Reissues
Winter 1972
Alongside noise guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, the late saxophonist Kaoru Abe was in the vanguard of Japan's new music, articulating an approach to the saxophone that matched extreme velocity with an elastic facility with the instrument's most phantom registers and a sculptural approach to instant composition that saw him carve poignant shapes from massive blocks of silence. Abe died of a heroin overdose on September 9th, 1978 at the age of 29, making 2004 the 27th anniversary of his passing, on…
Solo thursday evening 1972
This is another beautiful live document from the late starcrossed free saxophonist Kaoru Abe's peak period, three solo alto improvisations from '72 that work echoes of weird popular song and folk ghosts into some torrential throat action. Abe was always at his most exploratory when he was all alone in space and this is a thrilling document of a man liberated from any interactive concerns and free to follow the gush of his own muse. Highly recommended.
Solo 1972
Beautiful collection of early solo work from this amazing Japanese saxophonist who can burn personal co-ordinates into cold, black space with alla the harrowing force of Ayler, Haino, Brotz et al. Performances on alto and bass clarinet that combine an intimate, lyrical style with ferocious phantom register evisceration. Highly recommended.
Na-Gi 1997
A CD of minimalist environmental sounds by this Japanese sound-artist Akio Suzuki. This music was recorded in Takano, Tango-cho, the northern-most coast of Kyoto, where I live. The bay surrounded by volcanic rock caves is the place where the mighty sounds of waves of the open sea have their muffled echo. Seawater flows into the hollows in the rock again and again like breathing in and breathing out. Spring water constantly drips in the cave, and now and then the wind from the meadow above the ch…
The tail of the tiger
** VERY LAST COPIES** As is the case with La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music, David Hyke's Harmonic Choir and Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Band, Roberto Laneri has had a life long penchant for the droning mysteriosa of the Sound Current and with the Prima Materia ensemble he has expressed it in a disciplined, expansive and singular way (Terry Riley). In 1977 an obscure Italian private label issued a record that sounded like it came from outer space. A long and dense trance-inducing d…
On tape from the Judson days
"'On tape from the Judson days. Remember? When you made these things at home, on the best equipment you or your other poor friends could find? Electronic music from the 1960s. And you had that Japanese taperecorder with built-in mike; indeed that was the only piece of furniture on your tatami floor on the Lower East Side that summer of 1961.' This compact disc presents tape music recorded between 1962 and 1963 for the friends meeting once a week in a loft in NYC. The first track, 'Lucinda Pastim…
More from the Judson years Vol. 2
2004 release. Excerpts from the liner notes of More from the Judson Years (Early 60s) Instrumental-Vocal Works Vol. 2, written by Philip Corner: "Everything Max Has" (1964), Max Neuhaus solo, recorded at the ONCE Festival, 1965. "A performance of Max's taking down all of his stuff; tons of equipment filling entire stages." "Big Trombone" (1963), Jim Fulkerson improvisation over tape collage. "Homage to Revere" (1962) for ensemble of copper-bottom kitchen utensils. "Punkt" (1961) for ensemble of …
More from the Judson years Vol. 1
2004 release. "Yet not to forget that extraordinary place where so much of the new and exciting performances at that most interesting time in New York, took place. There was a Theater there; and a place for the first Happenings. An Art Gallery... and later the famous Judson Dance Theater -- the site of Philip Corner's first performance. The concert was in early 1962, January 2nd, to be exact. Excerpts from the liner notes of volume one of More from the Judson Years, Early 60s, written by Philip …
Metal meditations
"Metal Meditations is the culmination of many years experience and experiment with the properties of resonant metal objects, whether intended for music for not." Philip Corner. One side is taken from a 1974 performance at Merce Cunningham's studio, performed by David Behrman (electronics and performer) & others. There is also a 1975 performance with Bill Fontana and Corner ("long metal pipe with active microphone) as well as a short version from the Avant Garde Festival in Cambridge, MA, 1978.
