Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield Vinyl 225 Items

Original Pressing found in drummer Richard Driskell's archives. Come housed in original unstamped paper sleeve. Units were a synth punk band formed in San Francisco in 1978. This was a private release from 1979. "Synthesizer bands don't normally thrill. Rather, they tend to lull the listener, falsifying and distorting the images and ideas at hand. San Francisco's Units are not that kind of synthesizer band. All four songs on this EP (even the instrumental!) are straightforward, exciting, lyrical experiments in understanding the beast and making it rock. Two machines and a drummer. Not pastoral visions but urban ones. Not peaceful, still angry. Not satisfied, still probing and asking questions. New life brought to old techniques. How surprising. How wonderful." New York Rocker, November 1979

Yokobue player Michiko Akao's 1983 publication 'Yokobue: Michiko Akao's World', which was also published in the 'New Age Music Disc Guide' (published by DU Books), is reproduced for the first time! A new age work that greatly transcends the realm of pure Japanese music, created with Shigeaki Saegusa as the composer and arranger. It's definitely recommended for listeners who are chasing the current new age/ambient.

Japanese composer Hiroko Matsuzaki began her classic music career as a flutist, and from 1985 to 1987 she worked as a studio musician as a flute/synthesiser player based in London, gaining an excellent reputation abroad without passing through the Japanese music scene. Simon Jeffs of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra heard this work and decided to participate in German electronic musician Rhodelius' Pink, Blue and Amber. This is the first time reissuing the lost work she produced only 100 copies before she left for the UK in 1985 , entitled Mother-Of-Pearl Box. This world-standard masterpiece was born in Japan during the rise of ambient music in the late 1980s, when house and techno were expanding globally with the rise of house and techno.

Silk-Screen cover. In 1978 I arrived for my first time to Sweden, to the town of Lund .. and there I met a remarkable man named Jean Sellem who ran a tiny gallery in the middle of the town, "The Galleri St.Petri: Dedicated To Modern Art and Thought "... and he was one of the few and first people who saw the greatness and beauty of Continuous Music .. and since I was a complete "unknown" at that time, I really needed his moral support ! --- and he created with me, the idea of a huge work for multiple pianos ... three pianos .. in stages ... and it became as he had envisioned ! and was first performed on a small upright piano in 1978 in his gallery, and the piece was called THE LUND.St.PETRI SYPMPHONY .. because it was so symphonic in grandeur (once the three pianos came together ...) The Lund - St. Petri Symphony, from 1979, is the second album from Lubomyr Melnyk and the first composition for double piano which he released. In this work, the early minimalist tendencies which played such a major part in the emergence of Continuous music, are very significant and clearly evident. This Double LP set sold out within 1 year of production, Only 1000 copies were made. Original Release: 1980 Limited All Analog Remastering Recording

I was between the ages of 18 and 20 when I wrote the 22 songs found on To Anyone Who Ever Laughed at Someone Else. They express the thoughts and frustrations, hopes and fears of a young man coming of age in a world that was full of upheaval and transformation. I was a product of that period in America we call the sixties—those years between the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 and the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974. In fact, this record was released that same month Nixon resigned. Over the next five years, I toured the country as an acoustic artist performing at clubs, coffeehouses and colleges. During that time, I watched the idealism and social consciousness of the sixties slowly fade away. In its place emerged a cynicism and materialism that still seems to be with us so many years later. More than anything else, I think To Anyone Who Ever Laughed at Someone Else is a time capsule that speaks to us from a past era. A period when, above all other things, we asked questions. We questioned our country, we questioned our faith, we questioned the very purpose of life itself. I am very excited to bring those questions and these songs to a new generation on a new continent. Special thanks to my friends Jordi Segura of Wah Wah Records who took the initiative to release this 50th Anniversary Re-issue of To Anyone Who Ever Laughed at Someone Else and Michel Veenstra Klinkhamer, who introduced us.

Original Pressing found in drummer Richard Driskell's archives Units were a synth punk band formed in San Francisco in 1978. This was a private release from 1980. "I hate synthesizers but both sides of this make me eat my words. Listen to "I-Night" and re-evaluate the bloated crap that comes out of most electronic groups. Once the singing starts, though, on "Warm Moving Bodies" I throw in the towel. It's some of the lamest vocal arranging ever to be found anywhere and the words are the standard science-art jokes that've gotten as sickly cute as leopard skin on Saturday Night Live. "I-Night" doesn't fall victim to this syndrome, instead letting loose with one of the wildest riffs this side of Metal Urbain. The words are shuddery and bleak, and the vocals tolerable." Slash Magazine, Vol 3 #3

Ryuichi Sakamoto's first world release, released in 1987 and reissued in analog format.

