"Water Damage is ten people from one town and one sound from twelve people. For Instruments, the plus two are guitarist David Grubbs and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, neither of whom blunt the angle or confound the aim. The tempo? Slow and low. Four tracks, averaging twenty minutes each, the pace never above a comfortable walk. The damage creeps, a forest becomes a mountain, and the faithful move forward. The album is named after Fugazi, in a manner, and 'Reel 25' takes after the Shocklee Brothers, in a cry. Stop asking the lord how many drummers this band has and ask him how much of your mind, babe. Some people say drone and same people say trance and some people say invocation through patterned unity. Some people just say rock and we let them set their clocks back. Lie down and let these holy treads flatten you. Just because Water Damage know what they are doing doesn't mean you have to. Fix your hearts or die!" -- Sasha Frere-Jones

Annie A, the one-off collaborative project between Félicia Atkinson, Time is Away, Christina Petrie, and Maxine Funke, arrives on A Colourful Storm with an inquisitive, exploratory composition evoking questions of inconstancy and reconciliation, vastness and finitude and the sometimes-cruel deception of human perception. It is a geographically diverse yet like-minded ensemble whose seeds were sown during an A Colourful Storm show in London, where time on stage was shared by Atkinson, Time is Away and Petrie. Atkinson had previously found solace in Time is Away's Ballads, Funke's Seance, and particularly the voice of poet Petrie, whose delivery drifts from a wide-eyed stream of consciousness to crystalline sensory expression. It is the perfect accompaniment to Atkinson's hushed tones, spoken sensitively like a mother to a resting child. Atkinson's evocative sonic landscapes are formed from keyboard, voice and organic materials collected from life on the dramatic coast of Normandy, as well as field recordings from places far and wide. She breathes life into liminal spaces, the sound of wind, whispers and the distant clatter of rocks conjuring visions of places both beautiful and eerily familiar. Time is Away delicately arranges the field of sounds, their weaving and layering likened to the assembly of an Anni Albers textile. The spirit of Albers guides the piece, Petrie's recounting of her loom and thread a symbol of her endurance, vitality and seeking wonder in intricacies. The piece also features an exclusive concluding track by Maxine Funke, whose meditation on vulnerability confronts and surrenders herself to the enchanting natural world.

After a two-year hiatus following his critically acclaimed fifth album Orbs, Anthony Naples returns with his sixth album, Scanners, featuring ten new songs.

Causa Sui return with the perfect companion to From The Source (EPR 076CD, 2024). Whereas that record was a tightly structured piece of work, that condensed many aspects of the band's sound into a concise 45-minute LP, In Flux presents the more loose and impulsive side of Causa Sui. After an introductory suite in classic Causa Sui territory, with deep fuzz riffs and syncopated grooves, things gradually become more outlandish. The band channels Hot Rats-style jazz fusion, the oceanic post-rock of late-period Talk Talk, and the impulsive, anarchic experimentalism of Can's Tago Mago into their own beatific brew. On "Spree," the band abandons guitar entirely, relying on a dual synthesizer on top of drums and bass instead, yet maintains that uniquely Sui-an vibe. The centerpiece in this set, "Astral Shores," unfolds over 16 minutes -- from gently hypnotic, ritualistic folk, through motoric psychedelia and back again. It's been many years since Causa Sui have sounded this unmoored on a studio record. In Flux is an essential chapter in the band's ever-changing oeuvre. Each track has a character all off its own, taking the listener somewhere different.

The Fun Years, comprised of multi-instrumentalists Ben Recht and Isaac Sparks, have been making music together since the turn of the century, producing intriguing interrogations of ambient, drone, post-rock, and turntablism. Originally released in 2008 on the now-defunct Barge Recordings, baby it's cold inside is perhaps the high watermark of their discography. Equally concerned with microtonal nuance and harmonic intensity, it is both a product of its time and something well past it. The chief protagonist is surely the turntable, deployed to create woolly, evocative loops from unidentifiable source material that recall, at times, the work of Philip Jeck or Jan Jelinek -- churning, roiling, hissing, atrophied textures further articulated with nuanced processing and buoyed by baritone guitar drones and anti-riffing. The title of opener "my lowville" feels like a wink to the famed slowcore duo, with spare post-rock motifs hovering in a dusty ether, slowly consumed by distorted washes of rich, harmonic sound. One of the most satisfying aspects of the album is that despite the recumbent nature of most of their sound design choices and compositional proclivities, Recht and Sparks are loath to sit still. "auto show of the dead" is a serpentine piano/guitar exploration full of subtle detail, preceding the immaculately titled "fucking milwaukee's been hesher forever," in which the tactile delights of clicks and cuts are liberated from the laboratory and allowed to slum it in the world of tape gunk and '90s plate reverb. Later, "re: we're again buried under" presents an inky black ambience that feels truly expansive and almost overwhelming, and closer "The Surge is Working" tears apart an anthemic shoegaze dirge at the seams, leaving only billowing filtered noise and negative space in its wake. Presented here with a brilliant remaster by LUPO, baby it's cold inside should be considered alongside records like Belong's October Language and Polmo Polpo's Like Hearts Swelling -- an arresting early aughts ambient marvel that warrants ongoing investigation.

Perila returns with a contemplative spiritual successor to her album 7.37/2.11, which was also released on Vaagner's sister label A Sunken Mall back in 2022. Featuring a collection of eight pieces produced between 2021 and 2023, the album carries a serene vulnerability that underpins each work, drawing the listener in while gently grounding them amidst a drifting, ephemeral motion of echoing voices, droning guitars and sonorous soundscapes. Like a whispered conversation in the quiet moments of the day. Perila has once again created a world unto itself, one that doesn't need to be understood but simply felt. If anything, it's an album that brings listeners back to the present, reminding them that the chaotic disarray of the world outside can be addressed and mitigated through their internal landscape. By embracing imperfection and forging new paths, The Air Outside Feels Crazy Right Now is a testament towards Perila's ability to turn fragility into a powerful form of strength.

