the debut recording by the ancients, the intergenerational coalition of isaiah collier, william hooker, & william parker formed by parker to play concerts in conjunction with the milford graves mind body deal exhibition at the institute of contemporary art los angeles & now a working group. across x2LPs of side-length long-form improvised sets recorded at 2220 arts&archives; in LA & the chapel in san francisco, the ancients bring the free jazz trio languages first explored by the cecil taylor unit & ornette coleman’s -golden circle- band (expanded upon in later eras by sam rivers' trio & parker’s collective trios with charles gayle/graves & peter brötzmann/hamid drake) into their own unique & scintillating realms of expression. as we tumble further into the throes of history’s tides, people of hope & creativity rely on the works of our great artists to lift our spirits & focus our resolve. -ascension- was recorded less than a year after the passage of the civil rights act & four months after the assassination of malcolm x. -journey in satchidananda- was recorded the month reagan was re-elected governor of california. m’boom made its debut recording weeks after the watergate scandal broke & a couple months after the wounded knee occupation ended. the music of the ancients builds on these great musical legacies. it resounds with the pride of survival & the joys of making & sharing music. it delivers to us hope & balm. something real in you, real in history, & real in the music is shared, right on time. when eremite records commenced operations during the 1990s free jazz resurgence, heavyweight freedom-seeking tenor saxophonists such as fred anderson, peter brötzmann, charles gayle, kidd jordan, & david s. ware were at the height of their powers. isaiah collier’s tenor playing in the ancients is bracing testimony that the wellspring lives on. to hear the young chicago firebrand blowing freely with veteran improvisers in an entirely open-form group music is a revelatory study of his vast talent, personal voice, & the intensity of his expression —as well as a bold complement to his composition-based albums as a bandleader (including -the almighty-, a new york times' best albums of 2024 selection). i've admired drummer william hooker since first encountering his music in a hartford ct city park, early ‘90s (on a double bill with jerry gonzález & fort apache band). from the man himself right off the bandstand i bought his even-then rare 1st recording, the 1976 self-released x2LP opus -is eternal life- (reissued 2019 by superior viaduct). an imposing force on his instrument & an intrepid DIY cat, hooker’s been exuberantly swinging in&out; of free time for 50+ years. informed by the innovations of sunny murray & tony williams yet entirely himself, there is no other term for it than “pure hooker.” at age 78, with the ancients & everywhere else, THE HOOK is in peak form. with a discography approaching 600 entries & 50+ years working across the musical maps, including in the history-defining bands of don cherry, cecil taylor, bill dixon, peter brötzmann, in his own wondrous ensembles from small group to orchestra to opera, a bastion of compassionate leadership & a poetic champion of his musical community, in tireless service to what he rather egolessly refers to as “the tone world”, multi-instrumentalist, improviser & composer william parker is a living hero of the grassroots & the black mystery musics, not to mention one of the great bassists in the history of jazz. to quote george clinton, conquering the stumbling blocks comes easier when the conqueror is in tune with the infinite. free jazz is an enduring high art. its greatest expressions belong to their particular moment in history, & live on to transcend & refract in amaranthine ways. inside our present historical moment, we are fortunate to have the master musicians in the ancients bringing us their high level creation. concerts & album co-produced with the black editions group. 1st eremite edition of 1,299 copies pressed on premium audiophile-quality 140 gram vinyl at fidelity record pressing, from kevin gray/cohearent audio lacquers. live to 2-track concert recordings by bryce gonzales, highland dynamics. mastered by joe lizzi, queens, ny. 1st 150 direct order copies include a reproduction of zac brenner’s amtrak “fan art” flyer for the ancients 2023 west coast concerts. 1st 300 direct order copies include eremite’s signature retro-audiophile inner-sleeves, hand screen-printed by alan sherry, siwa studios, northern new mexico. "Eremite Records has just released an eponymous two-LP set by a band called The Ancients, made up of bassist William Parker, drummer William Hooker, and saxophonist Isaiah Collier. It reflects the label’s long-standing advocacy, begun in the 1990s, of free jazz, often in its most intense form. In the past three years, Michael Ehlers has been instrumental in releasing a series of recordings from Milford Graves’ personal archives, issued under the label Black Editions Archive, a new partnership between Peter Kolovos and Ehlers under the umbrella of Black Editions Group. Two of those recordings were trios with Parker and Graves, a giant of free jazz drumming. The first, a two-LP set, Historic Music Past Tense Future included Peter Brötzmann in a recording from CBGB’s 313 Gallery in 2002. The second WEBO, a three-LP set released last year, had Charles Gayle as tenor saxophonist in performances from 1991. As Ehlers describes the partnership, “Peter pitched me an idea to collaborate on a new historical free jazz imprint for his label Black Editions Group. The pitch was basically ‘bring me the baddest shit you’ve got that you don’t have the resources to produce on your own.’ I called Milford Graves the next day and spent the rest of 2020 on the phone with him discussing the acquisition of a substantial piece of his tape archive on Peter’s behalf.” Both sets spoke with incredible force. Graves in both instances was making rare appearances in public and on record, and laying down as much compound, liberating rhythm as anyone might conceive. Parker was similarly inspired, and the saxophonists were giving performances as powerful as they ever had, 25 to 40 years from the explosive dawn of the idiom as developed by Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders, the era in which Brötzmann had emerged in Wuppertal, Germany and Gayle in Buffalo, New York. Even at first glance, the two-LP release of The Ancients reveals an immediate closeness with those two other releases Historic Music Past Tense Future and WEBO. The Ancients, however, is contemporary, following Graves’ passing in 2021. It was recorded in California in 2023 by a band “formed by Parker to play concerts in conjunction with the Milford Graves Mind Body Deal exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.” It represents a special segment of the free jazz tradition, whether it’s called “spiritual jazz” or “energy music,” a branch that Ehlers has lovingly recorded and released since the 1990s. There’s something special about that name, The Ancients, which functions here to name the trio and the records and might name the genre, a wonderful turn on a music that was once called the “new thing.” It’s a music that is both tied to black cultural freedom, as Ehlers makes clear in the record’s info sheet, but also to an on-going cultural expression. Those previous releases with Parker and Graves, as different as they are, have been among the most powerful music released on record in recent years, further confirmation of Graves’ special power and the commitment of each of those musicians. Its ties to black expression and culture are central, and in each of these occasions has a kind of sacramental quality, born of a special intensity. If in its sixty five-year phase of jazz history, it has at times seemed bracketed out of much jazz dialogue and journalism, it may well be because of its special power, its centrifugal force. It’s one of the musics that mean the most, and its relationship to other jazz is tangential. My personal term for this music is eschatology jazz (jazz that expresses knowledge of the last days), and its companion term is jazz eschatology (the last days of jazz). It’s now built into jazz history, however uncomfortably, in the late work of John Coltrane and the music of Albert Ayler. Considered as a style, it's always the last word in jazz, and at times might even be considered the ritual sacrifice of the audience. It is both tied up with “knowledge of the last days” and a kind of “last days” jazz, that is, somehow, outside jazz as a progression of “styles” which jazz has sometimes become in a blandly sophisticated marketplace. It makes perfect sense that the one-time “new thing” would now reveal itself as The Ancients, music as old as the energies invoked in Randy Weston at a Gnawa healing ceremony. I discovered jazz as a child partly through television, most notably The Sound of Jazz and Miles Davis’ appearance Robert Herridge Presents. In the fall/winter of 1961-62, I both entered high school and discovered free jazz. I realize now that the mood of the times – the civil rights struggle, the cold war, and the Cuban missile crisis (just as immediate in Canada as in the United States) – and the music I discovered I needed had a special relationship. When you’re told to crouch under your desk, a 3/4” slab of wood between you and annihilation, Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz, Charles Mingus’ “Haitian Fight Song,” and John Coltrane’s “Chasin’ the Trane” make perfect sense. The music would grow even more intense in the next few years, until it exploded with Albert Ayler’s Bells and Coltrane’s quintet with Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali. Both came with apocalyptic --religiously apocalyptic--imagery and force. It’s that spirit that inhabits the music of The Ancients, and it may feel even more insistently contemporary than it did when it was recorded in 2023. Parker’s strengths are even more prominent with The Ancients than on the discs with Gayle, Brötzmann and Graves, the latter a virtual drum corps rather than a single musician. An essential root and foundation, the bassist comes rightfully to the fore in a sonic balance that foregrounds his essential component. No currently active musician more authentically channels the New York “new thing” of the mid-sixties than Parker, and in part it’s his relationship to the bass playing of Lewis Worrell, a rarely mentioned musician who Parker readily references. Lewis Worrell had a bass style all his own, no doubt developed far from any bass player’s academy, whether Koussevitsky’s, Jimmy Blanton’s, Paul Chambers’, or Scott LaFaro’s. Worrell might share the term “claw hammer” with five-string banjo, though it’s distinctly a bass, a swarming multi-string approach, out of which short melodic phrases erupt. Parker maintains both a fundamental pulse and a compound drone, each note resonating with the preceding and the fundamental, a thick, grouped thrum. Worrell appeared on both the New York Art Quartet’s eponymous ESP-Disk (with Milford Graves) and (less audibly) Albert Ayler’s Bells. It's this legacy that informs The Ancients and inevitably extends to Hooker, a veteran and contemporary of both Graves and Parker, whose forceful, propulsive drumming covers a substantial spectrum of densities from spare to thunderous. While one might expect inspired performances from Hooker and Parker, there’s undoubtedly something special here, both in the homage to Graves and the extraordinary performance of tenor saxophonist Isaiah Collier, a musician roughly fifty years their junior who is virtually channeling the authentic energy of the 1960s, finding his own voice that yet touches on Albert Ayler and Sonny Rollins (no easy range) and a few others. Each side of the two-LP set comes from a different performance, each fading out between 22 and 24 minutes. Sides A to C come from two days at 2022 Arts & Archives in Los Angeles; Side D from The Chapel in San Francisco. None of the performances is “complete,” eventually fading out, but one might consider that tacit recognition that one is listening to a record and is a reasonable compromise between fidelity and duration. True to the improvisers’ goal, the four performances are very different, from their opening premises and voices to their developing dynamics, evolution, and emotion. Each, as far as it goes, is a distinct, well-formed musical Odyssey, by a trio that manages to sound at once like they’ve just met and have been playing together for years. Each is also a study in transformation. Side A (2023-05-12 Set II) begins in gospel suffused reverie then passes through numerous evolutions to end in wrenching shout and thrashing percussion. Side B (2023-05-13 Set I) has stretches of remarkable minimalism, the trio reduced to single drum strokes, punctuating bass tones and saxophone yips, only to conclude with Parker playing hojǒk, a keening Korean woodwind. That feeling of immediate spirit-calling arises as well on Side C (2023-05-13 Set II). Collier demonstrates sustained development and expansion of materials, eventually relaxing the long tension curve before the side fades amidst a concluding melody. Side D (2023-05-15 Set I) stretches to musical riot, with dense bass, drums, and shouts eventually prodding Collier’s ultimate cataclysm of sound, beginning with a siren and eventually alternating (one assumes from the instrument list) Aztec death whistle and the squall of overblown tenor. It’s a series of memorable performances