Music from United Kingdom

'John Butcher: tenor or soprano saxophones - plus feedback, motors, embedded harp speaker. Rhodri Davies: pedal harp, lever harp with embedded speaker and electric harp, aeolian electric harp. John Butcher is one of the leading sax players on the free improvisation scene. Rhodri Davies transcends conventional ideas about the harp--an instrument rarely associated with improvised music--in his wide-ranging projects. The two British musicians have worked together in a variety of contexts sin…

British free jazz phenomenon Evan Parker with electronic and tape noise artist John Wiese in a set of real-time evolving improvisations intended for maximum volume. Vinyl version of the CD released earlier this year, but slightly different containing all the final mixes and edits of the sessions with a new and more intense mastering for the maximum listening experience. C-Section finds density in scarcity - deep, glacial muck bubbles emerge beneath Parker's inhuman circular breathing, only to pl…

For fans of acoustic guitar music, James Blackshaw's The Cloud of Unknowing is a gift that's long overdue. Blackshaw's fourth album gracefully glides over the same sonic ground that his contemporaries generally tread with reverential obedience or dilettante tactics. Growing into his prodigious own at the relatively young age of 25, Blackshaw has finessed his 12-string acoustic guitar into a veritable solo symphony that's as schooled in uncommon beauty as it is in complex 20th century composition…

Originally released in a tiny pressing of just 200 CD-Rs by Digitalis Industries, this early James Blackshaw release is brought back in print by the Tompkins Square label, who on the back of last year's 'Cloud Of Unknowing' are intent upon reintroducing the guitarist' back-catalogue to his growing legion of fans (of whom there is almost certainly more than 200). 'Lost Prayers And Motionless Dances' is a single thirty-five minute composition, opening with droning harmonium passages and only…

With a mindblowing track gracing this weeks phenomenal ‘Gold Leaf Branches’ compilation, James Blackshaw's brilliant "Sunshrine" album is finally being made available on cd. At only 23 years of age, Blackshaw has already mustered up enough talent on the guitar to put many more renowned acts to shame. His gorgeous finger picked melodies on 12-string guitar are incredibly affecting and a stark contrast to the ragas and ragtimes of peer Jack Rose. Instead of concentrating on replicating a sp…

Another Tompkins Square reissue of early James Blackshaw material, and this is about as early as it gets: Celeste originally surfaced on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon a full five years ago and set the blueprint fr just about every solo recording he's made since. While the first part of the album finds Blackshaw in solo 12-string mode, the second deviates from the well-trodden Takoma-styled path and heads into an effects-laden drone composition. This sort of style-melding approach would come to…

It was once easy to think of James Blackshaw as an inheritor of the Takoma tradition, a school of searching acoustic guitar playing pioneered by John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Leo Kottke, and others in the 1960s. But listening to the English guitarist's new album, it's clear it's not that simple. While echoes of those three and some of their contemporaries are still present in Blackshaw's music, these days you can hear just as much Terry Riley and Philip Glass in his work. His synthesis of acoustic e…

Long-awaited gem featuring John Tilbury performing five solo piano compositions by little-recorded Fluxus minimalist Terry Jennings (1940-1981), followed by a forty-minute realization of John Cage's Electronic Music for Piano with Sebastian Lexer on electronics. Recorded in London, November 2007 and September 2009. Tilbury - best known for his membership in AMM and renowned for recordings of Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Morton Feldman, Howard Skempton and Christian Wolff - brings his unique sensibili…

The Smith Quartet with pianist John Tilbury perform two long works by Morton Feldman: "For John Cage" (1982) and "Piano and String Quartet" (1985) on DVD Audio. Several lifetimes ago, when I was nineteen, I was interviewed by Wilfrid Mellers for a place at York University. That I failed to win a place may have been due in part to the confinement of our discussions to the music of Morton Feldman. Wilfrid (a friend of Feldman's and, in later years, a friend of mine) saw Debussy as a powerful influ…

