Reissues

Gondwana Records sign LA bassist and composer Seth Ford-Young's Phi-Psonics project and announce a remastered deluxe-edition of The Cradle featuring bonus material.

Lard Free’s discography in slightly discounted bundle Gilbert Artman’s Lard Free (LP)Recorded in just three days and released in 1973, mixing jazz, kraut and prog rock, Lard Free’s first album is a musical landmark in the French underground scene. To this day, it still matches the perfection of their English and German fellows like Soft Machine and Amon Düül. A true masterpiece. I’m Around About Midnight (LP)Released in 1975 with a slight line-up change, I’m Around About Midnight shifts from roc…

** 2022 Repress, black vinyl** Flux is the 1981 debut solo outing of Robert Turman, an American multi-instrumentalist and avant-garde composer. Until recently, Turman was perhaps best known for his contributions to the ballistic NON project with Boyd Rice, as well as other obscured U.S. industrial acts such as Z.O. Voider. In the summer of 1981, Turman decided he would take a drastic turn from the noisy/electronic/industrial work of his compatriots, and began work on what is now the classic Flux…

Tip! *2nd limited edition* During the summer of 2021, Delphine was invited for a residency at the church of St Saphorin (Switzerland), on the occasion of the Jolie Vue Festival. Having the opportunity to fully explore the organ the days before the actual festival, Delphine improvised a long, long series of tracks, of which you’ll find a small selection on ‘hymnes apophatiques’. She’s definitely full of respect for the organ, at some moments diving deep in the sound traditionally associated with …

*50th Anniversary Remaster* Outstanding!! Matsuli Music presents soul, spirituality and avant-garde jazz from South African political exile Ndikho Xaba. Its rarity has until now served to obscure both its beauty and its historical significance. Making profound links between the struggle against apartheid and the Black Power movement in the USA Ndikho Xaba and the Natives is arguably the most complete and complex South African jazz LP recorded in the USA. It stands out as a critical document in t…

*2022 repress. 400 copies limited orange vinyl + insert* On Elephantine, his new album released exclusively on Sub Rosa as vinyl LP, Cairo-based Maurice Louca guides a 12-piece ensemble through a 38-minute masterwork that might best be described as panoramic. Elements of free improvisation, Sun Ra's cosmic jazz, gorgeous Arabic melody, trancelike African and Yemeni music and minimalism meet in his wholly unique compositional vision. Louca also makes vital contributions on guitar and piano, and i…

*2022 repress* Ceux Du Dehors is the third album by Belgian band Univers Zero, originally released in 1981. The title alludes to the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft; the players read the story in studio, then proceeded to record the piece. A key release for the band, Ceux Du Dehors sometimes suggests a darker and more complex version of the motorik minimalism of classical music contemporaries Philip Glass and Steve Reich. It finds the group continuing to evolve and return to the …

*Very limited repress 130 copies* Apichatpong Weerasethakul is recognized as one of the most original voices in contemporary cinema today. His seven feature films, short films, and installations have won him widespread international recognition and numerous awards, including the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2010 with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. The compilation album Metaphors contains 14 sound works carefully selected from his past cinema and other visual works since 2003, which include…

Since its release in 1996, Surface of the Earth's self-titled first album has gradually been recognized as an unlikely minimalist masterpiece and one of the key albums to emerge from New Zealand’s 1990’s Free Noise movement. Liberated from tonal and structural convention, yet also embracing elements of drone and ambient music, the Wellington trio created an album that defied easy categorization. It has been called "one of the most important albums to ever drag the subterranean vibe of unending d…

*2022 stock* Official reissue of the iconic Capitol album remixed from the original multi-tracks masters. Produced, Mixed and Mastered by Chris Malone. Also includes a separate 4-page insert with authoritative in-depth liner notes by Jon BurlingameQuartet Records, in collaboration with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Capitol Records, Universal Music Enterprises and the Phil Ramone estate, present the official LP reissue of the iconic soundtrack album for the landmark film Midnight Cowboy, directed by John …

