LP version.

Reprinted. "In response to the arguably self-righteous pronouncements made in the 1990s as to what jazz is and isn't, Julius Hemphill (1938?1995) spoke up as he had done throughout his career. 'Well, you often hear people nowadays talking about the tradition, tradition, tradition. But they have tunnel vision in this tradition. Because tradition in African- American music is wide as all outdoors.' This collection of music, this celebration of artistic collaborations that engaged Julius Hemphill throughout his life, adds much to what we know of his creativity in exploring the implications in that wide space. His work, done in what was not much more than twenty-five years, illuminated so many byways of that protean tradition, created in America against the direst of odds. Equally vital, Julius claimed, with great passion, his space to be expressive. He worked inward as much as he looked outward, in his artistic creativity and cultural engagements. This box set contains musical compositions and performances that have come to light from the Julius Hemphill Archive at the Fales Library of New York University. These performances present thirty-five Hemphill compositions culled from close to 180 audio and visual documents of his work. Twenty-five of these works did not receive a commercial recording in his lifetime. Also represented in this box set are ensemble contexts Julius formed which did not receive substantial, or in some cases, any public documentation. These performances put Julius's improvisational work as a saxophonist and flutist to the fore, from solo to quintet contexts. (The one exception being Disc 4, where we hear pieces Julius wrote for others to interpret.) Equally important, these performances deepen our experience of Julius's long associations in artistic collaboration." --Marty Ehrlich (from the liner notes)

The milestone of French electronic music, 25th anniversary edition. Originally released in 1996. Only available on physical format -- no digital release. Remastered version of the classic album Pansoul by French legends Philippe Zdar and Etienne de Crécy, aka Motorbass. 2x12" in a gatefold sleeve.

"... the starting point for the French dance movement, and therefore one of that decade's most important records. Yet the spaces its 10 tracks inhabit are far darker than anything Daft Punk or Air have achieved." --Uncut

Robert Ashley's eL/Aficionado is a group of scenes from the life of an "agent". The scenes are a kind of "debriefing" to a jury of Interrogators, in which the Interrogators (chorus) challenge the Agent (soloist) in various forms of musical dialogue. The mood of the opera owes much to our fascination with espionage and with the character of those people who lead double lives. The opera was performed many times between 1987 and 1993, and Lovely Music released a recording of the opera in 1994 (LCD 1004CD). This new studio recording features the cast of the 2021 production (October 21-23 at Roulette, Brooklyn), with mezzo soprano, Kayleigh Butcher, taking over the role formerly inhabited by baritone Thomas Buckner. Recorded at Robert Ashley's studio in July 2021. Orchestration by Robert Ashley and Tom Hamilton. Recorded and mixed by Tom Hamilton. Produced by Tom Hamilton and Mimi Johnson. Personnel/Credits: Music and Libretto by Robert Ashley; Kayleigh Butcher - The Agent; Brian McCorkle - Interrogator No. 1; Bonnie Lander - Interrogator No. 2; Paul Pinto - Interrogator No. 3.

"As labyrinthine as a Robbe-Grillet novel, as pithy as a Pinter play, eL/Aficionado comprises a series of debriefing sessions between a secret agent and his three interrogators. For 70 minutes the work sustains an atmosphere of uneasy calm brilliantly: misty, microtonal electronics provide a sometimes barely audible backdrop to the vocal parts. But don't confuse this with ambient; Ashley's music requires your full attention to appreciate the subtle timbres of his unique sound world... This is another riveting work by one of the world's leading composers of experimental opera." --Chris Blackford, The Wire (1995)

"Enigmatic, cryptic, wonderfully mysterious, eL/ Aficionado has a story line and narrative structure, as do Ashley's previous operas. Though the characters hail from a parallel universe, familiar and alien. The music is austere, simple, even minimalistic, yet utterly compelling. The New York Times was dead-on in proclaiming Ashley 'opera's James Joyce.'" --Dean Suzuki, Wired, 1995

Nanocluster Vol 1 is an album with some serious pedigree. It sees Immersion (aka Malka Spigel and Colin Newman of influential groups Minimal Compact and Wire, respectively) collaborating with some of the finest left field artists of our era: Tarwater, Laetitia Sadier, Ulrich Schnauss, and Scanner. The project was born out of a Brighton based club night, also called Nanocluster, run by Spigel and Newman alongside writer, broadcaster and DJ Graham Duff, and promoter Andy Rossiter. The club features a range of influential and cutting-edge music acts. But the unique aspect of the evenings is that each show climaxes with a one-off collaboration between Immersion and the headliners.

Immersion and Tarwater: The German duo of Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram have created an impressive body of work. The opening instrumental "Ripples" is a gentle breathe of optimism, all purring tones and sun dazzled synths. Meanwhile, "Mrs. Wood" is a dubby psychedelic shuffle, Lippok's vocal cool and assured over a fat bass line and sky bound eastern melodics.

Immersion and Laetitia Sadier: An original and distinctive presence in contemporary music, Sadier made her name with the inimitable Stereolab, but she's also created several impressive solo works. The instrumental "Unclustered" sees Sadier's spidery guitar weaving through Immersion's lush web of synths drones. The following "Uncensored" has a subtle melodic tug with a classic Spigel guitar line underpinning Sadier's sweet yet worldly wise vocal. "Riding the Wave" is another feel good song, swapping between Newman's plaintive vocal, and Spigel's vocal and Sadier's backing vocals.

