Avant-Garde / Contemporary

There are still so many treasures to be discovered out there, but once you find a gem like this you can definitely put the research on hold for a little while and give it a deep listen. Recorded at Fono Roma in 1971, Eroina is a series of haunting improvisations - each one inspired by the effects of a different drug - made of whirling electronic glitches, skronky horns, pounded piano, funky drums and weird tape experiments delivering the best drone/spaced/drugged out free jazz performed by the legendary ensemble of Ennio Morricone, Mario Bertoncini, Egisto Macchi, Battisti D'Amario, Franco Evangelisti and Walter Bianchi. A timeless masterpiece.

Second edition of 300 copies with slightly different artwork; the sleeve has a different colour, a spelling error on the back sleeve has been corrected, the labels are different and there is another picture on the back sleeve. Released with kind permission of Brigitte Morton / Henri Chopin Estate.

Black Truffle¡Çs documentation of the prolific recent work of legendary American composer Alvin Lucier continues with Works for the Ever Present Orchestra. This is a very special release for the composer, as it presents pieces written for the thirteen-member Ever Present Orchestra, formed in 2016 exclusively to perform Lucier¡Çs works. At the heart of the ensemble are four electric guitars, an instrument Lucier began composing for in 2013 with Criss-Cross (recorded by two core members of the Ever Present Orchestra, Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O¡ÇMalley, for whom it was composed, on Black Truffle 033). Through the use of e-bows, the guitars take on a role akin to the slow sweep pure wave oscillators heard in many of Lucier¡Çs works since the early 1980s, but with added harmonic richness. Like much of Lucier¡Çs instrumental music, the pieces recorded here focus on acoustic phenomena, especially beating patterns, produced by the interference between closely tuned pitches. The work presented here is some of the richest and most inviting that Lucier has composed. Though all of the pieces clearly belong to the same continuing exploration of the behaviour of sound in physical space and make use of related compositional devices, each takes on a strikingly different character. Titled Arc, for the full ensemble of four guitars, four saxophones, four violins, piano and bowed glockenspiel inhabits a world of sliding, uneasy tones, punctuated by a single piano note. Where Double Helix, for four guitars, rests on a pillow of warm, low hum, EPO-5, for two guitars, saxophone, violin, and glockenspiel possess a limpid, crystalline quality. Accompanying the four new compositions are two adaptations of existing pieces for radically different instrumentation, demonstrating Lucier¡Çs excitement about the new possibilities suggested by this dedicated ensemble. Works for the Ever Present Orchestra is an essential document of the current state of Lucier¡Çs continuing exploration, as well as offering a seductive entry-point for anyone who might yet be unacquainted with his singular body of work. Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with cover artwork and liner notes from Alvin Lucier. Includes a download code featuring hi-res vesions of the LP material. The download code also includes the bonus Adaptions for the Ever Present Orchestra featuring two pieces (¡ÈTwo Circles¡É and ¡ÈBraid¡É) that are not included on the LP version. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Design by Lasse Marhaug.

Jon Gibson, a rare minimalist who has been listed in the 2nd work "Two Solo Pieces", Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and La Monte Young. The 1973 memorable 1st album is finally reissued on LP !! Side A, which contains flutes, cymbals, and organic repetitions of shining bells, side B, where the inflection of electronic sounds leads to the forest, along with the flow of rivers and environmental sounds. Both are extremely minimal. Beautiful to Avant. It is a supreme masterpiece that is drawn into the depths of consciousness.

The distributor is already sold out! Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, a legendary music group that led the improvisational / experimental music scene of the 1960s from Italy, along with the legendary Musica Elettronica Viva, formed in Rome in 1964 under the leadership of pianist Franco Evangelisti. The masterpiece "Nuova Consonanza" released in 1975 is the first vinyl reprint in history with a luxurious booklet! Reissue with a completely new remastering specification from the newly discovered original tape. Limited edition with a 12-page luxury 30 "x30" booklet with unpublished photos, texts and essays. A masterpiece that can be said to be a new starting point in history or a major frontier at the end of the music of improvisation. It's really amazing !! New remastering from the original tape & 180G heavy board specification. Limited to 400 sheets. Don't miss this opportunity as the original is almost unavailable at the moment!

A masterpiece of sock jackets that became a trademark !! The famous experimental rock band Henry Cow's 1st album in 1973 by Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson !! The reissue from the home base [ReR] is finally repressed this year. !! A great lifeline leading to "Rock In Opposition". With the tremendous influence of pioneers such as Soft Machine and Frank Zappa as the undercurrent, Avant Rock has been elaborated with unparalleled precision. There is no arrogant arrangement, and the mystery of free-form improvisation explodes without being disturbed. Definitely one of the best in the Canterbury scene. If you haven't experienced it yet!