2025 repress. "This compilation is dedicated to the memory of the late great 'Prince' Philip Smart -- the first apprentice of King Tubby and the first engineer at Tubby's studio besides Tubby himself. Alongside Tubby, Philip was integral to the innovation that took place at Tubby's studio in the mid-1970s, where the mixing of new roots reggae revolutionized the sound of Jamaican music and created styles and techniques that are still being echoed today, nearly 50 years later. Though rarely credited on records in comparison to Tubby, Philip also mixed a lot of the paramount music produced by those close associates of Tubby's studio such as Bunny Lee, Yabby You, and Augustus Pablo. Philip was closely tied to Pablo due to their childhood friendship and was a partner in his stylistically significant early production works. In the early years of Tubby's studio, both men were making and cutting custom dubs there for their sound systems before starting to produce their own tunes from scratch, and Philip becoming the second chair engineer. Several of the songs on this compilation are a selection of the aforementioned work. All of the songs here are sourced from Philip's personal tape archive, and basically all of these mixes and versions have been scarcely if ever heard, and never released before. This double album comprises a rare and genuine glimpse into the dubplate workings of the inner circle of Tubby's studio in the mid-1970s, where the prime players and emerging giants of reggae music production and sound system versioned, remixed and voiced rhythms for custom and exclusive cuts. Some of the cuts heard here were formerly exclusive power plays on King Tubby's own legendary sound system, and unlike some previous issues of such material, these are genuine mixes done at the time. Some other tracks clearly exude the youthful enthusiasm of the participants. Rest in power Prince Philip Smart." --RB/DKR, Summer 2023

Efficient Space charts Ghost Riders' North American roadmap, crashing into 1973 New York to ignite the unfiltered teen dreams of Dennis Harte. In the late '60s, 11-year-old prodigy Dennis Harte was handed a Sears-bought Silvertone 1448, its in-case amplifier primed for street-level incantations. Recruiting two neighborhood friends, the trio hammered out raw rhythms, drawing in Brooklyn's wandering bohemians, keen to glimpse a prepubescent Alex Chilton in the making. Also jamming with his older brothers, Bart and John, a family friend introduced the siblings to budding music exec Carl Edelson, who had spent the better part of two decades hustling through a string of local labels. A father figure of sorts, Edelson backed them immediately, facilitating sessions at the famed A-1 Sound Studios and Sanders Recording Studio and pressing four 7"s on his newly minted Roundtable Records. To maximize his chances of courting major labels, he strategically assigned each release a different artist name -- Dennis Harte, Pure Madness, Harte Brothers and the wryly titled Harte Attack. Dennis' emotional maturity and sheer talent bleed into the defining "Summer's Over," penned by Edelson and once recorded by mid-'60s New Jersey garage vocal group The Wouldsmen. Morphing into an unfathomably teenage, blue-eyed soul/psych lament, it aches for a season slipping away forever. Its Harte Attack edition counterpart -- the candied ballad "Running Thru My Mind" -- delivers unison harmonies and kinetic guitar interplay with a streetwise punch, channeling the spirit of NYC-area icons The Rascals, The Lovin' Spoonful, and The Youngbloods. Roaring like the Spencer Davis Group, Pure Madness' organ-driven bruiser "Freedom Rides" screams of biker gangs, yet its true subject -- '60s civil rights activists the Freedom Riders -- looms as another towering theme for an adolescent perspective. Meanwhile, the loose, bluesy ruckus "Treat Me Like a Man" digs back into Edelson's catalogue, covering the Beatles-inflected Levittown group The Shandels. Though Dennis later found success touring with Wilson Pickett and now doubles as a piano tuner to the stars, these four snapshots frame ambition on its outer edge -- a heartfelt homage to an unbreakable brotherhood.

Double LP version. Pickled Eggs and Sherbet is the sole album by English electronic group All Seeing I -- the production trio of Dean Honer, Jason Buckle, and Richard Barrett (aka DJ Parrot). Part of the late nineties big beat/trip hop scene, it brought together many disparate threads of the Sheffield's music scene past (and then) present including contributions from the likes of cabaret crooner Tony Christie, Human League frontman Phil Oakey and Pulp's Jarvis Cocker. Lead single "The Beat Goes On" which had a huge viral moment on TikTok and social media in 2022, becoming one of the most widely used "Sounds" in recent years accruing 2.4 billion views and 162k creations. The follow up "Walk Like A Panther" peaked at #10 in the UK Singles Chart. Featuring vocals from Tony Christie, it became his first hit single in 25 years. Also appearing for the very first time on vinyl as collector red and yellow double LP (LMS 5521974).

Double LP version. Pink color vinyl. "What happens when you combine SUMAC, a band that uses the volume, distortion, and guitar-centric approach of metal to make music that has the malleability of jazz and textural exploration of noise with Moor Mother, a poet and sound artist that has deconstructed hip hop to a point where it's less about rhyme and rhythm (though obviously both are present in her work) and more about oratorical cadence and power? The Film is an album that takes attributes of both artists' work and finds common ground in shifting musical patterns, and expressive force. The record is a musical thumbing of their noses at the more traditional approaches of their respective fields, an innovative, powerhouse of an album. The Film's moniker speaks to the fact that it is conceived and delivered as a complete album, a full story or narrative. Moor Mother puts it best: 'The idea is to create a moment outside of the convention. This is a work of art. Thinking about the work as a film, instead of an album or a collection of songs. This task is impossible in an industry that wants to force everything into a box of consumption. You won't understand or get the full picture until the artwork is completed. This work is developing and is requesting more agency within the creative process.' The Film does have clear themes running throughout -- again Moor Mother expounds: 'the themes are universal in nature -- land -- displacement -- the climate -- human rights and freedoms -- war and peace -- the idea of running away from the many violent forces and horrific systems of man and empire.' Heavy, holy, hypnotizing -- beyond existence, beyond the fettered constraints of normality, past the false notions of the indoctrinated disguised as the organic, planets form; the detritus of cosmic stuff merges into galaxies, into something that can sound like it's populated by suns. The Film is just such a work, a nebulitic collaboration between SUMAC and Moor Mother. The Film was recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle with Scott Evans. The album includes appearances by guest vocalists Kyle Kidd, Sovie, and Candice Hoyes."

