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ROBERT NASVELD: ‘Robert Nasveld’ – LP

Metaphon 029 LP (Signature Series III) – 2026
Edition of 300 copies
Release date: September 13, 2026

Soon on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

Robert Nasveld (born 1955) studied piano at the Utrecht Conservatory and specialized in the twentieth-century repertoire, with a particular focus on Dutch, Russian, and American music. He thoroughly immersed himself in the piano works of the American composer George Crumb with concerts in Europe, Russia, and the United States. As a composer he also studied electronic music with Ton Bruynèl and recorded  a handful of tape pieces which are collected on this LP. They were created at Ton Bruynèl’s studio at the Utrecht Conservatory and the Institute for Sonology in Utrecht. Rather than using electronics for mere futuristic sound effects, he utilizes tape to create expansive acoustic environments. He expertly controls large, sweeping arches of sound, maintaining a continuous musical line while layering highly unpredictable and contrasting sonic elements. Nasveld also worked as a program producer for the Dutch National Radio and presented a series dedicated to electronic music pioneers.

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PIERRE MARIETAN: ‘Pierre Mariétan’ – LP

La Scie Dorée, SCIE 4126, Belgium 2026
Edition of 350 copies
Release date: September 13, 2026

Soon on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

Pierre Mariétan (1935–2025) was a prolific Swiss composer, sound artist, and pioneer in acoustic ecology who spent most of his life working in France. Over his long career, he composed more than 300 instrumental, orchestral, vocal, and electronic pieces. Mariétan studied under avant-garde legends like Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. In 1966, he founded GERM (Groupe d’Étude et de Réalisation Musicales), a music collective that blurred the lines between strict composition and free improvisation. In 1969 the French BYG label released a GERM album and the same year GERM played at the legendary 5-day Festival in Amougies, Belgium, sharing stage with Pink Floyd, The Soft Machine, Frank Zappa, Don Cherry,…
Mariétan was also a professor at the University of Paris where he taught the relationship between sound and space. Later in life, he remained active as a director for the Movement of Environmental Sound and continued developing permanent, immersive sound installations across the globe. His album Musique d’été was originally released on cassette back in 1983 by Éditions Salabert and Costin Miereanu’s Poly-Art International, and it has been slightly tweaked for this LP reissue. The record splits his vision of “Summer Music” into two different vibes. Side A is a deep dive into an electronic, synthesizer-driven landscape, while Side B features raw acoustic field recordings of forests and traditional Swiss alphorns.

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AF URSIN: ‘Ad Fontes’ – LP

La Scie Dorée, SCIE 4026, Belgium 2026
Regular edition of 300 copies
Special edition of 50 signed copies with original fumage drawing insert (30 x 30 cm), some examples are shown below
Release date: September 13, 2026

Soon on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop:
Regular edition
Special edition of 50 signed copies with original fumage drawing

The first Af Ursin album in a decade, this release features extraordinary Belgian vocalist and performer Bénédicte Davin.
Ad Fontes is a personal response to the fractured reality of our time. Created in the wake of visible social decay, manipulation, and institutional control, the album serves as a sonic mirror to an era defined by corruption and systemic failure. Instead of preaching political manifestos or claiming to have answers, this work is an intimate personal statement – a silent call to embrace spiritual values as the vital, untainted source of human nature.

NOISE-MAKER’S FIFES – New website + Bandcamp page

Today (July 22) marks twenty years since our beloved friend Geert Feytons left our orbit. Though time has carried us all in different directions, his presence remains woven into our memories. We would like to share some recollections of a colourful and unforgettable time.
With this in mind, we are opening a new chapter by launching the new Noise-Maker’s Fifes website and Bandcamp page.

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We’ve also added a new selection of second-hand LPs to the webshop which will be updated on a regular basis.

 

LILIANE DONSKOY: ‘Intégrale Acousmatique’ – 3LP set

BART DE PAEPE: ‘Zürahümnah’ – LP

La Scie Dorée, SCIE 3725, Belgium 2025
Edition of 300 copies
Etching by Timo van Luijk
Release date: November 21, 2025

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

For 20 years Bart De Paepe has carved a distinctive trace in the realm of psychedelic underground and counterculture. With several outstanding solo albums on a.o. Astres d’Or, Ultra Eczema, No Basement Is Deep Enough and with many studio and concert ventures with Sylvester Anfang’s funeral folks, Louise Landes Levi, Timo van Luijk, Raymond Dijkstra to name a few, Bart De Paepe developed a wide and sharp spirit within the orbit of psychedelic improvisation. Since 2007 Bart also curates the Sloow Tapes and Sloowax labels with an impressive catalog of music and poetry by a wide range of resonating artists. Bart’s visual work (drawing and painting), parallel to his musical universe, has been used on many of these releases. He is a genuinely curious traveler, always discovering new dimensions, which is clearly to be heard on the four tracks of this album.

Zürahümnah is an immediate and immersive dive into solitary inner and outer worlds of light and darkness. Zürahümnah is a floating vibration of flickering twilight. Zürahümnah is a mysterious journey through detached time and space.
Equipped with Hawaiian guitar, piano, organ and cymbal, Bart De Paepe sets the controls for the heart of the sun.

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PETER BEYLS: ‘Peter Beyls’ – LP

Metaphon 027 – 2025
Second instalment in the ‘Signature Series’
Regular edition of 270 copies
Special edition of 30 copies with download code and unique machine drawn print (30 x 30 cm), signed by Peter Beyls
Release date: November 21, 2025

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop:
Regular edition
Special edition

Peter Beyls (1950) works on the intersection of computer science and the arts. He develops generative systems in music, the visual arts and hybrid formats. Beyls studied music and computer science at EMS, Stockholm, the Royal Music Conservatory, Brussels and the Slade School of Art, UC London. Initially he was active in electronic music, as a composer of tape music. Later on, he developed various analog live electronic music systems. In close partnership with Michel Waisvisz, he designed and built the early prototypes of the crackle box synthesizer at STEIM, Amsterdam (1973-1975). Around the same time, Belgian composers Karel Goeyvaerts and Lucien Goethals were his mentors at the IPEM Studio. Over the years, Beyls’ work has primarily centred on generative systems, including an extensive series of machine drawings, human-machine interactive music systems using machine-learning and interactive audiovisual installations on which he has also given worldwide lectures. His work has been widely performed and exhibited at various universities and art institutions.
The four previously unreleased tracks on this LP are amongst his first electronic music compositions using the Crackle Box, the Synthi 100 and the VCS3, a combination of live improvised electronics with precise tape editing and effects.

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NICOLAE BRîNDUS: ‘Match / Soliloque 1&4 / Antifonia’ – LP/CD

Metaphon 025 LP/CD – 2025
The CD version contains a previously unreleased bonus track Soliloque II.
LP version 350 copies, CD version 250 copies
Release date, November 21, 2025

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Available through the webshop:
LP
CD

Romanian avant-garde composer, Nicolae Brînduş (1935-2023), studied piano and composition at the National University of Music in Bucharest.
From 1969 to 1980 he attended the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt and later he also worked at the IRCAM in Paris and GMEB in Bourges.
His compositions have been performed worldwide.

