20th Anniversary Repress! 

Merzbow's Merzbeat is one the most unique and legendary titles in the artist's vast archive. This 20th anniversary repress is being issued at the same time as CD reissue of his 1983 album Material Action 2 and a brand new collaboration with Arcane Device, all on Important Records.

Originally released in 2002, Merzbeat contains over 50 minutes of aggressive, psychedelic, organic, analog beat oriented Merzbow compositions. Drummed rhythms, massive looping samples, a punk spirit and a return to analog Merzbow.

KID 606 called it 'one of the greatest thing Merzbow has ever done.'

Merzbow - Merzbeat - 20th Anniversary edition CD - Available Now

Available March 2014

"Portland guitar wizard MARISA ANDERSON's long awaited solo guitar record. Marisa has been a fixture on many a music scene for years & years playing w/ everyone from the Evolutionary Jass Band to Tara Jane O'Neil to The Dolly Ranchers. In any context, she can't escape her rag/blues/folk roots no matter how hard she tries. This LP featuring only guitar, no vocals, no overdubs, we are treated to a very intimate sounding home recording filled w/ delicate grace. Comparisons to John Fahey & his ilk are bound to occur, but won't be the last words"

released 10 January 2011 
Marisa Anderson-guitar and lap steel 
recorded by Michael Henrickson 
mixed by Jesse Johnson 
mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk 
released on vinyl by Mississippi Records


Marisa Anderson - The Night Before Last from the album Golden Hour - IMPREC394

Pre-order soon available via Imprec.com

https://soundcloud.com/wanderwelle

After last year’s Black Clouds Above The Bows, Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle presents the second entry of their trilogy for Important Records, which is dedicated to telling the story of the climate crisis and its effects on coastal areas around the globe. For this album the artists incorporated the sound of a dying organ, fatally wounded in a climate related event.

RIYL: Oliveros/Deep Listening, Arvo Part, Lambda Sond, Sarah Davachi....

Wanderwelle - All Hands Bury The Cliffs At Sea - LP Sampler - - Available 2.3.23

Excerpted from Important Records 3LP release of John Oswald's epic "ultimate Dark Star" which weaves together 25 years of the Dead's most sought after live song.
This particular section includes layers of the following performances: 

9/2/68 Betty Nelson's Organic Raspberry Farm, Sultan WA
2/22/69 Dream Bowl, Vallejo CA
10/21/71 Auditorium Theater, Chicago IL

"Dark Star" vocal:
9/13/93 Spectrum, Philadelphia PA
3/20/92 Copps Coliseum, Hamilton ONT
2/28/69 Fillmore West, SF CA
2/15/60 Electric Factory, Philadelphia PA

"Crashes" vocal: 
4/27/69 Labor Temple, Minneapolis MN
9/13/93 Spectrum, Philadelphia PA
5/11/72 Civic Hall, Rotterdam Holland
5/15/70 Fillmore East, NYC


Grateful Dead/John Oswald "Clouds Cast" From Grayfolded 3LP on Important

Available via Imprec.com

Francesco Gennari is trained as a classical pianist and he commits himself to sound exploration through modular synth practice as further evolution of his musical journey. Gennari's origins are with black and white keys, noise-punk bands and DIY instrument building. This stunning debut, titled Frammenti, is the culmination of all of Gennari's interests.

Through simple ideas developed with classical techniques like counterpoint and harmonic expansions, Francesco uses the modular setup as a virtual companion, allowing him to do what he wants while remaining open to what the machine whispers to him.

Francesco’s music charms with minimal rhythmic patterns, sonic manipulation and lush ambient soundscapes comprised of short ideas full of variations.

Highly recommended to fans of Caterina Barbieri, Jessica Ekomane, Alessandro Cortini

Frammenti

Francesco Gennnari - Ardere - From Frammenti Tape - 5.5.23

2LP available directly from Imprec.com

"This is where you have been forever and will always be forever."
Stuart Dempster, speaking about what it feels like to be in a cistern where time seems to stop.