After recording "In the Court of the Crimson King" as founding members of King Crimson, Multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and drummer Michael Giles made a blunder of a career move and left the band, forming the no-so-cleverly titled McDonald And Giles. Lack on originality aside, they managed to record one self-titled album of fine quality prog music. The style is a less bombastic take on the first two King Crimson albums. Steve Winwood guested on the album. It's recommended to fans of early Kin…

*300 copies limited edition* Quartet Records, in collaboration with Universal Music Publishing Italia and GDM, presents a 3-CD box set with the premiere releases of three scores from Fernando di Leo's insane trilogy about love, sex and madness – all released in 1969! Amarsi Male is about a secretary getting involved with her boss' leftist son who goes against his industrialist father's political beliefs. However, when she finds out that being involved with a young rebel can be exhausting, it's a…

Quartet Records, in collaboration with Cinevox Records, presents the world premiere release of the cult score from 1977 by Luis Bacalov for Fernando di Leo’s classic polizziesco Diamanti Sporchi di Sangue, which was considered a kind of continuation of his iconic Milano Calibro 9. Following the bankruptcy of his own production company Duania 70, Fernando di Leo returned to working for other producers with Diamanti Sporchi di Sangue, a heist thriller which builds on the director’s knack for cop m…

"Originally planned for issue on Strata-East, Hammond took his collaboration with Durrah to Detroit and issued his masterpiece. Lacquered by Bernie Grundman. Now-Again presents the definitive Tribe Records reissues. Deep, spiritual jazz of the highest order. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America's 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 20th Cent…

* 2022 repress * Rarely do two types of music meet on a level where they threaten to cancel each other outlet alone create something even more meaningful in their mutual vanishing. But the music created within the seminal Murder Ballads (Drift) by Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza, & parallel solo career) and Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Lull, Painkiller, Scorn) creates just such a world. Murder Ballads (Drift) evolves Martyn Bates vocalisations / storytelling song-voices, by turns expressed as labyri…

Following Murder Ballads [Drift] (SR 506LP), here is, for the first time on vinyl, Murder Ballads [Passages]. Post-isolationist, deep ambiance, and folksong re-emerge in this first vinyl outing of the classic Murder Ballads [Drift] by Mick Harris and Martyn Bates. Rarely do two types of music meet on a level where they threaten to cancel each other out -- let alone create something even more meaningful in their mutual vanishing. But the music created within the seminal Murder Ballads [Drift] by …

*New CD edition of sold out LP/CD* Recital is proud to publish the first album of American Gamelan composer Daniel Schmidt (b. 1942). Schmidt, who emerged in the Bay Area music scene in the 1970s, wove the threads of traditional Eastern Gamelan music together with American Minimalism (repetitive music). Schmidt was (and is still) a prime figure in the development of American Gamelan music –  studying and collaborating with Lou Harrison, Jody Diamond, and Paul Dresher. He currently is a teacher a…

** 500 copies ** Recorded in just three days and released in 1973, mixing jazz, kraut and prog rock, Lard Free’s first album is a musical land-mark in the French underground scene. To this day, it still matches the perfection of their English and German fellows like Soft Machine and Amon Düül. A true masterpiece."Lard Free is a French psychedelic band, formed around drummer and keyboards player Gilbert Artman. He was the only constant member of the band on their few next albums. Music on their d…

** 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…

** 500 copies ** Released only one year prior to their split, III digs even deeper into electronic and experimental territories. Lard Free’s music has never sounded more cinematographic and spacey than on this record which perfectly blends the players, their instruments and some kind of dialog with the Universe.This is the most electronic effort of the group and the instruments on this album consists of mostly synths. In addition we have piano, drums, vibes, guitar - and clarinet as the first ti…

