Best sellers
Tre Månader
Listening to Thomas E. Frank’s debut solo album for the first time, I’m amazed at how recognizable and familiar it sounds. Not in the heard-it-a-thousand-times-before kind of way, but more in how direct and self-evident every single one of the 12 tracks is. Genuinely timeless stuff with songs that should have been written some 40 years ago but weren’t. It’s hard to avoid mention the mothership Den Stora Vilan, the band that Frank is more known from, but while there may be sonic similarities this…
Divers
The dreamer dreams again with her 4th album of otherworldly microcosms, 'Divers', recorded by Steve Albini and featuring contributions by Nico Muhly and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, arriving five years since her last opus for Drag City. Still possessed by a voice that teeters between sublime and ridiculous (I honestly laughed out loud at the first song), Joanna Newsom remains a precious spirit within the indie folk paradigm, blessed with an air of stately patience and poised, imma…
Wayfaring Strangers: Guitar Soli
another gem, a wonderful collection of obscure solo acoustic guitar tunes from the mid 60s up to the dawn of the 80s -- beautiful work from a slew of players we've never heard of -- but we'd put right up there with Fahey and Basho in the way they reach from the back porch to the cosmos with just their fingers and some strings! One thing we love about this set, and the Numero Group releases to date, is how deep they dig and what beauty they unearth, somehow with impeccable sound quality. Some tun…
Maggot Brain #16 (Mar/Apr/May 2024)
On the cover: This is a really packed, special issue of Maggot Brain, with the feature cover story a comprehensive interview by celebrated writer Sasha Frere-Jones with essayist Lucy Sante (who's written for every issue of MB since the start), on the occasion of her awesome memoir about transitioning, I Heard Her Call My Name. Inside: Phill Niblock: A tribute to the genius musician, filmmaker, label head, and generous promoter of ecstatic sound, by Steve Silverstein. Tresa Leigh: An in-depth fea…
KNVF
** Much-needed repress. Edition of 200 ** Following the release of her 2018 solo tape, Ggggg (Anticausal Systems), vocalist Charmaine Lee returns with her debut LP, KNVF, for Erratum Musical (Paris, France). In just two years, the album marks a considerable evolution from the austere concentration of Ggggg towards expansive sonic worlds. Inspired by the arcs of popular music, Charmaine freely and fearlessly navigates a wide range of aesthetics, digging beneath each surface to disclose a highly p…
Portraits de Voix
Alessandro Bosetti, Milan-born, Marseille-based sound artist and composer, paints a series of portraits from a collection of conversations recorded in Italy over the course of a Summer. Bosetti chose and collected four voices articulated over three generations, two female and two male. He then disassembled them and put them together in a palimpsest that integrates three elements: a polyphonic writing – collage of thousands of fragments and vocal writing for a portraitist – an electroacoustic wri…
Hockets For Two Voices
In just over ten minutes of recorded music, Los Angeles-based composer, artist, and instrument designer Meara O’Reilly can communicate a daunting breadth of creative possibility. That’s no mean feat in today’s soundbite-obsessive world, but it’s part of what makes Hockets for Two Voices such an unusual and compelling addition to the hypermodern canon of new music. Hocketing refers to the practice of splitting a melody across multiple parts, often in very surprising ways. While the form dates ba…
Rausch
Komet // Frank Bretschneider is one of the founders of the esteemed raster-media label. This album - originally a CD released on 12k in 2000, features clean sine-tones and an austere sound palette contrasted with playful polymetric rhythms.
