Folk & Traditional / All styles

One of the two masterpieces by this great French singer, produced by Materiali Sonori in the late 1970s, at the dawn of its history, are being offered for the first time on compact disc. Celtic music, traditional Breton ballads presented in elegant new clothes, world music created when ‘world music’ had not yet been invented.

One of the two masterpieces by this great French singer, produced by Materiali Sonori in the late 1970s, at the dawn of its history, are being offered for the first time on compact disc. Celtic music, traditional Breton ballads presented in elegant new clothes, world music created when ‘world music’ had not yet been invented.

The roots of African music are always open to new possibilities. This is revealed in the music of this unprecedented quartet. Alongside the Malian singer Rokia Traore', Mamah Diabate, Malian griot and djeli ngoni player, has been playing for several years with Stefano Pilia (Afterhours, Massimo Volume). Now, their path intertwines with the artistic and human partnership between Jabel Kanuteh, Gambian griot and kora virtuoso, and percussionist Marco Zanotti (Classical Afrobeat Orchestra, Cucoma C…

A massive speaker-smashing release, decades overdue. It's been bootlegged - shamefully so, many times over the years - but finally we present the first ever officially licensed reissue of this truly special Afro-disco-not-disco LP from 1979. A favourite of Harvey, Antal, Young Marco and, er, every great DJ to ever play deep records ever, basically. It's not hard to see - or, indeed, *feel* why. Gem after gem of relentless, irresistibly funky gold, it's an incredibly revelatory album with endless…

Vashti Bunyan’s ‘Lookaftering’ is 20 years old. To mark the occasion, and also Vashti’s 80th birthday, an expanded 2xLp edition is to be released. As well as the original studio album itself the second LP features demo versions, an alternate take, and a live performance of one of the original album tracks. This edition also comes with reflective sleeve notes from Vashti, producer Max Richter, Devendra Banhart and Dave Howell, and a 16-page lyric booklet featuring a collection of paintings by Vas…

"It has been said that Robbie Basho's art was strongest in concert. To what extent the experience can be reconstituted is uncertain. Whatever the case, Snow Beneath the Belly of a White Swan is the mother lode of Basho live recordings. On these five discs we are treated to some remarkable pieces that have never been published, as well as surprising renditions of old favourites. Compiled from Basho’s sprawling personal collection of master tapes (discovered during the production of Voice of the E…

The founders of Cukor Bila Smert’ (Ukrainian: Цукор – Біла Смерть, English: Sugar – White Death) band were Svitlana Okhrimenko (a.k.a. Svitlana Nianio), Oleksandr Kohanovs’kyi, and Tamila Mazur, who studied at the Reinhold Glier Kyiv Academy of Music in 1984-1988. In the summer of 1988, they got acquainted with Eugene Taran, a young guitarist and artist. He joined the band and also became the ideologist of Sugar – White Death. Moreover, Eugene coined the name for the band: the irony towards the …

"The godfather of alternative guitar returns with an all-instrumental album, Homages, in tribute to his influences and contemporaries. Summoning the spirits of some of the greatest guitarists of all time, Michael Chapman proves again that he stands among them." Although not as well known as his peers (Roy Harper, John Marytn, and Bert Jansch), the name Michael Chapman is an important one in the linage of English folk rock guitarists and singer/songwriters of the late 60's/early '70s. For thos…

"Rarely has a guitarist emerged with as distinctive and singular a voice as Tashi Dorji has with this series of nylon-string improvisations. Recorded in the U.S. and Bhutan, VDSQ Solo Acoustic Volume 13 stands as a defining document of a great 21st Century guitarist."Asheville-via-Bhutan gutiarist Tashi Dorji has made a handful of diverse releases in the past decade, mostly on cassette. Dorji covers a lot of ground inside each piece. Often he’ll counter a dizzying cluster of high-speed plucks wi…

Awash in color and texture, Arian Shafiee's debut album, A Scarlet Fail, brings to light a guitarist whose sound and mastery are in full bloom. Best known for his work in the East Coast dance/punk group Guerilla Toss, Shafiee has spent years warping the idea of what a guitar can sound like. In a group setting, Shafiee does what's best for the composition, often blending seamlessly into the electronics and rhythmic grooves of his peers. A Scarlet Fail gives him a revelatory solo spotlight in a se…

