TONY CONRAD (USA)
JOHN FAHEY (USA)
GASTR DEL SOL (USA)
BRUCE GILBERT (UK)
BERHNARD GÜNTER (GERMANY)
KEIJI HAINO + FUSHITSUSHA (JAPAN)
THURSTON MOORE AND FRIENDS (USA)
LOREN MAZZACANE CONNORS (USA)
JIM O’ROURKE (USA)
SPECIAL GUESTS

YTTRIUM
TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS FESTIVAL NO. 2

Table of the Elements
November 7, 8 and 9
1996

[Yttrium] TOE-29

The Empty Bottle
1035 N. Western Avenue
Chicago, IL
Three-day festival pass: $25.00
Producers: Jeff Hunt and Kris Johnson

John Fahey
Hard Time Empty Bottle Blues
Lanthanides Series
2003

Table of the Elements
[Neodymium] SWC-LP-60
Phono LP, silkscreen

John Fahey
Sea Changes and Coelacanths:
A Young Person’s Guide to John Fahey
2005

Table of the Elements
[Astatine] TOE-CD/LP-85
2x compact discs, 64-page book, enclosure; 4x phono LPs, 12-page libretto, box

In the 43 years between his first recordings and his death in 2001, John Fahey stomped across the American soundscape, leaving behind footprints of influence so breathtakingly vast that entire genres now huddle within them. His mesmeric guitar compositions fused the blues' syncopated rhythms with contemporary dissonance; eastern influences with musique-concrète. He was the first to demonstrate that traditional steel-string finger-picking techniques could be used to express a universe of non-traditional ideas. Playing with versatility and a fierce imagination, Fahey expanded the boundaries of the guitar, and his contribution to American music is immense.

In the early 1960s, a young John Fahey searched out the missing bluesmen Skip James and Bukka White, thereby igniting the acoustic blues revival. By the early 1990s, it was Fahey's turn to be rescued from oblivion by young enthusiasts — and reawakened from his hibernation, he had no intention of pandering to traditionalists. Invigorated by the contemporary music underground, the man was ready to set minds ablaze. Through his partnership with Table of the Elements, Fahey released a series of extraordinary records, now compiled for the first time as Sea Changes & Coelacanths: A Young Person's Guide to John Fahey.

Here is Fahey's trademark American Primitive sound at its most harrowing and resolute. Featuring Skip James-influenced vignettes, deep-sea string-bendings, sonic collages, oaken reverberations and lengthy, impressionistic suites, these recordings — made between 1996 and 1998 — comprise a major portion of Fahey's canon, and are the logical next-step in his life-long journey of exploration. Sea Changes & Coelacanths embodies an artistic essence, with sounds that are undiluted, uncompromised, starkly honest, pure of vision and in every way innovative — just like the man himself.

"Now that John Fahey, the Great Koonaklaster no longer walks among us, it may be possible to review this final period of his amazing trajectory with the requisite objectivity. There is no more New John anymore; no more Old John. There is only John Fahey — Immortal Motherf*cker of the 20th Century.
"And it's time for you to eat his dust." 

Byron Coley, from the liner notes

"John Fahey has created a universe of complexity, emotion and exquisite otherness for acoustic steel-string guitar. His musical inventions match those of John Coltrane and Harry Partch for sheer transcendental American power ... He is as monumental and singular a musical talent as any this country has produced." 
Spin

"Fahey explored the mystique as well as the manner of roots music, evoking a mythic America."  
Rolling Stone

Loren Connors
Sails
2005

Table of the Elements
[Actinium] TOE-CD-89
2x compact discs, custom enclosure

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

 

 

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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.

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