Experimental / Ambient

2024 stock. Shifts is a solo project by the omnipresent Frans de Waard, founder of Kapotte Muziek, Beequeen, Goem, as well as other solo projects including Quest, Captain Black, and more recently, Freiband. Shifts started life in 1995 with the purpose of producing ambient music by means of the guitar. In the period 1995-1999 Shifts released seven 7″s, two 10″s, three CDs, six CD-Rs and 2 LPs and contributed to several compilations. Shifts has performed four times in concert (1998, 1999 and 2002)…

2024 stock. Wow! Soleilmoon second vinyl release is a lovely 33 rpm full length record from Nocturnal Emissions. All tracks are exclusive to this release. It’s a numbered limited clear virgin vinyl edition of 404 copies. Disarranged and decomposed by Nigel Ayers. Acoustic instruments played by Charlotte Bill.

2024 stock. “Intoutof” (say “Into out of”) is one of the The Hafler Trio’s most defining recordings. This 1998 reissue, coming ten years after the original date of release of the LP (and eight years after the first CD edition), reminds us of the power and mystery that have made The Hafler Trio such a respected and influential group. When KK Records first issued “Intoutof” on vinyl in 1988 they found that the program length was too long to fit onto an LP. Their solution was quite unique: They ran…

2024 stock. Controlled Bleeding was formed in 1978 in Boston. Over the years members have come and gone and the band has transformed and reinvented itself numerous times. In 2010 Paul Lemos remixed the Controlled Bleeding lineup. Drummer Tony Meola rejoined the band and Michael Bazini (a.k.a. DJ Butterface) came onboard to play electronics. The trio played a slew of live gigs in the New York City area, blasting audiences with an improvised instrumental mix of blistering guitar riffs, hypnotic ba…

*2024 cd version reprint* "Bright lights of impossible architecture, airwaves are your travelling wings. I rode up some of those ones, it was already night. It looked like some future city, lights of villages on the other hills below as far as light not obscuring. Interesting scene. Invisible city of trees. Continuing its spiritual journey, where the self-titled LP was inspired by erosion and the jaws of time as an elemental force, “Spires” explores its vision in the forward vector, a future man…

Repossessed by the past, bitten once again and forced to relive drama, history, memories, tradition and roots. A past that needs exorcizing, bending and re-imagining in order to move forward and depend on. This is ‘Rimorso’, Mai Mai Mai’s colossal mediterranean gothic album. Known for his incredible blend of Southern Italian Folklore, industrial drone, proto-techno & punishing miasmic electronic music, Toni Cutrone aka Mai Mai Mai approached ‘Rimorso’ with a clean slate. Following ‘Nel Sud’ (La …

"We are doomed to be attached to space and time and to experience the fullness of our existence throughout eternity."

Best known for his work for legendary Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (he even designed the enigmatic “bang” in 2021’s labyrinthine ‘Memoria’), Japan’s Koichi Shimizu has been honing a unique musical language since the early ‘90s, where some of his earliest material can be found on a split LP with Yoshiteru Himuro via once-iconic imprint Worm Interface (itself home to music from Autechre side-line Gescom). ‘Imprint’, was initially released quietly back in 2021 and has been remastered for…

Winter Family is a duo made up of Ruth Rosenthal and Xavier Klaine. They met in Jaffa, Israel in 2004. Their self-titled debut (Sub Rosa, 2007) offered minimal music played by Xavier on pipe organ, harmoniums and piano backing strict spoken-word texts chanted by Ruth. Their second album, Red Sugar (Sub Rosa, 2011) was highly praised by critics (The Village Voice, Liberation, Haaretz, Pitchfork). Winter Family then composed soundtracks for dance shows, films and advertising (Chanel, EU). They col…

*65 copies limited edition* Weeding presents a limited cassette of Angela Wai Nok Hui's /the plum/ released in collaboration with Danish label Don't Look Back. Dotted with moments of chaos and tenderness, all of which are subject to Angela's toy box aesthetic, /the plum/ is an ode to Angela's obsession with low-fidelity and generational loss techniques, as well as her and her partner's grandparents, one of whom is featured speaking on the piece in Italian. A queasy long-form piece that meanders …

“Integral” marks the second collaboration between German electronic music pioneer Asmus Tietchens and sound artist Fabio Perletta. The album follows 2017's “Deflections”, released by German label aufabwegen. Recorded by Fabio Perletta and Asmus Tietchens, respectively at Tokonoma Studio, Roseto degli Abruzzi, and Audiplex Studio E, Hamburg, between October 2022 and August 2023. Artwork by Fabio Perletta. Mastered by Okko Bekker.

