Michel Portal - !Dejarme Solo! (1991)

"With its conflation of modes and leaps into bitonality and even tritonality, the daring, experimental Dejarme Solo! stretches Michel Portal's ultra-modern inclinations even further into the avant-garde. Recorded in 1979, this album invites the active participation of the listener, who is challenged to complete the void normally occupied by conventional expectations. The opening track, "En El Campo", features Portal's jagged, angular solos over a slowly metamorphosing two-note rhythm that repeats obsessively. The displaced temporal flow continues in "Desert Sun", in which Portal's scorched lines serve as a conduit from mankind's past to an unresolved present. "African Ritual" perpetuates the hallucinatory spell through primitive figures and a raw, objective mood. At other times the soloist behaves in a downright raucous fashion, as if he is on a mission to liberate his instrument . Only in the final track, "Bat Sarrou", does Portal concede a sense of the familiar. Claude Ermelin's multi-layered engineering allows the instrumentalist to display his complete command of the saxophone family , several clarinets , and the bandoneon. The key is to expect the unexpected: Dejarme Solo! is an experimental journey with the exhilarating and disorienting unpredictability of life itself." ~ Kevin Mulhall



Michel Portal was born on 27 November 1935, in Bayonne, France. Portal is as comfortable playing a Mozart clarinet concerto as he is performing a Stockhausen intuitive piece, or scoring a film on bandoneon and playing free jazz on various reeds - he has always surprised. Francois Tusques, Sunny Murray, Joachim Kühn and John Surman are just some of the artists who have made use of his talents in a jazz context. Although accused by some of being over-clinical as a soloist, he has produced a number of remarkable recordings with editions of his ever-changing unit. Many leading French and Swiss players have passed through the ranks, while his Men's Land from 1987 featured Jack DeJohnette and Dave Liebman. He has won the French César Award for his soundtrack work on three occasions.

------------------------]

Michel Portal plays:

Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Contrebass Clarinet, Tenora, Soprano, Sopranino, Bandoneon, Percussions.


1. En EL Campo (3:45)
2. Desert Sun (4:15)
3. African Ritual (6:38)
4. Give Me A Chance (4:02)
5. Buffone (3:16)
6. Tenoras (1:19)
7. Dejarme Solo! (2:26)
8. Bat Sarrou (3:09)

link@320

Arne Nordheim - Electric (1998)

The amazing sonic constructions which appear in Electric were composed by Norwegian Arne Nordheim. Impressive by any standard, these experimental tracks were literally sliced-and-diced 30 years ago resulting in unique collages of sound which retain their magic. These are wonderful arrangements of found sounds, instruments and primitive (though quite effective) filtering effects.

The technical aspects alone are staggering; the wildly manipulated atmospheres sound as if they were created with the most advanced computer sound editors... of course, they weren't, having been recorded in 1968 - 1970. The much-appreciated liner notes briefly detail some of the techniques employed by Nordheim, and it does not sound easy. But due to Nordheim's artistic persistence, the results are absolutely stunning.

Solitaire lives up to its namesake in both the sparkling and the singular sense. Various crystalline effects achieve the former, and the piece's disjointed nature causes the latter, depositing the listener alone in some strange otherworld. Drones, echoes, mutated voices are all part of the track, but thousands of tinkling shards create an utterly icy, and often chaotic, environment.

Pace (which means "peace") opens on an explosive cacophony of modified bell tones. Eventually, a calm is achieved through quieter, more spacious use of variously clamoring timbres. A man's, woman's and child's voices reading "The Declaration of Human Rights" are used as source material, but they have been utterly transmuted, though the words' meaning may be retained in spirit. Toward the piece's closing, pressures build once again, until... the end. Incidentally, at 9:32, this is the shortest track.



Warszawa contains bits Nordheim collected on tape from around Warsaw as well as pieces from radio station archives, becoming a musical diary of sorts. From tumultuous to serene, grittily textured to smoothly planed, a most interesting collage unfolds. Haunting industrial soundscapes form a large part of the proceeding with wild mechanical drones, electronic buzzes, echoey drips and eerily quiet passages bathed in a gray, yet intriguing, light.

Composed of six tape loops of various length, Polypoly is mind boggling on many levels... technically, to hear the piece return to its starting point would take 102 years. It played continually for six months in the Scandinavian Pavilion at 1970's World Exposition in Osaka. Comprised of sound samples and musical electronics, this is a 21-minute-plus segment of a self-regenerating landscape rolls past again and again in different dimensions each time. The sounds are relatively mundane clatter, music, sound effects or disembodied voices; some are fairly distorted, and others are just plain crazy! The loops are long and varied enough that, in this sample, you don't actually get any real effects of overt repetiveness; it remains quite unpredictable... perhaps after a few weeks one might catch on to the patterns.

Colorazione is an exercise in which Nordheim interacts with a live ensemble, recording their input, filtering it and playing it back after a 15-second delay. The resulting interchange is again recorded, reworked and replayed. Fading in from silence, a dense build-up of Hammond organ and cymbals open . The resulting accumulation attains a grand state of cacophony. Passages of quiet musical interplay comingle with moments of tumultuous musical blasts.

Not only as a history lesson, but as a completely entrancing listen, Electric is mightily recommended. When paired with the Biosphere/ Deathprod remixes, Nordheim Transformed, the box set is an unparalleled mix of old and new. It's the AmbiEntrance #1 recording of the year! Now go to Rune Grammofon and get your own!

1. Solitaire (1968)
2. Pace (1970)
3. Warszawa (1970)
4. Polypoly (1970)
5. Colorazione (1968)

Originally released in 1974.
Recorded at Studio Eksperymentalne, Warszaw.

link@320

Michel Redolfi - Sonic Waters #2 [underwater music] 1983-89 (1990)

Michel Redolfi makes real atmospheric music, in this case, on his second volume of underwater music -- and his first on CD; this is music to be recorded, played, and listened to underwater.

Redolfi hangs microphones underwater, leaving them there for years at a time, records sound, then records other sounds from near-silent or silent auditory environments above the water, processes them -- with the help of Pascal Gobin and Michel Pascal -- with synthesizers and then plays them back to an audience, who is sometimes underwater!

What does it sound like? Like music made in the deep stillness of time. The keyboards add something, like a very subtle trance-inducing effect while the underwater sounds, such as on "Effractions," which was played to an audience seated outside, suggested a marriage of sea and sky, evoking the notion of a lost civilization, or the lost traces of some passage. They shimmer and sweep, irregularly wash over, and disappear just as suddenly.

On "A Sunny Afternoon at Bird Rock," sounds from the air are melded and even collaged with the sonic pulses. Water and air joining together, held in mid-space by the synthesizers -- so minimal they almost aren't there -- and whistle and wave through each other as well as the listener. The effect is heightened tenfold through headphones as gulls cross from one speaker to the next, and formations of water bubble up from the depths and move in the other direction.

Finally, the amazing "Full Scale Ocean," which has been performed dozens of times in tide pools, oceans, ponds, lakes, and rivers, becomes the overwhelming experience that joins technology and the natural world together as one inseparable universe. Over half-an-hour in length, this is music as atmosphere because that's what it is. The sheer technical manipulation of those natural sounds that most affect the human mind and body are edited together and mixed into a whole that echoes deep within the human psyche.

This is what Brian Eno only dreamed of doing, and what those other environments records wish they could pull off. Truly amazing!

ARTISTS
Ensemble Ricercar: Pascal Gobin, Michel Pascal; Lanie Goodman (flutes); Melissa Morgan (harpe); Michel Redolfi (synclavier synthesizers)

[more info @ jazzloft.com]

------------------------------------------------------]

1. Effractions (9:40)
2. Sunny Afternoon At Bird Rock Beach (13:10)
3. Full Scale Ocean (32:17)


link@320

Oscar Peterson _ Stéphane Grappelli Quartet - Jazz in Paris : Vols 1 & 2 (2000)

"Jazz In Paris, Volume 1" by Oscar Peterson and Stéphane Grappelli was recorded in 1973. This is the first of two volumes. Peterson had always been the favorite musician of the mogul of record production, Norman Granz, who produced majority of Peterson's body of work under Verve Records. On this recording he shares the spotlight with a genius of violin, Stéphane Grappelli. Together with drummer Kenny Clarke and Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen, Peterson and Grappelli present a set of tunes played in the most ingenious renditions. Grappelli shows his expertise in violin and is pretty at ease with his deliveries while Peterson consistently plays so effortless and precise. The two legends of jazz perfectly complement each other making all the tunes delightful and enjoyable to fans of jazz piano and violin alike.

