Of Interest

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

	4tRECK: Je me Promenade Code:PS016 Price: £11.75 Quantity in Basket: none
Some will remember his series of CDR releases. Here is the next Installment, this time a commercially produced CD.
	5 COMPOSERS: 3rd Hearing Code:FYCD1006 Price: £8.23 Quantity in Basket: none
	ABRAHAMS, CHRIS: Glow Code:ABRAHAMSGlow Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
The Necks pianist solo CD. Own label. Australian import .Limited Supply.
	AGUILAR, GUSTAVO: Unsettled on an old sense of place Code:Henceforth103 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
6 pieces, for different resources and lots of processing. Most interesting is the solo electric guitar piece, which offers a new twist on an old instrument. Also the solo snare drum piece is interesting - essentially one event and a lot of pasting and processing. Then a piece for voice and (multi, processed, glockenspiel(s). Anne Le Baron and Mary Oliver appear on another.
	AHLEUCHATISTAS: What you will Code:Rune221 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Fast and furious, complex, magic band influence. A band that plays instruments and has ideas. A bit one-dimensional but interesting.
	AHVAK: Ahvak Code:Rune185 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Extremely competent, fast and furious Israeli group after the American post-prog style (excuse the terrible terminology), with Dave Kerman at the drums. Angular melodies, tricky unison rhythms and linking experimental sonic passages.
	ALAN LICHT: A New York Minute (dbl CD) Code:XI128 Price: £19.39 Quantity in Basket: none
With the exception of the title track (15 minutes) these are drone pieces, mostly for guitar, one for organ - and as such, you will like them if you like that sort of thing. He does it well, has worked with the full catalogue of Names. It was the title track I found interesting: a compilation of a month of New York radio weather reports.
	ALEXANDERSON, MAGNUS: Stretched In the Dark Code:EM1010 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Three nicely made drone pieces, using concrete, computer and midi guitar techniques.
	ALTERED STATES: Bluffs Code:icr011.012 Price: £19.39 Quantity in Basket: none
The redoubtable Uchihasi Kasuhisa, master drummer Yoshigaki Yasuhiro and bassist Nasuno MIitsurou play up a storm in a form few have the ability - or the chops - to attempt: this is quasi abstract rock improvisation which is constantly listenable and convincing, and never flashy or concerned with technique. They stay focused on the music and the sound. And they think fast. Who else is doing this? Especially when you hear it done this well, it reminds you that music is essentially about the intimacy between players, between an individual musician and his or her instrument, and between performers and the people for whom they perform.
	AMP: Sirenes Code:AMPCD Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
	ARCHER, MARTIN - MONK, GERALDINE : Angel High Wires Code:LCVP149CD Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
12 songs inspired by Schubert, assembled using pre-recorded material supplied by Philip Thomas (prepared piano) & Chris Cutler (processed percussion), performed material by Chris Meloche (electronics), Charlie Collins (flute) & Mick Beck (bassoon), and sung by Julie Tippets, Steve Roden, Sedayne and Rachel McCarron. Sparse, abstract, austere.
	ARCURI, SERGE: Les Meandres du Reve Code:IMED9310CD Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
	ARKHAM: Arkham Code:Rune160 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Strictly for fans or historians. 1970-72 demos of highly Soft Machine derivative keyboard dominated trio (compositionally repetitive and predictable) - Daniel Denis' pre Necronomicon pre Univers Zero group.
	ASAHARA, MSAYO: Saint Agnes Fountain Code:AL007 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Product of a masters degree on US minimalists (esp. La Monte Young and Tony Conrad) and a penchant for Faust and Soft Machine, this is an interrupted drone based piece for organ, of slow subtle changes with increasing complexity and added materials (bass trombone, bass guitar, drums, trumpet, tenor sax, radio). Interesting because it was made in 1974, and doesn't quite fit into any of the genres that inspired it. Minimal though..
	ASCIONE, PATRICK: Polyphonie-polychromes Code:IMED9522CD Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
	BACH/SCHNEBAL: Curved Bow, Diess Code:MODE52 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
	BAILEY, DEREK: To Play Code:ss008 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
His last studio recording; produced by David Sylvian.
	BALDAH, BEBO: Soniaskiri Code:SUBCD0025-47 Price: £15.33 Quantity in Basket: none
	BALESTRACCI, FRANCK : Existences Invisibles CDR Code:FRANCKBALESTRACCI:ExistencesInvisiblesCDR Price: £12.93 Quantity in Basket: none
An interesting CDR release of fairly involved pieces that would fit at the non pompous fringe of what has come to be known a Îprogâ, but with hints of Magma, film music, a little Jazzrock where all instruments (means drums and all manner of keyboards a lot of synth -are played by Frank.
