The intimacy of Akiyama’s Thaumaturgy is immense. In nine short through-composed pieces written over a ten-year period, Akiyama captures something melodic, simple, and utterly transfixing. In his first instrumental solo acoustic guitar record in more than a decade, Akiyama, widely known for his improvisatory collaborations as well as his hypnotizing boogie-drone guitar pieces, here works without effects and maintains a strict harmonic palette throughout. Every note is given ample space to ring out and decay, together slowly and deliberately building the frame that is to become the completed structure. The resulting atmosphere of his pared down grammar threads each individual track to the next as the songs work together with the gravity of a single object. In fact, one might think of each track like a room in a house. The record, as its name hints, is suffused with phenomenological magic. The pieces function architecturally, in a Bachelardian sense, sheltering the daydreamer and encouraging charged stillness. The record envelops like a long-vacant shelter, made sacred by memory. Repeated motifs, like building blocks, waft through the air, exacting the psycho-durational and transportive power of a music box. And while, like a music box, the music lends itself to the tracing of inner landscapes, critical listening reveals that this is no mere background music. The acoustic field is richly ornamented with combination tones that are intensified by a pacing in step with Rothko-philes, Morton Feldman and Loren Connors. While the enclosure of home serves for many as refuge from the world, Akiyama’s Thaumaturgy speaks to a basic drive for a sense of place in an epoch dominated by the disassociation of global nowhere-culture. The simplicity-bordering naivete of the pieces evokes a discomfiting nostalgia and melancholy pointing us home or, as Bachelard would suggest, to the “miniscule phenomenon of the shimmering consciousness.” 

First LP from Donna Candy, the bass-vocal-drums trio trawled from the sub genres of experimental rock and busy pushing to the front of heavy music. Nu metal bass riffs, switch-pitched fuzz vocals and big, splashy drums layer over unsettling narratives and extreme loops to bring a bit of the pit to the dancefloor.Begun as an off the cuff party band with the idea of finding a live sound that would fit between 4am trance sets, the trio soon found themselves addicted to the euphoric sludge they created. Swapping their usual guitar for a bass, JS Donny drives Donna Candy with simple riffs, split half clean and half shredded with Boris / Sunn O))) like distortion. Head-banging the whole way, they’ll switch speed or stop suddenly, bending and drawing out notes to ratchet things up for release. Nadja's vocals tear through the top layer - heavily processed and warped with weird imagery. Together there’s a feeling of what it might be like to see Sightings slowed by codeine but with Elvin Brandi on the mic.Always set up facing each other, off stage and surrounded by the audience, Donna Candy encourage catharsis - reciprocally transforming energy between themselves and the crowd. They build a queer euphoria that pulls apart metal’s narrow dichotomy of nihilistic machismo vs. hyperfemininity, and begins to make the visceral faux-hybridity of nineties nu metal feel possible this time around. ‘Blooming’ brings us six offerings from the band on a four way split release that speaks for itself - once on board with the DC energy you’ll want to be a part of it.  --- Music by Donna Candy Alex (drums), Js Donny (bass), Nadja Meier (vocal) Produced and recorded by Anotine Nouel at Sound Love Studio, Grrrnd Zero (Lyon) Mixed by Anotine Nouel and Js Donny. Mastered by A.P. Mastering and Post.

"Their 5th album finds the band in a studio again, in their label Trost Records hometown Vienna, with time and the desire to try something new. Seven compositions in the disctinctive strong FULL BLAST nature get an exciting electronic treatment by Michael Wertmüller (sounds/electronics by Gerd Rische- head of Berlin Acadamy of Electro-acoustic Music 1995-2014) during and after the recording." "With all the projects Peter Brötzmann is currently working on, Full Blast -- with the precise and dynamic Swiss rhythm section of Marino Pliakas and Michael Wertmüller -- is the most consistent and the longest-running. Their fifth album finds the band in a studio again, with time and the desire to try something new. Seven compositions in the distinctive, strong Full Blast nature get an exciting electronic treatment by Michael Wertmüller (with electronics by Gerd Rische, recorded months before his death in October 2015) during and after the recording. For mixing the band decided to work with Gareth Jones (well-known for his work with Einstürzende Neubauten and Depeche Mode), whom they have used with Pliakas's band Steamboat Switzerland before. Full Blast have created an album that in its nonconformity and richness in variety stands on his own in contemporary jazz."  --- Peter Brötzmann / reeds Marino Pliakas / e-bass Michael Wertmüller / drums Gerd Rische / electronics --- CREDITS:Recording: Martin SiewertProduction: Konstantin DrobilMix: Martin SiewertMastering: Martin SiewertArtwork: Peter Brötzmann

