Reissues
Seven reasons for tears
Reissue of classic and long hard to find Purge/Sound League album from 1987 by Borbetomagus. Quartet session with the power-bass addition of Adam Nodelman. 1993 CD release “Seven Reasons for Tears beautifully documents the most simultaneously fierce and accessible periods of the band’s history. Converts and heathens can both bathe luxuriously in the radioactive improv-beauty-stream that lights up a room when the record is played at ‘special’ volume. Tears is the living spirit of Borbetomagus’ nu…
Experience the magic
Blistering CD of live performances recorded at CBGB in New York in 1992.
Barbed wire maggots
Back in stock, CD reissue of what was the 4th Borbetomagus album, originally released on LP by Agaric way back in 1983. The trio of Jim Sauter (reeds), Don Dietrich (reeds) & Donald Miller (guitar). Recorded at In-Roads, NYC. May 7, 1982. "Barbed Wire Maggots is a motherfucker, even now, 23 years after it was recorded. Recorded at In-Roads on Mercer Street, BWM documents a gorgeous evening of extreme sonic dialogue. Sauter and Dietrich's reeds skinny-dip into virtual classicist free mode at time…
Sauter, Dietrich, Miller
CD re-issue of Borbetomagus' 3rd album originally released in 1982. This recording, compiled from concerts in 1981 and 1979, explores the range of sound that this trio could generate. It is best played at high volume, for this is the only way that the subtleties of the music can get through the sheer barrage of sound. This is music to scare your pets; at first listen this record may be mistaken for random noise. A closer listen will reveal that the sound is tightly controlled. The art happ…
Sauter, Dietrich, Miller, Doherty
Expanded reissue of the debut Borbetomagus album from 1980 with the trio of Sauter, Dietrich and Miller further bolstered by Brian Doherty on electronics. These early recordings have a beautifully corrosive classical avant garde/Industrial edge that is as bluntly beguiling as low-grade splatter. Also features a winning shot of Donald Miller's legendary mullet on the back as well as the previously unreleased "Last Concordat" - bonus! The trio of Jim Sauter (reeds), Don Dietrich (reeds) and Donald…
Getting a head
Second in the metal box limited edition re-releases, this one from1980 with Fred Frith (guitar) and Charles K. Noyes (percussion) and featuring unorthodox instruments built from tape recorders and helium balloons.
Sooner or later
Long out of print, now reissued in limited edition metal boxes by Bob himself,Sooner or Later is a powerful piece (for sampler) derived from the sounds of a Salvadorian boy burying his father: a shovel striking rock, a voice, a buzzing fly. Some guitar sounds by Fred Frith are added in part two. This tells only of the sources; what Bob does with them is compelling and hypnotic.categories CC, SAPT, EL, C
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 limited vocabulary of sounds interacting with silence. "Four Grey Paintings" uses low rumbles hovering at the very edge of audibility, interrupted with high-pitched tones and metallic twangs. Dedicated to Jim O'Rourke (an early champion of Günter's music)…
La creation du monde (1982-84)
This is a sprawling, ambitious painting in sound modeled on the birth of the universe. Moving from roiling, gaseous clouds of hiss and static through sharp peels of detailed, unrestrained texture, this is acousmatic music at its very finest, literally creating a universe of sound out of thin air. (AMG)
De natura sonorum
Classic 1975 recording of mostly quiet, resonating electronic sounds. "With the music of Bernard Parmegiani something in us is freed and comes out of passivity. This thing, which I know now was blocked without my knowing where, is the buzzing and Time within the flesh -- a humming of millions of closed mouths between the cells. What is the murmur made up of? The body develops a tongue in listening to this music, and there is within it great movement of the sound material... it is music that make…
Sonare
One 25 minute piece, from 1996. A State/CIRM commissioned work. A dreamy five-movement suite that deals with the encounter and metamorphosis of natural sounds and synthetic sounds. Bernard Parmegiani wrote about this piece "There is already music... of an Italian an character in this title! Sonare: l love this word because it is Italian and because upon hearing it, music simply springs forth from within it. For each of the 5 movements, I have chosen a pseudo-instrumental or synthesis sound whic…
