★Important Records

Since the mid-'90s, Seattle-based guitarist Bill Horist has been making music within and without convention in a wide variety of settings and genres and has worked with many notables in rock, experimental, and new music. He has played on dozens of records and has performed throughout North and Central America, Europe, and Japan, collaborating with numerous leading lights in a beguiling range of genres. He delivers an idiosyncratic and richly emotive take on the world's most ubiquitous instrument…

A work of slowly evolving beauty that gradually unravels its meditative design. Recorded in 2013 in the mausoleum of Norwegian sculptor and painter Emanuel Vigeland (1875-1948) in Oslo, a recording space that is famous for its acoustics and its long and full-sounding reverb. These three tracks utilize both the delicacy and the power of acoustic instruments and human voice in relation to the unique recording space. Otherworldly and eerie but also with a great primal expressive force. Perfo…

"The crystal in men's heads / Blackened and fell to pieces. / The valleys went out. / The moorlands broke loose" --from "Heptonstall Old Church" by Ted Hughes. So begins Catch Me Daddy (2014), the award-winning feature film directed by Daniel Wolfe and written by Wolfe and his brother Matthew. The film's score consists of beautiful and bleak wind-ravaged music from Matthew Watson (aka Matthew Wolfe) and Daniel Thomas Freeman (whose 2011 debut album The Beauty of Doubting Yourself Norman Record…

Issa is the debut release from Bristol-based musician and composer Kit Wilmans Fegradoe. The magic in Issa comes from Fegradoe's powerful exploration of emotion and sensitivity, which leads to a deeply personal and revealing listen. The work evokes the scale of Michael Stearns's compositions for film, whilst eliciting a minimalist undercurrent throughout. The album is sculpted from guided improvisation sessions in the studio with fellow musicians, traversing around the narrative of Issa, a …

**2nd press** Divertissement is the third collaborative full-length from minimalist composer William Basinski and sound artist Richard Chartier. The duo utilizes electronics, piano, tape loops, and short-wave radio to evoke a dense atmosphere suggesting hundreds of years of history rising up from the depths of a reverberating cathedral. Subtle, buried, and intense murmurs of melody morph through this deeply consuming and slowly evolving composition in two parts. William Basinski is a class…

Pinkcourtesyphone sends you a Sentimental Something from the depths of its obsessed heart. A sonic love note of smudged ink. Joined by the otherwordly Evelina Domnitch, friend and former cover model and vocalist on the acclaimed 2014 Description of Problem CD, which also featured contributions from Cosey Fanni Tutti, Kid Congo Powers, AGF, and William Basinski. On the central core, "Tears of Modernism," Miss Domnitch wields her dark magic on theremin, weaving a mournful kiss on the envelope fr…

Prefigured by the inclusion of a secret extra pocket in the original packaging of Far West (IMPREC 386CD/LP, 2013), this painstakingly crafted complimentary LP is intended for synced playback with that release. With two turntables or other playback devices, the listener can experience fully unique quad playback. Further West Quad Cult LP offers deeper journeys into the cave where the self dissolves. It also stands alone as an inverted Far West universe, and the listener is invited to enjoy it…

This CD reissue of JD Emmanuel's Wizards contains two tracks excluded from the original 1982 LP due to master tape problems. "Wizards was my first deep trance electronic music album. This album was inspired by Terry Riley, one of the earliest people ever to compose and perform long, extended, cyclic pieces in the electronic format. This music was composed and performed in '81 and '82. I consider this album my best work. The instrumentation is three Sequential Circuits PRO-1s, Crumar Traveler…

Sold out at source, few copies available. In 2013, when Daniel O'Sullivan was invited to curate the sixth installment of Ravenna, Italy's Transmissions festival, his first request was for Charlemagne Palestine, the shamanic world-maker, sacred toy emissary, and one-time student of Pandit Pran Nath associated with the New York '60s minimalist scene and known primarily for extended performances with Bösendorfer piano, cathedral organs, and falsetto voice. After Transmissions O'Sullivan invited P…

