Sketch of Now
Tim Hodgkinson co-founded the politically and musically radical free-jazz/progressive rock group Henry Cow in 1968, which also featured guitarist Fred Frith. He regards his membership in this group, with the opportunity to work closely and collectively with other instrumentalists in developing new sound worlds, as the foundation of his musical education. In addition to composing, Hodgkinson continues to perform as an improviser (clarinets, saxes and keyboards) and considers the practice of impro…
Radio ghosts
'The name Tim Catlin may not be terribly well known amongst the avant-guitarist circles; but his recorded output clearly stands amongst the best that Glenn Branca, Keith Rowe, and Jim O'Rourke have mustered from their six strings hard wired into the histories of electroacoustics, minimalism, and post-punk experimentation. Based out of Melbourne, Catlin is a guitarist who incessantly tinkers with the mechanics of his instrument, envisioning it as alternately as a mimetic sculptural object and a p…
All acoustics
'All acoustics' is a re-issued recording of two solo percussion improvisations recorded and performed by Barnes without overdubs on July 18, 2001. Located at the heart of what Allows Barnes to pull off All of his scene-stealing rhythmic feats, the album sums up to nearly an hour of Barnes exploring his entire percussive palette - no guitars, no strings, no synths, no horns, just drums. by Daniel Dineen.
Mono::poly
Thomas Dimuzio’s Mono::Poly is the first joint production between asphodel and Dimuzio’s own Gench Recordings label. A double CD set, Mono::Poly anthologizes the best of Dimuzio’s live solo performances and collaborations with fellow experimental musicians, moving across multiple genre and cultural boundaries. Spanning the years 1997-2002, each track on this anthology displays Dimuzio pushing the envelope of contemporary processing technology to truly epic, post-rock proportions. Featuring the t…
Ignotium per ignotius
Originally released on CD by Touch and never re-issued. The seventh re-issue in the Hafler Trio re-issue series Seven Hours Sleep. Something approached, and it was embraced, thorns piercing the anonymous functions and the ways in which all the secrets had been help in high esteem. traces of the places yet to come, and those to be left far behind. the first outing in the digital domain, and all the difference the day made when it appeared, startling those in need of a jolly good lie down. and so …
For John Stevens
The Gathering is an informal improvising session that has met in London once a week since 1991. For the 2002 freedom of the city festival, Maggie Nicols assembled some of the past and present participants. This studio recording from two months later features a similar group of 25 musicians performing two extended improvisations that are typical of the weekly sessions, with their distinctive mixture of voices and instruments. Also included is a three-part tribute to John Stevens featuring interpr…
Tusk
Back in stock. 'Tusk wields its classic rock appellation like a talisman, but it still owes more to the lava-like flow of Repent, the trio's voice-free collection of in-concert jams recorded in 1996, than it does to any collection of rock songs that I've ever heard. They get some of the component pieces right; there's Robbie Yeats' inexorably driving drumming, Bruce Russell and Michael Morley's grinding rhythm guitar riffs, and Morley's vocal melodies that ooze out of the static-ridden ha…
Whitehouse
There's not much in the way of commentary or anything about that, though, so either call it a wry Kiwi joke at the Yanks' expense or just something that looked nice enough to use. Consisting of six tracks of unsurprisingly varying length - fairly short or totally long - in ways The White House is Dead C as per usual and in others a bit of a diversion from the usual form. Notably, there's evidence of relatively more production - while it's hardly hard-disk billion-track digital sound or the like,…
Vain, erudite and stupid
"Disliked in their native country of New Zealand, associated with drug-assisted hallucinations and blackouts, and evidently crazy enough to plan their own deaths, the trio of Michael Morely, Robbie Yeats, and Bruce Russell also happen to be more brilliant than most bands they're compared to. This collection is superb: competent enough to entice new listeners and pull in folks that already love their music and want more.
The first disc covers everything from their first album up and until 1994. …
Text Of Light
All mixed 2003-04. All performances NYC venues 2001-02.
