Smiles
**200 copies. Double LP version of "Smiles" pressed on black vinyl. Includes 8-page booklet printed on yellow Fedrigoni Sirio paper** Recorded live on April 28, 2014 at Outside Inside Studio, Montebelluna. Alan Zignoto: bass. Dave Easlick: drums. Tom Greenwood: guitar, vocals. Jeffrey Alexander: synth, chalumeau. Michael Whittaker: saxophone, flute, trombone. Dave Siebert: violin, lap steel. Mixed and mastered by Matt Bordin. Photos by Lorenzo Ferraro.
The Big Two
Tip! Here's the last will and testament of Usurper. The final curtain on two decades of heroic toil in the experimental/noise/improv/no-audience underground. Over the course of their twenty year existence, Usurper developed into one of the most original and uncompromising groups to emerge from the early 2000's sub-sub underground, always pushing themselves (and audiences) to new territory. They were fearlessly experimental, with seemingly limitless reserves of creativity. Their performances were…
The Seismograph
*100 copies limited edition* "A large mound of igneous rock beneath the earth’s surface, sometimes attaining the size of a mountain. The vent associated with a volcano which no longer ejects molten lava or ashes, but continues to give off steam and gases. A hole in the earth’s crust from which steam and gases, such as carbon dioxide, are emitted under pressure. A large basin-shaped crater bounded by steep cliffs, usually formed by the subsidence of the top of a volcanic mountain, and sometimes o…
An evening with nehan
Nehan is a Japanese free improvisation/avant-garde rock quintet formed in 2022. Their performance is initiated by a 9HZ brain wave emitted from a testee who has been brought into a deep meditative state. nehan respond with gongs, typani, tabla and other percussion, crumhorn, bagpipes, oscillator and mellotron, passing tranformatively through a musical prism, from east to west, from traditional folk and classical to rock, jazz, and electronic.
All The Duos
Tip! Orb Tapes presents “All The Duos,” a brand new collection of collaborative pieces featuring Maria Chavez and Sandy Ewen. A colossal effort, this double CD release contains over 90 minutes of music and showcases the improvisational prowess of both artists. Taking their instruments past the point of recognizability, each has a knack for coaxing unpredictable yet beautiful sounds from her equipment – turntables and guitars treated in utterly novel ways. Now based in Brooklyn, Chavez and Ewen h…
come, Memory: fieldwork
"come, Memory: fieldwork" is the culmination of a long-cherished research project initiated in September 2021, revolving around three immersive journeys to ancient European sacred places, with a particular focus on Neolithic sites. This project encompasses extensive research, the capture of Super 8mm film, 35mm photography, and audio recordings, the creation of three experimental short films, and the development of a scenographic installation. In May 2023, this installation was exhibited at the …
Ramybe / Autoportretas
Santaka is truly the sound of a culture. The name means “confluence” in Lithuanian, and the project has been exactly that from the moment DJ/producer Manfredas and drummer/producer Marijus Aleksa resolved to work together in the early days of 2020.
