last edited in Jan 2010  

In memory of Walter Marchetti (1931 - 2015)

 


PRIMA MATERIA "Prima Materia" 2 x LP Box"

Special 10th anniversary edition & first time available on vinyl. A totally immersive listening experience and a true testament to the power and range of the human voice in all its harmonic splendor, as poignantly stated by Terry Riley in the liner notes:
“As is the case with La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music, David Hyke's Harmonic Choir and Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Band, Roberto Laneri has had a life long penchant for the droning mysteriosa of the Sound Current and with the Prima Materia ensemble he has expressed it in a disciplined, expansive and singular way.”
In 1977 an obscure Italian private label issued a record that sounded like it no other before. The musicians of the group Prima Materia - a project founded by Roberto Laneri in San Diego in 1973, including Claudio Ricciardi, Gianni Nebbiosi, Susanne Hendricks and Maria Monti - individually researched and developed unusual vocal techniques (originally used in Tantric rituals in North India, Mongolia and Tibet), based upon the use of overtones coupled with a special state of inner concentration, which was the essential condition for both the emission and control of long–sustained and complex vocal sounds. The name of the record was “The Tail of the Tiger”, and it was issued by the Rome-based Ananda label, ran by Roberto Laneri with Alvin Curran and Giacinto Scelsi.

The record soon disappeared, acquiring an almost legendary status among collectors and experimental music lovers. Die Schachtel recovered the original tapes and in 2007 released a limited CD edition of “The Tail of the Tiger”, that again went OOP in a few months. Ten years after that memorable edition we have decided to remaster the tracks, and add a stunning take from the 1974 Köln live concert, a dimension that was ideal for the Group improvisational technique and conceptual approach to sound. The result is a stunning deluxe double-LP boxed edition, complete with a 4-page explanatory booklet, a 16-pages “Mandala" booklet designed by Dinamomilano and inspired by the group's references and philosophy, custom inner sleeves with original photos printed in silver on deluxe coated paper, and of course two hi-quality vinyl records pressed in Germany.

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GIOVANNI DI DOMENICO + JIM O' ROURKE "Arco" LP

Special 10th anniversary edition

A breathtaking album, nothing short of a masterpiece!!!! Starting from this edition* onward, our Zeit Composers series will go vinyl, and will definitely open up to international artists beside the usual Italian suspects. The first release in the new vinyl-only series features the collaborative effort of Belgium-based talented composer Giovanni di Domenico (of Italian origins) and avant-everything master Jim O'Rourke. A long composition for string and electronics, Arco is a piece for sustained tones and drones,a vividly immersive, almost physical; the subtly shifting tones, the way the overtones interact with each other, the evolution of the piece, are all impeccable, much in the vein of acclaimed composers like Catherine Christer Hennix, Eliane Radigue and David Behrman, although with a warmer" soul.

It explores the antinomy between stillness and movement, buildings towards a hypnotic (and rewarding) aural experience. In Giovanni di Domenico's words: "ARCO is born out of two necessities, strongly interrelated: 1) creating a sonic space where the concept of waiting (patience?) can turn into form, and 2) doing this together with Jim O'Rourke, a musician who finds in form and its use his true greatness; The structure of the composition is quite simple: it is based on a cell of four repeated notes (the Dna of the piece), forming a melodic/harmonic texture which slowly freezes into suspended, levitating chords, in which the passing of time itself becomes a sort of harmonic extension, and in which the strings and the splendidly rich sonic palette of the electronics fuse into the true essence of Form."

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LINO CAPRA VACCINA"Antico Adagio" CD

**Small repress available** Deluxe CD edition containing both albums. Before an aberrant idea of progress and workaholic ethic ludicrously sped up our daily lives, even in the hectic city of Milan it was possible to play slowly with no pressure, simply following the path your art was showing you. After a classic artistic journey and an experimental stint with Aktuala and other brilliant fellow musicians (like Franco Battiato, above all), Lino Capra Vaccina, near the end of the 70s, recorded Antico Adagio. It was an amazing album, anticipating countless future experiments in the field of new age and world music but also in avantgarde and electronic music. Apart from a few violin parts and the extraordinary vocal lines (sung by Vaccina himself and Juri Camisasca), Antico Adagio is an album fully built on percussions. But, at the same time, it's the farthest thing from the typical idea of percussions. You won't find a single trace of African or primitive beats: instead, this is a collection of rather long, subtle and thoughtful compositions, crafted with vibraphones, marimbas and gong. Together they create a work which will remain unique both in Capra Vaccina's discography as well as in a more general sense.
From Kieran Hebden/FourTet liner notes:«There are records I have found in my life that I was almost wishing existed before hearing them. Recordings with new combinations of sound and atmosphere I knew could be wonderful to me if I ever discovered them, and then on discovery the sound was even better than I could have imagined. I felt this way when first hearing music by Alice Coltrane (Journey to Satchidananda) and Don Cherry (Organic Music Society) and I also felt it with Antico Adagio. The combinations of the rhythms and melodies resonate with me in a very clear way and I feel transported by this music every time I hear it. I first heard this record when it was posted on the Mutant Sounds blog a few years ago and am very happy to see it get another release. The music is timeless and brilliant and maybe there are other people out there wishing for a sound like this too who will now have chance to find it»

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DIE SCHACHTEL at OFFPRINT LONDON
with ultra-limited collectors’ pieces from our Archives
Friday, May 22nd to Sunday, May 24th – Tate Modern, Turbine Hall - London

Dear Friends,

it’s with great pleasure that we inform you that Die Schachtel will be participating at OFFPRINT London, the art publishing fair which will take place at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall gallery, from this coming Friday May 22nd to Sunday May 24th. We’ll have a table and we are bringing a selection of our editions plus some other interesting stuff.

