Browse by Label: ROARATORIO

Artist:	MUSIC ENSEMBLE, THE
Title:
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	CD
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 003CD

"The first documentation of this important free improvising group, featuring Roger Baird, Billy Bang, Malik Baraka, Daniel Carter, William Parker, and Herb Kahn. Existing during the heyday of NYC's Loft Scene, their name has often been cited as a crucial stage in the development of its members -- the seeds of such current ensembles as Other Dimensions In Music and Test can be found here -- but their singular music has gone largely unheard, save by those who were present at their concerts. This CD has been compiled from archival tapes recorded by Roger Baird; one complete performance from Brooklyn's Kingsborough College, on 24 April 1974, and excerpts from a concert at the Holy Name School Auditorium, on 15 February 1975. Packaged in a mini-LP gatefold sleeve, with liner notes by Parker, Bang, Baird, and Carter, paintings by Marilyn Sontag, and a reproduction of the poster for one of the shows, this is the recording debut of one of jazz's greatest 'lost' groups."

Artist:	CAREI THOMAS FEEL FREE ENSEMBLE
Title:	Mining Our Bid'ness
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	CD
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 004CD

"A revelatory debut album by a 64 year old pianist/composer may beg the question: where has Carei Thomas been all this time? Born in a culturally diverse neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Thomas cut his musical teeth in Chicago during a particularly fertile period for that city: gigging with Sun Ra as an improvising vocalist in 1959-60, joining up with the AACM for one hot minute in 1966, co-founding a group called The Light with Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (which also included Jerome Cooper and Wadada Leo Smith), and forming the compositional concepts that would provide a springboard for tireless exploration in the ensuing decades. Thomas moved to Minneapolis in 1972, where, in the mode of Horace Tapscott, he eschewed the industry-driven career path, choosing instead to work within the Twin Cities' community. Recorded live with a group that features, most notably, the unfettered talents of Curlew saxophonist George Cartwright, Mining Our Bid'ness represents the range of Thomas' no-boundaries Feel Free Ensemble, running the gamut from gorgeous Ellingtonian ballads to combustible free jazz testifying."

Artist:	OLIVEROS & REYNOLS, PAULINE
Title:	The Minexcio Connection: Live! At The Rosendale Cafe
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 006LP

"One of the most unexpected yet fruitful partnerships of recent years: in the mid-1990s, Pauline Oliveros, electronic music pioneer and sage of the environmental drone, began working with Reynols, the prolific and resolutely undefinable Argentinian group. Their first joint effort sent Oliveros' music through the rigours of Reynols' heavily processed studio treatments; The Minexcio Connection: Live! At The Rosendale Cafe finds them collaborating on-stage in real time. Recorded in August 2000 during Reynols' first trek through North America, they offered up a version of 'Six For New Time' (originally composed by Oliveros for Sonic Youth's Goodbye 20th Century LP), along with idiosyncratic throat-singing and hypnotic dream/dronescapes. The venue may have been a small cafe in rustic upstate New York, but the sonic results sound like emanations from the deepest of Deep Listening caves under the earth." Limited stock.

Artist:	KEITH, RODD
Title:	Saucers In the Sky
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	CD
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 010CD