This solo album, Sakamoto's seventh in total, was co-produced with Bill Laswell for worldwide release and features top musicians from different genres, including Sly Dunbar and Bootsy Collins. Based on an electronic sound, but fusing organic and ethnic musical elements such as Okinawan and Balinese traditional music, the album was recorded in Tokyo and New York, and released in more than 20 countries around the world, making it a milestone in his solo career.

Guitar Solos is the debut solo album of British guitarist, composer, and improviser Fred Frith. It was recorded while Frith was still a member of the English experimental rock group Henry Cow and was released originally in October 1974. Voted one of the best albums of 1974 by NME critics it also attracted the attention of Brian Eno, resulting in Frith playing guitar on two of Eno‘s albums. Frith‘s never tiring spirit in creating and performing music has made him one of the most notable and creative guitar players and musicians in the scene of improvised and composed music. For the anniversary of this release we have encouraged Frith to arrange a set up similar to what he used 50 years ago to record an album of new compositions which will accompany the original record.

Originally self released in only 100 copies in 1974 Includes second LP featuring 16 unreleased songs from the original sessions Stoughton “tip-on” gatefold jacket Vinyl pressed at Third Man Pressing. In 1974, Hiroshi Tanaka and Yoichi Fuwa, the self-proclaimed heirs of the Beatles, crammed into a 75 square foot room and recorded over 50 songs, all without names. 19 of those songs would be self released on a record titled “Untitled White Album”, of which only 100 copies were pressed.

Their music is like a fairy tale. It’s leisurely and relaxed yet bursting at the seams with melodies and youthful ambition. Its whole attitude is gentle but splendid in evoking tears, anger, sentimentality, infatuation, intoxication, and a bit of craziness. Tanaka and Fuwa’s music has the power to bring that emotion to life.

This holy grail of Japanese psychedelic pop has been searched for by collectors the world over. Now, after almost 50 years, First & Last Records is proud to release the official reissue of this masterpiece. In addition to the 19 original songs is a second LP featuring 16 tracks that heretofore were unknown, released for the first time.

Los Angeles Free Music Society (lafms) formed in the mid-1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective and multimedia publishing vehicle. Founded by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts and Rick Potts and soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, Lafms incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art and avant-rock in permissive and anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building and Poo-Bah Record Shop in old Pasadena. Inspired by The Residents, Lafms self-released records and periodicals, organized performances and connected with fellow outsiders via post in the years before punk. Their uninhibited, egalitarian ideal of music-making and DIY distribution would influence generations of underground musicians. Live At The Brand documents the second performance of newly formed Lafms core groups Le Forte Four and Doo-Dooettes on July 8, 1976 at the recital hall of the Brand Library in Glendale. Le Forte Four (now joined by Tom Potts) did not actually perform live, but rather created 44 pyramid-shaped headphone helmets with internal quadraphonic speakers and countless wires in order to share their latest tape assemblages with showgoers deprived of sight. The recordings delivered in this Fluxus-inspired manner feature the Buchla synthesizer at nearby CalArts, radio interpolations, group improvisations, addled outbursts and splices from source material lost to time. Doo-Dooettes – Tom Recchion, Harold Schroeder, Juan Gomez, Dennis Duck and Fredrik Nilsen – performed a series of alternately droning and chaotic duets with guitar, percussion, piano, tape loops and synthesizer, all improvised around loosely structured compositions and culminating in a spontaneous group composition at the end of the program. Originally released in 1976, the double LP would be Lafms' third release. This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 500 numbered copies. Comes with inserts.

"Reading Tolkein´s LORD OF THE RINGS saga was one of the greatest experiences of my life ... his amazing talent for words was mindboggling ... and the great topics he touched upon remain forever as the most important topics of life ... they are still most valid today .. and will be for all eternity. Everything he described through his magical words came to life before my eyes ! So it was most natural that he would inspire music within me ... music that I can not describe in words how it relates to the Saga .. but deep inside me, it all shines clear as a lamp-post on a dark street ... and it shines into my soul in many, many dimensions....." .... and on a technical note, this piece marked the first time I created Arpegge Melodies within Continuous Music !" In the ”Song of Galadriel” Lubomyr Melnyk has created one of the great epics of piano music in our century, a work of visionary character, filled with haunting and delicate melodies that evoke the mystical world of Tolkein's ”Lord Of The Rings”. Arthur Rankin Original Release: 1983 Limited All Analog Remastering Recording 29 min, per side

