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SOFA is proud to have discovered a great jewel in Spanish music. The Madrid based soundartist and composer Miguel Angel Tolosa has during the last five years become a special member of the SOFA family, having contributed on several SOFA albums both as an artist and as a recording and mastering engineer. Now, on "Ephimeral" we hear him all alone. Tolosa says about his music that it's not meant to convey extramusical contents, such as philosophical or religious ideas, political propaganda or adver…

Mille Feuille was recorded during three days at Flerbruket, an old school builiding at Hemnes which now is a workplace for artists of all sorts. OWL (Signe Emmeluth & Karl Bjorå) worked here together with sound technician Magnus Nergaard with recordings that later would turn into the duo’s debut album. The music is the result of a couple of years working with different ideas of improvisation and composition. Both musicians have their opinions on how much or little control you bring into the musi…

shapes & phases is the debut release of the duo vertex, consisting of Petter Vågan (lapsteel, acoustic guitar, electronics) and Tor Haugerud (percussion, signal generator, field recordings). Together they have delved into their own blend of electro-acoustic improvisation, with elements ranging from lowercase electronic drones, via country/folk-influenced minimalism, to distorted industrial walls of sound. Vertex manage to move between these diverse sources without losing touch of their own sound…

*Double-folded Digipak with 24-page booklet.* What exactly happened in the Italian underground/post punk scene of the '80s, is not entirely clear. Therefore, this collection of 13 incredible tunes helps track down the feeling and focuses on the blurry images of a period that was mixing influences from the UK/USA scenes with a more "national" approach to new music developments. The damage began in 1977 when a series of urban/suburban musical agitators, whether skilled or complete amateurs, decide…

'Matita Emostatica' is the re-issue  of a sought after  compilation connecting the most underrated outsider artists of the Milan scene, in the early eighties. The amazing artwork is the creation of influential  designer and photographer Roberto Masotti, a very well known figure in the avantgarde and jazz realm (he made astonishing portraits for the likes of Anthony Braxton, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Carla Bley, etc.)  The compilation was produced in 1981 by Al Aprile and released by Materiali Son…

Firenze Sogna is literally a journey of musical itineraries from the legendary Tuscany chief town between the mid-70s and the early eighties, curated by Giampiero Bigazzi, Bruno Casini and Ernesto De Pascale. Influential post-punk act and electronic producers all teamed up with local legends depicting almost 20 years of a constant evolution. It is not simply the Italian way to rock’n’roll, hereby three generations of artists facing the banks of Arno river forged a memorable artistic season. Stal…

Searching for new languages beyond the bitter and nihilist dialect of punk, bands like Gaz Nevada, Litfiba, CCCP, Diaframma, Neon, and many others, began spreading their message all along the Italian peninsula during the early eighties and many of the members of these bands are now some of the best musicians/producers in the Italian independent music panorama (Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, Piero Pelù/Litfiba, Bisca, etc.). 16 tracks by 16 Italian underground bands from 1982-1984: bands who faded into…

*2024 repress* Remastered edition of Janko Nilovic's album Super America, originally released in 1976. Janko Nilovic was one of the greatest European studio talents in the '70s. He is a musician who devotes himself to music, which resulted in a great number of published works, but most of them are on library labels not available for sale. His oeuvre stretches from classical, jazz and funk to pop, psych and easy listening. Sampled many times by hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, Dafuniks and Guts. "I…

*2024 stock* 1"‘The Devil Rides Out’ is a 1968 Hammer horror film. The score, by James Bernard, perfectly amplifies the film’s scary nature, moving from sparse string and woodwind arrangements, emphasising the creepy bits, to full on orchestral power to aid the film’s more dramatic, edge-of-the-seat moments." - normanrecords.com

*300 copies limited edition* »Betrayal« was originally released on CD by Staalplaat in 1993. »Betrayal« isn't that far removed from Veiled Sisters; while not as minimalist, if not repetitive, as that particular release, »Betrayal« relies on the same basic tools of gentle, steady electronic percussion and low-level bass and keyboard shadings. The most immediate changes lie with the various vocal samples on some of the tracks; while not immediately intelligible per se, you get scraps and hints fro…

Spencer Clark is back with Vol.2 of his eco-friendly extravaganza Avatar Blue. It’s life on earth as you never heard it. The story goes like this: Spencer Clark wanted to do a soundtrack for the yet to be made Avatar 2. And if you know Spencer’s work, you’ll know that he engaged on this mission reading material that influenced the rich and crazy imaginary world of Avatar. If you think about it a little bit, something like Avatar could have really come out from the mind of Spencer Clark. But it d…

Reissue of the double cassette releases in 2010 on Second Sleep, by the duo of Matteo Castro and Riccardo Mazza. Hailing from the farthest North-East glacial tip of Italy, Lettera 22 utilize elements of musique concrete sound sources, delicately sampled, looped and edited; here is a heavy focus on textures and harsh noise with bouts of restraint and full assault, as usual via analogue tapes manipulation and feedback.

