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A chirp, a wine and a gurgle are the sounds that make the song of swallow. You won't find any of them on here though. The third installment of this sampler series features well-rounded dance and prance material instead. Four artists, four hits. Berlin duo Cyrk pay tribute to their favorite Sunday parties with Italo Blade. Barely hidden by its name, it cuts right through any heart of stone with aural infatuation and elation. Portraying the best moment in someone's life after a gig at the infamous Papaya Playa Project, Smallville records associate Snad, delivers a skippy and irresistible MPC jam that makes one want to whistle along. The baroque effect and element of Voon's music is a given. The Italian duo made that clear with Rose in Japan and is able to repeat the trick with Brando. Like Rondo Veneziano at a rave, it's larger than life and happily jumping over the inhibition gate of restraint. Finally, Lukas Lehmann takes the boiling pot off the stove. Juno Cuts A Caper is an ode to synthesizer number six of the renowned Roland series and a masterclass in simmering down. All in all: fun, fun, fun.-

Repress

2x12"

Zodiak Commune Records proudly presents its very first double LP made by label resident 1NC1N. High quality techno, acid and electro. Are you ready for the The Butterfly Effect Enjoy this limited release in the insectum serie!

A1. Digisynaptic Resonance
In this new age, technology is resonating on a digisynaptic level.
This track will surprise you...

A2. Voice Of Reason
Everyone has a voice of his own...for a reason.
Let your higher self speak!

B1. Nocturnal Humanoid
Not learning by experience.
Feeding by data is revolution.

B2. The Lost & The Missing (live)
Go back to the beginning of the Acid scene.
Relive the evolution.

C1. Walking Taiko
Listen to the rythmic art of Taiko.
Close your eyes...walk across Japan with all its beauty and hectics.

C2. The Ghost Of Holeenhyrst
Imagine a dark forest with a lost village.
You will be surrounded by this one person who supposed to be left...but did not.

D1. Whispering Transmission
Do not overuse a radio.
Sometimes it s better to communicate through whispering.

D2. Samsara
Embrace the infinity.
Ending it means start something new.

In 2019, Parisian cinema composer Jean-Gabriel Becker and Japanese composer and multi- instrumentalist Susumu Mukai embarked on the making of an album that was ultimately going to become ‘Time Very Near’.
The album was finally released to great acclaim in April 2020 through the strangest time in history for its singularity and originality. Prompted by a few unsolicited offers for remixes, Becker & Mukai saw an occasion to invite their community of musician and producer friends to re-invent, deconstruct and rebuild the songs on ‘Time Very Near’.
Joe Goddard (Hot Chip), who, from his studio next door, had witnessed the birth of the project from day one, was kind enough to unleash his killer beats on Spice War. Old friend Jas Shaw (Simian Mobile Disco) transformed the tropical sounds of Dark Fields Of The Republic into a dance-floor ready techno workout.
Long-time collaborator and friend Sasa Crnobrnja (In Flagranti, Mytron & Ofofo, Auf Togo) took Time Very Near on a trip to Jamaica. Label mate AMA//MIZU stripped Tout Azimuth down to its core to rebuild it with his unique production skills. Dreems delivered a sweltering 19 minute version of Dark Fields Of The Republic and a shorter version more suited for a vinyl listen. And finally Becker & Mukai chose to don their alternative monikers (Zongamin and Lux Prima) to re-interpret the duo’s own compositions.
Like the original album, this remix project gathers sounds and inspiration from an ever-expanding palette of influences, assembled into something amorphously intangible that’s simultaneously refreshing and sharp, meandering and cosmic, futuristic but timelessly vintage and manages to expand where the original album left off.

Limited edition of 12′ vinyl release. Presents its sixth vinyl release with an interesting collaboration between a contemporary project such as Dot Product, the tandem formed by Adam Winchester and Christopher Jarman, and the Japanese legend of experimental rock and noise Kazuyuki Kishino. Known as KK Null, this artist had a first stage as a guitarist in several bands, it is worth remembering that at that time he collaborated with Merzbow in several albums and that years later he changed the guitar for electronic devices. 404 Not Found opens side A with a first cut by the English duo. Error Message combines grainy, strummed textures with a humanized sonic profile in which a beautiful melody makes its way in the face of bleak adversity. The second cut of this side is by KK Null, in this track the Japanese artist shows a high dose of metallic sounds that travel at the free will of the author to end up yielding in front of a complex and disorderly structured rhythm. Unlike side A, side B of this EP shows a work created jointly by Dot Product and KK Null. Pause Frames is an industrial cut, with hard percussion and numerous sound patterns such as pads, strong resonances and highly saturated components. 10-4-10-409-Conflict is the fourth and final track on the release, again employing a hard-hitting rhythm with a series of crunchy textures and a harmonic conjugation of dissonant chords. Picture: Stefan Alt / Salt (Ant-Zen) Mastered: Daniele Antezza / Dadub Written: Kazuyuki Kishino, Adam Winchester and Chris Jarman

11001 Records is a Berlin-based record label focused on techno, ambient, experimental and other forms of abstract visions. Co-founder of Teufelsberg Domecast, a sound installation podcast series with ambient experimental live performances using the dome at the top of Teufelsberg as a natural parabolic reverb. In ‘Dimensional Perception’, each song revolves around an object in outer space: A1 RYUGU Ryugu is the name of an asteroid. In June 2018, a Japanese spacecraft called ‘Hayabusa2’ landed on it, took some measurements and samples. After a long journey it landed successfully in the desert of Australia early December 2020. The goal is to discover what asteroids carry with them across the universe. If they carry water this could explain how life is spreading in the cosmos. A2 QUASAR A Quasar also known as a quasi-stellar object, is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus, in which a supermassive black hole with mass ranging from millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun is surrounded by a gaseous accretion disk. They are capable of emitting hundreds or even thousands of times the entire energy output of our galaxy, making them some of the most luminous and energetic objects in the entire universe. B1 SEDNA Sedna is a large planetoid and possible dwarf planet in the outer reaches of our solar system. Its surface is one of the reddest among Solar System objects. It is a possible dwarf planet. It has an exceptionally long and elongated orbit, taking approximately 11,400 years to complete and a distant point of closest approach to the Sun at 76 AU. Understanding its unusual orbit is likely to yield valuable information regarding the origin and early evolution of the Solar System. Scientists continue speculations on its origins of this trans-Neptunian object. B2 NAMAKA Namaka is the smaller, inner moon of the dwarf planet Haumea at a distance of 25,600 kilometres. It takes 18 Earth-days for the moon to complete one orbit around the dwarf planet. Discovered on 30 June 2005 it was named after Nāmaka, the goddess of the sea in Hawaiian mythology and one of the daughters of Haumea. Photometric observations indicate that its surface is made of water ice.