"like self-perpetuating obstacle courses in hell. Ricocheting between formidable doom and barbed improvisation, Sumac sound preternaturally belligerent." --Pitchfork, 8.4 Best New Music

"her music sustains a constant, complementary tension between the hushed, folkloric mantras and defiant Afrofuturist litanies she shares, her sound drawing freely from noise, jazz, blues and beats while respecting the practice of each mode." --The Guardian

Tuning the Wind was created in 2022 as an installation piece. Since then, it has been adapted into multichannel, 4DSOUND, and stereo installations, as well as performed live on numerous occasions around the world. The piece has a duration of 36 minutes and 15 seconds. For the vinyl pressing, it has been divided into two parts. Composer Aimée Portioli, known professionally as Grand River, recorded various types of wind and then reworked them through layering and pitch adjustment to create a musical piece where the wind itself becomes a prepared instrument. At times, the sound of the wind is tuned to the 440 Hz reference, while at other times, the instruments are tuned to the sound of the wind. In Tuning the Wind, nature and music merge seamlessly. Synthesizers and wind recordings become indistinguishable, blending natural sounds with human-made instruments. The boundary between a gust of wind and an instrument-generated sound fades away. Human artistry and nature's symphony merge to become one. Wind is air in motion. It makes no sound until it encounters an object. The sounds it produces depend on the strength of the wind and the shape and material of the object it touches. When the wind blows, trees sway, buildings rattle, materials move, and sound waves are generated. Some believe that temperature changes create layers of air, and that the friction between them forms a unique sound -- perhaps the true voice of the wind, which birds may be the only creatures capable of recognizing. Sometimes the wind howls; at other times, it sings or whistles, shifting from a gentle murmur to an angry roar. The wind's range of frequencies, tones, and timbres is vast and varied. Tuning the Wind is a piece about the wind, made with the wind -- an abstract expression of our ongoing conversation with nature.

Ultra limited edition on white vinyl. Consists of four different artworks (BUY, OBEY, WATCH TV, SLEEP) -- no repress! Please mind that you will receive a random selection of the artworks. A specific selection cannot be guaranteed. Full soundtrack of John Carpenter's cult sci-fi/action/horror cult film They Live (1988) in never released on vinyl before expanded edition from legendary composer Alan Howarth. Blues riffs surf on ambient synth, saxophone and harmonica mingle with sparse alien electronics and abstract soundscapes -- Alan Howarth's score perfectly matches the eerie paranoid urban Western meets corporate sci-fi vibe of John Carpenter's iconic movie. This version, officially licensed from Alan Howarth, includes all 29 tracks from the soundtrack -- the true complete music scores of They Live!

4LP set in 1cm slipcase sleeve with 12-page booklet with photos and text by Robert Fesler and Baudouin Oosterlynck. Edition of 200 copies. An anthology of the intensely arresting work of Robert Fesler (1936-2023), revealing many of his compositions (1975-1987) created with his self-built synthesizers, with as pinnacle the "μP RPF78." All music composed and recorded by Robert Fesler at his home on rue Cour Boisacq in Bierges, Belgium. Except one, all tracks are previously unreleased. With profound simplicity and devotion, Fesler paints a hermetic inner world with strong emotions of confronting solitude, sensual alienation and traumatic angst. His music was as much a therapeutic treatment as an artistic expression. Fesler quotes, "Building my synthesizers and working with them enabled me to sublimate my anxieties." Most tracks were played and recorded real time, often with two synthesizers (the Synthese 756 and the μP RPF78), capturing the heat of the moment in one take, without multitracking. The austere and reductionist approach reinforces the overall spirit of his work, resulting in an engaging, mysterious solitary journey. It's quite incredible how one person can put so much technical cerebral content in the development of a machine and use it in such an emotional way. The music of Robert Fesler might be considered as very Belgian. To situate it within a close entourage, one can say it has: The endurance of Baudouin Oosterlynck; the purity of Dominique Lawalree; the mysticism of Arsène Souffriau. Anthology produced by Timo van Luijk. Tape transfers by Timo van Luijk. Mastering by EARLabs.

First LP in the Signature Series, a small new series in the Metaphon catalog, documenting previously unreleased archive works of less known composers. Metaphon presents their "signature" in the most personal and elementary way. Raoul De Smet (1936), mainly known for his numerous instrumental and chamber music works, started composing in the early 1960s. Between 1974 and 1989 he also recorded several electro-acoustic compositions at the IPEM in Ghent, one of the more approachable crossroads for experimental music creation at the time. His work carries different moods and contrasts, a sort of expressive eclecticism where straight forward evolution often prevails over far-fetched intemperance. However, his work is far from obvious. The four distinctive tracks on this album portray a fresh and unpretentious enthusiasm of a composer discovering new electronic tools. Four previously unreleased electro-acoustic compositions recorded at the IPEM.

Composer Corneliu Cezar (1937-1997) was a distinctive personality within the Romanian post 1960 avantgarde: a visionary of music, a thinker and a prophet, a richly gifted artist also active with writing, poetry, painting and astrology. Cezar was an activist rediscovering the natural resonance of sound within a different historical context, and he embraced the recovery of authenticity as a reaction against the artificialized culture of serial doctrines. When, after 1975, the spectral music trend became official in Paris, with much fuss and remarkable support from musicologists, nobody knew that this trend had already been practiced by a small group of Romanian composers led by Corneliu Cezar for ten years. The four electro-acoustic pieces on this album (privately released on CD in Romania in 2000), recorded with little means between 1967 and 1975, display the incredibly strong ideas of a truly visionary artist. Everything Corneliu Cezar has done during his short earthly life bares the shade of authenticity.

