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The Faust Tapes
Faust stand among the most influential creative forces to have emerged from Germany in the late '60s and early '70s. Along with Can, Agitation Free, Neu! and others, they rejected the Anglo-American norms of rock 'n' roll to start a back-to-basics and uniquely Teutonic revolution in sound – later dubbed by the UK press with the semi-derogatory term "krautrock." They would reach near-mythical status through a series of classic albums recorded between 1970 and 1973 at their secluded Wümme studio.A…
Rules Of Freedom
Exact LP repro edition A grey-area edition of the legendary 1967 modal masterwork by one of the greatest unsung jazz pioneers of the 20th century. A ture lost underground jazz classic from the late '60, filled with long, flowing tunes that have tremendous modal energy and a very cohesive feel. Backtracking a little, Nathan Davis was born in 1937 in Kansas City, Kansas and attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence before shipping off to military service in Germany in 1960. After being dischar…
Searching For Fantasy / In The End (Ep)
Another legendary avantgarde soundtrack from Tokyo Senso Sengo Hiwa [The Man Who Left His Will on Film] directed by Nagisa Oshima, originally released in August 1970. Oshima’s avant-radical blend of Marxist politics, agitprop cool, and softcore is a heady time capsule of early 1970s Japanese counterculture, with a dreamy pop score by the great Toru Takemitsu
Trusciant
The second and last Il Baricentro album reinforces the jazz-fusion trend that had already been dominantly relevant for the band's debut effort. Here, in "Trusciant", it is quite clear that the combo led by the Boccuzzi brothers has a strong focus on the funky jazz framework that was at the moment functioning in the limelight of American NE and NW coasts' musical scenes. The resulting sonic amalgam is adequately augmented with an exotic swing by two guest percussionists, which help Il Baricentro …
The Maria Sessions
Summer of 1990 was glorious. The Legendary Pink Dots entered the studio on a high as The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse seemed to be embraced by a broad audience. Our label Play It Again Sam had been generous with the budget for a new record, and there was a spirit of daring adventure firing up the band. For the first month we pretty much jammed... and Bob captured many of these sessions on a small tape recorder placed in the middle of the studio. Bob had dusted off his sitar, Niels unearthed his mon…
La Petite Fenetre
Jacqueline Thibault (Laurence Vanay) often worked for other artists at the legendary Château d’Hérouville studio as arranger, keyboardist, co-composer, and assistant sound engineer. Between sessions she sometimes managed to record her own music. Several years after her two acknowledged masterpieces, “Galaxies” and “Evening Colours,” she was able to bring together the tracks for “La Petite Fenêtre” (The Little Window). As the 1970’s ended, trouble with the Château finances meant that again it was…
Conservatory (San Sebastiano)
Referring to the soundtrack for Conservatory (San Sebastian), John Duncan speaks of 'ghost voices', emphasizing a line of research he's followed in the last several years beginning with Phantom Broadcast (2002), the audio work and live concert performances that utilize a shortwave radio transmission intercepted in the course of a single recording: a shadow play that assumes the form of bells resonating into infinity, where they merge and reverberate, morphing into choruses suspended in space. Du…
The End of the Line (Air Variations)
It may be known or unknown, but apart from Idea Fire Company’s first two collage-style LPs and The Island Of Taste, all IFCO LPs have been recorded live. There are some scattered studio pieces on Anti-Natural and Stranded, but otherwise, there are only a couple of overdubs or edits per LP. We also rarely do more than one take of any of the pieces. Unless there is a sound problem or a very egregious error, I never see any need for it. One of the many points of IFCO is that the music is being play…
Backwards
Gatefold double LP version. Includes insert and download code. After the groundbreaking release of 1990's Love's Secret Domain album, Coil were not dormant; their main project was Backwards, which was started in 1992, updated considerably between 1993 and 1995, and transferred in 1996 to New Orleans, where it was finished in the magic of the Nothing Studios of Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). The album saw the fruition of Jhonn Balance's recent vocal-coaching, which produced haunting, passionate …
Parapsycho
Doris Norton, founder member and keyboardist of the esoteric legends Jacula and Antonius Rex, was a pioneer in the early electronic/computer music. She began her musical carrer playing avant-garde and progressive music using synthesizers such as Roland System 700, Roland system 100M and Minimoog (Jacula, Antonius Rex). In december 1980 she recorded, at the Fontana Studio 7 (Milan), her first solo album entitled "Under Ground" (Musik Research). Sponsored by Apple computer and the Roland Corporati…
Based On A Novel
Svart Records is proud to reissue Olli Ahvenlahti’s first three LPs. This is his third and most difficult to find album, Based on a Novel. Olli Ahvenlahti’s first albums were issued by the independent company Love Records which then went bankrupt in 1979. Otto Donner, one of the founders of Love Records and the power behind the scenes of Bandstand and The Poet, decided to form a new recording company, Ponsi. The doors were once again open for Olli Ahvenlahti to enter the studio. Ponsi was, howev…
The Poet
Olli Ahvenlahti's a poet on the keys – one of the most soulful players in the 70s Finland scene, heard here on one of his greatest albums ever! The record's got a glowing grace that's really wonderful – part CTI-inspired electric fusion, without as much jamming as other European work of the time – but also an album of rounder, warmer tones – recorded with a slightly larger lineup that includes Eero Koivistoinen on tenor sax, and lots of great percussion at the bottom! Tunes have a subdued approa…
The Front Is Breaking
More magic from the Finnish jazz scene from the 1970's, recorded originally for the Love label. Eero Koivistoinen 1976 album features great musicians such as Olli Ahvenlahti, Pekka Pohjola and others. Black vinyl edition with gatefold cover.
