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RM 4240CD
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$17.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/8/2025
A note from Lawrence English: "Time is a strange and elusive companion. Listening to Alan Lamb's Primal Image/Beauty, the traces of time are deep, and forever deepening. Recorded in 1981 and 1983 respectively, and then revised and refined across the coming half decade, each of these pieces traces Lamb's personal history through materiality and harmony. 'Primal Image' was the first composition Alan Lamb completed. Recorded on the Faraway Wind Organ, a long stretch of abandoned telephone line located on his family's farm close by the Fitzgerald National Park in Western Australia, this piece resolved an interest in the sonification of wires which had started many decades before. Lamb recounts pressing his ears to a telephone pole as a child, encouraged by his nanny to 'hear the sound the world made.' 'Primal Image' is a work of intense dynamism, a climatic sonic environment within which a complexity of harmony, timbre and texture intermingle, inviting us to lean in. Similarly, 'Beauty' maintains this offer of harmonic complexity. Recorded across some 20 hours, the piece is a condensation of vibration, a folding of time and listenership that speaks both to Lamb's passion for his instrument and the instrument itself as a source of unbounded, and evolving sonics. Lamb's music is one of both attentiveness and patience. It is a music that comes forth from the world, but is simultaneously hidden from most of us. It is a music of the moment, but also one of recurrence as vibrations travel along the material that is the metal wires. It is also a music which, by its very nature, is eternally in the present. Alan Lamb, as a conduit to this material music invites us to share his listening in these moments. He asks us to cast our ears outward into the world and in doing so unlock an interiority of the mind which remains forever compelling and more so fascinating."
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RM 4257CD
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$17.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/1/2025
A note from Andy and Klaus: "After playing together for years, our tide was turning. What began as a happy rhythm of show dates in Berlin, from cozy trios in Klaus' home studio to ten-piece ensembles at Ausland, was now ebbing away thanks to Andy's move to the US. Whenever an accustomed pattern shifts it can take time to readjust, to find the gravity that will pull to shape an orbit again. What had been working well between us remained on both our minds for a few years after: the tension between complimentary forms and reflexes -- from deep bass to airy hiss, from swift improvised gesture to slowly developing layer -- these still animated our imaginations. But they had been honed in live playing, a situation now vanishingly rare. Then Klaus simply suggested we work toward a record, in gradual steps, no pressure, by trading recordings and responding to them in turn. This would be a conversation in concrete sound objects as opposed to the intuitive communication and reciprocal flow of on-stage collaboration. A different listening, becoming a different sounding. Again we found seemingly opposing tendencies resonating to surprising effect in the long-distance, long-term recording and exchange process. A new productive tension was added to our process: between the excitatory becoming of live playing and the carving directly in fixed blocks of sound that felt more like writing than performing. We took our time, savored the eddies and deluges, gaps and jumps of building a work together asynchronously. Around the time we were working on the last track of this collection, Andy pored over Stefan Helreich's A Book of Waves, a brilliant exploration of the ocean wave in its many forms and meanings across science and cultures, from histories to technologies to ecologies. In both the title's turn of phrase and the depths it plumbed, we felt we had found an echo of our cyclical endeavor, circumnavigating an idea, a shadow of which we can finally share in the shape of this record."
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RM 4189CD
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$17.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 7/18/2025
A note from Lawrence English: "In 2016, I invited Norman Westberg to Australia for his first solo tour. He'd been in Australia a few years before that, touring The Seer with Swans, and it was during this tour that I'd had the fortune to meet him. Since that time Norman and I have worked on a number of projects together. He very kindly played some of the central themes on my Cruel Optimism album and I had the pleasure to produced his After Vacation album (RM 481LP). [In 2024] Norman shared a multichannel live recording with me from a tour where he was supporting Swans. The recording instantly transported me back to the first time I heard Norman perform. Whilst many people know his more dynamic and tectonic playing associated with his band practice, Norman's solo work is far more fluid. Often, when I hear him live, I imagine a vast ocean moving with a shimmer, as wind and light play across its surface. Norman's concerts are expeditions into just such a place. They are porous, but connected, a kind of living organism that is him, his instrument and his effects. He finds ways to create moments of connection which are at times surprising, and at others slippery, but always rewarding. There's a deeply performative way to his approach of live performance. There's a core of the song that guides the way, a map of sound, but there's also an extended sense of curiosity that allows unexpected discoveries to emerge. Milan, which I had the pleasure to work on for Norman, captures this sense perfectly. It is a record that exists in its own right, but is of course tethered to his other works. It's an expansive lens which reveals new perspectives on familiar vistas."
