VA - Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music Volume 1 & 2 1930-1983 (2007/2010)

A landmark in the history of Australian experimental music, this album documents for the first time the forgotten pioneers like Percy Grainger, Jack Ellitt, the McKimm Rooney Clayton Trio, Keith Humble and more.

...one of those rare compilations whose desire to edify is equalled by its unabashed enthusiasm, and whose audio matches and sometimes exceeds expectations. Musically, it answers many questions about our history and poses still more - The Wire, August 2007.

...a delightfully quirky subtext to Australia's musical history. - Sydney Morning Herald 8-9 March 2008

...represents one of the first serious investigations into the sparse recorded history of experimental sound practice in Australia...this edition is a valuable resource for anyone with even a passing interest in the historical development of experimental sound work in Australia (or anywhere else for that matter) - Paris Transatlantic Magazine, Summer 2007

Anyone who enjoys the avant-garde or have ever been curious about Australia's experimental scene will find this to be essential. An important piece of audio history, don't pass this up - The Run-Off Groove #163

With this compilation, Melbourne musician and experimental music aficionado Clinton Green has assembled 14 tracks in an attempt to address exactly this problem. Making no claims to be comprehensive (let alone exhaustive), Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music documents examples of Australian artistic participation in that sustained attempt by 20th century music makers around the world to break the stranglehold that conventional musical practice had on sound and tonality within western music - Realtime Arts Magazine

Over the past 15 years, enthusiastic label owners have unearthed and released pioneering experimental music from around the world, placing it in a historical context and exposing it to a new generation of listeners. Artefacts… continues this quest, posing the question, “What came before?” and answering it from an antipodean perspective. The extensive liner notes accompanying Artefacts… are essential in outlining the secret history of Australian experimental music, but most importantly, the artefacts that Clinton Green has unearthed deserve to be heard on their own merits - Cyclic Defrost #18.

Elegantly packaged, with extensive liner notes, including a bibliography, its historical importance is as palpable as the often exciting and exhilaratingly experimental sounds it contains - Music Forum: Journal of the Music Council of Australia 14(3).

...a true labour of love, one that’s intelligently curated and successfully makes a comprehensive exploded diagram out of a far too sketchy past. Great! - Terrascope Online, January 2008

...The liners are exquisite. Green distills his knowledge into short descriptions that illuminate and intrigue. A perfect job. The track selection, likewise, is simply brilliant. Every single piece here is electrifying...I'm completely blown away. This is utterly amazing - Aiding and Abetting #304

The story of Australian experimental music continues with Artefacts volume II documenting the explosion of Australian experimental music practice from the mid 1970s; from the use of synthesisers and computers, through to the radical fringes of post-punk, and to the beginnings of industrial and dark wave. The double CD set complete with 16 page booklet features one of Warren Burt’s first compositions completed in Australia, the Loop Orchestra’s first performance, South Australian industrial noise/punk cabaret, Melbourne post-punk minimalism, mid-1970s Brisbane Dadaist noise/audio collage, early Sydney aleatoric electronica, and much more.