Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield Vinyl 264 Items

If you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for plants. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back to the dawn of time, but apparently, they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.
Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result. When one writer rhetorically asked: “How was Garson’s music so ubiquitous while the man remained so under the radar?” the answer was simple. Well before Brian Eno did it, Garson was making discreet music, both the man and his music as inconspicuous as a Chlorophytum comosum. Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Garson wrote lounge hits, scored plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” He could render the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel alike into easy listening and also dreamed up his own ditties. “An idear” as Garson himself would drawl it out. “I live with it, I walk it, I sing it.”
But as his daughter Day Darmet recalls: “When my dad found the synthesizer, he realized he didn’t want to do pop music anymore.” Garson encountered Robert Moog and his new device at the Audio Engineering Society’s West Coast convention in 1967 and immediately began tinkering with the device. With the Moog, those idears could be transformed.
“My mom had a lot of plants,” Darmet says. “She didn’t believe in organized religion, she believed the earth was the best thing in the whole world. Whatever created us was incredible.” And she also knew when her husband had a good song, shouting from another room when she heard him humming a good idear. Novel as it might seem, Plantasia is simply full of good tunes.
Hearing Plantasia in the 21st century, it seems less an ode to our photosynthesizing friends by Garson and more an homage to his wife, the one with the green thumb that made everything flower around him. “My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time,” Darmet says of Plantasia's new renaissance. “He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then.” Garson seems to be everywhere again, even if he’s not really noticed, just like a houseplant.

Only one copy per customer!
The late Hiroshi Yoshimura, a pioneer of Japanese ambient music. Yoshimura was involved in a wide range of fields, such as sound design for public installations, graphic design, visual poetry, free improvised performance (using his own body) and inventing his own instruments, right up until he passed away in 2003.
The seven songson this album were created for a fashion exibition held at a warehouse in the Tokyo bay area. He released it on cassete tape on Japanese label ‘Fukusei Gijutsu Kohboh” ran by Yoshio Ojima who produced the album.
Referring to the Loft: "As the time goes by, the Loft that was swept away ( forgotten) from the City but it somewhat has a look of a " City of Ruins" that reminds you of something you have forgotten. Something nostalgic. Sounds from the City and the vast landscape gave me a great opportunity to take a fresh look at Tokyo." says Yoshimura.
Referring To the Pier: His look towards Tokyo bay takes on the shape of sonic particles....tickling down gently while tinged with change. A landscape of Seven Sounds.
This is the first-ever vinyl release, 34 years after it's recording. The sleeve image is the same as on the original cassette release.

Originally released in 1974 on Shandar, Dream House 78'17" is the second full-length album by La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. This first-time US edition reproduces the original gatefold sleeve with beautiful calligraphy by Zazeela and liner notes by Young and French musicologist Daniel Caux.

Side one was recorded at a private concert (on the date and time indicated by the title) and features Young and Zazeela's voices against a sine wave drone with Jon Hassell on trumpet and Garrett List on trombone. This work is a section of the longer composition Map of 49's Dream the Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery (begun in 1966 as a sub-section of The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys, which was begun in 1964 with Young's group The Theatre of Eternal Music). The piece evolves with the oscillator changing pitch and dictating an ornate pattern over the course of the performance.

Side two is an example of one of the sets of frequencies sustained in the Dream House, the composite sound environments conceived by Young and Zazeela. The composer suggests listening while seated – to experience how the sound interacts with the room and other perceptions of its arrangement – as well as while walking. As Young states, "The frequency ratios are monitored continuously as lissajous patterns on the oscilloscopes and, in spite of the great stability of the oscillators, the phase relationships of the sine waves gradually drift which causes their amplitudes to add and subtract algebraically. Not only does the sound become a bit louder and softer, but at very loud levels, one actually begins to have a sensation that parts of the body are somehow locked in sync with the sine waves and slowly drifting with them in space and time."

