DVD

	ANTHEIL, GEORGE SPECIAL OFFER Code:AntheilSpecial Price: £35.00 Quantity in Basket: none
DVD plus Ballet Mecanique, 1953 version 30 DVD Description: (Double DVD) The first disc is a documentary about George and the ballet, with some old footage. It's a fair introduction, a little oversimplified and more like a promo film for the revived ballet than a real documentary - which is what it is, so fair enough. And there is good material here. Disc two is a whole performance of the world premiere, in 1999, of the Ballet as originally conceived - for 12 player pianos, 7 percussionists, 2 pianists, bells, sirens and airplane propellers. A landmark work, with some prescient ideas (endless repetitions, use of long silences) featuring for the most part relentless hammering; the ultimate crystallisation of futurist outrage, and one of the most blatant, howling, in your face compositions of the last century. George takes an idea, multiplies it by 100, then heaps some more on top. Written primarily to offend old ears and to cement a reputation (it succeeded), this work, unlike that of Varese or Schoenberg, has no aspiration to ground a new means of musical expression; rather it made newness, noise and the machine aesthetic an end in itself. In this it was essentially a Futurist work before it was a musical work. But a musical work it is nevertheless, and a classic. Most familiar is the much-reduced 1953 concert version. Then there was a release some years ago of a reconstruction of the 1923 version, in which 9 grand pianos replaced the 12 player-pianos when it became clear that the mechanical pianos could not be synchronised. The invention of the synclavier and MIDI have changed all that and this is a full reproduction of Antheil's original score. The DVD also contains Ferdinand Leger's 1935 experimental film 'Ballet Mechanique', made to be shown synchronised with the music, as well as useful interviews with archivist and composer Charles Amirkhanian, film composer David Raksin, composer Henry Brant and several others. Total time just under 3 hours. CD Description: Completes the availability of the three Ballet Mecanique scores. This is the last, the shortest and the most stripped down. It's interesting to compare it with the others and it's also a fine piece in its own right. And it's very cheap. Serenade is a very charming late work, very defined, rather cinematic, Symphony, from 1924 is Stravinskyan, and Concert marks the time (1932) when Antheil left Paris and returned to the USA.
	ANTHEIL, GEORGE: Bad boy made good. The revival of the 1924 Ballet Mechanique. (dbl DVD) Code:EMFDVD060 Price: £30.55 Quantity in Basket: none
The first disc is a documentary about George and the ballet, with some old footage. It's a fair introduction, a little oversimplified and more like a promo film for the revived ballet than a real documentary - which is what it is, so fair enough. And there is good material here. Disc two is a whole performance of the world premiere, in 1999, of the Ballet as originally conceived - for 12 player pianos, 7 percussionists, 2 pianists, bells, sirens and airplane propellers. A landmark work, with some prescient ideas (endless repetitions, use of long silences) featuring for the most part relentless hammering; the ultimate crystallisation of futurist outrage, and one of the most blatant, howling, in your face compositions of the last century. George takes an idea, multiplies it by 100, then heaps some more on top. Written primarily to offend old ears and to cement a reputation (it succeeded), this work, unlike that of Varese or Schoenberg, has no aspiration to ground a new means of musical expression; rather it made newness, noise and the machine aesthetic an end in itself. In this it was essentially a Futurist work before it was a musical work. But a musical work it is nevertheless, and a classic. Most familiar is the much-reduced 1953 concert version. Then there was a release some years ago of a reconstruction of the 1923 version, in which 9 grand pianos replaced the 12 player-pianos when it became clear that the mechanical pianos could not be synchronised. The invention of the synclavier and MIDI have changed all that and this is a full reproduction of Antheil's original score. The DVD also contains Ferdinand Leger's 1935 experimental film 'Ballet Mechanique', made to be shown synchronised with the music, as well as useful interviews with archivist and composer Charles Amirkhanian, film composer David Raksin, composer Henry Brant and several others. Total time just under 3 hours.
