★Sony
Andre sulla luna
* Edition of 500, remastered * The mastermind behind the sublime Italian cosmic rock group Pierrot Lunaire, Arturo Stalteri's work both within Pierrot Lunaire and here on his solo debut (1979) occupies a perch in that rarified strata of Italian kosmiche godhead that also includes Franco Battiato, Franco Leprino, St. Tropez, Luciano Cilio and a mere handful of others. Absent the contributions that Gaio Chiocchio or vocalist Jacqueline Darby brought to bear in Pierrot Lunaire, keyboardist Stalteri…
Are(A)zione
* High quality vinyl reissue with remastered sound. Gatefold, sticker. 45th anniversary edition.* The 4th album from the band that I consider to be possibly the finest Italian progressive rock band of the 1970's, & certainly a band in the top tier of all early 1970's progressive bands worldwide! Area combined jazz/rock/stolen ethnic music (mostly from Eastern Europe and the Middle East)/the avant garde and more. Superb playing from all (vocals/organ, guitar, electric piano/synths, bass & drums).…
Giro Di Valzer Per Domani
* High quality vinyl reissue with remastered sound. White vinyl * Originally released in 1975 on Cramps. This is Arti E Mestieri's second album. More dynamic and inspired than their debut title The sound has not changed much in comparison to the previous album but it is slightly less raw and vocals prevent from getting much focus on instrumental prowess. Arguably there is less space for brass instrument and more vocalized sections. Drums are usually more aggressive and fast then on the debut al…
Maledetti (Maudits) - Color LP
**2020 Remastered Reissue. Red Vinyl** 1976 was a year of flux and change. For the recording of the fifth Area album, the core membership of Stratos, Fariselli, Tofani and Tavolazzi were present, but drummer Capiozzo only appears on about half of the album, replaced on various tracks by either Walter Calloni or Paul Lytton. Steve Lacy augments the band, as do several other studio musicians (including a string quartet). Perhaps it was the contributions of this eclectic group of guests that gives …
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
High quality vinyl reissue with remastered sound. Legendary Italian progressive rock band Banco del Mutuo Soccorso released its first LP in 1971 on the label Dischi Ricordi. The lineup included Vittorio Nocenzi (keyboards), Gianni Nocenzi (piano), Francesco Di Giacomo (vocals), Renato d'Angelo (bass), the newly arrived Pierluigi Calderoni (drums), and guitarist Marcello Todara, who would soon be replaced by Rodolfo Maltese. Although plagued by poor sound quality (something frequent with Italian …
l'Egitto prima delle Sabbie
** Small restock available, nice price **Mindblowing! The last album of what could be called Franco Battiato's "experimental prog" period, L'Egitto Prima Delle Sabbie consists of two sidelong compositions strictly arranged for piano only, without any vocals; and even more intriguingly, neither of the performers on the album are Battiato himself. He limited himself strictly to the roles of composer and producer. After Battiato's many different sonic explorations and efforts throughout the '70s, s…
Moondog (1969)
Major label breakthrough (don’t blink or you’ll miss it)! Moondog’s spell with Columbia, then America’s most prestigious jazz and classical label, began here. Joplin’s lobbying opened the door. The album was produced by James William Guercio, a former Mother of Invention and producer of Columbia artists Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago. A modest commercial success, and an unqualified artistic triumph, the disc featured Moondog fronting a 40-piece orchestra. The best known track is ‘Bird’s Lament…
Tilt
Tilt" is the amazing debut album by a band whose members were not newbies at all. The six musicians' combined former experiences had led them to the roads of jazz and prog rock (even the very young, masterful drummer Furio Chirico had played in The Trip's last two albums) for some time, so their expertise was quite obvious and quite impressive as well by the time "Tilt" introduced Arti + Mestieri to the eyes of the world. The jazz-rock oriented sound delivered by the band serves as an appropriat…
The Complete Sony Recordings
This massive box set offers perhaps the definitive and most comprehensive collection of Philip Glass’ work ever assembled. The Complete Sony Recordings is the first ever release of Philip Glass Sony Classical recordings together in a limited-edition box set. The 24-CD set includes the first ever release of Glassworks specially mixed for your personal cassette player on CD, a 44 minute interview with Philip Glass on Glassworks (previously only available on a Columbia 7 ), a hard bound book …
La norma del cielo
Special price, limited stock. Always influenced by eastern doctrines (he later became a Hare Krishna), Rocchi was also active in anti-war movements and always present at various italian pop festivals during the early 70's. His second album, released in 1971 and titled "Volo magico n.1", is usually considered as his best effort, in much the same style as Alan Sorrenti's "Aria" with a side-long title track and softer tracks on the other side. "Volo Magico n.1" features a 18 minute long title…
