Music from United States

"Listening to Miles Davis' originally released version of In a Silent Way in light of the complete sessions released by Sony in 2001 (Columbia Legacy 65362) reveals just how strategic and dramatic a studio construction it was. If one listens to Joe Zawinul's original version of In a Silent Way, it comes across as almost a folk song with a very pronounced melody. The version Miles Davis and Teo Macero assembled from the recording session in July of 1968 is anything but. There is no melody, not ev…

Black Beauty, Miles Davis At Fillmore West, was recorded on April 10, 1970 at Fillmore West, San Francisco, when Davis performed as the opening act for the Grateful Dead. The recording took place shortly after the release of Miles' classic album Bitches Brew. The album was released in 1973, originally in Japan only. Black Beauty, a true jazz-rock album, captured one of Davis' first performances at a rock venue during the early stages of his electric period. At the concert, he led his band (saxop…

The 1972 masterpiece by Chicago singer-songwriter and guitarist Terry Callier, returning here in the Music On Vinyl 180g audiophile edition. Cut at the heart of Callier's tenure on Cadet, the jazz imprint of Chess Records, What Color Is Love stands as the artistic peak of his collaboration with arranger and producer Charles Stepney, captured across three Cadet albums, Occasional Rain (1972), What Color Is Love and I Just Can't Help Myself (1974), plus a fourth project that was cut short by Stepn…

2018 release. Burnt Weeny Sandwich is the first of two albums by the Mothers of Invention that Frank Zappa released in 1970, after he had disbanded the original lineup. While Weasels Ripped My Flesh focuses on complex material and improvised stage madness, this collection of studio and live recordings summarizes the leader's various interests and influences at the time. It opens and closes on '50s pop covers, "WPLJ" and "Valarie." "Aybe Sea" is a Zappafied sea shanty, while "Igor's Boogie" is na…

2017 release. We're Only in It for the Money is the third studio album by the Mothers of Invention. Released on March 4, 1968 on Verve Records. As with the band's previous two albums, We're Only in It for the Money is a concept album, and satirizes left and right-wing politics, particularly the hippie subculture, as well as the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums: Lumpy Gravy…

Strut and Art Yard present another exclusive from the vast catalogue of cosmic jazz pioneer Sun Ra: a previously unreleased radio session most likely recorded at the WXPN FM radio studios in Philadelphia, 1974-5.  This newly discovered session features a new version of Ra’s earlier ‘Island In The Sun’, a romping, raucous rendition of ‘Unmask The Batman’ and the first studio recording of ‘I’ll Wait For You’ There is no bass player on the sessions and Ra’s left hand beats out a rhythmic bass patte…

**Astonishing unreleased archival Terry Riley material finally available on LP, a true and rare slice of history released on wax**By the early 1960s pioneering minimalist composer Terry Riley had just completed a MA in composition from UC Berkeley, begun working at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, along with Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, and Pauline Oliveros, among others, and had started to compose prolifically. Though his first “proper” album would not be released for several years, in 19…

Ikue Mori and Christian Rønn are twin masters of unrule, radically attuned to time and sound, invoking the personhood of space and object, chordis et machina, as you'll soon discover once their music gets loose in your own environ. “Endless probing that hooks into your neurons, this album leaves sonic organisms floating around you. Even if that's merely an illusion, the alchemy of Mori and Rønn’s hyperactive stew is very real.” -Marc Masters Laid down at Elektron Musik Studion (EMS) in Stockholm…

* 2020 Stock * Widening their scope from recent grindcore on Nuclear War Now! Productions, Sissy Spacek's Blear explores a much more dynamic and spacious approach to sound--an entropic vortex of full-room tear-up texture. Duo lineup of Charlie Mumma and John Wiese, released in an edition of 300. The group's 8th release on Gilgongo Records. "I completely loved this tape through and through. I haven’t heard enough of Sissy Spacek’s back catalog to comment if this is what they typically sound like…

