New Arrivals
Yaho-Niwa
Masami Akita alias Merzbow, the king of noise music, the defender of the vegan cause, the animals lover is coming back with a cosmic and devastating magma, a spinning metal tapestry-work with loops of echoes in a whale rutting way. As usual, to be listened to very loudly. Mix realized at Munemihouse in Tokyo during the month of April in 2011.
In light
Four years after the release of their debut album Outflow, Japan’s Small Color, a duo comprised of Rie Yoshihara (aka Trico!) (accordion, voice, vintage keyboard instruments) and Yusuke Onishi (guitar, banjo, bass, programming and production) are back with the beautifully polished In Light. This album marks what some may consider a departure for 12k: sublime and gentle, minimal, acoustic J-pop, which once may have been destined for the now-defunct Happy label, but can now sit comfortably beside …
Berlinerstrasse 20 (2009)
Improvisation by Lucio Capece and Radu MALFATTI recorded 5 july 2009 at 'kulturbunker mühlheim', 'to torsten and till'.
Night maps
Since the release of Saddleback’s acclaimed 2004 debut Everything’s A Love Letter, Tony has found increasing demand for his touch behind the recording desk. Tony’s studio is housed in his Kangaroo Valley residence on the south coast of New South Wales. Found inside are all sorts of instruments including various guitars, percussion makers, horns, a clarinet, a double bass, piano and a specially-fashioned drum set. Having arranged and played these on other peoples’ work – most notably for Sydney’s…
Eye Mohini: Sun City Girls Singles Vol. 3
Volume 3 in the series of Sun City Girls singles, compilations, and rare tracks, consists of material recorded between the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Much of this collection reflects the Arabic guitar instrumental and acoustic pseudo-Asian vocal folk styles of the band from the period when they recorded relentlessly. The 14 cuts vary wildly in scope yet maintain a consistent listening experience throughout, bridging a wide gap between the band's second full-length LP Grotto of Miracles (T…
Fotheringay
Fledg'ling's 2004 reissue of one of the highest-regarded British folk-rock albums, featuring Sandy Denny. Originally issued by Island in 1970 (previous Hannibal CD long o/p). With additional artwork and bonus tracks. Fotheringay's beautiful debut album was recorded in 1970, and has long been regarded as one of the greatest achievements of British folk-rock. Sandy Denny, Trevor Lucas, Jerry Donahue, Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway created a magical ensemble sound and one of the finest albums of…
The geographers
"It's a generalisation, but Sylvia Hallett scrapes and Clive Bell blows. Bell specialises in reed or pipe instruments from exotic locations, principally South East Asia. Hallett bought a saw for £2.49, mounted a bicycle wheel on a spindle and also plays the more frequently-sighted viola. Bell studied the shakuhachi flute in Tokyo, then lived in Thailand, where he familiarised himself with the brittle vibrations of the khene reed-pipes. This was the beginning of his love for blown instruments tha…
OTO NO HAJIMARI WO MOTOMETE
Brand new issue of archve series of NHK electronic music studio. Contents: Toshira Mayuzumi : 'Princess Hollyhock' (1957), Shinichi Matsushita : 'Le Cloitre NOir' for voice and electronic music (1959), Toshi Ichiyanagi : 'Parallel Music' (1962), Shiro Ima : 'Music for 12 players and Electronic sounds' (1965)'.
