Masahide Tokunaga
*2023 stock. 200 copies limited edition* Masahide Tokunaga is a Tokyo-based alto sax player/improviser who carries out extremely distinctive performances comprised mainly of long tones. On the Hitorri label he has released the improvised performance CDs "Alto Saxophone 2" (2015) and "Bwoouunn: Fleeting Excitement" (2017), as well as "while your master is sleeping" (2020), on which he performs a composition by Taku Sugimoto. With the exception of that composition recording, "Masahide Tokunaga" is…
Cold Light In Warm Blue
*200 copies limited edition* Tokyo-based pianist Fumi Endo has been performing since 2017, playing mainly jazz and improvised music. Her distinctive, minimalistic performances have garnered a great deal of attention. Endo has performed frequently at Ftarri since September 2020.
While she participated in two 2022 Ftarri CD releases—Takumi Ikeda’s "Musical Procedure" (Ftarri Classical, ftarricl-663), and the eponymous "Masahide Tokunaga" (Hitorri, hitorri-970)—Endo had no previous releases on Ftar…
A Wayside Shrine
*300 copies limited release* "In early 2000s New Zealand, Little Skull started as a small project. Smallness was perhaps the defining characteristic. Lathe cut 7”s in vanishingly small editions, the intricate, fiddly covers hand- crafted with what one would have to assume were very small hands. Or just with the aid of tweezers perhaps. The labels of these records provided no information beyond an illustration of a small – little even – skull. The music was also mysterious and miniaturized but al…
Odd Jobs Are the High Road of Work
*2023 stock. 200 copies limited edition* This is one in a trilogy of live recordings made at Ftarri, Tokyo, documenting some of guitarist/improviser Tetuzi Akiyama's outstanding performances of 2021. The CD releases feature covers drawn by artist Shigeo Mizuta. The two tracks here (31 and 39 minutes respectively) were recorded at Akiyama's duo concert with percussionist Ryotaro Miyasaka at Ftarri on February 8, 2021. Born in 1995, percussionist Ryotaro Miyasaka lives in Tokyo. In this concert he…
Phase to Phase
*2023 stock. 200 copies limited edition* Katie and Lucio met over the internet almost every Tuesday for one year, composing two pieces, rehearsing, talking about their lives, and recording. The desire to play together began after exchanging work and perceiving a deeply common approach to bass clarinet playing, to sound, and to music. The two pieces offered here are based in a very distinctive but still strictly coherent approach in relation to the work they intend to do.
Phase to Phase 1 is a ce…
Allelopathy
*2023 stock* Ayami Suzuki, a musician based in the Tokyo area, performs a unique kind of ambient drone using electronics and voice. Since 2020 she has been performing at Ftarri in Tokyo, both as a soloist and with other musicians. Acclaimed guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama is active on the international improvised music scene. In 2021 Akiyama gave many outstanding performances at Ftarri; recordings of a number of these concerts were subsequently released as CDs. "Allelopathy" is one of these recordings.…
self-talk
Latest release by Italian London based musician Luciano Maggiore on his own edizioni luma.
Ne Lépj a Virágra
A year and a half has passed since Slovak-Hungarian artist Adela Mede self-released her debut album 'Szabadság'. Its liner notes described it as "a navigation", a search through "the personal, familial, cultural, folkloric and geographic of her past and present." Her second album, 'Ne Lépj a Virágra' no longer searches; here, she puts down roots and delves deeper into the earthy reality of her home, Central Europe. Mede sings in three languages with newfound conviction and grace – this is an alb…
Moonlight Shadoh
After her stunning and well acclaimed debut album ‘For Trainspotters Only’ Ann Eysermans now releases ‘Moonlight Shadoh’, a tribute to her dog Shadoh. A record on which she explores the bond between herself and her faithful canine friend, Shadoh, through an extraordinary musical odyssey. Ann Eysermans masterfully weaves together a tapestry of field recordings, candy-like harmonies and Shadoh's distinctive houndly expressions.
