A Big Whopper of a week!

Peter Evans solo 2 CD set! Keith Tippett Septet! Magma: Tokyo 2005! Marilyn Crispell Groups! KOJ & Louis Sclavis! Arne Henriksen With David Sylvian! J. G. Thirlwell (Foetus) Cartoon Music! Mike Patton Cranked Up! Ernst Reijseger!

Live DVDs from: Thirteenth Assembly [Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone, Tomas Fujiwara], Michael Vlatkovich Qt, Weasel Walter Trio with Halvorson and Evans!

Richard Bliwas! Tom Hamilton! Throbbling [sic] Gristle! Jon Mueller tri-format release! David Rosenboom! Peter Garland! Evelyn Glennie! John Luther Adams!

... and a new lot of Used &or Rare CDs! Lots of Tim Berne, Joe McPhee, Mat Maneri, Nels Cline, Morton Feldman, Joe Maneri, and more - newsletter subscribers get first crack!




*********************


Downtown Music Gallery FREE In-Store Performance Schedule
C'mon down to 13 Monroe St!


[2nd Ave bus M15 to Market St, or F train to East Broadway stop]



Friday, May 22nd at 6pm:
WADADA LEO SMITH / JACK DeJOHNETTE'S 'AMERICA' CD RELEASE SIGNING!
Wadada Leo Smith will talk about the making of this historic disc and will sign copies of this newly released disc on Tzadik.
So please come on down & greet the great Wadada Leo Smith!


Sunday, May 24th at 6pm:
MAGIC HOUR featuring:
LOUIE BELOGENIS / MICHAEL ATTIAS / NATE WOOLEY / STEVE SWELL!


Sunday, May 31st at 7pm:
JD PARRAN & ANGELO BRANFORD!
BAG Legend meets Downtown Guitar!


Sunday, June 7th at 6pm:
ROB PRICE & CHRIS CAWTHRAY!
NY Guitar wunderkind Meets Torontoan Drummer!


Monday, June 8th at 6pm:
HUMANIZATION QUARTET are Clean Feed Recording artists featuring:
Rodrigo Amado on tenor sax, Luis Lopes on guitar, Aaron Gonzalez on basses & Stefan Gonzalez on drums!


Sunday, June 28th at 6pm:
TOM HAMILTON & BRUCE EISENBEIL!
Pogus CD Release Celebration for this wonderful Guitar & electronics Duo!


*********************


HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MARC RIBOT!


Marc celebrates his birthday with a week long retrospective May 9-16!


For Marc's 55th birthday, he will be reconvening some old bands and premiering some new over a week long run of shows in various venues around NYC from May 9 - 16. Check out his Tours/Events page for details at www.marcribot.com


Sat May 9: Brecht Forum
Scelsi Morning w/Marco Cappelli & Ensemble Dissonanzen


Sun May 10: Rose Live Music (Williamsburg, BK)
Los Cubanos Postizos/Cotito/La Cumbiamba eNeYe Mother's Day Matinee!


Tues May 12: The Stone
8PM: Solo Guitar
10PM: Shrek/Rootless Cosmopolitans (Early Ribot Bands well worth checking out!)

Wed May 13: Joe's Pub
Spiritual Unity & Marc Ribot Trio (2 sets) (These men f*cking rule!)


Thurs May 14: The Stone
8PM: Ribot plays the works of Frantz Casseus w/Marco Cappelli
10PM: Sun Ship w/Mary Halvorson, Chad Taylor, Jason Ajemian


Fri May 15 - Le Poisson Rouge
Los Cubanos Postizos/Cotito/La Cumbiamba eNeYe


Sat May 16 - Le Poisson Rouge
Ceramic Dog w/guest Eszter Balint
Young Philadelphians (Jamaaladeen Tacuma & G.Calvin Weston)


*********************


PLEASE NOTE: We have a new FAX # : 646-781-9846

For those of you who've tried to fax us in the recent past, you know we've had problems with that line - it seems to split to another user! Hence, the new # To repeat: The 212-533. . . # is no longer the DMG Fax line


*********************




Only took 25 YEARS for this treasure to be on CD!

KEITH TIPPETT SEPTET With LARRY STABBINS/PAUL ROGERS/MARK CHARIG/ELTON DEAN/NICK EVANS/LOUIS MOHOLO - A Loose Kite in a Gentle Wind Floating with Only My Will for an Anchor (Ogun 030/031; UK) Keith Tippett-piano, Larry Stabbins-tenor & soprano saxes, Elton Dean-saxello & alto sax, Mark Charig-cornet & tenor horn, Nick Evans-trombone, Paul Rogers-bass, Tony Levin-drums & percussion. Originally issued in 1986 as a double LP, "A loose kite..." is one of the lesser known items in Tippett's discography. The Septet was put together in 1984 especially to play a new suite inspired by the writing of Maya Angelou. This is the only remaining document of that project.Ogun's reissue marks the first appearance of this music on CD.
"It's terrific to see this fairly obscure, mid 80s Keith Tippett project reappear on CD. This features a monster band of Brit-jazz talent, which both harkens back to Keith's original sextet of the late 60s as well as pointing forward towards Mujician. Unlike Mujician, while there are plenty of improvised passages and of course amazing solos, there's some wonderful writing and ensemble parts by these musicians. Essential for Brit-jazz/jazz fans. - Steve Feigenbaum, Cuneiform
[In stock Monday]
CD $20

also available..

BLUE NOTES [CHRIS McGREGOR/LOUIS MOHOLO/DUDU PUKWANA/JOHNNY DYANI/MONGEZI FEZA/NICK MOYAKE] - Complete Ogun Recordings: Blue Notes For Mongezi/In Concert/Blue Notes For Johnny/Legacy: Live in South Afrika 1964 [5 CD box set & bklt] (Ogun 024-28; UK) A box set containing ALL the music recorded for or released by Ogun by the legendary BLUE NOTES (LOUIS MOHOLO-MOHOLO, DUDU PUKWANA, JOHNNY DYANI, MONGEZI FEZA, NICK MOYAKE and CHRIS McGREGOR):
* Blue Notes for Mongezi (1976) - with Chris, Dudu, Johnny, and Louis - never before on CD (2 full length CDs with the entire double LP PLUS previously unreleased material)
* Blue Notes In Concert (1977) - with Chris, Dudu, Johnny, and Louis - never before on CD (PLUS previously unreleased material from that concert)
* Blue Notes For Johnny (1986) - with Chris, Dudu, and Louis - never before on CD (PLUS previously unreleased extra material from the studio recording)
* Blue Notes Legacy-Live In South Afrika (1964) CD - with Chris, Dudu, Mongezi, Nick, Johnny, and Louis - previously on CD from Ogun but out of print for many years.
AND a booklet with contributions from an international collection of writers, and musicians with photos collected from various archives!
"I can't sing the praises of this music enough. Get this set if you are a fan of South African jazz, European avant-garde and/or passionate music in general. If you are reading this newsletter, you are probably a fan of one or all of these." - Brett Sjerven, DMG
5 CD box set for $90


MARILYN CRISPELL QUARTET & QUINTET With PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE/MAGNUS BROO et al - Collaborations: Live At The NYA Perspektiv Festivals 2004 And 2007 (Leo 528; UK) Marilyn Crispell in quartet with Fredrik Ljungkvist, Palle Danielsson & Paal Nilssen-Love, and in quintet with Magnus Broo, Lars-Goran Ulander, Per Zanussi & Paal Nilssen-Love.
74 minutes of powerful, exciting, breathtaking music recorded live at the Nya Perspektiv Festivals, Sweden, in 2004 & 2007 with the top Swedish musicians. Two pieces with quartet, three pieces with quintet.
CD


MAGMA [CHRISTIAN VANDER et al] - Live In Tokyo 2005 [2 CD set] (Seventh/Arcangelo; Japan) This album, which is only released in Japan and which will not be released in any other version, documents two different shows from their 2005 Japanese tour. The first disc is the complete Kontarkosz Anteria (K.A.) which is by the long lived and fantastic lineup of Magma that existed during the 00s (Christian Vander, Stella Vander, James Mac Gaw, Emmanuel Borghi, Frederic D'Oelsnitz, Philippe Bussonnet, Isabelle Feuillebois, Antoine Paganotti, Himiko Paganotti) and has since broken up with a mostly new line-up taking their place. A great piece and a great performance! The second disc is potentially even more interesting, as it presents Le Voix de Magma (Christian, Stella, Isabell, Antoine and Himiko on vocals and Emmanuel on piano) performing Theusz Hamtaahk, Wurdah Itah and M.D.K.!
2 CD set for $42



MediaSanctuary is the new DVD label of the multi-media performance space The Sanctuary in Troy, NY (much like Firehouse12 in Connecticut) that is releasing a 13-Part Series of DVD's which will feature an impressive cast of musicians like: the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, William Hooker, Ravish Momin's Trio Tarana, Ras Moshe Ensemble, The Empty Cage Quartet and Amiri Baraka & Rob Brown. The first three videos have just been released and are listed below. We will be stocking all of them as they come out...

THE THIRTEENTH ASSEMBLY [TAYLOR HO BYNUM/TOMAS FUJIWARA/MARY HALVORSON/JESSICA PAVONE] - Free Jazz: From the Sanctuary [DVD] (MediaSanctuary; USA) The Thirteenth Assembly is a touring collective made up of four musicians and four different and musically distinct small ensembles. Styled somewhere between the classic r&b/soul revues of the 60's and a post-modern traveling circus, the Thirteenth Assembly presents a selection of some of the fastest-emerging young artists and bands in New York's creative music scene in one package. Over the course of the evening of Saturday, December 1, 2007, each group performed a short thirty-minute set, offering a glimpse of the vibrant and varied stylistic diversity and creativity of this particular musical community. Especially for this Thirteenth Assembly Tour, these four close friends and frequent collaborators formed a new quartet, with each member contributing original compositions. (Review soon)
THE (sub)BANDS -
Taylor Ho Bynum/Tomas Fujiwara Duo: Bynum and Fujiwara take the experiences of their fifteen-year collaboration to create a mix of pre-conceived elements and spontaneous improvisation in a stirring horn and drum duo.
Mary Halvorson/Jessica Pavone Duo: A Brooklyn based collaborative ensemble that has been working together for four years composing and performing a unique body of music, drawing from classical, jazz and folk traditions while experimenting with new forms.
Taylor Ho Bynum Trio (w/Mary Halvorson & Tomas Fujiwara): A small group committed to the further exploration of the extensions of composition and improvisation pioneered by 20th century masters like Ellington, Ives, the AACM, etc, with a third millennial flavor and a trickster sensibility.
The Thirteen Four: Especially for this Thirteenth Assembly Tour, these four close friends and frequent collaborators formed a new quartet, with each member contributing original compositions.
DVD $15

