Browse by Label: PARADIGM (UK)

Artist:	VA
Title:	Variations -- A London Compilation
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 001CD

Paradigm is a new London label run by a member of Morphogenesis, which intends to document lost experimental/contemporary music from the UK. This debut compilation features a lot of new names for most of us, but has a tremendous flow and alien feel to it, making it one of best samplers of this sort in recent recollection. Features John Wall (sonic sampling collage wizard), Andrew Jacques (Put Put member using a microphone and guitar amplifier for disruptive sound sources, sampled by Wall), Crow (great, futuristic fragments of experimental sound/text recordings by a UK installation artist), Alquimia (dream-state mutterings and aura, from a experimental artist from Mexico City), John Grieve (powerful electronic-like droning sound waves, somehow produced via solo acoustic tenor sax recordings), Kymatick (Morphogenesis-related improv loopery), Adam Bohman (extract from an audio diary).

Artist:	WISHART, TREVOR
Title:	Beach Singularity
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 003CD

"With no national record labels and very few electronic music studios to support this music, the UK has always lagged behind its counterparts in both the US and throughout east and west Europe. Trevor started releasing his own music in 1970 and continues to do so to this day. Much of this CD was originally privately released in 1979. Whilst other British maverick composers (Nyman, Bryars, Cardew, etc.) chose to stay out of the electronic music studio, Wishart and a very few others, (principally Harvey, Souster and Smalley) took the plunge. The amount of electro acoustic music coming out of Britain at this time was limited to the work of these dedicated composers. This CD comprised a complete reissue of the original LP with an additional 4 'Menagerie' pieces added to the 6 on the original release, plus an improvised solo vocal piece recorded at the old Recommended Records shop in 1991." "Menagerie" is an outstanding series of short tape works to accompany small performance art assembles when performed (reproduced in the CD booklet here). "Beach Singularity" is a strange excerpt from a day-long performance on the British seaside in 1977, featuring Wishart (tapes, vocals), Lyn Dobson (sax), Melvyn Poore (tuba), Poppy Holden (vocals), Robin Coombes (clarinet), etc. "...as an audience gathered their music developed a bizarre twist, with additional sound effects, tape collage and electronics provided by prerecorded cassettes played through a portable loudspeaker system. At certain periods, various kinds of experimental music, from free improvisation to pure tape pieces were played at the centre of the maze."

Artist:	OLIVEROS, PAULINE
Title:	Electronic Works
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 004CD

1997 release, restocked. Three early electronic works from 1965-66, which acts as a perfect companion piece to the other recent Oliveros electronic CD on Pogus Productions (there is no overlap between the two). "'I of IV' was made in July 1966...it is a real time studio performance composition (no editing or tape splicing) utilizing the techniques of amplifying combination tones and tape repetition. The combination tone technique was one I developed in 1965 at the SF Tape Music Center. The equipment consisted of 12 sine tone square wave generators connected to an organ keyboard, 2 line amplifiers, mixer, Hammond spring type reverb and 2 stereo tape recorders. 'Big Mother Is Watching You' was also produced at Toronto Electronic Music Studio in the summer of 1966. It is another experiment using the techniques I developed whilst in SF. The core of this technique is tape delay and super heterodyning. This piece utilizes a variety of sound sources including pink noise bands and some occasional voice input.'Bye Bye Butterfly' is a 2 channel tape composition." --Pauline Oliveros.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Variations 2 (A London Compilation)
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 005CD

Another collection of lesser known and infrequently recorded artists living in London. Beautifully package and musically focused -- unlike so many "experimental" compilations loaded up with 30-second toss offs by "name" artists, this features 9 pieces of ultra-quality sound fabrication, with the intent of providing durable home listening. Features: Akemi Ishijima (crackling electroacoustic genius), Michael Ormiston, (drone classic for morin khuur -- a traditional Mongolian stringed instrument), Tom Wallace (high pitched squeal and experimental drum'n'bass-influenced programming), Hugh Davies (a work for Concert Aolian Harp and tape by one of the most infamous names in electronic music), John Grieve (processed solo tenor sax), Bob Cobbing & Lawrence Upton (freaky throat clearance and ringing bells from these British sound poets), Clive Graham (first solo work by this Morphogenesis member, streaming electronic disruption) and Rolf Gehlhaar (Stockhausen's personal assistant from '67-70 , with a track for 4 channel tape and live electronics. Limited stock.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Variations 3: A London Compilation
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 010CD

