BIS AUFSMESSER WEEKLY NEWS JULY 01 2022
Hi. Welcome to the first newsletter for July. A couple releases arrived that maybe make your summer more worthwhile like the two BLOD - Leendet Från Helvetet LP re issue & BLOD – Knutna Nävar LP, some killer King Tubby re issues, ASTRID ØSTER MORTENSEN - Skærsgårdslyd LP restock (ESSENTIELL!) , ENHET FÖR FRI MUSIK - Dokument 1: Improvisationer Och Bandmusik För Vilt Dansande Själar LP re issue, MY DISCO - Alter Schwede LP (!!), FRANKIE ROSE - Seventeen Seconds LP, GLENN JONES - Vade Mecum LP, ISOTOPE 217 - The Unstable Molecule LP re issue, NEW LIFE TRIO - Visions Of The Third Eye LP re issue (!!), KALI MALONE - The Sacrificial Code DLP repress (!!), AKI ONDA - Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking To Me LP repress, Glenn Branca LP re issue, SALLY ANNE MORGAN - Cups TAPE, SHAWN PITTMAN – Dreams LP re issue, KOT KOT - i pni LP and much more
Til then thank you for all your orders & support.
Robert & Norman
mailorder@bisaufmesser.com
www.adagio830-records.bandcamp.com
10“
KING TUBBY - Dub From The Roots 3x10" BOXSET (restock - The all-time classic Dub from The Roots cut as a colored vinyl triple 10" in a nice magnetically-sealed box. There are very few individuals who command the respect of dub aficionados greater than 'The Dubmaster' himself, King Tubby. On Tubby's venerable 1974 release Dub from the Roots, he introduces us to the 'Shalom Dub', a method of mixing flying cymbals with horns in what he describes as 'going in and out in a dub way'. Borrowing from the forty fives of Johnny Clarke, Jackie Edwards, Cornell Campbell, John Holt, and Horace Andy, King Tubby takes the listener on a journey through a vast array of different emotions, rhythms and soundscapes. One of the standout cuts, 'Iyahta' explores Tubby's use of deep electric basslines to evoke a melodic calmness in the listener, while 'Mine Field' and 'Hijack the Barber' bring you back with the cavernous echoes of stabbing guitars, horns, and cymbals. Though previously released by different labels on a variety of dusty pressings and formats, Clocktower's reissue of Dub From The Roots is the definitive edition of this 'Dubmaster' classic, featuring audio mastered from the original analog tapes.“) 40.00
LP
AKI ONDA - Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking To Me LP (recital - A spellbinding tribute from one multi-faceted artist to another. New York-based artist Aki Onda (b. 1967) conjured a transduction to the Korean multi-media pioneer Nam June Paik (1932-2006). Aki himself describes the project: “Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me occurred purely by chance. In 2010, I was spending four days at Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea for a series of performances and had plenty of free time to wander. The building was packed with Paik’s artwork and related material. I have always felt a close kinship with him as an artist, and so it was a great opportunity to immerse myself in his works and ephemera. It was that night I made the first contact, via a hand-held radio in a hotel room in Seoul. It was literally out of the blue. Scanning through the stations, I stumbled upon what sounded like a submerged voice and I began to record it in fascination. I concluded this was Paik’s spirit reaching out to me.) 28.00
ALESSANDRO ADRIANA - Program & Rhythm DLP (mannequin - Alessandro Adriani marks his comeback on Mannequin Records with an impressive body of work on this 2xLP 'Program & Rhythm', inspired by the Italian library music and soundtrack composers. Italian composers from the 60s to the 80s seemed limitless in their experiments and endlessly colorful, despite being a hidden part in the history of music. Library music takes weird and fantastic detours, between garish drum machines, seedy guitars, synthesizers gone haywire, and fractious brass sections. The scene’s big names included Ennio Morricone, Piero Umiliani, Alessandro Alessandroni, Giampiero Boneschi, Egisto Macchi, A.R. Luciani and Bruno Nicolai, just to name a few. After spending weeks on end in an improvised-by-covid home studio recording hours and hours of music every day, Alessandro was turning and shaping his analog machines into an experimental synth pop, psychedelic funky jazz and weird ambient fusion, making up six different releases called simply 'Program & Rhythm' from the Roland CR-78 programming buttons. The final selection of 42 tracks out of the six releases - originally intended to be put out as tapes - would finally compose the tracklist of the double vinyl presented here, with the catalog number PR and roman numerals used for the track titles. An exceptional document of music in Alessandro's discography, 'Program & Rhythm' enters into an ultimate unknown journey, creating music for films that do not yet exist, putting his steps deeper into a faceless obscure music. ) 25.00
