Voices: Ten Improvisations
This superb pairing of two top-flight improvisors reminds me of why I listen to this music. It’s not about ‘music’, it’s about sounds and their making. It’s a given that these two can really ‘play’. Joe McPhee established that in the immediate post-Coltrane era, and Heward – while I know little about him except that he’s also a visual artist who recorded a duo album on Avant with Steve Lacy – I’m sure he can really whack those tubs. The point, however, is that they don’t ‘just play’, they also l…
Live In Montreal
This live concert is perhaps one of the last recordings from soprano saxophone legend Steve Lacy. Lacy and percussionist John Heward first met in Paris in 1975. Though they remained in regular contact through the years, they did not actually play together until this concert in Montreal on 20 June 2003. Two months later Lacy was diagnosed with cancer, and died in June 2004.Lacy suggested to Heward that he wanted to end this improvisation with the motif Recessional for Oliver Johnson, as a tribute…
Songbirdsongs
Songbirdsongs is among John Luther Adams’ seminal works. This is the first time the cycle appears on CD. Although music has been written involving the sounds of birds for centuries, no composer has ever approached the concept in this way. Based on Adams’ observations and studies of actual bird songs, he scored them for various ensembles of piccolos, ocarinas, flutes and percussion. Rather than having a fixed score, each piece consists of a collection of unordered phrases for each instrument. T…
Electronic Works 2 - Hibiki Hana Ma; Polytope De Cluny
This volume collects two of Iannis Xenakis’ multi-channel works from the 1970s, along with a long-lost film soundtrack (on the DVD only). Restored from the best quality source materials. A new high-resolution transfer was created from the original analog master tape for Polytope De Cluny. Hibiki Hana Ma has been restored from the multi-track digital masters. (This is audio only on the DVD). Hibiki Hana Ma was created for the Expo 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan, where it was experienced by …
Entroterra
** Edition of 60 copies ** Granny Records presents Entroterra by Marco Paltrinieri. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Design & Artwork by Yorgos Vourlidas. Composed, Recorded and Mixed by Marco Paltrinieri. Voice and Words by Marco Paltrinieri.
Imaginary Borders
** Edition of 60 copies ** RETE is Vasilis Liolios and Savvas Metaxas. Analog modular synth, Percussion, Objects, Tapes, Prepared piano, Field recordings, Voice. Track A1-Berlikon (featuring Eleni Ikon). Words and Voice by Eleni Ikon. I am sitting in a room not that different from the one you are in now. In fact it is the same room. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice which is going to be played back into the room at another point in time. It is dark here, empty, silent. It occurs to m…
Bewilderment
** Edition of 60 copies ** Granny Records presents Bewilderment by Dominique Vaccaro. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Design & Artwork by Yorgos Vourlidas. Recorded, Edited and Mixed by Dominique Vaccaro.
Strange and Sacred Noise
** 2021 Stock ** John Luther Adams is an Alaskan composer. For Adams, Alaska is not a catalogue of ideas and sounds, instead, Alaska is a provocation. For all of its enormity, Alaska leans inward towards essential qualities and purified forces, and in Adams’ music we find this same sense of space and the same tendency inward towards the purified. His is an intimate and focused music that reverberates in a large place. Strange and Sacred Noise is a monumental work for percussion quartet in 9 move…
Un sisma mentre ci voltiamo di spalle
Union Editions presents Un sisma mentre ci voltiamo di spalle by Devi Tensione. Composed by Francesco Castrovilli. Additional production/arrangement by Lapo Sorride aka Kinked. Recorded between France, Turin, Bari. Mastered by Luciano Lamanna at Subsound Studio, Roma.
Notte di giorno
Union Editions presentes Notte di giorno by Balance. Written and performed by Luciano Lamanna & Davide Ricci. Mastered by Luciano Lamanna at Subsound Studio, Roma.
