Paradigm is a London-based label documenting lost experimental/contemporary music from the UK. Founded in 1995 by Clive Graham (Morphogenesis), Paradigm Discs has since gone on to put out releases by Pauline Oliveros, Trevor Wishart and Daphne Oram, amongst others.
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4CD BOX
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PD 040CD
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Formed in Cambridge in 1969 by Tim Souster and Roger Smalley, Intermodulation started out as a four-piece group with the addition of Robin Thompson and Andrew Powell (who soon moved on to other Cambridge projects, including a pre-Chris Cutler Henry Cow). Powell was replaced by Peter Britton, and this incarnation of the group remained for the duration of their existence. Having released a box set of works by Gentle Fire, it felt necessary to do the same with Intermodulation and thus complete the other half of this missing chapter in British experimental music. Intermodulation had quite a different line up than Gentle Fire, most notably with Peter's percussion, Robin on bassoon and soprano sax, and the shared use of VCS3's and electric keyboards. Nonetheless both groups covered similar ground, appeared at the same European festivals, travelled together with Stockhausen to Iran, and they were generally concerned with a similar repertoire of experimental scores. Although Intermodulation released no records during their existence (and Gentle Fire only the one LP), both groups did appear side by side on the recording of Stockhausen's Sternklang. This four-CD set aims to cover a wide range of their work. CD one contains the entirety of their 1971 concert at Ely Cathedral (a six-minute excerpt of which appeared on the Not Necessarily English Music compiled by David Toop). CD two focuses on their BBC recordings including excerpts from two Prom performances, one of which is the famous 1970 Prom which had Soft Machine taking the stage in the second half. CD three features material held in the archives of three German radio stations and the fourth disc consists of one work; "World Music" by Tim Souster, the 72-minute opus written for the four players plus tape. In summary, Intermodulation plays five Stockhausen pieces (four of which are realizations of his intuitive text pieces), two Terry Riley pieces and one by Cardew. They also play two compositions by Tim and one by Roger, as well performing two group improvisations. The set comes with a 48-page booklet detailing the groups history. This is a numbered edition of 500.
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PD 041LP
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In 1969, both Anthony and David were at the start of their respective careers and both were inspired by the ideas of the avant-garde and the new technologies becoming available to them. David experimented with the various techniques being explored in the medium of film making and Anthony tested the limits of what could be done with tape recorders. It was an open and co-operative exploration. The results of their first collaboration was the film Mare's Tail -- an unusually long 2:30 hour film of non-linear multi layered audio visual collage filmed in a wide variety of locations interspersed with texts coming from readings and talks, Kabalistic texts, recorded phone calls, loops, children's voices and other found material. The musical dimension is mainly supplied by various struck objects/noise/feedback/field recordings and samples. There are instruments too and listeners even get treated to a small section of what was to become a Slapp Happy tune. The blurry dreamscape/nightmare that slowly unfolds is laden with late '60s delirium. The original master tapes are long gone and all that remains is the audio track on existing copies of the film and various bits of the makeup tapes, most of which were used (but some not), in the final cut. The low grade 16mm audio track (a degraded source to begin with) is further worn with age, subsequent duplication and repeated screenings. It all adds to the haze -- a quality that David would have most likely approved. Edition of 500 numbered copies.
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3CD
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PD 039CD
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Paradigm Discs have not had a physical release by composer and ecologist Michael Prime since the release of Borneo in 2007. This new three-CD set brings us up to date with a series of recordings from across the years. It also sees a new refinement in his working practice as well as a new extension to his original name. Bioelectrical Music by Michael Allen Z Prime consists of recordings that fall into three defined categories: Bioelectrical Compositions, Bioelectrical Field Recordings, and Bioelectrical Installations. All three use the bioelectrical potentials generated by plants and fungi, although these sound sources are now no longer purely seen as raw material available for multi-tracking or further electronic processing of the signal path. Now, the bioactivity signals themselves form the basis of the music. Following a framework of self-imposed rules that restrict the extent that the source sounds can be altered, such that the essential voice of the living sound sources remain identifiable. The development of this framework is a direction that Prime's music has been moving towards for some years now, and this box set collects various recordings made between 1990 and 2019 that fall into the remit of this new development. The pieces included here range from short sound studies to lengthy compositions and installation recordings made at a wide variety of locations. The 3CDs are accompanied by a 44-page booklet with an essay by Prime outlining the history and development of the understanding of plant neurophysiology. There is also a short piece written by author and fungal enthusiast Merlin Sheldrake. Edition of 500 (numbered).