Not only does it bring together the talents that Manfredas and Marijus have individually honed over their own illustrious international careers in the club underground and young jazz worlds – but their recordings have drawn on talents from across styl…
Transmissions From The Radio Midnight
Tip! *200 copies limited edition* This project, entitled Transmissions From The Radio Midnight, started around 2006, when I acquired a Sony TCM F59 — an AM/FM radio and cassette recorder combined in a slim, handheld body. Since then, whenever I went on a trip, I would throw it into my suitcase and take it around with me. No matter which country I was in, upon returning to the hotel room I made a habit of listening to the radio into the late hours of the night. As soon as I would snuggle into bed…
Der Ferne
On 'Der Ferne', Phil Struck intricately weaves an abstract tapestry of textures, incorporating elements reminiscent of Hassellian-like sounds and multi-textured dubby soundscapes, a testament to the musician's getaways from urban life, journeying in the heart of nature. The music's warm and concise amalgamation of audio fragments lends it an ineffable quality, evoking hazy, sun-drenched memories, while the radiating reminiscences of the natural world invite contemplation of its true essence, rem…
Sferics
"2022 was a shit show. I moved three times. I lived in San Francisco for a sudden moment in time. About eight months to be exact. But I jumped through a wormhole . An atmospheric anomaly that rippled across and through my familial center, taking us into a chaos of cardboard boxes, temporary living spaces, a collapse in our art practices, only to be pulled through the other end of the time warp, re-emerging back where we convened in 2019 in Tucson, Arizona--but now it is 2023 and life has changed…
New Bodies
*2023 stock* First two tracks and Side A of New Bodies. From Los Angeles, also of Open City – first full length-- single takes, live--Intensely physical and abstract music that constantly, unpredictably shifts and evolves. Impulse, memory and intent, laid bare in real time. Post-melody, post-groove sound. Concrete, brutal, yes fun-----
Sinopia
Huge Tip! 250 copies. A sinopia is an ancient preparatory sketch technique for a fresco. If you scrape the final work off the wall, the sketch remains; simplified and powerful in it’s starkness. Alessandra Novaga, an experimental guitarist/composer based in Milan, Italy found this historic technique resonated with an album she recently recorded with NYC-based drummer Kid Millions (aka John Colpitts of Oneida, Man Forever and many other projects). Italy’s cultural past is the often transcendent a…
Elements
Tip! Surface World is pleased to share David Lee Myers (aka Arcane Device) and Toshimaru Nakamura’s Elements, a remote collection written and assembled in tandem at the suggestion of the label. Sharing an idiosyncratic approach to feedback-based sound generation and a commitment to their signature instruments (respectively, the Feedback Machine and the No-Input Mixing Board), the pairing lands during an especially fruitful period in their individual discographies. Harmonically dense, energetic a…
jouent pour Stephane Guillaumon qui danse sans faire de bruit
Duo live electronic improvisation by Jean-Marc Foussat and Leo Remke-Rochard. Recorded at the Dojo in Villeurbanne, France, on January 7th, 2023.
Duo in Concert
Frozen Reeds is proud to present the only recorded duo playing of two legendary musical figures.
“This is one of those moments that we’re always hoping for, and it's so rare. And it's so hard to talk about, because it's so beautiful. It's like you're seeing some new species of plant that you never knew existed or something.” – Bill Frisell
Misting
Nice Music presents 'Misting' the first solo full length from MP Hopkins since 2016 and his debut release for the label.
Hopkins' solo work to date via the likes of Regional Bears, Penultimate Press and Thalamos fitfully caresses tape collage, found sound, speaker feedback and electroacoustic techniques. 7 years on from 'Blue-Lit Half Breath', 'Misting' immediately arrests with vibrant frequency and fidelity, yet no less fidgety or labyrinthine in its crypticised patterns of non-literal investig…
Prove, Esorcismi
*2023 stock* Sampler of some iconic Italian experimental, electronic and jazz musicians active in the 90s (some of them up till now).
Some Kind of Telling
Providing the simple text 'Blowing into playback remembrances. Rescription. Some kind of telling.' Banana seem to improvise in space, with considered timing, to-hand objects and bursts of feedback, voice and hidden instrumentation. The tape rings of previous releases of theirs such as MP Hopkins solo LP 'Blue-Lie Half Breath' on Penultimate Press or Alexandra Spence's 'a veil, the sea'. I hear nods to the 'Onkyo' scene in the whistling feedback and stark spaces. Comparisons to works by Akio Suzu…
Abstand
*200 copies limited edition* "Abstand" was conceived to enhance the particularities of the combination of accordion and melodica, both wind instruments, one played with movement and the other by blowing. This dichotomy of difference and similarity resulted in intricate textures, not only thanks to the instruments’ particular timbres, but also through the natural microtonal distances in their fixed tunings, especially when it comes to old and worn out instruments like the ones used here.
These mi…
For Franz
*150 copies limited edition* "It starts very simply. March 1988. The birth of an elephant. Basically, not exactly. Hair and teeth, we were told, it’s like that, it happens more often than you think. He was hungry and he was dirty. There he sucks the vacuum cleaner. We couldn’t stop laughing ! There he purrs. Time flies so fast and he has grown. «Aggression, like love», he used to say, «is first projected onto an individual who then introject them». In the introjective phases, identification with…