★Important Records
Lime
2010 release ** "Mugstar's third album (and second on Important Records) maintains the power and heaviness of the sonic assaults laid out in their previous releases while extending musical maneuvers and textures into new territories. Sunburnt Impedance Machine moves through driving riff passages with soaring guitars and a voice recalling touches of early Pink Floyd before locking into a repetitive keyboard and drum driven outro. Serra is an extended voyage through a shimmering Krautrock landscap…
My Only Warm Coals
2025 stock ** "My Only Warm Coals neatly sums up a fifteen year span of Emil Amos' (Grails/Om) basement home-recording in nineteen songs. Using the 4-track like a mirror in LSD therapy sessions, Amos disassembles himself and leaves the puddle on the floor for the listener to contemplate without easy resolution. The record also arcs a period of "lo-fi" recording technique and sonic experimentation that has largely gone undocumented in the larger underground culture, while epitomizing a supremely…
Berlin 07
Berlin 2007 was a monumental performance for Cluster, marking their first live performance in Berlin since their 12-hour concert in the Galerie Hammer in the Europacenter in 1969. The performance was a massive success as a sold out crowd cheered loudly for Cluster to return to the stage. Fortunately, the concert was preserved for posterity and is proudly presented here on Important Records.
Packaged in a deluxe digipack.
Cluster was formed around 1971 when Roedelius and Moebius left Conrad Schni…
Zurich
Zurich began as a 1994 musical partnership between Neil Halstead then of Slowdive and Tony F Wilson. The two recorded a handful of tracks together at a time when Wilson was co-promoting and DJing at the club/live night Quirky in South London where he booked acts including Pan Sonic, Hafler Trio and Autechre. Halstead was shortly to begin work on Slowdive’s final and most experimental album Pygmalion. Recorded at a time when the popularity of ambient techno was at its peak, these recordings are r…
Agartha: Personal Meditation Music
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 …
Mechanization I & II
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 …
Lee Ranaldo/Rob Menard
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
“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…
Murals For Immersion
‘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…
Strange Times
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…
Colliding Bubbles
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…
Mono Fluido
"Mono Fluido' collects two major compositions from Christina Kubisch which, until now, have been unreleased. Extensive liner notes and & photographs detail the origins of the work. Heavy drones and deep emotions run through these newly discovered pieces." In 1980, the deeply fascinating sound artist Christina Kubisch made some professional recordings in an Italian studio for the soundtrack of Fabrizio Plessi's 'Liquid Movie'. She returned to the sounds in '81, mostly field recordings of swinging…
Zak Riles
2023 Stock. Zak Riles is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in the Important band Grails (as well as M.Ward's band). His creative contributions to the group are immeasurable and can be heard clearly on this self titled debut solo outing. In fact, some of the pieces on this solo record have been reinterpreted into Grails favorites. Like his band Grails, Zak Riles solo work is an elaborate mansion built of inspiration but with so much strength and originality that it stands firmly on its own. …
Therapy
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
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 …
Insulated Paradise
Atsuko Hatano is a contemporary classical viola player who works with electronics to add textures and layers to her sound. Located in Tokyo, Japan, she is a commanding instrumentalist and composer who constructs innovative compositions with strings and layered electronics. Working in isolation due to the Covid pandemic, Atsuko Hatano played violin, viola, synthesizer, and electronics to create these powerful, unique compositions. Insulated Paradise is an investigation into the social nature of h…
Sucesiones
Sucesiones is a compilation of studies written for 53 equal divisions of the octave (53 EDO). This tuning temperament was selected after analyzing the work of Mexican researcher and visionary Augusto Novaro, one of the microtonal and just intonation pioneer theorists. Novaro claims that 53 EDO is one of rich musical qualities, which has good approximations to the harmonic series. The use of simple textures such as sine waves was a conscious decision, this in order to maintain the focus on the re…
Hopes & Theory
Hopes and Theory is a collection of songs inspired by wild plants and intentional gardens. At its core this music is rooted in synthesis, autonomy, and purely tuned harmony. At its heart there is chaos, color, and evolution. Hopes and Theory was recorded on the island of North Haven, Maine and reflects the anarchy of serenity in a seemingly peaceful place. William Trevaskis is a composer and sound artist living and working in the Fox Islands of Maine who uses xenharmony to explore themes of cha…
Weather Music
Weather Music features music controlled by the weather and performed on instruments built by Quintron & NYZ.
Proof Of Identity
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…