HENRY, PIERRE Fragments Pour Artaud / Entite / Prisme (Philips) cd 21.00
Chapter 4.2 in the Philips reissue series of the musique concrete works of Pierre Henry features 3 pieces: "Fragments pour Artaud" (1970), "Entite" (1959), and "Prisme" (1973). "Fragments Pour Artaud" lives up to its name as an absurdist homage to Antonin Artaud, in jumpcutting through 13 interlocking segments of monotonous voices that have been manipulated into eeriely sputtering fluctuations of synthesized noise. Henry opens and closes this composition with the random plucks of an untuned steel-stringed instrument flapping against its soundboard. Quite obtuse, yet bombastically theatrical. "Entite" is a brief 6 minute piece for tape, with nonspecific grey sounds fluxing in and out of the audible range whilst generative metallic clatter and tape whirr pop throughout the stereo field. "Prisme" rounds out the collection as another investigation into the realm of possibilities for magnetic tape manipulation. These concrete sounds filtered through an arsenal of effects are quite typical for Henry and those at the INA-GRM institution, with the biggest difference being the advancement in technology and sound quality between 1959 and 1973.
All liner notes are in French.
RealAudio clip: "Mexique (from Fragments Pour Artaud)"
RealAudio clip: "Le Temple d'Emese (from Fragments Pour Artaud)"
RealAudio clip: "Entite"
RealAudio clip: "Prisme"

HENRY, PIERRE Futuristie (Philips) cd 21.00
Composed in 1980 as an homage to Luigi Russolo, author of the Futurist manifesto "The Art of Noise," Pierre Henry's "Futuristie" centered around the recreation of Russolo's "intonarumori." Henry designed similar looking noise intoners (which are odd shaped boxed with huge metal speakers sticking out their sides) based on the photographs of the objects, as the originals had long been dismantled. I've often wondered what these "intonarumori" would sound like, and what they were amplifying. All that any historian seems to say about Russolo's "intonarumori" is that they made noise. Come on, can't anybody do better than that? What kind of noise?
Anyway, I doubt that Pierre Henry knew either as the dense collage of sounds that he broadcast through those loudspeakers falls well within his musique concrete signature. Henry does claim a strong influence from Futurism, as a manifesto which promoted the removal of semiotic barriers between noise and music. His complex abstraction scrounges for the sounds of aluminum cans getting crushed, the clatter of wooden pegs falling, scraped metal wires, sporadic electronic bleeping, and layered rhythmic grunts and vocalisations sounding like a multi-dubbed Jaap Blonk. Henry certainly is following the spirit of Futurism, but if he is actually following its sonorous aesthetics, I guess we'll never know.
The liner notes are all in French, compounding the quandry.
RealAudio clip: "Bruiteurs 1"

HENRY, PIERRE Les Annees Cinquante (Philips) 2cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the fourth chapter in the continued archival project for musique concrete composer Pierre Henry, Philips presents this collection of Henry's earliest material from the 1950s, which had been previously issued on the long out of print Mantra 3CD set. The compositions (number 4.3, if you must know) within this set include "Microphone bien tempére" (1950-1952), "Concerto des ambiguites" (1950), "Musique sans titre" (1950), "Bidule en mi" (1950). "Spirale" (1955), "Voile d'orphée" (1953), "Spatiodynamisme" (1954), "Aut-voltage" (1956), and "Coexistence" (1958). These pieces, which are all based upon magnetic tape playback, splicing, and speed manipulation with various filters, reflect Henry's early mastery over his material despite the lack of dynamics from his equipment (which generated very little pure bass reflex at all)... disembodied vocals, metallic cymbals with variable attack, sustained organ, spring reverb manipulation, and any other obtuse sound that resonates within the mid-range timbres.
Liner notes are all in French.
RealAudio clip: "Etendu (from Concerto Des Ambiguites)"
RealAudio clip: "Spirale"

HENRY, PIERRE Mix 03.0 (Philips France) 4cd 55.00
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Are you a musique concrete connoiseur who already has the Pierre Henry box sets "Mix 01.0" and "Mix 02.0"? Then wethinks you'll have to pick this one up too! Again, a hefty helping of Henry's brilliant music. Contains 4 discs: "Variations Pour Une Porte Et Un Soupir / La Reine Verte", "Futuristie", "Antagonismes IV (nouvelle version)" and "Hugosymphonie / Gouttes d'eau". The first three discs are available separately (see nearby reviews) but the "Hugosymphonie" one is a bonus exclusive to this box. The two pieces on it are symphonic poems inspired by nature themes in the work of Victor Hugo, recorded in 1985. So, getting this handsome box is much cheaper than buying the discs individually, and it comes with more music too!

HENRY, PIERRE Pierres Reflechies / La Noire A Soixante / Gymkhana (Philips) cd 21.00
In the reissue campaign from Philips of Pierre Henry's work, his compositions "Pierres Reflechies," "La Noire A Soixante," and "Gymkhana" constitute the volume 4.1. "Pierre Reflechies" (1982) is a good example of Pierre Henry's current aesthetic with a greater emphasis on the dialogue between orchestral instruments and electronic synthesis. Here, Henry composes the orchestral elements through serial repetition of blurted notes, then disfigures them through a number of filters which resemble contemporary DSP techniques. For this piece, Henry has translated the work of Proust into sound and dedicated it to the other Pierre of musique concrete (Pierre Schaeffer, that is). "La Noire A Soixante" jumps back to 1961 and to a minimal application of Henry's electro-acoustic pings and reverberations. "Gymkhana" (1970) appears to be a 'remix' of the aforementioned "La Noire A Soixante" with acoustic instrumentation (sustained oboes and pointillist flutes) laid over the backing tape.
RealAudio clip: "Diaspre (from "Pierres Reflechies")"
RealAudio clip: "La Noire A Soixante"
RealAudio clip: "Gymkhana"

HENRY, PIERRE Variations Pour Une Porte Et Un Soupir / La Reine Verte (Philips) cd 21.00
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"Variations For a Door and a Sigh" may in fact be Pierre Henry's most well known piece, simply because it has become the unwitting self-parody / archetype of musique concrete as a solipsistic study by academic farts recording creaking doors and passing the results off as high art. Conceived and realized in 1963, this piece is an elaboration upon the individual colors of three distinct sounds: a sigh, a musical saw, and squeaking door. It appears that Henry's decision to limit his palette to only three sources was in direct opposition to near limitless sounds he had developed through the mutable techniques of musique concrete. To be fair, "Variations For a Door and a Sigh" wouldn't have received so many emulations and homages if there weren't something worthwhile in the recordings.
"La Reina Verte" is a 30 minute electronic / orchestral work also from 1963; it's an incomplete edit of the original 46 minute composition, but significantly longer than its previous inclusion on "Messe Pour Le Temps." His intent in combining the artificial sonorities of musique concrete with the timbres of orchestral instruments, was "not only in search of unwonted conceits, [but also] a lyrical or even a poetic counterpoint to the different forms of this spectacle."