Stuart Dempster created Underground Overlays From The Cistern Chapel in the same cistern where the legendary Deep Listening album was recorded. Reverberating with powerful, deep tones, this double LP is intended as a companion to the acclaimed Oliveros/Dempster/Panaiotis album Deep Listening. 

Underground Overlays From The Cistern Chapel is one of the deepest drone albums ever recorded. Nine trombones, didjeridu and Tibetan bells fill the massive two million gallon cistern with dense sonic reverberations that are both haunting and healing. 

Packaged in a heavy duty paper sleeve printed with metallic gold ink to match the Deep Listening design.

Stuart Dempster - Melodic Communion (edit) - Underground Overlays From The Cistern Chapel 2LP

CD available directly from Important Records - imprec.com 

Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release) - 28:50
Composed by Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard, 2022

Quatuor Bozzini:
Alissa Cheung, violin I + harmonica (G) Clemens Merkel, violin II + harmonica (G) Stéphanie Bozzini, viola + harmonica (C) Isabelle Bozzini, cello + harmonica (C)

Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release) is a composition for string quartet and harmonica quartet, meaning that Quatuor Bozzini is playing string instruments while playing harmonicas.

"The title refers to different kinds of bubbly matter which are set to collide within the composition, leading to different ruptures and possible release of surface tension.
The collision of bubbles unfolds partly in relation to sound, where small fluctuations appear in the encounters between harmonicas and string instruments and partly in relation to a more performative or conceptual bubble where instruments representing different systems, or bubbles, will collide; the very celebrated instruments within the classical string quartet and the perhaps more prosaic harmonica."  - Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard

This release was made possible with generous support from Augustinus Fonden, The Danish Conductors Association & The Danish Composers’ Society.

This release has been supported by Conseil des arts lettres du Québec

Cover photos by Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard (Bubble studies, 2023)

Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard & Quatuor Bozzini: Colliding Bubbles CD release: 3.1.24

CD available directly from Important Records - imprec.com 

Strange Times is a virtuosic realization of contemporary
electroacoustic soundscapes composed and performed by Stephen
Ruppenthal and Gary R. Weisberg. With masterful employment of electroacoustic techniques and tools, including the original 70's Buchla Music Easel Ruppenthal used in the Electric Weasel Ensemble, these two artist create an essential, psychedelic, electro-acoustic experience.

Strange Times is a hallucinatory journey into our epidemic-ridden
times through a collection of startling sonic landscapes. From epic
acoustic journeys into re-imagining myth to the phantasmal soundscape world of the Bardo, Strange Times is not for the innocent or delicate listener. Time turns elastic, and folds in on itself; you are approaching the event horizon of a black hole. The only way to make sense of any of it is to mentally rewind; speed up or slow down the voices in your head in random attempts to find your way through this electroacoustic aether. Strange Times explores the ability of sound to alter consciousness, creating sonic environments, mental and physical states where one can allow the experience of listening to become transformative.

Stephen Ruppenthal (Berkeley, 1949) San Francisco Bay Area new music trumpeter, electroacoustic and text-sound composer, Stephen studied electronic music and composition with composer Allen Strange, and ethnomusicology with Lou Harrison, and holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Contemporary Musicology, writing the first comprehensive treatise in English of Sound Poetry, “History of the Development and Techniques of Sound Poetry in the Twentieth Century in Western Cultures.” Stephen was a founding member, along with Don Buchla and Allen & Pat Strange, of the Electric Weasel Ensemble, and more recently, with Brian Belet and Pat Strange, of SoundProof, and is known internationally for his live electroacoustic performances, and writings on text-sound
composition. Stephen has been composing and performing electroacoustic works for Buchla instruments since 1971. Flamethrower, a 2017 CD of electroacoustic works for trumpet and flugelhorn, by Allen Strange, Brian Belet, Bruno Liberda, and Elainie Lillios, and performed by Stephen is currently available from Ravello Records. 

