A poet, soothsayer, bicycle race tipster, actor, prolific drinker, self-taught guitarist, and living legend of Japanese sound, Kazuki Tomokawa catapulted into Tokyo’s avant-folk scene in the mid-1970s, forging a sound and sensibility marked by throat-wrenching vocals and searing ennui. Among his musical peers in postwar Japan, Tomokawa distinguished himself  as a pioneer of radical individualism. He had “the personality of a hydrogen bomb”—as the notorious ultraleft band the Brain Police once put it—and a sound to match. Now, Blank Forms Editions gathers Tomokawa’s earliest records for the first time in a deluxe three CD boxed set comprised of Finally, His First Album (Harvest Records, 1975), Straight from the Throat (Harvest Records, 1976), and A String of Paper Cranes Clenched between My Teeth (Harvest Records, 1977). In each record, Tomokawa shouts, cries, wails, and croons, his folk stylings tinged with psychedelia and swelling into ground-shaking rock... Many tracks are performed in his native Akita dialect, a highly regional vernacular of north Japan rarely heard beyond the prefecture, and even less often used in music. Matching his guttural, all-out vocals are profoundly existential meditations on everyday life and the world around him; this is, as record executive Kiichi Takara dubs it, “I-music.” It looks toward the interior, the quotidian, and the domestic with piercing and ever-honest eyes. The accompanying liner notes (here translated for the first time) include introductions by Takara, a round table discussion with Brain Police, and lyrics for all three albums—tracking the rise of Tomokawa as the “screaming philosopher” of Japan. The boxed set will be in conjunction with the release of each record in LP format in 2022, and the musician’s 2015 memoir, Try Saying You’re Alive! (Blank Forms Editions, 2021), the first-ever English translation of his prose; together they provide the definitive introduction to the singular world of Kazuki Tomokawa. --- Kazuki Tomokawa (b. 1950) is a prolific singer-songwriter from Hachiryū Village (now the town of Mitane) in the Akita Prefecture area of northern Japan. Since his first release in 1975, he has recorded more than thirty albums. The 2010 documentary about his life, La Faute des Fleurs, won the Sound & Vision award at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, and that same year saw the Japanese release of the book Dreams Die Vigorously Day by Day, a collection of his lyrics spanning forty years. His most recent albums are Vengeance Bourbon (2014) and Gleaming Crayon (2016), both on the Modest Launch label.

Continuing in the Creel Pone "6" Igloo program, here's a picture-perfect reproduction of one of the more obscure & bewitching entrants into the label's early discography, Henry Krutzen's 1981 "Silances" LP; IGL 006. Nestled somewhere between Ghédalia Tazartès' mutant Sound Poetry, Anton Bruhin's acoustic / Alphorn drones & the more "Private" sensibilities of Badouin Oosterlynck, Paul A.R. Timmermans, or latter-day channelers like Raymond Dijkstra, the largely quiet, humble multi-track constructs - utilizing a palette of voice, hand percussion, piano, harmonica, saxophone, synthesizer, and only the subtlest of Electronic embellishments - work amazingly well at evoking a particular aesthetic that recalls mid-period Nurse With Wound inasmuchas "List" participants such as Franz Kamin's "Behavioral Drift II / Rugugmool," recent C.P. "Graduate" David Cope's "K • Weeds," or even Dominique Lawalrée's Editions Walrus output. Regardless of affiliation - or lack thereof - this is a beguiling outing full of lush drones & assorted alchemical wizardry that fits perfectly in the recent stream of Acoustic-leaning Musique Concrète styles. --- Creel Pone, 2007