ASTRID ØSTER MORTENSEN - Skærsgårdslyd LP (discreet - The much anticipated second album from Astrid Øster Mortensen. New in Gothenburg, the Denmark-born Astrid started to frequent the Discreet Music shop in the summer of 2020. Coincidentally, around the same time Gustaf Dicksson was looking for a Danish vocalist for his upcoming Blod album Missväxt and one thing quickly led to another. Not only did Astrid contribute with vocals for said record but one day she handed us a master of her own music that completely floored us. The recordings eventually materalized as the Gro Mig En Blomst LP which was released in a small edition on Förlag För Fri Musik in March 2021. The album has been living its own life since then. Just as with the debut album, Skærgårdslyd was recorded in the southern Gothenburg archipelago. Recorded in early 2021, the album was inspired by the windy island landscapes while walking the same nature paths over and over again, working in the elder care and occasionally visiting the city. Compared to the dreamy and almost sketch-like but fairly direct music on the debut album, Skærgårdslyd takes its time to fully unfold, moving forward slowly with guitar, fiddle, church organ, piano and field recordings. The songs are longer, richer in texture and more contemplative and subtle in their nature, sort of mimicking the isolated island life. The use of vocals is rather sparse and we have to wait until the last few minutes of the A-side with 'Hvem Er Det Som Stjæler Min Ungdom' before Astrid's voice enters for the first time. There's a wonderful and tactile hands-on approach to both the recording and compositions, much in spirit with the Forlaget Kornmod collective which Astrid shares a kinship with. Mastered by Joakim Karlsson. Comes with two inserts, one of which is a A3 foldout poster. Edition of 1000 copies.) 27.00
BLOD - Leendet Från Helvetet LP (Originally released on Förlag För Fri Musik in 2017, »Leendet Från Helvetet« marked a new phase in the troubled Blod universe. There's few traces left of the found tapes/audial voyeurism and brutish stop/rec editing that made up the first few releases, instead we are served with what is pretty much a proper album in a, sort of, traditional sense. The record opens with a sole beat from a hand drum soon accompanied by a beautiful and very Blod-ish subtle melody from a glockenspiel but it only takes a few minutes before Gustaf's past as a free jazz aficionado is noticeable with the rather rough saxophone burst of »Natten«. It's not until the title track that things kicks off for real though, most likely the first example of the sound and, maybe more so, very special feeling that most people associate Blod with nowadays. To me, it's the sound of growing up in Sweden in the 80's; having two channels on the TV, eating brown food, rainy summers, taping commercial stuff on the radio, playing D&D in a purple tent in the garden. Memories of that certain bright light that can occur during the Scandinavian summers, those warm days when the skies are foggy. Long windswept grass and a very peculiar feeling of utter boredom. Arguably, Blod has never sounded more Blod than on this track, this is the very essence of the man's work right here. The program continues on side B with the solemn piano piece 'Lust', another saxophone raga and then the flipside's centerpiece 'Tro, Hopp & Kärlek' which pretty much mirrors the title track in it's larger-than-life scope and pure beauty.) 27.00
