Music from Belgium

Against the odds of geography - continuously coming together within various collaborations and combinations of the three, Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O'Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto have begun to assemble one of the most exciting bodies of organized sound to have appeared in recent years. The trio’s second outing under the moniker Delivery Health is no exception to the rule. Recorded in Tokyo between 2012 and 2013 and emerging on the ambitious Silent Water imprint, Hard Off sidesteps signifiers and e…

Since they first emerged on FMP in 1971, a series of recordings - often referred to as the Berlin Trilogy, have represented an axis point in the history of Jazz.  Made earlier the same year by Peter Brötzmann, Fred Van Hove, Han Bennink, and Albert Mangelsdorff - Elements, Couscouss de la Mauresque, and The End quickly became legendary for their towering artistry and worth, but their larger contextual concern - with how they came to be, was an answer to a quite multilayered war being waged in th…

Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone; Fred Van Hove: piano; Han Bennink: drums, voice; Albert Mangelsdorff: trombone. Recorded during the Free Music Market, August 27 and 28, 1971, in Berlin. Designed by Peter Brötzmann. Part of the legendary "Berlin Trilogy" originally released by FMP in 1971 (FMP 0050). 180-gram vinyl. One-time pressing of 500. First standalone reissue."The great thing about this trilogy/set is how naturally everything flows. . . . each subdividing of the group, each solo excursio…

Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone; Fred Van Hove: piano; Han Bennink: drums, voice; Albert Mangelsdorff: trombone. Recorded during the Free Music Market, August 27 and 28, 1971, in Berlin. Designed by Peter Brötzmann. Part of the legendary "Berlin Trilogy" originally released by FMP in 1971 (FMP 0040). 180-gram vinyl. One-time pressing of 500. First standalone reissue."Brötzmann's regular trio was joined by the trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff, one of the most respected German jazz musicians,…

Peter Brötzmann: tenor saxophone; Fred Van Hove: piano; Han Bennink: drums, voice; Albert Mangelsdorff: trombone. Recorded during the Free Music Market, August 27 and 28, 1971, in Berlin. Designed by Peter Brötzmann. Part of the legendary "Berlin Trilogy" originally released by FMP in 1971 (FMP 0030). 180-gram vinyl. One-time pressing of 500. First standalone reissue."What reveals itself in the über energetics on display here is the ability of one quartet to take so much for granted and ye…

For the last decade, Belgian guitarist Bram Devens has been releasing solo recordings under the name Ignatz. A couple of cassettes have come out in the States, but most of his releases have been elusive imports. Thus, we have taken it upon ourselves to do a public service and release a domestic version of an LP that will appear on the (K-RAAK-K) label in Belgium. This must be something like the sixth or seventh studio album Ignatz has cut, and it's a remarkably solid slab of mysto-folk/blues inv…

Blackest Ever Black presents Af Ursin's 2005 masterpiece Aura Legato. Af Ursin is the alter ego of Finnish autodidact composer/improviser Timo van Luijk. His work is rooted in the use of acoustic instruments (wind, percussion, strings), but his special sensitivity to the timbral qualities of each instrument, and his deft blurring of them, results in a sound-world that is mysterious, amorphous and hallucinatory, full of suggestive shadows, creaks and whispers. Van Luijk's process begins alw…

In any constellation: with In Camera (his duo with Christoph Heemann), Noise-maker's Fifes (A Belgian Audio-visual collective, active between 1989 and 2006) Elodie (his duo with Andrew Chalk), as a duo with Belgian percussionist Kris Vanderstraeten, in Nivritti Marga (with Frédérique Bruyas and Raymond Dijkstra), as a live member of Nurse With Wound, and most recently with Sloow Tapes' Bart De Paepe as Ilta Hämärä. Anything the Belgian-Finnish walking improv encyclopedia that is Timo van …

Starting with soundtracks for the Belgian theatre-company 'Abbatoir Fermé' in 2007, Pepijn Caudron aka Kreng has since then created an impressive catalogue of work, submerging deeply into a cinematic musical world, often built on 'classic' instrumental sounds, expressing a fascination for "the secrets of our culture, the roots of our collective fears and the hidden wounds, phantasies and rituals of our time" (as 'Abbatoir Ferme' denotes their own programmation). Kreng's compositions share a rare…

This disc offers two approaches to an ancient instrument called the santur. The first, by the Iranian master musician Hossein Malek, consists of improvised pieces recorded by his friend Leo Kupper in the '80s, representing a unique and valuable archive. The second is Kupper's Western approach as a student of Malek, filtered through undetectable electronics. Includes 24-page booklet. "The santur is a stringed instrument in the same family as the Appalachian hammered dulcimer, the Chinese yangqin,…

