★Paradigm Discs
Variations 3: A London Compilation
A third and final collection of lesser-known and infrequently recorded artists living in London. Features: Syngen Brown (all the music is made using second generation sound sources as well as his own environmental recordings), Wits (first release by four women who specialize in live work. Along with their use of conventional instruments -- voice, electronics, keyboards and percussion -- and a dancer, they also fill the stage space with a huge supply of everyday objects that are noisily explored …
Variations 2: A London Compilation
Second edition of Paradigm Discs Variations compilation, originally released in 1998. Another collection of lesser-known and infrequently recorded artists living in London. Beautifully packaged and musically focused -- unlike so many "experimental" compilations loaded up with 30-second toss offs by "name" artists, this features nine pieces of ultra-quality sound fabrication, with the intent of providing durable home listening. Features: Akemi Ishijima (crackling electroacoustic genius), Michael …
I.D. Art #2
When the Los Angeles Free Music Society 10 CD set came out I eagerly flipped through the contents to see what treasures had finally been made available again. Much to my surprise the early compilation I.D. Art #2 was not included in this otherwise major overview of the LAFMS. I.D. Art #2 was the second LP release on their label, coming after Le Forte Four’s ‘Bikini tennis shoes’ LP, and before the 2LP ‘Live at the Brand’, a split album between Le 44 and The Doo-Dooettes. It dates from 1976. It i…
Menagerie - Beach singularity - Vocalise
Releasing electro acoustic music in this country has historically, always been a dedicated persuit. With no national record labels and very few electronic music studios to support this music, the UK has always lagged behind its counterparts in both the United States and throughout east and west Europe. Trevor started releasing his own music in 1973 and continues to do so to this day. Much of this CD was originally privately released in 1979. Whilst other maverick British composers (Nyman, Bryars…
Journey into Space
York University's music department houses one of the UK's first-ever
electronic music studios, and during the early '70s, it was a hotbed of
creative activity. Much of the released output from the studio at this
time revolved around the work of the dynamic composer Trevor Wishart. Journey Into Space
was his first release, composed between 1970 and 1972, and was
privately-pressed (shortly before the formation of YES records), as two
separate LPs in 1973. (The CD cover amalgamates the two or…
Natural Selection
Tip! 2000 release After Paradigm Discs released the 1976 LP by Anal Magic and Rev. Dwight Frizzell, the true scope and diversity of this man's activities became more apparent. First, there were the countless unused remnants from the original LP recording sessions, then the many films and their soundtracks, the regular radio shows, the dreamlanddiaries web page, the large scale Intermedia events, performing weddings and leading the live group Black Crack Review. For 25 years there has been a dyna…
Day for night
This CD represents a 25-year collaboration between renowned British avant-garde improviser Peter Cusack and instrument builder and sculptor Max Eastley. Cusack and Eastley have made these short episodes together between busy careers recording experimental music alongside artists such as Nicolas Collins, Steve Beresford, and David Toop). With numerous releases on ReR and Incus, the two musicians are mainstays of the British improvised music world, and Eastley is particularly prominent for his wor…
Electronic Works
One of our favourite "pure drone" album consisting of 3 amazing long tracks by Pauline Oliveros. I of IV was made in July 1966 at the University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio and was first released by CBS alongside works by 2 other young composers - 'Come out' by Steve Reich and 'Night music' by Richard Maxfield. It is really only in recent years (born out of the more radical elements of dance music, Electronica and ambient music) that music like this is being rediscovered by a growing numb…
In Streams (Volume 2)
2001 release. Like Volume 1, this CD also contains excerpts from three concerts (all in London this time) and a studio piece. Morphogenesis plays a few concerts a year, almost always in London. Concerts have always yielded their most varied material, but until now, their CDs have mainly documented their studio work. Both volumes of In Streams redress this. Of the concerts; one is a whole piece from the Spitz concert organized by Eddie Prévost, then there is a short extract from the Red Rose whic…
In Streams (Volume 1)
This is the fifth CD release by Morphogenesis, and the first since 1998. Although Morphogenesis do not play live very often, it is certainly their preferred working situation, where the interaction between the space, the people present and the available equipment create a variety of different situations. Substantial extracts from nearly all of their recent concerts appear on this, and a second volume. There is also the inclusion of one studio recording per CD. Perhaps one reason for their infreq…
