RHYS CHATHAM TOUR DATES / TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS FESTIVAL

RHYS CHATHAM
DIE DONNERGOTTER
(THE THUNDERGODS)

Table of the Elements /Radium TOE-CD-801
Format: CD
Release date: JUNE 6, 2006

RHYS CHATHAM
DIE DONNERGOTTER
(THE THUNDERGODS)

Table of the Elements /Radium TOE-LP-801
Format: 2xLP (LIMITED EDITION, IN GATEFOLD)
Release date: JUNE 6, 2006

RHYS CHATHAM altered the DNA of rock. The New York-born composer began as a classically-trained prodigy, but by 1975, Chatham was fusing the overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the relentless, elemental fury of the Ramones. It was an inspired amalgamation — the textural intricacies of the avant-garde colliding with the visceral punch of electric guitar-slinging punk rock — and with it Chatham created a new type of urban music. Raucous and ecstatic, this sound energized the downtown New York scene throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, prefigured the No Wave movement and cast a huge influence over the subsequent work of Chatham’s many protégés, including Glenn Branca and future members of Sonic Youth.

This release contains all of Chatham’s best work of the period, from the notorious “Guitar Trio” (1977) and the tumultuous, brass-based “Massacre on MacDougal Street” (1982), to the soaring, euphoric masterpiece, “Die Donnergötter” (1986). The gatefold jacket (lp version) and the 32-page book (accompanying the cd version) feature rare photos plus essays by Chatham, Tony Conrad and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, as well as artwork by famed visual artist Robert Longo. Now widely available for the first time, these tracks vividly document those glorious years in the life of a city and a milieu in which the raw, the sophisticated and the danceable merged, and a new era of rock was born.

“For years Rhys Chatham’s music has been more heard about than heard. While his work languished out of print, disciples such as Sonic Youth have gone to the bank with his sound. Chatham’s sonic vocabulary is an inspired marriage of minimalist structures, rock cadences and glittering overtones obtained from massed electric guitars played in unusual tunings at crushing volume. [His] knack for garbling indelible melodies in gorgeous sonorities makes them as attractive as ever today.”
—CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“Blue Oyster Cult and Kiss might’ve made noises about guitar armies, but it took composer Rhys Chatham to actually deploy one. And there’s no other way to say this: It rocks.”
—MAGNET

“A huge reckoning with one of the downtown greats looming larger than the Federal Reserve building. Chatham is huge... a crowning achievement.”
—PITCHFORK

“Surging phosphorescence....Uplifting.”
—ROLLING STONE

“Black-and-Decker classical.”
—GUITAR PLAYER


RHYS CHATHAM
AN ANGEL MOVES TOO FAST TO SEE
(FOR 100 ELECTRIC GUITARS, ELECTRIC BASS AND DRUMS)

Table of the Elements /Radium TOE-CD-802
Format: CD
Release date: JUNE 6, 2003

RHYS CHATHAM
AN ANGEL MOVES TOO FAST TO SEE
(FOR 100 ELECTRIC GUITARS, ELECTRIC BASS AND DRUMS)

Table of the Elements /Radium TOE-LP-802
Format: LP (LIMITED EDITION)
Release date: JUNE 6, 2003

RHYS CHATHAM altered the DNA of rock. The New York-born composer began as a classically-trained prodigy, but by 1975, Chatham was fusing the overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the relentless, elemental fury of the Ramones. It was an inspired amalgamation — the textural intricacies of the avant-garde colliding with the visceral punch of electric guitar-slinging punk rock — and with it Chatham created a new type of urban music. Raucous and ecstatic, this sound energized the downtown New York scene throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, prefigured the No Wave movement and cast a huge influence over the subsequent work of Chatham’s many protégés, including Glenn Branca and future members of Sonic Youth.

