Best of 2022
Two Extended Pieces for Four Pianos
Building on the back of their stunning release of Ensemble 0’s rendering of "Femenine" issued earlier this year, Sub Rosa returns with "Two Extended Pieces for Four Pianos", featuring brand new recording of two seminal works composed by Julius Eastman between 1970 and 1980 - "Evil N*gger" (1979) and "Crazy N*gger" (1980) - realised by Nicolas Horvath, Melaine Dalibert, Stephane Ginsburgh, and Wilhem Latchoumia.
Blue Notes for Johnny
Otoroku is proud to present the first vinyl reissue of "Blue Notes for Johnny" - a defining statement by one of the greatest ensembles in the history of jazz. Recorded in mid-1987 by Blue Notes - then reduced to the trio of Dudu Pukwana on alto sax, Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums and Chris McGregor on piano - it encounters the band 25 years after their founding embarking on an inward meditation through collective music making dedicated to Johnny Dyani, their former bandmate and friend.
Blue Notes…
Amazonia 6891: Sounds From Jungle, Natural Objects, Echo ...
Much needed repress and absolute tip! Released for the first time on vinyl in 2016 and immediately sold out, this is one of the best long-lost treasure from the 80s – and it's one long composition filled with raw sounds from the jungle, natural objects and electronic treatment. The idea to evoke a deep journey in the Amazon rainforest has affected various musicians in the history of popular and experimental music, but comparing to other works this rare "Amazonia 6891", released only on cassette …
Chomolhari (LP)
On 1984's Chomolhari, new age pioneer Karma Moffett eschews the arsenal of Tibetan bells and resonant singing bowls, which he usually uses to conjure his healing ambient works. Instead, he opts for the shimmering arpeggiation and gentle glissando of the Moog synthesizer. With this aural palette, he soundtracks a rich inner voyage of peace and reflection. Bookended by the calming drone of the Tibetan longhorn, the trip to Chomolhari and back is one worth taking again and again.
Karma Moffett re…
Merzbeat
* 20th anniversary edition gatefold reissue on pink vinyl. Limited to 300 copies * Merzbeat, a beautiful and distorted dream of drum samples, jazz, swing, noise and bliss, by Harsh Noise giant, Masami Akita (Merzbow), last press issued by Aurora Central.
Die Mariengrotte als Trinkwasseraufbereitungsanlage
Tip! The prolific German musician Christian Schoppik is dropping his second solo album of 2022 under the moniker Läuten der Seele, following up his critically acclaimed self-titled debut album released at the start of the year.
Once again, “Die Mariengrotte als Trinkwasseraufbereitungsanlage” (The Mother Mary Grotto as a Drinking Water Treatment Plant) is a work based on a mix of sample collages and recorded instruments that are often used sparsely but as load-bearing elements. However, this ti…
États-Unis Bundle III
Includes five albums: etat16 - Various - I.D. Art #2 (LP) etat17 - Le Forte Four / Doo-Dooettes - Live at the Brand (2xLP) etat18 - Various - Blorp Esette Volume One (LP) etat19 - Smegma - Glamour Girl 1941 (LP) etat20 - Various - Sound (LP)
Celestial Soul Portrait
Numero present a sincerely wide-eyed and wondrous collection of new age synth music prototypes imagined and created between 1975-1985 by Iasos. As the story goes, Iasos was inspired by "...the infinitely numbered harmonies transmitted by Vista, a benevolent being from a distant dimension..." Iasos broke ground for a new age of electronic sound manipulation. His was pioneering work—done from a bohemian boat-slip home office—on some of the first commercially available synthesizers and, on stage, i…
La Banda Del Sole (LP)
500 numbered copies Remastered from the original tapes. Orange Vinyl During the 1970s, Italy was one of the most exciting and fascinating musical contexts in Europe, birthing seminal projects and artists like Franco Battiato, Aktuala, Lino 'Capra ' Vaccina, Giusto Pio, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Futuro Antico, and so many more. Defining the scene was an ethos that rigorously pursued creative freedom and experimentation, with its artists fluidly moving between popular music - rock, prog, jazz, etc. -…
Ahir Bhairav (2LP)
* Edition of 300 * Mohi Bahauddin Dagar is the heir to one of the most important families of musicians in the Indian Hindustani tradition: Dagar family. During the XX century, his father, the famous Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, was mainly responsible for the revival of the Rudra Veena as a solo concert instrument. The stylistic evolution of the Rudra also involved a substantial modification of its parts by Zia Mohiuddin. In fact, the tumbas (gourds) and dhandhi (hollow neck) were enlarged to crea…
Live In New York City February 8, 1975
