★Sub Rosa

Ritual music for the accumulation of male sexual energy Throughout history man has made and used music for two distinct and separate purposes. In recent years, particularly since the advent of sound recording, the most popular use of music has been for entertainment - the temporary amusement and distraction of as large a number as possible. As a consequence, many people tend to overlook its more fundamental and ancient use as a tool for affecting man's body and spirit. The many varieties of reli…

Big tip! K&L for KL and BLK+LND bring together two of Phill Niblock's final compositions, conceived by Niblock as companion works and intended to travel together. Released by Sub Rosa, the record preserves a pairing that Niblock himself wanted heard as a whole. In 2022, Niblock asked bass clarinetists Katie Porter, based in New York, and Lucio Capece, based in Berlin, to record K&L for KL, a work for two bass clarinets and electronic playback. Porter and Capece perform together as Phase to Phase…

Taking a slight deviation from the widely celebrated path through experimental sounds that has largely defined their efforts over the years, the venerable Sub Rosa returns with rare and essential dive into the world of ethnomusicology with ‘Ethiopian Musics 1971’, their third release dedicated to the recordings of Ragnar Johnson and the second devoted to the groundbreaking recordings he made in Ethiopia with Ralph Harrisson during the summer of 1971. Belonging to a larger body of recordings dedi…

Incest Songs is the final chapter of the Murder Ballads trilogy, and its most fully realized expression. Where Drift and Passages explored the post-isolationist frame through voice and single instrument, this third volume dispenses with that approach entirely, opening instead onto a more labyrinthine sonic architecture - one built from overlapping, saturating, blurring voices, all of them Martyn Bates'. The decision feels both inevitable and quietly inspired. Bates' vocalizations unfold as layer…

Many Many Women by Petr Kotík is a large-scale composition for voices and instruments from 1975-78 on the text of Gertrude Stein's novella of the same name. It was published in Paris in 1910 as part of the book G.M.P. - Gertrude, Matisse, Picasso. In 1972, the book was published again by Dick Higgins in his publishing venture Something Else Press. Kotík used the complete text, which determined the length of the piece. Inspired by his close collaboration with the composer and singer Julius Eastma…

On Observations, eRikm and Pierre Bastien stage a tightly focused encounter between hacked turntables and mechanical orchestra, sculpting trance‑like, Dubuffet‑dirty rhythms and razor‑sharp details from one hyper‑attentive night in Brussels.

Pieces for Broken Piano turns a weather‑wrecked 1916 Gebrüder Stingl grand into an accidental “prepared” instrument, as Miroslav Beinhauer navigates new works by Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Milan Knížák, Gordon Monahan, Elliott Sharp, Milan Gustar and Yoon‑Ji Lee written specifically for its fractured voice.

On Untitled (Solo for the Building of a Museum), Tony Conrad stages an unseen encounter between amplified violin and his self-built Long String Instrument. Recorded in 2002 behind a concealing sheet, the performance turns drone, friction and physical resonance into an act of radical listening - music whose hidden actions remain inseparable from its vast, exposed sound.

On Mount Analogue, Bill Laswell and P.ST assemble an international cast to translate René Daumal’s unfinished mountain allegory into a two‑records sonic ascent: a six‑part electro‑acoustic “novel” and a mirrored peak of solo guitar visions from Henry Kaiser, refracted through Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain.

Anthology of the German-born dancer and choreographer's electronic music for dance, made in his three North London studios: tape loops, kettle-lid percussion, radio interference and generator pulses, in Sub Rosa's Early Electronic series.

Chant 1450 Renaisance Ensemble sings and plays the sacred and secular repertoire of the 15th and 16th century. Including musicians trained at the widely renowned college for early music Schola cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, chant 1450 appeared live in January 2005 and sang then a highly acclaimed first tour in Switzerland with La contenance angloise - sacred music of the 15th century, followed by more than 250 live performances in Germany, Italy, Czech Republic and Switzerland until today. chan…

In 2009, the Triton venue (near Paris, France) was sold  out to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Univers Zéro, an iconic band of the Rock In Opposition movement. These two exceptional concerts highlighted a radical  and unique style of music, at the crossroads of new music and chamber rock, skilfully blending acoustic and electric instruments, as heard on the cult album 'Ceux du Dehors'.

"I have been fascinated by the sound and potential of gongs since I first heard Stockhausen's Mikrophonie 1 in the late 1960s. When I moved to Oakland in 1999 I discovered the work of Karen Stackpole, one of the few percussionists in the world specializing entirely in gongs, and attended several of her performances. I always tried to imagine how I could combine my own sonic vocabulary with her incredibly rich array, and we enthusiastically agreed to a musical meeting which somehow kept being pos…

Often dark, sometimes repetitive or experimental, sometimes rhythmical and exotic, always based on emotion inducted by the Sound. One could define it as dark age music (as opposite to new age music), a sort of minimal come back to the roots and purity of acoustic sound without the cultural background linked to the 'academic' use of some instruments (for example African senzas are transformed and tuned to sound like Indonesian instruments, sitar or harmonium are used as rhythmical instruments, va…

The fourth Univers Zero album (1984) and a turning point: the Belgian chamber-rock group plug in, adding synthesizer, electric cello and a heavier, almost rock-leaning attack to their dark instrumental world. Composed and arranged by founder Daniel Denis, remastered in 2024 for greater depth and dynamics.