"A third and final collection of lesser known & infrequently recorded artists living in London. Considering its size, London is not well recognised as a centre for experimental and electronic music (at least not since the early 80's). Additionally there is virtually no funding or support for this kind of music from within the system. Consequently many composers and musicians who can fit in, work outside of the UK. Naturally enough there are many diverse artists in London that carry on their work in isolation, both at home and within a great many unsupported clubs and venues. This CD covers my own personal favorite discoveries and rediscoveries since the release of Variations 2 in 1997. Features: Syngen Brown (all the music is made using second generation sound sources as well as his own environmental recordings), Wits (first release by 4 women who specialise in live work. Along with their use of conventional instruments -- voice, electronics, keyboards and percussion -- and a dancer, they also fill the stage space with a huge supply of everyday objects that are noisily explored and unravelled as an integral part of their audio-visual performances), Phil Durrant (this piece was composed for a dance group and uses analogue electronics), Voltage (this is an edited version of a performance given at 'The Klinker', one of London's oldest clubs for experimental music, film and poetry), Clive Graham (this recording is made from a variety of old half inch and quarter inch tapes that I have had lying around for quite some time), Andrew King (previously released a CD of songs called The Bitter Harvest, that dwelt on the darker and less joyous stories within the folk tradition. This piece is from an American source and dates from the late 19th century), Aquiles Pantale�o (a Brazilian born composer who is completing his PhD in electroacoustic music at City University), Bob Cobbing (3 pieces from this senior member of the poetry and sound poetry scene, the earliest of these pieces dates from 1964), Hastings of Malawi (This extract was taken direct from the record that came out in 1980. All members of this group were involved one way or another in the very earliest Nurse With Wound records)."

Artist:	DETONI WITH ACEZANTEZ, DUBRAVKO
Title:
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 011CD

"Croatian composer and pianist Dubravko Detoni is a name barely familiar to even the most hardened and fanatical followers of avant garde composition. Although he has managed to consistently escape almost all forms of wider public recognition, Detoni has, since 1970 -- both in the solo context and with his Acezantez ensemble -- doggedly pursued a singular and unique musical path. Drawing on the conventions and traditions of modern composition, avant garde electronics, musique concr�te and group acoustic improvisation, and liberally embellishing them with breathtakingly idiosyncratic sonic inventions, Detoni has carved for himself a body of work as toweringly significant as it is hopelessly obscure. This is the first time his music has appeared in Western Europe since his LP on the legendary Philips Prospective series. As this long overdue and timely release shows, he is eminently deserving of the adulation and acclaim afforded his more celebrated contemporaries. The 5 pieces on this CD are all reissued from 3 LP's that appeared on Jugoton in the mid 70s. The pieces explore a broad stylistic palette with a strong use of electric organ to create a manically conceived parade of sound effects, replete with passages of blinding instrumental clarity, and exuding his trademark sugary, almost campy melodic sensibility. Elsewhere a strong sense of theatre mingles aggressively with brut sonic components -- cross-fade drones, harshly clanging 'industrial' repetition -- with musique concr�te, and extensive cut-ups and manipulation of female voices. Brilliantly arranged and executed throughout, all four pieces display Detoni's highly sophisticated ear for (at times), outrageous juxtaposition of instruments. Acezantez fuse the intellectual awareness of the avant garde with influences drawn from theatre to create surreal and dreamlike settings, in a manner reminiscent of nothing so much as the early outwardbound experiments of Nurse With Wound (suitably the cover lettering has been done by Steve Stapleton). Remastered from original tapes, this could be the release to finally earn Detoni the audience he so richly deserves. Paradigm Discs is proud to present the work of this hitherto neglected master for widespread contemporary re-evaluation." Limited stock.