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RM 4249CD
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From Siavash: "What remains after mutilating and reassembling an essential historical recording? How is it connected to a particular event in a grotesque and cyclical novella riddled with medical procedures of an aesthetic and deforming nature? Malakoot -- this spiral, centers on a decision made one afternoon by a character. On a similar afternoon, full of anxiety, pressed by an unknowable presence in this city, I decided that the soundscape for such an inspiring work of fiction was a mutilated one; things collapsing in on themselves, self-decapitating, full of cuts and sutures. The material for all the surgeries was two of the earliest solo piano recordings in Iran's history, played by an incredibly ordinary but, at the same time, fascinatingly suspicious character. The procedures were performed both on the snippets and cuts of the recordings themselves and with the help of various digital methods, on synthesized resurrections made from their transcriptions."
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RM 4195CD
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"Recorded in 1996, Merzbow's The Prosperity Of Vice, The Misfortune Of Virtue is one of a series of unique editions from his vast catalogue that reveals a side of his practice often under represented. During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Masami Akita was sometimes working on film and theatre music. In this space he created a series of recordings that capture the full scope of his sound worlds. Given the nature of these settings, his compositional approaches were varied, seeking to create both intensely crushing walls of sound and more spatial, and at times rhythmic, pieces that plot out an approach to sound making which atomizes his universe of sound, and uncovered the singular detail that is often consumed in the whole. The Prosperity Of Vice, The Misfortune Of Virtue is the soundtrack to the theatre piece "Akutoku no Sakae/Bitoku no Fuko" by Romantica. Based on Marquis de Sades's Historie de Juliette ou les Prosperités du vice and Les Infortunes de la vertu, this recording was originally released with limited distribution and remains one of the lesser available Merzbow recordings. This edition is completely remastered and contains an additional cut from those original sessions. Cheers." --Lawrence English
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RM 4248CD
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From Theresa Wong: "The inspiration for these pieces comes from the Chinese folklore of Guanyin, a deity whose name translates to 'the one who perceives all the sounds, or cries, of the world.' Also known as Guanshiyin 觀世音, she is the embodiment of infinite compassion. I grew up knowing of Guanyin as a female deity, but recently discovered that she had transformed through the centuries from the male Hindu bodhisattva, Avalokiteśvara. I instantly found an affinity for this gender-fluid figure, who was said to have attained enlightenment through meditation on sound. These pieces offer an imaginary story of a humble seafarer (Guanyin is a popular matron saint of fisherfolk), who returns from the tumult of the sea one evening at dusk. They journey into a seaside cave in a cliff nearby to find solace in prayer to Guanyin. Deep within the chambers of this glistening cave, an encounter with the mystical deity brings comfort and healing while the churning of life outside persists. Perhaps it was out of a premonition that I created these pieces, which became one of the few things I could listen to during an intensely challenging year of my life. All the music is played on solo and multi-tracked acoustic cello. Many pieces are created around the repetition of simple phrases, like a sonic mantra repeated to focus and ease the mind. The cello is tuned down to a fundamental of A=216 Hertz, and the harmonies are composed in just intonation, a tuning system based on the natural overtones of resonating frequencies. In tracks 5 and 7, the lower strings are detuned extremely to a precise tension, creating a drone that contains both noise and specific overtones. In this manner of playing, I often have the feeling of 'splitting the sound open' into a composite of rhythm, harmony, melody and noise through playing beating frequencies, fingered overtones, implicit melodies emerging out of undulating harmonics, and the pure growl of the slackened string. I hope the listener will find rest and repose -- in this music, amidst the ever-compounding churning of our present world. My deepest thanks to Lawrence English, Janet Oh, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Emily Harvey Foundation for supporting this work."