Soundway presents Circus Underwater’s 1984 self-titled masterpiece. Remastered and extended to a double LP, this deluxe version includes six unreleased tracks unearthed from the original ¼” tapes, and presented with an insert, including never-before-seen photos and the fascinating story behind the music. Featuring artwork from Grateful Dead collaborator, David Lundquist, the album encapsulates a unique moment in time. Echoing the story of a generation that grew up in the 50s and 60s where music was everything, two friends embark on a journey of experimentation which begins in the beatnik suburbs of Washington DC and travels to the heart of hippie San Francisco. The result is an opus that fearlessly blurs the boundaries of genres and embraces diverse influences. Elements of prog, rock, ambient and wave music culminate in an odyssey that seamlessly bridges the gap between the spaced-out creativity of the 70s and electronic music of today.

LP 180g, beautiful embossed Chess Board Artwork Print, inner sleeve with artist picture and text by David Elliott, Sounds June 16, 1984!

Mannequin Records is proud to present the official reissue of Caroline K's outstanding 1985 album, "Now Wait For Last Year."

This haunting, wistful work of post-industrial synthesizer music sees the late Nocturnal Emissions co-founder only solo record, which has accrued a fervent cult following over the past 40 years, and copies of the original pressing are today extremely rare and sought-after. The music on "Now Wait For Last Year" seems to exist firmly outside of it. Tags like industrial, minimal synth or proto-techno can't really do justice to the richly cinematic sound-world that Caroline K describes: from the sustained ambient tension of sidelong opener "The Happening World" to the future-primitive rhythms and stately piano flourishes "Animal Lattice", and the melancholic, deep-frozen synth sequences of "Cheart".

For fans of Throbbing Gristle, Chris Carter, Nocturnal Emissions and even early Detroit techno lovers should pay special attention to it.

All selections composed, arranged and played by Caroline K Recorded and produced by Caroline K

Photograph by Jake Kirkwood Original design by Nigel Ayers

The first five tracks of Now Wait For Last Year were originally released as a vinyl LP by Earthly Delights in 1987.

Packaged in an old school, tip-on sleeve. Includes hi-res digital download.

Legendary debut album by Junko Tange (mystery woman who showed up on the NWW list), originally issued by Osaka’s Vanity Records in 1979. Dadaesque recitations and sparse guitar, piano and electronic meanderings combine for a beguiling, hypnotic dreamworld. Officially licensed from the custodians of Yuzuru Agi's Vanity Records archives, this edition has been fully remastered from new transfers of the original analog tapes by Stephan Mathieu.

Standard 33rpm edition without gatefold cover.

WRWTFWW & Palto Flats Records are ecstatic to announce the highly-anticipated reissue of Japanese percussionist Midori Takada's sought after and timeless ambient / minimal album “Through The Looking Glass", originally released in 1983 by RCA Japan. Considered a Holy Grail of Japanese music by many, “Through The Looking Glass” is Midori Takada's first solo endeavor, a captivating four-song suite capturing her deep quests into traditional African and Asian percussive language and exploring contemplative ambient sounds with an admirably precise use of marimba. The result is alternatively ethereal and vibrant, always precise and mesmerizing, and makes for an atmospheric masterpiece and an unparalleled sonic and spiritual experience. The fully licensed reissue is available as a single 33rpm LP and a limited 45rpm DLP, both cut directly from the original studio reels (AAA), at Emil Berliner (formerly the in-house recording department of renowned classical record label Deutsche Grammophon) for the 45rpm DLP, and at the equally famous Frankfurter SST Studio for the LP. It is also available in CD format for the first time. All versions come with extensive liner notes. Bio Midori Takada is a composer, multi percussionist, and theater artist renowned in Japanese vanguard circles. She will tour Europe this year. Midori released two solo albums: “Through The Looking Glass” and “Tree Of Life” and wrote music for Tadashi Suzuki's theater plays. Her hypnotic, minimalist music is based in the concept of coherence between sound and the human body.

Remastered from the original tapes, 180g vinyl!

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.

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!!!

First ever reissue of this groundbreaking ambient work
Produced in full cooperation with Yoshimura’s estate
Remastered for vinyl and pressed at RTI
Unseen original handwritten track notes by Yoshimura.