	CAGE, JOHN: 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs Code:Mode204 Price: £22.03 Quantity in Basket: none
1977 Cage wrote 49 Waltzes for Rolling Stone magazine (to mark its relocation to New York from the West coast). Not long after, a score was published by Peters consisting of a map of the Five Boroughs scored by 49 coloured triangles. The exact location of the three points of each triangle are then listed: 149 addresses in all. This is the first full and serious realisation of this score, as a 2 hour sound video that lingers for chance derived durations at each location recording what there is to see and hear. There is, unsurprisingly, remarkable diversity; it's New York you wouldn't normally see, or remember: a record of ephemera. Video by Don Gillespie and Roberta Friedman, with various extras, features and an additional audio realisation of the score.
	CAGE, JOHN: From zero Code:mode130 Price: £18.21 Quantity in Basket: none
Four films on John Cage by Frank Scheffer and Andrew Culver. Includes 19 QUESTIONS: Cage answers 19 questions on a variety of subjects, using chance operations to determine the duration of his answers. FOURTEEN: performed by the Ives Ensemble and filmed with multiple cameras using chance operations to determine the position, angle, focus and aperture settings of each shot, and to determine the edits. PAYING ATTENTION: in the spirit of the Cage-Cunningham co-temporal works, Scheffer worked with the video and Culver with the audio (an interview with Cage) separately. Thethe two run simultaneously. OVERPOPULATION AND ART WITH RYOANJI: The audio combines Cage's spoken performance of his text Overpopulation and Art simultaneously with his Ryoanji for four voices and percussion.
	CAGE, JOHN: One 11 with 103 and One11 (1992) Code:Mode174 Price: £18.21 Quantity in Basket: none
A film without a subject by John Cage, produced and directed by Henning Lohner with 103 for large orchestra (1992) the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln (or Spoleto Festival Orchestra) (90 minutes) Cage created this, his only feature-length film - for camera person and light - in the year he died. No people and no things and no ideas about repetition and variation, just empty space and varying intensities of light., accompanied by the orchestral work 103."Of course the film will be about the effect of light in an empty space. But no space is actually empty and the light will show what is in it. And all this space and all this light will be controlled by random operations." The DVD offers a choice of two orchestral soundtracks, plus a 43-minute documentary on the creative process and realization of the film made for television by Henning Lohner, with new narration by Joan La Barbara. Plus an interview with Van Carlson & Henning Lohner in 2006 discussing their work with Cage, the film and the technical challenges of its realisation (33 minutes).
	CUTLER, CHRIS: June 12 1998. Edge of Chaos Code:cutlerChaso Price: £22.00 Quantity in Basket: none
THE LAST 10 copies of a film by Shinji Aoyama that documents a solo concert in Tokyo, with set-up, sound-check and interview material. While we have them. Shinji Aoyama's documentary of an early solo concert in Tokyo, with soundcheck and Interview materials. 65 minutes. "This is a documentary recording of a solo concert I did in Tokyo in 1998 (first part is set-up and sound-check interpolated with interview extracts) made by award winning director Shinji Aoyama. It captures a moment, and finds your reporter refreshingly (or irritatingly) incoherent (it's no flattering confection); and while the set-up is long, maybe overlong (with interesting extraneous stuff going on) on the other hand, it's really not glamorised or staged - so there is a strangely artless feeling about it (they filmed very discreetly). And the concert is, well - what it is - as improvised concerts are. I may be the worst person to ask, but I do find it pleasingly straightforward, warts and all."
	DADA CINEMA: Richter, Ray, Eggeling, Clair, Leger (DVD) Code:dadaCinemaRichter Price: £23.50 Quantity in Basket: none
A classic collection including the early influential abstracts Rhythmus 21 (1921) by Hans Richter and the legendary Symphonie Diagonale by Viking Eggeling. Richter is also represented by his later Film Studie, and Ghosts before Breakfast. There are two Man Ray films, Le Retour a la Raison and Emak Bakia, plus Ferdinand Leger's Ballet Mechanique (made to accompany George Antheil's notorious score) and Entracte, made by Rene Clair and Francis Picabia for the Dada Ballet Relache - with music by Erik Satie. Performers include Erik Satie, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Darius Milhaud, Marcel Duchamp, Kiki, Paul Hindemith and Hans Richter.
