Avant-Garde / Contemporary
635 products
- An electrifying, previously unreleased studio album from the late South African genius of jazz, recorded in 2003
- The first new material by the artist to have emerged in nearly two decades
- Liner notes by Blue Note recording artist Nduduzo Makhathini, and by music educator and poet Eugene Skeef, producer of the original session
- Photographs by Siphiwe Mhlambi, Rashid Lombard and Cedric Nunn
- Fully licensed, 180g 3-sided double-vinyl edition of 500 copies, presented as the first release on Tapestry Works, plus digital release
‘A divine summary of his life story’ – Nduduzo Makhathini
Self-taught multi-instrumentalist and composer Bhekumuzi Hyacinth Mseleku (1955-2008), known as Bheki Mseleku, is widely considered to have been the most richly gifted South African jazz musician of his generation. Born in Durban, he moved to Johannesburg in the mid-1970s and played with groups including Spirits Rejoice, The Drive and Philip Tabane’s Malombo. In 1980, he left apartheid South Africa for exile in Europe, travelling with his close friend Eugene Skeef. (A percussionist, educator, poet and former close comrade of Steve Biko, Skeef originally produced the Beyond The Stars session, and contributes liner notes to this release.)
Bheki spent six difficult years in Stockholm before moving to London. After a triumphant debut at Ronnie Scott’s, in 1992 he would release his now classic debut album Celebration for World Circuit, before signing with Verve. He would go on to achieve worldwide recognition, recording and touring with jazz luminaries including Elvin Jones, Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson and Abbey Lincoln.
Throughout his life, Bheki struggled with both his physical and mental health. He was, as Eugene Skeef puts it, ‘a conduit for the healing energy of music to flow into the world’, a gift that came at a cost. At the start of the new century, Bheki returned to live in South Africa, but just a few years later he found himself in compound difficulties: life at home had proved too hard, and he was not well. He had also lost his imported Steinway upright piano in an unwise business deal and had not been able to play. In 2003, Skeef helped him return to London, where they hoped to realign his health and rekindle his career. Through his work with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Skeef arranged for Bheki to have access to the Steinway concert grand pianos held at Henry Wood Hall. After Bheki had spent a few weeks recuperating, Skeef booked a studio session at Gateway Studios.
Beyond The Stars was the result: a stunning, solo piano suite which condenses Mseleku’s visionary overstanding of South African music into a flowing, pulsing statement in six parts. With jazzwise echoes of marabi, amahubo, maskanda and Nguni song forms binding it to the deep music of Mseleku’s Zulu heritage, Beyond The Stars provides what Blue Note recording artist Nduduzo Makhathini describes in his liner notes as ‘a divine summary’ of Bheki’s life story: ‘a sonic pilgrimage from the beautiful and organic landscapes of Durban, to the vibrant energy of London and ultimately toward the inner dimensions of one’s being.’
But releasing the album proved impossible at the time, and so the session has remained unheard. Bheki sadly passed on in 2008, without having released a new album for five years; almost two decades have now passed since any new music by him has emerged. Working with Eugene Skeef, Tapestry Works is proud to break the silence with a first issue for Bheki Mseleku’s visionary masterpiece, Beyond The Stars.
This is Sakamoto's world music, expanding on the world view of his previous work, "NEO GEO". [Released in 1989.]
The first release under contract with Virgin Records in the U.S.
The album featured Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), Robbie Robertson (ex-The Band), Robert Wyatt (ex-Soft Machine), Youssou N'Dour, Art Lindsay, and many other guests.
The songs on the Japanese version differ from those on the international version, and this time the Japanese version has been chosen at the artist's own request.
About half of the songs on the album are covers, including two Okinawan folk songs and "We Love You" by The Rolling Stones.
The cover photo was taken by Albert Watson.
A 4-hour work recorded at Steamroom (composer’s studio) between 2017 and 2018.
Detailed and delicate electronic layers, processed instruments, and ambiguous field recordings come together in a slow-moving, fascinating kaleidoscope with multiple reflections and wrong turns, always in constant state of flux. The finely crafted art of subterfuge.
“To magnetize money and catch a roving eye”, four CD’s – a hypnotic, multi-faceted, labyrinthine piece which flows as slowly as a river while speeding back through memory, and shows all the talent of Jim O’Rourke.
Composer, performer, multi-instrumentalist, born in Chicago in 1969, Jim O’ Rourke is a veritable chameleon, working at the frontiers of very diverse musical genres.
La Monte Young was born in Bern, Idaho in 1935. He began his music studies in Los Angeles and later Berkeley, California before relocating to New York City in 1960, where he became a primary influence on Minimalism, the Fluxus movement and performance art through his legendary compositions of extended time durations and the development of just intonation and rational number based tuning systems. With wife and collaborator, artist Marian Zazeela, they would formulate the composite sound environments of the Dream House, which continues to this day.
