Bis Aufs Messer Weekly news 01 June 2022
Hi. Welccome to another newsletter - a couple cool things arrived this week like the new ANGEL OLSEN - Big Time DLP, LÄUTEN DER SEELE - Läuten der Seele LP, BIZARRE Ko.Ko.Ko. - 00 Time LP re issue, IURY LECH - Musica Para El Fin De Los Cantos LP Re Issue, LES CALAMITES - Encore! 1983-1987 LP (!!!), MERZBOW & LAWRENCE ENGLISH - Eternal Stalker LP, RAPHAEL - Stop, Look, Listen LP (TIP!!), a few NEIN RODERE – For Unprepared Voice and Guitar TAPES, the amazing MORDWAFFE - That's Also Practice TAPE, a few new Books from WOLKE, REIKO & TORI KUDO - Tangerine LP restock (!!!), SIMON JOYNER - Songs from a Stolen Guitar LP and more …
We also have a Vernissage this weekend starting with our friend Andi Dvorak from fettkakao.
https://www.facebook.com/events/413728420394763?ref=newsfeed
Til then thank you for all your orders & support.
Robert & Norman
mailorder@bisaufmesser.com
www.adagio830-records.bandcamp.com
LP
ANGEL OLSEN - Big Time DLP (Fresh grief, like fresh love, has a way of sharpening our vision and bringing on painful clarifications. No matter how temporary we know these states to be, the vulnerability and transformation they demand can overpower the strongest among us. Then there are the rare, fertile moments when both occur, when mourning and limerence heighten, complicate and explain each other; the songs that comprise Angel Olsen’s Big Time were forged in such a whiplash. Big Time is an album about the expansive power of new love, but this brightness and optimism is tempered by a profound and layered sense of loss. During Olsen’s process of coming to terms with her queerness and confronting the traumas that had been keeping her from fully accepting herself, she felt it was time to come out to her parents, a hurdle she’d been avoiding for some time. “Finally, at the ripe age of 34, I was free to be me,” she said. Three days later, her father died and shortly after her mother passed away. The shards of this grief—the shortening of her chance to finally be seen more fully by her parents—are scattered throughout the album. ) 28.00
BIZARRE Ko.Ko.Ko. - 00 Time LP (wah wah - Released on Karl Kronfeld's Synoptik Records, it was the label's only release, thus becoming a rare, sought after, private pressing. Weird, intriguing atmospheres and a plethora of synthesized sounds, sequencers, cold sounding keyboards and even mellotron parts make this a darker offering than Aphorisms Insane. Venturing into stark, spooky post-industrial territories it manages to combine the primitive cosmicism of early Tangerine Dream with the dystopic sound-scapes of Asmus Tietchens, 80's Conrad Schnitzler or the synthetic gothicisms of Peter Frohmader. An album that should appeal not only to fans of cosmic synthetic music, but also those interested in the more experimental strains of cold wave & minimal synth (Robert Rental, Dome, a.o.) The Wah Wah edition is the first ever reissue of this rare sought after collector's item. 100% analogue lacquer cut direct from the original master tape by Moritz illner @ Duophonic Gmbh and reproducing the original Dalí-esque sleeve artwork in a strictly limited edition of 500 copies only.) 26.00
CONRAD SCHNITZLER - Con '84 LP (Bureau b - Composer and conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) was one of the most influential figures of the electronic avant-garde in Germany. In 1967/68, the Joseph Beuys student founded the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, which became a playground for Berlin subculture. In addition to many other musical stations, bustling Schnitzler was a member of the Kraut-Electronic formations Tangerine Dream and Kluster. Numerous solo releases complete his extensive oeuvre. One of them is »CON 84«, probably his most composed work, on which he challenges the traditions of so-called Ernste Musik. The result is a complex electronic sound structure that marks a break with Schnitzler's previous work in a subversive flirtation with traditionalism.) 25.00
