"Through the fog of our grief in the wake of the earth-shattering loss of our beloved angel stevie? we announce the release of Mope Grooves' fifth and final album, Box of Dark Roses. A 27 song, two-disc LP of songs that stevie prepared for release before she left. In addition to the music, stevie provided extensive liner notes to accompany the album. These are included with the album in the form of a zine, or as a digital PDF, respectively. Box Of Dark Roses is an LP where the same images repeat and repeat until you might have some idea of what roses have to do with armed struggle, trans autonomy, losing your house (again), angels, women political prisoners, violence returned to sender, suicided poets, refusing to recant, insisting on life, and how the revenge of twenty billion screaming ghost women could unmake the worst of all possible worlds. Performance by stevie (lowercase, no last name, she/her), cap (lowercase, no last name, they/them), Lee Butterfield (they/them), Penny Olives (she/her), Elias Williamson (they/them), Izzy Dupuis, Ana Díaz Sacco (she/they), Clinton O'Brien, Evan Mersky, Ana María Rodríguez (she/her), Ray Aggs (they/them), and Kyle Raquipiso." --Mope Groves

Music To Varnish Owls By. Does Geoff Bastow have a claim for the best album title of all time? It's certainly up there. It's also one of the hardest to find library funk records. But don't let the eye-catching name fool you into thinking this isn't serious business. As a key member of Giorgio Moroder's team, the legendary Geoff Bastow shouldn't need any introduction. You'll be familiar with his singular brilliance as the brains behind the much-sampled boogie/disco classics "You Don't Like My Music (Hupendi Muziki Wangu?!)" and "Don't Stop," released by his group, K.I.D. But 1975's Music To Varnish Owls By is where it all began. It's packed with incredibly soulful, soothing music that -- despite being utilized a few times by Knxwledge -- remains still largely un-mined. So, beat-makers, get cracking. Born in 1949, Bastow was a Munich-based English songwriter and record producer. Originally working as a guitarist and pianist in dance bands around his home county of Yorkshire, he moved to London in the early 1970s and then Munich in around 1976. He was one of the main architects of the Munich disco sound of electronic innovator Giorgio Moroder and also released heaps of killer library records for legendary labels like Bruton, Impress, JW Music Library and the Munich-based Sonoton between the 1970s-2000s. Bastow died tragically young, in Berlin, Germany on 16 March 2007, at the age of just 57. But he left behind a truly incredible electronic music legacy. He deserves to be much better known and this reissue should bring him to a fair few more ears. As ever, the audio for Music To Varnish Owls By has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring it sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

"While there has been plenty of precedent, regarding Alvarius B's fascination with the down and out of Anglo/American cultural refuse, That's How I Got To Memphis is certainly his most realized collection of paying homage to it. The fact that this whole album is a collection of covers that have invaded AB's current musical obsessions is testament to the timeless nature of the original artists songwriting prowess. Imagine Joe Meek coming back from the dead to produce a country western and northern album by a Saginaw miscreant fried up in the Orman botanical gardens of Cairo Egypt. That this album could be a perfect soundtrack to a Paul Lynch sequel to his portrait of failed ambition masterpiece The Hard Part Begins is irrelevant, because it stands alone as a sequel to another AB masterpiece, Baroque Primitiva. That this album also highlights actual OUTSIDER artists from the halcyon days of holy, rebellious, loner losers should give hope, cuz outsider these days means you don't have a gmail account or Meta colonized brain. That's How I Got To Memphis is a superb collection of songs about longing, love lost and found, curios picked up and dropped off, tragedy and hope, confusion and epiphany while stumbling around through back roads to nowhere." --HM

LP version. "Ava Mendoza has never made an album quite as personal as her second solo full-length, The Circular Train. Through her decades of collaborations with Nels Cline, Carla Bozulich, William Parker, Fred Frith, Matana Roberts, and Mick Barr -- plus years leading her power trio Unnatural Ways and playing in Bill Orcutt's quartet -- the guitarist's name has become synonymous with virtuoso technique, raw passion, and visceral resonance, a player pushing the edges of the guitar's possibilities. Along the way, from 2007 to 2023, Mendoza was writing these slow-burning, incandescent songs. The Circular Train is comprised solely of her single-tracked guitar playing and, on two songs, her corporeal singing. Her first solo LP of original material since relocating from California to New York City a decade ago, much of The Circular Train was honed amid pandemic years that clarified the virtues of slowing down. This expressive avant-rock is a definitive introduction to one of the most uncompromising and inquisitive visions in creative music. Mendoza's thrilling melange of free jazz, blues, noise, classical training, and blazing experimental rock'n'roll all coheres with ecstatic feedback, with picking and solos that crest with shimmer. Sometimes she sounds like a one-woman Sonic Youth with guttural and poised vocals that equally evoke Patti Smith and blues greats like Jessie Mae Hemphill.

Carrying on a string of stunning archival releases from major figures of Indian classical tradition (including releases from members of the Dagar family and Amelia Cuni), Black Truffle presents an unheard recording from tabla master Kamalesh Maitra (1924-2005). For over fifty years, Maitra devoted himself to the rare tabla tarang, a set of between ten and sixteen hand drums tuned to the notes of the raga to be performed. While the tabla tarang has its origins in the late 19th century, Maitra was the first to recognize its potential as a solo concert instrument, using the set of tuned drums to perform full-length raags. Seated behind a semi-circular array of drums, Maitra produced stunning waves of melodic improvisation enlivened with the rhythmic invention of a master percussionist. Across his career, Maitra performed in ensembles led by Ravi Shankar, collaborated with George Harrison, and led his own East-West fusion group, the Ragatala Ensemble. However, it is in the solo setting that his remarkable artistry and the otherworldly timbral qualities of the tabla tarang are most strikingly on display. Recorded during the same 1985 Berlin sessions that produced Maitra's self-released solo LP Tabla Tarang: Ragas on Drums, on Raag Kirwani on Tabla Tarang listeners are treated to Maitra stretching out for over forty minutes on the late-night Raag Kirwani, accompanied by Laura Patchen on tabla and Mila Morgenstern and Marina Kitsos on tanpura. The performance begins with the traditional free-floating exposition section, where Maitra's spacious melodic improvisation at times almost resembles a plucked string instrument (like the sarod, which Maitra also played). For the listener unaccustomed to the tabla tarang, the sound of these microtonally inflected melodic patterns played on drums has a magic quality. As Maitra begins to imply the rhythmic cycles more strongly, Patchen joins on tabla, beginning half an hour of rhythmic-melodic exploration, where virtuosity sits side by side with delicacy and meditative attention. Accompanied by beautiful archival images and extensive liner notes from Laura Patchen, for many listeners Raag Kirwani on Tabla Tarang will be the perfect introduction to the magical world of Kamalesh Maitra, released to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the master musician's birth.

