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We're a bit late in getting this email out, which is why there are over 100 new releases listed! No doubt the Nearfest festival in Pennsylvania set us off schedule, but it was more than worth it to see many regular customers, and to hear some really good music. Other than that we've been overwhelmed by how many great new releases we've seen early this summer, which the list below will attest to. You'll also notice a few changes to the list that should make it a bit more compact and easier to read. Let us know what you think, and of course let us know if there's anything we can help with, we love to hear from our customers!
This improvising trio uses a combination of noise and atmospheric attributes in extended free improv pieces. This is their second release after their 2000 album Animal Language.
"Formerly orthodox Hasidic students of Talmud and Tanya, these two members of the Australian punk unit PHLEGM have brought together influences from Boredoms and the Japanese noise scene, traditional Jewish Nigunim and Yiddish theatre, Marc Ribot, Ornette Coleman and countless others to create a new world of twisted dreams and startling sonorities. A must for all lovers of weirdness."-Tzadik
"After years of live collaboration, Don Byron and Bang on a Can have put together a spectacular follow-up to Byron's Grammy nominated Ivey Divey. The acclaimed clarinetist shows off his talent as a composer on A Ballad For Many, his new CD with the genre-blurring Bang on a Can All-Stars. The disc is dedicated to ground-breakers, with large-scale works dedicated to one-of-a-kind comic/satirist/star Ernie Kovacs and the Tuskegee Airmen, the famous African-American WWII-era fighter squadron. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Double CD"Bik Bent Braam is a 13-piece big band, helmed by Dutch pianist Michiel Braam, which specializes in headspinning avant-traditionalist jazz. As with Ellington, the charts are constantly subject to revision and renegotiation - often right on the stand, where the players peck at them like a flock of magpies. Miniature themes (Braam calls them "bonsai") are stitched together on the fly into zigzag hourlong phantasmagorias where Earl Hines sits next to Fats Domino, calypso next to tango, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"A piano is said to be Ruined (rather than Neglected or Devastated) when it has been abandoned to all weathers and has become a decaying box of unpredictable dongs, clicks and dedoomps, with not a single note (perhaps excepting D) sounding like one from an even-tempered upright piano. Sometimes you push down one key, and five or six others companionably go down with it, making for a surprise cluster and swathes of harmonics singing forever. The notes that don't work - clicks, doks and tonks - [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
*Extremely* odd release of sound from the inside and out of a saxophone from French saxophonist Boubaker, recorded with great sonic properties. So strange that you can't help but listen with attention - here's what Heddy has to say about the release in the booklet to the CD: "This is far from music, this is technico-poetic sound work, kind of ; this is far far from telling stuff or stories, no pictures, no landscape, no visions, this is a travel to anyone's imagination ; this is improvised but [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Angular and arresting, the debut offering from Simon Schultz, Lars Myrvoll and Martin Larsen weaves gentle, organic instrumentation in and out of lush melody. Each piece skitters along always one step off leaving an ethereal haze in its wake. Hand-assembled and numbered edition of 200 cdr."-Utech
"The story is simple. We were touring with this band, and the reason I could put the band together in the first place was a radio gig in Hamburg. Michael Naura, chief of the jazz dept there, was setting up a series of on-air concerts in a 200-seat studio, so we performed the first piece, which I called Alarm. I used the graphic instructions for a reaction to a nuclear emergency, a series of waves and straight tones, repeated in a certain way. We had planned two more pieces, one [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"The story is simple. We were touring with this band, and the reason I could put the band together in the first place was a radio gig in Hamburg. Michael Naura, chief of the jazz dept there, was setting up a series of on-air concerts in a 200-seat studio, so we performed the first piece, which I called Alarm. I used the graphic instructions for a reaction to a nuclear emergency, a series of waves and straight tones, repeated in a certain way.
We had planned two more pieces, one [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"A breathtaking, deep-space adventure in sonic exploration, Bruise With Derek Bailey documents the last British concert given by free improvisation auteur Derek Bailey. The performance presents the veteran guitarist with a lineup some one or two generations younger than himself, playing alongside heirs to the tradition he helped create in the 1960s and 1970s. It is magnificent music and an important historical document.Recorded at the 291 Gallery in Hackney, London in August 2004, Bailey [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"A breathtaking, deep-space adventure in sonic exploration, Bruise With Derek Bailey documents the last British concert given by free improvisation auteur Derek Bailey. The performance presents the veteran guitarist with a lineup some one or two generations younger than himself, playing alongside heirs to the tradition he helped create in the 1960s and 1970s. It is magnificent music and an important historical document.
Recorded at the 291 Gallery in Hackney, London in August 2004, Bailey [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Tony Bevan's music is easy to like but hard to pigeonhole. Although at times his muscular saxophony is reminiscent of Free Jazz at it's most adventurous (such as in his trio with John Edwards and Sunny Murray), the musical contexts in which he places himself usually demand something more than ecstatically charged heat and bluster, and he always rises to the challenge.But nothing he has previously done will prepare the listener for "Bruised", his most ambitious and most successful recording [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Tony Bevan's music is easy to like but hard to pigeonhole. Although at times his muscular saxophony is reminiscent of Free Jazz at it's most adventurous (such as in his trio with John Edwards and Sunny Murray), the musical contexts in which he places himself usually demand something more than ecstatically charged heat and bluster, and he always rises to the challenge.
