MUSIC

In 2000, Henri Pousseur was asked by Philippe Samyn, a Brussels-based architect who liked to work in collaboration with other artforms, to lend his support to the plan for the construction of a business complex by one of the most important building enterprises in the country. There were four low buildings arranged like different parts of a medieval castle-village, grouped around a kind of large open central court. Leaning on the suggested image, Pousseur immediately suggested that the first spinal-column be composed of an electronic carillon, sounding in variations every hour, thus marking the hours between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Henri Poussuer imagined then a connection between Nivelles-time (a city 40 km south of Brussels, where this large project would be situated) and the time of the entire planet and the more or less metaphoric sonic and musical realities attached to it. He made on the one hand the 16 hours of a theoretically complete day of work (from the cleaning service up to the last research in the office) correspond to the 24 hours of a complete terrestrial revolution. He then divided the globe into eight large north/south "slices," themselves divided into three perpendicular "rings": north, center, south, with the understanding that only inhabited lands were taken into consideration. To each of the 8 "great hours" of the total duration, Pousseur associated three regions, one of each ring (north/central/south) set out as far apart as possible on the terrestrial globe. Over a background of a fairly continuous variety of noises which are perpetually evolving: sea, fire, city, swamp, industry, forest, etc., there are ethno-musical samples from one region or from several regions involved, more or less worked over by all sorts of numerical methods which vary their capacity to be recognized as quasi-traditional music. This work once finished (realized in the studio of the composer's son Denis), Pousseur made a synthesis on three discs by superimposing the landscapes (a bit in the manner of the previous Etudes paraboliques) in 16 Paysages Planetaires. The titles of the landscapes express by their contraction the simultaneous or alternate presence of several regions; for example, "Alaskamazonie" is self-explanatory. Something like "Gamelan Celtibere" is a sort of play on something between the West Coast of Europe with the Indonesian archipelago and even the northern part of Australia. Continuing like this you could find it amusing to reconstruct the circumplanetary movement of the work. Michel Butor wrote the luminous prose-verse alternating poetic structure which accompanies these landscapes. His text is included in the 60-page documentation booklet, also featuring two long essays by Henri Pousseur: "Paysages Planetaires" and "Atmospheric and Cultural Sources for Each of the Landscapes." Finally, with this work, Henri Pousseur makes an homage to all the singers and instrumentalists, sound engineers, ethnic musicologists and editors who have either produced, or gathered and transmitted, all the marvelous musical invention which inspired and nourished the work and which, with the sounds of the world, of nature, of society and of industry, are supposed to represent a kind of formal summing-up of life's multiplicity. All the images, obtained through extensive digital treatments, were conceived and manipulated by Henri Poussuer. Housed in a heavy cardboard slipcase with 3CDs and a 60-page booklet.

"Utopia Andata e Ritorno is the title of the new composition by Walter Marchetti, recorded in Milano in 2005. It has two parts, each one CD long. The first part, 'L'Andata,' puts together two former recordings of Marchetti. The recording of a real storm and a recital for solo piano. This is not the first time that Marchetti mixes a piano solo recital with the recording of a natural live event, thus creating a 'piano concert'. The second CD, 'Il Ritorno', reverses the direction of the first record and literally destroys itself. In the first part of this work, Marchetti puts music successfully in the place it has to have today: on the road to renewal in contact with reality, a reality that is a synonym for vacuity, that is the interdependence of phenomena, music, reality, technology. There is nothing mimetic or anecdotal in this work. The storm is a real storm and the solo piano recital is a modern work of pure music, without the excesses that the society expects of a piano recital from composer and virtuoso player. Pure music, in the best sense of the word. 'L'Andata' is one of the great works of music of our time, or, as José Luis Castillejo remarked, 'it may be the best modern piano concert since Brahms.' In the second part, 'Il Ritorno,' sound waves are deformed when one tries a reverse hearing and the turn around trip becomes an aural nightmare. Of course, avant-gardism has made us accustomed to noises and silences and to the arbitrary idea that anything is music. 'Il Ritorno' announces the end of musical avant-gardism and its technocratic aspirations. It points to the end of music avant-gardism because it exposes the technological manipulation not only of technology beyond its powers, but also the manipulation of both music and sound. 'Il Ritorno' is such a problematic work also because its subject is failure and impossibility."

Woke rhythms and high-spirited grooves from the vaults of two seminal Italian jazz labels, between the 70s and 80s. Intensely curated by Khalab. Hyperituals is part of the new research path undertaken by Hyperjazz Records. Entirely curated by Khalab - Raffaele Costantino, HJ’s founder and head of A&R - Hyperituals is a philological investigation that delves deeply into the musical influences and cultural roots of the young Italian label. The theme that runs through Hyperituals is the exploration of the possibilities of sound, rhythm, remix, and endless sampling. Inspiring listening, interpretation, and insight. Is it an exercise in crate-digging that explores the past of some of the most important yet sometimes forgotten record labels and aims to bring to light music that is contemporary both in its sound and its message. The first stage of this journey is represented by Black Saint/Soul Note, an Italian ‘double’ label based in Milan that, since the 1970s and throughout the 1980s, established itself as one of the most important imprints for international jazz. Founded respectively in 1975 by Giacomo Pellicciotti and in 1979 by Giovanni Bonandrini (to whom Pellicciotti sold Black Saint in 1977), Black Saint and Soul Note have represented a safe haven for incredible and brilliant artists who were unable to find their space elsewhere. By combining jazz tradition with the political vanguard sentiment of the time, the two sister labels were able to press and produce more than five hundred records (still available today - the catalogue is now owned by CAM Jazz), many of which are by some of the brightest names in creative jazz or the ‘avant-garde’ of the era. Black Saint and Soul Note always placed the artists, their visions, and their music at the center, giving them total freedom of creative expression. It is thanks to this constant, cutting-edge and meticulous commitment that today we have some of the shiniest musical gems by Sun Ra, Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, Max Roach, Anthony Braxton, David Murray, and many others. And it is this long list of jazz gods and idols that led the two labels to be recognized as the best in the world by critics, winning the DownBeat Critics Poll for Best Record Label for six years in a row, from 1984 to 1990, conquering the American market. This first double gatefold vinyl volume is entirely dedicated to the Soul Note catalogue. Khalab’s selection - focused on rhythms, grooves and Afrocentric traditions - demonstrates how this music, through its sensibility, can renew our connection to the present in unexpected ways. As the curator and music critic Enrico Bettinello writes in the compilation’s liner notes, in this volume “we find moments of ecstasy, irresistible percussive webs, fiery solos, poetic awareness, and magical ritual lyricism.” A second volume focused on the Black Saint catalogue is already in the works.

A breathtaking self-conscious free-jazz masterwork, 'Rise Vision Comin'' summarizes more than 30 years of musical and theoretical/political expression from renowned activist/scholar/free-jazz pioneer Haki R. Standing on the verge of spiritual jazz aesthetic, his music remains timeless & unforgettable after it's longstanding creation. The first album by the group Rise Vision Comin was released in 1976, and features among others Wallace Roney on trumpet, Clarence Seay on bass and Agyei Akoto on saxophone who also served as creative director. It features 9 tracks with the title track, “Rise, Vision, Comin” a great example of the adhesive comradery between instrumentation and Madhubuti’s spoken-word.

