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ROBOT 048CD
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Michael Ranta has collaborated with Takehisa Kosugi, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Jean-Claude Eloy, Conny Plank, Mike Lewis, and Hartmut Geerken, just to name a few. He was also assistant to Harry Partch and performer in the Gate 5 Ensemble in the 1960s. Additionally, Ranta performed in Stockhausen's ensemble during the 1970 World Expo in Osaka. Ranta's resume also includes recordings by Helmut Lachenmann, Herbert Brün, Toru Takemitsu, Josef Anton Riedl, Mauricio Kagel, among others. Throughout his extensive recordings and live performances, Ranta has furthered the trajectories of contemporary percussion composition alongside works for tape and electronics. His works are fully immersive which evoke vast spaces, ritual, and create an expansive presence for his accompanying multimedia commissions. For this CD release, two of Ranta's longform pieces are included: "The Great Wall" and "Chanta Khat". Originally scored for the HT Chen Dance Company as a theater production, "The Great Wall" premiered in 1984 at the La MaMa experimental theater in New York. This highly detailed composition for electronics, voice, percussion, and tape offers a massive drone-based accompaniment for Chen's stage presentation of the legend of Meng Jiangnu. Yet, Ranta's composition also creates a fully formed soundtrack that stands beautifully on its own. The atmosphere is very much in the spirit of Kosugi's multimedia masterwork Catch Wave and Jean Clade Eloy's large-scale production Yo-In which also features Ranta. "Chanta Khat" was completed in 1973. An early version of this piece originally premiered as part of a multimedia installation at the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. This powerful work for tape and electronics includes Ranta's field recordings documenting his travel in Laos during a lunar eclipse earlier that same year. The piece is a haunting and equally frantic work where the local villagers are heard responding quite emotionally and viscerally to the celestial event of the day. "Chanta Khat" was later reworked and remixed in 1973 at the NHK electronic music studio in Tokyo. This version is featured here in its entirety. Packaged in a six-panel digipak with fully remastered and restored audio. Includes detailed notes by Michael Ranta and features new artwork by Timo van Luijk.
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ROBOT 049LP
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Following the short-lived Truth Club with Trefor Goronwy (who later went on to work with This Heat and The Camberwell Now), Fote was formed in 1981 with the trio of Robert Haigh, Deborah Harding, and Trevor Reidy. Releasing two 12" EPs along with one track featured on a split 7" with Truth Club, Fote's entire studio recordings consisted of just eight tracks. With angular constructs of post-punk, free-form improvisations, and wicked time signatures, these tracks shredded boundaries one can still hear to this day. These early foundations are also heard in much of Haigh's later Sema compositions as well as Reidy's motorik percussion with Nurse with Wound, Danielle Dax, and The Monochrome Set. Curiously, Harding's vocal tensions and outright unhinged polarities in Fote sound like much of the exorcisms and brilliant psychodramas on many of Chrystal Belle Scrodd's (Diana Rogerson) later solo albums. An absolutely essential document from the early '80s independent British post-punk scene. Cut at 45 rpm for maximum fidelity, including all eight tracks, and featuring the original sleeve artwork by Deborah Harding.
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ROBOT 050LP
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Consisting of two side-long pieces, Perception & Association was composed over a period from 2012-2018. Opening side A is "Time and Again", a startling work for tape and electronics which pulses over waves of interlocking spatial relationships. These elements are at once distant, even static, yet Christoph Heemann gradually propels the listener along chapters of an unexpected and further revealing sonic narrative. While the deliberate frames and events offer a specific path, even the most active listener will gain new insights with repeated spins. Side B, "The Trains", suggests not merely a travelogue, but a series of meticulously constructed episodes that reference the record's opposite side as well as the album title as a whole. In the spirit of early electroacoustic works by Jacques Lejeune, Eliane Radigue, and Jaap Vink, these new pieces continue to emphasize Heemann's ongoing filmic obsessions and firmly engage the listener with his latest cinéma pour l'oreille (cinema for the ear). Widescreen. Front cover artwork by Ruth-Marie Adam; back cover painting by Fritz Martin.
