New Arrivals
Troposgrafien
Kasper Skullerud Værnes and Andreas Wildhagen has played together for ten years as of 2018. They formed a duo shortly after meeting, and quickly realized that the power and subtleness of the sax and drums duo format was worth further explorations. Through the years and in various ensembles and projects such as KNYST! (trio with bassist and Nakama founder Christian Meaas Svendsen,) and Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, the duo has grown and developed a highly flexible and telepathic interplay. This i…
Gibberish, Balderdash and Drivel
Gibberish, Balderdash and Drivel consists of three nonsensical musical conversations between Malaysian nylon guitar player Goh Lee Kwang and Norwegian bass player Christian Meeas Svendsen. The album was recorded in an independent art gallery close to Kuala Lumpur with a handheld device. It tells us the story of the first encounter between two different mindsets, nationalities and generations trying - and totally failing at - making any sensible dialogue with their respective musical languages.St…
Neptun
Neptune, a planet invisible to the naked eye, it was originally discovered through mathematical deduction after scientists noticed unexpected changes in the course of Uranus. It was named after the Roman god of the sea. In addition to being ruler of the liquid element, he was said to have tremendous power over our subconsciousness and emotions, which we ourselves still today have little understanding of. The title represents the unknown, ranging from the depths of the human mind and the oceans …
Index
Index is a 47 minutes piece that explores the sonic possibilities of the human voice beyond the limits of the yet known. It can be seen as an abstract of Agnes Hvizdalek’s 10 year-long experimental music practice and systematic research. With its high sense of form and structure it can be read as a book of references to contemporary and electronic music as well as a kind of meta-alphabetical catalogue of verbal communication’s smallest building bricks: a list of content, or depending on the poin…
Most Intimate
Most Intimate is Nakama’s third release. Their previous albums have been very conceptual, dealing with the relation between sound and silence on Before the Storm and then form as something malleable on Grand Line. Most Intimate is different. It is more personal, more transparent and more.., well, intimate. It offers a close-up on the musicians and how they deal with music in different roles. Because even though the music on this album isn’t conceptual, the structure of it is, and it is hard to t…
3 Pianos
3 Pianos is an album made by a unique piano ensemble consisting of three musicians with different backgrounds and experience. The curiosity for the piano and its countless possibilities was the outset whereas the wish to bend the common boundaries for piano music was the background for this project. The ensemble makes music with clear connections to the music and the ideas of the twentieth century. The musicians develop the material in their own way by focusing on elements like tuning, register,…
No Right No Left
No Right No Left is the first solo album of drummer Andreas Wildhagen. Recorded in Wildhagen's practice room in late July 2016, it explores different expressions and levels of energy. The music is improvised, still certain ideas can be traced throughout the record. In order to eliminate right and left, one has to imagine a view which is not rooted in a subject or object. If we lack a reference point, right and left disappears. Right and left, good and bad permeate society, but music itself can s…
Kyūbi
This album is a free exploration of sound within the boundaries of two violins and the musicians playing them. Close interplay and together-ness permeates the 36 minutes of eclectic but cohesive music, ranging in expression from reductionist and sparse textures, to filmscore-like tonal landscapes with clear dramatic outlines. The record reflects both the duo's dionysic and apollinian sides, and the balance between the two creates something universal which the listener can relate to."The Japanes…
Landet Er Gitt Oss
Improvisation, truth, joy, jazz and doubt. These are but a few of the elements that frequently emerge in the universe of Filosofer, and on their debut Landet Er Gitt Oss. Using the Norwegian version of a term used for people who spend most of their time pondering over life's big mysteries, one is lead to believe that their music is rooted in complex concepts and theoretic academia. So it is not. Filosofer focuses more on guts and feel rather than analyzing and thinking. Their basis for comprehen…
Forms & Poses
Forms & Poses is Norwegian bass player Christian Meaas Svendsen’s second solo album, and features four compositions / improvisations which explore the physical connection between the human body and the double bass. Although recorded in two entirely different settings, it is clear that Svendsen’s mind-set on all these tracks are one and the same, and the release shines as a condensed representation of his creative diversity. The CD version comes with a 24-page long booklet with linear notes and p…
Before the Storm
Before the Storm features four original compositions by Nakama’s leader Christian Meaas Svendsen. The album is the group’s first recording, and can be summed up as an investigation of sound related to silence through a minimalistic approach to both written and improvised material. The tracks on the recording are four attempts to define the nature of what we normally define as silence, and present at the same time a musical idiom of a band that operates on the outside of conventional borders."The…
Rakka
On his first new album in 5 years, Vladislav Delay renders an extreme ecology of electronic sound inspired by time spent above the arctic circle, surrounded by tundra and the raw force of nature and visually given life by Ripatti's wife, Antye Greie-Ripatti, aka AGF. It’s a killer evolution of sound, like his foundational Chain Reaction productions chopped, screwed and fed through sheets of white noise and black metal.
