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. 

AGP1-62 are now available for direct download in the archive at dream.cs.bath.ac.uk/AvantGardeProject

NOTE: AGP65 will be released on June 24. There will be no release in the week of June 15, and the next week's release will be on Sunday night (the 24th) instead of Friday night.

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Our second Hans Werner Henze installment includes works from a L'Oiseau Lyre LP (DSLO 5), and one work from an out-of-print CD in the Henze Collection on Deutsche Grammophon. Kammermusik (1958) features the tenor Philip Langridge, Timothy Walker on guitar, and the London Sinfonietta conducted by the composer. In Memoriam: Die Weisse Rose (1964-65) is played by the London Sinfonietta. Versuch uber Schweine (Essay on Pigs, 1968) features the voice of Roy Hart, the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, and the English Chamber Orchestra directed by the composer.

The torrent includes two PDF files: one with liner notes from the two LPs these works appeared on (see pp. 8, 17-22), and the other with booklet notes from the CD release containing Versuch uber Schweine. Two other works from that CD will be included in AGP66. Transcriptions of works from that CD were generously provided by one of the AGP's many enthusiastic partisans in Germany. 

Equipment used for A/D conversion of tracks 09-11: 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. 

09    - Kammermusik, side A [26:23]
10    - Kammermusik, side B [21:29]
11    - In Memoriam: Die Weisse Rose [7:50]
12-16 - Essay on Pigs I-V [20:38]

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.