Latest release: 12 Sep 2025
<< back
OLAFUR ARNALDS - 'FOUND SONGS'
Formats
ERATP017CD - CD
4050486003169ERATP017ES - 10"
3700551786374
Details
*CLEAR VINYL RE-PRESS* Originally released in 2009, Found Songs is Ólafur Arnalds’ second EP. Re-pressed on translucent vinyl for the first time in an edition of 500, Found Songs displays the composer’s prodigious early talent across its seven pieces. Includes 4pp full colour insert and download code. Original sales text from 2009: In April 2009, Iceland’s neo-classical export Ólafur Arnalds created the 7-song series Found Songs – recording a song a day for 7 days and instantly making each track available via Twitter. With artwork contributions from fans via Flickr, this modern release awakens memories of a tradition that seemed lost in the digital age we live in. Born in 1987, Ólafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometres outside of Reykjavík. He has immersed himself completely in a world of delicate symphonic compositions generating near weightless orchestral pieces. Arnalds explores the crossover from classical to pop by mixing chamber strings and piano with discreet electronics which makes him a perfect fit for cinematic pop label Erased Tapes. His motivations are clear: The classical scene is kind of closed to people who haven't been studying music all their lives. I would like to bring my classical influence to the people who don't usually listen to this kind of music…open people's minds. This young artist steadily gained recognition worldwide since his 2007 debut Eulogy for Evolution. The 2008 follow-up EP Variations of Static earned Ólafur acclaim from both the contemporary and classical field – transcending a traditional divide by uniting their ideals. After filling London’s world-famous Barbican Hall, fellow Icelanders Sigur Rós invited Ólafur to open their most recent European shows, playing to an audience of over 5,000 per night. Ólafur conceived Found Songs as a way to collate several lost and found musical sketches and ideas in a 'very challenging, but fun' series. The experiment offers its listeners an intimate insight into Ólafur Arnalds’ creative world. The songs will be different from what's on my albums; they will be short, mostly just made up from piano. Something to keep me going…
Tracks
01. Erla?s Waltz
02. Raein
03. Romance
04. Allt var? hlj?tt
05. Lost Song
06. Faun
07. Lj?si?
Press
Olafur's music has received critical acclaim from press & radio worldwide, and recorded a live session with BBC Radio 1 DJ Gilles Peterson last winter.
'Iceland's best new export' - Clash
?Youthful Icelander Arnalds sculpts classically toned indie epics' - Time Out
'Enchanting Icelandic song-smith Olafur Arnalds has been a favourite at DiS towers for a while but he's only gone and endeared himself to us even bloody more now!'
- Drowned In Sound
Audio & Video
AL KARPENTER - 'GREATEST HEADS'
Formats
LSSN101 - LP
5061041821257
Details
Released by Hegoa Records and Night School Records. Greatest Heads is the fourth album by the radical Basque-Berlinesque group Al Karpenter. A deconstruction of structured “rock” music, here Al Karpenter re-imagine “the band” to explore the intersection between Free music, afro-beat, the avant garde and gonzo rock. If Theodore Adorno wrote “To Write Poetry after Auschwitz is Barbaric” in 1949, Al Karpenter attempts to answer the difficult question today; what kind of music can be done in the face of a genocide? Álvaro Matilla, Marta Sainz, Enrique Zaccagnini & Mattin’s response to the planet’s slipping into a vortex of hate is to create a music ecstatic, a music of protest bursting with multiple musical languages and glossaries, full of overlapping histories and thrilling tensions. Greatest Heads posits a plurality of musics both in opposition and intertwined: Al Karpenter play rock instruments pulled apart in the studio in post-production. Distorted rhythm chunks bit-crushed and dissipated, segments of freedom oppressed by waves of sound invading from every direction. The interplay between the chief instrumentalists and renowned, storied sound artist Mattin creates something akin to ESP freedom-seekers Cro Magnon playing in Miles Davis’ early 70s groups, The Los Angeles Free Music Society tightening up into a clenched fist of plunderphonics and runaway percussion. We Are All Karpenters opens Greatest Heads with the most straight-forward song refrain of the record accompanied by a band that soon crash into eruption, imagining Sun City Girls in full free rock mode. The modulating synth sound soon sucks the band into its wake to create a spine-chilling climax of distorted sound, made fully orgasmic with mastering engineer Rashad Becker’s attention to detail. On Izugarrizko Buruak (Greatest Heads), Matilla intones in Basque over a mangled distorto-beat. A Brand New Astraphobia creates a black space for a heavily processed guitar to blow up before falling to earth at night, a gentle figure serenading the coming end. On Side B, the band begins by being masticated by a brutal phaser, squelching and stretching the music into new territories. The overt message of Stop The Genocide! is besieged by violence before Worm City aggressively samples the ghosts of soul music, mixing in noise bursts, prepared piano and swiping, abstracted sound. Epic closer Perfect Love feels like a beat poetry performance on a burnt world, still grasping for community, for home, for some sort of human love. A Mad love, then; an angry love fuelled by solidarity and collaboration. The band’s cascading layers of references and polyglottal musics attempt to create the perfect lover, alive with rage and disorientating ecstasy: Al Karpenter.
Tracks
1. We Are All Karpenters 2. Mundo Chabola 3. Izugarrizko Buruak (Greatest Heads) 4. A Brand New Astrophobia 5. The Most Grudgeful Lie 6. Tout Avant de Devenir Rein 7. Stop The Genocide! 8. Worm City 9. Death Song 10. Perfect Love
Press
**LTD 250 COPIES W/ 8 PAGE 12" BOOKLET**
Audio & Video
TITANIC - 'HAGEN'
Formats
UOH18SX - LP (COLOURED)
5061041821356UOH18 - LP
5061041821172
Details
**AVAILABLE ON LTD CREAM VINYL** In her sensational 1929 biography Tiger Woman, dancer and socialite Betty May claimed her ‘coster’s eye’ meant she liked to wear as many colours as possible. “Colours to me are like children to a loving mother. Each is my favourite, yet I can never bring myself to deny the others by preferring one.” May’s bold and inclusive strategy is one that manages to transfer itself, almost a century later, to Hagen, the new record by Titanic. Many will know Titanic as the Mexico City-based brainchild of cellist and singer Mabe Fratti and multi-instrumentalist Hector Tosta who is now operating under the pseudonym, I. la Católica, (taken, rather unusually, from the name of the street the pair live on). With Hagen, and their previous release, Vidrio, (2023), the pair are creating a distinctive signature sound in modern alternative pop music. Nobody else sounds quite like them. Both records have an open hearted nature and simple, winning melodies that play off against a taste for drama, spectacular orchestration and a feeling of otherworldly mystery. Hagen is the more ambitious, sometimes more mystical effort. From the opening handclaps of ‘Lágrima del Sol’, (a wonderfully uptempo playground chant translating as a tear from the sun but, surely, not referencing the brand of pineapple wine?), the record dances its way through various mid-to-late-eighties inspirations, lush and widescreen passages of melancholy and vertiginous contrasts.
