Mechanical Musical Instruments IV (Avant Garde Project 47, 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



AGP44-46 are available at http://thepiratebay.org/user/loudav




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AGP47 is the fourth and last 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 includes recordings of historical musical boxes from the Rita Ford Collection and the collection of Peter Schifferli, as well as a few tracks featuring street organs in the Schifferli collection. The torrent includes a text file containing the liner notes from the Wound-Up Opera LP and an image of the back cover with track listings from the Schifferli LP.



Another LP featuring recordings of music boxes from the Rita Ford Collection has been reissued on CD. It is called A Music Box Christmas and is very reasonably priced. Also, Rita Ford Music Boxes is still a going concern, selling both modern and antique music boxes as well as restoring and repairing music boxes. Their web site is www.ritafordmusicboxes.com.



If you like what you've heard in AGP44-47, I've digitized two more CDs of material, including some remarkable recordings of street organs made on site at a street organ festival in Arosa in 1979, and more recordings of music boxes from the collection of Peter Schifferli. This supplemental material can be downloaded directly at:



www.avantgardeproject.org/mechanical



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.



26 - Wound-up Opera A [20:50]

27 - Wound-up Opera B [20:22]

28 - Schifferli A [15:12]

29 - Schifferli B [16:30]



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.