	DECODER DVD Code:decoderDVD Price: £17.00 Quantity in Basket: none
I can't recommend it, but we have some because it's historically significant and I know a few of you will be interested. Cult German narrative film from 1984 based on writings by William Burroughs (a kind of non-fun paranoid '80s version of the blaxploitative Space is the Place). Bill himself appears, along with FM Einheit, Christiane F, Genesis P Orridge and Bill Rice. The plot concerns sound experiments, tape- terrorism, multinational companies and street fighting. With English subtitles. Plus: trailer, 46 minute interview with director Klaus Maek, footage of Derk Jarman filming Burroughs, Berlin riot footage (why not?). Music by Soft Cell, The The, Einstuurtzende Neubauten, Dave Ball and Genesis P.
	DIERMIER, ZAPPI / FAUST: Impressions Code:HTCD013 Price: £16.45 Quantity in Basket: none
Opening with a short movie made at Wumme in the '70s (though you don't see a great deal more than the group around a table and some studio shots) this is a DVD by original Faust drummer Werner 'Zappi' Diermier of mostly existing Faust recordings, a couple live, and three unreleased pieces, with additional percussion by Zappi, mastered in 5.1 surround sound with accompanying video impressions of the music, also by Zappi. Abstract processing work, superimposition, intercut older footage, location art photography all montaged together.There's also a second, bonus, DVD, with sound only, containing 4 original soundtracks (Zappi) from a work in progress.
	DUMITRESCU, IANCU / ANA MARIA AVRAM and the IO QUARTET: London, Conway Hall, 2008 Code:EDMN5002 Price: £15.75 Quantity in Basket: none
The HYPERION ENSEMBLE with the IO quartet (NY) and soloists Tom Hodgkinson (clarinet, bassclarinet) and Gustavo Aguilar (percussion) play Roots and Rhizomes, Monoliths (Alpha) and Monoliths (Beta) by Dumitrescu and Noumena IV, Voices of the Desert and Labyrinthe (IV) by Avram. Concert recordings
	DUMITRESCU, IANCU / ANA MARIA AVRAM: Live in London, 2008 Code:EDMN5001 Price: £15.75 Quantity in Basket: none
New York string quartet IO perform Spectrum and Perspectives au Movemur by Iamcu Dumitrescu and Nouvelle Axe (V) and Ikarus (IV) by Ana Maria Avram. Concert recordings.
	EFI XIROU. IANNIS XENAKIS: Charisma X Code:Mode218DVD Price: £18.75 Quantity in Basket: none
A documentary film that presents the visionary work and ideas of Iannis Xenakis - structured around musical performances, interviews and testimonies from his collaborators. With performances by Sylvio Gualda, Elisabeth Chojnacka, Benny Sluichin, Frances-Marie Uitti, Lori Freedman, Christophe Roy, and Spiros Sakkas. Xenakis speaks and is seen in rare archival footage of performances of Polytope de Mycenae, La Legénde d?eer and the opera Oresteia. It examines his architecture, including the Philips Pavilion at Expo 58, the convent of La Tourette and his own house in Corsica, and investigates the UPIC - Xenakis? pioneering system which allowed music to be composed by drawing on a computer screen - a culmination of his quest to turn forms realised in space into sound.
