Abacomancy
Abacomancy (defined as "a form of divination based on the interpretation of the patterns in dust, dirt, silt, or sand") is the first record by the duo of Derek Monypeny and Kevin Corcoran. Monypeny and Corcoran have a decades-long personal and musical relationship; they played in the free-improv trio DMPH with the late tenor saxophonist Chad Stockdale, who released a 7-inch on Stockdale's Weird Forest label in 2010.
Abacomancy is the result of a one-day recording session in Monypeny's adopted to…
TAQATO3
Violinist Mike Khoury came together with Sharif Sehnaoui (guitar, percussion, bouzouki) and Raed Yassin (bass) to create some very natural and organic improvised music during the Irtijal Festival in 2018. Khoury said, “the three of us had an instant connection with a common understood language that predated all of us.” The music was not a part of a festival performance but a sparate effort by the three musicians. Khoury is best known for his work as a soloist, in duet with percussionist Ben Hall…
A Few We Remember
A Few We Remember is the new album by Jonah Parzen-Johnson and Lau Nau. The recording debut for the new duo of Finnish composer Lau Nau, aka Laura Naukkarinen, and American baritone saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson, it cycles between moments of knotty ambience, whispered melody, and innocent tinkering, as the duo improvises over 8 narrative scores composed by Parzen-Johnson. Jonah Parzen-Johnson says: “For me, telling a story is about more than sharing a set of facts. A well told story is the pr…
SSI Solo 2024
A leading saxophonist on the Japanese improvised music scene, Junji Hirose also gives performances using self-made analog noise instruments. It was in the 1980s that Hirose started presenting noise performances on his SSI (self-made sound instrument), made of various everyday objects. Over the years he continually modified the instrument, for each version attaching a different number to the name SSI. On the Hitorri label, Hirose has released the CDs "SSI-4" (hitorri-997 / 2013), "SSI-5" (hitorri…
Evoke
*200 copies limited edition* While her main instrument is baritone sax, Misaki Motofuji is a multi-instrumentalist with an excellent command of other saxophone types including tenor and alto, as well as clarinet and flute. In concerts she additionally makes wide-ranging use of electronics, vocals, field recordings and various effects and objects, spontaneously assembling splendid, amazingly well constructed performances. In May 2022 Motofuji performed a concert of this type at Ftarri, Tokyo, whi…
Biosphere
*200 copies limited edition* While her main instrument is baritone sax, Misaki Motofuji is a multi-instrumentalist with an excellent command of other saxophone types including tenor and alto, as well as clarinet and flute. In concerts she additionally makes wide-ranging use of electronics, vocals, field recordings and various effects and objects, spontaneously assembling splendid, amazingly well constructed performances. In May 2022 Motofuji performed a concert of this type at Ftarri, Tokyo, whi…
Uchidome
Seijiro Murayama is a Paris-based drummer, percussionist, improviser and composer. It was in 2009 that he first released CDs on the Ftarri labels Hitorri, Ftarri and Meena. He has since released over ten CDs of performances in solo, duo, trio and quartet formations.
"Uchidome," Murayama’s fifth solo album from the Hitorri label, consists of three tracks recorded in France in January 2025. All his drum solo albums are outstanding, and this CD, with its unique and inimitable performances, is no ex…
Oui, Mais 68 ! Maybe 68 ?
Tip! Edition of 300 copies. François Tusques needs no introduction to serious listeners of European free jazz. His 1965 Free Jazz album - recorded with Bernard Vitet, Michel Portal, Beb Guérin, and François Jeanneau - helped establish Paris as a vital center for the transatlantic avant-garde, laying groundwork for the city's role as spiritual home to visiting American firebrands like Don Cherry, Sunny Murray, and Clifford Thornton. His subsequent work with Barney Wilen (Le Nouveau Jazz, 1967), h…
Fumine
*200 copies limited edition* Born in 1954, Katsura Yamauchi is a saxophone player based in Oita, Japan. Since he began performing in earnest in the early 2000s, he has been touring and expanding his distinctive musical activities in Japan, Europe, North America and Asia. Koto player Kohsetsu Imanishi has an active career inside and outside Japan, performing music of various genres including classical Japanese music, improvisation and contemporary classical music. In addition to performing as a s…
Live At Ftarri
*200 copies limited edition* Gintė Preisaitė is an up-and-coming pianist from Lithuania. Currently based in Copenhagen, she is active on the improvised/experimental music scene, using electronics and vocals in her performances in addition to piano. During a visit to Japan in September 2024, she performed at Ftarri, Tokyo, on the 23rd in a duo with no-input mixing board player Toshimaru Nakamura. An internationally active musician known for improvised performances using mixer feedback, Nakamura h…
Support Surface
*200 copies limited edition* French musician Bruno Duplant, who uses both analog and digital instruments in his performances, has produced a succession of excellent solo and collaborative works and released many recordings on numerous labels including Ftarri. Pierre Gerard is a Belgian improviser and composer. Like Duplant, he makes wide-ranging and skillful use of various instruments, including guitar, piano and electronics, and has presented many works on Ftarri and other improvised/experiment…
Tangerine And The Invisible
*250 copies limited edition* Three Chinese musicians performed at Ftarri, Tokyo, on January 2, 2024. Li Song is a computer programmer and musician who lives in London. Zhao Cong and Zhu Wenbo are experimental/improvisational musicians based in Beijing. This album is made up of two performances (each over 30 minutes): "The Invisible Tangerine," a duo by Zhao Cong and Li Song, and "Three Lines," a trio by Li Song, Zhao Cong and Zhu Wenbo.