Artist:	FRIZZELL, REV. DWIGHT
Title:	Natural selection
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 012CD

"After Paradigm Discs released the 1976 LP by Anal Magic and Rev. Dwight Frizzell, the true scope and diversity of this man's activities became more apparent to me. First there were the countless unused remnants from the original LP recording sessions, then the many films and their soundtracks, the regular radio shows, the dreamlanddiaries web page, the large scale Intermedia events, performing weddings and leading the live group Black Crack Review. For 25 years there has been a dynamic continuity to his work, and a strong association with his collaborators. He has also contributed to books on Sun Ra, and is a popular tutor at the Kansas City Art Institute. After being so inspired by the discovery of this creative energy a second CD was immediately planned. All the pieces on this release deal with Frizzell's more experimental output, and include 2 long performance pieces that date from the 90s. One is a multi channel sound diffusion piece using electronics, tapes and acoustic instruments, the other uses graphic scores and is more acoustic with backing tapes. Both these pieces draw their inspiration from natural phenomena, using sounds from nature, the environment and the laboratory. They were both recorded in church spaces and, unlike the early work, use high quality recording equipment. Of the other 5 pieces, 4 are soundtracks, and all date from the same period as the LP and have the hallmark of the sound world that prevails on side 2 of the Anal Magic LP, a time when Frizzell was still a student at the Kansas City Art Institute." Limited stock.

Artist:	ISHIJIMA, AKEMI
Title:	Time Drops
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	PD 013CD

"This mini CD follows on from her previous electroacoustic composition on Variations 2 -- A London Compilation. It includes one new piece and a reissue of 'Ab Ovo', previously released on 5 Composers Second Coming on Fylkingen. The 2 pieces explore a broad range of traditional electronic techniques, both subtle and powerful. 'Time Drops' (2000) 5'20" -- A single stroke of a bell, in its decay, sometimes evokes a sense of infinity in our mind. Time Drops is an attempt to express such ideas as infinity, cosmic equilibrium, and moments of creation in the form of electroacoustic music. Like rain drops making rings in water, the sound generates rings of oscillation, which create parallel universes and coexisting ones. As each sound appears and disappears, the perpetual process of creation and decline in the cosmic equilibrium is experienced in the presence and non-presence of multiple resonance. A mystery still remains around the question of how it all began. 'Time Drops' creates a poetic correspondence with cosmic harmony. 'Ab Ovo' (1993) 13'48" -- I once saw, in a science film, a pendulum placed in a peculiar type of magnetic field. It kept swinging in different directions for a while until it stoped at a non-perpendicular position. I was fascinated. I started imagining and creating electroacoustic sketches associated with this image, for example a tiny air vibration caused by the passage of a pendulum etc. Reflection upon two major aspects of the motion of the pendulum -- periodicity, and the effect of interfering force -- brought in another sound source eg. an egg. When I heard the amplified sound of an egg breaking in the studio, the composition magically came together. The piece starts with a rather striking impact of breaking an egg. This initiates the whole journey through the imaginary sound world circling around eternity and the inevitable point of disruption in a figure of eight. Composed at the Electroacoustic Music Studio of the University of East Anglia, England, 1993."

Artist:	CUSACK & MAX EASTLEY, PETER
Title:	Day For Night
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 014CD