2024 repress! "Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy, x2 LPs of long-form, lyrical, groove-based free improv by acclaimed guitarist & composer Jeff Parker's ETA IVtet, is at last here. Recorded live at ETA (referencing David Foster Wallace), a bar in LA's Highland Park neighborhood with just enough space in the back for Parker, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, & alto saxophonist Josh Johnson to convene in extraordinarily depthful & exploratory music making. Gleaned for the stoniest side-length cuts from 10+ hours of vivid two-track recordings made between 2019 & 2021 by Bryce Gonzales, Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy is a darkly glowing séance of an album, brimming over with the hypnotic, the melodic, & patience & grace in its own beautiful strangeness. Room-tone, electric fields, environment, ceiling echo, live recording, Mondays, Los Angeles. Jeff Parker's first double album & first live album, Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy belongs in the lineage of such canonical live double albums recorded on the West Coast as Lee Morgan's Live at the Lighthouse, Miles Davis' In Person Friday & Saturday Night at the Blackhawk, San Francisco & Black Beauty, & John Coltrane's Live in Seattle. While the IVtet sometimes plays standards &, including on this recording, original compositions, it is as previously stated largely a free improv group -- just not in the genre meaning of the term. The music is more free composition than free improvisation, more blending than discordant. It's tensile, yet spacious & relaxed. Clearly all four musicians have spent significant time in the planetary system known as jazz, but relationships to other musics, across many scenes & eras -- dub & Dilla, primary source psychedelia, ambient & drone -- suffuse the proceedings. Listening to playbacks Parker remarked, humorously & not, 'we sound like the Byrds' (to certain ears, the Clarence White-era Byrds, who really stretched it). A fundamental of all great ensembles, whether basketball teams or bands, is the ability of each member to move fluidly & fluently in & out of lead & supportive roles. Building on the communicative pathways they've established in Parker's -- The New Breed -- project, Parker & Johnson maintain a constant dialogue of lead & support. Their sampled & looped phrases move continuously thru the music, layered & alive, adding depth & texture & pattern, evoking birds in formation, sea creatures drifting below the photic zone. Or, the two musicians simulate those processes by entwining their terse, clear-lined playing in real-time. The stop/start flow of Bellerose, too, simulates the sampler, recalling drum parts in Parker's beat-driven projects. Mostly Bellerose's animated phraseologies deliver the inimitable instantaneous feel of live creative drumming. The range of tonal colors he conjures from his extremely vintage battery of drums & shakers -- as distinctive a sonic signature as we have in contemporary acoustic drumming -- bring almost folkloric qualities to the aesthetic currency of the IVtet's language. A wonderful revelation in this band is the playing of Anna Butterss. The strength, judiciousness & humility with which she navigates the bass position both ground & lift upward the egalitarian group sound. As the IVtet's grooves flow & clip, loop & repeat, the ensemble elements reconfigure, a terrarium of musical cultivation growing under controlled variables, a tight experiment of harmony & intuition, deep focus & freedom. For all its varied sonic personality, Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy scans immediately & unmistakably as music coming from Jeff Parker's unique sound world. Generous in spirit, trenchant & disciplined in execution, Parker's music has an earned respect for itself & for its place in history that transmutes through the musical event into the listener. Many moods & shapes of heart & mind will find utility & hope in a music that combines the autonomy & the community we collectively long to see take hold in our world, in substance & in staying power. On the personal tip, this was always my favorite gig to hit, a lifeline of the eremite records Santa Barbara years. Mondays southbound on the 101, driving away from tasks & screens & illness, an hour later ordering a double tequila neat at the bar with the band three feet away, knowing i was in good hands, knowing it would be back around on another Monday. To encounter life at scales beyond the human body is the collective dance of music & the beholding of its beauty, together." --Michael Ehlers & Zac Brenner Pressed on premium audiophile-quality 140 gram vinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing from Kevin Gray/Cohearent Audio lacquers. Mastered by Joe Lizzi, Triple Point Records, Queens, NY.

"All time dub classic, Dub Landing, originally released by Starlight Records in 1981. Now matched with a second disc of original vocal versions of the Linval Thompson productions. The two-disc set includes previously unreleased tracks from Junior Reid, Ranking, and Billy Boyo. Classic reggae, recorded at Channel One, produced by Linval Thompson and mixed by Scientist and Prince Jammy. The album features newly created cover art by renowned illustrator Tony McDermott."

Repressed on LP. Born Herman Poole Blount in Alabama during 1914, Sun Ra first emerged on the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. One of the great avant-garde composers of his generation -- leading the way on piano, organ, and (eventually) synthesizer -- beginning in the mid-1950s and lasting until his death in 1993, led the Arkestra, a band through which a near countless number of important artists passed and collaborated with, and many remained for the duration of their careers, notably Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, and June Tyson. Known for their wild costumes and theatrics, Ra's eccentric image and claims that he was from Saturn was deeply political, imagining an alternate social order, history, and future for African Americans that rests as a pioneering force in the Afro-Futurist movement. Recorded live at Teatro Giulio Cesare on March 28, 1980, comprising an astounding 27 compositions, including the highly celebrated "Astro Black," "Mr. Mystery," "Romance of Two Planets," "Space Is the Place," "We Travel the Spaceways," and "Calling Planet Earth," over six vinyl sides. High among the greatest live gigs by the Arkestra captured on tape, carefully mastered by Matt Bordin at Outside Inside Studio, Live in Rome 1980 is a near perfect snapshot of the band's versatility and range, including many of their most notably and famous songs, as well as striking renditions of the Horace Henderson penned Benny Goodman number "Big John's Special," Fletcher Henderson's "Yeah Man!," and "Limehouse Blues," displaying Ra's willingness to address and rework the entire, diverse history of jazz in a single go. Heard in its totality, perhaps what makes Live in Rome 1980 most striking is the way in which the concert plays out. Roughly the first half encounters the band locked in some of the most out-there, free jazz fire that can be imagined, weaving a startling sense of interplay and furious energy into a brilliant tapestry of writhing sonority, the likes of which were only really achieved by this band. The second half, with only moments of exception that return to the furious energy of the first, is a very different affair, easy toward the vocal standards, led by June Tyson's vocals and the joyous collective chanting of the band, for which they have become so widely celebrated, threading the sounds of off-kilter big band swing with heavy grooves and imagines of outer space.