** 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…

2022 Repress, in process of stocking. The Expanding Universe is the 1980 debut album by composer and computer music pioneer Laurie Spiegel. The original album is reissued here as a massively expanded 3LP or 2CD set, containing all four original album tracks plus an additional 15 tracks from the same period, nearly all previously unreleased and many making their first appearance on vinyl in this brand new 2018 edition. Since this album’s first reissue in 2012, it has gone on to be widely establis…

* 2022 Repress* First-ever LP reissue.  “Blue” Gene Tyranny’s debut album Out of the Blue — newly remastered with original cover art — which was among the first to releases on Lovely Music in 1978 alongside Robert Ashley Private Parts, David Behrman On the Other Ocean, Jon Hassell Vernal Equinox, Meredith Monk Key, and Peter Gordon Star Jaws. Disarmingly direct, funky, and profound, Out of the Blue is an equanimous, wide-open exploration of Tyranny’s musical world: equal parts song cycle, tone p…

**Limited Edition of 199 copies.** Formed in 1984, Solmania is a music experimental project of Masahiko ''Masaki'' Ohno and is one of the earliest amazing noise projects out of Japan. Pushing far beyond expectations of free improvisation, Masahiko weaves blistering passages that incorporate touchstones from progressive , punk, metal, noise, and drone, into more intricate movements of dystopian avant-gardism, culminating as a strikingly forward-thinking expanse of sonic creativity that pushing to…

**Limited Edition of 299 copies.** Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The moniker of Japanese artist Masami Akita was born in Tokyo in 1979. Inspired by dadaism and surrealism, Akita took the name for his project from German artist Kurt Schwitters's pre-war architectural assemblage The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau. Working in his home, he quickly gained notoriety as a purveyor of a musical genre composed solely of pure, unadulterated noise. Embracing technology …

**Limited Edition of 199 copies. Fully remastered** Few projects can claim the seminal importance of the Incapacitants on worldwide noise scene. The group was formed in 1981 in Osaka, as the solo project of Toshiji Mikawa, a member of the amazing noise group Hijokaidan. Later Mikawa moved to Tokyo, where he joined with Fumio Kosakai, also an occasional member of Hijokaidan, as well as a former member of C.C.C.C., to make Incapacitants a duo. They've been making some of the most unremittingly ear…

*Edition of 500. 2022 repress* Need I say more...14 year old percussion students (including a very young Evelyn Glennie) make this sublime album of delightful, ambient and exotic percussion numbers. A true delight from 1978. Previously only available from the group in 1978.

*2022 stock* Performed by Julia Breuer (flutes), Matthias Engler (vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells), Elmar Schrammel (piano, celesta). Recorded 2007. One of Feldman's classic long-term late works, written in 1984. Wergo is proud to present Morton Feldman's four-hour-long trio For Philip Guston, performed by the ensemble Breuer-Engler-Schrammel. Feldman disagreed with those who regarded his works since the 1970s as being too long. 'In music, it's very difficult to distinguish betw…

*2022 stock* Giacinto Scelsi wrote the twenty Canti del Capricorno between 1962 and 1972 for and with the Japanese singer Michiko Hirayama, who inspired them and who for decades remained their unique performer. The cycle is for solo voice, with instruments in some of the songs: a spiritual yet energy-filled music made of single sounds, microtonal inflections, breath, cries and invented syllables, closer to ritual than to song. Hirayama, born in 1923, recorded it for Wergo when she came to Ulm in…

CD with 20-page booklet. Recorded March 2001, Hessischer Rundfunk, Frankfurt. "Time and again I find myself having to pare away any musical gestures in a work in order to uncover the true idea in a piece." Alvin Lucier said this about his own practice of stripping composition back to its acoustic logic - removing the performer's ego, the expressive gesture, the narrative arc, until only the phenomenon remains. What is left, in each of the five works gathered here, is resonance: sympathetic vibra…

