ELIANE RADIGUE - 'OPUS 17'

Formats

• IMPREC497CD - 2xCDs

  793447549712

Details

Eliane Radigue's complete Opus 17 (1970), her finest and final work created using feedback, is contained on this double CD. With Opus 17 Radigue perfected her slow mixing technique with sublime results. Imperceptible transformations envelop the attentive listener who is confronted with an immensely physical experience. Time is suspended in powerfully poetic and artful ways as Radigue masterfully sculpts the physical matter of sound using feedback for the last time. Opus 17 is an absolutely essential masterpiece in the realm of early electro-acoustic/drone/minimalist composition. Metallic silver ink printed on high gloss paper.

Tracks

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ELIANE RADIGUE - 'TRIPTYCH'

Formats

• IMPREC260 - CD

  79344752602

Details

Eliane Radigue: Arp 2500 Synthesizer "Back to music after three years of silence.... On the suggestion of Robert Ashley, Douglas Dunn commissioned this piece from Eliane Radigue for choreography. Only the first part of Triptych was staged at the premiere at the Dancehall/Theatre of Nancy on February 27, 1978. "Recorded in the composer's studio in Paris. "After the premiere of Adnos I in San Francisco in 1974, a group of French students introduced Eliane Radigue to Tibetan Buddhism. When she returned to Paris, she began to explore this spirituality in depth, which slowed her musical production up until 1978. Triptych marks her return to composition, and draws its inspiration from 'the spirit of the fundamental elements,' water, air, fire, earth.... Eliane Radigue likes to add that this has often been useful to her in her moments of research and transitions. "This three-part composition, with its great humility and contemplative simplicity, heralded a new period of work and was the first in a series of masterpieces inspired by Tibetan Buddhism: Adnos II (1980), Adnos III (1981), Songs of Milarepa (1983) - with the voices of Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Robert Ashley -, Jetsun Mila (1986), as well as the Trilogy of Death: Kyema (1988), Kailasha (1991) and Koume (1993)." ~ Manu Holterbach (translated by Maxime Guitton) Archival images included in the accompanying booklet.

Tracks

Part 1 17:47
Part 2 24:23
Part 3 19:27

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ELIANE RADIGUE - 'VICE VERSA, ETC.'

Formats

• IMPREC259 - 2xCDs

  793447525921

Details

Eliane Radigue; feedback on magnetic tape Includes archival photographs and liner notes. "1970 was an important year in Eliane Radigue's musical life since it was the year just before she acquired her ARP 2500 synthesizer. Since 1967, she had been using the feedback as a material; feedback from two tape recorders reworked through intensive studio techniques: slowing down, alteration, superimposition, montage. "In 1970, the last year she dedicated to feedback, several milestone pieces saw the light of day: Omnht, a wonderful sound installation for three out-of-phase tape loops and wall-mounted loudspeakers; the theoretical setting of Labyrinthe Sonore (eventually premiered at Mills College in 1998 in collaboration with Pauline Oliveros, Maggie Payne and William Winant, among others); Opus 17, one of her first compositions in fixed duration (according to Rhys Chatham, a decisive piece that would change his own compositional career); and Vice-Versa, etc…, which appears to be her very last feedback loop composition. "Vice-Versa, etc… was conceived as a sound installation setting similar to S=a=b=a+b. A single magnetic tape can be played at any speed, a stereo tape of which allows three playings: left channel alone, right channel alone, left and right channels together. These different channels can be overlapped/crossed over as much as possible, at any speed. Thus the piece reveals itself in its whole dimension, its infinite grace.

Tracks

Disc One:
1. Onward 9,5
2. Onward 19
3. Onward 38
4. Onward 76

Disc Two:
1. Backward 9,5 Backward 19
2. Backward 38
3. Backward 76

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ELIANE RADIGUE - 'TRANSAMOREM - TRANSMORTEM'

Formats

• IMPREC337 - CD

  794475337289

Details

Transamorem - Transmortem was premiered on March 9, 1974 at The Kitchen in NYC, where the music programmer at the time was Rhys Chatham - this was right before his guitar phase. During this period, Transamorem - Transmortem was presented along with other compositions by Eliane Radigue in a linear mode of listening, although the piece had originally been conceived, during its composition, as a sound installation. Of course, both modes of listening are possible, and each works marvelously in its own way. In their original form, Eliane Radigue's works are magnetic tapes. After being played a few times in public, the tape disappears to its case until a release proposal makes it available again through a disc. During this period Eliane Radigue's compositions became fairly long, some lasting over an hour. Because the tracks could not be edited for some obvious reasons, a vinyl release was unthinkable. It was only in the 90s, with the advent of the CD format, that the long compositions of Eliane Radigue were made available (with the exception of the Song of Milarepa LP on Lovely Music, a work already divided into multiple movements and thus able to be fit onto two sides of an LP). For these reasons, the work of Eliane Radigue remained virtually unknown for twenty years - from the 70s to the 90s.

Tracks

1. Transamorem - Transmortem

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MAGUS - 'MUSIC FOR MANDRAX'

Formats

• LoS013 - LP

  657628457060

Details

A magus is a wizard…a sorcerer. Magus, the band, is certainly interested in such things (who isn’t), but the name is especially apt due to the band’s approach to alchemy, the blending of rock, gothic, proto metal, and psychedelic styles to create a sound that is, ultimately, unique. Part of that uniqueness comes from the instrumentation. While guitar is often a dominant instrument of the rock oeuvre, the Fender Rhodes generally plays a supportive role. Not so here, where Jessica Weeks’ deft use of the keyboard dovetails with Greg Weeks’ more standard six-string approach. Not standard is the band’s sound. Doomy yet inspirational, dour yet vibrant, the duo’s tunes map sinister realms whose subjects span metaphysical creatures to enigmatic portals. You know, the typical stuff that rubs elbows with a magus. Formed in late 2024, Magus sprung from a desire by both artists to experiment with darker, heavier sounds. Long enamored of artists like Flower Travelling Band,, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, the duo delved deeply into trance like riffs and euphoric solos to create the backbone of what has become their debut album, Music for Mandrax. This thirteenth Language of Stone offering features grounded, metronomic grooves, organic, lugubrious synth lines, and tandem vocals (supplied by both Weekses) that, in total, weave a heavy, trancelike spell sure to entice fans of bands as disparate as Sabbath is to Pink Floyd. Recorded at Weeks’ Hexham Head studio (to analog tape, of course), the band enlisted long-time counterparts Jesse Sparhawk (bass) and Ben McConnell (drums) to round out their sound and lock down the grooves that propel the album. Mixed by Brian McTear and Amy Morrisey at Miner Street in Philadelphia, the band’s fully realized vision came to fruition, which left only the album art to contemplate. The band, wishing to further the gothic aesthetic of their sound, enlisted fashion designer and artist extraordinaire Hogan McLaughlin (Game of Thrones) to create the starkly beautiful line drawings of the front and back covers. The duo travelled to Salem, MA to complete the package with Courtney Brooke Hall, who shot the moody and evocative photographs that grace the gatefold release’s inner panels.

Tracks

1. Through Darkened Glass 2. Very Heavy Greening 3. Wet Skull 4. The Magus 5. Exodus 6. Music for Mandrax 7. Return to Earth 8. The Middle Way

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SUNCRAFT - 'WELOME TO THE COVEN'

Formats

• AGCR2501LPR - LP (COLOURED)

  0646680590259

• AGCR2501LP - LP

  0646680590204

Details

Formed in Oslo in 2017, Suncraft built their early identity on mid-tempo stoner rock, but Welcome To The Coven shows the band has broadened their foundation significantly. The album channels classic rock swagger, punk urgency, and flashes of blackened intensity without settling into pastiche or genre collage - think Turbonegro meets Venom with the odd helping of blast beats thrown in and you're on your way. The album's eight tracks move fluidly between heavy riffing, hook-forward choruses and sudden shifts in mood, giving the record a restless, forward thinking character that keeps its 40-minute runtime lean and engaging. Welcome To The Coven is a confident step forward for a promising band which emphasizes their sharpened songwriting and willingness to push beyond scene expectations. The album is available on red or black vinyl from Norwegian rock label All Good Clean Records.

Tracks

1. Ragebait 2. Love's Underrated 3. Greed Battalion 4. Welcome To The Coven 5. Wizards Of The Anger Magic 6. Charlatan Killer 7. High On Silence 8. Forgotten Goddess

Press

Underground rock band Suncraft from Oslo, Norway, return with their furious and fun second album on Norwegian heavy rock label All Good Clean Records

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