New Arrivals
Running away
Guillaume Viltard, doublebass. Recorded in 2008 studio and outdoor. The CD comes in a very special package made by visual artist Zéhavite Cohen. 300 copies. 'There followed a solo double bass performance that was added late to the bill from Guillaume Viltard, a young musician that has been playing a lot at the weekly Eddie Prevost workshop. I had seen him play before, most recently in a duo with his frequent playing partner Ute Kanngiesser, but never solo, and I have to admit to being taken by s…
Nuojuva halava
The Preservation label presents Nuojuva Halava, the debut album from Helsinki, Finland’s Ous Mal. Ous Mal is the recording project for 22-year old Olli Aarni. With previous CD-R releases for both Finland’s 267-Lattajjaa and the UK’s Under The Spire, Ous Mal has already gained fine notice for his expansive sound, further developed in widescreen ways on Nuojuva Halava, his first full-length. Finding common ground between the dusty tenor of old-school hip hop cassettes and the fog of deep ambience …
Prisoner
Hailed as a hero of underground film in the 1960's, director Masao Adachi presents the shocking new film 'Yuheisha (Terrorist)' after a hiatus of 35 years. The soundtrack was composed by Yoshihide otomo, who is known worldwide for transcending the boundaries of jazz, improv, and noise. As a producer and film composer, he has gained critical acclaim for the soundtracks of 'Heart, beating in the dark', 'Canaria', and 'Boku Wa Imoto Ni Koi Wo Suru'. Also appearing in the film and playing acoustic g…
Transmissions From Sinai
There's clearly a great deal of care and thought gone into the sequencing of this ace new mixtape on Arthur Magazine's record label, and that's down to the estimable taste and selection skills of Al Cisneros (known for his work in the bands Om , Sleep and Shrinebuilder). Opening with the introductory cosmic ambience of Lichens' 'Kopernik Trip Note', the playlist takes a left turn towards Linval Thompson's classic 'Wicked Babylon' before stopping by the sublime 'Everyone In Turn' by Grouper (the …
Wireless
1st live album by Norway's Geir Jenssen - recorded in 2007 by Chris Watson & mastered by Touch stalwart BJNilsen. In the early 1990s, he was a pioneer of so-called "ambient techno," but since then, he has refined his sound into something more magnetic & enduring. Here, he incorporates samples of field recordings by Jony Easterby & trumpet by Anders Karlskas, invoking a sparser, more arresting sound.
featuring Ginsberg, Hentz, Irmler
Bob Rutman has invented what may well be the largest stringed instrument ever made. with a bow made of fishing line, he bows the suspension of a gigantic steel sail and in this way creates drones whose volume is not unlike the noise of a plane taking off. we might be reminded of russolo and 'the art of noise' by the futurists, or of machine music or industrial. and we're right and wrong there. of course, simply the look of rutman's steel cello gives a martial impression. so, it's not surp…
Foundations
With an explorative approach Orquere organizes concrete sounds into experimental structures of cold and dry sonic landscapes where sounds appear as objects. Stripped down to their bare essence. No effects. No electronic noise. Just raw analogue manipulations with magnetic tape which carves out a sound that has its roots in both industrial, field recording and sound art. Orquere is Viktor Ottosson, a sound artist active in Gothenburg, Sweden. V O was one of the key figures of the now defun…
Guts
Deluxe 2LP version. More voraciously bestial soundwork coming from Daniel Menche -- this time, his chosen theme is the piano, in which he attacks, investigates and dissects with the precision of an autopsy surgeon, adding a whole new meaning to the concept of prepared piano, or should we say, unprepared piano, for an all-out assault. Guts lays out quite possibly some of the finest slabs of Menchian sonic mayhem to date. Slightly different track sequence over CD and vinyl formats due to ti…
Lo-lee-ta
Vladimir Nabokov: the master of "chamber music in prose" (literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki) and composer of crackling word sonatas. Franz Koglmann: a commuter between jazz/avant-garde and literature, and writer of intimate sound novellas. It was only a matter of time before Koglmann would create "Music on Nabokov," and transform literary motifs and characters into music. Together with his Monoblue Quartet (Tony Coe, clarinet/saxophone, Ed Renshaw, guitar, Peter Herbert, bass) the trumpeter K…
With Records
Otomo Yoshihide (turntable), Ozeki Mikito (kirie), Mats Gustafsson (baritone saxophone from Mats Gustafsson's solo LP 'It Is All About' on Tyyfus label). Mastered by Jun Numata. Released to commemorate the exhibition Ensembles '09: With Records at Gallery 45-8, Tokyo, October 11-November 8, 2009. No cover, limited 800 copies, serial numbers. Otomo Yoshihide (turntables), Ozeki Mikito (cutout art) and Mats Gustafsson (baritone sax).