"Over the last 25 years Cusack and Eastley have been gradually adding episodes to the collection of compositions that make up this CD. The foundation of this work consists of location recordings layered with the live or recycled sounds of Eastley's kinetic sculpture. Over the same period that this CD evolved Cusack helped with setting up the LMC, worked for 2 years at Studio Steim in Holland, co-founded Bead Records and released several LP's on this label. His long term musical collaborators have included: Clive Bell, Nic Collins and Viv Corringham, as well as the group Alterations (with Steve Beresford, Terry Day and David Toop). Recent CD's are available on Platelunch, ReR and Resonance. He also frequently works with artists in other fields, including most recently in September 2000, The Week of Small Miracles, a large scale outdoor project in the Lea Valley area of East London which he curated. Meanwhile Eastley's last 25 years have been spent more in the art gallery than the concert hall, with exhibitions in the UK at The Serpentine Gallery (1976) and The Arnolfini (1980). Overseas installations include The Apollohuis in Holland (1984), the Museum Of Modern Art, Nagoya, Japan and Xebec Hall, Kobe, Japan (both 1994). His most recent exhibits were seen this year as part of Sonic Boom at the Hayward Art Gallery in London. He has also been involved in musical performance, especially the Whirled Music project in the 80s and also ongoing collaborations with David Toop and occasional work with Thomas K�ner. He has recorded for many labels including Incus, Quartz and most memorably his 2 releases with David Toop (New and Rediscovered Instruments, originally on Obscure, 1975, and Buried Dreams, on Beyond, 1994). Eastley's work is concerned with creating delicate and elegant kinetic sound devices, either motor driven or animated by environmental forces like the wind, streams or the sea." Limited stock.

Artist:	KYMATIK
Title:	Dar-As-Sulh Vol.1
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 015CD

"The name 'Kymatik' is derived from the Greek word 'Kyma', meaning 'a great wave', and was used by Swiss physicist Hans Jenny as a descriptive term for the effects he saw using amplified tones to manipulate/create patterns in fluids and powders. More recently Jenny's research has led him to use these findings in a clinical environment for both therapy and healing. These ideas and the use of ambisonic surround sound equipment are the underlying influences on this CD. On this CD there are both environmental recordings as well as compositions that make use of UHJ encoding to enable ambisonic playback. Of the compositions, the musical styles range from the use of dense rhythmic patterns to subtle shimmerings and a pure tone piece that sounds like nothing I've heard before. The short environmental recordings are spaced between the compositions and offer some light relief from the intensity of these works. One thing all the pieces have in common a strong psychoacoustic effect which can be further enhanced for those fortunate enough to have access to a UHJ decoder."

Artist:	MORPHOGENESIS
Title:	In Streams (Volume 1)
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 016CD

"This is the fifth CD release by Morphogenesis, and the first since 1998. Although Morphogenesis do not play live very often, it is certainly our preferred working situation, where the interaction between the space, the people present and the available equipment create a variety of different situations. Substantial extracts from nearly all of our recent concerts appear on this, and a second volume, soon to be released. There is also the inclusion of one studio recording per CD. Perhaps one reason for our infrequent appearances is due to the size of the group, which usually varies from between 4 to 6 people all of whom have been working together for 10 - 15 years. This in itself is an unusual situation within experimental music. Another increasingly rare feature is that we have never used laptops or samplers, and although a prerecorded CD was used on the Spitz concert it was played through a varispeed DJ CD player. Prerecorded analogue tape is also used by manually inching the tape past the playback head. All other instrumentation (amplified objects, piano, biofeedback, water machine, percussion etc) is played and processed completely live. This release comes in an 8 page digipak. Volume 2 will be likewise, and the total playing time of both volumes is just under 2 and a half hours."

Artist:	MORPHOGENESIS
Title:	In Streams (Volume 2)
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 017CD

"Like Volume 1, this CD also contains excerpts from 3 concerts (all in London this time) and a studio piece. Morphogenesis play a few concerts a year, almost always in London. In fact we have only ever played outside the UK twice. Concerts have always yielded our most varied material, but until now our CD's have mainly documented our studio work. Both volumes of In Streams redress this. Of the concerts; one is a whole piece from the Spitz concert organised by Eddie Pr�vost, then there is a short extract from the Red Rose which has a ominous feel to it that is only partially due to the hostile audience. Finally there is the whole of our Sonic Youth support gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire which also has some interesting audience reactions -- the initial cheer of approval on this piece was not because we had finally started, but rather due to a well aimed missile from the front row. This release comes in similar packaging as Volume 1."

