Edited by Sarah Shin and Ben VickersWhat are altered states of consciousness? Can altered states produce altered worlds? Altered States explores the varieties of consciousness and revelatory experience. Bringing together thirty-six contributions, Altered States includes encounters with dreams, panpsychism, artificial intelligence, grief, plant allies, mushrooms, ritual and journeys in sound and beyond. These poems stand at the thresholds of alterity to propose a new psychedelic style for the twenty-first century.  Contributors: Will Alexander, K Allado-McDowell, Rachael Allen, Khairani Barokka, Jen Calleja, Jesse Darling, Paige Emery, James Goodwin, Hannah Gregory, Johanna Hedva, Caspar Heinemann, IONE, Lucy Ives, Bhanu Kapil, Daisy Lafarge, Dorothea Lasky, So Mayer, Lucy Mercer, Hoa Nguyen, Irenosen Okojie, Precious Okoyomon, Nisha Ramayya, Mark von Schlegell, Erica Scourti, Yasmine Seale, Emily Segal, Tai Shani, Merlin Sheldrake, Sin Wai Kin, Himali Singh Soin, Janaka Stucky, Jenna Sutela, Rebecca Tamás, Ayesha Tan Jones, Flora Yin Wong, Bett Williams & Rosemary Carroll Cover image by Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Berl-Berl, 2021: Undergrowth fungal network from the Spreewald, scanned with photogrammetry using a canoe.

‘The GPT-3 neural net is powerful, and when it’s fed a steady diet of Californian psychedelic texts, the effect is spectacular. No human being ever composed a “book” like Pharmako-AI – it reads like a gnostic’s Ouija board powered by atomic kaleidoscopes.’ — Bruce Sterling, author of The Difference Engine and Islands in the Net and editor of Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology  ‘An exciting example of the future of AI creativity: code as collaborator not competitor. Discover how AI can stop us humans falling into lazy mechanistic ways of thinking and challenge us with provocative new ideas.’ — Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford and author of The Creativity CodeDuring the first summer of the coronavirus pandemic, a diary entry by K Allado-McDowell initiates an experimental conversation with the AI language model GPT-3. Over the course of a fortnight, the exchange rapidly unfolds into a labyrinthine exploration of memory, language and cosmology. The first book to be co-created with the emergent AI, Pharmako-AI is a hallucinatory journey into selfhood, ecology and intelligence via cyberpunk, ancestry and biosemiotics. Through a writing process akin to musical improvisation, Allado-McDowell and GPT-3 together offer a fractal poetics of AI and a glimpse into the future of literature. Pharmako-AI reimagines cybernetics for a world facing multiple crises, with profound implications for how we see ourselves, nature and technology in the 21st century.

‘Air Age Blueprint inaugurates a new stage in twenty-first century AI writing. K Allado-McDowell’s book has come into being through a collaboration between different forms of intelligence and its story presents a continuation of its own making – a coming together of different forms of existence and thought.’—Hans Ulrich Obrist ‘Air Age Blueprint elegantly weaves immigrant family histories, native entheogenic cultures, and cybernetic manifestos of social revolution into a collaborative human-machine writing adventure. It certainly opens a portal to a de-anthropocentric narrative of the future. An unquestionable tour-de-force.’ —Chen Qiufan author of The Waste Tide and AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our FutureA young filmmaker’s life is disrupted by a fated encounter with a Peruvian healer. Called to twin paths of artistic creation and mystic truth-seeking, they set out on a transcontinental journey. In the Pacific Northwest they meet K, a double agent working between art and technology, who invites them to test a secret program called Shaman.AI. This human-machine experiment, rooted in magic, produces a key to rewriting reality – a manifesto describing how entangled human and non-human intelligence will remake our technologies, identities and deepest beliefs. Allado-McDowell (along with their AI writing partner GPT-3) weave fiction, memoir, theory and travelogue into an animist cybernetics – an air age blueprint.  Cover art by Somnath Bhatt

In the twelfth century since the appearance of the prophet Jesus Christ on the now-evacuated planet Earth, Hildegard of Bingen discovers grace in the moral and spiritual ruins of her medieval world. She inscribes her visions into Scivias, an indescribably beautiful codex of writing and illuminations, thought to be lost during the collapse of the Information Age. On the planet Avaaz, in a sea cave with cracked amethyst walls, Pinky Agarwalia discovers fragments of this beguiling text: a mystic toolkit including a cosmology, medicine, a morphology of crystals and recipes for survival – in strange, illegible symbols. How to decipher this unknown language? As Pinky traces the diagrams with her finger, a vision appears revealing that water – a guarded substance – is the alchemical agent: in water, the mysterious script transforms into feeling and light. Unlocking the secrets of viriditas, Hildegard’s mythic quantum energy threaded

