A collage of styles and experimentation developed over several years by bassist and multi-instrumentalist Evan Strauss, using long-form graphically notated conceptual compositions based on bird calls along with thematic material from Ursula K. Le Guin, expanded with narration and poetry from Daniel Carter and titled from an excerpt by Virginia Woolf.

A flowing twilight electro-jazz cover of the standard "Stardust" from Japanese guitarist Bun Itakura and vocalist Mishio Ogawa, expanding the melody and Ogawa's phrasing with encompassing electronics and percussion from Takefumi Kobayashi; backed with an experimental "Mystery Making Factory" using paint brush, harmonic tone guitar, and mbira.

One of the pioneers of live computer music, Carl Stone and guitarist, multi-reedist and electronic artist Elliott Sharp have had a long association sharing concert stages together, heard here in 2019 at Bar Ishee in Tokyo for a unique concert of syncretic improvisation, merging instrumental music with unusual concrete and acousmatic sonic manifestations.

Frequent collaborators Rutger Zyderveldt (Machinefabriek) and bass & contrabass clarinetist Gareth Davis join together for five "Standards" through electronics, synthetics and unorthodox reed work, transmuting their instruments as they create variations from a few notes, some of them "misremembered", from jazz and contemporary classical standards.

The Residy, or remains of a unique variation on JS Bach's Goldberg Variation no. 21, performed live by pianist Alex Zethson who maintains the structure, rhythmic movement and note order of Bach's composition, while dispersing the notes and intervals into two synths and an E-bowed grand piano to evoke these meditative and expansive interpretations.

Translating to "Voices from Heaven and Hell", the meeting of two Berlin artists--Amelia Cuni, whose vocal work is described as in/voluntary singing; and Alex Mendizabal, a sound artist who here electronically manipulates the voice of Cuni--using texts from poet Erin Honeycutt as the two apply diverse, fascinating and sometimes unnerving approaches to voice, utterance and expression.

Demonstrating the striking diversity modern solo percussionists present, the Italian tape label TSSS Tapes compiles an international set of solo works from explorers Tim Daisy, Jeph Jerman, Ted Byrnes, Wojtek Kurek, Clinton Green, Rie Nakajima, Emilio Berne, Shakeeb Abu Hamdan, Lucie Nezri, Karen Willems, Paolo Sanna, Li Qing, Carlos Godinho, and Rodrigo Vieira.

Australian sound poet and vocalist Sage J Harlow aka Sage Pbbbt, whose innovative vocal work takes inspiration from Tuvan and Mongolian overtone singing and Inuit throat singing, created this mysterious set of electroacoustic compositions on the unceeded lands of the Whadjuk People of the Noongar Nation, developing four works of spellbinding spectral ambience.

Using sources from the world about him--field recordings, sampled orchestral noises, and voice recorders--New York composer and sound artist Nickolas Mohanna explores the spatial impressions of sound within a delicate acousmatic language, weaving inexplicable sounds into reorganized, recognizable components, creating a solid and compelling structural language.

A handsome spiral-bound book to accompany experimental sound artist and turntablist Marin Rosenfeld's roygbiv&b project riffing on the title through performance memory exercises, with text including a "User's Manual", a foreward by musicologist Benjamin Piekut, color & b/w images from the performance & exhibition, and four fold-out pages with scores.

A CD EP from North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green, the first African American and third woman to receive the appointment, persenting her work "I Want to Undie You" expressing her sorrow at the unexpected death of her daughter Imani and a celebration of her life, with audio arrangements by Alec Ferrel, plus versions of the text and music only.

A followup to The Latest Research From The Department Of Electrical Engineering, Dutch experimental sound artist Michel Banabila shows his most explorative side through eleven compositions using electronics, found sounds, field recordings, synthetics and acousmatic sources, a wonderfully inspired set of contructions that float like machines in a dream.