Sopa Boba is a Belgian/Dutch, electronic, modern classical project. The idea behind the form is a so-called Oratorio from the present age which unfolds a dramatc tale within a sociopolitcal framework. The compositons incorporate a neo-classical style string quartet, harsh modular sytnhs and spoken word vocals. That Moment is an adaptaton of the eponymous text by Moldavian writer Nicoleta Esinencu. The startng point of That Moment takes place in a real fact, which happened in present-tme Moldavia…

*300 copies limited edition* Ars nova meets dark folk, aural cinema, contemporary music, drone and much more... An astonishing album gathering three extended pieces that unfold the works of medieval musical genius Guillaume de Machaut, the greatest and last of the troubadours. Lovingly recorded by sound master Frederic Alstadt, featuring Clara Levy, Stéphane Clor & Eugénie De Mey, this album captures all the poignancy and poetry, of this timeless music. A passionate performance by virtuosic musi…

That Wolf At The Door is a collaborative 2 CD between Henry Kaiser (Califonia, USA; guitar) and P.ST (Prague, Czechia; electronics). The first CD That Wolf At The Door is a solo baritone guitar disc that pays a heartfelt tribute to the late science fiction author Gene Wolfe (May 7, 1931 - April 14, 2019). The album is a testament to the decades-long friendship and mutual appreciation between Wolfe and Kaiser, two creative minds who shared a passion for pushing the boundaries of their respective …

The influence of Alvin Lucier’s work on acoustic phenomena and the interplay between sound and space is difficult to overstate. His legacy continues to echo through the work of countless composers and sound artists today. Lucier’s  music is marked by a sense of childlike wonder and sonic simplicity - shifting our perception from what we hear to how we listen.At the heart of his compositions lies the sine wave: the purest, most elemental form of sound. Clarinetist Dries Tack pays tribute to this …

Unreleased material composed by Bernard Parmegiani in 1992

Founding work of minimalism, Music with Changing Parts is a piece with free instrumentation. The musicians choose which part to play among the 8 staves of the score. At each indicated cue, the musicians can change part, which produces an abrupt change of instrumentation. While the music is based on a melodic material limited to a few notes that are repeated in patterns that expand or contract, the changes in orchestration refresh the listening  experience by producing sonic contrasts.  These tec…

Rare field recordings by Laurent Jeanneau among minority communities in southern China: mouth organs of every size, the Gelao gupiaoqin and elders' canon singing. Recorded with honesty about ethnic tourism, seeking music that is lived rather than staged. A precious snapshot of traditions under pressure

I fell into a deep sleep of reason Everything broken and hence when I woke up from that deep sleep of reason it all made sense A Unique Artistic Partnership. This project represents a distinct and carefully considered artistic endeavor. Developed by Mark Springer (Rip, Rig and Panic) and Neil Tennant (The Pet Shop Boys), it combines a suite for piano, quartet, and quintet with vocals, accompanied by lyrics offering thoughtful introspection. The collaboration explores the intersection of divergen…

Huge Tip! Composer Ahmed Essyad was born in Salé, Morocco, in 1938. After studying music at the Rabat Conservatoire (Morocco) he moved to Paris in 1962, where he became a student of Max Deutsch and, later, his assistant. Trained in the avant-garde practices of Western musical composition, he also claimed the Amazigh folk music of Morocco as a fundamental source of inspiration for his work. In 1965, he was already incorporating elements of oral tradition in his work so as to question the language…

Outre-nuit as Outre-noir by Pierre Soulages, the greatest nuances on subtle variations. The programme can be listened to in one go between Clara's two compositions, it's Xnoybis, an extraordinary performance by the great Giacinto Scelsi - a piece that makes you feel like you're listening for the first time - Giacinto Scelsi's Xnoybis (1964) is a journey amongst the reliefs contained within one single pitch. Written in three parts, the piece is an instinctive approach to the sound spectrum (the t…

The venerable Sub Rosa returns with one of their most curious and revelatory releases to date: the first ever release of Alain Pierre’s visionary soundtrack for Thierry Zeno’s 1974, controversial and widely banned avant-garde film “Vase de Noces” (Wedding Trough). A radical and entirely singular, not to mention virtually unheard, effort of electroacoustic music, rooted heavily in field recording and extreme tape manipulation (and who knows what else) - feeling sophisticated and refined while ret…