Alder Ego on We Jazz Records complete package including the new "III" plus the previous "II" (2018), either as color vinyl bundle (orange+white) or on black vinyl. Bound together with "Japanese style" inner sleeve, includes sticker.

Alder Ego on We Jazz Records complete package including the new "III" plus the previous "II" (2018), either as color vinyl bundle (orange+white) or on black vinyl. Bound together with "Japanese style" inner sleeve, includes sticker.

neon candy vinyl incl. 24"x12" poster

To Sonic Boom’s Pete Kember, re-imagining the past can lead to ways forward on life’s natural, interconnected path. In April of 2020, he released his first album in over 20 years called All Things Being Equal, a lush and psychedelic record full of interwoven synthesizers and droning vocal melodies, concerned with the state of humanity and the natural world. An entire year later, Kember has re-imagined his last release and created an album of self-remixed tracks called Almost Nothing Is Nearly Enough, inspired by the spirit of late 70s, early 80s records by artists like Kraftwerk, Blondie and Eddy Grant. His new album is hypnotic and moody, holding onto the existential framework of the original, but exposes a fresh, beating realm of possibility.

In his last album, All Things Being Equal, Kember told regenerative stories backwards and forwards as he explored dichotomies zen and fearsome, reverential of his analog toolkit and protective of the plants and trees that support our lives. His work is always complex, both in its instrumentation built using modular synthesizers, and with his attempts to observe the many variables that exist in the universe that are intrinsically connected. Kember takes his existential and musical curiosity even further in Almost Nothing Is Nearly Enough, explaining “how we interact now is especially critical.” Written while the world endures many environmental and human crises, the album is both a balm and a reminder to nurture our own relationships, both natural and personal.

Almost Nothing Is Nearly Enough includes remixes of six tracks from All Things Being Equaland two tracks previously released exclusively in Japan. The album opens just like the original, with “Just Imagine”in its remixed form. The modular synthesizer at its foundation sounds familiar, but as the song progresses it branches out into various veins of sparkling embellishments and deep humming to truly expand the world that the song attempts to envision. On the albums’title track “Almost Nothing Is Nearly Enough,” Kember’s instrumentation mirrors the interactions he wishes to inspire; synthesizers responding and building on one another, a conversation of sorts that the human world currently seems to avoid.

Almost Nothing Is Nearly Enough sets itself up to be a grooving, night-time record, while carrying on Sonic Boom’s sense of urgency to assess our relationship with the world. As Sonic Boom revisits his last album, he exposes the arteries and bones of his past work and shares its raw, exciting potential. The result is a re-textured and re-colored new set of songs, emphasizing Sonic Boom’s ability to make a sonically expansive album feel distinctly impactful for anyone who listens closely.

PRIMAL FEAR's ferocious new record “Metal Commando” has been an undisputed highlight of 2020. The German power metal band's 13th full length detonated in the midst of a raging pandemic, leaving no stone unturned in its path. The whole world got stuck in, achieving the 6 piece some of their highest chart positions in their 20+ year career, which included; a top ten in Switzerland (6), Germany (7), Japan (7), Finland (9) and Sweden (9) next to multiple high entries in countries such as Austria, Spain, France and the USA.

PRIMAL FEAR are Germany’s metal band of the hour, again. Right now however, they want to show us something new, a different side to them - after releasing a string of heavy and hard-hitting singles from “Metal Commando”, mastermind Mat Sinner and vocal force Ralf Scheepers have something extraordinary up their sleeves; a 5-track single, built around an exclusive new rendition of their achingly beautiful ballad ‘I Will Be Gone’, re-recorded with none other than Finnish metal diva extraordinaire, Tarja Turunen.

“There were three famous vocalists on our final wish list,” Mat Sinner comments. “That it was Tarja who got involved in this song is a matter of pure joy for all of us. Working together on the song and video was totally relaxed and professional – a great experience also because Tarja’s and Ralf’s voices go together incredibly well. Now, we can expand the ‘Metal Commando’ saga with a unique chapter. We’re all really proud of this single.”

The Finnish icon can only agree: “I was very happy to receive the invitation to take part in PRIMAL FEAR’s beautiful song ‘I Will Be Gone’. We started our careers nearly at the same time many years ago, and finally got a chance to work together. I love the song and personally it helped me to stay connected and rock again, even if at the studio this time. I really hope that people will like this collaboration and that it will bring them joy especially during these difficult times we are living through at the moment.”
The song, fragile and touching, gets an altogether new and deeply melancholic vibe with Tarja’s unbelievably emotional performance, showcasing a different facet of PRIMAL FEAR. Yet, it’s not the only gift they deliver on this 5-track sensation - just take ‘Vote Of No Confidence’ for example, an all-new, previously unreleased beast of a song. Clocking in at over six minutes, this storming, furious anthem gives a brilliant glimpse of things to come. Previously only available as bonus tracks on the limited “Metal Commando” digipack, three more tracks complete this release; enchanting guitar instrumental ‘Rising Fear’, massive mid-tempo smasher ‘Leave Me Alone’, and heavy metal monument ‘Second To None’, making ‘I Will Be Gone’ so much more than just another off shoot of a successful album.

“Metal Commando” is so much more than just another album by a veteran band. The songs are too strong, the hooks too merciless, the refrains too huge, and their trademark phalanx of three guitars too indomitable for any meek kind of listener response. “We’re simply an awesome team,” Sinner laughs. The “we” he’s talking about are of course himself on bass guitar and vocals, fierce vocalist Ralf Scheepers, guitarists Tom Naumann, Alex Beyrodt and Magnus Karlsson as well as that brand-new whirlwind of a drummer, Michael Ehré.

After six albums “abroad”, “Metal Commando” saw the band return to their first home Nuclear Blast. Where some bands would give in under such pressure, changing labels for PRIMAL FEAR has unleashed a huge amount of sublime heavy metal energy. Heck, we bet this seismic shock was visible on the Richter scale! “We wrote and wrote and realised quite early on that we had a lot of good ideas going”. Good ideas? The songs are bangers as only PRIMAL FEAR anthems can be – a sound that’s long become a trademark just got new, shiny alloys.

New track ‘I Will Be Gone’ showcases PRIMAL FEAR’s mellow, bittersweet side – available on multi coloured vinyl, shaped vinyl, CD digipack or digitally. Let’s all take a deep breath now; soon enough it’ll get loud again on stages around the globe.

PRIMAL FEAR's ferocious new record “Metal Commando” has been an undisputed highlight of 2020. The German power metal band's 13th full length detonated in the midst of a raging pandemic, leaving no stone unturned in its path. The whole world got stuck in, achieving the 6 piece some of their highest chart positions in their 20+ year career, which included; a top ten in Switzerland (6), Germany (7), Japan (7), Finland (9) and Sweden (9) next to multiple high entries in countries such as Austria, Spain, France and the USA.

