★Roaratorio
Scraps And Shadows
Scraps And Shadows is the second album by the dream pairing of Joe McPhee and Chris Corsano. A follow-up to Under A Double Moon, which featured McPhee’s alto saxophone, Scraps And Shadows finds him largely on tenor. Recorded live in Milwaukee in 20…
Symphony No. 3: Siddhartha Gautama O El Poder De La Nada
When psycho-spatial composer Nelson Gastaldi passed away in 2009 at the age of 77, he left behind a unique musical legacy that is only now beginning to be unveiled. A self-described “musical nihilist with noble and mystic origins” (as well as an acco…
Black Phoenix Blues
Black Phoenix Blues is the third Roaratorio collection of the best of Rodd Keith’s vast output. Dating from 1966 to 1974, the sixteen previously unreissued songs showcase the scope of his work: the should’ve-been-a-hit “You And I”; the elegant exo…
Under a double moon
With a career now spanning over 40 years and more than 100 recordings, Joe McPhee has shown that emotional content and theoretical underpinnings are thoroughly compatible — and in fact, a critically important pairing — in the world of creative imp…
To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of
Shortly after it was published in 1968 the SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas fell into my hands. Intrigued by the egalitarian feminist principles set forth in the Manifesto, I wanted to incorporate them in the structure of a new piece that I was com…
Rag
Rag captures the best from a series of freely improvised meetings between saxophonist George Cartwright and percussionist Davu Seru, recorded at various Minneapolis venues over the course of 2009. Cartwright – longtime leader of Curlew, and owner…
Completed Rotations of the....
When one thinks of the musical centers of New Zealand, the city of Tauranga doesn’t have as celebrated a history as Dunedin, Auckland or Christchurch. Which is apt, in a way, as the artist known to us only as Rotate The Completor makes music that so…
Saucers In The Sky
Rodney Keith Eskelin, aka Rodd Keith, aka Rod Rogers, would've certainly found the recognition during his lifetime that his talent demanded, if he hadn't chosen to work in the lowest depths of the music industry: the "send us your lyrics" field, know…
Mining Our Bid'ness
A revelatory debut album by a 64 year old pianist/composer may beg the question: where has Carei Thomas been all this time? Born in a culturally diverse neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Thomas cut his musical teeth…
Antarctica
RESTOCKED, very last copies...Awesome new arrival, two side-long excursions into monolithic drone-rock in Tony Conrad + Faust vein. David Maranha’s recordings stretch back over 20 years with the Portuguese avant trio Osso Exótico, as well as collabo…
Gedanken Splitter
Paul Metzger continues to pile up the plaudits from critics and peers alike for his virtuosic string-slinging, gaining notice through his CD on Chairkickers and his split LP with Ben Chasny and Chris Corsano on Roaratorio. Metzger’s modified banjo is…
Gussie
On a hot Minneapolis night in the summer of 2001, the legendary avant/jazz group Curlew played a scorching gig at the now-defunct Gus Lucky's Gallery. Gussie documents that evening: the veteran improvising group dispensed with their compositions alto…
Knife World
Formed in Minneapolis in 2004, Knife World have converted many unwary bystanders into true believers through their frenetic gigs in underground venues and the occasional club. The band worships at the Riff Temple, swapping pomposity for a mischievous…
The New Nixon Tapes
"Since 2003, NYC's Talibam! have been charting a course through the improv waters in a way that few other groups can pull off. Rock, jazz, noise and all stops in between collide in an aggressive mix that defines free music in the best sense of the te…
Alto
Alto completes a discrete trilogy within JOE MCPHEE’s catalog of unaccompanied waxings (Tenor, 1977, and Soprano, 2007). Recorded live at a Lower East Side bar in 2009, McPhee's explorations on alto saxophone and clarinet are alternately fiery and co…
The Music Ensemble
The first documentation of this important free improvising group, featuring Roger Baird, Billy Bang, Malik Baraka, Daniel Carter, William Parker, and Herb Kahn. Existing during the heyday of NYC's Loft Scene, their name has often been cited as a cruc…
The Minexcio Connection: Live at the Rosendale Cafe
One of the most unexpected yet fruitful partnerships of recent years: in the mid-1990s, Pauline Oliveros, electronic music pioneer and sage of the environmental drone, began working with Reynols, the prolific and resolutely undefinable Argentinian gr…