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previous artist: amk		there are 9 titles featuring amm in stock. they are listed below.		next artist: amon düde

$12.65

back in stock as of
april 19th, 2008

first in stock on
april 9th, 2004

threads:
free-improvisation
concert-recordings

anomalous (usa) #nom ices 1 cd

amm “at the roundhouse” compact disc

the sound of indifference (46:52)

click the play button to hear an excerpt of "the sound of indifference"

the “live at the roundhouse” 7” on incus has long been one of those records that, had i more than a few dollars to my name at any given time, i would pay almost any (reasonable) price for... but this has more to do with the object itself than the music on it...

at this stage (1972) whittled down to simply the duo of eddie prevost and lou gare; this is quite different from “classic” murky late 60s amm (typified by their side of the amm / mev split on mainstream) - much closer to a considered “free jazz” session of free drum-kit/sax interplay, with a few long segments that delve in to the “non-idiomatic” style they would later become somewhat synonymous with (half-muted squawks and bowed cymbals... listen to the sound-clip)

not the defining amm moment (by a long shot...) but certainly not as bad as diehard rowe-camp amm fans make it out to be; somewhere in the middle between andrew cyrille & jimmy lyons’ duo work and the contemporary amm sound ...

anomalous press release...

amm
at the roundhouse

the first release from the ices concerts from august of 1972 in london.

the international carnival of experimental sound, or ices '72 for short, was an ambitious festival sprung from the mind of harvey "job" matusow (1926-2002). jumping off from his associations with source magazine, harvey brought together over 300 artists from over 21 countries to perform in london, england over the course of two weeks in august of 1972. based on the theme of myth, magic madness and mysticism, he assembled an amazing diversity of performers working in diverse range of audio-visual arts.

encompassing happenings, films, dance, a train ride, and the phantom soft pool table, the focus was on sound - specifically that of artists who were both composers and performers. most of the concerts were held at the roundhouse, a cavernous structure that was formerly a railroad engine house, and recorded by john lifton and his assistants. now, for the first time in 30 years, these recordings can be heard.

amm was formed in 1965 by lou gare, eddie prevost, keith rowe, and lawrence sheaff. the line-up swelled to also include cornelius cardew and christopher hobbs, and sometimes composer christian wolff. from 1971 up until 1976, amm found itself stripped down to the duo of prevost and gare. after that time, rowe replaced gare, and eddie and keith have continued making ammusic ever since, mostly with the help of john tilbury, and occasionally others, and are still a powerful force. the aesthetic of amm is that of improvised music freed from the constraints of musical style. their sound is ever evolving and free from the ego of individual players.

"music from half a lifetime ago - that was a very good creative time musically and maybe a new generation will appreciate what we were doing then and still are doing now. playing with eddie in that format, just the two of us, was my most rewarding musical experience after the break up of the amm quartet. when eddie and keith tried to get it together again with the four of us i could not go back to that after the freedom of the duo." - lou gare.

$37.13

back in stock as of
august 22nd, 2008

first in stock on
february 14th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
concert-recordings
experimental-instruments
circuit-bending
analogue-synth

matchless (uk) #mrcd61 cd

amm / mev “apogee” double compact disc set

amm & mev - apogee part 1 (31:21)
amm & mev - apogee part 2 (19:48)
amm & mev - apogee part 3 (19:38)
amm - 01.05.04 (39:27)
mev - 01.05.04 (36:40)

matchless press release...

amm & mev: apogee (2005)

musica elettronica viva & amm

alvin curran
eddie prévost
keith rowe
frederic rzewski
richard teitelbaum
john tilbury
cd1 was recorded at gateway studios, kingston-upon-thames, surrey on 30 april 2004.
cd2 was recorded at 'freedom of the city' festival, conway hall, london on 1 may 2004.

mrcd61 (2cd)

...

i am. we are.
that is enough. now we have to begin.

and if that is how ernst bloch begins the spirit of utopia, a book containing, suggestively, a lengthy essay on "the philosophy of music", it can only be almost as worrying to encounter, in an essay by adorno on the same topic, the dispiriting suggestion that "music gazes at its listener with empty eyes".