PRIMAL FEAR are Germany’s metal band of the hour, again. Right now however, they want to show us something new, a different side to them - after releasing a string of heavy and hard-hitting singles from “Metal Commando”, mastermind Mat Sinner and vocal force Ralf Scheepers have something extraordinary up their sleeves; a 5-track single, built around an exclusive new rendition of their achingly beautiful ballad ‘I Will Be Gone’, re-recorded with none other than Finnish metal diva extraordinaire, Tarja Turunen.

“There were three famous vocalists on our final wish list,” Mat Sinner comments. “That it was Tarja who got involved in this song is a matter of pure joy for all of us. Working together on the song and video was totally relaxed and professional – a great experience also because Tarja’s and Ralf’s voices go together incredibly well. Now, we can expand the ‘Metal Commando’ saga with a unique chapter. We’re all really proud of this single.”

The Finnish icon can only agree: “I was very happy to receive the invitation to take part in PRIMAL FEAR’s beautiful song ‘I Will Be Gone’. We started our careers nearly at the same time many years ago, and finally got a chance to work together. I love the song and personally it helped me to stay connected and rock again, even if at the studio this time. I really hope that people will like this collaboration and that it will bring them joy especially during these difficult times we are living through at the moment.”
The song, fragile and touching, gets an altogether new and deeply melancholic vibe with Tarja’s unbelievably emotional performance, showcasing a different facet of PRIMAL FEAR. Yet, it’s not the only gift they deliver on this 5-track sensation - just take ‘Vote Of No Confidence’ for example, an all-new, previously unreleased beast of a song. Clocking in at over six minutes, this storming, furious anthem gives a brilliant glimpse of things to come. Previously only available as bonus tracks on the limited “Metal Commando” digipack, three more tracks complete this release; enchanting guitar instrumental ‘Rising Fear’, massive mid-tempo smasher ‘Leave Me Alone’, and heavy metal monument ‘Second To None’, making ‘I Will Be Gone’ so much more than just another off shoot of a successful album.

“Metal Commando” is so much more than just another album by a veteran band. The songs are too strong, the hooks too merciless, the refrains too huge, and their trademark phalanx of three guitars too indomitable for any meek kind of listener response. “We’re simply an awesome team,” Sinner laughs. The “we” he’s talking about are of course himself on bass guitar and vocals, fierce vocalist Ralf Scheepers, guitarists Tom Naumann, Alex Beyrodt and Magnus Karlsson as well as that brand-new whirlwind of a drummer, Michael Ehré.

After six albums “abroad”, “Metal Commando” saw the band return to their first home Nuclear Blast. Where some bands would give in under such pressure, changing labels for PRIMAL FEAR has unleashed a huge amount of sublime heavy metal energy. Heck, we bet this seismic shock was visible on the Richter scale! “We wrote and wrote and realised quite early on that we had a lot of good ideas going”. Good ideas? The songs are bangers as only PRIMAL FEAR anthems can be – a sound that’s long become a trademark just got new, shiny alloys.

New track ‘I Will Be Gone’ showcases PRIMAL FEAR’s mellow, bittersweet side – available on multi coloured vinyl, shaped vinyl, CD digipack or digitally. Let’s all take a deep breath now; soon enough it’ll get loud again on stages around the globe.

35th Anniversary reissue of legendary
Canadian/American singer, composer and transgender
activist Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s beloved seminal
work, ‘Keyboard Fantasies’.
An ahead of its time synth exploration which somehow
combines the essence of new-age minimalism, early
Detroit techno and the warmth of traditional
songwriting.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s third album, ‘Keyboard
Fantasies’ was originally self-released on cassette in
1986. Initially overlooked by mainstream media, it
caught the ear of a Japanese collector who contacted
the artist in 2015 and asked for copies to sell. These
sold out instantly and led to more copies being
distributed and multiple offers from record labels.
Features stunning alternative cover artwork and liner
notes by Robyn.
This album is available on CD for the first time.
Digisleeve with spot gloss to the cover and 8-page
booklet.
This is only the second time the album has been
repressed (with the previous repress being extremely
limited). LP format is housed in a gatefold sleeve with
spot gloss to the cover, printed inner sleeve, 180g
black vinyl and digital download code.
Also available again on tape as a white cassette.

I met SUGAI KEN a few years ago in Tokyo, outside the Dommune radio studios. His personality and music, a very special brand, touched me. His music is a coded vision of a dream world. A trade that is progressive yet traditional - in the most positive sense of the word.

Recently out of the blue, Sugai San sent me a collection of personal field recordings he made of folklore groups and public performances in Tokyo, Toyama, Kanagawa, Kyoto, Tottori, … The close listener already knows that Sugai San’s aesthetics speak of a great knowledge of these performing arts.

An open invitation: “the traditional local performing arts in the 21st century intrinsically conceive “fragility” as they are vulnerable to extinction. The Japanese local performing arts that appear in this recording is no exception, endangered by the declining birth rate and aging population which are typical to the country. (SUGAI KEN)”

I bring the original recordings into conversation with new elements like a ‘monomane’ - tr. imitating – sound game. But when i throw these old and new figurines together on the podium, the objects immediately disappear in the cracks of the stage wood. Thus only the understament of the suggestion remains. And relentlessly the significance of every movement now becomes a question.

Furthermore, what’s in focus? The manipulation? Or the content? Or are we zooming in on the aspect of archiving ~ preserving? Dubious.

In KAGIROI – tr. heat haze - people coexist for a moment severely carved in time like a high contrast still of dancing flames. When you bring this composition home, it will never boil yet merely evaporate. And when you gaze at the clouds of condensed droplets inside your own darkness, on a soft volume, You complete our puzzle."

Available on 2 150g 12” vinyl, this abridged edition features 33 of the most iconic tracks in Shenmue III. It comes in a gatefold and includes a booklet with liner notes (in both English and Japanese) by Yu Suzuki and other members of the Shenmue community, as well as archival artwork. It also includes a digital download code for all 33 tracks.

* UK dub classic dating from 1993 from The Disciples that originally came out on the Boom Shacka Lacka label causing a massive stir at the time of release, not just within the sound system dub scene but cross-genre, in what was later to become known to as “bass music”.
* A prime example of instrumental UK dub, featuring the original three mixes plus two extra previously unreleased raw mixes.
* The Disciples, along with the likes of Sound Iration, Manasseh, Alpha and Omega and Conscious Sounds are the forerunners of what became known as the UK roots/dub scene.
* Highly regarded for their custom built dubplate cuts for Jah Shaka, The Disciples have a sizable following worldwide, particularly in the UK, France, Germany and Japan.

From his 'FAT' Studio near the central Swedish town of Örebro, Sjunne Ferger crafted a small but radical legacy of genre bending music. With an open minded 'anything goes' attitude born from his jazz roots, compiled here are songs charting a transition from fusion beginnings via his debut 7" with group 'Exit' through to a more blissful synthetic sound palette. Across the album's 7 songs Sjunne's heady musical optimism aspired to an aesthetic that moved freely between drum machines & synths to more organic instrumentation with rich arrangements never losing sight of a light ethereal feel.

