In this first installment of acclaimed music writer David Toop's interdisciplinary and sweeping overview of free improvisation, Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom: Before 1970 introduces the philosophy and practice of improvisation (both musical and otherwise) within the historical context of the post-World War II era. Neither strictly chronological, or exclusively a history, Into the Maelstrom investigates a wide range of improvisational tendencies: from surrealist automatism to stream-of-consciousness in literature and vocalization; from the free music of Percy Grainger to the free improvising groups emerging out of the early 1960s (Group Ongaku, Nuova Consonanza, MEV, AMM, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble); and from free jazz to the strands of free improvisation that sought to distance itself from jazz. In exploring the diverse ways in which spontaneity became a core value in the early twentieth century as well as free improvisation's connection to both 1960s rock (The Beatles, Cream, Pink Floyd) and the era of post-Cagean indeterminacy in composition, Toop provides a definitive and all-encompassing exploration of free improvisation up to 1970, ending with the late 1960s international developments of free music from Roscoe Mitchell in Chicago, Peter Brötzmann in Berlin and Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg in Amsterdam.

One of the great experimental composers of our time, Phill Niblock has during his sixty-year career produced minimalist music, structural cinema, dance performance, improvised theatre, systematic art, and ethnographic photography. Since 1985, Niblock has served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York, and curator of the foundation’s record label XI. This catalogue is devoted to Niblock’s wide intermedia art, including his masterpieces the Six Films (1966-69), the Environments (1968-72) and The Movement of People Working (1973-91). A thorough publication that includes Charles Mingus, Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, Elaine Summers, Yoko Ono, Sun Ra, The Open Theatre, Muna Tseng and Arthur Russell. Co-published with Copeland. Published on occasion of the exhibition ‘Nothin’ But Working, Phill Niblock, A Retrospective’, 30 Jan – 12 May 2013, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, in partnership with Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne).

400 pages600 illustrations (8.6" x 1.4" x 11")Tracing the evolution of jazz from the boogie-woogie and swing of the 1930s, through bebop, funk, and fusion, to the eclectic mix Blue Note releases today, this landmark book by author Richard Havers tells the story of an influential jazz institution and commemorates Blue Note’s momentous contribution to modern music and style. Practically all of the jazz greats passed through Blue Note’s doors, including Miles Davis, Sidney Bechet, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Ornette Coleman, Donald Byrd, and Jimmy Smith. Blue Note is not only known as the purveyor of extraordinary jazz but is also famous as an arbiter of cool. The photography of cofounder Francis Wolff and the cover designs of Reid Miles helped create a look that was an integral part of the label’s genius. A highly illustrated volume, Blue Note: Uncompromising Expression features the very best photographs, covers, and ephemera from the archives, including never-before-published material, and documents a groundbreaking era in American culture.

Marcel DuchampBeatrice WoodHenri-Pierre Roché --- Edited by Sophie SeitaElizabeth Zuba, Contributor  The Blind Man and rongwrong were seminal New York Dada magazines edited and published by Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché, and Beatrice Wood in 1917. This facsimile edition, introduced by Sophie Seita, celebrates the 100th anniversary of their publication. The box set also includes a two-color offset reproduction of Beatrice Wood’s poster for The Blind Man’s Ball (1917) and a letterpress facsimile of Man Ray’s The Ridgefield Gazook (1915). Translations of the French texts by Elizabeth Zuba accompany the facsimile reprints. The Blind Man and rongwrong were part of a network of little magazines that introduced audiences to avant-garde movements in art and literature; they featured contributions of poetry, prose, and visual art by Mina Loy, Louise Norton, Robert Carlton Brown, Erik Satie, Walter Arensberg, Francis Picabia, Alfred Stieglitz, and others. The Blind Man was the first print publication to circulate an image of Duchamp’s “Fountain” (photographed by Stieglitz) after its rejection from the first annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, presenting a public challenge to the accepted definition of art during this time.

