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Search Result for Artist Stephen O'Malley
viewing 1 To 12 of 12 items
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LP
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DC 880LP
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"Cylene II is the new materialization of the collaboration between François J. Bonnet & Stephen O'Malley, initiated in 2018 and continued without interruption since then, taking form in a myriad of contexts ranging from common practice to recording sessions, concerts and tours. Cylene II bears witness to these different contexts, offering a multifaceted sound signature developed on different occasions The epic opening track 'Four Rays (Anti Divide)' welcomes, for the first time, other musicians -- in this case a wind quintet -- expanding the duo's sonic palette without betraying the fundamental component of their music, namely the driving of sonic energy. Elsewhere, Bonnet and O'Malley propel the energy between themselves, extending the singular climate that has characterized their musical development over the past five years. Among their minimal presentation of tones and resonances, as glacial harmonic intersections slowly elevate with massive physicality to an orchestral degree, new refinements become evident: the music's relationship to silence, and a brightening of the fine metallic edge glowing at its core. For the listener, Cylene II is a sound that reaches from the deep and scales up to the far firmament in its careful motion, drawing emotions viscerally from the chest, giving rise to the suggestibility of the soul. A séance of sorts for all who witness it, whether playing or listening."
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2LP
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SHELTER 146LP
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Sept duos pour guitar acoustique et piano préparé is the second duo recording from Stephen O'Malley and Anthony Pateras. Their first together, Rêve Noir (2018), took an electro-acoustic scalpel to a 2011 duo concert for electric guitar and piano, using Revox and digital treatments to twist and smear gig documentation into ghostly echoes and fractured drones. Here, in contrast, the music is entirely acoustic and presented as it was performed, without overdubs. Both players' choices of instruments are notable: this is O'Malley's most extensive recording on steel string acoustic guitar (playing an instrument whose previous owners include Marissa Nadler and Glenn Jones) and Pateras return to the prepared piano, which he has rarely employed in recent years, after spending much of the first decade of the 21st century exploring its possibilities. Each piece has its own character, subtly distinguished from the others through mood, pacing, and timbre. While the music is calm, rippling surface is immediately entrancing, these seven duos -- in the tradition of the best improvised music -- also reward close listening, which reveals sonic details and focuses the listener's attention on how the music unfolds spontaneously from decision to decision, from gesture to gesture. Recorded during a period when O'Malley and Pateras were grieving the loss of recently departed friends and collaborators, these seven duos possess a reflective, at times almost mournful quality. More importantly, though, they are imbued with other qualities that can arise from personal loss: a clarity that allows one to clear away the inessential, to begin again, to renew one's faith in friendship and music.
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12"
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REP 2226EP
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One-sided EP with screen print on B-side. No two FIRE! records sound the same, but with Requies they venture into uncharted territory. Musically ever expanding and no strangers to collaborations, FIRE! this time team up with no other than the one and only Stephen O'Malley from Sunn O))) and David Sandström from legendary Swedish hardcore punk band Refused for a truly epic 21-minute ebb and flow journey starting with church bells and ending in a whirlwind of postpunk energy. Spellbinding stuff. Flip it over and discover the stunning silk screen print courtesy of Kim Hiorthøy on the B-side. Strictly limited to 1000 numbered copies, this is a most desirable object you don't want to miss. FIRE!'s debut album, You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago (RCD 2091CD/RLP 3091LP), was released in 2009 to wide international acclaim. "The basic strategy of pairing the expressive energy of free jazz with a sturdy sense of groove has yielded something potent and self-contained" (New York Times). Between their debut and their previous album Defeat (RCD 2217CD/RLP 3217LP, 2021) there's been five albums, including collaborations with Jim O'Rourke (Unreleased?, RCD 2111CD/RLP 3111LP, 2011) and Oren Ambarchi (In The Mouth A Hand, 2012). Mats Gustafsson - bass sax, organ and live electronics; Johan Berthling - electric bass; Andreas Werliin - drums; Stephen O'Malley - guitar; David Sandström - drums.