Extended tape mixes from Dutch experimenter and sound artist Michel Banabila, using recycled tapes and a granular sampler to create layers that include physical soundsÊand aberrant behavior of cassette tapes themselves, in two extended "Sketches" plus seven shorter works, three never previously released, particularly "Camera" featuring Olaf Keus on snare & conga.

An immersive drone performed on acoustic guitar, captured and extended through loops and effects and recorded to 4-track cassette, from French improviser Richard Comte (Hippie Diktat, Vegan Dallas), a single extended piece that begins with actively repeating chords that evolve into rich layers of textured, expansive loops, a seemingly infinite work that begs to be looped.

A collection of poems written by and read by ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina and the first African American and third woman to hold the title--Jaki Shelton GreenÐ-presenting 11 texts with experimental sound work arranged by Shirlette Ammons, a fascinating set of observations and an insightful selection of "political statement, cultural commentary, and an aesthetic milestone".

Four recordings from the collaboration of Italian sound artists Giovanni Di Domenico and Giovanni Lami, two prolific experimenters using real time manipulation of sounds that include piano, electronics and subliminal pulses, creating haunting cycles of muted progressions enveloped in harmonic environments, both tranquil and energetically compelling.

An album of languorous guitar motifs, slowly unfolding in a mesmerizing haze intended to accompany a traveller as landscapes pass, contemplative daydream listening as a mesmeric addition to one's environment in momentum, presented in four "Patterns" that allow the rich tones and harmonics of French electric guitarist Richard Comte to ring out a rich journey.

An album of sonic environments reflecting on religion in the Southeast from Atlanta, GA drummer and sound artist Kelsey Wilson, using organ, tapes and field recordings to create dark and brooding meditations intended for loud playback, five opaquely layered constructions of ambience and drone, crackling tape loops, low-tones synths and disembodied voices.

The ever-prolific Dutch sound artist Michel Banabila collects 11 singles, working solo and in collaborations featuring Alex Haas, Bill Laswell, Cengiz Arslanpay, Jeff Greinke, Ümlaut, Salar Asid, Robert jarvis, Maarten Vos, and Gareth Davis, demonstrating Banabila's diverse and sophisticated approaches to sound work, and his versatility in a variety of settings.

It's not just the tongue that drives these compellingly irascible and unexpected sounds from the saxophone, augmented at times by samples and oscillators, as NY saxophonist Michael Foster applies technique beyond extended to a tenor and soprano saxophone, in two multi-part works of solo utterance: "Libidinal Fragments" in seven parts, and "Celluloid Nightmares" in two.

A collection of poems written by and read by ninth Poet Laureate of North Carolina and the first African American and third woman to hold the title--Jaki Shelton GreenÐ-presenting 11 texts with experimental sound work arranged by Shirlette Ammons, a fascinating set of observations and an insightful selection of "political statement, cultural commentary, and an aesthetic milestone".

The French duo of bassoonist Sophie Bernado and sound artist Céline Grangey expand on the rich timbre of Bernado's bassoon, starting solo in beautiful etude improvisations only to have Grangey's sound designs expand around her playing, developing rich environments through electronics, field recording & voice, a beautiful intersection of experimental, composed and improvised music.

An album of evocative electronic and acousmatic soundscapes from German composer, electronic artist and keyboardist John Franek, who performs the four pieces on this album on organ and electronics, interweaving rich harmonics with stark tones, melding his sounds in slowly evolving interaction, like beams of light piercing peaceful atmospheres.

Powerfully warm swells of organ drones and intricate textures, creating clouds of beautiful sonic environments to wrap around your ears, from the duo of Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) on electronics and Bruno Duplant on organ, Zuydervelt adding sonic interest and a psychedelic touch to the majestic power of Duplant's extended chords.

Atlanta, GA sound artist Craig Lee Dempsey (US Prisms, Ben Trickey Full Band, The Weight, Thoroughbred) issues his first fully solo album of ambient drones developed from guitar and synthesizer sources, with rich implied rhythmic pulses that slowly evolve through the six pieces on this cassette & download release, all six pieces adding up to 22 minutes of sound.

