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AMM

Country: United Kingdom

AMM music is supposed to admit all sounds but the members of AMM have marked preferences. An open-ness to the totality of sounds implies a tendency away from traditional musical structures towards informality. Governing this tendency -reining it in- are various thoroughly traditional musical structures such as saxophone, piano, violin, guitar, etc., in each of which reposes a portion of the history of music.

AMM / Merzbow (LP)
Number 4 in Fat Cat's "Split Series" with a 1998 live piece for the seminal free-improvisation group backed with a harsh studio piece by the Japanese king of noise. Edition with plain white cover.
Phlegm
A late and welcome arrival from the Matchless vaults. Phlegm captures AMM in their classic trio configuration, Eddie Prévost on percussion, Keith Rowe on tabletop electronics, John Tilbury on piano, recorded live at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, November 2015. One continuous hour-long piece, a setting closely aligned with the group's longstanding commitment to electroacoustic improvisation and one of the final documented performances of the trio. By this stage AMM's language had …
It Had Been An Ordinary Enough Day In Pueblo, Colorado (LP)
Fantastic 1979 recording by the duo of Eddie Prevost and Keith Rowe under the AMM III moniker. Original 1979 edition on Japo.
Newfoundland (CD)
One of the best ever recordings by the mighty AMM, here composed of Eddie Prevost, Keith Rowe and John Tilbury. Original 1992 CD on Matchless Recordings.
Laminal (3CD)
Superb 1996 triple-CD set on Matchless Recordings presenting 3 exceptional full live recordings spanning 25 years (1969-1994). AMM: Cornelius Cardew, Christopher Hobbs, Lou Gare, Keith Rowe, Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury in different combinations.
Testing
AMM collaborates with Sachiko M on Testing (Matchless Recordings), documenting sessions between the British collective and the Japanese sound artist. The work explores intersections of improvised acoustic techniques and sine wave electronics, presenting careful negotiations between established experimental practices and minimalist electronic intervention.
An Afflicted Man's Musica Box
Cassette edition of the 1982 LP compilation on UD, featuring Jacques Berrocal, Anima, Foetus, AMM, Nurse With Wound and Operating Theatre, manufactured and marketed by RRRecords in 1987 on behalf of United Dairies.
Aura
Aura captures the unmatched synergy between two of AMM's core figures, percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, who also explores the harpsichord in this release. Recorded in the acoustically rich setting of The Sibelius Museum in Turku, Finland, this album offers a meditative, deeply intimate experience through extended improvisations that emphasize AMM's ethos of creating expansive, ambient soundscapes. With Prévost's textural percussive approach and Tilbury's subtle, evolving cho…
Last Calls
'Making a journey to a Bright Nowhere' series - marking Eddie Prévost's 80th birthday. Volume 4 - Cafe OTO 30th July 2022
AMMMusic
The first recording by these pioneers of electro-acoustic improvisation, AMMMusic stands the test of time both as a remarkably prescient session and as an utterly powerful and deep piece of 20th century music
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Until The Next Time
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* More than half a century has elapsed since the founding of the legendary British free improvisation group AMM. We could say there would be no free improvisation as we know it today without AMM’s Eddie Prévost, John Tilbury and Keith Rowe. The mystery surrounding AMM has not faded; to the contrary, even nowadays it carries a particular appeal due to its engaged, intelligible and nonetheless radical message. AMM Until The Next Time Next Festival LP 2019 In 196…
Indústria
The title Indústria was chosen by Eddie Prevost in tribute to the history behind the Museu Industrial de Bala do Tejo, in Portugal where this concert took place by the legendary free improvisation band AMM, represented here as the duo of percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, performing as part of the 2015 Out.Fest - Festival Internacional de Musica Exploratoria do Barreiro.
