Best of 2016
The Moment In and Of Itself
Instruments which sound like instruments!!! Unbelievable real-time compositions for the unlikely instrumentation of piano, trumpet and violin courtesy of North Of North: Anthony Pateras, Scott Tinkler and Erkki Veltheim. This is no random grimprov get together or free jazz blowout, this is a serious engagement with compositional parameters combined with instrumental virtuosity from a working band. Drawing from Xenakian architextures, Carterian set theory, Carnatic music, sharp-edged point…
OH Audiopoems
Totally stunning double LP record from the elusive The Balsam Flex legendary catalog is now available again thanks to Jan Van Toorn Slowscan imprint. Balsam Flex was a cassette label run by the artist Erik Vonna-Michell in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and evidence of a relatively overlooked moment when a number of London-based British poets were producing work that was influenced by performance art, conceptual art, sound art, text-sound composition, Fluxus, and situationism.One of their most …
Electronic Music from the Seventies and Eighties
2019 Small Repress. This 3LP set contains a selection of seven early works by American composer Carl Stone, all previously unpublished except for “Shing Kee,” which appeared on the 1992 New Albion CD release, Mom’s. Notorious, formerly elusive recordings like "Sukothai," "Shibucho," and "Dong Il Jang" exemplify how Stone masterfully guided his art through the transition period when New Music exited the loft scene of the 1970s for a stab at commercial presence in the 1980s, satisfying both impul…
Pop Electronique
Remarkable record of 1960’s French electronic library music, of a somewhat experimental bent. Cecil Leuter (whose birth name, implausibly, is Roger Roger) was a busy, ‘proper’ bandleader at the time, but it turns out he had a real knack for crafting wildly unusual electronic miniatures. Pop Electronique is full of them! Reissued on Fifth Dimension. France seems to be the secret kingdom of electronic music, experimental music and movie soundtrack music also known as library music. Roger Roger…
Le Soleil, la Mer, le Coeur et les Etoiles
Edition of 300 copies on black vinyl. Released as part of the series 'Collection Archives Des Musiques Industrielles DeFrance', here are two previously unissued tracks from 1982. This music like all first works of Etant Donnes was made without any instrument or effect but is the fruit of a long work on a raw sound material coming only from nature field recordings.
Etant Donnés are two brothers, Eric and Marc Hurtado, who founded this duet in 1980. They realised music, films (from 1982…
Spiral Insana
Limited and numbered edition of 1000 copies on black vinyl. Probably one of Nurse With Wounds most deep and mysterious recordings, with 4 indexed tracks containing 20 listed sequences. Such is Steven Stapleton's Nurse With Wound. The music contained here in, still having it's surreal edge, is more ambient and user friendly than on many other Nurse With Wound outings. Stapleton and guests, Robert Haigh and David Jackman mix prepared piano, percussion, loops and various bric a brac together int…
Sound Awareness
A very trippy album from the enigmatic former member of Sun Ra's Arkestra, and also a lecturer on the east coast. This album's his first, originally issued on the Strata East label – and a space mixture of other-worldly sounds. The renowned French horn player known as Brother Ah (aka Robert Northern) is one of the most prolific and respected musicians in the history of jazz music, with a recorded output spanning more than 30 years. Born in 1934 and raised in the south Bronx, Brother Ah was playi…
Violenza
The artistic achievement of Egisto Macchi was avant-garde not only for his immense talent and brilliance but for the quality that has managed to infuse every language he used, ranging from instrumental and symphonic music, musical theater, to library sounds more varied and articulated. Towering over all his passion and commitment, is the great inner need to break down the sectarian walls of thinking within catego…
Idee 1
2022 Restock, killer price. Last copies Masterpiece!!! If we talk about ideas, we surely talk about “Idee 1”, one of the best collaborations between Massimo Catalano and Remigio Ducros – together with “La fatica”, that will be reprinted in a while – with contributions from the amazing Daniela Casa. Daniela is one of the few women in the “Italian libraries” scene, but she’s more talented than some of her better known male colleagues. If Daniela, and so her husband Ducros, are names linked to a t…
Anthropological Constants
Who is Kymatik? Kymatik first appeared on Paradigm Discs back in 1995 with a spontaneous composition created alone in the control room, with all the sounds being derived from a simultaneous improvisation being played in the studio by Morphogenesis. Three years later Paradigm released the full-length Kymatik CD Dar-As-Sulh Vol.1 (PD 015CD), a selection of pieces, some based on purely mathematical ideas, others are more hypnotic pulse based psychedelic soundscapes, some works being performed live …
Move Ever Onward
Cosmic righteousness from Brother Ahh – an enigmatic musician who worked briefly with Sun Ra, and continued an exploration of the sonic heavens on his own! This rare 1975 album features Ahh's Sound Awareness ensemble – a 25 piece group that features a host of voices set to percussion, flutes, and other intimate and evocative instrumentation. The feel's quite hard to describe – kind of a cross between Sun Ra and Moondog, with the righteous style of vocalization that you might find on some of the …
Jengi
Älforjs is a Lisbon based trio and Jengi is the name of their first album. Jengi is the Baka pygmy spirit of the forest, he is in our collective conscious, on our constant look for the wild and the unknown. Their works with which we’re familiar with present a focus on processual minimalism (hypnosis is the holy way to reach the unheard); a rocker’s propulsion derived mostly from the drums; lots of arpeggio work coming in from the double-bass; and André’s electronics working as much as an extra l…
Withdrawal (1966/67)
Featuring the earliest published recordings of Barry Guy & Evan Parker, percussionist John Steven's presents transitional sextet and septet performances of his groundbreaking free improv group from 1966 & '67 with Trevor Watts, Paul Rutherford, Kenny Wheeler, and Derek Bailey.
