Best of 2017

Over the past decade or so, there has been a strange, idiosyncratic bubbling from New York - sonic adventures emerging under the banner of Rvng. The imprint was founded quietly during the mid 2000’s, gathering ever increasing note and renown, while never allowing themselves to be easily defined. Genre and association mean little, in the face of the guiding light of discovery, integrity, and surprise. A short while back, we caught wind of a new sub-label, emerging under the banner of  RVNG - Fre…

Irish artist Áine O'Dwyer follows her highly acclaimed Music For Church Cleaners vol. I and II double LP (2015) with two LP releases, Locusts and Gegenschein (PP 026LP). While continuing to explore the church organ as the primary instrument, these two releases steer away from Church Cleaners in both sonic content and themes explored. O'Dwyer recorded Locusts in 2015 at St. James' Church in Barrow-in-Furness, England, and at the First Unitarian Congregational Society sanctuary in Brooklyn Heights…

Amazingly beautiful limited edition of 500 screen printed LPs of this classic, individually handcoloured by artist Manor Grunewald. A master of reeds and horns, Joe McPhee is a bonafide free jazz icon who refuses to play the elder statesman in spite of his half-century-plus career. McPhee continues to hone his improvisatory skills by venturing far from his upstate New York home to perform with cutting-edge instrumentalists the world over. The phenomenal Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love is one…

**Few copies back in stock, grey-area reissue of this mythical album** Of all the composers associated with the legendary Parisian electroacoustic studio Groupe De Recherches Musicales, Bernard Parmegiani has come to command the greatest respect and adoration. Though often overlooked until his later years, long resting in the shadow of his more famous peers - Pierre Schaeffer, Luc Ferrari, and Iannis Xenakis, his legacy now towers over the rest - the great master of his field. Parmegiani’s work …

Featuring some of the most innovative players from Beirut, Cairo and Istanbul, Karkhana met for the first time in Beirut in 2014, bringing together influences from the three major experimental music scenes of the region and beyond. Through their live shows, the band’s seven multi-instrumentalists build a transcendental atmosphere developing what could possibly be called Free Middle Eastern music. Shades and traces of shaabi, tarab, sufi and much more are heard in the distinct blend of free jazz …

**One of the greatest Spiritual album ever made**180-gram vinyl reissue, new re-edition, reduced price. Improvised spiritual jazz from Joe Henderson and Alice Coltrane. "The Elements" was originally recorded in 1973 and marked a move away from the post bop that Henderson was known for. Working with Coltrane on piano and harp, violinist Michael White, Charlie Haden on bass, percussionist Kenneth Nash and Baba Duru Oshun on tablas, the veteran saxophonist explored themes inspired by the four eleme…

Black Truffle present the first ever vinyl reissue of legendary performance and sound artist John Duncan's forgotten gem Klaar, originally released by Extreme in 1991 and partly created in collaboration with Andrew McKenzie (The Hafler Trio). Duncan is perhaps most well-known for his notorious early performances pieces, which explored violence, self-denial, and the establishment of extreme psychological and physical states in both artist and audience. Alongside these transgressive experiments, D…

Some of the earliest music from groundbreaking French drummer Jacques Thollot – and proof that right at the start, he was already in a unique space that was all his own! His first release, released on the Futura Records in 1971, is called "Quand Le Son Devient Aigu, Jeter La Giraffe A La Mer"; it is a splendid example of spacey-like, fragile and imaginative compositional style fusing jazz, electronic experiments, culminating in a blissful listening experience and it has earned Thollot the place …

Restocked, reduced price. Song Cycle offers another remarkable addition to the canon of early sound art experimentalism, with this legendary collection of Fluxus audio works compiled by Italian conceptual artist and publisher Maurizio Nannucci. Founded in 1960 by the Lithuanian/American artist George Maciunas, Fluxus began as a small but international network of artists and composers who challenged accepted ideas about what art is. It characterised itself as a shared attitude rather than a movem…

Last copies, sold-out at source. Joining their growing catalog of unearthed Italian gems, we’re overjoyed to announce Archeo Recordings’ expanded reissued of Paolo Modugno’s brilliant long lost album Brise D'Automne. A member of the legendary multi-media performance collective O.A.S.I., a singular composer, and multi-instrumentalist, Paolo Modugno’s work stands tall within the incredible canon of recordings to emerge in the hands of the 1980’s Italian experimental avant-garde - a hybrid of count…

