“Make Polish Jazz great again”: Piotr Damasiewicz & Power of the Horns return with “Polska” LP A musical visionary, some outstanding instrumentalists, the 10th anniversary of the collective’s founding, a reflection on Polishness, and finally – a 4,000 km-long walking pilgrimage of 100 solo concerts in 100 temples. These events, symbols, experiences and facts have somehow been combined into one coherent whole – the Polska LP, the first release by Piotr Damasiewicz & Power of the Horns Ensemble since 2013. “Power of the Horns have the ability to captivate audiences of any festival, from jazz gigs to the huge Open’er, from the Baltic Sea coast to the Tatra Mountains, and hopefully in every corner of the globe”, as Kajetan Prochyra wrote in Jazzarium a few years ago, shortly after the release of the phenomenal concert album Alaman which earned the band considerable fame in the jazz scene. Power of the Horns, however, turned out to be a scarce commodity. They only performed on special occasions, and it took 6 years for their second album to be released. Now they are back with the album titled Poland. This repertoire is a kind of synthesis of what influenced the image of jazz that accompanied Piotr Damasiewicz while building his musical identity. This is the essence of what was closest to Piotr’s heart in Polish jazz in the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, when he would mostly listen to Polish masters live, on the radio and on recordings. It was a period when he often listened to Wojtasik with Szukalski and Harper (it was the Quest album that was the main inspiration behind “Billy”), or some of the unearthly recordings of the Polish trumpet master Tomasz Stańko, such as Bosonossa, Litania, and From the Green Hill. Damas spent that period of his life in Katowice, which he still associates with the hard work of miners. It also remains a symbol of Polish industrial characterised by heavy groove... That’s why he has composed “Kleofas”, an homage to one of the Katowice coal mines. The recording session for Polska LP occurred at a very special time. The album was recorded the day before and on the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, as these were the only available dates for all of the musicians. The exceptional atmosphere and thus the dignity of this time were emphasized by the events preceding the recordings. “It was a very moving period, concluding a certain era, as several people close to us, both musically and personally, died. The great master, Tomasz Stańko, to whom we partly dedicated this session, passed away” – the leader explains. There is some kind of symbolism in the fact that when the sound of sirens froze Warsaw for a moment as it does yearly, the album session in Studio S2 (Polskie Radio) was coming to an end. Last year Piotr Damasiewicz and his orchestra celebrated the 10th anniversary of Power of the Horns. It is hard to believe that it took a decade for one of the most outstanding bands promoting Polish jazz in the world to record their first studio album. However, it is hardly surprising given that the leader of PotH – Piotr “Damas” Damasiewicz – is one of the busiest Polish artists around. It is not easy to lead such a big orchestra of gifted musicians, or, to be more precise, a bunch of contemporary Polish jazz stars – that's why the line-up that took all the jazz recaps of 2013 by storm with their debut concert album Alaman (For Tune) remained in phonographic slumber for another 6 years, at the same time putting on a few major concerts with guests such as James Carter, Lotte Anker, Anna Karwan and Zdzisław Piernik. Since the formation of Power of the Horns, the band leader has received a Fryderyk award for his jazz debut, while his colleagues, an alto saxophonist Maciej Obara and Dominik Wania, a pianist, have successfully released albums for the legendary German ECM label. For Piotr Damasiewicz, 2019 is a year full of round numbers. Damas set off on a 4,000 km pilgrimage along the Way of Saint James starting in May when he crossed the border with Ukraine in the village of Korczowa, continuing through the south of Poland, Germany, France, and finally completing the journey in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, northwestern Spain. The very idea of such journey seems to be impressive but if one adds that the trumpeter’s mission was to play 100 solo trumpet concerts in 100 temples of various denominations in order to prepare for his academic research, it’s beyond comprehension. Astigmatic Records is all the more proud to present Polska LP, the first, long-awaited studio album of Power of the Horns Ensemble led by Piotr Damasiewicz. The 42 minutes of this outstanding music was recorded in the summer of 2018 in Studio S2 in Warsaw under the supervision of Michał Kupicz who was also responsible for the mix. The album is due to be released on CD, vinyl, and all streaming platforms on November 29, 2019. It can be now pre-ordered in Asfalt Shop and Sounds of The Universe, as well as via the Bandcamp platform. The premiere concert showcasing the Polska programme will be held during the Wrocław Jazztopad Festival on November 23, 2019. The event will be preceded by a meeting with Piotr Damasiewicz taking place at 11 a.m. in Mleczarnia near Narodowe Forum Muzyki. 

