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Three introspective instrumental compositions for English horn, flute, percussion, double bass, Hammond organ. Performed, recorded and mixed by Timo van Luijk at Kulta Saha, 2010-2012. Remastered May 2020.

Continuing their exploration of São Tomé and Príncipe with DJ Tom B., Les Disques Bongo Joe proudly announces the release of África Negra Anthology Vol. 2. We've carefully selected and remastered 13 standout tracks for this volume, digitized from studio tapes by their tour manager. The album includes a booklet with updated liner notes and vintage photos of the group. África Negra, established in the early 1970s by Horacio and Emidio Pontes, is São Tomé and Príncipe's most renowned musical group. Their blend of Puxa and Rumba, infused with Leonildo Barros' guitar riffs, Armando Tito's bass lines, and vibrant percussion, gained them recognition beyond the archipelago. This volume offers a glimpse into their musical journey, featuring unreleased sessions from 1979 and 1990, showcasing lead vocalists like João Seria and Sergio Fonseca. Reformed around Leonildo Barros and Antonio Menezes since 2008, the group has released three albums since 2012 and resumed touring in recent years, with João since 2014. Their performances continue to captivate audiences with energetic rhythms, graceful harmonies, socially charged poetry, and distinctive dance moves, supported by their Lisbon-based tour manager, Afonso Simoes (Filho Unico), who facilitated the excavation of these tracks. Since the tragic passing of Joao Seria on May 4, 2023, followed by national funeral honors, 90s lead vocalist Sergio Fonseca has rejoined the group, accompanied by Iju, a renowned younger São Toméan vocalist, delivering an engaging show. Pacheco, known for his devastating bass riffs and unique style of playing, has also returned, having lived in Cape Verde since 1987 and recently resettled in São Tomé. This anthology is dedicated to the memory of General João Seria, Gabriel João, Sep 1, 1949 - May 4, 2023.

1993 album, their last On-U produced LP for 12 years. African Head Charge blend dub, trance, electronica and world music throughout with Bonjo I at the helm and typically skilful production from Adrian Sherwood.

Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah is on vocal duties and assisted with ground-shaking grooves from On-U mainstays Doug Wimbish, Skip McDonald, and Jazzwad (amongst others). The resulting sound sculptures on this 2005 album are whipped into a dubwise frenzy by label head Adrian Sherwood. A great entry in the rich AHC back catalogue, and a fitting way to mark their return to the label.

Originally released in 2011 to celebrate the 30th year of On-U Sound. The album is essentially the continuation of a process that has seen both band and label expanding and transforming the landscape of contemporary reggae into new and exciting shapes. All the elements of a classic African Head Charge album are present; a triumphant mix of dub, psychedelia, trance, afro and tribal rhythms that have given them their own unique place in contemporary music.

African Head Charge return to On-U Sound with their first new album in twelve years. Titled A Trip To Bolgatanga, the recordings are led by founder member Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, with close friend and co-conspirator Adrian Sherwood once again at the controls. A Trip to Bolgatanga is a stunning return, bringing together the talents of two masters who, after a hiatus, have created a rich album brimming with ideas and executed with finesse.

A Trip To Bolgatanga is a musical journey to Bonjo’s current hometown in north Ghana. A psychedelic travelogue across the landscape featuring their trademark hand percussion and group chanting augmented with rumbling bass, mutated horns, dubbed out effects, wild wah-wah, haunted voodoo dancehall, synthetic swells, disco congas, tumbling layers of electronic effects, blues-inflected woodwind, and funky organ. As with every On-U Sound production, each repeated listen reveals fresh detail, and its power won’t be really understood until heard on a big system, when it’ll reduce all competition to rubble.

The groundbreaking debut album from 1981 that plays on both the title and concept of David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Built upon sparse backing tracks constructed by Adrian Sherwood, the producer invited Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah (who had studied under Count Ossie in the rasta drumming camp at Wareika Hill in Jamaica) to lay down hand percussion patterns and breaks on top, augmented by stereo-strafed effects and the occasional burst of Sun Ra-style horns. The result is a unique mixture of traditional African rhythms, dub and free jazz. Features DJ favourite “Stebeni’s Theme” and “Far Away Chant”, used to famously gruesome effect by David Lynch in the film Wild At Heart.。

Unreleased tracks and version excursions 1981 – 1986.

