Bill Nace

Body/Head's Bill Nace on taishogoto and Purling Hiss' Mike Polizze on guitar in their first duo set, caught on a phone at Philadelphia's Pageant Soloveev in May 2025: twenty-three minutes of amplified free string playing on a one-sided LP.

"Historically, ensembles combining taishōgoto and bagpipes (at least inside the milieu of “jazz”) have been on the tame side. The Winkler Twins, Dagnabbit, CUZ and other such units pandered to the bowtie set so exclusively that many people have all but dismissed the instruments as hopelessly moldy or even (in the words of critic Milo Fine) “tools of fascism and complacency.” That said, it is my pleasure to announce that the duo of William “Bill” Nace and Dave “David” Watson has made a mighty eff…

Bill Nace turns a traditional two‑string instrument into a focused sound laboratory, contrasting a feedback‑touched, spiralling first side with a pared‑back, bodily repetition that slowly blooms into vast harmonic space.

150 copies only. French saxophonist Sakina Abdou and Philadelphia guitarist Bill Nace present Rinse Cycle, a striking first encounter between two of improvised music's most uncompromising voices. Released October 15, 2025 on Open Mouth Records, this LP captures the duo's incendiary exchange recorded during a U.S. tour that included performances at Philadelphia's legendary Solar Myth. Abdou, whose searing solo work Goodbye Ground (Relative Pitch, 2022) established her as a formidable presence in …

Tip on sleeves with matte varnish finish. Branches captures the electrifying first meeting of two uncompromising improvisers: Evan Parker, the legendary UK saxophonist and pioneer of multiphonic, trance-state improvisation, and Bill Nace, the American experimentalist known for his radical guitar and taishōgoto explorations. Recorded live at London’s Café OTO on May 25, 2024, this set documents the instant chemistry between two artists who had never played-or even met-before that night. Nace, clo…

Mayday is the third LP by Montreal-based artist, Myriam Gendron. It follows her earlier, critically acclaimed albums, Not So Deep As A Well (2014) and Ma délire –Songs of love, lost & found (2021). Prior to her debut album, Myriam's primary musical focus was busking in Paris Metro stations, performing the songs of Leonard Cohen and others, accompanying herself on guitar. Through her day job, working at a bookstore, Myriam discovered the poems of American writer, Dorothy Parker, who was better kn…

*115 copies limited edition* In conjunction with Bill Nace’s passing through Antwerp for his gig at 'Ultra Eczema’s Houten Kamer Muziek' (22/05/2024 at De Studio, with Soetkin Elbers), we are putting out a second volume of short, beautiful sound clips Nace records on a daily basis on an iPhone 8, either as  source/sketch ideas for duo collaboration with Diagram: A, sketches for solo releases or Full Size songs or just practice/random field recordings. None of these recordings were originally int…

Tip! *300 copies limited edition* "Before hitting the road together in 2022 Bill Nace and Emily Robb recorded a tour split — a cassette, limited run of 50 — only to be found at their merch table. Now on vinyl, the split captures a moment bursting with verdient, crisp anticipation. Both artists were then on the heels of significant artistic leaps. Robb was wrapping up the promotional cycle of her first full-length solo record, 2021’s How To Moonwalk, and Nace had recently shifted his focus from p…

*100 copies limited edition. Totally sold out at source. Housed in high quality card stock with art silk screened by Alan Sherry at SIWA Printing* Thurston Moore (guitar) Bill Nace (guitar) and Samara Lubelski (violin). Presenting a series of psychedelic textural works, Lubelski creating vibrant and reiterating structures that Nace uses as a foundation for swells and expressive emanations; hypnotic and mesmerizingArt by Spencer HerbstSilkscreen By SIWA prints

Tip! *300 copies limited edition* "Open Mouth LP At last! The long-promised duo LP by two undisputed masters of post-tongue instrumental gesticulation and invention. Augured by their eponymous 7” from 2019, Off Motion is a full-length exploration of the previously unknown aural destinations these two guys continually discover as they move beyond the borders of music-as-it-is-played. Often, when writing about music, it's possible to draw comparisons to players' stylistic relationships to what has…

Co-released in 2011, this 7" features alto saxophonist Paul Flaherty, a major American alto saxophonist active since the 1980s, and Bill Nace, head of Open Mouth, an experimental label in the same country. Includes two improvised tracks with alto and guitar, DL code included.

