One of my primary musical interests for the last few years have been
in a genre that’s come to be called “eai”. Originally this stood for
“electro-acoustic Improvisation” but has taken on a wider meaning then
a literal take on those words would imply (however I think that the
term does adequately describe the genre, but that’s another post). A
post on the ihatemusic forum asking for “essentials” in the genre
finally motivated to do something I’d been thinking about for a while -
try to create a list of the albums that define this genre. Obviously
somewhat tilting against windmills, especially as I certainly haven’t
heard everything (however it isn’t an impossible task to hear nearly
everything in this genre at this point in time) and furthermore a task
open to endless criticism as peoples “favorites” may differ from what I
think of as :”essential”. Taking this as a personal project though I
think it is valuable and is well suited for blog posting. Here I can
update, modify, expand and so on the list. One project I want to work
on is the pre-history are especially links in modern composition.
Anyway here it is, my list of the core EAI albums.
—
Pre-history
60’s
Group Ongaku Music of Group Ongaku (Hear Sound Art Library) 1960-61
M.E.V. Spacecraft (on Live Electronic Music Improvised) (Mainstream) 1966
AMM AMMMusic (ReR Megacorp) 1967
AMM The Crypt (Matchless) 1968
Music Now Ensemble Silver Pyramid (Matchless) 1969
AMM The Aarhus sequences (disc 1 of Laminal) (Matchless) 1969
70’s
Taj Mahal Travellers July 15th 1972 (CBS/Sony)
Taj Mahal Travellers August 1974 (P-Vine Records)
Takehisa Kosugi Catch-Wave (CBS/Sony) 1975
80’s
AMM The Great Hall (disc 2 of Laminal) (Matchless) 1982
AMM - Combine + Laminates + Treatise ‘84 (Matchless) 1984
AMM - The Inexhaustible Document (Matchless) 1987
Keith Rowe A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality (Matchless) 1989
Early/mid 90’s
AMM Newfoundland (Matchless) 1992
AMM Live in Allentown USA (Matchless) 1994
Polwechsel Polwechsel (hat[now]ART) 1994
AMM Before driving to the chapel we took coffee with Rick and Jennifer Reed (Matchless) 1996
MIMEO Queue (Perdition plastics) 1997
Ascension
1998
Such The Issue at Hand (Matchless)
Sachiko M/Günter Müller/Otomo Yoshihide Filament 2 (for4ears)
Polwechsel 2 Polwechsel 2 (hat[now]ART)
Kurzmann/Fennesz/O’Rourke/Drumm/Siewert s/t (Orange Disc) (Charhizma)
Taku Sugimoto Opposite (Hat Hut, hatNOIR)
Toshimaru Nakamura/Tetuzi Akiyama/Taku Sugimoto The Improvisation Meeting at Bar Aoyama (Reset)
1999
Keith Rowe Harsh (Grob)
Keith Rowe/Günter Müller/Taku Sugimoto The World Turned Upside Down (Erstwhile Records)
Otomo Yoshihide Cathode (Tzadik)
Sachiko M. Debris (F.M.N. Sound Factory)
Mon:goose At Penguin House (Slub)
Otomo Yoshihide/Keith Rowe/Taku Sugimoto Ajar (Alcohol)
Phil Durrant/Thomas Lehn/Radu Malfatti dach (Erstwhile Records)
2000
Andrea Neumann/Toshimaru Nakamura AT0N (Rossbin)
Keith Rowe/Burkhard Beins Grain (Zarek)
Toshimaru Nakamura/Sachiko M do (Erstwhile Records)
Günter Müller/Lê Quan Ninh La Voyelle Liquide (Erstwhile Records)
Taku Sugimoto/Kevin Drumm Den (Sonoris)
Peak Era
2001
AMM Fine (Matchless)
Various Artists Improvised music from Japan presents Improvised music from Japan 10CD Boxset (IMJ)
Toshimaru Nakamura/Tetuzi Akiyama Meeting at Off Site vol. 1 (IMJ)
Otomo Yoshihide Ensemble Cathode (IMJ)
Tetuzi Akiyama Relator (Slub)
Burkhard Stangl/Taku Sugimoto An old fashioned duet (Slub)
Taku Sugimoto/Burkhard Stangl/Christof Kurzmann in Tokyo: first concert, second take (Music Genera)
Keith Rowe 29 October 2001 (Sound 323)
Rhodri Davies Trem (Confront)
Keith Rowe/Toshimaru Nakamura Weather sky (Erstwhile Records)
Otomo Yoshihide Anode (Tzadik)
Filament 29092000 (Sat/Amoebic)
Annette Krebs Guitar Solo (Fringes)
2002
Norbert Möslang lat_nc (for4ears)
Dafeldecker/Hautzinger/Tilbury/Sachiko M Absinth (Grob)
John Butcher Invisible Ear (Fringes)
Kaffe Mathews/Andrea Neumann/Sachiko M In case of fire take the stairs (IMJ)
Toshimaru Nakamura/Tetuzi Akiyama Meeting at Off Site vol. 2 (IMJ)
Tetuzi Akiyama/Toshimaru Nakamura/Taku Sugimoto/Mark Wastell Foldings (Confront)
