Restocked, last copies. One of Prurient's most captivating raids on the borderlands of power noise and symphonic doom rears its furious head once again for this gatefold reissue on Hospital Productions, ten years on from its original release on double tape and then as a single vinyl pressing for the legendary Load Records in 2007. Pleasure Ground stands as a key part of Prurient's golden quadrant alongside The History Of Aids (2002), Black Vase (2005) and Cocaine Death (HOS 232CD/HOS 410LP, 2008), its immolating rage renders Ian Dominick Fernow at an early crest of his energies, consolidating the hi-pitch intensity and bile of his idols, Whitehouse, with the majestic, meditative inspirations of black metal and a more personalized bloodlust for unheimlich synth tones and pulsating electronic undercurrents. Its four long tracks are riven with the paradoxes that make Prurient's music so compelling and practically a genre unto itself, meting out a sound in "Earthworks / Buried In Secret" that's simultaneously nerve-gnawing yet bleakly tender, or weighing up caustic harshness with a melodic vulnerability in "Apple Tree Victim" that appeals far beyond the bombed-out no-man's land of pure noise to intersect with the entrails of EBM in the raging but poised thunder of "Military Road" - one of his finest moments, bar none - and cold-wave pop and fetishistic synth themes in "Outdoorsman / Indestructible". If you're willing to bite down, you will find a depth of bittersweet flavor submerged beneath the tidal waves of white noise filled with nuance and vulnerability, slowly dragging you into the abyss. Ultimately though, there's no mistaking that in the end Pleasure Ground is just unflinchingly fucking heavy. Housed in a deluxe, reverse-board gatefold sleeve. Mastered and cut by Barry Grint at Alechemy.

Noise Mass matches previously unavailable Merzbow works from 1994 with pieces from the limited-edition Hole album of the same year. This new edition charts the through line between records such as Venereology (1994) and Pulse Demon (1996), and includes a 28-page book, with exclusive photographs, and a long-form interview with Masami Akita charting the continuum of Merzbow from 1979 to the present day. On Noise Mass in the late 1980s, Masami Akita's Merzbow began to shift from being a studio project into a fully-fledged performative undertaking. It was a decisive period that began opening up new possibilities for his very particular approach to sound. Across the first half of the 1990s, Merzbow began touring extensively across Europe, the United States, and also in his homeland. It was during this period that the dynamism of Merzbow exploded and the physicality of volume became a primary driver for the experiential capacity of the work. Simultaneously, Merzbow began developing a range of self-made instruments and techniques for exploiting found objects as sound sources, which he used in combination with amplifiers to create a unique spectrum of noise and feedback both in the studio and live. Noise Mass catalogs a critical period within the continuum of Merzbow. It typifies the radical approaches he developed not just through his music, but also through mastering, pushing the very medium of digital audio to its limit through extreme post-production approaches. Of Noise, Masami Akita remarks, "This was around the time Venereology was released from Relapse and the work of Merzbow became more well known to the world. Far greater quantities of that Relapse release were pressed, and much more promotion along with it. In other words, the image of Merzbow's music as it is best known in the world today came from this time. The music of Merzbow has always been a continuum, the piece added this time to Noise Mass, the revised version of Hole, is a work utilizing a voice similar in style to Venereology. Listening to both Hole and Venereology, one can appreciate how these works constitute a thread of continuity through this period." Noise Mass is just that, a ritual of intensity and ferocity that denotes the force that is Merzbow's approach to noise in the absolute.

"The six extended pieces on Retinue had their beginning in a book on creating step sequencers using Max/MSP that Gregory Taylor wrote for Cycling '74 after his return from the Netherlands (where his previous sonic diary Randstad was recorded). The development of the book's materials was an opportunity to re-encounter his love for sequencing as practiced by the form's early (Edgar Froese, Suzanne Ciani, Michael Hoenig) and later (Saul Stokes, Paul Ellis) practitioners and also to explore its connections with longer form Javanese musical traditions that have informed his work for decades. The crypto Javanese/1970s German chill-out room hybrid cross composed and recorded using Max/MSP, analog and digital hard/soft synths, and field recordings that resulted is a patient and poised music that embraces fluidity, recombinance, and a languid ambience that reveals itself on repeated listening. After a hiatus from the cassette culture movement of the 1980s, Gregory Taylor returned to regular recording and live performance as an improviser in the late 1990s. He has studied central Javanese Gamelan and electroacoustic music at Cornell, UW-Madison, New England Conservatory and the Instituut voor Sonologie, and written for publications such as Wired, Recording, Array, and Option, and hosted RTQE -- a radio program of contemporary audio on WORT-FM since 1986. He currently works for Cycling '74. Retinue is his fifth album for Palace Of Lights."

Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku is the second in an ongoing series of archival records of the unheard music of Swedish composer, philosopher, poet, mathematician, and visual artist Catherine Christer Hennix, co-released by Blank Forms Editions and Empty Editions. It follows 2018's Selected Early Keyboard Works and coincides with Blank Forms' publication of Poësy Matters and Other Matters, a two-volume collection of Hennix's writing. Upon her return to Sweden from New York in 1971, Hennix sought to form a large ensemble inspired by her encounters with La Monte Young and recordings by the Theatre of Eternal Music. She enlisted her brother Peter Hennix, Hans Isgren, and a dozen Swedish jazz musicians she had previously worked with, naming the group and its pieces of music after the time and days of the week according to the Angus Maclise calendar (e.g. "The Pointed Time Bus"). Frustrated with the jazz musicians' inability to comprehend and play the intervals of just intonation, she pared the group down to the trio of herself, her brother, and Isgren and christened the live-electronic ensemble The Deontic Miracle. In 1976, The Deontic Miracle performed Hennix's original compositions, alongside works by La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Terry Jennings, as part of Brouwer's Lattice at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. With Hennix on amplified Renaissance oboe, live electronics, and sine wave generators, her brother on amplified Renaissance oboe, and Isgren on amplified sarangi, the recordings presented here of the group's first and only public concert see them channeling late period John Coltrane and the sopranino and soprano saxophone playing of La Monte Young and Terry Jennings in the Theatre of Eternal Music. With titles taken from Japanese Gagaku, "Music of Auspicious Clouds" and "Waves of the Blue Sea" are expansive drone improvisations, breathing with the pulsating lull of cicadas' organic sonic latticework. Now accessible for the first time, these recordings by what Hennix has called "the most rejected band ever formed in Sweden" continue to fill gaps of silence from a figure whose work has until recently remained flickering at the margins of some of the most enduring cultural developments of the 20th century.

