NEW ARRIVALS

A landmark work released in 1995 on the UK label RetroAfric by Sikamo Jazz, a super‑group formed in 1993 when veteran masters reunited to create new music together.

A two‑disc anthology that looks back on the prime years of Laba Sossé, a singer remembered in West African music history as a symbol of the deep connection between local traditions and Cuban music.

A two‑disc compilation that assembles Afro‑Latin music which blossomed in Cotonou, the largest city in the Republic of Benin, during the 1960s and 1970s.

A two‑disc compilation bringing together Afro‑Latin music that developed in Conakry, the capital of the Republic of Guinea, during the 1960s and 1970s.

A collection of field recordings made during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s across Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee, featuring hymns, speeches, spirituals, and gospel songs.

The new album dad bb marks Hajime Tachibana’s first solo release in 13 years since his 2013 USB album MONACO, and stands as his tenth solo album.

The terms “nursery rhymes” and “children’s songs” may give rise to visions of idyllic innocence and the charms of childhood, but "Play Nursery Rhymes and Children's Songs" by Tokiyo Ooto & Orhythmo, their first release on EM Records, brings forth quite different aural imagery: this is an eerie and unsettling sonic picture book which hints at the darkness and mystery which form the hidden heart of many traditional songs and rhymes. The length of the songs provides a hint: each piece delves deeply into the latent uncanniness of the music, with superficial innocence gradually displaced as electric guitar, bass, field recordings and concrete sounds draw the listener into a chilly forest, while Tokiyo Ooto’s voice croons dark “lullabies for adults,” blending elements of folk, slowcore and dream pop. The Tokiyo Ooto & Orhythmo duo formed in 2023, releasing their first album in 2024. This release updates two pieces from the first album, and also includes a traditional Japanese children’s song from Shiga Prefecture and a masterpiece for children by composer Yasushi Akutagawa. Both musicians are Osaka-based: Otoo is a guitarist and singer-songwriter who also works in band and solo contexts; Orhythmo is a bassist with hardcore punk roots who focuses on improvisation, drone, noise and ambient sound. This release is available on CD, vinyl and DL; physical versions feature a printed insert with Japanese and English lyrics. The evocative cover is by Yoshitomo Ano.

The terms “nursery rhymes” and “children’s songs” may give rise to visions of idyllic innocence and the charms of childhood, but "Play Nursery Rhymes and Children's Songs" by Tokiyo Ooto & Orhythmo, their first release on EM Records, brings forth quite different aural imagery: this is an eerie and unsettling sonic picture book which hints at the darkness and mystery which form the hidden heart of many traditional songs and rhymes. The length of the songs provides a hint: each piece delves deeply into the latent uncanniness of the music, with superficial innocence gradually displaced as electric guitar, bass, field recordings and concrete sounds draw the listener into a chilly forest, while Tokiyo Ooto’s voice croons dark “lullabies for adults,” blending elements of folk, slowcore and dream pop. The Tokiyo Ooto & Orhythmo duo formed in 2023, releasing their first album in 2024. This release updates two pieces from the first album, and also includes a traditional Japanese children’s song from Shiga Prefecture and a masterpiece for children by composer Yasushi Akutagawa. Both musicians are Osaka-based: Otoo is a guitarist and singer-songwriter who also works in band and solo contexts; Orhythmo is a bassist with hardcore punk roots who focuses on improvisation, drone, noise and ambient sound. This release is available on CD, vinyl and DL; physical versions feature a printed insert with Japanese and English lyrics. The evocative cover is by Yoshitomo Ano.