Barely known outside of his home country during his lifetime, the late Japanese ambient music pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura has seen his global stature rise steadily in the past few years. The 2017 reissue of his lauded debut, Music For Nine Post Cards, along with a slow building cult internet following has helped ignite a renaissance in his acclaimed body of work, much of which has never been released outside of Japan. Known for his sound design and environmental music, Yoshimura worked on a number of commissions following the 1982 release of Music For Nine Post Cards, including works for museums, galleries, public spaces, TV shows, video art, fashion shows, and even a cosmetics company.

Originally released in 1986, GREEN is one of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s most well-loved recordings and a favorite of the artist himself. Recorded over the winter of 1985-86 at Yoshimura’s home studio, the compositions unfold at an unhurried pace, a stark contrast to the busy city life of Tokyo. As Yoshimura explained in the original liner notes, the album title in the context of this body of work is not meant to be seen as a color, but is rather used to convey “the comfortable scenery of the natural cycle known as GREEN”—which perfectly encapsulates the soothing and warm sounds contained on the album, although it was created utilizing Yamaha FM synthesizers, known for their crisp digital tones.

This edition marks the first reissue of the highly sought-after and impossible to find album. It features the original mix preferred by Yoshimura himself, previously available only on the initial Japanese vinyl release (a limited edition remixed version of the album, with added sound effects, was released on CD in the US). Additionally, this release is the first in our ongoing series, WATER COPY, focusing on the works of Hiroshi Yoshimura.

WRWTFWW Records is too happy to announce the much anticipated official reissue of Japanese duo Inoyamaland’s quintessential ambient/environmental/electronic album Danzindan-Pojidon, produced by Haruomi Hosono and originally released in 1983 on his Yen Records label. Available outside of Japan for the first time, the new age classic comes as a limited LP with liner notes by band member Makoto Inoue. With Danzindan-Pojidon, Yasushi Yamashita and Makoto Inoue created what they describe as “a special place where the kingdom of summer vacation never ended". Playful and magical, it’s a sonic landscape defined by tinkling synths, floating minimalist melodies, pastoral excursions, and mythical overtones.

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.

German project founded in 1984 by Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser. This release features two cheery picked exemplary moments in downtempo contemplative cosmic travels. A side sends the listener well out of orbit with a 10 min long gradient of Krauty arpeggiated showers that grows elegantly, a concerto to the astros of the mind. Flip it and it gets better as your space capsule gets sucked into some distant planet's gravitational pull, feelings of other-worldly sounds, slowed down beautifully almost eerie nuances one won't forget so easily. Sunrise on a Balearic island from another solar system. Berlin-School by trade but also heard on mixes by Jose Padilla. Heftily remastered.

After the 2021 Re-Release of “Schwingungen” (MG.ART612) and together with “Seven Up” (MG.ART613) we proudly announce “JOIN INN” as Part3 of the authorised 50th Anniversary “A.R.T.” Re-Edition Series. “JOIN INN” is the fourth album by Ash Ra Tempel. It was recorded at Studio Dierks and originally released on LP by Ohr Musik-Produktion, catalogue number OMM 556032. Each side of the LP comprises one long track.

In 1972 ASH RA TEMPEL teamed up again with Klaus Schulze during the recording of Walter Wegmüller's Tarot album, and after one of the recording sessions, ASH RA TEMPEL members: Enke, Göttsching and Rosi, together with Klaus decided to "play it again" in a late night session. This recording led to the birth of the “JOIN INN” album, as well as two legendary last concerts in February 1973 in Paris and Cologne.