The debut recording by The Ancients, the intergenerational coalition of Isaiah Collier, William Hooker, and William Parker formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves Mind Body Deal exhibition at the Institute Of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and now a working group. Across two discs of long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 Arts and Archives in LA and The Chapel in San Francisco, The Ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by the Cecil Taylor Unit and Ornette Coleman's Golden Circle Band (expanded upon in later eras by Sam Rivers' trio and Parker's collective trios with Charles Gayle/Graves and Peter Brötzmann/Hamid Drake) into their own unique and scintillating realms of expression. As we tumble further into the throes of history's tides, people of hope and creativity rely on the works of our great artists to lift our spirits and focus our resolve. Ascension was recorded less than a year after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and four months after the assassination of Malcolm X. Journey in Satchidananda was recorded the month Reagan was re-elected governor of California. M'Boom made its debut recording weeks after the Watergate scandal broke and a couple months after the Wounded Knee occupation ended. The music of The Ancients builds on these great musical legacies. It resounds with the pride of survival and the joys of making and sharing music. It delivers to us hope and balm. Something real in you, real in history, and real in the music is shared, right on time. When Eremite records commenced operations during the 1990s free jazz resurgence, heavyweight freedom-seeking tenor saxophonists such as Fred Anderson, Peter Brötzmann, Charles Gayle, Kidd Jordan, and David S. Ware were at the height of their powers. Isaiah Collier's tenor playing in The Ancients is bracing testimony that the wellspring lives on. To hear the young Chicago firebrand blowing freely with veteran improvisers in an entirely open-form group music is a revelatory study of his vast talent, personal voice, and the intensity of his expression -- as well as a bold complement to his composition-based albums as a bandleader (including The Almighty, a New York Times' best albums of 2024 selection). I've admired drummer William Hooker since first encountering his music in a Hartford, CT, city park, early '90s (on a double bill with Jerry González and Fort Apache Band). From the man himself right off the bandstand I bought his even-then rare first recording, the 1976 self-released 2LP opus Is Eternal Life (reissued 2019 by Superior Viaduct). An imposing force on his instrument and an intrepid DIY cat, Hooker's been exuberantly swinging in-and-out of free time for 50+ years. Informed by the innovations of Sunny Murray and Tony Williams yet entirely himself, there is no other term for it than "pure Hooker." At age 78, with the Ancients and everywhere else, THE HOOK is in peak form. With a discography approaching 600 entries and 50+ years working across the musical maps, including in the history-defining bands of Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Peter Brötzmann, in his own wondrous ensembles from small group to orchestra to opera, a bastion of compassionate leadership and a poetic champion of his musical community, in tireless service to what he rather egolessly refers to as "the tone world," multi-instrumentalist, improviser and composer William Parker is a living hero of the grassroots and the Black Mystery Musics, not to mention one of the great bassists in the history of jazz. To quote George Clinton, conquering the stumbling blocks comes easier when the conqueror is in tune with the infinite. Free jazz is an enduring high art. Its greatest expressions belong to their particular moment in history, and live on to transcend and refract in amaranthine ways. Inside our present historical moment, we are fortunate to have the master musicians in the ancients bringing us their high-level creation. Live to 2-track concert recordings by Bryce Gonzales, Highland Dynamics. Mastered by Joe Lizzi, Queens, NY. Album and concerts co-produced with The Black Editions Group.

Rivet's new album for Editions Mego is an uplifting and joyous affair coming in the wake of tragedy and disenchantment. It is yet another rebirth from an artist willing to take a step back and reprise the current situation he is in. Mika Hallbäck has a long credible history in the Swedish underground. First recognized for his industrial techno works under the Grovskopa moniker he worked privately on more experimental works that eventually came out as On Feather and Wire, an album released on Editions Mego in 2020. After much acclaim for this bold new direction that blended electronic abstraction, pop and industrial forms into a heavy synthetic trip two tragedies struck. One was the passing of label boss Peter Rehberg and then the passing of his dog Lilo, who was as close as a companion one could have. Peck Glamour sees Rivet return to the reawakened Editions Mego with an album of optimism inspired by reconciliation with loss and further explorations of new mental/sonic realms. Hallbäck defines his approach as not being married to any particular machine, instrument, process or genre. However, he holds a particular affinity to sampling, of which, he says, provides the dirt and grit amongst what would otherwise be pristine, generic machine music. Peck Glamour is an album full of tracks brimming with the excitement of exploration. It's the results of a mind informed by punk, industrial, techno, dancefloor, disappointment, trauma and rebirth. Here the synthetic and authentic is viewed simply as the same means of human rationale and expression. The entire trip of Peck Glamour is sewn up with "We left before we came" whereby extraneous recordings of double bass player Gregory Vartian-Foss (tuning/strumming/moving the bass) are superimposed with local field recordings to create a gorgeous bed of sounds acting as an exciting exit music to this sharp collection of cinematic ear excursions.

Hüma Utku returns to Editions Mego with her new album. The title Dracones makes reference to the mediaeval Latin term "Hic sunt dracones" (Here be dragons), marking the unexplored, dangerous places on world maps, expressing the fear of chaos, the unexpected and the unknown. This new work by the Istanbul sound artist is a sonic journal of an expedition into uncharted territory, one which occupies self and domesticity. Inspired by Utku's experience of matrescence, Dracones explores the themes of familial demonology, metamorphosis and homecoming as well as human relationship to the experience of love woven layers of euphoria, alienation and consumption. Musically, Dracones traverses a wide array of sonic tools whereby industrial sounds are imbedded with certain psychological angles; this is an album where, all matter meshes into a sly snapshot of the human experience with a tension and release exposure occurring frequently with dark corners opening up to bright layers of electronic experimentation. The haunting opening track "A World Between Worlds" tackles pregnancy, of which Utku was experiencing when making this record. This track features the "Lyraei," an electromagnetic string instrument and modern interpretation of the ancient lyre, that was built and played by Mihalis Shammas. Dracones is a deeply visual journey through inner and outer worlds, a space where symbolic evocation is supreme and passive listening is not an option. All tracks composed, performed and recorded by Hüma Utku. Mixed by Enyang Urbiks. Mastered by Heba Kadry. Cover artwork by Marco Ciceri. Design by Tina Frank.

