Upcoming releases
Touch
With Touch, the Tortoise bandmembers — Dan Bitney, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs, John McEntire, and Jeff Parker — harness their collectivist songwriting approach, a slightly anarchistic but resolutely egalitarian process where ideas triumph over ego towards an abstracted muscularity. While there are still excursions into the dusky, elegantly gnarled jazz ambience that flourished on landmark works like Millions Now Living Will Never Die and TNT, Touch is perhaps most remarkable for Tortoise's un…
Further Beyond
"The history and culture of improvised music have been shaped by manifold concepts of freedom, but one in particular explains Amado’s aesthetic. It is his reference to Sam Rivers’ declaration: “Freedom does not mean unconditional renunciation of melody and rhythm, but the freedom to choose what I want to play.” It was this freedom to that led Rivers to punctuate his epic trio sets with grooves and essays on perennials like “Wheatleigh Hall.” Rivers also eschewed the labeling of his music as impr…
Feather and Pine
We are very proud to announce the second album by Michael Krassner for Dark Companion. This innovative, as ever, breathtaking music was originally intended as the soundtrack to a docufilm by Michael James Beck and Star Rosencrans of the same name: the film denounces the severe deforestation of North America’s majestic forests and all the associated problems. The music strikes arcane chords, buried in our collective memory. Ancient tales are told without words, preserving a profound sacredness th…
The Empty Hollow Unfolds (Expanded Edition 2021)
In a long-awaited unveiling, celebrating it's 25th anniversary, raison d’être’s critically acclaimed dark ambient opus The Empty Hollow Unfolds will be available for the first time ever on vinyl, released as a deluxe Double LP edition on Marbled vinyl and standard Black. Originally issued in 2000 this reissue marks a significant milestone in the legacy of Swedish composer Peter Andersson, whose immersive soundscapes helped define an era of industrial ambient music.
The Empty Hollow Unfolds is no…
Ashes
When war erupted in Ukraine, French sound sculptor Lambwool found himself overtaken by an overwhelming surge of fear and anxiety. The escalating threat of nuclear disaster, the looming specter of global conflict, and the harrowing imagery of destruction awakened in him a long-buried childhood trauma: the paralyzing terror of an impending apocalypse. For ten days following the outbreak of war, Lambwool was engulfed in a state of absolute panic. Searching for a way to purge these suffocating emoti…
New Revelations of Being
*300 copies limited edition* American Dark Ambient sound sculptor Ajna returns with his latest full-length work, New Revelations of Being, an eleven-track descent into the abyss of human psyche and metaphysical dread. Following his acclaimed Cyclic Law releases, this new opus draws direct inspiration from the fevered writings of Antonin Artaud’s Artaud 1937 Apocalypse.
With New Revelations of Being, Ajna channels Artaud’s fragmented visions of destruction, renewal, and transcendence through a va…
And The World Will Perish In Flames
*300 copies limited edition* Forged in the fires of Spain’s underground, Dayofwrath unleashed their uncompromising vision with the limited cassette release of And The World Will Perish In Flames via Cloister Recordings in 2021. With its raw aggression, suffocating atmosphere, and apocalyptic intensity, the album quickly became a coveted cult artifact. This new CD edition preserves the original spirit, unrelenting, furious, and bleak, while opening the door to a wider audience. Its presence withi…
Playgrounds
Imagine the world that opens up to you when you turn on the power button on your childhood keyboard. A forgotten, dreamlike, carefree, rainbow, unique world. Longing for such a world, three representatives of Polish pianism - Piotr Zabrodzki, Marcel Baliński, and Grzegorz Tarwid - come together to create a completely new sound quality from their obsolete keyboard instruments.
Time of the Last Persecution
Time of the Last Persecution is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Bill Fay, released in 1971 by Deram Records. Following the baroque pop tendencies of his self-titled debut, Fay stripped away the orchestral arrangements for a darker, more intimate vision that would prove to be his most enduring work. Proper Records is proud to present this apocalyptic folk-rock masterpiece on 180g vinyl. Written and recorded during a time when Fay was obsessing over the Biblical books of Danie…
Bill Fay
Enigmatic UK-based singer and pianist Bill Fay's dark and haunting work gained him a strong cult following in the late 60s and early 70s. He released two albums on the Deram label in the early 70s and promptly disappeared into relative obscurity for 30+ years. In the last decade, those albums have finally begun to get the recognition they deserve, and Proper Records is proud to bring them back into circulation on 180g vinyl. First up is his self-titled 13-track debut from 1970, an absolute class…
WVLT
WVLT is the newest sonic addition from WNDFRM (Portland-based, Tim Westcott), an album of eight distinct explorations exploring the many facets of experimental IDM. Tim Westcott’s practice is rooted in an acute, nearly forensic attention to sound. Subtle tones, sculpted drones, and lean percussive gestures, always pursued with a patient ear and obsession with sound design. With previous releases on Prologue, Home Normal, and Dragon’s Eye Recordings, and several live performances at Mutek, a new …
Quelques idées d'un vert incolore dorment furieusement
For more than fifteen years, Toc – the Lille-based trio of Jérémie Ternoy (Fender Rhodes, Piano Bass), Ivann Cruz (guitar) and Peter Orins (drums) – has been pursuing a singular sonic quest where the energies of experimental rock, the unpredictability of improvised music, and a constant drive toward excess converge. On stage as on record, Toc invents a telluric and ever-shifting music, built from flows, ruptures, and accumulations, where hypnosis and chaos feed off one another.
