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ZORN 086LP
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A sprawling collection by Belgian loner blues savant Bram Devens aka Ignatz encapsulating the mystery, murk, and melancholy of his uncanny craft at its most windswept and wayward. Originally issued via Goaty Tapes in September of 2015, this long-anticipated vinyl edition expands the saga with an additional 17 minutes of archival material. Deven's palette remains constant throughout: feathery fingerpicking, modal loops, and intuitive six-string navigations interspersed with candlelit passages of mournful voice, alternately whispered, mumbled, moaned. His is an aesthetic of embers and resin, cracked masks and distant lights, of what's left behind and what lingers on. I Live In A Utopia was recorded following a relocation from his longtime base of Brussels to Landen, with a second child due soon: "I remember the weather being nice and having just bought a hammock." The change of scenery seeded a promise of slower days and lighter times -- no utopia perhaps, but a sense of faint hope glowing on the horizon. The songs slide between loose acoustic spirituals and smoky basement ragas, late afternoon haze and midnight moons, a seesawing restlessness reflected in the titles ("I Have Found True Love", "Time Does Not Bring Relief", "We Used To Smoke Inside"). The fidelity is grainy but vivid, refracted by tape warp and Flemish dust. As always, Deven's playing is deceptively elegant, raw but precise, attuned to resonance, radiance, and negative space. Echoes of Fahey and Jandek reverberate in certain moments but ultimately the world Ignatz maps is one incomparably his own. A landscape both doomed and dawning, weary but undefeated, tracing outlines of lengthening shadows. "I walk in the sunshine," he sings, uneasily. This is music of a rare inner wilderness, poised at cryptic crossroads, devoted to its ghosts. I Live In A Utopia stands as an apex work by one of the underground's most veiled and visionary talents. Double album in gatefold sleeve with artwork by Zully Adler. In co-production with House Rules. Edition of 500.
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ZORN 076LP
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The Jericho project is fully in line with the approach of the La Nòvia collective from which it originates, a hub for like-minded musicians reinventing regional folk repertoires, marrying traditional French song with minimalism via the use of drone. Jericho is just one of many available permutations of La Nòvia members, with the line-up including Yann Gourdon, Clément Gauthier, Jacques Puech, and Antoine Cognet -- you could say it's La Nòvia's flagship, or super-group. There are no dramatic stylistic shifts here, this is a story of gradual evolution within parameters that Jericho, and La Nòvia, have set for themselves. That also applies to their interpretation of individual songs, which are largely traditional. They can build from almost nothing to reach a furious, near-hallucinatory pitch, underpinned by Gourdon and driven higher by Cognet's banjo and Gauthier and Puech's cabrettes (Auvergnat bagpipes). Gauthier and Puech also sing in unison but drift marginally in and out of time with each other, creating a natural delay effect. Many of the songs slide into each other in long sequences, adding to the sense of disorientation; the one which runs from "Revenant Des Noces" to "Trois Mariniers" takes in both eerie, keening balladry and wild dances. When Jericho hit their stride at these moments -- see also, especially, the glorious "Planh De la Madalena" --they leave you feeling like you're spinning forever, encircled by whirling bodies caught up in dancing mania. Double album in gatefold sleeve with artwork by Elodie Ortega. In co-production with La Nòvia. Edition of 500.
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ZORN 083LP
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Ferocious JP/US free jazz bomb. A rare meeting between the NYC free jazz scene and the Japanese free music scene. Following hot on the heels of the first, mid-sixties generation of Japanese free jazz players like Kaoru Abe, Masayuki Takayanagi, Yōsuke Yamashita, Motoharu Yoshizawa, etc., an exciting second wave of younger players began to emerge in the seventies. Two of its leading members were the saxophonist Kazutoki Umezu and multi-instrumentalist Yoriyuki Harada. Both were post-war babies and immigrants to the city, Umezu from Sendai in the north and Harada from Shimane in the west. They first met as students in the clarinet department at the Kunitachi College of Music in western Tokyo. The two began to play together in an improvised duo, with Umezu on clarinet and bass clarinet and Harada on piano. Experiments led to the creation of a trio, with a high-school student called Tetsuya Morimura on drums, that they decided to name Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai (Lifestyle Improvement Committee) in joking reference to the Marxist discourse of the student radicals of the time. Around 1973, Umezu and Harada decided to call it a day and go their separate ways. Umezu began playing with the Toshinori Kondo Unit and Harada with the Tadashi Yoshida Quintet. In 1974 Harada formed his own trio and began to play at jazz coffeehouses across Japan. In September 1974 Umezu travelled alone to New York. Umezu soon became known on the scene as Kappo and he started to make connections with some of the young musicians. Umezu wrote to Harada and invited him to come to New York. He accepted and arrived in the city in July 1975. Harada and Umezu took the opportunity to resume their artistic collaboration. Their first concert together in over two years took place on July 20th at another loft, Sunrise Studios at 122 2nd Avenue. Umezu invited along trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah. Abdullah led his own group and was a long-term Sun Ra sideman. William Parker, one of the key figures in the loft jazz scene of the period, was on bass. Abdullah also brought along Rashid Sinan on drums. Sinan played on Frank Lowe's immortal Black Beings (1973) and Arthur Doyle's Alabama Feeling (1978). By all accounts the evening was a huge success, with speed and dynamism of Harada's piano playing gaining him lots of support. Since they had managed to save some money from their day jobs, Umezu and Harada decided to set up a recording session with the same line-up on August 11 at Studio We, where there was a well-equipped studio on the third floor. On their first recordings, the humor element, which is key to their sound, is not yet present. Instead, there is a febrile sense of joy in creation and connection. Old-style gatefold with rare photographs and liner notes by Alan Cummings.