fortunately the music of amm or mev is by no means empty; though it might seem an empty gesture to be yoking the two groups together. they seem at first glance to share little beyond longevity, each having a history extending for four decades; that, and the fact that they were once on opposite sides of a long-vanished vinyl lp. both their histories and the consequent musics are very different. amm’s membership has been by and large stable; it has had the same line-up as is on these cds for a quarter of a century. it has been rare for more than a year or two to pass without some aural documentation of what they’re up to (albeit in some cases issued decidedly retrospectively). musica elettronica viva, to give them their full name, have not merely had many personnel “given their solicitation of audience participation, their full playing complement would be unlistable thousands” but there have been different versions of mev operating in different countries, even continents, producing albums with markedly different, even incompatible, aesthetics. their music, as far as one can gauge it from the scant half-dozen available recordings - and decades have passed with no licit releases is more expansive (as one would expect, given their broader performance practice) and with, particularly recently, a markedly hospitable approach to musics from other places and times; amm, in contrast, might be thought, particularly in the last 25 years or so, to be more introspective, with the music immediate, self-generated, even autotelic. (the use keith rowe makes of the radio during performances neatly skewers this over-easy generalisation.) it is a delight, then, that what might have been over-enthusiastic festival programming has produced music of substance and excellence; "live electronic music, improvised", which both has a kinship with their shared album of that title, now nearly forty years old, and is also unlike anything else either group has recorded previously. this is both the music that existed, unheard, between the opposed sides of that old mainstream album, and a music that is utterly without precedent.

one reason for the "newness" of both amm and mev in the mid-60s was the speed of their take-up of new technologies - if that term isn’t too hi-falutin, given the levels of bricolage involved. amm were pioneers of the use of the radio as an instrument (for which the now-deceased composer-improviser, cornelius cardew, an early member of the group, found a precedent in cage’s 1951 imaginary landscape no. 4.) more important for both groups, however, was the example of the pianist-turned-live-electronics pioneer, david tudor. his conviction that the circuit diagrams and wiring layouts constituted scores was something of a blow to a compositional aesthetic, particularly given his renown as a pianist-interpreter. frederic rzewski apparently spent some time in buffalo, ny, during which he heard tudor perform, even stayed with him. in spring 1966 rzewski came back to rome (where mev was founded and based) with some cheap contact mikes and mixers and some discarded circuitry formerly the property of the inventor/performer/composer david behrman; these were hooked up with bed-springs, glass plates, rubber bands, tin cans, toy pianos, sex vibrators, assorted metal junk, et the obligatory cetera. cardew tells us that around 1968 amm were exploring the range of small sounds made available by contact microphones on all kinds of material - glass, metal, wood, etc. - and a variety of gadgets from drumsticks to battery-operated cocktail mixers. in a time when live electronic improvisation is so common that it not only has sub-genres but even an "original instruments" tendency, it is worth recollecting just how original this was for mev in particular. their undersung founder member allan bryant heavily rewired a cheap electric organ, adding switchable resistors and capacitors to the outside of the instrument. as well as working with the first "r.a. moog music synthesizer" in europe, richard teitelbaum pioneered techniques of manipulating its signals using heart-beat, brain-waves and variations in skin resistance. all of which echoes adorno’s contention that the correct way to think of a composer"s musical material - even an instant composer"s - is as the technical productive forces of an age, concretised. this is material not as inert lump, but stuff that has not yet become something; or is still in the process of doing so. although a period’s technology need not drive its music, it cannot but shape it, often in ways which are far from evident. bloch observed that the ancient greeks would not have understood calculus, as, lacking microscopy, they could not have conceived of the subdividability of basic units and elements. (an observation with more relevance to the music on these cds than might at first be apparent.)

$19.66

back in stock as of
august 22nd, 2008

first in stock on
february 14th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation

matchless (uk) #mrcd26 cd

amm “combines + laminates • treatise ‘84” compact disc

combines + laminates (44:34)
treatise ‘84 (32:07)

matchless press release...

combine + laminates + treatise '84 (1984)

eddie prévost
keith rowe
john tilbury

re-released together with treatise ‘84 in 1995.

recorded at a concert given at the arts club, chicago, usa on 25th may 1984.
the track 'combine + laminates' was first issued as an lp by pogus productions
front cover artwork: keith rowe

mrcd26

...

the following text accompanied the pogus productions lp which featured combine + laminates.

'mistakes in and towards amm could be due to constant references to sets of standards' - sleeve note: ammmusic, elektra 256, recorded 1966 (re-released with other material, rér ammcd, 1990).

twenty-five years on and world political thinking is still asphyxiated by numerous variants of neo-platonism; a creed which engineers the western passion for progress. the market technocratic religion may indeed deliver an increasingly sophisticated diet of material consumables, but the rub is that it demands obedience to the ever moving spirit of consumption. accept the goods and you must accept the rationale of their production: make-buy-consume-make.

all this may seem a far cry from ammmusic and the statement above, but it follows that a technocracy is tied to notions of standards and to obtainable, even if at times difficult, reference points. the machine will not work, and therefore not produce, if it is not engineered, maintained and controlled in the prescribed way. the idea of the perfectible object permeates our culture and even musicians become passive, naive and complementing ciphers for such socio-economic goals, by lending their lives to the realisation of ‘perfect' performances.

