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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.
Hüsker Dü. Live. 1985. Need we say more? Witness the transcendent Minneapolis punk trio tearing into the most incendiary year of its existence, captured live on stage at First Avenue in perhaps the highest fidelity recordings of the band’s lauded SST era.
This 4xLP edition includes Beau Sorenson’s restoration of an entire January 30 1985 set, 20 extra live tracks from the year’s touring schedule, and a deluxe 36-page book detailing twelve months of history-making Hüsker Dü. What is the sound of a legend being written?
I Against I is the third studio album from Bad Brains, originally released in 1986 on SST Records. It remains influential to this day, inspiring countless punk, ska, reggae, and hardcore bands with its innovative sound and uncompromising attitude.
This reissue marks the eighth release in the remaster campaign, re-launching the Bad Brains Records label imprint. In coordination with the band, Org Music has overseen the restoration and remastering of the iconic Bad Brains’ recordings. The audio was mastered by Dave Gardner and pressed at Furnace Record Pressing.
Lady Wray makes her highly anticipated return with Cover Girl, her third album on Big Crown Records. The album opener “My Best Step” says it all, “my next step is my best step”, and indeed she is taking her artistry to a new high and making the best music of her life. The celebratory Cover Girl takes listeners on a free-spirited joyride glittered with ‘60s and '70s-inspired soul and disco, ‘90s hip-hop and R&B, and perhaps the most defining element, gospel. Following the healing journey that was 2022’s Piece of Me, Nicole has performed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, NPR’s Tiny Desk, and toured the world. After this period of growth, Lady Wray is now ready to let her hair down and embrace all of what life has to offer. Reunited with producer Leon Michels (Norah Jones / Clairo / El Michels Affair) for the record, the outcome is effortless and undeniable, a reflection of their longtime collaboration that extends over a decade.
“I've gravitated more towards love and self-care with this album. Piece of Me was realizing that I was going to be a mother, and all those feelings were on my heart,” Lady Wray says. “Now I'm able to sit back and be a real boss. I got my career, my motherhood, and my marriage by the horns. I've grown into this more self-aware and beautiful flower for Cover Girl.” With an almighty voice, soul-stirring lyrics, and a magnetic personality, the singer-songwriter reflects her appreciation for her family, her faith, and her renewed love for herself—all of which drive her new record.
Lead single “You’re Gonna Win” is a report to the dance floor, feel good banger. Cole lets loose while naming and claiming her power “I do not care who came before me, after me there will be none” as she likens her company to winning the lottery. The Fabulous Rainbow Singers choir joins on the chorus taking the whole affair to church and putting it next to the finest gospel-disco records ever pressed. “Be a Witness” is a funky, mid-tempo powerhouse that would make Prince proud. Nicole finds the perfect groove over punchy drum machines and infectious synthesizers, singing about a love destined to happen, and spreading the good vibes to everyone in earshot. Cover Girl’s title track is one of the album’s most vulnerable moments. Lady Wray delivers a show-stopping performance over the stripped down track as she details her journey to finding herself again: “I lost myself trying to please someone else / I want to be me again.” The title stems from a childhood nickname she earned for her consistently manicured style. Lady Wray explains. “As I grew up and got into the music business, I lost that happy part of me. I see that happiness in my daughter, who’s just beautiful, talented, and smart. ‘Cover Girl’ is me going back to that little girl. It’s about getting back to loving yourself and healing.” Similarly on “Where Could I Be,” she reclaims the happiness and sense of identity that she lost focus of through life’s struggles. Nicole gushes about her love and respect for her marriage on “Best For Us” & “Hard Times”, both acknowledging the imperfection and referencing the strength and resilience of true love. She sings to her daughter on “Higher,” teaching her how to love and be loved, encouraging her to be confident and persistent.
Lady Wray was born to sing, sharing her soul and her life with us through her music. She has amassed a diehard worldwide fanbase with her relatable messages and incomparable voice. Whether singing of her struggles or strengths, there’s a comfort that comes from the way she makes us know we are not alone in any of it. Nicole Wray is inspiring and uplifting. Having been through a lot, she’s taken all of it and made herself a better person and a better artist.
