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ZORN 040LP
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Many years in the works, Ōgon Batto finally unleashes his album Hedoro. A journey into Japanese soundtracks and '90s adventure-gaming. Ōgon Batto is Bent Von Bent from Antwerp, Belgium. Besides working as a visual artist around archiving systems and collections, he is also the co-runner of the Hare Akedod label, together with David Edren, aka DSR Lines. Following his debut release (2014), Ōgon Batto secretly started working on a second album Hedoro, meaning "slime" or "chemical ooze". Bent is immensely fascinated by Japanese traditional and contemporary culture ever since he first visited the country. Mixing his European background with these Japanese influences, he shifts easily between abstract electronic tracks and pieces with a more classical Japanese tool kit. Think Oneohtrix Point Never or Mica Levi composing a soundtrack to a fantasy game. With an amazing sense for detail Hedoro's musical story -- entirely composed with synthesizers -- is reduced to a collection of situations and drama, with space for suggestion and imagination. Every track, how short it may be, is essential to the whole, maximizing the general dramatic effect. The album was mixed in Sapporo, Japan with the typical sounds of cicadas on the background (not on the album though) and some glasses of sake. The ceramic sculpture on the front cover is a reinterpretation of Rolls Royce's "Spirit of Ecstasy" and is created by Benny Van den Meulengracht-Vrancx. Remastered by Kris Delacourt. High-glossy sleeve; Edition of 300.
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2LP
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ZORN 052LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of Taj Mahal Travellers' August 1974, originally released in 1975. A monumental work by the Japanese experimental music ensemble. In April 1972 a group of Japanese musicians set off from Rotterdam in a Volkswagen van. As they crossed Europe and then made their way through Asia they made music in a wide range of locations. They also paid close attention to the changing scene and to differing ways of life. Midway through May they reached their destination, the iconic Taj Mahal on the bank of the Yamuna river in Agra, India. The Taj Mahal Travellers had fulfilled physically the promise of the name they adopted when they formed in 1969. The double album August 1974 was their second official release. The first July 15, 1972 is a live concert recording, but on August 19th, 1974 the Taj Mahal Travellers entered the Tokyo studios of Nippon Columbia and produced what is arguably their definitive statement. The electronic dimension of their collective improvising was coordinated, as usual, by Kinji Hayashi. Guest percussionist Hirokazu Sato joined long-term group members Ryo Koike, Seiji Nagai, Yukio Tsuchiya, Michihiro Kimura, Tokio Hasegawa, and Takehisa Kosugi. The enigmatic Takehisa Kosugi, whose soaring electric violin was such a vital element in their music, had been a pioneer of free improvisation and intermedia performance art with Group Ongaku at the start of the '60s. Later in that decade, before launching the Taj Mahal Travellers, he had become known internationally through his association with the fluxus art movement. During the mid-70s the Travellers disbanded and while his colleagues more or less stopped performing as musicians Kosugi continued to reach new audiences across the course of several decades as a composer, regular performer, and musical director for the acclaimed Merce Cunningham Dance Company. August 1974 captures vividly the characteristic sound of the Taj Mahal Travellers, haunting tones from an unusual combination of instruments, filtered through multiple layers of reverb and delay. Their music has strong stylistic affinities with the trippy ambience of cosmic and psychedelic rock, but the Taj Mahal Travellers were tuning in to other vibrations, drawing inspiration from the energies and rhythms of the world around them rather than projecting some alternative reality. Films of rolling ocean waves often provided a highly appropriate backdrop for their lengthy improvised concerts. Licensed from Columbia Japan. Remastered and lacquer cut by Rashad Becker.
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ZORN 051LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of Distant Voices, Steve Lacy's rare Japanese collaboration album, originally released in 1976. Renowned for remarkable solo concerts that confirmed his mastery of the soprano horn and that carried its instrumental language into previously unexplored regions, Lacy also loved to collaborate with musicians who could inspire him to stretch the boundaries of his own artistry. During the summer of 1975 Lacy toured Japan, and on June 24th he entered a Nippon Columbia studio in Tokyo with Yuji Takahashi and Takehisa Kosugi, two adventurous kindred spirits, guaranteed to fire Lacy's creative imagination. The fascinating outcome of that dynamic session is Distant Voices, an album without parallel in Lacy's extensive discography. Composer Iannis Xenakis was so impressed when he heard Yuji Takahashi playing piano in 1961 that he later wrote music especially for him. His repertoire extends back to Bach and Purcell yet for Takahashi, music has remained an open quest and a process of discovery. Takehisa Kosugi on the other hand has been a legendary figure in the international avant-garde since the mid-1960s when his work was endorsed by the fluxus movement. In Japan he was by then already well established as leading practitioner of experimental music and intermedia performance art. At the time Distant Voices was recorded Kosugi had also developed a following for his electric violin playing with the Taj Mahal Travellers, a group whose sound had strong stylistic affinities with psychedelic rock and space music. Subsequently other audiences worldwide came to know Kosugi through his long association as a composer, performer, and musical director with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. On 24th June 1975 Takahashi sat at a grand piano, with celeste and vibraphone alongside him and small bells attached to his hands. Kosugi was equipped with violin, flute, mouth organ, an electronic modulator, porcelain bowls and at times he used his voice. Lacy played soprano saxophone, of course. Now and then he pressed the mouth of the instrument against the skin of a kettle drum. He occasionally fiddled with a transistor radio, and also found uses for a stepladder, a toothbrush, and a spinning wheel. This was in no sense a routine musical session. Distant Voices preserves a unique occasion when three singular musicians joined together to embrace the unknown. Licensed from Columbia Japan. Remastered and lacquer cut by Rashad Becker. 180 gram vinyl.