But nothing he has previously done will prepare the listener for "Bruised", his most ambitious and most successful recording [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Formed in 1997, The Cracow Klezmer Band is a phenomena. Through their spectacular combination of impeccable musicianship, imaginative arrangements and passionate performances they have been universally acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, developing into one of the most successful and exciting acoustic groups in the world. Here they are joined by the lush sound of strings, as Bester turns his prodigious arranging skills to eight new songs from Zorn's fabulous and varied Book of Angels. Also [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
The New York based duo of Osby and Cyrille in a series of original pieces and covers. Theirs is a mix of intricate improvisations and blues based riff work with a strong compositional sense amidst creative and advanced playing. A great and interesting perspective on traditional form and modern composition.
[Duboc and Perraud] ... improvise their way through two lengthy pieces, playing around with the notion of silence and presence of sound. They let their sounds explode and then sustain for a while before dying out and a new explosion comes. Both players seem to prefer the lower end of the spectrum, the bass drum and the double bass suggest that, even when there is occasional high end scraping on cymbals and snares. There is definitely a spooky atmosphere in this recordings, which is quite intense. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Favre met Yang Jing at a 1999 festival in Beijing. They have since met numerous times for concert series. Perre Favre understands his instruments in terms of musical possibilities (which include melodic and occasionally even harmonic structures); that is, he considers intimacy a quality worth striving for, with fine nuance and subtle, spontaneous reactions, so he also loves duos that act as extensions of his solo concept.Having been a soloist for the Chinese National Orchestra for twelve [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Favre met Yang Jing at a 1999 festival in Beijing. They have since met numerous times for concert series. Perre Favre understands his instruments in terms of musical possibilities (which include melodic and occasionally even harmonic structures); that is, he considers intimacy a quality worth striving for, with fine nuance and subtle, spontaneous reactions, so he also loves duos that act as extensions of his solo concept.
Having been a soloist for the Chinese National Orchestra for twelve [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Ayelet is a Swiss/Israeli singer based in New York. Born in Jerusalem, she studied at the New England Conservatory before settling in New York in 2002. Her music is a passionate blend of Jazz, Middle Eastern rhythms and improvisation, drawing inspiration from the likes of Oum Kalsoum, Betty Carter, Ornette Coleman as well as the Jewish traditions of Sephardic music and Klezmer. Mayim Rabim, her second release, is an evocative song cycle based on texts from the erotic Biblical love poems Song of [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Robin Holcomb is a rare talent, with a foot in the pop world of singer/songwriter through several acclaimed releases on major labels, and roots in the downtown avant-garde that reach back to the first generation of Studio Henry mavericks. For her first, long awaited Tzadik CD, she has put together a program as eclectic and varied as her own career. From fragile solo piano pieces and a powerful new string quartet to several songs featuring her own heartfelt vocals, John Brown's Bodyis the best place [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Born in Tel Aviv, multi-instrumentalist Koby Israelite has been playing music since the age of nine. Conservatory trained on piano and keyboards, he was drawn to punk and heavy metal as a teenager, switched to drums and then got turned on to Jazz, World Music and the Downtown Scene. For his third Tzadik CD, this tireless and ever creative musical spirit turns his hand to the complex lyricism of Zorn's complex Book of Angels. Interpreting tunes handpicked by Zorn himself, Koby mixes in everything [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
AUM Fidelity had wanted to produce an album with New Orleans' saxophonist/teacher/role model Kidd Jordan in trio with fellow master musicians William Parker and Hamid Drake for some time. Everything came together in Summer 2005. The recording session was set for the 3rd week of September and flights to NYC from New Orleans and Chicago were booked. Then Katrina hit. Kidd's home was of the more than 100,000 wiped from the map of Louisiana. When we were finally able to reach Kidd after the storm [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Hailing from opposite ends of the experimental music spectrum Andy Moor and Yannis Kyriakides have been making music together for over 5 years. The fifteen tracks recorded here are a result of three improvisation sessions held in 2003. The album is an exciting blend of the visceral and the refined, the raw and the spontaneous that marks the opening chapter of a blossoming collaborative partnership. 4 page digipak with a 36-page booklet of Andy Moor's photography."-Unsounds"Kyriakides and [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Doubtless, Steve Lacy is one of contemporary music's most prolific practitioners - and certainly one of the most recorded. But even within a catalogue as bulging and varied as his, this sequence of Songs is a singular experience... Throughout these remarkable songs the music is inseparable from the words. Extramusical echoes may occur - for example, the melismatic winding of themes in "Gay Paree Bop" and "Somebody Special" may suggest Gysin's Moroccan excursions. Or they may not. It [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"This live concert is perhaps one of the last recordings from soprano saxophone legend Steve Lacy. Lacy and percussionist John Heward first met in Paris in 1975. Though they remained in regular contact through the years, they did not actually play together until this concert in Montreal on 20 June 2003. Two months later Lacy was diagnosed with cancer, and died in June 2004. Lacy suggested to Heward that he wanted to end this improvisation with the motif Recessional for Oliver Johnson, as a tribute [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Fritz Welch is part of Psi (or "Peeesseye"), one of the most idiosyncratic improvising groups on the American scene; George Cremaschi has played with a lot of big names such as Evan Parker, Fred Frith and Nels Cline. Nothing of the above will prepare you to "Memory collapse", which is a collection of miniature oddities for percussion, objects and double bass that rips several pages from the comic book of free music while also massaging the skull with some eerie drone-based acousti/cution, fascinating [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Matt Lavelle is one of the bright lights in today's avant garde jazz scene, his trumpet and bass clarinet exploding with passionate spirit and unwavering intent. His newest CD, Trumpet Rising Bass Clarinet Moon, was recorded at the esteemed Music Now! series, a roving festival that's a must for anyone interested in where jazz is heading. The CD's four cuts serve as documentation of Lavelle's work from 1990 to 2000, providing a satisfying summation of Lavelle's inner and outer journey. "-AAJ