HIDALGO, JUAN Tamaran (Gocce Di Sperma Per Dodici Pianoforti) (Get Back) lp 15.98
This composition for 12 prepared pianos sounds pretty much just like what you would expect, being heavy on the muted percussive thwap of objects stuffed in between all of the strings. Originally released on Cramps back in the '70s from this Spanish avant-garde composer.

HILL, JOHN 6 Moons Of Jupiter (Finders Keepers) cd 23.00
We knew John Hill as producer of the stunning folk funk lps of Susan Christie and Margo Guryan, but this concept record is where his producing genius is on full display: an epic electronic space jazz composition featuring Susan Christie, Jimmy Valerio, Gerry Mulligan and Walter Sear. Based on a poem by Ian Michaels called "I Am The Storm of Dawn" that suggests life on Earth originated on one of the six moons of Jupiter, Europa (the only other place in the solar system with water and ice), the 6 Moons of Jupiter features Susan Christie reciting the poem with Moogy electronic drones, cellos,  delayed flutes, and percussion. While we're not always huge fans of spoken word, somehow it works here, adding some serious tripped out drugginess to the already pretty far out proceedings. 
According to the liner notes, this was the first part of a proposed 13 piece concept performance, with each piece written in a distinctly different style, somehow combining poetry, electronic technology, classical, jazz and of course 'space rock' (quotes required!) Not sure sure how that would have panned out had they stuck to the plan, especially since it seems that for this first volume they jammed all that stuff together, into one single awesomely mind melting sonic hodgepodge. 
The tracks range from shimmery free jazzscapes, all abstract percussion and buzzing raga like drones, haunting and mysterious, to full on groovy keyboard drenched space-y garage jams, complete with fluttering flute, wheezing organs, creepy chanted vocals, and wailing psych leads, to strange off kilter chamber music, heavy with reverb and long lonesome tones, to pounding sixties style stomp, but all twisted up around jazzy horns, and jaunty Springtime shuffles, to haunting solo strings, dour melancholic melodies over buried soft buzz, to total acid wah guitars, laced with creepy pizzicato strings and warbly rubbery funhouse melodies. Mix in Christie's deadpan spoken word and this becomes a serious jazzy groovy musical mindfuck. And you know what that means. BUY IT!
MPEG Stream: "Europa"
MPEG Stream: "Amalthea"
MPEG Stream: "Io"

HOSOKAWA, TOSHIO Koto-Uta (Kairos) cd 16.98
A small collection of compositions written in the late nineties by Hosokawa. Influenced by Cage and the significance of silence in modern composition as well as the slowly building, meditative characteristics of Takemitsu, Hosokawa applied this wisdom to the Western standards of composition and instrumentation. "Koto-Uta" is a stripped down piece for voice and Koto. Lyrical and mysterious, beautiful as it is perplexing. "Voyage I" for violin and ensemble painstakingly takes its time to find a melody, resigning itself to settle on the exploration of space and texture. Minimalist passages hover in suspension, patiently awaiting the monumental crecendos that eventually engulf the piece. Likewise, the suspenseful and restrained "Konzert Für Saxophon und Orchester" pairs pained, sweltering and erratic saxophone against an anxiety-ridden orchestra, swelling up with anticipation and longing for a culmination, unfulfilled. A wonderful introduction to an underdocumented contemporary composer who we're hoping to hear more of.
RealAudio clip: "Koto-Uta"
RealAudio clip: "Voyage 1"

HURLEY, MICHAEL Blueberry Wine (Locust) cd 14.98
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IF, BWANA Clara Nostra (Pogus) cd 15.98
The original recording of "Clara Nostra" (initially called "Clarinots") was additive piece for a singular clarinet which was bounced back and fourth between multi-tracked recording units resulting in the sound of 106,476 clarinets being played / recorded at the same time(!?!). For "Clara Nostra," If, Bwana remixed the maximalist sound down to half speed, causing a deep resonant rumble. A solid piece of dronology from an outfit that we think usually sucks. Anyway, that's a lot of clarinets for sixteen bucks!

ISLAJA / TV-RESISTORI Split 7" (Fonal) 7" 6.50
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Two new songs by two of favorite Finnish artists. They couldn't be more different, but this reminds us of why we love and have such a soft spot for split 7"s. Groups that sound nothing alike but share geography or friendship with each other. And with the increasing price of making vinyl, split 7"s are truly a labor of love and such a sweet token, as really its quite impossible to make money from them. First be forewarned as it will become obvious that the single was labeled wrong and the side that says Islaja is TV-Resistori and vice versa. TV-Resistori give us more of their upbeat totally fun synth pop that if we didn't know better we'd think they were another great Japanese pop band. And a new song by Islaja is of course something to rejoice about. Tiding us over until whenever her next album comes out, her track is so lovely and will for sure get you standing up every few minutes to reach for the needle to hear it over again and again.

IVES, CHARLES Piano Pieces (Wergo) cd 18.98
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JACOBS, HENRY'S VORTEX Electronic Kabuki Mambo (Locust Music) cd 14.98
Well, it would be nice to see as well as hear what's documented here, but it's still pretty interesting... this Harry Partch-ish music was part of a audio-visual Planetarium show, and was originally released on LP by Folkways in 1959.