MICHAEL VLATKOVICH QUARTET With DAVID MOTT/JONATHAN GOLOVE/CHRISTOPHER GARCIA - Free Jazz: From the Sanctuary [DVD] (MediaSanctuary; USA) We know of the great trombonist Michael Vlatkovich from his many discs on Nine Winds, pfMentum and his work with Vinny Golia. I recall Canadian bari saxist, David Mott from a gig or two at the Victo Fest many years back: he plays the baritone either by itself, with electroacoustic elements, or collaborating with his colleagues in 40 Fingers, a saxophone quartet in Toronto. Electric cellist Jonathan Golove was featured as a soloist in Morton Feldman's Cello and Orchestra in 1997 with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and he's also the founder and co-director of chamber ensembles for the performance of new music such as The Instrumental Factor, Just Like it Sounds, Arc-en-Ciel, and the Three-in-the-Time-of-Two Festival, and has appeared on various recordings improvising with composer and performer Vinny Golia. Christopher Garcia has also been the drummer in Vlatkovich's Trio, Quintet, Sextet, and many other ensembles such as Continuum, Quarteto Nuevo, et al. (Review soon)
DVD $15

WEASEL WALTER TRIO With PETER EVANS/MARY HALVORSON - Free Jazz: From the Sanctuary [DVD] (MediaSanctuary; USA) Drummer Weasel Walter is best known to the public as being a very fast and high energy percussionist who fuses together free jazz and black/death/speed metal approaches; some of his major icons are Iannis Xenakis, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Cecil Taylor.
Guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson has performed many ensembles with saxophonist and composer Anthony Braxton, Tim Berne, Trevor Dunn; she also has her own band, The Mary Halvorson Trio, and she also co-leads a chamber music duo with violist Jessica Pavone and rock duo People, with drummer Kevin Shea.
Trunpeter Peter Evans works in a wide variety of areas like solo performance, chamber orchestras, performance art, free improvised settings, electro acoustic music, and composition; he is currently in the Peter Evans Quartet, Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Sparks, Carnivalskin, the Language Of, the New York Trumpet Ensemble, and has collaborated with Dave Taylor, John Zorn, Taylor Ho Bynum, Perry Robinson, and many others
This should be a great set - the intersection of these three great talents surely describes a new unexplored point in the universe! (Review soon)
DVD $15


New on Psi and Emanem!

PETER EVANS - Nature/Culture [2 CD Set] (Psi 09.05/06; UK) A sequel to his highly-acclaimed first solo CD 'More Is More' on psi 06.08 Peter Evans writes: Over the past couple of years one of my main creative outlets has been solo trumpet performance. These discs are meant to show various aspects of my music's development and were recorded in two different settings (studio and concert) and under two different circumstances. Jazz musicians have often referred to the playing of a solo as 'telling a story', which is essentially how I look at this music; it is an opportunity to state possibilities and tell stories that are short, long, true, false, unfinished, overlapping, fantastic and mundane. 108 minutes.
2 CD set for $30

SOPHIE AGNEL - Capsizing Moments (EMANEM 5004; UK) A veritable tour de force of 'inside' prepared piano playing - preppiano extensif. The whole of a solo set performed at Les Instants Chavires near Paris. Sophie Agnel's preparations, neither static nor fixed, evolve during the course of her playing as she adds, moves or removes an object, or replaces one artefact with another. These preparations include disposable water cups, nylon fishing-line, bouncing balls, aluminium ashtrays, aluminium foil, industrial nylon, inner-tube rubber and polished rock all of which result in a remarkable sound world far removed from that usually associated with the piano. This is her second solo CD - the first (on Vand'Oeuvre) was made in 2000, and since then she has appeared in several duos and trios with a variety of musicians. 51 minutes
CD $20

ARC [SYLVIA HALLETT/DANNY KINGSHILL/GUS GARSIDE] - The Pursuit of Happiness (EMANEM 5005; UK) SYLVIA HALLETT (violin & electronics, voice), DANNY KINGSHILL (cello, voice), GUS GARSIDE (double bass & electronics). First formed in 1988, arc have developed, through improvisation, a collective language that draws on the European textures of the violin family (with a little bit of voice added). This is their first album to use live electronics, at times effectively increasing the group to a quintet. They previously released two albums of acoustic improvisations in 1992/3 on Uneasy Listening and Slam. 52 minutes.
CD $20

PEOPLE BAND [MIKE FIGGIS/TERRY DAY/MEL DAVIS/TONY EDWARDS/LYN DOBSON et al] - 69/70 [2 CD set] (Emanem 5201; UK) Following on from their only prior published recording ('1968' reissued on Emanem 4102), here are over two hours of previously unissued recordings from 1969 and 1970, featuring: Mel Davis, Terry Day, Lynn Dobson, Eddie Edem, Tony Edwards, Mike Figgis, Russell Hardy, Adam Hart, Charlie Hart, Terry Holman, Iain Jacobs, Paul Jolly, George Khan, Albert Kovitz, Michael O'Dwyer (Spoon), Davey Payne, Butch Potter, Geoffrey Prowse & Rose Widdison.
Very different musics recorded in four very different locations:
(1) a studio session in a central London studio;
(2) an indoor jam at Mel Davies' house in north London;
(3) a quintet club gig at the Paradiso in Amsterdam; &
(4) two outdoor jams in Trent Park woods near London.
This was around the time the People Band was ejected from the Anarchists Annual Ball for being too musically anarchic! 128 minutes.
2 CD set for $30


KOJ & LOUIS SCLAVIS - Piffkaneiro (Between the Lines 71220; EEC) In 2004, the musicians from KOJ set this treasure of a silent movie, "The Wildcat", to music, having been contracted to do so by the Moods jazz club and the Filmpodium of the city of Zurich. A bittersweet and at times ribald and ironic composition resulted; Lubitsch's language of images inspires one to conduct character and milieu studies. The musical themes and motifs are intertwined with improvisation and set against one another. Composition and improvisation interlink smoothly and ingeniously. In this, the imaginary city "Piffkaneiro" (Lubitsch placed his film "not far from Piffkaneiro") serves as stage. It is a bizarre mountain town full of stories and colorful districts with its strange, audacious inhabitants of questionable character, even including some extremely beautiful creatures. For the music, this means that the motifs and themes from the movie appear in a different environment and with new arrangements.
KOJ was able to win over the French clarinetist Louis Sclavis for the CD recording in 2007, and he will also play with the band in future concerts. Sclavis has been one of the most active crystallization points of the French jazz scene since the 80s, is one of the fathers of "Folklore Imaginaire" and has played with numerous renowned musicians in addition to recording a few of his own remarkable CDs at ECM. Christoph Grab is a professor at Zurich Art College and conducts other ensembles, which play jazz but also electronic music and world music. Christian Strassle is involved in numerous projects in connection with theater as well as classical music ensembles. Mathias Gloor has been working many years with experimental jazz/rock bands, but has also made a name for himself as a composer of modern chamber music. Leo Bachmann (he has studied under Bob Stewart, among others) is one of the tuba players most in demand in Switzerland and has been a member of various groups. They all have the fact in common that they are very active in the theater scene in Switzerland and consequently harmonize optimally in this project with their music.
CD $16


ARVE HENRIKSEN With DAVID SYLVIAN/EIVIND AARSET/LARS DANIELSSON et al - Cartography (ECM 2086; USA) A shifting cast of characters, with live sampling man and album co-producer Jan Bang at the centre, provides a series of soundscapes, an ambient-experimental map of moods, for the uniquely liquid, singing trumpet lines of Arve Henriksen to scale and explore. Some tracks are recorded live in concert, others are studio creations. Singer David Sylvian reads his own poetry on two cuts.
Arve Henriksen trumpets, voice, field recording; Jan Bang live sampling, samples, beats, programming, bass line, dictaphone, organ samples, arrangement; Audun Kleive percussion, drums; David Sylvian voice, samples, programming; Helge Sunde string arrangement and programming; Eivind Aarset guitars; Lars Danielsson double-bass; Erik Honore synthesizer, samples, field recordings, choir samples; Arnaud Mercier treatments; Trio Mediaeval voice sample; Verene Andronikof vocals; Vytas Sondeckis vocal arrangement; Anna Maria Friman voice; Stale Storlokken synthesizer, samples
CD $17

FLY [MARK TURNER/LARRY GRENADIER/JEFF BALLARD] - Sky & Country (ECM 2067; USA) ECM debut for Fly, leaderless collective comprised of three influential American jazz musicians. The group was called into existence by drummer Jeff Ballard in the mid-1990s, but draws on a longer history of shared projects. All three players write music for the group. Mark Turner: "Sometimes it's the saxophone carrying the melody. Other times it's the bass or drums. We spread out the frontline duties among us." Sky & Country is issued on the eve of a tour that takes in dates on both East and West coasts of the US as well concerts in France, Austria and Belgium.
CD $17


J G THIRLWELL [FOETUS aka JIM FOETUS aka CLINT RUIN aka...] - The Venture Bros: The Music Of J. G. Thirlwell Vol 1 [sndtck] (Williams Street; USA) "J.G. Thirlwell, the prolific musical architect behind countless children's songs and an ocean of good-time party music under monikers such as "You've Got Foetus On Your Breath" and "Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel," is also the man behind the pulse-pounding, mind-bending musical collages that are an integral part of creating the Venture feel. Now you can own a whole assload of J.G. Thirlwell on CD - 20 tracks - and recreate that Venture feel in your own living room." - record company blather!
The Venture Bros: The Music of JG Thirlwell" contains all original compositions from Thirlwell, the Australian-born and Brooklyn-based composer, producer and performer. Thirlwell has composed and performed under a myriad of pseudonyms including Foetus, Steroid Maximus, Manorexia, Baby Zizanie and Wiseblood. Since his 1981 debut in the music industry, Thirlwell has amassed a body of work that stretches the gamut from orchestrations, big band and sound sculpture, cathartic noise-rock to abstract electronics, chamber music, serial music and imaginary soundtracks - sometimes all in the same album.
His unique score for The Venture Bros. television series has garnered widespread critical acclaim and this CD marks the first release of the television series' music at retail. JG has been scoring the series for three season and is currently at work on season four.
John Zorn describes this disc best when he states in the liner notes: "the music is filled with inside jokes, parodies, and references to classic film scores by Morricone, Carpenter, Schifrin, Mancini, Quincy Jones, and others, giving the music an added layer of complexity and depth". I couldn't have said it better myself, although I would like to add that the inside jokes are pulled off as tastefully as Zappa or Raymond Scott's tunes. If Zorn's eloquent words alone are not a persuasive statement to pick this up, then take the high praise from the creator of the Venture Bros, Jackson Publick, when he states that "The Venture Bros. wouldn't exist without JG. "Featuring guest appearances by Steven Bernstein, Paul Shapiro, Jeff Davidson, Christian Gibbs, and Paul Bonomo. What are you waiting for! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! - Chuck Bettis/dmg
CD $13

