★Important Records

Trigger Trilogy consists of three discs each selected from hundreds of hours of Schnitzler's private recordings. Each represents a one of the few unique approaches that Schnitzler takes to recording, each uniquely identified and defined by Schnitzler. Within each of these recordings one can hear how Schnitzler influenced a generation of artists not only in Germany but the world around and how he's brought those sounds into the modern day. It's also apparent in these recordings that Schnitzler is…

Body melt is limited to 500 copies only on LP. This is the companion release to the Glass Forest CD being released on Important simultaneously. Both releases are housed in staggeringly unique artwork by Emily Recorded in the Summer of 2007. Body melt is a molting and simmering display of furious Hammond Organs & Native American Drums. Daniel Menche manages to merge together the powerfully fuzzed out organ drones along with hypnotically crushing and frenzied drums in a manor that is distinctly th…

Glass Forest is a highly listenable starting point for any newcomers curious about Daniel Menche's vast discography. It is also, according to Menche, the last CD he will release. From now on he'll be releasing his music on LP only or on DVD to accompany films he's been working on. Glass Forest is also the companion release to Body Melt which is being released simultaneously on Important on LP only. Recorded in the winter of 2005, Daniel Menche's Glass Forest displays a glistening sound world tha…

"I leave to several futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths" - Ts'ui Pen The Garden of Forking Paths was compiled for Important Records by guitarist James Blackshaw. Compositions were recorded especially for this collection by Helena Espeval (Espers), James Blackshaw, Jozef van Wissem and Chieko Mori. Beautifully assembled, The Garden Of Forking Paths serves as a singular and particularly unique musical statement. "The story of how this compilation came into being is, unlike many other s…

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…

Vulcano is limited to 1000 copies and is packaged in a deluxe embossed gatefold jacket made to emulate the embossed packaging for Kluster's album Klopfzeichen. Very deluxe. Vulcano is sourced from original master recordings recently discovered by Kluster member, and Tangerine Dream engineer, Klaus Freudigmann. Along with Admira, also being released at the same time on Important, Vulcano is presented here for the first time in this deluxe package. These intense sessions were made with Schnitzler …

Any keen follower of vintage minimalist drone will already be familiar with the meticulous tonal landscapes of Eleh from the series of limited LPs issued from the Important camp over the past year or two. True to the form of that series this new split release is already sold out at source, coming housed in the same luxurious sleeve design and pressing quality that helped shift all those units previously. Authenticity is the key to Eleh's success, and it's a sound that calls upon a heavy dose of …

Limited edition of 300 copies. Available directly via Important Records only or from the band on tour. This is a mailorder only title. It won't be in shops. The Skull Defekts is a band from Sweden in the very North of Europe. Their intense, monotonous, rhythmic and sexual out rock has since their start in early 2005 been spreading energies of various kinds to welcoming audiences and listeners. The DFX have also been exploring worlds of noise, the drone and psychedelic electronics on waves on rel…

Live At Muryoku Muzen Temple is limited to 500 copies. This is the companion release to the Astro CD titled The Echo At The Purple Dawn, released on Important Records. Astro, of course, is the analog/space project of Hiroshi Hasegawa of the legendary Japanese group, C.C.C.C. This limited vinyl-only release was created using ring modulator and vocals which are rare these days in Astro recordings. Cover art designed by Important. Astro is Hiroshi Hasegawa's solo project. He is a founding member of…

The Echo From The Purple Dawn is a brand new full length from C.C.C.C. member Hiroshi Hasegawa's solo project, Astro. Using a battery of oscillators, ring modulators and field recordings, Hasegawa has created an engaging and versatile album that masterfully drifts between spaced-out analog dream drone and a more extreme form of harsher droning. As Astro, Hasegawa is able to combine some of the harsher influences of C.C.C.C. into the world of analog space music to create the signature sounds of A…

A further step out in Birchville Cat Motel's ruminations on time space distortion featuring the additional mystikal talents of fellow gravity destroyer, Matthew Bower (Hototogisu-Sunroof!), Seventh Ruined Hex presents like a lonesome planet, occassionally struck with super-sized fragments of space detritus, but for the most part just hangs around, spinning on its axis and doing fuck-all. Strangely emotive for 'a buncha noise'. Like the deepest love, its warm yet tenuous, and filled with the ever…

Absolutely crucial reissue of Christina Kubisch's masterwork Night Flights.This is the first time it's been available in 20 years and the first time it's ever been issued on CD. Night Flights is made up of three massive works of sound collage. Her sensitivities and abilities are akin to a bonsai master sculpting the perfect Juniper or Joseph Cornell hard at work putting the finishing touches on a box. It's hard to imagine a world where half the records on Important could have been possible witho…

Ostensibly a tribute to the ensemble’s influences from the late 20th century avant-garde and out/free jazz movements, 33 1/3 is an imposing and monolithic effort from Smegma, the long-standing, Portland-based underground noise collective. 33 1/3 finds the ensemble focusing heavily on electronics and bizarre vocal affectations on this outing, which relies on a framework of abstract free jazz as its basic foundation. It can be safely said, however, that Smegma’s material on the album defiantly ref…

These Christina Kubisch five compositions on the CD are based on numerous live recordings of electromagnetic fields, made between 2003 and 2007 in the cities of Birmingham, Chicago, Taipei, Paris, Bremen, Riga, Tokyo, Madrid, London, New York, Berlin and others. The sounds have not been altered electronically or by other means. Electrical Walks is a public walk with custom-made sensitive wireless headphones by which aboveground and underground electromagnetic fields are detected, amplified and m…

Constellation Of Tragedy is the sixth full length album from Japan's LSD March. Apt comparisons are often made of LSD March being a cross between the Velvet Underground and Les Rallizes Denudes. Constellation Of Tragedy is their most well recorded and refined album to date coming to a climactic close and featuring leader Shinsuke Michishita playing guitar, theremin, musical box, bass, harmonium, & harmonica. Recorded by Richard Horner at Snowflake Sound in Saporro Japan. Cover artwork by Darryl …

2007 release ** Consists of two 25 minute pieces of music, both spawned from the same conceptual composition/score by Duane Pitre, titled 'Ensemble Drones.' With their form reminiscent of works by La Monte Young's 'Theater of Eternal Music' and their tonality touching on the floating works of Terry Riley, 'The Ensemble Chord in Eb with a Minor 7th' and a 'Pump Organ Base & The Ensemble Chord in C with a Major 7th and a Guitar Base' are aural tapestries based on a minimal tonal palette with their…

Metacompound is the first full length studio album from ANP in 19 years. Lavish metallic ink on vellum packaging by ANP fan and Sunn O))) member Stephen O'Malley. .ANP was formed in 1984 by KK Null & Seijiro Murayama. In 1987 ANP broke up. 17 years later they reformed for some live performances and released the singular Live In Japan on Important Records. Metacompound, their first studio recordings in over 19 years, is as undescibable as Live In Japan was. Combining free jazz, heavy rock, indust…

A 2007 split from two Portland, Maine heavyweights: Ocean's twenty-minute Durance Vile and Conifer's Building State Empire, one long slab of slow, minimalist heaviness per side, in a screen-printed mylar jacket.

The Mill Pond was originally released in 1997 as a double 7' that went immediately out of print. For it's 10th aniversary we're issuing it on compact disc housed in a deluxe letterpressed jacket and including an extensive booklet collecting John Fahey's paintings for the very first time. Limited edition. The Mill Pond is all over the place stylistically, so it should confuse those who try to pigeonhole Fahey into any one category. The Mill Pond further proves that there is only one category into…

Author, activist, painter, and sound artist Masami Akita has been at the foreground of experimental music for over twenty-five years. Inspired by psychedelic rock, free jazz, and early electronic composition as well the physical arts (especially Kurt Schwitters's Merzbau), Masami Akita has created a musical language all his own. Merzbear, the sixth Merzbow release in his utterly essential Merz series for Important Records, pulses and pounds with distorted droning guitar feedback, pulsing noise b…

Super Grease is a limited edition of 500 vinyl-only release from Vibracathedral Orchestra/Sunroof!/A Band member, Neil Campbell. This is a companion release to Astral Social Club's Neon Pibroch CD, also on Important.

