Browse by Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Artist:	MERZBOW
Title:	Amlux
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 002CD

"Alas, Merzbow's masterpiece Amlux has arrived. Highly anticipated, and referred to as 'the definitive modern Merzbow record,' Amlux finds Masami Akita moving into new territory in terms of sound and production. Amlux throbs with industrial ambient drones and drum/guitar samples that slowly glide into eruptive filtered noise before evolving back into industrial-ambient bliss. It is rich in texture and much more sophisticated and evolved than most Merzbow records to date. Amlux proves that Masami Akita is much more than just the king of noise. A major selling point for Amlux is that it is the source material for a major Merzbow remix cd/lp to be released later this year on Important Records. Tentatively titled 'Merzmix,' this remix album will feature Alec Empire, Bola, Chicks on Speed, Jack Dangers, Acid Mothers Temple, DJ Spooky, Arto Lindsay, KK Null, Masami Akita, Sonic Boom and a few others who are currently unconfirmed. Remixers were asked to use Amlux as source material for original compositions, rather than being restricted to remixing one particular track. The results thus far have been astounding."

Artist:	MERZBOW
Title:	Merzbeat
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 004CD

"Merzbeat tands in stark contrast to all releases in Merzbow's post-analog, digital laptop-era. Containing over 50 minutes of brand new aggressive, psychedelic, organic, analog beat oriented Merzbow compositions, Merzbeat will be quite a treat for Merzbow fans who have been disappointed with modern Merzbow records. Drummed rhythms, a punk spirit and a return to analog Merzbow. KID 606 called it 'one of the greatest thing Merzbow has ever done.' The first pressing of also has a hidden remix of Amlux by Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto."

Artist:	JOHNSTON AND THE HYPERJINX TRICYCLE, DANIEL
Title:	Daniel Johnston and the Hyperjinx Tricycle
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 006CD

Year 2001 release. "Hyperjinx Tricycle is a band formed by Texas cult hero Daniel Johnston, New York pop-surrealist Ron English and Brooklyn singer/songwriter Jack Medicine. With the help of various producers this album celebrates the weirdness of these three strange writers. Most songs sung by Daniel Johnston. CD also contains two tracks of Johnston alone singing and performing 'Keep Your Feelings To Yourself' and 'Reality.' Highpoints of the disc include a beautiful version of 'Seasons in the Sun' sung by Johnston ('Seasons In the Sun' features production work and instrumentation from Kramer marking the first time these two have worked together since 1990) as well as Daniel's rejected theme song for the Fox program Greg The Bunny."

Artist:	JOHNSTON AND THE HYPERJINX TRICYCLE, DANIEL
Title:	Alien Mind Control
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	3" CD
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 013CD

"While his career thrives he has been comfortably recording on the side with his good friends from NYC as the Hyperjinx Tricycle. The casual studio atmosphere naturally created when friends get together to record has brought out the best in Daniel. These four tracks, each fronted by Daniel, represent some of his most striking and compelling work in a long time. Included is a new version of the popular track 'Long Lost Love'."

Artist:	MERZBOW
Title:	Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 016CD

"Artists were asked to use Merzbow's album Amlux as an instrument in an original composition, rather than to perform the conventional remix. We hoped that this would allow the artist to flourish with greater creative freedom and a less restrictive context. We didn't want to fit this project into any sub-genre of music. We wanted it to simply exist. Perhaps the beat oriented tracks, record scratching and vocals will annoy some Noise purists, and perhaps the noisy sound collages will irritate others, but hopefully this collection of tracks from some of the best electronic artists working today will enlighten the listener. Music is sound and sound is everywhere, regardless of classification." Remixers include: Jack Dangers, DJ Spooky, Luke Vibert, Alec Empire, Kawabata Makoto, Cornelius, Kid 606, Negativland, Nobukazu Takemura, Atom, Chicks On Speed, Experimental Audio Research, Bola, Kim Hiorthoy, Staalplaat Sound System, Lasse Marhaug, Kim Cascone, Freiband, Nau-zee-aun, Kurt Weisman, Raub Roy, Instavoid, Custom Drummer, John Wiese, Zipperspy, DJ Rupture.

Artist:	ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE
Title:	Magical Power From Mars
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 017CD

Repressed, remastered & featuring expanded artwork; originally released in 2003. "Acid Mothers Temple and Important Records have decided to release the complete Magical Power From Mars in its entirety with the addition of the fourth and final track 'Aladdin Kane.' Magical Power From Mars comes housed with completely new front and back art and no expense was spared on more 3D lenticular covers for the front. This is the complete album available for the first time in its entirety. Magical Power From Mars is an album full of epic statements from the Acid Mothers. Each track has an average length of 17:27 ( we did the math) and each track has its own unique musical ideals and arrangements which stand out in the Acid Mothers' diverse catalog. Makoto Kawabata and crew successfully set out to create an album unique in its look and sound and were extremely successful in the execution of that goal." Previously issued as 3 separate EPs, now all out-of-print.

Artist:	DAWSON, KIMYA
Title:	Knock Knock Who?
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 018CD

"On break from Rough Trade and her band The Moldy Peaches, our friend Kimya finds herself at home on Important Records releasing two full length albums at once. Both albums are full of moving original folk songs about Atari 2600's, love, growing up, growing old, overcoming hardships and Matlock . Kimya is one of the most genuine voices in modern music and the superstar of NYC's Anti-Folk scene. Both solo albums were recorded after her Rough Trade solo debut . Knock Knock Who? and My Cute Fiend Sweet Princess find Kimya stronger and more confident than before, creating more powerful records every time."

Artist:	DAWSON, KIMYA
Title:	My Cute Fiend Sweet Princess
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 019CD

"Obviously, both of Kimya Dawson's solo albums are highly recommended to fans of the Moldy Peaches, but don't expect sex and drug jokes, these albums are more serious, transcending the novelty and humor of the Peaches. Embracing nostalgia, melancholy and sincerity, Kimya proves to be as unique as she is brilliant, creating two albums both compelling and charismatic. My Cute Fiend Sweet Princess is an instant Anti-Folk classic."

Artist:	SPACE MACHINE
Title:	3
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 026CD

"Space Machine is Yamazaki Maso's solo synth-psych side project. This single CD release includes both the Space Machine 3 studio sessions as well as Space Machine live at Big Cat in Osaka, Japan with Makoto Kawabata of The Acid Mothers Temple. From around 1998 Maso Yamazaki started to incorporate trippy, spacy electronic elements into Masonna performances. In order to better pursue these elements alone, he started Space Machine in 2000, his self-labeled 'analog electronic cosmic sound project'. For as long as he had been performing under the Masonna moniker, Yamazaki had been ardent fan of early electronic music from the 50s and 60s, and in order to research the impact that electronic sounds had upon the spiritual lineage audible in sixties US and British psychedelic music and seventies krautrock, Yamazaki began collecting analog synthesizers and vintage electronic equipment. He continuously experimented with these instruments in his home studio, and while groping towards an understanding he discovered a new direction for his own music, a direction different from his work as Masonna."

Artist:	ANP (ABSOLUT NULL PUNKT)
Title:	Live In Japan
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 029CD

"ANP (Absolut Null Punkt) was originally formed in 1984 by KK.Null (before he started his progressive hardcore rock trio Zeni Geva) and Seijiro Murayama (founding drummer of Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha). Live In Japan was recorded at dates between December and February 2003 in Osaka as well as Tokyo. The live setting is a perfect showcase for ANP's diverse inspirations and unique approach to creating music. An echoing chamber of stark, pummeling fusion is created by combining strong elements of free jazz, heavy rock, industrial noise, glitch and free improvisation dynamics."

Artist:	DAWSON, KIMYA
Title:	My Cute Fiend Sweet Princess
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 031LP

Repress of this 2004 album, now in full printed cover. "Obviously, both of Kimya Dawson's solo albums are highly recommended to fans of The Moldy Peaches, but don't expect sex and drug jokes, these albums are more serious, transcending the novelty and humor of the Peaches. Embracing nostalgia, melancholy and sincerity, Kimya proves to be as unique as she is brilliant, creating two albums both compelling and charismatic. My Cute Fiend Sweet Princess is an instant anti-folk classic."

Artist:	DAWSON, KIMYA
Title:	Knock Knock Who?
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 032LP

Repress of this 2004 album, now in full printed cover; contains "So Nice So Smart" as featured in the movie Juno! "On break from Rough Trade and her band The Moldy Peaches, our friend Kimya finds herself at home on Important Records releasing two full length albums at once. Both albums are full of moving original folk songs about Atari 2600's, love, growing up, growing old, overcoming hardships and Matlock . Kimya is one of the most genuine voices in modern music and the superstar of NYC's anti-folk scene."

Artist:	FE-MAIL
Title:	Syklubb Fra H�lvete (Sewing Club From Hell)
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 033CD

"'Out of Norway comes the most exciting noise LP I've heard to date. These two women romp thru stimulating noise compositions fresh and clean w/ a distinct Scandinavian frost. But there's always an undercurrent of warm embrace, sweet and masterful.' -- Thurston Moore. Already an incontestable figure of the Scandinavian music scene, Maja Ratkje follows the release of her stunning first solo album, Voice (Rune Grammaphone), with Fe-Mail. A compulsive musician who, beside her main activity as part of all-female avant-garde free-improvisation quartet Spunk, is, at only 29, a lecturer in composition at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, a world-renowned contemporary composer, an impressive singer and accomplished musician. Together with fellow Spunk-ette Hild Sofie Tafjord, Ratkje improvises with analogue electronic gear, samplers, voice, harmonica, and miscellaneous acoustic instruments to shape a more defined and delicate, if such a word can in any way define the realm in which Fe-mail evolve, series of soundscapes."

Artist:	KING MISSLE III
Title:	Royal Lunch
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	IMPREC 034CD

"The notoriously outspoken and eloquently sardonic John S. Hall is back with the third incarnation of King Missile and this time his unrelenting lyrical avant-poetry/spoken-wordism is angry, irreverently subversive and politically charged. Though not the only topic on the album, Hall has taken aim at the Bush administration and Royal Lunch is a direct shot at the heart of the monster. Royal Lunch has the feel of an America on the brink of disaster, the exact climate the album was written in, and as always, John S. Hall channels the socio-political climate of the globe, mixing in his slanted wit, creating a brilliantly acrimonious masterwork."

Artist:	P-ORRIDGE, GENESIS
Title:	When I Was Young
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	IMPREC 035CD

"As the world awaits the remarkable reunion of Throbbing Gristle and a subsequent studio album from the group, this surprise full length from Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV founder Genesis P-Orridge, and produced by Astrid Monroe, has been slowly coming to fruition and it arrives with perfect timing. The true identity of Astrid Monroe has been kept a secret from all parties involved in the release of this CD. His production work is the only indication we have of who this gifted artist could possibly be. Slow, deliberate and lushly orchestrated, the eccentric instrumentation swirls pensively around audio tracks created by Genesis P-Orridge almost as if P-Orridge was the leader of a more adventurous Portishead or possibly even Massive Attack. Dark and dreamy, When I Was Young is a surprisingly unique addition to the P-Orridge catalog. It's emphasis on P-Orridge's unique word play, voice and annunciation create an eloquently pronounced lyrical and music journey."

Artist:	MAKOTO, KAWABATA
Title:	O Si Amos A Sighire A Essere Duas Umbras?
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	IMPREC 037CD

"In tribute to Sardegna where Kawabata's creative life recently achieved a highly influential spiritual climax. According to Kawabata, these recordings represent one of the most important moments in his life. While in Sardegna he found his 'cosmos.' At some point on his trip, a new cosmos opened for him and he received 'many wonderful vibrations' from these cosmos. These are the very first of his works created after this transcendental experience. Hearing and feeling these tracks it is apparent that Kawabata has been deeply spiritually affected since his last solo outing. O Si Amos A Essere Duas Umbras? is comprised of two epic, deeply meditative, spiritual and transcendental compositions."

Artist:	DANGERS, JACK
Title:	Forbidden Planet Explored
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 038CD

"You may know Jack as the founding member of the most experimental and influential group ever to hit the dance floor, Meat Beat Manifesto. His intensely elaborate work with Meat Beat Manifesto. This double CD release contains Jack's now famous soundtrack for the legendary sci-fi film Forbidden Planet. As a special bonus, Forbidden Planet Explored contains a second CD full of sci-fi sound effects inspired by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop."

Artist:	CHOMSKY, NOAM
Title:	American War Crimes and Imperial Fantasies
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 041CD

"Noam Chomsky talks to Alternative Radio's David Barsamian in Chomsky's MIT office about the history of the United State's perusal of imperialism and the crimes against humanity committed along the way. Is George W. Bush an international criminal and is his war in Iraq an egregious criminal act? In this thorough and in depth 2CD interview, Noam Chomsky, who is commonly referred to as 'the conscience of the American people,' carefully places Bush into a historical perspective explaining Bush's actions in relation to past US presidents and how Bush's war in Iraq is in blatant disregard of the findings of the Nuremberg Tribunal. In this exposing interview Chomsky recounts America's history of aggressive war, war crimes and murder while placing George Bush's Iraq invasion and occupancy into context."

Artist:	DANGERS, JACK
Title:	Loudness Clarifies/Electronic Music From Tapelab
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 042CD

"Jack has brought us a brand new Meat Beat style manifestation and a collection of 10 years worth of his electro-acoustic musique concrete. 'Loudness Clarifies'/'Music From Tapelab' brings forth both sides of Jack Dangers multi-dimensional audio personality into one single commercial package. From the distant, careful, experimentalism found in 'Music From Tapelab' to the dance floor oriented 'Loudness Clarifies' we experience Jack as a whole musical entity."

Artist:	LARSEN
Title:	Play
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	IMPREC 043CD

"Larsen's sound is equally as ambiguous as any attempt to describe them, imagine elements of Einsturzende Neubauten, The Swans, Barbez, Six Organs Of Admittance, Vibracathedral Orchestra and Godspeed You Black Emperor. Play, the brilliant new album, sounds like all of these influences processed through the Larsen main brain on heavy doses of Autechre. Yes, Autechre. Really. As an exercise preceding the writing of Play, Larsen spent a lot of time as a group improvising around some of their favorite melodies from Autechre albums. This experimental exercise slowly evolved into song writing and suddenly songs were coming out of the air with Autecherian melodies filtered through climactic Larsen arrangements. Play is a collection of Larsen 'suites' where hints of Autechre drift as inspiring ghosts rather than constituent matter. According to Larsen, they attempted to create curvilinear, not angular, interpretations of these melodies in an electric way, not an electronic way, with the eclectic instrumentation regular in Larsen's arrangement. As they planned, they failed perfectly at covering Autechre creating a hauntingly eruptive and droned out Larsen masterpiece in the process."

Artist:	BEEQUEEN
Title:	The Bodyshop
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	IMPREC 044CD

"It took Frans de Waard and Freek Kinkelaar two years to complete the recordings for The Bodyshop, the successor to their much-acclaimed CD Ownliness from 2002. The Bodyshop continues where Ownliness left off. Ownliness marked a distinct break with Beequeen's past. The ambient-industrial drone music of yesteryear was said goodbye and the Beequeen's love of pop music returned. The instruments changed from organs, synthesizers and sound effects to guitars, drums, bass and guest musicians on cello and even vocals (a distinctive first for Beequeen). The Bodyshop features two of these remarkable vocals tracks; a cover of Nick Drake's 'Black Eyed Dog' (sung by Antenne's Marie-Louise Munck) and the indeed very sad track 'Sad Sheep'. Although Beequeen never cites influences, it's easy spot their interest in the Beatles' psychedelic period and latter day Talk Talk in combination with a love for krautrock and microsound -- not the most likely of combinations, but somehow it all makes sense on The Bodyshop."

Artist:	PIANO MAGIC
Title:	Opencast Heart EP
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 045CD

"Hands down, thee most purely electronic record Piano Magic have ever made -- a brash stylistically pendulum swing from the most recent album, The Troubled Sleep Of Piano Magic. It evokes not only cruel English Winters but also the ghost of a great lost treasure of English Literature, WNP Barbellion (his early 20th century diary was entitled, The Journal Of A Disappointed Man). It's a record with a warm heart in a glacial season. It was recorded at Piano Magic's Murder Mile Studio in the redbrick, rundown backstreets of East London and features the vocal contributions of Angele David-Guillou, oft chanteause with the band, though soon to be more regarded for her own exquisite project, Klima."

Artist:	MENCHE, DANIEL
Title:	Sirocco
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 046CD

"The first recording by him created by utilizing sound sources from several other sound artists. Andrew Lagowski, Asmus Tietchens, Main, John Duncan, Scanner, Akira Rabelais, Illusion Of Safety, Merzbow, ErikM, B. Labelle and AMT submitted one minute sections of sound for Daniel Menche to work with and to create a long continuous drone track by completely degrading and melting the source sounds and massively layering these to form one long graceful and intense storm to heat and scorch the speakers. Sirocco is a tremendously dynamic and wonderfully textured drone experience."

Artist:	CLUCK, DIANE
Title:	Oh Vanille/Ova Nille
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 049CD

'This record is by my favorite singer-songwriter in all of New York City. I'm so happy to be alive at the same time she is because I get to see her perform. It's her and guitar or her and piano or her and harmonium. Her lyrics are so good, when I play this for people they stop doing everything and are quiet for hours after.' Devendra Banhart. "Diane Cluck's hauntingly clear voice weaves melodies full of love and pain through her intentionally sparse arrangements of piano, acoustic guitar and harmonium. Perfect as they are, any additional instrumentation would be unnecessary adornments on these 'skeleton' songs, as she calls them. A classical training and obsession with Erik Satie has instilled a tasteful minimalism. Her recordings have been self released until now in a fashion similar to the manner in which she records them: deliberate, hesitant and beautiful." 2nd edition in regular printed sleeve.

Artist:	HAFLER TRIO, THE
Title:	A Ec Ad, Halda Afram?
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 050CD

A message regarding A Eg Ad, Halda Afram? From The Hafler Trio: "Being the confluence of disparate times, events, and discrete locations, this release allows the dancing trousers to be brought cheerfully halfway out of the closet, and sprinkled with glitter. Waltzing away with your heart into the northern lights, a splendid time is guaranteed for *nearly* all. A stocking filler and half, and no mistake about it. Buy now to avoid excommunication." A 20 minute construction from the legendary sound sculptor Andrew McKenzie's The Hafler Trio. This is the fourth in a series of largely successful limited edition CD EPs featuring all new constructions.

Artist:	MERZBOW
Title:	Merzbuddha
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 052CD

"What did you listen to last summer? Masami Akita, otherwise know as Merzbow, spent most of his summer listening to Horace Andy, Dennis Bovel, Keith Hudson and a whole pipe full of other dub mavericks. That's probably why this brand new full length, with cover art by Jenny Akita, is dripping with deep bass riffage and a whole lot of electronic dub vibes and beats. Merzbuddha is third in the series of Merz-titled releases following in the audio footsteps of the flagship release Merzbeat. With the same reverence for crushing analog beats, weaving noise textures and a compositional complexity Masami Akita switches direction and dubs it up. Imagine The New Blockaders in an audio blender with King Tubby and you're not even halfway there."

Artist:	JACOBS, HENRY
Title:	The Wide Weird World Of Henry Jacobs
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD/DVD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 054CD

2010 repress, originally released in 2005. "We are happy to announce the reissue of this out-of-print CD/DVD set. Henry Jacobs is a sound artist and improviser par excellence. His influential recordings as well as collaborative projects resonate with an irreverent sense of humor and a love for musics of the world. From the early 1950s into the 1970s, Jacobs experimented with tape music, staged the early surround sound and visual spectacle Vortex (with artist Jordan Belson), and developed an array of absurd characters that would pop up as crank callers, relaxation coaches, or upside-down smiling instructors. A contemporary of Ken Nordine and Lenny Bruce, Jacobs honed an individual style that was droll and laid-back but winked at you at the same time. On his recordings for Folkways, World Pacific, and Fantasy, as well as on his private label MEA, the world of Jacobs is an audio collage that embraces many cultures and sensibilities. This CD/DVD collection pays homage to Jacobs' creative play, presenting recovered and restored audio as well as rare animated films that will give you a taste of this man's special talents."

Artist:	HAFLER TRIO, THE
Title:	Being A Firefighter Isn't Just About Squirting Water
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 055CD

"Being A Firefighter Isn't Just About Squirting Water is a 20 minute epic construction from the legendary sound sculptor Andrew McKenzie's The Hafler Trio. This is the fifth in a series of largely successful limited edition CD EPs featuring all new constructions from The Hafler Trio. This is limited to only 500 and it is housed in deluxe 3 panel screen printed jackets designed by Andrew McKenzie." Last copies.

Artist:	(R)
Title:	Under the Cables, Into the Wind
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 057CD

"Following the critical and commercial success of Larsen's full length Play, Larsen leader Fabrizio Modonese Polumbo is releasing his first full-length recording. Full of all the moods, methods and arrangement that make Larsen such a fascinating and engaging listen Under The Cables, Into The Wind takes the attentive listener in directions unfamiliar in Larsen audio landscape. Subtle, beautiful and melodic Under The Cables, Into The Wind would sit perfectly in the Larsen catalog if it didn't stand so well on its own."

Artist:	ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE COSMIC INFERNO
Title:	Just Another Band from the Cosmic Inferno
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 058CD

"Just Another Band From The Cosmic Inferno is the debut album from the brand new configuration of the Acid Mothers Temple. Drained creatively like 'dinosaurs on the brink of extinction,' Kawabata Makoto decided to disband the highly successful Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO lineup and replace it with something far heavier and much more powerful. Replacing the original lineup are deep-psych heavyweights including members and ex-members of The Boredoms, Ghost, Mainliner and Zeni Geva. With these ultra-heavy epic jams Kawabata Makoto has marked a new direction for his celebrated psychedelic collective. Appropriately, artwork was done longtime AMT fan and Sunn O))))/Khanate member Stephen O'Malley."

Artist:	BIRDS, THE
Title:	Birds Birds Birds In the World
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 059CD

"The first full length from the Japanese/Norweigan super-group The Birds. Comprised of Cotton Casino of The Acid Mothers Temple and Per Gisle Galaen of Slowburn, The Birds are reminiscent of other Norwegian groups like Deathprod, Supersilent and Alog though their unmistakeable and unpredictable meld of psychedelic melodies, guitar noise, Eno-esque synth dirge, Cale-drone, musique concrete and rock sets them apart. Birds Birds Birds In The World was produced by Kai Mikalsen of Sketch, Jazzkammer/Del member Lasse Marhaug and mastered by Supersilent/Deathprod producer Helge Sten. Artwork by the world famous graphic artist/collectible figurine designer Pete Fowler."

Artist:	VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA
Title:	Tuning to the Rooster
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 061CD

So far the first and only record ever made by The Vibracathedral Orchestra using a 24-track mixing board. Typically the group records on 2 tracks despite the fact that their eccentric and complexly arranged sound practically requires 24 tracks. "This is music as a shamanic aid, made as much for the players themselves as for the listeners. But as I'm writing from the listening perspective, I have to inform y'all that this is music to get you there. Every track sounds as though it has always just 'been there,' it's just you ain't quite tuned into its peculiar frequency until now. The 12-and-a-half minute 'Wearing Clothes of Ash' is like a piano-led 'Paradieswarts Duul-period drone-a-thon with John Cale and Terry Riley guesting on viola and keys. Following this, the sublime 'Baptism Bar Blues' is proof positive that they can rock the riot house with pure adrenaline rush when the decision is made. Indeed, this track is magnificent and should be available to the masses free or in pill form." -- Julian Cope.

Artist:	HOTOTOGISU
Title:	Ghosts of the Sun
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 062CD

"The Hototogisu masterfully create a dense sediment of Teutonic drone with the thickest layers of guitar, vocals and electronics. The Hototogisu are obviously seasoned sonic travelers, featuring the seminal legend Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards). Ghosts Of The Sun is one enormous composition, nearing two hours in length, unfolded and nailed together in seven movements. Starting with a slow drone electronic crawl and climaxing with crackling bone percussion buried howls of haunted minds, Ghosts Of The Sun cries out from beneath an earthquake of guitar feedback and distortion. Ghosts Of The Sun compresses eternity, from the creation of humanity to its own destruction, into seven parts on one double album. This is epic and total sonic overload, by way of The Hototogisu."

Artist:	BARBEZ
Title:	Insignificance
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 063CD

"Insignificance is the result of two years of intensive work and the culmination of seven years of exploration and growth by this unusual and powerful Brooklyn-based band. After the critical success of Barbez's self-titled full length debut on Important Records, they've returned with a groundbreaking sophomore album and a new Theremin player who Bob Moog has called the single 'greatest living' Theremin player on Earth. While Insignificance maintains Barbez's trademark ethno-punk-cabaret, the compositions have become more tight, more spacious, more frenetic and more explosive. Insignificance has more of a compositional complexity and careful instrumentation than Barbez's debut, promising to be a classic in this burgeoning sub genre known as punk-cabaret."

Artist:	GIFFONI, CARLOS
Title:	Welcome Home
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 064CD

"Welcome Home is less of a homecoming and more of a coming out for Carlos Giffoni, a highly respected and active NYC collaborator who typically shares the stage and records with the likes of Jim O'Rourke, Nels Cline, Chris Corsano, John Duncan, Massimo, Thurston Moore and many others. Giffoni has long been the experimentalist's experimentalist and now on Welcome Home, his first official full length, finds him center stage where he belongs. Like many of the great electronic artists Giffoni builds his own custom electronics and programs his own software with which he's able to achieve sounds uniquely his own. Welcome Home, taking over three years to complete, is full of heavy electronic compositions using meticulously arranged microsound particles generated from Giffoni's unique equipment."

Artist:	XXL
Title:	Ciautistico!
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 065CD

"Ciautistico! is the debut album from XXL (Xiu Xiu Larsen), a collaboration between the Italian experimental cult band Larsen and James Stewart's mutated-pop project Xiu Xiu. Both groups consider their joint creative clash as a new band in itself more than just an occasional collaboration. Edited out of long and intense jam sessions the sound of Ciautistico! is totally schizophrenic, swinging between orchestrated pop songs, almost-techno beats and minimalistic droning tracks, but framed into a common melancholic mood and fronted by the inimitable James Stewart."

Artist:	HAFLER TRIO, THE
Title:	Exactly As I Am
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 066CD

"Exactly As I Am is the third and final release in The Hafler Trio's collaborative series with Jonsi Birgisson of Sigur Ros. Like the first two in the series Exactly As I Am is a double full length release and is comprised of all new material recorded in May/June of 2005. Exactly As I Am is lavishly packaged in a special die cut oversized package printed on two different types of parchment, meant to imitate small editions of French poetry ca. 1900."

Artist:	CARTER & ROBERT HORTON DUO, TOM
Title:	Lunar Eclipse
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 069CD

"Lunar Eclipse was culled from over 30 hours of recordings taking place, inadvertently, on the equinox, lunar eclipse and winter solstice of 2004.The duo of Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Robert Horton sound as if they are channeling the natural power of these significant calender days into the music. They both noticed something special was happening during the initial recording session when they looked at a clock and realised that they'd been playing for over 5 hours. Throughout the album Carter slowly plays louder and more powerfully than usual over drone-master Robert Horton's organic & electronic chimes, drones, jangles, dangles and splendor. The result is a vast, expansive sound cavern full of hidden melody, slow drones, textured tribal gong and hidden mystic rhythm."

Artist:	MERZBOW
Title:	Merzbuta
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 070CD

"Merzbow's back (you knew he would be) with another release in the popular Merz series on Important Records. This time Masami Akita has returned with Merzbuta (Buta means pig in Japanese) and he's looking back to the last 3 discs in the Merzbox as his primary influence for these recordings. This means that for the first time in a long time he has recorded his EMS Synthi model 'A.' Don't expect to hear anything from this record in a Volkswagen advertisement but Merzbuta is Merzbow's most approachable release yet."