Edition of 300 copies. Gold foil printed sleeve. Includes 12-page booklet and two leporello inserts printed on translucent paper. On the centenary of the birth of Luigi Nono, the Maurice Quartet -- Georgia Privitera (violin), Laura Bertolino (violin), Francesco Vernero (viola), and Aline Privitera (cello) -- reinterprets the composition for string quartet by the Venetian composer: Fragmente: Stille, An Diotima, dedicated to LaSalle Quartet on the occasion of the thirtieth Beethovenfest in Bonn, in 1980. The driving force of inspiration must have been Beethoven, understood as a radical innovator of the conventions of his time. This same definition was attributed to Nono after composing this work, so much so that the critics of the time spoke of the "turning point work." An extreme chamber music work, at the same time private and political, which Nono himself summarized as follows: "I have not changed at all. Even tenderness, the private has its collective, political side. Therefore my String Quartet is not the expression of a new retrospective line in me, but rather my current position of experimentation: I want the great, rebellious affirmation with the minimum means." The edition includes a set of evocative photographs of the Giudecca in Venice -- which follow the aesthetics of the fragment -- realized by Sophie-Anne Herin and a precious musicological contribution by Francesca Scigliuzzo. The Maurice Quartet -- active for more than twenty years in the field of experimentation between contemporary music, electronics and multimedia -- joins the numerous homages that the world of music pays to Nono one hundred years after his birth with a recording work of great philological and interpretative relevance, aimed at capturing the most intimate and feverish side of one of the most significant composers of the last century.

"One of the most revered, reviled and talked about records in all Australian music history, I'm Stranded by The Saints finally gets the vinyl box set treatment. A joint collaboration between In The Red, Universal Music Australia, and spearheaded by Feel Presents and Saints founder Ed Kuepper, the deluxe edition of I'm Stranded features four vinyl LPs covering all the band's studio and live recordings from 1976 thru 1977 and includes: the iconic debut album remastered for vinyl for the first time in over forty years; A five-song live performance from Paddington Town Hall Sydney 3/4/1977, appearing on vinyl for the first time; A full live performance from the Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival, London November 1977, appearing on vinyl for the first time; All three tracks from the 1977 This Perfect Day 12-inch single and all four tracks from the 1977 1-2-3-4 double 7-inch single; The previously unreleased 1976 demo mix of the full I'm Stranded album. In addition to all that vinyl, the set also features a twenty-eight page 12"x12" photo essay of the band covering their origins from 1973 through the end of'77, an authorized band history, an 8"x10" 1976 promo photo, and a I'm Stranded sticker."

Restocked! Triple LP version. Kompakt presents, finally, a reissue of the first, self-titled GAS album. Originally released on electronica imprint Mille Plateaux back in 1996, it's been unavailable in its original form ever since -- the version of GAS included in 2008's Nah Und Fern box featured several different tracks. Here, however, GAS is restored in all its glory, the debut full-length from Wolfgang Voigt's most enigmatic, quixotic project. There had, of course, been signs of what was to come. Back in 1995, Voigt essayed the first Gas release, a slender, yet remarkable four-track EP, Modern. Its center label featured a reduced symbol -- an overhead or lamp light, switched on, its glow radiating outwards in four bold black lines -- a perfect representation of the tight, stylized ambient electronic pop contained on that 12". A few curious compilation tracks were floating around, too, for Mille Plateaux's Modulation & Transformation and Electric Ladyland series. If you were attentive enough, you could tell something was up. But nothing quite prepared listeners for the languorous, effervescing loops and regular-like-clockwork beats that Voigt folded together on GAS. Its six long tracks, all untitled, neither begin nor end but hazily fade into earshot, vibrate majestically in your cochlea for fifteen-or-so minutes -- some a bit shorter, some longer -- and then meander away, reading the mise-en-scène for the next example of Voigt's drift and dream logic to unfold. The material is referential in the most distant way, and you can sense only the most evanescent of ghostly presences, haunting these six compositions. GAS feels, also, like a more pliable hint at what's to come, as the GAS concept really solidified on its successor, 1997's Zauberberg, and reach its apotheosis on Königsforst and Pop. Those three albums share a very similar palette -- blurred, hazy samples, often of classical music, stacked and cross-thatched across a muted 4/4 thud. GAS, then, is an outlier of sorts: it's more expansive in its remit, lighter in its mood, perhaps more fleet of foot. This, of course, is part of its charm. In clearing space for Voigt, by preparing the terrain, GAS sits both at the edge of the forest, and at the verge of an expansive, wide-eyed future; one where GAS would become truly eternal. Text by Jonathan Dale.

Previously unreleased live recording from the Ranta archives. The creative duo of Michael Ranta and Takehisa Kosugi performed many times in the 1970s and 1980s. In this outstanding performance, recorded at the Japanese Culture Institute in Cologne in 1987, the application of an advanced multi delay system, independently utilized by both players, plays a central role. The smartly treated cyclic tapestry of the delay system (modulated, transformed, harmonized) injects additional dimensions to the highly coordinated improvisation with voice, percussion, violin and electronics, creating interactive "composition-like" textures being Multiple Musics.

Aguaturbia (1970) is an essential album to understand the construction of Chilean rock. This very influential album is raw and dynamic, featuring heavy rhythms, distortion, and exceptional phased female vocals reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane. It comprises original compositions and electrifying renditions of songs brought to fame by the likes of Tommy James & The Shondells, The Beatles, and, of course, Jefferson Airplane elevating these classics to new heights of intensity and rhythmic allure. Aguaturbia's debut album was originally released in 1970 and showcases one of South America's most significant psychedelic bands from the late '60s and early '70s. Their influence in their native Chile -- and beyond -- was groundbreaking. It was played live in 1969 on three tracks, and it became an icon of transgression due to its unbridled musical aesthetics and cover art that -- for the time of its irruption -- meant a clear defiance of the conservative logics lived in Chile, which saw in the nudity of the cover a challenge to morality and good manners. The album is raw and dynamic, featuring heavy rhythms, distortion, and exceptional phased female vocals reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane. Guitarist Carlos Corales shines and when he played solos at the gigs, the effect on the audience was silence and euphoria at the same time, they couldn't believe what they heard. Everything was done with a professional attitude. In fact, Carlos Corales (guitar) and Willy Cavada (drums) were both professional musicians who had made a previous career in rock and roll bands. The LP showcases breathtaking moments, like Willy Cavada's masterful drum solo in "Ah Ah Ah Ay" captured flawlessly in a single take. Dive into the sensual psychedelic journey of "Erotica," where Denise's alluring vocals dance harmoniously with Carlos' electrifying guitar. Plus, don't miss their thrilling renditions of "Somebody to Love" and "Crimson and Clover" -- each track elevating classics to new heights of intensity and rhythmic allure. This album is more than music; it's an invitation to experience sheer auditory bliss!

