Folk & Traditional / All styles

*2024 stock* Originally wandering minstrels, sharp-tongued peddlers who roamed the old Abyssinian countryside, many azmaris more or less settled down after the founding of Addis-Ababa just over a century ago. The cleverest of them quickly understood that they should set up their own businesses and take a cut on the drinks, instead of getting by on tips earned singing their way from one bar and tedjbèt (taverns serving tedj, the local mead) to another. (…) They have taken over the city by giving …

*2024 stock* 1969-1978. The main body of Ethiopian records was produced in less than one decade: all in all, just under 500 45s and around 30 LP albums. Amha Eshèté, creator of the Amha Records Label, was the driving force behind this brief creative burst and one of the main founders of the modernist movement, which swept the Ethiopian scene during the end of the rule of the Emperor Haile Sellassie. In six years (1969-1975), Amha issued approx 250 tracks. From his first recordings, he dispayed a…

*2024 stock* Sahra Halgan is an iconic artist from Somaliland, an independent country since 1991 but not recognized by the international community, formerly a British protectorate in northern Somalia. The granddaughter of a singer and poet, she devoted herself to singing and music in her teens, defying tribal and family conventions. It was in the context of the war against the dictator Siad Barre's terrible repression in the 80s that Sahra earned her nickname "Halgan", the fighter, and her songs…

The extraordinary creative partnership of New Haven, CT duo Kath Bloom and Loren Connors has haunted psych-folk fans since the early 80s. Kath taught herself guitar during shifts as a janitor at a New Haven cemetery, while Loren’s free-form idiosyncratic style had been developing since the late 60s. Between 1981 and 1984, the duo recorded two live and four studio albums, mostly self-released in tiny quantities.Early on, their music mixed folk and blues traditionals with a handful of Kath’s vulne…

Pau Riba is one of the essential figures of Catalan music and counterculture, with a completely unique career that started in the late 1960s and still active today. This facsimile reissue of his debut 7” ‘Taxista!’ is the appropriate starting point. Released in 1967, these three wonderful, Dylan-influenced songs revealed a extraordinarily gifted artist.

Canela en Surco and Urpa i musell feel very fortunate to announce the first ever reissue of Norberto de Nöah and The Böhöbé Spirits Müsic by Norberto de Nöah, originally released on Kilimandjaro Productions in 1988. In the mid-1980s, the European media, music industry and public became increasingly interested in African music. This was a period of international success for King Sunny Adé, Salif Keita, Youssou N’Dour, Ray Lema, Touré Kunda, etc. Spain, with its own particular conditions, wasn’t o…

Bridget St. John's fourth album, from 1974, the first after John Peel's Dandelion label folded: dreamy folk-rock with members of Jethro Tull, Michael Giles and Stefan Grossman.

Yaşar Akpençe was born in 1966 in Istanbul and can be consider as one of the best world darbouka player. He began his career in music at the age of 9 by playing Congo and carried on with the darbuka at 13 and made his musical dream come true by working with famous musicians. Akpençe has performed as a guest musician on numerous albums as well as being the founder of the percussion collective known as « Harem Group ». Yasar has performed with almost every major artist in Turkey, spanning many gen…

Boxset includes LP and 88 page book which includes an english translation of the full Perfumed Garden text with previously unreleased photos of Chitra Neogy. A first-ever reissue of a Chitra Neogy’s sultry rendition of this fifteenth century text, complete with sitar, tabla, & bansuri! After graduating from Calcutta University and Santiniketan with a degree in fine arts, Neogy moved to London and continued her studies in drama and film at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. As a way to make ends…

Sleeve Records & Dig This Way teamed back to bring to light the history and the tracks of this iconic early 70' Psychedelic Afro-funk East Nigeria group. The Hygrades's album will include all 4 rare 45"s united in a single LP with an insert of their story told by a true Uchenna narrator.

Temporary Super Offer! Lost love songs and self-pressed pop acetates by this previously unheard Californian folk duo from beneath the shadows of the Hollywood Hills. These recordings of unreleased and unknown American acidic folk and acoustic pop were made in the late 60s by husband and wife duo Don & Stevie Gere. For over 40 years they've sat untouched and unplayed in a box of unmarked studio tapes at their family home in Los Angeles. As original pop songs and guitar based arrangements from the…

Five Traces is a wordless opera in three acts. Its sound includes words and images. The notes must speakŠ this wordless opera is certainly my most daring experiment with text in sound.

