Choices
The first meeting on disc of two of the finest and most innovative electroacoustic instrumentalists in Germany, performing on reeds, trumpets, radio, speakers, and preparations. Three pieces from 2010, the first meeting on disc of two of thefinest and most innovative instrumentalists in Germany.
Explosion In a Shingle Factory
Debut vinyl by this post-Anschluss project. Basement experimental sound & collage recordings from Amherst, first released in about '93 or so. Tapes, keyboards, synthesizers, harp, piano, percussion, etc.
How Day Earnt Its Night
"Ben Reynolds is an English solo steel string guitarist and songwriter. In his solo instrumental works he draws upon the vast well of musical inspiration native to the British Isles as well as that found across the Atlantic and beyond. Ben's 2008 recording Two Wings was released on Portland, Oregon label Strange Attractors Audio House and focuses upon sprawling, meditative improvisations and concludes with the track 'Here Toucheth Blues' which appeared on Tompkins Square's Imaginational An…
Book of Beyond
"Ben Reynolds is one of the newer voices from the same UK scene that includes Ashtray Navigations and many of the VHF celebrities (Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Richard Youngs, etc.) It should be of little surprise then that Book of Beyond fits very nicely among the recordings of those other artists -- noise/junk drone. As in his previous recordings, this at times dissolves into more acoustic offerings, but the Fahey influence appears to be mostly gone, and what remains in the quie…
Music From The Impossible Salon
"For the past 25 years, New England's Idea Fire Company (IFCO) has positioned themselves at the frontline in the ageless battle for aesthetic purity. Founded by the enigmatic duo of Scott Foust (aka The Commander, aka The Last Great Man) and Karla Borecky, IFCO have built up a bulletproof discography, with each release refining the sound of its predecessor. They have been well served at home through their own Swill Radio imprint, and internationally, by Rund Um Den Watzmann, Entr'acte and…
Welcome Abroad
Vicki Bennett, under the People Like Us moniker, returns from several collaborations for her first solo album in several years. Stranded in the United States for an extended period after the Icelandic volcano eruption blocked her British homeland's airspace, Bennett derived thematic material of displacement, travel, and a longing forelsewhere, from the natural disaster that caused her own predicament. Volcanically marooned in Baltimore and NYC, Bennett utilized some of her "free" time to…
Color Him Coma
The first CD in this set is a reissue of an obscure cassette release from 1983 that was originally released in a small edition on the London based, It’s War Boys label. This C60 consisted of 2 distinct halves. Side 1 was formed around several mixes of an experimental track, constructed from a room-sized 24 track loop. A version of this track first appeared on the LP Flagellation by The Just Measurers (who were C. D. Greyt, Yakkö Banovic and Narki Brillans).Side 2 is a collage of mostly unused (a…
Mon Possible
The new record by Dominique Petitgand, Mon possible, gathers sound and musical pieces created between 2001 et 2010. Still composed of voices, words, noises, musical atmospheres and silences, the stories here get more enigmatic than on the previous records (Le sens de la mesure, Le point de côté, Le bout de la langue, also released by Ici, d’ailleurs…). The music, interpreted and composed by Dominique Petitgand (recorded with the sometimes subliminal of some accomplices : Marc Sens, Dominique A, …
Ricefall
Gravity Wave, a new CD label, curated by composer Michael Pisaro, designed by Yuko Zama. Icefall (2), a 72-minute piece for 64 separate tracks of rice falling on objects. This recording is the second part of a trilogy of the first disc length works by Stuart and Pisaro (an unrhymed chord is the first part, and A wave and waves is the third). The dynamic range of the recording is extremely wide. In the second of the four sections, there is a storm of falling rice that is certainly the loudest mus…
July Mountain: Three Versions
Gravity Wave, a new CD label, curated by composer Michael Pisaro, designed by Yuko Zama. July Mountain: three versions, contains a re-release of this 21-minute piece for field recordings and percussion (the original .point engraved edition is sold out), along with two additional versions (one with alternate field recordings by a range of artists, and one with the percussion parts alone, which can either be listened to on its own or combined with field recordings of the listener's choice). The wo…
Adèle et Hadrien. Les Livres de Vacances