Same Animal, Different Cages Vol. 4: Sitar Music of North Brooklyn
**2020 stock** Sitar Music of North Brooklyn, the fourth volume in American composer David First’s “Same Animal, Different Cages” series, is perhaps one of his strongest musical statements since he radically re-invented how to approach the acoustic guitar in volume one. While First’s sitar improvisations are engrossing and pleasurable to hear, easy listening they are not. This is First challenging himself and challenging you, the listener, to grapple with his unorthodox and experimental approach…
The Sun Is Setting on the World
Apocalyptic rebetika recordings from the 1930s through to late '50s. Songs of sorrow, poverty, loss and the general end of this god forsaken planet.
Spiritual Jazz 11: SteepleChase
"Founded in 1972, SteepleChase Records is one of the most significant and prolific European jazz record labels. With a catalogue running to well over 200 titles, the Copenhagen-based imprint has recorded and released music from some of the greatest names in jazz, including Dexter Gordon, Andrew Hill, Jackie McLean, Horace Parlan, Chet Baker and Stan Getz.Starting out by recording visiting Americans when they performed at the legendary Café Montmartre, founder Nils Winther was encouraged to start…
Matas Flores y Algo Más
"Very Ltd. Edition 12"EP on this highly intriguing label. Musical, captivating and a more than a bit nuts. Big tip! Hailing from the Ruhrgebiet and now based in Cologne, sound enthusiast and percussionist Tulips is cofounder of the free-wheeling improv kraut group Nasssau, plays together with TRJJ (of Belgium’s Stroom crew) in the duo P.Vee, and is part of Cologne’s dub-minded jam hounds Montel Palmer.Produced in his bedroom, the sonic palette for this EP derives from primitive key improvisation…
Music For Dance & Theatre - Volume One
"Music From Memory are happy to finally announce Music For Dance and Theatre - Volume 1. This is the first in a small series of EPs which will focus on music which was initially created for or inspired by dance and performance. Created as a dialogue with the avant-garde and highly experimental work in dance, theatre and art evolving at the time, the music was in turn at times greatly innovative.That it was created for a dance or performance though means that such music was also often highly rhyt…
Spirit & Form
Spirit & Form is the brainchild of co-conspirators David Edren and Bent Von Bent, who both released solo albums as DSR Lines and Ōgon Batto, respectively. S&F is a next step in their path of exploring various works of output. This new project breaks their initial setup of improvisation to explore a more compositional modus operandi.
Kiliwatch
**150 copies** "Jacques Charlier is primarily known as a visual artist, which obscures the fact that he’s been actively multi-disciplinary for the entirety of his career. Born in 1939 in Liège, Belgium, his interest in all forms of art began at a very early age when he aspired to be a poet, writer, musician, comic book artist, actor, and movie director, and in his own eccentric way became all of these things.In the 1970s, inspired by the minimalist sounds of Philip Glass, Steve Reich, La Monte Y…
Balancing Tear
"A glorious re-match for Chicago’s superb free-rock trio, Mako Sica, and the jazz world’s percussionist of choice, Hamid Drake. Their last collaboration, Ronda, was a glorious, open-ended studio conversation spread across two LPs. Balancing Tear is a mix of studio and live recordings, awash with calmly oceanic passages, interspersed with compressed and feverish form-blurts.As with Ronda, the heft of the material is dynamically advanced. The album begins with passages worthy of Morricone’s wester…