Category Archives: Para Coma

Wakened By Silence is a 2 x cassette compilation edition subtitled: “San Francisco Area Experimental Music And Art.” Tel Basta: Tel Basta started out under the name Bast. The first recording of theirs was on the original ARRHYTHMIA compilation back in 1990. From there, they changed the name to Tel Basta, dropped the overtly scary musical presentation and took up a bit more relaxed vibe. Windowpain Industries: is Stephan Abbate an experimental musician from San Francisco. Force: are John Ayres, Kris Force from Iao Core. Big City Orchestra: One of the most idiosyncratic and original groups of the past two decades, BCO is not your standard Orchestra. Situated in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the band has released an enormous catalog of recorded material over the past two decades. Formed in the late 1970′s the ensemble continues to maintain a free-flowing roster of artists from around the world that collaborate on specific projects. Categorizing the Orchestra into any given genre can be a task, as releases continue to surprise even the most devout listener. There is never any way to precisely classify the next BCO release. An album of authentic sea-shanties? A wall of noise? A shimmering downpour of lullabies whispered to the wind? A humorous or thought-provoking album of Sound Collages? Vocal excursions set to make Rod McKuen blush? We press play, leaning forward with slight apprehension. We await the first wave of blissful deception. We are perpetually rewarded. Anal Sadist: Anal Sadist was started in August of 1988. The name “Anal Sadist” comes from an ex-manager who when I described my love of playing chess said that he thought that chess was the highest form of “anal sadism” possible. Hey, what a great name for a band… Solo project of William Christman. Michael Gendreau -primarily working on low-vibration design in buildings and noise impact to optical research apparatus in the infrasonic to audible frequency range) as a language within the : was born in California in 1961. A musician since age 6, Gendreau went along to work with several group organizations, culminating in Crawling With Tarts (1983-1998), and using this group as a medium (along with the various uses made of it by co-founder Suzanne Dycus) for work in elementalism, attention to temporal and environmental persistence, and eventually, applications of parataxis. These final studies included the use of small motors and turntable mechanisms, mostly performing with one-off transcription discs cast by others in the middle of the last century, or cut in Gendreau’s studio using a decrepit lathe. More recently, in composition and performance, Gendreau has sought to enlarge these later studies, adding physical parameters of performance spaces (as a point of reference, based on studies in physics completed in 1989 and current work as an acousticianparatactic structures that form his compositions. Crawling With Tarts: Michael Gendreau and Suzanne Dycus-Gendreau have been working under the name Crawling With Tarts from 1983 to 1998. They have released musical work on cassette and vinyl and have appeared on several compilations. In 1991 they released a video collection which included their works made with video, 8mm film, and with the PXL2000 camera. Their musical work ranges from structured composition to free improvisation, and their output documents a varied approach to music as well as highlighting collaborative efforts which have spanned the years and the globe. Allegory Chapel Ltd. : Elden M. is an experimental musician known best for his work as Allegory Chapel Ltd. For many years he worked at Subterranean Records and currently is one of the people behind blackmetal.com. He also ran the ACLMX tape label. Elden has collaborated extensively with other bay-area musicians such as Monte Cazazza, Stephen Holman as Torture Chorus, and Mason Jones; performing with other international artists such as Mayuko Hino, Merzbow, HijoKaidan, and Haters; plus collaborated with the following bands: Neither-Neither World, Noothgrush, Bone Awl, Carbon 14, Love Force (later known as Amber Asylum), IAO Core, and others. Elden’s side-project as M.N.L.F. appeared on the From The Machine compilation album, and released a very limited number of demo cassette; the initials stand for MAGICKAL NOISE LIBERATION FRONT. The Solutionist: is Michael Mantra. Mike Shannon: Michael Shannon is a Seattle based musician/performer active since 1979 who has worked with groups in San Francisco such as Plateau Ensemble, Lethal Gospel, < < < (pronounced ‘ku ku ku’), Aquarium Music, Joyo, Kahunas, Earnerve, Blue World, Appliances, Wish Radio, Broken Mask, Trigram and in Seattle with the Animist Orchestra, Aono Jikken Ensemble in addition to producing solo material. He has also composed for and worked as a sound designer for a number of Seattle-based modern dance choreographers. His solo work has been released as a series of cassettes by Joy Street Studios (his own label), and many cassette/CD compilations around the world, he is featured on the CDs, ‘Meander’ by Blue World, and ‘Coincidentiae Mirabiles’ with Jeph Jerman, Dave Knott, Susie Kozawa, and Miroslaw Rajkowski, as well as releasing a solo LP ‘Laguz’ on Anomalous Records and many others. His work involves improvised interactions of East Asian, North African, Middle Eastern, and western instruments, with tape, field recordings and electronics, that result in unique compositions of quiet, stately beauty. Waste Inc.: is Gustavo Pastre, member of Big City Orchestra. The Haters: Gerard X Jupitter-Larsen originally from Vancouver, B.C., GX started his own brand of anti-art nihilism in 1979 when he formed The Haters. Touring throughout the world, and reticent to return to his dreaded Canadian homeland, GX for a long stated he was from ‘nowhere in particular’. Since then he has settled down in California. Trance: the earliest musical entity begun by Mason jones was called Trance. Starting in 1987, recordings under the name Trance were released on a number of small-edition cassettes, followed by CDs and singles. As a live venture, Trance included other participants over the years, including Elden M. (Allegory Chapel Ltd.), Annabel Lee (Amber Asylum), Sam Lohmann (36, Nimrod), and others. Live collaborations under the guise of Trance included shows with Jim O’Rourke, Joe Papa (Controlled Bleeding), Evolution Control Committee, and many more. AMK: American experimental musician who was active since the early 80s and created his own label Banned Production. Master/Slave Relationship: Deborah Jaffe is the mastermind of the industrial musical entity: Master/Slave Relationship. For twenty years she has self-produced a unique brand of industrial music. In that time she’s released more than ten cassettes, one vinyl LP, five compact discs and one CD-ROM with no government grants or federal funds of any sort, thus maintaining TRUE independence of content and spirit. Nux Vomica: experimental music project from San-Francisco, active since 1990. Their music encompasses a large range of styles (industrial, ambient, noise, & ethnic) and compositional techniques (found sounds, processing, electronics, & live instruments). It’s members established and ran the SF experimental music store and label Auricular Records in San Francisco during the early 1990s. Throughout their career they have collaborated with many other musicians, generally from the Bay Area. Though relatively inactive since the late 1990s, Nux Vomica began performing live again in 2007. Turbo Messiah: schizophrenic home tapists who range from experimental weirdness to industrial surf rock. Iao Core: Comprising musical performance, ritual activity and print media, IAO Core has been a wellspring of countercultural activity in the San Francisco Bay area for fifteen years. In elaborate performances with as many as sixteen players onstage, IAO Core has performed with a rich variety of underground musicians: on the Over the Edge radio show with Don Joyce of Negativland, onstage with local heroes/outcasts such as Caroliner and Monte Cazazza, as well as Crash Worship, Vidna Obmana, Gong’s Daevid Allen and Japanese noise unit C.C.C.C. In addition the group has collaborated with some of SF’s most extreme and adventuresome individuals, from electroacoustic instrument inventor Thom Nunn to blood-drinking performance/spoken word artist Danielle Willis. Anyone any info on: The Black Museum, Seemen, Chemical Toybox, R. Nance, Homo Phlegm, Para Coma, David Tipton and The Somnambulist. Wakened By Silence was released on two cassettes by Charnel Music (CHC-10) in 1991. Limited to 350 numbered copies in a large box containing various trinkets and a large booklet featuring an introduction by Mason Jones, artist contact information, and a page for each artist’s own visual/text contribution. Booklet included in the zip file.

