The Big ReR CD December, 2010 Sale!

Here's the Big ReR Sale CD List:

AMM with CORNELIUS CARDEW / KEITH ROWE / LOU GARE / EDDIE PREVOST - Ammusic (ReR AMMCD; UK) Originally recorded and released in 1966 on the Elektra label in the UK, this has long been considered one of the early high-watermarks of contemporary improvised music/sound. AMM were one of the first completely non-idiomatic free improvising ensembles, and this was their very first release, which was truly startling for 1966, & is still pretty damn revelatory over 35 years later! Out of print for over 20 years, this includes 30 minutes of bonus material from the original sessions, recorded on the 8th and 27th June 1966 in London. This really was decades ahead of its time. With Cornelius Cardew, Lou Gare, Eddie Prevost and Keith Rowe.
CD $16

AFTER DINNER - Souvenir Cassette And Other Further Live Adventures (ReR ADR1; UK)A Limited Edition collection of exquisite live interpretations of songs by Japanese pop genius, Haco, taken from the band's first and second European tours in the early 1980s - technically innovative events at which they set up 5'1 sound systems at every concert. Powerful, delicate music featuring exotic as well as conventional rock instrumentation, and the extraordinary voice of diminutive diva, Haco. Includes previously unreleased materials. Powerfully played and beautifully recorded with full documentation, new photographs, technical diagrams and an introduction by Haco, who oversaw the project. Re-mastered by Bob Drake.
CD $12

ALQUIMIA - Dead Tongues (ReR ALQ1; UK) Atmospheric, evolving, intricate and layered; a suite of fine compositions and carefully crafted sounds. Consistent creation of another place, another time. 'Imagine a classical composer writing a gothic symphony for a multi-faceted electronic musician, who in concert was aided by Mayan musicians, a haunting, often operatic singer, & a psychic intermittently channeling the spirits of the dead - that pretty much sums up this fascinating album.''- Goldmine.
CD $13

BIOTA - Tumble (ReR BCD; UK) Tumble album for sale by Biota was released Nov 04, 2008 on the ReR USA label. This album contains two distinct projects from Biota recorded between the fall of 1988 and the spring of 1989. Tumble, the longer of the two, has recurring hints of various flavors of American pop music, and in particular the music of the American West. Fingerstyle guitar is at the center of "Things Seem Like Just Happen," and the first half of "Wire Talker" is a twisted jig with bagpipes, kazoos, and concertina. Tumble CD music contains a single disc.
CD $13

BIOTA with MNEMONIST ORCHESTRA / MNEMONISTS: WILLIAM SHARP / et al] SUSANNE LEWIS / CHRIS CUTLER/ CHARLES VRTACEK / et al - Object Holder (ReR BCD4; UK) Stunning thorough worked piece that breaks new ground altogether; an extraordinary achievement, 3 years in the making and rewriting a lot of rules. Text and singing (Susanne Lewis, inimitably) Also features Charles Vrtacek (Piano), Andy Kredt (Guitar) and Chris Cutler (percussion, electrics, texts). A Dense, profound field of sound, music, silence.
CD $13

BIOTA - Invisible Map (ReR BCD5; UK) If fans of Biota were shocked by the pop songs that appeared for the first time on the previous Biota release on ReR, Object Holder, Invisible map is going to send them reeling. On Object Holder the songs were courtesy of Susanne Lewis (Hail), and made a glorious twenty-minute interlude in the centre of what was a typically mysterious Biota landscape of half-heard, half-remembered fragments of folk, jazz, rock and ambient. On Invisible Map, however, the songs kick the whole project off, and recur at regular intervals. They are sung by Genevieve Heistek, from the same school of Montreal musicians who spawned God Speed You Black Emperor.
CD $13

