02/27/2026
available now:
Peter Beyls LP $30
Metaphon (Belgium) METAPHON027
"Second installment in the 'Signature Series'. Regular edition of 270 copies. Peter Beyls (1950) works on the intersection of computer science and the arts. He develops generative systems in music, the visual arts and hybrid formats. Beyls studied music and computer science at EMS, Stockholm, the Royal Music Conservatory, Brussels and the Slade School of Art, UC London. Initially he was active in electronic music, as a composer of tape music. Later on, he developed various analog live electronic music systems. In close partnership with Michel Waisvisz, he designed and built the early prototypes of the crackle box synthesizer at STEIM, Amsterdam (1973-1975). Around the same time, Belgian composers Karel Goeyvaerts and Lucien Goethals were his mentors at the IPEM Studio. Over the years, Beyls’ work has primarily centred on generative systems, including an extensive series of machine drawings, human-machine interactive music systems using machine-learning and interactive audiovisual installations on which he has also given worldwide lectures. His work has been widely performed and exhibited at various universities and art institutions. The four previously unreleased tracks on this LP are amongst his first electronic music compositions using the Crackle Box, the Synthi 100 and the VCS3, a combination of live improvised electronics with precise tape editing and effects."
Nicolae Brînduş "Match / Soliloque 1&4 / Antifonia" CD $20
Metaphon (Belgium) METAPHON025CD
"The CD version contains a previously unreleased bonus track 'Soliloque II'. Romanian avant-garde composer, Nicolae Brînduş (1935-2023), studied piano and composition at the National University of Music in Bucharest. From 1969 to 1980 he attended the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt and later he also worked at the IRCAM in Paris and GMEB in Bourges. His compositions have been performed worldwide. This album originally released on Electrecord’s RCM (Romanian Contemporary Music) series in 1986 provides a selection of works which belong to his cycle 'PHTORA' (1968-1972). The cycle comprises five pieces which are five degrees of structuring collective improvisation, leaning towards the spectralist tradition. It's probably the most eccentric record in the whole RCM series, offering a mesmerizing collage of organized cacophony, as a massive but subtly layered whirlwind of abstract orchestral improvisations, Romanian picturesque folklore and free jazz with extensive use of tape manipulation and reverberation. This reissue comes with the beautiful original sleeve artwork by Ana Golici who designed many sleeves for Electrecord."
Nicolae Brînduş "Match / Soliloque 1&4 / Antifonia" LP $30
Metaphon (Belgium) METAPHON025
"Romanian avant-garde composer, Nicolae Brînduş (1935-2023), studied piano and composition at the National University of Music in Bucharest. From 1969 to 1980 he attended the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt and later he also worked at the IRCAM in Paris and GMEB in Bourges. His compositions have been performed worldwide. This album originally released on Electrecord’s RCM (Romanian Contemporary Music) series in 1986 provides a selection of works which belong to his cycle 'PHTORA' (1968-1972). The cycle comprises five pieces which are five degrees of structuring collective improvisation, leaning towards the spectralist tradition. It's probably the most eccentric record in the whole RCM series, offering a mesmerizing collage of organized cacophony, as a massive but subtly layered whirlwind of abstract orchestral improvisations, Romanian picturesque folklore and free jazz with extensive use of tape manipulation and reverberation. This reissue comes with the beautiful original sleeve artwork by Ana Golici who designed many sleeves for Electrecord."
Gavin Bryars "The Marvellous Aphorisms Of Gavin Bryars: The Early Years" CD $15
Mode Records (U.S.) mode177
"Gavin Bryars’ music, post 'The Sinking of the Titanic' and 'Jesus’ Blood…', is well known and often performed today. Less known are the earlier works featured on this CD, created during the years 1969-71. At that time, Bryars became associated with Michael Nyman, John Tilbury and Brian Eno – marrying ideas from Cage, Fluxus, free improvisation and experimentalism. Some of the works recorded here appeared on Eno’s avant-garde Obscure label in the mid-1970s. In '1, 2, 1-2-3-4', the musicians listen to the same music on individual cassette tapes through headphones, playing along with what they hear rather than responding to each other. Bryars was curious about the 'new' cassette technology, how the various tape decks would never be properly synced to each other; and so the musicians would drift further apart from each other over the performance’s 30-minute plus duration – with amazing results. The audience hears the collective product of this private listening. In this realization, the performers respond to a collection of songs by The Beatles ('Help'; 'Helter Skelter'; 'Glass Onion'; 'Fixing a Hole'; 'I Want You'; 'A Day in a Life'; 'Dear Prudence'; and 'Good Night'). The notation of 'Pre-Mediaeval Metrics' consists of pairs of phrases arranged in four columns on eight pages. Each phrase is made up of four symbols, either dashes (‘an appreciable duration (at least one second)’, instructs the score) or dots (‘as short as possible’). Instrumentation is free but all instruments use only one sound throughout. 'Made in Hong Kong' is scored for '…toys, mechanically operated, manually operated, toy sustaining instruments and any other considered usable.' Its humorous and cacophonous sound is an homage to the countless toys for children, commonly made at that time in Hong Kong. 'The Squirrel and The Ricketty Racketty Bridge' was written for guitarist Derek Bailey. The guitarist has to play two guitars simultaneously, placed flat on their backs, using a hammer technique which produces a pair of notes with the side of the finger. One hand plays constant quavers, like a bassist in conventional jazz, with two fingers across pairs of frets while the other plays isolated notes and phrases, like a lazy soloist."