An album of thick, dark noise like a tunneling heart worm from Michigan noise musician Thom Elliott (Pleasure Dome Tapez), recorded in isolation during the pandemic in 2021, self-described as "my most aggressively revolting sonic landscapes", in four parts of detailed sludge that surprise with frequent sonic twists and turns on their pulsing tours.

An expansive double album from Australian violinist and mad genius Jon Rose, in solo, duo and odd orchestral settings, including tracks with Jim Denley, Clayton Thomas, Robbie Avenaim, &c.; a project with a 32-string automaton violin + string ensemble; a work for a casino-music driven player-piano; a dueling banjo and interactively bowed violin, &c. &c.; masterfully inexplicable!

A gorgeous album of duo work from West Coast guitarist Henry Kaiser and D.C. guitarist Anthony Pirog, creating "ground" structures of beautifully rich harmonics over which "figures" of virtuosic guitar playing emerge and submerge, the overlap creating almost hallucinatory effects as the listener is transfixed somewhere between exquisite foregrounds and backgrounds.

Unusual textures, unlikely orchestration and unconventional rhythmic directions from the Chicago electroacoustic improv trio of Allen Moore on turntables & records casted with various material, Ishmael Ali on cello, guitar & electronics and Bill Harris on drums & percussion, captured live at Marmalade in Chicago in 2021 for a diverse set of experimental and absorbing improvisations.

Early tape collage works from Fluxus founder and member of the Experimental Media Foundation Philip Corner, five distinct pieces recorded and developed between 1962 to 1963 in New York's Lower East Side, including Lucinda Pastime" for a a dance piece by Lucinda Childs, and "Oracle, a Canata on Images of War" commissioned by the Living Theatre; includes a 16-page booklet.

Referencing the highs and lows to which the NY duo of free improvising vocalist Amirtha Kidambi and bassist Luke Stewart take their listeners, both bringing along electronics as they divert between clear acoustics and extreme processing, pouring out the turbulence of the time with a unique sense of duress and oddly hopeful musing; frighteningly unique and fascinating.

The long-standing duet of guitarist Richard Comte and tenor saxophonist Julen Pontvianne (Onze Hours Onze) is a conversation of introspective and resonant repetition around silence, tonal decay, slow call and response and submerged themes, here symbolically immersed as they explore four sunken islands from around the world: Vordonis; Lohachara; Semionovski and Elugelab.

Translating to "Base and vertex drift", French guitarist Richard Comte (Hippie Diktat, Vegan Dallas) present four darkly ominous solo works on electric guitar through slowly shifting chords and deep reverberation, punctuated with ringing tones and light moments that peer through sonic clouds, his ambience a backdrop to alternations of lucidity and submersion.

Composer Michael Pisaro-Liu asked guitarist Jameson Feakes and saxophonist Josten Myburgh to each select a location in Western Australia and make a set of field recordings at different times of day, providing the basis for a musical scroll akin to Chinese scroll paintings, each musician then a poetic character placed into the virtual landscape of their recordings.

Creating soundscapes from homemade instruments, Text-To-Speech, AI voices, lap steel guitar, found objects, field recording, &c., the duo of sound artists Sam Scranton from Chicago and Neil Quigley from Kilkenny, Ireland, present six unusually unfolding compositions of deceptively relaxed environments layered with mysterious elements and a sly sense of humor.

A collage of styles and experimentation developed over several years by bassist and multi-instrumentalist Evan Strauss, using long-form graphically notated conceptual compositions based on bird calls along with thematic material from Ursula K. Le Guin, expanded with narration and poetry from Daniel Carter and titled from an excerpt by Virginia Woolf.

The followup to their album Oehoe, electroacoustic composer Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) developed this set of 10 tracks from improvised recordings on violin, viola and voice by Anne Bakker, creating a fascinating and succinct set of compositions through the deconstruction of her virtuosic playing and Zuydervelt's electronic additions.

