The demise of Autoplate is a huge loss to the netlabel world. For seven years Autoplate has specialized in experimental electronic music introducing listeners to innovative artists like K. M. Krebs, Gultskra Artikler and Emil Klotsch. However, you can still find the Autoplate releases by going to this archive page on its parent label Thinner’ web site.

Phlow Magazine has put together this 18 track compilation of the best of Autoplate. Sebastian Redenz has carefully chosen these tracks to give an excellent representation of the variety of sounds this net label has placed into the public ears. Much of it, like the tracks by Taavi Tulev, Arrial or Affective Disorder, is surprisingly melodic despite their unusual sounds. Other offerings, such as the ones by Kenneth Kirschner or Gultskra Artikler, have strong post-classical leanings borrowing from the traditions of Stockhausen and Cage. Hans Appelqvist’s odd vocalized ballad mixes a blend of orientalism and electronic experimentation, making this my favorite single discovery on the collection. Tlon and Emil Klotsch turns field recordings into exciting ambient experiences. The choice of music on this anthology is quite excellent and is the perfect introduction to this already missed netlabel. Listen to it, find your favorites and then explore the Autoplate albums. There won’t be any more!

The collection is available from The Phlow Magazine web site In 192kbps MP3.

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I can’t think of another solo cello album, so that makes Vladislav Makorov’s Multiplying - Multicello fairly unique. The main instrument is an electric cello yet it is enhanced by overdubs and preparation of the instrument using objects like bamboo and combs, reminiscent of John Cage’s prepared piano. Makarov also tends to play the instrument like a guitar which causes the end result to be like a lower octave Derek Bailey. This is an album of surprises. Makorov makes an array of sounds that often seems to outrace his imagination. Some will be bewildered by the cascades of sound but I find it utterly fascinating.

The album is available from The Clincal Archives records in 320kbps Mp3.

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This self titled one track EP by In Zaire is nothing less than sonic overload. Musicians G.I. Joe and Claudio Roditti man this live recording, a grindcore assault of overbearing guitar, drum, tribal chants and noise. It reminds me of the equally loud and abrasive efforts of the John Zorn & Bill Laswell fronted Painkiller. The 18 minutes track can really get under your skin if you allow it to. My guess is that this album will result in one of three things. An appreciation of the creative interaction of these two musicians, a seriously altered state of mind or one hell of a headache. Your pick.

In Zaire is available from the Vuoto netlabel in 256kbps MP3.

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Simply put, Tao is a concept of the fundamental nature of the world, a world that is constantly fluid, continuing and changing rather than the static definition of a never changing reality. The Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu is the best literary depiction of the concept and remains one of the most significant spiritual works of all times. The tecnoNucleo net label has put together a 28 track and almost 3 hours long collection of musical interpretions of this seminal work. The tracks include a wide range of experimental electronic artists who uses various means including field recordings, sampling, electronic drones and more to complete their interpretations. Like the concept itself, there is no absolute and finite meaning to these works. The meaning is in the sound, creating an intuitive feeling and holistic environment rather than any intellectual definition. And in this way this anthology succeeds. This is a album that is meant to be felt rather than understood and in that sense, it becomes a highly spiritual experience.

This online anthology is available in Flac, Ogg Vorbic and MP3 formats.

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Pianist and composer Gianni Lenoci plays and conducts on this 28 minutes long album of structured improvisation titled Ephemeral #2. The composer write short fragments of music which are used as the beginning of an improvisation by the musicians in this large ensemble. The piece develops through the mutual “structuring” and interaction of the artists. The most interesting part of this piece happens in the first ten minutes which isprimarily Lenoci on piano. He has a Cecil Taylor influenced style that is complex and turbulent but quite fascinating. The ensemble doesn’t really get involved until the next two-thirds of this work when it becomes a complex example of structured chaos. It might be too chaotic for the average listener but those who like challenging music and have some knowledge of free improvisation will find this album to be a worthy addition to their collection.

The album is available from the Insubordination net label in 256kbps MP3.