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2CD
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ROBOT 045CD
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Jean Schwarz joined the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in 1969. In the same year, he also worked as an engineer and researcher at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique in the ethnomusicology department of the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. He founded Celia Records in 1980 releasing a vast catalog of his own works as well as collaborations. Schwarz favors electronic sounds - the raw material from which he creates large architectural forms and vigorous sonic structures and takes inspiration from non-European and indigenous musical forms. Involving live instruments, he often combines a prerecorded tape with brilliant improvisations by jazz musicians. His compositions include works for concert performance (some purely acousmatic, others employing live instruments), for cinema (music for Jean-Luc Godard, Serge Moati, Michel Deville, Michel Léviant and Alain Resnais amongst others), dance (for the choreographers Carolyn Carlson, Dominique and Françoise Dupuy and Serge Campardon) and equestrian theatre for the French horse trainer Bartabas. This 2CD collection contains selections from six compositions focusing on Schwarz's theatre and multimedia work. "Year of the Horse" (1978), "Still Waters" (1986) and "Undici Onde" (1978) contain pieces for choreographer and dancer Carolyn Carlson. With performances premiering at l'Opera de Paris, Teatre de Ville (Paris), and La Fenice in Venice, these scores give an in-depth insight into Schwarz and Carlson's collaborative process. Some scenes incorporate rhythmic or cyclical elements, field recordings, electronics, and others detail purely acoustic resonance. Each musical section relates closely with Carlson's expansive visual poetry. "L'Enfance De Vladimir Kobalt" (1979) was written for set designer and playwright Petrika Ionecso and "Maison Rouge" (1980) for director Pierre Sala. Both works evoke a wonderfully filmic structure, while integrating key themes across each scenic palette. The earliest work in the set is "Fotoband" (1974), a 21-minute composition to specifically accompany a 76-meter visual installation piece by German artist Ekkehart Raumstrausch. During the exhibition, loudspeakers were placed every 15 yards to allow the music to be heard while moving horizontally along the painting. All compositions were originally issued as small edition LP's on Schwarz's own Celia Records, except "Undici Onde" and "Fotoband" which are previously unpublished and available here for the first time. Presented with fully remastered audio. Includes a 12-page booklet of photos, visuals and detailed notes by the composer. Year of the Horse and other electroacoustic works 1974-1986 collects nearly two-and-a-half hours of highly evocative surroundings from this early visionary of electroacoustic composition.
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ROBOT 041CD
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2012 reissue. A long-overdue CD edition of Timo van Luijk's first full-length album, originally released in 2002 as a small private edition LP on La Scie Dorée (Belgium). Murrille features a collection of extraordinary "songs" integrating a palette of acoustic instruments such as glass harmonium, flute, and hand percussion, as well as voice, with real-time synthesis. With a host of bizarre inflections and aural investigations, van Luijk's music recalls some of the great experimentation of early krautrock, the otherworldly atmospheres of the Futura label, and a pure love of the moments when it all just falls into place. This remastered edition sounds fantastic and includes an additional track not included on the original LP release. Mixed by Christoph Heemann. Packaged in Japanese-style tip-on mini-jacket that carefully reproduces the original album artwork.
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ROBOT 036CD
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2008 remastered CD edition of the 2006 second album by In Camera (a collaborative project by Christoph Heemann and Timo van Luijk). Open Air features very dynamic live material recorded outdoors, under the moon, in March 2004. Live improvisation integrating a stream of acoustic elements with continuous modulation. Packaged in a full-color digipak.