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ZORN 063LP
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Famed free jazz concert registration of an early New Direction for the Art performance. Recorded in 1971. The performance by Takayanagi Masayuki New Direction for the Art at the Gen'yasai festival on August 14, 1971 was an intense, bruising collision between the radical, anti-establishment politics of the period in Japan and the febrile avant-garde music that had begun to emerge a few years before. 1962, Takayanagi, bassist Kanai Hideto and painter Kageyama Isamu went on to form an AACM-style musicians' collective called the New Century Music Research Institute. Every Friday, members gathered at Gin-Paris, a chanson bar in the fashionable Ginza district of Tokyo, to push the outer limits of jazz creativity. But the pivotal moment for his music was the creation a new trio version of his New Directions group in August 1969, with the free bassist Yoshizawa Motoharu and a young drummer Toyozumi (Sabu) Yoshisaburō. Experiments eventually led to the creation of two basic frameworks for improvisation that Takayagi referred to as "Mass Projection" and "Gradually Projection". La Grima (tears), the piece that was played at the Gen'yasai festival, is a mass projection and listening to it, you can get a clear sense of what Takayanagi was aiming at. Mass projection involves a dense, speedy and chaotic coloring in of space that destroys the listener's perception of time, and thus of musical development. The ferocity of the performance of La Grima at the Gen'yasai Festival in Sanrizuka on August 14, 1971 was consciously grounded by Takayanagi in a particular historical moment, ripe with conflict and violence. A month after the festival, on September 16, three policemen would die during struggles at the site. This was the context that the three-day Gen'yasai Festival existed within. The line-up reflected the radical politics of the movement, with leading free jazz musicians like Takayanagi, Abe Kaoru, and Takagi Mototeru appearing alongside radical ur-punkers Zuno Keisatsu, heavy electric blues bands like Blues Creation, and Haino Keiji's scream-jazz unit Lost Aaraaff. New Direction for the Arts trio topped the bill on the opening day, playing an aggressive, uncompromising "mass projection" set of polyphonic improvisation. Alongside drummer Hiroshi Yamazaki and saxophonist Kenji Mori, Takayanagi soloed hard and continuously for forty minutes. This was performance as precisely calibrated metaphor: three musicians responding to the demands of the moment with instinctive force and fury, untethered by rules, leaderless yet not rudderless (the direction part of the group's name was no accident). The piece was entitled La Grima and the fusion between the palpable anger of the performance and hopeless sadness of its title were also perfectly apt for the situation. This was a fight that the state was always going to win. A union of anger, sorrow and malevolence that can be placed nowhere effective, all it can do is find expression and channeling. Old-style gatefold with rare photographs and extensive liner notes by Alan Cummings.
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ZORN 077LP
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British post-industrial/ambient group O Yuki Conjugate arrives on Aguirre Records with a vinyl run of their previously CD only 1995 release Equator. Coming four years after their lauded Peyote release, the group split and reformed into their Mk II phase with the two original members Roger Horberry and Andrew Hulme, along with Malcolm McGeorge, Dan Mudford, and Pete Woodhead. Making use of the emergent technology of the early '90s, Equator was one of the first albums to be mixed with digital equipment, weaving together a blend of studio, live and location recordings to create their own deeply immersive, enveloping soundscapes. Brooding atmospheres unfold underneath a wide range of ethnic percussion and deep, meditative basslines -- existing in a unique cross-section of Hassell-inspired 4th world mystery, Industrial landscapes and the rich middle-eastern projections pioneered by Muslimgauze. It's a deeply hypnotic work that joins the dots between the late 80's industrial scene and the smoked-out chill out rooms of the '90s, which should have received more attention at the time, were it not for the haphazard Staalplaat label who ensured O Yuki Conjugate remained a total obscurity in their home country. Now revisited, this expanded vinyl edition features an additional 30 minutes of material, together with new glorious artwork from artist and actor Frederick Schimmelschmidt. Instrumentation: tongue drums, bass, thunderegg, voice, keyboards, samples, wireless, stratus, airtubes, skin, percussion, marimba, digital edits, dharbouka, roto-tom, sholak, finger cymbals, rain stick. Mastered by Pieter De Wagter. Smokey clear vinyl; gatefold cover with insert; edition of 500.
