Folk & Traditional / All styles

"Širom fashion maximalist avant-garde soundscapes from antique acoustic instruments like the balafon and hurdy gurdy. Their artfully rootless roots music makes an impassioned statement both aesthetically and, more opaquely, politically too.” - Uncut …

*2024 stock* To launch Mr Bongo’s new Cuban Classic Series, we are thrilled to present this sought-after, psychedelic-funk masterpiece. A fusion of traditional Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms meets disco, jazz, and funk, with hints of 70s soundtrack pro…

New Music for the 6 String Guitar is the 7th studio album from Radnorshire based guitarist Toby Hay. His debut in 2017 ‘The Gathering’, and 2018’s, ‘The Longest Day’, were both nominated for the Welsh Music Prize. This new album is a follow up to 201…

To mark Nina Hagen's 70th birthday, Personal Jesus is being released for the first time on vinyl, including a bonus track – exactly fifteen years after its original release. The bonus track is titled "I Am Born To Preach The Gospel" and is a cover of…

Pandit Uday Bhawalkar is an Indian Hindustani vocalist. He is an exponent of the dhrupad genre. Uday Bhawalkar is a standard bearer for Dhrupad, and a strong force in its growing recognition and popularity. Uday believes that when immersed in the not…

Legendary Egyptian vocalist and cultural icon Umm Kulthum, revered worldwide as “the Voice of Egypt” and often described as “Egypt’s fourth pyramid,” remains one of the most powerful figures in music history. Originally released in 1961 on Parlophone…

In truth, singing is not all that different from acting. Performing a song is very similar to playing a role in a theatrical production. A singer's delivery — the way they interpret and emphasize certain parts of a song — is much like what an actor d…

We at EM Records love to transport our listeners to new worlds, other worlds; "Pantilde", this magical new album from Cornish avant-folk performance artist The Worm, is indeed an ethereal new world: otherworldly, but somehow rooted; an imaginary oral…

Re-pressing of Martin Carthy's debut album, originally released on Fontana in 1965 and re-issued by Topic in 1977. In the early 1960s, the approach Martin Carthy took to folk music was nothing short of revolutionary, albeit a relatively quiet revolut…

*2025 stock* Introducing 'A Path to Open Air II,' Tobias Wilden reimagines the tonal textures first shaped in his 2013 release, 'A Path to Open Air'. Diving further into his perceptions of nature and music, the album blends acoustic intimacy with amb…

CD reissue of the 1971 debut solo album from the former vocalist for the Zombies. One Year was co-produced by Blunstone's former Zombie colleagues Rod Argent and Chris White who also contributed three songs to the album. On the album, Blunstone is ba…

"David Nance’s doom spiral tour of the supermarket. The spectral glade fashioned by the Spatulas in “Heaving Chimes." The hazy, chattering, crypt-riot of Bruce Russell and Peter Wright’s Escalation. The warmth and momentum of Liam Grant’s barn dance.…

*Comes in a CD-sized papersleeve album replica (gatefold), with obi-strip and insert of notes mostly in Japanese..2024 stock* Third album released in 1969 by Pentangle, who led the British fark/trad scene with Fairport Convention. A historical master…

Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, is with his 80+ age one of the very few remaining great vocalists from the golden period of Karnatic music. In 1968 he was at the height of his powers and we managed to capture a full evening concert…

This album bridges past and present through the voice and instruments of Maria Violenza and Luciano Turella, with the Irtumbranda project (formerly performing as the duo BrandaMaria), offering an intimate and visceral reinterpretation of Sicilian mus…

"Kizaki Ondo" is a folk song from Nitta Kizaki town in Gunma, north of Tokyo. Played annually by local performers at the Bon-Odori traditional summer dance festival, it features unabashed lyrics about prostitution along with a rhythmic drive sure to …

TAKAAT (pronounced tuh-cot), meaning “noise” in the Tuareg language Tamashek, is the trio of Ahmoudou Madassane, Mikey Coltun, and Souleymane Ibrahim, also known as the rhythm section of Mdou Moctar. TAKAAT is sonic chaos, improvisation, freedom of e…

40girls by Ya Tosiba: Rooted in folk music’s storytelling spirit the album introduces a dynamic conversation between generational memory and progressive innovation. It is crafting a soundscape that feels feminine, elusive and powerfully transformativ…

Mega rare UK private album (99 copies originally pressed in 1969) by singer/songwriter Jeremy Harmer, featuring David Costa of psych-folk band Trees on guitar. Melancholic, introspective psych-folk with chamber/ baroque feel. Guitar, flute, viola, ba…