*2022 repress * Will Long’s Celer project returns with a vinyl edition of Xièxie, a poetic suite melding location recordings made during a trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou in 2017; with diaphanous, layered synths that beautifully bring his subject to life. A week before leaving, I bought a dictionary and phrasebook. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu, layout by Rutger Zuydervelt. Covered in rain, during the days and even the nights, Shanghai was lit in a glow, a mist turning to a constant grey fog. Buildi…

*200 copies limited edition* Rhys Chatham: trumpet in B flat, transverse flute in C, alto and bass flutes, electric guitarZ'EV: Yamaha DTXPRESS, 16-bit AWM2  Recorded at Studio Myrha, Paris 2014

*222 copies limited edition* Making music is trying to start over again every time. It’s a matter of questioning and approaching. It’s never settling for the sound that fills the world around. It’s looking for a door in the sky. And maybe find it, open it, go beyond it. Rod Modell and Gigi Masin, this time together, are offering each other vibrations and insights. The former lives between two lakes, the latter between the Venetian lagoon and the sea. Everyone on their own shore, building electro…

The new album from 400 Lonely Things, produced by William Basinski, is a dark ambient, sample-based séance to the Banning Mill -- a real-life decaying "mansion" and haven for artists, freaks, and misfits in the backwoods of the American Deep South in the 1970s-1990s -- and an extraordinary piece of art that lived there. An archaeological excursion in found sound -- wandering through the art and memory of a real place, Mother Moon is an origin story for 400 Lonely Things. In the '90s, Craig Varia…

Written and recorded between 1972 and 1982 in Western Oregon, Back to the Woodlands is a previously unreleased, and nearly lost, album made by Ernest Hood during the same era as his near mythical album Neighborhoods. A  visionary combination of field recordings, zithers, and synthesizers, Back to the Woodlands offers an unprecedented depth of access to this singular artistic mind. Born into a musical family, Ernest Hood began a promising career as a jazz guitarist during the 1940s, touring inter…

Philip Jeck sadly passed away at the end of March 2022. But before he died, he was able to work on some audio files sent to him by Chris Watson, who writes: "In 2017 I was recording along the north bank of the Humber estuary and one morning driving back from Faxfleet I was stopped at the Oxmardyke rail crossing. The gates were down. After setting up a microphone array by the tracks for a passing freight train the signalman shouted an invitation to climb up into the gate box to make some more rec…

Tip! *100 copies limited edition* Originally composed as a soundtrack for a live performance of Eva Geatti’s eponymous theatrical performance, La Vaga Grazia is a concert of synthesizers inspired by the electronic music of the 1950s, passing through the sparkle of library music and the cosmic sequencing of krautrock. Rhythmic machine scores alternated with digital glitches follow one another, directing and modifying the wandering flow of the performers on stage.

*200 copies limited edition* Music composed in resonance with Orlando di Lasso’s ‘Prophetiae Sibyllarum’ (ca 1555-60). The Sibylline Prophecies are a 16th century collection of vocal motets that could be considered prophetic, because they open up the music of its time to chromaticism beyond diatonality, posing new challenges to tuning. On the other hand, the sung text is an unambiguous appropriation of ancient Greek Sibylline oracles, claiming these predicted the coming of Christ —a fictional re…

*200 copies limited edition* Australia-based baroque violinist Lizzy Welsh has recorded three new compositions for solo baroque violin—the astounding result of a decade-long process of commissioning repertoire of such work during her doctoral research. Each of the works on « The Target Has Disappeared » initiates an intimate conversation between Welsh and her instrument, outlining the contours of memory and loss, weaving together fragments of old and new traditions in the sound of gut strings.

