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2CD
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RM 4215CD
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[SOLD OUT] Keiji Haino is, without question, one of the truly iconic artists to rise beyond the dusk of the 20th century. An artist focused singularly of the beautiful visceral promise of music, his practice is a many-headed beast taking in movements from the gentlest of guitar play, through free improvisation and noise. As divergent as the work might be, it is held tightly by his unique way in sound, one that exists moment to moment with a force like no other. 20 years since its first release, Black Blues remains one of his most provocative recordings -- a collection of 6 songs, recorded twice over. One version "Violent," the other "Soft"; and the differences could not be more radical. Black Blues exists at both margins of Haino's sonic spectrum. At the Violent end, each piece is delivered with a sense of tangible intensity. In some moments it is as if listeners are inside Haino, his voice completely consuming all it comes in contact with. The guitar, carving a path that is part rhythm, part harmony, its tenderness cradling his voice with a determination and generosity. By contrast the Soft versions are almost lullabies, all be it ones that carry a mournful and anguish ladened atmosphere. Here the guitar splays out into clouds of reverb that shimmer at the edges, housing a voice which is constantly seeking a deeper resolution within the songs. Gentle but never settled. Black Blues captures the dynamic form of Keiji Haino's work in its most raw form; voice and guitar. The songs encapsulate a very particular portrait of an artist whose work only continues to grow deeper in is wonder and profundity.
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2LP
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BE 1004LP
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Full title: My lord Music, I most humbly beg your indulgence in the hope that you will do me the honour of permitting this seed called Keiji Haino to be planted within you. For over 25 years, Keiji Haino has used the hurdy gurdy to channel dark dimensions -- creating music that bridges the centuries between distant medieval eras and a future awash in densely layered sounds that grind and float in an otherworldly atmosphere. My lord Music... is a suite of nine pieces that reveals the startlingly distinctive and wide range of Haino's approach to the instrument. The music is at once dissonant and hypnotic, rich with unfurling drones that dynamically ebb and flow -- Haino's musical sensibility and physicality, always present and unmistakable. Keiji Haino - Hurdy Gurdy. Recorded April 7, 2019 at Zebulon, Los Angeles, California. Recorded and mixed by Toshi Kasai. Mastering by Elysian Masters. Photographs by Kazuyuki Funaki. Design by Takuya Kitamura. Translation by Alan Cummings. Performance produced by Black Editions and Blum & Poe Gallery as part of Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s curated by Mika Yoshitake.
My lord Music... is the first release in Haino's newly relaunched Purple Trap imprint, produced in collaboration with Black Editions and personally supervised by the artist himself. Purple Trap will present the full breadth of Keiji Haino's works through both archival recordings and newly recorded pieces, all made available in small one-time physical editions as well as on digital platforms. Double vinyl housed in pure black paper gatefold with metallic silver printing and black paper inner sleeves. More limited than God intended when he invented the word "limited", unfortunately...
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LP
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BE 000LP
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2021 restock; Black Editions present the first vinyl reissue of Keiji Haino's stunning debut album Watashi Dake?, originally released in 1981. This first ever edition released outside of Japan features the artist's originally intended metallic gold and silver jacket artwork. 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. For all this, his 1981 debut album Watashi Dake? has remained enigmatic. Originally released in a small edition by the legendary Pinakotheca label, the album was heard by only a select few in Japan and far fewer overseas. Original vinyl copies became impossibly rare and highly sought after the world over. Watashi Dake? presents a haunting vision -- stark vocals, whispered and screamed, punctuate dark silences. Intricate and sharp guitar figures interweave, repeat, and stretch, trance-like, emerging from dark recesses. Written and composed on the spot -- Haino's vision is one of deep spiritual depths that distantly evokes 1920s blues and medieval music -- yet is unlike anything ever committed to record before or since. Produced in close cooperation with Keiji Haino and legendary photographer Gin Satoh. Coupled with starkly minimal packaging, featuring the now iconic cover photographs by Gin Satoh, the album is a startling and fully realized artistic statement. Housed in custom printed deluxe Stoughton tip-on jackets, including black on black inserts, extras, and hand-colored finishes; Remastered by Elysian Masters and cut by Bernie Grundman Mastering; Pressed to high quality vinyl at RTI; Includes download code.
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LP
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BT 026LP
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Black Truffle present the first vinyl issue of Keiji Haino's Milky Way. Originally released as a limited CD in Japan by the short lived Mom 'N' Dad Productions in 1993, this release documents a blistering live performance recorded in Kyoto in 1973, five years before the formation of the first line-up of Fushitsusha, and eight years before Haino's first solo album. Working with a mysterious set-up including primitive electronics, homemade acoustic instruments, piano and voice, Haino lets loose a single 48-minute psychedelic maelstrom, marrying the immersive echo-fields of kosmische music to the rough and ready hands-on feel of classic 1960s live electronics à la MEV or Robert Ashley's Wolfman. Despite the absence of guitar, this recording clearly lays the groundwork for the epic blowouts which were to make Haino's name in years to come, building up to a point of almost unbearable intensity in its final minutes as Haino's voice wails over a wall of distorted DIY electronics. At times presaging the psychedelic noise of C.C.C.C., Milky Way shows Haino's singular intensity and ritualistic performance style already in full flower at this early date in his long career. Presented in raw and immediate room fidelity (complete with dramatic tape drop-out), this is both an essential historical document and a classic performance in its own right. Presented in a deluxe heavyweight sleeve with an inner sleeve featuring Haino's poetry in Japanese, with an English translation by Alan Cummings. Original design by Keiji Haino & Yasunori Arai. LP reissue design via Stephen O'Malley. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin June 2016.
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CD
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PSF 8021CD
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Keiji Haino (drums). "Rhythm, duration and silence lie at the foundation of all of Haino's music. After a clutch of documents of his hair-raising solo performances for both acoustic and electric percussion, this latest album presents Haino's first recorded outing behind a regular drumkit. Haino has long desired to release a solo drum album, and he has been playing a regular kit occasionally live for several decades now. Global Ancient Atmosphere (the alternative Japanese title means 'These signs, a sealed beginning') contains nine tracks that showcase an austere yet thrilling investigation of attack and decay on nothing less than the molecular level. As inimitable, and as life-affirming as ever." -- Alan Cummings.
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