Experimental / Solo Instrument

Wendy Eisenberg is an extraordinary guitarist dedicated to the completely unconstrained exploration of music, language and time. Her work has taken her from conservatory to DIY space to concert hall, from performing improvised music and punk-metal to writing the quietest of songs. On Its Shape is Your Touch, Eisenberg turns her gaze to the guitar in its most absolute, essential form. Having traversed musical genres as she has, the intricate improvisations she weaves on this record have as…

1993 release ** "Linea d'ombra is the CD from more than twenty years ago with which the author inaugurated his personal journey as an interpreter-composer on the border between the languages ​​of jazz, classical music and rock. At the time, Roberto Verti wrote about it in the presentation of the CD: “A musician with a cult background who moves between the moods of the new age and the high craftsmanship of the academy, between the La Scala scene and minimal, jazz; plays with flutes and combines t…

The inspiration for these pieces comes from the Chinese folklore of Guanyin, a deity whose name translates to ‘the one who perceives all the sounds, or cries, of the world’. Also known as Guanshiyin 觀世音, she is the embodiment of infinite compassion. I grew up knowing of Guanyin as a female deity, but recently discovered that she had transformed through the centuries from the male Hindu bodhisattva, Avalokiteśvara. I instantly found an affinity for this gender-fluid figure, who was said to have a…

*100 copies limited edition* This solo could have been titled "16 Caprices for cello.” As in Paganini's Caprices, all the techniques and virtuosity of the classical tradition are used here, expanded and enriched by the sounds and research of the contemporary one. However, the approach to the instrument is physical and bodily characteristic of European free improvisation and jazz. But as in Tristan Honsinger, Leroy Jenkins or in Cage's Freeman Etudes for violin the focus is always The Music, whos…

Mohammad Syfkhan is a Kurdish/Syrian Singer and Bouzouki player. He began playing music in 1980 while he was in college studying nursing. When he got his degree in 1983, Mohammad moved to the city of Raqqa, Syria where hebegan working as a professional singer and started his own band, The Al-Rabie Band which played concerts, parties, weddings and festivals all over Syria. The Al-Rabie Band were a much sought-after group. Their live sets included Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and some Western songs as…

A tour-de-force of solo improvisation from French trombonist Christiane Bopp, flawlessly captured by sound engineer Jean Marc Foussat, as Bopp transforms her instrument through technical skill, lyrical ability, and unusual technique, creating virtual duets, furtive expression, and thundering emotion, an absolutely impressive example of modern trombone language.

Edition of 500. "Here is the first volume of protean solo improvisations recorded by Loren Connors in his artist's garret in New Haven, Connecticut. It was committed to tape on February 20, 1979 and pressed to vinyl soon after. As with the two earlier LPs on Loren's Daggett label, singer/recorder-player Kath Bloom also appears on this record, although only on the second side. Those prior LPs were both issued in 1978, The first was Acoustic Guitar/Gifts a split LP with Loren solo on one side and …

First ever CD reissue of this little known classic from founding Philip Glass Ensemble member Richard 'Dickie' Landry. Following two jazz LPs issued on the Chatham Square label (which he co-ran), Dickie Landry released Fifteen Saxophones, a set of 1974 recordings done with engineer Kurt Munkacsi, on the Northern Lights and Wergo labels in 1978. Fifteen Saxophones simultaneously demonstrates Landry's boundary-pushing saxophone and his understanding of the minimalists' long-form treatises on sound…

A new album of piano driven ambient music from British composer Robert Haigh. Following in the path of his albums for the Japanese Siren label, Creatures of the Deep is an underground vantage of a meeting between the musical worlds of Harold Budd and Erik Satie.  With a storied musical career that has ranged widely in style — from his industrial-avant-garde works on Nurse With Wound’s United Diaries label as SEMA to his legendary ambient drum and bass records as Omni Trio on Moving Shadow — Robe…

'Marginal Invitation', 'Corrosions on the Surface of Life', 'Cloud Passade No. 3'. Comprised of three balanced examples of his Continuous Music technique on solo piano, Three Solo Pieces serves as perhaps the best introduction the Ukrainian-Canadian composer Lubomyr Melnyk yet available. 'Marginal Invitation' is a subdued work with a deeply rooted melodic sensibility that is rich in overtones, while 'Corrosions on the Surface of Life' exhibits a dissonant fury of patterned note play. The final, …

Tip! Sofa is thrilled to present the beautiful music of the Dutch snare drum player Etienne Nillesen with his new album “en.” With a snare drum only, Etienne explores simplicity of setup, movements, and material, developing music that is full of complexity and depth. Etienne’s technique is highly original, involving the use of a thin drum stick against the surface of a granular drum skin, which produces sustained pitches and harmonic layers. The product of his own groundbreaking research into th…

We are living through the same time. The worst day ever for someone might be a happy day for someone else. "The Days" are solo saxophone pieces of drama from someone's life.