Gary R. Weisberg, composer-sound designer-digital audio artist was
born 1951 in Brooklyn, NY. At age 2, Gary was exposed by his mother to the music of Brahms, Khatchaturian and Rimsky-Korsakov. He also had a fascination with dinosaurs. He first picked up a musical instrument in 1972, playing free- jazz improvisation on flute and alto sax. Gary moved to San Francisco in 1976 and was involved in a loosely knit collective of jazz and experimental musicians and artists, operating a small performance space called The Blue Dolphin. He studied music, computer programming and electronics at San Francisco State University, graduating with a degree in Electronic Music Composition. He spent two years building a modular analog synthesizer, and began composing electronic music and text-sound compositions for art/ photography gallery openings. From 1986-1994, Gary maintained a MIDI project studio for the production of his own music, as well as sound and music for TV/Film/Video productions. Since 1994, Gary has been composing PC-based experimental electronic music, as well as pieces
for electronic and acoustic instruments, occasionally performing with other composers and collaborating with visual artists. He currently resides in New York's Mid-Hudson Valley.

1. Post - Apocalyptic Biscuit (Ruppenthal)

Pre-order Alessandro Cortini's Forse 3 and a deluxe Forse t-shirt box set here: 
http://importantrecords.com/imprec/imprec418

Alessandro Cortini "Scappa" from Forse 3  2xLP   Pre -Orders available now

LP and cassette tape available directly from: IMPREC.com

LP is pressed in a hand numbered edition of 300
(White copies #'d 1-100. Black copies #'d 1-200)
Paste on covers screen printed by Monoroid
Mastered by Tom Eaton at Sound &amp; Substance
Produced and designed by John Brien at Imprec

Florescere&nbsp;by Jonathan Bousquet is a powerful debut exploring a tapestry of electronic textures, compositional structures, and themes. Bousquet demonstrates a unique ability to forge a cohesive sonic world, employing a diverse array of techniques and sound sources.&nbsp;Florescere&nbsp;is a thoughtfully crafted album revealing itself slowly through rich harmonies and memorable melodies, rewarding repeated listening.

From the opening chimes of Recurrence, the album invites listeners into a multi-layered musical narrative, exploring the dualities of movement and stillness. The second track, How to Make an Exit, investigates form through themes of resolution, entrances, and exits. As the album progresses, Divisible Machine examines how time is measured and how personal perception can alter these measurements, expanding or contracting them.

Listeners are then drawn into Enveloper, a soundscape that evokes a sense of omnipresent time and presence through overtones and an electronic choir. The title track, Florescere, marks a new beginning beyond the constraints of place and time, characterized by jubilant sequences and a resolute low end. The A-side concludes with And the Void Becomes Eloquent, a cyclical composition where repetitions gradually move toward their undoing. The work concludes with a profound sense of rest and ethereal pause on the B-side track, Being, Becoming.

Available on black vinyl, white vinyl, and cassette tape, Florescere features six tracks on side A that blend intricate rhythms and lush textures. Side B presents a 30-minute drone piece, offering a contemplative journey through ambient soundscapes.

Designed by John Brien and mastered by Tom Eaton, each detail of Florescere reflects Bousquet's commitment to crafting a unique auditory and visual experience. With striking letter-pressed sleeves by Monoroid, the album is a tactile delight.

Bousquet - Divisible Machine - From Florescere LP

RIYL: Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Eleh, Duane Pitre, La Monte Young, Eno, Larajji, Iasos

Available directly from Imprec.com & Imprec.Bandcamp.com

Agartha, Personal Meditation Music is a 7 CD boxed set, originally released on cassette in 1986, at the height of New Age, as an aid for meditation and alignment. Bringing to mind 20th century composers like Eliane Radigue, La Monte Young or even Brian Eno's Shutov Assembly, the time-stopping, enveloping, electronic music contained in this series sounds eerily modern, mysterious and moving. Characterized by deep analog drones, rising overtones, floating frequencies surfing on sine-waves and intervals with mystic modulation, this is truly moving, vibrational music.

