Cortex: Vacuum Theory

BACK IN STOCK After nearly running out of this title, we just received some returns from a distributor and have14 copies in stock again. 16-17 return to Praxis with a triple assault of ultrasonic remixes. The Pandemic Wargames Remixes are based on backing tracks originally recorded in 1995 for a follow up to the album Gyatso which eventually materialised earlier in 2020 in the form of the Phantom Limb LP on Trost. After that Alex Buess once more gave three tracks a severe treatment for The Pandemic Wargames Remixes 12″ on Praxis, bringing sound and mix firmly into the 2020s.

"Official bootleg" of wild live show by NoisePunkJazz veterans 16-17 live at Taktos festival in 1995. Remastered by Alex Buess in 2022 and now released as a collaboration of Skin + Speech and Plattfon Records. <iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=736615850/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=e32c14/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://skinandspeechrecords.bandcamp.com/album/16-17-live-taktlos-1995-the-official-bootleg-album-s-s-main002-fon002-released-in-collaboration-s-s-plattfon-records">16-17 live @ Taktlos 1995_The Official Bootleg Album_(S|S Main002/FON002)_Released in collaboration S|S+Plattfon Records by 16-17</a></iframe>

The Ensemble Phhoenix Basel under the direction of Jürg Henneberger play: Alex Buess: Parallaxe A (Biomechanische Version 2, 2002) Time Hodgkinson: Repulsion (1997) Dror Feiler: Restitutio in Pristinum (1996) Alex Buess: Maxwell's Demon

Two powerful compositions by Alex Buess and Daniel Buess, rearranged by Cortex. RIND is a work using three large self-built cow skin frame drums, 1 horse skin container drum, metal plates and electronics. NOL is a composition by Alex Buess for a percussion trio from 1995. The two pieces were recorded live in 2010 and 2003 respectively, also featuring the musicians Daniel Stalder, Peter Conradin Zumthor and Matthias Würsch. They were electronically treated by Cortex in the studion in 2015. This release continues the collaboration with Alex Buess that goes back to the pre-Praxis days of the Vision label since 1987 and includes Praxis 31 by 16-17 and Praxis 48 by Cortex, both of which also included Daniel Buess. Cover art by Darkam and layout by Lynx. ALEX BUESS – is a musician, saxophonist, composer, producer who lives in Basel, Switzerland. He has collaborated with Stephan Wittwer, Paul Schütze, Kevin Martin, Peter Brötzmann, William Parker, Raoul Björkenheim, Toshinori Kondo, Bill Laswell, Kevin Shields, Tim Hodgkinson, Michael Wertmüller and many other musicians in the wide field of improvisation, electronics, electroacoustic music and composition. He plays/played in the groups ICE, GOD, Phantom City, The Bug, Sprawl, Cortex and his own group 16-17, as well as Melx and The Electric Noise Twist. The latter were part of a close collaboration with Christoph Fringeli’s Vision label from 1987-1991, before Christoph moved to London and started the Praxis label, a collaboration that continued over the decades with releases by 16-17 and Cortex on Praxis. Alex has written compositions for various contemporary music ensembles and also works as a producer and sound engineer. He has appeared at numerous new music festivals and his compositions are performed in Europe and throughout the world. His studies include electronics, acoustics, musicology, phonetics,semantics and composition and his work reflects his experiences with electronic technology, written contemporary music, film music, new mixing and production techniques and computer music. DANIEL BUESS - studied at the Musikhochschule Basel with Siegfried Schmid and with Isao Nakamura in Karlsruhe. Studies in traditional South Indian percussion music, specially the Mridangam from 1995 till 1998 and in Arabic percussion music in Cairo, Egypt from Nov. 2007 till Jan. 2008. Daniel was involved in various groups and ensembles in the realm of experimental and improvised music, like “Ensemble Phoenix Basel” of which he was a core-member and solo-percussionist since its foundation in 1998, Cortex, 16-17 (both with Alex Buess), HOW2 (with the percussionist Daniel Stalder), “Katarakt”, “B&B” (with the flautist Christoph Bösch), MIR (with Papiro and Michael Zaugg), Buggatronic (with James Hullick). Other collaborations include artists like Hany Bedair, Knut Remond, Zbigniew Karkowski, Kasper T.Toeplitz, John Duncan, Michael Wertmüller, Phill Niblock, Julio Estrada, Stephan Wittwer, Volker Heyn, Thomas Lauck, Tim Hodgkinson, Iancu Dumitrescu and many others. At his regular tours through Europe, Asia and Australia, he performed at the most highly recognised festivals for experimental music as well as at several underground-places, open spaces and independent venues. Sadly Daniel passed away in February 2016, making “Skin Craft” unexpectedly a posthumous release.