"In the two compositions for vibraphone she wrote for mappa editions, Sarah Hennies analyses the psychoacoustic dimensions of space. Sisters is a sonic exploration which opens the space between the rough walls of the church, an infinite pulse penetrating into every crinkle, hole and fold. In the sense of her quote "When you pulse one note on a vibraphone for 20 minutes, why do you need to do anything else?", we witness the fullness of one single tone, disappearing resonances and gentle changes, which reveal various performative, spatial, psychic and listening situations. Sisters was a challenge for Lenka Novosedlíková, who is slovak composer, performer and organizer. Novosedlíková is well known distinctive figure of the youngest composers generation in Slovakia. She moves across contemporary composition and interpretation (percussion instruments), improv or electronic music projects. She is member of Cluster Ensemble which is renowned Slovak ensemble with many international achievements.    We discovered the church in Kyjatice three years ago during our irregular wanderings across southern Slovakia. We were completely enchanted by this well hidden medieval building standing over the village, surrounded by sunny fields and dense forests. We asked ourselves how we could bring life again to the church, how we could fill it with sound which would not interrupt the contemplative character of that specific environment. The result should have been the sound intervention which would awaken and reveal every corner inside of the church. Just for a moment, we wanted to caress all the monumental fresco paintings, creaking wooden benches, pipes of howling organ, hand painted ceiling and carved saints by sound which could release them from the long guarded and abandoned silence.  The church in Kyjatice is a sacred place of mappa editions. It blesses all our activities. It's a place of inevitable distance from our everyday life. Here we find distance from our everyday lives. By buying a recording you contribute to better accessibility and maintenance of this significant Roman-gothic monument with valuable fresco decorations.    --- composed by Sarah Hennies performed by Lenka Novosedlíková    ---Recorded by Jonáš Gruska. Mixed and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Design by Jakub Juhás and Zoltán Czakó. Cover photography by Zoltán Czakó. Liner notes by Jennie Gottschalk. Special thanks to Janka Miháliková, Nina Pacherová and Lukáš Ďurian. Released by mappa as MAP011 in 2018 Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council

Fresh output from John Chantler's 1703 Skivbolaget - the new duo from two masters of very different string instruments. ‘The Air Around Her’ beguiled its audience when recorded live in a bakery at Edition Festival in 2016, and carries beautifully through to this release. Microtonal timbres meet gnarled defiance - the result is surprisingly symbiotic. Ellen Fullman’s Long String Instrument has been a long-term life-work of incredible ambition and dedication. The result is immediate, exciting and inspirational. Okkyung Lee has completed rewritten the possibilities for the cello in solo and group improvisation whilst maintaining a steadfast defiance to the many attempts to contain her work within pre-defined genres. ‘The Air Around Her’ was recorded on 20 February 2016 during the First Edition Festival for Other Music in Stockholm, Sweden at Kronobageriet — the former bakery to Swedish Royalty that dates back to the 17th Century and is now the site of the city’s Performing Arts Museum. The Edition Festival was given access to the space while renovations took place and Fullman allowed the requisite time to install and tune her long string instrument along the full 26 metre length of the room. --- Music by Ellen Fullman and Okkyung Lee. Recorded during the First Edition Festival for Other Music, Stockholm on 20th February 2016. Concert producer: John Chantler. Recording Engineer: Maria W Horn. Mixed by Ellen Fullman and Thomas Dimuzio. Mastered by Andreas [LUPO] Lubich at Calyx, Berlin. Artwork by Bill Nace. Made possible in part by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists (2015). The title, "The Air Around Her" is a quote from "Vermeer Interiors" a poem by Margaret Rabb, from her book, "Granite Dives". This release has been supported by the Swedish Arts Council. © 2018 Ellen Fullman (BMI) / Okkyung Lee (ASCAP) Released by 1703 Skivbolaget in cooperation with Ideell Edition