The mighty Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of the maestro Marshall Allen, release their first studio album in over twenty years, ‘Swirling’. Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, the new recording represents the continuation of a heartfelt rebirth of the Arkestra under Allen’s guidance since Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, gaining new generations of followers from their regular touring across the globe. With a big band line-up featuring long-standing Arkestra members including Danny Ray Thompson (RIP), Michael Ray, Vincent Chancey, Knoel Scott, Cecil Brooks, Atakatune (RIP), Elson Nascimento and Tyler Mitchell, the album is a full-blooded celebration of Sun Ra’s legacy. Tracks include brand new arrangements of Arkestra staples ‘Angels And Demons At Play’, ‘Satellites Are Spinning’, ‘Door Of The Cosmos’ and ‘Rocket No. 9’ alongside lesser known gems; the rousing blues ‘Darkness’ is recorded here for the first time, resurrected from the Ra archives by Marshall Allen. Other highlights include an epic version of ‘Seductive Fantasy’ (first recorded on Ra’s ‘On Jupiter’ LP in 1979), the freeform sonic blast of ‘Infinity / I’ll Wait For You’ and a first ever recording of the Marshall Allen swing composition, ‘Swirling’. “We truly hope that this recording brings much joy to a planet which is so deeply in need of a spirit sound and vibration,” states saxophonist Knoel Scott. “We hope it contributes to a change in the ominous direction of man’s journey through the cosmos.” “This new release is the Arkestra’s love offering to the world,” concludes Marshall Allen. “Beta music for a better world.” Sun Ra Arkestra’s ‘Swirling’ is released on 9th October 2020 on Strut on all formats. The album was produced by Jim Hamilton at Rittenhouse Soundworks. Cover artwork is by Lewis Heriz. SUN RA ARKESTRA Under the direction of Marshall Allen Marshall Allen: Alto Saxophone, EVI Knoel Scott: Alto Saxophone James Stewart: Tenor Saxophone, Flute Danny Ray Thompson: Baritone Saxophone, Flute Michael Ray: Trumpet Cecil Brooks: Trumpet Vincent Chancey: French Horn Dave Davis: Trombone, Vocals Farid Barron: Piano Dave Hotep: Guitar Tyler Mitchell: Bass Wayne Anthony Smith, Jr.: Drums Elson Nascimento: Surdo Drums, Percussion Stanley “Atakatune” Morgan: Congas Tara Middleton: Vocals, Violin

Supported by Arts Council England and Cafe Oto.Cover painting: Clutch,1987 (Acrylic gel and mixed media on paper)by Sir Frank Bowling. Courtesy of the Victoria Gallery & Museum, University of Liverpool. © Frank Bowling. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2021.List of records played by Mackey during the performance:Anthony Williams, ‘Barb’s Song to the Wizard’, ’Two Pieces of One: Red’, and ‘Memory’, Life Time (Blue Note, 1965).Miles Davis, ‘Mood’, E.S.P. (Columbia, 1965).Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux, ‘Toubaka 81’, Salif Keita, Kante Manfila & Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux (Celluloid, 1981).Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra, ‘Body and Soul’ (Bluebird, 1939).John Coltrane and Paul Quinichette, ‘Anatomy’, Cattin’ with Coltrane and Quinichette (Prestige, 1957).Henry Threadgill, ‘Air Song’, X-75 Volume 1 (Arista/Novus, 1979).Charles Lloyd, ‘Little Anahid’s Day’, Charles Lloyd in Europe (Atlantic, 1968).Michael Rabin, ‘Caprice No. 9 in E Major – Alegretto’, Paganini: 24 Caprices, Op. 1 (EMI, 1958).Albert Ayler Trio, ‘Ghosts: First Variation’ and ‘Ghosts: Second Variation’, Spiritual Unity (ESP, 1965).Nathaniel Mackey is a hugely influential American poet, novelist, anthologist, literary critic and editor. He is the Reynolds Price Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University and a Chancellor of Academy of American Poets. His on-going series of epistolary novels (begun 1978) From A Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate narrate the music making, dreams and creative life a group of imaginary jazz-based musicians making a fictional music, at the edge of words, dream and physical possibility in late 1970s and 1980s Los Angeles.The idea for the Creaking Breeze Ensemble emerged in 2016 in response to a reading of Mackey's books by a group of musicians, writers and artists closely connected to the creative community around Cafe OTO in East London: Billy Steiger, Evie Ward, Paul Abbott, Ute Kanngiesser and Seymour Wright. Each have their own distinct voice, and respective connection with the musical traditions at the core of From A Broken Bottle. As a group of artists they felt that what Mackey explored as the making of a fictional music articulated something close to their actual, respective and overlapping musical lives. The group was named and so doing established a space for them to undertake an on-going 'reading' of the novels. And  led in turn to them inviting Mackey to come to London to work, somehow, on this 'reading' of the novels and their ideas.Mackey agreed and this mysterious proposal was realised in June 2019. Together Mackey and the ‘Breeze developed a working method and honed their attention on close reading of two letters from the books. What emerged was an open mobile process moving through the letters (and their content) in ways that shaped rich, sensual and playful spaces for reflection and improvisation, iteration and inter-textual pleasures.The result is Fugitive Equation a remarkable and beautiful long-song across two nights. The first night Lit by Eclipse takes as its point of departure, reads and develops a letter from book five, Late Arcade; the second night Skeletal Water, X-Ray Water takes as its point of departure, reads and develops a letter from book two Djbot Baghostus's Run.The album is a complex, unique and long-form (2 hours plus) composition of sound and word, unlike the previous work of any of those involved. The six unique voices, drums, violin, cello and saxophone and Mackey and Wards' words. It is a work that continuously collapses, questions and flips many poles - word/sound, voice/music, vocals(foreground)/band(background), recorded past/improvised present and fact/fiction.The art work for the album cover is ‘Clutch’, a painting by seminal London based artist Frank Bowling whose retrospective was on show at the Tate Britain during Mackey’s visit to London.The project was supported by the Arts Council of England and Cafe Oto.  --- Nathaniel Mackey - voice, readings, vinylEvie Ward - voice, improvised poetry fragmentsPaul Abbott - acoustic drums, synthetic soundsUte Kanngiesser - celloBilly Steiger - violin, pianoSeymour Wright - alto saxophoneRecorded in concert by Shaun Crook and Paul Skinner at Cafe OTO,London on June 7 and 8, 2019. Mixed by Shaun Crook.