Metal box
Incredible 3 CD set spanning the years from Text of Light's first gig in 1999 through to 2005. This is the project of Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, William Hooker, Christian Marclay, Tim Barnes, Ulrich Kreiger and DJ Olive. They perform live to a backdrop of Stan Brakhage films, and no set is ever the same. The first 1000 copies of this lavish set will be issued in a special Metal Box with the 'ToL' logo embossed on the lid, as both a tribute to, and a pastiche of PiL. The first 1000 copies will also…
World as will II
Legendary composers Zbigniew Karkowski and Tetsuo Furudate complete their second installment of World As Will. This powerful collaboration results in a furiously intense music with Wagner-esque orchestrations and instrumentation with vigorous electronic manipulations, voice and mastery. A truly epic piece of work.
2006 duos
These five duos mark Terry Day's return to small group improvising after an over-long absence caused by ill health. He is mainly playing his homemade bamboo pipes, but also uses his voice (reciting two poems and otherwise) as well as an echo toy and a cold water bottle. His partners are Charlotte Hug (viola & voice), Rhodri Davies (harp), Phil Minton (voice), Hannah Marshall (cello) and John Russell (guitar). The duo with Hug comes from the 2006 Freedom Of The City festival.
Wind keeps even dust away
'Eamon Sprod (aka Tarab) professes a romantic attachment to the notion that the world is falling apart, a terminal process only enhanced by the intrinsic obsolescence from the output of consumer culture. Yet, this Australian sound artist is not one to wallow in the nihilism of such poetics, rather he counterpoints these thoughts with the allegorical implications of his nom de plume. Tarab is an Arabic word that doesn't readily translate into English, but it might be best defined as the ecstatic …
Oinment
Tania Chen: objects, toys, violin, piano ; Steve Beresford: objects, electronics, toys, trumpet, water. Pieces beginning with 'C' recorded by Tim Fletcher at The Bonnington, Vauxhall, London on December 18 2002. Event organised by Adam and Jonathan Bohman. All other pieces recorded by Steve Beresford in west London - pieces beginning with 'L' on August 7 2003 and the rest on June 12 2003. All pieces composed by Tania Chen and Steve Beresford. Edited by Steve Beresford in March 2004. Not to rub i…
s/t
First CD from the quartet featuring Tetuzi Akiyama, Yoshihide Otomo and Toshimaru Nakamura under the guidance of Taku Sugimoto. Two long and extremely minimal acoustic/electric guitar tracks.
Eine gitarre ist eine gitarre ist keine gitarre ist eine gitarre
But, of course, a guitar hasn't necessarily been a guitar at least since the mid-'60s, when Keith Rowe laid it down flat on a table and began dealing with it more as a sound-generating object than a guitar as such. In their second release as a duo, guitarists Taku Sugimoto and Annette Krebs, each with a unique approach toward their instrument, continue on and branch out from the path first explored on their Slub release from 2000. Sugimoto's instrument is in relatively standard form, and the sou…
Chamber music
Taku Sugimoto has been one of the most important musicians on the improv-front for some years now with releases on Erstwhile, Grob, A Bruit Secret, Improvised Music From Japan and many other labels. Redefining guitar music with his ultra minimal way of playing, the most extreme endpoint for this was the Taku Sugimoto Guitar Quartet album released earlier on Bottrop-Boy. On Chamber Music he puts the guitar aside and composes 3 pieces for violin, cello and piano. He recreates the same sustained so…
Violin solo1980 nyc
A previously unreleased solo violin performance by the founder of the Taj Mahal Travellers and legendary Fluxus conceptualist. Active since the 1960s, Takeisha Kosugi has more recently served as the music director for the Merce Cunningham Dance Troupe. He is currently involved with the composing and performance of impromptu music and electronic multimedia music. To be brief, Kosugi is one of the most important and influential Japanese experimental avant-gardists, alongside the likes of Yasunao T…