Reissues

An ephemeral trio formed at the very beginning of the '80s, Fall of Saigon take a special place within French rock. A voice (Florence Berthon), an organ (Pascal Comelade) and a guitar (Thierry Den), supported by a foregrounded drumbox, suffice to maintain a minimalist and essential construction, full of class and inventiveness. More conventionally rocky than musics recorded by Comelade in those years, although subtly peculiar, the compositions show influences marked by the New York seal. Thus th…

Cyril Lefebvre recorded this remarkable and fanciful album in 1979 with three veterans of the French underground, namely Guigou Chenevier (Etron Fou Leloublan, Les Batteries, Volapük...), Jean-Pierre Grasset (Verto) and Jean-Pierre Arnoux (Mahjun), and the hawaiian guitar virtuoso Harry Hougassian. This reissue comes with no less than six bonus tracks recorded with the help of some of the best names from the free music scene (Mike Cooper, Lol Coxhill, Steve Beresford...) and the rock scene (Elli…

2019 Repress. Speech melodies extracted from sources as various as language instruction recordings, hypnotists and televangelists are re-synthesized and applied to digital musical instruments, becoming eerily beautiful, "the singing of voices more ancient than language." Performed by Paul DeMarinis Hidden beneath speech's words and music's melodies I hear the singing of a voice more ancient than language.  Brain's secret convulsions making muscles articulate, shaking the world with a song now lo…

Led by Dominique Grimaud, Vidéo-Aventures is the gathering of numerous musicians hard-to-classify, such as Gilbert Artmann andr Cyril Lefebvre… They offer a music full of references and winks to Erik Satie, Captain Beefheart and The Residents. During the Eighties, the band was noticed for its innovative use of synthesizers, in particular the famous Synthi AKS. Vidéo-Aventures even entered the charts in New Musical Express, and the following decade, their first opus was chosen as one of the twent…

Alternative Fox present a reissue of Piero Umiliani's Il Paradiso Dell'uomo, originally released in 1963. Italian film composer Piero Umiliani enjoyed a long and illustrious career, creating nearly 200 film soundtracks, along with 40 music library LPs, and some 35 television themes. Born in Florence in 1926, he was first recognized internationally for his work on the soundtrack of 1958 crime caper I Soliti Ignoti (AKA Big Deal on Madonna Street, Persons Unknown or Le Pigeon), which featured note…

One of the strangest and most enigmatic groups in the history of rock n' roll, Les Rallizes Denudes, also known as Hadaka no Rallizes or Hadaka no Rarizu, were a Japanese experimental rock band that is often cited as a pioneering force of the noise rock movement. The story of the band is as strange and difficult as the music they made and although much of the tale is shrouded in mystery, everything apparently begins around Kyoto's radical anti-establishment communes of the late 1960s, where andr…

Temporary super offer!  Pharoah Sanders, live at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan-les-Pins on July 21, 1968. Experimental jazz titan Pharoah Sanders made a lasting impact with his unorthodox approach to tenor saxophone. Born Farrell Sanders in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1940, he was given the nickname Pharoah by grandmother, in reference to the potential regal lineage of his African heritage. Playing clarinet at church services during his youth, he began playing tenor sax at high school. In 1959 …

Mandatory Reality, the new album by Joshua Abrams and Natural Information Society, is here. Setting aside (for the moment) the electric instrumentation of Simultonality (GB 048CD/MTE 068LP, 2017) and Magnetoception (MTE 063-64LP, 2015), Joshua Abrams conceived Mandatory Reality for an eight-piece acoustic manifestation of NIS, consisting of himself on guimbri, Lisa Alvarado on harmonium and gongs, Mikel Avery on tam-tam and gongs, Ben Boye on autoharp and piano, Hamid Drake on tabla and tar, Ben…

Remastered from the original tapes, here comes a due reissue of Sleep’s iconic second studio album "Holy Mountain", originally released in November 1992 in Europe and March 1993 in the USA through Earache Records. Widely considered as one of the most seminal albums in the evolution of stoner rock, it became a favourite of the heavy metal press and the band was heralded - along with Kyuss - as leaders of the emerging stoner metal scene. The song "Dragonaut" was used in the 1997 Harmony Korine fil…

A double CD collecting three classic albums from Beaver & Krause’s Warner Brothers period circa 1970-1972, featuring the celebrated Moog-friendly collaborators’ quirky mix of early electronics, found sound and musical dalliances from Blues to Soul and Rock to Gospel.Featuring the seminal “In A Wild Sanctuary” (1970), the haunting “Gandharva” (1971) and the wonky pop of “All Good Men” (1972), underlining the indelible mark the duo made on contemporary music. Filtering Scott Joplin and Bach throug…