Tip! *In process of stocking* 'Gongs have played an integral role in the mythogeography of Asia. This is not music that aligns with national borders or ideas of homogenous populations, let alone racial stereotypes and exotic clichés. What connects all of these tracks is a simultaneous feeling of entrancement and social cohesion. Communal and collaborative, its form is hypnotically repetitious, melodies and rhythms spread out among the players using the technique of hocketing in which a flowing l…

A fundamental collection devoted to rare and lost recordings from the 1920s to the 1960s. Is it really possible to imagine what modern music would sound like if a few pioneering geniuses had not had the idea of electrifying their instruments, especially guitar and harmonica, between 1945 and 1950? Some purist will regret this evolution, but, in the '50s, the new sound will be heard in all the studios and night clubs of the United States; it will become a staple on the radio, in stores, at weddin…

Tip! *In process of stocking.* Magnificent Wolof drum music, performed by an extended griot family over seven consecutive days, in the mystical setting of Lac Rose, outside Dakar. Doudou Ndiaye Rose — who died in 2015 —  is a key drummer in the musical history of the world. He developed a system of five hundred original drumming patterns, ancient and new. Amongst the modern rhythms here is Bench Mi — 'under the Baobab tree,' a spot where where problems get solved. Also Hibar Yi — 'passing on inf…

Special Limited Color Edition (So Long, Babe Blue Swirl). The record that forever put Nancy Sinatra over the top – thanks to the massive title hit "Boots Are Made For Walking" – and some impeccable Lee Hazlewood production that really found a way to make Nancy sound fantastic! The young Sinatra had been wanting to make her own records for awhile, and had definitely had a few shots before Boots – but Lee Hazlewood really finds a way to bring out the best in Nancy, often using the same kind of bas…

"Exact replica reissue of the third Leo Kottke LP from 1970, originally released by MN label Symposium (distributed by John Fahey's Takoma). A partial studio re-recording of Kottke's 1969 debut album 12 String Blues."

While there has been plenty of precedent, regarding Alvarius B’s fascination with the down and out of Anglo/American cultural refuse, That’s How I Got To Memphis is certainly his most realized collection of paying homage to it. The fact that this whole album is a collection of covers that have invaded AB’s current musical obsessions is testament to the timeless nature of the original artists songwriting prowess. Imagine Joe Meek coming back from the dead to produce a country western and northern…

...Female Blues Singers - Rarities 1923-1930. The Sub Rosa label presents a collection of works from obscure and forgotten female blues singers, exploring the question: what can be said about a singer whose entire work fits on a single-sided 78rpm record? What circumstances led to this recording? Who decided to do it? For whom was it intended? Why wasn't it followed by more recordings? Hypotheses get lost in places and moments themselves forgotten. What remains are these miraculous voices that h…

Since the beginning of its foundation, Sub Rosa has been interested in ethnographic recordings - among the milestones: the Inuit anthology, the Bhutan recordings by John Levy... More recently, the works of David Toop (Yamomami shamanism) and Ragnar Johnson (Yemen, Ethiopia, recorded in the early 1970s). The time in which the recording is done, it matters a lot because it also captures the air of that Time. On the other hand, the label can only feel it from where they are. It is in this state of …

Kumio Kurachi is a Japanese singer-songwriter who has been active since the 1980's. This is his 11th solo album and only the second to be released outside of Japan following Sound of Turning Earth (2018) on bison.

Temporary Super Offer! Mesmerising minority language acid folk and wayfaring world music forges a river of revolution between langue doc and Côte d’Azur with this stunning seldom spoken 1978 intimate community pressing. Weaving a fragile thread through collectible outsider genres such as acid folk, French jazz, Braziliana and world music it is virtually incomprehensible that this incredible one-off solo album by mononymous Occitan language singer, songwriter and activist Miquela has managed to e…

When UK-native James Blackshaw plays his 12-string, something spiritual takes place. This unassuming 23 year-old is transformed into a guitar god whose name belongs alongside the likes of Jack Rose, Steffen Basho-Junghans, and Glenn Jones. Making instrumental, solo, acoustic music that remains consistently interesting and moving is a difficult task. Yet, time after time, Blackshaw hits out of the park, constantly breaking boundaries in what could be conceived as a somewhat limited medium. O True…

In Robbie Basho's lifetime he set out to champion the steel string guitar as an expressive and dignified concert instrument. His guitar playing was first brought to light in 1965, when John Fahey released Basho's debut The Seal Of The Blue Lotus on Fahey's own Takoma Records. Armed with a unique and powerful singing voice, his 6 & 12 string guitar and a collection of special guitar tunings that he created (even originating a unique chart titled 'The Esoteric Doctrine of Color and Mood,' denoting…

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…

The title Ex Patris (from the fathers) plays on the idiomatic baroque lute compositions presented here which emulate the classical repertoire. It also refers to this almost forgotten instrument, which was passed on by the fathers. The Jozef Van Wissem's aim is to bring back and liberate the lute. The four compositions on Ex Patris form a circular narrative of interlocking repetitive melodic series. The follow up to Important release “ It is all that is made” kicks off with the pro apocalyptic tr…

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 there but more…

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…

Duo collaboration between the Japanese female accordionist à qui avec Gabriel, who previously released a solo album on John Zorn's Tzadik label, and Acid Mothers Temple guitarist and guitar-drone soundscape artist Kawabata Makoto. Kawabata's guitar traces heretical designs through the stoically beautiful illuminated manuscripts of à qui avec Gabriel's accordion and voice. The combination is deeply phantasmal.

