Music from United States

The definitive recording of Conlon Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano, originally released on LP by 1750 Arch Records, newly remastered in spectacular sound, representing the most faithful reproduction of what Nancarrow heard in his own studio. This is the only available recording utilizing Nancarrow’s original instruments: two 1927 Ampico player pianos, one with metal-covered felt hammers and the other with leather strips on the hammers. The 4-CD set includes a 52-page booklet with the origin…

The “Altar” album is NOT a split album. “Altar” is a collaboration album between sunn 0))) and boris that is a result of both bands conceptualizing, writing and recording the album together as one entity. Both groups have stepped outside their previous sounds and created a wholly unique album that stands on its own unique ground. There are elements of each groups trademark sound within the album but true to each groups progressive and experimental aspects, “Altar” moves into a completely new dim…

Intriguing new album from Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, aka Sunn0))). White 2 follows up the Julian Cope sponsored Volume 1, this time round featuring Attila Csihar (Mayhem, Tormentor, etc.) , Joe Preston (Thrones, ex-Melvins), Rex Ritter (Fontanelle) and Dawn Smithson. Sunn o))) is not your standard doom metal band ...taking influences from legends Earth, adding electronica (those of you who caught them at last year's Autechre curated ATP festival will know how intense this lot really are…

White 1 is the fourth album by Sunn O))). It was the most significant departure from their original style at the time it was released. Each track is experimental in its own way, with Julian Cope quoting bizarre self-written poetry for half of "My Wall", Norwegian lyrics sung by Runhild Gammelsæter of Thorr's Hammer as an intro to a drum machine and stoner metal bass riff in "The Gates of Ballard", and the drone track "A Shaving of the Horn that Speared You." The lyrics to "The Gates of Ballard" …

Seventy two minutes of bestial riffing and unholy drone. Very first recordings (circa 1998). Originally released via Hydra Head in edition of 700 in 2000. Bonus Track not on original release.

Limited edition of 300 copies in a heavy stock screen printed jacket. Numbered. A Zamuro is a dark South American vulture of great size. Zamuro is also a solo composition piece for portable synth and analog filter. Side A on this LP is a live realization of this piece recorded at the Compound in San Francisco in 2006 (Mastered by Lasse Marhaug). Carlos composed and performed this piece live on several tours in the US/Europe/Japan all trough out 2006 and 2007, if you saw him live in those two yea…

Twelve amazing songs recorded live in the Father House garage as a rehearsal for a live date that Spirit of '76 (aka YaHoWa 13, also now known as Children of the Sixth Root Race, Father Yod's "house band") had at the Whisky in the summer of 1973. It's still a mystery how a 1/4" tape copy of the recording was found in Chicago in 2006. Djin Aquarian, guitarist of Children of the Sixth Root Race and composer of all but one of the songs on the album, recalls being sent on a mission to Chicago later …

 Chicago pianist Sun Ra emerged as a leader on the jazz scene early in 1956, when he assembled a group of neo-boppers that contributed to the original and exciting jazz sound offered by his new Sun Ra Arkestra, a medium-sized group that swung like a giant locomotive, an effect primarily due to an interesting use of two basses playing simultaneously.They featured the power of big band ensemble along with the excitement of combo blowing by fine soloists, among them the driving tenor John Gilmore, …

One continuous track split into 11 parts. Acoustic-digital presentation recorded Colchester Arts Centre 17.10.2006. Final mix by Z'ev London 01.2008. Mastered at Piethopraxis, Köln 04.2008. Neither Z'ev or pita need any introduction in these circles. These two heavyweights of experimental music have been associates for two decades. Their creative collaboration came about after a meeting in 2004, which led to a monthly file exchange program in 2005. Instead of releasing results immediately it was…

Here is one of the most improbable lives of the 20th century: a blind and homeless man who became a famous eccentric in New York, and who rose to prominence as an internationally respected music presence. Born Louis Thomas Hardin in 1916, Moondog first made an impression in the late ’40s when his music was played by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. His unique, melodic compositions were released on the Prestige jazz label. In the late ’60s the Viking-garbed Moondog was a pop music sens…

