Out of stock
3 CD
DIESEL GUITAR
“Maria -1995. Medium of Lights -1996. Assimilation -1999”
A repackaged and remastered 3CD set that compiles three of Diesel Guitar’s key 90's works: “Maria” (1995), “Medium of Lights” (1996), and “Assimilation” (1999). “Medium of Lights” and “Assimilation” have always been particularly hard to track down, both having been released in very limited editions.
All tracks were remastered by Kiyoharu Kuwayama (Lethe) in 2016. The individual sleeves provide printed reproductions of the original artwork and package design. Limited edition of 200.
“On the reissue of these three cassette works” by Youki Noseyama.
““Maria” (1995), “Medium of Lights” (1996) and “Assimilation” (1999) were a three-part solo work, where the album and track titles were deliberately designed to overlap and resonate with each other. Since the release of my first CD in 2002, I have concentrated on drone performance, so these three works record the final manifestation of the guitar amp feedback approach I used before. “Maria” was released by the Kyoto label G.R.O.S.S. in an edition of 120, but I released the other two works myself and they saw virtually no distribution. For a long time it has been difficult to hear my process prior to my first CD, so I am really grateful to be able to make these three works available again.
Back in 1995, I visited the late Akifumi Nakajima, who ran G.R.O.S.S., at his home in Kyoto to discuss the release of “Maria”. I am pretty sure it was summer and we spent about two hours together. Nakajima talked to me about his record collection and his own works, and I remember being astonished at the scale of talents. In order to create this reissue, Satoru Higashiseto who oversees the musical side of Nakajima’s estate was kind enough to lend me Nakajima’s tapes and production materials which proved to be extremely valuable. I would like to take his opportunity to thank him. And to offer another prayer to Nakajima’s peaceful repose.”
24,00€
In stock
3 CD
BOMONSTRE et Boris JOLLIVET-Lionel MARCHETTI-Joël BASTARD
“Ô saisons, ô trombones. Sites sonores du Haut-Jura”
“With Alain Gibert, Patrick Charbonnier, Etienne Roche, Olivier Bost on trombones, Boris Jollivet on recordings, Lionel Marchetti on musique concrète. In 2009, equipped with our trombones and mics, we walked around in several natural sound places in the mountains of Haut-Jura. As the seasons went by, we searched or provoked some unexpected recording situations that lead to invention, and we went on improvising, according to the geological echoes, the animal roars and human activities, as well as the climatic circumstances. Both CDs “Ô saisons, o trombones” tell about the odyssey of these unique moments. These recordings haven’t been treated, neither mixed nor mastered. Every sound effect is thanks to the performing and recording situation. In order to get the point of view of another listener, we commissioned the concrete music composer Lionel Marchetti, to make the most of the recorded sounds. He has proposed “Quatre études d’espace”, taking as a model the real effect in the original recordings. You can find the “Quatre études d’espace” in the 3rd CD of the set. In the end, echoing to these music, the author Joel Bastard has written a poetical suite, “De l’air en plus”, to take part in our journey. Instead of simple witness report, we offer you a reflection in facets of that one year of recordings “in situ”.” label info
20,00€
Out of stock
3 CD
INTERSYSTEMS
“Intersystems”
3x digipak CDs in Slipcase including a 56-page full-color booklet. First edition of 500 copies.
First historical edition!
“Number One Intersystems” (1967) CD presenting the correct sequence and featuring for the first time the original tracks sub-section divisions.
“Peachy” (1967) CD including for the first time the original tracks separations, timings and titles.
“Free Psychedelic Poster Inside” (1968) CD presenting for the first time the original double-title tracks.
All audio works re-mastered by John Mills-Cockell for this edition and presented in full-color digipak sleeves.
Also including a booklet with two texts by Michael Hayden and John Mills-Cockell situating Intersystems in the Contemporary Art and Music contexts. A text by Nick Storring about Blake Parker and analyzing the 3 original records is also included as well as the complete chronology of Intersystems Presentations. 23 full-page images illustrating the dense evolution of this short-lived and essential mixed-media collective complete the 56-page booklet.
First press limited to 500 copies.
First historical edition!
“Number One Intersystems” (1967) CD presenting the correct sequence and featuring for the first time the original tracks sub-section divisions.
“Peachy” (1967) CD including for the first time the original tracks separations, timings and titles.
“Free Psychedelic Poster Inside” (1968) CD presenting for the first time the original double-title tracks.
All audio works re-mastered by John Mills-Cockell for this edition and presented in full-color digipak sleeves.
Also including a booklet with two texts by Michael Hayden and John Mills-Cockell situating Intersystems in the Contemporary Art and Music contexts. A text by Nick Storring about Blake Parker and analyzing the 3 original records is also included as well as the complete chronology of Intersystems Presentations. 23 full-page images illustrating the dense evolution of this short-lived and essential mixed-media collective complete the 56-page booklet.
First press limited to 500 copies.
49,00€
Out of stock
3 CD
François DUFRÊNE
“Œuvre désintégrale – 3CD”
“alga marghen presents one of the most impressive sound poetry anthologies ever published, introducing you to the sound works of the Nouveau Realiste artist François Dufrene. His work, along with that of Gil J Wolman and Brion Gysin, was a strong influence for experimental poets like Henri Chopin, Bernard Heidsieck and Ake Hodell. Previously issued in 2007 as a 4LP box set, this first edition on CD also includes “Crirythme pour Tinguely” as bonus track.
François Dufrene could be considered the younger of the first generation sound poets. Already in the Lettrist group when he was only 16 years old, with his own style marked by an hyper-powerful voice. In 1953, at the age of 23, he became Ultra-Lettrist, starting his first crirhythms by overpassing the alphabet in the perspective of the physical improvised scream. With the crirhythms sound poetry enters for the first time in the factory of projective sounds. In the beginning Dufrene uses the tape recorder only to document his creations.These recordings show him that through the tape machine his poems could reached deeper and wider creative dynamics. Since the mid-1950s the tape-machine becomes for him a poetical and experimental tool and Dufrene fully develops its potentials with stereophonic recordings as well as with the superimposition of his crirhythms. The loudspeakers amplifies sounds while the microphone captures even the most detailed concrete sound produced by his voice. The physical tempest he produces is a real concrete electronic sound attack. Dufrene produced primitive, brutal poems opening the path of vocal sounds to contemporary composers: it’s known that Pierre Henry was deeply inspired by Dufrene. The anthology presented here includes 10 crirhythms from different periods dating from 1965 to 1976, plus “Crirythme pour Tinguely” (first issued on a 7” single included in Revue AXE No.2 in 1975 and not available on the alga marghen 4LP anthology from 2007). Also included is “Osmose-art”, a long piece from 1969 divided in two suites where Dufrene superimposes his crirhythms to classical music. A similar technique was applied a few years earlier adding jazz music (specially drum and percussion pieces) to poems marked by strong Lettristic esthetic. Two of those “Lecture-collage” dating from 1965 are presented here, as well as two “Comptinuum” from his early on-progress works started in 1958. François Dufrene also developed unique performances, with live reading of his written text. The most famous is “Tombeau de Pierre Larousse”, published in 1958. This is a work half way between the written text and the sound poem whose unity is achieved through Dufrene performing it. It’s a masterpiece of synthesis of active poetry. “Eryximaque, suite choreographique au Tombeau de Pierre Larusse” is also included in this anthology. Apart from the crirythmes that Henri Chopin issued on his Revue OU disc magazine (the complete OU anthology is available from alga marghen as a 4cd set) and a few short pieces issued on obscure sound poetry anthologies in the end of the 1960’s, François Dufrene work is practically unavailable. This 3 CD anthology, conceived by the Dufrene himself as a 3 cassette edition privately issued by Guy Schraenen in the mid-1970s (only a handful of copies made), includes only previously unpublished sound works that finally fully documents the creativity of such a radical artist. Edition limited to 300 copies, including 3CD as well as a 24 page booklet including two essays by Dufrene, the biography, the complete discography as well as original photos of various performances from the 1960s and 1970s.” label info
