Out of stock
CD
Ellen FULLMAN
“Through glass planes”
“Ellen Fullmans’s first proper full length for Important Records follows her collaborative work with Barn Owl (IMPREC277) and a split LP with Eleh (IMPREC318). She was also featured on The Harmonic Series: A Collection Of Work In Just Intonation (IMPREC272).
In 1981 Ellen Fullman began developing the “Long String Instrument,” an installation of dozens of wires fifty feet or more in length, tuned in Just Intonation and ‘bowed’ with rosin coated fingers. Fullman has developed a unique notation system to choreograph the performer’s movements, exploring sonic events that occur at specific nodal point locations along the string-length of the instrument. She has recorded extensively with this unusual instrument and has collaborated with such luminary figures as composer Pauline Oliveros, choreographer Deborah Hay, the Kronos Quartet, and Keiji Haino. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and residencies.
Through Glass Panes
In composing “Event Locations No. 2”, I set out to focus more strictly than I ever had on detail in the choreography of my notation. Through writing the piece I designed ways to add more specific information in the score. The tuning uses a set of pitches based in the key of A, in combination with Arnold Dreyblatt’s tuning system based on F. These two roots generate tones in common but also complex or “dissonant” tones. I wanted to find a way to incorporate more dissonance into my sound and intentionally worked with beating frequencies in this piece.
“Never Gets Out of Me”, a duet with cellist Theresa Wong, and “Flowers”, a trio recorded with Travis Weller and Henna Cho, are adaptations from Stratified Bands: Last Kind Words”, originally composed for the Kronos Quartet in the Other Minds Festival. The composition is based on Last Kind Words Blues, a haunting song by Geeshie Wiley recorded in 1930. An excerpt of the lyrics:
If I get killed, if I get killed, please don’t bury my soul, I’d pro’bly just leave me out, let the buzzards eat me whole.
The cello and violin writing for these pieces was influenced by my study of North Indian vocal music. My intention is that the sounds of all instruments mesh into an undulation like water flowing. Composed melodic phrases are based on fragments from the song lyrics in combination with impressions from the overtone melodies produced by the long string instrument. “Flowers” was recorded at Seaholm, a decommissioned electric power plant in Austin, Texas. A flock of sparrows that nest inside the cathedral-like cast-concrete space can be heard chirping on this recording.
“Through Glass Panes” is constructed around a sequence of rhythmic patterns played using the “box bow”. Homage to the harmonica, the box bow is a hand held hollow wooden box with a curved lower surface used to play my instrument percussively. Techniques based on hand drumming inform the articulations of the tool used to strike groupings of strings tuned to chords. Two box bow performers stand facing each other at a double-sided resonator to play hocketed parts providing a stable framework from which to measure spectral changes in the sustained texture.” label info
14,00€
Out of stock
CD
Christina KUBISCH
“Magnetic flights”
“Two brand new pieces from one of the most exciting, active & relevant members of the first generation sound artists. Magnetic Flights is a perfect follow up to Five Electrical Walks (imprec167) and it is being released at the same time as a collection of two of Kubisch’s unreleased archival pieces, also on Important.
Magnetic Flights is entirely made of electromagnetic field recordings of international airports and inside airplanes. The recordings of this piece were made by Christina Kubisch on her travels in 2007 from and to the airports of Bukarest, Manchester, Chicago, Seoul, Munich, Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfort, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, Pisa, Milan and London. The sounds were not altered electronically nor changed in any other way. The only tool, which was used for a part of it, was a filtering program (DINR)
All recordings were made with the help of special sensitive wireless headphones, by which the aboveground and underground electromagnetic fields are detected, amplified and made audible. The headphones are custom made and have been develeoped by myself and constructed by the engineer Manfred Fox, Berlin. The sounds are much more musical than one could expect. There are complex layers of high and low frequencies, loops of rhythmic sequences, groups of tiny signals, long drones and many things which change constantly and are hard to describe.
Magnetic Flights consists of three parts with a short special sound at the beginning and another one at the end. The piece starts with an electromagnetic sound recorded just before departure and continues with the material of flight radiations recorded inside different airplanes. These electromagnetic fields slightly change pitch during departure and arrival, but remain quite constant during the flight itself. The relatively high and compact sounds gradually build up a dense layer of vibrations with continuous minimal variations. In the second part some of the previous flight radiations gradually become filtered. The single signals mingle into a mix of small, short, nervous and very rhythmic signals. Their origin might be radio waves, communication signals with the tower , internet and atmospheric disturbances., but this is only a guess. The third part, the situation of arrival or transition, is a mix of typical electromagnetic sounds in the waiting areas of airports such as the deep vibrations of the screens of monitors which slowly fade in and out. The piece ends with the electrical flickering of an electromagnetic field of unknown origin.”
Magnetic Flights is entirely made of electromagnetic field recordings of international airports and inside airplanes. The recordings of this piece were made by Christina Kubisch on her travels in 2007 from and to the airports of Bukarest, Manchester, Chicago, Seoul, Munich, Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfort, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, Pisa, Milan and London. The sounds were not altered electronically nor changed in any other way. The only tool, which was used for a part of it, was a filtering program (DINR)
All recordings were made with the help of special sensitive wireless headphones, by which the aboveground and underground electromagnetic fields are detected, amplified and made audible. The headphones are custom made and have been develeoped by myself and constructed by the engineer Manfred Fox, Berlin. The sounds are much more musical than one could expect. There are complex layers of high and low frequencies, loops of rhythmic sequences, groups of tiny signals, long drones and many things which change constantly and are hard to describe.