20 Years Of Experimental Music
**Edition of 300 copies** Nantes trio Formanex celebrates 20 years of activism in experimental music with a 10 CD edition full of amazing collaborations with ONsemble (contemporary music group from Nantes and Saint-Nazaire) and composers they have worked with. The box set includes early works by Formanex’s own Julien Ottavi, unique compositions created by Keith Rowe, pieces by Kasper T. Toeplitz, Ralf Wehowsky, Seth Cluett, Michael Pisaro, Radu Malfatti, as well as other giants of contemporary m…
Uncovered Correspondence - A Postcard from Jaslo
Recorded at the concert hall of the Jasielski Dom Kultury (Jaslo Cultural Centre) in southern Poland on the 15th of May 2010."It is given to very few artists to have created a language entirely their own, but that is what AMM has done over the years, in various line-ups and configurations, with Eddie Prévost on drums as the only unifying element since 1965, and with John Tilbury on piano for the last two decades, here with just the two of them. You may like them or not, but they have made histor…
Aamm
Back in August of 2015, the legendary London Grand Seigneurs of improve pioneers, AMM (John Tilbury and Eddie Prévost) joined forces with Lebanese electro-acoustic-free-jazz outfit "A" Trio (Mazen Kerbaj, Sharif Sehnaoui & Raed Yassin). Two generations of improvisers with a very differing approach to work, captured dancing slowly along a very thin line of fine tuned, both, clear and crackling improvised sounds. Harsh at times with magic mellow moments of intense, fragile, broken noises. No overd…
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An Unintended Legacy
A beautiful 3-CD set with a hardcover book presenting 3 full concerts from 2015 & 2016 of the AMM trio configuration of John Tilbury (piano), Keith Rowe (guitar) and Eddie Prevost (percussion). The 70 page book, dedicated to saxophonist Lou Gare, includes an AMM discography, plus photos, an essays by Paige Mitchell and Allen Fisher; Keith Rowe; Eddie Prevost; and Lou Gare.
Trinity
The amorphous unit that is AMM has been refining—and indeed redefining—a sound for as long as it's been in existence, and there's no reason to believe that the process this implies is likely to ever stop evolving. This does of course render John Butcher's presence here as perhaps anomalous, but there are no musical reasons to believe that this was the case in reality. The resulting trio—indeed the Trinity—of Butcher on tenor and soprano saxophones, pianist John Tilbury and percussionist  Eddie P…
Spanish Fighters
Recorded at the festival Neposlusno (Sound Disobedience) in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2012, the AMM duo of Eddie Prevost on percussion and John Tilbury on piano perform an extend improvisation of tension and dynamic, delicately balancing sound in a rich dialog. Incidentally, the title of the album is the name of the venue (Spanski Borci in which the concert was recorded. Both artists felt a certain respect playing in a place with references to the Spanish Civil War and the fascism that prevailed in…
Place Sub. V.
Active since the mid-1960s, England's AMM have become an icon of the free improvisational movement. In the spring of 2004, due to personal and philosophical disagreements, Keith Rowe suspended his involvement with AMM, an association that went back to his role as founding member in 1965 (albeit with an almost decade-long disenfranchisement through the '70s). The remaining members, percussionist Eddie Prévost and pianist John Tilbury, elected to continue on as AMM, and this their latest effort. T…
Two London Concerts
Restocked, reduced price. Two live recordings by master improvisers John Tilbury (piano) and Eddie Prevost (percussion) playing two emotional sets that are quiet at just the right times and allow for a balanced amount of white space, creating beautiful music. "A new AMM album then, always a welcome arrival, capturing two relatively recent London performances from the duo of Eddie Prévost and John Tilbury. one of which I attended, and the other I could not. Both capture really rather wonderful se…
Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol. 1
Few figures of the American avant-garde wore as many hats as Earle Brown. Composer, graphic notation pioneer, member of the New York School alongside John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Christian Wolff - but also, and crucially, a record producer whose ear shaped one of the most important document series in 20th century music. Between 1960 and 1973, working first for Time Records and then Mainstream Records, Brown curated the Contemporary Sound Series - 18 LPs presenting works by 49 composers from 16…
Sounding Music
AMM's performance at the 2009 Freedom of the City Festival with AMM regular members Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury extended with John Butcher, Chritian Wolff and Ute Kanngiesser. "[...] Certainly in places this sounds like AMM through and through. When Prévost and Tilbury are working together it really cannot be anything else. I find myself hearing the connections between these two musicians through everything else, no matter what other sounds are there to be heard. There are the little climaxes…
It Had Been An Ordinary Enough Day In Pueblo, Colorado
For folks familiar with AMM, this one really doesn’t need much by way of introduction. However, as an entry point, it serves up (relatively) short digestible tracks that illustrate the organic genius of AMM. By the time they recorded this album, this was AMM’s third incarnation. By no means the groups most decisive or challenging work, the songs clearly demonstrate the various shades of free improv mastery that give the group it’s perrenial status as one of the finest examples within the genre. …
That Mysterious Forest Below London Bridge
2007 release (light storage wear) ** Card sleeve. Interlace/Ongaku presented this live show at the Shunt Lounge in the labyrinth under the London Bridge station in November of 2006. Three groups performed: the e-a improv quartet of Tom Chant, Ross Lambert, Sebastian Lexer and Matt Milton; the trumpet/Indian harmonium duo of Jamie Coleman and Mark Wastell; and the AMM duo of Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury.