For this new albu…
Wooley The Newt
Stephen McCraven's Wooley The Newt was his first album under his own name, released on Marion Browns own Sweet Earth record label in 1979 (orignal copies are rare and go for $500). Working with Stephen and the carvery we have remastering the audio and restored the original artwork. Stephen is a master drumer and composer and has worked with Archie Shepp for many years,he has also played & recorded with many; Marion Brown, Mal Waldron, Reggie Wokman and Stanley Cowell to mention just a few. Steph…
Kōri no ryokō / Jäämatkailu
Water can retain or wash away memory; flowing or freezing. It gives life and shapes earth, while frozen imprints of an ancient past are waiting to melt – back into sound or fluid motion, or simply to dissipate and disappear. For their split release, Yoichi Kamimura and Olli Aarni offer two distinct reinterpretations of a performance recorded live at the Temppeliaukio Kirkko – a church in Helsinki built directly into solid rock and bathed in natural light – meditating on glacial landscapes and wa…
Jazz Report From The Hood
Over the past few months, five young musicians performing under the name Omasta have taken the Polish and European jazz scenes by storm. Having gained recognition for their intense live shows, they are now ready to deliver their debut studio effort. Jazz Report from the Hood a collectively composed album immersed in the textures of city streets and everyday urban life. The name Omasta comes from a regional Krakow dialect word meaning “fat added to food for flavor.” It’s a fitting metaphor: the g…
Minyo Groove 1963-1979 - Japan Meets Latin, Rock, Rare Groove & Funky Vibes
Active as a professional DJ in Japan since the late eighties, DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite is also a renowned remixer, compiler and producer. An avid record collector and an expert of Wamono music, Yoshizawa has published in 2015 the now-classic Wamono A to Z records guide book, which instantly sold-out. The book unveiled a myriad of beautiful and rare records from a highly prolific, but still then unknown, Japanese groove scene. He has also selected a large part of the music in our highly acclaimed Wa…
Metamorphosis
*250 copies limited edition* Both unflinchingly experimental and undeniably listenable, Metamorphosis is a mid-career reinvention from masterful vocalist Holly Palmer. Conceived with producer / multi-instrumentalist Pete Min, and developed in the studio through improvisation and experimentation, the result is jazz-inflected art-pop, as warm, playful and inviting as it is uncategorizable, a record brimming with radiant supporting performances from heavyweights like Cuong Vu, Jeff Parker, Benny Bo…
Looms & Legends
"How and why do we continue to make art in this bizarre time? Let me try here to offer a small break from insanity. I do believe that for listeners in our small pond, focused attention on sonic expression might help the individual keep a connection with their humanity and reinforce positive human endeavors—love, empathy, and truth-seeking. These seemingly obvious pursuits now need support as they are so unbelievably at risk. I offer this music as an aural refuge for mind and body. Such small bre…
Trio of Bloom
A new voice in contemporary improvisation emerges with the Trio of Bloom, uniting three visionary artists at the forefront of modern music: Craig Taborn (piano, electronics), Nels Cline (guitar, effects), and Marcus Gilmore (drums, percussion).
This ensemble is less a meeting of individual virtuosos than the flowering of a shared soundworld—an immersive space where texture, rhythm, and resonance intertwine in real time. Each musician brings a singular language: Taborn’s kaleidoscopic harmonic …
Zulaqrex
*150 copies limited edition* Zulaqrex, named after a mythical being that only exists in Richard Youngs’ head, is the album sequel to the now practically sold out Zerkelus LP and once again features themed artwork and is limited to 150 copies. Like its predecessor, Zulaqrex consists of two side-long tracks both given the same name as the title and once more charting a course into the beyond via a hypnotic approach that even some fantastically stumbling percussion cannot offset. Also employing shi…