Oscar Peterson

The entire recording is such a pleasure to listen to, but I believe they are at their utmost best in "My One And Only Love," "Walkin' My Baby Back Home" and "Makin' Whoopee."

Stéphane Grappelli

If you want to experience the genius of two jazz greats in piano and violin, this is a perfect CD to own. For Peterson and Grappelli fans, this is a rarity and a keeper. A perfect companion CD is Jazz in Paris: Oscar Peterson-Stephanie Grapelli Quartet, Vol. 2. Wholeheartedly recommended."

------------------------------------------]

Stéphane Grappelli - violin
Oscar Peterson - piano
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen - double bass
Kenny Clarke - drums

[------------------------------------------

Vol.1
1. Them There Eyes (4:49)
2. Flamingo (5:36)
3. Makin' Whoopee (4:35)
4. Looking At You (4:43)
5. Walkin' My Baby Back Home (5:00)
6. My One And Only Love (9:46)
7. Thou Swell (4:38)


Vol.2
1. I Won't Dance (6:46)
2. The Folks Who Live On The Hill (5:40)
3. Autumn Leaves (6:35)
4. My Heart Stood Still (5:05)
5. Blues For Musidisc (8:37)
6. If I Had You (6:50)

linkvol1 | linkvol2 @320

Cecil Taylor - The Eighth (1989)

“Taylor's art confronts nature so organically because it embraces the same attitudes, makes the same demands. Rejecting frivolous entertainment, it is ritual--a rite of creation that accepts paradox as it attempts to transcend it" ~ Art Lange



Pianist, composer, and educator. Leader of jazz group, 1953--; released debut LP, Jazz Advance, 1956; performed at Five Spot Cafe, New York City, 1956; led onstage band in play The Connection, 1960; toured Europe, 1962; organized Jazz Composers Guild, 1964; recorded with Jazz Composers orchestra, 1968; played for Maeght Foundation, France, 1969, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 1972; performed in ensembles and as a solo artist at various jazz festivals, including Newport, 1957 and 1972, Great South Bay, 1958, Montreux, 1974, and Kool Jazz, 1984; two-piano performance with Mary Lou Williams, Carnegie Hall, 1977; performed with ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov; composed short ballet Tetra Stomp: Eatin' Rain in Space, 1979; performed for President Jimmy Carter at the White House, 1979 (one source says 1978). Instructor in music, University of Wisconsin, 1970-71; Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH, 1972-74; and Glassboro State College, NJ. [more info here]

-----------------------------------------]

Cecil Taylor - Boesendorfer piano
Jimmy Lyons - alto saxophone
William Parker - double bass
Rashid Bakr - drums

1. Calling it The 8th (57:40)
2. Calling it The 9th (10:51)

Recorded live November 8th, 1981 at Freiburger Jazztage Freiburg, Germany;

link@320

Philippe Manoury - En Echo / Neptune (1999)

Philippe Manoury is one of the world's leading composers and computer music researchers. He studied composition with Gerard Condé and Max Deutsch (one of Schoenberg's first students in Vienna), and at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris, with Michel Philippot and Ivo Malec. He studied computer-assisted composition with Pierre Barbaud beginning in 1976.

In 1978, Philippe began teaching in Brazil at universities in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, and other locations. A major appointment followed at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon (1986-96). Most significant is his long association with the world's leading center for computer music research, IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), a branch of the Centre George Pompidou in Paris. Philippe has worked as a musical researcher (in collaboration with Miller Puckette) since 1981, and as a Professor of Composition since 1993. At IRCAM Manoury composed Zeitlauf (1981), a work for mixed choir, instrumental ensemble, synthesizers, and tape.

