Arcane Candy

In alphabetical order by artist name.

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Sean Noonan, a drummer known for his genre-bending approach, leads The Noonan Trio, a captivating ensemble that challenges conventional jazz expectations. With Michael Bardon on double bass and Matthew Bourne on piano, Noonan crafts a sonic world that’s equal parts playful and workful. His career is marked by a refusal to be pigeonholed, drawing inspiration from punk, classical, and avant-garde music, blending them into a unique and often unpredictable sound.

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Elisabet Curbelo is the Assistant Professor of Electro-Acoustic Composition and Music Theory at the University of Utah. Armed with a PhD in Music Composition from UC San Diego, she has produced “pieces for ensemble and solo instruments, voice, choir, acoustic and electro-acoustic music, music for dance, installation work, and music for improvisers, advertising, podcasts and visual media.”

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Psychic Sun is the umpteenth 7” single by the violinist John Krausbauer Sauerkraut. Kicking off the proceedings on side 1, “Violin I” features a clearly and loudly recorded violin splurging out a whole bunch of echoing screech scorch that sounds warmer than a mitten full of peanut butter cookies freshly baked by your mom on a sunny Sunday afternoon while she was wearing one of those aprons straight out of the 1950s with flowers embroidered all over it. The fun continues on side 2 with a similar track shockingly enough called “Violin II.” If you can’t hang with this music, maybe you should go pay your taxes or fill out a form or somethin’. The nice pattern artwork on the front cover vaguely reminds me of Jon Gibson’s Two Solo Pieces LP.

Label: Eroto Tox Decodings Catalog Number: ETD0042 Format: 7” single Packaging: Paper cover Tracks: 2 Country: United States Released: 2024 More: Discogs

Text ©2024 Arcane Candy

Here we have yet another 7” Pringle, I mean roof shingle, I mean vinyl single courtesy of violinist John Krausbauer, guest starring organist David Maranha. Why is there laughter at the end of the latter’s last name? Ha! Maran Ha! Just kidding. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Now I can’t stop laughing. Did you know that in addition to being contagious, laughter is actually rhythmic minimalism? I did, or at least I just figured it out right now. If you collapse in a fit of laughter, you will find yourself saying the same word over and over again. “Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!” That is the epitome of rhythmic minimalism right there, folks. But that’s not what you get on this record.

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Another day, another 7” single! On this one, the violinist / keyboardist John Krausbauer joins forces with Japanese-American experimental musician Patrick Shiroishi. Similar to the way Certs offers up “two mints in one,” this lil’ platter boasts not one but two songs on each side! “Bird’s Song” opens it all up, gently laying you down into a bed of keyboard drones as a saxophone flits around your head, while “High Life” proffers a smattering of skittering free improv by way of the same sax accompanied by violin. Way over on side 2, a similar approach to “High Life” can be heard on “Swing Low,” while “Tuning In and Turning On” closes out the whole shebang with another drone—this time meshed with a mass of muffled vocals.

Label: Carbon Records Catalog Number: CR268 Format: 7” single Packaging: Paper cover Tracks: 4 Country: United States Released: May 5, 2023 More: Discogs

Text ©2024 Arcane Candy

On this 7” shingle, I mean single, the violinist John Krausbauer teams up with the Love Child himself, Alan Licht. On side one’s “Superstizione,” the dynamic duo proceeds into free improv mode with a whole colon load of sea-sawing seasoning speckled with keen, ecstatic distortion sparkles. On the flip side, “Lateral Tracer” traces the contours of a glacier with a smooth, gentle drone that is at once ice cold and perfectly pleasing. Maybe this piece deserves a place on Alan’s “Minimal Top 10” list in Halana magazine?

Label: Carbon Records Catalog Number: CR265 Format: 7” single Packaging: Paper cover Tracks: 2 Country: United States Released: May 3, 2023 More: Discogs

Text ©2024 Arcane Candy

John Krausbauer is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Oakland, California. His work involves drones, repetition, duration, alternate tunings, maximum volumes, and stroboscopic lighting. John has performed across North America, Europe, and Japan in basements, sidewalks, rock clubs, colleges, churches, and art museums. Since 2004, a whole Coleman cooler-load of his recordings have been released on independent labels in the US, Europe, and Japan.

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Enjoy a flip through the very rare first issue of Arcane Candy, published in the year 2000.

Title: Arcane Candy
Issue Number: 1
Publisher: Arcane Candy
Year of publication: 2000
Size: 8.5” wide x 11” tall with overlays of various sizes
Page count: 42
Printing: Black and white photocopy
Edition: 100 copies
Status: Although it’s out of print and unavailable, this issue’s contents is posted in the Arcane Candy No. 1 category
Description: Arcane Candy #1 presents a wide selection of sub-underground sound and music, including Tony Conrad, Keiji Haino + Fushitsusha, Rich Jacobs, and The Electronic Poems (an article featuring mid- to late-20th century avant-garde electronic music composers).

Founded in 2004, Modern Silent Cinema is the instrumental music project of one Cullen Gallagher of Brooklyn, New York. Cullen should not be confused with the comedian Gallagher, who used to smash a watermelon with a sledgehammer as part of his act back in the ‘70s. For the present album, The Cabinet of Modern Silent Cinema, Cullen has culled (pun intended)—or perhaps even cobbled together—these pieces from “an archival mix of lo-fi experiments, micro-cassette demos and three guitar duet with Boru.” They proceed from quiet, forlorn electric guitar and bass duets to solo heavy electric guitar riffs. From bluesy workouts to distorted yet melodic songs that strongly recall the likes of Roy Montgomery.

Label: Bad Channels Records Catalog Number: BCR-008 Format: CD-R Packaging: Mini-LP gatefold Tracks: 13 Total Time: 40:51 Country: United States Released: 2024 More: Official

Text ©2024 Arcane Candy