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Free, Dancing...
Free, Dancing . . . is the first release by a new trio with percussionist and producer Carlos Niño, luminary multi-instrumentalist Idris Ackamoor (of The Pyramids) and wizard guitarist, producer Nate Mercereau. They have been playing concerts together in California since June 2022, sharing a unique vibrant sound, findings and energetics. A remarkable environment for the ethereal reed artistry of the revered Idris Ackamoor, reinforced by the contemplative sounds of Carlos Nino, who utilize drummi…
Etudes De Rien
* Edition of 200 copies, black vinyl * The New Blockaders are unique in the history of music and art. What, in our opinion, stands supreme in TNB’s 40-year existence is a passionate execution of their anarchistic and unconventional stance. In a biographical reference, TNB are often cited as pioneers of Noise music but for TNB themselves Noise music is not just an assault on tonality but a complex language of communication. From Luigi Russolo's 1913 Art Of Noise manifesto to TNB’s T.I.C. manifest…
Éthiopiques 17: Tlahoun Gèssèssè
*2024 stock* To Ethiopian audiences, Tlahoun Gèssèssè is THE VOICE, even more so than Mahmoud Ahmed, Alèmayèhu Eshèté or Mulatu Astatqé. Endowed with a phenomenal, innate vocal talent, he has been the asbsolute and unequalled icon for an entire country since the fifties, heading up the list of Ethiopian discography. Based around seven ‘modernist’ pieces arranged by the brilliant and innovative Mulatu Astatqé (Ethiopiques 4 : «Ethiojazz»), these first Ethiopiques devoted to Talhoun Gèssèssè also …
Éthiopiques 16: The Lady With The Krar
*2024 stock* Before she became famous as a singer and a player of the krar –the traditional Ethiopian lyre– Asnatqèch Wèrqu was well-known as an actress and a dancer. Inspired by the art of the 'azmaris', the Ethiopian wandering minstrels, she found the voice to transform the vicissitudes of life into poignant laments or sarcastic ditties. Asnatqèch is the last great singer, story-teler and free-thinker to carry on the tradition of "poetic jousting". Needless to say, the CD booklet features the …
Éthiopiques 15: Europe Meets Ethiopia
*2024 stock* The result of a surprising encounter between Ethiopian, French and Dutch musicians, Jump to Addis presents a buoying mix of Abbyssinian tradition, revisited jazz and wild rock'n'roll. The krars (folk lyres) and voices of urban azmaris rub shoulders with the guitars, saxophones and drumsets of European musicians, all in an audacious blend.
Éthiopiques 13: Ethiopian Groove - The Golden Seventies
*2024 stock* An augmented, improved and remastered edition of the legendary anthology of Ethiopian groove that was issued in the 1990s. This selection is a tribute to the haydays of Ethiopian music and reproduces the final salvos of the musical fireworks before they were brutally extinguished by the dictatorship. 1969-78: this near-decade was undoubtedly the golden age of modern Ethiopian music, with its swinging, thunderous or simply gigantic brasses and historic singers adapting and rearrangin…
Éthiopiques 12: Konso Music And Songs - Kirba Afaa Xonso
*2024 stock* The Ethiopiques series aims to make Westerners discover the missing link in African music. The great Italian musicologist Enrico Castelli has devoted this recording to the Konso, an ethnic group living at the border with Sudan. This panorama of Konso music presents pieces linked to daily agricultural tasks, sacred and ritual songs, as well as recreational songs. The rich instrumentarium includes "hibhara", "maayra" and "luutota" flutes, "kihayta" lyre to accompany songs, "tawna" be…
Éthiopiques 11: The Harp Of King David
*2024 stock* Although commonly know as "King David's harp", the bèguèna is not actually a member of the harp family. It is in fact an oversized lyre with ten strings –usually plucked, sometimes strummed with a plectrum. It is probably the oldest musical instrument played in Ethiopia. One of today's uncontested masters of the bèguèna, Alèmu Aga, sings religious songs, traditional fables and folk tales, as well as his own poems. Meditative, devotional or uplifting sor some, simply "mind blowing" f…
Éthiopiques 7: Erè Mèla Mèla
*2024 stock* Erè mèla mèla was the very first record of modern Ethiopian music released in Europe (Crammed Discs, Brussells, 1986). It is only logical that it should be reissued today, expanded and remastered, in the Ethiopiques series. This volum 7 of Ethiopiques includes all of the Mahmoud Ahmed's recordings released in 1975 by Kaifa Records, i.e. the LP KF 20 plus 2 tracks released on another 45 and two additional songs included in the first Crammed release, two masterpieces from an album rel…
Third
We’ve been great fans of ‘The Duchess of Oysterville’, the first outing from the duo of Chris Forsyth & Nate Wooley on cd some years ago on Creative Sources (with a follow-up later on Chocolate Monk), and had been looking for an opportunity to work with them if possible. Their duo is one of those cases that reveal different and unexpected qualities from the participants, and points to a third mind of shorts at play, a meeting that seems to open up the two towards an underexplored territory. With…
Éthiopiques 2: Tetchawet!
