Its time for ILM's "experimental music" on DVD thread!

(obv, a "delusions of a fury" perf would get about 500 ppl, but only in major cities such as London :-))

Anybody know what happened to Table of the Elements' DVD release of Leif Inge's 9 Beet Stretch?

I've got a lot of DVDs of various flavors of new music. Before attaching a way too long list of these, let me note that the possibility of listening to the Well-Tuned Piano uninterrupted on DVD is greatly hampered by the extraordinarily high price for the disc ($250 or so); word from someone who heard the Table of the Elements minifest at SxSW is that Inge's Music is still on the schedule for release but TotE is as far behind as usual; and there's DVD of six and a half hours of recent Anthony Braxton Ghost Trance pieces in production for release in the next year.

I could post a list of more than 30 new music DVDs, though it'd be longer than most posts I've seen on ILM. Let me know if that would make sense.

If we're going audio-only then we'll give a mention to FLUX quartet doing Feldman's 2nd st. But having attended a couple of performances of Feldman I wouldn't say there was anything powerfully visual, the best thing is the up-close, non-broken experience of it.

I guess that 'Well-tuned..' would be much better to see a performance of.

Okay, so here's a list of new music DVDs, almost all of which have at least some video content:

John Luther Adams: Strange & Sacred Music Mode Records
audio-only percussion quartets in surround sound, hour-long video of composer/performer discussion loud fast & subtle all at the same time

Robert Ashley: Perfect Lives Lovely Music
2 disc reissue of original VHS tapes of the opera, good transfer of the classic. If only the other operas would get produced for video. Or at least Music with Roots in the Ether.

Glenn Branca: Symphonies # 8 & 10 Atavistic
live video from 1995 performances at the Kitchen, not a static camera shot from the back of the room, but more a documentation of the works than a full video production

John Cage: From Zero Mode Records
four films by Frank Scheffer & Andrew Culver of Cage and/or Cage's music, generally more like instances of Cage's work than documentaries

Ornette Coleman: Made in America Synergistic Press
DVDr release of Shirley Jackson's 1985 documentary on Coleman, not a perfect transfer, but it's official and likely to be the only way this gets released. Some live performances, and interviews, some staged recreations of events in Coleman's life.

George Crumb: Makrokosmos 1 & 2 Mode Records
recording by Margaret Leng Tan, with interview of Crumb talking with Leng Tan & Don Gillespie; pretty good

Brian Eno: 14 Video Paintings Hannibal
Thursday Afternoon & Mistaken Memories of Meddiaeval (sic) Manhattan, ambient visuals with ambient music. Not as dull as I expected.

Morton Feldman: String Quartet 2 Mode Records
audio-only DVD of a six-hour plus performance of the work by the Flux Quartet, of the two available now, this is my preferred recording of the work.

Morton Feldman: Triadic Memories
excellent audio-only recording of performance by Marilyn Nonken, video of Nonken talking about the piece, one of the good performances in a very good recording

Phiip Glass/Steve Reich: Images 4 Music Ars Electronica Lins
Music by Glass (Scenes from Enfants Terrible) & Reich (Piano Phase) performed by Maki Namekawa & Dennis Russell Davies with accompanying films created by Dietmar Offenhuber, Norbert Pfaffenbichler & Lotte Schreiber, Casey Reas, Martin Wattenberg, not all of the films are equally interesting, but the options of interpretive images for each of the pieces is a nice idea

Michael Gordon/Bill Morrison: Decasia Plexifilm
Morrison's film is a collage/montage of damaged old film footage, Gordon's score for chamber ensemble was commissioned for the film

Henry Gwiazda: She's Walking Innova
computer animated films accompanied by incidental sound by composer whose earlier work was sound collages, I like this okay, but haven't played for many others who have the patience for Gwiazda's aesthetic

Immersion Starkland
compilation of commissioned 5.1 audio works by Paul Dolden, Paul Dresher, Ellen Fullman, Phil Kline, Lukas Ligeti, Ingram Marshall, Merzbow, Meredith Monk, Bruce Odland, Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, Carl Stone, Pamela Z. This is not quite audio only; each track also includes a slide show of still images selected by the composer.