Translating to "Cross Black", French guitarist Richard Comte provides a set of four diverse soundtracks, from deep turbulent darkness and sonic decay to crisply ringing guitar resonance, over which sound poet Sébastien Lespinasse intones with solemn import his dark words of imagery and observation.

Saxophonist & electroacoustic improviser Pedro Sousa (Pao, Lisbon Freedom Unit, Sousa / Berthling / Ferrandini) was commissioned by Lisbon's Jazz in the Park to create this hybrid work of jazz, electronica and dub, performed with collaborators, drummer Gabriel Ferrandini (PeterGabriel, Red Trio), Simão Simões (electronics), Bruno Silva (electronics), and Miguel Abras (bass).

The 4th installment in percussionist & composer Matt Weston's serialized opera for percussion ensemble + electronics, a set of narratives and counter-narratives that explore mental health struggles as they develop over time in varying circumstances, realized through a combination of site-specific graphic, multidimensional and instantaneous scores.

Using electric & acoustic guitars and autoharp over spacious electronics and field recordings, Belgium musician & video artist Jean De Lacoste and Rotterdamn sound artist Rutger Zuydervelt, aka Machinefabriek, create broad pallets of ringing sounds over which acoustic instruments intone, with cellist Fransesco Guerri joining on one of 8 gently unfolding "Scramblings".

Seeking to combine the interdisciplinary practices of Swedish percussionist, artist and philosopher Larsson Andreas Hiroui and his ensemble of Johanna Arve and Johan Jutterstrom into a single method, this extended work compiles their collective history into digital archives that are presented in a layered set of spoken observations and instrumental improvisations.

A truly unique set of compositions juxtaposing lush field recording with disruptive vocal repetitions, vowel sounds from six different speakers, creating disorienting moments that lull the listener into complacency and then startles them with unexpected interference, as the composer explores how he can establish a subjective relationship with natural environments.

Originally released in 2013 on CDR, this meeting of sound artists Jeph Jerman and Aaron Dilloway show the skill, subtlety, and disruptive sonic skills of two innovators, using objects, damaged electronics, electronic loops and live acoustic sound to create large tapestries: 4 pieces that defy characterization through diverse approaches to impactful sound.

NY sound artist Aki Onda pays tribute to multi-media pioneer Nam June Paik (1923-2006), a work inspired after Onda's series of performances at Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea, here using submerged and anonymous radio signals as a shamanic invocation of Paik's work; includes a 20-page booklet with photos & a remembrance of Paik plus 2 essays on radio-wave phenomena.

Composer, sound artist and poet Osvaldo Coluccino in a six-part electroacoustic composition for electronics, violin and objects, the title carrying several meanings: 1) not being there, being absent, 2) being free, 3) abstaining, opposing, being alien, 4) differing, being different, 5) (regarding places) being distant, being far away, 6) being inferior.

Interested in compositional work involving sound, timing, space, physicality, memory, noise & environment, Dutch composer Reinier van Houdt shares six works developed for erstwhile record's festival AMPLIFY 2020: quarantine, each piece focused on a specific day of the month; and a complementary set of four compositions about everyday recurring situations.

Addressing the perception and representation of physical space through 9 solo guitar works of sonic textures and treatments imbued with rich solo playing, each track named by coordinates of remembered towns and cities, creating a succession of interconnected sonic landscapes of drones, resonance and clear tones as a metaphor for an internal, mental, cartography.

Addressing the perception and representation of physical space through 9 solo guitar works of sonic textures and treatments imbued with rich solo playing, each track named by coordinates of remembered towns and cities, creating a succession of interconnected sonic landscapes of drones, resonance and clear tones as a metaphor for an internal, mental, cartography.