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC ISBN: 9781526614766 Number of pages: 224 HARDBACK 224 Pages Published: 01/09/2020Following a run of New Year's concerts at San Francisco's legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland, with no design yet heeding signs, including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat. In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow. In a stranger's words, "Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey." For Patti Smith - inveterately curious, always exploring, tracking thoughts, writing the year evolves as one of reckoning with the changes in life's gyre: with loss, aging, and a dramatic shift in the political landscape of America. Smith melds the Western landscape with her own dreamscape. Taking us from Southern California to the Arizona desert; to a Kentucky farm as the amanuensis of a friend in crisis; to the hospital room of a valued mentor; and by turns to remembered and imagined places - this haunting memoir blends fact and fiction with poetic mastery. The unexpected happens; grief and disillusionment. But as Patti Smith heads toward a new decade in her own life, she offers this balm to the reader: her wisdom, wit, gimlet eye, and above all, a rugged hope of a better world. Riveting, elegant, often humorous, illustrated by Smith's signature Polaroids, Year of the Monkey is a moving and original work, a touchstone for our turbulent times. --- 'A gripping tale of the search for meaning in times of turbulence - expressed with Smith's signature poetic flair' VOGUE 'Her willingness to look closely at life's closing chapters makes for a magical book' WASHINGTON POST --- Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC ISBN: 9780747568766 Number of pages: 320 Weight: 262 g Dimensions:198 x129 x20 mm Paperback: 320 Pages  Published: 04/01/2011In 1967, a chance meeting between two young people led to a romance and a lifelong friendship that would carry each to international success never dreamed of. The backdrop is Brooklyn, Chelsea Hotel, Max's Kansas City, Scribner's Bookstore, Coney Island, Warhol's Factory and the whole city resplendent. Among their friends, literary lights, musicians and artists such as Harry Smith, Bobby Neuwirth, Allen Ginsberg, Sandy Daley, Sam Shepherd, William Burroughs, etc. It was a heightened time politically and culturally; the art and music worlds exploding and colliding. In the midst of all this two kids made a pact to always care for one another. Scrappy, romantic, committed to making art, they prodded and provided each other with faith and confidence during the hungry years--the days of cous-cous and lettuce soup. Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. Beautifully written, this is a profound portrait of two young artists, often hungry, sated only by art and experience. And an unforgettable portrait of New York, her rich and poor, hustlers and hellions, those who made it and those whose memory lingers near. --- 'The most beautiful, incredible autobiography - it will make you ache for a time and a place that you probably never knew, New York in the 1970s' - Nick Hornby  'A sharp, elegiac and finely crafted tribute to their childlike, pre-fame romance, set against the thrilling back drop of New York's countercultural blast' - The Sunday Times  'Terrifically evocative ... The most spellbinding and diverting portrait of funky-but-chic New York in the late '60s and '70s that any alumnus has committed to print' - The New York Times  'A tender, harrowing, often hilarious portrait of young lovers forging their paths in an eccentric milieu of Beat poets, Warhol socialites, and transvestites, rock stars and artists ... Much has been written about that time, but Just Kids offers new insight' - Vogue --- Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC ISBN: 9781408867709 Number of pages: 288 Weight: 328 g Dimensions:198 x129 mmM Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village cafe where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose that shifts fluidly between dreams and reality, past and present, and across a landscape of creative aspirations and inspirations, we travel to Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul in Mexico; to a meeting of an Arctic explorer's society in Berlin; to a ramshackle seaside bungalow in New York's Far Rockaway that Smith acquires just before Hurricane Sandy hits; and to the graves of Genet, Plath, Rimbaud and Mishima. Woven throughout are reflections on the writer's craft and on artistic creation. Here, too, are singular memories of Smith's life in Michigan and the irremediable loss of her husband, Fred Sonic Smith. Braiding despair with hope and consolation, illustrated with her signature Polaroids, M Train is a meditation on travel, detective shows, literature and coffee. It is a powerful, deeply moving book by one of the most remarkable artists at work today. --- So honest and pure as to count as a true rapture' JOAN DIDION 'A poetic masterpiece' JOHNNY DEPP --- Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016