Artist:	CITAY
Title:	Citay
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 071CD

"Out of San Francisco, Citay is a new project by Ezra Feinberg, formerly of Piano Magic (4AD), in collaboration with Tim Green from The Fucking Champs (Drag City). Citay, named for the way the word 'city' is often sung, is a powerful, elegiac blend of seemingly disparate musical elements. Taking its cue from the dramatic song structures of 1970s AM rock, Citay combines Led Zeppelin acoustic guitars and organs with soaring guitar harmonies and lush, choral voices. The influences of the early records of Mike Oldfield, Roy Harper, John Fahey, and more recently the Japanese band Ghost can be heard as well. Certain moments sound like the long, baroque intros of Metallica songs (before the metal takes over) while other moments unleash themselves in triumphant builds and emotional landings. The sound is rounded out by breezy, distinctly psyched vocal harmonies of The Byrds and The Beach Boys, adding a blissed-out flavor to the blend. The result is something entirely new. With smoking Thin Lizzy dual leads and California vocal harmonies, Citay will soon be enchanting the kids from the city to the country and back again."

Artist:	OCEAN
Title:	Here Where Nothing Grows
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 073CD

"Over the last couple of years Ocean has established themselves as an unparalleled current in the east coast metal scene. Here Where Nothing Grows is their debut full length album of three rogue waves clocking in at a full 65 fathoms. This is a slow ancient doom harnessing the deep low end drone of Sunn 0))), Burzum's screams, the crushing heaviness of Buried At Sea, and even the art rock of Mogwai. However, these obvious audio touchstones couldn't possibly prepare you for Here Where Nothing Grows, an album that can only happen in one place, by one group in a coastal Maine city nestled against the crashing waves of the cold Atlantic sea. Recommended if you like Neurosis, Burzum, Buried At Sea, Sunn 0))), Earth, Electric Wizard, downers, absinthe, molasses, sloths, etc..."

Artist:	ANOICE
Title:	Remmings
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 076CD

"Let's get this straight immediately. Anoice is not another instrumental group with strong rock tendencies and an armchair association with classical music. Unlike numerous contemporaries which they will undoubtedly be compared to, their goal is not to follow the trends and make the soft/loud/soft/loud juxtapositions in every song, but to carefully craft each song with a strong attention to melody, solid accompaniment, and courteous counterpoint. While each member cites different musical influences, it's fairly evenly split between rock (think My Bloody Valentine meets King Crimson), classical and modern composers (Perhaps Debussy and Shostakovitch writing together after drinking heavily from Phillip Glass), jazz and electronic (Autechre meets Mum maybe?). Combining all of these influences with their obvious Japanese heritage Anoice has created an album with an emotional arc, climaxing magnificently as it ends and leaves the listener determined to press play once again. Pronounced 'a noyce,' the name comes from the Celtic word for 'now' (Anois)."

Artist:	MY CAT IS AN ALIEN
Title:	Cosmic Light Of the Third Millenium
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 077CD

"Here the Opalio space-brothers push their improvised music of the Spheres in new cosmic territories, where the use of Roberto's wordless vocals impresses a still unheard lyricism inside the sublime complexity of their unique musical textures. 'Section I' opens the album with a slow and emotional epic crescendo generated by floating waves of electric space-guitars alongside glittering sounds of mini-xylophone and toy piano; this impressive astral monochord-blues increase leads to a denouement of electronics & cymbals storm. Whispered wordless moaning vocals and sparse rhythmic percussions resonating in the distance open 'Section II,' where the celestial explosion is followed by droning walls of guitar sounds and space-toys effects, lost in a vertical streamline of astral debris. An ambient minimal guitar tune introduces the final 'Section III': reiterated and limpid single guitar chords disclose the enlightened beauty of the Cosmos."

Artist:	CLUCK, DIANE
Title:	Black With Green Leaves/Macy's Day Bird
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 078CD

"This deluxe double CD, priced the same as a single disc, pairs up Diane Cluck's second full length album Macy's Day Bird with the EP titled Black With Green Leaves. Both were originally released by Diane in elaborate, tiny handmade editions. These are arguably Diane's most compelling, immediate and striking records and it was these two recordings that originally caught the ear of Important Records in 2001. Macy's Day Bird/Black With Green Leaves is highly recommended to Diane's many new fans who picked up on her after the release of Oh Vanille/Ova Nil in early 2005. The attentive listener will find her hauntingly clear voice weaving melodies of love, pain and city life through sparse arrangements of piano, acoustic guitar and harmonium. This material is newly restored/mastered by James Fei."

Artist:	4 GUITARS
Title:	Four Guitars Live
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 080CD

"This was a rare quartet of guitar performance that took place August 8 of 2001 in a now defunct club in Brooklyn by Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Nels Cline and Carlos Giffoni. It's a crystal clear multitrack recording that was later mixed and mastered by producer Wharton Tiers. Infinite possibilities are explored as the signature styles of each of the group members create moments of tension, peace, violence, and run through every possible range of emotions. Psychedelic tunnels of sound echo through endless guitar lines, minimalism and maximalism both present in one moment, there are no solos and no selfishness, as four combine to create an unbelievable 40+ minute piece. A document of pure sonic exploration of a moment in time that will never be repeated by four of the most respected experimentalists of our day."

Artist:	MOUTHUS
Title:	The Long Salt
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 082CD

"This album is a return to more abrasive and heavy Mouthus territory after forays into acoustic instrumentation and, yes, a Fleetwood Mac cover on their recent Troubleman full-length. Free/tribal percussion spatter 'n clatter duels with endlessly mutating three chord sludge-riffage beneath thick, poison clouds of delayed-out vocal groan. Truly CHOCK full of manic bad-mood energy but maybe psych-droney and resin-soaked enough for the new crop of crunchier noise-heads to nod to as well. Electric guitars strung with duct tape and drums equipped with hundred-year old heads are jettisoned into deep space and dynamited, combusting so vividly that the after-images soak our retinas with mandalas of interwoven earthworms and beer funnels for hours afterwards."

Artist:	LARSEN
Title:	SeieS
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 083CD

"SeieS is Larsen's fifth full length and work on it began when they were recording Play for Important. However, where Play was Larsen's most orchestrated-ambient work so far, SeieS tends to be quite a bit more song oriented. If the palindrome title suggests that this is an album with two opposite souls then the truth lies in the album's dichotomized sounds. Tracks like 'The Snow,' 'Haula' and 'Marzia' are Larsen's most sinister (and recent) compositions, disturbing soundscapes that would fit very well a David Lynch movie. 'Marzia' catches Larsen experimenting with slow industrial-dub rhythm, side to side with the master of gloomy ambient and soundtracks Brian Williams a.k.a Lustmord. The remaining tracks of SeieS were the first recorded for this album and, conversely, sport light and releasing moods within the 'classical' droning sound of the band. These tracks feature female vocals thanks to the the ex-Swans chanteuse Jarboe."

Artist:	BLACKSHAW, JAMES
Title:	O True Believers
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 084CD

"When UK native James Blackshaw plays his 12-string, something spiritual takes place. This unassuming 23 year-old is transformed into a guitar god whose name belongs alongside the likes of Jack Rose, Steffen Basho-Junghans, and Glenn Jones. Making instrumental, solo, acoustic music that remains consistently interesting and moving is a difficult task. Yet, time after time, Blackshaw hits out of the park, constantly breaking boundaries in what could be conceived as a somewhat limited medium. O True Believers is the latest in a string of impressive releases, all with their own mood and inspiration. An untrained musician living in the isolated suburban environs of Greater London, Blackshaw draws inspiration not only from the early Takoma Records roster, but from sources as varied as the sublime film-work of Werner Herzog, the books of Richard Brautigan and an endless amount of music: free-jazz, '60s psych, drone, ethnic music and modern-day composers, to name a few."

Artist:	SLOMO
Title:	The Creep
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 085CD

'If the doom metal of Khanate is the ideal soundtrack to the 21st Century Odinists' hanging upon the tree of Yggdrasil, then the vegetal music of Slomo is the unfolding, nurturing, ever-becoming ur-ooze that titanically irrigates the roots of that sacred tree. Slomo restores our timeless beginnings and fulfills the Ginnungagap -- motherfuckers.' --Julian Cope. "The Creep by Slomo is one full length track packaged in a deluxe Important Records gatefold cardboard jacket printed on both sides with two custom inserts by Slomo. The Creep was originally released on Julian Cope's Fuck Off And Di label in a limited edition of 100 which sold out instantly. Since, it's quickly gained massive underground status after being propped up by the likes of Sunn O))) and The Wire."

Artist:	PESTREPELLER
Title:	Isle of Dark Magick
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 086CD

"Prepare yourself for this gem of free-improvised-found-sound-collage enriched with dark pagan folky vibes and supernatural horror noise dedicated to HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Austin Osman Spare! Most remember Pestrepeller only as the source material for Sonic Boom's (Spacemen 3) Pestrepeller remix album. It's true, while they're a supergroup of sorts and are in their tenth year of existence they've still only released three proper albums not including the Sonic Boom remixes. When Pestrepeller does make a sound, they make it count sharing stages with Borbetomagus, David Shea and Alan Turner among others. Pestrepeller consists of long-celebrated illustrator and Wire journalist Savage Pencil, Evan Parker student and ex-Medicine Head member Peter Hope-Evans, comic artist Ed Pinset, cartoonist Harley Richardson and Rob Brown."

Artist:	RATKJE, MAJA
Title:	Stalker
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	PIC. DISC
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 092LP

"Renowned international composer Maja Ratkje is a founding member in two of Norway's most respected improvisational units -- Spunk & Fe-Mail. Like much of Ratkje's work Stalker flawlessly contrasts these two distinct emotional and audio extremes. While Stalker is influenced by the hardest Japanese noise it is also a quiet emotional drift based around Bertolt Brecht's story of a girl who has drowned and is floating down a river while her body slowly dissolves leaving only her hair to remain. With this dichotomy of hanging in limbo, Ratkje fills in the blanks with her signature compositional attention to detail and balance." Limited stock, deleted item.

Artist:	FLAHERTY/CORSANO/YEH
Title:	Snow Blind Avalanche
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 096LP

"Snow Blind Avalanche is a completely different album than A Rock In The Snow also being released on Important though the two records were made during the same sessions. Snow Blind Avalanche finds the Flaherty/Corsano/Yeh in more abstract free dimensions with Yeh's presence in the sound even more firmly established. Recorded as the snow fell. 'No overdubs. Live in studio. Free-noise-punk-jazz with bent-sick-burning vocals. Amen.' -- Paul Flaherty.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Belly of the Whale
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 098CD

... Digital Music Made from the Sounds of Marine Animals. "The Belly Of The Whale project was brilliantly conceived together by two of the prime movers in the Natural Art world: Interspecies and Greenmuseum. The goal was to create digital music from underwater sound samples of creatures including orcas, dolphins, beluga whales, sperm whales, humpback whales, Weddell and Bearded seals, lobsters, shrimp and water. Together, Interspecies and Greenmuseum compiled a sample CD of 350 captured sounds and sent it out to many of their favorite electronic artists. Scanner, Merzbow, Yannick Dauby, LapCore, Jayne Fenton Keane, Kim Cascone and many others answered the call merging deep sea underwater sounds with their electronic aesthetics. What's most compelling about this project is the thoughtful way that the artists have listened and responded, both individually and as a community, to the sounds of our environment."

Artist:	MENCHE, DANIEL
Title:	Jugularis
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 103CD

"Imagine yourself riding on cells coasting through your body's veins. The sound of the heart grows stronger like a beating drum as you're pulled closer. Suddenly, you're embraced by this giant pulsating muscle and when you're finally released back into the veins you can hear it's sound fading slowly, but still growling with the same intensity that it has beat with for eternity. Jugularis is the soundtrack to this ride and like your heart it's packaged in blood: the ultimate symbol of life and intensity. Recently Daniel Menche has embraced more percussion based sound to create music that manipulates the listener's blood flow and intensifies the listening experience. Jugularis still contains a distinctly Menche sound yet being that it's intensely rhythm and percussion based it's extremely different from anything that he has created prior."

Artist:	MUDSUCKERS
Title:	Mudsuckers
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 104CD

Pete Swanson & Gabe Salomon (Yellow Swans), Tom Carter (Charalambides) & Robert Horton. "Swamp noise drone. Feedback is layered like mud on the carcass of song structure. Robert uses primitive cassette manipulation as well as digital processing to thicken the sound into a swamp. Think Credence Clearwater Revival without the one chord they knew. On three of the songs, Pete uses his analog reel-to-reel wall-of-sound processing apparatus. 'Longjaw Mudsuckers' was inspired by a mid-eighties cassette where Merzbow mixed John Hudak's nature sounds into a screaming mass of sonic debris. Robert recorded a stream after the huge New Year's Day storm and Pete plugged it into his system, making it sound at times like a stream, an ocean, and robots whispering mechanical secrets. This CD contains some of the first recordings of Tom Carter's circuit-bending. Individual attributes of Gabe Mindel's guitar roar, Tom Carter's ebow laptop whirl, and Horton's clanky homemades merge into the mud stew. Driving the swirl are samples of boogie woogie piano, riffs from the session, and pounding drums."

Artist:	GRAILS
Title:	Black Tar Prophecies Vol's 1,2, & 3
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 105CD

"The collected Black Tar Prophecies ends up being a more idiosyncratic mission statement for future Grails recordings, revealing their fondness for the groundfloor '60s and '70s experimental artists that saw music as a process of discovery as opposed to the pre-conceived, pre-parametered, commodified sport that underground music has become. A parallel is now forming between Grails and old-school experimental bands like Faust who, rejecting their past, started over from the beginning to build new languages in music. Grails' third full length recording, and first full-length since leaving Neurosis' label Neurot, is The Black Tar Prophecies. Seven of these nine tracks from this full length were released in small highly sought-after pressings of 12" vinyl on two European labels. The Black Tar Prophecies is a massive evolutionary step in the established Grails sound and it is shrouded in change and pain. The somewhat clinical studio sound and recording style which has established them a tremendous following has been replaced with a much more free and conceptual recording style. This method liberated the group in the studio and these recordings feel much more open, heavy and for lack of a better term, 'psychedelic.' We're not talking about the clich� co-opted psychedelic fashion, but psychedelia as a reckless embrace of new states of mind and possibilities."

Artist:	GRAILS
Title:	Black Tar Prophecies Vol's 1, 2 & 3
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 105LP

"LP version of Grails' pivotal 2006 release Black Tar Prophecies 1,2,3. Released to coincide with the debut of Black Tar Prophecies 4 being released simultaneously on Important Records. Cut and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity. Heavy duty tip-on gatefold jackets by Stoughton. At the start of 2005 Grails returned to the U.S. from a month long European tour. Stepping off the plane, most of the band walked in one direction and the violinist strayed off in another. It ended up being the last time most anyone would see or talk to him. A bandmate of three records and five years had vanished only to exist in the form of vague rumors (violin hocked for petty cash, living on the streets, etc.). As the varied reports of brief encounters and sightings grew stranger and darker, the band started a series of recordings called Black Tar Prophecies. The remaining members had particular dissatisfactions with how the band had been grouped into the innocuous contemporary 'post-rock' movement. This frustration, combined with newly liberated instrumental roles, introduced new possibilities for the band's sound. In this way the collected Black Tar Prophecies ends up being a more idiosyncratic mission statement for future Grails recordings, revealing their fondness for the ground floor '60s and '70s experimental artists that saw music as a process of discovery as opposed to the pre-conceived, pre-parametered, commodified sport that underground music has become. A parallel is now forming between Grails and old-school experimental bands like Faust who, rejecting their past, started over from the beginning to build new languages in music. Grails' third full length recording, and first full length since leaving Neurosis' label Neurot, is The Black Tar Prophecies. Seven of the nine tracks from this full length were released in small, highly sought after pressings of 12" vinyl on two European labels. Important is proud to release The Black Tar Prophecies in its complete form, including two tracks not available on the vinyl releases. The Black Tar Prophecies is a massive evolutionary step in the established Grails sound and it is shrouded in change and pain. The somewhat clinical studio sound and recording style which has established them a tremendous following has been replaced with a much more free and conceptual recording style. This method liberated the group in the studio and these recordings feel much more open, heavy and for lack of a better term 'psychedelic.' We're not talking about the clich� co-opted psychedelic fashion, but psychedelia as a reckless embrace of new states of mind and possibilities. This sound has always existed within a Grails song but now it has been heavily pushed to the foreground. Perhaps even more eloquently and simply stated, Black Tar Prophecies 1, 2, & 3 is their best record yet."

Artist:	HOTOTOGISU
Title:	Some Blood Will Stick
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 106CD

"Hototogisu is Matthew Bower (Skullflower/Sunroof!) and Marcia Bassett (Double Leopards). They've been laying down billowing sheets of Teutonic guitar drone-noise since 2003 with the thickest possible helpings of vocals and electronics. Some Blood Will Stick is a collection of tracks from their ultra-limited self produced label Heavy Blossom. Songs were taken from Swoon Scream (2004) and Awful Symmetry (2005) with one additional track. What makes this disc more than a simple re-release is the extraordinary scalpel re-editing by Matthew Bower and the crushing and invigorating mastering by Scott Hull at Visceral Sound making this one of the heaviest and most beautiful Hototogisu releases."

Artist:	RIVULETS
Title:	You Are My Home
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 109CD

"Long-delayed 3rd album by internationally acclaimed solo artist, Rivulets. Featuring guests Jessica Bailiff (Kranky), Chris Brokaw (Codeine, Come, the New Year), Christian Frederickson (Rachel's), Fred Lonberg-Holm (Boxhead Ensemble), & Bob Weston (Mission of Burma, Shellac). Rivulets is the project of minimalist singer-songwriter Nathan Amundson. This is not a folk album. This is an album about hearts breaking, tearing it down, and moving on. Rivulets is a prolific songwriter, with releases out on several labels, including Acuarela, BlueSanct, Silber, and Chair Kickers' Union. This is Rivulets' 3rd full length album, and 1st for Important records."

Artist:	ANP (ABSOLUT NULL PUNKT)
Title:	Metacompound
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 110CD

"Metacompound is the first full length studio album from ANP in 19 years. Lavish metallic ink on vellum packaging by ANP fan and Sunn O))) member, Stephen O'Malley. ANP was formed in 1984 by K.K. Null & Seijiro Murayama. In 1987 ANP broke up. 17 years later they reformed for some live performances and released the singular Live In Japan on Important Records. Metacompound, their first studio recordings in over 19 years, is as indescribable as Live In Japan was. Combining free jazz, heavy rock, industrial noise, glitch and free improvised dynamics, ANP creates a sound that is entirely unprecedented."

Artist:	NULL, KK
Title:	Kosmista Noisea
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 111CD

"Kosmista Noisea is a brand new full length from Japanese legend K.K. Null. Packaged in a jewel box with a metallic print on a vellum tray card, this was lavishly designed by Stephen O'Malley (Sunn 0)))/Khanate). Kosmista Noisea (Finnish for Cosmic Noise) consists of live recordings from 3 different locations during the European tour in 2003-2004. 'Kosmista Noisea 1' is taken from 2 separate live recordings and uniquely combined in the studio into one piece with Talcent, Italy on the left channel and St. Etienne, France on the right channel. This technique is designed to give more depth and multiple dimensions. Kosmista Noisea 2 is a 45 minutes long non-edit of an entire live performance in Antwerpen/Belgium, showing the diversity of KK Null's music from intense clashing waves of noise to structured electro-acoustic ambience, droning isolationist material."

Artist:	FE-MAIL AND CARLOS GIFFONI
Title:	Northern Stains
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 112CD

"Northern Stains is the result of a collaboration between experimental phenomenon Carlos Giffoni and Spunk/Fe-Mail members Maja Ratkje & Hild Tafjord. Individually and together, Carlos Giffoni and Fe-Mail make records that are rich, detailed, dense and complex, constantly straddling the line between improvised noise and modern composition. It's this attention to detail and warmth that make Fe-Mail & Carlos Giffoni such celebrated artists and kindred collaborators. Northern Stains is an often absurd combination of live sounds, feedback, hilarious sampling with a genuine sentimental touch, which nods towards both the northern glaciers and the beauty and brutality of nature."

Artist:	SCHNITZLER, CONRAD
Title:	Klavierhelm
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 113CD

"Conrad Schnitzler is a genuine legend in the krautrock and electronic music worlds. Schnitzler studied under Joseph Beuys before joining an early Tangerine Dream. Their first album Electronic Meditation shows a band highly influenced by Schnitzler's unique, singular approach. Schnitzler left Tangerine Dream to form Kluster with friends Dieter Moebius and Hans Joachim Roedelius. When Schnitzler left Kluster they changed their name to Cluster, eventually merging with Michael Rother (of Neu!) to form Harmonia, a group who Brian Eno once called the most important rock group on the planet. Schnitzler also founded Eruption in 1970 along with Klaus Schultz, Manuel Gottsching (Ash Ra Tempel), and Klaus Freudigmann. Looking back at Conrad Schnitzler's career it becomes obvious that he was an architect who helped draw the blueprints for some very significant musical movements. Perhaps overlooked, or at least desperately underappreciated, it hasn't slowed Schnitzler down. Since leaving Kluster, Conrad Schnitzler has composed diligently for electronics and piano. Now located in Dallgow, Germany he continues to accumulate equipment and recordings of what he says is 'cold, hard electronic sound.' The piano is certainly an instrument with which Conrad Schnitzler is not often associated. However, his compositions on Klavierhelm exhibit his highly expressive and free approach to the piano. Calling to mind Erik Satie and Cage, Cecil Taylor and even Carl Stalling. Limited edition of 1000."

Artist:	SCHNITZLER, CONRAD
Title:	Trigger Trilogy
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	3CD
Price:	$26.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 114CD

Nice box of great-sounding unreleased recordings from Schnitzler's vault. No recordings dates or additional information is included, but this is "cold, electronic sound" at its best. "Trigger Trilogy consists of three discs each selected from hundreds of hours of Schnitzler's private recordings. Each represents one of the few unique approaches that Schnitzler takes to recording, each uniquely identified and defined by Schnitzler. Within each of these recordings one can hear how Schnitzler influenced a generation of artists not only in Germany but in the world around and how he's brought those sounds into the modern day. It's also apparent in these recordings that Schnitzler is thoughtful and enlightened, a total pioneer floating freely in a world of sound. Trigger One consists of what Schnitzler calls his 'Solo Voices' or 'Solo Electronics.' This particular recording happens to be rhythmically-based electronic work. Recognizing that in traditional music the melodic line is subordinate to the ensemble leaving it no true impression of its own, Schnitzler has liberated the solo voice in his own music and given it its own vocation as noise, tone and sound. By superimposing several voices or forming a sound environment by mixing, Schnitzler has created new dimensions, worlds of sound where the individual voice is no longer subservient to synchronization or the conductor's baton. The results are sound combinations which adhere to no logic. Trigger Two is what Schnitzler refers to as 'Free Concert Mix Solos': 'From solo to mix, from melodic line to ensemble. Accumulation of voices, note clusters which are not opposed to one another but are equal and parallel in a free play of energy. The mix of solo voices produces concentrations of notes and noises, tangles, compressions, sound constellations, sound catastrophes, acoustic phenomenon.' Trigger Three, the final disc in the Trigger Trilogy, is a 'Con-Cert.' This is a tradition that Schnitzler has been working in for quite some time. Originally using cassettes and now using compact discs, Schnitzler creates live mixes of multiple recordings. The sounds are intentionally designed, shaped, constructed and composed in specific relation to one another."

Artist:	OPALIO, ROBERTO
Title:	Chants From Isolated Ghosts
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 115CD

"Roberto Opalio is half of the Italian space duo My Cat Is An Alien. Roberto Opalio is a visual and sound artist from Torino, Italy. His work includes painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, poetry, glass art, film/video, sound installation, and performance. Since 1998, Roberto Opalio acts as musician (together with his brother Maurizio) in the avant-garde improv duo My Cat Is An Alien. His special works of art represent the trademarked style of all the limited art-edition releases issued on their own Opax Records imprint. This aesthetic is described by Opalio as 'space art.' The extra-terrestrial nature of his work claims its ontological status in the act of creating a non-finished, otherworldly dimension -- a proper alien dimension."

Artist:	MY CAT IS AN ALIEN
Title:	Leave Me In the Black No-Thing
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 116CD

"New full-length album recorded April 10th, 2006, at MCIAA's Alien Zone, located in a remote region of the Western Alps, Piemonte, Italy. After having been irradiated by the Cosmic Light Of A New Millenium, you find yourself facing a black and white cover, where the only view of the universe is foreshortened, and represents a lighted shape showing branches of pine trees under a white sky, within the darkest black. Element which represents the aesthetic detaching and, at the same time, a further step in the duo's artistic process, which determines their willingness to go beyond any goal already achieved. For MCIAA to make art means to risk daring the unknown, daring the listener himself to excel his own limits of perception of the work of art in music, without losing anything of their unique and unmistakable style. If, as many of the international critics have been remarking, MCIAA's works live on the boundary between light and darkness, it's also true that Cosmic Light of the Third Millennium celebrated the light of the outer spaces as well as Leave Me In The Black No-Thing represents a jump into the No-Thing of the empty inner spaces."

Artist:	DEATH UNIT
Title:	Infinite Death
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 118CD

"Infinite Death is the first full length CD release from Death Unit, a supergroup of total psychedelic noise destruction formed by Carlos Giffoni, on electronics, in early 2005 and which includes Chris Corsano and Trevor Tremaine (Hair Police) on double drum attack and Brian Sullivan (Mouthus) on guitar. Covering all areas from total minimal graveyard tonal strange work to massive wall of drums/electronic/guitar assault, Death Unit was put together with one purpose: to leave nothing alive behind. Infinite Death captures the absolute essence and energy of Death Unit by combining a long studio track recorded at Sonic Youth's Echo Canyon studio with a scorching ferocious live track recorded on Death Unit's 2005 summer tour."

Artist:	BAIKAL
Title:	Baikal
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 119CD

"Baikal is a new burner from Bardo Pond brothers John & Michael Gibbons along with fellow Bardo Pond members Clint Takeda and Jason Kourkonis. This time they ventured down the route of heavy free-improvisation and a Last Exit style hard rock approach coupled with a hard psych bend. With two tracks each weighing in at over 30 minutes in length it's clear that Baikal is a deep voyage underseas with yet another mindblowing Bardo Pond side project featuring Bardo brothers John & Michael Gibbons as your tour guide -- and it's a heavy trip indeed. Dive in."

Artist:	AXOLOTL
Title:	Memory Theatre
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 120CD

"Memory Theatre is an absolutely essential collection of the best of Axolotl's out-of-print CD-Rs and vinyl-only releases. Karl Bauer spent quite a bit of time collaborating with Black Dice, Mouthus, Double Leopards and various other acclaimed members of the noise underground before heading off on his own as Axolotl. In the last couple of years Axolotl have released numerous CD, CD-R and vinyl releases, many of which quickly went out of print and started demanding some serious coin on eBay. Memory Theatre collects the best of these out-of-print releases into one convenient package designed by Karl Bauer. Axolotl has collaborated with the likes of the Skaters, Magik Markers, Yellow Swans, Inca Ore, Skygreen Leopards, Religious Knives, and Mouthus."

Artist:	MOUTHUS
Title:	Follow This House
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 121CD

"Follow This House by Mouthus is a companion piece to their 2005 full length for Important titled The Long Salt. Picking up right where The Long Salt left off, Follow This House is a record chock full of manic bad mood energy, crunching resin-soaked jams and hundred year-old instrumentation emerging from the soggy mire only to be slowly pushed back in by poison clouds of delayed-out vocal groan. Mouthus are on a stated mission to incorporate new sounds and new instrumentation into their recordings. Never repeating themselves Follow This House is less fractured and more minimal, embracing the Mouthus sludgefest like a settling foundation."