Don Cherry's downtown Paris funk masterwork Home Boy, Sister Out, produced in 1985 by Ramuntcho Matta and originally released by Barclay in France only, finally gets a worldwide release on Wewantsounds. Featuring French post-punk muse Elli Medeiros, avant-garde poet Brion Gysin, and cult Senegalese drummer Abdoulaye Prosper Niang (Xalam), this is a unique soundbite of Paris in the early '80s at its coolest when funk, jazz, and new wave were mingling with sounds from Africa, Jamaica, and Latin Am…

2023 Repress American composer and multi-instrumentalist Alvin Curran has remained one of the great emblems of experimental music for the last half-century. In 1966, along with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, Curran co-founded Musica Elettronica Viva, a seminal gesture in collective free improvisation. In the early '70s, his solo work would become a crucial bridge between minimalist traditions on both sides of the Atlantic. Canti E Vedute Del Giardino Magnetico, Curran's solo debut, was…

Few copies back in stock, totally sold-out at source. Originally released in 1978 on El Saturn Records. Disco 3000 is one of Sun Ra's greatest from the '70s. Recorded in Italy in 1978, it features some incredibly otherworldly keyboards that are some of his most enigmatic on record. Original tracks from the album include "Disco 3000", an incredible workout on synthesizer, with a tiny bit of drum machine, a little "Space Is The Place" breakdown, and all of the wild sound you'd expect from a Sun Ra…

Jim O’Rourke returns with his first physical solo album since 2015’s Simple Songs, following a relatively steady supply of download-only releases via his Steamroom Bandcamp (over 20 of them since 2015) and collaborations with John Duncan, Keiji Haino, Oren Ambarchi, Peter Brötzmann, Merzbow, Fennesz and others in the interim. Anyone familiar with his exceptional Steamroom output will have an inkling of what to expect here; this is Jim O’Rourke at his most meditative, absorbing and quietly subver…

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…

Recorded April 21, 1976, Blue Rock Studio, NYC. This is a reissue of the rare album, ‘The Haunt’ (Otic 1005). Includes a nearly 7 minute bonus track not found on original LP. Featuring Bobby Naughton on vibes & compositions, (Wadada) Leo Smith on trumpet and Perry Robinson on clarinet. Recorded April 21, 1976, Blue Rock Studio, NYC. This is a reissue of the rare album, ‘The Haunt’ (Otic 1005). After attending dozen of jazz gigs at places like the Village Vanguard, the Village Gate and the Five S…

Highly synergistic split from Eleh and Caterina Barbieri featuring two sides of similar audio dimensions. These two electronic sound poems slowly unfurl rich timbre and harmonics with an austere stillness that is, somehow, ever-changing. It hardly matters whose side is whose.

2010 release. Deluxe collector's item issued in a limited edition of 475 (numbered). 81 minutes of duet recordings with Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley. The pieces were selected by the musicians from ten hours recorded during their two weeks at New York's Village Vanguard in 2008. Comes in a gatefold sleeve; Accompanied by museum-grade folio, including exclusive original poetry by Cecil Taylor and paintings by Tony Oxley. Personnel: Frank Lowe - tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, voice, perc…

**Edition of 300 copies** During the decades following the Second World War, all eyes shifted toward New York, a city which, at that moment, played host to some of brightest creative minds of the century. Innovations were abound. Visual artists, writers, thinkers, musicians, and composers continuously pushed into previously unthinking ground. While the United States had been previously known to give birth to a wild and distinct breed of composer, from Charles Ives to Nancarrow, Harry Partch, Cow…

The intense individuality of Morton Feldman's (1926?1987) art and its 'painterly' aspect have tended to push his rich output of works into a zone all of their own, surrounded by a moat of stillness. This recording attempts the reverse process -- to bring his choral works (the previously unrecorded Chorus and Instruments, Voices and Instruments 1, Voices and Instruments 2, and The Swallows of Salangan) into a 'gallery' of other choir compositions of his times. Through the interaction with works o…

This recording is the first ever devoted to the orchestral music of Christian Wolff (b. 1934) and thus documents a little-known aspect of his wide-ranging work. John, David (1998) introduces in its second part a prominent role for solo percussionist, playing a wide range of pitched and non-pitched instruments, including marimba, glockenspiel, a variety of drums, wood and metal instruments and other sources, the exact choice left to the performer. Rhapsody (2009), in contrast, uses instruments of…