2025 repress; LP version. "After a two-decade interlude, Jim O'Rourke's Moikai returns with Spectral Evolution, a major new work by Rafael Toral. Making his name in the mid-1990s with influential guitar drone platters like Sound Mind Sound Body and Wave Field, Toral has never been one to rest on his laurels repeating his past glories. Since 2017, Toral's work has been entering a new phase, often still centered around the arsenal of self-built instruments developed in the Space Program, but with a renewed interest in the long tones and almost static textures of his earlier work; he has also, after more than a decade, returned to the electric guitar. Spectral Evolution is undoubtedly Toral's most sophisticated work to date, bringing together seemingly incompatible threads from his entire career into a powerful new synthesis, both wildly experimental and emotionally affecting. Toral manages the almost miraculous feat of having his self-built electronic instruments (which in the past he had seen as 'inadequate to play any music based on the Western system') play in tune. In an unexpected sidestep away from any of his previous work, the chord changes that underpin many of the episodes on Spectral Evolution are derived from classic jazz harmony, including takes on the archetypal Gershwin 'Rhythm changes' and Ellington-Strayhorn's 'Take the ʻA' Train,' albeit slowed to such an extent that each chord becomes a kind of environment in its own right. Threading together twelve distinct episodes into a flowing whole, Spectral Evolution alternates moments of airy instrumental interplay with dense sonic mass, breaking up the pieces based on chord changes with ambient 'Spaces.' At points reduced to almost a whisper, at other moments Toral's electronics wail, squelch, and squeak like David Tudor's live-electronic rainforest. Similarly, his use of the guitar encompasses an enormous dynamic and textural range, from chiming chords to expansive drones, from crystal clarity to fuzzy grit: on the beautiful 'Your Goodbye,' his filtered, distorted soloing recalls Loren Connors in its emotive depth and wandering melodic sensibility. The product of three years of experimentation and recording, and synthesizing the insights of more than thirty years of musical research, Spectral Evolution is the quintessential album of guitar music from Rafael Toral."

Written, recorded and produced by Kirk Barley in Yorkshire in early 2024, Lux picks up where 2023 LP Marionette leaves off, conjuring a mystical, reflective space between formal minimalism and sonic imaginaries of northern landscapes. And yet, where Marionette relied at times on more recognizable field recordings, Lux leans into Barley's skill as an instrumentalist and sound designer, working from a palette of short samples and utilizing a variety of alternate tuning systems to build, layer and coax his compositions into being. Most evident on tracks "Vita," "Sprite" and "Descendent," these tunings create an otherworldly harmonic language that is easier to perceive than describe. Alongside more familiar instruments of guitar, bass, drums, organ and clarinet, here Barley draws on plastic saxophones and bells, and recordings of glass, wood and metal sound objects to provide the organic matter. Rather than directly representative of the natural world, Lux enters into a dialogue with it which, like the grasses and flowers of the album's cover, exists somewhere between reality and artifice. On album opener "Cache," Barley constructs his own sense of time from a recording of an umbrella crank, a sparse and spectral piece which hints at memories embedded in the track's title. Introspection blossoms into new life on "Vita," crumpling again into the percussive ambience of "Verre." A track that takes its harmonic lead from the clinks of glass, it features Barley's long-time collaborator Matt Davies on drums, whose nuanced, tonally sensitive playing gives "Verre" a fizzing, ice-like quality. There are several moments where Lux picks up on themes Barley explored under electronic moniker Church Andrews on recent works with Davies, stretching and distorting temporalities most explicitly on "Descendent," whose ritualistic air unfurls around a pattern in exponential decline. Embracing the surrealism Barley absorbed over years watching classic film noir and the works of David Lynch and Federico Fellini, Lux wends its way through the enchanted sound worlds of "Sprite" and "Balanced" before arriving at the album's title track. An expression of his recent experiments in live, prepared guitar, "Lux" brings the album back to earth, returning us to the room where the rain has stopped, the clouds have parted, and the soft warmth of the spring sun is pouring in through the open window.

Chris Ryan Williams (trumpet and electronics) and Lester St. Louis (cello and electronics) work together as HxH (H by H). Their skills have seen them move smoothly across various situations, constantly carving out new terrain and working in new configurations of musicians at a rapid pace. While worth reading, their biographies capture only a part of their complex rhizome. The project is a direct response to all their activity with others and more importantly all their future leaning sonic desires. Their debut album Stark Phenomena is both their first studio recording and their first physical release. The album released by KMRU on his growing label OFNOT. It's an ideal introduction to their sound world and their approach. HxH describe their music as "electroacoustic," but until recently the presence of Black musicians in this field has been greatly overlooked and largely ignored, making this phrase only partially appropriate. What HxH do really is to always be unpredictable. Chris and Lester bring together techniques from across the sound spectrum of electronic music and also draw on their deep backgrounds in jazz, improvisation, classical and noise scenes to create a sound that is true to them. After all, these two have worked with the likes of Bennie Maupin and the music of Black Fluxus artist Ben Patterson. Their rhizome is deep. One of the ways that their unique approach manifests is in their merging of both acoustic instruments and electronic instruments in real time. This is something few have managed to do -- but their spontaneous leanings work in both complex and accessible ways because of their deep understanding of landscape crafting. Their approach makes it tempting to compare their music to Sun Ra jamming with Laurel Halo -- a comparison that would be only partly accurate. KMRU notes: "I think there is an in-between layer on this record. I was first caught by the 'Pyrex Vision' track which organically flows between monologue, subtle field recording, and instrumentation. It's such a beautiful track, evoking deep emotion through simplicity. Stark Phenomena effortlessly glides in between imaginative mosaics of sounds -- free yet complex -- unlocking memories within its layers."