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The best compliment I can paid H Stewart is that she has a very personal and unique sound. Her four albums sound as if they are coming from the innermost depths of her soul. While she manipulates liberally with electronic affects, her main instrument is her voice and it is haunting and intimate. Her music reminds me strongly of Gregorian chants, Buddhist meditation music and Aboriginal drones so I can be forgiven if I also interpret her music as being created in the spiritual realm.

The four albums are free and online from the Clinical Archive net label. Her descriptions of these albums strengthen my perspective that they are quite personal and searching. Lost is described as “a collection of love songs written in a time when love was lost, and ideals were shattered”. Fevered and Childless “is meant to be a sculpture of a woman, left longing, loving, and living”. De La Souffrance (My Suffering) “talks of wants, dreams and emotion”. To Touch The Taste of Sound “serves as an audio “play” the script writer being my own voice. It is meant to have livid femininity, longing, and actualization of emotion”. The artist’s description may lead you to believe that these soundscapes are depressing and a bit self-involved but this isn’t the case at all. The music holds up well on its own and is hypnotic and irresistible in a trance-like way. It is personal but not self indulgent. The four album works best as peaceful solitary listening and will probably move you as it did me.

All four albums are available in 320kbps MP3. Some of the other albums can also be downloaded in Ogg Vorbis.

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Lost
Fevered and Childless
De La Souffrance
To Touch The Taste of Sound

Normally I like to write my own review but WM Recording’s description of Wal*Mart Approved Music is too entertaining to miss, Here it is in its entirety…

“The Hathaway Family Plot is a musician from Buffalo, New York, whose mission is to make music with whatever is at hand. The Hathaway Family Plot struggles, however futilely, against late-industrial capitalism, consumer culture, and music-as-commodity.

Inspired by the increasing practice of musicians sponsored by corporations, these 16 tunes are The Hathaway Family Plot’s latest attempt to make music that is the anti-commodity: sloppy, unmarketable, and sometimes flagrantly difficult to listen to.

The Hathaway Family Plot encourages people to burn an extra CD, complete with color artwork, smuggle it into your local Wal*Mart, and leave it somewhere inside with the attached note:

Congratulations! You have located a free copy of Wal*Mart-Approved Music by The Hathaway Family Plot. It was left here by a friend, Wal*Mart does not own it, so it is not shoplifting for you to carry it out, free of charge.”

…You gotta like their nerve! As for the my opinion of this music, it is bizarre and entertaining in the style of The Residents. It should also be mentioned that this is not music for children.

The album is available from WM Recordings in 192kbps MP3.

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Usually the term “sound sculpture” applies to a construct or simply a planned organization of sound that exists as art rather then music. The sound is the structure or the structure is the sound. This 1985 double LP release originally from Wergo records and long out of print, throws us a curve. The 10 tracks on Sound Sculptures refer to music that is actually played on sculpture or, in some cases, musical constructions that also exist as free-standing art. Not surprisingly, like on the opening “Metalaphonie” by Seigfreid Fink, the music is quite percussive resembling contemporary classical pieces of Stockhausen, Boulez, or Varese. Hans-Karsten Raecke’s “Das Mecklenburger Pferd” is somewhat jazzy. A few are not percussive at all, often concentrating on drones or chant-like sounds such as on Wolfgang Roscher’s “phonetische Etude” or repetitive tones as on Peter Vogel’s “Klienes Funstimmiges Minimal Music”. All of the tracks are above average for the post-modern / avant garde art of the time. It is a very interesting listen from the first track on and also a fascinating historical artifact.

Sound Sculptures is available from Ubuweb in 160kbps MP3.

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Here’s is Zack Kouns’ description of his album A Catalogue of Erica’s Misfortunes…

“…examines in brief a fragile and lost human organism. The first track finds our young heroine speaking with her father, exhibiting early mental disorder and predilection to tragedy, hallucinating and choking with fear. The second track finds her many years later, a bystander happening upon her in a Public Restroom raped and left for dead. This horror encourages the bystander to muse about the abject misery of the often apparently random and brutally violent interactions between human beings. The third track concludes nothing, the subtle terror allowing the listener to draw upon their own reflections concerning the seeming brutality of God’s Holy Grace.”