Hypnotic ambient pieces written for short film swirl amongst the electronic & electrified- unreleased versions of 'Destiny' and 'Candlelight' hint at his sound to come, while the album culminates in the highlights 'Night Rituale' and 'Childrens Mind' -Intoxicating mixes of Sjunne's influences & inspiration, they unknowingly hint at Mkwaju Ensemble and other key Japanese contemporaries, and bear witness to the Swede's deep Eastern philosophical outlook. Retaining his own unique sound throughout, 'Childrens Mind' is a primer for Sjunne Ferger's 'Mindgames' LP reissued on Strangelove later in 2021.

The sensation was perfect – Helloween, who have sold more than 10 million records worldwide, being one of the most respected German metal bands since 1984, announced their PUMPKINS UNITED WORLD TOUR in 2016. The media was raving about the TOUR OF THE YEAR, playing 69 shows in 32 countries all over the world. More than one million fans on three continents were ecstatic because it was not only a reunion of the original band, it was the summit of seven ultimate HELLOWEEN heroes: Andi Deris, Michael Kiske, Michael Weikath, Kai Hansen, Markus Grosskopf, Sascha Gerstner & Dani Löble. Or to put it simple: it was a dream come true for fans around the world, the band received five times more spectators and all of them had only one wish: »Please stay together!«

Following the excitement, one of the biggest magazines in this genre ‘BURRN!’ (Japan) honored the band with four unbelievable cover stories, this was followed by the thunderstorm of the century within the social media universe, a celebrated PUMPKINS UNITED single and the quenchless hunger for more – much more! And yes, the musicians tasted blood and it was clear: there is no way back – the future of HELLOWEEN will be written in unity. It marked the beginning of a new era and the re-birth of a metal legend with exceptional artists.
Their first new album will be released in summer 2021. Flatten the runway with a loud drumbeat: in April 2021 the spectacular single SKYFALL will be released. The 12 minute epic, written by Kai Hansen has the long yearned ‘Keeper-Vibe’ but it isn’t telling the story of the whole album. SKYFALL has a musical arch which will be loved by fans of every era: from unforgettable times to glorious adventures all the way to the upcoming first album of the HELLOWEEN new age. The epic track tells about an alien landing on earth and a dramatic chase while Hansen, Kiske and Deris duel with each other in a breathtaking manner and create a broadband adventure - with a lyric sheet with colored blocks identifying the singers as well as a video that is formidable. Produced by Martin Häusler, it will be the most elaborate clip in the history of the band, the story to be shown with 3-D animation and looking cinematic – in these times almost a dinosaur in implementation.
The base of the upcoming milestone album was already erected in the studio: using the original Ingo Schwichtenberg drum kit, the recording was done with the same modulators at the Hamburg HOME studios where back then ‘Master of The Rings’, ‘Time of the Oath’ and ‘Better than Raw’ was recorded. Back to the roots and completely analog is the UNITED impact - another great work by well-known producer Charlie Bauerfeind and Co-producer Dennis Ward before the album traveled to New York and got the final mastering polish in the Valhalla Studios of Ronald Prent (Iron Maiden, Depeche Mode, Rammstein).
With all this brand new material an album has been created, an album that is set apart from the digital mainstream and showing that the essence of the band was never more solid.

The artwork of Eliran Kantor (Berlin) is clear: SKYFALL is the beginning of something big – here comes HELLOWEEN.

First album from the legendary Japanese rockers fronted by Yuya Utchida. Although an album consisting mainly of cover versions, Anywhere still exhibited many of the musical traits that were to come to the fore on the band’s next release, the classic Satori, an album of original material delivered with panache by the increasingly confident Uchida. An album made memorable by its risque cover as well as its ground-breaking approach to Western rock music.

Over the course of four albums, Manchester based trumpeter, composer, arranger and band-leader Matthew Halsall has carved out a niche for himself on the UK music scene as one of it's brightest talents. His languid, soulful music has won friends from Jamie Cullum and Gilles Peterson to Jazz FM and Mojo as well as an ever-growing international following. His label Gondwana Records is home to GoGo Penguin and his own albums have found Halsall exploring the modal jazz of John and Alice Coltrane, paying tribute to the hard bop of the late '50s and early '60s or most recently on Fletcher Moss Park drawing on Eastern influences in his most personal statement yet. His latest album When The World Was One is something of a companion piece to Fletcher Moss Park (much of the music was written at the same time) but draws more explicitly on Halsall's love of spiritual jazz and Eastern music as well as his own studies in meditation and travels in Japan. Beautifully recorded at Hasall's favourite studio, 80 Hertz in Manchester, and engineered by Brendan Williams and George Atkins it features the recording debut of Halsall's large ensemble, The Gondwana Orchestra, which utilises the exotic flavours of harp, koto and bansuri flute and Eastern scales to create a global palate for Halsall's life-affirming sounds.

The Gondwana Orchestra features long time collaborators Nat Birchall, saxophone, Gavin Barras, bass and Rachael Gladwin, harp as well as Taz Modi on piano. Modi who also plays with Halsall in their more electronic trio shares his passion for spiritual jazz and plays the music with real feeling while the role of the harp here is to bring a touch of 'magical reality' a floating dreaminess that is a vital part of Halsall's elegiac and beautiful music. The drummer Luke Flowers is perhaps best known as part of Cinematic Orchestra, and Halsall describes him as 'one of the best drummers in the world' and hails him for 'playing the music exactly as I heard it in my head', Keiko Kitamura is a Japanese Koto player who is becoming an increasingly important part of the Gondwana Orchestra, her role is similar to Gladwin's in that the koto helps free up the music while also bringing a real sound of the East. Finally, flautist Lisa Mallett brings a love of Indian music to the orchestra, much travelled on the continent she brings all of her knowledge and experience to play offering a unique texture to Halsall's dreamy melodies.

The album opens with the title track, When The World Was One, an expansive ascending tune that nods to Art Blakey and McCoy Tyner and draws the listener in before giving way to the dreamy, meditative A Far Away Place which features great work from Gladwin on harp and draws on Eastern influences alongside the music of Alice Coltrane and Yusef Lateef. Falling Water which features the beautiful soprano of Nat Birchall nods to classic spiritual jazz as well, but mixes in the more contemporary influences of Nostalgia 77 and Cinematic Orchestra, while the hard-driving Patterns conjures an up-lifting celebratory vibe with fine work from pianist Modi to set the mood. The beautiful Kiyomizu-Dera is inspired by Halsall's travels in Japan and in particular his visit to the Buddhist temple of the same name. Likewise Sagano Bamboo Forest is named for another place that left a deep imprint on Halsall and aims to capture his feelings as he worked through the vast maze of bamboo trees. Finally the album closes with the self-explanatory Tribute To Alice Coltrane a grooving tribute to one of Halsall's key influences. Driven by a powerful bass line and featuring wonderful work from Mallet on bansuri flute and harpist Gladwin, the band all really find their way into Halsall's groove before the leader plays a beautiful wistful solo of his own and it is the oneness of the Gondwana Orchestra that makes it such a powerful vehicle for Halsall's music as the leader takes you on his very own journey through his musical and spiritual world.

