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The fifth and final volume of World Arbiter's Japanese Traditional Music marks the completion of the label's excavation and restoration of 60 10" 78RPM discs of Japanese traditional music, bringing a great body of lost music to light and offering in full a legacy that has been almost entirely unavailable until now, even in Japan. The original set was manufactured in 1941 by a company now called the Japan Foundation, and was intended to be presented exclusively to libraries (though the Japan Foundation now has no record of having produced it). There are only two known sets of these discs, both missing the same final 10". World Arbiter acquired one original set of 59 from Beate Sirota Gordon (daughter of pianist Leo Sirota) in the 1990s, and, after a ten-year search, finally located a test pressing of the 60th disc in a theater museum in Japan. Upon first hearing these recordings, World Arbiter's Allan Evans was shocked to hear that the discs contained every species of traditional music, from the court's origins in shamanic rites, Buddhist chant, Noh plays, kabuki, and blind biwa players' haunting songs of chilling epics, to the recordings presented here: a final volume full of folk songs that captures rice planters, weavers, tuna and herring fishers, and children, all funkier than one could imagine and with the presence of eternity in their every sound and breath. The sounds and intensity of Volume Five's folk music surpass anything heard in the classical music of Japan. With Japan's ongoing modernization and loss of its traditional music, World Arbiter's audio restoration removes artifacts from chronological chains to resonate in the eternal flow of sound that defies time and space, remaining vital and always in the present. Includes 24 tracks of performances by anonymous Japanese singers.
Tsapiky music from Southwest Madagascar features wild ecstatic vocals, distorted electric guitars, rocket bass, and the amphetamine beat! Unlike anything else, this is THE high life music you've always wanted - ceremonial music played with abandon and extreme intent, honoring the living and dead alike. In Toliara and its surrounding region, funerals, weddings, circumcisions and other rites of passage have been celebrated for decades in ceremonies called mandriampototse. During these celebrations – which last between three and seven days – cigarettes, beer and toaky gasy (artisanal rum) are passed around while electric orchestras play on the same dirt floor as the dancing crowds and zebus. The music, tsapiky, defies any classification. This compilation showcases the diversity of contemporary tsapiky music. Locally and even nationally renowned bands played their own songs on makeshift instruments, blaring through patched-up amps and horn speakers hung in tamarind trees, projecting the music kilometers away. Lead guitarists and female lead singers are the central figures of tsapiky. Driven as much by their creative impulses as by the need to stand out in a competitive market, the artists distinguish themselves stylistically through their lyrics, rhythms or guitar riffs. They must also master a wide repertoire of current tsapiky hits, which the families that attend inevitably request before parading in front of the orchestra with their offerings. This work, a constant push and pull between distinction and imitation, is nourished by fertile exchanges between various groups: acoustic and electric, rural and urban, coastal or inland. What results during these ceremonies is a music of astonishing intensity and creativity, played by artists carving out their own path, indifferent to the standards of any other music industry: Malagasy, African or global.
Recorded in a single day at Element Studio, Gothenburg, A Guidance unites Joachim Nordwall’s processed grand piano with Leif Elggren’s prepared texts, guided by producer Linus Andersson. The trio—two citizens of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland—followed instinct rather than plan, channelling a volatile energy that sits somewhere between John Duncan, late Scott Walker, and Ghédalia Tazartès.
Across four pieces, Nordwall’s resonant, decaying piano tones and Elggren’s cracked, ritualistic voice conjure an atmosphere of creeping tension and psychic exposure. ‘Evil Moisture’ sets the scene with funereal space and operatic dread; ‘Opening of the Grave’ pushes intensity to breaking point; ‘To Return’ festers into uneasy stillness before collapsing in the closing ‘Forever in the Ever and Never’.
As Nordwall recalls, “Sometimes the music is just there, and you only have to let it flow.” A Guidance documents that rare moment of total surrender—where sound, text, and impulse converge into something raw, strange, and utterly possessed.
*300 copies limited edition* A sporangium (from Ancient Greek sporá 'seed' and angeîon 'vessel') is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a single cell or can be multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungi, and many other groups form sporangia at some point in their life cycle. Sporangia can produce spores by mitosis, but in land plants and many fungi, sporangia produce genetically distinct haploid spores by meiosis.
Sporangium is brand new "merzsoniks"! Equipments used by Masami: handmade instruments / contact microphones / various fuzz / distortion / glitch pedals / synthesizer... And many other soft & hard-ware to be discovered...