François Dufrene could be considered the younger of the first generation sound poets. Already in the Lettrist group when he was only 16 years old, with his own style marked by an hyper-powerful voice. In 1953, at the age of 23, he became Ultra-Lettrist, starting his first crirhythms by overpassing the alphabet in the perspective of the physical improvised scream. With the crirhythms sound poetry enters for the first time in the factory of projective sounds. In the beginning Dufrene uses the tape recorder only to document his creations.These recordings show him that through the tape machine his poems could reached deeper and wider creative dynamics. Since the mid-1950s the tape-machine becomes for him a poetical and experimental tool and Dufrene fully develops its potentials with stereophonic recordings as well as with the superimposition of his crirhythms. The loudspeakers amplifies sounds while the microphone captures even the most detailed concrete sound produced by his voice. The physical tempest he produces is a real concrete electronic sound attack. Dufrene produced primitive, brutal poems opening the path of vocal sounds to contemporary composers: it’s known that Pierre Henry was deeply inspired by Dufrene. The anthology presented here includes 10 crirhythms from different periods dating from 1965 to 1976, plus “Crirythme pour Tinguely” (first issued on a 7” single included in Revue AXE No.2 in 1975 and not available on the alga marghen 4LP anthology from 2007). Also included is “Osmose-art”, a long piece from 1969 divided in two suites where Dufrene superimposes his crirhythms to classical music. A similar technique was applied a few years earlier adding jazz music (specially drum and percussion pieces) to poems marked by strong Lettristic esthetic. Two of those “Lecture-collage” dating from 1965 are presented here, as well as two “Comptinuum” from his early on-progress works started in 1958. François Dufrene also developed unique performances, with live reading of his written text. The most famous is “Tombeau de Pierre Larousse”, published in 1958. This is a work half way between the written text and the sound poem whose unity is achieved through Dufrene performing it. It’s a masterpiece of synthesis of active poetry. “Eryximaque, suite choreographique au Tombeau de Pierre Larusse” is also included in this anthology. Apart from the crirythmes that Henri Chopin issued on his Revue OU disc magazine (the complete OU anthology is available from alga marghen as a 4cd set) and a few short pieces issued on obscure sound poetry anthologies in the end of the 1960’s, François Dufrene work is practically unavailable. This 3 CD anthology, conceived by the Dufrene himself as a 3 cassette edition privately issued by Guy Schraenen in the mid-1970s (only a handful of copies made), includes only previously unpublished sound works that finally fully documents the creativity of such a radical artist. Edition limited to 300 copies, including 3CD as well as a 24 page booklet including two essays by Dufrene, the biography, the complete discography as well as original photos of various performances from the 1960s and 1970s.” label info
53,00€
Out of stock
3 CD
Charlemagne PALESTINE
“The Lower Depths”
Edition limited to 300 numbered copies.
alga marghen proudly introduce you to an historical event, the publication of “The Lower Depths”, a 3CD set of previously unreleased unique piano sonorities by Charlemagne Palestine.
In 1977 Charlemagne Palestine was regularly performing in his red and gold loft on North Moore Street in Tribeca, down the street from Magoos bar where all the local artists hung out back then. He was working on a trilogy called “The Lower Depths”, a work conceived during the crucial moment when he experienced one of the peaks of his creative power.
The trilogy takes its name from the potentials of his Bösendorfer weapon which had lower notes than any other piano. The first section starts in the middle of the piano keyboard and the second section 2 octaves below while the third section arrives till the very bottom of the instrument. It’s a deep, thunderous, rumbling world that we experience. An extreme immersion in the depths of the dark side of strumming music.
“The Lower Depths” is a central work within the history of musical Minimalism, stretching and expanding what we understand and expect of an already singular voice.
Edition limited to 300 numbered copies not to be missed!
alga marghen proudly introduce you to an historical event, the publication of “The Lower Depths”, a 3CD set of previously unreleased unique piano sonorities by Charlemagne Palestine.
In 1977 Charlemagne Palestine was regularly performing in his red and gold loft on North Moore Street in Tribeca, down the street from Magoos bar where all the local artists hung out back then. He was working on a trilogy called “The Lower Depths”, a work conceived during the crucial moment when he experienced one of the peaks of his creative power.
The trilogy takes its name from the potentials of his Bösendorfer weapon which had lower notes than any other piano. The first section starts in the middle of the piano keyboard and the second section 2 octaves below while the third section arrives till the very bottom of the instrument. It’s a deep, thunderous, rumbling world that we experience. An extreme immersion in the depths of the dark side of strumming music.
“The Lower Depths” is a central work within the history of musical Minimalism, stretching and expanding what we understand and expect of an already singular voice.
Edition limited to 300 numbered copies not to be missed!
41,00€
In stock
2 CD mp3
John CAGE
“Empty words”
Four parts. Four times 2 hours and 30 minutes in mp3.
Sylvia Alexandra Schimag (speaking voice).
“begins by omitting sentences,
has only phrases, words, syllables and letters.
The second part omits the phrases,
has only words, syllables and letters.
The third part omits the words,
has only syllables and letters. And the last part ...
has nothing but letters and sounds.”
“A mix of words, syllables, and letters obtained by subjecting the Journal of Henry David Thoreau to a series of I Ching chance operations.
What was interesting to me was making English less understandable.
Because when it’s understandable, well, people control one another,
and poetry disappears.
A transition from language to music.
It’s bewildering at first, but it’s extremely pleasurable as time goes on. And that’s what I’m up to.”
10,50€
In stock
2 CD
Gottfried Michael KOENIG
2CD set with electronical and software-generated compositions by pioneer G.M. Koenig. Performers: Jan Marc Reichow, LaSalle Quartet, Trio Recherche.
CD 1: Two piano pieces 1957 (WDR 1995) [ Jan Marc Reichow, piano ], Suite “Materialien zu einem Ballett” 1961 (WDR 1961), Streichquartett 1959 (WDR 1961) [ LaSalle Quartet: Walter Levin, 1. violin. Henry Meyer, 2. violin. Peter Kamnitzer, viola. Jack Kirstein, violoncello ], Terminus X 1967 (Institut for Sonology in Utrecht 1967), Funktion Grün 1967 (Institute for Sonology in Utrecht 1967), Funktion Gelb 1968 (Institute for Sonology in Utrecht 1968). CD 2: 60 Blätter for string trio 1992 (WDR 1996) [ Trio Recherche: Melise Mellinger, violin. Barbara Maurer, viola; Lucas Fels, violoncello ].
CD 1: Two piano pieces 1957 (WDR 1995) [ Jan Marc Reichow, piano ], Suite “Materialien zu einem Ballett” 1961 (WDR 1961), Streichquartett 1959 (WDR 1961) [ LaSalle Quartet: Walter Levin, 1. violin. Henry Meyer, 2. violin. Peter Kamnitzer, viola. Jack Kirstein, violoncello ], Terminus X 1967 (Institut for Sonology in Utrecht 1967), Funktion Grün 1967 (Institute for Sonology in Utrecht 1967), Funktion Gelb 1968 (Institute for Sonology in Utrecht 1968). CD 2: 60 Blätter for string trio 1992 (WDR 1996) [ Trio Recherche: Melise Mellinger, violin. Barbara Maurer, viola; Lucas Fels, violoncello ].
