★Akuphone
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…
Boîte Boîte
"Boîte Boîte" is the latest collection from French trumpeter Jac Berrocal. Composed of rare and previously unreleased tracks, it plunges the listener into the fascinating world of this unclassifiable and timeless avant-garde artist. Recorded between Paris, New York, Berlin and Riga, the works are received like postcards from an unknown sender and enjoyed without moderation. The selection, devised by Jac Berrocal himself, oscillates between experimental tracks such as the eponymous 'Boîte Boîte' …
Baskot Lel Baltageyya
Under meters of concrete in central Cairo, a relentless buzz rebels and forms a melody. A tired man tunes his machines to catch a snatch of it, and accidentally creates a playground where these abandoned sounds can flourish. They develop a sense of humor and an acid tongue.
Sharav
*In process of stocking* Akuphone is proud to present the Jerusalem-based improvisational trio Leviot and its hypnotizing debut album. Leviot (Hebrew for “Lionesses”) is the brainchild of the multifaceted musician and composer Yael Lavie. She is accompanied by classically trained percussionist and music teacher Cnaan Canetti, and synth enthusiast Yishay Seroussi. The project is a result of Lavie’s explorations beyond the restraints of classical kanun and her fascination for electronic sounds and…
One Butoh
Akuphone is proud to present Fuji-Yuki’s latest masterpiece, "One Butoh". A musical immersion into the most exciting avant-garde dance style of the past century. Created in Japan in the 1960s by Tatsumi Hijikata, butō is the "dance of the obscure body". It broke with the traditions of classical Noh and Kabuki Theater, which, at the time, seemed outdated in the national context. Nourished by a European artistic avant-garde, butō stands out as a mirror of the socio-political turmoil of a post-Worl…
Healing of the Nation
Eka Faune offers a surprising mix of Asian cultures, shamanism and post-punk in the form of a record called Healing of the Nation. The band merges dark mantras, hypnotic rhythms, ethnic samples and the acid sounds of Seika Faune. Delphine Poupard's voice and Robin Plastre's sax are added to produce a haunting music, dark and luminous at the same time, alternating dance and trance, taking the listener far inside... Similarly to the other albums by Eka Faune, Seika first recorded his drums and sou…
Diva of Deva Loka
Kadef Abgi came together in a serendipitous way. Devin Brahja Waldman was walking up St. Laurent borough in Montreal when he heard an otherworldly voice emanating from the venue Divan Orange. He walked in and listened to the singer on stage. When he was done, Devin walked over to him. After a short exchange about playing a house show in a couple of days, Ziad Qoulaii told Devin that he was available for all his projects. Shortly thereafter, Devin and Ziad met up at Mathieu Pelletier-Gagnon’s stu…
Transcodex
Jac Berrocal, David Fenech and Vincent Epplay are back with a true gem of an album: Transcodex. Turning more towards pop than in their beginnings, this fourth record follows the footsteps of their previous album, Exterior Lux. The trio seems limitless: they experiment with a large variety of styles (pop, dub, electronica, dark jazz), always colored by their very own touch. Jac Berrocal’s trumpet, richer than ever, plays over an ever-changing sonic landscape engineered by the duet of musicians/pr…
Balkan Express
*In process of stocking* Contrarily to the rest of Tasos Stamou’s experimental discography, the musician’s latest album “Balkan Express” has a more obscure electro-folk approach. It consists of seven pieces, all recorded with seven different vintage electric keyboards from Stamou’s own collection, blended with oriental acoustic solos.