Magnetic Flights consists of three parts with a short special sound at the beginning and another one at the end. The piece starts with an electromagnetic sound recorded just before departure and continues with the material of flight radiations recorded inside different airplanes. These electromagnetic fields slightly change pitch during departure and arrival, but remain quite constant during the flight itself. The relatively high and compact sounds gradually build up a dense layer of vibrations with continuous minimal variations. In the second part some of the previous flight radiations gradually become filtered. The single signals mingle into a mix of small, short, nervous and very rhythmic signals. Their origin might be radio waves, communication signals with the tower , internet and atmospheric disturbances., but this is only a guess. The third part, the situation of arrival or transition, is a mix of typical electromagnetic sounds in the waiting areas of airports such as the deep vibrations of the screens of monitors which slowly fade in and out. The piece ends with the electrical flickering of an electromagnetic field of unknown origin.”
12,00€
In stock
CD
Catherine Christer HENNIX
“Central Palace Music”
Central Palace Music, performed by Catherine Christer Hennix's just-intonation ensemble The Deontic Miracle, is the first in a series of archival Hennix releases to be issued via IMPREC. This previously unheard piece was taken from an eight day festival organized in the Spring of 1976 at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. The group features Catherine Christer Hennix on Renaissance oboe and custom sinewave generators, Peter Hennix on Renaissance oboe and Hans Isgren on sheng.
Central Palace Music is packaged in a deluxe letterpressed package and is being released at the same time as a recent recording of Hennix's new ensemble live at Issue Project Room.
“…Hennix has created a sound that reliably taps into our subconscious and frees us from linear time…” The Quietus
Catherine Christer Hennix (1948, Stockholm) is an artist, poet, composer and philosopher witha strong interest in logic and formal music theory. She was among the pioneers in Sweden experimenting with main-frame computer generated composite sound wave forms in the late 1960's and in the 1970's she was a key protagonist in the Downtown School along with La Monte Young and Henry Flynt, with whom she has collbaborated with on numerous occasions. She pursued studies with raga master Pandit Pran Nath and led the just intonation live-electronic ensembles Hilbert Hotel and The Deontic Miracle, the recordings of the latter are presently being released by Important Records. She was a professor of mathematics and computer science and assistant to and coauthor with A.S. Esenin-Volpin for which she was viven the Centenary Prize Fellow Award by the Clay Mathematics Insitute in 2000. Hennix's interest in drone music and the meditative, trance-like state it induces is apparent in her exploration of similar music in many other cultures and traditions, drawing inspiration from the Japanese Gagaku music and the early, vocal, thirteenth-century music of Perotinus and Leoninus, for example.
In 2003 she returned to computer generated composite sound wave forms now called Soliton(e)s of which Soliton(e) Star was the first result. Subsequently she formed the just intonation ensemble The Choras(s)an Time-Court Mirage which performs Blues Dhikir al- Salam (Live at the Grimmuseum, vol. 1, Berlin, 2011, Important Records 2012). In 2012 Henry Flynt asked Hennix for a new, expanded realization of ISE for an installation at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, to be featured in his retrospective/ prospective show Henry Flynt Activities 1959 – at ZKM. In response Hennix realized a 4-channel composition, Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis, her first 4-channel computer assisted composition since 1969.
18,00€
Out of stock
CD
Catherine Christer HENNIX
“Live At Issue Project Room”
Live At Issue Project Room is the first recording from Catherine Christer Hennix's expanded just-intonation ensemble, the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage. This expanded ensemble includes vocalists Imam Ahmet Muhsin Tüzer, Amir Elsaffan and Amirtha Kidambi, an expanded brass section with the addition of Paul Schwingesnschlögl and Elena Kakaliagou as well as the additon of Marcus Pal and Stefan Tiedje on electronics.
Live At Issue Project Room is packaged in a deluxe letterpressed package and is being released at the same time as a recent recording of Hennix’s new ensemble live at Issue Project Room.
“...Hennix has created a sound that reliably taps into our subconscious and frees us from linear time...” The Quietus
Catherine Christer Hennix (1948, Stockholm) is an artist, poet, composer and philosopher witha strong interest in logic and formal music theory. She was among the pioneers in Sweden experimenting with main-frame computer generated composite sound wave forms in the late 1960’s and in the 1970’s she was a key protagonist in the Downtown School along with La Monte Young and Henry Flynt, with whom she has collbaborated with on numerous occasions. She pursued studies with raga master Pandit Pran Nath and led the just intonation live-electronic ensembles Hilbert Hotel and The Deontic Miracle, the recordings of the latter are presently being released by Important Records. She was a professor of mathematics and computer science and assistant to and coauthor with A.S. Esenin-Volpin for which she was viven the Centenary Prize Fellow Award by the Clay Mathematics Insitute in 2000. Hennix’s interest in drone music and the meditative, trance-like state it induces is apparent in her exploration of similar music in many other cultures and traditions, drawing inspiration from the Japanese Gagaku music and the early, vocal, thirteenth-century music of Perotinus and Leoninus, for example.
In 2003 she returned to computer generated composite sound wave forms now called Soliton(e)s of which Soliton(e) Star was the first result. Subsequently she formed the just intonation ensemble The Choras(s)an Time-Court Mirage which performs Blues Dhikir al- Salam (Live at the Grimmuseum, vol. 1, Berlin, 2011, Important Records 2012). In 2012 Henry Flynt asked Hennix for a new, expanded realization of ISE for an installation at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, to be featured in his retrospective/ prospective show Henry Flynt Activities 1959 – at ZKM. In response Hennix realized a 4-channel composition, Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis, her first 4-channel computer assisted composition since 1969.
18,00€
In stock
CD
Arnold DREYBLATT
“Turntable history”
“Arnold Dreyblatt (b.1953) is an American composer who has studied with La Monte Young, Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Lucier. He is a member of the German Academy Of Art. He has released work on labels such as Table Of The Elements, Canteloupe, Tzadik, Hat Art and Dexter’s Cigar.