24,00€
In stock
2 CD
David TUDOR
“Music for piano”
2-CD set with recordings by the legendary 20th century avan-tgarde pianist. “With compositions by Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff. David Tudor, pianist - a profession, a vocation, a life. From 1950 until around 1965, David Tudor was the epitome of the pianist who could simply play anything. In fact, David Tudor was no longer a name, but an indication for instrumentation as dozens of pieces were written “for David Tudor”. As early as 1960, after having conquered all of the challenges posed by serial piano music, Tudor began to differentiate between composers who filled him with life and those who left him cold - the focus of his repertory became crystallized. The main criterion for his choices were shaped by the part he would play as interpreter in the composition. He distinguished carefully between having a free choice among prefabricated parts - generally called aleatoric, as for example, Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI (dedicated, as his Klavierstücke V-VIII, to Tudor) - and indeterminate actions. In the first case, they have a tendency to “put me to sleep”, whereby pieces that are less limiting led him to say, “I feel that I’m alive in every part of my consciousness”. The program of these CDs portrays these distinctions.”CD1 : John Cage : “Music for Piano 27...” 1955 (DR 1958) (John Cage- David Tudor), “Music for Piano 22, 21, 26, 36” 1955 (NDR 1956) (David Tudor), “Music for Piano 27, 21, 32, 36” 1955 (RB 1959) (David Tudor), “Variations I” 1958 (DR 1958) (John Cage-David Tudor), “Winter Music” 1957 (WDR 1957) (John Cage-David Tudor). Christian Wolff : “Duo for Pianists I” 1957, Version 1 (RB 1960) (John Cage, David Tudor), “Duo for Pianists I” 1957, Version 2 (RB 1960) (John Cage, David Tudor), Sylvano Bussotti : “Piano Piece for David Tudor III” 1959 (RB 1959) (David Tudor). Morton Feldman: “Piece for Four Pianos” 1957 (Columbia 1959) (David Tudor, Russell Sherman, Edwin Hymovitz, Morton Feldman). CD 2 : John Cage : “Varitations II” 1961 (Sony Music 1967) (David Tudor), “Music for Piano 27, 21, 32, 35, 36” 1955 (HR 1959) (David Tudor), “Music for Piano 21, 22, 26, 29, 34, 36” 1955 (WDR 1959) (David Tudor). Christian Wolff : “Duo for Pianists I” 1957, Version 2 (DR 1963) (John Cage, David Tudor), David Tudor “O-Ton” (DR 1963).
24,00€
In stock
2 CD
Ulrich KRIEGER
“-RAW:ReSpace-”
Ulrich Krieger: electric tenor saxophone, saxophone-controlled feedback, pedals, delays; 1/4-inch jack cable, vocals; Joshua Carro, drums (CD 1, tracks 3, 5).
CD 1: RAW
CD 2: ReSpace
“[Krieger] ranges wide as he seeks the spots where noise and beauty meet” Anne Power, Los Angeles Times
RAW/ReSpace is the first-ever experimental noise-metal saxophone solo album, changing and re-defining how the saxophone can sound and what saxophone playing means. No saxophone player ever dared to explore these uncharted outer realms of woodwind expression. RAW brings together noisescapes and electronica with death and doom metal approaches and contemporary instrumental composition techniques. While ReSpace combines dark ambient, controlled-feedback soundscapes with a reductionist approach to create eerie ambient sound-fields. All sounds are saxophone-produced and performed live, no sampling and no purely electronic sounds. RAW and ReSpace are part of the ongoing Universe series.
Ulrich Krieger is well known as a saxophone player in rock, noise, contemporary composed and free improvised music as well as a composer of chamber music and electronic music. He has been active in pushing the boundaries of saxophone playing in general and the function of the saxophone in rock and noise in particular, collaborating with Lou Reed (Metal Machine Trio, Lou Reed Band), Lee Ranaldo (Text of Light), Faust, Zbigniew Karkowski and his own death-doom-noise-metal band Blood Oath. His recent focus lies in the experimental fields and fringes of contemporary Pop culture: somewhere in the limbo between Noise and Heavy Metal, Ambient and Silence. His original compositions go back and forth between Just Intonation, Silent Music, Noise, Instrumental Electronic, often asking for elaborate amplification, and works in the limbo of Rock culture - not accepting stylistic boundaries. Krieger developed his own, often amplified style of saxophone playing, he calls “acoustic electronics”. He uses refined acoustic, quasi-electronic sounds, which then get processed, the saxophone often becoming more an “analogue sampler” rather than a traditional finger-virtuoso instrument. By amplifying his instrument in various ways, he gets down to the 'grains of the sounds', changing their identity and structure from within.
“When Ulrich introduced his “acoustic electronic” concept, there was another door blown wide open, and another glorious field of pure expression revealed. There is an openness, and a level of abstraction to the music that leaves room for “me” to exist within the music; I can bring my own associations, patterns and inner visuals — and let it blend, mutate and morph into the intended delivery from the artist. The acoustic element in Ulrich’s music makes the sonic reality deeper, as the organic qualities of acoustic-to-electronic resonate with the mind and flesh in a way electronic-to-electronic cannot.” (Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved, from the liner notes)
13,00€
In stock
2 CD
Phill NIBLOCK
“YPGPN”
YPGPN (Young Person’s Guide to Phill Niblock) is the long-awaited re-release of a 2 CD-set that was a joint production by the UK based Blast First label and The Wire magazine in 1995. It includes the following works: Held Tones (1982-94) Barbara Held, flute; Didjeridoos and Don’ts (1992) Ulrich Krieger, didjeridu; Ten Auras (1994) Ulrich Krieger, tenor saxophone; Ten Auras Live (1994) Ulrich Krieger, tenor saxophone; A Trombone Piece (1978-94) James Fulkerson, trombone; A Third Trombone (1979-94) Jon English, trombone; Unmentionable Piece for Trombone and Sousaphone (1982-94) George Lewis, trombone and sousaphone.
15,00€
In stock
2 CD
Dan JOSEPH
“Electroacoustic works”
CD 1: Set of Four (2008); Dulcimer Flight (1998-present).
CD 2: Periodicity Piece
6 (2005).
Electroacoustic Works collects three major pieces from the early 21st century by New York-based composer Dan Joseph. This 2 CD release includes Set of Four, a group of fixed-media sound collages using the processed hammer dulcimer as the primary sound source, two live performances of Dulcimer Flight for electroacoustic hammer dulcimer, and a 64-minute version of Periodicity Piece
6, a mixed-media work that originated as a multi-channel sound installation. With roots in early minimalism, ambient music and acoustic ecology, the works herein represent a significant subset of the composer’s larger body of work from the past twenty years that he has developed alongside an active career as a composer of instrumental chamber music.
From the liner notes by Alan Licht: “What’s striking about Dan Joseph’s music is that it’s drone oriented but also mindful of timekeeping. This would seem to be a paradox: most drone-based music and/or classic minimalism often reaches for a feeling of cosmic timelessness, or a sense of perpetuity via repetition, but the pieces on these discs all demarcate time in some way… Duration, another minimalist conceptual hallmark, is a means to an end rather than an end in itself for Joseph: the combination of simple harmonic material and extended lengths of time allows for more activity that is readily perceived, rather than to set up a near-static hypnotic state that is only occasionally jostled by a subtle shift in the music… In the computer age, digital memory and storage capacity are crucial technological attributes and an everyday concern; Dan’s electroacoustic pieces set up their own kind of memory banks for both the performer and the listener. The musical information is being supplied to and retrieved from both electronic and mental repository systems. This is post-minimal music where repetition is a mnemonic device, rather than a tool for trance or head-clearing.”
Based in New York City since 2001, Dan Joseph began his career as a drummer in the vibrant punk scene of his native Washington, DC. During the late 1980s, he was active in the experimental tape music underground, producing a series of ambient-industrial works for independent labels in the U.S. and abroad. He spent the ‘90s in California where he studied at CalArts and Mills College. His principal teachers include Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, Mel Powell and Terry Riley. Since the late 1990s, the hammer dulcimer has been the primary vehicle for his music and he is active as a performer with his own chamber ensemble, The Dan Joseph Ensemble, as well as in various improvisational collaborations and as a soloist. In recent years he has also been active as a curator, presenter and writer, producing the monthly music and sound series Musical Ecologies in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the Music for Contemplation series in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and contributing to magazines and blogs such as NewMusicBox.org, Musicworks and the Brooklyn Rail.
15,00€
In stock
2 CD
Michel CHION – Lionel MARCHETTI – Jérôme NOETINGER
“Filarium”
In 1998, the Cultural Centre André Malraux of Vandoeuvre-Les-Nancy commissioned Michel Chion, Lionel Marchetti and Jérôme Noetinger to collaborate on a work of musique concrete. Les 120 jours was the result - a fresco for which the composers exchanged a mass of sounds from multiple origins, that each had worked, transformed and recomposed in their own style.