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CD
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PD 038CD
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Coming eight years after Volume 2 and 23 years after the first installment, Volume 3 of Music And Words is the fourth solo release by Adam Bohman on Paradigm Discs. All four releases have focused on his earliest recordings, mostly from the '80s, mostly domestic and all using cassette recorders. There are four principle styles that are employed in this early phase of Adam's work -- most unexpectedly there are songs, often constructed with trumpet as the lead instrument, then more typically there are improvised experimental pieces using homemade stringed instruments. Thirdly, you have "pause pieces" -- consisting of rapid edit collages using found media (typically radio and bargain bin LPs), and the fourth element is Adam's spoken word recordings. Anyone who has met Adam will have seen him recording his observations and thoughts onto a small tape recorder, documenting his way through life. In fact, the Music And Words CD series is roughly 50% composed from these peripatetic "talking tapes". On Music And Words 3, you hear him at the seaside in both Brighton and Clacton-On-Sea. Overall, the CD ranges widely over these various styles, and bursts with ideas and humor. In addition to the four solo releases on Paradigm Discs there is also a compilation track plus his contribution as a member of Morphogenesis on three further CDs. Six-panel card wallet with a four-page insert; Edition of 500.
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PD 037LP
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Reissue, previously released in 1980 on David Toop's Quartz label at a time when improvised music in London was settling into a long spell of excellence. The players here are Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack, Terry Day, and David Toop. Terry had been a member of The People Band in the '60s, one of the groups forming part of the first wave of British improvisation. The rest of the group could be regarded as pioneers of a second generation of improvisers who emerged out of the explosion of musical development that came in the wake of AMM, Derek Bailey, SME, etc. Out of this burst of musical energy a platform soon emerged in the form of the London Musicians Collective. A permanent venue and an open network were soon established and the seeds were planted for a wide range of new and exciting players to explore the possibilities of free improvisation. The first Alterations LP from 1978 exemplifies this, with new ideas literally brought to the table -- alongside the numerous conventional instruments played by the group, a plethora of simple musical toys, sound makers, and homemade instruments were used. Up Your Sleeve is their second LP and operates in a similar territory, but takes things to another level with its casual embrace of noise and feedback, and somewhat controversially for improv; fragments of familiar songs and a hearty indulgence in rhythm. In short, Up Your Sleeve is free improvisation drawn from a very broad range of components. It should be said that all the members of the group were also at the same time in bands that played songs, most notably Steve's involvement with The Slits and The Flying Lizards. David also briefly basked as a Lizard, but all four members were singing the same tune in both The 49 Americans and The Promenaders. Maybe it's not so surprising to hear stylistic clashes exploited on this record. London was awash with musical development in the early '80s. Apart from the burgeoning LMC scene there were many post-punk and experimental groups like This Heat and Swell Maps that enriched the creative atmosphere. London labels like Quartz along with Recommended Records, It's War Boys, Incus, Industrial, United Dairies, and countless others were all releasing ground-breaking experimental music. It was arguably the best time for experimental music in London. There was certainly something in the air. Four-page insert; edition of 500.
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PD 036LP
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This record is divided into two sections. The first part is the title track and takes up most of side one. Ali's Smile was first published in 1971 and was privately released as a one-sided LP, in an edition of 99 copies. It came in a plain sleeve with a hardback copy of the spoken text, and was sold exclusively through Unicorn Bookshop in Brighton, UK. Bill Butler, the bookshop owner, was still paying off a viciously punitive fine and associated court costs imposed in 1968 after a guilty verdict in an obscenity trial. Burroughs, a "fellow American", was only too happy to help out by letting him have the rights to the recording. Rumors abound as to how many copies of the LP actually sold and how many were damaged after having been left on a heater, but, whatever the facts, this magnanimous gesture would still have been very handy. This is the first official reissue of this lost audio recording. A tale of revenge, heartless cruelty and amulet power, muddied with frequent recourse to Scientological references. The rest of the LP is taken up with 33 minutes of audio tape supplied by Burroughs in answer to various questions mailed to him by a freelance journalist. It also includes several readings from material he was working on at the time. The recordings date from 1963, which places them as some of, if not the, earliest in-depth recordings of his readings and thoughts. As this material dates from just before the publication of Nova Express, much of it serves as a useful companion and commentary on his Nova mythology. In the end only about ten minutes of this material ever got broadcast, and was used as part of an illustrated talk on the BBC's Third Programme. Sleeve notes on a numbered insert; edition of 1000.
