You heard it here first: Sighs matters! All these songs are sung by a delightful duo of lady Krayolas, written by Art & Language, and composed by the very capable hands Mayo Thompson and the rest of the current RK lineup. Timely, thought-inducing, and occasionally profane.

"I had been a fan of Mayo Thompson's prolific output for years, and had the opportunity to assist Mayo & Drag City on a previous project which I'm not at liberty to discuss due to a non-disclosure agreement. What I can say about it is that it involved time travel, another legendary avant-guardian and an agent of "the company" assisting my efforts. Mixing Five American Portraits at my studio Top Cat International was a joy and a breeze. DC mogul Rian Murphy was in the house simultaneously cracking the whip and jokes. Mayo was in rare form executing his laser-like vision over the session. The combination of The Raincoats' Gina Birch and the ever-confounding aural collaborations of The Red Krayola with Art & Language proves to be a potent combination. DON'T MESS WITH MAYO." --Butchy Fuego

Glenn Kotche, Jim O'Rourke and Jeff Tweedy. Together again, this time with protection. Three guys playing musical songs featuring singing.

Tracklisting: 1 Chine (1) 5:172 Ezeng 4:353 地球民歌 Folk Song of the Earth 5:004 老地图 Old Map 8:345 Chine (2) 7:266 Shangkobez 5:547 工人神曲 The Divine Comedy of Workers 6:208 90's 4:179 室内游牧 Indoor Nomadism 2:3010 Mayda Konger (Akan Seri) 3:02 马木尔 Mamer - 吉他 Guitar / 口弦 Jew's Harp / 冬不拉 Dombra / 人声 Vocals录制于第七届OCT-LOFT国际爵士音乐节，2017年10月29日B10现场，中国深圳Recorded at the 7th OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival on October 29, 2017B10 Live, Shenzhen, China --- CD2 1 Kün 8:532 Kim 7:273 Babalar 8:494 Zen 5:385 Sêh 5:346 幽浮部落 UFO Tribe 4:317 核磁 Nuclear Magnetic 4:208 Tin 6:269 Daidiydao 7:4410 冬不拉即兴 Dombra Improvisation 6:23 马木尔 Mamer - 贝斯 Bass / 冬不拉 Dombra / 人声 Vocals录制于第八届OCT-LOFT国际爵士音乐节，2018年10月17日B10现场，中国深圳Recorded at the 8th OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival on October 17, 2018B10 Live, Shenzhen, China"After his self imposed exile from the global world music niche, Mamer found his stage at Shenzhen’s two annual music festivals – Tomorrow Festival and OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival – curated by his loyal friend and supporter Tu Fei, who would always reserve at least one set for Mamer’s newest sonic experimentations. Mamer’s most recent album Faintish Radiation documents his full performances of solo improvisation at the seventh (2017) and eighth (2018) OCT-LOFT Jazz Festivals, in which he performed electric bass, guitar, dombra, jew's harp and vocals. These recordings register Mamer’s trajectory towards a maturing avant garde composer who is able to capture the audience with an everchanging bizarre sonic kaleidoscope, one which summons industrial noise, doom drones, heavy metal riffs, dark and punchy grooves, and broken pieces of folk melodies. In each of his solo performances, Mamer would start from random notes and eventually build up an overpowering atmosphere that is distinctively his own, knowing only too well when to release a delicate Kazakh tune as a reward for intensive listening. Here “Daidiydao”, a heartbreaking love song believed to be composed by Kazakh poet Magzhan Zhumabayev, was unleashed towards the end of the 2018 performance, before an abrupt, typically Mamer stop that ended the whole set. --- 录音 Recording：曾君 Zeng Jun；罗绿野 Luo Lvye混音 Mixing & 母带处理 Mastering：刘英 Liu Ying制作人 Producer：涂飞 Tu Fei设计 Design：尹思卜 Yin Sibo封面照片 Front Cover Photo：@Waitetc_等等其它摄影 Other Photos：阿瓜 Wain；陈鸿@DAFA；蒙润