Indie rockers The Ordinary Boys, team up with ska vocalist Ranking Junior
on brand new single ‘Legacy’, a poignant yet jubilant tribute to Murphy’s
father the late Ranking Roger, front man of legendary
Birmingham band The Beat.
This limited edition 7” single also includes “Jump and Skank” on the flip side.
The Ordinary Boys first met Ranking Junior way back in 2005 at a festival in
Japan, when Junior was performing with his father as part of The Special Beat,
a band made up of members of 2 Tone heavyweights The Specials and The
Beat. The Ordinary Boys were fresh from chart success following the release
of their celebrated single ‘Boys Will Be Boys’.
After sharing the stage and performing together, the two bands bonded over
their love of ska, rock and being on the road, sparking a close friendship between The Ordinary Boy’s front man Samuel Preston and Ranking Junior.
It was when Junior called Preston to inform him of his father’s death on 26th
March 2019 at the young age of 56, that they decided to get into the studio,
both feeling the need to pay homage to Ranking Roger and mark his passing
by working together on new songs.
The result is ‘Legacy’, a catchy and accessible track that is both deep and euphoric in equal measure, that perfectly showcases Ranking Junior’s powerful
vocal and highlights the songwriting skills of Samuel Preston, who had been
penning hits for artists as diverse as Cher, Enrique Eglesias and Liam Payne
prior to recording.
Ranking Junior comments: “This song is a celebration of my father’s life and it
seems a fitting tribute to release it on the anniversary of his passing.”

∙ Live they were a revelation. The only group from
the UK scene who could do tight and slick, without
slipping into ‘lift music’ blandness. The core
membership of Andrew Levy, Simon Bartholomew
and Jan Kincaid had been playing together since
college and knew where the other was going. Their
ability to write classic soul songs lifted them above
their contemporaries.
∙ Shibuya 357 is the quintessential (and only live)
document of an era that quickly passed. The hits –
‘Never Stop’ , ‘Dream Come True’, ‘Stay This Way’
and ‘Don’t Let It Go To Your Head’ are all here – as
are some compelling funk jams. This recording
captures the ecstatic rush of joy; when you go from
youthful dream to accomplishment in such a short
period.
∙ The album was only ever released in Japan in the
late 90s and then only for a very short time. Acid
Jazz is pleased to release this new version
remastered from the source tape, and the album
appears on vinyl and on streaming services for the
very first time.
∙ 1991 was a momentous year for The Brand New Heavies.
They started it without a singer second on the bill to
The James Taylor Quartet and by the end they were
had a Top 3 US hit and were about to embark on a
run of 16 Top 40 hits in the UK. N’Dea Davenport
was by this point fronting the group as their guest
singer, and the brilliant string of singles from their
debut album were becoming locked in the minds of
an ever growing fan base.

Das Broken Heart Syndrom ist keine erfundene Störung. Das Phänomen hat einen Namen: Tako Tsubo (oder "Krakenfalle" auf Japanisch). Es ist eine Erschütterung der Sinne, ein emotionaler Burnout... Es schwächt die Hauptpumpkammer des Herzens, ausgelöst durch intensiven emotionalen Stress: ein Erdbeben oder eine Naturkatastrophe oder etwas weniger (buchstäblich) Erderschütterndes wie der Verlust eines geliebten Menschen oder die Angst, die man empfindet, wenn man von einem Liebhaber verschmäht wird. Die moderne Wissenschaft hat noch kein Heilmittel gefunden. Tako Tsubo ist ein Trennungsalbum, und "Mataharis" romantische Ader, basierend auf der Idee einer idealisierten Heldin - ist einer mehr in der Realität verankerten Landschaft gewichen. L'Impératrice haben sicherlich ihre Vorliebe für Dance, Groove auf einem virtuosen Bass, Vintage-Synthies und glitzernde Melodien behalten. Aber sie haben sich die Freiheit gegeben, andere Länder zu erkunden, zur Seite zu treten. Was die Eleganz der Produktion angeht, so haben sich L'Impératrice wieder mit Renaud Letang (Jarvis Cocker, Liane La Havas, Feist) zusammengetan, wobei der mächtige Neal Pogue (Outkast, Stevie Wonder, Tyler the Creator) sein Können beim Mixing beisteuerte. Vielleicht am überraschendsten ist die tiefe Erkundung der Wege des Herzens, und insbesondere der linken Herzkammer. Ambivalente Liebe, Euphorie, Kummer und Wahnsinn: so viele Symptome, die zusammengenommen auf eine schlechte Dosis Tako Tsubo hindeuten. Es ist ein Syndrom, das das Herz beschädigt zurücklässt, überflutet, angeschwollen. Und lebendiger denn je.

Future Days" aus dem Jahre 1973 ist das fünfte Studioalbum der Band und zugleich das letzte Album mit dem japanischen Sänger Damo Suzuki. Auf dem Album herrschte eine für Can bis dahin ungewohnte lyrische Atmosphäre, insbesondere bei den Stücken "Future Days" und "Bel Air".

- Die LP erscheint als 180g Vinyl inkl. MP3-Download Codes

"Modern Uganda" is a unique project-it's the exquisite debut album of a band, which no longer exists!

delay_okwas a band from Gdańsk, Poland, which was formed in 2017 and played together till 2020 in the belief that making music must be fun. It was a trio consisting ofPiotr Chęcki(tenor and baritone saxophone, flute, casio),Szymon Burnos(synthesizers, moog, guitar, vocals)andJacek Prościński(drums, spdsx, percussion). On this, their debut album you can also hear the peculiar sounds of the Sopot's MDK Orchestra, the guitar ofMichałZ ienkowskiand a Tanzanian rap byAlex(Alex Mussa), met in Zanzibar.

"W e create impulsively, not ignoring our first - sometimes trivial - ideas,because it is in them that we find the joy that accompanied us at the very beginning of our musical paths. W e do it so that we can sit together in front of the speakers and have fun listening to our own songs again. "Modern Uganda" is a small collection of our interests, so we kind of do it out of the selfish need of doing something for
ourselves"

The band oscillates around the sound of IDM, lo-fi, and other sub-genres of modern electronics, with an element of jazz improvisation. The album was DIY recorded and is a tribute to the most famous African ski jumper from Uganda-Dunstan Odeke.

"Modern Uganda" vinyl record comes in two colors(flamingo pink and classic black). Mix and mastering were done byMaciej Milewski, the cover photo with shoebill was taken bynao-cha, a Japanese artist from Tokyo.

