★Important Records

Debut of the New England singer, songwriter and naturalist Harper Bull as Allison Graves: breathy, worn-in songs recorded with a secondhand guitar and a broken laptop, between Nick Drake, Vashti Bunyan and Adrianne Lenker. First vinyl edition on Important.

The final collaboration between Eliane Radigue and Important Records is this LP edition of Triptych. Eliane insisted that her music be released on vinyl only if the pieces would fit without being edited or cut.

2026 Repress. Initially produced by Table of the Elements. Eliane Radigue's Adnos trilogy was composed between 1973 and 1980 and is among her finest compositions. Adnos is a deeply meditative work of infinite depth and sensitivity; one of the high points of modern minimal electronic composition. Packaged in a heavy duty 3CD jacket much like the recent Eleh releases and containing extensive archival materials.Eliane Radigue has composed for magnetic tape and electronic media since the late 1950's…

When Eleh's debut Floating Frequencies/Intuitive Synthesis I was originally released it was praised as a powerful piece of new electronic minimalism. Twenty years later the artist's legacy has grown while Eleh continues to hypnotize new listeners with time stopping music. Critics, fans and neurologists have praised the music of Eleh as aiding attention and focus while seeming to slow time. Eleh's slow change drones are a state of flow hypnotizing listeners into meditative focus. From the origina…

Analog Tara’s Life of the Mother is a sonic meditation on the depth, expansiveness, complexity, and power that this phrase holds. This album is made from layers of generative processes and interactions with them. Analog Tara uses a Zillion sequencer and Xone mixer as system guides, and sounds of the ARP 2500, Jealous Heart, Access Virus, Oberheim OB-6, Jomox XBase, Moog DFAM, and more to create a compelling electronic narrative.

Tip! Shifting continuously between minimalistic patterns, intricate soundscapes, and evolving textures of overlapping electronic sonorities, The Electric Weasel Ensemble presents a missing link in the history of electronic music. It is a series of previously unreleased live recordings from a little-known but trailblazingensemble of improvisers—equipped with a unique embrace of invented instruments and distinctly 1970s avant-garde sensibilities. This historic music is available on both double LP …

These stunning recordings combine the great strengths of Pauline Oliveros on her Roland V-Accordion, Issui Minegishi; Ichigenkin master and great-great granddaughter of the founder of the Seikyodo Ichigenkin tradition and Miya Masaoka on her 21 string Japanese Koto. Together, these masterful improvisors create a beautiful and fascinating world of instrumental communication. This trio of legendary artists establish a sonic zone so compelling that you'll never want to leave. This double CD preserv…

Triple Point, featuring Pauline Oliveros, Doug Van Nort and Jonas Braasch, was an improvising trio with a core instrumentation of soprano saxophone, greis/electronics, and V-accordion. The name refers to the point of equilibrium on a phase plot, which acts as a metaphor for the group's improvisational dialogue. Triple Point's musical interaction was centered around an interplay between acoustics, physically-modeled acoustics (v-accordion), and electronics. Van Nort captured the sound of the othe…

Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle concludes their trilogy on Important Records with an album that confronts the climate crisis and its devastating impact on coastal ecosystems. From overfishing to warming and acidifying seas, the group documents the decline of fish, seabirds, crustaceans and other marine life. Following 2024's All Hands Bury The Cliffs At Sea and 2022 Black Clouds Above The Bows, Ghosts Beneath The Brine is another mournful take on the woes of the natural world. There's ris…

Dr. John Chowning (b. 1934) is a pioneering computer musician, composer and professor who, in 1967, discovered the FM synthesis algorithm. This breakthrough in electronic music allowed for  simple, yet rich timbres described as sounding "real." With this discovery, Chowning composed singular, dramatic electronic music and changed the timbre of music forever. Chowning utilized the potential of computers to synthesize sounds according to programmed instructions. The composer's use of his own FM al…