BLOD – Knutna Nävar LP (aguierre - Edition of 500 copies w/ insert & poster - Swedish progg is not to be confused with "prog" as in progressive rock music. When we are talking about progg, we are refering to the Swedish music movement influenced by the political climate of the late 60's, to some extent the hippie movement and in many cases also Swedish folk music. Music highly driven by an political agenda. Blod's Knutna Nävar, originally released in an edition of 150 copies on Förlag För Fri Musik in 2018 and later a small cassette run, is pretty much a lost progg classic from the 70's. This is not a case of copying a certain sound though, far from it, neither are ideas really rehashed nor does the album feel nostalgic in that sense. Rather it feels like if someone has read about the progg movement and all the records but never actually heard it, yet decided to do an album and somehow managed to succeed big time.) 26.00
BRUNHILD FERRARI & CHRISTOPH HEEMANN - Stürmische Ruhe LP (black truffle - After her stunning collaboration with Jim O’Rourke, Brunhild Ferrari returns to Black Truffle with »Stürmische Ruhe«, her first duo with Christoph Heemann. A legendary figure in underground music, Heemann has quietly produced a unique body of work since his beginnings with the absurdist cutups of H.N.A.S. in the mid-1980, including collaborations with Merzbow, Organum and Nurse With Wound, the eerie psychedelia of Mirror (with Andrew Chalk), In Camera (with Timo van Lujik) and Plastic Palace People (with Jim O’Rourke), and the precise cinema pour l’oreille constructions of his solo works. Created together in Ferrari’s Parisian studio (once shared with Luc) between 2011 and 2014, Stürmische Ruhe is a single half-hour piece that folds rain and storm recordings into a intricately woven fabric of haunted electronics, unexpected edits and disorienting processing.) 30.00
DANNY SCOTT LANE - Wave to Mikey LP (glossy mistakes - »Wave to Mikey«, the fourth album from the Los Angeles-based actor, musician and photographer Danny Lane is a nocturnal, neon-lit ode to the friendships that shape us. “I made this album for my friend Mikey from back home,” Danny explains. “We were pretty much inseparable for a large part of our lives, and our musical and social minds were always in sync in a special way. Then with age, we drifted apart, especially since I moved to Los Angeles. This album is just a little wave hello to an old friend and a kindred spirit.” Equal parts avant-garde composition, instrumental city-pop, ambient, Kankyō Ongaku (environmental music) and Fourth World music, »Wave to Mikey« is an impressionistic and reflective cycle of eleven richly detailed memory portraits. Throughout the album, the influence of Jon Hassell, Arthur Russell, Hiroshi Yoshimura and Yellow Magic Orchestra hangs in the air like late-night mist, adding character but never overshadowing the rhythmic ambience of Danny’s musical visions.) 28.00
ELEKTRO NOVA - Electro Nova DLP (smalltown supersound - Elektro Nova/Electro Nova is re-mastered from the original tapes by Helge Sten. This is the complete output by Elektro Nova/Electro Nova. In 1998, when Smalltown Supersound had been around 5 years (only as a bedroom operation putting out cassettes and some vinyl singles), I got contacted by a fellow Norwegian called Kåre Dehlie Thorstad who asked if I wanted to put out some music by him under the name Elektro Nova/Electro Nova. He explained that the music was his exam in photography at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Instead of delivering a photo for his exam he delivered a record. Or a double album (2XCDs) and a 10” vinyl to be precise. I found this to be very strange, but when I heard the music it all made sense. The music was mixed and mastered by Helge Sten (aka Deathprod). Sten was an early admirer of Thorstad’s music and he regards the album to be one of the most important and best albums to ever come out of Norway.) 35.00
ENHET FÖR FRI MUSIK - Ömhet & Skilsmässa LP (discreet - restock - New Enhet För Fri Musk album, recorded in Gothenburg and Malmö 2020 by Hugo Randulv, Sofie Herner, Gustaf Dicksson, Matthias Andersson and Dan Johansson. A concept album on relationships, family values and broken promises. 18 songs. Edition of 700 copies. With 20-page song book - Embedded in the ever exciting Swedish underground scene Enhet För Fri Musik continues the quest for innovation numerous legendary Swedish bands started during the 70s, Pärson Sound, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Arbete Och Fritid. Taking the ideas of communal music craft and experimentation and continually re-inventing what music is about through free improvisation and lengthy folk meanderings) 27.00