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LP
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EMEGO 278LP
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"Produced within the context of 'The Guidebook of Church Burners' publication release, this performance was recorded at visual arts institution LE BAL in Paris, May 4th 2018. Published by Païen in a limited edition, the book explores and transforms into an abstract narration the multiple facets of black metal iconography and history. Emerging from a dialogue between sound and image, the otherworldly piece created for that evening by Stephen O'Malley is a result of this collaboration." --Emilie Lauriola Cover photo by Elodie Lesourd, Charleroi 2017. Mix and mastered by Stephan Mathieu, Schwebung November 2019. Vinyl cut at Schnittstelle, Berlin December 2019.
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2LP
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EMEGO 262LP
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First time outing from two ardent explorers of peripheral sound tactics. Cylene is the first collaboration by François J. Bonnet (Kassel Jaeger) and Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))). Laid bare, you have a subtle and nuanced study of their individual practices forming a titanic whole. O'Malley's guitar inscribes a void that patiently opens up a spacious universe for Bonnet to discreetly alter with perception re-orientating studio maneuvers. Cylene is infinitely rewarding for those that succumb to its delicate detours. A vast glacial plain unfurls slowly upon the listener invoking a mood similar to the stillness found following despair. As Joseph Ghosn succinctly outlines in his liner notes, "Stephen and François deal in those moments and instants that happen after the violence, and the ugliness and the mess. Their music is about chaos being summoned and ordered. It is about the noise that nurtures your ears after a long heartbreaking pain. I have heard the sounds of wars being fought and the noises of hearts being broken, and I have never found a shelter as soothing as this music which makes me think of sunken ships and beauty found in the depths of oceans long forgotten." Art direction: Stephen O'Malley. Portrait photographer: Eléonore Huisse. Recorded at GRM Studios, Paris May 2018. Edited and mixed by François Bonnet at GRM studios, Paris August 2018. Mastering by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin January 2019.
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2LP
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IDEAL 136LP
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Stephen O'Malley on Fuck Fundamentalist Pigs upon its initial release in December 2015: "On 8 January 2015, the day following the Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris (the city I have called home for the last eight years), I started a week-long tour of Norway. During this jaunt I faced the toxic reality daily of the horrible blossoming events intermittently via television. . . . The Trondheim concert on 9 January (depicted here) happened on a particularly intense day in this timeline... and was personally a true example of the purging power of immersion in music. Through a web of emotions resolving distance, disintegration, the intense power of the moment and the brutal fundamentalist, cultural and psychological aspects behind. . . Like most of us I have also sometimes fallen for the constant baiting toward anger, outrage, paranoia and fear in the daily life, often but not always misdirected, but it is not debilitating by any means. It's clear that as an experimental guitar player I have absolutely no political power (or even ability to articulate in those forms) but it's important to take the opportunity to say 'fuck you' in these situations. To the fascist and fundamentalist movements. To the absurding of the worst sides of monotheistic belief systems. And not only the perpetrators behind these events but also on other sides including the reactive and opportunistic. Those with most to gain are the underlying authoritarians in our own societies who have opportunities to implement and increase their control even further for their gains. The 'security' changes we face in fact may also result in yet further increase in the loss of liberty and freedom. The reactions aimed toward increased separation of cultures, xenophobia, nationalism, and especially racism are highly regrettable. I hope these recordings offer a small sense of solace in the time, even for the few hundred who hear them. . . . For the concert on this record we had a massive backline with beautiful vintage Hiwatt amplifiers, and two PAs (including a Funktion One) in the small venue Blæst, the night hosted by Nymusikk. . . . This record is actually the third part of a trilogy of live solo guitar records we intended to be released on iDEAL during spring 2016." Mastered and cut by Matt Colton; Edition of 700 (hand-numbered).
