★Idea Intermedia
Melpomene
Dan Melchior has become an unlikely 21st century experimental music icon. As the forms, signifiers and 'experiments' of the last several decades have become increasingly codified, one naturally begins to ask the question what the term in a contemporary setting means to the listener. If the performer and the audience both know what to expect before, during and after a record or performance, can it be considered an experiment? At the start of the century, Melchior was known in NYC as being a studi…
Blue Guitar
Mike Cooper's Blue Guitar is a collection that first appeared on Cooper's Hipshot CDr label in 2010 in a limited edition. It is presented here on Idea Records, for the first time on vinyl. Upon its initial release Cooper wrote: "For the past couple of years I have been collating a body of text culled (mostly) from Thomas Pynchon's novels Gravity's Rainbow and V and making cut-up collage pieces in the spirit of William Burroughs, Kurt Schwitters, Tom Phillips and others. Those two particular nove…
Versatile Ambience
On the second side of Versatile Ambience, Jeph Jerman utters an all too accurate observation of our overheated culture, describing us at “the smithy’s forge, replacing art with scrutiny.” Throughout their new record, Jerman and Barnes show us another, alchemical possibility—fusing art and scrutiny together. Across a dozen years, the duo of Jerman and Barnes has offered powerful, minimal music rooted in a shared dedication to the creative act of listening. Jerman is a veteran of the creative mus…
Purge
Kevin Drumm's 2007 cassette 'Purge' on iDEAL went out of stock in less than a week. This is the CD version of that killer thing. Intense listening taking you deep into the known unknown, or perhaps the unknown known. Drumm's noise is extremely powerful and dynamic.; travelling frequencies, rich with details, with very little hope, with guaranteed exhaustion after frequent listening. I always think about Black Metal when I am listening to Drumm's works,Ê they share the same cold and darkness. 'Pu…
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 …
Formations
Idea is proud to present, for the first time in any format, ONCE group composer Philip Krumm's original piano work entitled Formations, as originally recorded in 1968. Scored for piano, organ and ring modulator, it was realized by avant-garde composer "Blue" Gene Tyranny, and the piece has remained unheard for over thirty years. "Blue" Gene Tyranny is a fascinating margin walker who has roots deep in the avant garde. His association with the composer Philip Krumm goes back to the late 1950s/earl…