New Arrivals
Brand New Feeling
400 copies, black vinyl. The Awakening were one of the greatest bands in early '70s jazz blending Spiritual and soul. They combined veterans of Chicago’s R&B sessions and jazz players affiliated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and were the only "group" on the legendary Black Jazz Records roster. This album includes the most representative tunes from their only two albums released in 1972/1973.
Scirocco
Dave Rempis and Tim Daisy are two musicians whose work together over the last 25 years has been the cornerstone of countless improvising bands: Triage, Vandermark Five, Rempis Percussion Quartet, The Engines, Earscratcher, and their longstanding duo, to name a few. Over the last decade they’ve purposely found ways to shake their interaction up, reconstructing and redefining the possibilities to keep the music moving forward. Part of that approach has involved bringing in countless musicians as g…
Outside
*Limited edition of 200 copies.* Sturdily rooted in Michigan but at home anywhere she steps, Shelley Salant is a wearer of many hats. Anyone who's worked in even the outer reaches of underground music and D.I.Y. culture in the last ten years has probably run into Shelley, maybe when she booked their band a show, or had them by the radio show she's done tirelessly for almost a decade or possibly when she passed through town playing with Tyvek, Chain & The Gang, The Vitas, Swimsuit or one of the m…
Forest Standards Vol. 3
What is a standard to a forest? What makes that different to what’s a standard, in that jazz classic compositional sense, to a desert? To a city? To a suburb? To a plain? A wetland? A grove? The only thing standard in a forest, like any other environment, is the search for balance. Nature seeks an equilibrium and, given enough time, it finds it. It’s the only way to ensure survival and growth. For three albums, David Lord has been exploring this idea, seeking out some sense of the ethereal, with…
III
Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble III is an album full of shimmering harmonic atmospheres. It’s emblematic of the Chicago-based ensemble, whose music explores the textures and resonances of their string instruments, namely six and 12-string guitar (Elijah McLaughlin), upright bass (Jason Toth), and hammered dulcimer (Joel Styzens). Throughout Elijah McLaughlin III, they expand their usual palette by including analog synths, field recordings, and melodies from guest musicians cellist Katinka Kleijn and …
Into the Mylar Chamber (Book)
Between 1968 and 1971, in a loft on New York's Jefferson Street, the poet, photographer and filmmaker Ira Cohen created some of the most mythic images of the late 1960s. Inspired by his friends Jack Smith and Bill Devore, Cohen’s initial experiments with black light developed into an experimental ritual space he termed the Mylar Chamber―a simple room of hinged boards hung with reflective Mylar film. Through his extended network, and with the support of artist and set designer Robert LaVigne, Coh…
Mysterium, Incubus et Terror. Music inspired by Edgar Allan Poe stories
Edgar Allan Poe’s power to inspire artists of various different mediums and styles has been a significant factor of his enduring popularity, as has the man and the mystery himself. Whilst the academia hauntings of M.R. James and the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft have experienced something of a renaissance in recent times, E.A. Poe has always been a lingering presence. His meandering stories featuring such things as the onset of plague in a quarantined complex, troubles at sea, a murderer preyi…
Tether
Murmer is the long-standing project of American/Estonian field recordist and composer Patrick McGinley, and with Tether, The Helen Scarsdale Agency welcomes Murmer back to our roster, over a decade since he graced us with his last production for the Agency. His field recordings often center upon the amplification and activation of resonance from a particular space, landscape, or object. Such sounds emerge from a condition as being fleeting, inconsequential, or ephemeral and explode into that whi…
Fiction of the Physical
Crystalline examples of Zweig’s aesthetic and brilliance...A labyrinth of sound worth getting lost in
Movement of Multiple Points
Keisuke s_d_ latests works on the Japanese label otonezumi-kohboh, "Multiple Mysteries", a truly finesse experimental spooky footwork Ep, and "Machapuchare", a drone masterpiece inspired by the supposed thrills of climbing Machapuchare, prepare us on his next release: “Movement of Multiple points”. In this new Pampsychia Keisuke is bringing from Japan a mind-blending rhythm synthetic excursion. All tracks are made and used in max/msp to create a broken system that allows control and uncontrol. T…
Trans Zimmer & The Djs
