New Arrivals
People The Sky
Nicely timed replication of this 1969 Vanguard “Cardinal” series LP, offering a pair of side-length “Automatic” Buchla pieces by Composer / Producer Michael Czajkowski - then and now known mostly in music circles for his odd, post-production contributions to Buffy Saint-Marie’s “Illuminations” LP.Recorded at NYU’s famed Intermedia Center - see Charlemagne Palestine’s 60s Electronic Music, Morton Subotnick’s “Silver Apples” - this one falls squarely into the “hands-off” master-patch canon o…
Homo Faber, Dum Spiro Spero
Creel Pone treatment of this majorly slept-on set of dark, minimal, surrealist electro-acoustic & Musique Concrète pieces from the Polish composer Joanna Bruzdowicz, a member of the GRM under Pierre Schaeffer’s tutelage between 1968 & 1970 & long-term collaborator of Agnes Varda’s, for whom she scored several films from the mid-80’s on, including “Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse.” The LP in question (the only one to feature her electronic work) consists of the three-part “Homo Faber” suite - compose…
The Soundhouse
When you think of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, we’d wager most of the time it’s in context of their seminal ‘60s and ’70-s output. However, The Soundhouse (1983) proves there was much to marvel at in their early ‘80s catalogue, too, summing up the great advances in technology between their Radiophonic Workshop - 21 collection and their acquisition of a Fairlight CMI - the first digital sampling synth - which is thoroughly, imaginatively demonstrated throughout. Horses for courses and all that b…
The Harmony of the World
Fascinating one-off Computer Music curio from 1979, released, incredibly, on Book-of-the Month Records, "a Division of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc." Much like Laurie Spiegel's Voyager "Golden Record" piece, "Harmonices Mundi," Johannes Kepler's star-math was used as a template for the cyclical periods of a series of Digital Oscillator algorithms, which were then sent spinning in & around each other. The result is not unlike the Pythagoron™ LP, or even Thorkell Sigurbjornsson's somewhat contempor…
Tapes
Hamburg’s Growing Bin go back to the roots of Trance, as in hypnotic electronic rhythms for dancing, with this Baldelli-favoured suite produced in Germany 1983-86. “If you’ve kept a keen ear to the underground, you may have noticed a trance revival creeping into the dance floors and darkrooms of late; a post ironic return to the 64 bar breakdowns and peak time key changes of your serotonin drenched youth. So what’s this then? Has Growing Bin gone from groundbreaker to copycat? Dig a little deepe…
Oeldorf 8
Issued by the Dutch "Nea Mousa Promotion Centre for Contemporary Music", the initial 1976 issue of this music documents the 8th meeting of "The Oeldorf Group" of Composer-Performers Pëter Eótvös (whose "Cricket Music" graces Creelpolation 1), Joachim Krist, Dietrich Frische, Gabriele Schumacher, and Mesias Maiguashca, who met annually at the barn pictured on the cover to workshop & perform each other's pieces from 1971 on. The two-part "Oeldorf 8" suite, composed in 1975, is a thing of wonder; f…
Abattage
Recorded in 1981 & issued “privately” in 1983 (on Jean Marc Foussat’s own Pyjama imprint) this is a screamer of a record, taking in a decidedly unique approach to minimal musique concrète assemblage (there’s an emphasis on presenting banal, interstitial in-situ sound-events [coughs, footsteps] that reminds of Luc Ferrari one minute ... before a sudden barrage of jackhammer-noise, plunderphonic mangling [is that ... Barbra Streisand !?!], and high-end oscillator scree takes over pushing this clos…
Cordes-Ci, Cordes-Ça, La Discordatura
1972 split release on Pathé Marconi EMI by the GMEB - Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges - founders & wife-and-husband team of Françoise Barrière & Christian Clozier. This is the first issue of Barrière's work & only the second of Clozier's after the Perspectives Musicales "Lettre À Une Demoiselle / Dichotomie / Petite Suite / D'Une Multitude En Fête" split w/ Jacques Lejeune (Creel Pone #073). Barrière's three-part "Cordes-Ci, Cordes-Ça" coats the A-side, electronically warping her Harp…
Pythagoron Inc.
