Spacecraft / Unified Patchwork Theory
Originally released in 2001. In the fall of 1966 a group of composers that included Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, Allen Bryant, Jon Phetteplace, Giuseppe Chiari and Richard Teitelbaum organized "Avanguardia Musicale I," a festival of several consecutive nights at the Accademia Filarmonica Romana. The program included tape music, Fluxus performance art pieces, and live electronic works. It was also the beginning of the group MEV.
One year later, the group was in Rome, Italy, but also involved i…
Quantum
First issue of this archival recording, originally recorded in 1973. "This is not a reissue. This is the first Basil Kirchin recording released for thirty years. Format: CD and very limited vinyl (500 numbered copies) release. Although there hasn't been a Basil Kirchin release for over 30 years, his reputation is still intact as being one of the most innovative and influential composers of the late 20th Century. This release is possibly his finest hour. It's certainly his weirdest. His last rele…
Friday
Brand new re-release of this MEV masterpiece. For the realization of "Friday", recorded in London in May 1969, MEV were Frederic Rzewski (piano, electronics, etc.), Alvin Curran (flugelhorn, etc.), Richard Teitelbaum (moog synthesizer), Franco Cataldi (trombone, etc.), Gunther Carius (saxophone, etc.). The main theme around this MEV piece is communication. Communication by means of music can be a very efficient means of reaching quick agreement among large numbers of people, because when you cal…
Morning of My Life
This is the third and final album in the A Taste of Ra trilogy. Nicolai Dunger, and the cloak of mystery behind the Taste of Ra project has captivated many with its various incarnations of free-folk meanderings, Tim Buckley jazz-howl and Swedish pastoral indie-hum. Dunger describes Morning of My Life as follows: "When we moved to the tent and the light was golden and we were young, and the magazine was all there was to bring, and you woke in the night when the birds were singing just for you and…
Naima
This is the third full-length release for Sweden's Hans Appelqvist, after two previous release on the Komplott label. Naima is an entity who in different ways is present to the persons on the album. Sometimes she interferes with their lives and speaks directly to them, sometimes her presence is only communicated through her musical theme, "Naimamelodin" (Naima's melody). Somewhat pretentiously expressed, the album is an answer to a longing for more fixed references. In 2004, Hans Appelqvist rele…
Throats
David Watson (bagpipe) w/ Shelley Hirsch (vocals), Makigami Koichi (vocals & jaw harp). "The writhing and resolving glissandos, so familiar to East Village ears by now, were still edgy enough to send a few Lincoln Center new-music wimps dashing for the exits. It's my feeling that the bagpipe is an inherently avant garde, push-the-envelope type of instrument anyway." --Kyle Gann; "From 1981-86, Watson was active in the New Zealand music and art scene, as a member of Primitive Arts Group, appearin…
Door Open at 8 A.M.
Introducing Masami Akita's homage to free-jazz. Door Open at 8am is one of the most adventurous outings made by Merzbow. Recorded during the same era as Aqua Necromancer, this new recording also incorporates the use of sampled sounds. However, this time Akita is paying homage to his love of free jazz, free-jazz drummers to be precise. It includes tracks such as Tony Williams 'Deathspace', 'Lyons Wake', 'Metro and Bus' and an unbelievable cover of John Coltrane's 'The Africa Brass Session, Vol 2'…
Music for Michelangelo Antonioni
Italian composer Giovanni Fusco scored many of the neo-realist films of Michelangelo Antonioni from the early 1950s through the mid-1960s and is known for creating subtle film scores using minimal instrumentation that well-complemented the situations on screen. Water collects the best of the soundtrack moments from Antonioni's L'Avventura ('The Adventure' - 1960), L'Eclisse ('The Eclipse' - 1962), and Deserto Rosso ('Red Desert' - 1964). Detailed liner notes.