1995 release ** Joujouka Black Eyes is a CD by Moroccan Sufi trance musicians Master Musicians of Joujouka. It was released in May 1995 on Sub Rosa Records. It was produced by Frank Rynne and includes the song "Brian Jones Joujouka very Stoned" written by Joujouka born painter Mohamed Hamri. This song commemorates the third visit of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones to Jajouka. On this visit Jones recorded Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka. The group on this CD includes veteran …

Released in 1971, it is Lucio Battisti's first album composed entirely of unreleased tracks. The record is a concept album that explores the concept of love seen from multiple angles. Among the musicians who participated in the recordings are members of the future Premiata Forneria Marconi.  Audio remastered at 24Bit/192kHz from the original tapes. White vinyl mix red 180 gr.

Svitlana Okhrimenko (artist name: Svitlana Nianio) is a Ukrainian artist, musician, and signer. She is one of the most prominent representatives of the independent music scene of Kyiv in the late 1980s — early 90s. She has repeatedly recorded and performed in collaboration with other musicians and bands, such as Oleksandr Yurchenko, Sugar White Death (Cukor Bila Smert’), Ivanov Down, GeeNerve & Taran, and Blemish. Svitlana still performs and publishes new recordings today. “Transilvania Smile” i…

Big Tip! New Torso!  Gloriously mature and engrossing movements for cello, flute and tape self-released from the Japanese duo on their Ozato label. It’s hard to write anything about Torso’s music without giving the impression that this is polite, nicely buttoned-up contemporary classical dishwater.  It isn’t.  The same constituents are there - bowed cello, shimmering flute, woody upright bass and expensive-sounding reed instruments.  Yet the arrangements take cues from addictive indie-pop struct…

Edith Frost breaks a very long silence with her first album since 2005! In Space revitalizes the timeless luminescence of her voice and songcraft with twelve new songs that take measure of isolation beyond the horizon of memory. Freezing time, then cracking it into crystalline shards, Edith discovers space everywhere she travels, within her and without her. A way-out country soul expression charting a heartening renewal of commitment and form.

**2025 stock. 180 gram vinyl LP + insert with obi-strip** Chris Thompson started out his career in Hamilton, New Zealand in 1965, then turned professional in 1968. In the early seventies he moved to England, where he played the guitar with Californian folk singer Julie Felix. While in England, Chris also played with British Folk-Blues legends Wizz Jones and Davey Graham and made his debut album in 1973. Originally issued on the Village Thing label, it has been claimed as one of the best acid fol…

Imaginative re-workings and improvisations by Andrew Tuttle of the late great Michael Chapman's unfinished instrumental album. Sonic explorations that bridge the Southern and Northern Hemisphere via the Caribbean, remote Northumberland and sub-tropical Australia. Navigating calm seas and turbulent waters of ambient corals, new-age pirates, waves of lapping banjos and drifting eroding guitars. When Michael Chapman passed away in September of 2021, at the age of 80, he did so – as he spent much of…

2002 release ** "Spectral Light & Moonshine Firefly Snakeoil Jamboree is the brainchild of Pennsylvania based folk alchemist Timothy Renner (Stonebreath, Mourning Cloak, Breathe Stone). He is accompanied by Sarada and Prydwyn (Green Crown). Rooted in old-time Appalachian music and often played on19th century instruments, their repertoire is mostly traditional: graveyard blues, murder ballads, ghost songs and old hymns. "Burning Mills", their new album and 2nd full length, finds the band comforta…

*2023 Stock. 180gr LP deluxe heavy paste-on cover * In his liner notes to this release, John Fahey mentions his desire to have an entire world orchestra in his guitar, Western to Eastern, bagpipes to gamelan. Perhaps it's this mental approach that sets his music so deliciously far apart from other so-called folk guitarists. Requia is essentially in two sections. One is a series of blues-based pieces in line with music he had previously recorded. These include the lovely "Requiem for John Hurt" a…

2009 release  ** 1979 album of songs by the Ansaldo worker who had previously brought us the amazing protest avant-garde industrial musique-concrète album Rapsodia Meccanica in collaboration with Roberto Colombo.

