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OG23
Ever unpredictable, Kevin Drumm this time takes the fellow time-traveller through what sounds like an electronic field recording, a journey through an electronic soundscape of luminescent textures that invites immersive listening.
Nodal excitation
"By the late '80s most of the burgeoning minimal underground had been forgotten, especially one amazing character, Arnold Dreyblatt. Dreyblatt only had one record, Nodal Excitation (on the mostly post-AACM jazz label India Navigation), before he packed and moved to Berlin, where he concentrated on his other activities, making only two more records over the next 10 years. But for those who caught the action, Arnold was the man. He was more rock that any of the others combined, and he was also the…
Troubadour
Just Restocked - Drag City presents the first official reissue of Dorothy Carter’s 1976 debut album, her folk-music exegesis: Troubadour. It’s been 20 years since Dorothy’s passing — but thanks to last year’s reissue of her second album, Waillee Waillee (1978), and this edition of Troubadour, her music is surging forward ever more powerfully. Today’s announcement comes with a visualizer for the first single, “The King of Glory”, a hypnotic hymn hammered by Dorothy evoking western medieval music.…
Simple Songs
"Yes, Simple Songs is an album of songs sung by Jim O'Rourke all the way through! It has been ten years since Jim's voice rang out from a new album. Ah, when James Michael was just a wee lad, he sang all the time, with a lovely little lilt to his voice, like all the children do. But the songs he sang gave his parents no end of consternation: 'Great Decei-verrr! Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines... of the Vir-gin Mar-eeee!' Aye, if only we'd-a been there -- little Jimmy's career would have started…
The Visitor
Breathing in, breathing out. Tide comes in, tide goes out. The sun rises and it also sets: beginnings and endings. These are the first impressions given by The Visitor: a build-up and break-down. One seamless, 38-minute piece of music that completely engages its listeners. An extremely thoughtful piece that even a year later, still retains all of the qualities it had upon first listen. This record made me realize the full potential music can have when someone who actually gives a damn does somet…
What We Have Known
2025 stock The b-side by Joanna Newsom of the now-distant (but still close) "Sprout and the Bean" single, pressed into its very own piece of vinyl with its very own etching on the other side and a Civil War-styled jacket designed just for the occasion. Buy it from us or from your favorite store, no one else allowed.
Bad Timing
2024 Repress. LP version, originally released 1997, the first Jim O'Rourke album for Drag City. "Make no mistake, Bad Timing is not a pop album by any standards. But it is a musing on popular standards and uses much of the same instrumentation that many of our country's most popular records have. Yes, Bad Timing is a theme record, Jim O'Rourke's pop opera, just waiting for someone to come along and play with it. Based on John Fahey-esque 6-string acoustic guitar foundations, each of the three pi…
Kohoutek
**2020 stock** This was the first spontaneous release that was made into a record, credited to Father Yod and The Spirit of '76. It came out in 1973, the year of Kohoutek, when the imminent arrival of the big comet spawned a new round of cosmic consciousness in the media and with people all over the planet. This was more than a comet, its radiance was enormous, it came from ancient times to be experienced again by the enlightened people of the day. The Source Family were alive with expectation a…
For Translucence
The debut album from Whitney Johnson & Lia Kohl has evolved over several years from their initial practice of free improvisation on viola and cello into (for the moment), this: a neophonic orchestral expression. At once stimulating and soothing, For Translucence is a living, breathing meditation in which layers of acoustic strings, synthesizers, field recordings, radio and sine waves illuminate each other as they twine and grow.
