Jazz / Soul / Funk

Spells is the debut release by Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist and composer Nailah Hunter on Leaving Records. Each of the EP’s six tracks represent a spell, a unique sonic place forged by imagination and incantation. Ambient in nature, each spell highlights Hunter’s skills as a composer. “It really started off with me just wanting to kind of reclaim the way that I thought about creating music and then also performing it,” Hunter says. “I was like, okay. I need to get back to the basics of why I like to create and what it does for me … so I set out to make spells, in the sense that each layer is one of the steps in incantation... It became about purpose... the procedure and the ritual, so that when it came to performing it, I wasn’t able to get into my head about it because I was just carrying out these steps. Each track is its own incantation, its own spell, its own world.” Colorful atmospheres permeate Spells, each track offering tranquil, reflective setting. Hunter explains, “Another thing that I always wanted to focus on and through making this project have sort of been able to name is that, I like to create places, songs as locations ...whether there are field recordings [involved] or not.” Opening track “Soil” is accompanied by a poem: “a seed is sown, a song from silence.” Its beautiful harp and angelic voices establish the album’s mode of beautiful stillness. This is followed by “Ruins,” a tranquil soundscape abetted by insect field recordings and a slightly warped, heaven-bound trajectory, described by Hunter as a love spell. “Another thing that’s really important to me about my relationship with music is synesthesia. It’s all very palette based... For the song “Ruins,” it comes on like magenta and clementine.” On the colors present in the single “White Flower, Dark Hill,” Hunter describes “the idea of the purples and navies of the night sky and the way that shadows appear under full moonlight, the different shades of moonlight, and how it always brings out the color white.” Each track’s nuanced production and big, emotional sounds do carry a charged energy, colorful and magnetic. The shifting phases and sustained drones of “Enter” mimic the feeling of approaching and walking through a rift into a fantastical world. The listener is advanced into album highlight “Quiet Light,” which Hunter states captures, “that feeling of being like golden light in a cold still pool of water, this very specific image and feeling that I just love so much.” Spells is a powerful opening statement that uses this musician's innate artistic gifts to promote healing and self awareness. Of the album’s inspirations, she adds, “definitely rune magick and just the idea of creating places of rest … sonic places of rest, places to ponder and consider your feelings. Me making music, it’s always been about healing for me and making myself feel better. If other people listen to it and also feel better, then that is delightful.”

'Khalik Hena' was recorded in 1973 by legendary Arabic Diva Warda who has been sampled by Jay Z and J Dilla. The album recorded in public mixes traditional Arabic music with a tinge of 70s grooves. Here Warda delivers a deep hypnotic performance backed by her full-size orchestra featuring those unparalleled Arabic strings that made recordings by Oum Khalthoum, Farid El Atrache and Abdel Halim Hafez so famous. 'Khalik Hena' is one of her all-time classics, written by equally legendary composer Baligh Hamdi and the audio has been newly remastered. This release features the LP original artwork with a 2 page insert featuring a new introduction by Mario Choueiry from Institut du Monde Arabe who curates Wewantsounds' Arabic series of reissues.

"The album's one of Ra's greatest from the 70s -- recorded in Italy in 1978, and featuring some incredibly otherworldly keyboards that are some of his most enigmatic on record! Original tracks from the album include "Disco 3000", an incredible workout on synthesizer, with a tiny bit of drum machine, a little "Space Is The Place" breakdown, and all of the wild sound you'd expect from a Sun Ra album -- plus more long tracks -- the sweetly soulful "Friendly Galaxy", a great soul jazz number, and "Dance Of The Cosmo Aliens", which has spooky organ, frenetic bass, and somber percussion" Check!

Sounds from the Great House! Outernational Sounds proudly presents a Nimbus West spirit jazz essential: the Creative Arts Ensemble's classic debut One Step Out. Mastered at 45rpm on double vinyl for enhanced sound, this release features all tracks at full length for the first time on wax.