Studio 1 and Freiland are the classics of Wolfgang Voigt's formally minimalist 1990s concept techno. Disc one is a continuous mix of Studio 1 classics and disc two is a continuous mix of the greatest Freiland hits! Don´t DJ!

Restocked. CHBB was a project by Beate Bartel (Mania D./Matador) and Chris Haas (DAF) that developed from their collaboration in 1981, while working on the self-titled album Liaisons Dangereuses. They released their music only on four limited cassettes. This compilation presents the complete works of CHBB, including all recordings from their original cassettes alongside previously unreleased tracks produced by both artists.

"On the cover: English musical/comedy/Dada geniuses the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, their riotous story based on interviews with the three surviving band members. And Australian '70s punk rock and roll heroes the Saints: Part One of an amazing interview with Ed Kuepper. Also featured: the tragic tale of '60s West Coast mystery group Weird Herald, Part 3 of Rob Symmons' revelatory Subway Sect memoirs, Canadian '60s garage/psychsters the Fringe, and the pre-history of one of the greatest post-sixties psychedelic bands, Plasticland. And lots more, including the indispensable review sections covering all the latest vinyl and CD reissues, and rock 'n' roll-related books."

LP version. "Coyote Butterfly is the first album of new songs in two years from singer-songwriter, Simon Joyner, following the overdose death of his son, Owen, in August of 2022. Drawing on the kaleidoscopic nature of grief, Joyner explores his loss through a series of imagined dialogues and raw confessions. The album is a tribute to Owen, but what Joyner generously delivers is an intimate glimpse at his attempt to comprehend the incomprehensible. The album is bookended by field recordings overlaid with minimalist guitar laments. The first, a spring thrum of sparrows and red-winged blackbirds, functions as an invitation to the elegies which follow, while the last, the late-August drone of cicadas returns us to a life of sweat on the skin, sirens in the distance, and the things we cannot change but must somehow accept. In between these instrumentals, Joyner grapples with regret and fear, shame and love. From the opening song, 'I'm Taking You With Me' to the gut-wrenching remorse of 'My Lament,' Joyner lays bare the struggles of those left in the wake of personal devastation. On the title track, we hear Joyner perform an elemental incantation, a heartbroken ode infused with forgiveness. The final song of the album, 'There Will be a Time,' is a meditation on a future where such suffering, both personal and universal, might be softened by understanding. The musicians playing alongside Simon on Coyote Butterfly are among his closest friends; David Nance, James Schroeder, Kevin Donahue, Ben Brodin, and Michael Krassner. It's thanks to their sensitive arrangements and loving support that the songs on Coyote Butterfly could be performed and documented."

Restocked; LP version. US singer-songwriter legend Amy Rigby presents her new album Hang In There With Me through Tapete Records. Eleven up-to-the minute songs written by Amy and recorded by Wreckless Eric at the couples' home in upstate NY, Hang In There With Me is a bracing look at life inside the vortex of the last few years. Rigby's distinctive voice bluntly traverses love, loss and DIY projects gone wrong over guitars cranked or shimmering, indelible bass lines, a raft of synthesizers, keyboards, beat boxes and the occasional drummer allowed into Amy and Erics rustic mid-century echo chamber. Like some people turn to the moon and stars for inspiration, Amy Rigby looks to creative heroes like Bob Dylan and Mike Leigh. She finds poetry in haircuts, live chat boxes; bartending and bookselling. Her music is the sound of everyday people getting by, just like the country artists she loved and learned to write songs from. The recording of Hang In There With Me was bookended by Amy performing in the round alongside Nashville compadre David Olney when he died onstage in January 2020, and the demise of Amy's dad. Along with Eric's near-fatal heart attack, it could have all made for heavy going in the studio, but Amy says: "There was nothing to hide in the few years when no one could see each other. And with my dad losing his mind and passing away, there's not much left to prove anymore. Watching key figures in our lives die just makes it clear that getting older is a gift and brings a new kind of freedom. Writing songs, making records and touring has been my life and I'm lucky I have the energy and will to keep at it. I still just want to share stories and rock out on guitar. The world is such a mess she says. Writing songs and working in the studio is a small way to make order out of the chaos. It keeps on giving me hope. Hang In There With Me looks at the impossibility of life and living it anyway, with abandon." Amy Rigby has established herself one of Americas enduring underground/cult/indie artists, combining the insight and humor of country and folk songwriting with classic rock craftsmanship and punk DIY spirit. She formed pre-Americana country band Last Roundup (Rounder) and Richard Hells' favorite girl group the Shams (Matador) in downtown NYC before launching a solo career with '90s classic album Diary Of A Mod Housewife.

2024 restock; first time reissue of Wganda Kenya's Africa 5.000, originally released in 1975. Africa 5.000 (1975) has a legendary reputation as one of Colombia's best hard-to-find Afro-funk records and is a highly prized collector's piece today. The epic "La Torta" (The Cake) kicks things off with a lively Colombian interpretation of Haitian compas. The tune is still remembered as a big picó (amplified sound system) hit at the verbenas (outdoor dance parties). "Fiebre De Lepra" (Leprosy Fever) was also released as a 45 single and is certainly one of Wganda Kenya's wilder tracks. Funky wah-wah guitar, makossa style bass, manic organ, and feverishly insane vocals (from Wilson "Saoko" Manyoma and Joe Arroyo) indicate that Fruko and his pals were having a ball goofing around in the studio. If for no other reason, Africa 5.000 is sought-after for being the album containing Fruko and Javier García's outrageously funky and off-kilter "Tifit Hayed", which has become a tropical dancefloor favorite in recent years. Again the "kitchen sink" approach is employed, including massive Latin bass lines, tasty Farfisa organ stabs, a bluesy, jazzy piano solo, and plenty of humorous vocal sound effects (including animal noises and lip burbling). However, it's the stomping break beats and cowbell counterpoint that has kept dance floors busy. Side B leaps out of the speakers with the heavy, strutting "El Caterete", which was the flipside to the "Fiebre De Lepra" single and is based on the 1970 song "Cateretê" by Brazilian singer/songwriter Marku Ribas. Like its sibling Fuentes studio band Afrosound, Wganda Kenya was ahead of its time, anticipating current contemporary Afro-Latin-funk trends in a prescient way that has inspired a legion of fans across the globe, and this reissue of Africa 5.000 will only serve to further cement the band's growing reputation amongst today's diggers of tropical psychedelia. Includes a non-album bonus cut, plus informative notes.