This album originally released on Electrecord’s RCM (Romanian Contemporary Music) series in 1986 provides a selection of works which belong to his cycle PHTORA (1968-1972). The cycle comprises five pieces which are five degrees of structuring collective improvisation, leaning towards the spectralist tradition.
It’s probably the most eccentric record in the whole RCM series, offering a mesmerizing collage of organized cacophony, as a massive but subtly layered whirlwind of abstract orchestral improvisations, Romanian picturesque folklore and free jazz with extensive use of tape manipulation and reverberation.
This reissue comes with the beautiful original sleeve artwork by Ana Golici who designed many sleeves for Electrecord.

 

 

TIMO VAN LUIJK & JON MUELLER: ‘Unknown Places’ – LP

Astres d’Or, d’or 90, NL 2025
Edition of 30 copies with handmade sleeve and original artwork.
15 copies with artwork by Timo van Luijk containing photographs of graves of unknown people taken at graveyards on unknown places.
15 copies with artwork by Jon Mueller containing cartographic drawings and prints of unknown or non-existing places.

Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop around September 10
Attention: temporarily no shipping to the US!
US customers are advised to obtain a copy through Jon Mueller’s website:
https://www.withinthings.com/

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NEW IN THE WEBSHOP:
A selection of 2nd hand LP’s  + many titles from the always great and adventurous An’archives label specialised in Japanese underground. Their outstanding releases are always presented in wonderful silkscreened heavy board sleeves with obi, postcards and inserts. Only one copy available of each title.

COSTIN MIEREANU: POLY-ART RECORDINGS 1976-1982

Auryfa and Metaphon co-production.
Auryfa AY1 / Metaphon 018
6 CD BOX with 28 page booklet

Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop and Bandcamp
Info on Metaphon and Auryfa websites

Auryfa and Metaphon proudly present Poly-Art Recordings 1976-1982, a lavish six-CD box set collecting Costin Miereanu’s legendary series of self-published cassettes and LPs from 1982 and 1984. Culminating four years of meticulous work, this project breathes new life into these recordings, remastered from the original tapes by Stephan Mathieu and accompanied by restored artwork and a comprehensive essay by Vincent de Roguin.

Born in Bucharest in 1943 and naturalized as a French citizen in 1977, Miereanu occupied a singular position within the French new music landscape—one foot in the establishment, the other in a world of deeply personal, boundary-pushing creativity. Alongside his intricate orchestral works and demanding academic career, he also produced the semi-improvised solo performances and electroacoustic compositions featured in this collection. Drawing inspiration from Erik Satie, film soundtracks, semiology, Romanian folk and art music, Gilles Deleuze, avant-garde literature, Terry Riley, and atmospheric phenomena, these twelve pieces were crafted using an array of synthesizers—Minimoog, Polymoog, PPG Wave, Prophet-10—supplemented by piano, organ, and a handful of other instrumental sources. Their textural palette and occasional whimsy bear affinities with 1970s meditative synth music, yet they eschew psychedelic excess or cosmic grandeur. Instead, they reveal a vibrant, nuanced complexity that becomes more apparent with each listen, rooted in Miereanu’s extensive musical studies and commitment to the ideals of 1960s experimentalism. Within that period’s context, this music ultimately sails in the same sonic currents as Harold Budd and Brian Eno’s collaboration, and the output of David Behrman, Alvin Curran, or Laurie Spiegel.

Originally released on Miereanu’s own Poly-Art International ⁄ Records and initially met with limited attention, these recordings have since gained underground acclaim among new generations of listeners. They offer a rare synthesis of accessibility and formal ambition, reflecting Miereanu’s unwavering pursuit of artistic freedom, a world away from the high culture dogmatisms inherent to the European modernist tradition. His wide-ranging associations—from the spectralists (Horațiu Rădulescu, Tristan Murail, and Gérard Grisey) to mavericks such as Giacinto Scelsi, Luc Ferrari, and Walter Marchetti, as well as the French underground electronic music scene (including Philippe Besombes and Jean-Louis Rizet, who engineered much of this music, and Richard Pinhas)—help illuminate his unique artistic position.

While not anomalies in a career that could hardly be described as normal, these recordings hold a special place within Miereanu’s body of work. Few composers of his generation, particularly in France, have covered such a broad spectrum, with works for instrumental ensembles, opera, ballet, and radical tape music (Luna Cinese in 1975 on Cramps Records) but also performances, videos, and sound installations. Yet these wondrous modal keyboard fantasies remain among his greatest accomplishments. Consistently original and captivating, they possess an undeniable magic, standing as some of the most essential yet overlooked documents of French minimalism, early ambient, and nonconformist contemporary music from that era.

All music composed by Costin Miereanu and originally released on Poly-Art International ⁄ Records in 1982 and 1984.

Reissue produced by Vincent de Roguin
Additional production by Timo van Luijk
Restoration and mastering from the original master tapes
(Musique Climatique and Jardins Désertés transferred from vinyl) by
Stephan Mathieu
Audio transfers and additional restoration by Frédéric Ménétrier and Adrien Bailly at studios Gecko
Essay by Vincent de Roguin
Reissue design by Xavier Robel and Vincent de Roguin
All still images by Costin Miereanu, from his own videos and films

www.metaphon.be
www.auryfa.org

 

For many years, Romanian contemporary music has lived in the shadows, far from any distribution in the West. But these years of artistic battle in a repressive political climate turned out to have been an extremely fruitful period for musical creation only discovered decades later outside the borders. Metaphon is very honoured to rerelease work by two of its favourite Romanian composers Corneliu Cezar and Octavian Nemescu, good friends and both key figures in the development of spiritual contemporary and spectral music in Romania and far beyond.

OCTAVIAN NEMESCU: ‘Passages… à travers le Temps’ – 3LP

Metaphon 024 triple LP set – 2025
-Box edition of 250 copies: 3LP + 8 page booklet in silkscreen printed hardboard linen box + dl code.
-Slipcase edition of 250 copies: 3LP + 8 page booklet in offset printed slipcase sleeve.
Release date: May 6, 2025

Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop
-Linen BOX set edition
-Slipcase edition
Listen on Bandcamp

One of Romania’s most important composers in the last half-century, Octavian Nemescu (1940-2020) is among the few that were not “part of the system”, managing to survive and compose in a world that felt more and more “empty”, fragile, confused and scarce in prophecies. The mystical approach to his art defines Octavian Nemescu as an essentialist who believed in the power of archetypes in which he found inspiration. His pieces always start from an idea that has spiritual, cosmogonic implications and often involves synthesizers, sounds from nature (buzz of bees) and the “ison” (drone). When defining “meta music” or “imaginary music”, Nemescu was an advocate of looking from above, from the top of the mountain. Silence is very important in his work in order to keep the sound flowing and to reflect on the sound from before, as a space, as a pause for thinking. Nemescu put forward another kind of music: a song that has not yet surfaced through human voice, any musical instrument, orchestra or other electro-acoustic means: an intimate, interior, introverted inner sound that focuses on the individual and the imagination. Imaginary music is a reaction, it comes in contrast to the spectacular, it is anti-show. For him, music had a ritualistic function, it served no cultural purpose.