One of the most sought after and highly regarded titles to have appeared on Tom Albach's celebrated Nimbus West imprint, the Creative Art Ensemble's One Step Out is a timeless work of spiritualised jazz. A true gem from the Los Angeles jazz underground, the album was pianist and composer Kaeef Ruzadun Ali's first recording as leader of the Creative Arts Ensemble, the only large ensemble group that emerged directly from Horace Tapscott's legendary Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra community jazz group.

A Los Angeles native, Kaeef was introduced to the Tapscott circle in the late 1970s. His first experience of the Arkestra's ethos was through PAPA tenorist Michael Session, who took him to the famous 'Great House' at 2412 South Western Ave., LA - a large mansion house which members of the Arkestra had taken over as a space for communal living. Life in the Great House was a continuous stream of music, dance and community events. 'When I walked in there,' recalled Kaeef, 'it was like this whole rush came over me, just from going in the front door...It was like a very, very warm feeling of love. I went and I came out with 'Flashback of Time', and that was my first arrangement.'

Kaeef quickly became a significant contributor of compositions to the Arkestra's songbook - his piece 'New Horizon' would be recorded by Horace Tapscott for the latter's Tapscott Sessions series. But 'Flashback of Time' would eventually appear on One Step Out, played by the new group he had put together from stalwart Arkestra members. Inspired by both Tapscott's example and by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Kaeef had wanted to follow their lead by assembling a larger unit. 'I would like to form a group that would be an extension of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra,' he told Tapscott. The group was to be known as the Creative Arts Ensemble, and One Step Out, released in 1981 by Nimbus West, was their debut.

Featuring seasoned Arkestra regulars including reedsman Dadisi Komolafe, drummer Woody 'Sonship' Theus and altoist Gary Bias, with veterans Henry 'The Skipper' Franklin on bass and George Bohannon on trombone, One Step Out is a key document of the Los Angeles radical jazz underground. Featuring the sanctified vocals of Kaeef's sister, B. J. Crowley, the album is a tour de force of spiritually energised independent jazz music. Community uplift and sacred vision straight from the Great House, back on vinyl for the first time since 1981!

