Blue for a Moment
**Last copies available - numbered and signed deluxe edition** A unique collection of historic and recent live recordings that map the many facets in the exceptionally varied musical career of Sven-Åke Johansson from the 1970s to the present day. The seven sessions included here, in total nine LPs, are taken from both historic meetings Ein Abend in Pöseldorf (with Alexander von Schlippenbach) and contemporary solo works and with the likes of Axel Dörner, Rhodri Davis, Rüdiger Carl, and Andrea N…
10
LP version. This is the tenth release in the Supersilent series. Since the very beginning, Supersilent have always moved forward with the greatest integrity. Supersilent's music is collective work, total group improvising, with not a whit of individual grandstanding. They never rehearse as a group and don't discuss the music with each other, meeting only to play concerts or to record. Every recording and every concert is a unique occasion, not to be repeated, and their music lives in a no-man's-…
Kiki's Island
UK-based Alasdair Willis, who makes music under the name The Vitamin B12. Active since the mid ’80s, Willis is primarily known for A legendary 4xLP box set that compiled selections from various free improvisational sessions from his Brighton loft in 1986. In the intervening years, The Vitamin B12 has proven to be an elusive figure in the European free improvisation scene, which also includes acts like Nurse With Wound and H.N.A.S.The Vitamin B12 was formed with the same ease as his childhood pro…
Stalk
Paal Nilssen-Love with Lasse Marhaug, recorded and edited by Fe-mail/Spunk Hild Sofie Tafjord to create 6 fascinating free-form compositions of sound and texture. "Marhaug and drummer/percussionist Paal Nilssen Love have worked together in Vandermark's groups, as well as being co-producers of the annual All Ears improvised music festival in Oslo. Their first recorded duet, Personal Hygiene (Utech, 2005), captured their live duet at the Nu-Music festival in Stavanger and featured their shared aff…
United Patchwork
One of the most mythical experimental groups of all time, Musica Elettronica Viva was formed in 1966 by a group of American composers in Rome, its nucleus comprised of pianist Frederic Rzewski, sound improviser Alvin Curran and the improvisatory keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum. Taking cues from John Cage and David Tudor, MEV employed open, limitless structures, using found instruments, toys, a homemade synthesizer and the first Moog to reach mainland Europe. Improv and critical listening practice…
Laniakea
**150 copies** "Astral Spirits describes prolific Russian, Saint-Petersburg-based sax player Ilia Belorukov and Portuguese-Catalan, Barcelona-based drummer Vasco Trilla as “two under-sung heroes of free improv”. Both Belorukov and Trilla like to experiment with different objects and sounds in order to reinvent and enhance the sonic range and imagination of their respective instruments - the alto sax, fluteophone, Belorukov's electronics and Trilla's assorted percussion instruments. Laniakea was …
Ask The Axes
Besom Presse announces Ask the Axes, the first collaborative release by the duo of experimental bagpiper David Watson and famed percussionist of The Necks, Tony Buck. Watson and Buck’s premiere recording documents two twenty-plus minute tracks featuring the hallucinatory sound palette of the Highland bagpipes, drums and percussion
Are You an Orchid or a Dandelion?
2019 release ** "Here’s a duo called Cyanobacteria, consisting of Francesco Gregoretti (drums) and Renato Gricco (double bass), teaming up one day in September 2016 with Carl Ludwig Hübsch, a well-known improviser playing the tuba. The duo has a similar background, even if I only heard of Gregoretti before. The five tracks span fifty-two minutes and form an on-going exploration of ideas, textures and all of that within the world of improvisation. It is a meeting of like-minded people, with one f…
Seasons Changing
Charles Gayle is a saxophonist, pianist, sometimes a clown and
radical musical performer wrapped into the body of a humble person
living in Downtown Manhattan since the 1960s. As this set attests to, it
is sometimes hard to predict what he will do on stage... In all his
musical (and personal) life Charles Gayle has remained outside of any
form of mainstream, carving his own singular path. There is no player on
the scene today with the emotional wallop of Charles Gayle. John Edwards
is a t…
Songs From Elsewhere
**300 copies** Duo recordings by Sven-Åke Johansson (vocals) and Simon James Phillips (piano), made in 2017 in Johansson's studio in Berlin. Phillips is an Australian composer and pianist working in the contexts of classical, experimental, and improvisational music. Johansson is a Swedish percussionist and performer in the circles of fine arts, new music, and free improvisation. Both live and work in Berlin.