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ZORN 042LP
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Aguirre Records present the first vinyl reissue of Randall McCellan's The Healing Music Of Rana Vol. 2, originally released on cassette in 1983. 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 25 to 45 minutes. An entire performance is up to three hours and is designed to provide an environment of meditative sound. His final live performance took place at New York City's Alternative Museum in October, 1983. The Music Of Rana Enviromental 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 ("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. 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 second volume in the series, 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 (1988). These compositions are selected for their meditational and healing abilities. EQ settings of treble and bass levels determine the music's effect upon you. Please explore until the most comfortable settings are found. Instrumentation includes the Moog Prodigy and MicroMoog synthesizer. RIYL: Joanna Brouk, JD Emmanuel, Iasos. 180 gram vinyl; Edition of 500.
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ZORN 048LP
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Aguirre Records present the first official vinyl reissue of Fifty Foot Hose's Cauldron, originally released on Limelight in 1967. Cauldron is the legendary psychedelic jazzy rock and electronic album by Californian band Fifty Foot Hose. Fifty Foot Hose formed in San Francisco in 1967. Like few other acts of their time, they consciously tried to combine the contemporary sounds of rock with electronic instruments and avant-garde compositional ideas. They were one of the most radical groups of the psychedelic era, and their experimentalism still has the power to shock and surprise even now. What set them apart were the pioneering experiments in electronic music, like the band they are often compared to, The United States of America. Incorporating Theremin, siren, audio generators, and other various electronic effects, as Cork Marcheschi, the band's original bass player, had developed an acute interest in the dadaist/futurist experiments of composers like John Cage and Edgar Varese. David and Nancy Blossom brought both psychedelic and jazz influences to the band. Cauldron, their only album, was released in December 1967, including "Fantasy", "Red The Sign Post", and "God Bless The Child", a Billie Holiday cover. Their sound experiments differentiated them from their contemporaries and most audiences didn't quite know what to make of them. Fifty Foot Hose's music leans more towards White Noise, Silver Apples, and especially United States of America, rather than to flower power movement. After only one album, the proto-cyber psych outfit passed as quickly as they came. Their only mention would be a name-check in Ralph J. Gleason's 1969 book, The Jefferson Airplane And The San Francisco Sound, published over a year after their demise. Ralph J. Gleason wrote: "I don't know if they're immature or premature." History has proven them to be the latter. Today, the original album is very collectable and considered a touchstone of avant-garde rock music. Cork Marcheschi on the record: "The concept was to expand what contemporary popular music was. I thought the avant-garde could have had a home with this new group of listeners but they turned out to be pretty conservative -- intellectually. Drugs were fine -- sex was fine -- stop the wars was good but when challenged with abstract art., they reacted like conservative people look at a Jackson Pollock painting." Cover reconstruction by Jeroen Wille. Remastered by Equus. Includes replica of the original insert. 180 gram vinyl; Edition of 1000.
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ZORN 044LP
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Aguirre Records present the first vinyl edition of France's Occitanie, originally released in 2009. Savage pulsating drone-rock from France, the trio of Jeremie Sauvage on electric bass, Mathieu Tilly on drums, and Yann Gourdon on amplified hurdy-gurdy. They play one note/one rhythm, producing energetic performances reminiscent of the early collaborations between Faust and Tony Conrad. Creatively recycled influences result in intense shows with pounding overtones and repetitive pulsing rhythms. Loud, straight, and trance-inducing. On Occitanie, in the mass of sound, the rhythmic repetition and the elongated drones. The hurdy-gurdy forces you deeper, highlighting points of microtonal flux, cracking open the single note, the nodding rhythm, to imply the presence of every note, every sound, inside it. The insensible evolution lurks in a corner of noise and finally imposes itself slowly on careful listening. The band members of France perform in various other projects: Tanz Mein Herz, Toad and Jérico, all are member of the collective La Novià , an organization based in Haute-Loire which brings together professional musicians and acts as a place for reflection and experimentation around traditional and or experimental music. In 2009, France was invited to play in Pau, a city far south-west of France, next to Spain, by the people running Pagans Musica, a like-minded traditional-oriented group of people, also bent on educational issues concerning the local music and dialect: Occitan and on fusing traditional musics and rock related sounds and instruments. They had set up a show for France and their band Artus and originally wanted to have Acid Mothers Temple join the bill. The Japanese band had done versions of songs coming from their village, but weren't touring near France so instead they invited Duo Ancelin-Rouzier as the third act, a band both Artus and France were also very fond of. Pagans had everything set-up for the concert to be recorded and as France had plenty of time for sound-check, they went on to record the Pau album (2011) in the afternoon, taking a thirty seconds pause in the middle of the session so as to mark both sides of the vinyl. Occitanie is a recording of the live set later that night, with no cut and a longer, more savage performance. Artwork by Standard In-Fi Visuals. Recorded live by Tòmas Baudoin and Yannick Prévost; Mastering by Kris Delacourt. High-glossy sleeve; Edition of 500.