	FAUST: Nobody knows if it ever happened [DVD] Code:faustHappened Price: £18.21 Quantity in Basket: none
At last, a well made film that captures the intensity, caprice, craziness and visionary beauty of Faust's late '90s performances, when, for a moment the core members of the original band were temporarily reconciled. Professionally filmed at the legendary 1996 Faust Garage concert, this release fills in what has until now been sorely missing from the record - the sheer physicality of Faust's performances: the litter of scrap, cement mixers, hay blowing machines, angle-grinders and instruments that form their workplace (shared here with sculptress Insa Winkler, toiling away on sheet steel with an oxy-acetylene welder throughout the show). In the middle of the stage hangs a battery of drums, chunks of wood and metal, mounted on a massive open frame, and around it bassist Jean-Herve Peron and drummer Zappi Diermier prowl and play in constant motion. Peron takes time out to strip and fling buckets of paint at a huge white wall of blank LP covers; Zappi attacks his kit with sticks like tree trunks. Meanwhile, organist Jochen Irmler sits placidly in the wreckage, smiling the same smile whether he is unleashing the hounds of hell or underpinning the chaos with meditative drifting pitches. Alongside, guest guitarist Steven Wray Lobdell creates sheets of noise that keep the whole juggernaut rolling, now and then stepping out to tear a hole in it. Between firestorms are quieter moments, enigmatic events, which emerge and then sink back into time. This is not quite the dignified revival expected of rock legends: no question of a perfect sound or mature stage act for Faust. This show, like all their shows during this period, is a tempest of chaos, disruption and moment to moment action. No band was ever more phenomenologically driven than Faust. Sparks fly, machines rattle, the room fills with smoke, and eventually we all wind up on the street as the band stumbles out, and the fire engines arrive. Classic. The DVD also includes 'Struktur' - an exclusive 50 minute behind-the-scenes document shot by the late Arthur Howes, and a bonus performance of Flashback Caruso. It is packaged with commissioned liner notes from Andy Wilson author of 'Stretch Out Time'. And indispensable release for any Faust fan. Official release date 23 April. Sign up now and it will go out to reach you just before it hits the shops.
	FRITH, FRED DVD: Step Across the Border Code:915001-7 Price: £27.03 Quantity in Basket: none
Long awaited reissue of this excellently made (and serial award-winning) film about and featuring Fred - at work, rest and in interview mode - moving through Japan, Italy, France, Germany, England, Switzerland and America, alone and in the musical company of Iva Bittova, Tom Cora, Joey Barron, Rene Lussier, Haco, Zeena Parkins, Bob Ostertag, John Zorn, Art Lindsay, Tim Hodgkinson and others. Part documentary, part visual meditation with soundtrack, this edition comes with a great deal of extra footage. Pretty indispensable. Film 1 hour 23. Plus Bonus tracks, 30 mins. French, German, Japanese, Portugese and Spanish subtitles. (Friends of Fred price 22)
	HUMBERT, NICHOLAS - PENZEL, WERNER: Middle of the Moment Code:W&W915002-7 Price: £27.03 Quantity in Basket: none
DVD. After their prize-winning movie about Fred, the Cinenomads made 'a cinepoem about nomadic life' with Fred providing an integral sound track, which also won a stack of prizes. [Much of this soundtrack appears on Fred's CD of the same name]. It's a fascinating film and for those who only know the soundtrack adds dense layers of data. Their nomads are not simply Saharan tribes but the 'Cirque O', on it's 2 year tour 'creating a furor everywhere', and poet Robert Lax. It looks at the idea of present time. There are also two bonus shorts, one of Cirque O tightrope performer Johann le Guillerm (18 min) with soundtrack by Chris Cutler and Fred Frith from the Prague and Washington CD, and one a homage to poet Robert Lax. (24 min). 2 hours of intense sight and sound. Origin, Germany.
	LISBOA RELOADED: Audio Visual Projections of The White City Code:RealAambientVol5 Price: £19.98 Quantity in Basket: none
Here are five pieces centred around environmental recordings by five authors: Hans Ulrich Werner, Carlos Alberto Augusto, Christoph Korn, Michael Rusenberg and Carlos Zingaro. Werner's piece, with sound by Michael Rusenberg, is a video montage of street scenes, art shots and urban sounds, Augusto's an audio work (in stereo and 5.1 surround) with some additional guitar, Korn adds violin (by Carlos Zingaro) to an ambient working around a street musician, with visuals in the form of carefully crafted, related, text, Rusenberg's is a long, excellent, soundwork taken at a river jetty by a giant bridge (with added percussion orchestra, choir and occasional narration), Zingaro works with abstract facades and distressed walls, aurally and visually represented. 80+ minutes, half in a choice of 4.00, 5.00 and 5.1 audio.