However, by the late 1980s, Chatham was chafing against the logistical and financial constraints imposed upon him in the States; in his mind was a vast, unprecedented sound. Moving permanently from New York to Paris, Chatham began composing his masterpiece, a piece for one hundred electric guitars, electric bass and drums. The result, An Angel Moves Too Fast to See, is one of the most extraordinary works in the minimalist canon, one that demonstrates the majesty inherent in Chatham’s amplified imagination. Now widely available for the first time, this lavish CD presents this sonic revolution in all its glory, and cements Chatham’s reputation as a monolithic figure astride both rock and classical musics.

“As An Angel Moves Too Fast To See unfolds, it develops an extended sense of grandeur that should be obvious to anyone. If some segments function very well as art rock, others really transcend all known genres - just huge wallows in oceans of sound. This [is] the music on which his reputation rests and which almost slid through the fingers of history. And the music is, well, angelic. Really.”
—BYRON COLEY, THE WIRE

“Like a demigod, [Rhys Chatham] set everything in motion and then disappeared, leaving us to figure out how to live in the universe he created.”
—NEW YORK TIMES

“Blue Oyster Cult and Kiss might’ve made noises about guitar armies, but it took composer Rhys Chatham to actually deploy one. And there’s no other way to say this: It rocks.”
—MAGNET

RHYS CHATHAM
TWO GONGS (1971)

Table of the Elements TOE-CD-73
Format: CD
Release date: OCTOBER, 2006

NEW YORK CITY has always thrived on its ability to merge glitz with grime, creating products that incorporate both high-brow idealism and raw, gritty experimentation. From art to architecture, New York has built itself upon this odd alchemy. The proliferation of trends that spew from the five boroughs each offer forth different takes on the City’s life. From punk to no-wave, art-rock to folk and all other jumbles of creativity, New York births more inspired art than any other modern city. Composer Rhys Chatham’s powerful, uncompromising body of work, his exploration of noise, chaos, composition and calm is in many ways the most direct, passionate musical manifestation of this postmodern way. Chatham exhibits an exceptional ability to bridge together the intricacies of classical composition with the kick-in-the-gut whallop of rock ‘n’ roll.

The hour-long “Two Gongs” fills the entirety of [this] disc with its ethereal, droning psychedelia. While written in 1971, the ’89 recording documented here features Chatham, along with fellow composer Yoshimasa Wada coaxing heavy, overlapping tones out of a pair of Chinese gongs. The instruments buzz and hum, moving in waves from deafening rattles to soft, muted drones. The monstrous noise that Chatham concocts is far more akin to the seismic crashes of monstrously distorted guitar feedback than that of two unprocessed slabs of metal, and it proves the composer’s interest in creating a similar world of sound out of whatever instrument currently proved his muse. On disc, the performance is jaw-droppingly powerful, a monumental chunk of glorious noise. --Ethan Covey, Dusted

"The resulting investigation of these gongs sounds not so much like an idealized Music of the Spheres as it is a 'Music of Two Enormous Fucking Ball Bearings the Size of Jupiter Grinding Together like Electric Teenagers'. Heavenly, yes, but with enough sharp metal shavings and distorted sparks as to spray in your eyes over its sixty minutes."
Pitchfork

"'Two Gongs' is a gem of minimalist composition, and is reason enough to sing Chatham's praises. . . . the music swells and clangs, an ocean of squirming metal capable of simulating heroin stupor and root canal in equal measure."
Brainwashed

"Oceanic clang."
Rolling Stone

"Moments of exotic quiet and floor-shaking fortissimos."
New York Times

RHYS CHATHAM
A CRIMSON GRAIL
(FOR 400 ELECTRIC GUITARS)

Table of the Elements TOE-CD-106
Format: CD
Release date: DECEMBER, 2006

FORTHCOMING:

RHYS CHATHAM'S ESSENTIALIST
TBA
Table of the Elements / Radium TOE-CD-807, TOE-LP-807
Format: CD / LP
Release date: 2007