Important Records (IMPREC) has been curated since 2001 by John Brien who, if pressed for an explanation of the label, will simply state that it is like a great record shop, well-stocked in powerful music without focus or fuss over specific genre categorizations. Not overly conceptual, the label focuses on an extraordinarily diverse roster of artists who are neither ephemeral nor trendy and continue to make passionate and evocative music throughout their lives. The character conveyed most often in Important releases isn't style but substance, with a personal and emotional depth that makes the label easy to understand but difficult to explain. Artists including James Blackshaw, Eliane Radigue, Jozef Van Wissem, Catherine Christer Hennix, Duane Pitre, ELEH, Pauline Oliveros, The Thirteenth Assembly, David Rothenberg, Diane Cluck, Acid Mothers Temple, Christina Kubisch, Merzbow and Smegma continue to expand the scope of Important by consistently releasing some of their best work through the label.
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11CD BOX
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IMPREC 352R-CD
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$80.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/9/2022
This dense 11-disc retrospective of Pauline Oliveros' early and unreleased electronic work includes her very first piece made for tape in 1961. Organized chronologically, this set not only documents Pauline's earliest electronic music but it also functions as an early history of electronic music itself. Follow as she participates in the establishment of the legendary San Francisco Tape Music Center and then moves to University Of Toronto Electronic Music Studio, Mills Tape Music Center and University of California San Diego Electronic Music Center. This tenth anniversary edition is packaged in a clamshell-style box containing all the tracks from the 2012 edition spread out over 11 CDs each housed in single pocket sleeves. A 36-page booklet includes extensive liner notes and essays from Pauline Oliveros, Alex Chechile, Ramon Sender, David Bernstein, Corey Arcangel.
Pauline Oliveros was a composer, performer, humanitarian and an important pioneer in American music. Acclaimed internationally, she forged new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, sonic philosophy, teaching and meditation she created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly affects those who experience it and eludes many who try to write about it. Pauline Oliveros built a loyal following through her concerts, recordings, publications and musical compositions written for soloists and ensembles in music, dance, theater and inter-arts companies. She provided leadership within the music community from her early years as the first Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (formerly the Tape Music Center at Mills), director of the Center for Music Experiment during her 14-year tenure as professor of music at the University of California at San Diego to acting in an advisory capacity for organizations such as The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts, and many private foundations. She served as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College. Oliveros was vocal about representing the needs of individual artists, about the need for diversity and experimentation in the arts, and promoting cooperation and good will among people. She was honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment went unchanged. Oliveros passed away peacefully on November 24, 2016 but her sonic legacy and philosophy continues to grow and inspire.
"On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." --John Rockwell
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IMPREC 517CS
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Fans of deep, dark, minimal, and meditative new age music on cassette will be chuffed to learn that Important Records is reissuing three of JD Emmanuel's earliest releases on tape. Rain Forest Music (1981), Wizards (1982), and Trance Formations 1: Ancient Minimal Meditations (1986) are all available for the first time in many years.
Trance-Formations 1: Ancient Minimal Meditations (1986) was originally composed between 1981-1985 and released in 1986. These long, extended cyclic pieces were composed and recorded using delayed analog synthesizers and Emmanuel credits the inspiration of Terry Riley and Steve Reich for sending him in this musical direction. The release of this album followed his acclaimed Wizards (1982). Recorded using three Sequential Circuits Pro-One synthesizers and a Yamaha SK-20 Poly-Synthesizer. 100% analog sound. Mastered by JD Emmanuel.
"If you have been wondering what all the fuss about 'private press new age' is, go here to find out. Your mind shall be subtly blown..." --Fader
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IMPREC 516CS
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Fans of deep, dark, minimal, and meditative new age music on cassette will be chuffed to learn that Important Records is reissuing three of JD Emmanuel's earliest releases on tape. Rain Forest Music (1981), Wizards (1982), and Trance Formations 1: Ancient Minimal Meditations (1986) are all available for the first time in many years.On Rain Forest Music (1981), JD Emmanuel 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 but more in the spare arrangements that focus the listener while also taking them on a sonic journey. A tape loop technique used by Brian Eno, Terry Riley, Robert Fripp (and likely many more) called "Continuous Looping" was used in the creation of this album and a loop diagram is included in the packaging.
