New Arrivals
Finomehanika
Tip! An essential repress of the monumental 2020 album. Finomehanika was Rijeka-based Robert Merlak's first solo release in two decades since "Albumski" on pioneering avant-garde techno label Phthalo which put him on the map next to fellow artists as diverse as Dntel, Daedelus and James 'V/Vm' Kirby.
Merging piano and field recordings, Merlak moves between musique concrete, ambient, and neo classical, crafting great layers of depth and ambience combining the frayed melancholia of Vladislav Delay…
Babo / That Ol' Bus Smell
Romanian born trombonist, composer/arranger Peter Herbolzheimer led one of the most hard-swinging, innovative, successful European big bands with a heavy roster onboard, including Art Farmer, Palle Mikkleborg, Herb Geller, Philip Catherine, Tony Inzalaco, Dieter Reith and virtuoso latin jazz percussionist Sabu Martinez. His 1973 MPS album, Wide Open, remained unissued since the '70s – this first ever all-analogue 45 7" single features the two brassy big-band funk highlights from the LP – 'Babo' …
J.B.W. / Soft Hands Had The Rain
Bora Rokovic's MPS album, Ultra Native, is one of the most elusive titles in the catalogue and, until now, remained unissued since its original release in 1971. Inzalaco's 'J.B.W.' is a hard-grooving fusion piece with dark minor chords, opening with an almighty drum break – found here in a new all-analogue mastertape edit for this 45 release. 'Soft Hands Had the Rain' features Trunk strutting his stuff on Fender bass, as well as cello overdubs, with Rokovic's brooding improvisations on electric …
Erich Kleinschuster ORF 1968-71 Bundle
In process of restock This bundle includes three double LP sets, namely "Erich Kleinschuster 6tet Feat. Clifford Jordan & Charles Tolliver / ORF / 1968-69," "Erich Kleinschuster 6tet Feat. Joe Henderson & Dusko Goykovich / ORF / 1968-70" and "Erich Kleinschuster 6tet Feat. Carmell Jones, Slide Hampton & Art Farmer / ORF / 1968-71".Erich Kleinschuster’s projects and initiatives played a vital role in establishing a spiritual home for jazz in Vienna. The founding of his sextet in 1966 and, in 196…
Àlááfíà
Honour’s debut album is a ligament stretching from Lagos to London and to New York, curling across the diaspora and brushing the darker hues of blues, hip-hop, free jazz, ambient, gospel with Christian mythology and Yoruba folklore. As cinematic as it is painterly, Àlàáfíà is a meditation on themes of life, death and love that pulls inspiration from the poetic profundity of God, remembered dreams, unexpected casual conversations, field recordings, literature, ephemera, and personal archives. The…
No Sound In Space
Blake Lee has always been fascinated by the unknown, and space, in its isolating, mysterious vastness, embodies this theme immaculately. The open void, captured so memorably by Stanley Kubrick in '2001: A Space Odyssey', is Blake's far-reaching canvas on 'No Sound In Space', a cinematic meditation on the cosmos that's painted in nuanced, emotionally sincere colors. The Los Angeles-based composer has been contemplating his full-length debut since 2021, using his guitar as a sonic paintbrush rathe…
Southside Girl
Jonnine Standish of HTRK returns with a gorgeous fourth solo album, a psychedelic conjuring of a childhood summer spent by the sea. Threading field recordings through impromptu songs captured on a portable 6 track, the album plays like a series of scent memories that flip the mood in a heartbeat - quite impossible not to fall under their spell.
