Music from United States

The Branca Ensemble, captured at their biggest & most brutal performing his powerful elegies live in 1995, at NYC's then institution-of-the-moment, The Kitchen. Gorgeous 3-camera live shoot, excellent HEAVY sound courtesy Sir Wharton Tiers, handsome package." NTSC all-region, 70 min., 5.1 surround sound.

The 1969 guitar classic, remastered from the original tapes. With new reflections by Will Ackerman, Max Ochs, Steffan Basho-Junghans, and Pete Townshend. "Robbie Basho released Venus in Cancer in 1969 on the Blue Thumb label. After five albums for the Takoma label in the '60s, Basho had cemented his reputation alongside John Fahey and Leo Kottke as one of the most brilliant guitarists of his generation. His wide range of musical influences from around the globe set him apart from other blues-bas…

Up to this point Sissy Spacek have only released 4 proper albums, all of which could probably be squeezed together onto one cd. What we have in this release is 4 new full length albums recorded throughout 2007. Tinsel Dripping Ink (disk 1) is 26 tracks in 45 minutes covering all territory from grindcore, noise, electro-acoustic improv, musique concrete, noisecore, and electronics. It's primarily made up of new work, but also roots through the cutting floor for the best bits that didn't make it o…

This double-CD set combines two of the key titles of Columbia Records's legendary "Music of Our Time" series curated by David Behrman. Jeanne Kirstein's recording of Cage's early keyboard works remains a touchstone of Cagean interpretation notwithstanding the passage of time. Christian Wolff recalls, "I remember Cage saying that Jeanne Kirstein's playing caught the spirit in which the pieces were written at the time he wrote them-a kind of simple excitement and enthusiasm (also, surely, ou…

This long-awaited reissue of the CRI recording of Earle Brown’s (1926–2002) music is the best overview of his seminal early works. “It is obviously a great pleasure for me that Cri is re-releasing its 1974 recording of my work, and an even greater pleasure that I am able to add to the repertoire. The performance of Times Five and Novara still seem very fine representations of the works and are performed brilliantly by the Dutch musicians. December 1952 as realized by the late, brilliant pianist …

This three-disc set marks the first appearance on disc of the music of the African-American composer Julius Eastman (1940–1990), who died sixteen years ago under unexplained circumstances and whose musical legacy was thought lost. This comprehensive and definitive document, which comprises almost all of Eastman’s signature works, will undoubtedly be a revelation for those who have thus far been unable to hear his work. Eastman was an energizing underground figure, one whose forms are clear, whos…

The music on these CDs takes us into a new realm of music making, one that Alvin Lucier has defined for us and one that demands that we start to listen anew. His work has been more often described in terms of science than of art as if it were a series of quasi-scientific experiments, but to put the emphasis here is to miss the point, for its purpose is never “explanatory” (the goal of science) but, like all art, “revelatory.” This is not to suggest that the composer has some spiritual agenda in …

Meticulously remastered from the original mono master tapes! The Bewitched was Harry Partch’s first work solely intended for dance (and mime-dance at that; he was not overly enamored in his lifetime of so-called “modern dance”). Drawing heavily from his deep affection for the music-theatrical performance traditions of Greek theater, as well as those from Africa, Bali, and Chinese opera, Partch conceived of a contemporary American music ritual-theater where musicians not only play, but also funct…

The four works on this newly remastered CD are eloquent testimony to Harry Partch’s aesthetic of corporeality. The music he composed for The Dreamer That Remains, for Rotate the Body in All Its Planes, for Windsong, and for Water! Water!, was intended as only one component in the total artistic experience. In these works music joins with drama, with film, with dance, even with gymnastics, as integral parts of the composer’s vision..New World's The Harry Partch Collection, Vol. 3, as was the CRI …