A work of genuinely monumental proportions. Jean-Claude Eloy's Gaku-No-Michi - subtitled "Tao of Music" or "Ways of Music" - stands among the towering achievements of 20th Century electroacoustic practice. Produced at the electronic music studio of NHK Radio in Tokyo between 1977 and 1978, its four hours of concrete and electronic sound unfold as what the composer called "a film without images" - an immense, spiraling architecture of sonic transformation that remains, nearly five decades on, as radical and absorbing as the day it was conceived. Born in Paris in 1938, Eloy belonged to the great second wave of post-war European composers. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur, winning First Prizes in Piano, Chamber Music, Counterpoint, and Ondes Martenot, and worked on composition with Darius Milhaud. Summer courses at Darmstadt brought encounters with Messiaen, Boulez, and Stockhausen; he then entered Boulez's master class at the Music Academy in Basel. Yet Eloy was never content to remain within the European serialist orbit. A professorship at the University of California, Berkeley during the late 1960s opened his ears to Eastern aesthetics - to the vast, unhurried perception of time in Asian musical traditions. From that point forward, his trajectory diverged sharply from his contemporaries, carrying him toward India, Japan, and a singular practice in which the boundaries between Occident and Orient dissolved into sound itself. After the 135-minute electronic meditation of Shânti (1972-74), realized in Cologne, Eloy traveled to Tokyo. There, working inside the NHK Denshi Ongaku Studio, he produced Gaku-No-Michi - a composition of staggering ambition, structured in four linked parts. The first, "Tokyo", draws on the raw acoustic fabric of the city - subway announcements, factory hum, political speeches broadcast from loudspeakers in public squares - and subjects it to a slow, spiraling metamorphosis, pulling the concrete toward the abstract. "Fushiki-e", the longest section at nearly 80 minutes, reverses the trajectory: electronically generated material absorbs fragments of Gagaku court music, Nô theater, and Shômyô Buddhist chant, drifting toward a sustained "sound of immobilization" - an immense organ point of contemplative stillness. "Banbutsu no Ryûdô" works an endlessly metamorphosing weft of daily and extraordinary sound, where a nationalistic speech dissolves into the buzzing of insects, where the hollow strike of a bamboo Shishi Odoshi against stone emerges only after long electronic transformation. "Kaiso", the final movement, condenses reminiscences of all that preceded, built around the annual commemorative ceremony of Hiroshima, leading through gravity and lament toward an infinitely sustained tone of peace. What distinguishes Gaku-No-Michi from so much electroacoustic work of its era is the sheer physical presence of its sound world. Eloy does not merely manipulate material - he inhabits it. The timbral palette is extraordinarily rich: electronically fabricated Tibetan bells more haunting than their acoustic counterparts, iridescent spirals that diffract into divergent lines before converging into vast harmonic masses, crackling meteorite trails, low-pitched resonances swept by winds both violent and majestic. The experience of duration is central to the work's design. Four hours is not a provocation but a necessity - the time required for the listener's perception to shift, for ordinary awareness of passing minutes to give way to something closer to immersion, to what Eloy described as a "psychophysical acoustic" encounter with sound. This 4CD set on Hors Territories represents the first complete publication of the work in its digitalized and revised version, dedicated to the memory of Wataru Uenami. Packaged in a 10-panel digipak with a 16-page booklet in French and English, it is an essential document - not only for admirers of Eloy, but for anyone drawn to the outer reaches of what composed sound can achieve. A bridge between worlds, between concrete and abstract, between the noise of the living city and the stillness at the heart of contemplation. CD 1: “Pachinko” introduces “Tokyo” in a deliberately stiff, regular, almost mechanical and untranscended way while the big spiral of long successive waves, which further develops through Tokyo, becomes more and more varied in its material ending in the surpassing and searched-for transubstantiation taking place throughout the fi nal part. CD 2: The second disc, “Fushiki-e”, takes us (through varied, complex, contrasted and sometimes violent sound episodes) towards the four “stages of contemplation” including the last one, “Mokuso”, which represents the ultimate stage of the contemplative. It is the longest part of the whole piece, lasting almost 80 minutes. CD 3: “Banbutsu no Ryûdô” is a boundless continuous “weft” travelling so to say through all sorts of daily or exceptional « sound scenes » continually metamorphosing, going from political speeches to a Shishi Odoshi, transformed for a long time well before its pure, direct appearance. CD 4: “Kaiso “ is a moment of gravity innervated and built around the annual commemorative ceremony of Hiroshima, which however leads us beyond the evoked drama to a place of surpassing with peace through the « Han » sound, extending the work to infinity…”

Packaged in a 6 panel digipak. Includes a 16 page booklet in French & English. A massive, four side-long drone-epic masterpiece “Shânti” (1972-73) for electronic and concrete sounds, in a spectacular double CD digipack issue. A hundred-and-thirty-five minute piece of "meditation music" for a four-track magnetic tape by Jean-Claude Eloy, produced in the Electronic Studio of the Radio of Cologne “The term “meditation music” triggered many conflicting comments including positive ones (“... let us say that Shanti belongs to those very rare works that change you after listening to them. You are not exactly the same before and after.” - Gerard Mannoni, Le Quotidien de Paris, 1974). Others, wondering at the strong sound presence of the piece, consider such aspect as hardly helpful to their own meditation... Let us be clear: “what meditates” here (”that” who meditates) is the composer. He is the one who takes you on his journey and guides you through his work like in a classic or romantic symphony. As a listener you are invited to follow “his” meditation... The composition is the meditation.”

