The Avant Garde Project is a series of 20th-century classical, experimental, and electroacoustic torrents digitized from LPs whose music has in most cases never been released on CD, and so is effectively inaccessible to the vast majority of music listeners today. This is wild stuff, so check it out if you've never heard this sort of music before. The analog rig used to extract the sound from the grooves is near state-of-the-art, producing almost none of the tracking distortion or surface noise normally associated with LPs. 

AGP1-147 are now available for direct download in the archive at dream.cs.bath.ac.uk/AvantGardeProject

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AGP NEWS: AGP150 will be uploaded tomorrow, and it will be the last AGP installment till September. In the meantime, enjoy the 150 hours of music already available.

AGP149 is a transcription of an Argo LP (ZRG 799) from 1975, featuring two choral works by Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms (1930) and Canticum Sacrum (1955). They are both performed by The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and the Philip Jones Ensemble, conducted by Simon Preston. The LP was produced by Michael Bremner and engineered by Stanley Goodall. Symphony of Psalms has long been a favorite of mine, and Canticum Sacrum is along for the ride. Both 24-bit and 16-bit files for Symphony of Psalms are included. The latter is in CD format. 

The LP transcribed for this installment is in very good condition. There is a bit of light noise at the beginning of Symphony of Psalms but then it quiets down nicely. There is the occasional isolate pop in Canticum Sacrum, most of which were eliminated with the mildest possible de-clicking. Argo LPs are sometimes prone to tracking distortion, but there is none to speak of in this one.

I didn't scan the LP cover notes (sorry, I'm getting lazy), largely because they didn't say anything that you couldn't find on the internet. Here's a nice site with texts and analysis for both works:

http://home.earthlink.net/~akuster/music/stravinsky/index.htm

Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms [21:26]
Stravinsky, Canticum Sacrum [19:10]

Equipment used for A/D conversion: Lyra Helikon phono cartridge, Linn LP12/Lingo turntable, Linn Ittok tonearm, Audioquest LeoPard tonearm cable, PS Audio PS2 preamplifier, Kimber PBJ interconnect, M-Audio Audiophile USB A/D converter. 

NOTE: To the best of my knowledge, these recordings are not currently available commercially. If you know otherwise, please let me know ASAP, as I do not wish any artists to be deprived of the royalties that they so richly deserve.