Continuing our work on Sao Tomé and Principe with curator DJ Tom B., we are pleased to announce the release of an anthology of the group África Negra.This first volume includes 12 of their key tracks, remastered for the occasion and selected only from those officially released on different media. A second volume containing only unreleased material, digitized from the studio tapes by their tour manager, and filled with period photos, is expected soon. Formed in the early 1970s by Horacio, a butcher by trade, and his guitarist friend Emidio Pontes, África Negra is the best known of the great São Tomé and Principe bands. The catchy melodies in the local Forro language, provided by lead singer João Seria, and subtly harmonized by the enchanting backing vocals of the rest of the band, quickly ensured their influence outside the archipelago. Their incomparable blend of Puxa and Rumba rhythms and subtle melodies made them the most regular touring band from Sao Tome.Their first album (Aninha) was released in 1981, followed by three more in 1983. They contain an incredible collection of timeless hits and have achieved high ratings on the second-hand market. Then came the excellent San Lena in 1986, which was unfortunately only released on cassette, but for which we were able to digitize the original tape. In 1990 their last album in vinyl format (Paga me uma cerveja) was released, the rarest. Three CDs and five cassettes followed in the 1990s. Like most São Tomean bands, they recorded their compositions at Radio Nacional STP, the only studio on the island at the time, whose cramped premises forced the big bands to do sessions outside in the courtyard, at night, facing the ocean and in front of their fans. Reformed around João Seria, the band has recorded three albums since 2012, and has been touring again for a few years, offering, always with the same energy, their frenzied rhythms, their graceful harmonies, their poetry full of social metaphors, and their typical dance steps.

The second Viva-La-Black album, this was recorded in London in the winter of 1990-91 and is notable for the inclusion in the band of an electric guitarist, Frank Douglas. Louis Moholo - leader, drums, vocalThebe Lipere - Afrikan percussion, vocalsClaude Deppa - trumpet, flugelhorn, vocalsSean Bergin - tenor sax, flute, concertinaSteve Williamson - tenor/alto saxesFrank Douglas - electric guitarPaul Rogers - double bass

The quartet of Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo-Moholo recorded live at Jazzclub De Hoop, Waregem, Belgium on 1st July 1979

A vital artefact in the recorded history of the Blue Notes, being a live recording (Durban, 1964) of one the the group's last performances in their homeland prior to flying to France to appear by invitation at the Juan-Les-Pins Jazz Festival and then on to expatriation in England.The album was first released by Ogun in 1995 and then featured as part of the "Blue Notes - The Ogun Collection" box set in 2008, itself now long out of print. At long last this exceptional document is available again Chris McGregor - pianoDudu Pukwana - alto saxophoneNick Moyake - tenor saxophoneMongezi Feza - trumpetJohnny Dyani - bassLouis Moholo - drums

A long-out-of-print slice of solo Chris McGregor gets a CD repress!! Recorded in concert at the Palais des Glaces, 37 rue du Faubourg duTemple, Paris on Friday 18 November 1977 by Ron Barron.Tracks 1-8 present the first set in its entirety and is a continuous performance; 9-13 are extracts from the second set. Tracks 4-6 and 9-13 were originally available on LP as OG 521 released in 1979.“Chris McGregor, who died in 1990 in his adopted homeland of France, rarely recorded solo. Two albums for the French Musica label have long been collectors' items, as has In His Good Time, recorded at a Paris concert in 1977 and first released by Ogun in 1979. The CD version comes with around 40 minutes of additional material and presents the first set of the concert in its entirety, followed by five tunes from the second set. The sound, using the original analogue tapes, is excellent.McGregor had a thick, rolling piano style, more or less equal parts jazz and traditional black South African music; like township jazz in general, his playing had the emotional intensity of African American gospelmusic and touched the same bases. On In His Good Time he plays a mixture of originals and traditional folk tunes, along with Mongezi Feza's "Sonia" and Dudu Pukwana's "The Bride." There is a purity—astraightforward joy—in McGregor's performances, which communicates itself powerfully. The 54-minute first set is played as a continuum, uninterrupted by opportunities for audience applause, and becomespleasingly hypnotic.” Chris May, All About Jazz, July 30 2012

