John Butcher - Winter Gardens (2013)

So here is my Christmas present to all of you, and another big 'fuck you' to vinyl-only releases everywhere (especially the ones without download codes). This year may have been another series of victories for you, lots of (probably) great music has been locked away in the dusty grooves of unwieldy, fragile black platters purchased by a few dozen diehards who are probably to enamored of their mint condition fetish object to dare to actually play it anyway (so much beauty basically thrown in the trash!), but in the end you will never win! There will be a CD reissue eventually, or, as in this case, some good soul with the necessary equipment will manage to rescue the music from its vinyl tomb and release it unto the world - even if it is somewhat tainted by the vinyl crackle and occasional hiccup that inevitably comes with it (oh I'm sorry, that is 'warmth', or 'tactile charm', or 'personality and physicality'. Right.). Oh ye fanciers of the rare and pretty artifact over the actual sounds contained therein, what is the purpose of music if not to be heard?
Here some wag actually asserts that 'this music is made to be heard on vinyl', unfortunately without any further explanation. I sure would have liked to know the logic behind such a bizarre claim.
In any case. After months of searching, all of a sudden in some dark recess of the interweb up popped a rip of this solo LP by John Butcher (1 file per side), released early in 2013 on a Greek label called Kukuruku. Thank you, anonymous music liberator! For this momentous occasion I downloaded some special software that allowed me to split up the tracks into separate mp3 files, making me feel like a genuine computer wizard - a rush which lasted several minutes. I'm pretty sure I've found the correct point at which a new track begins, even! And here is the fruit of our joint labour: now we can all have a listen, undistracted by the split seams and bent corners we would have had to pine over if we had bought a physical copy. And this definitely is worth a listen: Butcher already has about 10 solo albums out, but up to now every new one has repaid the attentive listener with some new thrills, and this one is no different. Since I'm still reeling from last night's pre-Christmas dinner and I suck at describing music anyway, I'm just going to leave you with an excerpt from the label blurb:
"The album’s two longer tracks were recorded in December 2011 at St. Anne's & St. Agnes 
Church in London by Simon Reynell (Another Timbre label) and document his acoustic 
solo while interacting with the environment’s natural feedback; evolving tonal patterns 
and harmonics of circular breathing, repetitive musical riffs and silent moments create an 
atmosphere with a special character.
 Two shorter tracks in “Winter Gardens” document Butcher’s skills incorporating
 microphone feedbacks. Recorded in Milwaukee, October 2011, the result is resembling
 electronically synthesized sounds while resonances of different parts of the saxophone
 blend with oscillating re-amplified sounds." So there you go. Tell me, what more could you possibly want in your stocking?
Here it is.
320 kbps, but of course that doesn't really mean much in this case.

PS. Sorry about the shitty picture of the cover. I had to make do with what I could find online. And of course 12" covers don't fit in most scanners anyway. Also, in case you hadn't noticed, despite springing from an actual pet peeve of mine, this was mostly written in jest. It is not an insult to your glorious collection of black and swirly colour slabs of wax in their pristine gatefolds, nor an invitation to engage in yet another tiresome 'CD versus vinyl' debate. Comments on that subject will be ignored, possibly deleted. Merry fucking Christmas!

And just like that I'm back to hibernating.

Taku Sugimoto - Tori (2001)

The front, sporting artwork by Masae Tanabe.

By popular demand, here is yet more Taku Sugimoto (杉本拓). 'Tori', released as a slimcase CD by the Off Site gallery to coincide with an exhibition ('Birdy Program') of bird* paintings by Masae Tanabe (たなべまさえ), is from the same period as 'Italia', and though I enjoy it less than that one, it's definitely something people need to be able to check out. Therefore, as it has been out of print for over a decade, I feel it is my solemn duty to share it with you, and I do not take this duty lightly. Now could some other people with old and rare electro-acoustic improv recordings in their collection please follow my example?

The back of the CD. Not much to see, but posted here in the interest of historical research.

Four longish tracks here find Sugimoto-san performing live at the gallery, first on six-string bass guitar, next on electric guitar, then on contact microphone and his guitar case (!), and finally on acoustic guitar.
Limited to 400 copies, plus 100 additional copies that came with the book Tanabe issued especially for the exhibition.
320kbps.
Here.

*Tori (鳥) is the Japanese word for 'bird'. The kanji (character) is based on a drawing of a bird, as can be seen when you compare it to the bird in the artwork.

