New Arrivals
Sun Circle
The most recent release on the lichen label; all releases are hand-assembled by zach wallace in his native ann arbor environs and offer of a lovely wave of art-sound, field recordings, improvisation with natural non-instruments, and, in the case of this particular title, a pair of pieces by greg davis and zach himself on farfisa, distorted vocals, and bells. the first appears to be a zonked “cover” of lamonte young’s “31 vii 69 10:26 - 10:49 pm munich from map of 49's dream the two systems of el…
Solo Acoustic Volume Five
Subtitled: 12 String Meditations For Jack Rose. "Limited to 1000 copies. Solo, untreated, 12-string compositions in tribute to one of the greats. An album of instrumentals in requiem."
Entraxes inégaux
Mind-scrambling free jazz, noise, experimental drones, and uncategorizable sound experiments from the wilds of Judith Kan, voice. Jac Berrocal, trumpet, piano. Dan Warburton, violin, keyboards. Béatrice Godeau, cello. Jean-Noël Cognard, percussions. Recorded by Patrick Müller, 2009. Cover by Jörg Morning. Limited to 300 copies.
C-Section
British free jazz phenomenon Evan Parker with electronic and tape noise artist John Wiese in a set of real-time evolving improvisations intended for maximum volume. Vinyl version of the CD released earlier this year, but slightly different containing all the final mixes and edits of the sessions with a new and more intense mastering for the maximum listening experience. C-Section finds density in scarcity - deep, glacial muck bubbles emerge beneath Parker's inhuman circular breathing, only to pl…
One as two
beautifully packaged, transparent vinyl, 200 numbered copies, silkscreened cover. “One as Two (Compositions for resonances of reed organ and chambers)” is the second collaborative work of Minoru Sato (-m/s, SASW) and Asuna, after their first studio cd (“Texture in glass tubes and reed organ” released on Spekk, Japan). Asuna plays reed organ, Minoru Sato : NRF amplification by two glass tubes and 2 glass vases. NRF is the Natural Resonant Frequency of a defined space. In this case the expression …
Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy
This disc brings together the Sun Ra recordings "Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy" and "Art Forms Of Dimensions Tomorrow" (recorded in 1963 and '61-'62 respectively). Cosmic Tones functions as a kind of blueprint for the sort of large-scale jazz weirdness that would inform much of Sun-Ra's subsequent works, featuring the woozy reeds of 'And Otherness' and the afro-jazz experiments of 'Thither And Yon'. On 'Adventure Equation' a space echo treatment on the recording which is reprised for the sax f…
HYDratioN
Super limited edition of 300 hand-numbered copies. Hand screened jackets printed by Neil Burke at Monoroid. For years, both Z'EV and Jon Mueller have explored these possibilities, both within traditional forms, and singling out specific elements within those forms. For Z'EV, an entire book, called Rhythmmajik, was written about the properties of rhythm, while his history pairs him with a wealth of collaborators, from Carl Stone, Glenn Branca, and many others, as he pursued the quest for rhythmic…
Ghost with chains
Long-running Twin Cities horsepower trio Daughters Of The Sun have been subtly chugging out their faded-tattoo spirit-in-the-sky psych exhaust for at least half a decade now but we didn’t catch the drift till March ’09, when we got to witness a packed post-midnight smoke-soaked Minneapolis loft set and waved our lighter with the masses. Ghost With Chains is their third official full-length (not including some EPs and a killer split) and it’s as beautifully moon-burnt and highway-swept as anythin…
Split LP
Amazing!! There is a murder in the beach. Ducktails arrives in his spaceship escalade to investigate the scene. Dracula Lewis is the principal suspect. They become best friends and decide to work on a split LP. When a vampire kills a body is never found. At the same time beautiful and terrifying cavern drone sounds from Dracula Lewis, Psychedelic spiraling melodies and electronics beats from Ducktails. Both investigate the limits of the space time continuum. This is the new dawn of expansi…
Outdoor Spell
Rhys Chatham has trail-blazed a course through late 20th century music, equally aplomb in post-minimalist composition as he is in punk. Not since Roebling laid his span across the East River has there been an artist who builds bridges in both how we hear music and how we can appreciate art. His latest album, Outdoor Spell, is a further document in that direction. Here has has eschewed 100 guitars, or even himself playing a single guitar, for the trumpet and voice, both electrified and dry. It is…
