Best of 2024
Us
Souffle Continu records is thrilled to present Byard Lancaster – Us, one of his 4 legendary albums released on Jef Gilson’s Palm Records in the 1970s. At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell and Ted Daniel. It is easy to see why he rapidly became involved in free jazz. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy colleague of Alber…
Funny Funky Rib Crib
Souffle Continu records is thrilled to present Byard Lancaster – Funny Funky Rib Crib, one of his 4 legendary albums released on Jef Gilson’s Palm Records in the 1970s. At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell and Ted Daniel. It is easy to see why he rapidly became involved in free jazz. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy …
Mother Africa
Souffle Continu records is thrilled to present Byard Lancaster – Mother Africa, one of his 4 legendary albums released on Jef Gilson’s Palm Records in the 1970s. At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell and Ted Daniel. It is easy to see why he rapidly became involved in free jazz. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy colleag…
Ouroboros
On Katelyn Clark and Mitch Renaud's Ouroboros astronomical and astrological phenomena, concepts and symbols such as the Great Year or the Eternal Return serve as the starting points for sonic explorations and experimentations. Focusing on a uniquely tempered range of frequencies, from low-enddrone rumbles to airy pipe swirls, the duo develops a minimalist and highly evocative sonic universe on their debut album for Hallow Ground.
Working as composers, improvisers and curators in Canada's vibrant…
Live In Stockholm And Tallinn
Tip! Misha Panfilov, the Estonian contemporary jazz mover whose many Janus faces amount to more than just two, resulting in many album avatars - here shares a live recorded rendition of a recent pair of shows, played back to back in Stockholm, then Tallinn. The first recorded at Fasching, Stockholm, on August 16, 2023, and the second recorded at Paavli Kultuurivabrik, Tallinn, August 19, 2023, this live record is composed of pieces otherwise heard on Panfilov's earlier albums, and they're choppe…
The Willisau Concert
Joe McPhee's first international release, Black Magic Man, was issued on the newly formed Hat Hut imprint in 1975. It was a watershed moment for the 35-year-old musician. Based in Poughkeepsie, New York, he was too far away from Manhattan to have participated extensively in the Loft Jazz happenings of the decade. European exposure, however, would give McPhee an alternative circuit, something of an escape route from the trappings of American cultural myopia.
" In support of the new record for thi…
Feldman Edition 14: Complete Music for Cello & Piano
Huge Tip! This release brings together all of Morton Feldman’s compositions for cello and piano, including unpublished works and a first recording. Together, these works tell the story of Feldman’s music. They span 35 years — over half his lifetime — from when he was searching for his voice as a student to when he was opening new doors in the last years of his life. The album is bookended by two realizations the graphic score “Durations 2” (1960), giving an opportunity to hear what the flexibili…
Moroccan Electroacoustic Music 1972-74
Huge Tip! Composer Ahmed Essyad was born in Salé, Morocco, in 1938. After studying music at the Rabat Conservatoire (Morocco) he moved to Paris in 1962, where he became a student of Max Deutsch and, later, his assistant. Trained in the avant-garde practices of Western musical composition, he also claimed the Amazigh folk music of Morocco as a fundamental source of inspiration for his work. In 1965, he was already incorporating elements of oral tradition in his work so as to question the language…
Outre-Nuit
Outre-nuit as Outre-noir by Pierre Soulages, the greatest nuances on subtle variations. The programme can be listened to in one go between Clara's two compositions, it's Xnoybis, an extraordinary performance by the great Giacinto Scelsi - a piece that makes you feel like you're listening for the first time - Giacinto Scelsi's Xnoybis (1964) is a journey amongst the reliefs contained within one single pitch. Written in three parts, the piece is an instinctive approach to the sound spectrum (the t…
Agartha: Personal Meditation Music
Building on their long-standing efforts to illuminate the historical Ambient and New Age movement’s connections to minimalism and experimental electronic music, the venerable Important Records returns with the astoundingly ambitious “Agartha: Personal Meditation Music”, gathering an incredible body of music produced by Meredith L. Young-Sowers during the mid-1980s to aid meditation and spiritual healing. Resonating deeply with the work of Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Brian …
Ad Hoc