In Agartha, the individual notes of each Harmonic Triad proceed in a fashion that is neither improvisational nor chance-based, nor is it generative. Instead the music flows outward as if being transmitted— or channeled — from a place outside human consciousness. There is a profound sense of cosmic depth expanding ever outward as the music fills the listener with waves of emotion, and a palpable somatic response is felt, although there are subtle differences with each unique Triad. 

Each disc is individually packaged in original replica sleeves and housed in a
heavy duty cardboard clamshell box. Digitized and remastered by Jessica Thompson. Liner notes include extensive instructions for use from the original text and an essay by library music scholar David Hollander.

The original edition of Agartha, Personal Meditation Music, featured one track
30 minute track per tape repeated on both sides. Subsequent editions had unique Side B tracks on all but two of the 7 volumes. We have included all tracks in this boxed set.

Meredith Young-Sowers - Agartha: Personal Meditation Music (1985) - 7 CD Set - Music For Meditation

LP available directly from Imprec.com 

On this new LP Harry Bertoia shows why he may have been the first industrial musician. Bertoia often referred to his sound sculptures as a "collaboration with industry" and on this new LP Bertoia is intentionally creating heavy, rhythmic music he described as "mechanized," "mechanical" and "factory like." 

This first edition is packaged in a full color sleeve with metallic inks. Mastered by Tom Eaton at Sounds & Substance. 

Recorded in 1971, percussion and repetition emulate the pounding rhythms of machinery on this unique pair of conceptual Bertoia compositions. Bertoia utilizes innovative performance techniques to create new sounds unheard in his ouevre. Even in the busy factory of Bertoia's mind, distant stillness rises up as Bertoia exhibits the massive amount of control he possesses over his many looming sculptures. 

"Mechanization" is just one of the many sonic directions Bertoia took while composing and recording between the late 1950's and his death in 1978. He documented all of his ideas and directions in notes accompanying the hundreds of tapes discovered in his barn. 

This first edition of 500 is printed using metallic inks. Mastered by Tom Eaton at Sound & Substance. 

Bertoia's recordings are as much a celebration of sustained tones, intervallic relationships, healing vibrations, deep listening and shimmering harmonics as Indian Classical music, singing bowls, The Well Tuned Piano or Benjamin Franklin's glass armonica. Through these rich harmonics and pulsing pure tone, Bertoia was able to more clearly articulate his inner spirit than he could with sculpture alone – a point he made himself many times in interviews. 

Harry Bertoia first came into artistic prominence in the late 1930s and his sculptural, ergonomic chairs, produced by Knoll Furniture beginning in 1952, were soon modernist furniture classics. Inspired by the resonant sounds emanating from metals as he worked them and encouraged by his brother Oreste, whose passion was music, Harry restored a fieldstone "Pennsylvania Dutch" barn as the home for this experiment in sounding sculptures which he had begun in the 1950s. Bertoia was an obsessive composer and relentless experimenter, often working late into the night and accumulating hundreds of tapes of his best performances; Oreste, too, would explore and record the sculptures' sounds during his annual visits to his brother's home in rural Pennsylvania.

Learning by experimentation was common for Bertoia and he mastered the art of tape recording, turning the Sonambient barn into a sound studio with four overhead microphones hanging from the rafters in a square formation. He would experiment with overdubbing by performing along to previous recordings, sometimes backwards, constantly improving his methods while also honing his performance skills. Bertoia was a careful editor of his own work and only chosen recordings remained, each with a date and carefully considered observations written on a note included with each tape. Through these pieces of paper a greater logic can be uncovered, a careful approach to composition, ideas, feelings and forms. The story of Sonambient barn collection will slowly be told through the release of recordings from the archive as well as installations and performances built from Bertoia's own recordings, lectures and a book.