Tracks
1. L?grima del sol 2. Gotera 3. Escarbo dimensiones 4. Te tragaste el chicle 5. Libra 6. La due?a 7. Gallina degollada 8. P?jaro de fuego 9. La trampa sale 10. Alzando el trofeo
Press
*****5 Star Guardian review. One of the standout acts at End of the Road festival 2025. Top 50 Albums of the year - The Guardian
Audio & Video
BRAIN PILLS - 'GOATSHEAD'
Formats
CC007 - LP (COLOURED)
5061041821332
Details
**LIMITED NEON YELLOW VINYL** It has been a long time since Creepy Crawl released any music – the return to the fray was not something we had had thought about – times have changed, the world of underground music is almost unrecognizable – however things came back into focus earlier this year when the underground legend that is Mike Vest came calling…. Mike Vest is a one man musical tour de force known for his extensive work with such bands as Bong, Drunk in Hell, 11 Paranoias, Blown Out and Mienakunaru to name a few, releasing records on many underground labels such as Riot Season, Ritual Productions and Cardinal Fuzz etc For Brain Pills Mike has teamed up with Adam Stone from the excellent Poundland on vocals and Nick Raybould from Thought Bubble on drums and art – the result is very impressive indeed – primitive but deadly drums, pulverizingly heavy riffs – lots of fuzz and distortion going on coupled with Adam Stones demented and haunting vocal style all topped off by the excellent and disturbing artwork courtesy of Nick Raybould. The LP Goatshead is homage to Mike's hometown of Gateshead – Goatshead being the ancient pagan name. The record has been mastered for this vinyl release by crust punk legend Bri Doom, known for his work with Sore Throat, Doom, Lazarus Blackstar and most recently with the excellent Disciple BC - the sound is massive, just what you would expect. Released on clear yellow vinyl with OBI strip and limited to just 300 copies – consume or die!
Tracks
1. F.Y.E.O 2. Waste A Day 3. Green Crack 4. Town 5. Silhouette 6. D.S.C. 7.Rat Dog (Crime & Stickmen With Rayguns)
Press
Audio & Video
LIPSTICK KILLERS - 'TOUR DE FORCE LIVE IN ADELAIDE 1979'
Formats
GUWDM0012X - LP (COLOURED)
5061041821523GUWDM0012 - LP
5061041821226
Details
**AVAILABLE ON LTD ORANGE & LTD BLACK VINYL** Sydney's Lipstick Killers released just one single in their lifetime – the perfect ’79 pairing of “Hindu Gods of Love” and ”Shakedown USA”, released on both their own Lost in Space Records and Greg Shaw’s Voxx Records and produced by Deniz Tek of the band's heroes Radio Birdman - but a posthumous live album and a couple of archival releases followed. It was all incredible. and it was all put together a few years ago on Grown Up Wrong!'s 2CD set Strange Flash! And while the 2LP version of that release included all the studio stuff and the live in LA 1981 set, there was no room for this brain-burning, chaotic live set from '79. Tour De Force, which was recorded for local radio station 5UV, captures the band as they were still emerging from the cocoon that was the Psycho Surgeons. The Nuggets influences are there, but it's a Stooges influences which dominate proceedings, and definitive readings of both sides of the Psycho Surgeons classic 45 "Wild Weekend"/"Horizontal Action" are included alongside early Killers killers like "Teen Police" and "Sockman" and later faves like "Hindu Gods of Love', "Shakedown USA" and "Dying Boy's Crawl". The band's hot take on the Thirteenth Floor Elevators' "I've Got Levitation" is also featured. There's also plenty of tunes that were only ever captured on tape on this wild night, including "Human Crash", "Crush On You", "Head Off" and "Bully"!
Tracks
1. Shakedown USA 2. Dying Boy's Crawl 3. Master's Words 4. Bully 5. Teen Police 6. Wild Weekend 7. I?ve Got Levitation 8. Mercy Killer 9. Pharmaceutical Au-Go-Go 10. Human Crash 11. Crush On You 12. Hindu Gods of Love 13. Head Off 14. Sock It To Me ? Baby! 15. Sockman 16. Horizontal Action
Press
Audio & Video
F**KWOLF - 'BOONE'
Formats
AGIT074X - LP (COLOURED)
5061041821080AGIT074 - LP
5061041821073
Details
**LTD COLOURED VINYL / FIRST 100 COPIES W/ HAND NUMBERED PRINT SCREEN ARTWORK** If *Goodbye, Asshole* was the wild night—tequila-sharp riffs, sticky floors, and last-call chaos howled into the void of a disappearing city—then *Boone* is the merciless morning after. The sun cracks the blinds. The brain throbs. Every bad decision gleams in the hard light, raw and undeniable. F***wolf’s second album pares their scuzz-wave blitz down to exposed nerves: Eric Park’s basslines stalk like a hangover pulse, Simon Phillips’ drums land like a palm slapping the alarm into silence, and Tomo Yasuda’s guitar wirings spit like diner coffee left to burn on the hotplate. The fog has lifted; the damage is inventoried. These ten tracks are crime scene Polaroids, tales of longing and woe, fresh mystery bruises and eulogies. There’s no wallowing here, just the tight, terrible beauty of a band that’s stared down the void and come back swinging. The party’s dead. Long live the reckoning. F***wolf have been around the SF scene for a while, and it took Ethan Miller (Silver Current / Comets On Fire / etc) ages to get them to record the debut album, they then toured Japan and released a limited split mini with Green Milk From The Planet Orange. They reconvened late 2024 and recorded Boone.. This new album "Boone", polishes and extrapolates the fizzing psychedelia of their first album, and turns F***wolf into the heirs to the crown of mass-consumptive Sike-rock. This album is in the same vein as Mercury Rev's "Yerself Is Steam", Butthole Surfers' "Rembrandt Pussyhorse" and Flaming Lips "Telepathic Surgery", there's sheer pop in amongst the mind's eye rattling dollops of psychedelic wallop... the Koolaid was drunk and the songs were made.. plug it in, turn on...drop out. Master by the one and only Mikey Young!!
Tracks
1. Plan Ahead 2. Song 2B 3. White Strokes 4. Everything In Its Sweet Time 5. Now 6. Boone 7. Temple Of Doom 8. Heed The Dark Lord 9. Safe House 10 We War
Press
''Boone lands somewhere between the lurching psychedelic grotesqueries of Locust Abortion Technician era Butthole Surfers and the tighter, pricklier and more world-irritated post-hardcore of McLusky's recent The World Is Still Here And So Are We.''
Audio & Video
KK.Null - 'Kosmik Engine'
Formats
IMPREC005CD - CD
793447500522
Details
Kazuyuki K. Null is the leader of Zeni Geva, one of Japan's finest grind metal creations. He has evolved into quite a fine electronic artist and this album is proof. This full length album, 13 untitled tracks, is a unique digital ride through jarring surreal electronic soundscapes in a similar vein to recent works by Nobukazu Takemura and Merzbow. This cd release is housed in a nice cardboard gatefold package with artwork created by KK Null.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Kawabata Makoto - 'O Si Amos A Sighire A Essere Duas Umbras?'
Formats
IMPREC037CD - CD
793447503721
Details
Kawabata Makoto (leader of Japanese collective The Acid Mothers Temple) has created O Si Amos A Essere Duas Umbras? in tribute to Sardegna where Kawabata's creative life recently achieved a highly influential spiritual climax. According to Kawabata, these recordings represent one of the most important moments in his life. While in Sardegna he found his "cosmos." At some point on his trip, a new cosmos opened for him and he received "many wonderful vibrations" from these cosmos. These are the very first of his works created after this transcendental experience. Hearing and feeling these tracks it is apparent that Kawabata has been deeply spiritually affected since his last solo outing. O Si Amos A Essere Duas Umbras? is comprised of two epic, deeply meditative, spiritual and transcendental compositions. Track one, titled Ses Aintro ‘e mene finzas Si Ses In S'Atter'Ala E Su Mundu is the very first solo track Kawabata has ever recorded on an acoustic guitar. Filtered through 3 reverb units and a single delay this epic acoustic track starts off droning but quickly builds with reverb drenched and finger picked momentum light years away from any of Kawabata's solo guitar work. The second major composition is the album's namesake. This deeply spiritual electric guitar drone was also played through 3 reverb units and a single delay machine. Drawing the listener in, these drones resonate deeply and numbly seduce the active listener into a meditative state capable of understanding what Kawabata Makoto means when he says he found his "cosmos." If you're having trouble actualizing your cosmos, or even understanding Kawabata's spiritual experience, take this home and put on your headphones. The skies will open and you'll be full of vibrations.