J.P.A. Falzone and Morgan Evans-Weiler have been working together since 2016 in the famous ensemble "Ordinary Affects" of the Weindelweiser school. A 2-CD set containing the feature films composed individually by each is released from the famous place ! In January 19 at the Wesleyan University Memorial Chapel at the Liberal Arts University in Middletown, Connecticut, by Luke Damrosch, who is known for engineering works around Van der Weiser and co-writing with Alan Sondheim and José James. A recorded work. Both the string drone minimalist Morgan Evans-Weiler side, which accelerates isolation in the void, the melancholy piano and violin, and the JPA Falzone side, where the pointillistic sound of the vibraphone gives off a dull beauty. A very enigmatic chamber music work that makes you feel even the taste of Japanese loneliness while suppressing the number of sounds. It's ridiculously wonderful!

Meditations super strong recommendation board! The jacket artwork is a 2017 piano solo work by French pianist / composer Melaine Dalibert from elsewhere, a new label launched by Yuko Zama, who is also involved in the management of David Sylvian (!) Erstwhile Records and Gravity Wave. Imposing release! This work is inspired by the work of French media artist Vera Molnar from Hungary, and is inspired by the transition of natural phenomena. Dalibert developed an algorithmic procedure for the composition of this piece. A meditative, layered piece of resonant music by Morton Feldman's mode. A delicate touch that makes you feel ephemeral and powerful, it is finished as a pretty and beautiful piano solo masterpiece that blends well with the clear air of this season. This pure sound just sinks ... Taku Unami is in charge of mastering! Limited to 500 sheets. For those who like Gigi Masin and Satsuki Shibano! It is one of the big, big, big, big, big recommended for all music lovers!

Highly recommended! The latest album by French pianist / composer Melaine Dalibert has been released from elsewhere, a contemporary label that has been launched by Yuko Zama, who is also involved in the management of Erstwhile Records and Gravity Wave! Melaine Dalibert plays 12 compositions (composed from 2005 to 2018) by Anastassis Philippakopoulos, a Greek composer from France who is also known for the Van der Weiser school. Includes a performance recorded on July 24, 2019 at the commune "Saint-Maugan" in Ille-et-Villene, northwestern France. A unique blend of minimalism, modern romanticism, and Zen introspective depth, with a tranquil piano sound and a simple yet moving melody that weaves pointillistically while being wrapped in shadows. The vast, profound, narrative and poetic view of the world is a wonderful word. Mix and mastering by Taku Unami. Artwork by Denis Sorokin, also known as Michael Pisaro's work. Recommended for those who like Edition Wandelweiser and Another Timbre works!

"Singing in Unison" is the latest in a series of recordings from acclaimed sound artist, composer and performer Yoshi Wada. Recorded live over two nights, March 14 and 15, in 1978, at New York City's legendary performance space The Kitchen, "Singing in Unison" is a dramatic yet meditative work: modal improvisations for three male voices, singing, with great gravitas, in purposeful unison. These previously unreleased recordings, featuring vocalists Richard Hayman, Imani Smith and Wada himself are extremely powerful, with a glacial majesty and a sense of timeless wonder. Wada's earliest musical memories are of hearing Zen Buddhist ritual chants in his native Japan, and those memories are reflected in the deep vocalisations here; also evident is Wada's period of intense study with Indian master singer Pandit Pran Nath. Thus there is a definite "Eastern" feeling to "Singing in Unison", with further elements added by Imani Smith's Sufi background and Wada's interest in Eastern European vocal styles, but the music is also informed by Wada's experiences in the Fluxus movement and as a member of the New York avant-garde community. The edgy atmosphere of 1970s New York City pervades these recordings, adding a hint of menace. Despite the fact that this is purely vocal music, fans of the slow-moving heaviosity of Sunn 0))) will appreciate "Singing in Unison". Yoshi Wada has four previous releases on EM Records: "Lament for the Rise and Fall of Elephantine Crocodile" [EM1074CD]; "The Appointed Cloud" [EM1076D]; "Off the Wall" [EM1078CD]; and "Earth Horns with Electronic Drone" [EM1081CD]. "Singing in Unison" is available in two formats: a single CD of the March 15 performance, with gatefold sleeve; or a triple LP set featuring a complete version of both performances, March 14 and 15.

The current three artists will challenge the difficult song "Gun Ho 1,2,3D", which is a masterpiece of New Zealand's legendary performance group From Scratch. This is a cover performance collection in which each person explores how to play with percussion as the common denominator (* not a remix collection). Everyone made it very hard. I look forward to working with you!

From Scratch is a development of a performance group organized by Phil Dudson, who learned from the far-left musician Cornelius Cardew, as the New Zealand branch of the Scratch Orchestra in the 1970s. They are known around the world for their combative custom instruments, and Ryuichi Sakamoto became a percussion instrument unit at a glance, and he visited Japan twice.

