MUSIC

Mohamed M. Kooshin was one of a rarified group in Somali music, a master of the kaban who followed in the footsteps of the legendary players of the kaban such as Qarshe, Hudeydi, and Omar Dhuule. Kooshin was the youngest member of Somalia's esteemed national music group Waaberi before leaving Somalia in the early 1990’s and moving to Toronto, Canada. In Canada Kooshin produced a string of releases for Waberi Studio and Arts, collaborating with Sahro Ahmed , writing and recorded out of his home studio. Kooshin passed away on December 27th 2018 leaving behind a legacy of beautiful music and loving fans across the global Somali diaspora. 

Kooshin played the the kaban which has a special place in Somali music. It was a foreign instrument that, upon its arrival to Somalia in the 1940’s, became the centre of the immensely popular style of music known as qaraami. For many Somali music fans the sound of qaraami — poetic lyrics accompanied by the sparse sounds of the kaban and bongo drums — is the quintessential Somali sound. 

A joint release with Wait And See from Toronto, Canada and the first in a series of Somali recordings from Toronto.

Originally released as a double CD in 2010, Wallahi Le Zein! has persisted as a cult classic, a collection of a rarely heard and utterly unique underground music scene, raw and unfiltered.

The LP, cassette & digital version we now present is intended as an immersive entry into this music: gnarled and virtuosic electric guitars weave hypnotically throughout melismatic sung poetry and exclamations, pulsing hand drums, party chatter, buzzing rigged desert sound systems, and all manner of the ambient sounds of Nouakchott wedded to oversaturated cassette in all its swirling, breathing, psychedelic glory. Operating entirely outside of any local recording industry, these songs were collected from bootleg tape stalls, wedding souveniers, and networks of musicians, expertly curated, researched and produced by Matthew Lavoie.

Drawing from the deep well of Mauritanian classical music, the gamut of musical modes and the tidinitt lute repertoire are transposed to the electric guitar - often with frets removed or additional frets installed, “heavy metal” distortion pedals and phasers built into guitar bodies, blurring the lines between Haratine and Beydane musical cultures, the ancient and the futuristic. At times transcendent and transfixing, and conversely a furious and cascading intensity that commands jaw-dropping attention.

Moondog (1916-1999) is a rare figure whose music, with its vitality and creativity born from the depths of humanity, has influenced all kinds of people, from jazz to experimental music. This is a co-release by [Mississippi Records] and [Lucia Records]! This is a treasure trove of material from live performances on the road, where even the breath of the spirit dwells, to Schwartz's studio, to the rooftops of New York City. The songs on this album were selected directly from the original tapes stored in the Library of Congress, and have never been released before. The album includes a previously unreleased version of "Why Spend The Dark Night With You? The complete version of "Nocturne Suite" and "On The Streets Of New York" EP, which was released on 7". This is a collection of extremely rare material. The liner notes include a never-before-seen interview with Moodog by Tony Schwartz. Includes liner notes with a complete, unpublished interview with Moodog by Tony Schwartz. an old-school tip-on cover.

Before there was Rimarimba, Suffolk-born, Felixstowe-based musician and home recording enthusiast Robert Cox assembled a cast of friends, some musicians and some not so much, for an experiment in group exploration and ecstatic expression under the name The Same. Sonically and gravitationally defined by Cox’s collaboration with guitarist Andy Thomas (a partnership which formed in 1976 to record as General Motors), Sync or Swim, The Same’s one and only album, also featured keyboards by Florence Atkinson and Paul Ridout, and vocals by Robert’s sister Rebecca.

Originally released in small cassette and vinyl quantities on Unlikely Records, Cox’s imprint and a meeting point for many other musicians found at the fringe, the back cover of the original album jacket is as much a map of the personnel, place, and process fundamental to Sync or Swim as it is a table of contents for DIY music-making at the beginning of the 80s: “Recorded in peaceful Wiltshire between September 18th and October 6th 1981 (using a miscellany of home made devices) onto a Teac A-3300SX via a Teac A-3440. No noise reduction systems were used.”

Cox’s own definition of British psychedelia is “folk music meeting technology and going bonkers.” It’s by this definition that Sync or Swim takes unexpected forms, from tape-speed tomfoolery, concrète sound collage and analog delayed marimbas, to the colorful spectrum of interwoven guitar play between Cox and Thomas reminiscent of Ghanaian Highlife but more accurately indebted to Jerry Garcia.