“Procession” captures Chris McGregor’s Anglo/South African big band in explosive form. Originally released on LP in 1978, this historic recording has been painstakingly restored from the original two-track analogue masters for this CD edition, which features an additional 23 minutes of music.

This famous recording previously released as an LP now on CD with extra music launched the Ogun label. Recorded live at the Willisau Jazz Festival, Sept. 1974. This big band was exciting packed audiences throughout Europe, and needed an outlet provided by this new label, home of the South African family. The cover was designed by Niklaus Troxler with sleeve notes by Val Wilmer.Recorded live at Willisau, Switzerland, 27 January 1973  Chris McGregor - Leader, pianoHarry Miller - bassLouis Moholo - drumsDudu Pukwana - alto saxophoneEvan Parker - tenor saxophoneGary Windo - tenor saxophoneMongezi Feza - trumpetHarry Beckett - trumpetMarc Charig - trumpetNick Evans - tromboneRadu Malfatti - trombone

For the first time digitally and on CD here is the Jazz Doctors session from 1983 that was released on LP as Intensive Care, with the session recorded the following year that was intended for release as Prescriptions Filled, but was never issued, at last made available. Tracks 1-6 originally released as Intensive Care SGC1011 in 1984 on vinyl. Credits:Tenor Saxophone – Frank LoweViolin – Billy BangBass – Rafael GarrettDrums – Dennis CharlesRecorded: Wave Studios, London 8th, 15th, 17th Nov 1983Design, Layout – Hazel MillerSleeve Notes, Photography – Val WilmerEngineer, Mixed By – Charles GrayMastered By – George PeckhamProducer, Mixed By – John JackManufactured at Mayking RecordsMastered At – Porky's MasteringTracks 7 - 11 previously unissuedCredits:Billy Bang - ViolinFrank Lowe - Tenor SaxWilber Morris - BassThurman Barker - Drums, Piano Recorded at Wave Studios23rd Oct 1984Engineer: Martin Giles

Marking and celebrating their 50th anniversary, Cadillac Music delivers this special reissue of their debut release: Mike Westbrook's 'Live from 1973', featuring Westbrook on Electric Piano/Harmonica, George Khan on Tenor Saxophone / Electric Saxophone / Flute, Gary Boyle on Guitar, Alan Jackson on Drums / Alto Saxophone, and Butch Potter on Bass Guitar / Pogo Stick / Flute. With additional tracks*, mastered by Jon Hiseman of Colosseum, and released with the blessing of Mike Westbrook, Live 1972 stands out as a document of the Westbrook project in transition, and as a bloody great slab of music in its own right played by a brilliant collection of musicians. (* the unreleased tracks are additional to the original LP issue, but appeared on the Hux set that came out in 2017 but is no longer available) Mike Westbrook - Electric Piano/Harmonica George Khan - Tenor Saxophone / Electric Saxophone / Flute Gary Boyle - Guitar Alan Jackson - Drums / Alto Saxophone Butch Potter - Bass Guitar / Pogo Stick / Flute

