Flicking through the discography of Franco Battiato — the infamous Italian artist widely known for his synth-pop songs such as “Centro Di Gravità Permanente” or “Cuccurucucù” — you come across a peculiar group of LPs, all featuring a white and minimalist cover, that Battiato released in mid ‘70s. These records — M.elle Le “Gladiator” (1974), Franco Battiato (1977), L’Egitto Prima Delle Sabbie (1978) and Juke Box (1978) — contain a mix of minimalistic piano compositions, mostly without the use of voices or any other instruments, exploring repetition, duration and overtone in composition.

Recital is an avant-garde record label based in Glendale — a city outside the borders of Los Angeles, facing Hollywood Hills —  founded in 2011 by Sean McCann, focused on “abstract and beautiful music; sometimes just one of those things and sometimes both of those things” — as defined by McCann himself. The founder is also a composer, a musician, and a curator.  His research is focused on the legacy of the Fluxus movement, Fluxus art, concrete poetry and on the avant-garde approach towards the use of classical instruments such as violin, viola, cello, flute, piano, glockenspiel, and percussion. The episode features: Sean McCann, Idea Fire Company, Kiera Mulhern, Adriano Spatola, Daniel Schmidt, Open Corner. Rip Hayman, Dick Higgins, Aki Onda, Malcolm Green and Philip Corner with George Maciunas.

This episode has been assembled by our friend Giandomenico Carpentieri in occasion of the launch of Doodle Paintings — a book we thought, produced and printed in Venice — available from today on Giandomenico’s publishing output: Union Editions. This selection is just a tiny part of the music he shared with us while working together in Venice, during the days the book has been printed. The episode features: Vtgnike, Smagghe & Cross, Quirke, Arca, Pontiac Streator, Levantis, Young Echo, Loraine James, Ben Bondy, Zuli, East Man, John Roberts, Sary Moussa, Leslie Winer & Jay Glass Dubs and Panoram.

Superpang is a Rome based obscure record label releasing digital-only LPs that explore the extreme boundaries of electronic music. There are no easy to find pieces of information about the label online, except from Super Pang (スーパーパン), the homonymous arcade shooter video game released back in 1990 by Capcom, from which the label probably took its name. The episode features: Mads Kjeldgaard, Yves De Mey, Giovanni Di Domenico, Bjarni Gunnarsson, Guy Birkin, Reinhold Friedl and Evol.

Editions Mego is a record label based in Vienna. It is run by experimental musician Peter Rehberg, taking over the legacy and the catalog of the defunct label Mego, founded in 1994 by Ramon Bauer, Peter Meininger and Andreas Pieper. Since the early 90’s it has been one of the most influential european references in the experimental electronic music scene, releasing records from a heterogeneous variety of artists, from the industrial band Dome to the techno pioneer Mika Vaino. Jim O’Rourke defined the label’s work “a brand new punk computer music”. The episode features: Grand River, Anthony Child, Dome, KMRU, Stephen O’Malley, Julia Reidy, Lucio Capece & Mika Vianio and Fennesz.

We first discovered Astral Industries back in 2014 through its first release — a brilliant dub-techno EP by Deepchord. Last week we bumped into its Discogs page and listened to the following titles: 20 outstanding releases of drones, loops, samples and soundscapes. The London based imprint publishes music “so arresting that pulls you deep inside. Suspensory, storytelling music that keeps you on edge. As emotionally stirring as mentally evocative.” The episode features: Chi, J. Derwor, Sonmi451, Multicast Dynamics, Peter Michael Hamel and Deepchord.

World Music, also known as World Music Group, is an obscure and ambiguous label run by the London based duo Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland (formerly known for their project Hype Williams). The releases are mainly collections of short, cropped tracks that feature the collaborations between the artists and their extensive roaster of friends. The episode features: Dean Blunt, 1995 Epilepsy, DJ Escrow, Yakub, Bo Khat Eternal Troof Family Band, Joanne Robertson, Babyfather with John Glacier & Vegyn, World Music, Nina, Panda Bear, A$AP Rocky & Sauce Walka, Blue Iverson and Junior Demon.

Designed as an outlet for puzzling sounds that question today’s pigeonholes of reception — is the firs paragraph of Karlrecords’ manifesto. The Berlin-based label, active since 2006, is a 100% independent and self-financed label for contemporary music, where the musical artistry counts as much as the aesthetic presentation. The episode features: Saba Alizadeh, Hanno Leichtmann, Brian Harnetty, Aidan Bake, Creta, Die Angel, Kammerflimmer Kollektief and Bérangère Maximin.

This selection is united not so much musically in its form rather than by the sense it gives — the sense of aid and balancing light in the conservative dark of today. This was an attempt to abandon constant analyzing of the context and language each author builds in own work and let more subtle connotations in, let them make you feel lost and blur, alternate your perception of time blurs. The opening piece is by Ukranian-born composer and electroviolinist Valentina Goncharova, who has special affection to Venice where she lived in the tent and performed in the streets long ago. Her material from 1980–90’s was released this summer by amazing label Shukai from Kiev. Among others, both artists and labels, are those who I have personal or imaginary connection in Russia. Nikita Rasskazov is a Moscow based forever music amateur and activist, an occasional dj and music curator for V-A-C Foundation. The episode features: Valentina Goncharova, Stas Sharifullin, Alina Petrova and Kira Weinstein, Valentina Ponomareva, KP Transmission, Stanislav Kreitchi, Elektricheskaya Sobaka, Alexander Serechenko, Daniel Izmaylov, Peter Ototsky, uSSSy, Şirzad Fətəliyev və Arazbarı Balaban Qrupu, Batyrsha Ouyanly, Katya Shirshkova, Pavel Milyakov, Georgy Dorokhov, Klotho, Gamayun, KP Transmission, Office of Passion, Jahmal TGK, LTF, ILYAMAZO, Ivan Zoloto and Sad Imeni Fedora.

Auf Dem Nil (On The Nile) was a label for new experimental music established in 1985 by ADN Records, a Milan based imprint run by Marco Veronesi, Piero Bielli and Alberto Crosta. In its five years of activity, Auf Dem Nil released a total of 12 vinyls, many of them branded “Recommended Records Italia”. CD reissues of most titles were planned circa 1991, but this never happened. The episode features: Conrad Schnitzler & Michael Otto, Riccardo Sinigaglia, F. P. & The Doubling Riders, Christina Kubisch, Pierre Bastien, Andreolina and The Doubling Riders.

Aquamarin Verlag is a German publisher of new age books and music established in 1981 by Dr. Peter Michel and Petra Michel. This is another case in which a forgotten label has been rediscovered and brought back to life, thanks to the publishing activity of a YouTube channel, such as “Sounds of the Dawn”. The episode features: Klaus Wiese, Al Gromer Khan, Iasos and Silmarillion.

KRAAK is a legendary label and publishing house active since the late 90’s in Belgium’s experimental music scene. Its activity could be reassumed through the following extract: Question “Where and how does language transform into music?” A possible answer “At the point where language loses its meaning and becomes pure matter through re-construction and mutation, which is made possible by (new) technologies, inventive manipulation and particular unconventional use of sound and text within artistic contexts”. The episode features: Arf Arf, Calhau!, Köhn, Maan, Gerhard Rühm, Floris Vanhoof, Red Brut and Chik White.

It’s quite challenging to find pieces of information on Pierre Huguet, except from a detailed discography provided by the well-curated Discogs database, that frequently happens to be the only accessible and up to date resource when researching lesser-known artists. Pierre Huguet, throughout the ‘80s and the ‘90s, has been recording traditional chants, choirs of birds and landscape sounds, from the forest of the Amazon to the African savanna, assembling field recordings and creating trance-inducing immersive sound experiences. The episode features only “music” produced by Pierre Huguet.

Ulrich Krieger is a German composer and saxophone player teaching Composition and Experimental Sound Practices at CalArts, California. According to Ulrich, this episode is the soundtrack for 2020: for the corona pandemic that shows how vulnerable our seemingly stable societies are and how fast things can change; for the civil uprising in the USA and worldwide, finally demanding real social equality for everyone in our societies, not just lip-service; for a change that finally let’s go of the left-overs of the 19th-century authoritarian social system on which our western society is built upon. But ultimately it is music about the necessity of change and the beauty and strength that lies within change once you accepted it. The episode features: Ulrich Krieger, Bohren & der Club of Gore, Blood Oath, Luigi Nono, Fear for the Dust, Krzysztof Penderecki and Thergothon.

Deadlines are sometimes a sore subject. In the past two years of broadcast we asked friends and music collectors we admire to contribute to the radio program, but in many occasions we never received their selection. This episode was collected asking the same people some listening tips while working in the studio during the last week. The episode features: Møzaika, Sons Of Silence, X.Y.R., Brother Ah, RIP Swirl, Heavenly Music Corporation, Piero Milesi, J. Derwort and Robert Wyatt.

