John Duncan
John Duncan, born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1953, has worked for decades at the cutting edge of performance, video, experimental music, installation and pirate radio and television. He played a pivotal role in the performance art of 1970s Los Angeles, often at the limit of the bearable, in the experimental music of the LAFMS, and later in the noise and pirate broadcasting of Tokyo. His sound work uses shortwave, voice and signals at the very edge of hearing to unsettle the listener, on records such as Riot and the disquieting The Crackling, made with particle-accelerator recordings.
Gloomy Sunday: The Funeral I Plan for Myself
Telekinett is pleased to unveil a narrative that delves into themes of darkness and metaphysics, spotlighting John Duncan, a distinguished figure among contemporary Electroacoustic composers.
Phantom Broadcast (CD)
2002 CD-only release on Duncan's own Allquestions label by the seminal industrial/performance artist's shortwave composition.
Nav (CD)
2000 CD-only double set co-released on the musicians' own Allquestions and .Absolute. labels with two long pieces, one by each composer using sound material created by both.
Palace Of Mind (CD)
2001 CD-only release on Duncan's own Allquestions label of the seminal industrial/performance artist's collaboration with the Italian partner.
Tongue(CD)
2004 CD-only release on Duncan's own Allquestions label of the seminal industrial/performance artist's collaboration with the American composer.
Presence (CD)
2004 CD-only release on Duncan's own Allquestions label of the seminal industrial/performance artist's collaboration with the British composer and member of Wire.
Nine Suggestions (CD)
2005 CD-only release on Duncan's own Allquestions label of the seminal industrial/performance artist's collaboration with Pan Sonic.
Kill The King (CD)
1991 album of conceptual/experimental electronic music featuring Clock DVA's Adi Newton, John Duncan, Annie Sprinkle and Zbigniew Karkowski, released by Staalplat in oversize fold-out card wallet with booklet.
Morality
In 1985, Gary Mundy of Ramleh sent out an invitation. He asked artists in the orbit of his label Broken Flag to respond to a single concept: morality. Define it, refuse it, occupy it, destroy it. The results arrived on a cassette, catalogue number BF41, pressed in a run that circulated through the postal networks that kept the underground alive in those years. Most of it was never heard outside those networks. The title was not ironic. It was a provocation with genuine stakes.
Morality was alway…
Ideal Secret Circle (11CD Bundle)
Mega tip! *80 copies limited edition bundle.* Ideal Secret Circle It's an 11 CD limited-edition set of albums packaged in digi packs designed by Philip Marshall. The series is curated by Joachim Nordwall.1. Sins For Beginners - We Don’T Need No Music (For Pita)2. Susana Santos Silva - The Fabrication Of Time 3. Merzbow - Gareki No Niwa4. Jim O’Rourke - Subtracted5. Spykes - Memoirs Of Pogonophores Vol. 2.6. A. Bolus - Evil Moisture Plays Music In The Style Of Organ Of Corti7. Eternities - Foreve…
Split
*200 copies limited edition* John Duncan's "SAXMIX" is one massive piece of contemporary experimental music, which lets noise collide with free jazz and extreme minimalism. Duncan is a master when it comes to these things, and he is an artists constantly evolving, mutating and challenging. The sax thing then? JD has invited some of his fav sax players to collaborate with him; Mats Gustafsson, Antoine Chessex, Martin Escalante, Dror Feiler and Ulrich Krieger. Did I say MASSIVE? Well, it is. Schei…
Blinding Turbulence
Tip! Recorded and mixed by Bob Bellerue at Ridgewood Badlands.Mastered by Ivan FU Pjevcevic at Short Straw studio, Bologna
The Welt
Cross-generational titans of noise and sound experiments, John Duncan, Joachim Nordwall & Henrik Ryland supply a proper drone zoner hashed from shortwave radio, no-input mixer and analogue synths on the iDEAL powerhouse.
