Experimental / Avant-Garde

First album in seven years from Maple Death Records founder James Jonathan Clancy (Italy/Canada), and the first under his birth name following previous ensembles His Clancyness (Fat Cat, Maple Death) and Brutal Birthday (Total Punk, Improved Sequence). In the interim between those projects and this latest, ‘Sprecato’, Clancy has refined and honed his vision —steadily and carefully drawing from a host of disparate influences to create a new kind of singer-songwriter album that bridges the divide …

Tip! *2024 stock. 20 copies limited edition* "Monumental Indifference attunes the listener to an insular world of surprising density and rich texture, pricking the ears towards hyper-awareness of the unpredictable movements of metallic objects and the subtle hues of whistling tones." – Adam Zuckerman

Full Spectrum Records returns with a new exploratory edition from players Al Jones, Lori Goldston, Greg Kelley, and Austin Larkin: ‘Miasms.’

Tip! *2024 stock* Full Spectrum rides again with a very special long player from our “house band,” Tender Crust, with the release of their latest set of recordings – ’Convexity.’ Now a quartet – with the inclusion of bass clarinetist Rebecca Hubsher, alongside returning band members Gretchen Korsmo, Carl Ritger, and Andrew Weathers – the group traveled to the far reaches of northern Colorado to record in the otherworldly acoustics of Rangely’s Tank Center for Sonic Arts. Located on the outskirts…

This newest edition of The Hermetic Organ is a beautiful and evocative tribute to one of John Zorn’s biggest mentors, the pioneer West Coast visionary, Terry Riley. Performed Mat San Francisco’s historic Grace Cathedral during the epic concert series presented by Fred Barnes at the Great American Music Hall in September 2023 for Zorn’s 70th birthday, this is one of the most touching and personal of all Zorn’s organ recitals. Present in the audience were a large number of the composer’s closest a…

* Temporary nice price * Reissue of a true avantgarde-rock classic: Skeleton Crew were the maverick duo of Ex-Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith and the great late cellist Tom Cora. Formed during one of Frith's early American residencies, Skeleton Crew was a legendary two man crew who somehow - in real time, managed to play all their instruments, cello, bass, electric guitar, violin, vocals - as well as, drum parts dislocated between the two of them. No one sounded like Skeleton Crew, ever. An unpre…

"It's tempting to view guitarist Kris Gruda, a North Carolina resident, as part of a lineage of demented Southern avant-pickers stretching back to Chadbourne, and while that's not false, it's unnecessarily reductive. Gruda is but one particle in a contemporary wave of traveling minstrels plying the interstates and unnumbered highways of the Deep South, navigating between pickup gigs in urban centers from Asheville to Baton Rouge to Jacksonville to Amarillo, dipping into the free jazz songbook an…

Tip! *2022 stock. In process of stocking* Their second duo recording, the follow-up to 1999's Apertura. Off-Road finds the two of them forsaking their earlier, glacially meditative m.o. for a shower of digitally recomposed slivers, the metal-on-metal timbre of a saxophone equipped with contact mics, Grubbs's chiming electric guitar, and Gustafsson's pro rhythm analog synthesizer clipped to the bell of his horn.

*2023 stock* "A blend of intonation and improvisation, The Eternity-Cult is a harmonies-across-the-seas program featuring the trumpet and objects of Birgit Ulher from Northern Germany with the double bass (Damon Smith) and percussion and electronics (Chris Cogburn) from the southern US. Despite geographical distances the three are equally committed to free-from improvisation. This disc's single 37-minute track finds the trio exploring textures and pitches from minimalist to embellished, while ma…

LP ltd to 400, black vinyl, 2 color silkscreened jacket with obi (grey, tan), inserts and a postcard. An’archives are pleased to announce the release of a self-titled album by Tori Kudo & 3C123. A reissue of a cassette that was originally released on Uramado in 2020, this is the first time this live session has appeared on vinyl. The performance, featuring Kudo on piano and 3C123 on clarinet, was recorded on October 18, 2009, at the Uramado venue in Shinjuku. A beautiful and quixotic forty-minut…

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 performing at the first edition of …

** 42-minute lime green cassette with full-color six-panel j-card in clear Norelco case, plus full-color outer o-card featuring collage art by Rrill Bell **  Following up on 2020's critically acclaimed "Ballad of the External Life" LP, Rrill Bell's latest outing on Elevator Bath is a complex amalgamation of acoustic source materials (metallophones, winds, strings, and brass), (cassette) tape treatments, and digital assemblages, which coalesced over a period of six years, starting from the artist…

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…

Repress of this gem by Jon Collin. Recorded in Stockport (UK) and Stockholm (SE) in late 2016 and early 2017, inside and outside. First released on Early Music, autumn 2017. This is the second vinyl pressing. Two-colour riso-printed cover pasted onto kraft brown or reverse-board white sleeves, with insert and hand-stamped labels.

