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Sun Ra Arkestra, Live in Japan! Recorded at Shinjuku Pit Inn on August 8, 1988, this recording has undergone fresh remastering from the master tape, marking the first reissue in 36 years!!

Vibey, soulful and genre-bending, Sun Ark weaves together electronic, hip-hop, Brazilian and jazz influences to create a lush, colourful and orchestral sound. Dreamy and complex, Sun Ark founder and songwriter Johannes Mann describes their self-titled debut album (Berlin’s Xjazz Music, February 2024) as ‘exploring a landscape’; a sonic story with a bright, springy opening track that bends into a red-hot, experimental arc. In Sun Ark’s performances, the band’s beat-driven grooves drift from produced compositions penned by Mann into skillful ambient and collaborative improvisations, creating a sound that is effervescent and entirely unique. Two of the band’s in-studio improvisations are excerpted in Sun Ark: fragile, droning ‘Photon’ and delicate ‘Fear’ both stem from the same 25-minute improv, and are sampled at opposite ends of the album. From Sun Ark’s light, breezy opening track ‘Sun’ to a lush, groovy ‘Arden’ sunset,this exploratory and masterful debut album paints a strange other world, which drip from the trippy and psychedelic to the dark, droning and angular. Listeners tumble into Sun Ark’s shimmery, fluid moods, which reach a crescendo at the album’s midway point, ‘Moon.sun’, a rich, ambient inverse of the album’s opening track, featuring a vocal sample from Charles Mingus’s ‘Eclipse’. Composer Mann and his band of skillful improvisers eschew categorization, leading the listener boldly from contemporary jazz to avant-garde and experimental (‘Ai Ai’ and ‘ArkOne’), lo-fi and guitar-forward (‘Shuggie’) and daydreamy melodies in acoustic Instrumentation (‘Crepuscule’). Sun Ark bridges the gap between electronically-produced music and acoustic jazz ensemble playing, with tracks that highlight the skilled musicianship of each of the band’s players. Melancholy, hungover-feeling ‘Walk’ highlights a stand-out bass solo from Thorbjörn Stefansson (on double bass), while Bene Jäckle (flute) provides sparkly, sunny intros and outros to ‘Arden’ and ‘Onfym’. ‘ArkOne’ and ‘Crepuscule’ feature confident performances from Povel Widestrand, playing on the Fender Rhodes and grand piano, and guitarist and composer Mann leans into an ‘80s synth sound in ‘Shuggie’ utilizing a Casio Midi-Guitar. In ‘Ai Ai’, Marius Wankel’s performance on drums is unmistakable, providing a complex rhythm that oozes between fast and slow, while Mann shows his guitar skills improvising over the complex set of Chord Changes of the song. Mann, Nissen, Widestrand, Stefansson, Wankel and Jäckle have played in venues around the world, from Bahia, Brazil’s Festival de Jazz do Capão to Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, and across a number of local venues, including the Jazzexzess Concert Series, A-Trane and Donau115. In SUN ARK they join forces to improvise and experiment collectively to create a current Sound that aims to have a profound spiritual and emotional Impact. Sun Ark was recorded by Piotr Zegzula at RecPublica Studios in Lubza, Poland and Mixed & Mastered by Martin Ruch at Control Room Berlin. Additional Overdubs and Postproduction were done by Johannes Mann in his Studio in Berlin-Neukölln. The album’s retro futuristic artwork and visualizers are by Ben Luu, with trippy, mind bending videography by Ada Grueter for “Moon.Sun”.

Words by Eliza Levinson

Announcing the debut album from one of London’s most electrifying acts, New Regency Orchestra. An 18-piece Afro-Cuban big band, inspired by the musical melting pot of NYC in the 1950s, but with the punch and power of a whole host of London’s best Latin and jazz musicians. Blowing new life into these compositions, the album is a reimagining of some of the finest music from that golden era. From early 1950s René Hernandez and Tito Puente, through to the 1970s salsa of Rafael Labasta and Orlando Marin, produced and performed with fresh fire.

NRO is the brainchild of its artistic director, and the man behind Total Refreshment Centre and co-founder of Church of Sound, Lex Blondin. Through a long-held passion for jazz, Lex discovered the explosive Afro-Cuban rhythms of mid-1940s NYC via the godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz, Mario Bauzá. A time when two musical worlds collided in a fusion of creativity and energy, jazz luminaries like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker joining forces with Cuban greats like Machito and Chano Pozo. This vibrant sound was music to dance to and found a home at The New York Palladium, a formative space of freedom and expression that was key to the scene’s development.

Although dance-focussed in their makeup, those early recordings are not often heard in modern club environments and Lex dreamt of retelling their story with a contemporary dynamism. A slice of serendipity followed, as a slot at a new festival opened up and Lex jumped at the chance to make this idea a reality, an 18-piece big band breathing new life into these beloved songs.

