Upcoming releases
Fail better
*70 copies limited edition* Eventless Plot and Bruno Duplant join forces on Fail better, a cassette release that treats failure not as an endpoint, but as a method of composition and a way of listening. Across two long-form pieces, the group carves out a delicate space between electroacoustic improvisation, minimalism and ambient abstraction, letting sounds appear, waver and erode rather than declaring them with force.
Recorded by the Thessaloniki-based trio of Vasilis Liolios, Aris Giatas and Y…
Tim Maia 1971
Fifty-five years ago, Tim Maia released his second album, self-titled. As impactful as his debut album, “Tim Maia” (1970), this was the continuation of one of the brightest careers in national music. Considered one of the 100 best albums in the national discography by Rolling Stone magazine, the album returns to shelves this year on 180-gram vinyl as part of the “Classics on Vinyl” collection from Polysom, licensed by Universal.
Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat
On Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, Charanjit Singh folds centuries of Hindustani tradition into a three‑box Roland future, crafting a 1982 raga‑disco séance that would lie dormant for decades before being hailed as proto–acid house and a cornerstone of South Asian electronic modernity.
Chott
On his new album Chott, German-Tunisian producer and composer Taroug confronts his origins. Named after the Chott El Djerid, a vast salt lake in southern Tunisia, the ten-track album revolves around personal history and the search for identity.
Chott is a conceptual work shaped by contrasting atmospheres, from minimalistic melancholy to raw, bass-heavy intensity. It blends traditional instruments with contemporary electronic textures, drawing lines between past and present. Personal materials—su…
The Inflated Tear
Last pressed on vinyl in 2005, The Inflated Tear is a studio album by Roland Kirk, released on Atlantic in 1968. Roland Kirk, was a hugely influential, blind jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute, and many other instruments. He was renowned for his onstage vitality, during which virtuoso improvisation was accompanied by comic banter, political ranting, and the ability to play several instruments simultaneously. Pitchfork placed The Inflated Tear at number 170 on its list o…
Never Let It End
Jazz enthusiasts rejoice: the legendary Never Let It End by Albert Mangelsdorff Quartet, a seminal 1970 album hailed as one of the most important in the European jazz canon, receives a fresh vinyl pressing from MPS Records. Originally recorded on March 23, 1970, at Walldorf Studio in Frankfurt under producer Joachim Ernst Berendt, this free jazz masterpiece captures Mangelsdorff's innovative trombone mastery alongside Heinz Sauer on saxophones, Günter Lenz on bass, and Ralf Hübner on drums.
The…
Threewave
On Threewave, 36 gathers Wave Variations, Symmetry Systems and Reality Engine into a single arc of luminous machine melancholia: a five‑year study in concise synth miniatures where strict limitations yield ever‑wider emotional and conceptual horizons.
Interwoven
From the visionary collaboration of Japanese New Age master Ken-ichiro Isoda and electronic music magician aus (Yasuhiko Fukuzono). Minimalism distilled, ambient environmental music that soothes the mind and kindles the spirit. Drawing on Isoda’s deep legacy (notably his legendary work on Oscilation Circuit – Série Réflexion 1 from mythical label Sound Process) and fused with aus’ spellbinding melodies, Interwoven is ethereal healing sound: lingering piano, soft cinematic synths, field recording…
Contra Madre
The late pedal-steel guitarist Susan Alcorn leaves a final surprise hinting at new directions left underexplored on her collaboration with Nomad War Machine, the improvising metal duo of drummer Julius Masri and guitarist James Reichard. Their death-metal-influenced pummel adds new fire to her molten flow across a suite of improvised tracks that show off the vast range and simpatico of the trio. Julius Masri and James Reichard of Nomad War Machine: An unexpected opportunity arose out of a catchi…
My Kind Of Music
Our latest Holy Grail reissue is this private press spiritual jazz gem out of California from Rickey Kelly and his vibes & marimba. Features Diane Reeves (vocals) & Adele Sebastian (flute)!
