New Arrivals
Absolut Gehör
*321 copies limited edition. In process of stocking. 2023 stock* Origami Arktika is one of Norway’s best kept secrets. They serve a mutated folk music, rooted in the county of Telemark, interspaced with drones, noise, electronica and undefinable elements. They mix the archaic with the modern. Paper folding with frozen fingers.
"People forget that noise music is just as much grounded in subtlety and elusive sophistications as in deafening roars and colliding atonalities. I cite Morphogenesis' fi…
Grenselos
*200 copies limited edition. In process of stocking* Origami Arktika is one of Norway’s best kept secrets. They serve a mutated folk music, rooted in the county of Telemark, interspaced with drones, noise, electronica and undefinable elements. They mix the archaic with the modern. Paper folding with frozen fingers.
OA moves along the axis of time by using Old Norwegian folk songs and folklore, combined with modern inspiration and technology. OA is a knotty time machine, hotwired by haystack-pol…
Fatevi Vivi La Polizia Non Interverrà
A commissar with his hands tied and a gentleman godfather. A gang of ruthless kidnappers and a couple of parents ready to pay any amount to hold their missing daughter again. The evocative backdrop of Lake Como and the rare beauty of Piero Piccioni's music. “Fatevi Vivi, La Polizia Non Interverrà” (1974), also known as “Kidnap”, is a detective story directed by Giovanni Fago, with actors of the caliber of Henry Silva, Gabriele Ferzetti and Philippe Leroy. The film draws inspiration from the man…
Ruinous Spirituality (Book)
Back in mid-2021, the publisher, João Simões, delivered the marvelous “Three Essays on Spirituality and Art” by Henry Flynt, offering swirling insights into one of experimental music’s most philosophically visionary minds. The first publication of writings by Flynt to have appeared in years, it left us wanting for more. Now, thankfully, just a short way down the road, João Simões has attended to that need, bringing out a stunning second volume, “Ruinous Spirituality”, that Flynt describes as a s…
Soul Jazz Records presents Space, Energy & Light
*New edition* Soul Jazz Records' new Space, Energy and Light is a collection of music by early electronic and synthesizer pioneers (from the 1960s through the 1970s), mid-1970s proto-new age gurus and 1980s guerrilla D-I-Y cassette-era electronic artists, spanning in total over a near 30-year time frame. "All of these artists used electronic advancements in music technology as a means of exploring not only space and the idea of the future, but also of looking inwards to the soul and of creating …
I Am Sitting in a Room. Archival Recordings 1969–2019
A truly mind-blowing deep dive into one of the most important works within the canon of 20th Century experimental music, stretching across 3 LPs and 2 CDs, as well as containing a 124-page book, Alvin Lucier's "I Am Sitting in a Room. Archival Recordings 1969–2019" on Sound On Paper Editions gathers 10 previously unavailable renderings of this astounding composition, created by the composer between 1969 and 2019. Illumining an unprecedented level of depth, nuance, and insight from a work that ca…
Further Fictions
*Comes with 32 page booklet featuring extensive liner notes and photos.* Part of a series of three new archival releases from Ndeya that showcase Jon Hassell and group in the late 1980s exploring a radical tangent on his Fourth World sensibility. Further Fictions is a double CD anthology of the music on the vinyl editions, with a disc devoted to each album in hardbound book style packaging, and an extensive booklet containing sleevenotes and archival images.
The first disc ‘The Living City’ docu…
Psychogeography
Part of a series of three new archival releases from Ndeya that showcase Jon Hassell and group in the late 1980s exploring a radical tangent on his Fourth World sensibility.
The Living City
Part of a series of three new archival releases from Ndeya that showcase Jon Hassell and group in the late 1980s exploring a radical tangent on his Fourth World sensibility.
Afterglow
Originally released on cassette in the winter of 1984, together with the 7th issue of Komakino fanzine - included here in its original format. 8 groups and 14 tracks revealing the whole meaning of the Afterglow operation. Bands who already had record deals and enjoyed some popularity, others that will do so shortly, others that will fade in the mists of that decade. “Afterglow” is a document from an era when small gestures and uncomfortable choices were true stances.