Piotr Damasiewicz - TRUMPET Liba Villavecchia - ALTO SAX Grzegorz Lesiak - GUITAR Alex Reviriego - BASS Vasco Trilla - DRUMS, PERCUSSIONS The band Damasiewicz, Lesiak, Villavecchia, Reviriego, Trilla with SKAWA recording is the result of cooperation and friendship of five exceptional artists. The paths of these musicians have intertwined for many years. Each of them is characterized by a unique sound and the awareness of creating their own language, which is a bridge connecting artistic sensitivity, philosophy, mysticism and reality. Each of them blazes its own trail, often in difficult and untouched terrain. Constantly transcending themselves is the essence of their creativity and the true art of living. The initiator of the project is the guitarist Grzegorz Lesiak, who together with the Catalan drummer Vasco Trilla and the bassist Alex Reviriego created an adventure music band called "Essence". The combination of this line-up with the activity and philosophy of the multi-instrumentalist Piotr Damasiewicz is no coincidence, thanks to whom their art has acquired a deeper, spiritual dimension. This unique arrangement is characterized by coherence, openness and extremely subtle expression. Lesiak, Trilla, Reviriego, Damasiewicz recorded the album On The Way under this banner, then decided to invite another musician, Liba Villavecchia, with whom Trilla and Reviriego already co-create the Catalan trio. This is how the quintet was created. They recorded in Beskid Mały in Sucha Beskidzka in a location characteristic for Damasiewicz label, i.e. near Mioduszyna in Śpiwle. The material was recorded in October 2022. It contains interpretations of 5 impressions written by Damasiewicz. L.A.S. listening and sounding – a new concert-publishing initiative, the goal of which, in addition to recording and releasing sounds, is to promote art and music by experiencing it together on the listener-musician, artist-viewer line. The energy built during concerts and live recordings allows for creation of unique publications, with inserts including, as a tangible result of cooperation, the audience’s impressions about the music they listened to.L.A.S.is an artistic platform focusing on the co-creation and coexistence of unforced interpersonal relations. It is the realization of the mutual need to share knowledge and skills, of being in harmony and with nature, of mutual respect for space, building relationships with the world, looking at what is happening around you, focusing on your own needs, listening to yourself and others, of different perception of the world, being in peace with nature and yourself, of following your intuition. All of this guides Piotr Damasiewicz – such goals and principles, among others, are implemented in the L.A.S. In a way, L.A.S. constitutes a platform where you can stop and ponder or talk about what is meaningful to everyone. The basis of such meetings is sound and openness to listening.

We would like to introduce a new Polish- Austrian quartet led by the trumpeter and composer Piotr Damasiewicz and his Viennese connections- the meticulously passionate saxophonist Krzysztof Kasprzyk, Viennese-to-the-bone, versatile bassist Thomas Stempkowski , and the jazz and electronica drummer Alex Yannilos.The music of the quartet is best described as “(…) expressive, free though very rhythmic and melodic, manic at times, always lovingly passionate.” It goes back to dear to our hearts sounds of 60es and 70es jazz, in which composed and conjointly improvised had an equal place and the energy between musicians and listeners during a live performance was the crucial part of a creating process. The formation of the band is the result of a meeting of the musicians as part of the Melomaniac Corner concert series, organised by Anna Moser in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Vienna, which took place in Strenger Kammer, in the viennese jazz-club Porgy & Bess in February 2019. The repertoire was written especially for this occasion by Piotr Damasiewicz. The band members felt that the collective had something special, something worth continuing. The idea to release an album arose. In April musicians met again to prepare for the recordings. In May 2019, the Viennese Suite material was recorded in the renown Amann studio in Vienna, in a live recording session as part of the new initiative and label of the leader- L.A.S.