A tribute to late experimental sound artist Peter Rehberg (Pita) from collaborators and friends Lasse Marhaug and Jérôme Noetinger, ten recordings of wildly creative, slippery electronics, crunching sound bunts, rapid fire electronic turmoil and tapehead jamming, ending with a beautifully drifting tribute to an artist who widely influenced modern sound culture.

The Summer 2022 issue of Canada's essential music magazine exploring improvised, compositional, experimental and other musical hybrids, this issue with composer Gayle Young on the cover, articles on violist Ig Henneman, composer Du Yun, Mark Ellestad, plus reviews, interviews and a 10-track CD with music from artists covered in the magazine.

Performed with Stockholm musicians including pianist Alexander Zethson, wind player Martin Küchen and trombonist Mats Äleklint, organist Linnéa Talp explores the areas of sound that emulate breathing, push/pull or back & forth motion, in eight beautifully paced recordings led by the organ's rich and microtonal vibrations & timbre and imbued by the contributor's subtle additions.

An engrossing set of compositions through field recordings captured around the globe, transitioning by passages of trains, trucks and cars and accompanied by unusual percussive elements and strange melodies, as Niblock invites us to a funeral procession, a collective farm, and untold other exotic and fascinating streets and unexpected environments.

Commissioned by Organ Reframed, the organ-only experimental music festival curated by Scottish composer/performer and London's Union Chapel organ music director Claire M Singer, this piece of deep overtones ascending through octaves was developed with organist Frédéric Blondy at the Église Saint Merry in Paris, this specially packaged release captured at the Union Chapel festival concert in 2020.

Referring to "Study Time", Zeitstudie presents two works each for two instruments developed by sound artist Akio Suzuki and recorded in Germany in 1984: the ANALAPOS, an echo instrument used to project the performer's voice across a coil spring; and the "De Koolmees" glass harmonica, 5 glass tubes in a metal frame that are struck or rubbed to create unique sounds.

A perfect example of the radiant electronics David Lee Myers, aka Arcane Device, has developed over decades, in nine shimmering works of clear tones, controlled feedback and electronic errata, each piece transitioning in sublime ways as Myers evolves luminescent stories in glowing atmospheric sound, a richly lustered album of sound sculpting.

Xenography is the ability to write in a language which the individual has not learned, an apt description of the rich dialects sculpted from feedback sources and expertly routed through circular circuits of sound processors by New York sound artist David Lee Myers, AKA Arcane Device, captured and layered into these astounding electronic compositions.

The 3rd installment in percussionist & composer Matt Weston's serialized opera for percussion ensemble + electronics, a set of narratives and counter-narratives that explore mental health struggles as they develop over time in varying circumstances, realized through a combination of site-specific graphic, multidimensional and instantaneous scores.

Percussionist and electronics artist Matt Weston (Arthur Brooks Ensemble V, Arc Pair) in a 7" release showcasing his playing skills over his own notation systems employing additional dimensions of pre-and post-gestural strategies, using written standard notation and visual cues based on multiple and simultaneous, graphic scores.

Czech improviser and sound musician Tomislav Federsel started work on this project in 2002, remixing in experimental forms the songs of Czech folk musician Wabi Danek, a project Federsel scrapped and rebuilt three times, Jaroslav Tarnovski joining in this ultimate version of the rich, imaginative and well-considered renderings of Danek's music.

The first of a five-volume compilation series curated by Nick Vander, a testament to the incredible musical range of the guitar and the imaginative possibility of guitarists around the world, with tracks from L. Hein, Davaajargal Tsaschikher, Alan Courtis, Marco Cappelli, Elliott Sharp, Hery Ujjaya, Killick Hinds, Gilbert Isbin, and Nick Vander.

Amsterdam guitarist Raphael Vanoli in a solo record of discovery, hiper-amplifying his guitar so that slight motions create forceful statements, where gently blowing on the strings creates dynamics and harmonics rarely explored, effected to create complex sonic compositions with unique, unusual and fascinating properties.

