Music from China

Ambient and drone album by the Chinese sound artist Guofei (Oscpllex), from field recordings made in Venice during the 60th Biennale, in Milan and Florence, processed in Shanghai; 200 copies.

On Klotski, Lao Dan Quartet throws tenor, bamboo flute and suona into a Chicago crucible, where Mabel Kwan, Joshua Abrams and Michael Zerang keep reshaping time and texture until free jazz feels like a sliding puzzle in permanent motion.

*250 copies limited edition* Beijing-based electronics player Sun Yizhou is a representative of China's new generation of experimental musicians. In October 2025, during a visit to Berlin, he had the opportunity to make a recording with Berlin-based trumpet player Axel Dörner. With his groundbreaking playing techniques, Dörner has been a leading figure on the international improvised music scene since the 1990s. This CD contains three improvised duo pieces performed by Sun Yizhou and Axel Dörner…

Tip! *150 copies limited edition* Renowned experimental sound artists Yan Jun and Lionel Marchetti release Yongjin Park, a captivating immersive mesmerizing album of field recordings, electroacoustic improvisation, and raw sonic poetry. Yan Jun's minimalist precision meets Marchetti's masterful layering of concrete sounds, creating an album that blurs the line between environment and composition. It's a meditation on place, memory, and the invisible forces shaping our auditory world.

*250 copies limited edition* Three Chinese musicians performed at Ftarri, Tokyo, on January 2, 2024. Li Song is a computer programmer and musician who lives in London. Zhao Cong and Zhu Wenbo are experimental/improvisational musicians based in Beijing. This album is made up of two performances (each over 30 minutes): "The Invisible Tangerine," a duo by Zhao Cong and Li Song, and "Three Lines," a trio by Li Song, Zhao Cong and Zhu Wenbo. The compelling feature of "The Invisible Tangerine" is the …

Austere and uncanny, Old Tales Retold finds Yan Jun and Taku Unami delving into narrative fragmentation and acoustic twilight, constructing an album that feels less like a recounting and more like listening in on the pulse of folklore as it dissolves. Sonic atmosphere fractures as much as it reveals, leaving the listener suspended between recollection and anticipation.

Acclaimed jazz artists Lao Dan and Vasco Trilla join forces on New Species, an album that pushes the boundaries of modern jazz with inventive compositions and masterful improvisation. Blending elements of traditional jazz with contemporary influences, this collaboration offers a compelling journey through intricate melodies and dynamic rhythms. New Species showcases Dan Lao’s versatility on saxophone and woodwinds, paired with Vasco Trilla’s innovative approach to drums. Together, they create a …

Here is 'rely', a new album by Eric Wong & yan jun. They use voice, breath, sine tones and noise. For those of you who have attended one of their performances, or heard 'dichotomic language' the sounds may appear familiar, but to me the space and interplay between them on 'rely' feels very different. In March and April of this year I saw yan jun perform three times, for the first time, and it has changed how I hear the record. I was initially struck by how close everything sounded, and now I hav…

Comes with a 24 pp. booklet. In May 2014, Chinese experimental musician Yan Jun arrived in Montreal carrying little more than his voice, a few electronic devices, and a radical proposition: that the most profound music happens not in concert halls but in living rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. Montreal Spy Diary/Nothing/Living Room Tour Montreal, released by ORAL Records, documents this month-long residency that would redefine both performance and documentation in contemporary sound art. Yan Jun …

Lao Dan's innovative approach to music seamlessly intertwines elements of rock, free jazz, and noise with textures of Chinese folk music, creating a unique tapestry characterized by improvisational and aesthetic tension. His fearless transgression of genres, infusing Chinese folk-tinged free jazz with the raw energy of punk, results in a compelling and dynamic listening experience.