DIANE DENOIR - s/t LP (wah wah - One of the most legendary LPs from Uruguay remains a hidden treasure in the rest of the world. It is the first LP by singer Diane Denoir. Diane was a regular in the “Conciertos Beat” (“Beat Concerts”) of Montevideo's 1960s scene where she performed with Eduardo Mateo on guitar (leader of El Kinto, one of the most influential bands in "candombe beat", and the ones who coined the term), Roberto Galletti on drums and Antonio Lagarde on double bass. Diane was also Mateo's muse throughout the early years of his career, he wrote several songs for her, among them “Esa tirsteza,” “Y hoy te vi,” and the classic “Mejor me voy.” Eduardo Mateo would become one of the biggest names of all times in Uruguay's musical scene. Diane, instead, found herself outside the country when the military coup installed a non constitutional government in Urugay in 1973 and was wisely advised by friends not to go back home to avoid trouble with the new dictatorial regime. A brave defendant of Human Rights, she had been very active against torture, thus becoming a target for the dictatorial regime military intelligence. She exiled in Argentina and Venezuela, and she later settled in Europe and didn't perform in public or record again until recent years when she returned to her home country.) 26.00
GNOD - Hexen Valley LP (rocket - The Calder Valley has been well known as a bohemian enclave and epicentre of strange vibrations for decades now. It’s an area of West Yorkshire that extends roughly between Manchester and Leeds across a landscape rugged in aspect and rich in allure. Todmorden, a town within in, has been home to so many UFO sightings that it’s been dubbed ‘The UK”s Roswell’. Sylvia Plath and Emily Brontë were galvanised by its raw beauty. And it’s where Gnod came together to create Hexen Valley. The formation of Hexen Valley began in summer 2021 when Gnod’s Paddy Shine moved to Hebden Bridge to join fellow protagonists Chris Haslam and Jesse Webb in a co-op house at the 200-year-old Nutclough Tavern. As has been the case since the formation of Gnod, the line-up of the collective shifted and morphed to fit circumstances - soon they were joined by fellow Nutclough resident Richard Chamberlain on guitar, and in the Hebden Bridge Underground rehearsal studio the four soon began intensive jamming in which certain distinct songs and themes began to emerge. These were eventually captured by Sam Greenwood in the same studio, with the whole project taking place in both this physical location and its companion headspace. ) 35.00
IURY LECH - Musica Para El Fin De Los Cantos LP (wah wah - This is a very serene, almost entracing record that seems to inhabit its very own space, between "classical" ambient music (Eno, Budd), "systems music" (Reich, Glass, Riley, Hassell), japanese kankyo ongaku (Hiroshi Yoshimura, Takashi Kokubo), even hinting at what would become 90's ambient electronica (B12, Nuron, SAWII-era Aphex Twin or the Fax +49-69/40464 label). Actually, Lech would be one of the few artists to perform at the first-ever Sonar Festival (Barcelona) back in 1994 (together with Suso Saiz, Esplendor Geometrico, Mixmaster Morris or Laurent Garnier). A key early effort from this musician and A/V artist whose career spans well over thirty years and a miriad of works, performances and instalations: Art Futura, Sonar, ISEA, Ars Electrónica (Austria), Festival Videoformes (France), Festival de Nuevas Músicas (Madrid & Sevilla), Ciclo Experimental LEM (Barcelona), Knitting Factory (New York), The Korner (Taipei), Festival Pop Komm (Cologne-Germany), Festival Experimenta (Madrid), Festival DAFT @ Taipei (Taiwan), ART BEIJING, Festival EXIS @ Seúl (South Korea), JMAF (Tokio, Japan) or Artefact:Chernobil 33 (Kiev-Ukraine). The Wah Wah edition has been mastered from the original tapes, reproduces the original sleeve artwork and and features an insert with photos and info.It is a strictly limited edition of 500 copies only.) 26.00
LÄUTEN DER SEELE - Läuten der Seele LP (hands in the dark - back in stock - Behind the mysterious name 'Läuten der Seele' comes the eponymous solo debut-album from Christian Schoppik, half of the confidentially acclaimed experimental dark folk duo Brannten Schnüre from Wurzburg (DE). The record is composed of 12 abstract audio collages based on transformed sampled loops from German 50’s Heimatfilme features -a popular domestic genre involving rural settings, romantic tone and simplistic morality, centered on love, friendship and family- jazzed up with a vast selection of instruments such as accordion, guitar, keyboard, flute and everyday objects sporadically used as percussive elements. Schoppik’s new offering is a surreal -at times epic- and deep listening adventure into half dream/half nightmare atmospheres of nostalgia and bittersweetness, supported by masterfully crafted experimental songwriting and sonic aesthetic. ) 26.00
