New Arrivals
Return of the Repressed; Tape Recordings 1984-90
Emily Faryna is a Canadian artist and singer known so far only by real fans of Minimal/Synth-related Wave-music and cassette-culture collectors. Like most singers, she started doing small gigs, slowly making a name for herself. By 1984, she was working under the MoDaMu Records label out of British Columbia in Canada. Her debut album, I’ve Got a Steel Bar in My Head, was released that year (MoDaMu10). The Track Doomed to Fail was released on the Underground Vancouver 1984 Compilation the same yea…
Filtered Water
It's been three years since Rhode Island sound artist Geoff Mullen released his last album for the Type label, but he's hardly been taking it easy in the interim. After a few small-run cassette releases and a string of dates in Europe (both solo and in the Oxtirn trio with PAN's Eli Keszler and Ashley Paul) he found some time to get stranded in the woods and craft this beguiling long-form record. A mono recording of a multi-channel installation piece, Filtered Water is probably the most unu…
Piano solo
Recorded live at Cafe OTO in March 2009 during Otomo Yoshihide's first residency here. This was one of only a handful of solo piano performances Otomo has given where he uses the instrument as a control matrix for harmonically rich feedback tones and devastating clusters of complex noise. Beautifully rendered with maximum dynamic range by Lupo's 45rpm cut!
Centralia
Mountains’ music is defined by slow builds, and subtle transformations, textures and melodic lines that evolve in a variety of ways to create grand soundscapes and acutely detailed compositions. For Centralia, the duo of Koen Holtkamp and Brendon Anderegg wrote and recorded in a way that mirrors the pace of their music. While the current trend in experimental music is towards hyper-prolificity, Mountains have taken their time on Centralia, resulting in an album that is as precise as it is boundl…
L'experience acoustique
Francois Bayle's 'L'Experience Acoustique', Realised between 1966-1972 using the best technology available at the time, this 2 hour opus, powerful and immense in its scope, which explores a universe of electronic sounds and sound relationships. It's an investigation of acoustic sound at its purest levels and borders on psychedelic in effect. Chopping material from the world around him, manipulating it and juxtaposing against other, unlikely sources with illusive sleight-of-hand and haptic te…
Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II
Recorded in the same two week session as 'AODDOL I' by Stuart 
Hallerman at Avast and mastered by Mell Detmer, Earth's 
'Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II' carries on in the freely 
improvised, folkloric vein of the title track from their last 
release. Tape was rolled and spontaneous composition occurred.'Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II' is striking in many ways, not least, in the wildly improvised nature of this particular 
recording. Earth's songs, Sigil o…
Sounding the Body Electric
The connections between the visual arts and experimental music were closer in the 1960s and 1970s than perhaps any time before or since. Sound and image combined in artists films, \'happenings\' and sounding installations. Experimental Forms of notation were also created to stimulate uninhibited musical expression. Eastern European artists and composers were at the forefront of these new experiments with sound and yet their achievements have never been recorded until now. Sounding the Body…
Peepers
Elsewhere, ‘The Love Didn't Go Anywhere’ sees Leafcutter John play guitar on a beautifully loping piece that has the subtle afterglow of classic Roxy Music, with Bryan Ferry’s vocal replaced by the rapier glide of the two reeds, while Tom Herbert’s hefty double bass pounds out concise but penetrating lines. Interestingly, prior to the sessions, Rochford listened to a lot of ‘60s soul (“Aretha and Marvin Gaye”), an influence that he has channelled with more guile than is immediately discernible. …
Nocturnes
'Nocturnes' is William Basinski's first new solo recording release in four years. It comprises two typically sanguine, extended compositions; 'Nocturnes' written between 1979-80 during his post-grad period in San Francisco, and 'The Trail Of Tears' recorded in 2009 for the Robert Wilson opera, 'The Life and Death of Marina Abramovich'. If there's any one way to measure the efficacy of his music, it's by how drowsy one feels after consumption. We could either do with a snooze or a strong c…
Cities
Strong field recordings capture more than just the sound of an area, they capture a mood and spirit of the place and people. On Cities, local color and nature recordings clash with riots and discord, capturing the full human experience across the world. Literal and metaphorical “found music” appears: the booming stereo of a passing car or distant church bells, as does the rhythmic engine hum of a bus or the chirping of birds. This tour is a fast paced one, rapidly weaving through the geog…
