Adam Süssmann - Acoustic Guitar Solo (2004)

 

Don't be fooled by the title: this is harsh and uncompromising noise. Sussmann (I believe he has ditched the Umlaut, so this is another case of me trying to be hypercorrect) plays in Stasis Duo, whose untitled album was another one of the highlights of 2010 as far as I'm concerned (although much, much less hard on the ears than this solo outing - unless you have problems with sinewaves). What we have here is a very limited solo album on Document, the completely obscure and untraceable label who released some stuff by Matt Earle, Will Guthrie and Mattin on CDR some 5 years ago and seems to have vanished since. I think it was Earle and Sussmann themselves who ran it. I wonder if there's a link with Antboy, their catalogues have a lot of artists in common. Anyway, I thought I might as well save this one from total oblivion. The tiny paper in the cardboard cover says "adam sussmann acoustic guitar solo recorded late 2003 probert st sydney acoustic guitar microphone ebow no amplifier document 2". There's 2 tracks (24 minutes), one a fierce razorblade attack on your eardrums, the other more about sinewaves. Play it loud on headphones and let me know how that worked out for you. How's that for a happy new year? Enjoy.
320kbps.

Werner Dafeldecker / Franz Hautzinger / John Tilbury / Sachiko M - Absinth (2002)

The tiny area of modern music known as eai (electro-acoustic improv) is one of my primary fields of interest (maybe even a little expertise?), so don't be surprised if I keep throwing up some of its forgotten masterpieces in the near future. This one for example has been next to impossible to find for years now, yet it's a lovely performance by a very interesting combination of players: Dafeldecker plays all sorts of things (mainly bass, but also guitar, electronics, percussion), Hautzinger is one of a number of trumpet pushing the boundaries these days (think Axel Dörner, think Greg Kelley), John Tilbury is the revered piano player and Morton Feldman and Cornelius Cardew expert, and Sachiko M has turned up here before, the queen of sinewaves. Released in 2002 on Grob. Hear it.
320kbps.

Robert Ashley - Private Parts (1978)

'Private Parts' is a hypnotic masterpiece. Its two long sides feature Ashley's nonchalant reciting of observations and maxims whose meaning and coherence always remains just out of reach (in that inimitable voice of his, which also graced Eliane Radigue's 'Songs of Milarepa') and music by "Blue" Gene Tyranny (piano, polymoog and clavinet) - plus some guy named simply Kris on tablas. If that doesn't sound like the most appealing set-up imaginable at first glance, think again. This is truly mesmerizing listening. I believe Ashley was on the Nurse With Wound list because of 'Automatic Writing', but if you ask me this album too has all the one-off oddball genius required to make it into any such list. Released in 1978 on Ashley's own Lovely Music (and reissued on CD in 1990 with different, truly atrocious cover artwork), it seems to have been a bit of a hype in New York those days, with people learning large chunks of the lyrics by heart. The two pieces were later used as the opening and closing segments of the TV-opera 'Perfect Lives', while the original cover (pictured above) inspired the one for Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet's 'The Breadwinner' (2008 Erstwhile). Check out Ashley's label and listen here.
320kbps.

Famille Lela de Përmet - Polyphonies vocales et instrumentales d'Albanie (1992)

Unfortunately this blog's tradition of impeccably tagged files must be interrupted today, due to my equally unfortunate lack of Albanian language skills. Or rather, due to the perennial disdain for foreign languages exhibited by those who profess to love foreign music (an imbalance I have never really understood). OK, no rant, just to say that this beautiful album of Albanian traditional music was released on a French label (Label Bleu) that has chosen to spare us the odd and possibly frightening-looking characters that are current in Albanian orthograph (i.c., the ë, as in the name of the family's hometown Përmet; we are granted the ç, because the French are fond of that one as well). So if anyone fluent in this language can offer some corrections to the track titles, that would be very welcome.
Anyway, 9 Albanians (most of them named Lela) perform some vocal and instrumental (clarinet, accordion, lute, percussion, violin) polyphonic music here, and it sounds wonderful. Get it here.
320kbps.

Stefano Pilia - The 1 Season (2004)

Some lovely drones this time from Stefano Pilia from Bologna. He is also in Medves and Glow Kids, and (a bit better known, I think) in 3/4HadBeenEliminated, who went from eai to something a bit poppier these days if I remember correctly (I should re-listen to that myself). He also continues to release solo albums on labels such as Last Visible Dog, Sedimental and even Die Schachtel, but this, his debut, was released as a limited edition (150 copies) black CDr on Time-Lag in early 2005. Pilia is credited here with 'guitars, microphones, tape noise, feedback, wind doublebass, cymbals'. Who played the rain is not mentioned.
Long gone, of course (strangely, the label doesn't even mention it among their OOP releases). But thanks to the interwebs, still among us.
320kbps.

Jason Lescalleet - Fantasy and Electricity (2010)

10 minutes of new Lescalleet material on a 7", released in June on Kye (only 100 copies made). Kye is Graham Lambkin's label, and Lambkin & Lescalleet's second duo album 'Air Supply' on Erstwhile is one of the best albums of the year, so get that too (along with 'The Breadwinner' from 2008) for more tape loop mistreatment and who knows what else. Here.

Carla Bozulich - Unrock Instore Gig Series Volume 4

A nice live recording by Carla Bozulich from Evangelista (and of course from Ethyl Meatplow, The Geraldine Fibbers and Scarnella, way back when). Recorded at the Unrock record store in Krefeld, Germany, in 2007 and released later that year in a limited run of 300 copies. For even better live Bozulich, I recommend you get 'I'm Gonna Stop Killing' (2004 DiCristina Stair Builders). Both have great cover versions of 'Times Square' (Barry Reynolds, but famous in Marianne Faithfull's version). This one also has 'Pissing' by Low, which she'd already covered on the first Evangelista album the year before, and 'Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain' (Willie Nelson). New link!
320kbps.