Muto Infinitas (2016/18) is an hour-long duo for quartertone bass flute and double bass, composed by the US-born Catherine Lamb, who is now resident in Berlin. It was recorded by Adama Asnan at Andreaskirche, Berlin Wannsee in 2019. Cover artwork by Rebecca Lane --- Rebecca Lane (quartertone bass flute) Jon Heilbron (double bass) --- Another Timbre, 2021

Two pieces for cello and piano by Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith, both performed by Anton Lukoszevieze (cello) and Kerry Yong (piano) "In Ballad (45 minutes in duration) I was extending myself into a longer work; I wanted to make a work that could be the entire concert, that could unfold over a longer time. With Through the Low Hills (10 minutes), I was working with a very restricted vocabulary in a process of constrained variation, working and re-working just a few elements. I felt like I had an object in my hands and was turning it over and over, looking at it from different angles. With Ballad, it felt more like a journey where I was discovering unfamiliar terrains." --- Cover photograph by Anton Lukoszevieze   Apartment House: Anton Lukoszevieze (cello) and Kerry Yong (piano) --- Another Timbre,  May 12, 2021

Pushing their powerful experiments further into uncharted waters Wukir Suryadi and Rully Shabara Herman has once again joined forces on a new Senyawa album. The combination of Rully’s extreme vocal techniques and the curious output from Wukir’s homemade string instrument, the bambu wukir, still sounds like nothing else on Spaceship Earth.“Brønshøj (Puncak)" was recorded in Cejero’s warehouse in Brønshøj, Denmark, 2015. It is released in an edition of 300 copies on black vinyl in reversed cardboard covers with hand screened prints by Danish visual artist Kasper Lynge Jensen. All music was recorded and mixed by Thomas Buhl-Wiggers, and...  more