Turntable History is a recording of a 40 minute multi-channel sound composition which was concieved as part of an audio-visual installation installed in the circular vaulted brick space of a historical water container in Berlin in 2009. The original sound content is derived from recordings made by Arnold Dreyblatt of a Magnetic Resonance Imagining Scanner (“Siemens Magnetom Symphony Maestro Class”) in a radiological practice in Berlin. Dreyblatt was fortunate to gain rare permission to record this device in operation without patients being involved. A technician from Siemens manned the machine especially for these recordings, searching for software settings related to their resulting sonic output rather for scanning particular body areas. Dreyblatt treated the device as a giant “Tesla coil”, in which the alignment and resonances of a powerful magnetic field is gradually altered by rotating radio frequencies. Dreyblatt analysed and deconstructed the original recordings and grouped the audio segments by pitch, rhythm and density. The resulting five-channel composition of harmonically resonating, pulsating signals, sounded within this voluminous reflective space (with long delay times) is wonderfully captured in this recording.” label info
12,00€
Out of stock
CD
COMPILATION
CULTURES ÉLECTRONIQUES 11
Prix Magisterium Bourges 1998. Wlodzimierz Kotonski “Tierra caliente”, “Alea”. Jean-Claude Risset “Invible” for soprano and tape, “Attracteurs étranges” for clarinet and tape.
8,00€
Out of stock
CD
COMPILATION
CULTURES ÉLECTRONIQUES 9 – Magistères Bourges 1996
1996. Larry Austin “BluesAx” pour saxophone et bande, “Quadrants”, Lars Gunnar Bodin “Halsningar Fran Syrenbersan”, “For Jon - Fragments of a time to come”.
8,00€
In stock
CD
COMPILATION
CULTURES ÉLECTRONIQUES 3 – Magistères
Back in stock.
Dieter Kaufmann: “Le Voyage au Paradis”, Francis Dhomont: “Chiaroscuro… ou les jeux de l’ambiguïté”, Zoltan Pongracz: “Contrastes Polaires et Successifs”, Dieter Kaufmann: “Le Ciel et la Terre”, Zoltan Pongracz: “Histoire d’un Accord de Do Dièze Majeur”.
8,00€
Out of stock
CD
DDAA
“Déficit Des Années Antérieures”
Déficit Des Années Antérieures was originally released in 1979 as a C60 tape. This CD reissue is a limited edition of 450 copies, numbered and signed, silkscreen cover with 2 colors + one bonus live in Cherbourg in 1979.
15,00€
Out of stock
CD
DDAA
“20 ans de vieille musique nouvelle”
“IP041 was wrapped in a 2 CD pack with a card, in the place of IP042, for the order of this one. IP042 was recorded live in 1994 at the Univerity of Caen in France, is titled “De Gaule A Bayeux, Un Opéra Maracayace” and have as special guest: Jean-François Pauvros (Guitar & Vocals).”
12,00€
Out of stock
CD
Charlemagne PALESTINE
“Ssingggg Sschlllingg Sshpppingg”
This awesome full length album by Charlemagne solo has been recorded especially for idiosyncratics. It has been brilliantly engineered by our long term associate Fredéric Alstadt (Angström Studio) and mixed by maestro Aymeric De Tapol.
The artwork is an original collaboration between Charlemagne Palestine, labelboss Yannick Franck and Frau label designer Helena Dietrich, immortalized by photographer Laurent Meurice. It comes with a color 3 panels cardboard and includes the download of the digital version (in the format you want).
“Charlemagne Palestine releases this absorbing 51 minute dronescape that's at once enormous and intimate - and easily a career highlight” Rolling Stone
7 Best Avant Albums of 2015.
“Not only my favourite record of 2015, but maybe the best work I have ever heard from Mr. Palestine” Jim O’Rourke (Wire magazine, dec 2015).
“One of the very best releases in the American maverick’s recent output” Touching Extremes
The artwork is an original collaboration between Charlemagne Palestine, labelboss Yannick Franck and Frau label designer Helena Dietrich, immortalized by photographer Laurent Meurice. It comes with a color 3 panels cardboard and includes the download of the digital version (in the format you want).
“Charlemagne Palestine releases this absorbing 51 minute dronescape that's at once enormous and intimate - and easily a career highlight” Rolling Stone
7 Best Avant Albums of 2015.
“Not only my favourite record of 2015, but maybe the best work I have ever heard from Mr. Palestine” Jim O’Rourke (Wire magazine, dec 2015).
“One of the very best releases in the American maverick’s recent output” Touching Extremes
12,50€
Out of stock
CD
ELODIE
“Vieux Silence”
Music by Andrew Chalk & Timo van Luijk with Tom James Scott - piano, Jean-Noël Rebilly - clarinette, Daniel Morris - guitare pedal steel. Mastered & cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin 0417.
“Having been entranced by both Andrew Chalk’s work with Mirror (and back to his solo works as Ferial Confine, plus multiple collaborations with David Jackman, The New Blockaders, Daisuke Suzuki, etc ) and Timo van Luijk (as Af Ursin, In Camera, La Poupée Vivante, and collaborations with Kris Vanderstraeten and others) for many years, I was naturally intrigued to hear about and hear their duo project Elodie. The project formed in 2010, and has spanned eleven beautiful albums already, to date. “Vieux Silence” for Ideologic Organ is their first release presented outside of their own record publishing nook, Faraway Press & La Scie Dorée. However this is not the first encounter between Ideologic Organ & Elodie, they performed at a night in London I curated in February 2012, alongside Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang. Elodie’s performance was among the most delicately engaging and savant I have witnessed… so very quiet, with snow falling in London outside Cafe Oto’s windows, the audience palpably entered a high intensity listening focus. The impression of this vivid memory is striking, considering how spare each of the individual elements present that night were. “Vieux Silence”, and Elodie in general provoke a visual imagination in an instant, perhaps filtered through aged watercolour, tape grain, antique lenses, forgotten levels of listening and observational patience. Each detail carefully considered and colouring step by step, like an impressionist watercolour.” Stephen O’Malley, Les Lilas 2017
“Having been entranced by both Andrew Chalk’s work with Mirror (and back to his solo works as Ferial Confine, plus multiple collaborations with David Jackman, The New Blockaders, Daisuke Suzuki, etc ) and Timo van Luijk (as Af Ursin, In Camera, La Poupée Vivante, and collaborations with Kris Vanderstraeten and others) for many years, I was naturally intrigued to hear about and hear their duo project Elodie. The project formed in 2010, and has spanned eleven beautiful albums already, to date. “Vieux Silence” for Ideologic Organ is their first release presented outside of their own record publishing nook, Faraway Press & La Scie Dorée. However this is not the first encounter between Ideologic Organ & Elodie, they performed at a night in London I curated in February 2012, alongside Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang. Elodie’s performance was among the most delicately engaging and savant I have witnessed… so very quiet, with snow falling in London outside Cafe Oto’s windows, the audience palpably entered a high intensity listening focus. The impression of this vivid memory is striking, considering how spare each of the individual elements present that night were. “Vieux Silence”, and Elodie in general provoke a visual imagination in an instant, perhaps filtered through aged watercolour, tape grain, antique lenses, forgotten levels of listening and observational patience. Each detail carefully considered and colouring step by step, like an impressionist watercolour.” Stephen O’Malley, Les Lilas 2017
12,50€
Out of stock
CD
Kevin DRUMM
“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,
they share the same cold and darkness. “Purge” is no exception. This is a dark composition with fucked feedback and comfortably stuck in the deepest
underworld. - Joachim Nordwall, Stockholm, March 2013. Released in a b/w digipack in a limited edition of 500 copies.
