Folk /
Re-Inventions
** 2021 Stock ** Sandy Bull, who died in 2001 at the age of 60, was part of the early blues/folk scene of the early 60s, friends with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and both Roger MGuinn and Jim McGuinn. His own guitar and banjo style was quite distinct, featuring improvisation dubbed "psychedelic folk" by critics. This CD spans the years from 1963-1972. Includes the epic 21 minute 'Blend' recorded in one take with jazz drummer Billy Higgins.
Rainy Day Raga
Peter Walker was the quintessential psych-folk guitar player to come out of the '60s. Revered by Timothy Leary, who had him program the music for his Turn-Ons, Walker was one of the first to take the Indian tradition of ragas and channel them through the guitar into a sound that is pure heaven. His exotic, state-of-the-art finger-picking transcends description and has influenced such artists as Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance.Vanguard Records originally released the record in 1966, showca…
Songs of the Great Mystery
Robbie Basho was one of the big three American acoustic guitar innovators, John Fahey and Leo Kottke being the other two. Basho was the least commercially successful of the three, but his influence and reputation has steadily grown since his untimely death in 1986 at the age of 45. And with good reason; for Basho's deeply spiritual approach, intellectual rigor, and formal explorations (among his goals was the creation of a raga system for American music), present a deeply compelling, multi-facet…
Suwa Ikazuchi
A fantastic percussive album performed by the Osuwa Daiko Preservation Society and veteran jazz pianist Masahiko Sato. A great blend of avant garde and traditional music recorded at Osuwa Daiko's dojo in Okaya City, Nagano, Japan. The Suwa Daiko is a tradition of Kagura (sacred music and dance) and drums of the Suwa Taisha Shrine that enshrines the life of the Takeminakata (one of god in Japanese mythology). It is a folk performing art that is recorded in an ancient document of the "Koshin-etsu-…
Music Life
Mia Doi Todd 12th album, Music Life, was recorded in her native Los Angeles. The album features guest performances from Jeff Parker, Money Mark, Fabiano do Nascimento, Sam Gendel, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Laraaji. Ever since her debut release in 1997, singer-songwriter Mia Doi Todd has created a body of work that is intensely personal and unique, with a rich variety of cultural and creative influences. A solo artist with an innate sense of connecting links between other musicians, Mia has step…
The Holly Kaleidoscope
** "Kaleidoscope / paddled" effect coloured vinyl. Edition of 600 ** Davy Graham was one of the leading pioneers of the acoustic guitar who invented and developed many techniques for the instrument including chord progressions and open tunings (most famously for DADGAD). He also inspired many leading musicians including Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy, John Martyn, Paul Simon and Jimmy Page. The Holly Kaleidoscope was Graham’s final LP for Decca and he was accompanied by his then wife, American singe…
Istikhbars and Improvisations
Mustapha Skandrani. Besides having an excellent name, this man, a luminary of Algerian music, possessed a unique musical sense, able to transcend the borders of musical cultures to create a distinctive fusion of Arabo-Andalusian and European styles. "Istikhbars and Improvisations", recorded in 1965 in Paris, is a solo piano album presenting a trans-Mediterranean crossover based on traditional Algerian vocal pieces known as Istikhbars. Playing these istikhbars (which have roots in the Islamic Ara…
Canti E Danze Dell'Australia Del Nord
* Original 1980 copies * Aboriginal musicians receive songs both from an eternal realm known as The Dreaming and from the ghosts of deceased ancestors. The music of the aborigines--known as "wangga"--rests "on cosmologies and ways of being that are radically different from those shared" by the majority of Australians and others from Western, modernized cultures. Music is primarily sung during ceremonial rites of passage and funeral rituals. Singers may occasionally be accompanied by the droning …
Live In Paris
Years since their first LP “Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka was released, The Master Musicians of Joujouka are releasing a stunning double LP recorded live at Centre Georges Pompidou Paris in 2016 The recordings are a full immersion into the Joujouka sound with disc one featuring hypnotic flutes and drum and a side of songs with mountain violin played by virtuoso Ahmed Talha with lead vocals by the late Abdeslam Boukhzar. Disc two features the truly hypnotic rhiat suite of Bouj…
Keijo Sings Woody's Songs
** Edition of 60 ** Keijo plays Woodie Guthrie's songs. Recorded between April 2019 and October 2020. All instruments, effects & voice by Keijo.