For this new commission (2014-2015), the work was realised in two stages. Firstly, during several recording sessions at the CFMI of Lyon (Université Lumière Lyon 2), the three musicians improvised to create some raw materials and sequences. From this large reservoir of sounds, they composed six pieces of musique concrète : one each independently, and three organised according to set rules of chance as chosen by the trio to create a series of sonic events.
The overall structure of Filarium is to be appreciated as a vivarium where just as many sound beings of different species cohabit - originating from varying lineages and junctions at porous borders, real, or imagined - as material and open poetics, antagonists, dissidents even, nevertheless connected here by a deliberate strangeness.
18,00€
In stock
2 CD
Phill NIBLOCK
“Touch five”
“FeedCorn Ear” (2012). Arne Deforce, cello. “A Cage of Stars” (2012). Rhodri Davies, electric harp. Two Lips (2011). Zwerm Guitar Quartet. “Two Lips” (2011). Dither Guitar Quartet. “Two Lips” (2011). Coh Da Guitar Quartet.
These CDs have pieces made in two different ways. Traditionally (since 1968), I recorded tones played by an instrument (by an instrumentalist), arranging these single tones into mutli-layered settings, making thick textured drones, with many microtones. In the early days, I prescribed the microtones, tuning the instrumentalist, when I was using audio tape. Later, I used the software ProTools, and made the microtones as I made the pieces. FeedCorn Ear and A Cage of Stars were made this way. In 1998, Petr Kotik asked me to make a piece for orchestra, so, I began to make scores for the musicians to play from. The form of that piece, and the subsequent six scored works, were patterned after a piece in 1992-94, where the musicians were tuned by hearing tones played from a tape through headphones. These are the instructions for the scored piece on the second CD, Two Lips. The score was prepared by Bob Gilmore, from specific directions by me. Two Lips, aka Nameless, is conceived as two scores, A and B, to be played simultaneously, lasting 23 minutes. Each score consists of ten instrumental parts. The twenty separate parts should be distributed randomly amongst the musicians of the ensemble; the ’A group’ and the ’B group’ are not separated spatially. In each part, one note changes to the next in a graded sequence of microtonal steps. In score A, G gradually goes to F
. In score B, G
gradually goes to A. The piece calls for very subtle gradations of tuning in order to achieve a richness of ensemble sound, full of beatings of near-unison pitches, and with clouds of overtones and difference tones. The microtonal displacements are conceived in gradations of 10 cents, therefore resulting in ten divisions of the equal-tempered semitone (100 cents). An electronic tuner may be useful in rehearsal, and perhaps in performance, to achieve these small gradations. Be careful not to use glissandi to move from one note to the next; these are antithetical to Niblock’s musical language.
In score A, the G of the beginning is presented ’straight’, without microtonal embellishments of any kind, whereas the F
(into which it slowly transforms) is heard by the end in a multitude of microtonal variants above and below.
In score B this process is reversed: the G
at the beginning is immediately presented with a multitude of microtonal variants above and below, the pitches slowly transforming into the unison A by the end.
General comments: Phill Niblock’s music utilizes dense collections of microtones to yield a unique sonic palette. The musicians should sense being part of an intonational cloud of sound. The density will change throughout the piece, but the ’cloud’ will always be present. This score was used in recording three different guitar quartets; Zwerm (of Belgium), Dither (of New York) and an assembled group of world widers, Coh Da (well, ad hoc spelled backwards).
Each quartet recorded 40 tracks from the score, each playing the 23 minute piece ten times in one day. Stamina.
Zwerm line up for this recording: Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Matthias Koole, Toon Callier, Guy De Bièvre (guest).
Dither: Taylor Levine, David Linaburg, Joshua Lopes, James Moore
Coh Da Quartet David First, Seth Josel, Robert Poss and Susan Stenger.
These CDs have pieces made in two different ways. Traditionally (since 1968), I recorded tones played by an instrument (by an instrumentalist), arranging these single tones into mutli-layered settings, making thick textured drones, with many microtones. In the early days, I prescribed the microtones, tuning the instrumentalist, when I was using audio tape. Later, I used the software ProTools, and made the microtones as I made the pieces. FeedCorn Ear and A Cage of Stars were made this way. In 1998, Petr Kotik asked me to make a piece for orchestra, so, I began to make scores for the musicians to play from. The form of that piece, and the subsequent six scored works, were patterned after a piece in 1992-94, where the musicians were tuned by hearing tones played from a tape through headphones. These are the instructions for the scored piece on the second CD, Two Lips. The score was prepared by Bob Gilmore, from specific directions by me. Two Lips, aka Nameless, is conceived as two scores, A and B, to be played simultaneously, lasting 23 minutes. Each score consists of ten instrumental parts. The twenty separate parts should be distributed randomly amongst the musicians of the ensemble; the ’A group’ and the ’B group’ are not separated spatially. In each part, one note changes to the next in a graded sequence of microtonal steps. In score A, G gradually goes to F
. In score B, G
gradually goes to A. The piece calls for very subtle gradations of tuning in order to achieve a richness of ensemble sound, full of beatings of near-unison pitches, and with clouds of overtones and difference tones. The microtonal displacements are conceived in gradations of 10 cents, therefore resulting in ten divisions of the equal-tempered semitone (100 cents). An electronic tuner may be useful in rehearsal, and perhaps in performance, to achieve these small gradations. Be careful not to use glissandi to move from one note to the next; these are antithetical to Niblock’s musical language.
In score A, the G of the beginning is presented ’straight’, without microtonal embellishments of any kind, whereas the F
(into which it slowly transforms) is heard by the end in a multitude of microtonal variants above and below.
In score B this process is reversed: the G
at the beginning is immediately presented with a multitude of microtonal variants above and below, the pitches slowly transforming into the unison A by the end.
General comments: Phill Niblock’s music utilizes dense collections of microtones to yield a unique sonic palette. The musicians should sense being part of an intonational cloud of sound. The density will change throughout the piece, but the ’cloud’ will always be present. This score was used in recording three different guitar quartets; Zwerm (of Belgium), Dither (of New York) and an assembled group of world widers, Coh Da (well, ad hoc spelled backwards).
Each quartet recorded 40 tracks from the score, each playing the 23 minute piece ten times in one day. Stamina.
Zwerm line up for this recording: Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Matthias Koole, Toon Callier, Guy De Bièvre (guest).
Dither: Taylor Levine, David Linaburg, Joshua Lopes, James Moore
Coh Da Quartet David First, Seth Josel, Robert Poss and Susan Stenger.
