Ultima Thule releases
CATALOGUE #117, TACHYON STUDIO PRODUCTS...
ALTO STRATUS - SVET OZVENY (Auricle) MC £4.90 - (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Experimental synth, avant-rock duo of Alan & Steve Freeman (owners of Ultima Thule). "The World Of Echoes", venturing from avant-garde music for voice, keyboards, loops & broken bottles, etc.
ALTO STRATUS - TENSION! (Auricle) MC £4.40 - (Auricle: 1xBT) CDR £6.85 - An ode to the psychedelic era, partly the free-form space-rock of Guru Guru & early Heldon, meeting Kluster styled use of echoes & loops, the results are unique!
# ALTO STRATUS - TACHYON (Ultimate Transmissions: 1xBT) CD £8.00, m/m £6.00 - A sci-fi concept with weird electronics, guitars, voices, etc., bridging synth music with avant-garde/industrial edges, as a unique album.
ALTO STRATUS - ALCHEMY (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Previously issued as Vrije "Third", this enhanced & condensed newly remastered issue is much more cohesive. Electronic inventions, Krautrock influences, musique-concret & Kosmische electronics.
ALTO STRATUS - THE RITUAL (Auricle) MC £4.90 - (Auricle: 1xBT) CDR £6.85 - With lots of sampling, clever looping, ethnic & percussive techniques, along with the usual wealth of analogue synthesizers, it's a sureal experience.
ALTO STRATUS - DUIN THA' WHITEHOUSE & OTHER EARLY WORKS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Early historic recordings (originally released under Vrije & (QSO) pseudonyms) 1981-82. Choice archive material, some is very raw & low-fi weirdness for the adventurous.
ALTO STRATUS - VRIJE 1983 (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Explorative weird electronics/industrial trips.
ALTO STRATUS - PANTHEON 1984 (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Previously unreleased 1984 recordings, culled from an abandoned 26 cassette work.
ALTO STRATUS - DARK STAR (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Archives 1983-85.
ALTO STRATUS - REGION 5 (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Plunderphonics as a fine art, the mixmaster cosmique! Synths & sonic collage, trippy & esoteric 1983-84 recordings, hints of Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, Klaus Schulze, Brian Eno, etc.
ALTO STRATUS - ELECTRIC JUNK (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - The weirdest conceptual
"non-de-plume" of Alto Stratus, Electric Junk was a mangled/derranged idea: muted electronics/radio/sound collage, compiled from 3 cassettes (1983-84).
ALTO STRATUS - ADHARA (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Sci-fi concept work circa 1983-84, cosmic & atonal synths, hints of Cluster, French 70's electronics, atmos Throbbing Gristle, etc.
ALTO STRATUS - CATHARSIS (Auricle) MC £5.90 - The return of Alto Stratus, over a decade after "The Ritual", enriched by our experience in Endgame, & full of creative daring & invention.
# ALTO STRATUS - PsYcHoSiS (Ultimate Transmissions) CD £9.80, m/m £7.50 - 8 tracks, each a visualisation, each a state of mind, alluring, frightening, really on the edge of your seat stuff!
ALTO STRATUS - DEVASTATION (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Devastatingly creative & diverse, intensive & kosmische: electronics, guitar, bass & all sorts of amazing devices! A hybrid of "Tension" & "PsYcHoSiS" styles, in 3 big works exploring dark & mysterious realms.
ALTO STRATUS - ACOUSTIC SURGERY (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 2002 recordings, originally planned as an LP. Just 2 big tracks full of surealism & cosmic ooze. CD+ includes a mini graphic website, 10'55" of album samples & an unreleased 22 minute bonus track.
ALTO STRATUS - REWIRED (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A lot of guitars & ring-modulation strongly feature alongside the classic vintage synthesizers of the Tachyon studio, & many more recent toys. The results are diverse, challenging, & even surprised us!
ALTO STRATUS - TIME DILATION (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - VCD video disc. Alto Stratus live session footage (29/1/2007), with addes special effects, animations, etc. (inc. home-made auto-pan video), for a private concert in your living room!
ALTO STRATUS - TIME DILATION/METAMORPHOSIS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Companion to the VCD release, overdubbed, layered & reconstructed in the studio - unclassifiable!
ALTO STRATUS - TIME DILATION (Auricle) DVDR £8.80 - Region free PAL system video. Enhanced picture quality & extended "intro" & "bonus" tracks.
ALTO STRATUS - LIVE @ BAMBU (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Culled from 3 gigs in 2007, this is real on-the-edge invention. Includes a solo track each by Alan & Steve.
ALTO STRATUS - ...IT CRAWLED OUT OF THE WOODWORK (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 1984-86 recordings in a more melodic frame of mind, featuring Casio keyboards & analogue synths. Think: Cluster, Roedelius, Asmus Tietchens (The Residents).
ALTO STRATUS - VISIONS (Auricle) DVDR £8.80 - Region free PAL system video. "A collection of living paintings & animations accompanied by rare & unreleased music from the Alto Stratus archives (1984-2007) + bonus live 2001 & gallery."