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ZORN 068LP
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Originally released on cassette in 1983, now released on vinyl for the first time. Exceptional recordings by this new age maestro. Only recently re-discovered by his friend JD Emmanuel and the band Sun Araw. Randall McClellan was a founding member of the electronic music studio at the Eastman School of Music in 1967 where he later received a Ph.D. in Composition, Theory and Musicology. A growing interest in North Indian music and vocal technique prompted him to develop his personal compositional practice into an active platform for inducing altered states of mind. He constructed his concerts to be spaces for harmonization of mind and body through a musical practice informed by his esoteric studies of ancient mystery schools and sacred geometry, believing these to be primarily teachings on intentional resonance. These performances were given between 1977 and 1983 in semi-darkened spaces that allowed listeners to relax on carpeting while being enveloped by sound. Each improvisation lasts from twenty-five to forty-five minutes. An entire performance is up to three hours and is designed to provide an environment of meditative sound. They gained in popularity and were soon attended by larger audiences. His final live performance took place at New York City's Alternative Museum in October, 1983. The "Music of Rana" Environmental Series uses synthesizers, drone box, tamboura, voice and tape delay to create an environment of continuously evolving multi-layered melody. Described as subtle, graceful and of other worlds. The name RANA, meaning "Sunbreath", has its origin in ancient philosophical concepts that recognized vibration as the fundamental creative force and central principle of the many esoteric mystery schools of the ancient world. It is now evident that the use of music for its ability to alter mind states and for its effectiveness as a therapeutic aid was music's original purpose and an important concept of these mystery schools. In the broadest sense, the practice of music for its healing ability may well stand as our oldest continuous musical tradition. This album is the first volume in the series, previously issued as a cassette in 1983, and part of the cassette box set published by Sun Ark in 2013. This music is based on principles outlined in Randall's book, The Healing Forces of Music: History, Theory and Practice. These compositions are selected for their meditational and healing abilities. RIYL: Joanna Brouk, JD Emmanuel, Pauline-Anna Strom. Edition of 500.
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ZORN 069LP
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Originally released on cassette in 1983, now released on vinyl for the first time. Exceptional recordings by this new age maestro. Only recently re-discovered by his friend JD Emmanuel and the band Sun Araw. Randall McClellan was a founding member of the electronic music studio at the Eastman School of Music in 1967 where he later received a Ph.D. in Composition, Theory and Musicology. A growing interest in North Indian music and vocal technique prompted him to develop his personal compositional practice into an active platform for inducing altered states of mind. He constructed his concerts to be spaces for harmonization of mind and body through a musical practice informed by his esoteric studies of ancient mystery schools and sacred geometry, believing these to be primarily teachings on intentional resonance. These performances were given between 1977 and 1983 in semi-darkened spaces that allowed listeners to relax on carpeting while being enveloped by sound. Each improvisation lasts from twenty-five to forty-five minutes. An entire performance is up to three hours and is designed to provide an environment of meditative sound. They gained in popularity and were soon attended by larger audiences. His final live performance took place at New York City's Alternative Museum in October, 1983. The "Music of Rana" Environmental Series uses synthesizers, drone box, tamboura, voice and tape delay to create an environment of continuously evolving multi-layered melody. Described as subtle, graceful and of other worlds. The name RANA, meaning "Sunbreath", has its origin in ancient philosophical concepts that recognized vibration as the fundamental creative force and central principle of the many esoteric mystery schools of the ancient world. It is now evident that the use of music for its ability to alter mind states and for its effectiveness as a therapeutic aid was music's original purpose and an important concept of these mystery schools. In the broadest sense, the practice of music for its healing ability may well stand as our oldest continuous musical tradition. This album is the third volume in the series, previously issued as a cassette in 1983, and part of the cassette box set published by Sun Ark in 2013. This music is based on principles outlined in Randall's book, The Healing Forces of Music: History, Theory and Practice. These compositions are selected for their meditational and healing abilities. RIYL: Joanna Brouk, JD Emmanuel, Pauline-Anna Strom. Edition of 500.
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ZORN 074CD
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Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London's Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired by the galvanizing presence of Parker, is a sustained bacchanalia of collective ecstasy. You could call it their party album.
This was the second time Parker played with NIS. Joshua Abrams: "Both times we played compositions with Evan in mind. I don't tell Evan anything. He's a free agent."
The music is focused & malleable, energized & even-keeled, drawing on concepts of ensemble playing common to musics from many locations & eras without any one specific aesthetic realization completely defining it.
"The rhythms that Mikel plays are not an exact reference to Chicago house, but that's in there," Abrams says. "I like to take a cyclic view of music history, can we take that four-on-the-floor, & consider how it connects to swing-era music? Can we articulate a through line? I dee-jayed for years in Chicago & lessons I learned from playing records for dancing inform how I think about the group's music. The listener can make connections to aspects of soul music, electronic music, minimalism, traditional folk musics, & other musics of the diaspora as well. It's about these aspects coming together. I don't need to mimic something, I need to embody it to get to the spirit, to get to the living thing."
For jazz fans, the sound of Parker's soprano & Jason Stein's bass clarinet might evoke Coltrane & Dolphy, even though they didn't necessarily set out to do that & they play with complete individuality. Abrams sees a bridge to the historical precedent, too. "Since we first met in the 1990s, one of the things that Evan and I connected on was Coltrane's music," he says. "I hoped that we would tap into that sound world intuitively. In this case, I think that level of evocation adds another layer of depth, versus a layer of reference."
Indeed, this is a performance in which the connections among the ensemble & the creative tension between improvisation and composition build into a complex mesh of associations & interactions. While the band confines itself to the territory mapped out by Abrams' composition, they are remarkably attentive & responsive, making adjustments to Parker's improvisations. When Parker's intricate patterns of notes interweave with the band, the parts reinforce one another & the music rockets upward. Sometimes, Parker's lines are cradled by the group's gentle pulse & an unearthly lyrical balance is struck.