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RM 4245LP
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From Lawrence English: "I like to think that sound haunts architecture. It's one of the truly magical interactions afforded by sound's immateriality. It's also something that has captivated us from the earliest times. It's not difficult to imagine the exhilaration of our early ancestors calling to one another in the dark cathedral like caves which held wonder, and security, for them. Today the ways in which sound occupies space, the so-called liquid architecture, holds just as much wonder, albeit one that is often dominated by functionality and form. Beyond those constraints however, how sound operates in the material world is something that exists at the fundament of our understanding of music, and moreover within the broad church we know as the canon of sound arts. Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds is a record born out of these relations. In a direct sense, the record is the product of an invitation by curator Jonathan Wilson to create a sound environment, reflecting on the Naala Badu building at the Art Gallery Of NSW. The building's name, which translates from the Gadigal language to 'seeing water', was opened in 2022 and this piece was offered as an atmospheric tint to visitors walking through the building throughout the year following its opening. It's also a record born out of a recognition for the porousness sound affords, especially as a device for collaborative endeavor. This composition is one born out of generosity and acoustic solidarity. Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds is comprised not just of my sounds, but also that of an incredible array of artists who have also operated in the orbit of the Art Gallery Of NSW. The players include Amby Downs, Chris Abrahams, Chuck Johnson, Claire Rousay, Dean Hurley, Jim O'Rourke, JW Paton, Madeleine Cocolas, Norman Westberg, Stephen Vitiello, and Vanessa Tomlinson. The piece was constructed around two long form sound prompts that each musician responded and con-tributed to. These materials there when digested into the final piece you hear. The work could not exist without the substantial offerings these artists made, and I am immensely grateful to each of them."
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RM 4238CD
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I Know the Number of the Sand and the Measure of the Sea is the first collaboration of Lea Bertucci and Olivia Block. This collaboration was set into slow motion some years ago, in 2017, when Lea and Olivia connected through an interview facilitated by writer Steve Smith. In 2022, the artists finally had a chance to collaborate, performing an improvised set at Pioneer Works in New York City. Since then, the New York based Bertucci and Chicago based Block remotely built out ideas stemming from their live performance, passing sounds back and forth, until I Know the Number of the Sand and the Measure of the Sea was forged into existence. The title is a famous utterance of the Oracle of Delphi, a cult of female priestesses who would inhale the poisonous vapors of nearby volcanic vents to induce mystical visions for their seekers, often changing the course of civilization. Getting high from the earth. That is what this album hopes to achieve for our listeners. This collaboration sees Block playing synthesizer and tape, and Bertucci using her own voice processed through reel-to-reel tape, as well as microcassette collage of field recordings. Recorded and mixed by Olivia Block and Lea Bertucci. Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space Special.
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RM 4206CD
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A note from Alvin: "It has taken me over 50 years to write these words. Since my initial successes in the 1970s, many have urged me to 'release' unpublished works from the same period, pieces that featured the VCS3 synths or the amazing Serge (which I regret not having used enough) or pieces featuring soundscapes from my classic environmental composition style. For reasons of persistence and empathy, Lawrence English at Room 40 was the most persuasive; now, nearly three years after our agreement, a new publication composed with materials from that inceptive period has come to fruition. While I'm condemned to live evermore in the past, it is the future where I continue to put my remaining creative energies. Nonetheless, in the creation of these two 'new' works I did all I could to avoid sentimentalism or get buried by my own history and the musical riches of the late 20th Century. Relistening to these forgotten fragments of old tapes included inspiring and useful surprises."
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RM 4186CD
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From Lawrence English: "There's two things I can tell you about Ueno Takashi, without reservation. The first is he knows the best coffee spots in Tokyo. I am the happy recipient of this knowledge. The second thing I can tell you is that he is someone for whom the guitar is a platform of exquisite promise. Ueno Takashi, who many of you would recognize as one half of the legendary unit Tenniscoats, is also responsible for an impressive series of solo guitar recordings which stake out a claim that tests the fringes of extended technique, harmonic relation and post-blues modes. His approach is simple; the guitar must lead and through allowing this he has unlocked a potential in the instrument that is entirely personal and profound. Arms, which collects together a series of recordings made during the past few years, is by far one of his most melodic and structured recordings. Here, using only the simplest of tools and techniques he crafts a suite of pieces that orbit one another with a gentle gravity. His playing is, at times, intensely delicate and at other moments more free and playful, but never careless. Ueno's way with the guitar is one attuned to 'what is needed,' and he seemingly shuns excess. While some might call this approach minimalist, his unique sense of time opens another reading which extends beyond those traditions. Arms is a complete universe within which we are invited to be. Ueno is your host, and guide here. Enjoy."