Tracks
1. Ses Aintro 'E Mene Finzas Si Ses In S'atter Ala E Su Mundu
2. O Si Amos A Sighire A Essere Duas Umbras?
Press
Audio & Video
KK.Null - 'Kosmista Noisea'
Formats
IMPREC111CD - CD
793447511122
Details
Kosmista Noisea is a brand new full length from Japanese legend KK Null (ANP/Zeni Geva). Packaged in a jewel box with a metallic print on a vellum tray card, this was lavishly designed by Stephen O'Malley (Sunn 0)))/Khanate). Kosmista Noisea (Finnish for Cosmic Noise) consists of live recordings from 3 different locations during the 2003–2004 European tour. Kosmista Noisea 1 is taken from 2 separate live recordings and uniquely combined in the studio into one piece with Talcent, Italy on the left channel and St. Etienne, France on the right channel. This technique is designed to give more depth and multiple dimensions. Kosmista Noisea 2 is a 45 minute long non-edit of an entire live performance in Antwerpen, Belgium, showing the diversity of KK Null's music from - intense clashing waves of noise, to structured electro-acoustic ambiance, droning isolationist material.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Christina Kubisch - 'Mono Fluido'
Formats
IMPREC327CD - CD
793447532721
Details
Mondo Fluido collects two major compositions from Christina Kubisch which, until now, have been unreleased. Extensive liner notes & photographs detail the origins of the work. Heavy drones and deep emotions run through these newly discovered pieces. "In 1980 I had the possibility to make some professional recordings on an eight track tape in an Italian sound studio for the sound track of the film 'Liquid Movie' by Fabrizio Plessi. Some months after having finished the soundtrack, I listened to the material again and suddenly felt the desire to make a new piece out of the material which would be free of the limitations of a cinematic soundtrack. "I made several new mixes of the eight track tape and treated some of the sounds with a speed control device, one of the few tools which I had available in my own studio at that time. The sound sources are flute (alto and bass flute) played by myself, the sounds of swinging plastic tubes in the air, the recordings of the windscreen wiper ('tergicristallo') of my old car, the sampled sounds of glass and of my own breathing. Just pure instrumental sounds and some 'field recordings,' no electronics.The piece is a quiet piece of ambient music, an acoustic landscape, unspectacular and yet intense. I called it 'fluido,' which is the Italian word for liquid or fluid. Then I forgot about it. "The tape was in my archive all these years with the remark Mono Fluido on the spine. Only recently I decided to digitize it, despite the mono tag, and I listened to it again. Eventually I thought the piece deserved to be published after almost 30 years. "Although mono is kind of a dinosaur in the world of multichannel fiction I like the simplicity and clarity of it and I hope the listener might share this experience." ~ Christina Kubisch, December 2010 About Christina Kubisch: Christina Kubisch belongs to the first generation of sound artists. Trained as a composer, she studied painting, music (flute and composition) and electronics in Hamburg, Graz, Zürich and Milano, where she graduated. Her work can be described as the “synthesis of arts” - the discovery of acoustic space and the dimension of time in the visual arts on the one hand, and a redefinition of relationships between material and form on the other. Kubisch is best known for artistically and innovatively using techniques such as magnetic induction and ultraviolet light to create and realize her work. Since the 1970s Kubisch has been experimenting with electromagnetic induction and was one of the first to use this method for creating sound installations. One of her most well known works is the Electrical Walks series, in which the audience wears magnetic headphones, specially designed by Kubisch, with built-in coils that respond to electrical fields in the environment, tapping into the electrical fields that result from light systems, anti-theft security devices, surveillance cameras, cell phones, computers, antennae, automated teller machines and other electric devices. She uses these visible sources to create unique and new sensory environmental experiences. In the mid-1980s, Kubisch began to incorporate light as a compositional tool in many works, for example in the installation Skylines at the documenta 8, Kassel; the underground installation Klang Fluß Licht Quelle on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin and more recently Licht Himmel, a permanent light sound installation at Gasometer Oberhausen, Germany. Since 2003 Kubisch has begun to work again as a performer and collaborates with various musicians and dancers, one of whom is Lotta Melin, with whom she will be co-facilitating the Lisbon workshop. An internationally recognized artist, Kubisch has shown work at major international exhibitions and festivals (Venice Benniale, documenta 8, Kassel, Ars Electronica, Linz, Sydney Benniale, Sonar, Barcelona and Sonic Boom, London). Performing around the world she has received numerous grants and awards, and her music has been realized on various labels such as Cramps Records and Edition RZ. Kubisch has been a visiting professor in Maastricht, Paris and Berlin and since 1994, and is currently the professor for sound art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken, Germany.
Tracks
1. Mondo Fluido
2. Ocigam Trazom
Press
Audio & Video
mHz - 'Function'
Formats
IMPREC332CD - CD
793447533223
Details
p>Function is an aesthetic exploration of digital audio at an elemental level: a sequence of quantized amplitude values. The entire sonic material in this series are generated through a custom-designed program that takes a mathematical function as input, and based on a set of pre-defined criteria, outputs the function as a digital waveform. Accordingly, each track in this series is named after one mathematical function, where the function itself is used as the only sound-generating engine. These raw sonic materials are then processed through a number of common audio effects, and organized and structured into a compositional form. Function builds on an ongoing investigation into a realization of brutalist aesthetics through sound and audiovisual media. Through a reductionist approach towards its distinctly digital sonic structures, the work embraces the crude limitations of its medium as the primary aesthetic construct. It uses mathematically architected tonal and rhythmic structures to allow for a celebratory exposure of its “anti-beautiful" raw material. In doing so, it projects an uncompromising clarity of structure, a conscious negation of interpolation, and a steadfast refusal to hide the machine’s footprint. Mo H. Zareei aka mHz is an Iranian electronic musician, sound artist, and researcher, based in Wellington, New Zealand. Using custom-built software and hardware, his experiments with sound cover a wide range from electronic compositions to kinetic sound-sculptures and audiovisual installations. Zareei’s work aims to highlight the beauty in the basics of sound and light production and reductionist audiovisual elements that draw inspiration from physical and architectural principles. Over the course of his PhD, he developed a portfolio of works focused on the intersections of sound art and Brutalism. His “Brutalist Noise Ensemble” has been featured on platforms such as Creative Applications, Streaming Museum, and Fast Co. Zareei has presented his work at international venues and festivals such as SETxCTM Festival (Tehran), New Zealand Festival (Wellington), the International Symposium on Electronic Art (Vancouver), and New Interfaces for Musical Expression (London), to name a few. His installation Rasping Music was the recipient of the 1st prize in Sound Art category of the international Sonic Arts Award 2015 (Italy).
Tracks
1. y = cos(x)
2. y = sin(1/x)
3. y = log(x)
4. y = sin(x)/x
5. y = sin(x)cos(x) 6. y = 1/x^2
7. y = x
8. y = -1/x
Press
Audio & Video
Miminokoto - 'Hitoyogiri'
Formats
IMPREC338CD - CD
79344753827
Details
Brand new full length from Miminokoto. Highly recommended for fans of Tokyo-Underground, classic era PSF and contemporary Japanese outfits such as LSD March and Suishou No Fune. Featuring members of Acid Mothers Temple, Overhang Party & Che-Shizu. Seven tracks, recorded at Peace Music by Nakamura Souichiro in late 2010, including an amazing cover of the late Jutok Kaneko's (Kosokuya) Milky Light. Get deep into the decadent death doom of Miminokoto.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Holy Sons - 'My Only Warm Coals'
Formats
IMPREC372CD - CD
0793447537221
Details
My Only Warm Coals neatly sums up a fifteen year span of Emil Amos' (Grails/Om) basement home-recording in nineteen songs. Using the 4-track like a mirror in LSD therapy sessions, Amos disassembles himself and leaves the puddle on the floor for the listener to contemplate without easy resolution. The record also arcs a period of "lo-fi" recording technique and sonic experimentation that has largely gone undocumented in the larger underground culture, while epitomizing a supremely alienated sound from a person who wouldn't set foot on a stage for most of these 15 years.