LONG ORME - s/t LP (wah wah - First ever reissue of this mega rare sought after French acid psych secret! Featuring an insert with liner notes and interviews by Quentin Orléan, plus photos!Limited edition of 500 copies only! Ultra rare, sought after French acid folk psychedelic masterpiece, Long Orme is the work of singer-guitarist-songwriter Yves Fajnberg, his girlfriend singer Anne Marie Butel plus a full cohort of musician friends. The LP was laid down to a 2 track Revox Reel To Reel recorder between late 1974 and early 1975 and originally released in 1975 by Sonart Disques to such a limited run that an original copy sells nowadays for no less than 400 euros.) 26.00
LEROY & ANGELA AUX - Es Gibt Dinge LP (Trikot - Who is Angela Aux, who, with long blond hair, beard and soft songs on the verge of a nervous breakdown, charms the Munich scene with an idiosyncrasy that is hard to resist? Süddeutsche Zeitung: Angela Aux is an artist of contrasts, an artist of playing with identity, a shape-shifter. He balances between Wu-Tang shirt and girl's wig, between haiku and Dostoyevsky. A head that can grasp too much to just follow a straight line - and Angela Aux is a songwriter still worthy of the name, a lyricist, an overflowing notebook, an old-school poet, absorbing and spitting out, too sensitive to all the shit out there, too energetic not to face it. "The lyrics are meant to make people think," says Angela Aux.) 25.00
LES CALAMITES - Encore! 1983-1987 LP (born bad - 18 track compilation of cult '80s French rock band Les Calamités, includes their biggest hit "Vélomoteur" and tracks with the bands the Dogs and The Barracudas. They delivered many covers, which gave an idea of the origins of their songwriting: one foot in the fifties (on the dancefloor), the other in the sixties (in the garage). All of this leading to their final hit, a successful incursion in the top sales with a popular song for everyone to hum at ease, from seaside campsites to the cool kids of the capital. Everything the Calamités touched, with their classy, rigorous, casual ways - plus just enough amused detachment - turned into gold.) 24.00
MARCOS RESENDE & INDEX - s/t LP (far out - Far Out Recordings gives us the previously-unreleased self-titled debut album, recorded in 1976, by immensely talented jazz pianist Marcos Resende and his backing band Index. The group are sadly still quite obscure, notwithstanding the efforts to get Brazilian music a great profile over the last few decades, and this hitherto-unheard gem is a fine snapshot of a time when the country’s instrumental music scene was evolving rapidly.) 26.00
MECANICA POPULAR - Baku: 1922 LP (wah wah - A welcome departure from their first effort, the record has gained greater reconection in recent years when contemporary audiencies could fully aprreciate the strenght and harsher direction the duo decided to take for their follow-up album. More rhythmically-oriented tunes whilst revisiting some old-favorites like Daguerrotipo or La Edad del Bronce (both off their first album, but albeit in new mixes). The Wah Wah edition has been mastered from the original tapes by Eugenio Muñoz, reproduces the original sleeve artwork and and features an insert with photos and info. It is a strictly limited edition of 500 copies only.) 26.00
MERZBOW & LAWRENCE ENGLISH - Eternal Stalker LP (dais - On their first official collaboration, Japanese noise pioneer Masami Akita aka Merzbow and Australian sound sculptor Lawrence English present a harrowing, surrealist portrait of nocturnal industrial activity, spawned by field recordings made in a sprawling factory complex seven hours north of English’s home in Brisbane. He characterizes the area as “uneasy and unsettling,” awash in the sickly glow of smelters and refinement machinery, somehow not of this world – a liminal quality vividly captured in Andrei Tarkovsky’s sprawling purgatorial opus, Stalker, to which the title alludes. Akita, too, described early drafts of Eternal Stalker as feeling “like the soundtrack to a dystopian science fiction opera.” A mood of mechanical dread and ruined futures permeates each of the album’s seven potent compositions. ) 25.00
NANCY & LEE - s/t LP (light in the attic - FIRST EVER official vinyl reissue - definitive version with Nancy's involvement. Definitive reissue of Nancy & Lee's classic 1968 duet album, includes the bonus tracks "Tired Of Waiting for You" and "Love Is Strange," from the album sessions.
