In the late 1960s, the American trumpet player and free jazz pioneer Don Cherry (1936-1995) and the Swedish visual artist and designer Moki Cherry (1943-2009) began a collaboration that imagined an alternative space for creative music, most succinctly expressed in Moki's aphorism "the stage is home and home is a stage." By 1972, they had given name to a concept that united Don's music, Moki's art, and their family life in rural Tagårp, Sweden into one holistic entity: Organic Music Theatre. Captured here is the historic first Organic Music Theatre performance from the 1972 Festival de jazz de Chateauvallon in the South of France, mastered from tapes recorded during its original live broadcast on public TV. A life-affirming, multicultural patchwork of borrowed tunes suffused with the hallowed aura of Don's extensive global travels, the performance documents the moment he publicly jettisoned his identity as a jazz musician. The five-person band -- Don and Moki Cherry, Christer Bothén, Gérard "Doudou" Gouirand, and Naná Vasconcelos -- performed in an outdoor amphitheater and were joined onstage by a dozen adults and children, including Swedish friends who tagged along for the trip and Det Lilla Circus (The Little Circus), a Danish puppet troupe based in Christiania, Copenhagen. The platform was lined with Moki's carpets and her handmade, brightly colored tapestries, depicting Indian scales and bearing the words Organic Music Theatre, dressed the stage. As the musicians played, members of Det Lilla, led by Annie Hedvard, danced, sang, and mounted an improvised puppet show on poles high up in the air. In a fairly unprecedented move, Don abandoned his signature pocket trumpet for the piano and harmonium, thereby liberating his voice as an instrument for shamanic guidance. The show opens with him beckoning the audience to clap their hands and sing the Indian theta "Dha Dhin Na, Dha Tin Na," and the set cycles through uplifting and sacred tunes of Malian, South African, Brazilian, and Native American provenance -- including pieces that would later appear on Don's albums Organic Music Society and Home Boy (Sister Out) -- all punctuated by outbursts of possessed glossolalia from the puppeteers. "Relativity Suite, Part 1" notably spotlights Bothén on donso ngoni, a Malian hunter's guitar, prior to Vasconcelos taking an extended solo on berimbau. A vortex of wah-like microtonal rattling, Vasconcelos's masterful demonstration of this single-stringed Brazilian instrument is a harbinger of his work to come as a member, with Don, of the acclaimed group Codona.

LP version. "Prior to co-founding the Incredible String Band, Clive Palmer had already made a name for himself as a versatile instrumentalist from his teenage years busking around London. Just after the first ISB album was released, he would quit the band and seemingly vanished from the scene, traveling around Europe, India and Afghanistan. He resurfaced with his banjo a few years later under the guise of COB, Clive's Original Band, with instrumentalists and songwriting partners Mick Bennett and John Bidwell. Guitarist Ralph McTell agreed to produce the project as a labor of love, and with the newly coined trio they created what is considered to be one of the most beautiful acid folk albums ever to come out of the British Isles. McTell kept the production organic, with most of the vocals and rhythm tracks recorded live. Experimental in nature, Spirit of Love is a highly original album that embodies the spirit of UK folk amidst reality at the time. Bootlegged several times, this is the first official vinyl reissue of this eternal classic."

2021 repress. "Sounds Of Liberation was a band -- and a social movement -- formed in 1970 out of the Germantown & Mt Airy neighborhoods of Philadelphia. The band consisted of seven members: Khan Jamal (vibraphone), Byard Lancaster (alto saxophone), Billy Mills (bass), Dwight James (drums), Monnette Sudler (guitar), Omar Hill (percussion), William Brister (percussionist, aka Rashid Salim). Originally conceived and formed by Khan Jamal, the arrival of Byard Lancaster in 1971 helped shift their focus and efforts into a higher gear. Jamal and Lancaster would work together in different configurations throughout the decade. Sounds of Liberation were at the forefront of avant-garde Black expression in the early 1970s, putting action behind their creative endeavors. They were as much of a community force as a band, and because of that there was a strong desire by the entire group to work with a range of different populations, from school children to inmates. They continued to do so throughout the mid-1970s. The group issued one self-released album, New Horizons -- alternately titled The Sounds Of Liberation in later pressings -- in 1972, on their Dogtown label. [It was reissued earlier this decade to a great deal of fanfare amongst jazz fans, by Porter Records]. In addition to club performances, the collective initiated happenings in elementary schools, prisons & community centers throughout Philadelphia, to great success and impact in the city's African-American and jazz community. By 1973 the band -- along with their manager, George Gilmore (father of R & B musician Linc Gilmore, of Breakwater fame) -- travelled to New York City for a recording session at Columbia University. This five-song session of original music (with compositions penned by Jamal, Lancaster and Sudler) has never been released and has been prepared for this important and long-overdue LP package by group members, in collaboration with Brewerytown Beats Records in Philadelphia."

