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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 053 cd

toshimaru nakamura / english “one day” compact disc

  • ong time (20:39)
  • plant signs (20:01)
  • the color of (15:58)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "plant signs"
april 2008 release ; the first recorded “pairing” of toshimaru nakamura and the english duo of joe foster & bonnie jones ... three extended pieces of cracked-electronic detritus, recorded (much like the majority of masayuki takayanagi’s output) at kid ailack hall in tokyo (by taku unami, no less) ...

tense, edge-of-your-seat music focusing on hysteresis-heavy patterns in the upper ranges ; state-of-the-art electro-acoustic improvisation at it’s finest ...
erstwhile press release...
toshimaru nakamura / english (joe foster / bonnie jones) one day
erstwhile 053
total time: 56:38

toshimaru nakamura is one of the most distinguished and original voices in the world of electroacoustic improvisation, with a vast body of work built up over the past decade. the duo of english, joe foster and bonnie jones, formed in 2004 in seoul, and have developed their aesthetic ever since, whenever possible given their bi-continental status (foster lives in seoul and jones in baltimore). in the summer of 2007, the trio played together in tokyo for the first time, one concert followed by one day of studio recordings, and the latter became "one day".

since 1998, nakamura has been exploring the possibilities of his no-input mixing board in contexts ranging from solo to collaborations with keith rowe, sachiko m, sean meehan, klaus filip and axel dörner. nakamura was a prominent presence throughout the amplify 2002 box set, appearing on five of the seven cds, and an integral part of the good morning good night, erstlive 005 and 4g releases. currently in preparation are an erstsolo release, as well as a duo cd with brilliant vocalist ami yoshida.

foster began improvising in the portland scene in the late nineties, beginning long-term partnerships with bryan eubanks and j.p. jenkins. in 2002, he moved to seoul, and has become an integral part of the burgeoning scene there. he’s had a number of superb self-released discs over the last few years, most notably his solo “ethics”, his duo with kevin parks (”ipsi sibi somnia fingunt”), and two duo english releases with bonnie jones. a third english release is in preparation for fall 2008 release.

jones was born in south korea, raised in new jersey, and currently resides in baltimore. her instrument of choice is the circuit boards of digital delay pedals, and her primary projects are english and a duo with andy hayleck. besides the aforementioned english releases, she also has an essential solo 3” on emr (vines) and an untitled duo cd-r with hayleck.

in the summer of 2007, jones visited foster in south korea and did a series of shows there and in japan, both as english and in other combinations. while they were in tokyo, they made time in their schedule to spend a day recording with nakamura, and “one day” documents the results, as captured by recording engineer taku unami. three lengthy improvisations showcase a unique collective aesthetic, dense and organic, pointillistic but rough, focused but not overly polished. the gorgeous textures of the design come from original drawings by baltimore artist erin womack.

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threads:
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field-recordings
playback-music
site-specific

erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 052 cd

graham lambkin / jason lescalleet “the breadwinner • musical settings for common environments and domestic situations” compact disc

  • listen, the snow is falling (8:00)
  • there and back (4:00)
  • e5150/body transport (9:00)
  • soap opera suite (6:06)
  • lucy song (6:00)
  • two states (7:00)
  • there and back again (2:13)
  • the breadwinner (7:00)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "listen, the snow is falling"
april 2008 release ; the long-awaited collaboration between graham lambkin and jason lescalleet - their symbiotic modus summed up nicely in this (creepy) image ::


composed at lambkin’s upstate-ny residence (which, by album’s end, turns out to be the third member of the ensemble here), “the breadwinner” sits very comfortably next to lambkin’s recent/head-scratchingly excellent “salmon run” - in that (despite it’s appearance on what is otherwise a label dealing exclusively in improvised music(s)) it is a suite of tape-music pieces constructed out of what would initially appear to be rather banal recordings of daily rituals & environmental disturbance - yet their arrangement & construction (utilizing, from the thick sound of things overall, much of jason’s slown-down tape-loop processes) works beautifully in portraying a clear narrative flow making this more of a linear suite (we’ve walked in the front door - in the hallway -now we’re in the basement - the bathroom - the room upstairs with the piano - the attic - the washroom - out in the yard - away) than a mere collection of unrelated pieces ...

a couple of months on in my appreciation of “salmon run” and i still don’t have a clear/concise catch-all set of adjectives i can use to properly describe it’s staying power - and this one is even more obtuse ; leaving an even thinner strand of clues as to it’s overt form/function (check back early 2009) - i will say that these guys are on their own here ; wading deep in waters uncharted by just about everyone else ; even if i wasn’t immediately swept up by the sheer beauty of this record (listen to the sound-sample), i’d have no qualms highly recommending spending a night or two at lambkin’s haunted villa ...

ps. the lovely lp of robert ashley’s “private parts” - in case you were wondering why it looks so damn familiar ... a red herring ? perhaps ...
erstwhile press release...
graham lambkin / jason lescalleet
the breadwinner
erstwhile 052
total time: 49:19

graham lambkin/jason lescalleet - microphone, tapes, casio sk-5

graham lambkin and jason lescalleet are both highly respected artists, with small but intensely hardcore followings. since 2001, they've been gradually moving closer towards realizing a collaborative project, and the breadwinner is the results of two years of recording, reworking and polishing.

lambkin first entered the public consciousness at 19 when he formed his band the shadow ring, in folkestone, a small town in kent, england. the band was memorable and built an rabidly passionate fan base because of its sui generis approach, blending elements of folk, noise, cracked electronics, and surrealist poetry, while radically changing the overall formula with each release. a decade of increasingly skewed and inspired work culminated in 2003's i'm some songs, constructed long distance as lambkin had relocated to the us in 1998. over the last few years, lambkin has primarily worked under his own name, most notably with 2007's brilliant salmon run, a precursor to the breadwinner.

lescalleet has gradually and painstakingly built a compelling discography over the past decade. he uses reel-to-reel tape decks to explore the textures of low fidelity analog sounds and the natural phenomena of old tape and obsolete technology. he is one of a growing list of master producer/musicians, whose skill lies as much in reworking, assembling and mastering the material available as in creating it (or helping create it) in the first place. he has worked with such wide-ranging artists as ron lessard, joe colley and phill niblock, and has released a string of superb solo discs in mattresslessness (cut), electronic music (rrr) and the pilgrim (glistening examples). this is his second release for erstwhile, after 2001's forlorn green (w/greg kelley), and his third is already in preparation, a duo with bhob rainey, planned for release in early 2009.

the material for the breadwinner was recorded at lambkin's house in upstate ny, over two recording sessions. the duo treated the entire building and its surrounding grounds as a studio, welcoming in outside sounds, which were later kept or eliminated as they felt appropriate. the subtitle on the front cover is "musical settings for common environments and domestic situations", layering numerous submerged fragments to find beauty in everyday life.

"jason lescalleet's influence was palpably present long before the average joe knew how many l's were in his last name (or could successfully google it). he spun tape loops with nmperign from the get-go, frequently signified the endings of his characteristically foundation-shaking performances by hurling a nearly indestructible, hundred-pound peavy amp across the stage, and provided the bulk of the "disaster" in legendary drummer laurence cook's "disaster unit 2000". but as the smoke cleared and the peavy met its demise in a white-walled room, it became apparent to an awful lot of people that lescalleet was making some amazing music; beautifully constructed symphonies of decay born of an intimacy with items and ideas lesser minds might discard: tape machines, lo-bit samplers, the tedium of everyday life. his ability to evoke powerfully complex emotional experiences from such muck made a collaboration with graham lambkin practically inevitable.

composer walter marchetti once made a statement to the effect that he was seeking to reach the "bottom" of music. some more diligent attention to this task might lead him to the music of graham lambkin. already marking out a glorious bottom with his former band, the shadow ring, lambkin has pursued a music so removed from prescribed aesthetics that one is flooded by the beauty it seems to ruthlessly avoid. he puts the mundane to tape and carves out its horror, its sweetness, and its unsettling ambivalence. shrouded in a disarming naiveté, the music leaves the listener ill-prepared for its very adult take on being-in-the-world. we are fortunate that humor can be so black, that we may surrender happily and willingly to an experience not many artists are willing or capable of delivering." - bhob rainey

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threads:
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live-electronic
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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 051 cd

r/s “one (snow mud rain)” compact disc

  • (20:27)
  • (14:10)
  • (16:31)
  • (6:51)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "(14:10)"
october 2007 release; a coruscating, corrosive (alliteration is fun...) collaborative work jointly composed/executed by marcus schmickler and peter “pita” rehberg.

it’s not all brimstone / hellfire throughout; the second piece devolves into subdued spectral smear after smacking us around for a bit with its fully-rectified stammer (which reminds of recent whitehouse more than anythings else...) ; other spots introduce jittery, off-axis grains that echo florian hecker’s recent work with wave geometry... but yes, for the most part this is the kind of ddd in-fighting that the two are known for in improvisational contexts (think marcus’ role in his duo w/thom lehn, peter in ktl...)

regardless of their modes of employ, these two are master frequency-range craftsman; both are in peak form throughout. highly recommended.
erstwhile press release...
r/s (peter rehberg / marcus schmickler) - one (snow mud rain)
erstwhile 051

peter rehberg: computer
marcus schmickler: digital synthesizer, computer

peter rehberg (pita) and marcus schmickler have been two of the leaders in the electronic revolution of the last fifteen years, both on their own and in collaboration with others. one (snow mud rain) is the first duo cd from these two long-time friends and associates.

rehberg co-founded the massively influential mego label in 1994, and soon after began recording under the name pita. his first solo release, seven tons for free, came out in 1996 and was a kick in the teeth to all those who heard it, melding noise with techno in a blend the wire called ‘wilfully difficult’, a crucial formative statement for the then nascent eai world. since then, he’s continued in his ever-difficult path, both as a solo artist (get out, get down), and in groups such as ktl, rehberg & bauer, mimeo, and fenn’o’berg. recently, he’s been primarily focused on working with dance and performance pieces, with dacm, ktl and on his own, and now runs the editions mego label by himself.

schmickler has been involved with numerous projects over the past decade, including the seminal collective kontakta. while rooted in electronic music, schmickler also has a background in contemporary composition, having studied under prominent stockhausen collaborator johannes fritsch. as a solo artist, schmickler has created important works such as wabi sabi, sator rotas and param, as well as five cds under the name pluramon, including the just-released the monstrous surplus. he also has some long-standing electroacoustic collaborative projects, most notably with synth whiz thomas lehn, both in duo and in trio with keith rowe, and a gorgeous duo with pianist john tilbury, as documented on 2005’s variety. schmickler’s new solo release altars of science will be released later this month on the rehberg-run editions mego label.

rehberg and schmickler met up in march 2007, in schmickler’s piethopraxis studio in cologne, for two days of recordings. despite having barely worked together as a duo previously, the results were so successful that after two days, the record was basically completed. this is obvious when listening to the finished product, as a rawness and energy that hearkens back to the explosive power of early mego bursts from the speakers, further enhanced by the remarkable density and clarity of the recording.