“You need to rule your own world. Don't let anybody get in your way. You rock with your dreams until the wheels fall off,” Lady Wray says. “That's what I've been doing with my career since 1998. I know who I am and what I bring to the table. It's been a heck of a journey, and I feel so happy to be making the best music of my life.”
This is the first-ever compilation bringing together Nigel Ayers’ solo work and his long-running project Nocturnal Emissions. Covering recordings from the early 1980s up to 2024, it spans more than four decades of experimental sound.
Nocturnal Emissions is recognized as one of the earliest and most uncompromising industrial/noise groups, standing alongside Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Cabaret Voltaire. Their sound sits at the intersection of raw industrial electronics, noise, and electronic Dada, fusing harsh textures, tape collage, and rhythm in a constantly evolving hybrid form.
The compilation, fully remastered in Tokyo, traces the major phases of Nocturnal Emissions and Nigel Ayers’ work, spanning raw, confrontational noise rooted in the squatting scene and anti-capitalist protest of the early 1980s; the rhythm-driven period that brought dancefloor energy to industrial grit; and Ayers’ later solo “Neotantric” phase of ambient, ritualistic sound exploring magick, ancient beliefs and altered states while carrying forward a spirit of subversion and transcendence that remains entirely intact decades later. Across these eras, the collection captures the full breadth of Ayers’ creative journey and moves between intense, layered noise and quiet, atmospheric soundscapes blending field recordings, spoken word, electronics, and collage.
1. Nigel Ayers / Tangled Clumps 02:13
From Excavations in Substation (2024)
Words and music by Nigel Ayers.
2. Nocturnal Emissions / 04 06:37
From Music for Butoh (1992)
Music made for the performance of Transearth by Poppo and the Go Go Boys.
Recorded live in La MaMa Theater, New York City, USA, October 1992.
Music composed and performed by Nigel Ayers
Originally released in 1993, edited and digitally mastered in June 2005.
3. Nigel Ayers / Nonsite Observatory 05:35
From Painted by Spirits (2019)
Electroacoustic instruments played by Nigel Ayers.
Recorded in Cornwall, October 2019.
4. Nigel Ayers / The Wise Wound 04:13
From Omega Earth Electrode (2019)
Sounds of Cornwall's industrial heritage recorded and processed by Nigel Ayers.
5. Nocturnal Emissions / Vegetation Narration 05:28
From The World is my Womb (1987)
Composed by Caroline K.
Text, narration and instruments played by Nigel Ayers.
6. Nocturnal Emissions / Night Sky 10:25
From Imaginary Time (1994)
Acoustic instruments played by Charlotte Bill.
Disarranged and decomposed by Nigel Ayers.
7. Nocturnal Emissions / Sealing a Phase 04:46
From The World is my Womb (1987)
Composition and instruments played by Caroline K.
Text and narration by Nigel Ayers.
8. Nocturnal Emissions / Rusting Shells 06:04
From Shake Those Chains Rattle Those Cages (1985)
Recorded in the studios of the Emission Control during November 1984.
Text and Voice by Caroline K. and Nigel Ayers.
9. Nocturnal Emissions / Sperm Count 04:19
From Befehlsnotstand (1983)
Recorded The Emission Control, London, England in 1983 and remixed in 1992.
Composed by Caroline K. and Nigel Ayers.
10. Nocturnal Emissions / When Were You Last in Control of Your Dreams and Aspirations ? 4:12
From Tissue of Lies (1981)
Computer and Synthetizer by Daniel Ayers.
Voice, Bass, Synthesizer and rythm by Caroline K.
Voice, Guitar, Violin and Tape by Nigel Ayers.
Recorded in South London in 1980.
11. Nocturnal Emissions / Never Give Up 4:53
From Songs of Love and Revolution (1985)
Music and voice by Caroline K.
Lyrics and voice by Nigel Ayers
12. Nocturnal Emissions / Golgotha 07:23
From Omphalos! (1998)
Decomposed and disarranged by Nigel Ayers.
