{"title":"Rvng International\/Freedom To Spend","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"blues-control-laraaji-frkwys-vol-8","title":"BLUES CONTROL \u0026 LARAAJI - Frkwys Vol. 8","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Volume 8 in the ongoing FRKWYS series on RVNG Intl. is a double album-length collaboration between Blues Control and Laraaji. \\r\\nFollowing the fodder first\" tradition of previous FRKWYS installments, Vol. 8 was birthed over e-mail dialogue between RVNG and Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho of Blues Control. Blues Controls evolved output gracefully arcs with influence and innovation that gleams electronic, New Age, and hard rock terrains. Laraajis name came up early in that conversation and felt intrinsic to Waterhouse and Chos own musical calling. \\r\\nAfter learning various instruments in his formative years and studying composition at Howard University, Laraaji eventually found his musical conduit in an electronically-modified zither. Laraajis 1979 album Celestial Vibration (recorded as Edward Larry Gordon) places the stringed instrument at the forefront on two side-length excursions in rhythmic ambiance. The 1980 album Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, produced by Brian Eno for his ambient record series, further documented Laraajis zither explorations alongside Enos soundscaping. Laraaji continues to pursue music both in its recorded form and as a healing tool.\\r\\nBlues Control and Laraaji convened at Black Dirt Studio in upstate New York on December 9th, 2010. Over the course of a single studio day, the three musicians (accompanied on certain jams by Laraajis \"musical friend\" Arji Cakouros) improvised on several themes, providing nearly four hours of material and the basis for FRKWYS Vol. 8. After meticulous note taking, sharing, and rough edits among Blues Control and Laraaji, the album was fully fleshed out. \\r\\nWithout context, its hard to imagine that these musicians never creatively collaborated before this juncture. The dynamic breadth (and breath) of the album feels both effortless and epic, a line usually straddled only after years of playing together. Its clear a cosmic force is at play, and that this playfulness is the creative mediator of the music. \\r\\nOver two album sides, the listener is transported from the urban sound garden of \"Awakening Day,\" through the soulful yow of \"Light Ships,\" into the texture bliss of \"City of Love,\" and finally the reflective pool of \"Freeflow\". The first bonus track \"Somebody Scream\" demonstrates Laraajis dexterous zither-playing over thirty-five minutes of music, while the second, \"Astral Jam,\" starts with a Wu-like beat (courtesy of Laraaji) and warps into a rolling snare trance. \\r\\nThe limited edition LP version of FRKWYS Vol. 8 is packaged in thick black jackets with a two-color adhesive wrap, both printed on post-consumer goods papers at Stumptown Printers.\" - Rvng International.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":51936119239,"sku":"12162-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-3244170-1322081351_jpeg.jpg?v=1571718001"},{"product_id":"gunn-steve-mike-cooper-cantos-de-lisboa","title":"GUNN, STEVE \u0026 MIKE COOPER - Cantos de Lisboa","description":"\"For the the eleventh volume of FRKWYS, an unrestricted series pairing contemporary artists with their influential predecessors, gifted guitar squire Steve Gunn meets roving, radiating legend Mike Cooper in Lisbon, Portugal.\\r\\nSharing their vision over lengthy living room guitar sessions and evenings of cold wine in Fado taverns, Gunn and Cooper created Cantos de Lisboa, an album with variable vernacular shades and musical forms from Portugals antiquity.\\r\\nCantos means _¢‚Ǩ_ìcorner_¢‚Ǩ¬ù in Portuguese, as well as _¢‚Ǩ_ìchant_¢‚Ǩ¬ù or _¢‚Ǩ_ìsong_¢‚Ǩ¬ù (this latter meaning evolved from the Latin antecedent referring to stanzas of verse in poetry). For two artists whose roots lie in the country blues and its subverted offshoots, the proverbial _¢‚Ǩ_ìcorner_¢‚Ǩ¬ù is actually home, the undisturbed spot where music can flourish.\\r\\nA tranquil interlude for these two travelers to create off-guard improvisations in their shared style of deconstructed guitar music, Cantos de Lisboa is a curious detail in the periphery of this snapshot of Portugal.\\r\\nIn his fifty-year-plus career, Coopers global ventures have transported his music to exotic locales parallel to Lisbon. 2004s Rayon Hula musically translated the patterned flora of aloha shirts (Coopers signature garment) as looped samples of famed Hawaiian vibraphone player Arthur Lyman for an avant vivified form of exotica.\\r\\nRayon Hula signaled Coopers vital re-emergence as a dexterous alchemist of slide guitar. Coopers discography is colored with similar instances of casually conceptual, improvisatory guitar music, including his 1970 masterpiece Trout Steel (an album Gunn recalls in Cantos de Lisboas liner notes as shaping his own ambitions and music).\\r\\nFor his part, Gunns path to Portugal was compelled by his kinship to Cooper and his ilks experimentation with guitar-picked country blues and 70s British folk. Gunns extracurricular immersion in free jazz and psychedelia, no doubt influenced by his Philadelphia upbringing and surroundings, ensures his playing never grits or grids and always soars to ecstatic heights.\\r\\nThese musical emblems were gracefully memorialized on Gunns celebrated Time Off (Paradise of Bachelors, 2013) and across a substantial catalog of solo, duo and ensemble work that resembles that of a veteran player more than a young guitar slinger.\\r\\nOn Cantos de Lisboa, Gunn and Cooper take emotive cues from Fado, the regional music of Portugal, which is in close plaintive spirit to the blues. A melancholy seeps into the music of Cantos de Lisboa, while steering a wide berth from any bummer notes or pastiche. Coopers sparse effects toolkit and stately, gliding cadences are nimbly employed, while Gunns ashen voice and steady strum lend an intensely organic feel to the albums improvisatory portraits.\\r\\nThe latter half of Cantos de Lisboa echoes the _¢‚Ǩ_ìsaudade_¢‚Ǩ¬ù theme as referenced in the blissful opening track, Coopers howl spiriting the Portuguese word that translates roughly into _¢‚Ǩ_ìloss_¢‚Ǩ¬ù or _¢‚Ǩ_ìlonging._¢‚Ǩ¬ù Saudade is said to be the core feature of Fado music. In Cantos de Lisboa, Saudade becomes a spirit inhabiting the albums corners, but never disrupting the musicians collaborative evocations.\\r\\nIn the hands of these two limitless guitarists, Cantos de Lisboa convenes in an abstract, almost field recorded take on lap-steel and American Primitive guitar styles. For the brief idyll, Gunn and Coopers collaboration is remarkably rich, marking their passage through Portugal not just as a time to revel in an ancient city, but a time for focused collaboration and creative consonance\". - Rvng International.\\r\\n\u003ciframe width=\"600\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mpCOGCWCjXY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":51950531463,"sku":"15770-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-5844163-1404259218-9918_jpeg.jpg?v=1571718187"},{"product_id":"barreca-marc-music-works-for-industry","title":"BARRECA, MARC - Music Works For Industry","description":"Marc Barrecas Music Works for Industry is a layered assertion. An economic mantra for the mind to spin, like the many loops on this recording, or churn, as gears of some godhead machine. From the pool of playful compositions, a social subtext appears - a somewhat sardonic riposte to the commercial and cynical abuse of music and musicians. The work profits the listener over industry.  Said another way, its motivations are more generative than lucrative.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo longer than four minutes, no shorter than two, each piece on MWFI is a fragment of modern life. Propaganda transmitted between the click of the remote or the turn of the dial. Friend and collaborator K. Leimer checks Cluster, Steve Reich, IannisXenakis, and Morton Subotnick as esoteric influences on MWFI in the albums liner notes, while one might imagine UptonSinclair, Studs Terkel, or Chris Anderson as egalitarian influences.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMade with musicians, performance artists, and a bespoke instrument maker, Barreca combines multiple disciplines into a collective, industrious whole. An experiment fabricated in the synth and tape studio at the artist-run alternative space and\/or (Seattles version of NYCs The Kitchen), Barreca manipulates dynamic sound sources into tidy, minimal arrangements using synthesizers, modified instruments, tape looped voices, and melodic, metallic phrases.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo start, “Community Life” strews these elements across the assembly line to meet their maker. The album continues with “Shopping,” countering ominous, mechanical sounds with light, playful tones, perhaps representative of the clash of production versus exchange values. On “Hotcake” we hear mens voices, chains, and hissing steam in a methodical but urgent progression that could soundtrack Fritz Langs silent film, Metropolis. A woman seductively intones “Nerve Roots Are Uncontrollable” on the track of the same name.  “Organized Labor” also incorporates a voice, speaking the  acronym I.W.W. - International Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies - as the music falls in line and wobbles along.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cover of MWFI features a black and white photo of a figure in silhouette, backlit at a window, softened with curtains and plants. Maybe this is the room where the music was made: a private space, a refuge from some industrial work or at least the dubious fruits of this labor. In a way, listening to the music is entering a space without work, an apple to pluck and eat without wage or taxation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne can imagine photographer Chauncey Hare listening to Music Works for Industryas he moved from documenting domestic interiors to the bleek efficiency of American offices. His black and white portraits of workers, isolated and obscured by cubicles and files, and published in This Was Corporate America, led to Hares disillusionment with the art market. Not wanting to sell images, he left photography, and become a therapist: publishing the self-help book, Work Abuse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps peering into the music industry led to Barrecas eventual career, and a similar impulse to more directly touch those at the effects of economic systems. While exploring the cassette version of Music Works For Industry, we found a business card tucked inside: Marc Barreca—bankruptcy judge in Seattle. Material traces of the cassette are evident in the records packaging, the album format a newly manufactured form for Barrecas work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven in post-industrial times, Barrecas music offers listeners easily consumable musings on current work conditions. Freedom To Spend accepts your hard-earned and fortuitously won money in exchange for these morsels, but also believes that you need not invest unless pressed. - Freedom To Spend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3411508508\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/marcbarreca.bandcamp.com\/album\/music-works-for-industry\"\u003eMusic Works For Industry by Marc Barreca\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":893305782279,"sku":"20023-FREEDOM TO SPEND","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-9875536-1487782759-3653_jpeg.jpg?v=1571718472"},{"product_id":"syrinx-tumblers-from-the-vault","title":"SYRINX - Tumblers From The Vault","description":"The two instrumental albums that Syrinx issued in the early 1970s sound little like the psychedelic music prevailing Torontos rock venues at the time, and are even further removed from the electronic tape experimentations spooled by a younger John Mills-Cockell.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInstead, the path of Syrinx whimsically veers away from the dominant mode of 70s subculture, charting surprising commercial success. Tumblers From The Vault presents their entire recorded legacy, reviving the story of Syrinx and sharing their memorable, mind-bending melodies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe musicians behind Syrinx were composer and keyboardist John Mills-Cockell, saxophonist Doug Pringle, and percussionist Alan Wells. All three were young veterans of the Toronto creative scene by the beginning of 1970. LSD played a supporting role in their artistic pursuits, but equal guidance also came from Mills-Cockells studies at the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatory of Music, where he established an ad-hoc, DIY electronic music course in the schools basement.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBefore long, Mills-Cockell was an accomplished young composer and an important conspirator in Intersystems, a rogue, multimedia ensemble that intersected heterogenous artists and musicians via the Toronto underground. In this freeform environment, Mills-Cockells compositions found alert ears, among them his primary collaborator Doug Pringle, a wily wind player, and producer Felix Pappalardi, whose credits include Creams Disraeli Gears and who helped John land an album deal with True North Columbia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter Intersystems dissolution, Mills-Cockell journeyed to Canadas west coast to work on an album of original synth-based compositions using his multi-suitcase Moog as the primary instrument. Pringle was enlisted to color outside the musics already adventurous lines, his sinuous, signal-processed saxophone adding another electrifying voice to Syrinxs signature sound. A sound that hybridized chamber music dynamics with wild, yet tuneful electronic melodicism. With Alan Wells understated percussion rolled into the fold, what started as a solo venture for Mills-Cockell became a new kind of collective.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom these coastal sessions were conjured exemplary pieces like “Journey Tree” and “Hollywood Dream Trip,” both plaintive and serene expressions of Mills-Cockells economical arrangements, and also Syrinxs restrained and expert use of their electronic resources. “Hollywood Dream Trip” alone presents a theme so memorable and melancholic that it calls to mind Erik Satie, John Cages early piano works, and the cinematic power of Golden Age soundtrack music. Syrinxs self-titled debut arrived in 1970, followed in 1971 by Long Lost Relatives, which is highlighted as the first album on Tumblers From The Vault.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBetween the two albums, Syrinx became a vital part of the Toronto music scene, with Doug Pringles loft serving as the central node for impromptu performances and the groups collaborative activities. Syrinx also started receiving high profile work, first for television, film, and dance, and then for orchestra. One commission culminated commercially in “Tillicum”, the unforgettable theme music for pioneering reality television show Here Come the Seventies. As a standalone single, “Tillicum” would climb to #38 on Canadas RPM charts. The most eventful assignment came from the Toronto Repertory Ensembles conductor and composer Milton Barnes, whose solicitation inspired the powerful orchestral suite Stringspace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe studio version of Stringspace for Long Lost Relatives is a near faithful version to the live performance, the Toronto Repertory Ensemble offering the same sweeping, deeply engrossing symphonic support. (An original live version also appears on Tumblers from the Vault on the third LP, along with other rare and alternate Syrinx gems). “Tillicum” also appears on Long Lost Relatives, a nod to the groups new visibility, and perhaps an assertion that Syrinx was part of the trailblazing new world that their television theme song signaled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSyrinxs music is more than a faded strain in Canadas consciousness, but has never expanded universally. One modest task of Tumblers from the Vault is to reinstate Syrinx to their place in the wider canon of groundbreaking music so their story can be appreciated beyond the limits of Canadian notoriety. Another task is to simply have this music heard again, which is an endeavor made less difficult by the fact that the most defining quality of Syrinxs music is its timelessness and agency.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUnlike so many turn of the 60s experiments fusing rock and pop music language with new technology, Syrinx was never excessive in expressing their vision of what electronic music could offer. Instead, they blended these sounds in a holistic way, allowing the acoustic and electronic textures to create one organic voice. They opted to foreground the lyrical and poetic content of their compositions rather than their innovative techniques.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIts a tribute to John Mills-Cockells compositions, and his comrades Doug Pringle and Alan Wells, that the tangential path of Syrinx remains as present, exploratory and inviting as ever.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSyrinxs Tumblers From The Vault will be released on October 14, 2016 in digital format and October 28, 2016 as a triple LP set and double CD. An accompanying documentary about Syrinx by artist and filmmaker Zoe Kirk-Gushowaty will screen selectively. - Rvng International.\u003ciframe width=\"600\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9RHzuOE6GQo\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"Triple LP","offer_id":893306896391,"sku":"20024-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Double CD","offer_id":893306929159,"sku":"20025-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-9217310-1476834353-9301_jpeg.jpg?v=1571718472"},{"product_id":"mercure-michele-eye-chant","title":"MERCURE, MICHELE - Eye Chant","description":"You can see the sounds her voice makes. The literal depiction of this, a photograph of Michele Mercure with an eyeball in her mouth, is removed in the updated album art. The original graphic elements are left to suspend, speak, and sing across time. In the absence of the decade-specific portraits, the redesigned edition is dislocated from a particular or linear history. Our initial point of encounter is artifactual; a trace in place of a scar.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAccordingly, Micheles true image and body is sound. Eye Chant, as a whole, offers meditations of sound as material. Her instruments are voice and synthesizer, the former following the machines lead and language of patterns. Machine sounds become abstract words. The human voice is pulled apart, dislodged from context; a tactile, textured quality appears to reconfigure the body and machine presently or permanently.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe natural and the mechanical elements of Eye Chant commingle with the ease of a musician well-versed in the social-material entanglements of life. Like the lacework referenced in one track, Mercures record alludes to interconnections and their unraveling. Her married name formerly attached to Eye Chant has been shed for this iteration. As her electronic kin, Eliane Rodigue and Suzanne Ciani would attest, its all raw material for the musician to give form. Donna Haraway and Lucy Suchman may have been listening.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMichele offers a tender mechanics to attune to. Atmospheres expand and contract within a song, sometimes reappearing in the album - the economy of means appreciated from another vantage. Loops and undulating rhythms build up a particular kind of surface, one that places the listener in the present moment, to notice and extend that time of being here.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo get a sense of the space Mercures work occupies: compositions on this album were part of a PBS special and a performance artists production. The most narrative moments of Eye Chant, these commissioned pieces, “Proteus and the Marlin” and “100% Bridal Illusion,” are hyper feminine tracks made up of choirs of birds, breath, baby cries, waves, and poetry read just above a whisper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe title track, “Eye Chant,” is a single vocal sample thats sequenced and melodically layered upon itself. A perfect minimal composition, where theres no excess blurring how it was made and its final crystalline form. “Too Much” closes the album with some danceability. We have traveled far from the start — “Tour de France,” where the synthesizer resembles a faucet drip and we reset — to the pace of our heart and breath.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen focused on the moment the mind wanders as it likes. It feels as though theres a collective and urgent need to decelerate. Rather than chasing the new sound or accelerating discovery, deceleration allows us to pay heed to whats less heard. Finding our time in continuum with others might be one of many impulses for reissues.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne way to interpret the name, Freedom to Spend, is an abundance of freedom that needs to be shared. In that spirit, the free thinking \/ art of Michele Mercure is recirculated. - Freedom To Spend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3465046253\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/michelemercure.bandcamp.com\/album\/eye-chant\"\u003eEye Chant by Michele Mercure\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":893307584519,"sku":"20026-FREEDOM TO SPEND","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-9789032-1486336578-3136_jpeg.jpg?v=1571718472"},{"product_id":"v-a-the-enlightening-beam-of-bobby-brown","title":"V\/A - The Enlightening Beam of Bobby Brown","description":"Bobby Brown exists beyond being. Bobbys documented music covers a dynamic emotional and spiritual terrain, his vocals, ever prominent, traverse six octaves of sound. Bobbys understanding of — and unbending faith — in physics and technology manifest in unbelievable instrumental and intellectual innovations. Bobbys dedication to the fundaments of peace and love radiate across time and space.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOperating at the fringe of the early 70s psychedelic and folk spheres, his 1972 self-funded and released debut album, The Enlightening Beam of Axonda, demonstrates the many cosmic qualities of Bobby Brown. Beyond Bobbys voice and message, the most beguiling aspect of Enlightening is “The Universal One Man Orchestra,” a 311 stringed instrument implementing aspects of the Irish harp, koto, sitar, thumb piano, dulcimer, drums and flute and “designed to be as small as possible and placed on racks so as to be be played from one spot.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBobbys description of the instrument (“primitive, contemporary, and futuristic”) may also serve as a description of the album itself. At once an intimate invocation and a universal journey of earthly and otherworldly proportions, the album ruminates on the vacillating cultural climate of its time and a prayer for a more peaceful place and existence, Axonda.\u003cbr\u003eThe following two albums, Live, which was performed solely to his dog Mom and recorded after Bobby opened in concert for Fleetwood Mac 1978, and 1982s Prayers of a One Man Band, which added hints of popular flavor with a more outward social commentary and comedy, continue along Browns illuminated path, spinning tales of his spiritual home in Hawaii, of love, and of total religious unity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlmost thirty years later, Bobby and RVNGs Matt Werth struck up a friendship on the back of an e-mail introduction from Douglas Mcgowan of Yoga Records. After years of correspondence, Bobby and Matt revisited some of the many stories theyve exchanged at the Berkeley Art Museum on an invitation from David Wilson to participate in a multi-dimensional residency, The Possible. Bay Area artists Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Austin Cesear complimented the discussion with new musical interpretations of Bobbys work.\u003cbr\u003eA recording of Smith and Cesears performances alongside Bobby and Matts talk and a compassionate array of photos taken by Aubrey Trinnaman have been collected as a limited cassette and art book edition available now from RVNG Intl.. - Rvng International.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/226473474\u0026amp;color=ff5500\u0026amp;auto-play=false\u0026amp;hide-related=false\u0026amp;show-comments=true\u0026amp;show-user=true\u0026amp;show-reposts=false\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"Cass + Booklet","offer_id":893307617287,"sku":"20027-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/fusetron_default_05f00221-e94e-4c50-b2e9-942c2e90d6a1.png?v=1571718472"},{"product_id":"savant-artificial-dance","title":"SAVANT - Artificial Dance","description":"The story of electronic music pioneer Kerry Leimer continues with a focus on his auteurist studio project Savant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCompiling the standalone album, 1983s The Neo Realist (At Risk), with Savants debut 12″ and a grip of compilation and unreleased tracks, Artificial Dance documents Leimers complete collaborative venture into the unpredictable realities of music, exploring the gulf between what is expected by its creators and what is eventually – and eternally – committed to tape.\u003cbr\u003eSavant was designed by Leimer to tap into entropic truths, asserting an uncaged counterpart to the loop-based minimalism he produced in isolation (recently surveyed on RVNG Intl.s A Period of Review (1975-1983)). Aligning himself with the Cage-ean principles of chance operations and musical contingency, Savant was a band sans jam. Allegorically, a blindfolded collaboration whose happenstance source music Leimer would sample, loop and sculpt at will.