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LP
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MENT 027LP
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Mental Experience present the first ever vinyl reissue of Thomas Hamilton's Pieces For Kohn, originally released in 1976. Pieces For Kohn, as the title suggests, included four electronic pieces composed by Tom Hamilton as musical responses to 3D geometric paintings by artist Bill Kohn. A renowned audio producer and electronic composer, among other many things, you've probably have seen Tom Hamilton's name in the credits of many albums by Robert Ashley and on releases from labels like Lovely Music, Pogus Productions, New World Records, etc, Tom was first introduced to electronic music in 1965, while he was an undergraduate in Milwaukee, thanks to a lecture by Vladimir Ussachevsky illustrated with examples of electronic composers of the day: Bülent Arel, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Henry, Milton Babbitt. Encouraged by his teacher, Thom David Mason, Tom started to build audio circuits and battery-operated boxes that produced or modified sounds. In 1969, Tom moved to St. Louis. After graduating at Washington University, he was offered a job to design, purchase, and build an electronic music and recording studio there. He now had continuing access to commercially built synthesizers and by the mid-1970s, Tom found that working with electronic music was more satisfying to him than other musical endeavors. The idea for the Pieces For Kohn album came from a studio visit with St. Louis artist Bill Kohn. Tom was an admirer of his work, which combined vibrant color combinations to fulfill 3D geometric and architectural compositions in paintings, prints, and watercolors. Bill proposed that Tom composed music for his art exhibition opening at a famous St. Louis gallery and Tom decided to simultaneously release that work on LP. Tom picked four of the paintings that he liked the most and titled his four pieces correspondingly. The recording took place at the Washington University Electronic Music/Recording Studio -- the studio that Tom designed and first built in 1971 and then moved and rebuilt in 1974 (where it resides to date). The original tapes were performed at the opening of Bill Kohn's exhibit at the Terry Moore Gallery in St. Louis, in January, 1976 and then Tom did a limited pressing of the album on his own label, Somnath Records. Spaced-out bleeps and bloops, and wild ARP synth freak-outs make up this cult electronic album '70s. RIYL: Terry Riley, Morton Subotnick, Vladimir Ussachevsky. Master tape sound; Includes insert with liner notes by Tom Hamilton and photos.
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2CD
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KVIST 006CD
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"Kvist Records presents this 2CD release, reissuing out-of-print works originally released on the artist's own Somnath label. Although Tom Hamilton's more recent CDs (London Fix, Off-Hour Wait State, and Shadow Machine) are well known to fans of electronic music and reviewers alike, his earlier LP recordings became known as underground classics to the collectors of independent music from that era. This 2CD set was made from the original master tapes, and brings to light some of the best work of Hamilton's highly prolific St. Louis years, starting decades before he became involved with musical life in downtown New York. In the 1970s, Hamilton was working in semi-isolation, though connected to a burgeoning arts scene in St. Louis, and developing his idiosyncratic techniques with the ARP and Serge modular analog synthesizers of that era. The first CD, Pieces For Kohn, is comprised of four multi-layered electronic pieces, musical responses to four paintings by artist Bill Kohn. The second CD, Formal & Informal Music, contains the title piece 'Formal & Informal Music' (1980), and 'Crimson Sterling' (1973) -- both featuring improvisations by JD Parran, woodwinds, Rich O'Donnell, percussion, and Hamilton on analog synthesizers. The music on these CDs establish some of Hamilton's most prominent style characteristics: clouds of fast pitches hinting at pointillistic and kinetic imagery; suggestions of tonality without real resolution; and highly-charged rhythms contributing to intricate textures -- sometimes existing on their own, sometimes offering accompaniment to improvising soloists." Includes a 20-page booklet with liner notes by Hamilton and historic photos.
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CD
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MUTABLE 17533
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"Composer Tom Hamilton¹s stunning new CD, Local Customs, explores some obscure notions about music theory and performance practice, leading to sound combinations that are at once unsettling and yet somehow familiar. One discovers that there is very little in Local Customs that follows from conventionally intentional music writing. It is perhaps better to regard it as a group of artifacts of little-known origins, modified through new transformations into something further unexplained. The foundation for the piece is an 'electronic harmony generator' that plays an endless sequence of chords exhibiting curious relationships with no purposeful direction. The musical lines for the ensemble - consisting of flute, clarinets, trombone, contrabass, percussion, and electronic harmony - accumulated from coding and decoding various readings, investigations, and experiences during a summer residency in Italy. Tom Hamilton has been composing and performing for over 40 years, and his work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis. He often explores the interaction of many simultaneous layers of activity, prompting the use of 'present-time listening' on the part of both performer and listener. Hamilton appears on synthesizer in his own ensembles, and has participated in groups led by Peter Zummo, David Soldier, and Michael Schumacher. He has recently performed with Thomas Buckner, Lisle Ellis, Chris Mann, Al Margolis, and Jacqueline Martelle. His CD London Fix received an award in the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica. He is a longtime member of composer Robert Ashley's touring opera ensemble, and his work can be found in over 60 CD releases of new and experimental music."
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