S.E.M. Ensemble - The Entire Musical Works Of Marcel Duchamp - 2000 (1976)
Avant-Garde/Classical | EAC (FLAC+LOG) | 180 MB (WinRAR) | 2000 | Cover
Performers: Petr Kotik, William Lyon Lee, John Bondler, James Kasprowicz, etc.

Known as one of the most vital artists in the history of 20th century art, Marcel Duchamp was a composer whose small output was equally as revolutionary as his visual art. Predating the work of John Cage, this radical experimental composition employed chance operations and non-musical sounds in 1913. The works "Erratum Musical" and "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors" were realized by the S.E.M. Ensemble in 1976. These interpretations for flute, celeste, trombone, and glockenspiel are soft, slow-motion studies that bear similarities to late-20th century compositions of Cage, Christian Wolff, and Morton Feldman. A beautiful booklet contains notes by conductor Peter Kotik. This reissue exhibits a stunning pre-avant-garde composition from the great French artist whose influence on later music had transposed more prominently through his painting than his composition, as John Cage and others has absorbed the radical concepts of his art into musical work some 50 years later. ~ Skip Jansen, All Music Guide

Demetrio Stratos - Cantare La Voce - 1989 (1978)
Avant-Garde | EAC (FLAC+LOG) | 220 MB (WinRAR) | 1989 | Cover
Nova Musicha n° 19 - Cramps Records - Originally released on LP in 1978

Of the five solo recordings vocalist Demetrio Stratos recorded during his short lifetime, Cantare la Voce stands as his highest achievement. Issued in 1974, it reflects Stratos' deep fascination with John Cage's music, and his wide-ranging study of interpreting it for solo voice. Here, the techniques of diplophony and triplophony are deeply and widely articulated – long investigations in working the voice out of its monadic heremiticism. "Investigazoni" is the perfect articulation of these discoveries, as the glottal imprint of "speech" completely dissolves into the much more heterogeneous exploratory of "language," which also breaks down into groups of sounds, some being articulated simultaneously without the use of multi-tracking or artificial amplification (other than a recording microphone). This piece is over 14 minutes in length and presupposes nothing; it breaks down utterance, vibration, and sonic interlocution into elementary units that spread themselves over the sonic spectrum and become groups of tonalities juxtaposed against the backdrop, first of the human body's limits in regards to the voice, but then against the construct of western "music" and tonality itself. In "Passaggi 1, 2," breath becomes the way inside rather than out. Most of the sounds here are made by the various techniques of opening, widening, and constricting the flow of air into the lungs rather than out. But perhaps the most groundbreaking work here is "Criptomelodie Infantili." Clocking in at six and a half minutes, it is a primal exploration into the very elementals of sonic expression. In fact, it would not be too generous or outrageous to suggest that Stratos' vocalizing here is similar to what may have been the first sounds ever uttered by the "developed" human instrument. This is delightful and scary, raw and powerful, and utterly charming in its primitivism and articulation. Cantare la Voce is still the standard for exploratory work with the human voice, almost 30 years after its issue. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Gruppo D'Improvvisazione 'Nuova Consonanza' - Nuova Consonanza - 2007 (1975)
Avant-Garde | EAC (FLAC+LOG) | 250 MB (WinRAR) | 1989 | Cover
Performers: Egisto Macchi, Ennio Morricone, Francesco Evangelisti, Giovanni Piazza, Jesus Villa Rojo, Mario Bertoncini, Gualtiero Branchi

Reissue of this 1975 self-titled album, originally released on the Cinevox label. Tracks are: "Settimino," "Eflot," "Soup" and "Scratch." Two of these are also commonly available on CD on the Edition RZ compilation, unfortunately; the other two ("Settimino" & "Scratch") are not on CD, so you have approx 30 minutes of exclusive/rare material here on this release. Gruppo are the classic Italian freeform outfit from the '60s & '70s, still pretty undocumented on CD. All pieces created by: Giovanni Piazza, Ennio Morricone, Mario Bertoncini, Gualtiero Branchi, Francesco Evangelisti, Egisto Macchi, Jesus Villa Rojo. "The least-known and rarest musical exploration of Ennio Morricone's career. He played trumpet in the extraordinary Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza from 1965 when it was founded by composer Franco Evangelisti. These lengthy improvised sound collages are challenging to listen to but have their own beauty and are of serious historical importance. Gruppo recorded albums for RCA Italia and Cinevox up to 1975 including under Morricone's auspices, soundtracks for the trippy Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura and Un Tranquillo posto di Campagna where their improvised 35-minute suite mirrored the formal score."