Artetetra is honored to present a journey through music with Trans Zimmer & The DJs' debut album. A dense, musical-like jewel of midi composition and arrangement. For this self-titled album, the film composer "Trans Zimmer" teamed up with production crew "The DJs" and together disassembled a number of orchestral compositions through their sharp sound design craft and absurd, whimsical lyrics. The DJs selected 11 of their favorite arrangements and got down to the midi grind, pouring over every si…
Illmatrix
Rainbow Island is a quartet born in Rome in 2013. Since its foundation the band confirmed themselves as skilled explorers of virtual dub, deranged non-narrative storytelling and manipulations of digital riddim music in between fourth and fifth worlds. Audacious and dynamic polydimensional dwellers, Rainbow Island are the most up-to-date sonic guide to our complex contemporaneity and, after the LCD Jiāng swims in “Crystal Smerluvio Riddims” culminating in the Bobblers direct encounters of “Dances…
Someone Somewhere
Someone Somewhere was assembled from original tapes during the band's active period (73-77). Acanthe was a French Classic Rock/Prog band in activity in the mid 70’s (from 73 to 77), but that has never seen its music reflected on a official release. For obscure reasons, this band was never given the effective opportunity to see its work properly published. Well, more than 30 years after their disbanding, the merits of the band have been finally recognized (and assembled) by homeland label Replica…
Mona The Carnivorous Circus
The adventurous singer, guitarist and music journalist Mick Farren launched his solo career after being sacked by his fellow Deviants, the protopunk band he fronted from 1967-69. Suffering from depression and other mental health issues, Farren teamed up with an all-star cast, including members of Quartermass and ex-Tyrannosauros Rex honcho Steve Peregrin Took for debut opus Mona The Carnivorous Circus, mixing hard rock, spoken word, spaced-out interludes, radio cut-ups and garage rock, rendering…
Neural
Intense, mind-bending, and spectral long-form drone works inspired by the way neural networks self-organise thru repetition, variation and reiteration. Features input of Lucio Capece and Judith Hamman.
Off-Piste
Greg Foat has always had a great reverence for the musicians that featured on the records he has collected over the years. Whether they were players from the great European library catalogs, Italian soundtracks, American Jazz but most of all British Jazz. One of his all-time favourites being the beautiful tone of Art Themens Saxophone… After Art had played on a few sessions for Greg both were keen to record an LP together. Plans were hatched during lockdown and everyone headed to Edinburgh as so…
Reshape
The cover of Joachim Spieth’s latest album, Reshape, depicts a stony landscape against a moody sky at dusk, silver clouds backlit with soft orange light. His 2021 album Ousia featured a similar sun, only foregrounded by waves. It’s as if some lost, drowned continent rose from the murky depths, dotted with strange fossils and petroglyphs. That contrast is an apt analogy for Reshape — an album of remixes and reworkings from some of the biggest names in ambient, techno and drone in honor of the Aff…
Terrain
With ‘Terrain,’ Joachim Spieth presents the fourth long player on his Affin imprint. The follow-up album to ‘Ousia’ (2021), ‘Terrain,’ reflects on the human relationship with nature. The album title is a reference to a musical language that layers Spieth’s music production practices and intimacy with nature.‘Terrain’ was forged in deep solitude.“ It’s an interplay of euphoric flashes and introspection” – says Spieth. The eight compositions take the listener into a captivating cascade of sonic te…
Nine Death Stages
* Edition of 325 copies, silkscreened sleeve w/ obi (black or kraft), postcard * Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages is the second album by the Tokyo trio Archeus, which consists of Keiko Higuchi (voice, percussion, trombone, shamisen), Shizuo Uchida (bass strings), and Tomo (hurdy gurdy, voice). It follows their debut, self-titled and self-released CD and cassette from 2021 and is further proof – if any were needed – that these musicians, who’ve known each other for some time, but only started playing t…
Prophet
Featuring what may be his only recordings on the Prophet keyboard, these once lost performances expand the omniverse of Ra across a stellar set of lengthy cuts! All recorded in a single day and finally making their terrestrial debut! What happens when a Prophet meets a Prophet? The answer lies within these grooves. Amongst the hundreds of recordings issued by Sun Ra and his Arkestra, under their various guises, the majority were recorded in concert or in makeshift studios such as their early 19…