Gong +
2002 release. Gong + presents three previously-unpublished compositions by Philip Corner recorded in New York City, 1974. "Metal Meditations with Listening Center," a 29-minute long piece, is a collaboration between Philip Corner and Bill Fontana. At that time Bill Fontana was very interested in the resonance properties of every object, putting his ear to everything, and sometimes recording what he called "Listening Centers," a microphone placed in a resonating space (for example a jar, or a pip…
Avant Marghen Vol. 3
Third volume in the Avant Marghen boxset series, numbered edition of 80 copies. "This luxury boxset actually includes a new picture disc edition of Revue OU anthology plus an Henri Chopin LP and the Ben Patterson LP. 1) VA Revue OU. Record 1 picture LP. Original pre-released of 80 copies on picture disc with different graphics, never offered before. First of a set of 5 picture discs reproducing the integral recordings of the journal OU edited by Henri Chopin from 1958 to 1974. 2) VA: Revue OU. R…
Avant Marghen Vol. 2
Lucky find, one last copy - 80 copies only, the second massive mind-blowing deluxe presentation of record collector dreams-style 7LP box bundle of original rare Alga Marghen records. The vocson series might be identified as the starting point of all the alga marghen activities. this series, which still continues to present on limited lp records the most advanced international vocal experiments, is mainly dedicated to the documentation of sound poetry. since most of the titles immediately sold ou…
Avant Marghen Vol. 1
Lucky find, few copies in - Incredible set of 3 boxes, each with 7LPs in it, from the Alga Marghen archives. These are all previously released LPs, but most have been o/p for many years now. The boxes are limited to a numbered edition of 80 copies each. "The VocSon series might be identified as the starting point of all the Alga Marghen activities. This series, which still continues to present on limited LP records the most advanced international vocal experiments, is mainly dedicated to the doc…
Automatic Writing
A 1996 CD compiling three early Ashley works from the years 1967-79 -- some of his most experimental and out-there works. A classic electronic music collection and an ideal intro into the somewhat foreboding oeuvre of Robert Ashley's recorded works. The title piece is a 46-minute classic from 1979, which rather famously formed the basis for Nurse With Wound's A Missing Sense. Steven Stapleton's commentary upon this summarizes the intense vibe of this recording: "A Missing Sense was originally co…
Depli
It's probably safe to call Mr. Andre Almuro an unsung hero. And while his scantly available catalog certainly provides reason why, its contents offer ample argument to the contrary. Not long after the conclusion of his apprenticeship to Pierre Schaeffer, he began crafting in what could easily be called the Almuro aesthetic: sparce pieces built from limited sound elements, often timbrally altered percussive sounds, slowly paced and coated thick in reverb and tape echo.While Dépli does not quite m…
The Action Art of Hermann Nitsch from Past to Present
Super deluxe DVD & CD set. The Action art of Hermann Nitsch from past to present Actions, 1962-2003: 1 DVD (this DVD is in European PAL format only and not compatible with some/many DVD players in the US) plus a CD with the recordings from the 2005 Burgtheater performance. Hand-numbered edition of 1000 copies. The packaging consists of a slip lid box with banderole, containing an 80-page book with photos and text. Disputed and celebrated: Hermann Nitsch, Actionist and painter, composer and stage…
Thee Films 1950s-1960s
When writer William S. Burroughs and artist Brion Gysin met Anthony Balch at the Beat Hotel in Paris at the start of the '60s they knew they had the ideal person to assist them in translating the ideas they had explored in experimental art forms to film. Balch began his movie-making career collaborating with Burroughs on two shorts 'Towers Open Fire' and 'The Cut Ups.' The former is a relatively straightforward attempt to capture the essence of Burroughs writing on film, utilizing key themes and…
Opus 17 A
Hanne Darboven, a visual artist known primarily for her rigourous, repetitive drawings which are drawings of non-representational writing, loops written out again and again in time, also created music, including Opus 17A, a work for double bass. This piece will then be recorded and played once a day throughout the duration of the exhibition. This monumental piece consists of 1008 pages of uniform size divided into 4 Opus’s (Opus 17a and b and Opus 18a and b). Each Opus is comprised of 36 poems, …