★Maple Death Records
Flowers Are Blooming In Antarctica
Delivering a career-defining statement from the Italian electroacoustic composer and saxophone player, Laura Agnusdei, Maple Death returns with “Flowers are Blooming in Antarctica” - a startling, multifaceted journey through imagistic sonorous worlds resting at the juncture of spiritual jazz, fourth-world minimalism, tropical electronics, tribal futurism, and rigorous electroacoustic experimentalism - rooted in thrilling ecological ideas, that marks the launch of Opale, a new suite of releases c…
Chamareops
Shrouded in mystery just like their magical compositions Torino’s collective Heart Of Snake are joined by Mira for their first release in six years, the enchanted ragged vibration of ‘Chamareops’, a 40 minute opus that just like the cold-hardy palm that lends its name to the album, blends classical guitar, desert folk, meditative exotica and distant island lullabies that withstand the test of time.
Originally led by Vincenzo Marando (Movie Star Junkies, Krano, Similou), Alberto Danzi (I Residen…
The Flip Side
Sometimes records reflect life with an unsettling precision, your own breath sticking to a mirror, confounding or transforming reality. J.H. Guraj, real name Dominique Vaccaro, is back with ‘The Flip Side’, an accomplished work of grace and sprawling elegance documenting struggle and a near-death experience that summons ghosts of Western primitive masters, rollicking free folk, minimalist orchestrations, weeping guitars and smooth psychedelics.
Time stopped for J.H. Guraj in 2021 following a br…
Transition
After four EPs of skeletal kraut-punk and slimmed down post-motorik alienage Milan’s Tv Dust are back with an entirely different beast, their proper debut ‘Transition’, an incredible collection of no-jazz, breakneck rhythms, mutant-wave, trance-funk, shredded sax jags and furious, yet mysterious assaults.
Tv Dust run a tight ship, they jam econo, with the album strongly based around the incredible interplay of drums (Sergio Tringali), bass (Filippo Aloisi) and sax/synth (newest member Gaetano Pa…
Viator
“Viator” is as skeletal as it is instantly recognizable. Following the inception of the unmistakable post-power electronics cubist-Latin-blues that kept Adrián de Alfonso busy during his Don The Tiger days, the first album under his own name is a ruthless step forward into a new form of avant-garde balladry, raw and stripped down, poetic yet enchanting, anchored in a sort of stubborn and repetitive primitivism, which synthesizes the future rituals of a stateless tradition. "Viator" consists main…
Così Dentro Come Fuori
The fragmented mind can sometimes lead in two directions, a complete reconstruction based on a new hypothesis or a leap into the unknown, that divine breath that permeates all. Porta d’Oro, Giacomo Stefanini’s musical journey and therapy, lives on both lines, meditative sketchings that dig deep and beg for ascension. From abstract dub, to post-punk rumblings and bedroom classics Giacomo Stefanini (also member of Kobra and the Milan Sentiero Futuro collective) has been slowly building his own wor…
Psiche Liberata
Fera’s trajectory sticks out like a sore thumb, you need to invest time, carefully divided between body & mind, to truly take a deep dive into his audacious output. After the acclaimed ‘Stupidamutaforma’ and ‘Corpo Senza Carne’, Fera is back with ‘Psiche Liberata’, an oblique, imperfect and broken record, in other words, exactly the type of magical voyage you want to be on. The mind, finally liberated.
Fabulous Soundtracks
Fabulous Soundtracks, the fourth studio album by reclusive Los Angeles musician Jack Name, is an homage to the IRL world and its twisted and varied romance with the worlds of our minds, in a wild collection of "soundtracks'', each a sonic re-construction dedicated to a distinct scene. Both musically and lyrically, this is Name's most adventurous and genre-defying album. Elements of acid, dance, folk, micro-tonal weirdness, horror, sensuality, impressionism, and bursts of rock fuse with Name's mo…
Unknown City
*300 copies limited release* Creeping through an imaginary border, sidesteppin’ through the night like cyber phantoms eavesdropping on early morning machinery shifts, an industrial solstice for pagan mystics. After five years Torino’s mysterious SabaSaba are back with ‘Unknown City’ an imaginary soundtrack for a dystopian city: digital raga, horror Exotica, half-speed techno, metallic dub and organic electronics. The duo of Andrea Marini (synth, guitar, electronics, tapes) and Gabriele Maggiorot…
No Dub
*200 copies limited release* Some folks use the phrase ‘no place like home’ when referring to Roma Est’s beloved venue Fanfulla, four walls that have single handedly delivered some of the most unique and vital music from the peninsula’s underground community. Trans Upper Egypt are maybe one of the most vivid representations of that legacy with their dazzling blend of motorik syncopation, punchy extensive basslines, spaced out twirling organs and scorched phased out vocals.
