**333 copies, one-time pressing** Volume 6 out of 11. This is the last recording with Jesse Sharps as the Bandleader before he left for the Army.. An incredible afternoon of music and a fitting “Departure” for a Jesse, a true pillar of the 70’s Arkestra. Macrame was originally released in 1979 on the IUCC 2LP, it is presented here, in a raw transfer of the master reel. Mykowski’s 1st Fifth is nothing but pure fire with those blistering solos by Sharps, Session, and a very special reading by Kam…
The adventurous singer, guitarist and music journalist Mick Farren launched his solo career after being sacked by his fellow Deviants, the protopunk band he fronted from 1967-69. Suffering from depression and other mental health issues, Farren teamed up with an all-star cast, including members of Quartermass and ex-Tyrannosauros Rex honcho Steve Peregrin Took for debut opus Mona The Carnivorous Circus, mixing hard rock, spoken word, spaced-out interludes, radio cut-ups and garage rock, rendering…
Big Tip! While stationed in Germany in the RAF during the late 1950s and early 1960s, York-born alto and soprano saxophonist Trevor Watts met the drummer John Stevens, with whom he would form the Spontaneous Music Ensemble upon returning to the UK in 1965, which became an important vehicle for British free improvisation. Watts’ spin-off project Amalgam came two years later with Stevens and bassist Jeff Clyne, previously in the Jazz Couriers with Ronnie Scott; their debut LP Prayer For Peace is j…
Japanese country rock act Gypsy Blood must be heard to be believed. Released on Vertigo in 1971, their sole LP showed the group simply bursting with talent, Kiyoshi Hayami’s mandolin exceptional and the masterful soft-rock production courtesy of Miki Curtis; drummer Eiichi Tsukasa had earlier been in the Helpful Soul, organist Katsuo Ohno had been in the Spiders, and guitarist/vocalist Hiroaki Nakamura later played in Buzz with future YMO member Yukihiro Takahashi, while none other than Alan Mer…
** 2023 Pressing, deluxe gatefold violet vinyl 2LP ** Following on from a pair of Extended Players released in 2011 ("Passed Me By" / "We Stay Together") Andy Stott returns to Modern Love with 'Luxury Problems', an 8 track album of new material recorded over the last 12 months.
Five of the tracks on the album feature Alison Skidmore, Andy's onetime Piano teacher whom he hadnt seen since he was a teenager back in 1996. There was no grand gesture in mind, it just sort of happened - but after almos…
2023 pressing on gold vinyl, edition of 500 copies. Double LP version. Faith in Strangers was written and recorded between January 2013 and June 2014, and was edited and sequenced in late July of 2014. Making use of on an array of instruments, field recordings, found sounds and vocal treatments, it's a largely analog variant of hi-tech production styles arcing from the dissonant to the sublime. The first two tracks recorded during these early sessions bookend the release, the opener "Time Away" …
Glasgow’s Contort Yourself trawl the scuzzier echelons of ‘80s tape culture for the tangiest traces of coldwave, post-punk, post-industrial with an uncanny appreciation of the way the 1980s and 2022 share so much in common.
Delivered to a backdrop of a UK in terminal decline, dominated by ghoulish Tory gas lighters and sex pests, but just about keeping its head above water, ‘’80s Underground Cassette Culture’ offers an ideal soundtrack to disenchantment coloured in morose monochrome and a loomin…
* Edition of 200 copies, black vinyl * The New Blockaders are unique in the history of music and art. What, in our opinion, stands supreme in TNB’s 40-year existence is a passionate execution of their anarchistic and unconventional stance. In a biographical reference, TNB are often cited as pioneers of Noise music but for TNB themselves Noise music is not just an assault on tonality but a complex language of communication. From Luigi Russolo's 1913 Art Of Noise manifesto to TNB’s T.I.C. manifest…
Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai first premiered their collaborative Cyclo project a deacde ago on Raster Noton. Relaunching in 2011 they're just as intent on creating a synaesthetic visualization of sound that "...seeks to create a new hybrid of visual art and music".
Essentially the sounds on 'Id' are inextricable from their visual corollary. They're the unmastered sonic illustrations of detailed graphical data, and vice versa, developed from a database of sounds composed to produce visual resp…
The illustrated history of legendary Cramps Records (Area, Demetrio Stratos, Arti e Mestieri, Claudio Rocchi, Alberto Camerini, Canzoniere del Lazio…) in a 22cm square-sized 244-page book.
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Here's Lantern Heights' personal tribute to the one and only Michael Chapman, a hero in his own right, a 'Fully Qualified Survivor' (just to mention one of his most successful creations). An unreleased live album on vinyl in the form of an astonishing trio." A live set recorded at Nottingham's Playhouse Theatre on July 23rd 1977 by Chapman and a power house rhythm section in Lindisfarne bassist Rod Clements and former John Mayall drummer Keef Hartley. Some of his…
‘Wind Borne – The Island Albums 1974-1978’ features newly remastered versions of ‘Floating World’, ‘Waves’, ‘Kites’ and ‘Way Of The Sun’. After releasing a series of albums for Vertigo Records, the original line-up of Jade Warrior split in 1973. Flautist Jon Field and innovative guitarist Tony Duhig decided to continue under the moniker and embarked on composing and recording a series of wonderful albums for Island Records in 1974.
Coming to the attention of Island founder Chris Blackwell throug…
Twin Ten-Inch Gatefold Edition Contains 2x 10" Records & 12page Research Booklet & Download Code Housed in manilla hand stamped & numbered paper sleeve // First released in 2013 as a limited-run cassette of just 30 copies, Ornithology has been expanded and refurbished for glorious double vinyl as part of the Folklore Tapes Archival Reissue series. Fluttering out into the world at the end of last year, this upcycled package offers a welcome revisitation of dark avian power, with Mary Arches’ cree…
Numbered limited edition of 250. The third Industrial Folklore Tapes release is constructed from live recordings of a performance tilted ‘Film as Fabric’ by Mary Stark, which examines relationships between textile practice and filmmaking. From 2012-2016, Mary’s studio practice and numerous performances took place in Rogue Artist Studios at Crusader Mill in Manchester, formerly a production site of machinery for the cotton industry and a garment works. The performance has been enriched by explora…
Limited to 300 numbered copies. Gatefold sleeve with booklet & obi. Some copies also contained an A3 poster & badge. Theo Brown and the Folklore of Dartmoor is the sixth volume in the Devon Folklore Tapes Series. The album provides acousmatic soundscapes for fourteen Dartmoor tales collected by the late Devon folklorist Theo Brown, whose spirit and research guided the project throughout. Initially released as a limited-run box-set in 2014, this long-awaited second edition contains all the origin…
One of the most singular and quietly devastating works in The Caretaker's long catalogue. Out of print for over a decade, Patience (After Sebald) returns in a 2026 pressing on History Always Favours The Winners, limited to 500 copies.
