Hardcover, A4 slightly bigger, 83pp Penultimate Press, December 2025In Transcendental Mathematics, Eric Schmid confronts the fundamental epistemological problem that has haunted philosophy since Kant's fourfold division of knowledge into analytic a priori, synthetic a priori, synthetic a posteriori, and the notoriously empty fourth cell of analytic a posteriori, a schema whose boundaries have been successively contested throughout analytic philosophy, from Carnap's logical empiricism (which sought to collapse the synthetic a priori into the analytic a priori through linguistic convention) through Quine's holistic dissolution of the analytic-synthetic distinction altogether, to Per Martin-Löf's constructive type theory, which, as Neil Tennant documents in The Taming of the True, reconstitutes the synthetic a priori through a meaning-theoretic framework where mathematical truth emerges through judgment acts rather than abstract correspondence. Schmid argues that homotopy type theory provides the technical apparatus to reconcile the perennial tension between Platonist mathematical realism (mathematics as the discourse on being qua being, independent of mind) and Husserlian phenomenology (mathematical objects as constituted through intentional acts of categorial intuition), positions that seemed irreconcilable yet both partially correct. The work's significance is precisely this: where Kant bequeathed philosophy the problem of how mathematical knowledge could be both necessary and ampliative, and where twentieth-century philosophy either eliminated the synthetic a priori (Quine) or absorbed it into the analytic (Carnap), Schmid's "transcendental mathematics" shows that identity types interpreted as paths, and the univalence axiom equating equivalence with identity, ground the synthetic a priori in homotopy-invariant structure, so that mathematical objects are simultaneously constructed through constitutive activity (the phenomenological moment of proof and judgment) and objectively constrained by the geometry of type space (the realist moment of path structure), making the conditions of mathematical thought transcendentally necessary in virtue of the intrinsic homotopical character of identity itself.

Intricate, crystaline duo set from London-based musician and computer programmer, Li Song, and Paris-based musician and sound artist, Tom Soloveitzik, recorded as part of the second iteration of Regan Bowering's SPACE series at OTO in February 2026. Seemingly emerging out of the room itself, the performance begins so quietly that at first Soloveitzik's breathy, gossamer-thin saxophone tones are barely audible over the scuffing chair legs and shifting audience members. But the effect is subtly enrapturing, drawing the listener in and tuning the ear, so that when Song's chirruping electronics tentatively join the fray the deceptively minimal sonic canvas is already as big as it needs to be. From this starting point, the pair weave a hypnotically stark assemblage of shifting patterns and textures, which spiral out and circle back in on themselves in constantly mutating configurations. The effect is an enthralling symbiosis of electronic and acoustic sounds that reveal themselves on their own terms, allowing the listener to drift within the spaces left between. -- Recorded by Rory SalterMixed by Oli BarrettCover illustration by Yuling Huang

Recital is proud to publish the first album of American Gamelan composer Daniel Schmidt (b. 1942). Schmidt, who emerged in the Bay Area music scene in the 1970s, wove the threads of traditional Eastern Gamelan music together with American Minimalism (repetitive music). Schmidt was (and is still) a prime figure in the development of American Gamelan music – studying and collaborating with Lou Harrison, Jody Diamond, and Paul Dresher. He currently is a teacher at Mills College, teaching instrument building. The recordings on Flowers date from 1978 – 1982, selected directly from Schmidt’s personal cassette archive. It holds two studio tracks, along with two live performances. The first track, Dawn (commissioned by composer John Adams), employs an early digital sampler provided by Pauline Oliveros. It holds the sound of a string quartet. The nature of this piece is breathtaking, an ocean of strings pulsing beneath the gliding bells of the gamelan – such a lovely interplay. Furthermore, the title track, Flowers, features the addition of a rebab, a traditional bowed instrument, which reels through the piece, netted and taught. The final two works are strictly gamelan compositions. Ghosts is a a dynamic piece; rife with dexterous euphoria- it well displays the skillset of the percussionists heard on the LP. The closing work, Faint Impressions, is a somber elegy. Demonstrating the fragility and grace possible with the gamelan; sounding almost as an evening piano sonata. This is album is unique document from an under-represented movement of American New Music. An account of the curious beauty and woven emotions hidden within resonating pieces of metal

Lost Derek Bailey sessions recorded with his friend and collaborator Charlie Morrow. In 1982, Bailey and Morrow organized a series of live concerts and studio sessions around New York. This new LP is a boiled-down rendering of the master tapes that lived dormant in Charlie’s archive, until now. LP Edition of 400pc, 180gram black vinyl 8-page booklet with program notes and artwork Throughout the album, Bailey and Morrow are joined by a rotating cast of New Wilderness players including frame drum percussionist Glen Velez, sound poet Steve McCaffery, publisher and artist Carol E. Tuynman, composer Patricia Burgess, and multimedia artist Michael Snow. The results are surprising and marvelous. The energy of the live concert, which makes up the first half of the record is particularly exciting, with Morrow and McCaffery’s visceral sound poetry and Glen’s frame drum echoing off of Derek’s fret stabs, and Carol, Patricia, and Michael’s horns swirling through the air between. A very raw and intense recording. The second side of New York 1982, is a session recorded at The Record Plant, and is clearly more ‘produced’ with panning and tape echo processing, plus experiments with water whistles and other devices. Derek Bailey stands out for personal achievements as a guitarist and for his way of bringing together performance meetings ranging from duos to large ensembles. Working across style and genre, his music and musical unions have inspired the breakdown of boundaries, embracing all flavors of musicians as improvisers. Players focusing on the moment, "without memory."

No noise walls, you could even call it sparse at points if you fancied it. More like failing miserably to sneak through a house full of scrap metal and busted electronics in the pitch black of night. Clattering objects with the upmost precision, wonderfully collaged improv tape jabs and so on. Healthy helpings of suspense, excitement and chaos - well worth your time. Everything by Theo Gowans --- Cassette cover text layout by Infant Tree

"Reissue of Derek Bailey and Tristan Honsinger Duo, originally released by Incus in 1976. Born in Burlington, Vermont, and conservatory-trained in the US, the cellist Tristan Honsinger moved from Montreal to Amsterdam in 1974, quickly linking with Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg and opening a long and fruitful musical relationship with Derek Bailey. Recorded in 1976, Duo displays a performative musical approach already characterized by the lack of inhibition which would later endear him to The Pop Group: he is knockabout, exclamatory, explosively rhythmic; burping Bach and folk melodies with spasmodic lyricism, in amongst the garrulous textures and accents of his scraping, bowing, and plucking, and gibbering like a monkey; throwing out his arms and stamping the floor, grappling with his instrument like an expert clown, always tripping himself up. You can hear Bailey reveling in the company, as he ranges between scrabbling solidarity and an askance skewering of his partner's antics, on prepared (nineteen-string) and standard electric guitars -- and a Waisvisz Crackle-box, for the garbled, quizzical, cross-species natter which closes "The Shadow". Throughout, the spirited interplay between laconic, analytic wit, and guttural, sometimes slapstick physicality is consistently droll, often laugh-out-loud funny; vigorously alert, alive, and gripping.” --- Tristan Honsigner / cello, voice Derek Bailey / electric guitar, crackle box --- Recorded at Verity's Place 7th February 1976, except for A1 and B2 which were recorded at Tangent Studio 6th February 1976.