Ghanaian hiplife phenom Yaw Atta-Owusu presents charming results of his first studio session since 1994’s sleeper hit ‘Obaa Sima’, which found an overdue, cult audience via the blogosphere as one of Awesome Tapes From Africa’s earliest and greatest drops in 2015. If you weren’t snagged on the ohrwurming keys, vox, and groove of the title tune to Ata Kak’s ‘Obaa Sima’ in 2015, you probably weren’t going to the right clubs and checking the right sites. 10 years later it still kills and is set to be joined by this fresh haul from the Bishop Beatz recording studio in Kumasi, Ghana, where Ata Kak laid down ‘Batakari’, his 1st recordings in three decades, recapturing the moxie of his original sound on six cuts that betray time and space travelled within more ambitious arrangements of signature fast chat factored by layered harmonies and rhythmic variegation. “Honed in studios around Kumasi over the last several years, the songs feature the rapper-singer’s acrobatic rap, signature scatting, dramatic drums and even traditional Akan harp. The compositions are more ambitious than his earlier work, with more complex arrangements and layered harmonies. Ata Kak’s new songs are also the natural expression of a restless artist—he is a prolific poet and author of a half-dozen books, as well as an active gardener and busy painter. Born in Ghana in 1960, Ata Kak wasn’t always involved in music. But his travels and openness to the world lead him into the music industry. While living in Germany, he was invited to play drums in a reggae band and subsequently played in highlife bands in Ontario after moving to the Toronto area. He recorded “Obaa Sima” there at his home studio and released it in Ghana in 1994. He didn’t participate in music much in the intervening years until “Obaa Sima” was reissued in 2015. He started performing his song live with the help of a brilliant cast of London-based musicians and has toured three continents and played to thousands of fans in venues of all kinds.”
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this 1992 field recording by Patrick Kersalé captures the traditional music of the Aka Pygmies of the Central African Republic. Centered around the Aka people's distinctive polyphonic singing, the album features a variety of indigenous instruments including bowed string instruments, harps, and percussion.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this album features performances of classical Mugham music by Elshan Mansurov, a master of the traditional Azerbaijani string instrument kamancha.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this compilation brings together deeply spiritual music rooted in the traditional religious practices of Ethiopia’s Amhara people. Featuring liturgical chants and the resonant tones of the begena—a large ten-string lyre also known as the Harp of David—the album offers meditative reflections on themes such as prayer, faith, death, and salvation. This rare recording, also known through its vinyl reissue on Death Is Not The End, is now available on CD.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this field recording documents the musical culture of the Tuareg people living in the Azawagh region of northern Niger. Rooted in the nomadic lifestyle, the music is performed with simple yet powerful instruments such as the one-string fiddle (anzad), flutes, and percussion. Through women’s choral singing, poetic recitations, and the voices of children, the diverse sounds of the community intertwine, creating a rich tapestry of collective expression.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this two-disc album features performances by Tsar Teh-yun, one of the most prominent guqin players of 20th-century China. Her playing emphasizes spiritual depth and lingering resonance over technical display, presenting masterpieces of classical Chinese music such as “Yang Chun,” “Xiao Xiang Shui Yun,” and “Ping Sha Luo Yan” with the soft timbre of silk strings and a serene sense of space.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this album features solo performances by shakuhachi master Teruhisa Fukuda, rooted in the Zen Buddhist tradition. Centered around classical pieces from the Fuke sect—known as the meditative music of komusō monks—the recording unfolds a serene sonic landscape where breath and silence take prominence. Tracks such as “Kyorei,” “Mitanigawa,” and “Shika no Tone” embody the aesthetics of wabi-sabi, offering a deeply introspective listening experience.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this album features traditional pieces of Japanese court music known as Gagaku. It includes ancient instrumental and dance compositions such as “Etenraku” and “Soshima,” performed with traditional gagaku instruments like the shō, hichiriki, and ryūteki. The performances are by Ono Gagaku Kaï, one of Japan’s oldest private gagaku ensembles, founded in 1887 by Yoshimichi Ono, chief priest of Ono Terusaki Shrine in Tokyo. The group has also released albums through the French label Ocora.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this field recording captures the traditional music and ritual songs of the Jarai people living in the central highlands of Vietnam. The album offers a rare and profound glimpse into Vietnam’s musical diversity and spiritual depth, with natural sounds that evoke the essence of minimalist music.
