Reissues

Another crucial release from the highly influential and reclusive Japanese psychedelic noise band Les Rallizes Dénudés. Originally formed in 1967, the band was known for its ties to avant-garde theater groups (as typified by Shuji Terayama's troupe) and leftist political groups, and their feedback-drenched live shows and use of strobe lights and mirror balls onstage earned them comparisons with The Velvet Underground. In 1970, bass player Moriaki Wakabayashi was involved in the hijacking of J…

Takehisa Kosugi is an inter-media artist and performer who started his career back in the '60s in Tokyo. With his first band Group Ongaku (free anarchist-conceptual improvisations) he was introduced to the Fluxus avant-garde movement. During the '70s, he was a member of the mystical, psychedelic, droning rock band Taj Mahal Travellers. He co-founded the band in 1969. Since the end of the '70s until now, he has released several solo albums and commissioned works for events and sound installa…

The Shivering Man, originally released in 1986 on Mute, was Bruce Gilbert's second solo album. Following on from his 1984 masterpiece This Way (EMEGO 102CD), it further explores Gilbert's investigations into the grey border where abstract noise and rhythm co-exist with obscure melodies and song structures. The sound is further expanded with guest vocal appearances by Angela Conway and fellow Wire traveller Graham Lewis. This is also the first time the complete album is available domestically on …

CD EDITION: While there are a million stories about The Residents, one of the more intriguing concerns the recording of their second LP, Not Available. Early in the career of the band, the "theory of obscurity" was introduced to them by the German avant-guardist, N. Senada. The plan called for the creation of complete projects that were literally not intended to be heard by anyone other than its creators. The Residents realized the truth in this ideal: that music really was difficult to record w…

Outstanding!!! La vie en prose is Michel Chion's first musical work composed in the 2000s. Thanks to musique concrète ways and means, it fulfils the composer's childhood dream of composing a Symphony of Energy in four movements of sharp contrasts. There’s no narrative in this one hour and a half long Symphony, but a cast of characters, some vocal, instrumental themes and sounds that circulate, disappear, pop up, stretch, decline and lose themselves in time. This work features analogue and digita…

First instalment in this new o series providing a long overdue and much needed vinyl-only glimpse into Jim O'rourke's electronic/synth music archive* 'Old News No.5' introduces a "nearly regular series of vinyl albums documenting analog synth and tape works (both studio and live) from the depths of Jim O'Rourke's archive, spanning a near quarter of a century in the field." Side A 'Pedal & Pedal' features 15 minutes recorded at Super Deluxe, Tokyo, 2010. It unfurls a series of tender pasto…

Mirror Tapes present a stunning issue of unreleased, archival work from notorious electronic noise pioneer, Maurizio Bianchi. 'Technology-X' was salvaged from tapes dating to 1981 and carefully restored and remastered for cassette by Edward Sol of Quasi Pop records, faithfully representing MB's crushing dynamics and incredibly visceral textures.

Previously unreleased private cassette from February 1981 containing sound sketches to shape the future 'Endometrio'. While the 'EMO-DNE' track bears some basic resemblances with Endometrio's 'Primo Ciclo', the 'OIRT' track sounds significantly different in the labyrinth of MB's creative processes. The flaws and distresses of the original tape give intriguing textures and details to the recordings which stand well on their own beyond being 'Endometrio' in embryonic form, and towards much …

Near-exact reproduction of the original Sterile Records release, including hand-stamped labels and inserts just like the 1981 issue. M.B., aka Maurizio Bianchi, has enjoyed a deserved renaissance in recent times as a new generation discovers his charred brand of industrial noise, particularly the artist's formative early 80's period before he disappeared in pursuit of religion. In the ensuing years, many of these early records became prized collector objects, garnering hundreds of dollars…

Re-release with bonus tracks recorded in 1982. On 1981's Superficial Music masterpiece, French electronic composer Bernard Szajner presents selections from his previous "Visions of Dune" sessions played backwards and at half speed, enhanced through the use of digital and analog devices, as well as "Oswicim," a three-part reflection on the Holocaust that draws on his own family's experience. Szajner's touch is delicate and evocative, making for a powerful, if understated, listening experie…