Inspired by Eno’s “vision of a psychedelic Africa”, English dub producer Adrian Sherwood and master Jamaican percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah collaborated on a series of studio experiments under the African Head Charge moniker, resulting in groundbreaking albums such as Environmental Studies and Off The Beaten Track. The otherworldly sounds they conjure up have touchstones in Count Ossie’s mystic revelations, Can’s ethnological forgery series and the post-punk underground, but ultimately inhabit a genre of their own creation.

These radically different versions of early AHC classics and been lovingly restored and sequenced from the original master tapes by On-U archivist Patrick Dokter. This compilation first released in 2016.

Considered by most fans to be AHC's masterpiece. One of the prominent elements throughout African Head Charge’s discography has been the ethnomusicology influence. On Songs Of Praise this is even more pronounced, featuring religious chants set to an African dub backdrop of hand percussion, with a mighty sonic and great musicianship. A significant record both for African Head Charge and On-U Sound, originally released in 1990.

Bamanya is responsible for building Africa's first DIY modular synthesizer, a huge wall of home-made modules and FX units that he dubbed, fittingly, The Afrorack. His reason for embarking on this difficult project was simple: as he began to investigate the world of modular synthesizers, he realized it would be difficult to acquire the technology in Uganda. Not only were there relatively few retailers across the whole of Africa, but the modules were often prohibitively expensive. After quick search online, Bamanya realized he could easily download circuit diagrams and buy the required parts locally, so he taught himself electronics and constructed a CV-controlled system that's been evolving ever since. "The Afrorack" is Bamanya's debut album and displays the producer's untethered creativity and restless energy. He's all too aware that these modules were developed with European and American musical styles in mind, so developed his own musical methodology and language to coax the system into suiting his needs. His starting points are often abstractions of acid and techno, but Bamanya curves East African rhythms and different scales into these familiar structures, splintering them into fractal shards. "I believe Africa is at that point where people are getting new tools which were not available to them, and then experimenting with them in a different context, because Africa has its own traditional music," he told Pan African Music back in 2019. This attitude is most evident on 'African Drum Machine', where Bamanya uses a Euclidean rhythm sequencer to divide his CV signals into complex algorithmic patterns that mimic the polyrhythmic structures that exist in many East African musical forms. If you're not listening closely it might sound like 4/4 techno, but focus your attention and you'll hear different layers of drums and jagged oscillators bouncing between each other creating hypnotic new rhythms. Bamanya takes a similar approach on 'Why Serious', fuzzing dubby basslines and plasticky percussive sounds into a frenetic hybrid of abstract electronics and fwd-thinking East African club sounds. At times, Bamanya's meditative, bass-heavy compositions echo the psychedelic sounds of Shackleton or Adrian Sherwood's African Head Charge, particularly on tracks like 'Inspired' and 'Last Modular'. With lysergic tonal shifts and precision-engineered drums, both tracks sound defiantly metallic, but sculpted by a producer who's always completely in control as he introduces risky eccentricities like feline groans and videogame blips. And on less beat-heavy tracks like 'Osc' and 'Rev', Bamanya makes a conscious nod to the history of modular music, approaching the kosmische universe of Popol Vuh, Klaus Schulze and Emeralds, augmenting it with East Africa's idiosyncratic rhythmic intensity. "The Afrorack" is the beginning of a conversation that's been long overdue.

After Dinner from Japan, embraced new wave, traditional Japanese music, free contemporary and avant-garde rock. Founded under hand of delicious female vocalist, musician and composer Haco in 1981, broaching a very interesting collective cohesion; their background, though however various, brought them together during times of recording and live performance. 1982-85 includes all their first production; the complete 1st album “Glass Tube", 2 tracks from the 1st 7” single and a bonus track track from a 1985’s compilation on Celluloid. Includes 24-pages booklet

"The Japanese avant-garde pop band strove to create a “sacred ambiance” on their second album, fusing unconventional arrangements with bouncing volleyballs and an eyes-wide air of wonder." “It’s rare that art-pop matches its extravagance with such alluring modesty. In doing so, Paradise of Replica feels like encountering cinematic spectacles in miniature.” —Joshua Minsoo Kim (Pitchfork, September 30, 2022)