"Rodney Keith Eskelin, aka Rodd Keith, aka Rod Rogers, would've certainly found the recognition during his lifetime that his talent demanded, if he hadn't chosen to work in the lowest depths of the music industry: the 'send us your lyrics' field, known today as the song-poem genre. Saucers In the Sky gathers together twenty-six previously uncollected Rodd Keith gems from the hundreds upon hundreds of songs that he recorded before he leapt from a highway overpass in 1974. It would be inaccurate to call this a collection of forgotten pop classics. 'Forgotten' implies that they were known in the first place. Outside of the aspiring lyricists who bankrolled the proceedings, plus a few of their friends and relations, none of Rodd Keith's records registered the slightest blip on the musical radar of their time. The irony runs deep: the song-poem business was a stylus' breadth away from being an outright scam, capitalizing on the dreams of would-be songwriters and filling their heads with visions of breakout hits and fame and fortune. In reality, if the lyrics themselves weren't unwieldy or strange enough to hobble any chances of entering the charts with a bullet, the assembly line production style of the recording insured that the majority of the songs were musically undistinguished. The best of Rodd Keith's work, however, easily transcends its lowly, no-hope origins, and therein lies the kicker: if the pressing runs for songs like 'Magic In Her Eyes' or 'Go Go Girlie' had broken the triple digit mark, or found their first point of sale in a Sam Goody rather than a thrift shop, they could've undoubtedly attained some measure of the popular success that their hapless creators were led to believe would follow. And while such tunes as 'Ravens' or 'Sawdust' were too lyrically bent for Billboard glory, they remain prime examples of Rodd's brilliance as a singer, composer and arranger. Saucers In the Sky also includes two never-before-released tracks: a cover of 'Here Comes The Judge' from a soul-soundalike session, and 'Get On My Honda, Rhonda,' written as a birthday gift for Rodd's best friend's son. Packaged in a mini-LP gatefold sleeve, with liner notes from Del Casher, inventor of the wah-wah pedal and guitarist on many of Rodd's early recordings, and Stacey Keith, Rodd's daughter."

Artist:	KNIFE WORLD
Title:	Knife World
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 013LP

"Formed in Minneapolis in 2004, Knife World have converted many unwary bystanders into true believers through their frenetic gigs in underground venues and the occasional club. The band worships at the Riff Temple, swapping pomposity for a mischievous intelligence. Jon Nielsen sounds as if he's scrambling to play all the guitar parts of some skewed arena-rock mash-up at once, while drummer Josh Journey-Heinz avoids the obvious backbeats by carving out the spaces around them instead. Together they have a fuller sound than most groups with more appendages. A self-released cassette and a CD-R served up hints and guesses, but now their debut LP comes along to deliver the goods. Packaged in a pleasantly eye-gouging 3D gatefold jacket, with glasses mounted into the vinyl."

Artist:	METZGER, PAUL
Title:	Gedanken Splitter
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 014LP

"Paul Metzger continues to pile up the plaudits from critics and peers alike for his virtuosic string-slinging, gaining notice through his CD on Chairkickers and his split LP with Ben Chasny and Chris Corsano on Roaratorio. Metzger's modified banjo is tricked out with additional sympathetic raga strings, although the compositions on Gedanken Splitter are informed by much more than Eastern drone music alone. Recorded in the same period as 2007's Deliverance on Locust Music, this is a more jagged and aggressive (although no less accessible) affair. Metzger winds these improvisations around thornier threads than on his previous releases, and while never turning completely abstract, Gedanken Splitter moves even further away from anything resembling typical banjo fare. This is mesmerizing and singular playing."

Artist:	METZGER, PAUL
Title:	Anamnestic Tincture
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 015LP

"Anamnestic Tincture is a live album by virtuosic musical carpenter Paul Metzger, culled from many hours of concert recordings. Side one comprises Metzger's public debut on his modified banjo, recorded in 2002 at a former church-turned-underground art space in Minneapolis. One of his most memorable compositions, 'After Milo' later turned up as an untitled improvisation on his CD for the Chairkickers label. Jumping ahead six years (and several more banjo alterations later) to side two, the glittering 'Orans' gets a workout at a memorial show for the artist Matt Zaun. As an acknowledgment of the occasion, Metzger also gave a one-time-only performance -- 'Dark Green Water' -- on another of his mutant instruments: an acoustic guitar with the body drilled out to accommodate a cymbal set into its face, and ten assorted strings of varying lengths laid over the top, giving it a particularly metallic and dissonant sound. Anamnestic Tincture is released in an edition of 425 copies, with an original vintage snapshot mounted on each cover."

Artist:	TALIBAM! WITH DANIEL CARTER
Title:	The New Nixon Tapes
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 016LP

"Since 2003, NYC's Talibam! have been charting a course through the improv waters in a way that few other groups can pull off. Rock, jazz, noise and all stops in between collide in an aggressive mix that defines free music in the best sense of the term: nothing is deemed out of bounds. Too much fun to be a po-faced postmodern exercise, and too expertly played to be sunk in a morass of good intentions, The New Nixon Tapes hurtles through two side-long pieces in an agile cascade of rhythmic and melodic ideas. Kevin Shea (drums) and Matt Mottel (synthesizer) have worked with Cooper-Moore and Rhys Chatham, among others; here they're joined by master saxophonist/trumpeter/flautist Daniel Carter. Recorded live in the WFMU studios. MP3 download coupon included."