"I originally designed this music to enhance relaxation and meditation, as a background for massage or for counseling to help a person relax and open up faster. Dr. Robert Pennington, PhD., a clinical psychologist and friend, was very interested in the idea of using music in this way. So, he used the Rain Forest Music in his counseling sessions as background and noticed a marked difference in the quality of the patient's sessions. He continues to use this and similar music as a background for his counseling." --JD Emmanuel.
"If you have been wondering what all the fuss about 'private press new age' is, go here to find out. Your mind shall be subtly blown..." --Fader
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IMPREC 305CS
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Fans of deep, dark, minimal, and meditative new age music on cassette will be chuffed to learn that Important Records is reissuing three of JD Emmanuel's earliest releases on tape. Rain Forest Music (1981), Wizards (1982), and Trance Formations 1: Ancient Minimal Meditations (1986) are all available for the first time in many years.
"Wizards was my first deep trance electronic music album. This album was inspired by Terry Riley, one of the earliest people ever to compose and perform long, extended, cyclic pieces in the electronic format. This music was composed and performed in '81 and '82. I consider this album my best work. The instrumentation is three Sequential Circuits PRO-1s, Crumar Traveler One and a Yamaha SK-20, all real time recording to a Teac 4-track reel-to-reel. I mixed the four tracks to a Teac A-7300 Master 2-Track tape recorder using a DeltaLab DL-2 to create the delay track. In 2006, I used a Tascam 34B 4-track to remaster all my master tapes to digital master of 196 KHz/24 bit .WAV files using Soundforge 8 software. The original Wizards LP was published in the summer of 1982 with the black-and-white cover. The initial tracks had not names and were call 'Movements I-V'. Several years later sales had slowed down, in an effort to improve sales we tried the color cover and I created names for each track, as shown on the samples." --JD Emmanuel
"If you have been wondering what all the fuss about 'private press new age' is, go here to find out. Your mind shall be subtly blown..." --Fader
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IMPREC 141LP
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Pauline Oliveros's The Wanderer is available on LP for the first time since it was originally released in 1984. Cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity. An utterly essential document of early American minimalism from Pauline Oliveros. The Wanderer is the sister record to Accordion & Voice (IMPREC 140LP). "The Wanderer" is based on a single modal scale (B C# D D# E F# G#) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of ¾ and ⅜. Part I, "Song", is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, "Dance", demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of cross-rhythms characteristic of jigs, reels, batucadas, Bulgars, klezmer forms, Cajun dances, and music of other diverse cultures. The Wanderer was composed in November, 1982 especially for the Springfield Accordion Orchestra, directed by Sam Falcetti. This recording documents The Wanderer's world premiere, as it was performed January 27, 1983 at Marymount Manhattan Theatre. The orchestra consists of twenty accordions, two bass accordions, and five percussionists, with Pauline Oliveros as soloist, Sam Falcetti conducting. "Horse Sings From Cloud", written in 1975, is one of Oliveros' best known works. Like most of her Sonic Meditations, it can be performed vocally and/or instrumentally, solo or in collaboration. A solo version of "Horse Sings From Cloud" has been recorded on Accordion & Voice. An early version of the score reads, "Sustain a tone or sound until any desire to change it disappears. When there is no longer any desire to change the tone or sound, then change it." This time, "Horse Sings From Cloud" is performed in ensemble. Joining Pauline Oliveros on bandoneon are Heloise Gold on Harmonium, Julia Haines on accordion, and Linda Montano on concertina. This quartet version incorporates the microtonal differences in tuning of the selected instruments, creating shimmering reed sounds somewhat similar to the shimmering of a Balinese gamelan.
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IMPREC 140LP
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Sold out, no current repress planned... Pauline Oliveros' Accordion & Voice is available on LP for the first time since it was originally released in 1982. Cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity. Pauline Oliveros was an electronic music pioneer, accordionist, composer and educator who resided in Kingston, New York. Her instrument was tuned in Just Intonation and she often included it in her meditative improvisational music. Her music is not meditative in the sense that it is intended for listening to while meditating, rather each piece is a form of meditation, such as her aptly titled Sonic Meditations. A central figure in post-war electronic art music, Oliveros is one of the original members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center (along with Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Terry Riley, and Anthony Martin), which was the resource on the US West coast for electronic music during the 1960s. The Center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and is now called the Center for Contemporary Music. Oliveros often improvises with the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed, in her performances and recordings.