in this respect the problem for amm is that a recording of a fluid, living, fragile and transient performance becomes fixed in vinyl. and, through repeated listenings, maybe it too becomes a musical object with learnable sequences, anticipated movements and awaited resolutions. such responses are contrary - even alien - to the practice of making ammmusic. and we connive uneasily with this contradiction because we want the music to live beyond, to transcend, its living moment. but even if the mode of making ammmusic discourages the development and references to sets of standards, there are constants in amm's ethic of improvisation. one such is the tacit acknowledgement of potential failure at every music making moment. at the same time we know that so often failure is at the root of unlooked for success. it is as if the desire and design for success precludes other kinds of development that might arrive fortuitously: learning to accept the results of a hand slip and being open enough to interpret and use what the mind might glimpse as a cloud interrupts the sun.

of course many of the discoveries of science or expressions of art arrive, apparently, as much through accident as design. given that human beings regularly use only two or three percent of their neural potential this should be no surprise. there should be even less surprise that heated human imagination also thrusts many irrelevant mutations upon the world. the neo-classicists and their technocratic offspring no doubt would like to harness this potential by way of think-tank and computer models. but ultimately art defies such methods because it does not, cannot, look for specific results without damaging the very potency of the creative method. in the process of dismantling the known in pursuit of the unknown we can only ever be, at best, in the twilight world of the controlled accident.

eddie prévost 1990.

...

the difference in the music included on this cd version is the addition of treatise ‘84. this, as the audience was aware, was an improvisation inspired and guided, rather than dictated or controlled by cornelius cardew's graphic masterpiece. there is, of course, no way that this work could be identified as a composition in the accepted sense. there is no universal correlation between the symbols on the page and the sounds the musicians make. cardew gave no indications as to what any of his graphics might represent. later, in the treatise handbook he offered thoughts upon how such a musical engagement might develop. nothing however was prescriptive.

dated entry in treatise handbook :

'15th january 1966. joining amm was the turning point, both in the compositions of treatise and in everything i have thought about music up to now. before that treatise had been an elaborate attempt at graphic notation of music (which i can only describe as a graphic score that produces in the reader, without any sound, something analogous to the experience of music), a network of nameless lines and spaces pursuing their own geometry untethered to themes and modulations, 12 note series and their transformations, the rules or laws of musical composition and all the other figments of the musicological imagination.'

given how much playing in amm shaped cardew's ever evolving views about music our subsequent performances of treatise are as much a dedication and a celebration of his life and work - cut short all too early. to quote again from the handbook:

'what i hope is that in playing this piece each musician will give of his own music - he will give it as his response to my music, which is the score itself.'

there is, as may be discernible, a more measured approach to the performance of treatise ‘84 than to combine + laminates. to a large extent the sounds are more arbitrary. our ‘treatment' is an intuitive, a creative and above all a very personal response to the graphics, which in some way screens the interplay characteristic of an improvisation. whilst in the making of ammmusic proper the musicians are less inhibited and the music flows in a more organic fashion. the relationship between players is more direct and dialogical. at its best the idea of treatise is an intermediate stage between the instructions of a composer i.e. notation and spontaneous music making. it should lead, as it did for cardew himself, to an association of music making free of constraint, free of market-relations and full of a positive spirit of community.

eddie prévost 1995

$19.44

new to stock as of
february 14th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
modern-composition
sound-poetry

matchless (uk) #mrcd16 cd

amm / tom phillips “irma” compact disc

irma

matchless press release...

irma - an opera by tom phillips. (1988)

amm plus soloists.

lol coxhill, voice, soprano saxophone
elise lorraine, voice
phil minton, voice
ian mitchell, clarinets
birte pederson, voice
tom phillips, voice
eddie prévost, percussion
keith rowe, guitar, radio, tapes, cello
john tilbury, piano, radio

artwork and text by tom phillips.

mrcd16

...

irma : the score

the general score of irma comes from treated fragments of a victorian novel, a human document, by w.h.mallock. in that i originally bought this book for threepence in 1966, irma is thus, authentically, a threepenny opera.

irma was composed in 1969, completed in fact on the day a man first walked on the moon. it was first published in a small french avant-garde review (ou; ed. henri chopin) in 1970. the score exists as an autonomous artwork and is in the altmenn museum in vaduz, leichtenstein. in a more recent screenprint version it has been internationally exhibited and will be featured in a forthcoming show, art as word and music, at the guggenheim museum, new york in 1989.

the score takes the form of a large sheet with prose directions (each a treated fragment of the novel) for the libretto, the mise en scene and the sound vocabulary of the piece, together with instructions, performance suggestions and a group of melodies. it is to be thought of as the surviving elements of a lost work whose performance tradition is unknown. realisation of the opera involves the ordering and piecing together of these fragments to a performable work; as an archaeologist might reconstruct a possible coherent pot from scattered shards.

