★Roaratorio
Sun Embassy
Roaratorio's survey of the unheard Sun Ra continues with Sun Embassy. Consisting of recordings from Sun Studios (aka Ra's house in Philadelphia) from 1968-1969, the album features nine tracks: six compositions which have never been heard before in any form, plus fresh coats of paint on such 1950s classics as "Sunology" and "Ancient Aiethiopia", and an early rendition of "Why Go To The Moon". Essential listening for Sun Ra devotees. Includes download coupon.
From Outer Space
**sold out at source, few copies left**At age 78, Joe McPhee shows no sign of slowing down. Plan B is the master improviser's new trio, with James Keepnews on guitar and laptop and David Berger on drums. A soundtrack to a science fiction movie existing only in their heads, From Outer Space finds McPhee and company envisioning the first encounter between alien life and a delegation of earthlings (while giving a nod to jazz's original man from another planet, Sun Ra, with a side-long suite dedic…
Flight Of The Light Air Force
"A companion EP to the recent double LP retrospective This Song Was Borne, Flight Of The Light Air Force features three exclusive tracks by cult favorite outsider-folk duo Fraser & DeBolt. The majestic title track is an outtake from their second Columbia LP With Pleasure; left off that album for reasons of space (it clocks in at eight minutes), it would've easily been the finest song on the record and a highlight of their career. On the flip side, we have two cuts recorded live at a February 197…
Molecular Affinity
Thollem McDonas : “This is the third trio album Nels and I have made together, each time with a different 3rd partner. The previous two were The Gowanus Session with William Parker and Radical Empathy with Michael Wimberly. Though each session has been unique in itself (different prescribed approaches, the environment and of course the uniqueness that each individual brings), there are definitely overarching themes pollinating each album. As the instigator of each of these sessions, I’ve always …
Salt Ashes, Goat Skin
** shipping within a few days** In an everlasting process that continuously repositions and reevaluates infinity as a consciously unachievable but ultimately rewarding goal since the early '90s, David Maranha's music has been riding that arc with ferocity and aplomb. A unique vision that has been translating the eternal in a sprawling language through countless performances, approaches and records like Marches of the New World and the Roaratorio released classic Antarctica. Always the unse…
Solos: The Lost Tapes (1980-1981-1984)
In 1976, Joe McPhee recorded the landmark album Tenor, kicking off a solo period of finding and refining the distinctive voice that continues to inform his music to this day. Solos: The Lost Tapes (1980-1981-1984) is a collection of material from McPhee's personal archives that shines new light on the legendary multi-instrumentalist's work during this time. 'Wind Cycles,' for tenor saxophone, explores the permutations of breath on reed and brass, from quiet whispers to full-throated cries and…
Family Evil
Crystal Syphon, one of the greatest “lost” groups of the West Coast psych scene, came together in Merced, California in 1965. Originally a Beatles / Byrds-influenced unit called the Morlochs, they soon shed their original moniker and moved in a more psychedelic direction, becoming a fixture on the ballroom circuit from 1966-1970. Although their music may nod in the direction of the New Tweedy Brothers and Quicksilver Messenger Service at times, it’s imbued throughout with a distinctive …
Live at Cbgb 1986
“Not since the early days of MC5 at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, circa 1968, had there been such an organic melding of sheer metalesque maelstrom and free jazz. These archival recordings from the legendary punk club CBGB capture a moment in time when open-minded musicians from the 'downtown scene' were exploring the possibility of bringing Lou Reed's feedback-infested Metal Machine Music together with Albert Ayler's Love Cry. Dissipated Face guitarist Kurt "Hologram" Ralske and special guest …
My Pipe Yellow Dream
"'Song Poems Wanted' read the ads. 'We need new ideas for recording!' The send-us-your-lyrics business was a borderline scam, taking whatever lyrics came their way from would-be songwriters and -- for a fee -- setting them to music. None of the results ever came close to being a hit, and to be sure, the vast majority was sufficiently bland or clumsy to insure no great karmic loss in their instant obscurity and miniscule press runs. But Rodd Keith -- the late, great genius whose prolific output …
The Intergalactic Thing
Killer a collection of rehearsals taped in the fall of 1969 at Ra's home studio in Philadelphia. The studio was also his home and the home of most of his Arkestra, here called the Astro- Ihnfinity Arkestra. The music here is meditative, soul nurturing medicine. Just about every musician from the Arkestra, even the renowned saxophonists John Gilmore and Marshall Allen, doubles on percussion. One might think, with a discography as extensive as the one Sun Ra boasts, that the scope of his work ha…
