New Arrivals
The Sleeping Morning
The collaborative efforts of Athens native Savvas Ysatis and New Yorker Taylor Deupree were well known in the early and mid 1990s through their work as SETI, Futique, and Arc, as well as their soundtrack to Japanese architect Toyo Ito's famed Tower of Winds building in Yokohama, Japan. After going their separate ways, Ysatis to recording for Tresor in Berlin, and Deupree to founding the 12k label, they have united again for their first project in nearly 10 years.
Almost all of Ysatis and Deupree…
Foley Folly Folio
Pinkcourtesyphone is the not so secret alter ego of renowned sound artist Richard Chartier, and while it seems to be geared more towards a looser, more relaxed sensibility than the serious artist guise that is usually thrust upon him, it lacks none of his careful attention to structure and detail. Quite a bit of the material on this compilation (recorded erratically between 1997 and 2011) could pass for his normal work, but throws enough curve balls to give it a distinct identity all its…
Vacation Music
For a couple of years Ryoji Hojito, together with his wife Yoshiko, were coming to Lithuania for a one week autumn vacation. We've met in the course of their explorative journeys around the country and without thinking too much went to a studio for a spontaneous session and a year later played a concert at St. Catherin's Church in Vilnius. Both of us were happy about the music we've got on tape and today we want to share with you seven impro peaces!
Just To Feel Anything
Just to Feel Anything, the new album by Emeralds, surpasses all expectations, just as its predecessor, Does It Look Like I'm Here, did in 2010. This expertly recorded new album sees the band deliver plenty of their distinctive aesthetic for old fans to enjoy while offering a new range of fresh, exciting ideas for newcomers.
'Before Your Eyes' begins the record with a steady build-up, which bleeds into humid layers of synthesizer pads and warm guitar. The track sets the tone perfectly for 'Adreno…
Let\'s Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow
Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow is the third full-length CD from the young Polish musician Tomasz Bednarcyzk. Following Summer Feelings and Painting Sky Together (Room40), Bednarczyk naturally continues his process of utilizing mainly treated piano and guitar to create fragile, lingering structures that hover around only a few fundamental notes. Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow is divided into two sections, split down the middle by 'The Sketch,' which was written in cooperation with Adria…
Neue Volksmusik
he zeitkratzer project Neue Volksmusik (new folk music) is more of a reflex to, rather than a reflection on folk music. This is because the ensemble does not play specific music with any sense of distance. On the contrary, zeitkratzer is taking possession of folk music in its essence. This means that they continue a tradition which folk musics all have in common: constant transformation. No form of authentic folk music can ever be about conservation as a fixed medium, destined for a museu…
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…
A color photo of the horse
Alessandro Bosetti provides voice and electronics on words & text from a variety of writers, as performed in a trio with drummer Ches Smith and fretless guitarist Kenta Nagai; fascinating and perplexing expression. Alessandro Bosetti: voice, electronics. Kenta Nagai: fretless guitar. Ches Smith: drums. Music and texts by Alessandro Bosetti. Dead Bird text by Alessandro Bosetti on words by Alasdair Campbell. Istruzioni text by Alessandro Bosetti on words by Jerry Mandel, George Dippel, Howard…
Returnal
'Returnal' is the fourth album from Daniel Lopatin's Oneohtrix Point Never project, after 'Betrayed In The Octagon' (Deception Island, 2007), ÔZones Without People' (Arbor, 2009) and 'Russian Mind' (No Fun, 2009). All 3 albums being superbly compiled on the 'Rifts' double CD set (No Fun, 2009). It sees Lopatin fine tune his craft for creation of deep atmospheres and texture even further. Starting off with the mind blowing triptych of 'Nil Admiari'-'Describing Bodies'-'Stress Waves', which …
Chimeric
"Which brings me to Radian with long player 'Chimeric'. The post rock button has genuinely been pushed. This record offers a lot to bearded, stand with your arms folded at gigs nodding types. They have quite a claustrophobic quality.With vibraphone and introverted samples dominating proceedings, but does not seem to move above brooding pace, which gives it a soundtrack effect. The cover is really poncey as well its a broken vase with dying flower petals strewn about the place.Its probably meant …
Succubus
Seductive but perilous, he Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble's new session under the Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation name is a new combination of drones and jazz. Creating sensual, murky and dark atmospheres, “Succubus” the evolution of this band, with stronger horns and a focus on hypnotic, soundtrack-like material. A deep, dark and yet seductive trip again for the corporation.
