MUSIC

Exhilarating, previously unreleased recordings by Derek Bailey and his guests at Company Week in 1983: Jamie Muir, Evan Parker, Hugh Davies, Joëlle Léandre, John Corbett, Peter Brötzmann, Vinko Globokar, Ernst Reijseger and J.D. Parran. What¡Çs remarkable throughout this album is the respect and affection the musicians show for each other, exemplifying the dictionary definition of ¡Æcompany¡Ç as ¡Æthe fact or condition of being with another or others, especially in a way that provides friendship and enjoyment.¡Ç It starts with Landslide, a brilliant, spiky, spluttering, twanging reunion of Music Improvisation Company members Evan Parker (tenor sax), Hugh Davies (electronics) and Jamie Muir (percussion). Next up, Seconde Choix, with Joëlle Léandre¡Çs close-miked prepared bass and Bailey¡Çs acoustic guitar seemingly heading in different directions before coming together miraculously in just four minutes. The opening of First Choice, a duet between Bailey and Muir, is a revelation for those who moan that the guitarist plays too many notes. His patient and truly exquisite exploration of harmonics is beautifully counterpointed by Muir¡Çs metallic percussion. On Pile Ou Face (Heads Or Tails) Davies concentrates on his high register oscillators, carefully shadowed by Parker¡Çs soprano until Léandre¡Çs deft, springy pizzicato lures them into the playground. JD In Paradise is a surprisingly delicate wind quartet, with John Corbett¡Çs trumpet, fragile and Don Cherry-like, punctuating the sinuous interplay between Peter Brötzmann and J.D. Parran (on sopranos, flutes and clarinet), while trombonist Vinko Globokar growls approvingly in the background. Igor Stravinsky¡Çs definition of music as the ¡Æjeu de notes¡Ç comes to mind listening to Bailey¡Çs duet with cellist Ernst Reijseger (executing fiendish double-stopped harmonics with staggering ease). Technical virtuosity has never sounded so effortless – it is, as its title Een Plezierig Stukje simply states, a fun piece. On the closing La Horda, Bailey and Reijseger team up with the horns for what on paper looks like it could be rough and rowdy sextet but which turns out once more to be a thoughtful, spacious exchange of ideas, shapes and colours.

Highly recommended. Kiefer, also known as post-Robert Glasper. The West Coast giant, also known for studying under Kenny Burrell, drops the latest EP from the Sanctuary again! The final title of the EP trilogy by the ace, who swallows urban vibes, earthy odor, and funkness and sublimates into outstanding beat music, has arrived. Seamlessly cross from spiritual jazz to neo-soul and instrumental hip-hop. A good work that shows off an excellent sound image as usual! The magical sound that makes you feel as if you are watching the dream co-star of The Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra x Robert Glasper x Ras G (isn't it ?!) is exceptional.

Habitat, an environmental music collaboration by Berlin based composer Niklas Kramer and percussionist Joda Foerster, is inspired by the drawings of Italian architect Ettore Sottsass. Each of the eight tracks represents a room in an imaginary building.

In Habitat the duo layers, loops and merges sonic textures and patterns into fluid blocks without the restraint of statics. African log drum, Bolivian chajchas, vibraphone, kalimba and various other percussion instruments are processed, pitched, harmonised and filtered through modular synth and script based sample cutting to form a collage of asynchronous layers.

By using acoustic instruments and expanding their sound into abstract shapes, Habitat evokes a vague intimacy, a curious state of comfort in the unknown.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Deep Listening, Important Records offer a definitive double-LP combining the classic, complete original 1989 release with selected tracks from the Deep Listening Band's 1991 album, The Ready Made Boomerang. Recorded in a cistern, this CD reverberates with brilliant sonic clarity and masterfully improvised performances combining live electronics, vocals, trombone. and accordion. Deep Listening is a classic in the fields of improvisation, minimalism, ambient/drone, and modern classical. Listen with attentiveness, listen while lying down, listen with headphones -- as recording engineer Al Swanson entices the listener to become a virtual performer in selecting the many different ways to perceive these phenomenal tracks. Whatever you do, listen deeply. Packaged in a gatefold sleeve with original and updated recollections from the performers, the engineer, and a mesostic from John Cage, to whom these recordings are inextricably linked.