Reed Whistle & Sticks was released in 1972 in a decade of transition for experimental composer Anthony Moore. Two years after the the album, his bands Henry Cow and Slapp Happy would merge briefly for a run of cult-favourite avant-garde records and swiftly detangle. A year after that, in 1976, he released his fourth solo record Out - its pop sensibilities, albeit avant-inclined, a chasm apart from the raw experimentation of Reed Whistle & Sticks. P-vine is proud to be reissuing Moore’s experiment in texture and looping for the first time on vinyl format, and bring new accessibility to an album that has been almost impossible to source on vinyl for 50 years.

This first reference (ate001) is a reissue of Corsica Ribella, which is the second album by Ghjuvan Petru Graziani (GP.G) in collaboration with the poet Rinatu Coti. Limited to 300 copies, the reissue includes the restoration of the cover as well as an 8-page booklet containing sketches, poems and exclusive interviews with the artists translated into three languages (French/English/Corsican). Below a bit more about the artist Ghjuvan Petru Graziani (GP.G) : Born in Corsica, with a childhood in Toulon, then planer and toolmaker at the Renault Billancourt factory, GP.G created the Groupe Culturel Renault which had an impact in the political strike of 1971. Multi-faceted artist, GP.G is known among other things for his activist music label Les Disques Vendémiaire with which he produced a few big names in free jazz such as JEF Gilson, François Tusques, Cossi Anatz and ByardLancaster. Corsica Ribella record is born in 1984 when G.P.G was back in Corsica. He was at this time highly committed to the Corsican National Liberation Front (flnc). Corsica Ribella is then the first Corsican electronic disc ; a clever mix of electronics, poetry and field recording. Jazz-funk influenced, the LP is a cosmic ballad oscillating between ambient and leftfield with large instrumental parts against backdrop of nationalist demands, an ode to freedom.

Record Store Day 2020 Release.
Limitation: 3000 copies.

Tangerine Dream's classic 1987 album Tyger. Recorded in Berlin and Vienna, the album was the final studio release by the band for the jive electro label and took its inspiration from the poems of William Blake. Edgar Froese, Chris Franke and Paul Haslinger utilising the services of guest vocalist Joceylyn Bernadette smith on a number of tracks, resulting in one of the most inspiring tangerine dream albums of their so called 'blue years'.

For over half a century, Takehisa Kosugi was one of the most unique and enduring figures in the Japanese underground. With a penchant for long psychedelic jams (some lasting 12 hours or more) The Taj-Mahal Travelers lived up to their name. Touring in a Volkswagen van across Europe and Asia in the early '70s, they eventually reached the actual Taj Mahal in India. Upon their return to Japan, they held a concert to raise more touring funds and released their very first recordings. Their debut album, July 15, 1972, would extend the band's matter-of-fact titling: all the tracks were named precisely for the times they began and ended.

What is it like to be up in that ominous, dark blue/pink sky that we stare at in wonder? Without the use of a single word, Don Harriss shifts the unknown universal connection to the forefront of the mind with the mystical collection of compositions on his album Elevations. Originally released in 1987, this album is seeing its first-ever appearance on vinyl. This ambient, melodic new age masterpiece will bring you to unspoken places. Tracks like “Motion #4”, “Impromptu” & ”The Tortoise, The Temple & The Rain” showcase the album’s element of depth. Various diverse themes carry you all the way to the beautiful closing track “Caravans.” To the right age audience, this album is highly reminiscent of some of the best 80s & 90s video game soundtracks. This could fit right onto the Ecco The Dolphin 1992 Sega Genesis soundtrack. Other tracks could be well-imagined in 1994’s Donkey Kong Country on Super Nintendo. If you’re into ominous, extremely well-done OSTs, this is for you. This album is highly appreciated & widely overlooked.

Software's classic fifth 2xLP 'Electronica-Universe' is now available on vinyl for the first time since 1985 with two vinyl-only tracks 'Cosmic-Calimba' and 'Love-Potion-Of-Artificial-Life'. 100% Electronica HQ painstakingly digitally restored the art and tracked down two of the lost tracks for this very special 2xLP reissue. Since 1983 Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser experiment with electronic sounds, visuals and environments. Their special interest is the area of how computers can be used to help express creative art of a wide variety. The LP's and CD's are just one part of Multi-Media-Events, combining music, computer-graphics and high-technology-poetry. Software combines these elements beautifully, showing that technology as the sign of the time is emotion, stylish design and a new dimension of high-tech-beauty.