Building on their long-standing efforts to illuminate the historical Ambient and New Age movement’s connections to minimalism and experimental electronic music, the venerable Important Records returns with the astoundingly ambitious “Agartha: Personal Meditation Music”, gathering an incredible body of music produced by Meredith L. Young-Sowers during the mid-1980s to aid meditation and spiritual healing. Resonating deeply with the work of Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Brian …

On this new LP Harry Bertoia shows why he may have been the first industrial musician. Bertoia often referred to his sound sculptures as a "collaboration with industry" and on this new LP Bertoia is intentionally creating heavy, rhythmic music he described as "mechanized," "mechanical" and "factory like." This first edition is packaged in a full color sleeve with metallic inks. Mastered by Tom Eaton at Sounds & Substance.  Recorded in 1971, percussion and repetition emulate the pounding rhythms …

Big tip! American percussionist and composer Michael Ranta is a legendary figure who has worked with some of the most significant names of 20th century music but despite this and impressive body of work of his own, he has remained an obscure figure.... Important Records and is pleased to present Transits: Volume 1 the first in a series of releases by composer/percussionist Sarah Hennies documenting never before heard chamber works mostly composed in the 1970s while Ranta was living in Taiwan.  B…

Japan's long running masters of psych/kosmische jamming return to Important Records for a vinyl outing featuring beloved original member Cotton Casino.

Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release) is a composition for string quartet and harmonica quartet, meaning that Quatuor Bozzini is playing string instruments while playing harmonicas. "The title refers to different kinds of bubbly matter which are set to collide within the composition, leading to different ruptures and possible release of surface tension. The collision of bubbles unfolds partly in relation to sound, where small fluctuations appear in the encounters between harmonicas and…

Lee Ranaldo and Rob Menard have been friends and collaborators for years and this split cassette release on Important Records' Cassauna label amplifies their unique musical personalities and sonic compatibility. Both artists contributed over 30 minutes of music making this a pair of mini-albums on one tape. Ranaldo plays Farfisa, electric guitar, tres, marimba, bass and bells, taking the listener on a lyrical, hazy, ride full of life, time and echoing riff shimmer. Massive vibes from author, art…

“The Generous Law,” a new album by organist Jack Langdon and guitarist Anthony Vine, presents a glimpse of the inner voices and acoustical splendor of the Fisk Organ at Wellesley College, enlivened by the intuition of two improvisers. At the keyboards, Langdon crafts geometries of patiently braided lines and incisions, configuring the hues and shades of organ stops with an ear to the materiality of sound. Vine seizes on this, tuning his guitar to the organ and bringing his strings into alignment…

Gabriele Gasparotti’s second full length album, Tropismi, is a collection of mesmerizing compositions with masterful polyrhythmical textures and harmonies, strings, prepared piano, magnetic tape and field recordings. Gasparotti's unique style uses classical composition techniques such as counterpoint, canone inverso and serialism to create morphing expanding harmonies continuously. Tropismi features stunning cellotronics by Benedetta Dazzi, cellist and sound designer with which Gasparotti establ…

‘Murals For Immersion’ is Kenneth James Gibson’s 6th ambient outing under his given name, this time around collaborating with saxophonist Paul Carman who played and recorded with Frank Zappa in what Zappa called The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life. In late 2022, Gibson and Carman started getting together at Gibson’s Idyllwild studio, laying down tons of Saxophone sounds - layers of drones, melody lines, and off kilter noises. Gibson processed, sculpted, and arranged these sounds into full…

Christina Kubisch’s Stromsänger finds this legendary sound artist at the top of her game mixing electromagnetic wave recordings with a score for six voices, creating powerful results.

