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Henry Dagg is a composer, improvisor, sound sculptor and builder of experimental musical instruments who formerly worked as a sound engineer for the BBC. His works include the Sharpsichord, a pin barrel harp commissioned for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, and a pair of steel sculptural musical gates for Rochester Independent College.“What he’s doing is a very serious body of work. Henry’s not an ordinary commercial artist/musician; he seeks perfection, and he’ll get it at any cost.”— Brian Pain, Rochester Independent CollegeEvan Parker improvises on the tenor and soprano saxophone, and has performed live and recorded extensively across the UK and internationally. He has pioneered or substantially expanded an array of extended techniques for the saxophone.“The UK’s greatest exponent of free jazz.”— Mike Hobart, Financial TimesHenry and Evan improvised together for the first time as part of the Free Range series in Canterbury, Kent, on December 2, 2021. For the performance, Evan played soprano saxophone, and Henry developed a new electronic instrument called the Stage Cage, to both process Evan’s live sound as well as generate its own sounds.The Stage Cage includes four valve test-oscillators, a pair of ring modulators, frequency shifter, chromatic zither, and a variable tape delay system (consisting of two quarter-inch tape machines, eight feet apart – the first machine records, and the tape runs past moveable playback heads to the second machine, allowing several replays). Henry's main performance interface is a ‘dynamic router’: a five-key controller, which is the bridge between most of the components of the Stage Cage.Towards the end of the performance, the tape machines were stopped, their reels reversed and set to play: the improvisation from then on was overlaid by a reverse reproduction of what Henry and Evan had already been performing, with the reverse recording itself also being subjected to various treatments.The live recording was subsequently developed by Henry for this 56 minute album. Evan notes in the accompanying booklet interview: “I would say it will sound better now, because of the post-production work that Henry’s done, using the live recording as – basically – tracks to be part of a new mix, a new project, which obviously overlaps hugely with what we did in the room, but it should be more detailed and better balanced in certain parts. Some post-production decisions that technology makes possible, where they led to improvements, Henry used those possibilities. It should be better than being at the event …”For the CD and digital release, the recording has been mastered by Adam Skeaping, and a conversation between Henry, Evan and performance artist Karen Christopher is included in a 20 page booklet.______________________________________________________“This 56-minute improvisation demonstrates the fearless sonic imagination of both Parker and Dagg, always searching for unchartered territories and with great attention to detail and a totally free and unpredictable spirit, but their own way of suggesting a cohesive and coherent improvisation. Its arresting atmosphere visits abstract musique concrète, otherworldly, deep-space ambient journeys, and a careful but sometimes subversive and kaleidoscopic investigation of the soprano sax tones and overtones, live and processed ones.”— Salt Peanuts, on THEN THROUGH NOW______________________________________________________Music by Henry Dagg and Evan ParkerOriginal recording by RouteStockProduction by Henry DaggMastered by Adam Skeaping Photographs by RouteStockDesign by David Caines Gatefold sleeve, with 20 page bookletOriginal live recording: Fruitworks/Fond Coffee, Jewry Lane, Canterbury, as part of the Free Range series, December 2, 2021. freerangecanterbury.orgAlbum launch event & benefit for the venue:The Hot Tin, Faversham: November 20, 2022

Henry Dagg and Evan Parker – THEN THROUGH NOW

Available in print for the first time in 50 years, Behind the State Capitol: Or Cincinnati Pike has long enjoyed cult status. It is the record of a poet whose life has been shattered by poverty, drug addiction, and mental illness. Wieners creates a complex schizo-analysis of language, capitalism, incarceration, and state power, while reflecting on unpopular themes of aging and loneliness in the gay world. It is also a paean for his beloved city of Boston, as he witnessed its destruction by the onerous forces of urban renewal. Considered by many to be his masterpiece, the book was met variously with indifference and outrage when it was published in 1975. In 1982, most remaining copies of the book were destroyed in the arson fire of Fag Rag/Good Gay Poets offices.Already known as a "poet’s poet" from The Hotel Wentley Poems (1958), Ace of Pentacles (1964), and Nerves (1970), in 1972 Wieners moved to 44 Joy Street on Boston’s Beacon Hill, where he was involved with anti-war and gay liberation movements, the Beacon Hill Free School, and organizations devoted to the rights of people with mental health conditions. Out of this milieu emerged Behind the State Capitol, described by its author as “cinema decoupages; verses, abbreviated prose insights.” The book would be John Wieners’s last major poetical statement. He was forty-one.This facsimile edition contains new afterwords by Wieners’s friend and scholar James Dunn, and the poet’s biographer, Robert Dewhurst.  Softcover, 227pp The Song Cave, New York, 2025 (originally published 1975)