Artist:	CARTWRIGHT & DAVU SERU, GEORGE
Title:	Rag
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 019LP

"Rag captures the best from a series of freely improvised meetings between saxophonist George Cartwright and percussionist Davu Seru, recorded at various Minneapolis venues over the course of 2009. Cartwright -- longtime leader of Curlew, and owner of a musical c.v. which includes Ornette Coleman, Half Japanese, Alex Chilton and Loren Mazzacane -- can be restlessly melodic or jaggedly guttural on the reeds, although his bedrock lyricism is never far from the surface. Seru's playing is a trompe l'oreille marriage of forward motion and suspended stasis; over the past decade, he's performed with Milo Fine, Paul Metzger and Evan Parker, among others. From the anthemic opening of 'Titus' to the miniature coda of 'I Think Eudora Knows,' Rag is a lively dialogue between two masters of their craft. Released in an edition of 300 copies on colored vinyl, each with a unique cover print by Anne Elias and a digital download coupon."

Artist:	ROTATE THE COMPLETOR
Title:	Rotate The Completors: Completed Rotations Of The...
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 020LP

"When one thinks of the musical centers of New Zealand, the city of Tauranga doesn't have as celebrated a history as Dunedin, Auckland or Christchurch. Which is apt, in a way, as the artist known to us only as Rotate The Completor makes music that sounds unconnected to any scene in NZ or elsewhere. A chance encounter with an enthusiastic passerby while busking on the streets led to the receipt of a home-recorded cassette, which caught the ears of the outsider music community, although any attempts at personal correspondence with its creator from his new admirers went ignored. Armed with a guitar, kick-drum, and vocal stylings which wouldn't sound out of place on an early Residents record, Rotate The Completors: Completed Rotations Of The... is the sound of a one-man band playing at a carnival that's gone off the rails. RTC's other- / inner-wordly songs are a strangely addicting brew of low-fi bedroom pop, proggy loner folk and bouncy children's music, with such lyrical concerns as beer-stealing cantaloupes, dead albino hedgehogs, and emphatic denials of insanity. Roaratorio is proud to present Rotate The Completors: Completed Rotations Of The..., newly mastered for vinyl, to a wider audience for the first time. Download coupon included."

Artist:	OLIVEROS, PAULINE
Title:	To Valerie Solanas And Marilyn Monroe In Recognition..
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 021LP

..Of Their Desperation. "Shortly after it was published in 1968 the SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas fell into my hands. Intrigued by the egalitarian feminist principles set forth in the Manifesto, I wanted to incorporate them in the structure of a new piece that I was composing. The women's movement was surfacing and I felt the need to express my resonance with this energy. Marilyn Monroe had taken her own life. Valerie Solanas had attempted to take the life of Andy Warhol. Both women seemed to be desperate and caught in the traps of inequality: Monroe needed to be recognized for her talent as an actress. Solanas wished to be supported for her own creative work. Commissioned by the Music Department of Hope College, Holland Michigan, To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation had its premiere in 1970. Though everyone knew Marilyn Monroe hardly anyone recognized Valerie Solanas or took her Manifesto seriously. I brought the names of these two women together in the title of the piece to draw attention to their inequality and to dedicate the piece." -- Pauline Oliveros.
"This LP contains both the 1970 Hope College premiere, performed by a 14-piece ensemble, and a 1977 recording from Wesleyan University, performed by a 43-piece orchestra. Roaratorio is proud to present the first commercially available release of this eerie, beautiful, and important Oliveros work. Cover artwork by Judith Lindbloom. Download coupon included."

