Blume

CURRAN, ALVIN - Canti Illuminati

"Blume present the first vinyl reissue of Alvin Curran's Canti Illuminati, originally released in 1982. Between diverse polarities of experimental practice, from free improvisation and modern classical composition, to primitivism, electronic music, and extended techniques, for more than half a century Alvin Curran has stood as beacon in the landscape of organized sound. From his efforts within Musica Elettronica Viva, the collective which he helped found in 1966 with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, to those as a solo-performer and composer, his sounds and ideas have effected immeasurable change. Canti Illuminati, composed and recorded between 1973 and 1977, stands as one of the great documents from the golden era of Curran's singular brand of creative radicalism -- combining a deep sense of social and political consciousness, with creative humanism and visionary compositional ideas. A bridge between the American and European traditions of experimental music, Canti Illuminati is Curran's tribute to the human voice, "the most natural source of music", and it delves toward the very origins of music itself. In lyrical and poetic form, it rethinks the possibilities and potential of organized sound, seeking something fundamentally human. Standing apart from canonical definition, it contributes to a more complex and nuanced understanding of minimalism. Consciously conceived by Curran for the format of the LP, the album takes form as a single work in two parts: "Canti Illuminati [For Choir, Synthesizer, Piano And Tape]", a structured choral improvisation, built from the contributions and voices of Alessandro BrunoAntonella TalamontiAntonio CesareniDavid ThornerElisabetta Bordes-PageGiorgio CaruanoLuca MitiManuela GarroniNicola BernardiniPierluigi Castellano, and Sista Carandini; and "Canti Illuminati [For Voice, Synthesizer, Tape]", which Curran realized as a solo performer with his own voice, tape-delayed feedback, and a Serge synthesizer and sequencer. Sinfully under celebrated and all too rarely heard since its initial release, Canti Illuminati remains a profoundly compelling and moving body of sound. a landscape of sustained tone, rippling texture, and structural intervention. Necessity stripped to the elemental, while challenging, endlessly surprising, and complex. Brand new, expanded liner text written by Bradford Bailey. Fully remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi." - Blume.
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After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.

This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).

Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.

Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.

Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
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