★Table of the Elements
Live at Federal Hall National Memorial, 1981
Arnold Dreyblatt is one of the most engaging of the second generation of New York minimalists. During a three decade career he has developed a distinctive -- and delightfully accessible -- approach to composition and performance. Employing modified a…
Specimens
Melissa St. Pierre tosses classicism and post-classicism overboard, utilizing the prepared piano -- John Cage's notorious instrument of choice -- and electronic enhancement to sail resolutely in the direction of rock & roll. Peppering the strings, ha…
Metals
Percussionist Jon Mueller works with rhythms that come from gong frequencies, from vibrations of the bodies of bass drums, and the surprising sonorities that occur with the combination of these elements. Now he applies these techniques to his latest …
Bury The Square
From the vibrant Southern quasi-capital of Durham emerge Megafaun, wearing earnestness across the chest and abstraction along the sleeves. They pour forth dulcet harmonies, as seeking vocals tug banjo lines up the Appalachian mountains; redemptive no…
Birds
Collections of Colonies of Bees sweep in grandly, in billowing swarms of sound, borne aloft on a thousand wings of minuscule, elegant detail. Guitars chime and soar, recalling the best campaigns of the guitar armies of both Glenn Branca and Rhys Chat…
Two Gongs (1971)
The hour-long Two Gongs fills the entirety of [this] disc with its ethereal, droning psychedelia. While written in 1971, the '89 recording documented here features Chatham, along with fellow composer Yoshimase Wada coaxing heavy, overlapping tones ou…
guitar trio is my life
Utilizing multiple electric guitars and a single chord, 1977's Guitar Trio is composer Rhys Chatham's signature work, and a euphoric, minimal-punk classic. Now, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Guitar Trio on an epic scale, Chatham musters an all…
Jean of Arc
Tony Conrad is a founding father of 'minimalism' and a giant in the American soundscape. The indefatigable Conrad kept busy during the Revolution Summer of 1968. In addition to his reunion recordings with John Cale (documented in the Cale set New Yor…
Fantastic glissando
It's 1969, and Tony Conrad wants to take you Higher. Celebrated for the thrilling roar of his amplified violin, Conrad is a founding father of 'minimalism' and a giant in the American soundscape. Now Conrad's own Audio ArtKive imprint presents the fi…
Bryant park Moratorium Rally
An October afternoon in 1969. Midtown Manhattan. A rally in Bryant Park against the Vietnam War. Down 42nd Street towards Times Square, Tony Conrad is adjusting microphones in his 5th floor loft, one directed at the TV set -- where it will pick up li…
The expanding sea
Georgia natives San Agustin (David Daniell, guitar; Andrew Burnes, guitar; Bryan Fielden, drums) have performed with a multitude of notables from the improvised community, including Ken Vandermark, Thurston Moore, Loren MazzaCane and others, but this…
An angel moves too fast to see
By the late 1980s, Rhys Chatham was chafing against the logistical and financial constraints imposed upon him in the States; in his mind was a vast, unprecedented sound. Moving permanently from New York to Paris, Chatham began composing his masterpie…
Die Donnergötter
Rhys Chatham altered the DNA of rock. The New York-born composer began as a classically-trained prodigy, but by 1975, Chatham was fusing the overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the relentless, elemental fury of the Ramones.…
February
Jonathan Kane; now why does that name sound familiar? Well, apart from co-founding no-wave group du jour Swans he also cemented his skin bashing prowess as rythem master for Rhys Chatham. So it is with some considerable experience that he takes his f…
New York in the 1960s
These recordings are solo efforts on electronic organ - the awesome Vox Continental, guitar and viola as well as collaborations with saxophone player Terry Jennings, violinist Tony Conrad, Velvet Underground guitar player Sterling Morrison and the VU…
Détails Agrandis
This collection of three pieces is dedicated to artists and musicians whom Bernhard Günter admires. The collection's title translates to "Enlarged Details," an apt description of Günter's approach to composition. Musically all of them involve a limit…
Ordier
"Though the era of punk was widely regarded as a time of extremes, legendary group Wire and guitarist BC Gilbert provided the most problematic, visionary and ironic response to the music scene of the mid-'70s. The angular minimalism of their sound, t…
Early Minimalism vol. 1
Four CD box set with 96-page book and enhanced CD-ROM featuring interviews, performance footage and video scores. Includes the massive "Four Violins" (1964) -- one of the world's most important and space-inhaling pieces of music ever, which was o…