08/07/2024
From the venerable Vinyl on Demand comes two of the most historically significant and ambitious release of the year so far: John Balance's “The Art, Music & Writings of Geoffrey Rushton Alias John Balance - The Years 1979-1986”, a 9LP collection dedicated to some of the most obscure and noteworthy efforts of the luminary founder of Coil, accompanied by a 282-page book, and more; and “New Wilderness Audiographics - Recordings 1977-1984”, an astounding 11LP collection and a hardcover book, that takes a deep, exploratory dive into one of the most important imprints in the history of experimental sound practice, both issued in beautiful wooden box-set editions.
Since their founding during the early 2000s, Vinyl on Demand has continuously led the pack within the context of reissues and archival releases. Producing extensive surveys of an astounding array of underground and neglected artists from across the globe - issued in some of the most beautiful limited editions we’ve ever encountered - the historical importance of their efforts is impossible to calculate. VOD’s now continue this remarkable mission with two towering new box sets, John Balance's “The Art, Music & Writings of Geoffrey Rushton Alias John Balance - The Years 1979-1986”, a 9LP collection dedicated to some of the most obscure and noteworthy efforts of the luminary founder of Coil, accompanied by a 282-page book, shirt, slipmat / certificate in a black vinyl edition of 666 copies, all housed in a stunning wooden box; and “New Wilderness Audiographics - Recordings 1977-1984”, an astounding 11LP wooden boxset and a hardcover book, issued in a numbered edition of 333, that takes a deep, exploratory dive into Charlie Morrow’s historically significant and much coveted imprint, gathering mind-blowing, little heard works by Morrow, Philip Corner, Jackson Mac Low, Pauline Oliveros, Jerome Rothenberg, R.I.P. Hayman, Ocarina Orchestra, Alison Knowles, Dick Higgins, Bernard Heidsieck, and a great many more. While remarkably different in their own ways, each of these astounding collections illuminates hugely important efforts and proximities within the sonic underground during the 1970s and '80s.
Various Artists
“New Wilderness Audiographics - Recordings 1977-1984”
(11LP Box + Book)
The imprint New Wilderness Audiographics, which released roughy 30 cassettes between 1977 and 1984, was the first artists audio work label in the USA. Grown from the The New Wilderness Foundation, Inc., founded in 1974 by poet Jerome Rothenberg and sound artist, sound poet Charlie Morrow as a means to explore and disseminate New/Old Explorations of Sound and Oral Poetry, extending from the disciplines of ethnopoetics and performance arts: a blend of experimental and traditional arts espousing a "new wilderness", a source of perpetual renewal and new ideas, that produced events, publications, broadcasts and productions. The imprint, founded in 1977 by Morrow and quickly taking on a number of collaborators, including Rothenberg and Rip Hayman, became a radical vehicle for the ideas that rested at the heart of the foundation.
For decades, in no small part due to the growing reverence for the artists it released, the output of New Wilderness Audiographics has been hotly pursued by fans and collectors of experimental music and sound practice. VOD’s towering 11LP box set represents the first compressive effort to reissue this material and bring an exhaustive overview to a new generation of fans.
The 11 LPs of “New Wilderness Audiographics - Recordings 1977-1984” comprise a considerable cross section of the material issued by the imprint over the course of its seven year run, including astounding pieces like Annea Lockwood’s “Tiger Balm”, “World Rhythms”, “Malaman”, and “Cloud Music”; Philip Corner’s “Uhhm (After a Deep and Tibetan Image)” and “Metal Meditations”; Jackson Mac Low and Pauline Oliveros’ “Homage To Leona Bleiweiss”; Jerome Rothenberg's “Horse Song”; Alison Knowles’ “Natural Assemblage and the True Crow”, “Sounds from The Book of Bean” and “Essential Divisions”; Dick Higgins’ “Poems and MetapoemΩ”, Bernard Heidsieck’s “Le Carrefour de la Chaussée d'Antin”; works for Gamelan Son of Lion and Bread and Puppet Theater, and so much more.
Covering a remarkable range of practices, from sound poetry to groundbreaking gestures of music that remain as fresh and challenging as the day they where made, VOD’s collection illuminates one of the most important catalog’s of recordings ever released within the sonic avant-garde that’s remained nearly unobtainable for decades.
An engrossing, transportive revalation through every one of its minutes, VOD’s “New Wilderness Audiographics - Recordings 1977-1984” is issued as an 11LP black vinyl, wooden box set, in a numbered edition of 333 copies, including a hardcover book and numbered certificate. Each record is housed in its own cover (the Lockwood cover houses two LPs), and the book includes original cassette credits and notes plus reprints from New Wilderness Newsletter and Tom Johnson's Village Voice reviews, and previously unpublished photos and documents, as well as a new introductory text by Charlie Morrow. Nothing short of monumental and as essential as they come.