William Tyler is a Nashville guitarist and composer. He spent years woodshedding and touring with Nashville groups like Lambchop and Silver Jews before breaking away to focus on his own version of instrumental guitar music. In the summer of 2022, he was fortunate to have an artist residency at Epicenter in Green River, Utah, a tiny high desert town three hours from anything. One of the other non-profit friends of Epicenter was The Tank in Rangely, Colorado. The Tank itself is a giant and tall disused water tower from the high days of train travel and used to store water to cool train engines and such. Empty for decades, it is now an internationally recognized destination for sound art and almost unparalleled echo/acoustics. William Tyler decided to book recording time there and chose to re-interpret all of the songs of his 2019 album Goes West in a sparse yet cavernous solo acoustic setting: "Something about the frailty and space I wanted the songs to imply was lost in the over-production of the studio record, This felt like a reclamation of the songs and also a symbolic tribute to the stunning, haunted and vast possibilities of the American West, especially at the twilight of American Empire."

Restocked. Onilu is an all-percussionist trio utilizing the extensive family of drummed and tuned percussion instruments to deliver beautifully composed, arranged and executed small ensemble music. Nothing about this all-percussion band feels rarified, or missing anything musical. To the contrary, Onilu create a soundworld where nothing is missing, and everything is musical -- defying the stereotype of modern percussion ensembles as esoteric or academic pursuits, reaffirming the powerful social and sacred musics made in African diasporic communities and across cultures by drum and percussion groups since the beginning of human time. The members of Onilu are: Kevin Diehl, leader of the enduring Philadelphia-based Afro-Cuban Yoruba free-jazz ensemble Sonic Liberation Front; Chad Taylor, Artistic Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and esteemed drummer of long standing in many scenes. Highlights of Taylor's recent history include his work with James Brandon Lewis, Jaimie Branch, Marc Ribot, Rob Mazurek, and with Joshua Abrams in the duo Mind Maintenance-. Taylor was part of the community of young Chicago-based musicians organized around Fred Anderson's Velvet Lounge in the 1990s that included Abrams, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, and Matana Roberts, among others; living legend Joe Chambers, who began his illustrious career as the drummer on now-canonical early Blue Note recordings by Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Sam Rivers, Wayne Shorter, and Mccoy Tyner. A 1970 founding member of Max Roach's pathbreaking percussion ensemble M'Boom, Chambers continues to record percussion-centered music as a leader for Blue Note records. After nearly three decades working with such historic drummers as Denis Charles, Walter Perkins, Sunny Murray, Hamid Drake, Milford Graves, Susie Ibarra, Charles Bobo Shaw, and Han Bennink, it is Eremite Records' joy and honor to give the drummers not some, but ALL the spotlight. From Dana Hall's liner notes: "These three artists are master musicians and the music they present here is masterfully conceived. The drum, and its entire global family of membranophones, shakers, and idiophones, are conduits for their collective creative voice. In addition to drummers, they are also composers, and their works here represent a synthesis of ideas, concepts, and their individual dialectics on the language and syntax found in much of African and African Diasporic musics. A music that uses call and response. One that honors the past while looking forward to the future. A music that is principally concerned with feeling, mood, and storytelling. One that eschews frivolity and the baroque. A music that swings and grooves. I found myself dancing to this recording. Trust me, you, too, will find yourself rightfully and unapologetically dancing to this recording." First Eremite edition of 999 copies pressed on premium audiophile-quality 140-gram vinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, from Kevin Gray/Cohearent audio lacquers. Recorded by Michael Richelle, Philadelphia. Mastered by Joe Lizzi, Queens, NY. Hand screen-printed insert by Alan Sherry, Siwa Studios, Northern New Mexico.

2025 repress. "'To understand the significance of the word 'featuring' on Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold, consider how infrequently Sun Ra used it and the exact way it had been used. The October Revolution in Jazz, organized by Bill Dixon in the West Village in 1964, presented a vivid cross section of approaches to the new music, including a sextet led by Ra. For the October Revolution's continuation, titled Four Days in December, held at nearby Judson Hall on the last days of 1964, the Arkestra performance presented Pharoah Sanders as well as a flautist (who was and remained obscure thereafter) named Harold Murray, nicknamed Black Harold. It wasn't until long after Sanders had achieved worldwide acclaim with John Coltrane that Ra and manager Alton Abraham decided to issue the music they'd recorded at Judson Hall. After its first release in plain or hand-decorated covers in 1976, Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold remained an exceptionally rare item in the El Saturn discography, known to a few lucky collectors. We're lucky to have this glimpse of what Sanders sounded like in such a different context, galvanizing the large group and in turn being inspired to make his first significant contribution on record.' --John Corbett (excerpt from the liner notes)"

Keith Hudson's Nuh Skin Up Dub is a deep, heavyweight dub album that stands as one of the most potent statements in the genre's history. Released in 1979, this sonic masterpiece showcases Hudson's signature dark, almost mystical production style, where heavy basslines, echo-drenched drums, and ghostly fragments of vocals swirl together in a hypnotic haze. Unlike the more polished, accessible dub records of the time, Nuh Skin Up Dub is raw, unfiltered, and experimental, pushing the boundaries of rhythm and space. Tracks like "Nuh Skin Up" and "Felt We Felt the Strain" pulse with an eerie, almost menacing energy, while Hudson's masterful use of reverb and delay creates a soundscape that feels simultaneously expansive and claustrophobic. Often referred to as the "Dark Prince of Reggae," Hudson had an uncanny ability to craft music that was both deeply meditative and unsettling, and Nuh Skin Up Dub is a prime example of his genius. It's a record that rewards deep listening -- every spin reveals new layers of sonic detail, hidden textures, and dub wizardry. For fans of heavy, atmospheric dub, Nuh Skin Up Dub is an essential listen, a landmark recording that solidifies Keith Hudson's status as one of the most visionary figures in reggae history.