Released by the long-established Swiss label VDE/Gallo, based near Lausanne, this field recording captures traditional songs of ethnic minorities living in the highlands of northern Vietnam. Ritual songs and folk melodies performed by the Nùng, Yao, Hmong, and Tai peoples are documented with raw, heartfelt vocals and distinctive melodic structures. These songs are deeply rooted in daily life, expressing themes such as love, prayer, labor, and lullabies. The unadorned yet powerful voices and unique tonalities reflect the cultural backgrounds of each ethnic group, offering a vivid experience of Vietnam’s musical diversity and spiritual depth through differences in language and vocal technique. The album also includes profound two-part harmonies, whose quiet intensity demands deep listening—more akin to hearing a prayer or a spoken tale than conventional music. As a rare and valuable recording, it holds particular significance for ethnomusicologists and field recording enthusiasts alike.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this field recording captures the traditional music and songs of the Hmong people living in northern Vietnam. The album features vocal performances sung in various contexts—funerals, love, lullabies, and rituals—reflecting the everyday and spiritual life of the community. The voices of both men and women are raw and powerful, and the melodies are marked by hypnotic repetition and a ritualistic resonance.
Super Tip! Kali Malone and Drew McDowall have orbited each other's work for over a decade, their individual explorations of sustained tones and harmonic space suggesting an inevitable collaboration. When they finally entered McDowall's Brooklyn studio together, what emerged on Magnetism transcends mere musical compatibility. Malone has spent recent years extending the legacy of Éliane Radigue, redefining what electronic minimalism can accomplish through pipe organ and synthesizer. Her compositions stretch single chords into cathedral-sized architectures of sound, tracing harmonic territories that Radigue first mapped in her pioneering electronic works. McDowall brings a different lineage: as a veteran of Coil, he approaches synthesis with the patience of an alchemist, crafting electronic textures that breathe with unsettling life. Magnetism resolves this apparent contradiction through sonic diplomacy. Malone's melodic sensibilities—those long, searching lines that seem to trace the curvature of space itself—find new expression through McDowall's textural arsenal. Where Malone typically builds with mathematical precision inherited from the Radigue tradition, McDowall introduces the controlled chaos he perfected with Coil: digital distortion that pulses like organic matter, synthesis algorithms that decay at the speed of memory. The album's foundation reveals their shared fascination with the spaces between notes. Karplus-Strong synthesis becomes their primary tool, combined with just intonation tuning systems that allow Magnetism to inhabit frequencies conventional instruments cannot reach. But technique serves expression here, not the reverse. Across four extended movements, repetition becomes meditation, saturation a means of transcendence. There's something ritualistic about how these pieces unfold, their harmonic cycles suggesting ancient ceremonies filtered through electronic consciousness. This is music that operates on geological time while pulsing with digital immediacy. The collaboration marks significant evolution for both artists. Malone embraces the productive friction of working with another creative mind, while McDowall discovers in her melodic clarity a redemptive light reminiscent of Coil's more transcendent moments. Together, they've created something that feels both ancient and urgently contemporary—proof that experimental music's most profound statements emerge when distinct artistic visions recognize themselves in each other.
"Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, Anthologie musicale de la péninsule Arabique: Poésie chantée des bédouins; vol.1 is a field recording that documents the sung poetry traditions of Bedouins in the Arabian Peninsula. Recorded in Kuwait between 1970 and 1972, the album serves as a valuable resource for understanding the relationship between oral poetry and music in the region.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, Italie: Polyphonies des Quatre Provinces is a valuable field recording that documents the polyphonic singing traditions of a mountainous region in northern Italy, known as a cultural area where music, language, and customs transcend administrative boundaries. In this region, festive music combining orally transmitted polyphonic vocals and traditional instrumental accompaniment continues to be passed down, making this album a vivid sonic experience of the vocal culture and communal memory rooted in the Italian highlands.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, Portugal: Musique de l'île de Porto Santo (Archipel de Madère) is a field recording made in 1982 on the island of Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago of Portugal. This valuable collection documents the island’s religious and secular festive music traditions, featuring polyphonic singing and instrumental performances by local musicians
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, Cachemire: Le Sūfyāna Kalām de Srinagar is a valuable field recording documenting the tradition of Sūfyāna Kalām, a form of Sufi music from the Kashmir region of India, performed by Ustad Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaz. Sūfyāna Kalām is a musical form rooted in Islamic mysticism, consisting of vocal and instrumental suites performed during meditative nighttime gatherings known as mehfil. It is based on melodic structures called maqām and features traditional instruments such as the sāz-e-kashmīrī.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, AMAZONIE: Contes sonores is a field recording work produced in conjunction with the 2016 exhibition Amazonie: Le chamane et la pensée de la forêt (The Shaman and the Thought of the Forest), organized by the Museum of Ethnography in Geneva (MEG).