Nightfall
Elliott Sharps's release on Erototox Decodings is no different in terms of his ongoing homage to science, entitled 'Phlogiston', aptly named after a substance supposed by 18th-century chemists to exist in all combustible bodies, and to be released in combustion. It’s also his first purely electronic and synthesized record to date.
John Duncan / T.R. Kirstein
First collaboration between Tobias R. Kirstein and John Duncan, prompted by a dream Kirstein had on 31 May 2019 - the day Roky Erickson died - in which Duncan repeated 'You Are Safe' against a backdrop of sine waves. Two long pieces result: Duncan voices texts (You Are Safe, the second 'Come To Me') sustained by Kirstein's slowly morphing electronic backgrounds, computer-generated drones that thicken into something close to insect resonance before settling. Process-led voice and electronics.
Try Again
**Purple vinyl edition** Distorted classical choral recordings, synths, processed guitar… The exquisitely complex human-machine interface experiments conducted by Stefano Pilia are kept in a delicate balance by John Duncan‘s lyrics and the soulful quality of his vocals, for an album of electroacoustic songs that are a unique blend for both artists. Seeds and memories from the past are re-actualized in the present through a machine electroacoustic compositional process creating a dark, gloomy and…
Soft Eyes
Quietly stunning, sensitive songcraft by boundary-pushing avant gardist John Duncan on a starkly haunting and timelessly beautiful new album of observations on society and intimacy, featuring Eiko Ishibashi, Stefano Pilia and friends, and highly recommended if yr feeling Scott Walker, Keiji Haino, Jandek, Tom Waits, Mark Lanegan, David Thomas & Two Pale Boys.
Insnitt
Ideal Recordings presents Insnitt By Carl Michael Von Hausswolff. Recorded at the opening of CM von Hausswolff’s solo exhibition ”Insnitt” at 3:e Våningen, Gothenburg on September 14th 2018. With: John Duncan, Leif Elggren, Jean-Louis Huhta, Joachim Nordwall, Henrik Rylander. Cover photo by CM von Hausswolff. Design by Joe Gilmore at Qubik. Produced by Joachim Nordwall.
Backfire of Joy
Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Backfire of Joy, a previously unheard recording from Phew, John Duncan and Kondo Tatsuo, documenting a concert at Tokyo’s Hosei University in 1982. Though the fertile exchange of ‘zines, tapes and records between the Japanese underground and the Los Angeles Free Music Society meant the artists were familiar with each other’s work, this performance (occurring on Duncan’s first visit to Japan) was their first meeting and only performance as a trio.
Duncan is h…
Chimeratorium
**100 numbered copies in gatefold sleeve, to be released in June 2020** Chimeratorium is based on an audio dream that Deison had. He dreamt about making a new piece together with John Duncan: they were in a large room, in an old church, sculpting frequencies repeatedly for hours. Sounds and frequencies have been then recreated in the studio according to that particular event, becoming the long beautiful suites Theta Waves and Portal, the latter being a collaboration track by both artists.John Du…
MMXX-02
The second instalment of Matière Mémoire Éditions’ MMXX series - Panic@11000 Feet - comes from John Duncan, a near legend who, since his emergence during the 1970s, has straddled the complex territories of performance art, installation, avant-garde music, video art, and experimental film.Many will remember the widely heralded reissue of his debut LP from 1979, Organic, released in 2018 as part of Superior Viaduct’s États-Unis series, but Duncan’s practice began years before, carving a furious pa…
Stark
**numbered edition of 40 copies** New works by John Duncan recorded using shortwaves as a sound source. Recorded and mixed at Pieve del Pino, Sasso Marconi (Italy). Original handdrawn self-portrait by the artist, in a UV luminous sprayed gatefold record sleeve that the artist set on fire. Numbered, dated and signed edition, each copy is different.
