Otto Luenig & Vladmir Ussachevsky
Tape Recorder Music
7CACKLP

One of the very earliest and most important examples of electronic tape music to be pressed on to vinyl (alongside the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française musique concrète compilations in France and Jim Fassett’s comedic Strange To Your Ears novelty record) this privately pressed 1955 LP was released on a one-off label owned by businessman Gene Bruck to document a custom made performance at the New York Museum Of Modern Art back in 1952.  This facsimile edition of this important LP archives remastered versions of the first recorded unison of Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky and a partnership that founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center at Columbia University in 1959, which would later count Ilhan Mimaroglu, Wendy Carlos, Dariush Dolat Shahi and Alice Shields as its graduates.

The October 28th 1952 performance showcased the debut of the seminal Fantasy In Space based on resampled flute recordings which were manipulated on magnetic tape to create an otherworldly melodic composition, stylistically begging comparison with the early recording of Kraftwerk (made some twenty years later) and bringing a palatable and tuneful alternative to the stark avant garde experiments of their French counterparts.  The mechanical construction of the track was even "performed" on prime time American television to celebrate this groundbreaking approach to modern music.  Alongside four other tracks the full programme comprises further experiments with manipulated recordings of bells and woodwind instruments subjected to mechanical "augmentation, diminution and retrograding" to create pieces that "cannot be played with conventional instruments."  In the following years labels like Folkways and Desto would also plunder this important session as a milestone in electronic music.

For the purpose of this release Cacophonic have also included the seldom heard 14 minute track A Poem In Cycles And Bells For Tape Recorder And Orchestra which was recorded using the same techniques with the Royal Danish Radio Orchestra in 1956 and released via the Composers Recordings Inc. label founded by Otto himself in 1954 (employing Vladimir in an advisory capacity) and operated for forty-nine years - releasing records by Harry Partch, Alwin Nikolais, John Cage and Alice Shields.  Also included on this edition is an expansion of the rare 10" original artwork by legendary graphic designer Ronald Clyne, an early example of his work made before he became in-house designer for Folkways Records rivaling the likes of Blue Note's Reid Miles for some of America’s most iconic record sleeves.

Otto Luenig & Vladmir Ussachevsky - Sonic Contours

Visit www.binauralpower.com for full album and extended audio.

Binaural Beats for focus and concentration. For best results wear headphones.

Binaural Beats for Focus and Concentration Beta Waves

Alwin Nikolais
Choreosonic Music Of The New Dance Theatre Of Alwin Nikolais
10CACK
Choreosonics was the name of the music for the choreography of Alwin Nikolais - a unique theatre exposition that was described in the late 50s as “the new theatre of shape, motion, light and sound.” In 1953 Nikolais attracted people interested in new art to his dance concerts at the Henry Street Playhouse in New York City. In these concerts dancers became colourful motivating sources for sculptural shapes; moving in changing atmospheres of light and sound their relationship carefully integrated into a new kind of audiovisual abstract theatre art. The sounds created for this were not conceived from traditional music points of view but were designed to share and support the total visual dynamics.

Such a creation was possible because of Nikolais’ background as a musician as well as choreographer. At sixteen he was playing piano and organ for the then disappearing silent films, improvising and coordinating music four to six hours daily to the dramatic content of the movie. With this profession obsolete, he turned his skill into accompaniment for dance. Through this his interests led to his study of percussion accompaniment and exploration of new sounds. These ideas were stimulated by the kind of dance accompaniment introduced by the famous German dancer, Mary Wigman. This, in turn, induced Nikolais to study dance and ultimately to switch his career from musician to dancer and choreographer.

Nikolais was soon heralded as one of the leading figures in modern concert dance, he is credited with bringing about revolutionary ideas opening up new vistas for dance and theatre. Nikolais' activities were centered at the Henry Street Playhouse in New York. His work was created there with his assistant Murray Louis; sound engineer David S. Berlin; artist George Constant and members of his Playhouse Dance Company. All of whom had a hand in the final productions. Performances with names like Prism, Cantos and Totem were met with positive critical view for their multidisciplinary achieve- ments. While his collaboration with Harry Partch on The Bewitched established his name alongside another true maverick of American sound design and forward-thinking composition.

Some of Nikolais' dancers were also trained as percussionists who improvised on a curious assortment of sound producing instruments and objects while other dancers worked through the choreography. David Berlin, who assembled and constructed the sound recording equipment, would operate from the sound booth from a window overlooking the stage. Nikolais would direct the experiments and improvising.

