New Arrivals
Fencing 1978 (John Zorn's Olympiad Volume 2)
*In process of stocking.* Two extremely rare live recordings of the classic Zorn composition “Fencing” from the early days of the Downtown scene. Featuring two realizations: one with Eugene Chadbourne, Duck Baker, and Randy Hutton and the other with Chadbourne, Polly Bradfield, and John Zorn, the music is astonishing—filled with strange sounds, odd juxtapositions, stark silences, sudden explosions, and all held together by a bizarre overarching compositional logic. Featuring a 16-page booklet re…
The Cleansing
*In process of stocking.* Zorn and Laswell have been friends and musical compatriots since they first met in 1978, and have been responsible for some of the most intense and memorable music in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Recorded in early 2021, near the end of the year’s pandemic lockdown, it marks the first time Zorn had touched the saxophone in over fifteen months. Laswell had spent most of the year locked in his apartment. Something special was happening that day—and after the ses…
East Coasting
*Limited Clear Vinyl edition, 500 copies* Recorded in 1957 this is one of Charles Mingus's lesser known sessions. Here the master was at the head of an awesome band including some of his regular sidemen. Jimmy Knepper - trombone, Shafi Hadi - alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and Dannie Richmond - drums, along with nothing but Bill Evans on piano! This is dense, lyrical and very stimulating music deeply rooted in the bop tradition yet with an open ear to other sound territories.
"One of Charles …
Spinoza
*In process of stocking.* Spinoza is Zorn’s latest creation for the searing jazz-metal trio Simulacrum—perhaps the most extreme organ trio ever. Inspired by the life and thought of one of the world’s greatest philosophers he has composed two extended concerti: one for guitar genius Bill Frisell, and another featuring himself on saxophone. The musical mosaic flows seamlessly from one world to another, touching upon heavy metal, jazz, minimalism, atonality, noise, ambient moods, funk, and so much …
O, Sun
*In process of stocking.* Hailing from Tennessee and now residing in New York, Zoh Amba is a 21 year-old tenor saxophonist who performs with a deep sense of spirituality and emotional power. Growing up in the mountains she practiced and played in the forest before continuing her studies in San Francisco and Boston. For her first CD she has chosen a fabulous quartet featuring her close friend, rising NYC star Micah Thomas on piano, and the formidable rhythm section of Thomas Morgan and Joey Baron…
New Hope Jazz Mass
The definitive Jazz Mass! Never before heard second day takes, includes alternate version of Duke & Trane!
Second day take of the acclaimed 1978 New Hope Jazz Mass recording from Helsinki Finland, newly remastered and never before released, features different soloist and a performance believed to be better than the original release. Featuring Heikki Sarmanto, Seppo Paakkunainen, Pekka Pöyry, Esko Rosnell, Pekka Sarmanto, Maija Hapuoja, Gregg Smith Vocal Quartet and Long Island Symphonic Choral A…
Trending
*2022 stock.* Sofa Music is proud to welcome a new project on board. It’s Propan, a duo comprising the two Norwegian vocalists; Natali Garner and Ina Sagstuen. On their second album Propan continues its research within the frameworks of the song form and presents a psychedelic, and more delirious landscape than on its first, somewhat more electroacoustic album, Baby. The duo explores the meeting point between improvised music and studio production, and builds the album around Propan's well-estab…
Strapazen und Genesung
Geier aus Stahl is one of the many artistic guises of Leonard Prochazka. No superfluous elements take away from the core experience of his sound. Somewhere a statement from David Byrne crossed our path, able to highlight something of the essence of Leonard's art: “No matter how alienated the subject or the singer might appear, the groove and its connection to the body would provide solace and grounding. But the edgy, uncomfortable stuff was still on the foreground”. The debut album 'Strapazen un…
Music From Saharan WhatsApp
In 2020, Sahel Sounds hosted a project called Music from Saharan WhatsApp. This series consisted of ephemeral digital EPs, documenting live performances by some of the most exciting acts in the Sahel playing music, including Nigerién techno, wedding rock, Woodabe guitar, WZN, traditional music, Mandingue music, and more. Responding to an open call from our network of artists, musicians recorded a handful of tracks on their cellphone and sent them over the popular mobile app WhatsApp. Each sessi…
It Changes
*2022 stock.* It Changes is a new album by Ailie Ormston and Tim Fraser. It incorporates samples of collaborative session material, automated MIDI instrumentation, and adhoc field recordings. Music from this album was first presented in 2019 as a larger audio-visual work which debuted at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow as part of Counterflows festival. The recordings were then completed in 2020 during the first lockdown using voice notes, and by running a 7.5m headphone cable between…
70
*Limited edition of 300 copies.* Bambalam Records presents 70 by RG Rough, A musical jigsaw made out of sounds from the 70s, ripped to shreds, reshaped, reassembled and coerced into fitting. This long piece in ten parts takes the listener on a different journey through that decade. ’70’ should appeal to fans of electronic German music of the ’70s and beyond. All sounds cut, edited and reassembled by Rg Rough in the year 2021, with love and gratitude towards the spirit of the 70s.