Few copies back in stock, sold-out at source Die Tödliche Doris was born out of West Berlin’s lively post-punk community in the early ‘80s. Along with Einstürzende Neubauten, Malaria, Sprung Aus Den Wolken and Frieder Butzmann, Die Tödliche Doris ranks amongst the Geniale Dilletanten – which roughly translates as “ingenious dilettantes” – who sought to democratize cultural productions beyond the grip of both Western capitalism and GDR socialism. The Geniale Dilletanten became synonymous with a f…

Beautifully by-passing our expectations, performance artist/musician Pan Daijing’s first major work Lack yields a spellbinding demonstration, or “purgative finale”, to her improvised live performances over the past two years; offering a far more nuanced and probing suite of electronic gestures than her gnarled handful of slamming, salty tapes and 12”s for Bedouin Records, Power Vacuum or Noisekölln Tapes since 2015. Extracted and edited from field recordings and live documentation of her concert…

Small repress. Irish artist Áine O'Dwyer follows her highly acclaimed Music For Church Cleaners vol. I and II double LP (2015) with two LP releases, Gegenschein and Locusts (PP 027LP). While continuing to explore the church organ as the primary instrument, these two releases steer away from Church Cleaners in both sonic content and themes explored. Gegenschein was recorded at the Franciscan Friary in Limerick, Ireland. O'Dwyer gained access to the Friary in 2012 and explored both the pipe organ …

​Originally available only in sex shops in the Netherlands, this is one of the rarest psychedelic LP’s ever to be recorded in Europe. Consisting of only two long tracks, one covering side A and one covering side B, this album is probably the most mind-bending stuff we’ve heard from around this time. Side A starts with fast-paced free-jazz-rock with intense drumming and Anita’s growing involvement (first giggling, then moaning and finally screaming in all sorts of terrifying ways) Most instrument…

**Sea Blue vinyl; Edition of 700** Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of Heldon's Stand By, originally released in 1979. Richard Pinhas began by absorbing Jimi Hendrix as an adolescent, leaving that behind at the beginning of the 1970s, after having heard what Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock were doing with synthesizers, and then discovering the seminal duo Fripp and Eno. It was one year on from this epiphany that the first album by Heldon was released (1974). The main idea was to rock and…

All three reissues of the fantastic free / spiritual jazz french Cohelmec Ensemble at a special price.Souffle Continu Records present the first vinyl reissue of Cohelmec Ensemble's Hippotigris Zebra Zebra, originally released in 1971. The Cohelmec Ensemble celebrate, above all, the pleasure of collective music-making. A group without a designated leader, they base their approach on reciprocal listening, but also on a dialogue between written and improvised material, in which all members have an …

Souffle Continu Records present the first vinyl reissue of Cohelmec Ensemble's 5 Octobre 1974, originally released in 1974. Out of the musical effervescence in post May 1968 France were born the labels BYG and Futura Records. The concept of collective creation appeared as essential, of which Cohelmec Ensemble was a typical example: in such procedures, individual identities can of course still express themselves but framed within a non-hierarchical common thought process with the emphasis on expe…

Two previously unreleased recordings from one of Greece’s pioneers of electroacoustic music** It’s an astounding moment for archival releases and reissues - an unprecedented flow of artifacts emerging from the history of the sonic avant-garde. While the sounds of developing electronic technologies were harnessed during the first part of the 20th Century, it wasn’t until the post-war period that they truly took hold - the focus of many of that era’s most ambitious musical minds. Beginning in the …

At Soundohm, we’ve dedicated our lives to music which defies category and constraint - which ventures into unknown territories, risking everything to stand on its own. There are few better cases than Werner Durand - a true maverick of experimental practice. Since the early 1980s, the composer and instrument builder has been  sculpting a singular landscape in sound, bridging countless compositional spectrums, while resting comfortably in none. Rising to the stunning singularity for which he has b…