Mamer first became known as a dombra virtuoso and a modern master of Kazakh folk music. Over the years, he has evolved into a prolific and versatile artist, working across the boundaries of both tranditional and contemporary music. Mamer leads seven band projects: IZ, Bande, Mekrop, TAT, Mask, 51-Rayon, and Kunakar. He has released over 30 records, presenting a diversity of distinct styles including folk, ambient, industrial, noise, improvisation, and drone music.  “Every Mamer is brand new”. On…

"If you think that the constellation of Nicholas Bussmann, Sven-Åke Johansson and Yan Jun is a sort of dream lineup, you are not far off the mark. The joint improvisations that you hear on tea time capture a sound that once came to Bussmann in a dream and that he made a reality with the help of his fellow musicians. The trio recorded the five pieces across two days at Johansson’s SÅJ studio with engineer Andrew Levine, working with Bussmann’s curious piano robot while Johansson was on percussion…

*200 copies limited edition* Tom Soloveitzik is a sound artist, composer, improviser and sax player from Tel Aviv, Israel. From 2022 to 2024, he lived in Tokyo and performed with many Tokyo-based musicians. From late March to early April 2024, Soloveitzik toured in Beijing and Shanghai, and on March 31 he carried out a recording session with the up-and-coming young electronics player and improviser Sun Yizhou, who is based in Beijing. This CD contains three performances from that session. (The f…

*200 copies limited edition* Jun-Y Ciao (born in 1978 in Shanghai) is a musician whose main instruments are sax and clarinet. Having studied in Dusseldorf and Mainz, Germany, in the second half of the 2000s, he is currently based in Shanghai and Dusseldorf. He has numerous releases on Zhu Wenbo's cassette label Zoomin' Night. Beijing-based Zhu Wenbo is known both for his own performance activities and for running Zoomin' Night, which plans events and releases cassettes. A musician with many conn…

2025 stock After his self imposed exile from the global world music niche, Mamer found his stage at Shenzhen’s two annual music festivals – Tomorrow Festival and OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival – curated by his loyal friend and supporter Tu Fei, who would always reserve at least one set for Mamer’s newest sonic experimentations. Mamer’s most recent album Faintish Radiation documents his full performances of solo improvisation at the seventh (2017) and eighth (2018) OCT-LOFT Jazz Festivals, in which he pe…

*60 copies limited edition* In mid-December 2021, Mamer flew from Ürümqi to Shenzhen to play a few booked gigs. Afterwards, he decided to stay on for a marathon music residency at the Old Heaven bookstore. From Dec 13 to 27, Mamer performed 14 concerts in 15 days, unreservedly presenting his vast creative world to a small but dedicated audience, who followed him throughout this journey. These performances were announced on each day with a theme decided often last minute, free admission offered. …

Live recording from Mamer's solo performance 'The Imitator Series Ⅷ: Dirty' on June 25, 2024 at Old Heaven Books.

Track A1, B3 and B4 are original compositions by Mamer, track B1 is composed by Ashim Dongxeuly, track B5 is a Tatar traditional folk tune, the rest are based on Kazakh traditional folk tunes. Live recording from Mamer's solo performance 'The Imitator Series Ⅵ: Sky' on June 19, 2024 at Old Heaven Books.

Live recording from Mamer's solo performance 'The Imitator Series V: Underground Factory' on June 18, 2024 at Old Heaven Books.

Live recording from Mamer's solo performance 'The Imitator Series Ⅺ: Fake Jazz' on July 3, 2024 at Old Heaven Books.