Within any performance there would be numerous tests of the original sound and their possible electronic conditioning, including many playbacks of short phrases tested to the dancers’ motion. When the sound phrase proved satisfactory the next cut was started. Sounds were cut down, enlarged, replaced and then the whole piece would be linked together and given final editing much the same as a filming process. Nikolais generally tried to avoid any identification of the sound sources, thus inviting the ear to perceive the sound itself divorced from its initial derivation. This, however, was by no means a final criterion, the ultimate one being the value of the sound to the theatre idea at hand whatever its source or manner of conditioning was. The objects used to pro- duce these sounds were without limit except for practical material size. Within the collection many percussion instruments were used: drums of all kinds, rattles, bells, gongs, cymbals, wooden blocks, etc. Also whistles, tubes, pipes, pieces of wood, alu- minum, steel and tin containers were utilised alongs-ide glasses, elastic bands, coils of wire, etc. The back of an upright piano in addition to a grand piano were also often at hand. The human voice would be used freely, hand clapping, foot stomping and any sound producing device whatsoever that might served a purpose.

Lythic - Alwin Nikolais

Avec Merce Cunningham, Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) a été l’un des précurseurs de la danse contemporaine. 
Avec Susan Buirge et Carolyn Carlson, il a particulièrement été actif en France à partir des années 1970 : il mit notamment en place et dirigea le Centre national de danse contemporaine d'Angers. 
Il a formé toute une génération de chorégraphes français, dont Philippe Decouflé, Patrice Grimout, Alain Buffard et Marc Lawton. 
Inspiré par la danse de Mary Wigman et de Hanya Holm, Alwin Nikolais a développé l'idée d'un spectacle total (donnant la même importance aux danseurs, à la lumière, à la scénographie, et à la musique), 
et il a inventé une conception particulière du mouvement, ainsi qu’une pédagogie où le « centre » devient flexible et localisable dans n'importe quel point du corps, et où l'improvisation et la composition font partie intégrante de la formation technique.
Danseuse et chorégraphe, Christine Gérard a notamment travaillé avec Jacqueline Robinson, Françoise et Dominique Dupuy, Susan Buirge… :
http://www.christinegerardchoregraphe.com/




Alwin Nikolais et la danse contemporaine

A phase piece for Ten Casio Sk-1 keyboards. 

Ten performers aged 30 are asked to record their own voices on ten Casio Sk-1 sampling keyboards made in 1985, and play the sample back at a pitch of their choosing. The played samples are then resampled onto ten modern looping samplers made 10 years after the release of the Casio Sk-1 and set to loop for a period of the performer's choosing.  The performance lasts for 10 minutes. 

Casio Phase

One step, one breath, eyes close, door opens...

Natalie Mack - Vocals, Uke
Gavin Price - Guitar, Vocals
John Gasper - Bass, Keys

Written by Major Magics
Produced by Ariel Loh at Stone Studio

Strange House

The Men Who Smiled with One Side of Their Mouths

Alwin Nikolais in Mickleover

Graeme Miller & Steve Shill
The Moomins
FKR090
LP/CD/MP3

Pre-order the album here:

Finders Keepers Records - https://goo.gl/Ppng0H
iTunes - https://goo.gl/s2QtiW
Amazon - https://goo.gl/91iELn
Bandcamp - https://goo.gl/cGxKfb

Imagine, if you will, a foreboding homemade electro-acoustic, new age, synth driven, proto-techno, imaginary world music Portastudio soundtrack for a Polish-made animated fantasy based on a Finnish modern folk tale and created for German and Austrian TV, composed in 1982 by two politically driven post-punk theatre performers from a shared house in Leeds!

To even the most perspicacious and adventurous of alternative music fans the genuine bloodline of this previously unreleased record already begins to sound like an entire record collection in one sitting. It would be surprising if this project's ambitious and exotic credentials didn't tick at least one box on your musical matrix and without one drop of unnecessary nostalgic hyperbole this project already sounds like the perfect fantasy record that you've never heard. Alternatively we could just say The Moomins and, for many, things would instantly begin to make perfect sense.

From the same social landscape as Gang Of Four, The Mekons and Impact Theatre Co-operative - armed with a Wasp synthesiser, an ocarina and a cassette of the Robinson Crusoe music taped off the TV, Graeme Miller and Steve Shill used minimum means for maximum mayhem, instilling over 35 years of dreamlike illusory fuzziness and freakiness into the memories of a generation of school age TV addicts waiting for the next 5 minute fix of outernational fuzzy felt folklore. Collected here, all in one place for the first time, Finders Keepers in close collaboration with the original composers finally bring the original homemade micro-melodies and reintroduce them to a musical landscape where fans of vintage electronics, concrète tape effects, pocket percussion and domestic synths are finally ready to be reunited with the magnetic music of Moominvalley.

www.finderskeepersrecords.com

The Moomins Theme

Alan Watts - The Real You

Soothing music for food restaurant or other stuff : I created this 4-5 years ago for a school project and had no idea this blew up loool. Glad you guys enjoyed it XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Casio Phase

Tei Blow