*2024 stock* Originally wandering minstrels, sharp-tongued peddlers who roamed the old Abyssinian countryside, many azmaris more or less settled down after the founding of Addis-Ababa just over a century ago. The cleverest of them quickly understood that they should set up their own businesses and take a cut on the drinks, instead of getting by on tips earned singing their way from one bar and tedjbèt (taverns serving tedj, the local mead) to another. (…) They have taken over the city by giving …
Éthiopiques 1 - Golden Years Of Modern Ethiopian Music 1969-1975
*2024 stock* 1969-1978. The main body of Ethiopian records was produced in less than one decade: all in all, just under 500 45s and around 30 LP albums. Amha Eshèté, creator of the Amha Records Label, was the driving force behind this brief creative burst and one of the main founders of the modernist movement, which swept the Ethiopian scene during the end of the rule of the Emperor Haile Sellassie. In six years (1969-1975), Amha issued approx 250 tracks. From his first recordings, he dispayed a…
Waa Dardaaran
*2024 stock* Sahra Halgan is an iconic artist from Somaliland, an independent country since 1991 but not recognized by the international community, formerly a British protectorate in northern Somalia. The granddaughter of a singer and poet, she devoted herself to singing and music in her teens, defying tribal and family conventions.
It was in the context of the war against the dictator Siad Barre's terrible repression in the 80s that Sahra earned her nickname "Halgan", the fighter, and her songs…
Reflections (The Romantic Guitar Of Amancio D'Silva)
Universal Music Recordings and Decca Records are making Jazz guitarist Amancio D’Silva’s album ‘Reflections (The Romantic Guitar Of Amancio D’Silva)’ available again for the first time since it was released in 1971, on limited edition clear vinyl. Long sought after by collectors and connoisseurs, original copies now sell for upwards of £350. This new edition was mastered at Abbey Road using high definition 24bit/192kHz audio files, copied directly from the original analogue master tapes. Images …
Live In Jerusalem 1994
Every working band has magical nights – nights when everything fits together and the music takes off into the stratosphere. The Masada Live series documents these unforgettable concerts recorded in venues around the world, bringing these rare special moments to you in beautiful 2 CD packages. This first set presents Masada’s historic visit to Israel, their first appearance at the world famous Jerusalem Festival. A very special moment in the life of one of the most exciting jazz groups working to…
Mister Sweet Whisper
Big Tip! “You’re living in a dream, Coley…” Surreal, layered, Lynchian landscapes by Birmingham, Alabama poet, Johnny Coley. On his Mississippi Records debut, Coley takes a completely improvised and semi-hallucinatory journey down decrepit southern trucking routes, gaslit Victorian alleys, past “a small frame house / transparent with fire,” and by women arguing on the cobblestones outside a dark club in Rome (“you could only see their lips”). It’s a world of flesh vehicles, supernatural waiters,…
Zuckerzeit
Limited Anniversary Edition: 180g vinyl, hand numbered, 1000 copies. In 1974, Cluster entered the sugar era. This doesn't mean that they had finally arrived in their promised land, but they had simply moved from Berlin to the country, to a small place called Forst on the river Weser. Many a thing had changed for band members Moebius and Roedelius since Cluster II: They had moved from boisterous Berlin to this calm rural village, they had founded the band Harmonia, had set up their own studio an…
Spirit Transform Me
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist experimenting in the dark trance-inducing worlds of ambient, industrial and electronic music. His newest collaborative project features the legendary percussionist/composer and mystic Z’EV in a hypnotic series of pieces exploring the inner meanings of the Hebrew Alef-beit. A remarkable vision from beginning to end, with sounds both fragile and powerfully intense, Oren and Z’EV take the sonic investigation…
Sound Characters 2 (Making Sonic Spaces)
One of contemporary music's greatest and most elusive mavericks returns to Tzadik with yet another CD of ear-bending electronic sounds. A student of Stockhausen and close collaborator of John Cage and David Behrman, Maryanne Amacher has been creating acoustic art, electronic soundscapes and site-specific installation work since 1967. A new CD of Amacher compositions is a true cause for celebration and Teo! is one of her greatest works. The winner of Prix Ars Electronica in the Digital Musics cat…
Songs Of Synastry And Solitude
*2022 stock.* Brooklyn-based string instrumentalist/composer Jessica Pavone is known for her sparse, melodic music inspired by folk music, improvisation and minimalism. Modeled after the legendary Leonard Cohen album Songs of Love and Hate, these eleven marvelous and lyrical songs for string quartet use hauntingly simple beauty to evoke the ghosts of things lost. Performed by the brilliant young members of the Toomai String Quintet, this is lovely and expressive instrumental music from this eloq…