# BIOMECHANOID - ATMOSPHERES & MELODIES INSPIRED BY THE PAINTINGS OF H.R. GIGER (Auricle: deluxe packaging, 2 units P&P) MC £5.90 - (Ultimate Transmissions: 1xBT) CD £8.00, m/m £6.00 - A musical visualisation of the art of H.R. Giger, with sequencers & guitars, elements of Cluster & Heldon, early atmospheric TD, via Frohmader onto freaky psychedelic rock.
ENDGAME - STRETCHED ACROSS THE SEA (Auricle) MC £5.90 - Steve & Alan Freeman with Jim Tetlow. Venturing from Lightwave meets Conrad Schnitzler with Stockhausen at the mixing desk territory onto pure musique-concrete/electroacoustic music.
# ENDGAME - CATALYST (Ultimate Transmissions) 2CD £14.70, m/m £11.00 - Unique & vast cosmic inventions! Take a step on from the mists of early spacious Tangerine Dream, run it through vast expanders & collisions, & you've got a sonic ooze that sizzles, glides & turns mysteriously.
ENDGAME - EARLY STASIS (Auricle) MC £5.90 - Vast & dark cosmic expanses featuring the very first session from July 1999 & some of the deepest synth expanses close to Lightwave.
# ENDGAME - AVATAR (Ultimate Transmissions) 2CD £14.70, m/m £11.00 - "Avatar" leaps way beyond where "Catalyst" lurked. This is totally outer-space cutting-edge stuff, featuring analogue & digital synths, upto 3 guitars, sizzling effects, collage & extraordinary vocal textures.
ENDGAME - SURREAL ETHEREAL (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 2 big & weird slices of Endgame exploring surrealism in music, but with a cosmic Krautrock feel & really out-there!
ENDGAME - TREPPENHAUS (Auricle) MC £5.90 - Dedicated to M.C. Escher, this is the most visionary picture music from Endgame, in the realms of early Michael Stearns, but with the inspiring feel of Ligeti (maybe) & the surreal edge of classic Nurse With Wound.
ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. I (Auricle) CDR £5.00 - First in a series documenting Endgame gigs that were recorded. 73½ minutes: 2/6/01 & 7/7/01 (part 1).
ENDGAME - FRAGILE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Mostly, this is the more melodic accessible end of the Endgame sound, with notable Eno "On Land" edges, hints of Vangelis, celestial 70's Pink Floyd, but still uneasy & delicate! Good value 78 minute disc.
ENDGAME - TROUBLED (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 78 minutes of disturbing visions, weird sci-fi worlds, horror & dark surrealism, this is so vivid it sends shivers down my spine.
ENDGAME - WALKABOUT (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A visionary trek, from the heart of the city, through suburbs & industrial wasteland to the wild outback. A 77.7 minute opus.
# ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. II (Auricle) CDR £5.00, m/m £3.00 - 70½ minutes: 7/7/01 (part 2).
# ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. III (Auricle) CDR £5.00, m/m £3.00 - 73½ minutes: 16/9/01 (part 1).
ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. IV (Auricle) CDR £5.00 - 65½ min: 16/9/01 (part 2) & 18/11/01 (part 1).
# ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. V (Auricle) CDR £5.00, m/m £3.00 - 73½ minutes: 18/11/01 (part 2).
# ENDGAME - TUNDRA (Ultimate Transmissions) 2CD £14.70, m/m £11.00 - "Tundra" takes you to a different Endgame world, of vast surreal landscapes, & to inner molecular dimensions, starting ethereal, becoming menacing & arresting, before the finale!
ENDGAME - CRYPTIC TRIPTYCH (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Involving 2 interlocking triptychs, this is a cleverly interwoven work of themes, diversions & reprises, centred largely on fuzzed guitars & electronics, with a plethora of strange sounds.
ENDGAME - SLIDEWAYS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 3 very different sound canvases, each with their own bizarre time dilations, this finds Endgame distorting time & space as never before.
ENDGAME - PROTOPLASM (Auricle) CDR £4.90 - Rehearsal session for our 1st gig (which wasn't recorded). Also includes CD-ROM html files + 70 minutes of mp3's.
# ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. VI (Auricle) CDR £5.00, m/m £3.00 - 73½ minutes: 27/3/02.
ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. VII (Auricle) CDR £5.00 - 70½ minutes: 21/4/02 (part 1).
# ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. VIII (Auricle) CDR £5.00, m/m £3.00 - 62 minutes: 21/4/02 (part 2) & 8/6/02 (part 1).
# ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. IX (Auricle) CDR £5.00, m/m £3.00 - 71 minutes: 8/6/02 (part 2).
ENDGAME - ICH BIN SCHIZOPHRENE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A very different Endgame album, eccentric & diverse, 17 tracks! If Endgame did a "Faust Tapes"? Yes, this could be it!
