Chaos Magick: Through The Looking Glass [#9320]
challenging compositions. Founded in 2021 as a spinoff of the heavy metal organ trio Simulacrum, they have released no less than five CDS in three years—Chaos Magick, The Ninth Circle, Multiplicities, 444, and Parrhesiastes. Their sixth, Through the Looking Glass, presents three extended works that unfold like a philosophical treatise. Sweet, funky, soulful, imaginative, quirky, and intensely stimulating, this is music that pushes formal musical ideas into fresh new directions. The phrase “Nothing is real—everything is permitted” has never had greater meaning. (March 2025)
John Zorn: The Bagatelles vol. 2 – Erik Friedlander and Michael Nicolas [#5212]
From March to May 2015, John Zorn composed 300 new tunes that were eventually collected into a book of music he called The Bagatelles. After five years of performances around the world in venues large and small, the choicest ensembles have gone into the studio and the results are some of the most exciting and varied music Zorn has ever presented. The second volume features the telepathic interplay of two of the most important cellists working today—Erik Friedlander and Michael Nicolas. Touching, sensitive and deeply heartfelt, this is a further view into the world of Zorn’s Bagatelles.
(February 2025)
PainKiller: The Equinox [#9319]
The Equinox is the exciting follow-up to PainKiller’s acclaimed 2024 release Samsara, and this time around there is greater variety and flexibility in their approach. Six tracks of various feels and tempi are performed with trademark Painkiller intensity, with jazz, metal, noise, grindcore, techno, and more coming together into the PainKiller gristmill. Inspired by the magickal procedures of Aleister Crowley, this new recording is filled with great melodic, rhythmic, and textural invention. Almost orchestral in its layered complexity, The Equinox is an exhilarating masterwork from three radical and uncompromising forces of nature. (February 2025)
Spectrum
Ikue Mori: Of Ghosts And Goblins [#4053]
Lafcadio Hearn is an author who spent much of his life researching, documenting, and preserving the ancient folk tales of Japan. He published a series of books in the late 19th and early 20th century including In Ghostly Japan, Kwaidan, and Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. Inspired by these evocative stories Ikue captures a glimpse of these mysterious ancient myths, summoning Fox-women, insects, ghosts, goblins, dreams, and delusions. This charming collection of instrumental miniatures is some of her most beautiful and sensual solo music to date. (February 2025)
Ches Smith: The Self [#4054]
One of the most versatile and in-demand percussionists in the Downtown scene, Ches has worked with everyone from Marc Ribot, Tim Berne, and Dave Holland to Secret Chiefs 3, Terry Riley, and John Zorn. He has released over a dozen CDs under his own name in duo, trio, quartet, and large group contexts—and for his first CD for Tzadik he has recorded his first solo project. Performing on drums, percussion, vibraphone, glockenspiel, gongs, and more, Ches presents eighteen short pieces exploring his mastery of rhythm, form, and texture. A beautiful program of solo percussion by a Downtown master, this is Ches at his most intimate and explorative. (March 2025)