BIOTA - Half a True Day (ReR BCD6; UK) Six years in the making, this is the sixth CD released by ReR from the visual/sonic art group Biota. Unique in their history and method, Biota painstakingly construct complex, organic structures that mix extensive studio processing and musique concréte techniques, with a highly eclectic orchestra of acoustic and electronic resources - from kit drums, through mediaeval winds, strings and barrel organs, to early experimental electronic instruments.
CD $13

BLAST - Sift (ReR Blast2; UK) This is the second release, after a long wait, from this unique ensemble. Equally at home with the discipline of composition and the tightrope of improvisation Blast (now Blast 4tet) have evolved a fluid, pointillistic, unfathomable but transparent musical language that seamlessly integrates - over very short durations - highly complex writing and very free ranging improvisation, allowing the two languages to merge and combine into a new kind of logical exposition that makes sense but can't be reverse-engineered into its component parts.
CD $13

BLAST - Altrastrata (ReR Blast1; UK) Altrastrata album for sale by Blast 4tet was released Aug 05, 2003 on the ReR USA label. Blast's fifth release, Altrastrata, sees them back to the quartet lineup of their earlier albums and with one new member aboard in Italian drummer Fabrizio Spera (best known for his free improv work, in particular as part of the experimental electro-acoustic group Ossatura). Some people saw in A Sophisticated Face the summit of this group's art, but others were mildly annoyed by its excesses. Altrastrata CD music contains a single disc with 8 songs.
CD $13

BRAINVILLE 3 with DAEVID ALLEN / HUGH HOPPER / CHRIS CUTLER - Trial By Headline (ReR V3-1; UK) Three old hands out of Soft Machine, Gong and Henry Cow stretch already elastic musical material into various shapes, tie it in knots and generally have a good time. Compiled from recent concert recordings in Berlin, London and Tel Aviv, this clutch of extended songs should be to the taste of anyone familiar with the protagonists, or who longs to hear a little more straightforward instrumental playing in place of computers, heavy production and highly sanitized post-production.
CD $13

CHRIS CUTLER / ZEENA PARKINS - Shark! (ReR CZ1; UK) Live recordings of the Zeena Parkins/ Chris Cutler duo.From the much lauded Queen Elizabeth Hall concert and club Link in Bologna, two very different knife-edge tours through sound and structure landscapes; from rollercoaster to glider. 'Indescribable but wonderful. Quite superb. I would have been happy listening for ten times as long' Gibralter.
CD $13

CHRIS CUTLER / TOM DIMUZIO - Quake (ReR CTD1; UK) This disc was recorded March 26, 1999 at the Fine Arts Cinema, Portland, Maine; and March 27, 199 at Voix, Lowell, Massachussets. In March of this year I was most fortunate to be able to present a Chris Cutler & Charlie Noyes solos & duo concert at Context Studios. Chris is an amazing & completely distinctive drummer & percussionist from the ultimate progressive ensemble - Henry Cow (Art Bears, News from Babel) He has authored a splendid but difficult book on music and philosophy and founded Recommended Records - label & distributor. Although I never had the chance to witness Henry Cow, I have seen Chris play with Fred Frith, Cassiber, David Thomas, Pere Ubu, LA 1919, EC Nudes and for Peter Blegvad. Just watching him play is a unique experience. He is also a wonderful improviser and wanted to do a short solo/duo tour of the east coast & I was too happy to oblige. Over the past decade, Chris has been working more with electronics and electrifying his drums & cymbals. He had a whole table of devices, including a cd player to improvise with. Charles Noyes - an original percussionist from the very early (80's) downtown scene, played only one cymbal with a wooden ball & mic. A most odd combination, but the concert really worked. 'Quake' is from another pair of duo gigs in Maine & Massachusetts from this same tour in March with Thomas Dimuzio on samplers, processing, radio & cd player. Thomas I recall from a gig at New Music America in Montreal & a set at the Victoriaville Fest. His solos records are completely engaging electronic landscapes and there is also a hard-to-find live cd with Cutler & CW Vrtacek from a few years back. So, what we get on 'Quake' is quite a dynamic electronic/percussive duo! Clanging, clinking, sailing electronic ghosts, spooky rhythmic sections appear, electric bells buzzing, metals rubbed & struck softly, the cosmic drone of well crafted static, at times getting dense and scary, but always evoking positive freed spirits! - BLG
CD $13