This episode has been assembled as the soundtrack of the launch party of Lorenzo Mason Studio, with its new set up and furniture designed and built in location. The event was supposed to take place in the first months of this year, but has been long-postponed due to the pandemic restrictions. The materials of this soundtrack are sourced from a combination of the back catalogue of two labels: Future Times and New Atlantis Records. The episode features Soda Lite, Sir EU, Webstarr, Past Lives, Model Home, Dolo Percussion, Max D., Nappynappa and Sign Libra.

In 1965, Sol LeWitt wrote to his friend and artist Eva Hesse this long letter of encouragement to overcome creative blocks: “Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping, … Stop it and just DO! … Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you — draw & paint your fear and anxiety … You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO.” Episode 113 has been put together walking through the back catalogue of the Mexico City based tape and vinyl label Umor Rex. The episode features: Matthewdavid, Rafael Anton Irisarri, M. Geddes Gengras, Roberto Carlos Lange, Thé Déluge, James Place and Dustin Wong and Takako Minekawa and Good Willsmith.

Going back to my musical roots, so to speak, I’ve pulled out a selection of rare groove / hard-to-find vinyl that I’ve collected between the late 90’s up until 2010 when I moved to Australia and decided to stop buying records (moved too far, too many times). Composed of film scores, library music and none-hit wonders recorded between the late 60’s and 70’s, this episode pays homage to music that epitomises rarity in “crate digging.” Library music was never meant for consumers, it’s essentially business to business music that was created for advertising jingles, radio, presentation slides, etc so it’s incredibly hard to find actual copies of this stuff (and often quite expensive). While the bulk of the artists featured here never really had any commercial success (Paul McCartney would have single-handedly made up for all their combined shortcomings), their sound was given a second life and decades later formed the foundations for the genre that would become hip hop and rap music. The espisode features: Jason Havelock, Jay Richford & Gary Stevan, Alan Tew & Bullet, Dick Walter, Arawak, Waters, Orchestra Gary Pacific, Les Baxter, Paul McCartney, Annette Peacock, Janne Schaffer, The Bubble Gum Machine, Joe Pass, Johnny Harris, Travis Biggs, Reg Tilsley Orchestra, Roger Webb, Roy Budd, Gianni Ferrio, Alain Goraguer, Sun, Michael Shrieve, The Yamasuki Singers, Gábor Szabó & The California Dreamers and Joe Cruz & The Cruzettes.

Ennio Morricone died a few days ago in Rome, his beloved hometown. Besides being a renowned film soundtrack composer and arranger for the Italian popular music industry, his interest in experimentation led him to join Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza in 1966: first avant-garde improvisation group, dedicated to the development of new music and anti-musical systems. The group created abrasive and intricate sound studies on classical instruments and occasionally employed electronics and tape music methods in the process. The collective included, among others, Morricone’s dear friend Egisto Macchi — who, with his music, contributed to approximately 1000 television shows and documentaries about philosophy, geography and art. The episode features: Ennio Morricone, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza and Egisto Macchi.

Calpyso Now is an independent cassette label founded by Rudi Tüscher focused on Industrial, experimental and minimal wave music. From 1983 to 1988 he released around 200 cassettes, most of them in collaboration with other labels. Tapes were copied over the years as needed, and the covers don’t always carry mention of the Calypso Now label and never a catalogue number.  All this because Tüscher believed in the punk motto “Be there or be square”. The episode features: Rimarimba, John J. Lafia, The Modern Art, Audio Leter/Attrition, Non Toxique Lost, WeR7, Viscera, Bande Berne Crematoire, Years On Earth, Sir Freddi Viadukt, Chris Carter and Cleaners From Venus.

This episode is an exploration of Spotify’s radio algorithm, a tool that automatically creates playlists according to a key musician selected by the user. In this case the starting point was Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. The tracks have been later assembled with a new order, different from the one proposed by Spotify to obtain a more fluid and consistent result. The algorithm in itself is quite accurate in suggesting similar artists, but of course, it will never surprise you with the unexpected – and perhaps desired – suggestions. The episode features: Wilson Tanner, Unknown Mobile, Cybe, Khotin, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Ulla Straus and Laraaji.

Terre Thaemlitz is a multi-media producer, writer, DJ and owner of Tokyo-based label Comatonse Recordings. Originally founded in New York, in 1993, as private imprint of Terre’s works, that at the time was a DJ at the notorious transsexual sex worker club Sally’s II. As artist, speaker and educator, Thaemlitz works on issues of non-essentialist Transgenderism and Queerness. As DJ — under her infamous alias DJ Sprinkles — she focusses on sniper-sets aimed at a long gone generation of angry and depressed queer AIDS activists, unafraid to cry on the dancefloor. The episode features various tracks produced by Terre Thaemlitz under different aliases, all published on Comatonse Recordings.

“Many decades ago I made a compilation cassette for a friend who had requested that I make her a music mix that started with three ‘down’ songs, followed by two ‘up’ songs. The compilation that you are about to listen to does not start with three ‘downs’ and two ‘ups’, but I’m still calling it that, in homage to that mixtape made many decades ago.” The episode features: Meredith Monk & Robert Een, Philip Glass, Scott Johnson, Miley Cyrus, David Byrne, Throbbing Gristle, Stars of the Lid, Roberto Musci & Giovanni Venosta, Holger Czukay, Laurie Anderson, Yoko Ono & The Plastic Ono Band and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Episode 106 is a tribute to the fundamental heritage created by the African-American artists in the history of music. It’s a one-hour collection of black poetry, rebel music and revolutionary messages. From blues to jazz, from soul to hip-hop, they’ve been using music as a way to comunicate ideas, to protest against inequity and to fight racism. The episode features: Last Poets, Amiri Baraka, Watts Prophets, Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Langston Hughes, Gil Scott-Heron, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders.

Founded in 2006, Primary Information is a Brooklyn Based non-profit organization that publishes affordable artists’ books and records. The statement on their website affirms that Primary Information “believes that books can function as exhibitions, making the work of artists distributable to a global audience. As a central tenant of its mission, the organization prices all books at cost so that they are affordable and accessible to the largest possible audience.” The brilliant collection of writings by Tony Conrad in among the published titles as well as the reprint of “Stockhausen Serves Imperialism” by Cornelius Cardew. The episode features: Rhys Chatham, Co La, C. Spencer Yeh, Allan Kaprow, XXX Macarena (Tony Conrad, Jutta Koether, John Miller), The Guerrilla Art Action Group, Dan Graham & The Static and Dieter Roth.

Episode 104 is an exploration of contemporary ambient artists, through the back catalogue of Sacred Phrases, a tape label based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The label strongly focuses on current electronics, experimental ambient and drone zones, blurring the borders between genres and labels. The episode features: Christophe Bailleau & Pulse Emitter, M. Geddes Gengras, Sylvia Monnier, Kara-Lis Coverdale, LXV & Karmelloz, Hakobune, Brandal, 21st Century Wolf, Kara-Lis Coverdale.

Four for, by, or with Pauline Oliveros. This episode features: The New Honey Shade, Golden Offence Orchestra, Neotropic, Carrier Band (Andrew Deutsch and Pauline Oliveros).

PAN is a multi-disciplinary record label founded by the Berlin-based Greek musician and designer Bill Kouligas, that documents the rapidly evolving avant-garde  contemporary electronic music scene wide-ranging from noise to cross-disciplinary practices between visual media, sound and technology. Bill’s background as a visual artist is reflected in the particular cure applied to thoughtfully-designed physical editions. The episode features: Lifted, SKY H1, Tujiko Noriko, Konrad Sprenger, Beatrice Dillon, Jenna Sutela, Elysia Crampton, ADR, Helm and Eartheater.

Trance Port Tapes was established between 1983 and 1984 with the purpose of documenting “the growing trance music local scene” in the Los Angeles area, bypassing the traditional record business pipeline, distributing music that deserved to be heard but probably never found an outlet. One of the tapes featured a lecture given by Dr. Timothy Leary, American writer and psychologist, famous for his advocacy of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. The releases were packaged in a distinctive fold out cardboard sleeve that was numbered and stamped, with inserts containing notes and credits. The episode features: Tom Recchion, Randall Kennedy, Anthony Teti, Repetition Repetition, An Bene and Pierre Lanbow, A Produce, John J. Lafia, Stillife and Scott Fraser.

Leaving Records is a homegrown experimental record label based in Los Angeles. It is run by musician Matthew David and the visual artist Jesselisa Moretti. Even though its catalog appears as an unorthodox and idiosyncratic collage of genres and styles — spanning from contemporary new age to futuristic jazz-hip hop — the label conveys a clear representation of how today’s experimental artists work around technology, techniques and languages. The episode features: Green House, Yialmelic Frequencies, Ana Roxanne, Cool Maritime, John Carroll Kirby, Elliot Bergman and Sam Wilkes.

