New Arrivals
Words Fail
*200 copies edition* The debut release from the trio of Chris Abrahams (piano), Clayton Thomas (bass & preparations), & Miles Thomas (drums & percussion), Words Fail is an intergenerational meeting of the minds. Despite the quintessential trio format, the sound world subverts the instrumentation across four expansive improvisations. Beginning with a lone piano note, repeating like droplets of water on a glassy lake, the interwoven textures of Clayton Thomas’ prepared double-bass & Miles Thomas’ …
Very Fast & Very Far
**200 copies edition** In 1977 the US government sent two unmanned probes — Voyager I & Voyager II — on a one-way journey into interstellar space. On board each craft, a carefully etched golden record containing sonic artefacts of life on earth, including fragments of Bach & traditional musics, sounds of animals & nature, an audio realisation of the ‘music of the sphere’s’ & children’s laughter. As the 40th anniversary of the mission loomed, the three artists, working here together for the first…
Antimatter
Ben Carey is a Sydney-based saxophonist, composer and technologist. His practice is profoundly informed and extended by technology, through the creation of audio-visual works, the development of his interactive performance software: _derivations and more recently, his fixation on modular synthesis. Ben's work is driven by a fascination with the symbiotic relationships that develop between human and machine in composition and performance. ‘The three pieces on this record are the result of live …
Prayer For Nil
"In Anthony Pateras’ Prayer for Nil the electronics are a swell of voices so dense they seem inhuman, amassed like a threatening cloud. As the piece unfolds the masses thin to a taper. By its conclusion the solitary singer is left brutally alone, though it’s hard to tell if she wasn’t alone the whole time – every voice in the throng was her own - my own. The ‘live vocal’ part is a highly structured improvisation. Anthony gave me a set of rules, pitches, and rhythms. Within the electronic field, …
A Still From The Film
* 2022 stock. Edition of 150* A Still From The Film is a sort of sister release of 2012’s ‘Detachment’. So you can expect warm and dark drones, mostly guitarbased. But this album is at the same time more abstract, and more accessible. The a-side is one sidelong track. Whereas many artists start out with a melody that degenerates into chaos, Karina ESP builds a subtle melody out of what starts as a vague mix of hiss, crackles and guitarsounds. The b-side of the record is more straightforward, wit…
Split EP
* 2022 stock. Edition of 200* Before embarking on a European tour, Boduf Songs and Jessica Bailiff re-worked one of their older songs in totally different versions. Boduf Songs presents a stripped own but electric and heavy version of decapitation blues, originally a vibrating and pulsating track. Jessica Bailiff brings a new take on Lakeside Blues, heavily relying on keyboards.
Visitations
London-based guitarist and producer Leo Abrahams and NYC master musician (and boss of figureight records) Shahzad Ismaily unite for a unique imagining of guitar music on Visitations. The work of two highly skilled, highly celebrated musicians, Visitations marks a curious, mysterious, uncanny collection of music, offering a take on guitar playing that snakes and collides with unexpected turns. It encourages - requires even - a deep listening experience, every discordance balanced with harmony, ev…
Scale
Scale, addresses issues of observation, embodied transferences, telepathy and duration employing swipes, knocks, resonators and hypnotic patternings on the acoustic harp with the less controllable sounds of radio waves, homemade synths and feedback. Inspired by the timings and sensations of natural phenomena including daylight’s slow emergence at dawn and the pulsing ambiance of ocean currents. Nature as both utopic and disruptive. Attention is situated in an often luscious, contemplative sonic …
Vibration!
