MUSIC
4483 products
![The Master Musicians of Jajouka - Apocalypse Across The Sky (2LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/IMG_8753_052e7287-04de-42e8-b1dd-db9159b65136_{width}x.jpg?v=1713785135)
![The Master Musicians of Jajouka - Apocalypse Across The Sky (2LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/43c267734ca3b9f5874246174852447c.image.733x550_70aa8369-f93a-40ff-ad1e-3d0799573ff4_{width}x.jpg?v=1713785135)
![Mong Tong 夢東 - Tao Fire 道火 (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/a2269152027_10_80414ff4-b7d8-4fed-a946-2fb0941a67d2_{width}x.jpg?v=1711191190)
![Bachir Attar & Elliott Sharp - In New York (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/FTNLP010_d5a5ff0b-2e5b-459b-bacb-499751636f11_{width}x.jpg?v=1711079817)
![Bachir Attar & Elliott Sharp - In New York (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/0029290682_10_6df2f25d-c098-4b31-88e3-dad97b46ea5f_{width}x.jpg?v=1711079817)
![SANAM - Aykathani Malakon صنم - أيقظني ملاكٌ (Color Vinyl LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/a4223248057_10_94c7d451-de26-4c43-9286-c35b0b6d186a_{width}x.jpg?v=1711079750)
![SANAM - Aykathani Malakon صنم - أيقظني ملاكٌ (Color Vinyl LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/0032399852_10_ca083e90-1da0-40ac-a62c-d3824598f43f_{width}x.jpg?v=1711079750)
![Froid Dub - An Iceberg Cruising The Jamaican Coastline (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/DEL08RE_424d911b-e0b0-4032-aa88-1c9881bbace0_{width}x.jpg?v=1708231729)
![Timothy Archambault - Chìsake (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/SOMA042_daca2ee6-5d78-46b8-877b-25018c44735c_{width}x.jpg?v=1702352572)
![Mantaray - Numinous Island (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/fda44de1e94003f62d993d2342c1cab2_{width}x.jpg?v=1702009013)
![V.A. - Côte D'Ivoire: Masques Dan (CD)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/91gbqGD0AlL._AC_SL1500_cd02ff70-dd21-40f7-88f9-686efab47ebb_{width}x.jpg?v=1700201250)
While African masks are readily identified, their voices –although essential– are much less well-known: they speak and sing. The most modest masks, intended for entertainment, as well as the most powerful ones with strong supernatural power, use music just as expressively.
Technically speaking, a person wearing a mask acquires beneath this disguise another personality. According to Black African religious belief, the wearer of a mask abandons his human personality to incarnate a supernatural being, most often an ancestral spirit, a mythical figure or a bush spirit.
Since the Dan consider their masks as supernatural beings, neither the spoken nor sung voices of their incarnation can be human. Their wearers must transform their voices into the voices of supernatural beings. The Dan have perfected three techniques to achieve this –they either distort their own voice, alter their vocal timbre by speaking into an instrument, or replace the voice with instruments hidden from the uninitiated.
![Shigeo Tanaka - Yumi Kagura (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/3d866cb26cd860b686018baa51eedf85.image.550x550_6c8e2395-fdd5-4a8e-8100-415a0ded84be_{width}x.jpg?v=1693475081)
A hotline to the gods! Kagura is a thousand-year-old form of Japanese Shinto sacred music and dance, accompanying the chanting of myths; the word "kagura" can be translated as "god-entertainment". Passed down over countless generations, the music is rare and recordings even rarer. Shigeo Tanaka was a master of the yumi (bow), an uncommon single-string percussion instrument, which is a true bow: arrows are fired off at the end of each ceremony to fend off evil sprits. The instrument is difficult to play; it's hard to draw out the proper sound and maintain the rhythm.