Spontaneous combustion
We're thrilled to announce the next release available from OTOroku! Recorded in October 2011 - 'Spontaneous Combustion' splits the second set of the first night of Decoy's two day residency with special guest Joe McPhee across two sides of heavyweight virgin vinyl with two colour artwork by Oliver Pitt. 'a show that surpassed all expectations to become one of the very best things I've seen this year.'The Liminal Alexander Hawkins, hammond B3. John Edwards, double bass. Steve Noble, drums. Joe M…
Mask of the Maker
Fuses deep kosmische moods w/ jet-propulsion lab experiments, classic galactic Italo, soaring starblood synth workouts, funky astral ragas, psychedelic dust coulds & rare mantric guest vocals
Oiseaux-Tempete
Oiseaux-Tempête debut album retraces, in a sonic odyssey, the qualms and queries of a sickly and dysfunctional Western society. Experimental, Stoner, Post-Rock, Ambient, Free Music. The trio was created in Paris in 2012 by the musically versatile pair Frédéric D. Oberland (guitar) and Stéphane Pigneul (bass) (members of FareWell Poetry and Le Réveil des Tropiques) and percussionist Ben Mc Connell (drummer for bands such as Beach House, Rain Machine, Au Revoir Simone, Marissa Nadler and Winter Fa…
Hostile Environment
Bolder is Martin Maischein, who used to record as Heinrich At Hart on Position Chrome, and Peter Votava, also known as Pure, who has recorded previously for Mego and was half of Ilsa Gold. With their combined background in electronic music of all kinds, Bolder introduces a significant proposition to the current experimental electronic boom. Blurring the lines between industrial, techno, dub, ambient, and narrative forms, the work on Bolder's debut presents a dance amongst the abyss, a world wher…
Old Punks
Doronco is a bass player who is most well known for his stints in Les Rallizes Dénudés, Suishou no Fune and with Keiji Haino. Here he is joined by members of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, a Frenchman and an additional female vocalist who have made an album of sophisticated 70s style downer pop. The band uses vocals, bassoon and trumpet over a see-sawing battle of piano / guitar shrill balanced against warm rhythms that sound suspiciously close to how you want them to. Translated as "Mud Cloud," t…
Footnote(s)
Originally published as a cdr in 2005, limited to hardly any copies on Feater one's Nest, in the period Joshua Burkett visited Europe for the first time, it was about time these beautiful recordings saw some day light again on wax! I've met various people on other planets that i could compare to friends closer to home, Bill Nace calls himself a "fat Vaast Colson", Vladimier looks like Phillip Quehenberger, Tarp's Conrad Capistran's laughter sounds simular to W Ravenveers grinning and so on…
Retro-2038
COH is the moniker used by Ivan Pavlov from Russia for more than a decade. COH is also the Russian word for \'sleep\'. Yet, do not be deceived - RETRO-2038 is much more of a deep space than a deep sleep. The second COH release on Editions Mego is a true delight to behold, inviting as it does its exploration of electronic sound in minimalism, futuristic pop and the uncharted territories inbetween. Ranging from digital updates of Giorgio Moroder\'s pulse experiments to menacing lingering LF…
Flora
Born in Japan and a resident of New York since 2001, Aya Nishina is a very special and beautiful spirit whose work touches upon nature, spirituality and the deepest human emotions. Five years in the making "Flora" is a brilliant suite of pieces for the human voice. At times layering hundreds of voices at the same time, the music is lush, orchestral and healing. Meticulously written, rehearsed, guided and recorded, this is a fabulous debut CD by a unique composer who has worked with Ryuic…
Jazz Sahara
Decades before the advent of 'world music', bassist-composer Ahmed Abdul-Malik introduced Arabic music into jazz, creating a distinct, unique sound that was far beyond its time. Best known in jazz circles for his solid work with Randy Weston and Thelonious Monk, Abdul-Malik, who is of Sudanese descent, was also the first to use the oud, a pear-shaped, traditional Middle Eastern stringed instrument similar to a lute, as a jazz instrument. Recorded in 1958, with tenor saxophonist Johnny Gri…
Knife in the water
Delectable quartet of Polish jazz pieces for the heppest cats, re-launched by Finders Keepers' Cacophonic sub-label. "A record of contended mythical existence amongst fans of Euro cinema and rare jazz for decades, this Polish only EP contains all four themes to Polanski's first-ever feature film Knife In The Water composed by unanimously beloved Polish pianist Krzysztof Komeda. Featuring Roman Dylag (Bruno Spoerri’s Teddy Bär) and a radical inclusion of a Swedish trumpeter, the sought after Bern…