History Of The Units - The Early Years: 1977-1983
first ever legit reissue of THE UNITS. This genre-defying band, from San Francisco's barely-documented synth/punk/art underground of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, combined sarcastic humor with deadly serious cultural critique, and synthetic experimentation with the bombast of punk. Includes the most sought-after early singles and selections from their first LP, Digital Stimulation, along with unreleased demos, and more. Remastered audio. Packaged in gatefold LP style sleeves with 32-page booklet…
House
CD edition, 'House' is the 2nd official full-length offering by Cleveland, Ohio duo MIST featuring Sam Goldberg (of Radio People) and John Elliott (Emeralds, Outer Space, Imaginary Softwoods etc) after 2009's self-titled debut effort on Amethyst Sunset. A suite consisting of 7 complex, layered compositions shows new progression in composition and melody from the duo. From the lightning fast, bittersweet crescendo of 'Twin Lanes' to the dramatic chord progressions of 'I Can Still Hear Your Voice'…
Seamstress In A Suitcase
Tan or Boil – a pun on the name of bratty short stop from those 1970s Bad News Bears films that stuck – is the alias of the Pittsburgh-born Jason Bacasa. After growing up in Pittsburgh and studying graphic design, Jason took flight from his home town to work freelance in a variety of cities, though his latest and current stint in New York seems more permanent than those in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. On the songwriting side, Jason’s continual travels kept him to just an acoustic guit…
Ceremonies to breathe upon
Two contrabass players here, Andrew Lafkas, of whom I not really heard I think and Michael T. Bullock, of whom I did hear before, and know as someone who likes his improvised playing to be minimal - to say the least. I think Bullock at times also uses electronics, but I am not if he uses any of that here. Its not mentioned on the cover, nor the fact that this is perhaps a live concert. I do however think this is a live recording, however one with no audience, but a direct-to-track recording of t…
We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
In May 2011, Foxygen's Sam France and Jonathan Rado nervously handed off a CD-R of their homemade mini-opus Take the Kids Off Broadway to producer and visionary Richard Swift after his performance in a Lower East Side club. The duo, who had just mixed and burned the disc that very night, had been devotees of Swift's outsider-pop oeuvre since high school, when they first began recording their own pubescent forays into oddball rock n' roll (At least a dozen records were finished before they …
Duos 2011
Jonas Kocher, accordion with Hans Koch & Patricia Bosshard, Christian Wolfarth, Gaudenz Badrutt, Urs Leimgruber, Christoph Schiller, Christian Müller. Recorded during the year 2011. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Limited edition of 222 numerated copies.
Selected passages / Set.grey
Selected passages : During the winter of 2008, I stayed on the campus of a small college in Vermont where I had previously recorded the material for a piece titled 'intervals'. When I first arrived I made recordings of a small radio which was in my room, I would listen to that radio throughout my stay and captured many different sounds from it. I also spent quite a bit of time both indoors and out recording the environments, and made recordings playing some of the pianos which are in vari…
13 Japanese Birds Vol.10
It is being released by Important Records from January 2009 to January 2010. Each album is limited to 1,000 copies. They are available individually or by subscription; as just the CDs or with a custom bamboo box. Also available only with the box was an acrylic-on-bamboo painting by Masami Akita. The boxes sold out in June and started shipping in July, the paintings are sold out and started shipping in September. The series is part of Merzbow's recent return to live drums. The albums are recorded…
Non Meters Volume One
A collective of musicians that are all connected to each other in some form or fashion. Their membership includes Guillermo Herren (PREFUSE 73, SAVATH & SAVALAS), Zach Hill (HELLA), Tyondai Braxton (BATTLES), John McEntire (TORTOISE), Alejandra Deheza (SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS), & Eva Puyuelo Muns (SAVATH & SAVALAS).
Who Can I Turn To Stereo
It has much in common with Krautrock (yes, again!), particularly the tape editing (Can, Faust), as well as the modulation and splice experiments of 20th century classical avant-guardists (Stockhausen, Henri, Cage etc.). But these are just touch points, rather than starting blocks. This music has something deranged about it (like The Residents), but it’s very listenable and not nearly as hard work as I’m probably making it sound (unlike (much of) The Residents.). Synthetic rhythms pitter patter a…
Planet Dream
In this present age of the history of humanity, there are few places left for a true utopia. The world has already experienced some of those ideal systems, but the results were tragic. Even in literature utopian thinking seems to have vanished. Only In music is there still a place to wonder, especially when it deals with spontaneous and non-hierarchical procedures. Musical improvisation is becoming the only possibility left to forge micro-societies of freedom and egalitarianism, without having t…
E.E. Tension And Circumstance
The first meeting of AMM guitarist Keith Rowe and pianist John Tilbury after Rowe departed in 2004, a delicate and intricate long improvisation, fascinating dialog between two long-acquainted and innovative conversationalists. "Keith Rowe and John Tilbury are both known as prominent members of AMM, the legendary ensemble which has been incredibly influential on the field of improvised music.Originating the tabletop guitar, Keith Rowe was a co-founder of AMM in 1965. He's since been involved in a…