Artist:	VANISHING VOICE
Title:	Stone Tablet
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 122CD

"Total Can-style audacity from Brooklyn drone stew Edward Goreyian broken house Sufic wanderers the Vanishing Voice. Whatever Kraut or Swede compatriots that may be a part time relation the Vanishing Voice are mining the sound of the naughties in a subterranean part of Brooklyn, as reprehensible as that place might be the beast still roams Gotham and these fuckers got him by the tail. Stone Tablet is a trip to be sure. Mother Mark Ospovat cracks the whip of dogsled Imandi while snarling bad dog Pete Nolan kept a forward propulsion on skins and molten guitar spew. Mad man Steve J Taveniere of local faves Meneguar lent a cool head and a popular sensibility to the proceedings with skills on the acoustic axe to be sure. Non horse Crane, magnetic wizard and DJ let loose his usual bag of hidden charms and H. 'Reality' Diehl, with a voice said to make many a grown man cry, a magik trash harp and the mind of the other, kept us all in the ethereal realm."

Artist:	RAMESES III
Title:	Honey Rose EP
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD EP
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 126CD

"Rameses III are architects of the most beautiful swathes of blissful ambience whose releases have previously found homes on labels like Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Music Fellowship, Scarcelight, MYMWLY, Barl Fire and Type. On Honey Rose, the group's first release for Important, the South London trio build a bucolic soundtrack to Jon Spira's mysterious short film Suityman. Whilst the influence of Bruce Langhorne, Boxhead Ensemble and much of the 4AD roster can be keenly felt on this six song EP, so too can the wondrous drone narratives that are such a feature of Rameses III's previous works. More structured and melodious then much of their output, Honey Rose is the perfect place for a newcomer to begin exploring the music of one of the finest purveyors of ambient drone operating in music today."

Artist:	BARK HAZE, THE
Title:	Total Joke Era
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 127CD

"This exclusive CD release is entirely different from the LP release on Important which is also untitled. The Bark Haze is primarily a guitar duo of GOWN (nom de plume of one Andrew Macgregor) and Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth etfuckingcetera). Auxiliary members have been know to include Pete Nolan (Magik Markers, Virgin Eye Blood Brothers, Cops, et al). Their name came from a mis-hearing of the radical early '70s R+B group the Bar-Kays and from that moment the concept of mis-hearing and allegiance to presenting the mis-hearing as some open-ended musical course became The Bark Haze's identity."

Artist:	LARSEN & FRIENDS
Title:	Abeceda
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD/DVD
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 129CD

"This CD/DVD set captures an extremely special evening for Larsen, one that places them in a perfect visual and musical perspective revealing more than a little about this enigmatic quartet from Torino Italy. For one night only, Larsen assembled their closest musical friends to play to a sold out crowd at the Teatro Colosseo in Torino. The purpose of the performance was to pay tribute to the work of Czech avant garde designer, typographer, founder of Devestil and cultural radicalist Karel Teige and his Abeceda -- a 1926 collaboration with poet Vitoslav Nezva which minimalized text down to its basic components establishing a poetic dialogue between text and images. To Abeceda, Larsen brings their minimalist beauty and melody with this live performance incorporating music, dance and projections. With Larsen are their close musical friends David Tibet (Current 93), Baby Dee (Current 93 member and acclaimed solo performer) and Johann Johannsson (Touch/4AD). The music swells in gentle pulses of softly stated melody. Emotion clings to each note while glistening shimmers of electronics dance quietly in the mix."

Artist:	MERZBOW + CARLOS GIFFONI
Title:	Synth Destruction
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 131CD

"Over 60 minutes of total analog destruction by noise king Merzbow and Brooklyn noise boss Carlos Giffoni, this live collaboration was recorded during Giffoni's Synth Destruction Japan tour in September of 2006. This is Sound Totalism and is as heavy as it comes: totally brutal, totally ugly, totally beautiful, totally intense, totally classic, totally analog, total synth and total destruction. Intense artwork by Jenny Akita. Author, activist, painter and sound artist Masami Akita had been at the foreground of experimental music for over 25 years. Inspired by psychedelic rock, free jazz, early electronic composition as well the physical arts, especially Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau, Masami Akita has created a musical language all his own. Carlos Giffoni, despite his young age, has been an in-demand Brooklyn collaborator for many years. He has worked with Jim O'Rourke, Thurston Moore, Nels Cline, Chris Corsano, Fe-Mail, and many others. In 2005 he released his first solo record titled Welcome Home on Important Records. This is Merzbow and Giffoni's first collaborative release."

Artist:	VANISHING VOICE
Title:	Nordic Visions
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 132CD

"Nordic Visions was originally released in a tiny vinyl edition of 525 copies which sold out immediately. Here it is by demand, resurrected as a digital tiki for the original vinyl release. While Wooden Wand and Satya Sai jammed with the Sky High Band in beautiful California, the Vanishing Voice dug in deep in the frozen Northeast. Snowed in with utopian texts and mounting paranoia, Steven The Harvester, Heidi White Diamond Diehl, and Pete Wolfy Nolan joined Nonhorse in an abandoned textile factory, boiling out these ballads of suspended disbelief and hope for the better world."

Artist:	HOOKER, EYVIND KANG & BILL HORIST, WILLIAM
Title:	The Seasons Fire
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 133CD

"This all-star trio features William Hooker on drums, Eyvind Kang on violin and guitar and Bill Horist on guitar. Sync'd up like they've been playing together for eternity, these recordings represent a dramatic paradigm shift in the art of improvisation. These three thoroughly modern artists scan jazz, new music and noise -- stretching it all out and putting it back together within the expansive boundaries of these tremendously compelling high-energy recordings."

Artist:	RYLAN, JESSICA
Title:	Interior Designs
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 134CD

"Jessica Rylan (you may know her better as Can't) is finally releasing her first officially published instrumental work for synthesizer. Titled Interior Designs, these compositions are more 'classic' in nature than her work as Can't. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, Iannis Xenakis and especially Thomas Lehn, Rylan confidently takes her place among these monumental artists with this collection of strikingly original pieces recorded on a Serge Modular as well as analog synthesizers Rylan built herself."

Artist:	LARSEN
Title:	Musm II: A Collection of Unreleased and Rare Tracks
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 135CD

...1996-2006. "Originally released as a limited edition CD for Larsen's US tour in 2003 and then re-issued 1 year later on vinyl by Seattle based label Enterruption, Musm has since been out of print. Finally, Important Records is making it officially available in a new revised and expanded version with 6 extra tracks and brand new artwork. Musm II includes all the non-album tracks that Larsen have released since their first full length. 'No Arms, No Legs, Identification Problems' was recorded and produced by Martin Bisi in 1996, and now almost impossible to find. It is represented here by 2 ambient tracks and a brand new editing of some sounds from that album. Also included are 4 previously unreleased mixes from the album Rever (produced by Michael Gira) the award-winning soundtrack of some short silent animated movies by Winsor McCay,compilation tracks, collaborations with Julia Kent (Antony and The Johnsons) and an odd version of Syd Barrett's 'Vegetable Man.'"

Artist:	MERZBOW
Title:	Merzbear
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 136CD

"Author, activist, painter and sound artist Masami Akita had been at the foreground of experimental music for over 25 years. Inspired by psychedelic rock, free jazz, early electronic composition as well the physical arts, especially Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau, Masami Akita has created a musical language all his own. Merzbear is the sixth Merzbow release in his utterly essential Merz series for Important Records. Merzbear pulses and pounds with distorted droning heavy guitar feedback, pulsing noise-blasts and the swirling analog sounds of Akita's distinct EMS Sythi. Like most of Merzbow's recordings, Merzbear is a significant document of his ever evolving improvisational style. Slowly, he's been moving away from his pure laptop era and re-incorporating elements of his pre-laptop analog days w/ his homemade junk guitar, EMS Synthi & electronics. This hybrid sound brings the past into the present and pounds with total junk-collage Dada urgency as only Masami Akita can do it. Cover art by Jenny Akita."

Artist:	SMEGMA
Title:	33 1/3
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 137CD

" 33 1/3 is Smegma's tribute to their 20th century avant-garde and out-jazz influences. The title is one part reference to the happy revival of passionate vinyl listening in the 21st century and one part celebration of their long hard slog of 33 1/3 years of being one of the most free thinking and original American underground groups. Their focus, ideas and determination has brought them through more than three decades and to this day they remain unparalleled, original and highly influential. 33 1/3 is enhanced with live videos of 'Happy Holidays' live at End Times Festival (with Spencer Yeh and Twig Harper) as well as 'Grubsteak' live at the Three Million Tongues festival in Chicago. Smegma. Seriously. They've been at it for so long now that you can't really even say they sound like anyone else. You can only say that others sound like them. They're all here on 33 1/3: Oblivia, Ju Suk Reet Meate, Burned Mind, Conroy, Dr. Id. The core group drumming up their influences and pulling off another burning album of magnificent proportions. While Smegma has never really fit in anywhere their influence on the modern avant garde and improvised noise scene is absolutely undeniable. However, it's essential to remember that Smegma has never been noise for noise's sake. While they've had two feet firmly planted in avant-garde & free jazz, one must not forget their rock roots as well. For this reason alone they're bound to not fit in anywhere. Influences aside, no matter how much everyone else sounds like Smegma, you can bet that Smegma is always going to sound like nobody else. Nobody else channels so much energy, effort, influence or sound into their work. They may just be the greatest American band. Ever."

Artist:	STEFANA, ALESSANDRO
Title:	Poste e Telegrafi
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 138CD

"Poste e Telegrafi is the debut solo album from Italian guitarist Allesandro Stefana. Featuring an all-star cast including Mark Ribot & Leo Abrahams, Stefana creates a dreamy world of instrumental perfection and beauty. Inspired by the work of Ennio Morricone, Ry Cooder, Simon Jeffes, Steve Reich and Brian Eno, he has created a thoroughly modern Western world within his compositions and arrangements. With constant references to traditional music and rural blues he utilizes electric and acoustic instrumentation with tremendously compelling results. Acoustic, electric, and pedal steel guitars along with banjo, kalimba, baliphones and found objects were all carefully combined with some primitive electronic instruments such as an arpeggiator, omnichord and home made vinyl loops. His sound is entirely original yet clearly rooted in traditions such as film music, blues, experimental, ambient and avant garde musics. Stefana manages his cast of collaborators very well. Most tracks on Poste e Telegrafi are duets with these musicians keeping the sound and arrangement simple and pure. Instruments breathe and pulse with life and excitement in this highly original album. To call this a 'promising debut' would be to dismiss the tremendous success delivered by Poste e Telegrafi."

Artist:	OLIVEROS, PAULINE
Title:	Accordion & Voice
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 140CD

"Pauline Oliveros (b. 1930) is an accordionist and composer who currently resides in Kingston, New York. Her instrument is tuned in just intonation and she often includes it in her meditative improvisational music. Her music is not meditative in the sense that it is intended for listening to while meditating, rather each piece is a form of meditation, such as her aptly titled 'Sonic Meditations.' 'Accordion & Voice was the first of my recordings as a soloist. I was living in an A-frame house in a meadow just below Mount Tremper at Zen Mountain Center. I had a wonderful view of the graceful saddle mountain top. When away on a performance trip I would imagine the mountain as I played 'Rattlesnake Mountain.' I followed the feelings and sensations of my many experiences of the mountain -- the changing colors of the season, the breezes and winds blowing through the grasses and trees. 'Horse Sings From Cloud' taught me to listen to the depth of a tone and to have patience. Rather than initiating musical impulses of motion, melody and harmony I wanted to hear the subtlety of a tone taking space and time to develop. The tones linger and resonate in the body, mind, instrument and performance space. My thanks to Important Music for bringing these pieces to be heard again.' --Pauline Oliveros, 2007

Artist:	OLIVEROS, PAULINE
Title:	The Wanderer
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 141CD

"The Wanderer is based on a single modal scale (B C# D D# E F# G#) and rhythmic modes based on a meter consisting of 3/4 and 3/8. Part I, 'Song,' is intended to explore the unique resonant qualities of accordion reeds through long sounds. Subtle variations come about from differences in tuning and air pressure. Part II, 'Dance,' demonstrates the sharp accenting power of the accordion bellows in a mixture of cross rhythms characteristic of jigs, reels, batucadas, Bulgars, Klezmer forms, Cajun dances, and music of other diverse cultures. The Wanderer was composed in November, 1982 especially for the Springfield Accordion Orchestra, directed by Sam Falcetti. This recording documents The Wanderer's world premiere, as it was performed 27 January, 1983 at Marymount Manhattan Theatre. The orchestra consists of twenty accordions, two bass accordions, and five percussion, with Pauline Oliveros as soloist, Sam Falcetti conducting. 'Horse Sings From Cloud,' written in 1975, is one of Oliveros' best known works. Like most of her Sonic Meditations, it can be performed vocally and/or instrumentally, solo or in collaboration. A solo version of 'Horse Sings From Cloud' has been recorded on Accordion & Voice. An early version of the score reads, 'Sustain a tone or sound until any desire to change it disappears. When there is no longer any desire to change the tone or sound, then change it.' This time, 'Horse Sings From Cloud' is performed in ensemble. Joining Pauline Oliveros on bandoneion are Heloise Gold on harmonium, Julia Haines on accordion, and Linda Montano on concertina. This quartet version incorporates the microtonal differences in tuning of the selected instruments, creating shimmering reed sounds somewhat similar to the shimmering of a Balinese gamelan."

Artist:	IRONS & SWAAN MILLER, ASA
Title:	Asa Irons & Swaan Miller
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 143CD

"This record is forever. After listening to it you'll realize that it doesn't matter that Asa Irons plays in Witch with J Mascis as well as the acclaimed folk outfit, Feathers. This record needs no associations and its songs are so timeless that they feel as if they've been passed around for generations and hardly need any recording medium at all. This is the first release from Asa Irons and Swaan Miller, but it sounds like they've lived within each other's voices for a million years. Asa's deep-breath-voice lays down a mossy hill for Swann's beautiful voice to tread upon. His guitar work is simply intricate and his fingerpicking perfectly suits the way their voices combine to become one. This record always has been and always will be. This record is forever."

Artist:	OCEAN/CONIFER
Title:	Durance Vile/Building State Empire
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 144LP

"This split 12" release is limited to 1000 copies. It is packaged in a screen-printed mylar jacket. Cover artwork is of a 19th century statue located at the center of Portland Maine, the dramatic coastal home of both groups. This is the sound of a musical brotherhood entirely unique to Ocean & Conifer. Over the years, Ocean and Conifer have shared vans, stages, members, practice spaces, apartments, beers, a city and a kindred musical spirit. Ocean's 20-minute epic was recorded in the same sessions that birthed their next album, currently untitled, for Important. Containing all of the epic minimalist intensity and robust heaviness that has gained them international attention, this is a whole new level."

Artist:	ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.
Title:	Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Under the Stars
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 146CD

"Brand new full length album from the Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO featuring their recent addition, female vocalist Kitagawa Hao. Recorded over a period of four months at The Acid Mothers Temple this is a very clean sounding and polished AMT. Frontman Kawabata Makoto admitted, only half joking, that this has the 'cleanest sound in AMT history!' More controlled than many of their speaker destroying fuzz blasted speed guru jams, Crystal Rainbow Pyramid is focused on mystic ambient passages leading into Kawabata's head-heavy echo-riffs. Crystal Rainbow Pyramid is clearly one of the new classic AMT recordings. Prepare to have your mind blown slowly with evolving heavyweight jams and climactic peaks of exquisite ecstasy."

Artist:	BLACK MAGIC DISCO
Title:	Black Magic Disco
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 148CD

"Black Magic Disco is the new all-star band featuring Tom Greenwood (Jackie-O Motherfucker), Maurizio & Roberto Opalio (My Cat Is An Alien) and Ramona Ponzini (Painting Petals On Planet Ghost, Praxinoscope). The project was born out of an idea from Tom Greenwood, leader of the avant-folk-blues ensemble Jackie-O Motherfucker (JOMF), who invited Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka the Italian improv duo My Cat Is An Alien (MCIAA), and their close collaborator Ramona Ponzini (also involved with the two brothers in the projects named Painting Petals On Planet Ghost and Praxinoscope, as well as in the new collaboration with Z'ev) to perform with him for two months of touring throughout all Europe in May/June 2005. As one can imagine, the result was killer. The music which came out of the live performances was totally explosive, combining Ramona's Japanese vocals & hypnotic chimes with Greenwood's psych-blues guitar attitude & wild turntablism, over MCIAA's alien cosmic flux of electric guitars, space toys & percussions, creating a still-unheard mixture of sounds unifying archaic & post-modern, Western & Eastern, sky & earth. This debut CD represents a unique chance to experience almost 80 minutes of that pure and magic live action, divided in four long tracks taken from the original live recordings."

Artist:	KENT, JULIA
Title:	Delay
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 149CD

"Julia Kent left Rasputina in 1999, after releasing two albums on Columbia Records, and shortly thereafter became a member of Antony and the Johnsons. She played on and contributed string arrangements to the group's Mercury Prize-winning record I Am a Bird Now. Her debut solo effort, Delay, is a CD of multitracked cello and found sounds. It was inspired by airports, by transitoriness, and by the private emotional worlds that we create amid the disorientations and disjunctions of travel. Delay was recorded over the course of a year (or so) at home in between touring and traveling. After so many years of playing with other people, Julia felt that it was time to do something entirely on her own. As a result, she is the sole composer/performer on all tracks. The title refers to both the effect, to traveling and to the fact that it took so long to record. It is also an homage to Arthur Russell's World Of Echo -- a masterpiece of (among other things) externalizing the intimate."

Artist:	WEISMAN, KURT
Title:	Spiritual Sci-Fi
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 150CD

"While Spiritual Sci-Fi is a result of work that Kurt Weisman has been undertaking for the last 10 years, it's certainly also worth noting that he's a multi-instrumentalist in the acclaimed folk outfit Feathers as well as a member of J Mascis' Witch. Kurt's stunning musicality and absolute compositional prowess makes this an extremely compelling and wonderfully musical experimental pop-folk recording. Kurt Weisman is a New England composer in his late 20s around whom all the wheels of life seem distinctly sped up. The songs already sound like they're floating above something else when you hear them with just voice and 12-string. These are not regular songs with weird production. The alternative to the expectation refers to the expectation. He seems to know every tricky thing that's ever happened in pop music and how to take it further but then takes that further by giving verse tp all these ear-stretching variations on verse 1. There's a lot of weird meter stuff, little skips and jumps or little things that get stretched that seem inspired by his own computer micro-editing techniques. The 'song' and the 'production' are a snake biting its own tail. It's not just electronic sounding stuff (filters, pitch shifts, time stretches, delays, video game sounds, synth sounds, noise, beats) that lives all over these songs, there are also all sorts of weird parts his friends put on top too. Music teachers, ex-jazz students, self-taught searchers: New England is the future of music. Chord upon chord upon chord upon chord. The 'chord' is dead. This is something else. None of this is some kind of other from another genre or some critical or ironic side of his personality, it all grows from the same spirit that made the song itself. Some process is set into motion that's so creative, it becomes destructive, but somehow it all feels really good and also really spiritually and scientifically accurate. Kurt knows we're all going to die and that it's OK. The whole history of the composition is right there in the same space just like the planet, the universe, the soul. Creation and destruction are one."

Artist:	PIANO MAGIC
Title:	Part Monster
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 151CD

"7th 'proper' album from esoteric Anglo-French, London-based 'ghost-rock' group that ranges from brittle folkish introspection to dynamic all-out noise intensity. Produced by Guy Fixsen of Laika (engineer to the likes of My Bloody Valentine, The Pixies, The Breeders, Stereolab). Part-Monster, Piano Magic's 7th 'proper' album (excluding compilations) easily lives up to its title. Though Piano Magic are generally tarred with the brushes of ambient, coldwave or even ghostrock, Part Monster has its fill of all-out, near brutal, dynamic intensity. Indeed, anyone who's witnessed PM live over the past 2 years or so will testify that the shadowy introspection of their records is camouflage for a beast of many teeth. Bringing in Guy Fixsen, of the group, Laika, as producer, clearly marked the band's intention for a rawer, more powerful sound. Fixsen has taken the production and/or engineer chair for such luminaries as The Pixies, Moonshake, The Breeders, Joy Zipper, Stereolab, Lush and most notably for My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. That's not to say that Piano Magic have entirely turned the amps up to 11. Part Monster gracefully manages to balance this cathartic noise with romantic paeans to their favorite subject -- the more cruel, tragic side of their home city, London, and most notably tips a hat to perhaps the most graceful of its outcasts, Joseph Carey Merrick (The Elephant Man)."

Artist:	MAKOTO, KAWABATA
Title:	Hosanna Mantra
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 152CD

"Inspired by Popol Vuh and originally released in a tiny pressing of 550 on vinyl from the inimitable Acid Mothers Temple front man. Guitarist, violinist, performer on numerous traditional instruments, composer, leader of the Acid Mothers Temple, Kawabata Makoto expresses in this solo performance all his mantric cosmical vocations and spins them into space sonorities! He took inspiration from the Popol Vuh album of the '70s Hosianna Mantra, during his visit to A Silent Place headquarters in late winter 2006. In a sunny Sunday noon spent in the country-side, eating and drinking Apulian specialities and listening to some great experimental records, Makoto and his Italian friends Pierpaolo and Pasquale, took the decision to start this cooperation. A few days later, back in Japan, Makoto recorded the Hosanna Mantra album at the Acid Mothers Temple between March 12th and 13th, using electric guitar, bouzouki and sitar. The result is this new fantastic sound coming from the cosmos. A simple gem of crystalline beauty."

Artist:	PITRE/PILOTRAM ENSEMBLE, DUANE
Title:	Organized Pitches Occuring In Time
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 154CD

"Consists of two 25 minute pieces of music, both spawned from the same conceptual composition/score by Duane Pitre, titled 'Ensemble Drones.' With their form reminiscent of works by La Monte Young's 'Theater of Eternal Music' and their tonality touching on the floating works of Terry Riley, 'The Ensemble Chord in Eb with a Minor 7th' and a 'Pump Organ Base & The Ensemble Chord in C with a Major 7th and a Guitar Base' are aural tapestries based on a minimal tonal palette with their instrumentation consisting of guitars, alto saxophones, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, tone generator, and pump organ. 'The Ensemble Drones' composition varies from the traditional sort as it is rule-based with the score consisting of a set tonic, set pitch classes, playing methods, technique restrictions, and spontaneous conduction. The score is a structure for the performing ensemble to improvise on -- order spawning chaos producing order that is different on each occasion of a performance or recording. 'Ensemble Drones' is discipline and freedom, both within each other, the first major focus of the work. 'Variance' is the second major focus of the composition; with instrumentation, ensemble performers, tonic, pitch classes, and the physical space varying from performance to performance, the results can never be the same."

Artist:	ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB
Title:	Neon Pibroch
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 155CD

"Neon Pibroch is dedicated to the memory of Textile Records founder, Benoit Sonnette. Astral Social Club is the current project of Neil Campbell, formerly of Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof!, A Band and many more. Campbell has been active since the early '80s, and The Wire magazine has said that, along with his friends Richard Youngs and Matthew Bower, he 'provided the map co-ordinates for much of what passed for a post-punk UK underground during most of the '80s and '90s.' Campbell's approach as Astral Social Club could be seen as both a continuation and a refutal of his work with Vibracathedral Orchestra -- a continuation in that it continues the quest into the unknown stellar regions of improvised drone-based music, and a refutal in its espousal of most of the elemental organic rock modes that made that band so special. The focus here is more on alien electronics and overloaded loop disorientation, sometimes even working with sounds more readily associated with the far end of dance music to produce a truly vast 21st century psychedelic sound."

Artist:	(R)
Title:	In Pink
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 157CD

"'In Pink is the 3rd ( r ) album. I've worked on it for almost 2 years, both 'cause I've been very busy with Larsen and XXL as well as touring and working in the studio with other bands, and 'cause it came through troubled and sometimes painful, but anyway intense times. Whereas the previous Under The Cables, Into The Wind was a very warm and relaxed album, and also my favorite so far, In Pink is a pretty extreme one, swinging between joy and fear, introspective moody songs and explosions of -- desperately optimistic -- energy. Still it is more a diary than an exorcism, filled with songs about death and transfiguration, including my version of an Irish traditional theme (which also Johnny Cash interpreted on one of his American albums) and Joy Division's classic 'Atmosphere' (which I list among the best songs ever written). It is also my most arranged and colorful album where my recent experiences as producer for other bands have converged, and the most 'band' oriented among my solos. While I was composing and recording it I was also playing lots of shows and often other musicians joined me on stage. I really wanted to have them on the album in order to get that sound in the studio too and also for personal and sentimental reasons, them being among my closest friends. Paul Beauchamp (who is also my partner in the Blind Cave Salamander project as well as one of the members of the Steve McKay -- of Stooges -- band), Ango (of Mariae Nascenti), il Bue (of Larsen) and the amazing Baby Dee have contributed to the final result of this album along with Marco Milanesio that even this time has not only recorded and mixed the album, but also co-produced it with me.'" --Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo

Artist:	SKY CITY
Title:	Sky City
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 159CD

"Sky City features Tom Carter (Charalambides), Robert Horton, Lisa Cameron & Lee Ann Cameron. Sky City is psychedelic space music with all the atoms of surfaces freed to inter and counter-react. Noise in the outer dimension. Horton's homemade inventions, Carter's lyrical e-bow guitar lines. The walking on the moon vocals of Lee Ann Cameron. The vibration of material planes by Lisa Cameron. The broken blues of the boot (Horton's oldest instrument, 4 strings on a piece of wood the shape of Italy). Sun Ra ark and Neil Young's arc put through a digital blender and reconstituted for space travel. The magical musical thing (MMT), a toy synthesizer from the '70s. A great drawing on the inside cover by Natacha Robinson. A chance for music-induced time travel to parallel worlds and an opportunity to receive a collect call from the future from Sky City."

Artist:	ACID MOTHERS GURU GURU
Title:	Psychedelic Navigator
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 160CD

"Acid Mothers Guru Guru features Mani Neumeier from the legendary and influential German Krautrock group Guru Guru as well as Kawabata Makoto and Atsushi Tsuyama from Japan's holy Acid Mothers Temple. The result is a fiery fantasy filled, loud/soft, colorful trans-generational psychedelic collaboration. The Acid Mothers Guru Guru started in a spontaneous session in March of 2006 in Nagoya, Japan. When the improvisation commenced, the passionate excitement was clear to all in the room and it was then that this special psychedelic trio began. A Japanese tour was planned, an album was recorded and this recording is the fruits of this mutual musical admiration. While all involved will admit that this is a dream collaboration, it was the Acid Mothers Temple guys who were worshipping Guru Guru in their teens. The Acid Mothers Guru Guru is two generations of psychedelic rock joining forces for the 21st century."

Artist:	NEUMEIER, MANI
Title:	Sketches
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 161CD

"Mani Neumeier has been at the helm of Germany's legendary Krautrock group Guru Guru for over 35 years and for 20 of those years he's been working on Sketches, his first solo album. Sketches is an absolutely sacred collage of rare field recordings, tribal music, heavy drumming, dream-like nature sounds and even an electrical generator in Thailand that inspired Mani in the middle of the night many years ago. This is such a personal percussion-based audio-journal/ethnic drum jam, that nobody other than Mani is suited to describe it."