Enlisting the expertise of some of the capital’s finest talent, Lex and co-captain Andy Wood, of Como No fame, put together a world-class line-up of talent. Bringing in Eliane Correa as musical director and bandleader, a fluid and interchanging 18-piece band was formed.

The album itself is a hand-picked selection of timeless Afro-Cuban jazz classics, reimagined with NRO’s unbridled energy. It contains ten incredible instrumental tracks including 'Pregon' with its anthemic horn stabs and the addictive head nod bounce of 'Mambo Rama', alongside two scorching vocal numbers in 'Papa Boco' and 'Labasta Llego'. Coupling a heavyweight rhythm section with a wall of horns, they provide a fresh spin on songs from Tito Puente and Chico O'Farrill, René Hernandez through to Rafael Labasta.

“Some of the tunes like Tito Puente’s ‘Mambo Rama’ and ‘Scarlet Mambo’ might sound like they went to a gym as extra drums and bass synth were added to them whilst the tune ‘Sahib & Tito’ is a mix of Tito’s ‘Mambo Buda’ and Sahib Shihab’s ‘Nus’. Our intention is to be both respectful to the innovators and inventors of this incredible music and to pay our dues, but also to add something special from London where the city’s new jazz scene connects with its Latin American musicians and the musical influences around us.”

This pure collective joy, shared experience and music you can’t help but move to.

This is the 2020 repress. Due to its super-rare status as a Japan-only release, this exquisite collection of covers never got the recognition it deserved at the time, despite incredibly inspired performances from Kimiko, Herbie and the supremely talented musicians assembled for the project. From heavenly drummer Alphonse Mouzon and renowned organist Webster Lewis to bassist Paul Jackson, reedman Bennie Maupin and the master percussionist Bill Summers, the legendary performers crafted amazingly good vocal versions of Herbie / Headhunters jazz-funk.

Two old souls creating music not of this plane, taking you to a dream world...

Triple edition, packaged in thick PVC cover with a foldable double sided poster and download card.

Celebrating the 20 year anniversary of highly revered Jazz collective, Build An Ark from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 2003 and releasing albums between 2004 and 2010, the Carlos Niño co-ordinated project included contributions from luminaries such Phil Ranelin, Big Black, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Adam Rudolph, Derf Reklaw, Dexter Story, Dwight Trible, Gaby Hernandez, Mia Doi Todd, Munyungo Jackson, Nate Morgan (R.I.P.), Peter Jacobson & many more.

This set was compiled by band leader Carlos Niño with recordings from 2001 to 2008 that have previously been released on Kindred Spirits.

Gilles Peterson says "It's a beauty!"

Takeo Moriyama, Japan's leading jazz drummer, loved by many new and old fans. Since the late 1960s, he has swept the free jazz world with the Yosuke Yamashita trio. After leaving the group, the radiating heat was condensed into an ensemble, evolving and deepening the musicality in a more melodic and rhythmic direction. And that activity will reach a peak in this work 'Smile'.

King Chino's first full length instrumental album.

February of 2021 marked an eventful month for visionary Western Massachusetts electro-acoustic percussionist Jake Meginsky: the birth of his daughter Luce, the death of his friend and mentor (and the subject of his celebrated 2018 documentary, Full Mantis) Milford Graves, and the creation of Trinities. A four-piece suite heavily inspired by Graves’ notion of the primacy of threes as “a fundamental pattern in the universe - and the lowest, strongest and most generative structure in rhythm” the album showcases Meginsky’s adventurous vein of pointillist minimalism: stark, oblique, cerebral, fluid. It’s free music in both form and function, liberated from rhythm, pattern, or expectation. Abrupt flurries of metallic reverberations ping and echo against charged silences like avant-garde morse code. Textures clang and hang in low-lit air. Presence and absence commingling in elusive ballets of resonance and negative space.

Among the many influential teachings of free jazz icon Milford Graves was the idea of three-ness as “the underlying structure… the grounded being of all music.” It’s a concept both dialectical and divine – the sacred geometry of an idea, its opposite, and the synthesis that binds the two. For Trinities, Meginsky developed modular synth patches that allowed him to explore triplet structures in an intuitive way, “the threes as a structural principal, the building blocks, felt rather than heard”. During sleep deprived sessions with his newborn infant listening, he channeled the grief of Graves’ passing in early morning improvisations alternately quiet and questing, inquisitive and defiant.