Find out more at Sonambient.com

Harry Bertoia - Mechanization II - From Mechanization LP - Available: 11.15.24

2CD available directly from Imprec.com

American percussionist and composer Michael Ranta is a legendary figure who has worked with some of the most significant names of 20th century music but despite this and impressive body of work of his own, he has remained an obscure figure. Important Records and is pleased to present “Transits, Volume 1” the first in a series of releases by composer/percussionist Sarah Hennies documenting never before heard chamber works mostly composed in the 1970s while Ranta was living in Taiwan. 

Mastered by Tom Eaton at Sounds & Substance.

Based overseas since the late 60s, Ranta is known primarily as a percussionist who worked closely with Harry Partch, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann, Toru Takemitsu and Jean-Claude Éloy but is also an accomplished artist himself with a vast body of work spanning improvisation, electronic music, and composition. The works in the “Transits” series comprise a dozen works of scored compositions for solo and chamber ensembles almost all of which are completely unknown with no known performances or recordings since their original premieres. Volume 1 includes “Mharuva,” a 30-minute marathon tour-de-force for solo marimba, “Seven Pieces for Three Percussionists,” and the 40-minute “Continuum II,” a stunning display of virtuosity for two bass clarinets, percussion, and electronics.


“Transits, Volume 1” features performances by Sarah Hennies, NYC clarinetists Madison Greenstone and Katie Porter, and the Bard College Conservatory Percussion Ensemble.

Micael Ranta - Mharuva (excerpt) - From Transits Vol 1 - Available Nov 22, 2024

Pysical & Digital direct from artist's Banddamp: 
https://allisongraves.bandcamp.com/album/i-still-look-for-the-mountains

Physical edition available directly from Imprec: 
https://importantrecords.com/products/allison-graves-mountains


Allison Graves is a 20 year old singer, songwriter and naturalist from New England who has created a powerful, breathy debut that sounds aged and well loved, like an old home, with dogs barking in the background and kids playing in the yard. Allison Graves' rich sense of melody and harmony underscores the depth of the work. 

Written and recorded across six months and two coasts, with a secondhand guitar and a broken laptop, I Still Look For The Mountains draws inspiration from many wells including Adrianne Lenker and Bon Iver. As if Graves' debut was a long lost reissue from Joe Boyd's Witchseason catalog, this album is also reminiscent of Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan. Highly recommended to Imprec fans of Kurt Weisman, Diane Cluck, Kimya Dawson, Asa Irons/Swaan Miller. 

Opening with a brassy modular synth sequence and layered vocals, Allison Graves immediately establishes a vibe ever-present throughout I Still Look For The Mountain's duration.  Graves' songwriting pins down big, all-encompassing feelings and experiences that follow us all through our lives, and to tries and make sense of the profoundly unexplainable joys and sorrows of human existence. 

This CDR edition is limited to 100 copies with a label hand drawn by Allison Graves. A CD/LP edition will be available later this year.

I Still Look For The Mountains

Allison Graves - Good To You - From I Still Look For The Mountains (IMPREC537)

Divertissement is the third collaborative full length from minimalist composer William Basinski and sound artist Richard Chartier.

The duo utilize electronics, piano, tape-loops and short wave radio to evoke a dense atmosphere suggesting hundreds of years of history rising up from the depths of a reverberating cathedral. Subtle, buried and intense murmurs of melody morph through this deeply consuming and slowly evolving composition in two parts.

Pressed in an edition of 500 with beautiful cover drawings by artist James Elaine. 100 copies are on color vinyl for mailorder customers.

William Basinski + Richard Chartier - Divertissement - LP edit Aug 2015

Pre-order available now.
In typically fine form, The Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Pairaiso UFO have delivered another smoker to Important Records. Double LP pressed in an edition of 1000 copies.

