[engl] Outstanding musician, Thomas Bonvalet has evolved his solitary project since 2005, searching relentlessly through sound, in between great constraints and beautiful escapes. Guitarist in the duo Cheval de Frise, until 2004, he began his solo project by dissecting this instrument, then moved away from it, widening his horizons, gradually developing an instrumentarium meeting the demanding requirements of his sound research.

[engl] Choreosonics was the name of the music for the choreography of Alwin Nikolais - a unique theatre exposition that was described in the late 50s as “the new theatre of shape, motion, light and sound.” In 1953 Nikolais attracted people interested in new art to his dance concerts at the Henry Street Playhouse in New York City. In these con- certs dancers became colourful motivating sources for sculptural shapes; moving in changing atmospheres of light and sound their relationship carefully integrated into a new kind of audiovisual abstract theatre art. The sounds created for this were not con- ceived from traditional music points of view but were designed to share and support the total visual dynamics. Such a creation was possible because of Nikolais’ background as a musician as well as choreographer. At sixteen he was playing piano and organ for the then disappear- ing silent films, improvising and coordinating music four to six hours daily to the dra- matic content of the movie. With this profession obsolete, he turned his skill into accom- paniment for dance. Through this his interests led to his study of percussion accompa- niment and exploration of new sounds. These ideas were stimulated by the kind of dance accompaniment introduced by the famous German dancer, Mary Wigman. This, in turn, induced Nikolais to study dance and ultimately to switch his career from musi- cian to dancer and choreographer. Nikolais was soon heralded as one of the leading figures in modern concert dance, he is credited with bringing about revolutionary ideas opening up new vistas for dance and theatre. Nikolais' activities were centered at the Henry Street Playhouse in New York. His work was created there with his assistant Murray Louis; sound engineer David S. Berlin; artist George Constant and members of his Playhouse Dance Company. All of whom had a hand in the final productions. Performances with names like Prism, Cantos and Totem were met with positive critical view for their multidisciplinary achieve- ments. While his collaboration with Harry Partch on The Bewitched established his name alongside another true maverick of American sound design and forward-thinking composition. Some of Nikolais' dancers were also trained as percussionists who improvised on a curious assortment of sound producing instruments and objects while other dancers worked through the choreography. David Berlin, who assembled and constructed the sound recording equipment, would operate from the sound booth from a window over- looking the stage. Nikolais would direct the experiments and improvising. Within any performance there would be numerous tests of the original sound and their possible electronic conditioning, including many playbacks of short phrases tested to the dancers’ motion. When the sound phrase proved satisfactory the next cut was start- ed. Sounds were cut down, enlarged, replaced and then the whole piece would be linked together and given final editing much the same as a filming process. Nikolais generally tried to avoid any identification of the sound sources, thus inviting the ear to perceive the sound itself divorced from its initial derivation. This, however, was by no means a final criterion, the ultimate one being the value of the sound to the theatre idea at hand whatever its source or manner of conditioning was. The objects used to pro- duce these sounds were without limit except for practical material size. Within the col- lection many percussion instruments were used: drums of all kinds, rattles, bells, gongs, cymbals, wooden blocks, etc. Also whistles, tubes, pipes, pieces of wood, alu- minum, steel and tin containers were utilised alongs-ide glasses, elastic bands, coils of wire, etc. The back of an upright piano in addition to a grand piano were also often at hand. The human voice would be used freely, hand clapping, foot stomping and any sound producing device whatsoever that might served a purpose.

[engl] Compilation of our favorite Arvo Part pieces. All sparse and beautiful arrangements. Some solo piano pieces, some duets with piano, violin cello and viola and one string quartet. The pieces on this record are all unique to the style of Arvo Part - deceptively simple compositions that force you to live in the moment you are listening to them. A Part quote from the back of the record - “You can kill people with sound. And if you can kill, then maybe there is also the sound that is opposite of killing. And the distance between these two points is very big. And you are free--you can choose. In art everything is possible, but everything is not necessary.” Record comes in a beautiful "tip on" old school cover with shiny gold ink and features an incredible painting from the 16th century manuscript Kometenbuch.

