Mechanical Musical Instruments III (Avant Garde Project 46, FLAC)

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.



AGP1-43 are now available for direct download in the archive at www.avantgardeproject.org

AGP44-45 are available at http://thepiratebay.org/user/loudav
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AGP46 is the third installment of transcriptions of mechanical musical instruments. If you're wondering why these are included in the Avant Garde Project, see the description of AGP44. This installment features orchestrions and other instruments from the American International Galleries of Irvine, California, and from the collection of Doyle H. Lane in The Player Piano Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia.



Orchestrions are floor-standing mechanical instruments that combine several instrumental sounds. For example, the Weber-Maesto featured in track 18 includes piano, organ with eight stops, xylophone, and various percussion instruments. Other orchestrions include mechanically bowed violins, accordians, and a variety of other organ stops. Among the other instruments in this installment is a rare player banjo that has a remarkable timbre.



Tracks 18-23 are from Sonyatone Records STS-3001. Tracks 24-25 include most of Ensemble Productions Ltd. EPN 7246. Both LPs are in excellent condition, but being American pressings, have a bit more light pressing noise than the excellent European pressings of AGP44-45. The torrent includes images from the back covers of both LPs and the front cover of the first, including pictures of the instruments and liner notes from EPN 7246. The liner notes from STS-3001 are in a text file.



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.



18 - Weber-Maesto [10:50]

19 - Coinola Cupid [5:01]

20 - Phonolist Violina [7:49]

21 - Wurlitzer Caliola [8:46]

22 - Seeburg Style KT [5:03]

23 - Coinola Cupid [9:23]

24 - EPN 7246, tracks A1-A5 [15:54]

25 - EPN 7246, tracks B1-B3 [16:39]



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.