13. Nigel Ayers / A Small Rectangle 02:42
From Excavations in Substation (2024)
Words and music by Nigel Ayers
Mesmerising album of Yokota’s earliest sonic explorations that demonstrates his unique vision and sublime transcendence of boundaries.
‘Image 1983-1998’ is a collection of short miniatures, composed in two different time periods. Tracks 1-5 were recorded with guitar and organ between 1983-4 and tracks 6-12 were composed through 97-98, being inspired by the earlier material.
A musical scrapbook, or sonic design board. The sleeve notes give an insight into Yokota’s belief in a close connection between music, memory and his active imagination: ‘Encountering Acid House made me visualise music – I could clearly see the sounds sparkling… this experience led me to create electronic music.’
Sakura is without doubt the most loved and lauded entry in Susumu Yokota’s catalogue.
The music unravels like cascades of petals falling from the eponymous cherry blossom trees. Yokota intended to ‘express ki-do-ai-raku (the four emotions; joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness) through music’, and throughout Sakura, the effect fluctuates between profound tranquillity, hesitation, melancholy and joy with ease, addressing the fickle nature of human emotion, while transcending the inclination to label moods entirely.
Sakura became Yokota’s best selling album. It was greeted with universal acclaim, lauded by Philip Glass and Brian Eno and launched Yokota internationally.
‘A bittersweet beauty, heightened by the sadness that all things must one day end.’ - Martyn Pepperell
For the inaugural release on Quadrant Park, SDEM delivers a live recording with a twist: this set was recorded in early 2024 in a single take to an audience of one, at a now abandoned empty club space beneath a railway arch in Leeds.
Following a series of physical and digital releases culminating with Vortices in 2023, SDEM has focused on continuous upgrades to a mutating live set, sporadically performed, for example, alongside the Autechre and Gescom axes. In the phase documented here, the set draws deeply from turntable-era early hip hop and 80s drum machine architecture, resulting in a landscape of tactile slippage: rhythms gripping and releasing, gestural scrubs and stabs, scratching meets musique concrète. Interlocking parts snap in and out of alignment, before recombining on the fly – kinetic, raw, and precise.
The SDEM approach is marked by Tom Knapp’s sculptural take on sound design, rhythm and texture – ranging from dystopic ambient passages to pixelated, sub-heavy beats. A member of the Skam circle of atavistic beat freaks since the late 90s, Knapp’s sound is that of hyperattentive electronica buried under soil and left to decay (or ferment). What emerges is somehow both ruthlessly futuristic and redolent of decrepit antique engineering.
At Quadrant Park is presented in an edition of 500 compact discs with artwork by Robert Beatty unique to every individual copy. In a warped reflection of the recording circumstances, each copy forms one distinct frame of a short film never to be viewed in its totality.
Liner notes are provided by the sole witness to the recording, long-standing SDEM co-conspirator Ed Martin, aka edv3ctor, while audio was mastered by the ears that matter, frozen reeds mainstay Jim O’Rourke.
After a critically praised debut in 2023 and numerous tours across Europe, Yalla Miku returns with “2”, a new record that further asserts their unique identity. Still based in Geneva, the band moves forward with a reimagined lineup — not as a departure, but as the natural continuation of a project envisioned from the start as a space for encounters, movement, and musical reinvention.
Blending post-kraut grooves, mutant folklore and electronic trance, Yalla Miku continues to spark dialogue between traditions from the Horn of Africa and the most unrestrained experiments of Geneva’s underground. The krar riffs of Samuel Ades Tesfagergsh, the sculptural bass of Louise Knobil, the taut percussion of Cyril Bondi, the raw electronics of Emma Souharce, and Cyril Yeterian’s modified banjo weave a dense, collective sonic fabric, full of sharp turns and rhythmic surges.
There’s no smooth fusion here, nor any fixed folklore: “2” is an interplanetary journey where multiple voices overlap, clash or complement each other. It’s a music of otherness, built as a shared space where each texture keeps its own roughness.
With this second album, Yalla Miku digs deeper into its sound: raw, militant, unclassifiable — for curious ears and open hearts.
