Various Artists
The Complete Obscure Records Collection
Dialogo
/
2023
10LP Box Set
299.99/320.00
DIALP926BOX
Edition of 1000 copies, linen box, 80-page booklet in English
10CD Box Set
150.00
DIACD926BOX
Edition of 1000 copies, slipcase box, 130-page booklet in English
Incl. VAT plus shipping / Orders from outside the EU are exempt from VAT
Tracklist
11Gavin Bryars – The Sinking of the Titanic 24:26
2Gavin Bryars – Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet 25:57
21Christopher Hobbs – Aran 3:57
2John Adams – American Standard I 'John Philip Sousa' 4:28
3John Adams – American Standard II 'Christian Zeal and Activity' 9:13
4John Adams – American Standard III 'Sentimentals' 5:17
5Christopher Hobbs – McCrimmon Will Never Return 9:28
6Gavin Bryars – 1-2, 1-2-3-4 15:02
31Brian Eno – Discreet Music 30:35
2Brian Eno – Fullness of the Wind 9:57
3Brian Eno – French Catalogues 5:20
4Brian Eno – Brutal Ardour 8:18
41Max Eastley – Hydrophone 8:59
2Max Eastley – Metallophone 7:02
3Max Eastley – The Centriphone 4:48
4Max Eastley – Elastic Aerophone - Centriphone 5:00
5David Toop – Do the Bathosphere 2:37
6David Toop – The Divination of the Bowhead Whale 16:42
7David Toop – The Chairs Story 3:30
51Jan Steele – All Day 7:19
2Jan Steele – Distant Saxophones 10:52
3Jan Steele – Rhapsody Spaniel 5:20
4John Cage – Experiences No.1 4:12
5John Cage – Experiences No.2 5:02
6John Cage – The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs 2:29
7John Cage – Forever and Sunsmell 6:22
8John Cage – In a Landscape 10:38
61Michael Nyman – 1-100 27:27
2Michael Nyman – Bell Set No. 1 21:35
3Michael Nyman – 1-100 (Faster Decay) (CD BONUS TRACK)13:42
71Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Penguin Cafe Single 6:20
2Penguin Cafe Orchestra – From the Colonies 1:39
3Penguin Cafe Orchestra – In a Sydney Motel 2:28
4Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Surface Tension 2:22
5Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Milk 2:22
6Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Coronation 1:33
7Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Giles Farnaby's Dream 2:17
8Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Pigtail 2:44
9Penguin Cafe Orchestra – The Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away and it Doesn't Matter 11:46
10Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Hugebaby 4:48
11Penguin Cafe Orchestra – Chartered Flight 6:44
81John White – Autumn Countdown Machine 5:32
2John White – Son of Gothic Chord 10:14
3John White – Jew's Harp Machine 2:50
4John White – Drinking and Hooting Machine 4:54
5Gavin Bryars – The Squirrel and the Ricketty Racketty Bridge 21:10
91Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton – Introduction 4:50
2Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton – Overture 6:51
3Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton – Aria - I Tell You That's Irma Herself 5:27
4Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton – First Interlude 1:47
5Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton – Aria - Irma You Will Be Mine 2:40
6Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton – Second Interlude 4:54
7Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton – Chorus - Love Is Help Mate 4:51
8Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, Fred Orton – Postlude 4:18
101Harold Budd – Bismillahi ´Rrahmani ´Rrahim 18:26
2Harold Budd – Two Songs (Let Us Go into the House of the Lord / Butterfly Sunday)6:21
3Harold Budd – Madrigals of the Rose Angel (Rossetti Noise / The Crystal Garden And A Coda)14:19
4Harold Budd – Juno 8:19

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, Dialogo’s box set - made in full collaboration with all of the composers or their estates - contains the entire ten album output of the label, completely remastered and housed in faithful mini-replicas of their original covers and liner notes, as well as an extensive booklet.

Over the last few years, the Italian imprint, Dialogo, has showed a remarkable dedication to the history of experimental music via reissues of seminal artefacts from the Cramps catalog, and important albums by Piero Umiliani, Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Enrico Rava, and others. This initiative now takes on a towering scale with the first ever box set gathering the entire ten album collection of Brian Eno’s Obscure Records, originally issued between 1975 and 1978. A truly groundbreaking body of recordings - many of which have remained out of print and difficult to find for decades - it contains some of the most important, influential, and enduring music to emerge during the second half of the 20th Century, which collectively reconfigured the terms of Minimalism and laid the groundwork for the emerging movement of Ambient music over its short, three year run.

One of the great anomalies and triumphs of 20th Century recording, Obscure Records was initially conceived by Brian Eno as a vehicle for the work of his yet to be recorded friend, Gavin Bryars, before taking on grander ambitions. Having left Roxy Music in 1973 and launched his own solo career, during this period Eno had become immersed in London’s thriving experimental music scene - occasionally playing with Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra and Portsmouth Sinfonia - cultivating a deep connection with the avant-garde that had begun in his student years, finding a deep sympathy with his own ideas and approaches among the artists he encountered there. Among these were Bryars, Christopher Hobbs, David Toop, and Max Eastley, who, in addition to Eno and a lone American, John Adams, would contribute the first suite of works: Gavin Bryars’ “The Sinking of the Titanic”, Christopher Hobbs, John Adams, and Gavin Bryars’ “Ensemble Pieces”, Brian Eno’s “Discreet Music”, and David Toop and Max Eastley’s “New and Rediscovered Musical Instrument” - released by Obscure in 1975.

Backed, manufactured, and distributed by Island Records, working under the curatorial direction of Eno, Bryars, and Michael Nyman (then primary known as a writer), Obscure would rapidly emerge as a rare example of a record label entirely committed to the radical ideas of the artists it involved, releasing two more suites of albums in 1976 and 1978 - containing the debut recordings of Nyman, Jan Steele, Simon Jeffes / The Penguin Café Orchestra, and Harold Budd, in addition to important works by Eno, John Cage, Tom Phillips, and John White, before Eno followed the path toward Ambient music and moved to New York.