Tonics & Twisted Chasers
Originally released in 1996 as a limited fan-club pressing for Rockathon, Guided By Voices' Tonics And Twisted Chasers has always existed as an anomaly in Robert Pollard's vast discography. In many ways, the album serves as the tail of a creative comet that in just two years included the "classic line-up" trilogy of Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars and countless singles that crammed endless hooks in their grooves. In the intervening space, Tonics And Twisted Chasers h…
I Am A Darkroom OST
Remixed tracks of original soundtrack for experimental film I Am A Darkroom; written and recorded by Lucy Johnson. Produced by DoBeDo productions, Edd Carr's film I Am A Darkroom showcases the work of artists in the Sustainable Darkroom, a grassroots organisation at the forefront of working toward an ecological future for photography. From kitchen tables to at-home darkrooms, and even the dirt outdoors - these artists are challenging toxic legacies to build a new ecology of photography. An ecolo…
Revelation
Having worked silently in her sonic philosophy for almost a decade, vocalist, music producer and Dj Telva has launched her music label byt’, starting with the publication of her debut album. The album, ‘Revelation’, opens with an unusual and experimental offering, which sets the tone for the label's subsequent eclectic and unexpected releases. The compilation of 10 tracks, has been documented for 5 years through an experimental vocal, instrumental sonic journey, that is composed of Telva's life …
Marsaskala
*50 copies limited edition* Pieces of debris washed up on a coastline shrouded in mist. Gratification comes from an eternal search for solace. Locked away at the top of a lighthouse somewhere on an unnamed isle, Grady Steele broadcasts to those within the beacon’s reach. A soundsystem built of driftwood and salvaged car stereos is pieced together with precision and laboriously dragged to the top of the obelisk. A timeless fugue state spent playing arpeggios on a Spanish guitar, the PA system ebb…
Sleepless
This album was recorded at Liu Ying Studio in Shenzhen. An improvised session on acoustic guitar from start to finish, it nonetheless demonstrates a highly original, coherent artistic conception: a distinct “Oriental” aesthetic redefined by Mamer’s own creative vision. In tracks like “Sleepless”, “Man from the East”, and “Backyard”, Mamer ingeniously deconstructs and deploys traditional Han Chinese music scales to serve his own purpose, adding artful ambivalence and rich subtleties to an unmista…
Saxophone Solo For Reel-to-reel Tape Recording
*2024 stock* This series of reel-to-reel tape recordings, to be jointly released by Old Heaven Books and Liu Ying Studio, aims to offer to our listeners the best quality of sound we can achieve so far. Whilst a small part of these releases come from historical archives, the majority are freshly made by musicians we invite to our studio. We record these studio sessions − some of which free-improvised, others more composition-based − on reel-to-reel tapes. With high-quality studio equipment, we ma…
Lo-Fi Machine
*2024 stock* "This is one of the many solo albums that Mamer completed in 2013. At that time Mamer's desire to create erupted like a volcano. I remember that bookstores had just released his solo albums "Stars" and "Cycles", as well as IZ's "Echoes"; many fans were slowly accepting music like IZ's "Shadows", and some people started to talk about the expansion and "revolutionization" of folk instrumentation on "Stars", while Mamer was already immersed in another world.
One day he handed me a bun…
Control And Its Opposites
“Eighty minutes of trumpet/electronics and alto sax. Here, the length works in its favor. An advantage, oddly, to listening at home (and reading the back of the sleeve): You know it's 80 minutes long so you "read" it as such, as it's happening, sitting back a bit, seeking a wider focus. Wright gets nicely strident here and there, Coleman generally staying with breath tones early on, getting more vociferous later, Kasyansky hither and yon, doing a fine job integrating and coloring. There's a brea…
Meshes
Trombone, electronics and cello, the trio opts for a sparser, more irregular path, with perhaps a higher degree of difficulty. Two cuts, both emerging more or less unscathed, but somehow striking me as overly forced. Actually, it's a tough one for me to call; sometimes it has a searching quality that's very appealing, other times I hear it less as "searching" and more as "casting about". Again, I don't believe this series of discs are meant as statements or finished projects, more as snapshots; …
A Life Saved By A Spider And Two Doves
As George Lewis recently said, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between improvised and composed music. It’s a distinction he would like to see dropped. For much of its length this delicately nuanced recording could quite easily be a formal electroacoustic composition, an impression strongly reinforced by the fact that Evan Parker sounds curiously unfamiliar in this new grouping. He’s well used now to working with electronics, but this was a first convocation of this quart…
Endspace
Duo improvisations recorded at Goldsmiths College in South London
Hum
Quartet improvisations for trumpet, flute, harp and bass clarinet
Tasting
Recorded live at the June 2006 Jazz à Poitiers festival this little gem features the work of two truly extraordinary musicians, both of whom are giants from a technical and creative point of view: Phil Minrton and Sophie Agnel, an unusual and very welcome pairing in that ceaselessly changing world which is the improv scene. The former is well-known, and has the weight of many years’ experience on his shoulders, but refuses to give up and continues indomitably to explore the outer possibilities o…
Mouth To Mouth
Four compositions by the US-Chinese composer:
'Of Monsters' - Ingrid Lee, piano Merima Kljuko, accordion'Cells' - Ingrid Lee & Rowan Smith, amplified snare drums'Bead Spit' - Ingrid Lee, piano, Max Kutner, electric guitar, Tony Gennaro, percussion'Another' - Eric KM Clark & Andy Studer, violins, Heather Lockie, viola, Meldoy Yenn, cello, Jake Rosenzweig, bass & Tony Gennaro, vibraphone
Spiral Inputs
Trio improvisations with Sophie Agnel - piano, Bertrand Gauguet - alto & soprano saxophones and Andrea Neumann - piano frame, electronic devices
The Middle Distance
Trio improvisations for two pianos and double bass
And We Disappear
Trio improvisation for harp, double bass and percussion with Burkhard Beins - percussion and objects, Rhodri Davies - pedal harp and ebow and Mark Wastell - double bass, bow and beaters
Empty Matter
Electro-acoustic duo improvisations released August 31, 2019 by Lucio Capece - soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, preparations, sruti box and Lee Patterson - CD players, pick-ups, bowed springrods, springplate, hazelnuts
Arethusa
Wade Matthews, software synthesis & manipulated filed recordings, Stephane Rives, soprano saxophone
5 {Zwischenfälle}
5(zwischenfaelle) is the latest release by dutch electronic musician Roel Meelkop. It is a special release in Meelkop’s catalogue because it is consist of five piece that were originally used in the context of sound installations running over a certain period of time in specific special surroundings. For 5(zwischenfaelle) Meelkop has set himself the task to compress these soundscapes into five dense and still minimal audio pieces that could work outside the context of the original installations.…