Jazz /
Innocent Canon
** Coloured Vinyl edition ** Original masters licensed by King Records Japan. Includes OBI and insert. 'Innocent Canon' is one of the hopelessly obscure Japanese underground albums that few people know about. It is a kind of unreleased delirious groovadelic soundtrack played by an acid-soaked Japanese big band with powerful drumming, heavy jazz fumes and delirious organ/guitar lines and luminary narration.Inomata was a well-known jazz musician at the time, but like many of his contemporaries, h…
A Day Of The Sun
** Black Vinyl edition ** A spiritual jazz masterpiece full of poetry by two geniuses of the Japanese musical scene. Masahiko Togashi and Isao Suzuki, pivotal figures in jazz with a unique talent and sensitivity that transcends conventional jazz forms and styles. In addition to being skilled performers they demonstrate extraordinary compositional talent that transcends their sensibilities and wisdom of more conventional jazz.
They are together a wonderful combination of techniques, but without …
Holography
One of the rarest albums ever from the mighty Masahiko Satoh, a composer and arranger,as well as a key figure in the avantgarde music from Japan. Originally issued on Japan Columbia in 1970, the two sides of very free piano show a sensitivity that's really amazing – still moments of freedom that reflect Satoh's connection to the avant garde of the time, interwoven with his own sense of cosmic creation, in ways that are similar to his later projects. Born in Tokyo, in 1941, Masahiko Satoh's earli…
Ecce Homo
Edition of 400, on black vinyl. This is pure gold for the electro-Miles Davis’s lovers. The great saxophonist Gugliemo Pagnozzi directs his band in compositions built on improvisation flows that unfold starting from a minimally organized accompanying rhythmic cell in continuous transformation and in the making, which in turn is developed and modified during the executive-improvisation flow chasing instant dialling. Pressed at Optimal Media.
Strumento di Etimo Incerto
The singular Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach, a long-time member of paradigm-shifting experimental ensembles like Huntsville and Dans les arbes, delivers his eighth solo recording, and his first on the superb Belgian imprint Aspen Edities. The percussionist digs even deeper into his sonic research, transforming a massive bass drum used in orchestral music, as a resonant surface for otherworldly, texture-rich excursions that mix-and-match rhythm and color in ever-shifting combinations.
Variations (LP)
* 250 copies, hand numbered * On Nils Vermeulen’s first solo album, the sound of the double bass is the main variable. Recorded at the empty Ghent Opera, where every note, attack and vibration comes through, including the creaking of the wooden floor. There is no hiding in reverb, nor in easy playing. The strings Vermeulen uses on this recording (‘Tempera’ strings by Gerold Genssler), are inspired by traditional gut strings, and have lower tension to let the instrument resonate freely. The pie…
Story Of Wind Behind Left
** Black Vinyl edition ** Recorded in September 1975 at Columbia Studio, “Story Of Wind Behind Left” is a symphonic poem in the shape of a suite. On the album, Masahiko Togashi uses music to communicate the same feelings evoked by nature. The drummer demonstrates unique composition and performance skills in the way he imitates the sounds of nature or takes inspiration from nature itself to make music. With “Story Of Wind Behind Left” Masahiko Togashi revolutionized the Japanese free jazz scene,…
AMMMusic
The first recording by these pioneers of electro-acoustic improvisation, AMMMusic stands the test of time both as a remarkably prescient session and as an utterly powerful and deep piece of 20th century music
Earth Passage - Density
Super Tip! An outstanding yet obscure 1981 release by two Art Ensemble of Chicago members, multi reeds player Joseph Jarman and drummer Don Moye along with legendary bassist Rafael Garret (mostly remembered for his presence on John Coltrane's masterpiece "Kulu se Mama") and young lion Craig Harris on trombone. Four great individuals digging deep between ancient African rituals and modern urban multidimensional grooves. A tribal ecstatic sound based on a multitude of instruments: reeds, bamboo fl…
Spurious Correlations
Limited edition of 200 copies.* "In statistics, a ‘spurious correlation’ is a mathematical relationship in which two or more events or variables are associated but not causally related, due to either coincidence or the presence of a certain third, unseen, factor. Spurious correlations look like causal relationships in both their statistical measures and in graphs, but they're not real."
