LP version. Recorded in remotely in Berlin and Scotland during lockdown, Dot Allison and Anton Newcombe collaborate as All Seeing Dolls. Produced by Anton Newcombe in Berlin, he and Dot would send each other vocal and musical ideas, blending Dot's haunting vocals with their fellow skills as a multi-instrumentalists. The album features guitar, ukulele, piano and auto-harp played by Dot, alongside additional contributions from Hakon Adalsteinsson (guitar), and Uri Rennert (drums).

Highly-anticipated 50th Anniversary Edition re-issue of Ash Ra Tempel's legendary fifth studio album Starring Rosi. Originally released in 1973, this seminal work remains a cornerstone of the Krautrock and "Kosmische" movement, blending psychedelic rock, ambient soundscapes, and early electronics into a transcendent auditory experience. The album has been recorded by Manuel Göttsching in its entirety, with additional help from producer Dieter Diercks, Harald Grosskopf, and of course Rosemarie "Rosi" Müller. Starring Rosi is an essential piece of their continuation of blending cosmic psychedelia, ambient textures, and avant-garde electronic experimentation. Starring Rosi stands out in Ash Ra Tempel's discography for its lighter, more accessible sound, balancing the band's signature cosmic explorations with melodic structures and poetic lyrics. The album is a sonic journey that takes listeners through seven distinct tracks, each showcasing Manuel Göttschings pioneering approach to music. This reissue of Starring Rosi has been introduced and overseen by Manuel Göttsching, and finalized by his family exactly to his standards, in which the meticulous approach to his work lives on. An updated 2024 recut carefully commissioned by Schnittselle in Berlin ensures the warm depth sound while bringing out the rich textures and nuances, all of the original recordings. Comes with a replica of the original vinyl artwork including its original backside. The Limited Edition (MGART 615LTD-LP) also includes a poster of the alternate backside, used later on the CD editions showing Rosi and Manuel improvising during studio sessions. Also included are prints of previously unreleased original "The Fairy Dance" and "Schizo" composition sheets, handwritten by Manuel.

Wewantsounds reissues Roy Haynes' 1971 LP Hip Ensemble, recorded in New York for Bob Shad's Mainstream Records and featuring Hannibal Marvin Peterson, George Adams, Teruo Nakamura, and Lawrence Killian. Together the musicians create a superb mix of jazz funk and spiritual jazz showcasing Haynes powerful drumming and creativity. Hip Ensemble is presented in its original gatefold artwork with first generation photos and includes the bonus track "Roy's Tune." It comes with newly remastered audio and a two-page insert featuring new liner notes by Kevin Le Gendre. Roy Haynes, who passed at age 99, is one of the undisputed giants of jazz. Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1925, Haynes started drumming during his teenage years before moving to New York in 1945 where his career took off. He went on to play with the likes of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Lester Young, becoming an institution over the decades. In the late '60s, after a stint with the John Coltrane's quartet, he put together the Hip Ensemble, a small group featuring the young turks George Adams on sax, Hannibal Marvin Peterson on trumpet, Japanese bass player Teruo Nakamura, Lawrence Killian on percussion together with German pianist Carl Schroeder on Fender Rhodes. Bob Shad, who had worked with Haynes in the '50s when he was running EmArcy, saw the group live in New York one night and decided to sign them on his label Mainstream Records as he was starting to produce jazz again after a few years releasing psychedelic rock. His idea was to plug into the new modal and jazz-funk scenes that was flourishing at the time and Haynes was also experimenting with. The album Hip Ensemble reflects this new direction with a superb mix of spiritual jazz. Complementing the group for this session were Mervin Bronson, adding a touch of Fender bass and a second percussionist, Elwood Johnson. "Roy's Tune" has been added as a bonus track, which was recorded at the same session but not included on the original album -- it briefly came out on a low-key Mainstream compilation two years after. The track is another fascinating breakbeat that has strangely never been sampled. Hip Ensemble has been remastered for vinyl by Colorsound Studio in Paris and is a timely reminder that Haynes is one of the greatest jazz drummers of all times.

"One of a number of sessions cut at the Choreographers Workshop, this 1963 set established Sun Ra's Arkestra as a New York band, sonically coupled to developments in the decidedly urbane downtown arts underground. The stargazing clamor of the music reflects the intensity of a cultural crossroads where concrete and dust pervade any skyward view, from East 3rd Street to Mars and beyond. One of Sun Ra's rarest releases, it had negligible circulation through records shops upon release. While most of the Saturn output couldn't get any rarer or mysterious than it already was, When Angels Speak of Love was released in 1966 it was the most elusive and mysterious in the Sun Ra catalog. It's speculated that the record was issued in two micro runs, with estimates around 150 copies. Hard core collectors around the world had been searching for this gem to no avail until Evidence Records released a CD of the music in 2000. This updated offering utilizes the actual master tapes and we get to hear the Arkestra in its cosmic mid-'60s prime via mono and stereo fidelity. Liner Notes by Clifford Allen."