EC NUDES with CHRIS CUTLER / AMY DENIO / WADI GYSI - Vanishing Point (ReRN1; UK) 'The (EC) Nudes were a trio that featured Wadi Gysi (Swiss) on guitar, Amy Denio (from the Tonedogs & the Tiptons) on bass, alto sax, accordion & vocals and Chris Cutler (Henry Cow & Art Bears) on drums, radio & electrics. Their one & only disc was released in 1994. The lyrics were written by (mainly) Chris Cutler or Amy Denio. This disc was mixed by the great Bob Drake who also added bits of violin & bass guitar. Both Ms. Denio and Mr. Cutler have had long careers in different types of progressive musics while Mr. Gysi has only appeared on a few records, including a duo with Hans Reichel. Right from the “Opening”, this music has an infectious, rocking quality which should a smile on your sour pus. Ms. Denio & Mr. Cutler make a great rhythm team while Mr. Gysi is a crafty electric guitarist. Besides being a great electric bassist, Ms. Denio is also a charming singer, as well as adding intricate sax and/or accordion to these consistently enchanting songs. Although Ms. Denio hails from Seattle, her singing and playing are influenced by a wealth of diverse interests. She has works with different prog bands, Eastern European pop bands (The Danubians) and even a Mexican death metal project. You can hear some of those influences bubbling within this superb disc. “It Might Be Better” sounds like punk-rock with some Zorn-like screaming sax on top. Chris Cutler, who also wrote the lyric for the Art Bears, is a gifted and ever-enigmatic poet/lyricist. If you take the time you will find several layers of meaning in his words. Somewhere in the land of prog/rock, you will find a number of great bands who rarely got the recognition they obviously deserved. The (EC) Nudes should be placed high on that list. - Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
CD $13

CHRIS CUTLER / JON ROSE / ROBERTO MUSCI / CLAUDIO // STEEL WATER LIGHT (ReR RMGC; UK) "Steel Water Light is a musical project based around silent movies about cities at the beginning of the century - bridges, trains, skyscrapers, harbours - compared with our feelings about cities now, at the beginning of the new Century. It's a scratchwork of different ideas about cities - mechanical sounds, human sounds, ethnic soundsThe performances took place in a huge glass palace, as part of a festival of silent movies with live soundtracks, on December 10th 1999 at Palazzina Liberty, as part of the SenzaParole Festival, Milan.
CD $13


JANET FEDER - Speak Puppet (ReRJF1; UK) No one until now has proposed an amalgamation of the music of Bert Jansch, Leo Kottke, John Fahey, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix and Karlheinz Stockhausen. By attaching beads, rings & other objects to her acoustic guitar strings, Janet has managed just that. Janet is a classically trained guitarist & her technique is excellent; she has just chosen to use it in a special way! There are some duos (including one with Thinking Plague's Mike Johnson) & interesting remixes here, but the focus is squarely on Janet's guitar. Some tracks remind me a bit of Harry Partch's early works for guitar. Unusual & recommended!
CD $13

5 UU’S with DAVE KERMAN/BOB DRAKE/SANJAY KUMAR THOMAS DIMUZIO/SCOTT BRAZIEAL - Crisis in Clay (ReR 5UU2; UK) Crisis in Clay album for sale by 5uu's was released Mar 04, 2014 on the ReR USA label. In this incarnation of 5uu's, leader-drummer Dave Kerman (of Thinking Plague, U Totem, and Present) was surrounded by Bob Drake (also Thinking Plague, Hail) and Sanjay Kumar (U Totem). Crisis in Clay buy CD music Electronician Thomas DiMuzio provides sonic textures for four tracks and Scott Brazieal appears on vibes once. Crisis in Clay songs The band's previous record, Hunger's Teeth, dated back to 1994. Crisis in Clay was worth the wait, since 5uu's delivered what can be considered an essential album to any fan of complex rock that goes beyond the standard progressive rock format. Crisis in Clay CD music contains a single disc with 16 songs.
CD $13