and fitting tribute to Milford Graves’ expansive art." -Stuart Broomer, Point of Departure "When I first heard about the trio documented on The Ancients, I was thrilled. Saxophonist Isaiah Collier has been making a lot of waves in the last few years, primarily as the leader of his group the Chosen Few (who made four albums, including two released in 2024, before disbanding), but also in the duo I AM with percussionist Michael Shekwoaga and on a direct-to-disc session released under his own name. His music is socially engaged spiritual jazz, a point on a line that runs from John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders to Gary Bartz to Charles Gayle to Kamasi Washington…and particularly through Roscoe Mitchell and Ari Brown and Fred Anderson, because Collier is emphatically a Chicago musician. What’s compelling about his approach is that he’s a synthesist who takes bebop, R&B;, soul, gospel and free jazz and combines them all in ways that showcase the best aspects of each. His playing is emotional, but grounded, and structured in a way that allows you to follow his musical statements from beginning to end. In an interview in the fourth volume of trumpeter Jeremy Pelt’s Griot book series, Collier says, “You can’t know freedom if you don’t know restriction. There’s a balance to all this stuff. Even playing free isn’t playing free. I learned that playing with Denardo Coleman. I learned that playing with William Parker. I learned that playing with Ernest Dawkins. I learned that studying with Roscoe Mitchell. There are prerequisites to this stuff.” And as that statement proves, Collier is someone who knows what he doesn’t know and seeks out opportunities to gain that knowledge, by playing with musicians generations older than himself, as he does here. Drummer William Hooker has been performing for almost 50 years, self-releasing his debut album, …Is Eternal Life, in 1977. His music spans free jazz, noise rock (he’s recorded duo albums with both Sonic Youth guitarists, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo) and indescribable zones of pure sonic exploration. Bassist William Parker is, of course, William goddamn Parker, a legend of avant-jazz who’s played with everyone you’ve ever heard of and led a thousand brilliant bands. This double live LP features recordings from three nights of shows — May 12 and 13, 2023 at 2220 Arts & Archives in Los Angeles and May 15 at The Chapel in San Francisco. It’s a breathtaking 90 minutes of three-way interaction, two ascended masters supporting a new but very promising disciple. Collier borrows from the AACM, from Pharoah Sanders, from Charles Gayle, and from bebop (I swear he quotes “Salt Peanuts”), while Parker makes his bass sound like a guembri, a donso ngoni, a guitar, and someone beating their palms against the inside of a wooden ship’s hold, and Hooker’s drumming is heavy foot and precise snare, plus some of the most amazing cymbal washes you’ll ever hear. This is “free jazz” as ancestral lore being passed down live in the moment. Forty years from now, Isaiah Collier will be teaching it to musicians in their twenties who heard these recordings and sought him out." -Phil Freeman, Stereogum "The Ancients is intensely focused 21st century free jazz via a shared and inspired bandstand consciousness. It exists without aimless noodling or egotism." -Thom Jurek, All Music "The minute that this record was announced it shot straight to the top of my anticipated list for 2025. Thankfully, the January release means that we don’t have to wait that long, and the arrival of The Ancients more than lives up to expectations. Anchored by jazz luminaries William Hooker and William Parker, themselves no strangers to collaboration over the years, the pair folds a slightly newer name into the mix. Isaiah Collier has already been on the radar here with his outfit The Chosen Few, backing Angel Bat David in Tha Brothahood, and as a guest with The Heavy Lidders at Milwaukee Psych Fest. Here, he proves more than capable of sparring with his more well-known partners, devouring styles that swing from soul jazz to the scars and squeals of the free set. The album’s main energy stems from Collier’s willingness to both give and receive energy from other points in the trio, scrawling his runs across the speakers in blood one minute and riding the rhythm like surf in the next. That rhythm is, as expected, completely hypnotic. At this point Hooker and Parker have spent years perfecting their way around and through the maelstrom, but it’s nothing short of amazing to hear the two of them work the rudder here. The record is comprised of two sets recorded at 2220 Arts & Archives in LA and one set from The Chapel in San Francisco. The former set dominates, a turbulent bout of avant-jazz that offers to turn sweat to steam in a matter of instants. Capped with a run at The Chapel, the closer is no calmer eddy, instead letting the marrow boil out of the listener with a swipe at Hooker’s noise-adjacent past. Eremite has had an untouchable run of late and this debut from The Ancients instantly lodges itself among the label’s highlights." -Andy French, Raven Sings the Blues "Free jazz trio spanning decades of interest, with recent Chicago tenor sax heatseeker Isaiah Collier merging against a rhythm section of Wm. Parker and William Hooker, recorded live by Bryce Gonzales (who engineered that marvelous Jeff Parker ETA IVtet record from a few months back) from sets in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Parker never stops, ever, but it’s been a while since Hooker’s entered my sphere (he’s truly something, humbled a bit but cracking off snare hits like rifle practice), and Collier’s fiery works like in his duo I AM have given rise to a new generation of sax deities, in the tradition of Fred Anderson (doesn’t come out to shred lungs, though it’ll happen; more focused on soulful tone and expression, and that jazz lives in space between the notes, too). This’ll peel paint when appropriate, but unlike the ‘90s output involving 2/3 of this trio, that’s not the primary target; incredible stretches of groove set in amidst these epic sides, all three participants not only loud/clear but in spatial relation to one another (Collier’s panned hard left, Hooker’s on the right, and Parker’s down the middle like the 7-10 split), every thwack, scream and valve slam rendered with the utmost clarity. LA gets the most of this album but SF gets the nut cracker on side 4, Collier playing with some sort of toy siren/ring mod in the home stretch that renders his instrument a high-tone belt sander alarm, something in my decades of enjoying jazz I’ve never heard before. Lots of reasons to lose faith these days but here, my friends, is belief restored." --Doug Mosurock, Heathendisco