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ROBOT 035CD
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2006 release. The first album in a mid-2000s trilogy, followed by Amen (2006) and Omega (2007), Sanctus represents the new architecture of the Organum sound. Recorded utilizing an implicit graphic score, the album comprises four discrete parts, each a variant of the others. These are not parts as in a movement or continuation of the composition, but rather four distinct audio canvases that represent a continuum of the elements at large. Composing in the spirit of the early Organum material, David Jackman has resurrected the drone-based, percussive turbulence of earlier years with a distinct new form of compositional systems. These new systems are scored for grand piano, Hammond organ, tower bell, and gong. While each element retains its distinct acoustic quality, the whole of each piece resonates with the art of its totality. The results convey an ecstatic sense of presence, vast expanse, and, ultimately, infinitude.
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ROBOT 017CD
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1998 release. The first of two CD anthologies of the Organum/David Jackman back catalog, preceding Volume Two (ROBOT 018CD). The series is not exclusively limited to reissuing early vinyl releases in their entirety, but is rather a "collection" series that also includes alternate mixes as well as previously unreleased material. Remastered for truly maximum fidelity. Volume One includes material culled from the Tower of Silence and In Extremis 12"s (both originally released on L.A.Y.L.A.H. Antirecords in 1985). These pieces easily represent the raw beauty and intensity of the early Organum sound. Also included is Rasa (originally featured on the United Dairies split LP with Nurse with Wound, 1986), which offers a bizarre combination of female voice and dense droning space. This piece has been regarded as the most unusual of all of Jackman's output to date.
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ROBOT 018CD
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2000 release. The second of two CD anthologies of the Organum/David Jackman back catalog, following Volume One (ROBOT 017CD). The series is not exclusively limited to reissuing early vinyl releases in their entirety, but is rather a "collection" series that also includes alternate mixes as well as previously unreleased material. Meticulously mastered for truly maximum fidelity, Volume Two includes material primarily culled from the In Extremis and Horii sessions (12" titles originally released on L.A.Y.L.A.H. Antirecords, in 1985 and '86 respectively). Track one, "Valley of Worms," includes the complete B-side (album version) of In Extremis, which features Jackman's collaborative work with The New Blockaders. This 20-minute piece is a massive eruption of relentless, burrowing atmospheres that are as often disturbing as they are engaging. Track two, "Horii," is an alternate version (differing from the 12" release) that features Jackman's collaboration with Andrew Chalk. At over 12 minutes, this piece offers a very bizarre mélange of sputtering bowed percussion, homemade woodwinds, and voice. Track three, "Ich Reiste Weit Und Verweilte Fur Einigezeit In Tring," is a previously unreleased work from 1989 that captures many of the (purely acoustic) compositional elements associated with the early L.A.Y.L.A.H. sessions. As with Volume One, these early dynamic compositions easily represent the raw beauty and intensity of the early Organum sound.
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7"
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ROBOT 033EP
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2005 release. Split single of compositions by Organum and David Jackman. "Penguins Eat Fish" features a metamorphosis of the Organum sound, integrating more punctuated, real-time acoustic elements with a diverse cacophony of "chordal" loops of fog horn and bugle band. The penguins march to the horizon. "Little Dark Wing" is the first piece to appear from a series of mid-2000s piano works by Jackman. Here Jackman's extensive graphic and visual background reveals a new palette of chordal systems.
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2CD
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ROBOT 020CD
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2010 expanded reissue of the 1999 compilation Lebenserinnerungen Eines Lepidopterologen ("Memoirs of a Lepidopterist"), collecting the collaborative and early solo works of Andreas Martin and Christoph Heemann as an extensive two-CD retrospective. Moving between minimalist guitar compositions, tape-music narratives, and an array of cascading electronics, each of Martin and Heemann's solo recordings blends seamlessly within the milieu of their collaborative work. While one can hear how this forged the groundwork for much of the late-period H.N.A.S. material, the work here took the vision further, and helped shape a path toward their respective solo endeavors. Included are compositions from their first solo releases, Martin's Doppelpunkt Vor Ort (1993) and Heemann's Über den Umgang mit Umgebung und Andere Versuche (1991), each originally released in a limited 10" edition. Also featured is a prime selection of previously unreleased material, obscure 7" tracks, and their collaborative opus from the H.N.A.S. Ach, Dieser Bart! LP (1988). This deluxe set includes two additional tracks not included on the 1999 edition and features fully restored visuals. Packaged in a beautiful mini-LP gatefold jacket with an updated four-page booklet. Over 100 minutes of music covering the years 1987-2000. Remastered sound.