Tracks
1. Station ID
2. More Flophouse Blues
3. Bed of Nails
4. Blank Sheet
5. The Bad Sleep Well
6. Natural Courses
7. My Lot In Life
8. Underdog Cringe
9. The Fact Facer
10. More Voodoo
11. Station ID #2
12. Aged Wine
13.Things On My Mind
14. Mind's Eye
15. Stairwell
16. Don't Boil Me
17. More Suburban Shamanisms
18. Wasted, Warped
19. Detached In Ways
Press
Audio & Video
Gaspar Claus - 'Jo Ha Kyu'
Formats
IMPREC378CD - CD
793447537825IMPREC378 - LP
793447537818
Details
Modern Japanese culture is colored, in part, by ancestral shades. Where other countries are willing to forget their past as they move forward, Japan values local tradition over global culture. Japanese tradition is clearly evident in the music of the Japanese avant-garde. One can easily detect that they belong to the great tradition of Japanese music which continues through them. Jo-ha-kyu is a concept of modulation and movement applied in a wide variety of traditional Japanese arts. Roughly translated to "beginning, break, rapid," it essentially means that all actions or efforts should begin slowly, speed up, and then end swiftly. Jo-Ha-Kyu has been used in many aspects of Japanese culture including writing music, dance, theater, literature and even floral arrangement or tea service. Tradition belongs more to the present than the past. For three weeks Parisian cellist and composer Gaspar Claus met with traditional and modern Japanese musicians in a Tokyo studio to record Jo Ha Kyu. Performing with Claus on this piece are: Eiko Ishibashi (voice, piano, drums) Keiji Haino (voice) Kakushin Nishihara (voice, satsuma biwa) Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano) Hiromichi Sakamoto (electric cello) Sachiko M (sine wave) Otomo Yoshihide (turntable) Leonard Eto (wadaiko) Kazutoki Umezu (tenor saxophone) Kazuki Tomokawa (voice, guitar)
Tracks
CD:
1. Jo Ha Kyu
2. First Contact #4 (with Hiromichi Sakamoto)
3. First Contact #5 (with Otomo Yoshihide)
LP:
1. Jo Ha Kyu
Press
Audio & Video
Xiu Xiu & Eugene S. Robinson - 'Sal Mineo'
Formats
IMPREC381CD - CD
793447538129
Details
Sal Mineo is a Jamie Stewart/XIU XIU + Eugene S. Robinson/Oxbow production. Now sleep tight. Sitting at the crossroads between Oxbow's Eugene S. Robinson [lyrics/voice] and XIU XIU's Jamie Stewart [music], Sal Mineo is a pure/impure distillate of experimentalism based on 30 second, to 3-minute long focused bursts of sonic crime, that plumb the cooling depths of a pleasure cruised death trip. These two undisputed heavyweights of musical and emotional non-compromise, whose music leaves tender bruises by whatever sweet blow it is rendered, are ready to crack rooms in two with their high precision silencer of a duo show, combining the best and most free-roaming of both their artistic domains. "One minute it seemed I had more... offers than I could handle, the next, no one wanted me." In the midnight midst of a decline that found it's near inevitable conclusion in a Los Angeles alley at the wrong end of an edged weapon, the band Sal Mineo, as influenced by the man, is much more about the accretion of failure, cinematic and otherwise, than it is about the now almost forgotten rise.
Tracks
1. The Great Expanse
2. Sad, Snowy & Slick
3. Brutish
4. Promise Every Night
5. Lingual
6. The Girl Eeveryone Loves
7. The Hand, the Bush
8. A Sharp Dressed Man Who Looks Like That
9. No One Likes You
10. The Priamary Bell
11. Strategic Thermal Unit
12. Arrondisement
13. Glass
14. A Nice Guy
15. Absolutely No Dispute
16. Sex + Cash
17. Menagerie In Munich
18. Who Do We Love?
19. Glum Chum
20. Dollars On Demand
21. Anywhere But Here There
22. Bits of Habits
23. Sunset '69
24. A Crying Clown. With A Knife
Press
Audio & Video
PITRELEH - 'S/T'
Formats
IMPREC384CD - CD
IMPREC384CS - MC
0793447538433
Details
Full length collaboration from Duane Pitre & ELEH. Pitreleh use high resolution analog and digital tools to create music utilizing natural vibrations and harmonics as rhythm and melody. Inspiration is drawn directly from vibrational waves (sound, gravity, water). The electronics, of which both pieces are constructed, are tuned using Pure Intonation which utilizes the prime numbers: 1-3-5-7.
Tracks
Side A: Vibration: Sine Pools
Side B: Enclosure: Wave Ramp
Press
Audio & Video
Nadja & Vampillia - 'The Perfect World'
Formats
IMPREC385CD - CD
793447538525
Details
Staggering collaboration between Nadja and Vampillia. LP is pressed in an edition of 500 with the first 100 copies on color vinyl. This collaborative album combines Nadja's wall of guitars with Vampillia's operatic vocals and classical instrumentation to make a hybrid of doom and neo-classical music. This version of the release for Important Records features a new song, Avalanche, and brand new mixes of the original tracks from the rare Japanese tour edition. Nadja - guitars, bass, drum machine, flute; Vampillia - guitars, vocals, piano, organ, strings.
Tracks
1. Aurora
2. Avalanche
3. Anesthetic Depth
4. Icelight
Press
Audio & Video
Duane Pitre - 'Bridges'
Formats
IMPREC390 - LP
793447539010IMPREC390CD - CD
793447539027
Details
Duane Pitre's new album, Bridges, features two pieces taken from a suite of analogous compositions by the same name, and was composed by Pitre in 2012. The two pieces that comprise the album are meant to work together in sequence as a composite work; or they can be isolated and listened to on their own. The title derives its name from the original concept for this work, which was to bring together aspects of traditional Eastern music (such as compositional form and tuning) with Western musical traditions (such as in the church music of the Middle Ages and modern classical music). The result is an album that merges the ancient with the new, while creating a sound that is wholly its own. CD is housed in a 6-panel digipack on thick board stock with a matte laminate coating & spot-gloss. Duane Pitre - compositions, cumbus, ukelin, mandolin, computer, & electronics Oliver Barrett - cello Bhob Rainey - soprano saxophone Written/arranged/recorded/mixed August - November 2012. Mastered by Altered Ear.