Strange Times is a virtuosic realization of contemporary  electroacoustic soundscapes composed and performed by Stephen Ruppenthal and Gary R. Weisberg. With masterful employment of electro-acoustic techniques and tools, including the original 70's Buchla Music Easel Ruppenthal used in the Electric Weasel Ensemble, these two artist create an essential, psychedelic, electro-acoustic experience. Strange Times is a hallucinatory journey into our epidemic-ridden times through a collection of startli…

Tip! The Well & The Gentle, two of the major works of Pauline Oliveros, are presented here in a first time reissue on double vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with extensive liner notes. If Oliveros had followed a more conventional path she may have, all social obstacles aside, been considered among the major composers of her time. However, Oliveros approached composition in a more egalitarian manner. She wrote music for musicians to interact with or, in the composers words, she wished to create "an in…

"One Arm Bandits is an hour-long piece in four parts, scored for four cellists. The cellists play only open strings, thus using only their right arms, never fingering the strings with the left hand. Recorded in Alvin Lucier's dining room, this work features cellists Tyler J. Borden, Laura Cetilia, Charles Curtis and Judith Hamann. Lucier oversaw and produced the recording, and approved the final takes. One Arm Bandits was an important project for Alvin Lucier. The idea for the piece goes back to…

After last year’s Black Clouds Above The Bows, Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle presents the second entry of their trilogy for Important Records, which is dedicated to telling the story of the climate crisis and its effects on coastal areas around the globe. For this album the artists incorporated the sound of a dying organ. All Hands Bury The Cliffs At Sea consists of electro-acoustic threnodies for an environment at risk due to the effects caused by receding coastlines around the globe. …

2023 re-cut from original Peter Christopherson approved masters. Double LP version.  Pressed using the original Ape Of Naples plates approved by Peter Christopherson. The Ape Of Naples is Coil's highly celebrated final album completed by Peter Christopherson following the tragic death of John Balance in 2004. Often noted for being a fan favorite, The Ape Of Naples uses Balance's final recordings and material recorded at Trent Reznor's studio in New Orleans to create a deep, heavy masterpiece.The…

"This is where you have been forever and will always be forever." Stuart Dempster, speaking about what it feels like to be in a cistern where time seems to stop. Stuart Dempster created Underground Overlays From The Cistern Chapel in the same cistern where the legendary Deep Listening album was recorded. Reverberating with powerful, deep tones, this double LP is intended as a companion to the acclaimed Oliveros/Dempster/Panaiotis album Deep Listening. Underground Overlays From The Cistern Chapel…

On Therapy, his gripping third collection for Imprec, Alexandre Bazin creates concise melodic electro-acoustic environments with ripping timbres, deep staccato sequences and a dramatic immediacy. Elements of classical, minimal techno, modular-ambient and drone music permeate this aptly titled album, Therapy, from Alexandre Bazin. Bazin himself describes this album as "new experimental electronic music." Melodic progression, pulse and timbre play key roles in his delicately crafted work. Saturati…

Earthwave is Zak Riles’ (Grails/Watter) follow-up to his eponymous debut CD released on Important Records in 2008, a cinematic ascent through dark space, volatile illumination, reflection and refraction. Recorded during the pandemic—when Riles took refuge in his rural Kentucky studio, providing remote engineering work for groups like Sleep, Om, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Mono, and Joan Shelley—it’s a monumental exploration of his enduring interest in late '70s/early '80s instrumental electronic and …

Studies written for 53 equal divisions of the octave, a tuning the Mexican theorist Augusto Novaro argued came unusually close to the harmonic series. Orozco Mora keeps the timbres to plain sine waves so that nothing distracts from what the intervals are doing.

Weather Music features music controlled by the weather and performed on instruments built by Quintron & NYZ.