On the album’s culminating final track, “E Scapes,” all of these elements are brought together in twenty-minute journey through layers of chiming guitar loops and spritely solos, keyed percussion, and tape experiments, all played as though the sun were rising over the standing stones of Salisbury Plain. Cox would later go to similarly greath lengths with certain solo sound endeavors, but the confluence of musicians on “E Scapes” pushes the piece to exceptional, unforgettable heights.

Transferred and remastered from the original tapes, The Same’s Sync or Swim arrives June 4, 2021 on Freedom To Spend, just in time for the album’s 40th anniversary.

The pioneering electro-acoustic band Seefeel, which had a major influence on the birth of "post-rock," has announced a reissue campaign covering their material released on Warp and Rephlex in the mid-90s!

The long-discontinued studio albums "Succour" and "(Ch-Vox)" are now available in an expanded edition with bonus tracks, the EP collection "St / Fr / Sp", and the 4-CD box set "Rupt & Flex", featuring material from 1994-96.

All of these releases include previously unreleased bonus material, all of which has been remastered from the original DAT tapes by acoustic techno genius Stefan Betke, aka Pole. The album also features new artwork by The Designers Republic (Succour is an updated version) and liner notes by Seafeel members Mark Clifford and Sarah Peacock.

After gaining attention with their debut album Quique on Too Pure, the band signed with Warp in 1994. Initially, they were associated with the shoegaze sound of My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Slowdive, but their penchant for electronic sounds and sampler-driven style led them to be associated with the burgeoning IDM sound. This image was further strengthened when Aphex Twin, who had professed to be a big fan of Seafeel, provided a remix of his early track "Time To Find Me" and signed him to his own label, Rephlex.

Steve Beckett, founder of Warp, explains how the success of his first album, Quique, led him to sign with Warp. "Seafeel was the first guitar band Warp signed.... It took a lot of courage for them to sign with us because they were older in the family and had been accused of breaking the unwritten rule that they should be a pure dance label.

After hearing Seafeel's first EP, Robin Guthrie invited Mark Clifford to the Cocteau Twins studio, and soon afterwards Seafeel accompanied the Cocteau Twins on tour. Mark later remixed four songs for the Cocteau Twins (on their EP, Otherness), helping to bring their music to a new audience.

Their second album, Succour, released on Warp in March 1995, was a departure from the melodic, guitar-driven sound of the first album, and explored more rhythmic, quasi-industrial textures. A six-song mini-album, (Ch-Vox), released on Rephlex in 1996, took a more experimental direction, with most of the songs produced by Mark Clifford alone. Most of the songs were produced by Mark Clifford alone. It was also the catalyst for his later releases on Warp under the names Woodenspoon and Disjecta.

The band stopped playing in 1997, but a live performance at Warp20, celebrating Warp's 20th anniversary (with a new lineup that included DJ Scotch Egg and ex-Boredoms drummer Kazuhisa Iida), led to the release of a self-titled album on Warp in 2010. In 2010, he released another self-titled album on Warp.

You Can See Your Own Way Out is the first collaborative record between Ilyas Ahmed and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Long-time friends and satellites orbiting the same communities and scenes, You Can See's inception was never really a question of if, but when. Combining Ahmed's explorative guitar/synth-work and Cantu-Ledesma's field recording, sound processing and electronics, the result presents as a book of short stories or vignettes highlighting their individual strengths. At times evoking pastoral landscapes, others frayed edges of disintegrating photographs, there's always the suggestion of a forked path or a promised destination.

This collaboration by Tokyo producers/musicians Shintaro Sakamoto and VIDEOTAPEMUSIC is the first of two EM Records 12-inch vinyl-only “tribute releases” in support of the film “Bangkok Nites”, produced by Kuzoku. Based on samples from Dao Bandon, Hongthong Dao-udon, Phairin Phonphibun, Thailand and Tokyo dreamworlds meet in these songs.

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGED are Ajay Saggar (“Bhajan Bhoy”), Oli Heffernan (“Ivan The Tolerable”) and Kohhei Matsuda (“Bo Ningen”). The trio began in 2019, playing shows in Holland, where they gained a reputation for delivering highly dynamic sense-rattling shows, ranging from gentle melodic orchestral spinouts to epic power jams, all backed by beautiful self-made films in the background. 