15,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Phill NIBLOCK
“Touch strings”
CD One - (6 tracks): 1. - 6. “Stosspeng”. Susan Stenger and Robert Poss, guitars and bass guitars. CD Two - (6 tracks): 1. “Poure”. Arne Deforce, cello. 2. - 6. “One Large Rose”. The Nelly Boyd Ensemble, Hamburg - Robert Engelbrecht, cello; Jan Feddersen, piano strummed with nylon strings; Peter Imig, violin; Jens Roehm, acoustic bass guitar strummed with nylon strings or e-bow. This is Phill Niblock’s 4th release on Touch, after Touch Works... [TO:49, 2000], Touch Food [TO:59, 2003] and Touch Three [TO:69, 2006]. “Stosspeng was completed in April 2007; Poure in September 2008 and One Large Rose in May 2008. The Stosspeng recording session to obtain the materials for the piece was on December 20 2006 at Robert Poss’s Trace Elements studio on E 4th Street and Ave A, in New York. Robert was the engineer. The piece was completed using Protools in April 2007, in Vienna, Austria. It was premiered at the Donau Festival in Krems Austria on April 30 2007. The material for Poure was recorded in Johan Vandermaelen’s Amplus studio in Aaigem Belgium, with technical assistance by Guy De Bievre. Much of the construction of the piece, in Protools, was done in a residency at Atelier Azur in Hoenefoss, Norway at the Hval Station, in mid August 2008. It was finished in Ellen Fullman’s studio in Berkeley California on September 7. It was premiered at Kasteel Schuurlo, Sint-Maria-Aalter, Belgium on September 12 2008 and it was commissioned by the Centre de Recherches et de Formation Musicales de Wallonie, CRFMW, Liege, Belgium. One Large Rose was made with the musicians playing from a score, and recorded acoustically and in real time. There are four recordings of 46 minutes each, superimposed. Recorded by Jens Roehm at Christianskirche, Hamburg, Germany, recording assistance by Julia Berg, on May 15 and 16 2008. Mixing was done by Jens Roehm and the ensemble in Hamburg, and the final mix was done in New York at Experimental Intermedia on October 13 2008. The mastering for CD, of all pieces, was done by Tom Hamilton, in New York.” Phill Niblock, August 2009. “Phill Niblock is a New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968’s barricade-hopping. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant garde ever since. In the history books Niblock is the forgotten Minimalist. That’s as maybe: no one ever said the history books were infallible anyway. His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V Vierk, David First, and Glenn Branca. He’s even worked with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo on “Guitar two, for four” which is actually for five guitarists. This is Minimalism in the classic sense of the word, if that makes sense. Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones. The result is sound without melody or rhythm. Movement is slow, geologically slow. Changes are almost imperceptible, and his music has a tendency of creeping up on you. The vocal pieces are like some of Ligeti’s choral works, but a little more phased. And this isn’t choral work. “A Y U (as yet untitled)” is sampled from just one voice, the baritone Thomas Buckner. The results are pitch shifted and processed intense drones, one live and one studio edited. Unlike Ligeti, this isn’t just for voice or hurdy gurdy. Like Stockhausen’s electronic pieces, Musique Concrete, or even Fripp and Eno’s No Pussyfooting, the role of the producer-composer in “Hurdy Hurry” and “A Y U” is just as important as the role of the performer. He says: “What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly”. The stills in the booklet are from slides taken in China, while Niblock was making films which are painstaking studies of manual labour, giving a poetic dignity to sheer gruelling slog of fishermen at work, rice-planters, log-splitters, water-hole dredgers and other back-breaking toilers. Since 1968 Phill has also put on over 1000 concerts in his loft space, including Ryoji Ikeda, Zbigniew Karkowski, Jim O’Rourke.”
15,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Phill NIBLOCK
“Touch food”
CD1: “Sea Jelly Yellow” [Ulrich Krieger, baritone saxophone]; “Sweet Potato” [Carol Robinson, bass clarinet, basset horn, and Eb clarinet]; “Yam almost May” [Kasper T. Toeplitz, electric bass]. CD2: “Pan Fried 70” [Reinhold Friedl, piano].
“In the music of Phill Niblock, we are confronted with the aural equivalent of trompe-l’oeil. Apparently static clouds of harmonically dense material turn out to be not so static as they appear. What’s more, one has the distinct impression that the music is changing spatially over time. How is all of this possible? The key is in Niblock’s use of time. In his music, the experience of time is as very slow and continuous. There are no disruptive, discontinuous musical events to disrupt the flow of time. Time is suspended. Niblock’s music gives the impression of having always been and continuing to be. Yet, this is not the idea of Being as stasis. Each time one feels that Niblock’s music isn’t changing, one realizes that it is never the same, an yet, always the same. Being and Becoming as one. Moving Immobility. This is a music that breathes slowly and deeply. It changes its spatial form slowly, as a person who is in deep meditation changes the form of his body ever so slowly as he peacefully expands and contracts the walls of his chest cavity with each new cycle of inspiration/expiration.” Gerard Pape.
15,00€
In stock
2 CD
Claire M. SINGER
“Solas”
Solas (‘Light’ in Gaelic) is Claire M Singer’s debut album spanning 14 years of her work in acoustic and electronic composition. In recent years she has focused on writing and performing a mix of organ, cello and electronics with regular performances at Union Chapel where she is Music Director, running a diverse programme of concerts and educational workshops around the Chapel’s Henry Willis 1877 organ.
Other performances include the Roundhouse London by The LCO Soloists; a' fàs soilleir, an audio-visual work, exhibited at Tate Modern London, XMV New York City and Ceremony Hall Austin TX and she has performed as part of Spire at Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, Kunst-Station Sankt Peter Cologne and many more.
The Molendinar, which was co-commissioned in 2015 by Civic Room, Glasgow and Union Chapel, London to celebrate Glasgow’s Molendinar Burn Project will be performed on the 14th June 2016 at Glasgow Cathedral to conclude the weekend festival.
17,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Christian FENNESZ + Ryuichi SAKAMOTO
“Flumina”
Originally released in Japan in August 2011 on Commmons. Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft. Mastered by Denis Blackham. Recorded at Amann Studios, Vienna and at KA+B Studios, NY and Japan. Mixed at BA+B Studios, NY. The 24 pieces of ’flumina’ are based on piano compositions/improvisations which Ryuichi Sakamoto had recorded whilst touring in Japan. On that tour Ryuichi played a piano piece in a different key at the begin of every show, always having a ’fennesz sakomoto’ project in mind. After 24 shows he had 24 tracks in 24 different keys, covering all 24 tonal steps of the western tonal system. Sakamoto sent the tracks over to Christian Fennesz and he worked on them using electronics, guitars and synths. They met in New York then and mixed the album together with Fernando Aponte at KAB Studios. This is their 3rd collaboration released on Touch, after the live recording of ’Sala Santa Cecilia’ [Touch
Tone 22, 2005] and ’Cendre [Touch
Tone 32, 2007].
Tone 22, 2005] and ’Cendre [Touch
Tone 32, 2007].
17,00€
In stock
2 CD
SELTEN GEHÖRTE MUSIK
“Novembersymphonie (Doppelsymphonie)”
Second part in the reissue series of all Selten Gehörte Musik records. Two CD's in printed CD sleeves packaged in fullcolour 12” LP gatefold sleeve (reproduction of the original artwork) and printed 12” innersleeve featuring rare photos and an english text on Selten gehörte Musik by Gerhard Rühm. This is the reissue of the second SGM release from 1974. Recordings of the second Berliner Musicworkshop with Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm, and Oswald Wiener, Berlin 15th - 26th November 1973. Also included are the two bonus pieces from the 7’ which came only with the first 100 copies of the original edition. Edition of 500 copies.
26,00€
In stock
2 CD
Hermann NITSCH
“6. Sinfonie”
Hermann Nitsch’s Sixth Symphony for large orchestra performed and recorded November 1, 1980 at Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna. Edition of 500 copies in big 2CD jewel-case with 12 page booklet with a text by Günter Brus (German only).
14,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Tony CONRAD
“Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain”
Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain is the quintessential work of artist/filmmaker/composer Tony Conrad. Comprised of both film installation and minimalist score for amplified strings, Ten Years leaps across genre and medium to connect his revolutionary structural filmmaking with the experiments in long-duration sound that Conrad had begun in the 1960s as part of the Theatre of Eternal Music.
“Ten Years began with image before sound,” writes Andrew Lampert, “a row of quadruple projections arranged side-by-side, all the shuffling stripes cascading into each other. Over the next two hours the music throbbed and the projectors incrementally shifted inwards, their beams gradually uniting to form one pulsating, overlapping picture.”
For its 1972 premiere at New York’s The Kitchen, Ten Years included Conrad on violin as well as Rhys Chatham and Laurie Spiegel performing on instruments of the composer’s own making. Chatham played the Long String Drone – a 6-foot long strip of wood with bass strings, electric pickup, tuning keys, tape, rubber band and metal hardware – while Spiegel carried out an arrhythmic bass pulse throughout.
Superior Viaduct is honored to present this previously unreleased recording of Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain’s breathtaking premier performance. As Chatham recounts in the liner notes, “When I first listened to this recording after not hearing it for over 40 years, it transported me back to the early Kitchen and the heyday of early minimalism, played outside the Dream Syndicate.”