Modern Obscure Music presents The Bubble of Love, a new collaborative album by Pedro Vian together with Ustad Nawab Khan and Naved Nawab Khan — the 9th and 10th generation of a distinguished santoor lineage from Rajasthan, India. Recorded during an intense week of sessions at Pedro Vian’s studio in Barcelona, the album captures a rare and concentrated encounter between traditions, generations, and sonic languages. Ustad Nawab Khan, a 9th-generation master of the santoor and founder of Raaga Science, has devoted his life to exploring the emotional and psychological dimensions of Indian raaga music. His philosophy, “Raag se Ras utpan” — the creation of emotional states through specific raagas — forms a conceptual backbone for the project. Carrying the lineage forward, Naved Nawab Khan represents the 10th generation, bringing a contemporary global awareness while remaining deeply rooted in classical tradition. The Bubble of Love unfolds through four meditations that create a dialogue between ancient tonal systems and modern electronic exploration. In three of the four pieces, the chromatic subtleties and traditional scales of the santoor intertwine with Pedro Vian’s unexpected synthesizers and electronic textures. These compositions form a bridge between Occidental and Oriental musical worlds, where resonance becomes a shared language. In the fourth and final meditation, the collaboration shifts toward a more experimental dimension. While maintaining the same instrumental foundation — santoor and electronics — Pedro Vian explores alternative notes and scale structures, expanding the harmonic field. This movement reflects both understanding and incomprehension, alignment and tension between cultures. Rather than resolving differences, the music inhabits them, transforming contrast into a space of discovery. Released on Modern Obscure Music, The Bubble of Love is not merely a fusion record. It is a concentrated meeting point — lineage and futurism, discipline and experimentation — crystallized in a week of deep listening and creative exchange within an intimate studio environment. At moments, the record subtly echoes earlier attempts to translate ancient traditions through emerging technologies. It recalls the spirit of experimentation found in projects where Moog synthesis sought to interpret the tonal worlds of classical instruments — from the dialogues between Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass, to the exploratory journeys of Ariel Kalma, whose music continues to resonate powerfully in the very walls where this album was recorded. In this broader historical context, The Bubble of Love also resonates with the pioneering electronic explorations documented in The NID Tapes — the collection of early Indian electronic works recorded between 1969 and 1972 at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. Founded with the support of composer David Tudor, who installed a Moog modular system in 1969, the NID studio became a radical space of post-independence experimentation, where composers such as Gita Sarabhai, I.S. Mathur, Atul Desai, S.C. Sharma and Jinraj Joshipura explored analogue synthesis, tape collage, voice and field recording — forging a meeting point between Western and Indian avant-garde traditions. Uncovered and restored through the long-term research of British artist Paul Purgas, and later presented alongside the publication Subcontinental Synthesis: Electronic Music at the National Institute of Design, India 1969–1972, The NID Tapes revealed a visionary chapter in South Asia’s sonic imagination — one where electronic instruments did not replace tradition, but refracted it into new forms. While separated by decades and geography, The Bubble of Love inhabits a similar philosophical terrain: not the fusion of opposites, but the coexistence of lineages — where electronic sound becomes not an imposition, but a listening device. A way of approaching tradition with curiosity rather than control. In this sense, the album stands both as a continuation and a renewal — a contemporary meditation on the enduring dialogue between heritage and experimentation, between memory and future sound.

Swiss unarchivers WRWTFWW give vinyl wings to a cult, 1999 Japan suite of jazz-spurred techno and shine-eyed electronica balanced between Warp’s AI comps and A.R.T.’s future jazz styles A lot of Japan-o-philes will be made-up to see this one on wax after more than a quarter century as a CD only curio and, since ’22, on download formats. All the material is duly given room to breath over 2LP, spinning the ‘Bug in the Bassbin’-era Carl Craig vibes of Missing Project’s ‘Poisson D’avril (Da’ Future Given a Deep Soul Mix)’, thru it soaring ‘Galaxy Dub’, via chunky house wigglers from Virgo, a slow-rolling groove by Tensor, early Black Dog feels in Penance’s ‘Cure of Soul (Fossil Mix), and low-slung trip by Led-M.

