Folk /
Istikhbars and Improvisations
*2024 repress* Mustapha Skandrani. Besides having an excellent name, this man, a luminary of Algerian music, possessed a unique musical sense, able to transcend the borders of musical cultures to create a distinctive fusion of Arabo-Andalusian and European styles. "Istikhbars and Improvisations", recorded in 1965 in Paris, is a solo piano album presenting a trans-Mediterranean crossover based on traditional Algerian vocal pieces known as Istikhbars. Playing these istikhbars (which have roots in …
Urstan
Gaelic and Scottish tales told once upon a time and told today as well, but not just bards and storytellers, but by people - Gaelic-speaking citizens of the world in general and Scotland specifically. Speaking and singing for them here are Isle of Lewis native Mairi Morrison and lowland favorite Alasdair Roberts, aided by a slew of Glasgow luminaries, two original tunes from Roberts and Morrison, and the devotion of Ceol's Craic. Understand? Urstan!
Zayna Jumma
Group Doueh's latest record is here and the plot continues to thicken! From the gorgeously cracked yet all-embracing opening drum roll of Zayna Jumma (the title track), it's evident this band is hell bent on redefining the sound of its influences and in turn, shape the future sound of its surroundings. It's musical alchemy in its purest, most remarkable form, pushing at the boundaries of geographical divergence while simultaneously speaking to the shared resonances between Western rock rhythms a…
Thunder
Stephan Micus is a unique musician and composer. He collects and studies instruments from all around the world and creates his own musical journeys with them. This is his 25th solo album for ECM and its sound is dominated by the four-metre long Tibetan dung chen trumpet, an instrument he has recently learned and is using for the first time. It was the thunderous sound of this instrument that led to the album’s name and its nine tracks celebrating deities around the world. “I dedicate this music …
Agua Larga: Traditional & Imaginary Cimarron Music
Agua Larga offers an immersion into the Afro-Ecuadorian culture of the province of Esmeraldas. The authors have captured how music is part of the daily life of the inhabitants, and how it interacts with the other sound elements that surround it. The musical material is thus accompanied by stories, poems and scenes of everyday life captured on the spot, far from aseptic studios, in public spaces, on river banks or by the sea. The guiding theme is water ("agua" in Spanish), in all its forms. It wa…
Kafilah Nights: Malay-Arabic Variations From 1960s Indonesia
In the early 1960s, two of the best talents in the Indonesian music scene, songwriter and band leader Adi Karso, known for his hits "Papaya Cha-Cha-Cha" and "Balonku" and Gambus musician Munif Bahasuan teamed up to form Orkes Melayu (Malay Orchestra) Kelana Ria. Between 1961 and 1964, Kelana Ria recorded 48 songs that were spread over four records, Kafilah, Yam El Shamah, Ya Mahmud, and Ya Hamidah, which become the primary sources for this compilation. These four albums changed the trajectory of…
Playing Guitar - The Easy Way
*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…
Winter Songs, Wedding Songs
Biggest Tip! ** 250 copies. Deluxe LP comes complete with a 20pp booklet * The long-anticipated LP of folk songs from Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region — one of the worst affected by Russia’s invasion. - The Black Sea folklore of Mykolaiv is a women’s history in song: neglected by folklorists and ethnologists for the area’s late settlement and mixed ethnic composition. This LP corrects that oversight.
