Experimental / Avant-Garde

Strong wind blows tumbleweed on unpaved streets of undisclosed desert settlement, dust and sand is in the air. Rusty shop sign of a small gas station dances and creaks in the hinges of its post. In the small bar, which serves as the only social establishment of this settlement, few habitues observe flickering unidentified object unsuccessfully trying to land on empty parking lot. Few of the habitues raise their beer bottles and cheer at the landing attempt, some of them are visibly excited about…

The classic 1976 album remastered from the original tapes plus 11 unreleased recordings! Formed in the early 1970s, The Residents have been charting a unique path through the musical landscape for over 45 years. From far-out, experimental curiosities to highly conceptual, multi-album projects, the band has refused to stand still, and continues to move in several different directions at once. Produced with the involvement of The Cryptic Corporation, and with full access to the band's extensive ta…

Recorded at the Grote Kerk in Den Bosch as part of John Zorn’s 70th birthday celebration at November Music in Den Bosch, this exciting performance pays tribute to one of Zorn’s seminal influences—the 15th century painter Hieronymus Bosch. Performing on two different organs simultaneously, running from one to the other, this is one of the most bizarre installments in the entire Hermetic Organ series. The CD begins with a rare private performance of Zorn alone in the church exploring and stretchin…

'Making a journey to a Bright Nowhere' - Marking Eddie Prévost's 80th birthday. Volume 3. Cafe OTO, 23rd July 2022

"Broken Allures", the fifth release from trio Jac Berrocal, David Fenech, and Vincent Epplay (following releases on Blackest Ever Black, Akuphone, KlangGalerie), furthers their unique recording style with a musique concrète approach to mixing, characterized by the distinctive sound and technique of musicians and producers. Fenech and Epplay have paired with legendary French musician Berrocal, renowned for his collaborations with Nurse With Wound, Vince Taylor, Jaki Liebezeit, Pascal Comelade, Su…

The dreamer dreams again with her 4th album of otherworldly microcosms, 'Divers', recorded by Steve Albini and featuring contributions by Nico Muhly and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, arriving five years since her last opus for Drag City.  Still possessed by a voice that teeters between sublime and ridiculous (I honestly laughed out loud at the first song), Joanna Newsom remains a precious spirit within the indie folk paradigm, blessed with an air of stately patience and poised, imma…

2024 repress. "Drag City takes great pleasure in introducing to you a remarkable new musical singer, songwriter and all-around talent, Joanna Newsom. Joanna's music has more of an affinity with the folk revival of the 60s, or the bluegrass movement at present, than with most contemporary 'folk' (or 'anti-folk') scenes. Affinities aside, her style could hardly be called bluegrass; nor does it evoke the pastoral tonalities of 60s folk: she sings about whalebones, sleep, grammar, mollusks, accumula…

LP version. This highly experimental work represents some early sound collages from this quirky British composer. Affiliated with the avant rock group Henry Cow, Anthony Moore's works are highly regarded in the experimental music scene thanks to his Flying Doesn't Help album from 1978, a cult masterpiece of avant rock which enjoyed a much higher profile in the underground than his debut. This could be attested to the abstract nature of this recording, which explored tape-loop repetitions that bu…

*In process of stocking* “Eternal Triangle was a dream come true: bringing together two of my favourite musicians in the whole world with me on the stage of AngelicA. Two musicians capable of encompassing both the most earthly and natural and the most rarefied and cosmic dimensions of sound, spontaneously and often seamlessly. Drawing from inspiration and life experience. We certainly didn’t know this performance was going to be Toshinori Kondo’s last one outside of Japan, and his last concert w…

Returning to the Czech Republic with a reissue of Richter Band’s first album, Smetana (Czech for ‘Cream’), released originally in 1990. Pavel Richter gained a considerable reputation as a guitarist, playing in a number of Czech avant-garde rock groups, including Švehlík, Marno Union and Elektrobus, and became one of foremost figures of the Prague scene which opposed the socialist regime of the 70’s and 80’s. Towards the mid 80’s, he began to focus on calm music and subtle sound structures, playi…

