AlastairGalbraithBruce Russell.jpg
 
XERIC.png
 

Alastair Galbraith
Morse/Gaudylight
2006

Xeric
XER-CD-104
Compact disc

The sloppy nature of some of instrumentation and the songs' lo-fi sound add to the homemade allure of his music, according to fans. The feedback on "Bone Idle" continues the feedback trend that is experimented with on much of the disc. The music is often moody and atmospheric, creating an ambient and generally low-key feeling to the songs.

“A five-song EP, Gaudylight was Galbraith's formal solo debut, appearing a year before the full length Morse (and later appearing on CD with that album). With help from David Mitchell on guitar on two tracks, one also with David Saunders on bass, and Brian Jones on another, Galbraith made his own unsettlingly strange mark on shadowy New Zealand underground rock from the start. Recording in the same murky, four-track style as sometime collaborator Peter Jefferies, Galbraith has a warmer voice but an equally strange sensibility. Open-ended fragments like the rumbling feedback and random lyrics of ‘John of the Painted Eye’ and ‘Mrs. Blucher,’ and its sudden epic guitar chime, rub up against slightly more straightforward songs like ‘As in a Blender.’ Galbraith's violin -- at once down-home and pretty creepy -- adds to the just unnerving enough atmosphere more than once. The title track itself is the most appealing yet strange of the bunch, his acoustic guitar and overdubbed vocals sounding like a centuries-old invocation of something mysterious.”
Talisman

XERIC.png
 

Alastair Galbraith
Talisman
2006

Xeric
XER-CD-105
Compact disc

Originally released in 1997 on Galbraith's own Next Best Way label out of New Zealand, now reissued with 7 bonus tracks. "Even more fractured and strange, if that's possible, than his slightly higher-profile solo releases, Talisman finds Alastair Galbraith deep into sonic exploration of curious, dank corners via his own brand of rock & roll. As is usually the case with his work, there's next to no percussion and only the subtlest suggestion of recurring rhythms, while the only guests this time out contribute extra guitar and, on 'Black Flame,' horn. When Galbraith pulls out all the stops, the results balance neatly between relative accessibility and pure chaos -- 'Cemetery Raga,' featuring David Mitchell on extra guitar, is calm enough up front but has some just gone feedback backing everything up, sounding almost like metal being extruded forcibly."

XERIC.png
 

Alastair Galbraith/Matt De Gennaro
From the Dark (South Island):
Long Wires in Dark Museums Vol. 2
2006

Xeric
XER-CD-103
Compact disc

Multi-talented Alastair Galbraith is the glue that binds the New Zealand underground. His work ranges from achingly lyrical violin for artists as disparate as Peter Jefferies and the Bats, to the feedback squalls he conjures as member of A Handful Of Dust, to the otherworldly miniatures he crafts for his own solo albums. However, in recent years, Galbraith, along with American Matt De Gennaro, has developed another remarkable performance idiom, one that is positioned closer to the sounding sculpture of Harry Bertoia. In From the Dark (South Island), architectural idiosyncrasies are transformed into nuanced and hypnotic audio. Wires—some as long as 100 feet—are affixed throughout a building. When the wires are taught and stroked with rosined hands or a piece of leather, longitudinal vibrations are sent to the points of attachment, creating a natural resonator. It is not the wires that make the sound, but the wall, railing or window frames at their end; wire length and room acoustics determine the pitch. The result, achieved in a veil of total darkness, is a beautiful and eerie confluence of chance and accident, architecture and improvisation. As Galbraith puts it, “There is some quite magical feeling of communion turning the lights off and making the building sing.”

A Conduit for History Exploding in the Present Moment

TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS is a curatorial network and interdisciplinary platform, live-event presenter, and fine-arts publisher of print, audio, and film, lauded by Pitchfork Media as “a national treasure.” Since its origin as a record label in 1993, TotE has been dedicated to preserving, promoting, and promulgating works by international creators of experimental audio, electroacoustics, free-improvised performance, sonic sculpture, microtonality, and modern composition. The label’s 150-plus releases are a vital contemporary chronicle, a survey of meaningful eruptions across a broad horizon of sound and vision.  Each project demonstrates how a publishing concern might romp wild, unbridled from the carousel of convention.

•     •     •     •     •

"The supremacy of Table of the Elements as an unwavering outpost of ultra-experimental strains can be attributed to its concomitant adherence to valiance. Most of the Table of the Elements catalog has no broad commercial appeal, and many of its projects are risky ventures, even with respect to the experimental marketplace. Yet, this philosophy of risk works because everybody associated with the label feels like they're doing important work releasing important records, and they're willing to go for broke to make it happen.”

—Pitchfork

“The hallmarks of this New Archivism are beautiful and innovative packaging, elaborate and idiosyncratic liner notes, rare and obscure recordings ... Working with graphic designers such as the Grammy-winning Susan Archie, Jeff Hunt produced a collection that combines varied textures, lavish finishes, and period details with art from the era of the original source recordings. Their treatment of Robert Longo’s late 1970s photographs for Rhys Chatham’s releases could, for instance, measure up to what’s on view at most contemporary art centers. In addition to its archival endeavor, TotE also releases the new work of its avant-garde heroes and their devotees. TotE’s active support of the work of sonic pioneers ensures that theirs are living traditions — not ossified museum objects.”

—Thomas Peake, Art Papers

Tony Conrad: Completely In the Present
A Film by Tyler Hubby

"Hubby's film captures Conrad in all his facets ... broadly as a man determined to make 'abstract art funny, happy, energetic, joyful.' Conrad lived long enough to see his early recordings, barely or never released, get the reissue and the attention they deserve. ... [Completely In the Present] is a sharp, sweet, eloquent documentary about the merriest, most artistically expansive minimalist on record. His work and his life asserted the importance of listening for the sounds nobody else has heard."

—Chicago Tribune

“Joyous, exhilarating, and transformative, Tyler Hubby’s documentary is essential viewing for anyone involved in the history of music and visual art.”

—Artforum

"Conrad was 100 percent badass. Without Tyler Hubby’s documentary and Table of the Elements ... one of the great stories of American music and art might have gone underappreciated.”

—Henry Rollins

All contents ©1992–2025 Table of the Elements ®2025 Table of the Elements Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Related media from the Table of the Elements Archive published courtesy the estate of Tony Conrad.

Since 1993, Table of the Elements has staked its claim on a massive enterprise. It intends nothing less than to rewrite the history of American music in the second half of the 20th century -- and beyond. The label’s 150-plus releases are a vital contemporary chronicle, a survey of meaningful eruptions across a broad horizon of improvised, experimental, minimal and outsider sounds.

Cart (0)