At the age of twenty-one, a sad and hungry Patti Smith walked into a bookshop in Greenwich Village and decided to spend her last 99 cents on a novel that would change her life forever. The book was Astragal, by Albertine Sarrazin. Sarrazin was an enigmatic outsider who had spent time in jail and who wrote only two novels and a book of poems in her short life - she died the year before Patti found her book, at the age of twenty-nine. Astragal tells the story of Anne, a young woman who breaks her ankle in a daring escape from prison. She makes it to a highway where she's picked up by a motorcyclist, Julien, who's also on the run. As they travel through nights and days together, they fall in love and must do whatever they can to survive, living their lives always on the edge of danger. A bewitching and timeless novel of youthful rebellion and romance, this new edition of Patsy Southgate's original translation includes an introduction by Patti Smith.

Publisher ‏ : ‎Faber & FaberLanguage ‏ : ‎EnglishPaperback ‏ : ‎480 pagesISBN-10 ‏ : ‎0571359787ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎978-0571359783Dimensions ‏ : ‎12.9 x 2.8 x 19.8 cmSyd Barrett was the lead guitarist, vocalist, and principle songwriter in the original line up of Pink Floyd. During his brief time with the band (1966-68) he was the driving force behind the unit. After he left the band he made just two further solo albums which were both released in 1970, before withdrawing from public view to lead a quiet, and occasionally troubled life in Cambridge, the town of his birth. Rob Chapman's book is the first authoritative and exhaustively researched biography of Syd Barrett that fully celebrates his life and legacy as a musician, lyricist and artist, and which highlights the influence that he continues to have over contemporary bands and music fans alike. --- Faber & Faber, 2020

A new edition as part of the Faber Greatest Hits – books that have taken writing about music in new and exciting directions for the twenty-first century. Disco emerged from the fall-out of the Black Power Movement and an almost exclusively gay scene in a blaze of poppers, strobe lights, tight trousers, hysterical diva vocals and synthesized beats in the late sixties. As a genre, disco radically re-defined the sensibility of the seventies to the extent where reactionary rockers felt the need to launch a paranoid ‘Disco Sucks’ campaign at the end of the decade. Featuring artists such as Chic, Sylvester, Donna Summer and Frank Grasso, Turn the Beat Around illustrates why and how disco changed the face of popular culture forever.

What does jazz “mean” 20 years into the 21st century? Has streaming culture rendered music literally meaningless, thanks to the removal of all context beyond the playlist? Are there any traditions left to explore? Has the destruction of the apprenticeship model (young musicians learning from their elders) changed the music irrevocably? Are any sounds off limits? How far out can you go and still call it “jazz”? Or should the term be retired? These questions, and many more, are answered in Ugly Beauty, as Phil Freeman digs through his own experiences and conversations with present-day players. Jazz has never seemed as vital as it does right now, and has a genuine role to play in 21st-century culture, particularly in the US and the UK.

In this first installment of acclaimed music writer David Toop's interdisciplinary and sweeping overview of free improvisation, Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom: Before 1970 introduces the philosophy and practice of improvisation (both musical and otherwise) within the historical context of the post-World War II era. Neither strictly chronological, or exclusively a history, Into the Maelstrom investigates a wide range of improvisational tendencies: from surrealist automatism to stream-of-consciousness in literature and vocalization; from the free music of Percy Grainger to the free improvising groups emerging out of the early 1960s (Group Ongaku, Nuova Consonanza, MEV, AMM, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble); and from free jazz to the strands of free improvisation that sought to distance itself from jazz. In exploring the diverse ways in which spontaneity became a core value in the early twentieth century as well as free improvisation's connection to both 1960s rock (The Beatles, Cream, Pink Floyd) and the era of post-Cagean indeterminacy in composition, Toop provides a definitive and all-encompassing exploration of free improvisation up to 1970, ending with the late 1960s international developments of free music from Roscoe Mitchell in Chicago, Peter Brötzmann in Berlin and Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg in Amsterdam.