Conceived by James Leyland Kirby as the score to Grant Gee's feature-length documentary of the same name, originally released in 2012, the album traces a path through the work and shadow of the German writer W.G. Sebald (1944-2001), following the long coastal walk …
A picture disc reissue of the first album from the legendary Japanese rockers, Flower Travellin' Band, fronted by Yuya Uchida. Although an album consisting mainly of cover versions, Anywhere, originally released in 1970, still exhibited many of the musical traits that were to come to the fore on the band's next release in 1971, the classic Satori, an album of original material delivered with panache by the increasingly confident Uchida. An album made memorable by its risqué cover as well as its …
Big Tip! LP version. Previously unreleased album from 1974 released for the first time "Hawkwind, Jefferson Airplane, and Tull all mixed together!" "the precursor to the entire 'The Cramps - Bad Music For Bad People'..." "predates the White Stripes by 20 years!" "this reminds me of early Kurt Vile demos in areas..." "sounds like something Jack White would do now" These are some of the comments you can find on YouTube by people who have just discovered Oliver's private press masterpiece Standing…
* Edition of 325 copies, silkscreened sleeve w/ obi (black or kraft), postcard * Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages is the second album by the Tokyo trio Archeus, which consists of Keiko Higuchi (voice, percussion, trombone, shamisen), Shizuo Uchida (bass strings), and Tomo (hurdy gurdy, voice). It follows their debut, self-titled and self-released CD and cassette from 2021 and is further proof – if any were needed – that these musicians, who’ve known each other for some time, but only started playing t…
Black Truffle is pleased to announce Symphony No. 107 –The Bard, a previously unheard archival recording of the legendary improvising ensemble MEV (Musica Elettronica Viva), captured in concert at Bard College, New York in 2012. Formed by a group of American expat composers in Rome in 1966, the MEV ensemble played an important role in the development of free improvisation, bridging the live electronics tradition begun by John Cage and David Tudor and the high-energy squall of free jazz. Early re…
Featuring what may be his only recordings on the Prophet keyboard, these once lost performances expand the omniverse of Ra across a stellar set of lengthy cuts! All recorded in a single day and finally making their terrestrial debut! What happens when a Prophet meets a Prophet? The answer lies within these grooves. Amongst the hundreds of recordings issued by Sun Ra and his Arkestra, under their various guises, the majority were recorded in concert or in makeshift studios such as their early 19…
2023 repress, edition of 500 copies, gatefold sleeve. Essential re-press of Caterina Barbieri's debut double LP. Patterns Of Consciousness is the powerful second full-length from analog synth composer Caterina Barbieri. Gorgeous high resolution analog textures and algorithmic melodies unfold under Barbieri's careful control, exploring the basic nature of sound and consciousness. These pieces are minimal in arrangement but maximal in presence asserting Barbieri as a unique voice in contemporary e…
Edition of 500. With fold-out poster and original sleeve design by Alain Geronnez. Arthur Petronio (1897-1983) was a French-Italian musician, poet and painter. Lived in Belgium and The Netherlands between 1910 and 1924 and since then in France. Young violin virtuoso studying with Belgian master violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. Played solo violin for Belgian King Leopold II, at the age of 9. Attracted to the avant-garde and visionary ideas of Gesamtkunstwerk. Develops and presents his “Verbophonie” in 191…
Temporary Offer. These 1969 recordings (released 5 years later) combine Archie Shepp’s free jazz bonafides and a blend of blues and funk through an African lens, all in a big band setting. The all-star brass section, featuring James Spaulding and Charles Davis on sax along with trombonist Graham Moncur III lead the way on stand outs including “New Africa” and “Spoo Pee Doo.” This Verve By Request LP features transfers from analog tapes and remastered on 180-gram vinyl, pressed at Third Man in De…
LP version. Includes eight-page booklet; 425 gsm brownboard outer sleeve; 180 gram vinyl. "Why would I sing in French? I have Breton culture, I speak Breton, I live in Brittany, and the Breton language is the language of this country..." So explained Kristen Noguès, of whom this is the first of the (rare) albums that she recorded Marc'h Gouez, is a fabulous voyage in space on each listening. Noguès learned the Breton language as a child, at the same time as the Celtic harp, -- taking lessons wit…