Neutral Love
** First pressing of 200 cassettes on Red Tint shells ** Amirtha Kidambi and Matteo Liberatore’s duo of voice and guitar creates improvised aural landscapes that are glacial and highly evocative, unfurling through dynamic gestures that are at once spacious and restrained. Juxtaposed against the frenetic pace characteristic of the New York improv scene, the pair applies the compositional aesthetics of Morton Feldman or Pauline Oliveros to a free environment. The project is set apart from Kidambi…
Grounded
** First pressing of 200 ** Astral Spirits presents Grounded by Aaron Novik. This album was made with the acoustic sounds of the clarinet, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet with minimal effects. It was recorded during lockdown in Elmhurst Queens, NY, April-May 2020. Mixed by Eli Crews at Spillway. Mastered by Jon Cohrs at Bear Call. Cover Art by Ariadna Garza.
Viandes
** First pressing of 200 on Green Foil cassette shells with artwork by Jaime Zuverza ** Astral Spirit presents Viandes by Stefano Leonardi & Antonio Bertoni. ll compositions by Antonio Bertoni and Stefano Leonardi. Recorded by Antonio Bertoni on October 26, 2018, live acoustic sound, no overdubs. Mixed and mastered by Antonio Bertoni. One of the best perspectives with which to savor human existence was provided by Jacques Attali, when he declared that the world should not be looked at or read, b…
Shadows of Tomorrow b/w The Brain Produces Electrical Waves
** First pressing of 350 with artwork by Jaime Zuverza ** Astral Spirit presents Shadows of Tomorrow b/w The Brain Produces Electrical Waves by Mats Gustafsson & Joachim Nordwall. Recorded in Nickelsdorf and Brännö in 2019-2020. Mixed by JN at the Gothenburg Sound Experiment.
Strange Fortune
** First pressing of 500 copies with artwork by the one and only Tiny Little Hammers ** "Underground music is filled with all kinds of characters, personalities, and peculiarities. Rare are the musical/artistic soul mates who have forged life, as well as creative, partnerships. Foundationally, the work of couples like Alice and John Coltrane or La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela set standards of artists who share a complete aesthetic worldview, in which the pair complement and lift each other to…
Phase Eclipse
Astral Spirit is excited to announce a vinyl reissue of this amazing debut! Long OOP and previously only available as a cassette! To celebrate the reissue, we have a very special bonus remix track from the one and only Jace Clayton aka DJ /rupture! The sequence of the vinyl album is slightly different, the track "Brood" is now a digital only bonus track and is not on the LP (for time purposes), but was originally on the cassette version. "Phase Eclipse is the debut of a duo featuring electronics…
Come Out From The Shadows 4 - Live At Lounge Ax Chicago 1993
* Limited Deluxe vinyl box with yellow vinyl and insert 299 copies only * This is the third and final installment from The Silverman’s cassette archive which had been gathering dust in a dark cupboard- and it’s a special one, especially for those who hold the “Shadow Weaver” and “Malachai” albums close to their hearts. It’s hard to downplay the importance of the show presented here. Four years earlier, in 1989, The Dots anxiously anticipated their first show in Chicago (a city they viewed as on…
De Mòrt Viva
Constructed like an invented tarot deck, De Mòrt Viva explores the idea of a contemporary paganism in ten jubilant, humorous and spiritual odes. The Auvergne Occitan imposes itself at the spittoon, deploying its metaphorical and polysemic network, with the particular candor of a newly acquired language. The melody is born from the word, the poem gives birth to the song, in a form that could recall from afar and without erudition, the trobar, the art of the troubadours. In this game-album each pi…
On No On
A CD of duo improvisations by two of Montreal’s great improvisors: bass clarinettist Lori Freedman and drummer/percussionist John Heward. The two have performed together in various ensembles over the years. Both have produced significant discographies. These unedited studio improvisations were recorded in Montreal in 2011. It is the third set of duos featuring John Heward on Mode/Avant. Cover art by John Heward. Liner note by Eric Lewis. Photos by Sylvia Safdie.Lori Freedman, b-flat & bass-clari…
10x3x1
** 2021 Stock. Edition of 150 ** Live three turntables mix using All Discrepant, Souk and Farsa Discos records between 2010-2020. Mixed, selected and recorded by Dj Marcelle / Another Nice Mess.