* 300 copies limited edition * Described as sublime tape music (despite not being released on cassette), Drifting is a transatlantic collaboration between Julia Bjernelind (Amateur Hour), Weston Czerkies (Form Hunter) and Dan Johansson (Sewer Election). A potent trialectic between whom we've never heard a collaboration before, their debut Dream Autopsy certainly sounds like just that; a picking-apart of both manifest and latent dream content in waking sonic life. The "dreaminess" of the album is…

Once you'll touch the sky you will never return to dust’ is the fifth studio album by Roberto Opalio, “the more sinister half of My Cat Is An Alien” according to Byron Coley.

Hardy Fox was the primary composer of The Residents. He created an incredible body of work, using all kinds of names other than The Residents, amongst them Combo De Mechanio, Sonidas De La Noche, Dead Eye Dick, Charles Bobuck or Black Tar And The Cry Babies. Hardy first stopped touring with The Residents due to health issues. Soon afterwards, he left the group completely to concnetrate on his solo work. After several albums as Charles Bobuck (later only Bobuck), the name given to him when still …

*2024 stock. 300 copies limited edition* "It all began with a little red tongue sticking out of an unseen mouth and licking its way in the dark. Hesitating at first, then sparkling and crackling and all of a sudden bursting out in total, u-n-c-o-n-t-r-o-l-l-a-b-l-e freedom." [ from moody alien's 'The Flame Within...' ] George Avramidis - trumpetmoody alien - (processed) glockenspiels, vibraphone, marimbas, tubular bells; windchimes & keys; effects & treatments; mixing  featuring:Vasilis Bacharid…

*2024 stock* “Shit” He said to Himself, commenting on the terrible sight that could only mean it was all going down in ashes, for the sole purpose of witnessing its own miraculous reconstitution. [ from moody alien's 'The Flame Within...' ] Călin Torsan - clarinet, tenor recorder, voice & hulusiAndrei Kivu - The MIDIcello & effectsmoody alien - (processed) glockenspiel, vibraphone, windchimes, timpani & trumpet samples; (programmed) drums & double bass; keys, miscellaneous instruments & field re…

*2024 stock. 300 copies limited edition* The first volume in a series of live, improvisational & spontaneous scores to silent and obscure movies by the ever morphing RAIC (aka the Richmond Avant Improv Collective), who settled on an 8 piece ensemble for this recording... Samuel Goff - Drums, Percussion, Vocals, Keyboards, ElectronicsAbdul Hakim-Bilal - GuitarErik Schroeder - Alto Saxophone, Percussion, Keyboards, Sampler, Theremin, Electronics, Flute, WoodwindsZoe Olivia Kinney - Cello, VocalsLa…

**90copies** When Dylan Henners debut EP A Reason for Living was released through Phantom Limb in February 2019, it became quite clear that there was more to discover than what the record made us listen to. Electronic Sound Magazine described it as “an ambient delight” and in September that same year he returned with his second EP Stormbird Brother in the Dusk, featuring the Trinidadian steel pan maestro Fimber Bravo. Besides his own work, Dylan Henner remixed other musicians such as Oliver Coat…

*70 copies limited edition* Arise from the slumber of vegetable earth into translucent timeless nowhere clouded forests and drink from the crystal fountains of Uejima Onitsura. Shanyio weaves the tongues of Romania and Japan into a wondrous expansion and contraction of dulcimer, zither, psaltery, kantele etc.

*80 copies limited edition.* Kult Masek is moniker for Michael Nechvátal, who is long time alam of Stoned to Death. His new album Walnut Instrument / Ballet for Skeptics is his first release for the label under Kult Masek, but he has made quite a humongous mark on the labels catalog already - namely with his other projects such as Jasnovidec, Raw Deal or M-N. In his latest two compositions Nechvátal further explores possibilities of his modular synthesizer. His main source of inspiration and sou…

*80 copies limited edition.* Sítě is project of Jan Tomáš and his several collaborators (on this album Jan Kašpar and Tomáš Vondra) who went onto pilgrimage through hypnagogic valley, devoted minimalist landscapes and lost corners of furniture music. With its now combined album (partly live and party studio recorded) Sítě is coming back onto Stoned to Death field, where they released their acclaimed and sought after split with Obelisk of Light in 2014. Ever since then, Sítě has been mainly sendi…