LP version. Clermont Music announces the release of Live In New York 2010 from Khaira Arby. Recorded in August 2010 at Bard College in New York, Khaira electrified the audience giving one of her greatest performances. Her energy and spirit captured in this recently discovered album illustrate Khaira at the height of her powers. Sadly, she passed away in the summer of 2018 leaving this album as one of her only full concert recordings. Khaira Arby grew up in the Abaradjou neighborhood of Timbuktu. By age 11 she was sought-after by regional orchestras. A cousin to the great Ali Farka Toure, Khaira was influenced by the changes in music and culture of the times. She blended modern instruments and song composition with traditional melodies and rhythms. In the 1980s Khaira began to focus all her energy on music. She began to be recognized outside of Mali and by 2001 she gained worldwide recognition from her performances at the Festival au Desert. Khaira Arby lived in Timbuktu until 2012 when Northern Mali was occupied by Islamic fundamentalists. The Islamists banned secular music and Khaira fled to Bamako where she lived with her family and bandmembers. When in 2013 French forces arrived, Khaira decided to remain in Bamako fearing for her safety in her beloved Timbuktu. Khaira was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mali. In 2011 her peers awarded her the Tamani d'Or in recognition of her status as one of the great Malian voices. She appeared annually at the legendary Festival au Desert. She performed in Europe in 2005. From 2010 through 2013, Khaira and her band toured extensively in Europe, the United States, Canada, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates performing to rave reviews. Live In New York 2010 was recorded at Khaira's first performance in North America. In complete control, she received standing ovations throughout the evening. Accompanied by backup singers and her hot rock band she showed people how cultures are blended while still preserving her Malian roots. One of the first women in Mali to emerge onto the national stage as a solo artist, Khaira Arby's debut album, Moulaye, was released in 1990.

LP version. Recorded during two days of extreme weather, ELEH's Snoweight conveys the mesmerizing force of a winter storm with sonic realism and romanticism. These two new compositions evoke both warm security and wild, blanketing intensity in ways that are both emotionally arresting and time stopping. LP version is packaged in a heavy-duty jacket screen printed by Neil Burke at Monoroid; edition of 305 (hand numbered).

2021 repress. "Back again on vinyl where it belongs, MF DOOM's 1999 classic Operation: Doomsday is now presented on a premium grade LP, with audio re-mastered from the original Fondle'Em Records release, and a poster of the album cover art! Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF DOOM hides the cachet underground legends are made of. After KMD (his first group)'s 1994 sophomore album Bl_ck B_st_rds was shelved by Elektra in 1994 and his blood brother Subroc (one half of the sibling rap duo) passed away, surviving front-man Zev Love X mutated into the MC Avenger known as MF DOOM and the rap world is better for it. This 19-cut deep album is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol' Dirty Bastard kind of way. Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. On arguably the best track, 'Rhymes Like Dimes,' Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting 'only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.' 'Who You Think I Am?' features DOOM's crew M.onster I.sland C.zars, while on '?' he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge. Doom's avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on 'Tick, Tick...' where he and guest MC MF Grimm's flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. The comic-book themed skits, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. And in today's bland commercial rap universe, Operation: Doomsday's left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy."

"Tom Johnson (b. 1939) is a key figure in the contemporary music scene whose voice as a composer is instantly recognizable. A major champion of minimalism in the 1970s as a writer, he remains one of its most important adherents as a composer, although the word 'minimalist' does not cover everything that his music does. The characteristic elements of repetition and sparse material are there, but his extensive use of mathematics and, especially, counting, makes him unique. Johnson relies on more than counting, using algorithms, combinatorics, juggling, and tiling techniques, among other things. Johnson is as radical as Eliane Radigue or Phill Niblock, but he is also interested in sounds that can be enjoyed in the moment, and in this sense, he is a true heir of Feldman, who was one of his teachers. Counting to Seven (2014) is a set of short pieces lasting about 80 minutes, of which eighteen pieces are presented here. Although obviously vocal because they are text-based, some of the pieces include percussion. They can be performed by almost any group of at least seven people and are not written for trained singers or actors. It was around 1980 that Johnson developed a series of twelve solos in twelve languages called Counting Languages, under the inspiration of sound poets such as Charlie Morrow and Jerome Rothenberg in the United States and Henri Chopin, Bob Cobbing, and Bernard Heidsieck in Europe. He then wrote Counting Duets, (also called Counting Music), a set of five counting sequences for two performers speaking in one language. Some years later, after a performance by Vincent Bouchot from the ensemble Dedalus, Johnson 'reworked everything for seven voices. I changed the title to Counting to Seven, added about 30 languages, well-known, little known, living and dead, and put together an 80-minute version, which we began performing in 2014.' Johnson explores the tonalities and rhythms that come from repeating numbers sonorously in different languages. Every piece is different, with 1-7 as the connecting thread, like a set of short stories that forms a novel through a connecting character. The languages Johnson chose include major ones spoken in large swathes of the world -- French, Japanese, Hebrew, German. Some are more national -- Turkish, Hungarian, Gaelic, Georgian. Some are specific to certain places: Muruwari is spoken by Aboriginal people in northern Australia; Tajik is a variety of Persian spoken in Uzbekistan; Maninke is spoken in Guinea, Mali, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast."