Conventional Wisdom
Rich, multi-layered vocal studies and shortwave electronics from avant-garde polymath John Duncan (LAFMS, collaborator with Pan Sonic, Chris & Cosey, Jim O’Rourke and countless others), bolstered by synths, drum machines and arrangements by Joachim Nordwall. Highly recommended if you’re into anything from Scott Walker and Pere Ubu to Jay Glass Dubs, Coil and Ilpo Väisänen’s classic Liima Versions. Venerable avant-garde composer John Duncan follows his prized cycle of cover versions ‘Bitter Ear…
États-Unis Bundle II
**5LP Bundle with Tote Bag**Since its quiet beginnings back in 2011, the San Fransisco based imprint, Superior Viaduct, has come to hold a dominant place in the cultural landscape, stitching an intertwined narrative, crossing multiple genres, between countless forms and periods of counter-cultural music. In 2017 the label launched one of its most interesting and ambitious projects to date, their new sub-label Etats Units, a sonic intervention - an open challenge to how connections in sound are f…
Riot
Hand-numbered LP. Edition of 400 copies. Re-dition of this John Duncan 1984 le Riot album: re-recorded, re-mixed at EMS and expanded with material that didn’t make the initial pressings, all taken from original 8-track master tape - which required them to revive obsolete machinery - and all re-mastered by Rashad Becker for this release; which, according to the legendary avant-garde agitator himself, is finally packaged in artwork befitting of his vision. Or take it straight from the horse’s gob:…
Organic
Lucky restock, totally sold-out at source **First-time vinyl reissue. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl, one time pressing.** The inter-disciplinary maverick John Duncan emerged in 1970s Los Angeles as a confrontational performance artist and, as the decade progressed, aligned himself with the experimental-music collective Los Angeles Free Music Society. His sound art appeared on various self-released cassettes and alongside artists such as Jim Pomeroy and Yoshi Wada on the L…
Mantra / Ur Sonate
**edition of 200, numbered*Two new vocal based recordings by the conceptual, and ever challenging artist John Duncan. "Mantra" is a piece by himself and is a choral drone that is highly capturing and transcendent. "Ur Sonate" is a classic sound poem by dadaist Kurt Schwitters composed between 1922-1932. The piece was banned from being recorded for many years (by the Kurt und Ernst Schwitters Stiftung). This album is something new for Duncan, but also in a way connected to his "Bitter Earth…
Klaar
Black Truffle present the first ever vinyl reissue of legendary performance and sound artist John Duncan's forgotten gem Klaar, originally released by Extreme in 1991 and partly created in collaboration with Andrew McKenzie (The Hafler Trio). Duncan is perhaps most well-known for his notorious early performances pieces, which explored violence, self-denial, and the establishment of extreme psychological and physical states in both artist and audience. Alongside these transgressive experiments, D…
This Bitter Earth
This is the completing release to John Duncan's masterful 'Bitter Earth' LP (iDEAL129). Here, Duncan is covering songs by Gladys Knight ('This Bitter Earth'), Pere Ubu ('Final Solution') and Jule Styne ('I Fall In Love Too Easily'). Beautiful versions by one of the most important conceptual artists of our time. Edition: 200.
Bitter Earth
Bitter Earth is the much anticipated, long-in-the-making new album from John Duncan joined by a broad cast of adroit collaborators; Oren Ambarchi, Jim O’Rourke, Smegma, Chris Abrahams, Joe Talia, CM Von Hausswolff, Eiko Ishibashi, France Jobin - all written in dedication to Mika Vainio (who, for avoidance of doubt, is not dead!). It's a remarkable suite of cover versions - from The Gun Club to Nina Simone and Iggy Pop - and original material by an arch experimenter who continues to explore unfa…
The Black Album
'Masami's and my conversations look like heroin addicts talking : A phrase. A five minute silence. Another phrase. A five minute silence. A question. A five minute silence. Another phrase. A five minute silence. An answer. Et cetera.The BLACK ALBUM shows what's going on in our heads.' - John Duncan
Yeah
Restocked Side A: recorded and mixed in 1993 by John Duncan and Jim O'Rourke at Christoph Heemann's studio in Aachen. Final mix in 2013 by Jim O'Rourke in Tokyo. Side B: Stay alive recorded live with Oren Ambarchi and Joe Talia on 9 March 2013 at SuperDeluxe, Tokyo; mixed by Joe Talia.