ENHET FÖR FRI MUSIK - Dokument 1: Improvisationer Och Bandmusik För Vilt Dansande Själar LP (aguirre - In dark times of geopolitical powerplay and war mongering, artistic counter attacks are often shaped as quests for openness and liberation. No troupe within the current musical underground embodies this urge like the Gothenburg sound dwellers of Enhet För Fri Musik. With spiritual roots in the candour of the 1960s free jazz and the raw aethestics of early 2000s free folk, Enhet started delving into different forms of (semi) improvised musical expression around 2015. ‘Fri Musik’ is a very apt generalisation of previous liberating endeavours in music history, since the Enhet does not approach the freedom trope from a genre bound perspective, they are as much folk as they are ambient or lofi cassette experiment. At times times they sound like an indigenous tribe from some undefined part of the world, then again like hazy mutterings from a long forgotten utopian hippy commune.) 27.00
FRANKIE ROSE - Seventeen Seconds LP (night school. With pretty much one year delay, Night School finally presents the vinyl reissue of Frankie Rose's (Crystal Stilts, The Vivian Girls) much loved interpretation of »Seventeen Seconds« by The Cure. Pressed on dark red transparent vinyl with new, artist approved artwork, Frankie Rose’s »Seventeen Seconds« is the art of the cover album done right. "Since I already think it's a perfect record, I tried not to reinterpret too much and stick to similar sounds as the original, but with a twist.” -Frankie Rose) 25.00
GLENN JONES - Vade Mecum LP (thrill jockey - Glenn Jones is a unique player in the world of solo guitar music. Steeped in both American Primitive guitar music as well as rock and experimental music, Glenn Jones creates rich sonic tapestries with a distinct and stirring voice. Endlessly curious, Jones has spent the better part of four decades exploring the boundaries of expression and storytelling with the guitar and banjo. On Vade Mecum, Jones draws on his personal history to tell stories with elaborate musical detail and emotional weight. Exploring the complexity of personal experience, emotions and our shared histories, Vade Mecum finds Jones painting his music in boundaryless colors, captivatingly vivid. “Vade Mecum means, literally, ‘go with me.’,” says Jones. “It’s an invitation.” With that invitation opening the album, Jones acts as a guide across the terrain of interiors and exteriors alike, from barking of seals at “Bass Harbor Head” to the gentle crumble of “A Handful of Snow.” “I tend to think of my albums as the latest entries into something like an ongoing musical diary,” Jones continues. “I don’t write pieces to order or with anything much in mind; I simply follow wherever the music leads me. Why this tuning? Why this note and not that one? Why this chord and not another? Why this tempo and not a different one? I don’t know, and I love not knowing. The ‘not knowing’ is what keeps me engaged and curious; ‘not knowing’ keeps me coming back.” Jones uses those questions of tempo and chords alongside unique open tunings and capos as a way of posing musical questions to himself which he in turn answers with sublime stories that unveil as much about Jones himself as they uncover memories or impressions of their subjects. ) 25.00
IKO – ’83 & Extra Studio Works DLP (After a first reissue, which seduced music lovers nearly 40 years after the group's disbanding, Le Backstore and On The Roof have repressed the works of IKO as a double vinyl set. '83 & Extra Studio Works includes the entirety of the '83 album, plus four tracks recorded after its original release. The additional pieces reveal an outfit that pushes its own limits, gaining in intensity while straying away from the more abrasive sound of the early days. The keen desire to experiment that has always been present in the trio's artistic approach is definitely there. One only has to listen to "Surrender To The Dream" to take the full measure of the creativity that inhabited Dax, Zao and U-Gen. With an improved overall sound thanks to high-level mastering, IKO's music is given new life again.) 40.00
