The rediscovery of Palestine is well under way, with the release of recent recordings and several reissues. The "Golden" series brings back to light his earliest compositions.
In-Mid-Air (Alga Marghen, 2003), the third installment in the series, collects five works from the 1960s that show a maturing composer, clearly educated at the school of the electronic pioneers (with plenty of references to the Darmstadt circle) although not particularly knowledgeable about the new techniques. Unfortunately, they share little with his "strumming" piano masterpieces. Instead, they hark back to an era when the like of Morton Subotnick and Jon Appleton shocked the classical audiences with clumsy electronic machines. The two shorter pieces (from 1965) are not any more interesting than thousands of studies recorded by students of Edgar Varese or (at Darmstadt) of Karlheinz Stockhausen during those years, although the seductive cicada-like buzzing of 7 Organism Study (1968) proves that Palestine was an original even within the ranks of the droning composers. Negative Sound Study (1969) is a cinematic piece that straddles the line between static minimalism and Subotnick's dadaism. The most emotional composition on the CD is probably the threatening Tymbral for Pran Nath (1970), a salvo of piercing drones that create a tragic atmosphere of suspense and grief. Nothing on this CD compares with the surprisingly quiet Piano Drone (1972) or the marvelous Duo Strumming for Three Harpsichord (1978), that appeared on volume 2 of the "golden series", or with volume 1's Alloy (1969), a piece for "alumonium" (an instrument invented by Palestine himself), "long string drone" (an instrument invented and played by violinist Tony Conrad), conch (played by saxophonist Bob Feldman), percussion and voices (Deborah Glaser and Palestine) The pieces on volume 3 are merely pages of a diary that show the composer still searching for a path to enlightenment.
At the same time, Palestine began his video work with Body Music I (1973), Body Music II (1974), Four Motion Studies (1974), Snake (1974), Internal Tantrum (1975), Running Outburst (1975), St. Vitas Dance (1975), You Should Never Forget the Jungle (1975), St. Vitas Dance (1975), Island Song (1976), Island Monologue (1976), two lengthier works, Andros (1976) and Where It's Coming From (1977), and finally Dark Into Dark (1979).

His first major composition was Four Manifestations on Six Elements (Sonnabend Gallery, 1974), for both piano and electronics. It contains four rhythmic piano pieces and two electronic drones. The rhythmic pieces endlessly repeat different syncopated and intricate patterns. The third movement of One + Two + Three Perfect Fifths, in the Rhythm 3 Against 2 is particularly lively and vibrant with enough mathematical drift to completely subvert its appearance by the time it completes. The limit of this three-movement piece is that the music does not "flow": each movement is the demonstration of a mathematical problem, but artistically speaking one hears just different kinds of hammering. The 16-minute Sliding Fifths goes beyond that level: the strumming is fast enough and the notes are close enough that a "whole" emerges, a bit like the sparkling reflections in a pond compose a whole of natural beauty, and, as it progresses, the flow comes to evoke the tumultuous rapids of a river. The drones, namely the 19-minute Two Fifths and the 14-minute Three Fifths. are fluttering colorful butterflies. They do little else than replicate themselves forever. The latter has a bit of movement, but mostly these are stationary enough to make LaMonte Young sound like rock'n'roll.

His Strumming Music (Shandar, 1977) was revolutionary in that it turned fast strumming into an avantgarde technique, and minimalism into hyperkinetic (and noisy) music. Palestine improvised on a piano at lightning speed, emphasizing otherworldly overtones. The music settles on a pattern and simply repeats it until the player suddenly changes something and the music adopts it as the new pattern. The strategy is that the music is in charge, and the player only decides when to cause a "quantum jump" to a new state. The changes can be in tempo or in tone or in counterpoint.

Godbear (Barooni, 1997) documents a live "strumming-piano" performance from 1987.

A new phase began with the colossal church-organ drones of Schlingen-Blaengen (New World, 1998), recorded in 1988 (originally composed in 1979), Karenina (Durtro), recorded in 1997, two CDs of falsetto chanting accompanied with harmonium, Schlongo (OOO), a church-organ improvisation recorded in 1998, Jamaica Heinekens In Brooklyn (Barooni, 2000), a symphony of drones and found sounds, Music for Big Ears (Staalplaat, 2002), which is music for church bells (recorded in 2000 in Berlin). None of them is particularly significant. They merely repeat the same ideas in different (and not too original) formats.

Maximin (Young God, 2002) is a collaboration with David Coulter and Jean-Marie Mathoul, who basically "remix" some of his old compositions.

Music For Big Ears (Staalplaat, 2003) was performed at the Daimler-Benz carillon in Berlin.

An Aural Symbiotic Mystery (Subrosa, 2007) was a collaboration between Tony Conrad (on violin) and Charlemagne Palestine (on organ).

A Sweet Quasimodo Between Black Vampire Butterflies (2007) documents a live performance of the eponymous composition for two pianos "strummed" simultaneously.

The Golden Mean (Shiiin, 2007) documents a live performance from 1979 for two pianos played by just one performer.

Sharing A Sonority (Alga Marghen, 2008) collects three old works: Short And Sweet (april 1974) for piano and sax, Electronic and Flute (1967), and the colossal Fundamental D Flat Group Db (april 1974) with Rhys Chatham and Tony Conrad, a piece under the influence of LaMonte Young.

The Apocalypse Will Blossom (Yesmissolga, 2007) documents a live solo-piano performance of 2000 that presents Palestine at his most "heavy metal". The idea was continued on a collaboration with Christoph Heemann, Saiten In Flammen (Streamline, 2009).

Illuminations documents a collaboration of late 1971 with vocalist Simone Forti.

Charlemagne Palestine's Relationship Studies (Alga Marghen, 2011) collects Relationship Study No. 1 and Electronic (1967).

Voxorgachitectronumputer (2011) documents a live performance of june 2007 with Joachim Montessuis (voice and computer).

Day Of The Demons (Desire Path, 2012) documents collaborations between Charlemagne Palestine & Janek Schaefer: Raga De L'Apres Midi Pour and Fables From A Far Away Future.

Two Electronic Sonorities (Alga Marghen, 2012), collects previously unreleased music.

The double-disc It Ain't Necessarily So (Zarek, 2011) was a collaboration German electro-acoustic ensemble Perlonex.

The double-disc Rubhitbangklanghear (Sub Rosa, 2013), documents a performance with percussionist Z'ev recorded in june 2010.

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