In 1968, Don Cherry had already established himself as one of the leading voices of the avant-garde. Having pioneered free jazz as a member of Ornette Coleman's classic quartet, and with a high-profile collaboration with John Coltrane under his belt, the globetrotting jazz trumpeter settled in Sweden with his partner Moki and her daughter Neneh. There, he assembled a group of Swedish musicians and led a series of weekly workshops at the ABF, or Workers' Educational Association, from February to April of 1968, with lessons on extended forms of improvisation including breathing, drones, Turkish rhythms, overtones, silence, natural voices, and Indian scales. That summer, saxophonist and recording engineer Göran Freese invited Don, members of his two working bands, and a Turkish drummer to his summer house in Kummelnäs, just outside of Stockholm, for a series of rehearsals and jam sessions. Long relegated to the status of a mysterious footnote in Don's session-ography, tapes from this session, as well as one professionally mixed tape intended for release, were recently found in the vaults of the Swedish Jazz Archive, and the lost Summer House Sessions are finally available over fifty years after they were recorded. On July 20, the musicians gathered at Freese's summer house included Bernt Rosengren (tenor saxophone, flutes, clarinet), Tommy Koverhult (tenor saxophone, flutes), Leif Wennerström (drums), and Torbjörn Hultcrantz (bass) from Don's Swedish group; Jacques Thollot (drums) and Kent Carter (bass) from his newly formed international band New York Total Music Company; Bülent Ateş (hand drum, drums), who was visiting from Turkey; and Don (pocket trumpet, flutes, percussion) himself. Lacking a common language, the players used music as their common means of communication. In this way, these frenetic and freewheeling sessions anticipate Don's turn to more explicitly pan-ethnic expression, preceding his epochal Eternal Rhythm dates by four months. The octet, comprising musicians from America, France, Sweden, and Turkey, was a perfect vehicle for Don's budding pursuit of "collage music," a concept inspired by the shortwave radio on which Don listened to sounds from around the world. Using the collage metaphor, Don eliminated solos and the introduction of tunes, transforming a wealth of melodies, sounds, and rhythms into poetic suites of different moods and changing forms. The Summer House Sessions ensemble joyously layers manifold cultural idioms, traversing the airy peaks and serene valleys of Cherry's earthly vision. The double-CD version includes a bonus CD with a track featuring Jacques Thollot joined by Lindqvist, Tommy Koverhult, Sune Spångberg, and others.

Saltern present the first-time vinyl edition of Yoshi Wada's The Appointed Cloud (1987), a work which Wada has often said is his favorite of his own. Staged at the Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science, The Appointed Cloud was Wada's first large-scale, interactive installation and featured a custom pipe organ, among other homemade instruments, controlled by a computer with a customized interface and software designed by engineer David Rayna, known for his work with La Monte Young. This recording captures the opening performance for which Wada brought together four musicians on bagpipes (Wada, Bob Dombrowski, and Wayne Hankin) and percussion (Michael Pugliese) to perform with the installation, operated by David Rayna. Remastered from the original master tape by Stephan Mathieu, and cut to vinyl via Direct Metal Mastering by Hans-Jörg Maucksch at Pauler Acoustics. Pressed at RTI and printed at Stoughton. Includes a digital download of the album. Edition of 600.

In Wada's own words: "This performance [of The Appointed Cloud] was one of most memorable performances I've done. The space itself -- the Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science -- was incredible. The building was designed for the 1964-65 World's Fair and had spaceships hanging from the ceiling so people felt like they were traveling in outer space. It was an amazing experience with the sound of the pipe organ, sheet metal, pipe gong, and bagpipes all together. 60 minutes may seem like a long duration, but it didn't feel like it."

Thirty-three audio collages created with original contributions from 69 artists from nine countries including members of Fugazi, Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Trumans Water, Sebadoh, Olivia Tremor Control, Reynols, Wolf Eyes, and a host of contemporary sound explorers. The alarmingly creative and industrious Eric Hardiman has anchored in Albany, NY a multi-decade hub of individual, collaborative and cross-pollinating experimental music activities and projects, recently manifested in the Sky Furrows (2020) and the Spiral Wave Nomads (2021), his ongoing CD series with John Olson, solo as Rambutan and complemented the prolific Tape Drift label he curates and runs. As Hardiman writes: "This project is a collection of collage works that I created during 2020 and early 2021. As a way to keep my mind busy and fend off the creeping dread of the pandemic, I invited a group of friends, acquaintances and musical heroes from across the globe to contribute an original recording. My task was to take the raw sounds and combine them in new and unexpected ways. I imagine each track as its own 'parallel system', a mysterious sonic world of its own. As the tracks began to emerge, I envisioned the various contributors working together in the same room in a true collaboration. Imagining these weird social and sonic juxtapositions helped guide the project. In the end, there were 69 contributors from nine different countries, spread across 33 tracks. Although many of the sounds have been edited, excerpted, mangled, and otherwise manipulated, my primary goal was to let the musical DNA and personality of each person shine through."

Collage works created with original contributions from: Mike Barrett, Jeff Barsky, Frank Baugh, Sindre Bjerga, Andreas Brandal, Gayle Brogan, Mike Bullock, Fraser Burnett, Grant Capes, Jon Collin, Roberto Conlazo, Anla Courtis, Euan Currie, Phil Donnelly, Malcy Duff, Paul Fagoaga, Bob Fay, Tim Feeney, John Fernandes, Rob Forman, Glen Galloway, Jennifer Gelineau, Mike Griffin, Paul Haney, Ben Harbert, Claire Hardiman, Eric Hardiman, Graham Hardiman, Ray Hare, Ceylan Hay, Holland Hopson, A.F. Jones, Michael Kiefer, Campbell Kneale, Thomas Lail, Todd Lent, Brian Lucas, Walker Martin, Sandy Milroy, Melanie Ó Dubhsláine, John Olson, Andrew Paine, Arttu Partinen, Guy Picciotto, Jefferson Pitcher, Michael Potter, Peter Prescott, Chris Robert, Ali Robertson, Derek Rogers, Donna Savoy, Jon Schlesinger, Karen Schoemer, John Schoen, Mary Staubitz, Howard Stelzer, Steubs Rhian, Thompson Phil, Todd Antti Tolvi, Michael Troutman, Joe Tunis, Scott Verrastro, Russ Waterhouse, Mike Watt, Patrick Weklar, Matt Weston, Turner Williams, Peter Wright.