Artist:	VA
Title:	The Garden of Forking Paths
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 162CD

"The Garden Of Forking Paths was compiled for Important Records by guitarist James Blackshaw. Compositions were recorded specially for this collection by Helena Espvall (Espers), James Blackshaw, Jozef van Wissem and Chieko Mori. Beautifully assembled, The Garden Of Forking Paths serves as a singular and particularly unique musical statement. The story of how this compilation came into being is, unlike many other stories I could mention, a relatively simple one. My wish was to put together a compilation of experimental music for solo stringed instruments, with little to no overdubs, that would hold up well as a thoughtful and engaging experience as an entirety, from beginning to end, much as I would if I were recording and sequencing an album myself. Given my own history of composing music for solo 12-string guitar, it may come as no surprise to hear that I have for a long time connected with such music in a very immediate and personal way and when the notion of curating a compilation first entered my mind, only a couple of months or so ago now -- an idea also, I believe, born out of a desire for a new creative challenge involving others and a wish to hear my own music in a different context -- it was immediately apparent who I would like to contribute: Chieko Mori, a Japanese composer, koto virtuoso and one-time FABRICA resident, who first came to my attention with her beautiful and mesmerizing debut recording Jumping Rabbit for John Zorn's Tzadik label in 2005, which ranks itself as one of my all-time favorite albums; Jozef van Wissem, a similarly accomplished Rennaissance lute player and composer from The Netherlands, who has collaborated with Gary Lucas and Tetuzi Akiyama amongst others and whose solo albums often make use of palindromic or mirrored structures interwoven with field recordings to haunting and immensely compelling effect; Swedish cellist and improviser Helena Espvall, perhaps currently best known for her work with U.S. psych-folk group Espers, but who has also played with such luminaries as Pauline Oliveros and Eugene Chadbourne and whose own recent solo work has demonstrated her amazing power and sensitivity as an artist. Each of them has a very unique and unorthodox approach of writing and performing, which challenges as much as it embraces their respective instrument's musical roots, be they in Eastern or Western traditional or classical forms. Despite the variation in instrumentation, not to mention the differences in nationality and backgrounds of the performers themselves, it is also interesting to note certain similarities to be found between the five tracks contained on this compilation. Sometimes it can be heard melodically; sometimes within the movement, space or color of the pieces; sometimes it is simply felt -- a purity or emotional resonance that defies analysis and can rarely be articulated into words, at least not by me anyway. It is better some things remain a mystery. That you would stop for a moment to consider it so is enough. I must also mention that the title of this compilation is intended as a homage to Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges' short fictional story El Jard�n de Senderos que se Bifurcan, although the album itself is not, maybe other than to the spirit and the themes which pervade Borges' fascinating and inspiring body of work."

Artist:	XBXRX
Title:	Sounds
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 163CD

"Sounds documents the improvisational side of XBXRX. The band has built a reputation over the past decade for its singularly high-energy live performances and commitment to pushing the limits of rock music forms and Sounds is the next step in this progression. Through the years, improvisation has been a major part of the XBXRX live show, but remained unrecorded until now. The album features 7 improvisations of distinctive character and mood, ranging from frenzied storms of white noise to pointillistic chamber music."

Artist:	SUISHOU NO FUNE
Title:	The Shining Star - Live
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 165CD

"Suishou No Fune [soo-ee-sho no foo-nay] was formed in 1999 by guitarists Pirako Kurenai and Kageo. They were quickly acknowledged in Japan for their unique take on Japanese psychedelic traditions but it wasn't until their inclusion on PSF's Tokyo Flashback Volume 5 that their international prominence began to grow. Heavy lyrical emotion transcends linguistic barriers and Pirako's blown-out fuzzy free-dream guitar work is an alternate universe psychedelic Japanese shoegaze. They are a forest at night drenched in echoing reverb and soaked with deeply spiritual/emotional melodies. Awash in waves of fuzz, Suishou No Fune's control of detail amidst chaos and heavy emotions is their deepest asset. Here's to the past. Here's to the future. Somewhere between Fushitsusha and Windy & Carl, there is Suishou No Fune."

Artist:	KUBISCH, CHRISTINA
Title:	Five Electrical Walks
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 167CD

"Christina Kubisch is a first generation sound artist of the highest order. Kubisch has been working with electrical induction since the late seventies and in 2003 she began her Electrical Walk installations. Listeners wear specially built headphones that reveal electro-magnetic radiation emanating from the technological world around us. Five Electrical Walks is her first collection of compositions untilizing material recorded during Electrical Walks."

Artist:	KUBISCH, CHRISTINA
Title:	Night Flights
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 168CD

Reissue of this 1987 album, originally issued on Auf Dem Nil. "Night Flights is a groundbreaking work from one of the most influential of the first generation sound artists. For some reason, this staggering work has been left out of print for over 20 years. Night Flights has been remastered and includes updated liner notes from Christina Kubisch. Night Flights is being released in conjunction with Kubisch's release of new work for Important Records titled Invisible/Inaudible: Five Electrical Walks."

Artist:	BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL
Title:	Seventh Ruined Hex
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 169CD

"A further step out in Birchville Cat Motel's ruminations on time/space distortion featuring the additional mystikal talents of fellow gravity destroyer, Matthew Bower (Hototogisu/Sunroof!). Seventh Ruined Hex presents like a lonesome planet, occasionally struck with super-sized fragments of space detritus, but for the most part, just hangs around, spinning on its axis and doing fuck-all. Strangely emotive for 'a buncha noise.' Like the deepest love, it's warm yet tenuous, and filled with the ever-present potential for loss and brutality. More in line with the estranged love tangle of the Birchville classic Chi Vampires than the most recent befuddling hyperspace rock overload of recent albums like Our Love Will Destroy the World and Birds Call Home their Dead. Features Matthew Bower, who has been known to put out a good album or two on a regular basis. Powerful."

Artist:	A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
Title:	A Place to Bury Strangers
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 170LP

Repressed! "Vinyl version of the group's break-out self-titled release. Pitchfork 8.4, 'Best New Music.' A Place To Bury Strangers have often been called 'the loudest band in New York.' This may very well be the case, but unlike much so-called 'loud' rock and roll that's out there, APTBS is not loud simply for the sake of it. The sonically overdriven sound they've accomplished is no clumsy accident, but a carefully-cultivated and well-maintained entity all its own, fostered by an unbridled passion that's clearly evident in every live show they play and each recording they make. A Place To Bury Strangers does not so much play songs as allow them to pour out. They are songs about longing, heartbreak and confusion played extremely well and at a passionately loud volume. While there are obvious reference points: Pornography-era Cure, early Ride, My Bloody Valentine, and pre-1990s Jesus and Mary Chain, the sound is all their own."

Artist:	SUN
Title:	I'll Be The Same
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 171LP

"Limited vinyl edition of the Staubgold full length CD. 500 made. Sun is the coupling of sound artist Oren Ambarchi and musician-producer Chris Townend. The pair have been kindred spirits for many years, with Townend being a sensitive and crucial ear in engineering Ambarchi's landmark solo recordings. It was their shared love for expansive pop that led them to their first musical collaboration together as Sun, released on Staubgold in 2003. The self-titled debut was a laid back delight of many melodic charms and artful creation, as sweet as it was wry in its lyricism. Those trademarks continue with I'll Be The Same, though the songs here are more freewheeling pleasures where an unaffected sense of experimentalism breezes in."

Artist:	TAU EMERALD
Title:	Travellers Two
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 172CD

"Travellers Two is a full length recording from the duo of Tara Burke (Fursaxa) and Sharron Kraus. Together Kraus & Burke create an ethereal record of dark-folk magic. Tara Burke and Sharron Kraus were due to travel to Finland together for a week but missed the flight, so instead they decided to spend the week recording together and Travellers Two is the result. The time was spent out in the fields, visiting burial mounds, and then coming back to Sharron's home studio to work. They had played previously together and done some recording but this is the first time an album was conceived."

Artist:	MENCHE, DANIEL
Title:	Body Melt
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 175LP

"Body Melt is limited to 500 copies only on LP. This is the companion release to the Glass Forest CD being released on Important simultaneously. Both releases are housed in staggeringly unique artwork by Emily. Recorded in the Summer of 2007. Body Melt is a molting and simmering display of furious Hammond organs & Native American drums. Daniel Menche manages to merge together the powerfully fuzzed-out organ drones along with hypnotically crushing and frenzied drums in a manner that is distinctly the graceful music style of Daniel Menche. Call it trance music for carnivores or ambient music for cannibals, Body Melt sits perfectly throned on this limited vinyl LP release." Limited stock.

Artist:	MENCHE, DANIEL
Title:	Glass Forest
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 176CD

"Glass Forest is a highly listenable starting point for any newcomers curious about Daniel Menche's vast discography. It is also, according to Menche, the last CD he will release. From now on he'll be releasing his music on LP only or on DVD to accompany films he's been working on. Glass Forest is also the companion release to Body Melt which is being released simultaneously on Important on LP only. Recorded in the winter of 2005, Daniel Menche's Glass Forest displays a glistening sound world that is finely textured with the most delicate of raw organic sound and chaotic electronic noise. Not at all extreme as with Menche's previous work, but rather a more subtle presence can be heard here on Glass Forest. Subsonic bass drums crawling underneath massive sheets of glass-like sound layering infinitely into a thick and dense forest of delicate noise. For fans of Daniel Menche's ambient work and also his loud violent work, Glass Forest fits exactly right in the middle of these two polarities."

Artist:	BEEQUEEN
Title:	Sandancing
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 177CD

"After the by now usual gap of some two years, Beequeen is ready to present their latest album, further maturing their sound from The Bodyshop (also on Important Records). More song-based, this album features new vocals by Olga Wallis solely (with some backing by Freek Kinkelaar). Well rounded pop songs in some places, but Beequeen never forgets to put in some strange element, without leaping in the dark alley of pointless experiment. Orchestral in 'The Illogical Song,' collage like in 'The Edie Three Step' or a simple rhythm machine in 'The Honeythief.' Beequeen does all, and with great care and seemingly ease. This album features also the help of Barry Gray, former (and first) guitarist of The Legendary Pink Dots, and would not have been the album that is without the invaluable productional skills of Erik Drost."

Artist:	RAMESES III
Title:	Basilica
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 178CD

"Basilica is Rameses III's eagerly anticipated follow-up to their acclaimed releases Honey Rose (Important), Matanuska (Music Fellowship) and Night Of The Ankou (Type). Basilica is a double album of live recordings of new Rameses material accompanied by re-interpretations of those same recordings by contemporaries Robert Horton, Keith Berry, Gregg Kowalsky and Astral Social Club. Each artist approached to contribute to the Basilica disc was given free range to experiment with the live files, to re-invent and re-interpret the recordings as they saw fit. Minimalist sound-sculptor Keith Berry rolled out the slow-motion waterfalls of Basilica and gave the album an early focus and provided inspiration for the glacial artwork. Gregg Kowalsky played the 'Rose Blood' remix as part of his own performance at the OVERLAP 02 event in San Francisco using its tuned sinewave oscillators, cassette tapes and loops to induce, to quote the man himself, 'a psychoacoustic listening experience.' Our subtle textures were pushed way into the red when noise veteran Neil Campbell sandblasted the original tracks into the howling mirror of Astral Social Club. His 'Tigers In The Snake Pit' was remixed live in the very same venue in which it was originally performed and finessed with some post-performance layering. And Robert Horton was open-minded and kind enough to allow Rameses III to remix his remix, leading to the gentle trumpet curlicues and electronic birdsong entwining the original drone of 'After The Red Rose.' Although Basilica was originally envisioned as a single disc album, once the remixes were complete, it slowly became evident that they should be paired with a disc of live recordings in order to put the Basilica disc into context. In contrast to the heavily-produced and painstakingly-constructed Rameses studio albums, all five of the previously-unreleased tracks on the 'Origins' disc were recorded directly to stereo at various venues around London. As such, they fully represent those moments in performance where the trio strive to make the most beautiful music they can."

Artist:	KLUSTER
Title:	Admira
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 179CD

Previously unreleased recordings from 1971. 2nd pressing, standard jewel case packaging. "Admira is sourced from original master recordings discovered by Kluster member and Tangerine Dream engineer Klaus Freudigmann. Along with Vulcano, also being released at the same time on Important, Admira is presented here for the first time in this deluxe package. These intense sessions were made with Schnitzler at the helm, as always, after the departure of Mobius and Roedelius from the group. Conrad Schnitzler founded Kluster in 1969 along with Roedelius, Mobius and often Klaus Freudigmann who had multiple roles within the group as a player, engineer and instrument inventor. Eventually Roedelius and Mobius left Kluster and continued on as Cluster while Schnitzler and Freudigmann continued as Kluster often exploring the communal aspects of music by bringing new people into the group."

Artist:	KLUSTER
Title:	Vulcano
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 180CD

Previously unreleased live recordings from 1971, recorded in Wuppertal, Germany. 2nd pressing, standard jewel case packaging. "Vulcano is sourced from original master recordings discovered by Kluster member and Tangerine Dream engineer Klaus Freudigmann. Along with Admira, also being released at the same time on Important, Vulcano is presented here for the first time in this deluxe package. These intense sessions were made with Schnitzler at the helm, as always, after the departure of Mobius and Roedelius from the group."

Artist:	FAHEY, JOHN
Title:	The Mill Pond & Collected Paintings
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 183CD

"The Mill Pond was originally released in 1997 as a double 7" that went immediately out of print. For its 10th anniversary, we're issuing it on compact disc housed in a deluxe letterpressed jacket and including an extensive booklet collecting John Fahey's paintings for the very first time. Limited edition. On this release, Fahey uses heavy reverb, electric slide and feedback to create an eerie mood. He gets a bit of help from Jeff Allman, who recorded the songs and adds some electronic noise in spots, and from Scott Colburn, who mixed the tracks, but this record is all Fahey. The Mill Pond is all over the place stylistically, so it should confuse those who try to pigeonhole Fahey into any one category. The Mill Pond further proves that there is only one category into which he fits: truly innovative guitar genius." "Four ecstatic, lo-fi grabs for the ring of eternity, recorded in Fahey's Oregon hotel room. Containing the first graspable evidence of John's throat-singing abilities, this represents the merging of the bull and the china shop. The crudity of the electronics and the delicacy of the stringwork makes for a wonderful match." --Byron Coley.

Artist:	THREE DAY BAND (JOHN FAHEY/AYAL SENIOR)
Title:	Three Day Band
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 185CD

"John Fahey and Ayal Senior laid down the tracks for Three Day Band in a Woodburn Hotel room at some point in 1999. These tracks show an undocumented improvisational side of Fahey. It's certainly not early period Fahey but not TOTE era, either. At night after the recording sessions commenced, Ayal would record Fahey reading and discussing selected excerpts from his writing. Fifteen tracks of spoken word Fahey are included. From Ayal Senior's liner notes: 'I think I first met John Fahey at a Vince Martin gig in Manhattan at some point in 1998. He was sitting in the back of CBGB's 'other' space, listening to the gig and painting with fat bright markers in a notebook he carried around with him. I kept in touch with Fahey and he picked me up at the airport in Salem with a blind friend whose name I think was Terry. We popped in a tape of my latest jams from the psych shack into his deck and Terry was really digging it. He definitely said it sounded like Hendrix. Fahey said he liked it too and then I think we went to a Denny's for some french fries and shakes. Readers of Vampire Vultures will no doubt recall my futile attempts to describe or comprehend the state of Fahey's motel room during this period. It was basically a crime scene. Empty fruitcups, wet paint on the carpet... My journal from that week records that Fahey's motel room was not cleaner than his car. We cruised the Value Village scene looking for records. It was during a trip to one of these thrift stores one morning that we bumped into a younger acquaintance of John's who said he'd want to jam with us back at Fahey's motel room. I think his name was Barry. Nice guy. We went to his place and grabbed some kazoos and other hobo instruments he had and threw them in Fahey's car. Next thing you know, we've got some guitars and amps and headed back to the Woodburn Inn with two pretty, young ladies. We closed the curtains and I pressed record. I had brought a 4 track minidisk recorder with me with the intention of hopefully doing some spoken word recordings of John but had no idea that I would be laying down some molten hot psych with thee Fahey. On tape, John's smoking away on electric guitar, but this ain't Womblife. There's three other people in the room besides us and I don't remember any of their names. I don't remember what they looked like or what the hell they were playing but we were definitely channeling some sort of highway poltergeists. I'm playing guitar as well, tweaking about a bit. For some reason, I kept myself from listening to it or playing it for anyone for a long time. Why? At night, Fahey would lie in bed and I'd record him reading various excerpts from his writings. He reminded me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut in his cynicism and gallows humor. I think they would have gotten along great.'" --Ayal Senior

Artist: BEEQUEEN

Title: Sandancing Demos

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 10"

Price: $16.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 186EP

"Limited edition of 300 copies in heavy duty screen-printed jackets by Monoroid. The Sandancing Demos 10", as its title suggests, contains the original ideas that birthed Beequeen's wonderful new album, Sandancing. Original versions, rough mixes & home demos plus an unreleased track."

Artist: FRIEL, DAN

Title: Ghost Town

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 187CD

"Ghost Town is the first full-length solo release from Parts & Labor singer/electrician Dan Friel. Characterized by its anthemic melodies, complex electronic arrangements and huge distorted beats, Ghost Town is an indie record the noise kids will love and a noise record that'll inspire the indie kids to pick up some busted electronic gear and strive for immortality. Ghost Town is where everyone can meet in the middle and freak out about how insanely good this record is. Think Wolf Eyes playing In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and you might be on the right track. Dan Friel has been using toy keyboards, guitar effects pedals, walkie talkies and R/C car remotes to make a series of instrumental electronics EPs since 2001. Ostensibly a western, Ghost Town alternates between dense, distorted, beat-driven epiphanies, and haunting solos from a variety of makeshift instruments. Ghost Town also features the eye-popping artwork from renowned print/illustration artist Shawn Reed (Racoo-oo-oon, Night People Records)."

Artist: FRIEL, DAN

Title: Ghost Town

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $16.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 187LP

LP version. "Ghost Town is the first full-length solo release from Parts & Labor singer/electrician Dan Friel. Characterized by its anthemic melodies, complex electronic arrangements and huge distorted beats, Ghost Town is an indie record the noise kids will love and a noise record that'll inspire the indie kids to pick up some busted electronic gear and strive for immortality. Ghost Town is where everyone can meet in the middle and freak out about how insanely good this record is. Think Wolf Eyes playing In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and you might be on the right track."

Artist: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.

Title: Recurring Dream and Apocalypse Of Darkness

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 188CD

"Recurring Dream And Apocalypse Of Darkness is by far the heaviest Acid Mothers Temple record yet. So heavy, in fact, that Kawabata Makoto jokingly said 'the album is really heavy, maybe a bit like Sunn O))). hahahaha.' Both the CD & LP feature remarkable art work by Seldon Hunt."

Artist: GRAILS

Title: Take Refuge In Clean Living

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 190CD

"Opening with a nod to Syd Barret's Pink Floyd (Piper at the Gates of Dawn) Take Refuge In Clean Living begins with morse code and drops into one of the heaviest slow-burn grooves in the Grails canon. Sounding something like Hawkwind and Ravi Shankar scoring Blade Runner, it's lysergic and earthy for Grails in a new way. The rest of the record moves from blissful Eno-inspired ambience, to epic Morricone rock hymns, to an unexpected take on a Ventures tune that returns the listener back to the very beginnings of instrumental rock music. Take Refuge in Clean Living sees Grails pulling back their already-wide lens on multiple sonic horizons. Grails often take what seems like would sound over-ambitious on paper and make it flow sonically in a laid-back style. The band is defined by exploration and they've created a template for themselves where any style or method can be ingested to reap legitimate rewards. Take Refuge seems to suggest that Grails can't run out of ideas."

Artist: GRAILS

Title: Take Refuge In Clean Living

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 190LP

Deluxe heavy duty tip-on style jacket gatefold LP version.

Artist: CLUSTER

Title: Berlin 2007

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 191CD

"Cluster was formed around 1971 when Roedelius and Moebius left Conrad Schnitzler's group Kluster. Along with Kluster they have had a tremendous influence on the development of contemporary electronic music. Julian Cope has placed 3 Cluster albums in his Krautrock top 50 and The Wire included the first Cluster album in their list of 'One Hundred Records That Set The World On Fire.' Along with Neu! co-founder Michael Rother, Cluster formed the remarkable group Harmonia. Between 1976 and 1979 one of Cluster's most frequent collaborators was Brian Eno. Berlin 2007 was a monumental performance for the duo as it marked the first time that they had performed live in Berlin since their 12 hour concert in the Galerie Hammer in the Europacenter in 1969. The performance was a massive success as a sold out crowd cheered loudly for Cluster to return to the stage. Fortunately, the concert was preserved for posterity and is proudly presented here on Important Records."

Artist: BASS COMMUNION

Title: Molotov and Haze

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 193CD

2009 repress. "Molotov and Haze is packaged in a deluxe, tip-on style heavy-duty gatefold jacket with the CD slipped into a Japanese inner bag. Design by Carl Glover. Bass Communion is a project dedicated to Steven Wilson's recordings in an ambient, drone, and/or electronic vein. Most of the pieces are experiments in texture made from processing recordings of real instruments and field recordings. The atmosphere of the music has tended towards the dark and melancholic, but expressed with an almost zen-like beauty. More recently, Wilson has also started working with a guitar and laptop configuration -- the first material in this style is contained on this album."

Artist: YEH & PAUL FLAHERTY W/ GREG KELLEY, C. SPENCER

Title: New York Nuts And Boston Beans

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 195CD

"Violinist/vocalist C Spencer Yeh & unrivaled saxophone elder-titan Paul Flaherty team up without the assistance of acclaimed drummer Chris Corsano for the first time. Along for the jamz is bonkers Boston trumpeter Greg Kelley. After performing numerous times and honing a distinct group dynamic as a trio over many years with celebrated percussionist Chris Corsano, Yeh and Flaherty decided to try it out one-on-one. The record comprises of the best from two live sets from a short duo tour in the Northeast -- at the celebrated venue Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, and Nom D'Artiste in Boston. With minimal editing, this is the sound of two people tearing at the limits of their instruments, these iconic configurations of metal and wood; hurling their respective accumulated life experience into one another, exposed and raw. The duo is likely one of the most dangerous configurations for people to interact within, musical or otherwise. Greg Kelley on trumpet is added to the mix and the results mutate into an even more mysterious form -- the trumpet is indistinguishable from the vocals; the saxophone creaks so the voice doesn't have to."

Artist: MAKOTO & MICHISHITA SHINSUKE, KAWABATA

Title: Basement Echo

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 196CD

"Basement Echo is the historical meeting point of two generations of the Japanese underground. Kawabata Makoto, leader of The Acid Mothers Temple, and Michishita Shinsuke, leader of LSD March, are together here for the first time in a guitar duo. Though Kawabata and Michishita are from the same scene, the fact that they are from different generations means that they bring different energy to the collaborations. This fact is extremely exciting for Kawabata, who refers to Michishita as 'one of the most promising musicians in the Japanese Underground.' Both artists agree that Basement Echo was a step into the unknown with neither really knowing what the resulting sounds would be. For Michishita, the collaborations have been a dream come true. He describes Kawabata as having a 'soul of rock that never burns out.' After the recordings were complete, the two friends sat down and raised a triumphant toast. Recorded at Snowflake Sound in Sapporo in October of 2007. Totally improvised with no editing/overdubbing."

Artist: ASTRO/HIROSHI HASEGAWA

Title: The Echo From The Purple Dawn

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 197CD

"The Echo From The Purple Dawn is a brand new full length from C.C.C.C. member Hiroshi Hasegawa's solo project, Astro. Using a battery of oscillators, ring modulators and field recordings, Hasegawa has created an engaging and versatile album that masterfully drifts between spaced-out analog dream drone and a more extreme form of harsher droning. As Astro, Hasegawa is able to combine some of the harsher influences of C.C.C.C. into the world of analog space music to create the signature sounds of Astro. Included is a live track recorded at a festival at the Tokyo Keizai University organized by Tetsuo Kogawa. Cover art designed by Important. Born in 1963, Hasegawa began his improvisation with his voice and drums. In 1990, he made the group C.C.C.C. around the concept of improvised mass-noise with a very loud sound. Members included Mayuko Hino, Ryuichi Nagakubo, Fumio Kosakai. Hasegawa began his solo unit Astro with analog synthesizers in 1993 and continued playing in C.C.C.C. Though C.C.C.C. is no more, Hasegawa has continued with Astro and his numerous collaborations drifting between dreamy spaced-out bliss and full-on waterfalls of beautiful noise."

Artist: ASTRO/HIROSHI HASEGAWA

Title: Live At Muryoku Muzen Temple

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 198LP

"Live At Muryoku Muzen Temple is limited to 500 copies. This is the companion release to the Astro CD titled The Echo At The Purple Dawn, released on Important Records. Astro, of course, is the analog/space project of Hiroshi Hasegawa of the legendary Japanese group, C.C.C.C. This limited vinyl-only release was created using ring modulator and vocals which are rare these days in Astro recordings. Cover art designed by Important. Astro is Hiroshi Hasegawa's solo project. He is a founding member of the Japanese noise group C.C.C.C. Born in 1963, Hasegawa began his improvisation with his voice and drums. In 1990, he built the group C.C.C.C. around the concept of improvised mass-noise with a very loud sound. Members included Mayuko Hino, Ryuichi Nagakubo, Fumio Kosakai. Hasegawa began his solo unit Astro with analog synthesizers in 1993 and continued playing in C.C.C.C. Though C.C.C.C. is no more, Hasegawa has continued with Astro and his numerous collaborations drifting between dreamy, spaced-out bliss and full-on waterfalls of beautiful noise."

Artist: PARKINS, ANDREA

Title: Faulty (Broken Orbit)

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 199CD

"Faulty (Broken Orbit) re-imagines Faulty (Per-Objective), an hour long 10-channel site-specific audio work, premiered in 2007 at Diapason gallery for sound in NYC, with sponsorship from Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center and the New York Electronic Arts Festival. Faulty (Broken Orbit) is a poetic exploration of mic'ed surfaces and amplified quotidian objects activated into movement, layered against a shifting and slowly settling field of electric-accordion-driven feedback and processed instruments. This massive piece sets out to build elaborate systems in the manner of Rube Goldberg's circuitous contraptions, which Parkins claims as inspiration for both her customized sound processing software and compositional structures: emphasizing idiosyncrasy, tenuous states, and the threat of 'things falling apart.' Andrea Parkins is a NYC-based composer, sound/installation artist, and electro-multi-instrumentalist, acclaimed for her dynamic timbral explorations on electronically-processed accordion and inventive use of custom live sound processing. Together, her laptop electronics and Fender-amplified accordion create a gestural sonic language full of lush harmonics, noisy concretized disruption, and soaring electronic feedback."

Artist: GIFFONI, CARLOS

Title: Zamuro

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $21.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 201LP

Limited edition of 300 copies in a heavy stock screen-printed jacket. "A Zamuro is a dark South American vulture of great size. Zamuro is also a solo composition piece for portable synth and analog filter. Side A on this LP is a live realization of this piece recorded at the Compound in San Francisco in 2006 (mastered by Lasse Marhaug). Carlos composed and performed this piece live on several tours in the U.S./Europe/Japan all throughout 2006 and 2007, if you saw him live in those two years, this is the piece he performed. This was the most complete version of it that made it to tape. Side B is a studio piece recorded live on a much larger modular synth, based around the same theme, but with structural and tonal variations not in the original composition. This is pure psychedelic electronic music. Cover illustration by Megan Ellis. Screenprinted at Monoroid."

Artist: CARTER, TOM

Title: Shots At Infinity 1

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 202CD

"This is the companion release to the Tom Carter LP titled Shots At Infinity 2 being released on Important simultaneously. Shots At Infinity 1 (the CD) is comprised of recordings from various basements in the northeastern USA from late 2007. Steering away from the more delicate string environments and modal folk improvisations of previous CDs, the disk features maximum loop delay drone overload stretched over long, densely harmonic tracks, retaining the melodic content and flow of earlier releases."

