★Maple Death Records
Unknown City
*300 copies limited release* Creeping through an imaginary border, sidesteppin’ through the night like cyber phantoms eavesdropping on early morning machinery shifts, an industrial solstice for pagan mystics. After five years Torino’s mysterious SabaSaba are back with ‘Unknown City’ an imaginary soundtrack for a dystopian city: digital raga, horror Exotica, half-speed techno, metallic dub and organic electronics. The duo of Andrea Marini (synth, guitar, electronics, tapes) and Gabriele Maggiorot…
Spiralis Aurea Trio
Everything about Stefano Pilia’s spiritual journey always seemed to point directly towards ‘Spiralis Aurea’, his astounding 2022 release for Die Schachtel, a deeply resonating piece of art that intertwines traces of sacred geometry, collective experience and elusive connections between nature and human kind. ‘Spiralis Aurea Trio’ out in January on Maple Death Records, showcases the electric guitar ensemble formed by Stefano Pilia, Alessandra Novaga and Adrian Utley (Portishead) during three live…
Sprecato
First album in seven years from Maple Death Records founder James Jonathan Clancy (Italy/Canada), and the first under his birth name following previous ensembles His Clancyness (Fat Cat, Maple Death) and Brutal Birthday (Total Punk, Improved Sequence). In the interim between those projects and this latest, ‘Sprecato’, Clancy has refined and honed his vision —steadily and carefully drawing from a host of disparate influences to create a new kind of singer-songwriter album that bridges the divide …
Moving
*100 copies limited edition* There’s a raw hypnotic quality in Jerome’s output, a perceived facility to summon heavy bass, circular mantras and elastic shadowy beats. Over the last three years they have refined and cultivated their unique dystopian mixture of industrial, techno and dark electronics and their new EP ‘Moving’ is a fascinating snapshot of their ever-changing journey.
Based in Bristol, UK and Athens, Greece the Italian/Swedish/Greek duo of Annalisa Iembo and Stella Mathioudakis have…
Fort Da
Peaking late, rising slowly and crashing gently, in other words dialing in the perfect extra sensorial experience. Giulio Stermieri’s first solo outing ‘Fort Da’ is a nuanced ultra hypnotic work of art, six movements that blend ascetic minimalism, polyrhythmic trance and ecstatic tension with surprising detours into primitive techno and abstract jazz. Based in the smalltown of Saliceto Buzzalino, Giulio Stermieri is a pianist and composer, founder of the collective Impulse Response (with Laura A…
Goro
*100 copies limited edition* Reeds gently pirouetting amidst a fluvial landscape, a field of images that swirl between dream scenarios, second thoughts and reality. This is ‘Goro’, a new body of work by Italian saxophonist, composer and improviser Laura Agnusdei, an evocative journey that meshes noirish ambient, am-radio pop fantasy, lounge fever and organic pulsating proto-techno. Originally commissioned by Maple Death and comic book publishing house Canicola Edizioni, Goro’s music was directly…
Vivi!
Whitney K and band are back with an electric live album that captures the best from their classics ‘Two Years’ and ‘Hard To Be A God’, including a few nuggets from the back catalog and the unreleased tune aptly titled ‘Dire Straits’. If ‘Two Years’ was the thunder, the rawness and the spirit, a combination of outsider folk, modern psych, grit, humor and everything in between, ‘Hard To Be A God’ was the sophistication, the dedication, the mind traveling far and beyond… ‘Vivi!’ is the hot sauce mi…
Stupidamutaforma
Fera's sought out tape debut 'Stupidamutaforma' (2020) is finally reissued on 2xLP remastered by Matt Bordin and with new artwork.
II
Liverpool producer Paul Rafferty aka Ancient Plastix is back with 'II' an album that glides effortlessly, combining incredibly rich textures with soft swan-like strokes, oscillating gently, an unhurried pace that combines the depth of Japanese ambient maestros and the choppy British mist. Recorded to tape on a Japanese Sansui machine, there is a widescreen grandeur that permeates Ancient Plastix’ production, a cinematic instinct that steers clear of crescendos by creating paths that revel in war…
Eternally Frozen
Eternally Frozen consists of a series of canon based compositions for brass ensemble, percussion and synthesizer by Andrea Belfi. The canon is an ancient compositional technique in which an initial melody is imitated at a specified time interval by one or more parts, creating illusionary never-ending musical journeys.The work is inspired by the evocative image of the Deprong Mori, a mythological bat with the alleged ability to fly through solid matter by bending atoms by its natural skill of aud…
Alto//Piano
** Edition of 300 ** Everest Magma’s career over the past 10 years has been slowly building one of the most ecstatic and singular paths of the Italian underground scene. His dense and beautiful three albums were not afraid to cross boundaries with a mix of hypnotic tape beats, digital wonk, psych folk tropicalia and kinetic dub. This new offering 'Alto//Piano' once again sees him in uncharted territories, where nature is sublimated into a personal alien vision mixing acid-folk fingerpicking, ton…
Corpo Senza Carne
*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 100 copies.* There is no body without flesh, no physical presence without its most obvious substance. In a continuous process of revealing what that substance is regarding to its own sound practice, Fera has produced this Corpo Senza Carne as a transient audio document about researching new and perhaps more intimate possibilities for a bare, naked, brutally honest and direct sonic expression. After Stupidamutaforma’s recollection of ten years of resear…
Rimorso
Repossessed by the past, bitten once again and forced to relive drama, history, memories, tradition and roots. A past that needs exorcizing, bending and re-imagining in order to move forward and depend on. This is ‘Rimorso’, Mai Mai Mai’s colossal mediterranean gothic album. Known for his incredible blend of Southern Italian Folklore, industrial drone, proto-techno & punishing miasmic electronic music, Toni Cutrone aka Mai Mai Mai approached ‘Rimorso’ with a clean slate. Following ‘Nel Sud’ (La …
Se Ci Fosse La Luce Sarebbe Bellissimo
If you could paint the world black, rediscover it with a flashlight illuminating every single detail and turn each finding into an obsession while gliding across the murk then you might stumble into Blak Saagan’s new magniloquent quest ‘Se Ci Fosse La Luce Sarebbe Bellissimo’ (If there were light it would be beautiful), a monstrous work of dedication and sound architecture that investigates and soundtracks one of the saddest and most obscure pages of Italian history: the 1978 kidnapping of forme…
Try Again
**Purple vinyl edition** Distorted classical choral recordings, synths, processed guitar… The exquisitely complex human-machine interface experiments conducted by Stefano Pilia are kept in a delicate balance by John Duncan‘s lyrics and the soulful quality of his vocals, for an album of electroacoustic songs that are a unique blend for both artists. Seeds and memories from the past are re-actualized in the present through a machine electroacoustic compositional process creating a dark, gloomy and…
Two Years
**CD Edition** Rolling through life, an open mind like an ocean, an infinite ride that comes furiously crashing to a halt. This is Whitney K’s ‘Two Years’, a deep dive into the Canadian songwriter’s journey through vulnerability, change and ultimately letting his guard down. Whitney K is the wandering stalwart Konner Whitney, a Whitehorse Yukon resident who has spent time in Vancouver, Montreal, Burnaby and Los Angeles. We met the character in 2016 through his intoxicating 4-track recorded manif…
Vulgar Displays Of Affection
A body of water, a tributary river pushing and struggling to activate one final act, gushing into an ocean of pureness. Every bank you hit is a misstep, vulnerability, acceptance, sexuality, control and punishment, a catastrophic station of the cross experience where the mesmerizing is allowed to seep in. This is Luke Mawdsley’s debut for Maple Death ‘Vulgar Displays Of Affection’, a cathartic meticulous journey brimmed with emotion and failure.
The journey started in Liverpool, Luke Mawdsley’s …
Introspection / Migration
From an ocean of black, sometimes there is a slim chance you might emerge clean and translucent, with another life chapter under your belt and a renewed story to tell. J.H. Guraj, our favourite wandering bird, is back with his first proper opus on Maple Death: Introspection / Migration.
Sometimes records lead off into an unknown path that never considers release schedules or the outside world, inhabiting the abysses of the artists’ mind and dropping a hefty anchor in the murky waters. Dominique …
Underrated Glances At The Edge Of Town
Traveling far away to the edge of something unexplored is nothing new to J.H. Guraj. His life points in that direction, painting a road that begins in Firmo, the small Arbëreshë (Italo-Albanian community) town buried deep amongst the hills of Italy’s most southern region Calabria, and trails on to the infinite and beyond. Stealing his stage name Guraj from an old sage picker he encountered on a summer journey through the Albanian rocky landscape, Dominique Vaccaro now resides in Bologna where he…