AMM (any vinyl except Combine & Laminates and the split with Merzbow)
Glenn Branca Lesson No. 1 LP (99)
Ellen Fullman The Long-String Instrument LP (Het Apollohuis)
High Rise High Rise LP (PSF)
Los Angeles Free Music Society (+ any offshoots) any original cassettes, 7”s, 12”s or LPs
Harry Partch The Wayward LP (Gate 5), U.S. Highball 10” (Gate 5), Harry Partch LP (bootleg), The Music of Harry Partch LP (CRI), The Bewitched: A Dance Satire LP (CRI)
Randall / Vercoe / Dodge Computer Music LP
Sun City Girls Sun City Girls LP (Placebo)
La Monte Young Aspen magazine issue number 8 with the flexi-disc

That’s just off the top of my head. I’ll add many more to this list in the future, so check back. Also, if you have any other old acid-folk, drone, electronic, electro-acoustic, free jazz, gamelan, krautrock, musique concrète, minimalism, obscure psychedelic, sound-art, etc. LPs that you want to sell, let me know.

I’d like to share with you my list of desert island recordings, in alphabetical order. Each album had to meet at least several of these “requirements”—to be sincere, creative, inventive, spiritual, mind- and consciousness-expanding, outward-bound, chance-taking, non-commercial, with loads of historical significance and unique personal vision. I hope someday you’ll try to listen to at least a few. Thanks for reading.

AMM AMMusic 1966 CD (RER)
François Bayle Erosphère LP, CD (INA-GRM)
Harry Bertoia The Sonambient LPs (Sonambient)—Bellissima / Nova, Space Voyage / Echoes of Other Times, Swift Sounds / Phosphorescence, Unfolding / Sounds Beyond, Gong Gong / Elemental, All and More / Passage, Energizing / Mellow Tops, Continuum / Near and Far, Swinging Bars / Vulcan’s Play, Ocean Mysteries / Softly Played, Here and Now / Unknown
John Coltrane The Major Works 2-CD (Impulse!)
Tony Conrad Four Violins LP (Table of the Elements), Outside the Dream Syndicate LP (Caroline)
David Cope The Way / Concert LP (Opus One)
Destroy All Monsters 1974-1976 3-CD (Ecstatic Peace / Father Yod)
Luc Ferrari Presque Rien CD (INA-GRM)
Fushitsusha Fushitsusha (Live) 2-CD (PSF), Fushitsusha (Live II) 2-CD (PSF), I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense… 2-CD (Paratactile)
Vittorio Gelmetti Musiche Elettroniche CD (Nepless)
Ragnar Grippe Sand CD (Streamline)
Keiji Haino Watashi Dake? LP (Pinakotheca), Milky Way CD (Mom ’n’ Dad), The Soul’s True Love 4-CD (Purple Trap)
Alan Lamb Primal Image CD (Dorobo), Night Passage CD (Dorobo)
Los Angeles Free Music Society The Lowest Form of Music 10-CD (RRR)
Alvin Lucier I Am Sitting In A Room CD (Lovely Music, LTD.)
Maciunas Ensemble Number Made Audible CD (Het Apollohuis)
Oval 94 Diskont CD (Thrill Jockey)
Charlemagne Palestine Four Manifestations On Six Elements CD (Barooni), Godbear CD (Barooni), Schlingen-Blangen CD (New World Records)
Pandit Pran Nath Ragas of Morning and Night LP (Gramavision)
Harry Partch The Enclosures Series (Innova)—Enclosure 1: Four Historic Art Films by Madeline Tourtelot VIDEO, Enclosure 2: Historic Speech-Music From the Harry Partch Archives 4-CD, Enclosure 3: BOOK, Enclosure 4: Delusion of the Fury VIDEO, Enclosure 5 3-CD
Terry Riley In C LP (Columbia), Music From the Gift CD (The Cortical Foundation), Reed Streams CD (The Cortical Foundation), Olson III CD (The Cortical Foundation), Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band—All Night Flight: Purple Modal Strobe Ecstacy With the Daughters of Destruction CD (The Cortical Foundation)
Raymond Scott Soothing Sounds For Baby Volume 1, 1-6 Months LP; Volume 2, 6-12 Months LP; Volume 3, 12-18 Months LP (all Basta)
Taj Mahal Travellers August 1974 2-CD (P-Vine)
Masayuki Takayanagi (New Direction) Call In Question CD (PSF)
James Tenney Selected Works 1961-1969 CD (Artifact)
Edgard Varèse The Music of Edgard Varèse 2-LP (Columbia)
Iannis Xenakis Electro-Acoustic Music LP (Nonesuch), Electronic Music CD (Electronic Music Foundation), La Legende d’Eer CD (Montaigne)
Yahowha God and Hair 13-CD (Captain Trip)
La Monte Young The Well-Tuned Piano 5-LP (Gramavision), The Black Record LP (Edition X), Dream House CD-R (bootleg)

