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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.

Since its debut on two releases from 2011 and 2012 (the live Hit & Run with Joe Talia and the studio Audience of One), the epic structured improvisational piece ‘Knots’ has formed a staple of Oren Ambarchi’s live performances. Like a jazz musician searching for ever-new ways to play a standard, the guitarist has repeatedly brought the piece to life in a variety of settings ranging from guitar/drums duets to a large ensemble replete with string section, with each iteration bringing with it new va…

Sofa is proud to present this new collaboration with the labels own Ingar Zach together with the critically acclaimed contemporary ensemble Speak Percussion from Melbourne, Australia. Eugene Ughetti and Matthias Schack-Arnott in Speak Percussion invited Ingar Zach for the first concert in their series named Before Nightfall One. The idea behind this concert series is to experience and document the result of one single day of collaboration, culminating in a concert in a carefully chosen space in …

Tip! *2022 stock.* Sofa Music is proud to present the solo debut album of Norwegian composer and sound artist Tine Surel Lange. Works for Listening is a series of spatial electro-acoustic works developed at Notam (NO), MISC (LT), and EMS (SE). All the works are made in 5th order ambisonics but have been presented in many different formats- as in this stereo decoding of the works.In Works for Listening, there is a strong focus on listening-aesthetics and our psychological categorization of sound.…

In the birth of the universeTime stands still amidst a wild and untamable energyRadiant light bathes and purifies solid stone pillarsBoth ancient and modernWild vibrations touch our most innermost core and perceptionOrganum Electronics exists in the clear moment of the presentBut its mysterious compositions lay hidden in a timeless pastModulating oscillations mirror our most fundamental sense of beingAs though a living and breathing entity would Communicating with a life-force and language we ha…

For 'Shelley’s on Zenn-La,' Oliver Coates designs a complex of bending truths and reverse walkways to vernal states. Open ears can peer down hidden aux channel corridors, while melodic patterns present two-way mirrors to rooms of other retinal colors. An endless euphoria is just beneath the dance floorboards of 'Shelley’s,' and an inquisitiveness unencumbered by the institution of knowledge surrounding its frame and inhabitants.

Deluxe book with Cd "Réalités servomécaniques” is an improved version faithful to the original recordings with visuals specially reworked, answering to a categorical assertion, theoricaly and practicaly on Vivenza's bruitist point of view, who presents sounds, « noises », under their rawest and genuine aspect: sounds are machines / machines are sounds. Thus Vivenza captured the essence of factories with a strong sense of austerity, radicality, verticality, including thick smokes and intens…

* Matte laminated and embossed CD with insert card plus extensive book featuring an in conversation between Magda Mayas and Tina Douglas, plus scores, documentation and photographs. * ctive action has incorporated itself into an imagining of how we might reshape our understanding of community.” The translation of the visual into the acoustic is a powerfully esoteric practice. For Magda Mayas and Tina Douglas, this nexus of sensory curiosity has provided a perfect point from which they have maint…

"Atmospheres and Disturbances registers the changes in high altitude ecologies caused by increasing global temperatures. The composition is based on field work undertaken at the High-Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch, Switzerland where for four weeks I deployed various recording devices around the station, and in the surrounding alpine environment to register natural, anthropogenic and geophysical forces. The project provides new encounters of an endangered alpine environment to enhance …

**300 copies** Konsequenz has released a new anthology that offers another incredible window into the Napoli’s remarkable experimental endeavours, another essential artifact for any fan of Italian border and avant-garde musics. Avant-garde and experimental musics are intrinsically connected to community, collectivism, support, and collaboration. Audiences and artists, stretching to every corner of the globe, continuously rely on each other to push into ever more ambitious realms. This spirit of …

Approdi is a cultural operation involving thirteen composers and numerous other artists from heterogeneous segments of the Neapolitan visual arts. The guest composers of the first volume are Carlo Vignaturo, Enzo Amato, Max Fuschetto, Girolamo De Simone, Giusto Pappacena, Piero Viti, Vito Ranucci, Gabriele Montagano, Patrizio Marrone, Enrico Iannaccone, Alessandro Petrosino, Carlo Mormile and Gaetano Panariello. The album was then joined by the poet Luca Buonaguidi, with a lyric for the late com…

"The Coronation of Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi garnered the interest of Gian Francesco Malipiero, who emphasized a second copy of the manuscript found in Naples in the rooms of the Conservatory Library, and showing a series of pages not included in the Venetian manuscript. Among these, a Prologue that constitutes, together with other fragments taken from the work, the main plot of monteverdi | pianocloud. As is known, the Coronation was performed in Naples in 1651 and is ignored, given that Mon…