Pauline Oliveros's Tara's Room has long been a favorite at Important Records and here they release it on LP for the very first time. Tara's Room was cut by John Golden and pressed at RTI in order to achieve a quiet, dynamic pressing. Originally released on cassette in 1987 following the 1986 release of Sounding / Way with Guy Klucevsek, also reissued by Important Records (IMPREC 471LP). This LP features two long sides of infinite depth and sensitivity. Oliveros performs these pieces using a just intonation accordion and her Expanded Instrument System in order to bend both time and pitch. "Both pieces are intended to aid the listener in times of spiritual change, but are just fine for 'everyday' use as well. Highly recommended." --Charles S. Russell, Ear Magazine

Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer, and humanitarian, was an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she explored sound -- forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it, and eludes many who try to write about it. Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros's commitment to interaction with the moment was unchanged. She could make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble. "On some level, music, sound consciousness and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." --John Rockwell "Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I now know what harmony is. It's about the pleasure of making music." --John Cage

Room40 offer a re-mastered, re-edited 2019 version of Rayon Hula, originally released in 2004. From Mike Cooper: "After several trips, beginning in 1994, to the Pacific and its Island Nations, Australia and subsequently to South East Asia, I conceived the idea of making an updated more 'now' version of some of the Exotica music that originated in 1950's America. Arthur Lyman and Martin Denny were the two I mostly had in mind at the time, but I didn't want it to sound like them and the two words 'Ambient' and 'Electronic' had to figure large. I was deeply influenced by the ambience of the places I was visiting (Australian birds are scarily creative) and lo-fi electronics were something I had been working with in my free improvisation gigs since the '80s . . . No-one was issuing recorded work by me, so I started my own DIY cd.r. label, Hipshot, and sold them via the internet. I was free to record whatever I wanted and I did, starting in 1999 with Kiribati . . . The summer of 2004 house sitting in Palombara, 40 minutes outside of Rome, at our friend Jo Campbell's house, in the company of several dogs and numerous cats, I set to work outside in the shed with a Zoom Sampletrack ST-224, two mini disc recorders and a Tascam four track cassette machine; a pile of Arthur Lyman and Martin Denny CDs and my lap steel. My intention was to create a kind of music that I had hoped to hear when we visited Hawaii in the early '90s (some kind of Hawaiian Futurism maybe?) which we never did. Rayon Hula appeared from the shed and was initially released as Hipshot c.d.r. HIP-007. I submitted it to the Ars Electronica awards in Austria and was very surprised when it received some kind of a prize. I think that David Toop had something to do with that, as he was on the jury (thanks David). It was picked up by Cabin Records, a new label initiated by Pete Fowler and Graham Erickson and released as a double 10-inch vinyl set . . . Although the idea was an homage to Arthur Lyman, it was also an homage to Steve Feld who introduced me to the concept of 'lift up over sounding' in his book Sound and Sentiment, a study of the Kaluli people of Papua and their relationship with their aural environment. From it I gleaned, among other things, the idea of looped sounds played simultaneously but out of sync. An idea which had in fact guided me from the beginning of the series."

2x12" version. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing (July 20, 2019), Axis Records present the release of the album by Jeff Mills on his interpretations of Earth's Moon, The Area Of Influence. Jeff Mills on the release:"There are influences of the Moon we can detect, measure and document as scientific facts. If these are perceived as rational explanations, then it should raise questions about the possibility of other unseen mental and metaphysical connections humans have, not just with the Moon but with all other celestial bodies in and outside this Solar System. On the flipside, as we recognize that our Sun gives us light and a lifespan, what does an even greater force in the Cosmos, perhaps the darkness (or absence of anything) affects us. If we look at the Moon as a component in a vast configuration of integral connected parts, then an intuitive sense might lead us to a wider understanding about how deeply our relationship lies. This album and the imagination that helped to produce it should be considered as a proposition with open-endedness and no foreseeable conclusion. It is a chemistry of facts and feelings based on then, now and forever."

"A central figure of the New Zealand underground since his days in The Rip over three decades ago, Alastair Galbraith has worked alongside scores of Kiwi legends as a multi-instrumentalist and solo artist. Morse appeared in 1992, a Siltbreeze/Xpressway co-release, and despite Galbraith's centrality to the magical NZ mix, the record is an 'outsider' classic, a peerless piece of Antipodean collage, diverted folk, and minimal psychedelia. Galbraith plays almost everything on Morse, with periodic assists from Bruce Russell, Robbie Muir and others. Mutable, unfussy arrangements -- for acoustic and electric guitar, piano, violin, and some proper post-VU thudding--gather and crumble around obliquely phrased double-tracked vocals, sharing an enigmatic yet intuitive emotional quality with much NZ music of the period. And while his process might be homespun, don't call this lo-fi: listen close and hear microscopic layers of detail in Galbraith's plangent guitar work, the texture of amplified strings distinct from the notes they're sounding, melodies and sibilant murmurs swallowed as songs melt or careen into one another. Morse's fragmentary song suites conjure a post-70s in which Syd Barrett fucked off to Dunedin and started roadying for The Clean, or John Cale traded blow for tea and a Tascam. Untouchable in spirit and execution, Morse is a long-undersung gem of the international '90s underground by a bona fide NZ legend."

