New Arrivals
E Pluribus Unum
a pure mantra: blending North African and Middle Eastern textures within a western context into our experience, regrettably the experience of a small few, but hopefully a wider community of listeners to come. Not only important historically, but musically: a wide range of music genres over the last couple of decades have worked with drone-note principles and it is an increasingly common device, but Sandy Bull was/is a superlative master of utilising the drone sounds;understated but effect…
Unheard spaces
'Absence and Presence (2006). Absence and Presence was originally written for five musicians and four loudspeakers positioned throughout the site of performance in order to explore the traction between amplified and acoustic space. The performance was predicated on a set of directions that determined the combination of musicians at specific times and the duration of their performance. Within these structural parameters the musicians chose what they played and how they responded to one another. T…
Soil Creatures
The name under which Melbourne singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Paddy Mann records and performs, Grand Salvo has quietly and unassumingly developed a body of work that has inspired both hardcore devotion and more recently, wider recognition, stemming from his previous album, Death. The ambitious fairytale orchestration received rave reviews from all over the country. With Soil Creatures, Grand Salvo has returned with no less scope but sits within quieter surroundings. This gorgeous s…
The Cloud of Unknowing
For fans of acoustic guitar music, James Blackshaw's The Cloud of Unknowing is a gift that's long overdue. Blackshaw's fourth album gracefully glides over the same sonic ground that his contemporaries generally tread with reverential obedience or dilettante tactics. Growing into his prodigious own at the relatively young age of 25, Blackshaw has finessed his 12-string acoustic guitar into a veritable solo symphony that's as schooled in uncommon beauty as it is in complex 20th century composition…
Creakiness and other misdemeanours
'Creakiness and other misdemeanours collects the long out of print 'Creakiness' lp as well as various other very limited releases. 'Sand Tangled Women' was released as a limited edition 7' by Klanggalerie. 'Little Dipper Minus Two (Echo poeme sequence 1)' was a CDR limited to 200 copies. 'A Perfectly Natural Explanation' was released on a limited edition 7'. New artwork by Babs Santini.'
Ceremonies to breathe upon
Two contrabass players here, Andrew Lafkas, of whom I not really heard I think and Michael T. Bullock, of whom I did hear before, and know as someone who likes his improvised playing to be minimal - to say the least. I think Bullock at times also uses electronics, but I am not if he uses any of that here. Its not mentioned on the cover, nor the fact that this is perhaps a live concert. I do however think this is a live recording, however one with no audience, but a direct-to-track recording of t…
Beam Stone
Per Anders Nilsson (computer and synthesizer), Sten Sandell (piano, prepared piano, electronics and voice) & Raymond Strid (percussion). Beam Stone was founded a year before this October 2007 recording. The trio consists of three free improvisers, each with a distinctive personal sound. Their aim with Beam Stone is to explore sonic territories with the guidance of different pre-defined concepts. Listening and sonic exploration are considered the essential points of departure.
Iconicities
3 amazing pieces for Percussion and Live Electronics by Chris Brown’s (b. 1953) whose music has evolved within the intersections of many different traditions and styles. Following early training as a classical pianist, he was influenced by studies of Indonesian, Indian, Afro-American, and Cuban musics, and then took off on branches provided by the American Experimentalists in inventing and building a personal electronic instrumentation. Collaboration and improvisation have been primary in …
Winterreise
Winterreise is the audio soundtrack to a series of photographs with the same name produced by Atom TM. The series was exhibited during 2011 in Tokyo and Frankfurt (excerpts included in the packaging of the Winterreise CD edition). The Winterreise soundtrack may be considered a sequel to the Liedgut (R-N 099CD) album, in the sense that the resulting photo series was conceived as a consequence of the contextual framework which Liedgut both initiated and provided. Winterreise, though, is a far m…
Courant.Air
It is the continuation of a body of work intertwining instrumental and electronic music following the acclaimed 2004-2008 work les arbres (Mention, Prix Ars Electronica 2009). The mixture this time is more edgy : a rich and complex electronic sound composition alongside the folk inspired guitar played by Simon Trottier (member of the extraordinary haunted blues band Timber Timbre). After 2 albums of improvised folktronica with Simon Trottier, Nicolas Bernier decided to explore that singu…
Language of the Dards
WhisPers for WoLves is the solo pysch/noise/folk project of Melissa Moore. The musician, experimental instrument builder, installation/sound artist, and sculptor based in Baltimore,MD. "Language of the Dards" is a multi-part series of pieces developed around the text/teachings/songs of Indian Yogi, Milarepa made of three long recordings of voice/finger-pickin guitar, nepalese oboe, and electronics. The album comes in a hand-assembled gatefold sleeve.