Following Mikkel Rev's debut album on the label in 2023, ‘The Art Of Levitation’ the Norwegian artist returns with Journey Beyond, a selection of tracks demonstrating his innate ability to conjure the most atmospheric trance music, irrespective of BPM.
Journey Beyond was created from an extensive set of tracks sent to the label that were initially sequenced as two shorter EPs. With the first offering a slower 80bpm trance style, and the second EP, a classic ~130bpm trance style. However, over time, with tracks swapping in and out, ASIP had the idea to create a mixed version, progressing through the tracks and increasing bpm's, showcasing Mikkel’s ability in bridging euphoric worlds - and a style that is often reserved for Mikkel’s live performances amongst the forest raves held as part of the Ute Collective in Norway.
Classic trance and the art of a DJ mix have been influential to ASIP since the label’s inception, making this release and the process of creating it a true reflection of how Mikkel and the label come together to define the end output.
Featuring artwork by Ventral Is Golden and mastered by James Bernard.
The work of JJJJJerome Ellis lives comfortably in the gaps between silence and possibility. The Black disabled Grenadian-Jamaican-American artist creates atmospheric soundscapes with saxophone, organ, hammered dulcimer, electronics, and their voice. Improvisation is at the core of their artistry – often chipping away at large slabs of recordings to reveal the piece like a marble sculptor. It’s an expansive and interdisciplinary practice that allows JJJJJerome to adapt to any medium or form, including recorded music, live theatrical and performance art, scoring, spoken word and storytelling, and multimedia/visual works that incorporate sound. Living as a person who stutters, using their mouth to express themselves proved difficult growing up. The practice of spelling their performance moniker “JJJJJerome” stems from the realization that the word they stutter most frequently is their own name. Despite a brief placement in speech therapy as a child – Everything clicked when they picked up the saxophone in seventh grade. “I still stutter on the saxophone, but it’s different.” As an artist, their creative ethos now revolves around the exploration of stuttering through music, expounding upon the ability of each to shape time. They honor the stutter through art. Their career began when they started to improvise along with John Coltrane and Billie Holiday CDs on the horn. But as someone drawn to navigating limitations, JJJJJerome has since blossomed into an adept multi-instrumentalist, each instrument being a watershed in paving new avenues of potential sound worlds. Their voice is additionally guided by a reverence for the earth and ancestors – both human and otherwise. With maternal familial ties to the church, and memorable stories of their grandmother performing as a pianist and organist, JJJJJerome’s recent affinity for keyboards holds a meaningful weight. Forthcoming sophomore record Vesper Sparrow (Shelter Press) is born out of this connection to Black religious tradition and inheritance. It is a continuation of the artist’s ongoing study of the intersections between music and sound, stuttering, and Blackness, through the lens of time. The album is comprised of two complete thoughts, and hinges on a recorded stutter. JJJJJerome splits the four-part composition “Evensong” by fading out the stutter in part two, and sandwiches tracks three and four (“Vesper Sparrow” and “Black-Throated Sparrow”) in-between. “The stutter becomes a structuring moment,” they explain, regarding the opportunity to fill the time opened up. Suspension, then, becomes integral to JJJJJerome’s musical language. Both stuttering and granular synthesis can suspend moments in time, and “invite multiple ways of inhabiting, traversing, and connecting with others in those moments.” The artist also pulls in elements of pop production – electronic textures and distortions inspired in part by indie-rock; and spoken word, sampling, and audio manipulation drawn from Caribbean and Black American musics. JJJJJerome’s artistry has been recognized on a wide scale. Their debut record The Clearing (NNA Tapes, 2021) and accompanying book (published by Wendy’s Subway) was awarded the 2022 Anna Rabinowitz Prize for its “restless interrogation of linear time,” as described by esteemed writer Claudia Rankine. Their work has been presented by large cultural institutions, both internationally at the 2023 Venice Biennale and adventurous Rewire Festival; and at home in the US by the Whitney Museum, The Shed, the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, and National Sawdust. JJJJJerome has additionally been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship (2015), Creative Capital Grant (2022), and several MacDowell residencies (2019, 2022). Recently, they have been commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Ars Nova. A Virginia native, JJJJJerome currently lives in a monastery on traditional Nansemond and Chesepioc territory, aka Norfolk, VA. They live with their wife, poet-ecologist Luísa Black Ellis. earned a B.A. in music theory and ethnomusicology from Columbia University, and went on to lecture in Sound Design at Yale University. With childhood friend James Harrison Monaco, they create vast sonic-storytelling productions as James & JJJJJerome. It’s JJJJJerome’s dream to build a sonic bath house.