"We use the same method of what we did on Responses (Zappak, 2022): being in a place for a whole afternoon, but not playing together. We took turns on recording solo piece, and each session was a responses to the former one. Even the length was same with the former album (each one 7 minute). Only one difference: on this time we played outside but last time we played in room. There were lots of limitations from the lack of alternation electric power (and also the hot temperature and mosquito). Bu…

*100 copies limited edition* Electroacoustic improvvisation between: Alto Saxophone, Voice – Jun-Y CiaoElectronics, Voice – Yan JunViolin – Matthias Kaiser  recorded in 2017, Cologne

*150 copies limited edition* sub jam is proud to announce the release of sun yizhou's new solo album "missing", his most hardcore dry and calm opporation on insignificant sound to date. sun yizhou (born in 2000, beijing) is one of the volunteered unpopular musicians who focus on a world with less (or, no) humanity influences, with full of human sensitivity and curiosity. he works with small machinese. sometimes broken ones and sometimes his body as a machine. he runs aloe records with zhang cai.…

*200 copies limited edition* Beijing-based Sun Yizhou (born in 2000) represents the young generation of artists on the Beijing improvised/experimental music scene established by Yan Jun, Zhu Wenbo, and others. He also runs a label and organizes events. Using electronics, Sun produces unexpected sounds through unconventional operations, nonetheless creating works with splendid overall structure. On July 3, 2023, Sun Yizhou gave a solo concert at Ftarri, Tokyo. It was such a great performance that…

Graveyard Processions is the first joint recording by Kai Fagaschinski and Yan Jun. The Berlin-based clarinettist and the sound artist and vocalist from Beijing blur the lines between improvisation on the one hand and record production as well as composition-after-the-fact on the other. The four pieces on »Graveyard Processions« work primarily with Jun’s voice and Fagaschinski’s playing and also add a plethora of other sounds to dizzying effect. This is the sound of two prolific artists—the form…

"Guibog is French, born in the 70s. He used to work as a sound engineer in France, and was involved in organising outdoor electronic music events, often playing cat-and-mouse with the police. Later, he left that life and moved to China, settling in Beijing. He works as a programmer at Douban, living with his wife and three children in the hutongs of Beijing.    Many years ago, I visited him at his house, where I discovered his robot collection. He had collected the circuit boards from discarded …

Tip! *2024 stock. 300 copies limited edition. 180g black vinyl. 390g paper folder. with obi. 4 page booklet in chinese and english. The cover Art is an oil painting by the famous Chinese contemporary artist Wang Guangle*  Two Other Comrades + Yan Jun "Nanjing Live" Produced by Godstalker Music: Two Other Comrades + Yan JunHuan Qing: Kalimba (Thumb Piano), Mouth ChordsGuitar Effects, Field Recording, MixerChen Zhipeng: TambourineYan Jun: samples, electronics, field recordings Recorded by Huan Qin…

The duo of Yan Jun and Eric Wong focus on the temporal and spatial interplay of organic and digital sound. Using human voice, sine waves, and white noise as their instruments, the musicians modulate the sound sources to bring out resonance as well as to create sonic movements that blurs the borders among the sonic events. Eric says “When I perform with Yan Jun, I swing my arm holding a Bluetooth speaker as he filters his voice by moving his head and body. I remember I did it for the first time w…

yan jun: voiceaxel dörner: trumpet recorded 3rd of january 2017 in berlinmixed by yan junmastered by axel dörner sind

*2024 stock* "leg shaking is not an easy action. or better say "non-action" as it's about moving unconsciously and always meaning negative. yes it's not easy to be unconscious and negative while the body was controlled by such a social agency, i.e. the body itself. i mean there is no naked body left. there is only the built body. so does the language. basically i think language is something generated by a body and through this body to its outer environment. the body is an energy transformer and …

*2024 stock* "This is a work for the art exhibition "36 Degrees North" opening in September 2021 at Space 1302 in Lanzhou. It was released as a cd with the album. These three pieces are improvised electronic music. The instrument used is a circuit board the size of a mahjong tile. It was originally used as a miniature microphone amplifier, and I touched it with my hand to short-circuit it and make it sound. The first and third songs were of equal length, while the structures were completely diff…