On their 4th album ‘No…
Spiralis Aurea Trio
Everything about Stefano Pilia’s spiritual journey always seemed to point directly towards ‘Spiralis Aurea’, his astounding 2022 release for Die Schachtel, a deeply resonating piece of art that intertwines traces of sacred geometry, collective experience and elusive connections between nature and human kind. ‘Spiralis Aurea Trio’ out in January on Maple Death Records, showcases the electric guitar ensemble formed by Stefano Pilia, Alessandra Novaga and Adrian Utley (Portishead) during three live…
Sprecato
First album in seven years from Maple Death Records founder James Jonathan Clancy (Italy/Canada), and the first under his birth name following previous ensembles His Clancyness (Fat Cat, Maple Death) and Brutal Birthday (Total Punk, Improved Sequence). In the interim between those projects and this latest, ‘Sprecato’, Clancy has refined and honed his vision —steadily and carefully drawing from a host of disparate influences to create a new kind of singer-songwriter album that bridges the divide …
Moving
*100 copies limited edition* There’s a raw hypnotic quality in Jerome’s output, a perceived facility to summon heavy bass, circular mantras and elastic shadowy beats. Over the last three years they have refined and cultivated their unique dystopian mixture of industrial, techno and dark electronics and their new EP ‘Moving’ is a fascinating snapshot of their ever-changing journey.
Based in Bristol, UK and Athens, Greece the Italian/Swedish/Greek duo of Annalisa Iembo and Stella Mathioudakis have…
Fort Da
Peaking late, rising slowly and crashing gently, in other words dialing in the perfect extra sensorial experience. Giulio Stermieri’s first solo outing ‘Fort Da’ is a nuanced ultra hypnotic work of art, six movements that blend ascetic minimalism, polyrhythmic trance and ecstatic tension with surprising detours into primitive techno and abstract jazz. Based in the smalltown of Saliceto Buzzalino, Giulio Stermieri is a pianist and composer, founder of the collective Impulse Response (with Laura A…
Goro
*100 copies limited edition* Reeds gently pirouetting amidst a fluvial landscape, a field of images that swirl between dream scenarios, second thoughts and reality. This is ‘Goro’, a new body of work by Italian saxophonist, composer and improviser Laura Agnusdei, an evocative journey that meshes noirish ambient, am-radio pop fantasy, lounge fever and organic pulsating proto-techno. Originally commissioned by Maple Death and comic book publishing house Canicola Edizioni, Goro’s music was directly…
Vivi!
Whitney K and band are back with an electric live album that captures the best from their classics ‘Two Years’ and ‘Hard To Be A God’, including a few nuggets from the back catalog and the unreleased tune aptly titled ‘Dire Straits’. If ‘Two Years’ was the thunder, the rawness and the spirit, a combination of outsider folk, modern psych, grit, humor and everything in between, ‘Hard To Be A God’ was the sophistication, the dedication, the mind traveling far and beyond… ‘Vivi!’ is the hot sauce mi…
Sometimes Life Is Hard And So We Should Help Each Other
Eavesdropping on a lost conversation or sifting through ancient postcards, remnants or rather fragments of a life worth living beside other human beings. Adam Badí Donoval’s debut ‘Sometimes Life Is Hard And So We Should Help Each Other’ has an uncanny ability to evoke warmth and memory, open dialogues that recreate a timeless thread characterized by unearthly compositions that combine field recordings, electronic loops and perpetual melodies.
Based in Bratislava, Adam Badí Donoval, originally r…
Stupidamutaforma
Fera's sought out tape debut 'Stupidamutaforma' (2020) is finally reissued on 2xLP remastered by Matt Bordin and with new artwork.
II
Liverpool producer Paul Rafferty aka Ancient Plastix is back with 'II' an album that glides effortlessly, combining incredibly rich textures with soft swan-like strokes, oscillating gently, an unhurried pace that combines the depth of Japanese ambient maestros and the choppy British mist. Recorded to tape on a Japanese Sansui machine, there is a widescreen grandeur that permeates Ancient Plastix’ production, a cinematic instinct that steers clear of crescendos by creating paths that revel in war…