Newly remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY-nominated engineer John Baldwin. Vinyl pressed at RTI. Q&A with Nancy & GRAMMY-nominated reissue co-producer Hunter Lea. Never-before-seen photos from Nancy Sinatra's personal archive. Beautifully packaged and expanded gatefold LP featuring a 20-pg booklet - „We had sort of a love/hate relationship. Maybe it was a sexual tension because we never had any kind of affair. I don't know exactly what it was, but it worked." - Nancy Sinatra) 42.00
PERE UBU - The Modern Dance LP (white vinyl) (FIRE - Too many Pere Ubu records have been allowed to slip out of print, so here, to coincide with some shows, the group are reissuing a few early records on Fire. The Modern Dance is their searing 1978 debut, a furiously powerful mash of industrial-tinged rock and weird concreté sounds. Remastered from the original tapes.) 30.00
PHEW - New Decade LP (mute - Iconic Japanese experimentalist Phew returns to Mute for first time in 30 years with a haunted and strung out set of barely-there vox and submerged synths “Rising to prominence with the art-punk group Aunt Sally before her first solo release in 1981, recorded at Conny Plank’s studio in Cologne with Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit, Phew isn’t about to go soft on us. “I wanted to exclude sentimentality,” she says of New Decade. “With the situation at the moment, I’ve got it lucky. Last year, in particular, just being alive was kind of a lucky state of affairs. Being able to openly express how you’re feeling, in spite of all that, is a sort of privilege you have as a musician or artist, and I felt like I shouldn’t abuse it.” This has been a guiding principle for Phew in recent years, as she has amassed a body of solo work that melds her signature vocals with febrile, droning synthesisers and drum machines. Already well accustomed to working in isolation at home, keeping her voice down in order not to annoy the neighbours, New Decade is a stark and haunted album, populated by voices that intone empty pleasantries in English and Japanese or manifest as wordless shrieks and groans, against a backdrop of fractured, dubbed-out electronics.) 26.00
RADA - Upadesa LP (wah wah - Ángel Rada is one of the most interesting music experimantalists of Venezuela. He started his career in the late 1960s as a member of The Gas Light, one of the big names on Venezuela's live circuit in the era, sharing the stages with other artists such as Apocalipsis, Un Dos Tres y Fuera, Vytas Brenner, Daniel Grau, Pablo Schneider, Miguel Ángel Fuster... Rada is one of the three basic artists who set an electronic music scene in Venezuela, along with Miguel Ángel Noya and Vinicio Adames. Rada had attended the Escuela Superior de Música José Ángel Lamas and then continued his studies in Germany, where he was impressed by krautrock music, especially by its more electronic side. He met Kraftwerk when they were recording at Kling Klang Studio, and also knew Klaus Schulze–who would become an example for him to to follow. This contact with the Kraut scene would be the biggest influence on his works from the 1970s, which would end synthesizing in Rada's first record: 1983's Upadesa, originally released on his own independent label Uranium Records. Since then he has released more than 20 albums up to date, making him one of the most prolific experimental musicians not only in his country but also in the whole world.) 26.00
RAPHAEL - Stop, Look, Listen LP (Finally a reissue of this genre-defying jazz album originally released on library label Selection Records in 1972. Delving into the story of the American pianist and composer Phil Raphaël reveals more questions than answers. He was born in New York where he played with Charlie Parker, Jon Eardley and Howard McGhee, but a 1951 recording with Red Rodney for Prestige Records is the single remaining trace of his bebop days. Raphaël appeared under unknown circumstances in Belgium in the 1960s, playing among others at the 1966 Jazz Bilzen festival, and he eventually settled in Brussels. A multifaceted musician, he did not limit himself to jazz and also worked in pop groups, directed the music for the spectacle Hair, and even had a brief residency at Pol’s Jazz Club where he played the music of Johann Sebastian Bach four nights per week. ) 28.00