LP comes in deluxe gatefold sleeve with cover artwork and liner notes from Alvin Lucier. Includes a download code featuring hi-res vesions of the LP material. CD comes in deluxe 8 panel digipak with liner notes from Alvin Lucier and a 16 page booklet with live images. Features two additional pieces not included in the vinyl version. --- Tracklisting: 1. Tilted Arc - 17:47 2. Double Helix - 16:02 3. EPO-5 - 12:12 4. Semicircle - 18:35 5. Two Circles - 18:24 6. Braid - 16:10  Black Truffle’s documentation of the prolific recent work of legendary American composer Alvin Lucier continues with Works for the Ever Present Orchestra. This is a very special release for the composer as it presents pieces written for the thirteen-member Ever Present Orchestra, formed in 2016 exclusively to perform Lucier’s works. At the heart of the ensemble are four electric guitars, an instrument Lucier began composing for in 2013 with Criss-Cross (recorded by two core members of the Ever Present Orchestra, Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O’Malley, for whom it was composed, on Black Truffle 033). Through the use of e-bows, the guitars take on a role akin to the slow sweep pure wave oscillators heard in many of Lucier’s works since the early 1980s, but with added harmonic richness. Like much of Lucier’s instrumental music, the pieces recorded here focus on acoustic phenomena, especially beating patterns, produced by the interference between closely tuned pitches. The work presented here is some of the richest and most inviting that Lucier has composed. Though all of the pieces clearly belong to the same continuing exploration of the behaviour of sound in physical space and make use of related compositional devices, each takes on a strikingly different character. Titled Arc, for the full ensemble of four guitars, four saxophones, four violins, piano and bowed glockenspiel inhabits a world of sliding, uneasy tones, punctuated by a single piano note. Where Double Helix, for four guitars, rests on a pillow of warm, low hum, EPO-5, for two guitars, saxophone, violin, and glockenspiel possess a limpid, crystalline quality. Accompanying the four new compositions are two adaptations of existing pieces for radically different instrumentation, demonstrating Lucier’s excitement about the new possibilities suggested by this dedicated ensemble. Works for the Ever Present Orchestra is an essential document of the current state of Lucier’s continuing exploration, as well as offering a seductive entry-point for anyone who might yet be unacquainted with his singular body of work.2CD release presented in a deluxe 4-panel digipak with cover artwork and liner notes from Alvin Lucier plus a 16-page booklet with live photos. Disc 2 of this release includes the bonus Adaptions for the Ever Present Orchestra featuring two pieces (“Two Circles” and “Braid”) that are not included on the vinyl version. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Design by Lasse Marhaug.