irma: performance history

the opera was first produced at the bordeaux festival in 1970 as a concert work. it was first staged by the ceolfrith arts association at the university of newcastle in 1972. an ambitious second performance in 1973 was the result of a performance project for the postgraduate students of the music department at york university, where realisations of irma and the mediaeval play of daniel (which poses many similar problems of interpretation) made up an imaginative double-bill under the direction of richard orton. except for one recorded version and the odd performance by a student group the opera became a sleeper until its first london performance in 1983 when it formed part of adrian jack's enterprising musicica series at the ica: on that occasion it was presented as a double bill with itself in two contrasting versions, one a spare chamber performance by jean yves bosseur and the french group intervalles (in which i sang the part of the narrator) and the other an augmented revival of the original york version, lavish and erotic, in which elise lorraine created the role of irma. thus two performers from wildly divergent productions come together in this present recording. irma is now part of the repertory of intervalles and of amm and has thus been performed all over europe. amm gave a london performance at the serpentine gallery in 1986. phil mouldycliff who assisted in the production of this recording (and who opened the batting at my 50th birthday cricket match) has also developed a performance which stresses the visual and scenic elements: this version was first staged at the corner house in manchester with maurice watson as narrator and with ingenious costume designs based on various paintings of mine, by the students of blackburn college of art, who performed the work.

irma: performances on record

the opera's first appearance on record was in 1975 when the chorus 'love is help, mate' as performed by the york group in 1973 was featured in tom phillips' words/music, a disc produced by hansjorg mayer in the selten gehorte musik series. a complete version was recorded for brian eno's obscure records label in 1977. the realisation here was by gavin bryars with a libretto, which, for all that it completely consisted of quotations from a humument, claimed to be by fred orton. although there are some haunting moments in the performance the music seems to have lost some of its character, smoothed out as it is to fit the bryars aesthetic. the slightly patronising tone of the sleeve note and the fact that bryars billed himself (in defiance of the normal practice in modern music performance) as 'the composer', did not help me to avoid the impression that this irma, alone, was somehow 'inauthentic'. since it followed the general rules of the score this recording (for all that i participated in it and despite its featuring musicians as distinguished as howard skempton) led me to the regretful. conclusion that, among the infinitude of feasible irmas, versions might occur which were simultaneously correct and unfaithful. i was therefore doubly pleased to encourage (and to perform the role of narrator in) this recording by amm, the pioneering interpreters of open-score ensemble music. if the score grew out of a tradition it was certainly that which i had explored via cornelius cardew and amm, as well as the scratch orchestra of which both they and i were members. john tilbury was the first musician to perform works of mine and his endorsement of my first visual prescriptions for music was crucial. one of the aspects of the irma score is that it can be viewed as a predictive paraphrase, the account, so to speak, of an event that has not yet taken place. the verbal elements were much indebted to the example of christian wolff's prose pieces whose first edition i published, yet, despite the example of wolff's lucidity, i seem to have made a piece whose constraints no more guaranteed appropriate and germane stage and musical behaviour than do those million-dotted classics of opera which are daily traduced by careless megalomaniacs.

this performance is in someway 'definitive', which does not of course mean that any other version should resemble it in the slightest: it is an instance of what irma is like as opposed to not like. it is as if to point to a particular cat and say, this is a cat: you learn that it is not a dog but this does not preclude the existence of a multitude of varieties of cat or individual cats. any too close resemblance to this realisation of irma would in fact contravene the very instructions of the score.

one element that has crept into recent performances (it appeared spontaneously in both the versions by intervalies and that of the blackburn group under phil mouldycliff) has been the use of lesbia waltz (op. xv) as a dance interlude. it used to be obligatory for operas to have a ballet, and irma should be no exception. i would like this now to bethought of as part of the available scored music, for use in part or whole or fragmented or dispersed as melodic units. here it is used for the central chorus section.

$19.66

back in stock as of
march 7th, 2008

first in stock on
february 14th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation

matchless (uk) #mrcd13 cd

amm “inexhaustable document” compact disc

page 9.1 (22:45)
page 9.2 (34:25)

matchless press release...

the inexhaustible document (1984)

rohan de saram
eddie prévost
keith rowe
john tilbury

re-released as a cd with additional material in 1994
front cover artwork: 'rousillon - the other one' by malcolm legrice

mrcd13

...

high culture and the nature concert
on form and meaning in the music of amm
(extracts from an earlier essay)

if anything around you was designed for this sound, you made it yourself.

self determination is the basis of creativity and cooperation. the overriding economic order must virtually deny these to worker and consumer.