YEAHJim and I worked fast and furiously in Christoph Heemann's studio to record this, working in shifts, day and night, three days later had it all but finished -- then Jim said 'Let me do just a couple of t…
Conservatory (San Sebastiano)
Referring to the soundtrack for Conservatory (San Sebastian), John Duncan speaks of 'ghost voices', emphasizing a line of research he's followed in the last several years beginning with Phantom Broadcast (2002), the audio work and live concert performances that utilize a shortwave radio transmission intercepted in the course of a single recording: a shadow play that assumes the form of bells resonating into infinity, where they merge and reverberate, morphing into choruses suspended in space. Du…
First Recordings 1978-85 V1.2
John Duncan was born in Wichita, Kansas and arrived in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, where he became closely associated with the Los Angeles Free Music Society, working with Tom Recchion, Fredrik Nilsen, and Joe Potts. His early practice combined radical performance work, live radio experimentation over KPFK's Close Radio with Paul McCarthy, and an obsessive engagement with shortwave radio that would define his sound for decades. He left the United States for Tokyo in 1982, continued work with p…
There must be a way accross this river / The abject
EVP recordings made in 2009 by Esposito at the onetime home of Duncan in Prospect Heights, Illinois, to which the current resident would not permit entry (though his spouse had previously agreed to it). Heidi Harman, the medium who was present at the encounter, heard Duncan's name specified by the voice. There Must Be A Way Across This River represents Duncan's involvement and processing of the events at his childhood home; The Abject is the result of Z'ev dealing with the occurrences in …
The Tailing
Slow writhing in near-total darkness Intertwining drones from a church organ Movement and sound heavy, thick as oil Erotic and forbidden. Produced and directed by John Duncan, Music by John Duncan - A microscopical audiovisual study on pornography by the great american sound artist - "The calligraphy of the title frame has a distinctly Gothic flourish, and John Duncan taps deeper into that culturally overplayed yet still potent and potentially transgressive tradition as The TAILING unfurls. It'…
Fresh
The zeitkratzer ensemble performing two tracks by John Duncan in a collaboration promoted last year by Podewil in Berlin. A project started over a year ago, the result of continuous and tenatious work over several meetings between Duncan and the musicians, in charge of performing two originally electronic compositions with their acoustic instruments.The 27 minutes of the first piece revisit NAV-FLEX, a composition published last year by Duncan in the double CD with Francisco López, NAV . In zeit…
Nine suggestions
NINE SUGGESTIONS gathers collaborations over the past couple of years between sound installation artist John Duncan and the two members of Pan Sonic, Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen. Duncan's previous collaborators have included Elliott Sharp, Bernhard Günter and Carl Michael von Hausswolff, and the album is on his own label. As Pan Sonic's reputation would lead you to expect, there's enormous confidence here in the handling of material, whether we're talking about distorted screeching like the st…
Crucible
Crucible is a minute sound installation recorded at an outdoor concert in the tiny village of Topolò on the Italian-Slovenian border in July 1997. Its thunderous opening is literally the sound of a downpour which Duncan harnesses and treats to produce something elemental yet edgily unnatural. Bruce Gilbert's work springs to mind though Duncan has a less synthetic touch. The aquatic theme continues as water drains down pipes, gutters and sewers. Thereafter an eerie quiescence pervades. There is s…
Dark Market Broadcast
Recorded in Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles. Walpurgisnachet recorded with Joe Potts. Purge recorded live at Anticlub, Los Angeles. Live recording engineered by Joseph Hammer. Mastered by John Duncan at Unormori, Tokyo. The result is a terrific industrial album, rusty, acid and distorted soundscape with a massive use of FM waves and voices recorded along with low frequency sounds.