On March 25th, Bob Ostertag stated on his web site, “I have decided to make all my recordings to which I have the rights freely available as digital downloads from my web site.”.

Ostertag is one of the most innovative artists of electronic music. sampling, and the avant-garde. In releasing his music on his site under the Creative Commons license, he becomes perhaps the most significant musician to do so. His music is always interesting and often brilliant. His albums never fails to amaze as they explore avant garde jazz and rock, socio-political issues, field recording and sampling, solo improvisation, performance art, and even electronic dance. At this time, there are 10 albums available and all are good enough to be featured.

Say No More (2002) is a four volume work using separate solo improvisations by four musicians. Ostertag “broke the solos into fragments and assembled a ‘band’ piece by piece from the splinters.” He then created a score that the band played live. Both the computerized compositions and the live performances are present on these discs.

Burns Like Fire (1992) is a composition created from sounds Ostertag tape recorded during the 1991 Gay/Lesbian riots in San Francisco. Sooner or Later (1991) is culled from a field recording of a Salvadorian boy burying his father. Both albums are examples of how Ostertag can take samples, manipulate electronically, and squeeze incredible emotions from them. I believe Sooner or Later is his most important work to date. It is emotionally difficult to listen to yet compelling . Both albums display the composer’s interest in using field recorded samples to make socio-political statements. Voice of America (1982) is an earlier work showing his interest in social events. It is interesting as all Ostertag’s CDs are but not nearly as amazing as Burns and Sooner

DJ of the Month (2001) and A Melody, No Bitterness (1997) are improvisations in which Ostertag uses his computer sampler as a solo musical instrument. These are almost like free jazz excursions.

Getting a Head (1980) was his first album and featured the composer as a young genius at analog tape manipulation (Digital sampling was still in the future). This was also his first collaboration with avant-rock guitarist Fred Frith.

Fear No Love (1995) is atypical for Ostertag as it is an electronic dance album that has a lot of Zappa-like humor and 15 collaborators including Fred Frith and Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton.

Last and definitely the least is Pantychrist (1999) featuring turntablist Otomo Yoshihide and drag performer Justin Bond. It’s a performance art piece that will be too weird and profane for most. You probably should pass this one up but be warned that once you start listening it will be as hard to turn away from as a car crash.

All albums are in 192kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music. support the artist by buying his CDs.

Download
Say No More CDs 1 & 2
Say No More CDs 3 & 4
Burns Like Fire
Sooner or Later
DJ of the Month
A Melody, No Bitterness
Pantychrist
Fear No Love
Voice of America
Getting A Head