Seeing reissue for the first time since its initial 1969 release, Young and Zazeela's first full-length album is often referred to as "The Black Record" due to Zazeela's stunning cover design, complete with the composer's liner notes in elegant hand-lettered script.
Side one was recorded in 1969 (on the date and time indicated by the title) at the gallery of Heiner Friedrich in Munich, where Young and Zazeela premiered their Dream House sound and light installation. Featuring Young and Zazeela's voices against a sine wave drone, the recording is a section of the longer composition Map of 49's Dream the Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery (begun in 1966 as a sub-section of the even larger work The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys, which was begun in 1964 with Young's group The Theatre of Eternal Music). According to Young, the raga-like melodic phrases of his voice were heavily influenced by his future teacher, the Hindustani singer Pandit Pran Nath.
Side two, recorded in Young and Zazeela's NYC studio in 1964, is a section of the longer composition Studies in the Bowed Disc. This composition is an extended, highly abstract noise piece for bowed gong (gifted by sculptor Robert Morris). The liner notes explain that the live performance can be heard at 33 and 1/3 RPM, but may also be played at any slower speed down to 8 and 1/3 RPM for turntables with this capacity.
Track Listing:
31 VII 69 10:26 - 10:49 PM
23 VIII 64 2:50:45 - 3:11 AM The Volga Delta
A concert where composers compete with birds
Birds have been singing long before humans started making music. While humans create perfect music calculated and thought out, birds naturally produce strange tunes.
Composers have attempted to express natural phenomena and certain types of noise, but birdsong has been turned into music all over the world, each with their own ingenuity. In addition to Renaissance and Baroque paintings, you can also enjoy modern bird depictions by Saint-Saëns, Ravel, and Britten.
Furthermore, I listened to "Carnival of the Endangered Species" made by Vincent Bouchot by punning on Saint-Saëns' work. In the style of a classical suite, it draws unfamiliar animals, and the ending with "Humanity" is also meaningful and makes me think about various things. The booklet is full-color and has detailed explanations of various birds and animals.
La Réveuse is a period instrument group founded in 2004 by Florence Bolton and Benjamin Perrault. Although he mainly works on works from the 17th and 18th centuries, he has become a hot topic for composing works with themes that combine music and current affairs.
[Recording information]
1. Purcell: Prelude to Birds from "Fairy Queen"
2. Van Eyck: England's Nightingale - from "The Flute Paradise"
3. Theodor Schwarzkopf: Sonata in imitation of Nightingale and Cuckoo: Allegro/Gigue
4. F. Couperin / La Revouse: Nightingale in Love ~ from "Clavesin Songs Volume 3"
5. Jean-Baptiste Bousset/La Réveuse ed.: Why, sweet nightingale - from "Ale Volume 14"
6. Monteclaire: Chirping - Concert No. 5 for 2 flutes
7. F. Couperin/La Réveuse ed.: Lamenting Bunting - from "Clavesin Songs Volume 3"
8. Colette: Cuckoo
9. Saint-Saens/Vincent Bouchot: Cuckoo in the depths of the forest - from "Carnival of the Animals"
10. Britten/Vincent Bouchot Arr.: Cuckoo from "Friday Afternoon"
11. Rameau/Vincent Bouchot: Hens
12. Saint-Saëns/Vincent Bouchot: Hens and Roosters from "Carnival of the Animals"
13. Ravel/Vincent Bouchot: The Queen's Pottery Doll Redronet ~From "Ma Mère Roi"
14. Vincent Bouchot: Carnival of Endangered Species
Prelude: Sorrow of the Pangolin
Armando: Javanese Slow Loris
Courant: old poultry dodo
Intermezzo: Lesomira 63
Sarabande: white and black owls
Gavotte: Indian gharial (crocodile)
Intermezzo: Lesomira 92
Varus Twist: Sea Cucumber
Jeeg: Mankind, its evolution
The Gerogerigegege, the Japanese avant-blues music that has been attracting noise music lovers all over the world, is now available on long-awaited vinyl from The Trilogy Tapes, a limited edition cassette released last year by the popular fashion brand CAV EMPT.
This summer, I read Kenji Miyazawa's children's story (illustrated by Takeshi Motai), "Gauche the Cellist" (1934, illustrated by Takeshi Motai, 1956). Just a few days before I made this recording, I was on stage. As a result, I had to be in the same state of mind as Gauche at the beginning of the story. It was not a good feeling, but I knew it was not a coincidence that this book was in my possession, so I read it again and again, looked at Mr. Motai's picture of the raccoon boy again and again, and headed for the park before dawn. The only instrument I used was a Hapidrum, and the sticks were mallets that looked just like the ones the raccoon boy was holding...Juntaro Yamanouchi