Artist: CARTER, TOM

Title: Shots At Infinity 2

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 203LP

"This is the companion release to the Tom Carter CD titled Shots At Infinity 1 being released on Important simultaneously. Shots at Infinity 2 is two long live tracks in the same mode as Shots At Infinity 1, but more cut loose and blown out, recorded in Nemo Bidstrup's record store and Burnt Hills' basement jam zone. Tom Carter is a guitar player best known for his work with acclaimed psych-drone iconoclasts Charalambides. Since 2000, however, he has become increasingly active as not only a solo artist but as a collaborator. He has performed with improvising musicians as diverse as Thurston Moore, Jandek, Tetuzi Akiyama, Matt Valentine, and many others, as well as being a key member in groups like Badgerlore (with Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance), Friday Group, Mudsuckers (with Robert Horton and the Yellow Swans), and Zaika (with Marcia Bassett of the Double Leopards and Hototogisu). Carter's solo work covers a lot of territory, but latter-day sightings show him to be concentrating on looped guitar drones of immensely stacked beauty, with heaps of psychedelic melodic content missing from the repertoires of many noise and drone bands. His influences include everyone from LaMonte Young to David Crosby."

Artist: MAKOTO, KAWABATA

Title: We Don't Know Where We Came From

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $21.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 204LP

"Limited edition of 500 copies in a letterpress jacket by 43rd Parallel Press. We Don't Know Where We Came From features Acid Mothers Temple leader Kawabata Makoto on both electric and acoustic guitars. Recorded at Kaccho-Buu Matsuzaka by Takayama Manabu. Live recordings."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Dolphin Sonar

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 205CD

"Author, activist, painter and sound artist Masami Akita had been at the foreground of experimental music for over 25 years. Inspired by psychedelic rock, free jazz, early electronic composition as well the physical arts, especially Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau, Masami Akita has created a musical language all his own. Dolphin Sonar is Merzbow's full length protest album against the annual brutal slaughtering of some 2,500 dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture Japan. This is an angry album full of beats, blasts and broken glass. Clattering smashes are pursued by pulsing analog whirls like the heart of a dolphin being chased through the bloodied waters of Taiji. Filtered blasts of pummel and sound slaughter. Another Merzbow classic with the finest cover art money can buy by Jenny Akita. Liner notes from the activist group Sea Shephard."

Artist: LARSEN

Title: LLL

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $24.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 208LP

"LLL is a live, LP-only release, put out as a companion to Larsen's full-length, La Fever Lit. LLL features Larsen, along with frequent collaborators Johann Johannsson, Baby Dee and Julia Kent. Material recorded live in Italy and Austria and packaged in a deluxe, thick 3-color screenprinted jacket by Monoroid. 500 made."

Artist: CONIFER

Title: Crown Fire

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 209CD

"Though Conifer has received quite a bit of critical praise they've somehow managed to live off the grid for the past six years. With Crown Fire, Conifer is finally getting the exposure they deserve. Mixing post-rock, Krautrock, metal and psychedelia, they have created this relentlessly driving and hypnotic masterpiece. Crown Fire's only vocals are from Oxbow's Eugene Robinson fronting the album's final 13-minute epic. Conifer has been writing primarily instrumental music with a lawless take on the styles from which they've taken cue. New content is found by way of augmenting brutality and suspense with time. Conifer seems to reckon with the notions of bands like Enemymine, Mogwai, or Grails while taking an approach toward their music that's entirely meditative (as opposed to premeditated). Minimal, ethereal passages are narcotically lengthened and crescendos of distortion are sustained well beyond the boundaries adhered to by many of their peers. 'Heavy' by way of being beat/repetition, heavy in not only a Shellac/Helmet sense, but in a way that is practically reminiscent of electronic discipline. Crushing riffs amidst the most ethereal, minimal moments. Six years in, Conifer has emerged from their mind forest into the clearing that is the future and past. Band members have come and gone and come again. Crown Fire is the latest battle that Conifer has fought in the war of obtuse movement. Welcoming dense riffage washes over the listener for the first half of the record, referencing pan-Asian themes and musical manifest destiny. The bombast that is their live show comes through loud and clear, intertwined with moments of delicate reflection. Without warning, it all goes wrong, the mainframe explodes, the ships crash, the tide of despair and denial rises, never to recede. Hailing from the capital of the heavy state of Maine, Conifer has an extremely close relationship with fellow travellers, Ocean. These two groups have shared a lot over the years, including members, tour transportation, practice spaces and members of the two groups grew up together in rural costal towns. Though different in sound, they're quite kindred in spirit, and obviously, Conifer is essential for anyone who loved Ocean's Here Where Nothing Grows."

Artist: CONIFER

Title: Crown Fire

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $24.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 209LP

LP version limited to 500 copies. "Mixing post-rock, Krautrock, metal and psychedelia, they have created this relentlessly driving and hypnotic masterpiece. Conifer has been writing primarily instrumental music with a lawless take on the styles from which they've taken cue. New content is found by way of augmenting brutality and suspense with time. Conifer seems to reckon with the notions of bands like Enemymine, Mogwai, or Grails while taking an approach toward their music that's entirely meditative (as opposed to premeditated)."

Artist: HOTOTOGISU

Title: Pale Fatal Sister

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $26.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 210LP

Limited restock. "Limited edition of 700 copies. Double LP pressing housed in a gatefold jacket. Being a Nabokovian and visceral garden of delights, a musical evocation of memory and desire spread over four sides of vinyl. The sound is conjured forth from dark wells to be birthed, twisting and screaming in silver winds. Recorded at Black Dirt Studios, over an intensive three-day period of hermetic isolation, while snow blanketed the surrounding fields, this work is both more detailed and conjures a heavier, more brooding occult atmosphere and sound, than any previous Hototogisu release."

Artist: TECUMSEH

Title: Avalanche and Inundation

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 211CD

"Formed in 2004, Tecumseh creates drone metal of the heaviest variety although with more forward movement than some of their peers and with the addition of cold electronic hiss. Using two basses, electronics, percussion and guitar, Tecumseh wrap themselves and their listeners in a warm sonic meditative slow motion blanket woven from their skilled use of sound and space. Avalanche And Inundation was recorded in the winter of 2008 with Jeremy Romagna (Yellow Swans, Trees, Silentist). 'This is the perfect metallic drifting off music, almost like they've discovered some new genre, sludge-ambient, doom-age, whatever you decide to call it, it's pretty amazing, and fans of all things slow motion, downtuned and yes, heavy will dig this big time,' --Aquarius.

Artist: TECUMSEH

Title: Avalanche and Inundation

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 211LP

"The LP version of Tecumseh's Avalanche And Inundation is pressed in an edition of 500 copies. Heavy drone/heavy meditation. Be inside the sounds."

Artist: SLOMO

Title: The Bog

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 212CD

"The Bog is the 2nd full-length release from Slomo, honing down the ritual clatter of their first album, The Creep (2005), into a more cumbersome and laden affair, ever heading downwards into the Northern underworld upon slurries of unsignposted mung. Core duo Holy McGrail and Howard Marsden once again create a lumpy bed of bass-heavy synthesizer and guitar drones while arch-drude Julian Cope provides a coda to proceedings with the recital of his poem Land, especially written for this album.Holy McGrail: Moog Taurus II, Sunn Mustang, Clatter; Howard Marsden: Korg MS10 & Korg MS20, Hiss; Julian Cope: Poem. "

Artist: RILES, ZAK

Title: Zak Riles

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 213CD

"Zak Riles is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in the Important band Grails (as well as M.Ward's band). His creative contributions to the group are immeasurable and can be heard clearly on this self titled debut solo outing. In fact, some of the pieces on this solo record have been reinterpreted into Grails favorites. Like his band Grails, Zak Riles solo work is an elaborate mansion built of inspiration but with so much strength and originality that it stands firmly on its own. On these rocky shores come crashing waves of Sandy Bull, Mogolar, Deuter, Popol Vuh and the Ventures while Persian breeze drifts by wafting the melodies of Hossein Alizadeh. Essential listening for followers of Important Records who favor the likes of Grails and James Blackshaw."

Artist: BAKER, AIDAN

Title: I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2CD

Price: $16.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 214CD

"Aidan Baker's I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed is a 2-disc compilation of tracks from various out-of-print, limited edition releases spanning the last 10 years of Baker's output, ranging from his very first release to material that was featured on the soundtrack to a book of his poetry. Toronto based composer Aidan Baker works under his own name, under the name Nadja along with bassist Leah Buckareff and also with the trio ARC. Hailing from the Great White North, Baker incorporates guitar, drums, bass, voice and tape loops into his myriad work hauling down a long iceberg of frigid doom, bliss and sound collage. He has also composed work for the The Penderecki String Quartet & The Uxbridge Chamber Choir and he is also a published poet. The first disc in the set features shorter, perhaps more accessible tunes with a wide range of instrumentation and songs ranging from minimal drone to delicate post-rock to ambient trip-hop. The second disc features longer, more drone/experimental-oriented pieces, primarly using the guitar (with the odd tapeloops and vocals) as the primary sound source. Adventures in ambience. Sonic immersion. Introspective dronescapes."

Artist: NADJA/AIDAN BAKER/LEAH BUCKAREFF

Title: Trinitarian

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $24.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 215LP

"Limited edition of 500 copies. Trinitarian represents an attempt to break down the essence of Nadja by offering a solo track from each of its two members plus one Nadja composition; two stripped down ambient pieces featuring single instruments (guitar and bass, respectively) to a full Nadja composition. 'Ousia' -- substance, presence, or essence. 'Hypostasis' -- As above, only referring more to reality rather than an individual. 'Perichoresis' -- A Christian term for the mutual/simultaneous existence of the father (god) and son (god)."

Artist: MY CAT IS AN ALIEN

Title: Roberto Opalio/Maurizio Opalio

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $26.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 216LP

"Limited edition of 300 copies packaged in heavy duty screenprinted jackets done by Neil Burke at Monoroid. Each side features a 20-minute solo track from both brotherly halves of the acclaimed My Cat Is An Alien. Both brothers were quiet about the inspiration for their tracks. Dig in and find your own meaning in the comfortable alien world of the Opalio space brothers."

Artist: MY CAT IS AN ALIEN/PRAXINOSCOPE

Title: For The Tears Of Land, Prayers From Outer Space

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $34.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 217LP

"Limited edition of 300 hand-numbered copies packaged in heavy duty screenprinted metallic ink jackets done by Neil Burke at Monoroid. My Cat Is An Alien's new surprising master work is a concept-album split with their side project, Praxinoscope. As always, in a world full of compromises, MCIAA represent fierce independence and complete freedom. Take Roberto's own words in the liner notes as the best introduction to this work: 'One day we realized it was no more possible to discern archaic art and post-modern art in our palette; it was clear that they were both reflected in the same hall of mirrors. In other words, alien art and archaic art are the same thing. All archaic art deals with death, sex, transcendence and Eternity. We're all living days suspended in the Void. The difference is in consciousness: this is real artists' duty. Beyond and other than this, only oblivion.'"

Artist: RISIL

Title: Non Meters Volume 1

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 218CD

"Risil is a collective of musicians that are all somehow connected to each other in some form or fashion. Risil's membership includes Guillermo Herren (Prefuse 73/Savath & Savallas), Zach Hill (Hella), Tyondai Braxton (Battles), John McEntire (Tortoise), Alejandra Deheza (School Of Seven Bells), Eva Puyuelo Muns (Savath & Savalas). The project started as a chance for a large number of people to freely collaborate without a set goal for the end result of achieving a certain sound. This turned into about 50 songs with possibly 5 different versions of each within a year. Therefore, this is the first volume of Risil recordings. They are split into three volumes based on the time each piece was made and the players who worked together the most during each period of open time."

Artist: RISIL

Title: Non Meters Volume 1

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 218LP

Double LP version. "Limited to 1000 copies. Cut at Salt and pressed at RTI for a pure audiophile sound."

Artist: NEW MONUMENTS, THE

Title: The New Monuments

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $16.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 219LP

"Limited to 500 copies. Featuring Don Dietrich (Borbetomagus), Ben Hall (Graveyards) & C Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core). At Instal Fest '08 in Glasgow, Scotland, at David Keenan's suggestion, the idea for a trio of Don Dietrich, Ben Hall and himself was hatched. As the idea for the tour came together, Keenan unfortunately had to step out for personal reasons. CSY graciously accepted to take his place, and what was originally to be an acoustic Babi Music cover band became the electro-acoustic behemoth The New Monuments. Sharing a common head for so-called 'abstract sound' constructions, the members come from related, though diverse, musical backgrounds. With saxophone, violin, and trapset, they attempt to soundtrack the maiden voyage of a luxury cruise ship constructed solely out of granite cement and ball bearings."

Artist: OCEAN

Title: Pantheon Of The Lesser

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 220CD

"Following their acclaimed breakthrough debut album that caught the ears of critics and fans worldwide, and became Important's highest selling album, Ocean has returned with their forward-thinking, brutally heavy and purely minimalist sophomore album Pantheon Of The Lesser. Pantheon Of The Lesser was composed over a period of two years in Ocean's home studio in Portland, Maine. As the seasons, passed each track was written, re-written, played and then re-played as layers were slowly stripped away until the true essence of the song was revealed. Once Ocean entered the studio, it took another two years to deconstruct Pantheon Of The Lesser until they had found the essence of their writing. This disciplined deconstructionist approach to songwriting is how Ocean takes their music into the next level of the abyss. The result of this compositional technique is over an hour of strictly bare instrumentation and a kind of natural heaviness that slowly rises and falls in a pure organic fashion. Everything in its own time. Simply profound. Heavy like Sch�nberg. While Ocean continues to explore and expand upon their 'less is more' approach of profound musical minimalism and sheer heaviness, Pantheon Of The Lesser is a bit more musical than its predecessor. 'The Beacon,' the opening track, was played as Ocean's complete set on a recent U.S. tour and on dates with Mono and Boris. Clocking in at 41 minutes on record and over an hour live, 'The Beacon' evolves in 3 distinct movements with fleeting moments of hypnotic melody and earth-shakingly heavy dirges, creating an all encompassing tone of pure misanthropy. The second and final track on Pantheon Of The Lesser, titled 'Of The Lesser,' carries a similar theme of misery. Written as an ode to distraction, chemical and otherwise, it is Ocean at their most personal: a pure sonic stream of consciousness in slow motion. Packaged in a deluxe foil printed heavy duty cardboard jacket with art by renowned Maine illustrator Bruce Hutchison."

Artist: OCEAN

Title: Pantheon Of The Lesser

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $34.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 220LP

"Pantheon Of The Lesser was composed over a period of two years in Ocean's home studio in Portland, Maine. As the seasons passed each track was written, re-written, played and then re-played as layers were slowly stripped away until the true essence of the song was revealed. Once Ocean entered the studio it took another two years to deconstruct Pantheon Of The Lesser until they had found the essence of their writing. This disciplined deconstructionist approach to songwriting is how Ocean takes it to the next level of the abyss. The result of this compositional technique is over an hour of strictly bare instrumentation and a kind of natural heavyness that slowly rises and falls in a pure organic fashion. Everything in its own time. Simply profound. Heavy like Schoenberg. Limited edition of 500 copies. Letterpressed dust cover style outer jacket and screen printed inner jackets. Deluxe papers used. Pressed at RTI & cut at Salt for premium sound. D side includes a cover of the Swans 'You're Not Real Girl' and a cover of Roy Orbison's 'It's Over.' Jackets printed at Reuben J. Little's 43rd Parallel Press in Portland, Maine."

Artist: LARSEN

Title: La Fever Lit

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 221CD

La Fever Lit is Larsen's eighth album in 13 years of activity, and it is also their first studio album since 2006's Seies, after the double live Larsen & Friends CD/DVD set, Abeceda . La Fever Lit features the legendary dub-diva/post-punk-cabaret icon, from Crass to On-u sound via NWW, Coil and C93, Little Annie aka Annie Anxiety Bandez. Musically, La Fever Lit opens slowly, intentionally and deliberately. La Fever Lit could be considered the most focused Larsen record yet, but at the same time, it's also their most experimental and floating. Much of the material on La Fever Lit was composed for architecture, having been written to be played in Torino's landmark Mole Antonelliano, which is now a national film museum. Performing from the elicoidal stair inside the huge dome of this futuristic building, Larsen spread out massive reverberations of sound and bouncing lights upon the audience. Somehow, these bouncing lights are a big part of Larsen's new sound. Cinematic pop, illuminating rhythms, musical weightlessness and the nocturnal noire narrative style of Annie Anxiety. Larsen delivers one of their most unique musical offerings but it's ultimately Annie Anxiety who defines the album. Having seen Larsen live a few years back, she offered to sing and La Fever Lit was the perfect record for her vocal companionship. Her lyrics, her moods and her delivery, especially on 'Lefrak City Limits,' deliver the listener to an old and twisted reality, drowned in melancholy, where characters' lives suddenly make sense, if only for a few suspended seconds, framed in frozen time. All of this happens while Julia Kent delivers her most beautiful offerings to the Larsen sound and Marco Milanesio's production is so in tune with Larsen's sound, that he is able to extract the textures that their music is built on. Every listen brings you a little closer to La Fever Lit."

Artist: BRETHREN OF THE FREE SPIRIT

Title: The Wolf Shall Also Dwell With The Lamb

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 222CD

"Brethren of the Free Spirit are guitarist/composer James Blackshaw and lutenist/composer Jozef van Wissem. Named after a cult of 13th-century Northern European religious heretics, this duo play with an appropriately zealous intensity. Brethren of the Free Spirit debuted in New York and went on a crusade through the Lowlands, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and London even appearing On the Dutch National VPRO TV show 'Vrije Geluiden.' Intricate phrases circle and spiral in on themselves, and in the end, it's the subtle shifts in rhythm and tonal coloration that provide a kind of transcendence in a sea of repetition. The Wolf Shall Also Dwell With The Lamb was recorded at Locksley Hall, Amsterdam in April 2008. It consists of 4 long circular compositions in which the duo employ all methods of contemporary performance styles to free the lute and merge the two instruments. Intentionally recorded in mono, it's occasionally impossible to tell the two instruments apart. Perhaps that's just what makes this duo so successful -- the players and the instruments become unified in historical references to the musics of both the ancient lute & contemporary acoustic guitar. For example, 'Into The Dust Of The Earth' is based on a classical baroque lute prelude from 1650 by an anonymous composer. The theme is mirrored midway, turning the piece into a palindrome, updating the material in the process. Blackshaw weaves his 12-string tapestry, hypnotically intertwining the lute and the guitar into one modern piece of ancient tunage, bringing the lute into the present day. The drawings on the cover by Belgian brethren Wouter Van Haelemeesch reference Greek myths as well as medieval alchemical emblems by the likes of Michael Maier."

Artist: BRETHREN OF THE FREE SPIRIT

Title: The Wolf Shall Also Dwell With The Lamb

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $24.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 222LP

LP version. "Brethren of the Free Spirit are guitarist/composer James Blackshaw and lutenist/composer Jozef van Wissem. Named after a cult of 13th-century Northern European religious heretics, this duo play with an appropriately zealous intensity. It consists of 4 long circular compositions in which the duo employ all methods of contemporary performance styles to free the lute and merge the two instruments. Intentionally recorded in mono, it's occasionally impossible to tell the two instruments apart. Perhaps that's just what makes this duo so successful -- the players and the instruments become unified in historical references to the musics of both the ancient lute & contemporary acoustic guitar."

Artist: ZURICH

Title: Zurich

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $21.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 224LP

"Limited edition of 500 copies pressed at RTI and packaged in heavy duty jackets screen printed at Monoroid. Featuring members Tony Wilson (Knives ov Resistance), Neil Halstead (Slowdive/Mojave 3), & Sarah Peacock (Seefeel). Zurich began as a 1994 musical partnership between Neil Halstead then of Slowdive and Tony F. Wilson. The two recorded a handful of tracks together at a time when Wilson was co-promoting and DJing at the club/live night Quirky in South London where he booked acts including Pan Sonic, Hafler Trio and Autechre. Halstead was shortly to begin work on Slowdive's final and most experimental album, Pygmalion. Recorded at a time when the popularity of ambient techno was at its peak, these recordings are remarkably austere by comparison. Whilst 'A Harsh Truth' displays the Oriental gracefulness of a Sakamoto/Sylvian collaboration, 'Tzarist''s gothic industrialism shares more in common with the early works of Coil. Following the release of Pygmalion and Creation letting go of Slowdive, Halstead would disband Slowdive and abandon sound experimentation to create more song-based material in Mojave 3. Shortly thereafter, Wilson began collaborating with drum & bass producer and engineer Joe Gray on more rhythm based, yet still atmospheric productions. 'Too Scared to Breath' features the voice of Seefeel's Sarah Peacock and sounds not unlike prime Autechre and Aphex. Militia (Dynamic Warfare) on the other hand mirrors the post-metal dub of Techno Animal and Scorn. All of the recordings were lost until very recently when Touch recording artist Mark Van Hoen found the two tracks on old CD-R's and cassettes he was given by Wilson. Wilson produced and recorded in the Knives ov Resistance project for the Aurora Borealis label and is currently working on a project with Ted Parson (Swans/Prong)."

Artist: HOLY SONS

Title: Drifters Sympathy

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 225CD

"Brand new full length from Grails/Om member Emil Amos. While burying himself in old books on Cold War espionage and '70s Italian horror soundtracks, Emil Amos logged many hours into the night layering endless tracks of improv and then editing them into a cohesive sonic blanket over 2 years time. He emerged with his sixth full length record under the name Holy Sons called Drifter's Sympathy. Listeners will recognize Amos' signature hallucinatory/LSD-inspired mixing-style, heard on records like Black Tar Prophecies, Doomsdayer's Holiday and Take Refuge, by his other group Grails. Drifter's Sympathy draws from the instrumental moods of Grails and melds perfectly with his usually vocal-based solo-project creating a densely paranoid atmosphere that evenly balances sonic experimentation with refined folk/blues song forms. The main cornerstone of influence for Drifter's Sympathy are the German experimental four-track journeymen like Gunter Schikert, Eroc and Achim Reichel whose records reflected a sonic appetite that challenged the limits of the expressiveness of each instrument and tried anything in the mixing process to create a sound-world as labyrinthine and complex as the human mind itself. Rather than making music based only on skill, melodicism, soulfulness or technique, Drifter's Sympathy seems to argue that the most vital quality in music is pure imagination."

Artist: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.

Title: Glorify Astrological Martyrdom

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 226CD

"Acid Mothers Temple's Glorify Astrological Martyrdom is sure to appeal to the myriad AMT fans who have made Crystal Rainbow Pyramid a new fan favorite. Professionally recorded mega-riffage for a super defined clean sound. Kawabata and company deliver this focused rock explosion full of hyper repetitive heavy hooks and freaked-out, pitched-up vocals. Cover art by Seldon Hunt."

Artist: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.

Title: Glorify Astrological Martyrdom

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $16.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 226LP

"Limited edition of 1000 copies. Acid Mothers Temple's Glorify Astrological Martyrdom is sure to appeal to the myriad AMT fans who have made Crystal Rainbow Pyramid a new fan favorite. Professionally recorded mega riffage for a super defined clean sound. Kawabata and company deliver this focused rock explosion full of hyper repetitive heavy hooks and freaked out pitched up vocals. Cover art by Seldon Hunt."

Artist: STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS & ANGEL

Title: Strings Of Consciousness & Angel

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 227CD

"This is a collaboration between Angel (containing members of Mum and Pan Sonic) and Strings Of Consciousness. This dense and droney construction echoes platinum reflections with warm fluidity and delicate detail. The more attention you'll bestow on that record, the more unsuspected new paths you'll be invited to wander about. This is an intricate and imaginative soundtrack with several layers of sound, gathering both organic and sonic elements to assemble a post-industrial sound structure. The latter will give life to a noisy magma where unexpected clicks stumble over interferences, where digital accidents happen and where drones, acoustic resonance fill the space in time. A multitude of digital notes will slowly stretch to reach a dark-grey chaos, a pure and clean big bang echoing and calling lost sound memories."

Artist: ANAHITA

Title: Matricaria

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 228CD

"Anahita is Tara Burke (Fursaxa) and cellist Helena Espvall (Espers). Tara recently showed up on Important as part of the duo of Tau Emerald with Sharron Kraus while Helena contributed a beautiful piece to the James Blackshaw curated Garden Of Forking Paths compilation. Anahita is a beautiful, laboriously created and floating affair of skeletal organ drones, ceremonial singing and subtly frantic instrumental accompaniment conjuring up a natural woodland romp and stomp."

Artist: LSD MARCH

Title: Under Milk Wood

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 229CD

"The new LSD March album, Under Milk Wood, is their first full length since 2007's Constellation Of Tragedy for Important Records. With grace (in the rock sense), style, humor & the perfect touch of heavy riffage this tremendously unique and original recording is a classic of the new Japanese underground. Recorded at Black Snowflake Studios in Japan, Under Milk Wood is a fascinating ghostly rock album full of clean untreated restraint, as a grounded calm compliments Takahashi Ikuro's drumming. It isn't until midway through the record that the heavy riffage begins to slowly become buried beneath the white blizzard blanket that is the remainder of the album. Much critical praise awaits this fine album and it's likely to become your favorite snow-storm record, too. Let the electric snow fall."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Suzume: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 1

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 230CD

"On the flagship release to his 13 month/13 CD series, Masami Akita, herein known as Merzbow, returns to his drumset to accompany his complex analogue noise. His prowess as a drummer rivals his abilities as a noise artist making this an essential and exciting entry into the Merzbow cannon. Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds will be released each month. The 13th and final volume will be released January 2010."

Artist: THIRTEENTH ASSEMBLY, THE

Title: (Un)sentimental

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 231CD

"Though each member of the 13th Assembly is acclaimed in their own right (including Taylor Ho Bynum who has worked extensively with Anthony Braxton) this group is very much a singular musical experience. The Thirteenth Assembly began as a touring collective made up of four musicians and four musically distinct small ensembles: Tomas and Taylor's duo; Mary and Jessica's duo; Taylor's trio with Mary and Tomas; and the collaborative quartet featured on this recording. The group is a microcosm of an exciting community of young New York musicians that is beginning to receive international attention, a new generation of artists comfortable referencing AACM and Morton Feldman, Otis Redding and the Melvins, yet dedicated to finding their own individual and collective voices. While each musician in the Thirteenth Assembly brings a highly varied and diverse set of influences and aesthetics to the table, the shared experiences and long friendships help create a powerfully unified ensemble sound. From the soul-inflected lyricism of Pavone's 'Hate Fields' to the driving jazz energy of Fujiwara's 'Chantal' to the distorted power chords of Halvorson's 'Pinched,' (un)sentimental traverses many stylistic paths, but the album as a whole captures a snapshot of contemporary music at its most exciting."

Artist: VAN WISSEM, JOZEF

Title: It Is All That Is Made

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 232CD

"Brand new full length comprised of six compositions from acclaimed lutenist and James Blackshaw Brethren Of The Free Spirit bandmate Jozef Van Wissem. It Is All That Is Made consists of six trance-inducing circular pieces composed for 10 course renaissance -- and 13 course baroque lute. The titles of the pieces and the storyline critically juxtapose the first chapter of Genesis with more contemporary narratives. This evokes a parallel to the mixing of idiomatic classical lute material of the 17th century with modern folk and avantgarde music. The pieces are played forward, then backward, creating music that is potentially without beginning or end. It Is All That Is Made consists of recurring minimal themes emphasizing the listening experience. The photograph on the front cover was taken during a Portuguese festival last summer outside on the museum steps performing for a large crowd without any amplification or artificial light in true cinematic dogma style. Composer-lute player Jozef Van Wissem is renowned for his unusual approach to the Renaissance and Baroque lute, probably the most unlikely instruments in the world of contemporary music. He cuts and pastes classical pieces, reverses melodies, adds electronics and processed field recordings made in airport lounges and train stations. The unusual wedlock of composition and improvisation creates an unheard amalgam of contemporary folk and early music. Van Wissem has accomplished the strange feat of bridging the idiom of seventeenth century lute literature and twenty-first century contemporary music. Although he uses subtle electronic sound manipulation, he has largely stayed faithful to the particular timbre, resonance and playing technique of the lute. Van Wissem first came to be noticed a few years ago because of his radical conceptual approach to Renaissance lute music: He deconstructed existing compositions, for instance, by playing them backwards. He also composed his own pieces for lute, using palindromes and mirrored structures. His music therefore does not have a traditional linear progression, nor leads to a climax, it rather stays on the same level of intensity. His music not so much demands concentrated listening, as it brings the listener in a state of concentrated listening. He performs extensively around the world. He also works with the likes of Maurizio Bianchi, James Blackshaw and Tetuzi Akiyama. With Blackshaw, he formed the duo Brethren of the Free Spirit. Van Wissem lectures, as well, on composing for and improvising on the lute."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Fukurou: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 2

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 233CD

"Volume two of Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds series. Limited edition of 1000. Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds will be released each month. The 13th and final volume will be released January 2010."