One of the great experimental composers of our time, Phill Niblock has during his sixty-year career produced minimalist music, structural cinema, dance performance, improvised theatre, systematic art, and ethnographic photography. Since 1985, Niblock has served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York, and curator of the foundation’s record label XI. This catalogue is devoted to Niblock’s wide intermedia art, including his masterpieces the Six Films (1966-69), the Environments (1968-72) and The Movement of People Working (1973-91). A thorough publication that includes Charles Mingus, Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, Elaine Summers, Yoko Ono, Sun Ra, The Open Theatre, Muna Tseng and Arthur Russell. Co-published with Copeland. Published on occasion of the exhibition ‘Nothin’ But Working, Phill Niblock, A Retrospective’, 30 Jan – 12 May 2013, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, in partnership with Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne).

400 pages600 illustrations (8.6" x 1.4" x 11")Tracing the evolution of jazz from the boogie-woogie and swing of the 1930s, through bebop, funk, and fusion, to the eclectic mix Blue Note releases today, this landmark book by author Richard Havers tells the story of an influential jazz institution and commemorates Blue Note’s momentous contribution to modern music and style. Practically all of the jazz greats passed through Blue Note’s doors, including Miles Davis, Sidney Bechet, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Ornette Coleman, Donald Byrd, and Jimmy Smith. Blue Note is not only known as the purveyor of extraordinary jazz but is also famous as an arbiter of cool. The photography of cofounder Francis Wolff and the cover designs of Reid Miles helped create a look that was an integral part of the label’s genius. A highly illustrated volume, Blue Note: Uncompromising Expression features the very best photographs, covers, and ephemera from the archives, including never-before-published material, and documents a groundbreaking era in American culture.

Marcel DuchampBeatrice WoodHenri-Pierre Roché --- Edited by Sophie SeitaElizabeth Zuba, Contributor  The Blind Man and rongwrong were seminal New York Dada magazines edited and published by Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché, and Beatrice Wood in 1917. This facsimile edition, introduced by Sophie Seita, celebrates the 100th anniversary of their publication. The box set also includes a two-color offset reproduction of Beatrice Wood’s poster for The Blind Man’s Ball (1917) and a letterpress facsimile of Man Ray’s The Ridgefield Gazook (1915). Translations of the French texts by Elizabeth Zuba accompany the facsimile reprints. The Blind Man and rongwrong were part of a network of little magazines that introduced audiences to avant-garde movements in art and literature; they featured contributions of poetry, prose, and visual art by Mina Loy, Louise Norton, Robert Carlton Brown, Erik Satie, Walter Arensberg, Francis Picabia, Alfred Stieglitz, and others. The Blind Man was the first print publication to circulate an image of Duchamp’s “Fountain” (photographed by Stieglitz) after its rejection from the first annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, presenting a public challenge to the accepted definition of art during this time.

Edited and commented by Gregor Stemmrich   Publisher:Spector Books Language:English Pages:146 Size:21.6 x 28 cm Weight:510 g Binding:Softcover ISBN:978-3-940064-39-4Robert Morris’ sculptural installation Hearing includes an audio recording of a fictitious hearing that is focussed on the aesthetic, political, historical and moral views of a witness. The work is taken as a point of departure. Investigations relating to the various issues involved will take works of other artists into consideration. »Hearing« appears today as a piece of literature. Gregor Stemmrich edited and commented »Hearing« by Robert Morris in english for the first time.

“This lush paean to the composer explores the challenges he faced of being both black and gay, and his commitment to his own four freedoms.” —The New York TimesStrayhorn: An Illustrated Life is a stunning collection of essays, photographs, and ephemera celebrating Billy Strayhorn, one of the most significant yet under-appreciated contributors to 20th century American music. Released in commemoration of Strayhorn’s centennial, this luxurious coffee-table book offers intimate details of the composer’s life from musicians, scholars, and Strayhorn’s closest relatives.Perhaps best known for his 28-year collaborative role as Duke Ellington’s “writing and arranging companion,” Strayhorn has emerged in recent years as an even more meritorious force in shaping the jazz canon. Strayhorn begins by describing Billy’s abusive upbringing and early success, and goes on to cover his music, family, intellectual pursuits, involvement with civil rights, and open homosexuality.Strayhorn features contributions from Strayhorn’s biographer David Hajdu, film director Rob Levi, music scholar Walter van de Leur, as well as commentary from jazz greats like Lena Horne, Clark Terry, Dianne Reeves, Nancy Wilson, Terell Stafford, Herb Jeffries, and more. With lush photography and rare memorabilia like handwritten scores, this is a book to be treasured by jazz aficionados and music lovers everywhere. Enthralling and visually captivating, Strayhorn: An Illustrated Life lauds a beloved jazz legend and captures a prodigious legacy that will influence generations to come