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLeimer was creatively autonomous to the point of being a persona absentia in Seattles 80s rock scene. Unconcerned by social status, Leimer enlisted musicians from experimental and post-punk groups in the area to come record as Savant at his home studio, Tactical. Among them were ambient composer Marc Barreca, John Foster (founder of Op Magazine – the experimental music publication), Jim and David Keller of the New Flamingos, and their bandmate Alex Petit. Others, like Roy Finch and Dennis Rea, came from a similar orbit.\u003cbr\u003eEven with these musicians at his beck and call, Leimer implemented a disarming musical strategy. Savant would have no fixed line up and often musicians would be asked to play instruments far outside their forté. Leimer would however give loose rhythmic direction for the musicians to develop spontaneously against click-tracks. When the performance locked in with Leimer listening at the controls, hed capture it to tape. These moments became the soul of Savant and the combustive elements that would variegate its timbres.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSavant tonally operates in a space between This Heats dark primitivism and the found sound collage of Brian Eno \u0026amp; David Byrnes My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. These analogies are simply stylistic, as the narrative behind The Neo-Realists production makes clear Leimer was concocting via more alchemic means, avoiding genre aspirations by looking for accidental moments of musical intrigue and discovery. Leimer explains this process in the collections liner notes: “I was looking for flaws, for faults to act as the stand-out features of the music.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFar from a provisional stab at avant-garde sensibilities, Savant represents Leimers repudiation of ambient musics passive side. Artificial Dance embodies a perfectionists family portrait of outré musicians conforming to Leimers nonconformist musical ethos. Fitting for its name, Leimer created conditions for asocial brilliance with Savant, materializing an outward offering from an inward studio and a collaboration of audacious invention.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSavants Artificial Dance is available now as double LP set, CD, and digitally. Extensive liner notes and artist interviews were overseen by Aaron Leitko. The collection was assembled by RVNG and K. Leimer, who continues making music to this day. - Rvng International.\u003ciframe width=\"600\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7ifWsyo6Dng\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"600\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N49yY6wzrN4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"Double LP","offer_id":893307650055,"sku":"20028-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":893307682823,"sku":"20029-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-7268527-1437617996-4453_jpeg.jpg?v=1571718472"},{"product_id":"homler-anna-and-steve-moshier-breadwoman-other-tales","title":"HOMLER, ANNA AND STEVE MOSHIER - Breadwoman \u0026 Other Tales","description":"Breadwoman \u0026amp; Other Tales are the collected recordings of a language arising. It is the sound and document of Anna Homler divining speech, lyrical fragments, and melody for music composed, mixed, and engineered by Steve Moshier.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIts 1982 and Anna is driving an ocean blue classic Cadillac to meet renowned poet and playwright Deena Metzger in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles. Passing a non-descript desert patch where tall wheat and mustard flowers grow, Anna opens her mouth and sings in a salient stream of rhythmic, melodic sound.\u003cbr\u003eBreadwoman is born, but not by immaculate conception. For Homler, performance art had recently become “a form big enough to contain everything happening” during her studies with Rachel Rosenthal at Otis College of Art and Design. As this performative freedom fed into the enchanted vocalese, the character of Breadwoman emerged.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHomler tread the same multi-disciplinary waters where Steve Moshier and the Cartesian Reunion Memorial Orchestra (CRMO), a communal avant-garde urban chamber music ensemble formed in LA in 1979, floated. When their currents connected, it was clear Homler and Moshier were kin, crossing genres through intensely physical de-significations of music: quasi-theatrical, fully mythic, ritualistic performances.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInstead of confining Anna as “a vocalist,” Moshier recognized Annas voice as a sonic element. To accomplish the recordings of this collection, Moshier chose the least song-like material from Homlers handheld cassette transcriptions and composed music considerately. Anna would then record chants and song variations which Steve would tweak for final touches through his arsenal of analog equipment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlthough Breadwoman stands outside of time, she is is rich in the ingredients of 1980s Los Angeles performance art, renegade DIY punk, gallery culture, galvanized jazz, underground cassette-trading culture, drag extravaganzas, and esoteric meaning-making mysticism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBreadwoman is a storyteller — shes so very old shes turned into bread. Breadwoman says: If you dont try to understand, you will. She is the voice, and the voice is cosmic realitys musicality. Through Breadwoman \u0026amp; Other Tales, we hear material meet mythos.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnna Homler and Steve Moshiers Breadwoman \u0026amp; Other Tales is available now on LP, CD, and digital formats. Extensive liner notes and artist interviews were overseen by Andrew Choate. The collection was assembled by RVNG, Anna Homler, and Steve Moshier, who both continue making music to this day. - Rvng Interntaional.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_kaDdFrI6n4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ssf7fR5bfeU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":893307715591,"sku":"20030-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":893307748359,"sku":"20031-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/fusetron_default_00802746-bd74-4c27-82c7-5ac015e2f90f.png?v=1571718472"},{"product_id":"aureila-smith-kaitlyn-suzanne-ciani-frkwys-vol-13-sunergy","title":"AUREILA SMITH, KAITLYN \u0026 SUZANNE CIANI - FRKWYS vol. 13 - Sunergy","description":"Sunergy brings together synthesists Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani for the thirteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.s intergenerational collaboration series. For this edition, a panorama of the Pacific Coast provides the place and head space for a musical appreciation and consideration of a life-giving form vast and volatile with change.\u003cbr\u003eFortuitously (as is the freaky way), Smith and Ciani were discovered to be neighbors in the small coastal community of Bolinas, California. The two had become close friends, bonding over their experience as woman musicians and, more unusually, their shared passion for the Buchla synthesizer. The music of Sunergy embraces this kinship, with Ciani and Smith respectively performing on the Buchla 200 E and the Buchla Music Easel, two modern configurations of the innovative instrument developed in the 60s by Don Buchla.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSunergy was recorded in the Bolinas home where Ciani has lived for the last twenty-four years. Her living room overlooks the Pacific Ocean from a cliffside perch, creating an idyllic, inspired setting for music making. Setting up their synths side-by-side, Ciani and Smith took turns keeping time and freely improvising for the album sessions. As a complete piece, Sunergy is shaped by slow, pulsing forms and sinuous, melodic sequences that conjure both an oceanic world and the unlimited sound made possible by modular processing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor her part, Ciani has long been a Buchla voyager. Suzanne proselytized the live performance potential of Dons synthesizer in the 60s and 70s, a document of which was uncovered in the improvised live recordings of Buchla Concerts 1975, recently released by Finders Keepers. After pioneering commercial sound design for Madison Avenue (including the ubiquitous Coca-Cola “Pop n Pour” sound effect), Ciani was able to finance her debut album Seven Waves, a suite of original compositions orchestrated electronically and connected by Buchla-designed ocean sounds, and start her uniformly spirited label, Seventh Wave.\u003cbr\u003eSince its 1982 release, Seven Waves has become an important chapter of the ambient canon within which contemporary artists like Smith have developed their own synth syntax. Smith was born just a few years after the appearance of Seven Waves, growing up in Orcas Island, Washington. A place of profound natural beauty, the islands would inform Tides, her first instrumental collection from 2014. Smith composed Tides as an accompaniment for Yoga classes, ultimately freeing her from conventional songwriting into the exploratory, synth-based compositions demonstrated in ecstatic variety on 2016s Ears.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDespite the serene setting where Sunergy was realized, the album does not romanticize a complete oneness with nature. Smith and Ciani use their collaborative ground to reflect on the unstable forces at play across the Bolinas horizon. Sunergy takes stock of Bolinas in the 21st century, a once-thriving artists refuge now vulnerable to real estate pressure extending from affluent San Francisco, and more irreparably, the specter of climate change erasing its many waterfront habitats.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA diametric dynamic is present in Sunergy; a somber meditation amidst the intense cultural and solar forces transforming the landscape, and a hopeful assertion of the surviving creative culture of Bolinas. Far from rehashing the gentle grace of the artists seminal works, Sunergy instead seeks to awaken and bear witness, employing the Buchla waveforms to mirror the infinite rhythms of the ocean and our essential relationship to it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Cianis Sunergy will be released on September 16, 2016 on LP, CD, and digital formats. An accompanying documentary by Sean Hellfritsch will be offered in tandem. - Rvng International.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2967472899\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com\/album\/frkwys-vol-13-sunergy\"\u003eFRKWYS Vol. 13: Sunergy by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith \u0026amp; Suzanne Ciani\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":893307781127,"sku":"20032-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/R-8990307-1472868714-3003_460f23cd-9267-4757-9065-b80ad3f2517b.jpg?v=1721241220"},{"product_id":"aureila-smith-kaitlyn-suzanne-ciani-frkways-vol-13-sunergy","title":"AUREILA SMITH, KAITLYN \u0026 SUZANNE CIANI - FRKWAYS vol. 13 - Sunergy","description":"Sunergy brings together synthesists Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani for the thirteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.s intergenerational collaboration series. For this edition, a panorama of the Pacific Coast provides the place and head space for a musical appreciation and consideration of a life-giving form vast and volatile with change.\u003cbr\u003eFortuitously (as is the freaky way), Smith and Ciani were discovered to be neighbors in the small coastal community of Bolinas, California. The two had become close friends, bonding over their experience as woman musicians and, more unusually, their shared passion for the Buchla synthesizer. The music of Sunergy embraces this kinship, with Ciani and Smith respectively performing on the Buchla 200 E and the Buchla Music Easel, two modern configurations of the innovative instrument developed in the 60s by Don Buchla.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSunergy was recorded in the Bolinas home where Ciani has lived for the last twenty-four years. Her living room overlooks the Pacific Ocean from a cliffside perch, creating an idyllic, inspired setting for music making. Setting up their synths side-by-side, Ciani and Smith took turns keeping time and freely improvising for the album sessions. As a complete piece, Sunergy is shaped by slow, pulsing forms and sinuous, melodic sequences that conjure both an oceanic world and the unlimited sound made possible by modular processing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor her part, Ciani has long been a Buchla voyager. Suzanne proselytized the live performance potential of Dons synthesizer in the 60s and 70s, a document of which was uncovered in the improvised live recordings of Buchla Concerts 1975, recently released by Finders Keepers. After pioneering commercial sound design for Madison Avenue (including the ubiquitous Coca-Cola “Pop n Pour” sound effect), Ciani was able to finance her debut album Seven Waves, a suite of original compositions orchestrated electronically and connected by Buchla-designed ocean sounds, and start her uniformly spirited label, Seventh Wave.\u003cbr\u003eSince its 1982 release, Seven Waves has become an important chapter of the ambient canon within which contemporary artists like Smith have developed their own synth syntax. Smith was born just a few years after the appearance of Seven Waves, growing up in Orcas Island, Washington. A place of profound natural beauty, the islands would inform Tides, her first instrumental collection from 2014. Smith composed Tides as an accompaniment for Yoga classes, ultimately freeing her from conventional songwriting into the exploratory, synth-based compositions demonstrated in ecstatic variety on 2016s Ears.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDespite the serene setting where Sunergy was realized, the album does not romanticize a complete oneness with nature. Smith and Ciani use their collaborative ground to reflect on the unstable forces at play across the Bolinas horizon. Sunergy takes stock of Bolinas in the 21st century, a once-thriving artists refuge now vulnerable to real estate pressure extending from affluent San Francisco, and more irreparably, the specter of climate change erasing its many waterfront habitats.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA diametric dynamic is present in Sunergy; a somber meditation amidst the intense cultural and solar forces transforming the landscape, and a hopeful assertion of the surviving creative culture of Bolinas. Far from rehashing the gentle grace of the artists seminal works, Sunergy instead seeks to awaken and bear witness, employing the Buchla waveforms to mirror the infinite rhythms of the ocean and our essential relationship to it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Cianis Sunergy will be released on September 16, 2016 on LP, CD, and digital formats. An accompanying documentary by Sean Hellfritsch will be offered in tandem. - Rvng International.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2967472899\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com\/album\/frkwys-vol-13-sunergy\"\u003eFRKWYS Vol. 13: Sunergy by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith \u0026amp; Suzanne Ciani\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":893307813895,"sku":"20033-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/R-8990307-1472868714-3003.jpg?v=1721241055"},{"product_id":"horowitz-richard-eros-in-arabia","title":"HOROWITZ, RICHARD - Eros In Arabia","description":"\"This vibration is cast into new dimensions. Liberating Eros, it circles the globe, backwards and forwards, flowing to and through us. It is said the artist has a gift— suited for the erotic life of property. On Eros in Arabia, Richard Horowitz channels this vibration and bends bandit sounds by pairing the ancient ney cane flute with the Prophet-5 synthesizer. Interspersed with other instruments and ideas, like echo delayed Moroccan drumming and self-made magic, these elements deal in duality like the ever-shifting characteristics of the composer: the Hollywood Horowitz who scores films like The Sheltering Sky and Any Given Sunday, and the Morocco Horowitz who founded the Gnaoua Festival in Mogador, attended by 500,000 people every year. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWorking in natural succession from end to beginning, “Elephant Dance” demonstrates the central synth and ney node to explore energetic sound patterns Horowitz imagined to be played in the 16th century on the island of Java, around the time Sufi’s may have arrived in Indonesia. Delicately trampling the twenty minute mark, the piece offers an immersive climate of microtones that might, with the primordial matter of love, alter DNA. “Baby Elephant Magic” is “Elephant Dance” but sped up— producing digital baubles that sound less like an Indonesian forest, more like an urban hive of mechanical insect interaction.The piano on “23\/8 for Conlon Nancarrow,” with John Cage technique at play, is played “as fast as possible by a human.” The sounds are driven to derail from the space time continuum. On “Never Tech No Foreign Answer,” a cheap cassette recorder microphone captures the Prophet-5 left to the devices of its master’s inner clock, taking on a frenzied sound form that vibrates in place before bouncing off the tape case walls. Chaos is concentric.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Queen of Saba” incorporates the vocals of long-time collaborator, Sussan Deyhim. Described as one of Iran’s most potent voices in exile, Deyhim’s work is in both the tradition of Sufis and the late feminist poet, Forough Farrokhzad. Recently Deyhim and Horowitz worked together on a multi-media performance based upon Forrokhzad’s Iranian New Wave film, The House Is Black. Here Deyhim performs a taḥrīr where vocals go low to high without any semantically meaningful words. Horowitz’s associations with great cultural icons of the Middle East, like these women, soften (in)appropriations.Less aggressive than its predecessors, “Eros Never Stops Dreaming” introduces the bendir frame drum, the feathery wind of the ney floating above its bowing rhythm with effortless mathematics. “Bandit Nrah Master of Rajasthan” begins where the album ends, an ode to Shakuhachi flute players known to indulge in both trance-inducing circular breathing and espionage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHorowitz is linked with the worldly sound seeking circles of minimalist and avant-garde New York City musicians, especially Lou Harrison and La Monte Young, with whom Horowitz shared Shandar as a record label momentarily. He recorded and toured with Jon Hassell and collaborated with David Byrne and Brian Eno, Jean-Philippe Rykie, and Bill Laswell. Along his travels he befriended Brion Gysin and Paul Bowles, the latter whom mentored Horowitz over decades of correspondence, some of which documents the making of Eros and comes quite literally with this edition. A record of physical and intellectual love for Arabia, FTS extends this flowing forward and backward - a shimmer that reverses the backward spelling of Ztiworoh. Eros is presented in the ever present. To borrow from a song title, Horowitz remains gainfully employed as an “inter-dimensional travel agent.” - Freedom To Spend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":893337239559,"sku":"20252-FREEDOM TO SPEND","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-10951274-1507071481-6432_jpeg.jpg?v=1597622339"},{"product_id":"llopis-pep-poiemusia-la-nau-dels-argonautes","title":"LLOPIS, PEP - Poiemusia La Nau Dels Argonautes","description":"\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1648054166\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/pepllopis.bandcamp.com\/album\/poiemusia-la-nau-dels-argonautes\"\u003ePoiemusia La Nau Dels Argonautes by Pep Llopis\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e This record is meant to be enjoyed like a seascape. It offers a Mediterranean journey, one that Ulysses, Aeneas, and Jason with his Argonauts first charted and Valencian artist, Pep Llopis, retraced and retread — from the islands of Menorca to Santorini. All of his experiences are aboard this vessel of sound: no format in mind, no course but the chasm within self. While Poiemusia La Nau Dels Argonautes materializes at this moment as an album, another object suits Peps project: Lewis Carrolls “Map of the Ocean” from his The Hunting of the Snark. Its a simple illustration: the thin outline of a blank rectangle that represents the sea with no trace of land. Carroll offers this empty space as an object that all can understand, a container for possibility. Likewise, Poiemusia offers a musical language that any listener can understand. Untethered to the meaning of words, one is set adrift and free in minimalist sound and traditional music. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLlopis, who often composed for dance, originally wrote Poiemusia for a performance at the Poiemusia festival (the Greek contraction of poetry and music). Peer composers, Carles Santos and Wim Mertens, also participated in the festival, which took place over several days at the Teatro Princesa in Valencia. Llopis paired his newly formed avant-garde compositions with the poems of fellow Valencian, Salvador Jàfer. In the studio presentation of Poiemusia, voices softly converse, only to evaporate. The poetry is incanted by the poet himself. Jàfer enunciates at the verge of song, drawing dimension from his Mediterranean travels. He is accompanied by Montse Anfruns vaporous voice. She extends the roll of her rs and the hiss of each s as if casting a spell of Salacia. Pep bathes their conversational performance in slight delays and reverb, allowing their voices to dissolve into an ocean of sound.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLlopis was influenced by minimal American composers like Steve Reich and La Monte Young. He embraces the melodic sides of these masters in the winds of “El Vell Rei De La Serp” and the tender piano on “Nits de cristall.” You will find yourself submerged in tonality on tracks like “Jardins Aquàtics” and “La Nau Dels Argonautes” which have a kinship to Philip Glass or Daniel Lentz. Each piece extends from 5 to almost 14 minutes. The music gently laps against listening skin— sometimes placid, sometimes shimmering. Ripples of sound swell and quicken. Flutes like schools of fish. The spray of chimes. Taught strings break on the shore. Tingling, undulating synths. The record cover acts as a map, tracing the forms of the original art and providing the poems in Catalana and Spanish. Once bathed in these sounds one will emerge like Carrolls map: “a perfect and absolute blank.” - Freedom To Spend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/329382486\u0026amp;color=%23ff5500\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":893337272327,"sku":"20253-FREEDOM TO SPEND","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-10343152-1495669109-2289_jpeg.jpg?v=1573848195"},{"product_id":"strom-pauline-anna-transmillenia-music","title":"STROM, PAULINE ANNA - Trans-Millenia Music","description":"Otherworldly and anomalous, hushed and hallucinatory, Pauline Anna Stroms unique style of inner space music reaches across time to futures and pasts far from our own. Trans-Millenia Music compiles eighty minutes of Stroms most evocative work, composed and recorded between 1982 and 1988, for the first authorized overview of the enigmatic Bay Area composer.\u003cbr\u003ePauline Anna Strom introduced her music to the world in 1982 with Trans-Millenia Consort, a collection of transportive synthesizer music providing listeners a vessel to break beyond temporal limits into a world of pulsing, mercurial tonalities and charged, embryonic waveforms. Stroms solicitation into the unknown continued through a half dozen more stellar releases during the decade, which, despite their singularity and mastery, slipped into the more obscure annals of want lists and bootleg editions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough Stroms work developed during the dawn of San Franciscos influential new age and ambient scenes, her music remains non-programmatic, an adventurous tangent diverting from the eras ideological tropes. The artists own path to creative maturation was atypical. Raised by her Catholic family in Louisiana and Kentucky, she was tragically deprived of sight due to complications from a premature birth. This impairment would sensitize her to listenable worlds with great acuity and creative engagement, the loss becoming a formative aspect of Stroms spiritualist take on the power of music.\u003cbr\u003eRecalling her youth, Strom says she was “a loner and heretic.” Seeking solace and solidarity, she moved to the mecca of Californias counter culture with her husband, a G.I., who was assigned duty in the Bay Area during the decline of the Vietnam War. Having dabbled with piano as a teen, Paulines passion for music reignited when synthesizers became central to the serene scene of San Fran FM radio in the mid-70s. Inspired by the electronic music of the instruments early ambassadors (Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream), Strom purchased a Tascam 4-track recorder and a small array of synths (Yamaha DX7, TX816, CS-10) to navigate her own universe of space music.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs she gained confidence to share her creations beyond the walls of the apartment where she meticulously crafted under headphones day and night, Strom took on the artistic identity of the consort, spiriting listeners through epochs described by her evocative musical passages. From this moment and represented within Trans-Millenia Music, Strom proves to be a delicate melodist and meticulous colorist, as well as a sound designer of great drama and inspired energy. The celestial sounds evoke the uncertainty of pre-physical and primordial elements, creating an impression of a world beyond access that Strom has always felt was hers. In the collections liner notes Strom recounts, “I have always been in touch with the past more than the present.”\u003cbr\u003eApart from its mysteries, Stroms curiosity for the non-present was also suffused with a social bent. She believed that humanity was confined by its inability to access the people of the future, therefore suffering in a kind of group solipsism. Designing a world of music that rooted itself in all times but the present, Stroms alter ego, the Trans-Millenia Consort, became a musical activist for triggering this state of heightened consciousness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExemplary passages highlighted in Trans-Millenia Music were selected from the three full-lengths originally issued on vinyl in addition to a group of four full-lengths self-released on cassette. This substantive body of work challenges the canonization of new age and ambient music as one-size-fits-all categories. Stroms music induces a dynamic range of listening that captivates and intrigues, a cinematic experience rather than a meditation for passive listening.\u003cbr\u003eAn open invitation to earlier worlds and a trans-temporal philosophy for living, Pauline Anna Stroms Trans-Millenia Musicis available November 10, 2017 on double LP, CD, and digital formats. Vinyl and CD editions feature original artwork by visionary Karma Moffett, printed inner sleeves and booklet with extensive liner notes scribed by Britt Brown. - Rvng International.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"600\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fp6ZNrH4EzA\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\n\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/archive.li\/s3gld\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\"\u003e\n\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"Double LP","offer_id":13354243653695,"sku":"20600-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-11115806-1510141376-3583_jpeg.jpg?v=1571718525"},{"product_id":"renner-mark-few-traces","title":"RENNER, MARK - Few Traces","description":"Few Traces surveys a near decade of Mark Renners scarcely released and unreleased material from 1982 to 1990, embracing and evoking the timelessness of his artistic statement: a wordless translation of the individuals musical experience, met with the poetic expression of being here. Mark Renner first encountered punk while a teenager in Upperco, a country town in rural Maryland. Growing up on his family farm, he became a young acolyte of the British exports hitting not-so-distant Baltimore record store shelves in 1979 \/ 1980 and was baited by an area musician-wanted ad declaring Ultravox a primary touchstone. This nascent band and a pair of other group experiments flamed out under the typical totem of despotism. In their ashes Renner began recording independently around 1983 with a portable four-track, electric guitar, and classic Casio CZ101 synthesizer. Aside from John Foxx-era Ultravox, Renners process was inspired by the periods electronic pioneers venturing into deeper, romantic pop pastures: Yellow Magic Orchestra, Bill Nelson, The Associates.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith his tools and teachers in place, the blueprints for Renners sound were laid out – metronomic, skeletal rhythms built on sturdy yet singular drum machines supporting luminescent guitar and synth lines, Renners reverent voice guiding the fables and construction. Most directly influential, Renners enthusiasm for Days in Europa, the third album by Scottish new wave band Skids, would lead to a correspondence and long-distance tutorship with Stuart Adamson. Before Adamson would achieve worldwide success co-founding the group Big Country, a chance friendship with Renner would impart great confidence in the young musician from Maryland, who, after a visit in Edinburgh, would then travel to London to demo an early version of “Half A Heart” featured in its final form on Few Traces.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe sum of Renners music is one-part literary, one-part painterly. The artist cites the individualism of Herman Hesse as a guiding force, and there are overt references to W. B. Yeats and John Greanleaf Whittier among other authors. Lyrical themes evoke the presence of the ancient past, much like early Felt songs or the spiritual visions of Van Morrison. (Tellingly, Renner cites Morrisons 1980s albums made between Inarticulate Speech of the Heart and No Guru, No Method, No Teacher as musical influences.) Apart from his writing, Renner explored music as a complement to visual language: many of the dream-like instrumental passages presented across Few Traces were originally implemented as sound elements for exhibitions of his paintings. Renner pursued wordless music as a pure aesthetic in its own right, pristinely balanced segues and open-ended compositions that lead to pasture but not without shepherd.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCompiled three decades after the music was originally put to tape, Few Traces collects Mark Renners early music but strives not to simplify or reframe it. (Mark is still active making music and painting) The instrumental explorations remain on par with the great ambient adventurers of the period (Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Roedelius), while the vocal and guitar-centric songs crystalize across similar terrains being transversed by Cocteau Twins and The Chills. Few Traces highlights in intuitive sequence gems from Renners scarce discography and archive: the self-released debut All Walks of This Life (1986), the aptly titled follow-up Painters Joy (1988), plus early singles, compilation tracks, and exemplary songs that saw no original release. The collection allows an intimate look at an artist growing into their sound and surroundings, finding the in between echoes and spirituality of the individual.\u003cbr\u003eThis double LP collection includes extensive liner notes from Brandon Soderberg and unseen ephemera. A short documentary on Mark Renner by Maia Stern will be shared around Few Traces release date. - Rvng International.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"600\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gIywyRq0WIo\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"600\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0P1KmHGfus0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"Double LP","offer_id":13354252763199,"sku":"20824-RVNG INTERNATIONAL","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/R-11593724-1519076495-6825_jpeg.jpg?v=1571718551"},{"product_id":"rimarimba-below-the-horizon","title":"RIMARIMBA - Below the Horizon","description":"\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3354680852\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" seamless=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003eEdition of 750, includes high quality digital download code. \"The first in the Rimarimba series, 1983’s Below The Horizon, features Robert Cox in exploratory mode, figuring out exactly how to make his music. There’s a pleasure in hearing how he feels out the parameters of his aesthetic, here – there’s a boxy minimalism, slightly clunky and charming with it, that reflects the home-spun, improvisatory tenor of the compositions. It’s ambitious music, though, wanting to do the most and the best it can with its limited resources. Cox himself admits to not being “pre-wired” to making this music, but that only makes it more compelling: “Were I to be properly musical, it wouldn’t actually work as well in some ways; it’d be just another album of contemporary clattery music.” - Freedom To Spend.","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":13652443758655,"sku":"","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FTS005_-_Digital_Cover_-_1500px_600x_430e27b2-e0dc-42e9-ad70-6c1c9e840bd7.png?v=1571718574"},{"product_id":"le-guin-ursula-k-todd-barton-music-and-poetry-of-the-kesh","title":"LE GUIN, URSULA K. \u0026 TODD BARTON - Music and Poetry of the Kesh","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eMusic and Poetry of the Kesh\u003c\/em\u003e is the documentation of an invented Pacific Coast peoples from a far distant time, and the soundtrack of famed science fiction author, Ursula K. Le Guin’s \u003cem\u003eAlways Coming Home\u003c\/em\u003e. In the novel, the story of \u003cem\u003eStone Telling\u003c\/em\u003e, a young woman of the Kesh, is woven within a larger anthropological folklore and fantasy. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"The ways of the Kesh were originally presented in 1985 as a five hundred plus page book accompanied with illustrations of instruments and tools, maps, a glossary of terms, recipes, poems, an alphabet (Le Guin’s conlang, so she could write non-English lyrics), and with early editions, a cassette of “field recordings” and indigenous song. Le Guin wanted to hear the people she’d imagined; she embarked on an elaborate process with her friend Todd Barton to invoke their spirit and tradition.\" - Freedom to Spend.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom to Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":14337738342463,"sku":"","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/a0608235128_10.jpg?v=1571718598"},{"product_id":"ivers-peter-becoming-peter-ivers","title":"IVERS, PETER - Becoming Peter Ivers","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Becoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of the late Peter Ivers, a virtuosic songwriter and musician whose antics bridged not just 60s counterculture and New Wave music but also film, theater, and music television.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWritten and recorded in Los Angeles in the mid-to-late-1970s, \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e raises the curtain on this mischievous master of ceremonies, who, harmonica in hand, rarely missed a chance to light up an audience. Since his untimely death in 1983, Ivers' short but storied life has been the subject of much research and remembrance. \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e is the most expansive effort yet to collect his archival recordings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Demos are often better than records,” Ivers wrote. “More energy, more soul, more guts.” The statement anticipates the appearance of \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e, which was assembled from a trove of demo cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes that Ivers recorded variously at his home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, and Hollywood studios for a pair of major label albums in 1974 and 1976. While the two commercially released albums feature the resources of session musicians and state-of-the-art studio detail, \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e highlights the private moments of Ivers’ musical energy, frequently pared down to piano, drum machine, harmonica, and Peter’s ageless voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough technically not Ivers’ debut album (in 1969 Epic Records released \u003cem\u003eKnight Of The Blue Communion\u003c\/em\u003e, Peter’s psychedelic jazz odyssey of sorts), \u003cem\u003eTerminal Love\u003c\/em\u003e was the A\u0026amp;R brainchild of music legend Van Dyke Parks. Already a masterful harmonica player (respectively mentored by blues legend Little Walter and jazz bassist Buell Neidlinger while he was a student at Harvard in the late 60s), Ivers wove his harp melodies through the sensuously colored but unconventionally arranged pop compositions of Terminal Love and its self-titled follow up, which, like the New York Dolls at the same time, explored the libidinous, ironic, and artful possibilities of the rock template.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA studious artist, Ivers recorded hundreds of writing and rehearsal sessions onto reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, but notes were either scarcely kept or have since been lost. RVNG Intl. collaborated with Ivers’ friend and supporter Steven Martin under guidance from his longtime girlfriend Lucy Fisher, to tell an intimate story of Peter’s creative journey through this untold music. The collection includes tracks that recurred in Ivers’ ouvre over the years; “Alpha Centauri,” “Eighteen And Dreaming,” “Miraculous Weekend.” And, of course, “In Heaven” – the song co-written with David Lynch and commissioned by the filmmaker to be featured in a now-iconic scene of \u003cem\u003eEraserhead\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn accomplished Yogi by the late 70s, Ivers was as spiritual as he was playful. Accentuated by his cherubic face and compact height, Ivers’ vitality and curiosity became a part of his poetic sensibility, a quality that also characterizes his singing voice. Fisher remembers Ivers calling his days holed up in the studio as “snowy days,” as if he had been cut from school and let free to roam on his own. “No one knows what Peter Ivers does on a snowy day,” he would say.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1980, Ivers became involved with the Los Angeles-area public access show \u003cem\u003eNew Wave Theatre\u003c\/em\u003e, serving as its host and paternal misfit. Ivers would introduce a new generation of groups like Fear, Dead Kennedys, and Suburban Lawns while playing a kind-of “straight” man, deliberately baiting the punks with square questions and frocked fashion. His signature question to guests was delivered deadpan: “What is the meaning of life?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIvers died, tragically, the victim of a violent homicide in 1983 that remains unsolved. A shock to his community, his death all but fazed the LAPD, who treated the investigation with less than minimum care.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA labor of love that took RVNG Intl. over five years to complete, \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e re-frames Peter’s music as the centerpiece of his captivating story, concentrating on the work he made during his numerous retreats into art, or, as he put it, during his snowy days. Available as a double LP, CD, and digitally, \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e includes liner notes by Sam Lefebvre and Steven Martin and an array of unseen ephemera from Peter’s life and times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn behalf of the estate of Peter Ivers, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/homeboyindustries.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"\u003eHomeboy Industries\u003c\/a\u003e, a rehabilitation organization run by Father Greg Boyle to assist previously incarcerated former gang members with counseling, legal services, and work training programs.\" - RVNG International.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"Double LP","offer_id":31253556330559,"sku":"","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RERVNG09-Digital-Cover-1500px_600x_2d43c282-1289-4294-9a24-ca95f47bb098.png?v=1573835267"},{"product_id":"ivers-peter-becoming-peter-ivers-cd","title":"IVERS, PETER - Becoming Peter Ivers","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2X4xR360z_U\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"Becoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e tells the story of the late Peter Ivers, a virtuosic songwriter and musician whose antics bridged not just 60s counterculture and New Wave music but also film, theater, and music television.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWritten and recorded in Los Angeles in the mid-to-late-1970s, \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e raises the curtain on this mischievous master of ceremonies, who, harmonica in hand, rarely missed a chance to light up an audience. Since his untimely death in 1983, Ivers' short but storied life has been the subject of much research and remembrance. \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e is the most expansive effort yet to collect his archival recordings.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Demos are often better than records,” Ivers wrote. “More energy, more soul, more guts.” The statement anticipates the appearance of \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e, which was assembled from a trove of demo cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes that Ivers recorded variously at his home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, and Hollywood studios for a pair of major label albums in 1974 and 1976. While the two commercially released albums feature the resources of session musicians and state-of-the-art studio detail, \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e highlights the private moments of Ivers’ musical energy, frequently pared down to piano, drum machine, harmonica, and Peter’s ageless voice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough technically not Ivers’ debut album (in 1969 Epic Records released \u003cem\u003eKnight Of The Blue Communion\u003c\/em\u003e, Peter’s psychedelic jazz odyssey of sorts), \u003cem\u003eTerminal Love\u003c\/em\u003e was the A\u0026amp;R brainchild of music legend Van Dyke Parks. Already a masterful harmonica player (respectively mentored by blues legend Little Walter and jazz bassist Buell Neidlinger while he was a student at Harvard in the late 60s), Ivers wove his harp melodies through the sensuously colored but unconventionally arranged pop compositions of Terminal Love and its self-titled follow up, which, like the New York Dolls at the same time, explored the libidinous, ironic, and artful possibilities of the rock template.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA studious artist, Ivers recorded hundreds of writing and rehearsal sessions onto reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, but notes were either scarcely kept or have since been lost. RVNG Intl. collaborated with Ivers’ friend and supporter Steven Martin under guidance from his longtime girlfriend Lucy Fisher, to tell an intimate story of Peter’s creative journey through this untold music. The collection includes tracks that recurred in Ivers’ ouvre over the years; “Alpha Centauri,” “Eighteen And Dreaming,” “Miraculous Weekend.” And, of course, “In Heaven” – the song co-written with David Lynch and commissioned by the filmmaker to be featured in a now-iconic scene of \u003cem\u003eEraserhead\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wLaGyXHkQEM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAn accomplished Yogi by the late 70s, Ivers was as spiritual as he was playful. Accentuated by his cherubic face and compact height, Ivers’ vitality and curiosity became a part of his poetic sensibility, a quality that also characterizes his singing voice. Fisher remembers Ivers calling his days holed up in the studio as “snowy days,” as if he had been cut from school and let free to roam on his own. “No one knows what Peter Ivers does on a snowy day,” he would say.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1980, Ivers became involved with the Los Angeles-area public access show \u003cem\u003eNew Wave Theatre\u003c\/em\u003e, serving as its host and paternal misfit. Ivers would introduce a new generation of groups like Fear, Dead Kennedys, and Suburban Lawns while playing a kind-of “straight” man, deliberately baiting the punks with square questions and frocked fashion. His signature question to guests was delivered deadpan: “What is the meaning of life?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIvers died, tragically, the victim of a violent homicide in 1983 that remains unsolved. A shock to his community, his death all but fazed the LAPD, who treated the investigation with less than minimum care.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA labor of love that took RVNG Intl. over five years to complete, \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e re-frames Peter’s music as the centerpiece of his captivating story, concentrating on the work he made during his numerous retreats into art, or, as he put it, during his snowy days. Available as a double LP, CD, and digitally, \u003cem\u003eBecoming Peter Ivers\u003c\/em\u003e includes liner notes by Sam Lefebvre and Steven Martin and an array of unseen ephemera from Peter’s life and times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn behalf of the estate of Peter Ivers, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/homeboyindustries.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"\u003eHomeboy Industries\u003c\/a\u003e, a rehabilitation organization run by Father Greg Boyle to assist previously incarcerated former gang members with counseling, legal services, and work training programs.\" - RVNG International.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":31253586051135,"sku":"","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RERVNG09-Digital-Cover-1500px_600x_9c59f83e-ca5e-4794-9a16-065843cc895a.png?v=1573835421"},{"product_id":"hood-ernest-neighborhoods","title":"HOOD, ERNEST - Neighborhoods","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/662976803\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"Ernest Hood’s \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e was released some two decades after the Portland, Oregon born and raised musician’s first forays into field recordings. These very recordings, and those captured over intervening years, define the universal sound and aural images of childhood, a theme memorialized by Hood’s privately-pressed opus of 1975.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSprawling through a haze of zither, synthesizer melodies, and foraged pedestrian sound, \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e is both a score and documentary composed and directed by Hood to offer, in his words, joy in reminiscence. Hood’s nostalgic impulse ran parallel to the developments of other artists, writers, and filmmakers of the 1970s who were looking back to the 1950s to convey a collective memory of childhood. Unlike some of the widely embraced work of this nature, the music of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e eschews irony or detachment for lucidity, striving above all for a dream-like return to the details of sensory memory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBorn into a musical lineage, Hood’s early, promising career as a guitarist in a globe-trotting jazz outfit was cut short when he contracted polio in his late twenties. Moving from guitar to less physically-demanding stringed instruments in the late 1940s, Hood first began implementing field recordings in his jazz ensemble collaborations as early as 1956. In 1961, Hood and trumpeter Jim Smith collaborated on a local Portland television program, with their large, tight ensemble providing breakneck contemporary jazz for an action painting by famed West Coast modernist painter Louis Bunce. Hood incorporated his own field-recorded sounds of birds in the performance – an element that would resurface in \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e with great abundance among other found sounds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhether using environmental sounds or instruments, a sense of musical narration is the central component of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e, a strategy Hood tellingly referred to as “musical cinematography” in his original liner notes. Instead of using the picture frame, Hood broadcasts melodies and sounds from his beloved Portland surroundings to transport listeners to the story’s scene. Remarkably, \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e never falls into the sentimentality trap. Hood’s music augments its indeterminate, “anecdotal” sounds with a blend of zither and synthesizer melodies reminiscent of golden age cinema soundtracks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e is an unusual hybrid––not quite an “ambient” record nor a collection of pure field recordings. The identifiable sounds (screen doors opening and closing, passing motorists, crickets chirping, children playing) feel both universal and highly specific, like a bulletin of Hood’s private geography from the middle of the last century. There’s something instructive – if not reparative – about time traveling into the bucolic dimension of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e in 2019. If Hood were presenting the album today, he might invite listeners to unplug while locating that joy in reminiscence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the end, the concerns of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e are poetic not formal, as Hood’s own summary of the album sounds a lot like Walt Whitman: “It hardly matters in which neighborhood you sprouted. The games we played, the mocks, the terminology and the feelings we experienced as youngsters are tantalizingly familiar.” And later, hitting a grand note, “How familiar, how indelible the pictures are: aromas of soft velvet days, strong friendships, fears, hates, loves... If the music seems a little bittersweet, well... isn’t that the taste of nostalgia?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFreedom to Spend has restored Ernest Hood’s nostalgic masterpiece with the same care with which he viewed his source material, offering a remastered version of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e transferred from the original tapes, expanded across four vinyl sides (the original version was crammed on two). The new edition reproduces Hood’s celebratory liner notes in full, alongside new liner notes by \u003cem\u003eMichael Klausman\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA portion of proceeds from this release will be donated KBOO FM, a volunteer-powered, non-commercial, listener-sponsored, community radio station for Portland, Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, \u0026amp; the World, founded in part by Ernest Hood.