Needless to say, this is an immensely disturbing album and is not for everyone. The three tracks are primarily instrumental with a few voices used to accent the emotional content rather than to carry on any narrative. However you feel about this album and its subject matter, there is no denying it is a moving if somewhat terrorizing experience. The first track starts out innocently enough with a Eastern drone and fragments of a melody. But the tension builds to a disquieting level and beyond. The second and third track adds to the discomfort and eventually descends in the nightmarish. While the composer’s above plot lines are helpful, I’m not sure the album needs it. With no narrative, this is still easily seen as a depressive and bleak look at our existence. Some listeners may be put off by the negativity of Kouns’ music and his conclusions but sometimes art has to pull us out of our hiding places.

The album released by the Clinical Archives net label and available in 320kbps MP3.

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Pianist Ben Stepner has played with previously featured saxophonist Eugene Lee on Lee’s two free and legal albums Meditations and Srivbanacore. His contributions were gentle but virtuoso efforts in free jazz. However, Stepner’s new solo album titled Sleeping in The Forest is something altogether different. There’s no jazz here, or any keyboards for that matter, but seven untitled tracks of quiet guitar drones enhanced by electronics. This is incredibly peaceful music that is deceptive in its simplicity. When I played this I actually stopped what I was doing and lost myself in the soundscapes for the duration of the album. This would be an excellent choice of music for meditation or just relaxation.

The album is freely available from Pure Potentiality Records in 320kbps MP3 or you can download it directly from the link below. I also recommend you sample his keyboard music that you can find on his music page. And of course, enjoy the music? Support the artist by buying his CDs.

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Tellus’ next to last audio cassette was numbered issue 26, released in 1992 and titled Jewel Box. It is a survey of eight artists-in-residence in the Harvestworks program and was recorded at New York’s Studio PASS. The nine tracks are well conceived soundworks from the early 90s. The represented artists are all female, which I believe in itself made it a unusual collection for its time.

The album has a high variety of sound experiences. Anne LeBaron ’s two blue harp studies start and end the anthology. Bun Ling Lam’s “EO-9066″ is a elegy to the Japanese internment victims of World War II. At 15 minutes it is the longest of the pieces and one of the more interesting, although bleak, entries. Fascinating spoken text pieces include Laetitia Sonami’s “Story Road”, Sapphire’s “Boys Love Baseball” and Michelle Kinne’s “Coordinated Universal Time”. Mary Ellen Child’s “Ruler Etude” is totally played on a…what else?…ruler. I was es[ecially thrilled with “Smell”, a collaboration between Catherine Jauniaux and Ikue Mori which weaves an exotic spell between Jauniaux’s voice and Mori’s creative percussion. But the star attraction has to be “Navai”, an exquisitely beautiful accappela piece by Sussan Deihim. This is one of the better outings from Tellus and is available in 160kbps Mp3 format.

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This single track improvisation titled Extensions features Rafal Mazur on acoustic bass guitar and Michal Dymny on electric guitar. As with most of the Insubordination net releases, this is music that border between the jazz avant-garde and the post-modern. Both Mazur and Dymny are exceptional musicians who clearly know each others’ talent enough to have a intuitive sense of interaction bordering on the supernatural. Michal Dymny’s improvisatory excursions remind me a lot of Derek Bailey. The over 30 minutes performance stays fascinating throughout. Listeners into improvisation and exploratory music will enjoy this album.

Extensions is available in VBR MP3 around 192kbps.

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Depending on your perspective, Canadian artist Brian Joseph Davis is either an innovative musical genius, the most original perpetrator of Found Art since Duchamp, or a total charlatan. I’m sure there are no indifferent opinions about the way Davis makes his music. You may hate or love what he does but there is no middle ground.

Take for instance, 10 Banned Albums Burned Then Played, The concept is just what the title says it is. Ten vinyl albums that were banned at some point are burned then played on a turntable. For the most part they are distinguishable noise. Yet there is a odd magnetism in these tracks. Snippets music appear but are then are destroyed by the hissing and jumping of the burned vinyl. Social commentary or the result of too much alcohol? You can decide for yourself. Personally I was all set to hate this but I found the tracks to be strangely hypnotic and found it worth several listens. Probably the most intriguing thing is that “Louie Louie” doesn’t sound all that different after be burned. I’m reminded of a column by Dave Barry in which he wrote that if you dropped a guitar off a cliff it would play “Louie Louie” as it bounced off the rocks.

