New Arrivals
Tim Maia Racional Vols. 1 & 2
At the height of Tim Maia's soaring fame, he joined a radical, extraterrestrial-obsessed cult and created two plus albums of some of Brazil's - and the globe's - best funk and soul music. This book explores the career of the man often hailed as the James Brown or Barry White of Brazil, and the time of his radical transformation from a musician notorious for hedonistic living to a devoted follower of Manoel Jacinto Coelho's Rational Culture.After suddenly joining Coelho's cult in 1974 (which star…
After Sound - Toward a Critical Music
After Sound considers contemporary art practices that reconceive music beyond the limitation of sound. This book is called After Sound because music and sound are, in Barrett's account, different entities. While musicology and sound art theory alike typically equate music with pure instrumental sound, or absolute music, Barrett posits music as an expanded field of artistic practice encompassing a range of different media and symbolic relationships. The works discussed in After Sound thus use per…
Robot Brujo
In the wild and tangled web of sound that makes up contemporary experimental music, it can be hard to see up from down. Beyond all their obvious tasks, record labels double as a crucial lens. Ears to the ground, they build context and understanding for the disparate elements of this sonic world. Among the most notable of these, looking beyond the well trodden path, is Hands In The Dark.Over the last decade, they’ve become an unmissable force, bringing visionary and unexpected projects into focus…
Absence
"The main focus of Gerald Eckert’s music is frequently not placed on a centrally triggered event or center of action, but on what has been triggered by this event and how the consequences are subsequently developed. In other words, he focuses his sights on what an impulse is followed by. For Außen, von tief innen (Outside, from Deep Within), the consistent subtle and quiet tonal structure of the work is the fine delineation of multiphonics in bass flute and double bass clarinet alongside the ton…
O Filho De José e Maria
**to be released on 15.05.2020, 180 gram vinyl** "A sweet '70s set from Odair José – a record that's got a nicely laidback blend of keyboards, guitars, and Odair's excellent vocals – all put together with help from some of the most soulful talents on the scene at the time! The record features keyboards from José Roberto Bertrami, guitars from Jaime Alem and Hyldon, drums from Ivan Mamao Conti, and Fender Rhodes from Robson Jorge – all working together in a blend of the jazziness of Azymuth with …
Flower Protocol
"On the first 12" - in a package of three - the Taiwanese artist Yutie Lee covers six Chinese folk songs about Flowers. Tuberosa, Rose, Jasmine, Plum Blossom, Orchids & Chamomile all are odes to the beauty of the plant. The flower also being a metaphor for something we are desperately longing for, but can never quite get. However you may want to interpret the songs, they are all telling a story of something pure and indestructible. In the end nature will prevail? Romantic thoughts created in a t…
Finding Ourselves In All Things
**CD version** Finding Ourselves In All Things features two lengthy tracks, standing in stark contrast to each other: Melting With Butterflies is brimming with life: chaotic, hysterical and joyous - celebrating the viewpoint of all small things and their seemingly frantic nature. The Way Mountains Make Love is equally intense, but with a quite different energy – a slow moving organic unity vibrating with the frequencies of everything big and ancient.Both tracks explore and elaborate on its respe…
Kitchen Music
**CD version** Kitchen Music is Adrian Løseth Waade’s first album in his own name. While having contributed on a long list of Norwegian jazz records, his own music has taken shape, and is finally ready to present. For the occasion, he has recruited some of his absolute favourite musicians, every one of which helps to create a mood that is «just right». Sometimes simple and melodic, sometimes ecstatic and free, but always expressive, encapsulating both the grave and the playful.