	MAGMA DVD: Myths & Legends Vol 1 Code:magmaDVDMyths1 Price: £18.51 Quantity in Basket: none
The first of a series of 4 DVDs that document the legendary 4 week occupation of 'Le Triton' in Paris, during which the entire history of Magma's music was presented by both the current band and members of the old. Vol 1, part 1 contains early pieces, with a single keyboard and the redoubtable Klaus Blasqiz singing - a pleasure to see him again - with new and elaborate brass arrangements. The second half moves into more familiar territory with Theusz Hamtaahk. It's clear what a leap this is. Contents: Malaria Staoh, Iss Lansei Doia, Aurae, Kobaia, Theusz Hamtaahk part 1, Sowiloi and Kmxb12. 125 minutes. All regions
	MAGMA DVD: Myths & Legends Vol 3 Code:MagmaMythsVol3 Price: £17.63 Quantity in Basket: none
	MAGMA: Bobino 1981 Concert Code:AKTVIDV Price: £24.68 Quantity in Basket: none
Reissue of the Video on DVD.
	MAGMA: Myths & Legends Vol 2 (DVD) Code:EPOK2 Price: £18.51 Quantity in Basket: none
Somehow missed when it came out, this is Vol. 2 of the massive retrospective recorded at the Triton in 2005. 2 hours of the 10 piece band (4 singers), which on this evening included Jannick Top - and an uncredited appearance by the great Klaus Blasqiz. They play Wurdah Itah (aka Tristan & Isolde), Mekanik Destriktiw Kommandoh, De Futura and Quadrivium. Just Tristan and Mekanik make this a precious document, for their compositional economy and transparency, precision, exquisite articulation, breathtaking control of tempi and dynamics, and sheer concentration. In my opinion it would have been a kindness to edit out Jannick Top's bass solo in the middle of Mekanik. I would skip the guitar solo that follows it too - it's fine in its way, but it interrupts the tight structure of the composition which deserves to stand alone. But that's me. De Futura is rather weak in the company of Vander's compositions, though there are good sections and it improves as it goes along. And it is good to hear Klaus. Jannick's bass solo around the Bach's Suite for Cello No.3 is also in the programme... I'm not sure why, but he's no improviser. In spite of the criticisms, this is still is a must for the 90 breathtaking minutes of Tristan and Mekanik. DVD all region - 2 hours - PAL or NTSC.PCM stereo - 16/9 compatible 4/3.
	MAGMA: Myths & Legends Vol 4 Code:EPOK4 Price: £18.51 Quantity in Basket: none
Last in the retrospective cycle. A 16 strong Magma performs Zess, In a dream, The night we died, Otis, K.A Kobaia with the participation of Klaus Blasquiz, Jannick Top, Rémi Dumoulin, Fabrice Theuillon and Yannick Soccal. DVD all region - 2 hours - PAL or NTSC.PCM stéréo - 16/9 compatible 4/3
	MAGMA: Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogy DVD Code:MAGMADVD Price: £24.09 Quantity in Basket: none
(DVD) As Video in last update.
	MARCLAY, CHRISTIAN: Record Player Code:CMVID Price: £24.68 Quantity in Basket: none
A 42 minute Swiss Documentary of Christian's turntable work made in Switzerland with large concert chunks (alone, with Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, with Eliott Sharp and DJ Soulslinger, with DJ Olive and Erik M. Christian explains how he got there, demonstrates some techniques and preparations and meditates on the turntable, improvisation, and the difference between the sonic and the visual arts (in French, mostly, subtitled in English). Expensive, but a very small edition and all there is. Well made.
	MARTUSCIELLO, ELIO: To extend the visibility DVD Code:martuscielloExtend Price: £20.00 Quantity in Basket: none
In a limited Edition of 2000 numbered copies this DVD comes in a threefold art DVD case with a full colour 48 page book offereng substantial exegetical essays (in English and Italian) by Tim Hodgkinson and Sebastiano Giacobello) and additional artwork by Ale Sordi and Ester Curcio. It s is a fully integrated electronic composition/animation exploring and aestheticising the contemporary fact of the digital unification of visual and aural data. It is also a meditation on the earth, its fragility, order, chaos, art and hubris. In six explorations, using all manner of digital processing techniques Elio animates abstract sequences of imagery derived from satellite pictures of our beleaguered planet and a mixture of concrete and synthetic - always highly composed and processed - sound. It is neither a film with soundtrack nor a composition with pictures but rather a contribution to a still unfamiliar medium, a rather demanding medium. Essentially it is a domestic installation, or the C21 multimedia version of a small print edition.