Debut full length release from the UK/Italian duo of Ecka Mordecai and Valerio Tricoli, working together as Mordecoli. Individually these two travellers have carved out a path of ghostly musique concrete (Tricoli) and textural cello wandering (Mordecai). Alter is proud to present the album Château Mordécoly, a result of two musicians (and friends) coming together to explore the middle ground of their individual investigations. The results of a red wine induced residency at London’s Cafe Oto, Château Mordécoly is a panoramic audio field exploring both the physicality of sound, informed by the voice, cello and pictish harp of Mordecai, and the artificial manipulations of Tricoli’s revox tape machine. The delicate tension between the physical ‘real’ and the distortive ‘new’ leverages this release far beyond a tipsy residency and shifts it into a top tier electroacoustic take on the zeitgeist. Solo cello and voice appear rooted in the timbre of time. The magnetic tape is both a friend and covert manipulator. The physical elements open themselves to disfigurement as a means of propagating the fantastical audio that unfolds from the initial enquiry. There’s no witchery or wizardry on part of either player but rather a symbiotic passing of the baton as the line between the real and the non-real flow in and out of themselves. The results are at once sedate, shocking and subversive. Château Mordécoly is a disembodied sonic landscape; a phantasmagorical world of fantasy unfolds as the delicate beauty of Mordecai’s playing and singing is transformed into a playful and unusual landscape. Epoch’s are evoked as the visual stimuli resulting from these alchemical transformations conjure everything from a haunted house to the Middle Ages. At once sleek and modern mental images of a marriage between the ultra present and the deep vast past. A heavenly cloud unveils a clear symbiosis of the Italian church and all of its cobwebs frolicking amongst pagan Britain.

Recording of the stunning first set performed by the trio of Peter Brötzmann, Steve Noble and John Edwards at Cafe OTO in January 2010 during Brotzmann's first residency at the venue. This was also the first time the trio had played together. Recorded at Cafe OTO by Shane Browne, mixed by John Edwards and Mastered by Andres [LUPO] Lupich at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. REVIEWS "On an east London side street, Café Oto hosts a programme of international experimental sounds to shame subsidised arts temples, drawing demographic-defying crowds of all ages through its doors. The first release on Oto's own label, available as an authentic vinyl slab or a slippery download, is a 40-minute splurge of sax, drums and bass skronk, live at the venue in 2010, from the German free-jazz giant Brötzmann and two stars of the London improv scene. Unrepeatable moments of collective inspiration and sudden sunlit shafts of modal near melody punctuate the continuing energy blur. Business as usual down Dalston Junction." Stewart Lee, The Sunday Times  "Since it opened in Dalston in April 2008, Café OTO has become London's new music venue of choice for the likes of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Joe McPhee, Mats Gustafsson – and Peter Brötzmann, whose first residency at the club in January 2010 yielded this inaugural release on OtoRoku, Café OTO’s new in-house label. The night in question was the first time Brötzmann had played with bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble, and the decision to team them up was inspired. With Alan Wilkinson, or in Decoy with Alex Hawkins and NEW with Alex Ward, Edwards and Noble have a deserved reputation as a thrilling high-energy rhythm section. And as Brötzmann is no slouch when it comes to high-energy playing, the combination is explosive. Right from the start of the set – the first that evening – it's obvious why this was selected to christen the label. All three players jump straight into top gear, with Brötzmann setting a cracking pace, his torrent of sound characterised by that hard-edged tone which makes him such compelling listening. ...the worse the better sets a high standard for subsequent releases to match. But, as every night at Café OTO is recorded and there's a wealth of fine music waiting in the wings, including quality recordings from Otomo Yoshihide and Wadada Leo Smith, OtoRoku looks like a label to watch." John Eyles, Paris Transatlantic "These two extended improvisations, recorded in January 2010 during Brötzmann’s first residency at OTO, finds the group attaining near-telepathic modes of interconnectedness, despite this being the trio’s first outing together. From the off, Brötzmann’s gills are gurning, throwing up torrents of molten roar, while Noble’s mule-kicking at the traps reels out ride hits like a baby sporting a bonnet of bees." - Spencer Grady, BBC Music "Does the world need another Brötzmann album? Probably not, but as the inaugural release on Cafe OTO's in-house high quality vinyl-only label, this one is cause for celebration. Recorded there - superbly well, too - during Brötzmann's residency in January 2012, this is no frills straight-up free jazz, solos and all, pitting the Firebreather of Wuppertal against the might local rhythm team (yes, they can and do swing hard) of John Edwards and Steve Noble. All three are on outstanding form, from the opening yelp - when it comes to Big Bang beginning, nobody does it better than Brötzmann - to Edwards's snarling drone 38 minutes later. Shame engineer Shane Browne slammed thos faders down so brutally: for once, you feel like joining in with the whoops and hollers of the punters." - Dan Warburton, The WIRE