The bird is the word.

Taku Sugimoto - Myshkin Musicu for Electric Guitar (1996)

Hello, and welcome back to the most erratically updated music blog out there!
Did you notice? I just re-upped the first album ever posted here, and probably also the best one! So go there first if you missed out the first time around.
Now, I have awoken from my slumber to bring you yet another old and rare (very rare this time) album by the one and only Taku Sugimoto (杉本拓).

This one is highly sought after in certain circles, but has proved very elusive. It's taken me years to stumble on a physical copy myself! We have brought you Flagments of Paradise (1997), we have brought you Italia (2001), hell we even brought you Mon.goose (1999) – but today we travel back even further in time for Myshkin Musicu, an enigmatic disc released on Sugimoto's own Slub Music, consisting mostly of solo guitar, but also featuring a 10 minute improvisation starring Kevin Drumm, Tetuzi Akiyama, Brent Gutzeit and some other fine folks.

Excerpt from Sámuel Gyarmathi's perennial classic
Grammatical Proof of the Affinity of the Hungarian Language With Languages of Fennic Origin.

What's the relation to the town of Мышкин in Russia? Does Sugimoto-san speak Hungarian? Can anyone really claim to be able to decipher the track titles on the insert? Many questions to which you won't find any answers here.
New link!
320kbps.

Kaneko Jutok & Kikukawa Takahisa - Wedged Night (2005)

While I would like to try to use this blog primarily for my own rips, rather than just leeching off the hard work of others (and having a blog that's interchangeable with all the other ones out there), I will also post some mp3s I picked up myself on some other blog from time to time, especially if the sounds in question are not available on 27 other sites, or if for whatever reason I think they deserve more attention. So here goes: a vinyl rip (I don't do those myself) of a great Japanese 'free rock' LP recorded in 2002, and released in 2005 by bijou label Siwa (but, like almost all of their releases, long out of print). And while I think of it: is anyone ever going to rip that Kan Mikami LP they did in 2009??

Listen up: my personal habit is, when romanizing Japanese names, to put the first name first, rather than the surname first, as is the habit in Japan. That's the way I have always done it on this blog as well. So I will speak of Kazuki Tomokawa, Kan Mikami, Keiji Haino, Toshimaru Nakamura, and not the other way around - unless the person in question systematically sticks to the traditional order himself (for instance: Yoshihide Ōtomo looks weird, and countless people on the interwebs in fact seem convinced that Ōtomo (oh yeah, I also like to mark long vowels with a macron) is his first name. It's not.).
Jutoku Kaneko (金子寿徳: Kane-ko Ju-toku), legendary guitarist behind Kousokuya (光束夜; -ou- is another way to transliterate -ō-, so pronounce it Kō-soku-ya, 'night of luminous flux') who sadly died at the age of 49 in 2007, preferred the transliteration Kaneko Jutok, so let's grant him that.
I don't know what Takahisa Kikukawa (菊川貴央), the drummer in 水晶の舟 (usually written Suishou no Fune, 'crystal boat', but the same thing goes for the -ou- in 'Suishou'), prefers, but for the sake of symmetry I'll put his last name first as well.

Two more remarks about Jutoku's name, for those who are interested in that kind of thing.
First off, what happened to the -u at the end of 'Jutoku'? You can read a very academic explanation on wiki, but long story short: i and u are hardly pronounced at all in certain word environments, so occasionally you'll see this reflected in the way people spell their names in rōmaji. Extreme example: Stomu Yamashta, actually Tsutomu Yamashita (山下勉, but more often in katakana: ツトム ヤマシタ).
Secondly: occasionally you'll find 寿得 instead of 寿徳 for 'Jutoku' (not on this album cover though, as you can see, nor on the flyer). Strange, because the dictionary I'm checking at the moment lists the pronunciation Jutoku for 寿徳 (along with 5 other possibilities, try it!), but only 'Toshie' for 寿得. So I don't know why the latter is used, since apparently it can't be read as 'Jutoku'. End of second remark.
One remark about the album title: the cover gives the Japanese title 楔夜, the characters for 'wedge' and 'night'. If you have paid attention very well, you will recognize the latter as the -ya in Kousokuya. I'm assuming this title is pronounced 'Kusabi Yoru', but have no clue what it's supposed to mean.
And finally, one remark about the track title 'Kirin'. It means 'giraffe' in Japanese (but I think it can also simply be a personal name, so I'm not sure what's intended here). They'll usually spell it キリン, in katakana, first of all because that's normal practice for animals, but also because the kanji are way too difficult: 麒麟. Just look at those babies.