JEANRENAUD, JOAN Metamorphosis (New Albion) cd 13.98
Local treasure and sometime AQ-customer Joan Jeanrenaud spent twenty years playing cello with the Kronos Quartet, who if you don't know already produced some of the most lovely and adventurous 20th century new music, collaborating with not only established musicians and composers like Astor Piazzolla, John Cage, David Byrne and Terry Riley, but also bringing to greater light the musics of Africa, Mexico, etc. In '99 Jeanrenaud left the quartet to concentrate on her own work. Here she presents pieces by Philip Glass, Mark Grey, Hamza El Din, Karen Tanaka and Steve Mackey. It's a lovely record. Jeanrenaud's playing is vigorous and bright, active and propulsive -- never muddy, never boring, never melodramatic. The pieces are stylistically distinct -- from the Glass track's repetitive poignancy to her own "Altar Piece," a swirling maelstrom of deep bass notes, insistent and dramatic. Sounds like Joan's gonna be just fine on her own.
RealAudio clip: "Altar Piece"
RealAudio clip: "Metamorphosis Four"

JOHANSSON, JERRY Next Door Conversation (Kning Disk) cd 14.98
Sitar raga music from Sweden? Sure! On the Swedish label Kning Disk, who last brought us cds by Wolf Eyes and James Blackshaw -- so we'd expect just about anything (interesting) from them. Composer/arranger Jerry Johansson is a sitar player (who studied with sitar master Roop Verma, who was taught by Ravi Shankar). Here he presents his piece "Next Door Conversation", in two parts, 53 minutes total. His sitar is the lead instrument, and in traditional style he's accompanied by santour and tambura -- but also by a violin/violin/viola/cello string quartet from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra! Shades of Kronos, eh?
It's a dreamy, slowly unfolding, sitar n' strings soundscape, the Eastern twang of Johansson's sitar calmly contrasting with the more cinematic sweep of the string quartet, each recontextualizing the other. With sounds from the subcontinent and Swedish folk motifs both incorporated, this is a gorgeous East-West hybrid indeed, and crosses over other borders to somehow remind us of everything from Spaghetti Western soundtracks to Chinese orchestral music. Gosh, there's not much more to say other than, enjoy!
MPEG Stream: "Next Door Conversation Part I (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Next Door Conversation Part I (excerpt 2)"

JONES, JOE Solar Music (? Records) cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On the same label (part of the Hundertmark Art Gallery in Germany) that released the last Hermann Nitsch document, comes 'Solar Music' from composer Joe Jones. A gauzy and cloudy shimmering wash of keening high pitched whines, hums and whirrs, and simple and slow, calculatedly tribal percussion. At times it sounds like Pelt or Skullflower, at others an ethereal otherworldly hippie jam ala Taj Mahal Travellers. All created with quite an odd assortment of instruments: big zither, small zither, glockenspiel, mandolin, latin chimes, bongo drum, Chinese drum, 2-tamborines, and the quite intriguing sounding solar umbrellas.
RealAudio clip: "Solar Music 1"

JONES, JOE Solar Music At Sierksdorf, Ostsee (? Records) cd 22.00
This is the second cd documenting composer/inventor/sound artist Joe Jones' Solar Music released on the same label (part of the Hundertmark Art Gallery in Germany) that released the last Hermann Nitsch document. This disc is live and was recorded in the early morning of Sunday April 1st, 1984. The instrumentation on this recording is large zitar, 2 tamb, and tamba drum. The interesting thing is that Jones has built 'solar umbrellas' that use solar energy to mechanically play the instruments. I think I described Jones' 'solar music' best in list #115:
"A gauzy and cloudy shimmering wash of keening high pitched whines, hums and whirrs, and simple and slow, calculatedly tribal percussion. At times it sounds like Pelt or Skullflower, at others an ethereal otherworldly hippie jam ala Taj Mahal Travellers."
Totally essential for drone fanatics!
RealAudio clip: "Solar Music At Sierksdorf, Ostsee"

JOSEL, SETH Go Guitars (oo Discs) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Six maximalist guitar pieces played by Seth Josel, who performs compositions by James Tenney, Lois V. Vierk, Phill Niblock, John Cage, and himself. Vierk's composition for five guitars is sheer chiming hypnosis much like the symphonies of Glenn Branca. The one by Niblock is a lengthy white hot drone spanning 30 minutes. Josel's own pieces are incendiary jams a la Caspar Brotzmann.
RealAudio clip: "Guitar Too, For Four (performed by Phil Niblock)"

KAGEL, MAURICIO Pan String Quartets I, II, III (WDR) cd 14.98

KAGEL, MAURICIO Playback Play (WDR) cd 16.98

KELLEY, MIKE Silver Ball (Light And Color, Mostly) (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Number seven in Table Of The Elements Lanthanides series comes way out of left field. Mike Kelley has been rocking the art world for a while now with his irreverent pop art, often featuring stuffed animals and toys, but those of you less art inclined might know him from his cover/art for Sonic Youth's Dirty album (there's even a picture of a young, greasy haired, pimple faced Kelley on the inside sleeve). But some of you may remember that Kelley was a member of seventies audio terrorists Destroy All Monsters. While that band trafficked mostly in noise rock and audience confrontation, Kelley's contribution to this series is much more 'academic'. And to be honest, its appeal depends heavily on how you feel about spoken word. A thick miasma of hiss and static swirl ominously in the background, while Kelley emotionlessy spews a litany of 'Oh God...' and 'Wow....Wow....' and 'Rolling cigar shapes....' Kinda silly, would have been a whole lot better instrumental as the background is dense and intense. But cool nonetheless. And obviously you gotta buy em all!