Immersion & Ulrich Schnauss: A highly respected solo artist, as well as being a member of Tangerine Dream, Schnauss' skill with electronics is legendary. The opening "Remember Those Days On The Road" skips along on a rimshot rhythm with Spigel's honeyed vocal telling a tale of life on tour. "Skylarks" opens with a lattice of arpeggios before a gently nagging guitar enters and everything takes a turn for the sublime. "So Much Green" is constantly spiraling urban-kosmisch, with Spigel's plangent bass anchoring the celestial sounds.

Immersion & Scanner: Scanner -- aka Robin Rimbaud -- is one of the most prolific and diverse artists currently working in contemporary music. "Cataliz" is the album's moodiest moment. With its serpentine synth drones it sounds like the soundtrack to a mysterious thriller. The rich pulsing "Metrosphere" recalls Immersion's early work whilst adding another layer of grainy uncertainty. The closing "The Mundane and the Profound" is a gentle and touching end to a unique collection of songs.

Nanocluster Vol 1 is a testament to a remarkable synergy between a diverse assembly of strongly individual talents.

As one chapter closes, another opens. Following the passing of group member J.Derwort in 2019, Hanyo van Oosterom's legacy work brings about the next evolution of the Chi project: Son of Chi. AI-25 sees subtle developments in the sound and expansion of tonal vocabulary, whilst retaining the organic instrumentation and rapturous dreamtime narratives. Flourishes of piano float elegantly with poise, and long-drawn flutes breathe life into the shifting landscape. Shadows play in the thick vegetal overgrowth; the air is heavy with the scent of age-old evocations. Speakers drift in-and-out of undulating reverie, forgotten transmissions from the repository of consciousness. Against the wide backdrop of the harsh and wild unknown, a feeling of peace resides within. Night and day gradually collapse into one another, as loops of lapping textures glisten quietly with mystical beauty.

LP version. The new album by electronica producer Ulrich Schnauss and the Engineers guitarist Mark Peters Destiny Waiving is released via Bureau B. Hailing from Kiel in North Germany, it's now 20 years since the electronica prodigy Ulrich Schnauss released his debut album. His second, A Strangely Isolated Place cemented his reputation as both a pioneer and an artist who routinely creates inspirational music that is adored by many. As a full-time member of Tangerine Dream since 2014, his lifelong passion for their work inspired a creative resurgence for the band, resulting in their most successful new album for over 30 years, 2017's Quantum Gate. Liverpool born guitarist (and founder of the dream pop outfit Engineers) Mark Peters shared a similar musical path, exploring ambient textures and effect laden songwriting via a series of blissful albums for the band. In 2017 he released his first solo album, Innerland which was enthusiastically received by BBC6 music and later included in Rough Trade's top ten best albums of 2018. Destiny Waiving completes a collaborative trilogy that began with 2011's Underrated Silence (BB 094CD/LP) and followed by 2013's Tomorrow Is Another Day (BB 148CD/LP) (Schnauss also became a full-time member of Engineers at this time). Initial sessions began at Ulrich's East London home studio in early 2017 and final mixes were completed there in late 2020. Despite its extended conception, most tracks were completed during 2017, in part informed by improvisational sets in London, Dublin and St James' Church in Birmingham. Despite these exercises in exploration, Destiny Waiving is perhaps the most focused and concise collection of all three releases. Ranging in tone from precognitive foreboding to soaring optimism, the album delicately hones a particular atmosphere that is unmistakable in their work. While track titles such as "The Supposed Middle Class" acutely display a concern for society at large, compositions and performances reveal a great deal more light and shade. This inherent balance is a key facet of the duo's chemistry, signposted by the titles of "Chiaroscuro" and "Clair-Obscur" and the shifting moods within the tracks. For every rushing, upward sweep ("Hindsight Is 20/20", "Circular Time"), contemplative countering is evident in tracks such as "Words Can Be Dismissed" and "So Far", "The Moment".

LP version. "Outer-national dance discourses, that strive for no country and obey to no flag: when Düsseldorf based producer, Stefan Schwander creates music as Harmonious Thelonious, highly percussive rhythms, dissonances and melodic twists tango chatoyant virtuosic. Since 2008 he releases music, that unites Detroit techno districts, widescreen minimalistic structures and African rhythm patterns into a wide dynamic scale. All eight musical objects collected on Instrumentals! document a chapter in Harmonious Thelonious's work, that left the noisy background drones behind in favor for a signature sound full of echoes of ancient rituals and ecstatic ceremonies. Eight growing outlaw music studies crammed with living, deeply haunting entities. They all came to life in different cities like Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, London or Paris, first published on labels like Asafa, Disk, The Trilogy Tapes, or Versatile. United under one roof, they unfold their magical groove symbolism, notable hypnotic harmony and agitating rhythm archetypes in a total overpowering coalition. Tunes like 'Beiläufige Muziek' or 'Yusuf' embark with a new breed of psychic leftfield Motor City techno, perfect for an electric drive on a multicultural utopian future highway. In contrast, tracks like 'Abel', 'Ayranman', 'Apakapa', or 'Halb Ding' perform tricky snake dances enlarged with Ghanaian highlife tones, Senegalese guitar folk and manic serpentine Moroccan flute wizardry. Intense buzzing voodoo music, driven by swinging bass pulses, sequencing looniness, moving up somewhere on a polyrhythmic horizon between Occident and Orient, end-to-end danceable, thoroughly transcending space and time." --Michael Leuffen

