Holland's Incubate festival has uploaded a series of recordings to its Soundcloud of ex-Harry Pussy man Bill Orcutt's live set at the festival. The six tracks were recorded on 12 September this year in Tilburg by Mark Smith. Listen below. 

Orcutt's just about to start on a brief four stop tour in the US, playing in Madison with Jon Mueller and with Paul Metzger in Saint Paul. Dates are as follows: Chicago Museum Of Contemporary Art (27 November), Madison University of Wisconsin (28), Saint Paul Turf Club (29), Iowa City Trumpet Blossom Cafe (30).  

American composer Elliott Carter has died, age 103. Carter received the Pulitzer prize twice, for his String quartet No 2 and No 3, in 1960 and 1973 respectively. He was encouraged to take up a career in classical music by Charles Ives, and composed throughout his lifetime, finishing his final piece of music in August 2012. As such, he had been described as the "Methuselah of American Composers". He steadfastly refused to work to deadlines, and composed music which some trained musicians found incredibly difficult to grasp. Nonetheless he received frequent commissions, and by the 1980s his works were performed on a regular basis.

Brion Gysin's hypnagogic device the Dreamachine is being launched in London this weekend at an evening of talks, performance and film screenings. On the bill are a series of films on the Master Musicians Of Joujouka, including Tribe Ahl Serif shot in 1972, plus Aphex Twin & Stakker's Westworld, Nik Sheehan's Flicker and more. Performances include Robert Hampson's three part Music For Dreammachines which will be performed for the first time, plus a DJ set by Fritz Catlin/Skintologists (ex 23 Skidoo), Akoustik Timbre Frekuency and UN.

Talks include Steve Finbow presenting "Gysin and Ginsberg: Sexual And Textual Politics In The Beat Hotel", plus Ian MacFadyen on Gysin, Balch, Burroughs and the Beat Hotel, and Rikki Stein on his own experiences with The Master Musicians Of Joujouka. 

The Dreamachine, a stroboscopic light which creates a pulsing light for optical stimulus is the first that will be available in large numbers (500 have been made) and built according to Gysin's designs. The launch (24 November) forms part of London Apiary Studios's Modern Panic III which runs 23 November–2 December. More details here. 

Chris Cutler has curated a series of podcasts at Radio Web MACBA, titled Probes. The series attempts to trace the effect on music of the collapse of common practice tonality and the invention of sound recording. He looks at the role of the composer, microtonal divisions based on equal temperament, field recordings from environments in a state of flux, the Latvian music scene and more. 

Cutler notes that the series (which is available for download) contains a lot of music which is currently out of print, and difficult to source. Full details and podcasts can be found here, and there's full playlists too (the playlist and annotations for Probes #1 can be found here). 

The Instant Composers Pool are taking up a residency as part of Evan Parker's Might I Suggest festival at Dalston's Vortex jazz club, to mark the release of their 50CD box set. The ICP will be in residence 29 January–2 February, and the first three days will include collaboration betweek UK jazz musicians and members of the ICP. On 1–2 February full ICP orchestra will be in attendance.  

The Instant Composers Pool was founded by Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg in 1967, and includes Tobias Delius, Mary Oliver, and Wolter Wierbos, among others. The box set contains 50CDs and three DVDs spanning the collective's 45 year history, plus a photo book by Pieter Boersma, all packed in a numbered box hand painted by Han Bennink. More details on the box set here.  

Ralf Wehowksy's P16.D4 collective is releasing a box set, titled Passagen containing 6CDs, a DVD and a 40 page booklet. It covers the period 1982–1991, and contains Nichts Niemand Nirgends Nie, plus the group's collaboration with Merzbow,and a number of unreleased recordings. 

P16.D4 began recording under the name Permutative Distorsion,then PD, before changing their name to P16.D4, simultanesouly moving away from song structures and descending instead into Industrial avant-garde experimentations with sound. 

As part of the release party Ralf Wehowsky will perform for the first time since 1994, along with  Johannes Frisch, Komora A + Zale, plus Jacek Staniszewski. The box set will be released on 7 December, and the release event takes place the same night, Warsaw Centre For Contemporary Arts, 7pm. 

More details plus a full tracklisting on the Monotype site here. Listen to a sample below, and more on Monotype's Soundcloud account. (NB: The above image is a cropped version of the artwork) 

Stars Of The Lid's 1997 album The Ballasted Orchestra is being reissued on vinyl by Kranky. The duo play live for the first time in three years next month, at ATP festival on 9 December and at St John's Hackney with Roly Porter on 10 December.

Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride originally recorded the album on a 4-track, which has now been remastered by Wiltzie. He says: "The remastering process was kind of a bittersweet experience, to come back to a time in my life that I had almost completely forgotten about… There is something about magnetic tape, even in a cheap plastic cassette form, that captures an atmosphere that I do not believe is possible to do anymore with digital recording."

The Ballasted Orchestra will be released on 7 January. 

John Napier (aka Wee Wee) of Ethyl Meatplow has died. Napier's former bandmate Carla Bozulich writes on her Facebook: "Like with so many of our friends it was drugs that got John." 

Ethyl Meatplow released one full length album titled Happy Days, Sweetheart and a number of 12"s and 7"s. Napier also played in Incest Cattle, Neon Veins and Here Eat This, among other groups, and ran a small label called Basura! which released a handful of titles in the 90s. After Ethyl Meatplow disbanded Napier went back to school and became a social worker.  

Bozulich goes on to say: "John was the most dynamic performer I've ever known. Sick, scary and loving. The cat that knew the best books and records and shortwave channels. He would pull things out of nowhere. I shiver to think what I would have missed and maybe someday I'll make a list! That was John. Same with tons of stuff. He just found things."

A memorial will be held at The Echo in LA on 2 December, 3pm–9pm. A Facebook group has been set up here. 

A book documenting the hardcore punk scene of the 1980s is being published by David Markey and Jordan Schwartz via Bazillion Points. The book collects 400 photos of the LA hardcore punk scene and contains reprints of their We Got Power fanzine, which ran from 1981–1983. The book, named after the fanzine, includes essays by the authors plus Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Dez Cadena, Henry Rollins, Louiche Mayorga, Mike Watt and others.     

The We Got Power fanzine was started by David Markey and Jordan Schwartz, along with Jennifer Marker and Alan Gilbert. It covered Black Flag, Minutemen, Social Distortion, Suicidal Tendencies, and The Descendents, among many others. Markey went on to make films under the name We Got Power, and toured with Black Flag as part of Painted Willie in 1986. Schwartz was involved with the manufacture of three Black Flag skateboards, and in 1984 became a tour booker for SST Records's Global Network Agency. 

More details on the book here. Listen to a compilation above. 

:zoviet*france: are selling their last remaining copies of 7.10.12, named after its 7 October release date. Rather than a first come first served basis, Ben Ponton and Mark Warren will be putting names in a hat to decide who gets a copy of the box set.  

7.10.12 contains a 12", 10" and 7", a paper rubbing of neolithic Northumbrian stone and a small vial of hawthorn berries. It was produced in an edition of 250, and the deadline for getting your name in the hat is 30 November.  To get your name in the draw email zf@zovietfrance.org.