New Arrivals
Galaxy Heart
Galaxy Heart is the companion album to Phosphenes (Nov 2021) and completes an intensive body of work that Montréal composer-violinist Jessica Moss wrote, performed and self-produced in deep isolation throughout 2020. As A Closer Listen wrote in its Top Ten Modern Composition list for 2021, "few musical voices represent so well the estrangement and intensity of our times; Moss is among the best of them." Galaxy Heart consolidates this assessment, revealing the more exploratory and extemporaneous …
Fôrça Bruta
The combination of Jorge Ben and Trio Mocotó had already produced great things when Força Bruta first appeared in 1970. Ben's self-titled album of the year before had reeled off a succession of Brazilian hits, including "País Tropical" and "Cadê Teresa," and made the four musicians very busy as a result. Força Bruta was a slightly different album, a slice of mellow samba soul that may perhaps have been the result of such a hectic schedule during 1969. One of the hidden gems in Jorge Ben's discog…
Bridge Variations
On Bridge Variations, the now Stockholm-based English guitarist Jon Collin changes his guitar for a keyed fiddle. Mostly recorded to tape under different bridges around Stockholm during 2021, partly for the sound but also because of their importance to the geographical make-up of the place, the album is like a modern take on traditional Swedish folk music made by an outsider looking in. The sound is pretty much a continuation of the palette explored on 'Dream Sequence, End Of Summer', Collin's c…
Itsame
On his sophomore album “Itsame” on FILM, Brainwaltzera navigates the turbulent waters of personal crossroads with cautious optimism for an uncertain future. Drawing comparisons with his debut full-length "Poly-Ana", an equally introspective album that explores broader conceptual themes, the artist hesitantly describes the new record as a very personal affair. Acting as a kind of “journal” of the last four years of his life, each of the 17 tracks directly relate to events and experiences that tra…
Poly-Ana
*2022 stock.* Brainwaltzeras debut LP Poly-ana follows quickly on the heels of the producers Aescoba EP also released this year via FILM. Across thirteen tracks of both previously released material and fresh excursions into the artists world, Brainwaltzera explores sounds ranging from luscious, downtempo grooves and expertly reduced braindance cuts with nods to early 90's experimental IDM to harder, more caustic outings all bound together by a recurring theme of otherworldly ambience. Taking its…
Waiters On The Dance
*In process of stocking. Limited edition of 500 copies* Another unsung hero of the long lost british prog history, Julian Jay Savarin is a keyboard player and composer, poet and science fiction author, hence the association with the most epic and romantic tendencies of the genre. He was born in Dominica (an island between Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean) and moved to the UK in 1962. He debuted in 1970 with Julian's Treatment, a short-lived progressive rock band which his sole album – …
Wayward Mystic
About a year ago I handed Tony a CD of Saint Hildegard von Bingen's spiritual songs to listen to, and the next thing I know he has played an entire hour long drum track alongside the recording, in one sitting- and that it was so right. The sounds of his rolling-thunder-in-the-distance drumming and the ethereal monophonic vocal lines perfectly complimented, and my inspiration to try singing some, then add violin/viola layers with pedals and improvise, was ignited. In learning some of these beauti…
39 / Part I – III
The piece consists, as the title suggests, of three parts. Each of these parts contains a so-called large form. These consist of 39 tracks each and are played on deadwood, a drum, and on 39 pine cones, respectively. The note values, the corresponding rests, as well as the tempi are rolled. In part, the durations of the individual sequences are also determined with the dice according to a strict concept. Besides the mentioned sound sources, stones, water, footsteps, church bells, etc. also appear…
Boulder Blues
*In process of stocking* "Every album from the band, whose core members currently reside in the UK and Israel, feels like an invitation into a space outside the mundane. When playing live, visuals from Danil Gertman, drawn and projected in real time, are an intrinsic part of their performance. Like those visuals’ movement from amorphous constellations of colour into concrete characters and landscapes, Staraya Derevnya swing from flurries of abstract folk sounds into propulsive, swampy grooves. I…
Bajascillators
With a tactile clunk, Bitchin Bajas (Cooper Crain, Rob Frye and Dan Quinlivan) bubble to the surface. Bajascillators, arriving almost five years since their last official full-length, 2017’s Bajas Fresh, is a riveting new full-length springing forth from the implacable, eternal gene pool that's also included soundtracks, re-imagined cuts from Sun Ra's catalog, and collaborations with Natural Information Society and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy among their illustrious recorded output. Following the flow…
Fleeting Adventure
*In process of stocking.* Andrew Tuttle's Fleeting Adventure is a musical adventure through a reimagined journey from the Australian ambient producer and banjo player. A crew of fellow travellers - including Steve Gunn, Chuck Johnson, Luke Schneider and Balmorhea - help navigate a cosmic trip into subtropical landscapes. Golden plucks of banjo, gauzy electronics and cosmic guitar shimmer into gloriously expansive melodies that conjure peace and space, comfort and wonder.