The outlier is “2521,” a celestial lullaby of suspended frequencies composed on a 4-track in the birthing room of the hospital during a particularly strict phase of quarantine lockdown (no coming or going, or visitors, for a week straight). Meginsky played the piece for his daughter “as she came into this world, and while she slept.” Its harmonic tranquility ebbs and radiates in soft arcs like a soft dawn glowing on the horizon – welcoming those newly here, and waving warmly to those in the hereafter

He"s known as a versatile soloist, a forward- thinking composer and an expert leader, having fronted his long-time quartet of guitarist Jesse van Ruller, bassist Frans van der Hoeven and drummer Martijn Vink for over 20 years. Together, they present Polyphony 3, the newest instalment of Blom"s Polyphony cycle, which follows the widely acclaimed 2019 Whirlwind release Polyphony. Cologne based pianist Pablo Held, joins the line- up as a guest throughout this record and saxophonist Ben van Gelder and bass clarinettist Joris Roelofs feature on one track.

Formed by Jesse Sharps, an alumnus (and former bandleader) of Horace Tapscott’s Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra (papa), The Gathering: Roots and Branches of Los Angeles Jazz is a project spanning generations, but firmly planted in the jazz scene of Los Angeles. The group, formed in 2005, has a rotating cast of musicians, ranging from up and coming (at the time…) stars of the jazz scene such as Kamasi Washington, all the way to Tribe co-founder Phil Ranelin.

Recorded live in 2015 at Los Angeles’ Mamye Clayton Library and Museum, Healing Suite was recorded to commemorate the 10th anniversary of The Gathering’s formation, and features many of the original members. The album opens with a stirring rendition of the Nina Simone classic “Strange Fruit”, performed as a duet by Dwight Trible (vo.) and Theo Saunders (pf.). Trible’s voice is haunting, his voice goes from somber melody to tortured cries, perfectly expressing the pain and weight behind the lyrics. Saunder’s piano comping seems to undulate under Drible’s vocals, with angular chords and percussive playing peeking out from underneath Trible’s singing.

The heart of the album is undoubtedly Freedom’s Sweet, a three-part suite composed by Horace Tapscott. With Jesse Sharps conducting, the song moves forward at a steady shuffle, going from disarming poetry by Kamau Daáod (part 1), to triumphant horn lines and fiery solos (part 2), all the way to avant-garde big band swing (part 3). A particular high point is Tribe co-founder Phil Ranelin’s (tbn.) solo in part 2, which is as energetic and fiery as any of his solos on earlier Tribe records, despite being almost 80 at the time of recording. Over half an hour long, Freedom’s Sweet is a master class in long-form composition, with each member of The Gathering getting space to shine, while also highlighting how the group can meld together to form a band quite unlike anything else. Recorded in 2015 and originally released in 2022, P-vine is proud to be giving Healing Suite a well deserved analog release with an obi-strip. As much as the album highlights Los Angeles’ progressive jazz scene, this album crosses all boundaries, whether they be age, location, or even genre.

"Redefining Element 78" presents a new work by British pianist-composer Rebecca Nash - a distinct musical voice with a deep musical identity. The music emerged following Nash"s encounter with the writings of legendary New York alto saxophonist John O"Gallagher, who joins her on the album, alongside guitarist Jamie Leeming, trumpeter Nick Malcolm, bassist Paul Michael and drummer Matt Fisher. Electronics are provided by Nick Walters and Chris Mapp.

"When Losing a Dream To Reality" is the debut album from Swedish alto saxophonist and composer Hannes Bennich. Bennich is one of the most interesting new voices on the Scandinavian scene and presents all-original compositions for his first outing written for his band of pianist Britta Virves, double bassist Tomas Sjödell and drummer Emil Norman. Special guest vocalist Helen Salim joins for one track.

Trumpeter Raynald Colom immediately captivates with the hauntingly beautiful dream-like opening notes of his live recording, A Million Dreams. Colom demands the listener"s attention throughout the cohesive eight-track outing, alongside pianist Tony Tixier, Joe Sanders on double bass and Francesco Ciniglio on drums. French- born and Barcelona-based, Colom is a seasoned musician inspired by many genres and artforms, but with firm roots in flamenco

"Sisu" marks the beginning of a new chapter for esteemed Estonian pianist and composer Kristjan Randalu - as his first large ensemble project recording. It"s also the debut outing for the New Wind Jazz Orchestra conducted by Wolf Kerschek and features special guest trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and guitarist Ben Monder.

Pianist John Escreet, hailed by Time Out London as a "transatlantic jazz genius," continues his artistic ascent with the bold, exploratory album Seismic Shift. It is Escreet"s ninth album as a leader but his first at the helm of a trio, and also one of the first to see release since his move to the West Coast in early 2020. The UK native, former Brooklynite and now Los Angeles transplant teams up with fellow Angelenos Eric Revis (bass) and Damion Reid (drums) for a set brimming with fire and invention.