REIKO & TORI KUDO - Tangerine LP (back in stock - A Colourful Storm presents Tangerine, a collection of songs by Reiko and Tori Kudo. Recorded at Village Hototoguiss, Japan, during autumn, winter and spring 2011 and 2012, the makeup of Tangerine is the culmination of over thirty years of experimentation, improvisation and intimacy between Reiko Kudo and Tori Kudo. Beginning their collaborative musical activities in the late 1970s and documenting their movements as Noise, it would be an earlier Les Rallizes Dénudés gig that would prove influential in shaping the duo’s lifelong impulse for collaboration and free play - it was, after all, where they first met. Over the course of a decade, they became associated with Hideo Ikeezumi’s seminal PSF (Psychedelic Speed Freaks) scene, Tori playing with the likes of Ché-SHIZU and Fushitsusha and self-releasing cassettes before forming the first incarnation of Maher Shalal Hash Baz.
) 23.00
ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO - Vrioon DLP (noton - Pioneers in their own musical approaches, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, began their exploration of sound in the evocatively titled V.I.R.U.S series in 2002. After more than a decade from the release of the collection's final installment with "Summvs" in 2011, NOTON reissues all the five albums between June and October 2022. With its impressionistic atmosphere, in this collaborative project two generations met and shared the idea of electronic music as an inspiration source for new musical structures. Over a series of five albums, Vrioon (2002),Insen (2005), Revep (2006), utp_ (2008), and summvs (2011), the duo have explored blending electronic and acoustic sounds into a meditative whole that is at once expressive, breathing and precision-engineered. Remastered in collaboration with Calyx Mastering, the recordings of Vrioon, Insen, Revep, Utp_, and Summvs are made available on vinyl and CD under the title 'reMASTER, accompanied by exclusive, unreleased compositions and housed in a beautifully designed sleeve with original cover art by Carsten Nicolai.) 32.00
SIMON JOYNER - Songs from a Stolen Guitar LP (bb Island / Grapefruit - Artists are not athletes. The career of the athlete is, by mortal necessity, compressed and brief. No one expects to see a professional slugger in their sixties out on the diamond, much less see them vying for a pennant. Artists, on the other hand, tend to age like wine—think Dylan, Cohen, and Cash—with the most rarefied among them capable of swinging for the fences with every at bat. Omaha singer-songwriter Simon Joyner, who recently turned fifty, is such an artist, and while I’d certainly enjoy seeing his face grinning at me from a box of Wheaties, I’d rather he continue making albums like Songs From A Stolen Guitar. Joyner, who’s been making records since 1990, has been on a roll since his mid-career magnum opus, 2012’s Ghosts, one of the great double albums of the past 25 years. On Songs From A Stolen Guitar, he is abetted by collaborators new and old, but the social distancing required by the pandemic of 2020 imbues the album with a distinct and poignant tenor. ) 27.00
TEEN SUICIDE - DC Snuff Film / Waste Yrself LP (col. vinyl) (For as long as they’ve been a band, teen suicide’s catalog has been as alluring as it has been elusive. Now the first time, two of the band’s most sought after early EPs, dc snuff film and waste yrself, will be available together across all formats via Run For Cover Records this winter. These 18 tracks have been remastered to provide the best sound quality possible while still retaining the noisy, lo-fi sound that is an integral part of the teen suicide’s essence. This collection will feature brand new artwork, including never-before seen photos & a lyric sheet for both EPs in one volume.) 25.00