This 3LP set collects eight pieces for variable ensemble, tape and electronics, composed between 1968 and 2015, selected together with Erica Nemescu, who also mastered the tracks. Most tracks have been previously released on different CD’s but never before on vinyl.

All compositions by Octavian Nemescu

A1- Secula-seculorum – 9:56 – (2000)
A2- Parallel Destinies – 14:42 – (2015)
B1- Concentric – 16:17 ( 1969)
C1- Sonatu(h)r – 20:52 – (1986)
D1- A T – 17:15 – (2008)
E1- Ulysse : 26:35 – (1972/1982)
F1- Le Roi va Mourir! – 20:58 – (1968/2005)

Production: Timo van Luijk
Mastering: Erica Nemescu
Text: Octavian Nemescu
Graphic design: Meeuw

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CORNELIU CEZAR: ‘Ziua Fără Sfârșit’ – LP

Metaphon 023 LP – 2025
Release date: May 6, 2025

Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp

Composer Corneliu Cezar (1937-1997) was a distinctive personality within the Romanian post 1960 avantgarde: a visionary of music, a thinker and a prophet, a richly gifted artist also active with writing, poetry, painting and astrology. Cezar was an activist rediscovering the natural resonance of sound within a different historical context and he embraced the recovery of authenticity as a reaction against the artificialized culture of serial doctrines. When, after 1975 the spectral music trend became official in Paris, with much fuss and remarkable support from musicologists, nobody knew that this trend has already been practiced by a small group of Romanian composers lead by Corneliu Cezar for ten years. The four electro-acoustic pieces on this album (privately released on CD in Romania in 2000), recorded with little means between 1967 and 1975, display the incredibly strong ideas of a truly visionary artist. Everything Corneliu Cezar has done during his short earthly life bared the shade of authenticity.

All compositions by Corneliu Cezar

A1- Aum – 8:41 – (1967)
A2- Ziua Fără Sfârșit – 8:55 – (1974)
B1- Rota – 12:36 – (1975)
B2- Taaroa – 7:00 – (1968) (Clarinet by Aurelian-Octav Popa)

Production: Timo van Luijk
Design: Meeuw
Mastering: Erica Nemescu
Liner notes: Octavian Nemescu
Thank you: Sorina and Emanuel Cezar, Yvonne Toader, Aurelian-Octav and Sebastian-Vlad Popa, Erica Nemescu, Rafael Vieru, Christophe Brackx, Jon Dale

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MICHAEL RANTA-MIKE LEWIS-CONNY PLANK: ‘Mu’ – 2LP

Metaphon 003 – 2025 edition
Release date: May 6, 2025
Original LP’s from 2010 in silkscreened cardboard gatefold sleeve. Numbered edition of 15 copies, with the booklet, signed by Michael Ranta.

Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp

Previously unreleased studio material from 1970 recorded a few months after the legendary ‘Wired’ session.

Michael Ranta : percussion, guitars and prepared thundersheet,
Mike Lewis : keyboards, wind instruments and percussion,
Conny Plank : live electronics, sound control, recording supervision, mix.

 

 

RAOUL DE SMET: Raoul De Smet – LP

Metaphon 021 LP – 2025
Edition of 300 copies
Release date: February 10,2025

First LP in the ‘Signature Series’, a small new series in the Metaphon catalog, documenting previously unreleased archive works of less known composers.
Metaphon presents their ‘signature’ in the most personal and elementary way.

Raoul De Smet (1936), mainly known for his numerous instrumental and chamber music works, started composing in the early 1960’s. Between 1974 and 1989 he also recorded several electro-acoustic compositions at the IPEM in Ghent, one of the more approachable crossroads for experimental music creation at the time.
His work carries different moods and contrasts, a sort of expressive eclecticism where straight forward evolution often prevails over far-fetched intemperance.
However, his work is far from obvious. The four distinctive tracks on this album portray a fresh and unpretentious enthusiasm of a composer discovering new electronic tools.

Available at the La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp

Four previously unreleased electro-acoustic compositions recorded at the IPEM:

A1- Isolde’s Dood – 8:25 (1989)
A2-Muinkpark om 5 uur – 10:09 (1976)
A3-Etude IV – 5:05 (1974)
B1- Kathy’s Nightmare – 25:25 (1980)

Production: Timo van Luijk
Mastering: EARLabs
Design: Meeuw

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ROBERT FESLER: ‘μP RPF78’ (2nd edition)

Metaphon 017 – 2025

4 LP set in 1cm slipcase sleeve + 12 page booklet with photos and text by Robert Fesler and Baudouin Oosterlynck.
Edition of 200 copies.
Release date: February 10, 2025

An anthology of the intensely arresting work of Robert Fesler (1936-2023), revealing many of his compositions (1975 -1987) created with his self-built synthesizers, with as pinnacle the μP RPF78. Except one, all tracks are previously unreleased.

Available at the La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp

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FERNAND VANDENBOGAERDE: ‘Les Années 1967 – 1984’ (2nd edition)

Metaphon 022 – 2025

4 LP set in 1cm slipcase sleeve + 16 page booklet with biography, interview, track info and photos.
Edition of 250 copies.
Release date: February 10, 2025

Available at La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp

FERNAND VANDENBOGAERDE: ‘Les Années 1967 – 1984’

4LP box – Metaphon 022 – 2024
Hardboard linen box with silk screened lettering + 16 page booklet with biography, interview, track info and photos.
Edition of 200 copies, with download code.
Release date: November 11, 2024

Available at La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp

Metaphon is thrilled to present this collection of 14 phenomenal electronic and electro-acoustic works by French composer Fernand Vandenbogaerde, realized between 1967 and 1984.