Jonnine has soundtracked our lives for 15 years at this point, her songs - solo and for HTRK - some of the most evocative in recent memory. HTRK’s last a…
Everything Is Simple
Everything Is Simple arrives four years after its predecessor, Hold You Up, which in turn came five years after Show Us The Fire. Zelienople does not do things in a hurry. Why should it? Operationally and musically, haste has nothing to offer the Chicago-identified trio. They do not rush their time signatures, and they do not rush their albums, because however long it takes is the amount of time necessary. So, what’s necessary? Singer-guitarist Matt Christensen, multi-instrumentalist Brian Hard…
Rawskulled
"A surreal mosaic of eerie chant processionals, tape-rot trickery, and panicked oud madness. These are sonic forgeries of atavistic heritages, recorded by analog means using esoteric techniques." They have been known by many names: The Givers of Illness; The Bandylegged Riders of the Ill-Promised Sun, etc… Honed and expanded through their travels, Ak’chamel’s singular sound comprising desert-scorched psychedelia, post-apocalyptic shamanism, and bizarre ritual folk is as unique as the physical th…
8
"Before starting this collaboration, Maurizio Bianchi and Daniele Veronese had been in contact for a long time, united by a bond of mutual appreciation. Daniele Veronese - a well-known musician in the electro-acoustic and electronic area - has been on the scene for a long time with various monikers (Tastiera, Outdoor Sex, Susje Ristch), and grew up listening to Maurizio Bianchi, Tasaday and the Italian industrial music of the 80s. Like many, he was fascinated by the aura of M.B., a reserved, elu…
Dafne Phono
** Edition of 200 copies, incl. 18” x 24” fold-out poster, insert, incl. download ** Nour Mobarak’s Dafne Phono is an adaptation of the first opera, Dafne, composed and written by Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini in 1598. Drawing on the myth of Daphne and Apollo from Ovid’s Metamorphoses—a story of unrequited love, patriarchal possession, conquest, and transformation—Mobarak’s multimedia and multispecies reimagining splinters the opera’s Italian libretto. Alongside English and Greek versions, i…
Live In Kontich
*Standard edition, 217 copies* The Legendary Pink Dots has released many live in its history but most often with albums that brought together recording from various locations. Today and now available, is the first double live record of a full concert from the 80s era. All great bands all have their legendary “double live” performances in their history. This has now been achieved for the Dots with this recording in Kontich, and Fractal is very happy to be able to offer it to you. Live in Kontich …
Anchors
With Anchors, Chicago-based bass clarinetist Jason Stein returns after six years with his most personal album to date. It was created together with bassist Joshua Abrams (Natural Information Society, of which Stein has been a member since 2017), drummer Gerald Cleaver, and guest artist/co-producer Boon. Anchors are, so often, symbolic of strength and stability. They reflect our capacity to steady ourselves in turbulent waters, allowing us to traverse the deepest seas. With anchors aboard, we can…
Uncle Joe's Spirit House
LP - Strictly limited first-time/one-time-only Centering Records edition, 500 on black vinyl // Beautiful pressing & printing. Includes full-res download card with 3 additional tracks. A gorgeous soul-jazz organ quartet album that hearkens to early-mid 60s sessions of similar form; fully revitalized by William Parker's indelible compositions and the generous musical gifts of Darryl Foster, Cooper-Moore and Gerald Cleaver. A straight-up joy. This very special project was produced by William Parke…
Echolalia
This album was commissioned by KAAP / Concertgebouw Brugge for Jazz Brugge Festival.
Music, production, pianos, Fender Rhodes, synthesizers and pipe organ by Giovanni Di Domenico. Featuring Alexandra Grimal on soprano saxophone (Part I) and Eric Thielemans on drums (Part II and Part III). Recorded in January 2023 at Concertgebouw Brugge by Christophe Albertijn and in April 2023 in Zaal Miry (Ghent) by Peter Desmedt. Mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture. Vinyl cut by Andreas at Schnitstelle. Art…
Breezy
The second album of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s Knarr band is now ready for release on his own label Sonic Transmissions Records. The band that was first put together as a commissioned one-off project for the Vossa Jazz festival in 2021 has now become Håker Flaten’s main outlet as a bandleader and composer. Clearly something sparked putting the Vossa Jazz project together, and those of us who knew and had followed Håker Flaten for over three decades as a one of the finest musicians working within (…
Heart & Soul
Released in 1982, “Heart and Soul” is a collaboration between bassist Ron Carter and pianist Cedar Walton, two jazz giants renowned for their impeccable musicianship. The album showcases their exceptional interplay and deep understanding of jazz standards. Title track “Heart & Soul”, “Frankie and Johnny”, “Little Waltz” highlight their ability to communicate and improvise with sophistication and emotion. The album is a testament to the enduring appeal of jazz standards and the artistry of two ma…
Wege / Way
Bomb! Edition of 500 copies, with fold-out insert. Rolf Gehlhaar (1943-2019) was an instrumental and electronic music composer, and a pioneer in computer controlled interactive music. He grew up in the US where he studied philosophy and composition at Yale University. In 1967 he moved back to Germany to become Karlheinz Stockhausen’s personal assistant and member of his performing ensemble. In 1969 Gehlhaar co-founded, along with Johannes Fritsch (Metaphon 012) and David Johnson, the Feedback St…
Traces du Hasard
In Timo van Luijk's own words: This album is a bit of an accumulation of coincidences. It is the first recording session I did with Kris Vanderstraeten, back in 1994, together with Daniel Duchamp and Luis Ferin. The session recording had since disappeared from attention and 30 years later, while going through old DAT tape archives, I came across it by chance, initially even not knowing who/what it was...The tape started with a recording of cars, captured from my balcony in Brussels, where I live…
Greggio E Pericoloso (Original Soundtrack)
Black vinyl + insert. Unreleased soundtrack by Banco del Mutuo Soccorso recorded in 1981 and unveiled for the first time. “Greggio e Pericoloso” is a 1975 novel written by the engineer and science communicator Roberto Vacca, which narrates an intricate story of fictional-economic and political intrigue arising from the possibility that a resource such as petroleum might turn out to be an inexhaustible resource on our planet. In 1981, that same book became material for the screenplay of four-epis…