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Amorphous spores
Unusual sound work from the Japanese duo of Takahiro Kawaguchi and Utah Kawasaki (Astro Twin), using self-made instruments and electronics to create unexpected sonic emissions that follow curious paths that are separated by periods of quiet or textur…
Good Morning / Good Night
Well, 'Holy Good Night!' seems an appropriate reaction when faced with a substantial double-disc offering from the 'holy triumvirate' of Japanese reduced improvisation and minimal electronics, ie Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko Matsubara and Toshimaru Nakam…
s/t
ErstLive is a new series of releases from Erstwhile Records, documenting notable live sets associated with the label. The discs are designed to simulate a concert experience, each in the same template design using two colors chosen by the musician…
S'approcher s'eloigner s'absenter
In September 2011, Erstwhile producer Jon Abbey was invited to curate two weeks of shows at John Zorn's legendary Manhattan venue The Stone, which he used as an opportunity to invite many of his favorite musicians from Japan, Europe and the US to …
Taku Unami/Devin DiSanto
A collaborative CD between Devin DiSanto and Taku Unami, a recording of a live performances that took place inside AMPLIFY 2015: exploratory at Fridman Gallery in Nyc. "Devin DiSanto lives in Brooklyn and develops performances, actions, and audio rec…
This Place / Is Love
An extended work from Antoine Beuger and Michael Pisaro, defined by six stanzas written by Beuger, Anna Swir, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugger and Edmond Jabes, a subtle cycle on love and permanency realized in tone and voice."
"The work begins in very un-Wa…
Weather sky
That said, "Weather Sky" is another thing altogether. Bruno Meillier invited Toshi to play a duo concert in St Etienne with AMM's no-concessions table guitar master Keith Rowe, and took them into the studio the day after to record for Erstwhile. Sens…
Aso
Ami Yoshida and Christof Kurzmann are both well-respected artists within the international community, each performing in a wide range of contexts from abstract to pure pop. Both are best known for their long-running duos, Yoshida for Cosmos (with Sac…
Right after
Right After is a remarkably subtle album of duo electronics by two relatively young Italians with roots in avant-garde improvisation. While Giuseppe Ielasi began his career as a guitarist and Domenico Sciajno was an improvising bassist of note, both …
Looking Around
Christian Wolff, prepared piano, whistles, stones. Michael Pisaro, electric guitar, harmonica, stones. Recorded in 2014. Chistian Wolff (1934), American composer of avant-garde music. Michael Pisaro (1961), guitarist andcomposer, member of Wandelweis…
Bits, bots and signs
Ever since Otomo got into his minimal misuse of stereo equipment phase, a collaboration with Swiss toaster torturers Voice Crack was on the cards. Although Otomo's refraction of high end sinewaves around cranial interiors may not seem like an ideal p…
Imaoto
Since the early nineties, Vienna-based Radu Malfatti has been investigating the edges of ultraminimalism in both his composed and improvised work. On Imaoto, he is joined by empathetic explorer Klaus Filip to create an instant classic. Malfatti and F…
Soba To Bara
Free improvisation has rarely seen significant new movements as influential as the small group of Tokyo musicians once labeled as "onkyo", who have now been a primary driving force in contemporary improvisation for a full decade. Over that decade, th…
Motubachii
'Throughout their careers, both Annette krebs and taku unami have explored the areas between composition and improvisation, innovation and repetition, music and ambient sound. On motubachii, their distinctive styles come together to form a whole that…
bot box boxes
"After several years of not doing anything since Erstwhile first asked me to do a solo album, I suddenly had the idea to record it last week and it was released within a week or so. I know some of you are thinking "Anyone can do this...", but in the …
Twice
** Six-panel digipak, photos by Yan Jun/Zhu Wenbo, design by Yuko Zama ** Erstwhile Records presents Twice by Yan Jun and Zhu Wenbo. Yan Jun: recorded in Beijing, Feb 2021. Zhu Wenbo: recorded in Qingdao and Beijing, Sept 2020 - Feb 2021. Photos/imag…
Photographs
Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet stand side by side in the vanguard of contemporary sound exploration. Since the initiation of their collaborative endeavors in 2006, the duo have crafted a nice combination of audio vérité and musique concrète, tog…
Touching
"Erstaeu 003 is, at once, the most "traditional" of the first three releases and, perhaps because of that, the most difficult to approach, at least for this listener. My previous experience with Graham Stephenson's work (I think this is my first expo…
Teatro Assente
A minimal theater in sound from Taku Unami and Takahiro Kawaguchi and starring Yoko Chosakabe and Kumio Kurachi, recording at the Ueno Okura Theater Older Building. "Teatro Assente is endearing and provoking, but most of all, endlessly pleasing." T…
Wovenland 2
The first words of Toshiya Tsunoda and Taku Unami’s liner notes to the double CD under consideration here are, “Wovenland became a band.” It should be noted that Wovenland was the name of an earlier album by Tsunoda and Unami, the digipak’s spine sti…