Founded by LeRoy Stevens, the Los Angeles-based Small World label is focused on sound works by artists: field recordings (a waterway, an aquarium, a textile factory), performance documentation, and the legacy of musique concrète, often playfully blurring the distinctions between those categories. Exquisitely designed objects, these records are also frequently hypnotic, sometimes jarring, and always intensely present. This episode features: Dan Peterman, LeRoy Stevens, Barbara T. Smith (with Joseph Byrd), Bernhard Schreiner, and Thomas Bayrle.

Two years since its launch — existing under a different IP (the website of M–L–XL) — Occasional Radio is ready to begin a new season of episodes, moving to a new address and visual layout. The first episode dedicated to the relaunch of the broadcast is a field recording of the sounds of Easter Sunday in Venice (during the COVID-19 quarantine). The episode features bells, seagulls and swallows.

Pause.
And begin again.

Playboy: Have you ever taken LSD yourself?
Marshal McLuhan: No, I never have. I’m an observer in these matters, not a participant.
The episode features: Les Halles, Visible Cloaks, Spirit & Form, Kosmische Keuterboeren, Raju Arara and Hare Akedod.

Pacific City Sound Visions is an experimental and contemporary new age, futuristic record label founded and ran by Spencer Clark (well known for his duo project with James Ferraro, The Skaters). The label releases a multitude of Clark’s aliases such as Fourth World Magazine and Typhonian Highlife alongside a selection collaborations in which he himself takes part in. The episode features: Star Searchers, The Fanfare of the Ascension of Thee Facehugger, H.R. Giger’s Studiolo, Fourth World Magazine Volume, Typhonian Highlife, Tarzana and Monopoly Child Star Searchers.

Space Age Recordings and Fierce Recordings are two British independent record labels that not only released music from Spacemen3, but were the godfathers of the shoegazer and drone-rock scenes which blossomed in the U.K. at the end of the 1980’s with obvious affinity with the sounds of The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth and Suicide. This episode features also other bands from their catalogue, including a piece from the controversial album ‘LIE: The Love & Terror Cult’ by Charles Manson. The episode features: Angus MacLise, Spacemen 3, Spectrum, Experimental Audio Research, Sonic boom, Octal and Charles Manson.

Hippos In Tanks was a Los Angeles based record label founded in 2010 by Barron Machat and Travis Woolsey. Inactive since late 2015 due to Barron Machat’s passing in a car crash in Miami. The label, named after the novel by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs ‘And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks’, started as a radio program but became in just a couple of year the benchmark for a new wave of Internet age experimental artists such as Dean Blunt, Laurel Halo and James Ferraro. The episode features: D’Eon, Dean Blunt, James Ferraro, Hype Williams, White Car, Triad God, Bodyguard, Laurel Halo, Sleep ∞ Over.

Bruce Mau wrote this sentence in 1998 in his Incomplete Manifesto for Growth. The rest of the music is composed with sounds collected while browsing the Internet during the week of the incredible high tide that dramatically hit Venice.

Coloursound Library is a Munich based experimental, progressive library label, established in 1979, created by Gunter Greffenius. Artwork paintings were often created by his wife Waltraud Greffenius. Notes on records report intringuing descriptions such as: “Documentary and industrial underlays for current themes of modern life”, “Computer Data Sound, the overture to a new era in music”, “Music suitable for heavy industry, production lines, demolitions, earth movements, biological research, laboratories, mines, oil rigs, light industry including electronics”, “Contemporary synthesizer underscores played by computers; depicting future technologies in today’s process”, “Contemporary industrial moods depicting product and fabrication”, “Positive music statements for the commercial creative and business worlds”, “Continuous atmospheric sounds for enigmatic landscapes, metaphysical situations and prehistorical periods”. The episode features: Joel Vandroogenbroeck, Eric Vann, Peter Lüdemann, Alessandro Alessandroni, Klaus Weiss and John Tender.

Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart, is the name of the perfectly imperfect dessert by chef Massimo Bottura of the acclaimed Osteria Francescana. The recipe first came about when Kondo Takahiko, Osteria Francescana’s pastry chef, let go of one of the restaurant’s signature desserts at an inopportune moment. Rather than simply ditch the smashed tart, Takahiko and Bottura decided to remake it in a culinary tribute to the thing that defines great art in any sphere — imperfection. “It’s imperfect,” says Bottura, “in a perfect way.” The episode features: Inspired School Of Astral Music, Blue Communion: ISAM and Time Gate: ISAM.

Artist Cindy Bernard initiated sound. at Angels Gate Park in San Pedro, California, in 1998. This concert series eventually evolved into the Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound—better known as SASSAS—a small Los Angeles organization fostering exciting new site-based work at the intersection of experimental music and contemporary art. The episode features performances from two CD compilations of early sound. concerts: James Tenney (performing John Cage), Solid Eye, Nels Cline and Gregg Bendian (performing John Coltrane and Rashied Ali), Philip Gelb and Pauline Oliveros, Extended Organ, and Voice of the Bowed Guitar.

Acido is a Berlin based imprint, founded in 2004 by Andreas Krumm AKA Dynamo Dreesen. Initially putting out just one record per year, the label was born as the result of impulse, gut instincts and a laissez-faire approach to business. The episode features: Dynamo Dreesen, Porn Sword Tobacco, 291out, SVN, Convextion, Asis, Dresvn, SW., DJ Sotofett

John Giorno died last week, at age 82, at his home in Lower Manhattan, were he was living with his partner Ugo Rondinone. Poet and performer — a strong and suffering voice belonging to New York’s avant-garde milieu — in 1965 has founded the not-for-profit record label and organisation Giorno Poetry Systems with the aim of connecting poetry and related art forms to a larger audience using innovative ideas, audiovisual materials and experimental recording techniques. GPS released albums regularly until the late 1980s featuring recordings by artists such as Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass as well as unique performances by Frank Zappa, Diamanda Galás, Allen Ginsberg, John Cage, Brion Gysin, Giorno himself and William S. Burroughs. The episode features: John Giorno, Rose Lesniak, Anne Waldman, Cabaret Voltaire, Lydia Lunch and Clint Ruin, Richard Hell, John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Brion Gysin with Ramuntcho Matta and Psychic TV.

Em:t has been a cult UK ambient record label, managed by Chris Allen & Dave Thompson, active between 1994 and 1998. It became recognized for its CD releases with animal-themed covers designed by The Designer’s Republic. Conceived as the ambient sublabel of t:me, em:t shut down in 1998 when t:me succumbed to financial troubles. In late 2003, em:t was reformed as a brand new company (em:t Records Ltd.) and began releasing new music, but then again business problems forced its closure in late 2006. The episode features: A Small, Good Thing, Lucid Dreams, Qubism, Carl Stone, Hywel Davies and Beatsystem.

Intentionally left blank. The episode features: Erik Wøllo, Akira Ito, Tim Story, Popol Vuh, Roedelius, Japan, The Durutti Column and Music From The Penguin Cafe.

Tiago is a brilliant designer, craftsman and friend based in London. “Music has always been a very important element in my work, from being an inspirational source to the most dedicated assistant. I carry it with me all the time. This episode compiles a selection of tracks straight from my pocket (portable music player) and represent a sample of my daily listening.” The episode features: Juana Molina, Liars, Beak, Battles, Clinic, The Octopus Project, Tyondai Braxton, Suuns, Brightblack Morning Light, The Beta Band, Animal Collective, Tortoise, Brian Eno & David Byrne, Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld, Darkside and Vincent Gallo.

Foster Reed launched New Albion Records in 1984’s San Francisco. It was a record label centred on a variety of styles that belonged to pioneering contemporary music, releasing aroud five titles a year. The label was named after what Sir Francis Drake named the San Francisco Bay after being the first European to see the area, which was near where the label was founded. Reed decided to close the label in 2012, after 25 indispensable years. In his goodbye note, Foster Reed wrote: “Our audience has always been artists, musicians, composers, dancers and all those who like to stare out of the windows of perception.” The episode features: Stephen Scott, Ingram Marshall, John Adams, Daniel Lentz, Morton Feldman and Joan La Barbara.

Cold Blue is a label active since the early 80’s, started by Jim Fox. It has been launched through a series of 10-inch EPs with a focus on West Coast minimalism and post-minimalism (sometimes defined as the New California School). The label featured works such as Daniel Lentz’s minimalist choirs or the abstract Clay Music by Barney Childs — a project commissioned by Susan Rawcliffe as a vehicle for the challenging variety of ceramic instruments she has designed and made for years. Even though there is a common avant-garde approach that connects all the releases, every single record has its own peculiar personality. The episode will be performed as soundtrack of the show “Masters of Disguise”, curated by M–L–XL for Seeds Gallery London. The episode features: Daniel Lentz, Read Miller, Chas Smith, Barney Childs and Rick Cox.

Séance Centre is a label, a publisher and a distributor of timeless music from the past, present and future. The trio behind the project (a musician, a filmmaker and a graphic designer) have teamed up to discover new and old records to publish through finding original vintage stocks of books, vinyls and cassettes or distributing music from labels and projects that they appreciate. Séance Centre is dedicated to taking their evangelical mission seriously, contextualising their releases with interviews, essays and photos of the musicians and the cultures that generate them. The key to their work, as they declare, is ‘Playing out of time’. The episode features: Shabason and Gunning, Organizatsiya, Short-Term Memory, Playdate, MJ Lallo, Vito Ricci, Massimo Del Corpo, A-TEAM, Michel Banabila, Joanne Forman, Oren Cantrell, Philip Sanderson and Playdate.