Still only 29 years old when composing and recording this album, Kjetil Mulelid is one of the brightest talents in Norwegian jazz, and these days that really says something. In Kjetil's childhood home they had a subscription for a "Classical Masterpieces" CD collection. One that especially caught his attention, and would be played repeatedly, included the most melodic piano music of Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy. At the same time his elder brother introduced him to "old" rock like Led Zeppelin and Queen, winning him over and getting him interested in the guitar rather than the piano. When he later applied to music education in high school with electric guitar as his main instrument, the teachers asked if he played other instruments. He duly played a song on the piano, and heard nothing more of it. Months later, thinking he was enrolled as a guitarist, he was (to his horror) introduced to the class as a pianist. While he loved listening to classical piano music, playing it he felt tied up in the "rules" and the sheet music. It was simply more fun to play rock music on electric guitar_ surely a familiar story! Later a classically trained piano teacher played him some gospel and boogie woogie and introduced him to some simple pentatonic hooks on a C major blues. He hadn't really touched the piano in a very long time, but the same night he started experimenting and improvising around what she had shown him, and from that moment he was all into the piano and would dig further into improvisation and jazz. And the rest is history, as they say. Kjetil was sceptical when we first suggested a solo piano record back in early 2018, but the idéa slowly grew on him and when the pandemic exploded and other plans had to be scrapped, he suddenly had the time as well as the means to do it. So the bulk of the album was written in a hectic lockdown period and recorded on a steaming hot June day in the legendary Athletic Sound studio on their unique and characteristic Bösendorfer grand piano from 1919. Of the piano Kjetil says the sound is one of a kind, very clear and not typically "perfect" like most new ones. We can only wholeheartedly agree, it sounds great and is also very well recorded and mixed, giving the impression that you sit next to him, and not in a concert hall. In turn joyful, playful and elegant, the album fully shows Kjetil's harmonic and melodic mastery and the influence from those early introductions to the classical masters. Whether staying with the tune or taking off on improvised flights, there is an ease and assurance in his playing that betrays his young age.Kjetil has a bachelor degree in jazz performance from NTNU in Trondheim, has played in most European countries, Japan and USA, released two acclaimed albums with his trio on Rune Grammofon, and is also a member of Wako.

For over four decades, Reiko Omura and Tori Kudo have endlessly woven themselves throughout the avant-garde and underground scene of Japan. While internationally appreciated in countless incarnations and contexts (Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Guys & Dolls), if one were to seek out an early moment in which the two artists created something truly awe inspiring, 1980’s Tenno (天皇) would be it.

As Noise, the duo experimented with the juxtaposition of Kudo’s extended organ based dirges (be they eerie and/or harmonious) and fragile, meditative harmonies found in Omura’s voice and more abstract moments of minimal trumpet, sparse drum and atonal guitar. Simultaneously tense and beautiful, echoes of Tenno can be found resonating in the work of their contemporaries and countless others spanning the past 40 years and an infinite amount more to come.

The LP was originally released by ALM and subsequently reissued in 1997 on CD (Pataphysique) and LP (Org), and on CD again in 2005 (Alchemy). Just past it’s 40 year anniversary, Moone Records is elated to announce the first edition of Tenno released outside of Japan as a LP in a limited run of 500 copies – bringing the monumental release back into print on vinyl for the first time in 23 years.

WRWTFWW Records is beaucoup happy to announce the official reissue of Pierre Barouh's hard-to-describe-but-easy-to-enjoy French flair meets Japanese avant-garde lost treasure of experimental-electronic-chanson-pop with a new-wave-minimal-bossa touch, Le Pollen. Originally recorded July 1982 at Nippon Columbia Studio in Tokyo and composed, arranged, and played by a who's who of Japan's most groundbreaking musicians of the 80s, the album comes as a LP with bonus 7inch, housed in a heavy sleeve displaying two immaculate photos of Barouh and holding a printed lyrics insert.

A free-spirited world traveler with an incredible ear for music, Paris-born singer and activist Pierre Barouh introduced the sounds of Brazil (and more) to Europe and pushed the envelope with his pio-neering label Saravah, home of adventurous innovators Brigitte Fontaine, Areski, Jacques Higelin, Naná Vasconcelos, and Roland Bocquet's Catharsis among many others. His bohemian border-free vision of modern chanson, blending musical tradition from various parts of the globe with forward-looking artistry, resonated particularly well in Japan, where the scene spearheaded by Yellow Magic Orchestra fell in love with everything Barouh.

And so one day in 1981, Pierre Barouh received an invitation from a Japanese label to come record an album in Tokyo. Not one to turn down an escapade around the world, the French visionary jumped on a plane and landed in a studio surrounded with a dream line-up of musicians: Yukihiro Takahashi (who had named his solo debut Saravah! after Barouh's imprint) and Ryuichi Sakamoto of YMO, Yasuaki Shimizu and his Mariah bandmates Masanori Sasaji and Hideo Yamaki, members of the Moonriders, Motohiko Hamase, Mitsuru Sawamura of Interior, Kazuhiko Katoh and the list goes on. Also participating in the making of the album were longtime collaborator Francis Laï and the mys-terious and beautiful David Sylvian.

The result is Le Pollen, a sincere and affectionate mix of nouveau chanson, techno-pop, post-punk, jazz, bossa, ambient, and minimalism. And probably something else entirely. Honestly impossible to classify in a particular genre, Pierre Barouh's fascinating cosmopolitan music melting pot is, above all, a reassuring ode to humanity, where friendship, exchange, and collaborative creativity breeze freely. Making music together. It's all love.

Pierre Barouh sadly passed away in December 2016, leaving behind a monumental legacy of music and art for us to cherish, and a life philosophy that's well worth considering:

La vie, qu'elle soit longue ou brève
Moi, tous mes rêves
Je les prends toujours au sérieux
Quand l'utopie brise les chaînes
C'est l'oxygène,
De ceux qui sont restés curieux

Life, be it long or brief
Me, all my dreams
I always take them seriously
When utopia breaks the chains
It's the oxygen,
Of those who've remained curious

From the song "L'Autre Rive" on Le Pollen.

Green Man Rising 2020 winner, Nuha Ruby Ra, announces her debut EP ‘How To Move’ out on Brace Yourself Records on 5th March 2021. A visceral and striking debut from the East London avant-punk, Nuha delivers frenzied poetic energy across the seven tracks bearing comparisons to Lydia Lunch and Sonic Youth.

Nuha Ruby Ra has spent the last few months cultivating a dedicated following and racking up an impressive catalogue of collaborators from around the world. Nuha has performed alongside the likes of Bo Ningen, Uncanny Valley, Charlie Boyer and more, and appeared on recordings by Flamingods and Warmduscher. In the short time she’s been playing these tracks she’s amassed support slots with Fat White Family, Surfbort, Amyl and the Sniffers, Bambara, Japanese Television.

