New Arrivals

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Studio Songs! Popular titles that have been out of stock for a long time are being reissued at mid-price. The first title is the miraculous duo of Togashi and Takayanagi. Although the album is only 35 minutes and 50 seconds long, the tense improvisation on this masterpiece has captivated many free jazz fans. Masahiko Togashi/percussion, Masayuki Takayanagi/guitar Recorded: September 29, 1984 at Nagoya Far Out

New album from Blod recorded during the second half of 2022 by Gustaf Dicksson. Där Ska Barnet Vara is a continuation of the themes explored on Pilgrimssånger and contains nine more songs dealing with faith in different forms, with a strong presence of death. Compared to Pilgrimssånger, the sound is slightly more lo-fi and fucked up and the approach is somewhat looser and more desperate, but here are some of the strongest and most fragile and heartfelt Blod songs to date. Additional players on t…

Part of his 80th Anniversary celebration and subtitled "The Art Of The Trumpeter And Drummers", this 5-CD box set brings legendary improviser Wadada Leo Smith together with four long-time collaborators and masterful drummers--Andrew Cyrille, Jack DeJohnette, Pheeroan akLaff and Han Bennink--with Smith performing on both piano and trumpet.  5-CD BOX SET. Includes 60 pages booklet. The Emerald Duets is a crowning achievement among Wadada Leo Smith's many recorded duo collaborations with drummers/p…

2023 Stock. Kukuruz Quartet started 2014 their involvement with Julius Eastman and his musical works. In 2017, their performance at documenta 14 in the Megaro Mousikis concert hall in Athens earned a standing ovation. They performed works by Julius Eastman: 'Evil Nigger', 'Gay Guerrilla', 'Buddha' and 'Fugue No. 7'. The recording of these compositions followed in November 2017 on four Steinway D pianos in the main hall of the historic Radiostudio Zürich. Composer, trombonist and scholar George E…

Andrew Cyrille’s longtime companion Oliver Lake praises the master of African-American rhythms in his poem The Real Cyrille – “making the real magic … the real rhythms … the real sounds … expanding his African/Haitian roots … surfing the drums for masterful lyrical snippets … a master of color … painting coloring riffing always stretchin’ searchin’lookin’ for that next sound color sound!” Lake’s words astutely describe the artistry of Andrew Cyrille and the music that he makes on this record. Un…

Aki Takase and Han Bennink love the art of dialogue. Bennink is paired for life in a duo with the pianist Misha Mengelberg. Intakt Record also offers a duo recording of Han Bennink with the Zurich pianist Irène Schweizer. After having released five duo CDs at Intakt Records with Silke Eberhard, Lauren Newton, Rudi Mahall, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Louis Sclavis, Aki Takase is now presenting a breathtaking and very entertaining recording with Han Bennink. Every tone reveals enjoyment and de…

Jazz as the art of dialogue: two of the great musicians of today's jazz from different continents and generations make music sparkle. Born in Osaka in 1948, Aki Takase moved to Berlin where her musical partners included Han Bennink, Evan Parker, Rudi Mahall, David Murray, Louis Sclavis and Fred Frith as well as her husband and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. Ingrid Laubrock, born in 1970 in Stadlohn in North Rhine-Westphalia, moved to London at the age of 19 where she studied with the saxop…

Aki Takase, the Berlin-based pianist, is one of the great personalities of modern jazz. Moments of freedom, form and humour characterize this stylistically versatile avant-gardist, the stubborn virtuoso who toys with jazz traditions. In the year of her 70th birthday, Aki Takase was honoured with The Berlin Jazz Prize. Recorded over two days at the Sendesaal Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, the album includes some pieces captured live during the award ceremony, and some recorded in a studio setting i…

Meandering, autobiographical solo works from Aki Tsuyuko, tracking her 30 year relationship with her beloved Kawai Dreamatone organ.  As so touchingly explained in the release notes, Aki’s relationship began with her instrument of choice after her Dad (who worked as a salesman for the Kawai corporation) brought one home for her.  From here, she started to explore the vast combinations of tones and colours the half digital / half analogue organ can produce, regularly retreating away to practice a…