Konnichi wa. Watashi wa kirin desu.

Do you see how I managed to write an entire post without saying anything about the music? There's other things in life, kids. Language, for instance, is also interesting. Have you looked up the name of this blog yet? I like to imagine the troops of Indoeuropeanists stranding on this blog and blinking in incomprehension. Makes me chuckle, don't know about you. To tell you the truth, the kind of ramblings I post here (like the above), are the sort of information I always wished I'd find online when looking up my favourite music. So I guess I'm hoping there are other kids out there who will be pleased to be thus enlightened. But for the ungrateful rest of you I'll just quote the blurb in full:
'Jutok Kaneko should be familiar to some as the man behind the long running deep psychedelic 'rock' outfit Kousokuya. Takahisa Kikukawa spent some time with Ché-Shizu, UZU and has recently been performing with Suishou no Fune. Both in Kousokuya and in Kaneko's solo work the line between composition and improvisation is a very blurry one so it's only in the loosest of terms that we say side one of this album is an "improvisation" and side two consists of a couple of "songs". The LP is issued in a one off limited run of 500 and comes in an appropriately black and black on black silkscreened cover with two screened inserts.'
Or in other words: if you liked the Vajra (and I'm hoping at least some of the 600+ of you who downloaded it did - and maybe even went ahead and actually bought it?), you'll probably like this.
So there.
192kbps.

Susan Alcorn - And I Await the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar (2007)

Original CD-R cover art.

I'm pretty tired and lazy at the moment, but I promised myself I would try not to let this blog gather cobwebs again (at least not too soon), so if you don't mind I'm going to go with this promo text I found on Boomkat. It pretty much says what I was going to write anyway (except for the odd ellipsis and the very frequently found typo 'Messaien' for [Olivier] Messiaen, weird right?):
'Susan Alcorn is already up to her fifth album of solo pedal steel explorations, and this latest on Olde English Spelling Bee sounds every bit as beautiful as it looks. Proving that the instrument can easily out manoeuvre any Nashville stranglehold, Alcorn's music is as far removed from country as you could imagine. Making fine use of the volume pedal, Alcorn creates stately swells of electric string warmth, rising up and disappearing in mists of echo, or sliding and detuning into a discordant abyss. There are so many more textures at play in Alcorn's work: at times you'll [hear?] something encroaching upon Loren Connors' haunted blues, at others she'll drop in some angular, fractured riffs on Messaien-influenced harmony. This feels like a really special release, a modern exploration of [an?] instrument that's seldom given the opportunity to break free of its supporting-cast shackles. Highly recommended.'

Cover of the LP reissue. I know, it's prettier.

I will just add two things, quickly:
1. Prior to the LP on Olde English Spelling Bee, this was actually released on CD-R by miss Alcorn herself, probably in a pretty limited run.
2. This CD-R version contains an unlisted bonus track not on the vinyl: a moody cover version of Domenico Modugno's Emmy-Award-winning song 'Nel blu dipinto di blu' (1958), popularly known far and wide as 'Volare'.

That quaint cottage industry feel again.

Enjoy.
320kbps.


PS: to make up for my laziness I will add (but just this once all right? Don't expect me to make a habit of it), a very nice video: Susan Alcorn performing Messiaen's 'O Sacrum Convivium' (1937), usually for a cappella choir.

Mon.goose - At Penguin House (1999)

There was a request for more Sugimoto, so here is Mon.goose;. If that punctuation is part of the band name is a matter of debate - considering that they don't use it on the inside of the wrapper thingy around the piece of paper that serves as packaging here, nor on this here website, I'm starting to think it's just an annoying one-off piece of tomfoolery on the cover. I'm also starting to regret that I tagged the files with the period between the syllables (but without the semicolon!), but there's nothing I can do about that now is there? I mean: there's nothing I am willing to do about it. Anyway........... What is this Mongoose?
Why, Wikipedia teaches us it's a weasel-like carnivore that lives in Africa and Asia, and whose name, from the Marāṭhī mangus (मंगूस), is a prime example of folk etymology (the plural mongeese is attested, even).

I have non-retractile claws and a large anal scent gland.