Collected over the last decade by the young musician and ethnographer, Tetiano Chukno, these recording…
A New Directive From The Bureau of Compulsory Entertainment
Previously better known for his analogue electronic music productions as Automatic Tasty, Jonny Dillon’s debut acoustic LP ‘Songs For A One-String Guitar’ took the listening public by surprise and the critics by storm when it dropped out of the blue on All-City in 2019. It represented a departure for an artist who was renowned for having the Midas touch when it came to coaxing dance floor fire from all manner of hardware. But fortune favours the brave and temporarily setting the machinery aside …
L'Orchestre National Mauritanien
Lost recordings that defined the modern sound of the Sahara.This album contains the first recordings of modern music from the Sahara and mark the birth of the genre that is known in the West as "Desert Blues" or "Desert Rock". Ahl Nana changed the folk music of the Sahara to modern, cosmopolitan music by using Western instruments like the electric guitar. They paved the way for artists like Ali Farka Touré, Tinariwen, Mdou Moctar or Bombino. Although the group is still active today, they only re…
Sharav
*In process of stocking* Akuphone is proud to present the Jerusalem-based improvisational trio Leviot and its hypnotizing debut album. Leviot (Hebrew for “Lionesses”) is the brainchild of the multifaceted musician and composer Yael Lavie. She is accompanied by classically trained percussionist and music teacher Cnaan Canetti, and synth enthusiast Yishay Seroussi. The project is a result of Lavie’s explorations beyond the restraints of classical kanun and her fascination for electronic sounds and…
Sonatina For Maria
*2022 stock* Taking in a range of styles, the album illustrates Al-Munzer’s skill in composition and arrangement that saw him become one of the busiest arrangers of Lebanon’s 1980s pop scene. The record goes deeper into the Western rhythm Al-Munzer explored at the beginning of his career and brought to his Middle Eastern fusion productions, with the synthesizer still taking centre stage, and the electric guitar, bass and drums ever more present.
When Al-Munzer entered Copenhagen’s Sun Studio in …
Cycles
Edition of 50.* Hugjiltu plays the guitar with five strings. Not used to the standard chord-forms of Western guitar, he invented his own system of tuning, combining the three-string Mongolian lute and the two-string horsehead fiddle, both of which he started playing as a child. These five strings epitomise his relationship with the music from within the Mongolian ethnic tradition and with the music beyond, a state of artistic composure few in his generation have achieved. Hailing from a musical …
Dombra Solo
Tip! *In process of stocking* "This album has its genesis in a precious reel-to-reel tape recording which we discovered in a radio station. It is unfortunate that the tape itself does not contain information on the date of recording, which we roughly speculate to be around the late-1980s to the early-1990s. The recording in this album has two parts. The first is Daulet Halek’s interpretation of folk tunes from other ethnic minority groups, including the Tatars, the Mongols, the Sibe, and the Ky…
Region, Music, and Practice Vol.1
"It is not only an album, but also a complete documentary of an event. We combine cassette and CD into one album so that one may review the unusual art project from different aspects. It also includes a precious booklet about everything said on the talks. Each track in the album is heard for the first time. For the project, Lao Dan and Mamer created brand new works. Mamer even began a new band named Mask. One remarkable song that didn’t be recorded is Water Flows sang by Wu Tiao Ren’s Mao Tao in…
The Deconstructed Ego
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock. 2nd repress.* via Astigmatic Records: In Pakistan the interest in local traditional music is slowly dying. As western music and sounds are increasingly favoured, fewer musicians reach for traditional Hindi instruments, like the Sarangi, Cajon or Tabla. This a reflection of modern times, and the need for instant interaction and fast data exchange. Learning and mastering traditional Indian music is incredibly difficult and requires a lifetime of dedication. For…
And Then There Were Three
*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…
Night Spirit Masters
Remastered vinyl reissue of this 1990 Bill Laswell / Richard Horowitz production of local Gnawa musicians, recorded in the Medina of Marrakesh. According to Allmusic.com "a must for fans of both African and Middle Eastern music” and voted one of the "10 essential Gnawa albums” by Songlines. The Gnawa are an ethnic minorityin today’s Morocco, descendents of slaves from West Africa who were brought to Morocco in the 16th century and who (although they quickly converted to Islam) nevertheless broug…
The Middle East
The second and last chapter of Dr Miller's journey between cultures and its uses, which began with "The Far East", dissected and looked into the root of the sound of distant Asia, continues with this new chapter dedicated instead to the countries bathed by the Mediterranean and contiguous to Central European history. From Spain to Arabic sounds, a new compendium that takes us back to other places and times, Dr Miller is once again able to dissect andencapsulate sounds and spices from distant pla…
Indo-Arabic Variations
Tip! Unique fusion of the Indian and Egyptian music cultures devised by Baligh Hamdi, the most prominent of all modern composers in the Arab-speaking world. Hamdi, who penned dozens of hit compositions for Umm Kulthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Warda and Sabah amongst others, also shaped the future of Arabic music in a way that's difficult to overestimate.
Directed by Hamdi, the renowned Indian sitar player Magid Khan joins the Egyptian musicians of Abdel Halim Hafez's orchestra in re-reading some of H…