The EP 'How To Move' began as bedroom projects, before Nuha developed the tracks in the actual vintage synth cave of the Psychedelic Furs, joined by members of Liars and Insecure Men. It was produced by Tony Visconti protégé Erin Tonkin (David Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’) and mastered by Pete Maher (Patti Smith, Lana Del Ray etc.)

Transparent Red Vinyls

"Iza jinjô ni… Shôbu!” Be prepared for the battle!

Wayô Records and SNK Corporation are pleased to announce their first collaboration project! For the coming of the new Samurai Shodown game from the legendary fighting game series, we are proud to present the international release of its soundtrack in both CD and Vinyl formats!

With its beautiful Japanese instruments, the music of Samurai Shodown (2019) combines the power of modern times with the spirit from the roots of the series, performed by the best traditional Japanese players, including the legendary HIDE×HIDE duo! This soundtrack features the theme song Revive the Soul and each of the character themes, for a total of two hours of epic music!

The original soundtrack on Vinyl includes 19 tracks on two 180g LP red-marbled discs in separate sleeve into a gatefold package.

Revive the epic Arcade adventure with the Metal Slug 3 soundtrack on 2LP (Red/White splatters) and CD with booklets on both, officially licensed by SNK.

Following Samurai Shodown 2019, Wayô Records and SNK Corporation once again join forces to deliver an international edition of Metal Slug 3's original soundtrack, in honor of the game's 20 anniversary! Originally exclusive to Japan, this album is now available in this double vinyl edition.

With its distinctive "rock orchestra" sound, the music for SNK's series turned out to be as essential as the games themselves thanks to its uniqueness and incredible energy. Composed by the legendary SNK Sound Team, this soundtrack has a lot in common with the other titles in the series, but stands as the densest and most inspired. Filled with biting humor and explosive action, Metal Slug 3 is often regarded by fans as the best game in the series!

- Two vinyl discs, 33 rpm

- First Print Edition translucent red with white splatters

- Complete soundtrack newly remastered for the vinyl format

- Gatefold with a central wide illustration and two individual illustrated sleeves for each disc

- New comments from the game team

- Officially licensed by SNK

LIMITED TRANSPARENT RED WITH BLACK SWIRLS DOUBLE VINYL

Nine years after it’s initial release, 'The Ripper At The Heaven's Gates Of Dark' is back. The original black vinyl and CD editions sold out pretty quick, and have been a constant source of repress requests ever since. So, at Makoto’s personal request here it is. And I agree with him that it’s definitely the best AMT studio album from that short lived four piece line up.

With the exception of the album's opener 'Chinese Flying Saucer' and it's unashamedly obvious musical references to Led Zeppelin II (hello 1969!) the rest of the album locks into a much more laid-back groove than on recent AMT releases. This dynamic shift is best displayed on the 22 minute jam, 'Shine On You Crazy Dynamite' and also the album's closer 'Electric Death Mantra'. The band opt for less frantic explosions of electric guitar overload and fuzz, replacing those elements with a more epic, blissed-out and at times brooding Japanese psychedelia, with more emphasis on acoustic guitars, sitar, organ, synthesiser and at times, really trippy vocals (most prevalent on 'Back Door Man Of Ghost Rails Inn'), recalling the twisted psychedelics of early Pink Floyd. Yet still, their sound remains so expansive that it is easy to become totally immersed in this album.

Epic in proportions, cloaked in a cosmic haze and shimmering in a synth utopia. 'The Ripper At Heaven's Gates Of Dark' maintains AMT's status as masters of out-of-this-world music and reveals their darker side of the moon.

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. at the time of this recording were :Tsuyama Atsushi : monster bass, voice, soprano sax, cimpo flute, soprano recorder, acoustic guitar, cosmic joker Higashi Hiroshi : synthesizer, dancin'king Shimura Koji : drums, latino cool Kawabata Makoto : electric guitar, electric bouzouki, sitar, organ, percussion, electronics, speed guru

Recorded at Acid Mothers Temple, Japan Produced & engineered by Kawabata Makoto
Digital mastered by Yoshida Tatsuya.

LIMITED TRANSPARENT BLUE WITH BLACK SWIRLS DOUBLE VINYL HOUSED IN A NEWLY REDESIGNED FULL COLOUR GATEFOLD SLEEVE/JACKET.

Nine years after it’s initial release, 'The Ripper At The Heaven's Gates Of Dark' is back. The original black vinyl and CD editions sold out pretty quick, and have been a constant source of repress requests ever since. So, at Makoto’s personal request here it is. And I agree with him that it’s definitely the best AMT studio album from that short lived four piece line up.

With the exception of the album's opener 'Chinese Flying Saucer' and it's unashamedly obvious musical references to Led Zeppelin II (hello 1969!) the rest of the album locks into a much more laid-back groove than on recent AMT releases. This dynamic shift is best displayed on the 22 minute jam, 'Shine On You Crazy Dynamite' and also the album's closer 'Electric Death Mantra'. The band opt for less frantic explosions of electric guitar overload and fuzz, replacing those elements with a more epic, blissed-out and at times brooding Japanese psychedelia, with more emphasis on acoustic guitars, sitar, organ, synthesiser and at times, really trippy vocals (most prevalent on 'Back Door Man Of Ghost Rails Inn'), recalling the twisted psychedelics of early Pink Floyd. Yet still, their sound remains so expansive that it is easy to become totally immersed in this album.

Epic in proportions, cloaked in a cosmic haze and shimmering in a synth utopia. 'The Ripper At Heaven's Gates Of Dark' maintains AMT's status as masters of out-of-this-world music and reveals their darker side of the moon.

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. at the time of this recording were :Tsuyama Atsushi : monster bass, voice, soprano sax, cimpo flute, soprano recorder, acoustic guitar, cosmic joker Higashi Hiroshi : synthesizer, dancin'king Shimura Koji : drums, latino cool Kawabata Makoto : electric guitar, electric bouzouki, sitar, organ, percussion, electronics, speed guru

Recorded at Acid Mothers Temple, Japan Produced & engineered by Kawabata Makoto
Digital mastered by Yoshida Tatsuya.

LIMITED BLACK VINYL VERSION + 24”x36” Poster!

"Flight of the Behemoth" is the third album by sunn O))).

The band collaborated with legendary Japanese noise artist Merzbow, who mixed tracks 3 and 4. The first ever use of a drum machine on a sunn O))) track is heard on "F.W.T.B.T.", a deconstructive interpretation of Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls”.

This punisher also features the first ever vocals heard as evoked from the band themselves.

Contains full color 24”x36” folded poster and all this grimness is housed in a glorious case-wrapped gatefold jacket. Also contains the vinyl only bonus track: "Grimm & Bear It”.

Vinyl/metal cut by Matt Colton (Alchemy Mastering) who also cut the vinyl for the bands 2019 releases: “Life Metal” & “Pyroclasts.

