Browse by Label: RECORDED

Artist:	FLYNT, HENRY
Title:	New American Ethnic Music Volume 1: You Are My Everlovin'
Label:	RECORDED
Format:	2CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	RECORD 003CD

2007 repress, originally released in 2001. The classic double CD release that really renewed the interest in Henry's Flynt's idiosyncratic music (linked to Conceptual art and minimalism) -- at least 10 other CDs have followed since the release of this one. It is listed as #6 on Alan Lichts' "Minimal Top Ten" list, which says a lot. First volume in the series subtitled: New American Ethnic Music. "Recorded in '80 and '81, two mind-blowing disks delivering flowing, trance-inducing violin solos of extreme beauty and seriousness. In these incredible electronic hillbilly music violin performances, an exalted synthesis of American ethnic music, raga-like lyrical virtuosity, and a deep sensibility takes place--a nod to human culture from the great nihilist philosopher and father of Concept Art. Should be completely world-famous, but only now is this music beginning to the get the attention it deserves.

       Before the publication of his music, Flynt was most often known as an (often distorted) footnote in art history, as the man who invented 'Concept Art,' Flynt's name in the early sixties for his formal attacks on logical and mathematics, often presented in art galleries. Flynt was initially (1962) a composer of the post-Cage school who quickly turned completely against modernist music and created his own Flynt genres, primarily through radicalizing Southern musical forms like Bluegrass, Country, and Country Blues-elevating them to an enchanted level, much as Coltrane did with the jazz of his time. His music is a parallel stream to his extremely distinct and radical philosophy (his primary work is as a radical intellectual, with visionary, wide-ranging work that is highly intellectually demanding). More about Flynt and his philosophy can be found at his web site, http://www.henryflynt.org.

       One note about Flynt, lest unhelpful inaccuracies continue. He has been mistakenly associated with the Fluxus art movement, of which he was never a member, and even has been claimed as a sort of trophy by Fluxus members. Flynt was NEVER a supporter of Fluxus, in fact he was a friend of Fluxus founder George Maciunis who published a few of his early works, and in a (very distorted way) he exerted a small influence on the movement (his wide-ranging political critiques of 'European serious music' and of art itself-including Fluxus-caused a small rift in the movement). Classifying Flynt as Fluxus is totally unhelpful in understanding his highly singular work, which is simultaneously far more intellectually radical & serious than the Fluxus post-dada shenanigans, and also expresses a gritty & virtuosi musical sensibility which couldn't be farther from 'Fluxus Music.' The only reason this error has made it into print is the laziness of some historians who have trouble placing such a singular lone wolf figure in the stream of conformist art culture."

Artist:	FLYNT, HENRY
Title:	New Americam Ethnic Music Volume 3: Hillbilly Tape Music
Label:	RECORDED
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	RECORD 007CD

Third volume in the New Americam Ethnic Music series, following: You Are My Everlovin' & Spindizzy. Featuring recordings from 1971 through 1978, this focuses on shorter tracks that explore the third-ear mania of looped violin playing as well as could be imagined. Breathtaking stuff and essential for all followers of the Tony Conrad/post-minimalism timeline. "This is an amazing document of the nihilist father of concept art and inventor of electronic Hillbilly music. The record shows more than ever Flynt's musical genius, the audacity of his compositions (which seek to exalt rural southern music to a level beyond this civilization) and the strange qualitative fluidity of his playing."

Artist:	NAGOSKI, IAN
Title:	Effortless Battle
Label:	RECORDED
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	RECORD 010CD

"Baltimore musician Ian Nagoski cites electrical transformers and cicadas as strong musical influences on his work, two sound making entities that people come in contact with almost daily during some periods of life, but objects that most people wouldn't be willing to concentrate on for anything more than a few minutes. This information in indispensable when examining Nagoski's music, as its ambient, slowly developing nature. Effortless Battle begins with the disc's thirty-one minute title track, the soundtrack to a Catherine Pancake film of the same name. It begins with a very subdued, but dense fluttering, but nearly five minutes in, Nagoski utilizes a buzz which pans from left to right so vigorously that its circular motion seems almost baroque (by Nagoski's standards, of course). Slowly, though, a more constant tone takes control, a sound that makes up the majority of the rest of the track. Vaporous sounds slowly emerge from below, and the music swells in intensity." -- Adam Strohm, fakejazz.com.

Artist:	FLYNT, HENRY
Title:	New American Ethnic Music Volume 4: Ascent to the Sun
Label:	RECORDED
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	RECORD 021CD

"The final release in the New American Ethnic Music series (but not the last Henry Flynt on Recorded) is Ascent to the Sun, a brilliant, sparkling hillbilly raga in the family of You Are My Everlovin' but with a unique double violin approach and a mind-bending structure all its own. The piece covers incredible ground in terms of specificity of mood and sentiment, and is deeply listenable and experimental at once. It is a new creation by Flynt circa 2004, engineered by Tim Barnes."

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