2024 restock; LP version. Formed in Germany in 1971 when Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius left Conrad Schnitzler's group Kluster, Cluster can be counted among the most important protagonists of the electronic avant-garde. Some credit them with having invented ambient music, others as pioneers of synthesizer pop, while to others they are firmly embedded in the Krautrock universe. There is some truth in all of these notions. Although Cluster and "rock music" are seldom mentioned in the same breath, their early works in particular are marked by a lack of structure and futuristic, cold soundscapes typical of the Krautrock variation known as "kosmische." Recorded and released in 1979, Grosses Wasser was Cluster's fifth album as a duo. The cover art is the first indication of minimalist tendencies, reflecting the concentration, transparency and maturity of the content, almost like chamber music. While nothing is left to chance, each of the six Cluster pieces effervesces with a certain joie de vivre, providing ample scope for artistic spontaneity. Grosses Wasser was recorded at Paragon Studio, which had been set up by Peter Baumann (Tangerine Dream) not long before. Baumann had set aside plenty of time for the recording sessions, enabling Cluster to experiment with sequencers for the first time and explore some of the most up-to-date (for that period) studio gadgets on offer. Moebius and Roedelius made intelligent, measured use of the latest paraphernalia without being overwhelmed by it. New technology was deployed with an exactness designed to refine their sophisticated and fully-developed musical ideas. More than ever before in Cluster's history, acoustic elements can be heard, with the dulcet tones of Paragon's Steinway grand piano taking center stage. Electric bass, guitar, percussion and voice are all embraced. Consequently, Grosses Wasser is anything but a solely electronic album. It is, however, one of those rare LPs whose musical substance transcends its age, never sounding outdated. Grosses Wasser is the first in a series of 23 albums to be reissued by Bureau B, comprehensively documenting the superb electronic/ambient/Krautrock history of the Hamburg label, Sky Records, from whom the material has been licensed. Cluster (in their various guises) will feature heavily in the series (solo albums as well as collaborations with Brian Eno, Conny Plank, Gerd Beerbohm, Mani Neumeier, etc.). Printed inner sleeve includes liner notes by Asmus Tietchens.

2024 repress; LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Half speed mastered; Heavy sleeve and obi. We Release Jazz announce the official reissue of Ryo Fukui's final album, the very personal contemporary jazz offering, A Letter from Slowboat, sourced from the original masters. Known for his miraculous albums 1976's Scenery (WRJ 001CD/LP) and 1977's Mellow Dream (WRJ 002CD/LP), legendary Hokkaido pianist Ryo Fukui, with the help of his wife Yasuko, opened his very own jazz club in Sapporo in 1995, Slowboat. This is where Ryo Fukui spent the latter half of his career, playing again and again, welcoming peers for unforgettable sessions, and perfecting the craft he lived for: jazz. A Letter from Slowboat is a poetic, soulful, and honest love letter to Hokkaido, to Fukui's jazz club, and to endless hours of practicing artistry in a place called home. Backed by longtime collaborators Takumi Awaya on bass, and Ittetsu Takemura on drums, Ryo Fukui flows through classics and originals with natural class, fluidity, and absolute precision, expressing a smooth balance between skills and heart. Slowboat, full of breathtaking solos and exquisite moments of clarity, is another crucial piece in the career of one of the most fascinating jazzmen to ever grace the piano. It was released in 2016, sadly the year Ryo Fukui passed away, leaving behind a legacy of works that is sure to captivate jazz lovers for generations to come, and Slowboat, where the magic still happens to this day. Reissued in conjunction with 1999's Ryo Fukui in New York (WRJ 009CD/LTD-LP), also available via We Release Jazz.

"This is a reissue of the original 7", newly pressed in 2024. The cut was initially created for the Dischord 7" box set. These songs are also available on the 1981: The Year In Seven Inches CD, the Minor Threat Complete Discography CD, and the Two Seven Inches 12" EP. Originally released on 7" in June 1981. Ian MacKaye: vocals. Lyle Preslar: guitar. Brian Baker: bass. Jeff Nelson: drums. Recorded at Inner Ear Studios. Produced by Skip Groff."

Arthur Russell first visited The Gallery in 1976 with his then boyfriend Louis, who introduced him to Nicky Siano. Arthur became a regular at the space and one night as Siano was playing "Turn the Beat Around," which had just been released, Arthur waved at him from outside the booth and asked to come in. Nicky opened the door and Arthur suggested they make a record like this together. This ended up being a huge step for Siano as it marked the first ever production by a DJ making a record from scratch. Arthur had written a song and had an arrangement for it so they assembled a band featuring Wilbur Bascomb who was one of Nicky's favorite bassists, as well as, Allan Schwartzberg, David Byrne, Miriam Valle, Peter Gordon, and Peter Zummo, who were all friends of Arthur's. Russell played the cello and piano -- and that was the band. They recorded throughout 1977 and the Kiss Me Again 12" was finally released in 1978 on Sire Records selling more than 300,000 copies. Week-End Records presents the first ever reissue by this outstanding disco production. Remastered from the original tapes. With liner notes by David Byrne, Nicky Siano, Peter Gordon and Peter Zummo.

Anton Newcombe and Dot Allison present an album together under the moniker All Seeing Dolls. Anton Newcombe is the founder, the sole constant and the creative mastermind at the center of one of music's most fascinating bands; Brian Jonestown Massacre. He's a frontman, songwriter, composer, studio owner, multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, father and force of nature. There have been 21 BJM albums over the last 30 years, each embarking on their own mind-expanding adventure and exploring the outer realms of rock'n'roll; psychedelic rock, country-blues, snarling rock'n'roll, blissed-out noise-pop and more. Newcombe has established himself as a once-in-a-lifetime talent, a revolutionary force in modern music and an underground hero. Dot Allison released her debut solo album Afterglow in 1999. Over the years she has strived to keep the listener on a journey -- and herself too. She revolts against what she has done before, to evolve and not just occupy the same space. That journey has taken her from Afterglow's broad church to the sultry synth-pop of We Are Science (2002), the lush, baroque Exaltation Of Larks (2007) and the eclectic, rootsy drama of Room 7½ (2009). After a hiatus to raise her family she returned with the graceful acoustic folk record Heart-Shaped Scars (2021) and the haunting, barely there beauty of Consciousology (2023). The range of guest stars on Allison's records is equally broad: where else would you find a cast list that includes Kevin Shields, Hal David, Paul Weller, Pete Doherty, and Darren Emerson.

