Best of 2017

Souffle Continu Records present the first vinyl edition of Jac Berrocal's La Nuit Est Au Courant, originally released on In Situ in 1991. Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" on the radio, Renaissance motets, his grandfather in a Zouave military band, Syrian deserts... Columns of tanks in the streets, the soundtrack to Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped (1956), Juan Manuel Fangio's car, the fall of the Berlin wall: from the first and fantastic Musiq Musik (1973), this is where Jac Berrocal's trumpet com…

Previously unreleased tapes from the Kluster co-founder and restless electronic pioneer. Cold, pulsing sequencer patterns and alien tone-colours map an imaginary planet: raw, hypnotic and unmistakably Schnitzler, from his vast archive.

First ever LP reissue of this timeless masterpiece by Philippe Sarde, the most versatile and talented french film composer. Les choses de la vie, an outstanding score which offers both the wonderful « Chanson d'Hélène » and most of the musical features which appeared later in Philippe Sarde's musical career : Nostalgia, melancholy, experiment and sound discord.  Les choses de la vie is the film which confirms Sautet as a genuine author and Philippe Sarde as a rising composer. This is also the st…

A landmark! "Elapsed Time" is undoubtedly destined to be a classic, and one of the finest experimental tomes to emerge over the last years.  Kevin Drumm array of releases have traversed the auditory spectrum, roaming from tension-ridden ambient and electro-acoustic suites through to massively distorted, dense and decimating guitar and synth compositions. But despite his noisy reputation, KD music can be overwhelmingly sensual even at its loudest, providing a form of minimalism replete with a de…

La Porte Ouverte is the Elodie's highly anticipated new vinyl-only album, released on Andrew Chalk own Faraway Press imprint. Andrew Chalk and Timo Van Luijk have been collaborating extensively as Elodie over the past year, often helped by Tom James Scott here tickling the keys of the piano to augment with his own strings and treatments. The album is constructed from slowly revolving patterns of delicate harmonics floating around an omnipresent timbral drone, plenty of bells and gongs, and while…

** Edition of 100 copies** A seminal figure in the history of 20th century avant-garde, yet sinfully overlooked, Wolf Vostell unleashed ideas - those running wild through his debut LP Dé-coll/age Musik, which remain a slap to the face, more than half a century after they were set into play. A founding member of Fluxus, an early instigator of Happenings, an innovator of video art, Vostell was equally one of the most radical and irreverent practitioners in sound that the world has ever known. Firs…

First ever official release for this unbelievable giallo score by Roberto Nicolosi, composed for the experimental thriller by Mario Caiano in 1972. Previously issued on the Fontana label in 1973 with the title "Atmosfera", this is certainly one of most sought-after Italian jazz LPs for any serious collector, featuring a five-star collective of marvelous musicians such as Giovanni Tommaso (bass), Franco Tonani (drums), Angelo Baroncini (guitar), Antonello Vannucchi (organ), Franco D'Andrea (piano…

This Series of electro acoustic music and Musique Concrète has started in 2015 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Experimental Studio Bratislava, Exs. Series 1 introduced us to Ina Hudba/Other Music from the first generation of Slovak avant-garde composers recorded in the Exs, mostly with self-built electronic equipment behind the Iron Curtain. Series 2 provided a platform for Nova Generacia/New Generation of Slovak composers using Western equipment – now integrat…

This record is a lie and a failure - a triumph and truth. Such is the condition that Henning Christiansen build across his entire career.  One the 20th Century’s most striking and visionary composers - perhaps the most notable of Fluxus’ Danish arm, Christiansen was a radical collectivist as much as an assertive individualist - contradictory and reactionary - possessed by a singular vision which drove him down uncharted paths. Christiansen’s life, with the sprawling body of work it left in its w…

**very last copies around** This is a dream come true. First time available since their original release, remastered sound, 500 copies only for these two Piero Umiliani gems exploring not only the traditional African music but also several other musical branches (jazz, funk....), with raw percussions, marimbas and a sunny vibe overall. The two albums sound like a spooky documentary that invites you to an unforgetable adventure: the music is completely wonderful throughout, and a great mix …

