New Arrivals
Bloom
First in the 'Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent' series of three CD EPs by this new project founded by Irish singer Clodagh Simonds. Contributors incl. Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Laura Sheeran, Lydia Sasse, Cora Venus Lunny, Toby Arnott, Carter Burwell and Andrew McKenzie of The Hafler Trio. The CD comes in a beautiful embossed cover in an edition of 2000 copies.
Recyclopaedia Britannica (Selected Works 1992-2002)
“The work of People Like Us rests gingerly between two dangerous positions: on the one hand, the risk of fashioning merely stylish pastiche out of borrowed finery for the sake of self-conscious kitschiness; on the other hand, the risk of making simplistic, heavy handedly "topical" audio-jokes at the expense of one's raw material to a smug effect. If the lounge creeps uncritically snack on their sonic ingredients and coast on being "groovy", the cads of pseudo-critique take cheap shots at straw m…
Inspirationals
Back in 1988 Arbeit Group label released obscure industrial-noise release by project called TRAIT. A-side of the tape includes several different arrangement for inspiration in battle. B-side included several of those arrangements combined together for temporary unified action. 45 minutes of most primitive analogue destruction, leaving no place for easylistening or relaxing moments. Even with the atmopheric and dark moment, sound is extremely decayed and coarse sound of tape loops, manipulation a…
Watershed
If the three compositions proposed by Denis Fournier have already been recorded, they merit to be here as resurgences, like scenarios encouraging the freedom of transformation without which free interpretation is nothing. “I often say that I don’t make improvised music, but that I improvise music. In other words, I put together there and then elements of my life, of my history, of my culture…” In other words, no structure commands the action. Every structure opens to the action (to sharing) whic…
Himmelgeister 19 (2008)
“Himmelgeister 19 (2008)” for chamberorchestra and 3 voices. Johnny Chang (violin), Conrad von Coelln (viola), Nataliya Demina (violin), Rodion Dubirnij (trumpet), Jürg Frey (clarinet), Sven Herman (accordion), Eva-Maria Houben (harmonium), Marcus Kaiser (violoncello), Tobias Liebezeit (percussion), Normisa Pereira Da Silva (flute), Radu Malfatti (trombone), Koen Nutters (bass), Sven Oetter (horn), Michael Pisaro (guitar), Burkhard Schlothauer (violin), Thomas Stiegler (violin). Antoine Beuger (…
Live aux Instants Chavirés
Joëlle Léandre (doublebass) and Jean-Luc Cappozzo (trumpet) recorded Live in concert by Jean-Marc Foussat at Instants Chavirés( Montreuil, France), 2009. Mastered by Joëlle Léandre and Jean-Marc Foussat.
Kappe
To paraphrase online reports: Svarte Greiner's Erik Skodvin comes riding from the dark, epic wastes of Scandinavialand, quaffing wyrmblood out of a hellmug and pronouncing mad soliloquies of doom. This kind of marketing creates strange dissonances with the music on Kappe. Sure, it's gloomy and foreboding. But it's also strident and glacially paced; it sounds more like a depressed La Monte Young than an heir of metal ancestry. At the same time, it strongly evokes the modulating bass o…
Ethnic Expressions
Easily one of the most coveted and sought-after of all jazz LPs is the elusive Holy Grail that is Roy Brooks' Ethnic Expressions. It's not just rarity that makes a record of this nature so desirable, nor is it the compelling music within -- sometimes, like a Van Gogh or a Picasso, it's the personality of the artist himself that's inexorably entwined with the record itself that lends a fascinating, mesmeric and mythical quality that simply can't be contrived. The sixth release in Jazzman's …
Vivian & Ondine
A brand new album from one of the most revered and acclaimed ambient composers of our time, Vivian & Ondine takes the form of a single, three-quarter hour piece, once again constructed from William Basinski's signature style of tape loop manipulation. While the narrative ebb and flow is largely pinned to a single tape fragment, Basinski merged a further "dozen or so" that sunk into the mix in just the right way, adding to the aura of fluctuation and continuous evolution that's so essential to th…
Bruder Luzifer
23 Track CD Anthology. For three decades Hamburg's Felix Kubin operated as an undercover Sci-Fi pop visionary. Lurching from seasick electronics to dramatic outsider songcraft, the highlights of Kubin's engaging teenage experiments (Krematorien) and later pop masterworks (Lightning Strikes) mingle here with electrified spaghetti-western romps (Sabàta) and terminal noise-spasms (Dead End Brain). Lovingly curated, this deluxe collector's edition features exclusive liner notes, unpublished p…
Reflectors
The Preservation label presents the second album from New York's Nickolas Mohanna. Also working as a visual artist, Nickolas draws unique forms from the wealth of sounds found in New York's complex sprawl and imbues them with feeling and subtlety. The sounds on Reflectors buzz with rich detail and rhythmic interplay for a work alive with beauty and mystery in its atmospheric reach. Previously living in San Francisco for a number of years, Nickolas studied with noted electronic composer Bob…
Box music
Rutger and Stephen sort of accidentally met through e-mail. A simple note regarding an ordering question for a CD led to an enthusiastic e-mail conversation and climaxed in a musical collaboration. This all happened in a very short period, both musicians being very inspired by the concept of “exchange,” as a means to cross space and time -- Rutger living in the Netherlands and Stephen in Virginia.
Most of the time, when (electronic) musicians work together it’s a matter of swapping digital files…
Zwitzerland
Ursula Maehr, recorder. Carles Peris, saxophone, flute. Francis Petter, saxophone, bass clarinet. Valentin Vecellio, basset horn. Marco von Orelli, trumpet. Sabine von Werra, voice. Christoph Baumann, piano. Markus Fischer, double bass. Jacques Widmer, drums. Recorded 9-11 November 2007
47°13' N 7°E
Another uncommon sonic wringer from Portuguese label Creative Sources has been signed by a couple of Switzerland-based (as you could easily surmise from the geographical coordinate, which point to a place the district of Franches-Montagnes in the canton of Jura in Switzerland, they used to name this release) musicians, Lea Danzeisen and Christoph Schiller, who decided to squeeze the spinet, the little brother of harpsichord and piano, whose sound got totally transfigured by meticulous mod…
Bag It
After 4 intensive days of recording with Steve Albini (WTF!?! Thought he didn't like jazz) The Thing created Bag It!, a new mastodon of ecstasy music. The Thing is well known for their free jazz versions of rock classics from artists such as PJ Harvey, White Stripes, The Sonics, Yeah Yeah Yeahs & Lightning Bolt. This time the band is only doing two rock interpretations, one by Japan's 54 Nude Honeys & one by the The Ex/ Muzsikás. The rest of the tracks on the album are written by Mats Gustafsson…
Inanimate Nature
the first title in yasunori saito’s exhaustive survey of the music of masayuki takayanagi via his jinya disc imprint... the arrival of these discs in the mms catalogue has been a long time in the making; extremely glad to have these seminal documents of free-scrape/noise-guitar crossover in stock !!!this disc features takayanagi on solo “tabletop guitar” as recorded “aug 4, 1990 at ‘new direction for the arts, regular concert vol.69’ jean jean tokyo” - nothing at all like fred frith, keith rowe,…
Running away
Guillaume Viltard, doublebass. Recorded in 2008 studio and outdoor. The CD comes in a very special package made by visual artist Zéhavite Cohen. 300 copies. 'There followed a solo double bass performance that was added late to the bill from Guillaume Viltard, a young musician that has been playing a lot at the weekly Eddie Prevost workshop. I had seen him play before, most recently in a duo with his frequent playing partner Ute Kanngiesser, but never solo, and I have to admit to being taken by s…
Surface of the Earth
Gunn Amps and Smashed Guitars. Surface of the Earth was recorded live to cassette, using two microphones in a wooden community hall in Wellington, New Zealand. The lp was gathered from two or three recording sessions in 1994/95. Back then we used to book out the hall for a couple of days, set up our gear and then record everything. It was a very atmospheric room for recording. Tony and Donald would put their guitars through their two old Gunn valve amplifiers and get to work. Tony often used thi…
Natsu No Sebone
Alto saxophonist Masayoshi Urabe and percussionist Toshi Ishizuka recorded this extended improvisation at Tokyo's Apia Club, quietly ferocious music with a unique physicality. "Thrilling, blood-shaking, soul-scraping and defiantly non-sexless improv set from two Japanese titans. Recorded live at the Apia club in Tokyo in December last year, this set showcases Urabe's uniquely physical approach to improvisation -- ferociously concentrated, contorted, sweating and eruptive with physical power. Hi…