Beacon Sound present a reissue of Terry Riley's Songs For The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets, originally released in 1983. Recorded live in Munich in 1982 using two Prophet synthesizers and voice, this album is a reflection of Riley's ongoing interest in melding improvisation, electronic music, and the raga vocal stylings of his mentor, Pandit Pran Nath. Terry Riley turned the music world upside down with his 1964 work In C, a revolutionary concept based on 53 modules that can be improvised upon…

Since Lieven Martens Moana's (Dolphins Into The Future) last lp, the massively overlooked "Music from the Guardhouse", our composer has moved from the islands of Okinawa to the Swampland of Mexico City to the Portuguese countryside, running his Private Press, and composing music for ensemble and commercials. This very pluralistic life-style and commitment has led us to his first full length record in three years: "Idylls". Presented as a 12 page book with an LP disc, the listener first hears con…

Sinergia Elettronica, the conjunction between Jooklo and Metabolismus orbiting around the museum of weirdness of Degenfeld (Germany), had always been characterized by instant and unpredictable music, therefore their releases being put out as flashes of the moment, as sparkling and quick. Not the case of this one, the first recording appearing on vinyl, which has been sitting under an old piano for a few years before actually seeing the light of day. Three long pieces of prog-delic angular abstra…

At Last! Intents And Purposes, revered as Bill Dixon's singular masterpiece, has been lovingly remastered and reissued on LP by the ever lucent Superior Viaduct. Visionary, dark and mysterious, the late trumpet innovator's magnum opus is not only Dixon's defining statement as a composer, but also one of the most luminous moments in the history of avant-garde jazz."Combining orchestral timbres with free jazz intensity, Dixon leads a ten-piece ensemble including such heavyweights as Byard Lancaste…

**3 LP bundle** Pharoah Sanders is Spiritual Jazz, is Devotional Music, is the greatest living link between John Coltrane, Kamasi Washington, and the next generation of this great lineage. His Tenor Sound, his Singing Voice, his compositions, and his recordings have already stood the test of time, in his time, endured, ever-aged so finely, and have now (in my opinion) surpassed critique. Pharoah Sanders is a giant, an innovator, colorful, prayerful, and worthy of all our attention, celebration, …

Lino Capra Vaccina's album from the late 1970s, after his years with Aktuala and Franco Battiato: slow, meditative music built almost entirely on percussion, with violin and the voices of Vaccina and Juri Camisasca.

Swedish noise agitator Dan Johannsson bothers his good pals at iDEAL with a brilliant new LP following his Aska split album with Puce Mary in 2013. Malign by nature and intent, his overdue return to Joachim Nordwall’s label is a sorely strung out and decayed thing, a dank space hankering to be inhabited by listeners who want or need to be pushed into uncomfortable headspaces. If you're into anything from Jandek to Wolf Eyes to The Caretaker - this one's for you. Malign trades in a sense of…

**Swamp green vinyl; Edition of 700** Souffle Continu Records present a reissue of Heldon's Heldon . 6 . Interface, originally released in 1977. The idea in the mind of Richard Pinhas, the driving force behind Heldon, was to produce music "as cold as a huge block of ice" a vertiginous experience, of course influenced by the King Crimson trilogy, from Larks' Tongues In Aspic (1973) to Red (1974), except that Heldon represents an electrified version, leading to a perfect rapport between though…

Lullabies For Insomniacs brings you the debut release from the enigmatic duo Garland. A project which emerged years ago and subsequently developed and transformed through overseas exchanges. The two friends that have been collaborating for some time now via long distance working methods. Exactly how these recordings were assembled we’re unsure but the result is more than satisfactory. Whirring, mechanical club warm up plods  and downtempo influenced skits make up the bulk of the album with o…

Jocy De Oliveira's 1981 album for voice, acoustic and electronic instruments. The Brazilian pianist and composer had worked with Stravinsky and premiered music by Berio, Xenakis and Cage before turning to composition.