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LP
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IDEAL 135LP
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Limited 2017 repress. End Ground forms the 3rd and final installment in a series of records documenting the solo prowess of Sunn 0)))'s Stephen O'Malley released on Sweden's iDEAL Recordings. It was performed on electric guitar thru Sunn model T amps, and captured on zoom H4 at Centre Cultural Suisse, Bad Bonn Carte Blanche, Paris, France, on October 18th, 2013. In solo mode, stripped of his usual accomplices and collaborators, O'Malley is no less than an elemental force. His durational meditations absorb and consume with steady-handed wave after wave of charred, sustained, and sub-harmonized chords casting the mesmerizing minimalist practice of La Monte Young into the physicality of Black Sabbath's original, heavy metal die. The A-side/first half of this 45 minute performance features O'Malley tentatively coaxing out languorous riffs which turn the air around him to a pensive, vibrating mush. As the 2nd half dawns he begins to deliver more crushing blows, drawing out and subsiding the chords with a patented, gut-wrenching and vivifying power that transcends rock, avant-garde, minimalism -- all of that -- to awaken dormant senses not usually experienced with other musics or concise temporality. As with many of the most affective heavy drone recordings by Sunn 0))), among others, a modicum of patience is required in order to attain the right state for reception, but once your mind and body are malleable, the impact is deliciously visceral, primal and whelming. Mastered and cut by Matt Colton. Individually hand-numbered edition of 700 copies.
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2LP
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SHELTER 060LP
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This double LP documents Stephen O'Malley's Eternelle Idole, his score for Paris-based choreographer Gisèle Vienne's artistic ice-skating piece of the same name. Comprising 47 minutes of music spread over three sides and enhanced by an elegant and chilling photoset by Estelle Hanania, the album features familiar O'Malley collaborators Steve Moore, Daniel O'Sullivan, Peter Rehberg, Jesse Sykes, Bill Herzog, and Randall Dunn. Recorded between Brest, France; Seattle; and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the score sees O'Malley taking several creative detours, utilizing modular synthesizers and programming as key elements for much of the composition. Eerie keyboard- and piano-phrases draw a white, monochrome stage for a young girl's stark and emotive elegy. Clavichord and guitars weave through the darkness, supported by Sykes's prophetic voice. Mirroring the score, Hanania's 16 photographs of the choreographic piece display the grace, sustain, geometry, telemetry, distance, and perfection of ice-skating, as well as possible falls and gloomy shadows. Metal against ice; tights and knots; spirals and scratches; shouts and winds -- field recordings mold a crispy atmosphere while instruments draw lakes, ice skating rings, cosmic belts, and a terrestrial cloud passage and eventual landing platform for a flying saucer. 160-gram white double LP with 16-page, 30 x 30-cm, saddle-stitched, full-color booklet in 350-gram sleeve with gloss varnish. Edition of 500.
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LP
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DDS 013LP
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Restocked, last copies. The dark interpreter Stephen O'Malley ov Sunn O))) presents his towering orchestral composition Gruidés, commissioned by French 35-piece improv orchestra ONCEIM -- l'Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisation Musicales -- and released thru Demdike Stare's DDS label. In early 2014 O'Malley was approached by pianist and composer Frédéric Blondy to write a work for the orchestra, which is made up of exceptional musicians from the fields of contemporary, jazz, experimental, improvisation, and classical. Understandably intimidated by the prospect, but encouraged to "just be punk rock about it," the preternaturally gifted composer has conceived a technically demanding -- for the players, at least -- and richly rewarding long-form drone piece intently focused on harmonic experimentation and overtone study. During its 35-minute lifespan, Gruidés requires the musicians to sustain pitches for several minutes (which is difficult enough for strings, and a real feat of endurance for woodwind), yielding spectra of eliding dissonance rent in sliding tone clusters and lucent geometries punctuated by a similar whipcrack percussion to that used in Sunn O)))'s 2014 collaboration with Scott Walker. It makes great use of the acoustic qualities of Saint Merry church in central Paris, as captured in the recording of IRCAM's Augustin Muller and mastered by Matt Colton with a detached spaciousness evocatively distilled in Jean-Luc Verna's cover art. It's an incredibly immersive piece that comes highly recommended if you're into the work of Phill Niblock, Alvin Lucier, Ellen Fullman, Harley Gaber, and, indeed, Sunn O))).
