New Arrivals
Drops
**2023 repress** Out of print and hotly pursued on the secondary market, we’re thrilled to announce a much needed reissue initiative, dedicated to Ictus’ back catalog, beginning with four LPs, Steve Lacy and Andrea Centazzo’s Clangs, originally issued in 1976, Derek Bailey and Andrea Centazzo’s Drops, originally issued in 1977, Steve Lacy, Andrea Centazzo, and Kent Carter’s Trio Live, also from 1977, and John Zorn, Andrea Centazzo, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Toshinori Kondo, and Polly Bradfiel…
A Cappella
"Beginning in 2022, I started to process those layered, dense, dry, and beyond-words matters in the form of a voice diary. Gradually, I gathered a collection of 100 modulated voice recordings that were sealed on 50 cassette players. In June, these cassette players were set in my solo exhibition "100 Shits"(一百天的訴辯) staged at Hallucination in Kaohsiung. It allowed the audience to select how they would like the tapes to play. The exhibition also included a musical work entitled "A Cappella," which …
Leverages 杠杆
Born in Yamaguchi city in 1982; Masahide Tokunaga lives in Tokyo. He plays improvisation music, using alto saxophone.Tokunaga released the CD Alto Saxophone on Slub Music in 2009. Since around 2010 he has set himself apart from other sax players in pursuit of establishing an extremely original blowing style/playing structure permeated with delicacy and tension. The results of this exploration can be heard on his following solo/collaboration albums released on Ftarri, and also the new cassette in…
Encyclopedia of Luxinpei's Scandals
Luxinpei is a two-piece band from Beijing, formed by Ma Meng and Ma Yuan in 2007. Back to 1990s they were classmates, sharing a same desk. In 2008, Ma Meng became friends with Zhu Wenbo and they formed another another duo project Fat City. After some performance, Zhu started organized a weekly Tuesday performance series in 2009, which was the beginning of Zoomin’ Night. Both Luxinpei and Fat City were core names in early Zoomin’ Night days. Luxinpei’s work could be found in a Maybe Mar’s live co…
Durch Den Vorhang Gehen = 穿过屏风
The term ‘acousmatics’ refers to the tradition which tells us that the Greek philosopher Pythagoras gave his lectures from behind a curtain, whereby visual information was withdrawn off the screen and the audience could concentrate on listening. Listening to acousmatic music is not a static process as if the listener is aware of something hidden behind such a curtain. In the case of acousmatics, the sonic events reverberate through the curtain, beyond where they actually are produced, meeting up…
September '21
Before the concert, we hadn’t discussed much of what we will be playing. Kirill proposed to place the "June ’21" score on the table, to follow the impression, the feeling, the direction of what it suggests to play. Sometimes we noticed how one part of the score or another would lead us to new ideas whilst we were playing. It was a special concert because of its circumstances. We decided to have one big table for both our setups, and to be standing up during the performance. Kirill used some obje…
Dali Sections 2018-2021
"In 2017 after I finished a tour of Taiwan and returned to Beijing, I left my hard drive on one of those share bikes and it was lost forever. I had close to ten years’ worth of live recordings on that hard drive (I never made any backups). Since then, I’ve made sure to keep recordings of my live performances well organised. To a certain extent, it’s through live performance that I create new ideas. What I regret, then, is that every performance from different phases of my music making life will …
June '21
The score for June '21 was made in early summer of 2021, in a dialogical process of close live collaboration. Everything we talked about — music, time, politics, and place — was treated as a kind of material with the possibility of being brought into the piece. We didn’t aim to use sound to express such concepts directly, but rather created music with attention to the circumstances: when it was written, where, to whom and by whom it would be played. There was a mutual understanding that we were …
摇晃沙漏 Shake The Hourglass About
Shake the Hourglass About is Realtree’s second release. Comprised of full band and mixed ensemble works, it highlights the varied interdependent relationships within the group. It is indebted to the work of Bill Dixon, Duke Ellington, Dai Satō, Thérèse of Lisieux, Gene Wolfe and others. Realtree is a band made up of cello, clarinet, cornet, electric guitar and laptop. They focus on performing songs that use monophonic and timer-controlled compositions as temporal structures for improvisations. M…
Spiritual Progressions
*2023 repress* Following on from his recent string of exceptional all-solo albums, Mysticism of Sound, Ancient Africa and Afro Trane, Nat Birchall releases his first new studio recording, Spiritual Progressions, with his current working group, Unity Ensemble. This group consists of long time musical partner Adam Fairhall on piano, plus the bassist in Nat’s group for several years and albums, Michael Bardon, and a welcome return on drums by Paul Hession who recorded on the legendary Live In Laris…
Mysticism Of Sound
*2023 repress* Sun Ra inspired Space Jazz. Nat Birchall plays all the instruments - Tenor & soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, Korg Minilogue synth, bass, drums, hand drums, bells, shaker.
