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Two rare pieces in the very small genre of "electronic ballet" – a postwar mode in which electronic music was used with dancers! Ernest Berk hardly issued any records at all – but his work on side one, for the ballet "Initiation", is really incredible – at a level that matches all the most inventive aspects of Pierre Henry in the 60s, including that composer's ability to move effortlessly between dark textures and more tuneful moments! "Gemini" is on side two – music that has even more shifts in sonic quality and melody, so much so that it almost works as a narrative unto itself – very unusual for this sort of composition, as if the electronics are telling a story for the dancers! LP, Vinyl record album

One of the coolest discographies you'll ever see in your life – a special book devoted to ultra-rare records created by artists as well as musicians – first published in 1989, and filled with a wealth of obscure records from the 50s through the 80s! Musical styles run from avant jazz to punk, 20th century classical, electronic music, and many other modes that defy easy definition – and the records include very limited vinyl pressed up for a show or an exhibition, to more widely-circulated material that's still pretty darn far left of center! The book also includes essays by Theodor Adorno, Rene Block, Jean Dubuffet, Laszlo Moholy Nagy, and others – and the discography is 200 pages, with listings for records by dozens of artists – including Max Ernst, Peter Gordon, Karel Appel, Hugo Ball, Andy Warhol, Yoshi Wada, Gerhard Richter, Yoko Ono, Hermann Nitsch, Albert Oehlen, Sol Lewitt, Laurie Anderson, John Cage, Conrad Schnitzler, Michael Snow, and many many others. The book is a hefty 279 pages, softcover, with black and white images throughout – and also includes a flexidisc of the Arditti String Quartet playing "Broken Music" by Milan Knizak. (Books, Out Sound) Book

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Groundbreaking analogue electronics from the Dutch team of Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan – two musicians who can be as playful as the tem of Perry & Kingsley, but also hit some of the darker modes of the academic circuit as well! The title is very well-put – as the record has a vibe that's very outer space at times – more of a sense of the area around the electronic elements at the core – which has them echoing out nicely into the cosmos, and reaching for so many different melodic modes, it almost feels as if they're trying to make contact with other civilizations! Some tunes have a playfulness that almost evokes the German new wave of 15 years later – others are very much in the best Dutch styles of the 60s – and the whole thing sounds sort of like a mad robot playing a crazy space organ on a merry go round while dropping acid. Titles include "Moon Maid", "Sonik Re-Entry", "Pianoforte", "Orbit", "Song Of The Second Moon", and "The Visitor From Inner Space". LP, Vinyl record album

A landmark moment – both for Brian Eno, and for experimental music in general! Although Eno began his solo run with some searing, guitar-heavy records that were even wilder than his early work with Roxy Music – he also began experimenting with more sensitive aspects of sound on albums like Another Green World and Before & After Science – an approach he takes here to the farthest degree, by opening up himself and creating a whole new genre of ambient music in the process! Gone are the raspy, sometimes nasty vocals – and in their place is virtually nothing – just beautifully open music that uses scores that are somewhat cyclical – but at a pace that's very different than the minimalism of the period – and maybe even more minimal too. The record features four long tracks, one with piano by Robert Wyatt – really beautiful stuff, like some strange dark sonic crystal that fell out of the skies years ago, and which still remains a mystery to all ears that stumble upon it! (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A modern minimalist watershed – and maybe one of the first indications that Brian Eno was moving onto higher ideas in his music! The album's an important release on the Obscure series from Island Records – a special imprint that was curated by Eno, as a way of giving showcase to new ideas in British music that were neither free jazz, punk, prog, or any of the styles that were getting more play on the bigger labels! Instead, Eno and Obscure was to the British avant composition world what Lovely or CRI were to the US – although maybe had the bigger role of some of the Columbia Records releases by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. The album features the beautiful title piece – "Discreet Music", a long work that relies on a simple system of delay and recall, with slight variations occurring over the space of time, due to slight occasional interference from the composer. Side two features "Three Variations On The Cannon In D Major By Johann Pachelbel" – a great reworking of the baroque music classic – which works along similar lines, taking this very familiar classical theme, and breaking it down into simple components, which are then interwoven and played in repetition, creating a strange little bit of romantic minimalism. That second piece is performed by the Cockpit Ensemble, conducted by Gavin Bryars – who also got some great early releases on the Obscure label too! (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A compilation LP of sorts – though at the time of its release most of this material had not been heard in this form! The album's more or less part of the "Ambient" series Eno had started that year with Music For Airports – and it's presented with similarly simple, elegant packaging – a cool divergence from the more striking Eno of a few years before. The set is made up of various bits, record either exclusively for film use, or that in one way or another found their way into films – and contains mostly short tunes, some thematic, others purely sonic wallpaper, but always compelling! 18 tracks, including "M386", "Aragon", "Two Rapid Formations", "Slow Water", "Sparrowfall", "Evenings In Dense Fog", "A Measured Room", "Strange Light", and "Final Sunset". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