*2024 stock* This eclectic group features the legendary multi instrumentalist Daniel Carter as well as the scientist/pianist Matthew Putman, drum wizard and 577 Records co-founder Federico Ughi, together with the brilliant up-and-coming member of the New York downtown scene, Texas-born clarinet player Patrick Holmes plus veteran bassist Hilliard Greene, a mainstay of the avant-garde for the last 20 years.

2024 stock. The Telepathic Band is named after the sort of improvisational style that can only be accomplished with a decade or two of collaboration, playing a signature ghostly, boundary-pushing music between friends. In their fourth album, Daniel Carter, Patrick Holmes, Matthew Putman, Hilliard Greene, and Federico Ughi exemplify the possibilities of in-person improvisation, offering extemporized performances with their characteristically daring instrumentation. Telepathic Mysteries, Vol. 1 ma…

An out of tune piano inspired the creation of this album.

“A blissfully ecstatic sprawl of spiritual-jazz explorations of the most transcendent order” – Brooklyn Rail

Master pianist, New York-based, originally from Argentina, Leo Genovese, just won a grammy as a ‘Best Improvised Jazz Solo’ - an award considered by many as ‘mainstream’. This certainly did not stop his creative path, only to encourage him towards further researching creative music. His debut album ‘The Art of Not Playing’ with fellow musicians John Lockwood on bass and drummer Nat Mugavero proves it. The trio celebrates the practice of disappearing during the process of creating. Trusting the ‘…

*2024 stock* "Prophecies Come to Pass is the debut recording of Sabir Mateen's compositions by his group The Shapes, Textures, and Sound Ensemble. Recorded live in Brooklyn in September 2005, the CD was edited by Mateen and Swell and mastered under Mateen's direction. It's dedicated to the late great Raphe Malik, who at one time played with the group. The ensemble is composed of an impressive roster of creative musicians: Mateen on saxophones, flute, and clarinets; Matt Lavelle on trumpet, fluge…

2024 stock. After decades of collaboration, scores of musical projects and 28 releases, old friends and professional musicians might find themselves searching for either novelty or a return to the foundations. In the case of UK-based saxophonist Paul Dunmall and UK-based drummer Mark Sanders, it was both. The two musicians have had prolific careers—and made much of their work together—but in a recent phone call, they realized that they had never created a project that featured just their preferr…

Abstraction, with feeling. Saxophonist Paul Dunmall, a veteran experimental jazz musician, was feeling drawn to vitality. He wanted to organize a group of musicians that were driven by an underlying pulse and a central energy, beyond the abstract improvisations he had been familiar with for years. He had always appreciated jazz that had a driving, uplifting energy, and organized this quartet, inspired by these musicians’ previous improvisational performances. Alongside guitarist Steven Saunders,…

Originally from Kingsport, Tennessee, New York-based Zoh Amba is a notable rising star in the avant-garde music scene. Growing up in the Appalachian mountains, Amba practiced saxophone to the forest that surrounded her home before she later traveled to study with David Murray in New York, and also at the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music & New England Conservatory in Boston. Today, her music is full of folk melodies, mesmerizing refrains, repeated incantations and powerfully executed Free Jazz…

Rising Experimental Sax Player Ayumi Ishito Brings Her Quintet to 577 Records, Releasing First Album with the Label.

New Future City Radio is the first duo collaboration of longtime creative partners Damon Locks & Rob Mazurek. In a hyperactive 40-minute, 18-track suite that runs like a boombox mixtape, the two prolific multi-media artists contemplate community, transformation, and the future through the programmatic format of a pirate radio station for the people. These two artists have worked together from the peak days of the late 90s / early 00s Chicago music scene up through the present day, which has seen…

Murmuration Without End is a collection of rhythmic studies by producer, composer, percussionist & multi-instrumentalist Ben Lumsdaine. Whereas the tracks began as meditative synth drones recorded by Lumsdaine when quarantined in the basement studio of his friend’s home, over time they became multi-textural, poly-rhythmic sound worlds as he disrupted the meters and pulses implied by the synths’ inherent modulations with each instrumental layer added. He also enlisted guest musicians to help him …

Last copies, slight discount due to a tiny bumped corner * Edition of 30 collector’s copies (!) * Xing celebrates the new release of a very limited edition vinyl by Giampiero Cane and Daniela Cattivelli. It comes on white vinyl, handsigned by Giampiero Cane. Cover picture by the author (aka J. Peter Hund), 2007.  Giampiero Cane and Daniela Cattivelli, Postfantamusicologia, for Xong collection - artist records. ““Landed on the moon after a formidable leap from my Pegasus junior. The moon seen fro…

In an interview for The Wire magazine back in January 2012, Spencer Clark claimed that one the most important "lesson" learned while performing with The Skaters was "stay true to your imagination". Taking this life motto at heart, Clark's world today is still a place of wonder and myth, conveyed through a myriad of aliases and invocations like Vodka Soap, Fourth World Magazine or Typhonian Highlife. Always the wide-eyed mystic and searcher of the netherworld, Clark surfaces again on Discrepant s…