Then there is Yesterduh in which Davis took people off the street and asked them to sing the Beatles’ song “Yesterday”. It didn’t matter if they did not know the lyrics, just make them up. Davis took the best of them and mixed them to make this odd and funny album. At times it is funny but at other times, such as on the second track, it becomes haunting and beautiful or more often, just embarrassing. I have a lot of empathy for these poor souls as my own voice is woefully lacking in aesthetic worth. I have learned from secret sources that this is how William Hung was really discovered.

If you can get in the swing of these two bizarre but entertaining albums you might want to check out Davis’ three other albums, all being offered free and online from Ubuweb. Minima Morelalis is a tongue-in-cheek attempt to turn Theodore Adorno’s book of the same name into a punk record. This is a raucous satire of either punk or Marxism…probably both. It is actually darn good punk rock. Greatest Hit takes six greatest hit albums by Whitney Houston, Kenny G, The Carpenters, The Police, The Rolling Stones and Metallica, then plays All of the tracks at the same time. Again, what should have been a mess becomes a fascinating cornucopia of sounds. Finally Original Soundtrack is a live performance using 20 TV sets and DVD players and is of course reminiscent of John Cage’s exercises in randomness with radios. This stuff can grow on you but even if you are shaking you head in skepticism, you should give this a try. The future may look kindly on these experiments. After all, this is now considered a masterpiece.

You can find all of these albums plus some other works by Brian Joseph Davis at Ubuweb or go directly to the album’s download page through the links below.

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Minima Moralia
Greatest Hit
10 Banned Albums Burned Then Played
Yester Duh
Original Soundtrack

Eugene Lee has proven he is a talented artist in the avant-garde circles with his last free online album titled Srivbanacore but this time he’s doing something that is a bit different. On Meditations, he is entering an area that has been explored by such jazz legends as John Coltrane and Tony Scott but rather than simply creating music for meditation, Lee is probing what goes on during the act, the deep and serene calm but also the busy traffic of thought that always emerge in the practitioner as he learns this skill. With the exception of “Nightmare” this is a solo endeavor using some electronic enhancement and overlays. It is a tour de force of saxophone virtuosity yet becomes more than fancy playing. Being a daily meditator myself, I really sense Lee has succeeded in his goal. “Candles” is a beautiful array of slow melodic lines while “Conscience” and “Locus” deftly displays that turbulence in the mind that is always there. “Immortality” is a haunting three minutes of echoes and drones. “Nightmare” is the odd man out, a quartet number with pianist Ben Stepner, bassist Robin Betton and Brent Raskind on drums. It gives you a peek at what Lee is normally up to and it is a marvelous bit of ensemble playing but still sounds a bit out of place here. This album may be an experiment but it is a fairly successful one.

Meditations is available in 192kbps MP3.

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Squadra Omega is an Italian psychedelic free-form jam band that knows how to bend your ears. From the first onslaught of sax, guitars and drums on Tenebroso I was spellbound. The 20 minute single track album was recorded in one live take with an intensity that few artists can keep going for that duration. This is a free improvisation spree complete with all the mistakes and risks that make this form of live art so…well…alive. The tracks starts in full throttle and continues with an almost shamanic dedication, a full volume free jazz chant. It is The Grateful Dead, Sun Ra and Coltrane all rolled together in one night of all joy and dread abandoned. If you haven’t guessed, I love this album. This is some of the best free improvisation you will find in avant jazz and rock. This gem of a live session is brought to you by The Clinical Archives net label and is available in 320kbps MP3 format.

Rennes Le Chateau from the Vuoto net label didn’t send me waxing poetically like the former album did but it did verify my first perception that Squadra Omega is an unique and exceptional ensemble of musicians. Like Tenebroso It is a 20 minute long free-form jam that keeps your interest throughout. There’s a lot of 70s jam rock influence in this album but I find the way these artists interact and mix their influences together totally 21st century. There are traces of The Dead, electronic sampling, mid-east tonalities, free jazz, and even the ghost of Link Wray’s guitar in this jam and all of it makes sense in some musically chaotic definition of normality. I’m hooked on this band. Rennes Le Chateau is available in 320kbps MP3.