Episodes
Sun Electric - the legendary Berlin duo of Tom Thiel and Max Loderbauer - returns with Episodes, an enticing new album. While the pair has been active and creating over the years (remember their track 'Every Now And Then' on the 10 Years De:tuned compilation in 2019), Episodes marks their first album of original material in nearly 20 years. Now, with a renewed way of working together, they present fresh and captivating music on the Belgian De:tuned label, built from recordings made with the vint…
Glassworks
Philip Glass’s seminal 1982 album Glassworks remains one of the most influential and accessible works in contemporary classical and minimalist music, bridging the worlds of concert hall and popular listening with timeless elegance.
Originally conceived as a “Walkman‑suitable” work, Glassworks was designed for intimate, personal listening on cassette, with a special headphone‑oriented mix that brought listeners deep inside Glass’s intricate, pulsing sound world. The album’s six short, vividly con…
Improvised Textures
Pianist Bas Bulteel has been actively exploring the boundaries of solo piano work for several years now. This resulted, among other things, in his first solo album Eye Of The Storm, which was released in 2024 on W.E.R.F. Records. In the compositions for that album, he drew inspiration on the one hand from the minimalist school and on the other from contemporary avant-garde pianists. However, his hunger for experimentation was not satisfied after just one solo album. Shortly after finishing the a…
Standers
The devil’s in the details. It always was and it always will be. It’s there for those who seek it out.
Assume Intimacy
Shattered, I began to turn to the core. The swirling ease that is shedding its skin to remember me; In my deepest, I always assumed the intimate. Dawning in me gently and unaltered I can feel you, you unnamed. Inward, my beloved—are you the world? Can you touch me with your quiet?
Me, looking through you; you, nesting in me.
Naturally, you place your melody in the shell of my ear. Ever listening, I find myself playing the strings of your instrument that bodies my imagination.
Come closer, my …
Il Suono che Ipnotizza
*20 copies limited edition* Negromidi moves slowly and incessantly to a low, inexorable rhythm. It tells of distant myths...
sedimentary flesh diary
*50 copies limited edition* The object of listening emerges from within the fragmentation. Wilful and artificial abstractions are merging with the world in which we perceive, from the outside, with regard to what those sensible materialities seek to listen within us. From a global perspective, this composition is the semantic complexity of a voyage. Micro-level of emotional transactions between the perceived and the perceptive; commentary of sonificated sieves of embedded experiences. To formula…
Persian Carpets
Second LP of duets by these longtime VHF family staples, here delivering 2 side-long epics of “minimalist” bliss. Both sides feature Daniel O'Sullivan on piano and Richard Youngs on zither, with rippling waves of sound recalling classics like Charlemagne Palestine’s “Strumming Music” (Dan is a frequent collaborator with C.P.) and Richard’s “Advent.” “Persian Carpets I” is a real-humans performance full of tiny variants in rhythm and attack, rising and falling in intensity – sometimes a rush of s…
Spielt Noise Boys
Swiss music legend Stephan Eicher returns with a bold and intimate new album, Spielt Noise Boys, released via Born Bad Records. Known for his poetic songwriting, distinctive voice, and genre-blurring artistry, Eicher here reimagines the sound of his early band Noise Boys in a stripped-down, emotionally resonant solo setting. Spielt Noise Boys is not a simple “best of” or nostalgia trip. Instead, Eicher revisits the raw energy and DIY spirit of his formative years, reworking classic Noise Boys tr…
Subtraction in spiral
Japanese experimental sound artist kent watari debuts on Phantom Limb with new album subtraction in spiral, coding deep sonics to quantum-percussion and collapsing, post-IDM glitchscapes based on a meticulously constructed metaphysical thought experiment. “This work is centred around a very personal philosophical model,” writes kent watari (b. Tokyo, 1993). “I have constructed a metaphysical model of thought, employing concepts from philosophy and science. This thought model centres on a recursi…