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A previously-unreleased French recording of one of the greatest early compositions by Philip Glass – presented here in a recording that also features Glass himself as one of the performers! The group is a sextet – with organ work from Glass, Michael Riseman, Jon Gibson, and Joan LaBarbara – the last of whom also sings in a really beautiful way, in keeping with her reputation – and the group also features alto saxes from Dickie Landry and Richard Peck. The mixture of reeds and organ lines is fantastic – spinning out in these sonic cycles that are completely hypnotic, and which must have been hell to perform as a group together! Titles include parts 1, 2, 3, 11, and 12 from the longer work – and the 2LP set also features an interview with Glass from 1974. LP, Vinyl record album

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Terry Riley's masterpiece, and an enduring classic that never grows old – and which never lapses into the hippy dippyness of some of his other work! The piece features 53 short musical passages, played in an order defined by the players, in minimal repetition, moving in and out of phase synchronicity – ever shifting, turning, and drifting – all to create a remarkable tapestry of sound, texture, and melody. This recording of the work is still the best, and it was produced with excellent care by David Behrman, as part of Columbia's great "music of our time" series. Wonderful throughout – and always a treat! LP, Vinyl record album

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A beautiful example of the really special sort of instrumental record that was coming out of Japan in the early 80s – music that's spare and minimal, but quite different than any sort of similar projects from other parts of the globe! Satoshi Ashikawa creates sounds in ways that resonate both with the ancient and contemporary, organic and urban, at a level that's very slow-building and striking in its careful use of sound and space – served up here on instrumentation that includes vibes from Midori Takada, piano from Tomoko Sono, and harp from Yuko Utsumi – always tuneful, but in ways that are more like a natural progression of sound than conventional music. Titles include "Prelude", "Still Park", "Still Sky", "Wrinkle", and "Image Under The Tree". (Rock, Out Sound) CD

A beautiful example of the really special sort of instrumental record that was coming out of Japan in the early 80s – music that's spare and minimal, but quite different than any sort of similar projects from other parts of the globe! Satoshi Ashikawa creates sounds in ways that resonate both with the ancient and contemporary, organic and urban, at a level that's very slow-building and striking in its careful use of sound and space – served up here on instrumentation that includes vibes from Midori Takada, piano from Tomoko Sono, and harp from Yuko Utsumi – always tuneful, but in ways that are more like a natural progression of sound than conventional music. Titles include "Prelude", "Still Park", "Still Sky", "Wrinkle", and "Image Under The Tree". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most important records from composer Robert Ashley – and one that's got a compact approach that helped it circulate a lot more than some of Ashley's larger operas! This piece is very much like those – with Ashley's unique spoken approach – part poetry, part performance art – but the sound is more stripped-down, and in the spirit of the young downtown New York generation of Laurie Anderson and Phillip Glass – served up with great instrumental help from contemporary Blue Gene Tyranny, who plays piano, moog, and clavinet – with some additional tablas for accompaniment! The whole thing was recorded at the important Center For Contemporary Music on the west coast, at Mills College – and is almost a Bay Area answer to some of the more compelling art records from the New York scene. The record is divided into 2 parts – "The Park" and "The Backyard" – both filled with a hypnotic mix of voice, keyboards, and tablas! LP, Vinyl record album