A1- Flux et Reflux – 6:51 – (1967) + Flute by Renaud François
A2- Modifications III – 16:20 – (1969)
B1- Bhinneka Tunggal Ika – 18:54 – (1974)

C1- Métamorphoses – 8:18 – (1969)
C2- Violélect V – 18:30 – (1969)
D1- Bande de Moebius – 24:04 – (1976) + Organ by Bernard Foccroulle

E1- Stabile-Instabile – 12:56 – (1970)
E2- Drei Nachdenken über Hymnen an die Nacht, Mvt 1 – 10:35 – (1970)
F1- Drei Nachdenken über Hymnen an die Nacht, Mvt 2 – 16:16 – (1970)
F2- Drei Nachdenken über Hymnen an die Nacht, Mvt 3 – 9:24 – (1970)

G1- Brumes – 14:40 – (1972)
G2- Anschlag – 10:17 – (1970)
H1- Space Music II – 12:19 – (1982)
H2- Vagues – 9:49 – (1984)

FERNAND VANDENBOGAERDE

After his science studies Fernand Vandenbogaerde (1946) studied at the Conservatoire de Roubaix and did various classes and courses with a.o. Jean-Etienne Marie, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Bruno Maderna.
He wrote analytical essays on mathematic music, in particular the work of Iannis Xenakis.
Vandenbogaerde taught electro-acoustic music at various institutions and was director at the National School of Music and Dance in Blanc-Mesnil, near Paris.
As a composer he wrote works for orchestra, instrumental and chamber ensembles, sometimes in hybrid form including tape and electro-acoustic configurations. He also recorded numerous tape compositions in Bourges, Paris, Ghent and at his home studio. His works have been presented worldwide on various leading festivals and events.

The compositions included in this edition are primarily tape works, meticulously recorded and produced, radical and most of all timbre oriented which makes his compositions focus mainly on sound while other parameters hardly change. In Vandenbogaerde’s own words: “What determines my pieces, at least all the ones in this collection, is that it’s the material that dictates me, that will predetermine the form”. This particular approach distinguishes him quite a bit from many of his contemporaries within the field of electro-acoustic music.
Another interesting aspect in Vandenbogaerde’s work is the integration of micro tonal scales (conceived by Mexican composer Julian Carrillo), on the compositions Modifications III and the intriguing trilogy Drei Nachdenken über Hymnen an die Nacht.
All tracks are previously unreleased except the proto power electronics piece Anschlag which was self-released in 1971 on his own Point Radiant label, as a compilation LP which also included a track by Tristan Murail.

Production – Timo van Luijk
Mastering – EARLabs
Graphic design – Meeuw
Interview – Jean-Marc Chouvel
Translation – Valérie Vivancos

Two new LP releases on Metaphon and two new LP’s on La Scie Dorée, available through the webshop

TIMO VAN LUIJK – KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN – DANIEL DUCHAMP – LUIS FERIN: “Traces du Hasard” – LP
La Scie Dorée, SCIE 3824, Belgium 2024
Edition of 300 copies.
Recorded chez Kris, 1994
Collage by Timo van Luijk
Release date: september 21, 2024

Bandcamp
Avialable through the webshop

This album is a bit of an accumulation of coincidences. It is the first recording session I did with Kris Vanderstraeten, back in 1994, together with Daniel Duchamp and Luis Ferin.  The session recording had since disappeared from attention and 30 years later, while going through old DAT tape archives, I came across it by chance, initially even not knowing who/what it was… The tape started with a recording of cars, captured from my balcony in Brussels, where I lived at the time. I decided to integrate the cars as an intro to the music session that fitted in seamlessly. Both the recording quality and the musical performance were remarkably good. A lost and found little treasure. It was a refreshing time for me, playing with people from a jazz and free improvisation background. We became good friends.

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IN CAMERA: “Arrival” – LP
La Scie Dorée, SCIE 3624, Belgium 2024
Edition of 400 copies.
Cover image by M.K. Ciurlionis: Rex, tempera on canvas, 1909
Release date: september 21, 2024

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Four years after we got Lost in Spice we reached the point of Arrival. An altar on the surface of the water is burning with flames. Behind it you can see a half of the Earth’s globe, and on it there’s a bright throne. A pale, translucent ruler wearing a crown sits in the throne. The globe is surrounded by a ball of shadows on which sits a larger dark ruler on a dark throne. Behind the globe are mountain peaks, and all of it is reflected in the water. Above the mountains are clouds which merge into rivers and end in a curved horizon on which forests stand, and the sun rises between them. Above this horizon is another sky with lunar crescents and comets. Above this sky are rows of angels bent over, above which the stars shine. The sun shines in the top left corner and the crescent moon in the right.

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ROLF GEHLHAAR: “Wege / Ways” – LP
Metaphon 020 – 2024
Edition of 500 copies
With fold-out insert
Cover design by Vahakn Gehlhaar Matossian
Mastering by Stephan Mathieu
Release date, september 21, 2024

Available through the La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp

Rolf Gehlhaar (1943-2019) was an instrumental and electronic music composer, and a pioneer in computer controlled interactive music. He grew up in the US where he studied philosophy and composition at Yale University. In 1967 he moved back to Germany to become Stockhausen’s personal assistant and member of his performing ensemble. In 1969 Gehlhaar co-founded, along with Johannes Fritsch (Metaphon 012) and David Johnson, the Feedback Studios in Cologne, a new-music performance center and publishing house. He later moved to England, where he became in 1979 a founding member of the Electro-Acoustic Music Association and later on senior lecturer in design and digital media. Gehlhaar’s compositions include symphonies, instrumental works, experimental and electronic music, interactive computer controlled music and everything in between.
The three previously unreleased tracks on this LP only show a glimpse of the versatility of his adventurous and innovative musical ideas.
The LP comes with a foldout insert including photos and extensive program notes.

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MICHAEL RANTA & TAKEHISA KOSUGI: “Multiple Musics” – LP

Metaphon 019 – 2024
Edition of 500 copies
Cover painting by Wayne Jacob
Mastering by Stephan Mathieu
Release date, september 21, 2024

Available through the webshop
Listen on Bandcamp

Previously unreleased live recording from the Ranta archives. The creative duo of Michael Ranta and Takehisa Kosugi performed many times in the 1970’s and 1980’s. On this outstanding performance, recorded at the Japanese Culture Institute in Cologne in 1987, the application of an advanced multi delay system, independently utilized by both players, plays a central role. The smartly treated cyclic tapestry of the delay system (modulated, transformed, harmonized) injects additional dimensions to the highly coordinated improvisation with voice, percussion, violin and electronics, creating interactive ‘composition-like’ textures being ‘Multiple Musics’.

 

Metaphon article by Jon Dale on Bandcamp Daily:
Metaphon give forgotten composers a chance to shine

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Very pleased to take part with some of my photographs in this wonderful exhibition at the Argo factory in Tehran, from August 16 till October 18.

I Am Standing in the Middle of the Information Highway and Laughing

Curated by Raha Raissnia and Martin Germann

Taking its title from late artist Jonas Mekas’ Manifesto Anti-100 years of Cinema, a performative exhibition in Tehran will unfold over two different episodes. Its main aim is to celebrate the unbound energy of collaborative work and friendship on the one hand and moments of reflection and stillness on the other. Its point of departure is the Manichean binary between darkness and light, as sine qua non condition for the existence of technologically mediated images.