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,
they share the same cold and darkness. “Purge” is no exception. This is a dark composition with fucked feedback and comfortably stuck in the deepest
underworld. - Joachim Nordwall, Stockholm, March 2013. Released in a b/w digipack in a limited edition of 500 copies.
11,00€
CD
Jean-Claude ELOY
“Etats-Limites ou les cris de Petra”
“Borderlines or Petra’s shouts. Songs for the other half of the sky N°VII” (2013) After some reissue or first edition of old composition, here’s a brand new composition from Jean-Claude Eloy. Made mostly with voice, bells and synthetic sounds this piece works like an electroacoustic lightning. “A kind of salutary madness”.
13,00€
CD
Jean-Claude ELOY
“L’anneau des sept lumières”
The Ring of the Seven Lights (Metametal, long version) (1994-95 / revision and new master: 2013). Seven continuous variations from a single Bonshô sample (Buddhist temple traditional bell from Japan), a tribute to Inayat and Vilayat Khan.
Jean-Claude Eloy: “I created and partially realized it in 1994-95 during this conversion of Anâhata into an electro-acoustic version alone. I first made a short version out of it which integrated into Electro-Anâhata and became the fourth station within the first part (around Âhata-Anâhata). It was an entirely new part that had never been realized during the final mixing of the original Anâhata cycle.”
13,00€
CD
Jean-Claude ELOY
“Galaxies full-electro”
“Galaxies” (Warsaw version), electro-acoustic alone. Fully electro-acoustic version of Anâhata / Galaxies realized on the composer’s personal computer from the original electro-acoustic recordings of this work.
Electronic music studios where the original Anâhata / Galaxies were produced (1984-86): Studio of the Sweelinck Conservatory of Music, Amsterdam (1984 and 1986): the entire production (pre-recorded material processing, new material generation, premixing) and all final mixing processes. Tokyo-Gakuso studio, Tokyo (1983): for the Shô and Ô-Shô (traditional mouth organs from Japan) sampling with Mayumi Miyata. Conny’s Studio, Neuenkirchen, near Cologne (1984) with Asian Sound and Michael W. Ranta: metal percussion instrument sampling, including Bonshôs (Buddhist temple bells from Japan) sampling. INA-GRM, Paris (1985): pre-recorded material processing. Studio ART, Geneva (1985): pre-recorded material processing and pre-mixing. Studio of Technische Universität (TU), Berlin (1985-86): pre-recorded material processing, new material production, pre-mixing. Jean-Claude Eloy: “In 1994 I had (for purely practical reasons) to remove these big electro-acoustic parts making up the two Galaxies works from the piece they were connected with until then: Part III of my Anâhata cycle, entitled Nimîlana-Unmîlana ("that which awakens - that which slumbers"). An electro-acoustic work integrating instrumental acoustic parts that required the performance of a Shô player from Japan.
Those electro-acoustic parts were substantial enough to warrant a new configuration ensuring their stand-alone nature, independent of whether a performer was available or not. Therefore I used (apart from the two Galaxies) a set of particular sounds that I had generated during that production (all of them resulting from Shô sampled sound processing and modulations) entitled sons d’infinitude ("sounds of indefiniteness"). These sustained sounds were very fixed, quite contemplative, almost motionless or maintained through short fluctuations that were more or less regular. They were five of them altogether. Four of them were grouped together into a consistent set and occurred after the first Galaxy, before the Shô solo. I had used them to compose a sequence called Awakening, which formed the first Shô appearance in the version realized for the Donaueschingen Festival in 1990. The fifth one took place at the end of the second Galaxy and was used to support the conclusion played on the Ô-Shô. In this purely electro-acoustic version the first four sons d’infinitude came quite naturally as a "bridge" between both Galaxies. The fifth sound kept its conclusive place, making it bigger and using it as a genuine "extension sound" that could be infinite, with no limit!”
Electronic music studios where the original Anâhata / Galaxies were produced (1984-86): Studio of the Sweelinck Conservatory of Music, Amsterdam (1984 and 1986): the entire production (pre-recorded material processing, new material generation, premixing) and all final mixing processes. Tokyo-Gakuso studio, Tokyo (1983): for the Shô and Ô-Shô (traditional mouth organs from Japan) sampling with Mayumi Miyata. Conny’s Studio, Neuenkirchen, near Cologne (1984) with Asian Sound and Michael W. Ranta: metal percussion instrument sampling, including Bonshôs (Buddhist temple bells from Japan) sampling. INA-GRM, Paris (1985): pre-recorded material processing. Studio ART, Geneva (1985): pre-recorded material processing and pre-mixing. Studio of Technische Universität (TU), Berlin (1985-86): pre-recorded material processing, new material production, pre-mixing. Jean-Claude Eloy: “In 1994 I had (for purely practical reasons) to remove these big electro-acoustic parts making up the two Galaxies works from the piece they were connected with until then: Part III of my Anâhata cycle, entitled Nimîlana-Unmîlana ("that which awakens - that which slumbers"). An electro-acoustic work integrating instrumental acoustic parts that required the performance of a Shô player from Japan.