The plan had always been to record an album, and get the collective musical force and spirit cemented to vinyl. Many months of hard work and focus paid dividends with the majestic eight track double album “Oh Temple!” ready to be delivered to the world at large. 

This is a beautiful collection of tracks where the pioneering spirit of the three artists allowed them to cross musical boundaries with their bold and accomplished playing to forge 8 unique and mesmeric numbers. While there is commonality in the artists approach to music, there are a wide variety of styles - kosmische musik, electronic experimentation, deep spiritual jazz, modern classical, pastoral guitar soli, and more. 

These tracks sound fresh and revealing now, and will certainly do so for a long time to come. 

It will be released on Hive Mind Records (Brighton UK)....home of Sonny Sharrock and Maalem Mahmoud Gania amongst many others...on Friday 29 January 2021

This album is a sound archive of the audiovisual performance which I presented at Berlin Atonal back in 2019. This massive sound research depicts the ephemeral post-apocalyptic world where the new being rises through the ruins of an old world order. Recorded in Moscow in 2018-19, artwork by Pavel Milyakov, concept art by Volodymyr Pavlov.

Spittle Records present a reissue of The Durutti Column's Red Shoes, originally released in 1992 on Materiali Sonori. First ever reissue on vinyl. Red Shoes includes eight new recordings (dated early 1992), five unreleased tracks, a new version of "When The World" and more sophisticated rendition of "For Madeleine" and "For Zinni". Vini develops his musical journey using fascinating licks for guitar, steeped in new age, minimalism, soft electric folk, and ambient music (and it's important to note that Vini's style has been long informed by kosmische heroes such as Manuel Göttsching or Günter Schickert and even John Martyn). The album offers even the reissue of the mini album Greetings Three, a very important goal for the band and the label Materiali Sonori. In fact, the four tracks included on this record -- released in 1985 -- have been explicitly dedicated to Italy, Tuscany and to new Italian friends. Along with Vini Reilly you will find the talent of Bruce Mitchell (drums) and John Metcalfe (violin) on display. Licensed from Materiali Sonori.

New York-based Arlene Farber, who later had a bit part in The French Connection, was renamed Arlene Tiger by future husband, Jerry Gross, for the lurid Female Animal, one of the exploitation films he directed and distributed in the late 60s and early 70s (here under the alias Juan Carlo Grinella). With a debauched plot about the raunchy misfortunes that befell an attractive peasant girl (with Gross appearing as a pimp), the film benefitted from a lush soundtrack by the Clay Pitts Orchestra, written and conducted by the enigmatic Pitts himself (the alias of US composer Derek Ware). This easy listening LP is a true stunner of the genre, a must-have for all fans of lounge music, as well as original exploitation soundtracks.

Devo 's Hardcore documents the group's beginning as pre-punk outcasts in the fertile Akron, Ohio underground rock scene. Spawned at the nearby college of Kent State, site of the infamous May 4 Massacre, Devo formed as a conceptual art project armed with a radical philosophy of de-evolution. Mothersbaugh brothers (Mark, Bob, and Jim) and Casale Brothers (Jerry and Bob) along with drummer Alan Myers soon whipped up an otherworldly brand of "devolved blues" that could hold its own alongside the beatnik groove of 15-60-75 (aka The Numbers Band) or the primal rock poetry of the Bizarros.

Recorded on various 4-track machines and in tiny studios, basements, garages and between 1974-1977, Hardcore  Reveals Their strikingly clear vision: rock n 'roll stripped bare of its collective cool and jerked back into propaganda fit for the post-modern man. It's no surprise That These transmissions would soon catch the eye and ear of Brian Eno who later produced Their landmark 1978 debut album. Noisy synth, strangled guitar chops, and a primitive rhythmic thud power the early Devo sound. Threaded beneath it all are lyrical themes of post-McCarthy paranoia, middle-class ephemera, and Devo 's long-running topic of choice: sex, or lack thereof.

Few moments in pop music history can match the grinding, pent-up energy of "Mongoloid" and the spastic bounce and sputter of "Jocko Homo" (two anthems presented in Their earlier and superior versions here). Cult favorites like "Mechanical Man" and "Auto-Modown" make Volume 1 essential listening.

