SEALED

"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” Richard Buckminster FullerThe music on this compilation was, for the most part, originally released privately in Geneva as a box set containing five LPs by The Mega Wave Orchestra and five prints by the artist Richard Reimann. The Mega Wave Orchestra, the brain-child of musician, mathematician and composer Christian Oestreicher, was conceived as an multi-media electronic music big-band. It was comprised of seven keyboard players Christine Schaller, Vincent Barras, Jacques Demierre, Olivier Rogg, Rainer Boesch, Roger Baudet, and Benoit Corboz, with Oestreicher as arranger and producer, assisted by Yves Melan, and video specialist Yanick Ebinger.Each of the five LPs was composed or devised by an individual member of the Orchestra acting as band leader, but arranged and mixed by Oestreicher in the Mega Wave Studio.The Orchestra created a new hybrid music. It was a music with roots in the jazz and classical traditions, but one which also drew on the sonic freedom of musique concrete and the kind of total experience offered by psychedelia. The diverse backgrounds and specialisms of each of the band leaders/writers resulted in a wide variety of music across the five discs: from austere drones and granular aural detail to warm oddball fusion and gorgeous but cracked vocal jazz. But it was Oestreicher’s presence, at both the start and end of the process, that provided a sure conceptual framework and a comprehensive sound world. There are useful contemporary comparisons to be made: zoned synth jazz like the Azimuth LP on ECM or Karin Krog’s Freestyle; Larry Heard’s sequencer dreamtime; the Valium minimalism of Pep Llopis or Jun Fukamaki; Dexter Wansel’s shimmering arrangements for Loose Ends, or even the FM sheen meets cold war threat of Donald Fagen’s Night Fly. Here, too, is the sound of music technology about to snowball and define its own aesthetic, unknowingly prefiguring auteurish bedroom producers like Black Dog or The Detroit Escalator Company.The heart of this music’s appeal lies in Oestreicher’s complex intentions and methodologies. He revels in occupying the unsteady ground between analogue and digital, pushing his players to robotic precision while opportunistically grabbing on to the unpredictable results of computer error. He harks back to communal rigour of big band or orchestra structures, while understanding beautifully that the sounds of the future will not be synthesised imitations of existing instruments but something entirely other. He seizes on the value of resituating or recombining the sounds given to him by his bandmates, twisting them out of shape to create vivid new worlds for the listener to occupy. As a mathematician, he approaches the problem of group music making with a seriousness that results in beauty as a matter of course. Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve.Remastered from Master tapes. 500 copies.

Spaziale Recordings strike gold again with this remastered, official reissue of the hugely in demand Billy Frazier disco funk masterpiece ‘Billy Who ?’. Originally released in 1980, it’s saucy, slick and oh so smooth, with the flip side containing one of the rarest, and most sought after disco tracks out there, ‘The Mind Blower (Finally Got His Mind Blown)’, hitting close to £1000 for an original copy.These two killer disco classics represent huge hits on the underground scene and a staple at legendary clubs like The Paradise Garage, The Loft and Chicago's Warehouse.A must have for any collection to get those bodies moving.

France exclusive hand-numbered editionRare private press funk/soul albumFirst vinyl reissue since 1983180g deluxe pressingLimited to 100 copies

Amazing Bossa Nova LP.. Subtle arrangements, pure, honest and beautifully crafted Brazilian music!The list of musicians born or raised in the Tijuca district of Rio de Janeiro is long and illustrious and includes names that have shaped Brazilian music: Tom Jobim, Roberto Carlos, Tim Maia, Milton Nascimento, Jorge Ben or Erasmo Carlos – to mention but a few. We can now add to that list another name: Werther. In 1970, a man by that name recorded an album unique in its personality, its honesty, and its lack of pretense. In a time when Bossa Nova had become a global phenomenon and its main characters were already household names in Brazil, Werther assembled a collection of songs that uncannily – almost naively – remind us of the time when Bossa Nova was just a group of youngsters making music. His songs are about simple things: bohemian life, the sea, love.Despite Werther and his friends being only in their teens, without any previous experience recording music, those working behind the scenes were not equally amateur. Producer Peter Keller had already worked with Aloysio De Oliveira in the quintessential Bossa Nova label Elenco, and was also an initial partner in Roberto Quartin’s cult label Forma. Studio owner Bill Horne was a very loved character in the Rio jazz scene who had regularly taken part in the legendary meetings in Nara Leão’s apartment and befriended some of Brazil’s most respected musicians. Some of these musicians were, for example, Naná Vasconcelos and Edison Machado, who provided small contributions to Werther’s album.It was only in the 1990’s that Werther’s album was rediscovered by a handful of collectors and Brazilian music enthusiasts, who recognized in it a purity that had already vanished from the mainstream Bossa Nova recordings. But due to the haziness around the original release and the relative anonymity of its instigators, many questions surrounding these recordings were left unanswered. Today we are finally able to disclose the full story behind Werther’s short-lived contribution to Brazilian music.