Those electro-acoustic parts were substantial enough to warrant a new configuration ensuring their stand-alone nature, independent of whether a performer was available or not. Therefore I used (apart from the two Galaxies) a set of particular sounds that I had generated during that production (all of them resulting from Shô sampled sound processing and modulations) entitled sons d’infinitude ("sounds of indefiniteness"). These sustained sounds were very fixed, quite contemplative, almost motionless or maintained through short fluctuations that were more or less regular. They were five of them altogether. Four of them were grouped together into a consistent set and occurred after the first Galaxy, before the Shô solo. I had used them to compose a sequence called Awakening, which formed the first Shô appearance in the version realized for the Donaueschingen Festival in 1990. The fifth one took place at the end of the second Galaxy and was used to support the conclusion played on the Ô-Shô. In this purely electro-acoustic version the first four sons d’infinitude came quite naturally as a "bridge" between both Galaxies. The fifth sound kept its conclusive place, making it bigger and using it as a genuine "extension sound" that could be infinite, with no limit!”
13,00€
CD
Jean-Claude ELOY
“Kâmakalâ – Étude III – Fluctuante immuable”
CD with 60 pages booklet with photos + texts in French and English.
“Kâmakalâ. The Energy Triangle” (1971). For three orchestra ensembles, five chorus ensembles, with three conductors. Orchestra and chorus of the WDR, Schola Cantorum, Stuttgart. Conductors : Michel Tabachnik, Bernhard Kontarsky, Jacques Mercier. Kâmakalâ - a Sankrit term meaning energy triangle - refers to India’s philosophy (Tantric Shivaïsm) and is expresses here as the appearance of energy, which is the erotic and cosmic energy (Kama), that which helps Shiva uniting with his Shakti (feminine energy), create every self-subdivision (Kalâ), hence gradually generating the whole complexity of the universe. It is that idea of a vast and slow crescendo of the various parameters of a musical score, of an infinite division and infinite multiplication of the material contained in it that appealed to Eloy. At the time he would complain about a type of contemporary music aesthetics only focusing on the quick scattering of all kinds of points within short periods of time, sometimes in just a few seconds (pointillism). As a result music pieces were almost inevitably bound to be brief, unable to sustain time as it would distribute the entire sound energy from the very first minutes. On the contrary, Eloy wanted to create music in which the energy was sustained, non distributed and reserved to intense inner blossoming at a later point; music expanding very slowly as in Indian Raga, yet Western music definitely modern, atonal and athematic.
“Étude III” (1962) for orchestra, with piano and five percussionists. Orchestra of the SWF, Baden-Baden. Conductor : Ernest Bour. Etude III, which was composed in May and June of 1962 in Zurich and Paris, uses the configuration of a traditional orchestra (wood and brass instruments by pair) opposite to an ensemble of five percussionists, piano, harp and celesta. A dialectic stands out of this opposition as it is emphasized through the writing and conducting (measured for the orchestral mass, a-measured and cued for the entire ensemble on the foreground).
The instruments, which form cohesive timber families, come in according to an irregular pattern as the piece develops, with the entire configuration not coming into play until the last developments. The frequent use of very long durations, related to the steadiness of the pitch registers, leads to a rising static sound phenomenon reminiscent of oriental music in some regards: the tone and use of Shô in Japanese Gagaku, the slow and steady increase of complexity in Indian Raga. “Fluctuante - Immuable” (1977) for full orchestra. New Philharmonic Orchestra from Radio-France. Conductor : Gilbert Amy. Fluctuante-Immuable, which was composed in 1977 as Gaku-no-Michi was produced in the Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) electronic studio in Tokyo, is the result of a commission by the Secretariat of Cultural Affairs made for the Orchestre de Paris, which premiered it in May 1977. This work clearly shows the influence and the alterations that electro-acoustic practices infer on orchestral writing practices. Besides Eloy’s long electro-acoustic productions, Fluctuante-Immuable suggested a new (theoretical and practical) way of addressing issues related to "composing with notes". The formal issue that the composer faces at the beginning is that of a dialectic between "Order and Disorder" (or between order and organized chaos) topped by an issue about the relation between the conductor and his orchestra (techniques of synchronization or desynchronization with the mass of musicians).
The instruments, which form cohesive timber families, come in according to an irregular pattern as the piece develops, with the entire configuration not coming into play until the last developments. The frequent use of very long durations, related to the steadiness of the pitch registers, leads to a rising static sound phenomenon reminiscent of oriental music in some regards: the tone and use of Shô in Japanese Gagaku, the slow and steady increase of complexity in Indian Raga. “Fluctuante - Immuable” (1977) for full orchestra. New Philharmonic Orchestra from Radio-France. Conductor : Gilbert Amy. Fluctuante-Immuable, which was composed in 1977 as Gaku-no-Michi was produced in the Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) electronic studio in Tokyo, is the result of a commission by the Secretariat of Cultural Affairs made for the Orchestre de Paris, which premiered it in May 1977. This work clearly shows the influence and the alterations that electro-acoustic practices infer on orchestral writing practices. Besides Eloy’s long electro-acoustic productions, Fluctuante-Immuable suggested a new (theoretical and practical) way of addressing issues related to "composing with notes". The formal issue that the composer faces at the beginning is that of a dialectic between "Order and Disorder" (or between order and organized chaos) topped by an issue about the relation between the conductor and his orchestra (techniques of synchronization or desynchronization with the mass of musicians).