Heard in the Carpathians, „watra” is a word of Wallachian origin which refers to a large bonefire with a wooden construction set up. Burned and accompanied by singing and recalling the old times, it symbolizes the return to the roots and serves the purpose of glorifying the ancestors. Watra is also what we ourselves associate with inspiring meetings bustling with stories of tradition, travel and music from around the world, when, by the fire, different musical worlds of jazz and folklore have brought us together. Now we’re all in the state of journey back to our roots, friends creating music together that we are, inspiring one another during numerous gatherings by the fire in Śpiwle estate found in Sucha Beskidzka at the slope of Mioduszyna Mountain and in the Cofeina Jazz Cafe, where the recording of this album took place. credits released June 26, 2021 Piotr Damasiewicz trumpet, harmonium, percusssions, voice Zbigniew Kozera bass, guimbri, african harph Paweł Szpura drum, frame drum

HoP warmly welcomes Belgian chantress Annelies Monseré back to the fold. Annelies’s Mares LP (hop17) sold-out last year and was featured on end-of-year lists from The Wire, Boomkat, The Quietus, and Tone Glow to name a few. Recent live shows at Café OTO, Roadburn Festival and supporting HTRK in Brussels prove there’s no sign of her slowing down. Recorded at home in Gent between 2016 and 2023, I Sigh, I Resign retains the intimacy of Mares with it’s close-mic’d keyboards and vocals that capture every breath. Folk and early music are at the core of her sound but the palette of piano, organ, bass guitar, cello, synth and drum machine make it very much a document of the here and now. The cover features Annelies’s sketches referencing female artists from the Dutch Golden Age who, highly revered at the time, now serve as mere footnotes to Rembrandt, Vermeer et al. The cover sets the tone for the music within which deals with power structures, toxic environments, and questioning (his)tories. Standout tracks include the pounding rhythm and choir-like voices on Salt as well as the tense folk/post-rock of Simple Fractures (co-written with her Luster bandmates). The album’s most tender moment is a cover of Jean Ritchie’s Appalachian ballad One I Love played and sung by Annelies and her ten year old son. I Sigh, I Resign is an intimate piece of work that explores personal and general themes which, having played-out for centuries, are still depressingly relevant. Despite the suggestion of defeat in the title, I Sigh, I Resign is an affirming and defiant manifesto for growth and liberation. 