ENDGAME - CYTOPLASM (Auricle) CDR £4.90 - Sampler of unique/choice pieces/extracts.
ENDGAME - ECTOPLASM (Auricle) CDR £4.90 - This finds us attempting a more accessible set, but still uneasy & with an underlying weirdness peeking through. Plus CD-ROM html files.
ENDGAME - METABOLISM (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Endgame, but not the usual fare, guitars with distortion, frenzied psychedelic underground.
ENDGAME - ENDOPLASM (Auricle) CDR £4.90 - Sampler of all unique material (1999-2002).
ENDGAME - TOXIC - DO NOT OPEN! (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Dare you open the box? The music is vivid, dark, deep-intoxicating-engrossing. Acid mind tingling! Just 4 long works in 78 minutes.
ENDGAME - BIOPLASM (Auricle) CDR £4.90 - Classical Ligeti meets Stockhausen feel, cum early Cluster/abstract Throbbing Gristle, & almost Nurse With Wound according to one customer!
ENDGAME - NUCLEOPLASM (Auricle) CDR £4.90 - The unexpected 6th album in the "Plasm" series, Endgame live & studio recordings (May-June 2003).
ENDGAME - ENDANGERED SPECIES (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A journey through the psychedelic underground, kosmische with an accent on weirdness, live musique-concret, with shimmering/shuddering fabrics, guitars, etc.
# ENDGAME - ENGAGING PROVIDENCE (Auricle) CDR £6.85, m/m £4.00 - Inspired by surreal film imagery, textural & collage, lots of live vinyl/tape/sample work, dense & abstract electronics, etc.
ENDGAME - PARADOXE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Deep unfolding kosmische/electroacoustic, full of strange & perplexing vivid imagery, sonic textures & pure invention in a live studio performance.
ENDGAME - EUPHORIA (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Out there in a soundwash ooze, with a haunting piano, chorales & fuzz. Surreal fabrics & tonalities, ring modulations, loops, guitars, etc.
ENDGAME - CUPOLA (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - "Cupola" = Dome, & this is Endgame works that gave the impression of being Dome (Lewis & Gilbert) inspired.
ENDGAME - SHIPWRECKED (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A unique visionary sci-fi suite, a conceptual work of picture music that wrote itself! Plus a bonus 21st Century electronic suite. Unlike any Endgame before - vivid, perplexing, extraordinary!
ENDGAME - NUCLI (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Perceived as a sonic musical creation of elements like the TAGC of the DNA, this is typical Endgame, yet not at all like anything we've done before, & therefore another new invention! Just 3 large flowing works.
ENDGAME - H2SO4 (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Endgame musically recreate the properties of sulphuric acid! As hinted at with "Metabolism" & "Toxic..." this is destined to challenge, but as a collection of 5 shorter pieces it's a far more manageable release for the newcomer.
ENDGAME - FLUXION (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Surreal & unfocused, but with a purpose, this is pretty much the live sound of Endgame serenely yet aggressively blended, going onto new uncharted territory. 3 major flowing abstract works that ooze & flow as if ionised & atomic.
ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. X (Auricle) CDR £5.00 - 68 minutes: 20/1/04 & 3/8/04.
ENDGAME - MP3 DISC (Auricle) CDR £11.75 - If you have a computer that can play mp3 files then this is the cheapest, greatest way to discover Endgame. Duration: 17 hours 16 minutes 15 seconds - almost unbelievable, yet it sounds remarkably good!
ENDGAME - HEXED (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 6 very different works: from the tonal fabrics of "Catamount Minor Tremble", onward though spooky soundscapes, diverting to the dense sonic sludge of "Waste Disposal" to the poignant Schulze-ish closer "There's No One There".
ENDGAME - NATTMARA (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 2 chillingly dark improvised soundtracks for the mind: "The Naked Fear Terminal" is a work of both startling unnerving intensity & subtle surreal spookiness, "Caustis Perpetua" wallows & writhes in a simultaneously warm & unwelcoming void.
ENDGAME - MAROONED (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - The bizarre misadventures of Ernest B. Grimm continue, in a very different album from "Shipwrecked" but nevertheless with occasional thematic ingredients that hark back to its predecessor & complement it.
ENDGAME - CAGE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - "Cage" involves themes from a certain film involving paranoia, unreality, confusion & manipulation. This strange atmosphere yielded 2 near-on segued suites designed to jolt & perplex the listener. Be prepared for a very strange trip.
ENDGAME - A WITNESS TO MADNESS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Dedicated to Edgar Allen Poe, with an infernal heartbeat rhythm that acted as the framework for some extraordinary sonic invention.
ENDGAME - UNDERWORLD (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - This is aptly dark, strange & vividly almost scary, & best heard in the dark! This release alternates 5 parts of 2 works: "Subterraneans" & "Be Wear The Wolf, Man! He's Lupis".
ENDGAME - B C N U (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A strange conceptionalised opus full of surreal imagery, in 3 nice chunks. "Xenogen" is a bizarre work of fractured metal, "Six Of One" is an imaginary soundtrack, & "Shards Of Ice Quench The Fire Of The Mind".