A deepening sense of lif…
Tarmac
Tip! *In process of stocking* Maranata is Jon Wesseltoft and Dag Stiberg, a Norwegian duo active since the mid 2000s with releases on distinguished labels such Picadisk, [OHM] Records, New Forces and Abhorrent A.D. “Tarmac” consists of two long-form barrages of sharp hellfire - the first being a tight slab of density and frenzied purge; the second a nest of fractured pressure and restrained intensity, eventually giving in to total implosion. Stiberg’s baritone sax sits perfectly along the spinal…
It's Nothing, But Still
*In process of stocking* Steve Fors offers deeply physical music on his Hallow Ground debut »It's nothing, but still.« Having already established himself as a composer of visceral drone and noise pieces in various Chicago- and New York-based underground projects, Fors’s first release under his given name is even more dense and evocative than his earlier work. A concept album on the subject of breath, the Siavash Amini-produced record sees the now Swiss-based composer blend field recordings with …
King Cobra
*First pressing vinyl edition.* Baltimore hip-hop experimentalists Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals return with vital new album King Cobra, a mighty, omnivorous record that pushes the duo to unstoppable creative heights. Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals’ inexhaustible creativity has already gifted us 2020’s Dear, Sudan - a kaleidoscopic, unpredictable joyride of late night channel-hopping - and 2021’s brutal post-George Floyd manifesto Rhino XXL, but King Cobra is a new experience still. It is a mas…
Selected Improvisations From Golha, Pt. II
The second part in a collection of stunning Persian-tuned piano pieces, cut from Iranian national radio broadcasts made for the Golha programmes between 1956 & 1965.
Initial Shock
*2022 stock.* Knurl sits among a very small handful of Canadian harsh noise acts to debut in the 90s and remain active to this day. Among the likes of Ryan Bloomer (Flatline Construct), Sam McKinlay (The Rita) and Pierre-Marc Tremblay (Âmes Sanglantes), Alan Bloor was the first. Coming off of playing in hardcore punk band Binge of Violence, Alan "found" noise by accident while doing performance art, but it had always been a source of interest for him: “While I was working in welding shops I used…
III
"Texture. A nice word, wouldn’t you say, settling into the audible dis-course with whiffs of sophistication, complexity, depth. The Oxford English Dictionary gives us "the constitution, structure, or substance of anything with regard to its constituents or formative elements". Merriam-Webster offers "the disposition or manner of union of the particles of a body or substance". And here, courtesy Barstool Mountain, III, a deep-dive into fractured reservoirs of textural dis-course, whiffs of smudge…
Happy Village
LP version. Back in 2020, Kafé Hærverk, Oslo's live hotspot for a wide range of jazz and experimental music invited Master Oogway to do monthly concerts from August to December, bringing along a guest for each occasion. Two had to be moved to 2021 due to Covid restrictions, but the other three were recorded for possible use later. Initially, Rune Grammofon thought about doing a "best of" from all of the recordings, but after further listening it soon dawned on the label that the concert with Hen…
Speaksome
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* For as long as I can remember, Christian Wallumrød's piano touch has done something to me. We met early. The peculiar and surprising, but still somewhat self-evident, melodic twists. Not to mention the far above average well-weighted ornaments. He manages to create completely unique universes, either with his own ensemble or alone. In recent years, he has also returned to electronics and he treats them with a gentle rawness. There has always been something h…
Linde
*In process of stocking.* The trio Slagr releases their sixth album “Linde”, made up of music created in a time of new beginnings. The music on the album is written by Katrine Schiøtt in the middle of maternity leave, giving a new touch to the trios distinctive sound. Postpartum - lack of sleep, emotional vulnerability, an extreme focus on something outside oneself; providing nourishment and love to the newborn. A minor state of emergency where small moments can inspire to musical fragments and …