Various Artists Complete Obscure Records Collection - With Book

Release date:
December 1, 2023
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The first-ever LP box set gathering the entire 10 album collection of Obscure Records produced by Brian Eno's. Originally issued between 1975 and 1978, nearly 50 years on the output of Obscure remains radically forward-thinking - offering glimpses of a future yet to be fully seen - and amounts to one of the most important, influential, and creatively accomplished album series ever conceived. Curated by Eno and the composers Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman - issuing the recording debuts of Bryars, Nyman, John Adams, Christopher Hobbs, David Toop, Max Eastley, Jan Steele, Simon Jeffes / The Penguin Café Orchestra, and Harold Budd, in addition to important works by John Cage, Tom Phillips, and John White - Obscure's collective output is a groundbreaking landmark in the histories of Minimalism, modern composition, and Experimental music, and laid much of the groundwork for the soon to emerge movement of Ambient music. Illuminating the remarkable, and largely otherwise undocumented, creative ferment within and between the British and American scenes of experimental music during the mid to late 1970s, this collection - made in full collaboration with all of the composers or their estates - contains the entire 10 album output of Obscure, the majority of which have been out of print for years, with a number having never received a CD reissue. Offering each of Obscure's albums, completely remastered and housed in faithful replicas of their original covers and liner notes, as well as a 130-page booklet for CD-BOX SET and 80-page book (LP dimension) for LP-BOX SET, filled with rare photos, archival material and texts by - among others - Gavin Bryars, Bradford Bailey, David Toop, Max Eastley, Richard Bernas, and Tom Recchion, this historic collection marks the first time this seminal series has received a complete CD and LP repress.

Tracklist:
  • 1. Gavin Bryars - the Sinkink of the Titanic
  • 2. Gavin Bryars - the Sinking of the Titanic
  • 3. Gavin Bryars - Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
  • 4. Christopher Hobbs - Aran
  • 5. John Adams - (A2I) American Standard - John Philip Sousa
  • 6. John Adams - (A2Ii)American Standard - Christian Zeal and Activity
  • 7. John Adams - (A2Iii)American Standard - Sentimentals
  • 8. Christopher Hobbs - McCrimmon Will Never Return
  • 9. Gavin Bryars - 1, 2, 1-2-3-4
  • 10. Brian Eno - Discreet Music
  • 11. Brian Eno - Fullness of Wind (Variation on 'The Canon in D Major' By Johann Pachelbel)
  • 12. Brian Eno - French Catalogues (Variation on 'The Canon in D Major' By Johann Pachelbel)
  • 13. Brian Eno - Brutal Ardour (Variation on 'The Canon in D Major' By Johann Pachelbel)
  • 14. Max Eastley - Hydrophone
  • 15. Max Eastley - Metallophone
  • 16. Max Eastley - the Centriphone
  • 17. Max Eastley - Elastic Aerophone / Centriphone
  • 18. David Toop - Do the Bathosphere
  • 19. David Toop - the Divination of the Bowhead Whale
  • 20. David Toop - the Chairs Story
  • 21. Jan Steele - All Day
  • 22. Jan Steele - Distant Saxophones
  • 23. Jan Steele - Rhapsody Spaniel
  • 24. John Cage - Experiences No.1
  • 25. John Cage - Experiences No.2
  • 26. John Cage - the Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs
  • 27. John Cage - Forever and Sunsmel
  • 28. John Cage - in a Landscape
  • 29. Michael Nyman - 1-100
  • 30. Michael Nyman - Bell Set No. 1
  • 31. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - 1 Penguin Café Single
  • 32. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - 2 Zopf
  • 33. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - a) Zopf: From the Colonies (For N.R.)
  • 34. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - B) Zopf: In a Sidney Motel
  • 35. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - C) Zopf: Surface Tension (Where the Trees Meet the Sky)
  • 36. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - D) Zopf: Milk
  • 37. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - E) Zopf: Coronation
  • 38. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - F) Zopf: Giles Farnaby's Dream
  • 39. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - G) Zopf: Pigtail
  • 40. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - 3 the Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away and It Doesn't Matter
  • 41. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - 4 Hugebaby
  • 42. Penguin Cafè Orchestra - 5 Chartered Flight
  • 43. John White - Autumn Countdown Machine
  • 44. John White - Son of Gothic Chord
  • 45. John White - Jew's Harp Machine
  • 46. John White - Drinking and Hooting Machine
  • 47. Gavin Bryars - the Squirrel and the Ricketty Racketty Bridge
  • 48. Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton - Introduction
  • 49. Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton - Overture and Aria: "I Tell You That's Irma Herself"
  • 50. Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton - First Interlude
  • 51. Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton - Aria: "Irma You Will Be Mine"
  • 52. Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton - Second Interlude
  • 53. Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton - Chorus: "Love Is Help Mate"
  • 54. Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton - Postlude
  • 55. Harold Budd - Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim
  • 56. Harold Budd - Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord/Butterfly Sunday
  • 57. Harold Budd - Rossetti Noise/The Crystal Garden and a Coda
  • 58. Harold Budd - Juno