Poetry and reality. The music goes in and out of, and away from, and into again. Reality and poetry. The music is uninterested in genre denominations and ideological markers. Music grows and is shaped by and out of realities, living and artistic. Sound is an audible reflection of you. Even you in silence. And you from sound, from the particular music that invaded your way of life; the ever-increasing global audible pressure chamber in which your spirit falls again and again in a Sisyfonian way ... Titles, on the other hand, are single-living creatures. Sometimes pointing to other titles, other phenomena, but usually standing entirely solitary, like pillars of stone in a desert, like rocks in a forest area. Over, under and around, the music is moving and moving unobtrusively. On Leiber Heiland, Laß uns Sterben historical events intersect right into the contemporary sound making, slit through their titles sharp cuts in our listening present era and pry our eyes towards the seemingly inexplicable backyard of history; which nevertheless created the plateau of disintegration and opportunity that we now seem to live on. At the same time all the sounds on this recording - all the scrunching, the breathing, all the tones, all the composed-processed material - completely and fully give themselves to the listener, escaping all human epithet making and denominations, as the sound becomes manifest, becomes apparent. This is my wish. To contemplate names and sounds, around music and the name of music. A couple of measured hours during a wondrous and almost tropical evening in May 2016, Jakob Riis and myself were in the Crypt of the Lund Cathedral, while student orchestras rehearsed with open windows near the old monastery park, birds were screaming and hot spring -high people raved just outside the crypt's small, low windows . The crypt is perhaps Sweden's oldest room still existing.  And precisely in this mysteriously echoing room, we were still in a hair-rasing now, rinsed clean by the music as big and tiny sounds ran in rays along the stone floor from the year 1121 providing some relief. - Martin Küchen, April 2017

Hot on the heels of last year's jerky "Fast Fashion" comes another confounding madness from Lolina, aka Inga Copeland. Less abstract than its predecessor, "Face the Music" hews closer to Lolina's Hype Williams-era songwriting, coating discernible songs in surrealist poetics and edgy pop subversion.  'Forget it Left Bank' is better yet, a brain-scraping rap-no-wave freakout that's lysergic and - almost -  catchy too. Lolina's deadpan half-rapped vocal is crucial: she sounds like 'Rapture'-era Debbie Harry but gives off a couldn't-care-less iciness of Tricky, slurring over a dollar bin hammond loop that's as perfectly skewed as anything on Leila's first couple of albums. Her tightrope walk is most visible here, as she teeters from pop coherence into freeform, reality-bending outlandishness, dropping the beat for lighters-in-the-air neo-psychedelia at almost random intervals. The pristine rap-not-rap atmosphere continues on the eerily polished 'Music is the Drug (Album Version)', a nu jack jammer that almost transcends its own strangeness. If you're not listening intently you might confuse it with pop music - Lolina's earworm chorus is catchy enough - but as always her touches poke the music just outside acceptable boundaries. This time it's dissonant jazz fusion blasts, and a prolonged outro that reverses the entire thing into a dragging solo shimmy.  It's an unwitting key to understanding "Face the Music", an album that on the surface might be the most straightforward set of songs Lolina has assembled - a virtual sequel to 2019's relatively nimble electro-pop influenced "The Smoke", but lurking in the shadows there's just as much seductive dissociation as the headmashing "Live in Geneva" or "Fast Fashion". Huge recommendation.