KNIZAK, MILAN Broken Music (Ampersand) cd 14.98
The Czech artist Milan Knizak began his art career without much success, getting himself thrown out of Pedagogic Uni Prague, Preliminary Art School Prague, and Art Academy Prague in quick succession. But during the mid '60s, Knizak affiliated himself with Fluxus and began experimenting with turntables, tape recorders, and the surfaces of vinyl in order to make a 'broken music,' predating the damaged turntable 'n' vinyl experiments of Christian Marclay by almost two decades! Originally he would just slow down and speed up his records to change to quality of the intrinsic music. But by 1965, he started to scratch the records, punch holes in them, sticking tape to the surfaces, dumping paint over whole record, burning them, literally cutting the records apart and gluing them back together. These would then be played on his turntable, and inevitably destroy the needle and often wreck the turntable itself! The collages that Knizak arrived at are nerve-wracking clattering works in which snippets of the original would emerge amidst erratic skips and asynchronous warbling. Certainly for those adventurous fans of Philip Jeck, "Metal Machine Music," and Marclay.
RealAudio clip: "Composition N. 1"
RealAudio clip: "Composition N. 3"

KOENIG, GOTTFRIED MICHAEL s/t (Editions.RZ) 2cd 33.00
Gottfried Michael Koenig is a German-born composer who had spent a decade in the '50s and '60s working for the West German Radio (WDR) assisting the likes of Stockhausen and Ligetti. During this time, he became one of the pioneers of mid-century composition, showing the most panache for electronic composition, all the while maintaining a purist ethos for serialism and modernity as a whole. From the mid '60s until 1986, Koenig had also served as the director for the Institute of Sonology in The Netherlands. This 2cd compendium is an excellent overview of Koenig's work. Even if his compositions for piano and string quartets are slightly tedious, just skip those in favor of the electronic work, especially when Koenig pushes close to Xenakis territory on Terminus X (1967) with its growling electric tones and extended ruminations on static. Suite (1961) is a much more subtle piece with its minimal gestures of gurgling tone patterns coated in a plastic perfection.
MPEG Stream: "Suite"
MPEG Stream: "Terminus X "

KOSUGI, TAKEHISA Catch Wave (Showboat / Sky Station) cd 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Man, do we at ever AQ love that Japanese '70s group the Taj Mahal Travellers! Masters of organic drone, utilising bowed cymbals, violins, loudspeakers, tape loops and all sorts of unique source material. And we've been blessed of late with the reissue of lots of fairly difficult to find TMT stuff. This disc is Taj Mahal main man Takehisa Kosugi (an influential member of the Fluxus movement) on solo violin, and unlike the truly organic natural sound of most of the Taj Mahal Travellers music, this piece is heavily processed, with all manner of effects, turning his violin into a buzzing squealing beast, sounding like some sort of otherworldly sitar. Gorgeous Eastern melodies drift in and out while tonal ripples spread out and slowly dissipate. Wild runs peter off into swooshing ambience, and sparse squeaks and warm tones tumble into each other creating all sorts of harmolodics. Definitely reminiscent of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Conrad Schnitzler and the like, but imbued with Kosugi's unique sense of melody and space. Totally essential.
RealAudio clip: "Mano-Dharma '74"

KRIEGER, ULRICH Early American Minimalism, Walls of Sound II (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98

KRONOS QUARTET Caravan (Nonesuch) cd 16.98
The Kronos Quartet maps the world of sad nomadic musics from Yugoslavia, Portugal, India, Mexico, Romania, Iran, Lebanon, Argentina, and the semi-real land where Terry Riley is from (you know... California). Pleasant background music for white people who like to get drunk on sangria, then lie about how intoxicated they are, all the while dancing like a rhythmless idiot and talking on a cell phone to some poor sap who can't get them off the phone.

KRONOS QUARTET Mugam Sayagi: Music Of Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (Nonesuch) cd 16.98
In this latest outing for the Kronos Quartet, the fab four team up with Azerbaijani composer / pianist Franghiz Ali-Zedeh. Like her home country, which lies on the crossroads of Europe and the East, Ali-Zedeh's music is an amalgam of European chamber music and the traditional folk music of her country and the multitude of cultural influences that criss cross paths there. This collection includes three pieces commissioned for the Kronos Quartet between 1993 and 2001 and one solo piece for piano performed by Ali-Zedeh.
MPEG Stream: "Apsheron Quintet"
MPEG Stream: "Mugam Sayagi"

KRONOS QUARTET Nuevo (Nonesuch) cd 16.98
With tracks recorded in various Mexican locations and at Skywalker Ranch up in Marin County, the Kronos Quartet have released another revelatory album of new music that takes its inspiration not from dusty ole classical shite (the territory of most string quartets), but the reality of the world around us, right here right now. And the peripatetic Kronos are no strangers to world travel, this time touching down in Mexico. An amazingly broad spectrum of Mexican music is lovingly performed / collaborated on / reinterpreted by Kronos (although why they imported an Argentinian producer is a headscratcher): There's a cover of a tune by the recently-deceased king of space age bachelor pad music Esquivel. There's a STUNNING version of the classic "Perfidia", with Kronos sounding like a '50s movie orchestra playing hugely and sentimentally in the background while a one-armed street musician named Carlos Garcia plays the MUSICAL LEAF. That's right. It's an ivy leaf. And it's so sweet and cute it might make you cry. There's also a version of "Tabu" (Taboo) where Kronos is accompanied by clickety clackety wood percussion. A medley of music from three popular Mexican tv shows! A piece where they've retuned their strings to correspond with the scale of the accompanying "plasmaht" (an instrument whose strings resonate in response to electromagnetic waves from the surrounding environment), and then play them zither-like with pencils! A collaboration with the hugely popular Mexican rock group Cafe Tacuba! And even (gasp) a dance mix... joyously delivered by Plankton Man of the Nortec Collective... and my god there's still more.
Whew, it's a lot to handle isn't it? But the brilliance of Kronos is that somehow they manage to hold the thing together so well. It's a combination of respect for the musicians / cultures they borrow from and collaborate with, plus the sound of a string quartet that has always expanded the boundaries of what a modern string quartet can do, and mean.
I *strongly* recommend you go to http://www.nonesuch.com to read the very detailed stories behind each track, because they're unfortunately not included in the liner notes..
RealAudio clip: "El Sinaloense"
RealAudio clip: "Perfidia"
RealAudio clip: "El Llorar"
RealAudio clip: "El Sinaloense (Dance Mix)"

KRONOS QUARTET Released 1985-1995 (Nonesuch/Warner Bros) 2cd 15.98
Double cd with previously-released selections from Henryck Gorecki (that's pronounced ~goretsky~, folks) to Arvo Part to Astor Piazzolla to Tigran Tahmizyan. Disc #2 features 4 songs never released before: pieces by Jimi Hendrix, Scott Johnson, Michael Daugherty, and Raymond Scott.