Tip! Extended guitar hero Oren Ambarchi returns with Shebang, the latest in the series of intricately detailed long-form rhythmic workouts that includes Quixotism (2014) and Hubris (2016). Like those records, Shebang features an international all-star cast of musical luminaries, their contributions recorded individually in locations from Sweden to Japan yet threaded together so convincingly (by Ambarchi in collaboration with Konrad Sprenger) that it’s hard to believe they weren’t breathing the s…

'Echolocation' is the astonishing debut album from Mendoza Hoff Revels, a formidable new unit led by Ava Mendoza & Devin Hoff and featuring James Brandon Lewis & Ches Smith. While Mendoza and Hoff have floated around each other's musical orbits for decades, and have been friends for some time, this is their first work together on record. It is an electric & holy harmonic fusion of highly estimable musical forces; wholly rendered. The original impetus of this group was Mendoza’s, based on the lov…

Crucible by Loren Mazzacane Connors & Suzanne Langille is a profound exploration of the raw emotional landscapes that can be sculpted through minimalistic yet deeply evocative sounds. The album resides at the intersection of experimental blues and avant-garde, creating a sound that is both hauntingly intimate and expansively atmospheric. Each track seems to dwell in a space where the boundaries of music blur into a meditative state, driven by Loren's sparse guitar work and Suzanne's ethereal voc…

Jean-Luc André, Sylvie Martineau-Fee and Jean-Philippe Fee started DDAA (Deficit Des Annees Anterieures) in 1977. They are pioneers of the French experimental and indie scene, also connected with Industrial 80s music and audiovisual projects. Approaching music in a completely unique way, and brilliantly produced by their own Illusion Production label (with more 40 published items), DDAA was and is undoubtedly one of the most legendary groups of the French underground for the past 30 years. Thei…

Jac Berrocal is a 1946-born musician (trumpet player), poet and sometime film actor who came of age in the ‘70s Paris improv scene, where the boundaries between music, art and theatre were porous and begging to be breached. Inspired by bebop, chanson, free jazz, beat poetry, early rock ‘n roll and myriad Eastern influences, and with an iconoclastic, anything-goes approach to instrumentation and technique that would later align him with post-punk sensibilities, Berrocal blazed an eccentric and un…

*2025 stock* Anybody who has witnessed a live performance of Anna von Hausswolff and band can attest to the extraordinary and commanding nature of the experience. The distinctive music, as captured across five full-length albums, comes to life, shifting from hypnotic and mantra-like moods to thunderous drama, dissonance and cacophony. The musicians master playful dynamics and wield immense power. Across six pieces, Anna von Hausswolff performs sensational renditions of fan-favourites from the tw…

Tip! *250 copies limited edition* The Kriego is the joint project of musicians and sound artists Fernando Feria & Emiliano Cruz. Born from cultivating similar creative interests in sound art, improvisation, and composition, the duo weaves a sound born of noise, ambient, and free improvisation; exploring various formats and using the electric guitar as their main mean of expression. The project emerged in October 2021 in Mexico City with the presentation of their album I at Casa Patricio, later p…

*Limited edition of 400 copies.* The latest from the uncompromising John McCowen is a split release between Dinzu Artefacts and Astral Spirits. Models of Duration follows the same trajectory as McCowen's other amazing solo releases - Solo Contra (International Anthem, 2017), 4 Chairs in 3 Dimensons (Astral Spirits, 2018), Mundanas I - V (Editions Wandelweiser, 2018) but is also a whole world beyond those. McCowen continues to focus on extended possibilities of the clarinet family as well as acou…

*100 copies limited edition* Electroacoustic improvvisation between: Alto Saxophone, Voice – Jun-Y CiaoElectronics, Voice – Yan JunViolin – Matthias Kaiser  recorded in 2017, Cologne

Few sounds in music are as instantly recognizable as the searching sting of guitarist Bill Orcutt and the cyclical propulsion of drummer Chris Corsano. At the same time, every single performance or recording I've heard by the duo has been markedly different, discovering new paths with a given set of tools. For more than a decade now they've been meeting up to instigate visceral sonic journeys without a map, engaging in elliptical dialogues with one another, but more often conjuring twinned excur…

