Cement Shoes
Independent / Interdependent
On Independent / Interdependent, Savina Yannatou, Gonçalo Almeida and Costis Drygianakis turn a live trio into a dark, hovering organism, where voice, double bass and electronics circle each other in tense, shifting proximity, testing how far independence can stretch without breaking connection.
Hypomaniac
This is the debut album from that modern free jazz impro trio. Hypomaniac recorded on March 15th 2025 at Thessaloniki-Greece during ''Take 2'' festival organized by defkaz records and Mikri Skini venue. The end result is absolutely fascinating, bringing a fantastic journey that is hypnotic and build up like a sonic storm setting the house on fire. The interplay between the trio sounds organic, flowing and inventive, despite their different approaches. Collective chaos but always grooving very ha…
Giovanni Di Domenico, Akira Sakata, Paal Nilssen-Love, Giotis Damianidis, Aleksandar Škorić, Petros Damianidis, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto
HyperentasisHyperentasis is a double LP celebrating the unique connection between legendary saxophonist Akira Sakata and the city of Thessaloniki. Home to Defkaz Records and the birthplace of the Damianidis brothers, Thessaloniki has welcomed Sakata countless times. This release captures two of his landmark performances as a bandleader in the city. The first LP features the group Entasis with Giovanni Di Domenico (upright piano), Giotis Damianidis (electric guitar), Petros Damianidis (double bass), and Alek…
Ethereal Chant
The Lava Quartet—Berlin to Portugal—unites for free improvisation, blending creativity and extended techniques. Their debut album, "Ethereal Chant," showcases boundary-breaking, unpredictable soundscapes.
Edge Runner - Noema
Giovanni Di Domenico as a master of his instruments produces bulky sound rugged and dark atmospheres but also plainly beautiful through stark contrasts. Improvisation is therefore more as a state than an outline or shape, the timbre is the actual carrier of the form, drone is the crucial element. Edge Runner is sophisticated, refined even, balanced despite its obvious unwillingness to compromise, carefully crafted regardless of the mad surface structure. Noema consists of a live recording of an …
Eventual
*Lathe Cut, Limited Edition, 66 copies. clear, 180g vinyl* 'Eventual' is the first album by double bass player Gonçalo Almeida and 'knob twidler' Rutger Zuydervelt. It's not exactly their first collaboration though, having released two EPs, 'Doze Ruinas' and 'Jangadas', and being colleagues in Hydra Ensemble (with cellists Lucija Gregov and Nina Hitz). When film maker Lex Reitsma commissioned Rutger Zuydervelt for the soundtrack of his documentary about photographer Koos Breukel, Zuydervelt prop…
Padre, fammi partire! (a tribute to Franco Battiato)
“Padre, fammi partire!” (Father, make me leave!). Franco Battiato, orphan of a father, sings this verse in "Da Orienta a Occidente". He declaims it solemnly and decisively. More than a request for a blessing, it is a declaration of intent. The force with which this prayer is recited admits of no weakness, no compromise and no obstacle. To leave is necessary. The volcano is there, showing the way. The power of this phrase reflects the impatience of a hawk that, tied to the arm of its falconer, wa…
Sakuraza
Modern Obscure Music presents "Sakuraza," a live album featuring Eiko Ishibashi (flute and electronics), Jim O'Rourke (electronics), Kei Matsumaru (alto saxophone), Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (drums), and Giovanni Di Domenico (piano). Recorded at the Sakuraza jazz club in Kofu, Japan, this dynamic and sophisticated performance blends jazz, electronic music, and pop elements.Giovanni Di Domenico, a frequent visitor to Japan, organized this June 2023 concert with long-time collaborators Ishibashi, O'Rourk…
Tidal Perspectives
Big Tip! Tidal Perspectives is an album by Giovanni Di Domenico, Pak Yan Lau, and John Also Bennett. Recorded across a single afternoon in Brussels, Belgium, the album’s four parts are a rippling alchemy of processed Rhodes piano, sizzling ceramics, and liquified bass flute, a rare meeting of three unique voices from the contemporary music landscape that manages to flow with the depth and effortless inevitability of the oceanic tides.