**Edition of 300** Ethnoelectronics, issued on cassette by Sound Reporters in 1986, exists beyond the realm of easy definition. Very little information about the album exists, other than the fact that it involved the contributions of a remarkable group of sonic explorers - Walter Maioli, Nirodh Fortini, Fred Gales, Raffaele Serra, John Zandijk and the sculptor Edward Luyken, and was conceptualised as the soundtrack for an obscure science-fiction saga. Or was it?The title makes clear allusion to …

**Edition of 300** While the Sound Reporters imprint, which ran intermittently between the early 80s and 90s - specializing in the sounds of anthropology, ethnomusicology, religion, travel and history, hailed from Amsterdam, those aware of this obscure cassette label will probably only be the most developed fans of Italian avant-garde. It was Sound Reporters that issued the incredible collaboration between Pit Piccinelli, Fred Gales, and Walter Maioli, Amazonia 6891, reissued by Black Sweat in 2…

Edition of 100, numbered. Reissue of a holy-grail double C45 boxset released on Hironari Iwata's Angakok label in 1988. It features H.n.a.s., Asmus Tietchens, Haiginsha (aka Hironari Iwata), Conrad Schnitzler, Toukaseibunshi (aka Hironari Iwata again), Roberta Settels, Human Flesh (aka Alain Neffe), Bene Gesserit, P16.D4, Swimming Behaviour Of The Human Infant (aka Achim Wollscheid), The Haters, Defict Des Annee Anterieures and a young upstart called Merzbow.

Edition of 100, signed and numbered. In the last 10 years Akira Matsuoka (aka Veltz) has established himself as a key figure in the next generation of Tokyo noise artists. His work covers a wide range: metal junk noise, erased tapes, field recording and audio dedications to analogue television. Analogue broadcasting in Japan was switched of in 2011, an event recorded by Matsuoka and presented at the end of this album. The collection of broken televisions he has since amassed have become his prim…

Restocked, reduced price - Limited 100 copies, signed and numbered. As a co-action by Norio Imai, Toru Kuranuki, and Saburo Muraoka, we inject the sound of our heartbeats into a street corner for 10 days from July 20th, 1972. The heatbeat sound is transmitted through three sets of equipment that respectively consists of a tape recorder inside this cafe, a speaker on its roof, and an oscillograph in its show window. In this co-action street noise and the rhythm of human as a living matter interpe…

Restocked, reduced price Limited 80 copies, numbered. Legendary 1973 recordings by the sound artist Morihiro Wada (1947-2007). When a transition from one articulated time and space to another begins, language is generated as a factor for the first time. When language needs a certain meaning, it means that a beautiful misunderstanding of communication has already begun.I can’t do anything but see a discrepancy between what is actually expressed and me. The greater the discrepancy is…, there is… …

**The definitive Doubling Riders box set with a load of previously unreleased material is finally here. Complete discography, remastered from the original tapes. 6 x CD boxset includes 1 disc of previously unreleased material, plus 24-page booklet of liner notes and never-before-seen photographs.** From its earliest days, Italian avant-garde and experimental music has always been a fascinating world of intersecting lines, unexpected meetings, and networks of conversation and collaboration. This …

Few copies, sold out at source. Additional contribution from Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixer) recorded by Steve Bates and David Sylvian, Montreal. Tubular bell and concert bass drum recorded by Matthew Sansom, Surrey University, 2006. Original text by Bernard Marie Koltès. Compositional structure by Mark Wastell. Mixed and mastered by Rupert Clervaux. Personnel: Rhodri Davies - lap harp, table harp, vibraphone, radio; David Sylvian - voice, vocal treatments, electronics; Mark Wastell - tam ta…

Souffle Continu Records present the first ever vinyl reissue of Jacques Thollot's Quand Le Son Devient Aigu, Jeter La Girafe À La Mer, originally released in 1971. While he was still just a young adolescent who had perfected his drum technique under the benevolent wing of Kenny Clarke, the Club Saint-Germain liked to present Jacques Thollot as a prodigy capable of holding his own with the famous jazz musicians who came through Paris. It was there that Eric Dolphy immediately noticed him, and fro…

If one is aware of high prices on online music sites or is a part of any worldwide record collectors' circles, albums from groups such as Ithaca and Agincourt might sound familiar. Producers, composers, singers and multi-instrumentalists Peter Howell and John Ferdinando are two English musicians who started their partnership in the mid-1960s. From 1968, with the release of their soundtrack for the play Alice Through The Looking Glass, until the release of a project called Friends in 1974, they p…

1975 was a turning point year for Kraftwerk and this live set from Koeln is a fine document of the band's live shows of the period. The album opens with an epic sidelong version of the previous year's big hit "Autobahn", their first lucky experiment with highly repetitive electronic structure, they would become known for later, and it also includes a fine rendition of "Ruckzuck", a classic tune from their 1970 first album. This is highly futuristic German Musik of the Seventies at its best.

