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Cues: Writings & Conversations
544 page English/German Edition. In 2002 Christian Wolff was a guest composer at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and during the course of the festival he was interviewed by Christopher Fox and by James Gardner. Fox's interview took place before an audience in the Lawrence Batley Theatre on 25 November; Gardner's interview was recorded in private in the George Hotel, Huddersfield on 27 November, and edited excerpts from that recording were subsequently used in a programme produced by…
Music with Roots in the Aether
"Music with Roots in the Aether" is a series of interviews with seven composers who seemed to me (Robert Ashley) when I conceived the piece-and who still seem to me twenty-five years later-to be among the most important, influential and active members of the so-called avant-garde movement in American music, a movement that had its origins in the work of and in the stories about composers who started hearing things in a new way at least fifty years ago.There is, of course, our indebtedness to Eur…
Outside of Time - Ideas about Music
English-German Edition, 655 pages (!) collection of writings about ideas concerning music by American composer Robert Ashley. For nearly forty-five years, composer robert Ashley has pursued his vision of opera in the face of near complete indifference from the American mainstream culture industry. Ashley’s experience parallels that of other American indepen-dent avant-garde figures such as Terry Riley, Alvin lucier, and Pauline Oliveros. like these composers, Ashley uses notation only to the ext…
Nonsequiturs: Writings & Lectures on Improvisation, Composition and Interpretation (Book)
English-German edition, 576 pages (!) collection of writings about ideas concerning music by American composer Frederic Rzewski (April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. Rzewski’s anti-establishment thinking stood at the center of his music-making throughout his life. It was evident in the experimental, agitprop improvisations he created in the 1960s with the ensemble Musica Elettronica Viva; in “Coming Together,” the Mini…
Desert Plants
**Essential reading!** Walter Zimmermann interviews Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, John Cage, Philip Corner, Jim Burton, Phil Glass, Steve Reich, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, Joan La Barbara, Pauline Oliveros, David Rosenboom, Richard Teitelbaum, Larry Austin, James Tenney, J. B. Floyd (about Conlon Nancarrow), La Monte Young, Charlemagne Palestine, Charles Morrow, Garrett List, John Mc Guire and Ben Johnston (about Harry Partch).
The Rubaiyat Of Dorothy Ashby
Essential Dorothy Ashby! This high quality Verve By Request edition is cut on 180 gram vinyl at Third Man Pressing in Detroit from a newly remastered transfer. Original Lab review: Released in 1969, Rubaiyat was the follow-up to the cult-favorite Afro Harping. Lesser known, perhaps due to its rarity, Rubaiyat follows in line with more of the funky awkwardness established by its predecessor. The monster track here is "The Moving Finger," with a chanting intro setting off a nice break followed by …
Lambi
Originally released on the Moshé-Naïm label in 1976, here's the first ever vinyl reissue, expanded to a double album including some essential bonus tracks taken from the recording sessions. Master tape sound. Sommor Records present the first ever vinyl reissue of Synchro Rhythmic Eclectic Language's Lambi, originally released in 1976. Impressive jazz-rock-fusion with progressive, funk, Afro-Caribbean and Zeuhl elements courtesy of multi-cultural French band Synchro. The band features drummer St…
Les trois Fou's perdegagnent
Second album by Etron Fou Leloublan, the mythic avant-rock / rock-in-opposition incredible trio, that happily destroys all rock structures and performs a delirious music, full of humour and rhythm. Etron Fou Leloublan had definitely moved up a notch with this release and things would actually get even better with the next release! Still, this album, originally published in 1979 is quite a juicy steak that will take quite some time to devour with the end results exceeding beyong the initial anti…
Ertlif
*2023 stock* "Despite the source of the band's name (derived from a fantastical myth that involves alchemy and leprechauns), the progressive aspect of Ertlif is not so much in the subject matter of the band's songs. There are no fairies or trolls or magicians drifting through the songs. Instead, Ertlif sing about subjects both earthier and easier to believe and relate to. That does not stop the music from taking on an edgy mysticism that lurks uneasily beneath the surface. There is a sense of Pi…
Fusioon
*2023 stock* First album released in 1972 by these Catalan psych-progsters. Traditional Spanish songs receive a psychedelic / progressive / jazz-rock treatment with tremendous rhythm section (drum breaks galore!), fuzztone guitar, Hammond & analogue keyboards plus occasional string arrangements.
