Alan Licht's minimal Top Ten
Alan Licht's revelatory lists of rare and obscure minimalism as published in Halana Magazine issues one (March 1996) and three (Winter 1998), Volcanic Tongue (June 10, 2007) and Tumblr (June 16, 2020).
"I do not necessarily consider any of this to be "music and sound of a profound nature," nor do I find it "uplifting" or "theraputic." I like minimalism because it rocks."
Music on a long thin wire
**Legendary sound installation for audio oscillator and electronic monochord** First released on Lovely Music in 1980. A 50-foot length of taut wire passes through the poles of a large magnet and is driven by an oscillator; the vibrations of the wire are miked at either end, amplified and broadcast in stereo. The thin wire is set vibrating four times at four different frequencies; what results is not the low drone one might expect from a long, vibrating wire, but a complexity of evocative, ether…
The Black Record
Necessary reissue of a truly seminal, minimalist totem and founding document of the avant-garde underground!
Lament For The Rise and Fall of the Elephantine Crocodile
First-time vinyl reissue is limited to 750 numbered copies. Comes with poster. Yoshi Wada's Lament For The Rise And Fall Of The Elephantine Crocodile, originally released in 1982 on India Navigation, remains one of the most remarkable flowers to grow in the rarefied air of American minimalism – akin to Terry Riley's Reed Streams and Pauline Oliveros' Accordion & Voice, yet with a wild, liberated energy all of its own. After graduating from Kyoto University of Fine Arts with a degree in sculptur…
You Are My Everlovin'
CD Edition, temporary offer Philosopher, musician and anti-art activist, Henry Flynt has long foregone the academicism often associated with "serious music" in favor of a uniquely intuitive, emotional approach to composition. In the 1960s and 1970s he was a part of NYC's vibrant avant-garde scene, studying with Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath and developing his own proprietary technique on violin. You Are My Everlovin', Flynt's first published musical work, finds the composer in peak form at…
Musics for Piano, Whistling, Microphone and Tape Recorder
Temporary super offer! Long-time sold-out at source, very few copies Necessary, first ever vinyl reissue of a truly seminal double LP set originally appeared on the Chatham Square imprint in 1975. Canadian artist and film maker Michael Snow was originally a jazz pianist, and he has continued to be involved in music throughout his long career. He arranged for Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Sunny Murray, John Tchicai, Gary Peacock and his then neighbour Roswell Rudd to record the landmark improvised so…
What?
"What?? is a focused and grounding work produced by Swedish composer Folke Rabe in 1967. From his interest in sound phenomena and harmonics Rabe was able to make one of the most deep, moving pieces of sustained sound generated in this formative era of minimalist electronic composition. Initially reissued on Dexter's Cigar in 1997 and now available on Important with expanded packaging including archival materials furnished by the composer. Amplified infinity."
"My interest in the makeup of variou…
Sei Note in Logica
Roberto Cacciapaglia is an Italian composer and pianist who started out in the fertile Milan avant-garde scene of the 1970s, which included Franco Battiato, Giusto Pio, Lino Capra Vaccina, Francesco Messina, among others. After studying at the conservatory, he worked at RAI's Studio of Musical Phonology – an electronic music laboratory similar to NDR/WDR in Germany, GRM/IRCAM in France or BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Originally released in 1979, Sei Note In Logica (Six Notes In Logic) is Cacciapagl…
Earth 2 - Special Low Frequency Version
2024 stock. Did you know there are horses on the cover of Earth's Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version? There are at least three in the right hand corner, gathered inexplicably near a white canvas tent, a human possibly perched among its folds. As widescreen and vast as the cover may seem, those little details-the horses, the possible human, the faint wisp of white clouds-give it depth and wonder, something to which the imagination can return. Did you know that the music on Earth 2-repressed n…
Outside The Dream Syndicate
Temporary Super Offer! Violinist, composer and filmmaker Tony Conrad started his career in New York in the early 1960s. As a member of the Theatre of Eternal Music (a.k.a. the Dream Syndicate) alongside John Cale, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela and Angus MacLise, he participated in now-legendary and often legendarily loud drone performances with many pieces having no beginning and no end. During a fateful trip to Germany in 1972, Conrad met with avant-rock visionaries Faust and made the very fir…
Berlino / Rallentando
**Rare original, few copies available** An epic entry into the drone music canon, this work from conceptual/performance/sound artist Terry Fox inhabits a zone of long-string drone avant garde action more readily associated with the likes of Ellen Fullman or Paul Panhuysen and his Het Apollohuis productions, though Fox marks out a singular stance for himself here. Featured in the legendary Alan Licht's Minimal Top Ten. Side two's Rallentando occupies the more expected territory of the two, teasin…
Nodal excitation
"By the late '80s most of the burgeoning minimal underground had been forgotten, especially one amazing character, Arnold Dreyblatt. Dreyblatt only had one record, Nodal Excitation (on the mostly post-AACM jazz label India Navigation), before he packed and moved to Berlin, where he concentrated on his other activities, making only two more records over the next 10 years. But for those who caught the action, Arnold was the man. He was more rock that any of the others combined, and he was also the…
The Winds Rise in The North
Composer Harley Gaber wrote this piece for strings as an emotional examination of the questions posed by Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, here performed by a quintet including violinist Malcolm Goldstein
Motore Immobile
To quote Pitchfork, this is 'one of the most sumptuous, spiritual ambient albums of any era or provenance.