First solo release from vocalist, movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener, whose work encompasses improvisation, contemporary music theatre and performance art. Solo Throat draws on the work of African-American and African-Caribbean poets Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire, Una Marson and N. H. Pritchard as source material for twelve new vocal compositions Elaine Mitchener is a veteran of vocal expression in the global Black Avant Garde, traversing free improvisation, cross-disciplinary music theatre and contemporary composition with clarity and joy. Most recently, Mitchener has been improvising and composing with the written word as source material - challenging classical ensembles with her piece (“the/e so/ou/nd be/t/ween”), and commissioning composers Matana Roberts, Jason Yarde and George Lewis to respond to the work of Sylvia Wynter (“On Being Human as Praxis”, Donaueschinger Musiktage, 2020). Her performance of Umbra poet N.H Pritchard’s text FR/OG at OTO in 2021 was a revelation - a solo vocal recasting of the powerful visual-material form that Pritchard uses to disrupt semantic ‘sense’. Building on this performance, Solo Throat takes the work of Pritchard alongside poets Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire and Una Marson as its source material. Its compositions are a loose translation - a carrying from text to voice which holds multiplicity and celebrates the transformative power of literary possibility. Surrendered to the spacing and repetition of consonants and vowels, Michener’s exceptional phonetic freedom gives rise to a sensuous experience which intensifies the roles of rhythm, timbre and breath in expressing meaning. Solo Throat comes together as much through difference as similarity. Mitchener’s own solo improvisations sit alongside the work of Brathwaite, Césaire, Marson and Pritchard, forming a constellation of unlikely alignments which make no aesthetic conclusion. Instead, Solo Throat is a site of encounter, a plural de-composition of words into an assemblage of sounds and impulses, emphasising what Anthony Reed calls, “the play on and the surplus of margins of lyrical translation to resituate other pathways of expression”. Just as the poets cited use white space to complicate our act of reading, so Mitchener utilises silence and multiphonics to complicate the act of voicing and the way we listen. — Elaine Mitchener is a British Afro-Caribbean vocalist, movement artist and composer working between contemporary/experimental new music, free improvisation and visual art. She is currently a Wigmore Hall Associate Artist; was a DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Fellow (2022) and was an exhibiting artist in the British Art Show 9 (2021-22). In February 2022 Mitchener was awarded an MBE for Services to Music. Her regular collaborators include: composers George E Lewis, Jennifer Walshe, and Tansy Davies; visual artists Sonia Boyce, Christian Marclay and The Otolith Group; chamber ensembles Apartment House, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble MAM, Ensemble Klang, and Klangforum Wien; choreographer Dam van Huynh’s company; and experimental musicians such as Moor Mother, Loré Lixenberg, Pat Thomas, Jason Yarde, Neil Charles and David Toop. — Recorded and engineered by Sean Woodlock at Hackney Road StudiosMastered by Sean McCannLayout by Jeroen WilleAll music and artwork by Elaine Mitchener

Recorded at home between Autumn 2016 and Summer 2017. Thanks to Jess, and my family and friends In memory of Alfie Cassidy-Day

Recorded on Hayman Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, the paths of stranded friends Ryko Kalinko (guitar & sampler) and Aemon Webb (vocals, guzheng & percussion) meet, creating an astonishing 3-part journey of deeply spiritual improvisations reflecting the beauty, isolation and nature of their vivid environment. “There Are Many Moods Of Tropical Exultation” carefully spends its 20+ minute track length conjuring a spell, bringing all dust in the room to settle. Smoke trails rise. Shade cloth quietly billows. Ryko and Aemon let their guitar and guzheng flow across and between one another, dissolving clock hands and carrying the listener into the twilight hours. “Stand For The Rush” introduces the B-side and shifts the sense of stillness towards something more rhythmic where the nocturnal world begins to open its eyes. Rattling drum machine percussion, slinking guzheng and chirping birds weave in and out of focus whilst booming kicks drive forward. A distant siren wails whilst life in surrounding undergrowth moves in shadows. Finally “These Waves…” drops the world into droning negative space where crushing black sky comes down. Crooning out into vast nothing. Murmuring; lost at sea. “Never coming home”.

LP ltd to 400, black vinyl, 2 color silkscreened jacket with obi (grey, tan), inserts and a postcard. An’archives are pleased to announce the release of a self-titled album by Tori Kudo & 3C123. A reissue of a cassette that was originally released on Uramado in 2020, this is the first time this live session has appeared on vinyl. The performance, featuring Kudo on piano and 3C123 on clarinet, was recorded on October 18, 2009, at the Uramado venue in Shinjuku. A beautiful and quixotic forty-minute set, it reconnects both Kudo and 3C123 with various musical histories, including those of classical composition and free improvisation.