LP - Edition of 300 copies, handmade textile artwork w/ printed inner / CD Edition of 150 copies, handmade textile artwork Sylvain Chauveau has been releasing quiet and minimal compositions on various labels for more than two decades. ultra-minimal marks his debut for Sonic Pieces and takes the minimal approach even further, centring on reduction and limitation. The album was recorded live at Café Oto, London in March 2022 - one of Sylvain’s rare solo concerts and the first time he performed publicly with only acoustic instruments; no machines, no recorded sounds have been used, only piano, guitar, harmonium and melodica, played one at the time. While some of the compositions are completely new, others are live versions of previously released pieces which have either been performed close to their original or stripped-down, reduced to a single instrument and partly rearranged. This reveals a predilection for repetitions and variations that Sylvain shares with Jim Jarmusch, and at the same time it is a personal attempt to avoid electronic devices as a tool for live music. The artwork and track titles follow this reductionist idea and an aesthetic of miniaturization that Sylvain has developed for many years. They refer to the minimalist, concrete poetry that he writes regularly. In this context rewriting some of the original titles was a consistent implication to achieve a complete work, an album that perfectly represents Sonic Pieces’ aesthetics, both musically and visually.

"Vibrating the piano’s strings and manipulating the soundboard, Agnel spends a good portion of the live concert as often inside the instrument as on the keyboard. Moving from cord-strumming and  outside wood raps, backed by ratcheting bass string scrapes, irregular drum ruffs and gong resonation, she creates a dynamic introduction backed by irregular drum ruffs and below-the-bridge double bass rubs. “Part 2” captures the heart of the matter as Agnel’s opposite end keyboard slides emphasize both gentle plinks and pedal point thickness with the repeated and nearly identical patterns often interrupted by glissandi and string reverb. Meantime Edwards’ buzzing arco stops and Noble’s sharp cymbal cracks follow a parallel line. Occasionally there are brief Edwards-Agnel duets involving elevated keyboard emphasis and low-pitched string abrasions. But her piano command is such that elsewhere she creates call-and-response between her own strings and keys from opposite edges of the keyboard. A mid-track silent interlude leads to rhythm section intensification with Noble’s door-stopper-like reverberations and chain rattles making more of a impression than Edwards’ constant string swabbing. Meantime Agnel’s processional strokes and stopped piano keys preserve the exposition until she winnows the narrative down to isolated single note stabs. Double bass string shakes and drum hand patting similarly descend until the pianist’s key slapping signal the finale. A terse encore allows a patina of swing to peek through the otherwise bumping variations from all as a final cymbal splash marks the concert end." - Ken Waxman https://www.jazzword.com/ Sophie Agnel plays the whole piano. Its body matters as much as its strings. The keyboard's lid is just as good closed as it is open - in fact it’s best slammed open and closed rapidly. Joined by bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble, Three on a Match explodes the piano trio - each player sparking off the other so quickly that it’s impossible to figure out who lit the flame.  Recorded at OTO in 2023, this was the second two night residency for a trio that has fast become one of our favourite improvising groups. Each individually brilliant, Agnel, Edwards and Noble’s enduring connection is in their seriously playful approach to their instrument - in their way of looking at it as a whole and then tearing it apart, breaking it down into its raw materials - wood, brass, steel.  Born in Paris in the 60’s and playing her parents piano as soon as she could stand up, Agnel is classically trained and had a turn in modern jazz. What frustrated her was the strange disconnect between the frame of the piano and its keyboard - a weird boundary that seemed to form some hushed code of etiquette. “The first thing I put inside the piano was a plastic goblet. I’d seen a few pianists do it: Fred Van Hove, for example, put rubber balls inside his. But what didn’t appeal to me was that there seemed to be no link between the piano’s outside and inside.” If you see Agnel play now, the body of her piano is littered with fish tins, ping pong balls, wooden blocks - not that you’d recognize their sounds. Steve Noble surrounds his drum kit with whistles, tubes and towels alongside gleaming brass cymbals and gongs. Their stage is a heady mix of high and low - the grand piano and the gong alongside rubber balls and tiny bells; players half stood up, reaching in, bending toward - relentlessly working their instrument to unburden its sound from genre.  Free improvisation is always a leap of faith, a test of commitment, and these three players are completely unafraid. The music switches deftly from super taut string manipulation to extremely loud percussive collisions. The trio can play microscopic mutations on a bass note and then scale up on the turn of a pin to plunge into huge, black chords and ricocheting sonority - dissolving the boundary between body and sound. The crescendo of Part Two is shaped by such cumulative repetition that it feels like a confrontation - a controlled test for breaking point. What happens if we keep going?   As so we left Part Three as the last encore of the residency. It’s a totally exhilarating, skittering reprise - short and energetic - delivered with the kind of grounded abandon you hope to see improvisers play with but rarely do.