Generative Themes
very rare, long out of print studio recording from 1982. This marks the recording debut of John Tilbury (piano) in the group, plus the now reunited core of Prévost and Keith Rowe (guitar, electronics). Absolutely stunning improvisational "noise" from a very serious standpoint ensemble. One copy only available, new and unplayed
The Inexhaustible Document
rare original LP, recorded live in London on 1/10/87. Prévost, Rowe, Tilbury, and Rohan de Saram (cello). The organic control of sound on this disc is spectacular; pretty much a must for serious listeners worldwide. One copy only available, new and unplayed
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Combine And Laminates
long time deleted now, this recording is one of their finest. "Combine + Laminates" tends to seesaw between aggressive, noisy sections dominated by Prevost and softer drone-like territories with Tilbury's muffled piano tones in the foreground. Both areas are given immense structural support by Keith Rowe's tabletop guitar arsenal: earthshakingly deep tremors in the louder portions, quietly keening harmonics in the more serene ones. Tilbury's unique genius in integrating the piano's more "traditi…
Apogee
Restocked, reduced price. 2CD Edition. In 1968 Mainstream released an LP with AMM on one side and MEV (Musica Electronica Viva, then based in Italy) on the other. In 2004 the two groups re-convened in London. Two of the five original AMM (Eddie Prevost and Keith Rowe), and three of the original five MEV (Alvin Curran, Frederick Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum) still in place. The only new boy on this CD is their contemporary John Tilbury; since 1980 he has been the stable third AMMusician. On CD …
Live in Allentown USA (1994)
More than any other group creating spontaneously improvised music, the members of AMM have a calm certainty about them, a serene sense of unhurriedness. There appears to be no doubt that whatever musical element is brought to light during their performance, it will prove capable of both generating beauty on its own and assuming its place as a structural element with what has preceded it. This live recording is in many ways typical of the group in its most common configuration of the '80s and '90…
Newfoundland (1992)
Restocked, reduced price. "Since its inception in 1966, the cooperative group AMM has been uncompromising in its commitment to freely improvised music. Often, especially early in its existence, this resulted in a harsh, aggressive sound field, one that even the most inquisitive newcomer might have difficulty approaching. By the mid-'80s, perhaps due to the mellowing that comes with age or the addition of pianist John Tilbury, AMM's music took a turn toward the quieter, more contemplative music e…
The Nameless Uncarved Block
In Ed Baxter's liner notes to this recording, he writes, "AMM exists where words fail". Indeed, AMM's steadfast avoidance of music which has any references apart from itself makes descriptive commentary a daunting task. In The Nameless Uncarved Block, however, recorded at live performances during the 1990 Taktlos Festival, the group comes as close as they've ever sounded to something resembling a free jazz unit. Partly, this is due to the inclusion of founding member Lou Gare on tenor sax. His p…
Combine + Laminates + Treatise (1984)
** Restocked, reduced price** A re-issue of the Pogus LP format with additional material taken from the same concert at the Arts Club, Chicago, USA, 25th May 1984. The difference in the music included on this CD version is the addition of Treatise '84. This, as the audience was aware, was an Amm improvisation inspired and guided, rather than dictated or controlled by Cornelius Cardew's graphic masterpiece. There is, of course, no way that this work could be identified as a composition in the acc…
Generative Themes (1982-83)