Tip! In "Handle, Nail and Rubber Dinosaur", Jun-Y Ciao plays soprano saxophone and Zhu Wenbo plays clarinet. Before recording there was very little pre-planning, the only decision was that they each play a few short passages. They recorded a single take, during which there were some naturally occurring pauses and breaks – these make up the first 13 tracks of the album. After that they decided to make another recording with a more defined limitation: they maintain fixed fingerings, limiting the s…

From September 1 to September 9, 2023, Li Song, Zhao Cong and Zhu Wenbo went on a South China tour together. They performed 8 shows in four cities, and almost every show was different. In two of these venues, they gave very unique trio performances. This album features these live recordings. At E^dge 一脊 in Wuhan (September 6th) they used the "3 lines" feedback system developed by Zhu Wenbo using transducers, elastic ropes and other objects (foil, paper...). They performed in a small alley in fro…

*40 copies limited edition* Hiroyuki Ura currently performs as a solo (composition & improvisation) and in collaboration with various artists both Japanese and foreign. Zhu Wenbo is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who is dedicated to "music that doesn't sound like music". and he has released「Four Lines and Improvisation」on Aloe Records. Hiroyuki Ura and Zhu Wenbo collaborate across Tokyo and Beijing. This is a new album by the two musicians, who have been exchanging recordings and re-creati…

*2024 stock. 50 copies limited edition* Alone Series 001 is absolutely delighted to release a new album by Beijing, China-based musician Zhu Wenbo, entitled "Four Lines and Improvisation", recorded in August 2022. Zhu Wenbo is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who is dedicated to "music that doesn't sound like music". He also runs the label Zoomin’ Night. The album contains two tracks: ”Four Lines”(A-side) and “Improvisation”(B), released in one limited edition cassette. Both tracks naturally…

This album was recorded at Liu Ying Studio in Shenzhen. An improvised session on acoustic guitar from start to finish, it nonetheless demonstrates a highly original, coherent artistic conception: a distinct “Oriental” aesthetic redefined by Mamer’s own creative vision. In tracks like “Sleepless”, “Man from the East”, and “Backyard”, Mamer ingeniously deconstructs and deploys traditional Han Chinese music scales to serve his own purpose, adding artful ambivalence and rich subtleties to an unmista…

*2024 stock* This series of reel-to-reel tape recordings, to be jointly released by Old Heaven Books and Liu Ying Studio, aims to offer to our listeners the best quality of sound we can achieve so far. Whilst a small part of these releases come from historical archives, the majority are freshly made by musicians we invite to our studio. We record these studio sessions − some of which free-improvised, others more composition-based − on reel-to-reel tapes. With high-quality studio equipment, we ma…

*2024 stock* "On the night of December 18, 2021, Mamer and his newly formed psychedelic folk band Mask were about to record a live album at Shenzhen B10 Live, a few audiences were invited. Before the recording, Mamer improvised on sherter for nearly 40 minutes. This album was therefore born. Xêrtêrmin / Sherter Solo may be, or should be the world’s first sherter solo album—although we don’t want to overemphasize it for the sake of sales. Most of the time, this ancient Kazakh instrument is used a…

*2024 stock* "This is one of the many solo albums that Mamer completed in 2013. At that time Mamer's desire to create erupted like a volcano. I remember that bookstores had just released his solo albums "Stars" and "Cycles", as well as IZ's "Echoes"; many fans were slowly accepting music like IZ's "Shadows", and some people started to talk about the expansion and "revolutionization" of folk instrumentation on "Stars", while Mamer was already immersed in another world.  One day he handed me a bun…

*100 copies limited edition* "Magnet Blues" presents Zhu Wenbo and Zhu Songjie’s unique and utterly bizarre take on American blues, as if filtered through layered variations of darkness. Throughout the recording, we hear barely audible vocals, minimalist, smart, and subtle guitar work, and the folkish atmosphere of what sounds like distant train activity and dying radios. Instrumentation is notable here: Songjie uses the peculiar Casio EG-5 electric guitar, with a built-in cassette deck, while a…