5 UU’S S with DAVE KERMAN / BOB DRAKE / SANJAY KUMAR SUSANNE LEWIS / THOMAS DIMUZIO / JAMES GRIGSBY / MICHELLE BOS - Hunger’s Teeth (ReR 5UU1; UK) The re-formed 5UU's first CD, featuring, one-of-a-kind drummer Dave Kerman with new line-up- Sanjay Kumar (keyboards) and Bob Drake (Bass, Guitar, Vocals) with guests Susanne Lewis, Tom Dimuzio and James Grigsby. Power, complexity and intelligence - an express train that can pirouette on a dime.
CD $13

GIVE GUITARS TO PEOPLE with PATRICIA BATEIRA [a/k/a  NATuerlich] / JOCHEN ARBEIT / VITOR RUA - The Look of Silence (ReR GGTP1; UK) Featuring NATuerlich (a.k.a Patricia Bateira), Jochen Arbeit (Einstürzende Neubauten) and Vitor Rua (amazing experimental guitarist & composer for Clean Feed) - guitars. Give Guitars to People is a project, which deals with a new music style, combining their individual sounds, horizontally and vertically, to mould a unique aesthetic, identified by Rua as meta-idiomatic. Of their live performance, this was said: Imagine a performance that doesn't begin - just starts - and that doesn't end - just stops; no climax or any intention to reach an end; where the events of the staging exist for themselves instead of participating in any progression. GIVE GUITARS TO PEOPLE is Jochen Arbeit, Vítor Rua and NATürlich's idiomatic fronts with a schizoid function in a discontinuous and deconstructive flow, created with no apparent relationship between them, except the pure charm of building an abstract musical chain. The Look of Silence is a spectrum of overlapping colors, intentions and progressions based on the dynamics of togetherness and the variables of here and now, that doesn't begin, just starts and doesn't end. Co-release with NATuerlich.
CD $15

HEINER GOEBBELS - Italian Concerto (ReR ISA024; UK) With Chris Cutler, The Icarus Ensemble conducted by Yoichi Sugiyama, Sira and Boubacar Djebate, Johannes Bauer, Tiziano Popoli, Jocelyn B. Smith and the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna conducted by Franck Ollu, this is a rare release from one of the pioneers of contemporary cross-platform composition. Working with montage, superposition and elements of different musical languages, Heiner sidesteps genre to concentrate on the material. This CD comprises four high quality (3 world premiere) recordings that feature a disparate set of compositions performed at a three-city festival organized by Angelica in 2005. The Italian Concerto/Tutti Writing marks a now vanishingly rare live appearance from Heiner in an extended duet with Chris Cutler, concluding with TuttiWriting, in which they are joined by the Icarus Ensemble. This is followed by Ou bien Sunyatta for Kora, Voice and Orchestra, Die Faust in Wappen, derived from a story by Franz Kafka, for trombone (Johannes Bauer) and orchestra and So that the blood dropped to the earth, for orchestra and voice adapted from Surrogate Cities. These are remarkable and substantial pieces.
CD $13

HACO With OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / UCHIHASHI  KAZUHISA / et al - Happiness Proof (ReR HAC02; UK) Haco's second solo release for ReR is a stunning collision between unashamed pop and out-there experimentalism. HACO first gained international recognition for her role as lyricist, composer and vocalist in the seminal avant-rock band After Dinner, who helped pave the way for much of Japan's fertile independent music scene. After Dinner combined Beatles-inspired pop, contemporary composition, free-jazz, adventurous mixing and pre-sampling tape-manipulation in a concoction that won great critical acclaim.
CD $13