* Double LP, Black Vinyl * In late October 2019, following a successful UK tour ending in a sold-out concert at the mythical Roundhouse in London, Sunn O))) entered studio 4 of the BBC Maida Vale. On invitation to record a live session for Mary Anne Hobbs to be broadcast on Samhain via her excellent radio show on BBC6.  To enter the legendary John Peel studios was to enter a temple of music and experimentation, liberty in ideas and sound. The band was nearing the end of a long touring year aroun…

*2022 stock.* Leone is the first meeting of electric guitarists Loren Connors and Oren Ambarchi. It’s somewhat surprising it’s taken this long as these two are connected by ongoing collaborators, like Jim O’Rourke and Keiji Haino. Connors, for more than 40 years, has continued to develop an iconic sound tethered to radical permutations of the blues. Ambarchi’s own multi-decade transfiguration of the guitar inhabits a rarefied realm of abstracted tones and dissonance pitched between improvisation…

Tip! An expanded album length version of the 2006 Advisory Circle EP Mind How You Go, inspired by the world of TV Public Information Films. Remember, electricity cannot be seen or heard. Harmful, invisible forces surround us everywhere we go. Fortunately The Advisory Circle is on hand to help us make the right decisions. Mind How You Go is an alchemical distillation of the sound of Public Information Films. Spooky, catchy and witty This new album length version of Mind How You Go includes four n…

*300 copies limited edition* Ten years on, Joana Gama and Luís Fernandes show no signs of slowing down. Over the past decade, the duo has released five albums, composed soundtracks for film and television, and created pieces for performing arts. With “Strata”, they embark on a bold exploration of their musical identity, breaking new ground by seeking the primordial, the raw, and forging a deeper creative synergy. This evolution makes their music feel less like a conversation and more like a unif…

Much-needed 2025 repress 'It was a rainy day at the recycling centre in Leitrim. There, amongst the tangle of discarded kettles and broken down toasters, I first laid eyes on her: a CRB Elettronica Ancona - Model: Diamond 708 E Electric Keyboard. She waited, resolved to her fate of slowly oxidizing in the drizzle before being crumpled into the back of a lorry heading for the landfill. Or maybe, she waited, knowing I would come. I smuggled her into the back of my van and brought her home. For yea…

*300 copies limited edition* Two records came out in 1988 that forever changed the perception of "experimental" or "serious" music produced in Portugal. These were "Plux Quba" by Nuno Canavarro and "Música de Baixa Fidelidade" by Tózé (António) Ferreira. Both were released by the same label - Ama Romanta -, an influential independent imprint closely linked to avantgarde pop band Pop Dell'Arte. Because those records appeared in what could be perceived as an "alternative pop" framework, they rescu…

*150 copies limited edition* "Now here’s a surprise, a solo album by Renaldo M is due for release on Klanggalerie. Called ‘They Blessed The Body Breadcrumbed’ it is a 13 track collection of original songs, most of which were started during the period Renaldo & The Loaf were not together. It features guest musicians Nolan Cook, Mike Howlett and Frank Pahl. With some very extended gaps in between, it has taken over 30 years to complete but is finally done!" Renaldo M. aka Brian Poole is half of Br…

Snakefinger surely needs not much of an introduction. Born Philip Charles Lithman in London, he moved to San Francisco in 1971. His roots lie in the British blues scene, but he soon became friends with The Residents who also gave him the name Snakefinger based on a photograph of Lithman performing, in which his finger looks like a snake about to attack his violin. In 1972 Lithman returned to England and formed the pub rock band Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers. After the lack of success of t…

A Fou Records production, like a large part of the music of its producer, Jean-Marc Foussat, is a bit of a puzzle.

