Erstwhile Records
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Erstwhile Records
Erstwhile Records is an independent record label devoted to free improvisation, particularly the electroacoustic variety, contemporary, experimental composed music, and combinations of both. Erstwhile was founded by Jon Abbey in 1999, whose personality and tastes are closely identified with the label. Characteristic label artists include guitarist Keith Rowe, percussionist Günter Müller, guitarist / turntablist Otomo Yoshihide, homemade electronics group Voice Crack, sine wave improviser Sachiko M, concrete artist Jason Lescalleet, guitarist / laptop composer Fennesz, guitarist Burkhard Stangl and synthesizer player Thomas Lehn, as well as younger musicians such as clarinetist Kai Fagaschinski. In recent years, also artists connected to the Wandelweiser group started releasing albums on the label, such as American composer Michael Pisaro. History The first few Erstwhile releases were something of a mixed set in terms of the music, ranging from the melancholy avant-blues of L ...
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Independent Record Label
An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented by trade associations in their country or region, which in turn are represented by the international trade body, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN). Many of the labels started as producers and distributors of specific genres of music, such as jazz music, or represent something new and non-mainstream, such as Elvis Presley in the early days. Indies release rock, soul, R&B, jazz, blues, gospel, reggae, hip hop, and world music. Music appearing on indie labels is often referred to as indie music, or more specifically by genre, such as indie hip-hop. Overview Independent record labels are small companies that produce and distribute records. They are not affiliated with or funded by the three major records labels. According to ...
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Taku Sugimoto
Taku Sugimoto, born December 20, 1965, in Tokyo, is a Japanese guitarist. He initially gained attention in the late 1990s for his restrained, melodic playing, unusual in the world of free improvisation. Critic Bruce Russell describes this era of Sugimoto's music by writing: "Sugimoto is perhaps the pre-eminent stylist on the guitar ... He brings a golden glow to every session he partakes in, having abandoned amped up noise in favour of a much more introspective and calligraphic style of play." Around 2002 his music became increasingly abstract, all but eliminating melody and featuring extended periods of silence. He has collaborated with other Japanese musicians involved in the Onkyo movement, such as Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura and Otomo Yoshihide. He has also collaborated with musicians from European free improvisation scenes, notably trombonist Radu Malfatti and guitarist Keith Rowe Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a ...
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Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue notes of jazz and the blues. Originally dedicated to recording traditional jazz and small group swing, the label began to switch its attention to modern jazz around 1947. From there, Blue Note grew to become one of the most prolific, influential and respected jazz labels of the mid-20th century, noted for its role in facilitating the development of hard bop, post-bop and avant-garde jazz, as well as for its iconic modernist art direction. History Historically, Blue Note has principally been associated with the " hard bop" style of jazz (mixing bebop with other forms of music including soul, blues, rhythm and blues and gospel), but also recorded essential albums in the avant-garde and free styles of jazz. Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, ...
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Onkyokei
The Onkyo music movement or (translation: "reverberation of sound"Cox, Christoph and Warner, Daniel, eds. (2004). ''Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music'', p.413. .) is a form of free improvisation, emerging from Japan in the late 1990s. Onkyō can be translated as "sound, noise, echo". Some artists commonly associated with Onkyō include Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, Sachiko M, and Taku Sugimoto, among others. The Off Site, a venue in Tokyo, is home to the Onkyo music movement, which is characterized by improvisation, minimalism, and "quiet noise". Onkyo improvisation, "explores the fine-grained textural details of acoustic and electronic sound". It influenced the development of electroacoustic improvisation, or EAI, a genre with which it is strongly intertwined. The transnational circulation of onkyo also influenced its representation as a form of "Japanese new music," despite claims by its authors that onkyo had little to do with Japanese cultural identity.Novak, D ...
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Good Morning Good Night
''Good Morning Good Night'' is a collaborative album by Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura, and Otomo Yoshihide. It was released in 2004 by Erstwhile Records. Background The music consists of sine waves produced by a sampler, mixing console feedback, and turntable-based sounds. The music is sparse and divided into several segments ranging from approximately 8 to 37 minutes in length. Track listing Personnel Adapted from Erstwhile Records * Sachiko M – sine waves, sampler * Toshimaru Nakamura – no-input mixing board * Otomo Yoshihide – turntables, electronics Reception The album was given a 7.3 by Pitchfork, with reviewer Dominique Leone Dominique Leone is an American musician and writer based in New York City. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on December 29, 1973, and grew up in the Dallas, Texas area. Leone began writing music reviews for Pitchfork Media in 2001, and was ... praising the album for its complexity and meticulous instrumentation. References ...
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Lowercase Music
Lowercase is an extreme form of ambient minimalism where very quiet, usually unheard sounds are amplified to extreme levels. Minimal artist Steve Roden popularized the movement with an album entitled ''Forms of Paper'', in which he made recordings of himself handling paper in various ways. These recordings were commissioned by the Hollywood branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. Definition Steve Roden stated this about the lowercase tendencies in which he began to develop in his later works: “It bears a certain sense of quiet and humility; it doesn't demand attention, it must be discovered... It’s the opposite of capital letters—loud things which draw attention to themselves.” Examples Artists that have contributed to the lowercase movement include Richard Chartier, Jeremy Leafey, and Carsten Nicolai, a.k.a. Alva Noto. See also *John Cage * Microsound *Musique concrète *Postminimalism * Tape music References External links''Whisper the Songs of Silence''(article ...