19,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Bernard DONZEL-GARGAND
“Music works 1977-2015”
Bernard Donzel-Gargand (1955-2015) was a French electro-acoustic composer. He did found the studio Collectif & Cie in 1982 in Annecy and worked there until 1998. Then he was part of Studio Forum with Philippe Blanchard (Lieutenant Caramel) who produced this 2 CD. A nice introduction to his electroacoustic and instrumental works from 1977 to 2015.
“For me, Bernard, was always the best example of real artist-enthusiast, professional and talented. His music is an incredibly poetic and subtle, exceptional… I can’t manage to find the right words to explain why he was so important. Except the Music, Bernard was one grown-up, I will never forget his hospitality, of care and kindness when I visited him in Annecy six years ago. I still remember everything. The best of the people left noiselessly. I am proud to have published his album and to have made known his music in Russia and all over the world. Thank you for everything”. Dmitry Vasilyev, manager of the label MonochromeVision.
15,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Éliane RADIGUE
“occam ocean vol.1”
“occam river I” for birbyné and alto, 2012. Carol Robinson, birbyné, Julia Eckhardt, alto.
“occam I” for harp, 2011. Rhodri davies, harp.
“occam III” for birbyné, 2012. Carol Robinson, birbyné.
“occam IV” for alto, 2012. Julia Eckhardt, alto.
“occam delta II” for bass clarinet, alto and harp, 2012. Carol Robinson, bass clarinet, Julia Eckhardt, alto, Rhodri Davies, harp.
“It all began with an image seen so long ago at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, the image of a long chart showing known wavelengths. It was clear that in addition to the wavelength from the earth to the sun, there were long waves stretching between other planets, solar systems and galaxies. Our immersion in this wave-filled universe makes our heads spin. In the same way, our bodies are also driven by undulations and multiple rhythms. It is just as dizzying to move toward the minute: X-rays, gamma rays and other “nanos.” In these unfathomable dimensions, there is also that very tiny regionn between 50 and 60 Hertz, and for some species up to 12,000 Hz or more, where these vibrations become sounds.
To avoid succumbing to this dizziness, closer to us on this earth, there is the ocean. Through this ocean, contemplation becomes more accessible. Beyond its own cycle, it also gathers the rivers that nourish it. For that reason there are many river themes in the OCCAM pieces: tributaries, waterfalls, springs, wells, etc. All of the themes are inevitably associated with water. It is the element that moves through them, the image of life, life in its fluidness, like the flow of blood.
What I ask of the musicians is highly demanding. Rather than the virtuosity of speed, it concerns the virtuosity of absolute control of the instrument, an extreme, subtle and delicate kind of virtuosity. What I did with my synthesizer was almost comparable. Turning a potentiometer the value of a hair could change everything. During my feedback period, the same delicate protocol was necessary when working with microphones and speakers. There is a distance that must be respected very carefully: moving too far away, the sound disappears, moving too close, the sound explodes into feedback. You have to keep everything in control. I do not renounce my electronic work, though I never accomplished anything that completely satisfied me. The end result was always a compromise between what I wanted to do and what I was technically able to do using the means available. Conversely, with these musicians, I was finally able to hear, for the first time, the music that I call “my sound fantasies.”
Regardless of what is being used, the essential goal is to produce and bring out the partials, the overtones, the harmonics and sub harmonics, these vibrations in the air, not only those of the string or the breath, but the intangible contents of sound. An instrument vibrating beyond the fundamental(s) generates an extraordinary richness that turns into fascination. This calls for extreme simplicity, i.e. sounds maintained between piano and mezzo forte dynamic levels, beyond which the fundamental again becomes predominant. Hence the famous law from Occam’s Razor, never overdo anything, concentrate instead on breath control, or a gentle stroke, that caress of a key or a string that is sufficient to develop and enrich this infinite universe.” Éliane Radigue
“occam I” for harp, 2011. Rhodri davies, harp.
“occam III” for birbyné, 2012. Carol Robinson, birbyné.
“occam IV” for alto, 2012. Julia Eckhardt, alto.
“occam delta II” for bass clarinet, alto and harp, 2012. Carol Robinson, bass clarinet, Julia Eckhardt, alto, Rhodri Davies, harp.
“It all began with an image seen so long ago at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, the image of a long chart showing known wavelengths. It was clear that in addition to the wavelength from the earth to the sun, there were long waves stretching between other planets, solar systems and galaxies. Our immersion in this wave-filled universe makes our heads spin. In the same way, our bodies are also driven by undulations and multiple rhythms. It is just as dizzying to move toward the minute: X-rays, gamma rays and other “nanos.” In these unfathomable dimensions, there is also that very tiny regionn between 50 and 60 Hertz, and for some species up to 12,000 Hz or more, where these vibrations become sounds.
To avoid succumbing to this dizziness, closer to us on this earth, there is the ocean. Through this ocean, contemplation becomes more accessible. Beyond its own cycle, it also gathers the rivers that nourish it. For that reason there are many river themes in the OCCAM pieces: tributaries, waterfalls, springs, wells, etc. All of the themes are inevitably associated with water. It is the element that moves through them, the image of life, life in its fluidness, like the flow of blood.
What I ask of the musicians is highly demanding. Rather than the virtuosity of speed, it concerns the virtuosity of absolute control of the instrument, an extreme, subtle and delicate kind of virtuosity. What I did with my synthesizer was almost comparable. Turning a potentiometer the value of a hair could change everything. During my feedback period, the same delicate protocol was necessary when working with microphones and speakers. There is a distance that must be respected very carefully: moving too far away, the sound disappears, moving too close, the sound explodes into feedback. You have to keep everything in control. I do not renounce my electronic work, though I never accomplished anything that completely satisfied me. The end result was always a compromise between what I wanted to do and what I was technically able to do using the means available. Conversely, with these musicians, I was finally able to hear, for the first time, the music that I call “my sound fantasies.”
Regardless of what is being used, the essential goal is to produce and bring out the partials, the overtones, the harmonics and sub harmonics, these vibrations in the air, not only those of the string or the breath, but the intangible contents of sound. An instrument vibrating beyond the fundamental(s) generates an extraordinary richness that turns into fascination. This calls for extreme simplicity, i.e. sounds maintained between piano and mezzo forte dynamic levels, beyond which the fundamental again becomes predominant. Hence the famous law from Occam’s Razor, never overdo anything, concentrate instead on breath control, or a gentle stroke, that caress of a key or a string that is sufficient to develop and enrich this infinite universe.” Éliane Radigue
28,00€
In stock
2 CD
Rudolf EB.ER
“Brainnectar”
Brainnectar is Eb.er’s most developed program to date, combining psychodynamic audio-environments built from specific nature-sounds and extreme acoustics, often including ecstatic elements on instruments of shamanic origin. Binaural beats as well as isochronic tones stimulate a direct neural reaction to this unique and unheard audio-art. In addition, the grand lady of japanese extreme music - screamvocalist Junko Hiroshige (Hijokaidan) - participates on several tracks throughout this 2 CD package. The title Brainnectar is derived from tantric techniques raising psycho-physical energy, or inner fire, from the perineum up to the top of the brain, from where it drips (as nectar). This consciousness-expanding heating and dripping during creation and/or reception of Brainnectar is given priority over any musical aesthetics.