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ZORN 045LP
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With hard-to-define instruments, Varkenshond creates ritual and tribal madness in the vein of early Silvester Afang and Zero Kama. Varkenshond was founded in 2006 in Antwerp, Belgium while the to-be members were studying Maggergergorian spiritual philosophy with Wim Vanaeghe, Thomas "Gergeti" Kreuzfeld, and Koera Mönggüm Sorgan. They released a CD in 2007, the result of a series of therapeutic music sessions led by G. Karkaronga, and a cassette in 2013, a selection of songs and meditations recorded with local musicians in Brazil, Belarus, China, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Russia. Hargawaan Por Shail is a collaboration with animal communicator, flute player, and percussionist Yori Yoki. It consists of Támoldut and Maggergorian vocal and instrumental traditional music from Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. The album includes the first recording ever of the instrument "Life Hooter" and an atmospheric electric version of "Qéfelni". Mastered by Kris Delacourt. Standard edition: Hand-assembled glossy sleeves; A4-insert; Edition of 150.
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ZORN 046LP
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Sold out, repress possible in 2018...
Aguirre Records present a reissue of Maggi Payne's challenging electronic album Crystal, originally released in 1986. Maggi Payne is an American composer, flutist, video artist, and co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College where she teaches recording engineering, composition, and electronic music. Her work involves electroacoustic, instrumental, and vocal works along with works involving visuals, including dancers outfitted with electroluminescent wire and videos she creates using images ranging from nature to the abstract. She has composed music for dance, theatre, and video. Crystal was first released in 1986 on the Lovely Music label. Home to experimental musicians such as Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Pauline Oliveros, and Alvin Lucier. On Crystal, flute, spoken voice, sonifications, and synthesizers are processed to create dense and massive structures. Maggi Payne's musical imagination is vivid: she is interested in the surreal, the inward, the micro, and the accumulation of physical and psychological tension. Periods of silence gently evolve into flowing drones of complex resonances. Oozing drones evolve into dense and powerful peaks of short duration. The compositions and sounds on Crystal have incredible depth, a profound logic and, though not "pretty", an irresistible beauty. 180 gram vinyl; Remastered and cut at 45rpm by Rashad Becker; Gatefold sleeve with liner notes by the artist; Artwork by Atelier Brenda.
Maggi Payne on Crystal: "I create immersive environments, inviting listeners/participants to enter the sound and be carried with it, experiencing it from the inside out in intimate detail. The sounds are almost tactile, visible, tangible. A narrative of the imagination exists, allowing each person experiencing the work to thread their own paths through their mind's imagination and their body's physical engagement. Each sound slowly unfolds, revealing intricacies and complexity. Each grows and evolves like crystals forming under the microscope. . . . I visualize the sound as originating from, for instance, a point source below where one is standing, then it swirls outward and upward in an ever-expanding spiral until it disappears high over the listener's head, morphing as it travels. Spatialization is not imposed when mixing, but is instead created in the original recording by increasing the amplitude of the sound on one track then decreasing its amplitude as the identical frequency is matched on the next track while it is increasing its amplitude, dovetailing the tracks across the space. Using extensive multi-tracking, the spatialization is retained, architecting and sculpting the aural space so that multiple perspectives and trajectories coexist."
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2LP
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SSH 004LP
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Limited repress forthcoming... The classic minimal music album is now available again on vinyl for the first time since the '70s. During the 1970s, Californian composer Terry Riley concentrated on solo keyboard performances, continuing to make music yet writing down almost nothing. Riley selected a mode, chose a few motifs or basic patterns and then, seated on the floor in front of his audience, improvised on electronic keyboard. The electric organ, superseded at later concerts by a synthesizer, was portable and consistent. By the early '70s, Riley had come to feel that scores were a distraction. Faithful interpretation of an already written piece was a deviation from the true purpose of making music, which was spiritual quest. Fortunately, some of those live performances were captured on tape. Persian Surgery Dervishes, issued initially on the French label Shandar in 1972, features two such concerts for electric organ and reel-to-reel delay, one recorded in Los Angeles on April 18th, 1971, the other in Paris on May 24th, 1972. At the start of that decade, Riley became a dedicated student of the great Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath. Looking into North Indian classical tradition, he found correspondences to modal and cyclic ideas that he was already working on. In 1971, Riley started teaching Indian music at Mills College, in Oakland. That experience fed directly into his solo keyboard performances, but other influences were also shaping his music. Personal research into ancient Persian culture and the poetry of Rumi lit up his imagination, while the repetitive swirling of Sufi devotional music from North Africa and jazz, an enduring source of inspiration, reverberate through these performances. The Californian version of Persian Surgery Dervishes starts with low dark tones, dense and brooding like a huddled human figure, deep in introspection. But as the improvisation unfolds Riley's buoyant spirit asserts itself, spiraling out in ecstatic coils. The Parisian concert conveys a different mood, brighter and more open in texture, more relaxed from the outset and breathing with greater freedom as it takes flight. Persian Surgery Dervishes is a mesmerizing record of a vital stage in Riley's ongoing quest for connection with the universal mind and sublime music. "Music is my spiritual path. It's my way of finding out who I am." --Terry Riley, 1976 Includes insert with liner notes by Julian Cowley; Lacquer cut by Rashad Becker; Layout by Jeroen Wille; Remastered by Equusl; Licensed from FGL Productions; Edition of 1000.
