Back in stock
The Dull Blade
"More than a decade since their first (and last) trio album, Dim Bulb (2005), 'Buffalo Steve,' Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty are back on the attack. The three recorded as part of a larger ensemble on the Open Mouth LP, Wrong Number
(2014), but they have a certain way of creating focused trio dynamics
that makes babies talk in tongues and old men drool. The line-up is a
bit unorthodox -- two saxes (one a goddamn baritone) and drums. You
might almost be tempted to call the format European. B…
Concrete
Concrete follows from Robert Ashley's preoccupation in two previous operas with the kind of speech that has not been explored in opera -- in Dust (LCD 1006CD), the speech of the homeless; in Celestial Excursions (LCD 1007CD), the speech of people living together in a home for old people. The three operas are not a "trilogy" in any sense, but they all come from this preoccupation with or fascination with special kinds of speech and special kinds of states of mind. "The characters I'm interested i…
Now Eleanor's Idea
2007 release. Now Eleanor's Idea was made possible by grants from The Rockefeller Foundation (1984 and 1993), the National Endowment for the Arts' Opera Musical Theater Program (1985) and InterArts Program (1992). Robert Ashley's Now Eleanor's Idea is a quartet of short operas based on the notion of a sequence of events seen from four, different points of view. At the same time, each opera is an allegory, like Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1678), for an individual's self-realization within the co…
Celestial Excursions
2005 release. Following the ground-breaking work, Dust (LCD 1006CD), godfather of experimental opera Robert Ashley returns with Celestial Excursions. Ashley's endeavor explores remarkably uncharted territory -- the kind of language that is common among "old" people who talk all the time or not at all, to anyone passing by or to themselves. The opera premiered at the Hebbel Theater in Berlin, before coming to The Kitchen for its U.S. premiere in April 2003. Celestial Excursions delves into the wi…
Atalanta (Acts of God)
Originally released on Lovely Music in 1985. Robert Ashley makes use of the story of Atalanta
- a royal princess, discarded by her family, who was raised by the
animals to become the fastest-running human, and who was later reclaimed
by her father to marry her off for dynastic purposes - to present the
character aspects of the "successful suitor". These three aspects of
character are presented in the opera as anecdotes about three
extraordinary men of our times: Max Ernst (surrealist paint…
An Avant Garde of Our Own: Disconnected Works 1980-2018 (8CDBox)
Saxophonist/guitarist/composer/music historian/ provocateur Allen Lowe spans the history of jazz in his music in a way that few besides Jaki Byard, Beaver Harris, Steven Bernstein, and Air have ever done, intertwining blues, early jazz, bebop, and the avant-garde. A prolific composer who was incorporating American roots music into his jazz decades before it was hip, he has led project bands featuring a broad array of jazz greats ranging from Doc Cheatham, Randy Sandke, Joe Albany, Don Byron, Ken…
Foreign Experiences
This new release from Lovely Music features Robert Ashley's famous ensemble, the "band" who interpreted his work for 20 years, from 1992 through 2012. They included Sam Ashley, Thomas Buckner, Marghreta Cordero, Tom Hamilton, Jacqueline Humbert, Joan La Barbara, and Amy X Neuburg. This recording was made at the Hebbel Theater, Berlin on May 12, 1995. The opera was also heard live at the Festival d'Avignon, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Musica Strasbourg, and Site Santa Fe. Foreign Experiences i…
Perfect Lives
*2022 repress now in digipak, with new cover art* Robert Ashley's Perfect Lives has been called "the most influential music/theater/literary work of the 1980s." At its center is the hypnotic voice of Robert Ashley. His continuous song narrates the events of the story and describes a 1980s update of the mythology of small town America. Perfect Lives is populated with myriad characters revolving around two musicians - "R", the singer of myth and legend, and his friend, Buddy, "The World's Greatest…
The Sixth Decade - From Paris To Paris (Live At Sons D’Hiver)
The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, expanding to a chamber orchestra, marks its sixth decade as a vital force on the world music stage with an ear-opening live recording on two LPs. Recorded in France in 2020 at the Son D'Hiver Festival, this recording celebrates the legendary group's historic ties to Paris, where it was formed in 1968. When trumpet great Lester Bowie died in 1999, followers of the Art Ensemble of Chicago couldn't help but wonder whether the legendary quintet, which owed so much to his…
Aquarium Sounds
Sonor Music Editions is honored to announce the reissue of the very rare LP Aquarium Sounds by Italian composer Filippo Trecca. Originally released in 1979 as a promo-only item, “Aquarium Sounds” is a hybrid collection of tracks; some were used as the soundtrack to the thriller TV series “Così Per Gioco” (1979), directed by Leonardo Cortese; others from the talk show “Acquario” (1978-1979) hosted by Italian journalist and writer Maurizio Costanzo. The album also includes “Elena Tip” which featur…