“I do not write experimental music. My experimenting is done before I make the music. Afterward, it is the listener who must experiment.”–Edgard Varese

Note: This article originally appeared in Arcane Candy Issue 1 in the year 2000.

Hmm, I didn’t know that anyone was allowed to construct an entire sound-realm of their very own that is fascinatingly bent, absolutely one-of-kind and deeply personal. Since the early 1970s, Tokyo Japan’s Keiji Haino has been busy doing precisely that. Outfitting himself all in black with matching waist-length hair plus bangs and permanent sunglasses, Haino’s youthful hormones first exploded with Lost Aaraaff, which was a really crazed, free jazz-inspired trio who pushed out truckloads of piano, drums and shrill, screaming, hyperventilating vocals back in 1971. After dissolving that group, Haino started up another one in 1978 called Fushitsusha. Although it has lapsed in and out of various stages of existence for 20 years, this band has worked consistently to explode galaxy class improv-rock heaviness since the release of their debut 2-LP in 1989.

Other more recent ensembles count Haino as a member, too: the Japanese folk blues and noise improv of Vajra, with Mikami Kan and Toshiaki Ishizuka; the free-flowing, dark improv of Black Stage; and Aihiyo, who play skewed versions of traditional Japanese pop songs. As if that weren’t enough, an ever-growing molten lava flow of his solo and collaboration CDs has been flooding hundreds of bedrooms since the early ’90s, along with live appearances around the world, solidifying Keiji Haino as the premier name in experimental subtlety and your blatant hearing loss. Follow the links below to view categories that function as a veritable “buyer’s guide” of all known official output by Japan’s dark “star.” Thanks for listening.

Aihiyo
Fushitsusha
Keiji Haino
Knead
Lost Aaraaff
Nijiumu
Sanhedolin
Vajra

Note: This article originally appeared in Arcane Candy Issue 1 in the year 2000.

What do you lust for?
Wow. Maybe nothing or something simple and mundane, like looking at interesting photographs, older printing processes, design and different approaches to designing things, layouts, funny or strange fonts, good cropping jobs. Bad choices are fun sometimes, too. I go to record and bookstores to try to see as much as I can, on purpose. I guess, really, the answer is I have to see new things constantly, or I have to at least look at things, so I would probably say anything visual that looks earnest, amazing, interesting, dull, extra-boring, accidental, handmade things that have imperfections or traces left of humans having had contact with them.

At Plasticratic in San Diego, California, 2000.

Record covers, bookbinding, magazine articles, newspapers–especially Indian, Asian, Moroccan, Greek, or places with very different text–signs, hand-painted signage, digital pixel-damaged type on computer printouts, receipts, scraps, words that have been scratched out, crossed out or painted over, ghost letters, traces of old writing, layers, tags, graffiti, vandalism, and evidence of someone having an emotional experience visually. It’s fun seeing the ways people try to communicate, express themselves, or just get pissed–frustrated and angry. I like dialogues that are open and spontaneous, on and off the street. Words waiting to come out of people’s mouths–I even like those.