This 1972 BBC Live recording is the perfect proof of what a band like Matching Mole could do in concert during their too short existence. The quartet playing was way more free and adventurous than in studio and the tunes were often stretched out and built to dense instrumental climaxes. Dave MacRae - electric piano, Phil Miller - guitar, Bill MacCormick - bass, Robert Wyatt - drums, vocals. A great live session from a key group in the Canterbury rock scene and an essential companion to the band'…

Recorded in 1973 at Inner Space Studios during the "Future Days" sessions , this album contains the full lenght performance of "Doko E" a track which appeared on the “Limited Edition” LP.  But where the original release gave us only a two and a half minute version, here you can get the whole 40 minutes. A solid and energetic session from the Can classic line up featuring Holger Czukay, Michael Karoli, Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit and "Damo" Suzuki. Highly recommended for both Can completists an…

Blinding Sun Ra reissue, finding Ra on his newly acquired Crumar Mainman synth (with early drum machine!) in stellar 1978 recordings from the same Italian sessions that birthed ‘Disco 3000’ and ‘The Sound Mirror’  Well known to Ra disciples, but not as much to everyone else who stands by his catalogue and doesn’t know where to start, ‘Media Dream’ is a massive highlight of Sun Ra’s fecund period circa 1977 and 1980 - the peak of his output of new LPs.   Recorded live sometime in January 1978, th…

From the moment it emerged during the mid 90’s, mystery has swirled around Galactic Explorers’ sole LP - Epitaph for Venus. Released by the Psi-Fi imprint as a long lost Krautrock gem from the mythical Pyramid label’s archives - said to be have been recorded by Toby Robinson in Cologne circa 1972/73, it has been loved by many, while others have cried hoax. Some ventured further, implicating none other than Genesis P. Orridge as the creator. The truth isn’t publicly known, but the foggy origins p…

Craig Leon revisits the extraterrestrial origins of civilization in Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon, a continuing chronicle of his early 80s albums Nommos and Visiting. Exploring the cosmic lore of Leon’s earlier work, The Canon expands upon the conceptual cycle based on the alien and mathematical relationships that backbone the creation of art, architecture, science, and music. In 1981, producer and composer Craig Leon, known in the downtown New York zeitgeist for his p…

**Ltd 100 hand-numbered and signed copies** Softcover Book (208 pages - cm 20,5x22) + CD + 2 original collages by Maurizio Bianchi MB (cm 23x26). Fragmentages is a collection of 200 collages made by MB specifically for this project. The book comes with MB's latest audio work on CD and also includes two original collages from the collection. Each copy is therefore a unique piece, and absolute must for those who love the work of MB.In the fragmentary path of a few months, an imaginative project ha…

James Tenney, for almost the entirety of his career, was one of the great, unsung giants of the American musical avant-garde - an artist’s artist, whose towering contribution and influence was everywhere - equal to Feldman and Cage, but who, like Nancarrow and Partch before him, was a maverick - radical to the core, refusing to play by the rules, and thus suffered at that fate’s all too predictable hand. Since his death in 2006, his legacy in devoted hands, recognition has slowly begun to grow, …

Robert Palmer (1915-2010) produced more than ninety symphonic, choral, chamber, and solo works throughout his career, earning a reputation in the mid-twentieth century as one of the country's leading, most daring, and -- at the same time -- appealing modernists. Palmer's unique musical language combined a deeply emotional impulse with complex counterpoint and rhythmic structures, drawing comparisons to Hindemith, Bartók, Lou Harrison, even Brahms. Aaron Copland famously included Palmer on his 19…

On first hearing, the piano music of Peter Garland (b. 1952) creates a feeling of dislocation, then astonishment: It is so very different from the contemporary concert music we are familiar with. The composer's intent, his emotional directness is immediate -- despite the unusual sound world and different sense of time that these pieces exhibit. The three pieces on this CD, 'The Birthday Party' (2014), 'Blessingway' (2011-12) and 'Amulet' (After Roberto Bolaño) for 4 pianos (2010), are quite diff…