Award-winning composer and producer Sarathy Korwar to release new album celebrating the melodic power of the drum ensemble Sarathy Korwar, genre-breaking drummer, producer and composer, announces the release of his seventh album, There Is Beauty, There Already, out on Otherland on 7th November 2025. Celebrating the melodic power of the drum ensemble, the album follows his 2022 Indofuturist manifesto KALAK with a deeply immersive longform suite of percussion-led compositions. Playing as a 40-minute suite of hypnotic and transcendent drum improvisations, the album beats through a repetitive, circular structure that brings to mind Indian folk music, jazz drum ensembles like Max Roach’s M’Boom and the contemporary classical minimalism of Terry Riley and Steve Reich. From the undulating bass tones of the tabla to the tonal varieties of South Indian clay pot ghatam, the snare drum snap of the drum kit, and shades of electronic texture through the Buchla Easel, Korwar’s ensemble bubbles and flows through a stream of steady rhythm, forever in motion like the ceaseless energy of a river.
“The album is me finding my voice as a composer again and going back to the thing I know best, which is the drums,” Korwar says. “It’s me falling back in love with percussion and expressing just how melodic and emotive it can be. Unlike my other albums that have often engaged with weighty themes like migration, identity and futurism, this is a raw act of placing myself front and centre – letting the drums speak instead.”
Written and recorded over four days at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, Korwar is joined by drummers Photay, Magnus Mehta, and Joost Hendrickx. Setting up an array of drums in the live room – from drum kit to tabla, marimba, balafon, udu and ghatam – Korwar gave himself and his instrumentalists free reign to flow through and play whatever complimented their ever-developing music, while triggered attachments to synthesisers and the Buchla Easel added unexpected elements of electronic texture. "By day three, we realised that we kept coming back to this single, repeated 40-minute pattern, which was locking us in and making us hypnotised by its rhythm," Korwar says. "I decided to do multiple takes of that idea to build a structure – and that’s what you ultimately hear on the record." A riposte to our flitting attention spans, the album is designed to be played from start to finish as a singular, longform suite of music, evoking a constant sense of motion and intent. Drawing on the idea of repetition to the point of going beyond monotony and into the unknown – like a word repeated so many times it loses meaning – the record becomes a remarkable exploration of rhythm as trance and transformation. Exploding onto the international jazz scene with his 2016 Ninja Tune debut Day to Day, Korwar has released four albums exploring everything from the folk music of the Indian Sidi community to hip-hop, electronics, contemporary jazz and Indian classical music. He won the 2020 AIM Award for Best Independent Album and MOJO’s Jazz Album of the Year for 2019’s spoken word-influenced More Arriving, as well as being nominated at the Jazz FM and Worldwide Awards and in 2023 won the Songlines Award for Best Album (Asia/Pacific) with KALAK.
As a musician and producer, meanwhile, he has collaborated with Shabaka Hutchings and producer Hieroglyphic Being on 2017’s A.R.E. Project, as well as releasing a collaborative album with Auntie Flo in 2022, and forming jazz supergroup FLOCK with Bex Burch, Tamar Osborn, Danalogue and Al MacSween. He is also currently a member of sitarist Anoushka Shankar’s band and produced and co-wrote her 2025 album, Chapter III: Return to Light. Almost a decade on from his debut, There Is Beauty, There Already sees Korwar producing some of his most personal and vulnerable work to date. From the album cover – a grid of self-portraits taken at his local Co-Op checkout over the past five years, “a ritual story of my life in images” – to an accompanying, self-written poem reflecting on beauty, the record marks a new direction. It also signals the launch of Korwar’s own label, Otherland. “It’s a home for my own future music and music from others that doesn’t tick many boxes – that doesn’t have a motherland or fatherland of its own," he says. "It’s about embracing this music as it is, finding the beauty in it and recognising it, just as the album title says." The album will launch with an exclusive show at The ICA on 15 November 2025 as part of the London Jazz Festival, where Korwar will expand his ensemble to a dozen drummers, guiding live improvisations through the record’s percussive textures from start to finish. There Is Beauty, There Already is released on Otherland on 7th November 2025, distributed worldwide by !K7.
Strut present the first international release in over 30 years by legendary Afro-jazz group Oneness Of Juju with their new album Made Through Ritual on 4th July 2025.