Since Stamou grew up in the Balkans in the ‘80s, he wanted to pay homage to the essence of the sound of the era that unintentionally shaped a whole culture. It was…
Arkaoda
As a traveler-without-age, Damo Suzuki has been touring all over space-time. Presenting the light of “instant composing” to new generations, he refers to his makeshift collaborators as sound-carriers. Exactly fifty years after the release of the profoundly iconic Ege Bamyası, we can hear his voice on yet another fantastic album, as in “derived from fantasy.” Manifested from the meeting with Spiritczualic Enhancement Center -- an eight-piece group of self-proclaimed disciples from the CAN Univers…
Essentials 1996 - 1998
Akuphone is pleased to present the first compilation dedicated to musician John Bolloten, aka The Rootsman. As a precocious punk, he formed his first band, State Oppression, in his teens. Yet he is best known for his dub music, a genre that gave him international recognition. Largely influenced by the rhythms of North Africa and the Middle East, he built his musical identity around samples from these regional repertoires. His encounter with Bryn Jones — better known as Muslimgauze — further defi…
Maza Gusu
Tip! *Limited vinyl with uncoated sleeve, printed inner and download card (300 only)* On Maza Gusu, Mikado Koko transforms into Mother Goose, hissing Charles Perrault's fairy tales from her native tongue in your ears. Her unsettling, regressive voice is backed up by a subtle and chilling electronic soundscape sprinkled with traditional Japanese instruments, creating a realm of sound that feels both weirdly familiar and deeply unknown. Mother Koko hurls you deep down the rabbit hole, back to your…
Exterior Lux
** 2021 Stock ** Jac Berrocal is a 1946-born musician (trumpet player), poet and sometime film actor who came of age in the ‘70s Paris improv scene, where the boundaries between music, art and theatre were porous and begging to be breached. Inspired by bebop, chanson, free jazz, beat poetry, early rock ‘n roll and myriad Eastern influences, and with an iconoclastic, anything-goes approach to instrumentation and technique that would later align him with post-punk sensibilities, Berrocal blazed an…
Wa
* 2021 Stock * Musician, composer and one of the most revered figures for today’s younger generation of experimental and alternative Arabic music-scenes, Kamilya Jubran (text, oud & vocals, collaborates with long standing musical partner, composer, accomplished trumpet player and seasoned electronic musician Werner Hasler (trumpet & electronics).
In Wa (Arabic for and), their third album together as a duo, Kamilya Jubran and Werner Hasler continue to interrogate their listening and their express…
Leila Nova
Ko Shin Moon's third LP puts the use of samples on a background layer and asserts his place as an instrumentalist. Leïla Nova presents itself as a nocturnal digression where analogical synthesizer, rhythm box, vocal tinkering, and colorful instrumentation are mixed together. Psychedelia, electronic variations, dance music, synth folk, and filmed approach, blend with traditional Greek, Afghan, Lebanese-Syrian, Turkish, and Indian revisited repertoires. The artwork is designed by Lebanese artist R…
Retrospektywny (Retrospective)
Akuphone presents a compilation of Wladyslaw Komendarek, the Polish genius of synthesizers. This selection comes from tree albums released between 1987 and 1990, a very important political and social period in Poland, marked by the last convulsions of communism. Komendarek’s music offers a unique patchwork of synthesizer sounds, “art of noise” and cosmic flights far beyond the realm of conventions that dominated the Polish electronic music scene at the time. It brings a weird mixture of electron…
96
The poet, producer and visual artist Ramuntcho Matta comes back to music with '96'. 96 – as 96 hours were needed to record this new album. Ramuntcho points out that behind this dazzling recording, years of experience enabled him to achieve the mix of spontaneity and intimacy of the album. He was the man behind the success of Eli Medeiros’ Toi mon toit. As a matter of fact, Ramuntcho Matta likes to put artists in the spotlight, as he has done with Brion Gysin, Don Cherry and many others. However …
Music of Northern Laos
Music of Northern Laos, subtitled Provinces of Luang Namtha et Phongsaly. One part of Akuphone's collection of Laotian music. Includes liner notes in English, French, and Japanese and a download code. Akuphone presents a collection of recordings of various musical practices from the Laotian provinces of Champasak, Attapeu, Sekong, Saravan, Luang Namtha and Phongsaly. These documents are a perfect introduction to the traditional music of South Laos minority groups. Popular modern music is widely …
Music of Southern Laos
Music of Southern Laos, subtitled Provinces of Champasak, Attapeu, Sekong and Saravan. One part of Akuphone's collection of Laotian music. Includes liner notes in English, French, and Japanese and a download code. Akuphone presents a collection of recordings of various musical practices from the Laotian provinces of Champasak, Attapeu, Sekong, Saravan, Luang Namtha and Phongsaly. These documents are a perfect introduction to the traditional music of South Laos minority groups. Popular modern mus…