Browse by Artist: CHATHAM, RHYS

Artist:	CHATHAM, RHYS
Title:	Two Gongs (1971)
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 073CD

"The hour-long Two Gongs fills the entirety of [this] disc with its ethereal, droning psychedelia. While written in 1971, the '89 recording documented here features Chatham, along with fellow composer Yoshimase Wada coaxing heavy, overlapping tones out of a pair of Chinese gongs. The instruments buzz and hum, moving in waves from deafening rattles to soft, muted drones. The monstrous noise that Chatham concocts is far more akin to the seismic crashes of monstrously distorted guitar feedback than that of two unprocessed slabs of metal, and it proves the composer's interest in creating a similar world of sound out of whatever instrument currently proved his muse. On disc, the performance is jaw-droppingly powerful, a monumental chunk of glorious noise."

Artist:	CHATHAM, RHYS
Title:	A Crimson Grail (For 400 Electric Guitars)
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 106CD

"Rhys Chatham, the man who rocks the minimalist canon like a hurricane, gathers up the City of Light in the evanescent beauty of his latest piece -- written for 400 guitars and performed live in the basilica of landmark Sacre Coeur -- with 10,000 people watching and 100,000 more on national TV. As the music shimmers, it offers a snapshot of eternity, an echo of a moment a thousand years gone -- and a thousand years yet to come."

Artist:	CHATHAM, RHYS
Title:	Die Donnergotter (The Thundergods)
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 801CD

"Rhys Chatham altered the DNA of rock. The New York-born composer began as a classically-trained prodigy, but by 1975, Chatham was fusing the overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the relentless, elemental fury of the Ramones. It was an inspired amalgamation -- the textural intricacies of the avant-garde colliding with the visceral punch of electric guitar-slinging punk rock -- and with it Chatham created a new type of urban music. Raucous and ecstatic, this sound energized the downtown New York scene throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, prefigured the No Wave movement and cast a huge influence over the subsequent work of Chatham's many protegees, including Glenn Branca and future members of Sonic Youth. This release contains all of Chatham's best work of the period, from the notorious 'Guitar Trio' (1977) and the tumultuous, brass-based 'Massacre on MacDougal Street' (1982), to the soaring, euphoric masterpiece, 'Die Donnergotter' (1986). The accompanying 32-page book features rare photos plus essays by Chatham, Tony Conrad and Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, as well as artwork by famed visual artist Robert Longo. Now widely available for the first time, these tracks vividly document those glorious years in the life of a city and a milieu in which the raw, the sophisticated and the danceable merged, and a new era of rock was born."

Artist:	CHATHAM, RHYS
Title:	An Angel Moves Too Fast to See
Label:	TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	TOE 802CD

"By the late 1980s, Rhys Chatham was chafing against the logistical and financial constraints imposed upon him in the States; in his mind was a vast, unprecedented sound. Moving permanently from New York to Paris, Chatham began composing his masterpiece, a piece for one hundred electric guitars, electric bass and drums. The result, An Angel Moves Too Fast to See, is one of the most extraordinary works in the minimalist canon, one that demonstrates the majesty inherent in Chatham's amplified imagination. Now widely available for the first time, this lavish CD presents this sonic revolution in all its glory, and cements Chatham's reputation as a monolithic figure astride both rock and classical musics."

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