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2CD
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UW 009CD
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Repressed. "The Expanding Universe is the classic 1980 debut album by composer and computer music pioneer Laurie Spiegel. The album is reissued here for the first time in a massively expanded two-CD set, containing all four original album tracks plus an additional 15 tracks from the same period, nearly all previously unreleased. Some of the already well-know works included in this set are 'Patchwork', the complete 'Appalachian Grove' series, and 'Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds', which was included on the golden record launched on board the Voyager spacecraft. The pieces comprising The Expanding Universe combine slowly evolving textures with the emotional richness of intricate counterpoint, harmony, and complex rhythms (John Fahey and J. S. Bach are both cited as major influences in the original cover's notes), all built of electronic sounds. These works, often grouped with those of Terry Riley, Phil Glass, Steve Reich, differ in their much shorter, clear forms. Composed and realized between 1974 and 1977 on the GROOVE system developed by Max Mathews and F.R. Moore at Bell Laboratories, the pieces on this album were far ahead of their time both in musical content and in how they were made. Each of the included works broke new ground, pioneering completely new methods of live interaction with computer-based logic - ways of creating music that are now reaching the heights of their popularity with Ableton Live, Max/MSP and other interactive music software entering mainstream music production. The package also includes an extensive 24-page booklet with notes by Laurie Spiegel and period photos."
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LP
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UW 007LP
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"LP version. Limited to 250 copies with alternate artwork (from the CD). Detours is 'Blue' Gene Tyranny's first album of new piano works since 2003's Take Your Time. A beautifully recorded collection of tracks composed between 2004 and 2010, Detours belongs to a rarefied class of supremely listenable and beautiful piano albums that are not encumbered by any new-age shabbiness. It possesses the sort of timeless and elegant romanticism so unpretentious and accomplished it seems to at once effortlessly canonize itself. The four pieces on Detours have their origins in disparate sources of inspiration -- a longtime friend in San Francisco, a chance visit to a Quaker meetinghouse, a choreographed dance, philosophical intuition. Harmonic discourses begin at a pre-determined location and wind up at a totally unexpected place. Tyranny is a master pianist, able to follow mood and impulse to uncharted new territory."
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CD
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UW 008CD
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"First time available since its original release on the Italian Ri-Fi label, Maria Monti's 1974 LP Il Bestario is a rare item even in its native country. Monti is an Italian singer and actress with a noteworthy career, performing as a cabaret singer in the '60s, an ambitious avant-garde folk artist in the '70s, and starring in films by directors such Sergio Leone (Fistful of Dynamite) and Bernardo Bertolucci (1900) all the while. In addition to lyrics by the infamous poet Aldo Braibanti, Il Bestiario features arrangements and synthesizer from legendary avant-garde composer Alvin Curran, as well as the soprano saxophone of jazz-great Steve Lacy. The music of Il Bestiario is a prime example of 'the new art-song' of the 1970s, as Alvin Curran calls it - lush, dynamic and full of intelligence and beauty. Sourced from the original master tapes and remastered by Taylor Deupree. Strictly limited to 500 copies on CD format only. Packaged in a tip-on, mini-LP sleeve with original artwork."
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CD
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UW 007CD
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"Detours is 'Blue' Gene Tyranny's first album of new piano works since 2003's Take Your Time (LCD 1066). A beautifully recorded collection of tracks composed between 2004 and 2010, Detours belongs to a rarefied class of supremely listenable and beautiful piano albums that are not encumbered by any new-age shabbiness. It possesses the sort of timeless and elegant romanticism so unpretentious and accomplished it seems to at once effortlessly canonize itself. The four pieces on Detours have their origins in disparate sources of inspiration -- a longtime friend in San Francisco, a chance visit to a Quaker meetinghouse, a choreographed dance, philosophical intuition. Harmonic discourses begin at a pre-determined location and wind up at a totally unexpected place. Tyranny is a master pianist, able to follow mood and impulse to uncharted new territory. Recommended for fans of Harold Budd, Keith Jarrett, and Robert Ashley."
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CD
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UW 006CD
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"First ever CD reissue of this little known classic from founding Philip Glass Ensemble member Richard 'Dickie' Landry. Following two jazz LPs issued on the Chatham Square label (which he co-ran), Dickie Landry released Fifteen Saxophones, a set of 1974 recordings done with engineer Kurt Munkacsi, on the Northern Lights and Wergo labels in 1978. Fifteen Saxophones simultaneously demonstrates Landry's boundary-pushing saxophone and his understanding of the minimalists' long-form treatises on sound. Using intricate Revox tape delays on 'Fifteen Saxophones', 'Alto Flute Quad Delay,' and the side-long live document 'Kitchen Solos', Landry's strong personality as a player shines through a brilliant wall of sound. It is unsurprising Landry was a fixture in the same New York scene that spawned artists like Richard Serra - something equally monumental exists in the pieces found on this album. This reissue includes new liner notes by Clifford Allen and period photos by Gianfranco Gorgoni."
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LP
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UW 006LP
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2CD
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UW 005CD
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"A 2CD collection of piano works by postminimalist composer Elodie Lauten -- most of which is available for the first time ever on CD. The albums Piano Works (1983) and Concerto for Piano and Orchestral Memory (1984), both reissued here in their entirety with remastered sound, incorporate found and prerecorded sounds into lyrical, minimalist piano works in a highly personal, even baroque, style. They are deeply meditative and expansive but do not require the epic lengths enjoyed by Glass, Reich, Riley. Pop-song length seems to be the standard on these albums, and yet the deep sensitivity of the work is never betrayed by brevity. Contemporary luminaries Arthur Russell and Peter Zummo contribute to the Concerto. Also included in this set is Lauten's performance of her later masterpiece Variations on the Orange Cycle (1991), which was included in Chamber Music America's Century List, and other previously unreleased tracks."
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CD
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UW 004CD
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"CD debut of this 1985 post-minimal landmark by Elodie Lauten. Lauten has been active in the downtown New York classical and punk scenes since moving from France in the 1970s. The Death of Don Juan is a breakthrough for its lyrical minimalism in combination with drama that actively engages a contemporary emotional experience. Originally self-produced and released as a small LP edition on her own label, it has been touted ever since by Kyle Gann, who adds notes to this edition, and was recently included on one of Alan Licht's Minimal Top Ten lists. Features performances by Arthur Russell and Peter Zummo."
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CD
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UW 003CD
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Stunning drone work, rescued from oblivion, and an absolute minimalism classic. "First-ever CD of Carl Stone's debut album, originally released on Joan La Barbara's Wizard Records in 1983. Woo Lae Oak is a 54-minute tape piece based around minimal samples of strings and wind which layer, deconstruct and reform into an expansive, shimmering whole. Remastered for CD, with complete original artwork and new accompanying notes by Phill Niblock."
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CD
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UW 002CD
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"Lubomyr Melnyk's debut album from 1978, KMH, is an unheralded touchstone of minimalism. Performing solo on piano with a speed that suggests multiple pianos playing together in harmony, Melnyk nearly brings out the full sound of the instrument all at once. His music is lush and maximal yet it possesses the restrained, slowly evolving nature found in music by artists like Steve Reich and Terry Riley. Melnyk developed his unique approach to minimalism while working with dancer/choreographer Carolyn Carlson (who also worked with Igor Wakhevitch) in Paris during the 1970s. Carlson's influence led Melnyk to create music that is dramatic enough for the stage yet meditative enough for deep listening, a version of minimalism with the enigmatic traces of Satie. Remastered from the privately produced master tapes with new artwork and an 8-page photo booklet."
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