Reissues
Tomorrow, Tomorrow
With the renewed interest in Bill Fay's past work, the reissue of his first two albums, Bill Fay and Time Of The Last Persecution, and recently made-available pre-Decca demos (From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock), it's surprising to discover that twenty new songs have remained unreleased for over two decades. Fay has been portrayed as a mysterious figure who somehow created two brilliant albums and then vanished. But as Fay himself has said, "It wasn't me who left the music, it was the m…
Opera Decima
LAST COPIES...This album has been released on both a double CD and on a boxset of three LP's, and it's long out of print now; the music is a combination of ambient and industrial which can sometimes sound fit for a horror movie. Heartbeats, the chatter of children and ghostly voices swiftly floating around. Other times it's more spaced out, sad or just odd. A Hammond organ is present as a little link between his heavy metal/hard rock roots and this, and the whole work is pure drone masterpiece
Live 1975
Telaio Magnetico is the supergroup formed by Franco Battiato. Their only recorded output consists of a session featuring Juri Camisasca, Lino "Capra" Vaccina, Mino Di Martino (founder of the "enigmatic" ALBERGO INTERGALATTICO SPAZIALE posted previously here), Terra Di Benedetto, Roberto Mazza and Franco Battiato. Their music consists of ethereal voices against floating abstract soundscapes, free spaced-out electronic sections and wonderfully twisted cosmic dreamlike improvisations. An abstract-p…
How I Spent My Vacation
A veteran of New York's downtown scene, founding member of the infamous Lounge Lizards and a gifted composer, arranger and pianist, Evan Lurie has been the composer of choice for dozens of directors over the past ten years, adding a new dimension to dozens of film classics from Roberto Benini's Il Diccolo Diavolo and Il Mostro to Cindy Sherman's Office Killer. For his first Tzadik release he has assembled an eclectic collection of some of his favorite film scores, all of which appear on CD here …
March
Matching Mole was the band that drummer/vocalist Robert Wyatt formed after he left the pioneering UK outfit Soft Machine in July, 1971. Over the course of its brief, one-year existence, Matching Mole would develop a characteristic sound, a unique take on fusion, with interesting structures that encouraged individualistic expression through solos. When one of the members came across a forgotten live show on tape -- identified simply as 'March, 1972', they immediately contacted us, and this album …
Lepton
Four absolute masterpieces by one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century. Spanning over three decades, LEPTON presents New York born Wuorinen at his radical best, pushing the limits of instrumental and electronic music. Expressly chosen for this exclusive Tzadik release by longtime Wuorinen fan John Zorn, the pieces here include the electronic composition Time's Encomium, (winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1970); from the '80s: New York Notes, which brilliantly blends electronic tape with a…
Gongs and Bamboo
*2022 stock.* The first release outside Japan of music by one of the the most original and underappreciated composers in contemporary music. Born 1900 in the Phillipines, Maceda has been creating remarkable compositions, often for large ensembles of the same instrument for fifty years. This CD brings together three very different pieces from his enormous catalog. The hypnotic Suling-Suling is scored for an ensemble of forty bamboo flutes, Colors Without Rhythm is one of his most dynamic orchestr…
mysterious dream
second and last effort from this criminally underrated band in the same style as their first
Let: from experience to experience
an underrated band, rich experimental progressive music with some jazz influences, close sometimes to canterbury sound. complex themes, elaborate arrangements give solemn aspect to the long instrumental constructions
The Harp Of New Albion
The Harp of New Albion is a transfixing solo piano recording, conceived and performed by world-renowned minimalist composer, the ever-innovative Terry Riley. His inspiration for this work came from a legendary harp, left behind in the New World in 1579, on the shores of Nova Albion, which is now called San Francisco Bay. A Native American medicine man is said to have found the harp and placed it on a cliff where the westerly winds played upon it and temperature and humidity changes created an ev…
Boomerang
A masterwork! Cadmo where a jazz-prog trio that had their debut on the legendary Vedette label (Metamorfosi) in 1977. While their members [Antonello Salis (keyboards) Riccardo Lay (bass) Mario Paliano (drums)] are nowadays considered among the best jazz musicians in Italy, in the seventies they still enjoyed mixing up several musical influences, so please expect a musical range that starts with Soft Machine-alike freeform crescendos, wild jazz rock in the best Italian tradition and tribal/ethnic…
Mauro Pagani
First Mauro Pagani solo album featuring many of the best Italian musicians of that time, including AREA members Demetrio Stratos, the whole work is an amazing eastern tinged folk experimental album, now reissued by BTF in the usual wonderful papersleeve gatefold CD edition, with detailed booklet.