A milestone in the history of electro-pop and post-punk music in Brazil! Finally gathered in a 12" the two 7" of the seminal band Agentss, ground zero of Brazilian post-punk. Originally released in '82 and '83, until now these recordings were only available in their original format. Their members were key figures of the São Paulo underground, after the band split-up they went to create important bands such as Voluntários da Pátria, Azul 29, Violeta de Outono, and Mumia. The track "Agentes" was included in the Não Wave (Brazilian Post Punk 1982-1988) compilation released by Man Recordings in 2005. The release comes with an insert featuring unpublished photos and texts telling the story of the band. A milestone in the history of electro-pop and post-punk music in Brazil. Agentss was a seminal band that recorded only two singles, did few shows and imploded. It's no exaggeration to compare their debut show with the famous Sex Pistols concert in Manchester, when approximately 50 people that left the place with the idea of starting their own band. The band's sound was a transitional one. Part of what is perceived as post-punk is actually pre-punk (including bands as Suicide, Chrome, Cabaret Voltaire, and This Heat) and we could draw comparisons of Agentss with the initial Ultravox (John Foxx era), the albums by guitarist Snakefinger produced by The Residents and the experimental early Devo.

During the mid-1960s, deep in the Sussex countryside of southern England, aspiring musicians Peter Howell and John Ferdinando played in a few school bands before recording together in Howell’s father’s garage. Through Ferdinando’s connections with a theatre group, the duo created a musical companion for their production of Alice Through The Looking Glass, which the duo pressed privately; then, Fly Away, credited to Agincourt, was produced in a spare bedroom, an advertisement bringing Lee Menelaus, whose lilting voice provided a stirring female counterpart to theirs. Much of this psychedelic folk oddity has a quaint innocence fitting of the era and along with English folk-rock there are shades of pop, a touch of West Coast and even jazz in places. Pressed in minute quantity on another private press, original copies have been known to sell for £1500 or more; the duo continued recording, notably on work credited to Ithaca, before Howell became a full-time member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, where he notably worked on the Doctor Who theme.

Before his prolific activity in the field of music therapy, Agostino Nirodh Fortini also embarked on his own path in electronic music. In the early eighties he was a close collaborator of Walter Maioli and Fred Gales, at the time of the pioneering label Sound Reporters. “Suoni Immaginari”, released only privately on cassette in 1988, contains a wide range of keyboards and lots of ethnic field recordings assembled with an absolutely modern praxis ahead of its time. Nirodh imagines his planetary odysseys as a complex of harmonic devices, nebula storms, glassy explosions and gravity-free falls. His operational horizon reflects further cultural ideas and suggestions; not only the artifice between natural sounds and the programmed machine but also the intrusion of arabesque dreams and jungles contaminated by invading insects and mad pipers. These are spectral symphonies which can have analogies with the fourth world of Hassell and Eno.

2024 Repress. Tokyo's Ai Aso is a Japanese psychedelic pop singer-songwriter whose work has a whisper-thin acid-folk quality to it. She started performing as a solo singer around 2000. Her solo work, infrequent collaborations with White Heaven members You Ishihara and Michio Kurihara, Yurayura Teikoku, and Boris bring a level of fragility and hypnotism to the stage, recalling lost memories, small flavors of Coil, and serial playing on the verge of evaporation. As for her recent activities, she has performed on bills together with Sunn O))), Boris, Masaki Batoh (Ghost), Touri Kudoh, Kim Doo Soo, Mark Fry, Simon Finn, etc. Cut by CGB at Dubplates & Mastering.

2024 Repress. Tokyo's Ai Aso is a Japanese psychedelic pop singer-songwriter whose work has a whisper-thin acid-folk quality to it. She started performing as a solo singer around 2000. Her solo work, infrequent collaborations with White Heaven members You Ishihara and Michio Kurihara, Yurayura Teikoku, and Boris bring a level of fragility and hypnotism to the stage, recalling lost memories, small flavors of Coil, and serial playing on the verge of evaporation. As for her recent activities, she has performed on bills together with Sunn O))), Boris, Masaki Batoh (Ghost), Touri Kudoh, Kim Doo Soo, Mark Fry, Simon Finn, etc. Cut by CGB at Dubplates & Mastering.