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ROBOT 040CD
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2012 reissue. This edition features an additional 13 minutes of music not included on the 2010 LP and the original 2008 CD-R. The Rings of Saturn: Complete Edition encompasses a lengthy narrative of music prepared over 1997-2012. Infusing early field recordings with studio compositions, this album of cinéma pour l'oreille ("cinema for the ear") transports the listener to discrete locations that evoke rich memories and sympathetic recollections. This remastered complete edition updates one of Christoph Heemann's finest solo works. Packaged in Japanese-style tip-on mini-jacket reproducing a beautiful variation of the original album artwork.
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ROBOT 031CD
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2003 reissue. Originally released in 1982 on cassette (Aeroplane Records), Up from Zero was David Jackman's third album of compositions. Integrating tapes, loops, shortwave radio signals, guitar tones, voice, and a host of percussion elements, each piece accumulates into a complex collage of cycles that create a haunting set of "movements" and bizarre spatial relationships. These are the most sought-after of Jackman's first solo recordings. The proto-Organum sound. Also included is "Offshore" (1980). This track, recorded with the assistance of Philip Sanderson (of Storm Bugs/Snatch Tapes/Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey fame), is Jackman's earliest piece to appear on CD to date. Fluttering tones along with sustained slabs of bowed guitar create a droning crest and a fitting "outro" for these essential gems from the vault. Expertly restored from the original master tapes by Robert Hampson (of Main). Packaged in a card mini-jacket.
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3CD BOX
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ROBOT 042CD
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2013 release. This three-CD retrospective includes six compositions by French composer Jacques Lejeune (born 1940), totaling near three-and-a-half hours of music. Presented chronologically, these works for tape represent a stunning array of themes, images, and destinations covering the years 1971-1985. Throughout Lejeune's compositional development, dreams, reflections on the written fable, and mythological thinking all reappear. Originally released on LP by INA-GRM, both Parages and Symphonie au bord d'un paysage have been remastered and have never before been available on CD. Parages (1973) is a work exploring distances (or vicinities), cycles, and the transparency of the sky. A deep undercurrent of perpetual movement and altitude -- flight and fall -- is ever-present in the piece, encompassing a procession of auditory colors, places, and events. These elements multiply, uniting beyond their individual musical processes, further immersing the listener within an increasing auditory field. Symphonie au bord d'un paysage (1981) is a composition concerned with motion, panoramas, and geographical relationships -- all as if being at the edge of a vast chasm. Also included is Lejeune's masterwork, Blanche-Neige (1975). This has been regarded as one of the most peculiar and elusive recordings in the whole GRM-related canon. This early LP, also known as Fantasmes, was originally recorded for a theater/ballet production of the same name. Loosely based on the text by the Brothers Grimm, with its narrative symbolism and tale of the deep forest, Blanche-Neige is one of the finest compositions of cinéma pour l'oreille (cinema for the ear) for tape and electronics from the period. Cri (1971) is the earliest piece featured in the set, with an emphasis on the very nature of vocal expression. Integrating mixed landscapes and a spacious use of cyclical elements, this work offers a fantastic prelude to Lejeune's evolution as a composer. Additionally featured are Entre terre et ciel (1979) and Les palpitations de la forêt (1985). These two works are concerned with the natural world, labyrinths, clusters, and intermingled morphologies of the Earth. This box set includes a 28-page bilingual booklet (in English and French) with detailed program notes, as well as a 32-page booklet of interpretive stanzas surrounding these bizarre and evocative works. Meticulously translated and collected for the first time in print, these writings offer a rare insight into Lejeune's creative process. Parages and Other Electroacoustic Works 1971-1985 is an essential overview of one of the seminal figures in musique concrète.