ENDGAME - C (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Culled from Endgame session 100! That's the Roman numeral "C" ! C is Cosmic, Confluent, Corosive, Caustic, Celestial, Cerebral, & a Continuous Creation that lasts almost 65 minutes. There's very little melodic focus, yet it is "musical" in the way that early Cluster was, teetering on the edge...
ENDGAME - ALLES ÜBER SCHIZOPHRENE? (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - An eccentric & diverse collection of oddments. If any Endgame release could be compared to the eccentric Dada of Nurse With wound then this is it. The material here has specially been chosen because of its perilous balance between the outrageous & its fiendish creativity.
ENDGAME - PETRI PERPLEX (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Dedicated to the spirit of Nurse With Wound (an afterthought really, & not really a homage) this is an eerie & strange slice of Endgame, a musical "Outer Limits" experience that defies any attempt at simple description!
ENDGAME - A FAUSTIAN FARMYARD (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Three totally different Endgame recordings, that all seemed somewhat Faust-like to us, hence the title! Warning: All anomalous noises on this record are purely intentional! Plus CD-ROM bonus.
ENDGAME - HORIZONS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A collection of visions, imaginary soundtracks & a good deal of sci-fi inspiration: cosmic, melodic, sometimes almost chaotic!
ENDGAME - LIVE, VOL. XI (Auricle) CDR £5.00 - 79 minutes: 28/6/05 & 28/11/06.
ENDGAME - OBVIOUS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - An anti-title as nothing is really obvious here! 10 diverse tracks, some of it powerful, some of it totally bizarre, & much of it is cosmic.
ENDGAME - SCHATTEN (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - An aptly dark "shadowy" & spooky excursion, like the soundtrack to a nightmare, lost in a spooky haunted house!
ENDGAME - SURREALISM IS A STATE OF MIND (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - "Why does he love it when his brains turn to sludge & ooze out of his nostrils?" This, & many other questions, deliberately not answered by Endgame = perplexing creative music.
ENDGAME - SPACED (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A sci-fi theme to this very different Endgame, but very aptly spacey! Set your controls to "trip"... 8 trips of sonic/oozing/flowing invention.
ENDGAME - KHIMAIRA (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - "Khimaira" the classical Greek spelling of "Chimera" (pronounced kai-mare-a), the fanciful beast of Greek mythology that shouldn't exist.
ENDGAME - ELEMENTAL TRAVELLER (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A web of 12 inter-related tracks covering a wide range of styles, levels & moods, with Kosmische Krautrock elements to it! In some ways this could be classed as one of the most instantly accesible of Endgame releases.
ENDGAME - OCULAR (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Deliberately spaced-out, sometimes very subdued, but with great dynamics, at other times it threatens to engulf the listener. The general feel is pretty avant-garde, electroacoustic (betwixt Stockhausen, Pierre Henry & Nurse With Wound).
ENDGAME - LIVE @ BAMBU (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - The first full night's Endgame gig in 5 years, here caught in its entirety (except some minor editing of glitches). Just 4 big pieces of typical Endgame, yet with a wealth of new ideas.
ENDGAME - A MIND UNFOLDING (Auricle) DVDR £8.80 - Endgame live in the studio, recorded & filmed spontaneously, & largely unremixed. With 3 real big chunks of that patent Endgame primordial ooze, that ebbs, grows & threatens to engulf listener.
ENDGAME - DARK MATTER (Auricle) DVDR £8.80 - Format: 16:9 widescreen PAL, region free. No studio film on this one! This is pure music video, with space scenes, warped effects & all sorts of weird art & psychedelic visuals! No doubt there will be more to come!
ENDGAME - COBWEBS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Just when you thought you'd heard every style of Endgame, along came a spider... dark, spooky, creepy, it's unreal! Right down to the phantom violin opus (track 6), be prepared for a wealth of surprises!
ENDGAME - MEMENTO (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - "Memento" (a suite in 4 movements) - so much a live electroacoustic performance, more than the usual (?) Endgame, it was easy to conceptualise this, especially so as the four improvisations recorded on 4 April 2008 were all quite different.
ENDGAME - LIVE DVD OFFICIAL BOOTLEG (Auricle) DVDR £5.00 - This DVD is compiled from non-professional audience footage made with old &/or low-budget equipment.
ENDGAME - GRAVITY WELL (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - An enigmatic one (culled from 2 sessions in 2003) with contrasting elements: cosmic & avant-garde, with a recurring thematic focus, jolting/jarring patterns, lots of oozing flows & a good few powerful crescendos.
ENDGAME - NO RANDOM SPLICE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A hour-long sonic trek (recorded 11/11/2003), full of weather sounds, musique-concrete & weirdness. A very different twist on electroacoustic music, but typically Endgame!
