New Arrivals
Marvellous Boy: Calypso From West Africa
endlessly satisfying' (Boston Phoenix); 'Blending cheeky calypso with rocking highlife — and by turns breezy, wistful and downright uproarious' (Daily Telegraph); 'gems at every turn... weaving highlife, swing, military brass bands, Afro-Cuban jazz, into a hell of a compilation... Honest Jon's have added to the highest order of this simple music of heartbreaking celebration' (Brainwashed). The inter-war dance bands of British West Africa are often strikingly similar in sound to Trinidadian orche…
divide by zero
NEW SERIES FRAMEWORKAn extension of our CONCRETE ELECTRONICS NOISE,a brand new mix-up of unusual conceptions of sound material by young unknown composers, well known not-so-young composers and old but clever composers.Benjamin Thigpen, nomad, born in the United States, immigrated to Paris at the age of 31. He studied music, literature, philosophy and esthetics. He now composes in European studios such as GRM, EMS, Visby and STEIM, as well as in his bedroom and in the train. After six years as a …
You+Me+The Continuum
Primordial Undermind's second full-length blast of psychedelic freakout guitar bliss evolves the sonics found on their critically-acclaimed September Gurls debut into freer, more expansive territory, while retaining plenty of the finely-honed song craft familiar to those lucky enough to have grabbed any of their unfailingly excellent singles. Long modal excursions into the heart of free guitar darkness like "Device", "Turning of the Worm" and "Persistence of Trinity", are counterbalanced by defi…
Dopesmoker
The story behind Dopesmoker, the final LP in the life of pioneering stoner sludge trio Sleep, is one of perseverance not usually associated with such dedicated grass aficionados. Intended to be the Cali band’s third record and first for major label London, the album took shape as a single 63-minute track entitled “Dopesmoker,” an ode to the joys of getting baked. After nearly two months of work, the band (guitarist Matt Pike, bassist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius) pronounced the opus…
Live in concert
Denman Maroney (piano) & Mark Dresser (bass). Vision Festival NY - June 11, 2008. This is the third duo album by bassist Mark Dresser and pianist Denman Maroney, after Duologues and Time Changes. In contrast to some of the other material by the two players, this one is fully improvised in three long pieces. The first 30 minute track was recorded live at Vision Festival on June 10, 2008, the two other pieces date from a performance in Chicago in 2001. It's hard to call this jazz, since none of th…
Map in hand
Seaworthy, a three piece collective based in Sydney, Australia that revolves around core member Cameron Webb as well as Sam Shinazzi and Greg Bird, was formed in early 2000 to explore melodic and experimental approaches to the construction of minimalist sound scapes from looped guitar, warm drones, piano, electronics and field recordings.Map In Hand often blurs the lines of conventional categorisation with elements traditionally considered part of “indie” or “post” rock blended with processed mu…
Crwth (Chorus Redux)
Through their use of low tech means and focusing on the blending of guitar noise and electronic voice processing, Lovesliescrushing can be seen as the early 'missing link' between the likes of Slowdive and Fennesz. Their output has been consistently and beautifully crafted... works that contain an element of sonic mystery and still sound timeless. Lovesliescrushing is an important, if perhaps overlooked, point in the timeline of contemporary electronic music. - Richard Chartier. Loveslies…
Live at the Vortex
A 2006 concert recording at London's legendary Vortex by Evan Parker (tenor saxophone), Steve Beresford (piano), John Edwards (double bass) and Louis Moholo-Moholo (percussion) with special guest Kenny Wheeler (trumpet & flügelhorn) joining the band for the second set."-psi
Music For The Ears
Western Vinyl is proud to release “Music for the Ears” the first in a series of Small Music releases by Rolf Julius. With a goal of creating solitary sound environments, the Small Music series will culminate into a boxed edition of seminal works by this master sound artist. “Music for the Ears” is comprised of two long tracks of gently weaving tones exploring the possibilities of spatial experience. The cover image depicts Julius’ sound installation in a bamboo forest in Kyoto, Japan where his m…
Kappe
To paraphrase online reports: Svarte Greiner's Erik Skodvin comes riding from the dark, epic wastes of Scandinavialand, quaffing wyrmblood out of a hellmug and pronouncing mad soliloquies of doom. This kind of marketing creates strange dissonances with the music on Kappe. Sure, it's gloomy and foreboding. But it's also strident and glacially paced; it sounds more like a depressed La Monte Young than an heir of metal ancestry. At the same time, it strongly evokes the modulating bass o…
Intervals
'Z'EV: percussion. Jason Kahn: percussion, analog synthetizer. Recorded by Jason Kahn April 13-14, 2009 in Zürich and Lausanne, Switzerland. Mixed and mastered by Z'EV. Artwork by Mirt.' label info Jason Kahn, born 1960, New York, USA. Composition, installations, percussion, electronics. Based in Zürich, Switzerland. Z'EV. After studying at CalArts with Concrete Poet Emmett Williams he concentrated on producing visual and sound poetries, and was included in the ÔSecond Generation' show at the Mu…
Chantal
An inedite work by the great composer Luc Ferrari: 'chantal, ou le portrait d'une villageoise' 1977-1978. Stereo magnetic tape. Mastering: Jérôme Joy, Meriol Lehmann-Avatar.
