It Is The Listener Who Must Experiment
The Krautrock Elf ©2000 by Rich Jacobs.
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 box set (Purple Trap)
• Alan Lamb – Primal Image CD (Dorobo), Night Passage CD (Dorobo)
• Los Angeles Free Music Society – The Lowest Form of Music 10-CD box set (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 box set (Captain Trip)
• La Monte Young – The Well-Tuned Piano 5-LP box set (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.