Quintessence
Mad About Records officially reissues super rare private press Quintessence’s 1981 LP. With every famous jazz recording, many others remained on the shelf of oblivion without ever receiving the recognition they deserved, and this is the case of Quintessence. Led by Ron Ancrum, with George Sovak, David Gaedeke, Winston Johnson and Steve Muse recorded an exceptional and fundamental album of 80's jazz. If you are into Fender Rhodes, this is an LP to be collected.
Domestic Exile
**Exclusive Clear Vinyl Edition, 100 copies** Mental Experience present the first ever reissue of Steve Piccolo's debut album from 1982, Domestic Exile. A hidden gem of minimalist beauty, mixing a post-punk/DIY/lo-fi aesthetic with art-rock and spoken poetry. Steve Piccolo has been active since the mid-1970s in music, theater, performance art, sound installations, video and film soundtracks. In 1979, he started with the Lurie brothers the "fake jazz"/no wave band, Lounge Lizards. Domestic Exile …
Pyramid
33 minutes of pure, unadulterated, psychedelic krautrock courtesy of Pyramid, an obscure studio project produced by Toby Robinson, aka The Mad Twiddler. These sessions were recorded circa 1975-76 in Cologne for the underground Pyramid label, which was operated by Toby and his friend Robin Page (the Fluxus artist). During that time, Toby worked as engineer and assistant at various studios in Cologne, including the famous Dieter Dierks studios, where most of the albums from the Ohr/Pilz/Cosmic Cou…
Circus
2024 stock. Debut album released in 1976 by Circus, one of the best bands of the Swiss progressive rock scene in the 1970s, when many groups were of a high standard. The band's style was based on the strength of King Crimson from 1972-74, with a jazz-rock approach, and they established their style on their debut album. First official CD reissue in paper jacket, SHM-CD, one bonus track, latest remastering by the band, first release in Japan.
The Oak of the Golden Dreams
Important reissue of two historic minimalist albums, originally released on LP via the Advance label and out of print for decades now. Mastered from original tapes according to the composers original specifications. Packaged with informative liner notes by Kyle Gann, including an overview discography for seminal works within the field of minimalism. This timely CD reissue combines two LPs from the Advance label-Richard Maxfield’s Electronic Music and Harold Budd’s The Oak of the Golden Dreams-bo…
Spectral Malsconcities
The evolution of the string quartet repertory has accelerated during the last half of the twentieth-century and beyond as composers from both the mainstream and the avant-garde have mined its seemingly inexhaustible creative resources. This CD features the virtually unprecedented combination of string quartet and percussion. It contains three works by prominent American experimentalist composers from several generations exploring the ensemble’s unique sonic resources in diverse stylistic setting…
September Canons
Todd Reynolds, violin, with electronic processing; Members of the Yale Philharmonia, Julian Pellicano, conductor; The Berkeley Gamelan, Daniel Schmidt, director; Ingram Marshall, gambuh (Balinese flute), Serge synthesizer, live electronic processing
The pieces on this recording span almost three decades and represent the principal threads that have run through Ingram Marshall's (b 1942) work: his remarkable skill in using electronics to create expressive and voluptuously beautiful pieces; the in…
Spectropia Suite
This film is a time travel/supernatural drama. The soundtrack is one part big band jazz, one part electronica and one part rock. The “Spectropia Suite” features a guest appearance from Blondiechanteuse Debbie Harry singing the future-noir ballad “This Time That Place”. No stranger to the Downtown avant-garde, Debbie has long had a connection to such artists as The Lounge Lizards.
Devapriya
Braz Gonsalves was an Indian jazz musician (soprano and alto saxophone, clarinet). He is considered one of the great saxophonists of India and one of the outstanding musicians of contemporary jazz in Goa. He first worked as an entertainment musician, before he became one of the pioneers of Indo jazz rock and 1970 recorded the album 'Raga Rock' in Calcutta. After Ananda Shankar there are very few other Indian jazzmen that can be named to have spanned the continental musical barriers of East and W…
Tentacles
The artist group Augenstern (Christiane Prehn and Wolfgang Meyer) have lived and worked on the ship Anuschka for many years. In July 2014 the MS Anuschka left Berlin in the direction of Paris before reaching their final destination in the south of France in November 2014. On the way, the crew examined numerous bridges, spanning rivers and canals. Using tentacles installed on board to scratch the bridges, the ship turned into a sensitive, perceiving and sounding laboratory interacting with the te…