Maximin
On Maximin, the music of the seminal minimalist composer Charlemagne Palestine is reconfigured and reiterated by David Coulter and Jean-Marie Mathoul, in full co-operation and collaboration with Mr. Palestine. Coulter and Mathoul have taken previously recorded works of Mr. Palestine and -- with the full respect due these often transcendent and sacred works -- have interwoven new and/or found sounds, drones, and unexpected textures into an ever-shifting flow that brings new light to these deeply …
The History of Electronic Music
Häpna presents the book “The History of Electronic Music“ by Ronnie Sundin. Swede Ronnie Sundin (born 1973) has the last 15 years produced electronic and experimental music that has been released on labels Häpna, Ground Fault, Fällt and Antifrost. His latest release is on the Swedish label Komplott, the ”Amateur Hermetic” from 2006. He has been educated at the Art Academy in Umeå, Sweden. His book “The History of Electronic Music” is a subjective history book based upon his background as a music…
Syr 5
The fifth release in Sonic Youth's SYR series doesn't even feature Sonic Youth at all, but rather an avant-garde power trio of SY bassist Kim Gordon, turntablist DJ Olive, and programming electro-goddess Ikue Mori. The music is ultra-abstract and mood-driven, filling the listening space with a dark ambience constructed by Olive's incredibly resonant choice of samples and Mori's carefully tweaked bleeps. Gordon predictably contributes with a dose of noise guitar, though the source of sounds on th…
Eight Oh Eight
French disco producer Black Devil Disco Club released the third and final part of the BDDC trilogy Eight Oh Eight. Black Devil Disco Club is a mysterious fella. His first album Disco Club, supposedly produced in the seventies, was anointed an underground disco classic though no one seemed to know much about it until its reissue in 2004. Eight Oh Eight, billed as "Salvador Dali meets Cerrone", arrives two years on from its predecessor 28 After. Like the earlier albums, it consists of just six tra…
Siberian Earth Curve
Siberian Earth Curve is a tour de force of sound manipulation. Kneale plays his instruments (guitars, cymbals, flute, appliances) like an egg beater. What is left for the ears is only filtered noise. Snakes Bark Maple is a 17-minute symphony of harsh drones, sometimes imitating ethnic music and sometimes cacophonous and abstrat. Lux is 10 minutes of quiet, distant echoes that sound like a ghost wailing from a grave. Fake Fur Pond is a vortex of sirenes that winds up in a terrifying crescendo. Th…
Milieu plus
Milieu Plus is a reissue of Tape's 2003 second full-length, Milieu (HAPNA 014CD), with four new tracks taken from the original 2003 sessions. When this album first came out, it sounded like nothing else. Seemingly improvised but still so tenderly composed, it took cues from both the most gentle free jazz and Brian Eno's ideas of ambient music, but at the same time leaning against both Swedish folk music and broken pop balladry. Milieu -- together with its forerunner Opera -- became something of …
Luminarium
This is the eagerly-awaited fourth album from the Stockholm-based trio of Tape, comprised of Andreas and Johan Berthling and Tomas Hallonsten. Taking cues both from pop, experimentalism and minimalism, Tape's sound has become recognized internationally and is clearly unique. Their first album Opera was released on the Häpna imprint (Johan is a co-owner) in 2002. Working intuitively, all by themselves, they created mini-symphonies out of electronic sounds paired with a stunning melodic lyricism. …
On Tape
Stephan started building this piece from recordings provided to him by Swedish trio Tape and saxophonist Magnus Granberg. Adding his own subtle drumming, field recordings and a focus on reworking the sound material exclusively with classic editing techniques this is a beautiful album that weaves elements from the electronic and acoustic worlds to a seamless whole. A very clear and uncomplicated atmosphere around this piece distinguishes it from a lot of electronic music.