Repress in vintage-styled tip-on hard cardboard sleeve. Guerssen Records present a reissue of Dave Bixby's Ode To Quetzalcoatl, originally released in 1969. Since its discovery in the late '90s, Dave Bixby's legendary $2000 private press album from 1…

From the makers of Hillbillies In Hell... Private Press Prophets and Vanity Vinyl Visionaries.  Presented here for the very first time are 20 timeless slices of Luciferian Gospel, End-Times Prophecy and Doomsday Sermons from the Surreal Sacred Songbo…

From the makers of Hillbillies In Hell...A Celebration of Spiritual Triumph over Terrestrial Adversity. Originally cut on Homespun, Private-Press and Vanity labels across the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, this collection features voices almost never …

Two of the most exciting visionaries in contemporary guitar music, Bill MacKay and Ryley Walker, announce the reissue of their seminal debut album, "Land Of Plenty." Originally released in August 2015, this instrumental masterpiece will be available …

"The Begena is one of those rare musical instruments of the world that has survived for more than 5800 years. What is fascinating about it is not only its age but the fact that both its manufacture and the purpose for which it is being played have ne…

Julian Kytasty is celebrated around the world as a master of the bandura. This plucked-string instrument has become a symbol of Ukraine through its association with the deep tradition of the kobzari. On Songs of Truth: Music and Song from the Kobzar …

"Shinshunfu" exists at a crossroads, a form both distinctly Japanese and distinctly "other", a complex blend of folk strains that is deep with emotional resonance and hard to place even for aficionados of Japanese traditional music. "Of "Shinshunfu",…

A one-sided 7" single! A great and rare song, never before reissued, an early 80s electric molam classic produced by Surin Phaksiri. This release celebrates "Classic Productions by Surin Phaksiri 2: Molam Gems from the 1960s-80s", an upcoming EM Reco…

"This was traditional, transformative music, and music that made so much sense coming from EM's epicenter."― Matt Werth  Printed on special paper embossed with matte silver aluminium foil. Please consider the jacket illustration as an image as the te…

"Deep session! It is rare to hear folk music from Japan in such beautiful fidelity and incredible dynamics. This recording is intensely gorgeous and hauntingly disarming. This should open up a whole new world of adventurous listening for folks outsid…

This collection of 12 luk thung (*1) songs from the 1960s-70s, all produced by Surin Phaksiri, is a superb showcase of cross-genre/multi-national fertilization, with Latin, jazz, western pop, Indian and Japanese music seamlessly melding with the musi…

The third album by Levon Eskenian's Gurdjieff Ensemble, recorded in Yerevan in 2021: Gurdjieff's music for Armenian folk instruments, set beside songs of Armenian bards such as Sayat-Nova, with the National Chamber Choir of Armenia.

Marewrew (pronounced: Ma-leoo-leoo / mɑleːul̯ eːu)̯ is a female vocal group that sings traditional Ainu songs. The music of the long-suppressed people from northern Japan has been a particular focus of Pingipung's output in recent years, together wit…

Tip! The Sahaja Veena is a stunning stringed instrument with a unique and beautiful design reminiscent of the Vichitra Veena and Chitra Veena. With a wider range than the traditional Indian veena and a deep, warm sound, the instrument can produce com…

Restock due soon! Edition of 500 copies. Shane Parish is a member of the Bill Orcutt Quartet and Tzadik Recording Artist. Solo guitar arrangements of various jazz /avant garde/electronic/etc. tunes. Imagine: It’s sometime in the back half of the 19th…

This studio album is recorded after Guo Yongzhang performing on the 5th Tomorrow Festival stage.

Tip! *In process of stocking* "This album has its genesis in a precious reel-to-reel tape recording which we discovered in a radio station. It is unfortunate that the tape itself does not contain information on the date of recording, which we roughly…

"Bayawan" is the common name for Muqam music used by the Dolan people. Bayawan, or Dolan Muqam, is a unique form of folk music and one of the most important cultural heritages of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China. Generally speaking, Muqam is a form of …

*2023 stock* "Vashti Bunyan will always be most known for her 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day, a big cult favorite among some folk-rock fans, and her 2005 comeback Lookaftering. She did, however, release a couple obscure singles in the mid-'60s, …

2009 release ** "Raw and rocking collaboration between Jack Rose and the Black Twigs with some of the most swinging, hard-hitting string music waxed in many a decade. Rose’s solo playing has always had a tough edge, with his prodigious technique ofte…

2009 release ** Limited edition of 500 hand-numbered copies in oversized cardboard sleeve. "Italian flautist Bardini and French noisemeister Jolif have united to celebrate the music and culture of the Breton nation. With few exceptions, most of the l…