“Yes, I’d like a large order of puffy hair with a side of flower power.” 1994.

Then there are shapes and forms abstracted. They may mean nothing or maybe they mean everything, or more than words, even. You can see these everywhere, even if you just look to any side. Go on walks. It’s easy to become addicted to looking at things. Really, it is. There are millions of more opportunities for looking and seeing. You can’t help but take them in. I look at people. I look at their shapes and forms, their expressions, their eyes staring back at me or into space. I look at their choices. Somedays, it helps me remember that we’re all human. I look at what people do, how they do it, why, when and where. I like seeing things people have done, like drawings, sketches, noodlings, ideas, fully finished works of their art or expressions, their pictures, how they look at things.

At the first Beautiful Losers art show in Cincinnati, Ohio, 2004.

All of this is very intriguing and interesting to me. I like to see people do things, makes things and play things. Occasionally, I like watching people make sounds, play instruments or noise devices. People can do a lot of amazing and crazy things, don’t you think? I guess if I lust for anything, it’s visuals or being able to look and see things. Maybe this makes me lonely, shy or even depressed at times, but it can also bring me extreme happiness, as well. I’m glad I have eyes. I’m grateful I was given the chance to use them. Maybe I can learn to use the rest of my body in a similar manner eventually.

Rich Jacobs wields the axe for Keep in Mind, 1989.

Locations: I’ve lived in Long Beach, Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City, Venice, Los Angeles and San Diego. Next is New York City, then hopefully Spain. I am 28 years old.

Record cover artwork: Iceburn, Gentry Densley, Three Mile Pilot, Bluebird, Tristeza, Ganger, Back Off Cupids, J Majesty, The Wad Squad and Beth Capper.

Magazine artwork: Ray Gun, TransWorld Skateboarding, Warp, Skateboarder, Powder, Juxtapoz, Double Negative, Grand Royal and Move Zine, among others.

Selected fine art shows: George’s, New Image Art, No Life Records, Burgamot Station, La Luz de Jesus, Pageant Rico, The Smell (all in Los Angeles), The Luggage Store (San Francisco), Milky World (Seattle), Space 1026 (Philadelphia), P.S. 122 (New York), The Phoenix (Boston).

Draw More, Talk Less art show at 68 and Brothers in Tokyo, Japan, 2005.

Selected favorite musicians: Charles Ives, Edgard Varese, Iannis Xenakis, Harry Partch, Harry Bertoia, the four minimalists and Tony Conrad, Charlie Patton, Skip James, John Fahey, Derek Bailey, Hans Reichel, AMM, early raw bluegrass, a lot of stuff on the Folkways Anthology box set, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Charles Mingus, Marion Brown, Albert Ayler, Charles Gayle, Peter Brotzmann, Ennio Morricone, Voice Crack, Silver Apples, Breadwinner, This Heat, Faust, Can, Neu!, Metabolist, Liquid Liquid, Agitation Free, Slint, Tortoise, Jim O’Rourke, Fugazi, PJ Harvey, Happy Go Licky, Autechre, Aphex Twin, Photek, Squarepusher, Ed Rush and Nico, Sonic Youth, Big Black, My Bloody Valentine, Pita, Fennesz, Radian, Labradford, Monolake, Dumb Type, Various Artists, Matmos, Lesser, Pluramon, Latin Playboys, Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart, C Schulz, Three Mile Pilot, Public Enemy, early LL Cool J, Run DMC, On-U-Sound Dub, Powerdresser, JFA, the Faction, early DC hardcore, The Ex, SSD, Void, percussion-oriented stuff like Indian, Morrocan, African, Balinese gamelan.

Note: This article originally appeared with different photos and art in Arcane Candy Issue 1 in the year 2000.