Sonor Music Editions is thrilled to release another terrific jam and a very obscure Italian Library record originally released in 1969 on RRC label (Droga, Traffico, Viaggio Attraverso I Problemi Dell'Uomo series etc.). Music is signed by the great guitar players and composers Angelo Baroncini and Bruno Battisti D'Amario, unmissable guitar man of Maestro Ennio Morricone. CRAZY early Fuzz beats with fast Western swings, Experimental Rock distractions, musical rhythmic movements with totally…

**sold-out at source, last copies around** Sonor Music Editions is very proud to release an absolute Italian Library HOLY GRAIL and maybe the most desired item of the genre, originally released in early '70s on the hot Panda Records - a totally insane Library album conceived by maestro Alessandro Alessandroni and Giuliano Sorgini under their pseudonyms Braen & Raskovich and surely their highest point of collaboration. Concept album where the music is just out-of-this-world and way ahead of its t…

**CD version** Given his fascination with obscure and esoteric topics, an interest that lasted throughout his whole career as a composer of library music, Fabio Fabor must have been diabolic and mysterious for real. The Milan-born composer, who passed away in 2011, had always showcased a darker side compared to other fellow musicians of his era. A side that is well portrayed in works like the famous masterpiece “Pape Satan”, or “Satanas”, which is included in the very accessible “B 81” (Serie Us…

**CD version** "A fantastic obscure record, whose tracks simply anticipate Techno and generally Electronic music of the early 70s, including Kraftwerk’s milestone Autobahn, Heldon and Lard Free. A mind-melting opera. While Kraftwerk released Ralph & Florian, and about one year before the releasing of the milestone Autobahn, maestros Sandro Brugnolini and Giorgio Carnini were already experimenting the deep sounds of analogue synthesizer ARP 2600.The set provides some blending Funk tunes driven by…

Bridging the worlds of fine art, drug culture, high New Age thinking, and musical Minimalism, Pythagoron’s sole LP is a near perfect artifact of its era - a mysterious sonic wonder, emerging from the fog of time. Privately issued in 1977 - sold via advertisements in High Times - America's iconic stoner publication, the album is thought to be a product of Usco (The Company Of Us), one of the earliest multimedia art collectives based in New York - pioneers in the field of immersive sound and light…

Staubgold present a reissue of Atarpop 73 & Le Collectif Le Temps Des Cerises's Attention L'Armee, originally released in 1975. 10 December 1974. 200 conscripts exited the casern of Draguignan in order to demonstrate in the streets of the city. They made part of those clandestine soldier committees multiplying themselves all over France with a view to unite the young activists of the extreme left with the anti-militarists. This dispute was a backwash of the student manifestations in spring…

Baltimore’s PJ Dorsey has traversed a lifelong journey delving into psychoactive music which can alter one’s cognitive and conscious state. He harnesses his experiences to create music as Tarotplane. Using guitar, effects and processing he produces time suspending soundscapes - immersive music for merging the mind and body. 358 Oblique is the follow up to First which was released on Aguirre Records in 2015. Find yourself adrift in the lapping waters of a slow unraveling sea of sound, a sp…

Like Gerardo Iacoucci (already celebrated twice by Intervallo with Simbolismo Psichedelico and the new Industria N.1), Narassa – real name Sandro Brugnolini – is back in our catalogue with another gem: his second release on the legendary Rome-based label Rotary, which came out after the amazing Tensione dinamica. Guerra e angoscia was born as the fifth installment of seven and, like the previous album (which was recorded with the collaboration of label boss Amedeo Tommasi, the mind behind every …

Unwinding history - catching a glimpse of its truths, can be a near impossible task. There’s an understandable tendency to look in the obvious places, seeking generality and concise definition to guide the way. While this presents obvious paradoxes within the fields of avant-garde sound practice and experimental music - territories which, by their very nature, are resistant to genre, categorization, and definition, the impulse persists, allowing strange and singular free-standing efforts to slip…

Mental Experience present the first ever collected works of Guatemalan electronic experimental musician Emilio Aparicio, collecting five 45s he released from 1969-1971. Aparicio was an, a pioneer in using the Moog synth in Latin America. He released a series of private 45s, recorded at his home studio in collaboration with his patron and producer, the painter Roberto Abularach. It is from 1969-1971, when the recordings included here, were registered. Most of the tracks were written at the countr…

