New Releases for February 2008

Index of New Releases for February 2008

HAND/EYE

Artist:	STONE BREATH
Title:	A Silver Thread To Weave The Seasons (Expanded)
Label:	HAND/EYE
Format:	2CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	H/E 033CD

"Originally released in 1998, now expanded to two CDs with essential bonus material. The first disc presents the original album, long out-of-print, in all its acid-forest-drone-mantra-folk glory. These songs are of earth & spirit love, sunlight splitting open, threatening clouds, trees & birds that talk, the smell of wet earth & the sting of rain on an upturned face, firebrands scattering columns of sparks into the red twilight. The second disc returns some lost songs to Stone Breath, adds some rare songs from compilation appearances and presents a previously-unreleased track featuring Fit & Limo."

HAPNA (SWEDEN)

Artist:	JARVINEN, ANNA
Title:	Jag Fick Feeling
Label:	HAPNA (SWEDEN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	HAPNA 038CD

This is the debut solo full-length release from Stockholm-based Anna Järvinen, former member of Sweden's Granada from 1998-2004. Granada released three albums and one EP on record labels such as Universal, V2 and Look Left Recordings, and were produced by Björn Olsson and Mattias Glavå, who also heavily contributed to this record. Jag Fick Feeling was recorded in the Kungssten industry area in Gothenburg during a rainy summer and cold winter with members of Dungen and The Works, amongst many others. For this record, Järvinen tried to make music she has always loved, with melodies that she grew up hearing: "...the soundtrack to Brideshead Revisited, The Carpenters, Elton John's darling '70s tunes, Vesa Matti Loiri's interpretations of Eino Leino's poetry, Woody Allen movies, Pentti Saarikoski, nature poetry, drug and alcohol abuse, nostalgia, the Finland of my dreams, falling in love, sorrow, homesickness." As a result, Jag Fick Feeling is full of longing, made with delicate orchestration, flute, vibraphone, piano and autoharp. On top of it all, Anna Järvinen's clear-as-a-bell voice rings with a tone not unlike The Sundays' Harriet Wheeler. Each song is sung in Swedish, but the heart doesn't need any translation.

HITORRI (JAPAN)

Artist:	M, SACHIKO
Title:	Salon de Sachiko
Label:	HITORRI (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	HITORRI 111CD

"Since the late '90s Sachiko M has been stirring up the improvised music scenes in Japan and the West, and gaining an enthusiastic following with her unique sound, consisting entirely of sine waves. This is Sachiko M's first solo album since Bar Sachiko (Improvised Music from Japan, IMJ517), released three and a half years ago. Bar Sachiko was a work made up exclusively of sustained sine wave tones. In contrast, Salon de Sachiko is comprised throughout of short, very thin beeps -- sometimes rhythmic, sometimes interspersed with longish silences -- sent out from two oscillators, much like sparks thrown off by sparklers near one's left and right ears. The album's one track, which is exactly an hour long, was recorded in July 2007."

HYPERDUB (UK)

ILIAN TAPE (GERMANY)

Artist:	FRESCA, MARIA
Title:	Womasushi EP
Label:	ILIAN TAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	ILIAN 003EP

"Maria Fresca is a project by Franco Cinelli and Dario Zenker, which is based on a true live musical experience. Since they met the first time and smoked a couple of blunts, they've thought about working something out together. And here is the result. Spaced, dubbed out kickless journeys through their musical universes, like Timothy Leary's housekeeping woman from the French Alps on rollerblades. A1. 'Womafledtuna' -- where is the kick? The bass drum? Well, if it doesn't show up, don't wait for it, because there won't come any. Dance music without bass drum seems useless to you? If you think so, just listen to that cut really carefully and you won't even recognize that there isn't one. The rhythm is the main theme here. Dubbed hidden sounds under the structure, small Jamaican B-boys telling some of their Kingston pub lyrics about the Agent Orange weed-destroying era by the U.S. in the late '70s, and finally tons of hi-hats and percussion elements send you through waterfalls."

IMMERSE RECORDS (UK)

IMPORTANT RECORDS

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:	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:	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:	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 Jardín 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."

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Artist:	IKONIKA
Title:	Please/Simulacrum
Label:	HYPERDUB (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	HDB 008EP

Artist:	CASTILLO, LEONEL
Title:	El Viaje Del Barrilette RMX EP
Label:	ILIAN TAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	ILIAN 004EP

Artist:	DJUNYA/BORG
Title:	Brahman Dub/Frogman/Kisses
Label:	IMMERSE RECORDS (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.50
Catalog #:	IME 005EP