Kali Malone presents a new album featuring nearly two hours of concentrated pipe organ pieces governed by a strict acoustic and compositional code. It's a major new work with ultimately profound emotional resonance. The Sacrificial Code takes a more surgical approach to the methods first explored on Organ Dirges 2016-2017 (ASCETICKALI). Over the course of three parts performed on three different organs, Malone's minimalist procedure captures a jarring precision of closeness, both on the level of the materiality of the sounds and on the level of composition. The recordings of The Sacrificial Code involve careful close-miking of the pipe organ in such a way as to eliminate environmental identifiers as far as possible -- essentially removing the large hall reverb so inextricably linked to the instrument. The pieces are then further compositionally stripped of gestural adornments and spontaneous expressive impulse -- an approach reminiscent of Steve Reich's words, "by voluntarily giving up the freedom to do whatever momentarily comes to mind, we are, as a result, free of all that momentarily comes to mind." With its slow, purified, and seemingly austere qualities, The Sacrificial Code guides you through an almost trance-inducing process where you become vulnerable receptors for every slight movement, where every miniature shift in sound becomes magnified through stillness. As such, it's a uniquely satisfying exercise in transcendence through self-restraint -- a stunning realization of ideas borne out of academic and conceptual rigor which gradually reveals startling personal dimensions. It has a perception-altering quality that encourages self-exploration free of signposts and without a preordained endpoint -- the antithesis to the language of colorless musical platitudes we've become so accustomed to. Features additional organ pieces performed by Ellen Arkbro. Art and photography by A.M. Rehm. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker. Triple-CD version includes bonus material.

"Comes packaged in a gatefold jacket with a 28-page booklet. Earth Rot is visionary composer/arranger/producer David Axelrod's third album, and the last of his Capitol trilogy. Recorded as a concept album about the decrepit state of the environment in 1970 Los Angeles, and scheduled for release on the first Earth Day, it features choral vocals and marks a departure for Axelrod's signature sound, which would take on a jazzier feel in the 1970s. This definitive version of Earth Rot, overseen by Now-Again's Eothen Alapatt in conjunction with Axelrod's Estate, fulfills a request Axelrod made while alive -- to see the instrumentals of this album, never before released, issued. They see release here as the second half of a deluxe CD reissue. This is an audiophile reissue, with the vocal version transferred directly from Axelrod's original master tapes at Capitol Records by Ron McMaster. The master was approved by Axelrod's son Michael, who adapted ancient lyrics for the album in one of three collaborative projects he did with his father. Contains a 32 page booklet that delves into Axelrod's incredible life and music, replete with never before published photos and an interview. "There are very few people who see the Grand Picture of the Universe and understand the Nothingness that it all comes from. There are even fewer who can express these ideas through music -- David could do it all.' --T-Ray"

Following the first two documentaries Woza and Yenkyi focused respectively on Gqom in Durban and Afrobass in Accra, visual collective Crudo Volta, which documents contemporary African urban music, has produced a new chapter titled Taxi Waves. The miniseries produced by Italian streaming platform TimVision aims to document contemporary youth and music cultures across three different African cities: Lagos, Maputo, and Addis Abeba. In support of Taxi Waves, Crudo Volta has decided to release a double-LP box through the newborn independent label Python Syndicate, launched by Crudo Volta's founder and art director Mike Calandra Achode and Gqom Oh! DJ and label owner Nan Kolè which aims to nurture and showcase African contemporary underground scenes. The double-LP box will display a great array of music genres -- such as Afrobeat, Afro hip hop, Afrobass, Gqom, Ethiopian electronic music, and kuduro -- that are defining the sonic and cultural landscape of contemporary African young generations. The release is a showcase of unreleased and featured tracks from producers who have contributed to all Taxi documentaries during these last three years. The double-LP box will include award-winning African hitmakers such as Nigerian producer Young John or Mozambique's maverick Ellputo but also forward-thinking productions from the likes of Ethiopian Records, already released on Warp/Arcola, or TLC FAM and Citizen Boy already part of the Gqom Oh! roster. The double-LP box will also feature a 26-page curated booklet to support the socio-cultural context of the music. Also features Intro, Kofo, Omowunmi, Hagan, Gafacci, Ethiopian Records, Rvdical The Kid, and Sess The Problem.