Interface: Recording Field, H Deep Listening
videos of five pieces by a Hudson Valley performance ensemble. Curtis Bahn plays acoustic bass with electronic processing; Dan Trueman plays violin with electronic processing and a complex speaker dispersal system. Timie Hahn plays shakuhachi and dances in several pieces, Pauline Oliveros joins the ensemble for some of the proceedings on accordion and her own live electronics system. Not all great, but some good things happen in all of these loosely structured improv pieces.

Alvin Lucier, et al: Surround Music Wergo
Audio only disc; new live version of I Am Sitting in a Room; Ludger Brummer's Medusa; collaborative live electronics piece by Justin Bennett, Nicolas Collins, Kaffe Mathews, Scanner, zeitblom. The new version of the Lucier piece is what probably sells the disc, but the other work has its moments, especially the five-way jam, which sometimes calls to mind the HUb, with modern gear and software.

Misha Mengelberg: Afijn ICP
80 minute video documentary on Mengelberg, plus films of lots of complete performances as extras. the doc is very good, but the extras are great. Several performances by ICP Orchestra, a duo of Mengelberg and Han Bennink, Mengelberg's cat on a piano keyboard and more

Gordon Monahan: Video Compilation available from Verge Music
DVDr mostly documentation of installation pieces, (aeolian harps, turntable catapults, etc) but also the classic MTV-style video of Speaker Swinging, and a few newer performance works as well.

Phill Niblock: Movement of People Working Extreme
2-sided DVD with films & audio, as close as you you can get to one of Niblock's installation/performances in your own home, if you play it loud enough.

Bob Ostertag/Pierre Herbert: Between Science & Garbage Tzadik
Collaborative performance work with live digital sampling by Ostertag and live animation by Herbert. Some shots of the animation screen, some shots of the performance aspects, a good balance between documentation of a concert and what the work is like.

John Oswald: l'arc d'apparition Ohm/Avatar
DVD of a very diverse group of people very slowly fading between being clothed and naked. Accompanying CD is a collage of speech, mostly unintelligible, rather than plunderphonics that Oswald is best known for. Great on random play as an in-home installation, a few good/funny/quirky easter eggs, too

Sun Ra/Phill Niblock: Magic Sun Unheard Music Atavistic
poetic film with an Arkestra performance. Not a documentary, but quite evocative, with some mid-60s photos and audio philosophical talks by Ra

Lee Ranaldo/Leah Singer: Drift Plexifilm
Collaboration between musician Ranaldo & film maker Singer, documents a live performance they've toured with over the years, also includes a book of images

Steve Reich/Beryl Korot: Three Tales Nonesuch
DVD packaged with audio CD of this video performance work. For some listeners I know, the music (especially in the first two tales, about the Hindenburg and the nuclear test on the Bikini Atoll) is less dull when there's something to look at.

Roger Reynolds: Watershed Mode Records
Watershed 4 is a recent (1996) work for solo percussionist and sound diffusion, heard in 5.1 sound with video of a performance (including multi-camera angles, a rarity in new music DVDs). Also Eclipse, a 1980 collaboration between Reynolds and film maker Ed Emshwiller, and excerpts from Red Act Arias. Lots of video interviews, and other features include a score for Watershed 4 in PDF.

Arthur Russell: World of Echo Audika Records
Russell's Rough Trade LP reissued on CD with an additional DVD of Russell filmed by Phill Niblock at, I think, Niblock's loft-performance space in New York, Experimental Media Foundation.

Kaija Saariaho: L'Amour de Loin DGG
DVD of Saariaho's first opera. Not earth shatteringly experimental, but pretty good.

Giacinto Scelsi: Piano Works vol 3 Mode Records
Hi-definition recordings with video of the sessions, of all of the contents of the CD released by Mode of performances by Aki Takahashi, plus Aitsi, which is not on the CD. While the music from the CD is played well and recorded very well, Aitsi seems more problematic to me. The score calls for the piano sound to be heavily amplified to distortion levels while the acoustic sound dies down slowly, but for this recording they've introduced a big wad of synthesized sound, which is quite different. The only other recording I know of, by Werner Bartschi on Rere, seems a lot closer to the intent, but isn't available on CD.