MIKE PATTON - Crank: High Voltage [sndtck] (Lakeshore; USA) Some folks can't understand why people listen to soundtracks. Without the movie to accompany it, they ask, what's the point? Yet it's hard to imagine that seeing Crank 2: High Voltage would make its score more relevant or interesting. This release is Mike Patton's first attempt at scoring a feature-length movie, but it isn't his first foray into the world of movies. In 2008 he scored the short film A Perfect Place, whose outstanding soundtrack was twice the length of the film. He voiced the monsters in I Am Legend the year before, and this summer, he will be voicing the Mixmaster character in the Transformers sequel. And then, of course, we can't forget the masterpiece that his band Fantomas put out in 2001, The Director's Cut, which was a series of experimental metal covers of classic movie themes.
One can definitely hear the influence of Fantomas at various parts in this score - especially the tracks Chelios, Tourette's Romance, and Carpark Throwdown, but there's so much more going on here. Tracks like Tourette's Breakdance and The Hammer Drops could have been tracks from any great electro/industrial band, with their crushing drumbeats and chunky, thick keyboards. Massage Parlour and Hallucination put you straight on a pagoda in the midst of an intense kung-fu stare-down.
El Huron and Verona have a spaghetti western feel. A personal favourite is Chevzilla, conjuring images of a big alien space ship grinding its way across the horizon. Chickenscratch gives us the weirdest, almost Butthole Surfers-like track, which could be the backdrop to a wild chase scene. That tune is contrasted with the final track, the ethereal church choir Epiphany. It's amazing that the same guy wrote all of this.
This music has taken me to spaceships, smoky blues caverns filled with drunken old men, dusty one-horse towns, porn sets, polka parties, '70s newspaper buildings, scummy punk bars, and dark, horrific corners. Do I want to see the movie? Now that I've heard the soundtrack, *what's the point? - Daniel Fuller
CD $18

[*Unless of course you're a Statham fan - passed over for Bond - and/or a fan of the Crank films, the most over-the-top black parody of bloody action films ever. Either way, Patton's the right man for the job! - MannyLunch]



ERNST REIJSEGER - Tell Me Everything (W&W 151; Germany) In Spring 2008 Ernst Reijseger travels to Tuscany and retreats to the vineyard of Castello di Volpaia, on a hill not far from Greve in Chianti, to record his new album of works for cello. Ernst Reijseger has found a remarkable place that lets him unfold his spirituality in a very special way. The former church of La Commenda di San Eufrosino in Volpaia offers him a refuge where he can form his new sound-image in this particular atmosphere. He lets this wonderful space, this splendid location work on him, consciously incorporating the moods of early morning or the suspense of the night into his playing. The result is melodies of profound beauty, sometimes interrupted by harsh rhythmic strokes and wild sound improvisations. The American painter Jerry Zeniuk is the first to hear the album Tell Me Everything, and is so deeply impressed and inspired that he creates new pictures to transpose this music visually.
The singing of the birds of Volpaia in the early morning opens the album Tell Me Everything. With "Bidderosa" Ernst Reijseger bursts through the location's specific sounds, unfolding his music with powerful tones and strong lines. A few years earlier, Ernst Reijseger has composed "Bidderosa" on the coast of Sardinia, at a cliff-lined bay called "Bidderosa". After rehearsals with the Tenore e Cuncordu de Orosei, the cellist goes back to the sea by himself and writes this composition. The cellist Tristan Honsinger is one of the cellists Ernst Reijseger prizes most, and "Tristan's Tune" is one of his favourite pieces. Behind almost all of Ernst Reijseger's compositions, there's a little story, and "Moby's Night Out" recalls the underwater songs of whales. For rehearsal work with a dance group, the Dutch cellist records an improvisation in his home in Amsterdam, and since the dancers like the music so much, Ernst Reijseger transcribes this recording, and the result is "Dancing for D". "Tempered" plays with the tuning of notes, and Japanese pianist and composer Fumio Yasuda writes "Song of Nenna" for this exceptional artist, a work that, along with "Flurry", resounds amidst the centuries-old walls of La Commenda. Tell Me Everything is a sound performance that Ernst Reijseger records partly in the depths of night, and on the following mornings. Completely on his own, just a couple of almost 50-year-old tube microphones capture his sound waves and record this sound picture. Perhaps one should listen to this album in complete darkness, so as to let Ernst Reijseger's colours and forms bloom fully, just as the colours glow in Jerry Zeniuk's pictures. - Stefan Winter
CD $17

MARY OLIVER/JOHANNA VARNER - JOMO (Neos 40809; Germany) The very first notes cause one to take heed. It certainly is not a celebrated symphony, and no hackneyed series of pitches is presented. In the nigresence, the onlooker is forced more to don the mantle of an exciting exchange between two instruments, in a rhetorical and entertaining way at least. This altercation hardly ever takes the expected course, but allows music to be created the long notes of which never seem boring and whose shorter notes never get on one's nerves, the instruments coaxing sound out of this very space inhabited by the eavesdropper.
The writer would be grateful if just one per cent of these notes could be turned into words. And, as Johanna Varner and Mary Oliver encourage their instruments to speak in such a masterly way, they seem to chirp, to tweet, to twitter and to cheep, engaging in subtle intrigues and amusements, suffering and pleasuring themselves, nay rejoicing in coquettish and warbling display. Occasionally they are forced to reflect, and interpret the temperature perceived, the morals of mankind as it were. They present both pro and contra - something one has never experienced before - and as the volume swells, they become suddenly bashful, tittering on the tightrope of a particularly lonely note taken ever so softly, even though they risk peering into the abyss. At the end, they are not afraid of a lull in things, before they abruptly take off like butterflies in ambient space É - Stefan Rutz
CD $21


KIRK KNUFFKE/FEDERICO UGHI/CHRIS WELCOME - Garden Of Gifts ('577' Records 9; USA) Featuring Kirk Knuffke on trumpet, Federico Ughi on drums, percusion & flute and Chris Welcome on guitar. Italian born, Brooklyn-based drummer, Federico Ughi, releases one or two discs every year on his own 577 Records label, mostly in duos (with Daniel Carter & Steve Dalachinsky) or trios (Steve Swell, William Parker & Ras Moshe). Federico always chooses his collaborators wisely so that each disc is a strong and spirited session.
For this disc Federico chose two younger musicians, Kirk Knuffke and Chris Welcome. Mr. Knuffke can be heard with two fine quartets over the past year or so, Ideal Bread (Steve Lacy tribute on KMBJazz) and his own quartet on Clean Feed. Guitarist Chris Welcome has worked with Shayna Dulberger in the Young Equestrians as well as with Daniel Carter. Federico has a way of getting his collaborators to slow down and stretch out quietly, making each note count. "In This Vernacular" unfolds slowly and softly. The tempo slowly increases as the trio weaves around one another with spirited gracefulness. By "Gratitude Time", the trio is swirling together in a most magical haze, Federico's cymbal work adding a dream-like quality. On "Fall Expanded" the rustling spirits are sped up and begin to take off in the stratosphere. "Inner Void" has a restrained elegance and eeriness that quite hypnotic as if we are waiting for the big moment to arrive. The cautious suspense works well if you give it the time to wash over you. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $14


THE REGGIE NICHOLSON BRASS CONCEPT - Surreal Feel (Abstract 04; USA) Featuring Joseph Daley on tuba, Vincent Chancey on French horn, James Zollar on trumpet, Curtis Fowlkes on trombone and Reggie Nicholson on drums, vibes and compositions. This is downtown drum wiz & ace composer, Reggie Nicholson's fourth disc for the Abstract label and each one has presented a different concept. For his latest endeavor, Reggie has organized a fine all-star brass quartet. Each of these men has a long resume of collaborations: Joe Daley (Sam Rivers & Jayne Cortez ), Vincent Chancey (Sun Ra & Carla Bley), James Zollar (Marty Ehrlich & Hugh Ragin) Curtis Fowlkes (Lounge Lizards & Jazz Passengers). Mr. Nicholson is also one the mot in-demand drummers in NY, playing with Muhal Richard Abrams, Myra Melford & Yuko Fujiyama.
"Celestials" swirls open with a few layers of inter-connected horn parts. Although the tuba often has the bass role, the other horns switch off and play around one another in a complex web. Reggie's drums are often at the center, occasionally taking fine melodic/rhythmic solos that extend the lines that the horns are playing. A few of these pieces are solo efforts for the tuba and vibes and add a more contemplative interlude to the flow of pieces. "Internal" is a series of duos with sections of colorful ensemble harmonies. The title piece, "Surreal Feel" has some nice, majestic ensemble writing for the horns a few short, inspired solos. Throughout this disc Reggie has done a great job of providing superb arrangements for the four horns, each ensemble piece radiates with warmth and thoughtful charts. "Morning Breeze" features a few layers of melancholy brass with poignant, skeletal vibes as subtle punctuation. The quintet gets down to a funky groove on "I Should Have Left Well Enough Alone" with a few spirited solos from the trombone and trumpet. The final piece, "Looking Forward" features some superb mallet work from Reggie with more fine solos from everyone else. 'Surreal Feel' is thoughtfully conceived and consistently well-played with a warm, glowing sound that feels just right. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $14


BOB BROOKMEYER With METROPOLE ORCHESTRA & GUSTAV KLIMT STRING QUARTET - Music For String Quartet And Orchestra (Challenge 70136; EEC) New music composed on the razor's edge between classical and jazz! While playing with the likes of Woody Herman, Bob Brookmeyer played a crucial role in the development of the valve-trombone as a jazz instrument. This CD highlights his skills as a composer and conductor. The Gustav Klimt String Quartet specializes in performing jazz and pop along with classical repertoire. The group has collaborated with international artists such as Elvis Costello, Paul Weller, Lee Konitz, and more. The Metropole Orchestra is the world's largest professional pop and jazz orchestra, renowned for its wide-ranging repertoire.
CD $15