The early bird, I mean minimalist catches, I mean gets the worm, I mean word in edgewise–or actually a lot of words in all over the lengthy liner notes of numerous LPs and CDs. Tony Conrad is one such large, flightless bird. From 1962 to 1965, he played violin in minimalist music founder La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music group, also known as the Dream Syndicate, which included La Monte and Marian Zazeela on drone vocals, John Cale on viola and Angus MacLise on percussion. Since La Monte’s been keeping the tapes “safe” in storage since the mid ’60s–for the most part denying access and copies to the other group members and the public at large–very few people outside of the original small audiences have ever heard what must have surely been the most searing, transporting drone music of all time. Practicing regularly, the group developed into the most awesome unit of 4:00 a.m. hover power. Perfect pitch, just intonation, long durations and massive amplification of the vocals, viola and percussion to tympanic membrane-cutting levels were some of the ingredients of this galaxy hub-bound stew.

Tony Conrad stepped outside the Dream Syndicate one time on December 19, 1964, when he recorded four overdubbed tracks of supremely grating violin screech drone of the highest kind–just the most visceral veils of undulating reality sparkle you could ever dream of floating through. Released as Four Violins by Table of the Elements in 1996 and a year later as a CD in the four-disc box set Early Minimalism, the 32 minutes of music is easily available and awaits your next long evening spent laying around at home, wrapped up in a fuzzy blankie while sipping hot cocoa. The Early Minimalism box set also includes three other CDs of recordings from 1994-96 made with Alexandria Gelencser on cello, Jim O’Rourke on violin and others that attempts to “reconstitute and re-project the lost dream music of the original Theatre of Eternal Music.” Also enclosed is an enhanced CD with interviews and performance footage, plus a 96-page booklet of vintage archival photos and brain-hurting notes.

After leaving the the Theatre of Eternal Music in 1965, Tony Conrad’s next recording wasn’t made until 1972, when he teamed up with krautrock group Faust for the Outside the Dream Syndicate LP on Caroline, which was reissued on CD in 1994 by Table of the Elements. Splaying his violin drone fabrics over the slow and precise metronome-like rhythmic foundation of Faust, Tony helped launch hundreds of late-night bedroom journeys in better-knowing homes across several continents. As if all that weren’t enough, Tony also recorded a new work in 1994–his first in 22 years–called Slapping Pythagoras, which is the thickest, warmest shawl of buzzing drone music you could ever desire to cuddle up and dream inside. Containing two long, stunning slabs of beauty, it’s filled to the brim with layers of violin, guitar, bass, accordion, cello and bass clarinet all wailing away. It also features Jim O’Rourke working the weed trimmer and David Grubbs supplying an occasional low-end thud via pillow. Yes, pillow. What have you been up to? Slapping Pythagoras is the slowest rotating spiral arm in this or any other galaxy. It’s so good, I feel like slapping Conrad…on the ass.

More: Hyper Real, MySpace, Official, Wikipedia

Note: This article originally appeared in Arcane Candy Issue 1 in the year 2000.

Iannis Xenakis.

In the middle of the 20th Century, a small handful of avant-garde classical composers crumpled up the graph paper of conventional music reality and threw it very far away. In Paris, Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry developed a stunning new form of music in 1948 called musique concrète. By mixing together sound effects records via multiple turntables through a disc lathe, new platters of abrupt, sound collage chaos resulted. With the advent of magnetic tape recorders in the early ’50s, the process was made a lot easier, setting composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen in Germany, Iannis Xenakis in France, plus Vladimir Ussachevsky, John Cage and Edgard Varèse in the United States free to exploit the novel sounds of new electronic equipment and / or recorded acoustic sounds from the outside world–hence the term “electro-acoustic.” Immense realms of abstract, alien sound and dark, dissonant collage pushed out the boundaries of what music could be, predating the use of electronics, concrete sounds, tape manipulation, feedback and noise in popular music by over a decade.

Raymond Scott in his studio, 1950s.