French poet and ASMR auteur Félicia Atkinson has frequently fixated on the elusive interwoven relationship between microcosms and macrocosms -- how even the quietest creative act ripples outward, a whisper with no fixed meaning. The Flower And The Vessel pursues this notion in a more literal fashion, as it was crafted while pregnant on tour. She describes it as "a record not about being pregnant but a record made with pregnancy." Each day and night, finding herself far from home, she asked herself "What am I doing here? How can I connect myself to the world?" The answer gradually revealed itself: "With small gestures: recording my voice, recording birds, a simple melody." In truth there is nothing simple about The Flower And The Vessel. The album's 11 songs span whispering textures, opaque moods, and surreal spoken word, leading the listener through a mirrored hall of beguiling mirages. Atkinson cites a trio of French classical compositions from her childhood as formative influences: Ravel's L'enfant Et Les Sortilèges, Debussy's La Mer, and Satie's Gymnopédies. There's certainly a shade of classicism woven within these tracks; melancholic piano motifs repeat then retreat into a radiant frost of shivering frequencies; processed voices recite cut-up poems and interviews over delay-refracted Rhodes and Wurlitzer; iPad gamelan patterns flutter from meditative to melancholic and back again, offset by pointillist patches of delicate software synesthesia. Much of Atkinson's discography is shaped by speech and the lyricism of language, but The Flower And The Vessel ventures further into silence. Field recordings from Tasmania and the Mojave Desert murmur beneath hushed reverberations of gong, vibraphone, and marimba, softly processed into an elegant emptiness, alternately eerie and serene. Her mode of minimalism has long been one of reduction, riddles, and curation, but here Atkinson's synergy feels close to apotheosis, emotive but ambivalent, a ceremony of expectation and invisible forces. The 19-minute closing collaboration with SUNN O))) guitarist Stephen O'Malley, "Des Pierres," is one of the album's few pieces tracked in a proper studio, but it broods and burns with the same subliminal majesty as the rest of The Flower And The Vessel: an ember in amber, seeds planted in shifting sands. Original artwork by Julien Carreyn, mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering.

"Recorded in Oslo's small and intimate St. Edmund's Church the 13th of December 2017, this LP features compositions by James Weldon Johnson, Thelonious Monk and Joe McPhee plus two by McPhee and Nilssen-Love. The album was mixed, edited and mastered by Lasse Marhaug and is vinyl only, no digital. 500 copies made and no re-press. Artwork by Kim Hiorthøy."

Double LP version. "Opaque assemblages of Mellotron, guitar, field recordings, tapes and broken FX pedals by Pacific Northwest artist Liz Harris, created during and after two contrasting residencies in the Azores, Portugal and Murmansk, Russia and combined with pieces made at home in Astoria, Oregon. The collection's unique dual design functions as a forked path, existing independently of one another but with roots intertwined. She cites her score for HYPNOSIS DISPLAY as a compositional reference point, inspired by 'interior mnemonic device landscapes' and 'curiosity around a sadness.' In pacing, palette and poignancy, these sides rank among Harris' most stark, primordial work: fragile, feverish, ominous and otherworldly. She describes this music as 'a requiem, a ritual, to unlock and release feelings,' a sense of shadowy masses, moving backwards, in spirals, massive doorways opening chaotic forces, 'a toxic concentrated reduction of something much darker bubbling beneath.' Her artistry for mapping richly detailed inner worlds is nowhere more expressive and enigmatic, vibrations and voices gliding dimly out of the void, 'wraithlike and ethereal, their existence in the mist questionable.' Initially released in a private edition that vanished almost as quickly as it was announced, After Its Own Death / Walking In A Spiral Towards The House is presented here in a beautiful second edition on Superior Viaduct's imprint W.25TH."

2019 repress. Alga Marghen very proudly presents a remastered version of the complete documentation of Eliane Radigue sound installations from 1969-1970, including the broad tectonic vibrations of "Omnht," the celestial voices of "Usral," the massive chant of "Stress Osaka," and more -- the works of this artist's feedback period finally revealed. It is amazing that Radigue could build such formidably organic sonic edifices in her home studio with the primitive machines given to her by Pierre Henry: three tape recorders, a mixing board, an amplifier, two loudspeakers and a microphone. Eliane previously worked for Henry at the Studio d'Essai of the R.T.F. from 1955 to 1957, after having met Pierre Schaeffer almost by chance, who invited her to learn the techniques of musique concrète. Created 10 years after her Studio d'Essai experience, the feedback works of Eliane Radigue immediately take a new direction from the explorations of musique concrète. Her adventure intuitively goes towards flux, towards contemplative stasis -- a music of continuous sounds, of apparently simple structures, which permits the revelations and expansion of rich acoustic phenomena. It is as if her musical work was in some way a martial art -- as if she meditated for 10 years before striking the first blow, with impressive precision. This is the context in which Eliane composed "Omnht" in 1970 for the architectonic spaces of the visual artist Tania Mouraud titled "One More Night," presented at the Gallery of the Rive Gauche in Paris; "Usral" (the title comes from a phonetic compression of ultrasounds slowed-down, in French "ultra-sons ralentis") is one of the first works by Eliane Radigue to be given in public as a sound environment for a sculpture by Marc Halpern in the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs at the Grand Palais of Paris in 1969; "Stress-Osaka" was conceived when the artist was invited to create a sonic environment for the International Fair in Osaka in 1970. There is no doubt that Eliane Radigue's vocabulary is based on observing and entering into dialog with the fundamental behavior of sounds: pulsing, beating, sustained, very light -- a subtle and delicate evolution. When she moved from feedback sounds to the ARP synthesizer, she naturally continued the same music, a continuity where the original use of feedback sounds stands out for its cruder and more savage inner character. One could say that somehow it's the very texture of the sounds, which leads the form of her compositions. Includes a 16-page LP-size booklet with original photos, scores and liner notes.