Ai Aso’s immaculately crafted form of minimalist pop music skirts the edges of tensity with the manner and with the skill of a tight rope walker, calmly balancing repeatedly at every step, with a combination of surety and the risk of a slip, a fall, and an unknown uncoiling of events. Aso's capacity to capture, or inspire, the tension and attention from within the listener and observer are quite pronounced. At Aso's concert the performance constantly teeters near the brink, a sharpened awareness in the hall emerges from all observing, with the will of that most delicate balance. On “The Faintest Hint” she brings a meta level to the proceedings, the dream of a singer in a bright sunlit room in the centre of the density of the society, simply and precisely searching for single ideas, single tones, a sense of sensuality and even a dream of a grandeur (rock dream) emerge. A stillness prevails, even a sharp set of instances of dreaming, melancholia, nostalgia… or even saudade. The album was recorded, mixed & mastered by Soichiro Nakamura at Peace Music between 2018-2020. Atsuo and I joined these sessions as producers, and moreso as catalysts, yet also became the skeleton of a band on the album (with the tender touch). The legendary Japanese rock band Boris accompany Aso on two pieces. A faintest hint of sharpness and la tendresse féroce quickly erodes into a fine brief cloud of the purest crystalline dust.

It Could Have Been A Beautiful by Aiko Takahashi In Wishlist view supported by Evangelos Evangelinos thumbnail joshua pearson thumbnail weichezaeune thumbnail 直之 関 thumbnail julien thumbnail Günther W. Albrecht thumbnail taphead thumbnail J. Di Fraya thumbnail Stephen Lee thumbnail hippiejohnny80 thumbnail wonung thumbnail J Glenn Taylor thumbnail Grumpy Bob thumbnail Mark Robinson thumbnail Jeffrey Capshew thumbnail sleight1217 thumbnail mahaprana thumbnail nate scheible thumbnail konejomusic thumbnail Stefan Nieuwenhuis thumbnail Scott Moore thumbnail nick0137 thumbnail Carly thumbnail Peter Duimelinks thumbnail Joe Rice thumbnail joalla thumbnail N.Shibata thumbnail 𓂀_The_Bandcamper_Whose_Name_Is_A_Symbol thumbnail Samuel McKahey thumbnail Paul King thumbnail kgkgkg thumbnail Burton Thomas thumbnail Mike Jedlicka thumbnail CaptainShwah thumbnail Dominik Böhmer thumbnail Katsuhiko Nojiri thumbnail Andy Maurer thumbnail telegrau thumbnail TheSlowMusicMovement thumbnail benoit richard thumbnail peppe trotta thumbnail Seb Chan thumbnail Headphone Commute thumbnail Sasha Frere-Jones thumbnail Juniperus Kaizuka thumbnail E-Lodie thumbnail Alex Ruder / Hush Hush Records thumbnail francis beaubois thumbnail toneshift thumbnail answer-beat thumbnail Tatti Persson thumbnail Joshua Minsoo Kim thumbnail Peter van Cooten thumbnail vouvounix thumbnail boates thumbnail wolfsdorf thumbnail luceman thumbnail Normando thumbnail spongewhale thumbnail Tim Newman thumbnail nzmn10293 thumbnail richmann thumbnail dan ichinose thumbnail scbl thumbnail t.amano thumbnail essentialyes thumbnail guillermoescudero thumbnail dbp thumbnail It Could Have Been A Beautiful Evening 00:00 / 06:31 Streaming + Download Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. €7 EUR or more Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Glass Mastered CD • Selective UV varnish • Hand numbered / Limited edition to 200 copies, first and only edition (no re-press) ---------------------------------------- Includes unlimited streaming of It Could Have Been A Beautiful via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ships out within 3 days edition