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Norwegian outsider artist Arvid Sletta started his musical career in the band Easy Riders in the mid 80s. When the band broke up, Arvid continued as a solo artist, and recorded the album "Statement" in 1990. A record that gave him comparisons to artists like Daniel Johnston and The Shaggs, and has since become a sought-after collector's item with great cult status. Now reissued on vinyl for the first time since its release in 1990.

Touted as the “new Doors,” Ars Nova’s second release shows the band genre-bending jazz and heavy psychedelia in a style that’s their own. Shifting from a largely classical centric sound, this was the group’s last album before going their separate ways. Pressed on pink vinyl!

Sunshine & Shadows takes the baroque-meets-psych sound of the debut and turns a bit more to the psych side. The stately brass interludes are gone, but horns still figure prominently in the mix. There’s some jazzy New Orleans flavor to a couple of the tunes, albeit twisted into a 7/4 vamp on “You Had Better Listen.”

The instrumentalists in the band, featuring trumpet and trombone, really give the music a unique flavor, setting them apart from the multitudes of other American psych bands. Ars Nova might be likened to Ultimate Spinach (but without the overly serious, pretentious lyrics) or later Zombies (though with less emphasis on the keyboards).

It’s all very well written and nicely played, and when they do a tender ballad like “Temporary Serenade,” the acoustic guitar is very lute-like, much more along the lines of classical than folk (like the later work of Jan Akkerman with Focus), and the trumpet descant adds a lovely spice.

“Well, Well, Well” is the heaviest rock tune in their repertoire, with a great electric guitar riff and hot organ playing, again set apart by trombone and trumpet. This one is definitely worth seeking out for baroque pop fans.

Touted as the “new Doors,” Ars Nova’s second release shows the band genre-bending jazz and heavy psychedelia in a style that’s their own. Shifting from a largely classical centric sound, this was the group’s last album before going their separate ways. Pressed on pink vinyl!

Sunshine & Shadows takes the baroque-meets-psych sound of the debut and turns a bit more to the psych side. The stately brass interludes are gone, but horns still figure prominently in the mix. There’s some jazzy New Orleans flavor to a couple of the tunes, albeit twisted into a 7/4 vamp on “You Had Better Listen.”

The instrumentalists in the band, featuring trumpet and trombone, really give the music a unique flavor, setting them apart from the multitudes of other American psych bands. Ars Nova might be likened to Ultimate Spinach (but without the overly serious, pretentious lyrics) or later Zombies (though with less emphasis on the keyboards).

It’s all very well written and nicely played, and when they do a tender ballad like “Temporary Serenade,” the acoustic guitar is very lute-like, much more along the lines of classical than folk (like the later work of Jan Akkerman with Focus), and the trumpet descant adds a lovely spice.

“Well, Well, Well” is the heaviest rock tune in their repertoire, with a great electric guitar riff and hot organ playing, again set apart by trombone and trumpet. This one is definitely worth seeking out for baroque pop fans.

Pride by Arena, released in 1996 was the bands second release. For the first time the original release has been remastered and released on Vinyl! The double gate fold has two red 180g vinyl discs Full colour cardboard inner sleeves with all the original artwork and lyrics.

“IV – VI” continues where the previous Arabs In Aspic box set left off, and collects remixed / remastered / re-worked versions of the 4th, 5th and 6th albums from this now legendary Norwegian prog band. “Pictures in a Dream” and “Victim of your Father’s Agony” have been mixed and edited from scratch by Jostein Smeby, with additional overdubs. And “The Magic of Sin” is a brand new English version of the album “Syndenes Magi” – the way the album was originally written. This has also been mixed again from scratch, resulting in a very different sounding version of the six year old Norwegian album. All three albums have been meticulously mastered by Jacob Holm-Lupo (White Willow, Opium Cartel, Solstein) in Dude Ranch Studios. All three albums are presented on limited Colored Vinyl (also available seperately). While “Pictures…” and “Victim...” have regular gatefold covers, the limited first pressing of “The Magic of Sin” comes in a special tri-fold cover revealing more of Julia Proszowska’s striking cover art made for the album – and if combined with the first version of the “Syndenes Magi” LP, all five panels of the painting will be visible. This box set also contains an exclusive 12-page booklet loaded with pictures and stories about the albums.

Hailing from Trondheim in Norway, Arabs in Aspic has been mid-Norway’s flagship of 70s inspired progressive rock and proto-hardrock for the past 15 years. They’ve been described as a sweet mixture of loud, heavy guitars and drums, 12 string acoustics, funky bass and percussion, screaming Hammond organs, soft Rhodes, Mellotrons and 70s Synths, topped with plentiful vocal harmonies. The bands first three albums have been re-mastered by Jacob Holm-Lupo, and are collected in this limited box set on exclusive “Aspic Colored Vinyl”. The box also contains a 12 page booklet about the early years of the band, and a slipmat with their Crown logo. The booklet and slipmat will be exclusive to this box set.

The story of Japanese psychedelic band Apryl Fool and their eponymous debut album is simply extraordinary. It was the vehicle by which bassist Haroumi Hosono first came to prominence, years before he became known as the “Godfather of Japanese electronica” as the founding member and leader of Yellow Magic Orchestra, though this musical titan had work released prior to the group’s 1968 founding, such as the song “The Sea Of Summer Day,” recorded with Yuko Okuyama and released by King Records the year before. Drummer Takashi “Rei” Matsumoto was a Beatles maniac that had covered songs by Them and Sam & Dave in his earlier group, Burns, while pioneering prog-rock keyboardist Hiroyoshi Yanagida and guitarists Chu Kosaka and Eiji Kikuchi had all been part of a group called The Floral, formed in 1967 through the Japanese wing of the official fan club of The Monkees (whom they supported during a Japanese tour enacted in October 1968). In September 1969, Apryl Fool played behind musical theatre group Tokyo Kid Brothers, the recording issued in minute quantity as the Love & Banana EP, issued on Columbia Japan’s Musicolor subsidiary; Apryl Fool’s own LP, also issued on Musicolor that year, had extended spacey psychedelic freak jams in the form of “Tanger” and “Pledging My Time,” marathon blues-rock tracks such as “April Blues” and “Honky Tonk Jam,” with the employed English sounding fairly credible, though both parts of epic opus “The Last Mother Land” feature Japanese lyrics. Of course, the day that the LP was actually released is reportedly the day that Apryl Fool announced their termination, giving this scarce release another level of legend for connoisseurs.