Best of 2022
Background Music N. 4
Tip! First official reissue ever on clear vinyl. In the field of library music Benito Simoncini a.k.a. Arawak was undoubtedly one of the most important composers. “Background Music N. 4” is a multi-faceted release that includes at least two jazz-tinged symphonic pop gems, together with other more abstract and improvised tracks, in most cases played with a single instrument; it goes from the dramatic sounds of “Secolo XX°”, through the liquid atmospheres of “Aquarium”, to the percussive experimen…
America Giovane N. 2
** mini LP replica with obi & Japanese insert ** Killer. **First official reissue ever, certified holy-grail. Edition of 300 copies, black vinyl 180gr. Comes with Obi, and original liner notes by Jonny Trunk** At the end of the '60s in Italy - but also abroad, especially in France and England - a very particular trend began to spread, that one known as 'Library music' or 'sonorization': as suggested by its name, those were real music libraries intended for the accompaniment of audiovisual produc…
Musical Instruments from Prehistory: the Paleolithic
Tip! Art of Primitive Sound is a sensational journey to the origin of Music. In his crucial research chapter on the Paleolithic, between 1986 and 1991 Walter Maioli investigated the soundscape of different geographical, climatic and botanical environments, in which the mystery of the ancient human-nature relationship resides. What emerges is an expanded and unprecedented Paleorganology, with a range of acoustic and natural instruments from all over the World. Rubbing of fossils, animal artefacts…
Organum for Stefano
In Terry Riley's words "I was invited to an art gallery in Los Angeles to hear a solo String Bass recital by Stefano. I arrived late and the concert was in progress, I was walking down a series of concrete halls to reach the galley chamber where the music was taking place. In the distance I could hear the sounds of french horns, trombones, strings and brass all mixing in a beautiful modal ensemble, and at the time I thought that Stefano must be playing his bass with a chamber group. I was amazed…
Historic Music Past Tense Future
Black Editions presents “Historic Music Past Tense Future”, the first ever album to feature the meeting of Peter Brötzmann, Milford Graves and William Parker. Three of the towering figures in the history of Free Jazz forge an incredibly vital free music born from lifetimes of uncompromising, ceaseless artistry. “Historic Music Past Tense Future” is the inaugural release by Black Editions Archive and the first in a series of records that will present previously unreleased works featuring Milford …
Kofu II
* Glass-mastered CD housed in a die-cut customised debossed outer case (14.5 x 14.5cm) with rounded obi, 16pp inserts with words in Japanese and English from Meitei. Offset printed, full colour on premium matt paper. * Meitei’s 2020 album Kofū was the bold bookend to an expedition, where sounds were first navigated and then subverted in 2018’s Kwaidan and 2019’s Komachi. All three albums were Meitei’s attempt at immersive storytelling, reimagining moments of Japanese history he felt were being w…
Isophonic Boogie Woogie
In restock Reissue of the legendary Afro spiritual minimal electronic masterpiece 5-track first LP (plus 2 bonus tracks) from horn wizard and original underground FM radio DJ Roland P. Young, featuring soprano sax, clarinet, and electronically-processed bass clarinet. An enjoyable outing from a neglected musician. Cosmic Afro-minimal electronic winds recorded in 1970s San Francisco. Classic explorations from the dude who was responsible for the legendary Infinite Sound LP on Arch 1750.
Thankful…
Why Is It They Say A City Like Any City?
The new album by the Peruvian-born / Berlin-based experimental artist Ale Hop was conceived in a context of immobility and provides six sonic vignettes that wonder about location, circularity, rootedness and experience. Following her explorations on music's inherent fixation to geographic space and time, be it through the longing of home ("Apophenia" 2019) or scientific magnification of invisible worlds ("The Life of Insects" 2020), Berlin-based Peruvian-born experimental composer Ale Hop's four…
La Tempesta Colorata
Percussionist extraordinaire Valentina Magaletti recorded live at Colourful Storm's showcase at Cafe Oto in 2021. Intricate, textural longform percussion pieces comprised of traditional drums, found objects, voice and electroacoustics conjured to hypnotic effect. A rare solo recording, following collaborations with Laila Sakini, Yves Chaudouët, Marlene Ribeiro and outings for Blume and Takuroku.