Pauline Oliveros and Guy Klucevsek's "Sounding / Way" was originally released on cassette in 1986 and has been out of print ever since. This LP was cut by John Golden and pressed at RTI in order to achieve a quiet, dynamic pressing. The Sounding / Way concept was simple. Each artist would write a piece for two accordions and then they would perform them together. Thus, side A contains Guy Klucevsek's Tremolo No. 6 performed by Guy Klucevsek and Pauline Oliveros. Side B contains Pauline's composition The Tuning Meditation, also performed by both Pauline and Guy. This is the second release in an on-going effort between Important Records and the Pauline Oliveros Trust to maintain and promote the music, philosophy and legacy of Pauline Oliveros. Guy Klucevsek is one of the world’s most versatile and highly-respected accordionists. He has performed and/or recorded with Laurie Anderson, Bang On a Can, Brave Combo, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Rahim al Haj, Robin Holcomb, Kepa Junkera, the Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Present Music, Relâche, Zeitgeist, and John Zorn. Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer and humanitarian is an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she has explored sound - forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it, and eludes many who try to write about it. Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment is unchanged. She can make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble. "On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." ~ John Rockwell "Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I now know what harmony is. It's about the pleasure of making music." ~ John Cage

Pauline Oliveros' Tara's Room has long been a favorite in the Imprec office and it's a great honor to be able to release it on LP for the very first time. Tara's Room was cut by John Golden and pressed at RTI in order to achieve a quiet, dynamic pressing. Originally released on cassette in 1987 following the 1986 release of "Sounding / Way" with Guy Klucevsek which is also available on LP via Imprec. (For more info scroll down past audio...._ "Both pieces are intended to aid the listener in times of spiritual change, but are just fine for 'everyday' use as well. Highly recommended." Charles S. Russell, Ear Magazine This LP features two long sides of infinite depth and sensitivity. Oliveros performs these pieces using a Just Intonation accordion and her Expanded Instrument System in order to bend both time and pitch. Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer and humanitarian is an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she has explored sound - forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it, and eludes many who try to write about it. Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment is unchanged. She can make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble. "On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." ~ John Rockwell "Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I now know what harmony is. It's about the pleasure of making music." ~ John Cage

It's been four years since their shocking debut album. Four years after her shocking debut album, a long-awaited new album has arrived. Four years after her shocking debut album, Pan Daijing, a Chinese female sound artist based in Berlin, Germany, has released her second album in analog form on the prestigious PAN label! Here, the aesthetics of industrial/drone and underground noise, which have been handed down since the days of Ramleh and M.B., and a cathartic, ominous performance come together. A masterpiece of post-industrial music, full of anxiety, loneliness, and a sense of apocalypse!

When Rey Sapienz was eight years old, the Democratic Republic of Congo was plunged into the Second Congo War. The conflict lasted five years and was the bloodiest since World War II, leaving an indelible mark on East Africa and creating mass displacement and loss of life. But Sapienz endured, cutting his teeth as a young rapper at twelve, first performing to celebrate Congo's independence day. When he finished school, he headed to nearby Kampala to hone his craft and collaborate with local producers. But civil war broke out back home and he was forced to extend his stay in Uganda. Since then, Sapienz has established himself as a force to be reckoned with, co-founding the Hakuna Kulala label, teaching his Ableton Live skills to Kampala's young producers and releasing two acclaimed EPs. 

For his debut album, Sapienz embarks on an ambitious project that travels beyond the avant beatscapes of his early material. Alongside traditional percussionist, vocalist and dancer Papalas Palata and rapper Fresh Dougis, he has formed The Congo Techno Ensemble, utilizing their skills and experience to offer a statement that speaks to the past, present and future of the DRC. On "Na Zala Zala", the trio channel rich musical traditions and historic tension, evolving electronic and traditional forms into boundless sci-fi mutations. 

These tracks break open the stories all three artists accumulated in the DRC, augmenting radioactive techno-dancehall beats with radical, open-hearted words and rhymes. "I'm sick, I want to heal," Fresh Doughis raps on "Posa Na Bika" over a sparse, minimal syncopated beat. The track sits in a dream space, with haunting vocal loops dancing around Doughis' powerful Lingalan words. "I have become stupid, I have become useless, listening to everyone's advice." 