Edited and commented by Gregor Stemmrich   Publisher:Spector Books Language:English Pages:146 Size:21.6 x 28 cm Weight:510 g Binding:Softcover ISBN:978-3-940064-39-4Robert Morris’ sculptural installation Hearing includes an audio recording of a fictitious hearing that is focussed on the aesthetic, political, historical and moral views of a witness. The work is taken as a point of departure. Investigations relating to the various issues involved will take works of other artists into consideration. »Hearing« appears today as a piece of literature. Gregor Stemmrich edited and commented »Hearing« by Robert Morris in english for the first time.

“This lush paean to the composer explores the challenges he faced of being both black and gay, and his commitment to his own four freedoms.” —The New York TimesStrayhorn: An Illustrated Life is a stunning collection of essays, photographs, and ephemera celebrating Billy Strayhorn, one of the most significant yet under-appreciated contributors to 20th century American music. Released in commemoration of Strayhorn’s centennial, this luxurious coffee-table book offers intimate details of the composer’s life from musicians, scholars, and Strayhorn’s closest relatives.Perhaps best known for his 28-year collaborative role as Duke Ellington’s “writing and arranging companion,” Strayhorn has emerged in recent years as an even more meritorious force in shaping the jazz canon. Strayhorn begins by describing Billy’s abusive upbringing and early success, and goes on to cover his music, family, intellectual pursuits, involvement with civil rights, and open homosexuality.Strayhorn features contributions from Strayhorn’s biographer David Hajdu, film director Rob Levi, music scholar Walter van de Leur, as well as commentary from jazz greats like Lena Horne, Clark Terry, Dianne Reeves, Nancy Wilson, Terell Stafford, Herb Jeffries, and more. With lush photography and rare memorabilia like handwritten scores, this is a book to be treasured by jazz aficionados and music lovers everywhere. Enthralling and visually captivating, Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life lauds a beloved jazz legend and captures a prodigious legacy that will influence generations to come

Hardback edition with limited edition 7"'Swell Maps 1972-1980' by Jowe Head is the first biography of the Solihull band Swell Maps. Head was a founding member of the band along with brothers Epic Soundtracks and Nikki Sudden. The book tells the story of the bands formation and their journey from school kids to being the formidable post-punk band that influenced the likes of Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Blur. ormat: Book + 7" VinylCatalogue No.: SWELL001Barcode: 5056321641946Release Date:  15 Apr 22Genre: Punk/Hardcore First-Ever Official Biography Of Swell Maps, “Swell Maps 1972-1980” Penned By Band Member And Co-Founder Jowe Head. Swell Maps Were Formed In Jowe’s Home Town Of Solihull, England With Various School Friends In 1972.The Group, Also Featuring The Late Nikki Sudden And Nikki’s Brother, The Late Epic Soundtracks, Along With Phones Sportsman, John Cockrill, And Richard Earl Emerged In The Late 1970s, And Are Now Known As Legendary Pioneers Of What Is Now Referred To As “Alternative Rock” Or “Post-Punk” With Their Blend Of Punk Rock Mixed With Experimental And Psychedelic Sounds. Together They Released Four 7” Singles, The First In 1977 On Their Own Rather Records And Two Critically Acclaimed Albums In A Brief But Dramatic Career, That Led To Them Topping The UK Independent Charts, And Influencing Bands Such As Sonic Youth, Nirvana, And Blur. After Swell Maps Broke Up In 1980, Jowe Joined The Television Personalities. Ten Years With The TVPs Saw Jowe Making More Influential Records, Touring Europe Regularly, And Playing In Japan And The USA. Today He Still Regularly Releases Recordings, Solo And With Multiple Groups, And Is The Steward Of The Swell Maps Legacy. In This 155-Page Biography Of The Band, Jowe Takes Us To Each Members’ Formative Years And Reveals What Made Them Experiment With Challenging Music And Eventually Come Together To Form Swell Maps. Through His Own Recollections And Utilizing Interviews With Former Members, He Explores The Early Days Of The Band, And Details Stories That Bring The Reader Into The Inner Workings Of The Band As They Traveled Through The Late 70s Cultural Scene In Europe. The Last Section Of The Book Updates The Whereabouts Of All The Key Players. The Book Includes Dozens Of Full-Colour Images Of Band Memorabilia From The Author’s Personal Collection, Including Photos, Posters, Flyers, Artwork, Original Lyrics, And More. Additionally, A 7” Vinyl Single Is Included That Features Tracks Never Before Released Anywhere. “The First Swell Maps Single I Bought Still To This Day Gives Me A Soul Scorched Buzz’n’rush….The Swell Maps Had A Lot To Do With My Upbringing.”—Thurston Moore “Jowe Head Spent Time In Two Of The UK’s Coolest Underground Bands: Swell Maps And Television Personalities…A Lovably Skewed Indie-Pop Tunesmith.” —Time Out New York ·Full-Colour 152-Page Hardcover Book, Approximately 297mm (H) X 210mm (W). Edition Of 1000. ·Contains 7” With Six Exclusive Never-Before-Released Tracks Culled From The Band And Solo Member Archives. Tracklisting 1/*Securicore 2/*Come Upstairs And See My Chemistry Set 3/*Harmony In Your Bathroom 4/**Double Dose 5/***Elegia Part 1 6/****Votive Offering *These 3 Tracks Were Edited From A 1977 Demo Session. Two Of The Songs Have Never Been Released Before In Any Form. **Double Dose - Is A 1979 Radio Jingle, The Master Tape Recently Rediscovered ***Elegia Part 1 - Is An Out-Take From "Jane From Occupied Europe " Studio Sessions. ****Votive Offering - Is An Experimental Home-Recording ·Packed With Full Colour Photos And Images Of Posters, Flyers, Album Art, And Other Assorted Band Ephemera. ·Detailed Appendix Contains A Discography, Notes On Selected Songs, Concert Dates, And Set Lists Among Other Items. ·First Comprehensive Biography To Focus On Swell Maps. ·RIYL: Television Personalities, Desperate Bicycles, Can, Buzzcocks