Wadada Leo Smith Golden Quartet: Eclipse Collection Freedom Now
2 DVDrs of performances by Smith with Vijay Iyer, piano; John Lindberg, bass; Ronald Shannon Jackson, drums, insterspersed interviews with Smith. Good overall; in PAL format rather than the US standard NTSC.

Morton Subotnick: Touch/Sky of Cloudless Sulphur/Gestures Mode
Reissues, with new mixes, of two multi-channel electronic works from 30-35 years ago and a recent (1999-2001) piece. DVD audio of the music; video interviews with Subotnick and various collaborators on Gestures; interactive DVD-ROM of Gestures so you can try to play with the software of the piece on your own.

Morton Subotnick: Sidewinder/Until Spring Mode
Reissues, with new mixes, of two multi-channel electronic works from 30-35 years ago. Light show by Electric Circus' Tony Martin for Sidewinder, also video interviews with Subotnick and various collaborators, other video featurettes.

Tan Dun: Tea DGG
Music theater piece for voices and orchestra, partly based on the Monkey King, high-end production values

Tan Dun: The Map DGG
Another well-produced piece, a cello concerto performed outdoors in Shanghai with live projections etc.

Cecil Taylor: All the Notes Christopher Felver (distributed through Downtown Music Gallery)
recently produced interview/portrait film on Taylor, includes lots of performance footage, talking & reminiscing by Taylor and others.

Iannis Xenakis: Legend d'Eer Mode Records
Remastered 5.1 version of multi-channel version of cool electronic work with accompanying film by Bruno Rastoin (which is more like a slide show, it's made from more than 350 still images of the work's premiere); also a long video interview with Xenakis.

John Zorn/Ken Jacobs: Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise Tzadik
Like the Ostertag/Herbert collaboration also on Tzadik, this is a documentation of a particular performance of this live improvised work, and instead of simply seeing the film as it appeared on the screen, you see some aspects of the performance within the space.

John Zorn/Claudia Heuermann: Bookshelf on Top of the Sky Tzadik
Documentary about John Zorn with some live footage of performances and interviews and some staged recreations of events in the filmmaker's life as she became more involved in the project. This drives some viewers nuts but (as with the Ornette Coleman film) there's a lot of good stuff amid some uncommon choices made by the filmmaker.

anyway thanks Herb -- list w/comments shows commitment to the cause!

;-)

Right on, a haunting meditation on memory, mortality that's better in actuality then it sounds on paper. As a listen I prefer Gordon's Weather, but Decasia is fantastic. The last movement quite literally hypnotized me, I could not move. Good thing the house wasn't on fire.

The lives performances are a hoot too. They wear Ghostbuster powerpacks with etch-a-sketch dials and shoot the picture onto the ceiling.

I've also recently received e-mail about a bunch of DVDs of improvised music that recently came into Downtown Music Gallery , who usually have a lot of new music DVDs in stock & Mode continues to put things out like Chaya Czernowin's opera, which I haven't seen yet, and the forthcoming Cage DVD of One11, Cage's only film, made to be presented with an orchestral work 103.

I just got back from it ... not too bad! I'm glad I got to re-live the Macronympha set. Sadly, no Jazzkammer; plus it might have been an abbreviated version of the DVD b/c there was also no Borbetomagus, who was mentioned on the AFArchive site. ALSO SADLY THERE WAS NO FOOTAGE OF MY FRIEND TAKING LIKE A WHOLE DRUMKIT IN THE FACE AND BLEEDING ON ALL ONLOOKERS.

whoa! excellent - realy like the "Afatism" disc.

i want nine beet stretch DVD. after first discovering that i listened to it falling asleep for like two weeks.

Herb, thanks for those details. "Outerborough" totally floored me at Bang on a Can this year.

I dunno if this is on DVD, but here's an experimental music on youtube that I really enjoyed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vItgY9osiWI