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New Masada Quartet
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* The long awaited first recording by John Zorn’s newest and most exciting ensemble, the New Masada Quartet. Performing eight classic compositions from the Masada songbooks, NMQ is a tight unit of like-minded virtuosi and one of the best groups Zorn has ever had. Bristling hot guitar master Julian Lage, bass wizard Jorge Roeder and 30-year Zorn veteran Kenny Wollesen perform with a crackling live energy that brings the Masada music to life like never before! L…
Soul Eyes
Piano/trumpet duets already carry their own dose of intimacy. Crystal and brass, woodwind and breath, there are many precedents in the history of our music, starting with Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor, two tender departed we spoke of a short while ago. This is exactly what Bernard Aimé explains in the liner notes to Soul Eyes, the new release from Jean-Marc Foussat's Fou Records label, which of course features a pianist and a trumpeter. The pairing is unprecedented, at least on record: Cécile C…
Ephimeral
SOFA is proud to have discovered a great jewel in Spanish music. The Madrid based soundartist and composer Miguel Angel Tolosa has during the last five years become a special member of the SOFA family, having contributed on several SOFA albums both as an artist and as a recording and mastering engineer. Now, on "Ephimeral" we hear him all alone. Tolosa says about his music that it's not meant to convey extramusical contents, such as philosophical or religious ideas, political propaganda or adver…
Mille Feuille
Mille Feuille was recorded during three days at Flerbruket, an old school builiding at Hemnes which now is a workplace for artists of all sorts. OWL (Signe Emmeluth & Karl Bjorå) worked here together with sound technician Magnus Nergaard with recordings that later would turn into the duo’s debut album. The music is the result of a couple of years working with different ideas of improvisation and composition. Both musicians have their opinions on how much or little control you bring into the musi…
Shapes & Phases
shapes & phases is the debut release of the duo vertex, consisting of Petter Vågan (lapsteel, acoustic guitar, electronics) and Tor Haugerud (percussion, signal generator, field recordings). Together they have delved into their own blend of electro-acoustic improvisation, with elements ranging from lowercase electronic drones, via country/folk-influenced minimalism, to distorted industrial walls of sound. Vertex manage to move between these diverse sources without losing touch of their own sound…
Matita Emostatica
'Matita Emostatica' is the re-issue of a sought after compilation connecting the most underrated outsider artists of the Milan scene, in the early eighties. The amazing artwork is the creation of influential designer and photographer Roberto Masotti, a very well known figure in the avantgarde and jazz realm (he made astonishing portraits for the likes of Anthony Braxton, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Carla Bley, etc.) The compilation was produced in 1981 by Al Aprile and released by Materiali Son…
Milano Undiscovered - Early 80s Electronic Disco Experiments
In the early 80's future producers began to veer towards a form of dance music not yet defined, what once seemed like an experimental form, today sounds like a cornerstone for future development in the club scene of key city as Berlin, Paris, Stockholm and Amsterdam. Italo disco was first mistreated, then exalted, forgotten and rediscovered a thousand times and today it is one of the most respected genres in club music. Fred Ventura, musician and producer - here curator of the compilation - has…
Super America
*2024 repress* Remastered edition of Janko Nilovic's album Super America, originally released in 1976. Janko Nilovic was one of the greatest European studio talents in the '70s. He is a musician who devotes himself to music, which resulted in a great number of published works, but most of them are on library labels not available for sale. His oeuvre stretches from classical, jazz and funk to pop, psych and easy listening. Sampled many times by hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, Dafuniks and Guts.