Limited edition of 500 copies packaged in a heavy duty gatefold sleeve. On a long hot summer night in 2012, a meeting of minds happened in Liverpool, England. Damo Suzuki visited the city to play a show with Mugstar. After a flurry of emails, Damo asked Mugstar not to practice or figure out any music prior to the performance, as he believed it should "start from zero," leaving the whole performance to be entirely improvised on the spot. It proved to be quite a night: the shamanic presence…

Untitled #274 was composed by Francisco López and performed by Kasper T. Toeplitz at GRM Studios in Paris, France. Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of sound art and experimental music. For more than thirty years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from th…

Texturally detailed ambient-electronic study on the relationships between man made and natural environments in the Cromarty Firth, Scotland. File somewhere between Cindytalk and Richard Skelton

Much-needed CD edition of the sold-out LP. Includes a beautiful 15-minute bonus track not included on the LP release. Else Marie Pade (born December 2, 1924 in Aarhus) is a Danish composer who pioneered electronic and concrète music in Denmark beginning in 1954. Pade was active in the resistance movement during the Second World War, and was interned at the Frøslev prison camp from 1944 until the end of the war. An archival collection of Else Marie Pade's electronic work is now available on …

Eleh's Homage series is remastered and on CD for the first time. Certain frequency combinations that were impossible to cut on LP are effectively presented in this digital edition. Packaged in a heavy duty 6 panel fold out jacket with inner printing and a matte finish. Eleh, an artist who flourishes in restraint, uses a reduced sonic vocabulary to highlight delicate intricacies in a logical path toward harmonious satisfaction. The organization of hypnotic square waves, rippling sine waves and tr…

"Alchemic Heart is a special project presented by Vampillia who have colored these two colossal compositions with beautiful contributions by members of the Boredoms, Jarboe (ex-Swans), Inswarm and Japanese Noise-God Merzbow. Layered strings, piano, bass, noise and voices are weaved mysteriously and expand as two magnificently parallel aesthetic worlds. Comprised of two pieces, 'Sea'/'Land,' a primitive landscape is created via listening and destroyed when the pieces are complete. Vampilli…

Aidan Baker's (Nadja) Triptychs takes inspiration from Erik Satie's compositions Gymnopédies and his notion of "furniture music," which many consider a precursor to contemporary ambient music. Each "triptych" is based around a simple, slow-moving melodic line, which repeats three times with the addition of a harmonic line upon each repetition, culminating in a three part harmony. Various musicians from different ensembles and musical backgrounds -- Peter Broderick, Julia Kent, Leah Buckaref…

*Sold out at source, last copies * A 12-CD set definitely constitutes an "immersive experience" with any artist's music. And Pauline Oliveros is well served by Important Records' retrospective of her unreleased earlier work, coinciding with her 80th birthday celebrations being held throughout 2012! Dense 12 disc collection of Pauline Oliveros' early and unreleased electronic work including her very first piece for tape made in 1961. The majority of these pieces have never before been released. O…

Here it is, Deadheads, the ultimate Dark Star is now on vinyl. Deluxe audiophile pressing cut in Toronto under the watchful ears of John Oswald. Elaborately printed packaging in a heavy duty triple gatefold jacket includes liner notes by musicologist Rob Bowman featuring exclusive interviews with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Robert Hunter plus six 'time maps' which chart the source concerts of Dark Star. Music performed by The Grateful Dead (c) Grateful Dead Productions Inc. & Ice Nine Publishin…

Circle Three: Full Moon At 35hz is the third Circle piece from Eleh and the firstÊto be released since 2010's Repose. Literal synthesis. Packaged in a heavy duty screen printed cover.ÊEdition fo 500. Much like the previous LP only Circle piece the B side of this LP is screen printed. Audiophile quality LP cut at Dubplates + Mastering in Berlin