Sofa is proud to release a new solo album from Fredrik Rasten, following his fantastic Six Moving Guitars (released on Sofa in 2019). Lineaments consists of two long-form solo pieces performed by Rasten, for an extended instrumentarium of guitars, voice and sine waves. Lineament I and II proceed from two different plucking patterns played on one acoustic and one electric guitar, both sharing a specific tuning from where the two pieces explore diverging tempos and structures. Humming voice, sine …

*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…

Edition of 100. Crystal-clear vinyl. Tip-on jacket. The second collaborative album by Drew Daniel (Matmos, The Soft Pink Truth) and John Wiese (Sissy Spacek), "Through Mazes Running" builds turbulent complexity from a real time cage match of no-holds-barred signal processing. Cross-multiplying tape manipulation and software, each processing the other into a writhing feedback loop, creating a volatile ouroboros of sound. Cut at 45 RPM for maximum fidelity.

Jonas Gerigk is a double bass player who is active as a composer/performer in the fields of improvised music. In addition, he collaborates in projects of contemporary composers and is involved in the realization of their works. A main focus of his work deals with the term Explorative Music. He is doing intensive research on the expansion of the sound spectrum of the acoustic double bass. With a physical as well as technical approach and the use of objects he explores the variety of timbres of hi…

Exotica masterpiece finally re-issued ! Which record is produced by Martin Denny, arranged by pianist Paul Conrad and features vintage Exotica's second lady who is only outclassed by the Peruvian chantress Yma Sumac? It's Exotic Dreams, released in 1958 that puts – so tells the cover artwork – "the enticing voice of Ethel Azama" (1934–1984), a Hawaiian Jazz singer, into the spotlight. Martin Denny discovered her a few years later and was able to negotiate with his house label Liberty Records, wh…

Japan goes to Africa ! It's more than a bit ironic that Tak Shindo's most "exotic" album, the superb Mganga!, boasts no connection to his own Japanese heritage, instead focusing on the primal rhythms and tribal chants of Africa. Rooted largely in the arranger's experience on the Latin jazz circuit, its Afro-Cuban rhythms, sampled animal sounds, and chants capture an African musical culture based far more in fantasy than reality, much as rival exotica maestros like Martin Denny and Les Baxter con…

Folk, Alternative, Psychedelic, Soft, Poetic..

Ltd x 230 copies on red vinyl. Double 180gm vinyl in glossy gatefold sleeve. Red Vinyl. The sound of the classic period of Psychic TV - featuring Peter Christopherson and Geff Rushton (John Balance) of Coil, this full show is interspersed with recordings of the Pagan marriage between Genesis and Paula P-Orridge conducted by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson Allsherjargodi. Psychic TV at their most esoteric, their most ritual, and often most extreme, a perfect accompaniment to the legendary 'Dreams Less Sw…

The "Produkt" compilation takes us back to the time between 1979 and 1984, when post-punk was the main expression of the underground movement. Bands in the wake of PIL and Joy Division came out like mushrooms after the punk crush. In this compilation you will find mostly unknown yet interesting productions. This is a 10 track album, all originally released on 7" from all over the world: from Poland to Sweden, from Yugoslavia to Denmark. A perfect item for both enthusiasts and completists but als…

Got It! presents Persian Underground: Garage Rock Beat & Psychedelic Sounds From The Iranian 60s & 70s Scene. Amazing collection that gathers some of the rarest Persian 45s. Such an eclectic mix of styles, from garage rock to cool Persian beat, exotic rock&roll and astonishing prog/psych numbers. Featuring female drummer & singer Zangoleah with some killer garage / rockin' tracks, obscure bands like Takkhalha doing a fab cover of the Stones 'Play With Fire' and an amazing take on the Persian tra…

Recently created Guatemalan label Identidata is extremely proud to present "Sacratávica", the very first collected survey of Joaquín Orellana’s avant-garde / modern classical compositions. With a career spanning over 50 years of activity across contemporary art, performance, theater and sound art, Orellana is a highly singular figure in Guatemalan culture.

