Best of 2023
Writings
** 2023 Repress ** Writings is the first collection to widely survey the singular Tony Conrad polymath’s prolific activity as a writer. Edited by artists Constance DeJong and Andrew Lampert, the book spans the years 1961 – 2012 and includes fifty-seven pieces: essays originally published in small press magazines, exhibition catalogs, anthologies, and album liner notes, along with other previously unpublished texts. Conrad writes about his own work, with substantial contributions on The Flicker, …
Japanese Cassette
** Much-Needed Repress, Red Vinyl ** Tom Recchion is a legendary character. He is a world-famous art director, a founding member of the L.A.F.M.S., and was even the drummer for Sonic Youth for a brief period. Since the '70s, Tom has been creating screwed-up music in a dizzying array of formats, from large fully-clothed ensembles to buck naked solo explorations. The Japanese Cassette album falls into the latter category, and it is a head spinning doozy. The music here was originally created in 19…
Collage
Mega Tip! 300 copies only. Alga Marghen proudly presents the previously unreleased “Collage 2” and “Collage 3 (Dies irae)” for magnetic tape, both realised at the Studio di Fonologia Musicale RAI in Milan with the technical collaboration of Marino Zuccheri. These pieces are precious testimonials to Aldo Clementi’s intense and ongoing interest in electronic music in the 1960s. “Collage”, presents some of the most extreme musics ever issued by the label, at the same level as Robert Ashley's “Wolfm…
Landscapes in Thin Air
* 500 copies on black vinyl. The 7"s comes with a wraparound sleeve. Includes download card * Landscapes In Thin Air is Enno Velthuys’s third album and was initially released by Kubus Kassettes in 1985. When Rob Smit decided to stop his label activities shortly after publishing this cassette, Hessel Veldman published a second edition on his label Exart. Compared to his second album, Glimpse of Light, it has a stronger presence of rhythm and a more melodic use of synths. These 10 cinematic sketch…
Ni Envers ni Endroit que Cette Roche Brûlante (Pour Georgia O’Keeffe) / Recurrence.Expansion
Félicia Atkinson’s Ni envers ni endroit que cette roche brûlante (Pour Georgia O’Keeffe) is approached as a meditation, not as meditative music, but as a reflection on the art of creation: how to inhabit one’s creation, how to convey it, domesticate it and live with it. Drawing inspiration from the artist Georgia O’ Keeffe, both in her work as a painter and in the houses in which she lived in New Mexico, and even in the landscapes that surround them, Félicia Atkinson has composed a piece that ev…
Senderos de Luz Y Sombras
A 16-channel piece inspired by astrophysics, the mystery of the pre-Big Bang era and some of the uncanny motions of the unconscious mind, where strangeness meets the ordinary.
Quartz Mirliton Cassettes
Biggest Tip! Quartz-Mirliton Cassettes has been among the most obscure of 1970s experimental music labels. This forthcoming VOD release, presented in two boxes, throws light on this mysterious cassette venture, its context and associated recordings. Closely associated with the London Musicians Collective, Quarz was launched by Paul Burwell and David Toop in 1977. Produced in tiny editions with handmade covers, the cassettes largely documented live sessions and field recordings made by a close ne…
Babi
Mega Tip! **Sourced from the master tapes. First-time vinyl reissue ** By the early '70s, Milford Graves had more or less stopped gigging. Having learned his lesson the hard way in multiple-night runs like a legendary Slugs' residency with Albert Ayler, he knew that the level of energy that he put out during a performance would be difficult to sustain over the long haul. A concert was a kind of absolute ritual for him, after which he would be totally spent, emotionally and physically. Graves rar…
Philemon Arthur And The Dung
Biggest Tip! 51 year anniversary edition pressing including a single with Bob Hund covering a Philemon Arthur & the Dung song, and Philemon Arthur & the Dung covering Bob Hund. No lyric insert as the original pressing, but an interview on the slipcase. It compiles the complete works of this strange Swedish duo, including their lone self-titled LP release from 1972 (which supposedly won a Grammy in Sweden and is considered "the most cult album in Sweden ever") and a cassette-only follow up from …
Oto no Hajimari wo Motomete vol.12 - The World
Brand new issue of archive series of NHK electronic music studio. This issue will be a collection of Toshi Ichiyanagi's tape works at NHK studio as his memorial.