Be With Records present the first vinyl issue of Tommy Guerrero's From The Soil To The Soul, originally released in 2006. Yes! Tommy Guerrero's much-loved fourth album -- the smooth West Coast classic From The Soil To The Soul -- gets its first ever vinyl release. As the follow up to his revered Soul Food Taqueria (BEWITH 026LP), this album was originally released by Quannum Records 2006 but only on CD. Working with Tommy directly, the LP has been fully remastered, cut on to heavyweight wax, and comes with artwork freshly reworked by the man himself. From The Soil To The Soul represents a continuation of Tommy's blissful guitar-soul whilst demonstrating increasingly complex chops and a slightly darker side to his distinctive sound. His spare, effortless funk is blended here with elements of Americana, heavy psych, lo-fi fuzz, and intoxicating Latin rhythms. Combined with his typically breezy, laid-back San Franciscan style, it's a vibe from start to finish. Recorded primarily in his home studio, Tommy wrote, arranged and played nearly all the instruments, including bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion, and kalimba. Renowned street artist Barry McGee, aka Twist, designed the cover art which Tommy has now recast in a deep, deep red for the vinyl version. As ever with Tommy, the highlights are many and memorable. From twinkling, sun-drenched opener "Hello Again" to the penultimate, punk-rocking track "Let Me In Let Me Out" (featuring the melodic yet fearsome rapping of Lyrics Born), the variety across the LP is relentless, but satisfying, and without once losing focus. You're treated to the gorgeous hip-hop blues of "The Under Dog", Meters-style Hammond B-3 jams like "War No More" and "No Guns More Glory" and Balearic bangers like Bing Ji Ling's star-turn on the sleazy "Don't Fake It". Curumin's soulful guest vocal elevates the already-great Brazilian lounge feels of "Salve" to hitherto unscaled heights and the heavy, driving basslines -- funky and warm on "Badder Than Bullets", somber and intense in "Tomorrow's Goodbye" and "Molotov Telegram" -- never fail to move both body and soul. But Be With's favourite track is the beautiful breezy pop of "Just Ain't Me". A bittersweet, skipping ballad which boasts an incredibly rare instance of Tommy singing. "What you want from me, I can never give" he repeats throughout, lending the already-melancholic atmosphere greater poignancy. It would've been number 1 across the planet in a parallel universe. Remastered. 180 gram vinyl.

Edgar Valcárcel (Puno, 1932-Lima, 2010) was one of the most important composers in Peru. He belonged to a crucial generation centered around the 1950s, which also included César Bolaños, Leopoldo La Rosa, Celso Garrido-Lecca, Enrique Pinilla, and Francisco Pulgar Vidal. These musicians were responsible for introducing locally the new languages of the international musical avant-garde, in a meeting with the legacies of Peruvian native music, where the folkloric material was used under very free and abstract conceptions. Although Valcárcel distinguished himself as a prolific and remarkable composer of orchestral and chamber music, as well as a notable pianist, his interest in electronic composition was registered in four pieces that are a good example of his musical obsessions. "Invención" (Invention) (1967), composed in Columbia under the watchful eyes of Vladimir Ussachevsky, represented an outstanding beginning in these new languages and can retrospectively be considered as one of the masterpieces that sprung from the New York research center. There he also began the composition of "Zampoña Sónica" (Sonic Zampoña) (1968-2006), a visionary work, initially designed for magnetic tape and flute, revised after his appointment at McGill University in 1976, until its final form in 2006, which was premiered in Lima in a version for native instruments processed live with the original electronic track. "Flor De Sancayo II: Retablo" (Flower of Sancayo II: Altarpiece) (1976) for piano and magnetic tape, was composed at the Electronic Music Studio of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, led by Alcides Lanza and where Valcárcel was appointed as a guest teacher. The work takes as a reference a huayno from the region of Puno in dialogue with electronic sounds. "Canto Coral A Túpac Amaru II" (Choral Song for Túpac Amaru II) (1968), for choir, percussion, projections, lights, and magnetic tape, a work based on the poem "Canto Coral A Túpac Amaru, Que Es La Libertad" (Choral Song for Túpac Amaru, who is Freedom) by the Peruvian poet Alejandro Romualdo, is inspired by the indigenous leader of the largest anti-colonial rebellion that occurred in Latin America during the eighteenth century. These pieces are now published on vinyl, as part of the Essentials Sounds collection, with which Buh Records presents a series of fundamental works of the musical avant-garde in Peru.

"The collaboration between influential German artists Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook led to the famous The Dark Side of the Moog series. The fifth volume in the series consists of the song 'Psychedelic Brunch', split into 8 parts. It's one of the calmer albums, featuring Bill Laswell as an extra composer. It starts with a 14-second intro by the master, Robert Moog, himself. The sound design is amazing and offers everything from ambience, atmospheres and sequences. The mellotron and psychedelic parts showing the different perceptions of the composers. The pioneering composer Klaus Schulze created over 60 albums during his career, which started back in 1969. Pete Namlook is another German composer, who played an important role in the increasing popularity of electronic music. 180 gram vinyl. First time on vinyl."

Carlos Nilmmns returns to Ornaments with another slice of artful songwriting ranging from classic deep house, Detroit-inspired techno, dubby sketches, a pinch of acid, some New York jazz downbeats, and stunning soundtracks. Iris features Keter Darker.

On Voids (OSTGUT 043CD/029LP, 2018), long-time Berghain/Panorama Bar resident Martyn returned to his deep, percussive roots, nimbly constructing webs of rhythm, space, and inventive basslines. On Odds Against Us, the producer projects the common denominator as a spirit of sampling innovated by drum 'n' bass, but which operates independent of BPM, as shown by the title track's floating, Havoc-like piano riff over minimal, mutant UKG and a snarling, amorphous bassline. "B.C. 2" drives full-on at 170 -- Detroit deepness through a London lens. "Rhythm Ritual" delivers on the title's promise, with layers of interlocking drums, melody, and chopped vocals.