TRISTAN HONSINGER / MASSIMO SIMONINI - Call Me Us (ReR IDA 25; Italy) Cellist Honsinger and pre-existing media manipulist Simonini with a piece that falls between radio art, music theatre and... and what? A highly unusual performance in 10 parts that deploys its materials sparingly and intelligently and, through a combination of skill, spontaneity and ambiguity, arrives at something seemingly too controlled and precise to be improvised, but too complex and willful to have been composed. In a world of its own; this is confident, eccentric, and highly musical. Simonini’s choice, use and development of both plundered sources and real time manipulation is masterful. A one-off.
CD $13

KAMPEC DOLORES - Sitting On The Buffalo (ReR KD2; UK) This Hungarian band was formed in 1984, and this is their fifth release. Led by guitarist Csaba Hajnoczy & featuring vocalist/violinist Gabi Kenderesi (both of whom also make up 1/2 of The Danubians), the band also includes soprano sax, bass & drums. ''Singer Gabi has developed her own singing, using unknown languages and innovative vocal pyrotechnics. Meanwhile the guitar, sax, bass & drums thrash out haunting mutated melodies, which also draw on folk idioms & the mix swims with bubbling electronics.”
CD $13

BORIS KOVAC - From Ritual Nova 1 & 2 (ReR KCD1; UK) “Unique and wonderful music. Boris produced these careful and extended works over 14 years. Boris Kovacs was born in Vojvodina, the multi-ethnic region of what was then Jugoslavia. He studied accordion and saxophone, going on to teach himself many other instruments. On this record he plays mainly soprano saxophone, leaving Jasna Jovisevic to take alto and bassclarinet. Like pianist Slobodank Stevic, she was classically trained, as was bassist Sinisa Mazalica. The drummer, Boris' son Lav Kovac, is celebrated for his very different playing in Howling Owl and with a variety of eastern bands. ReR released their first record by Boris, Ritual Nova, in 1989. Since then he has played at festivals around the world, written music for theatre and film, and been briefly wooed by the World Music community, though his refusal to conform to type leaves him still in a class of one..What's remarkable about Boris is that he has carved out a musical form that transcends genre, or even musical content; it's a music of depth and feeling, and that's what you hear beyond the notes or style. And he has gathered, over time, musicians who can realize that mysterious quality. For Boris, this is a small group, only five people, and the music is more fragile, more personal than that of the larger ensembles. Although informed by chamber music, Serbian, Romanian and Hungarian folk music - and jazz, you can't file this record in any of those categories. With his various ensembles Boris has given well over 500 concerts at World/New Music/Jazz festivals, across 30 countries and 4 continents.He has made 3 appearances in the Top 10 World Music Charts. Europe. His CD The Last Balkan Tango was chosen as one of the 50 best albums ever by the British Songlines magazine.”
CD $13

RENE LUSSIER / CHRIS CUTLER / JEAN DEROME - Three Pieces Suite (ReR LCD1; UK) This release is drawn from 3 separate recordings the trio made in the 80's. The disc is a combination of compositions & improvisations. Guitars, reeds, keyboards, electronics, bass & drums. Cellist Tom Cora guests on about 1/3rd.
CD $13

ISTVAN MARTHA - The Wind Rises (ReR SD1; UK) “The idea behind The Wind Rises was to take a recording studio into the Transylvanian countryside, and make an album "in the open air", a "Sound Diary" of village sounds, musicians, people and places. They transported the best Hungarian rock, jazz and classical musicians, and recorded them on location. It was all bound together with state of the art studio and production techniques. They produced one of the great albums of the decade, an epic which manages to work as an overwhelming fusion of rock, classical, ambient, industrial and folk styles. The album combines found sounds with mediaeval instruments, Industrial percussion, excerpts from an operetta as if performed by Laibach, startlingly aggressive cymbalon, a cast of thousands, the astonishing traditional singing of Marta Sebestyen, and guttural saxophones rising out of the mist. Some of the music was improvised on location, some scored for early music ensembles, rock bands and traditional instrumentalists. Especially featured are jazz saxophonist Lazlo Des, the Cymbalon player Kalman Balog, the Amadinda percussion ensemble, and the WYXimfonic orchestral group The whole piece is structured as a dream, which sucks you in to the ancient spiritual struggles of rural Hungarian life, and expands to take on national oppression, surrealism and post modernism.”
CD $13

