The Avant Garde Project is an effort to make available some of my favorite pieces of experimental music from the late 20th century. The extremist intellectual climate of that time gave birth to some of the wildest and most challenging sound combinations that human artistry has ever conceived. The pieces selected for this project were released on LP but have never been released on CD, and so they are effectively inaccessible to the vast majority of music listeners today. Using an analog rig and pre-amplification that is near state-of-the-art, I am able to extract the sound from the grooves with almost none of the surface noise and tracking distortion normally associated with LPs. 

I am hoping you will find this material as fascinating and beautiful as I do. If you find any value in your downloads, I ask you please to seed them yourself for as long as possible, so they will continue to be available to other people. Earlier AGP torrents are still being seeded through the generosity of other downloaders, so check them out if you haven't already. A search for "avant garde project" on thepiratebay.org or mininova.org will direct you to them. Now that I have a larger hard drive, I'm seeding the earlier torrents as often as I can, though not during the first 24 hours of a new AGP offering, so I can get the new one going as quickly as possible.

==========================

The eighth AGP torrent features the free improvisations of an ensemble called New Phonic Art--four gifted avant-garde musicians playing trombone, clarinets, saxophone, flute, alphorn, zurle, piano, organ, and percussion. The textures produced are in places reminiscent of Kagel's Acustica, though more spare. Over two days of January 1971, they recorded seven unedited takes without rehearsal or premeditation and selected three for this LP (Wergo 60060). The text file includes the original liner notes in English. 

If you like the sound of this material, you may be interested in Karlheinz Stockhausen's monumental Aus den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days), which includes fourteen free improvisations based on relatively simple instructions by Stockhausen. It is available on 7 CDs from www.stockhausen.org.

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 - Version 1 [18:26]
02 - Version 2 [8:20]
03 - Version 3 [19:01]

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 to deprive any artists of their much-deserved royalties (however small).