RICHARD BLIWAS - Uncovered (Rising Rose 06; USA) Featuring Richard Bliwas on piano, organ, synth, percussion & vocals, Ben Sher on guitar (2 tracks) & Sonny Barbato on accordion (1 track). New York City is filled with all kinds of strange and interesting people. One of the pleasures of working here at DMG is meeting some of those odd folks, especially the musicians and songwriters. Richard Bliwas has been coming down to DMG for the past five or so years and periodically leaving his solo efforts. Each one is somewhat different and charming in its own way. 'Uncovered' is mostly a solo effort with a minimum amount of collaboration. Richard wrote about a third of the seventeen songs with covers from the Beatles, Lovin' Spoonful, Hank Williams, Goffin & King, Rogers & Hart and Arlen & Mercer, certainly a select bunch.
It is hard to explain just what Richard does, since it doesn't really like anyone else. Starting with a spaced out cover of the standard, "I Could Write a Book", Richard adds layers of quietly psychedelic keyboards: piano, organ, clavinet (?), bass and occasional percussion all swirling hypnotically around one another, floating in space gracefully. You might recall the charming but dated production of the first Soft Machine album, like when those dreamy toy-like piano notes floated back and forth in the speakers?!? This disc sounds like that much of the time. "Paula's Song" blends the southern strain of Randy Newman with the child-like innocence of Harry Nilsson. There are moments where you are not sure how the voice and keyboards will end up in the same place, yet it still feels right somehow. I love the way Richard sings spaced out harmonies with himself on "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice", his voice(s) like feathers floating in our dreams. John Lennon's song for his long lost moyher, "Julia" is done with even more touching poignancy while he turns the Beatles' "You Can't Do That' inside-out like a long lullaby for a sinking ship. "Ticket to Ride" sounds like it was recorded in hurricane with the wild winds blowing everything around, adding a sense of urgency to this classic sixties song. Richard Bliwas is in a class of his own and would most likely be appreciated by those of us that subscribe to Mojo magazine. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $12


TOM HAMILTON - Local Customs (Mutable 17533; USA) Composer Tom Hamilton's stunning new CD, Local Customs, explores some obscure notions about music theory and performance practice, leading to sound combinations that are at once unsettling and yet somehow familiar. One discovers that there is very little in Local Customs that follows from conventionally intentional music writing. It is perhaps better to regard it as a group of artifacts of little-known origins, modified through new transformations into something further unexplained.
The foundation for the piece is an "electronic harmony generator" that plays an endless sequence of chords exhibiting curious relationships with no purposeful direction. The musical lines for the ensemble - consisting of flute, clarinets, trombone, contrabass, percussion, and electronic harmony - accumulated from coding and decoding various readings, investigations, and experiences during a summer residency in Italy.
CD $14


MYSTERIUM [ERIC JOHN EIGNER/JAMES ILGENFRITZ/ADAM CAINE/SAM KULIK/JEREMY DANNEMAN/LORENZO SANGUEDOLCE/EVAN MAZUNIK] - An Electric Soundpainting Septet (Eavesdrop 003; USA) Featuring Adam Caine on electric guitar, Jeremy Danneman on alto sax, Lorenzo Sanguedolce on tenor sax, Sam Kulik on drums, James Ilgenfritz on electric bass, Eric John Eigner on drums and Evan Mazunik - soundpainter. Each week I get at least one disc that surprises me with how amazing it is, no matter how well or little known the musicians are. This is the third disc by Eric Eigner's band Mysterium and this is this week's hidden treasure. The first two discs by Mysterium were fine and freer in sound, but this is something else entirely. I only know of a couple of these players before: Adam Caine, James Ilgenfritz, and Eric who has played at DMG on occasion, but it doesn't really matter, when its this good!
What is soundpainting you might ask? Good question. Walter Thompson has been conducting/directing in his own way for more than a decade and he calls what he does "soundpainting". I caught Walter doing it a couple of times in the past year (just last week with Anthony Braxton, co-conducting on 4/18/09) and it is always a blast to watch and listen. This music doesn't really sound free at all. On the opener, "Hocus Pocus" James is playing a strong, dark yet funky groove on his electric bass with the horns and guitar swirling around that great central rhythm. One by one each horns a short, hot solo with Adam playing shrewd, slow counter-melodies underneath. Each piece is built upon a different rhythmic scheme with the horns and guitar adding different elements and soloing in short spurts. On "1,000 Little Mutinies" Mr. Caine plays and rhythms a phrase which the horns soon pick up and repeat while the rhythm team plays around and against the beat. "Wile E. Coyote" is a fast tempo tight with and the horns wailing in circles intensely. I like the way Adam's guitar is used more for keeping the bass and drums focused while the assorted horns sail on top. The sound is often reminiscent of 70's style British jazz rock with a number of hypnotic melodies repeated and slowly mutated. It is difficult to tell where or when the soundpainting is going on but the results are stimulating nonetheless. Adam Caine is often the secret weapon taking short solos here and there but mostly adding different shades with gravitational properties. Another unexpected delight from the vast and ever-changing downtown network. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $14

also available:

MYSTERIUM [ERIC JOHN EIGNER/DANIEL CARTER/STEVE SWELL/TERENCE MURREN/GIL SELINGER] - For Quintet [2 CD set] (Eavesdrop 002; USA) Eric John Eigner drums; Daniel Carter reeds and horns; Steve Swell trombone; Gil Selinger cello; Terrence Muren bass.
For the new quintet recording, Eigner has given Carter heavyweight company in trombonist Steve Swell and has played up well to the challenge of having these two powers in front of him. (It's one of Wittgenstein's mysteries why Swell is not more famous. Outside the improv scene he is routinely ignored in favor of vastly lesser talents. His basic form is monumental, but that's only the beginning. He has a range of extended techniques that puts almost all other players, on all instruments, to shame.)
Eigner's drumming often provides the foundation for most of the group forays into structured improv and he chimes in fearlessly with wind-powered toys here and there for fun. Swell also weighs in on Hammond organ (who knew?) and this gives the recording some welcome change in texture and rhythm. The two-disc recording quality is superb and the long session has been gracefully edited into bite-size pieces on disc one, with disc two devoted to one lengthy piece. - Ty Cumbie, AAJ
CD $22

MYSTERIUM [ERIC JOHN EIGNER/DANIEL CARTER/MORGAN CRAFT] - Mysterium (Eavesdrop 001; USA) NY reeds & trumpet hero, Daniel Carter, needs no introduction. Morgan Craft plays stunt guitar with Burnt Sugar, as well as a duo called Rough Americana with DJ Mutamassik. Eric Eigner, whose group this is, plays extended drumset & clarinet.
Well recorded and balanced, this is high end improv that moves quickly through focused, constantly changing dialogue. There are moments when things quiet down with some somber, floating tenor sax and delicate guitar & fragile percussion, which balances the more intense eruptions that never last too long. There is a sublime, organic flow and thread of close listening going on here as each of these long pieces evolve through different sections. Recommended! - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
CD $14


THROBBING GRISTLE [CHRIS CARTER/COSEY FANNI TUTTI/GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE/PETER CHRISTOPHERSON] - The Third Mind Movements (Industrial 2009/4; UK) Last available copies of this CD of new 2009 studio recordings, previously only sold on the recent U.S. tour; edition of 3000 copies. 60+ minutes of brand new TG material composed and recorded by Chris Carter, Peter Christopherson, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. For sale at Throbbing Gristle's live demonstrations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago & New York, April 2009. Tracklist: 1. The Man From Nowhere, 2. Premature, 3. Secluded, 4. Perception Is The Only Reality, 5. Not That I Am, 6. The Third Mind: First Movement, Second Movement, Third Movement.
"TG is one of those groups, for me, that has had an everlasting effect and even in their so-called dullest moments have been inspiring. I got the opportunity to see a reunited Throbbing Gristle at a Masonic Hall, just blocks away from where I currently reside, and they blew my mind! Rabid TG fans packed the place. I bravely ventured to the merch table where hordes of ravenous fans were quickly devouring the goodies available, one being this disc, which was I was originally told by a maniacal fan nearby that it was only going to be sold at their gigs (limited to 3000 copies, with each of the TG shows on this tour being sold out, I'm surprised there are any left, but DMG got some). After pushing my way through the pit of clustered humans, I got my booty and quickly turned around to escape the masses (I'm claustrophobic). As I turned away from the table and headed to a more open space, crowds immediately enclosed upon my leg, trapping me there within them for a few minutes until I wrestled myself free from the seemingly unsympathetic crowd. Later during the gig, I had my first ever 'synesthesia' experience, I got a mouth full of cinnamon while absorbing some monotonous tones and flicking visuals. What does any of this have to do with the record you may ask, it has everything to do with the record. TG remains a potent force within their live and documented rituals, they still transport me into a deep trance of bliss and empowerment, and they still have me trying to figure out how do they create such sounds (which is impressive for someone who is a electronic musician)! I must say that this may be favorite TG album since "20 Jazz Funk Greats", since they mix both pop song structures with their more "ambient" jams. If you missed their gigs, you need to pick this up, for it is basically an amalgamation of what was performed. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!" -Chuck Bettis/dmg
[In stock Tuesday]
CD $20


BRION GYSIN - Live In London 1982 (Sub Rosa 247; Belgium) In Autumn 1982, in Brixton, London, Brion Gysin, the eternal accomplice of William Burroughs, renewed the methods of performance by reciting texts, hastily brought together with this performance, accompanied by Slits-member, Tessa, Steve of Rip, Rig and Panic, Gile of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Ramuntcho Matta on guitar. Ramuntcho, in the style of Brion, called this session "White Funk."
CD $15

ATA EBTEKAR & THE IRANIAN ORCHESTRA//ALIREZA MASHAYEKHI - Ata Ebtekar and the Iranian Orchestra for New Music Performing Works of Alireza Mashayekhi (Sub Rosa 284; Belgium) The follow-up to the highly-acclaimed Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday and Today 1966-2006 (SR 277CD), Ornamentalism features Ata Ebtekar and The Iranian Orchestra for New Music performing works written by legendary Iranian composer Alireza Mashayekhi. Iranian electronic composer Ata Ebtekar (aka Sote) was granted complete creative freedom by Mashayekhi himself to transform these older compositions into fully-realized pieces using his techniques of synthesis and electronic manipulation. It's an organic electrocution without sacrificing the beauty of the performance. These sound sources and compositions were metamorphosed via electronic processing, rearranged and decomposed using sound generators, effects boxes, modular synthesizers and samplers. Finally, Ebtekar programs synthetic sounds and adds new electronic harmonies, melodies and soundscapes to the sonic palette of Western classical music and Persian instrumentation for a unique musical experience. He unites the grace and symmetry of noise and silence inside the magic circle of electronic music composition. His pieces are sonic tales synchronously decoding and regenerating customary patterns of thought in nature; aural designs of crisis and harmony where contemporary life meets folklore, orchestrating an artificial saga with a variety of illuminations and analysis. He believes that music is a cultural habit of sound and anti-sound (silence). Therefore, he generates music without a specific culture, which he believes to be "The Other Sound."
CD $15

still available..