Seminal work from Derek Bailey – solo guitar sounds that influenced an entire generation! The music here captures Bailey at a key early shift – a really bold move into territory that nobody had ever explored before – on both electric and acoustic guitar, and playing the instruments in ways that are light years beyond traditional plucking and strumming! Bailey gets a wild sound throughout – weird tones, odd phrases, and lots of other cool noises that feel more like what you might get from scanning the spaceways for radio waves than you would hear from an aging musician on a single guitar. Titles include "Lot 74", "Together", "Pain In The Chest", "Planks", "In Joke (take 2)", and "Improvisation 104b". (Jazz, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A really full-on early set from Franco Battiato – a set that's maybe halfway between some of his more avant compositions and some of the modes of the Italian prog scene at the time! The album's a concept one, based on the growing pollution of the planet – in a mode that's maybe similar to Earth Rot, by David Axelrod – and like that set, Battiato mixes together unusual sounds and ideas with some more straightforward rockish passages. Battiato works with a small group of musicians – and while guitar steps to the lead at some points, others very much more abstract sounds and forms. Titles include "Il Silenzio Del Rumore", "31 Dicembre 1999 – Ore 9", "Beta", "Plancton", "Pollution", and "Areknames". LP, Vinyl record album

Boy, that cover alone is more than enough to draw us in – a frizzy-headed guy sitting amidst a whole host of 70s studio gear – but we've also always loved the music of Francois Bayle, which has always been some of the most striking in the French electronic tradition! The work here is all previously unreleased – and side one features a host of spare, stark tracks that has Bayle working with a portable set of 70s electronics – with a feel that's more intimate than the scope of the image on the cover might make you expect – as Bayle creates all these weird and wonderful cycles of sound on the album's short tracks. Titles include "Ennemi Intime", "Voltage Stomp", "Quadrille", "Crepuscule", "Train Noir", and "La Chose". The work on side two is maybe a bit closer to a tradition that would include Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer – and titles include "Marpege", "Foliophonie", and "Cinq Dessins En Rosace". (Sound Library, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A cool mixture of rock and electronics – a perfect example of the Beaver & Krause team at their best! The ensemble on this one is bigger than usual, and the players includes jazz musicians like Mike Bloomfield, Gerry Mulligan, and Howard Roberts – but Beaver & Krause still play a lot of moog, though, and the songs are pretty groovy – although a little short. Side 2 was recorded at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Titles include "Soft/White", "Walkin By The River", "Walkin", "Nine Moons In Alaska", "Bright Shadows", and "Short Film For David". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Mindblowing music from Harry Bertoia – a revolutionary musician and sculptor – one who would construct these unusual sonic structures, then make recordings of the sounds they could create! This set features two long pieces, both recorded in Bertoia's studio – with the man himself making the sculptures sing – first on "Experimental 1", which has this very dark, resonant vibe – almost as if the sounds are coming from deep in the earth working their ways up through the metallic structure – then on "Mechanical 1", which has maybe a higher-end range of sound overall. CD also features a bonus track – "Long Sounds 1". LP, Vinyl record album

A very cool album that presents Cage at the height of his "chance" composition stage – featuring him with David Tudor weaving an eclectic mix sounds on a sound system – recorded live at the Feigen-Palmer Gallery in LA! The work is the kind of stuff you always hear about with Cage, but can't find that easily on record. The album's a haunting melange of random sounds – from radio noise, to gamelon recordings, to sound effects – and it's striking proof of how fresh these ideas still are even decades later – it's almost hard to believe this wildly ambitious freeform kind of music is a product of the mid 60s! LP, Vinyl record album