Hi-energy electronic dance music from Northern Ghana, created by farmers turned musicians working out of DIY rural studios. Relentless percussion, trance loops, heavy autotune and slinky VST synths. Sourced from locally-released VCDs circulating the markets of Dagbon and entirely unavailable outside the region until now. Studio Simpa collects tracks from the past decade of the neo-traditional Dagomba dance genre, modernized traditional percussion dance - produced by Mohamed “Ebony” Fuseini, recording drums on his phone and recreating the sound of traditional music via FL Studio. Collaborating with “Gawani”, flashy singers from the surrounding villages and local VCD producers, Ebony created hyper-electronic versions of simpa for the local video market, complete with suggestive videos of women shaking their hips - light cultural transgression in the predominantly Muslim Dagomba North. The compilation showcases the top artists of the scene - Dickson Gawani, Bala Zaaku, Yaa Naara and others - across a range of style and subject, from political commentary to warrior clan rhythms. Includes extensive liner notes by Morgan Greenstreet with artist interviews, cultural history, and song translations.

Electronic lullabies and folk songs from Ethiopia! A landmark recording from Ethiopia’s vibrant cassette era of the 1980s, Resonance of Time features pioneering composer Wesenyeleh Mebreku reimagining Ethiopian folk melodies through the humble circuitry of an early Casiotone keyboard. Historically, the works featured on Resonance of Time (የጊዜ ቃና Yegizie Kana) stand as quiet documents of Ethiopian musical memory. Many of the original songs included in this release emerged during important moments in Ethiopian history when music carried the collective emotion of the nation - love, loss, resistance, dignity, and hope. By arranging these pieces from Ethiopia’s musical heritage instrumentally, Wesenyeleh Mebreku aimed to preserve their essence while protecting them from being confined to a single era or performance style. In doing so, his preservation of Ethiopia’s musical heritage became a contribution to his country’s musical legacy itself, as Resonance of Time serves as an important musical milestone of this composer’s innovative recordings and musical developments in the prolific era of Ethiopia’s 1980s cassette tape culture. On Resonance of Time, Wesenyeleh made use of the first Casio electronic keyboard - the Casiotone CT-201 - to arrange and perform Ethiopian folk songs in his own unique style. Implementing the soulful, lo-fi character of the keyboard, Wesenyeleh’s interpretations of these works take on a life of their own. Charming analog tones interpret swirling sounds of organ and piano in kignit modality to the beat of a nostalgic rhythm machine while twinkling synthesizer sounds carry the melodies drifting out of time. The recordings reflect a watershed moment in Ethiopian musical history - when traditional melodies started being interpreted on electronic keyboards, and the advent of cassette tape recording allowed for music to be transmitted more accessibly than centuries-old oral traditions. During this time, Ethiopian musical modes were syncretized with new technology and budding musical experimentation, and Wesenyeleh’s interpretations on Resonance of Time are a landmark recording of this era, following in the tradition of reflecting upon and re-interpreting historical Ethiopian music for a new generation. Featured on the release are timeless Amharic folk songs and lullabies, Tigrinya love songs, Gurage and Oromifa popular songs, and even works closely associated with performers from Ethiopia’s 1970s popular music era such as “Tiz Alegne Yetintu” (ትዝ አለኝ የጥንቱ) which was famously performed by Tilahun Gessesse. Each piece, thoughtfully chosen by Wesenyeleh, is beautifully transformed into instrumental music of his own style - allowing these worlds of song to echo into the future while they are synthesized with the electronic innovations of the 1980s and Wesenyeleh’s own musical history. Wesenyeleh says this about his musical approach - ”Instrumental music, for me, is a space of reflection. Without words, the listener is invited to remember, imagine, and feel freely. In Resonance of Time, I hear my own musical philosophy: respect for Ethiopian kignit, careful dialogue with Western harmony, and a deep trust in melody as a storyteller.” Each piece performed on Resonance of Time speaks to a time when Ethiopian music was shaped by oral transmission through live performance and communal listening. In today’s fast-moving musical environment, revisiting these works is an act of cultural responsibility. These works remind us that melody once traveled slowly, settling deeply in the listener’s heart. The instrumental format allows these works to cross linguistic and generational boundaries, making them accessible to audiences who may not know the original lyrics but can still feel their spirit. Resonance of Time also reflects a broader historical dialogue: the meeting of tradition and adaptation. Ethiopian music has always evolved while holding onto its core identity. These arrangements affirm that evolution does not mean abandonment. Instead, it can be a form of safeguarding - ensuring that the musical wisdom of the past continues to resonate in the present and inspire the future. In this sense, the album is both personal and collective. It carries Wesenyeleh Mebreku’s own musical fingerprint, shaped by decades of practice, but it ultimately belongs to a wider cultural continuum. It is the artist’s contribution to keeping time audible so that memory, history, and sound may continue to speak to one another.