Toni Esposito (Rosso Napoletano)
Special price, limited stock. First solo album, for the Luciano Cilio percussionist Toni Esposito. "Jazz and the Mediterranean: two worlds merging into one with the suspended atmospheres of "Rosso napoletano". A magical record, capturing the most alluring aspects of Bitches Brew-era Miles Davis and elevating them to an almost mystical lightness. Hypnotic funky grooves and a miniaturistic work on percussions are the key element - and the most discreet one - of the sound, equally tipified by …
Processione sul Mare
Special price, limited stock. Continuing on from my shares of his first and third albums, this second outing from this wildly gifted and wide ranging Italian prog/fusion drummer (a one time member of both St. Just and Alan Sorrenti's band as well as Luciano Cilio's collaborator on Dell'Universo Assente) catches Esposito at a real creative peak. As with the other albums of his that I've shared, the arrangements, stereo imaging and the endless peppering of pinprick percussive detailing make it pla…
Sfogatevi Bestie
Special price, limited stock. Vital experimental progressive jazzrock with hints of "Spiral Staircase" by Supersister. A flawlessly produced album, way ahead of its time, with manic grooves blended with experimental improvised bits and nice interplays, performed on piano, drums, xylophones and saxes. Included in infamous the Nurse With Wound list
Gudrun
Special price, limited stock. Along with the likes of Franco Battiato, Opus Avantra and Piccho dal Pozzo, Pierrot Lunaire were one of the artists that contributed to the small, but artistically significant, avant progressive scene of Italy in the mid-70s. The second album of Pierrot Lunaire of 1977, long out of print, and finally reissued on CD with two bonus tracks and previously unpublished photos of the time! One of the most important Italian electronic progressive, formed in Rome in th…
Einstein on the Beach
Composer Philip Glass and director Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach, widely credited as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the 20th century, launched its creators to international success when it was first produced in Avignon, France, in 1976, with subsequent performances in Europe and in New York at the Metropolitan Opera. It is still recognized as one of their greatest masterpieces. Now, nearly four decades after it was first performed and 20 years since its last production, Ein…
Il Miele Dei Pianeti Le Isole Le Api
After a series of albums that were quite similar in their general style, one can sense something is afoot with this one. This would be a transitional album, however it would be the next one where Claudio Rocchi really started to throw a 'U-turn' at his fans, to use his own words. Here Rocchi, helped by members of the band Aktuala, would begin to pull the mystical, improvisational drone-folk back from the edges of space and reassert a more deliberate song structure here and there. We still have t…
Ligeti Edition
Terrific nine-CD box (digipack CD sleeves!) at a fantastic price! The heart of Ligeti's output, and the basis for the consensus that places him among the 20th Century's most important composers, is the series of masterworks written during his middle period, which lasted from roughly 1957 (after his escape from Hungary) to 1977 (marked by the completion of his opera Le Grand Macabre). The "sound surface" compositions from the period, including Atmosphères, the Requiem, Lux Aeterna and much of the…
Klavierstücke I-XI / Mikrophonie I & II
Beautiful double CD set, containing a mindblowing Mikrophonie version... Mikrophonie is the title given by Karlheinz Stockhausen to two of his compositions, written in 1964 and 1965, in which “normally inaudible vibrations . . . are made audible by an active process of sound detection (comparable to the auscultation of a body by a physician); the microphone is used actively as a musical instrument, in contrast to its former passive function of reproducing sounds as faithfully as possible” (Stock…
Musique Pour Piano Solo
Mention "minimalism" and certain names will pop up, both within and outside of the classical world: Terry Riley, Steve Reich, John Adams. The most famous one, however, would be Philip Glass. Unlike most 20th Century composers, Glass has reached far beyond the concert hall: his work includes film soundtracks (THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE THIN BLUE LINE), multimedia presentations ('1000 Airplanes on the Roof"), and collaborations with pop/rock writers/performers (his SONGS FOR LIQUID DAYS album). With SOL…
Glassworks
In 1982 Philip Glass became the first composer since Aaron Copland to join the CBS Masterworks label. Glass had formed the Philip Glass Ensemble in 1968, but it wasn't until his opera Einstein on the Beach (1976) that he achieved great critical and popular success. His first album for Masterworks, Glassworks, tripled all sales projections, pleasing audiences, critics and Glass himself: "I'm very pleased with it, the way it's received in performance. The pieces seem to have an emotional quality t…