2025 stock “Earl was a wonderful man with a great eye for new and innovative art. And such an amusing companion, too.” – Mick Jagger Earl McGrath was the ultimate ’70s jet setter, an art collector and comic bon vivant who stumbled into the record business between legendary parties in New York and LA and discovered Daryl Hall and John Oates and then Jim Carroll. Atlantic founder ∫ gave Earl his own label, Clean Records, in 1970; Mick Jagger hired him to run Rolling Stones Records in 1977. Friend …

2025 stock 13 was never supposed to be a Lee Hazlewood album. It is perhaps the strangest record in one of the most varied discographies in music. The bombastic brass heavy funk, deep blues and soul paired with Hazlewood’s subterranean baritone would be best enjoyed with a tall Chivas in an off-strip seedy Vegas lounge. It also features one of Hazlewood’s greatest lines ever “One week in San Francisco, existing on Nabisco, cookies and bad dreams, sad scenes and dodging paranoia.” Lee Hazlewood…

*2025 stock* In 1962, Karen Dalton summoned Richard Tucker to join her in Colorado, extolling the healthier lifestyle and plentiful gigs at Boulder folk club, The Attic. Upon his arrival, the pair solidified their personal and professional relationship, riding horses in the mountains, and performing as a duo at parties and venues throughout Denver and Boulder. Stories of the spell they conjured - and rumors of tapes - have circulated among friends and musicians who witnessed them, but until now,…

In the mid-20th century, Louisville gospel music was occasionally recorded when members of the local gospel community pressed 45rpm records and LPs, and released them through grassroots record labels such as Sensational Sounds, Grace, Blessed, and D.J.S. Over the years, a substantial body of work was produced in our city, but those recordings are in danger of being lost forever. The Louisville Story Program has been working with dozens of people in the local gospel music community to locate, dig…

During their work on the soldout 10 years jubilee 8LP boxset, the Austrian pioneers of Alpine Folk Music created this Dark-Psychedelic collection of scary tales around the holy mount Untersberg. Legends telling about people who went inside the hollow mountain, to visit Kaiser Karl and his folks living/sleeping there, waiting for the end of days to fight the final battle. In most of these tales the visitors were only a few hours or days inside the mountain and his inside castles and monasteries, …

This album is pure weird Alpine-Folk music with martial drinking-songs, alpine battle-hymns and strange fairie-tales out from the deepest Austrian and Bavarian forests, all embedded in a breath of black Monty Python humour. A pearl of pure Alpine Folkmusic!

Asiko Tito was an ambitious project Jazzhole Records embarked on in the late 90s to capture and promote the rich tapestry of local talent from across Lagos. This 10-track compilation showcases an eclectic mix of sounds ranging from afrobeat and Yoruba-funk to afrofunk, highlife and spiritual jazz. Each track is a testament to the vibrant music scene blending traditional rhythms with contemporary influences to create a unique listening experience that resonates with both nostalgia and modernity. …

Eroya is a collective of elder and young musicians based in the heart of Lagos which takes you on a journey dating back from the late 1940s to contemporary Naija grooves - from palm-wine, agidigbo grooves, juju/owambe styles, highlife melodies to afro-funk and afrobeats. Key members includes Sina Ayinde Bakare, son of the legendary maestro Ayinde Bakare the originator of Juju music, Multi-instrumentalist juju singer Fatai Rolling Dollar, Afro-funk tenor saxophonist Prince Eju Oyewole and afrobea…

Wapna'kik (The People of the Dawn) by Mi'kmaw musical group Sons of Membertou foregrounds the powerful voices of their people. First released in 1995, Wapna'kik documents a vital resurgence of the Membertou community’s music practices. The 2025 updated edition by Smithsonian Folkways includes "Mi'kmaq Honour Song" and "500 Years," introducing a new generation of singers and musicians. Their addition to the album exemplifies the diversity of Mi’kmaw sonic and poetic expressions, which continue, a…

Widely considered one of the greatest songwriters of his generation, Townes Van Zandt has been hailed by such singers as Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, and Willie Nelson. Fat Possum is proud to reissue four titles from his early career -- Townes Van Zandt, Our Mother the Mountain, Delta Momma Blues, and Flyin' Shoes -- that comprise an essential introduction to his best songs. Recorded between 1969 and 1978, Van Zandt's most prolific (and most critically acclaimed) decade, these four titles are th…

