Corneliu Cezar LP ‘Ziua Fără Sfârșit’ – Metaphon
Composer Corneliu Cezar (1937-1997) was a distinctive personality within the Romanian post 1960 avantgarde: a visionary of music, a thinker and a prophet, a richly gifted artist also active with writing, poetry, painting and astrology. Cezar was an activist rediscovering the natural resonance of sound within a different historical context and he embraced the recovery of authenticity as a reaction against the artificialized culture of serial doctrines. When, after 1975 the spectral music trend became official in Paris, with much fuss and
remarkable support from musicologists, nobody knew that this trend has already been practiced by a small group of Romanian composers lead by Corneliu Cezar for ten years. The four electro-acoustic pieces on this album (privately released on CD in Romania in 2000), recorded with little means between 1967 and 1975, display the incredibly strong ideas of a truly visionary artist. Everything Corneliu Cezar has done during his short earthly life bared the shade of authenticity.
$25
Octavian Nemescu 3LP box ‘Passages… à travers le Temps’ – Metaphon
One of Romania’s most important composers in the last half-century, Octavian Nemescu (1940-2020) is among the few that were not “part of the system”, managing to survive and compose in a world that felt more and more “empty”, fragile, confused and scarce in prophecies. The mystical approach to his art defines Octavian Nemescu as an essentialist who believed in the power of archetypes in which he found inspiration. His pieces always start from an idea that has spiritual, cosmogonic implications and often involves synthesizers, sounds from nature (buzz of bees) and the “ison” (drone). When defining “meta music” or “imaginary music”, Nemescu was an advocate of looking from above, from the top of the mountain. Silence is very important in his work in order to keep the sound flowing and to reflect on the sound from before, as a space, as a pause for thinking. Nemescu put forward another kind of music: a song that has not yet surfaced through human voice, any musical instrument, orchestra or other electro-acoustic means: an intimate, interior, introverted inner sound that focuses on the individual and the imagination. Imaginary music is a reaction, it comes in contrast to the spectacular, it is anti-show. For him, music had a ritualistic function, it served no cultural purpose.
This 3LP set collects eight pieces for variable ensemble, tape and electronics, composed between 1968 and 2015, selected together with Erica Nemescu, who also mastered the tracks. Most tracks have been previously released on different CD’s but never before on vinyl.
Box edition of 250 copies :
3LP + 8 page booklet in silkscreen printed hardboard linen box + download code. $110 SOLD OUT
-Slipcase edition of 250 copies:
3LP + 8 page booklet in offset printed slipcase sleeve. $52
Hiroshi Na LP Turkey Necklace – AROE pro / SHIMITTER RECORDS
Ltd to 400 with insert and card
This album composed of tracks that Hiroshi Na (aka: Narazaki Yuji/Kumo Yuri) especially liked from the 8cm CD-R series released in the early 2000s under the official authorization of “Hello Good-Bye Studio” and which are now difficult to obtain. It starts with home recordings made during his junior high and high school days (1965-70), multi-track recordings made with a radio cassette player while he was in the band Zuno Keisatsu (1974), studio demos made during his break after leaving the band Les Rallizes Denudes (1978), tracks provided for a compilation CD on the German label Dom (1992), and tracks provided for a Jon (the dog) tribute CD (2004).
$35
Hiroshi Na LP An Orphan’s Dream – MUSICA JAPONICA RECORDS
Ltd to 400, with insert and a card
This album includes a series of 8cm CD-Rs released by Hello Good-Bye Studio in the early 2000s with the official approval of Hiroshi Na (aka Hiroshi Narazaki/Yuri Kun), which are now difficult to obtain. This album includes recordings of Koi no Karakuri (1977), recorded while he was still in Les Rallizes Denudes , which showed the direction that led Hiroshi to start his own creative endeavors, as well as important live recordings that indirectly complement his solo works under the name Yuri Kun and his work with Niplets, etc.
$35
Mibu Kogawa (Furakawa) LP 壬生／津軽の風と土へ Gousarashi – P-Vine
Originally released in 1978, this issue comes with the booklet, if y u are in Kazuki Tomokawa, Kan Mikami, and “freak-folk”, this album is mix of prayers and screams (dedicated to his lost brother), sometimes with some additionnal environmental sounds, that’s just stunning and it has been keeping me thrilled to the bone for decades. Intense, highly recommended, ltd reissue and we only have a very few
$45
Morio Agata (with Takehisa Kosugi) 7′ Akashiano Amega Yamutoki/Hanayome Ningyou / アカシアの雨がやむとき
– Super Fuji
Morio Agata’s 1979 self-produced single “When the Acacia Rain Stops” and dedicated to Kaoru Abe is reissued on 7-inch for the first time in 46 years, with Takehisa Kosugi, Masaru Watanabe…
Promo copy with a postcard, very limited
$22
Rumors of Noize : Hijokaidan and the Round to 2nd Damascus by Kato David Hopkins – Public Bath
21 x 15 cm, 220 pages
$30 SOLD OUT
Free Jazz In Japan – Soejima Teruto translated by David Kato Hopkins – Public Bath
21 x 14 cm, 365 pages
Yamashita Yosuke, Togashi Masahiko, Abe Kaoru, Kondo Toshinori, and today’s Otomo Yoshihide and Shibusa Shirazu. Japanese free jazz emerged as a flag-bearer of the era in the late 1960s, and produced expressions that were ahead of the rest of the world. This is a documentary/avant-garde trajectory testified to by Teruhito Soejima, who has pioneered the scene as a producer from its infancy to the present day.
The original book was published in 2002. The English version has been significantly revised and updated with new photos. The preface was written by Yoshihide Otomo, and the recommendation on the back cover was written by John Zorn, who is said to rarely praise this type of publication. It is said to have had the most initial orders of any book published by Public Bath Press, and it is certain to become a good guide to Japanese free jazz for overseas enthusiasts in the future.
$40
Release date : May, 23rd
Makoto Kawashima CD Arteria – Relative Pitch
Over the past decade, saxophonist Makoto Kawashima has consistently established himself as one of the most compelling improvisers in contemporary music. His unique approach to solo performance aligns him with the tradition of groundbreaking Japanese saxophonists like Kaoru Abe, Tamio Shiraishi, and Masayoshi Urabe. Operating at the fringes of improvised music, Kawashima’s artistry unveils a delicate essence, placing equal focus on silence and minute detail alongside intense expressions of tone and texture.
$15
Japan'archives mailorder 