Promise of Faithfulness was created during a winter in Brussels, between the search for new sounds and the interest of what we might call spirits in music. This debut solo album is a tribute to the last words of Albert Camus's speech for the Nobel Prize : "It remains for me to thank you from the bottom of my heart and to make before you publicly, as a personal sign of my gratitude, the same and ancient promise of faithfulness which every true artist repeats to him/herself in silence every day."

Tip! Dan Blacksberg’s Psychic/Body Sound System takes a gutsy leap into a set of otherworldly sub-bass drones, fiery free jazz declamations, and melancholic sonic stories. This fully improvised album, recorded live with no effects or overdubs shows Blacksberg wielding his trombone like a seer across varied sonic environments, real and imagined. Woven together by poetic fictionalizations by Alex Smith and stunning artwork by James Dillenbeck, Psychic/Body Sound System is a trombone-driven reverie…

A host of independent labels sprang up in France during the pivotal period of the 60s and 70s in the course of the cultural and musical revolution then unfolding; labels like the legendary Saravah, BYG, Futura, but also Shandar, a cult label par excellence set up in 1971 by gallery owner Chantal Darcy in collaboration with the journalist Daniel Caux (1945-2008) as artistic director. Just a glimpse at the Shandar catalogue makes one’s head spin, as all of its productions have become key musical r…

*2024 repress* "... The Ohio-based guitarist's artistic leaps in recent years are rivaled only by those of Daniel Bachman, another once-precocious player formerly in the John Fahey / Jack Rose mold who has over the years transcended the idiom to create his own singular, deeply personal music. Rolin's latest LP, the double album The Dreaming Bridge, makes similar strides. For many practitioners of this style, the first and perhaps most challenging feat is to escape the gargantuan shadow of Fahey.…

Ted Byrnes is a drummer/percussionist living in Los Angeles. An alumnus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, he comes from a jazz background and has since made his home in the worlds of free improvisation, new music, electro-acoustic music, and noise. Ted primarily works in ad hoc improvisational settings, but has long standing improvisational groups including duos with Jeff Parker, Chris Cooper, Charlie Mumma, Sam McKinlay, William Hutson, and a trio with Jacob Wick and Michael Foster…

*Limited to 100 copies* "On the solo bagpipe release "Air Drain" Henry Birdsey (Half of Tongue Depressor) creates deep, haunting pieces that entrance the listener. Simple forms that evolve with breath and time."

Ubagabi is a baroque solo violin album recorded in 2019 reinterpreting the myth of Ubagabi, a chicken turning into a fire ball. This album is now finally released on a silk-screened CD, fully equipped with a flammable booklet, an insert, and all fits in a hand stamped rotisserie bag. Mastering by Guillaume Lespinasse.

*100 copies limited edition* With a microscopic focus on the snare drum, Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy extracts and manipulates its sound in a variety of tunings whilst maintaining a precision and simplicity of method and form. This exercise is a common one for the artist, in which he limits both the instruments used and the techniques with which its sounds are processed — in this case using only reverb and hard EQ-ing to engineer the final outcome. Even with these self-imposed restrictions, there is a…

*In process of stocking* ‘A grain of Earth’ is the first solo venture and expression of several years of working with instant compositions and the timbral possibilities of an acoustic piano. This has been wrapped in an idea of realities beyond our perception, and a thought that we are a part of a big organism where everything goes endlessly bigger and smaller in scale of size, time and speed. Everything moves in constantly interfering waves of energy; echoing and reflecting, in ceaseless dance o…

Monophonic is the name of the new album by Maria Bertel. As the title hints the album is a study of music played with 'one voice'. The amplification of the trombone mimics the effect of a magnifying glass, that let otherwise inaudible sounds be heard and brought forward. The compositions are long swathes of sound slowly developing, heavily inspired by drone and noise.

"Tenor saxophonist Ada Rave, born and raised in Argentina, decided to move to Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2013. She had heard ‘the call’, followed her musical intuition and became part of the colorful community of Dutch creative improvised music. Educated in the jazz tradition she started to look for a more personal language. A deep search. Not an easy path to go. The destination is always changing. Each step made will call for a next step. A slow process of collecting material, sounds, techni…

The first solo release of baritone saxophonist Sofia Salvo, “Rotarota” consists of a series of improvised pieces. They evoke emotional memories aspiring to set them free and mutate them into blaring music.

In 2022 Lori Goldston went on a small 4 date tour of Ireland playing in Cork, Limerick, Leitirm and Drogheda. Willie Stewart of Nyahh Records drove her on the tour and recorded each performance. With Lori’s permission, Willie edited and mixed each performance and put them together to make this album. The end result is a collection of improvisations and spontaneous moments. Every performance is drastically different to one another in mood, energy and technique. In these recordings you can hear ho…

Dating back to the 13th century in Wales, the Telyn Rawn is a nearly forgotten horsehair harp; UK improvising harpist Rhodri Davies researched the instrument and its unique sound, commissioning the construction of a harp on which he performs 18 improvisations of impressive technique and sonority, launching his new Amgen Records label with this album named for the instrument. "A Telyn Rawn is a harp strung with horse hair and predates the appearance of the triple, lever and pedal harps. The earli…