# ENDGAME - THINGAMAJIG (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - A collection of diverse fragments & choice pieces from 3 different sessions. It seems that we were into pure experimentation & trying out lots of new ideas in winter 2003/4. There are musical concoctions here that even I've never heard before. In all, it amounts to some of the weirdest Endgame ever, some of it like sonic meteor collisions rendered with the most bizarre sounds imaginable. Yet there are still moments of pure beauty. The familiar meets the unfamiliar, there's a surprise around every corner!
# ENDGAME - TEMPORAL CEMENT (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Another one hour opus, expanded, time dilated & convoluted by Alan, running amok with pitch shifting, collage & digital musique-concrete techniques. From silence to thunderous highs, a myriad different places, & back down again - feel the cement set!
# ENDGAME - HORSELENGTH (Auricle) DVDR £8.80 - Live at The Horse Hospital, 14/12/2008. Our first gig outside Leicester, 2 sets in 47 minutes, with video recorded/edited by Jim Tetlow.
ERUPTION - LAVA (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Free improvised electronics, guitars & violin from Endgame + El Monte (member of Volcano The Bear). Very much in the spirit of Kosmische Krautrock & explorative avant-garde, very much a nod to the early-70's rock underground!
ESCAPE ROUTE - PANDORA'S BOX (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Debut from the hybrid project of Alto Stratus & Chris Conway's Contumuum, live @ Bambu 2007. A unique blend of electronics plus!
ESCAPE ROUTE - SCYLLA & CHARYBDIS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 2nd from Leicester's Improv Electronic Quartet: dark/melodic/unnerving/inspiring!
# ESCAPE ROUTE - COLUMNS OF HERAKLES (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Spontaneous live sessions recorded at Quadelectronic event in 2008. Who knows what the future will hold when one has ventured towards "the lost realm of Atlantis" & created music like nothing else on Earth!
EXTREMITIES - VIELLE A CRU (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - Endgame plus Dave Powell on electrified/processed hurdy gurdy. With sublime ethnic forgeries, Faustian, Krautrocky, diverse psychedelic intoxications, sonic nightmares & pure eccentricity.
EXTREMITIES - QUANTUM MECHANICS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - In many ways this is the rockiest excursion of the Freeman Bros. & Co., with a very rocky focus due to Jim's vibrant rhythms, & the mood is Krautrocky in a Neu!/Faust/Einsturzende Neubauten vein.
EXTREMITIES - TURBULENCE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - The most spontaneous release from the Endgame/Triax hybrid, with some wicked percussive drives, Kosmische & Krautrock hybrids, etc.
EXTREMITIES - INTRIGUE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - November 2006 session, radical/intensive & really out-there, tripping over the edge! Kinda Nurse With Wound meets Faust, via Throbbing Gristle, Tangerine Dream & pure avant-garde.
EXTREMITIES - FRACTURE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - The most varied but cohesive yet, "Fracture" lives up to its name in its palette of diversity, with a Krauty/folky/weirdy/unclassifiable mixture that really sizzles. This was one of the most intensive & productive of Extremities sessions.
EXTREMITIES - SYMBIOSIS (Auricle) DVDR £8.80 - 3 symbiotic homogeneous works, hence the very apt title, all filmed live to PC & simultaneously recorded direct to digital, this time with Steve & Alan doing lots of low-tech visual effects, filming through a whisky tumbler, etc.
EXTREMITIES - COLLISION THEORY (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Amazingly varied free-rock & avant electronics. A wide range of styles & a vibrant hybrid of Endgame meets Triax.
ALAN FREEMAN - MEZZOSPHERE (Auricle: 2xBT) CDR £6.85 - Member of: Alto Stratus, Endgame, Triax, etc. 1989 cosmic ambient opus that's otherworldly & surreal, with hints of early Popol Vuh, a little Schulzian "Irrlicht" in the use of strings, & a Middle-Eastern/Oriental edge.
ALAN FREEMAN - XYLEM (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Early electroacoustic/musique-concrete experiments (1983) & ambient synth works (1984-86).
ALAN FREEMAN - MELTING PHASE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Largely synthesizer based 2001 solo, but not normal synth music, this explores unique surreal territory, with weird bubblings & synth textures, onto the realms of innovators Asmus Tietchens & Conrad Schnitzler.
ALAN FREEMAN - CAPTURED FLUX (Auricle) CDR 6.85 - Completely created on guitar, & obviously inspired by the pioneering works of Robert Fripp, Richard Pinhas & Manuel Göttsching, this is a textural world of multi-layered guitar textures, cyclical patterns & loops.
ALAN FREEMAN - SKETCHBOOK (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Electronic music, but not that you know it! 2002 solo recordings: electronics, guitar & collage.
# ALAN FREEMAN - ELEMENTAL MEDITATION (Auricle) CDR £5.00 - Recorded live at Tachyon Studio on 2/12/2001 in real time to cassette tape, with the intention of being used for concert backing tapes but never was!
STEVE FREEMAN - CATACLYSM (Auricle: 1xBT) CDR £6.85 - Member of: Alto Stratus, Endgame, Triax, etc. 1983 concept based around the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse, sombre & disturbing, but with an air of optimism, resulting in a rewarding poignant experience.