Double LP version. White vinyl. "The Spaceman Reissue Program edition of Lazer Guided Melodies promises to give those recordings the fullest spectrum audio and physical treatment they've deserved since 1992. It will be the first in this series of 180g double albums mastered from a half speed lacquer cut from original sources by Alchemy Mastering, presented in a gatefold jacket adorned by reworked art by Mark Farrow."

"While we wait for Aaron Rosenblum to finish up his album of field recordings, we sometimes ask him about various tapes he has recorded of other artists. These, he tends to provide more quickly. Thus, here is the first of what we hope to be a series of live shows by various artists, documented by Mr. Aaron. The artist in Pat Gubler, aka PG Six. The venue is The Tavern at Hampshire College. The date is March 30, 2001. This was still an early point in Pat's solo journey, but the aesthetic documented here appears to be fully formed, and his playing is great on both harp and guitar. The set is typical of what he was doing around the time his first album came out -- a commingling of covers and originals, most with traditional Anglo flavor, all possessing an easy intimacy. The audience was small in the Tavern that night -- it is not a large room -- but you can feel how every listener present is hanging on every note, every breath. They are, as Professor Leary might say, 'tuned in.' And this focus is well rewarded. The more closely you listen to the words and fingers of PG Six, the deeper you sink into the music. His work is not the ideal background noise for strip poker parties. It's glorious darkness and light can only be fully appreciated via active listening. Pat reaches out for rings of karma not to toss them into your face, but to tuck them close to his heart. We catch glimpses of their illumination only in passing. So even though some form of radiance is often the central motif of his music, it is not always easily apprehended. I suppose this legerdemain is the deference the material deserves. Whatever it is Pat does, it sounds pretty damn great here. On a night just over two decades past. Our thanks to Aaron for his visionary switch flicking! And to you, for understanding it's import." --Byron Coley, 2021

"Giacinto Scelsi is one of the most original Italian composers of the twentieth century. The symbolic choice of Rome as his home represented Scelsi's own cultural, artistic and spiritual interests. His fascination for Eastern philosophies, Yoga and Zen meditation are combined with a insightful knowledge of Christian, Greek, Egyptian and Mesopotamian mythologies; Scelsi's library and collection of recordings displays his cultural interests, his curiosity and openness to the intricacies of the mind and his lifelong quest for a dialogue between different expressions of human spirituality. Marco Fusi, one of the leading performers of contemporary music, presents his readings of some of Scelsi's intriguing works for violin and for viola solo. For the listener, this is a journey into a futuristic vision from a past era."

2013 release. "Recognized for his spiritual jazz classic, Isophonic Boogie Woogie, as well as his more recent output on EM records, Hearsay I-Land presents another parallel and deeply engaging side to Roland P. Young's story. This long-awaited re-release highlights Young's mid-80's foray into pop structures, soul, and dance music, and comprises the entirety of his scarce 1984 four song 12", I-LAND, as well as most of his 1987 LP, Hearsay Evidence, both self-released on his Flow-Chart Records. Originally compiled and released in 2013, this updated and remastered edition proudly includes an additional inner sleeve with unpublished photos, tip-on jacket, and a more superior vinyl pressing. Hearsay I-Land will fit at home in any downtempo 80's NYC set. It's a more intimate and personal album, marking a departure for the classically trained clarinetist, and followed a decade in the fervent Bay Area where he experimented within the minimalist and jazz genres, and then with his early 80s work in the postpunk-funk group The Offs. These recordings reflect a change of coasts with Roland moving to Manhattan, and touch upon many lyrical and worldly themes of the era via Roland's soulful voice, save for Ballo-Balla, which features floating vocals from his partner Risa over a spacey drum machine and hypnotic bass sequence, imploring the listener to dance."

New album by Bruno Pronsato, Do It At Your Funeral. "Ode To Street Hassle" features Benjamin Freeney.

Field recordings of Lobi traditional xylophone (gyil) music recorded by Hisham Mayet on location in Ghana's Upper West Region, West Africa in 2019. Featuring Aaron Bebe Sukura, considered one of the gyil's master musicians from this area. Long form trance music with acoustic instruments sounding like several minimalist orchestras getting to maximalist sonic peaks. The gyil music of the Dagara is a complex multi-dimensional symphony of notes, bringing to life an animist expression that reveals a cultural dialogue between the spirits, the deceased, musicians, dancers, and audience alike. The intensity of this recording reaches a level of complexity that rivals techno music. It is in essence an acoustic techno music, utilizing organic instruments made of wood, leather and gourds filled with spider egg sacs for resonance and played by master musicians creating a sonic wanderlust of mesmerizing sound. Limited edition LP release includes a four-page insert of notes and photos from the recording session.

Following up from his TRUElipS album (AVE66 010LP) from 2020, SW. returns to Avenue 66 with a seven-track LP titled blewLIPs. Edition of 300.

2021 repress. Norelco plastic case. Vertical is Caterina Barbieri's debut album and it was composed for vocals and Buchla 200 modular synthesizer. Vertical takes a meditative approach to primary waveforms and the polyrhythm of harmonics, stretching the boundaries between drone, minimalism and techno in multichannel systems. This minimalistic focus arises from the polyrhythmic and stratigraphic potential of voltage-controlled sequencers. Synthesis, drone and immersive listening are three fundamental conditions to enhance an advanced auditory art, not based on extrinsic links but solely built on the experience of the spectrum, able to develop our very limited ability of perceiving the vertical domain of music, involving us in a holistic way. Caterina Barbieri (1990) is a composer and performer of electro-acoustic music. Mostly interested in modular synthesis, three-dimensional spatialization and psychoacoustic aural sculpture, her music arises from a meditative approach to primary waveforms and the polyrhythm of harmonics. She received a degree in classical guitar and electro-acoustic music at the conservatory of Bologna, Italy (plus an exchange program at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden) with a thesis about time, space and spectrum in vertical music. She's currently attending a Bachelor in Literature and she's active as an audiovisual artist, acousmatic composer and guitarist. Her work has been commissioned and performed in festivals and venues of experimental music.