(Japanese pressing, Official reissue) Brilliant synth prog weirdness from the late 1970s Tokyo. Recorded by the guitarist Akio Niitsu who was compared, not without reason, to Manuel Göttsching. Niitsu has a fairly small discography of only three full-length albums, but his second one - “Pet Step” - was on Tomita’s label and supposedly with the involvement of Haruomi Hosono (this is according to Chee Shimizu who lists it in his “Obscure Music”).

Akio Niitsu's first album, "i/o(i･o)" released in 1978, was produced in a homemade studio that had been converted from a storeroom in his home, and he spent three years doing everything from composition to engineering by himself, using overdubbed guitar recordings. 's first analog re-release has been decided.As a guitar multi-recording album, the idea was realized six years earlier than the album "e2-e4" released in 1984 by Manuel Göttsching, the central figure of "Ash La Tempel", but it was too early. A hidden experimental/ambient gem!The paradoxical sound that makes you feel as if you are lost deep in a labyrinthine forest, combined with Tadanori Yokoo's artwork, is a piece that allows you to enjoy Akio Niitsu's worldview with your ears and eyes.

Since 1983 Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser experiment with electronic sounds, visuals and environments. Their special interest is the area of how computers can be used to help express creative art of a wide variety. The LP's and CD's are just one part of Multi-Media-Events, combining music, computer-graphics and high-technology-poetry. Software combines these elements beautifully, showing that technology as the sign of the time is emotion, stylish design and a new dimension of high-tech-beauty.

"jataka" is an ambient to experimental synthesizer masterpiece album released in 1978 by Osamu Shoji, known as a composer, arranger, and synthesizer player. Contains a total of 8 songs, including "pyramid Ion" where cosmic synth shines. I think many people have been looking for this title, as the used market price has soared and there are many WANTs from overseas!

Much appreciated reissue of R.N.A. Organism’s ‘R.N.A.O Meets P.O.P.O’ (first released by legendary Osaka label Vanity Records in 1980). A key document of the late ’70s experimental music scene in Kansai, Japan, R.N.A.O Meets P.O.P.O is a hallucinatory trip of dubby bass, churning guitars, sputtering rhythm boxes, twisted vocals and unidentifiable sound effects.

Carefully remastered by Stephan Mathieu from the original tapes, cut by Josh Bonati, pressed by RTI, and housed in a hefty Stoughton tip-on sleeve. This oedition also includes an expanded insert with an illuminating essay by R.N.A. Organism producer Kaoru Sato.

Los Angeles Free Music Society (lafms) formed in the mid-1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective and multimedia publishing vehicle. Founded by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts and Rick Potts and soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, Lafms incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art and avant-rock in permissive and anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building and Poo-Bah Record Shop in old Pasadena. Inspired by The Residents, Lafms self-released records and periodicals, organized performances and connected with fellow outsiders via post in the years before punk. Their uninhibited, egalitarian ideal of music-making and DIY distribution would influence generations of underground musicians. Lafms primarily reached outside Los Angeles via word-of-mouth and the United States Postal Service, foreshadowing the self-publishing and cassette trading networks of post-punk and industrial subcultures. In 1976, Joe Potts solicited recordings from Lafms affiliates and admirers to edit and compile I.D. Art #2, utilizing correspondence art's technique of "assemblings." (The first installment in this series was a magazine, and the third was a coloring book.) Potts received dozens of pieces by members of Le Forte Four, Doo-Dooettes, Smegma and Ace & Duce as well as painters, filmmakers and non-artists with few recording credits to their name, creating a delirious, winking sound-art collage of field recordings, voicemails and improvisations. Participants purchased time on the record and received one copy each of the finished LP, realizing the philosophy contained in Lafms' motto: "The music is free, but you have to pay for the plastic, paper, ink, glue and stamps." This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 500 numbered copies. Comes with insert.

“The Initial Command” is the debut landmark album by Canadian EBM-industrialists Front Line Assembly, originally released in 1987 through Belgian label KK Records. Bill leeb shows us already a unique style, setting a benchmark for all that would follow. Fiercely original, not least for ‘it’s time’, from the glittering synths and harsh metallic percussion of the unarguably cinematic “Casualties” and the abrasive white noise on “Ausgang Zum Himmel”, to the punchy breaks and dramatic strings of “No Control”. Deluxe re-release including all original tracks and both bonus tracks taken from a re-release in 1997: “Complexity” and “Core”. Limited pressing of 500 copies with double vinyl record, deluxe gatefold sleeve and new vintage artwork. D-side features a silkscreen of the classic fist logo.