November 2022, English13×21 cm, 232 pages, 15 b/w ill., softcover Sternberg PressThe Black Technical ObjectOn Machine Learning and the Aspiration of Black Being To impair the racial ordering of the world, The Black Technical Object introduces the history of statistical analysis and “scientific” racism into research on machine learning. Computer programming designed for taxonomic patterning, machine learning offers useful insights into racism and racist behavior, but its connection to the racial history of science and the Black lived experience has yet to be developed. In this book, Ramon Amaro explores how the history of data and statistical analysis informs the complex relationship between race and machine learning. He juxtaposes a practical analysis of this type of computerized learning with a theory of Black alienation in order to inspire alternative approaches to contemporary algorithmic practice. In doing so, Amaro contemplates the abstruse nature of programming and mathematics, as well as the deep incursion of racial hierarchies.

Contributions by MARISOL DE LA CADENA, NIKITA YINGQIAN CAI, PEDRO DE NIEMEYER CESARINO, GRACE L. DILLON, M. ELIZABETH GINWAY, ZAHY GUAJAJARA, SUZANNE KITE, ROSA LLEÓ, PEDRO NEVES MARQUES, NEW RED ORDER, ELIANE POTIGUARAConceived by Pedro Neves Marques, YWY is an android played by indigenous actress and artist Zahy Guajajara, who gave her the name “YWY,” meaning “land” or “territory” in her native Tupi-Guarani language. The character’s co-invention by a white European author and a native artist from Brazil sets in motion a dynamic that can be resolved only by being given away and shared with a plurality of voices. YWY, Searching for a Character Between Future Worlds shares the fictional character of YWY with several authors from Brazil, the United States, and beyond, creating a conversation about science fiction and robotics, ecology and gender, Indigenous Futurisms and what it means to be human.