Kamana is a multiformat release inspired by and channeling the culture and traditions of the Aeta, an indigenous group from the Zambales region in the Philippines. One of the oldest inhabitants of the region the Aetas are also some of the most fascinating and ancient nomadic and hunter gathering cultures. The release goes from the realms of the real to the imaginary, from transcription to syncretism, from concrete to abstract. An (un)real sonic exorcism filled with ancestral frequencies, haunted ghosts and other animistic spirits roaming the Pinatubo forests. The release features a series of materials released in different formats from the field recording digital only release, an LP and CD release to a special 7" vinyl featuring an interview with a bat hunter. Also includes download with additional material.

"Kamana is a long due homage to the Aeta community that hosted me a few years back, fascinated by the endurance of these people and their connection to their land, devastated by the eruption of the Pinatubo volcano in 1991, they continued to go back to their ancestral lands surviving on basic agriculture and hunting bats and wild pigs. Living with them for weeks, I managed to capture some essential field recordings and sounds that form and compose the basis for this release, from the more reprocessed and interpreted LP release to the pure field recording documentation of the digital release. It is meant to be accessible to all and provide a window to the livelihoods of these unique communities. For this reason, this release serves as both an archival document and a syncretic one, trying to channel memories and feelings of living in these jungles whilst listening to their stories as well as witnessing their lifestyles." --Carlos Casas, 2021

LP version. Residing in Rio de Janeiro, Vasconcelos Sentimento is a self-taught composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist. A mosaic of lo-fi breaks, cosmic ambient jazz and wonky chromatic funk, the eccentric Brazilian DIY wizard's debut album Furto beautifully pieces together a huge range of seemingly disparate sonic elements. Calling himself an "amateur euphoric sound researcher", he has no formal training in either music theory or production, and it's simply by following his ear that has led him to creating his debut album for Far Out Recordings. It was his fascination with his fellow countryman, the enigmatic, psychedelic '70s folk artist Jose Mauro, that led the young Vasconcelos Sentimento (real name Guilherme Esteves) to first make contact with Far Out. Coincidentally living in the same region as Mauro, Sentimento managed to track him down and put label boss Joe Davis in touch, after Davis had spent years of what felt like hopeless searching for the man many assumed dead. When Joe and the FarOut team heard Guilhermes' own music, there was a sense of shock. "It was unlike anything we'd heard before, but it also sounded curiously at home on Far Out. Like it had taken little pieces of different releases from the catalog, and all the music from the '60s onwards that influences everything we do, and recreated all that magic in such an exciting new way." Indeed, Sentimento is not afraid to admit what he himself sees as acts of theft. (Furto = Theft in Portuguese). But while the debate surrounding the ethics of sampling is a never ending one, Sentimento's music -- while it does contain the odd sample, including an interview with Joe Davis himself, "One For The Masta Digga" -- steals in an entirely different way. His creative process involves an intensive period, in which he'll listen to just one artist or song over and over, for days and weeks on end. Then he'll head to his rudimentary bedroom studio, which, as he puts it, is "built for speed", hit record and "blurt" whatever comes out. "I never spend more than a day working on any one song idea"... Picasso once said "lesser artists borrow; great artists steal." And it's through this process of Furto that Vasconcelos Sentimento has somewhat ironically cultivated a sound that is unmistakably his own.

"Don't hold me to it, but by my count this the sixth LP we have done with the splendid Brighton-based musician named Joseph Allred. Initially known as a master of stringed instruments, Joseph has continuously expanded his musical arsenal. When asked about basics regarding Branches & Leaves, he wrote, 'I played harmonium, piano, guitars, glockenspiel, banjo, tambourine, bass drum, and clarinet on this album and did all the vocals myself. I'm glad I got to collaborate with some friends and would like to have done so more, but the pandemic made that impossible. Recorded at the end of 2019 and in the first few months of 2020 in Overton County, Tennessee and Boston.' The ten songs on Branches & Leaves are originals, apart from two traditional tunes, 'When the World's on Fire,' and 'Can't Feel at Home,' which Allred first heard performed by the Carter Family. And while it if difficult to attach too specific a tag to this wonderfully varied LP, words like 'Southern,' 'gnostic,' 'rural' and 'haunted' keep floating into my head. Not always at the same time, but enough to think I might use them to point in the material's general direction. The mix of harmonium and Allred's vocal delivery gives some of songs the sonic qualities of a spiritual, even if the lyrics are not similarly disposed. Joseph's work is always very personal and idiosyncratic, so I am hesitant to make too many statements about it. Other than to say the way he weaves all these threads into the textures of American Primitive guitar music is amazing to hear. Branches & Leaves may be one of the more plain-spoken albums in Joseph Allred's canon, but like all his music, the songs have many layers of sound and meaning that will unfold themselves for your pleasure for a long while to come. Beautiful stuff." --Byron Coley, 2021

Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records bring to you for your listening pleasure Nudity Is God's Creation. A retrospective release of recordings dating from 2005 to 2010 of orgasmic interstellar mayhem. Reissued and for the first time available domestically in the USA In 2004, a commune named Nudity, formed by four travelers from the astral plane, appeared in Olympia, Washington. The founding members were Dave Harvey (guitar) and Jon Quitty Quittner (bass, though Josh Haynes of the mighty guitar fuzz scorchers Feral Ohms plays bass on the majority of the tracks featured here), both of whom were former guitarists of Tight Bros From Way Back When and Eryn Ross (drums) from Growling. A couple of self-distributed CDrs and a 12" on Discourage were a visual akin to colored liquid sloshing around on a transparency machine and were a pure drip feed for psych/kraut and Jap rock fiends around the world as Julian Cope and Terrascope raved about them. Alas for whatever reason no full-length LP arrived from the original line-up -- something that at last has been rectified as now all these tracks have been brought together (along with some unreleased gems and a couple of live bonus download tracks). The sonic ear candy contained within the four sides of vinyl presented here go from Detroit fuzz blazing face melters to acid trippin' head swirling raga's via The Flower Travelin' Band and Hawkwind. Nudity were the masters and for those that missed out the first time this double album was released -- don't make the same mistake a second time. Terrascope gushed about Nudity: "This is seriously fucking good; one of those quite literally extra-ordinary LPs that come along every once in a while which you just know instinctively are going to be dug out and played, sniffed and caressed for years."

LP version. "Roy Montgomery, a pioneer of the NZ underground, believes there is always new sonic terrain to investigate. His latest series of albums for Grapefruit marks forty years of rigorous exploration in which he's managed to navigate disparate genres, scenes, and atmospheres, always at the forefront of experimental independent music. To commemorate, Grapefruit will be releasing four new Montgomery albums in 2021, which can be purchased individually or via subscription. The third release of the series, Rhymes Of Chance, is the darkest entry of the four. Songs sound particularly spacious and minimal, with two tracks centering forlorn melodies around trusty collaborator Emma Johnston's singing and two others sung by Montgomery himself. While Side A presents the six-part 'Rhymes Of Chance' suite, Side B's 'Aspiratory' holds a clue to Montgomery's approach on this record; a floating dirge stretches time, much in the manner Mark Hollis (to whom the song is dedicated) approached music."

Brazilian-American power trio São Paulo Underground (Rob Mazurek, Mauricio Takara, Guilherme Granado) align their chakras with Tenerife electronic pranksters Tupperwear (Mladen Kurajica, Daniel Garcia) for an anything goes EP session of tropical jazz, Chicago post rock, and general head scratching psych chants. Recorded live in 2016 in a disused kerosene tank in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands after a week-long residency. Now recompiled by the Keroxen label and presented here in its ripest form, certified ready for human consumption. Each member plays multiple roles in creating Saturno Mágico's unique organic evolving sound. Mazurek plays cornet and modular synths; Takara's on drums, cavaquinho and electronics, whilst Granado plays keyboards, synthesizers, and sampler. Tupperwear add to the organic flow with Kurajica on various synths and keyboards whilst Garcia excels on electronics, live sampling, guitar and voices. Another unique document from the Keroxen Label, exponential Island music and insular collaborations spilled out onto the world -- so much more to come, blink it and you'll miss. Recorded Live November 9th, 2016 by Daniel Badal. Mixing and master by Daniel García. Artwork by Evan Crankshaw.

"Mikey Dread was a Jamaican singer who played an important role in the popularization of the reggae during the 1970s. His second album, Dread At The Controls, was releases in 1979 and can be seen as a crucial album in the reggae world. Some of the most superb rhythms he recorded for this album, with the help of musicians like Robbie Shakespeare, Ranchie McLean, and Earl 'Bagga' Walker. With Dread and some other fine studio professionals behind the controls in the studio he recorded some of his best-known songs. The fantastic sound and great atmospheres showing the best side of the fantastic music Mikey Dread recorded. Mikey Dread began recording in the early 70s and worked together with a lot of different artists from the reggae scene."

2021 repress. Subtitled: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads And Dirges 1968-1974. Originally released 2009. 2LP version. "Deluxe gatefold jacket containing extensive and detailed liner notes and annotation by Egon, rare photos and other ephemera." Artists: Top Drawer, Sensational Saints, East Of Underground, D. R. Hooker, Shin Jung Hyun & The Men feat. Jang Hyun, T. Zchiew & The Johnny, The Strangers, Damon, Ellison, Morly Grey, Shadrack Chameleon, Ofege, Ana Y Jaime, Kourosh Yaghmaei, Baby Grandmothers.

Sonor Music Editions present a reissue of Sandro Brugnolini's Utopia, originally released in 1972 on Gemelli label. From the glorious Sermi catalog, a renomated Italian Library label that released, between late '60s and early '70s, some among the most sought-after and insane records of the whole library/soundtrack genre. Sandro Brugnolini's masterpiece Utopia, originally pressed on a ridiculous run, and released on a beautiful tip-on sleeve reproducing painter Michel Seuphor's abstract art. The first official release after the recent maestro's passing, conceived with the great arrangements of Giorgio Carnini at the Hammond and piano, and the direction of maestro Franco Tamponi. A brilliant and inspired jazz-funk and lounge jazz session with amazing sounds, driven by both dreamy and underground moods, avant-garde jazz refined orchestrations and gorgeous grooves. Edition of 800.