"Accordion & Voice was the first of my recordings as a soloist. I was living in an A-frame house in a meadow just below Mount Tremper at Zen Mountain Center. I had a wonderful view of the graceful saddle mountain top. When away on a performance trip I would imagine the mountain as I played 'Rattlesnake Mountain'. I followed the feelings and sensations of my many experiences of the mountain -- the changing colors of the season, the breezes and winds blowing through the grasses and trees. 'Horse Sings From Cloud' taught me to listen to the depth of a tone and to have patience. Rather than initiating musical impulses of motion, melody and harmony I wanted to hear the subtlety of a tone taking space and time to develop. The tones linger and resonate in the body, mind, instrument and performance space. My thanks to Important Records for bringing these pieces to be heard again." --Pauline Oliveros, 2007
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IMPREC 507CD
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The Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle presents the first entry of their trilogy for Important Records, dedicated to telling the story of the climate crisis and its effects on coastal areas around the globe. Black Clouds Above The Bows consists of electro-acoustic threnodies for an environment at risk. Wailing odes express and examine the destructive activity of intensifying storm systems that are enhanced by the climate crisis. First-hand experiences with coastal damage and meetings with local maritime experts on the subject inspired the artists to compose this album. Antique cavalry trumpets play a central role in the album. The instruments, recorded and manipulated by Wanderwelle, sound an environmental alarm in the same manner as they were once used to warn men on the battlefield. After more than a century of silence, they are once again fulfilling their purpose. Starting out as menacing tones, the brass progresses into blaring noises and gets more aggressive as the album continues, resulting in a cacophony across a tumultuous sea. With digital alterations, the natural trumpets were used beyond the range of the harmonic series and their original pitch. Furthermore, their bright timbre is reminiscent of the songs of the sirens in Greek mythology, whose bewitching tones lured ancient mariners to their doom. A fitting analogy for our lack of modern leadership and march towards ecological catastrophes. A great deal of inspiration was found in maritime superstition and the vast number of bad omens. For ages, these ill signs are known to have preceded the demise of seamen. This theme felt equally suited to the current environmental disasters and the larger crises yet to come; the writing's on the wall. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's major poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", served as further inspiration for the bleak mood of the album. Transmuting the original characteristics of acoustic instruments is a recurring technique used in the making of the trilogy. The sounds generated by these processes are combined with recorded electronics and archival recordings. Later in 2022, All Hands Bury The Cliffs At Sea, the second part of their trilogy, will be released on vinyl. The concluding part is currently nearing completion.
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IMPREC 510CD
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First time on CD for this classic Merzbow duo album from 1983. Material Action is a favorite among early Merzbow free-music, junk-noise workouts. Psychedelic improvised instrumental energy abounds on this essential early recording that is PURE MERZ. Masami Akita plays tapes, percussion, electro-acoustic noise, organ. Kiyoshi Mizutani overdubs tapes, synthesizer, violin, machine noise.
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IMPREC 004CD
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Merzbow's Merzbeat is one the most unique and legendary titles in the artist's vast archive. This 20th anniversary repress is being issued at the same time as CD reissue of his 1983 album Material Action 2 (IMPREC 510CD) and a brand new collaboration with Arcane Device IMPREC 511CD), all on Important Records. Originally released in 2002, Merzbeat contains over 50 minutes of aggressive, psychedelic, organic, analog beat oriented Merzbow compositions. Drummed rhythms, massive looping samples, a punk spirit and a return to analog Merzbow. KID 606 called it "one of the greatest thing Merzbow has ever done."