Benzaiten is an In C style homage to the the classic Osamu Kitajima record of the same name. The Acid Mothers Temple covers the title track and reprise using Kitajima's original composition as a departure point to explore the outer realms of AMT territory. Further instrumental explorations reveal textures of the original composition while launching out further into the cosmic domain. Numerous Acid Mothers original tracks are scattered in between. Benzaiten!

Acid Mothers Temple - Benzaiten - 2LP - Aug 2015

Blues Alif Lam Mim In the Mode Of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis is a new composition from Catherine Christer Hennix's expanded just-intonation ensemble, the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage. The expanded ensemble includes vocalists Imam Ahmet Muhsin Tüzer, Amir Elsaffan and Amirtha Kidambi, an expanded brass section with the addition of Paul Schwingesnschlögl and Elena Kakaliagou, and the additon of Marcus Pal and Stefan Tiedje on electronics. This new piece was recorded live at the Issue Project Room and was mastered by Dubplates + Mastering in Berlin. 
Live At Issue Project Room is packaged in a deluxe letterpressed sleeve and is being issued at the same time as Central Palace Music from 100 Model Subjects For Hegikan Roku, a recording of Hennix's ensemble from 1976, also on Important.

Catherine Christer Hennix / Chora(s)an Time-Court Mirage - Live At ISSUE Project Room -

The Ape Of Naples is Coil's highly celebrated final album completed by Peter Christopherson following the tragic death of Jhonn Balance in 2004. Often noted for being a fan favorite, The Ape Of Naples uses Balance's final recordings and material recorded at Trent Reznor's studio in New Orleans to create a deep, heavy masterpiece.

Ape Of Naples

Coil - Fire Of The Mind - from The Ape Of Naples CD/2LP - 2018 REPRESS AVAILABLE

The New Backwards, created in 2007, was originally included in the Ape Of Naples box set released on Important in 2008 and was constructed by Peter Christopherson using material from the Backwards sessions, recorded in the early 90's for a planned release on Trent Reznor's Nothing Records label. The New Backwards, like Ape Of Naples, is an intense fan favorite and an essential part of of the Coil catalog.

The New Backwards

Coil - Careful What You Wish For - from The New Backwards CD/LP

Vergers is Davachi's third full-length release following Barons Court (2015, Students of Decay) and Dominions (2016, JAZ Records), and her second appearance with Important Records following 2014's August Harp cassette on the Cassauna imprint. 

In this work, she meditates on a single electronic instrument, the EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer, while also weaving sparse acoustic elements – her own voice and violin – into a series of three long-form, muted gestures.

Elements of distance and alienation are certainly at play in the textural quality of these compositions, a feeling that is further defined by track titles that reference the spirit world and an album title that calls to mind the solitary tasks of the church orderly.

The record opens with the aptly titled, Gentle So Gentle, a side-long movement that harkens the glacial character of Davachi's previous efforts. Ghosts And All and In Staying suggest a more disjointed path, with the latter culminating in a subtly dissonant dirge that leaves little absolve between the organic, the artificial, and the impermanent.

Vergers

Sarah Davachi - Ghosts And All - from Vergers LP - IMPREC442

Important Records presents Omminggg and Schlomminggg, the second release by continuous music pioneer Charlemagne Palestine and Grumbling Fur consisting of London based multi-disciplinary artists Daniel O'Sullivan and Alexander Tucker; the Time Machine Orchestra being the extended drone arm of Tucker and O'Sullivan's experimental avant-pop conception. This double LP captures a performance of the trio at Copenhagen's illustrious Jazzhouse in 2016. The pin-drop acoustic clarity of the venue providing an ideal setting for this mesmeric recital of eternal music. 

The signature strumming of Palestine's piano augmented by Tucker and O'Sullivan's earthware electronics and processed strings create seamless sonic ripples in a constant state of unfolding. This is perhaps the most demonstrative document of Palestine's powerful vocal delivery - an alien hybrid of sacred music drawing deep from the well of the cantorial synagogue and Hindustani classical styles in a bid to channel inter-dimensional beings from ancient cultures. In some respects this could be thought of as Charlemagne in dub as Grumbling Fur carefully twist and mangle their palette of electrified harp, viola, bowed mandolin, percussion, tapes and voice transformers through chains of loopers resulting in a slowly dilating vapour.