	NOISES AND WHISPERS IN THE AVANT GARDES (1909-1945). The Laboratory of Intermedia Creations of the D Code:noiseWhisper Price: £24.68 Quantity in Basket: none
These 2 DVDs document the important 2006 exhibition Noises and Whispers in the Avant Garde which catalogued and presented reconstructions of sound events and experiments from across the world in the first third of the twentieth century. They contain a short film of the exhibition itself, a selection of interviews with the main protagonists (in Spanish), the full contents of the double CD sold during the exhibition, .pdf files of the printed catalogue - as well as the CD contents, recordings and catalogues of several other related exhibitions, a film of highlights of a reconstruction of a Bauhaus concert in the '20s (part of the exhibition programme), two songs by Theodore Adorno, weblinks and related materials. Some screen text is translated into English. There is no one else so far as I know is engaged in this valuable research and reconstruction work, the sculpture department in Valencia is breaking new ground. This release will be of significant interest to specialists, students, university departments and scholars of early C20 avant gardes' use of sound. This is a one-off printing in a small edition.
	OSWALD, JOHN: the arc of apparitions & instandstillness Code:oswaldArcDVD Price: £18.21 Quantity in Basket: none
77 minute DVD that was premiered in April 2004 at the Images International Film and Video Festival in Toronto. Static but relentlessly changing a ghostly crowd of 88 sometimes dressed, sometimes naked, citizens of Quebec very slowly incorporate or desubstantiate, and that's all. Somewhere between still and moving image, this is essentially a gallery work, strangely hypnotic, very stylised. Limited number.
	PARTCH, HARRY: Delusion of the Fury (Enclosure 7) Code:Innova407 Price: £17.04 Quantity in Basket: none
There are two films here, one a full-length 1969 16mm recording of Delusion of the Fury, which mostly documents a real-time performance at UCLA (visually it's a cross between Noh and non European dance). There is also occasional outside footage added in as the piece goes on. An important document, but rather dry. Unless you have 5.1 (the soundtrack has been remixed in this home cinema format), or your TV is connected to your hi-fi sound system, it's probably better to listen to the CD. The second film is a documentary about Partch, made in 1972 and revised in 2005 when additional archival material was added. There is much excellent footage of HP, his remarkable instruments, and some performance extracts. Bonus materials include a TV extract from a 1961 performance of Revelation in the Courthouse Park, which is extremely interesting - I wish there were more of this - and a slideshow of Partch's instruments. For the documentary and the extract from Revelation alone, this is invaluable.
