Best of 2022
The tail of the tiger
In 1977 an obscure Italian private label issued a record that sounded like it came from outer space. A long and dense trance-inducing drone of sustained notes, rich with overtones and harmonic embellishments, coming from a space so vast and unexplored that seemed almost of non-human, even electronic nature
Underground Altena
Alga Marghen returns with an absolute stunner, the LP “Underground Altena”, comprising a never before heard or released series of recordings capturing Anima - the duo of Limpe Fuchs and Paul Fuchs - in 1973. Largely rendered on a striking array of instruments, invented and played by the couple, its otherworldly, visionary sounds upend nearly every perception held about underground music transpiring in Germany during this period. Wild, wonderful, truly free, and inspiring as records come.
Electric Silence
Originally released in 1974 on famous German label Bacillus, Dzyan's third and final album,it is recognized for its daring world beat elements, and totally acidic album cover art. Dzyan refined their sound even further into improvisation and exotic sounds, mixed with weird experimentations and mysticism. It offers other-worldly music of incredible beauty and strangeness, influenced by the music of Asia but taking it into far more original realms. Multi-instrumentalists Marron and Karwatky experi…
Soundnitia / Soundmagnificat / Soundmusication
Tip! This bundle includes the following items:
"Soundnitia" is the cipher under which the experimental group The Talismen constituted in 1974 and made its presence known on the Jazz scene with the first LP. The initiator and spiritus rector of the avant-garde ensemble is the saxophonist Fitz Gore, a "stormer of the valves" and unknown to the augurs of the jazz scene. As a saxophonist and a newcomer, he documents with his ultra-hard sound. Fukara (Swahili) is a clear affinity to the school of "h…
Sand
**2022 repress ** Since its original release in 1977, Ragnar Grippe’s seminal debut album entitled “Sand” has been adorned with immense praise and influenced a myriad of ambient musicians and minimalist composers. Grippe’s unique approach of bonding post-modern classical composition into the tape techniques of musique concrète allowed him to be one of the leading experimental electronic musicians of the late 20th century. Originally trained as a classical cellist, Grippe had relocated to Paris i…
The Sacrificial Code
2022 Repress: Oversized 8-panel triple CD. Slow, methodical organ recordings on this major new work from Kali Malone; a quietly subversive double album featuring almost two hours of concentrated, creeping organ pieces governed by a strict acoustic and compositional code with ultimately profound emotional resonance. Featuring additional organ pieces performed by Ellen Arkbro and mastering by Rashad Becker, you’re gonna wanna spent time with this one. ‘The Sacrificial Code’ takes a more surgical…
Unreleased 1974 - 2016
Available for the first time on CD, this is another collection of essential pieces from one of the originators and masters of this style. These recordings were selected from the personal collection of Tony Oxley and were mastered for this release with superb sound by Karsten Lehl under Tony’s supervision. Some of the pieces were edited into their final composed form many years after the original recording was made. Performed by a who’s who of European improvised music, this new release is an e…
Dokument I / Leendet Fran Helvetet / Knutna Näva
This bundle includes three Enhet for Fri Musik / Blod LPs recently reissued by Aguirre, namely "Dokument I", "Leendet Fran Helvetet" and "Knutna Näva".Enhet for Fri Musik "Dokument I" (LP)In dark times of geopolitical powerplay and war mongering, artistic counter attacks are often shaped as quests for openness and liberation. No troupe within the current musical underground embodies this urge like the Gothenburg sound dwellers of Enhet För Fri Musik. With spiritual roots in the candour of the 19…
Shebang
Tip! Extended guitar hero Oren Ambarchi returns with Shebang, the latest in the series of intricately detailed long-form rhythmic workouts that includes Quixotism (2014) and Hubris (2016). Like those records, Shebang features an international all-star cast of musical luminaries, their contributions recorded individually in locations from Sweden to Japan yet threaded together so convincingly (by Ambarchi in collaboration with Konrad Sprenger) that it’s hard to believe they weren’t breathing the s…
Il Terzo Reich
** Edition of 400 copies ** Xing presents the artist record Il Terzo Reich by Romeo Castellucci and Scott Gibbons, fourth release in the XONG series, accompanied by an insert that collects on a long strip of black paper an extract from the flow of words screened in the homonymous stage work.
Il Terzo Reich is the image and sound of an inculcated communication. The nouns of the Italian language flash on a black screen, about fourteen thousand words. Here, a language-machine devours entire spheres…
Would It Sound Just as Bad If You Played It
A Collection of Sounds from the Studio Eksperymentalne Polskiego Radia (1959-2001) with art by Zofia Kulik. “Would it sound just as bad if you played it backwards?” assembles a collection of audio experiments created at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio (PRES) from 1959 to the beginning of the millennium. These exceptional works are presented alongside images from the Polish artist Zofia Kulik, whose career reached its apogee between the late 1960s and early 70s.