Artist:	WISHART, TREVOR
Title:	Journey Into Space
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 018CD

"York University's music department houses one of the UK's first ever electronic music studios, and during the early seventies it was a hotbed of creative activity. Much of the released output from the studio at this time revolved around the work of the dynamic composer Trevor Wishart. Journey Into Space was his first release, composed between 1970 and 72, and was privately pressed (shortly before the formation of YES records), as two separate LP's in 1973. (The CD cover amalgamates the 2 original designs). Along with other early private releases of experimental music in the UK (ie the LP of sound poems by Cobbing/Jandl, or the LP of musique concr�te by Desmond Leslie), this record is also a total anomaly in the canon of British experimental music and has little to do with the current, or even subsequent work by Wishart. The vast length of this piece has many different styles. There are acoustic sections, mostly of junk and toys (bike bells, squeeze horns, bottles, metal tubes, combs etc.) as well as flute and brass sections that are used as raw material. There are also sections of everyday field recordings, scraps of NASA Apollo transmissions, as well as plenty of multitracking, editing, vocal acrobatics and musique concr�te. Among the 48 participants credited on the original sleeve are a whole roster of York University alumni including nearly all the artists who were showcased on the soon to be released 3LP box set Electronic Music From York, along with other noteworthy students as diverse as Steve Beresford, Jonty Harrison, Roger Marsh, Dominic Muldowney, Bernard Rands and Jan Steele. The co-operative spirit of York's music and drama departments, plus the raw enthusiasm and open attitude of the participants involved in the project gave this music an immediacy, similar to the later LAFMS scene."

Artist:	BOHMAN, ADAM
Title:	Bunhill Row
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	PD 019LP

"1980 was an incredible year for London's experimental music scene with many different strands. Recommended records were re-releasing the first two Faust LPs, L. Voag had found 'the way out,' Swell Maps were 'in occupied Europe.' Throbbing Gristle and other industrialists were giving plenty of live actions. Nurse With Wound had just released their first LP, as had This Heat. The other great LP on Piano Records by Steve Beresford was also on the shelves. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the capitol Adam Bohman was making his first recordings working with two budget cassette recorders. Bunhill Row was the first complete album of material, but whilst the aforementioned artists were pressing up their sounds and making them easily available at Rough Trade or the Recommended Records shop, Adam's releases remained in tiny cassette editions made for friends or exchanged on the mail art network. So here for the first time is Bunhill Row, released as it should have appeared at the time -- on vinyl. It must be said that this is quite unlike any of Adam's other releases, and quite unlike his work with Morphogenesis, or his work as one half of The Bohman Brothers. This is 'songs' -- 30 in all, and the main instrument used is a trumpet (an ordinary trumpet), along with a variety of other acoustic instruments and objects, many of which are still part of the Bohman armoury as known. Somehow it all works, and all in all opens another window on to the incredibly fruitful astral alignment that occurred over London at this time."

Artist:	GRAVITY ADJUSTERS EXPANSION BAND
Title:	One
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 020CD

The Paradigm label is back! First new releases in a few years, starting w/ this much in demand reissue of their first album from 1973. "Although the Gravity Adjusters Expansion Band (GAEB) started in 1967, they remain one of the long lost and underestimated groups that explored the areas of sound sculpture, improvisation, experimental music and free jazz. The group have their roots in playing in and around the San Francisco Bay Area, and finally recorded their first LP in Los Angeles. Free jazz drummer Lee Charlton seamlessly shifts the moods from jazzy phrasing into the far more abstracted ideas of the world of sound sculpture. It is this abstract world where the GAEB mostly reside, using the invented instruments of multi-media artist Richard Waters, many of whose percussive and bowed instruments incorporate water filled resonators to bend and tune the sound. Although many other improvisors at the time like AMM, MEV, Sonde and Taj Mahal Travellers all made extensive use of home made and adapted instruments, the GAEB are a very different concern with their own unmistakable identity. Their first LP One appeared in 1973 on Nocturne Records, a small Californian label. It was the first of their 2 LPs, the second appearing some 8 years later. This CD edition is a reissue of the first LP from the master tapes and also contains some 15 minutes of extra material from the time."