	PARTCH, HARRY: Enclosure 8 Code:Innova399 Price: £17.04 Quantity in Basket: none
This collects - extensively restored and re-synched - the content of two earlier videos. One containing the 4 excellent films made by Madeline Tourtelot: Music Studio Harry Partch (1958) in which Partch takes a tour of his Chicago home, plays his instruments and demonstrates a prescient use of overdubbing in the demonstration of the production of his recording for the soundtrack of Windsong (1958) - the ancient Greek legend of Daphne and Apollo transported to Lake Michigan; U.S. Highball (1958, completed in 1968) where Partch and his ensemble perform a dramatized account of riding the rails in depression America and Rotate the Body in All Its Planes (1961), apparently Harry's favourite: a ballet for gymnasts. Then there are the later, longer, films: Delusion of the Fury (his last ritual-theatre work) and the 1968 San Diego TV documentary The Music of Harry Parch. Added here, for the first time in any medium, are two performances made after Partch's death in 1974: a 1981 staged production of Barstow, directed by Danlee Mitchell and a 2006 choreographed version of Castor & Pollux, performed by John Schneider's Ensemble Partch, using replicas of Partch's original instruments. The DVD is accompanied with a 12-page booklet of writings by Philip Blackburn, Danlee Mitchell, and Partch himself. Indispensible
	PRESENT: Barbaro (Ma non troppo) DVD + CD Code:adhoc3031 Price: £26.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Formed by Roger Trigaux after he left Univers Zero to follow an even darker and more insistent musical path, built on complex additive rhythms, obsessive iteration and modernist mechanic precision, Present seems here to have found a solid, dependable line-up that can give the compositions their best expression. The CD offers three long pieces, all through-composed, with insistent iterations, big piano, strong cello, shifting accents and slow melodic colouration - all played at a high level of competence. Hard not to file in the (very) rough vicinity of Magma. On the DVD are 3 hours of (mostly) professionally recorded, multi-camera videos of fine live performances in France and Portugal. With impeccably mixed sound. The DVD is persuasive - this music, this band, makes a lot more sense when ear can follow eye through gesture and grimace; then it's gripping, as well as technically impressive. Rhythm team Dave Kerman and Keith Macksoud do sterling work making reiteration convincing. The DVD closes with three extra film extracts from earlier days, featuring other incarnations of the band, all impressive (one with Daniel Denis at the kit). Bands like this are an endangered species. This is less barbaro, than ostinato, martellato, funebre, giusto & imperio.
	PROVINI, HERVE: Cyber@Musique Code:proviniCyberDVD Price: £17.63 Quantity in Basket: none
Ahead of the game, here Provini presents, in 5.1 surround sound, a music, mostly percussive, derived from a customised programme that brings composition, improvisation and real time processing together through algorithms that calculate, modify and position sounds in space. Provini, an excellent percussionist builds this net of sound around himself and his performances (these pieces are, interestingly, made without overdubbing) in a wholly musical and performative (though 'impossible') way. The DVD will play in stereo if you don't have 5.1 or home cinema, and is still fascinating.
	RAY, MAN: Les Films de Man Ray Code:manRayLesFilms Price: £25.85 Quantity in Basket: none
Man Ray made 4 films in the 1920s, which secured his place as a major figure in avant-garde cinema. They are collected here along with ten seldom seen short autobiographical films. All the films are in French with English subtitles. Contents: Le Retour à la Raison, Emak Bakia, L'Étoile de Mer, Les Mystères du Château du Dé. All zones PAL DVD. 112 minutes, with bilingual booklet.
	RIVERS AND TIDES-Working with time: Dir Thomas Riedelsheimer Code:DVDRiversTides Price: £23.50 Quantity in Basket: none
An exemplary 91 minute documentary on the work of the great British land artist Andy Goldsworthy, with the added bonus of a very fine soundtrack by British composer Fred Frith. Made for Arte and subsequently distributed for cinema exhbition worldwide. All zones. In German or English with German and French subtitles. With 60 minutes of equally inspiring extra materials, documenting further works.
	SHARP, ELLIOTT: The Velocity of Hue/Live in Cologne (DVD) Code:sharpVelocityDVD Price: £15.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Well made video by Pavel Borodin.
	SUN RA - PHIL NIBLOCK: The Magic Sun Code:DJ861 Price: £10.58 Quantity in Basket: none
In the mid '60s (that's all the information we get) Phil Niblock made this experimental film with the Arkestra, very close-up and all in negative - leaving interesting mostly abstract shapes flickering and shifting. The music by the New York Sun Ra Arkestra of the time (now in 5.1 surround) is great, classic mid 60's Ra. In addition there is a gallery of phots accompanied by four short pieces by Le Sonny: a statement - about life, music, his destiny, and three poems from the Immeasurable equation, accompanied by Ra on electric piano. About 40 minutes total.