Plain-temps
2006 release, presenting 3 versions of "Plain-Temps". Classic new work from the most important INA GRM composer. The first part of the suite, "Le Present Compose" is from 1991, recorded here in 2006. "The second part is "Entre-Temps" from 1992. "The gradual slowing down of the tick-tock sound of a penduluum with which the this piece opens provides us with not only the most symbolic but also the most illusory image of the passing of time. This is followed by by a constantly changing continuum, ap…
L'oeil Ecoute
An awesome Parmegiani release, featuring: "L'oeil Ecoute" (1970), "La Roue Ferris" (1971), "Especes d'espace" (2002-2003). "Excepting some mixed pieces, his work as a whole takes the form of music for 'fixed sound', coming within the scope of the immense repertoire of electro-acoustic music. In 1971, he made a video film based on the music in 'L'Oeil ecoute', featuring visual imagery processed through a synthesiser. We only need listen to the opening of 'L'Oeil ecoute', a sustained swirl and flu…
La memoire des Sons
Features 3 works: "Capture Éphémère" (1967); "Sons-jeu" (1987); "La Mémoire des Sons" (2001). "Excepting some rare mixed pieces, Bernard Paremegiani's works as a whole take the form of music for 'fixedsounds', coming within the scope of the immense repertoire of electro-acoustic music. From his training in the art of mime and his experience as a sound engineer, Parmegiani has retained a taste for a hand-to-hand approach (sound/embodiment, as we could be tempted to say) with various sound mate-ri…
Violostries
Finally reissued, with new artwork; this has been the most in-demand electroacoustic CD for the past few years. Bernard Parmegiani is one the electroacoustic superstars of the INA GRM universe, and along with various Francois Bayle titles this is a great place to start with the label. This amazing double CD is broken up into 2 parts: the first disc consists of old-style tape-splicing electroacoustic material, dating from 1963 to 1976 ("Violostries," "Pour en Finir avec le Pourvoir d'Orphee" & "D…
JazzEx
This album is a collection of early works from the late 60’s by the french electro-acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani. Born in Paris (1927) and rich of a “catalogue des oeuvres” of more than 60 pieces, including classics such as “Violistries” 1965, “La Roue Ferris” 1971, “Pour en finir avec le pouvoir d’Orphée” 1971/72, “De Natura Sonorum” 1974/75, the 4 pieces presented in this edition is a perfect exemple for discovering the unusual territories and the eclectism language of the composer: “Ja…
50/70
50/70 presents a set of fantastically stirring performances by sound-poet and heroic cultural activist Bernard Heidsieck. Fantastic verbal anarchy sure to appeal to anyone who has ever ventured deep into the margins of free-thinking labels like ESP, United Dairies, Come Org. Features '”Poème-Partition ‘B’”' (1957), for Bernard de Pontcharra, killed in Algeria; “Poème-Partition ‘M’”, suggested by a comment made by Henry Miller about “Déserts” by Edgar Varèse; “Démocratie II” (1977) and “Publicité…
Canal street
reissue of the self-released 3lp box set from 1976... as two cds nestled inside the covers of a regular-sized paperback book... considerably less expensive than the original (which sonic tiger still has for $300 if you’re interested...).this and the other book/cd editions from al dante are among the most legendary artifacts from the canon of this pioneering french sound-poet (see other editions of alga marghen), who, along with arch nemesis henri chopin, laid out the groundwork for text-based so…
Couper n’est pas jouer
the third title in the heidsieck “singles” series, released in april 2005 & consisting of a single piece from 1967/1968. of the three “singles” mixing found-sound-effects against a high edit-per-second ratio of heidseick’s ululations...a part impossible to circumvent of bernard heidsieck in a book which in offer also lcoute via cd. uvre proclamation made up in 1968, couper is not to play proposed the theoretical bases and the practical application of writings of assembly using the practices dins…
Démocratie II
second installment of the “singles” series - a 36-page cd-sized book with a cd tucked into the back-cover... both book/cd contain heidsieck’s “democratie ii” (passe-partout nº27) from 1977-1978.