First presented on February 11th, 1996, at the American Center in Paris, and published in the French periodical Point d’Ironie in 1997, Mekas’ Manifesto was a response to the celebration of the centenary of cinema, which throughout much of its history has been dominated by marketing and capital. Mekas here celebrates the poetic forms of cinema, the cinema of the independents and the avant-garde.

By building up organically chapter by chapter over two months, this exhibition will be a celebration of nomadic images that have travelled as fast as sound to then become materials that embody both lightness and gravity — not forgetting the metaphor of sound as the phenomena with which everything began. The broad and diverse selection of artists, living and working in the Far East and the West, in the fields between moving image film, video, sound, installation, drawing, photography, and poetry embrace Tehran as Middle East and resonating soundboard of universal human experience.

For the first chapter of the exhibition, a number of artists have been carefully selected by Raha Raissnia to accompany two of her own works. In the spirit of Mekas’s Manifesto, they are all friends whom she has known personally from many years of living and working in New York City. Their work involves a vigorous engagement with music, philosophy, poetry, science, ecology and history. Besides their work, it is their persona, attitude and unabating embrace of the unknown and the accidental which have had a profound influence on her. They all pursue a lifestyle and an ethical stance that aims to protect their integrity and independence from the accepted norms. All of these works are connected in various ways to music, poetry and cinema. They possess rhythm, subtlety, atmosphere and an indistinct humor. Some of them are shrouded in melancholic darkness, an end-of-days monochrome which at the same time brings about a sense of freedom and detachment from the ordinary visible world. All of them compel reflection and speculation and exalt the imagination in ways unaffected and unbound.

In the second chapter of the exhibition, curator Martin Germann will introduce and insert new works that will expand on various attributes and notions in the first, engaging in dialogues that will be unpredictable and exuberant. As part of the exhibition, there will be upcoming evening programs that will include an Expanded Cinema performance by Raha Raissnia, series of film screenings followed by discussions and poetry readings.

Artists: Jonas Mekas, Raha Raissnia, Andrew Chalk, Pip Chodorov, Martha Colburn, Milton Cruz, Albert Herter, Andrew Lampert, Jeanne Liotta, Timo Van Luijk, Panagiotis Mavridis, Jordan Mintzer, Jason Babak Mohaghegh, Stom Sogo and Justina Zukauskaite

New Robert Fesler 4LP box on Metaphon available through the webshop + a very limited stock of rare original copies of an outstanding double LP with Dominique Lawalree, Robert Fesler, Baudouin Oosterlynck, Erik de Visscher released on Lawalree’s Walrus label back in 1984.

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ROBERT FESLER: ‘μP RPF78’

4LP box – Metaphon 017 – 2024

Hardboard linen LP box with silkscreened titles, 12 page booklet with photos and text by Robert Fesler and Baudouin Oosterlynck.
With an A5 reproduction of an oil on wood self-portrait by Robert Fesler.
Edition of 300 copies, with download code.
Release date: April 15, 2024

Available at the La Scie Dorée webshop
Listen on Bandcamp

So delighted with the outcome of this long due 4LP release on Metaphon.
An anthology of the intensely arresting work of Robert Fesler (1936-2023), revealing many of his compositions (1975 -1987) created with his self-built synthesizers, with as pinnacle the μP RPF78. Except one, all tracks are previously unreleased.

With profound simplicity and devotion, Fesler paints a hermetic inner world with strong emotions of confronting solitude, sensual alienation and traumatic angst. His music was as much a therapeutic treatment as an artistic expression. Fesler quotes, “Building my synthesizers and working with them enabled me to sublimate my anxieties”. Most tracks were played and recorded real time, often with two synthesizers (the Synthese 756 and the μP RPF78), capturing the heat of the moment in one take, without multitracking. The austere and reductionist approach reinforces the overall spirit of his work, resulting in an engaging, mysterious solitary journey. It’s quite incredible how one person can put so much technical and cerebral content in the development of a machine and use it in such an emotional way.

The music of Robert Fesler might be considered as very Belgian.
To situate it within a close entourage, one can say it has:
The endurance of Oosterlynck
The purity of Lawalree
The mysticism of Souffriau

Anthology produced by Timo van Luijk
Tape transfers by Timo van Luijk
Mastering by EARLabs
Text by Robert Fesler and Baudouin Oosterlynck
Booklet edited by Vincent de Roguin
Design by Meeuw

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DOMINIQUE LAWALREE, BAUDOUIN OOSTERLYNCK, ROBERT FESLER, ERIK DE VISSCHER – 2LP (Walrus 1984)

Superb double LP split album with one side for each artist. Copies are unplayed and in excellent condition but might have occasional light clicks, nothing serious though. As with most of the Walrus releases, they don’t come any better. Cover is offset printed and has hand painted touches by Dominique Vermeesch and Godelieve Fesler, all original and unique. One of the two Fesler tracks is not on the recent Metaphon LP box. Note that this is a rare vintage 2LP from 1984 and only a handful of copies are available through the webshop.

Three new releases available at the La Scie Dorée webshop + Mark Glynne & Bart Zwier “Home Comfort” LP reprint + a few old original pressings in the webshop.

ANNE GILLIS/JAC BERROCAL/VINCENT EPPLAY/TIMO VAN LUIJK: “Si()six” – LP
La Scie Dorée, SCIE 3323, Belgium 2024
Edition of 500 copies with insert

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

Several years of mutual appreciation and encounters on- and off-stage have been the root of this chance meeting, resulting in an unplanned mysterious collaboration album where the aura of each individual is augmented by the magic osmosis of united forces. The 12-tracks display a collage of dreamy musique concrète with desolate instrumental and vocal interventions, masterfully balanced out by Vincent Epplay.
Anne Gillis: words, voice, noises
Jac Berrocal: words, voice, trumpet
Vincent Epplay: field recording, percussion, Synthi AKS
Timo van Luijk: sounds, strings

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ANNE GILLIS: “Aha” – LP
La Scie Dorée, Scie 3423, Belgium 2024 – LP
Special edition of 50 copies with signed photograph and download code
Regular edition of 450 copies

Listen on Bandcamp
Webshop – regular edition

 

Since more than 40 years, Anne Gillis has discreetly unfolded her proper singular universe without any compromise. She playfully moves with determined restrictions, excavating contrasting forces; sensual and visceral, mechanical and organical, black and white, … She extends this personal expression in her visuals using self-portrait photos, handwritten text and her theatrical performances are equally aligned with this spirit. Her music can be considered as musique concrète using the tape machine as compositional tool, manipulating her recorded sources, mainly consisting of extended voice and different (instrumental) sounds with addition of electronics and treatments. In both her photography and her music, Anne Gillis works fully analog. So pleased to make this album (originally released in 1984) available again.