A set of original pieces from cellist Levin, along with Steve Lacy's Wickets, Ornette Coleman's Morning Song, and Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch (between Otomo's album of the same name and this release it's been a good year for Dolph!) in a NY quartet, performed at NYC's Roulette i 2005. Extraordinary jazz from an extraordinary quartet. "The traditional jazz ensemble is a functional balance of soloists and rhythm section. But if the instruments that establish the rhythmic foundation [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"For Lossing, improvisation is clearly a special act, a study in transparence and transformation, a creative exchange among the elements. One hears fresh relations of time and space. His acute sense of time connects inevitability to its absence. Space is heard in his sense of density, the room he can make around a note even at high speed, the contrasts between counterpoint and elegant strings of single notes. Space is also vertical in Lossing's music - in the ways that wide and tight intervals [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Soundtrack from the video "Guitar Drag, 2000." "The record is actually the soundtrack for Marclay's video with the same title that was shown first at London's Hayward Gallery sound art exhibition Sonic Boom in 2000. The piece as well as Marclay has become an icon in sound art circles, and although the video can only be seen in exhibitions as an installation, it is widely known. The full 14-minute soundtrack is released on a beautiful 12" clear vinyl record packaged in a sleeve with stills from [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
1 studio and 2 live pieces from this active quartet, led by trumpeter Miguel Sei. The pieces mix tonal brass work with chirping, ringing and scratching electronics and percussion. Sei has a muted and airy tone that contrasts with a bolder and smeary tone from trombonist Fala Mariam. Toral's electronics work well with Burago's minimal percussive additions, a curious combination that works well in this minimal environment. The playing is restrained and considerate, a mixture of traditional jazz [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Home Cooking pulls together three tracks from an April 2003 tour in the UK. "Split Lip" opens with a four-minute drum solo from Murray before tenor and bass enter, bouncing notes around like a rubber ball. Bevan's jittery, running-in-place riffing breaks into Aylerian serenade eight minutes in, and then there's a quick wrap-up and we're done. "Home Cooking" is the main track, a 28-minute improv with Bevan switching to bass sax. After a marvellous sax/bass introduction Murray comes in on brushes, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Sotto Voce is the brand new concept/group/album from the extraordinarily gifted and wide-open mind of saxophonist/composer/songwriter Roy Nathanson. The album features six infectious new songs and/or stories by Nathanson, as well as an interpolation of Bobby Hebb's mid-60s R&B/pop smash "Sunny" and a gorgeous reading of great Jazz composer Rahsaan Roland Kirk's "The Inflated Tear" with new lyrics by Roy Nathanson.Over the last two years, Roy has been workshopping this new group/work [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Double CD"The result of six years of live and studio collaboration, LM2X is by far the most ambitious and uncompromising statement yet by this formidable trio. The album begins as a more-or-less straight documentary-style recording of group improvisation, but don't get too comfortable... over the course of the next two hours, the ground steadily shifts, the bottom drops out, and any expectations a listener may have had going in are thoroughly trampled. Join the group as they visit art galleries, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
A CD of the same name as her 1998 book. "For more than 50 years, Pauline Oliveros has been on a continuing mission: "... to explore new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before." If those words bring to mind the voyages of the Starship Enterprise from the television series Star Trek, the parallels are more than coincidentaly. in fact, Pauline would be as able a captain on any Starship in the fleet of the United Federation of Planets. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"A remarkable new CD of compositions from one of the world's most radical harpists, who has worked with Bjork, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Bang on a Can and many many others. Including two dynamic new string quartets, a piece for sixteen feet and cello and a brilliant composition for harp solo, this is one of Zeena's most important and ambitious releases."-Tzadik
"The Polwechsel project has been exponential in defining new approaches to the composition/improvisation paradigm and in doing so have created a music that defined, examined and radically reassessed its own genre. Each phase of Polwechsel has been marked by a defining document and the releases of their recordings have frequently book-ended trends and movements in improvisatinoal and experimental music - Polwechsel has had a direct and profound influence on the agenda of a genre coined "electro-acoustic" [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Roundabout represents the debut recording of the Sameer Ramchandran Trio. Here pianist Sameer Ramchandran is joined by Dominic Duval on bass and Newman Taylor Baker on drums. The album is a mixture of Ramchandran's refreshing originals and the group's expressive interpretations of jazz standards. Duval is formerly of the Cecil Taylor Trio (although here he is showing a much different facet of his playing altogether), while Baker is an active member of the Billy Harper Quintet. Ramchandran's [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Label leader Ernesto Rodrigues in a quintet that works every inch of their instruments in quiet but tense micro-improvisations. You won't find any melodic/technical runs here, rather new methods of expression in an acoustic and electric mix of disruptive and fascinating environments. Scrapes, hisses and resonant tones, clicks and clacks and dreamlike reverberation - the art of noise and sound that Russolo's manifesto leads to.
