To Amm

Bridges are a symbol of bringing people together, of communicating with each other, of connecting ideas. What else could reading bridges in the context of the music we usually talk about here mean but presenting different approaches of making music and trying to understand how communication works? Who else but Ken Vandermark has been constantly presenting such approaches by crossing the borders between hardcore jazz/punk (with The Flying Luttenbachers), noise core (with Zu), free funk (with Made to Break), new classical music and of course with his various free jazz/improv projects (everything from duos to larger ensembles like Audio One or the Resonance Ensemble) – and these are only a few examples! Ken Vandermark is simply one of the great masters of notated music and completely free improvisation.

Founded in 1992, Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble is a highly sophisticated grouping, which for this recording conceptually pairs three acoustic musicians with electronic tone manipulators. What keeps it so interesting is the different approaches to electronics, with Walter Prati transforming Parker's sounds, Marco Vecchi reformulating Paul Lytton's percussion, and violinist Philipp Wachsmann processing his own acoustic sounds and those of bassist Barry Guy. It is all fascinating stuff, and if it does not swing or fit into any easy definitions of "jazz," it takes the concept of improvisation to a new level. There is sometimes an aimlessness to it all that can be off-putting, but concentrated listening can produce wonderful rewards for the patient consumer. Parker's role seems less that of a leader than an instigator. He does, nonetheless, afford himself the opportunity to press his revolutionary technique to action.

Extensive 3cd set exploring the uk’s avant-garde and experimental scene in the wake of punk rock and post-punk. Ambient improvisation, spoken word, solo and group performances, percussion pieces, noise, tape manipulation, modern classical, musique concrete, found sound, serial composition…

In the 32 years that elapsed between Syd Barrett’s last unproductive visit to a recording studio in 1974 and his death on July 7, 2006, much was written about Pink Floyd’s former creative leader, most of it based on pure conjecture. Barrett’s retreat away from his former life méant that, as his myth grew through his absence, he was effectively viewed through the fragments he presented of himself in his recordings. This bespoke Mojo collection seeks to present that elusive sense of what can only therefore be described as “Sydness”.
Included are tracks by artists that influenced Barrett-era Floyd (fellow sonic adventurers AMM alongside Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, the two bluesmen who gave the band its name), as well as Syd’s contemporaries (Soft Machine, Gong, Hawkwind, Frank Zappa, the Bonzos, Kevin Ayers)…

The first ever survey of the seminal British experimental music collective, Gentle Fire, Explorations (1970 - 1973) offers a remarkable and previously unavailable glimpse of their activities during the early 1970s, spanning their crucial interpretations of scores by Stockhausen, Brown, Cage, Ichiyanagi, and Wolff, as well as an incredible deep dive into their own works and "Group Compositions". Unapparelled and historically important work, stretching across the length of 3 CDs, from Paradigm Discs, meticulously culled from Hugh Davies' archive, it's among the most important missing links within the history of British experimental music to have emerged in living memory, and not to be missed.

Virgin's fourth Ambient volume is the first of all-new material from contemporary artists, and it provides the most highlights of any in the series. Tracks from a score of crucial new-ambient producers, including Aphex Twin, Seefeel, O'Rang, EAR, Main, Final, Lull, Labradford, Techno Animal, Scorn and Paul Schütze. Seeing as each track is available only on this collection, it became the hardest-to-find of the entire series soon after its release.