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ZORN 047LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue of the 1981 debut album by new age pioneer JD Emmanuel, Rain Forest Music. Texan musician JD Emmanuel's career story is, in a way, a story about how the passion of fans can make a difference and about a gifted musician whose music may have been lost to the ages. The tale begins in 2005 when Douglas Mcgowan stumbled on several dusty boxes of two JD Emmanuel vinyl albums -- several hundred of them, all still sealed -- at a discount book and record store in North Dallas, Texas. Mcgowan purchased 50 copies and took them back to the west coast. This discovery set in motion a chain of events that led to a series of reissues and Emmanuel's return to recording and performing in 2010. The majority of JD Emmanuel's studio recordings date from the 1980s, when new age music in America was still an indie scene. Whether you call his albums new age or not, the meditative vibe, spiritual underpinnings and self-releasing are all hallmarks of the genre. Yet his cyclic, organ-based music is different from most of his contemporaries of that era. Back in 1970, he was deeply impressed by his first taste of classical minimalism when he heard American minimalist composers Terry Riley and Steve Reich. He was also attracted to the improvisations of modern jazz and long-form rock jams. Minimalism and improvisation, then, became the foundations of his art, and the evocation of trance-like states his goal. In 1980, with his newly acquired Crumar Traveler-1 organ, analog synths, guitar, and various effects, he began building a body of warm, melodic, usually stripped-back ambient trance with a unique mystical vibe. On Rain Forest Music he builds gentle, short cycles of notes into floating clouds of sound, mostly improvising around single chords. The "minimalism" in his music lies not in repetitive patterns that barely change -- the extreme end of classical minimalism -- but more in the spare arrangements. There's also an open, loving optimism to the melodies that has obvious appeal to new age listeners. The album cover is from an original water color created for the LP in 1981 by Houston artist, Molly Khan. 180 gram vinyl; Printed inner sleeve; Remastered by Rashad Becker; Lacquer cut by Rashad Becker; Cover reconstruction by Jeroen Wille; Edition of 1000.
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ZORN 049LP
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Folk unit originated in the Swedish underground Enhet för Fri Musik - featuring members of Sewer Election, Ättestupa, Neutral, Makthaverskan, and Blod - continually re-invent what music is about through free improvisation and lengthy folk meanderings. Embedded in the ever exciting Swedish underground scene, Enhet För Fri Musik continue the quest for innovation numerous legendary Swedish bands started during the '70s - such as, Pärson Sound, Trad Gras Och Stenar, and Arbete Och Fritid. Taking the ideas of communal music craft and experimentation, on Inom Dig, Inom Mig, the group comes to a unique combination of Jandek-like atonal guitar, organ, tape effects, field recordings, and saxophone, with Sofie Herner's amazing loner voice running over it. Adding another inspiring document to the world of open-minded music. Inom Dig, Inom Mig was originally release on cassette in 2015 on Forever United. Silkscreened sleeves by Marijke Loozen; Music by Dan Johansson, Gustaf Dicksson, Hugo Randulv, Sofie Herner; Mastered by Kris Delacourt; Artwork by Dan Johansson; Edition of 150.
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SSH 003LP
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Repressed. The classic minimal music album, available again on vinyl for the first time since the '70s. Primed with a glass of cognac, Charlemagne Palestine sits at the keyboard of a Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano. One foot firmly holds down the sustain pedal while both hands perform an insistent strum-like alternation on the keys. Soon Palestine and his Bösendorfer are enveloped in sound and bathed in a shimmering haze of multi-colored overtones. For 45 minutes, this rich pulsating music swells and intensifies, filling the air. When Strumming Music first appeared on the adventurous French label Shandar during the mid-1970s, it seemed a straightforward matter to place Charlemagne Palestine in the so-called minimalist company of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, whose work also featured in the Shandar catalog. Palestine too used a deliberately restricted range of materials and a repetitive technique, but as he has often pointed out in more recent times, the opulent fullness of his music would more accurately be described as maximalist. Strumming Music, recorded in Palestine's own loft in Manhattan, has no written score. In an age of recorded sound he still feels no need for traditional notation. The surging energy of this particular recording stands comparison with the improvising of jazz visionaries who impressed and inspired him while living in New York as a young man. But, as Palestine himself has made clear, primarily he brings to music-making the sensibility of an artist rather than a musician. Although the technique of the piece has roots in Palestine's daily practice, when a teenager, of playing the carillon at a church, hammering sonorous chimes from a rack of tuned bells, it also draws on his later work as a body artist, staging vigorously muscular, physically demanding and often reckless performances. In addition, Strumming Music can be heard as a sculptural tour de force, while its textures connect with the color moods, plastic rhythms, and tactile space of Mark Rothko's abstract expressionist canvases. Strumming Music remains the essential index of Palestine's singular creative vision. Fundamentally this fascinating piece is a collaboration between an artist and an instrument. Palestine had first encountered the Bösendorfer Imperial back in 1969. "The Bösendorfer at its best is a very noisy, thick molasses piano," he has remarked. Charlemagne Palestine embraced its clinging sonorousness, its clangorous resonance and out of that embrace came the voluptuous sonic fabric of Strumming Music.
