★BYG Records
The Solar-Myth Approach
The second instalment of a landmark session by one of the most unique figures in black music is a shower of sounds that have come straight from another world. Sun Ra and the various groups he led were as prolific as they were innovative. By conservative estimates they produced around 200 recordings over a fifty-year period, and the early 70s was as fertile a time as any. In a typical burst of creative energy Ra and an ensemble he dubbed The Solar Myth Arkestra produced enough material to be spr…
Banana Moon
** Original 1971 BYG album. Digitally mastered from BYG tapes by Nick Robbins. 16-page booklet with photos & exclusive liner notes by author and journalist Kevin Le Gendre ** Debut solo album by the legendary purveyor of music that daringly blurred the boundary between psychedelic rock and raucous, riotous Dadaism. Australian vocalist-guitarist Daevid Allen was a part of the highly experimental Canterbury scene, alongside the likes of drummers Robert Wyatt and Pip Pyle, before he relocated to P…
Blasé
Florida-born saxophonist, composer, poet, actor and playwright Archie Shepp was one of the most articulate exponents of politicized black culture in the late ‘60s, a time of enormous upheaval and radical thought. Relocating to Paris he made a number of highly influential albums, such as Blasé, that broached the essential themes of freedom and racial equality, and tapped into the bedrock of African-American music. Gospel and blues were a major part of the work, which also had a strong avant-garde…
Magick Brother
2024 Stock. "In 1970, the world got its first taste of the original pothead pixie, Daevid Allen's Gong, as Magick Brother was released in France on the BYG label. Allen's wife, Gilli Smyth, penned all the tunes on the album, and Allen's now-classic "Ph.P." drawing style graces the inside of the gatefold. Leaning a little toward the pop end of the spectrum, Magick Brother is a fairly light album, devoid of the blatant psychedelic/hippie qualities which shine through so brilliantly on the later Ca…
Blue Whale
Legendary British drummer’s adventurous sophomore album is still full of surprises decades after it was made.
The Sound Pool
Pioneers of live electronics, found sound and urban environment-as-instrument, Musica Elettronica Viva created suites that were as imaginary as imaginative.
Yasmina, A Black Woman
Iconic musician and political activist makes a typically thought-provoking statement on historic 1969 recording.
L'incendie
Vocalist-multi-instrumentalist Areski and singer Brigitte Fontaine are a legendary French musical couple that rose to prominence in the ‘60s, making a series of albums that showcased a boldly unorthodox approach to the art of song.
Taken as a whole the 13 pieces on L’Incendie stand as high-impact scenes or episodes in a theatre or TV production as much as they represent another take on the concept album. Translated from French L’Incendie means fire, but Areski & Fontaine give it admirably broad …
Alice
BYG were a pioneering independant record compagny, one of the first labels to actively promote diversity and support black African-American musicians and multi-cultural artists worldwide during the 1960s and 1970s.
Alice was part of the experimental and unpredictable energy that pervaded pop in the late ‘60s. Its members had previously worked with the well-regarded French blues rock bands Alan Jack Civilization, and We Free, both of which performed at watershed events in Francophone musical his…
Beautiful Young Generation
* Limited Edition 180-Gram white vinyl. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve * Newly mastered from original BYG tapes. BYG were a pioneering independant record compagny, one of the first labels to actively promote diversity and support black African-American musicians and multi-cultural artists worldwide during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Launched in the late ’60s in Paris, a city then in the throes of great social upheaval, BYG became the home of music that was uncompromisingly new. The…