In advance of the new Swans album, which is in progress, Michael Gira has released a 2xCD live album titled Not Here/Not Now. As with previous live recordings, it has handmade packaging with a woodblock print by Gira, and all proceeds will go towards paying to put the finishing touches on the new record. As such there are various tiers, from just the record to a meet and greet or a song by Gira "praising the customer, his or her ancestors, thoughts, dreams, and future or past lives, forever." More here, while they last.

Past and future Cross Platform feature subjects Hannah Sawtell (The Wire 357), Emma Hart (issue 354), Beatrice Gibson (345) and Ed Atkins (332) have been nominated for the Jarman Award. The shortlist for the artist film maker award also includes Rachel Maclean, Charlotte Prodger, Grace Schwindt, Jessica Warboys, Uriel Orlow, and John Smith. The prize is a £10,000, plus a broadcast commission to produce a series of film artworks for Channel 4. The winner will be announced on 4 November.

Sheffield electronic outfit The Black Dog have started a hardware company called Machinewerks and have successfully crowdfunded their first device, a USB/MIDI controller. Design help comes from The Designer's Republic and the controller will be built in Sheffield, with as many of the component parts as possible to be manufactured in the UK.

Ethnomusicologists Stefan Williams-Fa and Ben Wheeler are releasing an album of recordings made in 2012, of folk sounds from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Mountains Of Tongues: The Languages Of The Caucasus includes recordings in languages rarely heard on tape and rare instruments (including the Tushetian chianuri string instrument). The record will be released via LM Dupli-cation on vinyl and digitally on 12 November.

This month, Napalm Death will perform with ceramic sculptor Keith Harrison at Bexhill-On-Sea's De La Warr Pavilion. Harrison has built a wooden sound system and filled the speakers with clay. The grindcore group will play live through the system, destroying the clay and affecting the sound produced. The event is free and takes place on 29 November. The event will be streamed live from the DLWP via Youtube. Follow the DLWP on Twitter for announcements.

Until the end of December, the AB music and art centre in Brussels is running an event series on modular synthesis. All Connected is curated by film maker and musician Floris Vanhoof, whose programme includes concerts, films, readings and instrument presentations.

Next year, AB also plans to hold special events on Ghent University's Institute For Psychoacoustics And Electronic Music (IPEM) and the San Francisco Tape Music Centre.

Jim O'Rourke has released an eight part digital series of recordings titled Steamroom, via Bandcamp. The Steamroom series includes O'Rourke's soundtracks for films The World (by Makino Takashi) and Not Yet (directed by O'Rourke); tracks taken from a CD released on his Japan tour with Christoph Heeman and Will Long earlier this year; live recordings from between 2011–2013; his piece from the split CD Frontieres? plus some performances from this year's five night run at SuperDeluxe in Tokyo.

Pan Sonic will be releasing their first album in three years on Ukrainian label Kvitnu. The Finnish electronic Noise duo of Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen have titled their next album Oksastus. It will be released as a double LP and on CD. More details (including a release date) are incoming.

[Hat tip Darkfloor]

The Zappa Family Trust are reissuing Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. The new version is taken from the vaults of the Zappa Family Trust, and has been remastered by Bob Ludwig. Early reports from our Beefheart correspondents are claiming that it's a vast improvement on the currently available Warner Bros CD, although we have yet to hear the results. More details here, and a few scattered elsewhere.

Robert Fripp has announced that he will be reforming King Crimson, with three drummers. This will be the eighth incarnation of the group, and the seven strong line up includes Fripp, plus Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin, Mel Collins and Jakko Jakszyk. The group will be rehearsing over the next 12 months, to begin performances around this time next year.

[Hat tip: Prog Rock Mag]