ISOTOPE 217 - The Unstable Molecule LP (thrill jockey - 30th anniversary reissue on blue vinyl. The music of Isotope 217 is as complex and varied as the influences of it's members. The following is a short run down of the members of Isotope 217: John Herndon (drums, percussion) and Dan Bitney (drums, percussion) have been playing together since 1990 when Dan joined Tortoise. Jeff Parker (Guitar) began playing with Herndon and Bitney in Tortoise live as early as 1995. Parker has played with Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, all the Marsalis', Lisle Ellis, Charles Earland, Lester Bowie, Ed Wilkerson, Fred Anderson, Fred Hopkins, Famadou Don Maye and Malachi Favors to name a few. He is affiliated with Chicago's AACM through his membership in Ernest Dawkins' New Horizons Ensemble with whom he has recorded 4 albums and also logs time in Tortoise, and the Chicago Underground Orchestra. Rob Mazurek's (Cornet) early recordings owe a debt to Hard Bop, but his more recent work with the Chicago Underground Orchestra has "taken his playing towards the fringes with the assured muscle of Lee Morgan (which) pulses through Mazurek's solos on more swinging material (while) the piquent phrasing of Don Cherry or the gorgeously abstract smears of Bill Dixon are just as likely to surface," says Chicago Reader's Peter Margasak. ) 25.00
JACQUELINE TAIEB - Lolita Chick '68 LP (Revelation of the first midem in January 1967 with its title 7h Du Mat labelled "a sixties jewel" by Rock and Folk or little gem by La Voix du Nord while Juke Box sees this track as a "60s classic"… A must, appreciated by all true connoisseurs - no female French rock compilation is complete without her. Jacqueline Taïeb is a comet, whose songs come back regularly without a wrinkle, every bit as modern.) 27.00
KALI MALONE - Velocity of Sleep LP (xkatetral - A somnambulant modern masterwork, Kali Malone’s 2017 debut full length album is made available again on vinyl some four years since its limited private press of just 100 copies co-released by XKatedral and Bleak Environment. Composed, recorded and produced in Stockholm 2015-2016, ‘Velocity of Sleep’ sees Kali Malone’s work rendered in a septet of strings, gongs, lute, electronics and tape in the vast R1 Reaktorhallen (Sweden’s first nuclear reactor), the electroacoustic studio EMS, and at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Her presence is crucial, and liminal, making precise use of tuned sine waves and Studer B67 tape manipulation, while instrumental performance is handled by Peter Söderberg performing on the long-necked Theorbo (a large baroque lute, pictured on the sleeve), Samuel Löfdahl and Oskar Mattsson on Gongs, Vilhelm Bromander on Double Bass, Marta Forsberg on Viola and Adam Grauman on Viola de Gamba - all uniting to produce what feels like a geological time lapse and distillation of European and Indian classical drone musicks.) 33.00
KALI MALONE - The Sacrificial Code DLP (ideal - Finally repressed. - Kali Malone presents a quietly subversive new album featuring almost two hours of concentrated, creeping organ pieces governed by a strict acoustic and compositional code. It’s a major new work with ultimately profound emotional resonance. ‘The Sacrificial Code’ takes a more detailed approach to ideas first sketched out on last year’s ‘Organ Dirges’, which featured canon exercises spontaneously captured without much prior technical planning. By contrast, the recording of ‘The Sacrificial Code’ involved the more careful micing up of several organs in such a way as to eliminate acoustic impurities as far as possible - essentially removing the large hall reverb so inextricably linked to the instrument. The pieces were then performed free of gestural adornments and without expressive impulse - an approach that flows against the grain of the prevailing musical hegemony, where sound is so often manipulated, and composition often steeped in self indulgence. The question posed; can this strict methodology still speak to the listener in meaningful terms?) 38.00
