Folk /
The Early Years
Singer, actor and musician Farid El Atrache, born on October 19, 1910 in Soueïda, Syria, and died on December 26, 1974 in Beirut, Lebanon, is considered the greatest singer of the Arab world. A virtuoso of the oud, his timeless work, rich in hundreds of compositions, is recognized the world over. The present selection is devoted to the master's early works recorded in the 1930s-1940s.
Trésors De La Chanson Judéo-Arabe
Algerian singer and musician Lili Boniche was born in Algiers on March 14, 1921, and died on March 6, 2008. He was famous for his contribution to Judeo-Arabic music, and particularly associated with chaâbi, a musical genre popular in Algeria that blends Arab, Berber and French influences. Born Eliaou Élie Boniche, and he grew up in a Sephardic Jewish family and became interested in music at an early age. His musical career really took off in the 1940s and 1950s, when he recorded numerous hits th…
Amrak Seedna & Abtal Wa Harameyah
Wewantsounds is delighted to reissue Ziad Rahbani's cult album Amrak Seedna & Abtal Wa Harameyah, released in 1987. Ziad Rahbani is a living legend of Arab music and a cultural icon in his native Lebanon. An accomplished musician, pianist and producer, he is also a celebrated playwright and political activist. The album Amrak Seedna & Abtal Wa Harameyah, released in 1987 on the Beirut-based Relax-in label, is the soundtrack to two plays written by the renowned Lebanese playwright and actor Anto…
Yoyi
*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 productions, this much-loved cult album featuring nine predominantly instrumental tracks is a real treasure that deserves a much wider appreciation. One look at the trippy artwork and you know it is going to be special. Originally released in 1977 on Ar…
No Winners in the Blues
A new year beckons, and Full Spectrum Records is fixing to kick off 2023 with a hard shot of melancholia and a deluxe vinyl reissue of Wes Tirey’s whiskey-soaked folk opus, ‘No Winners In the blues.’
We Dance
"Enid Valu normally relies on lenses and light to express herself. Known to create stunning visuals, to capture sonic worlds with her preferred instrument (the camera), the US-born, Munich-based photographer and video artist has been working with various bands, shooting concerts, creating music videos, visualizing what she hears. However, now that she’s become an indispensable part of the local scene, she for once ditches the cam and steps up to the mic instead – appearing as featured vocalist o…
Jumble Queen
Temporary Super Offer! English singer-songwriter Bridget St. John grew up in a musical family in Surrey, beginning on piano, viola and trumpet before picking up the guitar in high school. In the late 1960s she met the brilliant John Martyn who quickly became a fan and brought her music to a larger audience, which included the legendary DJ John Peel, for whose label Dandelion St. John recorded her first three albums.
Jumble Queen, St. John’s fourth album, was originally released in 1974 on Chrys…
Scott Seskind
Ebalunga!!! is thrilled to announce the first official reissue of the self-released, self-produced, and self-titled 1985 LP Scott Seskind. The album is a lo-fi singer-songwriter jewel. Don't miss it.
Ukouk. Round Singing Voices of the Ainu 2012-2024
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 with Oki Kano who recorded and produced many Ainu artists. Following various re-releases by Umeko Ando, the late grande dame of traditional Ainu music, the spotlight is now on the a cappella music of Marewrew, which by the way means ‘butterfly’ in Ainu.…
Chelsea Girl
She is beautiful. And in a world where so much can easily be possessed on a whim or for a promise, she is not comparable. She has a clear, pure ring, a trueness, like an arrow that has hit an inner mark and can’t be wedged loose. Her voice and her manner, that stretch farther into the past than perhaps she realizes, may set the new style: an existential pop style that is as earthy as Mary Travers (Peter, Paul & Mary) yet more elegant, more isolated. Her name is Nico. I don’t know where she was b…
The Temple
After being an integral part of the Manchester and Glasgow underground scenes, Leo Robinson announces his debut solo album under his own name: The Temple will be released 27th October on Prah Recordings. A baroque epic set in the mundane settings of contemporary Northern England, its narrative reflects a spiritual or psychoanalytic journey. Ten songs dealing in intricate string-tinged folk, and produced with a sense of up-close intimacy and structural freedom that frequently blindsides the liste…
Roses Rouge Sang
Temporary Super Offer! *2024 stock* Precisely four decades since the original release of the 1971 LP Histoire De Melody Nelson, Serge Gainsbourg’s most celebrated composer, arranger and composer Jean-Claude Vannier now returns to the same artistic territory that has since come to represent his most iconic period and continually inspire almost five generations of experimental rock luminaries. Respected throughout France as a long running singer-songwriter and experimental composer in his own righ…
Don & Stevie
Temporary Super Offer! *2024 stock* 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 arrangem…
Astroturf Noise
Astroturf Noise exists at the intersection of free improvisation, effects-heavy noise music, and American roots music.
Divine Music From A Jail
Oidupaa Vladimir Oyun was a Tuvan musician and a man with an amazing, but really heavy destiny, a man of unbending will and divine talent and the creator of a unique style of throat singing, accompanied by playing the button accordion. Researchers described Oidupaa's style as blues and emphasized the complexity of this style of performance, which requires the singer to exert a lot of tension on the vocal cords. This is the author's unique version of the deepest and most powerful type of throat s…
Waka and Other Compositions: Contemporary Music of Japan
2024 stock. This 1960 release is a selection of compositions by Japanese experimental composer Michiko Toyama. The 12 compositions are drawn from traditional Japanese musical forms with additional influence from many of the experimental composers in the West that were active during the twentieth century. Some pieces are sung with instrumental accompaniment; others are spoken poetry. The instrumentation consists of a mix of traditional Japanese and modern Western instruments, including electronic…
Tibetan Ritual
2024 stock. This recording presents in its entirety the “Invocation to the Goddess Yeshiki Mamo,” performed by Buddhist monks (lamas) from the Nyingmapa Monastery of Dehra Dun in India with the authorization of the private secretariat of the Dalai Lama. The monks, who represent one of the oldest Buddhist sects to be established in Tibet in the 8th century, are trained to produce vocal sounds at a very low pitch, believing the disembodied sounds to be the nearest to the divine. The liner notes pr…
Sufi Ceremony: Rifa' Ceremony of the Eleventh Day of Rabi-L-Achien Honouring Abdul Hadir Beker
*2024 stock* Sufi, or Sufism, is often defined as "Islamic mysticism.” Sufism exists in both Sunni and Shia Islam. It is not a distinct sect, rather it is an association or fraternity for the achievement of religious enthusiasm and ecstasy by means of exercise undertaken in common. This 1959 recording is of a Rifa' Ceremony performed in South Africa. The Rifa’ association was originally found mainly in the Middle East eventually spreading to Malaysia and Africa.
Souvenirs
Black Vinyl. From beloved composer Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, a revelatory new album of vocal pieces. The first vocal album by beloved Ethiopian nun, composer, and pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru - profound and deeply moving home cassette recordings made amidst political upheaval and turmoil. These are songs of wisdom, loss, mourning, and exile, sung directly into a boombox and accompanied by Emahoy’s unmistakable piano. Though written and recorded while still living at her family’s home in Ad…
Alive In America 1974
This album features Fairport Convention's 1974 live recording from their USA tour, making its debut on vinyl. The band, founded in 1967 by Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, Ashley Hutchings, and Shaun Frater, evolved through lineup changes, with Sandy Denny steering them towards traditional British music. Liege & Lief marked the inclusion of fiddler Dave Swarbrick. By 1974, Dave Pegg replaced Hutchings. This vinyl release captures a pivotal moment in the band's history during their USA tour.