Requests and antisongs
Saxophonist John Butcher and violinist Phil Durrant had been playing together on the English improv scene in various formations for 14 years when they decided to start a live electroacoustic project in 1997, a project not unlike Evan Parker's own unit at the same time. The Butcher/Durrant duo released a first CD, Secret Measures, on Wobbly Rail, recorded live at the beginning of the experiment. Requests and Antisongs is a studio performance taped in January and February 2000, over two years late…
13 friendly numbers
John Butcher appeared on six records, beginning with the 1984 LP 'Fonetiks, before he first released 'Thirteen Friendly Numbers' on his own Acta label in 1992. But the disc is still something of a debut; it is the first document of his peculiar language for solo saxophone, which he had fashioned by purging his vocabulary of the instrument's familiar sounds and jazz-associated gestures, and filling the space with carefully selected sounds located at the periphery of instrumental control. Butcher'…
Aperture
Bischoff qualifies his work as the realization of a reflective intention, where he determines sonic structure not only through the predetermined elements which go into a piece, but also through the active process of listening to the music as it happens and responding accordingly. Aperture opens the possibility for multiple readings through a series of diverse techniques ranging from additive synthesis to FM synthesis to sampled-based processes. Each of the pieces within the album was recorded in…
Viroulegu forsetar
'Virthulegu forsetar' contains one hour-long piece for 11 brass players, percussion, electronics, organs and piano. It's presented as an ordinary stereo CD and as a DVD-Audio with a high resolution 5.1 surround mix. The piece had its live debut in Hallgrimskirkja, a large church in Reykjavik and the city's towering edifice, and was named "the most memorable musical event of 2003" in Iceland's leading newspaper. The piece has Englabörn's quiet, elegiac beauty, but abandons the brevity of the firs…
Voice is the original instrument
Collection of Joan La Barbara early works and her first vocal compositions, originally released on LPs in the 1970s and early 1980s on her own Wizard Records. "One of my earliest pieces, "Hear What I Feel", was a self-exploratory, sensory-deprivation experimental work, designed to help me discover new sounds, delve into psychological aspects, as well as communicate with the audience on a pre-verbal level of awareness. After spending an hour in isolation with my eyes taped shut and not touching a…
Happy days
Back in stock. Released: 1997.Jim O'Rourke is a rarity: a genuine bridge between the avant-garde and the underground. From his production work (Smog, Wilco, Faust) to his own freewheeling excursions as a solo performer and member of outfits like Gastr del Sol and Sonic Youth, his work continues to bring the out there in here. Happy Days pits a lone guitar against a phalanx of hurdy-gurdies, a decided shift away from the composer's electronic-based work. A roiling hornet's next of activity that F…
What a wonderful world
Despite the title of the album and several of the selections, listeners who approach this disc expecting something in the vein of Louis Armstrong will likely be disappointed. Then again maybe not, if it's originality that's prized. Jérôme Noetinger and Erik M had, by the late '90s, established themselves as driving forces in contemporary electronic improvisation, performing and recording with virtually anyone of note in the field. For this album, they at least partially venture out into di…
Spaghetti’s club. La conclusion
Composition from Jean-Luc Therminarias with David Moss, Bénédicte Debilly, Eric Houzelot, Stéphane Pelliccia (voice), Florent Haladjian (percussion), Ali N Askin (sampler), Jean Lambert-Wild (text).
Spaghetti’s club
A composition from Jean-Luc Therminarias with David Moss (voice), Eric Houzelot (voice), Florent Haladjian (home made spring instrument), Ali N Askin (sampler, synthesizeur), Jean Lambert-Wild (text).
Drumlike
Music composed by Jean-Luc Therminarias and performed by Quatuor Hêlios, Ali N. Askin and Eric Houzelot, with a text from Jean Lambert-Wild.
Soundmatters
'Soundmatters is the first major compendium of the recordings from French-Canadian sound artist Jean-Francois Laporte, including his highly acclaimed composition Mantra. In balancing formal precision and intuitive expressionism, Soundmatters results in a series of visceral compositions that build upon the traditions of minimalism, graphical composition, and phonography. Laporte reveals his colossal talents for experiential composition through deftly processed recordings of tumultuous windstorms …
Tacet
Last copies araound, long deleted..."One of the best-kept secrets in the very wonderful Futura Records catalogue of the late 60's/early 70's (remember Red Noise, Horde Catalytique Pour La Fin, Jacques Berrocal, Semool, Chêne Noir, Mahogany Brain and the others?), this album even missed attaining the cult obscurity status of some of those mentioned, remaining basically unheard because of the difficulty of even getting aware of its existence, not to mention the quasi-impossibility of tracing a cop…
Pulse
Jazzkammer are Lasse Marhaug and John Hegre from Norway. Together they have been making music as Jazzkammer since 1998. Past releases include Timex, Rolex (a remix album), Pancakes and a live album with Merzbow. Jazzkammer are relentless sound explorers with no set style or specific 'sound' - they move swiftly from hardcore overload electronics and sonic freakouts to lowercase soundscapes and location recordings. Once described as 'sonic architects', Marhaug and Hegre insist they are merely tryi…
Songs for Nicolas Ross
The audio material of «Songs for Nicolas Ross» is taken from my travels 2000-2003 in the cities Amsterdam, Baltimore, Berlin, Caudeval, Lausanne, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, St. Pölten and Zürich. As the CD was for the birthday of Alessandro Bianco's son Nicolas Ross, I thought of the pieces as short songs, either as lullabyes or just brief sonic enivornments for him to enter into. I tried to imagine young Nicolas' perception of the sound around himself and his relation to this. This was the s…
Location stories
Janek Schaefer has gained a reputation when it comes to fieldrecording-based soundworks. Using his sonic surroundings, manipulated or not, Schaefer comes up with unique and intimate results. location stories is another collection of found-sound stories, that Stichting Mixer is proud of to release. A: Minneapolis Office Max Messages. A collage of the messages I found left on the display model of a mini digital dictaphone bought at a Branch of Office Max in Minneapolis. In a condensed period of ti…
Out
Janek Schaefer is an architect. This might explain his vision on his music. A good building closes up into your memory without you even noticing it. The same goes for Schaefer's soundsculptures. Clearly structured soundloops baffling their way into perception. You can use his music in art-galleries, train-stations, living-rooms: anywhere really. Each time/place conducts his work to a different perception. Even a high volume or low volume defines another way in the listening experience which unfo…
Catalogue
2005 reissue. Released in 1979 in a limited edition on his own d'Avantage label, Catalogue, with its overt theatricality is every bit as wild as the previous Paralleles. Not really jazz, not rock, having nothing to do with contemporary music either, Catalogue is a kind of sonic postcard which features not the group of the same name but instead numerous Jacques Berrocal associates including Potage (co-founder of the d'Avantage label in 1976), Parle, Ferlet, Pauvros and recording engineer Daniel D…
01/02/00
Jacob Kirkegaard is a Danish musician currently located in Cologne, Germany, who was a founding member of the group Aeter which has been active for years on the European underground live circuit. They had a unique sound where abstract sound, beautiful singing and an interest in connecting music with visuals came together. Kirkegaard is also a famous composer of hearplays in his native country. Last year saw the first release from him outside his band with Soaked, a live recording he made with tu…