Volume Two of The Spiritual-Sonic Research series features three live concerts by Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group, recorded between 2023 and 2025 in Portland, Oregon. These performances are connected through themes of reverence, ancestral veneration, and African American spiritual technologies. This compilation is meant to uplift, educate, and deepen engagement with these traditions. Many figures mentioned throughout this series deserve further study. This music is intended to support that study and can be used in educational and spiritual settings, such as presentations, sermons, sacred services, ceremonies, intentional listening sessions, book clubs, lectures, educational videos, and more. The first tape, Live at the Hollywood Theatre, was recorded at the Hollywood Theatre on May 25th, 2023. The concert celebrated the release of the self-titled LP Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group, released through Mississippi Records. The evening opened with performances by Angel Bat Dawid and Oui Ennui as DAOUI, with Angel Bat Dawid later joining Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group for a powerful rendition of her song “Black Family.” Songs like “A New World Awaits,” “Future Ancestors / Awaken (Redux),” and “Black Family” explore ideas of Afrofuturism and Afromultidimensionalism. Here Afrofuturism is understood not only through science fiction, cosmic imagery, and futuristic aesthetics, but also through everyday survival and the work of building a future for Black life. It is about preparing for ancestorhood, communicating with ancestors, self-determination, self-governance, and preserving Black family and community. Afrofuturism explored here is both cosmic and practical; it is also spiritual and grounded at the same time. It reaches toward the metaphysical while remaining deeply connected to everyday life, collective survival, and future-building. It asks how we sustain ourselves not only tomorrow, but generations from now. Afromultidimensionalism, a term coined by Roman Norfleet, is explored here as a spiritual system and ancestral technology that allows one to exist in the past, present, and future simultaneously. Through ancestral memory, sound, ritual, and collective consciousness, it becomes possible to be present across worlds and dimensions while remaining rooted in the physical world. Ultimately, it is a practice of seeking communion with the Divine, which in this work is called The Love Supreme. This idea reaches its culmination in the final piece: a chanting rendition of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, offered here as prayer and spiritual invocation. The second tape, Universal Love Revival Service at the IFCC, was recorded on June 1st, 2024, at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, a longstanding cultural and creative hub for Portland’s Black community. Rooted in the tradition of the Black church, this gathering took the form of a revival-style service, honoring African American spiritual traditions developed by enslaved Black people in the American South. While deeply grounded in these traditions, the service also served as an invitation to commune with the Universal Divine Spirit through collective prayer, sound, movement, and remembrance. The service featured a heartfelt welcome offered by Vaughn Kimmons, and included the construction of an altar and a ring shout held in reverence to ancestors and the enduring spiritual practices of the Afro-diaspora. Songs such as “Wade in the Water,” “This Little Light of Mine,” and other traditional spirituals were sung collectively alongside devotional music and improvisation. Through collective participation, testimony, chant, and sacred sound, the service honored the ways these traditions have carried Black people through generations of survival, resistance, remembrance, and communal healing. The third tape, Recalling the Mystics: Black Mystery Month at The Old Church, was recorded on February 8th, 2025, at The Old Church Concert Hall. “Black Mystery Month” is a term coined by Roman Norfleet that reimagines Black History Month as a space in an alternate dimension devoted to connecting with the Divine Mystery and honoring the spiritual, sacred, and esoteric dimensions of the Black American experience, while maintaining the lineage of Black History Month. This work is dedicated to Black American ancestors who devoted their lives to spiritual, mystical, and esoteric paths. Songs and compositions were created in honor of figures such as Harriet Tubman, Aunt Caroline Dye, Howard Thurman, and Sun Ra, functioning as a form of live ancestral veneration. The evening featured an altar where the ensemble paid homage to ancestors, alongside mystical Southern incantations, storytelling, and poetry from Midnite Abioto. Performing as part of the ensemble, her presence helped weave the spiritual fabric of the night. A slideshow presentation accompanied the service, depicting ancestors such as Nat Turner, Sandy Jenkins (drawing), El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X), Bishop C.H. Mason, Zora Neale Hurston, and A. C. Swamini Turiyasangitananda, among others — extending the vision of ancestry across the diaspora and visually deepening their presence throughout the space. The service concluded in sacred prayer led by DJ Ashé.