Evan Parker's monumental LP of solo soprano saxophone improvisations, recorded direct-cut and issued by Incus in 1978. Lovingly reissued by Treader — the CD is from PSI — using the original stampers, in a gorgeous hand-assembled sleeve, with glossy front and matt back, flaps out. Unmissable. ‘Parker uses rapid tonguing techniques and circular breathing to create a sound all his own, marked by the simultaneous intonation of multiple notes. One hears a note as well as all the residual tones around it; each breath ends up sounding like a battle between the different registers of the horn. At various times, Parker’s saxophone sounds like dolphin speech, electronic tape squeals, or human murmurs; namely, anything but what it actually is. His language on the instrument is essential listening for anyone interested in acoustic experimental music’ (AllMusic). ‘Eight years after Topography Of The Lungs, and two years after his Saxophone Solos, Monoceros was the most muscular statement of Evan Parker’s solo saxophone muse. Superbly recorded, it seemed to place the listener within the chaotic air flows of the saxophone’s own tubing. Philip Clark said: ‘Parker’s dialogue with the saxophone throws up so much that is unexpected, and indeed unknowable, that the problem he faces is how to keep pace with his own invention’’ (The Wire, Best Albums Of The Year).

“Dec. 2015: I received an invitation from Old Heaven to participate with FaUSt to the 3rd edition of “Tomorrow Festival” at B10 Live, Shenzhen, China! A few months later, May 2016, we were on our way to the most exciting concert experience. A loooong flight-haul and then, such a warm welcome, such a perfect organization… the most charming, dedicated, competent crew around us… the largest cement mixer I ever used on stage, and an audience so vibrant, so focused. I was and still am in memory, overwhelmed by the endless energy of all the people I met: technicians, promoters, music fans, the so-creative Knitting Ladies, my old-time friend Keiji Haino, and my comrade Maxime. The music we created together had been accurately recorded. As Old Heaven proposed to release this concert, I immediately was enthused by the idea. Even more so when I heard the perfect mix of Liu Ying. Two tracks were beautifully post-produced, edited and mixed by Amaury Cambuzat. I loved the B10 Live performance and place it in my top ten FaUSt concerts ever and I love this album, I do. ” —— JHP / art-Errorist --- Recorded at the 3rd Tomorrow Festival on May 14, 2016. B10 Live, Shenzhen, China. Published by Old Heaven Books & B10 Live, Shenzhen 2022. Tomorrow Festival Series OH 036 录音 Recording：曾君 Zeng Jun；罗绿野 Luo Lvye混音 Mixing & 母带处理 Mastering：刘英 Liu Ying编辑 Editing & 混音 Mixing：Amaury Cambuzat（track 06/C2 & 08/D1）制作人 Producer：涂飞 Tu Fei统筹 Coordinators：李书琴 P.G，尹思卜 Yin Sibo设计 Design：Nino摄影 Photography：艾飞 Effy，大米，惠子@DAFA，肖蔚鸿 Xiao Weihong，子弹，左氏文化特别鸣谢 Special Thanks：黄可 Huang Ke，李秭林 Li Zilin，邹佳伟 Zou Jiawei Jean-Hervé Péron - 人声 Vocals / 贝斯 Bass / 原声吉他 Acoustic Guitars / 小号 Trumpet / 水泥搅拌机 Cement MixerWerner “Zappi” Diermaier - 鼓 Drums 特邀嘉宾 Very Special Guests：Maxime Manac’h - 键盘 Keyboards / 吉他 Guitar/ 煤气罐 Gas Cylinder / 手摇风琴 Hurdy-Gurdy灰野敬二 Keiji Haino - 人声 Vocals / 电吉他 Electric Guitars / 电子设备 Electronics魏籽 Wei Zi, Tina, 郦亭亭 Li Tingting - 针织行为表演 Knitting PerformanceB10 Live, Shenzhen, China!

