Last Year's Man / After Vermeer
"My first deep exposure to Leonard Cohen was the Bird on a Wire documentary by Tony Palmer, which was, against the odds, broadcast on public television in New Zealand around 1974 or 1975. At age 15 or 16 I thought it was too dark. A few years later, in the late '70s, I wanted things darker. The first Cohen LP was very clever but a little too "up." The second was too public and political for me. Songs of Love and Hate seemed more honest, more about personal failure. I liked it, although Cohen ten…
Improvisations On The Pipe Organs
**Limited edition of 300 copies with a download code** Canadian Blake Hargreaves got deeply into classical music and specifically the church organ as a child. When he was 11, he accidentally discovered that some of his school friends sang in a church choir. Once, during practice at school, they belted out the kind of high notes that would turn the students’ heads and the singers’ faces red. Impressed, and encouraged by the fact that choir membership entailed getting paid, Hargreaves wanted in. H…
20 Years Of Experimental Music
**Edition of 300 copies** Nantes trio Formanex celebrates 20 years of activism in experimental music with a 10 CD edition full of amazing collaborations with ONsemble (contemporary music group from Nantes and Saint-Nazaire) and composers they have worked with. The box set includes early works by Formanex’s own Julien Ottavi, unique compositions created by Keith Rowe, pieces by Kasper T. Toeplitz, Ralf Wehowsky, Seth Cluett, Michael Pisaro, Radu Malfatti, as well as other giants of contemporary m…
Automaginary
**2020 Repress. Special silk-screened covers, limited edition** The massed drone supergroup scale great heights and depths in their first communion for Drag City. Comprising the guimbri, gong, Arp 2600, Autoharp, drums and guitar of Joshua Abrams' Natural Information Society, plus Bitchin Bajas' organ, bass clarinet, flute and synths, 'Automaginary' is a prime example of when many magick cooks make for an even more magickal broth, coaxing out the kind of potent, viscose drones that vibrate you a…
Me and My Students Have Reached Higher Levels
Deep on a mind trip aboard the ISS Kingston, we are floating upon the low-gravity armchairs of its "Disco 3000" cocktail lounge. Brain-dance soundwaves are being distributed by means of the Akuphone, transmitting the psychedelic music of Spiritczualic Enhancement Center. Me and My Students Have Reached Higher Levels presents itself as an obscure and ever-morphing spectral-jazz album. Produced by eight outernational musicians, once originating from Iran, Israel, America, Russia, Romania and Germa…
Sir Richard Bishop and Ed Yazijian
Yet another luxurious spectacle from the Saraswati Series. Ex-Sun City Girls master guitarist Richard Bishop teams up with Cul De Sac’s long time Girls live collaborator Ed Yazijian. Two Grand Seigneurs of underground deliver an unique album deeply Western rooted, filled with the musical spirit and structures of Indian music at the same time. Elegant interplay, brilliantly arranged, using mostly guitar (lapsteel, tenor) and strings (viola), and some Indian stringed instrument which I can’t prono…
On the Streets of New York
A survey of Moondog’s earliest recorded works – many of them unreleased until now – through a collaboration by Mississippi Records and Lucia Records.
Framework 2
Danish musician/composer Mads Emil Nielsen continues his Framework series; a collection of open, hand-drawn graphic scores and recordings. The series includes Nielsen’s own subjective translations of the visual material and sound pieces accompanied by visual notations, and collaborations – in this case with Andrea Neumann, Jan Jelinek and Hideki Umezawa. Framework 2 consists of printed scores and recordings, released on 2 x 10” vinyl + DL. Circles (Disc1: side A) is a dense, 03:45 collage of sy…
Radio Silence
With This Kind Of Punishment, Graeme Jefferies and Peter Jefferies produced some of most adept DIY sounds to emerge from New Zealand's 1980s post-punk scene. After their phenomenal self-titled debut and classic A Beard Of Bees, the brothers would make one last album together, In The Same Room. Originally released in 1987 on Flying Nun, In The Same Room is perhaps the straightest rock offering in TKP's esteemed catalogue. Opening track "Immigration Song" expertly pairs jagged guitars with wrathf…
Hard Attack
MX-80 SOUND is one of the real oddities in American music. Their debut album, Hard Attack (released in the UK on Island Records), found little-to-no audience in the States upon its release in 1977, yet remains a key document of the mid-'70s proto-punk zeitgeist. Hailing from Bloomington, Indiana, MX-80 SOUND is lead by guitarist Bruce Anderson and defies simple classification with relentless riffs, dual drummers and vocalist Rich Stim's absurdist prose and dizzying sax. Assimilating the avant-ro…
Schlingerland / Dynamische Schwingungen
Cien Fuegos present a reissue of Sven-Åke Johansson's Schlingerland / Dynamische Schwingungen, originally released in 1972. Sven-Åke Johansson (Mariestad, Sweden, 1943) works as a composer, drummer, accordionist, poet, and visual artist. Longtime collaborator of the free improv scene in the German '60s with Kowald, Brötzmann, Schlippenbach. He contributed to numerous exhibitions, publications, and recordings. Sven-Åke Johansson - drums. Recorded 1972 in Stockholm, Schweden. Engineered by Göran F…
Gilbert Artman . Etienne Jaumet
Gilbert Artman (bass clarinet, drums, synths), one of the great names of the French underground of the 70s with Lard Free and Urban Sax together withe Etienne Jaumet of Zombie Zombie fame. This LP is what we may call Cosmic-jazz! Progressive tracks with electronics, harmonium, xylophone, synth and saxophones!