First ever, remastered vinyl version! The core duo plus guest collaborators expand its sonic palette of RICK BROWN’s elemental percussive patterns and CHE CHEN’s ecstatic modal guitar style to a new musical richness. With some tape releases and their first album „Wooden Bag“, 75 DOLLAR BILL quickly introduced themselves as one of the hottest, most unique and essential groups at the heart of NYC's underground – the following “Wood/Metal/Plastic Pattern/Rhythm/Rock” (2016) made the duo known internationally, and the 2019 double vinyl “I Was Real” turned out a major success at the critics and audience alike with the #1 spot in The Wire’s albums of the year list! Then came the pandemic, and in lack of opportunities to actually perform in public, the core duo of RICK BROWN and CHE CHEN released several bandcamp only albums in digital format, one of these being „Power Failures“. BROWN’s elemental percussive patterns (often simply played on a wooden box) and CHE CHEN’s ecstatic modal guitar style (often under the influence of his studies with Mauritanian guitarist JEICH OULD CHIGALY) are at the core of the tracks with guest collaborators like YO LA TENGO’s IRA KAPLAN (guitar), SUE GARNER (violin) or STEVE MAING (saxophone, guitar) expanding the sonic palette to a new musical richness. Trance-inducing psychedelia, “placeless, gripping grooves” (The Guardian), collaged rehearsal and field recordings, mantric percussion, microtonal guitar sounds – 75 DOLLAR BILL sound as deeply rooted in traditions as they sound fresh-of-today, a kind of future music from the past. Hard to grasp by words, and impossible to resist! 

Future music by NKISI, ancient music by NKISI: ‘Ndombola’ (A) was commissioned for A Journey to Avebury, STANLEY SCHTINTER’s shot-for-shot remake of DEREK JARMAN’S film of the same name. ‘Centripetal Vortex’ represents its own parallel ritual, made as part of the same sessions.numbered + handmade in an edition of 250 copies only; 180gr vinyl in custom-made screen-printed outer (sealed), containing two risograph inserts with a specially commissioned essay by SUKHDEV SANDHU(Video will be exhibited on-site at Avebury henge and stone circle throughout March 2023. Record release date is the winter solstice, December 21)

FRANS ZWARTJES’ studio remains untouched since his passing in 2017. In early 2023, we returned to the studio and discovered a trunk of unlabelled 3/4 inch tapes, containing completely unheard music by ZWARTJES. These works, largely synthesiser-based improvisations for films either unmade or unfinished, were played and recorded by ZWARTJES between the late 1960s, through his most fertile filmmaking period in the 1970s, and continuing in to the early 1980s. Unlike his previous releases, these recordings have been transferred directly from the original source tapes, newly mastered and available to hear for the first time as a double LP release. A comprehensive new interview with TRIX ZWARTJES, the life-partner and collaborator of FRANS is included in a booklet accompanying every copy of the record.numbered + handmade in an edition of 300 copies only; 180gr 2xLP 12” vinyl in custom-made screen-printed outer (sealed), with an eight-page xerox-printed booklet containing an interview with TRIX ZWARTJES and lots of previously unseen photographs from the ZWARTJES family albums; no digital