Jump Ship, Sit Lean, Be Still, Stand Tall is a collaborative LP from BZDB, comprised of Duncan Bellamy and Belinda Zhawi (MA.MOYO). The record is a collection of sonic-poetry setting Zhawi's illuminating, elliptical words in dialogue with diffuse, explorative music and sound by Bellamy. Together they render these disparate forms into something distinct, melancholic and luminous, fluctuating between expansive contemporary classical arrangements and intimate layered vocal experiments. Belinda Zhawi (b. Zimbabwe) is a literary and sound artist based in London and Marseille, author of Small Inheritances, and experiments with sound/text performance as MA.MOYO. Her work explores African diaspora research and narratives, and how art and education can be used as intersectional tools. Her literary and sound works have been featured on various platforms including The White Review, Vogue, NTS, Boiler Room and BBC Radio. She's held residencies with TriangleAsterides, France; Cove Park, Scotland; Serpentine Galleries; ICA London and was a Brixton House Associate Artist 2022-24. Belinda is the co-founder of literary arts platform, BORN::FREE. Zhawi is working on her first full poetry collection. Duncan Bellamy (b. Cambridge, UK) lives and works in London. Encompassing painting, photography, sound and music, his diverse practice explores the correlation and discrepancy of our present with the distant past. He is a founding member of Mercury Prize nominated Portico Quartet and has contributed sound work to the artist Hannah Collins audio-visual installation I Will Make Up A Song as well as to Hania Rani's latest album Ghosts. Bellamy is working towards a solo exhibition and an album of new music.

LP version. Clear color vinyl Mirror Phase concludes a trilogy of minimal ambient albums in Jonas Munk's own name. These eight compositions, based on guitar and synthesizer loops, marks a return to the warmer sounds Munk is often associated with. Sonic structures that slowly and gradually evolves and changes, like cloud formations in the sky. The title track "Mirror Phase" is Munk's most expansive drone opus so far. It's a carefully arranged piece where sounds that oscillates with the same interval, but at different phases, are continuously added, hence creating shifting patterns throughout the track's nearly 18-minute duration. Elsewhere, in "Transition," multi-layered guitars create the sonic equivalent of waves gently splashing on the shore. "At a Distance" creates a haunting, and hypnotic, soundscape by using slightly out-of-tune analog synthesizers, summoning the transcendent krautrock of Popol Vuh. "Rise," as well as the closing track "Return to Nowhere," recall the glistening sounds of his Manual releases. Mirror Phase might just be Munk's ambient oeuvre reaching its zenith. RIYL: Fripp & Eno, William Basinski, Christopher Willits, Stars of the Lid.

Re-release of Blue Chemise's debut LP Influence On Dusk, which originally appeared in 2017 as a limited private release of 105 copies. BAADM make this much sought-after record available again on both physical and digital format, with remastered sound by Christophe Albertijn and updated artwork, all true to the original intentions of, and in close collaboration with, the artist. Influence On Dusk forms an idiosyncratic cycle of fourteen mysterious, sometimes uncanny electroacoustic compositions, a personal and subdued eruption of "melancholy of the healthy kind," suddenly here and suddenly gone. This is the second release on B.A.A.D.M. by the Australian artist Mark Gomes, following his equally atmospheric but more romantic Flower Studies from 2021.

The 2015 edition of Winnipeg's send + receive festival, focussed on rhythm, turned out to be a generative meeting of minds. There, Mark Fell encountered the music of Will Guthrie, a meeting that was eventually to result in the frenetic acoustic drumkit and digital synthesis pairing heard on Infoldings and Diffractions (2020). At the same festival, Limpe Fuchs first heard and appreciated the music of Mark Fell, planting the seed of a collaboration that came to fruition when Fell (along with his son Rian Treanor) visited Fuchs at her home in Peterskirchen, Germany in September 2022. Black Truffle now presents the release of the results of this extensive session in the audacious form of a triple LP, housing over two hours of music across its six sides. The collaboration might appear unlikely: what common ground could exist between Fuchs, classically trained pianist, legend of improvised music, instrument builder and sound sculptor active since the 1960s, whose group Anima Sound connected the dots between free jazz, krautrock and ritual, and Fell, proponent of radical computer music, known for his bracingly austere productions that twist remnants of club music into algorithmic stutters. For all their seeming disparity in technology, approach and background, the music on Dessogia/Queetch/Fauch makes it immediately evident the pair share a great deal in their essentially percussive approach and ability to, in Fuch's phrase, "establish silence." Recording at her home studio, Fuchs had the use of her entire array of instruments, found, invented, and traditional, and treats the listener to some that don't often make their way to concerts, including extensive passages performed (with Gundis Stalleicher) on pieces of wooden parquetry. Fell also stretched himself, with his contributions ranging from characteristically fizzing pitched percussive pops to swarms of sliding tones and abstract digital noise. Showing both remarkable restraint and improvisational freedom, much of the music consists of duets between a single percussion instrument and a distinctive mode of digital sound, often lingering in one timbral-rhythmic space for minutes at a time. Improvisational forward momentum coexists with a free-floating, wandering quality. Epic in scope, immersing the listener in an entirely distinctive world of sounds, and thrillingly bold in its melding of the most ancient musical procedures with cutting edge technologies, Dessogia/Queetch/Fauch is an unexpected major statement from two of the great mavericks of contemporary music.

Limited edition pressing of 500 copies worldwide. All pressed on cream colored vinyl, housed in a full color sleeve with leather effect laminate, with hype sticker and black polylined inner bag. Continuing Riot Season's quest to get all of the classic early AMT albums released on vinyl, the label now turns to 2004's Mantra Of Love with the help of Makoto Kawabata's studio wizardry. This latest instalment in the Acid Mothers Temple Vinyl Archives - First Time On Vinyl series has been meticulously put together with the help of Makoto Kawabata with the original CD artwork recreated for these vinyl editions from archive photos stored in the vaults at the Acid Mothers Temple in Osaka, Japan and the original audio remastered by James Plotkin. Here's what Pitchfork had to say upon its original CD only release back in 2004: "Acid Mothers are strong folk. You'd think they'd tire quickly, all tucked away on their island, strewn about on tree roots while baking their lungs and throats to a knotty green tinge. But instead of waltzing through life like hippies, they manage to not only tour and put out records every year, but also to fill those albums with 30-minute jams and assorted freakouts. And while evil jam bands would fill that space with guitar work taken from the Classic Rock Manual of Clichés, Makoto Kawabata and company assault listeners with frighteningly dense walls of white noise, psychedelic swirl effects and, yes, even guitar solos -- albeit ones that are more Merzbow or Keiji Haino than Gary Rossington. Truly, AMT's endurance and threshold for cosmic lashings are both worthy of admiration." Originally released on CD by Alien8 Recordings in 2004.

In 2007 an Italian film festival invites Mouse on Mars to score a film of their choice. The organizers claim to be able to clear the rights for any movie the band chooses. Werner Herzog's fictional documentary Fata Morgana, which merges footage of several desert explorations by Herzog and his team into one continuous association, has long been a band's favorite. The film comes with a soundtrack by Mozart, Leonard Cohen, Third Ear Band and field recordings. Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner are sent a DVD to Düsseldorf and start working. The idea is to score the film in real time so instrumentation has to be readily at hand: guitar, percussion, electronics, mouth harp, pedals, software, tapes, samplers. Once the arrangement for the three-part film is sorted Mouse on Mars bring their score to stage. Herzog Sessions is performed twice: first when the band still thought the rights had been cleared, and a second time at London's Southbank Center knowing that Herzog would have never approved a new score. Filmed in 1971, Fata Morgana is perhaps not one of Herzog's best-known works, but then Mouse on Mars have never been ones to embrace the mainstream, quietly letting their modern, experimental take on krautrock do the talking over the years, thus producing some quietly brilliant electronica that far outweighs their modest profile. The film itself is not altogether dissimilar to the wonderful, Phillip Glass-scored Koyaanisqatsi, with sweeping landscape shots and no obvious plot or narrative, though Fata is concentrated purely in one place -- in and around the Sahara Desert, switching from images of barren wasteland to desert tribes and dead, skeletal cattle. The obvious thing to do when soundtracking such powerful imagery is to vie for dreamy electronic soundscapes which can be sustained for a long period, and whilst this ambient shoegaze approach was present and correct (also carefully constructed and highly effective), Mouse on Mars added a human element to the performance, incorporating a live dimension by using and looping guitars, harmonicas, processed vocals and even a live horn player for the final section of the film. Some of the most interesting points arose when the duo suddenly switched from solemn, ambient tones to glitchy, bouncing electro (reminiscent of their more upbeat work) whilst on the same film shot -- causing the audience mood to flick from tripped-out bliss to attentive semi-wired, utterly subverting any idea of a narrative the film may have possessed.

Souffle Continu presents Byard Lancaster -- The Complete Palm Recordings 1973-1974, the definitive seven LP deluxe package of Philadelphia born jazz wizard Byard Lancaster, including his four legendary albums released on Jef Gilson's Palm Records in the 1970s: Us, Mother Africa, Exactement, and Funny Funky Rib Crib, along with the first ever standalone edition of "Love Always," a fifteen minute modal jazz beauty plus a 20-page booklet with rare photos and in-depth article about Byard Lancaster's Parisian years by Pierre Crépon. At the beginning of the 1960s, at the Berklee College of Music, Byard Lancaster met some feisty friends: Sonny Sharrock, Dave Burrell, and Ted Daniel. Once he was settled in New York, he appeared on Sunny Murray Quintet, recorded under the leadership of the drum crazy colleague of Albert Ayler. In 1968, the saxophonist and flutist recorded his first album under his own name: It's Not Up To Us. He would come back to France in 1971 and in 1973. This is when he met Jef Gilson, the pianist and producer who encouraged him to record under his own name again. On Palm Records (Gilson's label), he would release four albums: Us, Mother Africa, Exactement, and Funny Funky Rib Crib. Us, the first of the four records was recorded on November 24th, 1973 with Sylvin Marc on electric bass and the evergreen Steve McCall on drums. A few months after recording Us, Lancaster recorded Mother Africa along with Clint Jackson III, a trumpeter, partner of Khan Jamal or Noah Howard on other recordings. The recording of Exactement required two sessions in the studio: February 1st and May 18th 1974. Two names appear on the cover of Exactement: Lancaster (Byard) and Speller (Keno). Funny Funky Rib Crib is an unforgettable recording (made up of several sessions dating from the middle of 1974) of creative jazz overwhelmed by funk and soul. If Lancaster had already made successful albums in the same genre, this one is an homage to James Brown and Sammy Davis. The magnificent "Love Always" was originally released on the fourth (and last) volume of the Jef Gilson Anthology series released in 1975. Recorded on 8th March 1974, it is a beautiful 15-minute-long modal jazz piece. Four notes from the bass (the relentless Jean-François Catoire, who makes up the rhythm section alongside drummer Jonathan Dickinson and percussionist Keno Speller), and the group is up and running! On piano, Gilson shows the subtle tact of a sideman, leaving the lions' share of the place to the horns. And if further proof was required of the confidence that Byard Lancaster and Jef Gilson inspire, "Love Always" provides it on this one-sided release exclusive to the box set. Carefully restored and remastered by Gilles Laujol. Graphic design by Stefan Thanneur.

"cLOUDDEAD's debut album, compiling six 10" EPs that appeared between 2000-2001, is aurally dense and obscured. A sprawling mass of miniature beat-suites and Dadaist lyrics, this strange and beautiful 3LP would influence a myriad of sub-genres (cloud rap, hauntology, lo-fi hip-hop, etc.) in the two decades since its initial release. Only the three members of cLOUDDEAD can speak to the group's origins, but in the context of underground hip-hop towards the end of the 20th century, their arrival makes perfect sense. Cincinnati had a vital scene; home to Scribble Jam, an annual confluence of MCs, DJs, B-boys and graffiti artists. While the trio soon relocated to the Bay Area where they co-founded the Anticon collective, their Midwestern roots -- in ramshackle basements of off-campus hovels, as the 'cerberus of Southern Ohio' -- would remain the atomic heart of their early recordings. As Chris Martins writes in the liner notes, 'The only reason we know their names today is because of how loudly and curiously they aired their insularity. They rewrote the entire world as they knew it through their own fucked perspective, and when those mysterious 10-inches started popping up in record shops, it wasn't just a puzzle to investigate: there seemed to be a whole cosmology hidden in those grooves.' Each side of the album represents one of those elusive 10-inches, each embodying a universe unto itself. Opening salvo 'Apt. A' and 'And All You Can Do Is Laugh' are perhaps most emblematic of the cLOUDDEAD experience. 'Why?' and 'Dose' create a new language through boundless non-sequiturs, sing-song non-choruses and call-and-response hooks, while 'Nosdam''s dexterous production shifts from crackling ambience of 'Flying Saucer Attack' to tight 'Ohio Players' drum breaks and oblique film samples. Taken all together, cLOUDDEAD is an original interpretation of hip-hop in the surreal Y2K glow -- a bizarre meeting point between William Basinski's Disintegration Loops and MF DOOM's Operation: Doomsday. All it took was a Dr. Sample SP-202, Tascam cassette eight-track and cheap RadioShack mic. There's truly nothing like it. This edition has been faithfully restored by Nosdam. Comes with poster."

The seeds of composer Rafael Anton Irisarri's latest LP were first planted during his 2016 tour in Italy, months before that Autumn's unexpected presidential election. The linguistic glitch of an innocuous diner in Milan named "il Mito Americano" -- meant as "The American Dream" but translated literally to English as "The American Myth" -- sparked a series of ideas, both conceptual and musical. Amid the chaos of 2020, while exploring the stark world of brutalist architecture and inspired by the false fronts of Potemkin villages, a vision started to take shape: Façadisms. Composed over three years, it's a late capitalist lament of simmering electric despondency. Irisarri's obsession with repeating motifs mirrors the cyclical nature of a tumultuous political history. The album's eight tracks heave and storm like a tempest being drained of its rage. This is the sound of majestic dissipation, of morning afters, fashioned from a mournful haze with cavernous guitars and granular twilight. A euphony of a receding tide as one sifts through the remnants of what remains: dust, delusion, and memory. Façadisms moves fluidly between moments of absence and abandon. Ashen swaths of electronics billow above smoldering embers of melody, guitar, and scattered streaks of processed strings and voice, as on the rapturous doom of "Control Your Soul's Desire for Freedom," featuring Julia Kent on cello and Hannah Elizabeth Cox on vocals. Co-written with Kenyan sound artist KMRU, "Red Moon Tide" surges from flickering elegy to celestial disquiet, roiling waves of hymnal descent, and bristling noise. The effect is unsettling and unmooring: a soundtrack for the soul leaving the body, only to discover a void. It's the sound of the center not holding, of shared illusions being dissolved in a tunnel of white light. The cover photograph captures a profound sense of desolation. Taken in the historic shanty town of La Perla, Puerto Rico, where Irisarri spent his childhood, brutal colonial mysteries are lost to time. A skeletal concrete structure decays against an expansive blue horizon. Only the shadow of its shell ripples on the empty sea. Has the American myth finally run its course? Also available on blue (BKE 019BL-LP) and clear vinyl (BKE 019PE-LP).

LP version. "In recent years, the introductory texts for the Pop Ambient compilation series, which is released every year on Kompakt as the last release before the Christmas break, often began with the sentence 'Every year again.' 'Every year again,' a quiet, almost unnoticed maxim of self-evidentness. Because this is already the 25th issue to be published this year. 25 years in increasingly fast-moving times in the even faster-moving music business is an eternity that doesn't just feel like it. It is all the more remarkable how I, as someone who is always restless and often driven by this fast pace himself, pleasantly almost haven't realized how -- in pop-ambient contexts -- time does not pass (or passes differently) in the best sense. When compiling the 25th edition I was asked, among other things, what it was like that I was still doing this and whether I had a favorite track. In the spirit of bringing all the tracks together I don't have a favorite track, or all of them. But I have a favorite part (moment) that I played. In this case it was a broad chord in a change of key at minute 2:55 in the piece 'Circles' by Max Würden. A moment of majesty and familiarity that, at that moment, contains the entire Pop Ambient cosmos, that just works and doesn't explain anything -- and I said: 'that's the reason why I'm still doing this.' Pop Ambient is a statement without demands. Is promise without expectation. Is a path without a destination. Every year again." --Wolfgang Voigt, October 2024

As always, the indispensable final mastering by Jörg Burger ensures that everything is brought together and the sound is fine-tuned. And like every year, the 25th edition is of course wrapped in an abstract, floral magic creation by Veronika Unland. Over the years, the grace of her imagery has increasingly merged with the musical aura to form an unmistakable magical symbiosis. Featuring Leandro Fresco/Thore Pfeiffer, Pass Into Silence, Tamarma & Sebastian Mullaert, Sono Kollektiv, Nathalie Brum, Andrew Thomas, Julia Parr, Segensklang, Ümit Han, Max Würden, Blank Gloss, Hendrik Meyer, and Triola Zum.

Fohn brings connection, displacement and new identities into the moment, on pastoral debut album Seanteach -- informed by island life, marine folklore and musical tradition. Connection to the land, the severing of earthly ties, explorations of environment, mythos and generational memory: under the moniker of Fohn, English violinist and producer Tom Connolly takes to the fiddle on which he learned his craft as a child. Forging new bonds with his family's island home off the coastal west of Ireland, their story is retold in Seanteach (Irish for 'old house'), released on Odda Recordings. Each track on the album is a reflection of aspects of that relationship to island life -- where physical features intersect with mythology. Such as, "Boreen," named after a colloquial term for rural byroads sometimes shared with otherworldly neighbors. "Aisling at Sea" draws on the primal, unstoppable momentum of the water, while the folklore of "Immram" reflects on generationally-kept tales of marine bravery and supernatural accomplishment. "The compositions often sit at the fraying edges of memories I've inherited from my own experiences," says Connolly, "that of family lore, or from stories that I have come across. I wanted the compositions to tread the space between documentation and fantasy that feels so reflective of my relationship with this place." Tying these worlds together is the presence and memory of Connolly's "Mamó" (Irish for 'grandmother'), Bríd. Despite passing during Connolly's childhood, this "larger-than-life character" shaped his imagination with anecdotes and stories, representing both a familiar figure, and the poignancies of potential and regret. "Between the Shoreline and the Gorse" channels her early childhood, born to a large Catholic family in the island's "Seanteach," and cast adrift from her old life -- a severance of ties that Connolly attempts to make ethereal amends for, with the album named for her family home. "It's something that feels so visibly prominent in Connemara with its landscapes charcoaled with deserted ruins. It's a feeling I also experience, despite never having lived in Ireland, which prompted me to want to explore the idea of longing for something/somewhere 'un-experienced', and to a certain extent, fictionalized."