Volturnus / Balaguère
2017 Release. Great hypnotic record featuring Emmanuelle Parrenin (Hurdy Gurdy, Harp, Crystal Bowl), Eat Gas (Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, SH-101, Prophet), Etienne Jaumet (Moog, Oto Bim)
Tlamess (Sortilege)
**Orange vinyl, includes poster** Tlamess (Sortilège) is Oiseaux-Tempête's first original soundtrack composed for the second feature film by critically-acclaimed Tunisian director Ala Eddine Slim (Festival de Cannes' 51st Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, BFI London, ADF Argentina, Geneva GIFF, Rome Medfilm Festival, Marrakech International Film Festival). Combining hypnotic feedbacks and synthesizer orchestral work, drifting ambient with shamanic beats, the Tlamess (Sortilège) original soundtrack was…
The Tower of Mirrors
25 years ago, David Shea released a crafty piece of complex philosophical and narrative audio collage: The Tower of Mirrors. Composed and produced in New York City, during September-October 1995, it includes 24 tracks, and features guests such as David Morley on analog synthesizer programming, Dave Douglas on trumpet, Zeena Parkins on piano and prepared piano, and Jim Pugliese on percussions.This is what David Shea had to say about it in 1995: "In 1994, I wrote a work based on the Hsi-Yu Chi nov…
Wall of Sounds: Drones, Patterns, Noises
Wall of Sound is a music of sonic sensations. It is a physical and sensual approach to the phenomenon of thick sound worlds. Sound waves become physical objects, four-dimensional sonic sculptures to be experienced, bodily and mentally. Ulrich Krieger's Wall Of Sound is a series of CDs about music that invites the listener to indulge themselves in sound. It doesn't guide an audience through a narrative, like a song, but offers the listener slow changing and developing soundscapes, acoustic sculpt…
Sound Mirrors
The UK’s network of crumbling sound mirrors - an early form of radar - supply cues for blues experimenter Mike Cooper and pivotal improvisor Mark Wastell (Company) in an inquisitive collaboration on Wastell’s Confront Recordings. The strange, austere relics of WWI were erected between 1916 and the 1930s and are found dotted along the South East and North East coastline of England, sometimes in farmer’s fields who’ll let you in for a look if you ask nicely (out to my guy in Boulby).With Cooper ma…
Fote
Following the short-lived Truth Club with Trefor Goronwy (who later went on to work with This Heat and The Camberwell Now), Fote was formed in 1981 with the trio of Robert Haigh, Deborah Harding, and Trevor Reidy. Releasing two 12" EP's along with one track featured on a split 7" with Truth Club, Fote's entire studio recordings consisted of just 8 tracks. With angular constructs of post-punk, free-form improvisations, and wicked time signatures, these tracks shredded boundaries one can still hea…
Refused
The Residents are an American art collective best known for their over 60 studio albums that were recorded over a period of more than forty years. They also created some outstanding multimedia works, mainly three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs. Working as an anonymous collective, their identitites were kept secret until in 2017 when Hardy Fox revealed himself as their primary composer. Hardy died in October 2018, but the group continue to record and perform.The compilation album Refused was origin…
Heart Beat Ear Drum
"Heart Beat Ear Drum" is a feature length documentary about the late artist and musician Z'EV (1951-2017), known for his punk era scrap metal music - an extraordinary range of acoustic phenomena resulting in trance-inducing sounds. This documentary shows how his music changed and grew and how his personal journey led him to the margins of art and the depths of heart. From 2007-2015, director Ellen Zweig followed Z'EV, shooting concerts and interviews, and collecting archival footage. In addition…