Gen Ken Montgomery - Live at Auricular Records

September 29, 1991
Auricular Records

San Francisco, CA

A fantastic live in-store performance by Gen Ken Montgomery at Auricular Records.

Unlike most artists in his field, Montgomery doesn't come from art school circles (be them musical or visual). Untrained, he came to music from enthusiasm. He arrived in New York City in 1978 and soon got involved in the mail art and cassette underground scene, exchanging sound collage tapes with like-minded experimenters around the world.

Considered a pioneer of independent noise/concrete music within the cassette culture, Gen Ken was also founder of the Generator Sound Art Gallery, NYC, (1989-1992) and Generator Sound Art Inc. Possibly one of the nicest fellows in the noise/experimental scene at the time and worked hard to expose his fellow artists as best he could to the world of mail-art, DIY releases, live experimental music and good old noise.

From Francois Couture in All Music Guide:

"In 1989, Montgomery opened the first sound art gallery in New York City, Generator, where he exhibited mail art from his penpals and attempted to stimulate local awareness to the cassette movement. The experience was short-lived, but gave birth to other projects such as the co-founding of the labels Pogus Productions (with Al Margolis) and Generator Sound Art Inc. (with Scott Konzelmann, aka Chop Shop). Meanwhile his art began to attract some international attention, leading to the release of LPs on small German and Spanish labels in the late ‘80s, and more self-produced vinyl and CD artifacts in the ‘90s, including the 7" The Sound of Lamination (1994) which documents Montgomery's work with a laminator, a conceptual sound/installation/interactive project he presented throughout the decade. In 1995 he was even appointed Minister of Lamination by the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland, Leif Elggren and Carl Michael von Hausswolff's utopian virtual nation-cum-conceptual art project.

With the rise of sound art in academic circles at the end of the ‘90s, Montgomery began to work more, curating exhibitions and enjoying artists residencies (including one in 1999 at the Spritzenhaus in Hamburg, Germany). The release of Pondfloorsample in 2002 constitutes an encouraging step in the slow recognition of his unique work."

Listen now

Merzbow - Live at Kaleidoscope Records

September 5, 1990 Kaleidoscope Records (aka Auricular Records) San Francisco, CA

In 1990, Masami Akita and Reiko A. graced the United States with a tour of performances of their singularly unique noise. For many this was the first chance to see Merzbow live and the first chance to be engulfed in the absolute ocean of sound that is a Merzbow performance. There is no Merzbow recording ever produced that can even come close to what the live experience is. Listening back to the live performances on recordings can not even capture the pure sonic ether that Masami and Reiko were capable of producing in most any environment. During their stop in Nortehrn California, Merzbow performed on several radio stations, in a Santa Cruz warehouse space, and a multi night stint at the Armpit Gallery in San Francisco with Haters and Big City Orchestra (those shows will be forthcoming). This particular recording comes from Kaeleidoscope Records in San Francisco. Masami and Reiko performed approximately 30 mins as a preview to what could be expected at the upcoming local shows.

enjoy a little noise soup from Merzbow

Daevid Allen Live at Auricular Records

Daevid Allen: Spoken Word
Live at Auricular Records - Aug 1, 1991
San Francisco, CA

There is no one quite like Daevid Allen (Gong, Soft Machine, Magick Brother etc etc) and there is certainly nothing like spending an afternoon, or evening, with the man. He is one of those people of an indescribably personality - a king amongst pixies and a pixie amongst men. When Daevid came through San Francisco in 1991, I not only got to meet a life long hero of prog rock and possibilities, I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with him; at live shows, in the studio recording and of course in our record store, Auricular Records. I played chauffer to Daevid and Magick Brother for about 2 weeks and it is a time I will not soon forget. While he was in town I had to have him do an instore - unfortunately, we could not coordinate a performance of Magick Brother - although I snuck Mark Robson away from Daevid long enough to perform with Nux Vomica. Daevid showed up in the store with his friend Tom the Poet and armed with just a single microphone kept a store full of us entertained with his wit, glee, songs and stories for an entire afternoon. This recording is a small portion of the antics of the day caught on tape.

enjoy Daevid Allen live at Auricular Records