New Arrivals
Music for Piano and Strings by Morton Feldman. Volume 3
At its best Feldman's music can take our breath away, providing a revelatory experience, a transparency which has no need of argument. Thinking back to Piano and String Quartet there are moments of extraordinary beauty when, through a sudden change of register, darkness enshrouds the music; elsewhere the string sound enshrouds the piano arpeggios. Morton Feldman seems to occupy a metaphysical space and encroaches on the domain of spirituality normally associated with religion. Thus art w…
Un Salon Au Fond D'Un Lac
After the highly-acclaimed Hidden Tapes released on Potlatch in 2014, Marc Baron puts another solo recording forward. Un salon au fond d'un lac is the new opus by this composer engaged in reel-to-reel tapes experimentation and using cut-up, noise, found sound, pre-recorded and degraded tapes. As always, Marc Baron uses analog tape techniques only
Ljudskulptur För 5 Kontrabasklarinetter 5 Qaraqeb & Elektronik
Christer Bothén is a main character in the Swedish improv, jazz and world music scene. He studied music in Mali and Morocco in the 70s and collaborated w Don Cherry. Bothén has been active in bands like Bitter Funeral Beer Band, FIRE! Orchestra, Mats Gustafson NU Ensemble, Spjärnsvallet and Bolon Bata. We are very proud to work with him on this exclusive vinyl LP release.
Dawn
Dawn presents Mike Osborne in both his earliest surviving recording, as a co-leader with John Surman of a quartet from 1966, and in 1970 with the first known recordings of his mighty trio with the transplanted South African rhythm team of Harry Miller and Louis Moholo. These unearthed recordings not only fill in important gaps in Osborne's own discography but in the history of British jazz as a whole. The first six tracks, recorded in 1970, are by his trio, his main vehicle as a leader and…
Scott 3
2016 repress. "Scott 3, originally released in 1969, marked a big change in Walker's approach to albums as, for the first time, the record is dominated by his original compositions. In fact, the only other songwriter that makes it onto the album is Walker's idol, Belgium's legendary singer/songwriter Jacques Brel. Scott 3 again features string heavy production courtesy of Wally Scott, though it occasionally moves out of pop ballad territory into a more cinematic feel influenced by Ennio M…
Tensione
The comparable Piero Umiliani (under his mysterious Moggi moniker) weighs in with another AWOL library gem of 1979. Maestro goes resolutely left field and off track with an intra-personal exploration of the disturbed inner psyche within the human condition. Distressed electro beacons are unleashed as de-tuned predatory Carpenter-esque synth patterns come to the fore (check Clavinet Suspence for primal audio blastings to a lost unnamed 80’s slasher movie).
With the electric eighties buzzing on …
Four Meditations / Sound Geometrics
Pauline Oliveros surrounded by Belgian ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, performing two long pieces for orchestra. "Sound Geometries for Chamber Orchestra, Expanded Instrument System and 5.1 Surround Sound System" by Pauline Oliveros was premiered in Brussels. The 3 sections metaphors of the piece are intended to guide the players in their feelings and approaches to conducted, guided and improvisational music making to create differing atmospheres for each of the three sections. Players sounds…
Unworks & Rarities 2012-15
Limited gold vinyl version. This is the volume one of Unworks & Rarities, a new series compiling unreleased and miscellaneous pieces by Oiseaux-Tempête. Following their two acclaimed first albums on Sub Rosa (Ütopiya?, 2015 (SR 396CD, SR 396LP) & Oiseaux-Tempête, 2013 (SR 381CD, SR 381LP)), Unworks & Rarities is putting up more than a collection of outtakes. Since 2012, French "free-rockers" Oiseaux-Tempête have been making instrumental and experimental rock that's heavy, provocative, and in n…
Trembling Shade
Recorded live at Exploratorium, Berlin on 19 March 2015 by Johannes von Wrochem. Berlin is truly the spiritual home of The Sealed Knot - with the trio having played there numerous times since it's debut in the city at Ramschift Zitrone in 2002. In more recent times we've been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to perform at regular yearly intervals, the most recent of which is the concert captured on this recording from Exploratorium in March 2015. Many thanks to Matthias Schwabe for the i…
Be Nothing
Awsome new CD by the legendary Sergio Merce, a work for microtonal saxophon and analog synth/ electronics. During the last three years, Sergio Merce transformed his alto saxophone in a tremendous and radical way. "I have been working on a "microtonal saxophone", which is an alto saxophone without the original mechanisms and keys that I replaced with water, gas and compressed air taps. I can move the tuning of any note, and play microtones, multiphonics. A sustain pedal allows me to maintain…
Tobel
Reinhold Friedl, inside piano. Franck Vigroux, electronics. 'An encounter between two worlds. Reinhold Friedl and Franck Vigroux are two musicians, both addicted to a real contemporary approach, getting to the core of sound but by very different means. Reinhold Friedl with his purely acoustic instrument and his highly developed and refined inside-piano techniques meets Franck Vigroux with his electronics including all kind of devices from tape recorders to analog synthesizers. Their sole …
Spuren
Christian Wolfarth's work clearly thrives on tactility and manipulation. In he also applied some techniques to concoct and subsequently remodel the acoustic substance on offer. On the one hand, his instrumental expertness is in evidence: one the other, processes of cut-and-paste and natural-sounding looping furnish several sections with potent connotations: relievingly hyptnotic a moment, almost suffocating the next. In fact, there are dynamic surpises waiting for the listener.