"If your brain has a shortlist of bands that instantly evoke New Wave, Suburban Lawns deserve a slot right next to the likes of Devo, Talking Heads and the B-52's. After putting out two singles on their own Suburban Industrial imprint, the Lawns signed to I.R.S. Records and released their debut LP in 1981. While the band gained cult status thanks in part to a Jonathan Demme-produced music video which aired on Saturday Night Live, their self-titled album would sadly be the five-piece's only full-length statement. Suburban Lawns' asymmetrical aesthetic is personified by co-vocalist Su Tissue, whose mesmerizing stage persona was at once childlike and terrifying. Her unique style embodies the awkward/arty female singer of the Reagan era, while the group's male vocals -- courtesy of Frankie Ennui, Vex Billingsgate and John McBurney -- maintain the satirical themes of Southern California's postwar mirage of limitless sprawl. Suburban Lawns' catchiness can be attributed to their drum-tight performance and taut songwriting. Listen to the vocal trade-offs on 'Anything,' which could have easily come out on any purely punk label from LA at the time, while Tissue's deadpan delivery on 'Janitor' glides into the best art-warble this side of Lene Lovich, broaching the possibility of nuclear annihilation with a murmured 'Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom.' From a West Coast scene dominated by 7-inch singles and EPs, the Suburban Lawns' lone LP remains in a class with precious few. It's not surprising that they found acceptance in the Hollywood punk scene, despite their Long Beach roots, and would influence other bands such as Minutemen. This is not a disc that will get parked in your collection hoping to get pulled once in a while; this is a record you will play."

"Faust: As the Bureau B label prepares to issue a box set of the kosmische music legends' foundational early 1970s albums, Daniel Spicer tracks down both current factions of the group and talks to key members Jean-Hervé Péron, Hans Joachim Irmler and Zappi Diermaier. Mary Lou Williams: Alexander Hawkins assesses the legacy of the US jazz pianist and composer whose life and music traversed the swing era and the birth of black avant garde. Black Dice: Marc Masters meets the US noise rock unit as they release their first album in a decade. Invisible Jukebox: Ellen Fullman x Theresa Wong: The drone music duo cue up The Wire's mystery record selection."

LP version. Housed in heavy 350gsm sleeve with holographic sticker. WRWTFWW Records announce the official reissue of Roland Bocquet's highly sought-after solo album, Paradia. Originally released in 1977 on the legendary Cobra label, Paradia is the first solo album by Roland Bocquet, keyboard player for cult French band Catharsis. The (mostly) instrumental album is a wonderful oddball adventure blending cozy ambient, euro-folk, synth escapades, Latin fusion with a French touch, gentle bossa, a tiny bit of minimalist chanson, and a heavy dose of je-ne sais-quoi. The result is soothing, mysterious in the sweetest ways, and fully atmospheric: a must have for fans of Pascal Comelade, Mort Garson, Dominique Guiot, ZNR, Vladimir Cosma, movie soundtracks, library music, and unclassifiable gems. It's hard to describe, but it's lovely to experience! Paradia, Paradia, Paradiaaaaaaaa... Sourced from the original masters.

2021 restock; LP version. 180 gram vinyl; includes download. Cugate Classics presents a reissue of the 2001 release Works For Choir by Arvo Pärt, one of the most important and influential composers of our time. Arvo Pärt (born 1935 in Paide, Estonia) doesn't need to be introduced to anyone who has the slightest interest in classical music, and his audience reaches far beyond the regular attendants of symphony halls. After first serial compositions, "Credo" (1968) was a turning point in Pärt's life and work, being the first piece carrying a religious title and expressing a creative crisis that Pärt answered by lesser compositions and studying medieval and Renaissance music in search for a new musical language. In 1976, Pärt returned with "Für Alina" and introduced his new (and self-developed) style that should become his trademark sound which made him the famous and honored composer he is now: the so-called tintinnabuli. In 1984, after the Estonian composer and his family emigrated from the USSR and settled in Germany, the album Tabula Rasa opened the next important chapter in PÄRT's career: the ever continuing close relation to Manfred Eicher and his ECM label where many of the composer's works have been released since. Works For Choir presents several compositions for choir from the period from 1989 to 1991, recorded in Vilnius with the award winning Vilnius Municipal Choir Jauna Muzika under the artistic direction of Vaclovas Augustinas. The Vilnius Municipal Choir Jauna Muzika choir was founded in 1989 by the conductor and composer Remigijus Merkelys and long-time director Algimantas Gurevičius and has since won several prizes, among others six Grand Prix in 16 international choral competitions around the world, and in 1993 it was awarded with the highest prize, the Grand Prix Europeo, in a competition organized by the International Federation of Choral Music. Remastered by Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.

LP version.

