Reissues
The Prophet
In 1954, during his first trip to Paris, the adventurous pianist and be-bop pioneer Thelonious Monk recorded a handful of songs for French radio, later issued as The Prophet. Unencumbered by bass, drums or other a companiment, Monk gives us all we need in left-hand rhythms and right-hand melodies; ‘Round About Midnight’ and ‘Reflections’ di play masterful command and there’s a one-off take of ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.’ Highlighting his capabilities in full, this is required listening for Monk fa…
The Unique
Pioneering be-bopper and unorthodox pianist Thelonious Monk was largely underacknowledged for the role he played in changing jazz forever. The Unique Thelonious Monk, the second of his LPs for Riverside, was recorded in 1956 with bassist/cellist Oscar Pettiford, who Monk had bonded with in Coleman Hawkins’ band, and the wildcard drummer, Art Blakey, pushing things farther into the realm of experimentation, despite the set being comprised of jazz standards. Thus, ‘Tea For Two’ becomes a hard-bop …
Ẁurdah Ïtah (LP)
It was 1974 when Magma's fourth studio album Ẁurdah Ïtah came out. Originally, the album was released under the name of Tristan Et Iseult as a solo studio film soundtrack by founding member Christian Vander. He recorded the music for Yvan Lagrange's 1872 avant-garde film Tristan Et Iseult. The recordings took place only a month prior to the sessions which produced Köhntarkösz. For these recordings for Ẁurdah Ïtah, only a core quartet of Magma members took part, including Christian Vander, Jann…
Köhntarkösz
Magma has been one of France's most influential bands since their founding in 1969. They released their fifth studio album Kohntarkosz in 1974, which set them off in a completely new musical direction. The band used a more restrained approach, which resulted in every hit seeming to weight twenty tons by contrast. The result is a mysterious atmosphere which holds the listener in awe. For this recording, and in particular the track 'Coltrane Sundia', the band used John Coltrane as the main inspira…
Up Your Sleeve (LP)
** Edition of 500 copies with a numbered 4-page insert ** Previously released in 1980 on David Toop’s Quartz label at a time when improvised music in London was settling into a long spell of excellence. The players here are Steve Beresford, Peter Cusack, Terry Day and David Toop. Terry had been a member of The People Band in the 60s, one of the groups forming part of the first wave of British improvisation. The rest of the group could be regarded as pioneers of a second generation of improvisers…
Atomic System
Finally available again, this rare Italian prog classic! New Trolls Atomic System were an offshoot of the New Trolls, one of Italy's best-known progressive outfits. A messy split between the two main members lead to an uneasy compromise where the splinter faction were known as 'N.T. Atomic System', although initial copies of the album had a sticker on the front with the full name... While the New Trolls were sporadically good, New Trolls Atomic System is a stormer of an album, radiating energy, …
Tempi Dispari
** Limited edition black vinyl 180 gr. ** Tempi Dispari is a live album from 1974 by the Atomic System variation, a line up formed by guitarist Vittorio DeScalzi after three members left to form what would end up being Ibis. DeScalzi is aided by future Nova keyboards player Renato Rosset, who influences this variation in a more jazzy oriented way than any other New Trolls incarnation. Two side-long suites (including a theme from Concerto Grosso 1) of excellent and innovative music, reminding me…
L'ultimo Treno Della Notte
“L’Ultimo Treno della Notte” (Last Stop on the Night Train) is a 1975 thriller film directed by Aldo Lado, one of the most violent movies ever produced in Italy in the ’70s (and beyond) that actually shows, even in the crudest scenes, for same admission of the director, a harsh attack against the bourgeois society and its powerful rich people. Despite the limited budget, the friendship between Aldo Lado and composer Ennio Morricone made this collaboration possible; nonetheless, only a 45rpm 7″ …
Contamination
180gr. clear purple vinyl. “Contamination” was released in 1980 as a soundtrack for the eponymous horror/science fiction film, during what probably was the most prolific period in Goblin’s career, even if the band had already been abandoned by guitarist Massimo Morante and keyboardist Claudio Simonetti. Unkonwn by most listeners, it’s a release that deserves more attention, since it shows a wide range of music styles (Jazz, funk, rock, electronic) and once again Goblin’s ability in writing film …
Zombi (Colonna Sonora Originale Del Film)
Thanks to the brilliant debut “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), director and screenwriter George Romero is considered the creator of the ‘modern zombie’, a metaphor for the profoundly consumerist and capitalist society we live in, that was perfectly shown years later in “Dawn of the Dead” (1978); this movie was distributed in Italy as “Zombi”, with a different editing made by Dario Argento and a soundtrack once again composed by legendary Goblin.
