Browse by Artist: KESZLER, ELI

Artist:	KESZLER, ELI
Title:	Oxtirn
Label:	ESP-DISK
Format:	LP
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	ESPDISK 4061LP

"Oxtirn is a truly unique and powerful blend of free energy, modern composition and mechanical music that defies genre. With two proper full lengths, and an array of self-releases under his belt, Eli Keszler has turned to ESP-Disk for the release of Oxtirn, his third, most composed and large scale effort to date. Oxtirn captures Keszler and crew at their most frenetic, and abruptly spills out into a cacophony of tuned brass, squeaking rust, and electrically shorting contact mics, taking the detritus of post-industrial existence (sheet metal, spring boards and motors wrenched from their initial hearths) and transforming that refuse into a twenty-first century musique-concrete orchestra. On the album's initial track, motors tumble across prepared sheets of metal as expertly placed squalls of bowed string and what could only be described as the sounds of a phantom brass band (courtesy of multiple horn player Andrew Fenlon and Keszler's longstanding partner Ashley Paul on clarinet) mesh transcendentally with Keszler's precise percussion and bursts of controlled chaos. Side B sees Eli and sonic artist Sakiko Mori on both prepared and installed pianos; as the two furiously scrape and agitate strings with a mix of switch-operated motors, contact mics and suspended preparations, slowly undulating resonant clusters float on top of the underlying din, creating a striking contrast. Here, the eerie timbre of Keszler's bowed crotales recall Italian futurist Luigi Russolo's Intonarumori, and the string quartets of Dumitrescu. The vinyl is limited to 300 copies and comes packaged with a beautiful, hand-screened poster featuring original artwork by Eli Keszler."

Artist:	KESZLER, ELI
Title:	Cold Pin
Label:	PAN (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$25.50
Catalog #:	PAN 021LP

Over two years in the making, Cold Pin is the new full-length record by Eli Keszler. Both a composition and stand-alone installation, 14 strings ranging in length from 25 to 3 feet are strung across a 15x40 curved wall, with motors attacking the strings, connected by microcontrollers, pick-ups and RCA cables. Recorded in Boston's historic Cyclorama, a massive dome built to house the Cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg painting in 1884. The B-side features, in addition, a "dry" version of the installation with motor attacks on metal squares rather than strings, creating dense percussive clusters. Cold Pin works within the frame work of left-to-right time and vertical structure. The installation acts as the architecture of the music, surrounding and immersing the live instruments into incredible density and sharp, angular mass shapes, and functions alone as the performers stop. Rather than an individual sound, the sustained horns, strings, drums and metallic attacks function as a singular unit, and continue, too, when they stop alongside the installation. Cold Pin features Eli Keszler (drums, crotales installation and guitar), Geoff Mullen (guitar), Ashley Paul (clarinet, guitar, greenbox), Greg Kelley (trumpet), Reuben Son (bassoon) and Benjamin Nelson (cello). Eli Keszler is a composer, artist and multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. In performance, he often plays drums, bowed crotales and guitar in conjunction with his installations. In his ensemble compositions, he uses extended strings, motors, crotales, horns and mechanical devices to create his sound, balancing intense harmonic formations with acoustic sustain, fast, jarring rhythm, mechanical propulsion, dense textures and detailed visual presentations. He has most recently won the Mata composers competition for the 2012 season. Eli Keszler is a graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston where he studied with Anthony Coleman and Ran Blake. Limited edition of 500 copies, pressed on 140 gram vinyl housed in a silk screened PVC sleeve. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.

Artist:	KESZLER, ELI
Title:	Livingston
Label:	RARE YOUTH
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	RY 010LP

"Debut LP by drummer/multi-instrumentalist Eli Keszler. A distinct composition in four parts, Livingston is a brooding and dark meditation for drums, crotales, guitar, clarinet, bowed percussion, Fender Rhodes, nail violin, and tapes. This is a rare kind of solo record, in that Eli's obvious instrumental virtuosity is tempered with a refined sense of composition and emotional space. You don't get the sense that this is the work of a single musician. Furious outbursts of raw percussive energy are kept in check by floating, distended melodies, and moments of silence are interrupted by the jarring clarity of high-pitched bells being bowed at close intervals. At times sounding like an Indonesian gamelan being put through the wringer, and at others like the massive drone of an aeolian harp being played by the wind -- Livingston effectively combines the influences of composers like Giacinto Scelsi and Iannis Xenakis with the improvisational energy and atmosphere of an artist like Keiji Haino. Clocking it at just over 23 minutes, this is a potent piece of music and an auspicious debut by a very talented young artist. Limited edition of 300, with hand-screened covers. Definitely recommended to fans of Mirror, Organum, ESPdisk, nmperign, Jandek, Evan Parker and Paul Lytton, Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Phil Niblock, etc."

Artist:	KESZLER, ELI
Title:	R.L.K.
Label:	REL RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	REL 003CD

"R.L.K. develops slowly and subtly with gradually shifting sounds, from intense activity to near stasis. Murky guitars and resonating bowed cymbals move around the open space of the recording, creating large blocks of ambiguous sound, all while crackling free drums twist across the surface. The music morphs into droning guitars, bowed percussion, feed back and beating overtones. The drums re-enter into a spacious atmosphere during the last section, where nail violin and bowed percussion play counterpart to the drums' broken timing."

Artist:	KESZLER, ELI
Title:	Tilt
Label:	REL RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	REL 010CD

"Tilt is a special edition CD, marking the 10th release on REL. It is a reissue from an out of print CDR originally released on the UK-based label Reverb Worship. A solo percussion outing, Tilt features an extra track added for the REL edition and is entirely remastered and reworked from the original. Tracked live with no electronics or modification in the winter of 2009, Tilt covers a wide area of sound from glistening, spinning crotales and stick and drum clusters to high pitched sustain and sympathetic vibration formations. All of this works together to create dense textural metal motion that piles on top of itself. Later moving to a low end, multi-bowed cymbal rumble then returning again to more angular areas. Special double digit design, Tilt features a 'mini' LP size, multi-layered silk screen cover on archival royal blue paper. The CD itself is housed in a fold out canary yellow silk screened booklet, with a vellum wrap around. Featuring multiple drawings by Eli, the inside contains notes on dark grey cardstock with full color CD printing. Released just prior to Keszler's upcoming European solo tour, Tilt is a hand numbered one time edition of 300 copies which marks the beginning of REL's new limited CD series."

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