Music from France

Modes réels collectifs is the first work published in 1981 under the Vivenza banner, following Jean-Marc Vivenza's time with the bands Glace (1976) and Mécanique Populaire (1979). It represents a genuine manifesto that would become emblematic of all Vivenza's subsequent work. By suggesting, from philosophical and sonic points of view, an idea of opening to the reality directly inspired from Futurist theories, Vivenza was presenting what he had brought from his relationship with machines and soun…

"After our acclaimed reissues of the first two LPs by French electronic rock pioneers Heldon, we are proud to offer a lavish vinyl version of their third album (also known as It's Always Rock 'n' Roll), where Pinhas and Co. follow the same paths he created with Electronique Guérila under the strong influence of works by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, and of course the contemporanean Krautrock movement. For those of you following our line of releases there will be no need to say that composer, …

Centered around guitarist Richard Pinhas and featuring a floating cast of regular collaborators (Didier Batard, François Auger, Patrick Gauthier, Alain Renaud, Georges Grunblatt; Coco Roussel amongst others), Heldon will marry Pinhas personal obsessions -modern philosophy (Deleuze, Guattari), science-fiction (Norman Spinrad, Philip K.Dick), progressive rock (King Crimson, Fripp & Eno), american minimalism (Terry Riley, Steve Reich) and electronic music- into a diverse musical cocktail tha…

Three works by Luc Ferrari: Visage 2 (1955-56) and Après presque rien (2004), both first recordings with Musiques Nouvelles and Art Zoyd, and Madame de Shanghai for three flutes and digital sounds.

Alga marghen was the first label to issue on CD the 4 record LPs that Ghedalia Tazartes privately produced between the late 1970s and early 1980s, therefore contributing to the diffusion of this music among the new generations. At the same time Ghedalia Tazartes' music defined the high standard level of the alga marghen label in its early days. These great recordings are still available in their original CD editions and no surprise that alga marghen has now the privilege to bring you the pleasur…

Original copy, lucky warehouse fine: Recorded august 1984 at Souterrain Scientifique. Experimental music from France by DDAA (acoustic guitar, bass, tape, piano, saxophone, effects, drums, voice, guitar, percussion - Jean-Luc André , Jean-Philippe Fee , Sylvie Martineau. Recorded by Bernard C.).

Déficit Des Années Antérieures was originally released in 1979 as a C60 tape. This CD reissue is a limited edition of 450 copies, numbered and signed, silkscreen cover with 2 colors + one bonus live in Cherbourg in 1979.

This is an identical 180-gram vinyl reissue of the 1973 Vertigo release, wich is possibly Magma's great opus. Whether one prefers one of their other studio or live releases to it, there is no doubt that Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh is the most original, definitive Magma album around (although this reviewer personally prefers the Mekanik Kommandoh version!).Featuring a cast of thousands including a choir, brass section, flute and tuned percussion, Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh marries the stripped…

**last copies** Kassel Jaeger lives and works in Paris. He’s a member of the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) and his album is a weave of improvisations executed on various instruments (koto, rebab, positive organ, Coupigny modular synthesizer), captured and then treated as if they were field recordings. It’s about reducing the instrumental gesture to simple expressive material, shaping it while loosing control over it, letting it grow until there is no more readability in terms of ways of p…

DVD of two filmed portraits made by Luc Ferrari and Gérard Patris for French TV in the 1960s: Stockhausen rehearsing Momente, and Hommage à Edgard Varèse, released here for the first time with English subtitles.

** Edition limited to 350 copies, includes an insert with the complete score by Luc Ferrari. ** Luc Ferrari conceived this work in 1977 as a sequence of seven individually or collectively improvised exercises for tape and any instrument or group of instruments. Never performed before, "Exercices d'improvisation" have been released by the GOL collective and issued now on LP by PLANAM. The seven exercises follow each others in a suite of growing intensity where GOL acoustic and electric instrument…

Alga Marghen presents Éphémère I & II (for tape, or to be played with various instruments) -- two previously-unpublished masterpieces which represent for several reasons a very specific moment in the creative life and catalog of Luc Ferrari. Even if Ferrari's perfect skill in creating some of the most beautiful sonic works ever is now well known to the large audience appreciating his music, the undetermined character marking the two works presented here is quite surprising. Luc Ferrari was tempt…

In the beginning, Hystérie off Music was conceived as a catalogue-record, playing with musical genres. It evolved quickly to unveil new landscapes of Ghédalia Tazartès’ universe. Tender, funny, but also scary, infernal, this new album is, according to its author, his most accomplished to date, a true movie for the ear.

Vinyl-only release. Performers: Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven (piano); Claude Berset (piano); Vincent Royer (viola). Sub Rosa presents the first release after their Luc Ferrari trilogy. Didascalies 2 is not to be confused with 2007's Didascalies (SR 261CD) -- this is another composition entirely, never published before. "The other day I found a file from 1993, a score for two pianos entitled 'Revenir à la Note de Départ' (trans. 'Getting Back To The Initial Note'). So I decided to turn it i…

A star of minimalist electronica and sound art, Ryoji Ikeda (born 1966) focuses on the building blocks of sound and aural minutiae, often deploying frequencies at the very edges of human hearing—sound that, as he puts it, “the listener becomes aware of only upon its disappearance.” His albums +/- (1997) and Matrix (2001) spread this soundworld of sine waves and ambient glitchery to a wider audience; since then, he has exhibited and collaborated (notably with Carsten Nicolai) across the world. A …

Beautiful duets between Brigitte Fontaine and Areski -- and an album that's filled with loads of short little tracks that stand with some of their greatest work ever! Instrumentation is spare, but incredibly haunting -- a bit jazzy at times, slightly experimental at others -- but always quiet enough to allow the slightly-whispered vocals of the pair dominate the record. There's a strong sense of poetry here -- but without any of the stiffness or pretension that might imply -- and the re…

A brilliant collaboration between these two dark moody French singers -- every bit as great as their classics from the early 70s! Recorded in 1977, with enough material to make up 2 LPs, this set features 33 tracks that slip and slide into each other with cool sounds, spare instrumentation, and amazing vocals that are difficult to describe, but which cut you to the quick once you've heard them! Extremely haunting, with a feel that sounds like the wind blowing through an empty cottage on…

'Live organised and recorded at Les Voutes - Paris 27 October 2007 by VulturesMusick. Rock'n'roll Station (Original track by Vince Taylor, Jac Berrocal and Pierre Bastien) by Jac Berrocal and Andrew Liles. Artwork : Julien Pacaud, Mastering: Dk Mastering. Limited and numbered edition of 493 copies, produced & edited by VulturesMusick © 2009.

An inedite work by the great composer Luc Ferrari: 'chantal, ou le portrait d'une villageoise' 1977-1978. Stereo magnetic tape. Mastering: Jérôme Joy, Meriol Lehmann-Avatar.

One of his final works, Les Arythmiques finds the late musique concrète veteran Luc Ferrari engaging with the cardiac condition that struck him towards the end of his life. Inspired by the jolt of electricity that was prescribed to combat his arrhythmia, this album is a collection of all the sounds Ferrari recorded on his travels over the final few years of his life - an assemblage of images he bluntly describes: "as one says of a drowning man's life passing before him". The forty minute montage…