A Slightly Curving Place asks what it means to listen to the past and its absence which remains. It responds to the practice of acoustic archaeologist Umashankar Manthravadi, whose life and work are a history of sound and technology through the second half of the twentieth century. As a self-taught acoustic archaeologist, he has been building ambisonic microphones since the 1990s to measure the acoustic properties of premodern performance spaces. Comprising a range of perspectives in which his propositions reverberate, the publication attends to what he does, and to the political and performative potential of the past that he opens up. Contributions by Alexander Keefe, Umashankar Manthravadi, Vinit Agarwal, Moushumi Bhowmik, Nida Ghouse, Sukanta Majumdar, Padmini Chettur, Maarten Visser.

The sixth issue of We Jazz Magazine, "Revelation" for Black Jazz Records. 128 pages 174 x 250 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. All articles presented IN ENGLISH. Stories include Black Jazz Records by Daniel Spicer, As-Shams by Andy Thomas, Nyege Nyege Festival by Markus Karlqvist, Alina Bzhezhinska by Tina Edwards, Carl Stone by Peter Margasak, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley by Rob Garratt, Travelogue by Kari Ikonen, Pharoah / Jazz Composers Orchestra by Seymour Wright, reviews, plus more.

The seventh issue of We Jazz Magazine, "Universal Beings" for Makaya McCraven. Stories include Makaya McCraven by Ayana Contreras, Sonny Rollins by Ashley Kahn, Amina Claudine Myers by Seymour Wright, Adolphe Sax by Harry Eddy, Ronald Snijders by Mike Bindraban, introducing our new columnist Mats Gustafsson, Puristamo Helsinki pressing plant photo essay by Mathias Foster, reviews, plus more.

Edited by Tobias Fischer & Lara Cory Strange Attractor / PB 184 pp / 210mm x 148mm ISBN:  978-1-907222-34-4 Field Recording Series by GruenrekorderDO ANIMALS SPEAK TO EACH OTHER? WHAT DO THEIR SONGS MEAN? WILL WE EVER BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THEM AND TALK BACK? Ever since the accidental discovery of whale song in 1967, the idea of complex animal sentience has been gaining strength within the scientific community. A growing number of researchers and academics are exploring the idea that animals enjoy music on a similar level to human beings. Animal Music is the first anthology to present an overview of the current state of this vital debate. Its authors have spoken to the leading scientists, researchers and musicians in the field to uncover hidden meanings and new perspectives. They visit the world’s largest library of animal sounds, hack into the mysterious sonic world of shrimps, travel back in time to the point where animal and human songs diverged, and decode the latest neuroscientific findings about animal music and communication. The book includes exclusive interviews with Chris Watson, Jana Winderen, Yannick Dauby, Slavek Kwi and Geoff Sample as well as features on Bernie Krause, David Rothenberg and Olivier Messiaen and many more.

HardbackRecognized as one of the great poets of modern times, and as a deeply respected and influential political and cultural activist and social critic, Linton Kwesi Johnson is also a prolific writer of non-fiction. In Time Come, he selects some of his most powerful prose – book and record reviews published in newspapers and magazines, lectures, obituaries and speeches – for the first time. Written over many decades, it is a body of work that draws creatively and critically on Johnson’s own Jamaican roots and on Caribbean history to explore the politics of race and ethnicity that continue to inform the Black British experience.Ranging from reflections on the place of music in Caribbean and Black British culture as a creative, defiant response to oppression, to his penetrating appraisals of music and literature, and including warm tributes paid to the activists and artists who inspired him to find his own voice as a poet and compelled him to contribute to the struggle for racial equality and social justice, Time Come is a panorama of an exceptional life. A collection that ventures into memoir, it underscores Johnson’s enduring importance in Britain’s cultural history and reminds us of his brilliant, unparalleled legacy.With an introduction by Paul Gilroy

An argument that by amplifying alienation in performance, we can shift the emphasis from the sonic to the social. Works in sound studies continue to seek out sound “itself”—but, today, when the aesthetic can claim no autonomy and the agency of both artist and audience is socially constituted, why not explore the social mediation already present within our experience of the sonorous? In this work, artist, musician, performer, and theorist Mattin sets out an understanding of alienation as a constitutive part of subjectivity and as an enabling condition for exploring social dissonance—the discrepancy between our individual narcissism and our social capacity. Mattin’s theoretical investigation is intertwined with documentation of a concrete experiment in the form of an instructional score (performed at documenta 14, 2017, in Athens and Kassel) which explores these conceptual connotations in practice, as players use members of the audience as instruments, who then hear themselves and reflect on their own conception and self-presentation. Social Dissonance claims that, by amplifying alienation in performance and participation in order to understand how we are constructed through various forms of mediation, we can shift the emphasis from the sonic to the social, and in doing so, discover for ourselves that social dissonance is the territory within which we already find ourselves, the condition we inhabit.

