MOTHER(Crouton Records)

Following up last years self-titled debut on Crouton, the collective known as Raccoons (Jon Mueller, Hal Rammel, and Chris Rosenau) present this special edition 2 disc set. Disc one is a document of a live performance recorded late last year at Mother Fools Coffeehouse in Madison, WI in conjunction with WORT FM. Mueller's drum playing involves teeth and balloons, Rammel's single string guitar drones and swoops, and Rosenau's melodic, drone-y, and rambunctious six string guitar is played with jewelers files and a thumb piano. Disc two finds the group captured in their second session at Penumbra studios and at Rosenau and Mueller's A Women's Locker Room studio in Milwaukee. This special addition of 100 comes packaged in a beautiful engraved wooden box complete with the 2 discs, insert, and an exclusive photo card by Hal Rammel.

folktales (Crouton Records)

The first release in Crouton's folktales series "exploring the literary aspects of sound and performance" is a collection of three electroacoustic pieces by Chris Rosenau ("Two Ice Fields of the Exact Same Size"), John Kannenberg ("Lave"), and Hal Rammel ("Three Days from Anywhere"). Each composition is on a separate 3" CD accompanied by a tale written collectively by Jon Mueller and the three participants. Packed in a four-fold sleeve designed by Scott Kawczynski/I-Formation, folktales has been released in a numbered edition of 300.

"RACCOONS" (Crouton Records)

The trio of Jon Mueller (drums), Chris Rosenau (guitar), and Hal Rammel (electric one-string guitar and prepared sounds) recorded together in two sessions during the summer of 2000. Chris Rosenau and Jon Mueller work together regularly in the groups Pele, Telecognac, and, most recently, COLLECTIONS OF COLONIES OF BEES. On RACCOONS they join with multi-instrumentalist and improviser Hal Rammel for a series of improvisations not too far removed from the aforementioned groups. Jon and Hal have worked together frequently over the past two years, including a Milwaukee performance of Fred Lonberg-Holm's LIGHTBOX ORCHESTRA. As a trio on this disc Chris, Jon, and Hal create seven extremely organic sounding, textured, and varied pieces of stellar improvisation. This limited hand numbered release of 500 comes complete with liner notes by Hal and Chris presented within a hardbound hand stenciled case.

NOMUSIC FESTIVAL 1998(E.K.Records)

Van's Peppy Sybcopators (John Corbett, Terri Kapsalis, and Hal Rammel) can be heard on NOMUSICFESTIVAL 1998 from Entartete Kunst Recordings. This 6 CD box set includes all of the performances recorded in London, Ontario in March of 1998 celebrating the 33rd birthbay of the Nihilist Spasm Band. The Aeolian Hall concerts and the afterhours Interplay sessions downstairs in the Forest City Gallery featured the Nihilist Spasm Band, Thurston Moore, Allan Licht, Van's Peppy Syncopators, Jojo Hiroshige with Aya and Junko (of Alchemy Records), and other special guests. For more information contact E.K. Records at 35 Ambleside Drive, London, Ontario N6G 4M3, Canada or e-mail chamber@gtn.net.
 
 

"Night Alters Entrance" is included in the 70 minute CD accompanying the Autonomedia anthology SOUNDING OFF! Music as Subversion/Resistence/Revolution, edited by Ron Sakolsky and Fred Wei-Han Ho. The anthology inlcudes essays by Chris Cutler, Hakim Bey, Susan Parenti, Liz Was and Miekal And, among others, along with Hal Rammel's essay on surrealism and music, "Beyond Music." The CD includes works by John Oswald, Carol Genetti, Negativeland, Fred Ho, and others. "Night Alters Entrance" is an amplified palette solo recorded during the sessions that produced the Penumbra CD Elsewheres.
 
 
 
 

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