“Once we open up to the flow of the energy within our own body, we also open up to the flow of energy in the universe.” - Wilhelm Reich
2 compact discs, 42 tracks, 128 minutes, 6-panel booklet. Shrink-wrapped with obi. Artdirection by Eb.er
22,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Dave PHILLIPS
“Homo animalis”
A landmark release in dp’s discography and the first release on the new Schimpfluch Associates label. Dave Phillips, *1969, living and working in Zürich Switzerland, has been a purveyor of radical sound since the mid 80's as a
founding member of the influential Fear of God. In 1991 he met rudolf eb.er and has been part of the schimpfluch-gruppe since. working solo since 1987, dp has appeared on 150+ releases and has played around 400 concerts in 40 countries.
schimpfluch associates is a label founded in 2013 by dave phillips (zürich) and rudolf eb.er (osaka). its focus is on works of reference by sound artists associated with schimpfluch.
homo animalis collects some of dp’s most accomplished work to date. composed between 2009 and 2011 (with two from 2007). these pieces originally appeared on limited edition cassettes in russia, poland and the US. in the winter of 2012 they were reworked and conceived as an album. this album is no compilation but describes a phase in dp’s life and work marked by incisive personal experiences formed into sound. an intensification of the compositional approach and the increased use of classical elements are two noticable sonic aspects. begun on “?”, “homo animalis” takes a turn for the more sinister and satirical and contains the quintessence of this phase. the inclusion of an elaboration on humanimalism adds to the significance of this album. dp’s humanimalism is a concept worded here for the first time. it describes a developed humanoid existence that has overcome the erroneous religious and material phases and has grown into an empathic creature that has made a clear shift towards an emotion-based existence, with social and environmental senses as primary and inherent functions.
19,00€
In stock
2 CD
Rüdiger CARL – Sven-Ake JOHANSSON
“D’accord”
Rüdiger Carl, accordion, clarinet. Sven-Ake Johansson, speech, accordion, drums. CD1 recorded in Stockholm in May 1997. CD2 recorded in Darmstadt in November 2002. “A relaxed yet highly eventful converation between this pair of old hands from the European free music community”.
24,00€
In stock
2 CD
Jean SCHWARZ
“Year of the Horse and other electroacoustic works 1974-1986”
Born (1939) in Lille, France, Jean Schwarz studied music in Paris and at Versailles Conservatory. He divided his activities between jazz drumming, composition, and the study of non-European music. In 1969, he joined the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) contributing his unique vision to musique concrète. In the same year, he also worked as an engineer and researcher at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique in the ethnomusicology department of the Musée de l’Homme in Paris. In 1977, Schwarz created courses for electroacoustic music at Gennevilliers Conservatory. He founded Celia Records in 1980 releasing a vast catalogue of his own works as well as many collaborations.
As a composer, Schwarz favors electronic sounds – the raw material from which he creates large architectural forms and powerful, vigorous sonic structures. Schwarz also takes inspiration from non-European and indigenous musical forms. In his works involving live instruments, he often combines a prerecorded tape with brilliant improvisations by jazz musicians. His compositions include works for concert performance (some purely acousmatic, others employing live instruments), for cinema (music for Jean-Luc Godard, Serge Moati, Michel Deville, Gérard Follin, Michel Léviant, Gérard Blain, Charles Belmont, Mosco, Marlène Ionesco, and Alain Resnais), dance (for the choreographers Carolyn Carlson, Dominique and Françoise Dupuy, Larrio Ekson, Serge Campardon), and equestrian theatre for the French horse trainer Bartabas.
This 2CD collection contains selections from six compositions focusing on Schwarz's theatre and multimedia work. Year of the Horse (1978), Still Waters (1986), and Undici Onde (1978) contain pieces for choreographer and dancer Carolyn Carlson. With performances premiering at l’Opera de Paris, Teatre de Ville (Paris), and La Fenice in Venice, these scores give an in-depth insight into Schwarz and Carlson’s collaborative process. Some scenes incorporate rhythmic or cyclical elements, field recordings, electronics, and others detail purely acoustic resonance. Each musical section relates closely with Carlson's expansive visual poetry. Schwarz’s collaborations in theater continued with L'Enfance De Vladimir Kobalt (1979) for set designer and playwright Petrika Ionecso as well as Maison Rouge (1980) for director Pierre Sala. Both works evoke a wonderfully filmic structure, while integrating key themes across each scenic palette. The earliest work in the set is Fotoband (1974), a 21-minute composition to specifically accompany a 76-meter visual installation piece by German artist Ekkehart Raumstrausch. During the exhibition, loudspeakers were placed every 15 yards to allow the music to be heard while moving horizontally along the painting.
All compositions were originally issued as small edition LP’s on Schwarz’s own Celia Records, except Undici Onde and Fotoband which are previously unpublished and available here for the first time. This 2 CD set has fully remastered audio, including a 12-page booklet of photos, visuals, and detailed notes by the composer.
Year of the Horse and other electroacoustic works 1974-1986 (re)collects nearly two-and-a-half hours of highly evocative surroundings from one of the early visionaries of electroacoustic composition.
23,50€
Out of stock
2 CD
Michael ADAMIS
“A selection of electroacoustic works 1964 – 1977”
Michael Adamis (1929 - 2013). “Absolutely essential release of one of the most prominent personalities in the music world. Michael Adamis was recognised as a pioneering composer who created a contemporary musical genre upon the Greek tradition. He has managed to create an original electroacoustic soundscape, leaving a clear aesthetic mark among contemporary and Byzantine music. These works offer a remarkable example of his pioneering and diverse creative course, revealing a search for new means of expression. Tape, voice, distortion, concrete and electronic sounds, use of early synths. For the first time a Super Deluxe 2 CD & Booklet edition is released with a selection of previously unreleased electroacoustic works from the 1964-1977 period.” “Minyrismos” (1966) for tape, “Glaros II” (1977-2006) for flute and tape, “Piece one” (1964) for tape, “Piece two” (1964) for tape, “Lament” (1970) for two psaltes, two isokrates, percussion and tape, “Kratema” (1971) for psaltis, oboe, tuba and electroacoustic. “Proschemata” (1964) for tape, “Endon” (2001) for alto saxophone and electroacoustic, “Paegma” (1976) for tape, “Iphigenia in Aulis” (1970) for tape, “Kraterna” (2001) for psaltis, oboe, tuba and electroacoustic.
25,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Peter EVANS
“Nature-Culture”
“A 2008 sequel to his highly-acclaimed first solo CD “More is More” on psi 06.08. Peter Evans writes: Over the past couple of years one of my main creative outlets has been solo trumpet performance. These discs are meant to show various aspects of my music’s development and were recorded in two different settings (studio and concert) and under two different circumstances. Jazz musicians have often referred to the playing of a solo as “telling a story”, which is essentially how I look at this music; it is an opportunity to state possibilities and tell stories that are short, long, true, false, unfinished, overlapping, fantastic and mundane.”
21,00€
In stock
2 CD
Alvin LUCIER
“Almost New York”
“CD 1 - Twonings: Charles Curtis, cello; Joseph Kubera, piano; Almost New York: Robert Dick, flutes; Broken Line: Robert Dick, flute; Danny Tunick, vibraphone; Joseph Kubera, piano. CD 2 - Coda Variations: Robin Hayward, tuba. Pogus is extremely delighted to be release this 2 CD set of recordings of works by Alvin Lucier. He is one of the key experimental artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and is one of my favorite composers. A unique and individual artist: No one sounds quite like Alvin Lucier. Lucier writes about the genesis of the works on this release: Since the early 1980’s I have made a series of works for conventional musical instruments. Before that time I had been mainly occupied with the exploration of such phenomena as echolocation, brain waves, room acoustics and the visual representation of sound. Often these works required special equipment hand held pulse wave oscillators (Vespers), differential amplifiers (Music for Solo Performer), horseshoe magnets Music on a Long Thin Wire). Then players began asking me for pieces. Now I needed to find a way of achieving the same poetry with acoustic instruments as I did with electronic means. One of the things I discovered was that players could create rhythmic patterns by closely tuning with electronically generated pure waves or with each other, producing audible beats. Often, to get continuous motion, I have one or more voices sweep up or down at various speeds against fixed sustained pitches. As a wave approaches a sustained pitch the audible beating slows down to zero when it reaches unison, then speeds up again as the wave leaves the pitch. Almost New York employs slow sweep pure wave oscillators, Broken Line, flute glissandi. In Twonings two different tuning systems collide and in Coda Variations slight variations in pitch are heard chronologically. Recorded by Charles Curtis, Joseph Kubera, Robert Dick, Danny Tunick, and Robin Hayward - some of the leading new music performers of our era, these works are essential additions to the Alvin Lucier oeuvre, as well as satisfying anyone interested in great experimental music.” label info
18,50€
Out of stock
2 CD
Henning CHRISTIANSEN
“OP.192 UMWÄLZUNG”
CD1: Op.192 Umwälzung - fluxorum organum 1990 Eurasienstab ist immernoch Angelpunkt.