Record Store Day Japan 2021 Drop 2 release. Released in 1978, Masaki Ueda sang the reggae lovers’ masterpiece “Harder They Come” in Japanese, a soulful cover single.

Technical innovations in musical instruments and the development of tonal language have been continual subjects for deliberation from the 19th century onwards at the latest. Additional brain power is necessary to conciliate the two elements with the endless possibilities of electronic sound. In the end, the two factions cannot resolve on a conclusive opinion and the question remains as to whether art always results from skill.
Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou, or Vangelis for short, always worked with the newest synthesizer equipment and pushed his cascades of sound to the very edge, right up to the point of electronic overkill. In contrast to many other electronics experimentalists of his time, Vangelis likes to »create important melodies and to develop them further, without going under in the technical equipment« (Stereo Review). Distant human voices, siren-like lost calls lead into oriental dance. A song – far removed from its era – somewhere between Gregorian music and antiphony – a will-o‘-the-wisp, shimmering sound. Polyphonic playing on the Bösendorfer reminds one that every form of musical expression from over the sands of time is welcome. Each listener must discover for himself what sounds heavenly or hellish. But let it be said: musically speaking, the one cannot be imagined without the other.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under www.pure-analogue.com.
All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: September 1975 at Nemo Studios, London, by Alan Lucas
Production: Vangelis

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release of Ryuichi Sakamoto"s classic LP "Coda", issued in Japan in 1983 as a solo piano version of the "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" soundtrack. The album, which was never been released outside of Japan until now, sees Sakamoto on acoustic piano reinterpreting fascinating versions of his famous soundtrack including the classic theme and "Germination," which was later used in the "Call Me By Your Name" soundtrack. This reissue has been remastered by Seigen Ono"s Saidera Mastering studio in Tokyo and boasts the original artwork plus a 4-page insert with new liner notes by Andy Beta.

Black Vinyl, Sticker, 50th Anniversary RE-Edition, first-ever official reissue on vinyl since 1975,
Re-Cut carefully overseen by Manuel Göttsching.

TRACKLIST:

A. "Amboss" 19:40
B. "Traummaschine" 25:24

Ash Ra Tempel is the eponymous debut studio album by the Krautrock band Ash Ra Tempel.
It features guitarist Manuel Göttsching with drummer Klaus Schulze and bassist Hartmut Enke.
Engineered by Conny Plank it was recorded in March 1971 and released in June 1971 on Ohr Records.
This 50Th Anniversary Album will be Released in Memoriam of all the Musical Contributors to this Release and on Manuel Göttsching´s MG.ART label.
It´s the fourth and headlining edition in this series and was finalised, carefully overseen by Manuel Göttsching himself in the late Autumn of 2022.

Much has been written about the record and band.

Having finished a first musical chapter with their Steeple Chase Bluesband and still at very young age of only 17 and 18 years old Manuel Göttsching and Hartmut Enke met Klaus Schulze. Together they started to write and and compose what, to many,
became one the holy grails of Psychedelic Rock and early Electronic Music -
the German variant which was later also named "Krautrock":

Ash Ra Tempel´s self-titled first album "Ash Ra Tempel".

"The trio of Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching and Hartmut Enke decided to abandon conventional composition and song writing, in favour of free-form improvising and developing a new musical language. As such, they became notorious for jams that could exceed 30 minutes." Says Discogs. "Some of these recordings can be found on Manuel Göttsching´s "The Private Tapes" releases", which will be re-released on MG.ART as well, following this edition.

"Krautrocksampler" author Julian Cope mentioned it to be "… one of the greatest rock 'n' roll LPs ever made." (Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage | Unsung | Reviews | Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel". 15 March 2000.)

AllMusic called the album "both astonishingly prescient and just flat out good, a logical extension of the space-jam-freakout ethos into rarified realms."