Absolutely brilliant debut by the young pianist Andrea Riccio. "Every record is a text and every text is fabric, and this is a fabric of precious threads. A pianism that has gold in its fingertips, from the timbral calligraphy of the pages of Annette Dieudonne, restored to the present, to the dark abysses of a Kreisleriana that reaches the uncanny through beauty, passing through the intimism of Brian Eno, between Brahmsian suggestions, minimal and echoes of Sehnsucht and Lied. Made unique by the…

Temporary Super Offer! Clifford Thornton and Arthur Jones have remained largely unknown ever since, except to collectors who treasure those early Parisian records and the world they evoke. We know little of what they did in later years, but if Hemingway was right, “If you are lucky enough to live in Paris  [read “jazz”] as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you”. Thornton died in Switzerland in 1989, largely forgotten in his “home” country. Jones died in Ne…

** CD edition ** Art of Primitive Sound is a sensational journey to the origin of Music. In his crucial research chapter on the Paleolithic, between 1986 and 1991 Walter Maioli investigated the soundscape of different geographical, climatic and botanical environments, in which the mystery of the ancient human-nature relationship resides. What emerges is an expanded and unprecedented Paleorganology, with a range of acoustic and natural instruments from all over the World. Rubbing of fossils, anim…

Huuuge Tip! Roberto Laneri (Prima Materia) further radicalizes his formal research path in the field of harmonic singing, with a highly rigorous compositional practice of scores and rhythmic placement of overtones. At the dawn of Western counterpoint and the birth of polyphony, he imagines as in a dream the famous Magister Perotinus (XII century) in ecstatic contact with higher entities (Jedi Masters) who would introduce him to those secrets of the vocal art, further developed in later centuries…

First-ever reissue of this cult and extremely rare record by one of the leading musicians and composers of Italian jazz and cinematic music. This album was recorded in 1972 in Piero Umiliani’s Sound Work Shop studio with a similar line up to the one of legendary ‘To-Day’s Sound’ album.

Temporary nicer price 700 copies, numbered edition. Clear Splatter Vinyl * “Crac!” is Area’s third album, released in 1974 and one of the strongest in their revolutionary canon of political artfulness. The previous album had received some mixed opinions after the explosive debut; Crac!  is a departure in style from both of those two records—in a way, more compact and sleek if that is possible to think of with Area. In that aspect, this is the most “accessible” version of the band, and not surpri…

Released in 4-panel card sleeve with fold-out poster insert. This recording is the premiere release of Julius Eastman's Femenine, for chamber ensemble. It is Femenine's only known recording, documenting a 1974 performance by the S.E.M. Ensemble, with the composer on piano, which has lain unheard for decades. The music of Julius Eastman (1940-90) is enjoying an on-going period of rediscovery. Known best in the past for his work with figures like Peter Maxwell Davies, Arthur Russell and Meredith M…

The concept of naught (Ø) has challenged Salvatore Mercatante throughout his musical career, specifically, trying to understand how the idea of ‘nothing’ fits into the realm of sound, and at the same time, exist in a world of influence at every turn. In the absence of everything, are we able to create something truly free? As a lifelong New York-based musician, Mercatante’s influences and productions run a wide spectrum. Just as happy producing 80s-inspired horror soundtracks as he is refining a…

*2024 repress* WRWTFWW Records is very honored to announce the official reissue of Grauzone’s essential 1981 maxi single with timeless classic "Eisbär", proto-techno beast "FILM 2", and romantic synth ballad "Ich Lieb Sie", just in time for the 40th anniversary of the Swiss band’s formation. The three-track vinyl is sourced from the original reels, cut at 45rpm, and comes with its iconic artwork on a 350gsm sleeve. Ich möchte ein Eisbär sein…Written by Martin Eicher after a nightmare in which he…

*Back in stock! 2024 repress* Zauberberg – Wolfgang Voigt’s most fundamental (and foreboding) release under his alias GAS and perhaps of all in his untold discography – finally stands alone once again and is released in the way its original splendour. Originally released in 1997 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX”, Zauberberg is now released on his own label KOMPAKT on 180 gram vinyl in its original. Though this narcotic symphony is no…

* 2021 stock * Steve Reich's landmark Music for 18 Musicians is perhaps Steve Reich’s most popular, if not most important, piece of music. Defining characteristics of Music for 18 Musicians piece include an ethereal, trance vibe, pulsating bass clarinets, a consistent beat, and slowly developing chord progressions unfolding over the length of approximately one hour.  Steve Reich’s genre-defining minimalist compositional tool, phasing, is demonstrated in full force here. We will dive deeper into …

Moinuddin and Aminuddin Dagar in a Berlin studio in 1964, during their first European tour: two side-long dhrupad ragas, Malkauns and Jaijaivanti, set aside because the tape ran out.