"The 12th full-length by Pacific Northwest artist Liz Harris aka Grouper is a collection of songs spanning fifteen years. She characterizes Shade as an album about respite, and the coast, poetically and literally. How one frames themselves in a landscape, how in turn it frames themselves; memories and experiences carried forward mapping a connection to place -- 'an ode to blue / what lives in shade.' Songs touch on loss, flaws, hiding places, love. Deep connections to the Bay Area, and the North Coast, with its unique moods of solitude, beauty, and isolation -- a place described and transformed by the chaos and power of rivermouth, wild maritime storms, columns of mist that rise up unexpectedly on the road at night. Portions were recorded on Mount Tamalpais during a self-made residency years back, other pieces made longer ago in Portland, while the rest were tracked during more recent sessions in Astoria. Throughout, Harris threads a hidden radiant language of voice, disquiet, and guitar, framed by open space and the sense of being far away -- 'Echoing a lighthouse, burying the faults of being human / Into things that we project upon the sky at night.'"

Over a squalling mess of improvised guitar and sax, a twisted, almost broken female vocal cries out to "Exu", the gatekeeper of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé. This is the "Afro-punk" sound of Metá Metá -- vocalist Juçara Marçal, saxophonist Thiago França and guitarist Kiko Dinucci -- a trio of Sao Paulo's most sought-after musicians, struggling to survive the 21st century sonic schizophrenia of their home city Sao Paulo. Metá Metá's sophomore album and debut for Mais Um, MetaL MetaL, launches itself from the ancient chants of the orixás into a dirty brew of psychedelic samba, distorted jazz and Afro-punk. The band are all followers of candomblé yet Thiago is eager to point out that they are not using the orixás to preach certain beliefs but to provide a framework within which they tell their stories. On MetaL MetaL they mix these spiritual and rhythmic foundations with influences ranging from Afrobeat to Afrosambas, punk rock to be-bop to create chaotic, life-affirming music that explodes with the rage of The Stooges and Sonic Youth, the spirituality of John Coltrane and Sun Ra and the wild, avant-garde instrumentation of contemporary experimental jazz outfits such as Melt Yourself Down and Polar Bear. The story of Metá Metá begins with Juçara Marçal in 1999. She was traveling Brazil researching indigenous and African-influenced music with her band A Barca. The same year she met Kiko Dinucci, just as he was discovering Candomblé. Juçara subsequently recorded four albums of repertoire influenced by her research but it wasn't until 2006 that she and Kiko went into the studio together to recorded Padê, a gorgeous acoustic album evoking a wide range of African influenced music and religions. In 2007, the duo asked saxophonist Thiago França to guest perform at a show of theirs and from the first rehearsal they knew that a very special union had been born and went on to give a riotous first performance. The trio's eponymous first album was released in 2011, now followed by MetaL MetaL, whose addition of Marcelo Cabral on bass and Sergio Machado on drums gloriously showcases a more driving, electrified sound.

Two-track 12" with "In Motion" backed by "Don't Play" featuring Ava.

"Drummer Whit Dickey, bassist William Parker, and pianist Matthew Shipp present a wondrous collective creation, their first new studio recording since Shipp's classic 1992 trio debut, Circular Temple. This is also their first assembly since their work together in the revered David S. Ware Quartet. 'Everything is melody.' --Whit Dickey on the mantra of the music. In the late 1980s/early '90s, pianist Matthew Shipp and drummer Whit Dickey were young musicians taking part in the cultural ferment happening on New York City's Lower East Side, a place where free jazz, avant-rock and all manner of creative arts and political causes were colliding and combining to further the area's legacy of progressive action. William Parker -- although just two years older than Dickey -- had been part of that progressive action since the mid-70s, and was already a world traveler. As Shipp has noted on numerous occasions, a key aim in his moving to NYC was to make music with Parker. The sound and sensibility of that vintage East Village milieu informed Shipp's very first trio album, the striking Circular Temple. Although the three have worked together in important configurations in the decades since (vitally, in the revered David S. Ware Quartet), they are now releasing their first trio studio album together since that original classic: Village Mothership, its title in homage to the rich environment that fed the artistic development of these artists. This brand new work together re-ignites this trio's profound creative pulse, with 30 years of devotion to the music since then clearly evident. 'We created this album in the moment as a trio,' Dickey explains. 'The atmosphere of this session was warm and fun, and it was a deep, wondrous experience with the three of us. To me, everything is melody. And the melodies manifest out of the mantra of our playing, the rhythms radiating multi-directionally out of those melodic vibrations. Mystical stuff was happening.' Both formats feature extensive liner notes by Steven Joerg & vintage photographs by Sylvia Plachy, then staff photographer at the Village Voice."

2021 repress. "Steve Roach is one of the defining American artists of new age music, perpetually on a quest for silence and the suspension of time in his music. Structures From Silence is his third album originally released in 1984, and is his first purely textural album, with a smooth, dark, gentle atmospheres unlike any of his other albums. 'Full of purring drones and high notes that shimmer and fade. Like a desert mirage, these structures hover forever at the horizon, an oasis from the din surrounding it' --From Pitchfork's 'Best Ambient Albums Of All Time'. 'Steve Roach's Structures From Silence remains one of the most important ambient albums ever crafted. It isn't as high profile as similarly poised records from Brian Eno, but its enduring influence has been unmistakably visible in the three decades since its release.' --FACT Magazine. Remastered from the original tapes, this is the first vinyl reissue of the album since its initial release in 1984."

