LP version. USA exclusive cream color vinyl. The Daydream Library Series record label has confirmed Thurston Moore's new full-length album Flow Critical Lucidity, his ninth solo recording. Some of the songs were written and arranged in Europe and The United Kingdom and include lyrical references to their environments and inspired by nature, lucid dreaming, modern dance and Isadora Duncan. The album was arranged at La Becque in Switzerland and recorded at Total Refreshment Studios in London in 2022, and mixed at Hermitage Studios in London with Margo Broom in 2023. Flow Critical Lucidity comes from a lyric in the single "Sans Limites" and the album sleeve cover art features Jamie Nares' "Samurai Walkman" -- a helmet befitted with tuning forks. Jamie Nares (born in Great Britain) is a life-long friend of Thurston Moore from his New York No Wave days and the two have often collaborated in art and music. In 2023, Thurston released two singles: the energetic Isadora Duncan inspired "Isadora" with a music video starring Sky Ferreira. "Hypnogram," which press called "one of the most intensely cerebral cuts Moore has ever released, [in which] he blends the more melodic moments of his former band with the layered, heady flourishes of his bassist Deb Googe's main band, My Bloody Valentine. Emphatically conveying the feeling of dreams, the new material has fans excited for what the American has in store with his next album." In April of 2024, Thurston shared the stirring Earth Day anthem "Rewilding." The musician delivered chilling lines as he ruminated on the removal of the human hand from nature. Moore sang about renewal, and a period for friends of the Earth to sleep and realize a natural way by "coralmorphologically dreaming." The musician said the U.K.'s rewilding movement aspires to reduce human influence on ecosystems. The players on Flow Critical Lucidity: Thurston Moore (vocals, guitar); Deb Googe (bass); Jon Leidecker (electronics); James Sedwards (piano, organ, guitar, glockenspiel); Jem Doulton (percussion); Laetitia Sadier (backing vocals on "Sans Limites").

LP version. Wewantsounds presents the release of BAG's first album since 1973, For Peace and Liberty, recorded in Paris in Dec. 1972 when the musicians had recently arrived from St Louis. BAG only released one album during their existence. This long-lost performance, recorded at Maison de l'ORTF in optimal conditions just a few months previously, was thought lost until recently unearthed from the vaults of INA (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel). Here the group unleashes an incandescent 35-minute set mixing free improvisation and spiritual jazz with funk grooves. Released in partnership with the band and INA, the album features sound remastered from the original tapes, plus a 20-page booklet featuring words by Oliver Lake, Joseph Bowie, and Baikida Carroll plus Bobo Shaw's and Floyd LeFlore's daughters as well as extensive liner notes by BAG scholar Benjamin Looker and previously unseen photos by cult French photographer Philippe Gras. The Black Artist Group (BAG) was founded in St Louis, USA, in 1968 to promote local artists from the burgeoning Black Arts movement, including musicians, playwrights, dancers and poets. The BAG quintet heard here pulled together key musicians from the larger organization, including Oliver Lake on sax, Baikida Carroll, and Floyd LeFlore on trumpet, Joseph Bowie on trombone and Charles 'Bobo' Shaw on drums. The musicians emerged from the organization to become a vital force within the late '60s free jazz revolution. Modelled on the AACM and the Art Ensemble of Chicago with whom they had close ties, this subset of BAG musicians followed in the footsteps of their Chicago colleagues, relocating to Paris in the early '70s on the recommendation of Lester Bowie, Joseph's older brother. Arriving in the French capital in Oct. 1972 the group made an instant impact on its underground music scene. In December of that year, Andre Francis, ORTF's jazz supremo invited them onto his "Jazz sur Scene" radio show, which showcased four groups live over two hours. Arriving onto the stage of the prestigious Studio 104 auditorium of the Maison de la Radio, the group delivered a jaw-dropping 35-minute set that left the audience mesmerized. Only thanks to a chance listening of another concert -- where the BAG live set was buried within -- was the recording unearthed making this historic release possible fifty years on. The release counts as an invaluable document, shedding fresh light on one of the most fascinating groups in modern jazz history.

A Colourful Storm presents Effroyables Jardins, a soundtrack composed by Zbigniew Preisner for Jean Becker's eponymous film. Given limited distribution during its initial release, the soundtrack's luster has only strengthened and it is now considered a lost gem of contemporary chamber composition. An understated triumph of the oeuvre of Preisner, who closely collaborated with Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski and was responsible for the film scores of Dekalog, The Double Life of Véronique, and the Three Colours trilogy. Effroyable Jardins marks Preisner's post-Kieslowski era of solo composition, shifting from devotional harmonies into a beautifully restrained style of neo-Romanticism. It is his second soundtrack for Jean Becker, following Francis Ford Coppola's commission for The Secret Garden, the César-winning Élisa, and Edoardo Ponte's Between Strangers. Its leitmotif -- a delicate, sparse melody for piano and organ, appears only during the opening sequence and, like Preisner's most powerful soundtracks, takes on a life of its own. Compositions for violin, harp and percussion are interspersed with haunting variations on a theme and a masterful use of silence. His music haunts the grieving Julie in Blue, soundtracks Valentine's epiphany in Red, and evokes the sublimity of moments in everyday life.