Pierre Dutour's infamous Top Fiction is the epitome of a 5-tracker. Coming to light in 1979 on Tele Music, its collection of environmental themes are *all astounding*. We're talking all-time heavy hitters, here. They come recommended as tracks you'd choose to elegantly elevate deep selector sets or mixes. Skip the irritating whistle-laced marching-band funk of "Captain Parade" and head straight to the glistening synths and proud horns of beatless ambient wonder "Mountain Echoes". Arguably worth …

Spatial & Co is a synth-drizzled, spaced-out bass-heavy discoid-funk masterpiece from French disco lord and Arpadys maestro Sauveur Mallia. Recorded for French library label Tele Music, in 1979, it's by turns cosmic funk and creeping crime funk, bursting with low slung, k-i-l-l-e-r basslines, loping drum breaks and sparkling percussion. It's so funky it hurts. Confidently swaggering out the gate is "Future Vision", with its loping yet dextrous bassline across strutting beats setting the scene. "…

Ultra-limited edition of 105 copies. This material has been substantially reworked from the original digital version. The vinyl (not lathe) sounds simply incredible, with hyper-crisp fidelity and intimidating bass response. This edition also comes with a Venus Flytrap seed for you to grow (grow instructions included in the liner notes). This release will bring years of enjoyment!  Recorded at Solid State Electronics Laboratory Studio, ChicagoSeptember 2019-2020All material re-worked 2022 Physica…

Cult album of Brazilian music finally reissued. Official reissue of this real tour de force of Brazilian creativity, where the mighty Naná Vasconcelos is joined by his friends Nelson Angelo and Novelli (both members of the legendary Clube da Esquina) to create one of the greatest Brazilian albums ever recorded outside of Brazil. The three musicians grasp here for the kind of musical freedom that could then only be achieved outside of their country. A boundary-pushing experimentation that makes y…

*100 copies limited edition* Originally issued in 1972, the first side, recorded in 1966, is devoted to Seamen talking and playing drums and the narrative covers his beginnings in the music business and his time on the road in the last years of the big bands in this country up to his time with Jack Parnell in 1953. Side 2 features two sets recorded at the Hope & Anchor in Islington, London, (at Phil's Friday Place session) and the Bulls Head in Barnes London (with Dick Morrissey and the great US…

The Jazz Doctors or the Billy Bang Quartet toured Europe in the early 80s, featuring spiritual jazz pioneer saxophonist Frank Lowe and Vietnam vet turned free jazz violinist Billy Bang, the group recorded in 1983 in London. With legendary rhythm section Rafael Garrett and Dennis Charles, they recorded an album for Cadillac that fast became a sought after classic. This is the first time this rare LP has been reissued - remaster for vinyl release and direct cut from tapes at Gearbox studio.

* Temporary nice price * Blue Vinyl edition. Easily one of the most prolific film composers of all time, Ennio Morricone enjoys a revered status in the world of eccentric music lovers second to no other. While he is probably best known for his unmistakable music in Sergio Leone's Man with No Name trilogy, much of his work has been of a subtler and somewhat less broadly accessible variety. Because of this, his oeuvre represents a treasure trove for film music lovers, and now, with Dissonance, Kli…

* Temporary nice price * Ever-Green Vinyl edition. Easily one of the most prolific film composers of all time, Ennio Morricone enjoys a revered status in the world of eccentric music lovers second to no other. While he is probably best known for his unmistakable music in Sergio Leone's Man with No Name trilogy, much of his work has been of a subtler and somewhat less broadly accessible variety. Because of this, his oeuvre represents a treasure trove for film music lovers, and now, with Crime, Kl…

Reissue of a soundtrack, originally released 1978. Yuji Ohno, is a Japanese jazz musician born in 1941. He's principally known for his musical scoring of Japanese animated television series, of which 'Lupin III' and the feature film 'The Castle Of Cagliostro' are his best known works. Ohno is also well-known as a member of the jazz trio which he forms with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Lenny White.  This is his fifth solo album released from Invitation (a sublabel of Victor/JVC mainly for …