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ZORN 043LP
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Aguirre Records present Ian William Craig's Meaning Turns to Whispers. Ian is a trained opera singer and painter out of Vancouver, Canada. Over the last few years he has proved to be one of the most original artists active in the ambient/experimental genre. His debut A Turn Of Breath (2014) and the follow-up, Cradle For The Wanting (2015) received high acclaim. Meaning Turns to Whispers is a combination of piano improvisations and FM feedback loops, recorded over various winters from 2009 to 2011 and edited down, manipulated and degraded to reveal some of their hidden spaces. The discreet piano layers mixed with waves of white noise are intriguing making you long for more. Meaning Turns to Whispers is a record rooted in a gorgeous neo-classical tradition, but totally fucked up by tape manipulations that made it anything but pretty. For Craig, the use of reel-to-reels is a way of decaying sentimentality: any time his music has come too close to meeting his expectations, he uproots it, creating impervious walls or bursts of modest but stupefying noise. In choice moments on Meaning, you can hear Craig trying to imagine the lived lives of his inanimate instruments; you hear him beam down on the piano, its wooden infrastructure revealed, sounding like it has its own set of motivations. "I was living with my sister in Edmonton, and during the ridiculously cold winter, I gutted her piano and mic'd it up in a whole bunch of weird ways. I recorded probably twenty hours of material, and after listening to it I was amazed at how much it sounded like sentimental crap. At that point I was really trying to express something, and afterwards I thought the only way through would be to destroy the recordings, and that's what Meaning Turns To Whispers is. It's completely mangled to remove that struggle for expression. I realized at the end of that album that I didn't want to express, I just wanted to explore." Mastered by Sean McCann at Recital. Lacquer cut by Christoph Grote-Beverborg at Dubplates & Mastering. Edition of 500.
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ZORN 016LP
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Aguirre Records present a reissue and the first vinyl release of James Ferraro's Rerex, originally released in 2009. James Ferraro is an experimental musician, composer and virtual atmospherist born in Bronx, New York. Ferraro has released material under a wide array of aliases, and was a member of the Californian two-piece avant-garde project The Skaters. His album Far Side Virtual (2011) was chosen as "Album of the Year" by the UK's Wire Magazine in 2011. Ferraro has been producing small runs of releases on cassette, CD-R, and VHS with a wide variety of styles all representing different dreams of a demonic mind tower spanning from freak flesh bodybuilder atmospheres to ambient modern world/psych. First on New Age Tapes and later on MuscleWork Inc., self-run cassette/CD-R labels primarily used for releasing small runs of his solo work. In the summer of 2009, Ferraro composed and recorded the "Summer Headrush Series" in Antwerp, Belgium for Musclework Inc. The series is loosely based on visualizations that came to mind while receiving self-induced hypocapnia (aka, choking oneself) or as it's commonly called "free fall". The albums being representatives of the free fall head space. Other albums from the Headrush Series are: Body Fusion 1 and 2, iAsia, Wild World, Son of Dracula and Hacker Track. The Rerex album is vintage hypnagogic Ferraro and with its length (almost three hours), it may be considered a "magnum opus" of his. Using cheap casio keyboards, loops, effects and difficult to trace samples, Ferraro creates a slightly haunting but oh-so beautiful musical world. Please use headphones for a dynamic HD headphone experience. Artwork by James Ferraro. Mastered and lacquer cut by Christoph Grote-Beverborg at Dubplates & Mastering. Lay-out by Jeroen Wille. Edition of 500.