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threads:
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minimalism-drones
guitar-themed

erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 050 cd

toshimaru nakamura / keith rowe “between” double compact disc set

  • two discs!
disc 1:
  • vienna (34:51)
  • july (24:35)
disc 2:
  • 13630 khz (8:48)
  • lausanne (41:21)
  • amann (20:11)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "july"
2006 release ; spring-summer 2005 studio & live recordings from the duo of keith rowe on guitar & “electronics” (not sure entirely but i believe we’re hearing glimmers of laptop in there as well...) and toshi nakamura on his now-trademark™ “no-input mixing board” - their second release together on erstwhile ...
erstwhile press release...
1-1, 2-1, 2-3 recorded by christoph amann at amann studios, vienna on july 2, 2005. 1-2 recorded by christoph amann at amann studios, vienna on july 1, 2005. 2-2 recorded by masaki hatsui at theatre arsenic in lausanne on april 30th, 2005.

keith rowe guitar, electronics
toshimaru nakamura no-input mixing board

mixed and mastered by toshimaru nakamura
produced by jon abbey
cover painting by keith rowe
inside photo by yuko zama
design by friederike paetzold

thanks to people in: prauge: pavel klusak, petra bidlasova; vienna: boilly roisz, dieter kovacic; lausanne: marie jeanson, theatre arsenic; sion: mr. jean; geneva: dolmen associates (daniela, fred, patrick, steve); phil durrant for “it’s gonna grain”

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threads:
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playback-music
musique-concrète
beat-research

erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 049 cd

erik m / dieb13 “chaos club” double compact disc set

  • (1:22)
  • (0:28)
  • (2:22)
  • (0:51)
  • (1:01)
  • (4:09)
  • (2:52)
  • (2:51)
  • (1:22)
  • (0:12)
  • (2:18)
  • (1:21)
  • (1:35)
  • (3:48)
  • (0:44)
  • (0:33)
  • (0:22)
  • (2:29)
  • (1:35)
  • (4:09)
  • (0:50)
  • (0:06)
  • (2:52)
  • (1:31)
  • (2:20)

  • henri (2:49)
  • benoît (1:29)
  • edward (1:27)
  • mitchell (1:59)
  • aleksandr (3:31)
  • waclav (3:39)
  • gaston (6:04)
  • michel (1:13)
  • otto (3:13)
  • felix (3:21)
  • helge (4:31)
  • brosl (40:40)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "(2:22)"
neat, jump-cut/concrète-styled turntable pieces jointly improvised by dieter “dieb13” kovacic & erik m... a surprisingly rhythmic affair, with more than a few long sections of plundered drum solos & breaks. two discs; the first containing 25 shorter, untitled jabs which “can be played from start to finish or randomly”, then a second with 11 slightly longer pieces & a meditative 40-minute lead-out groove-piece.

this is about as far away from the christian marclay/”third mind”-style “happy accident” turntable collage; the music is rife with editorial flourish & razor-sharp real-time interaction. excellent stuff; one of the more immediately appealing entries in the erstwhile catalogue in recent times...
erstwhile press release...
erikm/dieb13 chaos club
erstwhile 049-2

erikm turntables, mixer, 3k-pads lp
dieb13 turntables, mixer, klopfer

erikm and dieb13 are two of the most prominent and well-respected experimental turntablists in the world, both working in a wide range of contexts, from the classical world to club djing. over the last two years, they have begun frequently working as a duo, and chaos club marks their first duo recording together.

erikm, from marseille, burst onto the scene in the mid-'90s as a virtuoso turntablist. since then, he has gradually shifted his output into a more abstract vein, often abandoning the turntables entirely. chaos club marks a rare return to the turntables for this unpredictable musician, whose previous recordings include collaborations with voice crack and günter müller (as the quartet poire_z), jérôme noetinger, the late luc ferrari, christian fennesz and many others, as well as numerous solo recordings including frame, sixpériodes and the just released variations opportunistes.

dieb13, from vienna, who uses a range of names for performing including his real one, dieter kovacic, is a immensely talented turntablist, as demonstrated by his solo work (records on mego and charhizma), as well as his collaborations with burkhard stangl, efzeg, and many others (releases on erstwhile, durian, hat art, grob, charhizma, for 4 ears, absurd).erikdieb recorded quite a bit of material for this project, five concerts plus an amann studios session. from this all-duo material, each musician made his own cd mix, stamping their own personalities back onto the combined material, and the results are chaos club (which is actually spelled with a copyright symbol in place of the first 'c' and a copyleft symbol in place of the second 'c', sadly not translatable to text as of yet). the eyecatching design is the work of erstwhile designer friederike paetzold, created entirely from envelope security patterns.

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threads:
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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 048 dvd

avva “gdansk queen” digital versatile disc

  • gdansk queen
erstwhile press release...
toshimaru nakamura no-input mixing board
billy roisz video mixing boards

avva is the duo of toshimaru nakamura and billy roisz, based in tokyo and vienna respectively. avva stands for "audio video/video audio", referring to the working method of the duo. nakamura produces the music using the internal feedback from his no-input mixing board, roisz uses that as the basis for her optical moving patterns, and nakamura has a tv monitor showing roisz' output, so the whole process is circular and created in real time.

since 1998, nakamura has been exploring the possibilities of his no-input mixing board in contexts ranging from solo to collaborations with keith rowe, günter müller, sachiko m, andrea neumann, john butcher and sean meehan. nakamura was a prominent presence throughout the amplify 2002 box set, appearing on five of the seven cds, and an integral part of the good morning good night, erstlive 005 and 4g releases. he has released two superb duo projects in 2006, aluk (w/ klaus filip) and the stunning double cd between (w/rowe).

roisz has been manipulating live video in various combinations since 2000, with such musicians as dieb13, christof kurzmann, and efzeg. she specializes in feedback video and video/sound interaction, exploring the links and gaps between seeing and hearing, images and sounds. roisz has released around fifteen individual music videos, including one on the sonic fiction compilation on index and on the efzeg cd boogie (grob). gdansk queen is her first full-length dvd.

nakamura and roisz first worked together as part of the feedback: order from noise tour in the uk in the summer of 2004. they felt such an affinity for each other's working methods that they formed the avva duo, and have toured in both europe and japan. gdansk queen consists mostly of edited live recordings, as well as two pieces which were mail collaborations (the audio done by nakamura in tokyo, with the video later composed in real time by roisz in vienna). nakamura and roisz are ideal partners, their audio and video feedback combining to become far more than the sum of their parts, resulting in a mind-melting experience in which boundaries are constantly created and then destroyed. the design combines a cover photo from dieter kovacic with stills from the dvd in an elegant oversized jewel box.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 047 cd

ami yoshida / christof kurzmann “a s o” compact disc

  • a s o (1) (4:12)
  • a s o (2) (5:16)
  • a s o (3) (3:52)
  • a s o (4) (4:39)
  • a s o (5) (8:09)
  • a s o (6) (2:07)
  • a s o (7) (7:52)
  • a s o (8) (14:00)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "a s o (8)"
erstwhile press release...
ami yoshida voice, microphone
christof kurzmann lloopp, clarinet

ami yoshida and christof kurzmann are both well-respected artists within the international community, each performing in a wide range of contexts from abstract to pure pop. both are best known for their long-running duos, yoshida for cosmos (with sachiko m) and kurzmann for schnee (with burkhard stangl). this project finds them in far less comfortable territory, and a s o is the outcome of two years of hard work.

ami yoshida strives to create a pure sound, abstracting her voice until it becomes almost completely unrecognizable. she created her unique style with no conventional training, initially inspired by meredith monk. cosmos and astro twin (with utah kawasaki) are her two longest-running projects, and their split release won the 2003 ars electronica award. she has also recorded as a solo artist, most notably tiger thrush (imj), a kaleidoscopic catalog of 99 fragments. her small catalog almost exclusively finds her working with other tokyo-based musicians; a s o is one of her first releases to break that formula.

kurzmann has been a prominent part of both the vienna and (more recently) the berlin scenes over the past decade. as an organizer, he cofounded the phonotaktik festival, helped begin the prominent rhiz club in vienna, and runs the prestigious charhizma label. since moving to berlin in 2001, he has organized countless shows, including the berlin half of amplify 2004: addition. kurzmann has been an essential part of many erstwhile-related live events, in tokyo, berlin and the just concluded erstquake 3 in nyc, and was the first to work at amann studios for an erstwhile release, beginning a crucial relationship for the label.

a s o contains recordings from the first meeting of yoshida and kurzmann in march 2004. the collaboration was a difficult one, partly because of their wildly different backgrounds and partly because of the communication issues due to their language differences. four translators helped the project along over the course of the two years it took to make this record (taku unami, toshimaru nakamura, yuko zama and kae uchihashi). although it was a long and complicated journey, the end result is very organic and accomplished. a s o contains an extremely broad range of abstract approaches from both artists, resulting in a wildly different soundworld from any of their previous recordings, and has been beautifully captured as always by recording engineer christoph amann. the impeccably minimal yet lush cd design is by hirozumi takeda, utilizing images provided by asuna.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 046 cd

the four gentlemen of the guitar “cloud” double compact disc set

  • perfect grass (23:47)
  • deformed veil (38:15)

  • yellow cloud (62:25)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "perfect grass"
just a superb set from the penultimate eai “super-group” of oren ambarchi, christian fennesz, toshimaru nakamura, and keith rowe; each invited to the table on account of their prior association with the electric guitar (with nakamura, the wrench-in-the mechanics that he is, defaulting here to his main instrument; the “no-input mixing board.”)

moments of fennesz-ian wash and bits of oren’s bass-heavy sine-bursts peek out from between the cracks, but for the most part the set is a veritable festival of micro-detail; those fond of rowe and nakamura’s duo work will be in familiar ground, albeit with a much fuller range and a near-constant ground-hum of tonal blur.

of the 50-odd erstwhile titles yet, this is most likely the best bet for getting your initial toe wet... the others will come naturally ...
erstwhile press release...
the four gentlemen of the guitar are:

keith rowe: guitar, electronics
oren ambarchi: guitar, electronics
christian fennesz: guitar, computer
toshimaru nakamura: no-input mixing board

keith rowe, oren ambarchi, christian fennesz and toshimaru nakamura are four of the most prominent and influential musicians in experimental music today, each with extensive discographies and distinctive styles. in mid-2004, they formed the four gentlemen of the guitar (4g), and played a series of shows in europe and canada, three of which are contained on cloud. the underlying concept of 4g is to unite four artists who each began their musical explorations as guitarists, keeping that mindset as a crucial underpinning of their work as they've each explored increasingly abstract territory, both with and without guitars.

rowe's history has been well documented at this point. having mostly performed within amm until the late 90's, he's since been involved in a wide range of projects, including a slew of the most prominent erstwhile releases. he's the cornerstone musician for the label, and the 4g grouping was his idea.

ambarchi is making his erstwhile debut (except for the 7 guitar disc in the amplify 2002 box set). born in sydney in 1969, he has been performing live since 1986. his recent work as a solo artist on touch is very well known and respected, and he's been working with rowe in various small groupings since 2000. ambarchi is also co-organiser of the what is music? festival, australia's premier annual showcase of local and international experimental music.

fennesz, known to a wider audience for his studio-constructed records like endless summer and venice, is also a superb collaborative improviser, as documented on projects like fenno'berg (w/ jim o'rourke and pita), wrapped islands (w/ polwechsel), live at the lu (w/ rowe), and erstlive 004 (w/ sachiko m, otomo yoshihide, and peter rehberg).