Live In U.S.A.
It is a Richard Pinhas solo album recorded in Detroit and in Pittsburgh, USA- halas both tracks are not complete because time allowed by the Vinyles sides. All is direct. Richard plays on a original Roland guitar synth (years circa 1981) with FX, Mainly a Zoom distortion(1982) and an Eventide H8000.
Transparent Waves
*2022 stock.* When does our experience of sound become "music"? In the tradition of John Cage and Morton Feldman, in which sounds – and silences – can just be themselves, Thomas DeLio plays with the spaces between your ears as much as the sounds he puts there. In short, be advised this album is replete with clicks, silences, and brief sound events. Stripped bare, it plays with time and space and the minimum conditions for music. It gives the term ‘experimental music’ meaning. DeLio’s approach to…
Apophany
If you were to connect seemingly unrelated things – Heavy Metal and the symphony orchestra, for example – you might be guilty of apophenia. That friction between opposites has never been a problem for Nick Vasallo, though – his music is equally at home in both worlds. Melding Xenakis, Varese, Extreme Metal, and Dark Ambient with gothic charm, Vasallo conjures up a muscular sonic battle that leads you on an inexorable musical journey to a conclusion where surrender is your best option. Catharsis …
In Her Words
*Includes 4-page wallet with a 8-page booklet.* This album is a breakthrough for celebrated composer Stefania de Kenessey: it is all electronic, and it is all dance music. In recent years, de Kenessey has turned increasingly to electronic music composition as a rich source of experimentation, of new sonorities – and of total control. Or something like that. The result is an eclectic combination of vernacular and classical influences that refers, in equal parts, to the Bulgarian and Hungarian fol…
Orchard
*2022 Stock.* “I was born and raised in Kentucky, and for many generations my direct ancestors and extended family have been farmers. So, creating music that is ‘about’ soil, plant life, and the natural world, is my way of honoring that legacy.” Composer Tyler Kline’s tools, though, are not the plow – and vegetables are not the crop – in this collection of brief piano pieces commissioned by and for over a dozen pianists. Instead, Orchard is a celebration of fruit. Each sketch draws on a specific…
Transmutation of Things
There is a venerable history of popular songs used as the starting point for elaborate classical compositions, but 500 years ago Josquin and Dufay never imagined using a gargantuan digital orchestra with up to 300 layered tracks pushing architectural proportion and human perception to the max. And yet, that is exactly what composer, MC Maguire, does in his Toronto studio. It’s daunting, it’s overwhelming, and it has to be heard (preferably loud) to be believed. Dubbed “the most irritating and sp…
Signals
Lawson & Merrill are not financial advisors. But if electroacoustic bliss is what you seek, you would do well to make an appointment with them. They – David Margolin Lawson and David Merrill – met a number of years ago while engineering sessions at the revered CityVox Studios in New York City. They discovered they both had a love for “mid century” electronic music and composers like Morton Subotnick, Eliane Radigue, Edgard Varèse, Ilhan Mimaroğlu, and Steve Reich. It wasn’t until recently, thoug…
ElectroResonance
*2022 stock.* Hearing the bell, I am able to let go of all my afflictions My heart is calm, my sorrows ended I am no longer bound to anything I learn to listen to my suffering, and the suffering of the other person When understanding is born in me, compassion is also born- Stepping into Freedom, Thich Nhat Hanh Resonance... How do we find or create opportunities for connection, collaboration and shared human and sonic space? How do we listen deeply to one another and respond in ways that create …
Intervals 2
*In process of stocking.* “Well, isn’t it always now?” Joel Futterman’s audible smile, in response to my simple query about the time during a phone conversation, bespeaks and accentuates the deeper truths embodied in his creativity. Grounded, sometimes adrift, forced to live in the world of duality, we capitulate too willingly to the whims and whiles of intervals, to their capricious grip on our intersecting realities, to their encapsulation of alternating mood and ebb-and-flow vitality. Doors o…