Anthony Braxton - reeds, compositionsTaylor Ho Bynum - brassDan Peck - tubaJacquline Kerrod - harpShelley Burgon - harpTomeka Reid - celloAdam Matlock - accordion, aerophonesJean Cook - violinStephanie Richards - trumpetIngrid Laubrock - saxophonesBrandee Younger - harpMiriam Overlach - harpComes in Blu-ray sized Gatefold Digipack with 16-page booklet featuring liner notes by Anthony Braxton and score excerpts. Early in his career, Anthony Braxton established a foundational taxonomy of musical concepts and gestural categories for improvisers and performers to use in the interpretation of his music - what Braxton calls Language Music. You can hear his first rigorous exploration of many of these on his celebrated 1969 record For Alto. There are only twelve basic varieties to his Language Music: long sound, accented long sound, trills, staccato formings, intervallic formings, and so on. An association with a particular variety of one of the Language Musics is a defining aspect of any of his individual works.Braxton has also developed a series of compositional modalities: different ways of imagining and structuring how a musician, or musicians, may participate in a given piece. Since 1995, he has been primarily concerned with his Holistic Modeling Musics. Each is associated with one of the Language Musics: Ghost Trance Music (long sound), Falling River Music (accented long sounds), Diamond Curtain Wall Music (trills or ornamentation), Echo Echo Mirror House Music (multiphonics), and Pine Top Aerial Music (short attacks).Firehouse 12 Records is pleased to release the latest iteration of Braxton's musical system, called ZIM Music, which is derived from language number 11: gradient logics. Gradient logics pertain to aspects of music that continually change, faster and faster, slower and slower, brighter and brighter, darker and darker. 12 Comp (ZIM) 2017 documents 12 performances over the course of two years, showcasing the development of ZIM music as the compositions and ensemble adapted to new musical situations.The very first ZIM Music composition was in fact presented to the quartet with Nels Cline, Greg Saunier, and Taylor Ho Bynum documented on Quartet (New Haven) 2014. During that session it was used only sparingly, and later became the first of four ZIM compositions (398 - 401) to be recorded during a residency at the University of Alabama in the summer of 2015.While the first four ZIM compositions were short, linear, single-lined and mostly graphic, Composition No. 402 was scored for a quintet of reeds, brass, tuba, and two harps. Combining traditionally notated sections with sections of individual and tutti graphic notation, Composition No. 402 was premiered in Poland in November 2015, and appears on this Blu-ray as the opening track, recorded live at Wake Forest University in March 2017. At the Big Ears Festival in 2016, Braxton debuted Composition Nos. 403 & 404 which are primarily non-linear graphic compositions.After the Wake Forest performance of Composition No. 402, the recordings in this set move through Composition Nos. 408 through 420. Recorded in a variety of contexts, these compositions maintain the gradient logics of dynamic and timbre change, but infuse gradients into the notated material itself. He dubs this computer-aided notation "extraction notation": the musicians are given technically impossible music and are expected to "extract" a performance from the notation as part of their improvisational process. This resulting transformation, from notated to performed is in itself a gradient process.The stellar core ensemble of Taylor Ho Bynum, Dan Peck, Jacquline Kerrod, and Shelley Burgon is augmented and altered with roster of star emerging musicians, including Tomeka Reid, Adam Matlock, Jean Cook, Stephanie Richards, Ingrid Laubrock, Brandee Younger, and Miriam Overlach.12 COMP (ZIM) 2017 is available as a single disc Blu-ray, as well as high-resolution digital files through Firehouse 12 Records' Bandcamp page and the usual streaming and download outlets. "For a project of this scope, more than 11 hours or music, Blu-ray was the obvious release format for us. To make each performance available in the native high-sample rate and also to issue immersive surround mixes of the incredible soundscapes generated by this ensemble, there was really no other option" says Firehouse 12 Records co-founder and chief engineer Nick Lloyd. "We were lucky to be able not only to record a number of the pieces on this release at Firehouse 12, but also to make location recordings in North Carolina and Montreal of ZIM in its natural habitat - in front of a live audience!!"

Closing out a trilogy of releases initially readied by the Harriman, NY powerhouse Spectrum (following the Jack Tamul & William Hoskins titles) is this fantastic set of noisy synthesizer adagios, composed in the late 70s by William Strickland on Moog Modular, Organ, and Four-Channel Tape. Offering a pair of conceptual, side-length suites, a series of exceedingly lo-fi miniatures meets us on the A-Side; "An Electronic Visit to the Zoo" seems to almost ignore its own premise - despite the red-herring titles; "Apes", "Lions", "Elephants", etc. - offering a fairly rough & hissy take of over-gained & time-domain blurred synthesizer gristle, all but buried in grime & extremely distant voltage-haze - about as far away from an "Animals Christmas" / "Le Zoo Electronique" type exploito-Library affair as is possible. On the flip, the "Sound Hypnosis" pieces work a mix of weird, processed drum machine & extremely resonant-filter strategies not all that far removed from the later Nicholas "Nik Pascal" Raicevic Narco sides; it's about as "Hypnotic" as it gets without resorting to cod-New-Age cloud-float. "Repetitions with Distortions", indeed. Of the three Spectrum's we've had the pleasure of reinvestigating, this is by far the most elusive, confusing, & singular; very glad to have this C.P. reproduction in the fray. --- Creel Pone, 2007