For his latest album, UK avant-folk maverick Richard Youngs seems to be converging on some of the most assured and firm-footed vocal work of his career to date, fashioning rock-solid songs from typically leftfield instrumental tactics. On 'Broke Up By Night', Youngs sounds like a gnarled old folkie of almost Ewan MacColl proportions, albeit accompanied by organ drone and wispy electronics. It's a rather magical, mantra-like cadence he elicits, and the album springboards nicely from this point. S…

Legendary guitarist derek bailey has plied his wholly original brand of free improvisation for over three decades. these live recordings of bailey's 1980 'accompaniment' to japanese dancer min tanaka, previously available only on a privately-released cassette, amply document bailey's command of a highly individualized atonal language. "rain dance" is the work of a remarkable ensemble: bailey's ringing tones, tanaka's percussive movements, rumbling thunder, a downpour, and the patter of rain drip…

Of Ruine Or Some Blazing Starre’ is the latest re-issue from Current 93’s highly impressive and startlingly diverse back catalogue.  Originally released in 1994, ‘Of Ruine..’ saw Tibet and his stripped back assemblage of musicians delivering an album that was awash with simplistic charm and character, yet was as deeply and emotionally charged as anything that had come before it.Aided by the ever-present Steve Stapleton, the multitalented Michael Cashmore, and Phoebe Cheshire who provided occasio…

"Remastered 2CD reissue of this NWW classic! Remastered by Andrew Liles and featuring expanded artwork by Babs Santini in a 6 panel digipack. The second disc features very rare tracks as well a previously unreleased material from the same era."

Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain is the long-awaited new album from Current 93 and their first album in three years, following on from their double-platinum-selling album Black Ships Ate The Sky, and is released on David Tibet's new label Coptic Cat.Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain is the most unique, most unpredictable and most powerful album yet from Current 93. David has brought together an amazing and bizarre array of talents from artists as varied as Nurse With Wound's Stapleton and Liles, ro…

United Jnana is pleased to reissue the debut album from Nurse With Wound, Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella, originally released on United Dairies in 1979. This special edition CD features a digipack with the original artwork restored and an expanded booklet with archival material chosen by Steven Stapleton. The disc has been remastered from the original analog tapes and features bonus material. Chance Meeting enjoys a reputation as one of the most singular…

Lol Coxhill (soprano sax), John Edwards (double bass) and Steve Noble (drums). Recorded London 11 January 2004 by Mick Ritchie at Barefoot Studios.

'Featuring Derek Bailey on electric guitar and Steve Noble on drums & cymbals. Recorded in a London studio in February of 1999 and not released until now.'

 Evan Parker is one of the world's greatest saxophone virtuosos, a revolutionary innovator who has almost single handedly changed the language of the instrument. House Full of Floors is the exciting follow up to his incredible studio composition Time Lapse, released to great acclaim on Tzadik in 2006. Working with three of London's most accomplished improvisers, Evan has fashioned a new world of sound in this exciting new recording. Radical soundscapes from one of the most important musical figu…

When UK-native James Blackshaw plays his 12-string, something spiritual takes place. This unassuming 23 year-old is transformed into a guitar god whose name belongs alongside the likes of Jack Rose, Steffen Basho-Junghans, and Glenn Jones. Making instrumental, solo, acoustic music that remains consistently interesting and moving is a difficult task. Yet, time after time, Blackshaw hits out of the park, constantly breaking boundaries in what could be conceived as a somewhat limited medium. O True…

Two behemoths of improvisation go head-to-head in the impressive surrounds of Abbey Road Studios for this eight-piece set. Celebrated Brit avant-garde saxophonist Evan Parker takes the lead here, and he doesn't half throw his entire bag of tricks at this one, firing off a vast repetoire of breath articulations while American free jazz figurehead Matthew Shipp does a tremendous job of matching his every move. The opening suite finds the two maestros sizing one another up, only to launch into full…