We are primarily concerned here with the 'band' (group? ensemble? crew?) though, at least for the time being. So, Mon(.)goose(;) (on the other hand, you wouldn't want to have them confused with some Hungarian glitch-hop producer, would you?) was the short-lived trio of Tetuzi Akiyama (秋山徹次, guitar, electronics), Utah Kawasaki (ユタカワサキ, synthesizer) and Taku Sugimoto (杉本拓, guitar), active around the turn of the millennium when the scene in Tokyo was pretty exciting (ok, sure, it still is, but I'm getting pretty fed up with that whole concept-over-actual-sound and why-make-any-sound-at-all?-craze).

Mongoose, the group (Akiyama, Sugimoto, Kawasaki)

On their website they speak of 'minimal noise music', but honestly that's not at all what I hear in it. There's some electric guitar feedbacking and some bloopy synth here, but only your granny would label it noise. It's just to slow and deliberate and spacious and balanced and... dare I say it, relaxing. Sugimoto is to blame for that, I guess; it's just impossible to think of 'noise' when you hear his delicate guitar notes (remember, this is only a short while after his zen - but don't call it that! - masterpiece, 'Opposite'). On the second of two untitled live tracks his notes are initially gathered into dense flurries, but soft, soft... while delicate crackles and hums fill out the palette. Gradually they gain presence, but there's always a stately grace about the entire sound. Whitehouse this isn't. I guess it's an early form of what we call eai nowadays (for lack of a better word... Onkyo seemed promising for a moment, but then that turned out to be a brand of surround sound speakers). A very interesting release if you are familiar with the later work of the artists involved, especially as far as Sugimoto's concerned. Recorded in February and released in September 1999 on Sugimoto's own Slub Music, this hardly ever shows up these days, so...
New link!
320kbps.

Otomo Yoshihide / Keith Rowe / Taku Sugimoto - Ajar (2002)

What a fantastic line-up! What an overlooked gem!
Seriously, what do you hear when you think "guitar trio"? I'm willing to bet it's not this subdued, highly detailed soundscape from three great artists with radically different approaches to their instrument. All three musicians have been mentioned on this blog before. Not nearly enough Keith Rowe though - there must be some other out-of-print gems out there, fit for posting. I'll have to give this issue some thought. I'm not going to do the whole bio thing, suffice to say he is the grandaddy of contemporary electro-acoustic improvisation, and one of my favourite artists of all time, in any field. Need more intel? Have a wiki.
A decade-old release on the defunct Alcohol label (they also did Ground-Zero's 'Last Concert', in conjunction with Amoebic, and Toshimaru Nakamura's 'No-Input Mixing Board [3]', all on their own). All of their releases are pretty hard to get these days. This one came in a little cardboard thingy that could singe your retinas if you're not careful.
Bliss.
320kbps.

Chie Mukai - Songs & Improvisation (2003)

Here is a very obscure CD-R release by Chie Mukai (向井千惠). It's a live recording from "2002.5.1" (thanks to the ubiquitous confusion regarding the notation of dates, I can not say with any certainty if this is January 5th or the 1st of May - what could be more logical and unambiguous than dd.mm.yyyy people, come on?), recorded at Pepperland in Okayama. She is credited with "胡弓 (er-hu), vocal, piano, percussion, etc.". 胡弓 is actually the Japanese kokyū, which is not quite the same as the Chinese èrhú (二胡), but apparently there is some confusion in the use of these terms. Enough already with the confusion! Anyway, it's an eastern Asian spike fiddle with 2 or (in Japan) 3 strings.
Chie Mukai is a unique improviser who is not averse to some minimalist droning or wordless vocalizing. She is perhaps best known as the leader of free improvisation ensemble Ché-SHIZU (シェシズ), formed as far back as 1981. They have a couple of albums on PSF, one of which ('Nazareth') was also released in 2003. Another notable group she performs with is Enkidu (with Éric Cordier and Seiichi Yamamoto). Check out their album 'Hasselt' (also 2003!), which, unlike the Ché-SHIZU album mentioned, was in fact recorded in the fair city after which it is named.
This disc (a blue TDK Toughness CD-R, 650MB) is a bit of a mystery, there's no info to be found anywhere. I think it's basically something she copied herself in very limited quantities and handed out to friends or sold at concerts. Here's your chance to hear it for yourself. Oh, by the way, the third track (not the second one as is mentioned on the back (see scans), as the entire thing is preceded by a 2 minute warm-up) is a (slightly misquoted) cover of 'A Maid That['s] Deep In Love', a traditional but no doubt based on the Pentangle version, from their 1970 album 'Cruel Sister'. About the last 2 tracks (transliterated, 'Okoru' and 'Tokimeki no Hata') I have no information. Do you?
Hear me now.
320kbps.