"The current release consists of the Schindler-Damon Smith-Sandy Ewen trio and the friends I have brought in: Karina Erhard from Munich, Jaap Blonk from the Netherlands, Sebastiano Tramontana from Sicily. The three concerts are from my presentation format LowToneStudies. I have been organizing my concerts myself for many years, financing them myself, as the music and sound art that I prefer is completely ignored in Munich, the richest city in Germany. Not only in terms of support in many respect…

Rex / Extremum probably marks a new direction for the Swedish tape loop and synth trio Organ of Corti. The tension is still there but the sound is clearer, more separated and hi fi in the most lo fi sense. This is things falling apart, and for you deeply into bad vibes. Two tracks. The Mississippi river on the cover. Just can't go wrong. Organ of Corti is Dan Johansson (Sewer Election), Mattias Gustafsson (Altar of Flies) and Joachim Nordwall (iDEAL). They have a common interest in repetition, h…

A pioneer of live electronic music and one of America's most adventurous composers, Alvin Curran has been walking his own eclectic path since the late 1960s. The range and scope of his work is enormous, and unprecedented. Few composers have as many interests, or as much wit. This special compilation takes us on a whirlwind tour of fifteen of his most productive years (1987–2002), capturing both live and studio performances from around the world. Featuring a seductive work for chorus and ensemble…

Performed by virtuosic madman William Winant, who has worked with John Cage, Anthony Braxton, Mr. Bungle, Pierre Boulez, Steve Reich, Thurston Moore, Terry Riley, Cecil Taylor and countless others, Theme Park is a major new work by Alvin Curran and one of the most dynamic solo percussion compositions of the decade. Coupled with a kaleidoscopic tribute to jazz giant Charlie Parker, this newest CD by one of today's most important musical pioneers incorporates minimalism, structuralism and post-mod…

Alvin Curran, a persistant innovator in today's new music world, brings the whole environment into unpredictable focus through his sonic fireworks, sharp wit and timeless lyricism. Curran studied with Elliott Carter at Yale in the early 1960's and in 1966 co-founded the legendary Musica Elettronica Viva with Richard Teitelbaum and Frederic Rzewski. He has composed for the Ursula Oppens, and is a close collaborator with the Trisha Brown Dance Company. He is a guest faculty member at the prestigio…

Guitarist Lee Underwood’s syncretic blend of jazz, folk, and blues was a tremendous force behind Tim Buckley’s genre-stretching late 60s/early 70s music – but his 1988 acoustic guitar opus California Sigh has remained a unsung footnote to his story. Until now! This first time vinyl-edition reveals Lee’s free-floating acoustic moods, with synths and co-production from ambient avatar Steve Roach, as a soulful work of tranquility and transcendence.

What you hear on Fly is Yoko Ono’s disarming combination of opacity and visceral, personal transparency in full bloom. It’s also one of the most unbridled, most captivating soul albums ever made. And that’s right where she wants you: Vulnerable, wide open to any-and-everything, ready to have your world tipped onto its head. She’s a master of spinning your head around. First, you get the Bar Band from Hell of “Midsummer New York” to kick things off. It’s about the last thing you’d expect from Ono…

John Cale was never very kind to his solo debut, Vintage Violence. When it was released in early 1970, Cale had been out of The Velvet Underground for less than two years. He wanted to prove he could be the songwriter, the person penning the words and melodies behind which a band could work. “I was masked on Vintage Violence,” he wrote much later. “You’re not really seeing the personality.” Indeed, Cale’s personality as a polyglot seemingly interested in everything emerged more and more on his n…

*100 copies limited edition* Embracing the impermanency of the world and its ever-fluctuating dynamics, salad offers an intimate portrait of life and the sounds that animate it. Riverside Ishiyama opens a window into a typical Japanese apartment, rich with the activities of daily life and the delicate interactions between a new mother and child. The tinkering and whirring of these subtle, incidental sounds commingle with birdsong and the bustling city outside — altogether engrossing the listener…

*100 copies limited edition* A strange and alluring admixture of guitar and sine tones, electronics, and field recordings. The sounds have a crystal-like clarity that allows for the perception of their depths and distances. Its episodic form is structured by a compositional spine — with its irregular vertebrae both cohering its shape and allowing it flexibility. As its title suggests, Looking For A Ruler is involved in the construction of space, the stitching together of a world wherein perspect…

"I listened to the demo recordings for the “Ta Yu Ta I” CD. The track begins with the sound of a stone, and, for a moment I doubted my ears, thinking that it was the iwafue stone flute that I had lost overseas in 2005. The flute actually used on this recording was a replica on an ancient flute, one of three that have been handed down within my family. But until that moment when I heard the sound of it echoing inside my skull, I had completely forgotten about it. It was my living flesh that breat…