Ritual-All-7-70
Alan Sondheim was the young, exuberant leader of a pack of improvisers in their communal loft in Providence, Rhode Island. Undaunted by attempts to categorize electronic music as the province of academic tinkerers, a cold, unfriendly realm, with its own authorities, and audiences and mystique, they plunged fearlessly, joyously and unselfconsciously into the medium, discovering a new way to express their ideas. Their ESP CDs, ESP 1048, Ritual all 7-70 and ESP 1082, T'Other Little Tune, merge free…
Mandatory Reality
Mandatory Reality, the new album by Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society, is here. Setting aside (for the moment) the electric instrumentation of Simultonality (GB 048CD/MTE 068LP, 2017) and Magnetoception (MTE 063-64LP, 2015), Joshua Abrams conceived Mandatory Reality for an eight-piece acoustic manifestation of NIS, consisting of himself on guimbri, Lisa Alvarado on harmonium and gongs, Mikel Avery on tam-tam and gongs, Ben Boye on autoharp and piano, Hamid Drake on tabla and tar, Ben…
The Loweski
This track is the unreleased beginning portion of this 1973 Frank Lowe concert that was released as Black Beings. This incredible performance is filled with the fire and drive Frank Lowe was projecting on his tenor sax in 1973. This extended track titled "The Lowesky" is set in a five part suite form. Each performer is allowed ample time to express his individual contributions to this phenomenal group. The Band: Frank Lowe-tenor sax, Joseph Jarman-soprano, Raymond Lee Cheng (The Wizard)-violin, …
No Joke!
ESP is proud to present a new William Parker album in collaboration with his wife Patricia Nicholson. No Joke! is unapologetically political, facing down injustice and inequality and other “in”s with artistic integrity and “outside” music.
Naldjorlak
Saltern presents a thrilling new live recording of Naldjorlak for solo cello, composer Éliane Radigue’s first piece for an acoustic instrument, paired with a remastered version of the long out-of-print, original 2006 recording. Composed in 2005 in close collaboration with cellist Charles Curtis, Naldjorlak marked a striking shift in the music of Radigue, who has since composed exclusively for instrumentalists with her celebrated Occam series. This album brings together two complete performances …
This Embodiment
This Embodiment consists of work stemming from exhibitions and performances by Hanne Lippard over the past number of years. Including texts from her most recent exhibition entitled ‘Flesh’, at Berlin’s KW, that saw the artist use ‘her body and words to counterfeit perimeters given by established standards in art production and create a universe where the audience is physically as well as mentally brought outside of their confinements.’ The works collected display the various areas to which Lippa…
It’s All Breaking Apart
The six compositions on Soundwalk Collective’s new album, It’s All Breaking Apart, are based on field recordings from Berlin clubs, particularly Berghain, blended with additional sounds processed through modular synthesizers, ambient noise, fragments of conversations, and new vocal performances, both sung and spoken. The album features collaborations with Anika, Gudrun Gut, Elvin Brandhi, and Nina Kraviz. The opening track, The Crowd, is a collaboration between Soundwalk Collective and legendary…
Form the Other Side of a Landscape
The six tracks that compose this record were taken form a seven-hour performance that took place in November 2023 in the Louvre-Lens Museum in France. This album crystallizes a process where multiple timelines and possibilities coexisted, distilling them into a linear sequence. This album involves transforming a live act that embraced a fluid and expansive understanding of time, into an object that can be played in identical loops. The live performance was reimagined, translating temporalities w…
Terp Interrupted
This audio recording is a new experiment, and simultaneously recalls a line of inquiry from the early practice of Christine Sun Kim. By inviting her to make a record, the curators proposed a return to her work with audio—to a series of artworks that were characterized by the sensorial vibrations and bodily experience of sound, for which she often employed voice. “I can feel [my voice] inside of my body, and in this way it is accessible to me.” Alongside an embodied connection to Deaf culture, th…
Athos: Echos from the Holy Mountain
Huge Tip!!! Mount Athos, known as the «Holy Mountain,» is a monastic peninsula in northeastern Greece, central to Eastern Orthodox monasticism for over a millennium. Its twenty monasteries house around 2,000 monks dedicated to prayer and worship, which songs have echoed across the Aegean Sea for centuries, heard only by visiting pilgrims, isolated from conventional time and global events. After several years of research, and several visits to the retired community, we are happy to present our ne…