18,00€
CD
Jean-Claude ELOY
“Étude IV – … d’une étoile oubliée – La grande vague”
“Etude IV: points-lines-landscapes” (1979). This work is designed as an all-electronic piece without considering any configuration with soloist parts for later use (unlike the two following pieces featured on this CD). It was realized by Jean-Claude Eloy in 1979 on the CEMAMu’s UPIC upon Iannis Xenakis’s invitation to whom this work is dedicated as a friend. The UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMu) is an electronic tool invented by Iannis Xenakis in the 1970s. It is a graphic interface designed to create sound and compose music, whose first version featured a big drawing board (a sort of architect desk) equipped with a ballpoint electromagnetic pencil, surrounded by a computer (mini-computer solar 16/55 ESMS - memory of 32 K) and a monitor. All kinds of forms could thus be drawn with the electronic pencil based on time parameters (moving from left to right) and frequency spaces (from bottom to top, from the lowest to the highest register). Before each drawing (or for every line or "arch" - from an architectural point of view) the appropriate banks would be successively selected with the electromagnetic pencil: a waveform bank, an envelope bank, which could also be drawn and stored in advance. Piling up such arches you could obtained more or less complex drawings filling a "page" that could be calculated by the computer upon completion. Today, such operations are widely used by every computer (including consumer computer) whiz. However, in 1979 (when this work was produced) such opportunities were unique and, as Eloy said "... were like a miracle for the instrumental and orchestral composer that I mostly was".
“…Of a Forgotten Star” (1986), electro-acoustic part alone from Sappho hiketis. Originally, this work was part of Anâhata but did not end up in its final production. It was later used as a supporting structure for the Sappho hiketis piece with the solo vocal parts especially written for Fatima Miranda and Yumi Nara. During the electro-acoustic production of Anâhata this mixing was entitled Indian-Plates. The basic material is exclusively made of prerecorded sounds from metal percussion instruments (sampled in 1984 in the early stage of the production of Anâhata with Michael W. Ranta, Asian Sound, Cologne).
“The Great Wave…” (1991) (a tribute to Hokusai), electro-acoustic part alone from She (from the Gaia-Songs cycle). This work was originally realized to fit into Erkos but was not used in the final production. It was later integrated into the Gaia-Songs cycle for the fourth piece: She ("The consecrating mother") based on Anne Sexton’s poem (integral part of Two American Women) serving as a backbone for a written piece completed in keeping with the sung-spoken voice technique (Sprechgesang). During the production of Erkos this terminal mixing was entitled Biwa-Tutti because of the various Biwa sounds and glissandi that were stacked and sampled at the studio by Junko Ueda, solo performer for Erkos. This work was completed in 1990-91 at the WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) Electronic Studio of Cologne.
13,00€
Out of stock
CD
PRSZR
“Equilibrium”
PRSZR is Pure (Peter Votava) and Hati (Rafal Iwanski & Rafal Kolacki). PRSZR (pronounced pressure) combines the eerie, computer generated sound world of Austrian electronic music veteran Pure with the archaic, outer-worldly spaceyness of Polish duo Hati’s percussion play. Multi-layered syncopatic polyrhythms alternate with gong-based drones, both built on top of computer-generated loops and pulsating patterns. Melting acoustic with electronic aesthetics in a unique way, the trio explores strategies for a highly hypnotic, cathartic sonic experience. PRSZR formed in 2008 and played a few promising live shows since. “Equilirium” is their first album release. Peter Votava is a composer and performer of electronic music since more than 20 years. Starting as a DJ and Techno producer in the early 1990s he turned towards experimental electronic music. This went hand in hand with his engagement in computer programming which led him to develop his own software instruments. He now uses this knowledge for computer based live performances and teaching. Together with Erich Berger he founded the Heart Chamber Orchestra in 2003. His latest studio album als PURE, «Ification», was released by Portuguese label Cronica in 2008. Votava holds a Master of Arts in Computer Music from the University of Plymouth (UK). HATI (Rafal Iwanski and Rafal Kolacki) is an audio project based on sounds of ethnic instruments as well as hand-made instruments and found objects. HATI forms a link between a personal interest in improvised acoustic music and ritual and meditation. The band has performed many times throughout Europe and in the USA since 2003. Live collaborations took place with John Zorn, Steve Buchanan & Heike Fiedler, Robert Curgenven, Raymond Salvatore Harmon and Z’EV with whom they also released two full length albums. Both members curate the CoCArt Music Festival in cooperation with the Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun, Poland. Rafal Iwanski performs solo as X-NAVI:ET, presenting a combination of analog electronic devices, acoustic instruments and field/found recordings. Rafal Kolacki is responsible for the audio-visual project Tonopolis, consisting of field recordings from Torun, remixed by various sound artists including himself.
5,00€
Out of stock
CD
Paul DEMARINIS
“The Edison effect-A listener’s companion”
“For this recording, the acclaimed sound artist created theoretically dense work which explores the relationships between recording technologies. Working with the faults of mediums lifetimes apart - the early Wax Cylinder Phonograph and Digital audio suite - he recorded signals imbued with the inherent noise of the opposing mediums. Recording the results back and forth on both technologies ancient and new, this experimental work strives to make music with the hidden textures of history. In short, The Edison Effect is an audio essay of sorts, that seeks to address artistic issues through the exploration and deconstruction of the mediums, and employs the laser beam of digital audio interpreting the analog grooves carved into wax. Aesthetically, this work is a meditative animation of nostalgia, with the idiosyncrasies of the failing mediums providing the texture and tonality to these quiet pensive compositions. Predating the glitch movement where recorded medium deconstruction became the vogue of artist such as Oval and Otomo Yoshihide, the recording has similarities to vinyl deconstruction artist Christian Marclay and Philip Jeck, and comes highly recommended to those intrigued by such explorations.” Sylvie Harrison, All Music Guide
18,00€
Out of stock
CD
Lasse MARHAUG – John WIESE
“Country and western”
Lasse Marhaug & John Wiese, recorded January 2008 at the best studio in Oslo.