Drummer Mikel Patrick Avery is locked-in, playing with hellacious long-form discipline, feel & responsiveness. Jason Stein's animated, vocalized bass clarinet weaves in & out with Lisa Alvarado's harmonium to state the piece's thematic material; the pulsing tremolo on the harmonium brings a Spacemen 3 vibe to the party. Abrams ties together melody & rhythm on guimbri, a presence that leads without seeming to. Like his bandmates, he shifts modes of playing frequently, improvising & then returning to the composed structure.
"As specific as the composition is, the goal is to internalize it & mix it up," Abrams says. "The idea is to get so comfortable that we can make spontaneous changes, find new routes of activity, stasis & byways every gig. It's like a web we're spinning. If someone makes a move, we all aim to be aware of it, make room for it. Experiencing & listening is what it's about, & Evan supercharges that."
& "supercharged" is the word for this album. With Parker further opening up their music, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the sound of Natural Information Society growing both more disciplined and freer, one of the great bands of its time on a deep run.
Mastered by Helge Sten, Audio Virus, Oslo. Lacquers by Dubplates & Mastering. Liner Notes by Theaster Gates.
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ZORN 060LP
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"Timelash is the evolution of Embassador Dulgoon's cryptozoological sci-fi opus Hydrorion Remnants converging with Corum's surreal sonic mapping as Beguiling Isles. The combined cinematic vision jettisons listeners through a psychedelic wormhole far beyond the usual perception of known audio latitude, Aguirre Records has gone all out to inject this tribal dino DNA double slab of wax presented as twelve expansive and mesmerizing tracks of historical mutations linking early communication developments with speculative astrobiological impressions heard as mysterious and riveting melodies that wash over dizzying percussive styles and suspenseful ambience. A variety of unexampled sounds take shape throughout as tectonic tablature, reptilian choral movements, bubbling bioluminescence, tube calls, orogenic bells, crustacean chatter, lost continent scales, high plains drifting riffs, and primordial soup lapping splashes revealing to listeners a living mural that is A Morphology Of Wonders. The conjuring of cratonic creature harmonics resonate wildly from this interdimensional duet, emerging as Neopangaea music of now." --Zakira Luna, Psychic Sounds Research Edition of 300.
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ZORN 071LP
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The Begotten is the brainchild of Jürgen De Blonde (Köhn, de portables) and Brecht Ameel (Razen), who initially performed a number of shows and released a cassette under the moniker Kohier -- gleefully referencing the absurdity of Belgian tax systems and institutions. On their debut LP Temidden Laaghangende Wolken they are joined by percussionist and improv-veteran Dirk Wachtelaer (Pablo's Eye, Vanishing Pictures), who locked with De Blonde and Ameel's post-reality continuum during a recording session at Les Ateliers Claus in Brussels. In this new trio format, The Begotten weaves a stripped-down set of after-hours, trancey observations on keys, baritone guitar, and drums. Neon-lit bars are named Le Kheops or 60 Moons, streets are soaked in sheets of rain, people are staring at tax sheets and comets pass by unnoticed. Dub with tears; Temidden Laaghangende Wolken is the perfect backdrop of a strongly medicated game of Manillen during a "Derrick" rerun. Edition of 250.
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ZORN 059LP
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"Tim Gick's already-warped patchwork editing of the entire Crazy Doberman output thus far turns increasingly glitched out across the splattered quiltwork of a nine-track LP on Aguirre. Any coherent sense of time departs early on the A-side; kicked off with the familiar sound of the Dobes' synth throb and love-cry woodwinds on top of completely fried electric guitar squiggling, all suspended in spiritual foam; then battered to bits on the greasy flat top of the record's B-side. Ringing modular synth sirens evoke alarmingly huge Southern watersnakes swimming on top of Oconee river. Total trip zone across two sides: brownouts in the sequence of events, dubby fadeouts, and bright jump cuts in space. Teases of cartoon barrlehouse tickling on the keys of a farmhouse piano and tape melt psychedelia. The recording session in Athens, Georgia was a total 'CHUGFEST' recalls Frank Hurricane, the Appalachian juggalo folkie king, who joined the session with the Lafayette, Indiana crew. The presence of Hurricane's own 'Life is Spiritual' mirth bulworks the record with a muddy, barefoot hippy hopefulness, steadying the log flume through the nocturnal psychic murk toward the holy morning dew." --J. Russ Personnel: Drew Davis, Paul Baldwin, Tim Gick, Michael Potter, Jason Filer, Jacob Sunderlin, John Olson, Frank Hurricane. Edition of 500.
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ZORN 048B-EP
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Replica reissue of this extremely rare 7" by Fifty Foot Hose band members, originally issued in 1967. "Bad Trip" was recorded with Bob Noto on guitar, Bob Gibson screaming and hollering, and Cork Marcheschi playing bass and hitting a large cardboard tube with a stick. They recorded it on a two-track Sony in Cork's parents' family room and put Bob in the bathroom as a kind of sound booth. It was Cork's way to deal with music concrete and he suggested that the record could be played at any speed, his love for Dadaism was fully realized in "Bad Trip".
