Limited edition of 33 copies in black cardboard boxset. 1980. Working alone from his home in the Mantuan town of Pomponesco, twenty-four years old, equipped with little more than an analogue synthesiser, a tape machine, and a small bank of effects, Maurizio Bianchi closed the chapter of his earlier Sacher-Pelz project and inaugurated, almost overnight, the body of work that would place him at the heart of European industrial music. Across roughly twelve months he produced an extraordinary run of…
* Edition of 199 copies * Originally released on cassette in 1985, H·A·D·A·Y·R·O is a landmark of Japanese noise music. It documents the early vision of Solmania and the singular sonic approach of Masahiko Ohno. For years, it remained a cult artifact among collectors and underground enthusiasts. This vinyl edition renews its impact, feeling more like a rebirth than a simple reissue. Solmania was far more than a band; it was Masahiko Ohno’s personal sound laboratory. At the heart of the album are…
* Edition of 199 copies * Between 1999 and 2000. By the early 2000s, Merzbow had entered a markedly new phase. The tape collages, junk electronics, and analogue chains that had defined his work across the 1980s and 1990s gave way to a digital practice built around laptop, software processing, and a rigorously composed approach to harsh noise. Across releases such as Merzbeat (2002), Animal Magnetism (2003), and the present album, Masami Akita reorganised his vocabulary around dense, sculpted str…
* Edition of 199 copies * Government Alpha, the project of Yasutoshi Yoshida, is one of the central figures in Japanese harsh noise, emerging from Tokyo's early 1990s underground scene. Through his Xerxes label, he developed a style that is both extreme and meticulously constructed, balancing ferocity and precision with remarkable control. Even at its most chaotic, every sonic eruption feels carefully placed.
Originally released on cassette in 1994, The Human Race Was Restored To Life Repeatedly…
Tip! 17 Re is the third studio album by Italian New Wave band Litfiba, released by I.R.A. Records in December 1986. Although little known outside Italy, It is still considered by many to be Litfiba's stylistic masterpiece. It is part, with the previous Desaparecido (1985) and the following Litfiba 3 (1988), of the so-called "trilogy of power".Initially released as a double album (in France it was released as a single), 17 Re is distinguished by the presence of four sides and sixteen tracks, all …
A long overdue gathering. For more than half a century, Cyrille Verdeaux's Clearlight project has occupied one of the strangest and most overlooked positions in the landscape of 1970s European progressive music - a French ensemble whose foundational works were recorded in England, issued by Virgin, and shaped, in no small part, by the orbit of Gong. Now, for the first time, Esoteric collects the five essential Clearlight albums into a single remastered 5CD clamshell box, with a new booklet essay…
On Vol.3, Heimito Künst abandons drift for brutal repetition, channeling Thomas Bernhard and 19th‑century auditory therapy into a krautrock‑acid vortex where Moog, Mellotron and pounding drum machines turn obsessive sonic loops into a deeply psychedelic, physically overwhelming ritual.
*27 copies limited edition* A limited edition of 27 reel-to-reel tapes, assembled by hand. Housed in a rigid black 'pizza' box and sealed with a pink sticker, each copy carries traces of manual handling and slight variation. The reel sits exposed within the case, held in place by a minimal support, while the inner inlay carries tracklist and credits on one side, and a photograph by Francisco Meirino on the other, echoed in the digital artwork.
On Sonic House Reunion, Bobby Bradford, Mark Dresser and Hafez Modirzadeh reconvene a long‑running alliance, turning cornet, five‑string bass and hybrid reeds into a quietly radical chamber unit where Ornette‑rooted lyricism, spectral tuning and deep listening pull the music in multiple directions at once.
On Sun’s Blessings, Sunny Murray and Sabu Toyozumi meet as a double‑drum frontline, turning a 1999 Sapporo concert into a two‑part ritual where clattering polyrhythms, rolling thunder and sudden hollows of space make free improvisation feel both volcanic and oddly tender.
On Keeping It In Context, Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, William Parker and Lou Grassi turn a 1996 Context Studios session into a blazing, deep‑listening workshop, with twin reeds, singing bass and restless drums stretching free jazz language without losing its earthy pulse.