In 1842 Francisco Lopez discovered gold while foraging wild onions near an oak tree in Placerita Canyon, initiating the California gold rush. In 1965 Don Buchla introduced his 100 series modular synthesizer at the San Francisco Tape Music Center. These histories are entangled and ongoing. The episode has been curated by Michael Ned Holte, a writer, curator and educator living in Los Angeles and occasional columnist of Occasional Radio. This episode features: Harold Budd, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith & Suzanne Ciani, M. Geddes Gengras, Steve Roden.

Under the direction of artist and curator Matthew Higgs, White Columns gallery of New York City gave life to its record label ‘The Sound of White Columns’ to publish the organization’s longstanding collaborations with musicians that has included such as Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Meredith Monk and many more. In between the highly referenced artists present in this episode, there’s an intruder, a very prolific composer, that released more than ten thousand songs on Youtube and Spotify, but this is another story. The episode features: Martin Creed, Tussle, Ikue Mori and Julianna Barwick, Kim Gordon, David Robbins, The Hungry Food Band, Malcolm Mooney, Karl Holmqvist, David Van Tieghem, Meredith Monk and Christopher Knowles.

Sun Ark, the name that Cameron Stallones has given to his record label, is most likely derived from the synthesis of two mythical stories: Black Ark, the Jamaican recording studio built and owned by reggae and dub producer Lee Perry, and Sun Ra, the afro-american free-jazz-cosmic composer. Although the Californian label leaded by Stallones — also known for his artistic alias Sun Araw — is undoubtedly not devoted to reggae-dub and neither to free-jazz, but for sure derived its experimental, freak, curious and avant-garde approach to its predecessors. The episode features: Galaxy Express 555, Aylu, Samuli Tanner, Sun Araw, Visible Cloaks, Randall McClellan, SK Kakraba, Rob Magill, High Wolf and Samuli Tanner.

“Two Negatives Make a Positive” is a famous math slogan that perfectly fits the humorous and nonsense name of the Los Angeles based enigmatic label explored in episode 78: Not Not Fun Records. Even if this law is not universal and we can all think of many, many cases where two negatives don’t make a positive — for example rain on your wedding day plus grand larceny on your wedding day does not make for a winning combination, despite what “two negatives make a positive” would suggest — the pretty unknown music published by Not Not Fun can be the perfect soundscape for your relaxing afternoons while reading your favorite novel in the countryside. The episode features: Channelers, Unknown Me, Atariame, Dravier, X.Y.R., Les Halles, Dreamers Cloth and Wave Temples.

Ziggy Devriendt, AKA Nosedrip, is the Belgium based DJ and visionary founder of Stroom, which is at various times a record label, an audiovisual radio station and an eclectic brand. Ziggy launched Belgium’s first online radio station, Stroom.tv, that later became a proper record label, inquiring the liminal zone between wave, ambience, post-punk and exotica. “Not thinking professionally. Being naive. Being disappointed in the music industry”, is how Ziggy defines himself. The episode features: Pablo’s Eye, Kyoto, Benjamin Lew, Jason Kolàr, Cold, Sonoko, Ingus Baušķenieks, 48 Cameras, Dj Bert & Eagle and Aponogeton.

48 Cameras, often simply called 48C, is a musical and international collective in a format that varies according to circumstances. Formed in 1984 by both musicians and non-musicians (the line-up frequently varies), some living in Belgium, while others in Netherlands, United Kingdom, etcetera. To date, 48 Cameras recorded 13 albums, the work being done frequently via the Internet (some of the members have never met), allowing the collective to welcome various guests from diverse cultures and a wide range of disciplines. Due to the characteristics of the collective, 48 Cameras has only performed on stage eight times in its 33 years of existence. This episode features only 48 cameras pieces from 1985 till today.

Yoga for hangovers is an unusual cultural mesh between a contemporary occidental culture and an ancient oriental meditative tradition. This episode can be used to meditate and to relax, but also to heal your body from headaches and illness that result from the posthumous effects of an amazing night. Just lay down your yoga mat, follow the instructions of the voice-over and focus on your breath. The episode features: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Lee Rosevere, Aloe Vera, Neon Menhirs, Chuck Pereda and Natalia Szendro with Pulse Emitter, Steve Roach and Netherfriends.

In the current era of festivals that curate their line-ups adhering to gender equality policies, ‘me-too’ social campaigns and a booming feminist literature, we decided to pay tribute to female music dedicating an entire episode to the female pioneers of electronic music, following their works with those of their contemporary successors, revealing an accurate fil rouge that connects the two generations. The episode features: Ellen Arkbro, Kali Malone, Laurie Spiegel, Caterina Barbieri, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith with Suzanne Ciani and Eliane Radigue.

‘Anthem’ is a collection of artistic and musical creations curated by US-based producer Total Freedom released as a series of limited edition 12″ records and is the soundtrack to the 9th Berlin Biennale, published by The Vinyl Factory. The purpose of ‘Anthem’ is to bring together artists and musicians in an environment that testifies the importance of collaboration and sharing. The episode features: Amalia Ulman with Carles Santos, Patricia Satterwhite with Jacolby Satterwhite and Nick Weiss, Trevor Jackson, Kelela Elysia Crampton with Not Adrian Piper, Ryoji Ikeda, Fatima Al Qadiri with Hito Steyerl and Juliana Huxtable, Isa Genzken with Total Freedom, Jamie Lidell, Jeremy Deller.

It is difficult for us to talk about Shelter Press without feeling a hint of nostalgia. Shelter Press is a French publishing platform founded by Bartolomé Sanson and artist Félicia Atkinson. Shelter Press publishes books and records, experimenting with the spheres of contemporary art, poetry and experimental music. Starting from photocopied and stitched zines a decade ago, they have contributed to the revolution in independent publishing. The episode features: Félicia Atkinson, JAB, Eli Keszler, Meyers, Gabriel Saloman, Matt Carlson, Jefre Cantu, Native Instrument, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Bulbs.

Roberto is a vinyl collector, a dj and a friend, who has developed his work and practice in the Venice area. In the last twenty years Roberto has diffused the culture of avant-garde and experimental electronic music, engaging with the pre existing and new communities of listeners and dancers. This episode reflects Roberto’s wide and heterogeneous record collection, that covers different decades, genres and styles revealing his personal capacity in creating unique and captivating connections between different worlds. The episode features: O Yuki Conjugate, Asis, Andrew Ashong, Sw, Theo Parrish, Living Ornaments, Alvin Currran, Nico Vascellari, Thomas Baldischwyler, Madteo, Sparky, Pepe Bradock, Davy Kehoe, Hydrus, Lanark Artefax and Minako Yoshida.

Spain, late 80’s, Antonio Dyaz, leader of the mutant electronic music project El sueño de Hyparco, found the visionary record label Hyades Arts, defining the New Music milieu in the Spain of the first half of the nineties by releasing records by artists such as Iury Lech, Francisco López, Luis Paniagua, and Suso Sáiz. Hyades Arts is a heterogeneous mixture of New Age synths with Ambient landscapes, Free Jazz rhythms seasoned with a unique Spanish flavour. The episode features: Satori, Iury Lech, El Sueño De Hyparco, Miguel A. Ruiz, Consuelo Díez, Oriol Graus, Adolfo Nuñez and Amordiscos.

This episode is an ode to collaborations and their importance in the everyday creative practice. The first and most significant treated in this episode is the life-long partnership between Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius, the two prolific pioneers of teutonic electronic music and fathers of Krautrock. They’ve been working together, since the early 70’s, making music as a duo as well as teaming up with Conrad Schnitzler (under the name Kluster), Michael Rother (forming Harmonia), Conny Plank, Brian Eno (in Harmonia 76), Gerd Beerbohm, Karl Renziehausen and many more. The sonic heritage that they created influenced the subsequent generations of german artists, including some who are featured in this episode. Last but not least, this tracklist is a brief extract from the rich catalogue of the defunct Hamburg based label Sky Records, born from the experience of Brain that today evolved into Bureau B. The episode features: Dennis Young, Eno Moebius Roedelius, Hearts No Static, Roedelius & Schneider, Asmus Tietchens, Conrad Schnitzler, Cluster, Moebius & Beerbohm, Harald Grosskopf, Vono, Faust and Qluster.

The title of this episode is deliberately taken from a video shot in 1997 by Francis Alys, that involves the artist pushing an ice block through the streets of Mexico City until it melts into nothing; a Zen-like attitude that Jonny Nash or Diego Herrera — also known as Suzanne Kraft — very likely embrace in their music production for Melody As Truth. The episode features: Suzanne Kraft, Palta, Jonny Nash, D.K. / S.K. and Tourist Kid.

