Best of 2023
Babi
Mega Tip! **Sourced from the master tapes. First-time vinyl reissue ** By the early '70s, Milford Graves had more or less stopped gigging. Having learned his lesson the hard way in multiple-night runs like a legendary Slugs' residency with Albert Ayler, he knew that the level of energy that he put out during a performance would be difficult to sustain over the long haul. A concert was a kind of absolute ritual for him, after which he would be totally spent, emotionally and physically. Graves rar…
Philemon Arthur And The Dung
Biggest Tip! 51 year anniversary edition pressing including a single with Bob Hund covering a Philemon Arthur & the Dung song, and Philemon Arthur & the Dung covering Bob Hund. No lyric insert as the original pressing, but an interview on the slipcase. It compiles the complete works of this strange Swedish duo, including their lone self-titled LP release from 1972 (which supposedly won a Grammy in Sweden and is considered "the most cult album in Sweden ever") and a cassette-only follow up from …
Oto no Hajimari wo Motomete vol.12 - The World
Brand new issue of archive series of NHK electronic music studio. This issue will be a collection of Toshi Ichiyanagi's tape works at NHK studio as his memorial.
The Weather Pieces
The set of The Weather Pieces are reflections on the perception of meteorological phenomena. The listener is immersed in a hybrid sound world, as the line between the live performer and the computer generated propositions becomes blurred. The musician follows a score that leaves room for interaction with the computer’s ever-changing proposals. The works also use the performer’s voice, using spoken texts to convey inner thoughts and feelings. Les si doux redoux for basset horn grew out of an…
Plasmatic Music, Vol. 1
The three works on this disc explore different aspects of Radulescu’s theory of Sound Plasma as it evolved over the course of the 1970s, from Radulescu’s early to middle periods.
Children of the Forest
Black Editions Archive is ecstatic to announce the next chapter in the Milford Graves Archive series, the double LP Children of the Forest, previously unreleased 1976 sessions with Hugh Glover and Arthur Doyle that re-write the book on Milford Graves' ensemble music of the 1970s. Graves recorded these sessions himself in his legendary Queens basement laboratory and workshop in the months immediately leading up to the March 1976 session that produced what many consider his most iconic album, Bäbi…
Frans Zwartjes (2LP)
** Numbered + handmade in an edition of 300 copies only; 180gr 2xLP vinyl in custom-made screen-printed outer ** Frans Zwartjes’ studio remains untouched since his passing in 2017. In early 2023, we returned to the studio and discovered a trunk of unlabelled 3/4 inch tapes, containing completely unheard music by Zwartjes. These works, largely synthesiser-based improvisations for films either unmade or unfinished, were played and recorded by Frans Zwartjes between the late 1960s, through his most…
Kofu III
** CD housed in a die-cut customised debossed outer case (14.5x14.5cm) with rounded obi, 32pp booklet with words in Japanese and English from Meitei. Offset printed, full colour on premium matt paper. ** Hailing from Hiroshima, Meitei, unveils the final chapter of his transformative Kofū trilogy. “Kofū III” marks the apex of a musical journey that began in 2020, unraveling an introspective exploration of the artist's psyche while delving deep into the essence of Japanese culture. This latest rel…
Schafe statt Geigen / “Verena” Vogelzymphon
**Second edition of 250 copies, 20 page photographic book** Henning Christiansen was an incongruous mirror for the paradoxes of 20th century creative practice. He gave his context what it demanded - visionary and singular work, but was so radical that almost no one knew what to do with him, forcing him into the position of an outsider. Of all the composers working within the cradle of Fluxus, his work falls among the closest to its primary intent, destroying hierarchy, orthodoxy, and categorizat…
Occam Hepta I
Edition of 250 copies. Two pieces written by Éliane Radigue at the same period (2014-2018), one instrumental (recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris by Ensemble Dedalus) and the other for analog synthesizer (performed by Ryoko Akama).
