Best of 2024
Transits: Volume 1
Big tip! American percussionist and composer Michael Ranta is a legendary figure who has worked with some of the most significant names of 20th century music but despite this and impressive body of work of his own, he has remained an obscure figure....
Important Records and is pleased to present Transits: Volume 1 the first in a series of releases by composer/percussionist Sarah Hennies documenting never before heard chamber works mostly composed in the 1970s while Ranta was living in Taiwan.
B…
Agartha: Personal Meditation Music
Building on their long-standing efforts to illuminate the historical Ambient and New Age movement’s connections to minimalism and experimental electronic music, the venerable Important Records returns with the astoundingly ambitious “Agartha: Personal Meditation Music”, gathering an incredible body of music produced by Meredith L. Young-Sowers during the mid-1980s to aid meditation and spiritual healing. Resonating deeply with the work of Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Brian …
Idiots
Last copies...** Heavyweight high-gloss embossed jackets with metallic Pantone. Each LP housed in polyethylene acid-free paper backed sleeves within consistently designed 12" sleeves for each record ** Adding to its already extensive discography, The Hafler Trio (now just solo) enlisted the help of Wire's Bruce Gilbert for their latest, Idiots. Grim and far reaching, this 2XLP moves at its own pace and draws the listener in with its slow, dark amble. Channeling both the natural and industrial wo…
Into The Heaven
Gatefold packaging. Le Tres Jazz Club can't really say that Japanese jazzmen benefit (not justify in fact) from a great international fame. However, trumpet player Terumasa Hino is an exception, undoubtedly because since the '70s he has collaborated with numerous American musicians: Gary Burton, Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock -- on Into the Heaven, which was released in 1970, Terumasa Hino is surrounded by the same musicians as on Hi- Nology (LTJC 016LP), released a year earlier: his brother Motohik…
Zuckerzeit
Limited Anniversary Edition: 180g vinyl, hand numbered, 1000 copies. In 1974, Cluster entered the sugar era. This doesn't mean that they had finally arrived in their promised land, but they had simply moved from Berlin to the country, to a small place called Forst on the river Weser. Many a thing had changed for band members Moebius and Roedelius since Cluster II: They had moved from boisterous Berlin to this calm rural village, they had founded the band Harmonia, had set up their own studio an…
Toni Esposito (Rosso Napoletano) LP
An exquisite artifact from the 1970s Italian scene, this vinyl reissue of Toni Esposito’s remarkable and overlooked 1974 untitled debut LP, also referred to as “Rosso Napoletano”, resonates with astonishing polyrhythms and genre-defying tonal innovations, seamlessly blending the ecstatic with fluid jazz, progressive rock, and experimental elements. A true revelation rescued from the depths of obscurity by a visionary artist who worked with everyone from Luciano Cilio to Don Cherry, it can’t be m…
Sounds of Egiali - Amorgos
Tip! Sound Reporters was a Dutch publishing company that specialised in anthropology, religion, and history, releasing unique documents of the cultural multiplicity of human societies and their importance. These recordings were originally released on cassette in 1988, and consist of field recordings made on the Greek island of Amorgos, part of the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea. The release was jointly credited to the painter Harry Van Essen, who lived for several years on the island an…
The Sounds of Sound Sculpture
Tip! In 1973, the Sound Sculpture Show took place at the Vancouver Art Gallery. An LP audio catalogue (with a booklet) of the exhibition, entitled “The Sounds of Sound Sculpture”, was released in 1975 under the supervision of the Canadian sound sculptor John Grayson and US composer David Rosenboom. Grayson had edited an important early book on the field, “Sound Sculpture”. The LP included rare takes of Rosenboom and Grayson, amongst others, playing famous pieces by pioneering sound sculptors inc…
New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media
Marking its first decade of activity, Blume returns with the first ever vinyl reissue of the seminal “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media”, from 1977, the third and final instalment in a suite of releases that includes James Tenney’s “Postal Pieces” and Ben Vida’s “Vocal Trio”. Unquestionably among the most important collections of experimental music to emerge during the 20th Century, “New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media” is the original feminist presentation in its context, rele…
Tidal Perspectives
Big Tip! Tidal Perspectives is an album by Giovanni Di Domenico, Pak Yan Lau, and John Also Bennett. Recorded across a single afternoon in Brussels, Belgium, the album’s four parts are a rippling alchemy of processed Rhodes piano, sizzling ceramics, and liquified bass flute, a rare meeting of three unique voices from the contemporary music landscape that manages to flow with the depth and effortless inevitability of the oceanic tides.