MNEMONIST ORCHESTRA - Gyromamcy (ReR MN2; UK) The MNEMONISTS are a legendary group of composers and artists from Fort Collins Colorado, who create ambiguous unsettling soundscapes. They have a bizarre working method, which perhaps explains their startlingly original sound. Starting off by recording a mainly acoustic ensemble playing live, they subject the resulting tapes to real-time processing, while simultaneously adding more live sounds. Layers and layers are then built up and assembled into the frightening sonic resonances that we hear on Gyromancy.
CD $13

R. STEVIE MOORE - Phonography (ReR RSM1; UK) Phonography was Stevie s first LP release, and an out-of-the-blue masterpiece: terminally idiosyncratic but with all the compositional qualities of great pop. A gifted songwriter, R Stevie (son of Bob Moore, Elvis bassist) grew up and was steeped in Nashville s countrypolitanism; but, as a recidivist rebel, he inevitably slipped into strange byways, following his own, unique path into celebrated obscurity - as this strange and compelling record attests.
CD $13

NEWS FROM BABEL with LINDSAY COOPER / CHRIS CUTLER / ZEENA PARKINS / DAGMAR KRAUSE - Work Resumed on the Tower (ReR NFB1; USA) "News from Babel was the song project inaugurated by Chris Cutler with fellow ex Henry Cow composer Lindsay Cooper. The pieces for this first LP were written for a band that also included Zeena Parkins (harp - her first recording with the instrument) and the incomparable Dagmar Krause (another ex-band member) singing. Using the studio as an instrument and experimenting with unusual instrumentation and techniques, these are songs stretched into a less than familiar shape. Phil Minton and Cow bassist Georgie Born also appear. Re-mastered and repackaged with full text and illustrations enclosed."
CD Sale $6

NEWS FROM BABEL with CHRIS CUTLER / LINDSAY COOPER / ZEENA PARKINS / DAGMAR KRAUSE - Letters Home (ReR NFB2; UK) “The second record by this group (Lindsay Cooper, Zeena Parkins and Chris Cutler) with invitees Robert Wyatt, Sally Potter, Phil Minton and Dagmar Krause who sing, and Bill Gilonis (of The Work) who plays occasional guitar and bass, and who also produced the recording. These are extended songs, unusually orchestrated and arranged and not much like anything else recorded before or since. Re-mastered and repackaged here, with full text and illustrations enclosed.”
CD Sale $6

OSSATURA with TIM HODKINSON - Dentro (ReR O1; UK) Elio Martusciello (gtrs/samplers/pre-recorded materials), Maurizio Martusciello (electro-acoustic objects), Fabrizio Spera (drums/amplified objects/strings/tapes/ radio/electronics), Luca Venitucci (piano/synthesizer/drum machine/objects), Tim Hodgkinson. Improvisation represents the backbone of the music played by Italian group OSSATURA. Their music is marked by a sequence of sound blocks and diversified interlocking timbres and shapes, where detailed textural work alternates with rhythmic acellerations and highly dense sound events. Standard instrumental techniques are explored, together with heterodox practices such as manipulation, treatment, electrification and amplification of various objects, assuming noise as a structural element. OSSATURA naturally tends towards a combination of non-musical languages through a creative process where music is but one of the components in a complex and extended project. For Dentro, their first CD on ReR/Recommended, OSSATURA are joined by former Henry Cow man TIM HODGKINSON to produce an electro-acoustic collaboration that drummer Chris Cutler described as being: "Somewhere between musique-concrete and a kind of abstract improvisational work, using extended techniques and electrification that disconnects sound from any recognizable source. A fascinating first record that sits between studio improvisation and extensive post production processing composition."
CD $13

