Music from United States

"Every new musical language requires new performance skills. Works such as HO NOW and STRUNG OUT were, in effect, pieces written to develop these skills which include stamina, sustained concentration, and an ability to play continuously in an easy and relaxed manner." - Philip Glass

"Cosmos" is a hard-to-find, alternately chaotic and tightly organized mid-'70s session that was issued on the Cobra, and then Inner City labels. Sun Ra provided some stunning moments on the Rocksichord, while leading The Arkestra through stomping full-band cuts of atmospheric or alternately hard bop compositions, peeling off various saxophonists for skittering, screaming, at times spacey dialogues. (AMG)

In the late '50s, Sun Ra emerged from big band to modern/progressive big band status, began to employ electronics, and used a more Afro-Centric percussive focus. This recording perfecly demonstrates those qualities, and more. There are several definitive themes from The Arkestra included, such as "Plutonian Nights," "Nubia," "Africa," "Watusa" and "Aethiopia." Dig for this one on vinyl if you can (the cover art is stunning,) but it is nigh impossible to find on Saturn Research. (AMG)

Sun Ra's Angels & Demons at Play is a diptych created by merging two recording sessions. The first is a laid-back introspective affair ("angels?") recorded in 1960. Even frolicsome, these bouncy melodies follow the percolating rhythms with a gently leading reed, as Marshall Allen exemplifies on flute in "Tiny Pyramids." Also dating from before the truly experimental Sun Ra period, the last three tracks were recorded at RCA Studios in Chicago in 1956. Still very accessible, here several horns, am…

The Sun Ra Arkestra looks both forwards and backwards in time on this obscure small label LP. Ten years earlier, one could not have imagined Ra and his men romping through "On the Sunny Side of the Street" or reinventing "Flamingo." However, those versions certainly sound quite original, and there is no mistaking the band for any other orchestra on "Space Fling," "Manhattan Cocktail" and the trademark "Space Is the Place." The music on this album features a version of the Arkestra consisting of …

More stuff from Sun Ra's archives, this time focusing on his work with doo wop groups. Sun Ra had a home tape recorder early on, and most of these are previously unissued home rehearsals. The sound is generally excellent given that these are '50s home recordings (except for the studio tracks released on Saturn as singles and their studio rehearsal counterparts). Sun Ra clearly knew and loved this type of vocal music and probably could have had a career cranking out doo wop numbers (he wrote most…

The interplanetary jazz travelers of Sun Ra's Arkestra reached transcendent heights over the many decades their free music spanned. Live in Nickelsdorf 1984 finds a particularly spirited lineup of the Arkestra simmering through an almost three-hour set at an Austrian jazz festival. The band, featuring key Arkestra players John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Rollo Radford, Don Mumford, and of course Ra himself, runs through brilliant versions of almost 30 tunes. The set is heavy on improvisation and al…

Beautiful slice of 1987 new age ambience by Laraaji and his plugged in zither, reissued by Brian Eno's All Saints Music. "Heavenly tone clusters that stretch out into infinity and recall Popol Vuh's soundtracks for Werner Herzog. Floating, dream-like music to lose yourself in."

Agostino Di Scipio (computer e live electronics), Ciro Lombardi (piano).

Collaborating with drummer Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Man Forever), guitarist Alan Licht (Lee Ranaldo & the Dust, The Blue Humans, Love Child, Run On, etc.) is back for another release on New Images Ltd. We Thought We Could Do Anything is a far less literal take on spontaneous dialogue than his “talk-rock” project Title TK, whose album / sleeve / book Rock$ was published in 2013. Impressive pedigrees aside, Licht and Chase are a real-deal pairing; each has a longstanding involvement in underg…

After the last If, Bwana (Al Margolis) release on Pogus the large-scale double cd E (and Sometimes Why), this brand new If, Bwana recording is a little more intimate. This release consists of six smaller works for one or at most two instruments - with the instruments all being multi-tracked for a denser, deeper sound. Red One features performances by stalwart experimental/avant musician/composers such as Nate Wooley, trumpet, on Toys for Al (with Al Margolis on toy trumpet); Ellen Band's vocals …

