New Arrivals
Vocal Shades And Tones
Vocal Shades And Tones is a miraculous leftfield library classic from the genius mind of celebrated UK composer/singer/vocal arranger Barbara Moore. It’s a heavenly groove-based blend of jazz, Latin, soft-psych, folk-funk, and gospel soul. Recorded for the legendary Music De Wolfe in 1972, it’s an audacious start-to-finish listen, as dizzying as it is dazzling. It’s a perfect snapshot of a musical era, supported by Moore’s glorious vocal arrangements. Widely regarded among collectors, DJs, and l…
Noise Matrix
Tip! Noise Matrix unleashes material from the same sessions as noisembryo and counterpart 'hole' and selected recordings from the time period. Originally released as a bonus disc on the definitive ’Noisembryo' 2xcd edition noise matrix absolutely can’t be missed for fans of this period of noise deity Merzbow. When people ask where to start with merzbow or the entire 90’s noise movement in japan - this is an answer! Masami Akita’s surrealism of the past stands prominently relevant to this day co…
Nightshade
Tip! *200 copies lmited edition* Tom James Scott holds a unique position in experimental music. With a soft brush approach Scott, who currently lives on the North-West coast of England, has explored delicacy in music with a variety of sublime releases on a variety of labels. Predominantly known for gentle investigations of guitar and piano, Scott has shifted to incorporating different technology and tactics over time. All of this, either in performance or recording, is embedded with a spirit tha…
Château Mordécoly
Tip! *200 copies limited edition* Debut full length release from the UK/Italian duo of Ecka Mordecai and Valerio Tricoli, working together as Mordecoli. Individually these two travellers have carved out a path of ghostly musique concrete (Tricoli) and textural cello wandering (Mordecai). Alter is proud to present the album Château Mordécoly, a result of two musicians (and friends) coming together to explore the middle ground of their individual investigations. The results of a red wine induced r…
Wegene (My Countrymen)
*2023 stock. 100 copies limited edition* Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974…
Discovery 1975-1976
With a Yamaha organ and a dream, Pops Mohamed started his musical journey in the mid-1970s as the bandleader and composer of Black Disco, creating a hip melange of chill-out jazz with futuristic drum machine sounds and spiritual overtones. His cosmic organ transmissions were accompanied by two of the most sought-after session players on the South African scene, the sax and flute wizard Basil Coetzee, who had risen to fame in 1974 as one of the soloists on the hit “Mannenberg,” and Sipho Gumede, …
Empyrean Traces
*300 copies limited release* With Empyrean Traces, De La Catessen Records focuses on another aspect of Adelaide composer David Kotlowy’s career – his works for trio. It follows the 2021 release of Final Fragments: Piano Music of David Kotlowy, where Kotlowy’s solo piano compositions were performed by composer and scholar Stephen Whittington. The three compositions on Empyrean Traces are brought to life by the Benaud Trio, whose ability to carry the gentle poetics of such work allows for bravura …
La preuve
La preuve is a rearguard action. Most of the people who inspired it are dead or retired. Old teenagers flay their former loves. They bear witness to a bygone era, but happily embraced, digested and spat out. Everything was still possible. Or possible at last. Psychedelia opened the doors of perception. Romanticism wasn't relegated to a dull formatting, a cheese without a rind. The group Poudingue, which started out ten years ago, has some fine leftovers. These are the crumbs from purgatory. The …
Oxygen
Angelides presents his most personal work to date through his new album Oxygen, released on Ancestor. Becoming a father to twins in 2020, he channels the emotional dimensions of bringing new life into the world while processing his daughter’s diagnosis of cerebral palsy. ‘Stepping into parenthood for anyone is chaotic, and her condition felt like another foreign, unknown experience,’ he reflects. ‘Writing Oxygen out of that place was an embodiment of “life is messy” but distilling it into someth…
Atlas
Atlas, the latest album from renowned electronic artist Laurel Halo, is a suite of sensual ambient jazz collages, designed to take the listener on a roadtrip through the subconscious. Blending both synthetic ambient textures and acoustic instrumentation, the album is a series of endlessly listenable maps, rife with hidden detail. “Belleville” - the first single on Atlas - is a disarming piano ballad, recorded in one take during the spring of 2021. It's embellished with undertows of processed vib…
Quimai
*100 copies limited release* Ambient heads will likely be fully aware of the soporific charms of this cult classic album from Toshimi Mikami. It was written in the 90s and has been released a couple of times on CD since then but is pretty hard to find in any format. Thankfully Night Rhythms now presents a first-time vinyl edition in pink with great artwork and liner notes. The music was originally intended as a soundtrack to gentle activities such as yoga and Tai Chi but has a superbly relaxing …
Hannibal
*2023 stock* Hannibal was a band from England. Their debut album, released back in 1970, offers a tasty, psychy, bluesy and jazzy progressive rock, with use of saxophone and organ. Wasted vocals and an original, cryptic underground approach. Solid guitar by Adrian Ingram. Elements of Raw Material, Aquila and Colosseum, but with their own identity.