Tracklisiting: Side A - Raga Chandrakaush 21:57 Side B - Raga Khamaj 30:34Nikhil Banerjee was an Indian classical sitarist of the Maihar Gharana. A student of the legendary Baba Allauddin Khan, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee was known for his technical virtuosity and execution. This very special release is a live recording of his performance at KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California, on the 9th of July, 1967. It is the first time Banerjee has been released on record and published in China. The original recordings were on two reel-to-reel tapes. In 1988, American record label Raga Records released the recordings on both CD and cassette. By chance Old Heaven's producer Tu Fei came to possess the reel-to-reel tapes and decided to release this vinyl version, hoping to present the contents to the audience as authentic as they are and pay tribute to the great musician Nikhil Banerjee. Special thanks to Chen Yun, professor Tejaswini Nirajana and her friends Deepak Raja and Meena Bannerji, for it would not be possible for us to contact with Nikhil Banerjee’s daughter Mita Tagore and get her authorization without their kind introduction. Mita has been very supportive of this release in China and has given us important suggestions during the process. We would also like to thank our friend from Morocco, Habi (Habib Rkha). He is an enthusiast and expert of Indian classical music who cleared up much confusion for us.  The woodcut artwork on the cover is by long-term collaborator of Old Heaven, artist Liu Qingyuan. Released by Old Heaven Books, 2020.

李带菓 Li Daiguo：古筝 Guzheng, 低音提琴 Double Bass, 大提琴 Cello, 塔不拉鼓 Tabla, 模拟合成器 Analog Synthesizer, 中国鼓 Chinese Drum, 锣 Gong, 踩镲 Hihat, 地鼓 Bass Drum 录制于2021年11月 云南·大理Recorded in Dali, Yunnan in November 2021 录音/混音 Recording & Mixing: 李带菓 Li Daiguo母带 Mastering: 刘英 Liu Ying制作人 Producer: 涂飞 Tu Fei统筹 Coordinator: 陈铁梅 Chen Tiemei / 尹思卜 Yin Sibo封面木刻作品 Front Cover Woodcut Artwork: 刘庆元 Liu Qingyuan设计 Design: 林溪 Lin Xi（来信收悉工作室）

David Murray — 萨克斯 Saxophone Kahil El'Zabar — 打击乐 Percussion / 卡林巴 Kalimba / 人声 Voice 录制于第十届 OCT-LOFT 国际爵士音乐节，深圳 B10 现场，2023 年 10 月 27 日 Recorded at the 10th OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival, B10 Live, Shenzhen October 27th, 2023

Tracklisting: A. Part 1 - 22:44B. Part 2（Featuring ここ）- 16:33C. Part 3 - 25:42D. Part 4 - 22:37The Meaning of Blackness, More Decorous than DutyHaving become faster than everything A smile that was never birthed into the light (Live at the 3rd Tomorrow Festival 2016 @ B10 Live) This release from Shenzen's Old Heaven Books documents a blistering live performance, recorded in B10 as part of the 3rd Tomorrow Festival. Over the last fifty years few musicians or performers have created as monumental and uncompromising a body of work as that of Keiji Haino. Through a vast number of recordings and performances, Haino has staked out a ground all his own, creating a language of unparalleled intensity that defies any simple classification. Haino lets loose a 90 minute performance maelstrom, marrying the immersive echo-fields of kosmische music to the rough and ready hands-on feel of classic wall of noise intensity that he's known for. This is both an essential historical document and a classic performance in its own right. Keiji Haino considers this live album as an integral work that cannot be separated. Released by Old Heaven Books, Dec 5th 2019

pre-order, arriving late december / early jan Amazing duo perfromance by Hamid Drake and Piano, recorded at the Shenzhen Jazz Festival in China, during late Cotober of 2019, issued by the always amazing Shenzhen based imprint Old Heaven.  Hamid Drake - 鼓 Drums / 打击乐 Percussion / 框鼓 Frame Drum / 人声 Vocals Pat Thomas - 钢琴 Piano 录制于第九届 OCT-LOFT 国际爵士音乐节，深圳 B10 现场，2019 年 10 月 20 日 Recorded at the 9th OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival, B10 Live, Shenzhen, October 20th, 2019

"Breathing in, breathing out. Tide comes in, tide goes out. The sun rises and it also sets: beginnings and endings. These are the first impressions given by The Visitor: a build-up and break-down. One seamless, 38-minute piece of music that completely engages its listeners. An extremely thoughtful piece that even a year later, still retains all of the qualities it had upon first listen. This record made me realize the full potential music can have when someone who actually gives a damn does something about it. Here, O'Rourke constructs an intricate and personal piece of music that unveils its beauty with every listen. Open your ears, put this record on the platter, close the door behind you, shut your eyes, and prepare for the trip. Remember to be a good visitor - and visit often..."

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)

Stephen McCraven's WOOLEY THE NEWT was his first album under his own name, released on Marion Browns own Sweet Earth record label in 1979 (orignal copies are rare and go for $500). Working with Stephen and the carvery we have remastering the audio and restored the original artwork.Stephen is a master drumer and composer and has worked with archie Shepp for many years,he has also played & recorded with many; Marion Brown, Mal Waldron, Reggie Wokman and Stanley Cowell to mention just a few. Stephens son is the talented drumer and composer Makaya McCraven,, & Wooley the Newt was sampled in his album; Gil Scott-Heron, Makaya McCraven – We're New Again (A Reimagining By Makaya McCraven) Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Percussion – Sulaiman HakimBass – Jack GreggDrums, Percussion – Stephen McCravenEngineer – Jean-Louis RizetEngineer [Assistant] – Laurent Peyrom*Engineer [Mastering] – Dave Crawford (2)Piano, Percussion – Michel GraillierTenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Percussion – Richard Raux

Malik King was an important part of the St Louis jazz scene of the 70's & 80's. He studied under Albert Ayler in NY in the early 70s before returning to the Midwest. He was a member of the Shirley Le Flore's ensemble "Free N' Concert". He also served as musical director of The Creative Arts & Expression Lab, The African Peoples Continuum, & The Black Arts Alliance, The worrier poets, The Human Arts Ensemble, as well as various Emerging Force Ensembles. Zimbabwe Nkenya (1953-2022), a creative artist and innovative musician, was brought up on army bases in the USA and Spain. He spent 30 years traveling and performing in New York, New Mexico, Arizona and St Louis. playing with a who's who of jazz. In New Mexico he became an integral part of the scene, producing and hosting the KUNM'S radio show "THE HOUSE THAT JAZZ BUILT" . Luckily Malik self released "Time & Condition" in 1982, capturing his work together with Qaiyim Shabazz. It's not just a crate diggers Holy Grail, but an important artistic and historic document of the St Louis scene. Time & Condition stands alone as a (very) individual, spiritual jazz classic. Maurice Malik King - Alto saxophone, voice, & small instruments Qaiyim Shabazz - Congas Drums Zimbabwe Nkenya - Bass Violin

Artistry was Sirone's first album as a leader, recorded in 1978, just after the split of the Revolutionary Ensemble. Artistry has an Atypical combination of instruments, bass, cello , flute and percussion and delivers aplenty. Listen and you will know. Sirone ( Norris Jones) had an enormously prolific career as a bassist, both as a member of the Revolutionary Ensemble and playing with many of the best musicians of the 20th century - from Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Gato Barbieri, Noah Howard, William Parker, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Sonny Sharrock,Marion Brown ... and the list goes on.

The first vocal album by beloved Ethiopian nun, composer, and pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru - profound and deeply moving home cassette recordings made amidst political upheaval and turmoil. These are songs of wisdom, loss, mourning, and exile, sung directly into a boombox and accompanied by Emahoy’s unmistakable piano. Though written and recorded while still living at her family’s home in Addis Ababa, Emahoy sings of the heartache of leaving her beloved Ethiopia, a reflection on the 1974 revolution and ensuing Red Terror in her homeland, and a presentiment of her future exile in Jerusalem. In the 21st century, Emahoy has become known worldwide for her utterly unique melodic and rhythmic style. Commonly misinterpreted as “jazzy” or “honky tonk,” Emahoy’s music actually comes from a deep engagement with the Western classical tradition, mixed with her background in Ethiopian traditional and Orthodox music. These songs, recorded between 1977-1985, are different from anything previously released by the artist. Rich with the sound of birds outside the window, the creak of the piano bench, the thump of Emahoy’s finger on the record button, they create a sense of place, of being near the artist while she records. Emahoy’s lyrics, sung in Amharic, are poetic and heavy with the weight of exile. “When I looked out / past the clouds / I couldn’t see my country’s sky / Have I really gone so far?” she asks in “Is It Sunny or Cloudy in the Land You Live?” Her vocals are delicate and heartfelt, tracing the melodic contours of her piano on songs like “Where Is the Highway of Thought?” “Tenkou! Why Feel Sorry?,” a career highlight that closes out her self-titled Mississippi album (MRP-099), is revisited here with vocals. Originally composed for her niece, Tenkou, the lyrics clarify the song title we’ve wondered about for so many years. “Don’t cry / Childhood won’t come back / Let it go with love Emahoy dreamt of releasing this music to a larger audience before her passing in March of 2023. We are proud to release this music, in collaboration with her family, now, in what would have been her 100th year. LP comes with a 16-page booklet full-color booklet. Gold cover first edition, pressed in both black and gold vinyl editions.  All songs composed and recorded by Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Addis Ababa, 1977–1985

"One of the most haunting, beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard this year." - Monorail Four pieces by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, a pioneer of “holy minimalism.” The album centers around a never-before-released rendition of “Silentium,” the second movement of Pärt’s most famous concerto, Tabula Rasa, performed by Boston-based chamber orchestra A Far Cry. The group plays “Silentium” at nearly half the speed of the best-known version, released on ECM in 1984. The piece, known for its healing properties for the dying and often used in palliative care facilities (one patient famously called it “angel music”), is breathtaking at half speed, seemingly stilling time itself. The album compiles some of the most stunning renditions of Pärt’s music ever recorded. “Vater Unser (Arr. for trombone & string ensemble)” is somehow warm and austere at once. A miniature epic. Pianist Marcel Worm’s solo version of “Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka” is as beautiful as anything we’ve ever heard. “Fratres for Strings and Percussion” is one of Arvo Pärt’s most celebrated works. The Hungarian State Opera Orchestra’s version is iconic, filled with emotional playing right on the verge of overly romantic, but never tipping over. Pärt’s approach to both music and life is as sparse as the compositions he creates. He once said, “I have nothing to say… Music says what I need to say. And it is dangerous to say anything, because if I’ve said it already in words there might be nothing left for my music.” Silentium continues Mississippi Records’ fascination with this great contemporary composer.

When they performed a handful of concerts as a duo in the summer of 1998, Kristen Noguès and John Surman had already worked a lot on the interweaving of genres: Noguès had confronted traditional Breton music with contemporary music and Surman had changed his jazz into atmospheric numbers that would be amongst the finest recording on the ECM label. As a duo, the harpist and the saxophonist would go on to invent something different: free folk, traditional ambient, modal ‘fest-noz’ … it is difficult to label, because the duo Noguès / Surman is one of a kind. Diriaou, means “Thursday” in Breton. It is also the title of the first piece that Kristen Noguès and John Surman played together in 1991. Noguès learned the Breton language as a child, at the same time as the Celtic harp, – taking lessons with Denise Mégevand, who would go on to teach others, notably Alan Stivell. At the beginning of the 1970s, Noguès discovered Breton singing (soniou and gwerziou) At the beginning of the 1970s, she discovered the Breton song tradition (soniou and gwerziou) and became involved in Névénoé, a cooperative of traditional expression founded by Gérard Delahaye and Patrick Ewen. She recorded a single with the two musicians in 1974, then her first album, two years later. Everyone who has listened to Kristen Noguès debut Marc’h Gouez, is now aware of her mysterious plucked strings. Her art, leaving Brittany, would go on to take in all landscapes and folklores, in the same as that of John Surman, conceived a little further north including vernacular jazz, international fusion with Chris McGregor or Miroslav Vitouš, and exploring more personal territory. Remember the Cornish landscapes in one of the best albums on the ECM label : Road To Saint Ives. Kristen Noguès and John Surman thus shared an ‘extra-Celtic’ inspiration infused with free improvisation. On this recording, made in 1998 by Tanguy Le Doré at the Dre Ar Wenojenn festival, the duo uses original compositions which refer back to traditional songs (Maro Pontkalek, Le Scorff). The musicians then create fantastic impressions: Baz Valan, on which Noguès and Surman have a heavenly exchange; Kernow, on which the shared theme slowing disappears into the mist; Maro Pontkalek and Diriaou which move from the storm to the calm. Elsewhere, there is singing, first with Surman (Kleier) and then moving on to Noguès (Kerzhadenn and her signature song Berceuse). On a canvas of traditional music, the two musicians weave countless memorable landscapes.