Jazz /
Live At The Berlin Jazzbühne Festival 1982
“In the afternoon we performed in a rather austere theatre in East Berlin. Then I remember we crossed Checkpoint Charlie that evening to play in a club in West Berlin. The atmosphere was completely different. I felt as though we were living in a black and white spy movie.” Nicolas Fiszman recalls that chaotic day of 13 June 1982. Two outstanding guitarists, Philip Catherine and Nicolas Fiszman, who at the time was only seventeen years old, were taken from one side of Berlin to the other in pouri…
Another Way Of The Heart
*2023 stock* "A few rare albums fit perfectly into your emotional state of mind and capture the fragility of our impermanent lives so beautifully as Another Way of the Heart by Norwegian reeds and trumpet player Torben Snekkestad and Danish pianist Søren Kjærgaard. Both Snekkestad and Kjærgaard were associated with the Danish label-musicians cooperative Ilk Music but, unfortunately, their discographies, especially in recent years, don't match their great creative potential.
Snekkestad and Kjærga…
Future Moons
*2023 stock* The trio of Kieran Adams (sampler, drum machine, drums), Matthew “Doc” Dunn (keyboards and electronics), and Andy Haas (reeds and electronics) is a subset of Toronto spiritual jazz practitioners The Cosmic Range. Where their parent-group tends to anchor itself with a firm pulse, the trio veers into various flavours of abstraction. Some pieces furnish nervy ambient waft, whereas others are more gestural—sometimes violently so. Meanwhile, on the title track, a synth bass ostinato lays…
727 / 16
*100 copies limited edition. 2023 sock* When Christopher Shannon (of bands Bart and Possum) and Benjamin Pullia started High Alpine Hut Network, the intention was to explore cosmic extensions of house music. However with the addition of Jason Bhattacharya on drums, HAHN's recording sessions rapidly became a site of experimentation where members would generate raw material through structured improvisation and sheer spontaneity. Through this process, the project eventually evolved into a collabora…
Steve Allen's Hip Fables
Before Sesame Street or Yo Gabba Gabba made art for kids that their parents understood on a whole other level, there were Hip Fables. Pop prose originally put to pulp by the pen of Steve Allen circa the ‘50s, which inspired a popular album and even a book titled Hip Fables (Simon & Schuster). The original recording featured Steve Allen on the piano accompanied by King Cool himself, Chicago DJ and Impulse! recording artist Al Jazzbeaux Collins!
In 1983 under the watchful eye of original producer …
Solo in Vilnius
It was a magical Autumn day in Vilnius - Mr. Howard Riley was giving his rare solo performance at St. Catherine’s Church.The outcome is this two LP set of deep musical contemplation, freedom and lyricism. After the concert Howard Riley said that this was his best solo performance in many years.
Starting Point
Tip! In 1975, under the oppressive air of military dictatorship in Brazil, brothers Lelo and Zé Eduardo Nazario invited bassist Zeca Assumpção to join their musical experiments in a basement under Sao Paulo’s Teodoro Sampaio Street. As teenagers, the trio had already been playing together in Hermeto Pascoal’s Grupo, alongside guitarist Toninho Horta and saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, and it was while working together under Hermeto’s direction that the Paulista rhythm section (as they were then kno…
Doctor Dancing Mask: Pianoisms
Neil S. Kvern’s Doctor Dancing Mask: Pianoisms is a near mythical marker on the map of late 20th century experimentalism transpiring in America’s Pacific Northwest. A sublime, spacious effort of left field DIY minimalism constructed from recurring piano pieces, hypnotic percussion, and a peppering of diverse instrumentation, vocals, and invisible effects, Doctor Dancing Mask illuminates a hidden but remarkable legacy of a young composer at the height of his creativity and consciousness.