The highlight of episode 67 — which is a wander through the catalogue of Telephone Explosion Records — is Chandra. Chandra is the daughter of the late conceptual artist Dennis Oppenheim, and has been frequently included in his works. As a young girl she has been immediately exposed to artists like Steve Reich, Gordon Matta-Clark and Philip Glass (known to the family as Phil). Aged eight, she was delivering performance pieces at the Kitchen, the infamous downtown arts space; by 12 she was the leader of the post-punk band Chandra. Now she continues to tour the music of Chandra with new band members. Schedule permitting, her 11-year-old daughter sometimes performs with them. The episode features: Charles Ditto, Fist Of Facts, Teenanger, Chandra, Bruce Haack, Freak Heat Waves, Moss Lime, Bob Bell, Badge Époque Ensemble, Melodic Energy Commission, Chandra and Deliluh.

“A sample of what we could be listening to at any given moment” is a brief but exhaustive description of the eclectic and refined episode curated by the team behind the Toronto based Telephone Explosion Records. We warmly recommend a visit to their record collection (instragram: telephoneexplosionrecords) and their online catalogue (www.telephoneexplosion.com). The episode features: Don Cherry, JAB, Badge Époque Ensemble, Ricardo Sinigaglia, Omar S, Gamelan Son Of Lion, Lena Platonos, Virna Lindt, Nate Young, Lifetones and Ronald Langestraat.

While searching through the pages of Discogs (the biggest online database of music releases) more information about the enigmatic project called 1958 – 2009, two dates that refer to years of birth and death of Michael Jackson, we discovered the obscure label Amethyst Sunset. We immediately needed to speculate the connection between the tribute to the king of Pop and the music produced by the duo (Matthew Sullivan and Alex Twomey) that is instead a mixture of nostalgic, dreamy and hazy guitar loops and synths. The episode features: Mark McGuire, Everyday Loneliness, Outer Space, 1958–2009, Aaron Dilloway and Sean McCann.

Episode 64 explores the calm and meditative production of Sound of the Dawn, a project devoted to distributing unknown or almost forgotten ambient music. While digging through their releases we’ve been impressed by the description provided by Matthew Barlow regarding the production of his ‘sound meditations’: “Everything was improvised live and recorded in one take with no overdubs. Once the track was exported and posted online, the original master was deleted. This method was a practice of ‘calm abiding’ with sound in the present moment, allowing what would arise to come and go. It wasn’t about creating a piece of music but rather about practicing a particular state of mind. It was one of my most freeing and rewarding experiences in making music.” The episode features: Rod Hamilton & Tiffany Seal, Inner Travels, Sunmoonstar, Alex Crispin, Matthew Barlow, Lunaria and Ruven Nunez.

Koki Emura established EM Records in southern Osaka in 1998. Since then this independent Japanese record label has divulged more the 140 border­crossing releases with no limit of genre, shifting from Experimental Electronic,to Jazz, Classical Music, Rock, Reggae, Dance and Ethnic. This episode reflects Koki’s wide and wild selection of artists, in term of style and origin. The episode features: YPY, Mari Sekine, 7FO, Synth Sisters, Finis Africae, Roland P. Young, Steel An’ Skin, Takao, Kizaki Ondo Preservation Society, Kōhei Amada.

SunPath, the artist appearing in this episode, was the pseudonym of the outsider composer Jeff Berry. He self-released and privately distributed Ambient Music from Northern New Mexico between 1980 and 1984. Each one of his compositions was meant to be a thirty minute journey into a different space and reality. The title of the episode is instead a quote from Joseph Albers, taken from his book “Poems And Drawings” expressing his interest towards a Zen approach to life. Probably, if Albers would have been living in the 80’s, he would have been also interested in Ambient Music. The episode features: SunPath, Laraaji, Matthewdavid’s Mindflight, Cool Maritime, Gifted and Blessed, Carlos Niño & Friends and Plum.

Can there be hard meaning in the abstract understructure? Music is, after all, totally abstract. Yet, we characterize musical content as happy, sad, lively, turgid, martial, romantic. How do we arrive at such information identification, which is rather universally held? Some meanings attached to musical composition are associations to reality, some are drawn from man’s own psychophysical structure, his kinesthetic relationship to the music. So we say of music: it is totally abstract, but there are aspects of it which may be interpreted with reference to shared meaning. The abstract conveys the essential meaning, cutting through the conscious to the unconscious. Donis A. Dondis, A Primer Of Visual Literacy. The episode features: Inspired School Of Astral Music, 1958 – 2009, Porn Sword Tobacco, Daniel Schmidt and M. Geddes Gengras.

Composers Recordings, Inc (also known as CRI) was founded in 1954 by Otto Luening, Douglas Moore and Oliver Daniel. The label’s mission was the discovery, distribution and preservation of the finest in contemporary American music. Hundreds of American composers had their first recording released on CRI, making the label a mainstay of career development for several generations of composers — over 600 full-length recordings were released by CRI on LP, cassette and CD. CRI was also particularly successful in recording important talents early in their careers: of the thirty-seven Pulitzer Prize-winning composers on the label, twenty-seven were recorded by CRI before they won the prestigious award. The episode features: Charles Dodge, The Serpent, Space Guitars, James Tenney, Alice Shields, Priscilla Mclean, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff and Frederic Rzewski.

A few months after Episode 37 ‘Explanation and Interruptions of a Normal State of Consciousness’, we kept on digging into the incredible archive of the meditative cassette label Valley Of The Sun — now easily available online — spotting hours and hours of New Age, Fourth World and Ambient meditative music, originally composed for the purpose of concentration, relaxation and mental healing. The episode features: Robert Martin, Steven Cooper and Robert Slap.

“What is M.O.O.T.? A fair question. The very fact that you have this record in your hands means that you are curious and aware that something is happening. M.O.O.T. will show you what it is and where it is.” M.O.O.T. — which stands for Music of Our Time — was a series of records released by Columbia, established by its enlightened president Goddard Lieberson and was intended to be a guide to the electronic music revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The episode features: Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Morton Feldman, Robert Ashley, Terry Riley, Richard Maxfield, Pauline Oliveros and Harry Partch.

This episode is a focus on Table Of The Elements, an obscure american record label. It was founded by music producer and graphic designer Jeff Hunt in 1993 and has released the work of experimental and avant-garde musicians such as John Cale, Tony Conrad and La Monte Young,  Loren Mazzacane Connors, Derek Bailey, Rhys Chatham and Mats Gustafsson. Each catalogue number is composed by a symbol taken from the periodic Table of the elements associated with its atomic number. “Table of the Elements are to the 21st century what CRI was to the 1960s and Lovely Music to the 1980s — fearless purveyors of the wildest stuff around.” The episode features: John Cale, Faust, Lee Renaldo, Henry Kaiser, Paul Panhuysen, Loren Mazzacane, Jim O’Rourke, Bruce Gilbert and Rhys Chatham.

Obscure Records was a British record label created and curated by Brian Eno with the specific purpose of publishing a series of ten albums that traced the path of ambient music’s birth. The label has been active from 1975 to 1978 issuing works from artists such as Harold Budd, Michael Nyman, David Toop and the seminal Discreet Music album by Brian Eno himself. Most have detailed liner notes on their back covers, analyzing the compositions and providing a biography of the artist, in a format that is typical of classical music albums, and as a matter of fact much of the material can be regarded as 20th century contemporary music. The episode features: Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Harold Budd, John Cage, David Toop, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, John Adams, Max Eastley and Brian Eno.

Audio Arts Cassettes was a British magazine documenting contemporary artistic activity interviewing artists and curators, publishing sound performances or sound-based artworks. Audio Arts has been active from 1973 to 2006, issuing 25 volumes and now is part of the Tate Modern collection. The episode features: Uniform, Glenn Branca, Susan Hiller, Yura Adams, Dan Graham, Ann Lee, Charlie Hooker and Lawrence Weiner.

Studio Morra, Edizioni Morra, Edizioni Lotta Poetica, everything began in Naples, in the south of Italy at the end of the Seventies. Behind the curtains there’s the Giuseppe Morra, fascinated by the subversive potential of the avant-garde and one of the first in Italy to promote artists coming from Concrete Poetry, Fluxus, Viennese Actionism and Body Art. Fondazione Morra is still active today, promoting and researching, developing and spreading the culture of visual communication. The episode features: Jackson MacLow, Charlemagne Palestine, Sarenco, Max Eastley, Lyn Hejinian and Charles Bernstein, Giampaolo Guerini, Henry Flynt and C.C. Hennix.

What does a story sounds like? Is it possible to imagine a movie by listening to its soundtrack? Between the image in movement and the audience you can find Gianluca, a sound designer that tweaks your emotions and sensations creating soundscapes that let plot happen (@jean_soundesignstudio). The episode features: Jan Jelinek, Nadine Byrne, Visible Cloaks, Sun Araw, Simple Affections, Abyss X, Brinstaar, Ekkehard Ehlers, Pierre Bastien, Lucrecia Dalt, Solo Operator, Protect-U, Pilar Zeta, Objekt, Seth Graham, Holly Herndon, Miyako Koda, Benoit B, Kareem Lotfy, Autechre, Robert Wyatt and Mads Emil Nielsen.