Saltern present a remastered edition of Yoshi Wada’s The Appointed Cloud (1987), a work which Wada has often said is his favorite of his own. Staged at the Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science, The Appointed Cloud was Wada’s first large-scale, interactive installation and featured a custom pipe organ, among other homemade instruments, controlled by a computer equipped with a customized interface and software designed by engineer David Rayna, known for his work with La Monte Young. This recording captures the opening performance for which Wada brought together four musicians on bagpipes (Wada, Bob Dombrowski, and Wayne Hankin) and percussion (Michael Pugliese) to perform with the installation, operated by David Rayna. In Wada’s own words: “This performance [of The Appointed Cloud] was one of the most memorable performances I've done. The space itself—the Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science—was incredible. The building was designed for the 1964-65 World’s Fair and had spaceships hanging from the ceiling so people felt like they were traveling in outer space. It was an amazing experience with the sound of the pipe organ, sheet metal, pipe gong, and bagpipes all together. 60 minutes may seem like a long duration, but it didn't feel like it.” --- Composed by Yoshi Wada Sound installation instruments—pipe organ, sirens, tall sheet metal, pipe gong, etc.—provided by Yoshi Wada Computer interface engineering and software: David Rayna Bagpipes: Yoshi Wada, Bob Dombrowski, and Wayne Hankin Timpani and tam-tam: Michael Pugliese Recorded live by John Driscoll on November 8, 1987 Digital transfer by Sonicraft A2DX Lab Mastered by Stephan Mathieu --- Saltern, 2021

First ever reissue of OFAMFA by CHILDREN OF THE SUN, a legendary and virtually unobtainable artifact of St. Louis' Black Artist Group from 1971 Original released in 1971 by the BAG groups own label “Universal Justice Records” this album has for years been an impossible to find/listen to album, and this is its first reissue ever .. Ofamfa by The Children Of The Sun, a band lead by poet/musicien Ajule/aka Bruce Rutlin Is a heady mix of poetry/jazz/political songs/ and a document of a comunity avent. The BAG group being about all the arts theater and dance. The original liner notes by Ajule are great Insight in to the creative/vibrant politically aware jazz scene of St Louise in the late 60s early 70s. This album is an important piece of black American history, and even as a visual artifact it is the thing! “All of the brothers playing and writing on this record are members of the Black Artist Group (BAG) which is based in St. Louis, "Misery." The Black Artist Group, a loose association of young Black men & women, is a potent/fertile creative force; a group which has contributed strong/fresh/inspirational creativity in the fields of Music/Writing/Dance/Drama. The Children of the Sun is one of the units operating under the BAG umbrella; others are or have been, The Oliver Lake/BAG, The 'BAG' Ensemble (Big Band), Red Black & Green Solidarity Unit, Onawali Dancers, Malinque Rhythm Tribe, BAG Drama Dept., Great Black Music Orchestra of St. Louis, Fire-Earth-Air-Water, Me We & Them, Julius Hemphill Quartet and some others.......all different creative approaches and reflecting a sum of influences and wisdoms which ranges across 500 years from here to Africa.......During their brief creative association the COS etched themselves into many hearts and minds. The group was together for little more than a year. Playing college concerts (when $ lucky), playing benefits for all kinds of groups of Black people and progressive whites. "A spiritual oasis in the baren desert of Amerika..." They would say, sometimes...... The conceptions reflect experiments which sought to establish a balance/harmony between the mediums of muse/ic and the spoken/sung word, (often the motions of dancers added still another depth) a balance which would catch the pulse and flame of the will of our people even tho they and we had already condemned the english language as the criminal insignia of the privileged class/es. (...Still, english wuz the only language we had in common so it was a dilema of how to reinspire the language). But because the members had to spend a majority of their time food getting their experiments and investigations were abandoned short of their goal which was/is to find a way to restablish the natural harmony of the Spiritual World; which has been upset and polluted to the same extent as our physical world: SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY?? Unfortunately, as it was, the experiments had to be cut short just as the techniques of communication were being perfected. Cut short by a manifestation of whut George Jackson called "over oppression." These young Black men look, walk, talk, eat, love, trip like us all but (unlike most) life is incalcuably more important to them than property values, hot dogs, cadillacs, or even "civilization;" if u can dig where i'm comin from! Their compassion for the Black, the poor, and the disadvantaged in general is reflected by the staggering numbers of free concerts they give/have given or the free classes they offer at BAG in the 4 major disciplines. And by the fact that they seek to maintain their comittment to life and creativity even as they exist at or near the starvation level. So these young Black men are emissaries of the Spiritual Universe....... the lost/abandoned universe they seek to describe in their creativity. "The main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe."* All these things are being said ...... u see ...... in an attempt to distinguish them favorably from their contemporaries in the Kapitalist "superstars"/entertainers/puppets who frolic like gelded puppies across the stages/footlights of the nation; at the end of the silver gaudy chains held by the bloody hands of the richest pale faces and their legions of sattelites and lackeys; who do come in all colors and races. This expression was recorded (by BAG) at various concerts and all of it was recorded "live"/accomplished in one taping. Other than regular microphones no electronic devices shaped this creativity (BLACK). we are new yes we are old before and after the mighty winds of change and revolution The "Black Artist Group" wuz there yes we are the shambles, ruined tones of ancient memories and the sound of running waters, singing leaves flirting the silly air and yes sunlight splashed against dark wrinkled faces sighed winds driving the seasons the gifted moans of cherished lovers yes yes yes serene faces of beautiful children Ours..........” *John Coltrane - Ajulé  credits released June 3, 2024 The Muse/icians on the album are…. Rashu Aten / conga, small instruments Oliver Lake / soprano &Alto sax, flute, poems, small instruments Floyd LeFlore/ trumpet, small instruments Ishac Rajab/ Trumpet Arzinia Richardson/ bass, small instruments Vincent Terrell / cello Charles “bobo” Shaw / drums, small instruments Ajule / poetry, arrangements, small instruments, drums