Yumi kagura is the oldest of all the various forms of kagura. The Tanaka family, based in rural Jōge-cho, Hiroshima prefecture, has passed down this yumi kagura tradition for hundreds of years; this lineage continues to this day in the person of his daughter Ritsuko Tanaka. The Jōge-cho yumi kagura, which prays for family well-being, bountiful crops and good fortune, was designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property in 1971. The piece featured here, "Takusa saimon", based on the myth "Ama no iwato" (The Rocky Celestial Cave), is mesmeric, reaching back across ages to the time before time, with Tanaka's voice and yumi, accompanied by flute and metal percussion, drawing us closer to the primal activities of the gods. Listeners may find affinities with aspects of musics as diverse as German electronic minimalism like E2-E4, certain Ethiopian music, "spiritual jazz" and more, all tapping into the deep root of forever. Previously available only on a ridiculously obscure 1990 cassette release, Yumi kagura is the first collaborative release by EM Records and Riyo Mountains, a Japanese folk song research team. Available on LP and CD, with the CD featuring a bonus track: "Inagahachiman jinja yumi kagura hōnō" recorded in 2016 by Tanaka's daughter and successor Ritsuko Tanaka.
+ Direction/liner notes by Riyo Mountains
+ English liner notes & lyrics
LP version: insert
![Ragnar Johnson - Crying Bamboos: Ceremonial Flute Music from New Guinea: Madang (2CD)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/70fc9ee36652972c1ad5d28c50f5ec53.image.550x550_20833030-f54e-4deb-a188-1beda372b7f8_{width}x.jpg?v=1693047635)
A communication with the spirits. A sacred performance on a Papua New Guinean bamboo flute. Under the umbrella of Editions Mego, Ideologic Organ, one of the leading experimental labels run and curated by Stephen O'Malley (of Sunn O)))) fame, has released a new album on the same label. It was sampled on Bjork's latest and greatest album "Utopia", which makes it all the more controversial. This is a previously unreleased field recording of New Guinea made by Ragnar Johnson in 1979. This is a music heritage level recording!
This is a recording of musical heritage level! This is a rare field recording of a bamboo flute played by adult males in the Madang region of Papua New Guinea for ceremonial purposes, using long female and male bamboos. This is a solo performance of the bamboo flute with an all-too-rare sound, woven with mysterious breaths and occasional birdsong. The mysterious performance, like a dialogue with nature and spirits, seems to come from another world or dimension. These performers seem to be the last generation to have been taught this performance technique, and there is no doubt that this is a recording of great documentary value. The sound quality is perfect, no matter where or when it is played, and the production is flawless, with digitizing and mastering by Dave Hunt at Dave Hunt studio and cutting by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering. Notes by Ragnar Johnson and Jessica Mayer. Cover photo by Ragnar Johnson.
![Don Cherry & Dollar Brand - Musikforum Schloss, Viktring, Austria - July 20, 1972 (2LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/WHP1455LP_CU_228acda1-bb2a-4f64-bd38-6f4c10327a64_{width}x.jpg?v=1690452606)
![Scotch Rolex and Shackleton - Death by Tickling (2x12")](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/a0856235920_10_{width}x.jpg?v=1690261689)
![Material Things - 2015-2020 (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/a1900202644_10_{width}x.jpg?v=1690254257)
![Material Things - 2015-2020 (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/0032754941_10_{width}x.jpg?v=1690254257)
![Shackleton - Departing Like Rivers (2LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/a4050968774_10_d8cca854-0e3b-4c5a-a692-d97bb423916a_{width}x.jpg?v=1689758973)
![Lucrecia Dalt - ¡Ay! (Translucent Red Vinyl LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/RVNGNL85_f8c696c5-aa2c-4b5d-b8d4-eab039886cad_{width}x.jpg?v=1688206752)
![Lucrecia Dalt - ¡Ay! (Translucent Red Vinyl LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/SharedImage-137539_dd1ed278-d5ad-46ef-a623-d5f4b98116f3_{width}x.png?v=1688206752)
![Maroc: Mlouk - Festival Gnaoua Et Musiques Du Monde = Morocco: Mlouk - Gnawa And World Music Festival (CD)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/Maroc-Gnaoua_png_9c9a8dce-c73d-4c80-89ed-3f268b01d645_{width}x.jpg?v=1684485561)
![Xochimoki - Temple Of The New Sun (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/a0949871337_10_{width}x.jpg?v=1675640579)
![Xochimoki - Temple Of The New Sun (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/0026978153_10_{width}x.jpg?v=1675640579)
![Walter Maioli, Fred Gales, Pit Piccinelli - Amazonia 6891 (2LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/a1960154657_10_a062a183-d1b6-4531-9fb6-21e065480e0d_{width}x.jpg?v=1671446192)
![Walter Maioli, Fred Gales, Pit Piccinelli - Amazonia 6891 (2LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/0029903448_10_5b4fa9c0-954f-4c61-a677-dac606d23a79_{width}x.jpg?v=1671446192)
![Maleem Mahmoud Ghania with Pharoah Sanders - The Trance Of Seven Colors (2LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/a3264820302_10_7bcae73f-a5f9-47d6-aeac-8915d2db3a12_{width}x.jpg?v=1669886279)
![Maleem Mahmoud Ghania with Pharoah Sanders - The Trance Of Seven Colors (2LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/0017402577_10_7c8b8ec6-977f-4d8f-a36b-22cf5a81d0c2_{width}x.jpg?v=1669886279)
Available on vinyl for the very first time: “The Trance Of Seven Colors” by master Gnawa musician MALEEM MAHMOUD GHANIA and free jazz legend PHAROAH SANDERS. Produced by BILL LASWELL and according to The Attic “one of the most important albums of Gnawa trance music released in the ‘90s”.