The headlans
CD version housed in a Digipak following the immediate sell out of the LP version. Released to coincide with Ellen Fullman's new full length for Important titled "Through Glass anes." Full length collaboration between Ellen Fullman, Theresa Wong, and Barn Owl produced by The Norman Conquest. Barn Owl's extended drones and Theresa and The Norman Conquest's strings are the perfect accompaniment to Fullman's Long Stringed Instrument; a product of her own invention. This is an album of deep mater…
The source
“A 4000 year old rock band" W. S. Burroughs. Recognised internationally, Jajouka goes back up to the late Rolling Stone Brian Jones, across his collaboration of 1968, but also to Paul Bowles, Brion Gysin, and William S.Burroughs which had already established their residences for some years together with these musicians of the mountains of Rif. "The Source" is the new record of The "true" Master Musicians of Jajouka and it goes back to the origins of their sacred music. Bachir Attar, last …
Emotional Planet
Chris Rose's Robust Worlds has impressed us since first glimpse. He was actually barefoot, if you can believe that, and his set had the feel of a way more lysergic Kevin Ayers. It was freezing fucking cold and I'm pretty sure he wore a Hawaiian shirt. His debut LP is called Emotional Planet, and it's deceptively simple. Voice, guitar, some noisy shit, whatever. His playing is sick: fluid, unforced, warm, soothed and soothing. It's a bath you don't want to exit. Seriously, if yr going to play gui…
Making The Walls Quake As If They Were Dilating
Recording of the sound sculpture in the Polish Pavilion at 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. Sound sculpture by Katarzyna Krakowiak. Sound design by Ralf Meinz. Voices by Ulrike Helmholz and Sabina Meyer. Recorded, edited, mixed and mastered by by Ralf Meinz. 32-page booklet. 'Architectural Biennale sound sculpture amplifying the entire building of the Polish Pavilion turned into a flat CD ? Will you say it completely misses the point? Brings the real space into a stereo syst…
Luminous Night
CD edition: Luminous Night is the first set of new Six Organs Of Admittance material to leap forth from Ben Chasnys' cerebral cortex in 18 months, and what a joy it is. With the release of odds-and-sods collection RTZ earlier in the year there to bridge the gap between 2007s Shelter From The Ash it doesn't seem like he's been away for long per se but for serious Chasny-heads a new album is something to get pretty excited about and with his other musical outlet Comets On Fire either on extended h…
Moon Over Torrelorca
Cold and glacial drone recorded at the prestigious EMS in Stockholm. 58 minutes of northern iciness. Moon Over Torrelorca, the second album from Keränen, serves as a great follow up to his amazing debut album Bats In Attic that Lasse Marhaug's Pica Disk released last year. In contrast to the high energy multi-layered noise- bomb the debut offered, Moon Over Torrelorca instead showcases a carefully composed drone piece from this highly skilled sound artist. It’s cold up north.
Courant.Air
It is the continuation of a body of work intertwining instrumental and electronic music following the acclaimed 2004-2008 work les arbres (Mention, Prix Ars Electronica 2009). The mixture this time is more edgy : a rich and complex electronic sound composition alongside the folk inspired guitar played by Simon Trottier (member of the extraordinary haunted blues band Timber Timbre). After 2 albums of improvised folktronica with Simon Trottier, Nicolas Bernier decided to explore that singu…
No Longer Burning
This is the long awaited debut release of Streifenjunko. “No Longer Burning” presents the two Norwegians Espen Reinertsen (saxophone) and Eivind Lønning (trumpet) in 9 extraordinary pieces. Both musicians have background from all kinds of collaborations in jazz, rock and more contemporary projects such as Trondheim Jazzorkester, Christian Wallumrød Ensemble (Eivind), and the recent release: “Varianter av døde trær” with Tetuzi Akiyama and Martin Taxt on SOFA. Streifenjunko is/has also collaborat…