Cymbalom Solos
There are constellations within the grooves of Cymbalom Solos. Innumerable points of light, rendered audible in glowing, radiant sound. There are entire worlds too - undiscovered, yet familiar -- both terrestrial and celestial. There are moments of quiet comfort and exultant discovery. And all of it conjured by one man with a handful of ancient and invented instruments, recorded mostly-live, with precious few overdubs. Michael Masley has been a fixture of Berkley, California, since he arrived fr…
Sale Quanto Basta
Deluxe LP Gatefold. Edition of 250 copies ** Welcome to Paolo Angeli's sixth release for ReR Megacorp (2013) now in Vinyl deluxe edition! It's an extraordinary collection of pieces that explore the full range of his highly modified, extended and prepared Sardinian guitar. And although it's just him and electricity, it seldom sounds like fewer than three people playing. There are twelve fine compositions, each as crafted as a short novel, and beautifully recorded. Paolo's is a music that pretty m…
Jar'a
Jar’a is a surprising album in which the prepared Sardinian guitar, without any overdubs, achieves the tonal range and sonic pressure of a post-rock ensemble. The suite in six movements brings together avant-garde and ancient traditional singing rituals, evoking wide open spaces, combining underground worlds and the most ancestral Sardinia. Jar’a is a concept album, with three-dimensional sound, in which Paolo Angeli expresses an innovative contemporary language, inlaying it with fragile, emot…
Tomiris
** Edition of 50 ** It begins violently and gets worse. Rattled barely-percussive scrapings, peppered with audio documents at the edge of perception lead to an unignorably painful and persistent crying baby. Eventually she is sped up, synths slide in and it’s over. Tomiris is being born. Club-concrete producer Ratkiller’s Tomiris is a conceptual reworking of the soundtrack to the 2019 Kazakstani film of the same name and it occupies a similar weird mythic space. Tomiris the film is a piece of na…
Anthology of Experimental Music From China
* Edition of 200 * China’s experimental music and sound art scene began to take shape in the post-Tiananmen era in the late 1990s. A few musicians from the mainland’s underground music scene started to experiment with new ways of making music while the music industry co-opted the once revolutionary and independent rock music scene. The Hong Kong based experimental musician Dickson Dee and the U.S. based artist Dajuin Yao introduced Western avant-garde, experimental music to the mainland through …
8-Infinities
** Limited to 250 copies ** 8-Infinities represents Discos Transgénero’s first contemporary release after several reissues and archival projects. Stepping away from customary North-American guitar traditions, Ameel Brecht (core member of Razen) presents an utterly singular take on early European music with an album which evokes the inner conflicts of growing up and their connection to the concerns of fatherhood. A classically trained musician, Brecht resorts once again to the use of resophonic g…
Salos
Haunting Lithuanian folk songs and choral works from Merope, latest lambs to the Stroom flock shepherded by Ziggy Devriendt aka Nosedrip, a big big tip to fans of Kara-Lis Coverdale. Immediately calling to mind strains of the Fonal label circa the mid ‘00s (Islaja, Paavoharju, et al), and likewise lilting, worldly traces of the label’s NSRD/Hardijs Lediņš releases; ’Salos’ is a very non-Sadian suite of pastoralism from the top shelf of Lithuanian music. It’s an effortlessly enchanting listen th…
Anthology of Experimental Music from Peru
* Edition of 200 * Once overlooked as a source of great music, producing everything from psychedelia to punk, and ethereal bliss to powerful riffs, Peru is rapidly advancing to the forefront and a well-deserved spot the history of musical evolution. Being that experimentation has always been a common denominator in everything Peru has delivered to the world, Unexplained Sounds Group is proud to release this compilation detailing how these experimental and risk-taking tendencies have been develop…
Antiqua Graecia
The final instalment of Tasos Stamou’s stunning trilogy of LPs exploring the deep history and culture of his home country, Greece - "Antiqua Graecia" - weaves a startling sense of imagism that intertwines multiple pathways of creativity, culture, and temporality, and presents electroacoustic practice as we’ve rarely heard it before. Issued by a Ikuisuus in a tiny edition of 300 copies, this one isn't to be missed.
Quattro
Tanz Mein Herz’s latest, Quattro, out via Standard In-Fi, encounters the French collective pushing at the boundaries of folk tinged experimentalism, psych, and drone. Sprawling across two LPs, it’s an absolute burner of throbbing, hypnotic sound and stunning creative interplay, and easily one of the best records we’ve heard in the early months of 2021.