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ZORN 053LP
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In his essay The Meaning of My Avant-Garde Hillbilly and Blues Music, Henry Flynt talks about how his music should be analyzed as an intellectual tribute to the music of the autochtone, setting aside plain folk references, but adopting academic insights to mold the music one makes as a folk creature. Much of Flynt's discourse applies to the music of Glen Steenkiste's Hellvete. Over the past twenty years he has been thoroughly investigating both the ethnic musical language of various regions as well as the contemporary pioneers that preceded him as a drone musician, internalizing concepts such as deep listening or just intonation. Casting off any redundant ideas or sounds, and stripping down the focus to develop singular concepts, his working method led to pieces such as "Droomharmonium", in which he shapes the endless variations on a theme, emphasizing detail and nuance rather than multitude. The Indian harmonium here serves as the main device to worship ancient ghosts and masters, and to preserve a continuum in a tradition that touches both folk and avant-garde culture. The materializations are sustained tone compositions which become a means of appreciation of the people and cultures that paved the way for forms of mutual escapism. This might well be the core of what Hellvete's music is about. As much as it is a form of self-entertainment -- like folk music in the old days -- it also invites the listener to a shared experience of sonic reverie, it is a casual gift to the community. The pieces here were first presented in a smoke filled and darkened art space in Ghent, Steenkiste surrounded by only a couple of candles and just enough stage light to see him erratically moving to the rhythm of the piece, occasionally twiddling the knobs of a Doepfer synth that processed the prerecorded harmonium tracks. Unlike most of his other performances this piece embraced the audience in a trance that was similar to that of an old-school rave club. Flynt writes: "The music should be intellectually fascinating because the listener can perceive and participate in its rhythmic and melodic intricacies, audacity of organization, etc. At the same time, the music should be kinesthetic, that is, it should encourage dancing." Voor Harmonium does exactly that; it builds on the artistic ideas that have long been established in Hellvete's oeuvre, but the ecstatic nature of these pieces merges the usual spiritual transcendence with one of determined physical bliss. Edition of 250.
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ZORN 072LP
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Limited restock. Joshua Abrams' first Natural Information album from 2010. In his book Powershift, published in 1990, writer and businessman Alvin Toffler predicted that the century ahead would be defined by speed and that time itself is destined to become our most valuable commodity. When Joshua Abrams recorded Natural Information, originally released by Eremite in 2010, he was reacting against such commodification of time and the diminishing attention span that accompanies it by offering music with an irresistible groove, rooted in the sinuous rhythms of the human body and the full play of our senses. At the heart of this music is the sound of the guimbri, a North African three-stringed bass lute, which Abrams started to play following a visit to Morocco during the late '90s. Traditionally the instrument has a key role in mystical healing ceremonies. Abrams, already a well-established figure in Chicago's vibrant musical communities, had no desire to repackage tradition. He recognized however that the involving, springy and percussive sound of the guimbri was just the right voice to communicate vital data, to relay the natural information we all need in order to get back in touch with the pulsating continuities of a world we all share. With Natural Information, Abrams entered a new phase of his musical life, extending an invitation to the trance, where time intersects with timelessness. He carried with him a wealth of playing and listening experience. As a bass player he had worked with a host of notable musicians including guitarist Jeff Parker and percussionist Hamid Drake, and had been a member of back porch minimalism outfit Town And Country and the improvising trio Sticks And Stones. The guimbri is a shaping presence on this remarkable recording, but Abrams also plays bass, bells, kora, sampler and synthesizer. Sympathetic friends including guitarist Emmett Kelly, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, and drummers Frank Rosaly and Nori Tanaka join him for the project. They set out not to contrive some neat hybrid but to enable coordinated energies and enriching influences to pulse and flow through living, breathing music. Ten years further into a century seemingly dedicated, as Toffler foresaw, to the survival of the fastest, the deep involving groove of Natural Information seems still more relevant, more illuminating, more vital. Newly remastered at Dubplates & Mastering. 180 gram vinyl.
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ZORN 073LP
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2021 repress. Joshua Abrams' second album from 2012. With the release of Natural Information in 2010, Joshua Abrams entered into a new phase of his creative life, making music with a deep involving groove that communicates the pulsating energies of the human body and the incessant kaleidoscopic interplay of sensory perceptions. Represencing, recorded in Chicago in the summer of 2011 and originally released the following year by Eremite, was the next stride along this exhilarating path. Once again Abrams gives a key role to the guimbri, a North African bass lute, which he had started to play during the late '90s following a trip to Morocco. Its sound when plucked is percussive, emphatic from moment to moment, yet also bouncy and rhythmically propulsive, as if naturally springing forward. A time-honored instrument, used traditionally in healing ceremonies, the guimbri in Abrams' hands offers an invitation to the trance, an expanded present where time intersects with timelessness. As the title Represencing suggests, this is uplifting music with a serious mission -- to express that ongoing present and to give voice to our presence, here and now, within time's continuous flow. Once again, a fine selection of sympathetic friends help Abrams to craft this antidote to the current century's compulsion to accelerate and its ever-diminishing attention span. They include saxophonist David Boykin, drummer Chad Taylor, and guitarists Jeff Parker and Emmett Kelly. Lisa Alvarado plays harmonium on two tracks. She also provides a painting for the cover art which matches the music beautifully, vivid and vibrant, its interlocking geometry binding fragmentary perceptions into a coherent pattern, self-sufficient yet also clearly part of a far larger picture. By 2012 this fascinating music was taking on a group identity, performed by Abrams with the Natural Information Society. That development was subsequently consolidated with the recording of Magnetoception, released in 2015. Represencing, however, conveys the excited air of an adventure unfolding. Reminiscent in passing of a variety of other musics -- of tightly poised jazz, motoric rock and minimalism plus echoes from other cultural traditions -- it remains nonetheless a singular statement by an artist rapidly finding his own distinctive voice. The music offered by Represencing is intricate yet direct, hypnotically repetitive yet constantly changing, built to last yet intimately present. Newly remastered at Dubplates & Mastering. 180 gram vinyl.