Black Truffle presents A Song for two Mothers/Occam IX, the first ever solo release from Laetitia Sonami. Born in France in 1957, Sonami studied with Éliane Radigue in Paris before moving to California in 1978 to study electronic music at Mills College. Sonami is perhaps most closely associated with one of her inventions, the Lady's Glove, an arm-length tailored glove fitted with movement sensors allowing the performer fluidly to control digital sound parameters and processing, as well as motors, lights and video playback. Having performed with the Lady's Glove for 25 years, Sonami retired it in 2016, turning her attention to the interface/instrument heard and pictured here, the Spring Sprye. After decades of aversion to documenting her work on recordings, A Song for two Mothers/Occam IX treats listeners to two side-long performances with the Spring Spyre: the very first piece developed for the instrument and the most recent, the two contrasting remarkably in sound palette, energy and form. "A Song for two Mothers" (2023) spins an intricate web of rippling synthetic burbles, rapid sweeps and fizzing textures. Performed in real time with the sensitive and partly uncontrollable Spring Sprye, the music is delicate yet chaotic. Abrupt gestures hover against a backdrop of silence, "devoid of spatial or temporal direction." After several minutes, the sound-world becomes metallic and percussive, tapping and ticking in pointillistic flurries before a wavering harmonic cloud emerges, sprinkled with resonant drips and pops. "Occam IX" is a radically different proposition. At the outset of Sonami's exploration of the Spring Sprye, she asked her former teacher Éliane Radigue to compose a piece for it -- and her: like all of Radigue's work since she ceased working with analogue electronics at the beginning of the 21st century, "Occam IX" is written not only for an instrument but also for a particular performer. These scores are developed verbally, through meetings and conversations between performer and composer; each is grounded in an image (usually kept from listeners, to avoid influencing their experience); all magnify the subtlest acoustic phenomena and require great commitment and patience from the performer. Beginning from a rumbling low tone, the listener is gradually immersed in slowly lapping waves of synthetic tones, eventually thinning out into delicate bell-like pings against a background of white noise. Accompanied by notes from Sonami, her longtime collaborator Paul DeMarinis, and Radigue, and illustrated with scores, photographs and images of the Spring Spyre, A Song for Two Mothers/Occam IX is an essential document celebrating an under-recognized pioneer of electronic music and performance.

crys cole returns to Black Truffle with Making Conversation, her third solo release for the label. After the intimate song-like constructions of Other Meetings (BT 096LP), Making Conversation documents a different facet of cole's work, presenting three rigorously conceptualized commissioned pieces, each of which extend her signature approach to highly amplified small sounds into new directions. The side-long title piece is a stereo version of an eight-channel sound installation exhibited in 2023 at the Tabakalera Art Center in Donostia/San Sebastian, Spain. The piece uses a multitude of instrumental, vocal, concrete and electronic sounds to evoke the soundscapes cole encountered during nocturnal listening session in Bali, Indonesia in 2018 and 2019. In this world of night sounds, she explains, she "observed the complex interplay between amphibian, lizard, bird and insect communication, domestic animals (roosters, dogs), man-made sounds (airplanes, vehicles, conversations and evening activities) and sounds that were difficult to place." Drawing on field recordings as memory aids (but including none in the finished piece), cole's piece uncannily reproduces the spatiality and pacing of environmental sound without attempting strictly to replicate it. While at times it can be difficult to imagine the source of these sounds, at other points they are clearly instrumental or electronic in origin; in its placement and layering, though, the whole assemblage suggests the glorious, unthinking richness of a non-musical sound environment. Suggesting at once the electronic gardens of Rolf Julius and the little instrument expanses of classic AACM, the piece is a brilliant enactment of the Cage-ian drive to "imitate nature in her manner of operation." "Valid ForeverrRrrRRrrr? (pt. 1)" began as cole's contribution to an Issue Project Room commission to realize a score from Alison Knowles and Annea Lockwood's Women's Work, a 1975 collection of text and conceptual scores by women artists and composers. cole's piece begins from Beth Anderson's "Valid for Life," a complex arrangement of the letter R in various typefaces. Accompanied with extensive liner notes, photographic documentation and a download code, Making Conversation is an exciting next step in cole's work, extending her signature concerns in new sonic and conceptual directions.

"Steve Roach's new purely atmospheric statement hovers within a warm and embracing expression of etheric ambience. One Day of Forever pulls back the layers of memory, time and perception to express life's amber-lit emotions, continuing an intimate, mystical-revealing vision within Roach's work. In this one day of forever the meditation on longing, nostalgia, connection, loss, grace and gratitude transmutes from fleeting moments, forming into gentle epiphanies. This album furthers the refined intention within the elemental approach first expressed on his previous 2CD, Reflections in Repose. The pieces began with a minimal collection of instruments leading to emotive sonic choices which paint the impressionistic realm contained in each of the album's five long-form pieces. The core of the release is built around the beguiling sound of the Mellotron (originally an English electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in 1963, but here performed on a new Swedish digital version) and emotional warmth of the Oberheim OB-X8. Steve reflects, 'This music reaches towards the moments between moments, leading to the eternal now. Each day provides the opportunity to connect to a sense and knowing of forever in our own individual ways; it lives within my ears, eyes, heart and soul, nourished by the ineffable and my desire is to embrace each day into forever.' CD in four-panel digipak."

Unequal cycles in search of synchronous experiences: On his new album Pounding, Frank Bretschneider tells of distance, convergence and congruence in a continuous, ever-changing flow of events. What is often regarded as an unquestionable dogma in club music -- the groove -- appears precarious, unstable, and in motion. Pulse and accent are volatile encounters and have to be found again and again for short, delightful moments. Music becomes a constant process of negotiation. In search of new sound spaces, Bretschneider has recently worked a lot with modular synthesizers, both solo, and in collaborations, including the project Beispiel together with Jan Jelinek. Pounding was created using similar means -- conceived in 2020 for the Pochen Biennale in Chemnitz, subsequently developed further and recorded in March and April 2023 on a sample-based modular system. And in fact, Bretschneider is once again exemplarily scanning his own sound material, such as dub effects that listen to them-selves disintegrate; but also the human voice, or more precisely: the stuttering of fragments of speech, far in the distance but omnipresent, like a mysterious narration. Aesthetically, the eleven pieces form part of a series of works with a focus on percussion. Bretschneider has already perfected this approach with albums like Rhythm (2007) and has been shifting the perspective ever since, for ever-new results. Shifting is the basic principle of Pounding. Bretschneider combines elements that are in different aggregate states, changing their relationship to each other and thus ensuring the complex overall movement. He lets one to two-bar loops run against each other and through small manipulations, develops a network of rhythms that creates a hypnotic state in the counterplay of repetition and mutation, between clearly recognizable meter and disorientation. There are comparable approaches in aleatoric music. Bretschneider combines them with sounds and patterns that are reminiscent of step sequencer logic and at the same time go far beyond it. The result is relational techno. Never obvious, always restless and exciting.