The home-recorded album everything pointed to - now on vinyl and CD for the first time. After several delays, we finally received the long-awaited production date from the pressing plant - and are happy to share this long-overdue announcement. Following the 2022 reissue of Scott Seskind’s 1985 debut, there was never a question - we wanted to go further. Ebalunga!!! exists to restore forgotten gems, and Scott’s music has been warming our hearts for years. So, to our own joy - and in response to all your emails, questions (and demands!) we’re thrilled to announce that his second album Chance (1991) will be released for the first time on vinyl and CD in September 2025. Thank you for keeping us on our toes: you helped make this real. A rare cassette that should have become a classic: Originally released only as a self-distributed cassette, Chance never got the attention it deserved but over the decades, it became a cult favorite among collectors and lo-fi folk devotees. Recorded in the early ’90s, the album feels like a quiet diary stitched together from fragments of late evenings, memory, hope, and doubt. A home recording - just the way we love it: “I recorded the songs on the same cassette recorder as my first album… I mistakenly put it out on cassette only. It wasn’t more than 1,000 copies. I only have one left.” - Scott Seskind (Psychedelic Baby!, 2023) Chance was recorded on the same 4-track Portastudio cassette machine Scott used for his debut. These are songs born between duties and silence, family life. There are no frills here: just voice, guitar, subtle strokes of cello, female backing vocals, mandolin, and percussion. Total intimacy. Total warmth. Songs of hope, grief, and memory: The lyrics explore friendship, loss, longing, and love with no pretension and no mask. Chance feels like a personal conversation, not a performance. And among its tracklist is perhaps Scott’s most widely known song: “I Remember”, which in recent years has reached a new generation of listeners after being featured on the acclaimed compilation "Skygirl"(Efficient Space) a release that introduced countless people to its fragile beauty. Bonus track and closing chapter: This edition also includes, for the first time, the bonus track “Last Song” a home recording made “many years ago” in the Colorado foothills. A bright and serene farewell, it brings the album to a gentle, natural close like the final page of an abandoned diary.