This Montreal based Actuelle quintet use orchestration of two horns, guitar and tuba, giving them a unique and intelligent sound. Lauzier may be familiars to Squidco customers from the excellent Ensemble en Pieces and the more recent Lauzier/Perkins/Kuster, both on Ambiances Magnetiques. Spin Ensemble's compositions are succinct and interestingly exotic, relaxed and sometimes abstracted compositions and improvisations. The musicianship is excellent, prompting Dave Douglas to remark: "The Spin [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
99 minutes with text by Le Sony'r Ra
184 minutes with text by Le Sony'r Ra
"Released in the early '90s, Concert for the Comet Kohoutek captures a typically inspired night by Sun Ra & the Intergalactic Space Research Arkestra. Recorded in late 1973, on this date the Arkestra is guided by a musical theme composed around the idea of the Comet Kohoutek, which was passing close to Earth at the time. Typically, the release vaults between cosmic vocal songs that speak of Truth and other such brashly capitalized affairs (such as "Astro Black"), almost straight-ahead big-band [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
20 tracks from California's Sun Ra Research featuring material from 1985 primarily in the Berkely area. Volume 2 features Interviews and performances with Sun Ra, John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, John & Peter Hinds.
"Just what an 'endangered guitar' is, here played by Hans Tammen, I don't know. Maybe a guitar played with objects? It surely sounds like that. Irmer plays 'just' violin, not endangered. These six improvised pieces were all recorded in one go, in 2005, are here the thematic approach seems to be: play as many nervous notes you can, in a short time span. Hectic, chaotic, this reminded me of the two first LPs by Agencement. Most of the time it's all fairly straight forward acoustic playing that is [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Taylor's art confronts Nature so organically because it embraces the same attitudes, makes the same demands. Rejecting frivolous entertainment, it is ritual - a rite of creation that accepts paradox as it attempts to transcend it."-Art Lange, from the liner notes
The ever-impressive Tchicai in trio with the equally amazing Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille in a mix of standards and original compositions - 2 from Cyrille, 3 from Tchicai (plus a reworking of "Monk's Dream") and one from Workman.
An enjoyable set of relaxed songs with lyrics by Christof Kurzmann from an excellent set of improvisers and experimenters: "Bernhard Fleischmann played the piano very early, afterwards the drums and later he worked with digital sounds. Since "Pop Loops for Breakfast" (1999) he released electronic and generically related music on Morr Music, last of all "The Humbucking Coil" (2006). Christoph Kurzmann played - among others - in the "Orchester 33 1/3" or the "Extended Versions". He drafted tracks [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Time being what it is, there are several ways to approach Time Being, the latest and, I think, best of the Trio 3 albums - among them, its miscellaneous approaches to time, ranging from meterless meditation to swing to stately waltzing; and the collective experience of the group's membership, a figure exceeding 130 years, for the time being. This cumulative experience involves the assimilation of every kind of jazz, from pre-bop mainstream to the furthest reaches of the avant-garde to sundry precincts [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Trio interplay, this is a rather active group for Creative Sources, and one of the few named as a band rather than as a set of of individual improvisers. Tripwire's previous release on the Generate label documented their 2001 live and studio recording in Germany. Here the trio of American bassist Hughes and drummer Arnal with German saxophonist Scherzberg perform 10 tracks at the Phenomorphonic Festival in Hamburg, Germany. The pieces are a combination of active and atmospheric, a dense and creative [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Mighty Odin! Norse God Of Fury! I Have Heard Your Thunderous Cries! Somewhere In The Frozen Heart Of Norway Your Brain Addled Children Are Ripping Apart Their Eardrums And It Is Absolutely Amazing!!!" Ultralyd lay down a gut-wrenching caterwaul that burns and burns. The first feel-good record of the year! Hand-assembled and numbered edition of 200 cdr."-Utech
"Drones crawl on hands and knees. Crackles pierce and solidify. Sound melts slowly away, pools, electrifying the void. Hand-assembled and numbered edition of 200 cdr."-Utech
"A trio consisting of members of EKG, Polwechsel, and efzeg. Each of the tracks coheres around the examination of minute particles of sound, assembling wholes from the component parts."-Formed Records
This is a reissue of the third volume in this early Sub Rosa compilation series, originally released in 1987. Features long tracks from Jon Hassell (duo with J.A. Deane, from 1985), never released since; Harold Budd (duo with Eugen Bowen, from 1983) in the mood of The Serpent in Quicksilver (with a splendid steel guitar); Gavin Bryars (duo with Andrew Thomson, from 1987); an unpublished sketch for two pianos called Sketch For Sub Rosa (later published on ECM with a chamber ensemble); [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Antiguos Dólmenes del Paleolítico ("Ancient Palaeolithic Dolmens") is a composition in four parts created exclusively with processed no-input feedback and inspired by these stone monuments. It was created in early 2004 and is the first full-length solo CD from Argentinian composer Alan Courtis, a founding member of the group Reynols. Courtis currently lives in Buenos Aires, and has toured extensively in USA, Europe, Japan & Latin America collaborating with artists such as: Pauline [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"R. Luke DuBois' Billboard is a composite of all the Billboard #1 Hits from 1958-2000. DuBois analyzed all 857 songs digitally, and created a "spectral average" - a sonic summation of all frequencies in the song - for each one. He then allocated each song 1 second for each week it was #1 on the charts. The resultant 37-minute-long piece contains beautiful washes of sound - and serves as a unique chronicling of the history of US pop charts, and the songs' continually-changing longevity, tonality, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Exactly As I Am is the third and final release in The Hafler Trio's collaborative series with Jonsi Birgisson of Sigur Ros. Like the first two in the series Exactly As I Am is a double full length release and is comprised of all new material recorded in May/June of 2005. Exactly As I Am is lavishly packaged in a special die cut oversized package printed on two different types of parchment, meant to imitate small editions of French poetry ca. 1900."-Important Records