Lionel Marchetti's 'Adèle et Hadrien' is a captivating document of a holiday of Adèle and Hadrien, two young children around 10 years old. The recordings view a glimpse into the world of Adèle and Hadrien, who go swimming, are startled by strange sounds, and ponder the existence of bugs. They argue with their parents and make jokes, and although Adèle and Hadrien speak French, understanding the French language is not a prerequisite for getting a glimpse into their world. Marchetti practices his …
Outmospheric Arts of the Outmosphere
"Ben Reynolds has emerged as one of the most prolific contributors to the UK ecstatic-drone scene over the past year. He has released numerous solo CD-Rs and last year saw his first CD on the Finnish Ikuisuus imprint. Outmosphere was originally intended to add to the list of CD-R releases, but once we heard it, we knew it deserved something bigger. Many moons later, this is Ben Reynolds' first stateside widely-available CD release. As his music has developed, Reynolds has given nods t…
27 December 2007
"On the cover: Celebration. Features: It's Coming Down Baby!: Erik Davis catches up with Sir Richard Bishop -- gypsy picatrix, ex-Sun City Girl and guitarist extraordinaire; The Way of the Riff: Six Organs of Admittance's Ben Chasny and Om's Al Cisneros manifest music, vibration and camaraderie. Ben can truly call him Al.; Not All Humans Are Bad: I.F. 'Ian' Svenonius files a field report on Baltimore psychedelic soul rock n' roll band Celebration; The Sodfather: Daniel Chamberlain talks s…
26 September 2007
Arthur is back! "On the cover: Born Again! A talk with Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond. Features: One Man, Goofing Off: Journalist Joel Rose visits 80-year-old Zen humorist/media innovator Henry Jacobs. Plus, an appreciation of Jacobs' radio and TV work by filmmaker Mike Mills; Scream At The Sky: 'Bull Tongue' columnists Thurston Moore & Byron Coley have an audience with Yoko Ono. Discussed: The Peace industry, Fluxus, Sarah Lawrence and her life/art before Lennon. Plus: 'Yoko Tanka,' a r…
Zone Sensible 2 - Dundee 2
For the best part of a decade, Éric La Casa's attention to sonic phenomena has resulted in some of the finest contemporary Musique Concréte to come out of France. A listener of the highest order, La Casa's methodology for sound recording allows for a versatile examination of both urban and natural environments and it is these interests which are captured on this new edition for Room40. With an ability to find unique perspectives on his sound subjects La Casa's site specific works 'Zone Sensible'…
W2 (1998-2008)
"We think that we « make a journey » but soon enough it's the journey that makes – and unmakes - us." (Nicolas Bouvier, "l'usage du monde"). When I listen today to these pieces, I hear, of course, a geographic inventory of all the places I encountered. Above all, though, and as if by default, I hear the sonic journal of twelve years spent recording sound.My relation to the sites wasn't based on a desire to « document » but it is worth noting, however, that a « sound story », more trivial perhaps…
Alpha Z Centauris
'I started recording sounds when I was 17 years old, in 1984 when by chance someone gave me a K7 tape recorder with 2 diverse speeds... I discovered recording sounds was already a full and poetic act which was able to be used for the experimental music which i was dreaming of. In 1987, after one month of hard work in a summer camp restaurant I bought a 4-track stereo tape recorder and I started a lot of experiments in my little flat in Lyon (France) : via an old Radiola radio from the 50's, my h…
Cross-Pollination
Plenty of praise has been lavished on veteran musician, field recording expert and BBC sound recordist Chris Watson, and it would be hard to disagree with any of it. 'Cross Pollination' is his latest full-length, again for the Touch label that has been his home for many years, and sees him teaming up with Marcus Davidson for a surprising collaborative piece. Using Watson's recordings of bees in an English country garden as the backbone of the composition, Marcus Davidson had a choir re-interpret…
The Shivering Man
The Shivering Man, originally released in 1986 on Mute, was Bruce Gilbert's second solo album. Following on from his 1984 masterpiece This Way (EMEGO 102CD), it further explores Gilbert's investigations into the grey border where abstract noise and rhythm co-exist with obscure melodies and song structures. The sound is further expanded with guest vocal appearances by Angela Conway and fellow Wire traveller Graham Lewis. This is also the first time the complete album is available domestically on …
Harmony Series 11-16
In the 'Harmony Series 11-16', very small events are happening in every nook and cranny of the music, and these subtle changes give magical effects to the music. This is in fact not magic at all - all the events are due to the theoretical structure of the music, but the way Pisaro incorporates them into his compositions is so subtle and natural, that the whole impression on his music becomes poetic. When I listen to each piece while carefully paying attention to the details, I feel that the nuan…