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ROBOT 034CD
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2006 reissue. 1977 progressive avant-folk masterpiece from minimalist composer Kay Hoffman. Includes collaborative performances from Jacqueline Darby and Gaio Chiocchio, members of the legendary Italian progressive group Pierrot Lunaire. Originally slated for release on RCA/IT (Italy) in '78, the album was later rejected due to recording deadlines, release schedules, and requests by RCA for other artistic/musical considerations. However, many years later, Floret Silva did end up surfacing on a very different shore. Copies of the masters found their way to the highly eclectic Japanese label Belle Antique, whose musical director had heard rumors about the early project in the mid-1980s. As a result, Floret Silva was finally released eight years after the completed sessions in 1985 in a limited but very well-received LP edition. Apparently, not many copies of the record were exported outside Japan. This merely created even more mystery surrounding the recordings as well as rumors associated with a Pierrot Lunaire-related project. The recordings were based on Carmina Burana, a collection of medieval poetry written by various authors of which little is known. Floret Silva was an attempt to find a voice for these anonymous authors in the late 1970s in Florence. Available for the first time on CD with remastered sound, including a 12-page booklet with full lyrics and English translations. A lost (but now reclaimed) gem from the Italian progressive underground.
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ROBOT 037CD
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2007 release. Since performing in the late 1960s and through the early '80s as half of the German duo Anima (with Paul Fuchs), Limpe Fuchs continues to explore music-making as a part of everyday life. Her vibrant live performances are numerous and consist of solo as well as ongoing collaborative works. On Vogel Musik (or "Bird-music"), Fuchs is heard performing a series of duos with multi-instrumentalist Christoph Reiserer (saxes/clarinet) (recorded in 2002). The duo then extends to a trio with Julia Schoelzel (on piano) for a piece recorded at Musikfest, Munich, in 2004. The themes that developed from these recordings revealed a beautiful and bizarre series of compositions that are collected on CD here for the first time. With an array of movements and audio dialogue among the performers, the bird-related themes have an equally visual quality that correlates perfectly with such titles as "Zwiegespräch" ("Dialogue") and "Fliegen" ("Flying"). Using her voice and violin, along with a vast assortment of custom and homemade percussion instruments, Fuchs emits a remarkable sense of space and otherworldly atmosphere that one may liken to acts in musical theater. Vogel Musik takes flight with a fresh set of utterly unique pieces from a true musical visionary. Packaged in a full-color digipak with illustrations by Christoph Heemann.
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ROBOT 039CD
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2008 release. Two historic compositions by the late, great Luc Ferrari on CD for the first time. The program opens with Archives Génétiquement Modifiées ("Genetically Modified Archives"), a work for "memorized sounds" from 2000. This composition (subtitled "Exploitation des Concepts No. 3") was the third in a series of later pieces in which Ferrari revisited aspects of his early concepts and compositional strategies to create wholly new works. The result here is a very bizarre, sensual, and beautifully paced electroacoustic work of aural memories and (re)collections created sounds from Ferrari's vast archive of musical activities. After a short intermission, the program continues with a true highlight of Ferrari's early instrumental work titled Société II from 1967. Subtitled "Et Si Le Piano Était Un Corps De Femme" ("And If The Piano Were the Body of a Woman") (for four soloists and 16 instruments), this composition appeared opposite Presque Rien on the legendary 1970 Deutsche Grammophon LP. Société II may be viewed as an erotically charged piece of musical theater in which the soloists compete for the attention of a woman (the piano). This concerto, with its gestures and a fantastic kaleidoscope of styles and color, shows the extravagant qualities of the piano in its "harmony, imagination, and brutality." Packaged in a full-color digipak with a 20-page bilingual (French/English) booklet featuring Ferrari's early artwork, notations, and program notes, along with an extensive commentary by Jim O'Rourke and Jay Sanders. Remastered sound with audio restoration by fellow INA-GRM alumnus Jean Schwarz. A wonderful glimpse into the world of one of the most legendary, unique, and inspiring musical figures of the 20th century.