Ebalunga!!! is thrilled to announce the first official reissue of the self-released, self-produced, and self-titled 1985 LP Scott Seskind. The album is a lo-fi singer-songwriter jewel. Don't miss it. "Authentic and personal, at times it reminds this writer of luminaries such as Jackson C. Frank, PF Sloan, Skip Spence, and Phil Orchs while never feeling derivative. The songs are melodic and haunting, fueled by existential woes, political angst, and good ol' fashioned love. Scott's rich voice has an unpretentious gravitas, his simple-yet-effective guitar playing ranging from delicate fingerpicking to angry bashing. Created at home on a Tascam 4-Track Portastudio, the recording features few frills and is all the better for it. Unlike most mid-80s records it sounds like it could have come from any time since the late '60s onwards. As a testament to its greatness, and despite the late recording date, it even gets a nod on Patrick Lundborg's "Acid Archives" compilation website, Lysergiawhere it's described thus: "Late phase downer-loner folk and singer-songwriter trip, mostly acoustic, some tracks with a small band." - Andrew Ure for Ugly Things. Read a long story about the album in the upcoming Shindig! issue: www.silverbackpublishing.rocks/product/shindig-136-pre-order-on-sale-2nd-february-2023/ The reissue is available on vinyl with a lyric insert. Mastering(as always) by Jessica Thompson. Feedbacks and reviews: "Almost totally unheralded singer-songwriter Scott Seskind gets the reissue treatment, and I couldn't be happier. About a year ago I pulled Seskind's sole vinyl release out of the used bin of a Boulder record store, and with its almost Wallace Berman-esque cover art, could immediately suspect it was something special. The first listen didn't dispel that notion one bit; here was an impressively captivating and moving collection of four-tracked bedroom folk of the highest order, with an out-of-time vibe that didn't really snyc with its 1984 recording date. Definitely on the loner-ish end of the folk spectrum, with some aspects of the album harkening back to Skip Spence's iconic Oar, while other moments revealed the urgency of the '80s lo-fi revolution. But most importantly, the songs were just really, really great and managed to remain haunting long past their leaving. Here, I thought, is an album that needs to be heard by more people, NOW. I asked around amongst some record collecting friends and discovered it was pretty highly rated by a small circle of people in the know, and that it had even managed to garner a mention in the Acid Archives despite its late recording date, and most excitingly that there was talk that the digital reissue label Yoga had managed to track Seskind down and secure the rights to his LP. (...) So here we have it, the best songs from Seskind's eponymous LP. (...) I really hope this release continues to garner the listeners that it deserves." - Michael Klausman "The one that struck us the most this year was the almost totally unheralded work of singer-songwriter Scott Seskind, who recorded an impressively captivating and moving collection of four-tracked bedroom folk of the highest order, with an out-of-time vibe that doesn't really sync with its original 1984 release date. Definitely on the loner-ish end of the folk spectrum, with songs that are really, really great and which manage to remain haunting long past their leaving. Truly an album that deserves to be heard by more people immediately. " - Other Music

"On a gloomy weekend in the Pacific NorthWest Oregon coast in November of 2020, we find the eleven piece cumbia orchestra outfit, Orquestra Pacífico Tropical, writing new material in a cabin for what will become their third full length album, "El Poder." The sonic exploration and the cloudy overcast of the coastal forest really gave an inspiration to the overall musical palette of the demos that weekend that eventually became El Poder. Creating a warm & inviting recording session in the living room of a cabin truly allowed for inventiveness & spontaneity to be key in the development of these melodious rhythms & movements. While continuing on the trajectory of the tradition of cumbia, the band has also delved into salsa, psychedelic NorthWest sounds and whole new audio exploration of music that truly feels unique & never heard before..."

Through the ages, several people from moustachioed party boat troubadours to jazz elite like Jimmy Smith/McGriff and Shirley Scott have wielded the power of the electric organ to hypnotize listeners. Now, taking all the possible cues from these musical heavyweights, and breaking through the musical sound barrier to organ-ize your mind comes Mr. Sophisticated Fingers. Together with the ever-faithful Cold Diamond & Mink this mystical key stroker rephrases ten of the greatest hits from Emilia Sisco’s debut album “Introducing” in a unique lyrical style. In Organ-ized’s Slow Dance & Soul album these songs continue for further greatness. You may have heard them before, now listen to them again, as now they’ve been organ-ized by the musical maestro Mr. Sophisticated Fingers, baby!

Through the ages, several people from moustachioed party boat troubadours to jazz elite like Jimmy Smith/McGriff and Shirley Scott have wielded the power of the electric organ to hypnotize listeners. Now, taking all the possible cues from these musical heavyweights, and breaking through the musical sound barrier to organ-ize your mind comes Mr. Sophisticated Fingers. Together with the ever-faithful Cold Diamond & Mink this mystical key stroker rephrases ten of the greatest hits from Emilia Sisco’s debut album “Introducing” in a unique lyrical style. In Organ-ized’s Slow Dance & Soul album these songs continue for further greatness. You may have heard them before, now listen to them again, as now they’ve been organ-ized by the musical maestro Mr. Sophisticated Fingers, baby!

Few figures in Chicago soul operated quite like Lenny "King Creole" LaCour. Across the 1960s and '70s, he built a sprawling catalogue of R&B, harmony soul, funk and early disco releases, issuing records through a network of independent labels and aliases that have since become prized collector's items.Magic Touch: The Soulful Sounds of Lenny "King Creole" LaCour gathers 26 standout recordings from his remarkable body of work. Featuring artists including The Mar-J's, The Swinging Hearts, Junior & The Classics, Evelyn Smith, Filet Of Soul and Harvey Scales and The Seven Sounds, the collection traces LaCour's knack for crafting infectious grooves, heartfelt ballads and dancefloor-ready soul.Expanded with extensive notes, rare photographs and archival memorabilia, this anthology shines a light on a fascinating and often overlooked chapter of American independent soul music.