Recorded in its entirety using just a laptop, a pair of headphones and a midi sampler, Indentations is the debut full length album from New York based percussionist and producer Grant Chapman. Indentations draws deeply on Chapman's personal experiences surrounding loss and betrayal. An intimate work reflecting the struggle of dealing with traumatic experiences, the album makes the case for equilibrium following life-altering experiences. ‘’The album is a meditation on the sheer weight a broken r…

*200 copies limited edition* Mabe Fratti is an experimental cello player from Guatemala, currently based in Mexico City. Mabe’s unique and courageous sound has made her one of the most promising new acts in the experimental music scene around the world. We present a new edition, first time on colored vinyl, of her debut album that originally was released by us in 2020, a year after it’s original digital release. A very well received and respected album, Pies Sobre La Tierra, is a unique and bril…

*2023 stock. 100 copies limited edition* In this era of uncertainty and shaken normalities, we are forced to confront a different landscape in society - one which has modified our interactions with people and nature. There is a sense that the zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, has shifted further into the dystopian territory. "Faraway Vicinity" is the amalgamation of these landscapes - human and non-human, familiar and unknown - to construct a sonic world that mirrors these strange times. But m…

**Edition of 300 copies** In 1958 the painter Isson Tanaka (°22 July 1908 –*11 September 1977) moved to Amami Ōshima, an island in the Ryukyus. There, in self-chosen isolation, he committed himself exclusively to his art until his sudden passing in 1977. In 2018 Seiha Kurosawa, Kanako Azuma and Hideki Umezawa visited Amami Ōshima to create a video installation about Tanaka’s insular life. The work, entitled “Dokkyaku” (tr. The Lone Visitor), shifts between the texture and materiality of Tanaka’s…

Big tip! *199 copies limited edition* Akifumi Nakajima, renowned for his prolific and captivating work under the alias Aube, stands as one of Japan's most intriguing noise artists. His artistic prowess extends beyond the sonic realm, encompassing an impeccable sense of design and a deep appreciation for materials. Nakajima's creative journey began in 1980, but it wasn't until the early '90s, prompted by a request to compose music for an art installation involving water, that he stepped into the …

Circular Music and Extended Circular Music are two collections of compositions written by Jürg Frey between 2011/2016 and 2014/2015 respectively. The first cycle is composed of seven distinct compositions while the second is divided into nine parts but, in reality, the n. 4 and no. 9 of the second series share the same harmonic progression. What distinguishes them, in addition to the ensemble (no. 4 is for string quartet and piano while no. 9 is for piano.

Decomposition Study is a collaborative process. The instrument featured here is an arciorgano, a special microtonal organo di legno with two manually operated bellows and 36-key octaves across two manuals, constructed according to Nicola Vicentino’s designs from 1555. The notes of the music, written according to the rules of canonic contrapunto alla mente, are passed between two organists while four other musicians disrupt and amplify the organ’s airflow, acting similarly to cellular enzymes in …

"The word καῦμα (kaûma) gave us the "calm" losing its primary sens of "heat". Here an archaic experimental music, a more or less advanced electronic technology with questionable sustainability, false loops, oscillations and glidings, between immutable harmonic series and dubious Chinese components. If "kaûma" also gives "chômer" ("not to work") (from occitan "caumar", "to rest during the heat"), another warming would call to disturb the calm, the pattern, to come out of our torpor (κῶμα, kôma ("…

Easily among our favorite records of the year - issued in a very limited vinyl edition of 300 copies by Cortizona and Stuk - Pak Yan Lau's latest, "Bakunawa", is a truly stunning thing to behold. A continuation of her long-standing "Book of Toy" project, expanded for the first time to incorporate the contributions of a five-piece ensemble, it's a sprawling expanse of deep harmonics and percussive rhythms that channel the magical and poetic into the realms of experimental music, deftly nodding to…

"I see lucid blue flames moving before my eyes. I hear voices melting. Voices somewhere from within.Speaking words I do not know but feel connected to, almost as if I have known the meaning once..Noises that obscures the multiple pictures hidden in these digital compositions. Iku Sakan have created a set of five tracks that takes the listener on a trip deep into the human psyché. Emotional flickering movements that twists and turns. The albums have a darker, much more intense feel than some of I…