For Moussavi Atrium is a brand new 38 minute piece from Eleh written for performance at the Cleveland Museum Of Contemporary Art (Cleveland MOCA) on September 28, 2013. " walks into a bar and asks for a pint of beer, the barman scowls at him and refuses. When pressed as to why, he says "I don't like your tone." Meanwhile a drunk in the corner tries to start a chant of "Eleh, give us a wave"...probably a sine it's time to leave.Yup, here's another tonal meditation from extreme minimal chappie…

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…

LP edition. Brooklyn duo Mark Rogers and Mary Byrne recorded their debut, I Line My Days Along Your Weight, as a true duet: facing each other inches apart, intent upon listening. They wove together archaic instruments -- baritone acoustic, tricone resonator, golden-era flattop, space-age lap steel, upright piano, and hundred-year-old mandolin -- into a new and vibrant third voice. All the songs were recorded live to two-inch analog tape, the studio equivalent of tightrope-walking without…

Blood Lines is Emily Jane White's first album for Important since 2009's Dark Undercoat. Featuring vocal contributions from Marissa Nadler. This American version of the CD contains two bonus tracks not available elsewhere. After releasing three albums in three years, Emily Jane White wrote over 100 sketches between January 2011 and October 2012. Her new album "Blood / Lines" is a selected compilation of these songs. Recorded in a secluded studio in Sonoma County, California, the quiet envi…

Liebestod, by Polish composer Stefan Wesolowski, consists of repetitive compositions written for piano, brass instruments, strings, and electronics. The title itself is derived from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, which says a lot about Wesolowski's primary inspirations. Liebestod shows a tremendous amount of respect for classical music but Wesolowski is far from making literal references to it. He shows his own unique musical language; rough and radical at some points, yet full of intense nos…

Jeff Burch's first solo full-length album is comprised of two expansive instrumental compositions anchored by beautiful old acoustic guitars and a modular synthesizer. He hoists his sounds up through the remnants of the 60's downtown drone spirit, through the fetid fruits of post-war central Europe and the scattered output of present-day suburban outsiders. The arrangements shift gracefully from floods of lush string texture to driving guitar and drum motif, from ebbs of brass and deep electric …

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.'s new album Astrorgasm from the Inner Space features their original vocalist Cotton Casino. Available on CD and deluxe double LP. As usual, AMT delivers to Important their most scorching tracks. They've included, appropriately, since Important is set to issue Grayfolded on triple vinyl, a brand new re-recording of "Dark Star Blues" with Cotton Casino. On Astrorgasm from the Inner Space, Acid Mothers Temple look towards their source (the band turns…

Ashley Paul's Heat Source was recorded during a challenging year of transience between New York and London. During this year of impermanence Paul performed regularly and the effects of frequent performance and traveling can be heard in the intentionally pared back emptiness of Heat Source. making it an emotionally challenging and fascinatingly personal listening experience.Heat Source finds Ashley Paul working using her brilliant ears to find a zen like balance between her voice and a sp…

Alessandro Cortini's second release in his Forse trilogy is full of thick analog brightness and deep analog warmpth. Despite also being fully composed on a Buchla Music Easel, the feeling of Forse 2 is quite different from Forse 1 and this deluxe double vinyl release is the ultimate way to experience this engaging work. Pressed in an edition of 500. 'All pieces were written and performed live on a Buchla Music Easel, in the span of one month. I found that the limited array of modules that the in…

On "Far West," the Master Musicians of Bukkake mark a turn from their Totem Trilogy. If the Totems were an expression of yang energy, then the "Far West" cycle is the yin that took seed within the trilogy. What happens when you travel so far east looking for enlightenment that you pass your destination and are headed west again? The mania of being lost in the mountains of the Cascade Corridor, searching aimlessly for the Northern Pacific coast. A spiritual Donner party of sorts, feeding off fant…

Duane Pitre\'s new album, Bridges, features two pieces taken from a suite of analogous compositions by the same name, and was composed by Pitre in 2012. The two pieces that comprise the album are meant to work together in sequence as a composite work; or they can be isolated and listened to on their own. The title derives its name from the original concept for this work, which was to bring together aspects of traditional Eastern music (such as compositional form and tuning) with Western musical …

This collaborative album combines Nadja's wall of guitars with Vampillia's operatic vocals and classical instrumentation to make a hybrid of doom and neo-classical music. This version of the release for Important Records features a new song, Avalanche, and brand new mixes of the original tracks from the rare Japanese tour edition.