TEEN SUICIDE - I Will Be My Own Hell Because There Is A Devil Inside My Body LP (col. vinyl) (run for cover - teen suicide’s first & only proper album, ‘i will be my own hell because there is a devil inside my body’, has been a sought after release for many collectors after it’s ultra-limited vinyl release in 2012. Now, Run For Cover Records will be reissuing my own hell, with remastered audio, expanded artwork and 8 never-before-issued bonus tracks. Across the album’s 10 songs, the band displays a knack for different sounds and styles. Intimate, keyboard driven tracks like ‘cop graveyard’ and ‘grim reaper’ sit beside more energetic full-band outings like ‘dead bird skeleton and ‘give me back to the sky’, the latter even adding an evocative viola, piano and choral arrangement to it’s chaotic center. It’s to the band’s credit that their more outré moments feel necessary, not distracting. What becomes clear upon listening to ‘my own hell’ is that beneath the dreamy haze & noisy apathy of teen suicide’s recordings exist ernest, extremely well-written pop songs that reflect and express the uncertainty and desperation of reality.) 25.00
TSEGE MARIAM GEBRU - Spielt Eigene Komposition LP (mississippi - A most unusual & stunning album. TSEGE MARIAM GEBRU is an Ethiopian nun who has dedicated her life to helping others. She has been composing and playing music on the piano since the 1960s. Her music is a unique mix of Western classcial music in the vein of Erik Satie, Ethiopian music and Religious Christian meditation music. On this reissue of her first LP, originally released in Germany in a very small pressing, we find Tsege Mariam Gebru playing her own compositions solo on piano. She plays with restrained grace & purity. The record invites repeated listening well and is filled with spiritual warmth. We are very proud to present this LP—the first in a series of records we will be releasing with music culled from the monumental Ethiopiques CD series. Old school "tip on" cover.) 25.00
VIA LACTEA - s/t LP (wah wah - Via Lactea (Latin for Milky Way, fact fans) were a Mexican rock group, and this self-titled album was their major statement, released 35 years ago. Carlos Alvarado lead the band, who specialised in prog rock with a strong electronic element. This reissue on Wah Wah is beautifully screen-printed on metallic copper cardboard.) 26.00
V/A - Todo Muere SBXV LP (red vinyl) (sacred bones - The new Todo Muere SBXV compilation celebrates the disparate threads that Sacred Bones has cultivated over these past 15 years by asking artists on the label to cover one another’s songs. It’s an exhilarating, adventurous collection that emphasizes the spiritual unity of the roster. Listening to Todo Muere SBXV feels like sitting down to dinner with a large, unruly, loving family. One of the biggest aesthetic leaps on the comp is Institute’s gnarled post-punk cover of SPELLLING’s lush The Turning Wheel highlight “Boys at School.” “I’d say we were inspired by her star qualities,” Institute frontman Mose Brown said. “The audacity, uniqueness, and talent poured into that record inspired us as to what’s possible on the Sacred Bones roster.” Guitarist Arak Avakian concurred: “I’d say Mose hit the nail on the head, with the key words being talent and audacity. SPELLLING is altogether inspiring. I am pervasively encouraged by her music.” Admiration and fandom were recurring themes for artists who recorded songs for the comp. That was certainly the inspiration for Thou singer Bryan Funck, who covered Zola Jesus’s “Night” alongside Emma Ruth Rundle and Mizmor. “Before I knew about Sacred Bones, I was a huge fan of Zola Jesus,” Funck says. Ben Jones of Constant Smiles, one of the most recent signees to the label, had a similar reason for covering Jenny Hval’s “Spells.” “Jenny is a true force to be reckoned with and really elevates music and Sacred Bones to high art.”) 25.00