Superior Viaduct and Booji Boy Records are proud to present Devo 's Hardcore  to a new generation of spuds, lovingly packaged with Moshe Brakha's stunning cover photography. As David Bowie said in 1977 Devo is indeed "the band of the future."

A classically trained dancer, Gabriel Roth was involved with the early ’60’s counterculture movement as a dance instructor for therapeutic workshops at the legendary Esalen Institute in San Francisco and Arica School in New York. These facilities and groups played key roles in the Human Potential Movement in psychology which later led to Transpersonal Psychology and the New Age Movement.

Through direct encounters and training from the era’s noted psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists, and spiritual gurus, she single-handedly rediscovered and redefined the ancient shamanic technique of ecstatic dance, establishing a method she named 5Rhythms in the late 70’s.

The practice of 5Rhythms consists of five movements: Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness. Through this dance sequence difficulties and obstructions in life can be identified and ultimately overcome. The sequence of the rhythms helps create waves that allow the dancer to reach a point of inner stillness. It is a globally recognised movement meditation practice with over 400 qualified teachers in more than 50 countries. Though Gabrielle Roth passed away in 2012, her spirit and legacy have been passed down through her family and extensive followers. It is still being practiced today.

Music plays a key role in these workshops. Following the shamanic tradition of using live percussion as a driving force, the music is necessarily rhythmic in nature and repetitive enough to focus on self-movement without invasive melodies or lyrics to distract one’s mind. It must be fairly lengthy in duration, with the journey defined by the pulsing waves of emotional flow that guide the body’s movement. The music was not intended to be consumed while socialising, but as an aid to the internal journey into one’s soul. It is minimal, abstract, and atmospheric.

As a result of these characteristics (or rather functionalities), their albums didn’t fit into any conventional styles at the time of their release in the early 80s. Theirs is a pure form of dance music that also shares many commonalities with ambient music in the modern context. Yet ambient music had yet to establish itself as a genre at the time despite the early efforts of Brian Eno while underground dance – the genre with which it shares many of its stylistic qualities – was yet to be born. Their releases were rarely appreciated outside of workshops.

Between 1982 and 2008, Gabrielle and her husband Robert Ansell produced 16 original albums as Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors. Robert brought together some of the best studio musicians that New York had to offer while his son Scott – who later became a Grammy-winning sound engineer – recorded and mixed all of their crystal clear productions.

Endless Waves: Vol 1 was originally released on their own private label in 1996 on CD. Comprised of a selection of their past recordings, the first part acts as a seductive entry point into their rhythmic sound world, with Roth’s voice intoning gentle instructions over each track. The opener Body Parts commences with a series of rolling polyrhythmic beats to prepare the body for meditation. From there the music shifts through a series of ambient moods that evoke each of the ‘5Rhythm’ states of being. Atmospheric synths and stately violins combine to help ease into movement on Flowing. Didgeridoos and funky bass lines evoke masculine energy on Staccato before the tumbling rhythms of Chaos encourage the uninhibited release of one’s mind and body. The soft vocal harmonies of Lyrical help the listener towards a lighter, more fluid, and creative state of being creating a becalming state that continues with the deep ritualistic chants and languid drums of Stillness.

The second part of the album consists of a non-guided version of the same journey. Freshly recorded for the album’s release in 1996, the band deliver up an equally vital series of brilliantly realised rhythmic excursions.

In the words of Gabrielle Roth: “I have found a language of patterns I can trust to deliver us into universal truths, truths older than time. In the rhythm of the body, we can trace our holiness, roots that go all the way back to zero. States of being where all identities dissolve into an eternal flow of energy. Energy moves in waves. Waves move in patterns. Patterns move in rhythms. A human being is just that, energy, waves, patterns, rhythms. Nothing more. Nothing less. A dance.”

