Music > contemporary / electronic / experimental / improvised music

Vinyl reissue of the third album of the Japanese "screaming philosopher" (1977), the culmination of his introspective approach to the search for a "music of the self".

Vinyl reissue of Kazuki Tomokawa's seminal album (1975), that introduced one of the most singular voices of the post-war Japanese music scene.

Vinyl reissue of Kazuki Tomokawa's second album (1976), having imposed him on the Japanese avant-garde/avant-folk scene.

Box set gathering the first three albums of Kazuki Tomokawa (1975-1977), retracing the rise of the Japanese "screaming philosopher" and providing a complete introduction to his singular world, between folk experimentations, existential and introspective meditations and psychedelic rock.

On textstar+ Jan Jelinek brings together the material from the CMYK series, four seminal EPs he released between 1999 and 2002 under the pseudonym Farben, on a vinyl double LP for the first time. The selection of tracks has been remastered from the original tapes, joined by two additional pieces that appeared on compilations during the same period.

An utterly essential document of early American minimalism, available on LP for the first time since it was originally released in 1984. Cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity.

An utterly essential document of early American minimalism, available on LP for the first time since it was originally released in 1984. Cut at Golden and pressed at RTI for maximum fidelity.

Brunhild Ferrari returns to Black Truffle with her first duo with the legendary figure in underground music Christoph Heemann.

Julia Reidy's 7th album is an intimate set of songforms using just intonation guitar, electronics and voice: both rigorously experimental and emotive, World in World is undoubtedly the finest work yet of the prolific Berlin-based guitarist-composer.

Loopworks 2 expands Istanbul based audio/visual artist Kantarcioğlu's sampling pool to Turkish records as well as snippets from 70's TV and 80's new age and jazz tapes. This disparate material is mangled and glued together with Koray's very personal sampling techniques.

Francisco López offers a brand new field recording composition based on the recordings he did in the island of Tenerife whilst visiting for a performance at the Keroxen Festival, 2020.

New release of the first album of American Gamelan composer Daniel Schmidt.

New release of the third album of American Gamelan composer Daniel Schmidt.

The 14th album of the American musician and sound artist, a key figure in minimal electronic music and the man at the head of the 12k label, is an invitation to an immobile journey.

Contemporary poetry in Arabic: Sara Elkamel; Marc Ribot; Bill Nace interviewed by Michel Henritzi; David Grubbs by Laurent Nerzic; Werner Durand interviewed by Deborah Walker; Paulina Owczarek interviewed by Gérard Rouy ; focus Insub.Records; 80 album reviews...

The second chapter of the post-isolationist, deep ambient & folk classic Murder Ballads by M.J. Harris (Scorn) and Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza) re-emerges in this first vinyl outing.

A how-to manual for free improvisation music.

Guest-curated by Found Sound Nation's Kyla-Rose Smith, this special issue is dedicated to the unique perspectives of musical voices outside the USA, giving unique insight into the wider world of artistic practice and allowing us all to question how we create.

Thomas Bonvalet deploys all the instrumentarium of his project L'ocelle mare (guitars, banjo, tambourines, piano, flutes, but also body percussion, metronomes, switches, painter's tape, mobile phone, microphones, mixing board, amps, etc.) to create a true poetics of the object, focusing on the materiality of instruments as objects as well as on the musicality of objects as instruments.

Thomas Bonvalet deploys all the instrumentarium of his project L'ocelle mare (guitars, banjo, tambourines, piano, flutes, but also body percussion, metronomes, switches, painter's tape, mobile phone, microphones, mixing board, amps, etc.) to create a true poetics of the object, focusing on the materiality of instruments as objects as well as on the musicality of objects as instruments.

Texas experimental artist Claire Rousay's new album inaugurates her collaboration with Shelter Press (two 15-minute pieces, with Alex Cunningham and Mari Maurice on violin, Marilu Donovan on harp and Theodore Cale Schafer on piano).

Texas experimental artist Claire Rousay's new album inaugurates her collaboration with Shelter Press (two 15-minute pieces, with Alex Cunningham and Mari Maurice on violin, Marilu Donovan on harp and Theodore Cale Schafer on piano).

