Folk /
Organize or Die
Minneapolis guitarist, Matt Sowell, is another of the many great players we were first introduced to at the Thousand Incarnations of the Rose festival in Takoma Park, MD. Matt played a richly dark and brooding set at Rhizome, with a style deeply indebted to the American Primitive tradition. His set had the raw strength of Fred Gerlach, the precision of Peter Lang, showed a country/blues influence that seemed to reference Fahey, and possessed the raga-meets-ragtime eclecticism of Jack Rose. We we…
Mushroom Ceremony of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico
**2020 stock** Recorded on the night of July 21/22, 1956 by V.P. & R. Gordon Wasson, these are rough and ready field recordings featuring the voice of Maria Sabina (1894-1985) a Mexican curandera who would perform healing vigils known as veladas in Huautla de Jimenez, Oaxaca where all participants would ingest psilocybin mushrooms (Maria's holy children), as a sacrament to open the gates of the mind and communicate with the sacred. María Sabina (July 22, 1894, Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, Mexico …
The Faerie Shaman
Gwydion Pendderwen was one of the more chatoyant figures of the folk music underground. Both of his albums -- Sings Songs for the Old Religion (1975) and The Fäerie Shaman (1982) -- were far above the average standard folk of his time, especially on his second album from 1982, reissued here for the first time. The Neo-Pagan and environmentalist tried a different path seven years after his haunting debut album, mixing bluegrass, country, gospel, and dixie into classic folky singer/songwriter tune…
Pesmi
Originally released in 1983 in former Yugoslavia, this album is a truly undiscovered gem of ethereal folk music. Pesmi combines the old traditional melodies of Eastern Europe and the Balkan States area with the lush and enchanting instrumentation of late '60s and early '70s folk with elements of progressive folk and singer/songwriter music from England and the USA. This results in a highly-mystifying and still easily folksy piece of exclusively acoustically instrumented music with haunting femal…
Songs of the Great Mystery
**Clear vinyl. In process of stocking** Robbie Basho was one of the big three American acoustic guitar innovators, John Fahey and Leo Kottke being the other two. Basho was the least commercially successful of the three, but his influence and reputation has steadily grown since his untimely death in 1986 at the age of 45. And with good reason; for Basho's deeply spiritual approach, intellectual rigor, and formal explorations (among his goals was the creation of a raga system for American music), …
Which Way You Goin' Billy?
Which Way You Goin' Billy?, released in 1969, was the first album from Vancouver, British Columbia band The Poppy Family. The Poppy Family were the Canadian duo of Terry and Susan Jacks, who were husband and wife at the time. Terry Jacks, who four years later would release the ubiquitous "Seasons in the Sun," wrote the song whilst Susan sang lead. Terry was a big Buddy Holly fan, and started writing the song in his pre-Poppy days with the working title "Which Way You Goin' Buddy?" He had the mel…
Stvaranje
The title of this album - originally released in 1974 - means “The creation” and Serbian singer Maja De Rado together with her band create a very dreamy and colorful kind of music that merges different pop styles of their time with a folky approach. This album could have easily emerged from the late 1960s West Coast scene of the USA except for having lyrics in the musicians’ native tongue. The lush instrumentation with organs, flutes, acoustic guitars builds a multi layered fruitful soil on whic…
Ex Patris
The title Ex Patris (from the fathers) plays on the idiomatic baroque lute compositions presented here which emulate the classical repertoire. It also refers to this almost forgotten instrument, which was passed on by the fathers. The Jozef Van Wissem's aim is to bring back and liberate the lute. The four compositions on Ex Patris form a circular narrative of interlocking repetitive melodic series. The follow up to Important release “ It is all that is made” kicks off with the pro apocalyptic tr…
Give It Up
An incredible soundtrack to Donald Prokop's film 'Gone' specially composed by Zelienople - and trust us when we say it's worthy of the cost of admission in itself* This unbelievable album from Chicago's Zelienople evokes the spirit of some of the most treasured music we've come to know over the years, fusing in elements of Talk Talk at their most washed-out, early Bark Psychosis and the narcotic sweeps of Slowdive fused in with the smoky menace of Bohren and Der Club of Gore, Angelo Badalamenti …
Yanti Bersaudara
**180 gram Vinyl** Sought-after eponymous Indonesian album by the Yanti Bersaudara (which means the Yanti sisters: Yani, Tina & Lin Hardjakusumah), released in 1971 and reissued for the first time. It is a very spiritual and magical Sunda album with haunting vibes based on a unique, creative and strong Sundanese cultural heritage. Active only for less than a decade (from the 1960s until the early 1970s), the three sisters originally from Bandung (West Java) sang traditional Sundanese songs with …
Mickey Guitar & Haga Kazutaka meets Gamelan & Jegog
**In process of stocking** Mickey Guitar is Ken Matsutani, he was manager of the legendary Captain Trip Records. Japanese guitarist and vocalist, best known as the leader of Marble Sheep. He has also participated in several other Japanese rock underground groups including AOR and Cement Women (1982), Onna (1985), White Heaven (1986).