Reproduction of a rather odd, late 70s upstate New York “Electronic Music for Healing” lineage LP, credited only to the corporation "Pythagoron Inc. 1977;” about whom we know very little - and maybe it’s best it stays that way. Explaining the music enclosed - encased within, really, without resorting to euphemism is rather hard to do here; so I’ll just give you a rundown of what I hear:The A-side starts out with a surge of White Noise, then suddenly out of nowhere an out of time Echoplexed Dru…
7 Trumps from the Tarot Cards
Yet another follow-up; actually in this case a precursor to a prior Creel Pone, Ruth White’s “7 Trumps from the Tarot Cards • Pinions” (LS 86066) - originally released just eight notches before her “Flowers of Evil” (LS 86058) in the discography of the now-legendary Mercury Limelight series - in between, Pierre Henry’s “Mass for Today • The Green Queen” (LS 86065), the Percussion of Strasborg’s “Signals” (LS 86064) , Fifty Foot Hose’s “Cauldron” (LS 86062), “Response: Electronic Music from Norwa…
Ramasses-Miettes, Nouveaux Modes Industriels
Long on the Creel Pone radar has been this pair of LPs by French bandleader Philippe Doray, recorded in conjunction with the aid of his five "Asociaux Associés" & issued in 1977 & 1980, respectively, via Jean-Marc Patrat & José Serré's Gratte-Ciel & Invisible, the house-label of the inimitable Jacques Pasquier's Société Coopérative d'Ouvriers-Producteurs Artistiques. Centered around Doray's Synthi VCS3 playing & sprech-stimme vocal stylings, the selections here run the gamut from puerile, absurd…
Cosmographie
Once again, i’m reminded that one can twist & turn, uncovering rocks looking for stray Paleozoic lifeforms one’s whole life and still never find 0.01% of what’s out there. To my knowledge, the early 70s platter replicated here is the sole LP by one Bruno Menny; he’s mainly known for his endless CV of engineering, arrangement, and production credits for people like Mouloudji - yes, the voice on the Jean Genet / André Almuro "Un Condamne a Mort" LP - Michel Portal, Benoît Widemann, and a little-kn…
Conrad & Sohn
Thus far the creel pones have all been academically-inclined in some way. by contrast, here’s a repro of a very bizarre one-off private-press lp “released” in 1981 by one-time tangerine dream / Kluster associate Conrad Schnitzler and given only to friends and family ...The b-side is pretty odd, even for schnitzler, with its pitched up vocals & arbitrary lo-fi synth drippings ; but the real prize is the a-side featuring his teenage son gregor on electric bass and completely fried vocals (in en…
Music From A Small Planet, Paths Of Motion
Two discs covering three self-issued LPs of 8-bit digital grind by Boston-area composer John Holland; as unheralded and unbeknownst as they come. Despite living in the hub for 24 years, and being a rabid fanatic of exactly this sort of thing, I had never seen nor heard head nor hide of either release, proving all too well that there are still gems out there waiting to be mined. On par with such proto-Digital-Synthesis masterworks as Daniel Arfib's "Musique Numerique", Pietro Grossi's "Compute…
Electronomusic, 9 Images
Much in the way I was confounded by Rod “A Safe Place to Land” McKuen’s forays into noise-oriented electronic music - see: Heins Hoffman-Richter, “Symphony for Tape Delay, IBM Instruction Manual, & OHM Septet," aka "Music to Freak your Friends and Break your Lease” - this set of “Electronomusic” by RCA-Victor “Living Stereo” architect - he recorded the vast majority of the legendary classical label’s productions, working with Van Cliburn, Heifetz, Horowitz, Leontyne Price, Fritz Reiner, Toscan…
Unearth
Unearth is the first solo recording from Australian born, Berlin based composer and drummer Tony Buck in 15 years. Many would recognise Buck from his work with the iconic Australia avant trio The Necks. His history as a player however reaches much further than this engagement. Over the past few decades, Tony has cultivated a language that escapes easy categorisation. With Unearth he delivers his most accomplished solo composition. Built across several years, the record is the culmination of his …
La Terrificante Notte Del Demonio
**ltd 100 on Red vinyl** Demonic sounds, but surprisingly sweet as well – done with this easy-flowing style that's really wonderful – and much more similar to the seductive sound library work of Alessandro Alessandroni, than to some of the starker, darker horror of the time! There's definitely some spooky passages, but they're almost always warmed up in really nice ways – both with keyboards, and with these wordless vocals from the lovely Giulia De Mutiis, who drifts through the record like some…
Le paradis blanc
**193 unreleased before recordings** Le Paradis Blanc was recorded in 1983, it is also the music of the movie titled Le Paradis Blanc and directed by Etant Donnés the same year. The film and music were part of a three days installation and performance of Etant Donnés in the ELAC (Espace Lyonnais d’Art Contemporain) at the Fifth Symposium of Art Performance in Lyon in 1983 : one day for the construction of the installation, one day with a performance and one day for the destruction. The film…
Void
Music by Lasse Marhaug, Recorded spring 2012 at the Best Studio in Oslo, Artwork : David Leleu, Layout : 38 Fillette
Music Performance 'KIYOH'
Yumiko Tanaka is a gidayu shamisen player active in the fields of contemporary classical and improvised music as well as traditional Japanese music. Tanaka performed as a musician and actress in Hashirigaki (premiered in 2000), a music theater production by German composer/director Heiner Goebbels; and created the music for and performed in Dogugaeshi (premiered in 2004), an object theater work by American puppeteer Basil Twist. Based on these experiences, in December 2010 she created, pr…