"Saitana's debut Baby Don't Go in 1976 saw him return to the producer of the Beaters first album, Ray Nkwe, whose JAS Pride label was undergoing a mid-70s boom. In contrast with the mod sensibilities of the early Beaters, Saitana came out of the gate with a completely new look to suit the times, sporting an impressive Afro, an embroidered dashiki and an amicable grin on the album's cover. A mix of soul, folk, blues and rock the debut from Saitana is not to be missed. Recently mentioned by Trevor Noah (The Daily Show) as one of the albums that influenced him as a youth. Taken from the original reels."

2021 restock. One of the strangest and most enigmatic groups in the history of rock n' roll, Les Rallizes Denudes, also known as Hadaka no Rallizes or Hadaka no Rarizu, were a Japanese experimental rock band that is often cited as a pioneering force of the noise rock movement. The story of the band is as strange and difficult as the music they made and although much of the tale is shrouded in mystery, everything apparently begins around Kyoto's radical anti-establishment communes of the late 1960s, where androgynous frontman Takashi Mizutani formed the group in November 1967 while attending Kyoto University. Hard facts are in thin supply and the band's name employs complex punning that essentially equates to "Fucked Up and Naked" in Japanese, a slang reference to being high on drugs. Inspired by the Velvet Underground and other groups employing prominent, overamplified guitar, the band's music was typically based on repetitive rhythmic patterns bolstered by Mizutani's heavily distorted lead guitar, though the poor sound quality of early demos apparently turned Mizutani away from studio recordings, rendering much of their output in the form of live bootlegs, supplanted by the occasional leaked studio demo. Early performances were given as accompaniment to avant-garde theater groups, though the group was soon deemed too loud to be a mere accompaniment, and membership fluctuated frequently, with Mizutani being the only constant, though he retreated from public view following the 1970 Red Army hijacking of Japan Airlines flight 351, with the assistance of original Rallizes bass player, Moriaki Wakabayashi, who subsequently fled to North Korea; the band continued to sporadically record and perform under various guises until 1997. The two versions of There's No Heaven Like Hell, presented here, was recorded on April 1, 1975 at Rallizes House in Fussa, a small town to the west of Tokyo, joining Mizutani with keyboardist/guitarist Taisuke Morishita's experimental group Be, originally known as Yellow. The first version takes the form of an epic slow drone, featuring Mizutani on acid guitar, backed only by Morishita's pulsating synthesizer lines; the second version is in full marathon mode, an hour-long dirge that sees the spacey duo joined by drummer Shunichiro Shoda and a plodding bassist in the latter portion.

Be With Records present a reissue of Ian Carr's Nucleus' Roots, originally released on Vertigo in 1973. From the wild cover to the iconic breakbeats, Roots is thick, funky-prog jazz-rock heaven. Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. Working together with producer Fritz Fryer and engineer Roger Wake, the seven compositions by Carr, Brian Smith and Dave MacRae that make up Roots flirt with perfection, and Nucleus at that time made up of the cream of 1970s UK jazz with Brian Smith on tenor saxophones and flutes, Dave MacRae on piano and electric piano, Jocelyn Pitchen on guitar, Roger Sutton on bass, both Clive Thacker and Aureo De Souza on drums and percussion, Joy Yates delivering the vocals and of course Carr on trumpet. The title track is a low-slung, doped-out heist-funk. It was sampled by Madlib for Lootpack and Quasimoto's "Loop Digga". The soothing vocal fusion delight of "Images" follows. Meticulously constructed, with gorgeous flute work from Brian Smith, with Joy Yates' silky vocals and Dave MacRae's Rhodes never sounding better. The cool, driving "Caliban" closes out the first side. Originally the third movement in a four-part commission to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday it stands up on its own, all robust rhythms and blended brass. Keyboard color and Carr's trumpet are splashed across the funk drums and basslines (and there's even some bamboo flute). Side two opens with the short, thrilling samba of "Wapatiti". Next up, "Capricorn" forms a smoothed-out, jazzy constellation. Mellow and dreamy, its twinkling percussion and languid horns slowly build the vibe before head-nod drums and a killer bassline enter the fray. With a distinct heaviness that Black Sabbath would've envied, "Odokamona" is a venomous slice of riff-soaked jazz metal, elevated by Carr's wah-wah horns. The album closes with MacRae's exceptionally cosmic "Southern Roots And Celebration". Very much in conversation with Weather Report, it opens as a languorous, spiritual jazz of chiming keys and serene guitar that turns slowly, gorgeously into a mid-paced, brass-laced banger. Keith Davis's cover art for Roots is an acid-tinged airbrush dystopian/utopian living-room party scene. Remastered by Simon Francis from the original Vertigo master tapes. Cut by Pete Norman.

