A historian by training, Akira Umeda became a ceramicist, a photographer, a visual artist, a draftsman, a graphic designer, a DJ, a musician, an audio technician, a writer, a researcher… Here are forty-two recordings, ranging over three decades, alluding to the incredible range of his creative work: from songs, to ambient music; from field recordings to prank calls. Drawn from cassette tapes stored in Umeda’s house in São José dos Campos, in São Paulo, Brazil.

Inspired by Guy Debord, the detournement of the 1990 album City: Works Of Fiction, assembled twenty-four years later by Hassell, from alternate takes, demos and studio jams, in the same spirit of hip-hop-inspired, dubwise future-funk.
First time on vinyl.

A September 1989 performance at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in New York City, with Brian Eno mixing live.
‘During this period Hassell was inspired by the increasingly innovative production techniques being used in hip-hop, in particular the hyper-collaged sampledelic barrage of the Bomb Squad’s work with Public Enemy, hearing it as a kind of extension of the tape splicing that Teo Macero brought to his work with Miles Davis. He began to incorporate more of this aesthetic into his own music, playing over loops of his own performances and riffing on angular juxtapositions of noise, rhythm and melody.’
First time on vinyl.

The CD is from Important.

Dark, spooked, early-seventies worries from PU — disguised as M. Zalla, in the throes of his fascination with psychedelia and electronics — with titles like Mondo in Crisi, Problemi Sociali, Azione Sindacale and Mafia Oggi.
Drum-machines, Moog and EMS Synthi.
Still acutely germane; musically and temperamentally.
Demdike Stare has called it the first techno record.

“In the beginning of the pandemic we decided to take a turn and move to a small beach close to São Paulo, right in the middle of the rain forest… water definitely took a major role in our lives. We were living right in between the ocean and a waterfall, it´d rain for days on a roll sometimes and it was an open house where we had the sound of rain 360 degrees around us… I kinda think our music has a little of those different dynamics of water in its different states. Also, it might seem strange but São Paulo is a city in the water too, and it has a very chaotic relationship with it.”

‘The music itself is difficult to pin down: always kinetic and driven by fluid, nimble percussion, with a freeness to the sound overall, but also discipline, as the pair harness and channel the elemental force from which they’ve drawn their inspiration. At times the lines between Takara’s skittish percussion and Boregas’ idiosyncratic synth work and sound manipulation blur into flowing rivers or torrents of sound — here, both water and sound have the ability to awaken in us different memories, and emotional or physical states.
‘We could say say their sound contains clear influences from jazz, classic dub, krautrock, and the outer limits of post-punk. Contemporary allies include Holy Tongue, Shackleton, Oren Ambarchi…’

Early, mostly unreleased, truly pioneering electronic work.
‘Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening I now know what harmony is. It’s about the pleasure of making music’ (John Cage).

‘Swooping, sub-heavy sci-fi from Riz Maslen, under a new moniker.
‘Heavy-lidded and ethereal, its balance of bass weight, mechanical metre, and darkly tinted new age feels like a cinematic re-approach to some of the textures, moods, and themes of her 1996 Laundrophonic maxi, under the alias Neotropic.
‘Stairway 13 folds in decades of experience in sound design and theatre, along with shards and elements abstracted from Riz’ more recent folk-like music, zoning into a deep, retreated, altogether dreamlike and expansive atmosphere. The scale and soundscape is reminiscent of Geinoh Yamashirogumi and their Ecophony album series, resonating to similar frequencies and exploring themes of chaos and rebirth in feature-length form.
‘The four parts spread and swoop as single extended sides across this double LP. Carried by waves of sub bass and heavenly chorus, and later punctuated with autonomic clicks of machinery, whirrs, and pulses, the work forms a gothic, otherworldly ambience. A subtle space opera.’

Improvisatory, personal recordings made on various synthesisers between 1989 and 2017.
‘Amazing music that moves between abstract electronic experiments to melodic, DMT bent sounding, classical contemporary music and futuristic soundtracks from non-existing sci-fi movies you’ll wish you could see. It time-warps you from here to there then freezes the moment… very focused, unpretentious and highly emotive music . A wonderful and dreamy sound garden’ (Tako Reyenga, Music From Memory).
‘Chateauroux is mighty… A proper zoner. Flung on earth’ (John T. Gast).

A lovingly presented, outer-disciplinary collaboration featuring Ben Lancaster playing Moog, Sean Roche on saxophones, and visual artist Justin Hibbs. The music is a no-nonsense jazz stomper with Sun Ra running through its veins, and an eastern flavour; in two quite different arrangements.