Tracks:

Cassette 1

1. Tel Basta – Court Dance
2. Windowpain Industries – K.D. Laudarg
3. Force – Missunderstanding
4. Big City Orchestra – Schelmisch
5. Anal Sadist – The Poor Sap
6. Michael Gendreau – C-G P.1
7. Crawling With Tarts – Piano Motor #5
8. The Black Museum – Loops Let It Go
9. Allegory Chapel Ltd. – Descent Into Boston
10. The Solutionist – Angh Yah (Excerpt)
11. Mike Shannon – A Life Full Of Perforation
12. Waste Inc. – Problems Of Disunity
13. Seemen – We Have Talked About Many Things
14. The Haters – Fuchait 7

Cassette 2

1. Trance – A Celebrated Occasion
2. Chemical Toybox – Dance Of The Lubricants
3. R. Nance – Landscape I
4. Homo Phlegm – Talking All That Talk And Ain’t Saying Shit
5. AMK – Railing Blues
6. Para Coma – We’ve Seen It
7. Master/Slave Relationship – Song For Susan
8. Nux Vomica – Monism Part I
9. Turbo Messiah – The Collagen Boat
10. David Tipton – The Ghost Of Elvis
11. The Somnambulist – Improv II (Excerpt)
12. Iao Core – Dna

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