IRMA is a 1969 experimental opera by artist Tom Phillips.  The score involved 93 random phrases taken from the 1892 novel A Human Document by W.H. Mallock. They were then divided up into sound suggestions, a libretto and staging directions. In 1988 Phillips invited AMM to perform the piece with guests in London's Union Chapel.  "If any work marks the end of the 60's, it is Irma, composed as it was in the twilight months of that decade, and presaging as it did the world of deconstruction to come. The sixties were the years of revolution: there was often as many as thirty three per minute, some of which featured music. Although it is in the tradition of the Romantic Grand Opera, Irma, with its distancing wit, somehow brings them altogether in a potted Dämmerung. Whereas Wagner had failed in is quest for the true Gesamtkunstwerk, in which the arts of music poetry and visual spectacle are brought into balance in a single work, Phillips succeeds triumphantly. In a recording of course we forfeit the visual element, but close attention to the text will enable the listener to imagine the sumptuous scenic effects and opulant mise en scène. To quote A HUTMENT, ‘The Sound in my life enlarges my prison…’ - H.W.K. Collam --- Eddie Prévost / percussionKeith Rowe / guitarJohn Tilbury / piano, radioIan Mitchell / clarinetLol Coxhill / saxophone, vocalsElise Lorraine / vocalsPhil Minton / vocalsTom Phillips / vocals --- Recorded at the Union Chapel, London, 20th May 1988 by Ray Beckett and Phil Mouldycliff (live mix). Artwork by Tom Phillips. Design by Keith Rowe.

The recording of a concert given at the Muhlenberg College Arts Center Recital Hall Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA on Sunday 24th April 1994. The concert produced by improvisationalmusico, inc (a/k/a "improco") with assistance from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. -- Edwin (Eddie) Prévost / percussion John Tilbury / piano Keith Rowe / electric guitar --- Recorded at a concert given at Muhlenberg College Arts Center Recital Hall, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA on Sunday 24th April 1994. Artwork by Keith Rowe - 'Allentown viewed from the AMM yellow truck (Elektra 1996) with reference to Georgia O'Keeffe, New York with Moon (1925)'.

Triple layered release to mark 30 years of AMM. Bumper .zip includes material from three distinct periods spanning a quarter of a century -Prévost, Rowe, Gare, Cardew and Hobbs in Denmark in 1969, the first recordings from the Prévost-Rowe-Tilbury trio in The Great Hall at Goldsmith's College, London, in 1982, and the same trio in New York in 1994.  "The description of AMM's music as laminal came from Evan Parker in a lecture he gave on improvisation during an Actual Music Festival at the ICA in London during August 1980. This he contrasted with the 'atmistic' apprach of other practicioners. The idea of layers superimposed on other layers has always seemed close to the actuality of AMM music." - Eddie Prévost.  Dedicated to Evan Parker. --- Tracklisting: The Aarhus Sequences 1-1 - 51:071-2 - 14:231-3 - 6:40 The Great Hall 2-1 - 36:452-2 - 38:56 Contextual 3-1 - 14:103-2 - 11:043-3 - 10:313-4 - 11:123-5 - 13:413-6 - 10:37

..."as I listened more deeply to the recording, I became more and more conscious of the pauses and the offstage noises, and also of the lack of audience response. Many of the cues that improvising musicians respond to were not there. I began to recall the psychology of the event. The vast cavern of the then unmodified Roundhouse - a huge Victorian brick domes building that had previously been a railway turning shed - was (at least for our concert) all but devoid of an audience. In the silences and pregnant pauses that were a characteristic of our performances you can hear doors swinging open and closes, a child's voice echoes in the distance, and there are other indistinguishable human murmuring and nameless isolating clonks. At the end of our performance - nothing. No applause, no cat calls. Merely the sound of empty indifference." - Eddie Prevost.  "Music from half a lifetime ago - that was a very good creative time musically and maybe a new generation will appreciate what we are doing then and are still doing now. Playing with Eddie in that format, just the two of us, was my most rewarding experience after the breakup of the AMM quartet. I could not go back after the freedom of the duo." - Lou Gare.   "Music with unusual qualities… very searching and balanced… no free jazz excursions… just the AMM connection, but with only two acoustic instruments. All about colour and minimal energy. Beautiful! And a very early example of what is later during the 2000´s happening in the world of improvised music and minimal improv…" - Discaholic Corner.  --- Lou Gare / tenor saxophone Eddie Prévost / drums --- Recorded at the International Carnival of Experimental Sound, or ICES 72, held at the Roundhouse. Also released on CD by Anomalour Records in 2003.