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ZORN 070LP
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Low-key synth and keyboard studio album by Swedish all-rounder Gustaf Dicksson. From the early days of the found-sounds recordings -- like the downright scary Unga Röster album (2015) and the hilarious "Mandys Bil" 7" (2016) -- the homespun kitchen recordings/tape collages of the still-going Idiotmusik series to the more carefully elaborated and precise Leendet Från Helvetet (2017) and Knutna Nävar (2018) albums, the massive Livets Ord dropped like a bomb when it originally surfaced as a self-released cassette in 2018. Heavily based on synths and keyboards and clocking in on no less than close 70 minutes over four LP-sides, this is arguably the epic album from the cluster around the Förlag För Fri Musik empire. Gustaf Dickssons's fascination for Christianity/religious assemblies shines through once again, the title Livets Ord ("The word of life") derived from the Swedish free church/sect with the same name that was based in Uppsala between 1983-2013 and casting a pastoral shadow over the ambient music of the album. While dabbling with a long tradition of kosmische musik and private-pressed new age wonders, Blod's now-patented sound of a Björn Isfält-gone-sour still lingers throughout the entire recording. A cornerstone in contemporary Gothenburg underground music. Featuring guest appearances by Emelie Thulin and Jerker Jarold. Includes insert; edition of 300.
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ZORN 061LP
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Wonderful lo-fi synthpop/collage LP by Marseillaise duo Jean-Marie Mercimek. Something has been brewing in France in recent years. Underground record shops, small venues, micro labels, and young musicians are creating a new vibe in various parts of the country. A broad range of styles and genres get randomly mixed into a melting pot with refreshing results. Jean Marie-Mercimek is one of those projects coming out of this new scene. The duo of Marion Molle and Ronan Riou revisits French lo-fi synth pop in a fairytale-like way, utilizing their collection of rare automatic Casio keyboards, frequency modulation chanson, and tape collages towards a multi-layered comic book journey in form of a concert. As if there was an animated wax brush painted cartoon version of Elli & Jacno. Includes insert; edition of 250.
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ZORN 058LP
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Aguirre Records present a first time vinyl reissue of Morgan Fisher and Lol Coxhill's Slow Music, originally from 1981. Unique improv/ambient album by two creative minds. Cherry Red generously gave Morgan Fisher musical carte-blanche by offering to distribute a label of his own so, like his studio, he called his label Pipe. For the first album he decided to record an album of ambient music. Rather than using synths, Morgan decided to invite soprano sax supremo Lol Coxhill to supply some raw material which he then processed in various ways. The opening track is based on Lol's beautiful performance of Handel's Largo, recycled through tape delays, VCS3 filters, and octave shifts. The result (in Morgan's opinion) is somewhat like a Mexican funeral march. Other tracks transform the sound of the sax sound into bells(!) and lush orchestral soundscapes. The 20-minute title track is based on the melody of the short closing track (which Lol sang, accompanied by church bells). Morgan recorded phrases from the melody using piano, guitar, bass, and voice. He snipped off the beginning of each note (about 5mm of tape) making the sounds less recognizable, then looped each phrase and recorded long stretches of the loops onto individual tracks of his 8-track TEAC. Finally, he created this piece in real time by fading tracks in-and-out through long tape delays. This pioneering work took weeks of intense experimenting and has been cited as an influence by several top Japanese artists such as Haruomi Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra. Lol Coxhill passed away after a long illness, on July 10 2012, aged 79. RIP. Transparent green and black vinyl.
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ZORN 067LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of Maggi Payne's Ahh-Ahh, originally released in 2012 on Root Strata. Originally composed by Maggi Payne between 1984-1987 for the performance group Technological Feets. Formed by video artist Ed Tennenbaum in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981, the group combines dance, live video processing, and music. Composed on an Apple II computer and various early sampling devices, Payne's compositions are a vibrant response to the call from the moving body. Populated with buoyant pulses, graceful analog swells, dense fog-like drones, and cascading rhythms that shift in space, Ahh-Ahh is a vital document of not only these early collaborations, but of computer-based music as well. She studied with many greats in the field, including Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley, and David Berhman.