In 1975, the late DJ / producer and jazz distributor Jimmy Gray and James “Plunky” Branch joined a musical revolution, founding Black Fire Records and releasing the label’s debut album, the classic African Rhythms by Oneness of Juju. This July, Plunky brings this important musical relationship full circle with Made Through Ritual, produced by Plunky’s son Jamiah “Fire” Branch and Jimmy’s son Jamal Gray. The album takes a novel approach to beat culture. Working from demos created by Jamal using a selection of original jazz samples, Plunky took the tracks, replayed and re-interpreted the arrangements using live musicians. “The album explores the art of deconstruction and reconstruction in music - sampling, sequencing, and live improvisation merge with multi-track recording to craft intricate harmonies and arrangements,” explains Plunky. “The process became a ritualistic expression of creativity and transformation.” The resulting album is a fascinating listen. Opening with the meditative soul chant ‘Share This Love’ voiced by regular Oneness vocalist Charlayne “Chyp” Green,
the album opens out into a series of jazz vignettes including the title track, ‘In Due Time’ and ‘Free Spirit’. The powerful album closer, ‘Children Of The Drum’ celebrates black culture and legacy through the poetry of Roscoe Burnem. Released on 1LP and 1CD with specially commissioned cover artwork by contemporary Ivorian artist Maxime Manga, Made Through Ritual represents an important new chapter in the Oneness story.
"Yasoka" (Night Song) by Suishou No Fune is a live recording captured late at night in Beijing’s UFO Space in August 2024. The album features five deeply atmospheric tracks blending psychedelic improvisation with ethereal vocals and guitar. A haunting meditation on night, memory, and emotional resonance.
"UNDERGROUND SPIRIT 20 – Faraway Thunder" is a live recording by Suishou No Fune featuring drummer Koji Shimura, captured in Tokyo in May 2025. The album blends psychedelic rock and free improvisation in a deeply emotional tribute to Matt Zaun. Ethereal guitar layers and haunting vocals evoke distant storms and spiritual resonance.
EM Records is proud to present “8 Automated Works”, the first full release by Componium Ensemble, an “indeterminate chamber music” ensemble helmed by Spencer Doran of Visible Cloaks. Situated in a lineage of automated music that traces back to the ancient Greeks, Doran uses the possibilities of digital technology and its ability to automate a huge range of virtual instruments to move beyond human impulses and limitations to allow “new shapes to emerge”. Dedicated also to Noah Creshevsky, pioneer of what can be considered cyber-human music, Componium Ensemble features a wide and intriguing range of instruments including prepared piano, bowed harpsichord, celesta, bass clarinet, flute, cello, bamboo tingklik and more, often in multiple groupings. Despite this variety of instrumentation and the seemingly formidable theoretical underpinnings, the music is very accessible and attractive, spaciousand fresh, with a light touch and a sophisticated melodic sense which will appeal to pop fans as well as classical/contemporary music listeners. The album is mixed by longtime collaborator Joe Williams (Motion Graphics, Lifted) and available in 10-inch vinyl, CD and Digital formats, with EN/JP liner notes by Doran and a hyper-realistic cover by Japanese visual artist/graphic designer Kai Yoshizawa, using 3DCG software. The CD and Digital formats also feature a Carl Stone remix bonus track.
“The history of automated instruments reaches back as far as Archimedes and his "organum hydraulicum”, but it was the Banū Mūsā brothers in 9th-century Baghdad who first perfected the concept of a programmable, automated musician: a mechanically controlled flute which performed using a cistern’s hydraulic water pressure and a system of arrangeable punchcards using a visionary proto-MIDI structure. As European clock-making and mechanical music caught up to the Islamic Golden Age a millennium later, automated instruments intersected with aleatoric composition in Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel’s “self composing” Componium, a mechanical organ with two irregularly-shifting barrels that is said to have been able to arrange upwards of 55 trillion variations of an 80 bar piece divided into alternating 2 bar sections of pins. It is this intersection of chance systems and musical automatons that forms the terrain for the pieces on this release.