14,00€
Out of stock
CD
FOSSIL AEROSOL MINING PROJECT
“The Unlistening Place”
Fossil Aerosol Mining Project are an enigmatic lot, comprised of sonic archeologists residing the American Midwest. Their work spans several decades and is almost always in flux through the variable states of contextual re-investigation and technological degradation. Aesthetically, FAMP align with the post-industrial research of :zoviet*france:, Cranioclast and Robert Turman. Bacteria damaged tape loops, ghostly time-lag accumulation and the excavation of mediated sound from suburbia’s failures are key components to the Fossil Aerosol’s working process.
The core tracks of The Unlistening Place were recorded in 2015, and at the time were intended to be part of what was to be the final Fossil Aerosol album, scheduled for a distant release. But history circled back on itself, and the result was a reworking of future tracks, alongside more new material. Historiography eating its own tail.
14,50€
Out of stock
CD
FOSSIL AEROSOL MINING PROJECT
“Revisionist history”
The first Fossil Aerosol Mining Project audio recordings were made 30 years ago this year. In the observation of three decades of obscure, faked resurrection, we are pleased to announce the release of the new CD Revisionist History. The recordings on this album are hybrids, created by the grafting of old artifacts onto new material using recently devised studio processes. New sounds of the past, articulated through the devices of an unimagined future. In addition to the 69-minute CD, each package also includes an exclusive download code for an additional hour of full-resolution tracks via Bandcamp. This bonus material consists of special remixes and reconsiderations of nine of our old favorites. In total, Revisionist History includes over two hours of enhanced decay and mnemonic devices. This artist-edition is limited to 300 specially prepared packages that include a manipulated page of pseudohistorical text (circa 1972), and a souvenir fragment of open-reel dictaphone tape collected as source material in Chicago in 1988.
The anniversary edition of Revisionist History is brought to you through a collaboration between Afterdays Media and The Helen Scarsdale Agency.
The Fossil Aerosol Mining Project began in the mid-1980s as a loose-knit group of artists and collectors interested in exploring the damaged remains of late 20th century popular culture. Of particular appeal were inadvertent examples of the post-industrial, post-apocalyptic landscapes so commonly imagined in Cold War-era media. Places and debris that fostered views of mummified modern pop, and contemporary provisions made artifact. The Project began making audio recordings in 1986. The first studio experimentation employed literal “found sounds” such as fragments of open reel 1/4” tape and 35mm film recovered from burnt out warehouses and abandoned drive-in theaters. The earliest work involved physical tape loops and analog signal processes, which were gradually replaced by digital delay treatments and multi-track manipulation. Fossil Aerosol still works primarily with found materials - audio artifacts and field recordings. Signal processing equipment remains the principal form of instrumentation. Songs of enhanced decay and faked resurrection.
18,00€
In stock
CD
M.S. WALDRON-Steven STAPLETON-S.B. SIGMARSSON-Jim HAINES-R.K. FAULHABER
“The sleeping moustache”
Let’s begin with the introductions. M.S. Waldron may be best known for his work as irr. app. (ext.), an unwieldy moniker that begets uncanny, hallucinatory sound. Steven Stapleton is the genius behind Nurse With Wound, the consistently unpredictable project that scrambles musical obsessions for krautrock, surrealism, and avant-garde composition into a brash quest for expressionism through experimentation. Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson hails from the Icelandic electro-absurdist duo Stilluppsteypa, which continues to investigate the finer points of drunken minimalism. Jim Haynes prefers to merely state that he rusts things. R.K. Faulhaber is something of a mysterious figure, looming around Mr. Waldron’s irr. app. (ext.) recordings and performances while keeping his own work a hermetic secret. Each with a peculiar understanding of the audio arts, these five artists came to the proverbial table and thought it a good idea to collaborate. Given the predilection for the surreal and the sidereal that each of these five employ in their many audio and visual projects, those agendas oozed from the recordings that became known as The Sleeping Moustache. An epiphany of controlled disorder, a convulsion of beauty, a cascade of thought from delirious minds, The Sleeping Moustache is an exquisite manifestation of sound poetry scattered into a tortuous collage mired in an oblique melancholy. Magnetic tones extracted from the ether, mechanical sounds smeared into a lugubrious growls, horns trumpeting straight out of John’s Book of Revelation, ululations sliced into information overload that Schwitters himself would be proud of. The Sleeping Moustache presents a psychically instable landscape, where dreams and nightmares wreak havoc upon the drudgery of daily life. The closest audible territory for The Sleeping Moustache might be the psychoactive constructions of Nurse With Wound’s Homotopy To Marie, although the characters in this drama happened upon an entirely different map of that terrain. The artwork for the first edition of The Sleeping Moustache features five letterpress prints from each of the artists with an edition of 1700.
15,00€
Out of stock
CD
John WALL & Mark DURGAN
“Contrapt”
John Wall and Mark Durgan return after a lengthy absence [there first release together was in 2011]. Theirs is a fractured sound world woven together from improvisations that took place in the Utterpsalm Studio in London between 2012-15. The resultant seven tracks are an attempt at imposing order, structure and “expression” without meaning or intentionality onto a huge amount of heavily edited sonic material.
10,00€
Out of stock
CD
Marc NAMBLARD
“F.Guyana”
One CD + digital bonus. 500 copies.
The field recordings of « F.Guyana » have been realized in the forests and the costal regions of French Guiana between the dry season and the « little rainy season » (November/December 2014, 2015 and 2016).
Marc Namblard was born in Paris in October 1973. He grew up mostly in Loiret, (Central France) but spent most of his holidays with his family in the Cévennes, south eastern France. It is certainly in these rugged yet generous mountains that his sensitivity to nature asserted itself little by little. After his baccalaureate in literature, visual arts and art history, he studied at l’École de l’Image d’Épinal, a visual arts school. During his 21-month non-military national service in an outdoor education centre, he discovered the job of environmental educator. After his national service, Marc completed his studies at the Fine Art School of Épinal and gained a National diploma in visual arts in June 2000. Sound then began to take an increasingly bigger place in his own work.