Extremely curious listening for fans of African Head Charge, The Necks, and followers of Magaletti's …
Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri
Black Truffle’s first ever vinyl reissue of Alvin Curran’s seminal 1978 LP, "Fiori Chiari, Fiori Oscuri" - issued in a beautiful edition immaculately reproducing the original - is a truly historic event. Among the composer’s most famous and sought-after releases that has remained out of print for decades, it is a masterstroke of pulsing minimalism, glacial ambience, musique concrète, and forthright experimentalism. Absolutely stunning and still managing to turn experimental music on its head mor…
Electronic Minimal Music 1979-83
Super Tip! 3LP Set. The rediscovery of J D Emmanuel by critics and audience in the early 2010s and Emmanuel's comeback to the underground scene were crucial in reweaving the development of electronic music in the early '80s. This deluxe three-LP set casts new light on Emmanuel's first activity of composing and performing electronic music in 1979-'83, collecting experiments never before released on vinyl, some of which are previously unreleased in any form. Certainly seminal minimal works such as…
Future Percussion
Tip! A lost bit of 70s Italian modal jazz, with spiritual overtones and global percussion from drummer extraordinaire Tullio De Piscopo – an incredible set of heavily rhythmic grooves recorded in Milan in 1978 – originally a tiny edition effort on Carosello Records, and the most impressive rediscovery yet from New Platform! For the occasion, the Tullio De Piscopo Quintet meets Argentine percussionist Luis Agudo, who played for years alongside Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell and later with the…
Sotto E 'Ncoppa
Tip! Despite the title of the album, it is the Tullio De Piscopo's third work, recorded in 1976. Comprising nine tracks in total across its two sides, “Vol. 2” falls somewhere between fusion and prog, straddling darker, brooding temperaments with joyous, funky lines. Predictably, as is nearly the case with music of this sort, the playing and artistry is top-notch, the band locked together with remarkable precision, but the journey that “Vol. 2” takes is far from expected. Interspersed throughout…
Harps of the Ancient Temples
2022 Repress Very often, the greatest artists just don’t fit. They stand out there on their own, and fall in strange, unexpected zones, often occupied only by themselves. This is was certainly the case for the American harpist, Gail Laughton, who’s lone, the 1969 LP, Harps of the Ancient Temples - long championed and hunted by record collectors - is finally receiving the vinyl reissue treatment after roughly a half century out of print. A truly stunning and visionary piece of work with almost no…
Opus 17
* Limited Edition. Remastered, improved sound quality * There is no artist, working in the contemporary field of experimental sound, that is more important than the French composer Eliane Radigue. She is a shining light, who, for more than half a century, has quietly blazed trails with a body of work that is as creatively visionary as it is sublime. Back in the 2010s, Alga Marghen launched a crucial archival series, dedicated to some of Radigue’s earliest and previously unavailable works, many p…
Farewell To The Welfare (LP)
The Tribe Records co-founder’s lost album, recorded in 1975, rumored to exist no more. Mastered from the original tapes!
Controfase
Composed by Ennio Morricone alongside friend and frequent collaborator Bruno Nicolai, "Controfase" is one of the most overlooked and lesser known chapters in the maestro's extensive catalog. Various experimental elements perfectly intertwine in these skilful compositions, VCS3 blend with hair-raising violin notes on a pattern of ominous percussions by Egisto Macchi. With the precious help of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza as well as Edda Dell'Orso angelic voice, the two masterminds h…
Very Cheap Non-human Animal Imitations
** Edition of 150 White Vinyl ** Xing presents the artist record Very Cheap Non-human Animal Imitations by Luciano Maggiore, fifth release in the of the Xong series.
The white vinyl LP is in a numbered edition of 150 copies, including a collector's edition of 33 copies, each accompanied by an animal drawing traced on carbon paper.
Very Cheap Non-human Animal Imitations amicably mimics the wonderful presentations of songs from birds and other protagonists of the animal world, made available by t…
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…
Toshi Ichiyanagi, A Pianist
The composer Toshi Ichiyanagi is, needless to say, also a pianist. We have collected recordings of his performances demonstrating his superb skills and ability. "Music for Piano No. 8," on which he is accompanied by Sumihisa Arima, a frequent collaborator, on electronic devices, is particularly noteworthy. His cool-headed improvisation in the gallery reminds us of David Tudor, with whom he shares a deep resonance as a pianist. A rare recording of Sylvano Bussotti's "Five Piano Pieces for David T…