Jan Steele and Janet Sherbourne gained a reputation for being ambient musicians thanks to their appearance with John Cage on 1976’s Voices And Instruments from Brian Eno’s lofty Obscure series. But in a fascinating catalog spanning more than four decades, these English multi- instrumentalists’ variegated sonic sojourns have proved that label to be far too narrow. In the long-gestating, decades-spanning collection, Distant Saxophones, Steele and Sherbourne flaunt a nuanced vision that encompasses ECM-esque chamber jazz, minimalist modern composition, cinematic soundtracks, and an embryonic, contemplative form of experimental pop. Distant Saxophones—many of whose tracks have been re-recorded and improved from their original incarnations—invites you to lean in and bask in an interiorized zone of revelations. These songs simultaneously freeze time and exist outside of it. Community Library’s anthology is offered in a single LP format with a tracklist more limited than the CD version; the LP’s digital download ticket provides the full music set.

Jan Steele and Janet Sherbourne gained a reputation for being ambient musicians thanks to their appearance with John Cage on 1976’s Voices And Instruments from Brian Eno’s lofty Obscure series. But in a fascinating catalog spanning more than four decades, these English multi- instrumentalists’ variegated sonic sojourns have proved that label to be far too narrow. In the long-gestating, decades-spanning collection, Distant Saxophones, Steele and Sherbourne flaunt a nuanced vision that encompasses ECM-esque chamber jazz, minimalist modern composition, cinematic soundtracks, and an embryonic, contemplative form of experimental pop. Distant Saxophones—many of whose tracks have been re-recorded and improved from their original incarnations—invites you to lean in and bask in an interiorized zone of revelations. These songs simultaneously freeze time and exist outside of it. Community Library’s anthology is offered in a single LP format with a tracklist more limited than the CD version; the LP’s digital download ticket provides the full music set.

The 2022 repress that I'm happy with the rare one. It's a great sound field. French writer Ernest Bergez, who has left his works in famous places such as and , and the French drone band "France", which is also known to recur from the current New Age / minimalist sanctuary . Tanz Mein Herz is a large experimental folk group composed of members Jeremie Sauvage and Alexis Degrenier, a hurdy-gurdy player who is also active in network groups such as Ensemble Minisym and La Tene. A 2029 work consisting of a 2015 session sound source containing exceptional content! A powerful sound source jointly released by and . A mantra-like psychedelic and spiritual drone sound by hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes forms an overwhelming sound field while a strange folk lore of unknown nationality breathes. This is swallowed if you're not careful! Limited to 100 copies only.

The NetCast improvisation with Reynols (Miguel Tomasin, drums; guitarist Robeto Conlazo, guitarist Anla Courtis) Monique Buzzarté - trombone and Kevin McCoy-computer processing is my first International collaboration in this form. So far I have been involved in several multi-site improvisation NetCasts in the USA only. Through Pauline Oliveros Foundation I am interested in helping in the evolution of the INTERNET as an international venue where diverse collaborators can engage with one another. I met Reynols as a group in Buenos Aires a few years ago when I was leading a Deep Listening Workshop. I was impressed with this group when they played a serenade for me on my departure. All were playing brass instruments that they had never played before. It was clear that they understood and negotiated the element of risk in the kind of improvisation that I value. Reynols also has communicated with me since the workshop in many ways. I love the feedback and connection. My solo concert given at the National Library in Buenos Aires is remixed and released as the limited edition CD with hand painted covers Pauline Oliveros in the Arms of Reynols. How wonderful it is to be embraced by young people of South America.

Recorded over the course of 4 years during late-night, afterhours sessions at RCA's Studio @ Calle Carlos Maurrás in Madrid (one of Spain's best and bigger studio around that time), it was the result of the duo's interest in unorthodox sound-sources which they manipulated in a sort proto-sampling collage technique based on random tape-loops and best heard in their original percussive studies; their dreamy, surrealist-like lyrical passages or the sort of deep primeval atmospheres first conjured by Cluster or Kraftwerk in the early 70's.The studio as an instrument: pure sound alchemy at work. The Wah Wah edition is the first ever vinyl reissue of this legendary LP reproducing the original gimmick cover, with sound mastered from the original tapes by Eugenio Muñoz, and featuring an insert with photos and info. It is a strictly limited edition of 500 copies only.