Repressed. "I've had the pleasure of being a [The] Fall fan since I was a teen. I was lucky enough to have some guidance from my local record shop stoner-lords. They turned me on to many of my heroes, but once I heard my first slanted and barky Fall song, I was part of the army for life. The word prolific gets tossed around a lot. It almost seems like a slag-off in the press, as if they wish the artist would produce less so they wouldn't have to do their self-imposed job of judging releases for the rabble. The Fall is subjected to this lazy word often. Yet I can honestly say that I am so thankful for any nugget of Fall that lands at my feet and in my brain. Live Fall performances are always a pleasure because they seem to take what already made the Fall great and push it even a bit more into the rough and bloody uncharted wasteland that is drug scorched proto-punk and heady political poetry. So, it is with great pleasure that we introduce this Fall bootleg soundboard recording to you. Recorded during one of the many strong points in the bands vast and mighty history. They really burn bright here and bring every ounce of what you expect from this formidable force. We have reached out to every surviving member of the band, the sound person, the bootlegger who recorded it and the photographer and received their blessings and help piecing it all together. Castle Face will be donating 50% of our profits to Centrepoint, which helps the homeless in the Manchester area get back on their feet, so the local and deserving Fall fans get a little, and give a little back, too. Nothing but the hits here folks and as raw as you dig it. This one really is exceptional in terms of live sound for The Fall. All the stars were aligned over St. Helens that eve. And it wouldn't be complete with a bit of Fall fan saltiness so, fuck you too, Jason." --John Dwyer

"By the early seventies, Derrick Harriott was firmly established as one of the leading lights on the Jamaican music scene, writing, performing and producing for his Crystal and Move & Groove labels, while also operating the hugely popular Music Chariot disco and managing his shop in Kings Street, Kingston. The high standard of his work is reflected in the quality of his productions from this period, with the likes of the Ethiopians, Augustus Pablo, I Roy, Junior Murvin, the Mighty Diamonds, Big Youth and Horace Andy all benefitting from his considerable talents in the recording studio. Earthly Sounds demonstrates the immensity of Harriott's production skills, drawing together the very best of his output from 1971 to 1973. Featuring numerous Jamaican classics from the era, including along 20 tracks new to CD, this double disc set is an essential acquisition for all self-respecting fans of high-quality reggae sounds."

"The Scientists' powerful brand of deranged swamp-rock returns with a vengeance as In the Red Records unleashes Negativity, an all-new magnum opus featuring the first new full-length album by the Australian band's penultimate line-up in thirty-five years. The bruising eleven-track collection features a Scientists configuration much beloved by connoisseurs of the band's work: singer-guitarist Kim Salmon, lead guitarist Tony Thewlis, and bassist Boris Sujdovic, all veterans of the group's defining 1981-85 outfit, and drummer Leanne Cowie, who replaced drummer Brett Rixon on the storming 1986 release Weird Love. A solid crop of fresh originals is highlighted by the opening statement of purpose 'Outside'; the offbeat, yowling waltz 'Naysayer'; the hilarious, self-mocking 'Suave,' which Salmon says was inspired by the work of his countrymen the Moodists; and the utterly surprising 'Moth-Eaten Velvet,' a Velvet Underground homage in ballad form that features a three-piece string section. Instrumental guests on the album include producer Mumford, who contributes trombone on 'Make It Go Away,' and Salmon's daughter Emma, who essays piano and background vocals. Negativity is the third Scientists release and the first full-length album for In the Red. The current quartet cut the single Braindead/SurvivalsKills in 2018 and the five-song 2019 EP 9H2O SiO2, the title of which translates (in a hat tip to the lyrics of the group's classic 'Swampland') as Nine Parts Water, One Part Sand. Those recordings were issued in conjunction with the group's first two U.S. tours during that period. Raw, freewheeling, and spattered with the high-voltage sound, the Scientists have drawn from such influences as the Stooges, Suicide, the Gun Club, and the Cramps, Negativity is jubilant, unpredictable listening."

LP version. Chronos is the new album by Rostock's composer Johann Pätzold, aka Secret of Elements. A heartfelt, richly visual journey through which the German composer channels personal struggles alongside the social upheavals to which he has dedicated himself as a "music activist". Chronos charts an eventful period during which Pätzold learned to deal with mental illness, traveled to the Mediterranean to save lives during the refugee crisis, fell in love and lost love -- ten years is a long time. The album tells of people, moments or phases from the musician's life. It opens with the ominous melodies and immersive choral ambience of "Grace", which reflects on a friend's suicide attempt, before riding the euphoria of Pätzold's wedding and the birth of his children in "A Last Waltz". Third track "Memento" narrates the epic journey of a refugee Syrian mother whom Pätzold accompanied from Greece to Germany, its emotive swells and subtle crescendo evoking simultaneously the dawning of a new world and the melancholy of what has been left behind. "Vinculum", built around an Indian mantra, also dates from the same period and was written as a last tribute to a small child who drowned in the Mediterranean. The piece combines church organ -- renown as part of Christian music, and indeed recorded in the Marienkirche in Gnoien on an original 18th century Lütkemüller organ -- with a mantra, seeking to unite various religious symbols in an attempt at reconciliation in the face of unimaginable tragedy. Propelled by mechanical percussion, "Rage" uses the Shepard scale, a musical phenomenon in which two cyclically rising octaves are played on top of each other in a staggered fashion to create the illusion of an infinitely swelling scale, perfectly mirroring the image of blind spiraling, hysterical anger. When you arrive at "Aurora", you feel Pätzold musing about the end of the world, but also the end of the self. What remains when humanity is wiped out by a pandemic or something similar? In Johann Pätzold's case, what remains is, among other things, a monumental album, a musical chronicle of his life: Chronos. Features Mischa Blanos and Laure Brisa.