Giovanni Di Domenico (piano, Rhodes), With Norberto Lobo (acoustic guitar), Tetuzi Akiyama (acoustic guitar) and Jim O'Rourke (electric guitar). Recorded during the course of 3 years (from 2011 to 2013) in various locations in Brussels and Tokyo, this double LP puts together 3 of the most uncompromising and original guitar players of the globe (there should have been a fourth great guitar player, the late Hans Reichel, but unfortunately he passed away days before asking him to join the project),…

Delivery Health is the highly idiosyncratic trio of Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O'Rourke and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto. The recording was done in Tokyo's great GOK Sound, directly on 24 tracks tape recorder, and was mixed at Steamroom, Tokyo, by Jim O'Rourke himself. The blend of early 70's ECM drumsound, long unfolding travelogues and the great trasparency of the mix, give to this record a breadth and deepness that will give hard times catagorizing it's music, where jazz (the one of Abercrombie's Gatewa…

** small repress available ** A breathtaking album, nothing short of a masterpiece!!!! Starting from this edition* onward, our Zeit Composers series will go vinyl, and will definitely open up to international artists beside the usual Italian suspects. The first release in the new vinyl-only series features the collaborative effort of Belgium-based talented composer Giovanni di Domenico (of Italian origins) and avant-everything master Jim O'Rourke. A long composition for string and electro…

Tip! New album by the trio comprised of Giovanni Di Domenico, Peter Jacquemyn and Chris Corsano, recorded 31st October 2013 at Studio Grez, Brussels by Giovanni Di Domenico and released in a edition of 300

Milestone reissue!!! By popular demand, here's the vinyl reissue of the seminal album, recorded in 1977 by Aksak Maboul, comprised of  Crammed founder Marc Hollander with Congotronics producer Vincent Kenis, and originally released on Marc Moulin's ephemeral Kamikaze label. Deluxe vinyl re-issue with 1977 original cover, full colour inside folder with extensive texts, downlaod card with bonus tracks. A hugely cherished record around these parts, not least for the strangely prescient 'Saure …

* Very last copies * Pressed on 180-gram vinyl; presented in gatefold sleeve. Cien Fuegos presents a reissue of an untitled LP by Peter Brötzmann, Fred van Hove, and Han Bennink, originally released on FMP in 1973. Peter Brötzmann: clarinet; alto, tenor, baritone, bass saxophones. Fred van Hove: celesta, piano. Han Bennink: drums, khene, rhythm-box, selfmade clarinet, gachi, oe-oe, voice, tins, homemade junk, elong, dhung, kaffir piano, dhung-dkar. Recorded by Dietram Köster on February 25, 1973…

2015 repress. 2015 repress. "Noise may have lost its power to offend. Silence hasn't" --Dan Warburton. Erik Skodvin, a prolific artist in his own right as Svarte Greiner and with Deaf Center, has developed a well-earned reputation for releasing beautifully disturbing music on his label Miasmah. Acts such as Elegi and Jacaszek set the bar high, creating masterpieces of contemporary doom-laden experimental music. L'Autopsie Phénoménale de Dieu, the incredible 2009 debut album from Belgian ar…

2015 repress. "Noise may have lost its power to offend. Silence hasn't" --Dan Warburton. Erik Skodvin, a prolific artist in his own right as Svarte Greiner and with Deaf Center, has developed a well-earned reputation for releasing beautifully disturbing music on his label Miasmah. Acts such as Elegi and Jacaszek set the bar high, creating masterpieces of contemporary doom-laden experimental music. L'Autopsie Phénoménale de Dieu, the incredible 2009 debut album from Belgian artist Kreng, carries …

; presented in a laser-cut full color bronze and black sleeve with full color insert. Includes download code. The Summoner comes four years after the last Kreng album Grimoire (MIA 016CD/LP) and three years after the massive retrospective box set Works for Abattoir Fermé 2007-2011. A lot has happened in the interim, and The Summoner can be seen as quite the departure from the aforementioned works. Pepijn Caudron's most personal album to date, The Summoner was created after a year in which Caudro…

In the past 10 or so years Ignatz has explored all visible cracks and overlapping layers between (or underneath) folk music, blues, singersongwriter and psychedelia. It is a pleasure to see him take this beauty to yet another level by unleashing 2 dying dogs to join him as a backing band, pushing his tunes into directions Les Rallizes Dénudés took a left and forgot their mountain of distortion, to end up in a dessert where Teenage Boys dance their first slow. De Stervende Honden know their place…