John Cage "Variations V" DVD $22
Mode Records (U.S.) mode258
"John Cage, David Tudor, Gordon Mumma (musicians); Merce Cunningham Dance Company; films and projections by Stan VanDerBeek and Nam June Paik; directed by Arne Arnbom. Plus bonus stereo audio performance (Paris, 1966) and interviews. 'Variations V' reflects the experimentation and spirit of the 1960s — a collaborative, interactive multi-media event with choreographed dance, elaborate mobile decor, variable lighting, multiple film projection, and live-electronic music often activated by the dancers’ movements. Filmed in 1966 at the NDR television studio in Hamburg, Germany, it is historically important as one of the few available films of a Cunningham Dance Company performance from the 1960s and the first commercial release of 'Variations V'. As the dancers performed on stage, their movements interacted with twelve antennas built by Robert Moog and a set of photocells designed by Bell Labs research scientist Billy Klüver in such a way as to trigger the transmission of sounds to a 50-channel mixer whose output was heard from six speakers around the hall. The actual sound sources—a battery of tape recorders and radios—were supervised by Cage, David Tudor and Gordon Mumma. The mise-en-scène was supplemented by a film collage by Stan VanDerBeek that included processed television images by Nam June Paik and footage of the dancers shot by VanDerBeek during rehearsals. Recorded at Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). Previously released as DVD. This video includes the original introduction from the German broadcast of Cage's 'Variations no. 5', an audio recording of a performance the piece in Paris, as well as an interview lead by David Vaughan of two participants in the original production. 157 minutes of video and music."
John Cage "The Works for Organ" 2 x CD $29
Mode Records (U.S.) mode253/54
"This release is the first complete recording of all of Cage’s works for organ. The organ is ideally suited to Cage’s aesthetic — its multitude of stops make it the ultimate 'prepared' instrument. The fact that sound emanates from a number of pipes placed at discrete locations in space nicely accords with Cage’s idea of the separation of sounds in space. And it represents vast possibilities that could be released as sound through the use of chance operations. For this reason Cage’s organ music occupies a small but quite important place within his output. For 'Some of The Harmony of Maine' Cage selected 18th-century American hymns by Supply Belcher and altered them by extending certain tones and removing others through chance operations so as to attenuate the functional harmony underlying them. Here and there, melodic fragments from the original hymns remain. 'ASLSP' and 'Organ2/ASLSP' are wonderful explorations of sound written for the German organist Gerd Zacher, an important champion of new music. 'Souvenir' is an unusual work for Cage from 1984. After receiving half of the commission fee from the American Guild of Organists, he learned that they wanted him to make a piece that was similar to the 1948 piano composition 'Dream'. Never one to repeat himself literally, he returned the commission fee, but it was remailed to him with assurances that he could make whatever kind of piece he wished. Thus liberated, he decided to comply with the original request, and so 'Souvenir' is a melodious work with repetitions yet with the intrusions of harsh tone clusters, which make it something 'new'. American organist Gary Verkade, a Zacher student, is on the faculty of the Musikhögskola in Piteå, Sweden. He has appeared at major festivals and concerts throughout Europe and the USA. Verkade was one of the registrants in the first German performance of 'Some of The Harmony of Maine'.”
John Cage "The Works for Percussion 3" CD $15
Mode Records (U.S.) mode272
"D’Arcy Philip Gray brings authoritative performances of Cage’s works for solo percussionist. He worked with Cage in 1992 and extensively with David Tudor between 1995-96. Gray was also a musician in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (1993-95). 'Child of Tree' (1975) and 'Branches' (1976) are two versions of (more or less) the same piece. The main difference between the two works is that 'Child of Tree' is scored as a solo while 'Branches' as a solo or ensemble piece, the latter was often performed by Cage at 'Events' with Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Both pieces ask the performer to assemble a collection of instruments from the plant world and improvise on them with the help of amplification. 'cComposed Improvisation' (1990): All three versions of this piece, each for a specific performer and instrument (or set of instruments), are presented here. Alternate takes of the three versions were combined in the studio to make what we refer to as the 'Power Trio' version — the result was surprising to us and we decided to include two realizations here as well. In 'One4' (1990), for solo drummer, Cage asks the performer to pick a collection of instruments, number them and then follow his dual columns of start/stop timings to execute the performance. In the context of this recording, this is by far the most restrictive score, the 'least improvised', but still leaves a lot of freedom such as timbre, dynamic, and length of note."
Bart De Paepe "Zürahümnah" LP $30
La Scie Dorée (Belgium) Scie 3725
"Edition of 300 copies. For 20 years Bart De Paepe has carved a distinctive trace in the realm of psychedelic underground and counterculture. With several outstanding solo albums on a.o. Astres d’Or, Ultra Eczema, No Basement Is Deep Enough and with many studio and concert ventures with Sylvester Anfang’s funeral folks, Louise Landes Levi, Timo van Luijk, Raymond Dijkstra to name a few, Bart De Paepe developed a wide and sharp spirit within the orbit of psychedelic improvisation.
Since 2007, Bart has also curated the Sloow Tapes and Sloowax labels with an impressive catalog of music and poetry by a wide range of resonating artists. Bart’s visual work (drawing and painting), parallel to his musical universe, has been used on many of his releases. He is a genuinely curious traveler, always discovering new dimensions, which is clearly to be heard on the four tracks of this album.
Zürahümnah is an immediate and immersive dive into solitary inner and outer worlds of light and darkness.
Zürahümnah is a floating vibration of flickering twilight.
Zürahümnah is a mysterious journey through detached time and space.
Equipped with Hawaiian guitar, piano, organ and cymbal, Bart De Paepe sets the controls for the heart of the sun."
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