Music from United States

First reissue of Jon Hassell's "Fourth World" masterpiece, originally released in 1981. Featuring contributions from Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois (U2, Peter Gabriel), and Michael Brook (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan). Beautifully remastered, with a bonus track ("Ordinary Mind") and liner notes written by Hassell himself. "Fourth World is a viewpoint out of which evolves guidelines for finding balances between accumulated knowledge and the conditions created by new technologies" --Jon Hassell. From his …

Utterly destructive and heart-wrenching power noise and catharsis from the don gorgon of Hospital Productions, making Prurient's first album confession since the release of the stunning Frozen Niagara Falls. Taking almost 40 minutes to spell out a litany of ills that mark up as classic, pain-saturated Prurient in contrast with the more layered, nuanced narrative and more complex production values of his last album, the set boots off with the infernal backdraft and flagellating vox of the album’s…

Doxy present a reissue of George Russell Sextet's Ezz-thetics, originally released in 1961. The sextet features George Russell, Dave Baker, Don Ellis, Eric Dolphy, Steve Swallow, and Joe Hunt. Includes bonus track. Edition of 300 (numbered).  "With a group of musicians assembled for the occasion, pianist/composer/theorist George Russell goes into Riverside's studios in 1960 to record Ezz-thetics. Nowadays frequently found on 'greatest jazz albums' lists, this fantastic record is difficult to cat…

Original copies, few in stock, long out of print. Gordon Mumma is best known for his pioneering role in the development and evolution of electronic and live-electronic, and this selection is truly important, as it contains pieces that are only available here, as Schoolwork (1970) recorded with the help of David Behrman and Katherine Morton

Post-minimalist American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri makes his Umor Rex debut with bold new album, The Shameless Years. Inspired by a troubled socio-political climate, buried melodies punch their way through a bleak cover of noisy drones, periodically veering into some of Irisarri’s most eerily pertinent music to date. LP limited edition of 700 copies pressed on red colored vinyl, includes a post card with original artwork and free download coupon. One of Rafael Anton Irisarri’s most th…

"Meditation / Resurrection is a double-album presenting a bounty of beautiful new William Parker compositions performed by two of his flagship ensembles, the Quartet -&- In Order To Survive. It was recorded & mixed live during a one-day studio session in late 2016. With the tone of the pieces & performances reflecting our current moment, this is Parker & the groups' follow-up to 2013's epic Wood Flute Songs box (2013). At the core of both groups is Parker's foundational bass together with rhythm…

"The music takes on short, fleeting forms: fading here, held and moody there, as though the improvisation encouraged skepticism of firm certitudes. The tightness of the discourse, however, demands enlightening energy and lucid tautness." (Jean-François Abert, excerpt from the liner notes)"We have already seen that in the history of the universe, such a spiral nucleus of sounds that subsides on itself and grows dense, that softens and dilates, that provides its exceptional energy of cohesion even…

Yasunao Tone on AI Deviation #1, #2: "I have had an idea if I apply the neural network to create my sound work for long time. When I had a performance at Centre Pompidou with Peter Rehberg and other friends I tried to talk about the idea with a French guy from IRCAM. But, he couldn't understand my idea, which by using neural network the sound I create would never have any repetitions. That was 2002 and I had to wait until 2015 when I had a grant from New York State Council on the Arts through IS…

A reissue of the long out-of-print first solo record by American violinist Billy Bang (1947-2011), recorded at Gaku Gallery in New York on August 12, 1979. Originally released on Hat Hut Records in 1980. Distinction Without A Difference features Bang's own compositions, extrapolated at length in an intimate live concert, as well as traditional and improvised material. Remastered from original tapes and augmented by newly discovered recordings from the same concert. Part of the large cache of his…

2015 release. A reissue of Steve Lacy and Steve Potts's Tips, originally released on Hat Hut Records in 1981. Soprano saxophonist Lacy wrote the suite of tunes for Tips to feature the aphorisms of painter Georges Braque, as sung by Irene Aebi. Together with his right-hand-man, alto saxophonist Potts, he and Aebi recorded these 14 anthemic tracks in Paris in 1979, and the young hat Hut Records label issued them on a now-rare LP. The music allowed Lacy to extend and deepen his longstanding interes…