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2LP
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WEAVIL 047LP
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2LP version. Having played together in Æthenor for the last couple of years, Steve Noble and Stephen O'Malley came together to play as a duo at Café OTO in 2011. These recordings are the result of these two hot and sticky nights in East London. Noble is a regular at Bo' Weavil Recordings, having appeared on over nine recordings for the label, and a linch pin in London's improvising community. So it was bound to be a memorable night of music to see these two meet. Steve Noble studied with Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde in the early 1980s and over the last 20 years has played with most of the great players from all four corners of the globe. Stephen O'Malley is predominantly a guitarist, producer and composer who has been at the center of avant-garde/drone metal, best known for his group Sunn0))), and also a prolific collaborator with many of the finest improvisers. Noble sets the recording off with a full tribal charge, while Stephen, instead of firing off a shard of ecstatic notes and chords, coaxes his guitar into singing a slow, ever-growing roar. But soon the two are off into some wild, creative rampages -- exciting drum and guitar territory sounding at times not too dissimilar to Haino's Fushitsusha, brutally beautiful, shredded riffs from O'Malley meet with Noble's exuberant rhythmic force . On St. Francis Duo, the memory of these two nights can be heard in full violent sonic attack. Last copies on vinyl...
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CD
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WEAVIL 047CD
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Having played together in Æthenor for the last couple of years, Steve Noble and Stephen O'Malley came together to play as a duo at Café OTO in 2011. These recordings are the result of these two hot and sticky nights in East London. Noble is a regular at Bo' Weavil Recordings, having appeared on over nine recordings for the label, and a linch pin in London's improvising community. So it was bound to be a memorable night of music to see these two meet. Steve Noble studied with Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde in the early 1980s and over the last 20 years has played with most of the great players from all four corners of the globe. Stephen O'Malley is predominantly a guitarist, producer and composer who has been at the center of avant-garde/drone metal, best known for his group Sunn0))), and also a prolific collaborator with many of the finest improvisers. Noble sets the recording off with a full tribal charge, while Stephen, instead of firing off a shard of ecstatic notes and chords, coaxes his guitar into singing a slow, ever-growing roar. But soon the two are off into some wild, creative rampages -- exciting drum and guitar territory sounding at times not too dissimilar to Haino's Fushitsusha, brutally beautiful, shredded riffs from O'Malley meet with Noble's exuberant rhythmic force . On St. Francis Duo, the memory of these two nights can be heard in full violent sonic attack.
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CD
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DEMEGO 003CD
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Debut collaborative release by Stephen O'Malley (SunnO))), Khanate, etc.): HP 200CD & Travis Bean/Fender Twin Reverb; and Attila Csihar: vocals. 6°Fskyquake is an audio composition designed in 2001 but explored in conjunction with the American sculptor Banks Violette's solo shows in the summer of 2007. Actually, two shows at two different galleries, Barbara Gladstone & Team, running simultaneously. The interaction of sound and Violette's work revisited concepts touched in prior collaborations: of loss, absence, residual energy of a missed evocative experience. The composition was captured at a recording session during the installation process at Team gallery, and later transfered to Gladstone as a recorded playback to the public. Designed for three separate systems consisting of powered 18" subwoofers and PA tops, the composition runs a total of 8 hours and 35 minutes. This room recording represents a possible stereo interpretation of a portion of that work. The fifth collaboration between Stephen O'Malley & Banks Violette circulated amongst the main theme of sound as physical presence. Sound pressure in substantial space, relative dimension between concrete and perceptual mass, gravity induced by heightened sonic action and standing sub-bass pressure. The contribution of lyrics, text and vocals by Hungarian black metal vocalist Attila Csihar were inspired by his journeys inside imperial Tokyo, bringing an emotional and meditative identity to the otherwise purely structural composition. For this we shall be blessed. The ghost of presence subsists across physical space, the phantom of absence across linear finite, the shadow of mass via memories. What once was.
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viewing 1 To 12 of 12 items
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