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ELICA 4290DVD
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2008 release. The first DVD release on Elica is a beautiful 50-minute portrait of composer Luc Ferrari made by his friend Jacqueline Caux with Olivier Pascal, which is at the same time fully informative and acutely representative of Ferrari's spirit. Features Elise Caron and Luc Ferrari going through archive documentation, intriguing dialogues, invented autobiographies, music performances, evocative installations, sidewalk accidents, encounters with sound artist Christof Schläger and musician eRikm, and more. Documenting the work of one of the most groundbreaking and seductive composers of the 20th century, this film also shows Luc Ferrari's "extremely libertarian personality: his spontaneity, his inclination towards hedonism and sensuality, his curious and open character, his rejection of all kind of power and of all stable position within institutions, his pronounced taste for jeux, his sense of self-derision and his ferocious refusal of all dogmatism." Jacqueline Caux is a writer, film-maker, and organizer of live events. She is the author of the essential Luc Ferrari interview book Almost Nothing with Luc Ferrari (2002), as well as books on Anna Halprin and Louise Bourgeois and several experimental films and remarkable documentaries, including the highly acclaimed Cycles of the Mental Machine (2006) on Detroit techno, Tales from the Torn Symphony (2010) on the performance of Ferrari's Symphonie dechirée, and Man from Tomorrow (2014) on Jeff Mills. Olivier Pascal has collaborated with, among others, director Claude Duty. Original French version with English subtitles; NTSC region-free DVD in large format digipak cover with notes in French and English by Jacqueline Caux.
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ROBOT 038CD
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2009 reissue. Originally released by Tursa (UK) in 1992, Revenge of the Selfish Shellfish was the first full-length collaboration between Steven Stapleton and Tony Wakeford. Consisting of an eerie yet beautiful combination of songs and surreal locales, Shellfish remains a unique landmark with qualities not easily found in either the Nurse with Wound or Sol Invictus discographies. With a strong sense of narrative, as in Wakeford's vocals on "Lucifer Before Sunrise" and the perpetual tape-music panorama of Stapleton's "The Frightened City," the listener is transported to ominous and quite unexpected destinations. Accordingly, these compositions often blur the line between distant dreams and foreboding reality. This deluxe edition includes fully restored original artwork by Babs Santini, plus new visual flourishes and remastered audio by Matt Waldron. Also included is a bonus disc with previously unreleased mixes by Steven Stapleton from the original Shellfish sessions, along with mixes by Tony Wakeford, irr. app. (ext.), Andrew Liles, and Brian Conniffe. All packaged in a sturdy mini-LP gatefold jacket with six-panel full-color booklet.
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ROBOT 032CD
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2004 release. Eclipse is the long-anticipated second CD by the Aeolian String Ensemble, following the Lassithi/Elysium disc from 1998 (ROBOT 016CD). Collecting material recorded in 1981, '86, and '99, the disc opens with "Espacios," dedicated to the art and architecture of César Manrique. Wind patterns emerge, interspersed among distant, radiant tonalities. Zephyrs sustain waves of resonance emanating from the Aeolian harp, transporting the sound of the strings while revealing the surface of the harmonic textures. The second composition, titled "K1" (1981), first appeared on the 1986 Journey to the End of Night cassette compilation with a radically different title. "K1" was renamed and remastered for this release to deliver its originally intended listening experience. This early work consists of three movements for Aeolian harp, harmonic extractions, and voice. Each movement consolidates elements from the previous, creating gateways toward new and even more expansive realms. Concluding the album is "Eclipse," which was recorded live in the open air near Bosham Quay, England on the occasion of the 1999 solar eclipse. Performed inconspicuously among the bystanders observing the eclipse, the resulting sounds could most certainly be heard; however, the performers remained eclipsed by the moon. A fresh set of shifting, hazy, and spacious compositions for your total aural immersion. Cover art by Christoph Heemann.