Live At Lovely
Japanese master drummer Takeo Moriyama returns to BBE Music’s J Jazz Masterclass Series in a majestic live set showcasing his exemplary musicianship and stature as one of the leading names in Japanese modern jazz. Recorded in December 1990 at the jazz club Lovely in Nagoya, this set sees Moriyama’s quartet deliver an exemplary session of the finest modal, post-bop and spiritual jazz. Moriyama is backed by long-time colleague Fumio Itabashi on piano and the group perform a stunning rendition of I…
Song Of Island
A private press rarity that few know of, ‘Song of Island’ was the third album from pianist Yasuhiro Kohno’s trio, recorded live at the jazz club and live house (gig venue) ‘Again’ in August 1985. Pressed up in small numbers, ‘Song for Island’ was issued on the private ASCAP Records, set up by pianist and band leader Yasuhiro Kohno. The album is a follow up to Kohno-san’s previous two albums, ‘Peace’ and ‘Roma in the Rain’, released on the cult Aketa’s Disk label. However, unlike the ‘Peace’ and …
First
*Much needed repress* BBE Music present the latest in the acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series: Kohsuke Mine ‘First’, the debut album by one of the leading artists in the new wave of modern jazz that swept Japan in the late 60s and early 70s. ‘First’ epitomises the shifting sound of the Japanese modern jazz scene of the time, characterised by rich textures and tones, kinetic rhythms, punctuated by urgent, angular melody lines. Reissued for the first time since original 1970 release, Mine is joine…
Earth Mother
*Much needed repress* As part of the widely respected BBE J Jazz Masterclass Series, Koichi Matsukaze‘s incredibly rare and much sought after album Earth Mother sees a deluxe repress on BBE Music. This is the third highly anticipated release in the series. Regarded as one of the most sought-after yet elusive albums from a pivotal era in Japanese jazz, Earth Mother was originally issued in 1978 on ALM, a private label home to some of the most innovative jazz, contemporary classical and free impro…
Tachibana
The desire to discover and delve into new and unexplored areas of music has turned attention on the Japanese jazz scene of the 1970s, often regarded as its gilded age. The recent ground-breaking sell-out BBE compilation J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz from Japan 1969-1984 threw much needed light on this fascinating era and presented a range of artists and music that surprised and delighted all who heard it. A key track on the compilation was one of the rarest and least known: Dead Letter by the Tohru A…
Animals Garden
*2023 stock* The fifth release in the BBE Music J Jazz Masterclass Series has the perfect combination of rarity and exceptional musicality that inspires seasoned collectors to break out in a sweat. Animals Garden by Miyasaka + 5 was originally issued in 1979 on the cult private Japanese label ALM and is reissued for the first time in a 180Gram 2LP edition.Animals Garden was a one-off project led by master drummer Takashi ‘Bear’ Miyasaka and features a powerful and progressive jazz group includin…
Kemo-Sabe
BBE Music continues its highly acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series with Kemo Sabe, the debut album from pianist Masao Nakajima. Recorded in 1979 on Yupiteru Records, it’s an elusive beast in the field of J Jazz and balances delicate and refined playing with power and vigour. The Kemo Sabe album features bassist Osamu Kawakami, who has performed and recorded with such J Jazz figureheads as Sadao Watanabe, Isao Suzuki, and Kunihiko Sugano. Sax duty is by Toshiyuki Honda, leader of the popular fusi…
4 Mosche di Velluto Grigio
Black Vinyl. Manic percussion, tense staccato strings, discordant piano riffs, and jazz-rock motifs – this is Il Maestro at his finest. Ams is proud to present the definitive release of Ennio Morricone’s score to Dario Argento’s 1972 giallo classic Four Flies On Grey Velvet (a.k.a. 4 Mosche di Velluto Grigio). Based around a psychologically embattled rock musician who finds himself in extraordinarily mysterious circumstances, Argento’s third film (as well as the last offering of his Animal Trilo…
At The Room 427
The ninth album in BBE Music's J Jazz Masterclass Series presents ‘At the Room 427’ by Koichi Matsukaze Trio Featuring Ryojiro Furusawa, a rarely heard exemplar of post-modal power bop and free jazz. Delivered by a trio playing with an intensity and energy that draws on classic Eric Dolphy and mid-era Coltrane but definitely with its own particular vibe, At the Room 427 is an exemplar of febrile improvised jazz that could only come from Japan. This deluxe reissue sees a welcome return to the J J…