Lena Andersson is a fictional character created by Berlin-based Japanese artist Kyoka and Irish producer Eomac. Both met in 2016 during a residency at the Stockholm EMS studios. The initial spark of their collaboration was a joint session on the studio's Buchla system, quickly expanding to multiple other sound sources and instruments. During the improvisations, a call-and-response working principle emerged immediately which joins the special talents of both musicians. Kyoka's free and experimental approach forms part of the source material that is contrasted with Eomac's skillful editing; unconventional reflections face a driving force. From Kyoka's extensive field recording collection, an arabesque of disturbing vocal fragments arises that is set against Eomac's hard rhythmic framework, as in "Das Tier", for instance. "37 Years Later" or "Mystic" live on a vivid texture that has been condensed directly at the mixing console into a kind of dramaturgical capturing of the moment. The immediacy of the collaboration forms the basis for a synergy of the individual production techniques. A strategy that lacks neither absolute creative freedom nor an awareness of musical function. Söder Mälarstrand thus captures an intuitive cooperation between the two producers, which also refers back to the place of origin through its dialogical, moment-related production principle. The album title is a tribute to the Stockholm studios where the project began. "Middle of Everywhere" features Seiki and Mike Watt.

Iranian composer Siavash Amini creates an ode to night; literal and metaphorical. Using textural electronics and post classical arrangements, he asks you to dwell in the "dark" of sound and forgo the sensory certainty of light. From Siavash: "The Idea of this album, when I first started drafting it, was to continue what struck me as very interesting yet simple idea; night. I became interested in different definitions of what night is, our perception of it and what night means physically to us as well as symbolically. I came across the idea of 'other night' described by Maurice Blanchot, during my research. It started me recognizing night as something we experience as 'the night of sleep'; it is night that we resist in sleep, by way of dreaming. Things became more interesting for me during many nights of not sleeping and intoxication, and an eventual nervous breakdown. This experience, culminating in me spending three days in ICU, gave me pause to think about Blanchot's words. Slipping in and out of consciousness my mind, which had already experienced a blurring of what one might call the 'other night' and the night itself, by being in half sleep most of the time. I felt myself far away from all my surroundings and at the same time being very attentive to some details in the objects around me. It was as if my body and mind where in an in-between state. I can only describe this as being distant or more precisely being in the dark. Objects and people showed themselves out of proportion and mostly dim. A feeling to describe this sensation, the word for which I only came across later, is Serus. There was a sense of repetition and familiarity in some feelings and emotions that I had towards some objects like sensing I knew them but not exactly from where or when. It was as if my body was resisting sleep and my sleepy mind was resisting being awake, only to dream of another type of the world that I could be awake in." Personnel: Nima Aghiani - violin; Pouya Pour-Amin - electric double-bass. Artwork and visuals by Tereza Bartůňková.

2019 repress. Vinyl Lovers present a reissue of Roky Erickson's The Holiday Inn Tapes, originally released in 1987. This is the one and only Rocky Erickson caught live on December 1, 1986 at the Holiday Inn Red River in hometown Austin, TX. A deep and intimate acoustic set with the singer and guitarist going through a varied track list including a couple of Buddy Holly classics, traditional folk tunes and the Elevators' "May the Circle Remain Unbroken". A must have for any fan of the late "psychedelic" icon.

2019 repress of Bureau B's 2009 reissue. LP version. Originally recorded and released in 1977 on Sky Records, the first collaborative album by Brian Eno and Cluster was the first ambient record produced in Germany, and is considered the seminal, defining work of the genre. Brian Eno was certainly instrumental in creating and popularizing the concept of "ambient music" -- but it was not his invention alone. The German musicians Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius (Cluster) were brothers in spirit. As so often in music, the idea of ambient was in the air -- both Eno and Cluster experimenting with the form in the 1970s, rendering any debate as to who influenced who redundant. What is certain, is that Brian Eno attended a Cluster concert in Hamburg in 1975, strategically positioning himself in the front row. Sure enough, he was invited on stage to jam with the band and, after the show, the participants arranged to meet up again. They did so two years later at the Old Weserhof in Forst, the domicile of the German duo. Eno and Cluster spent three weeks in Conny Plank's studio, resulting in two albums: Cluster & Eno and After The Heat (1978). In the liner notes, Asmus Tietchens (who also plays on the record along with Can's Holger Czukay) writes: "Clearly, all three musicians inspired each other during their three weeks together without any clash of personalities. Nevertheless, some tracks sound more like Cluster, some more like Eno. So it made perfect sense to collect the tracks with a Cluster flavor on Cluster & Eno." The importance of this record can never be overstated, nor can its elegance of diverse forms be matched. From Indian sitar and tamboura, to synth warbles and airy tributes to Western groove, it is a rare glimpse at what happens when masters meet.

2019 repress; 180 gram reissue of the first album of Delta blues legend Son House on the Columbia label, originally released in 1965. Canned Heat founding member Al Wilson appears. Includes the 9+ minute closing track "Levee Camp Moan."

2019 repress; 180 gram exact repro reissue, originally released in 1969. "The World of Harry Partch collects three of his best short pieces. 'Daphne of the Dunes' (1967) is a side-long update of 'Windsong' written for dance. The melodic segments are given more emphasis than usual for a Partch piece, and harmonically this is one of his best with arpeggiated glides/cries of the Harmonic Canons evoking our sympathies. Meter changes almost measure by measure, with one section in 31/16 meter; another (polymetric) section consists of 4/4-7/4 over 4/8-7/8! Needless to say, while being very physical, Partch's music isn't something you can easily tap your foot to. What's most important is that it works. Partch was not one to introduce musical complexity merely for its own sake, another factor that separated him from his contemporaries. Not only are the rhythms complex, but they are performed at a frantic pace unequaled by any music I've hard (save perhaps the inhumanly fast player piano pieces of Conlon Nancarrow!). This is characteristic of most of Partch's works, though I think 'Daphne' is one of the most successful and exhilarating. 'Barstow -- Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a Highway Railing at Barstow, California' was composed in 1941 as part of 'The Wayward.' It offers such statements as 'Go to 538 East Lemon Avenue for an easy handout' and 'Looking for millionaire wife...' This charismatic piece is successful due to the contrasting of Partch's intoning voice with others in the ensemble and to increased instrumental emphasis. Last is 'Castor and Pollux' in a more modern performance than From the Music of Harry Partch, with greater vigor and fidelity. The World of Harry Partch is an excellent introduction to his works that comes highly recommended." -- Surface Noise

