★Tzadik
Fencing 1978 (John Zorn's Olympiad Volume 2)
*In process of stocking.* Two extremely rare live recordings of the classic Zorn composition “Fencing” from the early days of the Downtown scene. Featuring two realizations: one with Eugene Chadbourne, Duck Baker, and Randy Hutton and the other with Chadbourne, Polly Bradfield, and John Zorn, the music is astonishing—filled with strange sounds, odd juxtapositions, stark silences, sudden explosions, and all held together by a bizarre overarching compositional logic. Featuring a 16-page booklet re…
Spinoza
*In process of stocking.* Spinoza is Zorn’s latest creation for the searing jazz-metal trio Simulacrum—perhaps the most extreme organ trio ever. Inspired by the life and thought of one of the world’s greatest philosophers he has composed two extended concerti: one for guitar genius Bill Frisell, and another featuring himself on saxophone. The musical mosaic flows seamlessly from one world to another, touching upon heavy metal, jazz, minimalism, atonality, noise, ambient moods, funk, and so much …
O, Sun
*In process of stocking.* Hailing from Tennessee and now residing in New York, Zoh Amba is a 21 year-old tenor saxophonist who performs with a deep sense of spirituality and emotional power. Growing up in the mountains she practiced and played in the forest before continuing her studies in San Francisco and Boston. For her first CD she has chosen a fabulous quartet featuring her close friend, rising NYC star Micah Thomas on piano, and the formidable rhythm section of Thomas Morgan and Joey Baron…
The Cleansing
*In process of stocking.* Zorn and Laswell have been friends and musical compatriots since they first met in 1978, and have been responsible for some of the most intense and memorable music in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Recorded in early 2021, near the end of the year’s pandemic lockdown, it marks the first time Zorn had touched the saxophone in over fifteen months. Laswell had spent most of the year locked in his apartment. Something special was happening that day—and after the ses…
Hive Mind
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* A power trio of contemporary masters unlike any other! Miles Okazaki, Trevor Dunn and Dan Weiss are among the very best of a new generation of musicians working in the nexus of jazz, rock, noise, composition, improvisation and more. All dedicated students of the esoteric, they come together here as Hive Mind, a collective trio, to perform some of the wildest freewheeling improvisations around. Three compositional minds weaving bizarre soundscapes through tel…
Crawlspace: An Electro-Acoustic Fantasy
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* No there is nothing wrong with your equipment—the music is supposed to sound like this! Crawlspace is Medeski at his wildest and most imaginative. Using a huge array of electric and acoustic keyboards, synthesizers mellotron and early electronic gear, he has created a complex and trippy solo project that is unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. New and uncharted sonic territory by a legendary musical master who has worked with everyone from The Meters, I…
Silver Lining
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Gyan Riley is a virtuoso guitarist and composer living in Brooklyn whose unique work expands the rich legacy of classical guitar music with influences from minimalism, flamenco, bossa nova, collection of music for solo guitar. Fluid, compelling, and beautiful, this is music you will return to again and again. "This album pays homage to several of my musical mentors. I am forever grateful to these artists for the inspiration they have given me, not only for …
Songs For Petra: Petra Haden Sings The Zorn / Harris Songbook
Singer Petra Haden excels in this beautiful and unique program of songs penned by the songwriting team of Zorn and Harris. Friends for many years, they began working together on “The Song Project” in 2012, and eight years later this LP presents the full fruits of their collaboration: thirteen Zorn compositions with original lyrics by Jesse Harris. Including selections from a wide variety of Zorn projects (and one original that has never appeared before), the melodies are catchy, the lyrics heart…
To Sail, To Sail
One of the most profound solo statements to date from a musical master who has been crossing musical borders for over three decades! Concentrating exclusively on the acoustic guitar, Fred Frith stretches himself and the instrument like never before, performing with the eloquence and grace of a master in peak form. With a prodigious technique and elegant sense of maturity he draws upon a lifetime of study and experience to bring together influences as diverse as classical, blues, folk, gypsy and …
Love Me Tender
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* One of the first, longest running and most acclaimed improvisational rock ensembles in the world presents a special collection of live recordings culled from the private archives of guitarist extraordinaire Fred Frith. Hand picked for this release, the music comes from their exciting 1999 European tour, and from their most recent onslaughts in 2008. An essential document of one of the most incendiary rock trios in music history.