Legendary New Zealand-born experimental composer and sound art pioneer Annea Lockwood returns to Black Truffle with On Fractured Ground/Skin Resonance, her third release for the label. Having recently celebrated her 85th birthday, Lockwood shows no sign of slowing down in her exploration of new sound sources and collaborations with an ever-growing intergenerational pool of performers -- here with Vanessa Tomlinson. Her creative vibrancy is alive as ever on the two recent works presented here, which demonstrate both her engagement with the social dimensions of sound and the deeply reflective, meditative aspect of her art. "On Fractured Ground" derives from material recorded with Pedro Rebelo and Georgios Varoutsos for the soundtrack of Maria Fusco and Margaret Salmon's opera-film, History of the Present (2023). Working together in Belfast, Lockwood, Rebelo and Varoutsos made extensive recordings of the city's "peace lines," the dozens of walls erected since the beginning of the Troubles in the late 1960s to separate Catholic and Protestant areas of the city. Continuing to work in her studio with the material collected for the soundtrack after its completion, Lockwood composed the work presented here, occupying a space somewhere between her own extended-technique percussion music and the Cagean tradition of hyper-amplified small sounds. "Skin Resonance" is a collaboration with Australian composer and percussionist Vanessa Tomlinson. Developed through conversations in which the two discussed the idea of "sonic attraction," the piece focuses on Tomlinson's relationship to the bass drum, reflecting on the complex web of connections embodied in this seemingly simply instrument, which is at once "animal, wood, and metal." Approaching the instrument in a suitably elemental fashion, Tomlinson's performance strips away conventional technique to explore the resonance and timbral properties of skin, drum, and metal hardware, producing overlapping waves of texture that at times seem closer to wind swishing through leaves or the ocean than anything usually associated with a drum. Emphasising the symbiotic relationship between performer and instrument, Tomlinson's voice is heard at times, exploring the field of associations and connections the bass drum suggests to her. Accompanied by insightful liner notes on both pieces and photographs documenting the recording of "On Fractured Ground" and a performance of "Skin Resonance," this LP is a moving testament to the engagement, generosity, and openness that sustain Annea Lockwood's work, still finding new directions after more than fifty years of activity.

Twenty-four years on from its original release, Monolake's seminal Gravity receives its first vinyl pressing courtesy of Field Records. Occupying its own space at the intersection of dub techno, minimal and electronica, it's an ageless album of staggering vision and technological prowess which has matured into an all-time pillar of electronic music. This edition, remastered by the album's key architect Robert Henke, follows on from the reissue of Monolake's first album, Hongkong. Arriving just after the turn of the millennium, Gravity marked a turning point for Monolake. With co-founder Gerhard Behles moving on to other ventures, Henke produced most of the album solo and journeyed deeper into spatial exploration and the dub-informed principles that underpinned their project from the start. Minimalism and negative space run through the whole record, from the keen slithers of percussion pinging through lattices of delay to the hypnotizing pulse of subliminal basslines anchoring the tracks. Gravity is a record which hangs on techno's linearity as a form of meditation, but the crystalline clarity of the mix allows every micro-fluctuation in rhythm and sound to cut through. Compared to a lot of overly sterile digital music released in the early 2000s, Gravity endures thanks to the warmth and texture Henke elicited from his processes -- even when leaning into none-more-digital effects like bit reduction. He described the ninth-floor view over Berlin from his studio at night as a key influence on the sound of the record, but the space Gravity shapes out feels thrillingly implacable. Unbound by the standard conventions of time and space, Gravity stands proud as a true original and finally gets the ceremonious vinyl pressing it so richly deserves.

"Ten-song showcase LP. Five vocals, five dubs. Five tracks previously unreleased. New showcase LP collecting a couple long requested classics coupled with a trio of rare and previously unreleased heaters from the early '80s Roots Radics era. This new LP now makes a trio of classic albums along with his What's Wrong With the Youths and Chip In albums for Jah Life and Junjo Lawes. In a beautiful sleeve with the vibes of the time, designed by the great Seen Studio."

"Hell 2 is not the first album from Austin's Blank Hellscape, but it's certainly the most fully-realized. OK, at least it's the LONGEST. The self-professed three-piece nightmare band knocked around the claustrophobic end of the house show circuit for a longish spell but right around pre-'dermic times, the trio of Ethan Billips, Max Deems, and Andrew Nogay have morphed into a multi-dimensional synapse-snapper with little regard for genre nor their own self-preservation. On that front, Hell 2 was echelons in the making; it would not be an exaggeration to say the writing/recording/editing process was arduous and lengthy enough it nearly took Blank Hellscape out of the game for good. But before you declare, "better luck next time", strap yourself in to your favorite listening chair/apparatus and bask in this sprawling double album, to these ears, an uncanny musical amp."

Exploring the water engineering relationship between Japan and the Netherlands across a trilogy of experimental releases, the third and final part of Field Records' Waterworks series is courtesy of Yui Onodera. Pairing delicate synthesis and instrumentation with field recordings and negative space, the accomplished artist and sound architect examines the impact of water engineering on Japan's Kiso Three Rivers. The location refers to the confluence of the Kiso, Nagara and Ibi rivers on the Nōbi plain in Gifu prefecture. In the late 19th century, Japanese authorities collaborated with Dutch engineer Johannes de Rijke to separate the three rivers at the lower part of the Kiso delta. These extensive improvements, which were finalized in 1912, successfully shielded the city of Nagoya from regular flooding. Onodera's minimalist palette and detailed approach to spatial sound design balances microscopic field recordings and tonally-rich traditional instruments, which he applies with stark focus to the subject of the Kiso Three Rivers across eight extended pieces of music arranged into two distinct parts. The A side's shorter tracks are delicately sculpted miniatures interweaving chiming bell tones, treated guitar impressions and hushed pads. The B side's two longer suites are more overtly minimal in nature, emphasizing sampled water sources accented with patient brush strokes of synthesis. This project is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tokyo, Japan.