One of those landmark meetings of mighty talents that sounds even better on record than it does on paper – as the set somehow finds this really special space that's completely between all the best early 70s modes of both Terry Riley and John Cale! Cale was really coming into his own at the time as a solo act – creating amazing records after leaving the Velvet Underground, but also still tied to the deeper art scene from which he emerged. Riley was on the way to becoming one of the most popular of the more modern composers – thanks to a nod from The Who, and a big audience for his wonderfully trippy records on Columbia. The label allowed the pair to create this really special music here – sounds that borrow from Riley's minimalism, while also having some of the darkness of Cale's own compositions – and coming across with this jagged, almost modal sort of approach that's really great. Cale only sings on one song, and the rest of the set is instrumental – as Riley plays piano, organ, and soprano sax – and Cale joins in on bass, guitar, viola, and harpsichord. The two of them groove together in these totally cool tracks that build and build, with minimal lines repeating over and over in endlessly fascinating groove – in a way that touches on a weirdly funky mode! The cut "Ides Of March" has the potential to be dancefloor groover in the jazz dance scene, and there's lots of other great tracks like "Church of Anthrax", "The Protege", and "The Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most compelling albums ever recorded by guitarist Eugene Chadbourne – a set billed as "free improvised country and western bebop" – and which features Chadbourne serving up these wild variations on tunes by Carl Perkins, Roger Miller, David Allen Coe, Bobby Bare, Merle Haggard, and other country music legends! The album's much more Eugene than Nashville – although Chadbourne does sing lyrics on all of the tunes, but in a way that's very offbeat and hardly unlike the originals at all – as is his guitar work, which is acoustic and all twisted and turned up in all the offbeat phrasings you might expect! Much of the record is Chadbourne on vocals and electric dobro – but the set also features some drums by David Licht, saxes from John Zorn, and cello from Tom Cora. Titles include "The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me", "I'm The Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised", "Georgia In A Jug", "Motel Time Again", "Dang Me", "Window Shopping", "Jealous Loving Heart", "Mr Record Man", and "Swingin Doors". LP, Vinyl record album

A wild mix of electric and acoustic sounds from Henning Christiansen – done as a soundtrack for a film that's represented with images inside the cover – images that make the movie look as wild as the music on the record! Sounds come from a variety of sources – glass bowls, tubes, piano, baritone horn, synthesizer, and many voices – but all often abstracted by the production, and taken into territory where even the more familiar moments get completely changed up – with a disorienting vibe that's almost an 80s evolution of earlier electro-acoustic modes. Titles include "The Mirror", "The Red Door", "Wolf Song", "Durand's Flute", "The End", "Landscape With Wolves Bed", and "The Blue Room". (Soundtracks, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Impossibly hard to describe music by Henning Christiansen – originally done as a soundtrack for a film, but very much able to stand on its own – with a quality that's as moving as it is experimental! There's vocals on a number of titles, sung by Bodil Hojsgaard and mixed with piano from Hanne Petri – alongside flute, violin, and a bit of cello – but all used in very unconventional ways – with both a strong sense of emotion, but also lots of odd changes and unusual tones – all at a level that has us feeling the same way as when we hear our favorite songs by Meredith Monk, even though the approach here is quite different. Titles include "The Marble Picture", "Child's Play", "Field Recording", "The Walnut Tree Waves In The Wind", and "Confessions Of A Hallow". (Soundtracks, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Really beautiful work from electronic musician Suzanne Ciani – two long live performances from 1975 – both on her own Buchla synthesizer, and both in a mode that's quite different from her later material The first side features a performance done for WBAI – and Ciani is amazing in the way she spins out lines of electric sound and waves of tone – working the Buchla with the kind of effortless energy that some folks might bring to a jazz improvisation – although with very different sonic results! The second half of the record features an intimate concert done at the loft of Phil Niblock – and the approach is similar, but Ciani seems to work more in waves of sound that flow out into the space, and sometimes come back upon themselves in this beautifully echoey way! (Sound Library, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Heavy electro work from Suzanne Ciani – an artist who peaked a bit later than some of her sound library contemporaries – which means she was able to contribute music experimental films, record productions, and video games – and not just the usual mainstream outlets! Ciani's electronics here are a great mix of modes – both analogue and digital – and her sounds often have a darkness that's really compelling, especially when you consider the ways some of them were used in areas that reached some larger audiences – really cool little spooky bits that underscore the more potent ways that electronic sounds were often used in the 70s generation. The music is light years beyond the playfulness of Perry & Kingsley – and has none of the softness of Ciani's later new age sides – a great revelation that will hopefully get her the recognition she deserves. Titles include "Atari Video Games Logo", "Princess With Orange Feet", "Paris 1971", "Live Buchla Concert 1975", "Sound Of Wetness", "Eighth Wave", "Liberator Atari TV Spot", "Pop & Pour Coca Cola Logo", and "Lixiviation". (Sound Library, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album