Beautiful new work from Kevin Doria (Growing). If Eliane Radigue and Kevin Drumm made a record together it might sound something like Total Life. Kevin Doria creates a sound world with deep inner dynamics shrouded by distortion. Whether you stay on the surface or listen deeply, the energy in this work is vivid.  Recorded and mixed at home in the winter of 2012, RADIATOR represents the first proper full length release by Total Life for Important Records. RADIATOR is inspired by standing on the ga…

Gorgeous new full length from Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem. Wissem's long form, graceful melodic lute layers, preceded by suspenseful deep bass movements, create a transcendental and pastoral. Wissem's is a world where hypnotic minimalist figures are repeated to slow the act of listening. Nihil Obstat (Nothing Hinders) is performed on Wissem's custom black lute built by Michael Schreiner. LP pressed in an edition of 800. "New classical lute music that sound as if it always existed, as if it h…

Full length collaboration from Duane Pitre & ELEH. Pitreleh use high resolution analog and digital tools to create music utilizing natural vibrations and harmonics as rhythm and melody. Inspiration is drawn directly from vibrational waves (sound, gravity, water). The electronics, of which both pieces are constructed, are tuned using Pure Intonation which utilizes the prime numbers: 1-3-5-7.

"Tradition belongs more to the present than the past. For three weeks Parisian cellist and composer Gaspar Claus met with traditional and modern Japanese musicians in a Tokyo studio to record Jo Ha Kyu. Performing with Claus on this piece are: Eiko Ishibashi (voice, piano, drums), Keiji Haino (voice), Kakushin Nishihara (voice, satsuma biwa), Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano), Hirochimi Sakamoto (electric cello), Sachiko M (sine wave), Otomo Yoshihide (turntable), Leonard Eto (wadaiko), Kazutoki Umezu (t…

Born of Six, featuring Amelia Cuni, Catherine Christer Hennix, and Werner Durand, create exemplary drone compositions rooted in the traditions of Dhrupad, early minimalism and just intonation. Composed by Durand, Cuni, Hennix, Svapiti is one long composition measuring 55 minutes in length. 'A solid foundation is the best basis for the fundamental.' Narada´s exposition of the seven notes begins as follows: because Sadja (the tonic) arises from the combination of nose, throat, chest, palate, tongu…

Deluxe double LP pressed in an edition of 1000 copies, housed in a gatefold sleeve.Acid Mothers Temple\'s In Search of the Lost Divine Arc heads in a completely different direction from 2012\'s Son of a Bitches Brew. Harder, faster, and more riff-rock oriented, this record is here to slay. AMT skews their vibe between Zeppelin and Beefheart, coming out with another classic Acid Mothers ripper in the process

Split release between Kevin Doria's Total Life (Growing) and Deceh (Eleh/Srines), pressed in an edition of 500 copies and housed in deluxe 2 color screen printed, heavy duty jackets. Kevin Doria's work as Total Life precedes his work done as half of the group Growing, and is continuously evolving; this contributed track, Fader, is no exception. Deceh's contribution is an extended harmonic magnification of a shruti box, Hammond organ, upright double bass & modular synthesizer.

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…

The Watchers is a historic collaboration between Lubomyr Melnyk and James Blackshaw. These new pieces are being released as a CD/LP with material exclusive to each format. LP is pressed in an edition of 500. "I first met Lubomyr Melnyk at a festival called Hea Uus Heli in October 2008. We were both scheduled to play that day and I was very excited to see him perform. Before the show I bought several LPs from him and mentioned as much. Lubomyr (more than modest and courteous, as he always is) as…