Paradessence, Visible Cloaks’ third full length, is a work of emergence and illusion. The album’s fourteen songs shift, heave, and shimmer against a faintly luminous backdrop of night, a cavernous space shaped by sparse hyperreal representations of the natural world. The arrangements are simultaneously grandiose and fragile, both an inversion and culmination of what came before and as adventurous as anything they’ve produced so far.Since transforming from Cloaks to Visible Cloaks in 2014, Spence…
Aquainted through their shared love of music technology, and now a friendship, this is the second-time pairing between two well-known musicians from the ambient and electronic scene since some decades: the German artist Arovane and the American artist Taylor Deupree.After their first release together in November 2022, "Skal_Ghost" on 12K, this new release explore once more an organic journey built around loops and layers or processed and re-processed sounds giving this particular color to a new …
*80 copies limited edition* I often went for walks in the Colonster woods; I always found the place quite mysterious, both in its light and its soundscapes. These soundscapes evolve as you walk through the woods, passing through its lights and fir forests crisscrossed by streams that guide you along the paths. For many months, I returned to this site, without necessarily having any expectation or goal other than to record improvisation sessions and soundscapes. For this project, I wanted to work…
*80 copies limited edition* There is a science museum that was built when I was a child. It has an exhibition building and a planetarium. I visited it a lot at different times. Because it was built a long time ago, the atmosphere inside feels like going back decades. The dim lights, the seemingly endless winding corridors, the sound of the air conditioner working hard, the exhibits that’re not as new as before, all of these things make me imagine that building in a new way.. That imaginary build…
"It might sound like a cliché, but the music on the album "The Sea" emerged from watching the sea every morning on Fårö - more precisely, in Aursviken. It was the subtle shifts in the sea, the waves, the direction of the wind, and the colour of the sky that filled me with inspiration. The light and the darkness. The fact that we have this beautiful sea surrounding us, and the sky above as an opening toward infinity. Sometimes it’s that simple. I recorded the entire album during the summer of 202…
*Every copy is assembled by hand, slowly and deliberately. No two will ever be exactly the same. Individually numbered. Limited to 75 copies. * There is a quiet moment as winter begins to loosen its grip, when the frost softens, the light lingers a little longer, and time seems to gently unfold. With 'Piano Distance', Japanese composer Nakamura Hiroyuki invites us into that fragile threshold between seasons.
A pianist, composer, and visual artist working at the intersection of acoustic instrumen…
Birdman Records is proud to be reissuing Invisible Men, the early space explorations of electronic music pioneer F/i. In the mid-80s F/i was on the cutting edge of electronic bombast, producing cassette tapes of late-night interstellar sessions to be traded world over with the handful of heads that were plugged into similar perambulations. As a link between Throbbing Gristle and the Spacemen 3, this period of F/i has been woefully forgotten, until now. Later in the 80s, F/i would morph into Voco…
Pink Floyd’s legendary Wembley 1974 performance captures the band at one of the most pivotal moments in their career, as they toured in support of the groundbreaking The Dark Side Of The Moon. Recorded during a period of extraordinary creative momentum, this historic show offers a powerful snapshot of Pink Floyd at the height of their artistic vision, blending atmospheric soundscapes, immersive instrumentation, and the unmistakable sense of experimentation that would come to define an era.
Set a…
In any band there is a constant push and pull. A state of tension and release between written music and improvisation, between leading and following. In the instinctive, unpredictable world of jazz, that push and pull can explode groups and compositions into entirely new forms, yet no matter how far each player might be stretched, there is always something connecting them back to each other and back to the tune. A tether.
For New York-based saxophonist and composer Alden Hellmuth, that innate se…
*50 copies limited edition* Live cd recorded at De Audio Plant in Antwerp in September 2025. This show was the release event for our Wonderful Brutalism lp that came out in the same month. Just like that record, this cd continues to investigate our combination of the taishogoto with Dirk’s drums and percussion. A sound described as singular by some and brutal by others. We will be hitting the studio in the nearby future to further examine the possibilty of our duo and for all we know this may be…
This double LP with 16-page booklet is the extensive documentation of the exhibition "Godspeed in 4/4 Time" at the church St. Matthäus in Berlin, where artist William Engelen installed an instrument consisting of 366 metal tubes that was on display from May to September 2025. The tubes were mounted next to each other surrounding the nave of the church. Each tube was unique and differed from the others in length, diameter, thickness and/or material (copper, brass, stainless steel, aluminium), and…
This 7" single is the first release in a fictitious series of avant-garde music packaged in those cheap generic covers of hit singles from the 1950s and 1960s. The series opens with Nikolaus Gerszewski's 7-minute orchestral piece Beethoven Square, pragmatically split into parts I & II across the two sides of the record. The cover advertises the history of Edition Telemark, but is also an homage to the elegant product design of the period, which had drawn inspiration from Constructivism, the …
After decades spent shaping the sound of southern Madagascar, Damily returns with Fanjiry, his most intimate and focused record to date. A key figure in tsapiky as a guitarist and composer, and a driving force behind a genre he helped define, Damily has long expressed himself through the voices of the singers accompanying his bands. With Fanjiry, he takes a singular step forward: for the first time, he carries his compositions himself through singing — not by claiming the role of a singer, but a…
One of the leading lights of contemporary creative saxophone music, Jon Irabagon (b. 1978) hails from Chicago, made his name in New York, and has returned to the Windy City with decisive ferocity, joining the city's bustling scene as an active participant and bandleader. Known for many of his groups, including Mostly Other People Do The Killing and PlainsPeak, as well as membership in ensembles led by Mary Halvorson, Dave Douglas, and Barry Altschul, Irabagon is a ceaselessly inventive horn play…
A book highlighting 25 years of printmaking from Copenhagen-based Cult Pump Studio. Located next to the experimental music venue Mayhem, the graphic workshop and publisher Cult Pump—led by painter and cartoonist Zven Balslev—produces handcrafted artist books, zines, screen prints, comix, posters, flyers, and, occasionally, tapes and records. This beautifully designed publication brings together a vast selection of long sold-out works in the realm of underground comics, art brut, and noise cultur…
On Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts, The Cecil Taylor Unit detonates across two uncut Paris sets: a newly unearthed, vividly mastered document of Taylor, Sam Rivers, Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille stretching free jazz into an overwhelming, architectural storm of sound.