For the European Year of Music, the Council of Europe commissioned Manoury to compose Aleph, which premiered in 1985. He also wrote a series of chamber works, including Musique I and II, and Instantanés. In 1992 and 1993 he composed La Nuit du Sortilège, which won an award from the UNESCO International Composers' Tribune. In 1999, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland commissioned Sound and Fury, premiered by Pierre Boulez.

Philippe has composed three operas, 60e Parallèle, K..., and La Frontière. K... was commissioned and premiered by the Paris Opera in 2001. One of his most important works is Sonus ex Machina, a series of compositions (Jupiter, Pluton, Neptune and La Partition du Ciel et de l'Enfer) for solo instruments, ensemble and real-time computer processing. Mr. Manoury was also composer in residence at the Orchestre de Paris where he composed Noon, a large piece for soprano, choir, orchestra and electronics. It was premiered by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

In 2005, Philippe composed Identités remarquables and Strange Ritual for the Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Modern Ensemble. Recently, Mr. Manoury premiered On-Iron, a 75-minute oratorio for choir, percussion, electronics and video which toured five cities in France.

Mr. Manoury will have an immediate impact on our composition, computer music, and ICAM (computer music) programs. He will be available as a senior mentor to Ph.D. candidates in composition, teach the Music 203 composition seminar, 103 undergraduate composition seminar, 270 computer music seminars, and 210 musical analysis.

"Philippe Manoury's Jupiter (1987) is a pioneering work, the first to use score-following to synchronize live electronics with the performer."-James Harley, composer

"Manoury's score (Last, 1997) puts the unlikeliest of musical partners, a bass clarinetist and a marimbist, through an exhilarating relay race."-John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune

"En echo is a succulent extravaganza of computer-generated sounds interacting with the purity of a solo soprano."-Keith Potter, The Independent (London)

------------------]

En echo

En echo (1993-1994) pour soprano et dispositif électronique en temps réel

d’après des poèmes de Emmanuel Hocquart

1. La rivière
2. Un jardin
3. Broadway
4. Mea lux
5. Betty
6. Mon visage
7. La table

commande de Françoise et Jean-Philippe Billarant ;
oeuvre réalisée à l’IRCAM (Miller Puckette : concepteur scientifique ; Cort Lippe et Leslie Stuck : assistants musicaux)
durée : 32 min.
première audition : 26.02.1994, Paris, IRCAM / Donatienne Michel-Dansac (S), Philippe Manoury (projection sonore) Technique IRCAM

[------------------

Neptune

Neptune (1991)

pour trois percussionnistes et dispositif électronique en temps réel

commande de l’association Les Amis du Centre Georges Pompidou ; oeuvre de réalisée à l’IRCAM (Miller Puckette : concepteur scientifique ; Cort Lippe : assistant musical)
durée : 40 min.
première audition : 26.06.1991, Paris, Centre d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou,

Vincent Bauer (perc), Michel Cerutti (perc), Daniel Ciampolini (perc), Philippe Manoury (projection sonore)

link@320

Jonathan Harvey - From Silence, Nataraja, Ritual Melodies (1993)

There’s a strange dichotomy, a paradox almost, at the heart of Jonathan Harvey’s music. On the one hand he has been more involved with exploring the possibilities of electroacoustics and computer techniques than any other British composer of his generation. That is the Harvey represented on the Bridge compilation: From Silence was the result of a residency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988, and involves electronic keyboard, computer and pre-recorded tape; Ritual Melodies is a tape piece realised at IRCAM in 1990. Both are supremely accomplished works, elegantly crafted and full of beautifully imagined sound complexes. Yet the other Harvey is the composer of religious works, often for unaccompanied chorus, exemplified by the Joyful Company’s survey. It shouldn’t seem paradoxical, but in an age when radicalism has been equated with rationalism it does, though the broad range of Harvey’s sympathies (the most substantial piece on the ASV disc, Forms of Emptiness, combines texts by e e cummings with Sanskrit and English extracts from the Buddhist Heart Sutra) takes these pieces far beyond any narrow prescription of a specific religious tradition. Apart from some of the compositional techniques, it is hard to find many points of contact between the portraits of Harvey offered on these two discs; he remains one of Britain’s most intriguing composers and, I suspect, probably one of the most important ones.