self-determination, creativity and cooperation are basic formal resources for amm. various kinds of texts, such as the images produced by an alien

civilization, are understood by undercoding. ..... undercoding may be defined as the operation by means of which in the absence of reliable, pre-established rules, certain macroscopic portions of certain texts are provisionally assumed to be pertinent units of code in formation, even though the combinatorial rules governing the more basic compositional items of the expression, along with the corresponding content units, remain unknown. (1) the music of amm may be positioned in this 'alien civilization' - one that we are in the process of simultaneously constructing and recognizing; one from which we are

alienated, where the common basis for interaction is that each participates 'without fear of being subordinated or exploited' (2)

equality of status is assumed in free improvisation and is as pertinent formally as any more tangible constraint or possibility of technique or occasion. amm's social model is articulated at the heart of what we hear. music-making is relocated to the ground of autonomy specific to amm.

since there can be no absence of form, in free improvisation form must be self-organising. the process is intrinsic to life. coming now to definitions of organization, we will say that functional organization at some given level is equivalent to thermodynamic coupling (utilization of information) at the same level. it would seem also that a structure could be called organized if its existence were either necessary for the maintenance of some functional organization or dependent on the operation of some functional organization. without reference to functional organization it seems to be impossible to define structural organization in a useful way. (3) the ensemble could be considered the level of functional organisation; listening and responding, utilization of information; and the music, structural organization. this schematic comparison: 1. provides a base-line in defining form outside of any tradition; 2. emphasises the formally necessary (and not incidental) strict correlation that exists between the group and its music; 3. helps to explain the sense of natural occurrence one can have during a performance. the music unfolds as event and resonates as environment, resulting in a profound experience of both becoming and location. this is far beyond amm's social model, but it is a

salutary society that encodes this kind of knowing. sound production and musical meaning cannot be separated. the music reverberates inwards towards complexities of feeling and outwards towards complexity of personal interaction which, because it is more than two, extended over time and

constructive, is inherently social. noise is a formal necessity to amm: and since the environment is essential to an open system ... an 'intrusion' from the environment... may lead to a restructuring or an elaboration of structure at a higher level. the reason is that environmental interchange is not a ramdom or unstructured event, or does not long remain so (remain as 'noise'), because of the mapping, or coding, or information processing capabilities of the open system, its adaptiveness. (4) the use of the complex sounds that are 'noise' introduces the environment into the music of amm: it permits the group to search a 'ground' not restricted to musical sounds and to act directly upon it, to engage symbolically and literally in 'environmental interchange'. the world around us ” as available to the sense that most unifies, hearing ” is evoked by amm as its starting point. yet the sounds of amm are demarcated from the environment by the autonomous order constituted by musical intention and the group's social practice. amm takes up a similar stance of autonomy and development vis-a-vis western art and art music. just as amm explores and develops themes from the ideological climate and elements from the aural environment, it has built on aesthetic themes. some of these include relativity and multiplicity of perspective, the valorisation of expression and subjectivity, the ambiguity of figure and ground and questioning the role of the frame. amm is capable of a huge repertory of sound characters which belies its size. each instrumental voice can stand out in strong relief allowing the ear to follow separate but simultaneous developments while indefinite and sliding pitch and noise permit convergent uses of timbre. the formal imperative of free polyphony in amm plays upon this potential and develops its significance. timbre is used both to differentiate and to unite. identity becomes voluntary, mutable, shared, as do roles and decisions. roles within amm merge in the percussive, fricative and whistling. each of the instruments is extended, its boundaries redrawn to augment its potential for 'noise'. the use of timbral overlap functions dimensionally in a way not unlike its use in the string quartet where the capacity to unify a field inclusive of extreme registers can be articulated to signal complex, profound and heightened emotion. the expressive content of the music confronts and contemplates this world. we move in the delicate experience of sound as cooperatively shaped and developed material of encoding and in the experience of sound as energy. among the successes of amm in the formal challenge of self-organisation are the expansiveness of reference and variety of articulation achieved through this ranging of source sounds from noise to microtonality.

listening and interpretation are the central formal strategies from which all else follows. form therefore depends on the physical characteristics of hearing, the quality of attention and the instrumental skills of the musicians. continual listening entails continual development. improvisation does not lead to a music without meaning, architecture or development. spontaneous group composition by amm means that the relations between these are altered by altered time and subject relations: the time is immediate and the subject is multiple. inventions and their consequences do not serve a singular aesthetic intent but co-exist, inter-relate and inter-obstruct, multiplying perceptual vantages and creating complex aural depths. there are messages, architectures, developments in a web of viewpoints. developments are no longer logical but dialogical. direction alters as in conversation where each speaker has a different version of the subject. shifts in orientation lead to repatterning within the ensemble of contributions. each individual action or each local intervention has a collective aspect that can result in quite unanticipated global changes. (5) the tensions between sustaining and investigating structures and creating new ones generate the overall form of a session. amm's music is made in a sensitively constructed occasion where the boundaries of ' skin bound biological individuality', 'psychic "self"', and 'social "role'" are not 'quite different' and this constitutes an emotional field in which a symbiotic and non-exploitative epistemology will always seek to remain aware of the various levels of correspondence at the same time as it remains aware of its own epistemological act of repeatedly homesteading a wilderness - 'nature hath no outline, but imagination has' (william blake, 1822).(6)