Artist:	MCPHEE & CHRIS CORSANO, JOE
Title:	Under A Double Moon
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 022LP

"With a career now spanning over 40 years and more than 100 recordings, Joe McPhee has shown that emotional content and theoretical underpinnings are thoroughly compatible -- and in fact, a critically important pairing -- in the world of creative improvised music. Since recording The Hated Music with Paul Flaherty in 2000, Chris Corsano has been hyper-active in far-reaching corners of the free improvised world. Under A Double Moon, recorded live in Paris during their spring 2010 tour of Europe, is their first album together (and, given how phenomenally simpatico a partnership they've forged, we hope it's not the last). With cover artwork by Judith Lindbloom and liner notes by John Szwed. Download coupon included."

Artist:	KEITH, RODD
Title:	My Pipe Yellow Dream
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 023LP

"'Song Poems Wanted' read the ads. 'We need new ideas for recording!' The send-us-your-lyrics business was a borderline scam, taking whatever lyrics came their way from would-be songwriters and -- for a fee -- setting them to music. None of the results ever came close to being a hit, and to be sure, the vast majority was sufficiently bland or clumsy to insure no great karmic loss in their instant obscurity and miniscule press runs. But Rodd Keith -- the late, great genius whose prolific output was almost completely confined to the song-poem industry -- had a knack for turning sow's ears into silk purses. The nature of the business required him to work quickly, with no second takes, and his skill at writing and arranging on the fly was not unlike that of a master improviser. When at his best, he put his unique musical stamp on some lucky customer's submission. My Pipe Yellow Dream is the second Roaratorio anthology of the highlights of Rodd Keith's work. Compiling fifteen previously unreissued songs from 1966 through his death in 1974 -- including a never-before-heard cover of 'Choo Choo Train' -- My Pipe Yellow Dream showcases the full range of his talents. From exquisite mid-'60s pop balladry ('Deep Velvet') to blue-eyed soul ('You Don't Have To Alibi') to folk-rock ('Tired Of Waiting') to solo Chamberlain creations ('Red Sports Car') to gospel testifying ('O Jesus My Savior') to a pair of patriotic screeds (the all-spoken word 'America The Not So Beautiful' and the bizarre-world lounge funk of 'Search Out Your Soul, American'), this collection continues the rehabilitation of Rodd Keith's recorded legacy from thrift-shop throwaway to celebrated cult artist. A limited edition LP in a gorgeous gatefold jacket, with artwork by Josh Journey-Heinz and liner notes from song-poem vocalist Dick Kent. Digital download coupon included."

Artist:	GASTALDI, NELSON
Title:	Symphony No. 3: Siddhartha Gautama O El Poder De La Nada
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 024LP

"When psycho-spatial composer Nelson Gastaldi passed away in 2009 at the age of 77, he left behind a unique musical legacy that is only now beginning to be unveiled. A self-described 'musical nihilist with noble and mystic origins' (as well as an accomplished visual artist), Gastaldi supported himself and his family with a job at an electric company in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while creating an astonishing body of work that went virtually unheard during his lifetime. Synthesizing his wide-ranging interests (medicine, linguistics, Chinese and German philosophy) into his music, he welcomed paranormal/initiatic experiences into the compositional process, creating homemade Sibelius-meets-Sun Ra symphonies. The only previous publication of his work was in Bananafish magazine, which featured an excerpt of Symphony No. 3 on an accompanying CD. The same issue also contained his sole English-language interview, in which he waxed: 'The human being runs at the side of a river. When he is young, he runs faster than the river; in mid-life he runs at the same speed as the river; and at last he falls down and the river keeps going.' Take a dip into the strange and beautiful river of Nelson Gastaldi. Download coupon included."

Artist:	CRYSTAL SYPHON
Title:	Family Evil
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 025LP

Repressed. "Crystal Syphon, one of the greatest 'lost' groups of the West Coast psych scene, came together in Merced, California in 1965. Originally a Beatles / Byrds-influenced unit called the Morlochs, they soon shed their original moniker and moved in a more psychedelic direction, becoming a fixture on the ballroom circuit from 1966-1970. Although their music may nod in the direction of the New Tweedy Brothers and Quicksilver Messenger Service at times, it's imbued throughout with a distinctive sound that arose from practicing up to six nights a week. The band entertained offers from various labels during their existence, but as they insisted on complete artistic control and ownership of their music, no deals were struck. Now, some 44 years after its creation, Roaratorio is proud to make the music of Crystal Syphon available for the first time ever. Drawn from studio tracks, rehearsal tapes and a live recording from the Fillmore West, Family Evil is released with cover art by Norman Orr and extensive historical liner notes on an old-style 'tip-on' jacket. Digital download included."