"Field Tracker was recorded at the Institute for Electronic Art, Alfred NY during the Winter of 2000. Inoue, utilizing his digital sound processing systems in combination with bells, guitar, and other odd sound making objects, constructed tiny improvisational sound moments each one having a shape and gesture of their own. These micro compositions were at times highly abstract and noisy and at other times extremely melodic and calm. Many of these micro compositions were used in the production of [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Grundik, also known from the excellent electro-acoustic duo of Grundik+Slava, alone and migrated to the US. In fact, he lives about 10 blocks from Squidco now, in Inwood, NY (upper Manhattan). This is a set of solo works using primarily a feedback synthesizer, the last two in combination with radios. The pieces are quiet and squelchy works, the 'feedback' a description of the method of synthesis rather than the kind that results from crossing one's wires. Interesting, thoughtful and unique tonalities [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Highly rhythmic, using no machines, but a rhythmic, almost percussive playing of objects, wires, electronics by Möslang and Müller adds a blend of likewise rhythmic sounds, streaming off from his ipod and electronics. It's highly vibrant music, even when it comes to a quieter moment in 'Yamaguchi_1', that softly spoken with great intentions. It's music that leaves great space still, despite all activity going on, breathing about. Intense, even a bit noisy at times, but a wonderful trip. [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Ex-Voice Crack member Norbert Möslang took the first three tracks from his CD lat_nc (For 4 Ears, 2004) as a starting point to come up with six new tracks. Track 1 opens this album with a seven-minute long mechanical rhythmic structure, slightly reminding of a machine hall. Track 2 to 6 are lovely apocalyptic energetic mixtures of high peeps and devastating noise moments. Everything is under control though; the production and sound quality are excellent, and the compositions show they have [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Electro acoustic slow motion interjected with rasp, scratch and feedback. Hand-assembled and numbered edition of 200 cdr."-Utech
"Supershells explores the fullness of sound emergent from slowly shifting movements. Complexity builds as the album proceeds, with the end result being a penetrating insight into the work of two percussionists who have travelled far from their origins."-Formed Records
"The first part of Tanker was recorded live at Tokyo in 2004. The second half is from a long-distance collaboration during 2005: for further material Okura and Yoshida recorded their tracks in a studio, sent their files to Müller who, adding his own sound-material, compiled three more pieces.""Here the very presence of sound is the main focus. It has deep end bass sounds, much more electronica and on top we find the sounds produced by the Japanese: sparse, but always upfront, present [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"The first part of Tanker was recorded live at Tokyo in 2004. The second half is from a long-distance collaboration during 2005: for further material Okura and Yoshida recorded their tracks in a studio, sent their files to Müller who, adding his own sound-material, compiled three more pieces."
"Here the very presence of sound is the main focus. It has deep end bass sounds, much more electronica and on top we find the sounds produced by the Japanese: sparse, but always upfront, present [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Res Extensa is a tape piece based on the superposition and juxtaposition of different layers of sound "registers". These registers are layers of sound materials related to our everyday sound environment and coming from different origins: marginal sounds from electric devices, analogue sources, field recordings, amplification of microsounds, recordings of machine noises, digital "errors" and "heard" musics. These sounds do not carry a traditionally codified expressive meaning but rather an emotional [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Phonophani is Bergen-based multi-instrumentalist and digital electronics expert Espen Sommer Eide. Originally released in 1998 as a limited edition of 500 on Biosphere's Biophon label, and a true breath of fresh air at the time, this excellent debut from Phonophani still stands as one of the very best electronica albums ever released in Norway. Well-crafted and full of ideas and original turns, it has a rare timeless quality that makes it sound as fresh today as it did back then. It's difficult [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Renkel creates spatial and varied sound worlds, summoned in ways that you would never suspect started from a guitar. As Renkel explains about the processes he uses: In this piece the guitar is not treated as a traditional instrument but as a kind of 'nondirectional loop antenna' transmitting the spatial sound to an effects processor which alienates, boosts and distorts the filtered parameters. On a second layer the musical signal is sent to two notebooks, also the guitar [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Renkel creates spatial and varied sound worlds, summoned in ways that you would never suspect started from a guitar. As Renkel explains about the processes he uses:
In this piece the guitar is not treated as a traditional instrument but as a kind of 'nondirectional loop antenna' transmitting the spatial sound to an effects processor which alienates, boosts and distorts the filtered parameters. On a second layer the musical signal is sent to two notebooks, also the guitar [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"This is the latest installment in the vaunted legacy of Señor Coconut (Atom Heart, Uwe Schmidt), the world's only German/Chilean "electrolatino" interpreter of pop standards. This time out, Coconut - famous for his laptop-mambo and acid-merengue covers of Kraftwerk, Sade and Michael Jackson - is back with a proper Latin big band, fronted by the inimitable Venezuelan singer Argenis Brito, to pay homage to Kraftwerk's Eastern counterparts in the annals of techno-pop pioneers, Yellow Magic [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"The Belly Of The Whale project is a was brilliantly conceived together by two of the prime movers in the Natural Art world: Interspecies and Greenmuseum. The goal was to create digital music from underwater sound samples of creatures including orcas, dolphins, beluga whales, sperm whales, humpback whales, Weddell and Bearded seals, lobsters, shrimp and water. Together, Interspecies and Greenmuseum compiled a sample cd of 350 captured sounds and sent it out to many of their favorite electronic [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"[...] the contents of [Texan psych-folk group] Charalambides' vast discography can appear from a distance to be more or less homogenous. But upon closer inspection one can easily discern several distinct periods in the group's musical history, each with its own unique charms. For Charalambides, the timeline can be most obviously delineated by group membership, as they've spent two separate extended periods as a trio first with second guitarist Jason Bill and more recently with co-vocalist/pedal [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
First released in 1977, guitarist Andre Duchesne's Conventum project also featured guitarist Rene Lussier and Jean-Pierre Bouchard, who played a variety of guitars and mandolins. All of these players went on to be part of Les Quatre Guitaristes de L'Apocalpso-bar, who had releases on Recommended Records UK, and they have continued to be prolific, inventive and creative musicians ever since. For Duchesne and Lussier this was one of their first significant projects, and they created an incredibly [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
The second release from Conventum, originally released in 1979, and sadly their last release. Conventum was guitarist Andre Duchesne's Conventum project, and also featured guitarist Rene Lussier and Jean-Pierre Bouchard, who played a variety of guitars and mandolins. All of these players went on to be part of Les Quatre Guitaristes de L'Apocalpso-bar, who had releases on Recommended Records UK, and they have continued to be prolific, inventive and creative musicians ever since. For Duchesne and [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Espers is now a sextet, and II is far darker, deeper, and more ominous than its predecessors, a rich, droning mix of guitars, vocals slathered on vocals, cello, assorted bells, flute, recorder, mini-Korg, Tibetan singing bowls, dulcimer, a bit of bass, organ, the occasional drum, and a cornucopia of effects. The pretty haze that clouded earlier efforts is mostly lifted-- II is muscular throughout. [...] II is a perfectly balanced record, and its arrangements are so exact and delicate that it almost [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Originally released on RecRec Record (Switzerland), this is the first of two meetings between The Ex and the late cellist Tom Cora. Cora, a downtown NY improviser and half of the intesely creative rock band Skeleton Crew (along with Fred Frith), is in excellent form on this release; the cello is a rare instrument in rock, and is usually relegated to melodic backup or sympathetic playing. Not so with Cora, who tore at the instrument with an agression that rivals any guitarist. Set alongside the [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Dawn McCarthy, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum collaborator in her Faun Fables alter-ego, working with Sleepytime's vocalist/guitarist Nils Frykdahl. Together they make avant-folk songs of an odd nature, a compelling set of songs, here themed on the NY City Subway. In fact, the record is an adaptation of a full length theatrical performance from 2002. An unlikely and very interesting concept record.
"The Harp Factory on Lake Street shows signs of inevitable restlessness on the part of co-authors David Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke. Where 1994's acclaimed Mirror Repair showed the pair's writing to be moving away from their instrumental abilities towards orchestrating for larger groups, Harp Factory demonstrates within the first ten seconds that they have moved up another level. [...] through usual Gastr studio maneuvering, the group approaches a small-sized orchestra. Gastr signposts are still [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"On June 26, 2004 Keiji Haino and Sitar Tah performed live in Shibuya. Keiji Haino, legendary frontman of Fushitsusha and acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, joined this 20 piece sitar orchestra for one night only. Fortunately, this sublime performace was recorded and we're now able to present it in this deluxe letterpressed and die cut two cd package designed by Stephen O'Malley. Audio master by James Plotkin."-Important Records
"Originally known as Psychedelic Speed Freaks, High Rise has been stalking their Japanese homeland since the early '80s, recording dozens of albums, cassettes and compilation tracks along the way. A power trio in every sense of the term, guitarist Munehiro Narita, bassist/vocalist Asahito Nanjo and a succession of drummers combine the high energy assault of punk with the improvisational spirit of free jazz and the high-volume melodies of '60s acid rock. The result is a monstrous but deft rock beast [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Jonathan Kane was the drummer and co-founder of Swans, along with Michael Gira, and has also worked with Gary Lucas and La Monte Young, and extensively with Rhys Chatham. This EP is his second album on Table of the Elements and the first on TOTE's Radium imprint, after Kane's 2005 release of his Chatham inspired wall-of-guitar album "February." The title track of this minimalist blues EP is a thick psychedelic cover of Mississippi Fred McDowell's 1966 song.
Reissue of Acid Mothers Temple guitarist Kawabata Makoto's first and out of print album from 2000. Much sought after, VHF describes the album as "intensely personal and introspective, with long tracks built up of soft-focus layers of mid-fi violin, sarangi, oud, sitar, bouzouki, etc." French film maker and musician Audrey Ginestet also lends her voice to the opening track "Shin." This reissue is a limited edition, nicely packaged in a 6 color hand-screened cardstock gatefold.
