New Arrivals
Electric Ascension+Cleaning The Mirror
"In Rova's translation of Ascension into contemporary practice, Coltrane's Ascension remains as a great gift for the energy it presents, for the sheer unfailing intensity with which it fights toward its collective freedom. The original is a major work of art, not merely an episode but a larger process. Rova's substantial achievement consists in assuming the responsibility of Coltrane's great original, treating it not simply as a memento of liberation but as a tool for it as well."(Stuart Broomer…
Soul Travelers
"So, listen closely, and savor the sounds: treat them with delicate abandon, indulge in their intricately measured poignancy; but don't forget to relax (a little) and enjoy: You are in the hands of a master soul traveler."(Steven Loewy, excerpt from the liner notes).
Trombonist Steve Swell is one of the stalwarts on the NYC free jazz scene as both a player & an educator. This studio recording from June 2015 features a top flight band comprised of Swell’s longtime collaborators (William Parker &…
Forest Structures
Thé Déluge is the new moniker of French musician Vincent Caylet. While Caylet’s previous outings as Cankun (released on Not Not Fun and Hands in the Dark) were blissful psychedelic sundrenched jam sessions, Forest Structures sees Caylet largely jettison cosmic tropical islands and guitar twang. Thé Déluge deals in moonlit electronics and nocturnal transmission that consistently bleep into each other and overlap. Recorded mostly on analog gear and inspired by both nature and urbanism, Thé Déluge …
Dame Ningen
Mukqs is the solo moniker of Max Allison from Chicago trio Good Willsmith. ダメ人間 ("dame ningen," which translates into "useless person" from Japanese) comes off the heels of Good Willsmith’s well received Things Our Bodies Used to Have (their third release with Umor Rex). For ダメ人間, Allison assembled his analog rig (four-track tape player, two EHX2880 loop pedals), and recorded the full 40 minute suite in one live take with no overdubs. The goal was to make a piece of music just as dense / intense…
Old Speakers
Missing Organs is Tristan Bath, a British musician and writer based in Vienna, Austria. Old Speakers deploys a bottomless variety of instruments, beats, and techniques, all refined and rewritten —somewhat accidentally— into a document of the period of personal and international upheaval during which they came to life. Old Speakers is his Brexit album; a document of the dread, quiet chaos, and bitterness in European society which came to the surface in 2016. Field recordings and improvisations fo…
What's Your Sign?
Four years after their inaugural union at Ecstatic Music Festival inside New York City’s Merkin Concert Hall produced a cosmic din for the ages, two genre-obliterating renegades who’ve made indelible marks in the experimental music pantheon—the NYC-bred, Paris-based avant-garde guitar legend and minimalist composer Rhys Chatham and long-running psychedelic free-rock juggernaut and Brooklyn institution Oneida—have joined forces on their first collaborative album proper titled What’s Your Sign?, d…
Amalgam
2016 release. A wild and exciting duo between cellist Okkyung Lee and legendary turntable improviser Christian Marclay performing live at London's Cafe Oto for a single long track that runs through an astonishing dynamic of invention and atmospheres in a gripping and spellbinding set. "May 2014, arriving home after hearing the Café Oto performance now released as Amalgam, I began to write. Over time the text developed, augmented by relevant dreams, literature and boxing metaphors, to become inte…
Land Of Look Behind
Originally issued in 1982, The Land Of Look Behind soundtrack returns to vinyl in a remastered and expanded edition that includes a download of three previously unheard and unreleased tracks from the original sessions. Alan Greenberg, who wrote and directed this film documenting the funeral of Bob Marley, provided K. Leimer with location tapes which were used to originate many of the rhythmic patterns for Land Of Look Behind. Loops of the monologues and phrases that exhibited more distincti…
dHrAaNwDn
Another multifaceted, all-out release from percussionist Jon Mueller, whose tribal trajectory has exploded since the release of Tongues. This album is a percussion fan’s dream. But it’s much more than that: it’s also a historical tribute, and has the potential to send listeners into a meditative trance, connecting them with their forebearers (A Closer Listen). "On May 23, 2016, Jon Mueller played four drums for over six hours in the Meeting House at the Shaker Historical Society in Albany, …
Drumbar And Basspear
Free-rock cosmic feedback by way of acid folk explorations. This feels like a classic Westcoast styled psych version of Amon Düül II. 70 copies.