A brilliant mini documentary about Gabrielle Roth & 5Rhythms created by Iris Hod

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Backfire of Joy, a previously unheard recording from Phew, John Duncan and Kondo Tatsuo, documenting a concert at Tokyo’s Hosei University in 1982. Though the fertile exchange of ‘zines, tapes and records between the Japanese underground and the Los Angeles Free Music Society meant the artists were familiar with each other’s work, this performance (occurring on Duncan’s first visit to Japan) was their first meeting and only performance as a trio. Duncan is heard on his signature shortwave radio set-up, while Kondo performs on synth, tape loops and echo-drenched piano, providing a spacious backdrop for Phew’s astonishing performance of spontaneous, free-associative song moving between Japanese and English. A testament to the unhinged exploration of the 1980s experimental underground, the trio careen wildly between crashing percussive tape loops, deluges of shortwave noise, insistent piano figures and playful synth melodies. On the B side, we are treated to a remarkable ten minute sequence moving organically from spaced-out synth and radio textures to a stunning finale of improvised balladry centred on piano and voice, unexpectedly broken up by electronic interjections. Beautifully recorded in crunchy vintage fidelity, Backfire of Joy arrives accompanied by archival photographs and newly authored liner notes from all three participants.

Includes the classic song "The Thief", which has been covered by Radiohead! The 13th album was recorded in 1968 when Malcolm Mooney, the first vocalist of German Rock Gods Can, was in the band, and was not released until 1981. By 1968, the band had already foreseen the arrival of post-punk, no-wave and even electronica, and their edgy psychedelic sound was already in full swing. This is a masterpiece that fully showcases their edgy psychedelic sound.

Asa Tone is Jakarta-born Melati Malay and New York based Tristan Arp and Kaazi. In January 2018 the trio travelled to Indonesia during Melati’s annual return home, set up a temporary studio in a house nestled in the jungle’s canopy and recorded a series of improvisational pieces together, later edited for brevity. The music incorporates both digital and analogue processing and largely draws upon the groups collective voice, a small selection of instrumentation (Rindik, Moog Sub 37, Infinite Jets, Suling) and their immediate environment. Despite this, they aimed to record a kind of music together that doesn’t seem to come from one specific place, but instead, from everywhere.

The result is an idiosyncratic voyage of equatorial excursions in voice, mallets and synthesis, both transportative and fluid, yet firmly grounded in the earth. Cyclical, randomized patterns grow and blossom during these often delicate and heartfelt renderings, staying with the listener long after both sides fall silent.

Experimental trio Giraffe crystalize time on ‘Desert Haze’, their new LP on Marionette. Giraffe is the musical project of Sascha Demand (guitar), Jürgen Hall (keys), and Charly Schöppner (percussion). Sascha Demand is a composer that comes from a contemporary and improvised musical background, collaborating with the likes of Ensemble Integrales and Vinko Globokar. Jürgen Hall works in electroacoustic experimental projects, theatre and film scores, with releases on Staubgold and Edition Stora. Charly Schöppner is known for his popular music releases such as Boytronic on major production companies in the 1980´s and composes for theatre, dance, and film scores. With only a couple of releases to date on the wonderful Meakusma imprint as well as an EP on Marmo, little is known about Giraffe.  After letting go of other artistic projects, the trio now focuses solely on Giraffe by continuously searching for and finding their own unique language.

Sascha, Jürgen and Charly have quite diverse musical backgrounds, though morphing into Giraffe they tower into one single composer. Their music is a critical statement, not in a political sense but rather an artistic one. Being mindful about what it means to create and how to position themselves as artists nowadays (without the constant hassle of being en vogue and short-lived trends) shaped their rather rare and stoic artistic stance. It is refreshingly honest to see their expression develop so naturally.

On Desert Haze, they’ve created a vibrant and minimalistic tribal sound that feels inspired by the Saharan traditional music of the Tuareg, Jazz, and German psychedelic krautrock. Giraffe themselves also list the radical music of the Viennese School (Schoenberg along with his pupils Berg and Webern) as well as the Köln School with its early electronic experiments as their main influence and inspiration. More precisely the composition process and the organization of musical material within space and time, where a conceptual and intellectual approach melds with an experimental yet expressive sound searching method.

Side A focuses on the trios studio work; it is built around tone color and pitch analysis of resonating prepared guitar sounds. Through a unique mixture of free improvisation and a serialism "rule set”, they develop instrumental layers and structures to form their tracks. Side B sees Giraffe playing more freely with a reduced setup - representative of what you may hear when listening to them live.