Born in Tbilisi, Nargilə Mehtiyeva aka Aşıq Nargilə has been playing saz (long-neck lute) and singing since the age of 15. Fluent in Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Russian, Nargilə represents the cosmopolitan heritage of old Tbilisi, a city once known as a meeting point for multilingual aşıq bards who would travel through the region serving as conduits for news, ideas, music and culture. Nargilə is currently the only female aşıq living and performing in the ethnic Azeri region of Georgia, and has been teaching the art to new generations. This is a recording of Aşıq Nargilə's first concert in the UK. Recorded live at Cafe OTO on the 18th October 2014 by James Dunn. The pieces performed are named after the traditional saz aşıq havası (melodies) they are based on. Lyrics are taken from destan epics, regional poetry and Nargile’s own lyrics to match the rhyming patterns of these melodies. Yanıq Kerem (1) and Ruhani (7) are both instrumental pieces which depict their own stories without words. Ay Ceyranım (5) is a popular song performed at weddings across Azerbaijan. Aşıq Nargilə Mehtiyeva: Saz (long-necked lute) and Söz (vocals) --- Tracklisting: 1. Yaniq Keremi 2. Yurt Yeri 3. Ibrahimi 4. Dubeyti 5. Ay Ceyrani 6. Bas Saritel 7. Ruhani 8. Orta Saritel 

besom presse announces "ask the axes," the first collaborative release by the duo of experimental bagpiper david watson and famed percussionist of the necks, tony buck. watson and buck’s premiere recording documents two twenty-plus minute tracks featuring the hallucinatory sound palette of the highland bagpipes, drums and percussion. ask the axes leads with watson blowing out a grounding and sonorous fundamental tone. moments later it’s redoubled with the serrated buzz of a higher register saw wave, suggesting a startling revelation of the untapped potential of the highland pipes. as watson steadily accumulates layers, the sound takes on a prismatic effect. from the droning choir of reeds, phantasmic overtones suddenly surface and are submerged in a fizzing backdrop like aural phosphenes. when buck enters he manages to do so without interrupting watson’s uncanny suspension of time. his toms and snare splinter with a giddy phasing effect as he shakes a number of bells into a thrumming substratum. on side b, the duo evolve into an ecstatic kinesis, expanding and accelerating sensations of space and time. buck’s measured crescendo conjures the trance-inducing meditations of the sufi dervishes while watson’s pipes peal out glossolalic spasms that sound like a long lost maclise ritual. as the record closes in heaves and gasps, a warm afterglow settles in ahead of a startling conclusion. 

besom presse is pleased to announce the release of "processions," a double lp by composer, performer, and instrument-maker werner durand, with amelia cuni and victor meertens. recorded and mixed in his home studio in berlin from 2012-16, durand offers four just-intoned drone works distilling global influence into compositions of singular beauty. the pieces presented here are rooted in durand’s past work with meertens (an australian visual artist), a partnership that dates back to the early 90’s. performed on an unlikely array of instruments including various self-made wind and reed instruments, sarod, mirliton, bi (a vietnamese free reed instrument), trumpet, and hammered electric guitar, the result is narcotic. each piece is a rich tapestry woven by timbral combinations that cut clearly defined swaths of the spectral field, yet cradle each other with mandala-like elegance. processions opens with meertens’ hammered guitar percolating within the glacial flow of durand’s omnipresent hum—like an embryonic dreyblatt excitation set adrift in the bardo of lamonte young’s eternal music. dhrupad singer amelia cuni’s voice enters, beckoning like an oneiric shepherd. as the record proceeds, durand doubles down on his elemental sound—before long the listener, without realizing it, sits straddling a borderline in a hypnagogic state of fleeting consciousness.