Giovanni Di Domenico, an accomplished composer and prolific …
Giornata Nera Per L'Ariete
Mega Tip! Quartet Records, in collaboration with Carosello Edizioni Musicali, presents a definitive, expanded 2-LP edition of Ennio Morricone’s celebrated score for 1971 Italian thriller Giornata Nera Per L’Ariete (aka The Fifth Cord), directed by Luigi Bazzoni and starring Franco Nero, Silvia Monti, Ira Von Fürstenbergm Edmund Purdon, Pamela Tiffin and Agostina Belli.
Morricone’s thriller scores remain some of his most distinctive and original works. As demonstrated in his scores for Dario Arge…
Heirloom
300 copies, Clear Vinyl. Heirloom is the first Lisa Ullén solo recording to appear on LP and exploits the two-sided nature of the physical format with two variations of the same three-part suite, exploring what it means to be ‘in between’ — be it genre, method or identity. The combination of Ullén’s deft control, patience and unconventional technique makes ‘Heirloom’ a sublime, ravishing listen. The LP is pressed on clear vinyl in an edition of 300 copies and housed with a photo of the small box…
High In The Sky
Big tip! Leading a dynamic trio with virtuoso bass player Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Donald Bailey, piano player Hampton Hawes released one of his best effort in 1970, focusing on an original blend of post-bop and rare groove. The record opens with a rendition of Bacharach "The Look Of Love" and offers a deep soulful voyage with the 11 minutes title track. Hampton Hawes was one of the finest jazz pianists of the 1950s, a fixture on the Los Angeles scene who brought his own interpretations to the…
Automatic Popular Music
*300 copies limited edition* Inside Automatic Popular Music there are two people sitting in a room, their backs to each other. One plays a piano with no particular attention to detail and tuning of the instrument, and another, sitting behind him, claps his hands on his own legs. They do not see each other, they never look at each other, they can only listen to each other, look around. The room is large enough, it is daytime, there are four windows through which enough light enters to illuminate …
Music For A Bellowing Room
Big tip! 'Music for a Bellowing Room' is a collaborative durational work by musician Sarah Davachi and filmmaker Dicky Bahto, both based in Los Angeles. With a performance/running time of three hours, 'Music for a Bellowing Room' is an exercise in resolution, inviting the audience to shift their concentration and perception through gradual changes in sound and image. This piece was originally commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and received its premiere performance in September…
Chitinous
Big Big Tip! Certainly one of the most obscure and perhaps one of the most fascinating work of the English jazz revolution. Master of ceremonies is cellist Paul Buckmaster, known for his work with the Third Ear Band and for his (later) collaborations with Miles Davis, David Bowie and Elton John. Chitinous is his the only album as leader and it was recorded between 31 March and 13 April 1970, by an orchestra of no less than 51 players, with violins, violas and cellos. In this enormous line-up we …
To-day's Sound
**500 copies only. Comes with poster. Directly sourced from the original master tapes, remastered by Luca Sapio, To-day’s sound finally sounds in all his glory In the way it was meant to and couldn't at the time due to technological limitations. Visually indistinguishable from the original and sonically audiophile-proof. ** The sound of today. A very strong statement. Yet, fifty years later, it remains undisputed. Today’s sound is Piero Umiliani's manifesto, his will to demonstrate to the world …
L'Oeuvre Electronique
2024 Repress. Incredible 14xCD lavish box set, a 16+ hour compendium of the electronic music key works from one of the most important electronic composers of the 20th century complete with a 106 page book. Born between wars, Eliane Radigue’s musical journey began in the Paris studios of musique concrète OGs Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry during the 1950s and 60s, experimenting with magnetic tapes, honing her craft in sound construction. But it wasn’t until the 1970s when Eliane moved to New Y…
Gris-Gris
Tip, tip, tip! Book + LP bundle. "Two-Headed Doctor" is David Toop's forensic investigation into a single LP: Dr. John, the night tripper's Gris-gris. Though released in 1968 to poor sales and a minimum of critical attention, Gris-gris has accumulated legendary status over subsequent decades for its strangeness, hybridity, and innovative production. It formed the launch pad for Dr. John's image and lengthy career and the ghostly presence of its so-called voodoo atmosphere hovers over numerous co…
Sulle corde di Aries
* 300 copies, machine-printed numbered edition, gatefold cover, 180gr vinyl * 1973’s Sulle Corde Di Aries was Franco Battiato's third release and showed his fascination for electronic, minimalist and systemic musics, as well as his third chapter in Battiato’s foray into esoteric pop. While the artist would venture further out into avant-garde terrain on subsequent releases, his early records enjoy a lyrical and playful spirit—eschewing traditional, song-based composition in favor of kosmische vo…