KING TUBBY - King Tubby's Classics: The Lost Midnight Rock Dubs Chapter 1 LP (radiation - It's impossible to think about 'dub' without thinking about the late Osbourne Ruddock - the great King Tubby, the singular most creative human being of the great many who've plied their trade behind a mixing desk in the name of reggae since the early 1970s. Dub may well have existed before Tubbs raised its profile to almost unimaginable heights, and it has continued to exist in the 21 years since he was senselessly slain in 1989.) 25.00
KING TUBBY - King Tubby's Classics: The Lost Midnight Rock Dubs Chapter 2 LP (radiation - The early days of the man affectionately known to his peers as Tubbs' are chronicled in some detail in the notes to this LP's predecessor and companion volume, not unreasonably titled »King Tubby's Classics Chapter 1«.) 25.00
KING TUBBY - King Tubby's Classics: The Lost Midnight Rock Dubs Chapter 3 LP (radiation - When dubwise music really started to come into its own in the early to mid 70s, it made overnight stars of backroom boys who had hitherto worked behind a mixing desk to serve those who were beginning to hoist reggae to an international stardom that it had long deserved, but that it had only achieved on short and non-sustained bursts until Chris Blackwell decided to throw a lot of promotion and money at the work of Bob Marley and his fellow Wailers in 1972. Of those men, there was no bigger star than the late Osbourne Ruddock, the great King Tubby’s and the man who, from a tiny home-made studio in the Waterhouse district of Kingston, Jamaica, did more than most to reposition the boundaries that production and mixing of Jamaican recordings.) 25.00
KOT KOT - i pni LP (aguirre - Edition of 300 copies, incl. lyric sheet - In the old attic, among dust and dimness, I once found an old children's magazine, that opened itself on a photograph of three melancholic girls eating soup. A distant voice, quietly singing ravels of poems from the 19th century, all gone and forgotten long ago, is accompanied by monotonous loops, played on toy keyboards, or are they maybe a rustling and hissing of twigs on the roof? repeating gusts of wind, slightly moving curtains over a flaking window frame? the pace of moonlight on the carpet? Do you also hear a horn, every now and then sounding from a frayed and yellowed picture of a castle on flower dotted wallpaper?) 26.00
M. GEDDES GENGRAS & PSYCHIC REALITY - The Encyclopedia of Civilizations Vol. 4: Zoroaster LP (Finally the 4th volume of "The Encyclopedia of Civilizations" is here! This time it is not a split LP, but a collaboration. Modular synth maestro M. Geddes Gengras and left-field pop priestess Leyna Noel aka Psychic Reality join forces to compose together their new project inspired by Zoroaster: M.Goddess. An exquisite modern ambient record mixing leftfield, kosmische, new age, dub vibes... Very original and rich compositions with genius arrangements combining spacey synth sequences, dreamy guitars, modular sounds, weird rhythms... Along the lines of Craig Leon, Conrad Schnitzler, or the Mecánica Clásica's contemporary approach to the kosmische masters.) 25.00
MICK HARRIS / MARTYN BATES – Murder Ballads [Passages] DLP (Sub Rosa -Rarely do two types of music meet on a level where they threaten to cancel each other out - let alone create something even more meaningful in their mutual vanishing. But the music created within the seminal Murder Ballads (Drift) by Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza, & parallel solo career) and Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Lull, Painkiller, Scorn) creates just such a world. Murder Ballads (Drift) evolves Martyn Bates vocalisations / storytelling song-voices, by turns expressed as labyrinthine layers, calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resulting in a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences. Murder Ballads (Drift) created the post-isolationist frame of reference, innovating and extemporising into a truly original dazzlingly unique form.) 27.00
MICK HARRIS / MARTYN BATES - Murder Ballads [Drift] DLP (sub rosa - also back in stock) 27.00
