The Avant Garde Project is a series of 20th-century classical-experimental-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. 

AGP1-55 are now available for direct download in the archive at dream.cs.bath.ac.uk/AvantGardeProject

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AGP56 is the second AGP installment featuring works by John Cage (following AGP18). The four Cage compositions are taken from four different LPs, and exhaust the out-of-print works by Cage that I could find in my stacks. While other recordings of Variations I and II are available, these works allow for a level of indeterminacy that makes every performance unique, even as regards the instrumentation.

Variations III is performed by the New Music Ensemble of the San Francisco Conservatory. Variations I is performed by Gerd Zacher on organ. Solos for Voice 2 is performed by The Brandeis University Chamber Chorus. Aria with Fontana Mix is sung by Cathy Berberian accompanied by magnetic tape. To fill out the torrent, I have included the other three tracks from the LP that Variations III appears on--a Wergo LP featuring performances by the New Music Ensemble. 

The torrent includes a text file containing the liner notes from the four LPs, as well as two images of a youngish John Cage with Cathy Berberian.

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. 

01 - Cage 01 Variations III [8:06]
02 - Cage 02 Variations I [14:43]
03 - Cage 03 Solos for voice 2 [12:55]
04 - Cage 04 Aria Fontana Mix [9:59]
05 - Logothetis [6:14]
06 - Moran Dracoula [12:48]
07 - Rush Nexus 16 [9:31]

NOTE: To the best of my knowledge, these recordings are currently out of print. 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.