Hardback edition with limited edition 7"'Swell Maps 1972-1980' by Jowe Head is the first biography of the Solihull band Swell Maps. Head was a founding member of the band along with brothers Epic Soundtracks and Nikki Sudden. The book tells the story of the bands formation and their journey from school kids to being the formidable post-punk band that influenced the likes of Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Blur. ormat: Book + 7" VinylCatalogue No.: SWELL001Barcode: 5056321641946Release Date:  15 Apr 22Genre: Punk/Hardcore First-Ever Official Biography Of Swell Maps, “Swell Maps 1972-1980” Penned By Band Member And Co-Founder Jowe Head. Swell Maps Were Formed In Jowe’s Home Town Of Solihull, England With Various School Friends In 1972.The Group, Also Featuring The Late Nikki Sudden And Nikki’s Brother, The Late Epic Soundtracks, Along With Phones Sportsman, John Cockrill, And Richard Earl Emerged In The Late 1970s, And Are Now Known As Legendary Pioneers Of What Is Now Referred To As “Alternative Rock” Or “Post-Punk” With Their Blend Of Punk Rock Mixed With Experimental And Psychedelic Sounds. Together They Released Four 7” Singles, The First In 1977 On Their Own Rather Records And Two Critically Acclaimed Albums In A Brief But Dramatic Career, That Led To Them Topping The UK Independent Charts, And Influencing Bands Such As Sonic Youth, Nirvana, And Blur. After Swell Maps Broke Up In 1980, Jowe Joined The Television Personalities. Ten Years With The TVPs Saw Jowe Making More Influential Records, Touring Europe Regularly, And Playing In Japan And The USA. Today He Still Regularly Releases Recordings, Solo And With Multiple Groups, And Is The Steward Of The Swell Maps Legacy. In This 155-Page Biography Of The Band, Jowe Takes Us To Each Members’ Formative Years And Reveals What Made Them Experiment With Challenging Music And Eventually Come Together To Form Swell Maps. Through His Own Recollections And Utilizing Interviews With Former Members, He Explores The Early Days Of The Band, And Details Stories That Bring The Reader Into The Inner Workings Of The Band As They Traveled Through The Late 70s Cultural Scene In Europe. The Last Section Of The Book Updates The Whereabouts Of All The Key Players. The Book Includes Dozens Of Full-Colour Images Of Band Memorabilia From The Author’s Personal Collection, Including Photos, Posters, Flyers, Artwork, Original Lyrics, And More. Additionally, A 7” Vinyl Single Is Included That Features Tracks Never Before Released Anywhere. “The First Swell Maps Single I Bought Still To This Day Gives Me A Soul Scorched Buzz’n’rush….The Swell Maps Had A Lot To Do With My Upbringing.”—Thurston Moore “Jowe Head Spent Time In Two Of The UK’s Coolest Underground Bands: Swell Maps And Television Personalities…A Lovably Skewed Indie-Pop Tunesmith.” —Time Out New York ·Full-Colour 152-Page Hardcover Book, Approximately 297mm (H) X 210mm (W). Edition Of 1000. ·Contains 7” With Six Exclusive Never-Before-Released Tracks Culled From The Band And Solo Member Archives. Tracklisting 1/*Securicore 2/*Come Upstairs And See My Chemistry Set 3/*Harmony In Your Bathroom 4/**Double Dose 5/***Elegia Part 1 6/****Votive Offering *These 3 Tracks Were Edited From A 1977 Demo Session. Two Of The Songs Have Never Been Released Before In Any Form. **Double Dose - Is A 1979 Radio Jingle, The Master Tape Recently Rediscovered ***Elegia Part 1 - Is An Out-Take From "Jane From Occupied Europe " Studio Sessions. ****Votive Offering - Is An Experimental Home-Recording ·Packed With Full Colour Photos And Images Of Posters, Flyers, Album Art, And Other Assorted Band Ephemera. ·Detailed Appendix Contains A Discography, Notes On Selected Songs, Concert Dates, And Set Lists Among Other Items. ·First Comprehensive Biography To Focus On Swell Maps. ·RIYL: Television Personalities, Desperate Bicycles, Can, Buzzcocks