Cremaster - 32,41 n/m² (2003)

Cremaster is of course a muscle somewhere down there in the scrotal area as well as a series of artsy films by Björk's boyfriend (what I've seen of them was terrible, just terrible), but more importantly it's the long-standing noisy improv duo of Ferran Fages (feedback mixing board and pick-ups; you may have encountered him in Ap'strophe, Atolón or Octante) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (objects on electric guitar; you may also know him from his accordion work or his electronic compositions, or Octante again, or from I Treni Inerti). Today I'd like to present you with what is probably their hardest-to-find album, 32,41 n/m² (their fourth one, not counting that 3" on Sound323). Housed in a sandpaper cover, only 123 copies of this baby were made by the good people at Absurd in Attica. There aren't any left.
You're welcome.
320kbps.

Big Can - Big Can (2010)

'Big Can' (大罐, which I presume one would read as 'Ōkan' in Japanese, possibly 'Dàguàn' in Chinese - but don't quote me on that) is the audio recording of a half hour long romp a bunch of Chinese and Japanese (and one Korean, and one French expat) sound artists had in April 2009 in a huge abandoned oil can in Zhujiajiao, Shanghai. Lots of discrete scraping, ululating and, erm, banging going on here, everything enriched by the amazing reverb provided by this special location, which has since been demolished. Of those present, the 2 Japanese are by far the most well-known here: the ever-reliable couple of Sachiko M (M for Matsubara) and Ōtomo Yoshihide ( 大友良英 - Ōtomo is his last name, by the way, people often get that wrong because many Japanese artists give their first name first nowadays, to accommodate us forinners I suppose). The one Korean guy here, Ryu Hankil (류한길), should also be represented by a couple of discs on your shelves by now. Then there is a certain Olivier Heux who apparently is French-born but moved to China and adopted a Chinese name (小圈), and a bunch of 'real' Chinese: Yuen Cheewai (袁志伟), Yan Jun (颜峻), Yang Ge (杨戈), Xiao Qiang (小强), Hong Qile (洪启乐), Gogo J (aka Jie Sheng, 盛洁), Tao Yi (陶轶) and (骏园). To tell you the truth, the only one of these I'm a bit familiar with is field recording manipulator Yan Jun, whom we'll perhaps hear more about later. I can't say what all these people were doing in that big ol' can (some of them didn't do anything if the label description is to be believed), but it sounds like it must have been a special occasion.
This was released last year on Kwanyin and was noticed by 7 people outside of East-Asia. Ok, I exaggerate, but still - if this had been on a cool Japanese label about 50x as many people would have heard of this, am I right? Anyway.
New link!
320kbps.

The Sealed Knot - Surface / Plane (2001)

Now that all of you have finally trawled the depths of that amazing Vajra album, we can move on. So. Aside from a Royalist association during the English interregnum in the 1650s, The Sealed Knot is also the improvising trio of Burkhard Beins (rubbed percussion), Rhodri Davies (harp) and Mark Wastell (who was still playing the cello in those days). 'Surface / Plane' was their first CD (released in 2001 on Jon Morgan's now defunct Meniscus label, I think this was the label's last release actually) aside from a very hard to find untitled CDR on Confront one year earlier (hey, anyone like to make a guest post of that?). More recent albums were again on Confront and most recently on Another Timbre. When this one was released, it was considered a part of the New London Silence, but nobody uses that term anymore. Let's just call it eai and be done with it. All three players have earned their credentials in this area, Beins in Polwechsel, Phosphor, SLW, Trio Sowari, Activity Center etc., Davies also in SLW and furthermore in Broken Consort, Ist, Cranc, London Improvisers Orchestra, Assumed Possibilities etc., and Wastell in Assumed Possibilities and Broken Consort as well, oh and also in Ist and London Improvisers Orchestra, and furthermore in Quatuor Accorde, The Scotch of St. James, Belaska, Oceans of Silver & Blood, etc etc... If these guys are all so prolific, how come nobody has heard of them? We'll leave that question for another time. For now, enjoy these hushed explorations (in the words of Jason Bivins: 'the slow hissing or whining, the sudden rustles or thwacks, the delicate pizzicato like tiny droplets on the still surface of a pond'), and check out some of the other work these guys have done.
320kbps.
Here.