Gamelan in the New World
Original 1978 Folkways pressing that introduces fluxus pioneer Philip Corner, together with experimental electronics figure Daniel Goode(he later had also a great release on Tzadik), Barbara Benary. The artists use the Java instruments and combine it with avant-garde aesthetics, creating their own instruments(like Harry Partch/Bertoia). Their music can be described as indeterminate / atonal / procedural / minimalist. Comes with original 12-page booklet which lies in mint condition!! Justly put i…
Colchester
One continuous track split into 11 parts. Acoustic-digital presentation recorded Colchester Arts Centre 17.10.2006. Final mix by Z'ev London 01.2008. Mastered at Piethopraxis, Köln 04.2008. Neither Z'ev or pita need any introduction in these circles. These two heavyweights of experimental music have been associates for two decades. Their creative collaboration came about after a meeting in 2004, which led to a monthly file exchange program in 2005. Instead of releasing results immediately it was…
Drip Music. Obscure Tape Music of Japan vol. 9
*2022 stock* This is volume 9 in Omega Point's Obscure Tape Music of Japan series. Yoji Kuri is one of the foremost and highly-regarded experimental animation artists in Japan, active since the early '60s. His name is well-known not only for his many works of "black humor" throughout the '60s and 70's, but also for the soundtracks to his materials, composed by avant-garde composers. Originally titled Synthesized Piano Space, it has been renamed Drip Music for this release. This new edition is co…
Take Suicide
an obscure musical project based in Bologna, they went out in 1981 as duo for L.M. subsidiary label 'Broadean' , music is basically synth/wave with a very nice electronic sound all over and some way-out vocals. Very rare
Rhythm / Oxidization
Do-Po were an obscure minimal synth italian group composed by 5 guys and coming from Cervia, the same city of N.O.I.A. They were the first exit of LM Records (Luigi Mazzesi Records) and they pressed only this 7'', psycothic minimal proto-techno not unlike the best releases on legendary japanese Vanity label. Has the rare insert
Trios 1971
is a trio of EMS synth plus turntables; full tracks on the Synthi blog courtesy the composer. Really brilliant sounds:Trios associates improvisation within a set of defined parameters. Its score includes a notebook with instructions for playing, 16 VCS3 patches, and two 33rpm records on which 2x16 sound events are recorded. The macrostructure is not determined, and both the duration and the temperament of the piece depend on the chances of the combinatorial principle. 16 sequences of VCS3 follow…
Love & Lamentation
It must have been quite some years since I last heard music by Simon Wickham-Smith, but there was a time when I played it a lot, especially the various albums he recorded with Richard Youngs. But I guess that's how things go. Interest shifts I assume. To be honest, again, I have no idea when I left off, or why. But its good, as well as strange perhaps to see him back on Pogus Productions. On the cover I read that 'not satisfied with making music, he has also been a Buddhist monk in the Tibetan t…
Cauldron
Cauldron was Fifty Foot Hose's first and most famous recorded work, released on Limelight Records in 1968. Founded by Cork Marcheschi, the band played continuously around the Bay area of northern California throughout the mid-'60s. Marcheschi, who had developed a taste for R&B and the avant-garde music of composers such as Edgard Varèse, started out as the band's bass player, but his interest in experimental music prompted him to develop his own musical instrument, similar in function to the hy…
Gulf Between Us
Muslimgauze are easily the most prolific electronics outfit on the experimental underground scene. And while they release CDs in bunches, Muslimgauze's output never sinks below absolutely brilliant. The basic formula is relatively simple: lift some Arabic street music, sample it, loop it, attach a small explosive, and detonate. The result: an incredibly rich pastiche of wind-blown, dubbed-out trance music that is at once edgy but calm, aggressive but soothing. "Gulf" is a peaceful, laconic 20-mi…
Keyboard Study 2 / Initiative (+Systèmes)
A split release between Terry Riley and French avant-garde composer Pierre Marietan that was recorded in Paris on September 30th and October 1st, 1969. Riley's piece is a 24-minute work for 2 pianos (Gérard Frémy and Martine Joste of the GERM ensemble - Groupe d'Etude et Réalisation Musicale). Marieten's piece is performed by the full GERM ensemble including Philippe Blachette (violin), Philippe Drogoz (double bass), Louis Roquin (trumpet), Chantal Lemaire (cello), Gérard Frémy (piano), Martine …
Chanting the Light of Foresight
a beautiful album, Riley composed the pieces on this album for the legendary ROVA Saxophone Quartet. The work is based on the Taín Bó Cuailnge ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley"), an invasion of Ulster by the armies of Medb and Ailill. Long out of print
No Man\'s Land
this glistening, pulsating CD for No Man's Land soundtrack documents another stage in the flux of influence and invention that makes Riley's music. This album is much more closer to the 'real' minimalism, with Riley maily playing organ, but the tablas and sitar can be heard on almost every track, along with some voice and what sounds like electronically altered instruments. Few copies available, long out of print