Reissues
At The Cliffs Of River Rhine
When the band Agitation Free came together in 1967 as a result of the merging of two Berlin rock groups, one of the most interesting groups in a dawning independent German music scene was created. With their improvisations between rock, jazz and new music, Agitation Free soon relegated to the not so flattering category of Krautrock made musical forays into areas that few of their fellow German musicians had ever penetrated. At a time when most in Germany were still orienting themselves as closel…
The Armada
Rainbow Theatre's groundbreaking debut album, The Armada, was originally released in 1975. Influences as diverse as classical composers Stravinsky and Wagner to King Crimson and the Mahavishnu Orchestra came into play. With composer, arranger, guitarist and mellotron player Julian Browning at the helm, the band was never going to be easily pigeon-holed. Browning set about creating the unique music he had formulated in his mind. His classical influences began to emerge and in the meantime, he'd a…
Point Conception
Point Conception is Daniel Lentz’s wild nine-piano tribute to the octave. It amasses and bubbles over with incessant streams of octaves (harmonic and melodic) that run the length of the keyboard. Through a “cascading echo system,” long-time Lentz Ensemble pianist Arlene Dunlap performs all of its parts.Presented with Point Conception (which was originally issued as a Cold Blue LP in the mid-80s) is Lentz’s previously unrecorded NightBreaker, a kaleidoscopic and explosive tour de force for four p…
Media Dreams
This is the companion to Disco 3000, made on the same classic Italian quartet tour with John Gilmore, Michael Ray (trumpet) and the minimal but perfect Luqman Ali (drums). Ra himself plays piano and electronic keyboards, including the mysterious Crumar Mainman, which Ra describes as 'like a piano, organ, clavichord, cello, violin and brass instruments' and which also, importantly, has a facility for pre-programmed bass lines and electronic percussion, which Ra uses constantly and to great effect…
Early Electronic / Tape Collage Music
* 350 copies * Alga Marghen proudly presents an LP edition including some of the seminal electronic/tape collage pieces by Malcolm Goldstein, created in close connection to the sulphuric New York pre-Fluxus environment of the early 1960s. The 1960s downtown New York City, rich with activities, doors opening upon a world fertile with possibilities: the delightful unknown. Malcolm Goldstein first worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, then joined the Judson Dance Theater with da…
Karma
Although introduced as a protégé of John Coltrane and touted by many as his heir apparent, reedman Pharoah Sanders quickly proved his own man. His shared interest in the "cosmic" music of Coltrane's final period belies the fact that Sanders frequently plays with an unhurried sense of peace and satisfaction rarely found in his mentor's music. His use of space, African and Asian motifs and instruments, and simple, repetitive melodies also pointed the way for jazz, rock, and new age musicians in th…
Ptah, The El Daoud
Ptah, the El Daoud was the third solo album by Alice Coltrane. This was Coltrane's first album with horns (aside from one track on A Monastic Trio (1968), on which Pharoah Sanders had played bass clarinet). Sanders is recorded on the right channel and Joe Henderson on the left channel throughout. All the compositions were written by Coltrane. The title track is named for the Egyptian god Ptah, "the El Daoud" meaning "the beloved". "Turiya", according to the liner notes, "was defined by Alice as …
High Fidelity
Housed in a gatefold sleeve with a 36-page catalogue. The first LP is John Cage Speaks MUREAU by John Cage, its title assembled from the first syllable of the word "music" and the author's name "Thoreau." Malte Hubrig writes "The performance of Mureau -- its letters, syllables and words read by John Cage in a uniform intonation of the voice -- frees language of its meaning and opens it to sound." The second LP is Terry Fox's Culvert, a performance that took place at the University of Montana in …
Sinfonia per 8 voci - Eindrucke
Luciano Berio was commissioned to write a work for the New York Philharmonic's 150th anniversary. What resulted was the Sinfonia, a masterpiece of the twentieth century musical movement. This work combines many of the Italian composers fascinations - from Mahler to Martin Luther King - and sympathizes them. The result is fascinating, stimulating, and thoroughly enjoyable. Boulez's interpretation is really top-notch. He leads the orchestra with great power, gusto, and energy. This vision is evide…
Trax Reprint 2: Notterossa/Rednight
Much more than a simple record label, the TRAX experience coordinated from 1981 to 1987 by Vittore Baroni and Piermario Ciani represented a very original contribution to the "networking culture" that, making its first steps with Fluxus, Mail Art and other avantgarde circuits of the Sixties and Seventies, largely anticipated the advent of Internet and its interactive modalities. Twenty years after the end of a project that involved over 500 international artists and musicians in the creation of p…