Giovanni Di Domenico, an accomplished composer and prolific …
Common Ground
Common Ground explores new sonic possibilities in a quintet format. There is dialogue and interaction in a searching mode, as the musicians are looking to find unity in language and sound within their different approaches and backgrounds. Intense and soft music at the same time. Contemporary, abstract, but also free and groovy.Emotions delivered with honesty and passion by José Lencastre on alto sax, Carlos Zíngaro on violin, Clara Lai on piano, Gonçalo Almeida on double bass, and Joāo Sousa on …
Branes
*150 copies limited edition* In 2010 Giovanni Di Domenico formed a band called “Mo(ve)ments Ensemble” and released a CD on Belgian independent label Spocus. The concept and repertoire of that band reflected Di Domenico’s love for subtle orchestration and chamber music sensibilities, the basic idea behind it being the dissertation of the organic elements that form the instruments involved (in that case the wood of the strings and clarinet) and the re-construction of them by means of musical ideas…
Smiles + Di Domenico, Bordin, Marogna
The two recent Castel Sotterra releases in a special discounted bundle
Jackie-O MotherfuckerSmiles
Recorded live on April 28, 2014 at Outside Inside Studio, Montebelluna. Alan Zignoto: bass. Dave Easlick: drums. Tom Greenwood: guitar, vocals. Jeffrey Alexander: synth, chalumeau. Michael Whittaker: saxophone, flute, trombone. Dave Siebert: violin, lap steel. Mixed and mastered by Matt Bordin. Photos by Lorenzo Ferraro.
Giovanni Di Domenico, Matteo Bordin, Riccardo MarognaDi Domenico, Bordin, Ma…
Di Domenico, Bordin, Marogna
** 200 copies. Includes four pictures by Matta Rosso printed on Favini Crush Mais paper ** Recorded on September 6, 2021 at Outside Inside Studio, Volpago del Montello. Giovanni Di Domenico: electric & acoustic piano, electronics, percussion. Riccardo Marogna: tenor saxophone, clarinet, live electronics, percussion. Matt Bordin: tape loops, synth, electronics, lap steel guitar, soprano sax, percussions. Mixed and mastered by Matt Bordin. Pictures by Marta Rosso.
Superlike
Giovanni Di Domenico has now achieved a personal and unmistakable style within contemporary minimalism. His music always expresses a state of concentration, of recollection and contemplation toward a focal node. Repetition is experienced as alchemical state, as truth contained in the small nuances of change, in a crescendo that never reaches a climax. The atmosphere is intuition and is made up of a few compositional touches. To compose is to make synthesis, to unearth purity, simplicity and exac…
Pray For Your Prey
Recording live on a rainy night at Brussels in October 2017 “Pray For Your Prey” will capture your attention with it’s s striking power. An eclectic mixture of noise, experimental, free jazz and improvised music blended exemplary together creating a volcanic atmosphere.
Alinea
"In the past two pandemic years we have experienced turmoil that has in a way redefined our relationship towards the human community as such. Our social skills and our ability to share the time and space with others have been seriously crippled, and in some instances made redundant. We have enclosed ourselves in safe spaces, usually in family units, stopped extensive travelling and meetings. The physicality of existence and of being with others changed to encompass different sanitary dispositive…
SuperDeluxe!
After nearly five years of silence, the all-star power trio of Giovanni Di Domenico, Jim O'Rourke, and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, working as Delivery Health, return with “SuperDeluxe!” a stunningly beautiful double LP of material, issued by Holidays Records. Encountering three of contemporary experimental music's most remarkable minds locked in the rigorous conversations of live improvisation, across four sides the trio darts and dodges across a startlingly range, never revealing what might come next, …
Immanent in Nervous Activity
** Edition of 400 copies. Printed in deep black and metallic silver on extra matt white heavy cardboard, includes black/silver limited "Zepelin" poster cm 30x90 ** Riding the razor’s edge between bristling electroacoustic wizardry and the constrained structures and harmonic interplay of musical minimalism, we’re thrilled to announce pre-orders for “Immanent in Nervous Activity”, Die Schachtel’s brand-new release from the creative partnership of Giovanni Di Domenico and Jim O’Rourke. Comprising …
Mokusatsu
** Gold tape Limited Edition to 90 numbered copies ** Matière Mémoire presents Mokusatsu by Giovanni Di Domenico and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto.