taj mahal travelers “live stockholm july, 1971” double compact disc set

• live ‘71, part 1 (58:36)
  
  
• live ‘71, part 2 (59:43)

fast forward “same same ” compact disc

• simultaneous music (27:32)
  
• the yin-yang merger (20:26)
  
• feeding frenzy (24:45)

taj mahal travelers “august 1974” double long playing record set

• i (19:53)
  
  
• ii (21:27)
  
  
• iii (23:31)
  
  
• iv (23:27)

phoenix press release...

originally issued as a double lp with each of the 4 tracks being roughly the same length as the side of a record, august 1974 presents the taj mahal travellers at their most sophisticated. although their stunning cosmic music was always improvised, the band, formed in 1969 by "six meta-music creators and one electronic engineer" played regularly throughout japan and eventually found their way to europe where they met up with avant-garde musicians such as don cherry. 1974 would be the band's last official release as they went their separate ways the following year with all but takehisa kosugi, leaving music behind them. each track is distinct from the others, with several beginning with clearly-defined structure before departing into the realms of the abstract, with violin, harmonica, bass, tuba, trumpet and mandolin dueting in a subliminal and obscure manner. "voices" both subhuman and supernatural, resonate with a universal inner voice. includes original insert. hand-numbered limited edition of 1000 ; on 180 gram vinyl.

group ongaku “music of group ongaku” long playing record

• automatism (26:20) 1960
  
• object (7:34) 1960
  
  
• metaplasm 9-15 • part 1 (14:16) 1961
  
• metaplasm 9-15 • part 2 (11:26) 1961

seer sound archive press release...

1] automatism (1960) 2] object (1960) these are recordings of two live performances. recorded at mizuno's house on the same day. for both performances, they used such sound materials as musical instruments - a piano, a pedal organ, a cello, and an alto saxophone - as well as various everyday objects - an electric vacuum cleaner, a radio, an oil drum, dolls, and a set of dishes. in "automatism," such decision as who employs what instruments / objects, or how one should articulate the sound, were made spontaneously according to how each performer played at each moment, or by chance at a particular point in time and space. the performers went back and forth between two separate rooms to articulate sounds randomly in various ways, using whatever objects inside the house that were at their disposal, any object that could possibly make sounds. during the course of the performance, one of the members touched the reel of the tape recorder, manually manipulating the tape speed. unlike "automatism," in "object" each performer listened to the sounds articulated by the other members and thus attempted to consciously create and amorphous and complex, yet unified sound space as a whole. 3] metaplasm 9-15 (1961) this is a live recording of part 2 from group ongaku's first recital at sogetsu hall in tokyo. part 1 consisted of a collective improvisation using various musical instruments. the performance began as the bell rang for the opening of the show. through unconventional ways of manipulating and playing, noise-like sounds were created through the instruments. during the latter half of this performance, while playing the saxophone, both kosugi and tone walked off the stage, waded through the audience, and then disappeared. part 2 consisted of a performance that incorporated several reels of music tapes that had been prepared previous to the show, as well as radio and other various instruments. group ongaku, founded mainly by students at tokyo national university of fine arts and music, was the first collective musical improvisation group. the group began their activities in 1958, and from the naming of the group in 1960 onward, continued until somewhere around 1962. they attempted to create acoustics corresponding to actual time and space by means of collective improvisation. although methodically different, the music that they pursued incidentally shared common directions with contemporaries such as john cage and others involved in the avant-garde artist collective of fluxus. in november of 1958, shukuo mizuno and takehisa kosugi, undergraduates of the musicology program in the department of music at tokyo national university of fine arts and music, improvised sounds together, playing a cello and a violin. for them the european concept of music, in which compositions are predeterminately fixed sounds from written scores/notations that precede and regulate the performance, reduces the performance to a mere activity of representation, thereby losing the actuality of the acoustics. instead, they sought to explore different acoustics that gradually and constantly changed within actual time and space. through frequent performances every week they became convinced that improvisation, whereby creation and performance occur simultaneously, was the most effective approach for them to pursue. between 1959 and 1960, chieko (mieko) shiomi, mikio tojima, genichi tsuge, from the musicology program, yumiko tanno, of the vocal music program, and yasunao tone, a graduate of the department of japanese literature at chiba university, joined the group and frequently attempted collective improvisations at various locations. they experimented with such different musical approaches and methods as developing a performance in which each player spontaneously responded to various non-musical sounds that were extracted from instruments and/or miscellaneous everyday objects, or performing completely random and automatic approaches that emphasized the incidental or indeterminate nature of sounds as traces of certain actions. after their first recital in 1961, a conflict arose between members who interpreted collective as an approach for musical expression, and others who tried to directly connect everyday experiences with musical expressions in an attempt to transcend conventional musical concepts. subsequently, the characteristics of the group shifted from an organization for collective improvisation, to a flexible ensemble for individual musicians and artists, eventually leading members branching off into different directions of their own. among the group, kosugi, shiomi, and tone later joined fluxus. for these artists, currently active in different musical fields, group ongaku marked the beginning of the careers. hear sound art library takako okamoto