Fully restored director's cut DVD of Ira Cohen's legendary 1968 film, The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda ina limited edition of 500 copies only."I must say this is the most chemically abused piece of cinema I’ve ever seen – I actually feel under the influence now, I don’t know if I’m safe to walk home. It’s so narcotic that I’m surprised it’s legal to buy over the counter… all this and it was made in 1968 – one year before Woodstock? Well I’m surprised, I was sure people were still locking u…

Vinyl edition of this joyous improvised music drawing on South African roots and European free jazz from Chris McGregor and a group including Evan Parker, Louis Moholo, Barre Philllips, &c.  This album only had a few test pressings at the time of recording and this is therefore the first vinyl release of this classic work. In 1969 the Chris McGregor Group were riding high on the London jazz scene, playing and hanging out with all the rising stars of British free jazz. Sessions for the pre…

First widely available release on Basinksi's own label (other releases on Raster, Idea, Durtro, Headz, etc), from early 2003. This series of 4 Disintegration Loops has become one of the true phenoms of post-9/11 experimental music -- totally legendary stuff at this point. "William Basinski is a musician, composer, auteur who has worked in experimental media for over twenty years in NYC, expanding the boundaries of the aural landscape. In 1978, inspired by minimalists such as Steve Reich…

Volume II. Originally issued as a limited CDR in 2003, now reissued as a fully pressed CD. "A certain flavour of composition puts emphasis more on what could be considered 'hang-time' than 'narrative'. Some pieces don't necessarily have to 'go' anywhere in particular, their existence is simple enough in that it presents a mood, a moment, a place and encapsulates it. Think of still-images for the ears as opposed to moving-pictures for the eyes. As an audio exploration into this hovering su…

RESTOCKED: I wrote these tunes in 1968 when Micheal Cosmic and i were students at the AACM School of Music. i revised Love life & games in 2008. i had a band going on then with Micheal Cosmic. we played students concerts with Roscoe Mitchell. he also taught us our reeds. i had music theory with Anthony Braxton and Richard Muhal Abrams..." Phill Musra

Thomas ! Thomas wrote me one day and said to me to check out some audio called So long ago in Berlin... wow, i immediatly fell in love with that sound, really 60's and melancholic in a way... those were the rec. of a mini Tour that Norris Jones set up with his new sextet (2 gigs in Berlin/2 more in NYC). Sirone was one of the most respected bassist coming out of the New Thing, having played with all the greats: Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Marion Brown, Pharoah Sanders, Cecil Taylor, Noah Howard,…

Roy Brooks ! what can i say about one of the greatest jazz drummers ?! a man who paid his dues, who lived an hard life...who's Detroit Jazz ! started to play in the 50's with Yusef Lateef, spent 5 years with Horace Silver doing the hard and the bop, then with Dexter Gordon, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, two years with Mingus, played with Max Roach M'Boom... plus many others... in the 80's he formed The Artistic Truth & The Aboriginal Percussion Choir... the rec. on this album is even more precious …

Composed way back in 1979, 'A Red Score In Tile' eventually surfaced as a vinyl-only edition in 2003. Made up of piano, this shows Basinski's patented tape-loop technique perfectly and still stands as one of his most affecting pieces of music. If you've heard 'Melancholia' you'll likely know what I'm talking about, piano notes are transformed into tones by the slowly disintegrating tape, and the loops become motifs all of their own. The beauty of Basinski's work is in its patience, and this earl…

Another addition to Drag City’s curious collection of ‘outsider’ folk records (sitting neatly alongside Gary Higgins in your collection), Ed Askew is an artist I haven’t come across before. After his debut for ESP in 1968, his second album ‘Little Eyes’ was recorded in 1970, but somehow never got past test pressing stage, and as so many records of this era did, was lost for decades. After the 70s Askew seemed to sink into obscurity, but in the early 80s he got his hands on a harpsichord, a tiple…

Excellent wide-ranging minimal/synth & Wave-tunes by one of the most outstanding female artists in the 80’s cassette-culture and wave/underground releasing a total of 4 Tapes, one Lp and contributing to numerous Cassette- and Vinyl-compilation. Tara Cross was always exposed to music as a child. Her family, being second generation in the United States from Ireland, kept their roots by filling the household with lots of Irish and American music. Her father was a great singer and an admirer of Bing…