of 200 €12 EUR or more Record/Vinyl + Digital Album package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Cutting lacquer • 12’’ yellow transparent vinyl • Selective UV varnish • Matt laminated outer sleeve on 300 gm paper, black inner with empty hole • Hand numbered / Limited edition to 300 copies, first and only edition (no re-press) ---------------------------------------- Includes unlimited streaming of It Could Have Been A Beautiful via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ships out within 3 days edition of 300 €21 EUR or more Book/Magazine + Digital Album package image package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Hardcover book, 96 pages, 24 cm x 24 cm, 68 photos • Limited edition to 500 copies, first and only edition (no re-print) • Printed on Munken Print White 115g/m2 • Logo, slot and circle embossed • Selective UV varnish • Hand-numbered, hand-stamped ---------------------------------------- - DIGITAL DOWNLOAD INCLUDED ---------------------------------------- MORE PHOTOS/INFOS: www.iikki-books.com/iikki-022-it-could-have-been... more ships out within 3 days edition of 500 €48 EUR or more Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album package image package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Hardcover book, 96 pages, 24 cm x 24 cm, 68 photos • Limited edition to 500 copies, first and only edition (no re-print) • Printed on Munken Print White 115g/m2 • Logo, slot and circle embossed • Selective UV varnish • Hand-numbered, hand-stamped ---------------------------------------- • Glass Mastered CD • Selective UV varnish • Hand numbered / Limited edition to 200 copies, first and only edition... more ships out within 3 days edition of 200 €60 EUR or more Record/Vinyl + Digital Album package image package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Hardcover book, 96 pages, 24 cm x 24 cm, 68 photos • Limited edition to 500 copies, first and only edition (no re-print) • Printed on Munken Print White 115g/m2 • Logo, slot and circle embossed • Selective UV varnish • Hand-numbered, hand-stamped ---------------------------------------- • Cutting lacquer • 12’’ yellow transparent vinyl • Selective UV varnish • Matt laminated outer sleeve on 300 gm paper, black... more ships out within 3 days edition of 300 €69 EUR or more Full Digital Discography 22 releases Get all 22 IIKKI releases available on Bandcamp and save 60%. Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of It Could Have Been A Beautiful, Kurayami, Shadow's Praise, Our Recently Acquired Knowledge, Rustine, Queen Of Nowhere, In Vivo, Même Soleil, and 14 more. €61.60 EUR or more (60% OFF) 1. It Could Have Been A Beautiful Afternoon 16:30 2. It Could Have Been A Beautiful Evening 06:31 3. It Could Have Been A Beautiful Night 14:58 4. It Could Have Been A Beautiful Morning 19:46 about ___________________________________________________ • more INFOS/PHOTOS : www.iikki-books.com/iikki-022-it-could-have-been-a-beautiful • NOTE: track: "03 - It Could Have Been A Beautiful Night" is available only for the CD/Digital version. ___________________________________________________ "It Could Have Been A Beautiful" is the result of the dialogue between Aiko Takahashi (music) and the French photographer Edouard Elias initiated by IIKKI, between September 2022 and September 2023. the complete project works in two physical imprints: a book and a disc (vinyl/cd) it should be experienced in different ways : the book read alone the disc listened to alone the book and the disc read and listened to together.

