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The Intergalactic Thing
Killer a collection of rehearsals taped in the fall of 1969 at Ra's home studio in Philadelphia. The studio was also his home and the home of most of his Arkestra, here called the Astro- Ihnfinity Arkestra. The music here is meditative, soul nurturing medicine. Just about every musician from the Arkestra, even the renowned saxophonists John Gilmore and Marshall Allen, doubles on percussion. One might think, with a discography as extensive as the one Sun Ra boasts, that the scope of his work ha…
Chants Magnétiques
**Few copies back in stock, grey-area reissue of this mythical album** Of all the composers associated with the legendary Parisian electroacoustic studio Groupe De Recherches Musicales, Bernard Parmegiani has come to command the greatest respect and adoration. Though often overlooked until his later years, long resting in the shadow of his more famous peers - Pierre Schaeffer, Luc Ferrari, and Iannis Xenakis, his legacy now towers over the rest - the great master of his field. Parmegiani’s work …
I Piaceri Proibiti
**blue vinyl** A beautifully jazzy soundtrack from the great Piero Umiliani – one that features solo work by some of the key members of the Basso Valdambrini sextet! The style here is very much in the mode of the best jazz soundtracks used during the French new wave years – simple themes that burst out boldly, and allow plenty of space for jazz improvisation – often along highly rhythmic lines! The music would be very much at home in a Roger Vadim film – and includes plenty of trumpet and tenor …
Certain Blacks
The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s. The Art Ensemble is notable for its integration of musical styles spanning jazz's entire history and for their multi-instrumentalism, especially the use of what they termed “little instruments” in addition to the traditional jazz lineup; “little instruments” can include bicycle horns, bells, birthday party noisemakers, wind chimes, and a vast array of percussion instruments (including f…
Top Gear Live In London 1967-1969
These Soft Machine recordings for John Peel's Top Gear programme took place in December 1967 and June 1969 when the band was at the peak of their psychedelic revolution and during their first transition towards an unprecedented form of Psych Rock Jazz. These historical sessions, including a great version of Wyatt's masterpiece Moon in June, show the great potential of the band's early line ups featuring Hugh Hopper - bass, Kevin Ayers - vocals, guitar, bass, Robert Wyatt - vocals, drums and Mike…
What We Leave Behind: Jean-Luc Godard Archives - Remixes
In a fine tribute to the pivotal events of Mai ’68, Ricardo Villalobos, Jan Jelinek and Petre Inspirescu remix Soundwalk Collective’s collages of archival Jean-Luc Godard material in impressionistic ways for the ‘floor. Across the front, Ricardo V smears the smoky, jazz-wise source material of Death is the Enemy into a bustle of splayed drums and voices with a Gauloises-wisp quality, gradually resolving into a rolling momentum that melts out into a more fractious, psychedelic experience. On th…
Contours
Deluxe reissue, on Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, roduced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tape 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe gatefold packaging."A brilliant statement of modernist jazz from Sam Rivers – one of his groundbreaking early albums for Blue Note, and one of the most challenging sessions issued by the label during the 60s! The record's a real departure from Rivers' already-great Fuscia Swing Song – with tunes that go farther outside,…
The Irresistible Art Of Space Colonization And Its Mutation
Sigillum S, the Italian deranged explorers of unknown territories among extreme electronics, fringe acoustics and occultist noise, are back with a new album, the first one featuring the line-up of Eraldo Bernocchi, Paolo “NG5361” Bandera and Bruno Dorella.Since 1985, Sigillum S have been continuously developing their own special brand of post-industrial audio investigations, where theories lead trajectories and sound is employed as a tool for mapping of neglected areas of the subconscious: now,…
Mystery Movie
James Clarke’s Mystery Movie was released in 1974 as “modern, small group compositions in various moods. Ideally suited to the new Americanised style of T.V. and cinema film where music is used to create the mood and carry the action”. So this collection covers a lot of bases, but it does so brilliantly and has absolutely no right to be such a fantastic listen from start to finish. Mystery Movie is best known for the slick drum breaks underpinning the top-notch jazz-funk chase theme Car Patrol, …
Goodbye 20th Century
Goodbye 20th Century is a double album of covers of Avant-garde recordings by Sonic Youth and collaborators. SYR4 features works by avant-garde classical composers such as John Cage, Yoko Ono, Steve Reich, and Christian Wolff played by Sonic Youth along with several collaborators from the modern avant-garde music scene, such as Christian Marclay, William Winant, Wharton Tiers, Takehisa Kosugi and others. The album received mixed reviews, but most critics praised the group's efforts at popularizi…
J’accuse Ted Hughes