Loud Object is the second solo release from artist Billy Steiger, following his self released 'Recordings, drawings and photographs from in and around Fr​î​dd Newydd' in 2016. Both a visual artist and a musician, Steiger’s Loud Object plays as a two sided experiment in markmarking and sound, as a kind of writing by ear - metallic, brushed, wooden - lines imprinted and pressed circular.  The record takes its name from the discarded title of the several-hundred-page draft of Clarice Lispector’s ev…

This bundle includes the following releases on Valentina Magaletti's Permanent Draft label:- Valentina Magaletti "A Queer Anthology of Drums" LP- Valentina Magaletti "Lucha Libre" 12"- Fanny Chiarello "Basta Now: Women, Trans & Non-binary in Experimental Music" Book

*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…

*2023 stock. 250 copies limited edition* Seijiro Murayama is a drummer/percussionist and improviser/composer who lives in Paris. His first CDs on Ftarri's three labels (Hitorri, Ftarri and Meenna) came out in 2009, and he has since released a total of 12 solo, duo, trio and quartet albums on Ftarri labels. Of the solo albums, the first was "Downdate" (2017), followed by "The Empire of Slip of the Tongue" (2018) and "mi-tai" (2020). While "Downdate" and "The Empire of Slip of the Tongue" are elec…

*300 copies limited edition* Jordan Martins: pedal steel, acoustic guitar, synths, percussion Recorded by Jordan Martins at home in ChicagoMastered by Nick Broste All songs by Jordan Martins (BMI), except “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” (traditional, inspired by Eureka Brass Band 1951 version)

*100 copies limited edition* British saxophonist Colin Webster has always had a mono-thematic approach when it comes to making solo albums. From ‘Antennae’ (Gaffer Records, 2013) which dealt purely with micro-sounds and minimal dynamics, to ‘vs. Amp’ (Raw Tonk Records, 2021) which focussed on the sonic capabilities of a baritone saxophone played through a guitar amplifier. Textural Studies – as the title suggests – is no different in approach. Each piece is a deep exploration and thorough interr…

There is a delicacy and a passionate hardness, stripped bare of cloying sentiment. Its rawness is the exuberance of sound overflowing, basking in its self-created luxury…. It is, every bit of it, composed the same moment you hear it.

Silver Dawn is an ethereal collection of improvised vignettes performed on solo Hardanger d’amore, a sympathetic-stringed relative of the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. Resonant strings and wordless vocals are gently guided by the cyclical momentum of dance and the instrument’s lingering overtones, magnifying moments of transience in suspensions of time.

Zurich bass guitarist and composer Martina Berther is known for her delicious basslines in experimental rock outfits Ester Poly and AUL. On this solo debut, she conjures something utterly unique from her instrument. 'Bass Works' showcases Berther's talent and ingenuity across 12 startlingly varied one-take compositions. Taking root in improvisation, the collection unfolds like a playbook of strange and beautiful techniques. Voided melodies, harmonics and surfaces that prickle and collapse in sol…

Huge Tip! The composer, percussionist and instrument builder Limpe Fuchs has spent six decades exploring the outer limits of sound and its effects on the listener. Born in Munich in 1941, Fuchs is part of a generation of German artists who sought radical new approaches to art, music and social organisation in the period following the Second World War. Alloa, Bavarian for alone. Limpe likes to be alone, because she is never lonely. When she is not on concert tours, she cultivates the garden in fr…

Huge Tip! *2024 stock* Four Experiments stemmed from a pandemic fascination with an early book of poetry by Stephen Spender and a desire to explore new ways of viewing my relationship to instrumental, compositional, and improvisatory technique. Each piece here was written to be played by any number of players with any level of background, and they are presented here in solo versions and in small ensembles. Beyond the musical challenges posed through manic repetition, instrumental discomfort, the…

*2024 stock* This album is dedicated to Rosetta Barabino: grandmother, art collector and sparkle of the fire that still burns in the family. This is a collection of material prepared for exhibitions,dance, visual art and theatre pieces; mostly home studio recorded. Intimate, dreamy and inspired by multiple inputs. The first 7 tracks have been conceivedin a deep exchange between words and music with Pavlica Bajsić Brazzoduro, during our art residency in Nantes, during the Trempolino - Slash event…

Limited edition of 200 copies. A double CD set featuring seven solo guitar pieces recorded on the 5th of january 2017 in  Ericeira  II seven solo guitar pieces 1-5 recorded on the 12th, 14th and 15th of may 2017 6 and 7 recorded in Ericeira on the 8th of january 2017. Manuel Mota is a Portuguese guitarist, who might best be described as a somewhat more fluidly lyrical Derek Bailey. Lovingly recorded on solid body electric guitar, his improvisations have the spiky quality associated with the elde…

"The Piano’s been one of the instruments Limpe Fuchs received an academic education for when attending the Music Academy in Munich during the early 1960’s. In the early 1970’s Friedrich Gulda, the world-famous classical pianist, who was eager to leave behind the orthodoxies, limitations and restrictions of the classical music world, got to know Limpe and was inspired by her fearless approach towards music. They started improvising and performing together and their musical dialogue lasted until t…