‘Die nacht der seele’ is the twelfth album by Popol Vuh, originally released in 1979 by Florian Fricke and friends–Daniel Fichelscher on guitar, Djong Yun and Renate Knaup on vocals, plus guests Alois Gromer on sitar and Susan Goetting on oboe. Popol Vuh had moved again one step farther, ellaborating a complex world music opus based mainly on acoustic instruments plus Fichelscher's electric guitar and the use of multitracked vocals to reproduce the sounds of Tibetan monk chants.‘Florian was and …

W.H.E.A.D. is the first solo vinyl effort for the Naples based sound artist Mimmo Napolitano. Over the course of the last 10 years he had developed an elaborate body of works where electroacoustic rumors interact with electric clangours and magnetic object presences, all reassembled and digested through his main instrument, a reel to reel machine. The result is a visceral language where the city of Naples plays a central role in the process, vivid and dramatic feeling of this composition breathe…

First ever official reissue after 36 years! Remastered and expanded edition, it remains one of the holy grails of DIY electronics from Japan. Hazy and drugged, this entrancing 1981 recording by the infamous Nord is a must-have for anyone who is into claustrophobic and destroyed ambient of the most disturbing, affecting kind. "Nord, consisting of Satoshi Katayama and Hiroshi Oikawa, were one of the leading groups in the Japanese underground music scene of the 1980s. The group's two members now pe…

Bamboo present the first ever reissue of Paul Bley's Improvisie, originally released in 1971. Recorded Live March 26th, 1971 at Club B14 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Improvisie is a part of the 1971 trilogy of Paul Bley and Annette Peacock's combined experimental recorded work. Together with recent reissues of 1971's The Bley Synthesizer Show (BAM 7020CD/LP) and 1972's Dual Unity (BAM 7018CD/LP), Improvisie is taken from a compelling period for two iconic figures of the free jazz movement, and the…

One of those amazing groups from the early 70s German scene – the kind of outfit who were doomed to failure right from the start, but didn't ever let that stop them from making some incredible music! The sounds here came about as a result of the dwindling Tomorrow's Gift lineup woodshedding in a schoolhouse in rural Germany – experimenting freely with all sorts of timings, styles, and instrumental combinations – then refining the whole thing down to their core lineup of keyboards, bass, and drum…

A kosmische album recorded around 1972-73 in Cologne by Toby Robinson for his Pyramid label, of which no original copies are known: Minimoog, Hammond, guitars, chants and drones, with Mythos drummer Hans-Jürgen Pütz.

Discrepant present a magical live recording from the legend that is Pierre Bastien, showcasing his mecanoid orchestra at its intricate best during a performance at Studio M, the historical studio-concert hall of Radio-Television of Vojvodina, Serbia. Around 1986, French composer and multi-instrumentalist Pierre Bastien started creating and building his own orchestra called Mecanium: an ensemble of musical automatons constructed from meccano parts and activated by electro-motors, that "play" on a…

**A real find. In the best way this is a record that is immediate and enduring.  Limited to just 300 copies for the world, we urge you to grab one while you can** The new solo LP by Giovanni Di Domenico, Insalata Statica comprises a single album-length composition, initially a suite of six distinct parts that have been weaved together to form a kaleidoscopic whole. Composed and performed almost in its entirety by Di Domenico himself, the music takes listeners from passages of melancholic introsp…

Peter Behrendsen (b. 1943) is a Cologne-based radio producer, performer and composer of experimental music. He started concerning himself with electro-acoustic music in 1972, was a member of Josef Anton Riedl's ensemble and assistant to Klaus Schöning at the WDR radio play studio (Studio for Acoustic Art). In Cologne, he organized numerous concerts and festivals for experimental music, most notably BrückenMusik, a series of concerts in the box girder of the Deutz bridge. He regards John Cage, Al…

Ernstalbrecht Stiebler (b. 1934) is a German composer of minimalist and reductionist contemporary music. His name is still most closely associated with his long-time position as radio editor and producer for New Music at the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation (Hessischer Rundfunk), but his own compositional oeuvre – beginning in 1955 and continuing until now – has in the recent years attracted more attention with various concerts and several releases.Having attended the Darmstadt International Sum…