Mixed at O'Sullivan's Dream Lion Studio with gatefold sleeve art by Alexander Tucker and a Grumbling Fur redux/remodel constituting side four, this is a unique document of portal opening music that defies time and space.


Performed by Charlemagne Palestine, Alexander Tucker and Daniel O'Sullivan
Sides 1-3 Recorded at Jazzhouse, Copenhagen, November 28th 2015
Side 4 GFTMO Redux
Assembled and mixed by Grumbling Fur
Cut by Matt Colton, Alchemy Mastering, London
Cover art by Alexander Tucker
Inside art by Daniel O'Sullivan

Thanks and praise to Andreas Korsgaard Rasmussen, Klaus Hedegård Nielsen, Mark Titchner, Zoe Miller and Aude Stoclet

Charlemagne Palestine & Grumbling Fur Time Machine Orchestra - Excerpt - 2LP available May 2017

2018 repress now available. 

Excerpts from the powerful new double LP from Caterina Barbieri comprised of compositions for analog synthesizer. Highly recommended to fans of Alessandro Cortini & Eleh. 

"Patterns Of Consciousness finds Caterina Barbieri at her best, elegantly moving between melodically pleasant yet twisted sequences and comforting, reassuring sonic spaces. Every piece, while given a singular identity, is part of the bigger picture: a work of art that will push you, pull you, and then eventually leave you with your back against the wall once you get to the last track. " Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails)

Patterns Of Consciousness

Caterina Barbieri - Patterns Of Consciousness - Album excerpts - 2LP April1 2017

"One of electronic music's most interesting new voices." FACT

"Born Again In The Voltage" is an astonishing collection of electro-acoustic pieces for Buchla 200 system, cello and voice composed and produced by Caterina Barbieri at Elektronmusikstudion (SE) between 2014 and 2015.

Virtual Fundament

Caterina Barbieri - How To Decode An Illusion - LP Available Aug 10, 2018

First 8 minutes features an edit from Caterina Barbieri's piece and the second 8 minutes features an edit from ELEH's side. 

Highly synergistic split from ELEH/Caterina Barbieri featuring two sides of similar audio dimensions. These two electronic sound poems slowly unfurl rich timbre and harmonics with an austere stillness that is, somehow, ever-changing. It hardly matters whose side is whose. 

200 copies are available on clear vinyl for Imprec mailorder.

Caterina Barbieri/ELEH Split LP MIX - Available Aug 10, 2018 - Pre-order now available

Geelriandre - Arthesis LP available for pre-order now via ImportantRecords.com

ELIANE RADIGUE MIX - Geelriandre (LP Pre-Order) / Vice Versa / Transamorem - Transmortem / Triptych

PRE-ORDERS NOW AVAILABLE

"Both pieces are intended to aid the listener in times of spiritual change, but are just fine for 'everyday' use as well. Highly recommended." Charles S. Russell, Ear Magazine


Pauline Oliveros' Tara's Room has long been a favorite in the Imprec office and it's a great honor to be able to release it on LP for the very first time. Tara's Room was cut by John Golden and pressed at RTI in order to achieve a quiet, dynamic pressing. Originally released on cassette in 1987 following the 1986 release of "Sounding / Way" with Guy Klucevsek which is also available on LP via Imprec. 

This LP features two long sides of infinite depth and sensitivity. Oliveros performs these pieces using a Just Intonation accordion and her Expanded Instrument System in order to bend both time and pitch. 


Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer and humanitarian is an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she has explored sound - forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it, and eludes many who try to write about it. Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment is unchanged. She can make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble.

