Various Artists: A Simple Procedure

John Cage’s 1952 piece Imaginary Landscape No. 5 was his first composition for magnetic tape, made with 42 phonograph records, a graphical score and a number of chance operations using the I Ching as a guide. Providence, Rhode Island label Estuary have chosen to revive Cage’s piece via the long route, commissioning 42 new works from artists including Blevin Blectum, Dalglish and Keith Fullerton Whitman, and pressing them to 7" records on a 1940s Presto lathe. This limited edition two CD set holds all 42 tracks, as well as two realisations of the piece by Mark Cetilia, one made with records and one made with digital files. Much good work here, from the granular noise of Daniel Menche’s “Vashon Ice” to the watery meditation suites of Christine Ödlund’s “Kvarken”... -Louis Pattison

– The Wire (2015)