All My Circles Run is the fourth full length release by Montreal-based electro-acoustic composer Sarah Davachi and her second outing for Students of Decay. In a move which may surprise followers of her previous output, the five compositions on this record eschew synthesizer entirely, each focusing on a different instrument, including strings, voice, organ and piano. What remains consistent however is the striking attention to detail and commitment to investigating tonal possibility that c…

One of the great overlooked artifacts of the New York avant-garde, Meredith Monk’s debut album - Key, is a revelation - leaping over the decades with a vision as radical as the day it was made. Originally privately issued in 1971 - now emerging in the hands of Tompkins Square, across its sides, the human voice unfurls as its rarely been heard - the origins of Monk’s seminal body of work, and a near perfect lens into the awe inspiring nature of the era from which it sprang.Within avant-garde prac…

In the years following his reemergence into the world of music in the 1990’s, until his untimely death last year, Tony Conrad was a towering presence in American experimental music. He was it’s grand patriarch. A monolith. A beam of light shining on the future and past. Beginning with his efforts during the early 1960’s, Conrad set the terms for how experimental practice is currently understood and pursued, yet with a vision and being so completely focused on the present, it was often hard to re…

Originally Oba Loba is a project of Norberto Lobo and João Lobo in order to satisfy their desire to compose music for a band. Their debut album, Oba Loba, released in 2015 and critically acclaimed, has been described as a canalising music (Clive Bell in The Wire). Comparisons with Tom Zé or Jim O'Rourke were made to try to qualify a music hard to categorize. Recorded in May 2015, Sir Robert Williams is the second album of the sextet. While most of the songs are composed by Norberto and João L…

**We're over the moon to present this truly legendary 1973 mind-expanding Eastern-influenced/ecstatic/free jazz LP, reissued for the first time ever** Die Schachtel present the first vinyl reissue N.A.D.M.A.'s (Natural Arkestra Da Maya Alta) Uno Zingaro Di Atlante Con Un Fiore A New York, originally released in 1973. Comprised of Davide Mosconi, Franco Pardi, Gustavo Bonora, Inez Klok, Marco Cristofolini, Marino Vismara, Mino Ceretti, Otto Davis Corrado, and Talia Toni Marcus, within the histor…

Wonderful limited 444 Collaboration-Release between VOD and Blowpipe to celebrate one of the most exciting dutch 80’s Tape-Labels. Musical harvest of Studio 12, the postpunk cassette label of the Haarlem Dutch Ultra movement. Beginning of the 80's artists and musicians mingled in squatted places to create, in the true DIY-Vain, an unique blend of minimal- electronics, drones, soundscapes and tribal music. Bands like Nexda, Smalts, Vitaal, Die Krü Blødt, Cargo-Cultus still sound fresh and exci…

Absolutely essential Cosmic Psych masterpiece now back on Vinyl taken from Analogue Masters and like you’ve never heard it before… The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds was an album released on the ELEKTRA label in August 1967 in the U.K. It was heavily played by John Peel on his Perfumed Garden shows, where he used it as a basis for a competition (He had been sent a copy by Clive Selwood, the then head of Elektra’s London office and later to become Peel’s manager). The LP was extremely popular with Perfume…

Box 2 (VOD1.8-13) covering all his other contributions to vinyl and tape productions as well as unreleased recordings. Henri Chopin (1922-2008) was one of the most significant and influential avant-garde, sound and concrete poets of the second half of the 20th century. In his work as a sound poet, he was an early practitioner of a complex vocal art which he described and defined as poésie sonore , in which he used his voice, a microphone, and elementary "home" recording technologies to manipulat…

Recorded in 1985, this long piece, unpublished until now, belongs to the Gamelan series, which Philip Corner has worked for years and counting dozens of pieces. In the word of the author, the piece, for two pianists "...represents one of the most “curious” manifestation in the Gamelan series. The increment-link, high-to-low, is maintained on the chromatic scale of the piano keyboard, giving durations from 1 to 88. However they are realized in both directions at the same time. And counted out lou…

Time of Hayfied represents a thematic shift away from more long-form and slowly developing pieces Andrew Chalk is known for prior to this and also especially in his work with Mirror (1999-2004). It is the stepping stones between two worlds and is still steeped in foggy textural atmospheres, but as though pierced by sunlight through a forest canopy, where melodies and harmonic structures appear and dart through the vignettes. There is a sense of lost golden summers and all is enhanced by the narr…