A welcome departure from their first effort, the record has gained greater reconection in recent years when contemporary audiencies could fully aprreciate the strenght and harsher direction the duo decided to take for their follow-up album. More rhythmically-oriented tunes whilst revisiting some old-favorites like Daguerrotipo or La Edad del Bronce (both off their first album, but albeit in new mixes). The Wah Wah edition has been mastered from the original tapes by Eugenio Muñoz, reproduces the original sleeve artwork and and features an insert with photos and info. It is a strictly limited edition of 500 copies only

Following on from one of the most sought after reissues of recent years ‘MUSICA PARA EL FIN DE LOS CANTOS’ on Berlins Cocktail D’amore, Iury Lechs debut LP ‘Otra Rumorosa Superficie’ is made available for the very first time on Vinyl and digital launching the reissue division of London based Utopia Records set up in 2015 by Alexander Bradley. This cassette only release from 1989 is a minimal masterpiece practically unheard until now. Arguably a more complete album than De Los Cantos, Originally composed for two short films ‘Final Sin Pausas’ and ‘Bocetos Para Un Sueno’ as a full score the arrangement is a beautiful listening experience spanning through ambient, meditational and cinematic minimalism of real depth, romanticism and sincerity. Iury Lech is a Ukrainian born multidisciplinary artist, whose main focus now is as the curator of ‘Madatac’ a festival based in Madrid focused on new media art, video art and audio visual technologies which has featured the work of Brian Eno amongst many others. During the late 1970’s and 80’s he rose as a pioneer within a moment focussed on electronically generated audio and visual media. Drawing on the ground gained by Minimalist pioneers like Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass - built from repetitive rhythm and sheets of rippling resonance, drone, and ambience, Lech’s work of the period is so striking and beautiful, that it seems shockingly unjust that it was overlooked until now. The album comes in 180 gram vinyl edit form with full cassette version on USB on purchase of record. Utopia Originals sets out to promote and reinvigorate music and artists in the most authentic way possible. 'OTRA RUMOROSA SUPERFICIE’ has been remastered from original master tapes at Central Dubs, Bern Switzerland and the original artwork licensed through argentine visual artist Pablo Siquier.

Originally released on CD by Cramps Records in 1989, this is a work by Walter Marchetti (1931-), a central figure in the Italian conceptual art group ZAJ, also known as Europe's Fluxus, and a master of the avant-garde in Italy.This is a masterpiece with a melody that seems to be based on a certain mysticism, floating in the water in perfect stillness, and is highly recommended for those who like Morton Feldman.

Song Cycle Records present a reissue of Revolutions Per Minute (The Art Record), originally released in 1982. Revolutions Per Minute is a two-record album of twenty-one original sound works by artists represented at that time by the Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc. in New York. Each gallery artist was asked to record or provide a three-to-five minute segment for Jeff Gordon's Greene Street Recording Studio. No further directions were given, and the sound works are an amazing mix. List of the artists involved: Jud Fine, Eleanor Antin, Terry Fox, Margaret Harrison, Les Levine, Hannah Wilke, Douglas Davis, Vitaly Komar & Alexander Melamid, Helen Mayer Harrison / Newton Harrison, Vincenzo Agnetti, Chris Burden, Piotr Kowalski & William Burroughs, Ida Applebroog, Edwin Schlossberg, SITE, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Shannon, Conrad Atkinson, David Smyth, Todd Siler, and Joseph Beuys. Comes on 180 gram vinyl; Gatefold sleeve.

Time for your booster! More childish theatricals from everybody's favourite 'bone heads. Comprising seven previously unreleased subterranean events. Out of The Ground. 500 limited edition digipak C.D.s

Matthew Linares aka Hidden Rung makes his solo debut on Good Morning Tapes. Having previously released on the label as a member of Pataphysical, Matthew is no stranger to the wizardry of GMT. "Happier" charts into uncanny territory, with it's deep, dubby sonics and fleeting spoken dialogue treading the line somewhere between a familiar land and a new and slightly unnerving horizon. Really lovely stuff. We can't get enough. Highly recommended every time!