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IMPREC 502LP
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Tony Rolando's debut Breakin' Is A Memory could be your soundtrack. This worldbuilding album of electronic music leaves room for the listener to make big personal connections through subtly complex music resembling a sonic mobile which, as it spins, reveals new forms and colors. This is a collection of very human music with a deceptive simplicity and relaxed intensity. The listener gets the feeling that only the instrument designer could play with such flexible expression, unencumbered by the electronic element. These is cleverly assembled music that you want to flip over and play again, like Rolando's recent cassette on Important Records' Cassauna label. As with all Imprec vinyl releases, great care has been taken to ensure that this is a high quality pressing with low noise floor and loads of sonic detail. On Breakin' is a Memory, Tony Rolando invites the listener on tiny adventures questing insignificant treasures. Minimal percussion only suggests rhythm, allowing your mind to wander the crystalline lattices Tony weaves from handfuls of simple arpeggios. Soft analog bass frequencies make your travels more comfortable and the Strega instrument, a recurring recognizable character, is there to lead when you are too lost. The pace of Breakin' is a Memory oscillates from restless roadway motion to meditative exploration. The record closes with a celebratory decimation of the graphic memories of these tiny adventures. Play it again to rekindle them. For more than a decade, Tony Rolando has composed electricity into musical instruments at Make Noise. When he collaborated with Alessandro Cortini in 2019 to create the Strega instrument, the experience rekindled Tony's love of composing and recording music. In 2021 he released Old Cool Echoes with on Cassauna (SAUNA 066CS). A third release of music composed entirely for the Shared System instrument he designed will follow in 2022. RIYL: Early Oneohtrix Point Never, Alessandro Cortini, Caterina Barbieri, Tangerine Dream.
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IMPREC 511CD
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Japan's leading noise luminary Merzbow meets American electro-feedback artist Arcane Device as they mix and manipulate each other's work. The results are droning, bubbling sonic textures that are as serene as they are extreme pushing the boundaries and meeting in the middle. Both artists contribute long-form manipulations that inspire contemplation as much as highly caffeinated charges of sonic skullduggery. Sonic textures take center stage on Merzbow & Arcane Device.
David Lee Myers aka Arcane Device has been building electronics and creating feedback based electronic music since the late '70s. He has collaborated with Tod Dockstader, Kim Cascone, Asmus Tietchens, among others.
Masami Akita's legendary Merzbow project has established him as an international electronic phenomenon.
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IMPREC 492LP
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Out Of Our Hands brings together Alvin Lucier and Jordan Dykstra who, through the hands of Ordinary Affects, have created debut recordings of two new compositions. These companion pieces have similar orbits as they were not only both composed in Middletown, CT (where Alvin and Jordan lived for a number of years), but are about Middletown, at least from a starting point. Alvin's piece -- an homage to the location of the house in which he recorded "I am sitting in a room" back in 1969 -- continues his study into slow-moving glissandi and carefully crafted beating patters by interweaving three string players within a minor third (voiced by two vibraphonists). The result is entrancing, almost psychedelic, and opens space where one didn't expect. Like much of his previous work, it is conceptual and process-based; once the wheels get turning, they go on and on, giving the listener time to approach the piece, sit with it, and then move back inward. On the other hand, Dykstra's piece "32 Middle Tones" (a pun on his Middletown street address and the harmonic microtonality utilized in the composition) is a very textural work. His piece asks the cellist to sustain pitches for extended durations -- at times quietly singing in close proximity to the stopped pitch coming from the cello -- while the rest of the ensemble (violin, viola, and two percussion) voice a sequence of chords separated by notated silences. The cello voice is sometimes alone, but never for too long as it finds itself supported from both the top and bottom in a harmonic embrace. This supportive structure involves a percussion section which colors the seemingly simple chords (major 6th, inverted minor 7th, inverted minor 2nd, etc.) with a non-traditional toolkit of bowed singing bowls, stone sheets, harmonicas, and even leaves. This is music that gently gives the listener a sense of predictability but always in an unexpected (and subtly indeterminate) shade. Pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity with a full color printed inner sleeve; edition of 500.
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IMPREC 428CS
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Eleh's Polarizer is a two-part series focused on the instant, simultaneous reality of the analog world. This work is both a reference to analog sound and an analogy for the vivid nature of reality. Polarizer I (IMPREC 404CS) and II can be played/mixed simultaneously.
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IMPREC 404CS
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Eleh's Polarizer is a two-part series focused on the instant, simultaneous reality of the analog world. This work is both a reference to analog sound and an analogy for the vivid nature of reality. Polarizer I and II (IMPREC 428CS) can be played/mixed simultaneously.