ALIREZA MASHAYEKHI & ATA EBTEKAR/SOTE - Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday and Today 1966-2006 [2 CD Set] (Sub Rosa 253; Belgium) The Sub Rosa label presents the work of Alireza Mashayekhi and Ata Ebtekar/Sote, two essential, key luminaries in the so far very unknown electronic music scene as composed in Iran from the '60s until today. These Iranian music masters work on ancestral structures to create something radically new, travelling around the world as vivid creators, working through the hazards of history. Alireza Mashayekhi (b. 1940) is a pioneer Iranian avant-garde composer whose ideas and works have been performed in his home country and abroad for more than 35 years. Ata Ebtekar aka Sote (b.1972) is an electronic composer, sound artist and recording engineer who is interested in recasting the tuning of Persian classical scales (radif) and melodies from old Persian folk songs within a new electronic framework. Since he has a firm conviction that rules and formulas have to be deconstructed and rethought, he alters some of these modal systems from their original tonality and rhythm. He has released several CDs and vinyls on Dielectric/RLR, Spundae and Warp. Sub Rosa offers you a Persian history lesson that finally exposes this region's rich and significant contribution to the realm of electronic music.
2 CD set for $17


OMAR SOULEYMAN - Dabke 2020: Folk & Pop Sounds of Syria (Sublime Freq 049; USA) Sublime Frequencies is pleased to present the second volume of Northeast Syrian dabke music from legendary vocalist Omar Souleyman and his group. This CD was compiled by Mark Gergis to coincide with the Sublime Frequencies UK/European tour in May and June of 2009, featuring live performances by Omar Souleyman himself. Culled from dozens of cassettes recorded in Syria from 1999-2008, the music here is an extension of Omar's Highway to Hassake: Folk & Pop Sounds of Syria (SF 031CD) release, touching on some previously-unheard angles. Their trademark serpentine synthesizers, electrified bouzok (traditional stringed instrument) and driving rhythms forge a severe form of "new wave dabke" with a live energy and integrity that captures the essence of the Syrian Northeast; one-of-a-kind Syrian dabke party tunes, regional atabat-styled crooners, and unbelievable Iraqi party jams. The CD is packaged in a cardboard sleeve with a paper insert.
CD $15

HISHAM MAYET, dir. - Palace Of The Winds [DVD] (Sublime Freq 047; USA) Shot over the course of two years (2006-2008) by Hisham Mayet, Palace Of The Winds is an intimate and dream-like journey exploring the music of Saharawi culture from Guelmim in Southern Morocco to the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott. With spectacular images from inhospitable landscapes, chimerical phenomena that transpire by the sheer remoteness of the land, and haunting indigenous music from a people that have long been shrouded in mystery, this is a genre-defying film of profound beauty. Explore the intoxicating tapestry of sight and sound that this obscure region has to offer through its most awe-inspiring musicians. Featuring live performances by Group Doueh, Group Marwani, Sadoum Oueld Aida and Group Bab Sahara. Color; 52 minutes; digipack; all-region DVD; NTSC format. Limited edition pressing of 1,000 copies.
DVD $20

and, still available

HISHAM MAYET, dir. - Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway [DVD] (Sublime Freq 041; USA) Filmed in 2005 by Hisham Mayet, predominately at the Jemaa Al Fna in Marrakesh, Morocco, Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway captures an assortment of spectacular musical dramas presented live and unfiltered on the home turf of the world's most dynamic string and drum specialists performing and manifesting the ecstatic truth. Ancient mystical brotherhoods have been flourishing for centuries in and around the cities of Marrakesh and Essaouira in Morocco where the trade caravans have gathered from their long journeys across the Trans-Saharan Highway. This is some of the last great street music on Earth. A must-see for string aficionados looking for inspiration as electric ouds, banjos, mandolins and the Gnawa sentir peel flesh from bone right before your eyes! Color; 60 minutes; digipak; all-region DVD; NTSC format.
DVD $20


KHAN JAMAL CREATIVE ARTS ENSEMBLE - Drum Dance To The Motherland (EM 10812; Japan) This is an astonishing long-lost out/jazz gem that was recorded live at the Catacombs in Philly in 1972 and features Khan Jamal on vibes, marimba & clarinet, Monnette Sudler on guitar, Billy Mills on basses and Dwight James & Alex Ellison on drums - a reissue of a rare album that was released on the Dogtown label. There has long been a tradition of "cosmic music" emenating from Philly, from John Coltrane to the Sun Ra Arkestra to Sunny Murray to the Visitors to New Ghost. I once caught Sunny Murray's Untouchable Factor at Ali's Alley with Byard Lancaster on sax, Khan Jamal on vibes, Cameron Brown on bass and Sunny on drums and they were totally "out there" in another dimension. This was Khan Jamal's band from the early 70's and they were also from somewhere else. I remember Monnette Sudler from when she played guitar with Sam Rivers Big Band in the late 70's and had a record or two on Inner City. Philly drummer Dwight James still works with Khan Jamal and has an LP out on the Cadence label.
Commencing with the spacious sounds of free marimba, distant electric guitar and echoed drums & percussion for the first piece, "Cosmic Echoes". Layers of Sun Ra-like percussion open "Drum Dance" with bizarre, eerie, echoed clarinets. Eventually the drums and percussion get into a fine groove as Khan's marimba soon joins them, taking a great, quick moving solo. "Inner Peace" starts with more spacious percussion, bells and assorted hand-held stuff. Monnette plays some sublime, bluesy electric guitar that sounds more like an electric piano, as Billy Mills switches to electric bass, keeping the groove going. A sly clarinet enter and as Ms. Sudler takes a fine, laid-back guitar solo, building and telling a long story as one drummer plays some hypnotic rhythms on the cymbal. Finally, "Breath of Life" brings things to a close with more cosmic echoes of cymbals, delicate guitar, somber mallets on drums and dub-like snare-drum echoes. This piece is especially mesmerizing and dream-like with glowing sounds fluctuating. There is something wonderfully spaced out in all of this, so take a trip with the Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble. - BLG
LP $22
also available on CD from Eremite for $15


KING CRIMSON [ROBERT FRIPP/ADRIAN BELEW/TREY GUNN/PAT MASTELOTTO] - 2008 40th Anniversary Tour Box [CD & Booklet] (DGM 0801; USA) Only sold at the US shows of the three city 40th Anniversary tour of 2008. Contains an audio CD with musical and non-musical audio curiosities, and interviews + 20 page booklet. 1. The Introduction; 2. 21st Century Schizoid Band; 3. Astounding revelations Pt. 1; 4. Form No. 2 KCVII; 5. Astounding Revelations Pt. 2; 6. Improv/Tomorrow Never Knows; 7. Shocking Confessions; 8. Steinberger Melody; 9. The Terrifying Tale of Thela Hun Ginjeet; 10. Starless & Bible Black US Radio Advert 1974; 11. Improv: Brescia
CD $16


JON MUELLER With JAMES PLOTKIN/FRED LONBERG-HOLM/MARCUS SCHMICKLER et al - Physical Changes [LP + CD + DVD set] (Table of Elements 817; USA) "Enter Jon Mueller's mammoth new solo percussion work, Physical Changes. If his previous solo effort Metals was about pummeling rhythms and frequencies, Physical Changes drives the whole idea into oblivion, as the sounds here are something to be felt as much as heard. Joined by the intense propulsion of James Plotkin (Khanate, Khlyst, Phantomsmasher), the textural chaos of Fred Lonberg-Holm (Wilco, Peter Brotzmann Tentet, Ken Vandermark's Territory Band), the computer meltdown of Marcus Schmickler (Pluramon), the surreal precision of Dan Burke (Illusion of Safety), the glorious flight of Jim Schoenecker (Collections of Colonies of Bees) and the stunning landscape film work of David Dinnell, Physical Changes takes the idea of 'heavy rhythm' and spreads it out over an elaborate, all-inclusive three format (LP/CD/DVD) release that reveals how complex and diverse heavy rhythm can actually be. From the pounding, raw country minimalism of 'Nothing Changes,' to the brutally intense onslaught of 'Things Will Not Stay the Way They Are,' Mueller takes the fundamental concepts of rhythm and percussion, those primal devices, and turns them into an entirely new experience that's heard, seen, and felt. Come experience it for yourself."
3 piece set [LP+CD+DVD] for $25


DAVID ROSENBOOM - How Much Better if Plymouth Rock had Landed on the Pilgrims (New World 80689; USA) David Rosenboom (b. 1947) has been widely acclaimed as an innovator in American experimental music since the 1960s. Although much of his work has been collaborative, virtually none of his large-scale collaborative works has hitherto been documented on record. How Much Better If Plymouth Rock Had Landed on the Pilgrims (1969-71) is considered to be one of the most important, prompting the following Washington Post review after a 1970 performance:
"If there were a device whereby one could plug into the deepest levels of human consciousness, and then translate this input into sound, what we would hear would probably resemble How Much Better if Plymouth Rock Had Landed on the Pilgrims, the radical composition by David Rosenboom.. The elemental pulsations of the piece seem to echo not only our fundamental biological cycles, but those innate psychical tides that govern the flux of human thought and feeling.. The listener becomes receptive to fantasy and hallucination and instants seem stretched to eternities.. Rosenboom's idiom poses a new esthetic.. against the ascetic, disciplined, puritanical streak that one associates in this country with the Pilgrims, this new music hurls a rejuvenated sensuality and mysticism." This is the world-premiere recording of the complete work.
CD $15