One-sided LP. "While much of early 2025 appears to be a whirlwind of abject disappointment littered with genuine horror and an undeniable waste of actual human potential, here we find a much-needed escape from modern agonies in this mesmerizing collaborative from Joshua Burkett & Lau Nau. Both artists have been laying trails of singular beauty for decades and the combination of their aesthetics create a true mind meld as complimentary as softly falling snow lit by the first light of dawn. Subtly swirling magical elements twinkle and undulate and slowly suck the listener in deeper and deeper to the very heart of the album's nest. A fragile, melancholic aura transcends the poignant and insular sound world, and evokes a camera panning back to slowly reveal a vast landscape of wintry yearning in which heartbreak and reverie calmly intermingle, both create an extremely comforting bath of sound. Lau Nau (Laura Naukkarinen) is a Finnish sound artist and musician whose multi-disciplinary endeavors also include film scores, compositions for theatre, dance and choral performances and multi- channel sound installations, as well as her passion for presenting live scores for silent films.. She participated in projects with an improvisatory bent such as Avarus & Kemialliset Ystävät as well as collaborations with Kuupuu and Tsembla (plus don't forget Hertta Lussu Assa!). Her solo recordings as Lau Nau emerged with a fully formed aesthetic of a dreamy sound world in which a hybrid of song craft and abstraction merged to generate ultra evocative pastures of bliss and melancholy. Each subsequent album has achieved greater levels of sophistication with her most recent amazing works. Burkett is a musician, writer, illustrator, painter, and naturalist and has been a quietly guiding light of the Western Massachusetts underground music community for the past 30 years... He has many previous duo collaborations under his belt, having worked with the late, great Ed Askew, releasing a duo album with the phenomenal Tucker Zimmerman in 2020, his electronic project TARP with Conrad Capistran and others. There is an undeniable specialness to this new release which exudes a time stopping magic that is guaranteed to stretch out your latest night or earliest morning... My only critique of this album would be that as a single sided LP, so one is left craving more of these glorious sounds to bask in. But what could be more novel and precious in this era of the endless tsunami of content than to be left wishing for more of something?" --Robert Thomas, 2025

"Rashied Ali stood as a magnetic force for the musical environment around him. In his last decades he sponsored rehearsal opportunities for young musicians, tightened up neighborhood street-corner drum circles he happened to pass, and for years would pull promising young talents into his orbit. One unique group that Ali led at the 2002 Vision Festival in NYC, along with Frank Lowe, he also took into the studio -- and the moment you hear on Sidewalks in Motion features Ali and Lowe along with young musicians Jumaane Smith (trumpet), Andrew Bemkey on piano, and bassist Joris Teepe. In the years after Lowe's death Ali selected the best takes, and mixed and mastered for release, but the material remained on the shelf, frozen on the runway at the time of Rashied's own untimely passing. The reborn Survival Records is honored to reanimate these sounds in 2025. Survival Records SR-553 is a single LP in an old-school tip-on jacket featuring photos and recollections from Joris Teepe."

"Part of Rashied Ali's artistic strength involved turning improbable sound combinations into unchallenged masterpieces. After the pattern established by John Coltrane's Interstellar Space, and Duo Exchange with Frank Lowe, the drummer stepped into a rather unlikely duet with violinist Leroy Jenkins for Swift are the Winds of Life. Five years with the Revolutionary Ensemble had established Jenkins as a composer; he designed all the pieces played on these 1975 duets with Ali. That record is issued on vinyl here for the first time in almost a half century. The LP is augmented by an informal phantom session in which Ali and Jenkins explore thoroughly other territories -- standards, Coltrane's music, and two untitled, unbridled improvisations. SR-512 is a deluxe 2LP set packaged in an old-school tip-on gatefold jacket that includes Stanley Crouch's original 1975 essay along with new liner notes and excerpts from an interview with Jenkins."

"After the very acoustic ¿Dónde estás María?, I decided to try a new experiment taking as a reference the legendary group Cumbia siglo XX which is a group who explores a futuristic vision of coastal cumbia in the '80s, together with other groups such as Grupo folclórico, 2000 voltios, and others, mainly under the label Machuca and Felito records. This new '80s cumbia was a combination of funky basses and a further evolution of the rhythms, blending this style with disco and even rock music and superimposing the traditional versus the urban context and the modernity. Meridian Brothers took this as a departing point and inspiration, making the same experiment but in XXI century, using the modern media of this time; all kinds of drum machines, guitars and synths, algorithmic software etc, and also taking into account the global exposition of modern cumbia in the 2010s. So all kinds of influences and genres are blended around this cumbia axis. Urban beats, synthy grooves, glitches and all kinds of swear words, and all kinds of slang language are included in the songs of the album. All these elements are filtered and passed through the traditional train of thought of Meridian Brothers, which is the figuration of an abstract picture of sound put it within a concrete context or cultural tendency." --Eblis Álvarez/Meridian Brothers

LP version. Collector, seeker and storyteller Charles Bals brings his curatorial finesse to Hamburg's Bureau B with Ambientale, a journey into otherworldly sounds from the years 1983-2000. Drifting effortlessly between digital exoticism, mellow fusion, new age groove and library electronics, the pieces range from largely obscure to utterly un-google-able, and coalesce into a stunning soundtrack to tranquil seas, desert sand and starlit skies. Cinematic and enigmatic, Ambientale is a stranger you've only just met but can't stop thinking about. A familiar face to those who dwell in the deep end of the record pool, Charles is an obsessive digger, always on the track of an otherwise unheard sound. Through two trips to "Club Meduse" and star-crossed lovers "America Dream Reserve" and "Black Rain," he's also established himself as a mixtape auteur, weaving together the strange and beautiful into evocative compilations that transport listeners to distinct, imaginative realms. While his previous sets resembled Super-8 vignettes, populated by sun-kissed hedonists and drifting outsiders, Ambientale sees Charles leave the human world behind, exploring all the world's wilderness on the scale of an IMAX epic. Bals opens his sonic travelogue with the bamboo flutes and resonant gongs of esteemed Italian maestro Luigi Ceccarelli, joined by the clean lines and Eastern tonalities of the little-known RanōBoru. The journey deepens with a double-feature from Tokyo composer Akira Mitake, sliding from dreamy New Age soundscapes into the lush groove of floral fusion. Digital rhythms and snaking bass add a Latin accent to the bouzouki of Individual Sensitivity's "Greece Ambientale," while the lilting percussion and shimmering synths of Steve Shehan's smooth jazz rarity "Evening In The Sahara" segue perfectly into a masterpiece of French Balearic from Private Joke. A smoky saxophone rises like mist, echoing through the rainfall on Adriano Maria Vitali's "Velvet Blue Circles," before Masami Tsuchiya pulls listeners into the depths with the aquatic ambience of 1983's "Never Mind," its electronic palette the perfect vehicle to ensure that Akira Mitake's "Spectrum" surprises, rather than startles, with its booming machine drums a superb point of difference. From there, we wander once more into the digital undergrowth, exploring the mystical and magical sounds of the Italian library ensemble Gruppo Sound, along with a rare glimpse of Blue Note new age from Gil Mellé. Police sirens and street noise signal our return to the city, forming the backdrop to the tumbling drums and moody electronic stabs of "Ship Out" by Ferris Wheel, an utterly unknown piece rumored to be a promotional track from a Venezuelan garbage company -- the final twist of intrigue to this otherworldly voyage.

