quiet in japan

Here is an excellent collection of essential sound art from Akio Suzuki. Obviously the recording quality varies due to the date of recording and the nature of his instruments. I was fortunate to see a beautiful exhibition of his in Paris a few years back. He is an artist whom, as each day passes, I hear his influence more and more.

Akio Suzuki - Odds and Ends




details on the works included in this collection
http://www.japanimprov.com/indies/hoeren/oddsandends.html

here's some bio/infos

http://www.singuhr.de/web02/saison00/suzuki_bio_e.html
http://www.akiosuzuki.com/

-------------------

disc 1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?3twzcwzhajn

disc 2:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9K8SRKR1

"why i've used two different services"
uh. cuz mediafire instituted the 100mb cap and I didn't check the files before uploading both simultaneously. so the 2nd disc is on mega. right thurrrr.

lowercase in motion

this is one of the first albums from the whole lowercase bloom at the turn of the century that has stuck with me. obviously, there are others, but, y'know, you remember your first time...

motion - dust



now OOP. this album is almost all texture, and very quiet. it all just emerges. totally stunned me when I first heard it, uncomplicated design and execution. no overraching concept or theory about "why" this album is so (an academic approach that really flourished around the turn and is still in evidence today). while there is an obvious amount of simplicity in much of the material and construction of these tracks, there is also a great amount of care and measure - there is not too little, but what we hear is just enough.

http://www.mediafire.com/?eoyzmggnn2j

lowercase fusion

an extra quiet fusing of two common elements on thee bwog - artsy new improv and artsy lowercase electronic/electroacoustics. what follows is absolutely one of my favorite releases within those borders, and possibly my favorite release from Bernhard Günter and his label, trente oiseaux.

sadly, as of last summer, Mr. Günter has run out of time and resources to keep trente oiseaux releasing new music. the label will continue distribution of its releases. for the last maybe 15 years, trente oiseaux has been a fine outlet for modern electroacoustic composition and innovative instrumentalists.

+minus (bernhard günter, electric cellotar, CDs / graham halliwell, feedback sax / mark wastell, percussion)

a rainy koran verse

Live recordings from a brief UK tour. Liner notes included in the .zip. Having listened to much of Günter's compositions, the lowercase electronic and "new silence" improv scenes, I feel this is a really strong statement that encompasses the player's diverse backgrounds (and Günter's role as a bandleader of sorts) in a beautiful, restrained recording and rather, uh, "electro-acoustic" (amplification plays a major role in everyone's pallette). we can haggle over what the use of recordings as a bed for improvisation "means" or whatever, I think that here, at least, it allows the group to achieve the result they are looking for. enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y1XP2ZIW

dots of graceful symmetry... lines of flight

following the Satie craze, here is a piece, whose name translates to Book of Sounds, by a lesser known "beautiful minimalist", student of Paul HIndemith, as played by Herbert Henck for ECM's New Edition. no luxurious wax n wane -- pressed for time -- up against the clock -- gun held to head -- having to come up with awkward and crude comparison: Harold Budd meets Steve Reich.

apologize for slight "frying eggs" static on this recording... but I did not even notice it even on repeated listening at modest volumes - only when you turn it up is it apparent.

Hans Otte - Das Buch der Klange

rapid 1 rapid 2

mediafire 1 mediafire 2

and also, finally, after an excruciating wait, the most succulent of fruits left behind by James Tenney, gotten from The Grasp™, somehow omitted from his earlier post in some grand absurd theatricality; re-compressed in weildy bytes (original being something like 500 mb), re-presented here and now for its seductiveness, for its devotion and bravery, in leaving petty human drama behind, in transcending our microscopic joys and miseries, and reaching, encompassing a cosmic narrative, some tale of beyond, of glacial or fiery geological, planetary time...

Grasp-speak from the original rip and post:

These pieces in particular, but much of Tenney's other music, too, has kept me in serious poised tension and wonder for the better part of two years now, maybe longer. These "Forms" pieces are gorgeous sound sculptures which sound like clouds of acoustic instrumental drones, long-tones, designed to accentuate the activity among harmonics in the instruments' physical properties. It's lush and vibrant and oddly affecting music that keeps dragging me back to it, into it. ... Knowing the theoretical mechanics of the pieces, however, is in no way essential to the enjoyment of them; at least, this has been my experience. Remarkable music, and hopefully as much long-term enjoyment for you as they have been for me.

rapid 1 rapid 2
or
mediafire 1 mediafire 2