the primary, organising role of listening has profound consequences for the way the music is heard. the dominant spatial and temporal assumptions do not apply. time is no longer a uniform quantity subject to division which can then be manipulated to give a dramatic account of an event, after the fact, which performance skills bring to life. nor is it marked by a steady pulse which unifies parts and carries an audience along. pulses exist, discovered within a free time which is immediate because all the resources are, and multiple because multiple perceptions and rhythms of perception create the tempi.this immediacy amplifies the sense of event as a complex of temporal relations. the quality of listening essential to development of the music is

communicated to the audience, which listens similarly. the ambiguity of figure/ground relationships means that listening by the audience, as well as by the performers, becomes constructive. hearing and feeling, close for the musicians, become close for the audience. the performance space functions principally as a sounding body of specific qualities which are explored for their potential and this inevitably contributes to developments. assumptions of empty, neutral space fall. spatial perception is sensitised to a delicate,

contiguous and varied tissue. free improvisation implicitly reacts against our decontextualising culture which produces any music any where at any time by asserting, instead, this music here at this time - any moment has potential for art, discovery, and new emotion. it recovers differentiated living time from scheduled time. in public performance free improvisation requires an audience eager to experience the tensions between expanded attention and implementation of judgement. a demanding, attentive audience that needs art, for sensitisation, regeneration, inspiration and aspiration.

free imrovisation in the hands of amm valorises the unknown, combining unpredictabiity with contexual coherence and the implicit drama of emotion and meaning in play. by opening out the moment it reveals the inherent wilderness of living processes that we lose sight of in an environment of over-determination, where the planned and the manufactured are foremost in our surfaces and where the principle disorders of poverty and extreme wealth are generated by strategies of control. ambiguity and complexity enrich the perceptual field, create the conditions for the vital exercise of sensory powers of discrimination and emotional response. the music of amm is based on challenges to this culture that arise from within it and are informed by sources outside of it. as 'the west' becomes 'the world' new indigenous cultures begin to organise, experimenting with propositions. what are 'production without possession, action without self-assertion, development without domination'?(7) amm has created a pathway as a result of their musical and political thought that asks us to question many things, including the function of music in our lives.

1. umberto eco, a theory of semiotics, indiana university press, bloomington, 1979, p. 135
2. eddie prevost and keith rowe, notes to the crypt - 12th june 1968, matchless recordings, mrcd05
3. karl kornacker, 'towards a physical theory of self-organization' in c.h. waddington, ed., towards a theoretical biology, vol. 1, edinburgh university press, edinburgh, 1968, p. 95.
4. anthony wilden, system and structure: essays in communication and exchange, tavistock publications, london, 1972. p. 143.
5. llya prigogine and isabell stengers, order out of chaos, fontana, 1985. p. 203
6. anthony wilden, as for 4 above. p. 220-221
7. confucian, quoted in christopher small, music, society education, john calder, london 1977. p.75

paige mitchell 1987. 1993.

$19.66

back in stock as of
march 7th, 2008

first in stock on
february 14th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
concert-recordings

matchless (uk) #mrcd06 cd

amm “generative themes” compact disc

generative theme i (9:29)
generative theme ii (14:18)
generative theme iii (9:57)
generative theme iv (12:49)
generative theme v (31:07)

matchless press release...

generative themes (1982-83)

eddie prévost
keith rowe
john tilbury

generative themes i-iv previously released as an lp. generative theme v is a section from an improvisation made at the zagreb biennale on 24th april 1983.

front cover artwork: keith rowe incorporating a drawing made by cornelius cardew of eddie prévost's drum beater. drum synthesis pcb foil pattern by courtesy of electronics digest.

mrcd06

...

at the time of the studio recording of generative themes (a rare occurrence for amm) - december 1982, john tilbury had been a regular member of amm for a couple of years. he had at times during the 1960s "deputized" (if that is the right word) for cornelius cardew. so his work and friendship was already familiar to keith rowe and eddie prévost when they invited him to join them. since then, of course, john has proven to be an immensely valuable member of the ensemble. his consistent creativity being both a great joy and a reliable support in amm’s musical collaborations.

as the cd format has a greater capacity it was decided to include a section from an improvisation made at a concert at the zagreb biennale on 24th april 1983. this makes a good "live" contrast to the studio recording that made the original generative themes just a few months before.