In the fi…
Sahib's Jazz Party
In a time before jazz music went free and ‘avant-garde’ there were a couple of inspired souls who put an emphasize on extended jams and improvised yet melodic parts based on a rather repetitive rhythm background. The result in turning away from the rather artistic and complicated bebop was the modal jazz that came up in the second half of the 1950s and lasted as the leading style until the mid to late 60s when bands either became free avant garde or discovered rock music to boost up their sound.…
Sonny's Time Now
LP version. In 1965 - only a few months after recording „Ghosts“ with Albert Ayler - Sonny Murray released his first album as a leader. „Sonny's time now“ is one of the holy grails for collectors and aficionados of free avant garde jazz music from the 1960s and while original vinyl copies fetch prices up to 270,00 US$ and more ,even the first Japanese reissue from 1986 on vinyl and CD is rare as stardust these days and goes up to 100,00 US$ for a mint CD copy. Well, we will take a closer look at…
Blind Tarots
Blind Tarots is a split tape featuring the contribution of My Dear Killer & Matteo Uggeri (Italy) and Modern Day Monks (Indiana, USA). The tape shows two different but somehow related attitudes to approach soft, minimalist, introspective folk. The A-side is played with acoustic guitars by My Dear Killer and processed by Matteo Uggeri, who also provided field recordings and broken rhythms. The side is called “L'albero della Morte”, and flows uninterrupted through five sections along the branches,…
The Decline of Western Civilization Collection
Penelope Spheeris' THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION was perceived as shocking and outrageous at the time of its original release in 1981 and its two follow-up films were no less extraordinary and revealing. Today, museums and educational institutions around the world present them as a historically significant works of art. Featuring some of the most influential and innovative musicians and groups of all time – Germs, Black Flag, X, Fear, Circle Jerks, Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne, these riv…
Goodbye Red Rose
Chefa Alonso performed with numerous musicians during her 2004-8 stay in London. Perhaps the most profound and rewarding musical relationship was the duo with Tony Marsh. This is at least the fifth soprano saxophone and percussion duo on Emanem. While perhaps influenced by the other duos, the strengths of the two participants mean that it is a unique addition to the instrumentation. Besides their contribution to the last night at the Red Rose, there are also appearances at another London venue, …
La Ragazzina
La Ragazzina is an Italian sex comedy film from 1974, and you know what they say about Italian sex comedies from the 70’s right? They always have cool kitschy soundtracks! La Ragazzina is no exception, with Nico Fidenco providing bright, loungey accompaniments to the on-screen sexy antics. This is arguably one of Fidenco’s finest works, and it's a pleasure to see this vinyl reissue with remastered audio on Contempo. "The soundtrack composed by Maestro Nico Fidenco for the 1974 movie directed …
Twilight
Marc Barreca has been creating and performing electronic music since the mid 1970s. Following recent vinyl reissues of Marc Barreca's 1983 cassette Music Works for Industry via the RVNG spin-off Freedom To Spend, and a compilation of early cassette tracks on Vinyl On Demand's acclaimed American Cassette Culture, Palace of Lights has reissued the artist's first album for the label. 1980's Twilight was one of the earliest releases on Palace of Light, and is part of an ongoing program of documentin…
The Dark Side of the Moog Vol. 1-4
Complex re-release of the most remarkable and worldwide sought after series The Dark Side Of The Moog by German electronic pioneers Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook (aka Peter Kuhlmann) in three slip lid boxsets, each with 5 CDs, incl. bonus material and new linernotes. The first box contains Vol. 1 to Vol. 4 and the Best Of-Album The Evolution Of The Dark Side Of The Moog. Their relationship between Klaus and Pete and the exchange of ideas was unorthodox from the beginning of their co-operation, …