Imagine yourself as a grape in a Belgian glasshouse, is the theme of this quietly immersive suite conjured by Christina Vantzou (CV) and Lieven Martens (Dolphins Into The Future) for the latter’s Edições CN  The musical component of a broader project incorporating poetic texts and photography, ’Serrisme’ conveys the cyclical experience of table grapes growing in vast glasshouses in the Flemish countryside. It was commissioned by the Flemish Heritage Fund to artfully document a peculiar culture that has existed for around 150 years, and has supplyied sweet little orbs to mouths from Russia to UK and USA.  The grape growing industry there is now a paler shade of what it once was, but the remaining glasshouses offer Vantzou and Martens a rich atmosphere and range of textures to work with. Maybe best known for his tropical dream sequences as Dolphins Into The Future, Lieven Martens plays to his strengths in evocative field recording for the first half, variously placing us under rain on glass and  between snipped vines for a nuanced evocation of the glasshouses’ day-to-day sounds.  Beloved for her work solo, with The Dead Texan and recently with a run of dead strong CV & JAB recordings; Vantzou takes a more impressionistic approach to the subject with two slow burning ‘Glisten’ beauties. Both working around he 10 minute mark, they offer amply room to drift with long, sustained glassy tones encouraging sublime states of mind, with strings and choral touches that suggest a sort of fading glamour of an old world viewed from outside. --- Serrisme is: a musical illustration - by Christina Vantzou, sound registrations - by Lieven Martens, a long poetic text - by Jan Matthé, analogue photographs - by Christophe Piette, and the usual perfect design - by Jeroen Wille. --- Edições CN, 2021

Pure Serge Modular magick from Thomas Ankersmit, emulating the peerless sonic phenomenology of Maryanne Amacher recordings on a remarkable release with Bartolomé Sanson and Félicia Atkinson’s Shelter Press. Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009) is an icon of 20th century experimental music who studied with Stockhausen and collaborated with Cage, and is regarded among electronic music’s most distinguished pioneers. ‘Perceptual Geography’ is a concept developed by Maryanne and here articulated by Thomas Ankersmit on the Serge Modular synth system that she introduced to him around 2003, when the nascent artist was getting to grips with an EMS Synthi.  The Serge Modular system, invented by Serge Tcherepnin - a close friend of Maryanne’s - has since become Ankersmit’s machine of choice, with his take on ‘Perceptual Geography’ - referring to a 3D diffusion of otoacoustic (sounds that appear to emanate from inside the ear) and other sonic phenomena - manifest as a compelling tribute to Maryanne’s research into non-musical, psychoacoustic phenomena and proprioception - which is also known as the way human gauge and engage sound within space. Like Maryanne’s peer, Eliane Radigue, her work was known to a rarified few during the 20th century, but Ankersmit’s interest in her work is indicative of a new generation who have encountered and become enthralled by Maryanne’s probing studies and practice since the early ‘00s, often via presentations of her work in Berlin during that period that lead to Ars Electronica awarding her their highest honour, the Golden Nica, in 2005. On ‘Perceptual Geography’ Ankersmit emulates Amacher’s combination of scientific rigour and avant pursuit with 40 minutes of physically powerful subbass textures and pealing sirens-in-your-head, connoting a sense of the unknown and the unknowable that’s surely life-affirming to listeners of that certain, foerever-searching disposition --- Shelter Press, 2021

Ah, CP #200; never in 12 years did I think we'd make it this far. Those of you keeping count will realize that, despite the catalogue number this is actually the 181st title in the series; that said we're definitely winding down & what a great run it's been. This, in many ways, is the perfect title to ring in this momentous occasion; arguably the longest in the Creel Pone "Queue" (mainly as virtually the entire cabal, upon discovery, scratched their collective heads, rooted around for close to a decade, and were still unable to turn up a copy until a few months back) this set by Atlantic music director & Rahsaan Roland Kirk & Pharoah Sanders sideman / arranger William S. Fischer, privately released on his "Arcana" imprint (not to be confused with the label that released the Martin Schwarzenlander-Fischer "Split" LP) & consisting of multi-tracked, hand-played solo synth takes recorded on/at Walter Sear's system/studio around 1970, goes against the grain in that it's ostensibly a "Jazz" record & not some automated, generative affair. Why all of the commotion? Early Moog Modular multi-track takes deviating heavily from the canonic Moogsploitation lanes are few & far between, making this set of decidedly Afro-Futurist impressionisms an anomaly, on par perhaps with Sun Ra's simultaneous "My Brother The Wind v.2" and not much else. This Creel Pone replica includes the three spacious takes from "Omen", along with the two pieces from the same session issued on Fischer's Embryo-label "Circle" LP; itself largely a fine melding of Funkadelic / Dr. John -lineage slink & fusion realms, on which the decidedly abstract "Electrix"& "Capsule" always felt a little out of place. --- Creel Pone, 2017