"What I'm interested in is a compositional process and a sounding music that are one and the same thing" (Steve Reich, 1968). Minimal music, which numbers Steve Reich among its founders and as one of its most significant representatives, existed for hardly more than ten years. The Ensemble Avantgarde presents a wonderful survey of Reich's minimal music-compositions. The conceptional concentration in the musical work on the structurally simple means of its creation is seen especially in Reich's "…

*2022 stock* Kurt Schwitters’ “Sonate in Urlauten” [Sonata in Primal Sounds] is the prototypical work at the border between speech and music. The concise title of the work alone forges a suggestive link between language material and the musical form of the sonata; the "Ursonate" almost proverbially stands for sound poetry. For Schwitters, who was actively involved in promoting his sound-poetical opus magnum, even as his own interpreter, it was difficult to imagine that his work could survive wit…

*2022 stock* George Brecht, Alison Knowles, Philip Corner. "Fluxus! The New York-born artists whose radio plays are collected on this CD, Philip Corner, Alison Knowles, and George Brecht, have appeared together in performances, and they are also connected by their relationship to John Cage's aesthetic, by work with chance operations, and by Zen. Explaining Fluxus is like wanting to hold a river in your hand." Includes the pieces "Satie's Rose Cross as a Revelation" by Philip Corner, "Bean Sequen…

*2022 stock* This work began life as a radio play in 1982, a commission from and for Klaus Schöning and Cologne’s WDR. Working on the principles of collage, Cage brought together 15 unlikely characters – Narrator, James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Vocoder, Erik Satie, Jonathan Albert, Mao Tse Tung (as a child), Henry David Thoreau, Rrose Selavy, Thorstein Veblen, Buckminster Fuller, Brigham Young, and Robert Rauschenberg – who speak together, their dialogue comprised of literal quotations, freely ada…

Sull’Accordo Mimetico (On the Mimetic Chord) dates back to the end of the 80’s. It was commissioned by the artistic director of the ParcoScenico Festival, held in Treviso, Italy. Since the area where artists and the public gathered after the Festival was located to a very busy street, Marco asked me for a sound installation that could work as some sort of a defensive barrier for the street noise. I suggested that my work, rather than hiding the noise, should aim to harmonize the disturbances com…

'Composed in 1970, Mantra, for two pianos and ring modulation, was one of the decisive turning points in Karlheinz Stockhausen’s career. The 70-minute piece not only signalled a break with the text-based intuitive works, relying heavily on improvisation, that had come to dominate his output towards the end of the previous decade and a return to fully notated scores, but also introduced the idea of melodic formulae, the “mantra” of the title, which Stockhausen would eventually develop into the or…

*2022 stock* The Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki used to write chamber music even as a student in Krakow. He was writing the chamber music works for himself, then already an accomplished violinist, and his fellow students (The title "Sonata for Violin and Piano" from 1953 has only recently been published.). A specialty of these early works are Penderecki's inventions with which he altered the sound of the stringed instruments, indeed almost to the point of being completely unrecognizable. W…

*2022 stock* 'This collection of ensemble works, six altogether, ranges across the last two decades of Iannis Xenakis's life. It includes the last two pieces he composed, Zythos, for trombone and six marimbas, and O-Mega, for percussion and ensemble, both written in 1997, four years before his death. They are striking, small-scale examples of the bareness and drastic compression of his late style, but the finest music here is a bit earlier. In Échange, from 1989, a bass clarinet painstakingly un…

*2022 stock* Wergo presents Moton Feldman's compositions For Franz Kline · For Frank O'Hara · De Kooning · Piano Piece To Philip Guston. Performed by Ensemble Avantgarde.

György Ligeti's only opera, Le Grand Macabre, is an entertaining, taut piece of musical theatre that sits somewhere between parody and ominous seriousness, between clowning and wisdom. Based on Michel de Ghelderode's play and set in the imaginary land of Breughelland, it follows Nekrotzar, alias the Grand Macabre, who has not only ambitions to suck blood but apocalyptic visions: he wants to bring about the end of the world personally, and fails. Ligeti himself said its bizarre, exaggerated music…