Best of 2025
Learning
‘Learning’ - Sophie Agnel’s first solo LP, feels like the dark, physical inversion of her excellent ‘Song’ which came out on Relative Pitch earlier this year. Sinking her unique sound into vinyl for the first time, the LP arrives as Agnel recovers from a brain tumour - a shocking discovery that will require Agnel to start again with the piano. It’s a terrifying prospect, but Agnel has been here before, having reorientated herself almost entirely away from her early classical training over the la…
Magnetism
Super Tip! Kali Malone and Drew McDowall have orbited each other's work for over a decade, their individual explorations of sustained tones and harmonic space suggesting an inevitable collaboration. When they finally entered McDowall's Brooklyn studio together, what emerged on Magnetism transcends mere musical compatibility. Malone has spent recent years extending the legacy of Éliane Radigue, redefining what electronic minimalism can accomplish through pipe organ and synthesizer. Her compositio…
Che mi Guardi Attraverso Una Fiamma
Tip! A dream within a dream - Innocent and whimsical song-craft from a vibrant pocket of the contemporary Italian underground via Naples-born Lucia Sole aka La Festa Delle Rane. New split release between ANF and Tokyo friends Conatala.
It’s impossible not to be totally captivated by this. Lucia’s explorative, imperfect song-writing leans into a sense of cranky, domesticated nostalgia and soft melancholy - songs (you can just about call them that) are just about held together by a loose thread …
The Ancients
Bomb! The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves' “A Mind-Body Deal” exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and now a working group. Across 2LPs of side-length long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts & Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by t…
415 Steppsss to DingggDonggg Paradise
Huuuuge Tip! Edition of 200. Where the bells begin, everything else follows. Long before Charlemagne Palestine discovered the thick molasses sonority of the Bösendorfer piano, before the strumming technique that would define his maximalist-minimalist vision, there were bells. Colossal carillon bells in the tower of St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York, where a teenage Palestine hammered hymns into the Manhattan sky before spending hours lost in spectral improvisations that drew Moondog,…
Live At Teater Tribunalen
Huge Tip! ** Edition of 300.** The long overdue first proper jazz album on Discreet Music! After years of releasing experimental electronics, drone, and avant-garde sound art, the Swedish label finally documents what's been happening in their own backyard: ferocious, life-elevating free jazz performed by three of Sweden's leading improvisers. Niklas Persson Trio - saxophonist Niklas Persson, double bassist Patric Thorman, and drummer Raymond Strid - started ten years ago on Thorman's initiative.…
Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari
Juho Toivonen's third album navigates memory's fluid terrain through off-key piano, tape loops, and spectral melodies. Featuring Ramo Sinnemäki's trumpet, this Nordic ambient masterwork recalls Basinski while exploring childhood fragments and imagined futures. Pure Scandinavian melancholy—essential contemporary ambient.
Blue Veil
Black vinyl. Edition of 700. The first release to document the solo cello work of musician and composer Lucy Railton, the 40-minute composition Blue Veil recorded at Église du Saint-Esprit in Paris invites listeners into the realm of precision-tuned states of resonance: states made manifest through Railton’s careful traversal of her cello's most subtle acoustic characteristics as they harmonically interlock with mind’s embodied modalities of attention and imagination. Blue Veil arises out of, is…
Ash Ra Tempel
MG.ART presents the first official reissue of Ash Ra Tempel (1971) since its original pressing. This 50th Anniversary edition features restored audio overseen by Manuel Göttsching, exact reproduction of the original OHR packaging, and comprehensive archival materials documenting this seminal work in German experimental rock.
Disillusioned!