Neon Pibroch is dedicated to the memory of Textile Records founder, Benoit Sonnette. Astral Social Club is the current project of Neil Campbell, formerly of Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof!, A Band and many more. Campbell has been active since the early '80s, and The Wire magazine has said that, along with his friends Richard Youngs and Matthew Bower, he 'provided the map co-ordinates for much of what passed for a post-punk UK underground during most of the '80s and '90s.' Campbell's approach …

Over 60 minutes of total analog destruction by noise king Merzbow and Brooklyn noise boss Carlos Giffoni, this live collaboration was recorded during Giffoni's Synth Destruction Japan tour in September of 2006. This is Sound Totalism and is as heavy as it comes: totally brutal, totally ugly, totally beautiful, totally intense, totally classic, totally analog, total synth and total destruction. Intense artwork by Jenny Akita. Author, activist, painter and sound artist Masami Akita had been at the…

Roberto Opalio is half of the Italian space duo My Cat Is An Alien. Chants From Isolated Ghosts is Roberto Opalio's full-lenght debut album recorded November 2004 at home in Torino, Italy, and originally released on his own Opax Records label in a very limited handmade cd-r edition of 100 copies. The work consists of four tracks, for a total lenght of 38:02 minutes. Roberto Opalio is a visual and sound artist from Torino, Italy. His work includes painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, poetry…

2018 repress now packaged in a 6 panel digipak with heavy-duty stock and a matte finish. The Wanderer is based on a single modal scale (B C# D D# E F# G#) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of 3/4 and 3/8. Part I, "Song," is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, "Dance," demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of c…

Together Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty have re-written the concept of modern free-jazz with their post-hardcore punk style approach of euphoric togetherness. Ferocious, spontaneous, explosive and aggressively lyrical, they've established their groundbreaking duo with loads of shows and a host of tremendous recordings. When tales of C. Spencer Yeh's Burning Star Core project reached Corsano/Flaherty, the duo were eager to see him jam. Fortunately, fate brought them together at the DeStijl/Freed…

Snow blind avalanche is a completely different album than A Rock In The Snow also being released on Important though the two records were made during the same sessions. This vinyl only release is limited to 1000 copies with the first 200 on snow-white vinyl. Artwork by C. Spencer Yeh. Liner notes from Wolf Eyes bro John Olson aka Johnny Coors. The Flaherty-Corsano-Yeh power trio have emerged on album with a dual format dual release for Important. Snow blind avalanche finds the Flaherty-Corsano-Y…

"Limited to 1000 copies. Double LP packaged in a gatefold LP jacket. Designed by Seldon Hunt. Bonus D side of James Plotkin's exclusive 'ThaumoRemix.' and bonus live CD." "One single 62 minute long track, bass, guitar and drum machine, all woven into a slowly undulating soundscape of blissy drone and monstrous pummel...It's like some Frankensteinian collage of Godflesh, Jesu, Sunn O))) and old Swans. It's heavy and bleak and doomy, but like Jesu, the sound is imbued with a strange warmth,…

Hototogisu is Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Sunroof!) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards). They've been laying down billowing sheets of Teutonic guitar drone-noise since 2003 with the thickest possible helpings of vocals and electronics. Some Blood Will Stick is a collection of tracks from their ultra-limited self produced label Heavy Blossom. Songs were taken from Swoon Scream (2004) and Awful Symmetry (2005) with one additional track. What makes this disc more than a simple re-release is the ext…

The collected Black Tar Prophecies ends up being a more idiosyncratic mission statement for future Grails recordings, revealing their fondness for the groundfloor '60s and '70s experimental artists that saw music as a process of discovery as opposed to the pre-conceived, pre-parametered, commodified sport that underground music has become. A parallel is now forming between Grails and old-school experimental bands like Faust who, rejecting their past, started over from the beginning to build new …

Renowned international composer Maja Ratkje is a founding member in two of Norway's most respected improvisational units -- Spunk & Fe-Mail. Like much of Ratkje's work Stalker flawlessly contrasts these two distinct emotional and audio extremes. While Stalker is influenced by the hardest Japanese noise it is also a quiet emotional drift based around Bertolt Brecht's story of a girl who has drowned and is floating down a river while her body slowly dissolves leaving only her hair to remain. With …

ANP (Absolut Null Punkt) was originally formed in 1984 by KK.Null (before he started his progressive hardcore rock trio Zeni Geva) and Seijiro Murayama (founding drummer of Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha). Live In Japan was recorded at dates between December and February 2003 in Osaka as well as Tokyo. The live setting is a perfect showcase for ANP's diverse inspirations and unique approach to creating music. An echoing chamber of stark,pummeling fusion is created by combining strong elements of free…

Conrad Schnitzler is a genuine legend in the krautrock and electronic music worlds. Schnitzler studied under Joseph Beuys before joining an early Tangerine Dream. Their first album Electronic Meditation shows a band highly influenced by Schnitzler's unique, singular approach. Schnitzler left Tangerine Dream to form Kluster with friends Dieter Moebius and Hans Joachim Roedelius. When Schnitzler left Kluster they changed their name to Cluster, eventually merging with Michael Rother (of Neu!) to fo…

Yellow Swans & Birchville Cat Motel is the first collaboration between these two underground phenomenons. Both groups have amassed sturdy back catalogs and a great deal of critical acclaim. This collaboration was recorded entirely in New Zealand both live and in the studio.

When UK-native James Blackshaw plays his 12-string, something spiritual takes place. This unassuming 23 year-old is transformed into a guitar god whose name belongs alongside the likes of Jack Rose, Steffen Basho-Junghans, and Glenn Jones. Making instrumental, solo, acoustic music that remains consistently interesting and moving is a difficult task. Yet, time after time, Blackshaw hits out of the park, constantly breaking boundaries in what could be conceived as a somewhat limited medium. O True…

Exactly As I Am is the third and final release in The Hafler Trio's collaborative series with Jonsi Birgisson of Sigur Ros. Like the first two in the series Exactly As I Am is a double full length release and is comprised of all new material recorded in May/June of 2005. Exactly As I Am is lavishly packaged in a special die cut oversized package printed on two different types of parchment, meant to imitate small editions of French poetry ca. 1900.

Ever since the days of Leonin and Perotin, people have been trying to pin down that special something that makes music so unique, with Andrew McKenzie of The Hafler Trio more ardent than most in his perusal. The lavishly packaged 5th instalment in this highly limited edition series of EP's, 'Being a Firefighter Isn't Just About Squirting Water' comprises a single 20 minute composition that is a dictionary definition of delicacy. Building upwards from spectral entities, …

Beautifully packaged 20 minute epic construction from legendary sound sculptor andrew mckenzie's Hafler Trio. This is the third in a series of limited edition cd’s, every copy of this disc comes with a professionally printed photograph taken by andrew mckenzie and housed in deluxe 3 panel screen printed jackets designed by andrew mckenzie and hand printed by neil burke at monoroid press. Limited to 500 copies only.

Steve Gunn and Mike Gangloff (Pelt) combine six-and 12-string guitars with gongs, tanpura, singing bowls, shruti box, and banjo fora gorgeous collection of improvised compositions. The two artists took it pretty far off the beaten path for Melodies for a Savage Fix, sequestering themselves for an overnight session in the remote farmhouse/recording studio of noted roots-music engineer Joseph Dejarnette (Carolina Chocolate Drops, Bruce Greene, Curtis Eller) in the countryside of Floyd County, Virg…