-- Andrew Clements, BBC Music Magazine [in arkivmusic]

	Nataraja by Jonathan Harvey
	Performer: Harrie Starreveld (Flute), René Eckhardt (Piano), Harrie Starreveld (Piccolo) Period: 20th Century Written: 1983; England		Venue: Sweelinck Conservatory, Amsterdam Length: 10 Minutes 2 Secs.
	Ritual Melodies by Jonathan Harvey
	Period: 20th Century Written: 1989-1990; England		Length: 13 Minutes 26 Secs.
	Notes: This selection was realized at IRCAM, Paris.
	From Silence by Jonathan Harvey
	Performer: John MacDonald (Keyboard), Philip Sohn (Computer), Kathleen Supové (Keyboard), Dean Anderson (Percussion), Marcus Thompson (Viola), Lucy Chapman Stoltzman (Violin), Karol Bennet (Soprano), David Atherton (Tapes), Diana Dabby (Keyboard), Brent Koeppel (Computer), Ken Malsky (Computer) Conductor: Barry Vercoe Orchestra/Ensemble: MIT Chamber Ensemble Period: 20th Century Written: 1988; England		Length: 21 Minutes 45 Secs.
	Notes: This selection was realized at the Media Laboratory at MIT. link@320

Kaffe Matthews - Cd Cécile (1999)

"Kaffe Matthews has been making and performing new electro-acoustic music since 1990. She is acknowledged as a leading figure and pioneer in the field of electronic improvisation and live composition making on average 50 performances a year worldwide. In 1997 she established the label Annette Works, releasing the best of these events on the six cd's, 'cd Ann', 'cd Bea' , 'cd cecile' ,'cd dd', 'cd eb and flo' presenting an annual document of ever developing sound worlds.

Currently she is rarely performing, instead directing the collaborative research project Music for Bodies with multidisciplinary professionals and the community, bringing new music and some ideas about listening to everyone.(NESTA Dreamtime Fellowship, 2005).

Kaffe has become known for making site-specific sound works live, playing in the dark in the middle of the space, the audience surrounding her, the sounds moving around them. She uses self-designed software matrices through which she pulls, pushes and reprocesses sounds live, using microphones, a theremin, and feedback within the space; the site then becoming her instrument.

It is this practice that she has shifted to sonic furniture building, with Sonic Bed_London (Distinction: Prix Ars Electronica, 2006) and the Worldwide Bed project being a central pin in this ongoing project.

Kaffe also collaborates and has worked and performed with many artists worldwide including AGF, Ryoko Kuwajima, Eliane Radigue (The Lappetites), David Muth, Shri, Mandy McIntosh, Zeena Parkins, Sachiko M, Brian Duffy, Leafcutter John, Janek Schaeffer, Ikue Mori, Marina Rosenfeld, Pan-Sonic, Alan Lamb, Christian Fennesz, and ongoing democractic stuggles with pan-European electronics orchestra 'MIMEO'. Her most recent collaborative release, Before the Libretto, by the Lappetites, was voted in the WIRE's best top 10 new releases for 2005.

She has also been making a growing body of composed works through collaborations with a variety of people, things and processes. From working with NASA astronauts researching the sonic experience of space travel, making BAFTA awarded Weightless Animals: kites and the weather on an uninhabited Scottish island,Sanda, Weather Made; taut Wires in the Australian outback with Alan Lamb; Touching Concrete Lightly for MIMEO and the Oscar Niemeyeyer Pavilion 2003, Serpentine Gallery; and the innovative Radio Cycle, a concept and works for maps, bikes and radios.

Kaffe's Background:

Playing classical violin from the age of 7, singing badly in one band but getting further with bass and drums in another which recorded and toured for 4 years, in 1985 she discovered electricity and sound and with that, her current trajectory.

Since then, acid house engineering, electrically reconstructing the violin, Distinction for a Masters in Music Technology, introducing and running a Performance Technology course at one of the leading Live Arts Colleges in the UK, and establishing the label Annette Works. She also set up a shop and did a Zoology degree along the way." [in annette works]

1-3. Contact C
4-12. My Love Gave Me A Blue Plastic Watch
13-19. Skagerrak:
13. This Many B Planes
14. The Air Underneath
15. The Surface Is Air I Believe
16. At Night
17. The Air Hostess
18. Touch Down
19. Outside

link@320

Henry Cow - In Praise of Learning (1975)

In Praise of Learning is an album by British avant-garde rock groups Henry Cow and Slapp Happy, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in February and March 1975. It was the second of two collaborative albums by the two groups and was released in May 1975.
The album cover art work was by artist Ray Smith and was the last of the three "paint socks" to feature on Henry Cow's albums.
In Praise of Learning was the most overtly political album Henry Cow made. Printed on the back of the album cover is filmmaker John Grierson's quote "Art is not a mirror - it is a hammer", and the Tim Hodgkinson 16 minute composition "Living in the Heart of the Beast", augmented by Dagmar Krause's Armageddon-like vocals, made it quite clear where Henry Cow's political aspirations lay. Krause's powerful voice had added a new dimension to their music. The album opener, "War" (Moore/Blegvad) had been recorded the previous year during the making of the first Slapp Happy/Henry Cow collaborative album, Desperate Straights (1975).

"Living in the Heart of the Beast" began as an unfinished instrumental that Hodgkinson presented to the group, which was cut up and performed live in 1974 with improvisational sections added.[1] One such performance, "Halsteren" was recorded in Halsteren in September 1974, and appears in Volume 2: 1974-5 of The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set (2009). After the merger with Slapp Happy, Hodgkinson commissioned Peter Blegvad to write lyrics for the piece for Dagmar Krause to sing. But after several attempts, Blegvad admitted that he was "out of [his] depth", and Hodgkinson wrote the lyrics himself.

Chris Cutler's lyrics on "Beautiful as the Moon - Terrible as an Army with Banners" were the first song texts he had written, and the song was the first writing collaboration between Cutler and Fred Frith that later grew into Art Bears. The song also became the longest lasting "building block" the band used in subsequent live performances. [in wiki..]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. "War" (Moore, Blegvad) – 2:25
2. "Living in the Heart of the Beast" (Hodgkinson) – 15:30
3. "Beginning: The Long March" (Henry Cow, Slapp Happy) – 6:26
4. "Beautiful as the Moon - Terrible as an Army with Banners" (Frith, Cutler) – 7:02
5. "Morning Star" (Henry Cow, Slapp Happy) – 6:05

Bonus track on 1991 CD re-issue:
6. "Lovers of Gold" (Henry Cow, Slapp Happy, Cutler) – 6:28
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Greaves - Bass, Piano
Lindsay Cooper - Bassoon, Oboe
Tim Hodgkinson - Clarinet, Organ, Piano
Chris Cutler - Drums, Noises
Anthony Moore - Electronics, Tape, Piano
Fred Frith - Guitar, Violin, Xylophone, Piano
Dagmar Krause - Voice
Geoff Leigh - Soprano Sax
Mongezi Feza - Trumpet
Peter Blegvad - Voice, Trumpet, Guitar
Phil Becque - Noise Oscillator

link@320

Naked City - Grand Guignol (1992)

"Grand Guignol is the second full-length studio album released by John Zorn's band Naked City in 1992 on the Japanese Avant label. The album followed Torture Garden which was a compilation of "hardcore miniatures" from Naked City and Grand Guignol. The album notable for the inclusion of cover versions of pieces written by classical composers, the guest vocal of Bob Dorough, and also features a selection of "hardcore miniatures" (tracks 9-41) which are intense, fast, brief compositions, complete with the wailing of Zorn's alto sax, and the sometimes tortured, sometimes hilarious screams of Yamatsuka Eye.
Recorded between 1989 and 1992, released in 1992" [in wiki..]


