Erstwhile Records, search and destroy

What are your favorite records in this area of "EAI" music? What are some to avoid and why? Do you think Erstwhile has a consistent quality of releases, or not? What are some exceptional records on other labels w/similar types of music?

i can thoroughly recommend Duos for Doris, I think I need more from this label, perhaps Hands of Caravaggio?

I can thoroughly recommend Duos for Doris. I think I need more from this label, perhaps Hands of Caravaggio?

whoops!

happy to answer any questions...

How about the original questions?

ha ha

Sachiko M/Toshimaru Nakamura/Otomo Yoshihide Good Morning Good Night is my favorite Erstwhile. I've loaned it to five friends in response to them saying they just can't stand minimal high frequency electronics. Two of them couldn't make it past the first ten minutes, two of them loved it, one of them said she'd never been that completely taken over and surprised by listening to a record in her life. I've listened to it three times.

"How about the original questions?"

you know I run Erstwhile, right?

Milton, Good Morning Good Night is one of the few Ersts I'm most proud of, along with Duos for Doris and between (I think the double CD statements are potentially much stronger), that's the core of the label. the sessions we recorded last week in Tokyo of Keith Rowe and Sachiko M in duo (their first time ever) will be the next addition to this lineage, a two hour double CD out in the spring, just incredible music.

also, from a different angle, I was kind of surprised no one on this board picked up on The Magic I.D.-till my breath gives out, the first ErstPop release from earlier this year.

http://www.myspace.com/themagicID

I put together a EAI primer list earlier this year, around 10-15 records per year, including Ersts:

http://erstwhilerecords.blogspot.com/2008/05/primer.html

that's obviously too long to tackle all at once, but maybe the list will jog people's memories for some faves.

well, that fizzled out quickly, so one last post: anyone interested in researching or discussing this area of music, there's quite a bit of relevant content over at ILM's doppelganger, I Hate Music (ihatemusic.noquam.com).

thanks!

jon - thanks for linking to your EIA primer post. Do you have five+ quick recommendations for 2008?

(Jon can you email me asap re. your AAJ message which shamefully I've only just seen? Ta)

I really like this one:
Keith Rowe / Sachiko M / Toshimaru Nakamura / Otomo Yoshihide - Untitled

that's the record that made me want to dig in deeper. good value for the money too.

Marcello, messaged on Facebook.

"Do you have five+ quick recommendations for 2008?"

hmm, I haven't gotten around to thinking about this much yet, but the Toshi/Annette Krebs on SOSeditions will be near the top, and these are all worth checking out:

Greg Kelley-Self-Hate Index (Semata)
David Lacey/Paul Vogel-The British Isles (Homefront)
Radu Malfatti-Dusseldorf Vielfaches (b-boim)
Minoru Sato/Ami Yoshida-Composition for Voice Performer (1997 and 2007) (ao to ao)

the three Ersts I put out this year are also all very strong in their different niches (The Magic ID, The Breadwinner, One Day), those can hold their own with anything else out so far this year IMO.

haven't heard the Magic ID yet, but tell them I absolutely love the band name's reference. they should do a song called 'does not match'.

The Breadwinner is fantastic.

seconded. I'm not sure I've heard anything else on Erstwhile, but anything Lambkin is involved in is a must-buy for me.

I presume the weird photo in the sleeve is a hybrid of Lambkin and Lescalleet, but I wouldn't know, cause I ain't never seen neither of 'em.

and that track 'Two States' is mental. is it tea being swizzled? it sounds like tea. and there's spoons in the next track, so they probably had a brew right after.

"I presume the weird photo in the sleeve is a hybrid of Lambkin and Lescalleet"

yep, a little more Jason than Graham, but that's what it is.

Milton, is that a ProTools reference? I had no idea, what is it exactly?

also, from a different angle, I was kind of surprised no one on this board picked up on The Magic I.D.-till my breath gives out, the first ErstPop release from earlier this year.

i do own a copy of this and while i do find it to be a nice collection of oddly structured, sometimes pretty and sometimes affecting songs, the re-playability of it seems limited, compared with other erstwhile releases, due to its more defined structures and tonality. It gets old. Some of the other releases (such as Duos for Doris, R/S One, and others) sound less 'developed', and they can possibly be perceived differently in their shape and dimensions with repeated listens. I'm looking forward to hearing the Dach cd.