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ANIMA MUSICA & R. CARLOS NAKAI: “Atlantic Crossing” – LP
La Scie Dorée, Scie 3523, Belgium 2024 – LP
Edition of 500 copies

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

The strange thing about the music of Anima is that it’s often considered as strange, while it’s actually very natural. It has a free spirit, analog to nature. For this release the natural spirit is strengthened by the participation of indigenous American flute player and composer R. Carlos Nakai who did a series of concerts in the US and Europe with Paul and Limpe Fuchs in the 1980’s. As with almost all Anima work, the natural feel manifests itself not only by the musical approach but also through sounds generated by natural materials as metal, wood, stone and air, and of course the absence of electronic devices. This LP is a reissue of a rare privately released cassette from 1988 and was recorded by the Bayerischer Rundfunk. May this slice of timeless free spirit be a trigger to more awareness concerning our decaying freedom.

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MARK GLYNNE & BART ZWIER: ‘Home Comfort’ – LP
La Scie Dorée, SCIE 3123, Belgium 2023
2nd edition of 200 copies, with insert

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

Very pleased and grateful to announce this ‘Home Comfort’ reissue by Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier, originally self-released in 1980.
Maybe a bit of an unexpected title to appear in the LSD catalog but my love for this album goes back to my late teenage years and has had an addictive effect since, like a spleen infused magnet.
With this album Glynne and Zwier, based in the Netherlands and connected to the Ultra scene, drew an insular blend of intimate post-punk and chamber (bedroom) songs with surreal scenic reflections. Probably its naked singularity defying categorization has left it so unnoticed, even 43 years after the making.
It also features a reciting Marlène Dumas still quite unknown at the time. With biggest gratitude to Mark Glynne who instantly felt confident with my proposal to reissue this silent witness of lasting beauty.

My long time Japanese friend You Ishihara (White Heaven, The Stars) who bought the LP when it came out in 1980 still considers it as one of his all-time favourites. This is what he writes about ‘Home Comfort’:
“Resignation and fear in a desolate mental landscape. This album, which exists like a shelter for those who have quietly escaped through the backdoor of the world, vividly reflects the inner depths of the devastated Amsterdam of the early 80’s. A beautiful and sad, unmistakable masterpiece.”

 

Three new releases available at the La Scie Dorée webshop:

MARK GLYNNE & BART ZWIER: ‘Home Comfort’ – LP/CD
La Scie Dorée, SCIE 3123, Belgium 2023

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

Very pleased and grateful to announce this ‘Home Comfort’ reissue by Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier, originally self-released in 1980.
Maybe a bit of an unexpected title to appear in the LSD catalog but my love for this album goes back to my late teenage years and has had an addictive effect since, like a spleen infused magnet.
With this album Glynne and Zwier, based in the Netherlands and connected to the Ultra scene, drew an insular blend of intimate post-punk and chamber (bedroom) songs with surreal scenic reflections. Probably its naked singularity defying categorization has left it so unnoticed, even 43 years after the making.
It also features a reciting Marlène Dumas still quite unknown at the time. With biggest gratitude to Mark Glynne who instantly felt confident with my proposal to reissue this silent witness of lasting beauty.

My long time Japanese friend You Ishihara (White Heaven, The Stars) who bought the LP when it came out in 1980 still considers it as one of his all-time favourites. This is what he writes about ‘Home Comfort’:
“Resignation and fear in a desolate mental landscape. This album, which exists like a shelter for those who have quietly escaped through the backdoor of the world, vividly reflects the inner depths of the devastated Amsterdam of the early 80’s. A beautiful and sad, unmistakable masterpiece.”

LP
300 copies, with insert

CD
300 copies, gatefold card sleeve with 20-page booklet
Bonus track Pale Blue Eyes, recorded live in 1979 and previously unreleased.

Sleeve reproduction by Jeroen Wille

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NICOLE LACHARTRE: ‘Mundus’ – 3LP
Metaphon 012, Belgium 2023

3LP set in 7,5mm sealed slipcase sleeve + 12 page booklet with text and track info by Vincent de Roguin and Mark Harwood, archive notes by Lachartre and a rare portrait from 1969.
2nd edition of 300 copies.

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

NICOLE LACHARTRE

“Let’s try to find sound as a primordial act, both a place of convergence of beings and a vector of self-discovery”

First ever release of French composer, musicologist and writer Nicole Lachartre (1934-1991). This 3LP set comprises most of her electronic music and musique concrète compositions recorded in the 60’s and 70’s, all previously unreleased. Lachartre had a classical formation, studied with a.o. Darius Milhaud, Iannis Xenakis and Michel Philippot. Her broad formation and interest as well as her profound commitment and singular vision created a solitary voice even within the field of electronic music and musique concrète, strangely enough unheard till this day. Her first tape composition from 1968 was recorded in Pierre Henry’s Apsome studio and most of her other electronic and electro-acoustic compositions included in this box set were recorded at the IPEM in Ghent.

It took more than two years to realize this project with some complications along the way but it was all worth it and glad the music is finally available.

Production: Timo van Luijk
Mastering: EARLabs
Graphic Design: Meeuw

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TIMO VAN LUIJK & FREDERIK CROENE: ‘Ipnopedion’ – LP
La Scie Dorée, Scie 2519

Numbered edition of 45 copies on ‘smoke vinyl’ with silkscreened sleeve, insert and download code.

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

Side 1 : Ipnopedion
Premiere live performance of commissioned composition for the ‘In Dreams’ Event, at Kunstencentrum nona in Mechelen, June 1, 2018.
Curated by Philippe Cortens.
Frederik Croene: piano
Timo van Luijk: synthesizer, sound projection

Side 2 : Taetonia
Recorded and mixed at Kulta Saha 2019
Frederik Croene: piano, organ
Timo van Luijk: synthesizer, organ, atmospherics

 

Ilta Hämärä: Origo – LP
Bergpolder 09, Netherlands 2023 + insert
Regular edition of 250 copies
Special edition of 50 copies with hand coloured sleeve, signed and numbered

A1: Ilma
A2: Vesi
B1: Tuli
B2: Eetteri

Recorded and mixed at Kulta Saha by Timo van Luijk and Bart De Paepe, 2015-2016
Originally released on cassette in 2016
The track ‘Maa’ has been replaced by ‘Eetteri’ (previously unreleased).

LIMPE FUCHS & TIMO VAN LUIJK
Open air live performance as inauguration of the installation “Between Heaven and Earth” designed by Limpe Fuchs. This permanent installation consists of 4 Pendulum Strings custom made by Bernward Munz and will be played by Limpe and Timo.
Thursday June 29, 15h00!
at Porta Vida, Welzijnscampus 11, 3600 Genk (Belgium)

Two new releases soon available at the La Scie Dorée webshop:

NICOLE LACHARTRE: ‘Mundus’ – 3LP box

Metaphon 012, Belgium 2023
Hardboard linen LP box with silkscreened titles, 12 page booklet with text and track info by Vincent de Roguin and Mark Harwood, archive notes by Lachartre and a rare portrait from 1969.
Edition of 200 copies

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

NICOLE LACHARTRE

“Let’s try to find sound as a primordial act, both a place of convergence of beings and a vector of self-discovery”

First ever release of French composer, musicologist and writer Nicole Lachartre (1934-1991). This 3LP set comprises most of her electronic music and musique concrète compositions recorded in the 60’s and 70’s, all previously unreleased. Lachartre had a classical formation, studied with a.o. Darius Milhaud, Iannis Xenakis and Michel Philippot. Her broad formation and interest as well as her profound commitment and singular vision created a solitary voice even within the field of electronic music and musique concrète, strangely enough unheard till this day. Her first tape composition from 1968 was recorded in Pierre Henry’s Apsome studio and most of her other electronic and electro-acoustic compositions included in this box set were recorded at the IPEM in Ghent.

