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Icarus
This 1972 classic captures saxophonist Paul Winter and his ensemble at the height of their improvisational powers. Winter was one of the first artists to incorporate such exotic instruments as the sitar and tabla into his music and the result was memorable chamber jazz-folk played in the wonderfully experimental, post-hippie way only Winter and his merry band could. The title track, one of guitarist Ralph Towner's compositions, became famous for its pensive melody and soaring soprano sax. "Whole…
Jättiläisrotta
The burgeoning Finnish free-folk movement has been garnering much praise & attention over the past year. First CD release by Avarus who play a left-field blend of noise, folk & free jazz. From the same circle of psychos who bring us Kemialliset Ystavat, Maniac's Dream, Pylon & the Anaksimandros. Backward, dirt-eating freak folk that makes the Animal Collective sound like Judy Collins.
Soundtracks To A Color: Gold & Black
Soundtracks To A Color: Gold & Black was an installation at LA Municipal Art Gallery as part of the COLA (City of Los Angeles) Fellowship exhibition from 2004. The installation consisted of 2000 posters: 1000 Gold and 1000 Black. Two separate rooms were covered with these posters that were covered solid in their color with the name of the color printed rather large in dead center. At the bottom of each poster was listed the instrumentation for each particular soundtrack to the color. The GO…
String Quartets Vol 4
The most recent of his compositions which Rihm called “string quartets” date back a few years already, with a gap in the enumeration still waiting to be filled (the eleventh quartet is missing). Even a cursory comparison of the three works’ beginnings reveals Rihm’s “ability to find new and distinctly characteristic solutions for each piece, which, each in their own way, put a stamp on what is to follow.” (R. Frisius) The gentle pizzicati of Quartet No. 10 and the muted, shadowy chord of No. 12 …
Action Jazz
The Thing pretty much tore my living room to shreds on the release of their last album 'Garage' with its rock 'n roll take on free jazz. Their rendition of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's 'Art Star' especially defined their sound perfectly with a distinctly punk rock ethic applied to what to most sounds like truly out-there jazz. It's hardly surprising that the band is made up of Norwegians then, the country that has birthed some of the most continuously exciting free jazz to date and continues to with lab…
Ins Offene... / sphere
Enclosing the listener in sonic space: This is what Beat Furrer carried to extremes in his FAMA (col legno 20612), about 15 years after Rihm, by actually placing his audience in a “building of sound”. For Wolfgang Rihm, a sonic space was something less concrete and more indirect: “Organically sprawling strings of sound should be woven around the listener, circling her from different directions. In this way, the listener is not left to her own devices while opening up to it; the piece itself come…
Speak no more about the leaves
This cd contains 3 pieces inspired by Arnold Schönberg's 'The Book of the Hanging Gardens' and in particular the poems by Stefan George that Schönberg used as lyrics. Track one uses Steve Roden's voice reading/singing part of the text as the only sound material. Track two uses the vowel structure from the text as a score for striking five tones on a small chime. Track three uses samples from the Schönberg work as well as Roden's voice singing the same text as track one.
Drive by
FINLLY RESTOCKED! For the last 40 years the Logos Foundation in Gent has featured, produced and supported a vast programme of experimental music. One of its most distinctive projects is the massive robot orchestra - a huge and growing array of invented instruments - all of them Goldbegeresque physical constructions that produce internally generated acoustic sound, programmed and played through computer driven mechanical processes... Here they have been programmed to play a broad concert o…
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.