This Song Was Borne
Allan Fraser & Daisy DeBolt met in the summer of 1969. They had both been working individually on the coffeehouse circuit in their native Canada; over the next five years, as the duo of Fraser & DeBolt, they created a sublime body of work that still sounds remarkably fresh decades later. They recorded two albums for Columbia which garnered rave reviews at the time, but saw little commercial success. Both have since become cult classics in psychedelic folk circles; the first, With Ian Guenther, b…
Say There's A Reason
The Cleveland Wrecking Company were formed in San Francisco in 1965. Their members came from jazz, flamenco and R&B backgrounds, but together their psychedelic brew verged on Blue Cheer heaviness. As perennial local favorites, they gigged at every stage in the area. They left behind no recorded artifacts during this time; a deal with Vanguard went nowhere, when their manager absconded to Mexico with the album advance on an ill-fated mission to buy a kilo of pot. A later incarnation of…
Elephant Ball
"For decades, Crystal Syphon were, at most, a footnote in the music history books: a name on posters from the psychedelic ballroom days, and a fond memory to those who'd seen the Merced, California band perform on the west coast circuit in the late 1960s. That changed with the release of Family Evil in 2012. Their debut album -- evidence that the mine of hidden gems from the original psych era had not yet been picked clean -- caught the ears of fans worldwide, garnering raves and equal-footing c…
Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades
“Les Barricades Mistérieuses,” the harpsichord gem by French Baroque composer François Couperin, has been a long-running source of exploration for Fluxus musician Philip Corner, who for years has used it as a jumping-off point for piano improvisations. Through Two More-Than-Mysterious Barricades comprises two very different takes on the same piece. The first dates from 1992, in collaboration with dancer Paulette Sears (who provides the ‘singings and screamings’ of the album’s subtitle); it moves…
Sign of the Myth
"In 1972, Sun Ra inked a high-profile deal with ABC / Impulse, bringing his recorded work to the widest audience he’d had to date. A slew of Saturn back catalog titles and two newly-recorded albums (Astro Black, Pathways To Unknown Worlds) were issued before ABC cancelled the contract, dumped the records into the cut-out bins, and left the unreleased albums to languish. Now, over four decades later, Roaratorio is proud to offer one of the lost Impulse recordings for the first time. Sign…
Babylon
Turkish free-improv group KonstruKt was formed in 2008 by guitarist Umut Çağlar, and since their inception, they’ve gained notice through their collaborations with such old-guard stalwarts as Evan Parker, Marshall Allen and Peter Brotzmann. The latter introduced them to the legendary Joe McPhee at the Krakow Jazz Autumn festival, and after striking up a friendship, they invited him to join them in Istanbul for a concert in March of 2014. Babylon was recorded the day after he arrived, w…
Other Strange Worlds
Never-heard studio music from the legendary Sun Ra – material recorded right around the same time as the unique Strange Strings session – and which really stands as a "part 2" to that amazing record! The sound is very loose and open, but quite spiritual too – and the record is definitely one of the most unique Sun Ra sessions ever heard. Within Sun Ra’s vast-as-outer-space discography, the album that orbits the furthest away from the known jazz universe is Strange Strings. Calling it a “st…
Live In Nickelsdorf
If the city of Beirut doesn’t leap to mind as a hotbed of avant-garde musical activity, listen up: since 2005, the Al Maslakh label (translation: The Slaughterhouse) has been documenting far-thinking sounds from the small but vital Lebanese scene. The “A” Trio’s first release, Music To Our Ears, was one of the most startling debuts of 2011; now, Roaratorio is proud to present their second album (and first vinyl release): Live In Nickelsdorf, recorded at the Konfrontationen Festival in 2012. Whil…
The Rest
In June of 1977, Steve Lacy and Joe McPhee shared a double bill in Basel, Switzerland. Lacy invited McPhee to join him for a duet to close his set, for which McPhee elected to bring out his own soprano saxophone. The main part of Lacy’s performance was issued on the classic Clinkers LP; after 36 years, here is The Rest. This one-sided, limited LP marks the first and only time that these two master musicians played together, but the simpatico meshing of their distinctly individual voice…
Gong / Ear
** Limited edition of 305 copies, each with a hand-cut facsimile brass gong, silkscreened with Corner's calligraphy and mounted onto the jacket!!** A major figure in 20th century arts and music (and beyond), Philip Corner studied with Henry Cowell and Olivier Messiaen, and was one of the original Fluxus conspirators, among other highlights of his long and storied career. As part of the body of his 'Metal Meditations' work, Gong/Ear is a decades-long series of improvisations with dancers. Utilizi…