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Rennes Le Chateau
Tenebroso

Bosques de mi Mente’s Ruido Blanco is an album of melodic but slightly minimalist music. The mood is melancholic but distancely hopeful. The artist states he created this work at a lonely point in his life ” isolated in a new city, trapped in a room around a mess of cement and asphalt, far from everyone I knew”. Certainly if a musical work can define social alienation, this softly sad collection of track comes very close. This is a beautiful effort released by the Clinical Archives net label.

Ruido Blanco is available in MP3 (256kbps, 64kbps, or VBR) or Ogg Vorbis format.)

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The music on Moabi’s Sexe Bourgeois can be best called subterranean. It resonates from the deep earth, cavernous yet other worldly, Ambient yet restless, avant-garde yet barely merged with the tona. This 4 track EP is strange but unique. As you listen to the long tones and bell songs, operatic voices fade in and out and the quiet scratches of old vinyl decorate some of the tracks. This music is meant for quiet and attentive listening.

The album is freely available in 320kbps from Dog-eared Records.

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Compared to some of Tellus’ challenging compilations, Tellus 12: Dance is downright foot-tapping. The sixteen tracks are either commissioned dance scores or pieces representative of a dance. It is easy to envision most of these tracks accompanied by beautiful bodies swaying to the beat. Bill Obrecht’s opening untitled track even has me doing the cha-cha in a post-modern way. However the second track by A. Leroy gets a little techno. Richard McGuire’s “You” uses that single word for its base and boogies the hell out of it. Carol Parkinson’s “Heavybeat” is miminalism with a pulse. As the album continues there are a number of mellower even down-tempo pieces. Jim Farmer’s “Emporer’s Clothes” has a nice Latin thing going for it. I’ve always liked the post-punk pulses of Liquid Liquid and their contribution titled “Groove to Go” is no exception. Al Diaz’s “What’s in a Name” is a witty piece whose lyrics exists solely of famous names. Brook Williams “Demented Folk Tune” is Asian traditional music from the Twilight Zone and I am not quite sure what you would call David Linton’s “L’eau D’artifice” except fascinating. The quality of music on this issue of Tellus remains consistent and interesting.

The album is available in 192kbps MP3.

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Pianist Eve Risser and acoustic bass guitarist Rafel Mazur play a 22 minute piece titled Elan Vital on their same titled EP from Insubordinations. This experimental net label is always reliable for fascinating avant-garde improvisations and Elan Vital is no exception. With the work being totally acoustic, the two artists delicately weave a pattern of fragmented phrases, staccato lines, and soft tones into a fairy tale piece of art. The two musicians pluck through the session on bass and piano strings for approximately two thirds of the time, then change to bow and keyboard for a decidedly more tense interaction. It is a very interesting work that shouldn’t be too odd for the avant-garde music novice. This is another highly recommended online album from the always exploring Insubordinations net label.

Elan Vital is available in 256kbps MP3.

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One of the most exciting net labels to show up recently is Clinical Archives. There is a huge amount of music on this label which is described as the “independent netlabel for eclectic and illogical music”. Their release Clinical Jazz may be of some help in defining the music of this label but it may not be too helpful because the anthology album itself is so huge! It has over 10 hours of music and is the equivalent of 9 CDs. Once you get past the size of this collection, you will find an exceptionally consistent quality of music that is either in the jazz genre or outside the genre of jazz but beholden to the the influence of this improvisatory music. Not everything here fits my definition of jazz but that is not the point. Clinical Archives is about expanding the definition of music and that is certainly the intent in these 94 tracks from all over the globe.

This mammoth collection gets off to an astounding start on CD 1 with “Asphodel” from France’s Strings of Consciousness. This collective’s music has the feel of a soundtrack for a David Lynch film. The second track by The Black Hakawati comes a bit closer to nu-jazz with an almost weeping tenor sax solo. Model Of The Invisible’s “Bluffing The Archons” is somewhere between jazz fusion and tiki lounge while “Popsong” by Broken Quartet ends the first CD with a minimalist melody.