1980-82
A collection of recordings from Spains Esplendor Geométrico recorded between 1980 and 1982. Very much like a spanish Suicide, Esplendor blend soundscapes, industrial noises, vocals and early drum machines to brilliant effect
Portraitkonzert Salzburg 10.8.93
Recorded in Salzburg on August 10, 1993, this recording documents a portrait concert devoted to the music of György Kurtág that spans most of his career, from his Op. 1, first string quartet, written when he was in his forties, to works of recent years. The performers are a star-studded gallery of mostly-Hungarian musicians, many closely associated with Kurtág's music, including the pianist Zoltan Kocsis, the soprano Adrienne Csengery, the Keller Quartet, the cellist Miklos Perenyi and the compo…
Une saison
CD 1: “La Grande Vallée”. Concrete music composed in 1993/1996 at INA-GRM (Paris-France). Field recordings, electronic, analogic synthesiser, realisation and composition : Lionel Marchetti. Voice : Hélène Bettencourt. Additives voices : Frédéric Malenfer, Bruno Roche. Bass clarinette : Jean Andréo. Sib clarinette : Lionel Marchetti.“Portrait d'un glacier (Alpes, 2173m)”. Concrete music composed in 1998/2000 at INA - GRM (Paris-France). Field recordings, electronic, analogic synthesiser, realisat…
7. Sinfonie
Recorded on October 19, 1985 in Orfeum, Graz as part of the Sterischer Herbest festival. Originally released on Dieter Roth's Verlag as a double C90 in an edition of 200 copies.
Imperial Distortion
BACK IN STOCK. Very occasionally a record comes along that we just don't want to review, a record so wondrous that words just seem to fall short. Since we have an urge to persuade anyone who crosses our path to hear 'Imperial Distortion', though, perhaps it's worth a shot nonetheless. Dominick Fernow's Hospital imprint has long impressed us with its output, but never before have we heard anything quite like 'Imperial Distortion' slip out of its ornate iron gates. Those of you in the know will al…
Prometeo, Tragedia dell\'ascolto
One of the most significant musical works of the twentieth century is now available in an archive-quality recording. Only now, using surround-sound technology can the twenty-six channels be balanced out and distributed, spatially and dynamically, with minute accuracy across the five speakers: a time-consuming and fascinating task, evoking the optimist Sisyphus. With this double SACD, André Richard and Peter Hirsch’s team, who had already worked on the first performance of the then new Prometeo i…
Trainsong: Guitar Compositions 1967-2010
UK's Michael Chapman began his career on the Cornish folk circuit in 1967. He signed to the Harvest label, home to Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and many others, recording four quasi-legendary albums. The influential Fully Qualified Survivor was John Peel's favorite record of 1970, and featured future Bowie collaborator Mick Ronson. After decades of recording and touring, Chapman remains an obscure figure in the states. His profile was raised by a lengthy interview with big fan Thurston Moore in…
s/t
More lost Scandinavian sounds from Silence, this one being a folksier variant on the Träd Gräs tribal hoe-down formula. Lots of hand drums and long hair. Hippie as hell, but decidedly non-stinky. Fantastic! Handgjort (trans. "Handmade") recorded a legendary album in 1970 released by Silence Records. All covers were hand-painted by the band members. The music is moody underground folk with Eastern influences. The album sold very poorly and is a serious collector's item today. The original b…
A young persons guide
2CD collects some of this EMERALDS member's best work, previously-released on a number of ltd edition CD-Rs & tape releases over the last 4 years. Electric & acoustic guitar, vocals, tapes, & guitar-synthesizer performed & recorded by Mark McGuire 2007-2010. Although, only 24 years of age McGuire has racked up an impressive canon which most artists twice his age would have problems delivering. With his expert use of loops and layers, as well a superb ear for killer melody hooks makes AYPGTMM…
Hebdomadaire op. 62
52 pieces of the year for a pianist: in Hebdomadaire, Michael Denhoff carries on the noble tradition of cyclic piano music in his own inimitable way.
12 Sonate Da Chiesa
There is little doubt that Helmschrott’s Sonate da chiesa only bear a fleeting resemblance to their namesakes from the 17th and 18th centuries, which, emerging from Northern Italy, quickly rose to great popularity in Baroque Europe. Among the resemblances is their bipartite structure with slow and fast movement and, of course, the use of an organ. Far from expressing formal dependence, the archaic names of the movements lend the twelve pieces a Mediterranean superstructure, as it were. The manif…