A collection of the best recordings selected by the Dutch sound artist Felix Hess from his "Frogs" series featuring frog calls from around the world, released on cassette tapes, vinyl, and CD-Rs from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. A limited-edition pressed CD of this long-discontinued series, with new artwork by Sakura Kondo. It is a series that inspired the artist, who was a physicist studying the trajectory of boomerangs, to create sound works later in life. Frog Night includes calls of three species native to Japan (tree frog, Tonosama frog, and Schlegel's green tree frog) recorded in a rice field in Kyotango City. --- Recorded by Felix Hess Mastered by Makoto Oshiro Artwork by Sakura Kondo Designed by Hirozumi Takeda --- Basic Function, 2021

A collection of the best recordings selected by the Dutch sound artist Felix Hess from his "Frogs" series featuring frog calls from around the world, released on cassette tapes, vinyl, and CD-Rs from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. A limited-edition pressed CD of this long-discontinued series, with new artwork by Sakura Kondo. It is a series that inspired the artist, who was a physicist studying the trajectory of boomerangs, to create sound works later in life. Palenque is a recording of cane toad calls from Palenque, Mexico. --- Recorded by Felix Hess Mastered by Makoto Oshiro Artwork by Sakura Kondo Designed by Hirozumi Takeda --- Basic Function, 2021

Five chamber and solo works by the Canadian composer Barbara Monk Feldman. "I have been thinking about what is inside and what is outside. The everyday life and tragedy of what goes on around you, and the fact that to accomplish anything you need the isolation in the studio - I think about this moral issue. And then on another level, I think about an inside and an outside for art itself, and how ephemeral that is....What I am looking for is a way to notate the most intangible aspect of the music – for me that is the colour. Colour is not only the instrumentation. It also involves the ‘weight’ of the tones, and a kind of gravity in the relationship of the sound and silence, as well as the spacing of duration and registration." --- GBSR Duo (Siwan Rhys & George Barton) with Mira Benjamin   --- Another Timbre, 2021