These basic principles remain unchanged in the contemporary virtual studio, but the array of automatable instruments within our software systems has widened to a near-unfathomable degree (not to mention the speed and ease in which they can be summoned). Virtual players can be manipulated by far deeper aleatoric processes of note randomization, tempos modulated by the pseudo-naturalistic values of perlin noise, with even the physical properties of instruments erratically contorted and continuously in flux...” - S. Doran (from the album’s liner notes)
![Sheriff Lindo And The Hammer - Ten Dubs That Shook The World [2025 Edition] (CD)](http://meditations.jp/cdn/shop/files/a2800642370_10-1_{width}x.jpg?v=1754728985)
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Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this field recording captures the traditional flute music of the Fulani pastoralists in Mali. Recorded on location in 1993, the album features improvised flute performances accompanying herders’ dances and rituals, offering a vivid glimpse into the musical expressions of Fulani cultural life.
Released by VDE/Gallo, a long-established label based near Lausanne, Switzerland, this field recording from 1986 captures the traditional music of the Nande people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). Rooted in rituals surrounding weddings, births, and other communal events, the songs and performances vividly convey the spiritual and social life of the community. A wide variety of indigenous instruments are featured, including mouth bows, flutes, fiddles, harps, and lamellophones.
First in a series of 78 restorations, this one focuses on gagaku & Buddhist chant. Beautiful, lost-in-time recordings -- produced to perfection from one of the world's greats. An extensive anthology of traditional Japanese music was recorded around 1941-1942 by Kokusai Bunka Shinkô-kai: International Organization for the Promotion of Culture. KBS was established under the Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs in 1934 for cultural exchange between Japan and foreign countries. In 1972 it became the Japan Foundation, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. KBS activities ranged from lectures, concerts, artistic and academic exchange, publishing books, photos, to producing films and records, establishing libraries and related cultural facilities abroad, among them this record set of traditional Japanese music. Gagaku ("elegant music") is the oldest surviving musical tradition, with a history of more than 1,300 years. It has been developed and passed down, strongly associated with imperial court cultures. Gagaku in current practice may be divided into three categories, by origin and style; 1) indigenous vocal and dance repertoires, primarily performed in the Shinto ceremonies accompanied by several Japanese indigenous and foreign instruments; 2) foreign instrumental music and dances, tôgaku (music of Chinese origin) and komagaku (music of Korean origin) used in various court, Buddhist, and Shinto ceremonies, which consist of various instruments brought from the Asian continent; and 3) vocalized Japanese or Chinese poetry, saibara and rôei established in 9th century Japan, mainly enjoyed by high-ranking noblemen in rather informal court ceremonies. In the words of World Arbiter's Allan Evans: "Current gagaku sounds brittle, easily cracked, very delicate. And in 1941 they used fewer performers but have a solidity, a weight. They were carrying on a tradition that was part of an immortal empire, a vision of permanence. Four years later it was over." In 1942, a set of sixty 78 rpm discs documenting the most authentic traditions in Japanese music was privately issued. Due to the war and neglect, few copies survive. This disc marks the beginning of its restoration.
The World Arbiter label presents 1941 recordings of the Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai -- masters of the koto and shamisen, heard with excerpts from theater and songs performed by many artists born in the Meiji period. They represent the earliest examples of ancient classical traditions. In the late 1930s, Japanese musicologists and experts completed years of work on a project to record their country's musical cultures, starting with ritualized shamanic traditions of the palace's gagaku, Buddhist chant, Noh theater, blind lute (biwa) players chanting medieval epics, a body of koto music, shamisens of kabuki dances, folk songs of workers, artisans, farmers, and children's songs. Five volumes, each with 12 78 rpm discs, comprised the leading performers of the time, many born into a Japan that newly opened to the West in 1868, taught by masters of an earlier isolated Japan. These recordings were meant to be given only to educational institutions and not sold. Right before starting their distribution, war broke out in 1941. Beate Sirota Gordon, age 22, accompanied the U.S. Army to Japan in 1946. She had grown up in Tokyo with her parents, Russian pianists whose pupils included Yoko Ono and her father. Beate secretly wrote a pioneering section on women's rights in Japan's post-war Constitution. During her mission, Donald Ritchie, a noted film historian, discovered a set of these recordings and gave them to her. Gordon presented them to Arbiter in the late 1990s. Aside from her copy, only one other complete set is known to have survived the war in Japan, as they were possibly destroyed in a warehouse bombing. The people of post-war Japan and the rest of the world now have the chance to hear these lost recordings of Japan's broad cultural legacy. On these recordings, one is struck by a sense of eternity belonging to a culture living in a mind-set of immortality and permanence, an ease buoying virtuosity and intricate musical forms, revealing a gripping authenticity that later performers hint at. This third of five discs contains significant examples of the koto and shamisen literature, dances from Kabuki and puppet theater traditions, many originating in the 1700s. Full descriptions are included in a lengthy booklet, while complete translations are on Arbiter's web site. Arbiter loves Japan and its arts, and is honored to revive lost master performers.