There ’s just too much to go through on each CD but the variety of music as well as the high quality of the artists is extremely impressive. This page from the Clinical Archives website will give you a rundown of each track. Most of these artists do not have albums on Clinical Archive which is a shame but their web sites are listed for further exploration. Here are just a few of the tracks that stands out for me. Benzolnye Mertvecys’ “V Mast” on CD 2 has a neat bit of Zappa-like chaos through it while the following “First Meeting Took Place in a Tram” by BF is crime jazz waiting to be used in a vintage Polanski film. The Greek trio of Outward Bound is one the best examples on CD 2 of more mainstream jazz yet still manages to go off in new directions.

On CD 3, Pianist Cedric Piromelli also explore mainstream jazz with a firm nod to bebop on “Bye Bye Blues” and I love the playfully teasing quality on “Satan i Uppsala” by The Stoner. CD4 has tracks from artists like BLOB, Wozzeck, and Konstrukt which could be called free jazz and the CD primarily stays in the avant garde. Much of CD 5 is also avant-garde improvisation but sounding more post classical than jazz. Check out guitarist Tony Renner’s “Irk Bee Delay” which is a nice Derek Bailey styled improv. Yuri Yaremtchuk’s “fragment ?1″ for prepared piano, Bb clarinet, tenor sax and percussion offers a bit of a Cagian perspective. By the time CD 7 begins, most of the music has gone far beyond the normal definition of jazz and is also beyond categorization but there is still a lot of exceptional music ahead. Christopher Hoffman’s avant-shredding on “Dissipative” (CD 7), Vortex’s untitled track of industrial sound on CD 8, and Joe Frawley’s meditative but sometimes disquieting “Mistress of Ceremonies”(CD 9) all attest to variety of unusual sounds to be found on this collection. It is impossible to single out every good track so if you find something you really like, feel free to mention it in the comments.

This huge collection of music is available in 320kbps MP3. If you find something you like, please use the Clinical Archive website page mentioned above to explore the artists more thoroughly and support them by buying their CDs.

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For the most part, the musical project S.N.O.W. is a quiet affair. Sound artists Federico Mosconi and Mauro Graziani creates sculptures of tones and noise. They describe the music as “sonic representations of experience and dream, expression of a moment, through life memories and towards an imaginary future” which gives a good idea of the complexity and drama that these seven tracks can deliver. Most of the music is ambient in nature but occasionally a track like “Crashing in The Snow” provides a good amount of industrial-like tension. This is an exceptional example of electronic experimentation that straddles the border between calming music and the avant-garde.

The album is available from Mauro Graziano’s web site in 128kbps MP3.

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The primarily avant-garde Clinical Archives net label isn’t exactly known for releasing pop music but that is exactly what they have done with March Rosetta’s Late in Time. The album of ten melodic songs is admittedly intelligence pop music but the easy beats and complex, often surrealist lyrics are hard to resist. Many of the tunes, including the upbeat “Landscape” has a Brian Eno pop sensibility surrounding it while the pensive “When You Were Down” reminds me of early Peter Gabriel. March Rosetta, which is the electronic music project of musician Thomas Carter, weaves a pleasant and hypnotic spells throughout this album which is one of the best free online releases of the year.

The earlier To Wash Against The Hudson River Running is much closer to Clinical Archives’ avant-garde leanings. You can’t get more different then these two albums. This recording is quite experimental. It is less a musical composition and more of an exploration in sounds, or as the artist states it, an exploration in “extremes of sound and silence, and the darkness of mankind’s dual nature”. There is a haunting often dark presence in these five soundscapes. While Late in Time is grounded in tonality, To Wash goes the totally opposite direction daring us to find our own way in his aural labyrinth. Again I am reminded of Eno, but this time at his most adventurous. This is challenging but interesting music. Both sides of March Rosetta is worth the listen.

Both albums are available in 320kbps MP3.

