New Arrivals
The Chameleon's Dish
Tapes, field recordings, synth and other tape manipulation magic. Recorded 2022 at Lilleypad Studios, Ohio. Art by Pearl Morgan/Purple Akronym
Live In Masuda
Seikatsu Kōjyō Iinkai (Committee for the Improvement of Life) began its activities in the early 1970s, led by Kazutoki Umezu and Yoshiyuki Harada. Many musicians came and went and engaged in multifaceted activities, but one of the pillars was the so-called Life Improvement Committee (Matsugumi), centered on Koichi Shofaze. This work, recorded live in Masuda City, Shimane Prefecture, is the only work left by Matsugumi with the same members. The saxophone cuts like a knife into the solid trio's pe…
Chiko
The Japanese jazz cult work is one of the most popular Japanese jazz collectors around the world, including Tetsu Aizawa quartet and Yukasasasa Hino, and the original Jazz Rality series has been released as the world's first CD. As a musician, the prestigious Independent Jazz Label and Acetaz's Disc was reissued in the early 23 works of the famous Tokyo independent Jazz Label, and Acetaz's Disc. 11 of the 12 pieces released as the first release was released in the world for the first CD. These c…
Rice Field Silently Riping In the Night
*2023 much needed repress!* Reiko Kudo first appeared on the Tokyo underground music scene in 1980 with Noise, a duo which consisted of Tori Kudo on organ and herself (then under her maiden name Reiko Omura) on voice, guitar and trumpet. Their only album "Tenno" (1980 on Engel) is probably one of the most outstanding and uncompromising records of all time. Besides other pioneering female producers from Japan such as Non (of Non Band), Phew and Haco, who all had started their startling careers in…
Aya's Samba
CD reissue of Eiji Nakayama’s incredible 1978 album, a crate diggers dream find for many years, this is deep spiritual jazz, post-modal impressionism and grooves at the top
My Present Song
Dive into the brilliance of 1970s Japanese jazz with this exceptional bass-led trio session. While piano trios had their spotlight, the bassists led equally enchanting ensembles. Eiji Nakyama's bass takes center stage, weaving lyrical lines complemented by energetic guitar and drums. The album seamlessly blends straight jazz and modal explorations, showcasing creativity without gimmicks. A testament to Japanese jazz greatness, this session stands out for its dynamic and innovative approach.
Matt
Martina Berther and Philipp Schlotter are prolific in their respective ways, having been active in pop and jazz music, respectively, as well as playing in bands and exploring the outer fringes of sound art or composing music for film. Their first joint album »Matt« was recorded over the course of four days in a church in the Swiss village after which the album was named. Berther and Schlotter worked with the buildingʼs organ as well as synthesizers and electric bass to follow an experimental app…
Holography
One of the rarest albums ever from the mighty Masahiko Satoh, a composer and arranger,as well as a key figure in the avantgarde music from Japan. Originally issued on Japan Columbia in 1970, the two sides of very free piano show a sensitivity that's really amazing – still moments of freedom that reflect Satoh's connection to the avant garde of the time, interwoven with his own sense of cosmic creation, in ways that are similar to his later projects. Born in Tokyo, in 1941, Masahiko Satoh's earli…
Enthusiasms Issue #03
Efficient Space publication Enthusiasms revives with Issue #03. 92 pages covering Ao-tearoa DIY folk proliferator Maxine Funke, the vocal magick of Cucina Povera, Australian devotional jazz mystery Singing Dust, Osaka portal EM Records, unsung dub specialist Sheriff Lindo and the living practice of e fishpool. View post-punk trailblazers through the lens of Rotterdam polaroid photographer Peter Graute, while Swiss artist Elise Gagnebin-de Bons exhibits her series of collages purposed for Ghost R…
Blind ecosystem
We are nine voices, sighted and blind, who have been singing and exploring together for 11 years. Our practice consists of listening to and imitating sound ecosystems. We become the sounds of biotopes, machines, endangered species, humans and non-humans. Our songs blend ancestral and experimental vocal practices. We are the stumbling blocks of a memory populated by tunes, buried melodies that emerge and carry us away for hybridizations, mutations.