The title of this disc, Generative Themes, could be taken as a capsule description of the nature of AMM's music: creating a sound and following it to see where it takes one, generating new sounds along the way, choosing which of these to follow and, as if ambling through a wooded glade or an abandoned building, aurally mapping the territory with precision and poetry. This recording was made relatively shortly after the addition of pianist John Tilbury to the group, resulting in the core band tha…
To Hear and Back Again (1973-75)
** Restocked, reduced price** A reissue of what is chronologically the 3rd full Amm album, following AMM:1966 and The Crypt. Recorded during the years of 1973-75, this marks an unusual and little recognized period in the group's history. For about 5 years, Keith Rowe (and his guitar and electronics) had left the group (along with Cornelius Cardew), leaving AMM as a working duo of Eddie Prévost (drums) and Lou Gare (tenor saxophone). That makes this the most jazz-like version of AMM, but as the l…
From a strange place
Undisputed deans of the meta-music, captured live on their first ever tour of Japan in October 1995. After 30 years of AMMusic there's very little left to be said about the group. Suffice to say that this is more of their totally committed style of pure improvisation, scaling new heights of non-derivativeness. Music created with a piercing awareness of place and time, once created never to be repeated, even by themselves. This set was marked by an extreme level of quietness, a grappling with sil…
Norwich
Norwich, recorded in February, 2005, at the School of Music, University of East Anglia, presents the current two-member AMM of Prévost and Tilbury ” the third two-man version of the group (Prévost played as AMM with saxophonist Lou Gare and then Rowe in the 1970s). Rowe's departure is a tremendous shift, of course, both for his extraordinary sonic resourcefulness and his sometimes abrasive electronics (including his use of random or found verbal and musical messages). However, it is much more im…
Fine
Music for dance, by AMM. Recording of the concert given together with the dancer Fine Kwiatkowski at Musique Action festival produced by CCAM, Vendoeuvre-les-Nancy, France on 24th May 2001. The album's title connotation is at least dual. This is a recording of a live performance done in conjunction with dancer Fine Kwiatkowski (who, incidentally, is not audible), and it's certainly "fine" in the qualitative sense. One hopes the aura of "finality" implicit in the title doesn't apply. This is one …
Tunes Without Measure or End
AMM and their CDs have an almost comfortable familiarity. The trio's personnel has remained fundamentally the same since the early '80s when pianist John Tilbury joined the remaining founders, drummer Eddie Prévost and guitarist Keith Rowe. Every two or three years they release a CD, usually a single uninterrupted improvisation, about an hour in length, taped in performance. The only way in which these two CDs tamper with that practice is that they were both released in 2001. 'Tunes Without Meas…
Before Driving To the Chapel We Took Coffee With Rick and Jennifer Reed
Awesome set with a sense of suspended time that marks out their musical world. Combined with the quality of attention and the virtuosic command that is evident in each stroke, it is almost hallucinatory in effect - Keith Rowe, John Tilbury, Eddie Prévost. Concert in Houston, Texas. 1996. "A stupendous continuation of the 90's AMM sound, ala previous documents such as Newfoundland, Live In Allentown and From A Strange Place. Shifting patterns consistently emerge; via Prévost's bowed percussion; v…
Laminal
"A three CD set marking thirty years in the making of AMMmusic. Three concert performances: Aarhus, Denmark, 1969. London, 1982. New York, 1994. Featuring variously: Cornelius Cardew, Lou Gare, Christopher Hobbs, Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe and John Tilbury. Includes an illustrated booklet with commentaries by Jim O'Rourke, Victor Schonfield, Malcolm LeGrice and John Tilbury." Tremendous historical document of all exclusive material to this box, perfectly packaged, desperately awaited. "AMM moves …