takehisa kosugi “catch-wave ‘97” compact disc

• catch-wave ‘97 (47:26)

super fuji discs press release...

super fuji discs - new release release date: december 19th, 2008 takehisa kosugi “catch-wave '97” fjsp-53 / cd kosugi takehisa formed improvised group "group ongaku" in 1960, and joined "taj mahal travellers" in 70s, at the recent days he has had great works such as musical director of "merce cunningham dance company" he is united with sound, light, wind on his unique impromptu and transform the aspects to a different dimention. the greatest performance 'catch wave' is now unbelievably on cd. file under: japanese rock / avant garde

sonic youth “goodbye 20th century” double long playing record set

• christian wolff - edges (16:02)
  
• pauline oliveros - six for new time - for sonic youth (8:08)
  
  
• james tenney - having never written a note for percussion (9:04)
  
• john cage - six (3rd take) (3:01)
  
• takehisa kosugi - + - (7:02)
  
• yoko ono - voice piece for soprano (0:12)
  
• nicolas slonimsky - pièce enfantine (2:21)
  
• cornelius cardew - treatise (page 183) (3:29)
  
  
• john cage - four6 (30:20)
  
  
• john cage - six (4th take) (3:02)
  
• christian wolff - burdocks (13:16)
  
• george maciunas - piano piece #13 (carpenter's piece) - for nam june paik (3:49)
  
• steve reich - pendulum music (5:56)

sonic youth “goodbye 20th century” double compact disc set

• christian wolff - edges (16:02)
  
• john cage - six (3rd take) (3:01)
  
• pauline oliveros - six for new time - for sonic youth (8:08)
  
• takehisa kosugi - + - (7:02)
  
• yoko ono - voice piece for soprano (0:12)
  
• steve reich - pendulum music (5:56)
  
  
• james tenney - having never written a note for percussion (9:04)
  
• john cage - six (4th take) (3:02)
  
• christian wolff - burdocks (13:16)
  
• john cage - four6 (30:20)
  
• george maciunas - piano piece #13 (carpenter's piece) - for nam june paik (3:49)
  
• nicolas slonimsky - pièce enfantine (2:21)
  
• cornelius cardew - treatise (page 183) (3:29)
  
  
• video - george maciunas - piano piece #13 (carpenter's piece)

syr press release...

the band gets back to their roots in avant-garde classical music. 100+ minutes of modern compositions on double lp or double cd. music composed by john cage, yoko ono, cornelius cardew, steve reich, takehisa kosugi, nicolas slonimsky, george maciunas, james tenney, pauline oliveros and christian wolff. sonic youth the syr series having completed construction on their manhattan studios in 1996, sonic youth suddenly found themselves in a position to create unadulterated by the tyranny of time and space. as a result of their natural writing process, whereby collective improvisation congeals over time into song structures, they began to amass a small mountain of tape, most of it containing raw, wild, spontaneous music they reckoned wouldn't be "commercial" enough for geffen to release. yet the material seemed just as essential and true to their mission, and showed an important side of the band and their process that was usually inacessible to their fans. so instead of a problem, sy saw an opportunity — they decided to release these secret sonic glimpses themselves. sonic youth recordings was born.

