New Arrivals
Soder Malarstrand
Lena Andersson is a fictional character created by Berlin-based Japanese artist Kyoka and Irish producer Eomac. Both met in 2016 during a residency at the Stockholm EMS studios. The initial spark of their collaboration was a joint session on the studio's Buchla system, quickly expanding to multiple other sound sources and instruments. During the improvisations, a call-and-response working principle emerged immediately which joins the special talents of both musicians. Kyoka's free and experiment…
Serenata I/Sonatine/Canteyodjaya/Zeitmasze
**Edition of 500. 180 gram vinyl** Fantôme Phonographique present a reissue of Serenata I/Sonatine/Canteyodjaya/Zeitmasze, originally released in 1958. The avant-garde composer and conductor Pierre Boulez was a titan of post-war experimental classical music. Born in the small cheesemaking town of Montrbrison in central France in 1925, Boulez studied at the Paris Conservatoire with the composer and organist Charles Messiaen and received private tuition from pianist Andrée Vaurabourg; after moving…
Speech After The Removal Of The Larynx
**Edition of 500. 180 gram vinyl, includes insert; hand-numbered** Fantôme Phonographique present a reissue of Speech After The Removal Of The Larynx, originally released by Smithsonian Folkways in 1964. The larynx or voice box is a small organ located towards the top of the neck in humans and some other animals. Constructed largely of cartilage, it houses the vocal folds that allow for the manipulation of pitch and volume, which are essential for the phonation of spoken speech. It is also invol…
Listen Move & Dance
**Edition of 500. 180 gram vinyl** Fantôme Phonographique present a reissue of Daphne Oram and Vera Gray's Listen Move & Dance,
originally released in 1962. The British composer, musician, and audio
engineer Daphne Oram was a pioneering figure in the use of electronic
music. Coming to prominence through her work with the BBC Radiophonic
Workshop, which she co-founded, Oram was one of the first British
composers to feature electronic instruments in her work and has been
rightly hailed as he…
Spazi Futuri
**300 copies, clear vinyl** Brilliant collaborative debut album of riveting noise and widescreen synths by Merzbow and Posh Isolation’s Vanity Productions featuring two longform, elemental works transmuting worries about ecological disaster into a torrent of spirit-gnawing, experimental noise that surpasses the sum of its parts. Masami Akita and Christian Stadsgaard both hail from places with a lot of coastline vulnerable to sea level rises, ‘Coastal Erosion’ sees them grasp the nettle of impen…
Laughing Afternoon
Mannequin Records and Platform 23 come together to start a series of stand-alone reissues of the music of post-punk / industrialists Bourbonese Qualk, starting with their 1983 album Laughing Afternoon. Formed in Southport during the late-70s, the band came to prominence out of South London's squat scene via their own Recloose Organisation. Early releases including the band's first experiments put to tape and the now highly sought after Sudden Departure compilation featuring luminaries Colin Pott…
Music For Deathbeds
As with the first SchleiBen series, Emotional Response follows the
success of the second set of split releases with a stand-alone album by
one of the highlights, in Neil Tolliday. Recorded over a 17-year period,
the ambient, drone and noise pieces collected here offer a glimpse in
to the depth of a supremely talented, thoughtful and at times, troubled
musical mind. As his love for house music and the success of his Nail
moniker grew and waned during the ascent 90s boom, there followed his …
Infant Eyes
Doug Carn created a personalized strain of jazz music that expressed a loving hopefulness. He found a home at the Black Jazz label, where African-Americans called the shots and, of course, racial tension was nonexistent. Who was this 22-year-old whose first album, Infant Eyes, sold very well away from the machinations of the music industry? Once a child prodigy on piano and alto saxophone, Carn had attended Jacksonville University on a full music scholarship and afterwards performed on the Flori…
Entrée Des Puys De Grêle
The french electroacoustic improvising trio of synth player and engineer Jean-Marc Foussat (Fou Records) with the father/son pair of saxophonist Quentin Rollet (Workshop De Lyon) and drummer/percussionist Christian Rollet (Rectangle Records, Bisou), in a rich, intensifying and often enthusiastically exploding set of extended and masterful improvisations piano."Divided into two shorter and one over-long track, Entrée des Pays de grête reflects the, near-anarchistic spirit of 1968, but with enough…
Surface Calme
A 5-part work of improvisations on keyboards, voice, guzheng and flute from French improviser Jean-Marc Foussat and Bao Luo (Beijing Talking), a mysterious album of nocturnal sounds, grand expressions, furtive language, and rich textures and timbres, as Bao Luo provides a guiding voice in song and speach to their beguiling dialog; an exotic and expressive album.