2013 release. An expanded reissue of Sun Ra's Continuation, originally released in 1970. A special two CD reissue of the hyper-rare El Saturn Records album, recorded in 1963, early in the Arkestra's New York period, paired with a full disc of extra material. Loaded with John Gilmore, one of the greatest and rarest slabs of Sun Ra vinyl, on CD for the first time. Recorded on March 10, 1963 at the Choreographer's Workshop in New York City. Remastered from the original tapes by Michael D. Anderson;…

A stunning version of Steve Reich's masterpiece of musical minimalism Music For 18 Musicians (1974-1976), performed live at Tokyo Opera House in 2008 by Ensemble Modern and Synergy Vocals, featuring the composer as guest performer. LP housed in a deluxe die cut jacket with printed insert. In the 1960s, with Terry Riley and Philip Glass, Reich gave pulse back to experimental music. He discovered the tape-based techniques of looping and phasing, using recordings of fragments of speech, and then mo…

Christian Wolff on Berlin Exercises: "'Exercise' indicates relatively shorter pieces in which the process of work, of practicing and of trying things out within specified limits, in short a kind of discipline in process, are being attempted. I regard them as both exercises in composing and for performers, especially as the performers function as members of an ensemble." Your first encounter with the music of Christian Wolff leaves you with the impression you’ve just heard (or played, or re…

By the time Jimmy Raney recorded the ultra-cool Visits Paris, he was already at the peak of his career. Having started in 1944 with the Jerry Wald band, he'd pass through a passel of great jazz combos before ending up with Stan Getz in his classic quintet. There, the guitarist became world-renowned, and just weeks before cutting this album, in 1954, he was voted the number one guitarist in the world by French magazine Le Hot Jazz. The album finds Raney on a (very) brief break from touring…

A 1965 journey into found sound; this is John Cage. Another seminal volume of indeterminate music, from an icon of experimental sounds. Reissued for the first time and thematically on gorgeous clear vinyl! It could be argued that there is no more controversial figure in music history as avant-garde electronic composer John Cage. Perhaps best known for his composition “4'33"" which consisted of Cage sitting at a piano for four-plus minutes of total silence, Cage was both loved and loathed …

KIO GE is the result of the collaboration between the American sound artist Jeph Jerman and the Italian percussionists Paolo Sanna and Giacomo Salis. Twelve short improvisations that include minimal textures, field recordings, abstract atmospheres and organic sounds. Storytelling through sound with many faces.

Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello marks the culmination of Morton Feldman’s late chamber writing, recorded at Henry Wood Hall in London in 2017 by a quartet comprised of Mark Knoop (piano), Aisha Orazbayeva (violin), Bridget Carey (viola), and Anton Lukoszevieze (cello). The composition, premiered in 1987, unspools over seventy-five minutes as an unhurried expanse - a landscape where micro-variations bring fragile changes within near-stasis, and the weight of each chord, sustain, and silence is palpab…

"Due to unprecedented demand" for the first volume of Everest's 1965 release of John Cage's Variations IV (perhaps unique at the time given the experimental nature of the material), a second selection of music culled from Cage and associate David Tudor's marathon six-hour concert at the Feigen-Palmer Gallery in Los Angeles was released. Whereas the first volume indicated roughly at what moment of the performance the recordings were sourced from (its four extracts document events taking place in …

''My Beloved Brothers and Sisters: I am overwhelmed with joy to see the entire youth of America gathered here in the name of the fine art of music. In fact, through the music, we can work wonders. Music is a celestial sound and it is the sound that controls the whole universe, not atomic vibrations. Sound energy, sound power, is much, much greater than any other power in this world. And, one thing I would very much wish you all to remember is that with sound, we can make—and at the same ti…

ESP-Disk present a reissue of Albert Ayler's Prophecy, originally released in 1975. Recorded in concert at the Cellar Cafe, NYC, June 14, 1964. Three weeks before this trio recorded ESP-Disk's first jazz album, the epochal Spiritual Unity (ESPDISK 1002CD/LP), it was captured "live" by Canadian poet Paul Haines, who also recorded the New York Eye and Ear Control soundtrack (ESPDISK 1016CD/LP). This is one of the most influential groups in jazz history, a coming together of like-minded innovators …