Originally released in 1994 on BILL LASWELL’s AXIOM imprint, “The Trance Of Seven Colors” is the meeting of two true musical masters: MALEEM MAHMOUD GHANIA (1951 – 2015), son of the master of Gnawa music MALEEM BOUBKER GHANIA and the famous clairvoyant and "moqaddema" A'ISHA QABRAL, and a master of the traditional Gnawa style in his own right. MAHMOUD learned this craft as a youth along with his brothers, walking from village to village, performing ceremonies with his father BOUBKER and was one of the few masters (Maleem) who continued to practice the Gnawa tradition strictly for healing (the central ritual of the Gnawa is the trance music ceremony – with the purpose of healing or purification of the participants). With 30 cassette releases of music from the Gnawa repertoire with his own ensemble and performances at every major festival in Morocco, including performing for the King in various contexts, MAHMOUD GHANIA was also one of Morocco's most prominent professional musicians.
In 1994, BILL LASWELL and PHAROAH SANDERS went to Mocrocco, equipped with just some mobile recording devices, to record GHANIA and a large ensemble of musicians (to a good part family members) in a very intimate set up at a private house with the legendary free jazz musician contributing his distinctive tenor saxophone sounds that gained him highest praise as a truely spiritual soul right from the days of playing with JOHN COLTRANE and his wife ALICE and on seminal solo albums like „Karma“.
The aptly titled „The Trance of Seven Colors“ ranks among the best Gnawa recordings ever released , made it onto the list of “10 incredible percussive albums from around the world” by Thevinylfactory.com and is 25 years after its original CD release on finally available on vinyl!
![Kulku - Fahren (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/PHASE004_ba04ce20-fdd0-4ec5-a30c-45545285bb36_{width}x.jpg?v=1669881265)
![Kulku - Fahren (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/0028692243_10_33542a46-af5b-44da-b210-5f8a3aca40f1_{width}x.jpg?v=1669881266)
![Gnawa Music Of Marrakesh - Night Spirit Masters (LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/ZEHRA006_b9374e20-634a-4ac4-906c-3d1dd53893da_{width}x.jpg?v=1661140849)
![Gnawa Music Of Marrakesh - Night Spirit Masters (LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/0029263060_10_e204f9a0-d2b8-4448-84d1-e7b665aed37e_{width}x.jpg?v=1661140849)
More than 30 years after the first release, the first ever LP reissue with 180g heavyweight / audiophile / remastering specifications.
![Gammelsæter & Marhaug - Higgs Boson (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/SOMA043_{width}x.jpg?v=1661130822)
![Gammelsæter & Marhaug - Higgs Boson (LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/0029573774_10_{width}x.jpg?v=1661130823)
![Muslimgauze - Shekel Of Israeli Occupation (2LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/SONG02LP_{width}x.jpg?v=1660726422)
![Muslimgauze - Shekel Of Israeli Occupation (2LP+DL)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/0028937564_10_{width}x.jpg?v=1660726420)
![The Doudou Ndiaye Rose Family - Twenty-One Sabar Rhythms (2LP)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/products/HJRLP087_{width}x.jpg?v=1659326195)