La Maquina de Cantar (LP)
At long last, after remaining out of print for decades, the Milan based imprint, Dialogo, dives into the legendary catalog of Cramps, bringing forth the first ever vinyl reissue of Horacio Vaggione’s LP, "La Maquina de Cantar", issued as the 18th instalment of the label’s Nova Musicha series in 1978 and among the most important examples of Latin American experimental music from the 1970s. Engrossing and creatively riveting, heard more than 40 years on its rippling electronic tones recast the ter…
The Death of Don Juan
CD debut of this 1985 post-minimal landmark by Elodie Lauten, featuring performances by Arthur Russell and Peter Zummo. Lauten has been active in the downtown New York classical and punk scenes since moving from France in the 1970s. The Death of Don Juan is a breakthrough for its bold, lyrical minimalism in concert with a dramatic sensibility that is deeply faithful to the modern existential emotional experience. Originally self-produced and released as a small LP edition on her own label, it ha…
Secrets Of The Blue Bag
**500 copies** British experimental musician, composer, performer and producer Anthony Moore was a founding member of Slap Happy and has worked with Henry Cow, Kevin Ayers, and Pink Floyd among other great names in the British scene. In 1971 he moved to Hamburg, Germany, and worked in the boiling experimental scene of the city. As a result, two LPs were issued on Polydor Germany in 1971 and 1972, right before forming Slap Happy with old school pal Peter Blegvad and Dagmar Krause.Secrets of the B…
Pieces From The Cloudland Ballroom
**500 copies** Pieces From the Cloudland Ballroom is the first solo LP by Anthony Moore, originally on Polydor. It was released in 1971 under the production of Uwe Nettlebeck and featured Anthony Moore on conduction, Ulf Kenklies, Glyn Davenport and Gieske Hof-Helmers on vocals, plus Werner 'Zappa' Diermeier on hi-hat. Moore is best known as a founder of the progressive rock band Slapp Happy but has also written lyrics for Pink Floyd (!)Pure minimalist experimentation with echoes of Richard Youn…
Pieces + Secrets of the Blue Bag
The two groundbreaking Anthony Moore LPs in bundle at a special price. **500 copies** Over the last few years, we’ve seen countless reissues emerge with the branding of “holy grail”. Some have deserved it, other have not. Needless to say, here at SoundOhm, we’re increasingly wary of throwing these words around, but the two albums before us, Anthony Moore’s Pieces From a Cloudland Ballroom, from 1971, and Secrets of the Blue Bag, issued the following year, deserve them with little doubt. Creative…
Four Full Flutes
** Edition of 300. Deluxe wooden box with velvet lining. Double LP on red vinyl, audiophile pressing, housed in Nagaoka anti-static record sleeves. Also includes an original LP-sized extensive booklet and a 60x90cm iconic poster designed by Bruno Stucchi/Dinamomilano ** Joining their broad efforts in building networks of context and understanding, spanning historical and contemporary territories of adventurous sound, Blume Editions is thrilled to announce the long-awaited first-time vinyl pressi…
Reed Streams
Long awaited reissue for Terry Riley's 1966 debut album, and one of the greatest pieces of minimal music ever created on Philip Ornstein’s iconic MassArt imprint, which also brought us Max Neuhaus & John Cage’s Fontana Mix-Feed and Allan Kaprow’s How to Make a Happening, is among the most sought after in Terry Riley vast discography. It is also the first recordings Riley made using his two personal Revox reel-to-reel tape machines (or "Time Lag Accumulators") later heard on his groundbreaking re…