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RM 4242CD
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From Mike Cooper: "I made the first set of pieces for this collection during the intense heat of the 2023 Spanish summer; 32 degrees inside the house at night sometimes. I had just finished reading one of the most extraordinary volumes of fiction (something I rarely read) titled The Guyana Quartet by the Caribbean writer Wilson Harris. I came to this book via the works of Nathaniel Mackay, who recommended Wilson Harris as an important influence on his own creative writing. While researching further for my Tropical Gothic project I came across another writer from Guyana, Edgar Mittelholzer, and his book My Bones And My Flute. The two books couldn't be more different. Mittelholzer's book is described as 'a ghost story in the old-fashioned manner,' while The Guyana Quartet is one of the strangest books I have ever read. A lot of the time I had no idea what was going on but its strangeness kept drawing me into it and onwards. It is extremely psychedelic and tropical gothic with an added healthy dose of quantum time. Sometimes the characters are both alive and dead at the same time. The stories all takes place either in the Amazon basin rainforests of Guyana or the Rupununi Savannah, home to a vast array of exotic wildlife which includes jaguars, sloths, monkeys, giant otters, tapirs, emerald tree boa snakes and more. I wanted this musical edition to be an aural reflection of the landscapes conjured in my mind's eye as I was reading. Most of my samples and loops are created using a ukulele, my fingers, a metal hip-flask, (for rum), an empty St James Rum bottle, field recordings from Martinique, electric and acoustic lap steel guitar and a virtual pedal steel guitar. The flute player is unknown but maybe from Vietnam. The titles of my pieces are mostly taken from the two books as well as the title, Slow Motion Lightning, which resonated with me as a description of our current situation with regards climate change, and other man-made disasters that have occurred since beginning the pieces. Slow Motion Lightning; deadly and unpredictable never strikes twice in the same place except when it does."
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RM 4237LP
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From Lawrence English: "It's hard to imagine that this year [2024] William Gibson's Neuromancer celebrates its 40th anniversary. Having recently re-read the book for the first time in a great many years, the world building Gibson undertook in that text and the lingering cultural specters he conjured, feel ever so evocative of moments of our contemporary lived experience. The books continued cultural resonance has resolved in a way that captured a future reading of an, at that time of its release, unknown internet era. It was an era of promise, and imagination, of speculative hope and down-right uneasiness in equal parts. In 1994, as the books 10th anniversary was on hand, New York duo Black Rain were commissioned to make a soundtrack to the audio book version of Neuromancer. Read by the author himself, this document, originally publish on a series of cassettes, would go on to be recognized as a unique glimpse into Gibson's sensing of the characters and places that make up the Neuromancer zone. Following a period of work as an expanded collective, Stuart Argabright and Shinichi Shimokawa, the two core members of Black Rain, decided to strip back their unit largely to a duet format. Their focus became more engaged around studio practice, and it was this refocusing that was ultimately serendipitous. As they started work on Neuromancer a number of new approaches and techniques emerged and with them came a new sonic language the pair had only imagined previously. The audio book was a huge success and the soundtrack too was recognized for its brooding and post-industrial electronic grind. Since that time however, the recordings have largely remained in obscurity. While a couple of the pieces have surfaced in various editions including an excellent compilation by Blackest Ever Black, the entire suite of pieces has remained unpublished until this moment. Working off the original master tapes, this edition (like the book), folds and morphs over itself in an episodic stratification. Pieces emerge, like strange architecture, from one another forming a sonic environment that feels almost tangible. I spent many weeks working on these tapes and also on the connections between the pieces. In collaboration with Stuart, our joint aim was to create a version of the soundtrack that speaks to the very atmosphere of the text itself. It's a delight to share this collection of work for the first time."