As the ’50s wore on, numerous electronic music studios began to appear in radio stations and universities, mainly in France and Germany, followed in the late ’50s by the United States. At places like the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel / Groupe de Recherches Musicales (INA-GRM) in Paris, WDR in Cologne, Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New Jersey and The Center For Contemporary Music at Mills College in Oakland, the fame was fanned, carried on and multiplied into diverse aural treats from the ’60s through the ’90s and continues today. From cumbersome tape decks and tedious weeks of tape splicing to Moog and Buchla synths to the simplicity and speed of today’s desktop computers, electro-acoustic music production has emanated over the decades from the exclusive university laboratory and radio studio to the ubiquitous bedroom laptop. The mid-to-late ’90s fortunately produced a worldwide explosion of CDs that reissued classic, long-lost electronic and electro-acoustic LPs, plus many previously unissued pieces. so that you can now with little effort experience these works in the luxury of your own bed. Following is a list of the most essential, plus a few contemporary works thrown in. Enjoy.

Carlos Roque Alsina – Hinterland
Charles Amirkhanian – Walking Tune
Edgardo Canton – Promenade d’Ete d’Ulis NASA
Francis Dhomont – Frankenstein Symphony
Tod Dockstader – Quartermass
Luc Ferrari – Presque Rien
Luc Ferrari – Cellule 75
Vittorio Gelmetti – Musiche Elettroniche
Henry Gwiazda – noTnoTesnoTrhyThms
Pierre Henry – Messe Pour Le Temps Present
Rune Lindblad – Death of the Moon
Rune Lindblad – Objekt 2
Alvin Lucier – I Am Sitting In A Room
Ivo Malec – Doppio Coro, Artemisia, Triola, Cantate Pour Elle, Week-End, Luminétudes, Reflets, Dahovi, Lumina
The McLean Mix – The Golden Age of Electronic Music
Attilio Mineo – Man In Space With Sounds
Arne Nordheim – Electric
Michael Obst – Metal Drops
Pauline Oliveros – Alien Bog + Beautiful Soop
Pauline Oliveros – Electronic Works
Bernard Parmegiani – La Creation du Monde
Bernard Parmegiani – Violostries, Pour un Finir Avec le Pouvoir d’Orphee, Dedans-Dehors, Rouge-Mort: Thanatos, Exercisme 3, Le Present Compose
Larry Polansky – The Theory of Impossible Melody
Pierre Schaeffer – L’Oeuvre Musicale
Raymond Scott – Soothing Sounds For Baby
Karlheinz Stockhausen – Kontakte
James Tenney – Selected Works 1961-1969
Vladimir Ussachevsky – Film Music
Vladimir Ussachevsky – Electronic and Acoustic Works 1957-1972
Edgard Varese – The Varese Album
Iannis Xenakis – Electronic Music
Iannis Xenakis – La Legende d’Eer
Christian Zanesi – Stop! L’horizon, Profil-Desir, Courir

The Sound-Utopias of François Bayle

Francois Bayle, live performance in his Acousmonium, early 1980s.

I pull on a glittering, ankle-length robe for an evening stroll through a glass city filled with see-through skyscrapers, geodesic domes, monorails and flying cars—all immersed in François Bayle’s strange sound clusters floating from thousands of loudspeakers hidden behind neatly crafted shrubs. Monseur Bayle helped mint the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in 1958 with Pierre Schaeffer and was head of it from 1966 to 1997. He’s now working in his own home studio called Magison. Although a few of his works appeared on record in the vinyl era, the INA-GRM label has more recently busied itself releasing the complete Cycle Bayle collection on CD in 18 volumes.

Francois Bayle – Erosphere
Francois Bayle – Theatre d’Ombres + Mimameta
Francois Bayle – Vibrations Composees + Grande Polyphonie
Francois Bayle – Fabulae
Francois Bayle – L’Experience Acoustique
Francois Bayle + Bernard Parmegiani – Divine Comedie
Francois Bayle – La Main Vide
Francois Bayle – Son Vitesse-Lumiere
Francois Bayle – Motion-Emotion
Francois Bayle – Morceaux de Ciels + Theatre d’Ombres
Francois Bayle – Jeita + L’infini du Bruit
Francois Bayle – Camera Oscura + Espaces Inhabitables
Francois Bayle – La Forme du Temps est un Cercle
Francois Bayle – Toupie Dans le Ciel
Francois Bayle – Erosphere 2-CD
Francois Bayle – La Forme de l’Esprit est un Papillon

Electronic Music: A Timeline

Philips Pavilion, 1958 World’s Fair, Brussels.

