MUSIC

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.

There are constellations within the grooves of Cymbalom Solos. Innumerable points of light, rendered audible in glowing, radiant sound. There are entire worlds too - undiscovered, yet familiar - both terrestrial and celestial. There are moments of quiet comfort and exultant discovery. And all of it conjured by one man with a handful of ancient and invented instruments, recorded mostly-live, with precious few overdubs. Michael Masley has been a fixture of Berkeley, California, since he arrived from Michigan in 1982. Even today, he remains a common sight, working as a street performer - catching the attention of passers-by as he summons otherworldly overtones from a coterie of arcane instruments. This is how he met fellow east-coast transplant and musical voyager, Barry Cleveland, in 1983. Cleveland was enraptured by the sound of Masley’s wildly innovative bowhammer cymbalom. The cymbalom is an ancient instrument, similar to a zither or hammered-dulcimer - originating in Eastern Europe in 1874, but with primitive early examples dating back as early as 3500 BC. Yet Masley’s approach to the instrument was wholly original. Masley replaced the two traditional cymbalom hammers, with bowhammers - an invention wherein he fitted each of his fingers with it’s own combination hammer/bow device, which allowed him to both strike the strings, and bow them like a violin. Outfitted with his bowhammers, Masley was able to wrest startlingly new sounds from a centuries-old instrument. In 1985, after performing together for a couple years, Cleveland produced Masley’s first solo endeavour, Cymbalom Solos. With the help of Cleveland’s timely production, Masley’s technique reached its zenith. His complex and beautiful compositions combined elements of Eastern-European classical, new minimalism, and celtic/folk music, yet the end result falls squarely within the world of new age kosmiche. Music of the spheres, conjured by earthbound strings. Masley estimates that he sold tens-of-thousands of cassette copies of Cymbalom Solos over his years of performing. And now, Morning Trip is distinctly proud to offer it on vinyl for the first time ever - an album of startling, imaginative beauty, by a brilliant American folk artist.

The French label Shelter Press, run by Bartolomé Sanson and Félicia Atkinson, has released the debut album by Brooklyn-based sound designer John Also Bennett (JAB), who is also a member of RVNG. This is the 2019 debut album by Brooklyn-based sound designer John Also Bennett, aka JAB. The album was recorded independently in between collaborative projects with artists such as Forma, a Brooklyn, NY synthesist trio known for their releases on Kranky, Christina Vantzou, and Jon Gibson. It is an exercise in the fusion of the organic and the inorganic, including playing with presets adjusted for Aphex Twin's DX7, restrained by the intonation tuning system (genuine tuning). The minimalist ambient drone sound is uniquely layered with electronic synthesizers and a Chinese bamboo flute called "Dizi" that he borrowed from his father. Mastered by Rashad Becker at D+M. Mastered with D+M by Rashad Becker, design by Bartolomé Sanson, artwork by Zin Taylor. recommended if you like La Monte Young, Phill Ninblock, Takehisa Kosugi!

NTsKi is a Kyoto-based artist and musician. She began making music while living in the UK and began working in earnest in 2017 after returning to Japan. She works seamlessly to create tracks with gentle but somewhat eerie vocals and a mixture of diverse musicality. In 2021, she was selected by Bijutsu Techo as one of the newcomer artists who will open up the 2020s. Her collaboration with 7FO, released through EM Records, was selected as one of the best of the year by Shintaro Sakamoto. In addition to her self-produced works, she has participated in the works of Giant Claw, CVN, Shokuhin Matsuri a.k.a foodman, Dengaryu, KM, etc., and has released through overseas labels including TAR and Orange Milk. Also, she has contributed music to the Japan Pavilion hosted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry at SXSW 2019, where Yoichi Ochiai was the general director, virtual singer te'resa, and an Australian bag brand. On August 6th, 2021, her debut album "Orca" will be released via Orange Milk / EM Records.