Tibetan Bells
Tibetan Bells was a legendary 1971 album by Henry Wolff and Nancy Hennings and Drew Gladstone, originally released by Island label (while in Italy it went out on Bla Bla records, of Franco Battiato fame). It was the first recording to use traditional Tibetan bells and singing bowls, and it's a true estatic listening experience. In 1972 the world was listening to heavy, intense, high-energy music. In the midst of this rock explosion Chris Blackwell of Island Records released Tibetan Bells in the …
La norma del cielo
Always influenced by eastern doctrines (he later became a Hare Krishna), Rocchi was also active in anti-war movements and always present at various italian pop festivals during the early 70's. His second album, released in 1971 and titled "Volo magico n.1", is usually considered as his best effort, in much the same style as Alan Sorrenti's "Aria" with a side-long title track and softer tracks on the other side. "Volo Magico n.1" features a 18 minute long title-track starting with a soft introduc…
Cogli il giorno
First CD reissue for the ultra-rare second work of acclaimed keyboarder Luciano Basso. As usual a great instrumental work, mostly unknown, underrated and of course very rare in its original form. Musically it is the usual and great blend of classical-influenced progressive music and avant-garde, just as its stunning debut “Voci”. Among the guest musicians on this album, Leonardo Dosso from “Gruppo D’Alternativa”. Cogli il giorno (seize the day) is highly suggested for the lovers of adventurous I…
On The Radio
On The Radio is a compilation of rare BBC recordings, including 3 John Peel studio sessions and a live concert. The band includes Dave Sinclair (ex-Caravan), Phil Miller (Hatfield & The North and National Health), Bill MacCormick and Dave MacRae. This special digipack format features an original cover photograph by Robert Wyatt, who also compiled the running order. The accompanying 12-page CD booklet features extensive liner notes by Matching Mole bassist, Bill MacCormick, plus rare period photo…
Clic
"Clic" is released in 1974 and it is truly of those art-popping creations Battiato ever managed to do - there are full analogies naming it a best ever album, there are voices that appreciate its corrosive attitude under quite exhaustive portraits, everything being or not of a heads-up, since "Clic" needs to affirm a great response from the person who listens to it. All the fractured comparisons can become unremarkable, even if most of the previous solid works has lead to this entire full interes…
Za
This is another one of Franco Battiato's amazing recordings from the 70's, and it features two extended pieces -- "ZA" and "Café Table Musik". "Za" is a long piece for solo piano, with lots of spare minimal moments, and haunting trancelike lines of chords that build very very slowly. It's a beautiful exercise in restraint, and the kind of haunting soundscape that Battiato is legendary for. "Café Table Musik" is a bit more complex, although it's still got minimal piano progressions as its core. T…
II.
Group 180 II is from 1985 and exhibits the same good taste in modern compositional works. There are two pieces by Steven Reich, “Piano Phase” and “Octet”. Compositions by András Soós and Bela Farago make up the rest of the album. It should be note that, with the exception of Rzewski and Reich, the composers are all members of Group 180. It is again a well played set and one that fans of modern music will treasure. Only one copy available.
180-AS-CSOPORT
'Group 180' ('180-as Csoport' in Hungarian) was a Hungarian ensemble dedicated to the performance of new music, active from 1978 until 1990. The group achieved recognition for their performances and recordings of contemporary music in the minimal style. Group 180's membership included several young Hungarian composers (among them László Melis and Tibor Szemz?), whose works formed an important part of the ensemble's repertoire. This brought the group prominence as one of the preeminent European n…