Za
This is another one of Franco Battiato's amazing recordings from the 70's, and it features two extended pieces -- "ZA" and "Café Table Musik". "Za" is a long piece for solo piano, with lots of spare minimal moments, and haunting trancelike lines of chords that build very very slowly. It's a beautiful exercise in restraint, and the kind of haunting soundscape that Battiato is legendary for. "Café Table Musik" is a bit more complex, although it's still got minimal piano progressions as its core. T…
Computer Music
Works by three composers ("Quartets in Pairs / Quartersines / Mudget: Monologues By A Mass Murderer" by J.K. Randall, "Synthesism" by Barry Vercoe, "Changes" by Charles Dodge) realized in the computer centers of Columbia and Princeton Universities. Only one copy available.
Prochronisms
Morphogenesis, made up of: Clive Graham, Roger Sutherland, Ron Briefel, Micha, Fred Sansom, and Andy Courdry, was formed in 1985. They were interested in exploring the possibilities of live electronics and collective improvisation. The members have diverse musical backgrounds, including teaching electonic music at Morley College and playing in other groups ranging from Cornelius Cardew's Scratch Orchestra, Nurse with Wound and Organum. Only one copy available.
Was?? / Proteinimperialism
What?? was composed in 1967 in the electronic music studio of Swedish Radio, and was originally released on the German new music label Wergo with Bo Anders Persson 's Proteinimperialism , another static drone piece. What?? is based on Folke Rabe 's intense interest in monotony and harmonic overtones. The work is based on deep drones and their partials, where each partial is separately manipulated. Sometimes this coalesces into a beautiful chord, sometimes into more dissonant structures, but is c…
144 Sounds: Electronic Music
Zoltán Pongrácz (5 February 1912, Diószeg - 3 April 2007) was a Hungarian composer. Pongrácz studied composition from 1930 to 1935 with Zoltán Kodály at the Budapest Academy of Music. He became professor of composition at the Debrecen Conservatory in 1947 and continued in that position until 1958. For a time he ceased compositional activity, until attending the Darmstadt summer courses in 1964, 1965, and 1972, and the third Cologne Courses for New Music in 1965–66 with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hen…
Songs From The Hill/Tablet
Recordings from '76/77. "Songs..." is a suite of solo voice pieces, showcasing her various extended techniques. Some excellent experimental vocals, some a bit too whimsical perhaps. "Tablet" is a 23 minute ensemble work for 4 female voices, piano & soprano recorder. Only one copy available.
Concert Percussion For Orchestra
Pieces By A. Roldan, L. Harrison, W. Russell, H.Cowell and J. cage, performed by the Mahattan Percussion Ensemble under Paul Price and John Cage. Only one copy available.
Operator Dead... Post Abandoned
Cincinnati native C. Spencer Yeh has been releasing records under the Burning Star Core moniker since 1993. A classically trained violinist, Yeh is the center of the amorphous free noise group whose past collaborators have included: Comets on Fire, Hototogisu, Chris Corsano and Thurston Moore. Operator Dead... finds BxC as an extremely loud four piece who waste no time and get right down to business creating massive, looping, head-splitting drones and titanic walls of sound. Calculated and contr…
Specimens
Melissa St. Pierre tosses classicism and post-classicism overboard, utilizing the prepared piano -- John Cage's notorious instrument of choice -- and electronic enhancement to sail resolutely in the direction of rock & roll. Peppering the strings, hammers, and dampers with a variety of objects, she transforms the piano's typical timbre: sparkling gamelans chatter; harrowing voodoo drums call out in the night. Specimens, St. Pierre's debut, features production and performances by Collections of C…
Metals
Percussionist Jon Mueller works with rhythms that come from gong frequencies, from vibrations of the bodies of bass drums, and the surprising sonorities that occur with the combination of these elements. Now he applies these techniques to his latest solo effort, to stunning effect: Metals is, as its name suggests, a bold, all-percussion foray into heavy metal. No theatrical silliness here; just sheer exhilaration; the fundamental power of loud, organized, precise rhythms; ringing, heavy anti-mel…
mmmr