the following is the text published with the original lp: for all the lip service paid to the idea of the liberation of the performer, in contemporary art music creativity has become even more the prerogative of the individual and of the individual composer in particular. the goal of the composer, able to exercise control over all the parameters of every sound in the composition, has become the perfection of the ideal object, to which the composer enjoys a property relation. instead of a relation between men, art becomes a relation to a thing and as a consequence some of music’s most characteristic and essential qualities are conspicuously missing from much contemporary composition. it has only been by dint of the improvisational ethic that qualities such as spontaneity, dialogue and transience have been rescued and restored. for amm there is no ideal object to be projected, no ultimate condition, there are only possibilities to be perceived, transcended, made real. within the possible, themes are suggested - what paulo freire described as "generative themes". these generative themes are a consequence of a dynamic medium like improvisation.

an improvising musician constantly contrasts the investigative perspective with the reformulation of successful modes: it is never a matter simply of the manipulation of connotative symbols, of channeled, vulgar spontaneity. the investigative perspective suggests searching for sounds and for responses that attach to them, rather than thinking them up, preparing and producing them. the search is conducted in the medium of sound and the musician himself is at the heart of the experiment.' (cornelius cardew treatise handbook, peters edition 1967). the productive integration of the dialogical and the individual statement is the improviser"s modus vivendi. the dialogical may be interrupted or overruled by the seemingly arbitrary individual statement which in turn may become the basis for a new dialogue. but each and every contribution is made by virtue of a collective ambiance: moreover, collective music making depends upon the constant interaction of aesthetic, moral and social considerations and herein lies the humanizing impulse of the improvisational ethic. amm’s musical method is unconventional: described as "laminal" it unites and superimposes layers, textures - creating syntheses which generate new musical themes. if the music is "difficult" its (humanist) content, which on this record embraces both wit and humour, can render it accessible to the curious and sympathetic listener.

amm began their musical quest in 1965 when keith rowe, lou gare, lawrence sheaff, eddie prévost and soon after the late cornelius cardew came together. inevitably there have been changes although john tilbury, the most recent permanent member has had long connections with amm and was one of cardew's longest and closest musical associates. more importantly the impetus which generated the innovative break with conventional modes of music making still remains and there is a strong sense of continuity. amm plays to its strengths and remains amm.

december 1982

$37.13

back in stock as of
march 28th, 2008

first in stock on
february 14th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation

matchless (uk) #mrcd05 cd

amm “the crypt • 12th june 1968” double compact disc set

like a cloud hanging in the sky? (45:21)
coffin nor shelf (45:36)
neither bill nor axe would shorten its existence (18:08)

full edition of the classic 1968 session that spawned the amm side of the mainstream amm / mev split lp “live electronic music improvised” ... this is most certainly amm at their most wild & wooly ...

matchless press release...

the crypt (1968)

cornelius cardew
lou gare
christopher hobbs
eddie prévost
keith rowe

recorded 12th june, 1968.

1992 double cd edition. the complete session with material not released before.

mrdcd05 (double)

...

amm music

amm was formed in 1965 and concerns itself - certainly outwardly - with musical improvisation of an experimental kind. this music is apparently unsuited to mechanical reproduction. amm has made three records and broadcast in britain, denmark and germany. in all this it has 'displayed its uselessness' (in the sense of the story quoted) for reproduction purposes. about the live performances - amm has given many public concerts, including some in the usa - the press has said some surprisingly nice things and some not-so-nice things, but few (nice or otherwise) ever revealed any insight or relevance. if we believed everything written by the critics we would have long since stopped playing - if they had ever let us start!

one comment by a journalist, however, came close to expressing, albeit unwittingly, something of why we play. peter willis wrote (in peace news) "ultimately, however, amm fails." ultimately amm will fail. there may be rare moments when we, or others, sense a kind of success, but there can never be 'ultimate' success. nevertheless, with kind of perversity that really belongs only to nature, amm continues to play. it continues to want to play and in playing fails; appears at times to be succeeding then fails and fails. the paradox is that continual failure on one plane is the root of success on another (and i'm not thinking of the hack violinist of the metropolis passing himself off as a virtuoso in the provinces). we certainly must not look for failure any more than for success.

the problem with amm is that it is enormously difficult to honestly justify any approach or promotion which will lead to a playing situation - paid performances in particular. when somebody pays they expect the goods - we may not have the goods, and if we have we may lose them tomorrow. and if we do we may yet spend our lives 'in the enjoyment of untroubled ease.' meanwhile the risk spurs on the music.

cornelius cardew and eddie prévost c. 1970

$12.96

new to stock as of
february 14th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
concert-recordings
minimalism-drones
digital-musics

matchless (uk) #mrcd70 cd

“that mysterious forest below london bridge” compact disc

chant_lambert_lexer_milton_09/11/06 (21:09)
coleman_wastell_wright_09/11/06 (21:45)
amm_09/11/06 (25:34)

matchless press release...