* Last copies, sold-out at source * Gatefold triple LP (5 sides of music). Limited pressing of 500 worldwide. Includes new liner notes from Susan Mannheimer, the host of the 1975 event * This recently unearthed recording captures Alan Braufman with his five-piece band in an early 1975 live radio session soon after recording his debut album Valley of Search for the India Navigation label. This was the first meeting for William Parker and Cooper-Moore, whose musical partnership has flourished ever…
A Flattened Face Fogs Through (LP)
* Edition of 300 on black vinyl. Includes a full color 21 page 8.5" x 11" booklet of photographs, poetry, artwork, liner notes and other ephemera * Dr. John M. Bennett (Chicago, 1942) has been a prolific contributor on the absolute fringes of the American poetry, mail-art, and underground music worlds throughout his career, while working as a scholar and archivist of Latin American literature and avant-garde writing. One of two sons to prominent cultural anthropologist John W. Bennett, he was bo…
Out To Lunch
Reissue, originally released on CD in 2005. Eric Dolphy's final studio album is hailed as one of the finest examples of mid-60s post-bop. Dolphy, having recorded the album in February 1964, was in Europe less than six weeks later and his all-too-brief life ended less than two months after that. It marked his last flurry of original compositions and is considered his apex. It is fascinating to consider whether he would have moved past or away from the album in 1965, had he lived. Though Dolphy sh…
Dokument I (LP)
In dark times of geopolitical powerplay and war mongering, artistic counter attacks are often shaped as quests for openness and liberation. No troupe within the current musical underground embodies this urge like the Gothenburg sound dwellers of Enhet För Fri Musik. With spiritual roots in the candour of the 1960s free jazz and the raw aethestics of early 2000s free folk, Enhet started delving into different forms of (semi) improvised musical expression around 2015. ‘Fri Musik’ is a very apt gen…
Other Meetings (LP)
Following on from last year’s acclaimed Sylva Sylvarum, the epic double LP from Ora Clementi (her collaborative project with James Rushford), crys cole returns to Black Truffle with Other Meetings. Originally commissioned and released on cassette by Boomkat Editions in 2021, Other Meetings is a major addition to the body of carefully hewn solo work cole has released over the last decade, offering up two side-long suites of her radically intimate approach to sound. After many years dominated by t…
Kyo Mu / Hochtöner
Tip! ‘Kyo Mu’ and ‘Hochtöner’ both reveal a mesmerizing symbiosis of innovative sound exploration and visionary interior music, a sublime compound of fine-drawn intricate arrangements skillfully projected in space and time, or perhaps beyond space and time. Johannes Fritsch (1941–2010) was an award-winning composer, musician, publisher, studio owner, author and music teacher. He studied viola and composition with Bernd Alois Zimmermann and was member of the Stockhausen Ensemble from 1964 to 1970…
King Of Kings
Tip! King Of Kings was recorded in 1974 and features a wider array of instruments including Ugandan Harp and Balafon. Perhaps best known for the expansive "Nsorama (The Stars)" a seminal work of Spiritual Jazz.
Leendet Fran Helvetet / Knutna Näva
This bundle includes the two Blod LPs recently reissued by Aguirre, namely "Leendet Fran Helvetet" and "Knutna Näva".Blod "Leendet Fran Helvetet" (LP)It's been a true pleasure but also a rather chaotic experience to follow the progress of Blod from a close distance since the beginning. I have fond memories of receiving the odd cassettes from the early days, like the severely fucked up Unga Röster (later issued as an LP on Förlag För Fri Musik) and the awfully mesmerising Prat Om Depression recor…
Knutna Näva
Swedish progg is not to be confused with "prog" as in progressive rock music. When we are talking about progg, we are refering to the Swedish music movement influenced by the political climate of the late 60's, to some extent the hippie movement and in many cases also Swedish folk music. Music highly driven by an political agenda. Blod's Knutna Nävar, originally released in an edition of 150 copies on Förlag För Fri Musik in 2018 and later a small cassette run, is pretty much a lost progg classi…
Mitt Stora Nu
"This is the neat little dog with the dainty walk that looks like a lamb and can fight like a demon". Mitt Stora Nu is the second album from the Gothenburg-based duo Treasury of Puppies, consisting of Charlott Malmenholt and Joakim Karlsson. Nine tracks of life-affirming downer music that were mainly recorded during 2021 and that shows a more varied and refined side compared to their first recordings, though maintaining the TOP-branded poetic playfulness and peculiar approach to sound art/rock n…