The album also features remixes by Kuniyuki, Bartosz Kruczynski, Knopha, Yoshiharu Takeda and more. The album "We hear the last decades dreaming" (SAGCD035) is the first release under the Chari Chari name in 18 years and marks the return of the independent label "Seeds And Ground" by Kaoru Inoue, who has been active as a DJ and producer for over 25 years. In addition to a series of remix EPs (three analog releases) from "We hear the last decades dreaming" (SAGCD035), the first album under the Chari Chari name in 18 years, a new album with additional unreleased tracks has already arrived.

The fascinating team of remixers includes Kuniyuki, a treasure from the north (Sapporo) who has been active overseas, and Chida, a veteran house DJ who has opened up DJ gigs overseas on his own. Chida, a veteran house DJ who has been active in the underground scene for a long time, and Mamazu (Hole & Holland), a DJ/producer who has been very active in the underground scene in recent years. The album also includes two tracks of self-rework by Kaoru Inoue himself.


Also based in Warsaw, Poland, Takeda's rave-revival sound production under the name Earth Trax has become a hot topic, and under his own name, he has been releasing excellent new music on the popular German digger label Growing Bin. "Bartosz Kruczyński, who is based in Warsaw, Poland, and has released two excellent New Age-style albums under the name Earth Trax, and Knopha, a popular underground DJ in Xiamen, China, whose two previously released analog EPs sold out in an instant. The album also includes a number of reworks by overseas artists.

French house master Gilbert Cohen, who runs Versatile Records and is also known for his work with I:Cube in the famous duo Château Flight, presents his latest LP as Gilb'R. This is the latest LP that transcends 25 years of time. Last year, Cohen collaborated with French new age/electronic music genius Ariel Kalma on "Plantlife" and "Super Spreader" (with guest appearance by I:Cube!). He also collaborated with the great Ariel Kalma (!) on "Plantlife" and "Super Spreader" (with I:Cube as a guest!), a cosmic ambient dance number, the heavenly Balearic ambience "Café Del Pijp" with Jonny Nash of "Melody As Truth" fame, and the hot and quietly vibrant lefty A total of 10 tracks are included in this album.

Here is a portal to a vast and relatively unknown world, the Japanese cyber-occult underground media scene of the early 1990s; our guide is the late Henry Kawahara, a media artist and electronic music producer whose expansive and visionary conception of digital technology merged with a desire to break free of the constraints of mere rationality. This collection, the first-ever archival release of his work, is drawn from recordings released during the period 1991-1996, an exceptionally fertile time for Kawahara. Originally released on CD by a few Japanese independent labels including Hachiman Publishing, a cyber-occult/new-age book specialist, the releases were available mainly in book stores, so this sumptuous and prescient music has remained relatively unknown. The original titles and tag lines of the CDs give clues about Kawahara’s interests and the music itself: Digital Mushroom, Subtropical Illusion, Never-ending Asia, and so on. This 15-track gateway compilation is available on double 12” vinyl and DL; the CD version has two extra discs featuring sound from two art installations entitled "Dysteleology - α" and "Dysteleolog - β" from the 1990s. All formats feature extensive English liner notes. 

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Henry Kawahara has been called “the Jon Hassell of Japan”, but upon closer inspection one finds that his work operates on very different terms. Like Hosono's forays into computerized Ryukyu folk “sightseeing music” or Tsutomu Ōhashi's Ecophony trilogy, Kawahara's world projected ancient musical traditions and notions of cultural identity onto the modern digital plane through a fusion of cybernetic thinking and pan-asian cultural introspection that makes Western attempts to do the same seem quaint in comparison. Kawahara's omnidirectional sound “illusions” were constructed not as albums but psychological experiences, billowing with a then-nascent notion of early 90s cybernetic spirituality that was proliferating on both sides of the Pacific as the hyperlinked state of global connectivity we know today was just beginning to crystalize. Through digital representations of folk instruments, shifting MIDI sequencing and custom binaural recording technology he aimed for psychoacoustic effect as much as artistic, all via a countercultural form of distribution untethered from the commercial expectations of post-bubble modes of artistic production. This EM collection draws out the best of his fruitful early-mid 90s period into a revelatory sequence, generously opening Kawahara's world to all. —Spencer Doran (Visible Cloaks) 

