Upcoming releases
Orbweaver
Leaping from a twig, a spider lays a strand of silk in the open air. Intuitively, it traces a design, reactive to its environment but guided by something deeper. As it works towards the center, something resembling a home emerges, intricate in its design and inevitably imperfect. The web comes to represent the creature’s creative response to the world and its needs within it. Artmaking and music- making emerge from a similar nerve: through the impulsive drive to create a space for one’s self, cr…
Afro Agban
Strut proudly presents a long-coveted gem from the discography of the legendary Ice, AKA Lafayette Afro-Rock Band, now available on vinyl LP. Afro Agban is the closest album in Ice’s catalogue to capturing the signature sound of the Lafayette Afro Rock Band. It showcases the band’s hallmark intricate rhythms and masterful soloing, delivering a collection of solid compositions that defined their first four records. Likely recorded during the Soul Makossa and Malik sessions, Afro Agban (The Afro-I…
When Light
As a follow-up to the critically acclaimed debut 'Name of the Wind' from last year, the multi-instrumental ensemble Basspace is now releasing its second album, 'When Light'. Releasing on May 16th, 'When Light' is a compilation of recordings from a chapel, a community house and a church during a tour on the east side of Oslo in October 2023, and the music is based around compositions by Erlend, ranging from jazz to modern chamber music to Norwegian folk. 'Into' reports from the jazz-campfire, whe…
Olè Coltrane
"The complicated rhythm patterns and diverse sonic textures on Olé Coltrane are evidence that John Coltrane was once again charting his own course. His sheer ability as a maverick -- beyond his appreciable musical skills -- guides works such as this to new levels, ultimately advancing the entire art form." - Lindsay Planer
Strands of lunar light
"I envision this music as emanating from a moon inhabited by otherworldly life forms and ecosystems; these sounds as evoking the moon’s topographies, beings, lunar rivers, and strands of light — as if this moon’s essence were itself sonic, vibrational matter. Musically and acoustically, strands of lunar light departs from a set of tones corresponding to a confined harmonic series segment of a very low fundamental frequency: 5.15 hertz. Through twelve continuous sections, each employing various m…
Magnificent Little Dudes Vol. 2
Chihei Hatakeyama, who has become a leading figure in the ambient/drone music scene in Japan, has now announced his second collaboration with jazz drummer Shun Ishiwaka. The two had been sharing the stage together in live performances since meeting on a radio show recording, and in May 2024 they released the first of a two-part series, "Magnificent Little Dudes Vol.1", and this is the second installment.This album includes the album's opening track, “M3,” featuring award-winning British cellist …
Oï les Ox x Jan Jelinek
'Once for my birthday, my mum offered to buy me vinyl even though she is not used to collecting or searching for records. She said she saw a musician on TV and it reminded her of the music I like. So she searched for Jan Jelinek on the web, found his discography and ordered "Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records" at an independent record shop in Paris, without telling me. I already knew the record and was truly surprised when she brought me to the store to pick it up, like two worlds meeting.' - Aude van Wy…
The Quiet Sun
*100 copies limited edition* "Composer and percussionist Sarah Hennies and composer and bassist Tristan Kasten-Krause make music rooted in observation. Timbres across percussion and string instruments gradually meld into one; pitches gently float into consonance after bristling in dissonance. With The Quiet Sun, their debut duo album, the two musicians present two pieces that survey their nuanced approach to sound as it grows over time. The album, recorded at Issue Project Room, presents two wor…
When the Distance is Blue
'When the Distance is Blue' is Macie Stewart’s International Anthem debut. The Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser describes the collection as “a love letter to the moments we spend in-between”—a letter realized via an intentional return to piano, her first instrument and the origin of her creative expression. Here Stewart creates a striking and cinematic work through collages of prepared piano, field recordings, and string quartet compositions, one that gives shape to …
Bleak House
The 1968 debut album from Norwegian guitar legend Terje Rypdal stands as a significant entry in the late 1960s jazz landscape, exemplifying the transition from psychedelic rock to a more intricate, freeform blend of jazz elements. Collaborating with legendary musicians like Jan Garbarek, Rypdal's work on this album showcases his innovative talent.