\" - Freedom To Spend.","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"Double LP","offer_id":31253613314111,"sku":"","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/Ernest_Hood_-_Neighborhoods_-_FTS014_-_4000px_600x_dea2a08f-5dcb-4f7d-a680-160c0b39ea00.png?v=1573835703"},{"product_id":"copy-of-hood-ernest-neighborhoods","title":"HOOD, ERNEST - Neighborhoods","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/662976803\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"Ernest Hood’s \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e was released some two decades after the Portland, Oregon born and raised musician’s first forays into field recordings. These very recordings, and those captured over intervening years, define the universal sound and aural images of childhood, a theme memorialized by Hood’s privately-pressed opus of 1975.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSprawling through a haze of zither, synthesizer melodies, and foraged pedestrian sound, \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e is both a score and documentary composed and directed by Hood to offer, in his words, joy in reminiscence. Hood’s nostalgic impulse ran parallel to the developments of other artists, writers, and filmmakers of the 1970s who were looking back to the 1950s to convey a collective memory of childhood. Unlike some of the widely embraced work of this nature, the music of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e eschews irony or detachment for lucidity, striving above all for a dream-like return to the details of sensory memory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBorn into a musical lineage, Hood’s early, promising career as a guitarist in a globe-trotting jazz outfit was cut short when he contracted polio in his late twenties. Moving from guitar to less physically-demanding stringed instruments in the late 1940s, Hood first began implementing field recordings in his jazz ensemble collaborations as early as 1956. In 1961, Hood and trumpeter Jim Smith collaborated on a local Portland television program, with their large, tight ensemble providing breakneck contemporary jazz for an action painting by famed West Coast modernist painter Louis Bunce. Hood incorporated his own field-recorded sounds of birds in the performance – an element that would resurface in \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e with great abundance among other found sounds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhether using environmental sounds or instruments, a sense of musical narration is the central component of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e, a strategy Hood tellingly referred to as “musical cinematography” in his original liner notes. Instead of using the picture frame, Hood broadcasts melodies and sounds from his beloved Portland surroundings to transport listeners to the story’s scene. Remarkably, \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e never falls into the sentimentality trap. Hood’s music augments its indeterminate, “anecdotal” sounds with a blend of zither and synthesizer melodies reminiscent of golden age cinema soundtracks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e is an unusual hybrid––not quite an “ambient” record nor a collection of pure field recordings. The identifiable sounds (screen doors opening and closing, passing motorists, crickets chirping, children playing) feel both universal and highly specific, like a bulletin of Hood’s private geography from the middle of the last century. There’s something instructive – if not reparative – about time traveling into the bucolic dimension of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e in 2019. If Hood were presenting the album today, he might invite listeners to unplug while locating that joy in reminiscence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the end, the concerns of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e are poetic not formal, as Hood’s own summary of the album sounds a lot like Walt Whitman: “It hardly matters in which neighborhood you sprouted. The games we played, the mocks, the terminology and the feelings we experienced as youngsters are tantalizingly familiar.” And later, hitting a grand note, “How familiar, how indelible the pictures are: aromas of soft velvet days, strong friendships, fears, hates, loves... If the music seems a little bittersweet, well... isn’t that the taste of nostalgia?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFreedom to Spend has restored Ernest Hood’s nostalgic masterpiece with the same care with which he viewed his source material, offering a remastered version of \u003cem\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e transferred from the original tapes, expanded across four vinyl sides (the original version was crammed on two). The new edition reproduces Hood’s celebratory liner notes in full, alongside new liner notes by \u003cem\u003eMichael Klausman\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA portion of proceeds from this release will be donated KBOO FM, a volunteer-powered, non-commercial, listener-sponsored, community radio station for Portland, Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, \u0026amp; the World, founded in part by Ernest Hood.\" - Freedom To Spend.","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":31253625929791,"sku":"","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/Ernest_Hood_-_Neighborhoods_-_FTS014_-_4000px_600x_92703171-6958-45f3-b171-f98bf53c35c5.png?v=1573835854"},{"product_id":"leon-craig-anthology-of-interplanetary-folk-music-vol-2-the-canon","title":"LEON, CRAIG - Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/581761926\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"Craig Leon revisits the extraterrestrial origins of civilization in \u003ci\u003eAnthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon\u003c\/i\u003e, a continuing chronicle of his early 80s albums \u003ci\u003eNommos\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eVisiting\u003c\/i\u003e. Exploring the cosmic lore of Leon’s earlier work, \u003ci\u003eThe Canon\u003c\/i\u003e expands upon the conceptual cycle based on the alien and mathematical relationships that backbone the creation of art, architecture, science, and music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1981, producer and composer Craig Leon, known in the downtown New York zeitgeist for his production on The Ramones and Suicide’s debut albums, released \u003ci\u003eNommos\u003c\/i\u003e, a minimal, primitive electronic exploration based on a speculative, wildly imaginative anthropology.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter viewing an exhibition of Dogon art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1973, Leon remained fascinated by the Mali tribe’s creation myth that the Earth was visited in ancient times by the Nommos, a semi-amphibious alien race who travelled from the white dwarf Sirius B to impart their wisdom to mankind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNommos, \u003c\/i\u003ecuriously released on John Fahey’s Takoma Records, manifested Leon’s obsession and investigation: an abstract, ascendent collection of music that could have soundtracked the interstellar visitors’ journey to Earth. Shimmering, mechanical, and anchored by an entrancing pulse of the Dogon’s ceremonial music, \u003ci\u003eNommos\u003c\/i\u003e and its sequel, the privately pressed 1982 album \u003ci\u003eVisiting\u003c\/i\u003e, careened into obscurity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the intervening years, while Leon pursued his career as a successful producer, cult interest in the albums grew, culminating in the \u003ci\u003eAnthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1\u003c\/i\u003e., the 2014 archival collection which presented \u003ci\u003eNommos\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eVisiting\u003c\/i\u003e as they were intended to be heard, two sides of the same coin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Canon\u003c\/i\u003e picks up where \u003ci\u003eNommos\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eVisiting\u003c\/i\u003e left off, tracing the path of ancient wisdom imparted by the Dogon’s alien visitors spreading from Mali into Egypt and across the water to Greece as imagined in William Stirling’s \"The Canon,\" an anonymous exposition of cosmic law published in a nearly invisible print edition in 1897.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough the music - propulsive and spacious - is clearly of a part with \u003ci\u003eNommos\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eVisiting\u003c\/i\u003e, the alien sounds of the Nommos become more familiar to western ears and musical vocabulary as the album narrative thrusts forward. \u003ci\u003eThe Canon\u003c\/i\u003e implies - through ecstatic, contemporary sound and synthesis - that the origins of Western thought, and civilization itself, lie in the great beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNearly four decades since their first collaboration on \u003ci\u003eNommos \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Visiting\u003c\/i\u003e, Leon is once again joined by his partner Cassell Webb on vocals and album production. Leon composed, and both he and Cassell performed, and produced all of the music of \u003ci\u003eThe Canon\u003c\/i\u003e, consciously engaging many of the same synthesizers and programs of \u003ci\u003eAnthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1\u003c\/i\u003e for \u003ci\u003eVol. 2\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe duo are touring \u003ci\u003eThe Canon\u003c\/i\u003e with an expanded ensemble throughout 2019 and 2020. Though Leon has performed \u003ci\u003eNommos\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eVisiting\u003c\/i\u003e with orchestral accompaniment over the years, this will be the first time the live cast will also include instrumentalists steeped in the Dogon and Mediterranean musical traditions that infuse both volumes of \u003ci\u003eAnthology of Interplanetary Folk Music.\" \u003c\/i\u003e- RVNG International.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":31253661810751,"sku":"","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RVNGNL55-Digital-Cover-1500px_600x_55ae9099-8743-4442-9b96-ebdf251bf12c.png?v=1573836241"},{"product_id":"leon-craig-anthology-of-interplanetary-folk-music-vol-2-the-canon-rvng-international-cd","title":"LEON, CRAIG - Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon","description":"\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/581761926\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"Craig Leon revisits the extraterrestrial origins of civilization in Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon, a continuing chronicle of his early 80s albums Nommos and Visiting. Exploring the cosmic lore of Leon’s earlier work, The Canon expands upon the conceptual cycle based on the alien and mathematical relationships that backbone the creation of art, architecture, science, and music. In 1981, producer and composer Craig Leon, known in the downtown New York zeitgeist for his production on The Ramones and Suicide’s debut albums, released Nommos, a minimal, primitive electronic exploration based on a speculative, wildly imaginative anthropology. After viewing an exhibition of Dogon art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1973, Leon remained fascinated by the Mali tribe’s creation myth that the Earth was visited in ancient times by the Nommos, a semi-amphibious alien race who travelled from the white dwarf Sirius B to impart their wisdom to mankind. Nommos, curiously released on John Fahey’s Takoma Records, manifested Leon’s obsession and investigation: an abstract, ascendent collection of music that could have soundtracked the interstellar visitors’ journey to Earth. Shimmering, mechanical, and anchored by an entrancing pulse of the Dogon’s ceremonial music, Nommos and its sequel, the privately pressed 1982 album Visiting, careened into obscurity. In the intervening years, while Leon pursued his career as a successful producer, cult interest in the albums grew, culminating in the Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1., the 2014 archival collection which presented Nommos and Visiting as they were intended to be heard, two sides of the same coin. The Canon picks up where Nommos and Visiting left off, tracing the path of ancient wisdom imparted by the Dogon’s alien visitors spreading from Mali into Egypt and across the water to Greece as imagined in William Stirling’s \"The Canon,\" an anonymous exposition of cosmic law published in a nearly invisible print edition in 1897. Though the music - propulsive and spacious - is clearly of a part with Nommos and Visiting, the alien sounds of the Nommos become more familiar to western ears and musical vocabulary as the album narrative thrusts forward. The Canon implies - through ecstatic, contemporary sound and synthesis - that the origins of Western thought, and civilization itself, lie in the great beyond. Nearly four decades since their first collaboration on Nommos and Visiting, Leon is once again joined by his partner Cassell Webb on vocals and album production. Leon composed, and both he and Cassell performed, and produced all of the music of The Canon, consciously engaging many of the same synthesizers and programs of Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1 for Vol. 2. The duo are touring The Canon with an expanded ensemble throughout 2019 and 2020. Though Leon has performed Nommos and Visiting with orchestral accompaniment over the years, this will be the first time the live cast will also include instrumentalists steeped in the Dogon and Mediterranean musical traditions that infuse both volumes of Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music. \" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":31254439067711,"sku":"","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RVNGNL55-Digital-Cover-1500px_600x_f9c42f75-4b6e-4dbb-83eb-ecfe57f48a83.png?v=1573845560"},{"product_id":"visible-cloaks-yoshio-ojima-satsuki-shibano-frkwys-vol-15-serenitatem-rvng-international-lp","title":"VISIBLE CLOAKS, YOSHIO OJIMA \u0026 SATSUKI SHIBANO - FRKWYS Vol. 15: serenitatem","description":"\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/595772187\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"serenitatem, the fifteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.’s collaboration series pairing inter-generational artists in creative conversation, joins Visible Cloaks with Yoshio Ojima and Satsuki Shibano, two trailblazers of the Japanese avant-garde music and visual arts scenes of the 1980s and 90s. Yoshio Ojima began his career as a composer of environmental and ambient music, with a particular interest, and optimism, in the possibilities of generative software. His compositional pursuit of human synthesis with computerized forms was realized in its fullest potential alongside Satsuki Shibano, a pianist renowned for her interpretations of Erik Satie and Claude Debussy. Together, they were among a handful of influential Japanese artists whose innovations still resonate, if not more vibrantly than ever, well beyond the tightly-knit scene’s original core. In the early 90s, Ojima was among the programmers of the influential satellite radio experiment St. Giga, a constantly-evolving sonic landscape that combined field recordings and sound collage with occasional readings of Japanese poetry. Satsuki was a regular reader for the station. This musical terrarium bloomed out of sight in a small Tokyo studio, a greenhouse of sound with no set start or finish time that audiences could tune into, absorb, and immerse. The perpetual flow state of St. Giga — recordings of which Ojima shared with Visible Cloaks — would be highly influential to serenitatem’s constitution. As Visible Cloaks, the Portland, Oregon duo of Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile have developed their own set of creative strategies that form an aesthetic fuse point between human intention, aleatoric composition, and improvisation. These are notions most recently reflected in 2017’s Reassemblage and Lex, a respective album and EP in which the duo combined generative software and virtual representations of global instruments into lacy, interlocking patterns. Long time admirers of Ojima’s work on albums like 1988’s Une Collection Des Chainons, Doran and Carlile discovered after an online introduction that they shared with Yoshio and Satsuki an abiding interest in pre-classical composers, the Lovely Music, Ltd. label, and the British avant-garde, as well as a mutual respect for one another’s techniques and processes. The four musicians met in Tokyo, Japan at Sounduno Studios in December 2017, at the tail end of Visible Cloaks’ first Japanese tour, to commence work on serenitatem. Leading up to the studio sessions, Doran and Carlile sent Ojima processed sound sketches recorded while on a European tour, which Yoshio would add to and return. Visible Cloaks would then fold Yoshio’s edits back into the original compositions, which Doran and Carlile brought to the exploratory recording session. During that week together in Tokyo, the quartet made use of a number of creative strategies — “echoing sound together,” as Yoshio puts it. Among the strategies, MIDI randomization gave the quartet melodic lines and what Doran calls “randomized clouds,” or “tightly grouped notes that become smeared tonal clusters functioning more like chords in themselves.” Carlile would also feed Ojima and Satsuki’s text into Wotja, a generative music software which produced a MIDI language around which the quartet expanded their compositions. “The aim,” Doran says of serenitatem, “was to make a work that was not specifically ambient (or environmental), but something more multi-hued, weaving these deconstructive concepts into an album that has a deeper architecture underpinning it.” Accordingly, serenitatem is a marvelously sharp record, its sutures between human and machine virtually impossible to find but suggested everywhere you turn. The collaboration among Ojima, Satsuki, and Visible Cloaks is both musically and conceptually inseparable from the technology that made it possible. Throughout the album, Shibano’s playing resonates like Satie’s, her rhythms cascading like drops from leaves an hour after the rain. Overtones are stretched and warped like modeling clay, then spun around and shown off from multiple angles. A single soaring note might seem to be suddenly plunged underwater, its richness of sound made shallow and its sharp edges blunted. Pittering chimes and rapidly warping vocal samples hang in the luxuriously glossy space, water trickles from ear-to-ear, familiar melodies rise from nothing and dissolve before they can be traced. With the depth of its emotional charge, serenitatem burns away the easy cynicism of the day, presenting itself as the kind of delocalized work of art the internet promised us decades ago — a synthesis of artistic visions, technological sophistication, futurist ambition, and, occasionally, ancient polyphony. Listening to it can feel a bit like tuning in to a 21st Century version of St. Giga: It’s a place where the future still grows. \" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":31254439231551,"sku":"","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FRKWYS15-Digital-Cover-1500px_600x_dce80071-7326-42f7-84e7-ffb9289d9591.png?v=1573845561"},{"product_id":"visible-cloaks-yoshio-ojima-satsuki-shibano-frkwys-vol-15-serenitatem-rvng-international-cd","title":"VISIBLE CLOAKS, YOSHIO OJIMA \u0026 SATSUKI SHIBANO - FRKWYS Vol. 15: serenitatem","description":"\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/595772187\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"serenitatem, the fifteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.’s collaboration series pairing inter-generational artists in creative conversation, joins Visible Cloaks with Yoshio Ojima and Satsuki Shibano, two trailblazers of the Japanese avant-garde music and visual arts scenes of the 1980s and 90s. Yoshio Ojima began his career as a composer of environmental and ambient music, with a particular interest, and optimism, in the possibilities of generative software. His compositional pursuit of human synthesis with computerized forms was realized in its fullest potential alongside Satsuki Shibano, a pianist renowned for her interpretations of Erik Satie and Claude Debussy. Together, they were among a handful of influential Japanese artists whose innovations still resonate, if not more vibrantly than ever, well beyond the tightly-knit scene’s original core. In the early 90s, Ojima was among the programmers of the influential satellite radio experiment St. Giga, a constantly-evolving sonic landscape that combined field recordings and sound collage with occasional readings of Japanese poetry. Satsuki was a regular reader for the station. This musical terrarium bloomed out of sight in a small Tokyo studio, a greenhouse of sound with no set start or finish time that audiences could tune into, absorb, and immerse. The perpetual flow state of St. Giga — recordings of which Ojima shared with Visible Cloaks — would be highly influential to serenitatem’s constitution. As Visible Cloaks, the Portland, Oregon duo of Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile have developed their own set of creative strategies that form an aesthetic fuse point between human intention, aleatoric composition, and improvisation. These are notions most recently reflected in 2017’s Reassemblage and Lex, a respective album and EP in which the duo combined generative software and virtual representations of global instruments into lacy, interlocking patterns. Long time admirers of Ojima’s work on albums like 1988’s Une Collection Des Chainons, Doran and Carlile discovered after an online introduction that they shared with Yoshio and Satsuki an abiding interest in pre-classical composers, the Lovely Music, Ltd. label, and the British avant-garde, as well as a mutual respect for one another’s techniques and processes. The four musicians met in Tokyo, Japan at Sounduno Studios in December 2017, at the tail end of Visible Cloaks’ first Japanese tour, to commence work on serenitatem. Leading up to the studio sessions, Doran and Carlile sent Ojima processed sound sketches recorded while on a European tour, which Yoshio would add to and return. Visible Cloaks would then fold Yoshio’s edits back into the original compositions, which Doran and Carlile brought to the exploratory recording session. During that week together in Tokyo, the quartet made use of a number of creative strategies — “echoing sound together,” as Yoshio puts it. Among the strategies, MIDI randomization gave the quartet melodic lines and what Doran calls “randomized clouds,” or “tightly grouped notes that become smeared tonal clusters functioning more like chords in themselves.” Carlile would also feed Ojima and Satsuki’s text into Wotja, a generative music software which produced a MIDI language around which the quartet expanded their compositions. “The aim,” Doran says of serenitatem, “was to make a work that was not specifically ambient (or environmental), but something more multi-hued, weaving these deconstructive concepts into an album that has a deeper architecture underpinning it.” Accordingly, serenitatem is a marvelously sharp record, its sutures between human and machine virtually impossible to find but suggested everywhere you turn. The collaboration among Ojima, Satsuki, and Visible Cloaks is both musically and conceptually inseparable from the technology that made it possible. Throughout the album, Shibano’s playing resonates like Satie’s, her rhythms cascading like drops from leaves an hour after the rain. Overtones are stretched and warped like modeling clay, then spun around and shown off from multiple angles. A single soaring note might seem to be suddenly plunged underwater, its richness of sound made shallow and its sharp edges blunted. Pittering chimes and rapidly warping vocal samples hang in the luxuriously glossy space, water trickles from ear-to-ear, familiar melodies rise from nothing and dissolve before they can be traced. With the depth of its emotional charge, serenitatem burns away the easy cynicism of the day, presenting itself as the kind of delocalized work of art the internet promised us decades ago — a synthesis of artistic visions, technological sophistication, futurist ambition, and, occasionally, ancient polyphony. Listening to it can feel a bit like tuning in to a 21st Century version of St. Giga: It’s a place where the future still grows. \" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":31254439460927,"sku":"","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FRKWYS15-Digital-Cover-1500px_600x_312237c3-fd80-440d-bf27-64f3e06fb2a5.png?v=1573845562"},{"product_id":"chikuma-june-les-archives-freedom-to-spend-lp-7","title":"CHIKUMA, JUNE - Les Archives","description":"\"Les Archives is composed, arranged, and produced by the elusive Japanese artist June Chikuma. While Freedom To Spend’s reinvented edition bares little visual evidence of its origins in the composer’s name, title, or sleeve design, the album, a whooping gonzo of synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and a mysterious string quartet, remains as vibrant now as it did when released on Toru Hatano’s Picture Label as Divertimento in 1986. In fact, the music of Les Archives now glows with a different purpose; one that revises the past while maintaining, and finally elevating, its hidden influence.\n\nA woman of multiple disciplines and identities, June Chikuma (竹間 淳, Chikuma Jun) has composed for TV, film, and video games over the past thirty plus years. Her proto-techno and drum and bass soundtracks for Nintendo’s Bomberman franchise in the 80s and 90s is an oeuvre unto itself. In more recent years her musical focus has turned toward classic Arabic and Egyptian music. Chikuma studies Arabic nay, playing and performing with Le Club Bachraf ensemble. In a melding of June’s contrasting, colorful worlds, Le Club Bachraf composed part of the original score for the 2007 video game Sonic and The Secret Rings.\n\nFor Les Archives, Chikuma constructed a sonic stage to animate her imaginings as a one-person show. The primary props, a KORG SDD-3000 digital delay, an audible, overt display of unclassified drum machines and samplers, and a litany of literary references. Following the original album’s sequence, “Broadcast Profanity Delay” bursts onto Les Archives’ first scene full of buoyant energy and fluttering atmospheric pressure. The composition was conceived by Chikuma for a make-believe marimba ensemble, and in this shapeshifting form, takes on its own mutant life.\n\n“Pataphysique” is a term for the study of an imaginary realm additional to metaphysics, and the track on Les Archives most conducive to dancing (even if those movements might conjure the herkiest, jerkiest imagery). “Divertimento,” the heretofore title track of the album, brandishes a tough electro exoskeleton with a molten 18th century orchestral interlude nine minutes into the nearly thirteen minute piece. Chikuma dedicates “Divertimento” to composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Paul Hindemith for his alignment with the New Objectivity movement. By the composition’s conclusion the object’s particles have been completely obliterated and assembled again.\n\nThe cacophony of Les Archives parts to reveal a clearing with “Climb-Down,” Chikuma’s tribute to Erik Satie’s Furniture music (musique d’ameublement). The Michiyo Toda String Quartet’s somber string interpretation of June’s composition offers a grace unlike the Rube Goldberg of punchy programming and found sound on the surrounding electronic machination. After this acoustic respite the electricity is switched on again. “Dual Use” repurposes the constitution of “Divertimento” as a slight samba, complete with Godzilla samples.\n\nRecorded during the original Divertimento sessions at Hugh Studio in Tokyo but excluded from the original album release, Les Archives presents two unheard pieces. “Mujo to Ifukoto” works as interspecies smalltalk between synthetic instruments and environmental samples. Lush strings interrupt synth sweeps, said sweeps giving way to a concrète concert of crickets and church bells. Countering the title’s claim of dispassionate decision-making in the midst of crisis, “Oddman Hypothesis” is deliberately restrained, aside from the shatter marking the start, and resembles the City Pop and fusion movements that defined Japan’s musical landscape in the 80s.\n\nChiikuma’s neon-vibrant aesthetic would be at home soundtracking films like After Hours or Teknolust. However, Les Archives is the score for a movie of mistaken identity – clones redressed in a guise of the artist’s re-coding. The legitimate artifact deceives history. There is no original, but this copy is singular and complete.\n\n\" - Freedom To Spend.","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP \u0026 7\"","offer_id":31254440935487,"sku":"","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FTS010_-_Digital_Cover_-_1500px_600x_9088cfc1-aa77-4c9b-9cac-ed75a77a41b5.png?v=1573845563"},{"product_id":"sprague-emily-a-water-memory-mount-vision-rvng-international-double-lp","title":"SPRAGUE, EMILY A. - Water Memory \/ Mount Vision","description":"\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/630939006\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"Emily A. Sprague’s Water Memory and Mount Vision albums are presented in new and complete detail. Emily’s work concerns the connectedness of all things, giving living, core form to the mysterious forces that guide earthly activity and human contact with them. Memory and vision, ocean and mountains, question and answer, emotions and infinity. Sunshine, lizard, sea salt. Through sound and poetry, Emily focuses on fleeting moments of crystalline clarity and meditates on expanded lifetimes of intricate meaning-making. This vision is unfalteringly beautiful, gently profound. But, as Ursula K. Le Guin intuits in her translation of the Tao Te Ching, “In poetry, beauty is no ornament; it is the meaning. It is the truth.” A collection of reflections are visible in the mirrored structures of Water Memory and Mount Vision, two chapters - two halves - each complemented by a written verse. As much about the presence in youthful experimentation as the permanence of transition and maturation, Water Memory is the first long-form instrumental music Emily ever channeled, generated over a year of self and sonic exploration between Massachusetts and New York. Water Memory unfolds like a collection of ancient affirmations; at times playful, even illusive, but always glittering and real. The meaning, like the sight, is aqueous - never too solid, nonetheless substantial. Each verse is intentionally titled: “A Lake” is perhaps an exclamation (‘look - a lake!’), an invitation to break its cool glass surface into ripples with your body, float on its skin, observe the inhabitants of its province - birds circling, insects chirping, its own patch of sky just being blue, endlessly. It is nameless, unpossessed, and contained. “Water Memory 1” is woven from cyclical, melodic phrases riding on wistful tides. “Water Memory 2” is its expanded twin, combining coastal sound with a free-flowing, synthesized drone and simple, improvisatory held notes seemingly resonating from behind a falling water facade. “Dock” is a liminal space between water and earth, human structure decaying into nature, singing with an alto, organelle voice. And “Your Pond,” is childlike minutiae looped sweetly, a gift now belonging. By contrast, Mount Vision was conceived in a smaller window of time than its predecessor, the pure residue of intense emotional build up during a period of self-healing and unguarded reflection. Composed and captured in Northern California, the body of Mount Vision is a trio of synthesizer pieces; deeply grounded compositions of extended tones trilling into the ether. Between them is a “Piano” pair, two pieces which loop portions of a lilted phrase augmented by, in “Piano 1,” almost invisible, synthesized strands, and in “Piano 2,” field recordings of birds. “Huckleberry” is the most textured of entry in this compendium, embodying flickering activity of miniscule worlds, a vivid description of environment. Though undeniably the product of potent emotional experience, Mount Vision is a vision of newness, of soul convalescence. It leaves off where its poetic complement ends, “next time.” Not so much an utterance of regret, but the invocation of a new phase, always with respect to the last, a pattern that eternally visits. Emily’s mission on this planet may be facilitating - or illuminating - the correspondence between innermost knowledge and intelligent nature, and Water Memory \/ Mount Vision are most certainly monumental documents along this sharing path. The newly sequenced and Taylor Deupree mastered double LP and CD editions will be available from RVNG on May 24, 2019. A limited print of Emily’s writing, Ambient Poems (2017 - 2018), will be included to mail order customers while the edition allows. \" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"Double LP","offer_id":31254441328703,"sku":"","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RVNGNL58-Digital-Cover-1500px_600x_05431cf3-dbed-42d5-879f-b1bc2cf39d4d.png?v=1573845564"},{"product_id":"baird-ka-respires-rvng-international-lp","title":"BAIRD, KA - Respires","description":"\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/671236391\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"Respires, the second solo album by Ka Baird, blurs the line between word and action, definition and possibility. Spirited yet restrained, bearing its wildly thrummed heart strings and inner calm alike, Respires ventures toward the unknown, charting the shifting ground of experimental music and the rewards born of risk. Tapping the ecstatic energy and cathartic experience of Baird’s live sets, pushing the extremes of psychological and physical release, Respires represents an unquestionable leap for an artist already out on a limb. Largely written and recorded across the length of 2018, the eight pieces align as a series of visceral actions, captured, culled, and intricately shaped by Baird, then expanded with contributions from Zach Rowden (bass), Max Eilbacher and Andrew Fitzpatrick (synths), and Greg Fox (drums). Respires was born from the intertwined etymologies of spirit and breath, the results of Baird’s singular approach to extended vocal technique and radical notions of “body music” which push her performances to uncompromising extremes. Channeling a raw energy from an internal depth, the genetics of Respires construct new bridges of communication, reaching across the perceptual boundaries of spiritual and physical. Informed by indigenous, sacred flute music of New Guinea and vocal music of Burundi, Can, Maryanne Amacher, Don Cherry’s Organic Music Society, and Chaitanya Hari’s Kundalini Meditation Music, and driven by a fearless quest for musical discovery, Respires offers a glimpse into a sacred space of the musical avant-garde. From the unusual folk music of Spires That In The Sunset Rise, to her many collaborative and solo efforts, Baird’s careful artistry and years of experimental exploration, placed in connection with the raw power unleashed by the body, lungs, and reeds, represents an intersection of possible futures on Respires. Tapping the primitive, immediate, unnameable, and fundamentally human, it’s an album which proves the impossibility of failure, when the risk of failure is embraced. An answer - or continuation of - Joan la Barbara’s long standing indication of the voice as “original instrument,” Respires is spirit, movement, and an immersive life force manifested as sound. A sound in which the self is lost, and becomes something universal.\" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":31254443393087,"sku":"","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RVNGNL61-Digital-Cover-1500px_600x_726d38ad-3e51-49b2-8e9b-a38c59dad55d.png?v=1573845565"},{"product_id":"mercure-michele-beside-herself-rvng-international-cd","title":"MERCURE, MICHELE - Beside Herself","description":"\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/499070535\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"Michele Mercure often dreams of music, and in her waking life, reclaims fragments of these fleeting, floating melodies in her compositions and sound art. Beside Herself, an anthology of Mercure’s self-produced and distributed cassettes released between 1983 and 1990, collects these dreamlike passages and lo-fi nocturnes, preserving the qualities of discovery and intimacy surrounding their genesis. Mercure’s sound is a porous electronic art that overlaps ambient, abstract, and industrial sensibilities – its spaciousness reveals an artist attuned cinematically rather than for radio play or public performance. She approached the latter theatrically, and rarely, disdaining most live shows as too serious, and bringing her music to bare on her audiences in playful, immersive contexts. On recordings, Mercure’s night lit synth music evokes non-confined environments, at once expressionistic and minimal and always aware of its surroundings. Mercure was a busy collaborator during the years surveyed by Beside Herself, making music for theater, performance, film, and TV animation, yet it was through her self-released cassettes that she established her music among like-minded artists abroad. Circulated through tape-trading networks assisted by insightful reviews in Eurock, a seminal music magazine covering progressive rock and electronic music scenes, these album-length releases included Rogue and Mint (1983), A Cast of Shadows (1984), Dreams Without Dreamers (1985), and Dreamplay (1990). Though unvarnished in fidelity (and now scarcely seen), these tapes showcased Mercure’s transportive aptitude within and beyond the limited sound recording medium. Mercure’s artistic path never ran through creative meccas New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles. Raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, and then moving to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in her twenties, Mercure was already an adept musician when she encountered a local and lively theater scene, and was asked to score an unorthodox performance of Waiting for Godot. The experience was pivotal in marrying music and image for Mercure, and so she began making music for film, television, dance, and theater. It wasn’t until a long sojourn in Eindhoven, however, that she became transfixed by electronic music (ala Conrad Schnitzler, whom she would correspond with for years) that would inform her music to come. Acoustic elements such as voice and stringed instruments add a haunting lyricism to the non-tonal space unoccupied by electronic presence in Mercure’s music. The graduality of phrasing and measured sequence of tones also distinguish her music from the repetition and improvisation-heavy hallmarks of the Kosmische genre, a stylistic antecedent for the artist. Mercure’s fascination, or obsession, with new, consumer conscious music technology is demonstrated in her inventive sequencing and sampling, adding a mechanical, sometimes menacing, feel to Beside Herself. Mercure’s contemporaries became the kindred minds of the Eurock “scene” such as The Nightcrawlers, Lauri Paisley, and Don Slepian. It was in association with Paisley and Pauline Anna Strom that Eurock featured Mercure in an article titled “Women Synthesists” in 1986. The three artists all shared a bravura for homespun, self-produced electronic music that looked beyond pop conventions for a higher plane of avant-gardism or musical spirituality. Not long after the article went to print, Mercure offered Eye Chant, her standalone vinyl album self-released in 1987. Beside Herself extends RVNG Intl.’s preservation efforts to sister label Freedom To Spend who reissued Eye Chant in 2017, an occasion marking just over twenty years since its original release on Mercure’s own Quick Shower Music. (Eye Chant, and the cassettes surveyed on Beside Herself, were originally credited to Michelle Musser, the name which the artist used until a divorce in 1987). The anthological scope of Beside Herself joins Eye Chant to restore the canon of Mercure’s arresting dream-music, revisiting this anomalous creator’s breakthrough material. Beside Herself will be released on double LP, CD, and digital formats on November 9, 2018. The set features liner notes by Emily Pothast and an incredible array of unseen photography and ephemera of the era. \" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":31254443687999,"sku":"","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RERVNG12_-_Digital_Cover_-_1500px_600x_d984adf2-a34b-46f2-8605-c5c00ce3ff74.png?v=1573845566"},{"product_id":"coates-oliver-shelley-s-on-zenn-la-rvng-international-lp","title":"COATES, OLIVER - Shelley's on Zenn-La","description":"\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/457831722\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"For Shelley’s on Zenn-La, Oliver Coates designs a complex of bending truths and reverse walkways to vernal states. Open ears can peer down hidden aux channel corridors, while melodic patterns present two-way mirrors to rooms of other retinal colors. An endless euphoria is just beneath the dance floorboards of Shelley’s, and an inquisitiveness unencumbered by the institution of knowledge surrounding its frame and inhabitants. Shelley’s on Zenn-La was made between the Elephant and Castle neighborhood of London and a future dreamscape. In this realm out of time and space, Shelley’s (Laserdome) - a once-legendary late 80s \/ early 90s nightclub in the industrial town of Stoke-on-Trent in the north of England - can simultaneously exist on the fictional planet of Zenn-La, and can house a devotional, alien ritual of early UK rave culture, pioneering IDM, and deep minimalism. Much of the album’s construction extends from specific, self-imposed ambitions; particular palettes applied to individual creative ideas. These limitations become limitless manifestations of theme: two bass lines running in parallel (one cello, one synth), synthesized waveforms phasing with bowed acoustic drones and chords, synth sequences in nonstandard tuning sitting against folk melody in standard tuning. Coates made a lot of the music for Shelley’s in Renoise, composing drum sequences in hexadecimal numbers and pencil drawn waveforms and cementing specificity in the intricate, intelligent dance machinations. Some of Shelley’s tracks veer into and across FM synthesis. “I like hearing how one tone is enriched by another tone modulating the first, resulting in gleaming sets of new harmonics,” says Coates, “I started thinking about placing live cello playing into a chain of antagonism resulting in sounds I found beautiful.\" This instinct to poetically process sounds in real life (“sitting on the tube, thinking: I'd remove the low end on that, compress that, add reverb to that”) give Shelley’s an exploratory feel, both guided and unbound, autodidactic by undoing. Shelley’s opens with “Faraday Monument,” matching the enigmatic precedent of the Brutalist box in London the track is named after. chrysanthemum bear’s vocals oscillate over “A Church” singing lyrics to melt metal and minds. Large spaces adjacent to small enclosed ones house the voice of Malibu reading poetry within “Norrin Radd Dreaming.” “Cello Renoise” is built upon the image of two drummers playing to one click track as if in different booths. The great flautist, Kathryn Williams, recreated midi parts to end Shelley’s as a “Perfect Apple With Silver Mark.” Cellist, composer, and producer Oliver Coates has been an artist in residency at London’s Southbank Centre, and received the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award. Coates has contributed to the recordings of Radiohead, and collaborated with Laurie Spiegel and John Luther Adams. He has also been commissioned for string and electronic arrangements by visual artist Lawrence Lek, recorded with composer Jonny Greenwood on the scores for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and Phantom Thread and collaborated with musician Mica Levi on the 2016 album Remain Calm. Oliver Coates’ Shelley’s on Zenn-La is available September 7, 2018 on LP, CD, and digital formats. \" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":31254444048447,"sku":"","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RVNGNL43-Digital-Cover-4000px_600x_fa14fd20-fc27-4de7-aa9a-e18240c988f4.png?v=1573845567"},{"product_id":"coates-oliver-shelley-s-on-zenn-la-rvng-international-cd","title":"COATES, OLIVER - Shelley's on Zenn-La","description":"\"For Shelley’s on Zenn-La, Oliver Coates designs a complex of bending truths and reverse walkways to vernal states. Open ears can peer down hidden aux channel corridors, while melodic patterns present two-way mirrors to rooms of other retinal colors. An endless euphoria is just beneath the dance floorboards of Shelley’s, and an inquisitiveness unencumbered by the institution of knowledge surrounding its frame and inhabitants.\n\nShelley’s on Zenn-La was made between the Elephant and Castle neighborhood of London and a future dreamscape. In this realm out of time and space, Shelley’s (Laserdome) - a once-legendary late 80s \/ early 90s nightclub in the industrial town of Stoke-on-Trent in the north of England - can simultaneously exist on the fictional planet of Zenn-La, and can house a devotional, alien ritual of early UK rave culture, pioneering IDM, and deep minimalism.\n\nMuch of the album’s construction extends from specific, self-imposed ambitions; particular palettes applied to individual creative ideas. These limitations become limitless manifestations of theme: two bass lines running in parallel (one cello, one synth), synthesized waveforms phasing with bowed acoustic drones and chords, synth sequences in nonstandard tuning sitting against folk melody in standard tuning. Coates made a lot of the music for Shelley’s in Renoise, composing drum sequences in hexadecimal numbers and pencil drawn waveforms and cementing specificity in the intricate, intelligent dance machinations.\n\nSome of Shelley’s tracks veer into and across FM synthesis. “I like hearing how one tone is enriched by another tone modulating the first, resulting in gleaming sets of new harmonics,” says Coates, “I started thinking about placing live cello playing into a chain of antagonism resulting in sounds I found beautiful.\" This instinct to poetically process sounds in real life (“sitting on the tube, thinking: I'd remove the low end on that, compress that, add reverb to that”) give Shelley’s an exploratory feel, both guided and unbound, autodidactic by undoing.\n\nShelley’s opens with “Faraday Monument,” matching the enigmatic precedent of the Brutalist box in London the track is named after. chrysanthemum bear’s vocals oscillate over “A Church” singing lyrics to melt metal and minds. Large spaces adjacent to small enclosed ones house the voice of Malibu reading poetry within “Norrin Radd Dreaming.” “Cello Renoise” is built upon the image of two drummers playing to one click track as if in different booths. The great flautist, Kathryn Williams, recreated midi parts to end Shelley’s as a “Perfect Apple With Silver Mark.”\n\nCellist, composer, and producer Oliver Coates has been an artist in residency at London’s Southbank Centre, and received the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award. Coates has contributed to the recordings of Radiohead, and collaborated with Laurie Spiegel and John Luther Adams. He has also been commissioned for string and electronic arrangements by visual artist Lawrence Lek, recorded with composer Jonny Greenwood on the scores for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and Phantom Thread and collaborated with musician Mica Levi on the 2016 album Remain Calm.\n\nOliver Coates’ Shelley’s on Zenn-La is available September 7, 2018 on LP, CD, and digital formats.\n\" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":31254444179519,"sku":"","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RVNGNL43-Digital-Cover-4000px_600x_372a016e-4b09-429d-a4e8-aaac34dfe7c7.png?v=1573845568"},{"product_id":"coates-oliver-john-luther-adams-canticles-of-the-sky-three-high-places-rvng-international-lp","title":"COATES, OLIVER - John Luther Adams Canticles of the Sky \/ Three High Places","description":"\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/366407330\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"Following a limited vinyl edition in 2018, Oliver Coates’ arrangement of Pulitzer Prize-winning US composer John Luther Adams’ 2007 piece Canticles of the Sky appears for the first time across all formats. In March 2017, Coates conducted 32 cellists in the UK premiere of the composition, displaying its intimacies after deeply communing with the trajectories of Adams’ fictional suns and moons, the guiding characters and carriers of the piece. This recorded interpretation, performed by Coates for multi-layered solo cello, takes Canticles of the Sky to wondrous, dizzying new heights, envisaging Adams’ parallel dimension as an idealised construction. Marrying extra-musical studio techniques and meticulous arrangements to Coates’ fascination with early electronic synthesis (especially the work of Laurie Spiegel), the result offers an ultra-sensory take on classical string instrumentation. Coates has released a handful of solo records under his own name, including the acclaimed 2016 album Upstepping, 2017’s Remain Calm, a collaboration with Mica Levi, and most recently, 2018’s Shelley’s On Zenn-La, his debut album for RVNG. As an artist and performer, he is frequently commissioned by world-renowned orchestras, choreographers and visual artists to compose or curate integral new works. \" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP \u0026 CD","offer_id":31254444474431,"sku":"","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RVNGNL48-Digital-Cover-1500px_600x_04353f70-60d9-4779-be4d-4fb0f18d85d6.png?v=1573845569"},{"product_id":"fox-greg-the-gradual-progression-rvng-international-cd","title":"FOX, GREG - The Gradual Progression","description":"\"The Gradual Progression is a transformative collection of new music by Greg Fox. The seven pieces of The Gradual Progression activate spiritual states through physical means, Fox’s rigorous inner rhythms the mandalic vessel for unbound expression and arrangement. TGP signals both a reconciliation of disparate musical ventures and a new nirvanic stage in the artist’s oeuvre.\n\nFox views TGP as an exploration of selfhood, and more specifically, the search for his true voice as an artist. Though such a journey is by nature ongoing, if not essentially elusive, the discoveries along the path are the musical riches of TGP. For his second solo album, Fox employs new methods of externalizing his polyrhythmic virtuosity into non-physical realms.\n\nThis transfer of energy is achieved through responsive environments tethered to various aspects of the performance. Sensors attached to Fox’s drum kit trigger tonal palettes, or virtual instruments invented for each piece, which Fox communes with in the post-Free Jazz manner. That is, locating and emphasizing states of universal resonance in solo and ensemble settings in place of demonstrating individual ability.\n\nThis is where the album’s canonic influences - and inventors - are most recognizable. Pharoah Sanders’ Elevation and Don Cherry’s Organic Music Society come to mind, though the guidance of master drummer and holistic healer Milford Graves ultimately made TGP possible. For Fox’s astonishing 2014 album Mitral Transmissions, Graves assisted Fox in adapting software that translated output signals from biological sources to virtual instruments. For TGP, Fox again used percussion to initiate passages whose intensity and vibrancy match Fox’s energetic presence and focus.