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IMPREC 513CS
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A quiet, intense and deeply personal new collection from Lambda Sond. Waglands 1921 exists in a vacuum somewhere between Pauline Oliveros, spiritual jazz, analog drone, and heavy new age. Unlike the first two Lambda Sond cassettes on the Cassauna label, (2011's Chronological Compression and 2014's Chronological Compression II) this work is characterized by unrepeated melodies, unforgettably understated harmonies, timeless drones and feelings made musical. This poetic music contains vignettes of emotion, memory and melancholy that are as uplifting, hopeful and grounding as a deep breath. Waglands 1921 exists at the verge of inspiration where hesitation is withheld and truths are articulated once but felt forever. Waglands 1921 is Lambda Sond's first recording for Important Records.
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IMPREC 488CD
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Alessandro Cortini's acclaimed Forse series is available for the first time on CD including an exclusive disc of Forse performed live. Composed using only an original Buchla Music Easel, an incredibly rare electronic music instrument designed by Don Buchla, the Forse series features long, romantic compositions full of voluminous, bombastic tones and dripping with thick timbre. 2021 digital master by Stephan Mathieu. Packaged in matte-coated digipacks, housed in a heavy-duty tip-on style outer box.
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IMPREC 501LP
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Duane Pitre returns to Important Records with Omniscient Voices, an articulate, intense and emotionally resonant set of five pieces for justly tuned piano and electronics. Omniscient Voices is a uniquely distinct work that follows Pitre's trilogy of releases which culminated with 2015's Bayou Electric (IMPREC 421CD/LP) and included the critically acclaimed Feel Free (2012) and Bridges (IMPREC 390CD/LP, 2013) albums. Where those albums were rooted in long form pieces, Omniscient Voices is a collection of shorter pieces, offering more harmonic variety than previous works, with a unique sound and feel that is still unmistakably the work of Duane Pitre. In 2019, after a five-year period where Pitre did not focus on outward facing music, but instead on his own personal practice, a small idea in the form of a question came to him: would the combination of his latest computer -- and electronic-based experiments, used in conjunction with justly tuned piano, produce interesting results; simply put, would it "work"? Concurrently, Pitre was studying a handful of Morton Feldman scores for their focus on tonal clusters, reading a book on Arvo Pärt's life and work, and contemplating the pulse-based rhythms of Steve Reich and Phillip Glass. In 2020, with no intention of making a new album, the composer tried to answer this question. The results would spawn five pieces that would become Omniscient Voices. On this new work, Pitre finds himself giving equal priority to both piano and electronics, utilizing his Max/MSP-based generative network to real-time convert precomposed piano motifs, into data, which is then used to communicate with two polyphonic, microtonal hardware synthesizers whose patches Pitre authored; this process generates the electronic component of the album. Pitre also utilizes controlled improvisation to interact with the piano-reactive electronics in a spontaneous and inspired manner, going back and forth between these two pianistic approaches. In all, this approach creates a "musical feedback loop" of sorts. Despite Omniscient Voices being the culmination of 15 years of hard work and inspiration, this beautiful album somehow materialized in a natural, intuitive and effortless way. Mastered and cut by Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity.
Artist's statement: "When making the pieces that would become Omniscient Voices, I often viewed the piano as human action, a single note becoming a single gesture that has the potential to change the electronic environment, the electronics becoming the environment surrounding that human in the natural world, who then has the power to change their actions based on their surroundings. All actions have consequences. The interconnectedness of everything. Single actions making waves of change."
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IMPREC 497CD
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Eliane Radigue's complete Opus 17 (1970), her finest and final work created using feedback, is contained on this double CD. With Opus 17, Radigue perfected her slow mixing technique with sublime results. Imperceptible transformations envelop the attentive listener who is confronted with an immensely physical experience. Time is suspended in powerfully poetic and artful ways as Radigue masterfully sculpts the physical matter of sound using feedback for the last time. Opus 17 is an absolutely essential masterpiece in the realm of early electro-acoustic/drone/minimalist composition.
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IMPREC 499CD
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Every new St. Abdullah record is an attempt to present new ideas and To Live A La West is no exception. To Live A La West is simply moving, a collection of profound and spiritual tracks miraculously existing at the impossible intersection of free jazz and electro where mystery and clarity exist together. Neither complicated or complex but profound, St. Abdullah's new work is partially inspired by their love for Jon Hassell's compositions. CD features guest appearances by John Butcher, Aquiles Navarro, and Kol; packaged in a heavy-duty digipack with metallic gold printing.