Moss (Recur)
*100 copies limited edition. 2023 stock* Moss, is a live recording from a unique collaboration by sound artists/musicians Molly Berg, Olivia Block, Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello. This was a midnight concert at the beautiful Trinity Cathedral in San Jose, CA which was part of the 01SJ Biennial. Olivia and Steve had performed solo sets on the previous nights. The final night was meant to be a duo with Molly and Stephen but the opportunity to play with musicians/friends who we admire so much cal…
Snowmelt
*In process of stocking. 2023 stock* Snowmelt asks the question, “What does climate change sound like?” Recorded during two field trips to Kunama Namadgi (Mount Kosciuszko), the record compares and contrasts the physical shifts in the region’s flora, fauna and landscapes brought upon by the changes in season that occur at higher altitudes. The Australian alpine regions are increasingly stressed by the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events add to …
Five Wooden Frames
*2023 stock* Five Wooden Frames marks the return of Italian artist Giueppe Ielasi to 12k after his captivating polyrhythmic explorations on Aix (12k1051, 2009). He completely abandoned the guitar in the mid 2000’s to explore minimal electro-acoustic abstractions (see his releases on his own Senufo Editions) or rhythmic and groove-based music (see his Stunt series, the Inventing Masks project, and Aix and Tools on 12k).
Once again, however, the guitar has become his main focus, both as an instrum…
Salt Og Vind
*2023 stock* With Salt og Vind Pjusk retums from an eight year album hiatus. This release is also the first seeing Pjusk as a solo project consisting of Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik. Salt og Vind (Salt and Wind) is, not surprisingly, about the forces of nature and the contrast between the volatile and the existing. In a wider sense it is about man’s inability or struggle to grasp the eternal and instead seek temporary fulfillment.
Salt og Vind is Pjusk’s 4th album for 12k and comes in with an urgency a…
Skal_Ghost
*In process of stocking. 2023 stock* 12k continues in its tradition of collaborative releases presenting a first-time pairing between German artist Arovane and 12k’s Taylor Deupree. Having become aquainted through their shared love of music technology, Uwe Zahn (Arovane) and Taylor Deupree only found it natural to work on a project together based around one of their favorite synthesizers. As Zahn recalls: “After a long email conversation, Taylor and I came up with the idea of recording an albu…
Stella Epoca
*2023 stock* Stella Epoca references star time and moving into a new age. The ideas of sky maps and planetary frequencies were the inspirations behind Sawako’s dreamlike sounds. She references orbits, sound waves and light that shower the earth and all living things in ephemeral encounters of sparkle and resonance. Sawako’s sound has always been fragile and amorphous. Watercolor paint sublimating and fading. Here she collapses eight years of memories and records into layers of sounds intended to…
Tail Of Diffraction
*2023 stock* Minamo returns to 12k following 2020’s Superstition where they paried up with singer/songwriter Moskitoo. On Tail of Diffraction the duo joins long-time friend Asuna. A new name to 12k but not to the world of ambient and experimental music where Asuna’s 100 Keyboards has toured stages around the world. Minamo and Asuna have shared the stage many times in concerts and tours over years, however, this is their first recording together. These artists are well known for their mix of elec…
The Prospect
*2023 stock* Giuseppe Ielasi is back following his 2020 release Five Wooden Frames. There he returned to the guitar exploring shifting and modulating loops and the interplay of tuning and drifting to create five stark yet ethereal pieces. On The Prospect, Ielasi sticks to solo guitar but this time in a much more pure form. Each of the two pieces consists of parallel electric guitar lines recorded simply through a tube amplifier free of studio tricks or heavy editing. Like much music written over…
All Bad Boy & All Good Girl - Manchester Street Soul Soundtapes, 1988-1996
*200 copies limited edition* A mixtape pulling together extracts from soundsystem tapes out of Manchester's storied street soul scene of the late 1980s to mid-1990s. Featuring DIY cassette recordings of sounds such as Broadway, Stereo Dan & Soul Control playing live at dances and blues parties in south & central Manchester from 1988 through to 1996.
River of Revenge: Brazilian Country Music 1929-1961, Vol. 2
The second volume in Death Is Not The End's survey of a form of Brazilian country music known as música caipira ("hillbilly music") - a stripped-back forerunner to música sertaneja, the Brazilian equivalent to US country & western which in it's contemporary form has come to dominate the domestic music industry in recent decades. This collection covers some of the earliest recordings made by the pioneering folklorist Cornélio Pires at the end of the 1920s, through to records from the 30s, 40s & 5…