STEVE FREEMAN - SCORPIO (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Collection of historic 1983 works, of musique-concrete & sonic/electronic textures, for those into the dark & strange.
STEVE FREEMAN - CONUNDRUM (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Continuing Steve's ideas in sonic recycling, this goes much further into his use of Steve Reich styled loop-phasing techniques, with parallels to Glenn Branca, with the daring audacity we expected with old Nurse With Wound
IMPROMPTU ELECTRONIC - LIVE @ BAMBU (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - This documents 2007 concerts at the Bambu bar. Culled from two hybrid concerts of solos, duos, & jams involving 4 or 5 musicians (from Endgame & Continuum), from the chaotic to the majestic.
# THE NEWT HOUNDS - THE POIGNANT DEVICE (Ultimate Transmissions) CD £9.80, m/m £7.50 - A homage to Nurse With Wound, surrealism, the art of B. Kliban, & more, this is an eccentric diversion from the Alto Stratus people, with guests from Volcano The Bear & Shapeshifter.
THE NEWT HOUNDS - LOOSE NUTS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 99 tracks in 78 minutes! The Newt Hounds take you to were no-one else has!
POLYMORPH - SHAMAN (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Endgame + Maureen Anderson (of Shapeshifter) = Polymorph, kinda Mother Gong ventures to Musica Elettronica Viva's "Leave The City"?
THE SCANNER GAME - MUSICI (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Endgame meets The Planet Scanners (Chris Conway's improvising space music trio). Live at The Musician pub, Leicester 2004. Culled from 2 big 60+ minute jams, this 74 minute disc is full of invention.
THE SCANNER GAME - COURTEOUS (Auricle) CDR £4.90 - One 47'49" improvisation recorded at The Musician pub (28/6/05), this also features Dave Powell on hurdy-gurdy.
TRIAX - MUSIK ZU ARCANA (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Guitars, bass and a hurdy-gurdy (plus lotsa electronics) = Triax, the 3 axes of Extremities (Alan and Steve Freeman plus Dave Powell). A strange music: dark & weird, with 9 diverse new creations. Not for the timid!!!
TRIAX - CROC EN JAMBE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Very different to the debut, this is more out-there on the ethereal plane, a unique mixture of genres & inventions, with lots of new surprises!
# TRIAX - DRIE SNIJDENDE VLAKKEN (Auricle) CDR £6.85, m/m £4.00 - With a triangular front cover! Eclectic & fascinating instrumental music.
# TRIAX - SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75, m/m £6.00 - Combining abstract & melodic electronics, guitars, hurdy-gurdy, lots of bowed instruments & processing, somewhere between early Cluster, the Third Ear Band, Nurse With Wound, & a nod towards Endgame (naturally!).
# TRIAX - DANGEROUS PLAYGROUND (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75, m/m £6.00 - An imaginary soundtrack? A collection of macabre musical visions? This is eerie and macabre sounding stuff, with tonalities you're unlikely to hear in any other music.
TRIAX - MOEBIUS STRIP (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - Submerge yourself in a 121'21" excursion: vast & flowing, sometimes really minimal, but also growing to extraordinary heights, with guitars, electronics, hurdy-gurdy & all sorts of weirdness!
TRIAX - SHATTERED (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Triax Vol. 7 is a mystical/mutilated mixture of melodic & sonic fabrics. Entirely in a world of its own!
TRIAX - ALIEN FOLK (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Adding violin to Dave's repertoire instantly meant a change of focus, and add to that an armory of percussive intruments & toys.
TRIAX - EMBRYO (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Triax reincarnated as a flute & electronics outfit, with Dave adopting the role of cosmic echo flautist in addition to his other instruments. With more nifty use of sampling: Mellotrons, rhythmic loops, & such-like, it's all taking the music somewhere else.
TRIAX - TORN ASUNDER (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - The ever expanding instrumentation of Triax! Album #10 has sax, flute & violin, a more diverse & fragmented album with a total of 24 tracks.
TRIAX - SUPERNATURAL TROUBADOURS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Triax #11 sees the uncompromising/explorative trio turning into a mini orchestra, with cello, violins, sax, oboe, etc., in addition to the usual guitars, hurdy-gurdy, synths, etc.
TRIAX - CAUSE & EFFECT (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - VCD video disc. Triax raw session footage (2/1/2007), for a private concert in your living room! This should play on most DVD players.
TRIAX - CAUSE & EFFECT (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Companion to the CDV. More abstract with solos to the fore, reconstructed extensively for a different experience to the CDV.
TRIAX - CAUSE & EFFECT (Auricle) DVDR £8.80 - Region free PAL system video. Enhanced picture quality, with missing track: "Session #5".
TRIAX - 13 (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - The number 13 is said to be "unlucky for some" but not in this case, as this is yet another album full of surprises!