Desert Haze, along with its track-titles, showcases an almost mimetic approach to art. The haptic music grabs the listener not as a passive recipient but as an active resonant body to vibrate through. One can almost feel the Elements, pressure and heat forming a diamond, hypnotic overtones ringing through windy caves, shamanistic rhythms conjuring up mysterious and ancient landscapes - where the constant cycle of sedimentation and erosion reveals structures of fragile beauty - always gentle to the hand’s touch and the mind’s eye.

OKTEMBER is the second EP release under Wolfgang Voigt’s mythical GAS project (it follows "Modern“ on Profan, 1995). The 2 compositions were originally released in 1999 on Mille Plateaux, and then reissued partially in 2016 on GAS “BOX”. OKTEMBER is finally released on Voigt's own label KOMPAKT, pressed on 180 gram vinyl in its original artwork.

This reissue features “Tal ‘90“ (instead of the original A side) – a predecessor to the GAS project originally recorded in 1990 under the alias TAL, it was released as a part of the Pop Ambient 2002 collection. With its sampled strings, horns and guitars, "Tal 90” soundtracks a more uplifting side to what is typically accustomed to being the sound of GAS. The title track “Oktember” is a dense, hypnotic affair that conjures a unique vision of dub techno that few have been able to replicate.

A monumental soundtrack to uncertain times.

In his long career Dick Hyman has covered a great variety of music fields, from Broadway through music for film and television to jazz, classical, pop, and electronic music.

"The Age of Electronicus" originally released in 1969 is one of his Electronic Pop jewels. A breathtaking sequence of reworked hits of the day including outstanding electro-versions of Lennon McCartney's classics such as "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La- Da" and "Blackbird" and Bacharach's "Alfie" A whole feast of analog Moog sounds, primitive drums machines, repetitive bass lines and lots of robotic beats. All packaged in a memorable, colourful album cover.

1985 was one of the most important years in Brazil's recent history, when the country was freed from more than 20 years of military dictatorship. The youth took the lead and finally Brazil entered the world show business circuit with Rock In Rio festival. But the real revolution was happening in the underground and this record is a proof of that.
One of the people in charge was the musician, composer, poet, writer, scriptwriter and speaker from Rio de Janeiro Ronaldo Tapajós, who was always involved with experimental and avant-garde music. His trajectory begins in the mythical 1968, when, as part of the the duo Rô and Carlinhos, he released an emblematic single containing the song “O Gigante” - perhaps the first Brazilian bad trip recorded on vinyl and a shrewd criticism of the society's “square” habits.

Cinema was an experimental and avant-garde piece released in early 1985. In many ways it’s an example of the new Brazil that was reborning after 21 years of darkness under Military Dictatorship. Musically, it was a pioneer album for Brazilian music, mixing acoustic and synthetic sounds.
This rare adventure in Brazilian music was released independently in 1985, financed by the artists themselves. The original small press sold-out, belonging now to record collectors around the planet. For the first time Cinema is re-released on vinyl, with two extra and unreleased tracks found after decades.
Remastered from the original tapes, this reissue includes reproduction of the original graphic art, new testimonials from the four members of the project and a long article signed by Bento Araujo, author of the book series Lindo Sonho Delirante, which investigates audacious and fearless music created in the Brazilian underground.
According to Cinema’s LP press release: “in the era of visual music, Cinema is sound”. In terms of sound, listening to this album feels like diving into an intriguing anguish of trying to understand how the relationship between technology available at that time (1983-1984) and the more organic instruments happened, this duality between synthesizers/effects with percussion, woodwind instruments, piano and clarinet. In other words: how was the coexistence between the synthetic and the acoustic? This paradox seems to seduce collectors, DJs and enthusiasts of Brazilian music from the 80's around the world.
This fictional soundtrack has a dark mood, as if a fog of dark and ambient music insisted on staying on top of cheerful patterns of Afro-Brazilian percussion, or conceptual synth pop.

Music and Poetry of the Kesh is the documentation of an invented Pacific Coast peoples from a far distant time, and the soundtrack of famed science fiction author, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home. In the novel, the story of Stone Telling, a young woman of the Kesh, is woven within a larger anthropological folklore and fantasy.

The ways of the Kesh were originally presented in 1985 as a five hundred plus page book accompanied with illustrations of instruments and tools, maps, a glossary of terms, recipes, poems, an alphabet (Le Guin’s conlang, so she could write non-English lyrics), and with early editions, a cassette of “field recordings” and indigenous song. Le Guin wanted to hear the people she’d imagined; she embarked on an elaborate process with her friend Todd Barton to invoke their spirit and tradition.