It took more than two years to realize this project with some complications along the way but it was all worth it and glad the music is finally available.

Production: Timo van Luijk
Mastering: EARLabs
Graphic Design: Meeuw

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ARTHUR PETRONIO: ‘Arthur Petronio’ – LP

Metaphon 016, Belgium 2023
With fold-out poster and original sleeve design by Alain Geronnez
Edition of 500 copies

Listen on Bandcamp
Available through the webshop

Arthur Petronio:
Born Switzerland 1897.
French-Italian musician, poet and painter.
Lived in Belgium and The Netherlands between 1910 and 1924 and since then in France.
Young violin virtuoso studying with Belgian master violinist Eugène Ysaÿe.
Played solo violin for Belgian King Leopold II, at the age of 9.
Attracted to the avant-garde and visionary ideas of Gesamtkunstwerk.
Develops and presents his “Verbophonie” in 1919, integrating sound poetry into regular music scores.
Friend with Kandinsky, Mondrian, Cocteau and Picasso.
Published several avant-garde journals and poetry books with participation of like minded artists.
Wrote many scores for solo instruments, small ensembles, orchestral works, opera,…
Met Henri Chopin in 1950 and extended his musical ideas with new possibilities of tape composition.
His first and only LP, now reissued by Metaphon, was originally published by the Belgian Igloo label in 1979.
An extravagant DIY montage of musique concrète and sound poetry.
In addition to Petronio’s voice several female readers/performers contribute to this theatre of voices as guest vocalists.
An album as unusual as his lifecycle.

Three new releases available at the La Scie Dorée webshop:

NIKOLAUS UTERMÖHLEN: ‘Karlsbad’ – LP

La Scie Dorée, Scie 3022, Belgium 2023
Edition of 500 copies with 8 page booklet

Thrilled to announce the reissue of Nikolaus Utermöhlen’s ‘Karlsbad’ album, originally released in 1989. Utermöhlen was a founding member of Die Tödliche Doris and this is his sole solo release. A collection of 23 witty oddball compositions for clarinet, accordion, percussion, recorder, violin, guitar, organ. It definitely has a Doris dose but even more so it shines for its totally singular mélange of tribal dada chamber folk, dilettante dissonant poetry, hard to compare with anything else. A slice of flamboyant wellness.  The recordings of this album were made for the ‘Georgette Meunier’ film by Tania Stöcklin and Cyrille Rey-Coquais.
Issued from the original master tapes and includes the 8 page booklet with engravings from the Karlsbad spa era.

Listen on Bandcamp

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ELODIE: ‘Clarté Déserte’ – LP

La Scie Dorée, Scie 2922, Belgium 2023
Regular edition of 300 copies on black vinyl with offset printed sleeve.
Special edition of 100 copies on transparent vinyl with handmade Faraway Press sleeve + signed and numbered litho insert with original stamp.

New 10 track studio album by Andrew Chalk and Timo van Luijk, recorded 2020-2021 at Impression Lointaine and Kulta Saha.

Forth unobserved I went
In darkness and security,
By the secret ladder, in disguise,
In secret, seen of none,
Oh night more lovely than the dawn!
Lost to all things and myself,
And, amid the lillies forgotten,
Threw all my cares away.

Listen on Bandcamp

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TIMO VAN LUIJK & KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN: ‘Autour du Lac d’Asselt’ – LP

La Scie Dorée, Scie 2822, Belgium 2023
Edition of 300 copies

Playing with Kris always reminds me of doing expeditions in a lake. Some kind of under water sound fiction observing sonic creatures. This album is a live recording (28-01-2012, Kunstencentrum Belgie, Hasselt, Belgium) which to me always felt like one of the best concerts we did. As with our previous album Arrêt au Lac Chimère Vincent de Roguin put his heart in editing and mixing the recordings, extending the dimensions of exploration to the deep bottom of the lake.

Listen on Bandcamp

 

Two new releases available at the La Scie Dorée webshop:

MICHAEL RANTA: ‘Azabu’ – CD

Metaphon 013 – 2022
CD with 8 page booklet in gatefold cardboard sleeve
Edition of 500 copies

1-Azabu I (1971/2021) 43:46
2-Azabu II (1971/2021) 32:07

Even though only being fully terminated 50 years after its conception, ‘Azabu’ can be regarded as the starting point of Michael Ranta’s creative self-discovery. The recordings that form the base of ‘Azabu’ were mostly made in the Tokyo district with the same name (Azabu-Juban). Next to abstracted field recordings ‘Azabu’ is also pervaded by a rich variety of percussion, string and wind instruments, all played by Ranta himself. Subsequently Ranta edited, layered and processed the recordings at the NHK electronic music studio in Tokyo. Both pieces display a vast array of acoustic, electronic and concrete sound events meticulously sequenced to a complex fusion symbolizing the entire spectrum of earthly and heavenly sounds. Dynamic extremes evoke a restless flight through space, or through the depths of human subconsciousness, between dream and reality. Ultimately the music disappears, like a dot in the sky gradually fading into nothingness – an “ascension” that closes the loop in a ritual of life that can begin anew again at any time.

Michael Ranta: composition, performance, mixing (1971)
Stefan Deistler: final mixing and mastering (2021)
Painting: Wayne Jacob
Text: Egbert Hiller
Production: Timo van Luijk
Design: Meeuw
Thanks to Vincent de Roguin

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JACQUES BEKAERT: ‘Jacques Bekaert’ – LP

Metaphon 015 – 2022
Edition of 500 copies
Originally released in 1981 on the Belgian Igloo label this reissue comes with the same sleeve as originally designed by Alain Géronnez.

…Gentle threads of instrumental and electronic sounds are mixed with outdoor rural field recordings and occasional voices of his friends speaking, whistling or singing. Bekaert creates a warm environment within which we can hear subtle individual voices of good musicians who are relating to his loosely-notated scores and verbal instructions… (David Behrman)

A- A Late Lunch (28:10)
B1- A Summer Day at Stony Point (11:36)
B2- Mon Petit Album (11:06)

‘A Late Lunch’ is the soundtrack to Akiko Iimura’s eponymous movie realized in 1978. It is based on acoustic instruments and field recordings, brilliantly reconfigured and mixed by Bekaert to create a surreal, immersive soundscape. The technique used includes superposition and speed change of recordings, radical sound effects and juxtapositions of sounds. The players were prominent musicians of the 1970’s, including Maggi Payne, George Lewis, David Rosenboom and Blue Gene Tyranny.