TRIAX - LIVE @ BAMBU (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - After 13 albums of session work, the debut of Triax live, culled from 2 gigs (January & March 2007), intuitive improvisation featuring hurdy-gurdy, guitars, flute, electronics, etc.
TRIAX - UNHINGED (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - A pretty mixed up selection of choice cuts from 2 big Triax sessions. A mixture of the old, the new, & types of Triax that even we'd never heard before! Kosmismiche, musique-concrete, ethnic music from Jupiter? Even some industrial Krautrock.
TRIAX - FRACTAL (Auricle) DVDR £8.80 - Region free PAL system video. From the sessions of Triax 13. A great value 90 minutes of Triax live in the studio (12/2/2007), with lots of special visual effects, psychedelic patterns, animations, etc.
TRIAX - CYCLE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Ouroboros is an ancient alchemy symbol depicting a snake or dragon consuming its own tail, constantly creating itself & forming a circle. Aptly "Cycle" does just that, it constantly recycles & consumes itself, over & over in changing combinations.
TRIAX - CREATURES (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - Crammed full of some of the most powerful Triax yet, recorded October & December 2007. With another new instrument: Stylophone!
TRIAX - LIVE 080308 (Auricle) DVDR £8.80 - Support for Black Carrot, live at the Charlotte, Leicester. A very different Triax gig, more condensed, more focused, more melodic...
TRIAX - RAZOR (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Ever attempting new ideas & new challenges, here's an album that's been totally slashed apart, twisted, flipped & rearranged into something new. The material, very different, puzzling & eclectic, demanded it, & it all seemed to fall together well.
TRIAX - VORTEX (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Unlike its predecessor "Razor" here we have 5 sessions that remain 5 mixed works, each a puzzle in itself. Welcome to the world of surreal mixing "The Vortex" - a kind of concept opus.
TRIAX - THREADS (Auricle) 2CDR £11.75 - All the best &/or very different stuff from 3 mammoth sessions, a lot of it pretty radical & challenging - it could be seen as a huge 158 minute Triax "Faust Tapes" lots of "rock" rhythmic drives, sizzling electronic overloads, freaky guitars, etc.
# TRIAX - METAMORPHIC TRICKSTER (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - "A Surly Finalé" was actually the first track recorded here, because it seemed more like an ending, even when we did it. After that we (or, should I say - I) had problems with weird buzzing. Arghhh, perils of the misbehaving noisy computer, I couldn't locate the problem so decided to give it a rest & concentrate on guitar instead, & hence we have a very different Triax here, on the one hand back to early Triax sound, but with a wider ranging, richer, more "melodic" sound palette.
# ZIRCON & THE BURNING BRAINS - CORTEX! (Auricle) MC £4.40 - (Ultimate Transmissions: 2xBT) CD £8.00, m/m £6.00 - Alan & Steve Freeman together with Nigel Harris, Avant-garde/industrial/electronic sonic-art weirdness in the realms of Throbbing Gristle, Nurse With Wound, onto early Cluster, Musica Elettronica Viva & Karlheinz Stockhausen.
ZIRCON & THE BURNING BRAINS - OUT OF THE ASHES (Auricle) MC £4.40 - Bordering industrial, avant-garde, synth music, musique-concret, audio collage & more.
ZIRCON & THE BURNING BRAINS - COLD SMOKE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 1981-87 archive recordings, featuring the remainder of the "Out Of The Ashes" cassette.
ZIRCON & THE BURNING BRAINS - EMBERS (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 2nd ZBB archive selection, wrapping up some of the best weirder moments 1981-86, inc. lost "db" material.
ZIRCON & THE BURNING BRAINS - ZIRCOGNITION (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 2004 studio CD, not so much a reformation, with Nigel Harris in Japan, Steve & Al Freeman in the UK.
ZIRCON & THE BURNING BRAINS - OCCIDENTAL ENCOUNTER (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - Back together in the Tachyon Studio for a new one-off live session (August 2004). It's as though we'd never been apart, this is ZBB reincarnate, but on a much more professional level.
THE ZIRCON GAME - FIRE LANE (Auricle) CDR £6.85 - 2004 impromptu sessions from Endgame/ZBB hybrid. Radical electroacoustic excursions, betwixt INA.GRM & NWW. The complete recordings of 2 sessions, buzzing with creative energy.
label listings...
AURICLE CASSETTES
Escape From The Cage series...
1: SPACE-ROCK & THE FOURTH DIMENSION (AMC 040) c90 - £5.00
2: INTO THE UNDERWORLD (AMC 041) c90 - £5.00
3: IMAGES OF INFINITY (AMC 044) c90 - £5.00
AURICLE CDR's
1??. Escape Route - COLUMNS OF HERAKLES (AMCDR 1??) ??'??" - TBA
1??. ? - ? (AMCDR 1??) TBA
Samplers / Various Artists...