At long last, after remaining out of print for decades, the Milan based imprint, Dialogo, dives into the legendary catalog of Cramps, bringing forth the first ever vinyl reissue of Steve Lacy’s LP, "Straws", issued as the sixth instalment of the label’s DIVerso series in 1977. Truly singular in the legendary American saxophonist’s discography - featuring stunning solo excursions and dialogs with himself - it remains one of the great documents of 1970s improvisation, and is as engrossing, creatively riveting, and as ahead of its time today as it was when it was laid to tape. Complete with original liner notes penned by Lacy himself, it’s not to be missed! **Edition of 300 LP on black vinyl. Audiophile pressing, including printed inner. Perfect replica of the original packaging and newly remastered for optimal sound.** For the scale of its impact, Cramps was a relatively short-lived endeavour, running for roughly seven years between 1973 and 1980. Founded in Milan by the producer, publisher, and graphic designer, Gianni Sassi, the label was a near perfect emblem of revolutionary temperaments emerging within Italy during that era; creatively radical, globally minded, without profit motive, and bridging numerous musical idioms. Subsequently, few labels associated with experimental music have garnered as much affection, or as devoted a following as Cramps. It’s seminal albums by John Cage, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Giusto Pio, Demetrio Stratos, Juan Hidalgo, Robert Ashley, Walter Marchetti, Cornelius Cardew, Raul Lovisoni / Francesco Messina, Alvin Lucier, Derek Bailey, and so many more - the vast majority of which have remained largely out of print and nearly impossible to obtain for decades - rank among experimental music’s great holy grails. Now, at long last, the Milan based imprint, Dialogo, has begun a stunning series of vinyl reissues from the Cramps catalog. A little while back we celebrated their reissues of Costin Miereanu’s Luna Cinese and David Tudor’s Microphone, and now they’re back with the seminal American saxophonist Steve Lacy’s 1977 LP, Straws, their first exploring the Cramps’ legendary DIVerso series. First emerging during the mid 1950s, saxophonist and composer, Steve Lacy (1934 – 2004), has long been regarded as one of the most important contributors to 20th Century musical canon, producing groundbreaking records with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Burrell, The Jazz Composer's Orchestra, Alan Silva, Roswell Rudd, Globe Unity Orchestra, ICP Orchestra, Miles Davis, and numerous others. An early adopter of free improvisation and experimental forms of jazz, despite his incredible catalog of collaborations, it is Lacy’s work as a solo artist and band leader that towers above the rest. Released in 1977, Straws encounters Lacy more than two decades into his professional career, brimming with confidence, versatility, and at the top of his game, building on the back of an incredibly prolific period of recording that grew from his move to Paris in 1970, where he remained for the bulk of his remaining years. The album, sparse and visionary, features six individual works - two solo pieces, two with celeste accompaniment, and two tape collages - dedicated to figures from various disciples of the arts, Brion Gysin, Janis Joplin, Art Tatum, Marilyn Monroe, Igor Stravinsky, and his wife, the singer Irene Aebi. Easily among the most adventurous of Lacy’s output from the period, Straws deftly rises to the demands of each challenging venture, creating something entirely brave, singular and visionary from clusters of tone, airy spaces, deconstructed melodic structures, playful moments, and truly radical dialogs with himself. Freejazz that’s not quit freejazz, and experimental music as it should be understood and rarely is, Straws, heard more than fourty years after it first emerged, heaves with life, and stands as a potent reminder of what a powerful creative voice Lacy was. It’s absolutely incredible and engrossing from the first note to the last. This first-time vinyl reissue from Dialogo comes in a beautifully produced sleeve that faithful reproduces the original cover artwork and inner sleeve. A must for fans of Cramps, Lacy, or experimental music and freejazz at large.

Cosmic traveler Herman ‘Sonny’ Blount became Sun Ra after an alien abduction, proclaiming that he came from Saturn and using music to point to human failure on earth, offering space as ethereal alternative. Supersonic Jazz was released in 1957 on Ra’s Saturn label and regularly reissued, even making it onto Impulse in 1974, its blend of bop, avant-garde and galactic well ahead of its time. More melodic and cohesive than many subsequent titles, ‘Advice To Medics’ is a troubling Ra piano diversion, and ‘Super Blonde’ a big-band stomp; ‘Soft Talk,’ by trombonist Julian Priester, is one of the vehicles for John Gilmore’s tenor sax and ‘Kingdom Of Not’ has uncommon swing. A must for all Sun Ra scholars!

Recommended for fans of Bjork, Radiohead, Gabi and Holly Herndon. Maarja Nuut is a female singer and violinist from Estonia who has collaborated with dub and ambient wizards Sun Araw and Pjusk (12k, Dronarivm). The album features guest drummer Nicolas Stocker on several tracks. The album opens with the percussive and cosmic electrified jazz of "Hinged". On "Kutse Tantsule_A Call To Dance," he sings with a freshness reminiscent of Bjork, over a minimal rhythm of sparkling synths. A Feast" is a hypnagogic and haunting minimalist dance-pop song. This is an important electronic pop album of the year that is recommended to a wide range of listeners, from contemporary jazz to trip-hop to new age listeners. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri (!), a master of modern classical/drone music.