Tracks
1. Bridges: Earth/Ember/Serpent
2. Bridges: Cup/Aether/Crane
Press
Audio & Video
Stefan Wesolowski - 'Liebestod'
Formats
IMPREC397CD - CD
793447539720
Details
The album Liebestod by Polish composer Stefan Wesolowski consists of repetitive compositions written for piano, brass instruments, strings and electronics. The title itself is derived from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, which says a lot about Wesolowski's primary inspirations. Liebestod shows a tremendous amount of respect for classical music but Wesolowski is far from making literal references to it. Wesolowski shows his own unique musical language; rough and radical at some points, yet full of intense nostalgia and beauty. This album includes a contribution from Michael Jacaszek. Recorded in Old Town Hall, Academy of Music in Gdansk & on the Baltic coast and at home in Sopot, 2011/2012. Realized with the financial support of The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Mayor of Gdansk, Marshal of Pomorskie Voivodeship and City Culture Institute. Recommended if you like: Arvo Part, Steve Reich, William Basinski, Jacaszek.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Mark Rogers & Mary Byrne - 'I Line My Days Along Your Weight'
Formats
IMPREC408 - LP
793447540818
Details
Brooklyn duo Mark Rogers & Mary Byrne recorded their debut, I Line My Days Along Your Weight, as a true duet: facing each other inches apart, intent upon listening. They wove together archaic instruments – baritone acoustic, tricone resonator, golden-era flattop, space-age lap steel, upright piano, and hundred-year-old mandolin – into a new and vibrant third voice. All the songs were recorded live to two-inch analog tape, the studio equivalent of tightrope-walking without a net. Mark and Mary later added minimal touches of lap steel, piano, and electric guitar, but essentially what you hear is what they performed together, start to finish. With Mark's deeply expressive, contextual fingerstyle and Mary's emphatic, unaffected singing, this striking debut invites listeners into a space most intimate, and most human. Mark & Mary each grew up on opposite sides of central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River, but their paths did not cross until years later in the explosively creative East Atlanta music scene. From there, the two moved to Brooklyn, where they married, and where Mary earned her MFA in Writing from Brooklyn College and Mark quickly became an in-demand stage and session player and music instructor. Their collaboration began in earnest in the days after Hurricane Sandy hit New York in November 2012; with the city at a standstill, the two sketched many of the songs now on I Line My Days Along Your Weight. Before this, Mark played with Brooklyn indie-folk band The Loom, with whom he toured and performed as part of Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave series and at Pop Montreal and CMJ. He was also multi-instrumentalist and songwriter with Atlanta's renowned alt-Americana quartet, Myssouri, whose War/Love Blues was selected by Pitchfork as a top album. Mary was lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist for Atlanta trio Hot Young Priest, which toured nationwide; their Fiendish Freaky Love (Two Sheds Music) garnered critics' praise in Magnet, Amplifier, The Big Takeover, Time Out New York, and NPRs All Songs Considered.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Maurizio Bianchi - 'Untitled 1980/Untitled 2013'
Formats
IMPREC414CD - CD
793447541426
Details
Active since 1979, Maurizio Bianchi is an Italian pioneer of noise and industrial music. Untitled 1980 was originally released in 1980 on cassette in Japan. This release marks the first re-issue of this work and pairs it with a 2013 re-working of the original material into four entirely new compositions. This work was created using only a single semi-modular, monophonic synthesizer or, as Maurizio says: "Originally composed in October 1980 simply by using a synthesizer KORG MS20, but with so much imagination. Dedicated to technological sophistication." RIYL: Astro, Space Machine, Merzbow, Francisco Lopez, Nurse With Wound, Conrad Schnitzler.
Tracks
1. UNTITLED 1(1980)
2. UNTITLED 2 (1980)
3. UNTITLED 3 (2013)
4. UNTITLED 4 (2013)
Press
Audio & Video
Duane Pitre - 'Bayou Electric'
Formats
IMPREC421 - LP
793447542119
Details
For synthesizers, sine tones, amplified violin/viola/cello, field recording and custom software. Written/recorded/reconfigured/mixed July-October 2014, New Orleans. Dedicated to Pitre's family: past, present and future. "Bayou Electric" is the final installment in an unplanned trilogy, with "Feel Free "and "Bridges" making up the first and second installments in the series, respectfully. All three works share similar characteristics, compositional processes, alternate tuning schemes, instrumentation and a certain ethos that the composer views as cohesive whole. There is a progression toward refinement over the course of this trilogy, in the overall "sound" of the albums and in their dependence on other musicians to realize them (each less dependent than its predecessor). "Bayou Electric," which contains a single, calming and cathartic composition (of the same title), brings this cycle to a gentle and unhurried finale. The field recording utilized in "Bayou Electric" was captured on a late night in August, 2010 at the edge of Four Mile Bayou; Louisiana land that has been in Pitre's family since January 14, 1922. Upon listening to what he'd captured, Pitre become enthralled by the fabric of sound that the wildlife on this waterway had created. It evoked many feelings - such as how past generations of his relatives lived amongst these same sounds and walked the same land - creating a powerful connection and a sense of timelessness. Pitre was set on finding a way to use this field recording in his music, but wanted to do so without simply adding it to a composition as just another layer of sound or by molding it (via 'processing') into something easier to work with. Instead, Pitre decided to start with the unaltered field recording and build the instrumentation around it, in a highly sympathetic manner, with the musical portion becoming accompaniment to the sounds of this remote land. This was the catalyst of "Bayou Electric" and of primary importance to him, as a way to connect to his Cajun heritage in his own artistic way.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
GROWING - 'Disorder'
Formats
IMPREC435 - LP
793447543512
Details
Disorder marks a few milestones for the band Growing. It is their ninth full length release, in the fifteenth year of their band as well as their first record in almost six years. Though this is their first record in quite some time, this by no means a reunion record. Joe DeNardo said, "We never 'stopped' doing Growing, it's just that it was tough living on two different coasts. We work kinda slow so I think it just took us a while to adjust to how to make it work with the distances. As Kevin kind of built up his home studio in Olympia over the years, it got to a place where we couldn't NOT use it for Growing - it's such a great isolated spot to hunker down and chisel out some tunes." With an entire country between the them, Kevin Doria has been focusing his energy on his Total Life project with a handful of releases as well as touring with Fuck Buttons, GodSpeed You Black Emperor and a host of others. DeNardo has spent the last few years making various music-themed films and performing under the Ornament moniker. At first listen one may be tempted to refer to this as "return to form" for the band: sonically heavy side-long pastoral excursions being a hallmark of their earlier recordings. But Disorder stands more as a refinement of Growing's evolving sonic palette, employing dissonance as liberally as harmony, delivering the listener's ear to a rather unsettling "comfort zone." The effect could be stated as one of submersion. "Kevin's TOTAL LIFE records and live set really inspired me to take a look at a much simpler setup," DeNardo went on to suggest. "I don't think I succeeded necessarily, but the way he maximizes his sound sources really blew me away. And I think it affected what I was recording for Ornament, and so when we got to jamming for the record, it sort of evolved from that. We recorded to 4 track reel-to-reel, it was a pretty minimal setup. It seems like a heavy record to me, these slow, subtle shifts that feel like a bad trip sometimes." Disorder is neither revival nor bookend for Growing. Over their fifteen year career they've issued records on Kranky, Troubleman Unlimited, The Social Registry and Vice Records; they've toured with the likes of Sunn O)))), Hot Chip, Fuck Buttons, Animal Collective & Gang Gang Dance and have played on five of the seven continents. Disorder is another mile marker on the long open road, both figuratively and literally, Growing have been traversing for years.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Pauline Oliveros and Connie Crothers - 'Live At The Stone'
