New Arrivals
In the Merry Month of May
Huge Tip! In the Merry Month of May is the final studio recording of the late, great Tony Conrad, and the first duo release with Jennifer Walshe, one of Conrad’s most important collaborators in the final decade of his life. Befitting these two absurdly gifted hell-raisers, this is a wild, improvisatory flaying of song, with Walshe’s clarion voice at the heart of the enterprise. The sheer sonic force of opener “In the Merry Month of May” recalls the ecstatic charge of Conrad’s Slapping Pythagoras…
Cochin Moon
Pressed on Opaque Yellow Wax. Remastered form the original analog master tapes. One of the holy grails of fourth-world avant-ambient synthesis, and believe it or not, this was a Record Store Day release in Japan this year. Originally released a few months after Haruomi Hosono’s 1978 Paraiso LP — famous for featuring the first trio grouping of the band that would become Yellow Magic Orchestra — Hosono’s Cochin Moon, an album credited to himself and famed graphic artist Tadanori Yokoo, who provid…
The Ancestors Are Amongst Us
2024 stock. Recorded live at Jazzfestival Saafelden August 28th 1987. This trio live performance, with the great Lester Bowie on trumpet, and the great Malachi Favors on bass is a must for all fans. Kahil El'Zabar is the real great of tribal rhythms, creating very long hypnotic foundations for the soloists to improvise freely, spiritually, bluesy. Lester Bowie is of course a master at all that : he sings, wails, growls, weeps, stutters, moans, farts, ... he can build tension, he can build stori…
Ha Ha Laughing Record
James Twig Harper Johnston's tribute to the legendary Okeh laughing record. (if ya don't know...look it up!) It's funny (pun intended), I get a message from Harper saying he's working on a "Laughing Record" lathe... I'm like.. "Woah, I was just working on some "giggle loops" myself... I'll send em over!", "Perfect!" . A few more giggles from our friend Nora and he's in monkey business! He mixes those w/ some classic canned laugh tracks and sends em thru his new computerized "Anti-System" and get…
Issue 112: 1981 Issue + ‘Avant 81’ (Magazine + 7'', Green)
For this month's Electronic Sound cover story, we've picked out 101 Records Of 1981, a crucial year in the history of both electronic and alternative music, and we have a fantastic green vinyl seven-inch EP featuring post-punk heavyweights The Fall, Jah Wobble and Blurt to accompany the issue. One of the main music talking points of 1981 was the growing number of synthpop bands breaking into the UK mainstream charts, many of them climbing into the Top 10. But at the same time, there was a surge …
The Handover
Tip! "There is, and has been, a prevailing orthodoxy permeating the Egyptian musical hierarchy that would render this spectacular piece as scandalous. But let us remember that over the past 100 years, Said Darwish, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Halim El Dabh, Ahmad Adaweya, and the modern Mahraganat movement have all experienced their fair share of scandal and opposition. Music must always be pushed forward – it may not always succeed as revelatory, but in this particular case, it does. Much like the ven…
Medea
Duo in the mirror that, in a continuous game of doubling and multiplication, ventures into another world, dense with unexpectedness and vital thrills. Sun Ra and post-rock, as well as Chicago experimentation and echoes of the world of Suzanne Ciani and minimal music, are the hints one can sense while listening to Medea, a journey to the edge and beyond. Star Splitter's new album comes five years after the debut album, a period in which the two artists experimented with the infinite possibilities…
Axes
Axes and layers, but also the axes, for striking and cutting. This work embraces the muscular energy of avant-jazz and delicate and dreamlike introspection. The musical references are to the America of Tim Berne and the Europe of Marc Ducret - the polyphony and rhythmic pulse of the urban environment. But the connections, even if not strictly musical, reach far; "Axis: Bold as Love" by Jimi Hendrix and "AlasNoAxis", Jim Black's debut album. More than one axis: axes.
Radio Archive (2014-2023)
Tip! "This small archive is a glimpse of a body of work made between 2014-2023 for, on, or with radio. I’ve been fascinated by broadcast radio since the earliest stages of working as a musician. I’m grateful to have been given many opportunities to make radio shows in a variety of diQerent contexts, and over the years have produced hours of work for the medium. Most of this has happened in London, with UK-based collaborators.