Double LP version. The trio of Japanese saxophone legend Akira Sakata with the Scandinavian rhythm section presents already his fifth album! While the trio was on a Japan tour in 2019, Sakata arranged for a handful of special collaborations, with some of Japan's most important artistic figures. Featuring the avantgarde dancer Min Tanaka, the pianist Yuji Takahashi and a heavyweight veteran of Japanese experimental music -- drummer Takeo Moriyama. Moriyama was playing with Sakata in the Yosuke Yamashita Trio and is his unflinching sparring partner on the explosive 2022 Trost duo recording Mitochondria. Japanese saxophonist and improviser Akira Sakata turned 79 in February of 2024, but this singular musician shows no little sign of age. Over the last 15 years or so, as he neared the typical retirement age, he formed a couple of searing working bands that finally earned him a devoted international following despite his crucial role in establishing his homeland as key center for free jazz as a member of the Yosuke Yamashita Trio in the 1970s. Arashi, with Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love and Swedish bassist Johan Berthling, has become his primary touring group, a fiery unit operating with a collective improvisational drive that lifts his white-hot alto saxophone and clarinet playing to new heights and provides the ideal platform for his over-the-top vocal exhortations. While the trio was on a short Japanese tour in 2019, Sakata arranged for a handful of special collaborations, bringing his two younger Scandinavian colleagues face-to-face with some of Japan's most important artistic figures. They performed with Min Tanaka, the singular experimental dancer, who famously improvised with guitarist Derek Bailey and pianist Cecil Taylor, as well as the legendary new music pianist Yuji Takahashi. The concert documented on this phenomenal recording features the third veteran of Japanese experimental music Arashi worked with on that tour, drummer Takeo Moriyama, the third member of the Yamashita trio. As the present recording makes patently clear, Moriyama fit right in. The percussionists melded beautifully, driving the music but also clearing space for one another and forging astonishing feats of interactivity. Rather than canceling one another out or laying it on too thick, they quickly find a method to co-exists, tapping history without the slightest hint of nostalgia. The trio nonchalantly becomes a quartet, absorbing more history, more ideas, and more energy, spitting it back out with greater concentration and focus than ever.

Fully licensed and limited to 500 copies. An acid-folk masterpiece finally revealed. When two worlds collide, here's where the legacy of Tim Hollier begins. His first album was released on United Artists in 1968, and this long overdue reissue is a definitive statement of the master genius. Guest on the opening night of a Beckenham folk club run by his friend David Bowie, Hollier recorded Message To A Harlequin with the assistance of Donovan arranger John Cameron. Hollier was also a regular on London's folk club circuit for several years alongside the likes of Paul Simon, Al Stewart, and Nick Drake. Here's your chance to finally grab his visionary songwriting.

"Six Organs of Admittance extend their annum of unlikely delights -- begun in March '24 with Time is Glass, the first new 6OOA album in four years, and joined in June with the most unlikely awesome collab of '24: Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance, Jinxed by Being -- with the release of Companion Rises (Twig Harper Remix), which expands the zone of disbelief simply by being the third Six Organs-branded release in one year! Also by pushing the boundaries in all the manners that matter -- psychologically, spiritually, philosophically and sonically -- into a new dimensional space. Companion Rises dropped in February 2020. Its new techniques in sound generation called for an aggressive new moment, with heavy Six Organs touring scheduled for the year ahead. As Ben Chasny picked up the pieces following the 'Big Blink,' he had to think of what could have been. By then, Six Organs had moved on -- both Time is Glass and Jinxed by Being were in the works -- but here was a thought: Companion Rises was a record about the weirdness of California. Right then, Twig Harper was touching down in Cali after stints in Baltimore and Chicago. Ben'd been onboard with Twig's shit since the days when Nautical Almanac burst out of Michigan like an engorged, inflamed, screaming blood vessel. When Ben asked him if he would do whatever he wanted, it felt like full circles were colliding when Twig said yeah! Once Twig had measured out the physics of Companion Rises, most of his remix was done up in his van where he, otherwise homeless, was living. In the 'Twig Harper Remix,' the maximal qualities of original Companion Rises DNA are evoked via omission: to recreate the implied construction of Six Organs' spirit realm, Twig isolated source sounds, triggered new data off those sounds, then edited the new readouts. To the naked ear, it sounds to be a highly stimulating new example in modern electronic minimal classical music. The assiduous Organs-head will no doubt find a few Easter eggs here, but mostly, this is new dimensional space made of the not-so-old one. Companion Rises (Twig Harper Remix) is like two journeys in one, juxtaposing Twig's new-to-Cali musings with Six Organs' original borne-and-bread wanderings."

"Jill Fraser is a composer and electronic music pioneer, active since the 1970s. Her credits are many and varied -- yet her new album, Earthly Pleasures, takes a unique place among all her work: a luminous suite of electroacoustic music examining the bones of hymnal harmony, speculating on how the spirit of songs might be interpreted after people are gone. Playing electronic music was what Jill's seen for herself almost from the beginning. Switched on Bach was an early influence, blowing up her understanding of what she was learning on the piano. So was Silver Apples of the Moon, evolving recognizable aspects of classical music into a fantastic elsewhere. She studied at CalArts, working with Morton Subotnick (her mentor) and taking master classes with John Cage and Lou Harrison, among others. She composed film scores with Jack Nitzsche and played her synthesizer at punk shows opening for Minutemen and Henry Rollins. When her daughter Sofia was playing with Wand, Jill contributed electronics to one of the songs on Laughing Matter. Earthly Pleasures stands out from all these things Jill's done. Balancing composition, technology and introspection, it is a fluent expression that also considers mortality and loss; not simply our own lives and the lives of those we love, but the mortality of the very age we live in, the intelligence of our time. For Earthly Pleasures' composition, Jill began by researching revival hymns of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (with an instinctive bias towards those composed by women). Her workstation combines both the newest technology and some of the oldest analog electronic sound sources, a combo involving her original 1978 Serge Modular, a new Prism Modular and Ableton Push 3. The sound world of Earthly Pleasures accesses a seeming infinity of dimensional sound in which the human hand is always keenly felt, no matter how deep the space. It's a breathtakingly transcendent album that suggests inclusion within a diversity of genres: ambient, electronic, new age, modern classical, gospel, healing, sacred. It is the work of a veteran composer and synth master at the peak of her powers, meditating upon the detritus of memory, the passage of all consciousness, and the rebirth of meaning in a new era."

