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Incunabulum

OPERATING THEATRE - The Early Years

Operating Theatre is an Irish music theater company founded by composer Roger Doyle and performer Olwen Fouéré. This collection was released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their founding, originally by the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival label in 2006. Featuring Bono of U2. Operating Theatre has been active in two phases: the first from 1981 to 1988, and the second from 1998 to the present. This double CD celebrates the first phase, during which the company operated as both a theater company, integrating music as an equal partner in the theatrical environment, and as a band releasing records. Roles were flexible within the company in that Fouéré also sang and Doyle also acted. In phase two there has been no band, and the texts (if any) have been found," devised and/or drawn together from various strands, instead of being commissioned from writers as in phase one. Performances have taken place in both conventional and non-theatrical environments (e.g. an abandoned warehouse, a glass room in a hotel), and music has become more integrated. The first appearance by Operating Theatre (the band) was in the summer of 1981 with the release on CBS Records (Ireland) of the single "Austrian," with "Positive Disintegration" on the B-side. A second single "Blue Light And Alpha Waves" followed a year later, with "Rampwalk" as the B-side. "Fingerdance Waltz/Hymn" contains two developed extracts from the music for "Ignotum Per Ignotius," a 50-minute piece of music-theater performed by Doyle and Fouéré, written and directed by visual artist James Coleman, which Operating Theatre went on a tour of Holland with in 1982. "No Come," "Syllable," "Dragon Path," "The Confectioners" and "Miss Mauger" were included on the LP Miss Mauger by Operating Theatre released in 1983 on the Kabuki label in London. -¢‚Ǩ-ìSir Geoffrey," "Satanasa" and "Clubmusic/Amene-Moi" are from the Operating Theatre production of The Diamond Body written by Aidan Mathews, a 75-minute solo performance by Fouéré, which opened at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin in 1984 and toured in London, Glasgow, New Jersey, Avignon and Caracas up until 1988. Also in 1984, the company mounted a production of the Lorca play The Love Of Don Perlimplin And Belisa In The Garden, turning it into an "electronic chamber opera of sorts." This time, Fouéré directed and Doyle and Elena Lopez played the title roles. A 56-minute suite of Doyles music from this production, developed as a music-only experience, was released in 2000 as part of a double CD called Fairlight Memories. Three tracks are included here. In October 1983 Olwen and Roger were asked to perform new material for an Irish TV arts show and to demonstrate the latest in music technology -- the Fairlight Computer Music Instrument. "Part Of My Make-up" is the song they wrote for that occasion. "The Tractor" comes from 1984, from days of intense Operating Theatre activity, but was never used for anything in the end. It gets its first outing here. "Queen Of No Heart" and "Spring Is Coming With A Strawberry In The Mouth" were the result of an initial collaboration between singer/lyricist Elena Lopez and Roger Doyle and were released by Mother Records, the label set up by U2, as a single by Operating Theatre in 1986, with Lopez on main vocals and drummer Sean Devitt joining the band for this recording. Fouéré was asked to play the title role in the Gate Theatres production of Oscar Wildes Salome, directed by Steven Berkoff in 1988, and Doyle was asked to compose the music -- a two hour on-stage live piano score. "Before She Was Asked To Dance" is an early version of what was to become "Salomes Dance." The first phase of the companys activity had come to an end. "Johnnys Body At 002" is a work made in preparation for the first Operating Theatre production in phase two, Angel/Babel (1999).-¢‚Ǩ¬ù - Incunabulum.

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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)_/¯ ).

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