Best of 2022
Eclipse
Masayuki Takayanagi was one of the truly iconoclastic musicians to emerge from Japan, or anywhere else, in the 20th Century. Though he won acclaim in the 1950s and '60s as a master of the electric guitar and jazz improvisation, Takayanagi was a restless spirit, deeply engaged with the era's new movements in contemporary art, music, literature, and philosophy. His work, beginning in the late 1960s placed him on the leading edge of these developments; he began expanding on the most radical element…
The Quintet
** Black vinyl with obi strip ** This previously unreleased album by the Horace Tapscott Quintet was unearthed from master tapes in the Flying Dutchman archives. Recorded in 1969 and was intended to be a follow-up album to the classic "The Giant Is Awakened" which was released that year.The iconic pianist and composer Horace Tapscott was one of the most unique and important figures in LA’s jazz world. This lost recording was produced by one of the pivotal figures in jazz, Bob Thiele, a leading b…
Song Of Soil
Masahiko Togashi was a pivotal figure in the development of the Japanese free jazz scene in late 60s. Percussionist and composer, he lost the use of the legs in an accident which nevertheless didn’t not prevent him from continuing an astonishing career that includes long and established collaborations with figures of the likes of Steve Lacy, Charlie Haden, Mal Waldron and Paul Bley. This session, recorded in Paris at the Ramèse Studio Du Village in 1979, sees an explosive collaboration by the t…
Station '70: Call in Question / Live Independence
In August 1969, Masayuki Takayanagi formed his first New Direction group and embarked on an unparalleled musical journey that over the final 22 years of his life would define him as an uncompromising artist who would forge a visionary new musical language. Comprised of himself on acoustic and electric guitar and joined by Motoharu Yoshizawa on bass and Yoshisaburo "Sabu" Toyozumi on drums, Takayanagi's group created a new unconstrained form of music; It expanded on the most radical, fiery elemen…
Illuminations
** 365 copies, remastered edition ** Awesome Alga Marghen re-release presenting "Illuminations", or Charlemagne Palestine and Simone Forti duo interactions, illuminated with dim red lights.
In early 1970 Morton Subotnick asked Charlemagne Palestine to join his soon to be created Media Department at the new “Dream School of the Future” endowed by the Disneys to be called the California Institute of the Arts. Charlemagne and Simone Forti met there in 1970, when La Monte Young asked them to arrange…
In Memoriam-Ostinato / Danse des Dakinis
Mega Tip! * Gatefold cover. Limited Edition * Alga Marghen presents the last chapter from the Feedback Works documentation series, a brand-new LP including "In Memoriam-Ostinato" and "Danse des Dakinis", two previous unreleased tracks by Eliane Radigue. Among the works of fixed duration from the feedback period, "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is the link between "Jouet Electronique" and "Opus 17", and allows you to understand the evolution of her approach. "In Memoriam-Ostinato" is a game of mirroring s…
Historic Music Past Tense Future
Black Editions presents “Historic Music Past Tense Future”, the first ever album to feature the meeting of Peter Brötzmann, Milford Graves and William Parker. Three of the towering figures in the history of Free Jazz forge an incredibly vital free music born from lifetimes of uncompromising, ceaseless artistry. “Historic Music Past Tense Future” is the inaugural release by Black Editions Archive and the first in a series of records that will present previously unreleased works featuring Milford …
Electronic Works & Voices 1977-87
Perfect follow-up to Sub Rosa's precedent double-LP Electronic Works & Voices 1961-1979, this release highlights Leo Kupper's earliest compositions with his GAME machine
Azabu
Edition of 500. CD and 8 page booklet in gatefold cardboard sleeve * Even though only being fully terminated 50 years after its conception, 'Azabu' can be regarded as the starting point of Michael Ranta’s creative self-discovery. The recordings that form the base of 'Azabu' were mostly made in the Tokyo district with the same name (Azabu-Juban). Next to abstracted field recordings 'Azabu' is also pervaded by a rich variety of percussion, string and wind instruments, all played by Ranta himself.
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Vogelsang / Vogelsong / Vogelsung / Vögelsäng
** 100 copies ** Alga Marghen proudly present the new 4CD edition of the complete cycle titled Vogelsang / Vogelsong / Vogelsung / Vögelsäng from 1977, available now with new artwork and issued in an edition limited to 100 numbered copies. If the idea of recording birds could have come from his friend Hans Krusi (this was a common practice for Art-Brut master Krusi who layered into primitive multi-track sonic sculptures the recordings of the many birds sharing his living space), Anton Bruhin is …
Opus 17
* Limited Edition. Remastered, improved sound quality * There is no artist, working in the contemporary field of experimental sound, that is more important than the French composer Eliane Radigue. She is a shining light, who, for more than half a century, has quietly blazed trails with a body of work that is as creatively visionary as it is sublime. Back in the 2010s, Alga Marghen launched a crucial archival series, dedicated to some of Radigue’s earliest and previously unavailable works, many p…
The Ape Of Naples
** Black Vinyl Edition. 3 LP Deluxe Hardcover ** Deeply emotional and uniquely rewarding album, reminiscent of Coil's mid-1980s classic “Horse Rotorvator”. Fully remastered and enhanced 3LP/2CD supervised by Danny Hyde. Includes 9 additional rare or unreleased tracks, remastered by Grammy-nominated engineer Jessica Thompson.
Originally released in 2005 and in many ways the band’s ultimate swan song, it is now considered one of the go-to albums for introducing new listeners to the unparalleled ma…
Jacques Bekaert (LP)
Edition of 500. ‘A Late Lunch’ is the soundtrack to Akiko Iimura’s eponymous movie realized in 1978. It is based on acoustic instruments and field recordings, brilliantly reconfigured and mixed by Jaques Bekaert to create a surreal, immersive soundscape. The technique used includes superposition and speed change of recordings, radical sound effects and juxtaposition of sounds. The players were prominent musicians of the 1970’s, including Maggi Payne, George Lewis, David Rosenboom and Blue Gene T…
Stimmen Aus Himmel Und Hölle
** CD in gatefold carbord cover with booklet ** “Stimmen aus Himmel und Hölle” is a searching work. Search for a new voice. The appropriation of new living and sound spaces. The title “Voices from Heaven and Hell” has multiple meanings that intersect, revealing themselves to our ears. There is the literal meaning, and therefore we hear (and sometime we "see") heaven and hell in sounds, through sounds.There is the meaning of the game (“Himmel und Hölle” is the German name of the "Hopscotch" game …
Atlantic Crossing
La Scie Doree returns with an absolute stunner, the LP “Atlantic Crossing”, a reissue of a rare privately released cassette recorded by the Bayerischer Rundfunk, from 1988
Mattanza
* 600 copies, numbered edition. Remastered edition, Orange vinyl *. Napoli Centrale were formed in Naples in 1974 on the initiative of James Senese (sax, vocals) and Franco Del Prete (drums) after their experience in another band called the Showmen 2. They joined forces with American keyboardist Mark Harris and British bassist Tony Walmsley and in 1975 released an eponymous debut album blending in an original way Mediterranean roots and jazz rock. James Senese’s father was an American soldier wh…
Unnamed
** 500 copies ** Never heard before until its release on CD in 1997 (on Spa-lax Records), Unnamed was recorded a year before Lard Free’s first album and shows a band that totally foresaw the Rock In Opposition movement. Aventurous, never afraid to explore unknown musical lands, Lard Free definitely owns its place in the great History of Rock Music.Recorded in 1971/1972, these Lard Free "lost" recordings document an interesting, primitive period of the band and shows Artman and Co. moving freely…
I'm Around About Midnight
** 500 copies ** Released in 1975 with a slight line-up change, I’m Around About Midnight shifts from rock to a more electronic ap-proach thanks to Richard Pinhas (Heldon) skills with keyboards. More experimental and sophisticated than ever, it shows a band searching for constant musical absoluteness.Lard Free's second album was recorded in Paris in a three day session and released in 1975 on Vamp. The lineup is totally different from the first LP and as mentioned it features long time friend Ri…
America Giovane N. 2 (LP)
Killer. **First official reissue ever, certified holy-grail. Edition of 300 copies, black vinyl 180gr. Comes with Obi, and original liner notes by Jonny Trunk** At the end of the '60s in Italy - but also abroad, especially in France and England - a very particular trend began to spread, that one known as 'Library music' or 'sonorization': as suggested by its name, those were real music libraries intended for the accompaniment of audiovisual productions such as television programs, advertisements…
Sapana
Big Tip! It is widely accepted that the recorded musical output of Indian-born British guitarist Amancio D'Silva came to a premature closure with the landmark 1972 albums, Cosmic Eye and the unreleased masterpiece Konkan Dance. The Roundtable are here to prove otherwise, announcing the discovery of an extraordinary lost recording. Forty years after it was recorded we proudly present Sapana, the forgotten piece of a remarkable musical legacy, the final recording from one the most singular artists…