Available as a 320kbps MP3 or 24bit FLAC or WAV. Edition of 300 standard LPs, 100 LPs with screenprinted artwork inserts and 200 CDs Totally beautiful and rare piano performance from Loren Connors, joined on guitar by long time collaborator Alan Licht.  Celebrating thirty years of collaboration, Loren Connors and Alan Licht performed for two nights at OTO on May 5 and 6th, 2023. On the second night, with the stage lit in blue, Connors took up a seat on the piano stool whilst Licht picked up the guitar. What followed was the duo’s first ever set with Connors on piano - one of only a few times Connors has played piano live at all - here captured and issued as The Blue Hour. Its spacious warmth came as a total surprise live, but makes complete sense for a duo whose dedicated expressionism takes inspiration from a vast spectrum of emotion. Both opening with single notes to start, it doesn't take long before a surface rises and begins to shimmer. A run up the keys, the drop of a feedback layer on a sustained and bent note. The two begin to exchange notes in tandem and brief touches of melody and chord hover. After a while, Connors picks up the guitar, stands it in his lap and sweeps a wash of colour across Licht’s guitar. Sharp, glassy edges begin to form, open strings and barred frets darkening the space. When his two pedals begin to merge, Licht finds a dramatic organ-like feedback and it’s hard not to imagine Rothko’s Chapel, its varying shades of blue black ascending and descending in the room. When Connors goes back to the piano for the second side, the pair quickly lock into a refrain and light pours in. It’s a kind of sound that Licht says reminds him of what he and Connors would do when the duo first started playing together 30 years ago. It’s certainly more melodic than some of their more recent shows, and the atonal shards of At The Top of the Stairs seem to totally dissolve. What is always remarkable about Licht is that his enormous frame of reference doesn't seem to weigh him down, and instead here he is able to delicately place fractures of a Jackson C Frank song (“Just Like Anything”,) amongst the vast sea of Connors’ blues. Perhaps it's the pleasure of playing two nights in a row together, or the nature of Connor’s piano playing combined with Licht’s careful listening, but the improvisation on The Blue Hour feels remarkably calm and unafraid. There’s nothing to prove and no agenda except the joy of sounding colour together. Totally beautiful.  --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO on Saturday 6th May 2023 by Billy SteigerMixed by Oli BarrettMastered by Sean McCannArtwork by Loren Connors Layout by Oli BarrettScreenprint by Tartaruga Manufactured in the UK by Vinyl Press.  Edition of 300 standard LPs, 100 LPs with screenprinted artwork by Loren Connors printed as inserts. Also available on a limted run of 200 CDs.

The 4LP boxset version holds nearly all the music performed over the two nights, minus 5 minutes we were forced to cut to fit the music onto 4 discs. It will arrive in a handcovered and screenprint boxset, limited to 250 copies and will include a full booklet of photographs from the residency by Dawid Laskowski. Please note the artwork may differ slightly from the mock up.  Your order will be packed with care and delivered via a tracked service.  The 2LP version is an edit of the music played on both nights. It will arrive as a gatefold 12" printed in reverse board outersleeves and will include a pull out with photographs from the residency by Dawid Laskowski. The 2CD version contains both sets from both nights. The discs will be housed in a digipak on reverse board and will include photographs from the residency by Dawid Laskowski. It is a huge honour to publish Peter Brotzmann’s final concerts on OTOROKU. When we invited Peter to do a residency at Cafe OTO back in February 2023 we had no idea these would be his last ever shows and he played with such power it would have been hard for anyone present to believe he would never play publicly again. Recorded over two nights this grouping of Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone, John Edwards on bass and Steve Noble on drums feels especially resonant and personal to Cafe OTO. The first time Peter performed at the venue back in 2010 it was in a trio with John and Steve, (released as The Worse The Better kick starting our in-house record label) so it feels fitting that the last shows he ever played here should also have that trio at its core. The quartet last played together at OTO back in 2013, (released as Mental Shake on OTOROKU), and Brotzmann humbly opened the return of the group saying, "it's a pleasure to be back” before launching straight into a long blast on the alto sax, swiftly met by the relentless energy and engagement of Adasiewicz, Edwards and Noble. There are moments of tenderness to Brotzmann’s playing that feels specific to this small group - one that cuts across three generations - and in a space that’s come to feel like home. Of course, there is dizzying, forceful, singleminded playing, but even amongst a relentless chorus of cymbal splashes and busy vibraphone clusters the lyrical, spacious moments are savoured and held onto. As he remarked after at the end of the group's first visit to OTO, “the Quartet is, for us, a great adventure.” Peter clearly wanted to play to the end. Did he know these might be his last shows? We will never know. What is clear is he wanted to go out in style and on his terms. For anyone in the room at the time or listening to these recordings it’s clear he achieved that. It was Peter’s wish that these recordings should be made public and he was due to finalise the cover design on the week he passed away. We would like to thank Peter’s family for working with us to fulfil Peter’s wishes to release this material but more than anything we would like to thank Peter for all the extraordinary memories, his generosity and all he has given the music. On a personal level for us, like so many, he meant a huge amount and we miss him deeply. --- Peter Brotzmann / reeds John Edwards / double bass Steve Noble / drums Jason Adasiewicz / vibraphone  --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Billy Steiger on 10th and 11th February 2023. Mixed by James Dunn. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielesi. Photos by Dawid Laskowski. Pressed in the UK by Vinyl Press. Artwork by Peter Brötzmann. Design by Untiet.

"…the total past sensation, not its echo nor its copy, but the sensation itself, annihilating every spatial and temporal restriction, comes in a rush to engulf the subject in all the beauty of its infallible proportion … Death is dead because time is dead … time is not recovered, it is obliterated." - Sunik Kim from the accompanying essay"Beyond excited to announce the new album Formenverwandler by Sunik Kim, a Los Angeles-based musician, writer and filmmaker who has previously released music on Notice Recordings, Rope Editions and OTOROKU. Spanning almost 2 hours, Formenverwandler is a detailed and considered study on time and duration.Drawing from her extensive research on composer Conlon Nancarrow, Formenverwandler sees Kim exploring the time or tempo canon, which can pull and project the listener's senses, melting the temporal and spatial perception of presented sounds. As in previous works such as 2022’s Raid on the White Tiger Regiment and 2023’s Potential, Kim deploys patches and tools she has designed for SuperCollider, which take raw, utilitarian General MIDI notes and multiply and spray them into frenetic webs and networks of spiraling sound.It is within these networks that sounds, recognisable and familiar, are placed, scattered and gathered into new structures that appear to shapeshift, constantly morphing in meter. The album's title Formenverwandler (German for shapeshifter, taken from the classic Der Zyklus track) perfectly encapsulates this collection of pieces that are in constant motion and in a state of reflection and restructure. The four pieces are mirrors and refolds of one another, both stretched and condensed in various directions and examined to the point of near exhaustion.Along with the music, Kim has written an essay which outlines the thoughts, actions and reflections that make up this body of work. Reading the essay—and rereading it—is an endlessly insightful way of entering and understanding the headspace that produced this deeply considered music and its inner ecology. Along with rationale and reasoning, Kim interjects quotes from writers, poets and thinkers—from Lenin to Woolf—who have ruminated on and have existed within the confines of time."