"'In October 2018 we took several recordings in and around Eddie Prévost's home village of Matching Tye in Essex, where he has been living for the past fifty years. The majority of the pieces that made it to this LP took place in All Saints Church, High Laver, the burial site of John Locke. This fact was notable in the choice of title for this set of recordings, and it seemed necessary to put forward Eddie's own take on Locke that he offered in our correspondences: 'Scholars of Locke's philosophy will be familiar with the idea of mixing labour with materials as a fore-running notion of possessive individualism and basis for private property. Such 'mixing' is a persuasive description of a creative act. But the theory is more worthy of a social dimension.' As for the individual titles for each of the studies on the LP, each takes ideas and elements from music past. For example, MaxPlus makes a nod towards bebop pioneering drummer Max Roach who offered an earlier hit-hat study. Eddie utilises such examples, offering further creative insights which can then be woven back into the common wealth of sound. The final track, returning to the bowed cymbal method of the first, was recorded outdoors on a breezy green, and is pictured on the back cover of the sleeve. It was an attempt to capture the playing in its 'metamusical' relationship with the untempered sounds of the external environment. Eddie has written about Metamusic in his book The First Concert (Copula, 2011): invoking childlike 'protomusical' behaviour, or the sense of music that a person might possess before the inevitable influences come to play any role in their productive, and appreciative, musical development. Ross Lambert provided a few words alongside his cover drawing entitled 'The Metamusician': "The eyes would symbolise for me things like searching, examining, closeness or friendship I think; engagement with the world. Decisions in making the image were completely intuitive, this is just me looking for the meaning, post-analysing, post rationalising.' -Daniel Kordik & Edward Lucas, March 2019"

Repressed. Cellular Automata is the new album from Dopplereffekt (Rudolf Klorzeiger and To-Nhan), their first in ten years since 2007's Calabi Yau Space on Rephlex. Cellular Automata approaches mathematical growth and decay as an iterative process, with each data input considered individually relative to the overall model. The result represents one of the group's boldest creative endeavors, defying expectations while remaining unmistakably Dopplereffekt. Cellular Automata is the third Dopplereffekt release to come via Berlin's Leisure System label, following 2013's Tetrahymena EP (LSR 007EP) and 2014's Hypnagogia (LSR 012EP).

Musicians have a tendency not to stay in place. They have a need to stay in motion, to get lost (maybe in order to better find themselves), to step out of their comfort zone and produce their work into new forms, to turn a mirror to their output -- and stare into it themselves. These are, among others, the reasons that motivated the first live recording made of tracks from Endless Revisions (2017), Chloé's first LP since 2010 -- an album that saw the musician achieve a higher level in her creative prowess. A multi-faceted Pandora's box of mysterious drifts, the album is anchored by hits like "The Dawn" and "Recall". An artist who deliberately plays with labels, taking in contemporary and novel forms, boldly launching into experimentation (as demonstrated by her collaboration with percussionist Vassiléna Sérafimova), Chloé wanted to take the album's tracks and transform them in front of an audience by feeding them with new textures and inspirations. Performed over a year at events such as Nuits Sonores, Sónar, Mutek (in Montréal and Mexico), The Peacock Society, and festivals such as Marsatac, Musilac and, Colors of Ostrava, Endless Revisions' live performance has evolved with every show. It was out of the question to let these new versions -- replayed, recreated, and restructured alongside the evolution of the performance's very architecture -- fade away without a trace Chloé's prolific Lumière Noire label, in the wake of its first anniversary, had to produce a recording that bears witness to the work that these ephemeral creations represents. Slowly introduced by "Dune", then propeled by the impulse of "Because It's There", the mix is articulated around the appropriately titled "Outerspace", followed by "Party Moonster" and the bewitching "The Dawn", heard here in "clubbier" versions and adapted to a context in which the audience (whose enjoyment of the performance was audibly captured in the recordings), must be kept in suspense, as if carried away in a narrative. The set leads up to "Moonscape", an exclusive track created during the performance series, before the performance ends with a new version of "Sometimes", Chloé's relentless 2002 instant classic. At nearly 50 minutes, this recording is like a snapshot of a work's vital momentum, remaining faithful to the spirit of Chloé's Endless Revisions while detaching itself in order to conquer new territories.

2019 is Mule Musiq's 15-year anniversary. The label are releasing twelve 12"s with Stefan Marx handling the artwork. The tenth release is the label's long-time friend Superpitcher, aka Pachanga Boys. "Maki" on side A is a tribute song for legendary Japanese folk singer Maki Asakawa. Auperpitcher wrote the lyrics and Dip In The Pool's Miyako Koda translated in Japanese and did the reading. "Mishima" on side B is a trademark of Superpitcher's melancholic house tune. It sounds like updated percussive NYC house in early '90s.

Mutual Intentions present Astral Traveling, Byron The Aquarius's debut album. A stunning piece of fusion built from everything between jazz, soul, hip-hop, and house makes Mutual Intentions a perfect platform for the release. String compositions is an on-going theme throughout the album. From the first chord on "Love Is 4U", until the very last second of "Spazzing Out", where Byron raps over a beautiful backdrop consisting only of Fender Rhodes, electric bass and strings. Byron jumps seamlessly between different genres throughout the whole album. From the acid house inspired "Sorry Kari", to '70s prog jazz sounding cuts like "Lost In Love". Once you put the needle on side B, you'll hear "Deep In That *****" featuring MDMA which sounds pretty much like if Dexter Wansel took MDMA in 2019, inside Legowelt's studio and tried to re-create his classic cut "Theme From The Planets". Byron released his first project in 2007, then studied music for nine years. In 2016 Byron re-emerged through great labels such as Eglo Records, Kyle Hall's Wild Oats label, and Theo Parrish's Sound Signature label. He's a well-traveled DJ and live musician, and he plays some of the most prestige festivals around the globe. Also features Will Slick and Brandon Banks.