"Rooms talk to me. I send out a sound, the space answers. The first message I picked up from the old barn in Umbria was "yes." Christian Wolff and I had been thinking, speaking about, even planning a CD with his solo percussion pieces since the premiere of the Dances in 1998. From that time I've been looking, waiting, hoping for the room that would say "yes." Here we are.  Christian Wolff does not compose percussion music. His percussion pieces are about as far away from the usual percussion techniques as I have travelled. If pressed to describe his music, I start by stating that I have never heard anything like it. It is virtuosic - though not about virtuosity. It's appearance - often - deceptively simple - always concisely constructed. Christian Wolff invites us on a magical journey through his world. A world where music we never imagined before exists. This is one of the spaces John Cage was talking about when he asked us to "let sounds be sounds". So they are. And there is so much music to be discovered there." - Robin Schulkowsky.  "Writing for percussion I've found is, more than for any other instrument, an experimental business. The music as I write it is, far more than usual, material out of which the player makes a music that is as much her own as the composer's, a kind of trusting conversation whose exchange and flow is what I like and whose sound may in this way be just itself as well." - Christian Wolff. --- Christian Wolff / composition, melodicaRobin Schulkowsky / percussion  --- Recorded at Poggiolo fram, Pozzuolo, Umbria, Italy on April 22-24 2003 by Adrian von Ripka. Cover by Tristram Wolff

First solo recordings from Lou Gare, founding member of AMM.  "Toward the end of his fine short essay for Laminal, AMM's 30th Anniversary set, Jim O'Rourke asks in relation to the experience of simultaneously hearing the record and viewing the accompanying photograph of AMM's The Crypt, "where was the saxophone?" Here, almost 40 years later, it is. Solo exposed, unfettered, no strings attached. A long way from where it was, or might have been, then, and has been carried, blown, viewed qua saxophone, and not (for a time with AMM played bugle-like with bottom end pads and keys removed) since. Fecund, heavy with ideas and the weight of everywhere and everything it's been in between...Without cease, traces, quotes, paraphrases and retellings run through this music, shaping and propelling its form and ideas. The appearance and development of melodies, motifs and often standards which are then worked, stretched, worried at, broken down, put back together and played with before being let drift away, is, Lou suggests more influenced by Indian music than the jazz tradition. Two examples here are "Loose Blues" and "Good Morning Mr. Rollins" which appears to acknowledge an unplanned musical meeting with a sound and through it the idea of an old musical acquaintance, as if unexpectedly bumping into someone on the way to do something else." - Seymour Wright.  --- Lou Gare / tenor saxophone --- Recorded at Firefly Studios, Thowleigh, Devon, England on 13th and 20th April 2005. Recording engineer Richard Knapp. Front cover photograph by Penny Gare.

The inventive and lively community of students at the University of East Anglia's sadly defunct School of Music designated improvisation as the 'theme' for the curriculum in 2005, and invited John Tilbury and Edwin Prevost to Norwich to give lectures, workshops and the first AMM concert in East Anglia. Simon Waters (senior lecturer at the time) writes: "Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the experience for me was it's immediate memorability. Even before replaying the recording I had a clear aural memory of the sequence of events / sounds - a response shared by the audience - and I found myself anticipating the musical development with an eerie accuracy. There's something extraordinarily 'composed' about their activity, albeit composed in real-time. I think it's the unequivocal quality of what they do that makes this performance so immediately memorable." --- John Tibury / piano Eddie Prévost / percussion --- Tracklisting: 1. track 1 - 8:33 2. track 2 - 13:33 3. track 3 - 8:15 4. track 4 - 12:30 5. track 5 - 11:44 --- Recorded at a concert given at the School of Music, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England on 14th February 2005. Recorded by Simon Waters. Front cover Janice Tilbury.

Leveraging the concept of the geometrically impossible Penrose Triangle, the trio of Sebastian Lexer (piano), Eddie Prevost (percussion) and Seymour Wright (sax) perform three permutations of duos and one full trio. --- "On Impossibility In Its Purest Form, the trio of Prévost with prepared pianist Lexer and saxophonist Wright sound like they are working within the confines of the listener’s own cranium. Like craftsmen, they gently prepare and scrape at those bony surfaces, filling gaps, adding minimal embellishment. The more open-minded will find the restrictiveness paradoxically liberating, the trio ultimately carving out a door to a whole world of colour, shade and texture." - The Liminal "Each performance begin in nothingness, eventually finds a kind of convergence, then elongates that moment, stretching it in time and space until there is room in one’s awareness for little else. In a sense dauntingly abstract, the work is also visceral, with both Wright (he can sound like a duck without being specifically mimetic) and Prévost exploring harsh reed and bowed metal sounds, in contrast to the refined and unpredictable little sounds that Lexer seems to prefer. That harshness may articulate either the struggle of a music that is made out of nothingness and which will return to it, or the impossibility of the moment and the insistence on its potential for habitation." - Point of Departure --- Recorded at The Welsh Chapel, Southwark Bridge Road, London in July and October 2011.