“music for merce (1952-2009)” decuple compact disc set

• christian wolff - for magnetic tape (1952) [pt. 1 of 4] (5:24)
  
• christian wolff - for piano i (1952) (5:19)
  
• john cage - music for piano 1–20 (1954) (16:13)
  
• earle brown - indices (1955) [excerpt] (20:51)
  
• bo nilsson - quantitäten (1958) (12:31)
  
  
• morton feldman - ixion (1958) (20:21)
  
• john cage - variations v (1965) [excerpt] (13:41)
  
• gordon mumma - mesa (1966) (19:38)
  
• toshi ichiyanagi - activities for orchestra (1962) (24:09)
  
  
• david behrman - … for nearly an hour… (1968) [excerpt] (3:23)
  
• pauline oliveros - in memoriam: nikola tesla, cosmic engineer (1969) [excerpt] (9:44)
  
• christian wolff - for 1, 2, or 3 people (1964) [excerpt] (12:07)
  
• christian wolff - burdocks (1971) [excerpt] (16:59)
  
• john cage, gordon mumma, david tudor - /3 (1972) [excerpt] (16:39)
  
• gordon mumma - telepos (1972) (18:27)
  
  
• david tudor - toneburst (1975) (17:45)
  
• takehisa kosugi - s.e. wave/e.w. song (1976) [excerpt] (13:03)
  
• maryanne amacher - remainder (1976) [excerpt] (14:55)
  
• jon gibson - equal distribution (1977) [excerpt] (12:14)
  
• john cage - inlets (1977) [excerpt] (10:17)
  
  
• david tudor - weatherings (1978) [excerpt] (14:54)
  
• yasunao tone - geography and music (1979) [excerpt] (21:18)
  
• david tudor - phonemes (1981) [excerpt] (14:00)
  
• david tudor - sextet for seven (1982) (18:15)
  
  
• takehisa kosugi - spacings (1984) (23:52)
  
• john king - gliss in sighs (1985) (16:19)
  
• john cage - voiceless essay (1986) [excerpt] (10:58)
  
• david tudor - webwork (1987) [excerpt] (10:46)
  
• michael pugliese - peace talks (1989) [excerpt] (11:44)
  
  
• takehisa kosugi - spectra (1989) (20:29)
  
• john cage - sculptures musicales (1989) [excerpt] (12:14)
  
• david tudor - virtual focus (1990) [excerpt] (15:15)
  
• john cage - four3 (1991) [excerpt] (15:24)
  
• david tudor - neural network plus (1992) [excerpt] (13:28)
  
  
• john king - blues ’99 (1993) [excerpt] (19:10)
  
• stuart dempster - underground overlays (1995) [excerpt] (15:22)
  
• john cage - four6 (1992) [excerpt] (11:17)
  
• takehisa kosugi - wave code a–z (1997) [excerpt] (14:42)
  
• christian wolff - or 4 people (1994) [excerpt] (6:16)
  
  
• john cage - and one8 (1991) [excerpt] (14:18)
  
• john king - longtermparking (2002) [excerpt] (15:31)
  
• david behrman - long throw (2007) [excerpt] (18:25)
  
• annea lockwood - jitterbug (2007) [excerpt] (20:19)
  
  
• event - february 16, 1993, red wing, minnesota (5:58)
  
• event - september 14, 1996, annemasse, france (5:53)
  
• event - june 5, 1997, frankfurt (7:30)
  
• event - september 12, 1998, minneapolis (5:22)
  
• event - september 29, 2002, oslo (4:12)
  
• event - october 30, 2002, munich (6:51)
  
• event - december 14, 2004, new york city (3:54)
  
• event - december 15, 2004, new york city (6:56)
  
• event - december 18, 2004, new york city (6:35)
  
• event - june 14, 2005, london (5:21)
  
• event - june 17, 2005, london (8:44)

new world press release...

composer(s): christian wolff, john cage, earle brown, bo nilsson, morton feldman, gordon mumma, toshi ichiyanagi, david behrman, pauline oliveros, david tudor, takehisa kosugi, maryanne amacher, jon gibson, yasunao tone, john king, michael pugliese, stuart dempster, annea lockwood album title: music for merce (1952-2009)  cat. no.: 80712 (10 cds) genre: classical / contemporary release date: 12/2010  the late merce cunningham was renowned for his legendary collaborations with the most significant experimental musicians of the late 20th century. particularly notable is his association with john cage, who served as the founding musical director of the merce cunningham dance company until cage’s death in 1992. spanning six decades from the early 1950s onward, these recordings capture the breadth of the cunningham repertory and the rich diversity of cunningham’s musical collaborations. composers whose work features prominently in this collection include seminal figures of late-20th-century experimental music such as john cage, david tudor, gordon mumma, christian wolff, and takehisa kosugi, among others. for the most part, these compositions have not been recorded elsewhere and are making their first appearance on cd. this is a document of enormous historical import that will be a revelation to both listeners and scholars interested in the evolution of american experimental music over the past five decades. also included is a 124-page booklet featuring a 15,000-word essay by amy beal, one of the foremost scholars of contemporary american music.