24 years after Hermann Nitsch's first realization of the six-day play (1998), his Gesamtkunstwerk once again took place in July 2022, shortly after the artist passed away in April. "The six-day play of the Orgien Mysterien Theater, is to become the greatest and most important festival of mankind (it is an aesthetic ritual of the glorification of existence). It is at the same time a popular festival and a mystery of existence brought to consciousness. The festival of the orgien mysterien theatre …
"Two grand pianos, quasi two orchestras, driven by two of the most distinguished personalities of contemporary jazz: Aki Takase and Alexander von Schlippenbach -- they are having a conversation within the medium of sound. But they complement one another in a way that makes any stylistic differentiation irrelevant. With all the transparency in the course of their playing the dialogical principle opens out into a holistic piano language. What counts is freedom and the responsibility to create some…
Mondays at Enfield Tennis Academy, x2 LPs of long-form, lyrical, groove-based free improv by acclaimed guitarist & composer Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet is at last here. Recorded live at ETA (referencing David Foster Wallace), a bar in LA’s Highland Park neighborhood with just enough space in the back for Parker, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, & alto saxophonist Josh Johnson to convene in extraordinarily depthful & exploratory music making. Gleaned for the stoniest side-length cuts fro…
Rüdiger Carl and Sven-Åke Johansson are two fellow travelers on the path of experimental music who have worked together since the late 1960s in many formations, most notably as the wild-card Fluxus pranksters on Peter Brötzmann’s legendary 1969 recording Machine Gun, and on many more recordings and stagings of sonic interventions over the decades. In the words of Peter Margasak writing in the Chicago Reader in 2012: “Where to begin with percussionist and polymath Sven-Åke Johansson: Is he a beb…
Back in print by popular demand ! The expressive English pianist Mike Taylor recorded a couple of excellent albums in the mid-1960s, at the request of Denis Preston of Lansdowne Studios, before drug use got the better of him, resulting in a long period of homelessness and a tragically early death from drowning at the age of 30, in 1970. Trio, the only album Taylor cut with the jazz trio he fronted, has strikingly original renditions of jazz standards such as “Stella By Starlight” and “The End Of…
An absolutely stunning effort from one of the great journeymen of Italian experimentalism, Walter Maioli's 'Il Suono delle Api / La Vibrazione del Cosmo', issued by Villa Lontana Records, is electroacoustic music at its absolute, vibrant best. Pressed in two extremely limited editions on black and transparent vinyl and laden with rich tonalities, deep drones, and hypnotic arpeggiations, it's a truly mind-melting, free-standing sonic world that encounters Maioli at the top of his game.
** Tape + Artist book containing a cycle of mythical poems written while in covid-exile in Japan. A sumi-e drawing by Kawabata Makoto is included in the text. Gold on purple cover, including a full colour insert, pure beauty. ** Limited to 60 copies only and released by Counter Culture Chronicle, the “Behind the Buddha's Mask” cassette is a stunning effort, largely built around the unique recordings made by Christophe Albertijn at the Middelheim Museum in May 2021. While the pandemic forced poe…
From the celebrated imprint, Recorthings & Zona Archives, comes “Sound Anthology”, the first ever full length dedicated to the output of Maurizio Nannucci. Gathering sixteen pieces created between 1966 and 2013, the collection is an absolute revelation, blurring the boundaries between musique concrète and noise and unveiling one of Italy’s great journeymen of experimental sound practice lingering in our midst.
** 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…
Folk songs from Ukraine's Mykolaiv region, collected over the last decade by a young ethnographer: women's polyphonic songs of winter, weddings, war and work, passed between villages on cassette and never further.
An absolutely astounding accomplishment, Black Sweat's 4 LP Box set of previously unreleased material by Ariel Kalma - French Archives Vol. III - is a mind-melting immersion into the composer and saxophonist's radical experiments and stunning ambient harmonics made between 1974 and 1985. Venturing far beyond the territories for which he is most well-known, the collection takes great strides to accurately framing ambient and New Age musics as rightful extensions of the avant-garde, and is easily …
Huge Tip! Since the 1970s Mario De Leo works as a musician and visual artist. His mechanical paintings are hybrid works that reveal the cosmic spiritualism hidden in the meanders of electronics. With Riccardo Sinigaglia (Futuro Antico, Correnti Magnetiche, Doubling Riders) De Leo consolidates an artistic and human partnership with Lettera Cosmica, a work unpublished to date, produced and recorded in 1981. In a wacky electronic vision of the succession of time, the tracks trace the four seasons i…