From The Kitchen Archives No. 4 - Composers Inside Electronics
Orange Mountain Music, 2007

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  Martin Kalve: Earthing

  David Tudor: Pulsers

  Bill Viola: Gong

The Kitchen and Orange Mountain Music are pleased to announce the release of From The Kitchen Archives No. 4: Composers Inside Electronics. This CD features live concert recordings by Composers Inside Electronics, a pioneering collective of musicians and sound artists centered around David Tudor, who is best-known for his collaborative relationships with composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham. The compositions featured on the disc by David Tudor, John Driscoll, Phil Edelstein, Martin Kalve, and Bill Viola were recorded during two series of performances that took place at The Kitchen in 1977 and 1978. Known for creating sound works with the home-built circuitry devices they favored over commercial synthesizers, Composers Inside Electronics would bring together many of these custom-made instruments for each sound installation or performance, often linking them together differently for unique sonic results each time. While electronics were the primary focus, the compositions on this disc also include acoustic sound sources such as a gong, a saw, and an amplified conch shell. The work of Composers Inside Electronics was groundbreaking in its day, yet feels contemporary 30 years later, as so many younger musicians and sound artists look to take on this legacy, exploring both analog and digital music. 

This project was funded in part with generous grants from The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and The GRAMMY Foundation.

From The Kitchen Archives No. 3 - Amplified: New Music Meets Rock 1981-1986
Orange Mountain Music, 2006

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The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC  
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   Arthur Russell: Hiding Your Present From You (1986)

   Swans: Weakling (1982)

   Sonic Youth: World Looks Red (1982)

"What happens when instruments find their way into the wrong hands?"
-Elliott Sharp

Amplified: New Music Meets Rock, 1981-1986 is the third release in a series of CDs compiled from The Kitchen's archive that documents historic concert recordings at The Kitchen from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. While the first two releases, New Music, New York 1979 and Steve Reich and Musicians, Live 1977 focused on major figures of new and experimental music from The Kitchen's first decade, Amplified moves into the early 1980s, representing a vocabulary that emerged from the avant-garde, minimalist, and No New York scenes in the 1960s and 1970s in New York City. Highlights from the CD include the layered guitars of Rhys Chatham's works; classical cello played through electronic effects pedals by Arthur Russell; a Christian Marclay piece created with multiple turntables "prepared" with his "To and Fro-nograph"; one of the earliest Sonic Youth concert recordings; two tracks by Swans; and a rarely performed large orchestral piece by Elliott Sharp. Even now, more than twenty years after these shows took place, these recordings capture an explosive energy and vitality that still feels vibrant.

 

From The Kitchen Archives No. 2: Steve Reich and Musicians, Live 1977  
Orange Mountain Music, 2005

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Stop by The Kitchen's Box Office: 
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC  
Open Tue-Sat, 2-6pm, and one hour before showtime
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    Six Pianos (1973)

    Drumming - Part Four (1971)

Steve Reich, an important "first generation" minimalist composer, remains one of the foremost composers of our time. While throughout the years, Reich has performed and recorded worldwide, some of his most dynamic performances have taken place at The Kitchen, including a performance by Mr. Reich and Musicians that was recorded in 1977. Now this recording, which had since been held in The Kitchen's extensive archives of historic audio and videotapes, is released by Orange Mountain Music, in collaboration The Kitchen.

Of From The Kitchen Archive No. 2, Steve Reich and Musicians, Live 1977, Reich said in 2005, "Not studio recordings. Unedited. Background traffic noise on Violin Phase & Music for Pieces of Wood. And yet-Real musical energy. Live performances. Intense young performers. Something special from 1977."

 

 

 

 

 

From The Kitchen Archives: New Music, New York 1979
Orange Mountain Music, 2004

To Order:
Visit Amazon or Printed Matter
Stop by The Kitchen's Box Office: 
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, NYC  
Open Tue-Sat, 2-6pm, and one hour before showtime
or e-mail.

     Philip Glass: Dance No.4 (1979)

     Pauline Oliveros: The Tuning Meditation (1971)

     Barbara Benary: Exchanges (1971)

Over the last thirty years, The Kitchen has made extraordinary efforts to document every on-site performance with video and/or audiotape. In 2001, close to 300 audio recordings of Kitchen concerts from the 1970s and early ‘80s were discovered. While the tape boxes promised rare and exciting recordings by such artists as John Cage, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and David Tudor, we were not able to listen to any of these reels without the funds and facilities to provide proper cleaning and re-formatting. A collaborative partnership with The Looking Glass Studios and the online label, Orange Mountain Music, has allowed for the restoration of a number of reels from the archive. This work has been done towards the ultimate goal of a series of CDs, of which the 2-disc set New Music, New York 1979 was the first in the series. NMNY 1979 documents outstanding performances by artists including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Meredith Monk, Tony Conrad, Jon Gibson and many more.

Partial funding for this recording was provided by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and a grant from the Recording Academy.