"The idea of music can inhibit musical development. The musical practice that Seymour and I share, and aspire to develop, is the experimental. It is an open engagement with the materiality, in our case especially materials that can make sounds. It is, I suggest, a mixing of materiality without general sensibility of enquiry. We wish to know the nature of things, we wish to invest ourselves into the nature of things. We observe responses to sounds and we want to develop a processive philosophy in which the investigative ethic is given full rein. We know from our experience that new human relationships can develop within such a collaborative practice. This is the art to which we apply our imaginations." - Eddie Prévost --- Eddie Prévost - roto toms  Seymour Wright - alto saxophone --- Recorded at Trinity College of Music, Greenwich, England on 2nd of April 2008 by Sebastian Lexer. Mastered by Sebastian Lexer. Cover art by Paula Wright.

Recording of the long overdue meeting of Prévost & Schlippenbach.  On Eddie Prévost's drum solo - "...absolutely masterful dissertation in jazz drumming with roots in Roach and Blackwell; it might be one of the finest jazz percussion solos on record. He does take something from the AMM experience in that he dwells in a handful of specific areas for minutes at a time, not flying willy-nilly over his set (thus recalling Jerome Cooper's wonderful solo performances from the 70s). So he begins with brushes on drumheads, gradually adds in cymbals, proceeds to sticks on toms and rims, has a brief episode with the full set, then eventually concentrates on the cymbals to end things. Throughout, he maintains a quick rhythm with a light touch, a thread that helps the entire piece cohere beautifully. His melodic touch is astonishing-Roach would be proud. This track alone makes purchase of "Blackheath" mandatory." - Brian Olewnick  "In his early period, Prévost was jokingly referred to as the "Art Blakey of Brixton", while Schlippenbach emulated the Jazz Messengers during the early 60's. "Art Blakey was one of our idols," says the pianist. We transcribed and copied the songs of Jazz Messengers records in the Manfred School Quintet.” - Christoph Wagner.  --- Eddie Prévost / drums Alexander von Schlippenbach / piano  --- Recorded at a concert given at Blackheath Halls, London, England on 30th March 2008 by Sebastian Lexer. Mastered by Sebastian Lexer.

"Acoustic instrumentation at its most traditional meets digital processes even as they are still being developed. The warmth of a vibrating string meets itself mirrored back altered significantly by computer transformation. Keys sometimes depressed, at other times they sit untouched, bypassed my musicians leaning over them. Old ways of doing things meet new ways." - The Watchful Ear --- Sebastian Lexer / piano + Christoph Schiller / spinet --- Recorded by Giovanni La Rovere and Tom Mudd at As Alike As Trees Festival, 2011, The Rag Factory, London. Mixed and mastered by Sebastian Lexer. Design by Myuh Chun.

The piano is doomed, in my opinion, said the younger. The piano-tuner also, said the elder.The pianist also, said the younger.  Samuel Beckett in Watt "Right from the beginning a sensitivity is brought to bear on the sound-sources. Tapping. Rooting around for sounds. Prospecting for sounds. Testing the ground. Sound-diviners. We are experiencing the birth pangs of melody. I no longer share Beckett's gloomy prognosis. In the hands of Sebastian Lexer, with his piano and his computer, good music is being created. Is there any other criterion?" John Tilbury, May 2009.  "While reed instruments are all about air and pressure, the piano is essentially about sustain. The silky elegance one usually associates with the instrument is a result of careful engineering, so that one string sounds seamlessly after the previous one. On "Dazwischen", the whole mechanism is opened up to the forces of chance and chaos, picking up all kind of ethereal vibrations - a true ghost box." - Derek Warmsly, The Wire --- Sebastian Lexer / piano +, Max/MSP --- Recorded at the Electronic Music Studios, Goldsmiths, London, on 16th November 2008.  Max/MSP programming, recording and mastering by Sebastian Lexer.

"It is easy to throw the usual rapturous applause at anything AMM do, but there isn’t a more fully refined and explored musical relationship than Prévost and Tilbury’s, and while I seek and desire newly broken ground in how music sounds or is made as much as anyone there is still room to admire and celebrate the way two masters at their particular art go about creating something this thoughtful and beautiful.  While familiarity breeds recognisable patterns and musical traits AMM continue to make music that oozes tension, beauty, anger, aggression and a vitality that is perpetuates itself in a thoroughly, nakedly human manner, and that’s enough for me." - The Watchful Ear (Richard Pinnell) --- John Tilbury / piano Eddie Prévost / percussion --- E1 was recorded at The Rag Factory, Spitalfields, London on Sunday the 6th of March, 2011 at the 'As Alike as Trees' festival of improvised music. SE1 was recorded at a concert given at The Purcell Room, London, on Sunday the 27th of November, 2011. It was part of 'The Engine Room', Morley College's Festival and Conference celebrating the life, works and legacy of Cornelius Cardew.