Manuel Göttsching recalls Hartmut Enke on bass and Klaus Schulze on drums being a dream-team rhythm section for him to play his guitar, especially here to hear on “Freak'n' Roll”, that was ingenious and not to replace ever since. It was the last recording ever where Klaus Schulze (who sadly passed away this Year) played the Drums and also Hartmut (the Hawk) Enke soon after quit the Bass and music forever. Join Inn marks the end of the collaboration with Klaus Schulze. However, together with Ash Ra Tempel, their eponymous first album, which will be released in 2023 as the final edition of our Series, it is considered a highlight of the Krautrock movement. As for the music itself we again refer to Julian Cope´s review from his book “Krautrocksampler” (published by Head Heritage, 1st ed. 1995):
""Freak’n’roll” fades in like it never started - just was always there from the beginning of time, a dry wah-guitar freerock riff-out unlike any of the other Ash Ra Tempel LPs, and not much like any other music. Yes, there are bluesy riff but none of them have a blues context. Manuel Gottsching’s guitar is so confident that he sometimes drops down to a simple major chord groove, whilst the Hawk pushes that round woody bass into strange overlapping rumbling melody. And ... it’s the return of Klaus Schulze on drums which propels “Freak’n’roll” to its height. No-one but Klaus has the ability to transcend rock’n’roll in such an on-the-beat non-groove-y way and still send sparks of light into the cosmos as he does it. "Freak’n’roll” is so egoless that it even works at a quiet volume as meditational music. Themes rise from the high tempo pulse beat, then are carried along the muscles of the song into the main area where the riff actually becomes real and expressionist for just long enough before slipping back into the musical fabric of the song. As usual with Ash Ra Tempel, the other side is an enormous drift piece called “Jenseits (The Next World)”, a beautiful Klaus Schultze meditation of haunting synthesizer chords over which Rosi Muller tells the story of the Cosmic Couriers’ meeting with Timothy Leary. Gradually, the pulsing guitar becomes increasingly intense and turbulent, but Rosi never sounds less than freaked out. Essentially, “Jenseits” is a precursor to Klaus Schulze’s later spacey minor-key grooves. Unfortunately, this was the last Ash Ra Tempel album in its particular ‘series. After “JOIN INN”, Manuel Gottsching took over the Ash Ra Tempel mantle alone.”

Ashra Tempel – Join Inn
HARTMUT ENKE - Gibson bass
MANUEL GÖTTSCHING -guitar
KLAUS SCHULZE-drums, synthesizers & electronics
ROSI MÜLLER-voice

The year is 1981. The Kiel-based PostPunk / Wave underground outfit NO More releases their second ever single „Suicide Commando“ and their world changes forever. Well, not only their world – THE world. What began as an independently published 7“ single became a cult classic, a genre defining – and defying – song, an all-time dancefloor favorite of many, a timeless signature piece that escaped its original realm of PostPunk x Wave x Indie x Alternative to also become engrained in the DNA of modern electronic dancefloor culture most prominently in the beloved late 90s permutation presented by DJ Hell which became a classic in its own right. Now the year is 2021. Four decades have passed and NO More's „Suicide Commando“ is back once again - well... the song actually never left! -, this time harking back to the very beginning, the original vibe and the original format. Remastered and re-released with the original tracklisting and paying homage to the original artwork „Suicide Commando“ will be available in 7“ format for the first time since 1981. And staying true to the underground blueprint this 40th anniversary re-release edition once again is put out on the circuit through a small independent label: the Intrauterin Recordings offspring El Caballo Semental which also released NO More's „123456789 *baze.djunkiii & Herr Brandt Dream A NuDream Remix“ as a limited to 200 copies one-sided, colored whitelabel 7“ edition in 2019. Initial pressing will be limited to 400 copies.

First ever reissue of this groundbreaking ambient work
Produced in full cooperation with Yoshimura’s estate
Remastered for vinyl and pressed at RTI
Unseen original handwritten track notes by Yoshimura. Barely known outside of his home country during his lifetime, the late Japanese ambient music pioneer Hiroshi Yoshimura has seen his global stature rise steadily in the past few years. The 2017 reissue of his lauded debut, Music For Nine Post Cards, along with a slow building cult internet following has helped ignite a renaissance in his acclaimed body of work, much of which has never been released outside of Japan. Known for his sound design and environmental music, Yoshimura worked on a number of commissions following the 1982 release of Music For Nine Post Cards, including works for museums, galleries, public spaces, TV shows, video art, fashion shows, and even a cosmetics company.