Larks' Tongues In Aspic
Larks' Tongues In Aspic is the fifth in a series of audiophile King Crimson vinyl reissues. Newly cut from masters approved by Robert Fripp, this super-heavyweight 200gm vinyl re-issue is housed in a reprint of the original sleeve. With its raw tone, inspired improvisations and hard hitting odd-metered rhythms, the album marked a radical departure for this most forward thinking of groups and was the first to include Bill Bruford and John Wetton as band members. King Crimson reborn yet again -- t…
En Forme !!
Vinyl reissue! While still in Etron Fou Leloublan, Ferdinand Richard released his first solo-album in 1981. Expect a unique blend of dadaist jazz, art rock and new wave, inviting Ferdinand in the club of the untypical singers chaired by Frank Zappa and Albert Marcoeur.
Rhesus O
The French band Rhesus O was formed in 1971 by future Magma keyboarder Jean-Pol Asseline with musicians from the jazz and jazz-rock field and released one self titled record. Soft Machine is the main influence to be found on the record and to a lesser extent Magma, Miles Davis and Frank Zappa. The record presents a melodic jazz-rock with folk and classical elements, based on an instrumentation of two keyboarders: Alain Monier on organ and Jean-Pol Asseline on e-piano and harpsichord, two bass pl…
Fall of Saigon
Fall of Saigon was born in 1981 when Florence Berthon (Vocals), Pascal Comelade (Organ, Synthesizer) and Thierry Den (Guitar, Vocals) met at a concert in Montpellier, France. They chose to the name the project Fall of Saigon after a song by UK post-punk act This Heat. They self-released their debut EP in 1983 citing Nico & The Velvet Underground, Suicide and James Joyce as influences. At the time the band formed, Pascal Comelade was an accomplished musician with instrumental sketches composed fo…
Pollution
Pollution from 1972 is the captivating follow-up to Fetus. Like its predecessor, the album features Baroque textures, motorik rhythms, weird tape effects and Franco Battiato’s perfectly oblique vocals, with a minimalist sound mainly based on the use of a VCS3 synth, unusual lyrics, complex arrangements: upon hearing Pollution, Frank Zappa joyfully proclaimed it “genius.” While Battiato’s core group of collaborators remains largely the same as on his debut, this phenomenal band (joined by an eigh…
Call Me Burroughs
Originally released in 1965 by The English Bookshop in Paris and later by ESP-Disk' in New York, Call Me Burroughs marks not only the recorded debut of William Burroughs, but also for many the first encounter with his inimitable voice. While Burroughs has had pervasive influence on counterculture in the past 50 years – from the Beats to punk rock and even hip hop – no other figure today is so widely considered the epitome of cool. Call Me Burroughs features the author reading from Naked Lunch an…
Anita
Originally available only in sex shops in the Netherlands, this is one of the rarest psychedelic LP’s ever to be recorded in Europe. Consisting of only two long tracks, one covering side A and one covering side B, this album is probably the most mind-bending stuff we’ve heard from around this time. Side A starts with fast-paced free-jazz-rock with intense drumming and Anita’s growing involvement (first giggling, then moaning and finally screaming in all sorts of terrifying ways) Most instrument…