Musica Elettronica Viva - Leave The City - 1997 (1970)
Avant-Garde | EAC (FLAC+LOG) | 190 MB (WinRAR) | 1997 | Cover/Insert
Originally released on LP in 1970 by BYG

Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) was begun one evening in the spring of 1966 by Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace, Carol Plantamura, Frederic Rzweski, Richard Teitelbaum and Ivan Vandor in a room in Rome overlooking the Pantheon. MEV’s music right from the start was also totally open, allowing all and everything to come in and seeking in every way to get out beyond the heartless conventions of contemporary music. Taking its cue from Tudor and Cage, MEV began sticking contact mics to anything that sounded and amplified their raw sounds: bed springs, sheets of glass, tin cans, rubber bands, toy pianos, sex vibrators, and assorted metal junk; a crushed old trumpet, cello and tenor sax kept us within musical credibility, while a home-made synthesizer of some 48 oscillators along with the first Moog synthesizer in Europe gave our otherwise neo-primitive sound an inimitable edge. In the name of the collectivity, the group abandoned both written scores and leadership and replaced them with improvisation and critical listening. Rehearsals and concerts were begun at the appropriate time by a kind of spontaneous combustion and continued until total exhaustion set in. It mattered little who played what when or how, but the fragile bond of human trust that linked us all in every moment remained unbroken. The music could go anywhere, gliding into self-regenerating unity or lurching into irrevocable chaos—both were valuable goals. In the general euphoria of the times, MEV thought it had re-invented music; in any case it had certainly rediscovered it. - Alvin Curran

John Cage - John Cage - 1989 (1974)
Avant-Garde | EAC (FLAC+LOG) | 141 MB (WinRAR) | 1989 | Cover
(Performers: Demetrio Stratos, Juan Hidalgo, Walter Marchetti, Gianni-Emilio Simonetti)

On this 1970s recording, John Cage directs his compositions "Music for Marcel Duchamp," "Music for Amplified Toy Pianos," "Radio Music," "4:33," and "Sixty Two Mesostics Re Merce Cunningham." The works cover the most creative period of the American composer's career, 1947 through 1972. What makes this recording special is the performance from the Italian group that includes Juan Hildago, Walter Marchetti, Gianni Simonetti, and Demetrio Stratos. One of the better realizations of John Cage's work. ~ Skip Jansen, All Music Guide

Alvin Curran - Canti Illuminati - 1982
Classical/Avant-Garde | EAC (FLAC+CUE+LOG) | 260 MB (WinRAR) | 2002 | Cover

Long out of print, this is an overdue reissue of American composer Alvin Curran's third record. Following his involvement in the live electronics performance group Musica Elettronica Viva, Curran embarked on a more personal pursuit utilizing his own voice and a patchwork of minimal synthesizer and field recordings. The two parts of Canti Illuminati show clear affinities to the vocal style of Pandit Pran Nath and Poppy No Good era Terry Riley, while also coming off like a denser version of Takehisa Kosugi's Catch Wave. Curran has had a lifelong affinity to the resonances of foghorns and their sonorities seem to serve as the general underlying drone and pulse of the first section. Curran's vocals, however, are what give the piece its rhythmic push. His tapestry of tape work and synthesizer delays matches the vocal intensity of his delivery; Canti Illuminati pt. 1 ends up most resembling the shimmering dronescapes of late-era Boredoms.
For the beginning section of the second half of Canti Illuminati, Curran brought in a choir; this is probably the least successful section of the disc. That may just be a matter of taste as I generally find chorus' of extended vocal technique to be somewhat corny. However, at about the 10-minute mark of the 24-minute piece the chorus fades away to an exquisitely beautiful extended passage comprised only of Curran's wordless vocals and lyrically minimal piano phrasing. Memorably haunting stuff that devolves at the final two minutes to a little bit of piano improvisation that seems to have been taken from the Great American Songbook. AWESOME!