Special discounted 2LP bundle * Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. * Moving into uncharted waters for the veteran avant-garde imprint, Alga Marghen launches Formalibera, a brand new label dedicated to historically significant artefacts of free jazz, starting with a series of never before released body of archival recording made by John Tchicai in Copenhagen during the 1960s and 70s. The first - “Mc Gub Gub, (I–VIII)”; “Ode to Skt. John”; and “Pladepip” - was made in collaboration with the saxophonist’s astounding musical collective, Cadentia Nova Danica between 1969 and 1970, and is a mind-blowing, genre blurring excursion into real-time creativity that notably features Tchicai’s first excursion into musique concrète; the second LP comprises two separate performances, “The Education of an Amphibian” by the John Tchicai Octet with the legendary saxophonist and flutist, Shahib Shahab, and “Beautiful United Harmony Happening” an absolute stunner with Cadentia Nova Danica and none other than Don Cherry. Both are an absolutely engrossing listen that offers an unprecedented window into this rarely captured period in John Tchicai’s incredible, groundbreaking career, and are easily two of the most important (archival) releases of 2024. 

Over the course of nearly three decades of activity, the Italian imprint, Alga Marghen, has continuously cast light into the shadows of historical sound practice, offering particular focus to under appreciated artefacts at the juncture of visual art, sound-art, experimental music, and sound-poetry. With each subsequent release, the label has helped to reform our understanding of 20th century, and the voices that made it what it was, brining forth an unprecedented range of early and archival material by seminal composers like Charlemagne Palestine, Walter Marchetti, Philip Corner, Henri Chopin, Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Max Neuhaus, Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblick, and numerous others. Fascinatingly, despite the remarkable scope of material encountered across the label’s hundreds of releases to date, Alga Marghen has rarely, if ever traced into the realms of free jazz, one of the most radical and forward thinking territories of sonority to have sprung from the 20th Century. Remarkably, this all changes with the launch of FormalIbera, their brand new imprint dedicated to free improvisation, marked by the release of two astounding LPs drawing upon never before released archival recording made in Copenhagen, during the 1960s and 70s by John Tchicai. The first, Cadentia Nova Danica - “Mc Gub Gub, (I–VIII)”; “Ode to Skt. John”; and “Pladepip”, was made in collaboration with the saxophonist’s  astounding musical collective, Cadentia Nova Danica, as well as the Danish experimental composer, Svend Erik Werner, between 1969 and 1970, and is a mind-blowing, genre blurring excursion into real-time creativity that notably features Tchicai’s first excursion into musique concréte. The second, comprises two separate performances, “The Education of an Amphibian” by the John Tchicai Octet with the legendary saxophonist and flutist, Shahib Shahab, and “Beautiful United Harmony Happening” an absolute stunner with Cadentia Nova Danica and none other than Don Cherry. Both issued in beautiful vinyl editions, complete with extensive exploratory liner notes by veteran jazz writer, Ed Hazell, both join only a tiny number of available recordings documenting one of the most players and band leaders working in Europe during this period, and are easily among the most engrossing and important releases of 2024.