Hey, if you had to guess, how old would you say New York-based avant-garde label Lovely Music is this year? 39? 41? Close, but this isn’t horseshoes, nor is it hand grenades, as they say. No, Lovely Music is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. And while they’re too modest to have some kind of big, orgiastic blowout, they have crafted a celebration of sorts for you diehards: two of the label’s first six albums — Robert Ashley’s Private Parts and David Behrman’s On the Other Ocean — are getting vinyl reissues. How lovely!
Ashley and Behrman’s albums, both originally issued in 1978, helped build the foundation for Lovely Music’s ethos of developing only the best in “new American music.” Private Parts — a piece for voice, keyboards, and tablas — promised “an unvarnished exposition of the inner workings of a man’s mind, and on the other side, those of a woman.” It eventually grew into the composer’s monumental opera Perfect Lives. On the Other Ocean, meanwhile, was Behrman’s pioneering work of computer music that found human performers and the microcomputer Kim-1 responding to one another in an innovative application of experimental improvisation.
Both reissues drop on February 1. Pre-order Private Parts here and On the Other Ocean at this other link. Artwork and tracklistings are below. Grab ‘em both and throw an avant-party to celebrate 40 years of Lovely Music!
Private Parts tracklisting:
01. The Park
02. The Backyard
On the Other Ocean tracklisting:
01. On the Other Ocean
02. Figure In a Clearing
More about: David Behrman, Robert Ashley