Vajra - Mandala Cat Last (2002)

One of my favourite albums of all time, this: the 5th (not counting that 3") and by far the best album by Japanese supergroup Vajra (跋折羅), the mighty trio of hoarse acid folk troubadour Kan Mikami on vocals and guitar (三上寛), the uncategorizable but instantly recognizable percussion of long-time Kazuki Tomokawa associate Toshiaki Ishizuka (石塚俊明), and last but not least - Keiji Haino (灰野敬二)! (What? He needs no warm-up talk, he's freaking Keiji Haino!)
This 2002 release (on P.S.F., like all Vajra albums) is usually referred to as 'Mandala Cat Last', though that's actually a fusion of the Japanese title (Mandalaキ・『やっと』 - 'Mandala ki - yatto') and the English one ('Cat Last'), both of them for reasons unfathomable to me (and probably you) making the same awkward pun (yatto is Japanese for 'at last'). But enough of that, on to the music.
Vajra is a very unstable but thrilling mix of three masters, a cocktail of psychedelic rock, hypnotic blues, unhinged improv jamming, folk and traditional Japanese song forms all twisted and mangled, feedback noise and ululations - basically all the great skills that the members of the group have perfected over several decades each crashing head-first into each other. Are you excited? You should be. The third track here is probably one of my top 3 favourite songs of all time - every bit as spine-chilling the 100th time you hear it as it was the first. When the first one takes flight, you hope it will never end. The fourth one is a very simple yet moving a cappella take on an obscure Mikami song, コップは壊れるだろう ('Koppu wa kowareru darō', 'The Cup Will Break'), from way, way back (it first appeared on his 2nd album, 三上寛のひとりごと, 'Mikami Kan no hitorigoto', 'Kan Mikami's Monologue', 1972 that was). OK, let's have a look at that tracklist.

1.    オレには空が緑に見える (Ore ni wa sora ga midori ni mieru) - The Sky Looks Green to Me
2.    日本のコーラは甘い! (Nihon no kōra wa amai!) - Japanse Cola Is Sweet!
3.    猿は拝まない (Saru wa ogamanai) - Monkeys Don't Pray
4.    曼荼羅TOOT(H) (Mandara TOOT(H)) - Mandala TOOT(H)
5.    亡音 (Bōon) - Sound Deadening
6.    疑傷 – 武蔵へ – (Gishō - Musashi e -) - Playing Wounded - For Musashi

Transliteration is a bit of a problem on the last 2 songs here, since the titles there, as far as I can tell, seem to be freshly coined by (probably) Mikami himself, and you never know with those devilish kanji. The translations are reliable, they are by Alan Cummings, the number one (and only?) go-to-guy for freaky Japanese singer-songwriters wanting to see what their lines look like in correct English (see scans).
Listen.
320kbps.

Taku Sugimoto - Italia (2001)

For some years now, I've had a lot of trouble relating to the work of Japanese guitarist, improviser and composer Taku Sugimoto (杉本拓). He seems to be disappearing into a black hole of theoretical concerns, and the resulting music is more often than not too dry, too absent to connect with. There was a time though when his playing was a lot less hesitant, a lot more spirited and soulful. To hear that Sugimoto, you need only return to such masterpieces as his solo album 'Opposite' (1998 HatNoir), or 'The World Turned Upside Down' (2000 Erstwhile, an improv trio with Keith Rowe and Günter Müller), or some of his duos with Kevin Drumm or Annette Krebs.
'Italia' marks something of a transitional phase. Released in 2001 (and for years now impossible to find), it was also the first release on French label A Bruit Secret, they of the design even more minimal than the music. Four years later they would release 'Principia Sugimatica', which is unlistenable (well, almost completely inaudible) to me; apparently they'll stick with him however far he's willing to go. I gave up on 'Principia' immediately, but the concert recordings from Bologna and Milan that make up 'Italia' can captivate me. In the words of Dan Warburton: 'The music is, for the most part, exceedingly quiet, nearly empty (the word is more appropriate than "minimal," and Sugimoto's recent work has become even emptier), but once the ear becomes attuned, it's delicate, fleet (surprisingly active in places), melodic, and extremely beautiful.'
Try.
320kbps.