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Henry Kawahara's deal is Intimate, Intuitive, Adventurous, and Acidy! Spice is added to all, whether its ethereal guitar, nature effects, gamelan club trance, or LSD experimentations. In the vibe of Coil's “Love Secret Domain” and out there clubgamelan. The creative force of the jungle is mutated and interchanged with further sound palettes, and his effex palette has the schwing of a 90s grunge guitarist. His musical tendencies are natural and his scope and variety are dangerous. —Spencer Clark (The Star Searchers / Pacific City Discs)

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.

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.

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.”

約50分に及ぶ4つの未発音源も追加収録！吉村弘、高田みどり、イノヤマランドにも並ぶ国産ニューエイジ/アンビエント最大級の再発案件が到来です！日本が誇る孤高のアンビエント作家、広瀬豊がそのカタログ2としてMisawa Homeレーベルに残した1986年の唯一作が、高田みどり、Colored Music、Normal Brainと日本の音楽秘境も発掘してきたスイス発の最重要再発レーベル、We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want から拡張版となって初となる公式CD/ヴァイナル・リイシュー！元々は、1986年から1988年にかけて、ミサワホームのプレハブ住宅のための『Soundscape』シリーズの一環としてリリースされるも、昨今のニューエイジ再評価の流れで一気に高騰・入手困難と化していた一大傑作！静謐なミニマリズムが呼吸をし、水や虫、鳥などの声のフィールド・レコーディングやまばらなベルの音、ピアノ、シンセサイザーなどが用いられ、大自然の原風景をも思い起こすような神秘的なアンビエント・サウンドを描き出した伝説の一枚。母体回帰のような類い稀なる美しさを秘めた作品です。本人によると「いわば、音楽というよりは、音の彫刻」であるという、インスタレーション用に製作された50分に及ぶ当時の未発表音源も追加収録。デラックス・ゲートフォールド・スリーヴ仕様。本人によるライナーノーツが日本語&英語で記載されています。これが数年前まではレコ屋やリサイクルショップで投げ売りされていたと言うんだからとんでもないことです。

Orange Milk / Noumenal Loom ~ A marvelous piece that greatly updates the view of ambient after the New Age Revival! Takao, a Japanese artist who was influenced by Motohiko Hamase, Toru Takemitsu, Akio Niitsu, Yann Tomita, Sean McCann, etc., released voluntarily from Bandcamp in June this year, and the work "Stealth" that involved peripheral artists and attracted attention The physical version of EM Records is now available!
This work, which took a year and a half to complete, has an unusually short time of 33 minutes with 13 songs, but in a blink of an eye, it is swallowed by the transition of a magnificent time. I am impressed by the outstanding ambient view that looks after Post-Internet-New Age Revival and the solitary soundscape that fascinates the standard of the current experimental scene with a stylish sound that is one or two steps ahead! In addition to the former influenced by Hiroshi Yoshimura, Midori Takada, Nuno Canavarro, Haruomi Hosono, etc., it is said to be a big stone thrown in to push the timeless view of ambient music to the next stage. It should be a work. And even from the point of view that Japanese writers have achieved it, this is a release that cannot be overlooked. Mastering is done by Takuto Kuratani, also known as Ruv Bytes. I am deeply drawn to the artwork that Takao himself shot in Shonan.

A mysterious board (dare to say Hawaiian Electronic / New Age?) Produced independently in 1975 by Japanese Hawaiian musician and playwright Frank Tavares, which seems to make the genre setting malfunction. The only instrument used is the synthesizer. I tried to reconstruct the land of Hawaii with sounds by superimposing human voices and field sounds, inserting Hawaiian folk songs and my own drama works, and champuruing Hawaiian, English, Japanese, and Filipino. With the help of too unique developments and electronic sounds, we invite us to a different world that seems to be stoned. It is also said to be the first Hawaiian music to make all of the tracks with synthesizers (Is there any other Hawaiian folk song that approached from electronic music in the first place?).