"We, Matsutani and Haga were playing with Gamelan ( 16 performers) and Jegog ( 29 performers) at Indonesia Bali Island in March 2019. All recordings were done open …
Scott
**180 gram audiophile vinyl** No one could deny Scott Walker is an unpredictable artist. Once the lead singer for the Walker Brothers (famous for their string laden Sixties defining hits "Make It Easy On Yourself" and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore") he released his first solo album Scott in 1967. Eschewing all Pop trends at the time, Walker stepped it up a notch, crooning with a nod to Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and chansonnier Jacques Brel. A pretty bold move indeed, in a time when Pop mu…
Seke Molenga & Kalo Kawongolo
Over the years, they would come to say that the Africans just appeared one day in Jamaica. That two Congo men somehow materialized on the streets of Kingston sometime in 1977, almost as if by magic, speaking not a word of English or patwa. The duo, they say, were musicians brought in by a Jamaican promoter – a woman who ditched them, leaving them to fend for themselves, stranded in a strange land.
What really happened is harder to fully divine. The two young Africans – Molenga Mosukola (aka Seke…
The Virtuoso of Sitar Vol. II
First vinyl reissue of this Indian classical masterpiece recorded by Shrimati Kalyani Roy in the late 1960s. Undoubtedly one of the most talented sitar players in the history of the instrument. She is considered as one the finest female players in a field that was dominated by her male counterparts. On these recordings, a two-volume set, she is accompanied by Manick Das (tabla) and Namita Chatterjee (tambura). Recorded in Japan on September 20th, 1974. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (V 2011LP) come as two se…
The Virtuoso of Sitar Vol. I
First vinyl reissue of this Indian classical masterpiece recorded by Shrimati Kalyani Roy in the late 1960s. Undoubtedly one of the most talented sitar players in the history of the instrument. She is considered as one the finest female players in a field that was dominated by her male counterparts. On these recordings, a two-volume set, she is accompanied by Manick Das (tabla) and Namita Chatterjee (tambura). Recorded in Japan on September 20th, 1974. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (V 2011LP) come as two se…
Ormenion
**Deluxe edition with high gloss laminated gatefold cover, printed insert and download code.** Teranga Beat proudly presents Ormenion, a record by the group Evritiki Zygia. Ormenion is a historical region that dates back to the Byzantine Empire. It is the northernmost inhabited region of Greece, where the last railway station of the country is located. During the 1920's it was inhabited by refugees coming from the North and Eastern Thrace. Immigration is central to the history of the region of T…
Devil Got My Woman - Songs of Devilry, Doom & Voodoo
"A great selection of 1920s-50s blues/jazz tracks about the devil, hoodoo men, and dark tales of doom and misery by artists like Victoria Spivey, Blind Willie Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Memphis Minnie, Skip James, and others. An excellent choice for your next Day of the Dead or Halloween party. Also features Leola Manning, Louis Jordan, Blind Joe Taggart, Charley Patton, Truett & George, Oliver Brown, Bo Carter, Brownie McGhee, and Johnny Temple."
The Eighteenth Day of May
The Eighteenth Day of May were a six-piece, London based group. Originally formed as an acoustic trio consisting of American Alison Brice (vocals, flute), Swede Richard Olson (acoustic guitar, harmonica, sitar), and Ben Phillipson (guitar, mandolin), they combined elements of traditional and contemporary folk with a psychedelic jangle. They spent the summer and autumn of 2003 bonding over Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Sandy Denny, and Trees all blending in with …
Voices Of Haiti
**2020 repress** Fantome Phonographique present a reissue of Maya Deren's Voices Of Haiti, originally released as a 10" record in 1954. Maya Deren (1917-1961) was a Russian-American filmmaker and one of the most important voices in avant-garde cinema of the mid-20th century. She was a muse and inspiration to such up-and-coming avant-garde filmmakers as Curtis Harrington, Stan Brakhage, and Kenneth Anger, who emulated her independent, entrepreneurial spirit. Throughout the 1940s and '50s, Deren a…
Fantasias For Guitar And Banjo
Folk musician Sandy Bull took an unorthodox approach to stringed instruments, influenced in part by sharing an apartment with Nubian oud master, Hamza El Din. His 1963 debut LP for Vanguard, Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo, saw him backed by Los Angeles-based jazz drummer Billy Higgins: side-long epic Blend is influenced by eastern and middle-eastern music forms; Little Maggie displays a lightning-fast picking style, Gospel Tune hearkens to the American South, medieval classic Non Nobis Domine is…