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ZORN 066LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of Maggi Payne's Arctic Winds, originally released on CD in 2010. Fully immersive electronic music by US composer Maggi Payne, inspired by the arctic winds. Payne's sound worlds invite the listeners to enter the sound and be carried with it, experiencing it from the inside out in intimate detail. The sounds are almost tactile and visible. The music is based on location recordings, with each sound carefully selected for its potential -- its slow unfolding revealing delicate intricacies -- and its inherent spatialization architecting and sculpting the aural space where multiple perspectives and trajectories coexist. With good speakers, some space in your schedule, and a mind-body continuum willing to resonate with Payne's electroacoustic journey, but then it will take you to places that other music can't reach. From the sounds of dry ice, space transmissions, BART trains, and poor plumbing she immerses the listener in a world strangely unfamiliar. Maggi Payne is a composer, video artist, recording engineer, photographer, and flutist and is co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music and a faculty member at Mills College, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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ZORN 062LP
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New album by New Zealand composer and guitarist Roy Montgomery in close collaboration with Emma Johnston. After Nietzsche is a response to Nietzsche's assertion in Twilight of the Idols (1889) that "Without music, life would be a mistake." Roy Montgomery and Emma Johnston recast this as "Life is a mistake set to music" and they take issue with one of Nietzsche's principal tenets concerning fate. After Nietzsche is in a way the sister-album to 2018's Suffuse, where Montgomery composes songs for guest vocalists. Only this time it's in close partnership with Emma Johnston. Montgomery's distinctive, interweaving guitar play is set as background for Emma Johnston's angelic vocals and experimentations. Swimming through the four tracks of the album, it's surprising to notice how different they are. The opening track could have been plucked from one of Montgomery's '80s projects, while the rest of the A side takes you into more shadowy territory. "Realm Of The Senses" with its slow strumming and echoing vocals evokes Grouper, and the title track, with dramatic vocals and strings, cleverly builds up to a climax that never happens. The last song clocking in at just over twenty minutes is a post-postmodern duet between the two musicians in a dark philosophical mood. Included insert with lyrics; Calligraphy by Liz Harris (Grouper); Cover by Trudi Cameron. Mastering by Kris Delacourt. Edition of 500.
Roy Montgomery is a composer, guitarist, and lecturer from Christchurch, New Zealand. Montgomery's mostly instrumental solo works have elements of post-rock, lo-fi, folk, and avant-garde experimentation. His signature sound might be described as atmospheric or cinematic, often featuring complex layers of chiming, echoing and/or droning guitar phrases. He is currently head of the Environmental Management department at Lincoln University in New Zealand. Montgomery has played in several New Zealand bands since 1980, most notably The Pin Group, Dadamah, Dissolve, and Hash Jar Tempo. He has also released solo albums on labels including Kranky and Drunken Fish.
Emma Johnston, a classically trained singer, she has developed a practice that explores experimental voice in theater. This led to her MA and then PhD theses, which explore her work in the context of experimental voice in avant-garde performance. Emma has also worked as a singer and actor with Silencio Ensemble, the Christchurch Symphony, and Corrupt Productions, and has premiered vocal works by composers Chris Reddington and Gao Ping. Alongside her ongoing Free Theatre work, she enjoys collaborating with artists such as Reuben Derrick and Roy Montgomery on a diversity of projects.
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ZORN 057LP
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Double LP version; Edition of 700. High glossy gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves; Includes download code. Aguirre Records present Sleepline, a crucial album by vaporwave pioneer Ramona Vektroid, here released under the moniker New Dreams Ltd. Ramona is widely recognized as instigator of the vaporwave genre with her celebrated album Floral Shoppe (2011). Vektroid (Ramona Xavier) is an electronic musician and artist based in Portland, but her reputation has hinged almost entirely on her hypertextual virtual presence. While she's most often pigeonholed as being a primary artist behind vaporwave -- a net-based microgenre notorious for its wholesale appropriations and meme-like propagation -- she has been releasing music since 2006 in a variety of styles and under a dizzying array of nom de plumes, from Vektordrum and Macintosh Plus to Laserdisc Visions and 情報デスクVIRTUAL. Within the sprawling, obsessive vaporwave community, Vektroid's 2011 album Floral Shoppe (as Macintosh Plus) has become canonized as its most representative transmission, an unlikely feat for a style of music that challenged not only our taste profiles, but also what could be considered "art" to begin with. But like most styles of music, what's on paper never aligns perfectly with the actual music, and Vektroid is a shining example of an artist whose talents extend beyond the regurgitated checklists of a now concretized genre. Two of her strongest albums, though, served as beautiful outliers that continue to resist easy categorization. Sleepline (released as New Dreams Ltd.), plays in the liminal space between states of consciousness, inducing a hazy, deteriorating quality that stands in contrast to Shader Complete's mostly hi-definition aesthetics (ZORN 057CD/LP). It was written in winter 2013-2014, but it didn't see an official release until 2016. Originally conceived as a Sacred Tapestry sequel called Transcontinent, the album saw Xavier returning to her plunderphonic tactics, looping and down-pitching what sounds like decades-old Japanese commercials. This time, Xavier sought out source material that would more readily fall under fair use, attempting to bridge the aesthetic gap between her works by foregrounding her editing techniques as much as transforming the source material. Mastered by Rashad Becker.
