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For fans of the Italian avant-garde, few names inspire the loyalty and devotion offered to the percussionist and composer Lino Capra Vaccina - a perfect emblem of the country’s extraordinary movement of musical Minimalism. He first gained note as a member of Aktuala, a project which laid the groundwork for a entire generation of practitioners following in their wake - creating a hybrid of rock, avant-garde, and ancient musics, while incorporating a diverse number of sonic traditions from across …
**CD version. Individually hand numbered strictly limited edition 300 copies in golden audiophile cd** "Exclusive sleeve notes by Paul Roland, John Greaves, Michael Tanner and Max Marchini. Produced by Max Marchini. A decisive step forward, a new milestone in the extraordinary discography of Lino Capra Vaccina. An album of iridescent introspectivity; a mandala of unheard sounds, a new way for contemporary minimalism. My collaboration with Lino has led me to discover recesses, reflections and ref…
**LP version. Individually hand numbered strictly limited edition 300 copies in premium white audiophile virgin vinyl** "Exclusive sleeve notes by Paul Roland, John Greaves, Michael Tanner and Max Marchini. Produced by Max Marchini. A decisive step forward, a new milestone in the extraordinary discography of Lino Capra Vaccina. An album of iridescent introspectivity; a mandala of unheard sounds, a new way for contemporary minimalism. My collaboration with Lino has led me to discover recesses, re…
500 hand numbered audiophile dark blue coloured vinyl.A Mid Autumn Night’s Dream faithfully report a one shot concert that took place at Conservatorio Nicolini in Piacenza on October 1st, 2016. The four giants of new music never played together before. As the lights turned off something magic started. A spontaneous interplay, an amazingflowing of notes. The subject was the Night, its mystic flavours. Paolo Tofani, now a hindi monk, is a living legend in Italian avantgarde music having been the d…
A note from Valerio Tricoli: "It is always very, very difficult for me to write about the music I was personally involved in making. As a matter of fact, a good reason for me to make music is precisely that I don't want to be a writer, and also to be able to shut up... for once. Yet, once a record is finished, invariably arrives the request from the publisher - in this case the great Lawrence English -- asking for a 'press sheet', a very weird, but apparently necessary form of literature in whic…
**500 hand-numbered copies on audiophile dark blue coloured vinyl + bonus CD** Critically acclaimed as one of the best records ever, 1974 Robert Wyatt’s masterpiece has been re-arranged by Craig Fortnam for his amazing North Sea Radio Orchestra. Featuring long time Wyatt’s collaborator and Henry Cow founder John Greaves on bass guitar and vocals, and the amazing vocalist Annie Barbazza as lead singer, this is an hearfelt, fantastic tribute to Robert Wyatt’s music. "This concert is a beautiful e…
Dark Companion come up roses again with dazzling, never-before-heard haunting compositions and songs by Jeanette Sollén, compiled from her archive specifically for this album. 300 individually handnumbered transparent emerald green audiophile vinyl. "My first recordings were on an old tape recorder in my childhood bedroom. I spent a lot of time with that machine. Listening to the radio and pressing the green and red buttons when something I liked came on. And I seemed to have liked a lot. One ta…
"This is a good introduction to John Greaves' solo career and also stands up as an extremely strong album in its own right. It's almost entirely acoustic, and consists of reworkings of songs from earlier albums interspersed with some new material, with the assistance of an impressive roster of guest stars from the Canterbury scene. Greaves himself takes more of a back seat than usual - the core band for the sessions consisted of double bass, piano and acoustic guitar, the pianist and bassist pla…
**Edition of 118 numbered audiophile golden CD** Best known as producer and mainman behind Dark Companion Records and the reborn Manticore Records, Max Marchini gives birth to his first solo album where he plays all instruments except for two collaborations with avant-garde singer songwriter Paola Tagliaferro and the amazing pakhawaj indian drum playing of Akhilesh Gundecha. This album was intended as a present for his friends for Dark Companion’s 5th anniversary, but eventually label insisted t…
*300 copies limited edition* "Keith was a dear friend firstly. He was a generous, wonderful person and, of couse, a genius, a true artist. We all owe so much to him for we started our label with his critically acclaimed piano solo “Mujician IV - Live in Piacenza”, way back in 2015. We welcome this album as a real blessing for the soul. So long dear Keith: your music shall live forever." - Max Marchini