2024 repress! 180-gram black vinyl. The astonishing sessions that went light years beyond "free jazz" improvisation to create a music of deeply felt, explosive and gentle gesture made from sound itself without reference to previous notions of melody or harmony are now reissued on 180 gram vinyl with Sun Ra's original, self-created cover art. Recorded by Richard Alderson on April 20, 1965, this set of tunes finds Sun Ra breaking ground by using synthesizers and having the Arkestra musicians double on percussion. Remastered.

"Nicholas Lens, a Belgian composer of contemporary music, is known particularly for his operas. One of his earliest works is the music drama Flamma Flamma: The Fire Requiem, the first part of his trilogy The Accacha Chronicles (Flamma Flamma/Terra Terra/Amor Aeternus). The fusion of non-European musical cultures and Western classical music has been described as highly unique. Flamma Flamma is conspicuous for its unusual instrumentation - apart from chamber orchestra, mixed choir and six soloists, there are also a Japanese koto, an extensive percussion set-up and three natural voices. The work is a composition beyond all conventions. Unlike almost any other requiem, Flamma Flamma not only deals with grief and pain, but also with the idea that death is a natural part of life. Tribute is paid to the afterlife without glorifying it, the positive aspects of fire -- such as light and warmth -- are praised and all human emotions in the face of death are addressed, across all philosophical and even musical boundaries. Flamma Flamma has been used numerous times for the most diverse art events and hundreds of dance and ballet creations around the world. For instance, it was performed live at the opening of the Adelaide Festival with more than 1,000 performers in front of an audience of 30,000 people. After its first release on CD in 1994, Flamma Flamma moved up various international charts and quickly went from being an insiders' tip to a huge success, with even a videoclip showing on MTV and Arte. Tracks such as 'Sumus Vicinae,' 'Corpus Inimici' or the title track 'Flamma Flamma' have even become cult classics and made it to some alternative dance floors from Paris to NY and Tokyo. Flamma Flamma by Nicholas Lens will now be re-released on an elaborately designed double vinyl in gatefold cover to mark the 30th anniversary. The composer himself artistically supervised the re-mastering."

"Claudio Simonetti's Goblin celebrates a new prog rock version of this famous soundtrack. The terrifying and atmospheric experience of Dario Argento's films comes from the merging of gorgeously crafted visuals with a soul tingling auditory experience. Once heard, Goblin's scores are never quite forgotten. Suspiria is no exception, characterized by its synth heavy sound, carillons, yells and sighs, Suspiria is perhaps Argento's most celebrated film and a classic of horror subgenre in its own right. A surreal masterpiece from Dario Argento with a pounding score from cult prog rockers Goblin, Suspiria will leave you battered and breathless! Deluxe limited purple vinyl plus insert. 499 copies."

If there's one musician in the last decade that you may hear in wildly diverse musical contexts it is Belgian electric bassist and sound sculptor Farida Amadou. Not only can you enjoy the unerringly skillful command she has over her instrument but also the transformative power to reinterpret and expand her material in spontaneous and unconventional ways. Amadou is self-taught and radically aware of her idiosyncratic relationship with the bass guitar. She neither emulates the virtuosos of the electric bass, nor does she use the instrument as a pure sound generator that merely emits humming and feedback. She takes a completely independent and unique approach. This freedom enables her to create an overwhelming wall of sound, as well as simple, clear structures that are rhythmically concise yielding a wide associative space that lands somewhere between free jazz and noise. Her work is often concentrated and circular where motifs are established and developed outward. It is an organic sound in the literal sense of the word, constantly in motion, yet resting in itself. The three solo pieces she has recorded for Week-End Records emphasize her impressive ability to ignite ecstasy from tranquility, to fan out a whole range of moods from a few potent ideas. These attributes make her a musician who enriches every group she plays in, because she is present with her assured and crystallized sound but refrains from being domineering. However, her strengths are even more apparent when she plays solo: the contrasts between the dark, heavy clouds of sound and the rhythmic passages, and the transitions between movements which always sound "logical" yet surprising. Her new solo album, When It Rains It Pours presents Amadou as an inspired improviser who follows her musical intuition and acumen to create a truly unique soundworld. Rarely has improvised music sounded so succinct and compelling.

"When Paul Simon first heard the Zulu accordion flourish that would open his multi-platinum album Graceland, he told Joe Boyd that it seemed to proclaim, 'You haven't heard this before!' Yet the 'world music' boom of the 1980s that Simon's album helped to usher in had roots that extended back through the decades and across continents: tango on the eve of World War I, Latin dance across the '30s, '40s and '50s, reggae in the '70s, pre-War samba and pre-Beatles bossa nova, Eastern European ensembles filling capitalist concert halls during the Cold War, Indian ragas changing rock and roll in the 1960s, gypsy music inspiring classical composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. As far back as 1853, the music that had intrigued Simon had captivated London during a Zulu choir's extended run there. (Only Charles Dickens dissented.) Like that of other far-flung musical traditions sweeping the globe, the story of Zulu music and its relationship to neighbors, invaders, appropriators, and admirers -- from brutal 19th century massacres to 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' -- is more controversial, colorful, and complex than many imagine. Joe Boyd was part of a small group of label heads and journalists who chose 'world music' as their marketing slogan in the 1980s. Already the legendary producer of artists including Pink Floyd, The Incredible String Band, Soft Machine, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Toots and the Maytals, and many others, Boyd had little idea how fast and how wide those simple words would spread, or how far back the history went. He would soon learn, producing pathbreaking music in Cuba, Brazil, Bulgaria, Mali, Hungary, Spain, and India under his label Hannibal Records. Following the success of his book White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s, a self-published smash hit, Boyd now sets out to explore the stories behind the world music he had helped to popularize. He has traveled across continents and interviewed dozens of musicians, producers, and academics, and spent years reading, listening, and writing. The one-of-a-kind result is And The Roots of Rhythm Remain: a riveting, symphonic, globetrotting tour of the music that shapes the world. Hardcover. 900 pages."