ReR Vinyl present the first vinyl reissue of News From Babel's Letters Home, originally released in in 1986. Recorded at the legendary Cold Storage studio in London and first released in 1986 this is one of the greatest chapters in the '80s post-Henry Cow/Art Bears era. News From Babel was the song project inaugurated by two ex-Henry Cow, Lindsay Cooper (bassoon, sopranino and alto saxophone, keyboards) and Chris Cutler (drums, electrics) plus Zeena Parkins (harp, electric harps, accordion). A band that created a totally new sound as result of the combination of unusual instruments and arrangements. A highly integrated mixture of avant-rock, chamber music, and Brecht-Eisler cabaret-oriented songs, not much like anything else recorded before or since. Letters Home is the band's second album and it features contributions by Bill Gilonis (The Work) on bass and guitar and vocals appearances from four master singers such as Robert Wyatt, Dagmar Krause, Phil Minton, and Sally Potter. This is the art of extended song form at its peak and it's of course highly recommended to anyone looking for adventurous new sounds. Remastered by Bob Drake, this is the first-ever vinyl reissue with full texts and illustrations enclosed.

2021 restock; LP version. "Joshua Abrams' Cloud Script - Cloud Script - Joshua Abrams (double bass), Ari Brown (tenor saxophone), Jeff Parker (guitar), Gerald Cleaver (drums)."

50 years since their first LP Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka was released (1971), The Master Musicians of Joujouka release a stunning double-LP recorded live at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris in 2016. The recordings are a full immersion into the Joujouka sound with disc one featuring hypnotic flutes and drum and a side of songs with mountain violin played by virtuoso Ahmed Talha with lead vocals by the late Abdeslam Boukhzar. Disc two features the truly hypnotic rhiat suite of Boujeloud, recorded in its entirety for the very first time.

ESP-Disk' present a Lowell Davidson Trio's self-titled album, originally released in 1965. On Ornette Coleman's recommendation, ESP-Disk' owner Bernard Stollman signed up pianist Lowell Davidson (then majoring in biochemistry at Harvard) for this album without having heard him play. Davidson came to New York and got to work with the elite rhythm section of drummer Milford Graves and bassist Gary Peacock, both stalwarts of the ESP catalog. The interplay among the members of the trio is dazzling, but in all ways the pianist is the star of the album. His playing inevitably drew comparisons to Cecil Taylor (can't blame the critics too much, as there just weren't that many pianists going this far out in 1965, so there weren't many comparisons available), but he is his own man stylistically, and puts more space around his notes. He's equally likely to unleash complexly intertwining two-handed runs, spicy dissonances, shimmering Impressionism, or poignant lyricism. The only recording ever approved for release by Davidson, it remains fresh and exciting fifty years later. Personnel: Lowell Davidson - piano; Gary Peacock - bass; Milford Graves - percussion. Recorded July 27, 1965. Engineering by Art Crist. Photography by George Klabin. Original cover design by Baby Jerry. Tape transfer and mastering by Steven Walcott. Design and layout by Miles Bachman and Michael Sanzone.

"... The composition of the trio is also quite inspired. There appears to have been a symbiotic relationship between the other players -- bassist Gary Peacock, percussionist Milford Graves -- and the pianist. Davidson's superior harmonic sense is beautifully reflected in the manner in which Graves, for instance, employs dynamics to explore tonal colors and rhythmic textures. Although he displays this exquisite sensibility throughout very good examples of this are heard on 'L' and 'Stately.' Peacock achieves no less a state of rarified elegance playing both pizzicato and con arco, especially on 'Ad Hoc.' Note his and Graves' rumbling bass, punctuated by bright splashes on various cymbals, a perfect foil for Davidson's complex forays into the heart of the song's theme." -- Raul d'Gama Rose, All About Jazz

"Maggot Brain is a full-color, quarterly magazine edited by noted Detroit scribe Mike McGonigal: 100+ pages packed with phenomenal content -- art, music, literature, unpublished archival material, and more -- with a simple promise to only exist on the printed page. Cover story: Why feminist punk pioneers the Raincoats still matter. Unseen, amazing photos of AC/DC from their first US tour in 1977. Celebrated indie auteur filmmaker Jim Jarmusch's playful newspaper collages -- great interview plus lots of never before seen images! Brilliant Americana guitarists Marisa Anderson and William Tyler on their debut collaboration. Composer Terry Riley and percussionist Hamid Drake on the importance of husband and wife spiritual jazzers Moki and Don Cherry. 14 pages of rare comics by Pee Wee's Playhouse designer Gary Panter -- Jimbo goes to jail! Mike Turner talks to rising Colombian BMX star Julian Molina. Plus, features on vocalist Merry Clayton; New Hampshire's neo-shoegazers Headroom; The Clean's fiery 1980s offshoot band Stephen; catching up with the great band Califone's main force Tim Rutili; a three-page comic on electronics weirdo Mort Garson, who made music to talk to your plants; America's finest essayist Luc Sante takes a gallows turn in this issue's column; and way more."