since 1998, nakamura has been exploring the possibilities of his "no-input mixing board" in contexts ranging from solo to collaborations with rowe, günter müller, sachiko m, andrea neumann, john butcher and sean meehan. nakamura was a prominent presence throughout the amplify 2002 box set, appearing on five of the seven cds, an integral part of the good morning good night and erstlive 005 releases, and will be releasing the much-anticipated follow up to the highly acclaimed weather sky cd with rowe in early 2006.

there have been two larger group releases featuring three of these four musicians, afternoon tea (ritornell) has rowe, ambarchi and fennesz, and the 7 guitar disc on the amplify 2002 box has rowe, ambarchi and nakamura, but the 4g project is the first time all four have performed together. cloud contains three performances (from vand'ouevre, paris and victoriaville) from their seven city tour in may/june 2004, totalling over two hours of music. the widely differing aesthetics of the four musicians meld fluidly, forming hovering, delicate masses of sound. the packaging meshes rowe's striking cover painting with friederike paetzold's eyecatching design.

|| the four gentlemen of the guitar ||

at the centre of this project is the guitar, perhaps the world's most ubiquitous instrument. here we are looking at its extended possibilities - that is to say rather than summing up guitar-ness in a picasso-like way, we would be more interested in mondrianesque extensions.

christian and toshi, although both guitar players, have performed in public mostly on instruments that have become physical and musical extensions of the guitar. in my case, along with oren, we preserved the basic form of the guitar, obviously exploring its "non-guitarlike" possibilities, but always maintaining its essential "guitar-ness".

how might a japanese, an australian, an austrian and an englishman with very different musical and artistic personalities explore in real-time the world's most global instrument, incorporating boomerang loop stations, digital effects, mixing boards, computers etc.?

the quartet form "at first was a medium that allowed four gentlemen amateurs to converse musically"*, and from haydn's time became the appropriate medium that produced music of the deepest personal expression and contemplative profundity.

so here we have four gentlemen, the guitar, a conversation between the analog and the digital, the north and the south.

keith rowe

* "the string quartet" a history, paul griffiths

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 045 cd

julien ottavi / dion workman “misenlian” compact disc

  • misenlian (55:01)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "misenlian"
superb minimal electro-acoustic sound-drift from these two sigma-affiliated composer/performers. dion’s set at the 2004 intransitive festival was a feat of sensory deprivation / overload (he played in complete darkness; it was incredibly loud; alpha states were reached.) his work here, in tandem with julien ottavi, has the same effect at any volume/light-level ...
erstwhile press release...
julien ottavi / dion workman - gnu/linux operating systems and free audio software.

julien ottavi and dion workman are two of the most extreme of the younger wave of sonic explorers, pushing the boundaries of sound and art. ottavi hails from nantes, france and workman from new zealand, but their overlapping concerns and aesthetics have drawn them together, and misenlian contains the results of their initial collaborations.

julien ottavi studied sound and photography at the art school of nantes. he is a founding member of formanex, an electroacoustic quartet performing graphic scores from the 20th and 21st centuries, including works by cardew, cage, wolff, feldman, brown, and ralf wehowsky, as well as the founder of the nantes-based experimental music organization apo33 (responsible for running the label fibrr among numerous other activities). his most notable previous release is the superb solo cd nervure magnétique (sigma editions, 2003).

dion workman began his career in the improvised rock trio thela, along with dean roberts and rosy parlane. after thela split up, workman and parlane founded sigma editions in 1998, beginning an exploration of electronic music that has continued to this day. workman is a meticulous composer, with a feldman-like sense of development in his pieces, best represented on disc by the perfectly sculpted ching (antiopic, 2003), a work which won him the 2003 max brand prize from the austrian cultural forum.

workman was introduced to ottavi's work in 2001 by parlane, who suggested that ottavi record for sigma editions after seeing him play in london. later, workman invited ottavi to play a series of us shows, where they performed solo sets on the same bill and grew to be good friends. after being invited to record as a duo for erstwhile, ottavi came to the us for a month in 2003 and the two performed and recorded constantly. based in workman's brooklyn apartment, the duo literally improvised for days at a time - when they slept, the computers continued to generate sound, with changes in the puredata patches triggered by microphones placed outside the apartment - and intermittently recorded the results. ottavi and workman directly followed up this intense recording period with several long-duration live performances, each set lasting between 3 and 6 1/2 hours. by the end of ottavi's stay in the us, the duo had amassed approximately fifty hours of recorded material, which they later selected and shaped into misenlian.

misenlian unites workman's glacial, continuous pacing with ottavi's love for challenging the limits of dynamic range, resulting in a single remarkable piece as jarring and unsettling in its own way as the fluorescent colors of the cd packaging.

(cc) some right reserved.

this work is licensed under a creative commons license.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 044 cd

tetuzi akiyama / günter müller “points and slashes” compact disc

  • ///./// (5:56)
  • .//..//.. (16:00)
  • /./..././ (3:29)
  • ../../../.. (4:54)
  • //.///.// (5:22)
  • ././././. (5:50)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "././././."
erstwhile press release...
tetuzi akiyama - tape-delayed electric guitar
günter müller - ipod, electronics

over the past decade, swiss-based günter müller has collaborated with many of the most prominent tokyo-based musicians, recording cds with otomo yoshihide, taku sugimoto, sachiko m, masahiko okura, and toshimaru nakamura. points and slashes is the latest of these, a duo collaboration with guitar wizard tetuzi akiyama.

it's impossible to pin down akiyama, a musician of diverse interests and activities, with a brief description. he has been playing electric guitar since he was 13, and formed his first improvising band ten years later, in 1987. in 1994, akiyama formed the hikyo string quartet to play avant-garde classical music. since 2001, he has released a wide variety of solo guitar projects, filtering the blues through morton feldman on the stunningly gorgeous relator, shaping resonant feedback on resophonie, and showing off distorted john lee hooker-style chops on don't forget to boogie. he has also released collaborative cds with martin ng (oimacta), tim barnes/masafumi ezaki (futuro), jason kahn/utah kawasaki (luwa, ailack), and utah kawasaki/masahiko okura (bject, object 4), and is currently busy with as-yet-undocumented projects with alan licht, oren ambarchi and donald miller.

müller continues to distance himself from his roots as a more traditional percussionist, currently incorporating such electronic devices as minidiscs (since 1998) and an ipod (since 2002). he's been involved with innumerable projects and other musicians over the past twenty-five years, including long-term musical relationships with jim o'rourke, voice crack, erikm, steinbrüchel, jason kahn, tomas korber and philip samartzis. müller has released more than twenty records on his own for 4 ears label, as well as others on grob, rossbin, cut, charhizma, creative sources, and list. points and slashes is his sixth project for erstwhile, following the world turned upside down, la voyelle liquide, poire_z +, time travel, and tint. an integral contributor to the erstwhile aesthetic, müller is the only musician to take part in each of the five amplify festivals.

müller and akiyama first played together in the what is music? festival in melbourne, australia in 2002. they later performed in auckland, tokyo and nyc, before recording points and slashes in april 2004 in tokyo. points and slashes comprises six distinct pieces, warm and comfortable, yet still challenging the listener at every turn. friederike paetzold's strikingly minimal design is inspired by the work of the italian 'spatialist' artist lucio fontana.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 043 cd

keith rowe / fennesz “live at the lu” compact disc

  • live at the lu (1) (12:52)
  • live at the lu (2) (7:35)
  • live at the lu (3) (11:36)
  • live at the lu (4) (11:26)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "live at the lu (2)"
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe - guitar, electronics
christian fennesz - computer

keith rowe and christian fennesz are recognized as two of the most prominent and influential musicians in experimental music. however, despite their joint participation in the 12 person mimeo collective, their commercially released work has rarely intersected, which is why live at the lu, a document of their first duo show together, is so revealing.

rowe's history should be familiar to anyone following this area of music. having mostly performed within amm until the late nineties, he's since been involved in a wide range of projects, including a slew of the most prominent erstwhile releases. he's the cornerstone musician for the label, and is co-curating the upcoming amplify festival in cologne and berlin, amplify 2004: addition.

fennesz, known to a wider audience for his studio-constructed records like endless summer and the recently released venice (touch), is also a superb live laptop improviser, as documented on 2003's live in japan cd. as a collaborative musician, he's been involved in projects like fenno'berg (w/ jim o'rourke and pita) and wrapped islands (w/ polwechsel), and will be touring this summer in a quartet with rowe, oren ambarchi and toshimaru nakamura.

recorded in may in 2002 in nantes, live at the lu finds the two musicians revisiting old pathways, further exploring territory they've separately mapped on records such as the crypt, harsh, and hotel paral.lel. together they construct a soundworld that is jagged yet bright, stark and jarring, but in the end, somehow still soothing. rowe's cover painting is deeply symbolic, rife with subtle references, many of which are fleshed out in friederike paetzold's brash pop design.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 042 cd

sachiko m / toshimaru nakamura / otomo yoshihide “good morning good night” double compact disc set

  • good morning (30:12)
  • good afternoon (7:59)

  • good evening (25:34)
  • good night (37:20)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "good afternoon"
erstwhile press release...
free improvisation has rarely seen significant new movements as influential as the small group of tokyo musicians once labeled as "onkyo". sachiko m, toshimaru nakamura and otomo yoshihide are three of the scene's driving forces (along with taku sugimoto), and on good morning good night are documented together as a trio for the first time.

sachiko m is best known for her innovative use of the sampler, extracting pure, piercing sine waves from the device's built-in test tones and forging an original and much-imitated sound. more recently, she has expanded her palette through the use of contact mikes. sachiko has worked extensively as a solo artist, as well as in groups such as cosmos, filament, and i.s.o., and in duo with toshimaru nakamura. she won the 2003 prix ars electronica, along with ami yoshida and utah kawasaki, and also founded and runs the groundbreaking amoebic label.

since 1998, toshimaru nakamura has been exploring the possibilities of his "no-input mixing board" in contexts ranging from solo to collaborations with keith rowe, günter müller, sachiko m, andrea neumann, and the duo project repeat (with drummer jason kahn). nakamura was a prominent presence throughout the amplify 2002 box set, appearing on five of the seven cds, and will be recording the much-awaited follow up to the highly acclaimed weather sky cd with keith rowe later this year.

otomo yoshihide's prolific career has been unified by a primary objective: the investigation of the nature of sound from every conceivable angle. in the mid-90's, he explored the limits of sample-based turntablism, predominantly through his band ground zero, as well as in collaborations with christian marclay and yamatsuka eye. over the last few years, otomo has become increasingly interested in minimal wave-based electronics, as heard in his filament, i.s.o, cathode and anode projects. other projects which he is currently involved in include his new jazz quintet, as well as an ongoing duo project with martin tétreault. otomo has also composed many soundtracks for movies, and has written numerous articles and essays for japanese music publications.

while these three musicians have worked together in countless configurations in recent years, good morning good night is their first meeting as a trio. recorded in august of 2003, the double cd contains essentially the full recording sessions, four tracks totaling over 100 minutes. good morning good night is a very conscious step in a new direction, an attempt to create a "vertical" music (as opposed to most music, which moves in a linear, horizontal plane). the pointillistic placement of sounds by these three masters of delicacy results in a music that exists somewhere between foreground and background listening. friederike paetzold's design is inspired by james turrell's work, and features four different covers for the four tracks/times of day, which the listener can fold according to their preference.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 041 cd

keith rowe / axel dörner / franz hautzinger “a view from the window” compact disc