Here's one of those surreal, strange trips that just throws you off-kilter at first but soon enough becomes irresistible. Saint Just was an avant-folk group from Naples who fashioned this haunting interpretation of prog-folk with elements of centuries past classical, romantic and traditional folk influence. They don't sound like anyone precisely, but to give a general idea I can float the names Pierrot Lunaire, Trees, Fairport, Vashti Bunyan, Holderlin's Traum. The band contrasts simple and spar…

Poised and heartfelt, ‘The Place I’ve Been Missing’ feels like the culmination of Alessio Natalizia’s almost two decades work as a producer, songwriter, prolific collaborator and label founder, bringing together ostensibly disparate stylistic elements gathered on his travels over the years. Comfortable in both colourful pop and downcast modes, here these two ends of his repertoire come together in a way that’s perhaps eluded him in the past, marked by the passing of time and the joyous - and the…

Carmen Villain follows last years ‘Only Love From Now On’ with this new full length exploration of soporific, slow-moving ambience and disembowelled dub, a score she composed for a contemporary dance performance by acclaimed Choreographer Eszter Salamon. Simply put, it’s one of the most captivating things we’ve heard this year; all luxurious texture-cycles in possession of a delirious, dreamlike quality that hits a rarefied spot somewhere between Aphex Twin’s ‘Selected Ambient Works Vol.II’,  cl…

*300 copies limited edition* As Flesh & The Dream, Heather Leigh & Shackleton chart an ambitious journey of discovery in the psychic dancehall, conjuring a debut album that’s a psychedelic prog masterpiece, probing the gooey membrane between outré folk vocalisations and dizzying, queered soundscapes. There's nowt out there quite like it, channeling the spirits of Annette Peacock, Anna Homler, Coil, Kate Bush, Rrose, Harry Partch and Yes into a brilliantly unfathomable, singular vision. ‘Choose M…

Huge Tip! First LP reissue in 50 years! A cutting-edge collage of the Muhammad Ali vs. Mac Foster documentary held at the Budokan in April 1972, with performances by the Yosuke Yamashita Trio (w/ Takeo Moriyama and Seiichi Nakamura). An incredible album, and an incredible cultural moment as well – as Japanese avant piano legend Yosuke Yamashita pays tribute to the great Muhammad Ali – on the occasion of his visit to Japan for the World Heavyweight match in 1972! Half the record features instrume…

The tape recorded in a studio by Yuji Takahashi (synthesizer, sampler) and Masahiko Togashi (percussion) on November 23, 1988 was found for the first time in 34 years, and is now available for download. This album is the culmination of the Takahashi-Togashi duo that began in the spring of 1988 at the Shinjuku Pit Inn, and is an improvisational performance in which Togashi responds to Takahashi's lead. Each member's different musicality is inspired by the other's, and the music is built up in dia…

Folk, Alternative, Psychedelic, Soft, Poetic..

‘Whether it is to be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment. Humanity is in a final exam as to whether or not it might qualify for continuance in the Universe.’

* Edition of 300 * In 1989, before the wall came down, Mona Mur and her producer Dieter Meier (“Yellow”) came to Poland. Under the musical direction of Polish rock star Grzegorz Ciechowski (“Republika”) and with renowned Polish musicians, arrangers and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, she recorded her album WARSAW in early 1990. “WARSAW deals with the old topic of love as a marginal experience. Why does this intrigue me? Because this is how I experienced it at a very young age. There is hardly…

* Deluxe Edition. Pressed in Detroit at Third Man Records. Limited edition of 750 copies* Considered to be one of the earliest composers of electronic music, Halim El-Dabh (1921-2017) was an Egyptian-American musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator. The works in this compilation span his astounding six decade career, moving across Halim El-Dabh’s eclectic, undefinable, and groundbreaking oeuvre – including field recordings, concertos, electronic music compositions, and improvised instrumentals…

2xLP Bundle. The psychedelic masterpiece nobody heard -- First ever official, authorized release of psychedelic mega-rarity. After suffering an LSD-induced mental breakdown, Los Angeles-based songwriter Craig Smith renamed himself Maitreya Kali and custom-pressed Apache / Inca, a double-LP documenting his musical, personal, and spiritual journey. His message to the world, encoded on the album jackets in rambling, quasi-mystical Messianic verse, was urgent, desperate, delusional, and disturbing. …