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To Wash Against The Hudson River Running
Late in Time

Tellus 20 is one of the audio-cassette series’ most challenging entries. The title Media Myth refers to the use of media samples as a primary tool in music creation, usually as a audio montage. Consequently the tracks on this album often take on a socio-political message either directly or covertly. The sampling of pop material on Silent but Deadly’s “What New Pussycat” or the audio collage of Violence and The Sacred’s “Teddy Bear Stinks Real Bad” takes on an air of social commentary. Randy Grief’s eight minutes “The Rift in The Earth” is a haunting effort that gets its motivation from a single quotation, “Children drew stones at the gods”. Minoy’s “Tango” and Nicholas Collins’ “Devil Music I” are stand-alone sound sculptures. Michael Chockalak’s effort manipulates chanting samples while “Russian Around” by Social Interiors does its art with snippets from Russian media. You may find this all somewhat bewildering but it is also quite interesting and absorbing.

The album is available in 190knps from Ubuweb

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The netlabel Insubordinations continues to be the hallmark of free and legal improvisational music on the internet. Their artists are always consistent in pushing the limits of acoustic improvisatory music. The trio Phat is no exception. Their album titled La Grande Peste offers 6 tracks of assaultive music that will challenge the listener but will reward those who are attentive and open minded. The saxophonist Heddy Boubaker has appeared on other Insubordination releases but is especially good on this one. He played primarily bass sax, which reminds me of Anthony Braxton who is one of the few avant-garde jazz player who regularly tackles this monstrous instrument. Having had to play the bass sax before, never voluntarily, I know how cumbersome this instrument can be. On the last track, “Ah!” Boubaker switch to the more forgiving alto saxophone and winds the album down to a quiet calm which is a bit of relief for the listener. However, on the whole, Broubaker tends to be more aggressive in the style of English saxophonist Evan Parker. Percussionist Fabien Duscombs adds to the primarly aggressive style of this album but never drowns out the other participants. It is to bassist Marc Perrenoud’s credit that he more than keeps up to the proceeding. In fact, this is a equal opportunity trio in which all participants add an important ingredient. This album is highly recommended to those who want to hear the state of the art in avant-garde jazz and improvisatory music.

La Grande Peste is available in 224kbps MP3.

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American poet and composer Jackson Mac Low is best know for his readings that incorporated systematic chance operations and random elements, a method uninfluenced by musicians like John Cage. He often collaborated with colleague and partner Anne Tardos. These three albums, all offered by Ubu and posted with permission from Tardos and the Mac Low estate, give a fascinating perspective on his life work.

Doings is a good place to start. The performance pieces on this album falls into three categories; spoken works, instrumental works, and compositions that involve both voice and instruments. The opening excerpt from “Merxmix 2000″ is a nice introduction to the artist’s use of fragmented speech. It is followed by a short but pleasant flute quartet. The album offers both Mac Low’s solo compositions and those performed in collaboration with Anne Tardos. The artists’ spoken works are certainly odd. They are often electronically altered and have a “word association” quality. “Free Gatha 1 and Free gatha 2″ is a nice example of Mac Low and Tardos performing together.

Music by Jackson Mac Low and Anne Tardos is a live performance from November of 1999. Besides the voices of Mac Low and Tardos, the performance features Andrew Bolotowsky on flutes, soprano Mary Hurlbut, and Violinist Theresa Salomon. There are three collaborative works by the composers and one solo composition by Tardos. These are long pieces with the shortest one being slightly over ten minutes. It makes for involved and fascinating listening. This album also gives you a good look at Anne Tardos’ talent especially on her piece “Three Cycles”.

Finally, Open Secrets has some repeat tracks from Doings but over-all it is a better perspective of the composer’s output. Again Tardos plays a significant role and the tracks are fairly evenly divided among multi-track vocal pieces and instrumental chamber works. I especially like “Lucas i to 29″ and “Wind/Instruments”. Jackson Mac Low and Anne Tardos are new artists to me but these three album makes a good case for viewing these experimental musicians as important to the contemporary music scene in the last part of the 20st century.

The three albums are available in 128kbps MP3. if you enjoy the music and poetry, you might want to check out the books and CDs that are available to purchase from the estate’s web site.

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Doings: Assorted Performances Pieces
Open Secrets
Music by Jackson Mac Low and Anne Tardos