Artist:	ORAM, DAPHNE
Title:	Oramics
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$23.00
Catalog #:	PD 021CD

"Daphne Oram is best known for the design of her Oramics system, and also for co-founding the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1957, but until now the only easily available piece of music by her on CD has been the 8-minute long 'Four Aspects.' There was also a 7" EP from 1962 on HMV, released as part of the Listen, Move and Dance series that was specifically designed to help children dance. Although the short pieces on this record are very basic, it could be argued that this is the first-ever electronic dance record! Now for the first time, is a survey of nearly all the major pieces that she produced since her departure from the BBC in January 1959 until her final tape piece in 1977. During this time she worked independently in her home studio, and thanks to a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation in 1962, she was able to pursue her interests. In Britain there were no state-funded studios other than the Radiophonic Workshop which mainly existed at the behest of the drama studio and was not generally seen as a place to develop personal artistic ideas. There were also no university studios at this time, so it was necessary for British electronic composers to be self-funded. Throughout this period, she devoted her attention to developing her Oramics 'drawn sound' system, which consisted of a large machine that enabled drawn patterns to be converted into sound. This system was eventually fully realized in the late '60s and several pieces here incorporate its use. The 2 and-a-half hours of music on this 2CD set covers the whole range of Oram's post-BBC output. All of the music is electronic with some occasional use of real instruments, especially small percussion and piano frame. There is also some use of musique concr�te techniques. The works fall roughly into the following categories: works for TV and cinema advertising, film soundtracks, music for theatre productions, installations and exhibitions as well as concert pieces and several studio experiments. There are also a few short pieces that resulted from an experimental music course given by Oram at a high school in Yorkshire in 1967."

Artist:	GREENHAM, LILY
Title:	Lingual Music
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$23.00
Catalog #:	PD 022CD

"Britain's best known sound poet is Bob Cobbing, but it's hard to come up with a list of other sound poets working in Britain in the '60s and '70s. It's equally difficult to think of any female sound poets working anywhere. Lily Greenham was Danish, but spent her childhood in Vienna. After several relocations across Europe, she settled in London in 1972 with her British husband (musician and poet Peter Greenham), where she lived until her death in 2001. Nearly all of her own writings and compositions date from after her arrival in London, but prior to her arrival in London she had been involved in two major European art movements. In the late '50s she had been an active member of the early Wienner Gruppe, performing in their wild experimental theatre works and reciting the new poetry of young artists like Gerhard R�hm, Konrad Bayer and A.C. Hartmann, but before the Wienner Gruppe had established itself as the important art movement it was to become, she had moved on and changed her working practice. In 1964, she was back in Paris for a second time, but this time she was working as a visual artist specializing in optical art. She was soon directly involved in group shows with the Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel. For the second time she was at the center of an emerging art movement that was exploring new ground, but predictably enough, she moved on. Once in London, she began to record her own text based compositions that used a mixture of sound poetry techniques, electronics and multi-tracking. The term 'lingual music' that she coined for her compositions refers to her technique of using tape loops of text to create complex and dense musical structures. Her most well-known composition in this style is 'Relativity,' which was made in 1974 in collaboration with the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC. She also worked with quite a few musicians, both via the early LMC network in London, but also on an international scene. A list of musicians she worked with includes John Tchicai, Wolfgang Dauner, Bob Downes, Barry Guy, Hugh Davies, Max Eastley and Peter Cusack. This 2CD set compiles a wide variety of her own work, including live solo performances, film soundtrack pieces, as well as many tape pieces. There are also examples of her performing works by Cobbing, R�hm and other sound poets, as well as recordings of her work with Bob Downes Open Music. The recordings date from between 1968 and 1984."

Artist:	VA
Title:	I.D. Art #2
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 023CD