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ZORN 057CD
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Aguirre Records present Sleepline, a crucial album by vaporwave pioneer Ramona Vektroid, here released under the moniker New Dreams Ltd. Ramona is widely recognized as instigator of the vaporwave genre with her celebrated album Floral Shoppe (2011). Vektroid (Ramona Xavier) is an electronic musician and artist based in Portland, but her reputation has hinged almost entirely on her hypertextual virtual presence. While she's most often pigeonholed as being a primary artist behind vaporwave -- a net-based microgenre notorious for its wholesale appropriations and meme-like propagation -- she has been releasing music since 2006 in a variety of styles and under a dizzying array of nom de plumes, from Vektordrum and Macintosh Plus to Laserdisc Visions and 情報デスクVIRTUAL. Within the sprawling, obsessive vaporwave community, Vektroid's 2011 album Floral Shoppe (as Macintosh Plus) has become canonized as its most representative transmission, an unlikely feat for a style of music that challenged not only our taste profiles, but also what could be considered "art" to begin with. But like most styles of music, what's on paper never aligns perfectly with the actual music, and Vektroid is a shining example of an artist whose talents extend beyond the regurgitated checklists of a now concretized genre. Two of her strongest albums, though, served as beautiful outliers that continue to resist easy categorization. Sleepline (released as New Dreams Ltd.), plays in the liminal space between states of consciousness, inducing a hazy, deteriorating quality that stands in contrast to Shader Complete's mostly hi-definition aesthetics (ZORN 057CD/LP). It was written in winter 2013-2014, but it didn't see an official release until 2016. Originally conceived as a Sacred Tapestry sequel called Transcontinent, the album saw Xavier returning to her plunderphonic tactics, looping and down-pitching what sounds like decades-old Japanese commercials. This time, Xavier sought out source material that would more readily fall under fair use, attempting to bridge the aesthetic gap between her works by foregrounding her editing techniques as much as transforming the source material. Mastered by Rashad Becker.
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ZORN 056LP
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Double LP version; Edition of 700. High glossy gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves; Includes download code. Aguirre Records present Shader Complete, a definitive version of the Shader album by vaporwave pioneer Ramona Vektroid, here under the moniker Sacred Tapestry. Ramona is widely recognized as instigator of the vaporwave genre with her celebrated album Floral Shoppe (2011). Vektroid (Ramona Xavier) is an electronic musician and artist based in Portland, but her reputation has hinged almost entirely on her hypertextual virtual presence. While she's most often pigeonholed as being a primary artist behind vaporwave -- a net-based microgenre notorious for its wholesale appropriations and meme-like propagation -- she has been releasing music since 2006 in a variety of styles and under a dizzying array of nom de plumes, from Vektordrum and Macintosh Plus to Laserdisc Visions and 情報デスクVIRTUAL. Within the sprawling, obsessive vaporwave community, Vektroid's 2011 album Floral Shoppe (as Macintosh Plus) has become canonized as its most representative transmission, an unlikely feat for a style of music that challenged not only our taste profiles, but also what could be considered "art" to begin with. But like most styles of music, what's on paper never aligns perfectly with the actual music, and Vektroid is a shining example of an artist whose talents extend beyond the regurgitated checklists of a now concretized genre. Two of her strongest albums, though, served as beautiful outliers that continue to resist easy categorization. Shader Complete is an exquisite, multi-faceted album that pivots effortlessly between widescreen electronic synthscapes, atmospheric drones, and claustrophobic appropriations. It's the latest permutation of a release that originally arrived in summer 2012 as Sacred Tapestry. That version, titled Shader, was written during the first couple months at her new home of Portland, marking a period of instability and existential confusion. Concerned at the time that this was her final release, the record was paired with a cryptic note about body transmigration from fictitious Hong Kong company PrismCorp, hinting at the possibility of the album being her "final transmission". It wasn't until 2016 when it was reworked to its current state as Shader Complete, which saw Xavier reinterpreting the album to include orphaned tracks from the Color Ocean Road (2012, as Vektroid) sessions. This makes Shader Complete something like a lost sequel to Color Ocean Road. Mastered by Rashad Becker.
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ZORN 056CD
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Aguirre Records present Shader Complete, a definitive version of the Shader album by vaporwave pioneer Ramona Vektroid, here under the moniker Sacred Tapestry. Ramona is widely recognized as instigator of the vaporwave genre with her celebrated album Floral Shoppe (2011). Vektroid (Ramona Xavier) is an electronic musician and artist based in Portland, but her reputation has hinged almost entirely on her hypertextual virtual presence. While she's most often pigeonholed as being a primary artist behind vaporwave -- a net-based microgenre notorious for its wholesale appropriations and meme-like propagation -- she has been releasing music since 2006 in a variety of styles and under a dizzying array of nom de plumes, from Vektordrum and Macintosh Plus to Laserdisc Visions and 情報デスクVIRTUAL. Within the sprawling, obsessive vaporwave community, Vektroid's 2011 album Floral Shoppe (as Macintosh Plus) has become canonized as its most representative transmission, an unlikely feat for a style of music that challenged not only our taste profiles, but also what could be considered "art" to begin with. But like most styles of music, what's on paper never aligns perfectly with the actual music, and Vektroid is a shining example of an artist whose talents extend beyond the regurgitated checklists of a now concretized genre. Two of her strongest albums, though, served as beautiful outliers that continue to resist easy categorization. Shader Complete is an exquisite, multi-faceted album that pivots effortlessly between widescreen electronic synthscapes, atmospheric drones, and claustrophobic appropriations. It's the latest permutation of a release that originally arrived in summer 2012 as Sacred Tapestry. That version, titled Shader, was written during the first couple months at her new home of Portland, marking a period of instability and existential confusion. Concerned at the time that this was her final release, the record was paired with a cryptic note about body transmigration from fictitious Hong Kong company PrismCorp, hinting at the possibility of the album being her "final transmission". It wasn't until 2016 when it was reworked to its current state as Shader Complete, which saw Xavier reinterpreting the album to include orphaned tracks from the Color Ocean Road (2012, as Vektroid) sessions. This makes Shader Complete something like a lost sequel to Color Ocean Road. Mastered by Rashad Becker.
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