Nice Music presents 'Lagash' - the brand new album from Dunedin, New Zealand's legendary experimental songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and tape music idol Alastair Galbraith. His quietly stunning output in recent years includes the solo LP 'Seconds Mark III' (A Colourful Storm), last year's 'The Drum Is The Shaman's Horse' from his long running duo A Handful Of Dust (with The Dead C's Bruce Russell) and a lawless scattering of self released material and ashen ephemera along the way. Throughout …

2024 stock. This project is the exciting, unusual and at times unexpected result of five musicians from different backgrounds getting together and making music. This unlikely group that features a scientist on piano and an array of musicians from different places around the world is able to communicate on a level that is not only beyond planning and speech but also rational thought. The resulting music goes from moments that are exquisitely soft to deep juicy grooves. When studied attentively, i…

Garth Erasmus is an artist and musician based in Cape Town, South Africa. 'Threnody for the KhoiSan' is his first album under his own name. Since 1985 his artistic interests have broadened to include music-making, designing and making his own instruments based on indigenous KhoiSan knowledge. From 1999 to 2012 he was a member of the South African First Nation activist group Khoi Khonnexion. In the past couple of years Garth Erasmus has also been a pivotal part of various international performanc…

In August 2022 the Australia-based, French born new age musician and electronic music composer Ariel Kalma was invited to participate in BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction series of special collaborations. The program pairs artists who have not previously worked together to create new music cooperatively. Kalma was quick to suggest working with two musicians whom he had never met – International Anthem recording artists Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer, whose critically-acclaimed duo debut Recordings …

CHBB was a project by  Chrislo Haas (former DAF-member) and bassist Beate Bartel (founding member of Einstürzende Neubauten and of legendary Berlin girl punkers Mania D.), which later turned to be Liaisons Dangereuses. CHBB released their music only on four limited - and now legendary - cassettes. This compilation presents the complete works of CHBB, including all recordings from their original cassettes alongside previously unreleased tracks produced by both artists.

*Limited edition "Placental Purple" color vinyl* Placenta is the fourth collection of broadly imaginative and highly collaborative Carlos Niño & Friends music released on International Anthem in the last four years. It is also the first new music to be released by Carlos Niño & Friends following the November 2023 release of André 3000’s New Blue Sun – an album which Carlos produced alongside André, while co-writing, co-creating/playing, and co-mixing every song. Placenta is announced on April 11…

MESTIZX is Bolivian-born singer and multi-medium performer Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and renowned Chicago expat jazz drummer Frank Rosaly's debut album as co-composers, arrangers and musicians.

In March of 2023 composer, arranger & alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi premiered a commissioned suite of music in front of a sold out crowd at London’s Southbank Centre. She wrote the piece – gratitude – for her flagship large ensemble seed., in a special augmented formation that also featured turntablist NikNak and the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO). Followers of UK Jazz know Kinoshi from her previous work with seed. (including the Mercury Prize-nominated album Driftglass, released by jazz …

*2024 stock. 300 copies limited edition* The second volume of Tokyo Violenta, the amazing compilation dedicated to 70s Japanese rare grooves.

Berlin-based British composer, percussionist, and instrument maker Bex Burch was invited to spend a month in the US by International Anthem in Summer 2022. Burch immersed herself in the label's creative community and listened to what it gave her, making field recordings and allowing There Is Only Love and Fear to emerge from the collaborations and environments she encountered. Sessions for the album spanned multiple non-traditional recording spaces including a storefront in Bridgeport, Chicago a…

2024 Repress. Ai Aso's immaculately crafted form of minimalist pop music skirts the edges of tensity with the manner and with the skill of a tight rope walker, calmly balancing repeatedly at every step, with a combination of surety and the risk of a slip, a fall, and an unknown uncoiling of events. Aso's capacity to capture, or inspire, the tension and attention from within the listener and observer are quite pronounced. At Aso's concert the performance constantly teeters near the brink, a sharp…

long outo of print mini cd, their work has been called ambient, post-industrial, electro-acoustic, electronica, noise, sound collage, improvisation, and power-electronics. Unable to categorize their work into one style, each release, live performance, and sometimes individual piece often shifts abruptly from one atmosphere to another. Leading some to describe their output as schizophrenic. Referencing external & enhancing internal locations, manipulating semi-recognizable elements in structures …

excellent 1992 concert recordings from this swiss trio, reworked, then re-offered as a chance-operations type release via your compact disc player’s random function. this was the first time i had heard günter müller, as this was his first group...

Seclusion are Makoto Hattori and Chako with German experimental musician Christoph Heeman, who is known as a member of HNAS. They recorded this 30 minute CD while on tour in Germany at Christoph's studio. The result is deeply ambient and cold experience (which is appropriate as the title means snowfall) that is slow to reveal its secrets.