Recorded during three sessions in Oslo in 1968, Bleak House marks Rypdal’s departure from the psychedelic group The Dream as he ventured into new musi…
Oasis
Several important jazz groups and projects emerged in the early 70s, among them were Platina, featuring Arale Kaminsky and Roman Kunsman, and Jazz Workshop. Jazz Workshop are best known for their landmark fusion of jazz, Hebrew and Arabic musical forms on the album 'Mizare Israel Yekabtzenu', released in 1972. Another key group that emerged during this crucial febrile period was Oasis, fronted by jazz guitar maestro Avery Sharon. He was joined by bass player Yossie Menachem, drummer Ickie Levy &…
Le Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe
Tip! By the 1960s, the popularity of big bands had waned considerably. The heyday of the 30s and 40s big bands had been superseded in the 1950s by smaller modern and traditional jazz units, skif e and, ultimately, rock and roll, and the prominence they once enjoyed were a fading memory. Although there were still several very ne big bands playing and recording during this time, the economics of the big band in the age of the pop group always put it at a disadvantage. There was, of course, the lea…
Age
Quickly on the heels of their debut, Cuneiform Tabs return with Age, an LP that takes a massive leap forward in both melodic sensibilities and inventiveness. Bathed in late night psychedelia and the looping repetition of a drone sample, the group's experimental penchants remain, yet this time wrapped around tunes too sweet to be denied. In pulling back a little of the crackle and haze that made their first album so inviting, the Tabs have revealed more of their pop instincts. The overall effect …
Sweet England
Huge Tip! Recorded 67 years ago, reissued in Shirley Collins's 90th year in this universe. 'Sweet England' along with its sister album 'False True Lovers', was recorded in the spring of 1958 when I was twenty-two years old. I had been living for the previous two years in London with Alan Lomax, the American folklorist, working for him as editorial assistant on his book The Folk Songs of North America and on his field recordings from America, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. The tracks that make u…
Lux
Another foggy day in Yorkshire. A steel grey sky. Raindrops tracing one another down the windowpane. Kirk Barley sits in his studio and assembles compositions from scraps of found sound and live instrumentation. Melodies swell, withdraw and repeat like waves. Time slows. Accelerates. Slows again. The light bends, tweaked at the edges. Twisted by rhythms that never quite resolve.
Written, recorded and produced by Barley in Yorkshire in early 2024, Lux picks up where 2023 LP Marionette leaves off,…
Flux
Tip! “In May 2024, the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, where I was born and have lived all my life, faced the worst climate catastrophe in its history. After weeks of relentless, torrential rain, its rivers overflowed, flooding much of the region. Entire cities were submerged. More than 170 people lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands of animals perished. Amid this dystopian and desperate situation, flux was composed and recorded in about a week. Initially, the album was created sole…
The Sound of Raspberry
Tip! “This is what we need! In these confused, populistic and fascist times — this is the jazz we need! Urgent! Dedicated! Radical! Unique-face-peeling-cutting- edge- and- totally-in-your-face-MF! This is all we need for a better living! Think… Borbetomagus, John Zorn, TG, Masami Akita, Hanatarash… this is it and yet, not at all alike!” - Mats Gustafsson "Absolutely blistering duo album. The sax sounds like it's laser-cutting its way through the atmosphere while the drums expand and contract the…
This Molten Salt
A relentless pedal-free noise blitz that will surely offend most music lovers is certainly going to delight a wide range of noise fans. This album fits somewhere between extreme free jazz and the works of Iannis Xenakis. Charlie Mumma has played drums on over 150 albums with legendary noise-grind-music concrete band Sissy Spacek, led by John Wiese, an outfit that changes members almost as often as they get in the studio. Martín Escalante has appeared on a few of those Spacek albums in fact that …
Playing Harsh Noise on the Saxophone since 2012
Tip! “Desperate death throes roaring from a man playing the saxophone with more agony than anyone has ever seen before.” - Toshiji Mikawa “A gem, a badass. One of the most talented saxophone players I have ever met.” - Otomo Yoshihide This is Martín Escalante’s solo CD debut (not counting a few homemade CDrs and tapes or a 12” produced by Lasse Marhaug). The title of the album and the liner notes tell us that its content is harsh noise played on a saxophone acoustically without any electronic ef…