Polish Radio Experimental…
Gilbert Artman's Lard Free
** 500 copies ** Recorded in just three days and released in 1973, mixing jazz, kraut and prog rock, Lard Free’s first album is a musical land-mark in the French underground scene. To this day, it still matches the perfection of their English and German fellows like Soft Machine and Amon Düül. A true masterpiece."Lard Free is a French psychedelic band, formed around drummer and keyboards player Gilbert Artman. He was the only constant member of the band on their few next albums. Music on their d…
Blue Notes for Mongezi
Otoroku is proud to present the first vinyl reissue of "Blue Notes for Mongezi", one of the most passionate celebrations of a life in music ever laid to tape. Recorded in late 1975 by Blue Notes, then reduced to a quartet - Dudu Pukwana on alto sax, whistle, percussion, and vocals; Johnny Dyani on bass, bells, and vocals; Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums, percussion, and vocals; and Chris McGregor on piano, and percussion - and issued the following year by Ogun, the album is a kairos; the first com…
Tempi Dispari
** Limited edition black vinyl 180 gr. ** Tempi Dispari is a live album from 1974 by the Atomic System variation, a line up formed by guitarist Vittorio DeScalzi after three members left to form what would end up being Ibis. DeScalzi is aided by future Nova keyboards player Renato Rosset, who influences this variation in a more jazzy oriented way than any other New Trolls incarnation. Two side-long suites (including a theme from Concerto Grosso 1) of excellent and innovative music, reminding me…
Speed And Space
** 80 coloured copies on white/blue marbled vinyl. Includes insert and obi. ** Recorded in November 1969 at Teichiku Kaikan Studio, Tokyo, "Speed and Space - The Concept of Space in Music" is one of those landmark works in which Masahiko Togashi is accompanied by talented musicians who possess a unique style and innovative approach. The album is an exploration of Togashi's notion of the “Time Law" and can be seen as a study of how texture, rhythm and differing rates of change effect our percep…
Independence
** 80 coloured copies on golden vinyl. Includes insert and obi. ** The quintessential album by Takayanagi Masayuki. Considered the 'Lochness monster' of Japanese free jazz records due to its incredible rarity, this album was the debut recording of Takayanagi Masayuki as leader with The New Directions, a trio consisting out of bassist Yoshizawa and drummer Toyozumi "Sabu" Yoshisaburo. Recorded at the Teichiku Kaikan studios on 18 September 1969 (released in 1970), "Independence – Tread on Sure Gr…
Tuning the Ear
** numbered art edition of 75 copies ** Tuning the Ear is a box-set that invites for an interdisciplinary and multi-sensuous study of the ear. By presenting an interactive listening situation where the listeners are to engage with the many different objects contained in the box, Tuning the Ear encourages the reader to listen to their surroundings in new ways and furthermore to listen to their own way of hearing. Tuning the Ear presents a new way of exploring the ear that take both physical, phys…
Voices Fill My Head
INFO is pleased to announce Voices Fill My Head, Kristin Oppenheim’s second double LP release on the label documenting her early sound works from the 1990s. Recorded between 1993 and 1999 in her Brooklyn studio, Voices Fill My Head features eight pieces composed solely of the artist’s voice. For listeners who were fond of Night Run, Oppenheim’s first release on the label, this record reveals yet another important chapter in Oppenheim’s oeuvre.
Since the early 1990s, Oppenheim has produced vocal …
Cooper's Test
** 200 copies ** Oiro Pena moves out of the bedroom. I, like many others I’m sure, was very much blown away after hearing the first Oiro Pena 10” released by Ultraääni in 2019. From where did this Finnish flute phantasm appear? Part of the fun was the mystery of it all, the not quite grasping or understanding the music, or where it came from. The second 10” on Jazzaggression felt like a deeper dive into the Pena universe. With 2020’s Music from Moments on 2 Headed Deer we finally got the origin …
Personfølsom Musik - Personal Sensitive Music
** 200 copies, CD edition ** Personfølsom Musik (Personal Sensitive Music) is a series of live sonifications in which Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard translates the numbers of NemID-keycards into music using various musical instruments. NemID (EasyID) keycards came into use in 2010 and contain a list of one-time codes that one uses as a level of security when logging into private and public digital platforms to access services like banking, health care, and other services vital to individuals in Danish s…