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ZORN 039LP
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Brannten Schnüre is an experimental dark folk group out of Würzburg, Germany. Christian Schoppik composes and plays all the music and Katie Rich whispers, recites, and sings. Together they make astoundingly beautiful folk with rich instrumentation leaning toward the atonal spectrum. Instrumental wanderings stand alongside Nico-esque poetry tales. Schoppik plays the accordion and, on some songs, guitar and flute. Inspired by hierophants like Nový Svět and David Jackman, solemn song fragments (a lot of old Greek rebetika recordings) are modified and looped, with additional instruments and voices integrated later on. Their music has been described as "surreal folkcollage" and "German hauntology." With the 2010 emergence of Schoppik's second project, a Dada cabaret called Agnes Beil, Brannten Schnüre moved closer to the song structures of its frivolous sibling. The voluptuous Sommer im Pfirsichhain (Summer in the Peachgrove), with its atmosphere of sticky, tense midsummer, is the second part of a quartet of releases, following the 2014 cassette Aprilnacht (SicSic) and preceding Geträumt hab' ich vom Martinszug and part four. Reference points include Winter Family and TwinSisterMoon. Music etched on folkloric, ritual elements transferred into the 21st century. Also worth mentioning is the hand-drawn artwork by artist Gwénola Carrère.
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ZORN 041LP
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Tarotplane is the solo project of Baltimore-based musician PJ Dorsey. First, his full-length debut, is a tremendous album etched on the great krautrock and experimental psychedelic records from the '70s. Vintage electronic sounds are mixed with effected guitar parts. It might sound quite familiar at first, but once one enters the heart of the album it all gets spectacularly exhilarating and effortlessly captivating, swirling around the listener. Records such as Franco Battiato's Pollution, Bill Holt's Dreamies, Popol Vuh's Affenstunde, and Deuter's D were strong influences. All of these artists use tape loops, environmental sounds, filtering, and other effect processing in an exceptional way. Their desire to create their own distinct sonic world was the driving influence behind this LP. These artists never let the experimentation get in the way of creating something musical, beautiful, and sonorous. First integrates those influences but it also has a more traditional psychedelic rock sound built into its sonic viewpoint. Dorsey seamlessly blends these diverse influences into a continuous flow. The album was originally going to be called Excursions, because Dorsey would walk for hours on Baltimore's waterfront listening to fragments of his work, as well as samples from films and records, to find a balance that worked. The ultimate goal was to make what some would call a head record. Something you can listen to on your own personal excursions that evokes a distinctive and enjoyable sonic headspace.
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ZORN 014LP
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2015 repress of the 2011 reissue of the original 1986 cassette. Pressing of 400 copies on 180-gram vinyl in full-color thick cardboard sleeve. Created between 1981 and 1985 by JD Emmanuel, a new age composer who has received a lot of praise from people like Lieven Martens and John Olsen. These recordings signify Emmanuel's praise to the course of the day. Starting off slowly with morning synth meanderings, walking through midday, running in the evening, and closing the day with midnight meditation. "Somewhere hidden in the deepest part of the Self is that special place, where One can go within to the most ancient part of one's Self and connect with the origin of Self. Ancient Minimal Meditations reaches into that special place of creation of the Self and its Oneness with the Creator of All." Recorded using three Sequential Circuits Pro-One synthesizers and a Yamaha SK-20 Poly-Synthesizer. 100% analog sound. Mastered by JD Emmanuel.
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ZORN 036LP
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Komodo Haunts is the psychedelic drone solo project of Ollie Tutty (aka Mt. Tjhris), from Lincolnshire, UK. With his music he explores drone structure, sonic textures, meditative zones, and personal fictions. Making use of analog and digital technologies; tape jams playing on human familiarity, natural ambiances, faux-exotica, mythologies, "reality therapy." Taking inspiration from drone masters and new-age wanderers, the Suijin album is all about getting into "the zone" and could be the soundtrack to an unreleased Tarkovsky movie. Building up from a basis of minimalistic stylings in the vein of Terry Riley's Persian Surgery Dervishes and adding rich instrumental and vocal layers later. Notes on Suijin/notes on water: liquid forms; Suijin, the Shinto god of water -- water as a force -- the symbolic status of water -- people-water relationship. Instruments range from shifting tape loops to reverb-laden electric guitar and dark synths, human voice, wind, distorted bass, ceramic ocarina, acoustic strings, processed electronics, and oscillating waves. Artwork by Tutty. Glossy finishing. Limited to 250 copies.
