US Electronic Music I, Arthur Kreiger (Avant Garde Project 106)

The Avant Garde Project is a series of 20th-century classical-experimental- electroacoustic torrents digitized from LPs whose music has in most cases never been released on CD, and so is effectively inaccessible to the vast majority of music listeners today. This is wild stuff, so check it out if you've never heard this sort of music before. The analog rig used to extract the sound from the grooves is near state-of-the-art, producing almost none of the tracking distortion or surface noise normally associated with LPs.

AGP1-101 are now available for direct download in the archive at www.avantgardeproject.org

AGP102-105 and other recent AGP installments are also available at http://thepiratebay.org/user/loudav

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AGP106 begins an open-ended series of installments devoted to electronic and electroacoustic music by American composers. The first includes a complete transcription of a CRI LP (SD 495) with works by Roger Reynolds, Alice Shields, and Arthur Kreiger; filled out with all of the other works by Arthur Kreiger I could find in my stacks. Kreiger has long been a favorite of mine. His works employ classic electronic techniques, but with fine attention to detail both as regards structure and timbre. The first Kreiger work in this installment is especially delicious.

The eighth track is not electronic, but it's from the same LP as one of the Kreiger works, and I've always loved it. Also, its composer is one of the founders of the American electronic music tradition.

The torrent includes a PDF file with scans of the liner notes of all four LPs transcribed for this installment. A number of the tracks on those LPs will appear in later installments in the US Electronic series. Even though they are American pressings, all four LPs are in excellent condition with very little surface noise.

01 - Roger Reynolds, "...the serpent-snapping eye" [20:09]
02 - Alice Shields, Coyote [13:02]
03 - Arthur Kreiger, Variations on the Theme by Davidovsky [9:58]
04 - Arthur Kreiger, Dance for Sarah [8:38]
05 - Arthur Kreiger, Theme and Variations [9:15]
06 - Arthur Kreiger, Short Piece [2:42]
07 - Arthur Kreiger, Passacaglia on "Spring and All" [5:01]
08 - Otto Luening, Lines from "A Song for Occupations [6:16]

Equipment used for A/D conversion: Lyra Helikon phono cartridge, Linn LP12/Lingo turntable, Linn Ittok tonearm, Audioquest LeoPard tonearm cable, PS Audio PS2 preamplifier, Kimber PBJ interconnect, M-Audio Audiophile USB A/D converter.

NOTE: To the best of my knowledge, these recordings are currently out of print. If you know otherwise, please let me know ASAP, as I do not wish any artists to be deprived of the royalties that they so richly deserve.