Miyazake collaborator Joe Hisaishi's accompaniment to 1993 crime thriller 'Sonatine' is another lovingly repackaged oddity from the WRWTFWW stable; one of Hisaishi's personal favorites, it's an eccentric, vividly colored mash-up of global percussion, Tangerine Dream-style cosmic minimalism and earworm piano themes.
Hisaishi isn't the first person we'd think of if we were directing a gangster film, but we're not Takeshi Kitano. The award-winning pianist and composer has penned over 100 scores, and is best known for his work with Hayao Miyazaki, having worked on all but one of his films, but he also nurtured a close relationship with Kitano, scoring 'Kids Return', 'Hana-bi' and 'Dolls', among others. 'Sonatine' is one of Kitano's most acclaimed films, and follows an aging yakuza (played by Kitano) who expressionlessly contemplates his decisions as his time ticks away. Somehow, Hisaishi takes this prompt as an opportunity to work in technicolor, juxtaposing his expectedly jaunty motifs with plasticky fanfares, Midori Takada-style marimba sequences, hand drum workouts and wyrd library psych detours.
We don't fully remember how the soundtrack meshed with the visuals (it's been a while), but as a stand-alone, Hisaishi's bizarre suite of cues works remarkably well. 'Sonatine' arrived over a decade after 'MKWAJU', his outstanding African-inspired collaboration with Takada, and his new age/kosmische-slanted solo album 'Information', and there are traces of each to be found here. Centerpiece track 'Into A Trance' might lack the Prophet 5-powered bite of 'Information', but its Reich-to-YMO electroid minimalism echoes the themes, and 'Eye Witness', a wonky ethno-scrunch of sitar drones, hollow reversed percussive thumps, shamisen plucks and sampled vocal stings is a tongue-in-cheek extension of Hisaishi and Takada's high-minded concepts.
Elsewhere, Hisaishi tries his hand at tabla-tinted Hammond psych on 'Mobius Band', and deploys a Miyazake-ready solo piano heart-melter with 'Light and Darkness'.
Vanligt Folk unleashes their most daring work yet with Dischorealism, a wild mix of crabby 2-step rhythms, echoing yowls, and noisy club shapes. Following their 2017 release Palle Bondo, the Swedish trio continue to blur the lines between noise, club, and outsider pop, crafting a sound unlike any other.
This time, they focus on tight, groove-driven beats, while maintaining their signature weirdness with gravelly dub-noise textures, twisted hooks, and unsettling, possessed vocals. Exploring themes of friendship, sex, violence, and drug abuse, Dischorealism takes an impressionistic approach, leaving ideas open to interpretation and creating an eerie atmosphere that works on both the dancefloor and in more intimate settings.
With over a dozen tracks in 42 minutes, the album pulls from a range of influences—from fellow Scandinavians SHXCXCHCXSH to the dissonant, lo-fi worlds of V/Vm and Börft—but remains unmistakably Vanligt Folk. Highlights include the blunted 2-step of ‘DISKDASKO’, the acid-tinged ‘ÜNG GÜD’, and the peculiar odd-pop textures of ‘TJUF’. It’s an album that keeps you guessing, always on the edge of something strange.