	BARRET, NATASHA: Isostasie Code:IMED0262 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Installation pieces mostly, well crafted.
	BARRETO, JORGE LIMA, VITOR RUA: Telectu Solos - Dbl CD Code:BA00201 Price: £18.21 Quantity in Basket: none
Prepared Piano. Customised Midified Guitar.
	BARTLEY, WENDE: Claire-voie Code:IMED9414CD Price: £9.09 Quantity in Basket: none
	BAUER, KONRAD.: Toronto Tone Code:VICTOCD017 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
	BAUER, KONRAD: 3 Wheels in 4 Directions Code:VICTOCD023 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
	BEAUPRE,YVES: Humeur de facteur Code:IMED0160 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Good but not exceptional pieces, very carefully crafted with fine passages.
	BEHRENS, M: Advanced Enviromental Control Code:TOC953 Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
	BEHRENS, M: Four Installations Code:TOC992 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
	BI KYO RAN: Parallax Code:BELLE95186 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
Classy 'progressive' rock.
	BIANCHI, MAURIZIO: Endometrio Code:9MB009 Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
Released as an LP in the beginning of the 1980s and now reissued by Alga Marghen as a CD. Called by its creator 'bionic music', this was claimed to be different from other kinds of electronic music. There are many words in sentences that are grammatically correct that explain this, but they don't convey much real information to me. That said, this is typical of many roaring, modulating drone projects from that period and is a good example of the genre - the 'Industrial/Death' wave so beloved of adolescent boys More interesting are the 8 short snippets at the end of the two 22 minute drones.
	BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC: Faultline Code:RUNE19 Price: £12.00 Quantity in Basket: none
	BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC: Petrophonics Code:Rune137 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
	BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC: Pyroclastics Code:RUNE35 Price: £12.00 Quantity in Basket: none
	BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC: The Iridium Controversy Code:CN20179 Price: £12.00 Quantity in Basket: none
	BJORKMAN and KRAKATU: Ritual Code:RUNE86 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
	BLACK AUKS, THE: No Second takes Code:THEBLACKAUKS:NoSecondtakes Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Newfoundland Rock Improvisers. Local pressing. Rare
	BLAST: Stringy Rugs Code:RUNE95 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
	BLINDMAN KWARTET: Poortenbos Code:SUBCD0020-42 Price: £13.05 Quantity in Basket: none
	BLOCK, OLIVIA: Mobius Fuse Code:sedCD031 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
	BLONK, JAAP, MAKAGAMI, KOICHI, DUTTON, PAUL, MINTON, PHIL, MOSS, DAVID: Five Men Singing Code:VICTOCD092 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Ensemble Vocal pieces. Only here because it is part of the catalogue of not-singing things that can be done with the human voice. These are accomplished performers, however, beyond information, I find it hard to listen to. Maybe it's my fault - I am instinctively irritated by some of the sounds. The voice, so basic to human communication, is something we are hardwired to interpret as meaning something. So in the absence of composition or melody or harmony, many of these sounds convey to me (I'm sure unintendedly) narcissism, caprice, vulgarity and the infantile. I know: Berio-Berberian, I know: Schwitters - but they all worked with composition and intended effect; I have the feeling that the pieces on this CD, with their admirable dedication to 'pure' sound, abstract structure and the internal concentration of improvisation, fail to address the question of communication and in so failing leave the sounds to the reactions of the listener - which is where hardwiring takes over: for us the voice is simply incapable of disinterested abstraction. For me, and in the absence of any other organising centre, the vulgar and infantile parts of vocalisation remain vulgar and infantile, while the avoidance of concord signals a kind of desperation.
	BLONK, JAAP: Ursonate Code:BASTA3091452 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Kurt Schwitters' legendary 'sonata in primordial sounds', a tour de force of abstract voice composition (the entire phonetic text is printed in the book) here in two versions by Jaap Blonk, one made in 1986 (and not released then for legal reasons) and a live version made in 2003 in a powerful acoustic space. In structure, there are 4 movements, with themes and developments, each centred on a clear structural idea, with a cadenza as the 4th part. A critical art-historical work, very plausibly performed (maybe a little overserious). Dry, austere and not for everyone.