New Arrivals
Killing HF Harlow
Terrapin is Giovanni Lami & Shaun McAlpine. An improv duo based on real time processing field recordings, analog instruments and digital sounds, all played and processed live. This work comes from some recording sessions in Giovanni’s Studio. Later subtlety edited without any overdubs, just choosing the most suitable parts, noticing something evolve from the session, forming a solid arrangement.
The fundamental idea behind the project is vivisection, holding an historical vivisectio…
Guillotine
'A visualisation in slow motion of an uncomfortable moment. Recorded live one night, a long time ago. First edition of 50 copies.' label info
In Europe
Moondog’s first release after moving to Germany, “Moondog in Europe” is a very heavy listen. While there are some aspects of his quirky style, most of this album is drenched in seriousness. Despite this being his first slightly somber album though, Moondog cleverly inserts various rounds from “Moondog 2.” Like Roger Waters taking portions of melody and hooks from “The Wall” and incorporating them into his “The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking,” Moondog similarly borrows his own melodies, changing…
Minimal studies
It all began with Study Ten. After releasing his 4th Static album, which included ten songs, about 15 musicians and which took almost 6 years till its release, Hanno Leichtmann had the wish to record an album in one go, without endless recording and mixing sessions. While experimenting with his modular system he discovered a method to compose that, what he later called Minimal Studies. A modular sample player which can be controlled manually, by a sequencer, LFO or any CV source would mak…
Becalmed
Becalmed is the debut album from Sydney pianist Sophie Hutchings, recorded between two different settings: one with engineer Tim Whitten, best known for his work with The Necks, and one with Tony Dupe, who records on the preservation label as Saddleback. Becalmed isn't an entirely solo affair, and you'll hear Hutchings' family and friends helping her out with violin, cello and percussion - all elements that greatly help bring these recordings to life. Beautifully recorded, elegiac and romantic c…
Pi:k
'Two musicians from very different backgrounds finding common ground. The first half consists of studio duets on guitar and viola recorded in New York City without any electronics, but they are not what one would expect from these two instruments. The second half is very different - recorded in concert in Geneva with a liberal amount of electronics.'
Medea
"Medea" by Calliope Tsoupaki is the first in a series of chamber music compositions focusing on drama; a "melodrama for 8 instruments". The composition is written for Ensemble MAE, that distinguishes itself for its colourful, direct, physical and improvisatory character. Tsoupaki uses the ensemble's palette, composing solos, duets, trios, wrapped in larger sonic fields, with a strong associative and visual impact. Further there is no story-telling for the listener to be led into the piece;…
Live in Paris
The release of this, our fifth album, coincides with the tenth anniversary of our first concert together, in Philadephia in 2000. Thanks to all the friends, fans, promoters, and producers who have made it possible for us to continue playing, recording, and touring together all these years. It’s a privilege and pleasure for us and we look forward to sharing the next decade with all of you.
Megafauna
Dispenses a sinister frailty of howling swells in hissing static that combusts into crawling shock heaps, to the effect of Mayhem performing Twin Peaks incidentals in a prairie recorded by The KLF. A brief description casts them as black metal's answer to Throbbing Gristle.