As members of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo continue to pump the most radical tenets of American experimentalism into the heart of rock music; in recent years they have also extended their reputations as world- class improvisErs. French phenom Jean-Marc Montera records for the legendary FMP label, and has collaborated with an amazing host of free-music luminaries, including Evan Parker, Paul Lovens and Han Bennink. However it is the keening blues wail of Loren Mazzacane Connors tha…
Sound Works 1982-1987
Sound Works is the first collection of Jed Speare's long-form musique concrete compositions. Speare is a crossover artist who has been working in sound, video, and performance for over thirty years. The music here reflects his investigation and uniquely expressive practice of analogue sound-field recording, editing, combining and mixing during that era. He is the creator of the Smithsonian Folkways LP Cable Car Soundscapes (1982). In the early 80s he recorded with the San Francisco groups, Resea…
The Beast
"Smegma man, fucking Smegma. They started the whole damn thing. Sure there was Lee Rocky & some soundeffects 78s that set the crew in motion but screw it.. you wouldn't be blasting The Beast or any Weird Handdrawn LP with rotten ears if it wasn't for this truly motley crew. In high school my sweet momma would give me ten bones a week for lunch, come Monday by noon that shit was blown at the local rec shop. When I only had a couple of raggedy bux left from gripping Zorlac stickers, the only optio…
Solaris
Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann, the core members of Mirror, have churned out countless expensive, gorgeously packaged LPs in highly countable numbers (typically under 400). The duo’s strategy has baffled me almost as much as it’s put me off, because their atmospheric music could easily find a much wider audience than the cabal of record collectors who are seduced by the bogus romance of self-imposed scarcity. Solaris departs from Mirror’s usual MO; it’s their first CD (albeit one packaged …
Cesi est Cela
Third volume in MIO's Besombes reissue program, following Libra & Pole. First time on CD. Features recordings made in France 1972-1979. A chemist by training, Philippe Besombes was engaged in the French avant-garde scene from the early 1970s. Abandoning his doctoral degree for his pioneering work with new electronics in different musical contexts, he supported himself through the seventies creating the sounds for theater and ballet, and was a well-known audio engineer in the French contemporary …
Libra
Philippe Besombes is an underground but now cult french artist from the 70’s avant garde-prog scene. After a student doctoral degree to become a chemist he turned to music and was partly formed by Stockhusen and Xenakis. He rapidly showed an interest to electronic synth dispositifs (AKS, MiniMoog, Polyphonic ensemble Korg...). In 1976 Philippe Besombes had opened his own recording studio with Jean-Louis Rizet. He produced three major albums under his name. He recorded his most notorious effort i…
Stimmung (Singcircle Version)
In each section a new overtone melody or 'model' is introduced and repeated several times. Each female voice leads a new section eight times, and each male voice, nine times. Some of the other singers gradually have to transform their own material until they have come into 'identity' with the lead singer of the section by adopting the same tempo, rhythm and dynamics. When the lead singer feels that 'identity' has been reached, he or she makes a gesture to another singer who leads the next sectio…
Histoire(s) De Musique
A wonderful collection of music from the films of Jean-Luc Godard -- sounds that are almost as striking as the images on the screen! Given that most Godard soundtracks were only issued as 45s in France, this collection is a lot more complete than you might think -- offering up the key tracks released from many of these films, and presenting a rich document of the music used during some of Godard's most productive years. There's a strong jazz undercurrent to many tunes -- echoes of the new wave u…
Live 1972
Second Rallizes bootleg on this label, the most "overground" of all Rallizes' affiliated labels. "Legit" or "authorized" material from this mythical group is seen about as frequently as Loch Ness himself. There are only 2 words printed anywhere on this CD (besides the group's name): "live" and "1972". Say no more. "Live material from 1972. This band was a major inspiration to groups like High Rise, Kousokuya, Acid Mothers Temple and Keiji Haino. The absolute peak of Japanese psychedelia." Offici…