Come join EM Records on another of their spatio-temporal musical journeys. This time, we're off to Madras, 1969 to hear legendary south Indian film music composer/director, T. K. Ramamoorthy's prescient Fabulous Notes And Beats Of The Indian Carnatic - Jazz, a daring fusion of Carnatic music and jazz. Although jazz musicians had been using Indian elements before this time, Fabulous Notes was the first recording in which accomplished Indian musicians adopted jazz elements. And these are accomplished musicians indeed -- veterans of the demanding Indian film music studios, trained in the strict discipline of the traditional Carnatic system, led by the visionary Ramamoorthy, a legendary composer who collaborated with M. S. Viswanathan in providing soundtracks for more than 700 films. The music here is a true Indian music, adhering to traditional Carnatic ragas with their varying ascending and descending modes, using a wide range of Indian instruments in an appealing fusion with jazz instruments, ideas and rhythms. The result is not a slavish imitation of modish Western styles, but a stimulating and surprising new entity; fans of later Ethio-jazz may well experience a frisson of familiarity at certain moments when listening to these recordings. Famed composer Ramamoorthy is also a masterful arranger and orchestrator, giving us surprising vistas of timbre, allowing instruments to come to the fore, supported in appealing combinations. But the true heart of both Carnatic music and jazz is improvisation, and T.K.R. allows these fine players space within relatively brief moments to make their own statements within the ragas, as detailed in the liner notes accompanying this reissue. What we hear is a new meeting of worlds, both sharing a respect for the primacy of improvisation, a love for the intricacies of ensemble-playing, and a fine understanding of the power of propulsive yet sophisticated rhythms. Fabulous Notes reveals a true Indian music, not merely Occidental music with hints of Indo-spice. We can picture the recording sessions, with the musicians seated on the floor of the studio, Indian musicians playing Indian music, playing jazz, playing Fabulous Notes And Beats Of The Indian Carnatic - Jazz. Indian instruments include: veena, gotuvadyam, flute, tabla tharang, tape, conch, ghatam, mridangam, chandai & sudha madhalam, tabla, jalra and bul bul thara, and Western instruments include: bass clarinet, saxophone, piano, guitar, double bass, trumpet, drums and bongos.

We enjoyed comping Volume one so much and had such a positive response, we went right onto producing For the Love Of You Volume 2.

Having bumped this in the car for months I can assure you Sam’s selection here probably betters the first. Again it is strictly soul covers featuring interpretations of Grover Washington Jr., Midnight Star, Meli'sa Morgan and Simply Red and loads more.

Its been great working with Sam brining attention to such a wonderful UK music scene and we both would like to thank all the artists and producers who went the extra mile to make this happen…

…The end of 2021 just got a bit sweeter.

Includes the song "Why can't we live together", which has been covered by Sade and has been used as a sampling source for many other songs. The first album by keyboardist Timmy Thomas, released in 1972. This is a masterpiece of Miami soul with a new soul flavor, using only the rhythm box and Hammond organ, which were rare at the time.

Recorded between between 1963 and 1967. Tracklisting: Tiny Pyramids, Between Two Worlds, Music from the World Tomorrow, Angels and Demons at Play, Urnack, Medicine for a Nightmare, A Call for All Demons, Demon's Lullaby. 

Originally released on SATURN in 1970, this album has been reissued. cosmic echo, modern jazz, experimental elements and Sun Ra's modal playing.

originally released on Perception in 1973. A welcome reissue of this pure underground jazz classic from Newark, NJ's own Larry Young. He's in 'out' mode here, putting aside his more well-known styles (as heard on his classic Blue Note LP Unity) and laying down some Arkestra-style jamming alongside the shredding of James Blood Ulmer and some other underground cats. A killer melting of funky, cosmic, Eastern, Afro and free music vibes.

The long-awaited repress. Limited edition. Paradise Cinema, a new project by multiplayer Jack Wyllie, who is also known to participate in the next-generation jazz trio "Szun Waves" formed by Luke Abbott. An ambitious work recorded with Khadim Mbaye (saba drums) & Tons Sambe (tama drums), a percussionist of the country's dance music "Mbalax" in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, is released as an analog from Manchester's . A masterpiece of gems that blends from Balearic to ambient, drone, minimal rhythms derived from West African music, and even Jon Hassell's Fourth World in a rich jazz feel!