There is of course a real beauty in the ephemerality of the broadcast…
Svart/Hvitt
*2024 stock* "Put on the circuit via Oslo / Norway-based imprint Conrad Sound on December 4th, 2k20 is "Svart / Hvitt", the sophomore album effort created by the multi-membered group named The Touchables which includes a plethora of artists from the countries Jazz and Contemporary Music scene with at least one of its members - Martin Taxt - being a household name to readers of these pages for his deep explorations of microtonal tuba performances. Split in four subsequently numbered, unnamed part…
Live At Kraak Fest 2011
25 copies limited edition. 2024 stock. Lo-fi but still fantastic documentation of a 2011 concert by Arthur Doyle in a duo with drummer Steve Noble. Doyle sounds pretty great to me here. The top end of his sax playing is less powerful than it once was, but a lot of his magic was always derived from his sheer otherness, and there's enough of that here to go around. Noble works hard to provide the right rhythmic racket for whatever's going down, and this is some swank soundtrackery for long drives.…
Live At Pit-Inn Tokyo, Japan, 8, 8, 1988
Sun Ra Arkestra, Live in Japan! Recorded at Shinjuku Pit Inn on August 8, 1988, this recording has undergone fresh remastering from the master tape, marking the first reissue in 36 years
Trancedance
Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first vinyl reissue of Trancedance, a wild slice of Swedish Afro-fusion from Christer Bothén, originally released in 1984. A major figure in Swedish jazz and improvised music since the 1970s, often heard on bass clarinet and tenor sax, Bothen studied doso n’koni (the large six-stringed ‘hunter’s harp’ of the Wasulu) in Mali in 1971-2 before turning to the guinbri (the three-stringed lute of the Gnawa/Gnauoua) in Marakesh later in the decade. In between, h…
Like The Sky I've Been Too Quiet
South-Asian vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Ganavya releases her new studio album “Like the sky I've been too quiet” on Shabaka Hutchings’ Native Rebel Recordings. The album features contributions from artists including Kofi Flexxx, Floating Points, Carlos Niño, Leafcutter John and Mercury-nominated bassist Tom Herbert. Since graduating from Berklee College of Music, UCLA and Harvard, Ganavya has quickly become a much-in-demand artist on the US scene who consistently confounds expe…
Aporia
Sissi Rada's humble manifestations of the miracle of life, the troubles of love, the thoughts that span through a human mind while performing simple tasks, educated by her love and natural inclination to poetry, read like small vignettes, or marginalia notes on a diary that is of constant flux. Recorded, mixed and produced by Sissi alone, in her Athens’ home, using a spartan but powerful instrumentation of harp, a Prophet synthesizer, and first and foremost her intimate and enchanting voice, ‘Ap…
All My People
Tip! Revised eight track re-issue of Maria Somerville's much lauded debut album. This new edition features an additional cut 'Lakes' - a 5+ minute blown out instrumental recorded live on tour in 2019. "Stirring and beautiful songs, with a consistent optimism underlying even the murkiest of moments." Recorded in Connemara and Dublin. Mixed by Brendan Jenkinson. Mastered by The Bastard.
House In The Tall Grass
Kikagaku Moyo 3rd album "House in the Tall Grass". Like a long journey this record unfolds itself through many layers. Fans of Kikagaku Moyo will be comforted by the soft vocals harmonies and warm Sitar but what sets this release apart is the refinement of the band’s songwriting and their delicate execution. Side A begins with a pair of travelling songs where the interplay between the vocals, guitar, and sitar lift and suspend you on an unexpected journey.The patient listener is rewarded by trac…
Cartoline per voci e contrabbasso - Omaggio a Stefano Scodanibbio (DVD)
* 2024 Stock * Documentario dedicato all'opera di Stefano Scodanibbio, con materiali inediti, riprese on site e interviste a Terry Riley, Irvine Arditti, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Gianni Dessì, Dario Calderone, Wolfgang Korb…
Fernando Grillo. Il Buddha del contrabbasso (Book)
* Italian Language Edition * 2024 Stock * Fernando Grillo (Foggia 1945 - Perugia 2013) contrabbassista e compositore, è stato tra i protagonisti dell'avanguardia musicale del '900, pioniere nell'esplorazione di nuove tecnichedi produzione del suono sul contrabbasso. Per lui hanno scritto compositori quali Salvatore Sciarrino, Iannis Xenakis e Luciano Berio. Karlheinz Stockhausen lo definì "il Buddha del contrabbasso", mentre Carmelo Bene, per il quale lavorò alle musiche dell'opera poetica "I ma…
Nerve Plexus
*25 copies limited edition* Originally released on tape by the Belgian label Dadaist Tapes, Nerve Plexus takes on an improvisational approach; constructed from a blend of homemade instruments, guitar and percussion; the sounds are uniquely placed and sculpted into jumpy abstractions and atmospheric forms generating a synthesis of genres. Recorded and mixed at ZIG Systems, Hudson Valley. New York 20-21 Mastered by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering, Brooklyn New York. Lacquer cut by Rich Flores at NYLC,…