Krympende Klode
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Krympende klode is a new collaboration between two internationally recognised musicians from Bergen, Norway: music producer Jørgen Træen, who has worked with talents such as Susanne Sundfør, Thea Hjelmeland and Jazkamer, and the unique and eternally inventive guitarist Stein Urheim, whose releases include 6 albums on the Hubro label. On this album they present their personal collections of synthesisers and string instruments from all over the world, and let …
Sequential Stream
Big Tip! *Limited edition of 500 copies.* Properly transcendent deep-dream jazz fantasy from prolific trumpet virtuoso Arve Henriksen (Supersilent) and Norwegian pianist Kjetil Husebø, together shaping an album that’s much, much more than the not so inconsiderable sum of its parts. Like a fever-dream comedown, it takes us from insanely rich sounding 4th world topographies to fizzing, electric ambience and fluttering prepared piano, perfectly soundtracking the humid un-reality we’re living throug…
Hypnagogic Relapse And Other Penumbral Phenomena
*In process of stocking. 2022 stock.* Penumbra, from the Latin paene (almost) and umbra (shadow), refers to the partially luminescent fringe of an opaque object, like the streetlight outlining the sole of a shoe hurtling towards your eye. Hypnagogic, from the Greek hupnos (sleep) and agōgos (leading), refers to the drowsy state before sleep. Crazy Doberman here comprises 17 players from the greater Europe of the Midwest. Basement glyphs. Who’s on the lease? And what’s under the rug. The owner pa…
Some Time
Tip! *In process of stocking.* Adrianne Munden-Dixon and Leo Chang’s “Some Time” presents stuttering physical exchanges between Munden-Dixon’s violin and electronics and Chang’s amplified piri. These pieces are tense and tightly-woven, yet constantly unraveling and reforming. Chang’s “ampiri” is a Korean double reed instrument running through electronics and played in unconventional and non-traditional ways. Recontextualising the instrument “quasi-autodidactically” aligns with Chang’s approach t…
Speed And Space
**Black Vinyl edition ** Recorded in November 1969 at Teichiku Kaikan Studio, Tokyo, "Speed and Space - The Concept of Space in Music" is one of those landmark works in which Masahiko Togashi is accompanied by talented musicians who possess a unique style and innovative approach. The album is an exploration of Togashi's notion of the “Time Law" and can be seen as a study of how texture, rhythm and differing rates of change effect our perception of the passage of time in music.
Sounding quite o…
Independence
**Black Vinyl edition ** The quintessential album by Takayanagi Masayuki. Considered the 'Lochness monster' of Japanese free jazz records due to its incredible rarity, this album was the debut recording of Takayanagi Masayuki as leader with The New Directions, a trio consisting out of bassist Yoshizawa and drummer Toyozumi "Sabu" Yoshisaburo. Recorded at the Teichiku Kaikan studios on 18 September 1969 (released in 1970), "Independence – Tread on Sure Ground," is largely regarded as the first tr…
Det Försvunnas Namn
*In process of stocking* All compositions by Martin Küchen (STIM/ncb), except "Sheer Life Asleep" and "Hippopotami mit Mensch" by Martin Küchen with recordings made by Chris Watson – "19. Elephants" and "05. Hippopotami" – taken from the album "Outside the Circle of Fire” (TOUCH TO 37). Chris Watson is published by Touch Music/Fairwood Music UK Ltd. "The 5th of December 1931 02.00 AM" is based on the first part of the sarabande from Bach's Cello Suite II, BWV 1008.
Quincicasm (LP)
Saved from the dust of time, here is a truly rare and obscure piece of vinyl by one of the most enigmatic bands in the whole history of British Progressive Jazz. Originally released in 200 copies in 1973 and reissued here for the first time, Quincicasm's only release stands as a brilliant document of the 70's British underground electric jazz scene. Somewhere at the crossing of open form jazz and art rock explorations.
Ken Eley - saxophone, Dick Pearce - flugelhorn, Julian Marshall -vibraphone. …
Spring Collection
Brooklyn based drummer/producer Jason Nazary (of Anteloper) makes his We Jazz Records debut with "Spring Collection", released on 25 June. The album sees Nazary crafting some deliciously sparkly solo cuts plus working long distance with choice collaborators Jaimie Branch, David Leon, Ramon Landolt, Matt Mitchell, Grey McMurray and Michael Coleman. This is essentially a collection of home recordings and the whole operation has an infectious feeling of immediacy to it. The result is improv adjacen…
The Long View
Orfeo 5 formed in 2002 out of a series of text/music projects curated by The Word Hoard artists’ co-op. They’ve composed and toured a number of commissions in different line-ups, and released two CDs, a year on the ice from The Word Hoard in 2009, and in the green castle from Discus in 2017. The core of the group’s sound comes from longstanding members Shaun Blezard on electronics and Keith Jafrate on saxophones, with other players from an extended family of musicians and poets joining them from…