Back in stock
Faint At The Loudest Hour
2001 release ** "Faint at the Loudest Hour is the astonishing solo debut by guitarist Alexander Turnquist, part of a young generation of guitar players who have taken their incredible virtuosity and turned it into something actually worth listening to. Like James Blackshaw, Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, etc, this could roughly be described as "raga" guitar, with its long, modal compositions and hypnotic overtone play. Unlike most of his peers, Alex employs a variety of extended techniques ala Hans Rei…
Twin Souls
2001 release ** "Twin Souls is a collection of electroacoustic compositions that incorporate texts which deal with various gender issues. Some, but not all, refer to same sex relationships; others leave the identity of “the other” to the listener’s interpretation. In all cases I have gravitated toward lyric poetry that expresses the human desire for this other being, whether a “mirror image,” an idealized partner, or a complementary “opposite.” In the first two works, the instrument itself is pe…
Breathing
2025 stock ** "Hild Sofie Tafjord has re-written the sonic possibilities of the French horn and established herself as one of Norway's most arresting musicians. Pushing the limits of her instrument for years, whether acoustically or electronically, she has made her mark as composer, performer and improviser. Her signature is present in her group-playing in Spunk, Lemur, and Zeitkratzer, but here she takes front row in this solo work. Breathing -- her long-awaited second solo album -- is devoted …
Taste Tribes
2025 stock ** "Alfred 23 Harth, reeds, kaosspad. Hans Joachim Irmler, organ. Günter Müller, iPods, electronics. The last time Harth and Müller met was in 1987 as part of a quintet at the Festival Willisau, including Andres Bosshard, Phil Minton and Sonny Sharrock. Exactly 20 years later, Alfred Harth, now based in Seoul, South Korea, asked Günter Müller to do some recordings on a visit to Switzerland while traveling in Germany and Italy. Several days before, Harth recorded with Hans Joachim Irml…
Iron Path
2025 stock ** "All-star quartet Last Exit garnered its reputation with a string of unrelentingly forceful concert recordings in which it pushed the energy style of free jazz to its limits. When the group went into the studio, though, a very different sort of album emerged -- very different not only from all their other output, but even from anything else ever heard from anyone at that time. Because of that, when it was released in 1988, some fans and critics didn't know what to make of it. This …
Semper Liber
2025 stock ** "Semper Liber consists of a series of duets featuring Marcus Davidson, Hildur Gudnadottir, Mike Harding, Charles Matthews, Clare M Singer, Maia Urstad, and Anna von Hausswolff and are drawn from recordings made at Spire events since 2009. Mixed by its curator, Mike Harding, at the Völlhaus, and mastered by Mark Van Hoen, this powerful four track collection -- to be played as one piece -- explores the sonics of the mighty organ in all its thundering glory. Warning!: Extremely low fr…
Early Piano Music
2002 release ** "This CD mainly consists of very early pieces by Arthur Vincent Lourié, heavily under the spell of Scriabin & Romanticism."
Groove of ESSR: Funk, Disco, Jazz From Soviet Estonia
Groovier side of the Iron Curtain is uncovered via the 11-track compilation out on 12" vinyl, CD and digitally. First of its kind for Funk Embassy Records, the compilers have dug the archives of Estonian Radio for funk, soul-jazz, disco, instrumentals, library music and covers. Influences from West made it to Soviet Estrada musicians on one hand; to rock, jazz, folk and fusion artists on the other. Recorded between 1974-1988, this is the sound of Estonian artists as heard at music halls, stadiu…
Raw Bites
*2024 stock* Following the success of ‘Brink Of Extinction’ Soft Power returns with an eight track album ‘Raw Bites’. Music here is rushing forth like a fiery law - robust and flashing, sinking into psychedelic soundscapes and then ferociously breaking the waves. The band just lets the music take control leading them to express energy freely from pure creative potential, combining kinetic and crispy grooves with mysterious cinematic sonic storytelling. Soft Power delivers a mind bending musical …
EEG Coherence
RR Gems brings to you EEG Coherence. An album consisting of Devin Brahja Waldman - saxophone and keyboards, Sam Shalabi - guitar, Liam O’Neill - drums, Morgan Moore - bass, Janice Lowe - flute and voice, and Ala Dehghan - voice; with woodblock artwork by Ryock. For reference, EEG means electroencephalogram: a scientific test that measures electrical activity in the brain. When our right brain and left brain hook up, coherence is born. The third eye pops out. The mind and heart become one. As int…
Hypnotique
* Black Vinyl. Limited Edition * Martin Denny Hypnotique originally released in 1959. A fan favorite from the father of the 'exotica' movement. Stunning original cover artwork. 9/10 All Music Guide review. The pinnacle of Denny's career, Hypnotique earns a place in history for its achingly beautiful jacket design alone. The same photo shoot also yielded the cover photo for the Denny-produced "Exotic Dreams" by singer Ethel Azama. The music of Hypnotique is just as compelling, producing an effect…
Reciprocess + / vs. 02
2003 release ** "Microsounds, in which every single and minute tone has found it's place, which nevertheless sound warm and human. Or, even more true, electronic sounds with a gargantuan dynamic that help hyperspeeded cyberfreaks to come down and drift in an ocean of sound. What a beautiful thought. Austria melancholic, warm atmosphere and sometimes reminds me of works by Pole, Rhythm and Sound (and other Basic Channel related stuff), and the laptop compositions of Fennesz, Oval or Pimmon."
Morgan's Corner
2008 release ** Superb free music with an early Nurse With Wound-ish feel by the always excellent and obscure Vitamin B12.
Smoke Ring For My Halo
2025 stock ** "Philly’s Kurt Vile can sound like Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp or Lou Reed — if those standard-bearers were murmuring through a speakerphone after a few salvia bongs. On Vile’s fourth LP, the stoner haze lifts a bit, and he settles on a mood: chilled-out but guarded, and wrapped in gorgeous folk-blues guitar-picking. The vibe is warmly psychedelic, but reality is banging at the door. “When it’s looking dark, punch the future in the face,” he slurs in “Runner Ups,” a Dylanesque rambl…
Ghana Soundz Volume 2
2004 release ** "Following the success of Ghana Soundz Volume One, the second volume involved another a long journey to Ghana by music ethnologist and label owner Miles Cleret. This collection of unheard of and priceless gems visits the harder ground of Ghana, the pulsating centre that is afro-beat and afro-funk."
Automatic Popular Music
*300 copies limited edition* Inside Automatic Popular Music there are two people sitting in a room, their backs to each other. One plays a piano with no particular attention to detail and tuning of the instrument, and another, sitting behind him, claps his hands on his own legs. They do not see each other, they never look at each other, they can only listen to each other, look around. The room is large enough, it is daytime, there are four windows through which enough light enters to illuminate …
Rituel / Eclat / Multiples
1990 release ** "The seven-minute chamber work Eclat (1965) sounds like a direct continuation of the musical world of Pli selon pli, with its shiny percussion sonorities and mesmeric fixity. In 1970, Boulez added a new continuation, Multiples, to the original Eclat, with the intention, he said, of eventually writing a forty-minute piece using ever greater numbers of instruments – though thirty years later he has yet to fulfil this promise and the work remains unfinished. Despite this, the existi…
The Ancients
Bomb! The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves' “A Mind-Body Deal” exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and now a working group. Across 2LPs of side-length long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts & Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by t…