Hibakusha
Cyclic loops agglomerates resting on static drones intertwined by flashes of electronic frequencies; algorithmic manipulations of undefined sound materials moved by bouncing delays and recurring panoramic space variations; a sequence of metallic waves in continuous tonal variation, heavy dissonances and sonic stratifications in progressive and pseudo-randomic composition/decomposition; desolate silences corrupted by resounding echoes of entangled electric rhythmic impulses... Longly awaited re-e…
Stanze
In his interpretation of the music from Osvaldo Coluccino, Alfonso Alberti takes us by the hand to lead us part of the way through our innermost being.What we hear seems like fractured piano music, like notes and sounds scattered in space: in his “Stanze,” Osvaldo Coluccino uses the piano’s resonant body to generate resonances in the spaces within us. He removes the windows, eliminates all opulence, and confronts us with environments that lie within ourselves. The light and the dimensions keep c…
Glass Armonica
In its two hundred year history, the glass armonica has played many roles. It was a serious attempt by Benjamin Franklin to create a new instrument for the classical repertoire; believed to cause insanity in its players, it gained traction as an object of superstition; a century or more in historical obscurity ensued, followed by its revival as a compositional curiosity for a handful of composers and as an exotic timbre in soundtracks and on pop records. More recently, Christina Kubisc…
The End Of The Empire
Second album for the Brooklyn trio led by guitarist Ninni Morgia (ex White Tornado, ex La Otracina), in this recording with Stuart Popejoy (Bassoon) on bass and Kevin Shea (ex Storm and Stress, Talibam!) on drums. Compared to their first album, that featured Peter Evans on trumpet, “The End of the Empire” is more various and eclectic. The eight tracks open up to psychedelic and ambient music besides free jazz, marked by Ninni Morgia’s visionary guitar, Stuart Popejoy’s pulsating industrial bass …
Amidst The Noise And Twigs
To say that Beta-lactam Ring records has released another typical Volcano the Bear album is to address only the initiated. Yet, it is meant to be a compliment. how best to describe the thrilling mixture of sounds, atmospheres and environments on offer? Those that have heard the group’s half dozen albums, and myriad other releases, have already embraced the unpredictability that remains this British aggrigate’s trademark. This newest offering is distilled, boiling elements from their previous dou…
Lithp
Improvised music group originating from Haifa, Israel. Ofer Bymel (drums), Adi Snir (soprano & tenor saxophone saxophone, clarinet), Michel Mayer (guitar), Ronni Benner (guitar). A clean, sophisticated minimalist style and a sound that fits snuggly into the soft abstract current European scene.
H\'Art Songs
Moondog's fanbase seems to be righteously on the up nowadays, with reissue after reissue re-illuminating his singularly out-there musical genius. This is a stranger album than most however: on this one Moondog sings. Yes, this is possibly the only entry into the blind Viking impersonator/singer/songwriter sub genre. Inevitably, it's really good. Even though this album (recorded in 1969, incidentally) reduces the composer's ordinarily expanded palette to little more than voice and piano, there's …
Piano & Percussion Works
2011 release. Satoko Inoue is an experienced performer of Ferrari’s works and had a lively exchange of ideas with the composer, who was also present at the recording sessions. No wonder then that precisely those ideas of open work and its “anecdotal” interpretation were the ones that were most important to him – as such sounds were to him always abstract at the core, even if he first illustrated them in a very visual and associative way. Satoko Inoue writes: “We discussed, he explained ab…
Can't Stop It! (Australian Post-Punk 1978-82)
Originally released in 2001. A long overdue compilation of Australia's incredible post-punk history, featuring the finest selection of bands from the period 1978-82, with many previously-unreleased tracks. This is a fantastically inventive and dynamic time in Australian music history, a time when Australia stepped out of the shadow of overseas influence and asserted its own musical identity for the first time. All of the bands on Can't Stop It! released their music independently, either t…
Aural histories
Kristin Norderval (composer, vocalist) cut her musical teeth touring with Einstein on the Beach in 1992, went on to record works of American composers such as Tania Leon, David Lang, and Anne LeBaron, improvised in the New Circle Five with Pauline Oliveros and Susie Ibarra, and co-founded the electro-acoustic duo Zanana with trombonist Monique Buzzarté. Now she has released a solo CD of her works for voice and laptop. The composer writes: Aural Histories is a compilation of works for voic…
Bell Trove Spools
Northern Spy is proud to present two of John Butcher’s most recent experiments in moving sound waves through space. On Bell Trove Spools we hear Butcher in two distinct situations: Richmond Hall, a Houston art gallery housing a permanent Dan Flavin collection that has been compared to a bowling alley; and the high-ceilinged marble room in Brooklyn which is the new home to Issue Project Room. Butcher is heard on his two saxes of choice, the soprano and the tenor, and suspended in space, fluid, ch…