Harry Partch’s compositions of the 1940s have remained until recently an unwritten chapter in the history of American music. And yet it was these very pieces—the collection of four works he would later collectively entitle The Wayward—that brought him to the attention of the New York musical world. His concert of these pieces for the League of Composers established for him a small but permanent reputation as a musical maverick who had wandered off well-worn tracks and had developed a sort of lat…

This newly remastered reissue marks a welcome return to the catalog of the first volume of the classic 4-CD collection that was formerly available on the CRI label. The works recorded on this disc span the first six years of what Harry Partch (1901–1974), slightly tongue-in-cheek, called the “third period” of his creative life. They show him moving away from the obsession with “the intrinsic music of spoken words” that had characterized his earlier output (the vocal works of 1930–33 and 1941–45)…

Alvin Lucier is best known for his pioneering work in the mid-sixties in the exploration of sonic environments, particularly sounds that we would never perceive under ordinary circumstances. Vespers and Other Early Works restores to the catalog several of his key works from that time. In Vespers (1969) performers with Sondols (sonar-dolphin), hand-held pulse wave oscillators, explore the acoustic characteristics of given indoor or outdoor spaces by monitoring the echoes of the pulse waves off th…

Full No Fun 2007 Live sets from each Giffoni and Dilloway recorded to the best possible quality. Total tape loop and contact microphone mangling from Dilloway, heavy analog synth destruction from Giffoni. Limited to 350 copies.

Finally, the long awaited collaboration between Yasunao Tone and Florian Hecker is ready for release on Mego. Yasunao Tone (b. 1932, Tokyo) founded the Group Ongaku in 1960, a group devoted to creating event music and improvisational music. He began participating in the Fluxus movement in 1962, and has been in events and shows in numerous places. Tone also composed a great deal of experimental music for use in films, theater and dance pieces. Since coming to the United States in 1972, he has com…

Both works on this disc share the trademarks of his unique style: the relentless, pounding motoric energy that merges, sometimes with startling suddenness, into a dreamlike texture that seems to float, the continual sense of something magical occurring, often produced with no more paraphernalia than a desktop computer. And the Butterflies Begin to Sing [for string quartet, bass, MIDI keyboard, and computer (1988)], conceived as music for an imaginary ballet, is based on The Hundred Headless Wome…

Compositions performed by Barbara Held (flute), Thomas Buckner (voice), MIDI Orchestra. Robert Ashley is known primarily for his theater-based pieces and television operas. This new release presents the world premiere recordings of two of his “orchestral” pieces, Superior Seven (concerto for flute), and Tract (for orchestra and voice), where the orchestra is provided by a MIDI synthesizer. In Superior Seven, the flute floats freely in and out of an atmospheric electronic sound tapestry. It is a …

In 1985, Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels -- fragile treasures documenting the 20th century from a most unusual viewpoint, perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch. The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal …

A pioneer of live electronic music and one of America's most adventurous composers, Alvin Curran has been walking his own eclectic path since the late 1960s. The range and scope of his work is enormous, and unprecedented. Few composers have as many interests, or as much wit. This special compilation takes us on a whirlwind tour of fifteen of his most productive years (1987–2002), capturing both live and studio performances from around the world. Featuring a seductive work for chorus and ensemble…

Steve Reich, one of the foremost composers of our time and an important 'first generation' minimalist composer has performed at The Kitchen Center for the Arts many times during his career. The Kitchen, an interdisciplinary organization known for its commitment to experimental work, has an archive of audio and video recordings that cover its three-decade existence. Orange Mountain Music in collaboration with The Kitchen's curators has found several wonderful recordings and among them are these m…

the second archive release following last years great Scend LP (3P8). 2 pieces for organ composed and performed in 1991 when Jim was finishing his music studies at de Paul University in Chicago. These pieces had almost been forgotten about as Jim's musical interests soon took a change of direction. Only now released for the first time in any format this LP instantly draws the listener inside this recently imagined timelessness. Limited edition of 1000 copies in die-cut sleeve, with full-colour i…