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Der Krater
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…
Folly Bololey (Songs From Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom)
**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…
Ripe When Yields To Gentle Pressure
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…
Songs
"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…
Piacenza
Recorded live at Conservatorio Nicolini, Piacenza, Italy, May 22. 2015 during "Musiche Nuove a Piacenza" Festival. Limited edition 980 handmade and individually hand numbered copy in papersleeve, with 21,50 x 21,50 miniposter © 2015
Hymns from the Harbour
**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…
Music For Labyrinths
*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…
Rêverie
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 (…
Real Essence
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 …
Through The Spectral Gate
*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.
White Zombie
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…
Un sisma mentre ci voltiamo di spalle
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.
Ocean Planet
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…
A Music Cooperative In Isolation
*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…
Sempre Notte - Live Songs
"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…
Mujician Solo IV (Live In Piacenza)
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…
Earthly Powers
"This album is composed entirely of live recordings: no overdubs, no gimmicks. Annie Barbazza and John Greaves tour throughout Italy and Europe with a constantly evolving tracklist, usually decided at the last minute before going on stage. This album collects some of the songs, mostly written by John, that form the core of their shows. Sometimes they perform parts of Annie's repertoire, such as "Moonchild" or "Epitaph" by Greg Lake while performing at the Rock In Opposition Festival in Lyon in M…
Odyssee
Elodie here featuring core members Timo van Luijk and Andrew Chalk, playing live in Germany in 2015. Performing a pure duet of flute and string synthesizer over one episodic track 'Odyssee', a poetic and melancholy synchronous soundtrack to a film made and shown by van Luijk on the same evening.
'Odyssee' was mastered for CD release by Denis Blackham and is packaged in handmade gatefold mini LP style sleeve with Japanese language obi.
The Prophecy
John Zorn and Bill Laswell are two of the Downtown scene’s most consistently intrepid musical explorers, and PainKiller, formed in 1991 is their longest running project together. “The Prophecy,” the first official PainKiller release in over ten years, was recorded live in Europe in 2004–5 and pulls together music from several concerts into a powerful and mind blowing suite unlike anything the group has ever released before. Featuring master drummer Yoshida Tatsuya (Ruins, Korekyojin) the music t…
America
Two creative music legends who share a remarkable spiritual connection in their first duo outing. Originally proposed to ECM in 1979 and rejected, this rare musical treasure is a project that has been brewing for thirty years. Featuring six new compositions by one of the most consistently brilliant composer/performers out of the legendary AACM, and telepathic interplay by two virtuoso instrumentalists who have been pushing the musical envelope since the 1960s, Red Trumpet is one of the highlight…