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ROBOT 016CD
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1998 release. The first full-length release by the UK-based Aeolian String Ensemble. Although originally set to be issued on the legendary United Dairies label, this material was remastered and released in the US on Robot Records with an extra track. The work was produced by David Kenny, a long-time collaborator and engineer on many Nurse with Wound and Current 93 projects. Consisting of two evolving compositions, Lassithi (1992) and Elysium (a specially commissioned 1996 work), this CD offers a more linear and fluid overview of this fascinating material than that of excerpted or early compilation appearances. Inspired by the tonal phenomenon associated with the Aeolian harp (a box-shaped instrument with numerous strings tuned in unison on which the wind produces varying harmonic excitation over the same fundamental tone), The Aeolian String Ensemble's post production (harmonic extraction) on sounds generated by the strings of various materials, recorded at sympathetic locations, creates a hazy, shifting, and spacious atmosphere for your total aural immersion. Also features mind-bending cover illustrations by Christoph Heemann.
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ROBOT 043LP
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Limited restock. This LP of early compositions by Jacques Lejeune features three seminal works: D'une Multitude En Fête and Petite Suite, originally released in the Perspective Musicales series in 1970, and a previously unpublished composition, Géodes, from the same period. These three pieces (not included in Robot's 2013 Parages and Other Electroacoustic Works 1971-1985 three-CD set (ROBOT 042CD)) are some of Lejeune's earliest music for tape and may be considered a "prequel" to his later, more thematic works. Still, his concise musical narrative is ever-present in these first recordings. The side-long D'une Multitude En Fête (1969) refers to multitude, number, celebration, and any crowd situation as a form of ceremony -- all evoking a circular gaze, as topics of the different aural events and their anecdotal development emerge, leading to the dream, as a story we tell to ourselves. Géodes (1970) features percussion improvisations by Lauréat Dionne with Lejeune's tape work inflecting prisms deep into its thundering, rhythmic core. This concert version appears on vinyl for the first time. Concluding the album is Petite Suite (1970), with each section referencing a traditional musical form using both anecdotal as well as instrumental flourishes. The original drum and guitar elements are performed here by Michel Foudrinoy and Jean-Pierre Vassout. These pieces have been compared to Pierre Henry's bold rock themes in Messe Pour Le Temps Présent and also recall the peculiar atmospheres of some of the great early Nurse with Wound records that would follow. In contrast, Lejeune's early approach was heavily steeped in sonic narratives, combining unusual and ambiguous events to create a sound world uniquely his own. Early Works 1969-1970 explores the first precision splices by one of the true visionaries of musique concrète.
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ROBOT 044LP
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Robot Records, in association with Yessmissolga and Elica Editions, presents the vinyl release of the long-fabled duo collaboration by Steven Stapleton and Christoph Heemann. This historic live performance took place on November 21, 2009, at the ancient Ivrea Synagogue in Ivrea, Italy. After working together for many years on various Current 93, Nurse with Wound, and H.N.A.S. sessions, these two old friends met for a rare moment of performance completely independent of thematic material and engaged in a near-telepathic, mysterious one-to-one improvisation, where textural worlds merge, hot, on the spot. While one may discover an intriguing intersection between each of their respective solo works, the real magic of this duo encounter evokes something strangely unfamiliar and altogether new. With this generous edit of the highly acclaimed concert, Painting with Priests exhibits a rare session of both artists' eccentric talents in a palette of colors and mystery across a highly detailed musical canvas. Front cover features new artwork by Stapleton, with back cover featuring a previously unpublished drawing by Heemann.
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