It Could Have Been A Beautiful by Aiko Takahashi In Wishlist view supported by Evangelos Evangelinos thumbnail joshua pearson thumbnail weichezaeune thumbnail 直之 関 thumbnail julien thumbnail Günther W. Albrecht thumbnail taphead thumbnail J. Di Fraya thumbnail Stephen Lee thumbnail hippiejohnny80 thumbnail wonung thumbnail J Glenn Taylor thumbnail Grumpy Bob thumbnail Mark Robinson thumbnail Jeffrey Capshew thumbnail sleight1217 thumbnail mahaprana thumbnail nate scheible thumbnail konejomusic thumbnail Stefan Nieuwenhuis thumbnail Scott Moore thumbnail nick0137 thumbnail Carly thumbnail Peter Duimelinks thumbnail Joe Rice thumbnail joalla thumbnail N.Shibata thumbnail 𓂀_The_Bandcamper_Whose_Name_Is_A_Symbol thumbnail Samuel McKahey thumbnail Paul King thumbnail kgkgkg thumbnail Burton Thomas thumbnail Mike Jedlicka thumbnail CaptainShwah thumbnail Dominik Böhmer thumbnail Katsuhiko Nojiri thumbnail Andy Maurer thumbnail telegrau thumbnail TheSlowMusicMovement thumbnail benoit richard thumbnail peppe trotta thumbnail Seb Chan thumbnail Headphone Commute thumbnail Sasha Frere-Jones thumbnail Juniperus Kaizuka thumbnail E-Lodie thumbnail Alex Ruder / Hush Hush Records thumbnail francis beaubois thumbnail toneshift thumbnail answer-beat thumbnail Tatti Persson thumbnail Joshua Minsoo Kim thumbnail Peter van Cooten thumbnail vouvounix thumbnail boates thumbnail wolfsdorf thumbnail luceman thumbnail Normando thumbnail spongewhale thumbnail Tim Newman thumbnail nzmn10293 thumbnail richmann thumbnail dan ichinose thumbnail scbl thumbnail t.amano thumbnail essentialyes thumbnail guillermoescudero thumbnail dbp thumbnail It Could Have Been A Beautiful Evening 00:00 / 06:31 Streaming + Download Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. €7 EUR or more Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Glass Mastered CD • Selective UV varnish • Hand numbered / Limited edition to 200 copies, first and only edition (no re-press) ---------------------------------------- Includes unlimited streaming of It Could Have Been A Beautiful via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ships out within 3 days edition of 200 €12 EUR or more Record/Vinyl + Digital Album package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Cutting lacquer • 12’’ yellow transparent vinyl • Selective UV varnish • Matt laminated outer sleeve on 300 gm paper, black inner with empty hole • Hand numbered / Limited edition to 300 copies, first and only edition (no re-press) ---------------------------------------- Includes unlimited streaming of It Could Have Been A Beautiful via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ships out within 3 days edition of 300 €21 EUR or more Book/Magazine + Digital Album package image package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Hardcover book, 96 pages, 24 cm x 24 cm, 68 photos • Limited edition to 500 copies, first and only edition (no re-print) • Printed on Munken Print White 115g/m2 • Logo, slot and circle embossed • Selective UV varnish • Hand-numbered, hand-stamped ---------------------------------------- - DIGITAL DOWNLOAD INCLUDED ---------------------------------------- MORE PHOTOS/INFOS: www.iikki-books.com/iikki-022-it-could-have-been... more ships out within 3 days edition of 500 €48 EUR or more Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album package image package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Hardcover book, 96 pages, 24 cm x 24 cm, 68 photos • Limited edition to 500 copies, first and only edition (no re-print) • Printed on Munken Print White 115g/m2 • Logo, slot and circle embossed • Selective UV varnish • Hand-numbered, hand-stamped ---------------------------------------- • Glass Mastered CD • Selective UV varnish • Hand numbered / Limited edition to 200 copies, first and only edition... more ships out within 3 days edition of 200 €60 EUR or more Record/Vinyl + Digital Album package image package image package image package image package image ---------------------------------------- • Hardcover book, 96 pages, 24 cm x 24 cm, 68 photos • Limited edition to 500 copies, first and only edition (no re-print) • Printed on Munken Print White 115g/m2 • Logo, slot and circle embossed • Selective UV varnish • Hand-numbered, hand-stamped ---------------------------------------- • Cutting lacquer • 12’’ yellow transparent vinyl • Selective UV varnish • Matt laminated outer sleeve on 300 gm paper, black... more ships out within 3 days edition of 300 €69 EUR or more Full Digital Discography 22 releases Get all 22 IIKKI releases available on Bandcamp and save 60%. Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of It Could Have Been A Beautiful, Kurayami, Shadow's Praise, Our Recently Acquired Knowledge, Rustine, Queen Of Nowhere, In Vivo, Même Soleil, and 14 more. €61.60 EUR or more (60% OFF) 1. It Could Have Been A Beautiful Afternoon 16:30 2. It Could Have Been A Beautiful Evening 06:31 3. It Could Have Been A Beautiful Night 14:58 4. It Could Have Been A Beautiful Morning 19:46 about ___________________________________________________ • more INFOS/PHOTOS : www.iikki-books.com/iikki-022-it-could-have-been-a-beautiful • NOTE: track: "03 - It Could Have Been A Beautiful Night" is available only for the CD/Digital version. ___________________________________________________ "It Could Have Been A Beautiful" is the result of the dialogue between Aiko Takahashi (music) and the French photographer Edouard Elias initiated by IIKKI, between September 2022 and September 2023. the complete project works in two physical imprints: a book and a disc (vinyl/cd) it should be experienced in different ways : the book read alone the disc listened to alone the book and the disc read and listened to together.