2019 repress on white vinyl, originally released 2007. "Dinosaur L is an alias donned by Arthur Russell, a man whose contribution to dance music from the late seventies and through the eighties was formidable but only quietly acknowledged. His innovative and left field dance records were way ahead of what people were used to hearing at the time. He was a cellist who studied classical and Indian music. As well as his great strides in dance music he was also involved in the New York downtown avant-garde music scene and produced some albums in a more avant-garde/experimental vein as well as trying his own unique approach to pop. He scored several hits on the underground New York dance scene at clubs like The Paradise Garage (Larry Levan was a huge supporter). His biggest tunes, 'Go Bang!' and 'Is It All Over My Face?' were worldwide club hits and are still played today as classics. His records have influenced the scene from his first dance record in 1979 to the present day and his work has been much sampled. Sadly Arthur died in 1992, but his music lives on and his influence is still felt on the dance music scene, his tunes still sound great and are still moving many dancers around the world, so his spirit lives on. Sleeping Bag Records and Traffic Entertainment Group is proud to present Dinosaur L's 24->24 Music for the first time ever on double LP. Includes the original album tracklisting plus rare 12" remixes and edits."

2019 repress, red and white vinyl. "How do you define the music of Mantronix? Is it Hip hop? Electro? Funk? House? Maybe the answer is all of the above (or is it none of the above?). It is true that Mantronix will be remembered for their multi-faceted sound as well as their ability to bend and blend genres flawlessly into a cohesive musical tapestry, but they will also most importantly they will be remembered as musical innovators and sub- genre pioneers. Now available for the first time ever, Traffic Entertainment Group in conjunction with Sleeping Bag Records and Warlock Entertainment present: Mantronix: King of the Beats The Anthology 1985-1988. This two disc carefully curated compilation combines the best of Mantronix's work from the early, and arguably, best era of their career into one amazing listening experience. Whether you are an avid Mantronix fan or are looking for a place to start - this is the collection to wrap your ears around."

Vampisoul present a reissue of Perú Negro's self-titled album, sub-titled Gran Premio Del Festival Hispanoamericano De La Danza Y La Cancion, originally released in 1973. Afro-Peruvian music, also known as "música criolla", finds its roots in West African music, Spanish, and European genres and native musical traditions from Peru. Flamenco-influenced sounds sit next to African tribal elements and a simple yet effective percussion instrument called cajón. After a long struggle to preserve música criolla through oral tradition over generations, actually resulting in much of the original music being lost, a renewed interest in those rhythms and melodies arose in the 1950s. Some years later the legendary Peruvian singer Chabuca Granda provided help to promote Perú Negro, a dance company that also incorporated percussion combined with música criolla. Ronaldo Campos, "Lalo" Izquierdo, Víctor Padilla, Rodolfo Arteaga, and Caitro Soto, among others, played a key role in the foundation and early days of the company. Their shows celebrated and recreated black culture in Peru and they quickly became regulars at Lima's theaters. In 1969 they won the main award at the Festival Hispanoamericano de la Danza y la Canción in Argentina. The repertoire performed at the festival was later included in this album, originally released in 1973 in Peru and Spain only. The lyrics and music of these songs reflect the country's multicultural diversity, blending elements from the African tradition and echoes of Spanish-influenced melodies around stories of slavery days, rural labor, and folklore. Although lesser known than music from other nearby countries, Peru Negro's recordings are reminiscent of Afro-Colombian or Afro-Cuban rhythms. If you have an interest in Cuban son or Colombian bambuco, this record will be an essential addition to your collection and the perfect introduction to the fascinating música criolla. Presented in facsimile artwork and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.

Vampisoul present a reissue of Os Seis Em Ponto's self-titled album, originally released in 1964. Francis Hime has been a fundamental artist of Brazilian music since the mid-1960s. He began to play the piano when he was only six years old and in 1963 he started working with Vinicius de Moraes, with whom he would compose many songs. For example, "Sem Mais Adeus", included in Os Seis Em Ponto, his first album as part of the band of the same name, released in 1964 on the prestigious RGE label. Hime's rhythmic piano swings between bossa and jazz along the entire record, with the typical groove of the then emerging Brazilian sound and the characteristic arrangements and solos of the American jazz genre. The complexity of the instrumentation present on the album already anticipates what would be the pianist's later career as arranger and director of orchestras. But the instrumental depth does not diminish the infectious groove of many of the tracks on the album, a wonderful repertoire by such solid composers as Carlos Lyra, Roberto Menescal, or Castro Neves, as well as absolute legends like Vinicius, Jobim, or Edu Lobo. Os Seis Em Ponto is a representative record from the time of its making: the golden age of bossa jazz, full of sweet and luminous melodies, but also of energetic moments in which Francis Hime's piano receives the brilliant backing of the flute and the trombone, or the effective guitar of Nelson Motta. Despite the young age of the whole band, their instrumental skills are beyond any doubt and this is proven by the masterful performances not only of the many classics contained in the album but also of Hime's original compositions. Among the most notable cuts on the LP are "Mar Azul", "Se Você Pensar", "Sem Mais Adeus", "A Paz De Um Homem So", "Amor A Êsmo", and 'Borandá'. Presented in facsimile artwork and pressed on 180 gram vinyl.