"Here is a missing link between the first two Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME) recordings to be published. The music on CHALLENGE (recorded 1966 March and issued on a long vanished Eyemark LP) is mainly free jazz, w…
Search & Reflect (1973-81)
Contemporaneous examples of some of the pieces described in the classic manual, Search & Reflect by John Stevens. Outrageous sounds produced by a workshop orchestra directed by him in 1973 - an SME-type improvisation; instrumental & vocal drones; a mechanically rhythmic yet unpredictable piece; and an all-out improvisation featuring non-vocal mouth sounds, vocal sounds & instruments. This is followed by what is perhaps the pinnacle of Stevens' attempts to make music with a large (21 strong)…
Peter Kowald Quintet
A legendary moment in European free jazz, but which stand as some of the most powerful music of the time! Cien Fuegos present a reissue of Peter Kowald Quintet's self-titled album, originally released by FMP in 1972. Personnel: Günter Christmann - trombone; Peter Kowald - tuba, bass, alphorn; Peter van der Locht - alto saxophone; Paul Lovens - drums; Paul Rutherford - trombone. Composed and produced by Peter Kowald. Recorded by Eberhard Sengpiel at Akademie der Künste, Berlin, on January 19th, 1…
I miei stati d’animo
**CD version** Lelio Luttazzi was a multifaceted artist who shined and left his mark as a pianist, musician, conductor and com- poser. A jazz lover, Luttazzi reached fame and success thanks to his brilliant and undoubtable talent. During a career spanning more than 50 years, he established himself as a master of several disciplines such as music, literature and cinema.He started his career in Trieste right after the Second World War. In 1948 he moved to Milan to take on the role of Director at t…
Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza
First CD reissue of the landmark 1966 debut album by Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its recording in 1966, this reissue makes one of the cornerstones of the experimental music tradition available again in its original form. A testament to the interaction between the experimental avant-garde and the free improvisation, the album was originally released on Rca, and played by musicians who include Ennio Morricone on trumpet, Frederic Rzewski on p…
Musica per Commenti Sonori
CD version. “Musica per commenti sonori” is a cult series within the diverse world of Italian library music. In the late sixties and seventies, the small record label Costanza Records has published several releases precisely focusing on ‘background music’, including works of great composers such as Peppino De Luca, Roberto Pregadio, Franco Micalizzi, Vito Thomas, Giancarlo Thomas, Puccio Roelens, Riccardo Luciani, and by the protagonists of this long-time due reissue: Sandro Brugnolini and Stefa…
A Portrait
A Milestone, this is it! Selecting illustrative works from the lifetime of a creative person is a daunting task; doing so with a singularly individual artist like Harry Partch is all the more difficult. In the more than four decades since Partch’s death, interest in his both his life and his compositional output has continued to grow, and there remains a place for documents that can offer insights, suggest paths, and give new life to that creator’s endeavors.Even as duplicate instrumental ensemb…
Disagio Sociale
Ruscigan is Guido Baggiani, neapolitan composer and trumpet player, ex Karlheinz Stockhausen’s student. Ruscigan is Piero Umiliani, one of the most important Masters in Italian music, author of dozens of soundtracks and library recordings. “Disagio Sociale” was always considered as Umiliani’s solo work, even though it’s not part of his detailed and official discography as, i.e., “Viaggio nel domani”. Despite all the mystery and the discomfort of not knowing, the re-release of “Disagio sociale” i…