For Music and Poetry of the Kesh, the words and lyrics are attributed to Le Guin as composed by Barton, an Oregon-based musician, composer and Buchla synthesist (the two worked together previously on public radio projects). But the cassette notes credit the sounds and voices to the world of the Kesh, making origins ambiguous. For instance, “The River Song” description reads, “The prominent rhythm instrument is the doubure binga, a set of nine brass bowls struck with cloth-covered wooden mallets, here played by Ready.”

According to writer and long-time friend of LeGuin, Moe Bowstern (who pens the liners for the Freedom To Spend edition of Kesh), Barton built and then taught himself to play several instruments of Le Guin’s design, among them “the seven-foot horn known to the Kesh as the Houmbúta and the Wéosai Medoud Teyahi bone flute.” Barton’s crafting of original instruments lends an other-worldly texture to the recordings of the Kesh, not unlike fellow builders Bobby Brown and Lonnie Holley. Bowstern notes, “Other musician / makers have crafted their own Kesh instruments after encountering the earlier cassette recordings that accompanied some editions of the book.”

Both Barton and Le Guin are sensitive to the sovereignty of indigenous Californians and were careful not to trample the traditions of the Tolowa people who lived in the valley long before the Kesh. “You research deeply, and then you bring your own voice to the table,” said Barton. Within the Kesh culture, the numbers four and five shape the lives, society and rituals. Barton composed loosely around these numbers, patiently listening to the land of Napa Valley for signs and audio signals from the natural elements. Todd incorporated ambient sounds of the creek by Le Guin’s house and a campfire they built together.

The songs of Kesh are joyful, soothing and meditative, while the instrumental works drift far past the imaginary lands. “Heron Dance” is an uplifting first track, featuring a Wéosai Medoud Teyahi (made from a deer or lamb thigh bone with a cattail reed) and the great Houmbúta (used for theatre and ceremony). “A Music of the Eighth House” sends gossamer waves of the faintest sounds to “float on the wind.” Like the languages invented in the vocal work of Anna Homler, Meredith Monk, and Elizabeth Fraser, the Kesh songs and poems play with the shape of voice.

The Music and Poetry of the Kesh cassette was meant to accompany and enhance the experience of reading Always Coming Home. Presented in this edition as a long-playing album, where only traces of the book linger (the jacket offers some of Le Guin’s illustration, and a letterpressed bookmark featuring the the narrative modes of western civilization and the Kesh valley is included), the music alone breaking the silence of what might be. It can transport—offering a landscape for imagining a future homecoming. One in which we are balanced, peaceful, and tend to the earth and its creatures.

A line from “Sun Dance Poem” reminds us, “We are nothing much without one another.” Freedom To Spend gives new life to the recordings of the Kesh people in the first ever vinyl edition of Music and Poetry of the Kesh also availably on digital formats on March 23, 2018. The LP will include a spot printed jacket with Ursula’s illustrations from Always Coming Home, a facsimile of the original lyric sheet, liner notes by Moe Bowstern, a multi-format digital download code and a bookmark letter pressed by Stumptown Printers in Portland, OR.

First edition limited to 1,000 copies.

Melody As Truth is proud to announce “Melodies In The Sand”, a collection of works from Czech artists Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi. The husband-and-wife duo began working together in the mid 80’s as part of experimental ensemble Capella Antiqua e Moderna, a unique association of musicians whose repertoire spanned various styles of European classical music. With an inventive and unorthodox approach to both historical and modern compositional techniques and interpretive procedures, the Havel’s have steadfastly developed a unique and musically autonomous language which continues to expand to this day. Spanning their early work in Capella Antique e Moderna to recent pieces recorded for Viola De Gamba, ‘Melodies In The Sand’ is presented to the listener with the simple aim of shining a light on these incredible musicians. Their work has within it the ability to penetrate and enrich the innermost corners of a perceptive human soul, a gift which they share with sincerity and humbleness.