Songs Of Synastry And Solitude
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Brooklyn-based string instrumentalist/composer Jessica Pavone is known for her sparse, melodic music inspired by folk music, improvisation and minimalism. Modeled after the legendary Leonard Cohen album Songs of Love and Hate, these eleven marvelous and lyrical songs for string quartet use hauntingly simple beauty to evoke the ghosts of things lost. Performed by the brilliant young members of the Toomai String Quintet, this is lovely and expressive instrumen…
Tenno
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* The second in a series of releases by the legendary downtown pioneer Teiji Ito presents his postmodern masterpiece Tenno, blending Japanese, African, Carribean and Western musical instruments with sound effects, voice and electronics to create the most startling long form composition in his catalog. Born in Japan in 1935, Ito moved to New York and worked closely with Maya Deren, Jerome Robbins and Julian Beck creating music for film, dance and theatre for ne…
Back To Life
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Anyone who thinks of multifaceted composer/performer Fred Frith primarily as a guitar player with Henry Cow and for his 1974 album Guitar Solos is way out of touch with what he's been up to in, say, more than 30 years. The 2008 release of Back to Life on Tzadik represents a good opportunity to reconnect with Frith and summarize what he has been doing since the heady days of his scrambling, intense electric guitar improvisations like "Alienated Industrial Sea…
Watermill
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* The fifth CD in Tzadik’s initiative to make available the music of Teiji Ito presents his undisputed masterpiece Watermill. Created in 1971 for the controversial ballet by Jerome Robbins and named for the town on Long Island where Robbins had a peaceful country home, Teiji draws upon Chinese, Tibetan, African, Native American and Japanese ceremonies in creating what many consider his most profound compositional achievement. Based on the ideas of cycles—years…
Invisible Design II
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Invisible Design II showcases Bill Laswell playing a series of "compositions" -- that feel more like improvisations -- completely solo, a decade later follow-up to Invisible Design that appeared in the Tzadik Composer Series in 1999. Laswell plays fretless and eight-string basses, and uses loads of effects to create either sonically atmospheric backdrops or multi-layered bass parts to accompany himself on these ten selections. The results are busier than tho…
Ugnayan
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* An important discovery of the original 1974 recording of a Maceda masterpiece! Recorded as 20 channels broadcast simultaneously on all of Manila's radio stations to the population gathered in public spaces with hand-held transistor radios, Ugnayan was a massive production supported by the Marcos regime intended to meld values of indigenous Filipino culture with modernist aesthetics. Though politically problematic and largely misunderstood, the effort involvi…
Strangely Familiar
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Jazz legend Karl Berger is best known for his vibes and piano playing and for founding, with Ornette Coleman and Ingrid Sertso, the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY, in 1972. He has also had a full career in the classical realm, earning a doctorate in musicology, serving as professor of composition at Frankfurt Hochschule, and as chair of the music department at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Strangely Familiar: 17 Miniatures for Piano Sol…
Spirit Transform Me
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist experimenting in the dark trance-inducing worlds of ambient, industrial and electronic music. His newest collaborative project features the legendary percussionist/composer and mystic Z’EV in a hypnotic series of pieces exploring the inner meanings of the Hebrew Alef-beit. A remarkable vision from beginning to end, with sounds both fragile and powerfully intense, Oren and Z’EV take the sonic investigation…
Drone And Melody
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* This is the second Tzadik release of music by one of the most original and under-appreciated composers of the twentieth century. With his passing in 2004, several of his most passionate musical collaborators have been continuing José Maceda’s legacy and they come together here to present his most ambitious and greatest large scale work—Strata. Beautifully recorded In Manila at the University of the Philippines directed by Maceda’s long-time collaborator Ramô…
Ama
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Born in Seoul and now a resident of Brooklyn, Ha-Yang Kim is a cellist, composer and improviser who has developed a unique language of extended string techniques and electronics. Drawing upon influences as far ranging as Balinese and Karnatic traditions, jazz, rock, western classical music and downtown experimentation, she has created an original music of imagination and passion. Her first CD features a startling solo piece, two pieces for her long running d…