JOHN LUTHER ADAMS - The Place We Began (Cold Blue 0032; USA) "The Place We Began" contains four mysteriously evocative electro-acoustic works that the composer built from short recorded moments -- audio fragments -- of his early music (circa the early 1970s). This is not a trip down memory lane: In the place we began, Adams has reappropriated and transformed these sonic fragments into completely new works that speak to his current musical interests and directions, especially his recent installation pieces, and refer to his past only in ways that are highly personal and conceptual. Realized by the composer at his studio outside Fairbanks, Alaska. The composer writes: 'Last summer in my studio I discovered several boxes of reel-to-reel tapes that I'd recorded in the early 1970s. Using those 'found objects,' I sculpted these new soundscapes from fragments of my past. The tape that got me started was labelled 'Scrap. Unknown.' When I listened to it, I could neither tell which direction was forward nor determine its proper playback speed. In both directions and at high and low speeds the sound was intriguing. After trying it all four ways, I began to superimpose tracks. Then I began exploring the other found tapes. 'In A Room' is composed from raw material I recorded on a summer afternoon in 1972. With two cheap speakers and a microphone, I used electro-acoustic feedback to explore the resonant frequencies in a room with hardwood floors and lots of windows. Thirty-six years later (using tools I couldn't have imagined back then) I shaped that recording's sounds into a twelve-part motet. 'At The Still Point' is a tempo canon that sustains the relationships 13/14/15/16 throughout. The piece is made primarily from two tapes I recorded in 1974 on my Fender Rhodes electric piano. The first was a through-composed piece I eventually withdrew. The second was an improvisation in the spirit (if not the sound) of Feldman's 'Piece for Four Pianos' -- a work that changed my musical life. The opening of at the still point incorporates a moment from another 1974 recording, this one of a small tam-tam I bought for $50. Today, the Rhodes is long gone. But I still own that tam-tam. 'In The Rain' begins with fragments from a recording I made in 1973. That tape was made in a gentle spring shower, during which I set pots and pans out in the yard, adding their metallic voices, one by one, to the sounds of the rain and blue jays. I've now re-used those sounds and their spectral after images to create 'veils' that rise and fall, revealing and concealing the taped traces of one of my early ensemble pieces recorded in 1974. 'The Place We Began,' a second twelve-part motet composed from the 1972 recording used for in a room, closes this cycle of works. Where the first piece rises, the place we began descends into subsonic depths, revealing previously inaudible quavering harmonics.' -- JLA, 2009"
CD $14

PETER GARLAND - String Quartets [1&2] (Cold Blue 0031; USA) "This CD presents the premiere recordings of two spirited and enticing quartets that draw on the composer's well-traveled ear and great sense of personal vision. Both works move with a unique sense of grace and a sincerity of expression that is purely Garlandesque -- marked by a sometimes lively dancing, a sometimes alluring stasis and an often sauntering gait that allow musical ideas to seem to appear intuitively and develop subconsciously. Performed and recorded beautifully by members of the renowned British new music ensemble Apartment House, which has for the past 15 years championed the music of such composers as Christian Wolf, John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Philip Corner and many other experimental and avant-garde composers at major festivals throughout Europe. Peter Garland is a composer, world traveler, musicologist, writer and former publisher (Soundings Press). He studied music composition with Harold Budd and James Tenney at Cal Arts and maintained long friendships with Lou Harrison, Conlon Nancarrow, Paul Bowles and Dane Rudhyar. Since the early '70s, Garland's own music has been marked by a return to a 'radical consonance' and a simplification of formal structure influenced by Cage, Harrison, early minimalism and a great variety of world musics. His unique and highly engaging music has been performed around the world by such noted performers as pianists Aki Takahashi and Herbert Henck, percussionist William Winant, accordionist Guy Klucesvek and the Kronos Quartet and released on the Tzadik, New Albion, Cold Blue, Mode, Avant, Toshiba-EMI/Angel and other labels."
CD $14


PHILIPPE MANOURY - Fragments Pour Un Portrait (Kairos 1292; Germany) "Carried by the intense bow of Christophe Desjardins, this extensive work reestablishes Manoury's talent in marking his territory. In seven sections that are also auditory expressions, the listener follows a path that is as ardent as it is rigorous: rarely have real-time electronics and the instrument seemed to deliver as equals, side by side." - La Lettre du Musicien
An original idea in line with the programs led by Grame, founded in 1982 by Pierre-Alain Jaffrennou and James Giroudon and centered on computer-assisted scientific musical research, this 45-minute piece makes use of the innovative technique of movement capture. By allowing the musician to interact on the electronic end and directly modulate certain parameters, this technique opens a new era in the world of mixed music. The capturing and amplification of a musician's every moment allows for a total synthesized result and an incredible dive into infinite subtlety.
CD $16


JONATHAN HARVEY//ARDITTI QUARTET - Complete String Quartets & Trio [2 CD set] (Aeon 975; EEC) The music world will celebrate Jonathan Harvey's 70th birthday in May 2009. His music encourages contemplative listening with exacerbated acuity - the extreme lucidity provided by reaching a higher level of consciousness. Listeners will reach this ideal perception, with the admirable help of the Arditti Quartet, in one of the most accomplished works written for the group in the last decades.
2 CD set for $24


EVELYN GLENNIE - Oriental Landscapes (BIS 1222; EEC) Featured works: "Percussion Concerto" by Chen Yi; "Journey Through a Japanese Landscape" (Concerto for Solo Marimba and Wind Orchestra) by Thea Musgrave; "Out of Tang Court" for Tang Ensemble and Orchestra by Zhou Long and "Fantasy On Japanese Wood Prints" by Alan Hovhaness. Performed by Evelyn Glennie (percussion) and Singapore Symphony Orchestra (Lan Shui, conductor). "As many reading this know, Evelyn Glennie is much more than 'just' a percussionist. She has developed a fantastic career as a soloist and become the world's first full-time solo percussionist. She tours the world, often performing works she herself has commissioned. This is her first recording on BIS and the label is proud to release it onto the market. As the title suggests these works have an Oriental -- or rather Asian -- theme. Two of the pieces are inspired by Japan and the other two by China. Ms. Glennie shows her musicianship and mastery on the xylophone and the marimba as well as one on more unusual instruments, such as the lithophone (with bars made of stone instead of wood or metal), various chimes, dagu drum (Chinese) and uchiwa daiko (Japanese)."
CD $19

RAGNAR GRIPPE - Ten Temperaments/Situation I/Ur Undrens Tid (BIS 241; EEC) Performed by Ragnar Grippe, electronics. "Ten Temperaments was commissioned by the music section of the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation for performance in the Swedish Spinrg Music programme for 1982. Ten Temperaments is above all a work that has been consciously projected between different forms of expression, borrowing characteristics from modern serious music only to alter the listening experience at the next moment with the idioms from popular music; these leaps between styles have given the works its title... The work is constructed orchestrally, but it was not my intention to imitate the instruments of the orchestra with electronic sounds; my purpose was rather to provide a symphonic experience with several changes in mood and a richness of sound. May I offer here my only personal comment on the second section of the prelude and four sections on side one. The radio entering with its 'choir from another world' is a feature I have also used in the ballet Vanthallen, commissioned by the Stockholm Opera in 1975, with choreography by Oscar Araiz. Often on journeys abroad during childhood, radio programmes from other countries were more frightening than the country's strange culture, language and people. But the memory also contains an experience, as form another world, which in its musical context gives the sensation of something incomprehensible but beautiful. Section seven (directly linked with the above is a paraphrase of the form of 'musique concrete') but here reproduced with electronic sounds." -- Ragnar Grippe
CD $19

YUKIE NAGAI//YUJO TAKAHASHI/TOSHI ICHIYANAGI/TORU TAKEMITSU et al - Poesie: Yukie Nagai Plays Japanese Piano Music (BIS 766; EEC) Featured works: Yuji Takahashi: "Kwanju, May 1980"; Toshi Ichiyanagi: "Cloud Atlas"; Akira Miyoshi: "Four Piano Pieces"; Akio Yashiro: "Sonata"; Toru Takemitsu: "Rain Tree Sketch"; "For Away"; Takashi Kako: "Poesie"/"Greensleeves." Performed by Yukie Nagai, piano.
CD $19

IANNIS XENAKIS - Pleiades (BIS 482; EEC) Featured works: "Pleiades" and Psappha." Performed by Kroumata Percussion Ensemble; Gert Mortensen, percussion. "Xenakis has been very interested in percussion music -- ever since his orchestral piece 'Terretektorh (1966) in which the instrumental forces are spread throughout the hall, by way of 'Psappha' (1975) for a lone percussion virtuoso all the way to 'Pleiades' (1979) for six percussionists -- perhaps the largest composition in the entire percussion repertoire, and the most daring challenge. The title is intentionally ambiguous: the word itself means 'many' and alludes both to the six performers and to the four movements. The title also refers to a myth of antiquity, as so often from this educated Greek... The greatest part of the inspiration behind the piece probably comes from astronomy. The steady rhythmic pulse is varied by means of small alterations, injections of life, and is subsequently built up into such complicated patterns that one could speak of 'galaxies of sound.' In this dizzying experience there is still the joy of recognition, however, and at the end one comes back after an upheaving excursion."
CD $19


PIANO WORKS DURING AND AFTER RUSSIAN FUTURISM [V.A.] - Volume 1 [H-SACD] (Cybele 160404; Germany) [This is a HYBRID SACD, which means it will play in any ordinary CD player!] Featured works: Nikolay Obukhov (1892 - 1954): "Invocation" (1916); "Deux pieces" (1915): "Les astrales parlent & Reflet sinister; Conversion" (1915); "Icone" (1915); "Creation de l'Or" (1916); "Aimons-nous les uns les autres" (1942); "La paix pour les reconcilies - vers la source avec le calice" (1948); "Le Temple est mesure, l'Esprit est incarne" (1952); "Adorons Christ - Fragment du troisieme et dernier Testament" (1945). Ivan Vyshnegradsky (1893 - 1979): "Deux Preludes pour Piano, Op. 2" (1916); "Etude sur le Carre Magique Sonore, Op. 40" (1957). Sergey Protopopov (1893 - 1954): "Sonata No. 2, Op. 5" (1924) Performed by Thomas Gunther (piano). "Alexander Scriabin was the most important source of inspiration for the experiments of the young Russian generation of composers, to which the three composers of this SACD release -- Nikolay Obukhov (1892-1954), Ivan Vyshnegradsky (1893-1979) and Sergey Protopopov (1893-1954) -- can be counted. They belong to the generation of young, avant-garde artists who emerged from the turbulent time which accompanied the revolutionary upheaval of the 1910s in Russia. This period of relative artistic freedom ended abruptly in 1929, when the severe criticism of 'revolutionary' composers began. A few artists had left Russia earlier, in the immediate aftermath of the 1917 revolution, and their exile in the West led them not to recognition, but rather to isolation and obscurity, despite support from some prominent sources! The catastrophe that was World War II only helped to keep their music in oblivion. Those composers who remained in Russia awaited a different, but no less tragic, fate: the 'need to survive,' i.e. complying with the aesthetic ideal of the Stalinist age. Unpopular people were completely removed from the public consciousness and any trace of them expunged from libraries and reference works. Thus finding scores is an extremely difficult process. In the case of Nikolay Obukhov, for instance, only three pieces were ever published: three piano pieces were issued by Durand, no doubt with the help of Maurice Ravel. The rest of his catalogue languishes in manuscript form in various archives. This SACD release with pianist Prof. Thomas Gunther (Folkwang-Hochschule Essen), who is specialized since several years in this kind of repertoire, is the start of a whole SACD series in which important piano works during and after Russian Futurism are rediscovered and released for the first time on multiple SACDs." Stereo/multichannel hybrid SACD that can be played on any CD player.
CD $21