Using the looped-and-screwed methodology of Both, Nace takes a seismic step, building the process into a larger compositional process, employing guitar plus tapes, hurdy gurdy, doughnut pipe, quelle est belle and the nu Nace ax of choice, taishōgoto. Phrases talk to and obliterate each other, expanding and emerging into brave new unheard vistas.

This record is a head-on excavation of temporal fallibility, a collaboration between Kim Gordon(Sonic Youth, Body/Head, Free Kitten et al. and Bill Nace with Aaron Dilloway former member of Wolf Eyes or in innumerable other contexts.

* Edition of 300. Paste on covers/Inserts screened by Alan Sherry on Stoughton Tip-ons ** Solo Guitar 2 was recorded by Bill Nace in 2008, in a good-sounding room in Bennington, Vermont. This year the record, originally released as a now (nearly) extinct cassette, is reissued without it's mysterious and (maybe?) long-lost sibling Solo Guitar 1 (Like any good punk demo -- which, both aesthetically and energetically, Solo Guitar 2 is -- the thrill of discovery is made only sweeter by the potential…

**Clear LP lathe cut with hand silk-screened b-side came inside hand silk-screened jacket. Download code included. Edition of only 50 copies. with insert** This tidy quarter-hour release was recorded in January of 2017 at Electric Eye Records in Florence, Ma and consists of a layered, slowly evolving solo performance, heavy on bow work and disorienting pitch shift effects. It's a good example of the kind of diversity that Bill Nace is capable of in his art. The looping soundscape is difficult to…

**400 copies** Bill Nace and Graham Lambkin first played together in Fall 2018, in Kentucky, behind plastic. In that performance, they sometimes played the same instrument at the same time. Time passed, then they recorded this album in Fall 2019, in London. I was told that an acoustic guitar, a cymbal and tapes were used in the recording and I have no reason to doubt that. There are also voices, birds, a room, the outside world...; a bow is used. Bill & Graham both deal in different kinds of ten…

Tip! In process of stocking. With a requisite crackle, hum and drone, you're fixed to slide into the dis-rupture in stereo that is guitarist Bill Nace and - well, THIS is a nice surprise - Bill's got his own record out this time! Sweet - in the past 15 years or so, Bill's been a trusty improv partner to so many: Steve Baczkowski, Chris Corsano, Paul Flaherty, Greg Kelly, James Twig Harper, Samara Lubelski and Thurston Moore, plus Body/Head, to name but a handful. Bill's appeared on probably more…

**30 copies square lathe cut 7" records, in 3 color silk-screened pack with insert** Avant guitarists Bill Nace and Sandy Ewen join forces on this extremely limited release, offering two very dense improvised tracks which, as per title, were recorded live.

**200 copies** Already sold-out at the label, numbered edition in silkscreened covers by Alan Sherry. Personnel: Susan Alcorn - pedal steel; Chris Corsano - drums; Bill Nace - guitar. Recorded September 5. 2018 live at Rotunda Philadelphia, PA. 

My first listen to these four extraordinary pieces by Chris Corsano, Bill Nace, and Steve Baczkowski was over a very rough ferry crossing from Cairnryan to Belfast. It's hard not to think of the ghosts of impossible crossings, victories, loses, harbors in such rough waters. Why would anyone venture out here? Finding something new or an overdue visit? Ending all of the wars? For me, for my first listen to Mystic Beings instantly cured all motion sickness. It was probably just the very welcome adr…

sold out at source, Edition of 150. Cover art Bill Nace. Paste on covers screened by Alan Sherry. Mastered by Mark Alan Miller. Recorded live by Tim Barnes. Twig Harper--electronics, voice. Bill Nace--electric guitar, voice. .