Here we would like the Band to be heard, for what can easily be said as the first time in 50+ years, with the exception of some early Journalists for whom the young Manuel Göttsching wrote a statement of intent (the original text can be found inside this edition) as following:

"Our musical concept is based on a combination of blues rock and delicate collages of electronic sound. These two elements should remain inseparable. And in their complex unity, the different musical philosophies of each musician find a common sweet spot. Our music is a permanently impulsive experience left to develop as it will, starting from a common fixed point of departure. This is where the difficulty of the music begins: No standardized formulation of our music can and should be possible. Only the constant reaction within the band can determine the musical result. And this requires constant listening with full concentration on the part of the creators. The idea of a particular musician will be - if flexible enough - absorbed by the others, transposed to their own instrument, and reflected back into the music as an individual contribution. This reciprocity within the band is then transferred over to the audience. And this process means that their reaction is not only a contribution to the end result; it actually makes them jointly responsible for the creation of the final musical product.
…
On our album, the track "Amboss" represents the first layer. Conventional instruments communicate familiar music which is in part expanded through electronic means. In the second track of the album - "Traummaschine" - the actual basic sound approach is dissolved into an electronic Nirvana which no longer allows the concrete identification of actual instruments. Innocent, virgin listening, free from any and every association, can finally begin - and the music can be absorbed and processed free from the limitations of categorization. That is the purpose of our music: To convey freedom without any predetermined criteria or traditions.

Thank you for your attention."
(Taken from the original A-R-T Bio 1970)

Hartmut Enke, Manuel Göttsching and Klaus Schulze aka. Ash Ra Tempel travelled to Hamburg in March 1971 to record their debut, with assistance of another Icon, legendary engineer Conny Plank.
The rest is history.

Super rare album now reissued on BBE!

Minimal Wave presents a reissue of Sympathy Nervous’ pioneering debut album originally released in 1980 on Vanity Records out of Japan. Sympathy Nervous was Yosihumi Niinuma’s lifelong project which he started in his Tokyo living room in 1979. Through Sympathy Nervous, Niinuma was able to channel his energy into what he loved – building his own synthesizers and speakers from scratch.

"Pulso de la Madera" comes as the definitive official reissue of the first album by the legendary band, along with previously unreleased remastered material, on a double LP with extensive liner notes and previously unseen pictures of the band. Essential to revisit the work of a band that inspired fourth world and organic ambient as we know it today; these tunes sound immersive and still contemporary.

On their short but influential career, Finis Africae proposed an informal and decentralized model of creativity that was decades ahead of current practices linked to technological advances; they explored unknown worlds and imagined landscapes of the “fourth world” apart from their present; they neither affirmed nor denied any of the labels they were to assign to them (“New Age”, “ethnic music”, “world music”, etc.); they recreated, used, and nourished foreign cultures without fear.

And most importantly - they shaped a sound “finis”. Your own space. Where there were no rules. A dimension in which the collective was submerged in long sessions of improvisation; where they could be goblins and magical entities; a place where they could imagine scales and structures unreal; where they could play any instrument in the known world; where they could tour the Mediterranean, Africa, and the Middle East in a blink of an eye; where they could be themselves without caring about anything that happened outside.

The unreleased tracks come as a careful selection of a deep-dive over hundred tracks and demos, compiled by Urba and Glossy Mario. The license comes from Juan Alberto Arteche's family.

Postfaction OF THE Plain Truth When in the cold spring of 1983, I set about decomposing these elegiac synthetic - concrete suites, my decadent vision of life was taking a brighter turn, and in fact the atmospheres that pervade the whole work, enriched by the emotional notes of a keyboard of violins, reflect my thirst for visceral eternity. The title therefore, “The Plain Truth”, follows my research directed towards the infinity of the human soul, one step away from spiritual truth, for the benefit of the loyal supporters of the plain electro-neuronal sound. (M.B., August 2021)