Artist:	MCPHEE & CHRIS CORSANO, JOE
Title:	Scraps and Shadows
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 026LP

"Scraps and Shadows is the second album by the dream pairing of Joe McPhee and Chris Corsano. A follow-up to Under a Double Moon, which featured McPhee's alto saxophone, Scraps and Shadows finds him largely on tenor. Recorded live in Milwaukee in 2011, the album consists of seven dedicatory pieces, from the delicate balladry of 'For Adrienne P' to the appropriately combustible 'For Han Bennink.' Corsano's stupendously detailed drumming and McPhee's free-soul love cries weave a master latticework together. Cover art by Judith Lindbloom. Download coupon included."

Artist:	CORNER, PHILIP
Title:	Gong/Ear: Dance-ing, 1 & 2
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$34.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 027LP

"A major figure in 20th century arts and music (and beyond), Philip Corner studied with Henry Cowell and Olivier Messiaen, and was one of the original Fluxus conspirators, among other highlights of his long and storied career. As part of the body of his 'Metal Meditations' work, Gong/Ear is a decades-long series of improvisations with dancers. Utilizing his favorite Paiste tam-tam, these two recordings from Corner's NYC Leonard Street loft in 1989 are a feedback loop of perceptions between gong and dance: 'the initiating sound (or is it the dancer's posture?) is made physically audible. Responsive movement is turned back into sound. Musical attentiveness sends it back and it continues.' Gong/Ear: Dance-ing, 1 & 2 is released in a limited edition of 305 copies, each with a hand-cut facsimile brass gong, silkscreened with Corner's calligraphy and mounted onto the jacket. Download coupon included."

Artist:	LACY & JOE MCPHEE, STEVE
Title:	The Rest
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 028LP

"In June of 1977, Steve Lacy and Joe McPhee shared a double bill in Basel, Switzerland. Lacy invited McPhee to join him for a duet to close his set, for which McPhee elected to bring out his own soprano saxophone. The main part of Lacy's performance was issued on the classic Clinkers LP; after 36 years, here is The Rest. This one-sided, limited LP marks the first and only time that these two master musicians played together, but the simpatico meshing of their distinctly individual voices points towards a shared history on a different plane. Cover artwork by Judith Lindbloom. Download coupon included."

Artist:	DISSIPATED FACE WITH DANIEL CARTER
Title:	Live at CBGB 1986
Label:	ROARATORIO
Format:	7"
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	ROAR 030EP

"'Not since the early days of MC5 at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, circa 1968, had there been such an organic melding of sheer metal-esque maelstrom and free jazz. These archival recordings from the legendary punk club CBGB capture a moment in time when open-minded musicians from the 'downtown scene' were exploring the possibility of bringing Lou Reed's feedback-infested Metal Machine Music together with Albert Ayler's Love Cry. Dissipated Face guitarist Kurt 'Hologram' Ralske and special guest saxophonist Daniel Carter provided that implausible link between punk rock and avant garde jazz on these 1986 live recordings. Fueled by the throbbing rhythms of Steve 'X Dream' Popkin and Ben 'Face' Munves, who alternated on bass and drums, Ralske's twisted, thrashing power chords and shrieking licks blend with Carter's cathartic alto sax wailing to make the perfect union of disparate worlds. Ralske would go on to attain a certain level of indie rock fame with Ultra Vivid Scene and subsequently make an impact as a London-based producer-conceptualist-avant-popmeister and visual artist. Carter would become one of the most ubiquitous figures on New York's free jazz scene, recording with William Parker, David S. Ware, Billy Bang, Alan Silva and Matthew Shipp and the cooperative bands Test and Other Dimensions in Music. But for this one moment back in 1986, their paths crossed with band mates Popkin and Munves, and the results were frighteningly intense.' - Bill Milkowski. Cover artwork by Raymond Pettibon."

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