"Succinct sounds, stately atmospherics, affected instrumentation & synthetic chamber music. Eclectic ambient music of the highest order..." - Slow Music Movement "Beautifully nostalgic, brooding pearls of puckered melody and cinematic synth gaze from the lesser spotted Lambda Sond, gracing Important with a real lowkey gem tipped to followers of Alessandro Cortini, Kali Malone or Pauline Oliveros" - Boomkat Waglands 1921 exists in a vacuum somewhere between Pauline Oliveros, spiritual jazz, analo…

More than a decade ago, I made a piece of beat-based electronic music and titled it "Middle Eastern IDM" for a course assignment. After listening to it in class, my professor asked what was Middle Eastern about it. It was only a year after I had left Iran to study in the US, and I didn't know that I could say "I am. I made the piece". So I went back and superimposed a sample of Egyptian protest chants on top of the piece, to make it "sufficiently Middle Eastern". What prejudiced conservatism and…

Alina Kalancea is a sonic alchemist who can warp and weave electronic signals into complex tapestries of synthesized analog timbre. These transportive environments were recorded using the artist's personal collection of historic Buchla electronic music instruments including Allen Strange's expanded Music Easel. Letters Never Sent, Alina Kalancea's second full length for Imprec follows 2021's double LP titled Impedance and is being released at the same time as a new cassette titled Alchemy. Kalan…

Veils Of Transformation 1972 - 1980 is a collection of the earliest works of Gregory Kramer, one of the 20th century masters of textural electronic music. This collection is available on CD and cassette with liner notes from Gregory Kramer and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, who first brought this fascinating work to the attention of Important Records. “Greg is one of the pioneers of electronic music and these pieces are unique opportunities to discover how intricate and dynamic early synthesizers are.” …

Razen's Postcards From Hereafter was recorded using a 17th century organ tuned at 398 Hz (meantone) in a Belgian cathedral erected in 1305. The ensemble explored, with rich results, the organ's strict and limiting tuning with an arrangement that included hurdy gurdy, recorders, chalumeau, violone and nyckelharpa. The pieces on Postcards From Hereafter explore the crossover between this world and the next with improvised spiritual, religious music. Brussels-based ensemble Razen use the unique tim…

Recorded during two days of extreme weather, Eleh's Snoweight conveys the mesmerizing force of a winter storm with sonic realism and romanticism. These two new compositions evoke both warm security and wild, blanketing intensity in ways that are both emotionally arresting and time stopping.

"With Eleh having cemented themself as perhaps the modern minimalist, their collaborations have become a fascinating journey into the genre old guard such as Pauline Oliveros and Ellen Fullman as well as platforms for newer artists like Sun Circle, and in this case, Duane Pitre. As usual, Eleh hardcore analogue drones are well matched by Pitre feather-light just intonation harmonics. Both sides reflect different aspects of minimalism past without being pale shadows of those earlier pioneers. In …

2023 repress, edition of 500 copies, gatefold sleeve. Essential re-press of Caterina Barbieri's debut double LP. Patterns Of Consciousness is the powerful second full-length from analog synth composer Caterina Barbieri. Gorgeous high resolution analog textures and algorithmic melodies unfold under Barbieri's careful control, exploring the basic nature of sound and consciousness. These pieces are minimal in arrangement but maximal in presence asserting Barbieri as a unique voice in contemporary e…

Dragonfly's First Flight, taking up the full side A, features Simeon Coxe and Kawabata Makoto jamming over familiar Silver Apples hypnotic rhythms. Fans of both groups will delight in the interplay between Simeon's keyboard and Makoto's drone guitar feedback soloing. Side B ranges from free-form freakouts to ambient poetry readings by Simeon with Japanese translation spoken by Makoto. Future Reminiscence, which closes side B, is a song that sounds like a long-lost Silver Apples track. Mirage is …

*2023 repress* Born Again In The Voltage is an astonishing collection of electro-acoustic pieces for Buchla 200 system, cello, and voice composed and produced by Caterina Barbieri at Elektronmusikstudion (SE) between 2014 and 2015. Cello by Antonello Manzo. Images by Giovanni Brunetto; Photography by Angelo Jaroszuk Bogasz; Layout by Important Records. Mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi. Edition of 500. . "One of electronic music's most interesting new voices." FactMagazine