When I think I refused the first one, what an unconsciousness! "It was in these terms that Serge Gainsbourg expressed, in 1977, his joy at seeing his talents as a composer finally associated with the adventures of Emmanuelle, embodied on screen by the sensual Sylvia Kristel. For a long time, he bit his fingers for declining the offer to compose the soundtrack for the first part of the erotic saga. In France, only one 45 rpm appeared on Philips in 1977, regrouping the song "Goodbye Emmanuelle" and the instrumental "Emmanuelle and the Sea". However, Goodbye Emmanuelle's soundtrack was released in October 1977 as a nine-track LP reserved for the Asian market (Japan and Hong Kong). Enriched with two bonus tracks, this extremely rare LP is finally available in the UK. Reviews in London Macadam, and L’Echo Ads London Macadam and L’Echo

Yellow Vinyl

Hawaii's legendary Latin superstar Rolando Sanchez & Salsa Hawaii's smash hit "ALOHA MAMBO" Vinyl 7" EP will be released worldwide after its debut in Japan. The jacket illustration by Tammy Yee invites you to a Latin Paradise in Honolulu as you groove to vibrant Latin beats, island-style.

Rolando Sanchez
Rolando Sanchez & Salsa Hawaii
Rolando Sanchez is an award-winning songwriter/producer of Hawaii's leading Latin Jazz, Latin Rock, Salsa percussionists, singer-songwriters, and the owner of RSC Music. Originally from Nicaragua, he began his career in the suburbs of San Francisco and moved to Hawaii in 1984.

He has shared the stage with many of the best of Latin musicians including Tito Puente, Pet & Sheila Escovedo, and regularly appears at BLUE NOTE HAWAII, a mecca of island jazz. In addition, he hosts a live radio show, "LA ONDA LATINA," every Sunday on KNDI-AM1270, featuring the hottest mix of Latin Music in the islands.

He is a leader in the Hawaii-Latino world that connects his hometown of Nicaragua in Central America, to New York, California and Hawaii with a Latin sound infused with island flavors.

How deep can you go? Well, you better ask Japanese master Jank! Jank is another example of these “hidden gems”, but releasing on labels like City Fly, Mysterious Works and Boogie Café says it all. The “Piece of ballad ep” on Quintessentials is super deep and emotional House music. Keeping the BPM low and adding soul power and a jazzy laidback feel make these 3 tunes massive. Don’t look away if you’re into Theo Parrish and alikes!

More than 40 years after its original release, this limited and numbered facsimile edition of Keith Jarrett’s legendary 10-LP box set “Sun Bear
Concerts” is recreated from original analog sources.
Sun Bear Concerts - documenting five complete solo performances by Keith Jarrett in Japan - counts as a milestone achievement in the history of jazz recording. As Down Beat wrote, on the occasion of the original release, Jarrett’s improvisations are “the inventions of a giant, overpoweringly intimate in the way they can draw a listener in and hold him captive. Jarrett has once more stepped into the cave of his creative consciousness and brought to light music of startling power, majesty and warmth.”
Rich in incident and detail, the music in this beautifully produced, illustrated and presented ten-LP set, first issued in 1978 revealed Jarrett as a player of limitless creativity, unique in his ability to find new forms in the moment, night after night. “These marathons showed Jarrett to be one of the greatest improvisers in jazz,” Ian Carr wrote in his biography of the pianist, “with an apparently inexhaustible flow of rhythmic and melodic ideas, one of the most brilliant pianistic techniques of all, and the ability to project complex and profound feeling.” The present edition is a facsimile of the original LP set, described by the late Haus der Kunst curator Okwui Enwezor as “part of ECM’s declaration of independence from standard packaging of jazz records. Setting itself apart in this way, ECM treated its recordings as works of art by musicians of the highest artistic and conceptual order.”
A work of art by any standards, Sun Bear Concerts brings together solo concerts in November 1976 in Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo and Sapporo, in recordings made by Japanese engineer Okihiro Sugano and producer Manfred Eicher, who travelled through Japan with Keith Jarrett. The set’s book-form packaging, with design by Barbara Wojirsch, includes photographs by Klaus Knaup, Tadayuki Naitoh and Akira Aimi.

Die Hot Rats waren Gaz Coombes (Supergrass) und Danny Goffey die sich den Spaß machten Songs ihrer Jugend zu covern. Überwacht hat das Ganze dann noch Star-Producer Nigel Godrich. Neben Songs von Bowie, Kinks, Velvet Underground, Sex Pistols u.a. 2010 ging das Duo auf eine kurze Welt-Tour mit Stationen in NewYork, Mexico City, London, Paris oder auch Tokyo. Und hier wurde das lärmende Live-Vermächtnis des Duos festgehalten. 'Live In Tokyo' komm mit 15 Tracks, 180 Gr. Black Vinyl und seitlichem Obi-Strip wie sonst fast nur bei Japan-Releases üblich!

Hoshina Anniversary returns from forever for a majestic dance. This is his second offering for the ESP Institute. Side A’s Karakuri contains all the elements of Hoshina’s signature sound; bouncy staccato bassline, minor chords and organ stabs, a Chick Corea-inspired Rhodes that walks all over the place, all tracked along sparse bits of Japanese percussion and cymbal that juxtapose organic texture with precision-machined timing. The lead keys feel at first as if they’re freeform, however, Hoshina’s obsession with order becomes apparent as the bars develop and his systematic control and repetition is revealed. On side B’s Michinoku, we’re treated to a deep and slow burner. A roller of a beat based on 808 toms and a pishy snare sets the somewhat bumpy base for this groove, and again the meat of the rhythm is built with dirty chords, this time on the upstroke, in an almost Reggae style. What the flipside taught us about Hoshina’s controlled chaos, is here again the lesson and perhaps even moreso. The voice of the track remains the Fender Rhodes, played in brief but wild phrases and arranged into patterns upon which Hoshina builds layers over some 8+ minutes. There is a deep and dark mood throughout both sides of the record, but perhaps more sultry than devilish, and one that listeners educated in the stoned arts will appreciate. These two songs have built the end into the beginning.

House of Flying Daggers is a multiple Satellite, LA Film Critcs & Boston Film Critics award winning 2004 wuxia romance film directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro. Unlike other wuxia films, it is more of a love story than purely a martial arts film. The film features the theme of a beautiful woman who brings woe to two men. The soundtrack is produced and created by legendary Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi and features vocals by Zhang Ziyi and Kathleen Battle. Shigeru Umebayashi is perhaps best known for “Yumeji’s Theme” (originally from Seijun Suzuki’s Yumeji), included in director Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love. In celebration of Umebayashi’s 70th birthday on February 19, 2021, the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack is released on vinyl for the first time. It is pressed on green marbled vinyl as a limited edition of 2000 copies. The packages comes with an exclusive replica of the movie poster and a 4-page booklet.