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ZORN 034LP
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Volume one of two. Continuous atmospheric sounds for enigmatic landscapes, metaphysical situations and prehistorical periods. The story continues. Aguirre released Joel Vandroogenbroeck's first solo effort Biomechanoid in March 2014, an outstanding dark electronic ambient album. Now the label presents his two Meditations albums, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. In these library albums the emphasis lies on his flute talents, paired with some great Moog-y electronics and mellow pre-new age ambience. Both volumes still stand after all these years and prove Joel's ability to create wonderful library albums. Think Klaus Schulze, Harmonia, JD Emmanuel and Joanna Brouk. Though the Belgian-born Vandroogenbroeck, 74, may not be a household name; in an ideal world, he would be. As the founder, flautist, harpist, sitar player and keyboardist of the seminal acid-fried Swiss psych outfit Brainticket, he spearheaded the group's three main (and collectible) releases in the early '70s -- Cottonwood Hill, Celestial Ocean and Psychonaut. Combining a love of exotic instruments coupled with mind-bending out-of-body excursions, the ever-changing collective developed something of a cult following throughout Europe and earned a reputation as one of the heavier psych outfits on the circuit -- which was something of a double-edged sword. While their experimental sound resonated with hippies everywhere, it didn't with the authorities, who associated the act with heavy drug consumption and subsequently began a ban of their music, especially the Psychonaut album, if for the title alone. After that bitter brush with censorship, the group quietly disbanded in 1972. After the dissolution of Brainticket, Vandroogenbroeck departed for the island of Bali with the intent of learning to build and play the gamelan -- an ensemble of primarily percussion instruments from Indonesia. It would become yet another weapon in his ever-growing arsenal of exotic instruments: he was already proficient in the sitar, harp, kalimba, assorted percussion oddities and all woodwinds by this point. Vandroogenbroeck became so enraptured with the frenetic sound of the gamelan that he subsequently left the tropics to start up a joged bumbung (a variation on a gamelan) band back in Switzerland. While playing small festivals and civic events with this group, Joel began to slowly gravitate towards the synth-heavy Kraut sounds of artists like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze at the same time. And once he began dabbling with oscillators, he never turned back. After inking a library deal around this time with the nascent Coloursound label, who gave him complete creative control, Vandroogenbroeck began turning out releases at a rapid rate, often three to five a year, and under a variety of aliases like V.D.B. Joel, J.V.D.B, and Eric Vann. Starting with the desolate synth drone of Biomechanoid, he continued to expand his sound palette while on Coloursound, moving from early arpeggiators on Computer Blossoms to percussive sound collage on Birth of Earth; and from Oberheim DMX drum-breaks on Video Games & Data Movements to Apple II ambient programming on Digital Project.
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ZORN 035LP
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Volume two of two. Continuous atmospheric sounds for enigmatic landscapes, metaphysical situations and prehistorical periods. The story continues. Aguirre released Joel Vandroogenbroeck's first solo effort Biomechanoid in March 2014, an outstanding dark electronic ambient album. Now the label presents his two Meditations albums, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. In these library albums the emphasis lies on his flute talents, paired with some great Moog-y electronics and mellow pre-new age ambience. Both volumes still stand after all these years and prove Joel's ability to create wonderful library albums. Think Klaus Schulze, Harmonia, JD Emmanuel and Joanna Brouk. Though the Belgian-born Vandroogenbroeck, 74, may not be a household name; in an ideal world, he would be. As the founder, flautist, harpist, sitar player and keyboardist of the seminal acid-fried Swiss psych outfit Brainticket, he spearheaded the group's three main (and collectible) releases in the early '70s -- Cottonwood Hill, Celestial Ocean and Psychonaut. Combining a love of exotic instruments coupled with mind-bending out-of-body excursions, the ever-changing collective developed something of a cult following throughout Europe and earned a reputation as one of the heavier psych outfits on the circuit -- which was something of a double-edged sword. While their experimental sound resonated with hippies everywhere, it didn't with the authorities, who associated the act with heavy drug consumption and subsequently began a ban of their music, especially the Psychonaut album, if for the title alone. After that bitter brush with censorship, the group quietly disbanded in 1972. After the dissolution of Brainticket, Vandroogenbroeck departed for the island of Bali with the intent of learning to build and play the gamelan -- an ensemble of primarily percussion instruments from Indonesia. It would become yet another weapon in his ever-growing arsenal of exotic instruments: he was already proficient in the sitar, harp, kalimba, assorted percussion oddities and all woodwinds by this point. Vandroogenbroeck became so enraptured with the frenetic sound of the gamelan that he subsequently left the tropics to start up a joged bumbung (a variation on a gamelan) band back in Switzerland. While playing small festivals and civic events with this group, Joel began to slowly gravitate towards the synth-heavy Kraut sounds of artists like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze at the same time. And once he began dabbling with oscillators, he never turned back. After inking a library deal around this time with the nascent Coloursound label, who gave him complete creative control, Vandroogenbroeck began turning out releases at a rapid rate, often three to five a year, and under a variety of aliases like V.D.B. Joel, J.V.D.B, and Eric Vann. Starting with the desolate synth drone of Biomechanoid, he continued to expand his sound palette while on Coloursound, moving from early arpeggiators on Computer Blossoms to percussive sound collage on Birth of Earth; and from Oberheim DMX drum-breaks on Video Games & Data Movements to Apple II ambient programming on Digital Project. Last copies of this now deleted edition.
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ZORN 010LP
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Welcome to the wondrous world of Eva Van Deuren's one-girl project Orphan Fairytale. She creates a fairy-like, mystic and hypnotizing sound-world using only self-made electronics, toy instruments, cassette loops and small keyboards. The music shows a great deal of playfulness. Dream-like patterns are enriched by carefully-placed notes and tones. After almost 10 years of performing and recording, the time has come for a round-up and Aguirre is happy to present a wonderful set of four side-long pieces. The 2LP set consists of delicate, twinkling tunes recorded during the period of 2008-2011, wherein Eva shows an admirable creativity, coalescing minimalism, new age, psychedelic and repetitive sounds. Never too far away from contemporary fellow artists like Dolphins Into The Future, Innercity, and Panabrite, with whom she shares a certain ambience. Originating from Antwerp, Belgium, Eva Van Deuren grew up in a flourishing Belgian music scene and has released cassettes on numerous independent cassette labels -- Audiobot, Beniffer Editions and Sloow Tapes, just to name a few. In the summer of 2007, she was even asked to open for Sonic Youth, and Thurston Moore became very fond of her music. After that she released full albums on Ultra Eczema and Blackest Rainbow. Artwork by Johan and Hannah. Pressed at Handle With Care, Berlin. Includes a pink double-sided insert. High-gloss finishing. Limited edition of 500 copies.