On Three for Shepp, Marion Brown leads a blazing American free‑jazz ensemble with Dave Burrell, Norris “Sirone” Jones and Grachan Moncur III, unleashing high‑energy fire music that shows the Impulse! era at full boil yet still somehow under‑sung.
On Buttercorn Lady, Art Blakey leads a brief but blazing mid‑60s Jazz Messengers lineup at The Lighthouse, launching a young Keith Jarrett and Chuck Mangione in a hard‑bop set that feels both like a proving ground and a joyous passing of the torch.
On Coffy, Roy Ayers turns Pam Grier’s 1973 vigilante flick into a vibraphone‑driven fever dream, fusing slinky funk, string‑soaked soul and jazz finesse into a soundtrack that’s as deadly on its own as any of the film’s set‑pieces.
On The Bagatelles Vol. 8, John Zorn hands nine knotty miniatures from his 300‑tune book to the John Medeski Trio, who turn organ, guitar and drums into a shape‑shifting engine of groove, skronk and sly lyricism that makes each Bagatelle feel like a tiny, exploding suite.
On The Bagatelles Vol. 7, John Zorn hands a batch of his razor‑cut miniatures to pianist Brian Marsella, who turns thirteen terse themes into a 46‑minute solo suite where classical poise, jazz volatility and downtown mischief share the same set of keys.
On This Is My Blood, Jozef van Wissem opens and closes with scorched, slide‑lute mirages born in the Colorado desert, stretching repetition into ritual as he circles contemporary darkness, grief and a single, disarming vocal prayer, “Remission.”
'Spaces' is an ode to the joy of live performance. It expresses Frahm’s love for experimentation and answers the call from his fans for a record that truly reflects what they have witnessed during his concerts. Breaking the convention of a traditional live album, 'Spaces' was recorded over the course of two years in different locations and on various mediums, including old portable reel-to-reel recorders and cassette tape decks. The decision to select takes that have people coughing and cell pho…
In April 2009, Iceland’s neo-classical export Ólafur Arnalds created the 7-song series Found Songs – recording a song a day for 7 days and instantly making each track available via Twitter. With artwork contributions from fans via Flickr, this modern release awakens memories of a tradition that seemed lost in the digital age we live in. Born in 1987, Ólafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometres outside of Reykjavík. He has immersed himself completely in a wor…
*2026 repress!* Representing a more intimate and spontaneous side of Miles Davis, this expanded re-release of the soundtrack to Ascenseur pour l'échafaud is a welcome event. Louis Malle was already a jazz fan when Jean-Claude Rappeneau suggested to him that Miles, who was in France for a brief tour, be asked to record the soundtrack; he readily agreed. By creating a relaxed environment in the studio, where the musicians could view main scenes of the film in a loop and then improvise in response …
Using the crème de la crème of sound engineers and the unsurpassed production quality of Quality Record Pressings, the Acoustic Sounds series is mastered from the original tapes, pressed on 180-gram vinyl and packaged in high-quality gatefold covers produced by Stoughton Printing Co., where — as was customary on records of the era — the printed paper sheet is applied to the cardboard (so the cardboard itself is not directly inked). All this is overseen by Chad Kassem, CEO of Acoustic Sounds, the…
*2026 repress* "With the reissue of the Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool sessions, accompanied by recordings of this seminal nonet’s slightly earlier live dates at New York City’s Royal Roost, we now have as complete as possible an account of this still fresh sounding and beautiful music. The array of talent alone is startling: Miles Davis in transition between his earlier bebop stylings, and his later gorgeous tone and sparer choice of notes; Lee Konitz on alto sax playing startling melodic inven…
*2026 repress!* This is Dorothy Ashby's debut album, originally released in 1957 by the Regent label. Recognized as the woman who gave the harp a jazz voice, here Ashby is at the head of a highly distinctive combo featuring Frank Wess on flute, Eddie Jones or Wendell Marshall on bass and master Ed Thigpen on drums. The Jazz Harpist is an unprecedented mix of evocative classic sounds and jazz soul, awarded by Allmusic as her first and best album, period!
Dive into the roots of Brazilian musical innovation with the reissue of Antonio Carlos Jobim's Sinfonia Do Rio De Janeiro, a visionary work composed by the legendary Brazilian masters Tom Jobim and Billy Blanco. Originally released in 1954, this album stands as an early, bold experiment in fusing jazz, classical, and pop elements into a vibrant Latin soundscape—years before the bossa nova revolution took the world by storm.
Lavish string arrangements weave seamlessly between sweet choral melodie…