New Arrivals
The Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra
This special 60th Anniversary reissue of groundbreaking jazz artist Sun Ra’s iconic 1962 album The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra features all-analog re-mastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. The package includes Tom Wilson’s original liner notes, plus insightful new essays by jazz historian Ben Young, as well as by Irwin Chusid, who is also a journalist, radio personality, and author. Engineered by Paul Cady, the sessions featured nine players, including Ra…
We Get Requests
The new Acoustic Sounds series is mastered from the original tapes, pressed on 180-gram vinyl and packaged in high-quality gatefold ("book-like") covers, curated by Stoughton Printing Co. where the printed sheet of paper is applied to the cardboard. All under the supervision of Chad Kassem, CEO of Acoustic Sounds, the most established company in the field of publications for audiophiles. The publications are selected from the extraordinary Verve/UMe catalog, and to begin with, the series focuses…
H.P. Lovecraft II
The 2nd chapter, yet a revelation. Released on Philips in 1968, right after their ’67 self titled album this iconic psych-folk masterpiece still detain a refreshing and revelatory approach. The Chicago band, named after American supernatural fiction writer, is on the verge of some weird songwriting experience, as suggested by some explicit titles as Mobius Trip or At The Mountains Of Madness. Celestial electro-acoustic harmonies and spacey keyboards gave way to mystical show, still entertaining …
Copenhagen, Denmark (Fm) October 25, 1963
*In process of stocking* "Recorded on the 1963 tour of Europe, this is the definitive John Coltrane Quartet at its musical peak. My edition of the Penguin Guide to Jazz suggests that the 1963 tour was ‘slightly anti-climactic’; on the basis of these tracks, I have to disagree. Although, compared with say, the Stockholm recording of the same tour, this set feels much stronger (even though the pieces are more or less the same, taken from the short set list that the Quartet toured in the October a…
The Temple Within
When Matthew Halsall released Salute to the Sun in November 2020, his first new album in five years, he shared the first fruits from an especially fertile period of writing and recording, which also gave birth to the music released here as The Temple Within.
The recording sessions featured Halsall's then brand new band of hand-picked local musicians, brought together through weekly rehearsals and a monthly residency at Yes in Manchester, they forged an immersive, communal sound, drawing on spiri…
Rückverzauberung Exhibition
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* Long-time AI associate Wolfgang Voigt returns to the London label with his next album – Rückverzauberung Exhibition. The Exhibition reimagines the concept with renewed purpose, opening the gates to deliver an arresting 60-minute journey into the underworld. Dense soundscapes mutate with alchemic fluidity, unravelling with vast symphonic counterpoints and synesthetic textures. Intoxicating in its Mephistolean dissonances and ambitious sonic structure, the spr…
Metamorphosis
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* Multicast Dynamics returns to Astral Industries for AI-26, this time collaborating with Sid Hille, the German born, Finland based instrumentalist and composer. ‘Metamorphosis’ transmutes both artists’ unique styles into a synergistic blend of transportive storytelling, a delicate dance of light and dark.
Divided into two parts, ’Metamorphosis’ originates from a live performance recorded at Temppeliaukio church in Helsinki on March 2nd, 2019. The material was…
Live at Brancaleone
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* Following the arrival of their debut album ‘Alterazione’, LF58 (F.Scorcucchi and G.Tillieci) are back on Astral Industries with a special trove of outer-space explorations. Recorded one evening back in April 2019 as a live performance at Rome’s Brancaleone, the eponymously titled album offers a sprawling journey across the pan-dimensional ether. Spread across six sides of vinyl, the performance includes fully improvised material as well as choice selections …
These Things Happen
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* A group here that features some key members from the American avant scene, but whose standout member might well be pianist Oscar Jan Hoogland – who contributed two originals to the set, and whose work on the keys seems to really direct the energy of this session that features fresh interpretations of tunes by Herbie Nichols and Thelonious Monk! The setting is quite a different one for saxophonist Keefe Jackson, but he's superb throughout – blowing tenor and sopra…
Dance Of The Cosmos Aliens / Door Of The Cosmos
* Pressed on a heavy weight single 70g magenta vinyl with a picture sleeve * A couple of magnificent Sun Ra gems on this heavyweight 7". Pressed at 33RPM on neon magenta vinyl. Side Epic - The Sun Ra Quartet, Dance of The Cosmo Aliens from Sun Ra's Disco 3000 album recorded in Milan Italy in January of 1978. featuring Sun Ra (keys), John Gilmore (tenor sax), Michael Ray (trumpet), and Luqman Ali (drums), with assistance from the Crumar Mainman synthesizer/rhythm box. running time: 8.30 cut at 33…
Transformational Salt
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Slugfuckers sole full-length 'Transformational Salt', originally released in 1981 and now back on vinyl, is an absorbing slab of Australian DIY, dense with thought and fury. The album brings together reprobate dub poetics and thug-drubbing spite in a mangled collage of post-punk disjunct and proto-industrial churn.
Hypnagogic Relapse And Other Penumbral Phenomena
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Penumbra, from the Latin paene (almost) and umbra (shadow), refers to the partially luminescent fringe of an opaque object, like the streetlight outlining the sole of a shoe hurtling towards your eye. Hypnagogic, from the Greek hupnos (sleep) and agōgos (leading), refers to the drowsy state before sleep. Crazy Doberman here comprises 17 players from the greater Europe of the Midwest. Basement glyphs. Who’s on the lease? And what’s under the rug. The owner pa…
Volume 2 - Sextet
In only his second date as a leader, 18-year-old trumpeter Lee Morgan was already emerging from the long shadow cast by Clifford Brown, and this session is another step in the trumpet prodigy’s molting. Still, the set may be as notable for the four hard bop compositions of Benny Golson – including the first appearance of the soon-to-be-standard “Whisper Not” – and a stellar band of (mostly) young turks that included Hank Mobley on tenor, Horace Silver on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, Charlie Per…
And Then There Were Three
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Here's Lantern Heights' personal tribute to the one and only Michael Chapman, a hero in his own right, a 'Fully Qualified Survivor' (just to mention one of his most successful creations). An unreleased live album on vinyl in the form of an astonishing trio." A live set recorded at Nottingham's Playhouse Theatre on July 23rd 1977 by Chapman and a power house rhythm section in Lindisfarne bassist Rod Clements and former John Mayall drummer Keef Hartley. Some of his…
Collection Particulière
* LP 300 copies. Translucid green vinyl, offset printed covers, stamped labels * Omertà is comprised of five musicians from a handful of projects that line the interior of France’s experimental underground, notably La Société Étrange, releasing limited edition pressings on labels like Standard In-Fi, Desastre, and La Novià. Each of the members, and their associated groups, possess krautrock’s stealthy octave climbing and open feel, dub’s intimate incorporation of analog electronics and generally…
Tim Maia 1973
*In process of stocking* An icon of Brazilian popular music, Tim Maia was a musical polymath and prolific recording artist best known for introducing American soul to the Brazilian music scene, pioneering the sambalanço style by blending elements of soul, funk, rock, and samba. Maia recorded four self-titled albums for Polydor Brazil, this fourth release from 1973 arguably the best, with its outstanding hits ‘Réu Confesso’ and ‘Gostava Tanto de Você’; ‘Do Your Thing, Behave Yourself’ shows how t…
Made In Japan
*In process of stocking* Absinthe Records present a reissue of Flower Travellin' Band's Made in Japan - originally released in 1972. Following critical acclaim but meager record sales in their native Japan after their superb debut album, Satori (ASH 3002CD/LP), Yuya Uchida and his Flower Travellin' Band decamped to Canada following an invitation to open for local jazz-rock outfit Lighthouse. While there, Lighthouse leader and keyboard player Paul Hoffert offered to produce the band's next studio…
A Date With Jimmy Smith, Volume One
*In process of stocking* Jimmy Smith was the most inventive and technically skilled organist of the Bop generation. Originally released in 1957, "A date with J.M." features performances recorded in the same year with Smith heading a sextet including a bunch of Blue Notes heavyweights such as Donald Byrd – trumpet, Lou Donaldson – alto saxophone, Hank Mobley – tenor saxophone, Art Blakey – drums, plus a guitar-organ-drums combo with guitarist Eddie McFadden and drummer Donald Bailey, and as one …
The Almoravid
*In process of stocking* Terrific session just released in 1974 on influential independent Muse. A modal masterpiece verging on spiritual jazz with a series of excellent players: from Richard Davis and Cecil McBee on bass to Ray Mantilla on congas and percussion, through Harold Vick distinctive flute and tenor sax. The major voice on this record belongs to the traps of Joe Chambers. The enormous potency combined with complete authority and tonal clarity that Chambers brings to the drums has made…
Magic Lady
*In process of stocking* Spriguns Of Tolgus (later shortened to just Spriguns) were a British folk-rock group formed in 1972, who have long been admired by connoisseurs of that era. Having made two self-funded albums, they attracted a major label deal with Decca for two further LPs, which demonstrated their growing originality, and caught the attention of some significant figures in that world.
After two Decca albums Mandy decided to form her own label and rebranded as Mandy Morton and Spriguns …