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…

First vinyl reissue of this Indian classical masterpiece recorded by Shrimati Kalyani Roy in the late 1960s. Undoubtedly one of the most talented sitar players in the history of the instrument. She is considered as one the finest female players in a field that was dominated by her male counterparts. On these recordings, a two-volume set, she is accompanied by Manick Das (tabla) and Namita Chatterjee (tambura). Recorded in Japan on September 20th, 1974. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (V 2011LP) come as two se…

Tip! *2024 repress* Hive Mind Records are proud to present Colours of the Night, the final studio recordings of deep, hypnotic Gnawa songs from the late, great Maalem Mahmoud Gania. The recordings see their first release outside of Morocco on 8 September 2017, and are available as a double vinyl LP and digital download. The release has been licensed directly from the Gania family and comes with the support of all who were involved in the original recordings. Colours of the Night is his first alb…

* Newly remastered, limited edition pressing *  Brij Bhushan Kabra was one of the Indian musicians who heard the steel guitar’s siren call, but his vision went beyond adapting Hawaiian sounds to popular music. Instead, he saw the instrument’s potential for playing ragas. To pursue this dream, Kabra began studying with Ali Akbar Khan, whose fretless sarod offered a sonic example for Kabra to emulate with his lap-slide guitar. Kabra’s instrument was a Gibson Super 400, modified with a drone string…

Francesco Serra (Cagliari, 1980) is a self-taught guitarist living and working in Bologna. His research focuses on identifying performance practices aimed at extending the timbre qualities of the guitar and emphasising the evocative potential of sound. Throughout his musical journey, particularly in the three albums released between 2008 and 2019 under his solo project Trees of Mint (Micro Meadow, Trees of Mint, and NW, released by Here I Stay and Trovarobato Parade), he has progressively decons…

In 1975, Doji Morita made her debut with the single "Sayonara Boku no Tomodachi / Mabushii Natsu. With her distinctive and enigmatic presence of sunglasses and curly hair, she stood out in the folk scene at a time of maturity. In the same year, she released "Good Bye Good Bye," followed by "Mother Sky" (1976), and "A Boy" (1977). This album was released in the spring of 1978, when the short but intense career of Doji Morita was in its fullest stage. FM Tokyo popular program "Pioneer Sound Approa…

*2020 stock* On March 4, 1975, Jim Sullivan mysteriously disappeared outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost. Some think the mafia bumped him. Some even think he was abducted by aliens. By coincidence–or perhaps not–Jim’s 1969 debut album was titled U.F.O. Released in tiny numbers on a private label, it too was truly lost until Light In The Attic Records began a years-long quest to re-release it–and to solve the mystery of …

*2024 stock* The story of Orchestra Ethiopia (1963-1975) is unusual and compelling in more ways than one. Just as modern music was reaching the peak of its excellence and popularity, at the very same moment, via Orchestra Ethiopia's unlikely undertaking, traditional music acquired a legitimacy that the times had tended to deprive it of. Between the coup d'état (Dec 1960) and the revolution (1974), Ethiopia was combining, unbeknownst to all, both the end of an empire and the "golden age" of its m…

The venerable Black Sweat returns to their deep devotion to Indian Classical music and Dhrupad that began in 2022 with Mohi Bahauddin Dagar’s “Ahir Bhairav”, with what might just be their most incredible release to date; the first ever vinyl release of two astounding ragas - “Ragini Miyan Ki Todi” and “Raag Malkauns“ - recorded live by the legendary brothers, Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar, in private concerts held in Bombay during 1969. Sprawling across a towering, bea…

Double LP-version. 180 gram vinyl; Gatefold sleeve; Includes booklet and download. Ambient/traditional flute music from Japanese shakuhachi Master, Teruhisa Fukuda. The shakuhachi is an end-blown bamboo flute with one dorsal and four frontal holes and a beveled notch as mouthpiece. There are two elements in the name of the instrument: shaku refers to an ancient measurement which is the equivalent of 30,3 cm; hachi means eight. Originally, shakuhachi thus refers to a flute that measures 1,8 shaku…

Infinite-Sum Game is a curated selection of my solo piano performance in Palermo on May 13th, 2023, at Sala Perriera in the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa. I have the deepest gratitude first and foremost to Lelio Giannetto and Valeria, as well as Gabri, Luca, Yuki, Angela, Curva Minore, SIO, and the greater Sicilian musical community. It's a great honor to have been embraced by the community in Palermo, to be able to spend so much time there, and to collaborate with so many artists who have become…