"What I had first learned about John Cale was that he had written a piece which pushed a piano down a mine shaft. We hungered for music almost seething beyond control — or even something beyond music, a violent feeling of soaring unstoppably, powered by immense angular machinery across abrupt and torrential seas of pounding blood."
Tony Conrad Collection no.10
John Cale
New York in the 1960s
2004
Table of the Elements
[Francium] TOE-LP-87
5x phono LPs, wood case, lacquer, silkscreen, dyed-linen libretto
John Cale
Tony Conrad
Angus MacLise
La Monte Young
Marian Zazeela
Day of Niagara: Inside the Dream Syndicate Vol. I
2000
Table of the Elements
[Tungsten] TOE-CD-74
Compact disc
Tony Conrad Collection no. 20
John Cale
Sun Blindness Music
2001
Table of the Elements
[Rhenium] TOE-CD-75
Compact disc, obi + catalog
Tony Conrad Collection no. 21
John Cale
Dream Interpretation: Inside the Dream Syndicate Vol. II
2001
Table of the Elements
[Gold] TOE-CD-79
Compact disc, obi + catalog
Tony Conrad Collection no. 22
John Cale
Stainless Gamelan: Inside the Dream Syndicate Vol. III
2002
Table of the Elements
[Mercury] TOE-CD-80
Compact disc, obi + catalog
Tony Conrad Collection no. 23
John Cale
New York in the 1960s
2004
Table of the Elements
[Francium] TOE-LP-87
5x phono LPs, wood case, lacquer, silkscreen, dyed-linen libretto
Tony Conrad Collection no. 24
John Cale
New York in the 1960s
2005
Table of the Elements
[Francium] TOE-CD-87
3x compact discs, wood case, lacquer, silkscreen, dyed-linen booklet
John Cale's great credit, both inside and outside the Velvet Underground, was to have found the inoculation dosage that would addict the music industry to SOUND without alienating one world from the other. But outside the "official" VU there was also an uncut version of the virus, incubated behind the slum walls of the 1960s Lower East Side, and maintained live in the liquid nitrogen of these insolently recorded reel-to-reel audiotapes, recorded and produced by Tony Conrad and now available in the massive Table of the Elements 3xCD (5xLP) boxed set, "New York in the 1960s."
"The recordings in this three-disc series come from another underground, a deep vein of labor and experimentation that parallels Cale's time with the Velvets. It is jubilantly private music, made alone and with like-minded spirits—Tony Conrad, Sterling Morrison, original Velvets percussionist Angus MacLise—far from the hot light of the Velvets' public notoriety and the rough politics of Cale's relationship with Reed. And it is important music, an illuminating, heretofore unknown chapter in Cale's creative advance.
"What is truly extraordinary about the sixteen performances spread across these three volumes—Sun Blindness Music, Dream Interpretation and Stainless Gamelan—is their explosive foresight. The florid distortion of Cale's guitar pieces and the tandem bull-elephant hum of his viola and Conrad's violin prefigure the aggressive majesty and expressive dissonance of punk rock, No Wave and the Transfigured Guitar movement led by Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham and Sonic Youth. In his pulsing keyboard essays, Cale marries the grace and science of minimalism to the mainstream throb of rock & roll, a full decade ahead of Brian Eno and the Berlin-era David Bowie. When Cale tests the barriers of possibility in his tools—the guts of an abandoned piano, the jammed keys on an organ, the pause control of a Wollensak tape recorder—he generates a synthetic music that connects Edgard Varése, Henry Cowell and Karlheinz Stockhausen with contemporary electronica and turntablism.
"These recordings have been virtually unheard since they were made more than three decades ago. But their prescience is undeniable. So is their power and purity. Working in the shadows of both pop and art, building on discoveries and inventions from his life before and with the Velvets, Cale committed to tape a highly personal and exhilarating vision of the future of music. It now sounds like fact."
David Fricke, from the liner notes
Earliest recordings by Velvet Underground founder and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member John Cale
Gorgeous, limited-edition release in black-lacquered wood box with black paper libretto
Liner notes by Rolling Stone's David Fricke
Features rare and previously unreleased recordings
Includes performances by fellow Velvet Underground members Sterling Morrison and Angus MacLise and minimalist pioneer Tony Conrad
5xLP set Includes bonus tracks featuring pioneering artist and filmmaker Jack Smith
"Shuddering rhythms at first sparkle like sunlight on water, before evoking the incandescence of a star going supernova. A reinvention of what we know of the past, and a treasure brought to light... Astonishing."
The Wire
"As devastating as the rock & roll on the Velvets' 'Sister Ray... Proves once again that La Monte Young's claim that he was the defining moment in minimalism is just insane."
All Music Guide
"These aural documents have been a long time in coming. They could have exploded the myth. Instead they are an awesome, concrete substantiation of all the excitement their long non-appearance has generated. They completely re-write the territory of minimalism with willful abandon and supercharged exhilaration. A revelation."
Monocular Times
"Attesting to Cale's visionary artistry, the volumes lay the foundation for countless musical developments that followed. 'Sun Blindness Music' beats Eno to the ambient game and anticipates turntablism by decades, while 'Dream Interpretation''s feedback and noise would open the gates for the likes of Sonic Youth. So think of this box as a womb from which all the cool bands you like were birthed. Your other box sets will weep with envy."
Rock Newz
"You'd think Table of the Elements had cornered the market on historic minimalist documents. And they pretty much have."
Pitchfork
"Jubilant, private pieces performed with passion and skill."
Sugar and Spice
"Number 1 Release of 2001."
Washington City Paper
"Best of 2001"
Downtown Music Gallery, NYC
"Tops of 2001"
Songs of Praise
"John Cale is rock's international traveler. His work is a trans-continental drift of moons and maps, seas and seachange, envoys and ennui ... his eye has spanned the globe and his mind ranged as far from rock's parochial trails as it's possible to get ... his world is bounded only by the limits of his imagination."
The Wire
"This music is the intimate expression of a committed seeker, a strange magic finally heard in its humble seductive essence."
David Fricke, from the liner notes