ERIC GLICK RIEMAN / LESLI DALABA / STUART DEMPSTER - Lung Tree (ReR RDD; UK) ERIC GLICK RIEMAN writes for piano and for ensembles, and is celebrated for his development of the 'prepared and extended Rhodes piano. "Basically I cut a Rhodes electric piano into pieces and reassembled it, separating its outputs, adding contact mics to the general pickup structure to amplify very small sounds. Each event can be spatialized in stereo and electronically processed". He has also recorded with Fred Frith and Carla Kihlstedt, performed with Ikue Mori, Marcos Fernandes, Marcello Radulovich, Wadada Leo Smith and interpreted the work of Meredith Monk, Cecil Taylor, Alvin Curran, Pauline Oliveros and James Tenney under the composers' supervision. Trumpeter LESLI DALABA has worked with the New York Composers Orchestra, Eliot Sharp's Carbon, Fred Frith's Tense Serenity, Derek Bailey, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins Wayne Horvitz, LaMonteYoung and Eugene Chadbourne. Her most recent release, 'Timelines' (Tzadik), is an ambitious, musical rendering of 5 billion years of Earth's history in accurate, relative time. She practices acupuncture and Chinese Medicine in Seattle. STUART DEMPSTER--Sound Gatherer--trombonist, composer and Professor Emeritus at University of Washington; has recorded for Columbia, Nonesuch, and New Albion. A leading figure in the development of trombone technique and performance, he published his landmark book 'The Modern Trombone' in 1979. He is a member of Cathedral Band and Deep Listening Band and has toured extensively. He produced the first three DLB recordings.”
CD $13

JON ROSE - The Hyperstring Project (ReR JR6; UK) “A large scale work featuring extensive writing for string orchestras, and controlled Rosean chaos. Jon Rose is a master of improvising jazz violin, an inventor of complex interactive electronics, a humorist who likes to do everything you could imagine doing to a violin (and some things you couldn't imagine), and a creator of mad cut-up radio programmes. He also produces large-scale interactive concert performances; a recent project involved Jon and partner Hollis Tayler coaxing noise and music from mic'd up wire fences, in the Australian outback. This new CD from Rose, The People's Music, places him in a slightly more traditional field of composition, in which he is able to manipulate and choreograph a string orchestra, percussionists, a speaker, solo violin improvisations and video projections. It was recorded live in 2001, and is an extension of a previous Rose project, the extraordinary Violin Factory, which was premiered in Vienna in 1999. Jon talks about the inspiration behind these works: "I spent a lot of time looking through junk shops in Sydney buying the cheapest violins that little money could buy. I became aware that most of these instruments had been made in China (notably the Skylark models) and I started to imagine the factories full of massed labouring violin-makers, where these instruments were produced. Although the average professional western violin player found these instruments to be unplayable and (tone-wise) un-listenable to, I took the opposite view. With their shrill tone production, they sounded closer to the erhu (the traditional Chinese two -string violin) than to our model of beauty and perfection - the Strad. They were in effect, the sound of Asia, the new string sound of our century! The People's Music is part homage, part parody and part meditation on these themes. A string orchestra whisks through re-composed shards of the classical repertoire; a Red Guard factory guide barks instructions; a three-piece percussion ensemble from time to time intervenes destructively.”
CD $13

JON ROSE with OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / JOELLE LEANDRE / LAURA NEWTON / LEE PUI MING - Shopping Live@Victo (ReR JR4; UK) “Yes, we're still shopping - this is an unexpurgated copy of the Victoriaville concert (Radio recording) with group: Lauren Newton, Joelle Leandre, Otomo Yoshihide and Chris Cutler. In my opinion the wildest and most dizzying version on record. Unfolding chaos with luminous performances - viz, Lauren's hair-raising interpretations and vocal event, Joelle's oscar-winning bag lady performance, THE CAST for maintaining an atmosphere of knife-edge confusion. All human life and a whole lot of other stuff too. High quality radio recording with nothing cut or edited - nightmarish, and funny. Glad I was there.''
CD $13