Elsewhere on the clattering 'Dancehall Pigme', Sapienz's metallic beats burn underneath Papalas' rousing chants. "I'm here trying to survive," he mourns. "What do I do to get what I deserve." The songs paint a tragic picture, yet reveal the hope and passion of three creative minds recounting difficult truths. 

"Na Zala Zala" is a heady cocktail of stylistic futurism and harsh reality that could be compared with Zazou Bikaye's seminal "Noir et Blanc or Denis Mpunga & Paul K.'s genre-breaking electronic experiments. But marked by the DRC's recent scars, it's a critical work that stands painfully alone.

Shifting tectonic plates, as two island nations collide! London, UK resident Jackson Bailey aka TAPES, makes Jamaica-drenched lo-fi bass music, a forward-looking mix of dub, dancehall and electro roots channeled and filtered through old-school rhythm machines, synths, spring reverb and delay, recorded with glorious grit on cassette, sometimes in the red, tape hiss intact but somehow sounding bigger, better and beatier than it should, with a sweet analog patina. There's an aquatic feel here on this first full album from Bailey, a rich brew of deep and soulful sunny JA roots, hints of UK melancholy and Industrial smoke, even some icily funky NYC early Electro. With an old island soul and a new ear to the future, this first album from TAPES features six new tracks, plus ten other tracks previously issued on his own label and other labels, including Jahtari, in various formats, all gathered here, with new mixes, newly remastered. With a total running time of 43 minutes, these 16 tracks are available on CD and on double 45RPM 12" vinyl. UK, JA, NYC: all these letters, and more, spell TAPES!

Finis Africae, a group without fixed members organized in Spain in the early 1980s by Huang Alberto Arteshe Guell, is a studio project that emphasizes work, especially "Amazonia" (1990) in the far north. It is a standing masterpiece. Inspired by Conan Doyle's adventure novel that he once read, Huang Alberto develops a soundscape that depicts the fantasy unexplored Amazon that circulates in his brain. In the late 80's, Arteshe upgraded his studio equipment to 16 tracks, and the technique he had tried on his two albums was complete. Manipulating many European and African instruments, overdubbing most of them alone, and combining the natural sounds of wind and rain, birds, insects and creatures, this "Amazonia" has a mysterious atmosphere and a mysterious sign. Expression. His unique organic groove feeling is also very comfortable, and it became a masterpiece worthy of its name (* note).

* "Africae" is an old name for "Africa" in Europe based on Latin, and adding "finis" creates nuances such as the farthest land and unknown places.

+ Japanese / English publication
+ CD version: Paper jacket, liner included
+ LP version: Liner included

The long-awaited repress! The world's first compilation that covers the miracle of Spanish NEW WAVE-ambient-progressive music, the masterpiece of Finis Africae, and the footprints of 17 years!
This is a must-listen work with a number of spiritual, deep, afro and ambient spiritual organic grooves!

Spiritual Afro, NEW WAVE, Ambient Dance Music! A number of miraculous sound sources that include African music, contemporary music, natural sounds from NEW WAVE and field recording, and even jazz and folklore tastes from Spain. It seems that he was influenced by many music genres, but the music is a beautiful combination of ambient and spiritual extracts, and the track with the synthesizer has a new age that is similar to that of IASOS! Great content that would not have been possible without an aesthetic eye for sharp music. 16P booklet included. Commentary posted in Spanish / English / Japanese.

“Atmospheres” is one of his most interesting Piero Umiliani's albums, published in a limited edition in the mid-Seventies. A period of musical confusion even though not for him, who had always been eclectic. The charming soundtracks for Luigi Scattini's documentaries were already behind him, as was the great orchestral jazz production: his career had already been long and full of professional satisfactions. The present for the composer consisted of the scores for a number of Italian comedies and, most all, a set of sonorizations. These appeared projected into the future, thanks to their avant-garde attitude and the electronic sounds which seemed to arrive from a parallel universe. The sixteen tracks of “Atmospheres” belong to this group of works which were not tied to specific cinema projects, where the composer's incredible imprint is at its height. In all this creative freedom it is clear how the titles of several pieces pointed to specific thematic suggestions, so that they could instantly be adopted by producers and documentary film editors. A choice that is not accidental. Just like that of Musica Per Immagini which continues to select hidden treasures from the rich catalog of the maestro to be reprinted for the first time in over forty years, remastering them from the original tapes.

