Alvin Curran

Natural History

Black Truffle
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Black Truffle is extremely proud to present the first-ever vinyl issue of Alvin Curran’s Natural History, originally released on cassette by Edition Giannozzo Berlin in 1983. A founding member of the radical electronic improvising group Musica Elettronica Viva, since the early 1970s Curran has developed an idiosyncratic body of solo work that occupies a unique position in the post-Cageian experimental tradition. Singularly undogmatic, Curran’s work takes the Cageian experience as the starting point for a radical openness to all forms of music and sound. Refusing to abstract music from its human functions, his work draws on existing musical genres, cutting-edge electronics, and environmental recordings to craft compositions that mimic the hazy texture of everyday life, moving from the abstract to the referential, from the observational to the emotive, from the structured to the random. As he reflects in the liner notes written especially for this edition: ‘This infinite stream of sound became my life and my music all at once’. Curran’s other classic solo works of the 1970s and 1980s (such as Songs and Views of the Magnetic Garden and Canti Illuminati) are elaborate collages that combine keyboard and voice improvisation and composition with field-recorded environments. Natural History consists entirely of field recordings from Curran’s archive, arranged as a series of ‘still lifes’, sometimes layered, but without any additional processing. Sounds recorded over the course of nearly twenty years, at Curran’s home in Rome or while traveling: constructions sites, insects, children’s toys, a piano being tuned, foghorns (familiar to admirers of Curran masterful Maritime Rites), lovemaking, a singing neighbour. It is, as Curran says, an attempt to ‘put the sound of the entire world on a cassette tape’. Heard against the backdrop of the increasing prevalence of field recordings in contemporary music over the last few years, Natural History is like a refreshing breeze, suffused with the joy of discovery.

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Details

Release Date

01.09.2016

Cat No

Black Truffle 022 LP

Tracklist

Track 1
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Track 2
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Experimental Electronica
LP
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Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri Black Truffle
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Electronica
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25.95 €
Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri Black Truffle
India
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LP
Kamalesh Maitra
27.95 €
Raag Kirwani on Tabla Tarang Black Truffle
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World
LP
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27.95 €
Raag Kirwani on Tabla Tarang Black Truffle
Electronica
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LP
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Asia
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LP
Sombat Simla
24.95 €
Master Of Bamboo Mouth Organ - Isan, Thailand Black Truffle
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World
LP
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Sombat Simla
24.95 €
Master Of Bamboo Mouth Organ - Isan, Thailand Black Truffle
India
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2-LP
Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar
32.95 €
Vrindavan 1982 Black Truffle
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World
2-LP
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Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar
32.95 €
Vrindavan 1982 Black Truffle
Ambient
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LP
Sam Dunscombe
25.95 €
Two Forests - Oceanic Black Truffle
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Electronica
LP
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Sam Dunscombe
25.95 €
Two Forests - Oceanic Black Truffle
Jazz
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LP
Otto Willberg
22.95 €
The Leisure Principle Black Truffle
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Jazz
LP
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Otto Willberg
22.95 €
The Leisure Principle Black Truffle
No Wave
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12''
Kris Baha
10.95 €
BAH 036 Bahnsteig 23
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12''
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Kris Baha
10.95 €
BAH 036 Bahnsteig 23
Wave
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Jan Van Den Broeke
22.95 €
11000 Dreams Stroom
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Rock / Pop / Indie
LP
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Jan Van Den Broeke
22.95 €
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Experimental Electronica
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LP
Alvin Curran
19.95 €
Natural History Black Truffle
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Electronica
LP
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Alvin Curran
19.95 €
Natural History Black Truffle