Mille Plateaux present a reissue of Thomas Köner's Nuuk, originally published as one of four CDs on the 1997 compilation Driftworks and re-released in 2004 by MillePlateauxMedia. Thomas Köner is one of the most influential modernist minimal composers. Alongside Wolfgang Voigt's Gas project, Köner has been centrally responsible for electronic music's fascination with depth and reduction. His signature sound is vast, seemingly endless, which at first seems homogenous and infinite, but once exposed to it, when our senses calibrate to the fine nuances of changes, you discover and immerse into abundance of textures, richness of modulations, and almost infinite range of sonic titillations. Köner's work was inspired by his frequent travels in the Arctic, and listeners feel his music as a journey to mysterious worlds of the Arctic region. The experience of being exposed to the extreme cold, the heightening of our senses and ability to notice even the slightest changes in color, sound, light or density that creates this dangerously reductive environment, is like an immersion in the sonic world of this German artist, where masterfully crafted layers of sound open into colossal spaces, teeming with aural life, waiting to be discovered by those who venture into it. The titles of Köner's highly regarded albums from the '90s ever so often play with this affinity -- Nunatak, Permafrost, Teimo -- all reference to the world of the Artic region, just as his album Nuuk that points us to the capital of Greenland. Subdued and minimal at first glance, this album is brimming with low-end frequencies, shadowy resonances, and boreal ambience, but at the same time, constant fluctuation and vulnerability of sonic events, makes it very organic, human and almost comforting, like the tiny harbor existing in the sea of ice, it is named after. It also served as the source of music material and inspiration for Thomas Köner's video art by the same title, which was awarded a Tiger Cub Award at the 34th International Film Festival in Rotterdam a year later.

"J Spaceman and J Coxon play the music of The Red Krayola! Trems, feedback, metronomes and a music box... This recording was made during preparation for a joint performance by J Spaceman and J Coxon as part of: Art and Language: Letters to The Jackson Pollock Bar in the Style of The Red Krayola, Lisson Gallery New York, October 2019. The idea was to attempt to do a cover version of The Red Krayola's radical and unrepeatable performance at the Angry Arts Festival in 1967. Spaceman and Coxon listened, separately, to the recordings from the Venice Pavilion Concert and then got together to try to play a version of it without rehearsal. This is a recording of that that anti-rehearsal which they then attempted to repeat in NYC a week later at the Art and Language Lisson Gallery show. Cover by Art and Language from their work ten posters, 2018."

"Limited edition vinyl release featuring original Croydon punks The Daleks along with their associated bands! '... honest, heartfelt songs, steeped in earnest melancholy and charming naivete. Equal parts Menace, Members, Lurkers and Television Personalities'" "I started the group In the summer of 1977 after listening to Rattus Narviticus about 100 times on a church youth club holiday. Slimy Toad's brother, Nicky, who co-wrote 'I'm A Cunt' with me, had it on tape cassette. I remember we used to turn it right up in the middle In the middle of Ugly...because Hugh Cornwall shouted 'it's only the fucking rich that get to be good looking'. And all the church leaders would have a right go at us. That was it. Had to start a band! Up until 1979 just I had a guitar although we had a drummer a singer and a bass player that were going to get their instruments it never happened. I had loads of the songs already written by the time the first other member with an instrument joined. Mark Adams (Bass), who later joined Case. Then Woodie joined and things started to move quickly with Gaz joining (the original singer. Nicky Fitzgerald, Slimy Toads brother, bailed out when it started to become a real thing. Then Dean replaced Mark Adams." --Eddie Turtle, 2021

ESP-Disk' present a reissue of Free Music Quintet's Free Music 1 and 2, originally released in 1968. Dutch drummer Pierre Courbois, an early adaptor of free jazz, had previously appeared on ESP-Disk' with Gunter Hampel (Music from Europe) in 1968 and that same year recorded this album in a farmhouse (as shown on the front cover) in the village of Weslum, home of group member Erwin Somer. Personnel - Boy Raaymakers - trumpet, bugle, percussion; Peter Van Der Locht - soprano sax, tenor sax, piccolo flute, percussion; Erwin Somer - violin, vibraphone, percussion; Ferdinand Rikkers - bass, percussion; Pierre Courbois - percussion, leader; Onno Scholtze: producer, engineer; Recorded in Welsum, Netherlands on June 24 and 25, 1968.

"One of the most uncompromising free jazz records ever made, this one-off improvisation by a group of Dutch players, led by percussionist Pierre Courbois, is an archetype of the style. Free jazz doesn't just require a lot of unrestrained blowing and freeform noise, although there are passages of that here. The two lengthy improvs build from placid beginnings, as each member adds various percussion instruments to the growing cacophony, before reedsman Peter Van Der Locht (at times playing two saxes at once á la Rahsaan Roland Kirk) and trumpeter Boy Raaymakers let loose. All five players get their chances to lead the quintet, although there's a minimum of soloing. Courbois drives both improvs, and there's a five-minute stretch starting about seven minutes into 'Free Music Number One' where he simply explodes, bashing a trap kit and a variety of other objects like the cartoon Tasmanian Devil on a dozen espressos, armed with a pair of baseball bats. There's an impressive sense of dynamics to the improvs, both of which have sections of near-silence mixed in with the explosions, and there's a structural unity to each improv despite the lack of musical themes or other familiar signposts." --Stewart Mason