Music for Labyrinths is an open live project for a soundtracks of labyrinths around the world a…
Limited edition first press 300 copies only in audiophile gold cd. "Luca Formentini and Markus Stockhausen began playing together in 2005, when Markus formed an international ensemble to play at the Suoni delle Dolomiti festival. One year later they performed as a quintet in St. Maternus in Cologne, Germany, where they recorded a live album, which initiated the project called “Flowers of Now”. (Intuitive Music in Cologne, Horus Label, 2008). Later on Markus played on two tracks of Luca’s Tacet (…
2015 release ** Limited edition of 900 hand-numbered copies. "Real Essence is an album made with the acoustic Tricanta Veena, recorded in India, in the spiritually dense hours before dawn. The music of this great comeback by Paolo Tofani is not only for lovers of Indian music. As if Robbie Basho had lived in India, it is influenced by the East and the West. A new music, syncretic and deeply rich in inner peace, recorded with an impressive sound, like a hi-fi demonstration, without any tricks or …
*In process of stocking* Paul Roland teams again with legendary British psychedelic guru Mick Crossley (aka Flyte Reaction) for a new masterpiece. A double album on a single cd that will lead you trough a magic journey... through the spectral gates of your mind.
2016 release ** "Paul Roland’s obsession with the 1931 film White Zombie, starring Bela Lugosi, a true cult of voodoo cinema, led him in the 90s to write the basis of what should have been the film’s soundtrack, rewritten by Roland. It was mostly instrumental music, with songs and choirs that depicted the slavery of these men reduced by the mad scientist to zombies, automatons to increase the workforce in the factories. A rather current theme, outside of metaphor… Talking about it one evening at…
Union Editions presents Un sisma mentre ci voltiamo di spalle by Devi Tensione. Composed by Francesco Castrovilli. Additional production/arrangement by Lapo Sorride aka Kinked. Recorded between France, Turin, Bari. Mastered by Luciano Lamanna at Subsound Studio, Roma.
We're incredibly proud to announce the new album by Blaine L. Reininger of Tuxedomoon, now a Dark Companion artist. Ocean Planet is an ambient-avant-garde work written, recorded, and mixed by Blaine himself in Athens, Greece, and features 12 deeply intense, atmospheric, and introspective tracks. The beautiful cover art is based on a painting by Blaine's wife, Maria Panourgia. Some of the songs had been sitting in Blaine's drawer for a while when producer Max Marchini discovered that some of them…
*250 coipes limited edition.* 'In this trying time of Covid and the serious curtail of gigs and record production opportunities, I’m glad to be in contact with Dark Companion Records and Max Marchini. Max seems to be the rare guy who puts the quality of contemporary music he produces much more to the fore than the financial considerations.. the investment in which is always tricky, and can hardly ever promise much in financial return. On to the music herein: Just before the Covid came on last ye…
"We are very proud of adding to our artists log such a great musician, immense composer, poet: Michael Mantler. I always admired his work since I was a kid and I think all of his records are in my collection. In a way it was quite natural for two other great artists to be involved in this brilliant project: long time Mantler collaborator John Greaves and the amazing Annie Barbazza. I hope you enjoy this live recording as much as I do and appreciate the care we all put in making this stunning alb…
CD Edition. From its opening notes, it is apparent that Keith Tippett's first solo recording in fifteen years is something very special indeed. Tippett has always been a player with a talent for musical pyrotechnics, cascades of notes—triplets, trills, mordants and arpeggios-colliding with mighty tone clusters. But equally, he has also been an artist of great emotional subtlety and depth. Both these qualities are in evidence here. For much of the record, the sense is less that of Rachmaninov, mo…