An experimental noise project that synchronises sound with image and takes the form of a durational solo performance as installation (the publication accompanying Marco Fusinato's immersive project for the Australia Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, with texts by Branden W. Joseph, Elizabeth Povinelli, Chus Martínez, Thurston Moore, Stephen O'Malley, Bruce Russell, etc.).

A tribute to Cecil Taylor's Akisakila, re-imagined & arranged by Pat Thomas piano & XT: Paul Abbott (drums, synthetic sounds) and Seymour Wright (actual & potential saxophone).

"Out of Our Hands" brings together Alvin Lucier and Jordan Dykstra who, through the hands of Ordinary Affects, have created debut recordings of two new compositions.

The deluxe reissue of Fennesz's first LP of 1997 (also including the 1995 first EP), remastered by Stephan Mathieu.

A remix collaboration by Mads Emil Nielsen and Chromacolor, a project from the German sound artist and producer Hanno Leichtmann.

Pauline Oliveros and György Ligeti revisited by Ensemble 0.

Released in Sub Rosas Early Electronic series, Reinhold Weber's Complete Electronic & Phonetic Works 1968-1974.

The retrospective of the website and the magazine Le son du grisli (2004-2021): 16 portraits and 38 interviews of musicians, 842 record and concert reviews.

A sound collage composed from 400 hours of recordings the artists made during the 2-year renovation of their house in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin. The work has been previously presented as an installation of which photos are included on 3 inserts.

Bundle (special offer for the purchase of seven issues of OpticalSound).

Interviews with Michael Gira (Swans), Ghislain Mollet-Viéville, Jérôme Lefdup, Éric Mangion, Pierre Leguillon, Norscq & Guillaume Ollendorff; Roxane Bovet, Mathieu Copeland and Laurent Schmid on John Armleder; Stéphane Margolis; Marie Losier's ten favorite records; Abbas Kiarostami by Alain Bergala...

A composition in two continuous parts of 30' and 19' which melts two antagonistic and complementary dimensions: a data-text read by the French artist ORLAN and a virtual orchestra, composed of four singers (Loré Lixenberg, Joan La Barbara, Wills Morgan and Jacques Lizène) and 124 different instruments.

The new solo work of the French musician Pascal Battus: four pieces composed exclusively with cymbals, producing different types of resonances and as many sound expanses.

Iannis Xenakis by Kasper T. Toeplitz; interviews with Delphine Dora, Paul Lovens, J.A. Seazer, Frédéric Blondy; Fred Van Hove by Gérard Rouy; carte blanche to Julie Hascoët; reading notes and about sixty albums reviews; contemporary Arabic poetry: Mina Nagy...

Originally released in 2005 on Mike Cooper's Hipshot Cd-r label, and reissued here for the first time on vinyl, Spirit Songs deserves to be regarded as a true rediscovered gem, remixed and remastered by Cooper himself.

The first album of Viennese bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer and Düsseldorf-based musician and producer Stefan Schneider (Mapstation), partly recorded at the site of Kraftwerk's old Kling Klang studio, synthesizes aspects of industrial and avant-garde music with jazz.

The first ever reissue of the piece recorded by Asger Jorn & Jean Dubuffet in 1960-61 in Paris.

A radio-commissioned album by the Canadian sound artist, based on sound fragments recorded around the world: a subtle and poetic assemblage of concrete sounds and atmospheres that evolve at the boundaries of perception (with Oren Ambarchi and Seiji Morimoto on drums and electronics).

The first album in a new collaboration between Tokyo artist Teruyuki Kurihara and London drone pop band The Leaf Library.  

The first album by Frank Bretschneider and Jan Jelinek's joint project, produced from improvised sessions on modular systems between 2016 and 2020.

The reissue of the compositions for tape and voice of Ursula Bogner (1946-1994), scientist, phamarcian, artist, "outsider" experimental musician fascinated by Wilhelm Reich's work, whose archives were mysteriously discovered Jan Jelinek, compiled by Andrew Pekler.

The new full-length record from the duo of Glasgow-based artists Feronia Wennborg and Simon Weins, examining microsound by way of extended amplification technique, bone conduction, domestic recordings, and digital feedback.