Formats
IMPREC450CD - CD
793447545028
Details
Live At The Stone was intended to be Pauline Oliveros' tribute to the life and work of pianist Connie Crothers who passed away on August 13, 2016. Sadly, Pauline Oliveros passed away on November 25, 2016. This CD, Pauline's memorial for Connie, is now a memorial for both women. Pauline's original dedication: This recording resulted from my one and only performance with Connie Crothers at her invitation during her amazing residency at The Stone in August 2014. I was honored to play with Connie and did not realize that this would be a memorial recording. We have lost an extraordinarily original musician too soon on August 13, 2016. Here is her statement about her week-long residency: "I will be performing in every set with these great musicians–from Tuesday, August 19 through Sunday, the 24th. I am very happy about this, especially since every set will be very different from the other sets. Not only are the musicians different, the way they approach improvisation is different. A friend, noting this, said, 'You like a challenge.' I responded, 'Yes, I thrive from a challenge. That is where the fun is.' That's also where the surprises are, and the joy." I certainly was challenged by the energy and power of Connie's performance during our set. Like Connie I thrive with challenges. The concert felt remarkable and very satisfying for me. I am grateful that Connie had the foresight to arrange for this excellent recording.She was looking forward to this release. May this recording be a tribute to Connie Crothers. Her spirit will always be present in the wonderful community of musicians in New York and around the world and most certainly in my heart. Pauline Oliveros - 2016
Tracks
1. First Meeting Still Sounding (40:22)
Press
Audio & Video
Extended Organ - 'Vibe'
Formats
IMPREC452CD - CD
Details
Vibe, Extended Organ’s first full-length studio album since 2000’s XOXO was recorded in April 2016 by members Joe Potts, Fredrik Nilsen, Paul McCarthy, Tom Recchion, and Alex Stevens. The album consists of two side-long tracks, Hate and Vibe, recorded live at LACM Studio in Pasadena, California by acclaimed engineer André Knecht. On Vibe, the band employs prepared piano, junk percussion, Joe Potts’ Chopped Optigan, electric guitar, voice, Rheem organ, various electronics, and homemade instruments. Each track is improvised, then assembled and edited without overdubbing in studio. The music moves with velocity and direction revealing surprises at every turn. The resulting sound is ominous, humorous, harmonious, chaotic and at times quietly erotic. This is abstractly powerful music. The highly provocative cover image, created collaboratively by Joe Potts, Fredrik Nilsen, and Tom Recchion, is shrouded inside a unique laser-cut outer sleeve. Like the music contained within, the cover reveal is a beguiling experience in and of itself. This intriguing package was art directed and designed by Tom Recchion. Formed in 1994, Extended Organ produces a dynamic otherworldly ambience which can be simultaneously hilarious and frightening. Joe Potts lays down a carpet of sound using and his self-engineered drone instrument, the “Chopped Optigan,” over which Paul McCarthy performs vocal and guitar improvisations channeled and processed by Alex Stevens. Alex also adds his own keyboard triggered synthesized sounds. Tom Recchion, renowned as an inventor of homemade instruments, a free improviser, and an accomplished composer of acoustic, electronic and tape music, performs an array of sounds folding lush beauty and horror sensibility into the matrix. Fredrik Nilsen plays an antique Rheem Mark 7 organ along with electronic sound and recordings created by Mike Kelley. Kelley was a member of the group from 2000 until his death in 2012 and continues to be a contributing member by virtue of sound recordings he provided before his death; “In case I can’t make a gig, I can still play.” The LAFMS formed in the early 1970s around a loosely knit group of like-minded musical improvising sound experimenters in eastern Los Angeles who discovered their mutual interest and banded together to design modes of self production and distribution of recordings and publications, helping to develop and propel the DIY movement. In the ensuing 45 years the LAFMS has gone on to create dozens of records and groups (including Doo-Dooettes, AIRWAY, Le Forte Four, Smegma, John Duncan and Extended Organ), hundreds of concerts, festivals in both US and Europe, a full-scale gallery retrospective and volumes of artwork, sculptures, homemade instruments, videos, recordings, and other ephemera.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Jacob Kirkegaard - 'Phonurgia Metallis'
Formats
IMPREC462CD - CD
793447546216
Details
Piezo sensor and contact speaker attached on rear side of each plate Amplifying and mirroring their subtle and naturally occurring vibrations Evoking the characteristic resonant frequencies of each type of metal The sound art of Jacob Kirkegaard explores ways to reflect on immediate complex, unnoticed or unapproachable aspects of the human condition or civilisation. His works have treated themes such as radioactivity in Chernobyl and Fukushima, melting ice in the Arctic, border walls in Palestine, and tones - otoacoustic emissions - generated from the actual human ear. Currently Jacob Kirkegaard works on two projects, one on the sound of global waste and waste management. The other on sound environments related to the immediate human post mortem. With his peculiar alchemist approach and extensive research, complex phenomena and current conditions are portrayed through composition, installation, video and photography. Rather than providing answers, his portrayals create spaces for reflexion. Kirkegaard has presented his works at galleries, museums, biennales and concert spaces throughout the world, including MoMA in New York, LOUISIANA - Museum of Modern Art and ARoS in Denmark, The Menil Collection and at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, The Sydney Biennale in Australia, Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan. Jacob Kirkegaard has gallery representation through Fridman Gallery (New York, USA) and Galleri Tom Christoffersen (Copenhagen, DK). His work is represented in the permanent collection of LOUISIANA - Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. One of contemporary sound art's most subtle, intriguing figures. More artistically minded than field recordings, more naturally hewn than noise tapes, Kirkegaard amplifies hidden worlds into evocative drifts. Rolling Stone, December 2015 Kirkegaard has countered Duchamp’s dictum, “One can look at seeing, one can’t hear hearing.” Douglas Kahn, Earside Out, 2014 For all the scientific rigour to Kirkegaard's research into the sonic possibilities of various materials, his work reveals an underlying fascination for the mysteries and myths embedded in them. His work channels an access to an inner world. A.H. Neset, The Wire, 2009
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Ned Lagin - 'Seastones'
Formats
IMPREC479 - LP
793447547916
Details
Ned Lagin's Seastones is a pioneering electronic composition interweaving metaphors from nature, science, art and music and the origins of music. Reflecting the technology, science, modern art, new ecological awareness and optimism of the times and culture, Seastones embodies the history of electronic music by taking full advantage of tape music, analog synthesizers and computer technology to create pieces that are dynamic, rich and deep. Originally released by the Grateful Dead's Round Records in 1975, Seastones' musicians include Ned Lagin (processed piano, clavichord, organ, prepared piano, electric piano, synthesizers), Jerry Garcia (processed electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, voice), Phil Lesh (processed electric bass), David Crosby processed electric guitar and vocals), Grace Slick and David Freiberg (processed vocals), and Mickey Hart and Spencer Dryden (percussion). This new LP presents two crafted Seastones sets (Sets 4 and 5, 18 tracks) drawn from the entire Seastones composition and contains gorgeous extended processed vocals by Garcia, Crosby, Slick and Freiberg, and beautiful abstract instrumental passages by Lagin and all.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Stuart Dempster - 'Underground Overlays From The Cistern Chapel'
Formats
IMPREC485 - 2xLPs
0793447548517
Details
Cistern Chapel in the same cistern where the legendary Deep Listening album was recorded. Reverberating with powerful, deep tones, this double LP is intended as a companion to the acclaimed Oliveros/Dempster/Panaiotis album Deep Listening. Underground Overlays From The Cistern Chapel is one of the deepest drone albums ever recorded. Nine trombones, didjeridu and Tibetan bells fill the massive two million gallon cistern with dense sonic reverberations that are both haunting and healing.