"Simon arrived in my studio with songs by Jean Sibelius to try out. However, being bad a…
Necropolis
Canadian private press mega-rarity/obscurity from the artistically schizophrenic Bob Bell. Recorded in 1978, Bell splits the difference between his love of basement psych splatter/pummel and squalling free jazz ramble, the former occupying side A with a stunning four-part suite of wasted guitar scuzz and churning Krautrock-like drama with an akin to German Oak, Roland Kirk, Albert Ayler, DNA, Melt Banana (minus the vocals) and Guru Guru. The latter represents Bell as a saxophonist on side B, and…
Bern · Melbourne · Milan
Killer! 300 copies packaged in a double gatefold ruby recycled cardboard sleeve with silver embossed text on front, including a 32-page booklet. Archival and live recordings from Australia’s premiere prepared acoustic improvising trio. Formed in 2002, Melbourne’s Pateras/Baxter/Brown toured heavily between 2004 and 2008, playing a regular residency at the Empress in North Fitzroy in between extensive European tours. They performed multiple concerts in classical, electronic, jazz, grindcore and a…
Live at White Cube
In collaboration between Christian Marclay and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions inside the White Cube. Each performance over the course of the exhibition will be recorded, pressed and screen-printed live inside the gallery. The second performance is with Laurent Estoppey.Laurent Estoppey divides his life between the United States and Switzerland. As …
Ginparis Session
For the better part of the 50s and 60s, Masayuki Takayanagi was among Japan's best-respected jazz guitarists. But it wasn't until his experiments with tabletop guitar led him down the seductive path of sonic experimentation that he became the stuff of legend. “Ginparis” (literally translated as Silver Paris) was known as the chanson cafe in Tokyo, Ginza, and the performances often centred around chansons but eventually became the session venue for young jazz musicians. They left their mark on a…
Explosions
Probably the first recording (1965!) of improvised jazz combined with electronic music, as well as playing inside the piano and other new music techniques. Bob James (piano); Barre Philips (bass); Robert Pozar (percussion). Also including Bob Ashley and Gordon Mumma (electronic tape collage). The recording is made of an assembly of estranging electronic sound effects, trite sports commentaries, and the music of a beautifully improvising jazz trio. Bob James has, through this convulsion of out-of…
Fabrication of Silver Dreams
Founded by Lebanese visual artist and musician Raed Yassin and Swiss musician Paed Conca in 2006, Praed is a band whose music can be described as a mixture of Arabic popular music, free jazz, and electronics. Over the years, the duo has collaborated with renowned musicians from across the globe. Praed explore the terrain of shaabi (Arabic popular music) and its interconnectedness with other hypnotic music genres. Through their research and thanks to numerous concerts in various Egyptian cities, …
The First Words (Recordings 1984-1987)
** Hand-numbered limited edition to 500 copies, contains 64-page book with credits, notes and photos. 200 copies in english version. Slight wear due to storage, reduced price ** Optical Musics is a pioneering Greek avant-experimental project, founded by Costis Drygianakis and a group of people, formed in Volos. They were early experimenting with musical forms like free improvisation and electroacoustic experimentation etc, creating a highly personal musical idiom. From 1984 to mid-1987 the gro…
Demons!
"Desire is exploitation," the label notes for this ambitious two disc set proclaims. The demons get in any way they can, through laws that repress or through indulgence that never seems like it will ever be enough. "Demons!" explores the dread that accompanies our facing our own capacity for evil, as individuals and as a culture. Once again, Stephen Moore and Walter Cardew use orchestral and cabaret motifs to propel their horrific tales of sin and revenge. And where better to probe the personal …
Live at White Cube
In collaboration between Christian Marclay and the London Sinfonietta, some of the world’s most renowned contemporary musicians have been invited to stage performances, including new compositions and live improvisation sessions inside the White Cube. Each performance over the course of the exhibition will be recorded, pressed and screen-printed live inside the gallery. Side A: Elliott Sharp, 'The Hidden Variable'.Side B: Elliott Sharp and London Sinfonietta, 'Glass Call'
Void Transactions
2017 release ** Void Transactions is the most recent album of Alterations, released in 2017. Recorded at Cafe Oto during the live performance at Alterations Festival 2016. Peter Cusack: acoustic guitar, field recordings. Steve Beresford: piano, electronics, objects; Terry Day: drums, percussion, objects, balloons; David Toop: electric guitars, bass, flutes, objects.