Recorded at Munich’s Muffathalle twenty years ago, in September 2004, this previously-unreleased concert recording of the Tomasz Stanko Quartet is a fascinating document, capturing a developmental chapter in the music between the song forms of the Suspended Night repertoire and the improvised areas that the Polish musicians would explore on Lontano.  The Munich show was a highlight in a year in which the Stanko Quartet played a record number of gigs, with extensive tours of the US and Europe.  T…

Peter Brötzmann collaborated with many artists in his career, regularly adding new compatriots into the fold, and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love became one of his staunchest allies after the percussionist joined the Chicago Tentet in 2004. They worked in various contexts, including this inexhaustible, hard-hitting duo. Most of the albums they’ve issued have captured live performances, but in 2015 they made this stunning studio recording. As Nilssen-Love says in the liner notes, “Peter had a…

Since emerging in the early 1980s the French bassist, composer, and vocalist Joëlle Leandre has ignored the gaps between improvised and composed music, jazz and new music, inventively braiding post-Cagean concepts with the free jazz ferment she witnessed first-hand growing up in Paris. Accordion master and fellow countryman Pascal Contet was initially rooted in contemporary music, helping to bring it back as a viable, versatile instrument in experimental music, but throughout his long career he’…

Flute, harp, drums: a rare combination that this trio turns upside down. In the wake of John Zorn's experiences on the borders of jazz and noise, the collaboration between Delphine Joussein, Rafaëlle Rinaudo and Blanche Lafuente aims at pushing their instruments beyond their limits, with the enthusiasm of a mad scientist... It is no coincidence that the three musicians, considered the missing link between Nirvana and Sun Ra, have already aroused a big curiosity and are constantly touring accross…

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, 'The Sirens of Titan'

*2024 stock. 103 copies limited edition* This is the fourth studio album of Kryptogen Rundfunk and the first one since the project moved from Russia to the Netherlands. Six tracks full of weird trademark radio noises and interceptions, heavy bass drones and piercing high frequencies, abstract electronic signals and quirky samples. These layered compositions are slowly building up, creating thick mesmerizing walls of sound, yet at the same time leaving room for a bit of flippancy. An uneasy ride …

Much has happened to Tomeka Reid, who was already one of jazz's definitive figures in the 21st century, in the 4½ years since her last album by this all-star quintet. Most notably, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022, one of the most prestigious awards in the creative arts field in the USA. The same year, she also won the DownBeat Critics Poll for miscellaneous instrument (despite many deserving talents emerging on the instrument, the jazz polls don't have cello as a category for reco…

Kassel Jaeger’s contribution to Matière Mémoire’s stunning MMXX Series, Vol Sombre (MMXX - 13), is a subtle expanse of delicate ambiences and long tones, meticulously constructed into an immersive sonorous world. Issued in a limited edition of 500 copies, on a single sided crystal-clear vinyl LP with a laser engraved artwork on the other, housed in a transparent sleeve printed with the MMXX logo, and containing an artist print by François Bonnet.

When "In Blue" was released in 1995, many fans thought that this was the most typical Klaus Schulze record for a long time. They were probably right because Klaus did the songs a little bit with the fans in mind for whom the sounds of the previous album were too modern. In this respect "In Blue" is a more traditional Schulze record and, also, because it featured Manuel Goettsching on "Return Of The Tempel". However, he didn't plan this. Somehow it came to his mind to ask Manuel if he won"t feel …

Room40 continues the publication of a series of editions from American guitarist and composer Norman Westberg with a remastered and expanded edition of the previously self-released MRI. Best known for his work with the seminal outfit Swans, Westberg's output beyond that group is sprawling and restless. His name recurs and ripples through many interconnected micro-histories surrounding New York City's music and art scenes. From appearances in film works associated with the Cinema of Transgression…

Matte laminate CD, embossed artwork, insert card and 28 page book. In 1979, Akio Suzuki recorded a performance, ’New Sense Of Hearing’, at the Nagoya American Centre. During the performance, Suzuki used voice, turntables, glass harmonica and his self-designed instrument the Analapos to create a series of improvised pieces that effectively charted out his sonic investigations for the proceeding decades.  In 1980 these recordings were issued by ALM records as Analapos, the first work made publicly…

"What I remember … a car on fire alongside the highway in the middle of the night. Waking in someone else’s bed in London with an entire poem spilling into my head, and then recording it with Tim in the kitchen after breakfast. Seemingly endless car, bus and train rides full of the country side splintered and refracted through glass and fatigue, always the same, always different. The screaming woman at the airport who pulled the fire alarm, evacuating the terminal. Some guy in Brooklyn talking t…

2023 Stock. New Rome, the latest project from Polish composer Tomasz Bednarczyk, presents Nowhere. In the late 2000s, Bednarczyk emerged with a trilogy of electronic records that set pastoral-tonality against grainy smears of pulse and rhythm. His previous Room40 editions Summer Feelings and Painting Sky Together were lilting, melancholic affairs, littered with a deeply personal approach to music making that felt as therapeutic as it did artistic. In hindsight, they were records that stamped out…