**2019 stock** Widely considered one of the greatest songwriters of his generation, Townes Van Zandt has been hailed by such singers as Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, and Willie Nelson. Fat Possum is proud to reissue four titles from his early career - Townes Van Zandt, Our Mother the Mountain, Delta Momma Blues, and Flyin' Shoes - that comprise an essential introduction to his best songs. Recorded between 1969 and 1978, Van Zandt's most prolific (and most critically acclaimed) decade, these four …

Tip! This is the second in the new series of the label's reissue albums on vinyl. Mae'r Olwyn yn Troi (The Wheel Turns), Heather Jones' first album, was released in 1974, and Sain is proud to celebrate the record's 50th year in 2024. It is regarded as one of the classic albums of the 70s - the songs, the instrumentation, the arrangements, the musicianship and the production reaching such a high standard. The real star of the album is, of course, Heather herself. Her amazing pure voice and her di…

2019 small repress. "Rob Noyes has been on the Eastern Massachusetts scene for a while, but what we've heard him play is music from within the context of electric bands, most of whom are loud as hell and exist somewhere along the rim of the post-core continuum. More recently, Rob has taken to displaying his solo acoustic guitar chops and they are massive. The Feudal Spirit is the first vinyl evidence of their 'shoulders.' Like Western Mass's Tony Pasquarosa, who mines the same widely-variant sty…

Back in print! Incredible collection of rare King Tubby VS. Scientist tracks. These were some of the last ‘classical’ dub works created before dancehall ultimately mutated into a technologically-driven sound that largely did away with organic instruments and although these works already point in that direction, they still sound entirely fresh today because of the superb musicianship of the Roots Radics and the guiding hand of Jah Thomas in the producer’s chair, as well as Scientist and his cohor…

(1969) from the home studio of future BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP composer PETER HOWELL & his musical partner JOHN FERDINANDO, makers of legendary albums under the names Alice Through the Looking Glass, Ithaca, Agincourt, & Friends. This private press album was recorded as the soundtrack for an underground film production by (later to be) renowned television director Ian Hamilton

*Limited edition of 400 copies.* "Brilliant new instrumental fork-bending from the always amazing Elkhorn, presented here in a quartet setting I had not heard before. The basic band remains Drew Gardner on electric guitar and Jesse Sheppard on acoustic, but as often seems to happen with these guys, there are a couple more faces in the studio. This time it's two drummers. One is Ian McColm, a Virginia tub monster who has played in many excellent situations, including a 2012 Feeding Tube duo casse…

"The first time i stumbled on a hurdy-gurdy was as a little boy on a holiday during  a 'bal populaire' in a small village in Brittany (France).  Later on i discovered the term hurdy-gurdy from a Donovan track which returned in my adolescent years as a Butthole Surfers track. But somehow the instrument kept returning in my life. Lise Barkas being a good example, and obviously the whirlwind France.  Mining deeper i bumped into the traditional play of for instance Claude Flagel. And the story goes …

A collection of ten hypnotic guitar renditions that dive deeply into the traditional compositional musicality that underpins Harakami’s hallucinatory beatscapes before reconsidering them under a fresh, innovative and engaging new light. River: The Timbre of Guitar #2 Rei Harakami signals a new level of awareness and understanding of both Rei Harakami’s significance and Ayane Shino’s undeniable talent.In 1996 Tokyo-based label Sublime Records received a cassette demo from Rei Harakami, a 26-year-…

"Is there only one room? When the listener listens do they stay in their room and the room in which the songs were recorded comes to the listener? Or does the listener go to the room in which the songs were recorded? Or maybe the two rooms come together side by side in tandem, in balance, or in parallel, somehow joined? Songs of a person in a city going out of a room, looking. Easily walking down a familiar staircase. Foot leaving the last step before the landing. Standing briefly before the swi…

On Buck Curran's second solo album, Morning Haikus, Afternoon Ragas, the emphasis switches to acoustic guitar, as compared to his first solo album, Immortal Light (ESPDISK 5014CD/LP, 2016). Side A, all solo acoustic instrumentals, seems to have fallen out of a wormhole emanating from Takoma Records in the 1970s. There's some of that on side B as well, but there are also vocals and other instruments, sometimes overdubbed, and the dedication of "Taurus" to Peter Green, guitarist extraordinair…