Folk /
White Island
*First ever vinyl reissue* 'The Nanai people have their songs and instruments. Some of them were used by composer Alexander Lavrov and singer Kola Beldy who is of Nanian descent in their music on this, Kola Beldy’s fourth album. Just as all his records from the 1980s, this is extremely rare and originals in good shape can cost a small fortune. Just in case they ever turn up somewhere outside the vast Russian country. Now for the very outstanding music that as mentiond above is based on centuries…
The Old Fabled River
Norwegian folk collective Völvur team up with Scotland's very own Alasdair Roberts for an album combining traditional and modern songs in both groups' native languages – to powerful effect.
Rugiada
*In process of stocking* Union Editions presents Rugiada by Trapcoustic. Written and played by Stefano di Trapani in Roma during xmas 2020. Special thanks to Michele Manfellotto and Grip Casino. Inspiration: Jonida e Arion. Mastering by Luciano Lamanna.
The Middle East
The second and last chapter of Dr Miller's journey between cultures and its uses, which began with "The Far East", dissected and looked into the root of the sound of distant Asia, continues with this new chapter dedicated instead to the countries bathed by the Mediterranean and contiguous to Central European history. From Spain to Arabic sounds, a new compendium that takes us back to other places and times, Dr Miller is once again able to dissect andencapsulate sounds and spices from distant pla…
After the Bend
*300 copies limited edition* 'After the Bend is the second album from Louisville based Flanger Magazine, and the follow up to FM’s 2018 debut, Breslin. Whereas Breslin was the solo creation of Christopher Bush, an album noted for “an astute synthesis of ‘library music’ and solo acoustic guitar,” and “a seamless blend into the uncluttered and airier side of classic 1970’s giallo,” After the Bend is an ensemble affair. An ecosystem, a perfect mutualism bodies forth—of strings, outdoor recordings, …
Returns
Warm Currency is a new project by Sydney-based friends, artists and musicians MP Hopkins and Mary MacDougall. Mary began working with MP Hopkins and Christopher Schueler in 2008 as Vincent Over the Sink morphed into The Bowles. Returns was recorded in Mary’s home during 2020-2021 and is their first release since 2012’s The Bowles EP (Kye). Quietly intense folk music, song-poems, and concrète collages built from seemingly simple and delicate arrangements for guitar, keyboards, voice and tape.
Bouquet
Tip! Almost 40 years since its original release on cassette, Robbie Basho's 13th album is now available for the first time on vinyl. Remastered from the original master recording (discovered during the production of "Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho"), it has never sounded better. Included are notes from the original lyric sheet, as well as insights from Glenn Jones, Henry Kaiser and others. Bonus tracks (Digital only) include an epic 13-minute solo version of "Land of Our Fathers"…
Indo-Arabic Variations
Tip! Unique fusion of the Indian and Egyptian music cultures devised by Baligh Hamdi, the most prominent of all modern composers in the Arab-speaking world. Hamdi, who penned dozens of hit compositions for Umm Kulthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Warda and Sabah amongst others, also shaped the future of Arabic music in a way that's difficult to overestimate.
Directed by Hamdi, the renowned Indian sitar player Magid Khan joins the Egyptian musicians of Abdel Halim Hafez's orchestra in re-reading some of H…
Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter
WRWTFWW & MEG Museum (Geneva) are very happy to announce a new album by famed Japanese percussionist Midori Takada, Cutting Branches For A Temporary Shelter, her very own rendition of "Nhemamusasa", a traditional work emblematic of the musical repertoire for mbira of the Shona of Zimbabwe. Recorded in a live setting and played with instruments conserved in the collections of the MEG Museum.