In Eliane Radigue's work, we oppose electronic works (composed until the early 2000s) to those written for acoustic instruments. From 2002, the artist began a series of compositions, Occam, orally transmitted living music. In her own words, she fully realized what s…
Power Failures
Huge Tip! The New York based duo of Che Chen and Rick Brown, 75 Dollar Bill, return with Power Failures, their first full length since 2020. Issued as a beautiful double LP by Karlrecords, and possibly their best record to date - taking on expanded explorations and a greater sense of abstraction - across its four sides we encounter Chen and Brown interweaving hypnotic polyrhythms and complex tonal collisions, with occasional (and brilliant) contributions from "Little Big Band" mainstays Steve Ma…
The Wild Bull
2023 repress. Audiophile 180 gram LP that was cautiously remastered for vinylRe-issued on vinyl for the first time since its original 1968 release! Based on an ancient Sumerian poem, Morton Subotnick's follow-up to his highly influential milestone Silver Apples of the Moon (KR 014LP) is no less an adventurous sonic trip on the Buchla synthesizer. Limited edition (500 items) audiophile 180 gram LP, especially mastered for vinyl. Born in 1933, Morton Subotnick is a key figure in the progress of el…
Our Meanings And Our Feelings
Killer! Reissue, originally released in 1969. An iconic French free jazz record recorded at Pathé Marconi Studios. On June 27th, 1969, Michel Portal pushed the door of the Pathé Marconi studios. With him were drummers Jacques Thollot and Aldo Romano, bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, and pianist Joachim Kühn. They hadn't rehearsed anything, as if entering the studio to record an album without any plan was something normal. The musicians were obviously very used to playing with each other, as th…
In C Pour 11 Oscillateurs Et 53 Formes
Julien Sénélas, Jérôme Vassereau and Soia present a new version of "In C", Terry Riley's seminal work: a musical interpretation with two modular synthesizers (11 oscillators) and a graphic interpretation of the original score.
Hands That Bind (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for Hands That Bind, by Jim O'Rourke
May 99
Tip! Black vinyl, with silkscreen and insert. In the spring of 1999, Charles Curtis, Alan Licht, and Dean Roberts brought an unconventional mix of drone, improvisation, and experimental rock on an eleven-stop tour of Europe. The concept was straightforward, yet novel: each night, they would improvise a single piece while sustained sine waves played for the duration of the concert. May 99, culled from three shorter pieces recorded for a radio program at Amsterdam’s VPRO near the end of the tour, …
In Là
Timed in celebration of his 80th birthday, the venerable imprint, Alga Marghen, releases “In Là”, a stunning LP comprising a brand-new work by the groundbreaking English composer Gavin Bryars
Baraka
** Special mirroring/olographic cover. Edition of 300 copies ** After his participation in a masterpiece such as Popol Vuh’s Hosianna Mantra, in the early 1980s Klaus Wiese produced a series of seminal works in the field of ambient-drone and healing music. The first of these, Baraka, was released on tape by Acquamarin in 1981, and already contained all the aspects of his future research into the mysticism of sound. Wiese shares the path with other German explorers such as Michael Peter Hamel, …
Song Of Soil
2024 Repress. Masahiko Togashi was a pivotal figure in the development of the Japanese free jazz scene in late 60s. Percussionist and composer, he lost the use of the legs in an accident which nevertheless didn’t not prevent him from continuing an astonishing career that includes long and established collaborations with figures of the likes of Steve Lacy, Charlie Haden, Mal Waldron and Paul Bley. This session, recorded in Paris at the Ramèse Studio Du Village in 1979, sees an explosive collabor…
Red Hair Girl At Lighthouse Beach
Tip! *2024 much needed repress* Making music is trying to start over again every time. It’s a matter of questioning and approaching. It’s never settling for the sound that fills the world around. It’s looking for a door in the sky. And maybe find it, open it, go beyond it. Rod Modell and Gigi Masin, this time together, are offering each other vibrations and insights. The former lives between two lakes, the latter between the Venetian lagoon and the sea. Everyone on their own shore, building elec…