Originally released in 1986, GREEN is one of Hiroshi Yoshimura’s most well-loved recordings and a favorite of the artist himself. Recorded over the winter of 1985-86 at Yoshimura’s home studio, the compositions unfold at an unhurried pace, a stark contrast to the busy city life of Tokyo. As Yoshimura explained in the original liner notes, the album title in the context of this body of work is not meant to be seen as a color, but is rather used to convey “the comfortable scenery of the natural cycle known as GREEN”—which perfectly encapsulates the soothing and warm sounds contained on the album, although it was created utilizing Yamaha FM synthesizers, known for their crisp digital tones.

This edition marks the first reissue of the highly sought-after and impossible to find album. It features the original mix preferred by Yoshimura himself, previously available only on the initial Japanese vinyl release (a limited edition remixed version of the album, with added sound effects, was released on CD in the US). Additionally, this release is the first in our ongoing series, WATER COPY, focusing on the works of Hiroshi Yoshimura.

Remastered from the original tapes, 180g vinyl!

fully remastered 180 gram vinyl reissue incl. 7 orginally unreleased tracks of this groundbreaking collaboration!

Celebrated new wave compilation from Japan reissued for the first time on Glossy Mistakes.
A much-cherished gem from the 1980s underground Japanese music scene returns as Soft Selection 84 is reissued by Glossy Mistakes for its 40th anniversary. Originally released on DIY label Soft, the compilation sees 13 tracks from nine acts spanning minimal, ambient, zolo and more for a beguiling listen.
The result is a charming time capsule of eclectic creativity in which nothing sounds dated. Take La Sellrose Can Can, whose two party jams predate Kero Kero Bonito's hyperpop by decades. In addition, an impeccable remastering from the original master tapes adds to the "could have been recorded yesterday" feel of the collection.
Soft Selection 84 also includes the eccentric Picky Picnic. One of the few featured artists with recordings beyond the anthology, the trio is an essential act for those curious about Japanese art pop of the era. There is also new wave introspection from Name, whose "Do We All Need Love" plays out as a sensual nod to John Lennon. In a similar vein is Clä-Sick, the recording name of Goro Some, the compilation's original producer and founder of Soft.
The record's rerelease comes with Some's blessing, along with his original artwork and photography. Ultimately, the listener is left tantalised by his selection and its bold excursions into no wave, synth pop, radioplay and bizzaro house. Most of the artists on this release would fade into obscurity, but the transient nature of the potential showcased has helped cement the compilation's reputation over the years.
Soft Selection will be released on vinyl LP by Glossy Mistakes on March 2024, with a remastering from the original master tapes.

* First-ever official reissue of the pioneering 1986 ambient work * Produced in full cooperation with Hiroshi Yoshimura’s estate * New liner notes by original album producer Hiroyoshi Shiokawa * Includes Yoshimura’s original notes in Japanese & English * Remastering and lacquer cutting by John Baldwin * Vinyl pressed at Gotta Groove Records "If Surround can be listened to as music that’s asclose to air itself, allowing us to enter each listener’s sound scenery, or assomething that exists within a new perspective, expanding the middle groundbetween sound and music, and transforming it into a comfortable space, it wouldbe much appreciated.— Hiroshi YoshimuraTemporal Drift proudly presents the long-awaited, first-everreissue of Surround, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s sought-after ambient classic. Originally released as an album in January 1986, Surroundwas recorded by Yoshimura as a commission from home builder Misawa Homes,intended to function as an “amenity” designed to enhance the company’s newlybuilt living spaces. A pioneer in the field of environmental music, Yoshimura’sprevious works included Music For Nine Post Cards (1982), originally producedto be played back inside a museum space, and designing sound environments forpublic spaces and subway systems. Surround was recorded almost concurrentlywith the acclaimed and popular Green (1986); the two albums are described byHiroyoshi Shiokawa in his liner notes as being Yoshimura’s yin and yang. In his original notes for the album, Yoshimura recommendsthat Surround be placed in the same family of sounds “as the vibration offootsteps, the hum of an air conditioner, or the clanging of a spoon inside acoffee cup.” And, as he suggests, “with the addition of city noise from outsidethe window,” you may hear Surround in a completely new way."