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3CD
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PD 035CD
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Gentle Fire were a six-, then five-member group of composers/improvisers/performers based in London and Yorkshire. Most of the writings that cover the pioneers of experimental, electronic, and improvised music have given them scant attention. In addition to this, their recorded output is slim, the main item being an out-of-print LP, featuring their interpretations of graphic scores by Cage, Earle Brown, and Christian Wolff. Most of the existing Gentle Fire archive was kept privately by Hugh Davies. After Hugh died in 2005, it was shared between various institutions. This release owes much to Hugh's meticulous record keeping as well as the archives at the British Library and Special Collections at Goldsmiths, University of London. Listening sessions at the British Library were a revelation, it was like discovering a missing link in the evolution of experimental music, but above all it sounded so undated and fresh. The release is divided into three sections. The first CD, recorded between 1970 and 1971 contains four studio and two concert recordings of graphic and text scores: two parts of Stockhausen's Aus den sieben Tagen, and one piece each by Earle Brown, John Cage, Toshi Ichiyanagi, and Christian Wolff. Gentle Fire were active between 1968 and 1974 and were especially active during the early '70s, appearing at numerous European avant-garde festivals. They even ended up in Iran playing in Stockhausen's Sternklang, and improvising at dawn at Hafez's tomb. The second and third CDs focus on their own works; disc two dates from 1973 and was recorded during a two-day residency at Radio Bremen. The five pieces on this disc cover a wide variety of styles and include a 23-minute version of "Group Composition VI" which is their only text-based piece and uses processed and filtered speech. Disc three is a recording of their appearance at ICES 72, a legendary festival that took place at the Roundhouse in London. Over the course of two chaotic weeks a vast number of the world's experimental musicians took to the stage. Miraculously, the whole of the Gentle Fire concert has been preserved. It consists of a performance of their "Group Composition IV", centered around a large metal sculpture that all members of the group could play at the same time. The piece actually had its première the previous year on the original pyramid stage at the first Glastonbury Fair. There are several photos of the event included in the booklet that accompanies the CDs. 48-page booklet; edition of 500 (numbered).
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PD 034LP
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Paradigm Discs present a reissue of Amnon Raviv's Mirror, originally released in Israel in 1983 and only available in a handmade edition of just 50 copies. As such, this edition is the first widely available issue of this LP, giving it a chance to reach an audience beyond the 50 hardened collectors who got to hear this strange experimental record back in the '80s. There's nothing else quite like it from that era, let alone from Israel, although it does have some parallels with earlier avant-garde/outsider music from the US and Europe. It may well be the strangest, as well as one of the most obscure records to come out of Israel. The instruments used are flamenco and acoustic guitar, flute, violin and sax. Some of the playing is free form and some is complex notation, but all the tracks contain collages of effects and noisy field recordings which often dominate the picture -- bubbling water, a chicken farm, feedback, transistor radio, metal percussion, vacuum cleaner, etc. There are some comparisons to be made with Anal Magic and Rev Dwight Frizzell's Beyond The Black Crack from 1976, also reissued on Paradigm (PD 006CD/LP). Mirror has a similar wild and fried atmosphere sitting amidst the open sonic spaces, coupled with some skilled instrumental playing. A notable difference with the Frizzell album is that Frizell's pieces are always titled -- the six pieces here are all untitled. Amnon Raviv is still active as a musician, but he also holds a PhD in medical clowning and his main work these days is as a medical clown, incorporating smiles and laughter as a therapy to help recovering patients on Tel Aviv's cancer wards. This edition comes with new artwork showing Raviv working as a performance artist on the streets of Amsterdam in 1984. Includes 12x12" insert which replicates the original artwork from one of the 50 unique sleeves and contains liner notes by the artist that give insights into the concept behind this album; edition of 500 (numbered).
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PD 033LP
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Captain Maurice Seddon -- a living anachronism. A unique combination of eccentricity and military discipline. He also bore the confidence endowed by an elite public school education, but due to a change of family fortune he was left with no money, and eventually, no job. Far from being snobbish, he faces the world anew and becomes an inventor of heated clothes, with a tremendous willingness to talk to and meet people from all walks of life, cheerfully maintaining and advocating his own exacting standards, occasionally proclaiming a well measured indignation towards the modern age. Somehow he manages to stay (most of the time), on the right side of pomposity, by exuding a calm, forgiving good nature and natural charm. Speaking English, but lapsing into German, only adds to the eccentricity. These recordings were collected by William English from the floor of his cottage shortly after he died and just before the building was demolished. Many other tapes were left behind. The only recordings he made were audio letters, diaries and most prolifically, his phone conversations. The twelve pieces on this LP were recorded between 1968 and 2003 and are mainly made up of phone calls, incoming and outgoing; to TV and radio stations, friends, relatives, his dentist, and sundry others. That anyone would routinely record their phone conversations on a two-way system of their own devising is odd enough, but the sheer range and sometimes bizarre nature of these calls turns them into a strange "objet trouvé", and offers a glimpse into the life of a man who undoubtedly left a strong impression on everyone he came into contact with. Comes with an eight-page 12" insert to help explain it all. Pressed at Optimal in a numbered Edition of 500 (numbered).