When I started my record label Broken Flag in 1982, one of the people I really wanted to work with was Maurizio Bianchi. His album “Symphony for a Genocide” was such a haunting, evocative record that I needed to get in contact with the man who made it. We made contact and remained regularly writing letters to each other, mine in my unintelligible scrawl, his in his red ink on photocopy paper. He was massively prolific and I soon became a distributor for his fantastic early albums like “Regel”, “Mectpyo Bacterium”, “Mörder Unter Uns/Neuro Habitat”, “Menses”, “Endometrio”, “Carcinosi”, “Das Testament” and “Armaghedon”, albums I still love to this day. He kindly contributed tracks to Broken Flag compilations as well. Releasing an album by him was always going to be high on my list of priorities and when he agreed I was overjoyed. He said he wanted a colour cover and I was running the label on a shoestring budget but I wanted him to be happy so I agreed. He sent me two polaroid photographs which we had blown up to cover size and are the pictures on the front and back cover that you see today. He wanted to release records as Maurizio Bianchi in the future rather than just as M.B and asked for the name on the cover to read “M.B. = Maurizio Bianchi”. Although the record has the catalogue number Bfv3, it was actually the second vinyl record I put out because once I heard it, I didn’t want to wait for the first Ramleh album (bfv2) to be ready. I had been slightly apprehensive about what the record would sound like because just before he sent it, he told me that he had become a Jehovah’s Witness and seemed to be going through a very happy life-changing experience. He was in a relationship with the “T.D.” of the second side track “T.D. 56”, so I thought maybe the music would be too light sounding or upbeat and when I heard it, it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting but it was stunningly beautiful but still with some of the sadder, ominous melodies I loved so much. My fears were unfounded. It was a classic. Still one of my favourites to this day. I’m very proud of it. I get a co-production and co-direction credit on the sleeve but in reality all I did was provide the money and arrange for the record to go into production. I had no influence on the music itself or the cover pictures. Maurizio has made so many records that it’s easy to get lost knowing where to start but I think this album is a good entry point and is one of his very best along with “Mörder Unter Uns”, “Regel”, “Menses” or “Symphony for a Genocide”, although you can’t go too far wrong with any of his wonderful music. As I sit here listening to it again it takes me back to 38 years ago when I first heard it and knew that I was going to be lucky enough to release a classic for the ages. Just 500 vinyl records exist from that original Broken Flag release. They are out there somewhere except for the one I have right here which will be with me until I die. It’s great that it’s coming out on vinyl again and I hope if you’re hearing it for the first time you adore it like I do. “To all the redeemed people”. (Gary Mundy, August 2021)

Concocted in a share house in the South of Brisbane in the mid-80s, a small collective of well-acquainted musicians including Jon Anderson, Rainer Guth, Gary McFeat & Rod Owen gathered to compose film soundtracks, music for pictures, therefore ‘Picture Music’. To this end, a ‘spec’ tape of Picture Music recordings would be produced to give to potential clients and or sold to local stores. A distinct album comprising a collection of ambient, minimal-jazz and experimental music. If there is a red thread running through the Picture Music album, it is its "late night" ambience. The wrath of the sub-tropical summer heat of Brisbane is not kind on electronic equipment, which would crash regularly by day. So, all recording was done in the relative cool of the late evening, in a room only dimly lit by lamp and candle. The Picture Music collective would make music and party all through the night, departing around sunrise. They would sleep through the heat of the day, only to return in the evening for more of the same. This 2021 reissue of their self-titled 1987 cassette, was taken from the original master tapes and remains an evocative representation of the music that resulted from the late-night, dimly-lit, atmospheric-enabled environment, that sparked the creativity of a group of like-minded friends in a tiny corner of Brisbane. Dedicated to the memory Rainer Guth.

An amazingly colorful album with songs that are based on solid substance rather than cheap pop structures. This is music for the bold listeners and music lovers and this awesome reissue should quickly find it’s way into the record collections of 80s synth and art pop aficionadoes. Yasuaki Shimizu did what he wanted with Mariah, pushed the borders of popular music further than anybody would have thought. Listen to a track like „Shonen“ with a repetitive rhythm pattern that hypnotizes you and somehow silky melodylines by saxophone and synth piano upon which a female voice sings in a very spiritual way. Praising pop or whatever this can be called, it is sheer magic put in music. I wonder if this would have made it into the charts back then, but you never know. It is a piece of musical art that shall be listened to. Grab your copy now!!!

Be ready for a spaced out trip through French medieval times. Ancient instruments, musique concrete, spoken word, old Occitan dialect minstrel songs, drone, from dark ambient and minimal percussive tracks to Middle Ages fuzz delirium. File under : medieval folk / ambient / experimental.

Former member of Dublin punk band The Threat, Stano released his debut LP on Scoff Records in 1983. Recorded in Alto Studios, the Irish artist eschewed live performances in favour of fusing collaborative, improvised, experimental music with spoken word-poetry. The LP featured contributions from fellow Irish musicians and artists such as Michael O'Shea, Roger Doyle, Donald Teskey, Vinnie Murphy, Detroit born Jerome Rimson and is a seminal document of Irish postpunk

Dizonord is very happy to bring you the reissue of this French 1988 underground self released gem, re-mastered from master tapes!
Dubby, punky, politically engaged new wave with a sense of humour, we've always been touched by the voice of Agnès (bass) and the phlegmatic Michel (machines and graphics). We could have thought the language barrier would have stopped the pleasure of this record but obviously not, as Mobutu song is already an international digger classic!
We really hope you'll enjoy this collection of tracks and collages as we do so, once upon a time...