"Unlike the previous three box sets from the wonderful Pica Disk label, Necro Acoustic is not as much about surveying a career as it is showcasing the full repertoire of Drumm. Sure, there’s archival material dating back to 1996 that has never seen the light of day, but there are two discs of purely new material, as well as some recent (but extremely limited) tracks as well.The first disc in this set, Lights Out, is a mere half-hour, but as painful as it is, I don’t think anyone could stand for it to be any longer. Recorded between 2006 and 2008 using just two pulse generators, a filter, and feedback, Drumm builds a grating composition of punishing noise. The opener "Spraying the Weeds" begins innocent enough, with its deep space pulses and static that sound like a more sparse, brittle version of CCCC until a harsh ringing sound pierces through, swelling up to be more and more uncomfortable. The pain continues into "Blistering Statick," with the tinnitus inducing pitches contrasting against deep bass swells, and eventually an almost melodic layer, sounding almost like the cheap jingle of an ice cream truck. The short "Needleprick" cranks up the high end to ultrasonic territory: I don’t have a dog, but I wish I could see one respond to this little piece of pain. The massive closing "Idle Worship" is almost a pure endurance test: mid-range insect buzz and painful, overdriven high end create a wall of relatively static sound, with minor changes occurring as its 15 minute duration continues on.The second disc, Malaise, is a reissue of a long out of print double cassette on Hospital Productions, presented here in 11 different tracks for convenience. While still harsh as all hell, there’s a bit more variation to the pieces here: the first has such a filtered sound it could be playing off of a cell phone, but occasionally lets loose into untreated blasts of noise. It’s not an overly abrasive one, but one that is more textural and varied. The third segment has a similar approach, with maximalist ambient passages focusing more on tonal dynamics than harshness. Tracks two and six fill the need for the harsh noise wall thing, the former’s jet engine rush and layered noise feels like a nod to the Incapacitants or other old school practitioners. Track nine, clocking in at 15 minutes, avoids the harsh route entirely to focus on walls of oscillator tones, like a massively sustained organ played as loud as possible, to create a more forceful approach.Decrepit is the compilation disc of the batch, combining pieces recorded between 1998 and 2009, some of which have been previously released. The two part "Dilemma" was originally released as a one sided LP, but is two variations on the Kevin Drumm sound: the first part is cut up feedback and treated guitar noise, with the occasional puff of analog static, while the latter throws out an almost rhythmic bed of noise with sharp, cutting static on top. The tracks from a split LP with 2673 appear here as well: "Totemic Saturation" sounds like a techno synth patch in its death throes, buried amongst layers of harsh grime that grows to a massive swell, but never loses that bit of familiarity. "The Blurry Stupor" is one where the harshness is restrained, allowing the multitude of sounds to be heard individually, creating a hazy sound collage rather than a digital enema. The remainder of the tracks stay more in the world of noise, from the painful noise sheets of "Stomach Acid" to the filtered static and fuzz, but with a digital sheen overall, of “Band Pass.”The other new and exclusive material here is No Edit, an hour long track in two parts using only the most rudimentary of sources: prepared guitar, EQ, two pedals, and a Marshall mini-amp. Because of its sparse instrumentation, there is an overall thinner sound: beginning with the noise immediately, one can almost hear the poor little amp in pain, vomiting out guitar squall resembling a detuned AM radio more than a Marshall stack. The focus is more on the scraping of strings, and the second half is a bit more mellow (or perhaps the amp just gave out at this point). The latter portions are subtler, focusing on sustained rattles and the occasionally overt string pluck.Finally, the closing disc, Organ, is one of Drumm’s earliest works, which appeared heavily edited on the Comedy disc from 2000. Here, it is presented in its entirety: nearly 55 minutes of two organs blasting through guitar amps and effects. The structure is pretty rudimentary: there’s alternating sustained chords and key bashing throughout the duration, but power develops through the simplicity. The sound becomes this massive, monolith of noise that is subtly treated through pitch changes and effects as it goes on, but as a whole it takes the sound of such a "big" instrument and blows it up to epic, nearly absurd proportions.Again, I’m sounding like a broken record, but Lasse Marhaug has done beautiful work, presenting the five discs in a clamshell box with a booklet full of pictures of what looks to be abandoned homes, providing appropriate imagery for the sounds of filth and decay that are contained within. That, coupled with the variety of material presented makes this a great set: those less familiar with Drumm’s work can get a good overview of his career while the hardcore fans will find enough new material to enjoy.(Creaig Dunton, Brainwashed.com)"Last copies of the box-set. 5 x CDs in wallets, 24 page booklet, sturdy box with foil printing. 5CD box-set first released on Pica Disk in 2010. --- CD1. Lights OutNew album of necro acoustic material recorded 2006-2008.CD2. MalaiseReissue of the limited edition double cassette previously released on Hospital Productions in 2009.CD3. DecrepitPreviously unreleased material from 1998-1999 and 2008 + reissue of Drumm's tracks from split LP with 2673 on Kitty Play Records (2005) + the limited edition LP on Dilemma Records (2008).CD4. No EditNew album of prepared guitar material recorded in 2009.CD5. OrganFirst full lenght release of this classic track heard in edited form on the "Comedy" album. This is the full 55 minute version as recorded by Jim O'Rourke in 1996. Believed to have been lost for years, but recently discovered.

A collection of the best recordings selected by the Dutch sound artist Felix Hess from his "Frogs" series featuring frog calls from around the world, released on cassette tapes, vinyl, and CD-Rs from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. A limited-edition pressed CD of this long-discontinued series, with new artwork by Sakura Kondo. It is a series that inspired the artist, who was a physicist studying the trajectory of boomerangs, to create sound works later in life. Australian Frogs 2 includes the calls of six Australian native species. --- Recorded by Felix Hess Mastered by Makoto Oshiro Artwork by Sakura Kondo Designed by Hirozumi Takeda --- Basic Function, 2021