On April 15th SA Recordings present a new LP and sample library from the acclaimed New York composer, performer and sound designer Lea Bertucci. A work of three interlinked incarnations, ‘Acoustic Shadows’ began as an event, which then became an album and has inspired a sample library for other musicians. The Event (recalled by Lea Bertucci) “Acoustic Shadows I-III was a series of site-specific musical performances and a sound installation that took place in the enclosed hollow body of the Deutzer bridge in Koln, Germany, 2018. Spanning approximately 440 meters across the Rhine river, the extraordinary acoustics and rich existing aural architecture of this site became crucial components of the installation and musical compositions. An 8-channel speaker system distributed throughout the bridge became activated by three instrumental performances that happened throughout the course of a week. Fragments of each performance were captured by microphones installed in the space and then played back through the 8-channels after the performance was over in a loop of overlapping moments, creating a sonic accumulation that takes place over long stretches of time - a musical performance with no clear ending. The first performance, for solo alto saxophone, served as the basis for the rest of the piece, as the sounds generated during this performance were played back as an installation throughout the following days. The second performance built upon the first, this time with an 8-piece brass ensemble. Again, the sounds produced here were captured in a similar fashion from the first performance and continued as an installation for the next few days. On the last day, a performance for three percussionists closed out the event and completed the project. I wanted to create elements within this project that directly responded to the auditory richness of the site. In each composition, I looked for particular instruments that would excite the acoustic characteristics of the space. With approximately 14 seconds of reverb, distinctive delay effects and a room tone of approximately 65 hz, the hollow body of the bridge provided a lush sonic backdrop to stage these pieces."

Nearly twenty-five years after disbanding, Gastr del Sol have unpacked their archive, stringing together an alternative view to their genre-melting 1993-1998 run. This assembly of previously uncollected studio recordings and beautifully captured unreleased live performances forms a spacious ode to the flux that was their métier; a further set of reinventions that continue to alter the manner in which we hear music, and literally everything else! Mastered by Jim O'Rourke All instruments by David Grubbs and Jim O'Rourke with: Jeb Bishop (trombone, 11) Bundy K. Brown (bass, 4; guitar, 9) Steve Butters (percussion, 11) Gene Coleman (bass clarinet, 11) Thymme Jones (trumpet, 11) Terri Kapsalis (violin, 11) John McEntire (drums, 4, 9; synth, 11) Günter Müller (percussion, 5) Bob Weston (trumpet, 11) Sue Wolf (violin, 11)