"The Light Is Leaving Us All is one of the C93 albums that haunts me the most. I was OverMoon and Blessed to work on it with the astonishing aeonic beautiful talents of Reinier Van Houdt, Alasdair Roberts, Ossian Brown, Rita Knuistingh Neven, Andrew Liles, Aloma Ruiz Boada, Michael York, Davide Pepe, Ania Goszczyńska, and Giulio Di Mauro. Once again, the voice in the mask of one of my favorite authors, and longest colleagues, Thomas Ligotti, also joined C93. The album's title was given to me in a dream, in which I saw the souls of humans pouring out of their eyes, and returning to God. On The Light Is Leaving Us All, I brought together my studies of specific Akkadian and Biblical Hebrew texts that I was translating with my friends and teachers Professor Martin Worthington, Ola Wikander, and Professor Seth Sanders, and also channeled my fascinations with The Red Barn Murder of 1827 and The Witchcraft Murders of Bella in Hagley Wood, and Charles Walton in Lower Quinton in 1945. All this time, the birds were sweetly singing, the kettle was on, the milkmaid was singing, and the policeman was dead -- all this while the birds were softly singing, and The Light Was Leaving Us All. Remastered by The Bricoleur at Bladud Flies!, and with the original artwork refreshed and reborn by Rob Hopeye, this 12" vinyl picture-disc comes in a full-color die-cut sleeve, which is printed on both the outside and inside. This is one of the first four reissues of the entire back catalogue of C93 on picture-disc and standard vinyl, in the lead-up to the publication of my autobiography at the end of 2025, whilst I also work on many other recording, publishing, and painting projects! Each release in the picture-disc vinyl reissues series is limited to 1,000 copies, and the titles will not be repressed as picture-discs once they have sold out." -- David Tibet

2024 repress. The mighty Scientist meets Jamaica's original Crazy Mad Professor in a dub showdown pitching their best musical shots against each other. The connection between these two great mixers/producers is that they both learned the trade and also cut their musical teeth working with the master himself King Tubby. Scientist (b. Overton Brownie, 1960, Jamaica) and the Crazy Mad Professor (not to be confused with the London-based Mad Professor, Neil Frazer, Ariwa Sounds) initially both helped King Tubby (b. Osbourne Ruddock) wind his transformers for his main business of electrical repairs. They both moved over to engineering and mixing when the need arose due to the heavy demands on Tubby's time and studio became too great. Scientist and The Crazy Mad Professor built their careers on these formative years of training, as they say if you learn from the best, your knowledge can only hold you in good stead and it certainly has with both these talents. Jamaican Recordings have pitched both against each other on some great rhythms recorded at the legendary Channel 1 Studios and then mixed them at King Tubby's Studio, as was often the case when rhythms needed voicing/versioning for that classic dub cut.

"The music of New York trio Weak Signal (Mike Bones, guitar and voice; Sasha Vine, electric bass, violin, and voice; Tran, drums and voice) is a masterclass in simplicity and economy but these aspects aren't present for their own didactic sake. Rather, their art is world-building in the most essential of ways, subtly spinning out in an enveloping, rich haze from a clear, architectural core. There are sections of knife-like collective squall and dialogic drift that glance at improvised music; while not strictly pop, the tunes are incredibly catchy with wry, keenly memorable lyrics that easily stick in one's craw. With associations including Endless Boogie, Sian Alice Group, and Soldiers of Fortune, Weak Signal formed in 2017. They waxed two full lengths in the period leading up to the pandemic, and during that unsettling year -- plus without many gigs to speak of, the trio kept busy and unleashed a handful of choice digital EPs and a couple of split 7" singles. Fine is their fourth full-length to date, its tight ten-song program fleshed out with sonic icing from keyboardist Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) and guitarists Doug Shaw (Gang Gang Dance; White Magic) and Cass McCombs. Fine is an unhurried jewel in the trio's discography, partly the result of the time it took to write. Even if the vibe and structure is familiar -- and one can easily pick out their stripped-down jangle, like the lovechild of the Rain Parade and Lungfish -- there's a clear evolution over the course of their records, each one more finely-tuned and comfortable. Fine was recorded by Jon Erickson and mixed by Rupert Clervaux, whose expertise has been called in for records by Spiritualized and pianist Matthew Shipp, among others, keeping just enough of the SoundCloud lo-fi aesthetic to ensure it's a proper Weak Signal record."

"The Viceroys were a Jamaican reggae vocal group formed in the late 1960s. They were one of the numerous vocal trios that emerged during the rocksteady and early reggae eras in Jamaica. The group's lineup consisted of Wesley Tinglin, Neville Ingram, and Daniel Bernard. They gained popularity with their harmonious vocal style and catchy melodies. One of their most famous songs is 'Heart Made of Stone,' which became a hit in Jamaica and internationally. They worked with various producers, including Derrick Morgan, Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd, and Lee 'Scratch' Perry, recording songs that reflected the social and political issues of the time. While the original lineup of the Viceroys disbanded in the 1970s, Wesley Tinglin continued to perform under the Viceroys name with different members. Their music continues to be celebrated among reggae enthusiasts for its soulful harmonies and uplifting messages."