Mitar Subotić Suba (Rex Ilusivii) was one of the most prominent ex-Yugoslav producers and sound artists. His work encompassed not only successful production on some of the cult ex-Yugoslav records, but also works in the field of music for theatre, experimental electronic music, and installations. After moving to Brazil in the 1990s, he further explored his interest in local culture and released his essential work "São Paulo Confessions". Almost at the same time, he produced "Tanto Tempo", a semi…
しずくたち / Shizukutachi
Big tip! From the 1950s, Masaaki Takano (1927-2007) worked as a freelance "sound planner," mainly creating sound effects for stage productions. In the mid-1980s he began performances called "Sound Play" where he would perform on his own self-created sound instruments and his collection of ethnic instruments. Growing out of his work with sound effects, he became obsessed with the recording of natural sounds from the 1970s onwards, and this album "Shizukutachi" is a record of a high-quality record…
Låt Oss Vada Genom All Ängslan Tillsammans
Enhet for Fri Musik's “Låt Oss Vada Genom All Ängslan Tillsammans” stands as one of their most evocative works, weaving delicate melodies, tape hiss, spoken word, and dreamlike atmospheres into a truly unique listening experience. This is a perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in their singular universe and own an essential piece of modern experimental music history.
Nuits De La Fondation Maeght
Hugest tip! "Originally released across two edited volumes by Shandar in 1971, the concerts are now being reissued by Strut in a stunning expanded 6 LP vinyl box set for Record Store Day 2025. The set is housed in a hardboard box and features a reprint of the original festival programme, a 12-page over-sized booklet featuring liner notes by Daniel Caux, Jacqueline Caux and Paul Griffiths and stunning restored photos of the festival by Philippe Gras.
Sun Ra’s Nuits de la Fondation Maeght recordin…
Even The Dog Knows
All Night Flight Records proudly presents Even The Dog Knows, a mesmerizing collection of home recordings by South London duo Jemima, marking the seventh release on the label's carefully curated roster. This haunting vinyl release transforms domestic spaces into portals for spectral folk music that recalls the intimate experimentalism of Brannten Schnüre and the lo-fi mysticism of early Grouper. Even The Dog Knows emerges from a world of found sounds and fragmented memories, where wobbly loops o…
Pareidolia
Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O'Rourke's fifth collaboration remixes live material from their 2023 European tour. Pareidolia weaves improvised performances from France, Switzerland, Italy & Ireland into a dynamic sound collage, blending computer-generated textures with flute & harmonica. A meditation on perception & randomness.
Anima Trip: Baummusik
Furthering their explorations to the astoundingly singular creative sound world of Anima - the duo of Limpe and Paul Fuchs - Alga Marghen returns with “Anima Trip: Baummusik”, a never before released body of archival recordings made by the pair in the municipal gallery in the Bavarian city of Rosenheim. Joining a body of work that comprises some of the most incredible creations to emerge from Germany between the late 1960 and the 1980s, this much needed addition to Anima’s catalog is a rigorous …
Schwingungen
2025 Repress. Ash Ra Tempel's masterpiece, an immortal record of stunning beauty. As for the info we refer to Julian Cope´s review in his “Krautrocksampler” Book, Publisher "'Beware of Schwingungen!' That should be the large sticker on the front of all copies of this record. For it is dangerous to be casually introduced to something that is life-changing, as I found out to my cost when first listening to this record. It all starts fairly simply and without any cause for alarm – 'Look at Your Sun…
Fernweh
Visionary electroacoustic explorations return as Black Truffle reissues Kassel Jaeger's Fernweh, a major work fusing musique concrète and synthesis into emotionally charged sonic landscapes of rare intensity.
90
Tip! *4CD Edition* A limited edition compilation celebrating Hans-Joachim Roedelius' 90th birthday includes four CDs of previously unpublished material. The majority of the music on "90" originates from Revox 2-track recordings from 1968 to 1980. The Revox tapes, created with his Echolette tape delay and Farfisa organ—the same equipment used by Roedelius to record his beloved Selbstportrait records and much of his seminal work with Dieter Moebius and Michael Rother—document the processes and sou…
Lost Words
After decades of being the rhythmic architect behind some of underground music's most essential recordings, experimental percussionist Tim Barnes steps forward with Lost Words, a deeply personal collection that celebrates collaboration while exploring new sonic territories. Released on Drag City, this remarkable album brings together an extraordinary cast of musicians who have shared Barnes' musical journey over the years. Lost Words represents both a culmination and a new beginning. The album f…