Creating otherworldly compositions that transcends genres which includ…
Liturgy of Lacuna
Vathres is a new project led by Stockholm-based keyboardist and composer Alex Zethson. Their debut record consists of three extensive pieces of cinematic, transcendental, and minimalist post-rock music, with elements of experimental jazz and shimmering electronics. It features a 14-piece ensemble and appearances by guitar-wizard Reine Fiske (Dungen), former Pain of Salvation and Meshuggah-bassist Gustaf Hielm and Cult of Luna-drummer Christian Augustin, among others. The music was recorded, mixe…
It Deel II
*300 copies limited release* For It Deel II the Kleefstra Bros have collaborated with the Norwegian duo Espen Reinersen and Einvind Lønning (who also collaborate as duo Streifenjunko). Ten years ago the Kleefstra Bros saw Streifenjunko perform at Worm, Rotterdam, and this always stuck in memory. This is why now for It Deel II they got together. The music by Reinersen and Lønning, with the use of wind instruments and electronics, is experimental, but open. It finds a way between improv, jazz and …
Hier, l'An 4000
Long after the year 4000, it's highly likely the sun will shine a different light. Equatorial rain belts may have turned into white-ash flotsam. Animal forms will have undergone a major metamorphosis, with only the memories of danger still archaically intact.
Razen tackle the theme of reincarnation hypnosis on Hier L'an 4000, their new album for Hands In The Dark, set for release September '23. Inspired by the writings of Donoso and Slauerhoff, by 1940s SF drawings, sky burials and a fantasy of …
Summer
The trio Lotto consists of: Łukasz Rychlicki (Kristen), Mike Majkowski (Hailu Mergia Trio, Oren Ambarchi Hubris) and Paweł Szpura (Hera, Wovoka). By publishing two completely different materials at the same time, they can cause considerable embarrassment to listeners and journalists or bloggers willing to pigeonhole and define them.
In May 2022, Lotto performed at the Spatif club in Warsaw and it was this concert that gave the impetus to the creation of the Summer album. At that time, the band w…
this is a place where i can sit with clarity
*Limited Edition Handmade CDR in cardboard string sleeve with liner notes and album art.* Intuitive drones that are sometimes spectral. The electronics setup involved resynthesising a few prominent harmonics from a signal as sine tones, moving between said harmonics and sometimes modulating harmonics from one signal with harmonics from another.
a two
The Kyoto-based musician Yusaku Arai is known for his production work in the avant-garde scenes of Japanese hip-hop and R&B. On this solo album, though, he offers more lengthy, piano-centric meditations that use the techniques of musique concrète. Arai’s compositions on the A-side emerged out of a reflection on the corporeal and interwoven relationship between his own body and things he encountered in the world—the ocean, a flower petal, a plastic sheet, a hand. His intent is to represent a proc…
Tabulatura (Volume 2)
Tabulatura is a 2008 indeterminate composition for sixteen pre-recorded guitar parts and computer with custom software. It is conceived as a system to generate different acoustic patterns. The Volume 2 documents eight pieces recorded live at Palazzo Castagna, Città Sant'Angelo, Italy, in November 2020. The album was recorded on two-track, directly on hard drive, without DSP and overdubs.
WA-Zoh
Seminal NYC multi-reedist Doug Wieselman announces arresting new album of birdsong arranged for clarinet, flute, banjo and piano WA-Zoh, released on Shahzad Ismaily’s figureight records. Wieselman has performed with superlative greats (including the Lounge Lizards, Lou Reed, Yoko Ono, Bill Frisell, Iron & Wine, Laurie Anderson, Tricky, Martha Wainwright, Antony and the Johnsons, CocoRosie) and contributed significantly to the NYC Downtown scene over the past three decades. He is described, by NY…
Hope For The Trees / Blodeuwedd
Seminal NYC multi-reedist Doug Wieselman releases a brand new EP of electronic-inflected exploratory pieces. Wieselman has performed with superlative greats (including the Lounge Lizards, Lou Reed, Yoko Ono, Bill Frisell, Iron & Wine, Laurie Anderson, Tricky, Martha Wainwright, Antony and the Johnsons, CocoRosie) and contributed significantly to the NYC Downtown scene over the past three decades. He is described, by NYC Jazz Record, as “a vital force in the New York music scene”.
“Hope For The T…
Chthonic
Tip! "For people on visa in the United States during lockdown, it was impossible to leave and re-enter the country without permanent residency. During that time, my partner’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. My partner could not go home if they wanted to return. We had already decided to get married, but the cancer diagnosis spurred the timeline. One saving grace – our saving grace – was that, with a finished green card application, it was possible to leave and come back. As soon as possible, m…