An intense and extremely well played recording, N_joy it as it was an original soundtrack of a horror performance at old Grand Guignol Theater in Paris ~ Ludwig Vanessa.


1. "Grand Guignol" – 17:41
2. "La Cathédrale Engloutie" – 6:24 (Claude Debussy)
3. "Three Preludes Op. 74: Douloureux, Déchirant" – 1:17 (Alexander Scriabin)
4. "Three Preludes Op. 74: Très Lent, Contemplatif" – 1:43 (Scriabin)
5. "Three Preludes Op. 74: Allegro Drammatico" – 0:49 (Scriabin)
6. "Prophetiae Sybillarum" – 1:46 (Orlande de Lassus)
7. "The Cage" – 2:01 (Charles Ives) - Featuring Bob Dorough
8. "Louange à l'éternité de Jésus" – 7:08 (Olivier Messiaen)
9. "Blood Is Thin" – 1:02
10. "Thrash Jazz Assassin" – 0:47
11. "Dead Spot" – 0:33
12. "Bonehead" – 0:54
13. "Piledriver" – 0:36
14. "Shangkuan Ling-Feng" – 1:16
15. "Numbskull" – 0:31
16. "Perfume of A Critic's Burning Flesh" – 0:26
17. "Jazz Snob: Eat Shit" – 0:26
18. "The Prestidigitator" – 0:46
19. "No Reason To Believe" – 0:28
20. "Hellraiser" – 0:41
21. "Torture Garden" – 0:37
22. "Slan" – 0:24
23. "The Ways of Pain" – 0:33
24. "The Noose" – 0:13
25. "Sack of Shit" – 0:46
26. "Blunt Instrument" – 0:56
27. "Osaka Bondage" – 1:17
28. "Shallow Grave" – 0:42
29. "Kaoru" – 0:53
30. "Dead Dread" – 0:48
31. "Billy Liar" – 0:13
32. "Victims of Torture" – 0:24
33. "Speedfreaks" – 0:50
34. "New Jersey Scum Swamp" – 0:44
35. "S/M Sniper" – 0:17
36. "Pigfucker" – 0:24
37. "Cairo Chop Shop" – 0:25
38. "Facelifter" – 0:57
39. "Whiplash" – 0:22
40. "The Blade" – 0:30
41. "Gob of Spit" – 0:21

Fred Frith - bass
Joey Baron - drums
Bill Frisell - guitar
Wayne Horvitz - keyboards
John Zorn - alto sax, vocals
Yamatsuka Eye - vocals

link@320

V/A - GANGA : Les Musiques du Gange (1999)

Ganga: Les Musiques du Gange is a three-disc set of whimsical worldbeats, featuring the talent and beauty of the Music and Dance Academy of India. More appropriately, this album is a perfect reflection of the spiritual instrumentals found in music of this part of the world. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide

This amazing compilation represents a series of significant "roots recordings" of Indian popular music, including chants (mantras), instrumental music and impressive natural soundscapes.
Most of the music was collected impromptu along the margins of the Great Mother Ganga: the Ganges River, the most sacred river in India (captured all the way from the spring [in the Himalayas] to the mouth of the Ganges river).
The sound quality of this triple CD is astonishing and this fact allows an intimate and profound sound voyage to the listener. ~ Ludwig Vanessa

Disc: I

(Mantras) At Gaumukh, the Source of the Ganges (2:05)
(Conch) Call to Prayer at the Temple of Gangotri (2:31)
Ganga Stuti (The Legend of Ganga) (5:19)
(Pungi) At Devprayag (5:19)
Ganapati Upanishad (4:52)
(Dhol) Percussion Ensemble (3:24)
Nautanki T Kanpur (2:36)
Trveni at Allahabad (1:38)
Badhaiyya (7:47)
Gaona Geet (The Bride's Farewell) (3:27)
Kajari (A Popular Melody of the Mirzapur Region) (7:01)
Nirgun Pad, from the Benares Region (4:25)
(Hori) Mishra Kafi Raga, by Chhannu Lal Mishra (13:29)