Great, fantastic Minimal-Synth-Tracks from legendary dutch duo Van Kaye and Ignit. Van Kaye alias Ed Van Kasteren (studying history of the arts and being singer of Monomen in the late 70’s) and Ignit Bekken (performing artist, painter and studiying to become an art-teacher) meet in early 1980 and started woking and experimenting with synthesisers. The result was the minimal/synth-classic and highly sought-after Tapes 'A Slight Delay' and "With a Little Help" which they distributed and pubsl…

The complete early works of one of Canada's most uncompromising electronic acts, finally assembled in one definitive package. Psyche was formed at the dawn of the 1980s by brothers Darrin and Stephen Huss in Edmonton, Alberta - the first and only synthesizer-based act in their entire region of Western Canada. They were soon joined by Dwayne Goettel, who would later achieve fame as a member of Skinny Puppy, and together they forged a sound that merged horror imagery with primitive electronics in …

Suberb Synth- and Wave-tunes of Fockewulf 190 incl. the two Italo-Disco-Classic 12“ Body Heat and Gitano plus more demos and so far unreleased treasures like Orient „Express“ collected from the archive of Victor Life Victor once stated: The Fockewulf 190 project was created as a shape equal to a substance, experimental analogyc electronic music connected to the theatrical and mimic power of rock and the romantic and esthetic force of the electronic dance of thr 80s.We translated thos…

Monumental! Who could have imagined back in 1969 that a German label religiously dedicated to uncompromising free-jazz would outlast the Berlin Wall? Such is the ongoing tenacity of Free Music Production, and its story is told in this intriguing 12-disc box set, compiled with a lavish book of photos and perceptive essays by such musicians as saxophonist Ken Vandermark and author Felix Klopotek. The company has been a true labor of love (or fanaticism) for Jost Gebers, who maintained a day…

Modes réels collectifs is the first work published in 1981 under the Vivenza banner, following Jean-Marc Vivenza's time with the bands Glace (1976) and Mécanique Populaire (1979). It represents a genuine manifesto that would become emblematic of all Vivenza's subsequent work. By suggesting, from philosophical and sonic points of view, an idea of opening to the reality directly inspired from Futurist theories, Vivenza was presenting what he had brought from his relationship with machines and soun…

Day two of this historic and rare live performance at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden." Grey vinyl in clear plastic sleeve with blue lettering (limited edition 500 copies)

Recorded on 1 July 1971 in the geodesic dome at the 'Utopia & Visions 1871-1981' exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Takehisa Kosugi's Taj Mahal Travellers were a Japanese experimental improv group active in the 1970s. The group, heavily influenced by Fluxus, used electronic effects to create their own unique improvised drones." White vinyl in clear plastic sleeve with red lettering (limited edition 500 copies)

All his life, my father played the trombone and sang; just before he died, he became a music critic. He said "Chords, yes Alvin, but it needs more melody." SCHTYX was the answer. It opens with a dotted quarter at 50. From the start, implications appear and never cease. They remain open for business like a river. The melody, first thought terminal, is recycled on a child's buzz saw, but then reappears as a mensch. Ten minutes later, it turns up a 5/4 Waltz scrutinized by a group of unemployed har…

'This double-cd, Anthology of Dutch Electronic Music 1999-2010, displays the diversity of the more recent Dutch electronic music: sharpening, statics, dramatic, loud, subtle, detailed... 26 tracks represent different to approach tape music, concert music for accoustical instruments en electronics, live-electronics, sound installations and environmentals, electronic music theatre, composition and improvisation. 6 tracks in total; The CD features recordings by Thomas Ankersmit, Justin Bennett, Jan…

"Soul Jazz Records are re-releasing this classic release of deep spiritual jazz by Steve Reid and The Master Brotherhood, entitled Nova available for the first-time at mid-price. There is also a one-off limited-edition vinyl repress of 1000 copies worldwide. Steve Reid is now known worldwide for his radical collaborations with Kieren Hebden on Domino Records. Nova (and Rhythmatism, also re-released) are his amazing first albums recorded in the early 1970s -- all now serious collector's al…