The author of these notes has spent his life explaining radical music, and the music on this disc may be the most radical I've ever written about. Peter Thoegersen (b. 1967) is not yet a name known to the music world; not for any lack of connection to other famous musicians, but because he came to composition late, and because his artistic aims are so broad and complex that they have taken years to evolve. His aesthetic is well defined, and he is upfront about having a name for it: "Polytempic P…

These two discs reveal Christian Wolff as a composer fully exploring, in different ways, the continuum between music which is highly fragmented, embracing extended silences [composed or indeterminate], to that which is more progressive and seemingly driven, albeit taking in disarming and unconventional routes. As a body of repertoire, these works are remarkable for their freshness of musical thought and energy (John Cage considered Wolff to be the most 'musical' of the experimental composers).Ch…

Cloud Atlas is a collection of ten short pieces composed by Toshi Ichiyanagi between 1985 to 1999. Vertical Study gathers rare pieces composed by Claude Ledoux. Both are performed by Japanese pianist Kaoru Tashiro. "Kaoru produces serene, yet rich sound texture; the fluctuation of beat and the perspective of the motif are ingenious. I hope many more people will taste this joy of finding a grain of gold with your own eyes and ears, from her commercialism-unrelated, sincere and an experimental…

In January 2016 arts and music organisation Santuri East Africa invited guest producer Jan Schulte to join the Nile Project gathering in Aswan, Egypt -- an intensive two-week musical experiment featuring musicians drawn from all around the Nile Basin that functioned as both a creative cauldron for cross-border collaboration, and a forum for artists and cultural activists to discuss the issues affecting the Nile river. Wolf Muller aka Jan Schulte has been a resident of Dusseldorf's era-defining S…

Edition of 300 copies. Giancarlo and Massimo Toniutti’s Spazio di Hausdorff newborn label finally unveil this epic, years-in-the-making 5 CD retrospective/compilation of musics by Enrico Piva spanning the years 1978-1999 with critical texts by Giancarlo Toniutti and Vittore Baroni, and a complete discography by Walter Rovere. Enrico Piva has been a master of concealment. And a profoundly serious researcher who devoted himself to art in his various facets never blending it with mediocre and tamed…

Milan, 1979, only two years had passed since the explosion of punk but it seemed like ten years had passed, 1977 had inexorably changed the destiny of a generation of musicians. Milan in those years felt a bit like Manchester, a city in black and white, with monuments grayed by smog, busy and still far from becoming the "Milan to drink" of the mid-80s. The music scene was totally disconnected from the rest of the Italian underground, the bands were born and imploded within a few months. The inpu…

** Edition of 300 copies, totally sold out at source ** Another incredible archival work from Cabiria Records here, a genuine holy grail of Italian post-punk music, Andy Warhol Banana Technicolor’ legendary 'Color Color' tape is remastered and issued on vinyl for the first time, this is an indispensable slice of ‘80s Italy’s underground experimental rhizome. Like their international tape-scene allies, Andy Warhol Banana Technicolor reacted to this world thru a matrix of mono-synths, drum machine…

2026 Repress! Out of print in the U.S. for more than four decades, Don Cherry‘s meditative, inventive outsider jazz classic, Brown Rice, is available on vinyl once again as of today via Verve/Universal Music. The album is pressed on standard weight black vinyl and housed in a replica sleeve with original liner notes from acclaimed jazz critic Stanley Crouchuite reach this level of wild invention again. Brown Rice contains the apogee of Cherry’s influences: African, Indian, Arabic and American mu…

Spring Heel Jack brings esteemed trumpeter and vanguard composer Wadada Leo Smith to the mix, along with reedsman and longtime Spring Heel collaborator Evan Parker, fellow Brit John Edwards on bass, and drummer Mark Sanders. The Sweetness of the Water, from 2003, is a strong offering from John Coxon and Ashley Wales (the masterminds behind Spring Heel Jack), with a more intimate, live feel than the group’s previous electro-heavy efforts. Parker returns with his bellowing, screaming sax juxtapose…

My Favorite Things October 14, 1977 presents a superb collection of tracks recorded by the great Sun Ra and his Arkestra at the Variety Recording Studio, NYC. One of the rarely heard documents of the El Saturn label of the ‘70s, these recordings catch Sun Ra and John Gilmore firmly in the foreground, especially when performing on masterly interpretations of John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things and Nat King Cole’s Nature Boy. The performance shows that both are capable of masterfully reflecting the…