"Moon Beams is a bonafide opus -- a masterful mix of jazz, Latin, folk and electroacoustic, topped with bandleader Fuminosuke's soaring, spectral vocals. Bassist Takuyuki Moriya was also a member of Ghost, and drummer Yuta Suganuma is a long-time member of the Shintaro Sakamoto band. The quartet's third album in as many years, Moon Beams found Tsuki No Wa taking a gigantic leap forward in both compositional sophistication and sonic experimentation. Beautifully recorded in a (since demolished) Meiji-era ballet studio, and featuring guest performances from such underground luminaries as Yoshihide Otomo and Ami Yoshida, this timeless, ambitious work sounds just as spellbinding today as it did a couple decades ago. Originally released on CD by Japan's Soundscape label in 2003, and now on vinyl for the very first time, this 2025 version features an updated mix from the band and brand-new album art with unseen photos of the group in their heyday. Mastered by Josh Bonati, 2LP (3 sides of music/ 4th side is blank), packaged in a full-color, double panel gatefold jacket with eye-popping gold foil lettering."

"The eponymously titled third and final studio album from Television was recorded and released in 1992, fourteen years after the band's sophomore album Adventure (and subsequent breakup) in 1978. In a decade kicked off by alt-rock guitar albums, Television regrouped in early 1992 with a new sonic identity. Released later in the year, Television was completely unexpected and unexpectedly wonderful. 'Call Mr Lee,' '1880 Or So In World' and 'No Glamour For Willi' rank among the best of the bands material, and the guitar interplay between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd was as mesmerizing and unique as ever. Television was met with met with high critical praise from The Village Voice a droll, warm-hearted, sophisticated, cryptic, jazzy yet unjazzlike, they sound like nothing else except, just a little, like old Television, NY Times referred to the album as 'scaled-down Television with exquisite design details,' and Rolling Stones' David Fricke said it was worth the fifteen year wait, citing the albums 'celebration of the lost virtues of precision, emotional depth and sonic elegance.' Television toured the record into 1993, then would again disappear from the public eye. Upon worldwide release by Capitol Records, a vinyl version was not available commercially in North America, it was never pressed past the white label promo version, so fans had to do with the CD (or cassette) or source a pricey import. This version is released on the bands imprint Ohoo Records, and has been remastered for vinyl by longtime Tom Verlaine musical collaborator Patrick Derivaz, who was an assistant engineer on these sessions."

DOVS are the duo of Vienna's Johannes Auvinen, aka Tin Man, and Mexico City's Gabo Barranco, aka AAAA. Psychic Geography is their second album together, but it differs considerably from both their respective solo work and their 2019 debut LP together, Silent Cities. Where that album's hardware-based acid kept its gaze focused squarely on the dancefloor, Psychic Geography is a strictly ambient affair. The album has its roots in a trio of beatless tracks that peppered Silent Cities; this time, the duo decided to try making an entire album with no drums. Ambiguity and uncertainty are key watchwords for their music, which moves with eerie, liquid grace. Untethered from 4/4 kicks, their music drifts and morphs; familiar acid sequences give way to surprising shifts in tone and mood. And with no drums to distract the ear, the seeming simplicity of their silvery synth lines opens up to reveal remarkable depth and dynamism. Barranco and Auvinen recorded the album together in the studio utilizing machines like the Roland TB-303, Juno G, Prophet 5, Elektron Octatrack MKII, Make Noise DPO and René, Mutable Clouds, Roland SH-101, Behringer TD3, and Sherman Filterbank. Listen on good speakers or headphones, and you can tell: Their gear yields a tonal richness that recalls the ambient and cosmic music of decades earlier. You can practically feel the heat from their circuits warming the air. The meaning behind the name DOVS is as ambiguous as the duo's music. But Psychic Geography needs little explanation. DOVS' album is a collection of mental maps of imaginary places. Set your coordinates for the mirage on the horizon and prepare to dissolve.

Recorded during a residency in Tenerife powered by Keroxen Festival and Discrepant back in 2020 -- amidst the Pandemic, no less -- the duo of Carlos Godinho and Mestre André return after their Mãe D'Água debut on Sucata Tapes and an entry on Keroxen's Aquapelago Series through a split with tropical druids Lagoss. Mostly captured in performance through a quadraphonic system placed inside a huge disused fuel tank, with a few tracks recorded out in the open throughout the island, Lava Love evokes the tectonic shifts and motions inherent in their title in 13 tracks. Based around Godinho's percussive arsenal, from found objects to instruments from all sorts of cartographies, and André's electronic processing, each of these expositions is a point in a map that is created between the island's concrete and fictional existence, discarding any superficial overdubs and crescendos, to focus on the balming and transporting properties of sound itself. From stripped down vignettes like "Bajamar I" and "II", "Chacho" or "Tangana I" to hypnotic tapestries that confuse the real and imagined like "Haha No!" or "La Gomera," Banha da Cobra conjure a collective dream of the island. All tracks performed and recorded by Banha da Cobra in a quadraphonic system inside an enormous fuel tank, except "Bajamar I and II" (recorded outdoors at cantonera de Bajamar, with Lagoss), "Taganana I and II" (recorded outdoors at Playa de Almáciga) and "El Guachinche de Los Realejos" (recorded outdoors at Playa de Castro, with Lagoss). Banha da Cobra are Mestre André and Carlos Godinho. Recorded by Jorge Lozano. Mixed by Mestre André. Mastered by Dani Tupper. Cover photography by Nestor Torrens. Cover design by Óscar Silva.

Three years in the making, at last comes the stunning new Band Of Pain album. It features contributions from Steven Stapleton and Andrew Liles from Nurse With Wound and Jean-Hervé Peron and Jeanne-Marie Varain from Faust, as well as the usual suspects. It is packaged in a beautiful gloss laminated 12" gatefold sleeve with artwork that is unique to this release by Steven Stapleton (Babs Santini). It also features calligraphy by the wonderful Geoff Cox, who is known for his previous work for Current 93/NWW and, of course, the book "England's Hidden Reverse". The format is a double-CD set -- one CD for side one and one for side two. This keeps with the intended LP concept, but has CD fidelity for the best audio quality for this type of music. In the sleeve's rear opening is a vinyl LP. It's an unplayable 12" record with exclusive Steven Stapleton etchings. It truly has to be seen to be believed, possibly as much of an art object as it is a record. Gatefold sleeve.

Up In Her Room present their first release of 2025, and a return to the label from Oli Heffernan, aka Ivan the Tolerable! Ten new chunks of lo-fi instrumental library-hop -- recorded in over two days in Summer 2024, Nocturnes is the first ITT album of 2025, and the first one made solo by Heffernan since Wild Nature in 2019. Known for his genre-defying and boundary-pushing approach to music, Heffernan -- who has spent years experimenting with various styles, instruments and production techniques has crafted a collection of tracks that defy categorization. The new album is a sonic tapestry of atmospheric library music, dusty hip-hop beats, and the organic, unfiltered essence of field recordings, all neatly packaged up into a format that allows each element space to breathe. Nocturnes weaves intricate layers of samples, loops, and live instrumentation, combining elements of hip-hop, dub, jazz, and electronic music, all while maintaining a sense of urban cinematic flair. The album is released by Up In Her Room on limited edition black heavyweight vinyl.

Musical powerhouse jitwam invites listeners back into his colorful world with the deluxe edition of his hit album Honeycomb, marking five years since its original release in 2019. Featuring a fresh art direction and behind-the-scenes photography taken from the Mumbai-filmed music video to "busstop," the deluxe edition is a true collectible item. Inside the vinyl cover, a download code gives fans access to all 20 digital titles, including a remix package by Max Graef and Glenn Astro and three new ambient versions of Honeycomb tracks by jitwam himself. Originally released in 2019, Honeycomb quickly sent ripples through the music scene, garnering rave reviews from around the world. Across 12 tracks, jitwam masterfully fuses his musical identities, incorporating warm guitar riffs, smooth basslines, and lyrics about the comforting chaos of urban life in India. "Honeycomb is a universe where rock 'n' roll meets soul, where the blues sing techno, and jazz can be anything you want it to be" jitwam explains. With his roots in Assam, India and a diverse upbringing in Australia, Thailand, and South Africa, jitwam has made a name for himself with his soul-soothing sound that transcends borders and genres. On his journey, he's worn several musical faces, within the world of psychedelic indie rock, the hip-hop realm, and underground house music. His fluidity as an artist has earned him a place in the rich lineage of Indian composers, fusing disparate styles and ideas into a world that is truly and uniquely his own. Featuring Marie Bashiru.

Triple LP version. Red color vinyl version. Colours Revisited, a revision of Adam F's MOBO Award-winning 1997 debut album, is a story of musical rebirth and passion. Adam F, realizing that Colours had found a new audience -- partly thanks to artists like PinkPantheress -- decided to recreate the album. Instead of simply remastering the tracks, Adam went all in. Over two years, he meticulously reworked the original music, from restoring vintage instruments like his Fender Rhodes piano to enlisting UK jazz legends like Julian Joseph. Vocalists including Kirsty Hawkshaw and the late MC Conrad re-recorded their parts, while new solos from world-cla8ss musicians added fresh life to the tracks. "Colours holds a special place in my heart because it was not only my first solo album, but also because I had the opportunity to collaborate with diverse talents," says the seminal producer on his ground-breaking album. "Musicians of a caliber such as Dave Ital (Guitars), The Jazz Great Julian Joseph (Keyboards and Fender Rhodes), MC Conrad (MC/Artist), Roni Jordan, Tim Philbert/Tim the Bass (Bass), Greg Leicester (Bass), Maurice Capillaire/MC MC (Live MC)." The revisited album deftly weaves together the energy of new live instrumentation with the '80s British electronica and jazz fusion inspired sounds of the original. The result is a project which not only brings the album into the glistening present but somehow manages to add further depth and sense of understanding of the original Colours, the influences latent within it and how and why it has gone on to influence so many others since its inception throughout the world. This is a must have album which pays homage to what has become a cornerstone of British electronic music history.

"Chicha Libre celebrates early seventies Peruvian music styles which mixed cumbia and funk with Andean melodies, Cuban son, and heady swirls of surf guitar, farfisa organ and moog synth. The Brooklyn based band pushes their music way beyond mere pastiche and into strange, sun-blanched epiphanies with elegant homages that take a sublime twist of the new, re-interpreting chicha and pop classics such as 'Popcorn', Joe Dassin/Toto Cutugno's 1975 hit 'Indian Summer', and subtly executed cumbia takes on pieces by Satie and Ravel. Bandleader Olivier Conan initially developed a passion for vintage Chicha during a trip to Peru in the nineties, which resulted in the internationally acclaimed 'Roots Of Chicha' compilations he produced, before going even further by forming his inventive 21st Century band. Personnel: Olivier Conan (lead vocals, cuatro), Joshua Camp (keyboards), Nicholas Cudahy (bass), Vincent Douglas (guitars), Greg Burrows (percussion), Timothy Quigley (percussion) and others. Side D is an etched disc."

2025 repress. "2024's retrospective box We Have Dozens of Titles brought the revelatory 1993-'98 output of Gastr del Sol back into the world of physical objects, following a decade in which most of their music was mostly available online. Now comes the vinyl reissue series of the Gastrlog at the end of the line, with their 'art-pop masterpiece' Camoufleur. Gastr del Sol released Camoufleur in February of 1998. It was a ringing down of the curtain on an extraordinary five years of music making (and unmaking) with one of the best albums of that era. The backstory: Gastr first appeared out of the ashes of David Grubbs' postpunk band Bastro, whose final lineup -- a furious electric triad of Grubbs, John McEntire and Bundy K. Brown -- evolved into Gastr del Sol with The Serpentine Similar, an album of songs and singing that turned away from the loud and into the acoustic. Brown and McEntire then departed, to focus on the newly-founded Tortoise, just as improviser/tape manipulator/musical polyglot/total freak Jim O'Rourke joined. Picking up on Gastr's acoustic fascination, Grubbs and O'Rourke twisted in oblique strains of modern classical, avant garde, tape music, world music and space, launching on an entirely transformative tear with the Crookt, Crackt, or Fly LP, 'Mirror Repair' EP, and Upgrade & Afterlife 2LP. Nothing prepared one for the inquests of each successive record, and yet, Camoufleur managed to top them all, by presenting their (so-called) avant explorations as pop music. Released on LP and CD, Camoufleur had a prescient quality: like something that existed beyond such simple formats as LP and CD, or even the designations of 'record' and 'album.' It was the nascence era of the burnt CD, unmarked or attributed in any fashion. Compelled by an intense provocative love of the non-sequitur, they drafted in contributions from a diverse lineup that flowed through the songs with an equal weight of improbability and appeal. This was a startling set of sing-along tunes -- or you could whistle along with the music, or keen along with the sound you couldn't identify, however you liked. Once out in the world, Camoufleur went over like gangbusters. Listening in today, it still does -- time has only burnished its unique superpowers. Upon release, of course, and with the same sense of enigma in which they'd issued their music, Gastr del Sol abruptly vanished, leaving all that stuff to time."

Double LP, gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl. 2025 repress. "Writing a consideration of any portion of Pajo's voluminous catalog is quite the challenge. With the glaring exception of one rainbow colored cutout circa '03, it's been one love affair after the next for me and just about every record he's graced. Yet I find myself returning to make late night headphone excursions into the depths of Live From A Shark Cage on a regular basis, reliving my favorite moments like a ripe, juicy eructation of chili cheese fries in the middle of the night, or reveling as I have in the deja vu-like discovery of some clever plot twist unearthed for the Criterion edition of Brazil. The temptation is here to call it his Zoso, or even Who's Next, but that's unfair to all parties involved, and I'll leave such profane comparisons to the recently graduated music directors of college radio stations polluting the various interweb channels that pass for music journalism in this digital age we inhabit. Rather, Shark Cage deserves to be exalted in the same breath as Maggot Brain, The Payback, Stormcock or Miles' Pangea: modern masterpieces of minima built on subliminally insinuating rondos and vamps that echo not just Dave's own biorhythms, but a microcosmic take on the ur-pulse of the universe. In an era where the referential Lexicon shifts so rapidly that notions of classics and beau ideals scarcely linger as long as the sulfurous flatulence of your cubicle-mate, Shark Cage resounds as the beacon of fortitude in a sea of aural effluvia. If you are uninitiated, avail yourself. If you've been to the fountain, quench yourself again."

2025 repress. One of the brightest and most famous projects of the entire punk/new wave scene, No New York was released in 1978 on Island's sub-label Antilles. Featuring some of the most incredible rule breaking bands of the underground N.Y.C. art and music scene, the project - produced by Brian Eno - is a genuine snapshot of the massively creative N.Y.C. scene. Artists: Contortions, Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, Mars, D.N.A..

Repressed. The initial seed for this project was planted in 2020 when Nicolás Jaar wrote the song "Piedras" for a concert at the Museum of Memory & Human Rights in Santiago, Chile, which commemorates the victims of human rights violations during the military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990. Between 2022-2023, it took on a new form as a radio play entitled Archivos de Radio Piedras, which was shared on a dedicated Telegram channel. In 2024, the play was converted into a 24-channel installation at the University Museum of Mexico City (MUAC), where it was exhibited for five months. Piedras 1 & 2 is a collection of the tracks featured within the play, all new music by Jaar, but partly presented within the play as the music of Salinas Hasbún (the name a composite homage to Jaar's grandmothers, Graciela Salinas and Miriam Hasbún). The play follows two friends mourning the disappearance of Salinas Hasbún, a musician and writer who vanished in the early 2020s. Although they live in a future where technology is advanced, they resort to DIY radio methods because the anonymous group "Las 0cho" has launched a worldwide attack on undersea internet cables, causing a global internet blackout. The play's central theme revolves around the idea that truths, memories and identities speak from the cracks, or the "in-between" spaces. This concept is supported by the way much of the narration unfolds -- in the liminal spaces between radio frequencies. The instability and transitory nature of a constantly shifting radio dial becomes not just a metaphor but the structure of the play itself. It's in these moments of noise, static and interference that the deeper revelations of the story emerge. This disjointed, ever-changing medium mirrors the way memory and trauma operate within the play -- non-linear, slipping through the gaps, found in fragments or ordinary moments, rather than direct transmissions of "official" historical accounts. This notion reaches its climax at the end of the narrative, when a text is discovered in which Salinas speaks of finding a new number in a small pond in a cave mentioned in the first episodes of the radio play. Embodied in the salt lakes of northern Chile, home to the world's oldest bacteria, this randomness disrupts the rigid order of binary code, paving the way for a transformation of digital life.

Limited 2025 restock! LP version. Privately pressed in Scotland in 1979, this illusive and quite wonderful percussion album is like no other. Played by a group of 11 girls with an average age of 14, the group included Evelyn Glennie, who was destined to become one of the world's greatest percussionists. This is her first-ever record. The Cults Percussion Ensemble was a group formed by percussion teaching legend Ron Forbes in the mid-1970s. The ensemble must have one of the best group names of all time. To many, it will immediately come across as something sinister, a touch spooky and possibly a bit dramatic, too. They are certainly two of those but the use of the word "Cults" here is easily misinterpreted. Cults, in this case, is the suburb of Aberdeen. The average age of the students was just 14. They came from a few of the schools in the area, including the Cults Academy, Ellon Academy, Aboyne Academy, Inverurie Academy and Powis. Reminiscent of Carl Orff and peculiar library music, we now have a formal release of something quite lovely that was only previously available very briefly in 1979 at concerts when the young girls performed. The music here is really quite unique, with a celestial, swirling, hypnotic quality. The blend of glockenspiels, xylophones, vibraphones, marimba and timpani drums is quite intoxicating and can recall the shimmering warmth of the desert sun one minute or freezing glacial icecaps the next. The Ensemble perform with an effortless tightness and deftness of touch, building textured layers with recurring percussive motives which appear simultaneously dense and yet sparse, almost sounding like modern sampling. Sleevenotes also include a letter from Ron Forbes: "I decided to form a percussion group to provide an outlet for my percussion pupils to play music specially written for them. The group soon became well-known in the region and as a result of winning the outstanding award at the National Festival of Music for youth on three occasions, they were invited to play at other festivals within Europe, one being in Erlangen in Germany -- hence the "Erlangen Polka" -- and Autun in France -- hence the "Autun Carillon." During these visits we were often asked if we had any recordings and so it was decided to make an LP." Thanks to Ron Forbes and Trunk Records, more people can now enjoy the simple hypnotic musical charms of the Cults Percussion Ensemble.

LP version. Composer Ahmed Essyad was born in Salé, Morocco, in 1938. After studying music at the Rabat Conservatoire (Morocco) he moved to Paris in 1962, where he became a student of Max Deutsch and, later, his assistant. Trained in the avant-garde practices of Western musical composition, he also claimed the Amazigh folk music of Morocco as a fundamental source of inspiration for his work. In 1965, he was already incorporating elements of oral tradition in his work so as to question the language of his time, and therefore had to cope with the limits of musical notation and communication with musicians who did not share his cultural references. It was difficult to agree on what was implicit, "behind the notes," especially regarding the management of musical time and micro-intervals. In search of new compositional tools, he turned to electro-acoustic music. Working in a studio made it possible for him to be the interpreter of his own work, which ensured a certain continuity with music of oral tradition. The pieces presented here were produced between 1972 and 1974 in a studio dedicated to electro-acoustic music, the S.M.E.C.A, which was part of the Music Workshop founded by Jorge Arriagada in Paris. The studio was equipped with EMS and Minimoog synthesizers, a piano, a marimba, a xylophone, as well as various percussion instruments and a tape delay system. The practice of electro-acoustics may have been a mere parenthesis in Ahmed Essyad's long and prolific career as a composer of contemporary music, but the works presented here are nonetheless important. They show how strongly he both supported North African popular forms of expression and opposed its folklorizing through simplistic and "exotic" representations. It's not about fusing together East and West -- impossible, he says: "the real point is to open up an imaginary space where another modernity can exist outside the largely Eurocentric framework of avant-garde music. Synthesis means anticipation, knowledge. As for me, I'm increasingly ignorant. I write to discover what I don't know. Music feeds me, it pollinates me. It's my daily wine."

"Ted Lucas' self-titled album appears on Third Man Records, for the first time on vinyl since 2018, pressed in Detroit at Third Man Pressing. This self-titled work published album by singer-songwriter and master guitarist Ted Lucas has achieved an almost mystical reputation among aficionados and collectors. Ted Lucas is a seamless marriage of moody odes and raga style instrumentals regarded by many to be, simply put, the greatest private press folk/psych album ever recorded. Lucas was a fixture in the Detroit rock scene of the sixties and seventies. In 1972, the demo for Warner Brothers which would become Ted Lucas was recorded at Motown, and released in two private editions in 1975 and known informally to friends and family as The OM Album, after Lucas' own label. The album was released with artwork by the legendary Stanley Mouse originally created for Jimi Hendrix. RIYL: John Fahey, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake."

Limited 2025 repress. You Never End is the third album from Valentina Magaletti, Tom Halstead, and Joe Andrews (Moin) out via AD 93. Its title alone expresses the teetering and shifting nature of both the album and band. This record marks the Moin's shift into a new phase with vocal collaborations across the album from Olan Monk, james K, Coby Sey and Sophia Al-Maria. The album's collaborators all have voices that are alluring in their own right whilst hard to pin down: from james K's ethereal, reverb drenched vocals, Coby Sey's words that bounce and echo across London's concrete streets and Olan Monk's emotive songwriting, while artist Sophie Al-Maria's voice and thoughts are known to stretch across her multidisciplinary practice as an artist, filmmaker and writer. The unique mystique of each collaborator is maintained throughout the record while simultaneously opening Moin up to new possibilities, in a gentle shifting alchemy. Continuing their enigmatic re-configuring of the traditional band, Moin use a mix of conventional and unique production and compositional techniques. Subtly re-framing the current conversation about what the band in 2024 needs to be, Moin walk the line between what's reassuringly familiar and what's unsettling and inquisitive. You Never End is a more sensitive record in sentiment, it re-contextualizes grunge, shoegaze and indie rock with a weirdly comforting melancholy while still sounding direct and alive. Showing Moin at their most accessible, the vocal collaborations bring the most articulate moments and lucid emotion while still remaining uniquely within Moin's established world. Alongside this, the record fine tunes the elements of electronic production that have always been a feature of the band's unique sound in a deeply subtle way. Elements are simpler and more direct, offering robust functional support as well as textural and emotional resonance. Together they show the potential for both practices to intertwine. You Never End is both produced and mixed by Tom and Joe, demonstrating the extended range of control the pair have over the band's sound, and their ability to truly hold together Moin's intricate world.

Passivité is the entrancingly beautiful debut solo album from You Ishihara, the founder of Japan's legendary White Heaven. Originally released on CD in 1997, it received scant attention. Since then, it has steadily gathered adherents, who, like P.S.F. Records founder Hideo Ikeezumi, have praised its tremendous depth and discovered that they experience something new each time they listen. The album draws from rock and psychedelic music, the sounds of '60s America as well as elements of jazz, bossa nova, soul, and even electronic music. Joined by a choice group players including Michio Kurihara (White Heaven) on guitar, Chiyo Kemekawa (Yura Yura Teikoku) on bass, and Koji Shimura (Acid Mothers Temple), Ishihara creates an enigmatic late-night meditation that unfolds in a cool darkness pierced by scattered flashes of light and heat. Listening back today, Passivité sounds timeless and encapsulates the concepts and brilliance that have marked Ishihara's near 50-year career and standing as a key figure in the history of Japanese underground music. Black Editions presents Passivité for the first time on vinyl in a meticulously remastered deluxe edition with notes by Masato Matsumura (Studio Voice, Tokion) and by Shinji Shibayama (Nagisa Ni Te, Org Records). Pressed to high quality vinyl at Record Technology Inc. Housed in a metallic silver tip-on jacket with gloss film laminate finish, matte pigment stamping, two inserts with liner notes in Japanese and English.

Originally issued on Fonit Cetra label in 1972, and then re-released on Black Saint in 1976, this is Enrico Rava's legendary first album. An eclectic yet organic mix of open lyricism and NYC funk groove. Backed up by Bruce Johnson on electric guitar, Chip White on drums and Marcello Melis on double bass (one of the true unsung heroes in Italian creative jazz), Rava shines throughout the whole album with his very distinctive sound and his deep sense of melody. After more than 40 years this marvelous debut still sounds fresh and vital as ever.

2025 repress. Altın Gün offer an exciting mix of Turkish folk, psychedelia, funk, and rock. After performing in Istanbul with Jacco Gardner, bassist Jasper Verhulst became fascinated by the Turkish sound of the '70s. At that time, artists like Selda, Barış Manço, and Erkin Koray combined traditional music with western rock influences. Along with bandmates Ben Rider (guitar) and Nic Mauskovic (drums), Verhulst searched for Turkish musicians to revive this sound. They found Merve Dasdemir (vocals) and Erdinc Yildiz Ecevit (vocals, saz, keys) through Facebook. Jungle by Nigaht's energetic percussionist Gino Groeneveld joined the group and the band was complete. Altın Gün play songs from the aforementioned artists from the '70s and their lesser-known contemporaries and also make their own arrangements of Turkish traditionals. This way, different worlds meet and form a refreshing danceable sound.

2025 restock; Fourth volume in the BYG Actuel series; gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl. "A great recording session for the French BYG Actuel label dated August 12, 1969. Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp met up with members of the Chicago avant-garde school including Art Ensemble Of Chicago members Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell and Malachi Favors. Featuring also Dave Burrell, Sunny Murray, Philly Joe Jones, Art Taylor, Clifford Thornton, Earl Freeman among the others."

Performed by Carlos Cipa. The new recording of The Book of Sounds is an intimate exploration of the piano by pianist Carlos Cipa -- a way of looking into the sound, of listening into the moment when Cipa's fingers press down on the piano keys. The Book of Sounds, composed between 1979 and 1982 by composer and pianist Hans Otte, is a musical pendulum movement of one hour in twelve "pieces," as the composer himself describes them. Chords and melodies repeat themselves, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly; they follow each other in harmonic cadences and yet never dissolve -- a timeless back and forth. The Book of Sounds is the European-German answer to the concert music of American minimalism. But it is also the essence of many questions about society and the human condition at that time. Inspired by Zen Buddhism, Otte was convinced that a return to simplicity, to the unagitated -- a piano, harmonic cadences, a middle register -- frees the listener to focus on what is really important in art: the human being. Introspection begins with listening. Seldom have simple chords and melodies been so selectively staged. It is a process of endless reduction -- no wild sound dramaturgies, no climaxes, hardly any beginning or end. The interpreting pianist simply prepares a tableaux of perception for the listener. Cipa naturally sets accents; he recorded the 12 pieces on three different pianos -- a Steinway grand piano, a Yamaha piano, and a Yamaha CP-70, an early electric piano -- to help shape the tonal characteristics. Carlos Cipa hits the nerve of the times with this new recording. What music can be as art is still up for debate today. The Book of Sounds is not "art-proof" and in this it is still a provocation today; absolutely unspectacular and practicing relaxation. It is a wonderful invitation to feel, experience, and perhaps even find oneself in the confrontation with the work -- and for a moment not to fuel the discourse. Cipa, who otherwise appears as a composer himself, here carries out Otte's intended gesture of withdrawal in a double sense and steps into the background as creator but also interpreter, in order to bequeath The Book of Sounds to the loudspeakers and headphones at home in one step forward.

Hardcover. 12.6" L x 9.8" W (2.75 lbs). 192 pages. "Edited with text by Erin Christovale. Foreword by Ann Philbin. Text by Franya J. Berkman. Interviews by Ashley Kahn, Erin Christovale. Rashid Johnson, Cauleen Smith and others pay tribute to a truly extraordinary figure in 20th-century American jazz. This volume unpacks the cultural legacy of musician, spiritual leader, wife and mother Alice Coltrane. Accompanying the eponymous exhibition at Los Angeles' Hammer Museum, the book takes its title from Coltrane's 1977 autobiography and devotional text, Monument Eternal, in which she reflected on her newfound spiritual beliefs and the path to healing and self-discovery. Coltrane was 'ahead of her time,' as her son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, says: she was 'one of the first people to move outside the mainstream, and certainly one of the first female, Black, American jazz musicians to record her own music in her own studio, and to release music on her own terms.' Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal explores themes including spiritual transcendence, sonic innovation and architectural intimacy. The project juxtaposes works from 19 contemporary American artists with pieces of ephemera from Coltrane's archive -- including handwritten sheet music, unreleased audio recordings and rarely seen footage -- to honor her cultural output and practice. Alice Coltrane was born in Detroit in 1937 and took up music at an early age, beginning piano lessons at seven years old. In 1967 her husband, saxophonist John Coltrane, gifted her a harp, on which she went on to record seminal albums including Journey in Satchidananda and A Monastic Trio, making her one of the very few harpists in the history of jazz. Coltrane moved to Southern California in 1972 and founded the Sai Anantam ashram. She lived and worked in Los Angeles, where she died in 2007 at age 69. This book was published in conjunction with Hammer Museum."

The reissue of 1972's Italian jazz funk classic, directed by Il Maestro Piero Umiliani. Trumpetist Francesco "Cicci" Santucci and saxophonist Enzo Scoppa cut their teeth in the late '50s, playing with the Italian group Modern Jazz Gang, along with other Italian jazz greats such as Sandro Brugnolini and Amadeo Tommasi. In June 1971, "il maestro" Piero Umiliani made his Sound Workshop recording studio in the heart of Rome available to them, so that they could create an album under his supervision. The result was Olimpiade, a jazz-funk album featuring Franco d'Andrea on electric piano (who would go on to play with the group Perigeo a year later), and Belgian musician Joel Vendrokenbrak on organ. It should be noted that this session was also released on Dire, under the name On the Underground Road, but is here reissued for the first time with its magnificent original cover. A poster of the artwork and a printed insert featuring the Sound Workshop studio are also included with this reissue.

Sonor Music Editions presents the reissue of the very rare LP Aquarium Sounds by Italian composer Filippo Trecca. Originally released in 1979 as a promo-only item, Aquarium Sounds is a hybrid collection of tracks; some were used as the soundtrack to the thriller TV series Così Per Gioco (1979), directed by Leonardo Cortese; others from the talk show Acquario (1978-1979) hosted by Italian journalist and writer Maurizio Costanzo. The album also includes Elena Tip which features playful vocals by a young Ilona Staller (aka Cicciolina). Aquarium Sounds was composed by Trecca himself, Achille Oliva (bass), Alessandro Alessandroni Jr. (keys), Giancarlo de Matteis (guitars), and Marco Parisi (drums), playing together for the creation of this progressive pop gem sought after by many collectors from around the world. The album, recorded using simple acoustic elements and early synths, is a treasure buried deep into the ocean of time that Sonor Music Editions is bringing back to the surface; a journey into the depths of our music memory as well into the universe of Italian music heritage.

This exceptionally rare library album by Italian composer, musician, and guitarist Mario Molino was first released on the obscure library music imprint B.M.P. during the 1970s. It was later issued on the highly collectible Music Scene label rebranded as Action Beat Group (MSE-144), featuring different track titles and attributed to the pseudonym Luigi Ferracioli. Although much about him remains unknown to this day, Mario Molino was a prominent figure in the world library music, celebrated for his genre-spanning versatility. On one hand, he was a virtuoso classical guitarist, while on the other, he had a strong foundation in jazz and contemporary music. This duality, spanning from classical guitar solos to spaced out psychedelic rock with fuzzed guitars, eccentric funk-infused Hammond organ grooves, proto-hip hop, and orchestral compositions, is reflected in his discography. His catalog includes rare and sought-after releases like Antico e Moderno (C 364) on Fonit's Usignolo series, Love on Vroommm Records, Beat Gregoriano on Montecarlo, I Beats on Pentaphon, alongside numerous library and soundtracks releases. The Diamonds Four stands as a hidden gem in Molino's oeuvre, seamlessly aligning with his best releases, as it contains a superb blend of groovy psychedelic funk, breezy bossa nova, killer jazz beat tunes and expansive mood-music. With only a handful of original pressings ever surfacing over the years, The Diamonds Four (as well as the later issue as Action Beat Group) earned its status as a unique and widely valued record among library and soundtrack enthusiasts worldwide.