The work that can be said to be their true value is this difficult song "Gung Ho 1,2,3D", which features hocking in which the performers beat different beats individually, and the ultimate polyrhythm with accurate repetitive rhythm is a masterpiece. The sound is mechanical and inorganic in terms of characters, but the overtone-covered mundane sounds generated from the vinyl chloride tube and the slight error caused by human performance become organic components and create a mysterious ecstasy.

In this work, the original recording of 1981, which was performed in the most complicated 8,9,10 and 9,10,11 time signatures of "Gung Ho 1,2,3D", is the first, and the current three artists in Japan and abroad: Goat (M2) led by YPY Koshiro Hino / Don't DJ (M3), a German genius / Utena Kobayashi (M4), who is currently active in DAN, Tokumaru Shugo, etc. Contains a total of 4 works. All the performances are based on the score, but the interpretations of the four are completely different, and despite the fairly advanced performance, it has a pop appearance due to the repetitive rhythm.

+ CD version: Japanese / English commentary / normal jewel case / booklet included

The current three artists will challenge the difficult song "Gun Ho 1,2,3D", which is a masterpiece of New Zealand's legendary performance group From Scratch. This is a cover performance collection in which each person explores how to play with percussion as the common denominator (* not a remix collection). Everyone made it very hard. I look forward to working with you!

From Scratch is a development of a performance group organized by Phil Dudson, who learned from the far-left musician Cornelius Cardew, as the New Zealand branch of the Scratch Orchestra in the 1970s. They are known around the world for their combative custom instruments, and Ryuichi Sakamoto became a percussion instrument unit at a glance, and he visited Japan twice.

The work that can be said to be their true value is this difficult song "Gung Ho 1,2,3D", which features hocking in which the performers beat different beats individually, and the ultimate polyrhythm with accurate repetitive rhythm is a masterpiece. The sound is mechanical and inorganic in terms of characters, but the overtone-covered mundane sounds generated from the vinyl chloride tube and the slight error caused by human performance become organic components and create a mysterious ecstasy.

In this work, the original recording of 1981, which was performed in the most complicated 8,9,10 and 9,10,11 time signatures of "Gung Ho 1,2,3D", is the first, and the current three artists in Japan and abroad: Goat (M2) led by YPY Koshiro Hino / Don't DJ (M3), a German genius / Utena Kobayashi (M4), who is currently active in DAN, Tokumaru Shugo, etc. Contains a total of 4 works. All the performances are based on the score, but the interpretations of the four are completely different, and despite the fairly advanced performance, it has a pop appearance due to the repetitive rhythm.

+ CD version: Japanese / English commentary / normal jewel case / booklet included

The title nods to a 16th-century study of magnetism, and it is magnetism that is at the heart of this release, with Takuji Naka's cassette decks and Tim Olive's magnetic pickups, across five untitled tracks, initiating a dream-logic-imbued semi-narrative flow, in which "out of date" low-tech sound sources are at the service of an ears-forward compositional sensibility.
The use of pliable metals, analog electronics and a battered spring reverb unit, along with the inherent instability of cassettes, results in an atmosphere of subdued unease, over-the-horizon mystery and a burnished, melancholy beauty. Perhaps it is a bit of a stretch to link Naka's career as a temple gardener in Kyoto and Olive's relatively recent involvement in film with the music's austerely organic and eerily cinematic aspects, but there you have it. Recorded in the mountains in the north of Kyoto in 2013, the CD has a strong sense of place, but as befitting magnetism's play of opposites, that sense of place shifts and flickers; time ebbs and returns; the light grows dim.

CD digipak release, with liner notes in Japanese and English by musicologist/writer/composer Wakao Yu.