"I…
The Devil Rides Out - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
*2024 stock* 1"‘The Devil Rides Out’ is a 1968 Hammer horror film. The score, by James Bernard, perfectly amplifies the film’s scary nature, moving from sparse string and woodwind arrangements, emphasising the creepy bits, to full on orchestral power to aid the film’s more dramatic, edge-of-the-seat moments." - normanrecords.com
Avatar Blue Vol.2
Spencer Clark is back with Vol.2 of his eco-friendly extravaganza Avatar Blue. It’s life on earth as you never heard it. The story goes like this: Spencer Clark wanted to do a soundtrack for the yet to be made Avatar 2. And if you know Spencer’s work, you’ll know that he engaged on this mission reading material that influenced the rich and crazy imaginary world of Avatar. If you think about it a little bit, something like Avatar could have really come out from the mind of Spencer Clark. But it d…
Negative Tongue
Reissue of the double cassette releases in 2010 on Second Sleep, by the duo of Matteo Castro and Riccardo Mazza. Hailing from the farthest North-East glacial tip of Italy, Lettera 22 utilize elements of musique concrete sound sources, delicately sampled, looped and edited; here is a heavy focus on textures and harsh noise with bouts of restraint and full assault, as usual via analogue tapes manipulation and feedback.
The Dream
2024 stock. That’s right, Carter plays piano on this date! It’s the first thing heard as this disc kicks immediately into definite but mature overdrive. It’s a blast to hear William Parker, bassist for Cecil Taylor’s much-lauded Feel Trio, free-walking under Carter’s percussive attacks, certainly indebted to Taylor but even more pointalistic. The case is made on “Zero Softly”, a spare minimalist musing where notes hang in the air like galaxies only to fade beneath Federico Ughi’s carpet of brush…
The Gowanus Recordings
*2024 stock* This eclectic group features the legendary multi instrumentalist Daniel Carter as well as the scientist/pianist Matthew Putman, drum wizard and 577 Records co-founder Federico Ughi, together with the brilliant up-and-coming member of the New York downtown scene, Texas-born clarinet player Patrick Holmes plus veteran bassist Hilliard Greene, a mainstay of the avant-garde for the last 20 years.
Telepathic Mysteries Vol. 1
2024 stock. The Telepathic Band is named after the sort of improvisational style that can only be accomplished with a decade or two of collaboration, playing a signature ghostly, boundary-pushing music between friends. In their fourth album, Daniel Carter, Patrick Holmes, Matthew Putman, Hilliard Greene, and Federico Ughi exemplify the possibilities of in-person improvisation, offering extemporized performances with their characteristically daring instrumentation. Telepathic Mysteries, Vol. 1 ma…
Whoadie
An out of tune piano inspired the creation of this album.
Electric Telepathy Vol. 1
“A blissfully ecstatic sprawl of spiritual-jazz explorations of the most transcendent order” – Brooklyn Rail
The Art of Not Playing
Master pianist, New York-based, originally from Argentina, Leo Genovese, just won a grammy as a ‘Best Improvised Jazz Solo’ - an award considered by many as ‘mainstream’. This certainly did not stop his creative path, only to encourage him towards further researching creative music. His debut album ‘The Art of Not Playing’ with fellow musicians John Lockwood on bass and drummer Nat Mugavero proves it. The trio celebrates the practice of disappearing during the process of creating. Trusting the ‘…
Prophecies Come To Pass
*2024 stock* "Prophecies Come to Pass is the debut recording of Sabir Mateen's compositions by his group The Shapes, Textures, and Sound Ensemble. Recorded live in Brooklyn in September 2005, the CD was edited by Mateen and Swell and mastered under Mateen's direction. It's dedicated to the late great Raphe Malik, who at one time played with the group. The ensemble is composed of an impressive roster of creative musicians: Mateen on saxophones, flute, and clarinets; Matt Lavelle on trumpet, fluge…
Causa y Efecto Vol. 1
The world is more elusive than simple cause and effect imply, more typically, life circumvents causation in favor of an unknowable correlation. It seems like the more we know, the less we know. On this first volume from Zoh Amba and Francisco Mela, the duo brings their regional traditions, from Tennessee and Cuba respectively, and musical inclinations to the cause and effect behind their own life stories. Causa y Efecto, Vol. 1 is an ode to the unknown, transporting audiences between the New Yor…
Unity
2024 stock. After decades of collaboration, scores of musical projects and 28 releases, old friends and professional musicians might find themselves searching for either novelty or a return to the foundations. In the case of UK-based saxophonist Paul Dunmall and UK-based drummer Mark Sanders, it was both. The two musicians have had prolific careers—and made much of their work together—but in a recent phone call, they realized that they had never created a project that featured just their preferr…