that mysterious forest below london bridge

1. chant_lambert_lexer_milton_09/11/06 (21.09)

tom chant - soprano and tenor saxophones
ross lambert - guitar
sebastian lexer - piano and laptop
matt milton - violin

2. coleman_wastell_wright_09/11/06 (21.45)

jamie coleman - trumpet
mark wastell - indian harmonium
seymour wright - alto saxophone

3. amm_09/11/06 (25.34)

eddie prévost - percussion
john tilbury - piano

total playing time 68.28

an interlace/ongaku presentation at shunt lounge, london bridge on 9th november 2006
recorded by rick campion, edited and mastered by sebastian lexer
with kind support of shunt lounge and ems goldsmiths’ coillege
front cover photograph by sebastian lexer

* title taken from john ruskin, modern painters vol.v part ix ‘of invention spiritual’ 1860

$19.66

back in stock as of
august 22nd, 2008

first in stock on
february 14th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation

matchless (uk) #mrcd17 cd

“supersession” compact disc

supersession (36:56)

matchless press release...

supersession (1988)

evan parker - soprano/tenor saxophones
keith rowe - guitar/electronics
barry guy - double bass
eddie prévost - percussion

recorded at a concert given in london, england on 3rd september 1984.

mrcd17

...

alienation strategies are the stock shots of the avant garde; to move an audiences expectations and lift them on to new planes of perception. cage’s silent piece 4’33 is perhaps the ultimate example - although lamonte young’s piano piece for david tudor no.1, in which the piano is offered a bale of hay and a bucket of water, might run it a close second.

the effect of alienating is to surprise - to make an aesthetic mismatch. but alienation strategies need not be confined to single pieces; they might equally be conveyed by more substantial aesthetic shifts of practice. i remember frederic rzewski suggesting that cornelius cardew’s move from the musical avant garde to communism was itself a piece. this may seem a cynical interpretation of his late friends motives but maybe the theme of alienation ran through cardew’s work more deeply that the other artists with whom he was associated.

much of contemporary improvising music might seem to owe its development via similar alienating strategies. dispensing with composition. using traditional instruments in unconventional ways. not using traditional instruments at all. audiences and musicians alike were fascinated/repelled by new techniques and the development of performance within the music which at times transcended even sound production. but all alienation strategies and all avant gardes become exhausted. the effect is weakened by repeated applications. and the fragility of the alienating method is that it is inherently reactive. it exists by virtue of negating a negative.

many progressives in established music use improvisation as a medium of refreshment. it is not seen as a novel experience in which musicians take music apart and construct it anew. the classical tradition remains intact and improvisation and experimentalism are subservient; minor appendages to the main current of musical life. and, in terms of their use as alienating methods they are certainly less potent than they were. this argument is difficult to counter if we accept the terms in which it is ultimately couched; that of alienation and the act of negating.

there are, of course, varying degrees of alienation. a musician with a western heritage of beethoven and company on his back may feel the tradition alienating, especially if he has a more radical cultural/political perspective than the tradition allows. such a tradition is likely to be weightier than the more informal and tenuous connection a british musician could possibly have with american jazz. the alienating methods employed by the musical avant garde (c. 1960/70) often reduced composition to a comical parody and offered ultra democratic ideals - making all players no matter their abilities equal in the music making process. in some sense of course this ideal made for expansive and creative opportunities. it is interesting to note however that many of the advocates of this leveling have scuttled back to the protective skirts of the music establishment, leaving their unschooled associates high and dry, now that the experimentalism is (for them) exhausted.

alongside these alienating methods, entwined with them,was another ethos - the improvisational. it may have taken lessons from jazz and the new musical activities of the western avant garde; it may well have been attracted by the general spirit of rebellion. but it was never imbued with such a severe sense of alienation. if alienation existed in the improvising community it was never perceived in the same cultural/artistic context as projected by the more formal elements in the avant garde.

twenty years on what remains and has developed from those tentative steps of free improvisation is a whole range of techniques and an open-ended aesthetic of enquiry propelled by a dialogical mode. the musicians, such as these on this album, are at ease in this medium, even though they may be ever striving for some elusive sense of musical fulfillment. they are not driven by an alienation strategy, they do not seek to demonstrate an alternative form. they are content to perform in a mode which has become the simple and natural means of musical expression. any sense of negating the negative is weak, because the musicians are not ideologically trapped by musical/cultural forms from they might feel alienated. having no firm musical tradition they have made their own. they have superseded other other ways of making music; couching their objectives and methods in relation to the desired expression of hitherto unrealized cultural ideals.

eddie prévost - august 1988

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