Conscious avant-garde free jazz featuring Roland P. Young originally released in 1975 on the eclectical 1750 Arch records.

“1750 Arch was a beautiful Spanish-style hacienda,”recalls composer and multi-instrumentalist Roland P. Young. “It had a wonderful recording studio in the basement and the salon was converted into an intimate performance setting.” Young played solo gigs at that venue, in Berkeley, California, and also performed there in a duo with cellist Chris Chaffe. He remembers it as a particularly “transcendent” setting for concerts by Infinite Sound, his trio with singer Aisha Kahlil and bassist Glenn Howell.

Infinite Sound’s Contemporary African-Amerikan Music appeared in the uniquely diverse 1750 Arch catalogue in 1975. For Roland Young such a context was not incongruous. Contemporary African-Amerikan Music is a title that positioned the record quite specifically in 1975. But Young shares Buckner’s distaste for labels that fix expectations too rigidly and close down creative possibilities. Culturally and politically the early 70s appeared to Young to be a time of change and spiritual renewal. “There was a vibe in the air that we connected with, along with other kindred spirits world-wide. What appeared to be ‘experimental’ was reaching for sounds and emotions that were unfamiliar. We often performed at rallies in support of various causes: Black Liberation, Women’s Movement, Anti-War Movement, Gay Liberation. While the music came out of the Black Liberation struggle our ultimate goal was a blending of cultures.”

In 1968 Young was working as a DJ at KSAN, an underground rock station in San Francisco. “Glenn Howell used to call me when I was on air to comment about the music I was playing. He told me he was a musician and I invited him to come down to the station. We started to talk about music, then decided to get together and play. Young and Howell met Aisha Kahlil at one of their concerts. “A mutual friend introduced her and told us she was a good vocalist, loved our music and wanted to sing with us. We invited her to a rehearsal and soon after we invited her to join the group. Infinite Sound came together very easily and had a natural feel. We definitely had a shared intuition, and we created a lot of music. Each of us would bring ideas to rehearsals and we would work on them. Glenn tended to bring jazz tunes, Aisha tended to bring African-influenced compositions and I brought world, electronic, classical, jazz and avant garde material. Occasionally we would rearrange standards by composers like Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus. We talked a lot about how to present our material and how compositions would flow, one to the other. We were also conscious of how we dressed for performances, how we moved on stage, how we interacted with each other and the audience. We wanted it to be a ‘happening’. On occasion we would invite dancers to perform with us, friends of Aisha.”

Contemporary African-Amerikan Music preserves a fascinating glimpse of the trio in action. It testifies to the energy that Infinite Sound channelled into their music, but also to their imaginative breadth and expressive versatility.Their compositions embrace mobile forms, with Howell’s buoyantly springy and resilient bass taking on a strong pivotal role around which Young’s horns and Kahlil’s voice dance and spar and soar and play. Well-defined rhythms dissolve into textures; melodic shapes soften into shadings of timbre or flare into exuberant bursts of tonal colour. The music’s mood swings unpredictably from flamboyance to introspection; pacing shifts spontaneously from languor to urgency. Moments of musical allusiveness, sly quotation or stylistic reference, mutate into passages of wild inventiveness.

Tantalisingly this stimulating and varied set of pieces was this trio’s only release. Times have changed, yet increasingly in recent years creative artists have come to accept the need to erase musical boundaries and erode the constraints of aesthetic categorisation. Infinite Sound, and their enlightened host Tom Buckner, were decidedly ahead of the game.

- Julian Cowley

The Caife label was an undiscovered sweet spot in Quito, Ecuador, in the 1960s. Honest Jon's presents a compilation album of 24 tracks from the label's fascinating catalog, guided by an expert. The unprecedented oil boom and the influx of musical styles from abroad, such as cumbia. Before that, the music was left over from the golden age of Ecuador's Musica Nacional. This is a masterpiece compilation that captures the painful, beautiful, fantastic, and utopian music that fuses indigenous and mestizo traditions. This is just an unknown zone. High quality press at . Comes with a luxurious full-color booklet.