Strut presents Mulatu Plays Mulatu, the first major studio album in over 10 years from the father of Ethio-jazz, Mulatu Astatke.
Featuring masterful new arrangements of some of his classic compositions, Mulatu Plays Mulatu finds Mulatu revisiting the sounds that helped to change the face of Ethiopian music during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The album was recorded between London and Addis Ababa, working with his long-standing UK band, a tight, intuitive ensemble honed through years of live performance, alongside cultural musicians resident at his Jazz Village club in Addis.
Mulatu Plays Mulatu realises Mulatu’s long-term vision of Ethio-jazz, intricately balancing Western jazz arrangements with the rich sounds of traditional Ethiopian instruments including the krar, masenqo, washint, kebero and begena. Throughout the album, he reshapes familiar material with rich textures, expanded improvisations and a deepened rhythmic complexity, creating a body of work that feels as vital and contemporary as it does steeped in tradition. Familiar compositions like ‘Yekermo Sew’, ‘Netsanet’ and the celebratory ‘Kulun’ are reinvented here as elegant big band performances.
“Ethio-jazz brings us together and makes us one,” explains Mulatu. “This album is the culmination of my work bringing this music to the world and pays respect to our unsung heroes, the original musical scientists in Ethiopia who gave us our cultural music.”
Bridging continents and generations throughout his 50-year career, Astatke now offers us an invitation to hear his music again, with a completely fresh perspective. Ethio-jazz, like its creator, is always in motion.
Mulatu Plays Mulatu was produced by Dexter Story and features contemporary artists LA-based artists Carlos Niño and Kibrom Birhane. The album was recorded and mixed by Isabel Gracefield at RAK Studios in London and by Dexter Story in Addis. The inspired album artwork was created by acclaimed Oslo-based Ethiopian artist, Wendimagegn Belete with photography by Alexis Maryon.
The official soundtrack to Jean-Cosme Delaloye's documentary about the life and career of Detroit techno pioneer Carl Craig, 'Desire: The Carl Craig Story' is set for digital release on June 20th 2025, with 2x12” Vinyl and CD editions to follow on July 18th 2025.
The collection, coming via his prolific and seminal Planet E Communications, features music from across Craig’s vast catalog, including several tracks that have never previously seen full digital release. Its selections span his many aliases and projects, offering a rare glimpse into the full scope of his groundbreaking career.
Among the rare and remastered tracks featured is No More Words - originally released in 1991, newly reissued on vinyl and available digitally for the first time. A foundational track in the Detroit techno canon, No More Words captures the emotive synths and tight grooves of Craig’s sound that would soon resonate across dance floors worldwide. Its reissue marks a moment of reflection on the genre’s roots and evolution.
Another remastered track from Craig’s extensive archive is The Truth, a deep cut from Craig’s discography under his Designer Music alias, now widely available for the first time a quarter-century after its original release. The film’s end credits are scored by the contemplative Meditation 4, an ambient production previously only available on Craig's 2013 Masterpiece compilation CD for Ministry of Sound.
Iconic remixes such as his Grammy-nominated rework of Junior Boys’ Like A Child is included alongside lesser-known but equally epic remixes such as his sublime 2012 mix of Slam’s Azure, which is employed for the film’s title credits and had previously only seen a limited release. Also featured across the soundtrack’s multiple formats are iconic Carl Craig productions under his 69, Psyche/BFC and Innerzone Orchestra aliases, and collaborations with Moritz von Oswald and Francesco Tristano.
The soundtrack serves as a companion to the new documentary directed by Jean-Cosme Delaloye and produced by Sovereign Films, which follows Carl’s journey from Detroit’s middle-class roots to global stardom, set against the city’s decline and recovery. The film explores his work at the intersection of music, art, and culture, from his collaborations with Bottega Veneta to his Party/After-Party installation, acquired by the Detroit Institute of Arts and exhibited at MOCA Los Angeles.
Featuring interviews with Gilles Peterson, Roni Size, Laurent Garnier, DJ Minx, Kenny Larkin, Moritz von Oswald, and James Lavelle, Desire highlights Carl’s championing of Detroit’s Black creative excellence and the often-overlooked African-American roots of electronic music.