Tracks
Conch Calling
Morning Light
Didjerilayover
Secret Currents
Melodic Communion
Shell Shock
Cloud Landings
Press
Audio & Video
David First - 'The Consummation Of Right & Wrong'
Formats
IMPREC490CD - 3xCDs
793447549026
Details
David First likes to use the phrase “the virtuosity of slowness” to describe his musical philosophy. In The Consummation of Right and Wrong, he and his 8-piece ensemble, The Western Enisphere, practice this virtuosity to great effect in closely examining the universes that fall between the cracks of convention, reflecting a wide continuum of complex relationships, all the while giving us music that is simply ravishing to listen to. This is "drone music” as dynamic organism, moving from compact and ruminative to spacious and serene and back. In this 3-CD, 2.5 hours of sonic tessellation, First has alchemized his own personal opposites like never before, combining and transmuting his free-jazz experience with avant-legend Cecil Taylor, his influential noise-rock & roll band Notekillers, his long-abiding love for minimalist, mathematical excavation on dozens of instruments, and a highly refined ear for pop-melodic architectures into a singular, epic set of vibrational possibilities that leaves very few stones unturned in his ongoing quest for the resolution of all extremes.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Alina Kalancea - 'Impedance'
Formats
IMPREC491 - 2xLPs
793447549118
Details
Highly recommended to fans of Eleh, Caterina Barbieri, Shasta Cults, Jessica Ekomane, Eliane Radigue and Alessandro Cortini. Impedance, an entirely instrumental album spanning 4 sides, contains powerful rhythmic sequences, heart beating frequencies and hypnotic loops that are paradoxically encapsulated in carefully crafted compositions which are full of secret passages and hidden doors. Kalancea's work creates ungraspable sonic experiences, which take us over, immersing us in powerful and mind altering soundscapes. There's no quick payoff on Impedance. This is the sound of new, patient electronic music full of depth and substance. Alina Kalancea is a Romanian sound artist and composer based in Modena, Italy. She has studied sound design and synthesis with Enrico Cosimi and collaborated with producer Alex Gamez, and artists Julia Kent and Raven Bush.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Alvin Lucier & Jordan Dykstra - 'Out Of Our Hands'
Formats
IMPREC492 - LP
793447549217IMPREC492CD - CD
Details
These companion pieces have similar orbits as they were not only both composed in Middletown, CT (where Alvin and Jordan lived for a number of years), but are about Middletown, at least from a starting point. Alvin’s piece — a homage to the location of the house in which he recorded “I am sitting in a room” back in 1969 — continues his study into slow-moving glissandi and carefully crafted beating patters by interweaving three string players within a minor third (voiced by two vibraphonists). The result is entrancing, almost psychedelic, and opens space where one didn’t expect. Like much of his previous work, it is conceptual and process-based; once the wheels get turning they go on and on, giving the listener time to approach the piece, sit with it, and then move back inward. On the other hand, Dykstra’s piece “32 Middle Tones” (a pun on his Middletown street address and the harmonic microtonality utilized in the composition) is a very textural work. His piece asks the cellist to sustain pitches for extended durations — at times quietly singing in close proximity to the stopped pitch coming from the cello — while the rest of the ensemble (violin, viola, and 2 percussion) voice a sequence of chords separated by notated silences. The cello voice is sometimes alone, but never for too long as it finds itself supported from both the top and bottom in a harmonic embrace. This supportive structure involves a percussion section which colors the seemingly simple chords (major 6th, inverted minor 7th, inverted minor 2nd, etc.) with a non-traditional toolkit of bowed singing bowls, stone sheets, harmonicas, and even leaves. This is music that gently gives the listener a sense of predictability but always in an unexpected (and subtly indeterminate) shade. Speaking of shade, the album’s cover photo was taken in 2019 in Alvin’s backyard in Middletown. Alvin and Jordan sit with similar demeanors in front of his favorite tree — a crooked aspen which early on looked to be doomed — but which he would often saunter over to spend time with, giving it whispers of blessings and encouraging words.The world was blessed with Alvin’s presence and hopefully this album will whisper to you and yours.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Gregory Kramer - 'Veils Of Transformation - 1972/1980'
Formats
IMPREC493CD - CD
793447549316IMPREC493CS - MC
0793447549330
Details
Veils Of Transformation 1972 - 1980 is a collection of the earliest works of Gregory Kramer, one of the 20th century masters of textural electronic music. This collection is available on CD and cassette with liner notes from Gregory Kramer and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, who first brought this fascinating work to the attention of Important Records.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Tod Dockstader - 'Aerial 2'
Formats
IMPREC494 - 2xLPs
793447549415
Details
15 years in the making, Tod Dockstader's Aerial series is sourced from his life long passion for shortwave radio. Dockstader collected over 90 hours of recordings, made at night, and comprised of cross signals and fragments plucked from the atmosphere. Opening with airwave drones, Dockstader gradually allows elements to slowly come and go, summoning an ominous atmosphere of ethereal cloud clouds. Malignant placidity continues, giving the feeling of eavesdropping upon late-night audio activity not unlike discovering number stations while sweeping the dials. These sounds pull you in as their density and rhythms come and go. Backward voices, deep echoing choruses of conversations flowing under the surface, ocean sounds, pulsing electro-rhythms, all seem to be created via the collaging of many hours of source recordings. A masterwork of collage and juxtaposition by an overlooked pioneer of American electronic music. Artwork by John Brien (Imprec) is inspired by the propagation of shortwave radio signals throughout the earth's atmosphere.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Tony Rolando - 'Breakin' Is A Memory'
Formats
IMPREC502 - LP
793447549213
Details
Tony Rolando's debut "Breakin' Is A Memory" could be your soundtrack. This worldbuilding album of electronic music leaves room for the listener to make big personal connections through subtly complex music resembling a sonic mobile which, as it spins, reveals new forms and colors......
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Wanderwelle - 'All Hands Bury The Cliffs At Sea'
Formats
IMPREC503 - LP
793447550312
Details
After last year’s Black Clouds Above The Bows, Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle presents the second entry of their trilogy for Important Records, which is dedicated to telling the story of the climate crisis and its effects on coastal areas around the globe. For this album the artists incorporated the sound of a dying organ, fatally wounded in a climate related event. All Hands Bury The Cliffs At Sea consists of electro-acoustic threnodies for an environment at risk due to the effects caused by receding coastlines around the globe. Wailing odes tell the story of the catastrophic activity of eroding waves and winds shaping the land that are enhanced by the climate crisis. First hand experiences and meetings with local maritime experts on the subject of these receding coastlines inspired Wanderwelle to compose these albums.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Razen - 'Postcards From Hereafter'
Formats
IMPREC506CD - CD
Details
Razen's Postcards From Hereafter was recorded using a 17th century organ tuned at 398 Hz (meantone) in a Belgian cathedral erected in 1305. The ensemble explored, with rich results, the organ's strict and limiting tuning with an arrangement that included hurdy gurdy, recorders, chalumeau, violone and nyckelharpa. The pieces on Postcards From Hereafter explore the crossover between this world and the next with improvised spiritual, religious music...... Brussels-based ensemble Razen use the unique timbral and drone characteristics of their chosen string and wind instruments in improvised, instinctive music that mixes pre-industrial, spectral and ethnic dreamtones with trance and medieval mysticism. The group includes Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour as well as Pieter Lenaerts on 5-string double bass and sarangi, Paul Garriau on hurdy-gurdy, David Poltrock on ondes-Marthenot, Berlinde Deman on serpent and Jean-Philippe Poncin on chalumeau and bass clarinet. RIYL: Olivier Messiaen, Sun Ra, Popol Vuh
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Wanderwelle - 'Black Clouds Above The Bows'
Formats
IMPREC507CD - CD
793447550725
Details
The Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle presents the first entry of their trilogy for Imprec, dedicated to telling the story of the climate crisis and its effects on coastal areas around the globe..... Black Clouds Above The Bows consists of electro-acoustic threnodies for an environment at risk. Wailing odes express and examine the destructive activity of intensifying storm systems that are enhanced by the climate crisis. First-hand experiences with coastal damage and meetings with local maritime experts on the subject inspired the artists to compose this album. Antique cavalry trumpets are playing a central role in the album. The instruments, recorded and manipulated by Wanderwelle, sound an environmental alarm in the same manner as they were once used to warn men on the battlefield. After more than a century of silence, they are once again fulfilling their purpose. Starting out as menacing tones, the brass progresses into blaring noises and gets more aggressive as the album continues, resulting in a cacophony across a tumultuous sea. With digital alterations, the natural trumpets were used beyond the range of the harmonic series and their original pitch.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Parish - 'Cascades Of Refinement'
Formats
IMPREC508CD - CD
793447550824IMPREC508CS - MC
0793447550831
Details