Solo Guitar 2 was recorded by Bill Nace in 2008, in a good-sounding room in Bennington, Vermont. This year the record, originally released as a now (nearly) extinct cassette, is reissued without it's mysterious and (maybe?) long-lost sibling Solo Guitar 1 (Like any good punk demo -- which, both aesthetically and energetically, Solo Guitar 2 is -- the thrill of discovery is made only sweeter by the potential of future discovery). The vinyl release comes a little less than a year after Bill's first 'official' solo record, Both, which was released by Drag City in May, 2020. The two records don't necessarily stand in opposition, but they are at different points on the spectrum of production, tone, mood, time, place, age, career. Where Both is softened by the warmth and precision of a studio, there's a wildness to Solo Guitar 2 which approaches the experience of witnessing Bill perform live. Made up of mostly brief pieces - songs, practically - Solo Guitar 2 winds tight, then unwinds, or sometimes snaps apart. Crackling, itchy static morphs into heavy, watery vibration, layered on metallic rattle. There are moments where that Bennington room sounds as sterile and lonely as a deserted art gallery. And then it becomes spacious and warm, like a cathedral filling with the hum of the universe. The bulk of Bill's releases are collaborations with other artists, who are drawn to him (at least in part) because he's an innovative player and a deep listener. Those qualities hold, and in certain ways intensify when he's on his own. As he takes a series of unlikely tools across his prone guitar with the grace and urgency of someone at a loom or an aircraft control panel, there's a sense of reaching inward. But where some might meander or navel-gaze, Bill's playing is a process of constant dynamic construction. What unfurls can feel intensely personal, and often - for reasons I don't always understand - very moving. Bill isn't interested in micromanaging his listeners' experiences, but he does make room for us. Composer Pauline Oliveros observed that when we listen deeply to the world around us, we sometimes notice very subtle and quiet differences in sounds that we thought were familiar. As a result, she writes, 'the slightest difference may lead you to a new creative relationship.' Bill is, I think, tuned in to these subtle and quiet differences. But, in a truly punk fashion, he flips this for the listener, making unfamiliar and not-very-subtle noise into something akin to (but also distinct from) familiar sounds: traffic outside your window, the soft roar of a conch shell to your ear, static between radio stations. Solo Guitar 2, full as it is of shades and moods and life, offers a fresh way of hearing. -Margaret Welsh Philadelphia, PA 2021

Playing up to and into DDS’ freeform aesthetics, O’Rourke renders 40 minutes shearing hyaline synth tones and ruptured rhythm generated at his Steamroom facilities in Tokyo, a modular out-zone trawling that harks back to his iconic Mego releases and some of the more recent Steamroom experiments. It’s an ideal addition to the ever expanding DDS cosmos, following Demdike’s recent ‘Drum Machine’ expo with a slice of purist and screwed modular magick that transcends early electronics and modern styles in pursuit of musical sensations that defy stylistic brackets. 'Too Compliment’ was assembled using a bespoke Hordijk modular system, a rare West Coast-style setup hand made by Dutch engineer Rob Hordijk. O'Rourke focuses on the frequency shifter here, using it to coax out fluxing tone thickets, haphazard frequencies and elongated drone corridors. It's transportive stuff, harking back to the early days of private press academic synth music but also sitting on edge alongside Autechre's recent long-form work, as well as O'Rourke's classic "I'm Happy, And I'm Singing, And A 1, 2, 3, 4” In O’Rourke’s hands, the mass of electronics takes on throbbing, organic dimensions, congealing grey matter and purplish veins of fluid in viscous transitions that glisten and spark with invention as they form new tissue. What comes out is as unearthly as the earliest electronic music, but also blessed with a psychedelc spirit in a way that’s long kept O’Rourke right out on his own, teetering between paradigms yet never settling into any single style. If you’ve always been keen on finding a way into that sprawling soundworld, 'Too Compliment’ is a perfect entry point into a highly rewarding creative macrocosm. --- DDS, 2021