Accurately described by Thurston Moore as "great for meditating to the cosmos," Terry Riley's classic Descending Moonshine Dervishes is available again in a limited edition repress manufactured by Optimal in Germany. Originally recorded live in Berlin in 1975 and released by Kuckuck in 1982, Beacon Sound reissued the album in 2016 to widespread acclaim. Using just intonation and a modified organ, Riley conjures forth a rich and layered sound that challenges the Western ear, reflecting his associations with Indian classical singer Pandit Pran Nath and La Monte Young , whose Well Tuned Piano was well underway. Descending Moonshine Dervishes is a virtuosic and kaleidoscopic performance, standing as one of the finest works of a revolutionary composer and musician at the height of his powers. Recorded in concert November 29, 1975 at Metamusik Festival in Berlin.

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.

"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!

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.

Across two 7”s, Death Or Glory (1982) and Death Rocks (1983) and one 12”, Anguish (1982) Jimmy Smack carved his own bleak chasm amidst the LA Death Rock scene that he inhabited. After decades dormant in the crypt, Knekelhuis compiles Smack’s full recorded output, providing it a lavish place to rest on the Death Is Certain LP.

While his local punk contemporaries pursued aggressive hardcore and political punk, Jimmy Smack donned corpse paint (before it would later become synonymous with the European black metal movement) and found a home performing in venues like the Anti-Club, amongst other subterranean dwellers Christian Death, Dead Hippie and 45 Grave.

Even within this lurid milieu, Jimmy Smack stood alone. Hating Life (from Death Rocks) easily locates Jimmy within the negative-punk and KBD lexicon. However his recordings, consisting of voice, rhythm box and electrified bagpipe drones, otherwise veer closer to other-worldly avant-garde rituals. Jimmy’s background in theatre and performance art helping inform not only his menacing stage presence, but also spawning the singularity of his sound.

Death Is Certain comes housed in a printed inner sleeve featuring rarely seen archival photos, liner notes by Cooper Bowman and excerpts from an interview with Jimmy Smack conducted by Juan Mendez (Silent Servant)

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.

Some artists have gained huge recognition, some records have been idealized to the point of becoming cult albums… and that’s exactly the case of Marine Flowers, by Japanese multi artist Akira Ito. An album that is unique, delicate, exploratory… a true one-of-a-kind sonic adventure that 35 years after its first release comes back in the form of a reissue via Glossy Mistakes.

Looking back, Akira Ito’s artistic career began not in music but in acting. Born in Japan in 1945, he developed a prodigious ability to perform and a childhood acting career blossomed. However, as acting gigs dried up, actor/director Shintaro Katsu encouraged him to follow his steps into the music industry. With the rise of Western rock and soul music lighting up Japanese radio, Akira Ito stood to capitalize in the localized mid-60s “Group Sounds” craze by becoming a performing musician, joining touring bands across Japan fusing western and Shōwa-era pop styles.

But Akira’s musical interests changed throughout his life experiences and travels, up to the point when he knew exactly what he wanted to do (without knowing how to do it): healing music. Akira understood that once he set up shop at Hitokuchizaka Studios in Tokyo the work of translating these ideas began in earnest. First, he started his own record label, dubbing it “Green & Water’’ to promote a series of releases that would strike a more organic tone, envisioning a series of Japanese Environmental Music records. Marine Flowers would be one of four self-penned albums on the label dedicated to esoteric symbolism like “Hopi Prophecies”, “Prayers”, and the “Four Corners Of Water”. Originally released in 1986 and on its 35th anniversary, Marine Flowers deserves this fresh reissue, making this masterpiece available for everyone.

Liner notes are written by Diego Olivas, author of the blog Fond/Sond, from an interview with the artist coordinated by Ken Hidaka.