For over 30 years, this album was stored in the archive of record producer and musician Dave Hamilton, one of the unsung heroes of the Detroit soul scene. The box of reels was marked simply "The Possible Little Ann Album." Little Ann's songs are timeless masterpieces of soul music, which now, thanks to our buds at Timmion Records, are finally together on an album like they were originally intended.

"9.0" and "Best New Reissue"! Deluxe Edition - Classic Gatefold Tip-On Jacket including exclusive liner notes and pictures. First official release. Mastered from the original master tapes.

We've got a bit of an obsession with Hozan Yamamoto here at Mr Bongo! A legend of Japanese jazz, he is rightly regarded as a true master and was recognised as a "living national treasure" by the Japanese government in 2002. Over five decades he pushed the genre into new directions, absorbing fusion, funk, spiritual jazz and many other sounds, resulting in a discography studded with gems of rare beauty. Exploring his back catalogue has taken us on an engrossing journey that now sees us reissuing another work from this ground-breaking musician. Though not translating perfectly into English 'Akuma Ga Kitarite Fue Wo Fuku', (kitarite has not been a modern expression in Japanese) roughly means 'The Devil Comes Playing The Flute' / 'The Devil Is Coming While Blowing The Whistle' or 'Devils Flute’. It is the original soundtrack to Kôsei Saitô’s 1979 mystery and suspense movie, ‘Devil’s Flute’. The film is based on a story by the famous author, Seishi Yokomizo, and is centred around a much-loved fictional Japanese detective, Kosuke Kindaichi. A Japanese Sherlock Holmes that has been popular for generations. Hozan Yamamoto was invited to compose the soundtrack directly by the producer of the film, Haruki Kadokawa. Mr Kadokawa also hired keyboard player and producer Yu Imai as an assistant producer on the project, resulting in a stunning cosmic, breaks and beats-laden, funk, disco soundtrack extravaganza. When it comes to the soundtrack and the technology of the time, Hozan Yamamoto and Yu Imai got inventive, tripped out, funked up, and experimented, creating a quirky soundtrack masterpiece that needed to be heard more outside of Japan. Differing from the more traditional Japanese music orientation of some of his other albums such as 'Beautiful Bamboo-Flute' (also released on Mr Bongo) the album showcases a number of genres, from lush atmospheric incidental music to disco and funk grooves, experimental nuggets, drum and flute workouts, to neo-classical and more. A special record that showcases the further depths of this wonderful musician's talents.

Japanese jazz/breakbeat, folkloric mega-rarity as hallowed the likes of DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Egon and co. Uniquely combines traditional Japanese instrumentation with Western jazz influences.

Minoru Muraoka plays ‘shakuhachi’ – a traditional bamboo Japanese flute – joined by his band members accompanying him on the ‘koto’ (strings) and ‘tsutsumi’ (drum) amongst others, to create their ‘Shakuhachi Jazz’ sound.

Official Mr Bongo reissue. Gatefold single LP.

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, and going by 'Jazz Rock’, nor a record by its title. Though entering into jazz territory and featuring some distorted guitar, 'Jazz Rock' is more a beautiful marriage of funky breakbeat drumming and spiritual jazz instrumentation, combined with traditional Min'yō music performed on the koto and shakuhachi.

Originally released in 1973, the record sounds simultaneously vintage and contemporary. It is akin to something Madlib might dream up whilst lost in Japan collaborating with Min'yō players at a recording session. The record features some amazing shakuhachi (bamboo flute) playing by Hozan Yamamoto, which gives the music a haunting, dreamlike atmosphere. You can almost visualise the long grass blowing in the wind, and hear the bamboo rustling in the distance on a long hot summer’s day. Takeshi Inomata, Tadao Sawai and Kazue Sawai anchor the session. Takeshi’s exceptionally funky-drum work will almost certainly get some producers dusting off and firing up their MPC's. Whilst Kazue and Tadao work their magic on the koto (a traditional string instrument).

