par with such proto-Digital-Synthesis masterworks as Daniel Arfib's "Musique Numerique", Pietro Grossi's "Compute…
Celebration
Even to a die-hard Early Electronic Music acolyte, Frank W. Becker's name isn't a readily familiar one, despite issuing a half-dozen LPs of vaguely Berlin-school music via Toshiba EMI while based in Japan in the mid-late 70s. "Celebration," a "Private" issue on his own Gorilla imprint, starts out sure enough with the titular, 1976 side-length bit of protracted sequencing and minimalism-inspired forms - all with a vague new-age lilt to it b/w of calming ocean noises & an almost Terry Riley-ish …
Omen
Ah, CP #200; never in 12 years did I think we'd make it this far. Those of you keeping count will realize that, despite the catalogue number this is actually the 181st title in the series; that said we're definitely winding down & what a great run it's been. This, in many ways, is the perfect title to ring in this momentous occasion; arguably the longest in the Creel Pone "Queue" (mainly as virtually the entire cabal, upon discovery, scratched their collective heads, rooted around for close to…
in Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Experimental Music
Comes with 8-page 12" booklet.. Replica edition covering this wonderful 2LP boxed set, issued on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Experimental Music Studios of the University of Illinois School of Music. Features work by a largely otherwise undocumented array of midwest composers, including Antonio G. Barata, Paul Christian Koonce, Carla Scaletti, Michael Kosch, Brian E. Belét, Sever Tipei, & Nelson Mandrell alongside those by more well-known ones such as studio head Herbert Brün, Mar…
The Complete Narco Recordings
After a several-months-long blackout, Creel Pone is back in action! What a fine little number to get the ball rolling with once again; a reproduction of all five LPs originally self-released by Nicolas “Nik Pascal” Raicevic on his Narco Records and Tapes label - rumored to be one of the first truly independent labels, with Raicevic simply walking into an L.A. pressing plant & placing orders for stock - between 1969 and 1975. The music is nothing short of genius; a fine beaded mist of exceeding…
Electronomusic, 9 Images
Much in the way I was confounded by Rod “A Safe Place to Land” McKuen’s forays into noise-oriented electronic music - see: Heins Hoffman-Richter, “Symphony for Tape Delay, IBM Instruction Manual, & OHM Septet," aka "Music to Freak your Friends and Break your Lease” - this set of “Electronomusic” by RCA-Victor “Living Stereo” architect - he recorded the vast majority of the legendary classical label’s productions, working with Van Cliburn, Heifetz, Horowitz, Leontyne Price, Fritz Reiner, Toscan…
Cai-Bem
“Cai-Bem” is a splendid addition to the already extensive discography of David Maranha. It is also the first full-length vinyl LP in Tanuki Records’catalogue. There is a story behind this new album, although you would not guess what it is, unless told. Keen to explore new ways of playing, as he has done during his whole career since he began playing with his band Osso Exotico in the 1980’s, Maranha suggested that they should all play other instruments that their regular ones. He himself …
Time Machines
“4 Tones to facilitate travel through time.” So begins the listeners’ journey into what has become one of the most treasured and revered pieces of Coil history ever released. Each of the four pieces on Time Machines is named after the chemical compound of the hallucinogenic drug that they were composed for, and the album was meticulously crafted to enable what John Balance referred to as "temporal slips" in time and space, allowing both the artist and audience to figuratively "dissolve tim…
Music for Commercials
Originally issued by Crammed in 1987, this is one of the most sought-after releases in the legendary Made to Measure series. Known for his numerous albums, soundtracks, and collaborations with an impossibly broad array of artists (from Ryuichi Sakamoto and DJ Towa Tei to Van Dyke Parks, Björk, Manu Dibango and Elvin Jones), composer, saxophonist and producer Yasuaki Shimizu also released several electronic music productions during the '80s, which are currently generating a lot of interest (…
Body Consonance
Body Consonance is the follow up to Precipice, Byron Westbrook’s critically acclaimed debut LP from 2015 (Root Strata).Taking a turn towards greater immediacy, this new album is far from “ambient” with ecstatic abstract rhythm as its anchor. An artist who also operates in visual contexts, Westbrook utilizes binaural qualities of the stereo listening format to sculpt three-dimensional sounds in perpetual motion, producing works that are both pointillistic and psychedelic. Body Consonance is …
Spirit Design
Only a year after his debut solo album with Hands in the Dark, Brian Case is back this August with Spirit Design. The record consists of ten new experimental tracks of concrete dub and electronic wizardry. This sophomore solo record is drastically different from the Chicagoan’s first opus, Tense Nature. Case has added vocals and more beats to his compositions, putting together an album that promises and lends itself to a loud, moving live experience. Although in ways it is more experimenta…
Bring On The Sun
A collection of brand new Laraaji studio recordings, recorded by Davey Jewell (Peaking Lights/Flaming Lips) and mixed by Carlos Niño (Leaving Records). A magical mixtape of tracks that run the full gamut of ‘Laraaji music’, from blissed-out percussive jams to reflective vocal hymnals to trance-inducing drones. A perfect Laraaji entry-point on his never-ending creative journey through inner light. Laraaji is a musician, mystic and laughter meditation practitioner based in New York City. He began …
Sun Gong
New age pioneer Laraaji summons celestial energies thru radiant gong meditations alloyed with modular synth and vocals to immersive effect. It’s really not as optimistic as you might expect, but does seem to follow a narrative arc from chaotic mystic darkness to a more positive, chiming conclusion in its 25 minute duration. An intriguing addition to his catalogue, which takes another smart turn with his upcoming album, Bring On The Sun.