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PD 032LP
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Who is Kymatik? Kymatik first appeared on Paradigm Discs back in 1995 with a spontaneous composition created alone in the control room, with all the sounds being derived from a simultaneous improvisation being played in the studio by Morphogenesis. Three years later Paradigm released the full-length Kymatik CD Dar-As-Sulh Vol.1 (PD 015CD), a selection of pieces, some based on purely mathematical ideas, others are more hypnotic pulse based psychedelic soundscapes, some works being performed live in surround sound, with the audience floating on air-beds in a swimming pool. On Anthropological Constants, the first side is mostly taken up with a remixed version of one of these more disorientating soundscapes, structured around dense, ever-shifting and phasing polyrhythms. The piece dates from 1997. The side closes with a short field recording. The second side is one piece that combines elements from two later pieces composed in 1998 and 2001 and uses a similar combination of ambisonic field recordings and abstraction used on the first side. These long tracks still sound strangely contemporary, and as such, are glorious examples of early domestic computer music. The compositions could be said to be loosely akin to the musical areas explored at that time by The Hafler Trio, NWW, Sähkö, and some of the far-reaching aspects of techno music. Kymatik remains anonymous, even the name he goes by is not his real name. For the last few years he has been living in northern Spain and continues to make ambisonic field recordings, which are either released untreated, or used to create further sonic collages. This is his brief statement: "The works on Anthropological Constants straddle a fence between field recording and experimental composition. The intention of each piece is to lead the listener astray in their environment by firstly identifying cues or references, and then slowly transforming them without replacing them with other [more] cues." Vinyl cut at SST and pressed at Optimal. Includes an insert and download code; Edition of 500.
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PD 006LP
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Paradigm Discs present a 40th anniversary vinyl reissue of Anal Magic And Rev. Dwight Frizzell's Beyond The Black Crack. It was originally released in mono, in an edition of 200 by Cavern Custom in 1976. Beyond the Black Crack was the concept of Reverend Dwight Frizzell, a musician, film maker, doctor of metaphysics and minister in the Universal Church of Life. Mentioned on the pivotal Nurse With Wound list, it remains a little known classic and one of the most unique listening experiences in modern experimental music. Recorded between 1974 and 1976 in locations as diverse as factories, the pyramid opposite Harry Truman's grave site, as well as more "conventional" concert settings. Beyond The Black Crack is a dark, dizzying and exhilarating journey through free jazz, electronics and environmental sound, all shattered by Frizzell's radical tape editing. This reissue has been remastered from the tapes. Includes a four-page booklet with photos from the time; Pressed at Optimal in an edition of 500 (numbered).
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PD 031LP
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2020 restock. William Burroughs was in and out of London from the mid-50s to 1974 and for several years quite settled in a flat near Piccadilly. During this latter time he developed and refined the techniques he used for creating cut-ups on tape. Working closely with Ian Sommerville, who helped acquire, and no doubt maintain, the various tape recorders that Burroughs used and abused in these experimental works. The work here is in two sections, which in their original form lasted for over an hour and first appeared in 1998 under the name Electronic Revolution as a free CD with Issue One of the French magazine Crash. The CD was quickly withdrawn with maybe only 100 copies finding their way into circulation. This edition is edited down to 46 minutes and comprises the core of the original recording. It employs the now familiar techniques of random drop-ins and cut-ups of readings. The readings themselves are also cut-ups of words on the page. The first section of the tape uses further processing by means of a second tape recorder. Recorded in Duke Street in 1968, the tape was then passed on to Brion Gysin in Paris where it remained in his archive until 1998. This is the first readily available edition of an hypnotic and meditative recording that examines the hidden power of words. Closer to work of sound poetry than anything literary. The album includes a 12"x12" insert with an essay by Ben Harper and several previously unseen portrait photos of Burroughs, taken by Harriet Crowder in her Hammersmith flat during a drug experiment. The back cover uses another Crowder image - the very next frame after the famous shot that appeared on the cover of the English Bookshop/ESP Call Me Burroughs LP (1965). Pressed at Optimal on transparent vinyl. Edition of 500 (numbered).