KRONOS QUARTET AND ASHA BHOSLE You've Stolen My Heart: Songs From R.D. Burman's Bollywood (Nonesuch) cd 21.00
We've already sold a ton of these. It's not hard to see why. Everybody loves Bollywood film music, and Asha Bhosle is the queen of Indian cinema singers. And the always-adventurous chamber group the Kronos Quartet are pretty cool as well, aren't they? So the idea of Kronos teaming up with Bhosle to record a bunch of the best film songs written by famous Bollywood composer Rahul Dev Burman (1939-1994) is a fine one, and it's worked out marvelously on this disc. Rather than the hyperkinetic, energetic style of music that accompanies the big production dance numbers so often characteristic of Bollywood film, these tracks are of a more languid, moody variety, full of tender sentiment and romantic yearning. Perfect for the sad yet uplifting strings of Kronos (with help on tabla and other percussion from guest Zakir Hussain, and also Wu Man on pipa). And of course perfect for the lovely voice of Bhosle, who sang so many of these songs originally. We said "moody" but these moods do range widely, from sad to seductive to joyous.
This package (which comes ensconced in a nice metallic cardstock slipcase) includes a thick booklet full of detailed notes and photos. You get lyrics and even a synopsis of each of the films in which these songs first appeared, generally back in the early '70s. All in all, gorgeous tribute to Burman and his classic Bollywood ballads, and mostly likely a worthy introduction to them for many.
MPEG Stream: "Dum Maro Dum (Take Another Toke)"
MPEG Stream: "Mehbooba Mehbooba (Beloved, O Beloved)"
MPEG Stream: "Nodir Pare Utthchhe Dhnoa (Smoke Rises Across The River)"

KUBISCH / PLESSI Tempo Liquido (Ampersand) cd 14.98
Continuing to dig into the vaults of 'new music' composers, Ampersand offers another reissue from the collaborative team of Christina Kubisch and Fabrizio Plessi. Just as their previous outing "Two and Two" centered conceptually around the primal elements of earth, air, water, and fire, "Tempo Liquido" was a multimedia performance based upon primal archetypes, here the connection between time and water. During the original performances in the late '70s, Kubisch and Plessi bathed themselves in film loop projections of cascading waterfalls and time pieces, while they played elliptical patterns of interlocking percussion on steeldrums and carillon as well as scraping across an amplified piece of glass with a steel thimble. They complemented these repetitive elements with a backing tape of endless repetitions of simple computerized bleeping and sustained organ chords. Kubisch admits having "always been fascinated by the idea of musical compositions without a precise beginning or ending, pieces that could go on forever and ever, where you could enter and leave at your own pace. Tempo Liquido is a piece about the concept of time. Time reveals itself in the theme of water and in the form of the circle as a symbol for continuity and timelessness." A nice archival document.
RealAudio clip: "Tempo Liquido 1"

KUBISCH, CHRISTINA Vier Stucke (Four Pieces) (Edition RZ) cd 15.98
This CD is the same disc that accompanied the recent monograph that Edition RZ published about the lifework of German electro-acoustic composer Christina Kubisch. With the exception of the first piece which dates back to 1988, "Vier Stucke" documents Kubish's more recent work from 1998-1999. "Vocrolls" is one of Kubisch's earliest experiments with computer music, as she has multi-tracked and vocoded various recordings of a marble spinning around a Tibetan bowl. "Mouseware" is one of Kubisch's less successful ventures and certainly doesn't translate from the original installation which featured ten computer mice displayed quiet elegantly with ten mice preserved in formaldehyde. The sounds that supported this installation formed a loose collage of the computer mice clicking and the rustling of live mice. A bit too obvious, eh? Her "Altgerauscharchiv" is far more successful, as a medly of bell tones from the whimsical chimes of bicycle bells to the haunting resonance of funereal bells. In defense of this piece, she makes an overexaggerated claim that the language of the bell is lost forever... well the music itself is quite interesting. "Nostalgico" rounds out the album as her interpretation of Pierre Henry's infamous "Variations For a Door and a Sigh."
RealAudio clip: "Altgerauscharchiv"

KUBISCH, CHRISTINA & FABRIZIO PLESSI Two & Two (Multhipla / Cramps) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Two & Two" is the collaborative effort between German sound artist Christina Kubisch and Italian experimentalist Fabrizio Plessi. Basing their four pieces on the four prime elements - earth, fire, air, and water - Kubisch and Plessi each played a single instrument / object with a perpetual repetitive motion. The two had amplified the objects in a specific manner, to extract more unusual characteristics than sounds usually associated with voice, metronome, steel drum, ventilators and water jet. The resulting continuous sound streams have a beautiful organic quality not far from David Jackman's stunning arsenal of bowed metal in Organum. This is the original late 70s pressing from the Cramps Records offshoot.

KUBISCH, CHRISTINA / FABRIZIO PLESSI Two and Two (Ampersand) cd 14.98
A few months back we were able to pick up a few copies of the original Cramps '70s vinyl of this album, but now the hardworking Ampersand label has reissued it on CD. Two & Two is the collaborative effort between German sound artist Christina Kubisch and Italian visual artist Fabrizio Plessi, and marks the beginning of Kubisch's amazing career that has spanned the past three decades. Basing their four pieces on the four prime elements - earth, fire, air, and water - Kubisch and Plessi each played a single instrument / object with a perpetual repetitive motion. The two had amplified the objects in a specific manner, to extract more unusual characteristics than sounds usually associated with voice, metronome, steel drum, ventilators and water jet. At times the results have a distinctly Fluxus silliness to them (especially the water whistle duet with a noxious ventilator on "Fire"), but the majority of the album maintains an eerieness within the sonic abstraction. "Air" features a duet between the aerated sound of an alto flute without its headpiece barely weezing a steady stream of air, alongside the mournful swell of an accordion. "Earth" is a glistening drone piece of mechanical vibrations from a cello, sounding much like the timeless soundsculptures of Organum. While each piece is distinctly different, the album as a whole maintains a nice cohesion of sound. Altogether, very recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Air"
RealAudio clip: "Earth"
RealAudio clip: "Fire"

KYBURZ, HANSPETER Malstrom / The Voynich Cipher Manuscript / Parts (Kairos) cd 16.98
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Another great document of 20th century (verging on 21st in this case) classical music, on the always-pretty-amazing German label Kairos. This disc features three pieces from the 1990s by Kyburz, a Lagos-born, German-educated Swiss composer who currently teaches at Berlin's Hochschule fu(umlaut)r Musik. His music is dark and dramatic, turbulent but full of beauty and secrets (it's *about* secrets in the case of "The Voynich Cipher Manuscript"). Liner notes compare Kyburz to filmmakers the Coen Brothers and David Lynch, in his use of brutality and surprise and, in a sense, comedy.
RealAudio clip: "The Voynich Cipher Manuscript pt.4"
RealAudio clip: "Parts pt. 1"

LA BARBARA, JOAN Voice Is The Original Instrument (Lovely) 2cd 26.00
Lovely has done a good thing and reissued some classic Joan La Barbara recordings from the seventies along with some rarities from the eighties to boot. When it comes to extended vocal technique, La Barbara is the queen. Not only can she boast a lengthy career as one of the top vocal performers in the avant garde and a strong resume of academic compositions, but she's even got a film credit as the voice of one of the evil baby aliens in Alien Resurrection. How many performers of her stature in academia can claim to have voiced a slimy little puppet? Not many we'd guess. The set is divided up into an "Explorations" disc and "The Music" disc, and includes her entire 1976 self-released album "Voice Is The Original Instrument". The "Explorations" half is all live, and/or real time, solo voice performances. None of them use any form of processing (digital or otherwise) of the voice and as such are not just intimate, but down right claustrophobic to listen to. Reactions here in the store (from customers and staff alike) range from extreme discomfort to uncontrolled mirth. Andee said that this was the kind of stuff he liked to do as a kid. La Barbara's vocalizations range from slow hooting glissandos like a breathing exercise gone awry to feral animal-esque growls. The second disc, while including much of the same vocal techniques as the first, contains La Barbara's studio works using multi-tracks to over lay multiple overdubbings of growls and such on tape. A definite must for fans of sound poetry.
MPEG Stream: "Circular Song"
MPEG Stream: "Twelvesong"

LAINHART, RICHARD Ten Thousand Shades Of Blue (IX) 2cd 14.98
Another winner from AQ fave Phil Niblock's always eclectic and engaging IX label. While sometimes stuff on IX tends a little too much toward the academic (and maybe this one is no different), the music on 'Ten Thousand Shades Of Blue' sounds much more organic, pure and intense and dreamy. Monochromatic dronescapes built from multi-tracked and processed bowed tam-tams, bowed Japanese temple bells, voices, bowed and struck vibraphones, and a realtime interactive computer music system. Expansive and soothing washes of humming low end. One of my best late night/sleeping/chillout records of the year.
RealAudio clip: "Bronze Cloud Disk"

LAPORTE, JEAN-FRANCOIS Soundmatters (23five) cd 14.98
Those artists, musicians, misanthropes, and just plain weirdos who not only exist musically on the fringes but have planted their entire existence on the edge have long been the greatest inspirations of Aquarius Records. For proof, you could scroll through oddball recordings that have earned the honor of Aquarius Record Of The Week. There was the Finnish sound artist Terje Isungset who crafted not just one album, but two from untreated percussive instruments entirely made of ice. Hans Edler thrilled us with his 1970s transformation from teen idol into short-circuited electronic composer. The protracted ululations of the profoundly cracked Elizabeth Clare Prophet and the Church Universal and Triumphant were as transcendent as anything that Lamonte Young had to offer, yet also had that creepy cult of personality vibe to boot. And who could forget Kathy McGinty? But one of the earliest recordings that truly made our collective jaw drop was the 3" cd from French-Canadian composer Jean-Francois Laporte called Mantra. Here was a mighty fine 20 minute composition of delicious vibrations, rattles, mechanical hum, and industrial drones that came with a particularly alluring back story: the source material to Mantra was a Zamboni -- the unusual machine only found at hockey rinks responsible for resurfacing its ice.
The one catch to Laporte's Zamboni sourced masterpiece was that we could never verify that a Zamboni was the actual source material. We heard from 'reliable sources' that Mantra is the sound of a Zamboni; and we wanted so desperately to believe that this was the case, just because the Zamboni is such an amazing and eccentric beast of industrial engineering. Before this turns into a dialectic on epistemology, we here at Aquarius discovered that we had been duped by a couple of mischievous DJs on KPFA without the knowledge or consent of Jean-Francois Laporte. It turns out that Laporte used nothing but a common air-compressor in composing Mantra. This factual unveiling should not in any way take away from the splendor of that piece. Here's what we had to say about Mantra many moons ago:
"Mantra opens with a trio of motors starting up and emitting a gentle purr. As these engines warm up and shift through various perfunctory cycles, a wide spectrum of metallic vibrations slowly spins through the stereo field. After a marvelous set of transitions between drones, there is the rattling sound as if a screw or bolt had been loosened by the vibrations, with two pieces of metal beginning a clamorous bell-ringing arrhythmia. When these motors finally are shut down, those pieces of metal still resonate for a beautifully sustained coda."
That 3" cd came out almost a decade ago, became a classic, and went out of print. Thankfully, 23five Incorporated has rescued Mantra from the dustbin by issuing the first major compendium of Laporte's work in the form of Soundmatters. While we've already sung the praises of Mantra, the remainder of Soundmatters is well worth investigating on its own. The opening track "Electro-Prana" is a pristine set of field recordings of a wind that ripped through Montreal, when the city was silenced by a winter time blackout. It's a pure, chilling sound of whistling wind overtaking the urban landscape. The next piece is the only digitally rendered composition on Soundmatters, yet Laporte brings his intuitive expressionism to a series of spiraling drones that easily rival those of your favorite minimalist (e.g. Niblock, Chalk, Hafler Trio, Xenakis, etc.). For those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing Laporte's live concerts, the third piece will certainly be familiar. He's built an instrument with a series of car horns and elongated trumpet bells attached to an air compressor with each of the valves controlled by foot pedals. This instrument can generate infinitely sustainable, blaring drones from each of the horns; and Laporte craftily layers these sounds for incredible, dynamic results. Well, for this recording, Laporte lugged this instrument into the hull of a giant cargo ship and recorded this composition using the massive reverb of that space and the results are simply jaw-dropping. Imagine the most Nordic bellow from a Wagner symphony stretched out into its melancholic, raw sound and allowed to decay in space and time. Wow!
Following this is the aforementioned Mantra; and then Soundmatters' final piece which explores a quiet, yet thoroughly rich harmonic tapestry produced by a quartet of saxophones that could be Laporte's imagined summit between Evan Parker and Morton Feldman with rasping breaths of sound breaking across a silent event horizon with the ghostly energy of subatomic particles flickering and dissolving in a cloud chamber before amassing into a delirious swarm of Tony Conrad-esque acoustic dissonance. It's all utterly magnificent and one of finest collections of 'serious' composition that we've come across.
MPEG Stream: "Electro-Prana"
MPEG Stream: "Boule qui roule..."
MPEG Stream: "Danse le ventre du dragon"
MPEG Stream: "Mantra"