Uncompromising sound artist Ivan Pavlov, aka CoH, releases his latest body of work in a special edition for France's Rotorelief label, housed in a stunning and unique pop-out digicase CD design. While relating to the release of Takahashi Miike's 'Zebraman 2' - a low budget Japanese superhero farce - 'Z-Rated' also doubles as a compilation of rare and previously unreleased early material dating from 1992 right up to 2009. If you've followed CoH's records over those years, you might know to …

Le Syndicat started its activity in Paris in 1982 and was founded by art students Ruelgo and Van Minh Lê. The goal of this association was to make extreme live noise performances. A year later, Le Syndicat tape label was created with help from Zorïn, painter, graphic designer and visual scientist. Their fascination for chaos, strength and violence was not motivated by provocation but by the sheer pleasure to manipulate noise material. That was the main difference between industrial…

Mindblowing CD reissue "There is something magical and inexplicable in creation, and Sand manifest absolutely these mysterious phenomena. Story-tellers, musicians, shamans, geniuses, Sand were known, at the end of the 60s, as P.O.T. (Part of Time). Then Sand - Ludwig Papenberg and his brother Ullrich Papenberg, and Johannes Vester, developed a more avant-gardist, proto-industrial, visionary experimental approach, a truly unique entity in the history of music. Not dependant on a classical “Krautr…

Sub Rosa presents an LP-only collaborative release between New York visual artist, photographer, and film artist Peter Downsbrough and Xavier Garcia-Bardon and Benjamin Franklin, two members of Buffle -- a Brussels-based improv collective.  The work of visual artist, photographer and film artist Peter Downsbrough has had a major impact on the perception of art. In the early-'60s, Downsbrough interrupted his studies in architecture at the University of Cincinnati and Cooper Union in New York i…

BACK IN PRINT! Soul Jazz Records are re-releasing their seminal retrospective on Arthur Russell.Since the initial groundbreaking release of ‘The World of Arthur Russell’ five years ago, Russell has become the subject of intense media interest. With the recent release of a film about his life (‘A Portrait of Arthur Russell’), as well as a new album of unreleased recordings, (‘Love Is Overtaking Me’), Arthur Russell’s stature as a great artist has grown to is current height. (“One of the great son…

The Preservation label presents the reissue edition of Marking Time from UK artist Richard Skelton. Richard has recorded in various guises -- as Clouwbeck, Heidika, Carousell and A Broken Consort. Marking Time was his first work released under his own name, and also the first on a label other than his own, Sustain-Release. Through the prolific output on Sustain-Release, Richard stamped a singular vision with his music: a sound that is at once complex and elemental in its questing nature, cor…

"m=minmal continues the collaboration with electronic music legend Conrad Schnitzler.We are happy, after 30 years, to re-release one of the key works from Conrads large adventurous  backcatalog.Ballet Statique is not only a musical milestone but also a highlight of music production. It was recorded in 1978 at the legendary Paragon Studio / Berlin by Peter Baumann – Tangerine Dream in the same period when other masterworks like Cluster – „Großes Wasser“ and solo recordin…

180 gram vinyl reissue, originally released in 1969. Officially licensed through Universal. "Contact is Silver Apples' best work -- hinting at the shock mentality of Suicide, the drone of Spacemen 3, and the electronic dalliance of Stereolab decades later." -- The Seattle Stranger

Beautiful new album by Andrew Chalk and Timo Van Luyk (with Daisuke Suzuki on percussions and Ian Middleton on "accidental sounds"). Andrew Chalk is one of the most appreciate musician in this category floating between drone and ambient music, and his meeting with Timo Van Luijk has created an amazing disc, able to emphasize the slow, limited gestures, movements elegiac elegance, but still so heavily controlled. Each faint seems to have a gesture meaning. Here you can hear a flute (connected to …

The Harp of New Albion is a transfixing solo piano recording, conceived and performed by world-renowned minimalist composer, the ever-innovative Terry Riley. His inspiration for this work came from a legendary harp, left behind in the New World in 1579, on the shores of Nova Albion, which is now called San Francisco Bay. A Native American medicine man is said to have found the harp and placed it on a cliff where the westerly winds played upon it and temperature and humidity changes created an ev…