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PD 030CD
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"Music and Words 2 is the much-delayed second installment in an ongoing series of archival documents of Adam Bohman's early work. As with the first volume, this CD is divided into two separate areas of his work. Adam is probably best known as an improviser, playing prepared instruments and objects, but the music here uses little of these purely-improvised techniques. On this CD, the musical sections consist of idiosyncratic lo-fi songs alongside short collage pieces and other experiments, recorded on stereo and 4-track cassette recorders. Most of these pieces date from the early '80s, but the earliest recording is from 1977. The spoken-word sections on this CD are centered on excerpts from three talking tapes -- a trip to Southend, a concert series in Wiesbaden and a day in the life, in London. Anyone who has known Adam for any length of time will know that he frequently records his observations to a small portable cassette recorder. These are often recorded for friends and music contacts from all over the world. As with the musical contributions, all of these cassettes exist in very small quantities, and often they are editions of only one copy. Although there is an obvious difference in these two types of recorded material, there exists a light and humorous common thread that runs through many of the 28 tracks. This is the third solo release from Bohman on Paradigm Discs. He also appears on all three of the Morphogenesis CDs, and contributed to the first-ever Paradigm release, Variations, a compilation of London-based artists from 1995." --Clive Graham
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PD 029LP
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Originally created as a 6-part radio series in 1965, and released in 1966 by Sveriges Radio. This is the first LP recording by either of these composers. Recorded at EMS (Elektron Musik Studion), the newly established studio facility at Swedish Radio. This pioneering work did not easily fit in any category that existed at the time. Inspired by the work of Öyvind Fahlström (who was a pioneer of concrete poetry along with the Lettrists and Futurists), a few young Swedish artists began exploring new text-based experiments. The only other artist releasing records of similar soundworks at this early time in Sweden was Åke Hodell who had released two 7" singles. These Swedish sound poets differ in style from their other European counterparts mainly due to their easy access to the high quality facilities available at EMS, with its own in-house engineers and sophisticated studio equipment. Given the close relationship at that time between EMS and the national Swedish radio station, their works often have a strong narrative (radio art) quality. Semikolon is one such work. By 1967, Bodin and Johnson had together finally agreed upon a term for this particular style of sound poetry; text-sound composition. This term was then taken up by other Swedish artists working in the same field including Hodell and Sten Hanson, and soon became internationally-recognized. The following year Bodin and Johnson in association with Fylkingen inaugurated the first annual festival of text-sound composition. This international festival, and the commissions it gave rise to, became a major part of the work at Fylkingen and EMS. The festival ran for 10 years. 7 LPs from the early years were released by Sveriges Radio and more recently Fylkingen have compiled the series as a 5CD set. Naturally, both artists were included in the festivals, but they also created a large body of work which appeared on many of the essential anthologies of European sound poetry at the time, including the Revue OU and Klankteksten (released by the Stedelijk Museum in 1970 to accompany their exhibition of concrete poetry), as well as other international compilations. Both artists have also worked in the area of pure electro-acoustic composition, and these works are also mostly available on compilations. This record though, is a collaboration rather than a compilation and retains a timeless contemporary feel that is shared with other radio art projects like the Hörspiel Heute series released by Luchterhand in the '70s. This new vinyl edition of the original LP adds an extra 7-minute composition by Bodin, also taken from the original Semikolon radio series. Includes 4-page, hand-numbered insert; edition of 300.
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PD 009CD
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2013 repress, originally released in 1999. When did you last hear a laugh-out-loud avant garde album? Paradigm Discs is hard-pressed to think of any. Roland Topor's Panic is a goodie, or some of the antics of the Selten Gehörte Musik gang, but this is funnier, and the label's own personal favorite Paradigm release. Bohman's personal approach to music has always shown a preference for the raw and unprocessed, although his three releases on Paradigm with Morphogenesis often use signal processing. On his first solo recording for Paradigm all the played music (except for one piece that uses slowed down and backwards sounds), consist of unprocessed sounds from the surfaces of a wide variety of objects that utilize a broken violin at its core. This CD attempts to cover the full variety of his different working practices which have been slowly evolving since the mid-'80s. In particular there is a total of over 30 minutes taken from one of his many "talking tapes," previously only heard by the few as audio letters, and much treasured by their recipients (there is also an example featured on the first London compilation on Paradigm Discs). These tapes consist of on-the-spot lo-fi cassette recordings of his observations, both humorous, mundane and personal. Special attention is given to colors, signage and vernacular architectural detail, and favored locations include: overseas visits, public toilets, restaurants and public transport, but it is the unpretentious wit and dedication that make these tapes so enduring. The sounds of the environment, the faulty recording mechanism and the frequent use of the pause button give these pieces an almost concrète, sound text feel. This "talking tape" dates from Christmas, 1994. There are also three "pause pieces" dating from 1990, which are multi-tracked, rapid collages of pre-recorded sound material, also recorded on cassette recorders. This uses a similar technique (although independently developed), as that used by Anton Bruhin on his InOut CD on Alga Marghen. Finally there are four multi-tracked studio recordings, and one live concert recording. Crucial to all these pieces is the element of improvisation. Bohman has collaborated with a diverse cross-section of improvisers, from Lol Coxhill to Joseph Hammer, and is one-half of the ongoing theater/improv duo The Bohman Brothers.