Guitar soli
The debt that modern guitarist composers owe to the late Robbie Basho can hardly be overstated. Though Fahey invented the genre and Kottke proved its marketability, it was Basho's technique, vision, and self-image that resonated most strongly with Will Ackerman and the so-called New Age guitar movement he founded. It's a crime Basho's music hasn't been available on record for many years. Now older guitar fans can welcome back an old friend and newer ones can learn where it all came from on this …
I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed
Aidan Baker's I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed is a 2-disc compilation of tracks from various out-of-print, limited edition releases spanning the last 10 years of Baker's output, ranging from his very first release to material that was featured on the soundtrack to a book of his poetry. Toronto based composer Aidan Baker works under his own name, under the name Nadja along with bassist Leah Buckareff and also with the trio ARC. Hailing from the Great White North, Baker incorporates guitar, drums, bass…
Music For Solo Piano (1960-2001)
Performed by Daan Vandewalle, piano. "Gordon Mumma (b. 1935) is best known for his pioneering role in the development and evolution of electronic and live-electronic music. The piano has played a significant if underestimated role in his career. With a few notable exceptions, this collection by pianist Daan Vandewalle marks the first commercial recordings of Mumma's music for solo piano composed over more than forty years. It provides an important new perspective on his work as a composer. The s…
Oh, Run Into Me, But Don't Hurt Me! - Female Blues Singers (Rarities 1923 - 1930)
...Female Blues Singers - Rarities 1923-1930. The Sub Rosa label presents a collection of works from obscure and forgotten female blues singers, exploring the question: what can be said about a singer whose entire work fits on a single-sided 78rpm record? What circumstances led to this recording? Who decided to do it? For whom was it intended? Why wasn't it followed by more recordings? Hypotheses get lost in places and moments themselves forgotten. What remains are these miraculous voices that h…
KO/USK
84 page Hardcover book with embossed cloth cover & spine, also includes 12 page cd-booklet. Recorded & mixed between 1988 and 1995. Sound sources are stones collected all over the world. Beautiful artist book by Giancarlo Toniutti in collaboration with Siegmar Fricke, that comes with a nice CD (with an extra booklet) "speaking of "KO/USK," there has been a double trajectory in composing/recording it. On one side, following a decision implying the use of such sound sources (stones), a decision li…
The Yellow Princess
Originally released in either 1968 or 1969 depending on your sources, The Yellow Princess saw a post-philosophy degree, subculture-aware John Fahey branching out from his earlier, more traditional work. He earned his name back in 1959 at the age of 20, with his Blind Joe Death debut album. Following that album Fahey engaged in a wide stylistic range, from Appalachian-style finger picking to delta blues, but this album and its partner Requia, both for the Vanguard label, took Fahey to places for …
Rimmed Records
Vinyl records physically reduced to just the outer rim, packaged in silk-screened recycled record covers. Playable at your own risk. Edition of 100.
Neu! 2
NEU! was/is/will be a big deal in the history of 20th century music. They laid the foundation for scores of musicians who followed them. But why were Neu! so great? Part of their appeal lies in the fact that their music was so simple, so natural and so easy to listen to and absorb. Each of their pieces draws you in with its own unique mood. The music is emotive in so many different ways: the icy melancholy of Weissensee and Leb'wohl, the tranquil yet sinister brooding of Im Glück, the rage and s…
Just Another Diamond Day
Recently voted one of the Top 100 British Albums of all time by the OMM, this CD re-release of Vashti Bunyan's 'Just Another Diamond Day' features the likes of Robert Kirby (of Nick Drake fame), Robin Williamson (Incredible String Band) and the Fairport Convention's Simon Nicol and Dave Swarbrick, it is also regularly cited as inspiration by Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Scout Nibblet... Possibly sounding a bit naïve in retrospect, much of 'Just Another Diamond Day' seems to exist somewher…
Studies for Player Piano
The definitive recording of Conlon Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano, originally released on LP by 1750 Arch Records, newly remastered in spectacular sound, representing the most faithful reproduction of what Nancarrow heard in his own studio. This is the only available recording utilizing Nancarrow’s original instruments: two 1927 Ampico player pianos, one with metal-covered felt hammers and the other with leather strips on the hammers. The 4-CD set includes a 52-page booklet with the origin…