"Willem the Ridder (193() is a prolific storyteller, cassette freak and Fluxus artist. George Maciunas made him chairman of Fluxus for Northern Europe and in this role he organised several concerts and Fluxfestivals. He cooperated with Nam June Paik and presented his Piano for All Senses in Amsterdam in his gallery Amstel 47. He was the co-founder of the Mood Engineering Society (MES) with Dick Raaymakers, Louis Andriessen, Peter Schat, Ton Bruynel, Rob Dubois, Jaap Spek & Misja Mengelberg. De Ridder also founded the European Mail Order House and Fluxshop and started the Society for Party Organizing (SPO) to introduce audience generated theatre. Together with Wim T. Schippers he founded the Association for Scientific Research in New Methods of Recreation (Afsrinmor International) and they organised and participated in Fluxus events in different European countries. Together with William Levy, Jim Haynes, Germain Greer & Heathcote Williams he started to work on SUCK (The First European Sex Paper). The paper became a cult item from New York to Tokyo, which led to the very first Erotic Film Festival in the world: The Wet Dream Film Festival. After deciding that the era of the printing press was over he moved to Hollywood where he started Radio Cadillac and studied Chinese Medicine, Shiatsu, Zen Macrobiotics and Taoism. He introduced the Cassette Safari in which listeners in their car followed instructions and stories from a cassette transforming the surrounding landscapes. De Ridder also produced the All Chemix Radio series transmitted by various radio stations in America, Canada and Australia. These narrative pieces originate on the spot and include spoken word, field recordings and electronic sounds. Also released as very limited cassettes these pieces are now released for the first time on vinyl. 8 radio plays are mixed into 4 long pieces including collaborators such as Cora Emens, Stefan Weisser, Andrew McKenzie, Nick Nicole, Annie Sprinkle, Alvin Curran, Julia Romanov, William Levy & Hessel Veldman. Edition of 300. " - Slowscan.
After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.
This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).
Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.
Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.
Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