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PD 025CD
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2021 restock Although Machine was completed in 1971, it was not released until 1973, shortly after the release of his Journey Into Space. Machine is therefore the first major composition by Trevor Wishart. It was composed at York University and was originally issued on vinyl as three sides of a highly adventurous 3LP box set called Electronic Music from York, on the University's own record label. In common with Journey Into Space (also on Paradigm Discs), Machine makes use of a large number of volunteer contributors, mostly from the student body at York. With this recording, however, there are no instruments used. Instead, the music of Machine is made up entirely from a combination of spoken text, carefully directed improvising choirs that take their lead from pre-recorded factory sounds. These are extensively mixed and edited with yet more collected machine sounds and other sources of musique concrète, as well as occasional use of basic electronic sources. The scale of this work, and the degree of preparation involved in scoring it, seems to have more resonances with the world of theater or film rather than tape composition. Much of Wishart's early work involved the use of musicians and artists being directed to perform in new ways, outside of their usual remit. A combination of late '60s openness, detailed scores that provide frameworks for improvisation and slavish editing have resulted in an incomparable sound work. With a continuous playing time of one hour, the wild and previously-unexplored terrain covered by this pioneering work of British experimental music moves in turn through the full range of possible audio landscapes from the oceanic calm of the doldrums to ear-splitting factory mayhem.
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PD 023CD
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2007 release. When the Los Angeles Free Music Society 10CD set came out, much to Paradigm Discs' surprise, the early compilation I.D. Art #2 was not included in this otherwise major overview of the LAFMS. I.D. Art #2 was the second LP release on their label, coming after Le Forte Four's Bikini Tennis Shoes LP, and before the 2LP Live at the Brand, a split album between Le 44 and The Doo-Dooettes. It dates from 1976 and is also probably the most difficult LP on their catalog to find. Originally released in an edition of just 200 copies, most of which were given out to the 44 artists and groups who appeared on this extraordinary LP. The deal was that each track was paid for by the contributor at a rate of $8 per minute in exchange for four copies of the disc. Consequently, very few copies were ever made available via the LAFMS mail order service. With a running-time of 66 minutes and the sheer variety of contributions, I.D. Art #2 remained for most people a mysterious and tantalizing item. Most of the contributors came from the students at Otis Art Institute in L.A., and many make their only recordings ever for this disc. Among the known names from the LAFMS scene are: Le Forte Four, Joe Potts, Fredrick Nilsen, Mr. Foon, Ace & Duce, Dennis Mehaffey, as well as six tracks by Smegma. Other artists include the painter Miles Forst, violinist Josie Roth, film makers Doug Henry and Gary Beydler, mail artist and dog portrait painter Irene Dogmatic, Otis librarian Joan Hugo, graphic designer Kathe Schreyer, and many other creative artists and designers at the start of their careers who submitted their audio ideas, be it via telephone, in subways, recontextualizing old vinyl, philosophizing, story-telling, being abstract, joking, rehearsing and even playing instruments. This exhilarating journey, bursting with ideas, was compiled by Joe Potts and Waynna Kato.
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PD 024CD
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2007 release. Bob Downes is most often thought of as a jazz flautist, composer and group leader, but throughout his varied career that has included such diverse musical activity as working with the John Barry Seven and playing on Egg's second LP, he also had his own fluid conceptual group Open Music with principle bass player Barry Guy and drummer Denis Smith. Other players that passed through Open Music include Chris Spedding, Kenny Wheeler, Ray Russell, Ian Carr, Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett, Harry Miller, Barre Phillips, John Stevens, and many others. Besides the free jazz and jazz rock influences, Bob Downes has also been involved in much experimental music. After his early '70s releases on Philips, Vertigo and Music For Pleasure, there appeared a series of three private-pressed LPs on his own label Openian that explored this more experimental style. Episodes at 4AM is the second in this series and is by far the strangest of the three. Released in 1974 and commissioned by the Welsh Dance Theatre, it consisted of 10 short duos performed by Wendy Benka on zither, dulcimer and small percussion, and Downes on flutes, various percussion and plenty of electronic manipulation. Nearly every sound on this LP was processed using a variety of shimmering delays, controlled feedback, reverb and speed change to create a haunting and delirious mix of musical styles and atmospheres. Taken from the master tapes, this 33-minute LP has been expanded for the CD release with 35 minutes of previously-unreleased experimental works, mostly from the same period, that cover even more ground than the LP, including one piece made entirely from the sounds of various phone booths on the streets of New York.
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2CD
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PD 022CD
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2007 release. Britain's best-known sound poet is Bob Cobbing, but it's hard to come up with a list of other sound poets working in Britain in the '60s and '70s. It's equally difficult to think of any female sound poets working anywhere. Lily Greenham was Danish, but spent her childhood in Vienna. After several relocations across Europe, she settled in London in 1972 with her British husband (musician and poet Peter Greenham), where she lived until her death in 2001. Nearly all of her own writings and compositions date from after her arrival in London, but prior to her arrival in London she had been involved in two major European art movements. In the late '50s she had been an active member of the early Wienner Gruppe, performing in their wild experimental theater works and reciting the new poetry of young artists like Gerhard Rühm, Konrad Bayer and A.C. Hartmann, but before the Wienner Gruppe had established itself as the important art movement it was to become, she had moved on and changed her working practice. In 1964, she was back in Paris for a second time, but this time she was working as a visual artist specializing in optical art. She was soon directly involved in group shows with the Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel. For the second time, she was at the center of an emerging art movement that was exploring new ground, but predictably enough, she moved on. Once in London, she began to record her own text-based compositions that used a mixture of sound poetry techniques, electronics and multi-tracking. The term "lingual music" that she coined for her compositions refers to her technique of using tape loops of text to create complex and dense musical structures. Her most well-known composition in this style is "Relativity," which was made in 1974 in collaboration with the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC. She also worked with quite a few musicians, both via the early LMC network in London, but also on an international scene. A list of musicians she worked with includes John Tchicai, Wolfgang Dauner, Bob Downes, Barry Guy, Hugh Davies, Max Eastley and Peter Cusack. This 2CD set compiles a wide variety of her own work, including live solo performances, film soundtrack pieces, as well as many tape pieces. There are also examples of her performing works by Cobbing, Rühm and other sound poets, as well as recordings of her work with Bob Downes Open Music. The recordings date from between 1968 and 1984.
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PD 026CD
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2010 release. This 2CD is essentially a retrospective of Max Eastley's installation work. As such, it updates and adds many new examples to the 1975 release New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments, which was released as a split LP with David Toop on Brian Eno's Obscure Records. This is Eastley's first solo CD. Of the 35 tracks, only the last two have any guests (the most virtuosic moment being George Lewis playing a grass blade). All the other pieces are either powered by the natural forces of wind and water, or else are motor-driven gallery installations. The ethereal sounds of the aoelian harps, the haunting aeolian flutes, and the violent tension of his aerophone installations are hallmark Eastley sounds. These sounds, and many others, sit amidst a wide range of acoustic settings, from windy hill-tops to quiet brooks, residential street scenes to coastal shores. The indoor recordings are no less varied, ranging across a rich variety of acoustics and gallery spaces from tiny micro-sounds to large-scale amplification. Wood, metal and stone are brought to life with electricity. Although there are many photos in the 20-page booklet, much is left to the imagination to work out how the sounds are made. With this limited access to the visual, the focus is pulled towards the musicality of the sounds themselves. This musicality is reinforced by the slow cross-fades of most of the pieces from indoors to outdoors to form a series of suites. The recordings mostly date from the mid-'70s, but there are pieces from later decades. Nearly everything was recorded either to Revox or Uher and occasionally cassette, using what microphones were available at the time. Recent recordings are digital. The varying quality of the recording set-ups across this 2CD adds yet another dimension to the shifting sound fabric of this anthology.
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PD 021CD
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2024 restock. Daphne Oram is best-known for the design of her Oramics system, and also for co-founding the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1957, but until the release of this material, the only easily-available piece of music by her on CD was the 8-minute long "Four Aspects." There was also a 7" EP from 1962 on HMV, released as part of the Listen, Move and Dance series that was specifically designed to help children dance. Although the short pieces on this record are very basic, it could be argued that this is the first-ever electronic dance record! This is a survey of nearly all the major pieces that she produced since her departure from the BBC in January 1959 until her final tape piece in 1977. During this time, she worked independently in her home studio, and thanks to a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation in 1962, she was able to pursue her interests. In Britain there were no state-funded studios other than the Radiophonic Workshop, which mainly existed at the behest of the drama studio and was not generally seen as a place to develop personal artistic ideas. There were also no university studios at this time, so it was necessary for British electronic composers to be self-funded. Throughout this period, she devoted her attention to developing her Oramics "drawn sound" system, which consisted of a large machine that enabled drawn patterns to be converted into sound. This system was eventually fully realized in the late '60s and several pieces here incorporate its use. The two and-a-half hours of music on this 2CD set covers the whole range of Oram's post-BBC output. All of the music is electronic with some occasional use of real instruments, especially small percussion and piano frame. There is also some use of musique concrète techniques. The works fall roughly into the following categories: works for TV and cinema advertising, film soundtracks, music for theater productions, installations and exhibitions as well as concert pieces and several studio experiments. There are also a few short pieces that resulted from an experimental music course given by Oram at a high school in Yorkshire in 1967.