Charivari music
This third full-length by London improv collective Morphogenesis was released in 1996. Formed in 1985, Morphogenesis consisted of seven people at the time of recording, but for all the sessions, except the live track, the line-ups are amalgams of various members and instrumentation. All tracks are free improvisations that were recorded direct to two channels and later edited with no other post production. Recorded between 1993-1996. "Shorepoints" was recorded live at the LMC Festival 1994. Featu…
Lingual Music
Double CD, comes with 12 page booklet. Britain's best-known sound poet is Bob Cobbing, but it's hard to come up with a list of other sound poets working in Britain in the '60s and '70s. It's equally difficult to think of any female sound poets working anywhere. Lily Greenham was Danish, but spent her childhood in Vienna. After several relocations across Europe, she settled in London in 1972 with her British husband (musician and poet Peter Greenham), where she lived until her death in 2001. Near…
Dar-As-Suhl Vol. 1
The name Kymatik is derived from the Greek word "Kyma," meaning "a great wave," and was used by Swiss physicist Hans Jenny as a descriptive term for the effects he saw using amplified tones to manipulate/create patterns in fluids and powders. More recently, Jenny's research has led him to use these findings in a clinical environment for both therapy and healing. These ideas and the use of ambisonic surround-sound equipment are the underlying influences on this CD. On this CD, there are both envi…
Alomoni 1985
Long out of print. Buried deep in time, this obscure artifact is something of a revelation. No group information was ever given, and no production date or location is indicated, however, it would seem that this record and the "Brast Burn" LP (also reissued by Paradigm) are both by the same group of Japanese nutters and that they were both recorded in the mid seventies in Japan. But all you really need to know is that it is stone cold fantastic, a wild and manic trip full to the brim with hypnoti…
One
Comes with 8 page booklet. Originally released in 1973 as a private press LP, 'One' is the first document of GAEB, a mysterious sextet of Californian improvisors. Formed in the late 60's by artist Richard Waters and jazz drummer Lee Charlton, the group made music using Waters's kinetic sculptures. His most important creation was the waterphone, a sort of acoustic synthesizer which used water in its resonators to produce warbling, tone bending vibrations similar to th edeep sea harmonies of humpb…
Dubravko Detoni With Acezantez
Croatian composer and pianist Dubravko Detoni is a name barely familiar to even the most hardened and fanatical followers of avant-garde composition. Although he has managed to consistently escape almost all forms of wider public recognition, Detoni has, since 1970 -- both in the solo context and with his Acezantez ensemble -- doggedly pursued a singular and unique musical path. Drawing on the conventions and traditions of modern composition, avant-garde electronics, musique concrète and group a…
Oramics
Comes with 16 page booklet. Daphne Oram is best-known for the design of her Oramics system, and also for co-founding the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1957, but until the release of this material, the only easily-available piece of music by her on CD was the 8-minute long "Four Aspects." There was also a 7" EP from 1962 on HMV, released as part of the Listen, Move and Dance series that was specifically designed to help children dance. Although the short pieces on this record are very basic, it cou…
Debon
Brast Burn was a legendarily obscure Japanese ensemble that existed in the first half (I presume) of the 1970s. For many years, they were known only as an entry in the notorious Nurse With Wound list, with no way for anyone to check them out. Thus this CD. First off, I'll say that it sounds really good. One would never guess that it was a transfer from vinyl. Brast Burn has been cited/promoted at various times as the "Japanese Faust". I feel that this is incorrect. A better analogy would be to …
Time drops
2000 release. This mini-CD follows on from Akemi Ishijima's previous electroacoustic composition on Variations 2 -- A London Compilation. It includes one new piece and a reissue of "Ab Ovo," previously released on 5 Composers Second Coming on Fylkingen. The two pieces explore a broad range of traditional electronic techniques, both subtle and powerful. "Time Drops" (2000) -- a single stroke of a bell, in its decay, sometimes evokes a sense of infinity in our mind. "Time Drops" is an attempt to e…
Bunhill Row
500 copies, numbered edition, few available. 1980 was an incredibe year for London’s experimental music scene with many different strands. Recommended Records were rereleasing the first two Faust LP’s, L. Voag had found ‘the way out’, Swell Maps were ‘in occupied Europe’. Throbbing Gristle and other industrialists were giving plenty of live actions. Nurse With Wound had just released their first LP, as had This Heat. The other great LP on Piano Records by Steve Beresford was also on the shelves.…