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RM 4239CD
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Originally recorded and edited between 1983-1997. From Lawrence English: "I'll take a guess and say I first heard Alan Lamb's Night Passage in 1999. Released by Darrin Verhagen's seminal Dorobo label, the record birthed an approach that wove together themes of materialism, field recording and a reimagining of the abandoned utilities of human habitation. Night Passage is one of those recordings I feel has always been with me, it's that foundational. It completely re-shaped the way a generation of audio explorers thought about how sound and music might exist in the orbit of each other. On my first listen I'm confident I was unable to place exactly how these sounds were created, even knowing the source materials, but one thing I can say without reservation is their resonance has lingered with me these past couple of decades. The sound world Lamb captured, waves rippling along wires, was exquisitely simple, and effortlessly deep. Here, right before us, was a sound world locked within materials we pass by everyday. In tapping into these materials, Alan Lamb unlocked a parallel dimension of sense, one guided by interactions of objects and the environments surrounding them. An inorganic, living music the likes of which had not been readily available until the publication of his recordings. Alan Lamb's work with long wires, undertaken in situ across Western Australia, are quite frankly the stuff of legend. To revisit them in such a focused way almost four decades on from their initial recording I'm struck by how other worldly and evocative they continue to be. It's with great pleasure we share Night Passage, completely remastered under the guidance of Alan himself."
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RM 4225LP
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From Lawrence English: "This recording was, in many ways, a critical one for me. In some respects, it rounded out a period of work that was focused on a particular marriage of thematics and harmony. Like For Varying Degrees Of Winter, it dwelled on old world impressions of the seasons, something that, in the southern hemisphere, isn't intrinsically part of our way of approaching place. I think it was this incongruity with my own lived experience that kick-started the interest in making these recordings. The intention had originally been to take Vivaldi head-on, as the holder of the Four Seasons terrain (I jest of course), but shortly after completing this album, it became resoundingly clear that even in the old world, seasonality was a thing that was known 'then', and unknowable 'now'. Climate change, as a lived experience and not merely as a 'possibility', suddenly came into focus with reports flooding in about the climatic dynamics since the turn of the century and events like the Black Saturday fires here in Australia. It felt like, and continues to feel like, seasonality as some predictable measure of our world is relegated to the 'before' times. This record is not about these climatic shifts however, more a recognition of how we have used patterns and predictability to guide us over the centuries and perhaps a realization that the way forward is not the path we have known historically. Listening back to the record with fresh ears, a process made completely delightful by Stephan Mathieu who has carefully remastered it, I am struck by how minimal some of the structures were. There are moments that strike me as uncharacteristically patient and even generous, allowing one element to hold without interference. I'm grateful to still feel a deep connection to this edition and to the people and places that helped shape it. I hope you find some sense of your place here. It's offered with that intention and invitation."
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RM 4226LP
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Evening Air is the result Loren Connors and David Grubbs's first trip to the recording studio in the two decades since their first duo album, Arborvitae (Häpna). Arborvitae stood out for its spell-binding, utterly unhurried meshing of electric guitar (Connors) and piano (Grubbs). With this long-awaited return, Connors and Grubbs take turns trading off on piano and guitar, with Grubbs at the keyboard for the two gently expansive pieces on the first side and Connors taking over the instrument for three gorgeous miniatures on the flip, including an album-closing and perfectly heart-stopping version of Connors's and Suzanne Langille's "Child." The album's wildcard is "It's Snowing Onstage," which finds the two locking horns with two electric guitars before Loren blew the minds of all present in the studio by unexpectedly switching to drums. Loren Connors is one-of-a-kind, one of a handful of deservedly storied musical greats gracing listeners with their presence, and with Evening Air David Grubbs again demonstrates that he's a stellar musician who also ranks among the most simpatico of collaborators.
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RM 4199CD
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A note from Yui Onodera: "I stayed in Iwate, where I was born, for a few days and created some sound materials using limited materials and old media. Over ten years ago, Iwate was devastated by the Great East Japan earthquake. Many old things that remained in my memory became rubble, dismantled, and new scenery was there. I bounced every song from 1982 straight onto an old tape recorder. This album that comes out of my interest in sonic 'degradation and rebuilding.' I treated the guitar and synthesizer in a lot of new ways, so using a lot of tape recorders and/or pedal effects. I wanted the guitar to be an extension of the ambient textures rather than technology and imperfection. The raw and the processed. We benefited greatly from the evolution and democratization of computer and audio technology in the early '00s. I was fascinated by sounds that could not be created by humans, such as real-time audio synthesis and granular synthesis. Now, 20-odd years later, I am fascinated by sounds that cannot be created with a computer. It was a unique acoustic texture created by deterioration and wear, including accidental wear, due to old technology that is disappearing. It's like a memory of my old days in Iwate."