Double LP version. The Brand New Heavies revisit their seminal 1994 album Brother Sister for its 30 year anniversary. Replete with groove-driven, horn-splashed, hand-clapping funk, Brother Sister saw the band dig deep into their jazz grooves, with N'Dea Davenport in full flight as diva/lead vocalist. Featuring some of their best loved songs including the chart hits "Midnight at the Oasis," "Dream on Dreamer," and "Spend Some Time," Brother Sister debuted in the UK charts at #4 and went onto be a hit worldwide, the band rightly claiming their crown as acid jazz heavyweights, delivering knock-out punch after punch on this album. Freshly remastered, the 2LP vinyl/18-track edition features three bonus tracks, and is pressed onto one black and one white vinyl, and is signed by Andrew and Simon from the band. The remastered 2CD/31-track edition (LMS 1725112) features rarities and classic remixes from the likes of David Morales, Roger Sanchez, and a newly commissioned rework of "Back To Love" by Luke Mornay. And also includes two newly uncovered demos, "Pocketful of Bass" and an alternate demo of "Put Yourself In My Shoes," with vocals by N'dea Davenport.

"On the cover: Keiji Haino. Inside: Shamica Ruddock, Seppuku Pistols, Jabu, Gregory TS Walker, Viktar Siama?ka. The Primer: John Butcher. Invisible Jukebox: Wolfgang Voigt. Epiphanies: Mark Webber on Spaceman 3. The Inner Sleeve: Céline Gillain on Leonard Cohen. Global Ear: Nicosia. Unlimited Editions: Nashazphone, and in the reviews sections: Wendy Eisenberg, Ivo Perelman, Yellow Swans, Meshell Ndegeocello, Tristwch Y Fenywod, Byard Lancaster, Zdeněk Li?ka, Dr John, Supernormal, Heroines Of Sound, and much more."

2024 repress; double LP version. Comes in a gatefold sleeve. 1968. France, Incorporated. The entire building was being consumed by flames and was slowly collapsing. Nothing would survive. Out of the rubble of the old world jumped the children of Marx and Coca-Cola, ripping the white and blue stripes off the French flag. Yet, the socialist revolution was more mythic than real and music did nothing to mitigate people's behavior. It was time for innovation. While singles from The Stones, The Who, The Kinks and MC5 provided an incendiary soundtrack for the revolution, it was Black Americans who truly blew the world from its foundations in the '60s. Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler, and Archie Shepp left behind the jazz of their fathers' generation, liberating the notes, trashing the structures, diving headfirst into furious improvisations, inventing a new land without boundaries -- neither spiritual nor political. Free jazz endowed the saxophone with the power to destroy the established order. In 1969, the Art Ensemble Of Chicago arrived at the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier in Paris and a new fuse was lit. Their multi-instrumentalism made use of a varied multiplicity of "little instruments" (including bicycle bells, wind chimes, steel drums, vibraphone and djembe: they left no stone unturned), which they employed according to their inspirations. The group's stage appearance shocked as well. They wore boubous (traditional African robes) and war paint to venerate the power of their free, hypnotic music, directly linked to their African roots. They were predestined to meet up with the Saravah record label (founded in 1965 by Pierre Barouh), already at the vanguard of as-yet unnamed world music. Brigitte Fontaine's album Comme à la radio, recorded in 1970 after a series of concerts at the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, substantiated the union of this heiress to the poetic and politically-committed chanson française with the Art Ensemble Of Chicago's voodoo jazz and the Arab tradition perpetuated by her companion Areski Belkacem. A UFO had landed on the turntables of French teens, who were discovering underground culture via publications like Actuel, Libération, Charlie Hebdo, Rock & Folk and a vigorous free press. For 20 year-olds in the early 1970s, making music was a political act; they grabbed a microphone to advance a cause, not to become rock stars. While the price of oil skyrocketed and Pompidou went overboard building horrible concrete apartment buildings for public housing and "adapting the city for the automobile," some took refuge in the countryside. Alternative communities formed all across France, giving rise to groups (or rather, collectives) with open-minded structures, cheerfully mixing music, theatrical happenings and agitprop, along with a good dose of acid. Projects bordering on the ridiculous were often tolerated (progressive rock was one of the primary banalities the era produced), while those who followed the route paved by spiritual jazz often ended up elsewhere. The vehemence (if not grandiloquence) of their declarations was carried and transcended by the finesse and brilliance of their musicianship. Simultaneously spatial, pastoral and tribal, the tracks in this collection represent an ideal intersection between a sort of psychedelic legacy, the space jazz of Sun Ra and Afro Beat (then being created by Fela in Lagos): they are as much incantations (often driven by the spoken-word), war cries or poems as they are polemics. 1978. Giscard was at the helm. Punk and disco were busily decapitating the last remaining hippies. Peoples' blood was still boiling, but it was already too late. The war was over, lost without anyone noticing. Nevertheless, people still tilted at windmills or talked tough in dead-end struggles; a dream is not so far from a nightmare. We knew that an enchanted era had ended, the hope for a brighter future was now behind us and that we would leave behind nothing for our children but a few records. Indeed, ghosts may still crackle from our speakers, as the 45 spins and Brigitte Fontaine asks Areski: "Hé mais je pense à un truc, on ne va pas mourir dans une minute?" (trans. "Hey, I was just thinking, aren't we going to die in a minute?"). Features artists such as Alfred Panou & Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Brigitte Fontaine & Areski Belkacem, Atarpop 73 & Le Collectif Le Temps Des Cerises, RK Nagati, Frédéric Rufin & Raphaël Lecomte, François Tusques, Mahjun (Mouvement Anarcho Héroïque des Joyeux Utopistes Nébuleux), Full Moon Ensemble, Baroque Jazz Trio, Michel Roques, Chêne Noir, and Beatrice Arnac.

LP version. Among the figureheads of French disco, Bernard Fèvre, better known as Black Devil, probably had the shortest-lived career but was the most brilliant and unique mind of them all. Although his first album Disco Club, released in 1978, went unnoticed at first, it has since become a must-have, a collector's item which has led a lot of listeners to further investigate into his extensive work. From rock music to music hall, sound illustration to disco, pop to reggae, through film music and advertising, Bernard Fèvre has experimented with so many genres that it has been hard not to lose track. One of his best albums even has such an unambivalent title as The Strange World of Bernard Fèvre. Please make your way to a cosmic dimension, verging on the unknown.

