New Arrivals
Bussei
*100 copies limited edition.* Tsss Tapes presents Bussei by Yoshitake Kawai. Recorded in Sapporo and Kyoto, 2020.
The Silence that does not Exist
Reverse Image is a sound artist from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She builds her works using analogue and digital equipment looking for the intersection between repetitive motifs and disjointed incidences.The title is inspired by the search for moments of silence amidst the discord. Recordings from 2022-2023.
'The birth and brief existence of Mirror Tapes, a Malaysian label devoted to sonic traffickers not necessarily winking at the mainstream’s avant-garde, will be recalled by collectors with good m…
The Spectacle of Ravishing Our Maidens
CD reissue of one of my personal favorite releases in the Macro discography. Lovingly ripped directly from my own copy of the cassette version released in 1995, and remastered in house. This release deserves the reissue treatment because it is easily some of the best material to come from the original duo of Joe Roemer and Rodger Stella...perfectly capturing the 90's Americanoise sound at it's raunchiest. It's an honor to be able to put "The Spectacle of Ravishing Our Maidens" back in circulatio…
Bloody Slumber Party
CD reissue of material that was released on cassette in 1998 and suspended in decades of obscurity, which is a shame because this is arguably some of the most underrated and brutal material ever produced by the project...a true deep cut and essential release for fans of not just Government Alpha but Harsh Noise in general.
The Bay
Tip! *250 copies limited edition* On the same trip to the United States that produced “U.S.A. Concerts” and “Environment for Sextet”, Andrea Centazzo also connected with the San Francisco-based Rova Saxophone Quartet, formed the previous year by Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Andrew Voigt and Bruce Ackley (all playing various saxophones). While not as well-known now as they once were, over the last 40+ years the ensemble has produced dozens of albums and collaborated with diverse figures like Anthony …
Environment For Sextet
*2023 repress* Out of print and hotly pursued on the secondary market, we’re thrilled to announce a much needed reissue initiative, dedicated to Ictus’ back catalog, beginning with four LPs, Steve Lacy and Andrea Centazzo’s Clangs, originally issued in 1976, Derek Bailey and Andrea Centazzo’s Drops, originally issued in 1977, Steve Lacy, Andrea Centazzo, and Kent Carter’s Trio Live, also from 1977, and John Zorn, Andrea Centazzo, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Toshinori Kondo, and Polly Bradfield’…
Trio Live
*2023 repress* Out of print and hotly pursued on the secondary market, we’re thrilled to announce a much needed reissue initiative, dedicated to Ictus’ back catalog, beginning with four LPs, Steve Lacy and Andrea Centazzo’s Clangs, originally issued in 1976, Derek Bailey and Andrea Centazzo’s Drops, originally issued in 1977, Steve Lacy, Andrea Centazzo, and Kent Carter’s Trio Live, also from 1977, and John Zorn, Andrea Centazzo, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Toshinori Kondo, and Polly Bradfield’…
Drops
**2023 repress** Out of print and hotly pursued on the secondary market, we’re thrilled to announce a much needed reissue initiative, dedicated to Ictus’ back catalog, beginning with four LPs, Steve Lacy and Andrea Centazzo’s Clangs, originally issued in 1976, Derek Bailey and Andrea Centazzo’s Drops, originally issued in 1977, Steve Lacy, Andrea Centazzo, and Kent Carter’s Trio Live, also from 1977, and John Zorn, Andrea Centazzo, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Toshinori Kondo, and Polly Bradfiel…
A Cappella
"Beginning in 2022, I started to process those layered, dense, dry, and beyond-words matters in the form of a voice diary. Gradually, I gathered a collection of 100 modulated voice recordings that were sealed on 50 cassette players. In June, these cassette players were set in my solo exhibition "100 Shits"(一百天的訴辯) staged at Hallucination in Kaohsiung. It allowed the audience to select how they would like the tapes to play. The exhibition also included a musical work entitled "A Cappella," which …
Leverages 杠杆
Born in Yamaguchi city in 1982; Masahide Tokunaga lives in Tokyo. He plays improvisation music, using alto saxophone.Tokunaga released the CD Alto Saxophone on Slub Music in 2009. Since around 2010 he has set himself apart from other sax players in pursuit of establishing an extremely original blowing style/playing structure permeated with delicacy and tension. The results of this exploration can be heard on his following solo/collaboration albums released on Ftarri, and also the new cassette in…
Encyclopedia of Luxinpei's Scandals