A single cut from the debut album "Orca" by NTsKi, a Kyoto-based electronic music producer/performer. It is a 7-inch single that couples "Takao Remix", which was previously available only on the Japanese CD version of the same album, and the instrumental version by Takao.

Futoshi Moriyama is an Osaka-based electronic music producer who began his musical career in the early 2000s improvised music hothouse of Osaka’s Shinsekai Bridge, an important venue for the “Kansai zero sedai” (Kansai Zero Generation), which sprang up in the wake of The Boredoms’ world-wide success. Kazuhisa Uchihashi was the axis of this Bridge scene; his workshops allowed a generation the freedom to develop their own voices. Moriyama’s early improvisational work often saw him using cheap samplers to surprising ends, but since then his work has moved in a more composed direction, while still investigating electronic sound. This particular release, which appeared initially in 2015 as a cassette on the Birdfriend label, run by Koshiro Hino (aka YPY), was a year in the making. All of the music was composed with software instruments, spurred by a desire to move beyond his previous work, and can be heard as a home-recorded orchestral music.

Takao‘s new album is a rare attempt to recreate a previously released album. He has re-recorded his debut album "Stealth" and presents it here as a completely new work. This is a 50-minute full-length album with two new tracks, "Moon" and "Seven Sands". This new "Stealth" is subtitled 'Gold Edition'. 

=From the 2018 album commentary= 
“Stealth” is the aptly-titled debut album from Tokyo-based composer/producer Takao. Gliding in under the radar with thirteen slyly sweet and subtle miniatures, these pieces are refreshing light-explosions of gentle harmony and modestly grand melodies. Fans of New Age and tonal minimalism will enjoy this music, but its brevity reveals a pop-influenced aesthetic as well, and the level of care and detail in the arrangements and recording evinces a nuanced, surprisingly mature sensibility. There’s a blossoming brightness and elegant simplicity that even calls to mind gentle ghosts of Satie and Debussy.

This work "The Apointed Cloud" was developed in 1987 as a large-scale sound installation, and despite being positioned as a representative work of Yoshi Wada, his activities are , It has never been reported to Japan.
Included here are a variety of pipe organ-style instruments, large-scale self-made instruments that combine huge metal plates and junk materials, in addition to installations that vibrate and be beaten under computer control. It is a live performance that announces the opening of the exhibition of works in which the artist participated. This is a very different content from the installation that was open to the public, and it is a one-time performance on November 8, 1987, which was handed down only by the invited guests who experienced this performance at that time and was half legendary.
Bagpipes by Yoshi Wada and other improvisational field artists, percussionist Michael Pagres, who co-starred with David Tudor and others at the Merce Cunningham Dance Company performance, and computer programs were created. At the same time, David Reina assisted the electronic sound in the performance of La Monte Young.

These 28 tracks, 72 minutes in total, cover a wide range of musical styles and eras, from the 60s to the present, urban to rural, primarily by Thai vocalists and musicians, with contributions from Japan and the Philippines. 60s-America-style pop by Suri Yamuhi and the Babylon Band as well as contemporary EDM, trap and hip hop sounds are all present, but the core of this soundtrack are luk thung and molam classics from the 70s and 80s by Angkhanang Khunchai, On-uma Singsiri, Dao Bandon, Khwanta Fasawang and “The Countryside is Great” by Rungphet Laemsing, a pivotal song in the film. All tracks are complete versions, some incorporating dialogue from the film. This CD-only OST features English lyrics, and liner notes by the film’s directors Katsuya Tomita and Toranosuke Aizawa, plus Iwao Yamazaki, Young-G and MMM of the Kuzok team, and Soi 48. This is the first soundtrack release by EM Records. 

TRACKS: 

01. Pai Tuktuk Dwai - DJ Pai Dwai 
02. Pai Massage Dwai - Young-G (stillichimiya/ Omiyuki CHANNEL) 
03. The Smell of Money - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
04. You've Left Me Alone - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
05. Porra - XXXSSS Tokyo 
06. Only Som Tam - On-uma Singsiri 
07. The Countryside is Great - Rungphet Laemsing 
08. Isan Radio 
09. Bong Ja Bong (Pipe, oh Pipe!) - Dao Bandon 
10. Burn! Burn! Burn! ~ Surfin' Dien Bien Phu - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
11. I Will Buy You Back - Bar Nong Khai Band 
12. Samet Love - DJ Pai Dwai 
13. That Goddam Motorsai - Khwanta Fasawang 
14. The Stench of Night – from Chit Phumisak's poem - Surachai Jantimathawn 
15. Saramanda - DJ Pai Dwai 
16. Tamarind Leaf (molam) - Angkhanang Khunchai 
17. Bahn Swairon - Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band 
18. Khaen Whistle Reprise (JRP Tondo mix) - DJ Kensei feat. Tondo Tribe 
19. Vang Vieng Bank (Change Yen to Lao) OST mix - DJ Kensei 
20. Xieng Khouang's Daughter - Thong Boonma (lam), Le Boonma (khaen) 
21. Get Em - XLII 
22. Paun's House - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
23. Xanadu - Young-G (stillichimiya/ Omiyuki CHANNEL) 
24. Kanom Party - Young-G (stillichimiya/ Omiyuki CHANNEL) 
25. The Song of an Angel - Suri Yamuhi & The Babylon Band 
26. Ying's Story - Subenja Pongkon 
27. Isan Lam Phloen - Angkhanang Khunchai & The Ubon Phatthana Band 
28. Full Moon (Atsani Phonlachan) - Yuzo Toyoda, Takeshi Yamamura 

A collection of stunning Persian-tuned piano pieces cut from Iranian national radio broadcasts made for the Golha programmes between 1956 & 1965...

Morteza Mahjubi (1900-1965) was a Iranian pianist & composer who developed a unique tuning system for the piano which enabled the instrument to be played in all the different modes and dastgahs of traditional Persian art music. Known as Piano-ye Sonnati, this technique allowed Mahjubi to express the unique ornamental and monophonic nature of Persian classical music on this western instrument - mimicking the tar, setar & santur and extracting sounds from the piano which are still unprecedented to this day.

An active performer and composer from a young age, Mahjubi made his most notable mark as key contributor and soloist for the Golha (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry) radio programmes. These seminal broadcasts platformed an encyclopaedic wealth of traditional Persian classical music and poetry on Iranian national radio between 1956 until the revolution in 1979.

Presented here is a collection of Morteza Mahjubi's stunningly virtuosic improvised pieces broadcast on Golha between the programme's inception until Mahjubi's death in 1965 - mostly solo, though at times peppered with tombak, violin & some segments of poetry.

The vast collection of Golha radio programmes was put together thanks to the incredible work of Jane Lewisohn & the Golha Project as part of the British Library's Endangered Archives programme, comprising 1,578 radio programs consisting of approximately 847 hours of broadcasts. 

The Caretaker is a dark ambient who has been making cross-border music under a number of names including The Stranger and V/Vm. The Caretaker is a dark ambient gentleman who has been making cross-border music under many names, including The Stranger and V/Vm, etc. The first half of the album, which was romantically sparkling with cheerful sampled melodies from pre-war SP discs, has been blown away, and the cruel noise sounds that are beyond decadence and collapse are exchanged. As time progresses, the darkness and depth deepen, and you can only sink into the face of this overwhelming music that is so isolated.

A one-sided 7” single! A great and rare song, never before reissued, an early 80s electric molam classic produced by Surin Phaksiri. This release celebrates “Classic Productions by Surin Phaksiri 2: Molam Gems from the 1960s-80s”, an upcoming EM Records compilation spotlighting this legendary producer; however, this song will not be available on the compilation, so get the vinyl or DL, and don’t miss this groovily swaying paean to the pick-up truck share taxi, performed by Chabaphrai Namwai and molam queen Banyen Rakkaen. Remastered and lacquer cut by D&M Berlin, with English and Japanese lyrics translations. Hop in and let’s go! 

Footnotes: 
‘Songthaew’ is a passenger vehicle in Thailand and Laos adapted from a pick-up or a larger truck and used as a share taxi or bus. This molam tune “Lam Phloen Songthaew Fan Club” is about the period in which Songthaew began to appear as a new means of transportation for people in Thailand.

The goddess of British folk mythology, Vashti Bunyan's first self-produced and final album.
It's been 9 years since the previous work Lookaftering. When she was recording alone, which she liked, she produced most of the work herself, trying to return to the state before the release of the masterpiece "Just Another Diamond Day". Therefore, it seems that this production time was necessary, but Vashti Bunyan. All the sounds that come out are Vashti Bunyan. The warm singing voice and the world of poetry, the simplicity of the performance packed with it, is a crystal that no one else can create... The artwork is produced by her daughter Whyn Lewis following the previous work Lookaftering. It is said that it is paired with Lookaftering.