Original…
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
"I imagined the four ensemble pieces that begin this album as belonging to the repertoire of a speculative musical culture — one potentially not so far removed from my own — whose sonic and lyrical affinities reflect chronic, hazardous inundation, and mystifying betrayal. Without my realizing it at first, they became, in their own way, more-or-less oblique renditions of the Jerome Kern / Otto Harbach standard “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” an object lesson in the transmutation of weather and grief i…
Meets Matthew Bourne Volume 1
On July 16 2021, Shiver (Guitarist Chris Sharkey, Bassist Andy Champion and Drummer Joost Hendrickx) met up with Pianist Matthew Bourne at his house in Airedale, Yorkshire. Hungry to make music following various lockdowns, cancellations and disappointments, the quartet embarked on a ferocious two-day journey of exploratory music-making. The weather was good, the connection was immediate. There was much laughing, tea-drinking and storytelling. In the evening, the stove was lit and we listened to …
City Of Mirrors
Songs of resistance and gratitude in a Latin pop mode from Chicago’s Dos Santos, one of the longest running groups on International Anthem Recording Company. Vintage-sounding, but polished to modern tastes, ‘City Of Mirrors’ feature the septet playing to their latin heritage in a style that will appeal to all members of the extended family. It’s rich with melody and impassioned vocals, driven by coolly urgent tresillo rhythms and equally given to elegiac ballads that wouldn’t sound out of place…
Frank Wright Trio
Reissue, originally released on ESP Disk' in 1966. Frank "The Reverend" Wright was one of the most powerful saxophonists to pick up on Albert Ayler's freedom and ferocious playing. Born in Mississippi and raised in Memphis, TN and then Cleveland, OH, he started in music as a bassist in blues bands but switched to tenor sax under the influence of his Cleveland friend Albert Ayler. Wright's "energy music" approach to tenor saxophone was influenced by Ayler but at the time in the '60s Wright's inte…
Dimension 5
*2022 stock* "While not the absolutely earliest of this excellent bassist, bandleader, and composer's projects, Dimension 5 still features a photograph on the back cover that has prompted comparisons with nervous high school kids at a dance, all dressed up but afraid to ask anyone to boogie. Except John Lindberg is already holding a bass in the picture, so doesn't need a partner, and in the process of creating this recording was putting his best foot forward not to boogaloo but to establish hims…
Intaglio
*2022 repress* Studio Mule present a re-recording of Motohiko Hamase's Intaglio, originally released in 1986. Currently the rediscovery of long-forgotten Japanese electronic, jazz, and new age music is at a peak like never before. Although many reissues have already hit record stores, the large, diverse musical culture of Japan still got some gems in store that are really missing. For example, the work of Japanese bass player, new age and ambient musician Motohiko Hamase. When the now 66-year ol…
In These Times
In These Times is the new album by Chicago-based percussionist, composer, producer, and pillar of our label family, Makaya McCraven. Although this album is “new," the truth it’s something that's been in process for a very long time, since shortly after he released his International Anthem debut In The Moment in 2015. Dedicated followers may note he’s had 6 other releases in the meantime (including 2018’s widely-popular Universal Beings and 2020’s We’re New Again, his rework of Gil Scott-Heron’s …
Bisu
*In process of stocking* Official Afrodelic reissue of the ultra-rare Tunde Mabadu’s debut album. Originally released in 1978 on Blackspot label (Decca's West Africa division), Bisu, which includes the supergroovy ‘Red Jeans’, differs from the later 1980 ‘Viva Disco’ album by a much more pure African style. A beautiful and soulful production in which Tunde's deep voice and sax move on the excellent horns arrangements, percussions, the wahwah rhythm guitar and weird keyboards and synths (at times…
Mind Reader
SOLL is an exploration in rhythm, melody and soundscape. A musical story free from preconceived roles with melodies driven by eight carefully tuned congas, framed by electric bass and effected guitars. At times phsychedelic, at times spiritual, always grooving with improvisation at the core.
Live at Mu 22nd of April 2022
* 300 copies only * Recorded live at 'Mu' Kingsland high road, Dalston. Personel: Idris Rahman - Tenor SaxophoneLeon Brichard - BassGene Calderazo - DrumsGuest: Robin Hopcraft: Trumpet
ZZAJ: Jazz From the 23rd Century
*In process of stocking* ZZAJ: Jazz from the 23rd Century, is a thrilling new collection of music featuring 34 new songs – all previously unreleased – from artists from all over the world. The brainchild of producers/multi-instrumentalists Jerry King (Cloud Over Jupiter, Moon X, John Shirley & Jerry King) and Dave Newhouse (The Muffins, Manna Mirage, Moon X), ZZAJ asked musicians to interpret jazz from various conceptual viewpoints, particularly avoiding traditional jazz sounds. Says King, “It’s…