NEW RELEASES
ROSE, JON & ABRAHAMS, CHRIS: Peggy
Number 12 in the ReR Jon Rose series.<p> Jon Rose and Chris Abrahams (of The Necks ), after four decades of being parts of other projects, finally got around to recording as a duo. Jon uses a number of violins, including the bird - a specially ... more »
VITOR RUA & THE METAPHYSICAL ANGELS: When Better isn’t Quite Good Enough (dbl CD)
The spirit of enquiry and experiment is still alive and kicking - in Portugal anyway. On t his double CD, Vitor looks twice at the same material. On CD one we get his unique take on guitar improvisation, which is electric, songlike and mixes genres in an unu... more »
LAST CALL - DUE ON JUNE 22nd
THE PETER BLEGVAD BANDBOX
6 CDs and 72pp booklet. Containing all the Blegvad Trio and Quintet studio releases: Downtime, Just Woke Up, Hangman’s Hill and Go Figure – all re-mastered and repackaged - plus two additional CDs of unreleased studio recordings and live performances, mostly featu... more »
ZNR: Archive Box (4 CDS, booklet) Subscription edition.
Contains both original ZNR releases Barricades III and Traite de Mechanique Populaire , plus two extra CDs - one containing the whole of the post-ZNR LP Les Flots Bleus by Patrick Portella and Joseph Racaille as well as Joseph Racaille’s Pegase and his... more »
ALLEN RAVENSTINE SUBSCRIPTION OFFER
RAVENSTINE, ALLEN: Waiting for the Bomb
ALLEN RAVENSTINE PRE-ORDER SUBSCRIPTION OFFER; Release Date Friday JUNE 29 Allen and I worked for several years together in the second coming of Pere Ubu before we both decided to quit at around the same time. I carried on playing – and running this labe... more »
RAVENSTINE, ALLEN: Waiting for the Bomb Vinyl (limited number)
Pere Ubu's Allen Ravenstine.Believed missing in action; back with a timely reminder of the importance of quality and swimming against the tide. Allen and I worked for several years together in the second coming of Pere Ubu before we both decided to quit at aro... more »
RAVENSTINE, ALLEN: Waiting for the Bomb
Pere Ubu's Allen Ravenstine.Believed missing in action; back with a timely reminder of the importance of quality and swimming against the tide. Allen and I worked for several years together in the second coming of Pere Ubu before we both decided to quit at aro... more »
RAVENSTINE, ALLEN: Waiting for the Bomb Vinyl
Pere Ubu's Allen Ravenstine.Believed missing in action; back with a timely reminder of the importance of quality and swimming against the tide. Allen and I worked for several years together in the second coming of Pere Ubu before we both decided to quit at around th... more »
BOB DRAKE SUBSCRIPTION OFFER
DRAKE,BOB: L'Isola dei Lupi, subscription edition
Bob’s 10th solo album sees Bob playing all the usual instruments (and a few more this time) in another collection of close-up songs with impossible structures, extraordinary harmonies, informative lyrics (though a little outré in their subject matter), virtuos... more »
LAST ReR RELEASES
BLEGVAD, PETER: Go Figure
After 19 years, the return of the Peter Blegvad Trio, in supernal form and now a quintet with Karen Mantler and Bob Drake. Recorded over 10 days at studio Midi-Pyrenees the old way: sitting in a room, working on arrangements, rehearsing a bit and then quickly r... more »
ZNR: Traite de Mechanique Populaire
The second and last release by this most exquisite and eccentric of groups, who hardly touched the world of working bands, and whose existence was tenuous, flickering, mythological – and yet who managed, stealthily, to find its way in time to legendary status – rath... more »
VAROUTAS, GIORGOS: Chronostasis
Standing Time. From Athens, a somewhat unusual release for us: an intriguing collection of 10 very measured and nuanced drone-based pieces - for extended guitar, some percussion and, unusually, Iranian ney, Chinese sho (played by Ko Ishikawa, one of the leading play... more »
Other
CHADIMA, M. & The Ex Extempore Members: The City/Velkomesto
Of all the bands and musicians to emerge in Czechoslovakia back in the ‘70s Mikolas was one of the most radical and has certainly been the most productive, still releasing one fine album after another. This has a special resonance for me because, back in the ear... more »
WESTON, VARYAN: The Make Project
A gem; beautifully written, full of ideas and changes, this is a work for piano, bass, drums and a modest but perfectly attuned modern choir.<p> The 52 two aphoristic texts are all taken from female authors and all include the work ‘make’, which, whe... more »
BERTOIA, HARRY: Sonambiente (11 CD box with 114pp book).