"On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." ~ John Rockwell

"Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I now know what harmony is. It's about the pleasure of making music." ~ John Cage

Pauline Oliveros - The Beauty Of Sorrow - Tara's Room LP - Pre-Order Available

Pre-order available now. Color copies exclusively available for Important Records mailorder customers. 

Multivocal is a polyphonic maze that unfolds to both the body and the mind. A generative take on rhythm and spacial perception, it presents the same events in different configurations. 

The two pieces of the album, "Solid of Revolution" and "Never Odd or Even", mirror each other with the same principle in different musical scales: steady pulses with one millisecond difference in tempo start beating together, then slowly phase organically and progress into ever-changing rhythmic patterns until they finally return to unison. 

Multivocal emphasizes shifts of attention in the listener’s experience and plays with the expectations that frame it. Originally conceived for quadraphonic sound, the pieces reveal the many different aspects and modes of perception that can arise within the same sequence of notes. In this way Multivocal is influenced by concepts of gestalt psychology such as multistable perception - a term describing ambiguous patterns that offer multiple interpretations at once. The minimalism and repetitive quality of the music also refers to trance-inducing and collective music practices, driven by the strong bodily affects induced through the use of rhythms.

Those two compositions were recorded live during Ars Electronica 2018 at the occasion of the sleeping event « Sonatas for Sleep/less », curated by multimedia artist Shu Lea Cheang and cultural theorist Matthew Fuller.

Jessica Ekomane - Multivocal - LP - PRE-ORDER

Pre-order available now. Release date: Jan 31, 2020

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Deep Listening, we offer you the definitive double LP combining the classic, complete original 1989 release with selected tracks from the Deep Listening Band’s 1991 album The Readymade Boomerang.

This elegant double LP is packaged in a gatefold sleeve with original and updated recollections from the performers, the recording engineer and a mesostic from John Cage, to which these recordings are inextricably linked.

Recorded in a cistern, this double LP reverberates with brilliant sonic clarity and masterfully improvised performances combining live electronics, vocals, trombone and accordion. Deep Listening is a classic in the fields of improvisation, minimalism, ambient/drone and modern classical.

Listen with attentiveness, listen while lying down, listen with headphones - as recording engineer Al Swanson entices the listener to become a virtual performer in selecting the many different ways to perceive these phenomenal tracks. Whatever you do, listen deeply.

Oliveros - Dempster - Panaiotis "Deep Listening" 2LP - 30th Anniversary & First time on vinyl!

JAMES BLACKSHAW & LUBOMYR MELNYK
THE WATCHERS

IMPREC375

The Watchers is a historic collaboration between Lubomyr Melnyk and James Blackshaw. Both artists are well known as composers but here it is their impovisational skills that are on display.  First 200 copies of the LP will ship on blue vinyl.  CD version is packaged in a heavy duty digipak.

http://importantrecords.com/imprec/imprec375

"Haftorang" by James Blackshaw & Lubomyr Melnyk IMPREC375

JOZEF VAN WISSEM
NIHIL OBSTAT

IMPREC379   LP/CD

RELEASE DATE:  28 MAY 2013

“Gorgeous new full length from Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem. Wissem's long form, graceful melodic lute layers, preceded by suspenseful deep bass movements, create a transcendental and pastoral. Wissem's is a world where hypnotic minimalist figures are repeated to slow the act of listening.”

"How you must have suffered" by Jozef Van Wissem IMPREC379

August 2015 update - 2nd pressing now shipping
http://importantrecords.com/imprec/imprec373

"Gloria" from the upcoming 2XLP 'Forse 1' by Alessandro Cortini. Catalog# IMPREC373

Deluxe double LP pressed in an edition of 500 copies. First 100 copies pressed are on red vinyl.

Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails/How To Destroy Angels) composed the Forse series using a Buchla Music Easel. Forse, meaning "maybe" In Italian, is a series of 3 double LP releases Cortini recorded for Important to release in 2013.

IMPREC

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