aja monet’s poems are a work of gravity. A surrealist blues poet, storyteller, and organizer born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, aja won the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam poetry award title in 2007. In 2018, she was nominated for a NAACP Literary Award for Poetry and in 2019 was awarded the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award for Poetry for her cultural organizing work in South Florida. Her work moves, constantly, between origin and outcome, allowing them to exist in converse. In her debut album when the poems do what they do, releasing June 9 via drink sum wtr, we glimpse her indefatigable commitment to speak. Those thematic origins of this album at times center around Black resistance, love and the inexhaustible quest for joy. In when the poems do what they do, aja monet appears as a woman of letters and storm, her poems do not roar in pentameter - but rather in storm surge because, “Who’s got time for poems when the world is on fire?!.” And this work isn’t one to pull apart into one liners, these are poems of things felt. There is a fullness here that can’t be encapsulated in even the boundaries that language offers. aja is joined in effort on this album by musicians Christian Scott (trumpet), Samora Pinderhughes (piano), Elena Pinderhughes (flute), Luques Curtis (bass), Weedie Braimah (djembe) and Marcus Gilmore (drums). Together, creating music that is insistent and unrelenting. When you finally reach the end of this album, you are left with a similar feeling you get when heartbroken, the gravity of barrelling back down to earth, sopping wet with tears, out of breath, overcome with love, despair, hope, and all too aware that all of this, is over far too soon. When the poems do what they do, they do absolutely everything.

On the A side Akie mixes everything from ambient interludes to raw drum machine workouts in an almost diaristic way with sections of field recordings and voice notes fading in and out. B side sees Lil Mofo repurposing everything from dad rock to Chain Reaction 12”s, using the echo chamber as a instrument and means of connecting seemingly disparate sounds & genres. Definitely one for a late night drive with no destination / or an intimate vision quest in the living room in front of the space heater.

A site-specific sound piece created by Akio Suzuki, a master of sound art, with a transcendent echo space.

Since the 1960s, Akio Suzuki, a pioneer of sound art, has focused on "listening" and has visited numerous echo spaces such as caves, tunnels, palaces, and oil tanks in search of places of resonance, calling himself an "echo man." This work is a record of the master's being led to a 40-second otherworldly world of reverberation inside the embankment of Uchinokura Dam, located deep in the mountains of Shibata City, Niigata, and recording without an audience. Stones, bamboo, sponges, hand mirrors, combs, cardboard, glass bottles, and his own voice. Everyday objects and bodies are instantly transformed into "sound instruments," and performances are performed in various ways, such as hitting, rolling, rubbing, spinning, blowing, and pulling, and an acoustic sound piece is created with the unique reverb effect of natural reflections in a huge concrete space without any electrical amplification. The scene transforms into both micro and macro scenes, evoking us, the audience, the infinite universe. 

With concentration, or elevated tension as he has called it, Akio Suzuki enters completely into the substance of sound, its emergence and its passing. What he does with sound may propose a rarefied world to many people, and yet it possesses a persuasive quality of rightness. One of the most difficult aspects of music and soundwork to explain is the concept of ‘right action’. How is that music can be evaluated almost immediately, just as quickly as a fire alarm or a baby’s cry? When Akio performs, certain qualities (grace, warmth, a quiet authority of mind and action, an engagement with the vessel of nothingness through which sound can emerge) are evident as presences, as soon as he begins. He begins from a state we call silence, by listening, yet at the same time raises questions about our ideas of what this silence might be. Time passes; fixity gives way to destruction; visual perfection is relinquished within the faintest of sound fields. As for the work, this ceremony returns us to nothing, ‘to the feeling of not knowing exactly what is before us’, so to the uncanny, to the shell-like ear found by the sea, the ‘ungraspable phantom of life’, the record of a haunting, time regained. The sound is a parabola, a finger tracing on skin, a brush point, bird in flight.