Folk /
Solo Acoustic Volume Eleven
"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…
This Song Was Borne
Allan Fraser & Daisy DeBolt met in the summer of 1969. They had both been working individually on the coffeehouse circuit in their native Canada; over the next five years, as the duo of Fraser & DeBolt, they created a sublime body of work that still sounds remarkably fresh decades later. They recorded two albums for Columbia which garnered rave reviews at the time, but saw little commercial success. Both have since become cult classics in psychedelic folk circles; the first, With Ian Guenther, b…
Bali 1928, Vol. V: Vocal Music In Dances Drama
Vol. V of the Bali 1928 recordings contains various emergent theatrical dance and dance-opera forms with translations of the dramas' texts. We hear the first recordings of women participating in dance dramas, making this disc a major cultural repatriation of primary Balinese art forms that had been lost for nearly a century. An extensive essay is included as a PDF (accessed by computer) with links to 1930s silent films and a photo library are hosted online by World Arbiter. Some of these …
Bob Frank
Originally released in 1972 on Vanguard Records, Bob Frank’s self titled debut album took elements of Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Ian Tyson and filtered it through a pot-smoked haze infused with Frank’s long-time friend, Memphis guru Jim Dickinson. Dickinson and Frank shared a mutual admiration that ran so deep that on Dickinson’s own 1972 debut album Dixie Fried (released on Atlantic Records) he recorded one of Bob’s songs, ‘Wild Bill Jones.’ Despite the Dickinson/Memphis connection, Bob Frank’s on…
Loneliness, Desire and Revenge
This 8 track acoustic guitar album is a big change for the experimental musician Maurizio Abate. After many years of psychedelic albums in which improvisation was combined with a creative recording process, he composed an entire album based on a more traditional method: acoustic guitar solo.During winter 2014 he organized a series of italian screenings preview of the documentary “ In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey” and that occasion encouraged Maurizio to experience the guitar…
Bali 1928: Gamelan Gong Kebyar
Subtitled: Belaluan, Pangkung, Busungbiu. World Arbiter presents historic gamelan recordings made in 1928 as part of a collection of the first and only commercially-released recordings of music made in Bali prior to World War II, the first ever to document pre-War genres. The compositions heard on volume 1 are untraditional, avant-garde experiments that later evolved into familiar forms, new music captured close to the time of its inception. After five years of research and field work, Ed…
Opus III
Guitarist and singer-songwriter Ryley Walker discovered the 1972 private press LP in a Chicago record store, loved what he heard, and teamed with Tompkins Square to produce the reissue. John Hulburt (1947-2012) was a member of legendary mid-60's Chicago garage rock band The Knaves, whose records were recently reissued by Sundazed. Opus III showcases his exceptional talent on the acoustic guitar, proving somewhat of an anomaly in a city not known for its solo guitar recordings during this era. W…
I Line My Days Along Your Weight
LP edition. Brooklyn duo Mark Rogers and Mary Byrne recorded their debut, I Line My Days Along Your Weight, as a true duet: facing each other inches apart, intent upon listening. They wove together archaic instruments -- baritone acoustic, tricone resonator, golden-era flattop, space-age lap steel, upright piano, and hundred-year-old mandolin -- into a new and vibrant third voice. All the songs were recorded live to two-inch analog tape, the studio equivalent of tightrope-walking without…
Black Ribbon of Death, Silver Thread of Life
Mike and Cara Gangloff’s "Black Ribbon of Death, Silver Thread of Life" is the third in a series of loosely connected melodic investigations released by Mike Gangloff over the past two years. All three were recorded around the Gangloff home in rural Floyd County, Virginia, and were engineered by Joseph Dejarnette (Carolina Chocolate Drops, Bruce Greene, Curtis Eller). And all three feature the far-reaching improvisation familiar from Gangloff’s work with the old-time stringbandBlack Twig Pickers…
Melodies For A Savage Fix
Steve Gunn and Mike Gangloff (Pelt) combine six-and 12-string guitars with gongs, tanpura, singing bowls, shruti box, and banjo fora gorgeous collection of improvised compositions. The two artists took it pretty far off the beaten path for Melodies for a Savage Fix, sequestering themselves for an overnight session in the remote farmhouse/recording studio of noted roots-music engineer Joseph Dejarnette (Carolina Chocolate Drops, Bruce Greene, Curtis Eller) in the countryside of Floyd County, Virg…
Mercury
CD version of the 2009 Mississippi Records release. Highly recommended to followers of the Blackshaw/Wissem line of acoustic instrumental composition that runs through the Imprec catalog. From the original notes: "Portland guitar virtuoso Marisa Anderson is back with a new set of home-recorded instrumentals. This time around we find Marisa exploring structures more based on the Appalachian folk tradition. The bluesy cadences of Marisa's other previous release -- Golden Hour -- are still the…
Amalgamation
O.P.M.C. (Oldest Professional Music Company, as they were living in the famous Amsterdam Red Light District in those days) centered around Barrie Webb and Teun van der Slikke with different line ups during their existence. Other musicians in their recordings feature Frank van Tijn (drums), Peter van der Sande (bass, cello, elctric guitar, keyboards - plus he also did arrangements and production) and Onny Lopulalan (lead guitar), some of them having served in other interesting Dutch bands such as…
Great Wall of China
Recorded in 1971 and issued originally only in France by CBS, the first LP by post Spoils Of War band Mormos is a masterpiece of fabulous experimental psychedelic acid folk sounds and bizarre melodies. Influences from contemporaries such as The Incredible String Band are present, as are some resemblances to the recordings of other acts like Comus or Dr. Strangely Strange, but the Mormos sound creates unique athmospheres unheard in any other works of the era that can be fragile and weird in equal…
Has anybody seen our freedoms?
