|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
SSH 003LP
|
Repressed. The classic minimal music album, available again on vinyl for the first time since the '70s. Primed with a glass of cognac, Charlemagne Palestine sits at the keyboard of a Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano. One foot firmly holds down the sustain pedal while both hands perform an insistent strum-like alternation on the keys. Soon Palestine and his Bösendorfer are enveloped in sound and bathed in a shimmering haze of multi-colored overtones. For 45 minutes, this rich pulsating music swells and intensifies, filling the air. When Strumming Music first appeared on the adventurous French label Shandar during the mid-1970s, it seemed a straightforward matter to place Charlemagne Palestine in the so-called minimalist company of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, whose work also featured in the Shandar catalog. Palestine too used a deliberately restricted range of materials and a repetitive technique, but as he has often pointed out in more recent times, the opulent fullness of his music would more accurately be described as maximalist. Strumming Music, recorded in Palestine's own loft in Manhattan, has no written score. In an age of recorded sound he still feels no need for traditional notation. The surging energy of this particular recording stands comparison with the improvising of jazz visionaries who impressed and inspired him while living in New York as a young man. But, as Palestine himself has made clear, primarily he brings to music-making the sensibility of an artist rather than a musician. Although the technique of the piece has roots in Palestine's daily practice, when a teenager, of playing the carillon at a church, hammering sonorous chimes from a rack of tuned bells, it also draws on his later work as a body artist, staging vigorously muscular, physically demanding and often reckless performances. In addition, Strumming Music can be heard as a sculptural tour de force, while its textures connect with the color moods, plastic rhythms, and tactile space of Mark Rothko's abstract expressionist canvases. Strumming Music remains the essential index of Palestine's singular creative vision. Fundamentally this fascinating piece is a collaboration between an artist and an instrument. Palestine had first encountered the Bösendorfer Imperial back in 1969. "The Bösendorfer at its best is a very noisy, thick molasses piano," he has remarked. Charlemagne Palestine embraced its clinging sonorousness, its clangorous resonance and out of that embrace came the voluptuous sonic fabric of Strumming Music.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
12"
|
|
SH 003LP
|
180-gram vinyl. Limited edition of 300. Ponza present their debut EP, Free Kids, drawing upon the lovely, peaceful echoes of the '60s and '70s to direct their independent spirit toward an optimistic future. As Güneş Akyürek's psychedelic home recordings met the drumbeats of Salih Topuz's colorful mind, the duo fearlessly experimented with traditional and modern recording techniques, using every analog and digital toy they could find to create a hi-fi record with a lo-fi spirit. Recorded in İstanbul; mixed and mastered by Çağan Tunalı. Güneş Akyürek: vocals, electric and bass guitars; Salih Topuz: drums.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
ASH 003LP
|
"These rare recordings are some of the first ever featuring traditional African music played on western instruments. This cultural exchange led to completely new genres in music, most importantly, Highlife. Kumasi is a Gold Coast city in Ghana, West Africa, that, at the time, did not feature much more than an open air market and one of the first British department stores in the continent. The Trio is made up on H.E. Biney on guitar, Kwah Kanta on percussion, and Jacob Sam on guitar, with all three contributing on vocals. The trio was brought to London to record these tracks in the Summer of 1928. While efforts were made in the mastering process to attain the highest possible audio quality, the limitations of the source 78s are evident. Do not, however, let that disturb your listening enjoyment or regard for their historical significance."
|