Had a quick listen to that at a shop last weekend. I'm not surprised it wasn't picked up, the 'songs' aren't that engaging, tbh. But I think that grouping should work on the idea.

Duo for Doris has a clearly developed, defined and refined anti-expressionism at its core.

been listening to the breadwinner (at high volume) for the last few days w/my speakers at head level, at opposite ends of the wall. i gotta say its a nice record. wouldn't classify this as "EAI", and i'm still reluctant to use the "EAI" tag. thanks for the other suggestions, will check 'em out down the road

Greg Kelley-Self-Hate Index (Semata)

Man, that's an amazing record. That and Matt Weston's Not To Be Taken Away are two of the most riveting EAI albums I've heard in years.

i wasn't that into weston's earlier stuff (some 3" cd-r that i lost and can't be bothered to dig up) but not to be taken away is a fucking monster. totally floored me.

the breadwinner is pretty fantastic too. lescalleet can do no wrong in my book.

I think that Salmon Run could be Erstwhile's Endless Summer if they chose to reissue it. I think it's more listenable than The Breadwinner. I think italics are important.

interesting, thanks for the input. I do love Salmon Run, but I'm much more interested in a second record from Lambkin/Lescalleet, which is slowly coming into existence. they've been doing some shows recently, Vassar and Wesleyan a week or two ago, Philly in early April, and London (Graham's UK live debut!) later this year sometime.

search: "Between" - Keith Rowe & Toshimaru Nakamura
"Duos for Doris" - Keith Rowe & John Tilbury
"Soba to Bara" - Ami Yoshida & Toshimaru Nakamura
"Good Morning Good Night" - Sachiko M/Toshimaru Nakamura/Otomo Yoshihide

"Tears" - Cosmos

Heard 'Good Morning Good Night' this morning. No one should listen to these records on headphones. They're meant to be played loud and on speakers. Once you've internalized the physical weirdness triggered by the high-pitched sounds --- it sets off that 'otoacoustic emission' thing, which is basically sounds from within your inner ear --- it completely changes the world around you.

I'm just thinking about the part (parts?) in Duos for Doris where he turns the radio on. Despite always knowing it's part of his rig I'm always kind of unnerved by it (in a good way).

Used to really love Siewert/Brandlmayer's Too Beautiful to Burn but it has been off the menu for some time. Not sure why I don't really like that one as much anymore.

i've kind of stopped listening to free improv because i'm sick of having to explain myself to anyone who walks in the room

that's a weird line of thought

:( 'Oxleay' is so beautiful.

"i've kind of stopped listening to free improv because i'm sick of having to explain myself to anyone who walks in the room"

Ah, but those convos can be a lot of fun! Are you sure you want to stop? ;-)

listened to the first disc of good morning good night last night. a couple thoughts:

* this is probably my cat's least favorite kind of music. closely followed by free jazz and prog. similar to most humans, I guess.

* birds and crickets were going nuts outside and I found it REALLY distracting! I often find this to be a barrier to listening to really quiet music. have to wait for my surroundings to quiet down. anyone else feel this way or do you all just roll with it?

haha xyzzzz you WOULD enjoy having that conversation

i am kind of heavily in agreement with turangalila's tastes in erstwhile stuff i think - well, of the five or six erst recs i have the ones i like are 'tears' and 'duos for doris', so ...

recently got Burkhard Stangl/Kai Fagaschinski - Musik — Ein Porträt In Sehnsucht. It's pretty nice, tonal and affecting. Fagaschinski's clarinet work is pleasing to the ear. The music sounds composed with pieces of field recordings that blend with the music nicely. Kind of a rough, gastr del sol-like music (no vocals) with long, spacious periods. recording has sort of a dull quality to it, which works.

not really Erstwhile, but in keeping with the earlier discussion, there's a new solo Lambkin out soon on his own Kye label again, 'Softly Softly Copy Copy'.

new lambkin/lescalleet, air supply is *rich* ..an improvement on the breadwinner IMO..