Hands down one of our favorite records of the year so far, the latest offering from the duo of Ragnhild May & Kristoffer Raasted -  Institutional Critique for Kindergarden - flying straight out of the left field via via Copenhagen's Polychrome imprint (run by Blue Lake's Jason Dungan). A marvel of contemporary Minimalism, drawing upon the cultural history of the whistles and the relation between body and instrument. Comprising a poly-rhythmic composition for whistles, made with a computer controlled whistles instrument, designed by Ragnhild May together with drums played by Kristoffer Raasted. The computer-controlled instrument makes very advanced polyrhythms possible, polyrhythms so complex that they are impossible or very difficult to play for humans, but simple to create on a computer, thus mixing digital with analog or creating techno music for whistles. Institutional Critique for Kindergarten Musical instruments can be seen as extensions of the body: Humans can for example whistle using the mouth or the hands, thus a flute seems like a natural prolongation to create a more powerful or varied tone. The instrument can be seen as some kind of prosthesis in a cyborgian symbiosis with the body. Specific ideas are linked to this interaction. An instrument relates to the scale of the human body and the ear’s ability to sense specific frequency spectra. Traditional Western instruments are conformed to an aesthetic within the Western canon that culturally is dominated by men. The primary instrument in Western music, the piano, is designed for the size of an average male hand, and generally Western musical instruments are designed for the able bodied male. Instruments shape the way we play on them, the way the body interacts with them. How does the shape of the instrument affect the sound that they produce? Can we imagine other kinds of instrument practices? Other kinds of music? The oldest archeological findings of instruments are bone whistles, resembling modern whistles and are close to 40,000 years old Archaeologists suggest that whistles “could have contributed to the maintenance of larger social networks, and thereby perhaps have helped facilitate the demographic and territorial expansion of modern humans.” All over the world, different cultures have versions of end blown whistles. The most widespread version of the end-blown whistles, the recorder (or block flute) was developed in Europe in the Middle Ages, and was widely used from the second half of the 15th century to the 17th century. From the late 18th century, the recorder whistle was increasingly overlooked and almost forgotten, because of the invention of the transverse flute. In the 1920’s, the German pedagogue Carl Orff, together with Gunild Keetman developed Music for Children, an innovative theory about children’s music education. In Music for Children the role of the recorder whistle was to be a learning tool before advancing to “real” instruments. Today the recorder whistle is still widespread in schools around the world as a learning instrument. Plastic soprano whistles can be bought for around 5€ and this accessibility makes it an ideal instrument for early musical training. Institutional Critique for Kindergarten reflects on children’s education, the cultural history of the whistles as well as the relation between body and instrument. Comprising a poly-rhythmic composition for whistles, made with a computer controlled whistles instrument, designed by Ragnhild May together with drums played by Kristoffer Raasted. The computer-controlled instrument makes very advanced polyrhythms possible, polyrhythms so complex that they are impossible or very difficult to play for humans, but simple to create on a computer, thus mixing digital with analog or creating techno music for whistles.