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RM 4219CD
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A note from Jon Rose: "Characteristically invisible and inaudible, the wind is made manifest solely by its agency and performance on objects: huge waves crash to shore, sand dunes edge forward over millennia (rumbling as they go), cyclones uproot trees and houses, intergalactic winds confound the planets. On a more modest scale, I've been building aeolian instruments since 1979, part of my investigation into the innumerable aspects of the vibrating string. I designed the two recent aeolian instruments heard on this album, the Monolith 2021 and the Tube 2022, with a focus on engaging with the variable windy conditions experienced in central Australia. The bodies of these instruments are flanked on all sides by multiple strings. The 1.25-meter Monolith is made of plywood, with 36 strings of both piano wire and fishing line. The Tube is literally a 2-meter PVC pipe and is fitted with fishing line only. Discrete adjustments can be manually made if the wind shifts or if the operator wishes to engage other adjacent strings, often resulting in microtonal beats. The Monolith is set up with contact microphones cut into each bridge, and the Tube was recorded with air microphones inserted internally. Tuning rational has as much to do with tautness, thickness, and material quality of string as actual pitch when in a state of 'excitation' -- this violinist's intuition. These aeolian experiments are ongoing and may go some way to designing an instrument that simultaneously handles both the von Kárán vortex effect and unpredictable wind patterns. The results so far have generated numerous sonic surprises."
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RM 4224CD
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A note from Hasegawa: "The first LP by the Taj Mahal Travellers was recorded at Sogetsu Hall in Tokyo on July 15, 1972, which became the title of the work and was released the same year by CBS Sony Records. A live performance celebrating the 50th anniversary of this album was held on July 15, 2022. The only original members of the Taj Mahal Travellers who attended were myself and Seiji Nagai. This is because two of the six members passed away, two are religiously active and they cannot play music according to their belief, and the last one has lost touch with us. Therefore, young musicians were recruited to perform with us. This performance was a spark of improvisation that broke 50 years of my silence. Let me recall a little about the day of the concert. The venue was a live house called Forestlimit Hatagaya, about 20 minutes by car from Shibuya. In the pouring rain, we ended up entering a narrow alley from where it was impossible to reach the place by car, so after unloading my instruments, we had to head back to a wider road and find another route. The venue was small and located on the basement floor. Among performers and stuff members we were more than ten people, and including the audience, in total about 60 people gathered on that day. Indeed, the place felt packed like a crowded train in Tokyo. Many of the performers were meeting each other for the first time, and not only the audience but the participating musicians themselves could not imagine what the performance would be like. For this live performance, I asked my friends to perform stone, shadow, bamboo, and gorilla."
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RM 4151CD
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On Stone, Suzuki expounds his approach of "throwing and following," casting out sounds and gestures into space and catching their returns. Each of the pieces explores the materiality of his chosen objects and the space within which each is activated. The recordings catch this process of sonic offering, and receiving, that characterizes the generosity of his relationship with sound, space and time. Originally recorded in 1994 in Berlin, this 30th anniversary edition features a new booklet with text by David Toop and photo documentation, some of which has not previously been published. The edition is also entirely remastered from the original recordings. From David Toop (excerpt from the Stone booklet): "With concentration, or elevated tension as he has called it, Akio Suzuki enters completely into the substance of sound, its emergence and its passing. What he does with sound may propose a rarefied world to many people, and yet it possesses a persuasive quality of rightness. One of the most difficult aspects of music and soundwork to explain is the concept of 'right action.' How is that music can be evaluated almost immediately, just as quickly as a fire alarm or a baby's cry? When Akio performs, certain qualities (grace, warmth, a quiet authority of mind and action, an engagement with the vessel of nothingness through which sound can emerge) are evident as presences, as soon as he begins. He begins from a state we call silence, by listening, yet at the same time raises questions about our ideas of what this silence might be. Time passes; fixity gives way to destruction; visual perfection is relinquished within the faintest of sound fields. As for the work, this ceremony returns us to nothing, 'to the feeling of not knowing exactly what is before us,' so to the uncanny, to the shell-like ear found by the sea, the 'ungraspable phantom of life,' the record of a haunting, time regained. The sound is a parabola, a finger tracing on skin, a brush point, bird in flight." Recorded in Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Studio I on 11, 12, 13, and 17 October 1994. Mixed by Hans Peter Kuhn. Recorded by Junko Wada. Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space.