Hands That Bind (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for Hands That Bind, by Jim O'Rourke
Metaphor of Metamorphosis
*2023 stock. 200 copies limited edition* This is one in a trilogy of live recordings made at Ftarri, Tokyo, documenting some of guitarist/improviser Tetuzi Akiyama's outstanding performances of 2021. The CD releases feature covers drawn by artist Shigeo Mizuta. The two tracks on this CD, each around 25 minutes in length, were recorded at Akiyama's duo concert with electronics player Leo Okagawa at Ftarri on June 21, 2021. Okagawa is known for releases on overseas labels of many collage works usi…
La Montagne Change Le Paysage
*200 copies limited edition* British harpist and composer Rhodri Davies (born in 1971) is one of the leading musicians on the international improvised/experimental music scene today. Among his numerous CD releases are several from Ftarri labels, including two duo albums on Ftarri with John Butcher: "Carliol"(2010) and "Routing Lynn" (2014). Pierre Gerard (born in 1966) is a Belgian improviser and composer. Gerard plays a variety of instruments (guitar, piano, cello, electronics and more), select…
Roughly Random
*200 copies limited edition* Akira Sakata is a treasure of Japan’s free jazz/improvised music world. Rie Nakajima is a London-based sound artist with an international career in Europe and beyond. Sakata and Nakajima have performed together in Japan and other countries since the mid-2010s. When Nakajima came to Japan for a time in 2023, the two appeared at Ftarri, Tokyo, on December 4, performing two duo sets. Sakata, on alto sax and clarinet, forgoes ferocious sound-making and plays with calm el…
Another Souvenir: Solo Live in 2002
*200 copies limited edition* Kobe-based musician Haco is a vocalist and composer who also plays electronics, keyboard, guitar and percussion. Since she launched her musical activities in the early 1980s as a member of the band After Dinner, Haco has been a dazzling presence on the Japanese and international pop/rock/experimental music scenes through her work as solo artist and member of numerous bands as well as collaborations with many musicians.In spring 2002, Haco undertook her first North Am…
Hummingbird and Four Flowers: Turntable and Harmonium Solo Live
The year 2022 was the 10th anniversary of the opening of Ftarri’s physical store in Suidobashi, Tokyo. To mark this milestone, several solo concerts by musicians with whom Ftarri has had close ties since the time of its predecessor, Improvised Music From Japan, were held in the Ftarri store performance space in autumn 2022. The musician who performed on October 3 was Otomo Yoshihide. That day Otomo planned to play turntable only, but when he spotted the store’s harmonium, he had the idea of usin…
Rotating, Rotating
** 200 copies** Zhao Cong is a Beijing-based experimental and improvisational musician. In addition to performing in live events in Beijing such as Zooming' Night, organized by composer andperformer Zhu Wenbo, she has in recent years been expanding her range of activity, visiting Japan each year and performing in various locations around the country. She has also released solo and duo albums on Zhu Wenbo's cassette label, Zoomin' Night. This CD contains three solo tracks: tracks 1 and 2, each ab…
How Lonely Sits The City?
*2023 stock. 250 copies limited edition* Composer/improviser Magnus Granberg, who lives in Stockholm, has presented outstanding composed works through Skogen, the ensemble he directs, and experimental music ensembles, projects and labels from around the world. He has released three CDs on the Meenna label: "Whose Words?"(meenna-983 / 2017), documenting a trio improvisation performance with Tetuzi Akiyama and Henrik Olsson; and two albums titled "Come Down to Earth Where Sorrow Dwelleth" (meenna-…
But Everything Now Left Before It Arrived
*2023 stock. 300 copies limited edition* Guitarist John Russell, a leading figure on Britain's improvised music scene, passed away on January 19, 2021. Born in December 1954, Russell started performing improvised music in London in his late teens, and for many years he toured and gave concerts not only in the UK and Europe but throughout the world. Known as a Japanophile, Russell traveled to Japan for the first time in 2001, and subsequently visited the country many times, including as recently …
Forever Blowing Bubbles
*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 stock* "Forever Blowing Bubbles" is a progressive rock album by Clearlight, origianly released in 1975 on Virgin Records in the UK. After the success of "Clearlight Symphony," Cyrille Verdeaux was invited to record a follow-up. He decided to work with a full band, featuring musicians like bassist Joël Dugrenot and former King Crimson violinist David Cross. Recorded at Virgin's M…
Batelages
*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 stock* Ferdinand Richard, strings, vocals. Chris Chanet (alias Eulalie Ruynat), horns, vocals. Guigou 'Samba Scout' Chenevier, percussions, choir. A French avant-rock band founded in 1973 by actor and saxophonist Chris Chanet. They were best known as one of the original Rock in Opposition (RIO) bands. Etron Fou Leloublan's music has been described as a blend of punk rock, jazz, …