  • magenta / black (36:25)
  • cadmium yellow / turquoise (21:09)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "magenta / black"
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe - guitar, electronics
axel dörner - slide trumpet
franz hautzinger - quartertone trumpet

trumpeters axel dörner and franz hautzinger transcend many of the aesthetic and geographical factions that have evolved over four decades of european free improv, contributing their gorgeous tones to a wide variety of contexts. on a view from the window, they join forces with the intensely focused keith rowe, one of the scene's founding fathers, and explore the abstract limits of their respective palettes.

rowe's history should be familiar to anyone following this area of music. having mostly performed within amm until the late nineties, he's since been involved in a wide range of projects, including a slew of the most prominent erstwhile releases. he's the cornerstone musician for the label, and is co-curating the upcoming amplify festival in cologne and berlin, amplify 2004: addition.

dörner hails from cologne, and has been living in berlin since 1994. he is one of the busiest musicians in the european improv scene, working in projects ranging from free improv ensembles like the territory band and the electrics to more abstract ensembles such as phosphor and lines. he recently put out a superb trio disc on creative sources with boris baltschun and kai fagaschinski. this is his second project for erstwhile, following the self-titled duos with kevin drumm, released in 2001.

hautzinger, based in vienna, has recorded numerous projects for grob, including the solo gomberg, a duo with derek bailey, and absinth (a quartet with werner dafeldecker, sachiko m, and john tilbury). he has worked with an impressive diversity of musicians, including gil evans, john cale, christian fennesz, otomo yoshihide, butch morris, phill niblock, lou reed, and the temptations. this is his first project for erstwhile.

a view from the window was recorded in a single day in vienna in november 2003 by christoph amann, superbly as always. photojournalist yuko zama was in attendance for the sessions, and became drawn to the glimpse of sky visible through one of the studio's windows. she took dozens of pictures from different angles, and her fascination inspired rowe to title the record after the cardew quote (see below), and to paint a more "optimistic" version of one of her photos for the front cover. a view from the window captures these three musicians paring their signature sounds down to their essences, with the occasional plaintive trumpet cry or subtle radio snippet emerging from the delicate intertwining.

"...it is impossible to record with any fidelity a kind of music that is actually derived from the room in which it is taking place - its size, shape, acoustical properties, even the view from the window..." - cornelius cardew, towards an ethic of improvisation.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 033-040 cd

“amplify 2002: balance” septuple compact disc and dvd set

  • seven discs and a dvd!
disc one (outside festival shows)
  • thomas lehn / toshimaru nakamura (13:12)
  • günter müller / tetuzi akiyama / nakamura (19:20)
  • christof kurzmann / nakamura (24:08)
  • lehn / nakamura / taku sugimoto (13:20)
disc two (studio sessions) - günter müller / toshimaru nakamura - tint
  • .tint (4:51)
  • ..tint (4:58)
  • ...tint (15:11)
  • ....tint (13:25)
  • .....tint (10:20)
disc three (festival):
  • cosmos (sachiko m/ami yoshida) (24:35)
  • keith rowe / lehn / marcus schmickler (39:29)
disc four (festival):
  • müller / otomo yoshihide (36:10)
  • lehn / schmickler (39:41)
disc five (festival):
  • burkhard stangl / kurzmann / sugimoto (24:00)
  • rowe / nakamura (31:49)
disc six (festival):
  • stangl / müller (33:43)
  • nakamura / sachiko (21:30)
disc seven: (seven guitars):
  • seven guitarists: rowe / akiyama / oren ambarchi / nakamura / otomo / stangl / sugimoto (cornelius cardew - treatise pp. 82-84) (38:25)
  • seven guitarists (improvisation) (31:03)
dvd - balance beams
  • "balance beams” (109:00)
  • 5.1 surround sound audio-only versions of the rowe/lehn/schmickler and müller/otomo sets
  • three short individual features based on the three nights of outside festival performances that discs 1 and 7 were chosen from
  • including keith rowe discussing with the other guitarists how he believes a musician should approach performing the graphic score of cardew's treatise.
erstwhile press release...
thomas lehn - analogue synthesizer
toshimaru nakamura - no-input mixing board
tetuzi akiyama - amplified acoustic guitar
günter müller - ipod, minidisc, selected percussion, electronics
christof kurzmann - g3
taku sugimoto - electric guitar
sachiko m - sinewaves, contact mike
ami yoshida - voice
keith rowe - guitar, electronics
marcus schmickler - digital synthesizer, computer
otomo yoshihide - electric guitar, turntables, electronics
burkhard stangl - acoustic and electric guitars, electronic devices
oren ambarchi - guitar, electronics

the amplify 2002: balance box set has been designed and assembled to recreate as much as possible the experience of being in tokyo in late october 2002 for the week-long whirlwind of music and camaraderie revolving around the 2002 amplify festival.

the annual series of amplify festivals began in 2001 in nyc, followed in 2002 by the event documented in this box. amplify returned to nyc in february 2003, and the next amplify will be in cologne and berlin in may 2004, co-curated by keith rowe and jon abbey. the festivals are closely tied to the erstwhile label, and are designed to showcase an ambitious amount of music within a short time period, demanding increased attention and focus from both the musicians and the audience. this box set aims to convey at least part of the intense atmosphere created by amplify's climate of total immersion.

the amplify 2002: balance box set contains over seven hours of music on seven cds, consisting of:

1) eight of the twelve sets from the festival itself, which took place over three nights at star pine's cafe in kichijoji, tokyo.

2) two cds compiled from the smaller club shows which took place before and after the festival itself, organized by toshimaru nakamura and taku sugimoto, including an entire disc by the all-star guitar septet of keith rowe, tetuzi akiyama, oren ambarchi, nakamura, otomo yoshihide, burkhard stangl and sugimoto.

3) a studio recording by the duo of günter müller and toshimaru nakamura, recorded that same week. this disc has been carefully sequenced and constructed, and is essentially a regular erstwhile release contained within the larger box.

the box also features a dvd by filmmaker jonas leddington and a 52 page, full-color booklet with photography by yuko zama and twenty separate essays by many of the people involved in the festival.

leddington's dvd contains a 109-minute visual document titled "balance beams," which is built around the festival itself and includes structured excerpts from all twelve sets, commentary from the musicians, behind-the-scenes footage, as well as images and sounds from tokyo. footage of the stangl/kurzmann set includes cuts of viennese filmmaker michaela grill's schnee video, as it was shown live in tokyo.

the dvd extras include 5.1 surround sound audio-only versions of the rowe/lehn/schmickler and müller/otomo sets, as well as three short individual features based on the three nights of outside festival performances that discs 1 and 7 were chosen from, including keith rowe discussing with the other guitarists how he believes a musician should approach performing the graphic score of cardew's treatise.

the box set is a limited edition of 800 copies, and will not be reprinted.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 032 cd

matt davis / phil durrant / mark wastell “open” compact disc

  • open (18:27)
  • fist (23:30)
erstwhile press release...
matt davis: field recordings, electronics, trumpet
phil durrant: software synths and treatments
mark wastell: amplified textures

mark wastell and matt davis met and first played together in a workshop led by eddie prévost in london during the spring of 1996. soon after, wastell was invited to join chris burn's ensemble, in which he played with phil durrant for the first time. subsequently, phil and mark worked together in the quartets assumed possibilities and quatuor accorde, documented on rossbin and emanem cds, respectively.

the debut trio concert by davis/durrant/wastell took longer to organise than any of the participants could have anticipated, due mainly to matt's temporary relocation to barcelona. the three musicians didn't come together until august 2000, for a concert at all angels in west london. this was an all-acoustic incarnation: trumpet (davis), violin (durrant) and cello (wastell). a recording of this concert was issued on wastell's confront label as a limited edition cd-r, now long out of print.

when davis returned from spain in early 2002, the trio began to rehearse on a regular basis. arising from these intensive rehearsals was a new group aesthetic and a shift in focus from acoustic to electronic-based material. by this stage, durrant had developed a personal language using software synths and treatments and wastell had begun investigating a sound source comprising what he refers to as "amplified textures", into which davis' newfound interest in field recordings and electronics fit perfectly. open documents this exciting period in the group's evolution, with enough groundwork having been laid to develop a strong and unique musical identity but without the all-too-identifiable sound of a group overfamiliar with itself.

open was recorded in two sessions at lmc sound in march and may 2003, both superbly engineered by tom wallace. it represents the first recording of durrant exclusively using a computer, and points to a new direction for the london scene, one more organic and less directly rooted in the free improvisation of the 1980's. open largely consists of tiny, connected events, never drifting into excessive caution, always taking risks and ceaselessly pressing against the overhanging silence.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 031 cd

martin siewert / martin brandlmayr “too beautiful to burn” compact disc

  • form (6:45)
  • source (11:50)
  • is this love? (6:05)
  • axis (8:19)
  • hold (12:03)
erstwhile press release...
martin siewert: acoustic & electric guitars, lap steel, electronics, synthesizers
martin brandlmayr: drums, percussion, vibraphone

martin siewert and martin brandlmayr are two of the most active musicians in the ever-evolving viennese music scene, in both improvised and composed settings. they have been performing together in various groupings since the summer of 2000, but too beautiful to burn marks their initial meetings as a duo.

siewert has been quite prolific recently, in projects such as efzeg (grob, durian), sssd (grob), and the seminal all-star collaborative orange cd on charhizma, along with werner dafeldecker, christof kurzmann, christian fennesz, kevin drumm and jim o'rourke. brandlmayr is best known for his riveting percussion work as the linchpin in the superb trio radian, who have released records on rhiz, mego and thrill jockey. radian performs meticulous compositions with a remarkably fluidly and relaxed approach, forever poised on the edge of the groove. both siewert and brandlmayr are also members of the improvising trio trapist (along with bassist joe williamson), who have released a superb record on hatology, with their next coming out on thrill jockey in early 2004.

too beautiful to burn was recorded by christoph amann in his studio in vienna (his fourth erstwhile project, following schnee, wrapped islands, and eh) in january 2003. both musicians display relentless ingenuity, combining melodic guitar figures and cascades of impeccably bowed cymbals with a wide range of other acoustic and electronic elements, crafting a record that is at once resolutely abstract yet precisely musical. erstwhile designer friederike paetzold has shaped photographer corinna reicher's images of the aftermath of the march 2003 fire which consumed brighton's historic west pier, creating a elegiac testament which perfectly matches the music as well as the current state of the world.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 029 cd

günter müller / otomo yoshihide “time travel” compact disc

  • matsushima 89 (5:24)
  • basel 95 (6:13)
  • lisboa 98 (10:30)
  • victoriaville 01 (8:23)
  • nancy 01 (8:10)
  • sydney 02 (7:53)
  • tokyo 02 (4:20)
erstwhile press release...
günter müller: ipod, minidisc, selected percussion, electronics
otomo yoshihide: electric guitar, turntables, electronics

günter müller and otomo yoshihide are deeply respected musicians who have known each other for more than a decade. time travel documents their initial meeting as a duo.

swiss native günter müller utilizes a range of electronic devices, influenced by his roots as a percussionist. he's been involved with numerous projects and other musicians over the past two decades, including long-term musical relationships with jim o'rourke, voice crack, taku sugimoto and erikm. müller has released many records on his own label, for 4 ears, including his recent solo debut, eight landscapes. time travel is his fourth project for erstwhile, following the world turned upside down, la voyelle liquide, and poire_z +. müller is the ultimate collaborator, relinquishing virtually any claim on a signature sound in an attempt to maximize the potential of each individual project.

otomo yoshihide's prolific career has been unified by a primary objective: the investigation of the nature of sound from every conceivable angle. in the mid-90's, he explored the limits of sample-based turntablism, primarily through his band ground zero, as well as in collaborations with christian marclay and yamatsuka eye. over the last few years, otomo has become increasingly interested in minimal wave-based electronics, as heard in his filament, i.s.o, cathode and anode projects. other projects which he is currently involved in include his new jazz quintet, as well as an ongoing duo project with martin tì©treault. otomo has also composed many soundtracks for movies, and has written numerous articles and essays for japanese music publications.

müller and otomo first met in matsushima, japan in 1989 at a show müller was doing in an abandoned quarry with his band nachtluft. otomo had driven four hours from tokyo to see the performance, and afterwards they met for the first time. they've since collaborated in a handful of contexts, most notably the filament 2 record on for 4 ears, with the trio of müller, otomo and sachiko m. time travel was recorded in october 2002, just before the amplify 2002 festival, and marked their first meeting as a duo. time travel consists of seven focused, distinct pieces, which combine to create a unique sense of time, slowly but constantly developing and filled with intricate details. friederike paetzold's gorgeous design is based on vector distortions of the world time zone map evoking the effects of frequent flying.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 025 cd

burkhard stangl / dieb13 “eh” compact disc

  • eeeh   (7:17)
  • eehe   (9:11)
  • eehh   (3:15)
  • ehee   (6:59)
  • eheh   (4:37)
  • ehhe   (4:15)
  • ehhh   (8:34)
  • heee   (2:10)
  • heeh   (3:27)
  • hehe   (15:56)
erstwhile press release...
burkhard stangl: acoustic & electric guitars, electronic devices
dieb13: turntables, portable computer, portable gramophone

burkhard stangl and dieb13 are both integral members of the increasingly prominent viennese improvised music scene, coalescing around the activities of the durian and charhizma labels.

stangl explores the full range of the guitar, from quiet, melodic plucking to atonal walls of noisy drones. this range and adaptability has allowed him to become a ubiquitous presence on record over the past few years, in the collective projects polwechsel (recordings on erstwhile, durian and hat art), efzeg (grob, durian), and sssd (grob), in duos and trio with christof kurzmann and taku sugimoto (erstwhile, slub, musica genera), and solo (durian, future release on charhizma).

dieb13, who uses a range of names for performing including his real one, dieter kovacic, is a immensely skilled turntablist, as demonstrated by his solo disc (charhizma), and his recorded work with martin siewert, boris hauf, günter müller, jason kahn, werner dafeldecker, and uli fussenegger (durian, grob, for 4 ears).

stangl and dieb first met at a living room concert of efzeg in vienna in 1999. since then they have been continously collaborating in various groups, as well as both participating in billy roisz's videos with soundtrack works. eh documents stangl and dieb's initial work as a duo, and will be complemented by billy roisz's visuals in live situations.

eh was recorded by christoph amann in his studio in vienna (his third project for erstwhile, after schnee and wrapped islands) in december 2001. eh explores a constantly shifting tableau of guitar and electro-acoustic sound, utilizing a kaleidoscopic range of approaches, framed by lulling intro and outro pieces in which stangl's melodies both battle and meld with dieb's noisescapes. the instruments used, from viennese contraguitar and portable gramophone to electric guitar, electronics and computer, encompass over a century of musical history. the source material for the design comes from viennese artist billy roisz, utilizing extreme closeups of old shellac records to create the proper gritty ambience.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 023 cd

polwechsel / fennesz “wrapped islands” compact disc

  • framing 1   (12:22)
  • framing 2   (4:59)
  • framing 3   (7:51)
  • framing 4   (4:46)
  • framing 5   (8:94)
  • framing 6   (4:41)
  • framing 7   (7:22)
  • framing 8   (2:30)
erstwhile press release...
john butcher: tenor & soprano saxophone, feedback tenor on #2 and #6
werner dafeldecker: double bass, computer, acoustic guitar
christian fennesz:computer, acoustic guitar, synthesizer
michael moser: cello, computer
burkhard stangl: acoustic & electric guitar, electronics

the predominantly viennese quartet polwechsel have exhaustively explored the grey areas between composition and improvisation, electronic and acoustic, jazz and classical for much of the past decade. austrian christian fennesz, while initially a guitarist, is primarily known for his abrasive yet melodic laptop explorations on labels such as mego and touch. wrapped islands documents the much-anticipated first meeting of these two driving forces of contemporary music.

bassist werner dafeldecker and cellist michael moser co-founded polwechsel in 1993, joined by guitarist burkhard stangl and trombonist radu malfatti. the microscopic textures they explored were quite unusual at the time, and proved to be very influential on later waves of 'lower-case' and 'microsound' musicians. they released their self-titled debut disc on georg gräwe's influential random acoustics label in 1995 (later reissued on hat art). radu malfatti left the band in 1997 to concentrate exclusively on his own musical ideas, and was replaced by saxophonist john butcher, who has been a crucial part of the band ever since, on polwechsel 2 (hat art), polwechsel 3 (durian), and wrapped islands.

christian fennesz is possibly the most prominent of the current onslaught of laptop musicians. he burst onto the scene in 1995, with instrument, a record of deconstructed guitar compositions, and has since explored various combinations of guitar and laptop, melody and distortion, improvisation and postproduction on projects such as hotel parai.lel, plays, and endless summer (all on mego). he’s also an integral member of the all-star electronic orchestra mimeo and the laptop trio fennoberg.

in january of 2002, the five musicians gathered in christof amann's viennese studios for three days of recordings, from which wrapped islands was assembled. while the first three polwechsel releases almost exclusively contain compositions, wrapped islands is fully improvised. the warmth and depth of the music induces an illusory simplicity, with different details and passages emerging to the surface with each listen, all of which is superbly paralleled by friederike paetzold's eye-catching design.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 021 cd

mimeo / john tilbury “the hands of caravaggio” compact disc

  • the hands of caravaggio (49:24)
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe: guitar, electronics
kevin drumm: guitar, analogue synthesizer
phil durrant: software granular samplers and treatments
thomas lehn: analogue synthesizer
kaffe matthews: computer
jérôme noetinger: electroacoustic devices
gert-jan prins: electronics, fm modulations, radio
peter rehberg: computer
markus schmickler: digital synthesizer, computer
rafael toral: guitar with analogue modular system
markus wettstein: amplified metal garbage
cor fuhler: inside piano
john tilbury: piano

mimeo, the music in movement electronic orchestra, is a band composed of twelve of europe's premier electronics improvisers. due both to logistical and financial constraints, they have only performed together a handful of times since the establishment of the current lineup in 1998.

after the remarkable success of their epic, 24-hour long performance in vand'ouevre in may of 2000, the band did not assemble again until almost a year later in bologna, for the angelica festival (thanks to festival organizer massimo simonini). the concert was a singular one, as mimeo was joined by the noted pianist john tilbury, nonpareil feldman interpreter and longstanding member of amm. the performance was built around a concerto for piano and electronic orchestra, titled the hands of caravaggio and loosely inspired by the caravaggio painting the taking of christ, as interpreted by keith rowe.

the piece begins with a low test-tone drone from cor fuhler, working inside the piano, followed by tilbury's entrance a few minutes later. next, jérôme noetinger sets off a flare, signaling the introduction of the electronics. the accumulation of electronics gradually reaches critical mass, at times obscuring the piano altogether. but tilbury is never completely hidden for long; space opens, and the piano emerges. as the piece evolves, the musicians discover a more delicate counterbalance to work within, which ultimately dissipates into silence.

liner notes for this release can be found on the 021 catalog page on the erstwhile web site. these include an essay by michael graubart on the history of the concerto and the hands of caravaggio's place within the tradition, as well as notes from some of the musicians involved, including rowe and tilbury. the stylistic range of the music is echoed in the artwork, which intertwines the original caravaggio, a painting and a graphic score by rowe, and original work from erstwhile designer friederike paetzold.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 020 cd

giuseppe ielasi / domenico sciajno “right after” compact disc

  • at a greater distance   (6:13)
  • honey (to sg)   (3:55)
  • two main rooms   (11:32)
  • the "still" or moving image   (9:42)
  • three main rooms   (8:48)
  • bracket   (2:55)
  • (painted) wooden base   (6:37)
erstwhile press release...
giuseppe ielasi: electronics
domenico sciajno: electronics and programming

giuseppe ielasi and domenico sciajno are both prominent members of the italian electroacoustic improv scene, not only as musicians, but also as concert promoters and organizers.

ielasi started playing guitar in 1988, and began exploring the art of improvised music soon after. in 1998 he founded the well-respected fringes label, in order to document his own work as well as that of other artists. in addition to his work on fringes, he has recorded for such labels as leo and sonoris. earlier this year, he released a superb solo cd-r on a small greek label, absurd. he has performed live with taku sugimoto, jerome noetinger, dean roberts, thomas lehn, michel doneda and brandon labelle.

sciajno began his career as an acoustic bassist and composer, studying acoustic and electronic composition with gilius van bergeijk and double bass in the royal conservatory of den haag in holland. in 2000, he released a sublime solo bass disc on fringes entitled broken bridge. he has collaborated with such artists as alvin curran and joel ryan, and sat in briefly with mimeo when the all-star electronic orchestra performed in bologna this past may.

ielasi and sciajno met in 1997, while searching for similarly minded musicians with which to collaborate. they began working in trio with ruggero radaele, later expanding to an acoustic quartet with christian alati, as documented on their leo lab release. over the last few years, ielasi and sciajno have each moved separately towards a vocabulary of pure electronics. in july of 2001, ielasi and sciajno met in palermo for a few days of intensive working and recording, the results of which are documented here.

right after compiles a series of perfectly crafted miniatures, featuring jagged shards of melody, slowly advancing crackles rippling with latent energy, and impeccably integrated techniques. the dazzling packaging was entirely created by nyc designer friederike paetzold.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 019 cd

greg kelley / jason lescalleet “forlorn green” compact disc

  • man on the outside   (9:00)
  • conquest of the earth   (27:00)
  • tight spot   (8:00)
  • autumn leaves   (10:00)
erstwhile press release...
greg kelley: trumpet
jason lescalleet: tape loops, computer

over the last few years, the boston/cambridge improv scene has emerged as potentially the most exciting in the us. greg kelley and jason lescalleet are two of the most compelling figures in this scene.

kelley, a stunningly original trumpeter, graduated from the peabody conservatory of music in 1995. he has since garnered much praise for his unique vocabulary of extended techniques and timbral manipulation. in 1998, kelley began a pattern of dedicated touring, performing throughout the united states, europe, and japan. these travels have led to numerous collaborations, including ones with anthony braxton, paul lovens, keiji haino, eddie prevost, kevin drumm and john butcher. kelley is best known for his work in the duo nmperign with bhob rainey and for his breathtaking solo record on meniscus, simply titled trumpet.

lescalleet has been working with different styles of music for over a decade, focusing on the use of tapes for much of that period. in live performance, he uses reel-to-reel tape decks to explore the textures of low fidelity analog sounds and the natural phenomena of old tape and obsolete technology. he blends layers of ambient tapeloops, moving through levels of silence and white noise, all transformed through cheap microphones and trashed speakers. for his studio work, lescalleet uses the computer as a processing and organizational tool. he has worked with such wide-ranging artists as francisco lopez, donald miller, achim wollscheid, and john hudak.

kelley and lescalleet first met in early 1998. the following year, lescalleet joined nmperign for the first in a series of collaborations culminating in the release of a split cd ‘in which the silent-partner director is no longer able to make his point to the industrial dreamer’ (intransitive). eventually, the duo project documented here materialized: the outcome of three years of enthusiastic aesthetic discussions, performances containing near silences one night or (literal) showers of sparks on another, countless phone calls and emails, and endless listening. forlorn green is the end result of four recording dates, two live collaborations, one recording of kelley solo, and one recording of kelley under lescalleet's direction, employing uncommon recording equpment and unconventional techniques. forlorn green merges a remarkable variety of neo-industrial rumbles and incisive interruptions, all flawlessly fused and integrated, creating a lo-fi concréte masterpiece.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 016 cd

stilluppsteypa / tv pow “we are everyone in the room” compact disc

  • michigan impossible   (13:41)
  • for starters we have nothing conclusive   (17:18)
  • where's your asian girlfriend   (4:08)
  • international starving artists   (9:27)
  • this place looks like flint or double ass shot (you guys can pick
  • we like double ass shot)   (4:16)
erstwhile press release...
stilluppsteypa (heimir björgúlfsson, sigtryggur berg sigmarsson, helgi thorsson): powerbooks and minidisc players
tv pow (todd a. carter, brent gutzeit, michael hartman): laptops, cds, and electronic instruments

stilluppsteypa and tv pow are two of the most prominent laptop trios in the world of experimental music. originally hailing from iceland, stilluppsteypa was formed in 1992, and the current lineup of heimir björgúlfsson, sigtryggur berg sigmarsson, and helgi thorsson has been together since 1995. they've released work on such prestigious labels as ritornell, meme, and their own fire.inc. imprint, but we are everyone in the room is their first improv record. based in chicago, tv pow (todd carter, brent gutzeit and michael hartman) was founded in 1995, and has performed with such prominent musicians as otomo yoshihide, erik m, taku sugimoto and john butcher. gutzeit and hartman also run the influential labels boxmedia and gentle giant, respectively, where most previous tv pow material has appeared.

in late october 2000, stilluppsteypa and tv pow embarked on a week-long tour of the us. the two groups, while familiar with each other's output, had never worked together before, but did so for part or all of each of these performances. we are everyone in the room was compiled from these shows, including their first collaboration ever at tonic in nyc. stilluppsteypa and tv pow combine a thorough knowledge and wide range of microscopic sounds with an uncanny feel for their deployment within an improv context.

the captivating cover art was created by leif elggren, a swedish conceptual artist and co-founder of the kingdoms of elgaland-vargaland.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 013 cd

toshimaru nakamura / sachiko m “do” compact disc

  • do #1   (36:45)
  • do #2   (2:41)
  • do #3   (10:39)
erstwhile press release...
toshimaru nakamura: no-input mixing board
sachiko m: sampler with sine wave

oshimaru nakamura and sachiko m are two of the most prominent members of the burgeoning onkyo movement. onkyo, a japanese word meaning "reverberation of sound", places much more emphasis on sound texture than on musical structure, distilling elements of techno, noise, and electronic music into a unique hybrid.

nakamura plays the "no-input mixing board", connecting the input of the board to the output, then manipulating the resultant feedback. since 1998, he's been exploring the possibilities of his instrument in contexts ranging from solo to collaborations with taku sugimoto, keith rowe, and the duo project repeat with drummer jason kahn. nakamura is also a co-founder of the improvisation meeting at bar aoyama, a monthly concert series in tokyo, which recently changed its name and location to meeting at off site.

sachiko m was a member of the seminal nineties band ground zero, led by her frequent collaborator otomo yoshihide. since ground zero ended in 1998, she has developed a unique style utilizing a memory-free sampler, creating pure, piercing sine waves with the device's built-in test tones and noise. sachiko has worked extensively as a solo artist, and in groups such as filament, i.s.o., and hoahio. she also founded and runs the superb amoebic label.

do is the second release from this duo, following 1998's un (meme). do consists of three live improvisations, recorded in the summer of 2000 at three separate concerts. the unique look of the artwork was created entirely from the output of a no-input video mixer by nyc designer chris harvey. do #1, the 37 minute centerpiece track, is a masterpiece of gradual progression, inducing rolling waves inside your head, while constantly, infinitesimally, inexorably creeping forward.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 011 cd

otomo yoshihide / voice crack “bits, bots & signs” compact disc

  • @@@ 1   (16:53)
  • @@@ 2   (6:35)
  • @@@ 3   (14:03)
  • @@@ 4   (8:51)
  • @@@ 5   (11:44)
erstwhile press release...
otomo yoshihide: electronics
norbert möslang: cracked everyday-electronics
andy guhl: cracked everyday-electronics

otomo yoshihide has explored the nature of sound in many different ways during his career. otomo formed the hugely influential group ground zero in 1990, leading the project through numerous incarnations until its conclusion in 1998, as documented on the epic last concert (amoebic). over the last few years, otomo has become increasingly interested in minimal wave-based electronics, as heard in his filament and i.s.o projects. other projects which he is currently involved in include his new jazz quintet, who play standards from composers such as ornette coleman, gerry mulligan and eric dolphy, as well as original tunes by otomo, all refracted through his unique sensibilities. otomo has also composed numerous soundtracks for movies, and has written numerous articles and essays for japanese music publications.

swiss duo voice crack (norbert möslang and andy guhl) have been playing together since 1972. in 1977, they released the then underappreciated deep voices lp (fmp, reissued on cd by urthona), which they created largely with acoustic instruments. since 1983, they've been exclusively working with "cracked everyday-electronics", modifying and/or abusing numerous small household machines in order to produce extreme, unique noises. voice crack's current projects include their longstanding collaborative partnership with borbetomagus, poire_z with günter müller and erik m., as well as their solo work, well documented with such superb recent releases as below beyond above (uhlang) and shock_late (entenpfuhl). they also have a collaborarative disc in the works with jérôme noetinger and lionel marchetti, which will be released on grob in 2001.

bits, bots and signs documents the long overdue first meeting of these pioneers, recorded in march 2000 in st. gallen, switzerland, although as möslang says, "from the beginning, it was as if we had played together for a long time." the three musicians generate gently pulsing rumbles, piercing whistles and lingering whines, fusing these varied sounds into a series of expansive panoramas. the striking cover drawing was created by swiss artist alex hanniman.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 009 cd

dean roberts / werner dafeldecker “aluminium” compact disc

  • rock and roll part 4   (10:34)
  • rock and roll part 5   (30:03)
erstwhile press release...
dean roberts: guitar, electronics and percussion
werner dafeldecker: guitar, electronics and percussion

dean roberts and werner dafeldecker seem unlikely collaborators at first glance.

roberts, who originally hails from new zealand, began his career delving into guitar drones and feedback, both in the trio thela and on his own, under the name white winged moth. he founded the label formacentric disk in order to document a wider range of his work, and released four projects in two years. in 1998, he began working with the influential german label mille plateaux, who put out his much acclaimed all cracked medias, and earlier this year, and the black moths play the grand cinema, on their more experimental sublabel ritornell.

dafeldecker, a lifelong resident of vienna, is probably best known for being an integral member of the improv supergroup polwechsel, as well as for founding and running the influential label durian. he's composed numerous pieces for various classical ensembles, and also appears on two recent notable cds, printer (durian), and martin siewert's komfort 2000 (charhizma). originally primarily a bassist, dafeldecker has been working more with guitar and electronics recently, both of which he plays to great effect on aluminium.

aluminium was recorded during a marathon studio session in vienna in april, and was brilliantly mastered by tim barnes. both musicians play guitar and electronics, along with occasional percussion on a hi-hat placed between them. on the first track, dafeldecker's sine wave electronics intersect with roberts' rough guitar textures, priming the listener's aural palette for the marathon track which follows. this half hour long piece is a atmospheric exploration fusing the legacy of amm with the spirit of rock and roll.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 007 cd

john butcher / phil durrant “requests and antisongs” compact disc

  • sheet bend   (6:38)
  • jansik   (1:00)
  • sliding chinese crown   (4:50)
  • eye splice   (1:39)
  • kreuzklem   (5:05)
  • bimini    (7:11)
  • prusik loop   (7:40)
  • float stop   (3:31)
  • flemish eye   (5:18)
  • palomar   (8:57)
  • japanese square lashing   (6:25)
erstwhile press release...
john butcher: tenor or soprano saxophone
phil durrant: live electronic manipulation and modular feedback

john butcher and phil durrant have both been prominent members of the english improv scene since the mid-eighties, releasing everything from solo records to being members of all-star orchestras. in 1984, they formed a trio with john russell, with durrant on violin, a band which is in its 17th year together. in 1997, the two began their electromanipulation project, in which durrant transforms butcher's sounds electronically in real time, interacting with butcher's live playing. the music has three potential strands; the amplified saxophone and two electronic processing chains - individually controlled by durrant - which are triggered by and/or derived from the saxophone's signal. no sampling is used.

this is the second cd which butcher and durrant have released utilizing this approach. the first was the critically acclaimed secret measures (wobbly rail), which was a recording of the first concert they played in this style in november of 1997. requests and antisongs captures the duo more than two years later, carefully recorded in a london studio by toby robinson. butcher demonstrates his seemingly effortless mastery of his instrument(s) throughout, while durrant applies all of the numerous live processing skills he's carefully honed, not least as an integral part of keith rowe's all-star mimeo electronic orchestra.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 006 cd

kevin drumm / martin tétreault “particles and smears” compact disc

  • 4:16
  • 4:17
  • 2:19
  • 7:36
  • 5:36
  • 1:42
  • 4:04
  • 4:09
  • 3:11
  • 4:07
  • 3:44
  • 4:30
  • 4:38
  • 4:53
erstwhile press release...
kevin drumm: guitar and electronics
martin tétreault: turntables

chicago-based kevin drumm (guitar, electronics) and montreal-based martin tétreault (turntables) traveled in separate musical circles, each unaware of the other's work, until a chicago-based organization, lampo, booked tétreault for a concert with drumm and the ubiquitous jim o'rourke in september of 1999. while tétreault was in chicago, he and drumm spent some time in the studio, and this cd contains the results, as recorded by tv pow's todd carter.

drumm, best known for his two superb solo records on perdition plastics, and tétreault, best known for his collaborative series of discs on ambiances magnetiques with the likes of otomo yoshihide and ikue mori, meld their techniques seamlessly to form a thoroughly integrated record. while both musicians are more than capable of playing solo sets filled with compelling ideas from beginning to end, here both seem to make a conscious effort to subsume their identities in order to create a greater work.

