Folk /
Pièces
Big Big Tip! Danielle Boutet’s Pièces is a mysterious artifact of Quebecois marginalia, self-released in 1985. Moving from languid ennui to high drama, Pièces is a dreamy gestalt, an album that borders Chanson, spoken-word, jazz noir, and minimalism, conjured from the chasm between acoustic and electronic realms. Pièces allows us a window into the highly intimate songcraft and compositional skill of an artist who longed to linger not in the public eye, but in relation with others and the world a…
Agua Larga: Traditional & Imaginary Cimarron Music
Agua Larga offers an immersion into the Afro-Ecuadorian culture of the province of Esmeraldas. The authors have captured how music is part of the daily life of the inhabitants, and how it interacts with the other sound elements that surround it. The musical material is thus accompanied by stories, poems and scenes of everyday life captured on the spot, far from aseptic studios, in public spaces, on river banks or by the sea. The guiding theme is water ("agua" in Spanish), in all its forms. It wa…
Indonesian City Sound Panbers Psychedelic Rock and Funk 1971-1974
Long-awaited compilation of hard-rocking, psychedelic songs from Indonesia's premiere rock outfit Panbers (Pandjaitan Bersaudara) culled from their most fertile years with Mesra Dimita Records.
Congo Guitar
Vumbi and the guitar go back a long time. Born with polio in the Kivu province of North Eastern Congo, Vumbi grew up in a Swedish missionary home and picked up the guitar at an early age. Listening intently to the radio, he learned the style and rhythms of Rumba and Soukous from the giants of the Congolese guitar sound, Dr Nico and Franco. "Listening and playing Soukous music makes you feel happy to be alive and you just have to dance to it no matter what". In the early 80’s Vumbi emigrated to T…
I’m The Sky: Studio And Demo Recordings, 1964–1971
*2023 stock* Norma Tanega’s I’m the Sky: Studio and Demo Recordings, 1964–1971 is a comprehensive survey of the pioneering folk artist’s two commercially released studio albums, an unreleased album, and a trove of unheard demos. Before playing a pivotal part in folk music’s cultural crossover in the ‘60s, Tanega was a curious little girl born at the very end of the ‘30s to a multicultural Navy family in Long Beach, California. Her parents often brought her to Los Angeles for piano lessons, and e…
Inner Roads And Outer Paths
*300 copies limited edition* Inner Roads and Outer Paths is Herefordshire born Vic Mars’ third release on Clay Pipe Music. It follows last years ‘The Soundtrack To The Hospice’ commissioned by Gideon Coe for BBC 6 Music, and 2015s critically acclaimed ‘The Land and the Garden’.
Inspired by in part by Alfred Watkins words and photographs of Herefordshire, the record also harks back to a period in Vic’s youth spent exploring the abandoned houses and factories on the fringes of his home town; the i…
nina harker
Freeform, pigeon-hole dodging, stylistic merry-go-round, restless, weird and addictive - the long anticipated return of Nina Harker!
Borrowed Tongue
Borrowed Tongue is the debut solo album by Korean singer-songwriter Minhwi Lee. It’s a mysterious, strangely compelling thing, an album of rare poetry, and remarkably self-assured. Originally released in November 2016, the album made waves, winning best folk album of 2016 at the 14th Korean Music Awards. Its eight songs, written and predominantly arranged by Lee, don’t reveal their secrets easily, or at first blush; rather, they take their time slowly to unfurl in her listeners’ worlds. There ar…
Amoskeag
Every song on this album taps into raw, rich veins of sound that are simultaneously dense but easy to enjoy; vintage and modern; new yet timeless. The album kicks off with a monster track entitled "Stratton-Eustis" - one of those complex yet flowing tunes that makes you think overdubs were involved or the player has grown an extra set of limbs. Then there's "Kenduskeag,” a raga-esque group recording in an abandoned New England Conservatory building with Ethan WL and the long standing anonymous d…
Kafilah Nights: Malay-Arabic Variations From 1960s Indonesia
In the early 1960s, two of the best talents in the Indonesian music scene, songwriter and band leader Adi Karso, known for his hits "Papaya Cha-Cha-Cha" and "Balonku" and Gambus musician Munif Bahasuan teamed up to form Orkes Melayu (Malay Orchestra) Kelana Ria. Between 1961 and 1964, Kelana Ria recorded 48 songs that were spread over four records, Kafilah, Yam El Shamah, Ya Mahmud, and Ya Hamidah, which become the primary sources for this compilation. These four albums changed the trajectory of…
The Beacons
Clay Pipe Music is thrilled to announce The Beacons by Vic Mars - the enigmatic producers third LP for the label. Since 2019s Inner Roads and Outer Paths his music has found a new audience having been used as the soundtrack to the game I am Dead by British interactive studio Hollow Ponds.