"On his eighth Six Organs of Admittance outing, Ben Chasny's burrowed deeper into the eerie psych bog, creating The Sun Awakens, his most foreboding album to date. In the past he's been vocal about the influence on his work by Keiji Haino's psych-rock crew Fushitsusha, the slow-mo guitar pyrotechnics of Loren Connors, the shambling rock'n'drone of New Zealand's Dead C, and various underground musicians championed in Byron Coley and Jimmy Johnson's seminal Forced Exposure magazine. That range [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"From the Kitchen Archives Vol. 3. "Amplified: New Music Meets Rock, 1981-1986 is the third release in a series of CDs compiled from The Kitchen's archive that documents historic concert recordings at The Kitchen from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. While the first two releases, New Music, New York 1979 and Steve Reich and Musicians, Live 1977 focused on major figures of new and experimental music from The Kitchen's first decade, Amplified moves into the early 1980s, representing a vocabulary [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"94 Baker St, (RPM 270), the Pop Psych Sounds from the Apple Era has been one of the RPM catalogue's strongest sellers in recent years. Thus with the assistance of, the author of the History of the Beatles Apple Organization book, we have constructed a second volume. The Apple Music publishing company was first into battle for the new organisation, making its initial signings in mid 1967, in fact before the company even got to 94 Baker St. Over the next two years they demo'd many writers [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Released in October 2005, Imaginational Anthem Volume One featured two generations of important acoustic guitarists, from John Fahey and Sandy Bull to Jack Rose and Kaki King. Volume Two expands and builds on this theme with 70+ more minutes of guitar magic - all previously unreleased on CD in the US. 23-year old UK 12-string upstart James Blackshaw opens the record, while the late master Robbie Basho, a clear influence on Blackshaw's style, closes it. Basho's track is the only live recording by [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Zorn's newest project is a hardcore song cycle scored for voice, bass and drums. This powerful rock unit features three of his most illustrious, longtime cohorts who have worked together in bands such as Naked City, Fantomas, Mr. Bungle and Electric Masada and are keenly in tune with Zorn's language and aesthetic. Musicians are always at their best in Zorn projects and Moonchild is no exception. You have never heard these players as up front, on the edge or as inspired as they are here, raging [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Percussionist Steven Schick (an original member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars) releases his first full-length CD on Cantaloupe Music in conjunction with his first book - which promises to be the definitive volume about percussion in the 20th-21st Century. A former percussionist himself, John Luther Adams finds music from the earth and brings it to life in composition. Expect an unadulterated ambient soundscape that takes a journey through different sonic textures and environments, aided by a beautiful [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
" "One of new music's truly free spirits" and a "remarkable experimentalist," Eve Beglarian (b. 1958) is a composer and performer whose music has been described as "an eclectic and wide-open series of enticements." Tell the Birds is her latest sampler plate of ideas, a set of pieces both cohesive and pleasingly eclectic. Four of the six pieces here deal with texts, from such disparate writers as William Blake, Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, and American poets Linda Norton and Stanley Kunitz. Musically, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Ulrich Krieger follows up his successful A Cage of Saxophones 1 volume with the second installment of Cage works for saxophone(s), spanning a period of over 50 years. For this volume, Krieger combines works specifically composed for saxophone with works of no specified instrumentation that are suited for saxophones and winds. This CD collects three rarely heard early works, all written without indications for specific instruments. Krieger has arranged them here for his ensemble of [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Ulrich Krieger follows up his successful A Cage of Saxophones 1 volume with the second installment of Cage works for saxophone(s), spanning a period of over 50 years. For this volume, Krieger combines works specifically composed for saxophone with works of no specified instrumentation that are suited for saxophones and winds.
This CD collects three rarely heard early works, all written without indications for specific instruments. Krieger has arranged them here for his ensemble of [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Arnold Dreyblatt is a minimalist who never forgot that music is still the human mating call. Anyone who has experienced the composer's recordings with his marvelously-dubbed Orchestra of Excited Strings knows how madly Dreyblatt's pieces swing. They flaunt time as precisely as a Swiss watch. Indeed, music like this can put you in the mind of the whirring cogs and pulleys of some small mechanized device. Everything's moving, twitching about, a bunch of individual sounds racheting up and down in [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Reprint in CD format of the first LP by the American composer and saxophonist Jon Gibson. This CD version presents the original material appeared on the LP remixed and edited by the composer and some more unissued material. The original tracks were two long compositions: Visitations I - II, that Gibson describes as 16 Multi Track-Textured Environmental Soundscape. The music presentes several layers of sounds, mostly natural, that create a very unique Environmental Soundscape. The two tracks are [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"This is the second recording realised on Newtone Records by Jon Gibson, after Visitations and presents five pieces, three of which are unissued. Cycles, for solo organ, uses a seven note melodic progression in four-part harmony exploring various technique on the pipe organ. Untitled, for solo alto flute, is a long melody where the note sequence is indicated while the other elements of the performance (duration, phrasing, tempo, ...) are left to the player choices. Both these compositions combine [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Allen Ginsberg Reads Kaddish A 20th Century American Ecstatic American Narrative Poem""Kaddish was published in 1961 as part of City Lights' Pocket Poets series - Volume 17 - the house that had published Howl earlier. The great achievement in this work is Ginsberg's use of plain speech stretched to its breaking point by deep emotion and the rhythm(s) of its expression. Using rhythm, Ginsberg was able to address grief and sorrow by using his poetic line as a representation of moaning, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Lou Harrison (1917-2003) believed fervently in music's power to create cultural bridges. To this end he applied his prodigious skills and creative energies to creating syncretic works that link diverse musical languages. Faulted at times for his eclecticism, Harrison responded with a vibrant defense of hybridity, cultivating a musical multiculturalism long before that term—or even the concept—held the currency it now enjoys.Harrison's major contributions to twentieth-century [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Lou Harrison (1917-2003) believed fervently in music's power to create cultural bridges. To this end he applied his prodigious skills and creative energies to creating syncretic works that link diverse musical languages. Faulted at times for his eclecticism, Harrison responded with a vibrant defense of hybridity, cultivating a musical multiculturalism long before that term—or even the concept—held the currency it now enjoys.