1,000 copies in yellow vinyl. Singing songs while playing ding dongs, Charlemagne Palestine’s solo voice over the bells of his studio carillon is a premiere in his recorded works, and possibly the first voice/carillon record in musical history. All the little shamanic stuffed deities inhabiting the carillon added their souls to the spirit of the reverberating songs, including a song in memory of Mika Vainio.

Legendary Japanese noise band, Hijokaidan, team up with electronic avant-pop pioneer Togawa. Hijokaidan was formed in Kyoto in 1979 by Jojo Hiroshige and Naoki Zushi, and are undisputed leaders of the Japanese noise scene. Jun Togawa's first recordings as writer producer and singer were in the early 80s, sometimes working with Haruomi Hosono among others. This new and cataclysmic collaboration is produced by  Hiroshige and Togawa. Pressed on translucent red wax, 180g audiophile record, with 48x72cm fold-out poster and full English lyrics. Includes  high-quality digital download code with exclusive bonus tracks - Made in Japan. Released in 2017, these are the last copies available. "For the first time, art-pop goddess Jun Togawa meets on disc noise icon Jojo Hiroshige for a fantastic album, a twin-pronged sonic attack to melt your ears in disbelief. As maddening as one can expect, the music is an invitation to the worlds of both artists – a surrealistic tour de force to knock your loose socks off. Former actress Jun Togawa is an eccentric pop singer, a poisonous flower that sprouted in 1980s new wave bands like Halmens, Guernica and Yapoos. The famous “insect woman” worked with such masters as Haruomi Hosono and Otomo Yoshihide, before lending her voice and lyrics to half the tracks presented here on Togawa Kaidan – including hit song “Suki Suki Dai Suki”. And it feels like a comeback! Pursuing his latest works with pop idols, Jojo Hiroshige is better known as the founder of cult band Hijokaidan, aka one of the most prominent and violent noise-improv acts ever fomented in Japan. His influence over the Japanese underground scene is limitless with more than 200 album credits in his entire output, including Ultra Bide, Acid Mothers Kaidan, Bis Kaidan and many more. Together, they form an unexpected duo, a monstrous and absurd collaboration seeking to water down pop music into an ecstatic cacophony for the sake of it! This striking record sounds like a dragonfly trapped in the emergency staircase of an ever-collapsing structure, trying to survive between guitar shreds and clusters of blistering noise. Every two tracks, Jun’s quirky vocals add a layer of sweetness over the clanky maelstrom created by “God Hand Jojo”, her squeals shattering on a wall of brutal noise. Hearing Togawa and Hiroshige, you will face a virtual onslaught in staggered rows. Now available on vinyl with download codes for exclusive bonus tracks, you may fully experience their take on what music is all about. – B.M."

After a run of extremely under the radar cassette releases, Penultimate Press is proud to present the first vinyl collection of works by the Winnipeg outfit Korea Undok Group. With more hiss than a valley of snakes the various monikers here cover the gamut of contemporary practice traversing  industrial decay, rhythmic pulse onwards to piano etudes and fractured possession. All these forms come debossed with the signature destroyed tape aesthetic which makes these sharks so lonely.  180 gram vinyl on beautiful reverse board sleeve with passport style booklet all designed by KUG. This is a package that befits this unique scene of one, or many.  Side A Sargasso Sea – Richardson Centre  Sargasso Sea – Patria  Sargasso Sea – Winnipeg Downtown Skywalk Purple Circles – Under the Canopy by the Red River Sargasso Sea – Richardson Reading Terrace Side B Sargasso Sea – Canada Trust Korea Undok Group – This Fantasy Is Unhealthy Korea Undok Group – Quarto Korea Undok Group – There Is Always Somewhere Else