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ZORN 019LP
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2015 repress. Biomechanoid is the classic 1980 album by composer and flutist Joel Vandroogenbroeck. It's 1980, in Munich, Germany. Upstart production music label Coloursound Library releases their debut album. Capitalizing on the success of Ridley Scott's Alien film, the label dropped Biomechanoid, featuring cover art commissioned by H.R. Giger -- whose horrific Necronom IV lithograph served as the basis for the design of Alien -- and the music of the relatively unknown Joel Vandroogenbroeck. Comprised of bleak, cinematic synth soundscapes and percussion, the album served as an inaugural calling card for what would be a decade of dizzying solo releases by Vandroogenbroeck for Coloursound, running the gamut from Mesopotamian ethno-folk to synth sequencer funk to electro drum breaks to in-utero ambient delights. Though the Belgian-born Vandroogenbroeck, 74, may not be a household name, in an ideal world, he would be. As the founder, flautist, harpist, sitar player and keyboardist of the seminal acid-fried Swiss psych outfit Brainticket, he spearheaded the group's three main (and collectible) releases in the early '70s -- Cottonwood Hill, Celestial Ocean, and Psychonaut. Combining a love of exotic instruments coupled with mind-bending out-of-body excursions, the ever-changing collective developed something of a cult following throughout Europe and earned a reputation as one of the heavier psych outfits on the circuit -- which was something of a double-edged sword. While their experimental sound resonated with hippies everywhere, it didn't with the authorities, who associated the act with heavy drug consumption and subsequently began a ban of their music, especially the Psychonaut album, if for the title alone. After that bitter brush with censorship, the group quietly disbanded in 1972. After the dissolution of Brainticket, Vandroogenbroeck departed for the island of Bali with the intent of learning to build and play the gamelan -- an ensemble of primarily percussion instruments from Indonesia. It would become yet another weapon in his ever-growing arsenal of exotic instruments: he was already proficient on the sitar, harp, kalimba, assorted percussion oddities and all woodwinds by this point. Vandroogenbroeck became so enraptured with the frenetic sound of the gamelan that he subsequently left the tropics to start up a joged bumbung (a variation on a gamelan) band back in Switzerland. While playing small festivals and civic events with this group, Joel began to slowly gravitate towards the synth-heavy Kraut sounds of artists like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze at the same time. And once he began dabbling with oscillators, he never turned back. After inking a library deal around this time with the nascent Coloursound label, who gave him complete creative control, Vandroogenbroeck began turning out releases at a rapid rate, often three to five a year, and under a variety of aliases like V.D.B. Joel, J.V.D.B, and Eric Vann. Starting with the desolate synth drone of Biomechanoid, he continued to expand his sound palette while on Coloursound, moving from early arpeggiators on Computer Blossoms to percussive sound collage on Birth of Earth; and from Oberheim DMX drum breaks on Video Games & Data Movements to Apple II ambient programming on Digital Project. Biomechanoid stands after all these years as an album full of dark, strange, disturbing soundscapes, the obscure side of Brainticket, proving how Joel was still a creative artist. Matte finishing. Double-sided insert. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl.
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ZORN 031LP
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One of the most magical recordings you'll hear this year is the first LP by UK-based, one-man transcendental-drone band Tuluum Shimmering. The sound of Tuluum Shimmering is like a sort of loop-driven, timeless ethnic music without a region or a tradition. An array of instruments (sampling keyboard, flutes, violin, kalimba, percussion) are run, via a mixer, through a multi-FX pedal into a 30-second looper, and out to an amp. Everything is recorded live, with no overdubs or mixing. Get ready for the take-off.
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ZORN 033LP
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Long-running solo project by Jeffry Astin -- label head-honcho of everyone's favorite underground cassette label, Housecraft. His highly abstract style, represented on over 40 releases (predominantly cassettes) defies all attempts at elementary categorization, but indicates broad influences from modern and ethnic drone, tape music, musique concrète, kosmische, and lo-fi, amongst others. Pass Hidingly Seek (2009) finally gets the proper issue on wax.
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ZORN 032LP
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Long-running solo project by Jeffry Astin -- label head-honcho of everyone's favorite underground cassette label, Housecraft. His highly abstract style, represented on over 40 releases (predominantly cassettes) defies all attempts at elementary categorization, but indicates broad influences from modern and ethnic drone, tape music, musique concrète, kosmische, and lo-fi, amongst others. Quaking Myth (2010) finally gets the proper issue on wax.
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