MY DISCO - Alter Schwede LP (Alter Schwede is the stunning new album from Melbourne experimental legends MY DISCO. MY DISCO formed between long-term collaborators Rohan Rebeiro, Benjamin Andrews and Liam Andrews in 2003. Renowned for their experimentation and refined minimalist approach to dark and heavy instrumentation, MY DISCO have built a reputation on their arduous tour ethic, having reached remote areas of Australia, Southeast Asia, Mexico and Russia, as well as a headlining and supporting on multiple tours across Europe, UK, US, and Asia Pacific. MY DISCO have released many acclaimed singles, 12” limited editions, and five studio albums including: Cancer (2006), Paradise (2007), Little Joy (2010), Severe (2015), and Environment (2019). ) 28.00
NEW LIFE TRIO - Visions Of The Third Eye LP (The music world is most fortunate that the past two decades have witnessed the rediscovery of mind-opening music that went under-recognized when originally released, and the wellspring of musical content produced by a generation of brilliant musicians. One such musician was the late great drummer Steve Reid, whose reissued eclectic recordings on his own Mustevic Sound label gave his career a second wind. Though teased on a well-received compilation, one Mustevic release never saw reissue: New Life Trio’s Visions Of The Third Eye, a tremendous collaborative effort between Reid, guitarist Brandon Ross and bassist David Wertman. Due to overwhelming demand, Early Future Records and Finders Keepers Records are proud to announce a second limited edition pressing of the classic and final Mustevic recording. The release also includes a 20-page written zine featuring an in-depth testimonial and interview with Brandon Ross, and an explorative essay by Finders Keepers’ Andy Votel, as well as a wealth of archival photos, scores and reviews. Reid’s long and varied career began in his native New York City, where he was involved early on as a member of the Apollo Theater House Band and the R&B scene of the 1960s, including recordings with Martha Reeves and James Brown. In the late 1960s, Reid spent three years in West Africa absorbing musical traditions and experimenting with artists such as Fela Kuti, Guy Warren and Randy Weston. After a stint in prison for dodging the draft as a conscientious objector, the drummer came out swinging in the 1970s. He worked regularly as a session and Broadway musician even while immersing himself into the jazz world, from the straight-ahead styles of Freddie Hubbard and Horace Silver to the otherworldly sounds of Sun Ra and Charles Tyler.) 29.00
SHAWN PITTMAN – Dreams LP (dark entries - Dark Entries presents a reissue of Shawn Pittman’s 1989 »Dreams«, an obscure and highly sought-after private press gem produced and written by Art Forest. An undersung figure in the development of the late 80’s Detroit techno sound, Forest collaborated with, produced, or penned material for many of the key players in the movement, including Inner City, Suburban Knight, and the Belleville Three themselves (on Kreem’s »Triangle of Love«). This reissue gives Forest’s own productions some shine while providing a thrill for both dancers and collectors. »Dreams« features two songs, both written and produced by Art Forest and featuring Shawn Pittman on vocals. The A-side contains two mixes of “Dreams”, a smooth R&B/modern soul number driven by Pittman’s vocal. While the song is undeniably radio-friendly, it contains some of the hallmarks of the Detroit techno sound – sparse arrangement, lush reverb, and booming bass. On the B-side, we are treated to two different versions of the clubbier »I’m Losing Control«. The original mix leans towards boogie/freestyle, with syncopated 909 beats and sassy synth vamps, and wouldn’t sound out of place next to Forest’s work with Inner City. The Extended-Bass-ment Club Mix strips things down and dubs them out, leaving us with shards of bass synth, brooding strings, and Pittman’s vocals eerily warped to the edge of recognition; a perfect late-night warehouse anthem. All songs were remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The sleeve is a replica of the original cover art. Also included is a 2-sided postcard with lyrics and photos of Art.) 20.00