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Ambient Music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual",Prendergast, M. ''The Ambient Century''. 2001. Bloomsbury, USA or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer. The genre originated in the 1960s and 1970s, when new musical instruments were being introduced to a wider market, such as the synthesizer. It was presaged by Erik Satie's furniture music and styles such as musique concrète, minimal music, and German electronic music, but was prominently named and popularized by Briti ...
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Post-rock
Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with electronics. The genre emerged within the indie and underground music scene of the 1980s and early 1990s. However, due to its abandonment of rock conventions, it often bears little resemblance musically to contemporary indie rock, borrowing instead from diverse sources including ambient, electronica, jazz, krautrock, dub, and minimalist classical. Artists such as Talk Talk and Slint have been credited with producing foundational works in the style in the early 1990s. The term post-rock itself was notably employed by journalist Simon Reynolds in a review of the 1994 Bark Psychosis album '' Hex''. It later solidified into a recognizable trend with the release of Tortoise's 1996 album '' Millions Now Living Will Never Die''. The ...
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Christof Kurzmann
Christof is a masculine given name. It is a German variant of Christopher. Notable people with the name include: * Christof Babatz (born 1974), German former professional footballer * Christof Duffner (born 1971), German former ski jumper * Christof Ebert (born 1964), German computer scientist and entrepreneur * Christof Heyns, South African academic * Christof Innerhofer (born 1984), Italian alpine ski racer *Christof Koch (born 1956), American neuroscientist *Christof Lauer (born 1953), German saxophonist *Christof Lindenmayer (born 1977), American former soccer player * Christof Marselis, (1670s – 1731), Polish-Dutch architect *Christof Mauch, German historian *Christof Migone, Swiss-born experimental sound artist and writer * Christof Perick (born Christof Prick, 1946), German conductor *Christof Plümacher or Christof Pluemacher (born 1963), German photographer *Christof Putzel, American journalist *Christof Schwaller (born 1966), Swiss curler *Christof Unterberger (b ...
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Martin Brandlmayr
Martin Brandlmayr is an Austrian percussionist, drummer, composer and electronic artist. He is widely recognized for his work in a variety of so-called "post-rock" bands, namely Radian, Trapist, and Autistic Daughters, among others. Critic Brian Olewnick has called Brandlmayr's work "extraordinarily precise". Among others, Brandlmayr has recorded or performed with John Tilbury, Fennesz, Chad Taylor, and Otomo Yoshihide. He was artist in residence 2002 at Podewil, Berlin. He now lives in Vienna, Austria and is an active member of Polwechsel Polwechsel is a musical group founded in Vienna, Austria in 1993. Their music has mostly straddled a line between contemporary music and free improvisation, and is characterized by quiet volume, sustained drones, and slowly developing structures .... Releases * Radian "radian" CD, Rhiz 1998 * Radian "tg 11" CD, Mego/Rhiz, 2000 * Trapist "Highway my friend" CD, Hathut, 2002 * Radian "rec.extern" CD, Thrilljockey, 2002 * Mapstation "vers ...
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Martin Siewert
Martin Siewert (born 11 May 1972) is a German guitarist and film composer. Career Siewert has been living in Vienna since the age of 10. He studied guitar at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. As a guitarist, he started his public performances in 1995. In his early performances, he played with Herwig Gradischnig, Freier Fall, Franz Hautzinger, and his band Duckbilled Platypus. With this band, he recorded two albums for the label Extraplatte. He began to separated himself from the jazz idiom and developed an abstract sound on guitar. He became a member of Efzeg with Burkhard Stangl and Hauf and Komfort. He invited Dafeldecker, Hinteregger, Wayne Horvitz and Tony Buck to the group Komfort. In the group Trapist, he played with Joe Williamson and Martin Brandlmayr. On ''My Kingdom for a Lullably'', he played with Christof Kurzmann, Axel Dörner, and Billy Roisz, the video artist of Efzeg. He was a member of the guitar quartet SSSD with Taku Sugimoto, Werner Dafelde ...
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Axel Dörner
Axel Dörner (born 26 April 1964 in Cologne, Germany) is a German trumpeter, pianist, and composer. Biography Dörner studied piano in the Dutch town Arnhem (1988–89) and at the Music Academy in Cologne (1989–1996). From 1991 he studied trumpet with Malte Burba, and during his studies he collaborated with trumpeter Bruno Light as the Street Fighters Duo. The duo expanded to form the Street Fighters Quartet and the Street Fighters Double Quartet, with members including Matthias Schubert, Bruno Leicht, and Claudio Puntin. He formed the Axel Dörner Quartet with Frank Gratkowski, Hans Schneider, and Martin Blume, and played with saxophonist Matthias Petzold on the albums ''Lifelines'' and ''Psalmen Und Lobgesänge''. Dörner has lived in Berlin since 1994 and is an integral part of the Berlin scene of new improvisational and experimental music. Besides playing solo and in his trio TOOT (with Phil Minton and Thomas Lehn), he has played with artists such as Otomo Yoshihide and ...
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