Anthology of Experimental Music from Mexico
* Edition of 200 * For this new compilation, Anthology of Experimental Music from Mexico, the Italian label Unexplained Sounds Group has gathered artists from different generations who are striving to keep this "scene" alive, not only through their music but also by creating spaces and communities for other artists, both national and international, to thrive in. Even if its presence runs deep and is widely felt, stumbling upon this music feels like a reward, like unlocking a door to a secret pla…
Nuunmuun 눈문
*2020 Stock. * Tonal Unity is proud to present Seungmin Cha’s first solo release “Nuunmuun”, which translates to “Eye Gate”. Step through the portal and into the parallel universe of this singular artist. This is an album about consciousness expanding toward awareness of self. Focusing on a single point for long enough that you dive into it and come out on the other side, tapping yourself on the shoulder from behind. Think of it as circumnavigating your reality and washing up on a foreign shore…
Telyn Rawn
Dating back to the 13th century in Wales, the Telyn Rawn is a nearly forgotten horsehair harp; UK improvising harpist Rhodri Davies researched the instrument and its unique sound, commissioning the construction of a harp on which he performs 18 improvisations of impressive technique and sonority, launching his new Amgen Records label with this album named for the instrument.
"A Telyn Rawn is a harp strung with horse hair and predates the appearance of the triple, lever and pedal harps. The earli…
Ajaeng Ajaeng
To be heard with ears half bent, or with one side facing what Maryanne Amacher calls “the third ear”. The great reverence in which the Tanpura is held by Indian classical music, its transcendental but occulted place in the tradition alongside its normal function as a drone, made a strong impression on the composer such that it has taken decades to formulate even a simple Tanpura Study.
The fundamentals, the Om, as well as the overtones, the music of the spheres -all these have their valid rights…
Fielding
**Edition of 300, 2020 Vinyl Reissue.** Desastre and Worstward Recordings present the first vinyl issue of Hala Strana's second full-length album "Fielding". Originally released in 2003 on the Jewelled Antler label, "Fielding" is the sprawling, epic leap forward from Hala Strana’s self-titled debut full-length—a psychedelic collage of traditional music, field recordings, and sonic landscapes. Started in 2002, Hala Strana was the summation of Steven R. Smith's interest in the traditional folk mus…
Customer's Copy
**12" pink-hued clear RTI vinyl pressing** Customer’s Copy is the debut LP of contorted cosmic jazz and eccentric minimal electronics by Exotic Sin. The duo of Naima Karlsson and Kenichi Iwasa first came together for a performance celebrating the art and music of Karlsson’s grandparents, Moki and Don Cherry, before continuing as an independent unit that still incorporates some of the Cherrys’ instruments as well as their synergetic integration of music with artistic practice.
Preferring the star…
Complete discography
This special bundle collects Aktuala's complete discography on three coloured vinyl LPs:Aktuala "Aktuala" (1973)**Red vinyl reissue. Milestone! Faithful reproduction of the original release!** 1973 Aktuala debut, a stunning overall work where you can hear a lot of different musical influences : avant-garde folk, mediterranean blues ,jazz improvisation, minimalism, african percussions, indian ragas all played with a true psychedelic feeling. The album was recorded in a few days in a totally acous…
The Neptune Collection
**New vinyl reissue remastered from the original 1976 master tapes, packaged in classic Folkways-style tip-on jackets with liner notes.** An epigraph to the liner notes of The Neptune Collection, the second album by The Entourage Music and Theater Ensemble, reads, “We are a group flexible in size and temperament. Our purpose is to create original works in a collective manner. We utilize music, dance, poetry, and theatre skills.” Plainly stated, this dictum represents the core of the dynamic, mul…
Minna Miteru
**2CD version** In collaboration with Markus Acher’s Alien Transistor label, Morr Music presents a collection of hard-to-find Japanese independent music, compiled by Saya, who plays with Ueno Takashi in the iconic duo Tenniscoats. They are part of a current music scene, which is little known outside of Japan. "Minna Miteru"“ focuses on that very scene: the featured bands and musicians share a certain idea of DIY, and are also connected through frequent collaborations and mutual appreciation.
Avin
**CD version** Avin is the solo project of musician Christian Meaas Svendsen. The album consists of Norwegian lyrics in a traditional singer/songwriter-style wrapped in a somewhat challenging and unconventional format. The music is arranged for an 8-piece band consisting of some of Norway’s finest musicians. Avin is a Kurdish maiden name meaning love. Avin is also the name of Svendsen’s girlfriend. The central theme on the album is their unfinished love, and the texts and the music describe Sven…