[engl] Perhaps one of the most unique and unlikely exponents of the highly collectible genres of ambient electronics, experimental tape-music and PINA (Private Issue New Age) this English born Jamaican raised sound designer, artist and existentialist furrowed his own ublinkered path through lesser chartered electronic fields for many moons before eventually teaming up with Bill Laswell (with Material) and Daevid Allen in New York to bring self-taught synthesis to Gong during their most oblique periods. Creating two impossibly rare self pressed vinyl LPs of conceptual inner-visionary outer-galactic angular tonal-dronal alien-art soundscapes in the process, the man known under figure shifting guises such as Dennis Wise/Denis Weise/Dr. Wise etc, combined a culture of sound system circuitry and radiophonic trickery adding Tea-pot poetry and sci-fidelity future-folk to his magnetic mesh! Presented here as the first ever dedicated ize Music collection this record combines compositions spanning 1979-1984 in both a solo capacity as well as small-group projects featuring members of the Emerald Web band. Imagine a comic book where a Funkenstein monster called “Laraaji-Scratch Perry” invaded your record shelf while Komendarek and Holger Czukay kept lookout… Dr. Dennis might be the only one Wise enough to outsmart all of them with his powerful amorphous anaesthetic.

[engl] If ever a phonographic accomplishment could encapsulate the precise modus operandi of the Cacophonic label, then the Expériences Musicales sessions made by French born painter, sculptor, music maker, wine merchant and founder of the Art Brut movement, Jean Dubuffet would be a prime candidate. Originally released as an impossibly rare six record box set containing Dubuffet’s first long anticipated forays into sound sculpture and spontaneous artistic noise, these intimate early 1960’s recordings show a lesser-known side of this important artist’s personality and stand up as a vital document in both fields of contemporary art and experimental music. Finally released to a wider audience and presented complete with Dubuffet’s signature style artwork this abridged vinyl edition includes specific selections curated by the artist himself, in conjunction with experimental music pioneer Ilhan Mimaroglu, and showcase what the two leading lights of modern art consider to be the best moments of this historic session. On this limited vinyl pressing Dubuffet succeeds in translating his unique spontaneous creativity and active support of Low Art into musical forms, a process with which he would also collaborate in his dual compositions with Danish avant-gardener Asger Jorn (for a separate series called Musique Phénoménale). Utilising a wide range of orthodox acoustic instruments ranging from violin and open piano to duck whistles and not musical apparatus this set of eight pieces (culled from a potential twenty tracks made under the Expériences Musicales banner) sees the work of the artist approaching music from the perspective of “a man of 50000 years ago”. Recorded at Galleria del Cavallino in Venice Italy during the first months of 1961, these primary experiments with music followed over twenty years of Dubuffet developing his own unconventional artistic persona as an instantly recognisable pioneer of post-war artistic abstraction. His visual art alone, which would go on to inspire and genuinely motivate artists to feed on there rawest spontaneous instincts (hence the translation of Art Brut, meaning Raw Art), would also have huge influences on writers, performers and musicians (from punk to jazz) to this very day. It is surprising, however, how the fruits of Dubuffet’s short-lived anti-career as a non-musician have never fully filtered down to some of his greatest champions. From an original gallery promoted artifact (which can now command fees of up to 5000 euros complete with its original art-prints intact) this highlighted version of Expériences Musicales is now available again on authentic vinyl to the wider public. The recordings you will find within the grooves of this LP were created without any reference and in the artist own words “without any discipline, without anything that would present the artist from expressing himself freely and for his own good pleasure.” Almost sixty years have passed since this sonic objet d’art was first realised, and with all the technology and the advanced science-of-sound, decades of so-called experimental musicians are still struggling to find that Brut energy within their creative endeavours making this early example one of vital existence.