(Selected Highlights)

1897 Thaddeus Cahill invents the Telharmonium, a crude forerunner to the synthesizer.
1924 Leon Theremin invents the Theremin.
1928 Maurice Martenot invents the Ondes Martenot, an electronic keyboard for the orchestra.
1920s Edgard Varèse wants to use electronic sounds in his music, but must wait two decades for the tape recorder to be invented.
1935 The advent of the Hammond organ.
1939 John Cage composes “Imaginary Landscape #1” for turntables, cymbals and piano.
1948 Pierre Schaeffer invents musique concrète with turntables and a disc lathe. The advent of the long-playing (LP) record.
1950 The advent of the magnetic tape recorder.
1952 John Cage composes “Williams Mix” for magnetic tape. The first public concert for magnetic tape is performed by Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening.
1953 Iannis Xenakis uses a computer to compose the instrumental piece “Metastasis.”
1954 Edgard Varèse composes “Deserts” for magnetic tape and orchestra.
1955 Louis and Bebe Barron compose the Forbidden Planet film soundtrack using electronic sounds exclusively.
1957-1962 Iannis Xenakis composes his groundbreaking electro-acoustic pieces “Bohor,” “Orient-Occident,” Concret P-H” and “Diamorphoses.”
1958 Edgard Varèse composes “Poéme Èlectronique” for the Philips Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair.
1959 Pierre Schaeffer, Luc Ferrari, etc. open the Groupe Recherches Musicales in Paris. Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening open the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York.
1960 John Cage and David Tudor pioneer the use of electronic music in live performance with “Cartridge Music.” Karlheinz Stockhausen composes “Kontakte” for electronic sounds, piano and percussion.
Early 1960s Lejaren Hiller, Max Matthews and James Tenney compose early computer music. Raymond Scott composes Soothing Sounds For Baby. Terry Riley composes minimal trance pieces featuring tape loops.
1965-1966 Steve Reich composes the classic tape loop pieces “It’s Gonna Rain” and “Come Out.” AMM includes electronics with instruments to perform their groundbreaking free-improvisation, followed by Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV). Robert Moog invents the Moog voltage-controlled synthesizer. The Beach Boys use a Moog-Theremin on “Good Vibrations.”
Late 1960s La Monte Young begins to use sine wave drones with instruments and vocals. Psychedelic rock groups begin to use tape manipulation, feedback and other electronic effects that avant-garde composers pioneered 15 years earlier.
1970 Several pavillions at the Osaka World Expo feature the electronic music of Arne Nordheim, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, etc.
Early 1970s Kraftwerk pioneers electronic pop music, which paves the way for techno.
Mid 1970s Throbbing Gristle pioneers industrial noise music.
1978 The compact disc is invented by Philips and Sony, but is not marketed until 1983.
1979 The Fairlight CMI, an early digital synthesizer sampler, appears.
Early 1980s The advent of the desktop computer.
Mid-late 1980s Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson usher in techno. The advent of house and acid house.
Early 1990s Dance music branches out into endless variations like deep house, hardcore, garage, gabba, ambient dub, trance techno, breakbeat, jungle, goa trance, trip-hop, ambient, illbient, trillbient, not to mention happy hardcore.
Mid-late 1990s The dance madness continues with drum ’n’ bass, drill ’n’ bass, techstep, turntablism, minimal acid techno, etc. The advent of Powerbook laptopcore: Oval, Pita, Fennesz and Farmer’s Manual form very interesting sound-blankets from digital glitches. The advent of the World Wide Web.
2000 The DJ Dubble R hooks a speaker array to a metal kite and flies it in a thunder and lightning storm. He dies for the cause.

Note: All of the articles on this page originally appeared in Arcane Candy Issue 1 in the year 2000.