TAPES
ANGEL OLSEN - Big Time TAPE (dead oceans - Fresh grief, like fresh love, has a way of sharpening our vision and bringing on painful clarifications. No matter how temporary we know these states to be, the vulnerability and transformation they demand can overpower the strongest among us. Then there are the rare, fertile moments when both occur, when mourning and limerence heighten, complicate and explain each other; the songs that comprise Angel Olsen’s Big Time were forged in such a whiplash. Big Time is an album about the expansive power of new love, but this brightness and optimism is tempered by a profound and layered sense of loss. During Olsen’s process of coming to terms with her queerness and confronting the traumas that had been keeping her from fully accepting herself, she felt it was time to come out to her parents, a hurdle she’d been avoiding for some time. “Finally, at the ripe age of 34, I was free to be me,” she said. Three days later, her father died and shortly after her mother passed away. The shards of this grief—the shortening of her chance to finally be seen more fully by her parents—are scattered throughout the album. ) 15.00
MORDWAFFE - That's Also Practice TAPE (Lo-Fi indie rock from Glasgow / Scotland. Reminds us of older Flying Nun releases or a Lo-Fi version of Television.) 10.00
NEIN RODERE – For Unprepared Voice and Guitar TAPE (Second press, limited to 20 copies. Four track C20 with riso printed J-card and unique, hand drawn and signed insert. Very limited C20 featuring new work from the brilliant David ‘Nein’ Rodere. Top-notch lopsided, contemporary art music in the tradition of Dominik Steiger, Anton Heyboer, Kai Althoff, et al… but delivered with a unique sense of melody and texture. At the time of recording David had reworked his previous tapes into a (forthcoming) Horn of Plenty LP and hit a quiet patch; …it was like I drained myself of that particular energy. At some point I warmed to playing again, as long as it was very of the moment and made up on the spot. These are some examples of that approach, with a little prep for the long ones so they’d be easier on someone else’s ear. So those two are not ‘real’ improvised I guess, esp. since I wrote down a list of colours and adjectives for the last one.
With those long ones, I thought I’d just keep taking them in circles until they collapsed on themselves, which is a thing I sometimes look for in other people’s music.” All music by David Roeder and played on guitars only - Extra vocals on “Spring on Jahn” by J.A. Hagan - Recorded Spring 2021 straight to phone. No rehearsals, no second takes) 8.00
CD
AKOS ROZMANN - Mass / Mässa 7xCD BOXSET (7 CD’s packaged in a hardcover slipcase with a pull ribbon, 12 and 20 pages booklets. Boxset contains an extensive essay on the composition by Gergely Loch and additional texts by Göran Bergendal and Mats Lindström, and visual documentation. Ákos Rózmann (1939-2005) - Mass - Ákos Rózmann’s Mass consists of twelve electroacoustic compositions created between 1989 and 2004 in the composer’s studio and at EMS in Stockholm. Like most of Rózmann’s compositions, Mass is a long-form work with a duration of around seven hours. We can describe Rózmann’s Mass as an enormous fresco of personal observations on the two first parts of the Catholic Mass, Kyrie and Gloria. The intensely subjective perspective on the texts of the Mass is underlined by Rózmann’s freezing images – in his own words – “tropes”, i.e. meditations in Swedish, Hungarian and Latin over particular words in the mass text or connection to it. A few passages have nothing to do with the mass text: Organ piece VI in Gloria I (also performed with the subtitle Nocturne in silver and dance) is a sort of lament based on the phrase “Natten gråter” (the night is crying). We find the composer’s peculiar sense of humour in the intermezzo following Gloria I – a composed version of the intermission common in Swedish concert houses, complete with clashing coffee cups and empty chatter from the bureaucratic music establishment. ) 58.00