\n\nAdapting the ‘intuitive gesture’ of action painting, and other responsive means of art-making, Fox developed a musical language constructed to isolate its most emotional and felt states for exploration. The subjective themes that inspired these deep spaces of TGP are numerous: personal loss, self-improvement, and artistic struggle, to name a few.\n\nAnother theme, hiding in plain sight, is Fox’s drumming. Years of supplying spin in collaborative bodies (Guardian Alien, Ex Eye, Liturgy, Zs) becomes a symbol of materiality on TGP, of organic animated energy seeking beyond its boundaries. Fox describes this tactile element as “sensing the emotionality and physicality of the world with the senses and through mental processes––about touching the walls of a pitch black room.”\n\nTGP includes contributions from musicians Curtis Santiago, Michael Beharie, Maria Kim Grand, and Justin Frye, all lending various voices through instrument and from within. Fox considers the power of Sensory Percussion, the software program developed by Tlacael Esparza that helped facilitate the vision for TGP, unprecedented - something akin to magic.\n\nThough TGP tackles technical challenges, the inspirational core is the humanist goal of social progress and its parallel pursuit of self-knowledge. Fox strives for a new musical paradigm that focuses less on his drumming and more on its untapped potential as one element in a polyphonic unity. This dissolution of the self into a wider melodic abstraction signifies Fox’s real artistic accomplishment in The Gradual Progression, rendering percussion’s dark matter as an invisible but essential element between rhythm and life.\n\" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":31254444671039,"sku":"","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RVNGNL38_DIGITAL_COVER_500x500_600x_9fb404c1-983b-4141-a7ad-7e5f1748fed7.jpg?v=1573845571"},{"product_id":"fox-greg-the-gradual-progression-rvng-international-lp","title":"FOX, GREG - The Gradual Progression","description":"\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/330595634\u0026amp;color=%23ff0000\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e \"The Gradual Progression is a transformative collection of new music by Greg Fox. The seven pieces of The Gradual Progression activate spiritual states through physical means, Fox’s rigorous inner rhythms the mandalic vessel for unbound expression and arrangement. TGP signals both a reconciliation of disparate musical ventures and a new nirvanic stage in the artist’s oeuvre. Fox views TGP as an exploration of selfhood, and more specifically, the search for his true voice as an artist. Though such a journey is by nature ongoing, if not essentially elusive, the discoveries along the path are the musical riches of TGP. For his second solo album, Fox employs new methods of externalizing his polyrhythmic virtuosity into non-physical realms. This transfer of energy is achieved through responsive environments tethered to various aspects of the performance. Sensors attached to Fox’s drum kit trigger tonal palettes, or virtual instruments invented for each piece, which Fox communes with in the post-Free Jazz manner. That is, locating and emphasizing states of universal resonance in solo and ensemble settings in place of demonstrating individual ability. This is where the album’s canonic influences - and inventors - are most recognizable. Pharoah Sanders’ Elevation and Don Cherry’s Organic Music Society come to mind, though the guidance of master drummer and holistic healer Milford Graves ultimately made TGP possible. For Fox’s astonishing 2014 album Mitral Transmissions, Graves assisted Fox in adapting software that translated output signals from biological sources to virtual instruments. For TGP, Fox again used percussion to initiate passages whose intensity and vibrancy match Fox’s energetic presence and focus. Adapting the ‘intuitive gesture’ of action painting, and other responsive means of art-making, Fox developed a musical language constructed to isolate its most emotional and felt states for exploration. The subjective themes that inspired these deep spaces of TGP are numerous: personal loss, self-improvement, and artistic struggle, to name a few. Another theme, hiding in plain sight, is Fox’s drumming. Years of supplying spin in collaborative bodies (Guardian Alien, Ex Eye, Liturgy, Zs) becomes a symbol of materiality on TGP, of organic animated energy seeking beyond its boundaries. Fox describes this tactile element as “sensing the emotionality and physicality of the world with the senses and through mental processes––about touching the walls of a pitch black room.” TGP includes contributions from musicians Curtis Santiago, Michael Beharie, Maria Kim Grand, and Justin Frye, all lending various voices through instrument and from within. Fox considers the power of Sensory Percussion, the software program developed by Tlacael Esparza that helped facilitate the vision for TGP, unprecedented - something akin to magic. Though TGP tackles technical challenges, the inspirational core is the humanist goal of social progress and its parallel pursuit of self-knowledge. Fox strives for a new musical paradigm that focuses less on his drumming and more on its untapped potential as one element in a polyphonic unity. This dissolution of the self into a wider melodic abstraction signifies Fox’s real artistic accomplishment in The Gradual Progression, rendering percussion’s dark matter as an invisible but essential element between rhythm and life. \" - Rvng International.","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":31254444769343,"sku":"","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/RVNGNL38_DIGITAL_COVER_500x500_600x_d6836c2b-3715-447d-b8c6-ebd329a948f1.jpg?v=1573845572"},{"product_id":"uman-chaleur-humaine","title":"UMAN - Chaleur Humaine","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"UMAN’s Chaleur Humaine, the debut album from the French duo of musicians and siblings Danielle and Didier Jean, resurfaces for the first time since its original release in 1992. While history, both private and public, is scattered with creative relationships between siblings that simply “did not work,” UMAN’s story is uniquely different and defined by this bond, and a shared journey impressing footprints along an adventurous musical terrain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrior to Chaleur Humaine, Danielle and Didier recorded two albums of pop songs met mostly with ambivalence, inspiring them to escape the expectations of the French music industry and build their own studio in Orsay, a suburb south of Paris. Chaleur Humaine was a modus operandi for their new, liberated perspective and space: freedom to develop ideas independently; to cross-pollinate genres and abandon them altogether; to improvise and experiment in new musical configurations.\u003cbr\u003eWithin their recording sanctuary, Danielle and Didier embraced cutting edge consumer music technology to inform the album’s esoteric, textural characteristics. This is especially notable in the processing of Danielle’s voice, inventively sampled, shifted and processed, and then woven through Didier’s dream worlds. This interpretation of technology and economy of sound, gives Chaleur Humaine a soft and impressionistic sense of surrealism, guided by a human sincerity and sublimated into a landscape that feels pastoral yet universal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUMAN, the name which binds Danielle and Didier musically, resembles “human” in many Romance languages but signals a spirit from a deeper earth force. Similarly, UMAN reinvents language in a postmodern way to create a harmony and truth that exists within and beyond human recognition. A poem, at once a theme and mantra, recurs throughout Chaleur Humaine: “It’s this force, almost animal, warm, like a kiss, fresh like the morning dew, that we call human warmth.” Dispatched across multiple languages over abstract melodic motifs, the message radiates from a place of meditated intent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2644593207\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChaleur Humaine was released on Buda Musique during the French record label’s rise to prominence showcasing global sound, with several tracks plucked from the album and reaching an international audience through various New Age \/ “Chillout” compilations. Yet the album shares more in common with Piero Milesi and Daniel Bacalov’s work for stage and theater on La Camera Astratta, the introspective world building of Nuno Canavarro on Plux Quba, and the formless vocalism and ethereality of Cocteau Twins or Enya.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile Danielle and Didier admit an affinity for some of these artists, UMAN were driven by their own invention, performing with local and fringe artists, and ultimately at ease in their secluded musical world. Even as the music of UMAN ricochets off the walls of their safe haven in so many directions, the artists’ interplay of reference and abstraction of sound retains the intimacy of a wildly imaginative conversation between siblings.\" - Freedom To Spend.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40980759543997,"sku":"","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FTS021-Digi-Cover-1500px.png?v=1635881124"},{"product_id":"rimarimba-in-the-woods-1","title":"RIMARIMBA - In The Woods","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=4192757440\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" seamless=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"On Rimarimba’s 1985 album \u003cem\u003eIn The Woods\u003c\/em\u003e, Robert Cox has made his music kit, an odd assortment of new and old technologies, lately fixated on the digital delay, and programming technologies, sing his own song at its most articulate clip. The songs seem more developed, fluent, like mini-suites in some sense.  By his third album, it’s clear Cox has recognised just how liberating technology can be – 'All these intricate layers of things that I was trying to play, and didn’t have the musical ability to play, I could suddenly program them' – but he also recognises that if you head too far down that road, dull perfection is your bitter reward. Human music intoxicated and lurching through a new forest of machinery.\" - Freedom To Spend.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40980861255869,"sku":"","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FTS007_-_Digital_Cover_-_1500px.png?v=1635882842"},{"product_id":"rimarimba-on-dry-land","title":"RIMARIMBA - On Dry Land","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1727129722\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" seamless=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"For Rimarimba’s 1984 album \u003cem\u003eOn Dry Land\u003c\/em\u003e, Robert Cox advances along the terrain explored on \u003cem\u003eBelow The Horizon\u003c\/em\u003e. It’s an enchanting album, one which, at times, seems to comment on its own practice; a picture of everyday life in the hobbyist’s, or part-time musician’s, recording studio. Some moments point towards the tourist-explorer aesthetic that would eventually coalesce under the banner of Fourth World music. Other moments where Cox seems to be channelling an otherness, a kind of hauntological reverie, the feeling of music that gives us an uncanny sense of déjà vu. Writer David Keenan’s description of Japanese naïve-pop group Maher Shalal Hash Baz’s music, that it 'feels like sketches of places where we once were, places now made poignant by our absence' feels like an alternate take \u003cem\u003eOn Dry Land\u003c\/em\u003e.\" - Freedom To Spend.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40980884357309,"sku":"","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FTS006_-_Digital_Cover_-_1500px.png?v=1635883250"},{"product_id":"le-guin-ursula-k-todd-barton-music-and-poetry-of-the-kesh-1","title":"LE GUIN, URSULA K. \u0026 TODD BARTON - Music and Poetry of the Kesh","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3143122306\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" seamless=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eMusic and Poetry of the Kesh\u003c\/em\u003e is the documentation of an invented Pacific Coast peoples from a far distant time, and the soundtrack of famed science fiction author, Ursula K. Le Guin’s \u003cem\u003eAlways Coming Home\u003c\/em\u003e. In the novel, the story of \u003cem\u003eStone Telling\u003c\/em\u003e, a young woman of the Kesh, is woven within a larger anthropological folklore and fantasy. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"The ways of the Kesh were originally presented in 1985 as a five hundred plus page book accompanied with illustrations of instruments and tools, maps, a glossary of terms, recipes, poems, an alphabet (Le Guin’s conlang, so she could write non-English lyrics), and with early editions, a cassette of “field recordings” and indigenous song. Le Guin wanted to hear the people she’d imagined; she embarked on an elaborate process with her friend Todd Barton to invoke their spirit and tradition.\" - Freedom to Spend.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom to Spend","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40980897202365,"sku":"","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FTS009_DIGITAL_COVER_500px.jpg?v=1635883764"},{"product_id":"copy-of-uman-chaleur-humaine","title":"UMAN - Chaleur Humaine","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"UMAN’s Chaleur Humaine, the debut album from the French duo of musicians and siblings Danielle and Didier Jean, resurfaces for the first time since its original release in 1992. While history, both private and public, is scattered with creative relationships between siblings that simply “did not work,” UMAN’s story is uniquely different and defined by this bond, and a shared journey impressing footprints along an adventurous musical terrain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrior to Chaleur Humaine, Danielle and Didier recorded two albums of pop songs met mostly with ambivalence, inspiring them to escape the expectations of the French music industry and build their own studio in Orsay, a suburb south of Paris. Chaleur Humaine was a modus operandi for their new, liberated perspective and space: freedom to develop ideas independently; to cross-pollinate genres and abandon them altogether; to improvise and experiment in new musical configurations.\u003cbr\u003eWithin their recording sanctuary, Danielle and Didier embraced cutting edge consumer music technology to inform the album’s esoteric, textural characteristics. This is especially notable in the processing of Danielle’s voice, inventively sampled, shifted and processed, and then woven through Didier’s dream worlds. This interpretation of technology and economy of sound, gives Chaleur Humaine a soft and impressionistic sense of surrealism, guided by a human sincerity and sublimated into a landscape that feels pastoral yet universal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUMAN, the name which binds Danielle and Didier musically, resembles “human” in many Romance languages but signals a spirit from a deeper earth force. Similarly, UMAN reinvents language in a postmodern way to create a harmony and truth that exists within and beyond human recognition. A poem, at once a theme and mantra, recurs throughout Chaleur Humaine: “It’s this force, almost animal, warm, like a kiss, fresh like the morning dew, that we call human warmth.” Dispatched across multiple languages over abstract melodic motifs, the message radiates from a place of meditated intent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=2644593207\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChaleur Humaine was released on Buda Musique during the French record label’s rise to prominence showcasing global sound, with several tracks plucked from the album and reaching an international audience through various New Age \/ “Chillout” compilations. Yet the album shares more in common with Piero Milesi and Daniel Bacalov’s work for stage and theater on La Camera Astratta, the introspective world building of Nuno Canavarro on Plux Quba, and the formless vocalism and ethereality of Cocteau Twins or Enya.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile Danielle and Didier admit an affinity for some of these artists, UMAN were driven by their own invention, performing with local and fringe artists, and ultimately at ease in their secluded musical world. Even as the music of UMAN ricochets off the walls of their safe haven in so many directions, the artists’ interplay of reference and abstraction of sound retains the intimacy of a wildly imaginative conversation between siblings.\" - Freedom To Spend.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40981017886909,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FTS021-Digi-Cover-1500px_5a3c2ab4-21d5-4005-ad12-79465acb4eb2.png?v=1635885163"},{"product_id":"pamela-z-echolocation","title":"PAMELA Z - Echolocation","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-mce-fragment=\"1\" class=\"ttu f5 recta-regular tc-orange mb4-ns fw4 dn db-ns\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=770245048\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" seamless=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-mce-fragment=\"1\" class=\"ttu f5 recta-regular tc-orange mb4-ns fw4 dn db-ns\"\u003e\n\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\"Echolocation\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e is the debut album by \u003c\/span\u003ePamela Z\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, the pioneering Bay Area intermedia composer and performance artist. Written and recorded over three years, and self-released and distributed on cassette in 1988, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEcholocation\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e is a genre-defying document of Z’s earliest experiments with live voice and delay, and\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ethe impetus of an artist’s three decade search for sounds yet unfelt.\" - Freedom To Spend.\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":40981170258109,"sku":"","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/products\/FTS024-Digi-Cover-1500px.png?v=1635886668"},{"product_id":"anna-strom-pauline-echoes-spaces-lines","title":"STROM, PAULINE ANNA  -  Echoes, Spaces, Lines","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEchoes, Spaces, Lines\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003ecollects \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTrans-Millenia consort, Plot Zero, \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSpectre, \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe first three albums by the late West Coast composer, healer, and medium \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePauline Anna Strom.\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003eExploring all corners of the multiverse through transpersonal form and freedom, Strom's first three albums share a singular sensibility, different streams flowing from teh same oracular font. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eEchoes, Spaces, Lines\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e establishes Strom's rightful place in the canon of great synthesists. Restored and mixed from the original reels by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMarta Salogni\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, newly remastered, and adding \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOcean of Tears, \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003ea fully realized but previously unreleased album exclusive to this box set, these are the first official reissues and the definitive encapsulation of Pauline Anna Strom's prolific and visionary early work. These four LP \/ four CD box sets include 12\/16-page booklets containing liner notes, an unearthed interview with Strom, unseen ephemera, a trio of unheard tracks from the era, and a special extended versions of others.\" - RVNG International\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/archive.li\/s3gld\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\"\u003e\n\u003c\/iframe\u003e\n\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QsDneC73qmw?si=RI7ICWtox1AmPQ5y\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"4 LP Box Set","offer_id":44384594133211,"sku":"","price":95.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/RERVNG20-BOX-Cover-1500px.png?v=1698761709"},{"product_id":"anna-strom-pauline-echoes-spaces-lines-1","title":"STROM, PAULINE ANNA -  Echoes, Spaces, Lines","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccenter data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003ccenter style=\"text-align: start;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\"\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEchoes, Spaces, Lines\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003ecollects \u003cem\u003eTrans-Millenia consort, Plot Zero, \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eSpectre, \u003c\/em\u003ethe first three albums by the late West Coast composer, healer, and medium \u003cstrong\u003ePauline Anna Strom.\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eExploring all corners of the multiverse through transpersonal form and freedom, Strom's first three albums share a singular sensibility, different streams flowing from teh same oracular font. \u003cem\u003eEchoes, Spaces, Lines\u003c\/em\u003e establishes Strom's rightful place in the canon of great synthesists. Restored and mixed from the original reels by \u003cstrong\u003eMarta Salogni\u003c\/strong\u003e, newly remastered, and adding \u003cem\u003eOcean of Tears, \u003c\/em\u003ea fully realized but previously unreleased album exclusive to this box set, these are the first official reissues and the definitive encapsulation of Pauline Anna Strom's prolific and visionary early work. These four LP \/ four CD box sets include 12\/16-page booklets containing liner notes, an unearthed interview with Strom, unseen ephemera, a trio of unheard tracks from the era, and a special extended versions of others.\" - RVNG International\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003ccenter style=\"text-align: start;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003ccenter style=\"text-align: start;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003ccenter style=\"text-align: start;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003ccenter style=\"text-align: start;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/center\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/center\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n  \u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/archive.li\/s3gld\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\"\u003e\n\u003c\/iframe\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QsDneC73qmw?si=RI7ICWtox1AmPQ5y\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Rvng International","offers":[{"title":"4 CD Box Set","offer_id":44384594460891,"sku":"","price":41.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/IMG_3788_1x1_c33c48a6-9060-4702-8949-7ec252f85f1f.png?v=1698761761"},{"product_id":"boutet-danielle-pieces","title":"BOUTET, DANIELLE - Piéces","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLimited edition of 550 LPs, hand assembled with love. First ever vinyl pressing.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\"Danielle Boutet’s\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e is a mysterious artifact of Quebecois marginalia, self-released in 1985. Moving from languid ennui to high drama, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e is a dreamy gestalt, an album that borders Chanson, spoken-word, jazz noir, and minimalism, conjured from the chasm between acoustic and electronic realms. \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e allows us a window into the highly intimate songcraft and compositional skill of an artist who longed to linger not in the public eye, but in relation with others and the world around her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBorn in Quebec City, Boutet studied music at the University of Montreal, where she focused on composition and percussion, before becoming involved in Montreal’s feminist and lesbian art scene. Primarily written, performed, and recorded by Boutet, with voice, guitar work, and technical assistance by \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSylvie Gagnon\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e was created during a paradigm shift in home recording. Originally composed for the piano, Boutet and Gagnon utilized a consumer-friendly Tascam 4-track Portastudio and versatile Yamaha DX-7, alongside guitar, bass, marimba, and the human voice, to expand and contemporize the original composition’s scope.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eInspired by prog rock and British poet and musician \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAnne Clark\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e translates Boutet’s influence by moving between sunny, wistful fairytale and dark, wintry dirge. Filled with longing marimba, vertiginous, startling synth pads, and folk guitar, each track on \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e offers a wholly unique proposition. Some are modal and rife with the ethereal psychological tension of a sci-fi soundtrack, while others are more like entering a smoke-laced lounge, the entertainer embodying seduction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWith the sprechgesang of artists like \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBrigitte Fontaine\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAnnette Peacock\u003c\/strong\u003e, or \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLinda Sharrock\u003c\/strong\u003e, there is an intense intimacy to Boutet’s delivery, sometimes as if she is performing for an audience of one. As one lyric goes, translated to English from French: “Like holograms\/ Images from a world\/ That inhales souls\/ And exudes drama.” Another song contains an excerpt from The Tao of Physics: “The eastern sages specify clearly that they do not identify an ordinary void, but rather, a void having an infinite creative potential.