Saint Abdullah on the release: "This album, like all of our albums, are rooted in our human stories. Personal stories, family stories. This one happens to focus on the chapter that began when we moved to Canada as kids, and left Iran for good. To live in the West doesn't necessarily mean to be Western. That is a choice. As kids, it felt a necessity to be like the western kids. To imitate their culture, choices, way of life. That's what was acceptable, even desirable -- a life lived with less tension was the motto. We were already different enough. It was never our parents who asked this of us. More the environment. There was a moment, after grade 6 graduation that our mother has on film (she has everything on film), where we're begging her to let us go to the dance that took place after the ceremonies. Our father was strictly a no, our mother was on the fence. In the end she won out, and we got to go. It was such a wild feeling, having only been in the west 3 years at that time. So maybe that's what this album is about, an imitation? But who we are imitating, I'm not sure anymore. No one directly, certainly, but a cannon perhaps. Imitate better than they can infiltrate. Faster than they take over our cultures, our lands, our youth, we take over theirs. Still reflecting..."
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IMPREC 500LP
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2022 restock. A collection of long-form works in just intonation by Kali Malone, Duane Pitre, Catherine Lamb, Tashi Wada, Byron Westbrook, and Caterina Barbieri. Each artist occupies an entire side of the collection's three LPs. Curated by Duane Pitre, Important Records returns with its second volume of compiled works in just intonation. The Harmonic Series Volume 2, issued as a triple-LP collection, features a series of long-form compositions by six of the most important emerging voices of contemporary experimental music. Unlike equal temperament, which equally divides an octave into 12 fixed notes, just intonation utilizes intervals of whole number ratios to determine tonal positions. It results in a highly individualized tonal language and holds the potential for more nuanced relationships and striking, sympathetic resonances. Rooted in ideas that trace their way across the last 2500 years, just intonation lays at the foundation for numerous Indian, Persian, and East Asian musical traditions. It was reintroduced into western music during the 20th century by composers like Harry Partch, Ben Johnston, Lou Harrison, James Tenney, Terry Riley, and La Monte Young. An interest in just intonation has continued to swell following the appearance of The Harmonic Series in 2009 inspiring Pitre to curate a second compilation. Kali Malone's "Pipe Inversions" -- played by Malone on a small pipe organ, joined by Isak Hedtjärn on bass clarinet -- belongs to a larger body of microtonal organ works that have increasingly placed the composer at the forefront of contemporary minimalism and drone music. Across the length of Duane Pitre's "Three for Rhodes" -- a chamber piece for "unknown instrumentation" - deconstructed rhythms and melodic fragments swell in a dance of harmonic interplay, rising and falling within the work's engrossing architectural complexity. Catherine Lamb's "inter sum" -- one of a tiny number of available works to encounter the composer and renowned violist working on synthesizer -- endeavors to break the visualization of harmony as a vertical reality, rendering it multidimensionally in space. A canon for eight-violins played by Marc Sabat, Tashi Wada's "Midheaven (Alignment Mix)" -- guided by the internal logic of its tuning system -- shape-shifts into an elegantly poetic form of musical conceptualism. Byron Westbrook's "Memory Phasings" -- composed and recorded on a combination of computer controlled modular synthesizers and a Yamaha TX802 -- employs the ratios of just intonation as harmonic building blocks for texture. Deploying just intonation as a means for psycho-physiological exploration, Caterina Barbieri's "Firmamento" -- composed for synthesizer -- deftly intervenes with the expectations of minimalism, durational music, and drone. Cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity.
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IMPREC 472CS
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Reprinted. "Both pieces are intended to aid the listener in times of spiritual change, but are just fine for 'everyday' use as well. Highly recommended." --Charles S. Russell, Ear Magazine
Important Records present Pauline Oliveros' Tara's Room on cassette for the first time since 1987. This replica tape is available at the same time as Oliveros' collaboration with Guy Klucevsek titled Sounding / Way (IMPREC 471CS), also on tape for the first time since its original release. This tape features two long sides of infinite depth and sensitivity. Oliveros performs these pieces using a Just Intonation accordion and her Expanded Instrument System in order to bend both time and pitch.
Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer, and humanitarian, was an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she explored sound -- forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it, and eludes many who try to write about it. Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros's commitment to interaction with the moment was unchanged. She could make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble. "On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." --John Rockwell "Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I now know what harmony is. It's about the pleasure of making music." --John Cage
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IMPREC 471CS
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Repressed. Replica tape. Pauline Oliveros and Guy Klucevsek's Sounding / Way was originally released on cassette in 1986 and has been out of print ever since. This LP was cut by John Golden and pressed at RTI in order to achieve a quiet, dynamic pressing. The Sounding / Way concept was simple: Each artist would write a piece for two accordions and then they would perform them together. Thus, side A contains Guy Klucevsek's "Tremolo No. 6" performed by Guy Klucevsek and Pauline Oliveros. Side B contains Pauline's composition "The Tuning Meditation", also performed by both Pauline and Guy. This is the second release in an on-going effort between Important Records and the Pauline Oliveros Trust to maintain and promote the music, philosophy and legacy of Pauline Oliveros.
Guy Klucevsek is one of the world's most versatile and highly-respected accordionists. He has performed and/or recorded with Laurie Anderson, Bang On a Can, Brave Combo, Anthony Braxton, Anthony Coleman, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, Rahim al Haj, Robin Holcomb, Kepa Junkera, the Kronos Quartet, Natalie Merchant, Present Music, Relâche, Zeitgeist, and John Zorn.
Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer, and humanitarian, was an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she explored sound -- forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it, and eludes many who try to write about it. Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros's commitment to interaction with the moment was unchanged. She could make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble. "On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." --John Rockwell "Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I now know what harmony is. It's about the pleasure of making music." --John Cage
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Cassette
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IMPREC 473CS
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Cassette version. "Deep Listening still sounds revolutionary. While drone, minimalism and ambient music have proliferated in the intervening decades, few albums in those fields are as rich texturally and harmonically or have such a clarity of vision. The salience of Deep Listening resides in its contrast to mainstream culture's riptide trajectory towards distraction and saturation, towards soloed media and political environments." --Pitchfork (9.2 Best New Reissue/#8 on "Top 50 ambient albums of all time")
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Deep Listening, Important Records offer you a definitive edition of the album combining the classic, complete original 1989 release with selected tracks from the Deep Listening Band's 1991 album The Readymade Boomerang. Recorded in a cistern, Deep Listening reverberates with brilliant sonic clarity and masterfully improvised performances combining live electronics, vocals, trombone and accordion. Deep Listening is a classic in the fields of improvisation, minimalism, ambient/drone and modern classical. Listen with attentiveness, listen while lying down, listen with headphones -- as recording engineer Al Swanson entices the listener to become a virtual performer in selecting the many different ways to perceive these phenomenal tracks. Whatever you do, listen deeply.
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CD
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IMPREC 473CD
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"Deep Listening still sounds revolutionary. While drone, minimalism and ambient music have proliferated in the intervening decades, few albums in those fields are as rich texturally and harmonically or have such a clarity of vision. The salience of Deep Listening resides in its contrast to mainstream culture's riptide trajectory towards distraction and saturation, towards soloed media and political environments." --Pitchfork (9.2 Best New Reissue/#8 on "Top 50 ambient albums of all time")
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Deep Listening, Important Records offer you a definitive edition of the album combining the classic, complete original 1989 release with selected tracks from the Deep Listening Band's 1991 album The Readymade Boomerang. Recorded in a cistern, Deep Listening reverberates with brilliant sonic clarity and masterfully improvised performances combining live electronics, vocals, trombone and accordion. Deep Listening is a classic in the fields of improvisation, minimalism, ambient/drone and modern classical. Listen with attentiveness, listen while lying down, listen with headphones -- as recording engineer Al Swanson entices the listener to become a virtual performer in selecting the many different ways to perceive these phenomenal tracks. Whatever you do, listen deeply.
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CD
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IMPREC 486CD
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Recorded during two days of extreme weather, ELEH's Snoweight conveys the mesmerizing force of a winter storm with sonic realism and romanticism. These two new compositions evoke both warm security and wild, blanketing intensity in ways that are both emotionally arresting and time stopping.
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