Absolutely amazing, large ensemble wildness from American born, London based intermedia artist, Dustin Ericksen, via Copenhagen's Polychrome (run by Blue Lake's Jason Dungan), channelling the Circle Jerks, Camper Van Beethoven, and radical methods of spontaneous composition and performance. WASTED JUDGMENT - LP - 2022 The music on this album was originally conceived to elaborate in specific spaces through specialized placement of musicians during performance. Using a collage of compositional and stylistic methods determined in a rules-based manner, each part was performed in self-arrangement. The melodic, rhythmic and sometimes dronic ‘free music’ techniques overlapped in combinations surprising to its makers. Through mixing and mastering by Pape Arce, an attempt has been made to carry through the spatio-temporal effects of these rules and the musicians’ personal contributions, but mostly to produce something new we’d like to listen to. LPs have two sides, are made over a period of time and their grooves are articulated through a process that resembles casting. They have a detailed, engraved surface texture, and these details reveal something through turning or moving around the object. Plus they’ve got a great tiny hole through the middle to look through. It all makes me think about sculpture. This vinyl album is an analogue for two sculptures made about five years ago. The problem was raised: to make music which plays through the formal elements of sculpture. My own interest in sculpture comes out of a political interest in agency. Agency is in this case about what it means to develop ways for informed individuals and groups to constantly renew an active set of formal relations. To accomplish this, making something in which the viewer’s relative position is aestheticised is paramount. A unique experience is molded by the viewer’s specific position in space. How? By distributing the players throughout two buildings and timing their soundmaking in a series of sensible order. This music was made in 2017 and 2018 by performers from all levels of musical ability. They volunteered their time and materials in some cases, to make the performance happen and, in turn, this album. I am totally grateful to all of their hard work, seriousness and support towards a nondenominational international notional freak disconsortium. Recorded on: Roland R26 Zoom r16 Zoom H6 Mixed bag of mics WASTED The performance took place at the midpoint of the exhibition: NAMING RIGHTS AT THOMAS DANE GALLERY 13 September 2017 Thomas Dane Gallery 11 Duke Street St James’s London SW1Y 6BN Instructions: The music is loosely based on Camper Van Beethoven’s cover of the song Wasted by The Circle Jerks, (lyrics below) which was chosen because it related to the theme of the exhibition: How the artist’s life is evident in the artwork. Performers: Laurie Anderson, Music Director, conducting, viola Jason Dungan, clarinet Dustin Ericksen, voice Damian Griffiths, guitar Felicity Hammond, voice Paul Hookham, drums Lee Johnson, bass guitar Julian King, guitar Gary McDonald, guitar Carolina Ongaro, voice Sam Porritt, electric piano Philip Serfaty, voice and guitar Jue Sota, pvc tube Jan Hamilton Sota, fiddle Jameela Yaghoob, voice WASTED Performance Section one - solos The players form a circle on the outer edges of the largest room of the gallery. Viewers are able to enter and leave the circle of players comfortably. Each musician plays a phrase from the song as a solo with a simple, dry, minimal sound. Singers sing a verse. Performers are encouraged to diverge from the music and improvise if they would like to. The conductor will indicate when to play and help to keep in time. [There will then be a 10-15 sec pause before the next section which is part of the performance] Section two - performance of “Wasted” Everyone plays the solo together (no vocals) Verse 1 I was a surfer I had a skateboard I was so heavy and I lived on the strand I was a dumb shit And I was a fuck-up I was so napped out I was out of my head I was so wasted Verse 2 I was a hippie And I was a burn-out I was so wasted I was out of my head I was a punker I had a mohawk I was so gnarly and I drove my dad's car I was so wasted Everyone plays/sings the solo, ending with an extra, quicker “ I was so wasted” ©Greg Ginn & Keith Morris 1979 Section three - drone Players disperse through the other four rooms of the gallery moving as independently as possible with their instruments. Drone plays for ca. 10mins. There is then 5 mins of solo drone after which performers sporadically improvise/interject on their own accord. Though the intensity of the music can build, the music should not get louder. __________________________ JUDGMENT A soundtrack performed serially by multiple musicians, spread out in earshot in a circuit. 6 September 2018 The Averard Hotel 10 Lancaster Gate London W2 3LH [Text Wrapping Break][Text Wrapping Break]Instructions: The performance creates a sculptural soundtrack for a still image. The soundtrack elaborates a musical, melodramatic theme in a sculptural, and architectural manner by ‘moving’ around the space. The music is a simple chord progression with a basic rhythmic composition, lyrics and the music is self-arranged by the musicians. The spatial arrangement of the players in the building, and the order of their playing is intended to create movement of sound around the viewers to develop a complex and unique experience; sometimes tuneful, sometimes noisy, often silent. The musicians are spread, distantly, but within earshot of each other, over two floors, 15 rooms and connecting hallways. They are arranged in a circuit. The performance begins with one player or singer playing one note or ‘hit’ of music, then the next player (in space) plays the same (first) bar and continues. Each time around the music gains notes until several bars are played as a theme. The theme overlaps for each player by one bar. In this way, there is a serial expression of sound or quiet throughout the space in both start, playing and finish. The music travels through the buildings like a giant snake with a belly full of canon. This spatial experience of the music mimics the sweeping sound effects in melodramatic cinema, but in this case, the metaphorical ‘sweep’ is replaced by a coordinated physical movement of production of sound across and up and down the building. Performers: Aaron Allerton - guitar Adam Bonser -double bass Emma Christian - vibes Chloë Dichmont - voice Myles Egan - software Dustin Ericksen - banjo Anthony Faroux - drums Damian Griffiths - guitar Paul Hookham - drums Marc Hulson bass Lee Johnson - bass Julian King - guitar Henri Kisielewski - chargé d’affaires Gary MacDonald - guitar Leonardo Muller-Rodriguez - bass Edward Nash - Music Director, guitar Fabian Peake - alto saxophone Neena Percy - alto saxophone Rob Pratt - drums Jue Sota - singing pipe Hugo Trouiller Varaldi - guitar Isabelle Utzinger - keyboard synthesizer Martynas Vaikasas - guitar Alex Vaos - percussion Katie Wilkes - keyboard synthesizer Jameelah Yagoub - voice Maria Zahle - electric piano and voice