Repressed! Black recycled vinyl with offset-printed covers. 'This recording was done on a four track tape recorder. Meaning the process of recording was a bit different this time around. Most of the tracks had to be recorded more or less in one take all the way through which means more room for mistakes. As I didn't have the ctrl-z option of the computer I had to try and fix my mistakes by turning them into features. This problem solving on the fly approach is why I'm calling the record ad hoc'…
Zartir
The third album from Levon Eskenian’s remarkable ensemble is its most adventurous to date. As well as reclaiming the music of esoteric teacher G. I. Gurdjieff for folk instrumentation, Zartir situates Gurdjieff in a tradition of Armenian bards and troubadours including Ashugh Jivani, Baghdasar Tbir and the legendary Sayat-Nova. In parallel, an emphasis on pieces for sacred dance reaches its apex in The Great Prayer, an entrancing collaboration between the Gurdjieff Ensemble and the National Cham…
Rare Soundtracks & Lost Tapes (1973-1984)
Bomb! French composer Alain Goraguer who first made a name for himself as a sideman and arranger for Serge Gainsbourg wrote very few soundtracks, but amongst them, the legendary La Planète Sauvage (1973) is an absolute staple of France’s essential music. During that same period of time, Goraguer wrote two rare and beautiful scores using the same masterclass arrangements. On L’Affaire Dominici (1975), Alain Goraguer creates a theme of great melodic clarity from a palette of breathy flutes, clavin…
Tractus
Tractus emphasizes Arvo Pärt compositions that blend the timbres of choir and string orchestra. New versions predominate, with focused performances from the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste’s direction that invite alert and concentrated listening. From the opening composition Littlemore Tractus, which takes as its starting point consoling reflections from a sermon by John Henry Newman, the idea of change, transfiguration and renewal resona…
Maniera
With yet another striking and forward-thinking work of contemporary composition, Another Timbre returns with “Maniera”, their second outing with the Italian composer, Marco Baldini, following on from last year's brilliant “Vesperi” which sold out within weeks. Comprising seven works for various configurations of string ensemble, masterfully executed by Apartment House, that nod across time toward Italian polyphonic compositions of the 16th and early 17th centuries, the diverse history of Minimal…
juHrop
Limited and numbered edition of 250 copies. Die-cut box, 5 inlays and extensive booklet (Libretto). The opera "juHrop" was recorded with great effort at the Studio für Komische Musik Berlin and at the studio of Diamanda Galas in New York from 1996 to 2001. It is orchestral music produced with electronic devices and voices of Chinese singer Wu Jiang, David Moss, Diamanda Galas, Udo Scheuerpflug, Margarete Huber and the Moabiter Motettenchor. It was broadcasted in full length on "Deutschlandradio …
Silances
Digging deep into the legendary Igloo Records catalog, Holidays Records returns with the first ever vinyl reissue of the imprint's sixth outing, the Belgian composer Henry Krutzen’s astounding 1981 LP, “Silances”. An entirely singular gesture at the borders of sound poetry, musique concrète, and radical electroacoustic practice that draws upon disparate elements of drone, jazz, minimalism, ecstatic tribalism, and various traditions of music from across the globe, decades on from its original rel…
People of the Fast Flowing River
Huge Tip! A true exploration in spiritual jazz that follows Work Money Death's acclaimed previous albums, with pianist Richard Ormrod, bassist Neil Innes and drummer Sam Hobbs creating a powerful trio foundation for Tony Burkill's soulful tenor saxophone. Blending influences from Indian ragas to African rhythms, its intricate layersiharmonium, congas, trilling fluteibring warmth and depth to tracks like 'Headwaters Of The Soul' and 'The Fast Flowing River.' Spiritual jazz at its most immersive a…
Musica Elettronica allo Studio di Fonologia della RAI di Milano, 1969/1971 LP
** Edition of 200. Deluxe cover with handmade silver foil printed on 450g paper, also includes a 30x30cm double-sided insert with detailed notes, pictures and more. ** Die Schachtel returns to their long-standing dedication to the historical, Italian avant-garde with “Musica Elettronica allo Studio di Fonologia della RAI di Milano, 1969/1971”, the first ever release dedicated to the visionary electronic and electroacoustic composer Angelo Paccagnini. Containing some of the most potent and emotiv…
The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969-1972
The NID Tapes’ presents a collection of early Indian electronic music uncovered at the archives of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad.