Zeena Parkins
To Dusk
Every day over the course of a year starting in June, 2020, in something she refers to as a "domestic ritual," Zeena Parkins recorded solo electric harp performances in her home studio. The brilliant improvisor and composer had, like most of her peers, been sidelined by the pandemic; unable to tour, she spent the end of each day at the harp, playing until sunlight waned, inventing and discovering new soundscapes, keeping her musical self together while the world seemed poised to crumble. Parkins…
Excavation
*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 300 copies.* This release from Astral Editions, the rock offshoot of Astral Spirits, promises a lot of gems and this collaboration from Chris Cochrane (No Safety, Weird Little Boy) and John Thayer (Drunken Sufis, YAI) sits high atop the pile. Cochrane’s guitars crumple and crush, they squelch against Thayer’s rhythms with a gleeful sickness. “Zinc” chews through layers of tin and turbulence until Stan Zenkov’s sax enters the scene, throwing notes like …
Mouth=Maul=Betrayer
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Part of the Radical Jewish Culture series put out by John Zorn's Tzadik label, Zeena Parkins' Mouth=Maul=Betrayer perhaps more than any other album lives up to the name of the series. This work is aggressive, energetic, intellectually complex, challenging, and highly structured. At times it reads like the soundtrack to a classic gangster film of the '40s -- the music is often not a stylistic match for that time period, but the feeling of violence and darknes…
Land Escaping / Once
Few copies back in stock, long out of print - Archive release from avant-garde harpist / composer Zeena Parkins and legendary deep listener Pauline Oliveros. Presenca Series 001 is the result of the formerly-defunct Lucky Kitchen label delving into the vaults of the Serralves Foundation, digging up a side’s worth of sound art for each artist. On audiophile-grade vinyl. "Lucky Kitchen was a legendary experimental sound publisher beginning in New York in the 1990's, drawing to a close in Barcelon…
Double Dupe Down
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Zeena Parkins is a keyboardist, harpist and composer who has worked closely with Fred Frith, Bjork, Ikue Mori and many others. Her brilliant work for dance has earned her three Bessie Awards, and her own bands have toured the world for over twenty years to great acclaim. This special compilation brings together her best compositions written for film and features some of the greatest musicians in the downtown scene. An endlessly creative collection of work by…
Between The Whiles
One of the world's most creative harpists, Zeena Parkins has contributed her inimitable playing style to the work of artists like Bjork, John Zorn, Yoko Ono,Sonic Youth and Matmos, whilst also recording a number of wonderful solo albums (including the timeless Nightmare Alley) and a couple of Phantom Orchard collaborations with electronics guru Ikue Mori. What most immediately sets Parkins apart from her peers is a roving appetite to look beyond the ordinary constraints of her instrument. While …