In October 1962 John Cage and his great interpreter/co-visionary David Tudor visited Japan, performing seven concerts and exposing listeners to new musical worlds. This legendary "John Cage Shock", as it was dubbed by the critic Hidekazu Yoshida, is the source of this series of releases, three CDs and a "best hits" double LP compilation. Recorded primarily at the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo on October 24, 1962 (with two performances from October 17 at Mido-Kaikan in Osaka), all recordings in this series are previously unreleased. A major historical trove, unearthed. The performances on this tour featured Cage and Tudor with some noteworthy Japanese musicians playing pieces by Cage and a number of other composers. Volume 1 begins with Toru Takemitsu's Corona for Pianists (1962), played by Tudor and Yuji Takahashi, an indeterminate piece scored using transparencies, a sign of Cage's influence on younger Japanese composers of the era. Following this is Duo for Violinist and Pianist (1961) by Christian Wolff, written specifically for David Tudor and violinist Kenji Kobayashi. The final piece, a near-twenty-minute realization of Variations II (1961), is a rare example of the rougher side of Cage, work that presaged much of the live electronic music and noise of the following decades, an aspect of his oeuvre which is woefully under-represented on CD. Cage and Tudor, using well-amplified contact microphones on a piano, deliver an electrifying performance, alternating distorted stretches of harsh 60s reality with bountiful silences. Volume 2 lifts off with a fiery example of Tudor's piano virtuosity, his mastery of dynamics well evident in a performance of Klavierstück X (1961) by Karlheinz Stockhausen. The titular shock of this series is delivered even more forcefully with the next piece, Cage's 26'55.988" for 2 Pianists and a String Player (1961), which was first performed the year before in Darmstadt by Tudor and Kobayashi, a combination of two of Cage's solo pieces. The performance here, from Osaka, has a slightly altered title and the composition becomes a seismic quartet with the addition of Toshi Ichiyanagi and Yoko Ono, with the four performers providing acutely-angled blasts of sound. The final CD of the series features Cage's 0'00" (1962), also referred to as 4'33" No.2, performed by the composer, with daily activities such as writing and drinking coffee amplified by contact microphones into sonic abstraction, following the score's directions: "with maximum amplification (no feedback), perform a disciplined action". Next is Composition II for 2 Pianos (1960/61) by Michael von Biel, lovely and sparse, performed by Tudor and Ichiyanagi. The disc closes with Ichiyanagi's Piano Music #7 (1961), performed also by Tudor and Ichiyanagi, beds of silence disrupted by pianistic stabs, music box madness, traffic recordings, percussive thumps, tape manipulations and more. The "John Cage Shock" series features truly historical recordings, all previously unreleased, of compositions by an amazing roster of international composers. The intensity of these performances by Cage, Tudor, Ichiyanagi, Kobayashi, Ono and Takahashi has remained hidden and unheard for half a century, but remains undiminished. These three CDs, as well as the special double LP (including a vinyl only bonus track), feature rare photos plus Japanese and English liner notes.

In October 1962 John Cage and his great interpreter/co-visionary David Tudor visited Japan, performing seven concerts and exposing listeners to new musical worlds. This legendary "John Cage Shock", as it was dubbed by the critic Hidekazu Yoshida, is the source of this series of releases, three CDs and a "best hits" double LP compilation. Recorded primarily at the Sogetsu Art Center in Tokyo on October 24, 1962 (with two performances from October 17 at Mido-Kaikan in Osaka), all recordings in this series are previously unreleased. A major historical trove, unearthed. The performances on this tour featured Cage and Tudor with some noteworthy Japanese musicians playing pieces by Cage and a number of other composers. Volume 1 begins with Toru Takemitsu's Corona for Pianists (1962), played by Tudor and Yuji Takahashi, an indeterminate piece scored using transparencies, a sign of Cage's influence on younger Japanese composers of the era. Following this is Duo for Violinist and Pianist (1961) by Christian Wolff, written specifically for David Tudor and violinist Kenji Kobayashi. The final piece, a near-twenty-minute realization of Variations II (1961), is a rare example of the rougher side of Cage, work that presaged much of the live electronic music and noise of the following decades, an aspect of his oeuvre which is woefully under-represented on CD. Cage and Tudor, using well-amplified contact microphones on a piano, deliver an electrifying performance, alternating distorted stretches of harsh 60s reality with bountiful silences. Volume 2 lifts off with a fiery example of Tudor's piano virtuosity, his mastery of dynamics well evident in a performance of Klavierstück X (1961) by Karlheinz Stockhausen. The titular shock of this series is delivered even more forcefully with the next piece, Cage's 26'55.988" for 2 Pianists and a String Player (1961), which was first performed the year before in Darmstadt by Tudor and Kobayashi, a combination of two of Cage's solo pieces. The performance here, from Osaka, has a slightly altered title and the composition becomes a seismic quartet with the addition of Toshi Ichiyanagi and Yoko Ono, with the four performers providing acutely-angled blasts of sound. The final CD of the series features Cage's 0'00" (1962), also referred to as 4'33" No.2, performed by the composer, with daily activities such as writing and drinking coffee amplified by contact microphones into sonic abstraction, following the score's directions: "with maximum amplification (no feedback), perform a disciplined action". Next is Composition II for 2 Pianos (1960/61) by Michael von Biel, lovely and sparse, performed by Tudor and Ichiyanagi. The disc closes with Ichiyanagi's Piano Music #7 (1961), performed also by Tudor and Ichiyanagi, beds of silence disrupted by pianistic stabs, music box madness, traffic recordings, percussive thumps, tape manipulations and more. The "John Cage Shock" series features truly historical recordings, all previously unreleased, of compositions by an amazing roster of international composers. The intensity of these performances by Cage, Tudor, Ichiyanagi, Kobayashi, Ono and Takahashi has remained hidden and unheard for half a century, but remains undiminished. These three CDs, as well as the special double LP (including a vinyl only bonus track), feature rare photos plus Japanese and English liner notes.