The Wanderer
*2022 repress* The Wanderer is based on a single modal scale (B C# D D# E F# G#) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of 3/4 and 3/8. Part I, "Song," is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, "Dance," demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of cross rhythms characteristic of jigs, reels, batucadas, Bulgars, Klezmer fo…
Original Soundtrack Recordings from the film ‘Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes’
LP version. Ultra clear vinyl. Cosey Fanni Tutti has announced details of a new album, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes, her original soundtrack recordings for Caroline Catz's acclaimed film about Derbyshire. In 2018, Cosey Fanni Tutti was commissioned to write the soundtrack to director and actor Caroline Catz's acclaimed, intimate portrayal of the composer, musician, and sonic experimentalist, Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001). Best known for her groundbreaking work on the 1963 D…
Jazz In Britain '68-'69
John Surman's Jazz in Britain '68-'69 is an overview disc of his '60s band and one of the more enjoyable vintage British jazz records. These tunes come from several different sessions recorded in the late sixties, as evidenced by the alternate drummers - Alan Jackson and Tony Oxley - and the use of different instrumentation, like the three-horn modal piece "Bouquet Garni," from 1968 that places Surman in the company of only two other horn players - Alan Skidmore and Mike Osborne - and no rhythm …
Sti.ll
An elaborate, authoritative acoustic re-imagining of Deupree’s seminal electronic album Stil. (2002), Sti.ll is the result of a multi-year collaboration between Deupree and arranger/producer Joseph Branciforte to bring Deupree’s explorations of extreme repetition and stillness into the world of acoustic performance.
Afro-Desia
Tip! The second in our Mr Bongo series opening the vault on classic recordings from the fabled Groove Merchant Records catalogue. This time the spotlight turns to the Hammond B3 organ maestro Lonnie Smith, as we proudly present a reissue of his cosmic jazz-funk journey, ‘Afro-Desia’. Originally released in 1975, this much-loved album was produced by Groove Merchant label owner Sonny Lester and features the mysterious 'Compliments Of A Friend' on guitar. Considering Smith was part of George Benso…
Africamore: The Afro-Funk Side of Italy 1973-1978
Continuing Four Flies' dedication to delving into lesser-explored periods of Italian music, Africamore takes us on a captivating journey into the intersection of Afro-funk and the Italian soundscape during the six years between 1973 and 1978 - a time when disco was looming on the horizon and the nightclub market was rapidly expanding. Before reaching Italian shores, the infectious sound originating from African and Afro-Caribbean roots traversed both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, landing o…
Pacific
2024 repress. Victory present a reissue of Pacific, originally released in 1978. Reuniting the best session musicians Japan had to offer to make an album that would evoke the atmospheres of the South Pacific islands, the kind of places Japanese people spend their vacations. Pacific is a treat to the ears; its theme of the southern Pacific ocean and its warm cerulean waters relax its listeners with a fusion of city pop, soft jazz, and that good old 1970s funk while remaining surprisingly fully in…
Live Recordings
AI-36 comes from Ear to Ear - the debut collaboration between label regular Samuel van Dijk (Multicast Dynamics) and Ukrainian artist Yevgen Chebotarenko. Taken from a series of live recording sessions, the album explores in four parts a markedly darker realm of soundscape music. A cornucopia of abstract morphing scenes and heady synesthesia, the album brims with rich sonic detail and evocative gestures. Deftly blending organic sound textures with an experimental austerity, ‘Live Recordings’ dis…
Off-Piste
Greg Foat has always had a great reverence for the musicians that featured on the records he has collected over the years. Whether they were players from the great European library catalogs, Italian soundtracks, American Jazz but most of all British Jazz. One of his all-time favourites being the beautiful tone of Art Themens Saxophone… After Art had played on a few sessions for Greg both were keen to record an LP together. Plans were hatched during lockdown and everyone headed to Edinburgh as so…
Tales From The Subterranean
Fifth solo album from saxophonist Julius Gabriel. Born out of new sounds and rhythms that the musician discovered during the pandemic, “Tales From The Subterranean” embodies a blend of primal energy and inventive exploration across twelve tracks. The opener “Time Riding” sets the mood, a tearing rhythm that sounds like a frenetic tap dance. It invites you to move and when you get to “Footworks” you are all set up, merging saxophone finger percussion with a continuous siren whisper emanating from…
In Europe
"In Europe gives a fine glimpse at the power and intensity of Harper's compositions and his tremendous abilities as an improviser... Highly recommended music for post-bop and free jazz appreciators." - Allmusic
Clifford Jordan In The World
In the World is an album by jazz saxophonist Clifford Jordan which was recorded in 1969 and released on the Strata-East label in 1972. "Whether at the helm of a record date or as a sideman, Clifford Jordan was known for giving his all. These studio recordings were originally made for Strata East, a label known for its adventurous spirit" - AllMusic