Without Introduction
*2023 stock* "Halfway between Tarkus and the much darker, weirder, and more complex longform prog bands of the 70s like Gnidrolog, Il Balletto di Bronzo, or Island. There are also mild psych vibes throughout, most prominently from the vocalist who's singing through some seriously tasty echo and reverb most of the time... and yet one of the album's more unusual qualities is that the lead singer doesn't do a ton of singing. I'd be willing to bet that if you took all the parts on the album with voc…
The Shell That Speaks The Sea
*100 copies limited edition, slightly discounted - Please note sleeves have a seam split on the top side* "I first met David Toop some 20 years ago. I think we were in touch shortly before that, but our first meeting took place when I invited him to Australia to perform and to speak as part of REV, a festival held at Brisbane Powerhouse. It was a memorable meeting, I vividly remember his solo performance and the edition A Picturesque View, Ignored, documents an improvised meeting during that tim…
Roy Rutanen
*200 copies limited release* Roy Rutanen’s self-titled album has remained a best-kept secret among psychedelia and acid-folk collectors ever since its original release in 1971. What could have been the solid foundation for a promising career in the music industry was abandoned due to the lack of label support, subsequently surviving as a one-off museum piece, accessible to a select few who can afford the price commanded for original copies. This is the time for Roy’s music to shine through with …
Twenty-One Pieces
“Taming Power is an artist from Norway who has been quietly working in isolation and self-releasing music since as far back as 1998, with a substantial catalogue across all analogue formats yet seemingly little online presence or media attention. His music feels like a meditation on the present without any listener or audience in mind. There’s no flowery title tracks or double-entendre in the album names that offer us any clues to the work’s influence or objective, instead pieces are time-stampe…
Just Be Yourself
Here is a wonder Jazz vocal track by the amazing bassist Curtis Lundy. "Never Gonna Let You Go" features the outstanding vocals by Curtis's sister Carmen Lundy, she delivers an truely wonderful vocals backed up by a great bass groove, an essential jazz release first time on 7" vinyl, great one for the collectors of good music.
Blue To Red
*2023 stock* When life started 4 billion years ago, Mars was also a blue planet. It lost its atmosphere and ever since then, there has been red and dead. It’s our own senselessness that we’re pushing our planet in the same direction. It’s a culture crisis rather than a climate crisis, one that can only be solved if we go right to the core of how we live as human beings. Jazz has always had a big spiritual connection with life and our place in the cosmos, searching for answers and finding meaning…
Bright City
*2023 stock* His 1971 debut Bright City was released on the legendary Deram, sub-label of Decca, and is such a stellar example of modern folk with lush strings arrangements. A brilliant songwriting alongside a pastoral feeling, gentle melodies and a solid background with several amazing players literally bridging the gap between contemporary pop and blues. The album – faithfully remastered – offers a vision of urban Scotland with a bluesy feel and it has to be ranked alongside the work of lumina…
Robot: Singles Collection
*2023 stock* Robot is a virtual band founded by artists Takuji Kogo and John Miller in 2003. Their songs use personal ads and more recently other found texts as lyrics. Their fully synthetic music features electronically produced vocals and instrumentation. Karaoke-style videos that the artists post online accompany their songs. Singles Collection is Robot’s first full-length LP.
“Robot treats each ad with a dry humor and a modicum of sympathy while simultaneously pointing to the saturation of c…