Christopher DeLaurenti: N30: Live at the World Trade Organization
(sonarmap.net, CD)

"N30: Live at the World Trade Organization is a 78-minute compact disc featuring three pieces: cocaine, Harbinger, and N30. Cocaine is the first in a series of aural safaris into the streets of Seattle. Armed with stereo microphones and a small card inscribed 'cocaine,' folks read from the card while Chris recorded the results. Harbinger overlays fast, shifting pulsations with irregular phrases and may conjure the aural image of Philip Glass and Conlon Nancarrow as club DJs. N30 is Chris' second aural safari. An orthophonic 'you are there' recording, N30 uses front-line field recordings made at the WTO protest in Seattle on November 30, 1999, and immerses the listener in a vivid sonic maelstrom of chants, drumming, and violence. The cd was funded in part by the King County Arts Commission."

N30: Live... is available at Wall of Sound, Tower Records (U-District & Downtown), Left Bank Books, Borders Downtown, and online at www. sonarmap.net

Hochenkeit: omu4h 4aholab / 400 Boys
(Roadcone RoCo 028, CD)

"The omu4h 4aholab ­ which is as close as the English language gets to representing the phrase '400 Boys' ­ are the mythological Mayan troublemakers who are the reputed source of debauchery and mayhem. To be sure, Hochenkeit's decidedly heady instrumental throb-gush is the perfect soundtrack to late-night and/or chemically enhanced zoneouts, but theirs is a well-considered music, a unique amalgam of Turkish, East Asian, and Western instrumentation, and the coalesced whole is a remarkably smooth, ecstatic, languid and cohesive psych deliverance. The violin and/or harmonium-based drone wraps its tendrils around chiming, clanking percussion and tangy guitar melodies, or the cumbus is a prod for the dreamy space-out guitar. While Hochenkeit use more non-Western instrumentation on this CD, these instruments have been subsumed into the coalesced whole, and the melodies are less overtly Near Eastern."

Jason, Jeff, John, Mthw, Zac (violin, harmonium, traps, guitar, cumbus, bass, Hammond, RMI, tapes, finger cymbals, saz, madal, chang)

Available at shops or through www.roadcone.com

Infrasound Collective: owasso night atlas
(Infrasound INFCD003, CD)

Musician, composer, and former Seattle resident Brian Siskind's Nashville-based Infrasound label has released this provocative compilation chock-full of Northwest creative musicians and other sonic adventurers from across the U.S. In addition to tracks contributed by Mark Fauver, The International Bankers (Layng & Tucker Martine), the grassy knoll, Luther*MacRae (Ed Petry & Christopher McRae), Brink, Absorption, Christopher DeLaurenti, fognode::: (a remix of material by Michael Shrieve, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz & Klaus Schulze), Layng Martine III, baleen, Paul Chuey/Michael Monhart/Dennis Rea, and Let's Say Baltimore, the compilation includes a generous excerpt from the infamous Tentacle steel mill improvisations, in which 15 local players took full advantage of the astonishing acoustics of a football field­size room at an abandoned Seattle steel mill.

Available at Wall of Sound and Tower Records in Seattle, and via the Infrasound Web site at infrasound.net/store.htm

Northwest Triptych: New Music for Orchestra
(Present Sounds, CD)

"Present Sounds' first release highlights the work of Seattle composers Christian Asplund, Tom Baker, and Christopher DeLaurenti. The CD features the Seattle Creative Orchestra, the Pacific Rims Percussion Quartet, and guitarist Michael Partington. The three works reflect the diverse and eclectic nature of the Seattle new music scene; related to each other by more than mere geographical proximity, these works share a sense of immediacy in their exploration of new formal principles and sonic landscapes. Asplund's "Symphony No. 4" contrasts the typical percussion timbres of the orchestra with the more unusual percussive sounds of paper. Baker's "Negative Space" is a musical mobile of floating sounds that circle one another while seeming somehow to remain unaware of each other's presence. DeLaurenti's "Three Camels for Orchestra" scrambles and reinvigorates the syntax of symphonic music through the riotous deployment of triumphant cadences, arctic blocs of sound, tuttis, and sonic homophones.

"Present Sounds Recordings was founded in 1999 by Mark Radonich, Pat Batson, and Tom Baker, and is dedicated to presenting and promoting new music by composers living and working the Pacific Northwest."

For more information, contact Mark Radonich at (206.669.5560) or mark@presentsounds.com. A CD release party will be held on Saturday, December 9 from 4­6 pm at the Speakeasy Cafe, 2304 Second Avenue in Seattle.

Oxygen Ensemble: Memorial Day Highlights
(Akela Audio Works, CD)

"'Memorial Day Highlights' is the debut release of Seattle-based avant-garde musical unit Oxygen Ensemble. This 36-minute disc contains the best material from the ensemble's 5-29-00 show, and captures the its performance concept of collectively improvising not only composition, but arrangement and presentation, too. With no idea of what they will execute on stage, the players rely on each other's ability to react to what they hear, and help evolve the overall direction of each piece. Hear samples at www.oxygenensemble.com"

Thomas Bell (bass), Peter Reilly (guitar), Dave Carter (trumpet), Lorik (tenor sax), Guido Perla (drums), Franklin Mazzeo (drums)

To purchase the CD, send a check for $10 U.S., made out to Akela Media, to Oxygen Ensemble CD, c/o Akela Media, 213 NW 47th St., Seattle WA 98107.

vox barbara: (de)Constructed Ghosts
(Little Man Records, CD)

"13 tracks, 53 minutes of rhythmic noise, dark ambient drones, and field recordings. On CD-R in special limited edition of 200 in hand-folded translucent paper packaging. More info (and sound samples) on the CD and the controversial 'Kirlian Audio' software used to produce it is available at www.speakeasy.org/~vox/noise/ghosts.html"

Frank Smith (industrial objects, field recordings, drum, sound manipulation), M. DuBois (field recordings, drum).

The Tentacle welcomes submissions of CD/tape release announcements (Northwest artists only, please).

Submission guidelines

Please include info on where and how to obtain your new releases. Off-line readers please send release announcements to our onshore address:

The Tentacle
PO Box 45655 Seattle, WA 98145-0655