Reverberant and detailed solo cello pieces which sound largely conventional at first, but twist gently into abnormality. Tony is totally underrated. Listen if only to hear the last Observation, which exhibits Tony's extended technique - full of string crossing, double stopping & simultaneous pitching.   “This is improvised chamber music that manages to draw on the intimacy of the tradition without sounding overly cerebral or precious ... The results are a thoroughly captivating charged and inspired session.” — Cadence  --- Tony Moore / cello --- Recorded at the Basement Studios, Amsterdam by Rob Garner on 16 and 17 August 1993. There is no double tracking or change in the recorded order. Cover is a detail from a portrait of Tony Moore by Josep Vallribera.

Flawlessly recorded in 2008, this is Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury with guest John Butcher in quiet mood; every tiny sound counts and every shade of timbre has space to make its presence felt.  "The tiniest sound is amplified by intention. Other noises are transformed into counterpoint. The music begins. Tentative suggestions are offered, politely ignored, admonished or not noticed. Serendipitous slips of the wrist are canonised -- pursued by conflagrations and spectacular shell bursts. Momentum is achieved. The music has an energy with which the musicians can wrestle, deflecting its trajectory or being thrown inconsequentially aside. Tempo defied temporality. Logic limps away. As suddenly as the turbulence arose it subsides, hovering portentously, unpredictable and uncontrollable in all those ways a serialist doesn't trust. The musician waits, trying to anticipate and out-think the unthinking but thinkable direction the sounds will take. Construction overtakes the constructionist, who can only nod approvingly as the piers and girders of musical form slot automatically into place. Here is the invisible handshake, enjoined before a motion was ever formulated. The music makes itself -- just as man makes himself. Here are volition, intention, determination tempered by acceptance of eventuality. Here is definition by action. I am what I am because I do what I do, acted upon and acting upon. The sound returns. The contra-bass drum resounds, its deep vibration sympathising with the solar-plexus. The echo grows weaker and richer at the same time, as its lingering residue settles into the crevices of perception. The drummer raises the beater; then slowly and with conscious care withdraws the intention. No more sound is need." - Eddie Prevost --- Eddie Prevost / percussion John Tilbury / piano John Butcher / soprano & tenor saxophone --- Recorded at Trinity College of Music, Greenwich, on 13th January 2008 by Sebastian Lexer. Mastered by Sebastian Lexer. Cover 'Lamberton Court' by Andrew Prevost.

Brotzmann/Bailey peer Alan Wilkinson on alto and baritone, Joe Williamson, who's worked with Chadbourne, Tony Buck, etc on the double bass, and AMM / Matchless bossman AMM alumni Mr Eddie Prévost in a short, single  --- Alan Wilkinson / alto saxophone, baritone saxophone  Joe Williamson / double bass   Eddie Prévost / drums   --- Recorded at Freedom of the City Festival, London, 2006, by Sebastian Lexer. Photograph by Stefano Tedesco.

Interlace/Ongaku presented this live show at the Shunt Lounge in the labyrinth under the London Bridge station in November of 2006. Three groups performed: the e-a improv quartet of Tom Chant, Ross Lambert, Sebastian Lexer and Matt Milton; the trumpet/Indian harmonium duo of Jamie Coleman and Mark Wastell; and the AMM duo of Eddie Prevost and John Tilbury. --- Ross Lambert / guitarSebastian Lexer / piano, computerTom Chant / soprano saxophone, tenor saxophoneMatt Milton / violinSeymour Wright / alto saxophoneMark Wastell / harmonium Jamie Coleman / trumpetEddie Prévost / percussionJohn Tilbury / piano --- An Interlace/Ongaku presentation at Shunt Lounge, London Bridge on 9th November 2006. With kind support of Shunt Lounge and EMS Goldsmiths’ College. Title taken from John Ruskin, Modern Painters Vol.V Part IX ‘Of Invention Spiritual’ 1860

Improvisations by Paris based ensemble, Hubbub.  --- Frédéric Blondy / pianoEdward Perraud /drumsJean-Sébastien Mariage / guitarBertrand Denzler / saxophoneJean-Luc Guionnet / saxophone --- Tracklisting: 1. Part I - 14:452. Part II - 16:583. Part III - 14:434. Part IV - 6:32 --- Recorded in concert at Culturel André Malraux, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France on December 4th 2001.