In stock now: Classic 16-17 studio album produced by Kevin Martin in 1994 for first time on vinyl !  Gyatso originally appeared on Kevin Martin's Pathological label in 1994 as a CD and was rereleased, again on CD, in 2008 by Savageland.  Praxis, in collaboration with Skin & Speech proudly presents the first vinyl edition of this classic album. The vinyl edition contains 6 tracks and includes the download for the full 13 track album.  16-17 started in 1983 in Basel, Switzerland. They released a number of cassettes, before debuting with their self titled and self released album in 1987. Two years later this was followed up by When All Else Fails, an LP of treated live recordings on Vision, the precursor label to Praxis. By this time 16-17 had already garnered a cult following with their incredibly forceful live performances. Gyatso is a crucial release where the raw power of 16-17’s live appearances clashes with a studio-as-instrument approach, as Kevin Martin and Alex Buess add effects and dub techniques to the band’s recordings. Further collaborations between Martin and Buess include the ICE project which also included Justin Broadrick aka J.K.Flesh of Godflesh, the other half of Techno Animal, as well as Human Distortion, released on Digital Hardcore Recordings in 1998. Buess also took part of the Sprawl project with Peter Brötzmann, William Parker, Michael Wertmüller and Stephan Wittwer which appeared on Trost Records in 1997. This vinyl release of Gyatso comes hot on the heels of two important records that came out in 2020: The album Phantom Limb on Trost, based on band recordings from 1995 and finished in the studio in 2019 by Alex Buess, and most recently the 12” The Pandemic Wargames Remixes on Praxis. The latter was a continuation of collaborations dating back to the pre-Praxis days of the Vision label, continuing with the 1999 release of Mechanophobia on Praxis as well as the more recent Vacuum Theory by Cortex and “Skin Craft” by Alex Buess and Daniel Buess.   Praxis is very happy to present this release in collaboration with Skin & Speech, for the first time on vinyl and download!

2 years after their debut album on Utech Records, P/O MASSACRE goes deeper in their immersive noise experimentation in this collaboration album with Alex Buess, and Merzbow (Masami Akita 秋田昌美). An architecture of distortion, Moog processors, spring reverb, drone effects and more, then developed in different directions by two electronic/noise veterans. It’s a journey of pure sensation, destruction, and rebirth. A skull-vibrating sound decomposition to your face. For this very reason of searching the limit of frequency and sound structure, we’ve decided to make this album as double 45 rpm vinyl, for a maximum aural experience, cut for vinyl by Frédéric Alstadt at Mont Analogue Masters. As he says: “it’s the cut of the uncuttable”. The visual design and layout are taken care of by the Taiwanese noise builder Chia-Chun Xu (Karma Detonation Tapes), with the artwork from the film destroying artist Tseng Peng-Chieh. Heavy gatefold sleeve, with obi and a bonus CD which includes an exclusive track “Nonslaught” from the same recording session by P/O MASSACRE only. Double album available in two versions: Black vinyl and a colour vinyl edition with one record in marbled green and one in marbled rusty vinyl. <iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1552830126/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=e32c14/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://skinandspeechrecords.bandcamp.com/album/aural-corrosion-s-s-main003-wv082-released-in-collaboration-s-s-wvsorcerer">Aural Corrosion_(S|S Main003/WV082)_Released in  collaboration S|S + WVSorcerer by P/O Massacre+Alex Buess+Merzbow</a></iframe>