Harrison's major contributions to twentieth-century [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Tim Hodgkinson co-founded the politically and musically radical free-jazz/progressive rock group Henry Cow in 1968, which also featured guitarist Fred Frith. He regards his membership in this group, with the opportunity to work closely and collectively with other instrumentalists in developing new sound worlds, as the foundation of his musical education. In addition to composing, Hodgkinson continues to perform as an improviser (clarinets, saxes and keyboards) and considers the practice of improvisation [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Pianist Bruce Levingston's performance on this new release serves as a tribute to the profound influences Philip Glass and Chuck Close have had upon one another's work. Since meeting in the 1960's in the Soho Artists community of lofts and studios, Close has continually created portraits of Glass. The piece is a musical depiction of the spirit of Chuck Close and of the integrity of his creative process.This recording also showcases musical portraits by three French masters, Ravel, Messiaen, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Pianist Bruce Levingston's performance on this new release serves as a tribute to the profound influences Philip Glass and Chuck Close have had upon one another's work. Since meeting in the 1960's in the Soho Artists community of lofts and studios, Close has continually created portraits of Glass. The piece is a musical depiction of the spirit of Chuck Close and of the integrity of his creative process.
This recording also showcases musical portraits by three French masters, Ravel, Messiaen, [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Subtitle: The dynamic of rogue counterpoint. Jon, alone, with some of his interactive, midified, altered and invented instruments (eg the whipolin, a disembowelled cello, fitted with a variety of not exactly centred hurdy gurdy type wheels made of various materials). There's also civilian violin and midified bow without violin at all. And an automatic violin quartet for good measure. None of this tells you a lot. Hyperstring is a very intense and dense CD (we put some recovery time blank tracks [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Exquisite set of historic recordings from the early fifties of Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc piano music played superbly by Satie's friend Poulenc. This Poulenc Plays Satie and Poulenc album is one of the most sought after by Erik Satie followers and completists. The sensitivity of the performance rivals any. With the interpretations of Aldo Ciccolini it is regarded as the finest and the sound is pristine. Satie and Poulenc are amongst the most important European composers of the [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
Audio only release of the Mode DVD of the same name."Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) wrote one of the largest sets of piano music in the 20th century. Scelsi was a virtuoso pianist, and even his most experimental compositions in this genre show a marked pianistic conception. Largely ignored during much of his life, Scelsi was basically only "discovered" in the 1980s.Though a recluse in his later years, there were some artists who worked with Scelsi and gained special insight into the spirit [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) wrote one of the largest sets of piano music in the 20th century. Scelsi was a virtuoso pianist, and even his most experimental compositions in this genre show a marked pianistic conception. Largely ignored during much of his life, Scelsi was basically only "discovered" in the 1980s.
Though a recluse in his later years, there were some artists who worked with Scelsi and gained special insight into the spirit [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
98 pages
With a free 20 track CD! "The Wire Tapper 15 is the latest volume in the Wire's ongoing series of exclusive new music compilations. The CD will be given away free with every copy of the June issue worldwide and will contain a range of new, rare or exclusive tracks that together will span the spectrum of the kind of underground music that gets featured in the magazine each month, from electronic music, avant rock and new jazz, to dub, hiphop, traditional musics and beyond. On the cover: Sonic Youth [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
On the cover: Current 93 (David Tibet explains how his music is shaped by his apocalyptic religious visions and nightmares of black ships). Features: Boxcutter (Barry Lynn talks beats, horror movies and Pharoah Sanders with Chris Sharp); FM3 (The Chinese electronica duo have gone into overdrive to meet the demand for their Buddha Machine); Cross Platform: Annea Lockwood (Harnessing sound as pure energy, the Antipodean sound artist maps rivers as living entities); Invisible Jukebox: Kode9; Once Upon [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
"One of the bravest, best-loved artists America has produced, Lord Buckley adopted the argot of the streets of black America whilst posing as a sophisticated English Artistocrat, creating verbal symphonies of astounding originality by combining beat poetry with historical tales, Shakespeare soliloquies and stories from the Bible; at once manic, joyous and psychedelic. The Original Rapper; an inspiration to everyone from Lenny Bruce to Jerry Garcia to Jonathan Winters to Robin Williams to Bill [ ... continued @ Squidco ]
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