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RM 4236CD
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From France Jobin: "Quantum mechanics unfolds an intricate realm of limitless possibilities and probabilities, eluding easy definition. It paints a picture of the universe vastly different from our perceptible reality. What captivates me is the lens through which I perceive sound, akin to the principles of quantum physics? I don't merely hear the audible, but rather, I extract elements to construct novel auditory experiences. My profound interest in science, particularly quantum mechanics, originates around 2008-2009 during a resurgence of enthusiasm for string theory, (10-33cm released on ROOM 40) hinting at the prospect of a comprehensive theory of everything. The notion of existing within 11 dimensions, as opposed to our familiar four, held a mesmerizing allure. Lacking a background in quantum mechanics intensified the challenge of my exploration, yet I stayed attuned to emerging theories, albeit at a surface level due to time constraints. The advent of the pandemic granted me the opportunity to immerse myself in the intricacies of quantum mechanics, with a particular focus on the bizarre phenomenon of quantum entanglement, which stands as one of the most enigmatic aspects of modern physics, alongside gravity. Embarking on this intellectual journey presented a steep learning curve, leaving me in a state of bewilderment for the initial six months. Yet, amid the confusion, I gleaned a profound insight: the intrinsic nature of probabilities within quantum mechanics means that feeling adrift and perplexed isn't a hindrance but rather an advantage. It becomes a preparation for the myriad possibilities and uncertainties that define this captivating and eccentric realm. Moving forward to 2021 brings me to the four sources of inspiration for the Entanglement project: the fluidity of time, the principle of entanglement, the Copenhagen interpretation and many worlds interpretation. Three iterations have been created so far with visual artist Markus Heckmann: Entanglement AV, Entanglement XR, Entanglement Dome, and finally, a fourth one, a series of four albums entitled Entangled Quantum States." All sounds recorded at various locations in Europe, Japan and South America, at MESS (Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio) and at EMS (Elektronmusikstudion, Stockholm). Cover image: Markus Heckmann.
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RM 4235CD
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Final is Justin Broadrick. While many might recognize him through his connections to legendary groups such as Godflesh and Techno Animal, or via his various solo guises (Jesu, JK Flesh, etc), Final charts an entirely different sonic terrain. Focused primarily on devolved landscapes of heavily treated guitar, Final sees Broadrick dwell in a foggy and subliminal zone where source materials are submerged, morphed and reborn as wholly different sound-beings. What We Don't See is a record that pierces into the realm of post-experience that exists beyond sense and sensation. It reaches towards the invisible, the inaudible and the intangible and imagines a soundtrack to this non-place. The record is cast in a hazy gauze of filtered noise within which seismic tremors of tone and harmony fold into each other. It is a record that breaths with a measure of deep dreams and an unfettered desire to dwell in sound. From Justin Broadrick: "The theme of this recording is the invisible world, and one's (my) need for it. It's necessary for me, this idea of the invisible world, if I am to function on a daily basis. I find comfort in knowing that this is all not just us here and now, that there's something else around us. That there's something within us, that isn't just this frail skin and bones and the immediate environments we drag ourselves around. I am sure since I was a child, that within me I am many, I am more than this. I surely can't be just this, so I am motivated by the fantasy and/or promise of more?" Created and produced by Justin K Broadrick. Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space.
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RM 4230CD
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Through the eye of the pinkish gate. Soft lights. Cool evening breezes, toxic fumes, burnt champagne and supper for one. Love and longing. Disenchantment. The murky meanderings of Pinkcourtesyphone. A gourmet offering befitting a pall party without compare. Attempts have been made in this collection of recordings, obdurate and diegetic, to express anxiety, always, often, and sometimes. Arise in Sinking Feelings, an unmistakable Pinkcourtesy mood, simply combines of magic and memory that spin out within moments before delighted senses. This album includes a printed insert of inspiration. Use it to gain maximum benefits from your study of Pinkcourtesyphone. Read and imbibe the insert while you listen to the recording. The Room40 Media Institute recommends the
"Double Sensory" method of absorbing sonic information. Its consistent use will greatly increase your powers of concentration and retention. Let your feelings sink as you let Pinkcourtesyphone sink in; its secret can destroy you in its un-yielding grasp.