Paperback. 480 pages. "The legendary French filmmaker's labyrinthine memoir, first published by Exact Change in 2002 as a CD-ROM, now reconfigured into book form after a laborious process initiated by the artist before his death in 2012. Filmmaker, photographer and writer Chris Marker never adhered to the conventions of a particular art form. Each of his films, from La Jetée to Sans Soleil, pushes the boundaries of its medium, merging at times with the essay, political manifesto, personal letter, art installation and even, finally, a computer game. For Immemory, first published in 1998 (French) and 2002 (English), Marker used a CD-ROM to create a multi-layered, mixed-media memoir. The reader investigates 'zones' of travel, war, cinema and poetry, navigating through image and text as if physically exploring Marker's memory itself. The result is a veritable 21st-century Remembrance of Things Past, an exploration of the state of memory in our era. With it, Marker both invented a literary form and perfected it, just before the digital format he chose for the experiment was quickly rendered obsolete. Immemory: Gutenberg Version reinvents this unique work for the printed page, a project the author dreamed up, titled, and began working on with Exact Change before his death. Now finally realized, it brings this seminal work into the present and future through a time-tested, durable format of the past: the book. Chris Marker (1921-2012) served in the French Resistance, and then the US Air Force, during World War II and worked as a journalist while honing his film career. He received international acclaim with La Jetée in 1962, and became a critical voice in film theory and production as well as a widely admired 'cult' artist, a filmmaker's filmmaker."

Valentina Goncharova's work encapsulates a unique blend of innovation and tradition, providing audiences with an enthralling exploration of the vast possibilities within musical expression. Drawing upon her compositional skills honed during her academic studies, Valentina expertly manipulates the violin, seamlessly integrating it with synthesizers and drum machines. The result is a mesmerizing fusion of organic and electronic elements, characterized by slow, pulsating drone soundscapes.

2025 restock! Be With Records present the first ever officially licensed reissue of Ned Doheny's Prone, originally released in Japan only in 1979. Aficionados rate Ned Doheny's Prone as his finest achievement. This sophisticated masterpiece has been unavailable on vinyl for over 35 years, so Be With Records pressed it on audiophile 180 gram vinyl and restored the original Japanese artwork for both jacket and classic lyric-insert. Featuring the superior full-vocal version of "To Prove My Love". Ned Doheny's crowning glory, even better than the superlative Hard Candy (1976). So quite why this AOR/soft-funk gem has not been available legitimately on vinyl for over 35 years is anyone's guess. A forgotten-funk classic. What makes this release truly special is the inclusion of the full-vocal version of jazz-funk classic "To Prove My Love". It's what you've all been waiting for. Produced again by the legendary Steve Cropper, Prone's super-smooth grooves showcase Ned's beautifully laid-back vocals, virtuoso playing and forever-wry lyricism. Aside from "To Prove My Love", it boasts some of Doheny's most under-appreciated tracks: witness the slickness of "Think Like A Lover", "Guess Who's Lookin' For Love Again", and "Funky Love". 180 gram vinyl; Features the original artwork for both jacket and lyric-insert.

"Previously unreleased; four track 12" with two different vocal takes, each with dub. Comes in Bond Export company sleeve. Another cold case solved! One of DKR's early victories was finding a tape of the drum and bass cut of the legendary dubplate 'Rocks & Mountains.' Rumor had said the artist was the Mighty Travellers, but this didn't really add up chronologically or audibly. More astute listeners mostly agreed the artist was likely the Majesterians, a little recorded group who had made a couple other records for Taxi circa 1980. When the label first issued the song on a 10" back in 2011, even Sly himself couldn't recall for sure who sang the tune. There were two mysteries at work here -- one, confirming the identity of the group, and two -- finding the other cut of the tune, which features fuller instrumentation and a different vocal take. Both cuts were around on dubplate circa '80/'81, and the latter cut can be heard ever so briefly in the infamous UK Sound Business documentary film from '81. In the course of a mere 13 years, both questions came to be solved ? Digikiller obtained a pretty clean plate cut of the fuller mix, and we confirmed the identity of the group. The Majesterians were a vocal trio consisting of Everton Dacres, Roderick Perkins, and Paul Mitchell. 'Rocks & Mountains' was their tune, cut in Channel 1 at a Taxi session featuring a host of other artists. Indeed, these were the heady days of 1980 with Channel 1 booked round the clock for locked-in sessions, with the Taxi Gang and the Roots Radics laying down future classic after future classic."

Wilson Tanner return to dry land with Legends, a wine-soaked agricultural fantasy, made among the grapevines at Manon Farm in South Australia. Where their earlier works settled into the sun-struck torpor of a suburban Perth backyard (69) or drifted off-course on a riverboat on Port Phillip Bay (ii), Legends trades salt air for vineyard sweat, the scrape of boots on dry earth and workers' radios humming with the summer test cricket season. Through this agricultural haze an image of a working vineyard emerges -- ducks, dogs and plovers intrude; tractors and quads fly-by; stainless steel gleams at the edges. Recorded without mains power, the Manon demos overflow with farmyard ingenuity. Wind, brass, balalaika, balloon, pipe and synth are trained onto the staff with wire, tape and string. A caricature of Australian viticulture, Legends is packed to the horns with the mythology and manure of natural wine. Swigging and belching in camaraderie, Wilson Tanner press their surroundings into something raw and unfiltered, letting bum notes, leftovers and sediment linger in the bottle. A cornucopia of biodynamic sounds.