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PD 020CD
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2006 release. Paradigm Discs presents this much in-demand reissue of the first album from Gravity Adjusters Expansion Band from 1973. Although the Gravity Adjusters Expansion Band (GAEB) started in 1967, they remain one of the long-lost and underestimated groups that explored the areas of sound sculpture, improvisation, experimental music and free jazz. The group have their roots in playing in and around the San Francisco Bay Area, and finally recorded their first LP in Los Angeles. Free jazz drummer Lee Charlton seamlessly shifts the moods from jazzy phrasing into the far more abstracted ideas of the world of sound sculpture. It is this abstract world where the GAEB mostly reside, using the invented instruments of multi-media artist Richard Waters, many of whose percussive and bowed instruments incorporate water-filled resonators to bend and tune the sound. Although many other improvisers at the time like AMM, MEV, Sonde and Taj Mahal Travellers all made extensive use of home-made and adapted instruments, the GAEB are a very different concern with their own unmistakable identity. Their first LP One appeared in 1973 on Nocturne Records, a small Californian label. It was the first of their two LPs, the second appearing some eight years later. This CD edition is a reissue of the first LP from the master tapes and also contains some 15 minutes of extra material from the time.
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PD 017CD
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2001 release. Like Volume 1, this CD also contains excerpts from three concerts (all in London this time) and a studio piece. Morphogenesis plays a few concerts a year, almost always in London. Concerts have always yielded their most varied material, but until now, their CDs have mainly documented their studio work. Both volumes of In Streams redress this. Of the concerts; one is a whole piece from the Spitz concert organized by Eddie Prévost, then there is a short extract from the Red Rose which has an ominous feel to it that is only partially due to the hostile audience. Finally, there is the whole of their Sonic Youth support gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire which also has some interesting audience reactions -- the initial cheer of approval on this piece was not because we had finally started, but rather due to a well-aimed missile from the front row. This release comes in similar packaging as Volume 1.
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CD
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PD 018CD
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2002 release. York University's music department houses one of the UK's first-ever electronic music studios, and during the early '70s, it was a hotbed of creative activity. Much of the released output from the studio at this time revolved around the work of the dynamic composer Trevor Wishart. Journey Into Space was his first release, composed between 1970 and 1972, and was privately-pressed (shortly before the formation of YES records), as two separate LPs in 1973. (The CD cover amalgamates the two original designs). Along with other early private releases of experimental music in the UK (i.e. the LP of sound poems by Cobbing/Jandl, or the LP of musique concrète by Desmond Leslie), this record is also a total anomaly in the canon of British experimental music and has little to do with the current, or even subsequent work by Wishart. The vast length of this piece has many different styles. There are acoustic sections, mostly of junk and toys (bike bells, squeeze horns, bottles, metal tubes, combs, etc.) as well as flute and brass sections that are used as raw material. There are also sections of everyday field recordings, scraps of NASA Apollo transmissions, as well as plenty of multitracking, editing, vocal acrobatics and musique concrète. Among the 48 participants credited on the original sleeve are a whole roster of York University alumni including nearly all the artists who were showcased on the soon-to-be released 3LP box set Electronic Music from York, along with other noteworthy students as diverse as Steve Beresford, Jonty Harrison, Roger Marsh, Dominic Muldowney, Bernard Rands and Jan Steele. The co-operative spirit of York's music and drama departments, plus the raw enthusiasm and open attitude of the participants involved in the project gave this music an immediacy, similar to the later LAFMS scene.
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CD
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PD 015CD
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2001 release. The name Kymatik is derived from the Greek word "Kyma," meaning "a great wave," and was used by Swiss physicist Hans Jenny as a descriptive term for the effects he saw using amplified tones to manipulate/create patterns in fluids and powders. More recently, Jenny's research has led him to use these findings in a clinical environment for both therapy and healing. These ideas and the use of ambisonic surround-sound equipment are the underlying influences on this CD. On this CD, there are both environmental recordings as well as compositions that make use of UHJ encoding to enable ambisonic playback. Of the compositions, the musical styles range from the use of dense rhythmic patterns to subtle shimmerings and a pure tone piece that sounds like nothing you have ever heard before. The short environmental recordings are spaced between the compositions and offer some light relief from the intensity of these works. One thing all the pieces have in common -- a strong psychoacoustic effect which can be further enhanced for those fortunate enough to have access to a UHJ decoder.
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