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 005 cd

keith rowe / günter müller / taku sugimoto “the world upside down” compact disc

  • phase two   (34:44)
  • phase one   (22:11)
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe: tabletop guitar, electronics
günter müller: electronics, selected drums
taku sugimoto: guitar

keith rowe and günter müller are both prominent members of the european improv circuit. rowe, who is best known for his groundbreaking work with amm (the seminal improvising collective he co-founded in 1965 with eddie prévost and lou gare), also currently leads the music in movement electronic orchestra, an all-star group featuring many of europe's premier electronic musicians. müller has released numerous records on his for 4 ears label, including recent collaborations with voice crack, otomo yoshihide, jim o'rourke and erik m. taku sugimoto is best known for his gorgeous solo cd, opposite (hat noir), for his projects with kevin drumm (on meme and boxmedia), and as a prominent figure in the japanese improvising underground.

the world turned upside down documents their first meeting as a trio (and the first meeting ever between rowe and sugimoto), captured in vivid detail in concert at les instants chavirés in october of '99. the performance builds upon sugimoto's guitar reflections, with rowe and müller slowly tracing jagged spirals around his ever-evolving line. much like an amm performance, this is a journey with no discernible beginning or end, striking a precarious balance between tranquility and turbulence. the front cover was painted by rowe, and the gorgeous drawings and calligraphy which adorn the rest of the package come from a tour diary kept by masae tanabe.

"the trio evolves into an electroacoustic ecosystem of insect chirps, bog-creature glissandi and sugimoto's lone guitar qua guitar, whose ghostly presence soaks the proceedings with a sober grace. no strangers to the art of palpable restraint, the participants create a masterpiece of understatement in an idiom as unforced as it is entrancing." - robert lim

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erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 003 cd

earl howard / denman maroney “fire song” compact disc

  • fire song   (17:48) duet for hyperpiano and synthesizer
  • uncaged bacchanal   (10:23) solo hyperpiano
  • pulse field   (13:22)  duet for hyperpiano and alto saxophone
  • orchid   (12:12)    solo alto saxophone
erstwhile press release...
earl howard: alto saxophone, synthesizer
denman maroney: hyperpiano

four long solo and duet pieces totalling 54 minutes from these two nyc-based, criminally underdocumented musicians. howard and maroney have been playing together sporadically since 1975, when they recorded a version of stockhausen's kurzwellen as part of the negative band (a record engineered by carl stone for the finnadar label). howard plays alto saxophone and synth, while maroney plays hyperpiano, which is further explained below. howard has played over the years with such luminaries as derek bailey, han bennink, takehisa kosugi, george lewis, nam june paik, and richard teitelbaum, but has barely recorded, except for a mostly solo electronics cd on random acoustics, pele's tears. fire song contains his first composition for alto to be documented on disc, the solo piece orchid. maroney has pioneered a technique for the piano which he refers to as "hyperpiano", which involves stopping, sliding, bowing, plucking, strumming and striking the strings directly with a variety of tools including bars, bowls, knives, bells and mashers of metal, boxes and bottles of plastic, mallets of various kinds, and blocks of rubber. hyperpiano differs from prepared piano in that the piano is not prepared beforehand.

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first in stock on
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threads:
modern-psych
free-improvisation
guitar-themed

erstwhile (usa) #erstwhile 002 cd

haunted house “up in flames” compact disc

  • been so long   (23:29)
  • only when you sleep   (10:25)
  • blue ghost blues   (23:08)
erstwhile press release...
loren mazzacane connors: guitar
suzanne langille: vocals
andrew burnes: guitar
neel murgai: persian daf

dean roberts writes:

anticipated debut from loren mazzacane connors, suzanne langille and counterparts from atlanta's san augustin – this group threaten to be the mythical rock combo where loren's guitar has been displaced. while the guitarist's technique has drawn from the dripping psychedelic groups, his playing has never before been documented writhing about above the pounding mantra of a blues rock rhythm section as his style often hints at. though this is hardly a conventional rock band - not by any stretch of the imagination, but the pulse and atmosphere is as close to a conventional band as suzanne and loren's collaboration has since "come night".

this recording steps further beyond – and as seen here in the dmg sunday live music series last month – the group shifted up a gear into full–swing at times adhering to a lateral pulse, where loren's guitar is most grounded; his tangential drift is always called home to the beat ... when the beat here is provided by a single persian daf drum, the atmosphere is a shattered and skeletal corps – where the carriage is the great ship of song form – the framework held together here by the barest of adhesion.

suzanne's voice is resonant throughout, guiding the quartet into picnoleptic delirium like she knows the way too well. when they reach that point where nothing means more than anything, then they spin and howl in a storm of screaming notes - and when they do reach that territory - which is, paradoxically, a zone where the difference between dense interplay and musical taxiing is a mere surge in syncopated energy – well then that's when the group is really switched on.

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first in stock on
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threads:
guitar-themed
electro-acoustic-composition
harsh-noise

erstwhile (usa) #erstsolo 001 cd
erstsolo (united states) #erstsolo 001 cd

keith rowe “the room” compact disc

  • the room (38:57)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "the room"
2007 solo recording from keith rowe; his third overall...

this is an interference-heavy set; not at all the delicate, butterfly-winged preparations you may have been expecting... in spots the fully-rectified wave-shapes leap out of the speakers in continuous, peak volumes on par with latter-day “digital” merzbow or zbigniew karkowski; in others the gong-like sonorities, radio static, and fizzing synthesized timbres swarm, collide, avoid, and swim around in varying intervals over a bed of shifting dissonant drones and tape-hiss.

superlative work; unparalleled in its variety of techniques/fidelities/systems. highly recommended.
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe the room
erstsolo 001

keith rowe guitar, electronics

"this was one of the first occasions on which i worked with keith rowe, who bore more or less the same relation to the electric guitar as david tudor did to the piano (i put that in the past tense because by no stretch of the imagination could you now call them guitarist or pianist respectively)."- cornelius cardew, 1966

more than forty years later, keith rowe is still adding to his remarkable legacy of sound and color. this latest release, the room, marks the third full-length solo recording of his career, following a dimension of perfectly ordinary reality (1989) and harsh (1999). each of these prior recordings marked the end of a phase of rowe's work just before he switched to a new guitar, whereas the room is a continuation of his recent collaborative work, as captured on records like between, cloud, a view from the window, november quebec and the erstlive 005 box.

the room is a very personal project for rowe, and he struggled with its precise conception over the last few years. it's in part a tribute to two of his most important influences, cardew and mark rothko, and the creation of a recording that did justice to his feelings about these two was a long journey. after many months of thought and numerous attempts to transfer the ideas in his head to a concert context, rowe began in early 2007 to record at his home each day. he recorded dozens of hours before finally arriving at an end result that he could live with, and those results are here.

for rowe, the room represents an "emotional state made audible" as well as an attempt to "reject virtuosity", a philosophy which has been guiding all of his work over the past few years. erstwhile mastering engineer earl howard did some crucial (and uncredited, due to the minimal text on the package) postproduction on rowe's home recorded master, just minor tweaks on their own, but resulting in a decided overall improvement in the sound quality.

the room is the first release on the new erstsolo imprint, and is the first standalone digipak on erstwhile, with the entire design consisting of two triptych rothko-influenced rowe paintings, one on the outside and one on the inside.

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$23.52

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first in stock on
february 19th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
digital-musics
modern-psych

erstwhile (usa) #erstpop 001 lp
erstpop (usa) #erstpop 001 lp

the magic i.d. “till my breath gives out” long playing record

  • true holiday (6:25)
  • feet deep (4:59)
  • wintersong (6:14)
  • martin fierro (3:02)

  • from the same road (8:13)
  • loopstück (12:57)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "loopstück"
february 2008 release ; the debut album by the quartet of christof kurzmann, margareth kammerer, michael thieke, and kai fagaschinski as the magic i.d. ... the formation of yet another erstwhile sub-label (following on the heels of erstlive and erstsolo) specifically for this release is telling, as is the fact that it’s the first erst to be released on vinyl (jon & co have done an excellent job here - the mastering/pressing quality is superb & the whole package is very eye-popping, esp. the gatefold [below] ...)

the reason for all of this? “till my breath gives out” is a pop-record - albeit one composed/performed by key members of the berlin electro-acoustic/free improvisation “scene” & strongly informed by the lexicon of sound-producing gestures that goes hand-in-hand with said. the instrumentation (guitar, laptop, two clarinets panned hard left / right) lends to a certain impressionistic flair ... the use of space & dissonant tonal clusters does remind me of that oft-cited mark hollis solo record, but not overtly so. kammerer’s vocal delivery is lovely & very much indebted to billie holiday, whereas kurzmann’s has more in common with tom rapp (mainly in that it’s a taste that, when acquired, ends up being very comforting) ... his plaintive guitar figures are simple & unadorned, the digital sequences pushed into the background for the most part. even thieke & fagaschinski’s dovetailing upper-register lines are made somehow more pleasant through their association with the breezy art-song herein ...

a very nice record; one of the few blendings of “experimental” music & song-form that i can get behind ...
erstwhile press release...

the magic i.d. till my breath gives out

erstpop 001

kai fagaschinski clarinet (right)
margareth kammerer vocals & guitars
christof kurzmann vocals, g3 and lloopp
michael thieke clarinet (left)

the magic i.d. is a berlin-based quartet exploring the juncture of song forms with abstract music. the band, consisting of margareth kammerer, christof kurzmann, kai fagaschinski and michael thieke, formed in summer 2005 after previously being connected via smaller groupings and projects. till my breath gives out is their debut release, and consists of six intricately constructed gems, each with its own individual shape, painstakingly sequenced to form a record that becomes more than the sum of its parts.

kammerer was born in italy and moved to berlin in 1994. she is deeply involved in the worlds of both theatre and music, and has a lengthy resume in both areas. her mostly solo album to be an animal of real flesh was released on charhizma in 2004, featuring collaborative tracks with axel dörner, chris abrahams and tatusya yoshida, as well as remixes from fred frith, philip jeck, bernhard fleischmann and kurzmann. her unique, distinctive voice has been underdocumented previously, but is showcased on till my breath gives out to riveting effect.

kurzmann has been a prominent part of both the vienna and (more recently) the berlin scenes over the past decade. as an organizer, he cofounded the phonotaktik festival, helped found the famous rhiz club in vienna, and runs the prestigious charhizma label. kurzmann has been an essential part of many erstwhile-related live events, in tokyo, berlin and nyc, and was the first to work at amann studios for an erstwhile release, beginning a crucial relationship for the label. his duo with burkhard stangl, schnee, is one of the core projects of erstwhile, with a third release for the label currently in preparation for release, and his duo with ami yoshida, a s o, is an underappreciated gem.

fagaschinski has leapt to prominence in the improv world over the last few years, with well-received duo projects such as los glissandinos (w/klaus filip), the international nothing (w/thieke) and kommando raumschiff zitrone (w/kurzmann). his music is rooted in abstraction, but with an increasingly insidious melodious element. this is his first erstwhile release, and his second is already in the works, a duo disc with stangl.

thieke was born in düsseldorf and moved to berlin in 1993. he works in a wide range of styles in the jazz and improv worlds, from a mingus tribute to a collective trio on ayler records (w/christian weber and michael griener) to his own unununium project on charhizma to the aforementioned the international nothing w/fagaschinski, ranging from free blowing to sparse, pointillistic abstraction, from fully improvised to fully composed.

the six pieces contained here are precise collective compositions, three by the full quartet, and one from each of the three potential “duos” (the two clarinets form one twinned instrument). till my breath gives out expands song forms through the prism of experimental sensibilities and meshes the two remarkably fluidly. the design has been sourced from a photograph taken by gianmarco bresadola in alexanderplatz, berlin, and stunningly reconceived by berlin designer marion gerth.

till my breath gives out is being released simultaneously in two formats: foldout digipak cd and gatefold 180g vinyl. the content and the running order are identical; the lp version was mastered slightly differently to better fit the format. the lp is an edition of 500 copies; the cd is unlimited and inexpensive.