Besides our latest editions, there will be a very limited selection of very rare pieces from our archives, like collectors editions, artist multiples, oop CDs and first editions which are extremely rare, or simply impossible to find. It will be a great opportunity to meet in person and share our mutual interest for weird sounds and old-fashioned media.

See you there!

Bruno+Fabio
Die Schachtel


May 2015, new releases


LUIGI ARCHETTI
Null I - VII

Epic in scale, static, timbre and stillness, "Null" is a vast and profound music project that Luigi Archetti has been pursuing over a longer period. His musical research is not about Null (the German word for zero) as a mathematical object, as a real number. Instead, the term Null (zero) is used here as a metaphor in order to describe a state of pausing and anticipatory waiting. The music in project NULL is characterised by static sounds, by drones and their overlapping and layering. The sound surfaces turn into acoustic sluggish material which flows slowly through time and gradually transforms itself.

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MANUEL ZURRIA
Landscape with Tears

At his third release for our Zeit Composer Series, the talented Italian flute player Manuel Zurria has given birth to some of the most heartbreaking music ever published by Die Schachtel. A moving and incredibly clever transcription for flutes, glass and electronics of John Dowland's 1604 masterwork Lachrimae functions as the thread between a stunning  and totally rewarding series of pieces by György Kurtag, Peter Eötvos, Gavin Bryars, Mary Jane Leach, Howard Skempton, closing on a composition by Juste Janulyte for this record. This CD is the living proof that contemporay music can be intoxicating.  

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OSVALDO COLUCCINO
Invenzioni

Another welcomed return in our Zeit Series - his 2010 Neuma Q being one of the best received titles in the series - Osvaldo Coluccino presents a collection of his early (1997-2007) electroacoustic pieces. From the dark drones of Dimensioni (interspersed with the treated voice of Jacques Lacan) to the treated percussions of Nell'attimo, to the acousmatic brilliance of Dal margine, this CD is a journey into the brilliant head and the complex soul of one of the most interesting Italian contemporary composers, whose music is always on the edge, stretched between a flight towards a distant and bright horizon and a dive into the darkest obscurity

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Samml LP repress now available. At long last, Die Schachtel relents and yields Lino Capra Vaccina's immense 'Antico Adagio' opus in two parts, available on LP and CD this week. Antico Adagio was originally intended to be a double album, but was eventually scaled back to a single disc, self-released by the author in 1978; and thanks to the breadth and scope of Die Schachtel's excavations, the second unreleased album from the 1978 session is now available, alongside a reissue of the Antico Adagio legendary album!
Striking in an elegant monochrome edition, with special silver and gloss varnish print - limited to 400 copies - it highlights some of the best minimal/progressive music released in that decade.


"Before an aberrant idea of progress and workaholic ethic ludicrously sped up our daily lives, even in the hectic city of Milan it was possible to "play slowly" – with no pressure, simply following the path your art was showing you. After a classic artistic journey and an experimental stint with Aktuala and other brilliant fellow musicians (like Franco Battiato, above all), Lino Capra Vaccina, near the end of the 70s, recorded Antico Adagio. It was an amazing album, anticipating countless future experiments in the field of new age and world music but also in avantgarde and electronic music. Apart from a few violin parts and the extraordinary vocal lines (sung by Vaccina himself and Juri Camisasca), Antico Adagio is an album fully built on percussions. But, at the same time, it's the farthest thing from the typical idea of percussions. You won't find a single trace of African or primitive beats: instead, this is a collection of rather long, subtle and thoughtful compositions, crafted with vibraphones, marimbas and gong. Together they create a work which will remain unique – both in Capra Vaccina's discography as well as in a more general sense.

From Kieran Hebden/FourTet liner notes: << There are records I have found in my life that I was almost wishing existed before hearing them. Recordings with new combinations of sound and atmosphere I knew could be wonderful to me if I ever discovered them, and then on discovery the sound was even better than I could have imagined. I felt this way when first hearing music by Alice Coltrane (Journey to Satchidananda) and Don Cherry (Organic Music Society) and I also felt it with Antico Adagio. The combinations of the rhythms and melodies resonate with me in a very clear way and I feel transported by this music every time I hear it... I first heard this record when it was posted on the Mutant Sounds blog a few years ago and am very happy to see it get another release. The music is timeless and brilliant and maybe there are other people out there wishing for a sound like this too who will now have chance to find it>>.

 

Available as two individual LPs: Antico Adagio (DS27/1LP) and Frammenti da Antico Adagio (DS27/2LP), which features previously unreleased material from the original 1978 sessions.

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recent releases

FRANCESCO GIOMI
con brio - musica acusmatica

Francesco Giomi is one of the most active Italian composers in the field of acousmatic music. Over the years he also collaborated as sound director and live performer with Luciano Berio and other important composers and directors. as well as Italian and International orchestras and ensembles. He conducted the live electronics group of Tempo Reale (the musical reserach centre established by Berio) in theatres and festivals all over the world. He teaches Electronic Music at the Music Conservatory of Bologna and he currently is the director of Tempo Reale. This CD is the premiere publication of his acousmatc works, spanning from 1994 to 2011. 

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SPAM / AGOSTINO DI SCIPIO
spam - musical sculpteres and other devices

A sonic journey into Cage and surroundings by renown composer Agostino di Scipio and his talented students. On the 9th of December 2012, upon inviation of the Associazione Scarlatti, Agostino di Scipio and his students at the San Pietro A Majella Conservatory (hence the name SPAM) gave a performance of a very rare piece, John Cage’s Sculptures Musicales. The performance was planned out by Dario Sanfilippo, based on the few annotations left by Cage (which in turn followed an idea Cage took from Marcel Duchamp): the “musical sculptures” are sound blocks shaped up by either electronic or acoustical instruments

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