Though certainly not an ambient record, 'Jazz-Rock' has the same meditative, other-worldly quality that invites you to sit back, listen and be transported somewhere else. Unfortunately, until now the 'Jazz Rock' album is a scarcity that commanded a high price-tag only for the most hardened of record collectors. So it is pleasure to make it accessible to all, and we hope you dig this lost, obscure future-classic as much as we do.

Official Mr Bongo reissue. Replica original artwork, including the insert with listening instructions, in Spanish and English.

A1. Culto Solar - In Altepetl Tonal / A2. Suite Al Culto Solar - Xochiyaoyoloh / A3. Suite Al Culto Solar - Ketzalkoatl Yauh Miktlan / B1. Ipan In Xiktli Metztli

Luis Pérez was born in Mexico City on July 11, 1951. From 1971 onwards he dedicated much of his time to the research of the pre-Columbian instrumentation of Mesoamerica. This research allowed him to travel the Mexican territory and study musical traditions of the native peoples of Mexico. He learned directly from the living sources of the music and collected samples of musical instruments and the songs of different native speakers including Maya, Nahuatl, Mazateco, Yoemem, Comcaac, Raramuri, Wixarika and more.

His personal collection of native Mexican instruments includes ethnographic instruments still in use by ethnic groups, along with archaeological artifacts some of which are more than 2,000 years old. He continuously utilises these instruments in performances, concerts, lectures, exhibitions, and recordings, keeping them alive.

‘El Ombligo de la Luna’ delves deep into the past but also exists entirely outside of time, as Luis Pérez ‘Ixoneztli’’s offering to the world – the soul of Mexico channeled through the hands and heart of a master musician.

Huge thanks to Carlos Niño for his assistance on this very special project. Copy adapted from original copy written and supplied by Jesse Peterson (2017), used with thanks. Licensed directly from Luis Pérez.

Official Mr Bongo reissue. Replica original artwork, including the insert with listening instructions, in Spanish and English.

A1. Culto Solar - In Altepetl Tonal / A2. Suite Al Culto Solar - Xochiyaoyoloh / A3. Suite Al Culto Solar - Ketzalkoatl Yauh Miktlan / B1. Ipan In Xiktli Metztli

Luis Pérez was born in Mexico City on July 11, 1951. From 1971 onwards he dedicated much of his time to the research of the pre-Columbian instrumentation of Mesoamerica. This research allowed him to travel the Mexican territory and study musical traditions of the native peoples of Mexico. He learned directly from the living sources of the music and collected samples of musical instruments and the songs of different native speakers including Maya, Nahuatl, Mazateco, Yoemem, Comcaac, Raramuri, Wixarika and more.

His personal collection of native Mexican instruments includes ethnographic instruments still in use by ethnic groups, along with archaeological artifacts some of which are more than 2,000 years old. He continuously utilises these instruments in performances, concerts, lectures, exhibitions, and recordings, keeping them alive.

‘El Ombligo de la Luna’ delves deep into the past but also exists entirely outside of time, as Luis Pérez ‘Ixoneztli’’s offering to the world – the soul of Mexico channeled through the hands and heart of a master musician.

Huge thanks to Carlos Niño for his assistance on this very special project. Copy adapted from original copy written and supplied by Jesse Peterson (2017), used with thanks. Licensed directly from Luis Pérez.

Balearic boogie to deep house fans will be mesmerized by this superb bedroom chillout music! From the Spanish deep house label Saft comes Dam-Funk, a very popular modern funk project. Into midnight low tracks that will strike a chord with fans of PPU, Omega Supreme and Second Circle!