Lasting Ephemerals
*2023 stock* Sparkling acoustic duo featuring a contemporary wild chamber attitude, improvising instant compositions, sound texture explorations and sudden lyrical flights. Their improvisation, that has been defined "A Gentle Vertigo", freely crosses boundaries and welcomes rich contradictions between melody and blessed chaos. Experimental flavors, multi-perspective intuitions and reciprocal listening are the extremely well balanced blend of this duo that strives for an improvisation where "thin…
Busy Butterflies
*2023 stock* "To watch two butterflies in flight is to see a complex intertwining of zigs and zags, dips and weaves, as each—seemingly erratically--rides the turbulence its wings create to carry it along. Together they trace an unchoreographed but nevertheless coherent set of variations on the line as they move with, against and through each other’s paths.
The intricate pattern of two butterflies’ interwoven flight paths stands as a fitting analogue for the nuanced complexity of Busy Butterflie…
HerbstReise
"I look at this HerbstReise of ours as a sequence short but complete gaze of sound, often evocative in a narrative way, aimed at fulfilling an articulate as well as legible pattern. Though a single breath crosses them, fascinating opportunities are not alien to the syntax, the outline, and the expression of these improvisations. A clear ellipsis the dialogue proceeds delicately and consistently into, even when it thickens.
The inner timing, the layer of colour that shines through have a reflecti…
Avalanche Zone
*300 copies limited edition* Originally released in spring 2021 by US label L.I.E.S. on vinyl, Anthony Di Franco of Ramleh returns to Fourth Dimension Records with a timely and well-deserved reissue. Featuring three additional tracks to the original six, 'Avalanche Zone' is a weighty and abrasive follow-up to 2018's 'Weapon Design' that's propelled by cranium-crunching bass, icy and portentous textures, battlefield rhythms and just the faintest nod to Anthony's love of both old school noise and …
Sferics
"2022 was a shit show. I moved three times. I lived in San Francisco for a sudden moment in time. About eight months to be exact. But I jumped through a wormhole . An atmospheric anomaly that rippled across and through my familial center, taking us into a chaos of cardboard boxes, temporary living spaces, a collapse in our art practices, only to be pulled through the other end of the time warp, re-emerging back where we convened in 2019 in Tucson, Arizona--but now it is 2023 and life has changed…
Hits For The Bin
Nice Music is thrilled to announce the long awaited new full length release from Melbourne/Naarm-based producer Andrew Cowie as Match Fixer. Tantalising with a string of self-released tracks over the last 3 years and following the cloistered urgency of instant NM classic 'Attempts' (2017), 'Hits For The Bin' populates the glowing expanse of his sound world with restrained beat structures, cloaked in Cowie’s signature lush drift and squelched melodic riffing. A foaming wave of relief when compare…
I-I
We are thrilled to introduce the world to the innovative sounds of the Japanese improvisational music trio ‘I-I’. Composed of three exceptionally talented musicians, Kazuhisa Uchihashi (guitar, daxophone, pedals), Mitsuhisa Sakaguchi (synthesizers, pedals) and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (percussion). This dynamic ensemble has embarked on a remarkable musical journey with their homonymous debut album. "There's no inspiration from others. We just played." With this raw and unfiltered approach to music, ‘I…
INRI (Industria Nacional del Ruido Infinito)
Inspired by the scenic beauty of his studio's surroundings at Lake Pátzcuaro in Michoacan, MX, Dellarge delves deep into the depths of his artistic consciousness to craft a spiritual album that encapsulates the essence of the place. "INRI" stands for Industria Nacional del Ruido Infinito (National Industry of Infinite Noise) and serves as a vessel for Dellarge's innermost self-expression and reflections on the potential of humanity. Drawing inspiration from various sources, Dellarge found creati…
Les siphonophores des eaux froides et profondes de l'Arctique
Named after a metro station located in East Paris, Pointe du Lac originated in 2014 as the brainchild of analogue gear enthusiast Julien Lheuillier, joined shortly after by multi-instrumentalist Richard Francés, followed by Quentin Rollet on Saxophone a few years down the line. Les siphonophores des eaux froides et profondes de l'Arctique (“Siphonophores of the cold, deep Arctic waters”) is the project’s third studio album, the first one written as a three-piece as well as their first release on…
My Strong Will
My Strong Will is a new album of "Ethiopian Classical Music" by Girma Yifrashewa. Recorded with Bulgarian musicians and the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in Sofia, Bulgaria, the album is a return to where Yifrashewa completed his own conservatory training in the late 1980s and early 1990s, across both sides of the fall of Communism. Guided by Yifrashewa's piano, these chamber works bring the music of Ethiopia into a Western Classical format, uncovering meditative and emotional new vistas for both…