Dunedin
Fantastic all-electric three way that sees Bruce Russell of The Dead C (on analog electronics) joined by Richard Francis on modular synth and computer and Jason Kahn on analog synth, radio and mixing board: recorded live on January 28th 2011 at Dunedin Public Art Gallery in New Zealand, this is a single 38 minute improvisation that feels environmental in scale but with a heady synthesized aspect that makes for a ghostly metal machine music. Three distinct voices make for a bafflingly beau…
Grisp
Running the gamut of improv, concrète, industrial tape music, and cut-up sounds. Featuring appearances by MITCHELL BROWN (GASP), AARON HEMPHILL (LIARS), PETER KOLOVOS (OPEN CITY), RICK POTTS (LAFMS, SOLID EYE, AIRWAY), and source material by SMEGMA and the HATERS. Partially collects material from the Beat (777 Was 666), Grisp, and DDT (Chondritic Sound) cassettes. For those that say things like, "I don't really listen to CDs"—you're totally lame.
The Ducks Palace
Duck Baker (guitar), Derek Bailey (guitar), Cyro Baptista (percussion), Roswell Rudd (trombone) and John Zorn (alto saxophone) Tracks Improv 1 & 5 recorded at The Knitting Factory New York 1993. Tracks Improv 2,4 & 6 recorded London 2002. Track 3. The Blues recorded at the Outpost Alberquerque 2004. Track 7 Pavement Blues recorded at Tonic New York 2002.
Mountains Among Us
This year sees the eruption of the Volcano with a myriad of releases leaving the town folk covered in a fine and mysterious silt of musical entropy. The limited release of "Mountains" finds our boy’s spelunking the creepiest of dream spawned caves, excavating crystalline fragments along the way, which are then set in beautiful mental jewelry appropriate for any formal occasion. Arpeggiated blurs and disinterred voices snap, crackle and pop as an unnamed rusted hulk is slowly pushed across an eve…
Mole
Every CD that drops on this doorstep is inspected and judged: is it for me, or for one of my reviewers, specialized in some genre? With this one I must admit I really had a hard time. The improvisational nature of the Low Frequency Orchestra made me think this would be more suitable for Dolf Mulder's expertise on the subject but there is something quite captivating about this release which made me think about this more myself. The Low Frequency Orchestra is a small ensemble of 'paetzold' …
Only
Pieces by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Hanns Eisler, Giacinto Scelsi, György Kurtag, Frederic Rzewski, Henri Pousseur, Théodore Botrel, Rudolf Siecynski, and Sephardic songs. Performed/interpreted by vocalist Marianne Pousseur. "I like to listen to music in places that haven't been designed for it. I like when music mixes in with noise. Only came from a very personal desire to open the doors of my musical world to the concreteness of daily life, to tear down the fictional barriers between places a…
Fe3O4 - Magnetite
Vainio is back with his fifth album for the esteemed Touch label! Currently based in Berlin, was one half of the minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic from Finland, (with Ilpo Väisänen). Before starting Pan Sonic in the beginning of the 90's, Mika Vainio has played electronics and drums as part of the early Finnish industrial and noise scene. His solo works, under his own name and under aliases like Ø, are known for their analogue warmth and electronic harshness. Be it abstract drone works or m…
Tenkujin
Fifth and final release by Far East Family Band (if you include the 1973s Nihonjin released under the Far Out banner), Tenkujin was the first of the bands albums to be released in the US on the small and short-lived Calfornian-based All Ears label. Without Kitaro, who by this time had departed to persue a solo career, the band reverted to its earlier balled-based sound, this time supported on drums by former Samurai alumnist Yujin Harada. The expected Pink Floyd influences appear in abundance, a…
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…
Sound Is
"Sound Is, is delightfully not what I had expected when this fine disc arrived, a beautiful soundscape, awash with more layerings and hypnotic cinematic virtues than I would ever hope to find. Though while saying that, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the ultra fine hazy jazz that both effortlessly, and rambunctiously flows through this release, and stands not starkly in juxtaposition to the soundscape, but gives it the vibrant life necessary to keep you quietly swinging at 4 in the mornin…