Cascades of Refinement, which includes the single Cascade II, is Parish's debut album released under his own name and his focus on the dialogue between the digital and the organic continues. The techniques that defined his influential early sound have been refined into a flawless hybrid of analog and digital textures which give his post-minimalist compositions an unmistakably personal expressivity. Classical instruments are mutilated and transmuted into razor-sharp shards of glass suspended on piano wire above warped opalescent metal while never losing sight of their tonal integrity. Much like the impartial juxtaposition Parish employs in his timbral exploration, each composition explores the concepts of beauty and gentleness through and with extremity, violence, and chaos as equal counterparts, with each successive piece refining and relieving the artificial tension between these states. Employing use of the Una Corda, prepared piano, bowed piano, plucked piano, harpsichord, church organ, untuned violin, voice, synthesizers, and resampled field recordings, Cascades of Refinement lies somewhere in the indefinite space between acoustic and electronic and is beholden to neither. Parish's initial electroacoustic experiments with piano and strings were interrupted by the pandemic lockdown when he was limited to sampled instrumentation and digital processing available on a computer. Out of this necessity evolved an appreciation for the incidental nature of digitally sampled acoustic instrumentation and the unpredictability of its interaction with digital signal processing. As work on Cascades of Refinement continued and acoustic recording was reintroduced, the focus turned to the tension between recorded and sampled instrumentation, with the goal of integrating the two into a singular indistinguishable material to be warped and shaped together. Each of the four pieces of the Cascade series explores this tension, successively integrating and collapsing their distinction with each piece. The subtle artifacts of digital processing and incidental mechanical sounds of the acoustic are amplified and given presence alongside the tonal elements of each piece until a point of indivisibility is reached. The sound of a bow scraping along a string or a granular buffer freezing are neither discarded nor hidden, but selected as the ripest material to accompany and structure each composition. Cascades of Refinement is a dialogue between organic and digital, between the mercurial and infinitely reproducible, not as opposites, but as mereologically cohabiting counterparts with equal expressivity.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Quintron / NYZ - 'Weather Music'
Formats
IMPREC522CS - MC
793447552231
Details
Weather Music features music controlled by the weather and performed on instruments built by Quintron & NYZ. Side A features the Weather Warlock, designed by New Orleans artist & instrument builder Quintron. "Weather Warlock is an environmentally responsive analog synthesizer which uses moisture, temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed and UV radiation to massage a major chordal drone. The resulting music was designed for self-hypnosis and healing. I wanted something with movement and changes, but completely devoid of human organization - like a fire, or a lake reflecting moonlight. Constantly vibrating with change but also very still." Quintron Side B features David Burraston's rain wire, a long string instrument stretched across a valley in Australia where it's mic'd like a guitar with a single string being played by the rain. Like Quintron's Weather Warlock, this piece is devoid of human organization but has a natural form we can easily recognize rhythmically as the steady randomness of rainfall mixed with the deep-space reverberations of this long wire instrument. "Rainwire encompasses the investigation of rainfall using suspended cables (long wire instruments) & its application as a medium for artistic, cultural and scientific exchange. The concept developed from using contact mic recordings of rainfall 'playing' the long wire instruments for music compositions suggesting environmental signification has great potential to measure rainfall accurately." David Burraston
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Larsen / Alessandro Sciaraffa - 'Golden Leaf'
Formats
IMPREC523CD - CD
0793447552323
Details
Golden Leaf is the 19th album by the Italian experimental band Larsen here exploring free-form sounds and spatial dynamics by real-time composing and creating a sonic and social environment. It also confirms the love and interest the band has for collaborations as ongoing dialogues and portals to new paths. This album documents a four-hour site-specific performance by Larsen and Alessandro Sciaraffa featuring interactive sound totems designed by Alessandro Sciaraffa and exclusive food creations by chef Gabriele Gatti. The performance took place at a secret location in Torino (Italy) in 2021 and was meant as an alchemical rite with the audience as an integral part of it. It was recorded and then edited and assembled into two pieces by long-time collaborator, sound engineer, solo musician Paul Beauchamp.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Christina Kubisch - 'Stromsänger 2022 (For 6 Voices & Electromagnetic Waves)'
Formats
IMPREC524 - LP
0793447552415
Details
Christina Kubisch’s Stromsänger finds this legendary sound artist at the top of her game mixing electromagnetic wave recordings with a score for six voices, creating powerful results. Stromsänger is based on a collaboration with the Norwegian vocal ensemble Trondheim Voices and on a special experience while researching and recording electromagnetic waves in the city of Trondheim. “The general theme of the composition is the idea of sounds which travel. During a tram ride from the city up to the hills with an old tram I discovered not only stunning views of the surrounding landscape but as well a special soundscape. Wearing a custom made induction headphones, I could hear the normally hidden electromagnetic fields of the tram, which were so impressive and musical to me that I immediately decided to base my piece for Trondheim Voices on this discovery. As a start, a series of pure vocal recordings were produced by Trondheim Voices while listening to a choice of electromagnetic tram sounds and following score instructions. This material was mixed in my Berlin studio and afterward was played back through a multi-loudspeaker setup into the room of the Elisabeth Church in Berlin and was instantaneously recorded. The emerged recording was played back and recorded again. The process of playing back the previous recording was repeated numerous times, generating numerous “re-recordings”, until the voices sounded aethereal and abstract. The last one of these recordings became the very beginning of the Stromsänger piece.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Stephen Ruppenthal & Gary R. Weisberg - 'Strange Times'
Formats
IMPREC525CD - CD
793447552521
Details
electroacoustic soundscapes composed and performed by Stephen Ruppenthal and Gary R. Weisberg. With masterful employment of electro-acoustic techniques and tools, including the original 70's Buchla Music Easel Ruppenthal used in the Electric Weasel Ensemble, these two artist create an essential, psychedelic, electro-acoustic experience. Strange Times is a hallucinatory journey into our epidemic-ridden times through a collection of startling sonic landscapes. From epic acoustic journeys into re-imagining myth to the phantasmal soundscape world of the Bardo, Strange Times is not for the innocent or delicate listener. Time turns elastic, and folds in on itself; you are approaching the event horizon of a black hole. The only way to make sense of any of it is to mentally rewind; speed up or slow down the voices in your head in random attempts to find your way through this electroacoustic aether. Strange Times explores the ability of sound to alter consciousness, creating sonic environments, mental and physical states where one can allow the experience of listening to become transformative.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Niels Lyhne Lokkegaard & Quatuor Bozzini - 'Colliding Bubbles'
Formats
IMPREC531CD - CD
793447553122
Details
Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release) is a composition for string quartet and harmonica quartet, meaning that Quatuor Bozzini is playing string instruments while playing harmonicas. "The title refers to different kinds of bubbly matter which are set to collide within the composition, leading to different ruptures and possible release of surface tension. The collision of bubbles unfolds partly in relation to sound, where small fluctuations appear in the encounters between harmonicas and string instruments and partly in relation to a more performative or conceptual bubble where instruments representing different systems, or bubbles, will collide; the very celebrated instruments within the classical string quartet and the perhaps more prosaic harmonica." Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard
Tracks
1. Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release) - 28:50
Press
Audio & Video
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO - 'Trust Masked Replicants'
Formats
IMPREC533 - LP
793447553313
Details
Japan's long running masters of psych/kosmische jamming return to Important Records for a vinyl outing featuring beloved original member Cotton Casino. Trust Masked Replicants finds AMT in fine form, creating experimental psych-rock improvised around skeletal compositions. The group's leader, Kawabata Makoto, holds the group together while they navigate chaos infused, drone based jamming at the outer edges of human consciousness. Side B, featuring the 20 minute track Asoko Ananda, is a classic side-long fast paced AMT burner combining sped up kosmische rhythms, filter sweeps, free-jazz piano, tabla drumming and vocal experiments. Asoko Ananda utilizes many of the group's skills, ascending to the height of their collective, mountainous ability. Channeling prog, krautrock, modern composition and noise, Kawabata Makoto formed the Acid Mothers Temple in the early 90's. The group has gone on to release countless albums while touring the globe.
Tracks
Press
Audio & Video
Michael Ranta - 'Transits Vol. 1'
Formats
IMPREC535CD - CD
793447553511
Details
American percussionist and composer Michael Ranta is a legendary figure who has worked with some of the most significant names of 20th century music but despite this and impressive body of work of his own, he has remained an obscure figure.... Based overseas since the late 60s, Ranta is known primarily as a percussionist who worked closely with Harry Partch, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann, Toru Takemitsu and Jean-Claude Éloy but is also an accomplished artist himself with a vast body of work spanning improvisation, electronic music, and composition. The works in the “Transits” series comprise a dozen works of scored compositions for solo and chamber ensembles almost all of which are completely unknown with no known performances or recordings since their original premieres. Volume 1 includes Mharuva, a 30-minute marathon tour-de-force for solo marimba, Seven Pieces for Three Percussionists, and the 40-minute Continuum II, a stunning display of virtuosity for two bass clarinets, percussion, and electronics. Transits, Volume 1 features performances by Sarah Hennies, NYC clarinetists Madison Greenstone and Katie Porter, and the Bard College Conservatory Percussion Ensemble.