Artist: DAVIS & STEVEN R. SMITH, GARETH

Title: Westering

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 234LP

"Limited edition of 500 copies. Packaged in deluxe screen printed ultra heavy board stock. In May of 2008, Amsterdam-based clarinetist Gareth Davis and American guitarist Steven R. Smith convened at Worstward Studios in Los Angeles to collaborate and create music together, the results of which have been titled Westering. Gareth Davis is a dedicated performer of contemporary music who works with improvising musicians such as Jon Balke and Terje Rypdal as well as electronic artists including Machinefabriek and Ryan Teague (Type Records) and has completed the Rabbit At The Airport series of LPs with Martin Stig Andersen and Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner). Steven R. Smith has been releasing a steady stream of solo records for over the last decade as well as playing in various improvisational groups including Thuja, Hala Strana and most recently Ulaan Khol. This fruitful collaboration has created the perfect meeting place between the scrapings and various layers of musical detritus Steven R. Smith has been known for and the textural, guttural and almost feedback laden bass clarinet of Gareth Davis to create a delicate and abstract musical language of shifting moods and textures."

Artist: SKULL DEFEKTS, THE

Title: The Temple

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 235CD

"Brand new full full length from renowned Swedish noise rock outfit the Skull Defekts. The Skull Defekts is a band from Sweden in the very north of Europe. Their intense, monotonous, rhythmic and sexual out-rock has, since their start in early 2005, been spreading energies of various kinds to welcoming audiences and listeners. The DFX is also exploring worlds of noise, the drone and psychedelic electronics on waves. The Temple is the follow up to last years Blood Spirits & Drums Are Singing but it's deeper, harder, more sex, more occult. With a background in hardcore, garage rock, post punk and experimental music -- The Skull Defekts wears echoes of their past alongside influences from tribal roots music, sufi rituals, drone, techno, no wave, '80s Factory Records stuff and its surroundings, industrial music, the occult, underground club culture and manipulations of the mind. Get DFXed. DFX is sex, rhythm and the power of sound."

Artist: SKULL DEFEKTS, THE

Title: Waving

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 7"

Price: $12.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 235EP

"Limited edition of 300. Screen printed heavy duty jackets. The Skull Defekts is a band from Sweden in the very north of Europe. Their intense, monotonous, rhythmic and sexual out rock has since their start in early 2005 been spreading energies of various kinds to welcoming audiences and listeners. The DFX have also been exploring worlds of noise, the drone and psychedelic electronics on waves on releases for labels like Riot Season, iDEAL, Release The Bats and Conspiracy Records."

Artist: SKULL DEFEKTS, THE

Title: The Temple

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $24.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 235LP

2LP version, limited to 500 copies.

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Yurikamome: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 3

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 236CD

"Volume three of Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds series. Limited edition of 1000. Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds will be released each month. The 13th and final volume will be released January 2010."

Artist: OM

Title: Live Conference

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 237LP

"Live Conference was recorded on 24-track remote audio and pressed at RTI in order to achieve the highest possible quality. Die-cut super heavy duty tip-on style jackets by Stoughton. On this night Om performed their seminal album Conference Of The Birds live in its entirety. Newly invoked energy resonates in the sound of the band. The dynamics between Emil Amos and Al Cisneros have rendered these songs and Om's sound into a higher evolution. Here we are given a proper documentation of Conference-era Om." Black vinyl version.

Artist: SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN

Title: Wooley/Grubbs/Lytton

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 238CD

"The Seven Storey Mountain is a trans-generation group of highly recognized figures in modern music. Paul Lytton, for instance, has been playing drums with Evan Parker since 1969. David Grubbs is recognized for his work with Jim O'Rourke in Gastr Del Sol, Bastro, Squirrel Bait and extensive solo work. Nate Wooley is one of the most exciting young trumpet players currently working and he's collaborated with Taylor Ho Bynum, Peter Evans, Mary Halvorson and many others. Wooley is a member of Blue Collar, Attach/Adorn/Decay and the Nate Wooley Quartet. The Seven Storey Mountain is one of his finest compositions to date. The Seven Storey Mountain is an attempt to represent the ecstatic experience as described by Thomas Merton in his book of the same name, from the uncertainty, to a kind of elation, through the 'dark night of the soul' and through to a feeling of peace and communion. It is by no means a religious work, nor is the ecstatic experience singular to Christianity, but is found in many disciplines, religious or otherwise, and most definitely in music from the opening chords of 'Thus Spake Zarathustra' to the free jazz movement of the '60s right on up to the modern day noise work, there is an element of the ecstatic experience which draws the listener in. 'I wrote the piece with the idea that it could be performed by a rotating cast of musical personalities over the tape. I was lucky enough to premiere it with two wildly diverse and equally fascinating musicians in Paul Lytton and David Grubbs. Paul is a true experimentalist and a legend of improvisation. He has reshaped how drummers think and during our 2007 tour he completely refocused my knowledge about music improvisation with a capital I. David is an iconoclastic songwriter and soundmaker. After working with him on a few projects of his own, I've grown to respect his complete understanding of his own musical aesthetic and his ability to take fine details and weave a powerful ambient whole out of them, while letting the musicians around him contribute unfettered. The piece is the result of a commission from the Festival of New Trumpet Music, with support from the Greenwall Foundation, in New York for 2007 and was performed to close that festival at Abrons Art Center at the Henry Street Settlement.' - Nate Wooley 2009"

Artist: TONGUES OF MOUNT MERU

Title: The Ocean Of Milk

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $21.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 239LP

"Limited edition of 400 copies. Deluxe heavy duty screen printed jackets. New project of Lasse Marhaug and Jon Wesseltoft; Marhaug is known from the noise scene, Wesseltoft for his work with black metal legends Thorns. As Tongues Of Mount Meru, they join forces to pursue a mutual passion for drone music. Their debut album The Ocean Of Milk is two side-long tracks of pure elevated long-form bliss. On vinyl only."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Karasu: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 4

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 241CD

Featuring haunting cover art by Jenny Akita; the booklet includes a photo of Masami Akita standing on a bridge. "Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds will be released each month. The 13th and final volume will be released January 2010. Each volume will be a one time pressing of 1000 copies."

Artist: WHITE, EMILY JANE

Title: Dark Undercoat

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 242CD

"Enormously urgent remastered and repackaged repress/reissue for this much buzzed about record that tragically went out-of-print just as demand was erupting. Includes la bonus track, 'Robotic Arms.' Armed with little more than an acoustic guitar and her fragile alto, San Francisco folk singer/songwriter Emily Jane White offers complex tales of melancholy and isolation. While comparisons to contemporaries like Cat Power and Hope Sandoval are frequent, Emily's music owes a clear debt to classic female jazz and blues singers such a Billie Holiday. The lead track 'Bessie Smith' from her debut Dark Undercoat is an homage to the influential legend. 'Wild Tigers I Have Known,' from Dark Undercoat, appeared on the soundtrack for the Cam Archer film of the same title and Rolling Stone recently placed Emily in their top 5 Hot List in which they describe the aforementioned song as 'melancholy as a rainbow glimpsed through the bars of a prison window.'"

Artist: PICK-UP

Title: Mouthless

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 243LP

"Pick-up is a new duo of Frans de Waard (Beequeen) on laptop and Martin Luiten (Girlfriends, Uw Hypotheek Advies) on guitar. Limited edition of 300. Hand made cover artwork. This is the 9th release in our Arts & Crafts series which pairs music with handmade artwork by the artists responsible for the recordings."

Artist: CAVE

Title: Made In Malaysia/Boneyard

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 7"

Price: $7.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 246EP

"Limited edition of 500 copies. 'Made In Malaysia' is the single off of Cave's brand new full length titled Psychic Summer. The B-side, 'Boneyard,' was pulled from the Psychic Summer recording sessions and is exclusive to this 7" release."

Artist: CAVE

Title: Psychic Psummer

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 247CD

Repressed. "Welcome to the season of the Psychic Psummer. Important Records' dream come true -- a full length studio album from Chicago's Cave. Major momentum expertly crafted and embracing maximum minimalism, repetition, Can cloud-bounce & full on heavy chant. Like driving a train full speed off a cliff only to discover that the train can fly and you'll live forever if you stay inside."

Artist: CAVE

Title: Psychic Psummer

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $16.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 247LP

Limited LP version with photocopied insert.

Artist: MOON PHANTOMS

Title: Moon Phantoms

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 251LP

On Moon-colored gray vinyl. "Limited edition of 500 copies pressed on virgin vinyl. Moon Phantoms is a collaboration of Bardo Pond, Alasehir and Suishou No Fune. The fourth release in our simultaneously released four part Bardo Pond related vinyl set. 'We Suishou No Fune and Alasehir played in East Coast tour of one week together again in the autumn, 2007. During the autumn concert tour, we had felt like that Moon always chased us. I started to look for where the moon was unawares when we visited each town. I have strongly remembered that the moon was full and very clear cut one night in Boston. The night was very pleasant and let us relax. Michael, John and Jason had a good conversation comfortably, looking at the moon. Kageo and myself also enjoyed the night to be just eased under the moonlight. I believed that we, Suishou No Fune and Alasehir could be one band under this special moonlight. The next day, I spoke my wish to perform music in one band to the members and we, all fall in each other in Providence. Therefore, the Japanese and American band named Moon Phantoms based on the concert tour with the full moon. And Moon Phantoms made the concert tour in the East Coast of the U.S.A. and had recording in Spring, 2008. Then we made this album.' -- Pirako Kurenai of Suishou No Fune."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Uzura: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 5

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 252CD

Featuring "Requiem for the 259,000 quails culled at a farm in Toyohashi Part 1-3." Pictured in the liner notes is a stoic Masami Akita sitting on a rock. "Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds will be released each month. The 13th and final volume will be released January 2010."

Artist: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.

Title: Dark Side Of The Black Moon: What Planet Are We On?

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 253CD

"Dark Side Of The Black Moon is the Acid Mothers Temple's follow up to the much loved Recurring Dream And Apocalypse Of Darkness. Focused riffing, super fidelity recording & proggy psych sounds mixing Pink Floyd, fuzzed out wah guitars and sounds from the cosmos."

Artist: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.

Title: Dark Side Of The Black Moon: What Planet Are We On?

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $24.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 253LP

Gatefold 2LP version. "Includes bonus track and is packaged in a heavy duty tip-on style gatefold LP with artwork by Seldon Hunt."

Artist: ANARCHIST REPUBLIC OF BZZZ

Title: Anarchist Republic Of Bzzz

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 254CD

"Founded in early 2000s, the A.R.of Bzzz brings together Arto Lindsay, Mike Ladd, Marc Ribot, Sensational and its leader Seb El Zin, also known for being composer-singer in Ithak. Claiming the influence of the kabbalist Abdul Vector Von Hassid, this sonic nation distills on its first record a raging mix of sharp noisy post-no-wave guitars and urgent rap. Some electro color also emanates from crazy architect Seb el Zin's mix. Kiki Picasso's cover places the recording in a geopolitical context where William Burroughs drops acid with Bin Laden."

Artist: MOUTHUS/BULBS

Title: Split

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 255LP

"Mouthus: Drum and guitar explosion through tape manipulation and a total synth bath. Collided through a number of recording sessions and strings of modulation to elevate the particle riffage to a heightened state of platectonic rock. Bulbs: Like tuning your radio slowly between far off new age stations in the most serene way possible. The marriage of muted melodies existing below feedback skwerls and electronic swerls. Transmissions from a better place."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Kamo: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 6

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 256CD

Featuring opening track "Bird killer Governor Ishihara deserves to die." Pictured in the liner notes: a reflective Masami Akita sitting on some cement steps. "Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds will be released each month. The 13th and final volume will be released January 2010. Each volume will be a one time pressing of 1000 copies. Cover art by Jenny Akita."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Kujakubato: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 7

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 257CD

The seventh installment in the series features intriguing cover art, with one of Jenny Akita's signature bird graphics sitting atop a magnificent clock. Tracks include "Pigeon Walk" parts 1 & 2 and "Bird droppings on your head." Liner note photo: Masami sitting on the steps again, but this time he's wearing a metal t-shirt. "Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds will be released each month. The 13th and final volume will be released January 2010. Each volume will be a one time pressing of 1000 copies. Cover art by Jenny Akita."

Artist: RADIGUE, ELIANE

Title: Vice Versa, Etc...

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2CD

Price: $15.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 259CD

"Includes liner notes & archival photographs. 1970 was an important year in Eliane Radigue's musical life since it was the year just before she acquired her ARP 2500 synthesizer. Since 1967, she had been using the feedback as a material; feedback from two tape recorders reworked through intensive studio techniques: slowing down, alteration, superimposition, montage. In 1970, the last year she dedicated to feedback, several milestone pieces saw the light of day: Omnht, a wonderful sound installation for three out-of-phase tape loops and wall-mounted loudspeakers; the theoretical setting of Labyrinthe Sonore (eventually premiered at Mills College in 1998 in collaboration with Pauline Oliveros, Maggie Payne and William Winant, amongst others); Opus 17, one of her first compositions in fixed duration (according to Rhys Chatham, a decisive piece that would change his own compositional career); and Vice-Versa, etc..., which appears to be her very last feedback loop composition. Vice-Versa, etc... was conceived as a sound installation setting similar to S=a=b=a+b. A single magnetic tape can be played at any speed, a stereo tape of which allows three playings: left channel alone, right channel alone, left and right channels together. These different channels can be overlapped/crossed over as much as possible, at any speed. Thus the piece reveals itself in its whole dimension, its infinite grace. In its content, the piece is the most minimal that Eliane Radigue has ever composed. Feedback is horizontally sustained, time is suspended, vibrating with organic and subtle pulsations. The fastest playthrough, in just 2'42", weaves a graceful continuum of uncanny depth, somewhere between the sonority of feedback and a glass harmonica. Played slowly, at 13'41", it takes us into an universe of low frequency vibrations felt as much by the guts, the ribcage and the whole body as by the eardrum: the signature sound of Eliane Radigue. Between these two extremes, many delicate shadings/variations appear simply through speed modulation. What is striking about this work, which may arguably be one of Radigue's most important compositions, is the extraordinary quality of the tones obtained from such a rudimentary material. It is hard to believe that the composer was yet to begin working on her ARP, since the sonorities heard on Vice-Versa, etc... are surprisingly similar to those she would go on to produce with her synthesizer. Vice-Versa, etc... is a minimal work which possesses an infinity of possible variations, a secret object containing the seeds of the oeuvre to come, and a discreet turning point linking the composer's two important working phases, an extremely subtle cross-fade between her feedback loop period to her ARP period. Originally, only ten signed and numbered copies of this little boxset containing a magnetic tape and a handwritten note were released -- needless to say this is a work that has been nearly forgotten! We have decided to reissue this object as a double CD, with the tape played respectively forwards and backwards, at four different speeds, corresponding to the standards of the tape recorders of the time. This will allow dedicated listeners to experiment with simultaneous playback of the work's different versions, recreating the conditions of the original installation. For lazier listeners, a simple playthrough provides complete satisfaction, a listening experience that loses itself in the ineffable and discreet beauty of these four variations."

Artist: RADIGUE, ELIANE

Title: Triptych

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 260CD

"Includes liner notes & archival photographs. On the suggestion of Robert Ashley, Douglas Dunn commissioned this piece from Eliane Radigue for choreography. Only the first part of Triptych was staged at the premiere at the Dancehall/Theatre of Nancy on February 27 1978. Recorded in the composer's studio in Paris. After the premiere of Adnos I in San Francisco in 1974, a group of French students introduced Eliane Radigue to Tibetan Buddhism. When she returned to Paris, she began to explore this spirituality in depth, which slowed her musical production up until 1978. Triptych marks her return to composition, and draws its inspiration from 'the spirit of the fundamental elements,' water, air, fire, earth. Eliane Radigue likes to add that this has often been useful to her in her moments of research and transitions. This three-part composition, with its great humility and contemplative simplicity, heralded a new period of work and was the first in a series of masterpieces inspired by Tibetan Buddhism: Adnos II (1980), Adnos III (1981), Songs of Milarepa (1983) -- with the voices of Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Robert Ashley -- Jetsun Mila (1986), as well as the Trilogy of Death: Kyema (1988), Kailasha (1991) and Koume (1993). Archival images included in the accompanying booklet."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Kokuchou: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 8

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 261CD

Four tracks: "Mesmerism," "Black Swan," "Colored Rain" and "Ushiwaka 2." The booklet includes a photo of Masami Akita as activist: standing in front of a warning sign outside some sort of military compound. "Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds will be released each month. The 13th and final volume will be released January 2010. Each volume will be a one time pressing of 1000 copies. Cover art by Jenny Akita."

Artist: RADIGUE/PAULINE OLIVEROS/YOSHI WADA/SUN CIRCLE, ELIANE

Title: Attention Patterns

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP/BOOK

Price: $40.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 263LP

"Attention Patterns is a 2 LP set featuring new and archival compositions by Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, Yoshi Wada and Sun Circle, as well as a 48-page booklet containing interviews with the composers and related texts. This release brings together composers with shared affinities for long, slowly unfolding durations and unconventional, harmonic approaches to tuning. Each has contributed a full LP side to the compilation. Edition of 600. Pauline Oliveros' 'Horse Sings from Cloud (Encore)' is a live performance from 1977 that finds her at her most distilled, performing alone with her justly tuned accordion and voice. Eliane Radigue's electronic work 'Biogenesis,' from 1973, uses her ARP synthesizer and recordings of human heartbeats as its main constituents and is the only piece included on the LPs that has been previously released. Sound artist and instrument builder, Yoshi Wada, appears with 'Reed Modulations,' a new work for harmonium, audio generators and bagpipe, made in collaboration with his son, Tashi Wada. Greg Davis and Zach Wallace, better known as Sun Circle, have contributed 'For Yoshi Wada,' an ecstatic and fitting tribute with its oddly tuned free reed drones and percussion. The accompanying booklet includes several of Oliveros' 'Sonic Meditations' -- verbal scores that formed the basis for her concept of 'Deep Listening' -- and interviews with Radigue, Wada, and Sun Circle, as well as an in-depth article on collaborating with Radigue by cellist Charles Curtis. Attention Patterns was compiled by Che Chen (whose other outings as anthologist have included the no longer extant, O Sirhan, O Sirhan, a zine that counted Henry Flynt, Bruce McClure, Sir Richard Bishop, Sublime Frequencies, Jessica Rylan, Animal Collective, Deerhoof, Jorge Boehringer and others among it's featured) and is a co-release between his new imprint, Black Pollen Press, and Important Records. Two LPs, 48-page booklet, letter-pressed sleeves."

Artist: HOLY SONS

Title: Criminal's Return

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 264CD

"With Holy Sons' newest full-length Criminal's Return, Emil Amos dabbles in the 'revenge fantasy' genre, going toe to toe with Roger Waters in the race to become the most bitter songwriter in the world. If Spacemen 3 coined 'the sound of confusion,' Holy Sons can stake claim to 'the sound of disappointment.' Criminal's Return was recorded in various studios over the last two years but also contains three studio songs from 2005 that feature the last violin recording contributions of Timothy Horner (Grails) who's since been M.I.A."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Hiyodori: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 9

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 265CD

The ninth installment in the series and it's exceptional: Masami Akita expresses a rich tableau of sound that, over the course of the album's three tracks, slowly begins to reveal itself as an autonomous realm, free from mental interference, beyond good and evil, negating human notions of time and space. Like the deepest state of transcendental meditation, only louder. Over the course of this series, Merzbow's noise has taken flight, not just through the signification of birds, but with the very breath of life. "Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux. Beginning in January 2009 one volume of 13 Japanese Birds will be released each month. The 13th and final volume will be released January 2010. Each volume will be a one time pressing of 1,000 copies. Cover art by Jenny Akita."

Artist: LEONE, DOMINIQUE

Title: Abstract Expression

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 266CD

"Dominique is a classically trained artist and composer originally from Texas. He's one of a growing number of college-educated musical auteurs with more than a slight command of pop history and theory chops, and writing songs for joyous, infatuated (or over saturated) people. All of his music could be considered 'pop' of a sort, though with dashes of prog, classical music, electronica, and even noise. It's catchy but ambitious; crafted but not sterile; interesting but not pretentious. It's just a lot of fucking fun! He lists Brian Wilson, Claude Debussy, Randy Newman, Paul McCartney, Andy Partridge, Glenn Gould, ABBA, Miles Davis, Magma, Fleetwood Mac and Olivier Messiaen as personal heroes. He's played, written or recorded with Lindstrom, Boredoms, Mungolian JetSet, Kevin Blechdom, Cryptacize, Sonic Youth's William Winant, R. Stevie Moore, Wobbly, MaryClare Brzytwa, Odawas and many others."

Artist: VAN WISSEM, JOZEF

Title: Ex Patris

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 267CD

"The title Ex Patris ('from the fathers') plays on the idiomatic baroque lute compositions presented here which emulate the classical repertoire. It also refers to this almost forgotten instrument, which was passed on by the fathers. The aim is to bring back and liberate the lute. Composer-lute player Jozef Van Wissem is renowned for his unusual approach of the Renaissance and Baroque lute. He cuts and pastes classical pieces, reverses melodies, adds electronics and processed field recordings made at airport lounges and train stations. The unusual wedlock of composition and improvisation creates an unheard amalgam of contemporary folk and late Renaissance music. He has accomplished the strange feat of bridging the idiom of seventeenth century lute literature and twenty-first century composition. Although Van Wissem uses subtle electronic sound manipulation, he has largely stayed faithful to the particular timbre, resonance and playing technique of the lute. Van Wissem first came to be noticed a few years ago because of his radical conceptual approach to Renaissance lute music: he deconstructed existing compositions, for instance, by playing them backwards. He also composes his own pieces for lute, using palindromes and mirrored structures. His music therefore does not have a traditional linear progression, nor leads to a climax, it rather stays on the same level of intensity. His music is quiet and not so much demands concentrated listening, as it will bring the listener in a state of concentrated listening."

Artist: VAN WISSEM, JOZEF

Title: Ex Patris

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $21.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 267LP

Limited to 500 copies. "The title Ex Patris ('From The Fathers') plays on the idiomatic baroque lute compositions presented here which emulate the classical repertoire. It also refers to this almost forgotten instrument, which was passed on by the fathers. The aim is to bring back and liberate the lute. The four compositions on Ex Patris form a circular narrative of interlocking repetitive melodic series. The follow up to Important release It Is All That Is Made kicks off with the pro apocalyptic track 'The Day is Coming.' 'Amor Fati' ('Love Is A Religion') channels a deep interest in both love for religion and religious belief in love. Multiple palindromes are juxtaposed and linger. 'Son of Dawn' consists of mirrored lute harmonics that serve as an intro to the 13 minute elegiac 'After The Fire Has Devoured All It Will Consume Itself.' The piece builds and releases tension and puts layer upon layer of ecstatic melody. At the end even the work itself gets devoured but it remains eternal, with no potential beginning and without end."

Artist: NEUTER RIVER

Title: Neuter River

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 268LP

"Extremely limited edition electro/acoustic noise project from Jan St Werner (Mouse On Mars). 300 copies pressed in offset jacket on virgin vinyl. Neuter River is not exactly a band or a person, it's the remains of an idea, a shifting light cube at the end of a ragged kaleidoscope. atonal precision / pentatonic noise."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Niwatori: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 10

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 270CD

The 10th installent in Merzbow's ambitious 13 Japanese Birds series is devoted to the Japanese word for "chicken." One composition, "Niwatori Obsession," divided up into three parts. Inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux.

Artist: GUANO PADANO

Title: Guano Padano

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 271CD

"Guano Padano, assembled by Alessandro Stefana, features guests Alessandro Alessandroni (renowned whistler of the immortal Ennio Morricone western soundtracks), Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart/Jeff Buckley guitarist), Chris Speed (clarinet player with Tim Berne, Uri Caine, John Zorn etc.) and, last but not least, the legendary Italian singer Bobby Solo. Guano Padano's music is a kind of road movie, unfolding between the scorching asphalt of highway number 4 and the juicy smells of the peasant festivals so common in the Pianura Padana. It's a dreaming mixture of rock, psychedelia, folk and country, jazz improvisations and Morricone hints. Alessandro 'Asso' Stefana and Zeno de Rossi started to work together some years ago while playing in Vinicio Capossela's band, of which they are still steady members. For this trip they are joined by Danilo Gallo, a double bass player with a dark, meaty, gutsy style, who has shared with Zeno various adventures merged in El Gallo Rojo collective, one of the most interesting experiences of Italian underground and independent jazz."

Artist: VA

Title: The Harmonic Series

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 272CD

Subtitled: A Compilation Of Musical Works In Just Intonation. "The Harmonic Series is a compilation of musical works in Just Intonation created by three generations of contemporary composers who utilize this tuning system. This compilation was curated over the span of two years by Duane Pitre. The goal of this compilation and its accompanying liner notes is to educate listeners about the origins and use of Just Intonation, as well as to portray the unique beauty of this tonal 'color palette,' which is heard by relatively few in the Western world and explored by even fewer. Although all the artists on the compilation work within the avant-garde/experimental genre, each artist lends something unique to the collection, and each employs a different approach toward how to utilize Just Intonation. Within The Harmonic Series you'll find an array of instrumentation such as piano, cello, accordion, electronics, guitar, Ukelin, saxophone, violin, koto, and more. The featured artists on The Harmonic Series are: Pauline Oliveros, Ellen Fullman, Charles Curtis, Michael Harrison, Greg Davis, R Keenan Lawler, Duane Pitre, Theresa Wong, and Zachary James Watkins."

Artist: NADJA

Title: Thaumogenesis

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP+CD

Price: $24.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 273LP

"Limited to 1000 copies. Double LP packaged in a gatefold LP jacket. Designed by Seldon Hunt. Bonus D side of James Plotkin's exclusive 'ThaumoRemix.' and bonus live CD." "One single 62 minute long track, bass, guitar and drum machine, all woven into a slowly undulating soundscape of blissy drone and monstrous pummel...It's like some Frankensteinian collage of Godflesh, Jesu, Sunn O))) and old Swans. It's heavy and bleak and doomy, but like Jesu, the sound is imbued with a strange warmth, and emotional mystery, that makes this much more than an exercise in guitardrone. And the sound is not static, it wavers and shifts, the melody subtly changing shape, all without the rhythm ever wavering....Like Merzbow filtered through M83 and played by Philip Jeck, a glorious blast of spectral majesty, radiant and absolutely breathtaking." -- Aquarius Records

Artist: CRUTCHFIELD, ROBIN

Title: The Hidden Folk

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 274CD

"Brand new full length from legendary ex- D.N.A./Dark Day/No-Waver Robin Crutchfield. If you venture far enough into the forest, you may be so lucky as to stumble across a miniature race which make their homes in hollow oak trees that contain passages to underground caverns where they work at harvesting minerals and gems. This musical collection of 19 gems of true 'underground' music, a hidden folk music, attempts to capture the essence of the wee magic ones in soundscapes that depict them at work and play, the only evidence of these mysterious, hidden ones that we can offer. The rest of us are fortunate enough that they continue to share their planet and work in subtle ways that keep us from snuffing all the joy out of it. Won't you cooperate with them a little; do as you will be done by and leave the place a little better than you found it? Robin Crutchfield, the critically acclaimed performance artist, moved to New York in the '70s, only to cross over from art into music with his no wave band DNA, recording tracks for Brian Eno's historic No New York album. This was followed by Dark Day, a series of collaborations with Nina Canal, Nancy Arlen, Tuxedomoon, Jim Jarmusch, and others, resulting in releases of various genres: cold wave, proto-electronic, medieval pagan, and electronica. Trading plastic transistors and wires for wood and strings in 2000, he went green, taking up ancient instruments, harps, drums, lyres and psalteries. He currently pursues and explores acoustic trancelike daydreamscapes of the mysterious and elusive inhabitants of an otherworld most have only experienced through folktale and fable."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Shirasagi: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 11

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 275CD

Part 11 in the series, devoted to the white heron. Tracks include "Transformed Into Food," "Once The Human Meat Is Done, Cut It Up And Mix With The Vegetable Curry," "Dismemberment Of Nature" and "Chained."