LICHT, ALAN A New York Minute (XI) 2cd 14.98
The usually academic-oriented XI label ventures into the "underground" with this release from the singular New York guitarist/critic/sometime indie-rocker Alan Licht. A New York Minute sees Licht exploring two muscial approaches, with one of these two discs revolving around studio-only projects and the other documenting live work. The studio compositions are, we must confess, a mixed bag of conceptualism, opening with the title track, a tape collage of weather reports broadcast by a NYC radio station during the month of January 2001. Licht's intent was to reveal that these weather reports are mediated experiences far removed from the actuality of the weather. Perhaps too obvious an idea, and it really just sounds like you've got the radio on. But things get much better for the remainder of the disc, as Licht ventures into a more satisfyingly "musical" zone of fragmented minimalism scribed from multi-tracked guitar, organ, and bass drones.
Disc two is where Licht really shines, live with no overdubs. Here he presents a series of guitar based compositions/improvisations that suggest the maturation of indie-rock into minimalist mantras. Unlike the guitar symphonies of Rhys Chatham or Glenn Branca, Licht's pieces are incredibly intimate and quiet meditations, with repeated phrases from his chiming guitar occasionally accompanied by a dissonant fuzz or a whistful minor chord tone. These two very long pieces are pleasant recapitulations of the drone-rock godhead prowess of Thurston Moore (as per his "Psychic Hearts" avant-jangle mode, not his big muff improv freak out mode), the monochromatism of Henry Flynt, and even the spartan blues solos of Loren Mazzacane Connors, with whom Licht has collaborated on a number of occasions. These transcendent drones of jangliness more than make up for the conceptual inadequacies found on disc one. Really nice.
MPEG Stream: "A New York Minute"
MPEG Stream: "14, Second, Fifth"

LIGETI, GYORGY Continuum / Zehn Stucke Fur Blaserquintett / Articulation / Glissandi / Etuden Fur Orgel / Volumina (Wergo) cd 18.98
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LIGETI, GYORGY Kammerkonzert / Ramifications / Lux Aeterna / Atmospheres (Wergo) cd 18.98
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LINDBLAD, RUNE RL (Firework Edition Records) lp + cd 19.98
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As decreed by the dual monarchs of the Kingdoms of Elgaland / Vargaland (those being CM von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren), Swedish composer Rune Lindblad should be held in the same canonical reverie as Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, and Pierre Schaeffer. For Lindblad engaged the spirit of ardent innovation, brash risktaking, and an unwavering social agenda that could easily be found in the works of those more well known composers. Von Hausswolff -- having studied under Lindblad in the '80s -- had already released a number of Lindblad's compositions on his Radium 226.5 label (all of which have been reissued through Pogus on CD), now he, Elggren, BJ Nilsen (aka Hazard), Edvard Graham Lewis (of Wire), Kent Tankred, and a few others have put together this compilation as an homage of Lindblad's work. Sprawling across a cd and an lp, "RL" begins with two pieces from Lindblad himself - which are haunting musique concrete / electronic music compositions that also appear to involve some amplifier / microphone feedback synthesis, in the end sounding like lo-fi recordings of Morton Subotnik topped off with emotionally charged spoken word snippets. The cd portion of this package continues with various experiments that follow the sonic intent of Lindblad with Edvard Graham Lewis and BJ Nilsen offering a dark, fluid pieces of Eno ambience, Tankred and Elggren sputtering through amplified motors and shortwave dissonance, Von Hausswolff laces distant vocal samples with the ominous pulse of a ventilator.
The lp is much more loose in its interpretation of Lindblad with Brommage Dub pulling off a good Monolake / Chain Reaction piece of minimalist techno, and Jean-Louis HuhtaJ offering some leftfield electronica a la Two Lone Swordsmen or Plaid. Nice work, but doesn't really hold much insight into Lindblad's work beyond distant samples. Nevertheless, this is an excellent overview of Lindblad's work and his influence over contemporary Swedish experimental electronics.
RealAudio clip: RUNE LINDBLAD "Worship Op. 196"
RealAudio clip: EDVARD GRAHAM LEWIS "A Strong Candidate For Isolation"
RealAudio clip: C.M. VON HAUSSWOLFF "Out Of Optica 1"

LIVINGSTON, GUY Don't Panic: 60 Seconds For Piano (Wergo) cd 21.00
60 composers from 18 countries commissioned to score 60 second pieces for piano (and occasionally tape). Go! Quick!! FASTER!!!

