Upcoming releases
Serenade
*100 copies limited release* The twelve jagged audio collages found on Colin Andrew Sheffield's "Serenade" shift from blurry abstractions to choppy sound art to mournful plundered passages, always with the singular stylistic approach the composer has developed over the last 25+ years of activity. As the follow-up to his previous full-length release, the critically acclaimed "Images" (2023), "Serenade" picks up where that album left off, although with an expanded sonic palette of funk, soul, jazz…
Taproots
Robin Richards, principal composer in beloved Manchester art-pop band Dutch Uncles, announces details of Taproots; his long-awaited debut solo album, set to be released 19th September on PRAH Recordings. Inspired by artists such as Flying Lotus, Arvo Pärt, Phillip Glass, Kate Bush, Boards of Canada and Tim Hecker, the album’s arc includes pieces about self-doubt, positive life changes, fatherhood and a suite of concept pieces about the life cycle of trees.
Taproots features contributions throug…
Rosa di Luce
When you’re immersed into something you never actually realize if the essence will project as bright as the efforts, as deep as the process and as loud as the intentions. WOW, the Roma Est duo of China and Leo Non, have never had to create magic or delve into mystique along their meandering path, it’s just been a long solemn wait for what life throws at them and actually sticks. Cause and reaction, because the essence is quietly there when the clamour fades away. Their new album ‘Rosa di Luce’ i…
Transplant Rejection
*150 copies limited edition* 'Transplant Rejection’ is the second in a trilogy of cassette albums released via Muscut in the latter half of 2022. The work of Estonian artist and IDA Radio co-founder Robert Nikolajev, this collection of seven ‘almost’ dark ambient tracks embody the melancholy of autumn whilst hinting at the forthcoming eternal winter. A man with many hats, Nikolajev operates on the fringes of the leftfield house underground for labels such as Incienso, Collect-Call and Sad Fun as…
Hrafnamynd
Balmat 17 marks both a return and a new frontier. It is the second album on the label from Patricia Wolf, whose 2022 album See-Through is one of the most beloved in Balmat's catalog; it also marks the first time that Wolf has turned her hand to a film soundtrack. The results are every bit as magical as fans of the Portland, Oregon, composer's music might expect. Hrafnamynd--Icelandic for "raven film"--is a new feature-length documentary by experimental filmmaker Edward Pack Davee. Shot on a mix …
Fried Brains
"The trio Rapid Zen creates a dynamic blend of really unique music by fusing rhythmic patterns with audio experiments. They achieve this by combining a layer of turntable sampling and scratching that provides a distinctive and varied sound interacting with a broad palette of different techniques on double bass, percussion, and voice. Fried Brains is the first release of the project." - Vito Camarretta
''Don’t hold your breath in anticipation of instant karma or rapid enlightenment, but with such…
Edge Runner - Noema
Giovanni Di Domenico as a master of his instruments produces bulky sound rugged and dark atmospheres but also plainly beautiful through stark contrasts. Improvisation is therefore more as a state than an outline or shape, the timbre is the actual carrier of the form, drone is the crucial element. Edge Runner is sophisticated, refined even, balanced despite its obvious unwillingness to compromise, carefully crafted regardless of the mad surface structure. Noema consists of a live recording of an …
felix culpa
According to legend, Orpheus was the son of Apollo, the Greek god of music. His father gave him a lyre and, from an early age, Orpheus played so well that he surpassed even his father's skill. It is said that when he played, the objects around him came to life, so enchanting was his music. Orfeu is the Portuguese translation of ‘Orpheus’, and is above all the intimate project of Alexandre Casato, who has been developing it in secret in his bedroom for several years... Alex is the guitarist behin…
Yarrow
Tip! *30 copies limited edition. Baby blue/pink hand-labelled cassette, housed in a hand-made pouch, with dried botanicals sewn into each one by Allanah.* Murky, swirling, whirring and organic, Clinton Green & Allanah Stewart indulge in jams where listening is deep, and the music sifts through your fingers like sand. Clinton Green is an Australian experimental musician and performer. He has worked with malfunctioning turntables, Walkmans and dictaphones, and found objects as instruments. A.S. (A…
Milan
"In 2016, I invited Norman Westberg to Australia for his first solo tour. He’d been in Australia a few years before that, touring The Seer with Swans, and it was during this tour that I’d had the fortune to meet him. Since that time Norman and I have worked on a number of projects together. He very kindly played some of the central themes on my Cruel Optimism album and I had the pleasure to produced his After Vacation Album. Last year Norman shared a multichannel live recording with me from a to…
Caligo
"What remains after mutilating and reassembling an essential historical recording? How is it connected to a particular event in a grotesque and cyclical novella riddled with medical procedures of an aesthetic and deforming nature? Malakoot – this spiral, centres on a decision made one afternoon by a character. On a similar afternoon, full of anxiety, pressed by an unknowable presence in this city , I decided that the soundscape for such an inspiring work of fiction was a mutilated one; things co…
Spring Music
*250 copies limited edition* After several killer EPs and tracks on labels such as Tresor, Multi Culti, Hard Fist, or Playground Records, Antonio De Oto aka A-Tweed finally delivers "Spring Music" his first solo LP via Abstrakce Records, changing perspective on his music and way of producing. A minimal approach, where echoes and reverbs become some of the main characters of the full journey, mixing up weird acid, experimental downbeat, electro, dub, and tribal vibes across a wide range of tempos…
Cat
Reissue of Hiroshi Suzuki’s glorious jazz-fusion-funk Holy Grail Cat. Cat was recorded in October 1975 at at Nippon Columbia Studio, while Hiroshi Suzuki was visiting his home country of Japan after moving to Las Vegas in 1971 to play with Buddy Rich and perfect his craft. Back on his old stomping grounds, the man known as Neko (Cat) immediately reunited with his dear friends for an epic two day session of groove magic. The chemistry was still intact. The skills and style had grown. The result, …
Smile
Tip! *Japan import with Obi Strip* In 1967, drummer Takeo Moriyama joined pianist Yosuke Yamashita’s group, later forming a legendary trio together with saxophonist Seiichi Nakamura in 1969. This group consisting of Moriyama, Yamashita, and Nakamura became known worldwide as one of Japan's leading free jazz combos. Moriyama left the group in 1975 and later returned to the scene in 1977 with the Flush Up live album, where he evolved and deepened his musicality in a more melodic and rhythmic direc…
Wandering Birds
Tip! *Japan import with Obi Strip* This is the first and long-awaited vinyl reissue of this Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media jazz rock masterpiece! With vocals by Sammy and Yasushi Sawada. Backed by Masahiko Sato, Kimio Mizutani, Hiro Yanagida. Essential!
Head Rock
Tip! *Japan import with Obi Strip* From the opening tune “The Vamp” to the final “Head Rock”, this album is a dazzling jazz rock showcase with dreadnought songs that are filled with ideas and passion. This is a masterpiece that has an overwhelming presence in the history of jazz in Japan, as an heresy left on the prestigious jazz label Takt.
At Belmont Jazz Club
Eero Koivistoinen Quartet's rare live album from 1978 reissued for the first time in nearly half a century via Svart Records.
The Heart Of A Whale
Paul Wallfisch has played in bands like Firewater and Little Annie, while Dana Schechter has logged time with American Music Club, Angels of Light and her own Insect Ark, among others. They’ve been friends since meeting in New York in the 1990s. Years later they forged a stronger connection as bandmates in Botanica and palying with Swans. Over the years Paul Wallfisch has been a prolific composer for film and TV, including Dummy, with Adrien Brody and Milla Jovovich (which the musician also appe…
The Harbour of the Broken Hearted
In times when arbitrariness, absolutist madness and the pressure to reject each other are boiled up into some kind of new normality, it sometimes feels as if you are doomed to drown in your sea of sorrows. Until you manage to resist the maelstrom, once again. To focus on the good and the beautiful, and to nurture it stout-heartedly. Nobody said, it’s gonna be easy. On his fifth album, Bruch seems to draw an analogy between the sea and life with his choice of title. The sea itself has never been …
Watusa
When a limited edition 45 single landed on the desk of Jazz Room Head Honcho Paul Murphy he contacted the guys straight away. "Do you want a 45 piece of wax released on Jazz Room Records?" Bells were ringing! The A Side is a Latin Afrosound version of the Sun Ra Classic "Watusa". Featuring members of the Los Angleles based Afro Latin Beat Collective "Jungle Fire". You might have noticed this getting quite a few spins on the Gilles Peterson show on BBC 6 Music. The B Side is a funky version of th…