I Retur
A compilation featuring one of Sweden's best female singer/songwriters of the '70s. Turid became famous in the underground of Stockholm as a Swedish Buffy Saint Marie or a Lotte Lenya or a Joni Mitchell. Her voice has been described as "a thin thread of gold." She won a radio competition and was soon noticed outside the underground. She was chased by the bigger record companies but took a stand and chose Silence that just had started, and in 1971 her first record Vittras Visor hit the desks. She…
Per una scultura di Ceschia
For the first time on CD one of the rarest records coming out of Italy!! Nascita della Sfera was a group of session musicians assembled by a composer to record a single LP, in this case composer and keyboardist Carlo Barbiera dedicated a full album to the life and works of sculptor Luciano Ceschia (1926-1991), both coming from near Udine, Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the north-east of Italy. The rare album is a rather original example of experimental electro-acoustic progressive style, mainly based…
Images / Zero Mix
STANDARD EDITION (220 page hard bound book with full color dust jacket, the album 'Zero Mix'). Hardbound book featuring paintings created to celebrate the release of the albums 'Angry Eelectric Finger'. The book also contains the album 'Zero Mix' packaged in a book bound cd case. Released in an edition of 1500 copies featuring full color images and a matte and gloss spot coating, plus full color dust jacket. Thou had best be ready when the angry eelectric finger points to YOU! THUS SPAKE nurse (…
perhaps I arrive - music for Atatürk Airport, Istanbul
This double disc set includes some of the most unusual sounds you will have heard from Carl Michael von Hausswolff. The story goes like this. Von Hausswolff was chosen by the 1997 Istanbul Biennal to create a sound installation for Atatürk Airport. His classic sound combining low frequency rumblings, very monotonous oscillations and hissy non-narrative sequences was deemed too confusing for the commutors. It was feared, von Hausswolff’s sound installation might be mistaken for an alarm and would…
As Roses Bow: Collected Airs 1992-2002
As roses bow: Collected Airs 1992-2002 is Loren Connors' Assembly of his most melodically rich and stunning miniature compositions. Inspired by O'Carolan's airs and other Irish airs of the pAst, these works, recorded during a ten year period, are melded with the distinctly personal and iconoclAst adaptation of Connors' blues. These 43 pieces are Connors' complete airs, culled from 10 albums (eight of which are out of print) and one single, including his groundbreaking Hell's Kitchen Park (Black …
Salt
Stephen O'malley: guitar & production. Recorded in 230 W 108 #4d, NYC spring 2005. Mastering & bass wave assistance by Mell Dettmer at Aleph, Seattle. Art by Banks Violette. Design by SOMA. 600 copies in oversized cardboard cover. salt is the audion component created for Bleed, the initial collaboration between sculptor Banks Violette and musician Stephen O'malley. First shown at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, NYC summer 2005 Bleed was part of the group show Bridge Freezes Before Road, curated by Ne…
s/t
'Behind bowline we find the more and more present musician David Maranha, who was once best known as Osso Exotico, and these days also works as a solo musician and one Francesco Dillon. He is from Italy and studied the cello. These days he is a member of Alter-Ego (see Vital Weekly 602 for their work with Gavin Bryars) as well as playing with people like Matmos, Pan Sonic and Scanner. A man of many talents. Here too Dillon plays cello, whereas Maranha gets credit for 'hammond organ, violin, vox …
Body Melt
Body melt is limited to 500 copies only on LP. This is the companion release to the Glass Forest CD being released on Important simultaneously. Both releases are housed in staggeringly unique artwork by Emily Recorded in the Summer of 2007. Body melt is a molting and simmering display of furious Hammond Organs & Native American Drums. Daniel Menche manages to merge together the powerfully fuzzed out organ drones along with hypnotically crushing and frenzied drums in a manor that is distinctly th…
Confusional Quartet
Futurism with its dynamic force, youthful spirit, attention to innovation and a bit of Italian histrionism; the sixties with their hopeful and playful atmosphere and their crisp and catchy music; Italy with its beautiful sun, beaches, Mediterranean brightness and laxity; minimalism with its focus on the deepness of details; all the things happening in Bologna in the late seventies, among some of the newest and most creative experiences in film, performance, fashion and music. With these elements…
From The Kitchen Archives No.3: Amplified: New Music Meets Rock
From the Kitchen Archives Vol. 3. Amplified: New Music Meets Rock, 1981-1986 is the third release in a series of CDs compiled from The Kitchen's archive that documents historic concert recordings at The Kitchen from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. While the first two releases, New Music, New York 1979 and Steve Reich and Musicians, Live 1977 focused on major figures of new and experimental music from The Kitchen's first decade, Amplified moves into the early 1980s, representing a vocabulary th…
Glass Forest
Glass Forest is a highly listenable starting point for any newcomers curious about Daniel Menche's vast discography. It is also, according to Menche, the last CD he will release. From now on he'll be releasing his music on LP only or on DVD to accompany films he's been working on. Glass Forest is also the companion release to Body Melt which is being released simultaneously on Important on LP only. Recorded in the winter of 2005, Daniel Menche's Glass Forest displays a glistening sound world tha…
The Garden of Forking Paths
The Garden Of Forking Paths was compiled for Important Records by guitarist James Blackshaw. Compositions were recorded specially for this collection by Helena Espeval (Espers), James Blackshaw, Jozef van Wissem and Chieko Mori. Beautifully assembled, The Garden Of Forking Paths serves as a singular and particularly unique musical statement.