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RM 4234CS
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A note from Stuart Argabright: "I had gone to LA in early summer of 2021 to help produce a mix tape for Stefan. The tracking went well and I began thinking we might get in some time to do some cassette-based work while we were hot. This worked out too, we recorded across three or four days. I had brought a selection of tapes with voices on them and Stefan had at least six or eight different decks. Almost all of them could playback slower too. Once we had our tapes loaded, we would take off into something else new and in the moment. The result sometimes drifted and blurred, becoming like a kind of pitched down or screwed Lower Broadway jam. Blue Dream; Blue Agave, blue neon path, to Whole Foods. We went to Japan Town. Drove across town one evening to the ocean drive up to Malibu and waves were coming in, through a haze. North to Encino and stayed some nights in Toluca Lake. Then McArthur Park and somewhere else we heard Venice Beach chimes. The Bradbury was in the neighborhood -- that classic set for the interior of JR Sébastien living quarters in the cyberpunk classic Blade Runner -- as well as for the Outer Limits episode starring Rau Culp -- "The Demon with the Glass Hand," written by Harlan Ellison. These memories haunt the tapes going forward."
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RM 4228CD
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With Bodies, Australian composer Madeleine Cocolas unlocks an embodied tidal force. As many of her antipodean compatriots would appreciate, water plays a huge part in the understanding of Australia. Vast fluid bodies spill out from its shores and the dynamism and intensity of these oceans -- physically and psychologically -- act as a guide to the forms of this record. Like these fluid bodies themselves, the record shifts between violent ruptures, as waves of sound collide, before giving way to passages of rich lightness and near tranquility. From Madeleine: "Bodies explores similarities between bodies of water and human bodies and seeks to blur the boundaries between them. These works incorporate sounds of water I recorded on recent trips to the Australian coastline as well as creeks and waterfalls in Far North Queensland. I have taken these recordings and other recordings of my voice and breath and heavily processed them together with synths and electronics so that the boundaries between field recordings, vocals and electronics are also blurred. These sounds together create sonic collages that move in ways to emulate rhythmic cycles that can be found in both water and humans such as waves, pulses and currents. In many ways I consider Bodies to be a companion album to Spectral (RM 4167CD, 2022). Whilst Spectral explores the idea of sounds evoking memories and emotions, Bodies is about being present in your body. Sounds wash over you in ways that are sometimes comforting and inviting and in other moments are overwhelming and dark, but it is in those moments of intensity that I invite people to breathe through that discomfort with the knowledge that time will pass and that moment will move on. When I listen back to these pieces, I often imagine I'm floating on my back with my ears half submerged in the water, being pulled back and forth by currents and tides with a sense of vulnerability and release."
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RM 4223CD
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Remember hearing music while dreaming, fully confident that you'll be able to reconstruct it once awake? Music that, as it turns out, you were the sole witness. In retrospect, why ruin the experience by something so vulgar as hearing it a second time, much less having to share it? Now, David Grubbs and Liam Keenan have returned from the dark side of the pillow bearing Your Music Encountered in a Dream. How did they do it? They did it by meeting to record a series of electric guitar duets in Sydney just as summer was turning to fall. They did it because Grubbs was limber and uncharacteristically chill after a couple of weeks in Australia playing shows and not playing shows. Sydney resident Liam Keenan's comfort zone gravitates toward singing and songwriting under the moniker Meteor Infant, and on this session one genuinely senses an unabashed spirit of discovery. It's happening, it's really happening in these three generously scaled improvisations. Maybe The Necks -- as well as solo recordings by Tony Buck and Chris Abrahams -- count as unconscious reference points. From the juggling and interplay of pitches in isolation, to the ecstatic speaking-together of strings, to guitar music as electronic music, there's little in the way of searching for endings in this revelatory meeting. No hastening the dream's end. Hail the first encounter.
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