"For the years Columbus was lucky enough to call him ours, drummer Ryan Jewell was our leading proponent of Emily Dickinson’s maxim “tell the truth but tell it slant.” He placed an idiosyncratic, indelible, and always swinging stamp on any context he assailed, from the insidiously catchy quirk of Terribly Empty Pockets to the righteous brainy scuzz-punk of Pink Reason to spacy evocative noise with collaborators like Mike Shiflet and C. Spencer Yeh to shepherding Psychedelic Horsehit through thei…
Sclupperbep
Detroit saxophonist Skeeter Shelton and Chicago percussionist Hamid Drake didn’t know each other before Skeeter was subbed into a duo gig at Trinosophes (Detroit) after Hamid’s partner fell ill. Shortly before the performance, it was discovered that Skeeter’s father, Ajaramu Shelton, was Hamid’s drum teacher and mentor at Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. There was an instant bond. The set that night was fire. This should be no surprise, as keeter, through his fath…
Prime Choice
Calvin “Popcorn” Ward put out just one album and a couple of EPs during the height of his musical career, which were held in particularly high esteem by Soul and Funk afficianados in Europe, less so in the states where his work generally remained canned, a few singles and a coverless version of Prime Choice appearing in very limited quantity. His only other notable musical appearance from the time was a vocal cameo for the disco group Passion on their self titled album on Prelude, appearing on t…
Un hiver en plein été
From its earliest utterances, experimental music has been particularly disposed to transnational and cross-cultural collaboration. Seeking the answer for a fundamental problem - how to transcend the boundaries of difference, distance, and time - it presents a means to find common ground and communicate through the elemental form of sound. Over the last 5 years, this precisely what the duo of Félicia Atkinson & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has achieved, intertwining sublime sonorities across the geographi…
London Pirate Radio Adverts 1984-1993, Vol. 1
Death Is Not The End presents London Pirate Radio Adverts 1984-1993, Vol. 1. The first volume in a two-part collection of pirate radio adverts & idents, taken from recordings of London stations between 1984 & 1993. Many thanks to Wayne Anthony, Simon Reynolds, Stephen Hebditch & The Pirate Radio Archive.
Preparation
Featuring Mike Taylor (piano), Dave Tomlin (soprano saxophone), Tony Reeves (double bass) and Jon Hiseman (drums), this is the first ever release of a newly discovered tape of this legendary British jazz quartet’s final rehearsal before going into the studio to make their fabled Pendulum album in October 1965. Recorded in Taylor’s grandparents’ London living room by Reeves, it’s has striking presence and immediacy, and will fascinate all admirers of this most enigmatic of composers and musicians…
Insubstantial As Ghosts
BArTc is London based experimental electronic audio visual artist Jason Barton, with his nom de plume comprising the symbols for three chemical elements - Boron (B), Argon (Ar) and Technetium (Tc) - while also giving nods to both Hungarian composer Béla Bartók and his own surname. 'Insubstantial As Ghosts' is Barton’s debut album and contains fourteen highly atmospheric soundscapes. Taking the title from a William Gibson novel that was also used in a citation about Sleeping Sickness (‘they neith…
Concert Villa Arson Nice
**300 copies limited edition** "When the Nihilist Spasm Band's first album was released in 1968, no other band in the world recorded such a racket. For these Canadians, who had been practicing for three years in their London (Ontario) rehearsal room, the motto seemed to be to indulge in spontaneous sound creation, thus justifying the abolition of all limits in the de'bride's performances they organized every Monday night. Enjoying noise without hindrance turned out to be their only creed. The re…
Fieldwave, Vol. 2
Fieldwave, Vol. 2 is the second release in our compilation series created by broadcaster, sound collector and Nonclassical A&R consultant, Nick Luscombe, bringing together artists with field recording at the heart of their work. This second volume focuses on the sounds of Japan, with tracks from Japanese musicians and from British artists who have gathered recordings via trips to Japan.“I created the Fieldwave compilation series in 2020 as a window to the world of field recordings and wider acou…
Different Places
* 100 copies limited edition, orange vinyl, includes a one-sided insert + a hand numbered envelope containing four additional prints * Continuing the reissue campaign of legendary synthesizer artist Enno Velthuys, we are proud to offer the Different Places LP. The original tape from 1987 was the second tape Enno produced for Exart and it was his last work before he disappeared into obscurity. By this time, he became disillusioned by the cassette network and his mental condition sadly deteriorate…
Exmagma
*2022 repress* Exmagma's eponymous first album, recorded in 1972 and released in 1973, reminds a lot of late '60s Soft Machine. Others compare the album to Wolfgang Dauner's output or tracks by Et Cetera. Exmagma's music goes beyond jazz and rock, using a wealth of effects and electronic gadgets. This reissue comes with a replica of the original 8-page insert and sticker.
Liminal Lungs
**Limited to 300 copies** Stunning choral smoke from the ever wonderful Tape Loop Orchestra, here shedding the blissed drone energies of his best known material in favour of a more lucid expression of ideas constructed almost entirely from the human voice and bass pulses. If you were into that amazing Antonina Nowacka album earlier this year, or indeed Kara-Lis Coverdale’s peerless sacred variations, this one comes highly recommended. ‘Liminal Lungs’ finds Andrew Hargreaves shedding his pedals a…