Planetary Unknown
"It's a great summer for music, with some excellent albums just released - and more reviews to come ... Let's start with the great David S. Ware and his new quartet, a great quartet, with William Parker playing the bass as on all other David S. Ware albums, with Cooper-More on piano instead of Matthew Shipp, and with Muhammad Ali on drums (the latest in a long list, with Susie Ibarra, Guillermo E. Brown, Warren Smith, Whit Dickey, Hamid Drake, ... and quite a phenomenal list at that).It is no do…
Sol Sketches
Film director Chris Teerink asked me to make the soundtrack for a documentary he would be making about American artist Sol LeWitt. This was in 2009. Chris and I agreed that the music and the images should both be equally important in his film. We didn't want the score to overpower the images, but neither did we want it to become solely background 'muzak'. I searched for a certain openness in the sound, while at the same time keeping a directness to it. Musical references for me were the piano pi…
Re:PRES
Revisiting the treasures of Polish Radio studios (Polish Radio Experimental Studio, NEAR), the label offered Bolt miniaturized components of the composer Eugeniusz Rudnik (1933) to Lenar DJ (Marcin Lenarczyk) which reworks the way lo -fi in his studio (both guitar and bass amps, turntable, sampler loopers). Astonishing when one feels ownership playback via speaker which adds a paste, color these miniature electroacoustic "Nobody knows how many miniatures have been conceived by Rudnik. But one th…
SFU 40: Celebrating Electroacoustic Music 1965-2005
Amazing anthology focused on The Electronic Music Studio at Simon Fraser University (SFU) was founded by R Murray Schafer when the university opened in 1965, the third such studio in Canada, after the University of Toronto and McGill University (Montréal). It was located in the basement of the SFU Theatre as part of the Centre for Communication and the Arts. Composers such as Schafer, Anthony Gnazzo, Peter Huse, …
Mune
Claire Bergerault, voice. Jean-Luc Guionnet, pipe organ. 'Music that proves that improvisation can still offer something vibrant and different. Intense, powerful music that will annoy as many as it delights.' Highly recommended !
Early Tapes
The Neon Judgement was formed in 1980/1981. Instantly they self-released two cassettes. With a limited amount of electronic instruments, they recorded their debut: "Suffering". The first version of their classic track "Factory Walk" is on this tape, a much more raw version than the one which would later become an underground clubhit. "Sweet Revenge" and "Schyzophrenic Freddy" remind of Suicide and the almost claustrophobic sounding tracks "Harem" and "Army Green (WOIII) are in the veign o…
All Is Falling
The ultra savant of 12-string mantra cycles expands further into cinematic, orchestral glory - an orgy of organic, deeply felt & exquisitely played pathways to the sublime. His 1st foray into the realm of the electric 12-string guitar. Comprised of one slowly evolving, shifting piece of music in eight parts, replete w/ swirling string cycles & wind instruments augmenting his extended pointillist flurries w/ clouds of sound, sometimes adding delicate counter-melodies but just as often feed…
Freedom, Rhythm & Sound
This collection of rare album artwork reflects the independent energy of the African American jazz movement. Located in the heart of Soho in London, Soul Jazz Records is a musical oasis. While many of the quality record shops that once graced this area have closed their doors Soul Jazz seems to go from strength to strength. Stuart Baker and his partner Karen Tate oversee a thriving business which is driven by their own tastes and beliefs. A pragmatic duo, they recognize that the survival of Soul…
Temporary Perspectives
Limited to 300 copies. Field recordings, sine waves, computer data, lloopp, electric guitar, tremolo pedal, condenser microphone, contact microphone, mixing board. Recorded and mixed: 2006-2009. Mastered by Valerio Tricoli. Photography by Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga. Package design by Pafsanias Ioannidis.' label info