Gibberish, Balderdash and Drivel
**CD version** Gibberish, Balderdash and Drivel consists of three nonsensical musical conversations between Malaysian nylon guitar player Goh Lee Kwang and Norwegian bass player Christian Meeas Svendsen. The album was recorded in an independent art gallery close to Kuala Lumpur with a handheld device. It tells us the story of the first encounter between two different mindsets, nationalities and generations trying - and totally failing at - making any sensible dialogue with their respective music…
Neptun
**CD version** Neptune, a planet invisible to the naked eye, it was originally discovered through mathematical deduction after scientists noticed unexpected changes in the course of Uranus. It was named after the Roman god of the sea. In addition to being ruler of the liquid element, he was said to have tremendous power over our subconsciousness and emotions, which we ourselves still today have little understanding of. The title represents the unknown, ranging from the depths of the human mind …
Avin
**CD version** Avin is the solo project of musician Christian Meaas Svendsen. The album consists of Norwegian lyrics in a traditional singer/songwriter-style wrapped in a somewhat challenging and unconventional format. The music is arranged for an 8-piece band consisting of some of Norway’s finest musicians. Avin is a Kurdish maiden name meaning love. Avin is also the name of Svendsen’s girlfriend. The central theme on the album is their unfinished love, and the texts and the music describe Sven…
Most Intimate
**CD version** Most Intimate is Nakama’s third release. Their previous albums have been very conceptual, dealing with the relation between sound and silence on Before the Storm and then form as something malleable on Grand Line. Most Intimate is different. It is more personal, more transparent and more.., well, intimate. It offers a close-up on the musicians and how they deal with music in different roles. Because even though the music on this album isn’t conceptual, the structure of it is, and …
No Right No Left
**CD version** No Right No Left is the first solo album of drummer Andreas Wildhagen. Recorded in Wildhagen's practice room in late July 2016, it explores different expressions and levels of energy. The music is improvised, still certain ideas can be traced throughout the record. In order to eliminate right and left, one has to imagine a view which is not rooted in a subject or object. If we lack a reference point, right and left disappears. Right and left, good and bad permeate society, but mus…
Kyūbi
**CD version** This album is a free exploration of sound within the boundaries of two violins and the musicians playing them. Close interplay and together-ness permeates the 36 minutes of eclectic but cohesive music, ranging in expression from reductionist and sparse textures, to filmscore-like tonal landscapes with clear dramatic outlines. The record reflects both the duo's dionysic and apollinian sides, and the balance between the two creates something universal which the listener can relate …
Landet Er Gitt Oss
**CD version** Improvisation, truth, joy, jazz and doubt. These are but a few of the elements that frequently emerge in the universe of Filosofer, and on their debut Landet Er Gitt Oss. Using the Norwegian version of a term used for people who spend most of their time pondering over life's big mysteries, one is lead to believe that their music is rooted in complex concepts and theoretic academia. So it is not. Filosofer focuses more on guts and feel rather than analyzing and thinking. Their basi…
Forms & Poses
**CD version** Forms & Poses is Norwegian bass player Christian Meaas Svendsen’s second solo album, and features four compositions / improvisations which explore the physical connection between the human body and the double bass. Although recorded in two entirely different settings, it is clear that Svendsen’s mind-set on all these tracks are one and the same, and the release shines as a condensed representation of his creative diversity. The CD version comes with a 24-page long booklet with lin…
Before the Storm
Before the Storm features four original compositions by Nakama’s leader Christian Meaas Svendsen. The album is the group’s first recording, and can be summed up as an investigation of sound related to silence through a minimalistic approach to both written and improvised material. The tracks on the recording are four attempts to define the nature of what we normally define as silence, and present at the same time a musical idiom of a band that operates on the outside of conventional borders."The…
Cepi Meets Hic
"Cepi is a solid reality located in the south of France. It’s Barre Phillips’ vision about improvisation. It can be flexible about the team but not about the idea above it all. Hic stands for Hidden Improvisers Consort; it’s a study group under the guide of Claudio Lugo. This meeting has been organized and strongly desired by Barre Phillips and Tommaso Rolando. We made a big circle, we played with the fire."The Cepi Nomads: Barre Phillips - Contrabass / György Kurtag - Electronics / Laurent Char…
D=D
"Presented by Sacred Realism Press, D=D is the culmination of 15 years of work and the latest and most ambitious installment of Bryan Eubanks and Joe Foster's Don (now Dan) Brown and Dan Reynolds project. The book itself contains 391 pages of letters, notes, aphorisms, scores, images, and commentary from Brown and Reynolds, with contributions from related figures including Jenny Haniver, Tim Bradley, and of course Gwendolyn Lovequist and Jack Lunetti, offering furtive glimpses into the thoughts,…
Synchrotrony
"A synchrotron is a particular type of cyclic particle accelerator, descended from the cyclotron, in which the accelerating particle beam travels around a fixed closed-loop path. The magnetic field which bends the particle beam into its closed path increases with time during the accelerating process, being synchronized to the increasing kinetic energy of the particles.Synchrotrony are a trio who take their inspiration from free improvisation, sound search and simple folk melodies. The band consi…