 ‘A Summer Day at Stony Point’ was composed in 1969, with participation of David Behrman, Shigeko Kubota and Charlotte Warren. The piece was commissioned by English composer Hugh Davies who presented it at the Harrogate festival the same year. Stony Point is a small village in New York State where John Cage co-owned a small pseudo-commune art resort where like-minded artists gathered. ‘A Summer Day at Stony Point’ is nothing more than a page of a journal, a fragment of a notebook that utilizes a series of sound sources recorded at Stony Point on one beautiful day in the summer of 1968. Other electronic sound sources were recorded at the Brandeis University where Alvin Lucier was professor. The final realization of the piece was done at Henri Pousseur’s APELAC Studio in Brussels, 1969.

The soundtrack for Akiko Iimura’s ‘Mon Petit Album’was composed on the basis of a simple description of the technique of the film and its time span. It includes David Behrman on alto, from an outdoor recording at Stony Point, plus excerpts from a Transition concert in London, the band Bekaert formed in 1971 with Michel Herr, Takehisa Kosugi and Ryo Koike, both members of the Taj Mahal Travelers. The atmosphere is quiet and pastoral throughout with a very dreamlike flavour.

Jacques Bekaert (1940-2020) was a man of many gifts: author, journalist, composer, photographer, visual artist, wine connoisseur, radio talk show host, diplomat and expert in Southeast Asian affairs. His whole life Bekaert has been actively involved in music but not much of his work got recorded or published. In the early 60’s Bekaert studied with Pousseur and through his frequent visits to the US he became friends with artists like John Cage, David Tudor, Charlotte Moorman and most of all David Behrman with whom he had a close friendship ever since. Bekaert helped organize the first European tour of The Sonic Arts Union (David Behrman, Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier) and in the early 70’s he formed the group Transition (with Belgian jazz pianist Michel Herr, Takehisa Kosugi and Ryo Koike, both members of the Taj Mahal Travelers). His meeting with Japanese experimental film-maker Akiko Iimura resulted in two film soundtracks featured on this one of a kind discreet avant garde album.

When asked in a 1979 interview about his double life as a musician and a journalist, Bekaert replied, “I suppose they’re both unsafe, unstable, questioning jobs—composing and reporting. Journalism takes me to places, shows me the world as it is. My music is my wish for the kind of world I’d want to live in. The little peaceful state I dream for everyone, where you can be yourself, and happy, and as collective as possible without giving up total privacy.”

Three new releases available at the La Scie Dorée webshop:

JOHANNES FRITSCH: ‘Kyo Mu / Hochtöner’ – LP

Metaphon 011 – 2022
Edition of 500 copies, gatefold sleeve

First LP release of Johannes Fritsch, long-time member of the Stockhausen Ensemble.

Kyo Mu (1982) – 30:20
For Shakuhachi and Tape
Johannes Fritsch: electronic and concrete sounds
Hitomi Endo: Shakuhachi
Weltmusik-Kongress, Vlotho 11.10.1982 – première recording

Hochtöner (1974) – 18:19
For Flute, Viola, Percussion, Synthesizer and Tape
Johannes Fritsch: Viola
Rolf Gehlhaar: Percussion
David Johnson: Flute, Synthesizer
Composed 1974, recorded 1975 at Feedback Studio Cologne

‘Kyo Mu’ and ‘Hochtöner’ both reveal a mesmerizing symbiosis of innovative sound exploration and visionary interior music, a sublime compound of fine-drawn intricate arrangements skillfully projected in space and time, or perhaps beyond space and time.

…Listening to Kyo Mu for the first time had quite a physical impact.
It interrupted my breathing as this would disrupt the full listening experience and excitement. My heartbeat from the other hand was accelerating and seemingly getting in sync with the heartbeat sound throughout Kyo Mu. A staggering sensation…

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TOSHI ICHIYANAGI, MICHAEL RANTA, TAKEHISA KOSUGI:
‘Improvisation Sep. 1975′ – LP

Regular edition of 500 copies with offset printed sleeve and insert (English text sheet).
Special mailorder edition of 125 copies with mounted text on front and back (as the original 1975 LP), silkscreened by Alan Sherry. This edition includes two inserts, a Japanese text sheet and the English text, translated by Alan Cummings.

Toshi Ichiyanagi, Michael Ranta and Takehisa Kosugi originally got together in the summer of 1975 for an open-air concert in Sapporo. The concert felt like a great success but was unfortunately not recorded. As the desire arose to record together, they managed to arrange a studio session in the NHK Studio in Tokyo, with presence of sound engineers.
What was supposed to be a soundcheck for this session became the session itself: a haunting 50-minute séance of intense avant garde improvisation using a large instrumentation and live processing (tape echo, ring modulation, phasing). A trident travelogue of the momentum masterfully controlled by the ensemble spirit, transcending the boundaries of psychedelic underground.

Official reissue of this underground classic from 1975, originally released in a tiny edition on the small Japanese Iskra label.
As the original master tapes of these recordings seem to be lost, the master had to be taken from an unplayed original LP copy. It was carefully restored and mastered by Jos Smolders with amazing result.

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ELODIE: ‘Enteha’ – LP

A Colourful Storm, ACS039, Australia 2022
With insert and postcard.

Enteha is one of the duo’s more subdued and melancholic pieces and can be seen as a human response to seasonal transition, foretold by the concluding passages of 2020’s Le Nid d’Ivoire. It’s one of their uniquely longform explorations of mood and atmosphere as an air of romance drifts deftly into mystery and despair. The delicate hues of autumnal haze. The deceptive optimism of morning light. A work of supremely understated beauty, Enteha develops at an hypnagogic, if not unconscious, level and will appeal to anyone who finds solace in Harmonia, Gas, Joanna Brouk, Roberto Musci, Zoviet France and other investigators of pastoral arcana. (ACS)

JAN BRUYNDONCKX: ‘Rails and Other Tracks’ – LP
Pleased to offer this first ever release of concrete and electronic collage works by Belgian underground sound explorer Jan Bruyndonckx. ‘Rails and Other Tracks’ contains autonomous compositions, music for film and documentary, all independently recorded in his private studio between 1958 and 1965.
A small collection of adventurous and mysterious sound evocations with text/poetry (Paul De Vree) recited by Julien Schoenaerts.

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AF URSIN: ‘Trois Mémoires Discrètes’ – LP
Reissue of long deleted LP from 2012, remastered at Kulta Saha 2021.
Three introspective instrumental compositions for English horn, flute, percussion, double bass, Hammond organ. Performed, recorded and mixed by Timo van Luijk during 2010-2012.