In the early 1980’s Hessel Veldman and Herman te Loo assembled at Hessel’s apartment, which served both as a living room and as a home studio, every Thursday night. After the necessary social exchange over coffee, the guys started improvising, sometimes with a small preconceived musical cell or idea to work from. With a skeleton crew of just two (give or take the occasional overdub) the music that came out was usually simple in its form, sometimes stark, but always adventurous in its scope. And most of all: they approached the music with a sense of wonderment. Hessel had a great preference for repetitive patterns, executed on guitar, bass guitar or the synths of the era: a Korg MS 20 and a Roland Juno. Herman provided melodic lines with his soprano sax and occasional vocals and lyrics. A Drumatix drum machine provided the rhythms. Given these premises the duo sometimes sounded like Tuxedomoon or Wire, bands they both admired. But they never had the intention to imitate or copy anyone. Hence the occasional outing on a corny sounding ancient electronic organ (Philicorda) with pre-programmed analog rhythm box (eko). It provided the necessary humour in the sometimes gloomy 80’s period sound. They recorded everything, and Hessel would work on the result during the week that followed. The twosome would then discuss the mix prior to a new Thursday session. After a while there was enough material to compile a tape for Hessel’s independent Exart cassette label. It became one the volumes of a trilogy, entitled Y Create, the Y referring to Ymuiden, Herman and Hessel’s home town. In contrast to the other volumes of the series, the grey and green tape, the blue cassette (which is the one remixed and reissued on vinyl here) contained relatively short pieces – songs almost. The rest of the series delved more into long, hypnotic soundscapes, which later became an important ingredient for the music of Gorgonzola Legs, the band which Hessel and Herman started in 1984 with drummer/electronics wizard Gert Jan Prins and guitarist Jos van Duijne.

Formed in 1978, Bomis Prendin is a collective of experimental “noisicians” from Washington DC, pioneers within the DIY, Industrial, cassette culture and experimental electronics scene. Using cassette recorders, mutated musical toys, electric guitars, bass, rewired circuitry, analog pedal effects & cheap keyboards, they recorded and released in the late 70s a couple of astounding flexi-discs (Test and Phantom Limb) which led to them being included on the infamous Nurse With Wound list. “Clear Memory” was originally released in 1984 only on cassette (50 copies) and it’s an incredible example of DIY mutant psychedelic pop and homemade electronic weirdness which sounds years ahead of its time. Here’s the first ever reissue.

Of all the releases on Italy’s legendary Cramps Records, Raul Lovisoni and Francesco Messina’s seminal LP from 1979 has long remained among the most beloved. Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo not only introduced the world to the work of two gifted composers, but also is notable for being produced by electronic pioneer Franco Battiato. A sister album to Prati Bagnati would be Giusto Pio’s breathtaking Motore Immobile, likewise graced with the maestro’s gentle hand around the same time.

Lovisoni and Messina are both central figures within the Italian avant-garde. Part of a generation of artists who contributed to a radical rethinking of musical practices and composition, they reveal Minimalism as it’s rarely known: delicate melodies, subtle harmonic interplay, incorporating diverse creative traditions and slowly giving way to an ever-expanding open space.

Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo’s meditative title track, inspired by René Daumal’s surrealist novel Le Mont Analogue, features Messina on synthesizer and Michele Fedrigotti’s impressionistic piano, while on Lovisoni’s “Hula Om” and “Amon Ra,” solo harp, crystal glasses and Juri Camisasca’s radiant vocal drones further ascend into the stratosphere. Skirting the outer edges of ambient, new age and experimental music, Prati Bagnati has a transformative beauty unlike anything else.

Superior Viaduct’s edition reproduces the original sleeve design and is recommended for fans of Jon Hassell, Luciano Cilio and Popol Vuh.

Remastered and pressed on 180g virgin vinyl!