Michael Prime & Max Eastley - Hydrophony for Dagon (2006)

Released in 2006 but recorded 10 years earlier in Copenhagen, this is a one-off collaboration between Michael Prime (of Morphogenesis and Negative Entropy) and sound sculptor Max Eastley. They both improvise here on tapes, objects and the like, and something labeled Hydroarc. And oh yes, they do it under water. Or something, I don't have any specifics here. Released on Absurd, when they were into those over-sized round fold-out covers (scans included).
320kbps.
Re-upped! Here.

Keith Rowe & Cor Fuhler - Doek 3 (2006)

Cor Fuhler is an Amsterdam-born musician who plays prepared piano, solo and in tons of collaborations, such as his own Corkestra, Ōtomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra and MIMEO (Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra). Tabletop guitarist Keith Rowe is also in the latter, and was a founding member of the legendary free improvisation group AMM, but surely this is old news to anyone remotely into improvised experimental music. The two released a duo recording in 2007 entitled 'Culprit' as a download for purchase from the now defunct (and reborn as a regular CD label) 7hings. One year earlier though there was this semi-private release of a December 2003 recording on Fuhler's own Conundrom label. He has been using this name for over 10 years now for small releases in home-made cardboard-packaging and decoration, barely distributed, usually of him solo (the first one was credited to DJ Cor Blimey And His Pigeon), with the occasional collaborative recording (there's also one with Jim O'Rourke entitled 'F-O'R').This one was recorded less than a year after Rowe's fabulous duo with pianist John Tilbury on Erstwhile ('Duos for Doris'), and invites comparison. In the words of improvised music critic and Rowe expert Brian Olewnick: 'As with the Doris session, it’s Rowe who’s argumentative and prodding with the pianist adopting the role or conciliator and as on that recording, the results are exceedingly fine. Eventually, the calm wins out and the pair stroll away, arm in arm. A beautiful set.'
New link!
320kbps.

Bruno Meillier & Dan Warburton - Cho (2002)

Some French improv of the busier variety, today, by Bruno Meillier (electronics only here) and Dan Warburton (violin & (prepared) piano). Sounds a bit old-fashioned with its prickly dark ambient backdrop and hyper-active scrabbling and string torture on top, but definitely enjoyable.
Meillier is really a sax player, he was co-founder of Les i in 1979, and played on 'Les Sillons de la Terre' (1984), the fifth album of French avant-rock band Etron Fou Leloublan. Later he was in other bands such as Zeropop, Le Vaste Océan, Bruniferd and Ni Trêve, Ni Relâche, recorded duo albums with Toshimaru Nakamura (中村としまる) and Noël Akchoté, and a bunch of solo albums. Warburton meanwhile is a British expat in France and the man behind Paris Transatlantic webzine. He has written a lot of 'modern composition' pieces (won some prizes with those, too) and has recorded in the company of everyone from Tomas Korber to Nikos Veliotis (on his more abstract works), and from Arthur Doyle to his own band Return of the New Thing (on the jazzier end of the spectrum). These last few years he has been on stage a lot with Aki Onda (恩田晃) and Jac Berrocal. There was only one album by their duo project Cho (as in 蝶, 'butterfly'?). It was released on Meillier's SMI label (that stands for 'Saxophone & Musiques Innovatrices') in 2001 or perhaps rather 2002, not sure. Enjoy.
320kbps.
PS. My copy is a bit scarred on the cover by a price tag, so... so is your scan.

Mitsuhiro Yoshimura - And So On (2007)

And we're back with some hardcore Japanese electroacoustic improv of the most extreme kind - you're welcome! Mitsuhiro Yoshimura (吉村光弘) is from Kanagawa, and for a moment there in 2007-2008 seemed to be the new name to watch in onkyo scenes. Unfortunately, nothing much has been heard from him these last couple of years, but especially this first album is still revered among connoisseurs ("There are dozens of us! Dozens!!"). In these 3 works (11 to 16 minutes each), Yoshimura creates feedback with a microphone, a mixing board, an equalizer (which he does not touch during a performance) and a set of headphones to project the sound back into the room. Since movement in the room can influence the timbre and pitch of the feedback, Yoshimura can actually distance himself completely from his tools and let the music play itself. This description alone should be enough to send fans of Toshimaru Nakamura (中村としまる) and Sachiko M (she never uses her full name on her albums, but it's Sachiko Matsubara, 松原幸子) rushing for the download link, methinks. This debut was followed the same year by 'Not BGM And So On', which is a duo album with Taku Sugimoto (杉本拓), and in 2008 by 2 albums on brand new French label Presqu'île Records: a trio with, again, Sugimoto and field recording maestro Toshiya Tsunoda (角田俊也) ('Santa'), and a duo (entitled 'Trio') with alto sax explorer Masahiko Ōkura (大蔵雅彦). 
Listen!
320kbps.