Glass Fountain
The duo mainly sticks to their guns, mining the same post-Suicide art-trance vein they perfected on Dream, but here there's an added emphasis on the disembodied, oscillator pop mode that they often toy with. Mesmerizing organ melodies over plink-plonky vintage drum machines with weirdo soulful singing & outer space electronics, like an outsider-punk Silver Apples or something. Edition of 600
LA Vampires & Zola Jesus
Easily one of the releases of the year so far, finally available on limited edition vinyl* Ghostly goings on from gothic psych queen Zola Jesus and kindred spirit LA Vampires (the current guise of Amanda Brown from Pocahaunted), who collaborate across this killer new mini album. 'Bone Is Bloodstone' rumbles into motion with those familiarly smudged out, indecipherable vocals and evaporating drum machines but there's a heavy bass groove and some ghoulish melodic developments set to balance …
The Swifter
Introducing The Swifter - a new trio featuring Andrea Belfi (drums and percussion), BJNilsen (electronics) and Simon James Phillips (piano). Their debut album documents the first encounter of the three musicians. Recorded live in the Grunewald Church, Berlin, careful attention was given to capturing the unique resonant acoustic offered by the airy, stone building, exhibiting the broad palate of aesthetic qualities the group are able to create. Subtly evolving sound worlds that evoke, at times, t…
Split
Brand new split LP from fellow Manchester weirdos A Middle Sex and Gnod. Gnod follow on from some killer releases over the last couple of years, a split 7" with Bong, a tape on Not Not Fun, and most recently a collaborative LP with White Hills. The oddly titled 15 minute 'Why Don't You Smile Like The Other Children?' opens with hazy strings and cosmicly far out voices, this slow groove packs a multi-coloured burst of rhythmic psychedelic vibes. On the flip side, A Middle Sex take up duties of do…
III
I don't care how many goddamn cute hobo bands there are out there right now. Not two runny shits. There's something Hank IV knows that few other current "of interest" bands realize, and it's a painfully simple thing: guitars were meant to sound like this, not that (pick something). That's as plainly as it can be put. This is twin-guitar punk rock in a class of its own, driving more than dueling and hot-sauce-free. I'd say "power with taste" but then I'd have to kill myself. I will say that…
Retrieval
Formed by Richard Chartier at music research centre, York University (York, UK). These works utilize original loops and recordings from 1990-1993 as source material.
Under Stellar Stream
For his latest album, UK avant-folk maverick Richard Youngs seems to be converging on some of the most assured and firm-footed vocal work of his career to date, fashioning rock-solid songs from typically leftfield instrumental tactics. On 'Broke Up By Night', Youngs sounds like a gnarled old folkie of almost Ewan MacColl proportions, albeit accompanied by organ drone and wispy electronics. It's a rather magical, mantra-like cadence he elicits, and the album springboards nicely from this point. S…
The Garden
Limited Copies! By some mysterious and fantastic stroke of luck Sixtoo and Marco's Bully imprint have landed themselves the exclusive rights for this obscure third album from electronic psych masters The Silver Apples. Not only that but they have also now produced the first ever vinyl version of this seminal LP and have even dug deep enough to include some killer bonus cuts - never before heard. The band's name was inspired by the same poetic source that Morton Subotnick nabbed for his se…
Six imaginary scenes from the life of Muhammad Ali
This newest candle burning outing from the long going UK Psych project headed by Mr. Phil Todd continues the quest for the farthest possible cosmic frequencies through FX, guitar, synth, and saz on a bed of field recordings. Some tracks in here almost enter the pantheon of new age music ! Edition of 240 copies.
Je Suis Vivant, Mais J'ai Peur De Gilbert
LP Edition...from 1974. Amazing, underground concept Lp with musique fantastique behind spooky spoken word text / science fiction related narration. The music is superb, deep / gothic / weird and funky like the best J.P Massiera / William Sheller / Igor Wakhevitch productions. Strange arrangements and clever variations on a theme with lots of thudding hip hop style rock beats / fuzz distortions / Maledictus Sound style studio FX / filtered heavy breathing / electronics and other trippy instrumen…