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.

AGP1-150 are now available for direct download in the archive at dream.cs.bath.ac.uk/AvantGardeProject

CALLING ALL AGP PARTISANS: I'd love to include any or all of the following out-of-print CDs in the AGP. If you have one or more and would be willing to make and upload FLAC files, I'd be most grateful. I can walk you through any part of the process you're unfamiliar with. Scans of the CD booklets would be appreciated as well, if you're set-up to make them. 

Recordings of Janacek's two string quartets by either the Medici or Gabrieli quartets
Bartok's 44 Duos for two violins, performed by Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman
Berg's Lulu, performed by (among others) Anja Silja, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and the Vienna Philharmonic  
Hindemith Kammermusiken performed by Concerto Amsterdam

You can readily find my email address at avantgardeproject.org. Thanks!

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AGP154 is a transcription of an LP released on London Records (STS 15419) in 1977, with performances by the Vienna Wind Soloists of four pieces of 20th century music. It was recorded in October 1976 by Richard Beswick and Stanley Goodall, and is a luscious, clear recording that was a joy to listen to again. The transcription is quite clean except for some tracking distortion in the last movement of track 02. Track 03 is the companion piece to the first track in AGP152. The torrent includes a PDF file with scans of the front and back covers. 

01 - Ibert, Trois Pieces Breves [6:46]
02 - Janacek, Mladi [17:35]
03 - Hindemith, Kleine Kammermusik, op. 24/2 [13:20]
04 - Ligeti, Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet [12:51]

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.