Northern
The inspiration behind Northern (including its music, title and photography) comes from Deupree’s recent relocation from the heart of urban activity in Brooklyn to the tranquility of the forest in upstate New York. Inspired by nature and the winter during which it was created, Northern, like much of his recent work, explores Deupree’s interest in stillness and a slowed sense of time. Through quiet textures, subtle movements, faint loops and echoes, it was his goal to create the type of music tha…
Niederländische Sprichwörter
Luigi Archetti und Michael Heisch spent over two years experimenting in the studio. The result is the album the "Netherlandish Proverbs" – a musical approach to the painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 – 1569). Conceived by a process of random selection, the album presents the listener with freshly perceptible, kaleidoscopic-like audio experiences."The Netherlandish Proverbs" is one of Pieter Bruegel the Elder's best known paintings. It contains over 100 sayings and idioms illustrating hum…
Sax Pax for a Sax
Classical world-folk style by Moondog joined with jazz timbers by The London Saxophonic: the amazing and original collaboration between two distinct way of music.
Moondog and suncat suites
By 1956, the early New York street recordings of the great Moondog had reached British shores. His primitive percussive sounds struck a new nerve with many artists and musicians, none more so that fine London jazzman Kenny Graham. So inspired was he by these extraordinary recordings that he decided to bring together a band of top notch session men and pay his very own musical homage. The result is this exceptionally rare and unique 1957 album of Moondog covers (Moondog Suite) and Graham’s…
featuring Ginsberg, Hentz, Irmler
Bob Rutman has invented what may well be the largest stringed instrument ever made. with a bow made of fishing line, he bows the suspension of a gigantic steel sail and in this way creates drones whose volume is not unlike the noise of a plane taking off. we might be reminded of russolo and 'the art of noise' by the futurists, or of machine music or industrial. and we're right and wrong there. of course, simply the look of rutman's steel cello gives a martial impression. so, it's not surp…
Circle Snare
His given electronic anatomy of drum machine, microphones, tapes, & MSP folded out of their hard accustomed formations, breaking out into a more cogent & vital arsenal. A finely detailed & dimensional evolution of an already unique voice.
Nothing Special
The best-selling instrumentalist in the world, with over 70 million albums sold to date, Kenny G. is an international superstar who has earned countless prestigious awards throughout an illustrious career that spans three decades. He has distinguished himself as a master craftsman and one of the most gifted artists in the world, through nineteen best-selling releases. Now add one more to that list of multiple-platinum chart-topping records: NOTHING SPECIAL. Kenny's first album in at least…
Gayageum Sanjo
Sub Rosa presents a release by composer/violinist Baudouin de Jaer. Gayageum Sanjo: compositions for 12-string gayagrum, Prelude, 5 sanjo and 10 studies. According to legend and to recent archeological digs, the gayageum is a millennial zither-like instrument featured in all Korean traditional repertoires. "Sanjo" is usually translated as "scattered melodies." This style of music was informed by southwestern shamanic music (Sinawi) and the great epic songs (Pansori) from the same regi…
Nigeria Afrobeat Special
Nigeria Afrobeat Special is the fourth addition to the Nigeria Special series, a project initiated by Miles Cleret, owner of the Soundway Record label back in 2004. Cleret’s ambition to distinguish the blossoming music scenes of 1970s Nigeria has lent to an indispensable series of CD and LP compilations documenting the influence of western blues, rock and disco amongst artists and musicians versed in the local musical styles of highlife and juju. It was Fela Kuti and his musical and politi…