While his previous two albums were inspired by the pastoral landscapes of Herefordshire, The Beacons, embarks on a journey westward into Wales, inviting listeners into the rugged terrain of the Brecon Beacons a…
Into Closed Air
"With Into Closed Air, Francis Plagne returns to the songcraft that’s been the bedrock of his music since his debut, 2006’s Idle Bones. Since then, Plagne’s music has see-sawed between a particular, parsed kind of art song and explorations of home-made musique concrete - though to see these as distinct practices understates Plagne’s capacity to layer and fuse these two tranches of his music making. This capacity has reached its deepest articulation yet on Into Closed Air. For those who’ve been f…
Grief In The Kitchen And Mirth In The Hall
From our now-venerable, but ever thistle-sharp, Scots singer of new songs and old, comes a fifth full-length collection of traditional songs. Reaching down the centuries to unpack these numbers anew, Alasdair finds a set of eternal melodies – and with them, an unsettling number of surreal images that parallel the madness of our modern times.
Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind (Singles And Demos 1964 To 1967)
*2023 stock* "Vashti Bunyan will always be most known for her 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day, a big cult favorite among some folk-rock fans, and her 2005 comeback Lookaftering. She did, however, release a couple obscure singles in the mid-'60s, as well as doing quite a few unreleased studio and demo recordings around the same time. This 25-track collection couldn't be bettered as a thorough sweep of her material from this era, including both sides of her two mid-'60s 45s; three tracks from …
Bolinus Brandaris: Flamenco from the Bay of Cadiz
Bolinus Brandaris takes the listener to the Bay of Cadiz, which is often referred to as "cuna del cante" ("cradle of song"). This southernmost part of mainland Spain is considered the birthplace and heartland of flamenco, where many song styles originated then radiated out through the rest of Andalusia. Expertly recorded with modern technology in informal and natural environments, this is flamenco culture as it is being lived today. Generally speaking, modern flamenco recordings have often misse…
Murmurs & Whispers
The return of P.G. Six’s deep acoustic focus, a devotional style honed from childhood ongoing. Pat Gubler’s salad years of playing the harp pay off after a one a few decades – here, he plays his Triplett Celtic model with pristine fingerwork and heavy soul. Evoking worlds, generations and future waves radiated from the folk tradition, Murmurs & Whispers finds P.G. at an apex of his special talent for earthly sounds with transcendent aspirations.
Live At The Tavastia, Helsinki, Finland, June 18th 1993 - Fm Broadcast
The show at Tavastia, in Helsinki, Finland, recorded on June 18th 1993, his first visit to the country. Stripped back, it features just the voice and guitar of Townes Van Zandt, a voice that whilst still full of conviction, appears somewhat more fragile than on the previous recordings. Described by Billboard magazine as "largely-obscure-if-legendary," Townes Van Zandt was a remarkable singer/songwriter, and this release is worthy of consideration, shining, as it does, more bright rays of light o…
Live At The Whole Coffeehouse, Minneapolis Mn, November 1973 - Fm Broadcast
The Whole Coffeehouse set is nothing but the man and his guitar. The focus here is acute and sharp, the Whole Coffeehouse in 1973 is an essential addition to the late great Van Zandt discography. Van Zandt's lyrics and melodies were filled with the kind of haunting truth and succulent beauty that were instinctive.
At The Waleback
*2023 stock* First ever vinyl reissue of this ‘Incredible Strange Music’, private press (infamous) classic, championed by lovers of the wonderful & weird such as Jello Biafra. A time capsule which will send you back to the post-beatnik, pre-psychedelic / hippie scene from L.A.
With his long red hair and matching beard, Robbie The Werewolf – a folksinger of the frantic variety with a fetish for monsters – was a striking performer with a manic stage presence, acting out his songs as much as singin…
Manifestación
*2023 stock* Pigmy is the solo project of Vicente Maciá, founding member of 90s Spanish psych band Carrots. Highly influenced by late 60s / early 70s UK psych, folk-rock and baroque pop (think Magna Carta, Fairfield Parlour, Pete Dello, Duncan Browne, Cat Stevens, Amazing Blondel…) as well as Spanish 70s folk-pop / SSW (Solera, José y Manuel, Vainica Doble…), Pigmy surprised everyone with his previous two albums, “Miniaturas” and “Hamsterdam”, which are now cult items between psych-folk fans.
Af…