"The Loa of Music" is the debut recording project of Milanese composer and musician Roberto Musci inspired by Voodoo Religion; Vever (the magical voodoo paintings) and Loas, the dark and magic spirits. The deep charm of non-Western music has led him to travel for many years across Africa, India and Asia, studying rhythms, scales, performance and interpretation of the most varied traditional and indigenous music, as well he make many field recordings and collected ethnic instruments that would then be combined with synthesizers and electronics in The Loa of Music.

Recorded in 1983, the project originally had 80 minutes of music but only half was released on original LP. SOAVE has pressed for the first time the Complete Recording Session from original tapes of this phenomenally ambitious masterpiece that entirely refuses the well trod path - distilling a remarkable range of sonic reference and reality. A work of field recording, musique concrète, electronics, synthesis, and instrumentation, pulling from countless musics from across the globe, the result is nothing short of brilliant and stunningly beautiful. A near perfect work - an egoless gesture, which rather than attempting to find consensus, offers every voice equity and cohabitation - harnessing the history music, with all of its cultural diversity, as a vision for a more ideal future. Geographies and their sounds intertwine, while Musci’s interventions and instrumentation thread a path. Ambiences ripple, sounds and voices converse in a vision of unity that may only exist within sonic realms. Unquestionably seminal, and one of the most important works to emerge from Italy in the last 50 years. Never before issued on vinyl since it’s original release, and surely not to be around for long, this is one not to miss.

Remastered from the original tapes, 180g vinyl!

Remastered from the original tapes, 180g vinyl!

A remastered and revised artwork edition of the extraordinary World Of Echo album from New York avant-garde cellist, songwriter, composer, and disco visionary Arthur Russell. Originally released in 1986, the album is a deeply meditative and seductive work of awe-inspiring beauty, grace, and passion, performed with just cello, voice, and echoes. Eighteen tracks remastered from Russell’s original 1/4-inch sequenced masters, including drumless versions of his disco classics “Let’s Go Swimming,” “Tree House,” and “Wax The Van,” along with four previously unreleased songs from Sketches From World Of Echo. Edition of 1,000 copies.

180g vinyl!

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...

Originally released in 1983 on Hessian.

Bryn Jones’ work was justly known for its excess—of tracks created, of rhetoric, of volume levels, of repetition, of length—and the sometimes indiscriminate way he produced material as Muslimgauze carried over into his approach to the part of the business that involved getting people to actually hear his music. Known for the deluge of DATs he’d share with the labels he worked with, Jones also didn’t necessarily restrict himself to just one outlet.

Very early in his career, in the same year the first two Muslimgauze LPs came out (1983), Jones released an obscure 7” single with completely blank black sleeve art on a label called Hessian. »Hammer & Sickle« is to date the only release on Hessian (which may have just been Jones himself?). Those two LPs, Kabul and Opaques, are fascinating in the context of the full swath of Jones’ work. They’re much spacier, more drifting, and notably less interested in using the kind of Middle Eastern percussion and other instrumentation that’s such a distinct element on many Muslimgauze releases. »Hammer & Sickle« operates in a similar territory, but if anything a little further out from the main body of Jones’ work.

The side-long title track and the three b-sides here are all cut from the same cloth, spacious productions that mainly play rounded synth percussion against echoing, ›bag of wire‹-style dub hits. After the lengthy examination of »Hammer & Sickle« itself, the other three cuts experiment with altering pitch, duration, tempo, and other elements as if testing the ways Jones could vary the effects of the title track without ever ditching its component parts. His sound was already quickly evolving (even the next year’s Buddhist on Fire is closer to what fans likely picture when they think of the »Muslimgauze sound«), leaving »Hammer & Sickle« an intriguing and valuable portrait of one of Jones’ early side investigations.

An official re-issue of the 1996 album, Beyond the Circle, from Dr. Osamu Kitajima presented by Forest Jams on vinyl for the first time.

As the title suggests, Japanese music explorer Osamu Kitajima takes the listener beyond the known on a musical voyage into new territory where his compositions are a synthesis of Western electronics and ambient dance rhythms, tempered by the wisdom of ancient Japanese traditions. "Beyond the Circle" is music that is as energizing as it is spiritual and melodic.