The saga of composer Tim Story's 1982 debut is a case study in the shifting sands of the early progressive music industry. Recorded on a Tascam 4-track reel-to-reel in his basement bedroom in Whitehouse, Ohio using a ragtag array of equipment – salvaged vibraphone, pawn shop Les Paul, his mother's spinet piano, a PAiA synth kit assembled by his girlfriend's father, and a Yamaha CS-30 – Story optimistically dubbed six cassettes and sent them around the world. Following a polite rejection from Klaus Schulze, the French avant-garde label Atem (This Heat, Univers Zero, Art Zoyd) reached out with an offer to release Threads via their new instrumental electronic subdivision, Labyrinthes. After several letters confirming terms of the arrangement as well as multiple rounds of test pressings, correspondence suddenly ceased. Some months later the label folded, never having begun. Synchronistically, however, Schulze's copy ended up in the glovebox of an engineer associate, who happened to play it for a couple visiting journalists with contacts at a newish Norwegian imprint, Uniton Records (Popul Vuh, Harold Budd). Impressed, they connected Story to the label head, but by then he'd already recorded a follow-up, the more neoclassical-leaning In Another Country, which became his inaugural release. Finally, 40 years later, Dais Records is rectifying history's error by properly issuing Threads on vinyl for the first time. It's a beautiful, beguiling work, exploratory but emotive documenting, as Story puts it, “the path not taken... like the first chapter of a book that was set aside to begin another.” Despite only being in his early twenties at the time of its creation, Threads feels finessed and considered, weaving through a diverse spectrum of moods and minimalist melodies. From sunburst synthesizer devotionals (“Tethered By A Thread”) to shadowy cosmic drift (“Without Waves,” “Iso”) to fragile piano vignettes (“Burst,” “Scene And Artifact”), Story's compositional instincts skew subtle and sophisticated, carving gemstones of fluctuating radiance. He cites his discovery of tape loops as a central tool in the process, allowing him to generate recurring patterns of echoes and texture, decaying in volume and fidelity as desired: “A whole new and inspiring world opened up.” As both time capsule and discographical fountainhead, Threads vividly captures the threshold sensation of early 1980's electronic music: post-kosmische, pre-new age, before ambient became codified, just as synthesizers began slipstreaming into the underground. It's an album of beginnings and forking paths, inner space voyaging towards limitless horizons, born of “youthful dedication to something one loves, in a world that feels uncertain.”

The music of Naarm/Melbourne composer Lisa Lerkenfeldt channels a unique wavelength of foreboding, interstitial electronics, incorporating strategies of musique concréte threaded with veiled currents of melody and hypnosis. Recent recordings for Vienna Press, Longform Editions and Aught Void have demonstrated different depths of process and finesse but her latest, Collagen, captures perhaps the most complete and complex manifestation of her craft to date. Drawing on a disciplined palette of peach wood combs, contact microphones, piano, strings, and feedback, the album moves in low, looming arcs, ascending to strange purgatories of opaque atmosphere. Lerkenfeldt cites a core aspiration to “elevate the everyday,” transforming common objects into otherworldly sound sources, which colors Collagen with a beguiling tactility, like vibrations traced in sand. The tracks shift in frequency and feeling, alternately heady and bodily, acoustic and synthetic, isolated states of static, light, and undertow skirting the outer rings of ambient, noise, and modern composition. Although each piece exists in its own rare air the composite panorama they present is striking in its sweep and subtlety. Lerkenfeldt's muse seems one of evasion as much as evocation, navigating negative spaces for their subliminal whispers of dread or beauty. It's an aesthetic both ascetic and exploratory, minimalist mirages of resonance, texture, and gravity skewed through the pensive glow of room tone. But Lerkenfeldt is too versatile an artist for purist restraint, which Collagen demonstrates dramatically in its closing cut, “Champagne Smoke.” A quivering bowed eulogy ebbs under a flickering film of distortion, slowly swelling in sorrow until suddenly the screech goes silent, revealing a murmuring phantom haze hidden beneath the strings, like a specter lost in an abandoned house. 14 Gestures associated with this album will be performed in experimental film and online viewing room of graphic notation at 14gestures.com from 29th July to 29th October, 2020. Collagen releases on Shelter Press in LP / DL format on August 21, 2020. LP mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer at D+M, designed by Bartolomé Sanson with art by Lisa Lerkenfeldt, housed in reverse-board inner and outersleeve, including a 16 pages limited edition score book.