'Masami's and my conversations look like heroin addicts talking : A phrase. A five minute silence. Another phrase. A five minute silence. A question. A five minute silence. Another phrase. A five minute silence. An answer. Et cetera.The BLACK ALBUM shows what's going on in our heads.' - John Duncan

Robbie Basho's Zarthus, dating from 1974, is, in his own words, "An album of Persian, Arabic, Westerns Themes (sic), woven together into a single 'Fabric D'Amour' to cover the barren manekin (sic) of modern times." Easily the album that most indulges his obsessions with Eastern modal scales and odd meters, and even Western classical themes. All of it is grounded in Basho's guitar though, and the discs first two tracks, "Zarthus" (dedicated to Meher Baba, Pete Townshend's guru) and "The Lord Of T…

Extraction is a collaboration between composer Ben Vida, visual artist Meredyth Sparks and curtor and writer Anthony Elms. Continuing Vida's explorations of digital and analog synthesizing systems,ÊExtractionÊgives particular focus to aural phenomena-engaging electronic, non-representational sounds that appear to cut, move and oscillate on both vertical and horizontal planes.The conceptual and formal parameters for this release circle around Sparks's notion of extraction, a practice and theory t…

For over 20 years Black Leather Jesus has been there, watching, waiting, playing in small, poorly-lit rooms. Founded by Richard Ramirez in 1989, everything they do is harsh, chaotic, and completely unlistenable to the sane mind. Ramirez was inspired by the gay S&M scene to create something that will haunt the hallowed halls of your soul. Seattle's incredibly prolific doom metal outfit Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, consisting primarily of members Stan Reed and wm.Rage, have released a slew of Lp,7-in…

As a body of repertoire, these works are remarkable for their freshness of musical thought and energy (John Cage considered Wolff to be the most 'musical' of the experimental composers). Christian Wolff uniquely blends experimental concerns with classical tendencies. In these pieces not only are older composers referenced (Ives, Schumann) but Wolff's love of clarity of line and transparency of texture betrays an empathy with Webern, Haydn and Bach. This aesthetic is, however, combined with a ten…

The first ever career-spanning collection of the music of legendary electronic mystic, Laraaji. Featuring rare early tape works, plus collaborations with Brian Eno, Bill Laswell and Blues Control, this triple vinyl edition houses each LP in its own printed inner bag and is presented in a specially made kraft board printed sleeve. 'Celestial Music' is a long overdue career retrospective documenting the highlights from over 30 years of spiritual music by Edward Larry Gordon aka Laraaji. Like many …

One of the essential albums of 70’s creative jazz, and a landmark recording in the second wave avant-garde movement of that era. The music of the late great saxophonist and composer Julius Hemphill presents a strong combination of Blues roots, free energy and bop complexity. Hemphill's compositions were meaty enough to offer the improvisers plenty of ideas, but they were airy and open, too. They left room for solos, accompanied by the rhythm section and unaccompanied, and for group improvisation…

Restocked Side A: recorded and mixed in 1993 by John Duncan and Jim O'Rourke at Christoph Heemann's studio in Aachen. Final mix in 2013 by Jim O'Rourke in Tokyo. Side B: Stay alive recorded live with Oren Ambarchi and Joe Talia on 9 March 2013 at SuperDeluxe, Tokyo; mixed by Joe Talia. YEAHJim and I worked fast and furiously in Christoph Heemann's studio to record this, working in shifts, day and night, three days later had it all but finished -- then Jim said 'Let me do just a couple of t…

*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* The latest in John Zorn‘s second Masada songbook, the highly melodic and dynamic Book of Angels, the 10 songs on Alastor come courtesy of master composer and violist / multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang. Though Kang generally skews towards classical, chamber, and ambient, his take on Zorn’s hand-picked selections is a surprising and gorgeous collision of styles. “Hakem” opens with synthesized accents and a strong Indian and Persian inflection—elements that re…