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTo English-language audiences, the album’s title, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e, might seem to simply refer to the eleven different pieces. The title can also, of course, refer to parts of a larger whole, but Boutet is keen to point out that there is also another meaning: In French, a pièce is a room. On the cover of the original cassette, Boutet is seen sitting on a chair, alone in an empty apartment, a cable snaking at her feet. Listening to \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e is like entering eleven different rooms: whether a study encased in shadow, a greenhouse left to wither in an eternal frost, or a divine nave.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBoutet sold a few dozen copies around Montreal, a scene mostly occupied by the new wave explosion de rigueur, but the inclusion of \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e in the 1987 issue of Ladyslipper—the North Carolina-based mail order catalog that championed women musicians of all calibers and careers—led to more exposure throughout North America. “In the catalog,” Boutet says, “they included it in the New Age section, but I was, and still am, aware that this album is relatively unclassifiable.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBoutet would release one more album, titled Musiques Urbaines, before getting pulled in the direction of interdisciplinary art and theory. “Although I never stopped making music, I lost all interest in public diffusion or performance,” Boutet says. Despite her departure from performance and publicly releasing music, she left behind a strange and enthralling document of Montreal’s 1980s feminist fringe, an aural document of the historic moment when self-recorded music and its practical potential became a prismatic reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDanielle Boutet’s \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePièces\u003c\/em\u003e arrives February 16, 2024 as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music’s outermost fringe.\" - Freedom To Spend\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":44858262225115,"sku":"","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/pieces1.png?v=1707920634"},{"product_id":"s-kvern-neil-doctor-dancing-mask-pianoisms","title":"S. KVERN, NEIL - Doctor Dancing Mask: Pianoisms","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLimited edition of 555 LPs, hand assembled with love. First ever vinyl pressing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\"\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNeil S. Kvern’s \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDoctor Dancing Mask: Pianoisms \u003c\/em\u003eis a near mythical marker on the map of late 20th century experimentalism transpiring in America’s Pacific Northwest. A sublime, spacious effort of left field DIY minimalism constructed from recurring piano pieces, hypnotic percussion, and a peppering of diverse instrumentation, vocals, and invisible effects,\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDoctor Dancing Mask\u003c\/em\u003e illuminates a hidden but remarkable legacy of a young composer at the height of his creativity and consciousness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBorn in 1958 and raised in Northern Idaho, Kvern moved to Seattle in 1979 following a stint at \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhitman College\u003c\/strong\u003e in Washington State. It was during this period that he met Eugene, Oregon-based musicians \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCarl Juarez\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBrian Magill\u003c\/strong\u003e, who introduced him to a vibrant community of artists and inspired him to make music of his own. Kvern’s oeuvre of compositions –  loosely inspired by minimalists like \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTerry Riley\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePauline Oliveros\u003c\/strong\u003e, and \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePhilip Glass \u003c\/strong\u003e– that would emerge on a small handful self-released cassettes between 1983 and 1987 represent a largely unrecognized node of West Coast experimentalism during this period and establish important links between the \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEugene Electronic Music Collective \u003c\/strong\u003e(\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEEMC\u003c\/strong\u003e) and \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSoundwork\u003c\/strong\u003e, a public-access electronic music studio and performance space in Seattle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSelf-taught, working independently and within a close network of friends and family, Kvern emphasized spontaneity in his music, constructing pieces from layered, improvisational overdubs, and drawing from a palette of piano, recorders, guitars, saxophones, marimba, and nearly any other instrument he could get his hands on. Poignantly, he recognized the distinct possibilities respectively activated by live and recorded music, and elected to exclusively realize his work in the latter format. Kvern’s recordings represent the music as it was intended to be encountered, with the multi-tracking process consciously approached as a means to rework and reimagine pieces as they evolved toward their final form; notes on magnetic tape, applied in much the same way as another composer might place a pen to the page. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFollowing a debut cassette, issued earlier in 1983, the twenty five year old Kvern set to work on an ambitious follow up; what would become the sixty plus minute \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDoctor Dancing Mask\u003c\/em\u003e. Mostly recorded on a \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTascam 244 Portastudio 4-track\u003c\/strong\u003e, using piano and various acoustic instruments (notably, tenor recorder and percussion), he was intermittently joined by his brothers \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOlav\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCraig Kvern\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCharlie Spear\u003c\/strong\u003e on guitar, \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eConstance Maytum\u003c\/strong\u003e on vocals, and \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGlenn McNutt\u003c\/strong\u003e on percussion. Over a handful of months, the rotating ensemble cultivated an entirely distinct form of minimalism, blossoming with touchstones in diverse cultural traditions - African percussion, marimba, gamelan, and various folk idioms - and improvised jazz, that dances amongst the traces of effects processing and experimental approaches toward his instruments and the systems of recording alike.   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBuilt around a series of circular piano lines and deconstructed melodies, and carried by arching percussive drive, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDoctor Dancing Mask\u003c\/em\u003e represents a fascinating juncture of creative streams, folded into a singular, shadowy statement. Blending the tangible directness, immediacy, and textures of DIY recording with a clear consideration of minimalist \/ post-minimalist strategies and avant-garde techniques, the album engages an active broadening of the known context 1980s West Coast minimalist experimentalism that included artists like \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHarold Budd\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIngram Marshall\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMarc Barreca,\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eK. Leimer\u003c\/strong\u003e, while resting with equal ease amongst an expansive constellation of maverick, international composers that began to emerge during this period, including \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGiovanni Venosta\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePriscilla Ermel\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMorgan Fisher\u003c\/strong\u003e, and\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Dominique Lawalrée. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eKvern recalls the recording of \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDoctor Dancing Mask\u003c\/em\u003e as a deeply intimate and responsive process: “I just listened to the instrument, tried to hear what it wanted to do. Being present to the sound, rather than bending it to your will, and trying to have a perspective similar to \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eanapanasati\u003c\/em\u003e in Zen meditation.” The resulting ten compositions, ranging between roughly three and fifteen minutes in length, unfold as discrete journeys, each following their own logic and taking constantly unexpected evolutions and turns, while remaining remarkably cohesive across the album’s two sides. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOriginally released in 1983 as a small cassette edition largely distributed to friends and via word of mouth, Neil S. Kvern’s \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDoctor Dancing Mask: Pianoism\u003c\/em\u003es arrives again January 27, 2023 on vinyl and digitally as part of \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003euncommon¢\u003c\/strong\u003e (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music's outermost fringe.\" - Freedom To Spend\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":44858266845403,"sku":"","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/dancing1.png?v=1707920959"},{"product_id":"knight-cheri-american-rituals","title":"KNIGHT, CHERI - American Rituals","description":"\"\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOn the outskirts of late 1970s Olympia, Washington, something stirs, sings, and breathes. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCheri Knight\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, a music composition student at the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEvergreen State College\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, is developing her practice in a quaint but adequately equipped campus recording studio, amalgamating with the sonic timbre of the surrounding time, space, and place, while devoting to her own inner maxims. At once performative and meditative, electronic and organic, collaborative and self-contained, Cheri’s early compositions are simultaneously complete and sketches of a ceremonial process at play. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAmerican Rituals \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ecaptures the artist’s environmental emergence, unearthing a unique compositional voice and signposting a regional sonic ethos.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe path to Evergreen seems gently preordained for Cheri, a whisper in the trees. Growing up in a musical household in Western Massachusetts, she learned to play piano and clarinet, demurring from notated music but composing piano pieces in the minimalist mode of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eErik Satie\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e and folk songs inspired by \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eJoni Mitchell\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e. In high school, her class studied \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eJohn Cage’s \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ework, an epiphanic moment for the young artist. The group also visited a studio outside Amherst where she encountered the modular limitlessness of a Moog synthesizer. Cheri studied philosophy and music at Whitman College in Washington, and then took a year to build a stone house with some friends in New Hampshire. She settled at Evergreen soon after, carrying with her a zeal for improvisation, creative investigation, and hands-on experimentation. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe seven works anthologized on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAmerican Rituals\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e are foremost an expression of Cheri’s elemental approach to creating, rather than writing, music. Polyvocal chants, spoken-word collages, primal post-punk excursions and hymn-like incantations are bound together by a performative energy; a Cage-ian commitment to the present moment which harbors a meditative interior. The first piece Cheri made at Evergreen manifested when a multi-tracked mic test spontaneously evolved into a vocal ostinato. This experience of layering her own voice allowed Cheri to see images of the sounds she was making “in real time.” In Cheri’s music, language takes on a playful, fluxist, material quality as it is patterned in space. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis word play is most evident in pieces like “Prime Numbers” and “Primary Colors,” which uses speech as an elemental material forming our changeable perception of the world. Channeled through the human voice, which is instrumentalized in every piece on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAmerican Rituals\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, language becomes a mutable force and a virtuosic apparatus. Spoken, sung, recited, incanted, chanted, instructed, whispered. It asks us to breathe, in and out. It tells us stories, reads us instructions, reminds us of water. Through rhythmically repeated speech patterns and flowing turns of phrase, the voice conveys ritualized patterns of everyday material becoming beautiful and strange, musical and memorable, conceptual and devotional. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe musical output of Evergreen entering the 1980s should not be underestimated in its contribution to the burgeoning Seattle-Olympia DIY axis, with pieces on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAmerican Rituals\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e evidencing a contagious ethos and aesthetic. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eK. Leimer’s \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePalace of Lights label first issued Cheri’s “Primary Colors” and “Hear\/Say” as part of its 1982 compilation \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRegional Zeal, Mouth Music From Olympia Washington\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, while “Prime Numbers” and “Breathe” were included on the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSteve Fisk\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e-produced compilation \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDub Communiqué\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e the same year. But beyond catalog crossover and collaborative evolution, there is a shared sonic energy coursing through \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAmerican Rituals\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e which speaks to an absorption of place, of atmosphere, of weather. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDuring a peer pilgrimage to the 1981 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNew Music America Festival\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e in San Francisco, a change in weather was forecasted when Cheri met composer and theorist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePauline Oliveros\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e. She spent part of her final year at Evergreen independently studying at the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eZen Arts Center\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e in Mount Tremper, New York, with Pauline and her partner, the performance artist \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLinda Montano\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e. Aligning with both luminaries amplified the artistic and philosophical resonance of Cheri’s work, bringing tenets of Buddhism and Living Art into both her artistic and life practice.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFollowing these principles, Cheri’s art eventually did become absorbed into life: living on a farm with goats in rural Massachusetts, writing songs, playing in bands, and eventually drifting away from music and into other things. But as is often the case, the path taken is never forgotten, only temporarily out of mind. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWith the help of old friends and new, the music of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAmerican Rituals\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e was salvaged (not without hundreds of emails and phone calls) from master tapes stored in the collections of various peers and recording engineers from the extended Evergreen set, and is re-presented  \/ represented now with care.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCheri Knight’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAmerican Rituals\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e arrives in vinyl and digital formats July 15, 2022 from Freedom To Spend. A portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Draft Gratitude, a draft horse rescue in Winchester, New Hampshire dedicated to saving the lives of senior working horses.\" - Freedom To Spend\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":44858275430619,"sku":"","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/cheri1.jpg?v=1707921502"},{"product_id":"hood-ernest-back-to-the-woodlands","title":"HOOD, ERNEST - Back To The Woodlands","description":"\"Written and recorded between 1972 and 1982 in Western Oregon, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e is a previously unreleased, and nearly lost, album made by \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eErnest Hood\u003c\/strong\u003e during the same era as his near mythical album \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.freedomtospend.org\/catalog\/ernest-hood-neighborhoods\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-tabindex=\"0\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/www.freedomtospend.org\/catalog\/ernest-hood-neighborhoods\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. A visionary combination of field recordings, zithers, and synthesizers, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e offers an unprecedented depth of access to this singular artistic mind.\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBorn into a musical family, Ernest Hood began a promising career as a jazz guitarist during the 1940s, touring internationally with his brother \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBill Hood\u003c\/strong\u003e and the saxophonist \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCharlie Barnet\u003c\/strong\u003e, before contracting polio in his late twenties. The disease left Ernest unable to play the guitar and confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. It also forced him to adapt and innovate around his musical practices in the face of adversity; Hood’s value of sound matured with a remarkably democratic and nonhierarchical approach and application.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTaking up the zither, a less physically-demanding stringed instrument to the guitar, embarking upon the unprecedented process of incorporating field recordings into his work as early as 1956, and eventually discovering the synthesizer, Hood’s music became imbued with optimism and subtle cultural critique. This ethos and technique - refined over the coming decades - would lay the groundwork for a sprawling body of radio work, mail order recordings for homebound listeners, and \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e, self-issued as a small vinyl edition in 1975.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhere \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e, a nostalgic opus, drawing from a well of collective memory of the 1950s, is defined by traces of human activity, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e leaves the modern world behind, delving into Hood’s love for nature. Only recently discovered in his archives, the album dramatically expands his concept of “musical cinematography,” imagistically triggering states of sensory memory from within its zither and synthesizer melodies, intertwined with field recordings made during Hood’s extensive travels throughout Oregon. If \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e is a retreat into the gauzy joys of a romanticized past, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e is an immersion in the timeless sanctuary of the natural world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA fascinating counterpoint to its predecessor, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e brings us even closer to Hood’s belief in the transportive qualities of sound; that field recordings could serve as a vehicle for the imagination and liberation, particularly for those with similar mobile disabilities as his own. Across the album’s twelve compositions, the rippling instrumental harmonics - shifting between abstraction and playful melody - fold so seamlessly into the birdsong, bubbling brooks, and other environmental ambiences, that they often give the impression of having been recording within the landscapes toward which they whisper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFalling somewhere between the immersive calm of healing music and New Age, the creative field recording practices of sound ecologists world building for Folkways, and the jazz infected ambiences during Obscure \/ Editions EG’s highest heights, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e sculpts an singular proximity of music for its moment; a form of ambient sonic realism that draws the consciousness toward its surroundings as much as within.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWorking closely with his estate to maintain his original vision, Freedom to Spend has restored and remastered this never before released, lost masterpiece by Ernest Hood from the original tapes. Ernest Hood’s Back to the Woodlands will be issued on vinyl, as well as on CD in combination with its contemporary \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhere the Woods Begin\u003c\/em\u003e, with new liner notes by \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMichael Klausman\u003c\/strong\u003e. On behalf of Ernest Hood and Freedom To Spend, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/oregonwild.org\/\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-tabindex=\"0\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/oregonwild.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOregon Wild\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, an organization dedicated to protecting and restoring Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations.\" - Freedom To Spend\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":44858279067867,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/ernest1.png?v=1707921936"},{"product_id":"hood-ernest-back-to-the-woodlands-1","title":"HOOD, ERNEST - Back To The Woodlands","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDouble CD features additional, unreleased album \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhere the Woods Begin.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Written and recorded between 1972 and 1982 in Western Oregon, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e is a previously unreleased, and nearly lost, album made by \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eErnest Hood\u003c\/strong\u003e during the same era as his near mythical album \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.freedomtospend.org\/catalog\/ernest-hood-neighborhoods\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-tabindex=\"0\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/www.freedomtospend.org\/catalog\/ernest-hood-neighborhoods\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. A visionary combination of field recordings, zithers, and synthesizers, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e offers an unprecedented depth of access to this singular artistic mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBorn into a musical family, Ernest Hood began a promising career as a jazz guitarist during the 1940s, touring internationally with his brother \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBill Hood\u003c\/strong\u003e and the saxophonist \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCharlie Barnet\u003c\/strong\u003e, before contracting polio in his late twenties. The disease left Ernest unable to play the guitar and confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. It also forced him to adapt and innovate around his musical practices in the face of adversity; Hood’s value of sound matured with a remarkably democratic and nonhierarchical approach and application.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTaking up the zither, a less physically-demanding stringed instrument to the guitar, embarking upon the unprecedented process of incorporating field recordings into his work as early as 1956, and eventually discovering the synthesizer, Hood’s music became imbued with optimism and subtle cultural critique. This ethos and technique - refined over the coming decades - would lay the groundwork for a sprawling body of radio work, mail order recordings for homebound listeners, and \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e, self-issued as a small vinyl edition in 1975.