Luxinpei is a two-piece band from Beijing, formed by Ma Meng and Ma Yuan in 2007. Back to 1990s they were classmates, sharing a same desk. In 2008, Ma Meng became friends with Zhu Wenbo and they formed another another duo project Fat City. After some performance, Zhu started organized a weekly Tuesday performance series in 2009, which was the beginning of Zoomin’ Night. Both Luxinpei and Fat City were core names in early Zoomin’ Night days. Luxinpei’s work could be found in a Maybe Mar’s live co…
Durch Den Vorhang Gehen = 穿过屏风
The term ‘acousmatics’ refers to the tradition which tells us that the Greek philosopher Pythagoras gave his lectures from behind a curtain, whereby visual information was withdrawn off the screen and the audience could concentrate on listening. Listening to acousmatic music is not a static process as if the listener is aware of something hidden behind such a curtain. In the case of acousmatics, the sonic events reverberate through the curtain, beyond where they actually are produced, meeting up…
September '21
Before the concert, we hadn’t discussed much of what we will be playing. Kirill proposed to place the "June ’21" score on the table, to follow the impression, the feeling, the direction of what it suggests to play. Sometimes we noticed how one part of the score or another would lead us to new ideas whilst we were playing. It was a special concert because of its circumstances. We decided to have one big table for both our setups, and to be standing up during the performance. Kirill used some obje…
Dali Sections 2018-2021
"In 2017 after I finished a tour of Taiwan and returned to Beijing, I left my hard drive on one of those share bikes and it was lost forever. I had close to ten years’ worth of live recordings on that hard drive (I never made any backups). Since then, I’ve made sure to keep recordings of my live performances well organised. To a certain extent, it’s through live performance that I create new ideas. What I regret, then, is that every performance from different phases of my music making life will …
June '21
The score for June '21 was made in early summer of 2021, in a dialogical process of close live collaboration. Everything we talked about — music, time, politics, and place — was treated as a kind of material with the possibility of being brought into the piece. We didn’t aim to use sound to express such concepts directly, but rather created music with attention to the circumstances: when it was written, where, to whom and by whom it would be played. There was a mutual understanding that we were …
摇晃沙漏 Shake The Hourglass About
Shake the Hourglass About is Realtree’s second release. Comprised of full band and mixed ensemble works, it highlights the varied interdependent relationships within the group. It is indebted to the work of Bill Dixon, Duke Ellington, Dai Satō, Thérèse of Lisieux, Gene Wolfe and others. Realtree is a band made up of cello, clarinet, cornet, electric guitar and laptop. They focus on performing songs that use monophonic and timer-controlled compositions as temporal structures for improvisations. M…
Spiritual Progressions
*2023 repress* Following on from his recent string of exceptional all-solo albums, Mysticism of Sound, Ancient Africa and Afro Trane, Nat Birchall releases his first new studio recording, Spiritual Progressions, with his current working group, Unity Ensemble. This group consists of long time musical partner Adam Fairhall on piano, plus the bassist in Nat’s group for several years and albums, Michael Bardon, and a welcome return on drums by Paul Hession who recorded on the legendary Live In Laris…
Mysticism Of Sound
*2023 repress* Sun Ra inspired Space Jazz. Nat Birchall plays all the instruments - Tenor & soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, Korg Minilogue synth, bass, drums, hand drums, bells, shaker.
Live At Lovely
Japanese master drummer Takeo Moriyama returns to BBE Music’s J Jazz Masterclass Series in a majestic live set showcasing his exemplary musicianship and stature as one of the leading names in Japanese modern jazz. Recorded in December 1990 at the jazz club Lovely in Nagoya, this set sees Moriyama’s quartet deliver an exemplary session of the finest modal, post-bop and spiritual jazz. Moriyama is backed by long-time colleague Fumio Itabashi on piano and the group perform a stunning rendition of I…
Song Of Island
A private press rarity that few know of, ‘Song of Island’ was the third album from pianist Yasuhiro Kohno’s trio, recorded live at the jazz club and live house (gig venue) ‘Again’ in August 1985. Pressed up in small numbers, ‘Song for Island’ was issued on the private ASCAP Records, set up by pianist and band leader Yasuhiro Kohno. The album is a follow up to Kohno-san’s previous two albums, ‘Peace’ and ‘Roma in the Rain’, released on the cult Aketa’s Disk label. However, unlike the ‘Peace’ and …