In 1979 Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak — three fervent record collectors — released their first album under the name Nurse With Wound. They included a list of artists on the album’s cover, which represented a homage to musicians that influenced the band. Since then, the so-called NWW List has become a sort of ‘shopping list’ for collectors of outsider and avant-garde music. The episode features: John Cage, The Residents, This Heat, Art Zoyd, Robert Wyatt, Ash Ra Tempel, Throbbing Gristle, Philippe Doray Asociaux Associés, Ghédalia Tazartès, Lawrence Weiner with Richard Landry and Neu!

Recently — and by chance — we purchased two american compilations on vinyl, one entitled ‘10+2: 12 American Text Sound Pieces’ (1975) and the other ‘New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media: Women In Electronic Music’ (1977). While the first record is focused on american sound poetry, the second one is a careful introduction to the heroines of mid Seventies electronic music milieu. After this coincidental buy we discovered that both records were published by 1750 Arch Records, an American avant-garde music label, founded in the sixties in the homonymous recording / archival studio located at 1750 Arch Street, Berkeley, California. The episode features: Aram Saroyan, Laurie Spiegel, Beth Anderson, Ruth Anderson, John Giorno, Megan Roberts, Clark Coolidge, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Johanna M. Beyer, Anthony Gnazzo, Laurie Anderson, Charles Dodge, Annea Lockwood and Charles Amirkhanian.

Editions Blume is an obscure Milan based record imprint that publishes avant-garde gems packed in a radical monochromatic color coding. The label’s laconic website declare, in a form of manifesto: “Blume explores the relation between performers and solo instrument. Solely sound and color. One.” The episode features: Bruce Nauman, John Butcher, Jocy de Oliveira, Mary Jane Leach, Sarah Hennies and Julius Eastman.

The story of 99 (pronounced “nine nine” and not “ninety-nine”) it’s basically the story of Ed Bahlman, a born-and-bred Brooklynite with a strong work ethic and an intense passion for music, especially new and underground music that wasn’t wholly embraced by the mainstream or even alternative establishments. Everything started from a punk clothing store called 99, that later Ed transformed in the infamous record shop, thanks to his incredible selection of obscure and independent rock, reggae and punk music, that later became the ideal launching pad for the homonymous independent record label. The episode features: Y Pants, Liquid Liquid, ESG, Vivien Goldman, Bush Tetras, Maximum Joy, John Cage (in an interview about Glenn Branca) and Glenn Branca.

Michael Ned Holte is a writer, curator, and educator living in Los Angeles. Deep listening to the voices in your head.
The episode features: Poetics, Tashi Wada with Yoshi Wada & Friends, Steve Roden, Lucky Dragons, Derek Bailey, Pauline Oliveros, Simone Forti, Nathan Bowles & Scott Verrastro, Robert Ashley.

“Nothing Is a Mistake, There’s No Win and No Fail. There’s Only Make” is the sixth rule of the “10 Rules For Students And Teachers Manifesto”, a list of advices compiled by Sister Corita Kent in 1968. John Cage was delighted with it and did everything he could to popularize the list. Cage’s life partner Merce Cunningham reportedly kept a copy of it posted in his studio until his dying days. The episode features: M. Zalla (Piero Umiliani), Futuro Antico, J.D. Emmanuel, Chaino And His African Percussion Safari, Wayne Siegel, Piotr Kurek, Eden Ahbez, Telaio Magnetico, Archie Shepp & Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio.

Freedom To Spend is an american label run by Pete Swanson and Jed Bindeman that “examines fully realized yet under recognized sonic statements from other eras when accessibility to technology did not always equate to accessible music”. This episode features: Rimarimba, Michelle Musser, Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton, Pep Llopis, Richard Horowitz, Marc Barreca andMichelle Musser.

India Navigation was an American independent record label specialized in avant-garde jazz between the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded by Bob Cummins, a corporate lawyer who helped jazz musicians with legal matters. Its visionary catalogue shifted between avant-garde jazz — Arthur Blythe, Hamiet Bluiett, Chico Freeman, Cecil McBee and the Revolutionary Ensemble — and minimal music — such as Arnold Dreyblatt, Phill Niblock and Joseph Celli, or Tom Johnson. The episode features: Chico Freeman, Phill Niblock, Arnold Dreyblatt, Jay Hoggard, Yoshi Wada and Pharoah Sanders.

Music today is mainly distributed through digital platforms that use algorithms to advise people what to listen to. This episode has been compiled combining pieces from records suggested by Discogs, the biggest record marketplace, that sends algorithm-based suggestions through its daily newsletter. The episode features: Babyfather, David Behrman, Iury Lech, David Rosenboom, Lori Goldston, The Lost Jockey, Laurie Spiegel , Insiememusicadiversa, The Durutti Column, Chris & Cosey, Gregor Schnitzler and Conrad Schnitzler, Wire and Joseph Beuys.

The concept of this episode, compiled by our friend Stefan Rotter, can only be described by matching the artists’ list with the explanation he provided us: “Constantly four tracks running (85%), it’s like acoustic LSD and I never took it”. The episode features: Roberto Musci, Hanno Leichtmann, Vladislav Delay, Platform, Jon Hassel, Andrew Hill, Muta, Nick Mott, Eloping with the Sun, Luigi Nono, Chris Watson, The Dwarfs of East Agouza, Giuseppe Ielasi, Andrew Pekler, Jingzi Li, Luc Ferrari, Muslimgauze, Terre Thaemlitz, Rapoon, Gesellschaft Zur Emanzipation Des Samples, Jan Bang, Jay-dea Lopez, Takeshi Ueno, Kozutoki Umezo, Triorganico, Groupshow, Pierre Bastien, Akosh S Unit, Arthur Russell, Demdike Stare, Sun Ra, Philip Jeck, Janek Schaefer, Mike Cooper, Barbara Buchholz, Annette Vande Gorne, Moondog, Garry Bradbury, Marcel Duchamp, Bellows, Tim Hecker and more.

This episode is an homage to Foom, an obscure label that recently published original and unreleased works by Peter Gordon, Rhys Chatham and the mesmerizing tapes recorded by Peter Zummo with Arthur Russell, Bill Ruyle and Mustafa Ahmed. The episode features: Archangel & Dean Blunt, Oliver Coates, Peter Zummo & Arthur Russell, Peter Gordon & David Van Tieghem, Love Of Life Orchestra and Rhys Chatham.

Audiographics — or New Wilderness Audiographics — was a New Wilderness Foundation project of the 1970s. Audiographics offered a number of sound artists the opportunity to record a variety of works — experimental and traditional music, poetry, storytelling and other sound and language art — in a professional recording studio. His closest collaborator, however, was the poet Jerome Rothenberg, with whom, in 1964, he founded and co-directed The New Wilderness Foundation, which explored the avant-garde in all its dimensions, presenting concerts, issuing cassette recordings and, with another major collaborator, RIP Hayman, publishing EAR Magazine, which chronicled new and unusual composition as had no magazine since Minna Lederman’s legendary “Modern Music” in the years before the World Wars. The episode features: Tom Johnson, Phillip Corner, Alison Knowles, Jackson Mac Low and Pauline Oliveros, Charlie Morrow, R.I.P Hayman, Richard Schechner and Joan MacIntosh and Ocarina Orchestra.

This episode is a selection of works recorded at The Kitchen, a New York City based music center, between 1971 and 1986. During that time and under the wise direction of Rhys Chatham, Garrett List and Arthur Russell, The Kitchen was the meeting point for several generations of avant-garde artists and the fulcrum of the revolution going on in these days. The episode features: Arthur Russel, Yoshi Wada With Richard Hayman And Imani Smith, Dickie Landry, Robert Ashley, The Raincoats, David Tudor, Garrett List, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and Dinosaur L.

This episode has been compiled by Fabrizio Vatieri, a great artist, photographer and friend, born in the chaotic Naples and based in the busy Milan. Besides his interesting artistic practice, Fabrizio is a profound music connoisseur. City of Lagoons — as Fabrizio says — is  a compilation made imagining a continuous and cyclic tension between spring and autumn. The episode features: The Residents, Ariel Calma, Don Cherry with Latif Kahn, Todd Rundgren, Oil XL, Carioca, General Strike, Electric Prunes, Pheeroan Ak Laff, Hawkind, LNRDCROY, Piero Umiliani, Psychic TV, Sun City Girls and The Residents.

Launched in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time. Tellus was in activity for the ten years of 1983–1993 from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, publishing audio art, new music, poetry and drama, avant-garde, post-industrial music, NY no wave, Fluxus sounds, noise, sound poetry, radio plays, electroacoustic music, sound collage etcetera. The episode features: Ikkoh Mine, Kirby Malone, Linda Fisher, Disband, A Leroy, Nicolas Nowack, Verge Piersol, Isaac Jackson, Lee Ranaldo, David Weinstein, Paul Dresher, Jody Harris and Tom Lopez.