Artist: ASVA

Title: Presences Of Absences

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 279CD

"Intention. The thing I'd always felt deep down about Asva recordings was that sense of... Intention. Good as they have been they rang hollow, as if the truth of what nature born those tracks was hidden behind a veneer of having to 'be' a definable thing, genre specific, a
way to 'belong' somewhere in the midst of other music. The intention behind Presences Of Absences has been to make something real and unbiased, an honest effort at reproducing what is Asva's nature as a band and as individuals. Not heavy in the traditional sense of 'heavy' but emotive and powerful, not quirky, not elusive or exclusive, but a different breed entire. Presences Of Absences is about sincerity, goodwill and compassion, honesty, hard work and in the deepest sense, thanks and reflection at the end of the day. It's a discussion in music utilizing traditional elements (liturgical, plain chant, tintinnabuli musics, folk and gospel musics, acoustic organ and wind instruments, etc) and contemporary electric instrumentation and playing methods to expose our shared origins, our pasts, presents and futures and the common thread passing through our relationships to all of it... Presences Of Absences is a big work."

Artist: VAINIO/KOUHEI MATSUNAGA, MIKA

Title: Split

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 280LP

"This is Important's first release in a 4 record series, each featuring the work of the enigmatic Japanese artist Kouhei Matsunaga. Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic) has contributed a side of lengthy work for harsh electronic drones while Kouhei's side consists of experimental breakbeats and modern electronica. Mika Vainio is acclaimed as half of Pan Sonic and for his solo work as well. Kouhei Matsunaga's first record was released on the Mille Plateaux label in 1998. Since then he has kept busy with numerous collaborations as well as his work with NHK (Raster Noton)."

Artist: VAINIO/KOUHEI MATSUNAGA/SEAN BOOTH, MIKA

Title: 3. Telepathics Meh In-sect Er Connection

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 281CD

"This is Important's second release in a 4 record series, each featuring the work of the enigmatic Japanese artist Kouhei Matsunaga. Telepathic full length collaborative release from Kouhei Matsunaga, Sean Booth of Autechre and Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio. Using space, silence and electronic tones, these three electricians rewire your brain for a new comprehension of sound."

Artist: MATSUNAGA, KOUHEI

Title: Self VA.

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $12.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 282CD

"This is Important's third release in a 4 release Important feature on the work of the enigmatic Japanese artist Kouhei Matsunaga. Self VA. is Kouhei's 2nd album. His first was released on the Mille Plateaux label in 1998. Since then he has kept busy with numerous collaborations as well as his work with NHK (Raster Noton). Kouhei seamlessly weaves all of his work together in seemingly effortless fashion. Collaborations on Self VA. include Leif Elggren, NHK, Sensational (Jungle Brothers), RLW and more."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Tsubame: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 12

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 284CD

"This is December 2009's Bird CD from Merzbow. Tsubame is the 12th and 2nd to last in the series. Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Chabo: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 13

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $13.50

Catalog #: IMPREC 285CD

"This is the final CD in the 13 month/13 CD series of bird-inspired CDs from Merzbow. Merzbow's 13 Japanese Birds is a 13 month series of releases inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux."

Artist: MUGSTAR

Title: ...Sun, Broken...

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 286CD

Mugstar hover in the realm of Oneida and Sonic Youth and fit well beside such Important records as Cave and A Place To Bury Strangers. Since 2003, they've issued a few full lengths, a split with Mudhoney, an etched 10" and most famously, recorded the last ever Peel Session with the late John Peel. Mugstar are the sound of 10,000 exploding suns, pulsing with repetitive beauty and pounding like a supersonic mantra. ...Sun, Broken..., Mugstar's second full-length album, recalls Saucerful... era-Floyd and echoes vintage Neu! alongside the more contemporary sounds of Oneida and Sonic Youth. Mugstar take the sonics of heavy psychedelia and Krautrock, drag it through the lenses of punk and post-rock and jettisons the results into something of propulsive originality. ...Sun, Broken... delivers a range of power, textures and soundscapes, from the turbo-charged openers of 'Technical Knowledge As A Weapon' and 'Ouroboros,' the eerie other-worldly atmospherics of 'Labrador Hatchet' and 'She Ran Away With My Medicine,' through the Krautrocking 'Today Is The Wrong Shape' to the expansive voyage of closing track 'Furklausundbo.' It is a forceful and compelling album. Mugstar's origins begin with drummer Steve Ashton wanting a band who could play as loud as he could. Neil Murphy, from an improv background, joined next, providing noise and subtlety. Peter Smyth then answered the call, bringing guitar, keyboards, vocals, and an intense stage persona. Jason Stoll came on board with his dirty bass tones. Finally, Sam Wiehl arrived, adding projections to the live shows, making Mugstar a full assault on the senses both sonically and visually. Steve found the band he wanted."

Artist: MOUNTAINHOOD

Title: The River/The Road

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 7"

Price: $11.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 287EP

"300 exquisitely handmade copies. Volume Ten in Important's Arts & Crafts series. This record follows his sold out records on Time Lag, Ecstatic Yod & Reverb Worship. Part 2 in the Larger Multivisorial Dreamsaga Called: The Light, 'The Road,' recorded in NYC, continues the epic narrative of Kria Blisses' journey to/through the Chrystal Palace first introduced in Goldenness, Part 1. Packaging painted, penciled, photographed in New Almaden, Northern California or Point Lobos, Big Sur, also forms a narrative whole broken down into several acts or series perceivable only by Over-Eye."

Artist: AUN

Title: VII

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 289CD

"Aun's bi-polar output generally shifts between dreamy, lulling harmonic distortion and sheer gut-wrenching, ultra-down tuned, avant black dirge. Aun's VII is of the latter. Of strong melodic and compositional sense, impossibly detuned guitars and electric power surges, soar through deep space and into black holes. While demented acid-fueled fiddlers torment the high ends, ghostly cow-boy melodies and industrial strength psychedelia are time-kept by Away of prog-speed legend Voivod. Playing an uncharacteristic strain of jazzy, motorik and tribal rhythms, Away traps the surreal electrocution state of VII, which is complemented by a mystical and symbolic heavy Justin Bartlett adornment."

Artist: SKULL DEFEKTS/THE SONS OF GOD/CM VON HASSWOLFF, THE

Title: Descending The Silver River Of The DFX

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 290LP

"Swedish drone/ritual rock group The Skull Defekts is back with a new limited edition vinyl LP. 500 copies pressed. Cover by Fredrik S�derberg. This time, we are dealing with two unique collaborations. The first one is a live recording from Fylkingen, Stockholm where The Skull Defekts met oscillator master CM von Hausswolff in a deep drone meeting. The second one is a studio recording together with the infamous performance and noise duo The Sons of God, Kent Tankred and Leif Elggren."

Artist: KID 606

Title: Songs About Fucking Steve Albini

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 291CD

"A collection of psychedelic love songs paying tribute to all things analog. Similar to older Kid606 releases like PS I Love You, GQ on the EQ, The Soccergirl EP and Why I Love Life. This album was carefully constructed to be the soundtrack for the peak 72 minutes of your next trip. The songs all linger on too long but just long enough, you hear voices you can't understand, but you will know what they're saying. Every track has its distinct identity and direction to completely throw you from one headspace to another. There are only a few things connecting the tracks. All the songs on this album were created with analog source material, none have beats or percussion to weigh you down, and they are all love songs. It was all composed over many years in many different places. Each song represents a phase of indulgent musical composition that only deserved to have its best parts represented on this album. After compiling and editing all the songs on a computer, they were mixed down and mastered through all analog equipment to two track analog tape."

Artist: ROBEDOOR

Title: Burners

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 292LP

"Limited edition of 500 copies. Mastered by James Plotkin. Recorded and mixed from April-September of '09 at the same East L.A. hillside studio ('Green Machine') where Raiders was tracked. The goal with Burners was to make a record fusing the recent-ish song-based structures of Raiders and the Pagan Drugs 7" into some of the older-style Robedoor drone-sprawl architectures. All songs were written/sculpted over the course of constant live shows ('Burning Man' in particular was an '09 live staple)."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: 13 Japanese Birds In A Bag

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 13CD Box

Price: $100.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 294CD

"Limited opportunity to get all 13 CDs from Masami Akita's Thirteen Japanese Bird series at a box set price. Packaged along with a limited edition Merzbow Bird Bag and a bonus hand-stamped CD-R of unreleased material from the 13 Japanese Bird sessions. A small number of these are being made available."

Artist: VA

Title: We Are All One, In The Sun: A Tribute To Robbie Basho

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 295CD

"In Robbie Basho's lifetime he set out to champion the steel string guitar as an expressive and dignified concert instrument. His guitar playing was first brought to light in 1965, when John Fahey released Basho's debut The Seal Of The Blue Lotus on Fahey's own Takoma Records. Armed with a unique and powerful singing voice, his 6 & 12 string guitar and a collection of special guitar tunings that he created (even originating a unique chart titled 'The Esoteric Doctrine of Color and Mood,' denoting a color and mood for each of his special tunings). Basho's output was prodigious, but after three decades of recordings and touring, this unique American musical voice went largely unnoticed and in 1986 his voice was forever silenced by a tragic accident. Basho's music, which displays an intense passion for different cultures from around the world, was heavily influenced by Japanese (his self-chosen last name was even inspired by the Japanese haiku poet Matsuo Basho), Persian, Classical Indian, and a culture much closer to home, Native Americans. Forty-five years later, his recording legacy displays an emotional depth and pure vision that few musicians have ever achieved, and now his music is influencing a whole new generation of acoustic musicians around the world. We Are All One, In The Sun: A Tribute To Robbie Basho, represents a humble tribute to this truly original and passionate American guitarist, musician and composer. This labor of love was curated and realized by musician, producer, and acoustic guitar maker Buck Curran (along with his wife Shanti performs as the duo Arborea), who after first hearing Basho, many moons ago, instantaneously felt Kindred Spirit to his music. This tribute (a collection of both original compositions and new interpretations of Basho songs) befittingly begins and ends with German guitarist and painter Steffen Basho Junghans, who has devoted almost 20 years to composing guitar music in the spirit of Robbie Basho, and whose own compositions reflect a spiraling poetic universe like Basho's, creations of majestic musical vistas. In addition to Junghans, there is a gorgeous composition by Glenn Jones, a friend of Basho's, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jones is another musician who has dedicated his life to proliferated music composed on the Steel String guitar. There is also the young Irish guitarist Cian Nugent...who represents a new generation of guitarist-composers who are carrying on the torch. Meg Baird, Arborea and Fern Knight all represent beautiful female led vocal tributes to Robbie Basho compositions that feature his passionate and evocative singing. Curran's choice of female led vocal performances is a tribute honoring Basho's own profound spiritual reverence and fantastical love for women. Basho's own singing was said to have been first inspired by the beautiful and powerful voice of Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac. The choice of involving instrumentalists Rahim Alhaj and Helena Espvall in this project was simple, in that Curran feels Basho would have appreciated their roots, virtuosity, and passion and in their sound; he also hears a kindred spirit linking all three musicians. Rahim AlHaj is a Grammy-nominated, Iraqi-born master of the Persian Oud. AlHaj, a student of the great Munir Bashir, exhibits great technique and a pure emotional style. Cellist Helena Espvall, a native of Sweden, represents a musician (whose first instrument was guitar) with a deep connection to her instrument, a musician who conjures up mysterious and emotionally charged improvisational music from bow and cello, music that is an amalgamation of sounds and textures from her travels all over the world. Robbie Basho was a true American Original, a free thinking passionate intellectual and a musical pioneer whose body of works deserves the kind of recognition and glorious platform that will enable generations of young musicians from around the world to draw inspiration from. We are All One, In the Sun represents the first of hopefully many tributes and works inspired by the life and music of Robbie Basho. In Basho's own words 'Don't be afraid to feel anything' and his credo 'Soul first, technique later.' We arrive at simple Zen like mantras by which all of us can live."

Artist: MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE

Title: The Visible Sign Of The Invisible Order

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $26.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 296LP

"Deluxe 2LP set pressed at RTI with heavy duty tip-on jackets from Stoughton. B-side includes two bonus tracks not found on the original CD. Featuring contributions from Alan Bishop and Charles Gocher of the Sun City Girls on both the album and bonus tracks. Graphic design by Stephen O'Malley. At last the long-awaited reissue of a west coast outsider death cult classic! From the forests of the Northwest, an uncharted document of shamanistic psychedelia. Recorded mostly during rituals deep in Cascadia and filtered through destructive electronic meditations, this record is a trace down the tributaries to the origins of MMOB's No-Age mystery. Featuring members of Sun City Girls, Earth, Asva, Eyvind Kang, and more. This deluxe reissue contains 20 minutes of lost, unreleased music from the original sessions presented in glorious gatefold vinyl." "An opening gong signals the interface between collective ceremony and individualistic expression. This is the surviving carnival of creation from the frigid nights beyond a blistering hell to come. Out of necessity, a pack of wild solo predators assembles for the purpose of creating a larger and much more efficient hunting party. Creatures of like minds produce unlimited energy fields largely uncontrollable yet focused on an elusive chasm between desire and need. The choice is clear: Predator or Prey. By scattering the collective into individual identification snares, wardens of hypnosis domesticate confused souls relocating them to dry islands of servitude or stark pastures of the harvest. Bloodline or benefits claimed by slave masters and their operatives are not sufficient justification to remain among their rains for all wardens and their masters will be eliminated by a billion ghosts sailing the winds of death when filthy truths are revealed. These songs were siphoned from flying graveyards and fed through fiant funnels as navigatory spirits and sprayed into the haunted outskirts of behavior and its rickety platforms. Spreading as aggressive invasion in a mist of self-motivated obsessive defense mechanisms, this anti-virus of sparkling plasma glows as illuminated orb amidst the enemy's elite shadows of deceptive, inferior energies which continually pollute the dimensions of all accessible realities. Within this illumination are gateways to new realities where the enemy fears to tread. A clever, weirder America is on the rise. One that won't give up their guns or their souls to the agencies trained to occupy them. Those who can speak outside the language and direct energy on the inside are the only valid resistance to the creeping tumors of controlled humanity. Conceptual movement, intellectual logic, and 'reasonable alternatives' are not factors in decision making. Decisions are instantaneous judgements as perfection. The deciders who used to roam the universe in large numbers are almost extinct. The Master Musicians Of Bukkake are among the last bastion of entities capable of deciding which vapors of truth shall manifest and who shall breathe these truths." -- Alan Bishop, December 2009."

Artist: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.

Title: In O To Infinity

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 297CD

"Acid Mothers Temple follow up their classic cover of Terry Riley's 'In C.' This is also the first Acid Mothers Temple record in a long time to feature the voice of Cotton Casino. Beginning with their cover of Terry Riley's 'In C,' AMT went on to create 'In E' and 'In D,' as well as their collaboration with Ultrasound on 'In G.' Now they return to the concept, with four new tracks -- 'In A,' 'In Z,' 'In 0' and 'In 8.' As far as music is concerned, a scale could be anything. The names of the scales from A to G are no more than conventions, decided on through human logic. However, beginnings and endings, nothingness and the infinite are not conventions or human creations. Rather they are part of the cosmos and they can be applied to all things that exist. On these pieces they follow their belief in this truth, journeying from beginning to end, from end to beginning, from nothingness to the infinite, and from the infinite to nothingness..."

Artist: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.

Title: In O To Infinity

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $24.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 297LP

Double LP is limited to 1000 copies and is pressed on heavy duty virgin vinyl and packaged in a tip-on style gatefold jacket.

Artist: JACOBS, HENRY

Title: Around The World With Henry Jacobs

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2CD

Price: $15.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 299CD

"Absurd folklorist Henry Jacobs returns with a selection of rare interviews, odd loops, sales pitches, early synthesizer demos, an ether-infused evening, and more! Produced in San Francisco and New York City, Around The World With Henry Jacobs is a travelogue that continues the story begun with The Wide Weird World of Henry Jacobs, mixing archival material from the 1950s with recent improvisations by Jacobs. Guests include Stan Freberg and Dr. Irwin Corey, with Alan Watts returning for a visit, too. Also included is special bonus disc -- First Night, one of the true gems from the collection. Recorded in February 1957 by Henry Jacobs on the opening night of the Poetry/Jazz Series at The Cellar in San Francisco, this unique document captures the first time Kenneth Rexroth and Lawrence Ferlinghetti read their poetry to jazz in this very intimate setting. In contrast to Fantasy Records' Poetry Readings in the Cellar, you feel yourself a part of the audience here, moments punctuated with a register ringing, muted conversations, laughter, and clinking glasses. Includes Rexroth reading 'Between Myself And Death' and 'She Is Away', and Ferlinghetti reading 'The World is A Beautiful Place.'"

Artist: VA

Title: IMPREC300

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $9.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 300LP

"After ten years Important Records is extremely proud to present IMPREC300, a vinyl only collection of exclusive live tracks from a handful of Important bands including Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Grails, Mugstar, Cave, NHK yx, Bardo Pond, Grails, Master Musicians Of Bukkake, Chord & Bass Communion."

Artist: MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE

Title: Totem Two

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: PIC. DISC

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 301-PIC

"Repress of 500 copies of the sold out LP as a picture disc with new artwork and design by Seldon Hunt. Echoing like a long lost Werner Herzog soundtrack Totem Two is a record of subtle meditations and deep electric hallucinations from the crystal caves of the Northwest to the orchestral desert portals of Turkey. Totem Two finds MMOB exploring the disappearance of the mystic and the schisms of our age. In times when forces move against our souls these are the first sounds of music that can only be described as no-age, a resistance is making itself known. Featuring members of Earth, Asva, Burning Witch, The Diminished Men, and more and special guests from Secret Chiefs 3 and the thriving Istanbul music scene."

Artist: MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE

Title: Totem Two

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 301CD

"Echoing like a long lost Werner Herzog soundtrack, Totem Two is a record of subtle meditations and deep electric hallucinations from the Crystal Caves of the Northwest to the orchestral desert portals of Turkey. Totem Two finds MMOB exploring the disappearance of the mystic and the schisms of our age. In times when forces move against our souls, these are the first sounds of music that can only be described as No-Age, a resistance is making itself known. Featuring members of Earth, Asva, Burning Witch, The Diminished Men, and more, as well as special guests from Secret Chiefs 3 and the thriving Istanbul music scene. MMOB has now solidified into a 7-piece cosmic psych force. Like a reverse dark side of the new age sound, on the Totem series Master Musicians of Bukkake perform ritualistic electric excursions into the outer and inner reaches. Relying more on the electric power of psyched guitars, analog synth chants, and exotic heavy percussion. This Totem Trilogy echoes with the delusions of a west coast death cult. Outer-spaced gamelan, dusty fuzz rock from celestial deserts, meditations of a deranged Krishna gathering, and the blurry acoustic guitar majesty of the Cascade mountains all reveal themselves here in epic form. Master Musicians Of Bukkake's newest offering in the Totem Trilogy, Totem Two marks yet another psychic and sonic shift from their first record Visible Sign Of the Invisible Order (Abduction Records 2005/LP via Important Records 2010) and its predecessor in the trilogy Totem One (Conspiracy Records 2009). On Totem Two, Master Musicians explore and meditate deep on the death of the Mystics, the Forgotten Ones, the Schisms of our time, and the inability to realize the primary clear light for what it is. Totem Two shifts from electronically altered B�n cult rituals to outer spaced Sufi Sects. Finally succumbing to the fully orchestrated No-Age darkness of the religion of the future only to end in delusional 'enlightenment' atop Mt. Shasta, scrawling the deranged rambling of new age psychosis on the crystal walls of a cave. Every sound and note played is put to tape by a group with a singular purging purpose. Recorded, mixed and produced by Randall Dunn (Six Organs of Admitance, Sunno))), Earth ,etc.), at Aleph studios in Seattle, WA. 'Perede Kaldirma' was recorded in Istanbul, Turkey at the legendary ADA studios, November 2009. Featuring a collaboration between MMOB and Turkish musicians from the Istanbul music scene, it features amazing Ney solos by Serkan Bagkenesen. Over the years, ADA studios in Istanbul has been the host for records by Erkin Koray and Baris Manco to name a few. Inspired by and for lovers of: Popul Vuh's work with Werner Herzog, early Vangelis and Tangerine Dream, as well as Philip Glass' Kundun soundtrack."

Artist: MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE

Title: Totem Two

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 301LP

LP version.

Artist: MUELLER & Z'EV, JON

Title: HYDratioN

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $24.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 304LP

"LTD edition of 300 hand-numbered copies. Hand screened jackets printed by Neil Burke at Monoroid. For years, both Z'EV and Jon Mueller have explored these possibilities, both within traditional forms, and singling out specific elements within those forms. For Z'EV, an entire book, called Rhythmmajik, was written about the properties of rhythm, while his history pairs him with a wealth of collaborators, from Carl Stone, Glenn Branca, and many others, as he pursued the quest for rhythmic elements in many things, few of them being actual drums. For Mueller, it's about what happens with drums in different spaces, used in different contexts, from improvised collaborations with Jason Kahn, Asmus Tietchens, and Lionel Marchetti, to more composed and bombastic work with Rhys Chatham's Guitar Trio and Collections of Colonies of Bees, to the distorted pop sensibilities of Volcano Choir."

Artist: EMMANUEL, JD

Title: Wizards

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $21.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 305LP

"With so much being made of current practitioners of the kosmische/New Age vibe, here's your opportunity to hear an original. Copies from the original pressing rarely surface and even the 2007 repress (which sounded quite thin) commands quite a fee on internet auction sites. This straight analog pressing sounds as close to the original master tapes as you can get. 500 made. Pressed at RTI."
"Wizards was my first deep trance electronic music album. This album was inspired by Terry Riley , one of the earliest people ever to compose and perform long, extended, cyclic pieces in the electronic format. This music was composed and performed in '81 and '82. I consider this album my best work. The instrumentation is three Sequencial Circuits PRO-1s, Crumar Traveler One and a Yamaha SK-20, all real time recording to a Teac 4-track reel-to-reel. I mixed the four tracks to a Teac A-7300 Master 2-Track tape recorder using a DeltaLab DL-2 to create the delay track. In 2006, I used a Tascam 34B 4-track to remaster all my master tapes to digital master of 196 KHz/24 bit .WAV files using Soundforge 8 software. The original Wizards LP was published in the Summer of 1982 with the black and white cover. The initial tracks had no names and were called 'Movements I-V.' Several years later sales had slowed down. In an effort to improve sales we tried the color cover and I created names for each track..." -- J.D. Emmanuel

Artist: BITCHIN BAJAS

Title: Tones/Zones

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $19.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 306LP

"Bitchin Bajas is the solo project of Cave's Cooper Crane. Cooper's skillful use of melody within his elastic electronic tones is matched by his ability to mix it all (much like he does with Cave) so that there's a lot of sound but even more space and separation between the sounds. Tones/Zones was pressed in an edition of 500 copies. Through some sort of cosmic serendipity, Important is releasing Tones/Zones at the same time as J.D. Emmanuel's classic Wizards LP from 1981. There are some interesting parallels between Tones/Zones and Wizards. Both artists have a firm grasp of sound without wading too deeply into the blissful waters of new age melody. Both used an organ and a similar assortment of analog synths and both used the same Tascam reel-to-reel tape machine for their recordings. Though nearly 30 years separate, they're both generously offering you the opportunity to dive deeply into their own private tones & zones. Enjoy." On white vinyl.

Artist: HOTOTOGISU

Title: Floating Japanese Oof! Gardens Of The 21st Century

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2CD

Price: $15.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 307CD

"Floating Japanese Oof! Gardens Of The 21st Century was originally released on the De Stijl label in 2005, spread out over 3 LPs in hand glued packaging featuring colorful prints of Matthew Bower's compelling artwork. To date, this remains a singular release in the Hototogisu discography. The original press info from the always interesting De Stijl label says it all: 'The Hototogisu is one of several pieces of Japanese cuckoo. Since the song of the Hototogisu traditionally signaled the arrival of Japanese summer, it was as eagerly awaited as the trimming of La Monte Young's nose hairs. The text of this piece likens the long-awaited first notes of the bird to the arrival of ones lover. The compositions on Floating Gardens are mainly narrative in style and more dramatic in character than Anthony Moore's drooping bamboo shaft. However, also contained are light and lyrical pieces which will touch the sentiments of the people of this time as deeply as Terry Riley's toes are dug in the sand. The package is impressive! A kaleidoscope of color as flamboyant/indulgent as Charlemagne Palestine's brandy-sogged teddy bears and when Floating Gardens meets your gaze, you'll be as bug-eyed as Phil Glass.'"

Artist: CLUSTER & FARNBAUER

Title: Live In Vienna 1980

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2CD

Price: $15.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 308CD

"Live In Vienna is the eighth full-length album by German electronic music outfit Cluster and their first and only album with Joshi Farnbauer. It is the first of three live albums recorded by Cluster. Until now Cluster & Farnbauer had never been reissued on compact disc. On June 12, 1980 Cluster performed at the Wiener Festwochen Alternativ with Farnbauer. The performance was recorded and released as a limited edition cassette on the British York House Records (YHR) label. It was reissued in Germany on the Transmitter label of 'Gr�ne Kraft' owner Werner Pieper. The style of the music is highly experimental and discordant and very reminiscent of Moebius and Rodelius' early work with Conrad Schnitzler in Kluster, albeit with updated electronic instrumentation. Live In Vienna was the only Cluster release never reissued on CD. This reissue includes archival material as well as newly mastered audio and new artwork created by Cluster member Dieter Moebius."

Artist: NURSE WITH WOUND/LARSEN

Title: Erroneous: A Selection Of Errors

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 310CD

"Erroneous, A Selection Of Errors is the result of the meeting of Italian cult band Larsen and Steven Stapleton's ubiquitous creature Nurse With Wound. Almost 2 years of file swapping and occasional conceptual meetings led to a multi-headed collection of deformed sounds based on one long NWW piece and two Larsen tracks (that both bands have written specifically for this project) then deconstructed and rebuilt by each other into totally brand new opuses. Erroneous also features Neu! and Kraftwerk original member Eberhard Kranemann on additional guitars, synth, sax and vocals as well as Larsen collaborator Daniele Pagliero, a.k.a. Lo Dev Alm, on bass. Just like the music, the artwork of the album is also a joint effort sporting works of Stapleton's alter-ego Babs Santini, Larsen's graphic designer Bellissimo and E. Kranemann."