"Reeling in the weeks -- which felt like years -- after my first Current 93 album, I had started on the difficult second C93 album, Dogs Blood Rising. Having been asked to appear on both Top Of The Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test 93 times in the same week after the release of Nature Unveiled, I realized that God was telling me that I had hit on a winning formula of Christian eschatology and Apocalyptic Christian texts over a Soundscape as cool as flies, but that I was missing the vital ingredient of a Simon & Garfunkel song. Dogs Blood Rising -- which I described to myself in a vision as an album which hoped, wished, and made bad trips sound like good trips -- was essentially the mirror night of Nature Unveiled, although only half of it was recorded at Roundhouse Studios. Squats were calling, and 8-track studios were all I was able to afford. Dogs Blood Rising didn't chart, except in my night sweats. Listening to it now, it makes me as restless as I was then, staring beyond the windows there, watching and praying for something, someone, anything, anyone. Remastered by The Bricoleur at Bladud Flies!, and with the original artwork refreshed and reborn by Rob Hopeye, this 12" vinyl picture-disc comes in a full-color die-cut sleeve, which is printed on both the outside and inside. This is one of the first four reissues of the entire back catalogue of C93 on picture-disc and standard vinyl, in the lead-up to the publication of my autobiography at the end of 2025, whilst I also work on many other recording, publishing, and painting projects. Each release in the picture-disc vinyl reissues series is limited to 1,000 copies, and the titles will not be repressed as picture-discs once they have sold out." -- David Tibet

"Swastikas For Noddy is possibly, probably, maybe, or not, a seminal and sidereal masterpiece, the inspiration for 93,000 Masks On Nothings, none of which were groovy. For me, well, it was my first hallucinatory pick-nick, and the skies turned pixie red for it. I was given the album's title during an acid trip: seeing Noddy crucified in the sky, I asked God what the most inappropriate birthday present for Noddy might be. God answered me from the acid whirlwind: "Swastikas!" I recorded her in a run-down basement studio in West London, whilst I was simultaneously recording Imperium. On playing the finished album to certain well-chosen friends, I was told by them that I had 'destroyed Current 93,' and that it sounded like 'demented children on drugs singing Simon & Garfunkel in a playground.' I then knew the album sounded exactly as I had dreamed it to sound, and as God had intended it to sound. Had I ditched the earlier darkness, and skipped into flowered fields? Remastered by The Bricoleur at Bladud Flies!, and with the original artwork refreshed and reborn by Rob Hopeye, this 12" vinyl picture-disc comes in a full-color die-cut sleeve, which is printed on both the outside and inside. This is one of the first four reissues of the entire back catalogue of C93 on picture-disc and standard vinyl, in the lead-up to the publication of my autobiography at the end of 2025, whilst I also work on many other recording, publishing, and painting projects. Each release in the picture-disc vinyl reissues series is limited to 1,000 copies, and the titles will not be repressed as picture-discs once they have sold out." --David Tibet

Possibly one of the first crossover jazz-rock album ever, Out of Sight and Sound was released in 1967 by ABC Records. The album was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder and produced by Bob Thiele. Featuring a stellar line up comprised of young talented guitar player Larry Coryell (soon to be a proficient solo artist on Vanguard) the record was a true expression of the musicians' lifestyle and artist heritage. With drummer Bob Moses (Compost, Steve Kuhn) on board, second guitarist Columbus "Chip" Baker, saxophonist Jim Pepper (a native American who's debut on Herbie Mann's Embryo is still regarded as a masterpiece) and bassist Chris Hills, Free Spirits were possible the first fusion group around.

To celebrate its 25th release of its regular series, long-standing Minimood unleashes a 2x12" monster assembling Tobias Oliver, Die Wilde Jagd, AU Cheek, Ray Okpara, Bluetrain, JS, and Anton Kubikov. The sleeve has been designed by Milano based sculptor Tillmann Lauterbach and every record also contains a limited art print of his as a mighty extra.

2024 restock. 180 gram double vinyl reissue of this 1989 collection; housed in a gatefold sleeve with extensive liner notes by Stephen Calt and Mack McCormick. "Representing the oldest style captured on record, Henry Thomas was a singular and important figure. Coming out of Texas at the turn of the century, he left behind a total of 23 issued selections that represent one of the richest contributions to our musical culture. Playing panpipes and guitar with a thrusting drive that evokes a country dance, he gives us a glimpse of black music as it existed late in the 19th century."

LP version. Posthumous collaboration between Michael Chapman and Andrew Tuttle. Release includes Michael Chapman's original recordings, unfinished and never released (Another Fish). Sleeve notes by Andru Chapman. When Michael Chapman passed away in September of 2021, at the age of 80, he did so -- as he spent much of his life -- as both a pioneer and a legend. A veteran of the British blues/folk/jazz scene, Chapman emerged in 1966 and continued working throughout his life, always pushing the boundaries of his creations while collaborating with a slew of similarly heralded musicians along the way: Bert Jansch, Mick Ronson, Elton John, Thurston Moore, Steve Gunn. It's the latter of those -- Brooklyn guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn -- who Chapman flourished alongside in recent years, the two collaborating on 50 and True North, two of Chapman's final and finest records. It was through that friendship that Chapman's music found Andrew Tuttle, the Brisbane-based multi-instrumentalist who has toured Australia several times alongside Gunn. In the aftermath of Chapman's passing, his partner Andru discovered Tuttle's Fleeting Adventure LP, describing it as "one of the albums that kept me sane during that first brutal winter on my own." The pair met in Australia shortly after, and before Andru had even made it back home to the north of England, Tuttle had begun working on the recordings she shared with him at that time. Those recordings were part of a project Chapman was working on at the time of his death, called Another Fish -- what would have been a companion piece to his previously-released LP, simply called Fish. Though there was little intention in terms of how to finalize the project, Tuttle spent valuable time with those recordings. What materialized, eventually -- with time, care, and diligent attention -- is Another Tide, Another Fish, something both unusual and completely distinctive. Another Tide is centered around Tuttle's own work, which shaped all seven of Michael's songs and ideas into new songs of their own, and the second disc which simply incorporates the recordings that Michael left behind. What's left is indeed a hybrid: part remix album, part cover album, both a solo work and a collaboration, of sorts. Inspired by Chapman's original ideas and with new track titles directly referencing the numbered but otherwise untitled source material, Tuttle adds his own flashes of colors throughout, including editing, sampling, MIDI transposing and signal processing that twists these songs into beautiful new shapes.