Another great installment in Sonic Youth's SYR series, this one features two engrossing, lengthy pieces : 'J'Accuse Ted Hughes' and 'Agnes B Musique'. The former was recorded at All Tomorrow's Parties 2001, when the band were premiering material from their NYC Ghosts & Flowers album, and takes the form of a ragged twenty-two minute noise jam featuring free association lyrics by Kim Gordon ("I sent my poem to Good Housekeeping. They paid me ten dollars" she imparts). Meanwhile, the more composed,…
Slaapkamers Met Slagroom
The Dutch title that literally translates to "Bedrooms with Whipped Cream" and harkens back to the band's experimental days. On three tracks spread over 28 minutes, Sonic Youth work out extended, hypnotic themes for non-existent psychological case studies. The title track, the longest of the three "songs" included here, opens with a swirl of sound before eventually settling into a 17 minute cavalcade of guitar effects overlaying a particularly "in-your-face" drum sound. The results are simultane…
Syr 5
The fifth release in Sonic Youth's SYR series doesn't even feature Sonic Youth at all, but rather an avant-garde power trio of SY bassist Kim Gordon, turntablist DJ Olive, and programming electro-goddess Ikue Mori. The music is ultra-abstract and mood-driven, filling the listening space with a dark ambience constructed by Olive's incredibly resonant choice of samples and Mori's carefully tweaked bleeps. Gordon predictably contributes with a dose of noise guitar, though the source of sounds on th…
Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedo
**2019 stock** In this first installment of acclaimed music writer David Toop's interdisciplinary and sweeping overview of free improvisation, Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom: Before 1970 introduces the philosophy and practice of improvisation (both musical and otherwise) within the historical context of the post-World War II era. Neither strictly chronological, or exclusively a history, Into the Maelstrom investigates a wide range of improvisational tendencies:…
Erwartung 1 und 2
Edition of 300. Second Editions present Erwartung 1 und 2 by Eva-Maria Houben. Eva-Maria Houben's music has somehow always been about perspective. These two new pieces, one for piano and one for organ, are once again prime examples. The title is borrowed from Arnold Schönberg's one-act monodrama Erwartung Op.17, in which a woman wanders through the night in search of her (dead) lover. According to Schönberg, his work aims "to represent in slow motion everything that occurs during a single second…
Grazie Zia
For the first time on LP, Maestro Morricone’s full score for the erotico-giallo « Grazie Zia », directed in 1968 by Savatore Samperi and starring italian actress Lisa Gastoni. On this unique soundtrack, the genius composer has created a magical and suspenseful atmosphere based on the recurrent use of the boy’s choir of Renata Cortiglioni including the killer theme «Guerra e pace, Pollo e Brace» with its funny rhyme and ferocious drums. The movie was “a strange horror tale, tinged with madness, a…
Folly Bololey (Songs From Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom)
**500 hand-numbered copies on audiophile dark blue coloured vinyl + bonus CD** Critically acclaimed as one of the best records ever, 1974 Robert Wyatt’s masterpiece has been re-arranged by Craig Fortnam for his amazing North Sea Radio Orchestra. Featuring long time Wyatt’s collaborator and Henry Cow founder John Greaves on bass guitar and vocals, and the amazing vocalist Annie Barbazza as lead singer, this is an hearfelt, fantastic tribute to Robert Wyatt’s music. "This concert is a beautiful e…
Two Solo Pieces
For his second album, Two Solo Pieces, Jon Gibson forgoes the dense, multi-layered timbres of Visitations in favor of simple textures and tone. While Two Solo Pieces serves up further evidence of Gibson's centrality to American minimalism – witness its inclusion in Alan Licht's famed Minimal Top Ten list – this profoundly intimate record also reveals the beauty of enclosed spaces and infinite harmonic vistas. As its unadorned title suggests, Two Solo Pieces consists of a pair of side-long track…
Anecdotal Electronics: Live Experiments & Other Recordings
Martin Bartlett was an inspiring and original thinker, composer, writer, performer, and organizer. His preoccupation with building aleatoric elements into electronic music distinguishes his work. He devised elegant and open interactions for instrumental performers and computer-controlled synthesizers which included building his own electronic devices and extensive work on the Buchla 400. He worked with or studied under Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, and David Tudor, and collaborated extensively wi…
Music For Cello
Phill Niblock's Music For Cello collects three pieces from the '70s and early '80s, performed by cellist David Gibson. This CD includes a 16-page unpublished interview with Niblock. Since the late sixties Phill Niblock has been composing long-form acoustic drones with a focus on the rhythms and overtones that rise from closely tuned instruments. His highly original and influential music is an exploration of timbre, microtonality, stability, duration and psychoacoustic phenomenon."3 To 7 - 196' i…