PHILL NIBLOCK - The Movement of People Working [DVD] (Microcinema 766; EEC) [originally released on Extreme in Australia] Film and music by Phill Niblock (all different material compared to Niblock's previous China and Sunsets video). This double-sided disc features six short films made in countries like Peru, Mexico, Hong Kong and Hungary and nine music pieces, recorded 1975-83 (utilizing cello, bassoon, contrabass, trombone, etc). These 16mm films (parts 1-4) were made in 1973-74. Three of them were made in Mexico, one in Peru. They were printed on Kodachrome print stock from a reversal original. The prints look as good as they did when made, quite beautiful. A few scratches, since these prints were shown many times over the years. These were the first films of the series looking at the movement of people working. "Sur Una and Dos" (from Mexico and Peru, respectively) are concentrated on the movement of people's hands. Most of the activities are agrarian, some are crafts - weaving, etc. In "Trabajando Una and Dos", I was looking at more general work movement. These films are combined with four channel music pieces from roughly the same period. The fifth film is "Hong Kong" and the sixth is "Hungary" which simply have the names of the countries where the film was shot. 'Hong Kong' was filmed in 1978, 'Hungary' in 1985. The music was made between 1975 and 1983. In Hong Kong, I filmed in many communities on the main island and some on outlying islands, also in Macau. In Hungary I filmed in two communities - Gonc, near Slovakia and Milota on the Tisza River. - Phill Niblock.
NTSC format, Region 0 for the world. 5.1 audio. Total time: 3 hours, 28 min.
DVD $20


WILLIAM BASINSKI - 92982 ('2062' 901; USA) "Something from a long time ago.... in Brooklyn, 351 Jay Street. A fruitful evening in the studio. Home at last after a day of work at the answering service. Answering phones for Calvin Klein, Bianca Jagger, Steve Rubell and all the other somebody people. In our space station: home in my studio experimenting live. James is in the adjacent studio painting masterpieces. Roger is in the front, gluing old shoes on canvas and painting them orange. I'm clicking the old Norelcos back and forth between channels. All the windows are open. The sound is spreading all over downtown Brooklyn mixing with the helicopters, sirens, pot smoke and fireworks. It's crunchy, it's distorted. It's Basinski archive circa 1982. The third track some of you may recognize: a shorter version was included as variation #8 on Variations: A Movement In Chrome Primitive. So, this night in the studio spawned a direction I would follow for some time. As I love this document of that night, I thought you might like to put what came later into context, so I'm releasing this archival recording. The last track is a newly recorded reprise of the first track that I recorded with the original loop in February 2009 in Los Angeles." -- William Basinski, March, 2009
CD $14


JIM O'ROURKE - I'm Happy, And I'm Singing And A 1,2,3,4: Deluxe 2 CD Edition (Editions Mego 050; Austria) New 2009 edition! Recorded between 1997-1999 in NY, Osaka, Tokyo, Toronto and Malmo. Originally released on Mego in 2001, Jim O'Rourke's I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And A 1,2,3,4 is now reissued with a bonus disc featuring unreleased material from the same period, sourced from Jim's vast archive, as well as new artwork. Jim O'Rourke needs no introduction, being well-known as a performer, producer and all-round top chap, as well as a member of various pop and rock combos for more than two decades (Gastr Del Sol, The Red Krayola, Sonic Youth, etc). I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And A 1,2,3,4 was cited by many common folk at the time as Jim's ultimate laptop record or his Powerbook album. Nowadays, people prefer the simple term "computer" when referring to the instrument used for the creation of this milestone album. Equal parts schizoid pop, cracked minimalism, concrete drama and melancholic contemplation, this is a highly personal release. Given the nature of this warm beast, it appeals across the board -- electronic nuts, indie rock kids, and yes, even the good folk of the established experimental world may take pleasure in the delicate nuances of Jim's hard drive. This reissue is long overdue (the album being out-of-print for 5 years), including a bonus disc featuring unreleased material as well as new artwork. This album will not be available as a download. File under: "handsome."
2 CD set for $20

HECKER - Acid In The Style Of David Tudor (Editions Mego 094; Austria) This is Vienna-based Florian Hecker's first full-length studio (as opposed to collections and commissions for art installations) album since 2003, when the groundbreaking Sun Pandemonium was unleashed by Mego. Since then, he has collaborated on audio projects with Yasunao Tone, Russell Haswell (as Haswell & Hecker) and a forthcoming live collaboration with Richard James, as well as a myriad of sound installation works, individually and with numerous artists worldwide. As the title suggests, this album is referencing the parallel universes of modern 20th century composition and hedonistic rave culture. A challenging but ultimately rewarding set of electronic music compositions which push these two reference points into unknown areas. Set in apparent contrast is the sequence of six pieces, "Acid In The Style Of David Tudor," where hyperchaotic functions are inherently coupled to their sources of manipulation -- a Buchla modular synthesizer in combination with a Comdyna analog computer -- in opposition to the ASA pieces, fruit of a complex manipulation of distinct auditory patterns into a new acoustic whole. The closing "Ten" opens with an intense, head-related localization blur. Here, virtual binaural, stereophonic, biphonic and monaural sound reproduction coexist. All three approaches are displayed in contrasting dynamics, where non-linear waveforms and psychoacoustic illusions constantly push our perceptual and representational fabrics. Following the ideas of Robin Mackay, Hecker's work reinstanciates the genetic of-ness, once proposed by philosopher David Kaplan, cutting both genetic and cultural territories of hearing. This release also contains an extensive 12-page essay "Climate of Bass Hunter: Florian Hecker Acid In The Style Of David Tudor" by Robin Mackay, founding editor of Collapse, a journal of philosophical research and development. It is recommended to listen to this material on loudspeakers at high volume. Headphone use is not advised.
CD $16


JOHN WIESE & C. SPENCER YEH - Cincinnati (Dronedisco 95; USA) "The cooperative of composer/improvisers John Wiese (Sissy Spacek) and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core) presents new a collection of works titled Cincinnati. So far Wiese & Yeh's previous full-length documents have been culled from live performance situations and one could site Cincinnati as the duo's first studio album. Recorded face-to-face in late 2007 at Ashworth Tap Room in Cincinnati OH, Cincinnati reveals further unexpected developments and strategies of this ongoing partnership. Familiar machineries were primed, but an increasingly alien attitude was fed through and processed into churning and bewildering shapes. The results of these sessions were catalogued and surgically isolated into specimens by Yeh; a little editing employed to carve the forms somewhat presentable, but no 'studio trickery' to mask the organic nature. Mastered by Saff Mastering to sharpen the bulbs and polish the blades, the whole of the fourteen tracks form a monumentally intimate body touched by indeterminate intuition, instant composition and interior logic. Wiese and Yeh first joined together on a stage in Columbus OH, and since then have participated in the No-FI/CMN 'Free Noise' 2007 tour in the UK, as well as fireworks-laden travels through coastal, midwest and southern USA. With many finished missives yet to be issued, and many ideas discussed but not yet realized, the combined restlessness and curiosity of the team insures that Cincinnati gestures not only towards the past and present, but the future as well."
CD $13


EKKEHARD EHLERS/PAUL WIRKUS - Ballads (Staubgold DIG01; Germany) This is the debut collaborative release by electronic composer Ekkehard Ehlers and percussionist Paul Wirkus. A mish-mash of improvisational electronic and organic textures that hiss, hum, and drone into exploratory, avant-garde outerspace. Ekkehard Ehlers explains, "Well, maybe it is a jazz record. Most parts are improvised by Paul and me by playing on the keyboards of our laptops (using strange Reaktor patches) and were recorded directly to a third computer. Sometimes we used a double-bass backing (played by Werner Dafeldecker and Achim Tang) to play on, and sometimes Kai Fagaschinski added clarinet. And, of course, we used drums played by Paul. We tried to avoid loop-structures while playing together, which is always the most difficult thing. As samples, we used string instruments like oud, guitar and so on, and transformed them to more organ-like sounds. And we used two Alice Coltrane samples for some tracks and a Henry Flynt sample flying around during the tracks. When we started working together, we had the idea of making a sound installation in Poland. For that we wanted to travel the German-Polish border and play somewhere on the countryside and record it on a mobile unit. But the weather was too bad and we had no money. So finally we got stuck in my studio exchanging experiences and experimenting with patches. We had five sessions in four days for recording. The post-production and mixing took another two months. Every time Paul and I met, we did heavy jazz listening sessions."
CD $13


JONO EL GRANDE [JON ANDREAS HATUN] - Neo Dada (Rune Grammofon 3084; EEC) This is the second full-length release by Jon Andreas Hatun aka Jono El Grande, a self-taught composer, musician, conductor and prankster who remains an outsider on the far margin of the Norwegian experimental music scene. When Frank Zappa asked Does Humor Belong In Music?, a certified guess is that many a serious music lover already knew the answer. But like Zappa, Jono understands the importance of timing, and as anyone who has witnessed his concerts can testify to, Jono is a humorist and slapstick entertainer of sublime proportions, his great forte being not letting it get in the way of the music. Jono El Grande released his debut mini-album Utopian Dances in 1999, a collection of absurdist instrumentals recorded at home using not much more than a workstation synth. 2003 saw the release of Fevergreens (RCD 2031CD), an album that drew upon classic progressive rock, film music, easy listening and a variety of pop idioms and featured a 9-piece orchestra. If Jono's prankster image and celebrity status in Norway has meant not being taken seriously as a composer, Neo Dada should set the record straight once and for all. This is an album brimming with musical adventure, odd turns, weird combinations of sounds and instruments, complex signatures and a good portion of pure joy, all mysteriously sugared with melodic hooks that will stick to your brain like any annoying pop tune. There are elements from the Canterbury and Rock In Opposition scenes and traces of artists such as Frank Zappa, Magma, Henry Cow and Gentle Giant, but Jono has taken large steps since his last record when it comes to establishing his own musical signature. Instrumentations and arrangements are also more adventurous -- there are more prog sonics mixed with impressive orchestrations, all performed with a theatrical, art-rock, tragi-comedic flair. Musicians include: Jono El Grande (vocals, guitar, various); Petter SXrlie Kragstad (keyboards); AndrX Bongard (keyboards); HXkon MXrk Stene (marimba, vibraphone, percussion); Erik LXkra (saxophones); Embrik Snerte (bass); Terje Engen (drums); Hans Martin Austestad and BXrd Bratlie (additional vocals); Ida Kristine Hansen (violin I); Isa Caroline Holmesland (violin II); Gunnhild Oddbjornsdatter (viola); Lisa Isabel Holstad (cello).
CD $17

also available as..