Invaluable CD reissue for Spontaneous Music Ensemble’s groundbreaking and inspirational Karyōbin (1968) - a pivotal moment in the history of free-jazz/improvised music featuring the combined talents of Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Dave Holland, John Stevens and others, now presented by Martin Davidson’s lagendary Emanem label on its golden jubilee, remixed and remastered from the original tapes with new liner notes.The histories of free-jazz, with subsequent narratives of improvisation which grew…

Giovanni Venosta’s Olympic Signals, is one of the great lost documents of the Italian avant-garde - the first solo outing from one of the movement’s seminal voices, most recognised for his collaborative work with Roberto Musci. In a sea of unjustly neglected works, Venosta’s debut rises from the tide time as a towering gesture of sonic creativity. A shimmering, complex wonder of overwhelming Minimalistic beauty. One of the great records of the 1980’s, that almost no one heard. Recorded 1…

Jérôme Noetinger: electronics, revox b77. Anthony Pateras: composition, electronics. Synergy Percussion.An hour-long percussion sextet featuring the instrumentation from Xenakis’ Pleïades. Commissioned for Synergy Percussion’s 40th birthday in 2014. Beauty is a four movement electro-acoustic work for percussion sextet and electronics combining written materials from Anthony Pateras, improvisations with the electroacoustic composer Jérôme Noetinger and a vast battery of over 100 orchestral percus…

**ltd 400 on black vinyl** One of the coolest 70s soundtracks from the great Stelvio Cipriani – served up here with a huge amount of bonus tracks too! The music here was scored for a Mario Bava horror film, but it often has a quality that's more lean and lovely overall – that current of sex that we always love in Ciprani's best work, and which made him a key force for transforming the Italian bossa and jazz soundtrack style of the 60s into something completely new for the 70s! There's a …

**last copies** The raga cycle given by Pandit Pran Nath at the Palace Theater in Paris 1972 was the first time a Master Indian Classical Vocalist had presented three consecutive days of ragas sung at the appropriate times of day, giving the Western audience insight into the characteristics that inform the moods and atmospheres of evening, afternoon, and morning ragas. The recording here is from the Saturday, May 27, 1972 afternoon concert and features Raagini Bheempalasi and Raag Puriya D…

This unique document is the first time Can's singles have been presented together and shows the breadth of their influential career, from well loved tracks like Halleluwah, Vitamin C and I Want More to more obscure singles such as Silent Night and Turtles Have Short Legs. "Turtles Have Short Legs," was the band's third single released in 1971 and never appeared on a studio album. This was recorded around the time of the Tago Mago sessions with the line up of Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, J…

killer retrospective LP with earliest recordings by American electronic music wizard Chris Hanzsek. Originally recorded in 1985. Chris: "The pieces were created as structured improvisations using a monophonic synth (primarily) along with a Yamaha DX7 (borrowed from a friend) and possibly a guitar. Recording was made on an older Otari MX-5050 1/2” 8 track. Mixing was done on a Tascam M-50 console and a Revox A77 1/4” machine. I recall the project happened in two bursts: I did half of it in S…

Double CD edition. Indonesian rainforest atmospheres which could almost be scoring some Werner Herzog absorbing documentaries. Otto Sidharta is born in Bandung, Indonesia November 6, 1955. In 1978 he studied music composition in Jakarta Institute of Arts under guidance of Slamet Abdul Sjukur, in 1984 he continue his post graduate study for composition and electronic music with Prof. Ton de Leeuw in Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam In 2015 acomplished his doctoral study at Institute Seni Indone…

Re-press! Black Vinyl Edition housed in reverse board-printed inners and double-width spine jacket. Félicia Atkinson's new full-length album, Hand In Hand follows the highly-acclaimed A Readymade Ceremony, and her collaboration with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Comme Un Seul Narcisse. Composed over 2016 at EMS and at home in Brittany, Hand In Hand could be considered as the most ambitious body of work recorded by the French musician and artist. Strident modular sounds tear apart minimal beats and drones…

The frontier for French electroacoustic mystical music has traversed much ground since Pierre Schaeffer shuffled on the past and laid out a map without borders or designated ground. Seventy years in this land of the fried, there are a plethora of Ideas and ongoing potential coming from all corners of the globe. Inheriting the wisdom of past masters whilst forging a signature style of his own, Kassel Jaeger sits as one of the premier explorers of these unknown worlds today. Comprised recentl…

Bubbling below the histories of sound-art, fine-art, and avant-garde music, there are a handful of remarkable figures who bridge all three - collapsing the barriers between creative limit, context, location, and aural experience. Of these, Terry Fox long occupied a place of respect and renown for those in the know - among the best of the best, but, within the broader narratives of each discipline, he has never entirely received his due - lingering just out of view, responsible for so much…