Publisher :New DirectionsLanguage :EnglishPaperback :560 pagesISBN-10 :9780811218443ISBN-13 :978-0811218443Dimensions :13.21 x 3.3 x 20.32 cmFrom a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate: Volumes 1-3 collects the first three installments—Bedouin Hornbook, Djbot Baghostus’s Run, and Atet A.D.—of Nathaniel Mackey’s genre-defying work of fiction. A project that began over thirty years ago, From a Broken Bottle is an epistolary novel that unfolds through N.’s intricate letters to the mysterious Angel of Dust. Unexpected, profound happenings take place as N. delves into music and art and the goings-on of his transmorphic Los Angeles-based jazz ensemble, in which he is a composer and instrumentalist. This triple-set book opens in July 1978 with a dream of a haunting Archie Shepp solo, and closes in September 1982 in a parallactic studio recording session on a glass-bottomed boat borne aloft by the music. --- New Directions, 2010

Paperback: 488 Pages Strange Attractor PressAn oral history of the UK’s soundsystem culture, featuring interviews with Dubmaster Dennis Bovell, Skream, Youth, Norman Jay MBE, Adrian Sherwood, Mala, and others. In the years following the arrival of the Windrush generation, the UK’s soundsystem culture would become the most important influence on contemporary pop music since rock and roll. Pumped through towering, home-built speakers, often directly onto the thronged streets of events like the Notting Hill Carnival, the pulsating bass lines of reggae, dub, rave, jungle, trip hop, dubstep, and grime have shaped the worlds of several generations of British youth culture but have often been overlooked by historians obsessed with swinging London, punk, and Britpop. This oral history, consisting of new interviews conducted by respected dance music writer Joe Muggs, and accompanied by dramatic photographic portraits by Brian David Stevens, presents the story of the bassline of Britain, in the words of those who lived and shaped it. Features interviews with Dubmaster Dennis Bovell, Norman Jay MPE, Youth, Adrian Sherwood, Skream, Rinse FM’s Sarah Lockhart and many others.

Contents: 1. Chris Watson: Recording2. Brunhild Ferrari: The Microphone’s Gaze3. Espen Sommer Eide: Exercices d’écoute non-humaine4. Beatriz Ferreyra: Perceive, Feel, Hear…5. Drew Daniel: Towards a Heterology of Sound: on Bataille and Musique Concrète6. Eliane Radigue: Time Is of No Importance7. Stephen O’Malley: Sound Matters8. François J. Bonnet: Underneath Listening9. Jim O’Rourke: Chair and Table10. Régis Renouard Larivière: Acousmatic Recreations11. Daniel Teruggi: Spaces of Mind12. Félicia Atkinson: On the Patio: The Voice, Doubt, Perspective and Immersion13. François Bayle: Space in Question"This book has been conceived as both a prism and a manual. Following the “traditional” arc of electroacoustic composition (listen—record—compose—deploy—feel), each of the contributions collected together here focuses in on a personal aspect, a fragment of that thrilling territory that is sonic and musical experimentation.  Although the term “experimental music” may now have be understood as referring to a genre, or even a particular style, we ought to hold on to the original use of this term, which was based more on an approach than on any particular aesthetic line to be followed. The experimental is first and foremost a spirit, the spirit of the exploration of unknown territories, a spirit of invention which sees musical composition more as a voyage into uncertain territories than as a self-assured approach working safe within the bosom of fully mapped out and recognized lands."