TOSHIYA TSUNODA – Landscape and Voice LP (black truffle - »Landscape and Voice« is a radical new work (and rare vinyl release) from major Japanese sound artist Toshiya Tsunoda. Undoubtedly one of the most influential artists working with location recordings since the 1990s, Tsunoda’s work possesses a rigorously searching quality that sets him apart from his contemporaries. Tsunoda is known to many listeners for the subtle atmospheric poetry of his early Extract from Field Recording Archive series, which focussed on vibrations recorded in various indoor and outdoor environments in his native Miura Peninsula, often inside pipes, bottles and other vessels. In more recent years, his work has explored the implications of his claim that field recording should be seen as ‘depiction’ rather than ‘documentation’. He has explored disorienting editing and processing in his works with Taku Unami, and, perhaps most radically, represented Maguchi Bay as a kind of kinetic sculpture for shaking speakers by removing all but the inaudible low frequencies from a field recording (Low Frequency Observed at Maguchi Bay).) 26.00
V/A - Femmes De Paris LP (Comes on Colored Vinyl - Compilation from the early sixties including Jacqueline Taieb, Brigitte Bardot and Marie Laforêt among others.) 32.00
TAPES
SALLY ANNE MORGAN - Cups TAPE (Multi-instrumentalist Sally Anne Morgan tills the soil of old timey music, folk practices old and new, and psychedelia to sow music that reaches out beyond its roots. Cups dives headfirst into the waters of the Morgan’s unconscious mind and plumbs those depths for swells of fertile brilliance and awe. In stark contrast to the traditional and pop-informed structures of her previous album Thread, Cups adopts a free-flowing approach intuitive and receptive, brimming and shifting and changing across a fragile equilibrium of pieces both improvised and composed. The fluid pieces twirl from pensive, looped fiddle to tiptoed banjo to patient, sunny parlor guitar arpeggios to droning dulcimer and a litany of percussive ripples with gentle ease. By distilling her most immediate inspirations into layers of sparkling timbre and buoyant rambles, Sally Anne Morgan’s Cups builds a sense of community from within, like a back porch jam with her own subconscious. ) 13.00
CD
DANIEL SCHMIDT AND THE BERKELEY GAMELAN - in my arms, many flowers CD (recital - Recital is proud to publish the first album of American Gamelan composer Daniel Schmidt (b. 1942). Schmidt, who emerged in the Bay Area music scene in the 1970s, wove the threads of traditional Eastern Gamelan music together with American Minimalism (repetitive music). Schmidt was (and is still) a prime figure in the development of American Gamelan music – studying and collaborating with Lou Harrison, Jody Diamond, and Paul Dresher. He currently is a teacher at Mills College, teaching instrument building. The recordings on Flowers date from 1978 – 1982, selected directly from Schmidt’s personal cassette archive. It holds two studio tracks, along with two live performances. The first track, Dawn (commissioned by composer John Adams), employs an early digital sampler provided by Pauline Oliveros. It holds the sound of a string quartet. The nature of this piece is breathtaking, an ocean of strings pulsing beneath the gliding bells of the gamelan – such a lovely interplay. Furthermore, the title track, Flowers, features the addition of a rebab, a traditional bowed instrument, which reels through the piece, netted and taught.) 20.00
DANIEL SCHMIDT - Cloud Shadows CD (recital - »Cloud Shadows« is the third album by the American gamelan composer, Daniel Schmidt. The pieces are quite varied and more current than the work represented on his first two albums »In My Arms, Many Flowers« & »Abies Firma«, mostly came about each in their own way. For example, the cloud shadows on the mountains of central Nevada, unimaginably old, invited Daniel into their realm, resulting in the opening composition »Cloud Shadows«. The composition »SEOR« developed from the daily repetitions of radiation and relief from his cancer treatments. Also, the death of a close friend plunged the composer into deep emotions but ultimately nudged him over a compositional hump, leading to the creation of the »Sandy Suite«. »A River in Delta«, dedicated to Lou Harrison and John Cage, utilizes chance operations and a poem written by Cage for Harrison’s 60th birthday.) 20.00