BOOKS
ENGELMANN / BUSKIES - Monarchie und Alltag - Ein Fehlfarben-Songcomic BOOK (Comic zu einem der prägendsten Alben der deutschen Musikgeschichte. VÖ: 31.5., jetzt vorbestellbar »Das beste Buch des Jahres ist eine Schallplatte« hat Peter Glaser über das Debüt der Fehlfarben geschrieben. 1980 erschienen, gilt »Monarchie und Alltag« als eines der wichtigsten deutschsprachigen Alben aller Zeiten, die Songtexte sind pointierte Beschreibungen der damaligen BRD-Gegenwart, komplex und doch auf den Punkt gebracht. Wir haben nun aus dem Album tatsächlich ein Buch gemacht und elf Comiczeichner:innen und Illustrator:innen gebeten, je einen Song in Bilder umzuwandeln. Die Bandmitglieder Peter Hein und Thomas Schwebel haben Liner Notes beigesteuert.) 25.00
GRAHAM LAMBKIN - Came to Call Mine BOOK (Came to Call Mine is an extensive full-color art book by visionary musician, artist, and writer Graham Lambkin. Playing out like a children’s book for adults, Came to Call Mine features 50 hand-drawn illustrations coupled with simplistic corresponding texts. Lambkin’s mischievous combination of figurative and abstract elements lends Came to Call Mine a jarring, dreamlike quality, confusing the eye by placing innocent childlike totems against a darker adult undercurrent. Came to Call Mine is released as a deluxe softcover book designed by Maja Larsson, with lithograph printing on Munken pure rough, lynx, and polar paper stock in an edition of 400 copies. Selections from Graham Lambkin’s new book Came to Call Mine (Penultimate Press, 2014)) 18.00
JULIA PREIßER - Körperbilder der Berliner Revue Inszenierung und Rezeption Schwarzer und weißer Bühnendarstellerinnen und -tänzerinnen in den 1920er Jahren BOOK (wölke -
LAUREN NEWTON - VOCAL Adventures Free Improvisation in Sound, Space, Spirit and Song BOOK (Wolke - “During her creative career, Lauren Newton has explored multiple musical dimensions with a strong focus on improvisation, concomitantly searching out and developing myriad vocal techniques. In Vocal Adventures she takes the reader on a journey into her experience that is at once an introduction to deep listening, a series of master classes on voice (from consciousness of breath to the mysteries of multiphonics), and an account of both the social and spiritual dimensions that are engaged in a complete artistic practice. Remarkably, she also does this in a way that is inviting, lucid and eminently practical.” Stuart Broomer, author of Time and Anthony Braxton - “Vocal Adventures by the grand master of improvising with the voice is finally here! The significance of Lauren Newton’s work as an artist, educator and author cannot be overstated: She is one of the creators and trailblazers of the art that moves in sound, space, spirit and song. Well worth the wait, this book offers everything and more to all those interested in vocal experimenting and exploring could wish for.” Susanne Abbuehl, singer, composer, educator “These Vocal Adventures chart a decades-long exploration of soundscapes – ones produced by the outside world but most prominently those created through free improvisation in music. The expedition into this realm of musical experience and expression has taken the author across oceans and continents, with diverse musical encounters providing invaluable sources of inspiration and a wealth of learning and teaching opportunities while enriching her own ideas and approaches along the way. This book aspires to guide others (not only singers) interested in exploring the many facets of free musical improvisation in terms of technique, practice and (solo and group) performance as well as to offer up her own reflections on its essence, its affinity to the human imagination and the multitude of soundscapes it is capable of evoking.” Susan Nurmi, literary scholar, educator, translator) 29.00