Recorded in December 1970. "Peter Walker is an American original, as eclectic and enigmatic as the songs he writes. The legendary seventy-five year old raga/psychedelic/folk acoustic guitarist, who was schooled by masters such as Ravi Shankar, and Ali Akbar Khan, has been described by Larry Coryell as, “One of the most original practitioners of contemporary music” and proclaimed by the Beatles’ press agent Derek Taylor as “Perhaps the greatest guitarist in the world.” His music, celebrated by t…
Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death
Important is proud to welcome back James Blackshaw for his first full length on Important since his breakthrough album O True Believers was released in 2006. James has since forged a remarkable career achieving critical praise for his dexterity, his deep, connected songwriting and his beautiful arrangement.
Written at a time of great emotional disquiet, the hauntingly beautiful and bittersweet ninth full-length studio album, Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death, from British guitarist-composer Ja…
Nihil Obstat
Gorgeous new full length from Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem. Wissem's long form, graceful melodic lute layers, preceded by suspenseful deep bass movements, create a transcendental and pastoral. Wissem's is a world where hypnotic minimalist figures are repeated to slow the act of listening. Nihil Obstat (Nothing Hinders) is performed on Wissem's custom black lute built by Michael Schreiner. LP pressed in an edition of 800.
"New classical lute music that sound as if it always existed, as if it h…
Procession of Talking Mirrors
The person behind Urpf Lanze is Belgian visual artist Wouter Vanhaelemeesch (B), who is mainly known for his large-scale ink drawings that offer a hermetic blend of weirdo characters, medieval iconography and surrealist decors. His artwork started gaining attention a few years ago when renowned avant-garde lutenist Jozef Van Wissem (NL) started using Vanhaelemeesch\'s work to decorate several sleeves of his recorded output, including his collaborations with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (US), noise leg…
Wrecked Again
LP version. 180 gram vinyl in a tip-on gatefold sleeve. Remastered from the original tapes. Includes unseen photos and liner notes by Andru Chapman. "1971's Wrecked Again, Chapman's final for EMI's seminal stoner imprint Harvest, home to Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett. Like other artists in the stable, Chapman's music contains a drugged-out feel, sublime guitar playing and intense lyrics, yet Chapman's career was not a pet project. Buried in EMI's release schedule and afforded no promotional budget…
The Electric Dragon of Venus
“The Electric Dragon of Venus” is the first full length record since Clinical Shyness, in the meantime a track from MDK was published on a 7” split with Rella the Woodcutter and other five old tracks appeared on the split cd series “5 Pezzi Facili” under the “Cynical Quietness EP” name.The new album has been recorded with the aid of ONQ and also features the appearance of other guest musicians, Piergiorgio Storti (Morose), Stella Riva (Satan is My Brother), Matteo Uggeri (Sparkle in Grey)…
Solemns
The 'Prince' & the Marquis (Mick Turner of DIRTY THREE) unfurled the scroll together, with Tren Brother Jim White (DIRTY THREE, CAT POWER) rumbling & banging things & playing drums, & the Bonny gang crew of Van Campbell, Emmett Kelly & Angel Olsen added invaluable dimensions to the moments herein.