Tip! Those recordings of Gongs Orchestras were made during Funeral Ceremonies in two Kung villages and one Jaraï village in Ratanakiri province, Cambodia by Laurent Jeanneau (Kink Gong) in 2003 and 2004, at a times when jungle had not been replaced by rubber plantations. Focusing on funeral's ceremonies, those hypnotics pieces are intense and haunting harmonics sonic experiments. "Adventure brought me to south-east Asia, not academic research. I was based on and off in Banlung, capital of Ratana…

This LP reveals the extraordinary diversity of research - almost all hidden - by Spanish musicians in the '50s and '60s. Those pieces were composed while the country was under the tyranny of Francisco Franco. It is truly the ultimate grail, developed by musicologist Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, he is its curator, editor and commentator. This undoubtedly marks a major step in the approach and understanding of this music which had to fight to exist before the death of Franco in 1975. Miguel Álvarez-F…

With Folksong Distortions, Pauwels and Van der Aacreate a journey of lament through the soul of times gone by. Their radical renditions of works by Larry Polansky and Christopher Trapani do not distort the more upbeat rhythm and tradition of folk songs, but rather reveal and highlight the essence of hard lives, imposed choices - choices that were illusions in the first place - and the difficult times and conditions they have always depicted. Christopher Trapani arranged two classics from the U.S…

Volume two of Philippe Baudouin's occult anthology turns to musician mediums who claimed to channel music from beyond: Rosemary Brown, a Leslie Flint seance with Chopin, Joe Meek, Uri Geller, Crowley and LaVey's Satanic Mass. A sound history of the will to reach the wholly other. CD.

Philippe Baudouin's anthology of rare occult recordings, most from little-known archives. Volume one explores spiritualism and haunted houses: seances, spectral voices and poltergeist cases, with Arthur Conan Doyle and Houdini's final seance. A cabinet of sound curiosities revived in the listening. CD.

On Inhabit, Stefan Prins extends his signature post-digital language into a dense, porous ecosystem where instruments, electronics and mediated bodies co-exist, blurring performer and environment until listening itself feels like entering an unstable architecture.

Mazza Vision's 'Ohm Spectrum' represents the first album of this new project created by two founding members of Tone Rec and Dat Politics (Pailliot - Collet), joined by occasional collaborators. Recorded during the bizarre pandemic summer of 2020, the six slow-burning tracks take drone-rock-noise as rhythm to new hazy territories by stripping down the essence of acoustic/electronic sound into dry husks and organizing theminto strangely harmonic and hypnotic structures. A radical collision of ins…

The anthology presents works from 15 Turkish female artists, each contributing to the album's beauty through their multifaceted creations. It encompasses various styles, ranging from purely formal music to innovative electronica, incorporating remnants of Turkish harmonies, as well as pieces with conceptual orpolitical undertones, varying in intensity from subtle to overt.

For decade, this collaboration was supposed to happen with Dapnom. Now, we enter a new dimension with my own piano ! We worked on this piece of crazy art last year, when the planet started to get wronger and wronger. This album is an ode to our ruin ! Even the most experienced ear will not come out of PiaNoise unscathed. Consecrating the meeting of two consummate artists, this release confronts their universe like a massive head-on shock in the eye of a sound storm by which we sometimes feel tot…

David Toop is a composer/musician, author and curator based in London. Since 1970 he has worked in many fields of sound art, listening practice and music, including improvisation, sound installations and video works, field recordings, pop music production, music for television, theatre and dance. He has recorded Yanomami shamanism in Amazonas, appeared on Top of the Pops with the Flying Lizards, exhibited sound installations in Tokyo, Beijing and London's National Gallery, and performed with art…

Seen from the outside, Ensemble(s) is in a sense a kind of compilation of unreleased or rare pieces covering nearly three decades. Five essential pieces that count in the evolution of the Jean-Luc Fafchamps' writing. Post-spectral works that definitively position Fafchamps as one of the important European composers. It also weaves subtle links between him and Jean-Paul Dessy and Musiques Nouvelles, once created by Henri Pousseur. This disc is undoubtedly the best introduction to his work. Perfor…

The second volume of Sub Rosa's Fluxus edition, built around a broken piano now left to decay in the open air in Prague. New and old works, scores and improvisations from a Fluxus who's who (Knizak, La Monte Young, Cage, Paik, Ono, Brecht and more), with booklets of essays and photographs. Double LP

First vinyl reissue of Univers Zero's 1981 EP, originally on Japan's Chaos International. Three pieces move from Bulgarian-tinged folk to an Andy Kirk ambient composition to a live improvisation haunted by a stray radio signal. Once voted one of the greatest Belgian albums ever. Redesigned cover by Thierry Moreau. LP.

Debut by Pangea de Futura, a Montreal octet led by Eric Quach with members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and more. Three drummers, brass and electronics build massive textural shapes and droning, tribal post-rock that rises out of flux toward entropy. For the Constellation faithful. Purple vinyl.