Valley Of The Sun was a Malibu (California) based record label publishing Ambient and New Age cassettes featuring hours of meditative and healing music. Inner-harmony music created to assist you transcend levels of consciousness, synthesizers and humming voices combined with tinkling crystal chimes and sustained harmonious frequencies that generate a high vibrational atmosphere conductive to an altered state of consciousness. The episode features: Tara Sutphen, David Naegele, Upper Astral, Klaus Wiese and The Ghostwriters.

Introduced by a conversation between John Cage and Morton Feldman about the use of portable radios, this episode is a flux of minimalistic pieces, tuned on the same frequencies thanks to the use of the pitch slider on a couple of technics 1210 turntables. The episode features: John Cage & Morton Feldman, Pauline Oliveros, Philip Glass, Lawrence Weiner, Franco Battiato, Steve Reich, Rhys Chatham & Charlemagne Palestine, Glenn Branca, Earth 2 and La Monte Young.

Michael Ned Holte is a writer, curator and educator living in Los Angeles. This set takes the blues as its point of origin — the blues as form, content and inheritance. The episode features: Doc Watson and Jean Ritchie, Rev. Edward G. Clayborn, Fred Frith, Gastr del Sol with Tony Conrad, Roscoe Mitchell, Alice Coltrane, K. Curtis Lyle, Toshirô Mayuzumi with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, Howlin’ Wolf, John Fahey and Charley Patton.

Milano, early eighties, Riccardo Sinigaglia (former member of Futuro Antico), Roberto Musci and Pier Luigi Andreoni were some of the protagonists of a vibrant experimental music scene, mixing the heritage of the previous generation of avant-gardists with the new wave of unheard sounds and frequencies. Recently, some of these artists have been repressed (and sometimes rediscovered) by the Italian imprint Soave, that made them available again into the record market. The episode features: Daniel Bacalov, O.A.S.I., Futura, Electronic Modular Orchestra, Roberto Musci, Riccardo Sinigaglia and Pier Luigi Andreoni with Francesco Paladino.

Unseen Worlds is a New York based record label releasing quality editions of unheralded, ecstatic, avant garde music. The episode features: Elodie Lauten, C-Schulz, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom and Carl Stone.

Nicola Pecoraro is an Italian contemporary artist, experimenting with a variety of materials and techniques. He defined his selection, entitled “Third Landscape Radio”, as “a soundtrack for a movie in my head depicting landscapes that are forgotten or left behind.” The episodes features: Robert Smithson & Nancy Holt, Lino Capra Vaccina, Japan Blues, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Evan Parker, Archie Shepp, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Rome, Klein, Sublime Frequencies, Pedrodollar, Muslimgauze, Russell Haswell, Kan Mikami, Delroy Edwards, Masaki Batoh, Buttechno, Anton Heyboer, Teresa Winter, N.A.D.M.A. and Satoshi Ashikawa.

There is usually a mutual relationship between being independent and avant-garde music since such un uncommon freedom is usually given by the loss of limitations that are driven by the record market. This effect can be clearly read in the following selection of experimental music produced in 80s by local and independet groups all around the Italian peninsula. The episode features: Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici, State of Art, Luca Miti, Daniele Ciullini, FA.R., Ruins, Angelo Vaggi, Frigidaire Tango, R.A.RA, Skiantos

Edições Cn. is a belgian private press run by Lieven Martens — usually known as Dolphins Into The Future — that developed a strong footprint sound blending natural soundscapes with quite alethoric electronic sounds. A special mention goes to the quality in the design of each release (mainly on cassette). The episode features: Lieven Martens Moana, Floris Vanhoof, Berko, Francesco Cavaliere, Hiele Martens and Dolphins Into The Future.

Coherently matching obscure and hard to find records with new contemporary finds, Music From Memory is an Amsterdam based record label, that in just a few years, has been able to gain a wide attention due to the high quality of its releases. The episode features: Suso Sàiz, Vito Ricci, Michael Turtle, Joel Graham, Joan Bibiloni, Roberto Musci and Terekke.

The title of this episode is the exact explanation of the topic treated by the couple of swedish record collectors, Jonas Eriksson (@jonolf) and Andreas Malm (@_bodyawareness). The episode features: Enhet För Fri Musik, Skeppet, Tusen år Unde Jord, Time Deleters, Mattias Gustafsson, Sternpost, Karin Liungman, Lars Blek, Seamonster1, Erik Enocksson and Neutral.

Shandar is a legendary French label founded in 1970 by the 24 year old Chantal D’Arcy (who gave her name to the label: Chan–tal Dar–cy). The myth narrates that the label was initiated with the encouragement from Cecil Taylor, whose recordings D’Arcy was searching for a label to release. After beeing disappointed with the scarse artistical commitment shown by the labels he encoutered, she decided to release the recordings herself. The episode features: Vincent le Masne et Bertrand Porquet, Ragnar Grippe, La Monte Young, Charlemagne Palestine, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Philip Glass and Sun Ra.

It annoyed Cage that the general public and popular press continued to identify him as the inventor of the prepared piano. In an interview in 1961 he said: “It was what I was doing 10 years ago. The public is always 10 years behind.” The music featured in this episode has been actually rediscovered recently — in some cases more than 10 years later — thanks to the passionate work of labels such us Superior Viaduct and États-Unis that repressed these avant-garde gems. The episode features: B.C.Gilbert & G.Lewis, Jon Gibson, Anna Lockwood, Edward Artemiev, Warner Jepson, Glenn Branca, Sensations Fix,
Milk from Cheltenham and Inflatable Boy Clams

In this episode John Berger explains Walter Benjamin’s ideas exposed in his masterpiece ’The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ arguing that through reproduction an Old Master’s painting’s modern context is severed from that which existed at the time of its making. The episode features: John Berger, Suzanne Ciani, The Ghostwriters, Orchestra Of The Eigth Day, Colin Potter, O Yuki Conjugate, Johnny Lamas, Leven Signs, Charlemagne Palestine & Robert Feldmen, Rexy.

The hottest days of Italian summer made us want to compose a mixtape of relaxing and meditative ambient music, featuring the enlightening words of Laraaji, resonances of Japanese masters of zen electronic music from the 80s and the spiritual support of Pharoah Sanders. The final part of this episode takes us back to a lecture held by Sun Ra at UC Berkeley in 1971 known as “The Black Man in the Universe”. Let your mind travel.

The episode features: X.Y.R., Laraaji, Takashi Kokubo, Dies Irae, Takatoshi Naitoh, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Hideki Matsutake, Mkwaju Ensemble, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders.

Viva Venezia is an episode of Occasional Radio, entirely dedicated to the protagonists of the Venetian avant-garde, from Bruno Maderna, to Luigi Nono and Carlo Scarpa. The episode features: Bruno Maderna, Gruppo Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Gigi Masin, John Cage, Bebo Baldan, Brian Eno, Rabih Beaini, Luigi Nono, Carlo Scarpa, Sun Ra.

This episode is entirely dedicated to a life-long composition created by the avant-garde musician Tony Conrad. Quoting the about section of the related website published by the american artist Cory Arcangel (musicandthemindofthe.world), ‘From 1976 to 1982, Tony Conrad (1940-2016) created ‘Music and the Mind of the World’, a piano composition comprising over 200 hours of recorded music. During this time everything Conrad played on the piano was recorded (with the incidental exception of perhaps three or four hours)’.

Modern Primitivism is a mixtape — a real one, recorded directly on tape — curated by Pasquale Lomolino, the founder of several obscure independent record labels, devoted to new and old avant-garde music. The term Modern Primitivism also defines the criteria used to establish the selection; in fact the fil rouge that connects the pieces is the use of primitive instruments to produce new music. Another aspect to mention is that all the pieces had been only released on cassette — again a primitive medium — and for this reason are almost impossible to find on the internet. The episode features: Brion Gysin, Cranioclast, O Yuki Conjugate, Robert Rich, Jean Tinguely, Déficit Des Années Antérieures, Riccardo Sinigaglia, Zone, Christina Kubisch & Roberto Laneri, Two Daughters.

Based in Brooklyn, RVNG Intl. is a music institution that operates on few but heavily fortified principals, dealing with forward-reaching artists sometimes categorized as electronic, avant-garde, free, experimental, ambient, etc. Besides the main exercise of publishing new artists and repressing old archives, RVNG collaborates with New York City’s White Columns Gallery, London’s Barbican Center, curates MoMa PS1’s Summer Warm Up series and works extensively with Krakow’s Unsound Festival.

The episode features: Pauline Ann Strom, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma, Julianna Barwick & Ikue Mori, Sugai Ken, Bing & Ruth, Blues Control & Laraaji, Craig Leon and Clean Plate.

