Spaces
*Limited Edition Handmade CDR* Spaces, for solo vibraphone, was composed in 2021 for percussionist Tony Oliver in celebration of more than thirty years of musical collaboration and friendship. The work is nearly 80 minutes in duration when performed in its entirety, but its eight 10-minute iterations (1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b) may also be programmed individually or in suites. Each iteration labeled "a" begins with a group of three pitch-classes that gradually combine with a second trichord…
In Hell
*2023 stock. 250 copies limited edition* It’s not like we’ve been long time followers of Eve Adams. We found out about her around the release of her third record ‘Metal Bird’, in early 2021. A great album that led us to dig through the rest of her discography. We were delighted to find out she’d already put out an ep and two albums. It was ‘In Hell’, released on cassette in 2017, that struck us in particular. An album that, in our opinion, demands to be listened to on vinyl. Eve Adams makes ‘Am…
An Hour For Piano
**Original 1979 copies, still sealed and log time stored (copies may have minimal wear on covers)** A trance music piece made up of repeating 4/4 cells in which an absolutely steady eighth-note motion predominates. Often several cells are going on simultaneously, and one cell frequently mutates into another through the addition or subtraction of a note or two. One has to step back far enough to get a perspective on the large-scale shifts in density and tonality before the impact of An Hour For P…
Still
Efraín Rozas’ "Still" posed this question in the form of an installation made for quadraphonic sound, architecture and light. Still was first developed at Queenslab as part of a one-month residency with The Kitchen, New York City in April 2021. This album is a live, stereo room recording of Still as it was presented over three one-hour viewings.
Divin
*Packaged in a deluxe, gatefold Stoughton tip-on jacket. Hi-res download included* Junko Tange’s second and final album - a minimalistic, phantasmagoric masterpiece of distant, dreamlike voices woven through pulsating, dubbed-out drum machines, synths and static, originally issued by Osaka’s Vanity Records in 1981. Did this unassuming dental student (who vanished from the music world following this release) inadvertently invent dub techno? You be the judge. Label head Yuzuru Agi said this was hi…
Palazzo
Domotic − the alias used by musician Stéphane Laporte − composed and mixed this new album, Palazzo, at the invitation of Ina GRM, and it is a wonderful addition to a career full of projects and numerous releases. Recorded with his favorite analog synth, the SH01, his four-track MT4X and a Copicat tape echo unit, this electronic piece was subsequently mixed in binaural and stereo
In C Pour 11 Oscillateurs Et 53 Formes
Julien Sénélas, Jérôme Vassereau and Soia present a new version of "In C", Terry Riley's seminal work: a musical interpretation with two modular synthesizers (11 oscillators) and a graphic interpretation of the original score.
Unknowable Determinism
Konrad Zuse, who built the first programmable computer (the Z3, in 1941), suggested that the universe is a computer: underlying the known laws of physics is an algorithmic system like a cellular automaton whose computational output is the matter and energy that make up the universe. In this theory, the world is computed through the interaction of billions of simple elements, and the directional time and 3D space that we experience are emergent properties of this computation. The computation is d…
Melodies
*In process of stocking* An extraordinary project arising from Frank Denyer’s ethno-musicological studies in the 1970’s, which forced him to go back to basics and ask himself ‘what is a melody?’ and ‘what is a note?’ Frank answered these questions by composing a series of 25 pieces starting from single-note melodies, through melodies with 2, 3 or 4 notes, ending with more complex pieces with 14- and 15-note melodies. A wonderful double CD, with a 24-page booklet containing an essay by Frank de…
Skal_Ghost
*In process of stocking. 2023 stock* 12k continues in its tradition of collaborative releases presenting a first-time pairing between German artist Arovane and 12k’s Taylor Deupree. Having become aquainted through their shared love of music technology, Uwe Zahn (Arovane) and Taylor Deupree only found it natural to work on a project together based around one of their favorite synthesizers. As Zahn recalls: “After a long email conversation, Taylor and I came up with the idea of recording an albu…
Tail Of Diffraction
*2023 stock* Minamo returns to 12k following 2020’s Superstition where they paried up with singer/songwriter Moskitoo. On Tail of Diffraction the duo joins long-time friend Asuna. A new name to 12k but not to the world of ambient and experimental music where Asuna’s 100 Keyboards has toured stages around the world. Minamo and Asuna have shared the stage many times in concerts and tours over years, however, this is their first recording together. These artists are well known for their mix of elec…
The Prospect
*2023 stock* Giuseppe Ielasi is back following his 2020 release Five Wooden Frames. There he returned to the guitar exploring shifting and modulating loops and the interplay of tuning and drifting to create five stark yet ethereal pieces. On The Prospect, Ielasi sticks to solo guitar but this time in a much more pure form. Each of the two pieces consists of parallel electric guitar lines recorded simply through a tube amplifier free of studio tricks or heavy editing. Like much music written over…
Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo
2023 Repress. Of all the releases on Italy's legendary Cramps Records, Raul Lovisoni and Francesco Messina's seminal LP from 1979 has long remained among the most beloved. Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo not only introduced the world to the work of two gifted composers, but also is notable for being produced by electronic pioneer Franco Battiato. A sister album to Prati Bagnati would be Giusto Pio's breathtaking Motore Immobile, likewise graced with the maestro's gentle hand around the same time…
Semi Mondi
Tip! A musician expresses himself with sound; it seems a triviality, but any thought or idea launched takes shape and can be heard, can be listened to. Thus in a spontaneous way, one after another, particles can end up coming together bearing fruit, creating environments and scenarios, evolving. In this case, Maurizio Abate decides to paint short sound pictures, which become real pieces. These pieces are submitted to the listening of friends, who by free associations name them following their ow…
l'Egitto prima delle Sabbie
*White vinyl repress* Mindblowing! The last album of what could be called Franco Battiato's "experimental prog" period, L'Egitto Prima Delle Sabbie consists of two sidelong compositions strictly arranged for piano only, without any vocals; and even more intriguingly, neither of the performers on the album are Battiato himself. He limited himself strictly to the roles of composer and producer. After Battiato's many different sonic explorations and efforts throughout the '70s, such an effort may s…
Lamunan
*300 copies limited edition* Forged alone in a cave on the island of Java, and recorded in a fortress in Poland, Antonina Nowacka’s “Lamunan” is an intimate exploration of a mysterious darkness and the earliest of musical forms. Nowacka has co-created raw electronics and audiovisuals as half of WIDT and the enigmatic Mentos Gulgendo, but her solo practice focuses solely on the voice’s inherent connection to mental states, its ability to speak wordlessly, and the apparatus of speech itself – lead…
Live In Antwerp
*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.
White Dove Dream
* Edition of 300 . In process of stocking* Icebear is Eilis Mahon, a musician from Kildare, Ireland, currently based in Limerick City. The liminal space between storytelling and dreaming is full of noise. Like whispers, flickering lines of static travel to the rhythm of tension, moving through moments of stillness and chaos. The sharp details of the hyper-personal become shared memories.
Dreams can be stories, their fabric transient and their logic malleable - like folk songs carrying ancient…
Nurturing Exhibitions
*Limited edition of 200 copies. Includes a 48 pages art book and 2CD.* Six musical compositions by Phill Niblock, soil and cutting tree of Amanatsu orange from Masanobu Fukuoka Natural Farm, wooden pedestals, speakers, wooden benches, wooden planter, acrylic case, water, sunlight. An exhibition by Mathieu Copeland.
Nurturing Exhibitions was one of two concomitant exhibitions that formed Exhibition Cuttings at Le Forum / Fondation Hermès in Tokyo, Japan between April 23rd (Fri.) and July 18th (Su…
Borderland Melodies
Three wonderful recent compositions by acclaimed Swiss composer Jürg Frey - ‘Movement, Ground, Fragility’, ‘L’état de simplicité’ and ‘Borderland Melodies’. All beautifully played by Apartment House"The original idea had been for a CD of pieces that use both clarinet and bass clarinet, which would have given me the opportunity to play alongside Heather Roche, Apartment House’s regular clarinetist. However, the pandemic intervened and limited my activities as a player. Then I was seriously ill fo…