La Casa Encendida
Live collaboration by My Cat Is An Alien and Nad Spiro with an introductory note by Mk Ibañez. Unfolding galaxies of shooting stars slowed down to my speed. Another blast from the alien void. 100 copies.
On Your Own Day You Are Believed
These recordings have the same classic private press vibe that permeates records as Terry Rojvi, Jim Collins, etc. Magical potion concocted by this Maine troubadour, channeling the elemental spirits towards inner light. 70 copies.
Raga Piloo
Virtuoso Nikhil Banerjee, one of the 20th century’s greatest masters of the Indian sitar, passed away in 1986 at the age of 55. Banerjee was widely acclaimed for his intensely individualistic pursuit of the poetry of raga. Nikhil Banerjee studied northern Indian classical music with the sarodist Ustad Allauddin Khan, father of sarodist Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna and also teacher of Ravi Shankar and Pannalal Ghosh.
Raga Puria-Kalyan
Pandit Ram Narayan, brother of Chatur Lal (the first tabla player to impress the western world on a larger scale in the company of Ravi Shankar), ranks as the most eminent sarangi player of today. His novel style of musical expression has changed the role of the sarangi forever, from that of an accompanying instrument to a full grown solo instrument. Take particular note of his alap in Puria Kalyan, perhaps the best this writer has heard him play.
Raga Desh
Virtuoso Nikhil Banerjee, one of the 20th century’s greatest masters of the Indian sitar, passed away in 1986 at the age of 55. Banerjee was widely acclaimed for his intensely individualistic pursuit of the poetry of raga. Nikhil Banerjee studied northern Indian classical music with the sarodist Ustad Allauddin Khan, father of sarodist Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Annapurna and also teacher of Ravi Shankar and Pannalal Ghosh.
For his second recording he had chosen Raag Desh.
Raag Mishra Bhairavi on sitar
Before Ustad had constructed his giant rudra veena he played the sitar, and what a sitar player he was! Very few people have heard him play the sitar and there are no recordings besides this one. This Mishra Bhairavi was recorded at one of the Sunday concerts he held in his house in Chembur every week. It was first released on LP in Sweden but here is the original one long track.
Raga Madhukauns / Raga Piloo
One of today’s finest exponents of the Sarod, Krishnamurthi Sridhar was, from very early childhood, initiated into the Carnatic music and is one of very few South Indians to have made North Indian music their playing ground. From the age of five Sridhar was the student of Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar of the Dagar School, the foremost master of the rudra veena and specialist in the traditionally classical and devotional Dhrupad Dhamar style of the North. Ustad it was who told him that the sarod was …
Raga Gangeyabushan
In 1968 Ustad did his first recording on his giant been, the rudra veena that he had designed. The recording was done in a private flat in Chembur on a quiet morning and was later released on a french label, B.A.M. with the name Raga Mangebushan. It is since long out of print. That morning Ustad did two takes of the same raga and we had considerable difficulties to choose which one to release since they were equally good and we finally settled on the first take. Ustad’s son Bahauddin Dagar has s…
Three Pieces for Two Pianos
This album exemplifies the depth to which Larry Polansky (b. 1954) explores and connects different musical ideas: In Three Pieces for Two Pianos and Old Paint, mathematical models and algorithmic processes are used to set folk songs; in k-toods, simple text scores outline complex musical processes that Polansky has theorized extensively; and the Dismissions are culminations of lifelong musicological investigations. His unique compositional style is unified through diversity and a constant reexam…
SE Asian Noise(s)
Kicking off the brand new Sucata Tapes label is Gonzo with a new volume of the never-ending Noise(s) series. This time, he presents his alternate and surreal perspective of sounds and sights from the South East Asian sub-continent. Featuring recordings from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, SE Asian Noise(s) intersects randomly through AM/FM radio, field recordings, in situ compositions, and some re-interpreted recordings from Laurent Jeanneau's, aka Kink Gong, massive archive of the region. Not to b…