LOCKWOOD, ANNEA Early Works 1967-82 (EM Records) cd 22.00
Hooray, Japan's EM Recordings is back with two new discs! You never know what sort of stuff they're gonna dig up for reissue, only that it's probably going to be pretty far-out and interesting. The releases we're reviewing this week both fit that general description, thought they couldn't be more different. One's an amusing and strange attempt at calypso-punk (!) from 'Wild' Billy Childish, the other, this, is an anthology of early sound-experiments from New Zealand-born avant garde composer Annea Lockwood. She studied in England and Europe during the sixties and early seventies, and since 1973 has been a professor at Vassar College in New York. Her music, as heard here, is on the conceptual side, abstract but fascinating and listenable. Her 1970 album The Glass World (previously reissued on cd in 1997 by What Next? Recordings) appears here in its entirety, plus her 19 minute droning musique concrete tape piece "Tiger Balm", originally released on a 10" record in 1970 that came with issue number 9 of SOURCE: Music of the Avant Garde magazine.
Moody and mysterious, her Glass World is a weird and wonderful place, indeed. Clinking, tinkling, scraping, shimmering, humming, droning... every sound you could imagine somehow generating with pieces of glass, and more! It originated as a performance piece she developed in 1966, of "discreet sound actions" all using glass as the prime source material which has been bowed, scraped, shattered, tapped, etc. There's 23 individual tracks, each one with a straightforward title ("Glass Rod Vibrating", "Water Gong", "Wine Glass", "Bottle Tree Showered With Fragments") more or less explaining what's going on, usually with a glass object noun and sound-producing verb. It's a veritable catalog, sort of a Smithsonian Folkways approach: The Sounds Of North American Glass Objects! Meanwhile "Tiger Balm" features a woman's orgasmic sighs, tinkling bells, and of course the purring of a big cat... it's pretty trippy!
This includes two booklets, one with vintage photos, scores, and Lockwood's own liner notes. The other documents the realization of her conceptual art piece "Piano Transplants" (i.e. "Piano Burning", "Piano Garden", etc.). As with all EM releases, this is really nicely presented (and now, EM's putting things out in non-jewel case, cardboard digi-packaging).
Oh, and EM fans, look out for this summer's "EM Under Water Series" of five surfing-related reissues from '60s/'70s Australia, all really cool stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Micro Glass Shaken"
MPEG Stream: "Glass Rod Vibrating"
MPEG Stream: "Vibrating Pane"

LOCKWOOD, ANNEA The Glass World (What Next?) cd 15.98
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"For me, every sound has its own minute form - is composed of small flashing rhythms, shifting tones, has momentum, comes, vanishes, live out its own structure." - Annea Lockwood. 'Glass World' originated a two hour performance of discreet sound actions, using glass as the prime source material which has been bowed, scraped, shattered, tapped, etc.

LUCIER, ALVIN I Am Sitting In A Room (Lovely Music) cd 15.98
This 1970 piece for tape and voice by Lucier contains 32 repititions of the same piece of text : "I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice and I am going to play it back again and again until the resonant frequencies reinforce themselves so that any semblance of speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have." Over the course of time, an almost robotic droning overtakes the hypnotic repetition of the voice. A very interesting phenomenological composition. (Not a new release, but we thought it worthy of a mention on our list.)

LUCIER, ALVIN Still Lives (Lovely Music) cd 14.98
Three new compositions from composer Alvin Lucier. Each piece, composed for a solo stringed instrument accompanied by an oscillator, focuses on the beating phenomenon that occurs when two pitches vary only slightly in frequency. In two of the compositions the pitch of the oscillator varies and the performer -- piano for both pieces -- plays notes which cause the beating to speed up and slow down -- dependent on the distance from unison of the two notes. In the other piece a solo koto player is accompanied by a fixed oscillator drone and creates the beating effects by moving the bridge slightly while playing. All three compositions, though simple, are haunting: full of uneasy shimmering as the notes interact with one another. Like an almagamation of Ryoji Ikeda and Morton Feldman.
RealAudio clip: "Music For Piano w/ Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators"
RealAudio clip: "On The Carpet Of Leaves Illuminated By The Moon"

LUCIER, ALVIN Theme (Lovely Music) cd 15.98
"Theme" contains three separate pieces from Alvin Lucier. Two lengthy drone pieces are featured, one for magnetized piano wires (resembling his epic "Music For A Long Thin Wire"), the other a beautifully meditative piece for amplification of Gamelan intruments. The third is a vocal piece in which four vocalists recite a poem by John Ashberry which in turn was recorded through a variety of natural acoustic filters (mostly bottles and hollow objects).

LUCIER, ALVIN Vespers (New World Records) cd 15.98
A new collection of early works by Sonic Arts Union co-founder Alvin Lucier. Perhaps more than any other composer Lucier has been obsessed with the physical space in which a performance is occupied. his later works "I Am Sitting In A Room" (in which the composer's speech is repeatedly recorded and played back within the same space until the resonant frequencies of the room wipe out any semblance of the original source) or "Music On A Long Thin Wire" (in which a 50' wire, driven by an oscillator, is amplified, but which is constantly changing, determined by the micro-climate of the room which is in itself affected by the presence of people.) Lucier's fascination with space is evident on some of the works presented on this disc. With "Vespers" (1969) Lucier uses sonar-dolphin echolocation devices to propel focused clicks at varying rates throughout a performance space. Along with the walls of the room, every object within becomes an interacting element with the sound. Of course, translating the effects of this onto a recording -- a mere two channels at that -- is a futile task. In an attempt to overcome this limitation the piece was recorded using the "Environ-Ears Recording System" which was apparently some sort of binaural recording system. "Chambers" (1968) presents an equally, if not more, difficult problem for recording in that the sounds presented in this piece are all "packaged" in their own unique space. The result on disc is a sound collage in which each element carries with it the effect of the box it's packaged in. With "North American Time Capsule" (1967) Lucier used a Sylvania Electronic Systems Vocoder (an early voice encryption device used by intelligence agents) to render them completely unrecognizable. "(Middletown) Memory Space" (1970) is a little different than the others on this disc, in that it is not an electronic composition but written for performers (any instrument, any number of performers.) In it the performers are instructed to bring into the performance space a snippet of sound from the city outside which they have recorded by means of tape, notation (graphic or otherwise), or memory and then to play this back on their instrument. They are further directed not to interact with the other performers, but only to follow the instructions of the conductor for when to begin and end. Though there is no indication of the performers for this rendition, it seems as though the instruments used were piano, flute, harp, double bass, percussion and accordion. The results are not entirely unlike some of Morton Feldman's works. The final piece "Elegy For Albert Anastasia" (1963) -- notorious Murder Incorporated hitman who was gunned down in a barber shop -- was created on magnetic tape and consists almost entirely of subharmonic sounds, most inaudible to the human ear. Includes liner notes by fellow Sonic Arts Union co-founder Robert Ashley.
RealAudio clip: "Vespers"
RealAudio clip: "Elegy For Albert Anastasia"