john wieners – Behind the state capitol: or cincinnati Pike

Sung Tieu employs sound as a critical tool to dissect how social and political power manifests within sensory realms. Through layered compositions, the artist examines the emotional and psychological effects of controlled environments, transforming space into an immersive auditory experience that highlights the structures of surveillance, bureaucracy and institutional design. Civic Floor examines the evolution of prison architecture, tracing the shift from the radial model developed in Britain in the 1840s to the emergence of galleried and courtyard layouts in the 19th and 20th centuries. It also explores more contemporary approaches, including the “new generation” prisons of the 1990s, which prioritised control through sophisticated spatial and psychological strategies. Tieu’s soundscape mirrors these architectural developments, blending mechanical rhythms, bodily sounds, ambient drones, and distorted frequencies to evoke the alienation and rigidity inherent in such systems. The work’s immersive soundscape disorients while enveloping the listener, amplifying the psychological weight of these spaces and their design principles. Sung Tieu (b. Hai Duong, Vietnam) is an artist based in Berlin. Her work draws on her personal experiences and research into global capitalism and its impacts, addressing themes of imperialist violence, class divides, and displacement. She often reflects the voices and experiences of Vietnamese diaspora communities in Germany. Together with Henrike Naumann, Tieu will represent Germany at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026.

Sung Tieu – CIVIC FLOOR

This recording from the earlier years of Cafe Oto documents the impossible pairing of four contemporary giants. Its one of those miraculous one off groupings that reminds us why the venue opened in the first place.’ “The magic of the first minutes – an alto solo by Joe McPhee of true purity – soft-spoken, masterful and accomplished – brought back to mind the blissful Coleman/Haden duet last year at the Royal Festival Hall. ‘Ornette gave me freedom to move in a certain way,’ said McPhee. He searched hesitantly and carefully for his words, all the more surprising from such an articulate musical (or, as he might say ‘muse-ical’) practitioner and campaigner. Coleman’s 80th birthday coincided with McPhee’s stint at Cafe Oto. McPhee and his co-musicians delivered an intense performance which was both creative and restrained. With Evan Parker ‘s tenor in tow – a collaboration going back to the late 70s – and Lol Coxhill, sitting with head bowed intently, a soprano master – it could have gone anywhere, yet they worked off each other, often in the higher registers, building up almost bird-call like interactions and trills. Earlier, Chris Corsano‘s drumming presented a dense bedrock for McPhee to play against, and his solo spell was a crisp exercise in sonic curiosity. McPhee picked up his soprano mid-way through the second set, heightening the lyricism of the three saxophones. Then, being a devotee of Don Cherry, he switched to pocket trumpet, allowing him to interject, and punctuate the concentrated sound layers built up by the quartet, and lead the music out through a different door”- Geoff Winston (londonjazznews.com) Recorded 10th March 2010, this is also a document of the only time Lol Coxhill and Joe Mcphee shared the stage. The recording is a little rough, but hey, so was your birth! Limited to 500 copies packaged in mini gatefold sleeve.

Lol Coxhill / Joe McPhee / Chris Corsano / Evan Parker – Tree Dancing

Incredible X3 CD Box of archival, Angus Maclise works,  fully restored and remastered by Jim O'Rourke in 2023. The 3CD box comes with a miniature poster, a sheet of track list, and each CD comes with a paper sleeve which reproduces the original cassette sleeve artwork. Angus MacLise, the first drummer for the Velvet Underground, was a poet, composer, and a member of The Theatre of Eternal Music alongside La Monte Young. The "Tapes" 3CD Box is the first-ever reissue of a 3-cassette compilation that Pleasure Editions originally released in 2015, limited to only 100 copies. The 3CD box set comes with a miniature poster and track lists, and each CD has a paper sleeve that reproduces the original cassette card artwork. This comprehensive 3CD box set is over three hours in length and includes session recordings with Tony Conrad and William Breeze (of Coil, Current 93, and Psychic TV), mystical recordings from the filming of Ira Cohen's "The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda" (1968), shortwave experiments, and sounds of Tibetan Buddhist monks recorded by MacLise. The "Tapes" compilation features excerpts from the archives of the Angus MacLise Papers, which are held at Columbia University Library. The archives contain over 100 hours of reel-to-reel tape recordings of live improvised music, theatrical performances, and sound experiments created by MacLise and his associates during the 1960s and 1970s. MacLise produced the original recordings in his own unique style, characterized by rough and peculiar editing. The release is curated and sequenced by Will Cameron and Mark Iosifescu.

Angus MacLise – Tapes

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