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$13.44

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first in stock on
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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
digital-musics
modern-psych
folk

erstwhile (usa) #erstpop 001 cd
erstpop (usa) #erstpop 001 cd

the magic i.d. “till my breath gives out” compact disc

  • true holiday (6:25)
  • feet deep (4:59)
  • wintersong (6:14)
  • martin fierro (3:02)
  • from the same road (8:13)
  • loopstück (12:57)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "loopstück"
cd version (sound-sample is from the lp) ; but again, erstwhile went through all the trouble of getting this one out on vinyl as well, so i’m going to recommend going that route if you have the capacity / sense to do so ...
erstwhile press release...
the magic i.d. till my breath gives out

erstpop 001

kai fagaschinski clarinet (right)
margareth kammerer vocals & guitars
christof kurzmann vocals, g3 and lloopp
michael thieke clarinet (left)
the magic i.d. is a berlin-based quartet exploring the juncture of song forms with abstract music. the band, consisting of margareth kammerer, christof kurzmann, kai fagaschinski and michael thieke, formed in summer 2005 after previously being connected via smaller groupings and projects. till my breath gives out is their debut release, and consists of six intricately constructed gems, each with its own individual shape, painstakingly sequenced to form a record that becomes more than the sum of its parts.

kammerer was born in italy and moved to berlin in 1994. she is deeply involved in the worlds of both theatre and music, and has a lengthy resume in both areas. her mostly solo album to be an animal of real flesh was released on charhizma in 2004, featuring collaborative tracks with axel dörner, chris abrahams and tatusya yoshida, as well as remixes from fred frith, philip jeck, bernhard fleischmann and kurzmann. her unique, distinctive voice has been underdocumented previously, but is showcased on till my breath gives out to riveting effect.

kurzmann has been a prominent part of both the vienna and (more recently) the berlin scenes over the past decade. as an organizer, he cofounded the phonotaktik festival, helped found the famous rhiz club in vienna, and runs the prestigious charhizma label. kurzmann has been an essential part of many erstwhile-related live events, in tokyo, berlin and nyc, and was the first to work at amann studios for an erstwhile release, beginning a crucial relationship for the label. his duo with burkhard stangl, schnee, is one of the core projects of erstwhile, with a third release for the label currently in preparation for release, and his duo with ami yoshida, a s o, is an underappreciated gem.

fagaschinski has leapt to prominence in the improv world over the last few years, with well-received duo projects such as los glissandinos (w/klaus filip), the international nothing (w/thieke) and kommando raumschiff zitrone (w/kurzmann). his music is rooted in abstraction, but with an increasingly insidious melodious element. this is his first erstwhile release, and his second is already in the works, a duo disc with stangl.

thieke was born in düsseldorf and moved to berlin in 1993. he works in a wide range of styles in the jazz and improv worlds, from a mingus tribute to a collective trio on ayler records (w/christian weber and michael griener) to his own unununium project on charhizma to the aforementioned the international nothing w/fagaschinski, ranging from free blowing to sparse, pointillistic abstraction, from fully improvised to fully composed.

the six pieces contained here are precise collective compositions, three by the full quartet, and one from each of the three potential “duos” (the two clarinets form one twinned instrument). till my breath gives out expands song forms through the prism of experimental sensibilities and meshes the two remarkably fluidly. the design has been sourced from a photograph taken by gianmarco bresadola in alexanderplatz, berlin, and stunningly reconceived by berlin designer marion gerth.

till my breath gives out is being released simultaneously in two formats: foldout digipak cd and gatefold 180g vinyl. the content and the running order are identical; the lp version was mastered slightly differently to better fit the format. the lp is an edition of 500 copies; the cd is unlimited and inexpensive.

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$13.44

new to stock as of
february 7th, 2009

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
concert-recordings
guitar-themed
plunder-phonic

erstwhile (usa) #erstlive 007 cd
erstlive (usa) #erstlive 007 cd

keith rowe “erstlive 007” compact disc

  • (36:32)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "(36:32)"
december 2008 release ; keith rowe’s solo set from the amplify 2008: light festival ...

picking up where “the room” ‘s meticulously crafted patterns left off, this set is an improv concerned largely with scraping, nail-file guitar scrabble & plundered / re-used radio broadcasts (largely of afternoon “light” classical) ; the occasional beds of needle-thin ground-hum & bias-altered hysteresis largely go un-noticed until they’re suddenly removed, revealing an onion-skin array of sharp particles & dust ...

always a pleasure to hear the man work ...
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe
erstlive 007
total time: 36:32

keith rowe guitar, electronics

erstlive is a series of releases from erstwhile records, documenting notable live sets associated with the label. the discs are designed to simulate a concert experience, each in the same template design using two colors chosen by the musicians involved, with a photo of the concert on the back cover.

erstlive 007 is a solo set from keith rowe, and took place on the second night of the amplify 2008: light festival in tokyo in september 2008. this was rowe's first ever solo set in tokyo in his 40+ year career.

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

erstwhile (usa) #erstlive 006 cd
erstlive (usa) #erstlive 006 cd

keith rowe / taku unami “erstlive 006” compact disc

  • (37:35)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "(37:35)"
december 2008 release ; keith rowe & taku unami’s duo set from the amplify 2008: light festival ...

unami’s whirring, regular-rhythm punctuations (“computer controlled objects,” i believe) and hissing upper-register bitstreams (first batch of new / interesting computer-music textures i’ve heard in an improvised-music context in a while) are the perfect foil for rowe’s sparse pointillist mannerisms (a hail of hiss & even the occasional guitar-note interjection) ...
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe / taku unami
erstlive 006
total time: 37:34

keith rowe guitar, electronics
taku unami computer with objects, contraguitar, mandolin

erstlive is a series of releases from erstwhile records, documenting notable live sets associated with the label. the discs are designed to simulate a concert experience, each in the same template design using two colors chosen by the musicians involved, with a photo of the concert on the back cover.

erstlive 006 is from the duo of keith rowe and taku unami, and took place on the first night of the amplify 2008: light festival in tokyo in september 2008. this was the first set they'd ever played together.

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$40.32

back in stock as of
february 7th, 2009

first in stock on
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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
concert-recordings
minimalism-drones
digital-musics

erstwhile (usa) #erstlive 005 cd
erstlive (usa) #erstlive 005 cd

keith rowe / sachiko m / toshimaru nakamura / otomo yoshihide “erstlive 005” triple compact disc set

  • three discs !! trt: 3:50:00 !!!
disc 1:
  • (20:00)
  • (20:00)
  • (19:58)
  • (19:39)
disc 2:
  • (20:00)
  • (20:00)
  • (20:02)
  • (12:55)
disc 3:
  • (20:00)
  • (20:00)
  • (20:00)
  • (18:22)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "(20:02)"
most recent release in the “erstlive” series; a towering, near-4-hour-long meditation on improvised electronics by four of the leading contemporary practitioners of such, in peak form. far from satie’s vision of “table music”, this is an epic; engaging to the last dynamic slow-arc...
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe guitar, electronics
sachiko m sine waves, contact microphone on objects
toshimaru nakamura no-input mixing board
otomo yoshihide electric guitar, turntables

erstlive 005 is from the quartet of keith rowe, sachiko m, toshimaru nakamura, and otomo yoshihide, the centerpiece show of amplify 2004: addition, the "four hour quartet". erstlive 005 contains three individually packaged slimline cds in a slipcase with original artwork by keith rowe, which wraps around the entire box, front, side, and back, as well as liner notes from all four musicians and numerous pictures from yuko zama. erstlive 005 documents only the second performance of this quartet, after a brief set in cologne the week before.

”one thing i can say for sure is that the boundary between listening to this cd and playing this music is totally dissolved, and there is only a difference of time and space where the sounds are heard.” - otomo yoshihide

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threads:
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concert-recordings
guitar-themed
digital-musics

erstwhile (usa) #erstlive 003 cd
erstlive (usa) #erstlive 003 cd

burkhard stangl / christof kurzmann “erstlive 003” compact disc

  • (33:03)
erstwhile press release...
burkhard stangl guitars, electronic devices, backing vocals
christof kurzmann g3, electronics, vocals

erstlive 003 is from the duo of burkhard stangl and christof kurzmann, titled 'schnee_live', the final show on the last night of amplify 2004: addition. stangl and kurzmann began working as a duo in late 1999, releasing schnee in 2000, and playing numerous concerts over the past four years throughout europe, the us, and asia. schnee_live documents how much their duo has changed since the initial recording of schnee, which was the first time they ever played together as a duo.

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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
concert-recordings
analogue-synth

erstwhile (usa) #erstlive 002 cd
erstlive (usa) #erstlive 002 cd

keith rowe / toshimaru nakamura / thomas lehn / marcus schmickler “erstlive 002” compact disc

  • (38:47)
double-duo session, featuring lehn & schmickler matching wits with rowe & nakamura ...
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe - guitar, electronics
toshimaru nakamura - no-input mixing board
thomas lehn - analogue synthesizer
marcus schmickler - synthesizer, computer

erstlive is a new series of releases from erstwhile records, documenting notable live sets associated with the label. the discs are designed to simulate a concert experience, each in the same template design using two colors chosen by the musicians involved, with a photo of the concert on the back cover. each will be in an edition of 800 cds and not reprinted. the initial releases will be chosen from the amplify 2004 festival which took place in cologne and berlin in may 2004.

erstlive 002 is from the quartet of keith rowe, toshimaru nakamura, thomas lehn and marcus schmickler, the final quartet performance in the cologne half of amplify 2004: addition, also in may 2004. this was the quartet's first performance together.

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$13.44

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first in stock on
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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
concert-recordings

erstwhile (usa) #erstlive 001 cd
erstlive (usa) #erstlive 001 cd

keith rowe / burkhard beins “erstlive 001” compact disc

  • (28:18)
erstwhile press release...
keith rowe guitar, electronics
burkhard beins percussion

erstlive is a new series of releases from erstwhile records, documenting notable live sets associated with the label. the discs are designed to simulate a concert experience, each in the same template design using two colors chosen by the musicians involved, with a photo of the concert on the back cover. each will be in an edition of 800 cds and not reprinted. the initial releases will be chosen from the amplify 2004 festival which took place in cologne and berlin in may 2004.

erstlive 001 is from the duo of keith rowe and burkhard beins, and took place during the first night of outside shows in the berlin half of amplify 2004: addition in may 2004. this was their first set as a duo since the sessions which resulted in "grain" on zarek 3 1/2 years earlier.

previous record label:
 erstsolo 		...and that's everything on erstwhile in stock.
(why not take a look at the previous and next labels?)		next record label:
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... this page was last updated on wednesday, march 10th, 2010 @ 4:57 pm