Disc: II

Hanuman Arati (3:48)
Birha (7:33)
Pachra (9:21)
Khari Birha (2:23)
Kevat Ka Sohar (2:28)
Kilona, Toy-Song for Childern, Patna Region (2:28)
Banni Mata Ka Geet (2:43)
Tantric Rite (4:25)
Sohar (6:08)
Kohbar (4:49)
Ropni Geet (3:55)
Kajri Dhun [Shahnai Tune for Dawn at Jahangira] (4:59)

Disc: III

Domni Song (3:29)
(Jatsar) A Million Song (3:48)
(Vivah Geet) (7:11)
(Lori) A Cradle Song (3:40)
Hori Jogria (4:49)
Ma Melinir Gaan (3:48)
Patar Banshi (3:55)
Ô Doyal (6:32)
Manush, Baul Song (7:47)
Bhataiali, Boatman's Song (1:10)
Murshidi, Mystic Minestrel's Song (4:16)
Bhashan, Behula Legend (2:07)
Kali Kirtana, of Andul (Suburb of Calcutta) (9:06)


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Günter Müller & Lê Quan Ninh - La Voyelle Liquide (2000)

Günter Müller and Lê Quan Ninh are both improvising percussionists who have worked increasingly with electronics over the past few years. Müller has released numerous records on his groundbreaking For 4 Ears label, including collaborations with Christian Marclay, Voice Crack, Otomo Yoshihide, and Erik M. Two more recent records involve Taku Sugimoto, The World Turned Upside Down (Erstwhile), which is a trio concert with Keith Rowe, and a duo released this fall, I Am Happy If You Are Happy (For 4 Ears). Earlier this year, Müller also released the gorgeous Direct Chamber (33revpermi), with Michel Doneda and Fabrice Charles. Ninh has worked extensively both in the improv and in the contemporary classical genres. His improv side has probably best been captured thus far by two superb trio projects on FMP, Burning Cloud (w/Butch Morris and J.A.Deane) and Open Paper Tree (w/ Michel Doneda and Paul Rogers), as well as by his solo tour de force, Ustensiles (For 4 Ears). As for his classical side, he's a member of the Hêlios Quartet, a percussion ensemble which recently released a self-titled CD on Vand'ouevre, containing compositions by Ninh, Jean-Christophe Feldhandler, Vinko Globokar and Toru Takemitsu. Ninh has also recorded John Cage's Ryoanji (Auvidis Montaigne), in duo with Joelle Leandre.

Müller and Ninh first met and played together in 1988, and have occasionally performed together since, most notably in the quartet Plugged in Zeit Reel with Jim O'Rourke and J.A. Deane. In January of 2000, Müller and Ninh traveled to CCAM in Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France and recorded four hours worth of material, from which the 75 minutes contained on this CD has been carefully selected. The title was inspired by a passage from L'Eau et les Rêves (Water and Dreams), a book by French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. The two musicians demonstrate their seemingly limitless palettes, slipping back and forth between percussion and electronics to create endlessly inventive systems of sound.

"The collaboration of these two percussive pioneers offers some of the most inspired performances I have heard by either musician to date. While not minimizing the quality of any of their other superb records, this seems to be a culmination of their history. Müller and Ninh are percussionists of two very different styles, and that is this record's strength- the sparse to the dense, the electronic to the acoustic ... a wonderfully dynamic ride." -- Tim Barnes

A vast improv composition of ordered and soothing intimate electroacoustic sound_objects & soundscapes.

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Günter Müller, selected drums, minidisc, electronics

Lê Quan Ninh, surrounded bass drum, electronics

1. La voyelle a (04.28)
2. La voyelle e (21.27)
3. La voyelle i (13.00)
4. La voyelle o (08.04)
5. La voyelle u (08.10)
6. La voyelle y (08.36)
7. La voyelle liquide (11.16)

Recorded at Studio CCAM, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France on 29/30 January 2000.

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