LP version. Certain Sound Records announce the release of the brand-new album from Montener The Menace, Anyone Home?. Anyone Home? is the hotly anticipated follow-up to I Have a Hidden Hobby and is comprised of 14 superb tracks featuring an ensemble of legendary figures from both the US and UK hip-hop scenes with appearances by Masta Ace, Rah Digga, Craig G, Keith Murray, Edo.G, Micall Parknsun, Cracker John, A.G., and Guilty Simpson, to name just a few. Production is handled by such heavyweights as Domingo, Roccwell, Keynotez and all cuts are provided by the legendary JabbaThaKut. The album's three excellent singles -- "High Noon", "The Struggle" and "Take it Back all" -- were met with extremely positive reviews from blogs and magazines alike, in addition to this acclaim the tracks have received airplay on a global scale via stations such as Shade45 and Itch FM. Montener showcases his massive progression as an artist since his previous release with great confidence while still maintaining his trademark sense of humor that fans have come to love and adore. He demonstrates great diversity throughout by being able to touch on some difficult subjects such as suicide and mental health and parenthood as well as his more traditional upbeat content. "Anyone Home is a seamless blend of homegrown hip hop and styles from across the Atlantic showcasing an array of world-class guest features at their best. The content is delivered with a great sense of humour, full of knowledge, understanding, love and a true passion for hip hop." --BoomBop.co.uk "An instant underground classic" --Infinite Sounds, 9/10. Also features Wordsworth, Fatlip, El Da Sensei, Dixie Daye, Boodah, The Strange Neighbour, and Jay Purpose.

Digitmovies release an LP of the OST by Ennio Morricone: Noi Lazzaroni (We Rascals). Ennio Morricone has composed a very "rural" score with the sounds that represent the life of the protagonist. Although integrated within modern society, the soul of this man is always directed to his past, to his land, to the teachings of his father which he could never leave behind. This adherence to the homeland is expressed through deliberately wild and almost enraged vocal performances of Edda Dell'Orso. Ennio Morricone has composed music which reflects the bucolic atmosphere of this tale through a series of archaically flavored themes played by instruments like recorder and mandolin. Among the recurrent themes there are a mysterious motif, dramatic music for dissonant strings and a lounge theme with the typical Morricone sound. The main theme is reprised for recorder and guitar and there is Baroque music for the puppet theater played by woodwinds and percussions. Contains two bonus tracks, unreleased alternate takes of the original album versions which will surely be quite attractive for fans and scholars of the music of Ennio Morricone. Edition of 300.

Digitmovies presents on LP another musical jewel by Ennio Morricone from the TV movie broadcasted by Italian Rai Television in 1978 Il Prigioniero (The Prisoner). Ennio Morricone has composed an extremely serious score which reflects the whole sentimental and dramatic side of the historic atmosphere, in which the protagonist is immersed. The author varies the main theme with different orchestrations: the romantic, but nostalgic "L'estate È Finite" for flute, harpsichord and orchestra, reprised with harpsichord chromatism and with harpsichord and orchestra. The second motif "I Due Prigionieri" is introduced by the solo flutes in an almost experimental context, later accompanied by cellos and basses and then reprised as a background to psychological suspense with brass, piano and vibes and with fascinating variations. This painful atmosphere is broken up by "source music" which re-creates the sound of that era, like the Sicilian folk song for voice and guitar "Si L'ammuri" and the romantic old-fashioned romantic tune for male voice, piano and guitar "Dove sei amore". Edition of 300.

2021 resstock, in vintage-styled tip-on hard cardboard sleeve. Guerssen Records present a reissue of Dave Bixby's Ode To Quetzalcoatl, originally released in 1969. Since its discovery in the late '90s, Dave Bixby's legendary $2000 private press album from 1969 is considered by all serious record collectors as the king in the loner/downer folk genre. After being involved in '60s Michigan folk and garage-rock bands such as The Shillelaghs and Peter & The Prophets, Bixby started playing acoustic guitar and experimenting with LSD. After a year of drug abuse, he felt broken. Starting a soul-searching, spiritual journey, he wrote Ode To Quetzalcoatl and most of the material for his second album, Harbinger's Second Coming (1970) in just one month and a half. Assisted by fellow musician Brian MacInness, who played some guitar parts on the album, Dave recorded Quetzalcoatl using an echo-laden four-track machine in a flat's living room. The sound is lo-fi and sparse: just acoustic guitars and some occasional harmonica and flute, added to Bixby's haunting, emotional vocals, spiritual lyrics, and solid songwriting. The opening cut, the eerie and painful "Drug Song" sets the mood perfectly for the rest of the album which contains more tormented titles like "666", "Lonely Faces", "Open Doors", "Secret Forest" -- never has an acoustic folk album sounded so intense. Carefully remastered sound from vinyl (no master tapes exists) done at Shadoks Music Studios. Includes insert with detailed liner notes by Matvei Procak, who found Bixby in 2006, plus some rare pictures.

"Originally released in 1976, Cocktail Bar was the first release of the Modern Sound Quartet ensemble lead by Oscar Rocchi, one of the most brilliant yet unrecognized composer of the library music era. As the title might already suggest, the 14 songs bring an incredibly fresh mix of sounds and flavors, each one named after a different spirit, with every single track floating around different soundscapes and atmospheres. Whether it be a gin & tonic poolside, a melancholic drink of Strega on the hills of southern Italy or some Kümmel by a Dutch canal, this masterpiece has got something for every taste. Now available on vinyl for the first time since its original release as a limited edition of 500 copies."