Ultra-positive consciousness from Afro-Caribbean London, circa 1979. Members of the legendary 20th Century Steel Band (one of Grand Master Flash's favourites) sailing Trinidad-wise over gratifyingly intricate African ritual rhythms. Strong vocals compliment reggae, funk, disco and soul influences to form a relentless groove machine. 

Steel an' Skin, a unit composed of young nightclub musicians born in Ghana, Nigeria, St. Kitts, Trinidad and the U.K., who once performed with Ginger Johnson's Afrikan Drummers, a highlife band under the tutelage of the late Ginger Johnson and played at Johnson's Iroko Country Club in Hampstead, London. Steel an' Skin began activities giving concerts and workshops in London schools, expanding nationwide to schools, prisons, psychiatric hospitals and summer festivals, including the world-famous Notting Hill Carnival. The group combined an admirably brave, open and unironic mix of musical forms with community outreach, non-cynical and untainted by preachiness or "social work." Good feelings from good hearts. 

This EM reissue consists of Steel an' Skin's 1979 debut 12 inch single "Reggae is Here Once Again", featuring "Afro Punk Reggae (Dub)", a fine disco-dub workout, plus some tracks from their 1984 recordings, as well as one unissued track.

Although Barton and his wife Priscilla McLean have had a long and distinguished history of LP and compact disc albums throughout their professional composer/performer career, this album is unique in that it is the first one to present, on one CD, such a broad and comprehensive picture of their purely electronic music, spanning 1975 through 2001. Interestingly, although their materials and equipment have changed, their ideas of musical composition are still basically the same, creating a unity throughout the CD.

Regarding the graphic score of "Song of the Nahuatl" which comprises the cover of this CD, Barton McLean and graphic artist Gary Pyle felt a need to explore the subconscious visual domain suggested by the sounds. The artistic rendering preserves dynamics, timing, relative high and low pitch areas, and textural/timbral aspects, while presenting a truly artistic expression in its own right.

To impart a sense of the meaning and composition of these works, along with offering a glimpse into the milieu in which they were created, the following excerpts are quoted here from Priscilla McLean's new autobiography "Hanging off the Edge: Revelations of a Modern Troubadour", published by iUniverse (New York, Lincoln, NE, Shanghai) and also available with corresponding CD, featuring excerpts of her music described in the book, at:
Throughout the time span of the works on this album, Priscilla McLean kept detailed journals of her experiences, forming the basis of her autobiography. These excerpts, abridged and slightly altered, are imbedded in the more specific program notes on each work below.
Book Excerpt: from HANGING OFF THE EDGE, pp. 149 - 159

1973 -1978: South Bend, Indiana to Austin, Texas:
In 1973, Indiana University at South Bend (where Barton McLean taught) ordered from the EMS Studios in London a Synthi-100 synthesizer and digital 256 sequencer, which comprised the first commercial digital sequencing capability in the USA. By 1971 we had also begun our own home studio, purchasing a new Arp 2600 Synthesizer and three reel-to-reel tape recorders: two two-channel half-track Revoxes and a four-channel quarter-track Sony, and borrowing from the college a small Synthi AKS Synthesizerムan update of the EMS Putney, with a ribbon keyboard and 256-note real-time sequencer.

When Bart introduced me to the new studio with the Synthi-100, I stared unbelievingly here was a huge synthesizer, along a whole wall, with hundreds of push-pins (a matrix setup for connecting sounds, rather than the old patch cords), and twenty-two oscillators! The Synthi-256 Digital Sequencer was a full-sized keyboard, standing alone diagonally to the analog synthesizer, but connected internally.
In that studio with the giant machines, one raced from one end of the room to another to play and record the sounds, never sitting down, and in removing unwanted noise or editing out a recorded section, the composer had to take a metal splicing block and sharp razor blade, and pressing down very hard, cut through the 1-inch wide acetate tape in two places, remove the unwanted time segment, and rejoin the two remaining ends with special splicing tapeノSo we three Bruce, Bart, and I worked all our spare time, alternating with each other, in the I.U.S.B. Studio. I spent whole days there, sometimes 22 hours long, working and working to get just the right sound-combinations and record them