In the following years, Marc moved away from Fine arts to work as an environmental educator for popular education organisations. At the same time, he met many people interested in sound art and wildlife recording. Since then, his work has been characterised by a dual approach, naturalist and musical, rational yet intuitive. Depending on projects, one approach prevails but never takes over the other completely.
Since 2000, Marc has been living and working as a nature guide, wildlife sound recordist and sound artist in Lorraine (Eastern France).
15,00€
Out of stock
CD
Christina KUBISH & Eckehard GÜTHER
“Unter Grund”
The Ruhr Area lives from and with water. It needs drinking water, water for industrial facilities and water for transportation. Water veins pulse invisibly with groundwater, connecting rivers through subsurface tunnels that also force their way into disused mines. This mine water has to be drained continuously or pumped out from underground (one speaks of unending tasks) to prevent the collapse of old shafts, subsidence damage, and the contamination of drinking water. Without constant pumping of the groundwater the Ruhr Area would transform into a vast marshy landscape.
Fabian Lasarzik, “The discomfort from the underground”. Christina Kubisch’s site-specific sound installations are based on retrieving parallel worlds. She often responds to structures and atmospheres of places and their unheralded vibrancy which she turns into concrete perception and imagination by the recipient. For the 26-channel installation “under ground” carried out on Zeche Zollverein Christina Kubisch examined above ground and subterranean streams which are little noticed, but play a decisive role: water which has to be developed from abandoned and not backfilled shafts and mounted into a complex canal and river system.
“Unter Grund“ was presented 2014 in the context of the festival NOW/ Parallele Welten as a 26-channel sound installation at the Zollverein world heritage site. The composition on the CD under the same name consists of recordings that were made in the Ruhr Area in machine rooms above and under ground, pumping stations, waterworks, ponds, shaft sumps, cages, spillways et cetera. Some of the recordings were taken directly from Shaft XII of the former Zollverein Coal Mine. The sound recordings were mainly made with hydrophones and contact microphones.
15,00€
Out of stock
CD
Michael PISARO
“Closed categories in cartesian worlds”
We are very happy to announce the release of GW 010, a 72-minute CD version of Closed Categories in Cartesian Worlds, for crotales and sine tones (composed by Michael Pisaro, performed by Greg Stuart, mastered by Michael Pisaro and Joe Panzner). Those interested in more info and sound examples can look below. The disc also comes with extensive notes and a reproduction of a page of the score.
From the notes: “This record consists of four crotales, each bowed for 16 minutes. Against each crotale I have placed sine tones, one after another, for four minutes each (four for each crotale note). The score gives 10 possibilities for each crotale (over the two octave range of the instrument there are 250 possibilities). Greg selected four instruments, and then sent me the recordings. I took some time to select and scale the volume of the sine tones, work with the stereo balance and mix each crotale/tone combination in a slightly different way.
What emerges from the vast possible selection is four connected pieces, working their way up in range, each having a distinct profile, structured perhaps with a distant echo of a four movement symphony.”
From the notes: “This record consists of four crotales, each bowed for 16 minutes. Against each crotale I have placed sine tones, one after another, for four minutes each (four for each crotale note). The score gives 10 possibilities for each crotale (over the two octave range of the instrument there are 250 possibilities). Greg selected four instruments, and then sent me the recordings. I took some time to select and scale the volume of the sine tones, work with the stereo balance and mix each crotale/tone combination in a slightly different way.
What emerges from the vast possible selection is four connected pieces, working their way up in range, each having a distinct profile, structured perhaps with a distant echo of a four movement symphony.”
14,00€
In stock
CD
Michael PISARO
“Fields have ears (6)”
“A 56-minute piece for guitar and electronics. It has had a long composition history, starting from a solo for classical guitar and sine tones (premiered in Munich in July of 2010). It was subsequently performed in Seattle (August, 2010), A Coruña, Galicia (May, 2011) and New York (September, 2011). For each performance a new version was created, incorporating recordings from the previous locations (including parts of previous performances), and other sounds that I began to associate with the history of the piece: turntables, radios, records, field recordings, earlier pieces of mine, etc. The process reached its endpoint in December of 2011 (with me recording all the parts on electric guitar). What started as a fairly simple piece is now a densely layered object, that carries its history on its back like a tortoise shell.”
16,00€
Out of stock
CD
Michael PISARO – Greg STUART
“Ricefall (2)”
“Gravity Wave, a new CD label, curated by composer Michael Pisaro, designed by Yuko Zama. Icefall (2), a 72-minute piece for 64 separate tracks of rice falling on objects. This recording is the second part of a trilogy of the first disc length works by Stuart and Pisaro (an unrhymed chord is the first part, and A wave and waves is the third). The dynamic range of the recording is extremely wide. In the second of the four sections, there is a storm of falling rice that is certainly the loudest music the duo have made; the final section is an unbroken 16 minutes of lightly falling, slightly pitched sounds. The release features a short essay by Pisaro on working with Stuart.” label info
16,00€
In stock
CD
Michael PISARO
“Étant Donnés”
Étant donnés [2015-2017] is a six-track disc based almost entirely on samples (from Curtis Mayfield to John Carpenter !!!).
15,00€
Out of stock
CD
Thomas TILLY
“Codex Amphibia (an interpretation of the explosive breeding phenomenon)”
Professionnaly duplicated CDR.
Field recordings realized by Thomas Tilly, December 2016 Guiana. This project comes from a research field session realized with Antoine Fouquet, Research associate at The French National Center for Scientific Research; “Ecology, environment and interactions in Amazonian systems Lab” (LEEISA); and the “Evolution and Biological diversity Lab”.
Comprised from unprocessed raw field recordings and interspersed sinewave structures by Thomas Tilly, 2017.
13,00€