[engl] Behold! A survey of Moondog’s earliest recorded works - many of them unreleased until now - through a collaboration by Mississippi Records and Lucia Records. From 1954 - 1962 field recordist Tony Schwartz frequently checked in with Moondog, his favorite street musician. Tony Schwartz made recordings of Moondog’s earliest compositions as they were coming into focus. Sometimes these recordings were made right on the street as Moondog busked, sometimes they were made in Schwartz’s studio, and sometimes they were made on NYC rooftops. The resulting recordings, many of which had never been released, were deposited at the Library Of Congress as part of the Tony Schwartz Collection in 2006 when Schwartz passed away, and this record was culled straight from these original tapes. Side one kicks off with an unreleased version of Moondog’s classic composition “Why Spend The Dark Night With You?” followed by the first ever complete recording of his “Nocturne Suite,” a beautiful piece of classical music performed with members of the Royal Philharmonic. The side ends with the complete “On The Streets Of New York” 7” EP, which was released on Mars records in 1955 and subsequently re-released by Honest Jon’s Records in 2004 on their excellent Moondog anthology. Side B features sketches of Moondog compositions never released, many with the man himself howling and chanting over his homemade percussion set. Moondog’s music is as universal as it gets - part classical music, part Native American, part European folk, and part something completely unique. Moondog is one of the towering figures of 20th century music. This record comes with liner notes featuring never before released interviews with Moodog by Tony Schwartz and is housed in an old school “tip on” cover. All tracks fully licensed from the Library of Congress.

[engl] In current times, how should mental disability be dealt with in an unrestrained, open-minded way? How can we take on this difference not as a barrier but as an opportunity? By directly confronting its creative force and abounding energy. And what better place for this than on a stage, where disability ceases to be a "negative" and becomes a "positive", finally revealing exceptionally strong human beings, without any blinders or artifices. From experimental group Les Harry's, to hip-hop collective Choolers Division, to the multifaceted projects of Atelier Méditerranée (now BRUT POP), many are the initiatives that have explored this channel in recent years, arousing the interest of an audience not always prepared for the intensity of such a world. One of the most memorable initiatives being at the Sur Les Rails mini-festival, created by Atelier Méditerranée in Paris in 2014. When a handful of lucky few got to discover the Wild Classical Music Ensemble: Linh Pahm, Johan Geenens, Wim Decoene and Sebastien Faidherbe, four mentally disabled persons, led by the Belgian musician and violin-maker Damien Magnette. That evening they delivered a brutal, wild and Promethean concert to a stunned audience. However one question remained unanswered: how to translate such a physical and visceral experience onto a record? And should it even be done? The group’s first album that was released in confidentiality on Sub Rosa, had gone under the radar and no one seemed to know how to approach it. Yet, no less than six labels (including Born Bad and Humpty Dumpty) grappled to put out Tapping Is Clapping in 2015, a new LP full of fire and fury, a record of an "other" category, dispersing any skepticism and echoing this quote from Celine's Journey to the End of the Night: "The great fatigue of existence is perhaps, in sum, only the enormous difficulty one assumes in order to remain reasonable for twenty years, forty years, even longer; in order not to be simply, profoundly, oneself that is to say filthy, atrocious, absurd." And if in 2019 you still haven’t dared to let yourself be hammered by the Wild Classical Musical Ensemble’s steamroller, rest assured: the time to catch-up his here with Tout Va Bien Se Passer (Everything will be alright), the ensemble’s third record together and from far its most accessible yet. But careful, this isn’t a sort of lull, far from it - as evidenced by the exceptional "Bande De", a furious symphony of curses on which Fabrice, the singer of Frustration, stirs up an already stifling atmosphere. It’s rather a convergence, a rebalancing of flows, and more accessible material. Making your trip to this parallel dimension more colorful and hallucinated. Orchestrated by Damien Magnette’s original instruments (percussion bass, melodica from outer space, devious microphones, effect pedals transformed into a theremin), specifically designed for each member of the group. A trip full of dizzying earthquakes and triumphant storms, populated by jelly-like Talking Heads ("Trainstation") and damaged Devos ("Autofile"), where you will dance to lunar punk ("Carapace") and screaming robot-rock ("Ik Ben Blij"). Hang on to the brush, we’re removing the ladder. Do not worry. Everything will be alright. Lelo Jimmy Batista