Artist: SMEGMA

Title: Mirage

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 311CD

"With Mirage on Important Records, Smegma again does the impossible. 38 years after reinventing the musical wheel, they have recorded a stunning masterpiece. With four of the original members working together again for the first time in many years, together with many new collaborators, they have kept alive their unique brand of old school primitive, avant/garage music. Running the gamut from the 'music concrete' inspired subtlety, the bombastic mood of the title track, 'world of my own's' frenzied noise/funk jams, that morph past rock'n [Eno/Roxy Music era] garage band, before finally slipping into a primitive meditation involving silly voices, toys, record players and such. On the other hand 'F-85 Turbo Rocket' blasts strait to psycho rockabilly heaven and is over before it all sinks in. Also worth mentioning, with its timeless creepy beauty, the front cover drawing/collage sets the stage for this strange journey. Several of the tracks were recorded 'live' at a Smegma House Party in Portland September 2009. The CD includes a unique Smegma house party track and a bonus 1973 original Pasadena unreleased recording."

Artist: SMEGMA

Title: Mirage

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 311LP

LP version, featuring a "spontaneous jam" exclusive to the LP.

Artist: LESSER/MATMOS/WOBBLY

Title: Simultaneous Quodlibet

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 312LP

"Matmos, Wobbly & J Lesser present: Simultaneous Quodlibet. These pieces originated in improvised recordings which were then taken to Snowghost Studios in Montana & overdubbed with additional instruments, synths, drums, bass and organs. They were then edited down over the course of a few months until becoming a fully realized studio album of carefully constructed and meticulously composed pieces rooted in music that could only have been performed spontaneously. Simultaneous Quodlibet was created out of the spirit of long-term colleagues and friends using the studio-as-instrument to recreate what they had already created. Warm and complex with a fine rhythmic shuffle, these pieces are both glowing with surprises emanating from enduring collaborations and musical companionship."

Artist: MUGSTAR

Title: Lime

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $12.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 314CD

"Mugstar's third album (their second on Important Records) maintains the power and heaviness of sonic assault laid out in their previous releases whilst extending musical maneuvers and textures into new territories. 'Sunburnt Impedance Machine' moves through driving riff passages with soaring guitars and voice recalling touches of early Floyd before locking into a repetitive keyboard and drum driven outro, power on, power on! 'Serra' is an extended voyage through a shimmering Krautrock landscape, continuous and expectant grooves that call to mind a turbo-charged Neu! - combine with heavy waves of churning Minimalist synth ala Glass or Reich. Clinic's Hartley guests here -- adding distant bursts of haunting clarinet skronk - inducing flashes of Nik Turner or Beefheart (you gotta hear it). 'Radar King' launches with mesmeric drums and bass whilst guitars weave and build to near climax before descending to an eerie space -- hanging, drifting with a stretched moment of tape fx weirdness before the energy inevitably re-emerges, it builds and charges with looming and crunching guitars to a colossal tornado apocalypse finale. A noisefest Sonic Youth would revel in. 'Beyond The Sun' closes in a more reflective mood with incessant rhythms punctuated by arpeggiated synths and distant voice evoking a feel of pastoral psychedelicism. The mantra-like effect driven this time with restraint, atmospheric shifts verge on enlightenment and dark uneasiness. Take the list of band names mentioned above, add a few others along the lines of Bardo Pond, Oneida, Circle, Kinski, wind the intensity and volume levels up to blistering and you'll be entering the universe of Mugstar."

Artist: LESBIAN

Title: Stratospheria Cubensis

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $12.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 315CD

"Stratospheria Cubensis picks up where 2007's Power Hor (Holy Mountain) left off. The album takes the band and listener on a darker and more elaborate optimistic prog-doom journey, each track telling an epic psychedelic story using myriad genres, styles, and timbres. Seldon Hunt's impressive artwork richly supports the albums themes that the band describes simply as 'mushrooms in the sky with diamonds.' Recorded and Mixed at London Bridge and Aleph Studios Seattle by Randall Dunn (Master Musicians of Bukkake, Earth, Boris, Sunn O)))). Mastered by Mell Dettmer at Sinister Kitchen. Artwork and layout by Seldon Hunt. Logo by John Santos."

Artist: CHORD

Title: Progression

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 316CD

"Both CD & 2LP feature deluxe hand-screened covers. Featuring members of Pelican & X-Bax. For the new album three single-chord compositions were charted out, one freeform and tone driven, one long-form piece with charts dictating the players' intensity of performance, and one grid-like chart where each players' note continually shifts, though the combination of voices continue to maintain the chord. Six chords were chosen and arranged in a progression that encompasses two separate performances of each of the three compositions. Though the CD and 2LP share a similar internal structure and can be listened on their own, they are intended to be played concurrently forming the full six chord arc of the total piece. The CD & 2LP are intended to be listened to concurrently making one full album."

Artist: CHORD

Title: Progression

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 2LP

Price: $21.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 316LP

2LP version, limited to 500 copies. Featuring exclusive material from the CD format. Screenprinted jacket.

Artist: VAMPILLIA

Title: Alchemic Heart

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 320CD

"Alchemic Heart is a special project presented by Vampillia who have colored these two colossal compositions with beautiful contributions by members of the Boredoms, Jarboe (ex-Swans), Inswarm and Japanese Noise-God Merzbow. Layered strings, piano, bass, noise and voices are weaved mysteriously and expand as two magnificently parallel aesthetic worlds. Comprised of two pieces, 'Sea'/'Land,' a primitive landscape is created via listening and destroyed when the pieces are complete. Vampillia, much like the Boredoms, absorb rock, noise, modern composition, experimental music & pop and explode it out as hardcore spirit music. They hail from Osaka, Japan and are a brutal orchestra with three distinct vocalists backed by twin violins, piano, twin guitars, bass, turntables, Toyohito Yoshikawa on drums as well as Tatsuya Yoshida and Kazuhisa Chikada."

Artist: MERZBOW

Title: Jigokuhen: 13 Japanese Birds Pt. 14

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 321LP

"Jigokuhen is the final installment in Masami Akita's 15 part Bird Series for Important Records. Inspired by Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue D'Oiseaux, the Bird Series saw the release of one CD per month for 13 months. This 14th Bird Series release is being issued on the 2 year anniversary of the start of the Bird Series and in conjunction with Vampilla's album on Important, which Merzbow contributed some major mixing work."

Artist: LOPEZ & MAURIZIO BIANCHI, FRANCISCO

Title: KRMN

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 322CD

"'KRMN-FL' and 'KRMN-MB' were both created with the same original source materials, jointly created by Maurizio Bianchi and Francisco L�pez." "Produced from the partial oxidation of carbon-containing compounds, carbon monoxide is a highly toxic gas and has no odor or color. It is the most common type of fatal poisoning in many countries. Exposures can lead to significant toxicity of the central nervous system and heart. 'KRMN' (for Karbona Monooksido) has been produced from the impartial de-oxidation of sonorous carbon-containing modular compounds. It's not toxic and has a positive effect on the peripheral nervous system and symbolic heart. Pay attention to its fatal antidote to the industrial poisoning in our dogmatic modernity." --M.B.

Artist: DREYBLATT, ARNOLD

Title: Turntable History

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 323CD

"Arnold Dreyblatt (b.1953) is an American composer who has studied with La Monte Young, Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Lucier. He is a member of the German Academy Of Art. He has released work on labels such as Table of the Elements, Cantaloupe, Tzadik, Hat Art and Dexter's Cigar. Turntable History is a recording of a 40-minute multi-channel sound composition which was conceived as part of an audio-visual installation installed in the circular vaulted brick space of a historical water container in Berlin in 2009. The original sound content is derived from recordings made by Arnold Dreyblatt of a Magnetic Resonance Imagining Scanner (Siemens Magnetom Symphony Maestro Class) in a radiological practice in Berlin. Dreyblatt was fortunate to gain rare permission to record this device in operation without patients being involved. A technician from Siemens manned the machine especially for these recordings, searching for software settings related to their resulting sonic output rather for scanning particular body areas. Dreyblatt treated the device as a giant Tesla coil, in which the alignment and resonances of a powerful magnetic field is gradually altered by rotating radio frequencies. Dreyblatt analyzed and deconstructed the original recordings and grouped the audio segments by pitch, rhythm and density. The resulting five-channel composition of harmonically resonating, pulsating signals, sounded within this voluminous reflective space (with long delay times) is wonderfully captured in this recording."

Artist: KENT, JULIA

Title: Green and Grey

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 324CD

"Made in New York City and inspired by the intersections between the natural world and the human world, Green and Grey continues Julia Kent's solo career as a maker of highly personal music. Using looped and layered cello, electronics, and recordings of natural sounds, she explores in this new instrumental record the melding of the technological and the organic, the patterns and repetitions that exist in nature and are mirrored in human creations, and the complexity and fragility of our relationships with one another and with the natural world. Without collaborators--other than the insect, weather, and wind sounds that create a sort of exoskeleton for the music--she has created an intensely personal landscape that references the way nature, however subverted and endangered by our modern world, still retains its power."

Artist: LARSEN

Title: Cool Cruel Mouth

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 325CD

"Cool Cruel Mouth is Larsen's 9th full length studio album and marks 15 years of activity with a fine collection of textural, cinematic, haunting, nocturnal songs. Written and recorded in 2010. Cool Cruel Mouth finds the band as a 5 piece with the full time addition of lyricist Little Annie 'Anxiety' Bandez as the official voice of Larsen. Also featured on Cool Cruel Mouth is inimitable Baby Dee playing piano on one of the two featured instrumentals as well as on her own composition 'Unheard Of Hope,' one of Larsen's rare covers here in good company of their surprising interpretation of crooner classic 'It Was A Very Good Year'."

Artist: LARSEN & Z'EV

Title: In V.Tro

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 326CD

"Larsen and Z'ev In V.tro is a soundtrack for micro-cinematic images that document the studies on cells of the Istituto di Anatomia Umana Normale (Basic Human Anatomy Institute), between 1935 and1985. Visuals are from a studio by professors Dario Cantino and Antonio Barasa, teachers of these Scientific Institutes. By browsing great quantities of original footage on films kept in the local University with a scientific and reasoned view, Cantino and Barasa wanted to go back over the stages of history and techniques of in vitro cultures and their documented shootings, to pay tribute to the Maestro of anatomical discipline, Professor Giuseppe Levi. Not only professor Levi had the intuition of the great potential of the in vitro studies of cells, using the technique developed by American zoologist Ross G. Harrison, he also enforced his studies on cells with cinema techniques, using single frames taken by optical microscope edited and sped up, obtaining a cinematic footage. These exceptional scientific documents still represent today a useful tool for studies and researches in a lot of medical branches like Cellular Biology, Histology and Microscopic Anatomy."

Artist: KUBISCH, CHRISTINA

Title: Mono Fluido

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 327CD

"Mono Fluido collects two major compositions from Christina Kubisch which, until now, have been unreleased. Extensive liner notes and photographs detail the origins of the work. Heavy drones and deep emotions run through these newly discovered pieces."
"In 1980 I had the possibility to make some professional recordings on an eight track tape in an Italian sound studio for the sound track of the film Liquid Movie by Fabrizio Plessi. Some months after having finished the sound track I listened to the material again and suddenly felt the desire to make a new piece out of the material, which would be free of the limitations of a cinematic sound track. I made several new downmixes of the eight track tape and treated some of the sounds with a speed control device, one of the few tools which I had available in my own studio at that time. The sound sources are flute (alto and bass flute) played by myself, the sounds of swinging plastic tubes in the air, the recordings of the windscreen wiper ('tergicristallo') of my old car, the sampled sounds of glass and of my own breathing. Just pure instrumental sounds and some 'field recordings,' no electronics. The piece is a quiet piece of ambient music, an acoustic landscape, unspectacular and yet intense. I called it 'fluido,' which is the Italian word for liquid or fluid. Then I forgot about it. The tape was in my archive all these years with the remark Mono Fluido on the spine. Only recently I decided to digitize it, despite the mono tag, and I listened to it again. Eventually I thought the piece deserved to be published after almost 30 years. Although mono is kind of a dinosaur in the world of multichannel fiction I like the simplicity and clarity of it and I hope the listener might share this experience." -- Christina Kubisch, December 2010

Artist: KUBISCH, CHRISTINA

Title: Magnetic Flights

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 328CD

"Magnetic Flights is entirely made of electromagnetic field recordings of international airports and inside airplanes. The recordings of this piece were made by Christina Kubisch on her travels in 2007 from and to the airports of Bukarest, Manchester, Chicago, Seoul, Munich, Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfort, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, Pisa, Milan and London. The sounds were not altered electronically nor changed in any other way. The only tool, which was used for a part of it, was a filtering program (DINR). All recordings were made with the help of special sensitive wireless headphones, by which the aboveground and underground electromagnetic fields are detected, amplified and made audible. The headphones are custom made and have been developed by myself and constructed by the engineer Manfred Fox, Berlin. The sounds are much more musical than one could expect. There are complex layers of high and low frequencies, loops of rhythmic sequences, groups of tiny signals, long drones and many things which change constantly and are hard to describe."

Artist: VAN WISSEM, JOZEF

Title: The Joy That Never Ends

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 329CD

"From acclaimed contemporary composer & Lutenis Jozef Van Wissem. Included among these palindromic trance pieces are new compositions are contributions from film maker Jim Jarmusch and vocalist Jeanne Madic. CD version includes a bonus track. Between the CD & LP are split a pair of pieces working in the theme of maternity/paternity. The Joy that Never Ends offers endless cinematic repetition of tortuously minimal beauty in five layered mirror image compositions from the sublime master of the lute, Jozef Van Wissem. Unlike his last album, Ex Patris, Wissem is not alone. Featured here are waves of subtle guitar feedback meandering from the amplifier of filmmaker Jim Jarmusch & vocals from Jeanne Madic."

Artist: VAN WISSEM, JOZEF

Title: The Joy That Never Ends

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $18.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 329LP

LP pressed in an edition of 500.

Artist: WOOLEY/CORSANO/YEH

Title: The Seven Storey Mountain

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 330CD

"Brilliant second album from Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain project. David Grubbs and Paul Lytton have been replaced by Chris Corsano (Sunburned, Bjork, Six Organs et. al) and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core)."
"This second recording of Seven Storey Mountain is what I hoped the series would be, a chance to try to find different ways of creating something over the same basic ideas (tape manipulation, long forms with simple written musical directions, an attempt to reach some sort of musical ecstaticism) with different musicians. The first Seven Storey Mountain featured the odd pairing of British improv legend Paul Lytton and avant-rock icon David Grubbs. This second version is played by a trio that has worked together more regularly in different constellations. Yeh works with Corsano in Paul Flaherty's trio and with me in a trio with Tall Firs drummer Ryan Sawyer. Corsano has also worked with me in a new trio with saxophone iconoclast Evan Parker. There is a different kind of communication here, more organic and slowly moving over the tape material, which has new elements in it as well. Add to that, the beautiful mastering work of Mell Detmer and I think it has turned out as a heavy, dark, and beautifully rich record." -- Nate Wooley, January, 2011.

Artist: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O.

Title: Live As A Troubadour

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 331LP

"First ever live acoustic recordings from The Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO. LP edition limited to 1000 copies. Recorded live in Nagoya. Design by Kawabata Sachiko. Features acoustic versions of fan favorites 'Pink Lady Lemonade' & 'La Novia' among others."

Artist: MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE

Title: Totem Three

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 333CD

"Following the tremendous success that was Totem 2, Important offers you Totem 3. LP pressed in an edition of 1000. This is the final offering before entering the new wave of the failed future from MMOB. Totem 3 journeys from quiet Bardo womb choosing meditations and instrumental mantras to the delusional glee of Kali Yugafied Indian rock. Totem 3 is the most diverse and heartfelt of the Totem Trilogy. A steady pulsating musical mirror prison expressing the atrophy of our 'Modern World' through no-age hallucinations of passionate and unfolding melodies. A blissful mirage filled caravan with no destination pushing onward through a mercurial blue sanded desert between what is and what was. A place where disembodied nomadic djinn join in lament attempting to push through the cell phone interference with a message of no return."

Artist: MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE

Title: Totem Three

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: PIC. DISC

Price: $17.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 333LP

Repressed-- now as a picture disc. "Totem 3 journeys from quiet Bardo womb choosing meditations and instrumental mantras to the delusional glee of Kali Yugafied Indian rock. Totem 3 is the most diverse and heartfelt of the Totem Trilogy. A steady pulsating musical mirror prison expressing the atrophy of our 'Modern World' through no-age hallucinations of passionate and unfolding melodies. A blissful mirage filled caravan with no destination pushing onward through a mercurial blue sanded desert between what is and what was. A place where disembodied nomadic djinn join in lament attempting to push through the cell phone interference with a message of no return."

Artist: TIETCHENS/KOUHEI MATSUNAGA, ASMUS

Title: Split

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $18.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 334LP

"Limited edition split 12" curated by Kouhei Matsunaga. Side A features two new tracks from the legendary German sound artist Asmus Tietchens. Side B features two new pieces from Kouhei Matsunaga. 500 copies. First 100 copies are on color vinyl. Important released some highly praised records with Kouhei Matsunaga including a collaborative CD with Sean Booth (Autechre) and Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic), a split LP with Mika Vainio and a full length CD of his own solo work. The breath and quality of Kouhei's work was apparent across these three releases and his compositions for this split LP serve to create connections between his beat based work and his more abstract soundscapes. Kouhei's most recent solo work was just released by Skam. Asmus Tietchen's contributions to contemporary electronic music is immense. The two pieces making up his side of the record have been sculpted from stochastic sequences of pure sine waves as well as guitar samples given to him by Dirk Serries (Fear Falls Burning) not for the purpose of collaboration but for processing purposes. Sonic events orchestrated by a sonic master."

Artist: BARN OWL & THE INFINITE STRING ENSEMBLE

Title: The Headlands

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 335CD

"CD version housed in a digipak following the immediate sell out of the LP version. Full-length collaboration between Ellen Fullman, Theresa Wong, and Barn Owl produced by The Norman Conquest. Barn Owl's extended drones and Theresa and The Norman Conquest's strings are the perfect accompaniment to Fullman's Long Stringed Instrument; a product of her own invention. This is an album of deep material of a complexly emotional nature. Eternal ragas for the infinite now."

Artist: FULLMAN, ELLEN

Title: Through Glass Panes

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 336CD

"In 1981 Ellen Fullman began developing the Long String Instrument, an installation of dozens of wires fifty feet or more in length, tuned in Just Intonation and 'bowed' with rosin coated fingers. Fullman has developed a unique notation system to choreograph the performer's movements, exploring sonic events that occur at specific nodal point locations along the string-length of the instrument."
"In composing 'Event Locations No. 2,' I set out to focus more strictly than I ever had on detail in the choreography of my notation. Through writing the piece I designed ways to add more specific information in the score. The tuning uses a set of pitches based in the key of A, in combination with Arnold Dreyblatt's tuning system based on F. These two roots generate tones in common but also complex or 'dissonant' tones. I wanted to find a way to incorporate more dissonance into my sound and intentionally worked with beating frequencies in this piece. 'Never Gets Out of Me,' a duet with cellist Theresa Wong, and 'Flowers', a trio recorded with Travis Weller and Henna Cho, are adaptations from 'Stratified Bands: Last Kind Words', originally composed for the Kronos Quartet in the Other Minds Festival. The composition is based on 'Last Kind Words Blues,' a haunting song by Geeshie Wiley recorded in 1930." -- Ellen Fullman.

Artist: RADIGUE, ELIANE

Title: Transamorem - Transmortem

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 337CD

"Transamorem - Transmortem was premiered on March 9, 1974 at The Kitchen in NYC, where the music programmer at the time was Rhys Chatham - this was right before his guitar phase. During this period, Transamorem - Transmortem was presented along with other compositions by Eliane Radigue in a linear mode of listening, although the piece had originally been conceived, during its composition, as a sound installation. Of course, both modes of listening are possible, and each works marvelously in its own way."

Artist: MIMINOKOTO

Title: Hitoyogiri

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 338CD

"Brand new full length from Miminokoto. Highly recommended for fans of Tokyo-Underground, classic era PSF and contemporary Japanese outfits such as LSD March and Suishou No Fune. Featuring members of Acid Mothers Temple, Overhang Party & Che-Shizu. Seven tracks, recorded at Peace Music by Nakamura Souichiro in late 2010, including an amazing cover of the late Jutok Kaneko's (Kosokuya) Milky Light. Get deep into the decadent death doom of Miminokoto."

Artist: BEEQUEEN

Title: Port Out Starboard Home

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 339CD

"Some bands produce a CD every week; by now it seems 'normal' to have three year gaps in releasing records for Beequeen, which is a fresh antidote to the music business of more = more. For Beequeen, like good wine, things mature given more time. Whereas Sandancing (IMPREC 177CD) featured Olga Wallis a guest singer, on this new album she's a fully fledged band member, adding her beautiful voice to Beequeen's off beat songs. Port Out Starboard Home features surreal dream-pop, but always with that unique twist that is Beequeen. The album is loosely based around the theme of 'traveling'. The prophetic opening of 'A While A Way' (how true) transports you into the CD, which equally balances on vocal and instrumental pieces from introspective moments of 'Patience' and the title track to the up-tempo 'Someday Today'. Beequeen displays their wicked sense of humor in 'The Lord is my shepherd'. This new album is again produced by Erik Drost (The Legendary Pink Dots) with the help of Petra Randewijk."

Artist: RIVULETS

Title: We're Fucked

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 340CD

"Important Records is proud to issue the fourth album, second for Important, from Nathan Amundson's Rivulets. With a beautifully authentic emotional depth Nathan's voice is his most compelling instrument, a tool for delivering pure emotion from his heart straight into yours. Representing five years of work and nearly constant touring, this album reflects the intense nature of Rivulets as a three piece. If you haven't seen them on tour this record will come as a revelation. Recorded, appropriately, at the Sacred Heart Music Center, a cathedral built in the late nineteenth century."
"The title is just a phrase that kept popping up in my head as we were recording. It reflects the feeling and atmosphere of the songs in some ways but probably has more to do with my own frustration with the world -- with people and politics and the lack of any meaningful or lasting change. And just being sick of nobody out there saying anything at all. Just this completely vapid cultural/musical landscape. You know, I'm on the fringes anyway; I may as well say what I mean. We're Fucked is not intended as the end of the discussion, but the beginning. It's 'We're fucked. Now what?'" --Nathan Amundson

Artist: BLACKSHAW, JAMES

Title: Holly EP

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $18.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 341LP

"British composer-guitarist James Blackshaw returns with this limited edition 12" EP. The two intimate and introspective pieces collected here were written and recorded during the first three months of 2011, during a break after an intense year of touring and the release of his eighth album All Is Falling. In many ways, these songs more closely resemble his earlier work, with swirling, cyclical acoustic 12-string and nylon string guitar (a first for Blackshaw) being the focal point of the compositions. Charlotte Glasson also contributes some beautifully restrained clarinet, saxophone, flute and violin playing to the proceedings. There are echoes of French Impressionist composers Satie, Debussy and Ravel in the song 'Holly,' while 'Boo, Forever' even sees a nod to the Takoma guitarists which first enthused and inspired him to start fingerpicking a decade ago, but - more than anything - the sound is unmistakably Blackshaw's own and ranks among some of his finest and most beautiful work yet."

Artist: MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE

Title: Twilight Of The Kali Yuga Tours: Live Totems 2009-2011

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: LP

Price: $18.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 342LP

"Master Musicians of Bukkake present a collage of performances from recordings made throughout the Totem tours. Improvisations and live renditions featuring extended versions of music from Totem One, Two and Three. All on glorious vinyl! Limited edition of 1000 copies pressed. Selected, mixed and mastered by Randall Dunn."

Artist: THIRTEENTH ASSEMBLY, THE

Title: Station Direct

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: CD

Price: $14.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 343CD

"Station Direct is the second album from the Thirteenth Assembly, an ensemble featuring four distinguished musician/composers working together as equals to create distinctively eclectic, yet cohesive music. Drawing on years of collaboration, as well as its members' diverse backgrounds in genres including classical, folk, rock, jazz and the avant-garde, this collective ensemble has performed across the United States and Europe since 2007, and released its debut recording (un)sentimental (also on Important Records) in 2009. 'Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, guitarist Mary Halvorson, violist Jessica Pavone and drummer Tomas Fujiwara are among the most exciting new jazz musicians to emerge on the New York scene,' declares the Wall Street Journal's Martin Johnson, 'and it is hard to talk about any one of these players without mentioning the others. Each of these musicians is a masterly soloist, and they all are creating music that is delicate, complex and eclectic.'"

Artist: ELEH

Title: Floating Frequencies/Intuitive Synthesis

Label: IMPORTANT RECORDS

Format: 3CD

Price: $42.00

Catalog #: IMPREC 344CD

"First edition of 1000. This deluxe 3 CD set presents Floating Frequencies/Intuitive Synthesis in its completed three part entirety. Intuitive Synthesis/Floating Frequencies takes full advantage of the low noise floor and clarity provided by the digital medium. Mastered by Eleh specifically for the digital environment. This box is not intended to be a replacement of the analog records but an entirely different experience."

Previous Page Index of Labels Next Page

Artist:	ELECTRIC GHOSTS
Title:	The Electric Ghosts
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 081CD

Artist:	MAJOR STARS
Title:	Syntoptikon
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 089CD

Artist:	ALASEHIR
Title:	Sharing the Sacred
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 101CD

Artist:	ALUMBRADOS
Title:	A Generation Of Vipers
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 102CD

Artist:	YELLOW SWANS & BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL
Title:	Yellow Swans & Birchville Cat Motel
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 117CD

Artist:	XXL
Title:	Spicchiology?
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 130CD

Artist:	LSD MARCH
Title:	Constellation Of Tragedy
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 164CD

Artist:	FRIEL, DAN
Title:	Ghost Town
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 187CD

Artist:	CLUSTER
Title:	Berlin 2007
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 191CD

Artist:	BASS COMMUNION
Title:	Molotov and Haze
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 193CD

Artist:	YEH & PAUL FLAHERTY W/ GREG KELLEY, C. SPENCER
Title:	New York Nuts And Boston Beans
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 195CD

Artist:	MAKOTO & MICHISHITA SHINSUKE, KAWABATA
Title:	Basement Echo
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 196CD

Artist:	ASTRO/HIROSHI HASEGAWA
Title:	The Echo From The Purple Dawn
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 197CD

Artist:	PARKINS, ANDREA
Title:	Faulty (Broken Orbit)
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 199CD

Artist:	CARTER, TOM
Title:	Shots At Infinity 1
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 202CD

Artist:	CONIFER
Title:	Crown Fire
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 209CD

Artist:	TECUMSEH
Title:	Avalanche and Inundation
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 211CD

Artist:	RILES, ZAK
Title:	Zak Riles
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 213CD

Artist:	BAKER, AIDAN
Title:	I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 214CD

Artist:	NADJA/AIDAN BAKER/LEAH BUCKAREFF
Title:	Trinitarian
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 215LP

Artist:	MY CAT IS AN ALIEN/PRAXINOSCOPE
Title:	For The Tears Of Land, Prayers From Outer Space
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	2LP
Price:	$34.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 217LP

Artist:	RISIL
Title:	Non Meters Volume 1
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 218CD

Artist:	NEW MONUMENTS, THE
Title:	The New Monuments
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 219LP

Artist:	BRETHREN OF THE FREE SPIRIT
Title:	The Wolf Shall Also Dwell With The Lamb
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 222CD

Artist:	ZURICH
Title:	Zurich
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	LP
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 224LP

Artist:	HOLY SONS
Title:	Drifters Sympathy
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 225CD

Artist:	STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS & ANGEL
Title:	Strings Of Consciousness & Angel
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 227CD

Artist:	ANAHITA
Title:	Matricaria
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 228CD

Artist:	THIRTEENTH ASSEMBLY, THE
Title:	(Un)sentimental
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 231CD

Artist:	VAN WISSEM, JOZEF
Title:	It Is All That Is Made
Label:	IMPORTANT RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	IMPREC 232CD