2024 repress. Be With Records present the first ever official reissue of Kimiko Kasai with Herbie Hancock's Butterfly, originally released in 1979. The positively sublime and very rare Butterfly LP, recorded in Tokyo in 1979 by Japanese songstress Kimiko Kasai and jazz legend Herbie Hancock. Due to its super-rare status as a Japan-only release, this exquisite collection of covers never got the recognition it deserved at the time, despite incredibly inspired performances from Kimiko, Herbie, and the supremely talented musicians assembled for the project. From heavenly drummer Alphonse Mouzon and renowned organist Webster Lewis to bassist Paul Jackson, reedman Bennie Maupin, and the master percussionist Bill Summers, the legendary performers crafted amazingly good vocal versions of Herbie/Headhunters jazz-funk. Unsurprisingly, it has been heavily in demand for many years. The LP opens with Kimiko's highly desirable version of "I Thought It Was You", an elegant take on Herbie's own anthem. Other superb re-workings include the delicately soulful "Butterfly", jazzy groover "Sunlight", the smooth and sexy "Tell Me A Bedtime Story", and the beautiful ballads "Maiden Voyage" and "Harvest Time". A wonderful example of perfectly understated and masterful jazz-funk soul fusion that shouldn't be missed, the set closes with a jaw-dropping version of Stevie Wonder's "As". This lovingly curated reissue enables a long overdue reappraisal of this hitherto unavailable masterpiece. The stunning artwork which adorned the original jacket -- complete with obi strip and sumptuous four-page folded insert -- has been faithfully restored. Mastered by Simon Francis, and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

"Back with another selection from the Don, one of Digikiller's favorite artists. This one is the only tune he voiced for Bullwackie's, and it is of course killer. Only ever released on a compilation, now on 45 for the first time backed with dub of the rhythm, well-loved from the Love Joy's tune 'Studio Man.'"

"New twelve inch of vintage Wackie's on City Line. The A-side features two of the best Wackie's deep roots tunes previously only released on compilation, which have long needed single release. Stranger Cole's somber 'Capture Land' about the reality of squatting in the ghetto, followed by Wanachi's instrumental cut of the brilliant rhythm you might know from Azul's 'Black Rose.' The B-side features a really unique previously unreleased tune from one Moon Dread. Operatic, semi-acoustic and haunting, if you like early Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus, this tune offers a maybe less spiritual and more theatrical but still compelling take in that vein from about a decade later in the late 1970s. Comes in new Wackie's company sleeve."

2024 repress. LP version. "Through the years and the shape-shifts of different albums, players and songs, the music of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy has proven to be an experience of sharing: Bonny sharing the songs with musicians for a new experience; Bonny sharing the record with you. What do you think? The Letting Go is an overwhelming undertaking. As mentioned, there are strings -- lovely charts that do so much more than just trace chord changes up and down the neck. Arrangements by Ryder McNair and Nico Muhly are threaded throughout the record, augmenting a simple quintet of players to provide a sixth sense. The deceptive nature of his band is on display from the top. 'Filthy' Jim White is known far and wide for his resource behind the drum kit and he proves it song after song, with sensitivity that provokes dynamic variety from skins, an acoustic depth to the room. Paul Oldham's bass is a feeling accompaniment to Bonny's guitar, played with brotherly clairvoyance and constancy. Young Emmett Kelly's clean electric guitar lines roam within the web and suddenly shine, are blues and folk and r'n'b in shifting turn, guilelessly tactic and soulfully expressive. And up front with Bonny is the bewitching Dawn McCarthy of Faun Fables. Her vocal flights on those records can hardly prepare one for the intimacy and empathy of her harmonies and other voices on The Letting Go."

LP version. A sanctuary of adoration, creation and imagination, duo White Hills' lair in Brooklyn is also the nerve center of their record label Heads on Fire Industries. It's the site where the final mixes of Beyond This Fiction took shape. For nearly two decades, White Hills have been blowing minds with their sonic alchemy: a unique mix of neo-psychedelia, art rock, and post-punk -- at once original and recognizable. Their cult reputation emblazoned in celluloid following their performance in Jim Jarmusch's sultry vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), the duo has toured vigorously since their inception. With a vast catalog that astounds and a relentless punk ethos, time seems to energize the duo, making them increasingly daring and prolific. Founding member Dave W, whose signature other-worldly guitar sorcery defines the White Hills sound, grabs his Les Paul to record a melody lingering in his head from last night's dream before it escapes. Outside, the sound of passing sirens, honking horns and bits of conversation remind you that you're in the middle of New York, a city so flush with rock legacy and artistic innovation it would take lifetimes to drink it all in. Committed to a vocation marked by extremes, doubt, struggle and moments of ecstasy, Dave and Ego Sensation Sensation (drums/bass/vocals) continue this torrid affair with music bearing their latest fruit Beyond This Fiction. Inspired by the ideas of Joseph Campbell, the writer/philosopher known for the book The Power of Myth (1988), the album explores the idea of "riding between opposites" -- forging one's own path unrestrained by the dualistic constraints of society. Recorded with Martin Bisi, known for his iconic NYC sound developed through his work with no-wave titans Sonic Youth, Swans, and Lydia Lunch, Beyond This Fiction sees Dave W (guitar/vocals/synths) and Ego Sensation (drums/bass/vocals) orchestrating their distinct guitar heavy meditations into songs with a stronger focus on vocals than previous albums. The album harnesses the seductive accessibility of 2015's Walks For Motorists while evoking the tempestuous soul of the band's seminal H-p1 (2011). Notorious shapeshifters, White Hills make Beyond This Fiction a familiar surprise. Back in the lair, Dave draws eyes on his hands in preparation for the day's video shoot. Ego reaches in the closet pulling out the red velvet jacket she wears on the cover of Beyond This Fiction where she stands in a NYC alley holding a glowing orb.