The duo of Carlos Santos and Jorge Valente developed this project around the metallics of a cymbal, recording it and digitally manipulating and transforming it into a musical structure using the maxmsp programming; this recording was captured live at the Hertzoscopio Festival in Fabrica da Polvora, Barcarena, Portugal in 2004.

Jeremy Young, aka Szilard, in his debut full-length release as a solo performer on guitar and sine waves, with texts from Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs Du Mal" (1857) read by Aki Onda, Ella Joyce Buckley, Liam Singer and Catherine Metayer.

A concept record from Gaudenz Badrutt (electronics & synth) and Christian Muller (electronics & contrabass clarinet), starting with an improvised piece which is then resampled live into 6 new pieces, changing the character with each pass, and presented in reverse order.

Two unusual approaches to the vibraphone in a duo--Dale Gorfinkel using the tremolo mechanism, additional motors, bows and creative percussive techniques; and Robbie Avenaim using homemade electronic sticks and vibrating objects to create rhythms and textures.

Brooklyn's Sontag Shogun (Ian Temple-piano; Jesse Perlstein-electronics; Jeremy Young-tapes & electronics) in their debut album, compiling three years of composing and directed textural improvisations, presented in 9 rich musical works.

West Coast sound artist Nicolas Snyder is a composer, filmmaker, sound-documenter, gardener, and forager; fascinated by the sounds of nature, he took recordings from streams and National Parks in Vietnam, Pennsylvania, and California and merged them with music composed in the studio to create these works of great beauty as a study of locational and emotional memory.

Using a diatonic accordion and electronics, Robin Servant from Rimouski, Canada explores the acoustics of the places he visits by making them vibrate with his accordion and electronics, presenting 3 recordings from concerts in PiedNu in Le Havre, France, the Old Theater of St-Fabien, in Quebec, Canada, and at the Beaulieu Culturel du Temiscouata, in Quebec.

Using a reel to reel deck, a mixer, electronics, and extraneous room sound, Brooklyn-based Ben Owens creates an album of contrasting drones and spaces, harmonically rich or pure tones contrasting with slowly drawn tape and abstract environmental sound, bringing enigmatic moments amidst drifting hiss and subliminal resonance; mysterious and intriguing.

Unusual glitch and extreme electronics improvised by the duo of New York artist Dominic Cole and Chicago/NY artist Hunter Brown (Sound Tribe Sector Nine), using approaches including glitch, noise & circuit bending in 9 pieces with tongue-in-cheek titles, balancing erratic moments with exploratory sections and near silence, an interesting and enigmatic album of aberrant electronics.

Takamitsu Ohta, known for his work with artists Anne-F Jacques & Ryoko Akama, in three unexpected recordings using the microphone and speaker of small devices with recording and playback ability, from five to fifteen such linked devices creating surprisingly stacatto and expressive voices from feedback, each piece aptly named for the resulting articulation each combination creates.

The final issue of 2020 is is dedicated to the art of conversation in music and about music during the age of pandemic; with Debby Friday on the cover, plus articles about Victoria-based composer Anna Höstman, Tehran-born Araz Salek, Tkarón:to-based saxophonist and composer Olivia Shortt, with a CD including tracks from those artists, plus reviews, articles, &c.

Fall 2020 issue of Canada's finest new music magazine, focusing on guitars--hollow, heavy, bowed, cracked, pedalled, flung, trusty companions & feedback demons; Plus articles on Casey Koyczan, Susan Alcorn, Amy Brandon, Aidan Baker, Eliza Kavtion, C. Diab, Markus Lake, Catherine Debard, Cloud Chamber, &c; and an 11-track CD with music from the aforementioned.

Spring 2020 issue of Canada's premiere new music magazine covering improvised, composed and experimental music, with reviews of recordings and live events and extensive articles, this issue featuring Anthony Pateras, Xuan Ye, sound artist April Aliermo and composer Lieke van der Voort; with a 15 track CD of work from those and other featured artists.