sold out at source, edition of 250 copies, few copies available. "Gorgeously psychedelic debut LP by this new guitar/violin duo, created by two of the form's great maestros. Samara Lubelski and Bill Nace are both veterans of the American sub-underground. Between them they have many projects under many names on many labels. Most recently, however, the two have been focused on string-based duo aktion, Samara in cahoots with Marcia Bassett, and Bill with Kim Gordon in Body/Head. These two ens…

Wherein we come upon three visceralists who have been collaborating for years - innumerable instances in a roulette wheel of settings -- finally shacking up in a studio and fashioning a proper trio record. Glory be. Let's listen in-- 'These.' It's a phrase that never gets started, and an apt title for this record, which right off bolts from the barn and burns so brightly it nearly gets away from you by the time you're done twisting your head around looking for whoever it was that left the …

Fourth in Open Mouths's Live At ... series. Greg Kelley on trumpet; Bill Nace on electric guitar. Recorded March 9, 2016 by Daniel Menche. Cover art by Bill Nace. Covers screened by Alan Sherry. Edition of 300.

sold out at source, few available "At long last, this recording sees a proper release. There's a story: Initially, I released this as a cassette on my own label, Silver Lining. To be fair, you can hardly call it a label. I have no right releasing my own music, let alone anyone else's. I'm bad at manufacturing things, I'm bad at promoting them, and I'm especially dismal when it comes to packing things up and mailing them out. And so this cassette had a brief brush with public life and then vanish…

Recorded during a recent trek to the Pacific Northwest, this session is very damaged by the post-tongue explosive devices packed by each of the quartet's members. Skittering along the most devious edge of improvisational madness, Greg Kelley, Greg Campbell, Bill Nace and Mr. Shoup bring four chunks of deep underground moisture into the air for the first time. Let us make to examine them. 'Morning' greets the listener beneath a raucous grackle filled tree, mounting to a commuters' rage. The…

The trio of Chris Corsano (drums), Okkyung Lee (cello) and Bill Nace (guitar) performing live at John Zorn's NYC improv club The Stone in 2014, three free improvising titans of the modern age in a very limited LP

Dredd Foole, vocals, Paul Flaherty, horns, Steve Baczkowski, horns, Chris Corsano, drums, Bill Nace, electric guitar. 

Once again teaming up with Vampire Belt bod Bill Nace, improvisational grandmaster Paul Flaherty returns for this new LP, An Airless Field, which features Nace on guitar and Flaherty on tenor and alto sax. Nace opens the LP with a sustaining, steely effects-laden wash of noise, leaving a dark, almost industrial background for Flaherty to solo over. Much of the dynamic between the two seems to involve Nace laying down vibe-heavy atmospherics while Flaherty roams freely. The counterpoint…

Aka: the shape of (free) jazz to come. Bill Nace on electric guitar and Steve Baczowski on bass saxophone bless us with two sides of furious, raw improvised music. Their motto is easy to recognize from the beginning: total freedom, with instruments on fire moving along as if in the middle of a power electronics assault. Just a few seconds of silence, and then a small, delicate whistle starts, soon accompanied by a sinister percussive sound that introduces a sax / guitar dialogue which is …

Debut vinyl album by contemporary electric guitar wizard Bill Nace, ‘Too Dead for Dreaming’ begins in the form of a deconstructed blues piece, slowly exploring  the territories of atonal composition, string–scraping and feedback, crashing all these styles in an instinctive, personal way. His affiliations with X04, Northampton Wools and Vampire Belt converge here in a unique flux.  Bill’s ability in creating sounds, follows a clear logic of ‘construction of tension’ that eventually explodes…

Paul Flaherty has been a direct lifeline to the radical free-reed lineage of Albert Ayler, John Gilmore, Peter Brotzmann and Arthur Doyle since first coming into our vision sometime in the '80s. In the '90s he began woodshedding hard with Northampton, Massachusetts resident spirit-drummer Chris Corsano. As the contemporary free-noise-space-weird underground gathered around, minds were liberated to godhead heights. Also in the '90s a young and beautiful boy-man named Bill Nace was drawn to the re…