The Weather Pieces
The set of The Weather Pieces are reflections on the perception of meteorological phenomena. The listener is immersed in a hybrid sound world, as the line between the live performer and the computer generated propositions becomes blurred. The musician follows a score that leaves room for interaction with the computer’s ever-changing proposals. The works also use the performer’s voice, using spoken texts to convey inner thoughts and feelings. Les si doux redoux for basset horn grew out of an…
Plasmatic Music, Vol. 1
The three works on this disc explore different aspects of Radulescu’s theory of Sound Plasma as it evolved over the course of the 1970s, from Radulescu’s early to middle periods.
Children of the Forest
Black Editions Archive is ecstatic to announce the next chapter in the Milford Graves Archive series, the double LP Children of the Forest, previously unreleased 1976 sessions with Hugh Glover and Arthur Doyle that re-write the book on Milford Graves' ensemble music of the 1970s. Graves recorded these sessions himself in his legendary Queens basement laboratory and workshop in the months immediately leading up to the March 1976 session that produced what many consider his most iconic album, Bäbi…
Frans Zwartjes (2LP)
** Numbered + handmade in an edition of 300 copies only; 180gr 2xLP vinyl in custom-made screen-printed outer ** Frans Zwartjes’ studio remains untouched since his passing in 2017. In early 2023, we returned to the studio and discovered a trunk of unlabelled 3/4 inch tapes, containing completely unheard music by Zwartjes. These works, largely synthesiser-based improvisations for films either unmade or unfinished, were played and recorded by Frans Zwartjes between the late 1960s, through his most…
Kofu III
** CD housed in a die-cut customised debossed outer case (14.5x14.5cm) with rounded obi, 32pp booklet with words in Japanese and English from Meitei. Offset printed, full colour on premium matt paper. ** Hailing from Hiroshima, Meitei, unveils the final chapter of his transformative Kofū trilogy. “Kofū III” marks the apex of a musical journey that began in 2020, unraveling an introspective exploration of the artist's psyche while delving deep into the essence of Japanese culture. This latest rel…
Schafe statt Geigen / “Verena” Vogelzymphon
**Second edition of 250 copies, 20 page photographic book** Henning Christiansen was an incongruous mirror for the paradoxes of 20th century creative practice. He gave his context what it demanded - visionary and singular work, but was so radical that almost no one knew what to do with him, forcing him into the position of an outsider. Of all the composers working within the cradle of Fluxus, his work falls among the closest to its primary intent, destroying hierarchy, orthodoxy, and categorizat…
Occam Hepta I
Edition of 250 copies. Two pieces written by Éliane Radigue at the same period (2014-2018), one instrumental (recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris by Ensemble Dedalus) and the other for analog synthesizer (performed by Ryoko Akama).
In Eliane Radigue's work, we oppose electronic works (composed until the early 2000s) to those written for acoustic instruments. From 2002, the artist began a series of compositions, Occam, orally transmitted living music. In her own words, she fully realized what s…
The Wild Bull
2023 repress. Audiophile 180 gram LP that was cautiously remastered for vinylRe-issued on vinyl for the first time since its original 1968 release! Based on an ancient Sumerian poem, Morton Subotnick's follow-up to his highly influential milestone Silver Apples of the Moon (KR 014LP) is no less an adventurous sonic trip on the Buchla synthesizer. Limited edition (500 items) audiophile 180 gram LP, especially mastered for vinyl. Born in 1933, Morton Subotnick is a key figure in the progress of el…
Our Meanings And Our Feelings
Killer! Reissue, originally released in 1969. An iconic French free jazz record recorded at Pathé Marconi Studios. On June 27th, 1969, Michel Portal pushed the door of the Pathé Marconi studios. With him were drummers Jacques Thollot and Aldo Romano, bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, and pianist Joachim Kühn. They hadn't rehearsed anything, as if entering the studio to record an album without any plan was something normal. The musicians were obviously very used to playing with each other, as th…
In C Pour 11 Oscillateurs Et 53 Formes
Julien Sénélas, Jérôme Vassereau and Soia present a new version of "In C", Terry Riley's seminal work: a musical interpretation with two modular synthesizers (11 oscillators) and a graphic interpretation of the original score.