1. AURICLE CASSETTES SAMPLER (AMSCDR 001) 78'28" - £5.00
2. HISTORICAL AURICLE (AMSCDR 002) 79'29" - £5.00
3. UT GOLDEN HOUR (AMSCDR 003) 60'14" - £5.00
4. AURICLE ARCHIVE SAMPLER (AMSCDR 004) 71'41" - £5.00
5. AURICLE CDR 2001 SAMPLER (AMSCDR 005) 72'43" - £5.00
6. A CAGE WENT IN SEARCH OF A BIRD - SELECTIONS (AMSCDR 006) 71'39" - £5.00
7. AURICLE CDR 2002 SAMPLER (AMSCDR 010) 74'00" - £5.00
8. AURICLE CDR 2003 SAMPLER (AMSCDR 011) ?'00" TBA
9. AURICLE CDR 2004 SAMPLER (AMSCDR 012) ?'00" TBA
10. AURICLE CDR 2005 SAMPLER (AMSCDR 013) 75'03" - £5.00
11. AURICLE CDR 2006 SAMPLER (AMSCDR 014) ?'00" TBA
12. THE COSMIC AURICLE & OTHER EGGSHELLS (AMSCDR 015) 59'55" - free with "Cosmic Egg" CD-Rom
Escape From The Cage series...
11. SPACE-ROCK & THE FOURTH DIMENSION (AMSCDR 007) 79'34" - £7.00
12. INTO THE UNDERWORLD (AMSCDR 008) 73'04" - £7.00
13. IMAGES OF INFINITY (AMSCDR 009) 79'40" - £7.00
Auricle Archive CDR's...
1. ZBB - COLD SMOKE (AMACDR 001) 73'16" - £7.00
2. Alto Stratus - DUIN THA' WHITEHOUSE (AMACDR 002) 73'36" - £7.00
3. Alto Stratus - VRIJE 1983 (AMACDR 003) 73'49" - £7.00
4. Alto Stratus - PANTHEON 1984 (AMACDR 004) 71'15" - £7.00
5. Alto Stratus - DARK STAR (AMACDR 005) 73'46" - £7.00
6. Alan Freeman - XYLEM (AMACDR 006) 73'47" - £7.00
7. Steve Freeman - SCORPIO (AMACDR 007) 69'49" - £7.00
8. Alto Stratus - REGION 5 (AMACDR 008) 79'19" - £7.00
9. Alto Stratus - ELECTRIC JUNK (AMACDR 009) 73'51" - £7.00
10. Alto Stratus - ADHARA (AMACDR 010) 71'28" - £7.00
11. ZBB - EMBERS (AMACDR 0011) 76'48" - £7.00
12. Various - RARITIES (AMACDR 012) 73'22" - £7.00
13. Various - RARITIES 2 (AMACDR 013) 57'35" - £7.00
14. Various - ILLUMINATED PLEASURES (AMACDR 014) 56'25" - £7.00
15. Various - A BREEZE OF TIME (AMACDR 015) 72'00" - £7.00
16. Alto Stratus - IT CRAWLED OUT OF THE WOODWORK (016) 66'00" - £7.00
17. Various - AURICLE ARCHIVE SAMPLER (AMSCDR 004) 71'41" - £7.00
Endgame special "Plasm" series of CDR releases
1. PROTOPLASM (AMEGD1) 58'00"+CD-Rom - £5.00
2. CYTOPLASM (AMEGD2) 73'32" - £5.00
3. ECTOPLASM (AMEGD3) 59'10"+CD-Rom - £5.00
4. ENDOPLASM (AMEGD4) 73'48" - £5.00
5. BIOPLASM (AMEGD5) 70'55" - £5.00
6. NUCLEOPLASM (AMEGD6) 71'50" - £5.00
Endgame "Live" series of CDR releases
1. LIVE VOL. I (AMEGL1) 73'33", June & July 2001 - £5.00
2. LIVE VOL. II (AMEGL2) 70'39", July 2001 - £5.00
3. LIVE VOL. III (AMEGL3) 73'24", Sept 2001 - £5.00
4. LIVE VOL. IV (AMEGL4) 65'21", Sept & Nov 2001 - £5.00
5. LIVE VOL. V (AMEGL5) 73'45", Nov 2001 - £5.00
6. LIVE VOL. VI (AMEGL6) 73'38", March 2002 - £5.00
7. LIVE VOL. VII (AMEGL7) 70'39", April 2002 - £5.00
8. LIVE VOL. VIII (AMEGL8) 62'12", April & June 2002 - £5.00
9. LIVE VOL. IX (AMEGL9) 71'00", June 2002 - £5.00
10. LIVE VOL. X (AMEGL10) 67'54", Jan & Aug 2004 - £5.00
11. LIVE VOL. XI (AMEGL11) 79'14", June 2005 & Nov 2006 - £5.00
UT SHAPESHIFTER SERIES...
ULTIMATE TRANSMISSIONS CD...
COSMIC EGG CD...
MP3 DISCS...
AURICLE VIDEO...
This "label listings" section was last updated 30/4/2009 by Alan Freeman.
Full up-to-date details can be found on the main UT site!
All details subject to confirmation. E&OE