Sun Also Rises
* 2021 Stock* Superb sought-after 1970 British acid folk rarity from the Village Thing label. The Sun Also Rises is another case of a folk/psych duo (we’re thinking of Emtidi, whose “Saat” album we have also reissued) who virtually disappeared in the flesh, once they had left behind a small but fascinating recorded legacy. The sole Sun Also Rises album has been reissued (legally and illegally) on several occasions, a testament to continuing interest in the music contained therein. Who were they?…
Nuestra Soledad / Vera
* 2021 Stock* It was—and is—almost impossible to categorize Vera Sienra’s musical style, but we’ll try: wistful songs with the world-weariness of Fado, and the pulsating sadness of the bossa nova. Her powerful and unique tone of voice, plus the softness of her guitar, have always been an unmistakable trademark. Listening to the songs of Vera’s debut album (from 1969), few people believed that those mature melodies were created by the beautiful and timid blonde who could be seen on their black & …
Can You Send Me a Silver Thread
* 2021 Stock* There is nothing ordinary about Sandstone. This private press folk/psych album (1971) is so head and shoulders above almost every other album in the genre, it’s hard to believe it’s not better known. The instrumentation and compositional style are reminiscent of heavy English folk hitters like Mellow Candle, Pentangle, and Heron. The Sandstone album was not a major label production like those records. But the local studio at which it was recorded must have been quite high end, beca…
Jilala
** First time these tracks appear on vinyl – Pressed on 180 Gram Black Vinyl. Limited Edition of 300 Copies ** Historic Moroccan Sufi Trance recorded in 1965 by artists/writers/poets Brion Gysin and Paul Bowles. Authentic Moroccan trance ritual music by contemporaries of Master Musicians of Jajouka.
Until Now, Jilala has been a much sought-after phantom in relation to their better-known musical and spiritual contemporaries, The Master Musicians of Jajouka. Culled from three and a half hours of…
Mateo Solo Bien Se Lame
* 2021 Stock* A record that requires many superlatives in order to do it justice: from it’s first moments, the music is lilting, poetic, intimate, in turns life-affirming and melancholic, with pulsating percussion backed by unheard-of guitar chords and tunings (perhaps the reason for the frequent Caetano Veloso comparisons); it is an album that sounds—simply put—honest. Released at the end of 1972 in both Argentina and Uruguay, it was received from that first moment as a classic. When iconoclast…
Open Roads
The new vinyl album from Dennis Young, founding member of Liquid Liquid,is an acoustic vocal album with quiet indie/folk sounds especially for fans who enjoyed his Athens of the North release. The recording consists of 15 new tracks accompanied by cello/violin and bass guitar.Dennis Young is best known as the marimba player and percussionist for Liquid Liquid, a trend-setting early 1980's NYC band whose song "Cavern" was used by Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel in "White Lines". Dennis Young is a s…
Dagara - Gyil Music of Ghana's Upper West Region
** Limited edition LP release includes a four panel insert of notes and photos from the recording session ** Field recordings of Lobi traditional xylophone (gyil) music recorded by Hisham Mayet on location in Ghana's Upper West Region, West Africa in 2019. Featuring Aaron Bebe Sukura, considered one of the gyil's master musicians from this area. Long form trance music with acoustic instruments sounding like several minimalist orchestras getting to maximalist sonic peaks. The gyil music of the …
Canon Singing in China, Vietnam, Laos
** Limited edition LP comes with a two sided insert of photos and liner notes with extended track descriptions by Laurent Jeanneau ** Other-worldly Canon singing from Mien (Yao) hill tribes in China, Vietnam, and Laos. Raw, ethereal, and cosmic – for fans of Bulgarian choir and Javanese Court Gamelan & Sundanese styles of vocal ascension. Although their name comes from a pejorative Chinese expression that means “dog” or “savage" – stemming from a legend that they were founded by a dog who saved …
Manbarani
** Limited edition vinyl LP with insert containing lyrics in English and Arabic ** Unique contemporary Arabic folk music sounding unfrozen & released from another time, Natik Awayez has created a pure, expressive sound breaking free like a bundle of torn, faded oracles spreading far and wide across the empty spaces. Rhythmic percussive arrangements by Khaled Yassine are the foundation for oud, violin, buzuq, and Awayez’ lush voice, which floats atop the instrumentation like a series of prayers b…
A Game For All Who Know
* 2021 Stock* Fabulous grooving folk rock sounds with plenty of atmosphere, first released by the much beloved Village Thing label in 1972. Ian Hunt and John Turner first teamed-up in the late summer of 1970, the inevitable collaboration of two of the West Country’s most sought-after session musicians. String bassist and guitarist Turner had just left the infamous Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra and Hunt, a wizard guitarist and song writer who was already a ‘big-name’ on the Bristol scene, was looki…