For five decades, Harold Budd stood on the forefront of the West Coast avant-garde. Born in Los Angeles, he studied with Schoenberg-pupil Gerald Strang and began teaching at CalArts in 1970. While searching for his own voice, he was influenced as much by abstract expressionist painters as by John Cage and Morton Feldman. In his work, Budd brought delicate, slowing-moving melodies to the foreground – creating a new musical language based on “eternally pretty music” and smooth surfaces. In the early ’70s, Budd started an extended cycle of compositions that would comprise The Pavilion Of Dreams. For Budd, the album was a signpost for a new direction in thinking about music: “The Pavilion Of Dreams erased my past. I consider that to be the birth of myself as a serious artist. It was like my Magna Carta.” Produced by Brian Eno in 1978, The Pavilion Of Dreams stands toe-to-toe with another minimalist masterpiece also released that year, Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians. Budd’s gorgeous pieces reveal a lightness of touch that draws the listener in, while sublime voices float in and out as if in a recurring dream. Featuring saxophonist Marion Brown and multi-instrumentalists Gavin Bryars and Michael Nyman, The Pavilion Of Dreams remains a master class in exquisite timbre and shimmering texture. The Pavilion Of Dreams was both the final release on Eno’s Obscure imprint and a transition point towards his seminal ambient series. This first-time reissue is recommended for fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jon Hassell and Mark Hollis.

The Works - one of the most famous pieces by brilliant American composer Alvin Curran - was not created by will and direct purpose but, as the composer himself states, as a “providential accident” which is to say quite organically. Combining piano and voice with found sound and a custom-built Serge modular synthesizer, “The Works” is a slowly developing piece where space and ambient tape are eventually overtaken by raga-esque chanting and frenetic piano playing, where synthesizer washes become full-on workouts all leading to a coda where the listener is “finally carried off on the wheels of the Berlin U-Bahn.” Curran - whose initial training and musical education was as a pianist - had been living in Roma, Italy, in the mid-‘70s returning to his roots and performing regularly in cocktail lounges on Via Veneto. It was this return to piano and vocals that became the genesis for The Works. In relearning the piano, a five-note “motive” took hold. Added to this was “a recording I had made of our 14 year old dachshund Caspar just before he died. It was, in fact, a love song which he persisted in singing all day after meeting a lovely bitch in heat in Piazza Navona. This I knew would be the beginning of the piece.” As the piece expands further the listener will hear “cows munching grass, the Rome-Florence express train, a horse-fly caught against a window pane, my footsteps approaching a Roman fountain and later going up the steps of my old studio, cicadas, an Amsterdam calliope, a tin can being kicked, and a series of sounds from La Serra di Lerici.” Though “The Works” has been performed in many incarnations over the years, it’s this performance - captured on February 24, 1980, and originally released that same year by the short-lived Italian avant-garde label Fore - that is the definitive version, and one of the finest recordings ever made by the celebrated composer.

Alex Bradley's new reissue division at Utopia Records recovers the early works of Gianni Gebbia, a saxophonist and composer from Palermo, Sicily whose highly sought-after debut LP from 1987 is remastered with added unreleased material and updated art work by Gebbia himself. A minimal and contemporary jazz album of the highest order, its beautiful sound, sentimental electronics and use of synthesisers - that were a precursor to the house and dance music scene of the early 90's - has made the album endure the years that have passed. It will be sure to be a valuable addition to your home listening collection with stand out tracks like Cud evoking visions of a Sicilian beach stroll and the intense and brooding 'Vedersi Passare le Cose Attorno' with its Juno chords transports you to a Detroit night club in 1992 counterbalanced by Gebbia's soft saxophonic embrace. The self taught Gebbia's works touches on the avant-garde whilst maintaining a musicality and fluidity with his technique of circular breathing adding an extra element to his playing, the ability to create Reichian like minimalism with a single breath whilst maintaining melodic structure. The multi solo album artist is noted recently for working on the music score of Heiner Goebbels' music performance piece 'Everything that happened and would happen' at the Manchester international festival and for his curating of the "Anassimandro Festival of Music and Philosophy" in his home city of Palermo of which Bradley hosted last years after party.

Remastered from the original tapes, 180g vinyl!