	SUN RA AND HIS INTERGALACTIC SOLAR RESEARCH ARKESTRA: Helsinki 1971 (2 CDs and 1 DVD) Code:Transparency0314 Price: £17.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Transparency's 20th RA release - and a real gem: a complete two and a half hour concert in high broadcast quality by the 29 piece early '70s band with June Tyson. Everyone on top form, it evolves like a great nomadic civilisation with one fine solo after another, great arrangements, lengthy extraterrestrial Moog solos, some great vibraphone and a succession of classic Ra compositions. And it's impressively cheap. The DVD contains a short interview with Sun Ra filmed on the day of the concert which has not been seen since its original broadcast. The whole thing licensed from The Finnish Broadcasting Company, with nice photos in the booklet. Tracks for those who wish to know are: Stargazers, Enlightment, Love in Outer Space, Watusi, Calling Planet Earth, Space is the Place, Angels ands Demons at play, Satellites are Spinning, Second stop is Jupiter, Somewhere Else, Nature's God, Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child and a couple of Discipline numbers.
	TAYLOR, HOLLIS: Post Impressions Code:taylorPostImpressions Price: £24.68 Quantity in Basket: none
DVD with 244 pp17.5 x 25 cm paperback book. 88 colour plates. Violinists JON ROSE and HOLLIS TAYLOR travel 25,000 miles playing (and documenting) the Great fences of Australia, including the now famous Rabbit-Proof Fence and the 3300-mile-long Dingo Fence. They meet, amongst others, a flying priest, an auctioneer, an aboriginal gum leaf virtuoso, Central Australia's first piano, a singing dingo and various fence runners, and survive a plague of flies, a flea infestation, various deadly snakes, crocodiles, heatstroke, floods, storms and bush fires. This travelogue lets you trot safely alongside and includes a substantial and exhaustive DVD documenting 40 outback fenceDUBUFFETperformances, colour photos, fence music and birdsong transcriptions. Remarkable. WEIGHT - PLEASE ADD £ 3.50 for SHIPPING OUTSIDE EUROPE.
	THE HANIWA ALLSTARS Code:MHBL1039 Price: £23.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Just stunning. I have followed Kiohiko Semba since I first encountered Wha Ha Ha, in Tokyo, in the early '80s: master drummer, eccentric genius and all round prankster, he then produced one of the truly great records of the decade: Kanishabali. Now, this DVD documents another of his '80s projects: The Haniwa Allstars - in this version, a massive 54 piece costumed ensemble, featuring both western and traditional, electric and acoustic instruments, accompanied by a succession of singers who collectively rip through a programme of original and covered materials. There is an open-ness to every level of serious and frivolous music here, and a kind of joy in mixing it all up that I have only ever seen work convincingly in Japan (Zappa covered much of the ground, but always came to it through the dark glass of irony, Sun Ra was closer, but eschewed normality and made high cultural claims. Haniwa does neither of these things, resting its case instead on intelligent fun). The DVD is beautifully and professionally made, and a joy to watch and listen to: the musicianship is breathtaking, the arrangements fantastic, and there is minute attention to detail with no apparent effort as well as humour with no implicit criticism. Add discipline, a kind of enigmatic modesty, and a refreshing respect for the essence of things (their version of YMCA is an education) and you get pure 90 minutes of pure pleasure.. That they managed to do it at all, and then that it was so well documented - well what are the odds of that? A phenomenon. Japanese import in limited supply.
	Taylor Hollis Special Code:TaylorSpecial Price: £31.73 Quantity in Basket: none
TAYLOR, HOLLIS: Post Impressions & Taylor / Jon Rose: Infidels for a special price.
	VARIOUS ARTISTS - Starkland DVD: Immersion Code:VARIOUS-STARKLANDDVD:Immersion Price: £16.45 Quantity in Basket: none
Specially commissioned Surround Sound works by 13 composers, including Pamela Z, Bruce Odland, Carl Stone, Ellen Fullman, Paul Dresher, Lukas Ligeti, Pauline Olivieros, Paul Dolden,Merdith Monk. Only suitable for DVD reproduction, though there is also a stereo reduction of the material on the disc, as well as some 90 images that display as the sound unfolds.
	WASSERMAN, UTE, PHIL MINTON, THOMAS LEHN: Speak easy - The Loft Concert (DVD) Code:wassermanMintonLehnDVD Price: £15.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Well made video by Pavel Borodin.