“Zombi” is a very varied album where the electr…
Buio Omega
Limited edition on 180gr. clear purple vinyl. “Buio Omega”, two short and simple words that, in the mind of Goblin’s fans as well as in the horror/splatter movies fanatics’ one, recall sounds and images of a legendary film. Directed in 1979 by Joe D’Amato, it still impresses with the rawness and morbidity of its scenes, the trademark of a director who, much more than others, befits the term ‘extreme’.
The soundtrack of the film, whose main ingredients are keyboards and synthesizers, swings among…
Animist Pools
Animist Pools was released July 1, 2016 in a cassette limited edition on Human Pitch records. Originally released as "Hippies Wearing Muzzles", pseudonym of Lee Evans. This is a limited vinyl edition of this amazing record of ambient. "A shifting center in a stream of rippling analog tones, the music of Hippies Wearing Muzzles is orchestrated to transfix, echoing sounds heard in nature with modular synthesizers and the powerful element of chance. Evoking the Fourth World Music of Jon Hassel or t…
Läuten der Seele
Tip!**Much-needed small repress available, and in process of stocking** Behind the mysterious name 'Läuten der Seele' comes the eponymous solo debut-album from Christian Schoppik, half of the confidentially acclaimed experimental dark folk duo Brannten Schnüre from Wurzburg (DE). The record is composed of 12 abstract audio collages based on transformed sampled loops from German 50’s Heimatfilme features -a popular domestic genre involving rural settings, romantic tone and simplistic morality, c…
Mantle-Piece
Following the breakup of Cream, lyricist/vocalist Pete Brown formed his Battered Ornaments with guitarist Chris Spedding, drummer Rob Tait, bassist Butch Potter, percussionist Pete Bailey and saxophonist Nisar Ahmed Khan, but during the recording of sophomore album Mantle Piece, Brown fell out with Spedding, resulting in his departure. The resultant spacey venture has jazz and blues shades, riding the sonic waves under Spedding’s direction, with Khan’s sax and Potter’s bass fitting foils to Sped…
Musical Experiences
Temporary Super Offer! The legendary French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet exalted naivety and spontaneity in visual art, and his brazenly experimental recordings on Musical Experiences evince the same spirit through sound. He once reflected, "Certain unexpected windfalls ... come of improvising on an instrument one doesn't really know how to use."Dubuffet, who famously founded the art brut (or outsider art) movement, began making music in the early 1960s with avant-garde figure Asger Jorn. …
Rituals
*2022 stock* 1986's Rituals is one of the best-kept secrets of the Belgian synth-pop/coldwave movement -- sinister, dark, with touching melodies. Peter Bonne and Geert Coppens had already been playing for a few years in other projects such as Autumn and Linear Movement, and in 1985 they managed to create this stunning album. Highlights on the album include "I Never Called You a Dream," "Rooms," "Amorphous Materials," "Closed Circuit," and every other track. When the LP was originally released, b…
Ocean
*Restored and remastered from the original tapes* "My task is to allow the listener to penetrate deeper into the music. The music is wholly improvisational. It has no concept in the rational sense of the word. It’s concept is purely intuitive. It presumes The Law of Analogies: “As above so below. Man is the same as the Universe. The Universe is the same as Man.” ("Emerald Tablet” by Hermes Trismegistus"). This intuition is a kind of rephrased logic which uses many more symbols which contain not …
Birdhouse
*2022 stock. In process of stocking* 'Fred Anderson is from Chicago, a city like Detroit known for the strength of its music scene. High time that he was shown in the light of this great quartet session, Birdhouse. Anderson’s association with Hamid Drake has germinated here with Anderson’s quartet giving a searching performance of his [Anderson’s] compositions. Birdhouse reflects that kind of powerful play where the roots are so strong, the music can evolve farther without losing the thread of i…
Double Or Nothing
*2022 stock. In process of stocking* AALY Trio (Gustafsson, Nordeson, Flaten) on left channel; DKV Trio (Vandermark, Kessler, Drake) on right channel.Recorded September 23, 1999 at Airwave Studios, Chicago.Track 2 is a long performance with an index point at the start of the Awake Nu theme.
The Archives Part 1 (1968-1980) - 11xCd Box
** Art Edition, Signed by Maciunas members and numbered + comes with an additional 00 cd 'Ecologica' ** Founded in 1968, The Maciunas Ensemble took Fluxus founder George Maciunas (1931 - 1978) score 'Music for everyman' (1961) as an invitation to explore the infinite space of sound patterns and musical structures. This exploration still continues after more than forty years. With Paul Panhuysen, Remko Scha, Jan van Riet, Leon van Noorden, Hans Schuurman, Helena Koning, Vincent Panhuysen. 'Since…