New Arrivals

1978 live recording of French quintet consisting of Jouk Minor on beritone sax and contrabass clarinet, Josef Traindl on trombone, Jean Querlier on alto sax, Christian Lété on drums and Dominique Regef on hurdy-gurdy

Live performance of Barry Altschul trio, featuring David Izenson on bass and Perry Robinson on clarinet. Recorded October 14, 1978 at 131 Prince St., New York, NY

Live performance of two of the most important South Korean free music players Kim Dae Hwan on drums and Choi Sun Bae on trumpet.  Recorded live on 26th November, 1999 at Aspirante, Hofu City, Yamaguchi, Japan by Takeo Suetomi.

*2023 stock. 200 copies limited edition* Active Recovering Music (ARM) is the solo project of Tokyo-based reed player Masahiko Okura. When he launched it in 2008, ARM was not a solo project, but a slide whistle ensemble with multiple players. In 2013, ARM performed as an eight-member group at Ftarri in Suidobashi, Tokyo. In the same year a CD documenting three performances from that concert was released on the Meenna label with the title "Active Recovering Music." ARM later transformed into its …

*2023 stock. 200 copies limited edition* Misaki Motofuji plays baritone sax in all types of free jazz settings. She also carries out performances focusing on acoustic phenomena, based on sound-art-like concepts and incorporating field recordings. But she says her background is in neither jazz nor art—that she actually studied classical music as a music university student. In the bands she leads, Motofuji creates a wide variety of original compositions, from chamber-music-style pop, jazz and mini…

Tom Lönnqvist & Samuli Tanner have collaborated under the moniker Market since 2013. "Lava Trouble" is the document of a leisurely meeting of two friends in the countryside, combining experimental electronics, self-built instruments and free improvisation.

Pedro Vian and Raül Refree unveil their highly anticipated collaborative debut album: "Font de la Vera Pau." Two creative minds from the Barcelona avant-garde music scene, Raül Refree and Pedro Vian, have merged to give birth to their first joint album.This eagerly awaited project promises to challenge boundaries and bring forth the genius and artistic vision that characterize both artists. While their first collaboration already stirred passions at the 2021 Sonar Festival, it is now that Vian a…

Liege & Lief is the fourth album by the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. It is the third album the group released in the UK during 1969, all of which prominently feature Sandy Denny as lead female vocalist (Denny did not appear on the group's 1968 debut album), as well as the first to feature future long-serving personnel Dave Swarbrick and Dave Mattacks on violin/mandolin and drums, respectively, as full band members (Swarbrick had previously guested on Unhalfbricking). It is also th…

Yoshiko Sai has performed one live concert each in 2014 and 2015 since her hiatus in 1979, and this is the only recording of Yoshiko Sai's one-man live concert in 2015. The concert was in two parts and featured the best selections from her five albums from her first to her return, as well as new unreleased songs, making it a truly culminating live performance. Backed by current alternative musicians such as Jojo Hiroshige, Hajimetarl, Okano Futoshi and Kono Ryoko. The album also includes valuabl…

After a hiatus in 1979, Yoshiko Sai returned to the music world in 2008 with the album Taklamakan, but did not resume live performances. She has since performed one live show each in Tokyo in 2014 and 2015, and this 2014 live sound recording was made during her appearance at the event 'The 2nd Midnight Heavy Rock Party' held at Shibuya Mount Rainier Hall. Backed on the day by active alternative musicians such as Jojo Hiroshige, Hjimetarl and Okano Futoshi, it was truly a miraculous revival and a…

Bent Window presents Tim Olive's new release "Smelt", a buzzing conveyance of sound manipulation made from the leftovers of our mechanical world. Hum, crash and crackle combine for a unique journey into electronic disaster. Magnetic pickups, analog electronics, radio signals and consumer detritus (springs, styrofoam, metal sheets, motors, magnetic tape, wood, dental floss) to generate sound-textures which evolve, shift and mutate. Born in Canada, currently residing in Kobe, his discography inclu…

Tip! Jean-Marc Foussat (b.1955) is a French guitar player, VCS synth player, label founder and recording engineer. He played with a band called Mandragore in the 1970s, as wel as collaborating with Jean-François Pauvros, Jac Berrocal, Roger Turner, Raymond Boni and Claude Parle. In the 1980s he worked as a recording engineer for Incus, Hat Hut, Po Torch, Rec Rec, Celluloid, etc. He founded Potlatch Records along Jacques Oger in 1997.  On ‘Abattage’ (1983), he self released his studio experiments…

*300 copies limited release* "After being featured on BBC 6 Radio and the Ambient Focus show, Artificial Owl Recordings is excited to announce the 4th release and the return of One Of Them ( Niko Dalagelis ) and his new work Excogitation. Two extended ethereal and atmospheric ambient works created in the winter of 2023 aiming to provoke thought and spark imagination by exploring various sonic textures and tonalities. The use of a randomized sequence triggering a SH-01A and a Digitone are the mai…

Live at the Petersham Bowling Club was recorded in January 2023 when Warm Currency supported the great Maxine Funke. This offering includes tracks from Returns, our 2022 album on Horn of Plenty, and some unreleased material. We jettisoned our regular keyboard to grapple with the bowling club's cracked piano.

Loose Trax presents Roots of Empathy, the debut album from London-based artist Henry Cyer. Roots of Empathy is a collection of songs written between 2019 and 2022 about fear. Conceived as an act of purging, the album explores empathy and fear through the perspective of different people. Roots of Empathy manifests itself as an album of songs, a collection of photographs and a series of videos.

Tip! In 1979 "punk" music was all the rage. The Residents had gone though the punk stage three years earlier with the release of "Satisfaction" and were ready for anything that was not punk. They decided it was a good time to make the jump into world music, since by their own calculations it would not become popular for several more years. They scanned the map for a proper culture to exploit and, not finding one, became discouraged until seeing a large Coke sign featuring Santa Claus. Immediatel…

*200 copies limited edition* Sergio Merce is a saxophonist and sound artist based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is known for his use of a microtonal sax that he built by radically modifying the mechanisms of an alto saxophone and synthesizers to create rich harmonics and slowly moving tonal works, layering aberrant and alluring tones in restrained configurations that allow each stratum of sound to be distinguished and appreciated, creating mesmerizing compositions of elusive and illusionistic s…

*200 copies limited edition* "Abstand" was conceived to enhance the particularities of the combination of accordion and melodica, both wind instruments, one played with movement and the other by blowing. This dichotomy of difference and similarity resulted in intricate textures, not only thanks to the instruments’ particular timbres, but also through the natural microtonal distances in their fixed tunings, especially when it comes to old and worn out instruments like the ones used here. These mi…

Tip! *200 copies limited edition* While continuously engaged in the field of traditional Japanese music, female-school gidayu shamisen player Yumiko Tanaka has since the 1990s been carrying out multifaceted musical activities including contemporary classical music, improvisation (in 1996-97 she was a member of Otomo Yoshihide’s band Ground-Zero), experimental music, and theater performance/composition, performing and exchanging ideas with many musicians from Japan and other countries. While Tana…

*200 copies limited edition* Born in 1943, Lance Austin Olsen is a Canadian artist and composer. He started painting in his youth and has continued his work as an artist up to the present. In the late 1990s, Olsen became fascinated by experimental music. He has released numerous CDs and digital recordings of both solo performances and collaborations with other musicians. In his creative process, composition and painting are closely related and draw inspiration from one another. Olsen released a …