Mekonium is Michael Anklin’s solo debut. He is a drummer, electronic musician and producer living in Switzerland. To expand his sound spectrum, he uses field recordings, analog synthesizer, tape machines, as well as self-constructed instruments and sound objects. His sound is characterized by prepared acoustic drums, various objects and sound manipulations. Anklin collaborates with artists such as Dim Grimm, Kilchhofer, Janiv Oron and Wordcolour. He is one of the founding members of the open structured band «UFO» and the science-fiction ritual band «Liebeslied». He produces music for theater, dance and sound installations. Inspired by the pureness of ritual and traditional music, Mekonium sounds like a documentation of a fictional ceremony. Topics such as temporal consciousness, minimalism and anti-virtuosity as well as sounds barely perceptible by our auditory system influenced the production process Drones, soundscapes and slowly morphing repetitive patterns establish a state of time. To represent the concept of reduction, each track starts off with a single instrument or sounding object on which the composition slowly started to grow. Like grapes fermented into wine, acoustic sounds developed into different sound manipulations, still preserving the „taste“ of the original sound sources. The Tracks „Exon“ and „Zymosis“ contain a musical deconstruction of Lucas Rössner’s bassoon. Sounds from the Instrument were dissected with different types of microphones and rejoined into a collage. Hagneck, a hydroelectric powerplant next to Lake Biel was stocked with a number of contact microphones resulting in a huge powerful drone which built the fundament of the track. Mekonium deals with the feeling, condition and dilation of time. Musical fragments are played simultaneously at different speed, acoustic sounds were frozen, deformed, stretched and rearranged.

オリジナル盤カセットは最早入手不可能にも近い一枚！配給元最終ストック。ウクライナ出身の作曲家、映像作家、ライターであり、70年代中盤から90年代にかけてスペイン・マドリッドの前衛音楽シーンで絶大な影響を誇っていたIury Lechが同国地下実験音楽の聖地〈Hyades Arts〉より1989年に発表した1作目のアルバム『Otra Rumorosa Superficie』が〈Utopia Records〉からアナログ・リイシュー。〈Grabaciones Accidentales〉の〈El Cometa De Madrid〉（マドリッドの彗星）シリーズで紹介されたアクトを筆頭に筆頭に独創的なアーティストたちが世界でも類を見ないクリエイティヴなシーンを興隆させたマドリッド音響派周辺のシーンを代表する１枚。先に再発されていた次作同様、天上風景を醸すモダン・クラシカルの傑作ですが、こちらにはよりアヴァンギャルドかつ仄暗い影を滲ませており、深い内省を感じさせる一枚となっています。そこ知れず幽玄にして幻影的なモダン・クラシカルの傑作。180g重量盤。限定300部。