Michael Bullock / James Coleman / David Gross / Steve Roden - Untitled, Or Not Yet. (2008)

This unusual improv quartet was recorded in February 2003, but wasn't released until 5 years later, on the now defunct or dormant (1.8)sec label. What's unusual about it is the presence of Steve Roden, who is not usually an improv musician, rather a composer of sound art and installation pieces. For this once, he has joined some more hands-on performers onstage: alto saxophonist David Gross, double bassist Michael Bullock and James Coleman on the theremin. Of these, Bullock is probably the most 'famous'; he also dabbles with electronics, and can be spotted in the ranks of ensembles such as The BSC, Mawja and Masashi Harada Condanction Ensemble. Coleman did an album on Sedimental in 2001 ('Zuihitsu'), featuring such esteemed guests as Tatsuya Nakatani and Greg Kelley. I don't know anything about Gross (sorry Gross), but apparently he has played with Lê Quan Ninh, Eddie Prévost and the Nmperign guys over the years. Roden himself plays 'voice, objects, electronics' here. His trademark sounds blend nicely with the careful instrumental explorations of the other guys. This was an edition of 350 copies (now sold out), the CD attached to a piece of cardboard wrapped in 1 of 4 different vellum papers. It didn't make much of a splash at the time, but it's a nice (re)discovery. Check it out.
New link!
320kbps.

Tim Barnes / David Daniell / Jeph Jerman / Sean Meehan - Live 7 22 04 Soundlab, Buffalo NY (2009)

A very delicate, very quiet improv quartet can be heard on this cardboard CD-R release, one of about 10,000 (rough estimate) that Jeph Jerman released himself in the last couple of years. An interesting line-up here, with percussionist Tim Barnes (who has worked with everyone from Mattin to Sonic Youth), guitarist David Daniell (of ambient rock ensemble San Agustin, and a couple of nice solo albums) and Sean Meehan (another percussionist, who has recorded some great albums with Sachiko M and Toshimaru Nakamura, among others). Who's doing what here is anyone's guess (Jerman himself can play anything from stones to wood to electronics to pine cones, depending on the context), but its organic, barely-there fragility certainly has its charms.
320kbps.
Now here (new link).

Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone - First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (2006)

More 'eai' that deserves your attention. Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone ('Commando Spaceship Lemon', an unusually quirky name for this genre) is one of those one-off projects again. Apart from one more track ('Roger') on the 'Improvised Music from Japan Extra 2006' compilation, there's only this one album. And seeing how it was the one and only release on Quincunx Sound Recordings, this is yet another of those records that have all but vanished from the collective memory.
The artists who make up this Kommando aren't exactly nobodies though. German clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski is known to connoisseurs for his involvement in The International Nothing, Los Glissandinos, Rebecca and No Furniture, as well as other projects with the likes of Chris Abrahams, Burkhard Stangl, Bernhard Gál, etc. He is also a member of the highly original and highly great eai-meets-popsongs-project The Magic I.D. (check out their album 'Till My Breath Gives Out', Erstwhile 2008), as is Vienna-born Christof Kurzmann (currently living in Buenos Aires), who also plays the clarinet (only on track 4 here), as well as manning the computer and playing 'devices'. He also plays in Schnee (with Burkhard Stangl) and Hammeriver, and appears on some fine duo recordings with Ami Yoshida and John Butcher.
As it flirts with traditional songforms (Roberta Flack's beautiful song that inspired the album title pops up a few times), 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' (recorded in March 2004) seems to anticipate The Magic I.D., but for the time being they make do without any non-sampled vocals, and at heart this still quite hardcore eai, which is to say: drones, crackles, extended techniques on the reeds, no hooks, no beats, no traditional song structures. The label seems to be gone, but this can still be found at a few distributors, such as Erstwhile. Investigate!
320kbps.