The compelling feature of "The Invisible Tangerine" is the …
Spring
*250 copies lmited edition* Bryan Eubanks (born in 1977) is a Berlin-based American musician who performs using soprano saxophone, electronics and computers. Gert-Jan Prins (born in 1961) is an Amsterdam-based musician whose performances make use of electronic noise and percussion. Both are well known on the international improvised music scene and carry out wide-ranging musical activities, including composition and sound installations in addition to improvisation. No-input mixing board player T…
Tatazumai
*250 copies limited edition* Lucio Capece is an Argentinian composer and improviser based in Berlin. His highly creative activities have been a focus of worldwide attention. Takako Suzuki is a Japanese dancer living in Berlin. A founding member of the dance company Sasha Waltz and Guests, she has performed in international festivals since the 1990s and carries out numerous collaborations with musicians. Masahide Tokunaga is a Tokyo-based alto saxophone player with a distinctive performance style…
Disappointment - Hateruma
Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the first vinyl reissue of Disappointment–Hateruma, the 1976 ALM Records release by percussionist Toshi Tsuchitori and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The album is notable as Sakamoto's first recording issued under his own name and represents one of the few occasions he explored fully improvised music during the 1970s. It provides a vital document for understanding Sakamoto's early development as a composer and performer, capturing a period when he was experimenting with …
The Face Of The Earth
2025 Repress. The second beautiful album by the duo of Jessika Kenney -- a vocalist known for her haunting timbral sense, as well as her profound interpretation of Persian vocal traditions -- and Eyvind Kang -- a violist for whom the act of music and learning is a spiritual discipline. All tracks were composed by Kenney (voice, percussion, electronics) and Kang (viola, setar, electronics). "The Central Javanese Wangsalan is a kind of riddle (two lines, twelve syllables each, divided 4 and 8 ), s…
Prophecy
*328 copies limited edition* Prophecy finds Eye in form familiar to those who've had the good fortune to hear their 2016 album Other Sky, but even more compacted and condensed, a band simmered and reduced to their pure essence. And then the volume increases. Prophecy is a pummeling din of guitar clouds shot through with electronic disruption. Stapleton's relentless motion drives Porteous' icy guitar streams in leaping waves. 'Catch Them' opens the album with Peter's vocals, croaking out from the…
Aspects Of Memory
Aspects of Memory is the first meeting between Lawrence Casserley (signal-processing instrument) and Emil Karlsen (percussion). Casserley has devoted his professional career to the creation and performance of real-time electroacoustic music, culminating in the development of his own unique device—The Signal Processing Instrument. This instrument allows him to use physical gestures to control the processing and to direct the morphology of the sounds.
Casserley writes: “A key element of the Signal…
Eyre
For their fourth album, and second release on Bead, light.box augments the duo of Alex Bonney (trumpet, electronics) and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay (bass guitar, electronics) with a special guest, Tom Challenger on tenor saxophone.The album explores a vast range of textures and dynamics from cinematic ambient drones to delicate timbral and microtonal explorations, from fast-paced dialogues to invasive waves of distortion. The rapport between the musicians has developed over years of playing toget…
Prayer
For Sara(.es), who has resonated with numerous musicians, this is a special solo live recording, her first in about a year. Weaving together the sounds of bells, water-emitting instruments, harmonica, crystal bowls, triangle, and more, an energy-filled piano solo unfolds. From 1 May to 14 June 2025, the solo exhibition ‘Prayer’ by artist Keiichi Ikegami was held at Gallery Nomaru, the home of .es (dot es) and the base for Utsunomiya MIX. Following the sudden passing of Satoshi Hayashi, former di…