Tibor Szemző presents two compositions on his new album Snap #2 – The Other Shore and the first release of his CUBA. As the title implies, Snap #2 can be considered a sequel to his cult album Snapshot from the Island (released in 1987, 2000 and 2020). In that first album the island was a metaphor for isolation and now Snap #2 offers Szemző’s reflections of his visits to real islands, Cuba in 1988-1990 and Japan in 1992-1994. As usual, Tibor Szemző processed the themes both visually and musically and has presented them many times live as cinematographic performances. The previous version of The Other Shore was released in 1999 on CD. On this album the original recording from 1997 is used; it has been recomposed, remixed and remastered and some additional recordings have been included. The core of Szemző’s Gordian Knot ensemble of the mid-nineties (Tibor Szemző on bass flute, Péter Magyar on drums and Tamás Tóth on bass guitar) has been enlarged by a string section and additional percussionists. The Other Shore composition has a multilayered texture; it starts with strings and is followed by prerecorded voices reciting the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law (Myôhô-Renge-Kyô in Japanese), the most important sutra of Mahayana Buddhism. Then percussion introduces the basic beat of the piece and the voice of the 102 year-old Buddhist priest Ônishi Ryôkei giving a lecture on Kannon sutra is heard. The following uneven entries of drums and bass guitar are like paint brush strokes in Zen calligraphy. The long tones of Szemző’s bass flute enters the piece as the last element suggesting itself as a connecting thread through all previous layers. When Tibor Szemző first visited Cuba in 1988 he had just started shooting film on 8mm, something of a personal diary. When he met Jonas Mekas in Budapest a few years later, he realized that this footage could be screened publicly and also be an integral part of live performances. CUBA, presented on the Snap #2 album, is the recording from 2000 of one such performance and was remixed by the author in 2021. It is as similar to and yet different from The Other Shore. The Gordian Knot band seemingly structures the piece in the same way, but the resulting sound is much heavier especially thanks to drummer Péter Magyar. Nevertheless, the contributions of Szemző on bass flute, Mihály Huszár on electric bass and T. Bali on prepared electric guitar also inject the proper rock sting. Incorporated Havanna street sounds and local radio broadcasts recorded by the author provide even more steamy roughness to the sound of Szemző’s CUBA. The cover design of the Snap #2 album with photo reproductions from Szemző’s films reflects the aesthetics of the Snapshot from the Island album. This vinyl LP runs at 45 RPM for better sound quality.

This sprawling collection by Belgian loner blues savant Bram Devens aka Ignatz encapsulates the mystery, murk, and melancholy of his uncanny craft at its most windswept and wayward. Originally issued via Goaty Tapes in September of 2015, this long-anticipated vinyl edition expands the saga with an additional 17 minutes of archival material. Deven’s palette remains constant throughout: feathery fingerpicking, modal loops, and intuitive six-string navigations interspersed with candlelit passages of mournful voice, alternately whispered, mumbled, moaned. His is an aesthetic of embers and resin, cracked masks and distant lights, of what’s left behind and what lingers on. I Live In A Utopia was recorded following a relocation from his longtime base of Brussels to Landen, with a second child due soon: “I remember the weather being nice and having just bought a hammock.” The change of scenery seeded a promise of slower days and lighter times – no utopia perhaps, but a sense of faint hope glowing on the horizon. The songs slide between loose acoustic spirituals and smoky basement ragas, late afternoon haze and midnight moons, a seesawing restlessness reflected in the titles (“I Have Found True Love,” “Time Does Not Bring Relief,” “We Used To Smoke Inside”). The fidelity is grainy but vivid, refracted by tape warp and Flemish dust. As always, Deven’s playing is deceptively elegant, raw but precise, attuned to resonance, radiance, and negative space. Echoes of Fahey and Jandek reverberate in certain moments but ultimately the world Ignatz maps is one incomparably his own. A landscape both doomed and dawning, weary but undefeated, tracing outlines of lengthening shadows. “I walk in the sunshine,” he sings, uneasily. This is music of a rare inner wilderness, poised at cryptic crossroads, devoted to its ghosts. I Live In A Utopia stands as an apex work by one of the underground’s most veiled and visionary talents.

Vertigo is album number 18 for Australian jazz trio, The Necks. They like to take a simple idea and allow it to develop organically through improvisation. They don’t know where they’re going when they set off but they always seem to get there. Their music is very human, it allows room for space, it’s ambiguous allowing the listener to interpret it in their own way.

Legendary performer Nico of the Velvet Underground released his last album in 1985. Featuring The Faction as his backing band, this eight-track album features the lead singer's voice and readings, striding with overwhelming presence through a variety of post-noise, industrial, and improvisational productions.　The album, which is also considered to be Nico's best work in the latter half of his career, includes a cover of the jazz standard "My Funny Valentine". For this RSD release, the album has been remastered from the original analog tapes to 24-bit HD audio, and reissued on blue vinyl in limited quantities.