*200 copies limited edition* And if we thought we couldn't top a line-up, here's this unique quartet who brings a totally different experience. While Garuda Trio with special guest Rodrigo Pinheiro musters a fine balance between classic free jazz and improvisation, this quartet dives deep into the fantastic realm of pure improvisation and textural dialogue : the electronics of Carla Santana, the subtle horn contribution of José Lencastre, Maria do Mar drawing linear lines on the viola and the ev…

*200 copies limited edition* Our 2nd release in the Axis series, graced with the beautiful b&w photography of Martina Verhoeven, is a special one.  When José Lencastre came over last year for a recording with Dirk Serries (a pending release somewhere), we did this last-minute trio concert for the Jazzblazzt series in The Netherlands.  With Martina Verhoeven on the electric crumar piano, this trio became something else.  Tryptophan Suite represents the very first notes this new trio played togeth…

*In process of stocking* Nuke Watch wade out into liquified ephemera and ride their muggy percussive loops to safety. A foamy, landfill jazz collage originally performed in Antwerp now committed to tape.

Thermal (John Butcher / Andy Moor / Thomas Lehn) formed in 2001, three musicians from different musical backgrounds, evolving along their personal routes to meet in free improvisations. For twenty years they’ve been taking their subtle and explosive music throughout Europe. Unsounds released their first album Thermal in 2003. In 2023 the trio of quiet giants comes back with Ice in a Hot World, a new album recorded live in Avignon. The Thermal powerhouse has become highly confident but spontaneit…

** 2024 Repress. The complete official lifetime releases of This Heat: This Heat, Deceit, Health and Efficiency, Made Available and Repeat, re-mastered and re-packaged, with a substantial (48pp) book of interviews, recollections, information, documents and photographs in a sturdy box, PLUS a new CD of concert recordings **  This Heat were born in the years immediately preceding punk rock. Severe young men Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward were making things go pish-ding-whoosh on London’s free-…

*150 copies limited edition* Nate Scheible makes amorphous music that evades easy classification. Whether working with electronics or as a drummer, his fascination with tone and texture results in a sense of playful exploration, undercutting the stoicism that defines so much contemporary ambient music and free improvisation. Sounds quiver at the edge of existence, flickering imperceptibly between presence and absence. The boundary between the familiar and otherworldly blurs as he approaches the …

* Vinyl edition, limited to 200 hand-stamped copies * Twelve years since 2008, year zero in the documentation of Angelos Kyriou’s works, 2020 saw the long-awaited release of an expansive compilation of his music from the Agios Anthropos label (KLIMA). Rekem in its turn presents the edition at hand, a more current offering of where Angelos’ music sits today. A warm evening live in front of friends, a healthy 11min dose from the last few days of 2019, offers us the occasion for this rough gem. Pan…

** 500 copies ** Never heard before until its release on CD in 1997 (on Spa-lax Records), Unnamed was recorded a year before Lard Free’s first album and shows a band that totally foresaw the Rock In Opposition movement. Aventurous, never afraid to explore unknown musical lands, Lard Free definitely owns its place in the great History of Rock Music.Recorded in 1971/1972, these  Lard Free "lost" recordings document an interesting, primitive period of the band and shows Artman and Co. moving freely…

** 500 copies ** Released in 1975 with a slight line-up change, I’m Around About Midnight shifts from rock to a more electronic ap-proach thanks to Richard Pinhas (Heldon) skills with keyboards. More experimental and sophisticated than ever, it shows a band searching for constant musical absoluteness.Lard Free's second album was recorded in Paris in a three day session and released in 1975 on Vamp. The lineup is totally different from the first LP and as mentioned it features long time friend Ri…

"Music for Two Flutes is one of those numerous documents of modern composition with deceptively humble titles. Both "Ceòl Meadhonach" and "SLUB", the pair of pieces presented on this digipak release from Hideous Replica, are certainly written for and performed by flutes, but what each actually sounds like transcends (yet does not hide) such a minimal approach. I’m revealing my own inexperience when I admit I have always associated the instrument with an almost saccharine whimsicality, all delica…

*Comes with a 72 page booklet including texts and pictures* All in all, there are more than 50 pieces, new and old, live and studio, finished pieces and scores to be performed, acoustic and classical, solos and pieces for ensemble, using classical and special instruments. Archivio Conz in Berlin provided access to their extensive Fluxus archives and Edizioni Conz provided coproduction. Ursula and René Block made possible the realisation of John Cage's historical composition Rozart Mix from the E…

The long-awaited LP reissue of the avant-garde pop band Noizunzuri, acclaimed as the Japanese Neu!, is here. This first album, originally released in 1985 through Telegraph, features the enigmatic participation of Jun Togawa on vocals. It's a bizarre record that represents indigenous Japanese rock originating from Kyoto.

Play this thing over and over because one solitary spin won’t come close to doing it justice—you can go down this disc’s labyrinth of ingenuity for years and hardly ever come up for breath." - Darren Bergstein

*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…

* Digipack CD edition * Ghédalia Tazartès left us in February 2021 when we had just finalized the editing and the cover art of his new album with him. Unfortunately he will never see the finished object. This record is therefore particularly important for us. He opened his archives to us so that we could select unpublished pieces with him and organize them in two long suites. This work took almost two years (finding the pieces among dozens of sometimes very old CD-Rs, checking that these pieces …

*300 copies limited edition* Casimir Liberski, pianist, improviser and composer widely recognized in Belgium as one of the most gifted jazz musicians, joins forces with renowned Japanese drummer and composer, Tatsuya Yoshida, founder of the group Ruins, he is considered a monument in the realm of Japanese avant-garde music. This duo brings together two generations and two distinct worlds of sound to deliver free improvisation and syncretic new music on their debut album “Troubled Water". Ranging…

From the lower registers of the piano, a rumbling cloud of sound appears, in which sparkling overtones creates melodies and rhythms that points out the directions of the composition. In this sound world Earth meets Morton Feldman; meets Noto/Sakamoto; meets Philip Corner's piece "Gong" in its transcribed version for low strings. The Korg MS20 interferes now and then, making it impossible to clearly define the boundaries of the piano. The album download comes with a 99 page thesis in Swedish with…

Horse Lords return with Comradely Objects, an alloy of erudite influences and approaches given frenetic gravity in pursuit of a united musical and political vision. The band’s fifth album doesn’t document a new utopia, so much as limn a thrilling portrait of revolution underway. Comradely Objects adheres to the essential instrumental sound documented on the previous four albums and four mixtapes by the quartet of Andrew Bernstein (saxophone, percussion, electronics), Max Eilbacher (bass, electro…

Carl Stone continues his late career prolific renaissance with a new album of sculpted, tuneful MAX/MSP fantasias. Stone “plays” his source material the way Terry Riley’s In C “plays” an ensemble – with a loose, freewheeling charm connected to the ancient human impulse to make sound, melody, and rhythm from anything. Stone’s unique technique simultaneously focuses and sprays sound like a symphony of uncapped fire hydrants. Is this techno, avant-garde, sound art? It’s simply (or rather fantastica…

Reading Group is thrilled to introduce the debut LP from a new improvising group of three singular artists: Fred Moten (voice), Brandon López (double bass), and Gerald Cleaver (drums). López and Cleaver have been improvising together as a duo for a number of years, over which they’ve developed a secret, unspoken language of organically growing repetitive figures in a wide range of sonic palettes. López and Cleaver have long been recognized as some of the most vital voices in contemporary experim…

Joanna Mattrey & gabby fluke-mogul, two of the most radical & revolutionary New York-based improvisers, join forces in the birth of Oracle. Rejoicing in the strange magic of sound, the duo weaves together new worlds while simultaneously destroying the ones that no longer serve them. Oracle is a declaration, a remedy, and a revelation.

Horizontal shift, features the international trio, from Germany and U.S., of Birgit Ulher, Carol Genetti, and Eric Leonardson. The CD consists of a live performance recorded in 2018 at Elastic Arts in Chicago. Having known each other since the late 1990s, it wasn’t until early 2018 that Ulher, Leonardson and Genetti were able to perform as a trio at Elastic Arts in Chicago. All three are seasoned performers in their own right — each bringing their distinct palettes in combination to create an im…

Monster Mélodies presents the second in a two-part unpublished recording of a concert by Brigitte Fontaine and Areski Belkacem at studio 102 of the Maison de la Radio dating May 21st, 1973. Areski Belkacem and Brigitte Fontaine, major artists of the French counterculture, were often be censored or deliberately ignored by the media due to their libertarian positions. Obtaining success at a late stage, it was not until the album Kékéland in 2001 and Rue Saint Louis en l'Ile in 2004, for Brigitte F…

Obscure 1970's French underground band cantered around Robert Diaz and Florence Leroy. Other members have included Armand Miralles and Kristof Temple. Feeling like a mix of Etron Fou Leloublan and Faust (in acoustic mode that is), with hints of Albert Marcoeur, Red Noise, it is full of invention and typically French eccentric touches. It was also much touted by Chris Cutler (of Henry Cow fame) at the time as the French Faust.Double CD retrospective of this amazing « mysterious » underground Fren…

Tip! *315 copies limited edition* The latest release on An’archives, Suikyō, documents a first-time meeting between three Japanese improvisers: Takashi Masubuchi on guitar and harmonica; Ayami Suzuki on voice and electronics; and Tomo on hurdy-gurdy. Recorded at Permian on the 29th of January, 2023, it’s a stunning, forty-minute long improvisation of rare artistic sympathy. Notably, it was the first time the trio had performed together, though Masubuchi and Suzuki have prior form as a duo; on th…