The McLean Mix
[NOTE: The McLean Mix, composing/performing duo of Barton and Priscilla McLean, has toured worldwide since 1974, and annually since 1983.]
The McLean Mix was born on September 19, 1974, in our World Premiere concert at St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana. The faculty, of which I was an adjunct professor, was delighted when I offered to perform with Bart our new electronic music, consisting of Gone Bananas by Bart, as he soloed on the Arp 2600. This was a light piece, and ended with Bart, having set the synthesizer to play the music by itself on its sample and hold controller, sitting on the edge of the stage eating a banana! Second was my Night Images six-minute stereo tape work. Next came my "Dance of Dawn", 22 minutes long. We finished the evening with a jazzy piece by Bart called Groove, which had us jamming on two synthesizers the Arp 2600 for me, and Bart on the Synthi AKS. These early live-performance compositions suffered the demise of all such pieces of the period, but fascinated the audience at the time they who had never heard any live electronic music. The works for stereo tape lived on, however.

"During the halcyon days of the 70's, when all electronic music was enthusiastically received and the audiences large and eager, an album produced out of this concert (CRI SD 335 with Priscilla's "Dance of Dawn" and Barton's "Spirals") garnered a dozen reviews from all over America, and the composers were looked upon as courageous explorers into a vast musical continent unknown and beckoning.

In August of 1976 we moved to Austin, Texas. After the Synthi-100 was removed from the Indiana University, South Bend Electronic Music Studio in 1974, we were left with its digital sequencer, a small ElectroComp 101 Synthesizer, the mini-synthesizer Synthi AKS, and the tape recorders and mixer. This wasn't enough to continue any quality work, so we added our own home studio equipment, and turned back to manipulating found soundsムsteak knives bouncing on violin strings, tennis balls on the piano harp, banging pots and pans, etc. All of these sounds in addition to ones from the synthesizers and sequencer I used in my next major electronic piece, "Invisible Chariots". Because of the unwieldiness of the musique concrete (recorded, not synthesized, sounds) medium, composing the piece was glacially slow.

For instance, the first sound is a scrape up a bass piano string with a metal bar. I wanted the echo from the piano to last over thirty seconds, so I had to record it onto a master tape, then re-record the echo from this tape to each of four channels of another tape recorder, recording each successive one a few seconds ahead of the last one, over and over, until thirty seconds evolved. Then I combined the beginning piano flourish, recorded at home, with a similar keyboard flourish created on the Arp 2600 Synthesizer and performed, playing (forwards and backwards) on the Synthi 256 Sequencer. Much more was involved to complete this complex beginning sound, and two months of time for thirty seconds of music!
After lying low since our performance in the old UT electronic music studio a few weeks after we arrived in Austin in 1976, The McLean Mix was revived and had several engagements the spring of 1979. This included Bart's new electronic piece "Song of the Nahuatl", finishing with my "Invisible Chariots", with all three movements. This varied according to the audience and schedule. [end of paraphrased excerpt] 

"Rhythmic Brutalism" is the title of this release, available also as a double CD set or two separate 12" vinyl LPs; the title is also a very apt description of the music itself. Romania-born Alexandra Atnif is fascinated by the harsh, grey concrete beauty and minimally repetitive force of the brutalist post-war architecture of her homeland, and this fascination has given rise to the music here. Vol. 1 is an EM Records edition, compiled from an earlier self-released double CD featuring recordings from 2014-15. Vol. 2 consists of previously unreleased recordings from 2015 to 2017. Using elemental, inexpensive technology, Atnifs music is heavy and harsh, stripped down to distressed skeletal frameworks, rhythmic noise, rusting metal and weathered concrete, a distorted DIY realization of her beautifully brutal vision. With a background in European modernist/avant-garde music, Atnif has been influenced by early rhythmic industrial music such as Throbbing Gristle, Esplendor Geometrico and Muslimgauze, as well as later practitioners of rhythm and noise including Pan Sonic, Autechre, Winterkälte, Prurient and Scorn. Across the relatively brief span of years contained within these two volumes, we hear the rhythmic structures begin to fracture and fray, and the outlines darken and become more obscure, with Antif's sensibility evident throughout.