From Asmara, Eritrea(formerly Ethiopia) Tewolde Redda revolutionized the sounds of traditional Eritrean music by amplifying his kirar, playing his Eko electric guitar, and recording six singles in the first part of the 1970’s. Including the first Eritrean songs to use a horn section, traditional songs reworked into his new sound, and originals influenced by radio broadcasts from the United States military base in Asmara, Kagnew Station, these ten songs originally released on the Philips, Amha, and Yared labels show off his talents with stringed instruments, a talented back up band, and often the hand clapped beat shifting into double time near the song’s end. Tewolde’s thick, deep voice sings songs of love over somber and joyous tunes. Comes in a “tip-on” sleeve with extensive liner notes, lyrical translations, and unpublished photos. A co-release with Mitmitta Musika of Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. Second pressing coming around March, 2022.

Damian Dalla Torre returns with People Pleaser, a record shaped by movement, collaboration and an ever-deepening relationship with sound as environment. The Leipzig-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer first found wide attention with his 2022 debut Happy Floating, and his subsequent album I Can Feel My Dreams was named the #1 Contemporary Album of 2024 by The Guardian, an accolade that broadened his audience and deepened confidence in his evolving voice. That second album, written between Europe and South America, opened unexpected doors and took Dalla Torre to stages across New York, Japan and Italy. “When you release music, it’s very intimate,” he reflects. “You show your emotions pretty raw. I was kind of scared. But getting so much positive feedback gave me a lot of self-confidence to try out more.” People Pleaser begins in that quiet shift of confidence. The title stayed with him for months before he committed to it. “It was a working title for a long time,” he says. “I didn’t actually think I would use it. But this term also felt somehow relevant in connection with the phase of self-negotiation during the development process. Some aspects are related to pressure, others are positive.” The ambiguity felt right. Rather than presenting it as a statement, Dalla Torre leaves it open, an invitation rather than a confession. At the centre of People Pleaser is collaboration. Guitarist Bertram Burkert, whose playing stretches from classical delicacy to electric abstraction, joined Dalla Torre in the studio for an intensive three-day session, recording a wide palette of textures that would become the backbone of the album. Vocalist Laura Zöschg, a key live collaborator, harpist Babett Niclas, organist Felix Römer, tape experimentalist Markus Rom, marimba and vibraphonist Volker Heuken and Japanese artist Manami Kakudo also contribute, creating a sound that feels intimate yet expansive.

Initially conceived as a short-run cassette for Altered States Tapes, YL Hooi’s nameless collection of textural apparitions oscillate between icy DIY minimalism, FX-drenched atmospherics and nang chamber dub. A ghost-like transmission, Hooi's voice serves to anchor an array of sonic abstractions and impressionistic melodic motifs as a sense of purgatorial ambience dominates throughout. Co-produced with alleged fellow Kallista Kult member Tarquin Manek (LST, M. Quake), Untitled’s ultimate sensation is its halfway state, as if caught between worlds. The album's final form speaks of its origins, recorded intermittently over a two year period (2017-2019). The extended time passage seeps into the song structures, spiralling and mutating from the same centre - the elegiac pulse of opener 'Title' presages the hymnal lilt of 'Straight Thru', before birthing the inverted bossa nova of 'W/O Love'. The result is a constantly shifting tableaux of shared liminal spaces. These songs seemingly emerge in plumes of smoke, magician's tricks conjured from the ether. It's a vision that ossifies at Untitled's midpoint with a cover of Love Joys' 'Stranger', the lovers rock original morphed into the transportive intimacy of Hooi's own hazy inner space, a totem of the LP’s amorphous and ultimately sensuous qualities. The sound from both down under and way out there in subspace, Untitled is an inspired masterstroke of experimental mystics. This 2021 Efficient Space edition is remastered and robed in new artwork that honours the Melbourne-based earth dragon’s Chinese and Russian heritage.

The original 1983 release of Feel My Love is a boogie/modern soul classic by Vaughan Mason & Butch Dayo.