JON ROSE with DEREK BAILEY / EUGENE CHADBOURNE / ALVIN CURRAN / JOELLE LEANDRE / MISHA MENGELBERG / BARRE PHILLIPS - Violin Music For Restaurants (ReR JRCD1; UK) ’'Violin', a Radio work based on Jo 'Doc' Rosenberg's 'BOO' theory - songlines applied to restaurant tables. Includes theatre, noise, golden 4th dimension standards, vox humana.
CD $13

JON ROSE - The People’s Music (ReR JR7; UK) 'The People's Music' is part homage, part parody and part meditation on these themes. A string orchestra whisks through re-composed shards of the classical repertoire; a Red Guard factory guide barks instructions; a three-piece percussion ensemble from time to time intervenes destructively. Meanwhile, Rose himself conducts with a plastic replica of Mao's embalmed left hand and interjects with bursts of his electronic hyper-string violin. Not to mention that this spectacle was recorded in the unlikely and inaccessible Australian outback location of Wogarno Station, Murchison, about six hours' drive north of Perth, somehow with the press there in full force.
CD $13

BRIAN WOODBURY - Variety Orchestra (ReR BW1; UK) “Brian Woodbury could not have chosen a better title for Variety Orchestra. Combining elements of Mexican-inflected polka, roots Americana, big band, romanticism, Lennon Sisters vocals and much, much more, this music feels strangely alluring for all its swings through a diversity of styles. Eclectic is a word often used to describe music that cannot be pigeon-holed, and clearly there is no way to classify what Woodbury and his Orchestra do; but as varied as the programme is, there seems to be an underlying philosophy, which is to blend genres in new, interesting and engaging ways.
   There are other artists who blend styles, but none quite so seamlessly and with complete abandon as Woodbury. “Take the J Train” begins with a ROVA-style saxophone rhythm; a faintly Mexican accordion/violin passage is introduced; then a banjo picks out a bluegrass solo. And all this within the first ninety seconds. There is a certain Zappa-esque irreverence in the way that Woodbury mixes things up. By the end of the piece, genres integrate in a cacophony with saxophone wailing and pedal steel seducing over a broken-up rhythm. One precedent for this music would be Fred Frith’s ‘70s band Henry Cow, although Cow was considerably more difficult. As challenging as Woodbury is he never loses site of captivating his audience. “Jesus Christ Alrighty” merges warped organ, distorted guitar and horns over a move-your-body R&B backdrop.
   Another antecedent would be some of John Zorn’s early work, like the The Big Gundown , with its episodic nature, but Woodbury manages to rapidly introduce, discard and then sometimes return to ideas in a way that is equally absurd but completely accessible. There is something oddly appealing about this work, despite its obvious intention to keep one perpetually off guard.
   Recorded over the course of thirteen years, the album features performers including violinist Mark Feldman, accordionist Guy Klucevsek, violinist Sarah Parkins and trumpeter Frank London. The music is highly orchestrated—it would have to be—but there are opportunities for improvisation. On “Venice, Italy,” which opens with a solo accordion that leads into a pastoral keyboard/violin/banjo passage that could easily be found on a Gentle Giant disk, before the trumpets take over and move the piece into Cuban territory, again all within the first minute, trombonist Dan Levine gets the opportunity to explore the many nooks and crannies that Woodbury’s shifting rhythms provide.
   Listeners looking for something that is challenging, while at the same time full of captivating melodies and rhythms, would do well to check out Brian Woodbury’s Variety Orchestra. Clever without being coy, this album is remarkable for its ability to sound focused despite itself.” - John Kelman, AllAboutJazz
CD $13