Liner notes include: An interview by Midori Takada A point of view by Zimbabwean scholar, musician and act…
Shirley Mastic
**100 copies** "I wrote and recorded these songs over a decade ago. Listening back, I chuckle at the fact that I may actually say the word ‘die’ or ‘death’ in every single song. Considering how metaphorically I attempted to write these lyrics, those two words very literally represent what I was dealing with. Within a four year span I lost one of my best friends to cancer and my dad to a heart attack. As a person in my 20’s that span of time felt like an eternity but in hindsight I can see now th…
Folksongs & Ballads
Folksongs and Ballads by Tia Blake & Her Folk-Group, is more than just a “lost classic”. As clear and honest as can be, Folksongs and Ballads is a magnetic record, a refuge like only Nick Drake, Nico, and a few others have been able to create. A graceful, delicately minimalist approach to classic Appalachian and British folk songs.The perfect balance between melancholy and daydream. Originally released only in France in 1971, Ici Bientôt is very pleased to present the first-ever reissue on vinyl…
Let No One Judge You: Early Recordings From Iran, 1906-1933
*2022 stock* The set is a 34-song anthology of Early Recordings From Iran painstakingly restored from 78s at Abbey Road studio in London "Ravishingly beautiful, achingly precious songs and instrumentals, ranging from two performances by the Royal Court Orchestra in 1906 — with futuristic, overlapping trumpets and exquisite clarinet improvisation — through to a hauntingly soulful Hafez setting by Moluk Zarrabi of Kashan, from 1933. There are eight selections from more than three hundred recording…
I Live In A Utopia
This sprawling collection by Belgian loner blues savant Bram Devens aka Ignatz encapsulates the mystery, murk, and melancholy of his uncanny craft at its most windswept and wayward. Originally issued via Goaty Tapes in September of 2015, this long-anticipated vinyl edition expands the saga with an additional 17 minutes of archival material. Deven’s palette remains constant throughout: feathery fingerpicking, modal loops, and intuitive six-string navigations interspersed with candlelit passages o…
De Dreit Nien
The Jericho project is fully in line with the approach of the La Nòvia collective from which it originates, a hub for like-minded musicians reinventing regional folk repertoires, marrying traditional French song with minimalism via the use of drone. Jericho is just one of many available permutations of La Nòvia members, with the line-up including Yann Gourdon, Clément Gauthier, Jacques Puech and Antoine Cognet – you could say it’s La Nòvia’s flagship, or super-group. There are no dramatic stylis…
There Up, Behind The Moon
Melody As Truth is proud to announce ‘There Up, Behind the Moon’, a collaborative album from Romanian musician Ana Stamp and Jonny Nash. For this collaboration, the pair spent over two years researching, arranging and recording Romanian folklore songs, aiming to give new context to these traditional, forgotten melodies. Throughout the album Ana’s vocals sit in delicate balance with Nash’s signature minimalist arrangements, accompanied with cimbalom, piano, double bass and guitar. ‘Bright Girl’, …
The Manson Family Sings The Songs Of Charles Manson
Recorded at the infamous Spahn Ranch in 1970, while their leader Charles Manson was facing trial for the murder of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, The Manson Family Sings is a highly disconcerting listen. Beneath the harmonic brilliance and folksy innocence of these campfire-styled recordings are the hallmarks of Manson’s twisted worldview, rendering a dystopian edge to what is otherwise compelling singalongs. Squeaky Frome, Brenda Gold, Gypsy Share and Sandra Blue all feature, with Clem Grogan fron…
Homage To Nazim Hikmet
Following the reissue of the self-titled debut by Tülay German & François Rabbath in
2021, we‘re presenting the 2nd and final part of our Tülay German reissues: "Homage to Nazım Hikmet" (1982). Once again in a duo setting with François Rabbath, Tülay German pays tribute to one of Turkey's greatest poets of the 20th century: Nazım Hikmet (1902-1963).
Mesourania/Wendy's Wedding
* Edition of 70 copies * Compiling two EP's (Mesourania (2019) and Wendy's Wedding (2016) by Seirios Savvaidis (who also plays in The Dead Ends), one of Greece's best kept secrets. Some mind expanding songs that reflect deep knowledge of traditional Greek music by way of sixties and seventies pychedelia and cosmic folk troubadours. Savvaidis's relaxed Greek vocals make you float all the way up Mount Paggaio.
Nass El Ghiwane
Nasse El ghiwane cannot be confined to the people who formed this mythical group. The practice of the ghiwane is an ancestral custom that conferred on people known for their probity and modesty the ability to describe through song and speech the daily life, problems and hindrances of their fellow men. These troubadours, from douars to douars, transmitted their knowledge through poetry, song and theatrical play. Considered revolutionary or a social phenomenon, the mythical band that American dire…
Dayspring
Released in 1983 on a miniscule run of 300-self-financed LP’s, Dennis Taylor’s ‘Dayspring’ remains a lost masterwork of transcendental instrumental guitar. An important missing link between the 60’s folkloric experimentalism of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, and the new age atmospherics mined by William Ackerman and Michael Hedges in the early 80’s. Though Taylor’s guitar playing remains crisply unadorned on these 10 tracks, his technique and his compositions stretch beyond the folk roots of the g…