One of the earliest and most important of the pioneer sound sculptors, and unique amongst them, Bertoia is best remembered in the wider world for his classic metal chair designs and pubic sculptures, but in 1960 he started to work extensively with sound, building a ... more »
ANDREYEV, SAMUEL: The Tubular West
This is a CD out of step, but that can’t be ignored; it has quiet ambition and its inspirations (Van Dyke Parks, the Beach Boys, ancient and contemporary music) are not taken in vain. Variously orchestrated with keyboards of all sorts - acoustic, vintage and electro... more »
CRUMBLING PALACE: Murky Haywire
Privately produces small edition of interesting improvisations centred on the bassoon. ... more »
SUN RA: God Is More Than Happiness Can Ever Be
The third release on the Ra estate label is this fascinating piano trio recording made in 1979 – the only piano trio Ra ever recorded. But precisely because of the familiarity of this classic format the personal deviations from the norm are all the more ... more »
XENAKIS, IANNIS: Orchestral Works
Metastaseis A, Terretekorh and Nomos Gamma. Recent recordings. Metastasis A is the seldom heard original of what became Metastasis B – the work that initially made Xenakis’ reputation). The other two pieces here are for 88 and 89 musicians, respectively – positioned... more »
ECLECTIC MAYBE BAND: The Blind Night Watchers’ Mysterious Landscape
This is a rare and tough medium; a band that improvises but makes it sound as if it’s shifting between composed and improvised material, maintaining a musical logic and not afraid of riffs, solos and melodies – and it’s very well recorded. Based in Belgium (th... more »
ALAN JENKINS The Experimental Surf Music BOX (8 CDs & documentation)
Some insufferably great music that’s hard to categorise. Somewhere in the mists it evolved away from the classic guitar instrumental, tweaking and stretching and mixing it with psychedelics and experimentalism, offering an alternative evolutionary history of popular... more »
DVD
SONAMBIENTS; The Sound Sculpture of Harry Bertoia (DVD and CD)
The film, 16 minutes long, was shot in 1971 and edited from two days of filming and shows the instruments in action, with Harry playing and speaking about them. Art cinematography - and an indispensible document. The CD that accompanies it presents four ... more »
BACK IN STOCK.
MUSCI/VENOSTA: Messages and Portraits
By public demand - reissued in a digipak this time. Classic work. Overlays and constructs rhythmic and harmonic vignettes of transparent sound (at once complex and simple) from electronic, acoustic and documentary sources, taking ethnic field recordings as its... more »
SUN RA AND HIS INTERGALACTIC SOLAR RESEARCH ARKESTRA: Helsinki 1971 (2 CDs and 1 DVD)
Long out of print and not likely ever to be reissued, this is old stock that came back to us unsold, so there is only a handful. This is a complete two and a half hour concert in high broadcast quality by the 29 piece early '70s band with June Tyson. Everyone ... more »
EC NUDES, THE: Vanishing Point
Heard now, this record captures presciently that point between pre-punk experimentalism and the high-energy, post-punk, devil-may-care spirit that was already on its way out in the early ‘90s. A touring trio, American singer and multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio, Swis... more »
Vinyl.
MUSCI, ROBERTO/VENOSTA, GIOVANNI: Urban and Tribal Portraits (vinyl)
New Pressing on the Italian Soave Label. ... more »
STOP PRESS: UNHEARD AT TIME OF WRITING
AMM: An unintended Legacy (3 CDs and Book)
Concerts in London, Paris and Trondheim from 2015 and 2016, the first since Keith Rowe rejoined the band. Book text by Eddie Prevost, Keith Rowe,Page Mitchell, Allen Fisher, Bill Gilonis, Lou Gare and Seymour Wright, with an AMM discography and photos. ... more »
MORE NEW STUFF - HOW TO BUILD A LIBRARY
From each update I will select those CDs I think most remarkable or important - those which I think should be in any living library - and offer a discount for anyone buying them all. There will be 2 categories must have and essential history. Offers will be available for either or both together. If you find this essential library idea useful, I will slowly work backwards and compile a list from the whole catalogue.Essential Library 1
- MIKOLAS CHADIMA: The City
- VARYAN WESTON: The Make Project
- HARRY BERTOIA: DVD & CD
- SAMUEL ANDREYEV: The Tubular West
All 4 for £54 save £8
ESSENTIAL LIBRARY: 06/18
ESSENTIAL LIBRARY: Mikolas CHADIMA: The City Varyan Weston: The Make Project Harry BERTOIA: DVD & CD SAMUEL ANDREYEV: The Tubular West All four for £54 - save £8 ... more »