Over the last few years, the New York-based Audika label has been issuing and reissuing the work of the late cellist, vocalist, and composer Arthur Russell, a somewhat obscure figure in the downtown New York scene of the 1970s and ’80s. The latest piece of the Russell puzzle from Audika is “First Thought Best Thought,” a double CD that pairs Russell’s two long-unavailable LP releases, “Instrumentals” Volume 2 (1984) and “Tower of Meaning” (1983) with bonus tracks.

In his heyday, Russell was a genrebender par excellence. He played on the first Talking Heads single, performed experimental compositions at the Kitchen, auditioned for Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond, and sessioned with Allen Ginsberg, for starters. His series of 12-inch disco singles remains legendary in the danceclub scene, while “World of Echo,” a haunting solo album of his voice and cello, has become a cult classic. In all, Russell purportedly left behind 1,000 unreleased tapes of his music.

The Russell reissues began arriving in 1994, two years after Russell died from AIDS. That year Philip Glass’s Point label brought out a sampling of unreleased material as “Another Thought.” The others have arrived slowly ever since. The British label Soul Jazz collected most of the disco tracks on “The World of Arthur Russell,” while Audika reissued “World of Echo” and brought out another collection of unreleased songs titled “Calling Out of Context.”

On “First Thought Best Thought” the maverick downtown composer is on full display. The first 10 tracks on Disc 1 comprise the previously unreleased “Instrumentals” Volume 1. Here Russell plays jazzy pop jams with cohorts, including such rockers as Ernie Brooks (then the bassist with Jonathan Richman’s Modern Lovers) and Andy Paley (of the Sidewinders and Paley Brothers) as well as such avant-garde types as Peter Gordon, percussionist David Van Tiegham, and Jon Gibson (reedman for Mr. Glass). Recorded live at the Kitchen in 1975, this stands as an early example of bringing pop sounds into post-Cage avant-garde venues that would later be associated with Gordon, Laurie Anderson, and the Golden Palominos.

“Instrumentals”Volume 2 (comprising tracks 11-15 on Disc 1) shows the evolution of this style. Three years later at the Kitchen, some of the themes are reprised, this time without drums and in a more classical mode featuring slow, sustained tones. Serene and almost pastoral, “Instrumentals” Volume 2 is here juxtaposed with a recording of one of Russell’s earliest compositions, “Reach One” (1973), for two Fender Rhodes electric pianos.Though less tonal and even funereal, the piece still embraces pop textures by employing the Rhodes.

Most of Disc 2 is given over to “Tower of Meaning” (tracks 1-7), originally issued in a limited edition on Glass’s Chatham Square label. (The original LP’s labels read “Fragments From ‘Tower of Meaning,'” which is more accurate, given the abrupt endings of each track.) This is a full-blown classical outing: A group of unidentified horn and string players presents themes strongly reminiscent of Aaron Copland and early Gavin Bryars. The piece is a reworking of another composition, “Medea,” which was originally commissioned, and then rejected, by Robert Wilson. The late composer-performer Julius Eastman is listed as the conductor of “Tower of Meaning.” Eastman was a contemporary of Russell’s and may surpass him as a missing link in the annals of the downtown scene.

Like Russell,Eastman – who died in 1990 – was a familiar figure at the Kitchen and Experimental Intermedia and recorded as a pianist and vocalist with Morton Feldman, Meredith Monk, and Peter Maxwell Davies. Eastman’s own music was almost completely unacknowledged (and unavailable commercially) until New World issued the triple-CD “Unjust Malaise” late last year, which makes an excellent companion piece to “First Thought Best Thought.” Eastman’s “Stay on It” (1973) is strikingly similar to “Instrumentals” in its combination of repetitive pop hooks, improvisation, and modern classical composition.

The last track on “First Thought Best Thought” is another previously unreleased work titled “Sketch for the Face of Helen.” The solo recording layers buzzing electronics, a childlike string of notes played on a 1980s sounding keyboard, and a field recording of a tugboat. “Sketch for the Face of Helen” provides the strongest link to the bouncy pop stylings heard on “Calling Out of Context,” though its shifting drones also nod toward Russell’s study of Indian music during the early 1970s.

As with “Reach One,” the piece was intended for release but later abandoned. That is how it always was for Russell: Nothing was ever truly finished, as his own fragmentary presentation of his music on these discs bears out. In our age of interactive media and countless remixes, this may have been Russell’s most visionary quality.