Noyau de Lune
A tour-de-force of solo improvisation from French trombonist Christiane Bopp, flawlessly captured by sound engineer Jean Marc Foussat, as Bopp transforms her instrument through technical skill, lyrical ability, and unusual technique, creating virtual duets, furtive expression, and thundering emotion, an absolutely impressive example of modern trombone language.
Face To Face
The perfect foils for each other, German saxophonist Urs Leimgruber and French AKS sysnthesist Jean-Marc Foussat are heard in two complete concerts, one at the WIM in Zurich and one at the Kunsthalle in Lucerne, both exploring sound, timbre, momentum and atmosphere through extended techniques and extreme playing, and an amazing display of soundscape and sonic force.
Nachtmuziek
Belgian artist Bernard Zwijzen, aka Sonmi451, has for over a decade now been quietly making some of the most luscious ambient we’ve heard here at AI-HQ. We are delighted to announce him as part of the Astral family with this six-track EP - Nachtmuziek - sit back, tune in and drift away.
Verboden Dromen
Shakti , a three-man formation around “Praga Khan”. With this first mini-lp Praga once more proves his capability to drill into new rhythmic territories. Demonic Forces is a dance record. Western discotheque rhythmics mixed with Eastern influences. A unique creation that certainly can be called astonishing. The use of original Eastern instruments gives the whole an extra mystik dimension. With the help of some friends amongst whom a.o. Naburak Pran, Shakti succeeds in attaining an unparalleled a…
Portastudio Ambient Tapes
Unreleased synth based ambient creations from mid-'80s by "After the break-up of seminal punk-funkers Liquid Liquid, band member Dennis Young found himself at a bit of a loose end. He busied himself by making funny little new age/ambient creations in his bedroom on some synths and a Tascam tape recorder. Many of these curios have never seen light of day, so it’s a real treat that Inner Mood have managed to lock down a trio of tracks for the Portastudio Ambient Tapes. These are gorgeous, often be…
Album 1
**100 copies** Ohad Fishof is an interdisciplinary artist. He began his artistic career in the mid-80s as the energetic teenage leader of the pioneering Israeli post-punk band Nosei Hamigbaat. His subsequent time-based art, ranging from dance pieces and performance acts (often in collaboration with his partner, choreographer Noa Zuk) to sound and video installations as well as recorded and live music, has been presented worldwide. Fishof performs his music regularly as part of his solo multimedi…
Untitled (9 patterns)
Edition of 300. Music for acoustic guitar and four cassette players. Emiliano Romanelli (b. 1979) is an Italian musician with a background in visual art. His work includes sound installation, live performance and composition; they are based on the generative systems and the perceptual relationships between sound, light and space.
Miniatures
Edition of 300. Miniatures was recorded between 2016 and 2018 in Oslo and Vienna. It is a collection of short electronic sound objects, situations, landscapes, or puzzles. With influences stemming from early minimalism and composers such as
Eliane Radigue and Maryanne Amacher the influence of 80s home taper
works such as those of Jeph Jerman’s Hands To and John Hudak can also be
heard in Nelson’s work; eschewing the elements of pseudo-spirituality,
passive listening and pastoral subject matt…
The Pulp Sessions II
Edition of 180 copies in digipack. 'When I heard the The New Blockaders / Organum ‘Pulp’ 7” in the mid-‘80s it was one of the noisiest things I had ever heard and I had heard plenty of Industrial Music and Power Electronica as well as a lot of earlier noisy music. On ‘The Pulp Sessions II’ Part I the noise levels and sounds change throughout the course of both sides, but the level of pandemonium remains constant. There are loads of feedback, radio, scraping, clanking, and other sounds, chopping …
Wahdon
Wewantsounds continues to pursue its exploration of great Lebanese music with the reissue of Wahdon, released in 1978 by legendary Middle Eastern diva Fairuz. The album includes the Lebanese dancefloor cult classic, Al Bostah. 1978 was a turning point for the Lebanese singer: the '70s had seen her rise as an international star, playing sold out concerts in the US and in Europe, and appearing on national TV in France. She had had a long-lasting artistic collaboration with her husband Assi Rahbani…