CD2: Op.192 Grundband Umwälzung - fluxorum organum 1990 Eurasienstab ist immernoch Angelpunkt
“Op.192 Umwälzung - fluxorum organum 1990 Eurasienstab ist immernoch Angelpunkt” is a previously unissued work by Henning Christiansen from 1990. Around the formation of the European Union Henning approached his original Eurasienstab organ recordings from 1968 as a platform to remold a vast amount of audio he made over the subsequent years. This special 2CD release comprises two different mixes of Umwälzung that were made for Werner Durand in 1990 to be used as backing tapes for a performance at Ballhaus Naunynstrasse in February 1990.
Umwälzung is unique in Henning’s output as it resides in a more contemporary landscape positioning itself more as a ‘mix’ than a stand alone recording. One which retains the skewered sensibility that only Henning could conjure. The two hour long versions of Umwälzung are haunted with tape hiss, weird interference and a deeply melancholic aura that moves from the original Eurasienstab organ recordings through to the somewhat hysterical 180 Hammer Blows Against War Monkeys resulting in an epic and hypnotic excursion. As unusual and inspired as the best of Henning’s works Penultimate Press, in full cooperation with the Henning Christiansen estate, is extremely proud to release this 2CD in a mini album gatefold sleeve in an edition of 500 copies.
CD2: Op.192 Grundband Umwälzung - fluxorum organum 1990 Eurasienstab ist immernoch Angelpunkt
“Op.192 Umwälzung - fluxorum organum 1990 Eurasienstab ist immernoch Angelpunkt” is a previously unissued work by Henning Christiansen from 1990. Around the formation of the European Union Henning approached his original Eurasienstab organ recordings from 1968 as a platform to remold a vast amount of audio he made over the subsequent years. This special 2CD release comprises two different mixes of Umwälzung that were made for Werner Durand in 1990 to be used as backing tapes for a performance at Ballhaus Naunynstrasse in February 1990.
Umwälzung is unique in Henning’s output as it resides in a more contemporary landscape positioning itself more as a ‘mix’ than a stand alone recording. One which retains the skewered sensibility that only Henning could conjure. The two hour long versions of Umwälzung are haunted with tape hiss, weird interference and a deeply melancholic aura that moves from the original Eurasienstab organ recordings through to the somewhat hysterical 180 Hammer Blows Against War Monkeys resulting in an epic and hypnotic excursion. As unusual and inspired as the best of Henning’s works Penultimate Press, in full cooperation with the Henning Christiansen estate, is extremely proud to release this 2CD in a mini album gatefold sleeve in an edition of 500 copies.
17,00€
Out of stock
2 CD
Max EASTLEY
“Installation recordings (1973-2008)”
“This 2CD is essentially a retrospective of Eastley’s installation work. As such, it updates and adds many new examples to the 1975 release “New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments”, which was released as a split LP with David Toop on Brian Eno’s Obscure Records. This is Eastley’s first solo CD. Of the 35 tracks, only the last 2 have any guests or “playing” (the most virtuosic moment being George Lewis playing a grass blade). All the other pieces are either powered by the natural forces of wind and water, or else are motor driven gallery installations. The etherial sounds of the aoelian harps, the haunting aeolian flutes, and the violent tension of his aerophone installations are hallmark Eastley sounds. These sounds, and many others, sit amidst a wide range of acoustic settings, from windy hill tops to quiet brooks, residential street scenes to coastal shores. The indoor recordings are no less varied, ranging across a rich variety of acoustics and gallery spaces from tiny micro sounds to large scale amplification. Wood, metal and stone are brought to life with electricity. Although there are many photos in the 20 pages booklet, much is left to the imagination to work out how the sounds are made. With this limited access to the visual, the focus is pulled towards the musicality of the sounds themselves. This musicality is reinforced by the slow crossfades of most of the pieces from indoors to outdoors to form a series of suites. The recordings mostly date from the mid 70s, but there are pieces from later decades. Nearly everything was recorded either to Revox or Uher and occasionally cassette, using what microphones were available at the time. Recent recordings are digital. The varying quality of the recording set-ups across this 2CD adds yet another dimension to the shifting sound fabric of this anthology.”
20,00€
In stock
2 CD
Gus COMA
“Color him coma”
“The first CD in this set is a reissue of an obscure cassette release from 1983 that was originally released in a small edition on the London based, It’s War Boys label. This C60 consisted of 2 distinct halves. Side 1 was formed around several mixes of an experimental track, constructed from a room-sized 24 track loop. A version of this track first appeared on the LP Flagellation by The Just Measurers (who were C. D. Greyt, Yakkö Banovic and Narki Brillans).
Side 2 is a collage of mostly unused (and some remixed), excerpts from what became the title track of the Milk From Cheltenham LP, Triptych of Poisoners. This LP track consisted of a tape collage of the live mixdown of 17 cassette recordings of locked record grooves, simultaneously, with stray radio and an infernal matchbox. The full Milk LP is now available on CD via Alga Marghen. Both these LPs were also originally It’s War Boys projects.
As with other releases by these guys nobody worked under the same name twice, but if you are familiar with their soundworld then there will be no mystery, only astonishment. Nearly all the session material here was engineered by Chris Grey, best known for his work with The Homosexuals.
No production master was ever found for CD1, so one of the actual cassette edition had to be used in its place. However, whilst looking through the archive for the master tape, an alternative version of the tape was found, which although it followed a similar blueprint to CD1 it also contained some very different music, some primitive disco drum programming, and a somewhat more sophisticated sound quality. It was difficult to choose which version to release, so both versions appear here, but at the generous price of a single CD.
Each CD also contains an additional much longer bonus track at the end that was originally intended as working material for the unfinished Milk From Cheltenham LP 2.
The guest musicians on this CD set are many and varied, but it’s all put together by Gus Coma, Lepke B’s dwarfish cousin, who renounced show-biz to work as a Heavy Goods Vehicle driver. All in, the material here is the strangest and most experimental music to come from the It’s War Boys scene. Expect gigantic tape loop symphonies, sundry plunderphonics, lo- fi Sparks and the voice of JFK, a William Burroughs interview (on one track), and a worn out teach yourself English tape. Color Him Coma !” label info
Side 2 is a collage of mostly unused (and some remixed), excerpts from what became the title track of the Milk From Cheltenham LP, Triptych of Poisoners. This LP track consisted of a tape collage of the live mixdown of 17 cassette recordings of locked record grooves, simultaneously, with stray radio and an infernal matchbox. The full Milk LP is now available on CD via Alga Marghen. Both these LPs were also originally It’s War Boys projects.
As with other releases by these guys nobody worked under the same name twice, but if you are familiar with their soundworld then there will be no mystery, only astonishment. Nearly all the session material here was engineered by Chris Grey, best known for his work with The Homosexuals.
No production master was ever found for CD1, so one of the actual cassette edition had to be used in its place. However, whilst looking through the archive for the master tape, an alternative version of the tape was found, which although it followed a similar blueprint to CD1 it also contained some very different music, some primitive disco drum programming, and a somewhat more sophisticated sound quality. It was difficult to choose which version to release, so both versions appear here, but at the generous price of a single CD.
Each CD also contains an additional much longer bonus track at the end that was originally intended as working material for the unfinished Milk From Cheltenham LP 2.
The guest musicians on this CD set are many and varied, but it’s all put together by Gus Coma, Lepke B’s dwarfish cousin, who renounced show-biz to work as a Heavy Goods Vehicle driver. All in, the material here is the strangest and most experimental music to come from the It’s War Boys scene. Expect gigantic tape loop symphonies, sundry plunderphonics, lo- fi Sparks and the voice of JFK, a William Burroughs interview (on one track), and a worn out teach yourself English tape. Color Him Coma !” label info
13,00€