“ ”People like Conrad, so free of many of the conventional ideas and restraints that often just end up being selling points, remind me that as down as you want to feel is just how much you want to deny the fact that there have been brilliant people in every decade, including this one, pushing in every possible way against mediocrity, conformity, and ignorance. When in doubt, go to the museum, the gallery, the record store, anywhere you can find art. The world might not change, but yours could.””
— —Henry Rollins, LA Weekly

“'Outrageous?' You should have heard the Dream Syndicate."
—Lou Reed, in response to critical attacks on his Metal Machine Music LP, 1975

John Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus MacLise, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela
Inside the Dream Syndicate Vol. I: Day of Niagara (1965)

“In the beginning, there was the Drone, the primordial, mind-splitting Om generated by the strings and revolutionary lost-chord Zeitgeist of 1960's group the Dream Syndicate”
—David Fricke,  Rolling Stone

“These recordings are (part of) a library of effort that represented, for Tony and I at least, a labour of love. The power and majesty that was in that music is still on these tapes."
—John Cale



From 1962 through 1965, John Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus MacLise, La Monte Young, and Marian Zazeela participated in a collaborative ensemble that articulated the Big Bang of "minimalism." Utilizing long duration and precise pitch, they forged an aggressively mesmerizing "Dream Music"—denying the activity of composition and elaborating shared ideas of performance and improvisation. However, the many rehearsal and performance recordings from this period were repressed and remained inaccessible, buried until this moment. Now, with the recent discovery of an additional cache of tapes, digitally restored and remastered, the world can step inside the Dream Syndicate for the very first time.

“This is a 31-minute drone. It's also probably the most important historical release of the year. After a decades-long wait, we're finally able to hear the original Dream Syndicate, the legendary ensemble of '62-'65, which influenced thousands solely through its reputation. It's the bite of Tony Conrad's razor-sharp violin, together with the blistering howl of John Cale's prepared viola, which makes this music so much more than so much of what's come after it. Conrad and Cale are the motor, producing a sound like the world itself exploding, only in slow motion and with absolute precision. It’s an instant classic, still jaw-dropping after a 35-year hibernation."
—Other Music

“The skyscraping wall of amplified string drone that is erected here towers over almost everything. Coupled with Cale's hypnotic, deafening, avant-rock viola is Conrad's equally impressive double-stop violin playing. Together they produce the sound illusion of some huge electrical generator, a grinding musical turbine that is forever shooting sparks to ignite the imagination... Day of Niagara is an incredible piece of music. That it exists and is, at last, available to anyone who wants to hear it is nothing short of a miracle. Rejoice!"
—The Wire

“Listen now to Inside the Dream Syndicate Volume 1: Day of Niagara (1965), re­cently released on Table of the Elements and credited to Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus MacLise (the Velvet Underground's first drummer), La Monte Young, and Marian Zazeela. In the thirty-one minutes of severe, scratching, calming fre­quency modulation, you hear not that the avant-garde with which Cale began was dimin­ished when its tricks were applied to pop music, but that pop music was where the tricks of the avant-garde were turned into a real language … that's where the pathos is: the attempt of a man who carries dead languages within himself to empty himself, to ful­fill none of the hopes others have invested in him.”
— Greil Marcus, Interview Magazine

“Day of Niagara is a slowly morphing mass of just-intoned drones for voice, violin, and saxophone, as well as some percussion by MacLise, the Velvet Underground’s original drummer. (Some listeners might recognize the mesmerizing, monotonous, commanding amplified-string sound as being close to that of John Cale’s electric viola in the Velvet Underground’s “Black Angel’s Death Song.”) If your normal expectations of chord changes, rhythm, melody, and tension/release are not suspended, the music can be experienced as a test of endurance. Some people may hear in these performances a spirit close to the slow, simultaneously calm and sharp opening moments of a raga played by the shehnai player Ustad Bismillah Khan. Some may just hear the expression of pure extremity in stasis. If your mind is capable of adjusting to it, this music, seemingly harsh at first, becomes undeniably beautiful and even soothing.”
—Brooklyn Rail

“Lou Reed's infamous Metal Machine Music; Jim O'Rourke's unlikely entrance in the pantheon of indie rock; and Sonic Youth's worship of the avant-garde; these instances and countless others were all born from the same seed: the legend of the Dream Syndicate. One of the most significant and controversial releases of 2000, Inside the Dream Syndicate is the high-throttle point when 20th Century Classical almost became rock 'n' roll. This is the Big Bang of Minimalism."
—Pitchfork

“The great missing link between classical and popular music—and Eastern and Western music—of the late 20th century. A monumental achievement."
—Creative Loafing, Atlanta

“No lie, this might be the most historically significant music release of the last 20 years... A fantastic piece of deeply ecstatic sound."
—Aural Innovations

“A heavenly din of hellish proportions. Definitely a coup for one of the most interesting labels in America, Table of the Elements."
—Earpeace

“One of the most important recordings to emerge from the mid-1960's, a product of extraordinary sonic force.”
—Boomkat

“A bracing and powerful document of a hugely influential ensemble that changed the sound of modern music." 
—Chicago Tribune

“Number 1 'Not-Pop' Release of 2000"
—LA Weekly

“This music will drill you a third eye."
—The Bob

“Downright loud and vicious."
—Blastitude

“Exhilarating."
—New York Times

“A bombshell."
—Art Paper

“Mindbending."
—Spin

 

John Cale, Tony Conrad, Angus MacLise, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela
Inside the Dream Syndicate Vol. I: Day of Niagara (1965)
25 x 60 Edition
2000/2025
Table of the Elements Archive
[Tungsten] 74
EOE-074

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 radical innovation. The organizations’s 170-plus releases — along with influential intermedia festivals — comprise a vital contemporary chronicle, a survey of meaningful eruptions across a broad horizon of sound, word, and vision.  Each unique 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.”
—Grayson Haver Currin, 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

“[John] Cale left the Dream Syndicate for the Velvet Underground; Conrad found a community in avant-garde film. But after Reed fired Cale from the VU and he was at loose ends, he and Conrad revived their string-drone collaborations. Some of these works can be found on the box set John Cale: New York in the 1960s, released in 2000 on Jeff Hunt’s Table of the Elements label. Hunt, who played a big part in Conrad’s return to music in the early 1990s, is one of the film’s most articulate expert witnesses to Conrad’s artistic achievements. … In 2000, Table of the Elements finally released digital remasters of three early-’60s Dream Syndicate recordings, which Hunt says appeared mysteriously in the mail one day, as well as the boxed set Tony Conrad: Early Minimalism, which includes one work that is actually “early,” Conrad’s divine Four Violins (1964), as well as other disks by Conrad, MacLise, and Jack Smith.”
Amy Taubin, Artforum

 

 

Search

All contents ©1992–2025 Table of the Elements ®2025 Table of the Elements. 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)