"When the Los Angeles Free Music Society 10CD set came out I eagerly flipped through the contents to see what treasures had finally been made available again. Much to my surprise, the early compilation I.D. Art #2 was not included in this otherwise major overview of the LAFMS. I.D. Art #2 was the second LP release on their label, coming after Le Forte Four's Bikini Tennis Shoes LP, and before the 2LP Live at the Brand, a split album between Le 44 and The Doo-Dooettes. It dates from 1976 and is also probably the most difficult LP on their catalog to find. Originally released in an edition of just 200 copies, most of which were given out to the 44 artists and groups who appeared on this extraordinary LP. The deal was that each track was paid for by the contributor at a rate of $8 per minute in exchange for 4 copies of the disc. Consequently very few copies were ever made available via the LAFMS mail order service. With a running time of 66 minutes and the sheer variety of contributions, I.D. Art #2 remained for most people a mysterious and tantalizing item. Most of the contributors came from the students at Otis Art Institute in L.A., and many make their only recordings ever for this disc. Among the known names from the LAFMS scene are: Le Forte Four, Joe Potts, Fredrick Nilsen, Mr Foon, Ace & Duce, Dennis Mehaffey as well as 6 tracks by Smegma. Other artists include the painter Miles Forst, violinist Josie Roth, film makers Doug Henry and Gary Beydler, mail artist and dog portrait painter Irene Dogmatic, Otis librarian Joan Hugo, graphic designer Kathe Schreyer and many other creative artists and designers at the start of their careers who submitted their audio idea, be it via telephone, in subways, recontextualizing old vinyl, philosophizing, story telling, being abstract, joking, rehearsing and even playing instruments. This exhilarating journey, bursting with ideas, was compiled by Joe Potts and Waynna Kato."

Artist:	DOWNES OPEN MUSIC, BOB
Title:	Episodes at 4AM
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 024CD

"Bob Downes is most often thought of as a jazz flautist, composer and group leader, but throughout his varied career that has included such diverse musical activity as working with the John Barry Seven and playing on Egg's second LP, he also had his own fluid conceptual group Open Music with principle bass player Barry Guy and drummer Denis Smith. Other players that passed through Open Music include Chris Spedding, Kenny Wheeler, Ray Russell, Ian Carr, Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett, Harry Miller, Barre Phillips, John Stevens and many others. Besides the free jazz and jazz rock influences, Bob Downes has also been involved in much experimental music. After his early '70s releases on Philips, Vertigo and Music For Pleasure there appeared a series of 3 private pressed LPs on his own label Openian that explored this more experimental style. Episodes at 4AM is the second in this series and is by far the strangest of the three. Released in 1974 and commissioned by the Welsh Dance Theatre, it consisted of 10 short duos performed by Wendy Benka on zither, dulcimer and small percussion, and Downes on flutes, various percussion and plenty of electronic manipulation. Nearly every sound on this LP was processed using a variety of shimmering delays, controlled feedback, reverb and speed change to create a haunting and delirious mix of musical styles and atmospheres. Taken from the master tapes, this 33-minute LP has been expanded for the CD release with 35 minutes of previously unreleased experimental works, mostly from the same period, that cover even more ground than the LP, including one piece made entirely from the sounds of various phone booths on the streets of New York."

Artist:	WISHART, TREVOR
Title:	Machine
Label:	PARADIGM (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	PD 025CD

"Although Machine was completed in 1971, it was not released until 1973, shortly after the release of his Journey Into Space. Machine is therefore the first major composition by Trevor Wishart. It was composed at York University and was originally issued on vinyl as 3 sides of a highly adventurous 3LP box set called Electronic Music From York, on the University's own record label. In common with Journey Into Space (also on Paradigm Discs), Machine makes use of a large number of volunteer contributors, mostly from the student body at York. With this recording, however, there are no instruments used. Instead, the music of Machine is made up entirely from a combination of spoken text, carefully directed improvising choirs that take their lead from pre-recorded factory sounds. These are extensively mixed and edited with yet more collected machine sounds and other sources of musique concr�te, as well as occasional use of basic electronic sources. The scale of this work, and the degree of preparation involved in scoring it, seems to have more resonances with the world of theater or film rather than tape composition. Much of Wishart's early work involved the use of musicians and artists being directed to perform in new ways, outside of their usual remit. A combination of late '60s openness, detailed scores that provide frameworks for improvisation and slavish editing have resulted in an incomparable sound work. With a continuous playing time of one hour, the wild and previously unexplored terrain covered by this pioneering work of British experimental music moves in turn through the full range of possible audio landscapes from the oceanic calm of the doldrums to earsplitting factory mayhem."

Previous Page Index of Labels Next Page