I've been meaning to check that one out. generally like lescalleet's stuff but the breadwinner didn't really do it for me for whatever reason.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/304622_10151471501583787_1075077377_n.jpg

love it

ace

savin' up for that one. outstanding record

yeah, people need to hear this one

the new lescalleet, that is

been yearning to hear the new lambkin/lescalleet (Photographs). Price tag still out of reach

lossless downloads now available through erstdl.com, including the new kevin drumm/jason lescalleet

http://erstdl.com/erstwhile?p=2

http://glisteningexamples.bandcamp.com/album/this-is-what-i-do-volume-two

not erstwhile, but new lescalleet material

https://reddybrownobjects.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/graham-lambkin-michael-pisaro-schwarze-riesenfalter-2015/

in-depth review of one of the new ones.

Interesting match-up.

new albums out by both Lambkin and Pisaro, both on Erstwhile.. it's interesting stuff

!!!

https://erstwhilerecords.bandcamp.com/

I'm loving Gondolas ...not being familiar with James Rushford (any recommendations?), it's some of my favorite Graham Lambkin-involved music in quite a while. Sprawling, acoustic (and electric) piano playing, along with intermittent and loose (free jazz-like, not v aggressive) drumming, odd/abrupt edits, spare electronics, samples (or fragments of field recordings), and a lot of hard-to-pin-down, electro-acoustic, percussive playfulness.

also, Reinier van Houdt's double CD on the 'elsewhere' label is fantastic. drift nowhere past / the adventure of sleep, it's called. It's quite varied and dynamic material; difficult to describe the album without getting carried away. definitely worth a gander.. if you like noisy, pretty, droney, heavy and surreal sound art. it's psychedelic, epic.

https://elsewheremusic.bandcamp.com/album/drift-nowhere-past-the-adventure-of-sleep

Duo for Doris has a clearly developed, defined and refined anti-expressionism at its core.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, October 15, 2008

wholeheartedly agree with this, after having listened to Duos... several times, during the last fifteen years. acknowledging that i've been kind of a prick, (hasty, dismissive, naive etc.) having attempted at discussion of this label's output over the years. feel as if i've a better appreciation of the significance of the early Erstwhile releases nowadays. it's been a process

Air Supply by Lambkin/Lescalleet (erst 059) has been hitting the spot lately. haven't had a chance to really blast Sheer Hellish Miasma II yet.. still sort of unpacking it. anyone here been keeping up on the recent releases?

If you haven't listened to "Weather imprint" from 47 Gates by Ernst Karel/Bhob Rainey, please do.

i've spent some time with 47 Gates (listening to it again now) but haven't been so taken w/it, despite it being an immaculate assemblage of sounds. i think that i prefer tracks 2-4, as they seem to be more fleshed out, with more substantive 'quiet' episodes and longer, more sustained passages. i'm tiring of the abrupt dynamic cuts and juxtapositions, even when they're fluid, *popping*, and thematically consistent. maybe 47 Gates is a grower and a shower.

i was immediately taken with The Tower (The City) by Vanessa Rossetto/Lionel Marchetti, and it still remains a favorite. probably one of my favorite Erstwhile releases. Gondolas, by Lambkin & Rushford, is also a late favorite. these two are quite psychedelic in v different ways. 47 Gates (the latter 2/3 of it) is v enjoyable right now.

been going back to weather sky for the first time in a very VERY long time after some discussion on the “favorite major indie label” thread. (s/o to map!)… this record really holds up. just like when i first heard it but a little expedited this time, got acclimated after initially being somewhat baffled, and then finally got totally locked in after figuring out how to approach it. it really opens up in an almost psychedelic way once you submit to how it is doing what it is doing. i feel this acute satisfied sensation when it ends, like ive been in the sauna for an hour.