Antithesis (1994-2002) is a collection of so-called “Student” or “Early” work as issued on LP by kranky on April 26th, 2004; it’s been through multiple pressings (as recent as late 2023) & is available from fine record shops near you (if not, try Discogs) or via all of the streaming apps/platforms (YouTube™ embed to your right/below; apologies for the low-res cover!)

2003 became a solid year of touring, increasingly more the "Playthroughs" material, and increasingly less the Hrvatski work; I ultimately gave up on the latter. The success (it's hard to understate this now, considering the current reality of physical releases) of "Playthroughs" had me scrambling to assemble a follow-up, and then the idea of compiling two vinyl-only releases of archival work was proposed by Joel & Bruce, then seized upon.

"Antithesis" largely covers a series of pieces recorded at the tail-end of my undergraduate studies at Berklee; a period when I was mid-stream in investigating all of the disparate American "New Music" scenes from the 60s. I was (and remain) very deep into the New York School of composers, Fluxus, La Monte Young, Terry Riley†, early Minimalism, New Age, the Cold Blue Music scene, etc. Seeing Tony Conrad†† perform around then was a real lightning bolt for me, his influence clearly evident in both "Twin Guitar Rhodes Viola Drone" & "Rhodes Viola Multiple." "Obelisk" came out of my infatuation with early Sound Poetry; the caveman drums were likely a remnant sensibility from getting deep into the post-Broken Flag & 90s Bristol scenes. "Schnee" was recorded much later for a friend's documentary film, which apparently has been shown a few times with this as a soundtrack; I've still never seen it!

Trivia; the entire art-spec is modeled after one of Tod Dockstader's Owl-label "Quatermass" LP. Jim "Ning Nong" Siegel, later of Vivid Oblivion & Raspberry Bulbs fame, both took the absurdly apropos cover shot & played drums on "Schöner Flußengel". I later learned that I had broken a key/kore kranky tenet by putting a portrait (or any photo of a person!) on the jacket. The same exact image was later used in the artwork of Matmos' "Civil War". 

Tracklisting:

Twin Guitar Rhodes Viola Drone [For La Monte Young] (7:44) 1994
Obelisk [For Kurt Schwitters] (6:13) 1997

Rhodes Viola Multiple (5:41) 1995
Schnee (7:11) 2002

† I ended up playing in a trio with Terry & Lawrence English on April 22nd, 2006 at a festival (“Puls8”) celebrating his life-work at the Powerhouse in Brisbane; sneaking an embed of this your right/below.

†† ditto, only with Tony & Charlemagne Palestine on September 7, 2005 at Petit Théâtre Mercelis, Brussels; their duo set was released by Sub Rosa as “An Aural Symbiotic Mystery” in 2006, although thankfully it does not contain the underwhelming “Encore” trio improvisation! You can clearly see how psyched Charlemagne was about this in the photo to your right/below.