This really is a treat, a re-issue of the incredibly rare debut LP from legendary blind outsider Moondog. Originally released back in 1956 on the musician's own Moondog Recordings imprint, this incredible album showcases the man at his way-out best, blending Eastern instruments and ethnic music with American exotica to come up with a sound which is impossible to categorise. A mostly self-taught musician, Moondog (real name Louis Thomas Hardin) performed in the streets of New York City for most o…

this rare 1955 set of recordings features the composer in collaboration with a brass section, although one of its defining aspects is the extensive influence of Native American musics on its rhythmic makeup. From the irrepressibly unconventional jibber-jabber of 'Rabbit Hop' to the tribal weirdness of 'Single Foot', this could only have come from the pen of Moondog. 'Dog Trot' is a more conventional swingtime piece, offering an oasis of accepted logic in an otherwise wildly outside-the-box set o…

re-released on its original label, Honest Jon's, with new and improved gatefold card wallet sleeve packaging. Poet, composer, street musician and cosmologist Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin, 1916-1999) learned rhythm from American Indians and counterpoint from J.S. Bach. Many of his recordings feature instruments he built himself: trimba, yukh, tuji, oo. Sometimes you can hear in the background the streets of New York, where Moondog often slept. In addition, he was blind, due to an accident when he…

A split release between Terry Riley and French avant-garde composer Pierre Marietan that was recorded in Paris on September 30th and October 1st, 1969. Riley's piece is a 24-minute work for 2 pianos (Gérard Frémy and Martine Joste of the GERM ensemble - Groupe d'Etude et Réalisation Musicale). Marieten's piece is performed by the full GERM ensemble including Philippe Blachette (violin), Philippe Drogoz (double bass), Louis Roquin (trumpet), Chantal Lemaire (cello), Gérard Frémy (piano), Martine …

Much of what was unique about the original Pink Floyd's sound - the use of echo and piercing organ for musical effect - is present here, Floyd fans take note. Wonder if Syd Barrett had been exposed to Sun Ra's music. "Cosmic Tones" sounds like a 20th Century space-inflected chamber music quite unlike jazz, though it contains elements of it. The music attempts to paint pictures in an abstract fashion unencumbered by notions of traditional musical form. Instruments enter, contribute to the picture…

a beautiful album, Riley composed the pieces on this album for the legendary ROVA Saxophone Quartet. The work is based on the Taín Bó Cuailnge ("The Cattle Raid of Cooley"), an invasion of Ulster by the armies of Medb and Ailill. Long out of print

this glistening, pulsating CD for No Man's Land soundtrack documents another stage in the flux of influence and invention that makes Riley's music. This album is much more closer to the 'real' minimalism, with Riley maily playing organ, but the tablas and sitar can be heard on almost every track, along with some voice and what sounds like electronically altered instruments. Few copies available, long out of print

Original limited edition 1996 7" EP in tri-fold sleeve - record is brown, slightly translucent virgin vinyl. Long out of print

For each ecstatic instant / We must an anguish pay / In keen and quivering ratio / To the ecstasy." It almost seems as if Emily Dickinson could have been describing the early piano music of Morton Feldman when she wrote those lines nearly one-hundred-and-fifty years ago. Certainly, the uncommonly short, acutely concentrated, unadorned and vulnerable pieces Feldman composed between 1950 and 1964 each span just an “ecstatic instant” — a brief, heightened experience measured not according to time b…

A selection of pieces by the great musical pioneer Robert ashley performed by the Dutch Ensemble MAE. Some of the works were especially written for the Ensemble in the last few years, and have never been recorded before, namely the title work 'Tap Dancing in the Sand' featuring ashley's voice and 'Hidden Similarites'. Other works presented on the CD are 'Outcome Inevitable', 'in memoriam Esteban Gomez' and 'She was a Visitor'.