Far Out Recordings present Mora! and Mora! II. Mexican-American percussionist and former member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Francisco Mora Catlett originally recorded and released his debut solo LP as a private press in 1987, but the sequel he recorded over the course of the next few years was shelved for decades to follow. A pan-American melting pot of hypnotic Afro-Cuban rhythms, frenetic batucadas, and fiery sambas, Mora! I & II are holy grails of Latin jazz, masterminded by an unsung hero of the genre. Mora grew up in Mexico City where he began working as a session musician for Capitol Records in 1968, before moving to study at Berklee Music College in Boston, MA in 1970. He very briefly returned to Mexico City with the best intentions of cultivating an avant-garde movement in the city, but when the Sun Ra Arkestra came to perform, Mora ended up leaving with the band to tour. Settling in Detroit, Francisco set to work on his self-titled debut, gathering an ensemble of musicians including keyboardist Kenny Cox, founder of the legendary Strata Records, bassist Rodney Whitaker (Roy Hargrove Quintet) and percussionists Jerome Le Duff, Alberto Nacif, and Emile Borde. The album openly embraces and unites the broad spectrum of improvisation, rhythm, and jazz that has thrived throughout the American continents for centuries. In Mora's own words the album intended to "manifest the African heritage presence in the American continent." Epitomizing this outlook, album opener "Afra Jum" deploys a melody based on Haitian, African, and Native American motifs, which is expanded upon by the soulful excellence of the Detroit veterans Cox and Whitaker, amidst a backdrop of Afro-Cuban inspired percussion. The sequel Mora! II was recorded shortly after with an expanded line-up that included trumpet legend Marcus Belgrave, famed for his work with Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, and others. Continuing the concept of the first album, the follow up moves deeper into South America with the samba jazz dance belter "Amazona", led by the rich vocals of Francisco's wife Teresa Mora. The "Afra Jum" concept is further explored, with the original motifs beefed up by the additional horns, and interspersions of Sun Ra inspired rumbling free improvisations. This follow up album remained shelved until 2005, when Mora put it out as a now obscure CD titled River Drum.

"Jonny Kosmo, the Los Angeles (via New England) registered therapist and home recordist is a card-carrying expert in the shape of your desire and the horizon of meanings your dreams catalyze. In his briefcase lives his weapons grade kaleidoscope, a 1972 Mayfair recorder, and a neatly folded pair of pants that fits seamlessly to the shape of your longing. His armchair prescriptions for the zeitgeist hover ever present on his most recent LP Pastry which hits you Like 69 cc of heady nostalgia for a time he never lived in. The album is like if David Lynch's Dr Jacobi and Stevie Wonder teamed up to make a new brand of funky golden shovels to 'dig yourself out of the shit' with (So of course Kosmo has an affection for feeding tubes own brand of immaculately silent shudders). But don't mistake Kosmos penchant for the gooey gone past as a hauntological hypnagogia or any other mishmash of intellectual twaddle. Kosmo isn't Mark Fisher, because he is what Fisher could never be... alive and well, thriving amidst the world of fear, confusion, and pain -- yet another well cloned representative of the hidden love that lives at the bottom of the stories we tell ourselves. Kosmo achieves this effect through his buoyant optimism that benevolently anthropomorphized the street art and billboard thematic which now populate the hipper regions of Los Angeles. His songs break that unholy ground and become (yet again) the seed for the building of the next world. Here for your consideration, is a new bedtime story sung in the daylight and danced in the moonlight. A siren song for today's hipsters to pool together their silver spoons, use their illusions, and become tomorrow's lovers. If he lands this trick, it's undeniable that in the future the word Kosmo will become ubiquitous with the way a googly eye can make a face out of any old thing. Sure, the uninitiated will think they are getting an innocent confection, but it's really laced with love potion number 10. So, go get yours before it comes and gets you, got me?!" --Dr. Omeed Goodarzi

Four Units is a kind of Japanese "all star" jazz. Recorded in Tokyo on April 1969, it was released the same year on Union Records. On the first two long songs that open this album, "Four Units" and "Dull Slumber", you can feel the influence of the "avant-garde" scene of US jazz (and in particular ESP-Disk'), without however the music sounding too "free". A whole new vibe on the astonishing cover of "Scarborough Fair", in a modal style, where the shadow of McCoy Tyner seems to hang over the piano. The next two tracks, "Rainbow Trout" and "Black Bass", are still pretty much along the same line, sometimes oscillating towards hard bop, the album ending in a blaze of glory with a solo by Masahiko Togashi. While this album had a second pressing in Japan in the '70s, this is the first time it has been reissued with its gatefold cover. Personnel: Akira Miyazawa - tenor sax, flute; Masahiko Sato - piano; Masahiko Togashi - drums; Yasuo Arakawa - bass.

2021 repress. "Magical, mystical, Afrocentric, progressive -- words that could be used to describe any number of musical compositions by Sun Ra or his cosmic brothers and sisters, from John to Alice Coltrane, early '70s projects on record labels like Detroit's Tribe or Houston's Lightin' or the interests of one Washington, DC native named Jimmy Gray that centered under one, perfect moniker: Black Fire. Gray spent nearly three decades pushing boundaries as a Black American promoter, distributor and, finally, record label owner. Together with Oneness of Juju's leader James 'Plunky Nkabinde' Branch, Gray oversaw sixteen releases on Black Fire Records between 1975 and 1996. These are the definitive reissues of five of the label's key titles; all were lacquered -- most directly from master tape -- by legendary Los Angeles mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, With this set, Oneness Of Juju and Black Fire's story burns forth into its fifth decade, its message not tempered, its sound pure. It's cycle, once again, complete. Each release is packaged in a thick, tip-on sleeve and includes a deluxe booklet with extensive notes on the album, the Black Fire collective, and the musical and cultural revolution they created."