MIMEO/John Tilbury The Hands of Caravaggio (Erstwhile Records)
Cosmos Tears (Erstwhile Records)
Andrea Neumann/Burkhard Beins Lidingö (Erstwhile Records)
Various Artists AMPLIFY 2002: balance (7 CDs/1 DVD box set) (Erstwhile Records)
Sachiko M/Sean Meehan s/t (no label)
Philip Samartzis/Sachiko M Artefac (Dorobo)
Otomo Yoshihide/Taku Sugimoto/Sachiko M Les Hautes Solitudes–A Philippe Garrel Film: Imaginarry Soundtrack (Out One)
Otomo Yoshihide/Keith Rowe/Taku Sugimoto Ajar (Alcohol)
Tetuzi Akiyama Résophonie (A Bruit Secret)
Broken consort Done (QuakeBasket)
Radian Rec.Extern (Thrill Jockey)
2003
Otomo Yoshihide/Park Je Chun/Mi Yeon Loose Community (IMJ)
Toshimaru Nakamura Side Guitar (IMJ)
Toshimaru Nakamura/Tetuzi Akiyama Meeting at Off Site vol. 3 (IMJ)
Joel Stern/Matt Davis Small Industry (L’Innomable)
John Tilbury Barcelona Piano Solo (Rossbin)
Sachiko M 1 : 2 (A Bruit Secret)
Keith Rowe/John Tilbury Duos for Doris (Erstwhile Records)
Martin Siewert/Martin Brandlmayr Too Beautiful to Burn (Erstwhile Records)
I.S.O. s/t (Sound Tectonics/YCAM)
Dion Workman Ching (Antiopic)
Trapist Highway My Friend (hatOLOGY)
Stephane Rives Fibres (Potlatch)
2004
Anthony Guerra/Matt Earle In (L’Innomable)
Keith Rowe/Axel Dörner/Franz Hautzinger A View from the Window (Erstwhile Records)
Sachiko M/Toshimaru Nakamura/Otomo Yoshihide Good Morning Good Night (Erstwhile Records)
Keith Rowe/Burkhard Beins ErstLive 001 (Erstwhile Records)
Christian Fennesz/Sachiko M/Otomo Yoshihide/Peter Rehberg ErstLive 004 (Erstwhile Records)
Keith Rowe/Sachiko M/Toshimaru Nakamura/Otomo Yoshihide ErstLive 005 (Erstwhile Records)
Filament Filament BOX (F.M.N. Sound Factory)
MIMEO Lifitng Concrete Lightly (Serpentine Gallery)
Martin Ng / Tetuzi Akiyama OIMACTA (IMJ)
The Sealed Knot Unwanted Object (Confront Collectors Series)
Radi Malfatti/Mattin White Noise (W.M.O/R)
English s/t (Copula)
Plateau
2005
Four Gentlemen of the Guitar Cloud (Erstwhile Records)
John Tilbury/Marcus Schmickler Variety (A-Musik)
Sean Meehan Sectors (for Constant) (SoSEDITIONS)
Graham Halliwell Recorded Delivery (Confront Collectors Series)
GOD Anti-Sex/Anti-Wiretapping (Made in Taiwan) (Little Enjoyer/JYRK/GMBY)
English s/t (Copula)
2006
Keith Rowe/Toshimaru Nakamura between (Erstwhile Records)
Filament Dark Room Filled with Light (Uplink)
(N:Q) November Quebec (Esquilo)
Toshimaru Nakamura/Klaus Filip aluk (IMJ)
Eddie Prevost Entelechy (Matchless)
Taku Sugimoto/Taku Unami Tengu Et Kitsune (Slub)
Will Guthrie/Ferran Fages Cinabri (Absurd)
Bonnie Jones Vines (EMR)
Mark Wastell/David Lacey/Paul Vogel Live at the i+e festival (Confront)
Traw with Rhodri Davies Cwymp Y Dwr Ar Ganol Dydd (Confront)
Manfred Werder 20061 (Skiti)
Burkhard Stangl / Taku Unami I was (Hibari)
Fergus Kelly/David Lacey Bevel (Room Temperature)
Nmperign/Jason Lescalleet Love Me Two Times (Intransitive)
Jeph Jerman/Albert Casais/Greg Davis - 6×20 (Winds Measure)
Joe Foster Knock Nevis (For Wilson Zorn and J.P. Jenkins) (homophoni)
Ami Yoshida/Christof Kurzmann a s o (Erstwhile Records)
2007
Annette Krebs/Robin Hayward sgraffito (no label)
Sachiko M Salon de Sachiko (Hitorri)
Keith Rowe The Room (Erstwhile Records)
MIMEO sight (Cathnor Recordings)
Mitsuhiro Yoshimura and so on ((h)ear rings)
Nate Wooley The Boxer (EMR)
5 Modules series I-IV (Manual)
Angharad Davies/Tisha Mukarji - Endspace (Another Timbre)
Taku Unami - Malignitat (Skiti)
Mitsuhiro Yoshimura/Taku Sugimoto BGM and so on ((h)ear rings)
Marc Baron/Bertrand Denzler/Jean-Luc Guionnet/ Stéphane Rives Propagations (Potlatch)
2008
Annette Krebs Berlin Electronics (Absinth)
Toshimaru Nakamura/English One Day (Erstwhile Records)
Radu Malfatti L’Effaçage (B-Boim)
Masahiko Okura/Taku Sugimoto/Taku Unami Chamber Music Concerts Vol. 1 (HibariSlubloadfactor)
Annette Krebs/Toshimaru Nakamura SIYU (SoSEDITIONS)
Seymour Wright Seymour Wright of Derby (Self Released)
Ami Yoshida/Minoru Sato Composition for voice performer (1997 and 2007) (ao to ao)
Ryu Hankil/Hong Chulki/Choi Joonyong 5 Modules V (The Manual)
Mitsuhiro Yoshimura/Masahiko Okura Trio (Presquile)
Choi Joonyong/Hong Chulki/Sachiko M/Otomo Yoshihide Sweet Cuts, Distant Curves (Balloon & Needle)
(so far…)