JONO EL GRANDE [JON ANDREAS HATUN] - Neo Dada (Rune Grammofon 3084; EEC) LP version on white-colored vinyl in deluxe gatefold sleeve. Includes voucher for free MP3 download of the whole album.
LP $23


STARVING WEIRDOS - Into An Energy (Bo Weavil 138; UK) This is a new release by California's extremely prolific avant-drone duo, Starving Weirdos. These eight new pieces bear all the hallmarks of Starving Weirdos' greatest work: the dizzying mixture of instrumental sounds, electronics, and field recordings, the pointillistic attention to sonic detail, the duo's post-production technique, which achieves something like the aural equivalent of deep-focus photography. On Into An Energy, the duo of Brian Pyle and Merrick McKinlay is joined by occasional collaborators Steve Lazar and Greg Devaney for the length of the record, and perhaps their chemistry together accounts for the elusive shift in focus heard on these cuts. You see, even though Starving Weirdos routinely break out the rain sticks, the horns, the hand drums, the guitars, or the cup-and-ball, at its core their art is a kind of deep-forest-ghetto-musique concrete. You can never tell if what you're hearing is a real-time performance or a product of copious editing and overdubbing, whether those sounds emanated from tapes or from live instruments, whether it occurred in a tangible three-dimensional space or in a virtual soundcard reality. Most of the time, it's a combination of all these, and the results are profoundly transportive and disorienting. Yet while the Weirdos' song and album titles suggest an esoteric or spiritualist bent, their music is always reassuringly lucid, even earthy. Theirs is a mysticism grounded in the ordinary sounds of everyday life in their native Humboldt County, California. At their best, Starving Weirdos achieve that high romantic ideal: to make the familiar strange, and make the strange familiar.
CD $17

also available..

STARVING WEIRDOS - Father Guru (Azul Discografica 03; USA) "In 1998, Starving Weirdos began crafting a body of staggeringly beautiful, unsettling freeform soundscapes, unbeknownst to all but a tiny circle of friends and neighbors in their native Humboldt County, California. The duo's recorded works had not surfaced until very recently, in the form of extremely limited CD-Rs on such labels as Jyrk and Root Strata and on the group's own imprint. They have, without exception, met with resounding critical praise and intense curiosity from the experimental music community. At the core of Starving Weirdos is the duo of Brian Pyle and Merrick McKinlay. The pair weave intricate tapestries of sound from strands of electroacoustic improvisation, ambient noise, free-folk, and musique concrete. The density of these works is matched only by their clarity of purpose and execution - each piece brings into existence a distinct sound-world, rendered with a pointillistic attention to sonic detail that belies the duo's economy of means. The result is a profoundly disorienting music that thrives on the tension between artificiality and organicity, stillness and constant mutation. Starving Weirdos' music sits uneasily beside that of their contemporaries in the free-drone/noise/improv underground. While the group undoubtedly has something in common with such outfits as Sunburned Hand of the Man or Double Leopards (the two groups with whom they are most often compared), SW's expansive, understated approach to improvisation and recording more closely resembles an amalgam of early AMM, Taj Mahal Travellers, Basil Kirchin, and Pauline Oliveros' deep listening experiments - as filtered through the crisp night air of California's redwood forest."
CD $14


AARON DILLOWAY - Chain Shot (Hanson 207; USA) "Digipak CD reissue of my Chain Shot LP which was originally released on LP by Throne Heap. Contains a 28-minute bonus track." -- Aaron Dilloway. "With only tape loops, metal, and horns (and sometimes, it seems, metal on horns) the two side long pieces, 'Chain Shot' and 'Execution Dock' respectively, explore the ugly underbelly of noise before just scraping right through and aiming for the insides. In a genre that has quickly turned into a broad and often inaccurate description of a certain breed of every-man experimental music, Dilloway sticks to the old-fashioned definition of noise, doing battle with the materials in front of him as he continues the construction of his impressive body of work. Dilloway, a former member of noise-titans Wolf Eyes, has recently been releasing solo work that explores much more abstract and thoughtful terrain than his previous group's onslaughts. 'Chain Shot' is more a sound collage than anything, and while it is a heaping glob of muddled debris, it is also a highly controlled one. Looping samples on top of samples, Dilloway builds a slowly encroaching beast before slowly disintegrating it, bone by bone. This is some highly textural and immediately emotive soundscape work. 'Execution Dock' begins with a repeating loop of what sounds like the beginning and the end syllables of some nut's conversation with a lamppost. In the distance sounds a pained song of sorts, like a rodent's death cry, or maybe its birth one. I'm guessing maybe this is the horn, though it would be tough to be certain about much of anything here. Delayed creaks and groans float in and around as the vocal sample dissipates, leaving you sloshing through the mud puddle only to realize that its a tar pit the size of La Brea." -- Henry Smith
CD $12



Back in stock

PRAXIS [BILL LASWELL/BUCKETHEAD/BRAIN/BERNIE WORRELL] + MIKE PATTON/OTOMO YOSHIHIDE/TATSUYA YOSHIDA/RAMMELLZEE et al - Profanation: Preparation For A Coming Darkness (Nagual 53688; Japan) This latest album by the Bill Laswell-led 2 decade-old supergroup Praxis whose members include Buckethead, Brain and Bernie Worrell, was finally released in Japan only, on January 1, 2008 after a 2+ year contractual delay. The album features guest appearances by Iggy Pop, Mike Patton, Serj Tankian, Rammellzee, Bernie Worrell, and Killah Priest among several other avant/downtown luminaries including Otomo Yoshihide and Tatsuya Yoshida. "Sadly (still) only an import, but Boy! was it worth the wait! Gobble-thumbs UP!" - MannyLunch
CD $28


ENTEN ELLER QUARTET & TIM BERNE - Auto Da Fe (Splasch 819; Italy) Tim Berne - alto sax ENTEN ELLER: Alberto Mandarini - trumpet, Maurizio Brunod - guitar, Giovanni Maier - double bass, Massimo Barbiero - drums
[only 3 copies]
CD $15.00 7 for 6 SALE


WALT DICKERSON With WILBUR WARE/ANDREW CYRILLE - Tell Us Only The Beautiful Things (Candid/Why Not 79401; USA) Walt was a true original with a unique sound and distinctive approach to the vibraphone, taking forward the path laid out by Hampton right through to Milt Jackson and beyond. Dickerson made quite an impact when he first burst- on to the then embryonic free jazz scene as evidenced by his being voted as New Star 1962 in the prestigious Down Beat critics' poll. In spite of this, wider jazz recognition never came, aided no doubt by long periods of seeming inactivity. After recording four albums for Prestige in the early sixties, the somewhat enigmatic Walt dropped out until 1975 when the ubiquitous Masahiko Yuh recorded this album in his hometown of Philadelphia with Wilbur Ware on bass and drummer Andrew Cyrille.
CD $12


TIR NA NOG - Spotlight: BBC Recordings 1972-73 (Hux 021; UK) "In the early 1970s, Tir Na Nog created a distinctive sound which was all their own. An exotic combination of guitars, clavinet and African drums which at the time pushed the boundaries of folk into rock. This album is comprised solely of previously unreleased recordings mostly taken from the BBC archives. Two tracks were recorded live in London in 1973. The 8-page booklet features comprehensive liner notes, several rare band photographs and full recording details."
CD $18


GALACTIC RAMBLE//RICHARD MORTON JACK, author - Galactic Ramble: A Peregrination Through British Rock, Pop, Folk And Jazz Of The 1960s And 1970s [Book] (Foxcote; UK) Galactic Ramble is, by far, the most thorough critical overview of 1960s and 1970s British popular music ever published. It contains reviews of thousands of albums, spanning rock, pop, folk, R&B, jazz, beat, psych, prog, garage, Xtian and much more, both major label releases and private pressings. The book includes household names such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who, as well as masses of lesser-known luminaries, and is certain to appeal to thousands of serious music fans and record collectors worldwide. Galactic Ramble has been edited by Richard Morton Jack (co-founder of Sunbeam Records), and is written by a team of experts including Patrick Lundborg and Aaron Milenski (co-authors of The Acid Archives), Richard Falk (one of the world's leading folk music authorities), Tony Higgins (producer of the BBC's acclaimed "Seven Ages Of Rock" and curator of Universal's Impressed Repressed jazz series) and David Wells (owner of the esteemed Tenth Planet label). Galactic Ramble is A4 in size, with the text on each page divided into three columns. Wherever possible, albums have been dated to their precise month of release, and extracts from contemporary reviews have been included alongside new ones, to add useful perspective. The text is broken up by many rare illustrations culled from the pages of contemporary music journals, in addition to which there are two sections of full-color plates, showing the covers of 288 rare LPs. Galactic Ramble features an introduction by legendary record producer David Hitchcock (Aardvark, Black Cat Bones, Caravan, Mellow Candle, Pink Fairies), and has numerous top ten lists in the back, as well as a list of non-album 45s by many of the acts in the book. Paperback; 298 x 210 mm; 550 pp.; B&W photos throughout, with 2 sections of color plates.
BOOK $55


***********************************


IF YOU'RE ALREADY SUBSCRIBED TO OUR NEWSLETTER, BUT SOMEHOW YOU'RE NOT RECEIVING THEM IN YOUR INBOX..

Many of your incoming emails are being blocked and you don't know it! Many emails like our newsletter are frequently blocked by aggressive spam filters being used by nearly all email services.

To help avoid this problem and get our newsletter:

Hotmail Users: Place the domain " downtownmusicgallery.com " on your Safe List, so that you can receive our emails. The safe list can be accessed via the "Options" link next to the main menu tabs. Also place the email address dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com in your address book.

AOL: Place the domain " downtownmusicgallery.com " in your Address Book. Also add the email address dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com to your address book.

Yahoo! Mail: If one of our e-newsletters is filtered to your 'bulk' folder, open the message and click on the "this is not Spam" link next to the "From" field. The same goes for any other e-mail you receive that doesn't belong there. Add the address dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com to your address book.

Other email services [Earthlink, GMail et al]: Place the domain " downtownmusicgallery.com " on your email filter's whitelist. You may need to search your email help menu for details on how to do this. Depending on software/version, they may call it a "whitelist," a "good list" or similar name. Adding the address dmg@downtownmusicgallery.com to your address book will help too.