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhere \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e, a nostalgic opus, drawing from a well of collective memory of the 1950s, is defined by traces of human activity, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e leaves the modern world behind, delving into Hood’s love for nature. Only recently discovered in his archives, the album dramatically expands his concept of “musical cinematography,” imagistically triggering states of sensory memory from within its zither and synthesizer melodies, intertwined with field recordings made during Hood’s extensive travels throughout Oregon. If \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNeighborhoods\u003c\/em\u003e is a retreat into the gauzy joys of a romanticized past, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e is an immersion in the timeless sanctuary of the natural world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA fascinating counterpoint to its predecessor, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e brings us even closer to Hood’s belief in the transportive qualities of sound; that field recordings could serve as a vehicle for the imagination and liberation, particularly for those with similar mobile disabilities as his own. Across the album’s twelve compositions, the rippling instrumental harmonics - shifting between abstraction and playful melody - fold so seamlessly into the birdsong, bubbling brooks, and other environmental ambiences, that they often give the impression of having been recording within the landscapes toward which they whisper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFalling somewhere between the immersive calm of healing music and New Age, the creative field recording practices of sound ecologists world building for Folkways, and the jazz infected ambiences during Obscure \/ Editions EG’s highest heights, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBack to the Woodlands\u003c\/em\u003e sculpts an singular proximity of music for its moment; a form of ambient sonic realism that draws the consciousness toward its surroundings as much as within.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWorking closely with his estate to maintain his original vision, Freedom to Spend has restored and remastered this never before released, lost masterpiece by Ernest Hood from the original tapes. Ernest Hood’s Back to the Woodlands will be issued on vinyl, as well as on CD in combination with its contemporary \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhere the Woods Begin\u003c\/em\u003e, with new liner notes by \u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMichael Klausman\u003c\/strong\u003e. On behalf of Ernest Hood and Freedom To Spend, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/oregonwild.org\/\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-tabindex=\"0\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/oregonwild.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOregon Wild\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, an organization dedicated to protecting and restoring Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations.\" - Freedom To Spend\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"Double CD","offer_id":44858280378587,"sku":"","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/ernestcd1.png?v=1707922091"},{"product_id":"gregory-walker-t-s-minstrels-minimoogs","title":"GREGORY, WALKER T.S.  - Minstrels \u0026 Minimoogs","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e— Limited edition of 300 LPs, hand assembled with love\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e— Fourth release from uncommon¢, a new series from FT$\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"tralbumData tralbum-about\"\u003e\"Gregory T.S. Walker’s Minstrels \u0026amp; Minimoogs was self-published by a young, nomadic composer and virtuoso in 1988 to accompany an immersive multimedia performance at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. Created with this outer, and other, world setting in mind, the four tracks find Walker stretching toward an ancient-to-future vision where Egyptian myths and Hieronymus Bosch-ian tableaus are rendered in a screaming three dimensional circuitry of electronic drums, synth guitars, and, of course, Minimoog. Given the musical terrains and outmoded topics traversed, and that this entirely DIY effort was originally released as a micro one-sided 12” edition, Minstrels \u0026amp; Minimoogs is as perplexing and euphoric a document lost-to-time as it is now found.\" - Freedom To Spend\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":45927035699419,"sku":"","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/0036579425_10.jpg?v=1722870490"},{"product_id":"deyhim-sussan-richard-horowitz-the-invisible-road-original-recordings","title":"DEYHIM, SUSSAN \u0026 RICHARD HOROWITZ - The Invisible Road: Original Recordings","description":"\u003cp\u003e\" Audiophile vinyl edition, pressed at RTI, includes a 12-page booklet containing liner notes penned by Jack Denton and a plethora of unseen archival photographs. includes a multi-format download redeemable via Bandcamp\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Invisible Road: Original Recordings, 1985–1990 compiles an unheard, previously unreleased body of recordings by Sussan Deyhim and Richard Horowitz, dissidents from diametric backgrounds who met during the heady days of Downtown New York in the 1980s. This collection reveals the creative and life partners’ radical shared vision of avant-garde pop in all of its boundary pushing freedom, combining Deyhim’s singular approach to vocalization, Horowitz’s invention of new musical languages, and touchstones of traditional music from around the world, creating a new music that ultimately retains a voice entirely its own. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDespite their difference in backgrounds and respective journeys, at the time of their meeting in the early 1980s in New York City, Sussan Deyhim and Richard Horowitz were both products of the search for freedom and understanding (and resultant awakenings) that swept the globe and helped culturally define the late 1960s and 70s. Deyhim, born and raised in Tehran, spent her teens dancing with Iran's Pars National Ballet company, performing weekly on Iranian national television, and travelling her home country studying with master folk musicians and dancers, before relocating to Belgium and joining Maurice Béjart's prestigious Béjart Ballet of the 20th Century. Horowitz, born and raised in Buffalo, New York, had spent much of the decade before abroad, first departing for Paris under the shadows of the Vietnam War, where he studied piano, Eastern philosophy, and became entrenched the city’s free jazz scene, playing with the likes of Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, and Alan Silva, before embarking south to Morocco where his friendship with Paul Bowles helped cultivate a deep passion for the country’s musical traditions and a shift in his musical practice. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pair met by chance sometime in 1981 at Noise New York, a small studio on West 34th Street founded by the musician and recording engineer, Frank Eaton, as a utopian creative laboratory that beckoned artists and bands like Arthur Russell, Christian Marclay, Liquid Liquid and Butthole Surfers into its orbit. Both artists had recently relocated to the city, Horowitz having recently released his debut album, Oblique Sequences (Solo Nai Improvisations), on the legendary Paris based imprint Shandar, and fallen in with members of New York avant-garde like La Monte Young, Jon Hassell, David Byrne, and Brian Eno, and Deyhim having begun to more actively incorporate singing into her practice, notably recording a vocal score for choreography she was doing at La MaMa Experimental Theatre. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInitially bonding over a cassette tape of field recordings made by Paul Bowles that had been given to mutual friend and writer Brian Cullman (seeking answers for Ornette Coleman’s question \"what is the sound of sound\"), their earliest collaboration was documented on Horowitz’s 1981 album, Eros In Arabia, with Deyhim contributing vocals to the track “Queen Of Saba.” Over the coming years, their deep connection would routinely gravitate them into the studio, culminating in the body of recordings that would appear on their 1986 album for Crammed Discs, Desert Equations: Azax Attra. Unknown to nearly all but the artists, laying in wait over the decades on numerous multi-track and stereo reels, DAT tapes, and reference cassettes, were a vast array of recordings made by Deyhim and Horowitz bookending Desert Equations. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 13 pieces represented on The Invisible Road: Original Recordings, 1985–1990 were recorded largely between Noise New York and Daylight Studio in Brussels, during a period that Deyhim describes the partnership between herself and Horowitz’s as seeking a music “free of any specific cultural reference, with a personal musical signature,”  blossoming into a body of sonority that embraced the energy of contemporary boundary pushing pop and the avant garde, filtered through their mutual love and study of various musical traditions from across the globe and deep engagement with the ideas and tactics of experimental music. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUndeniably rooted in Horowitz’s study of the North Africa ney and the music of the Berber and Gnawa cultures during his time in Morocco, Deyhim’s deep engagement with the folk traditions of Iran, and the couple’s immersion in the interconnected Downtown underground music scenes, each piece on The Invisible Road offers its own vision creative and cultural hybridity. Deyhim sings in both English and Farsi, as well as a composite tongue that she developed by drawing upon numerous indigenous vocal techniques from around the world, intuitively responding to Horowitz’s simultaneous sound syntax forming and combining a wide range synthetic and acoustic instrumentation, and experimental tape techniques, within a visionary series of free-standing expressions. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Invisible Road traverses a remarkable amount of ground over the five years that these recordings were laid to tape. Perhaps even more so than its logical counterpart, Desert Equations, this collection sculpts an alternate vision of both avant pop music crossing over into mainstream 1980s and Fourth World musicality (which Horowitz was concurrently honing while playing in Jon Hassell’s band), presenting a music that almost entirely disregards the standard tropes and aesthetics associated with either, and reinventing them according to the artists’ own terms. As Deyhim put it: “How do you bring the indigenous, ancient cultures into now, without forgetting what the essence of their vibration is?” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIlluminating previously unknown aspects of the enduring creative partnership between Deyhim and Horowitz, The Invisible Road: Original Recordings, 1985–1990 will be issued as a limited vinyl edition from RVNG Intl. and Freedom to Spend, with newly commissioned liner notes penned by Jack Denton. The work was compiled in close collaboration with Deyhim and Horowitz over several years, and completed just before Horowitz’s untimely passing at the age of 75 at their home in Morocco in April 2024. The album’s release is a tribute to his life and work, as well as the remarkably inspiring creative and romantic life that he and Sussan shared.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSussan Deyhim and Richard Horowitz’s The Invisible Road: Original Recordings, 1985–1990 will be released November 8, 2024 in vinyl and digital editions. On behalf of Sussan, RVNG Intl., and Freedom To Spend, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit  Children’s Music Fund, a non profit dedicated to bringing music therapy into the lives of sick children to help overcome pain, fear and anxiety.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1688769257\/size=small\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/transparent=true\/\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 42px;\" seamless=\"\"\u003e\/iframe\u0026gt;\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/meIGS4GkVz0?si=Day-pEEIWa9zr3Yc\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":46231391797467,"sku":"","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/0036997983_10.jpg?v=1730837461"},{"product_id":"oconnor-irene-fire-of-god-s-love","title":"O'CONNOR, IRENE - FIRE OF GOD’S LOVE","description":"\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Love \u003c\/em\u003eis the legendary 1973 album by Australian nun \u003cstrong\u003eSister Irene O’Connor\u003c\/strong\u003e—a sincere, soulful, and unwittingly psychedelic song sequence devoted to self-reflection and awakening the spirit within. A collection of original folk spirituals written by and channelled through O’Connor with guitar, electric organ, drum machine and her angelic voice, the album was recorded and mixed in an astonishingly futuristic fashion by fellow nun and recording engineer \u003cstrong\u003eSister Marimil Lobregat\u003c\/strong\u003e. Freedom To Spend offers the first authorized reissue of this holy grail since 1976; the album restored and remastered with care and consideration from the best available sources.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eAs a young Roman Catholic nun in the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary order, Sister Irene's forays into music began in 1953 when she moved from Sydney to a convent in Singapore and began teaching children with learning difficulties. Acquiring an acoustic guitar and learning three simple chords, Irene’s songs blossomed with the children’s enthusiasm. Serendipitously, a parent of one student worked at a commercial radio station in Singapore, and Irene was invited to the station to perform and record in its studio. She went along, wearing her habit and carrying her guitar, and cut her first original song there in 1965. Under the pseudonym \u003cstrong\u003eMyriam Frances\u003c\/strong\u003e, to maintain anonymity within her order (“Nuns didn’t do that kind of thing,” noted O’Connor), Phillips released a series of Sister Irene’s records at the tail end of the 1960s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eIt was at the convent in Singapore that Sister Irene met Sister Marimil Lobregat, a fellow Franciscan nun who moved to the island from the Philippines in the early 1960s. More than a decade later, as if by divine intervention, they reconnected at another convent at Point Piper in Sydney. Marimil, also a musician and sound enthusiast, worked at the Catholic Radio and Television Centre in Homebush, in western Sydney, as an audio and visual technician. Sister Irene, faithfully honing her musical craft, and Sister Marimil hatched a plan to meet at the centre over a series of Sunday afternoons, and create the songs that would become \u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Lov\u003c\/em\u003ee.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eThe songs of \u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Love\u003c\/em\u003e are sung in an angelic soprano by Sister Irene (with lyrics spanning English, Latin, and Malay) and produced by Sister Marimil, recorded on a Teac 3340S 4-track reel-to-reel. Marimil was instrumental in conjuring the uncanny otherworldliness that permeates the album. The crystalline fabric of Sister Irene's voice is held exquisitely in a shimmering mosaic of reverb and analog synthesizer hum, while momentously ringing out like a bell in the darkness, projecting until truth or the divine appears. Themes such as mercy, grace, light, and mystery are punctuated by a gentle acoustic guitar strum and eternal piano notes spinning slowly on vibrating thread.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eFor the songs with keyboards, Sister Irene played all the parts live in real time, including the bass pedals. The drum machine was generated by the same organ she played, and performed simultaneously. All of this lends to an atmosphere of heightened presence, an organic flash helmed deep from the subconscious. Originating from ideas created in a quiet convent and sequestered from worldly influence, the liturgical framework of the album is filtered through the intimate devotion of two Sisters — their own interpretation of pop music stripped of pretension and superficial glamour. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eThe album's title, like many of its songs, stems from a Bible verse, in this case Luke 12:49. But Sisters Irene and Marimil ushered it into a space where all spiritual seekers can appreciate the transmission [Or: unusual hermeneutics]. The lyrics address universal needs, wants, and desires: everlasting love and affection, an end to loneliness, a new form of relief, deliverance from the fear of death. Instead of hymnal forms, Sister Irene, perhaps inadvertently, utilizes folk and psychedelia fashionable at the time to deliver a sermon that reads like love letters to a divine presence, speaking to the soul, beyond any formal religion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Love \u003c\/em\u003eis an inspiring archive of early electronic experimentation between two women friends and mystics, a documentation of their divine energy channeled in a disciplined way. Upon initial release, it was neither a flat-out success nor a failure, but was met mostly as a curiosity. The pair never made more music together, and in the 50 years since, their one-off collaboration continues to draw listeners in by way of record shop find (whether the original Phillips pressing or sonically superior 1976 reissue on Alba House Communications) or more likely via YouTube, as a stumbled across and feverishly commented-on cult classic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eToday, Sister Irene is living in Sydney, Australia, and is happy that new audiences are finding meaning in her music with Sister Marimil. Her story is a testament that you don't need much to create a visionary, enduring album: a tape recorder, friendship, and \u003cem\u003eThe Fire of God's Love\u003c\/em\u003e to ignite the pathway forward. That might be a spiritual friend, or an earthly companion right beside you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eSister Irene O’Connor’s \u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Love\u003c\/em\u003e will be released via Freedom To Spend on November 14 in vinyl, CD, and digital editions. Vinyl and CD editions included liner notes by \u003cstrong\u003eAaron Coultate\u003c\/strong\u003e and a complete lyrics booklets.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":47848847540443,"sku":null,"price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/FTS034_-_Sister_Irene_O_27Connor_-_Fire_of_God_27s_Love_-_Cover_-_1500px.webp?v=1761153025"},{"product_id":"oconnor-irene-fire-of-god-s-love-copy","title":"O'CONNOR, IRENE - FIRE OF GOD’S LOVE (Marbled Vinyl)","description":"\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Love \u003c\/em\u003eis the legendary 1973 album by Australian nun \u003cstrong\u003eSister Irene O’Connor\u003c\/strong\u003e—a sincere, soulful, and unwittingly psychedelic song sequence devoted to self-reflection and awakening the spirit within. A collection of original folk spirituals written by and channelled through O’Connor with guitar, electric organ, drum machine and her angelic voice, the album was recorded and mixed in an astonishingly futuristic fashion by fellow nun and recording engineer \u003cstrong\u003eSister Marimil Lobregat\u003c\/strong\u003e. Freedom To Spend offers the first authorized reissue of this holy grail since 1976; the album restored and remastered with care and consideration from the best available sources.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eAs a young Roman Catholic nun in the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary order, Sister Irene's forays into music began in 1953 when she moved from Sydney to a convent in Singapore and began teaching children with learning difficulties. Acquiring an acoustic guitar and learning three simple chords, Irene’s songs blossomed with the children’s enthusiasm. Serendipitously, a parent of one student worked at a commercial radio station in Singapore, and Irene was invited to the station to perform and record in its studio. She went along, wearing her habit and carrying her guitar, and cut her first original song there in 1965. Under the pseudonym \u003cstrong\u003eMyriam Frances\u003c\/strong\u003e, to maintain anonymity within her order (“Nuns didn’t do that kind of thing,” noted O’Connor), Phillips released a series of Sister Irene’s records at the tail end of the 1960s.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eIt was at the convent in Singapore that Sister Irene met Sister Marimil Lobregat, a fellow Franciscan nun who moved to the island from the Philippines in the early 1960s. More than a decade later, as if by divine intervention, they reconnected at another convent at Point Piper in Sydney. Marimil, also a musician and sound enthusiast, worked at the Catholic Radio and Television Centre in Homebush, in western Sydney, as an audio and visual technician. Sister Irene, faithfully honing her musical craft, and Sister Marimil hatched a plan to meet at the centre over a series of Sunday afternoons, and create the songs that would become \u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Lov\u003c\/em\u003ee.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eThe songs of \u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Love\u003c\/em\u003e are sung in an angelic soprano by Sister Irene (with lyrics spanning English, Latin, and Malay) and produced by Sister Marimil, recorded on a Teac 3340S 4-track reel-to-reel. Marimil was instrumental in conjuring the uncanny otherworldliness that permeates the album. The crystalline fabric of Sister Irene's voice is held exquisitely in a shimmering mosaic of reverb and analog synthesizer hum, while momentously ringing out like a bell in the darkness, projecting until truth or the divine appears. Themes such as mercy, grace, light, and mystery are punctuated by a gentle acoustic guitar strum and eternal piano notes spinning slowly on vibrating thread.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eFor the songs with keyboards, Sister Irene played all the parts live in real time, including the bass pedals. The drum machine was generated by the same organ she played, and performed simultaneously. All of this lends to an atmosphere of heightened presence, an organic flash helmed deep from the subconscious. Originating from ideas created in a quiet convent and sequestered from worldly influence, the liturgical framework of the album is filtered through the intimate devotion of two Sisters — their own interpretation of pop music stripped of pretension and superficial glamour. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eThe album's title, like many of its songs, stems from a Bible verse, in this case Luke 12:49. But Sisters Irene and Marimil ushered it into a space where all spiritual seekers can appreciate the transmission [Or: unusual hermeneutics]. The lyrics address universal needs, wants, and desires: everlasting love and affection, an end to loneliness, a new form of relief, deliverance from the fear of death. Instead of hymnal forms, Sister Irene, perhaps inadvertently, utilizes folk and psychedelia fashionable at the time to deliver a sermon that reads like love letters to a divine presence, speaking to the soul, beyond any formal religion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Love \u003c\/em\u003eis an inspiring archive of early electronic experimentation between two women friends and mystics, a documentation of their divine energy channeled in a disciplined way. Upon initial release, it was neither a flat-out success nor a failure, but was met mostly as a curiosity. The pair never made more music together, and in the 50 years since, their one-off collaboration continues to draw listeners in by way of record shop find (whether the original Phillips pressing or sonically superior 1976 reissue on Alba House Communications) or more likely via YouTube, as a stumbled across and feverishly commented-on cult classic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eToday, Sister Irene is living in Sydney, Australia, and is happy that new audiences are finding meaning in her music with Sister Marimil. Her story is a testament that you don't need much to create a visionary, enduring album: a tape recorder, friendship, and \u003cem\u003eThe Fire of God's Love\u003c\/em\u003e to ignite the pathway forward. That might be a spiritual friend, or an earthly companion right beside you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"\"\u003eSister Irene O’Connor’s \u003cem\u003eFire of God’s Love\u003c\/em\u003e will be released via Freedom To Spend on November 14 in vinyl, CD, and digital editions. Vinyl and CD editions included liner notes by \u003cstrong\u003eAaron Coultate\u003c\/strong\u003e and a complete lyrics booklets.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Freedom To Spend","offers":[{"title":"LP (Marbled)","offer_id":47848848326875,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/FTS034_-_Sister_Irene_O_27Connor_-_Fire_of_God_27s_Love_-_Cover_-_1500px.webp?v=1761153025"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.fusetronsound.com\/collections\/rvng-freedom-to-spend.oembed?page=2","provider":"fusetron","version":"1.0","type":"link"}