The episode features: Monotone, D.A.F., Cluster, Throbbing Gristle, Brian Eno & David Byrne,Manuel Gottsching, Chris and Cosey, Faust & Tony Conrad, Neu, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

Slowscan is an obscure avant-garde record label that publishes audio-art vinyls and cassettes from its archive. Based in the middle of Holland, the label is run by Jan van Toorn, ex-electronic music student from the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, today curator of audio art exhibitions. Special mention should be made of the quality in the design of the releases.

The episode features: David Rosenboom, Glenn Frew, Robert Filliou, Al Hansen, Henning Christiansen, Richard Maxfiel, Henri Chopin and William Levy.

Tom Lyle’s music server as an incredible cabinet of obscure and hard-to-find but not easy-to-listen music, that you can discover following his Instagram profile (@tomlyle807). Besides this, Tom is also a ’close-to’ New York based musician and reviewer.

The episode features: Ose, Steve Hillage, Magma, Can, King Crimson, Faust, Electric Sandwich, The Cosmic Jokers, Tangerine Dream, La Dusseldorf, Cluster, Rupert Chappelle.

This episode is entirely dedicated to an experimental American ambient and electronic label started by Kerry Leimer in the late 70’s and subsequently closed in the mid 1980’s, after releasing some seminal works of Leimer himself, Savant and Marc Barreca.

The episode features: K. Leimer, Marc Barreca, Savant, Steve Fisk and Roy Finch.

The episode features: Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Eno, Sun Ra, Gretchen Langheld, Robert Ashley, Pauline Oliveros, Larry Polansky, Sun Ra, Glenn Branca, Al Diaz, Valeri Scherstjanoi, Hermann Nitch and Lydia Lunch, Angus Maclise.

This episode is uniquely dedicated to an odd box, a set of six 7”, published in 1980 by Lovely Music to introduce new artists of the Lovely stable, in addition to early associate “Blue” Gene Tyranny, who already had 3 LPs out. Most composers came from the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music, directed by Robert Ashley in the 1970s, hence the presence of the Golden Gate Bridge on the cover of the box set.

The episode features: John Bischoff, Paul DeMarinis, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Maggi Payne, Frankie Mann, Paul DeMarinis and Phil Harmonic.

Stefan Rotter is a sound addict/connoisseur/sculptor born near the border triangle in Germany and currently living in Frankfurt. He has an accurate collection of Free Jazz, Prog and Psych Rock, Electronics, Odd, Obscure, Weird, Ambient and Kraut vinyls, that we suggest you to dig on his Instagram account (@rotter_s).

The episode features: furniture music by Felicia Atkinson, Mike Cooper, Tim Hecker, Moskus, Angus Maclaurin, Wayne Horvitz, Tom Recchion, Jasper Leyland and for the Italian breeze Giuseppe Ielasi, Maria Teresa Luciani, Luigi Archetti and Nicola Ratti.

The invention of multi-tracks tape recorders and cheap synthesizers has been a radical revolution in the musical market from the early 80’s that made possibile the creation and distributions of independent productions and proliferation of new generations of vanguardists. This episode, compiled by the studio, explores low-run productions, sometimes almost forgotten, sometimes appeared just on cassette and distributed through mail orders.

The episode features: Jean Baudrillard, Idee du femelle, MFH, Grey Area, Opera Nova, Carl Matthews, Pedro Trotz, The Lost Jockey, General Strike, Randomize, Marc Barreca, Craig Kupka, Monte Cazazza, Woo, Secreto Metro, Andrew Cox, Muslimgauze, Archimedes Badkar, Genn Penn & Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.

Cramps (Records) is an acronym that stands for ”Clubs, Records, Agency, Management, Publishing, Spettacoli”. One of the founders of this Italian avant-garde label was Gianni Sassi, a visionary graphic designer and art-director active in Milan, during the years of the city’s golden-age. As a designer, he’s been a pioneer in the act of melting music with visuals and words — in fact, aside from designing the covers, he’s been also author of many lyrics, and published collections of concrete poetry.

The episode features: John Cage, Giusto Pio, Walter Marchetti, Robert Ashley, Horacio Vaggione, Gerhard Rühm, Francesco Messina, Alvin Lucier, David Tudor, Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza and Demetrio Stratos.

We’ve been always attracted by words — and letters, of course. Words have the almost unique potential of conveying images, sounds and meanings similtaneously. In this episode we compiled a selection of meditative and repetitive pieces, shifting from spiritual and ecstatic tunes to ironic and idiosyncratic poems, records we collected during these year of practice.

The episode features: Claire Fontaine, Ellen Fullman, Karl Holmqvist, Terry Riley, Gedalia Tazartes, Meredith Monk, John Cage, David Rosenboom, Allen Ginsberg and Fred Frit.

Genot Centre is a new and upcoming record label and music community based in Prague, the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. We decided to dedicate an entire episode to this label as its repertoire is a good example of contemporary avant-garde music gliding between smoggy trap, uneasy ambient soundscapes, extended drones and nostalgic synths.

The episode features: AF85, The House in the Woods, Lišaj, Aghnie, Bryce Helm, Cass, Percival Pembroke, Herbarium, Iku, Lee Chapman.

Luca Lo Pinto is a friend, a curator of the Kunsthalle Wien and a founder of the art magazine Nero. “Impression d’Afrique is the title of a journey in the form of a book undertaken by Raymond Roussel to a land which existed entirely within his imagination. This compilation is a journey to a place I never been but I’ve been imagined many times. It’s 58 minutes long. Kaleidoscopical, meringueulous, bootylicious, mesmerizing. Close your eyes. Twist your tongue. Hold your chest. And listen at high volume.”

The episode features: Pasteur Lappe, Yoruba Singers, Sahara Band, Francis Bebey, Ice, Cesaria Evora & Carl Craig, Eko and U.C.A.S. Band de Sédhiou.

This episode, compiled by our studio, is a portrait of the incredibly effervescent musical and artistic scene in New York in the 1970’s. From repetitive patterns to concrete poetry, you can spend one hour in good company, together with John Giorno, Charlemagne Palestine, Meredith Monk, Philip Glass, Lawrence Weiner with Peter Gordon, Terry Riley, Joe Jones and Yoshi Wada.

Tony Conrad was a pioneer of Minimalism and Drone music in the New York avant-garde milieu in the 60’s and in the 70’s. At the beginning of his career he performed in the infamous Theatre of Eternal Music, together with John Cale, Angus MacLise, Terry Jennings, La Monte Young, and Marian Zazeela. After several decades he published his Audio ArtKive, the archival material he recorded during these early days.

The episode features: John Cale, Jack Smith, Thuunderboy!, Tony Conrad and Terry Higgins.

‘Cosmic Hum’ is an audio journey between ecstatic guitar patterns, hypnotic arpeggiators and groovy rhythms. Compiled by Vortical Grooves — an avid and obscure vinyl collector that we’re proud to host in our radio broadcast. For more gems we warmly suggest you to dig into his Instagram profile (@vorticalgrooves).

The episode features: Dominique Lawalree, Dave Oliver, Emil Richards, Bitchin Bajas, Minami Deutsch, Heldon, Ken Camden, Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, Conventum, Robert Fripp, Lard Free.

This episode, compiled by our studio, is a soundtrack for a partly romantic, partly dramatic, partly ironic love story, shifting from the moving John Cage’s ‘Four Walls’ to the ethereal Robert Fripp’s ‘Under Heavy Manners’.

The episode features: Brian Eno, Michael Brook, Daniel Lanois, Jon Hassell, David Byrne, John Cage, Joël Vandroogenbroeck, J.D. Emmanuel, Maggy Payne, Robert Fripp, crickets, birds and someone’s whispers.

Lovely Music is the seminal experimental record label founded by Mimi Johnson, wife of composer Robert Ashley. The label is “dedicated to releasing the best in avant-garde and experimental music, from electronics and computer music to new opera and extended vocal techniques” and, over a lap of approximately 20 years, has been the official voice through which the artist of the Sonic Arts Union and of the Mills College have been distributing their music.

The episode features: Blue Gene Tyranny, Jon Hassell, Eliane Radigue, David Behrman, Meredith Monk,
Alvin Lucier, Paul De Marinis and Robert Ashley.

Morning Trip is a bulimic record collector based in Ontario, Canada. His collection is mainly focused on ambient, repetitive and electronic music. Besides the regular gems, he also owns forgotten series of rare cassettes of American New Age projects. You can check out his collection, obstinately photographed on a Persian carpet, on his Instagram profile (@morningtrip).

The episode features: Erik Wøllo, Peter Davison, David Auerbach, Laraaji & Lyghte, Suzanne Ciani, Carl Weingarten & Gale Ormiston, David & Steve Gordon, Emerald Web, Ditto, Michel Uyttebroek, Danna & Clement.

For the first episode we compiled a warm selection of post-ambient and experimental contemporary artists, that deal — sometimes with a certain irony, sometimes seriousness — with well-defined languages and archetypal sounds that act as Proust’s madeleine evoking nostalgic memories from the past.