Schema Vinyl, CD & Tape 99 Items

Currently at work on new compositions that will give shape to a new album scheduled for the fall of 2024, Gerardo Frisina delights our ears with a 45rpm containing two unreleased tracks representing a brief funk digression within his musical journey without, of course, affecting his unmistakable style. “Mystical Funk” and “Spaced Out” skilfully mix “modern funk” elements with electronic influences, creating a unique sonic experience. In both cases, one of the surprising features is the hypnotic, incessant groove, capable of drawing the listener into a sound universe full of cosmic percussion and atmospheres, enhanced by Dennis Coffey-style guitars and by a Deodato-like Fender piano. Once again Gerardo hits the mark: the production is masterful, with a clear attention to details and those typical arrangements that reflect the overall quality of the sound with delicate power.

Schema Records presents “Riviera”, the new album by Toco, one of the Milan-based label’s top artists with over 100 million digital streams, is finally released on 19 April 2024. “Riviera” pays tribute to the places where Toco grew up, and is the aesthetic synthesis of Toco’s varied songwriting, able to create true musical mosaics that mix pop lightness, poetic lyricism, desire, joy and pain. Mainly inspired by the tradition of samba and bossa nova, and contaminated with jazz, funk, pop and rock, the album alternates light and shadow in a balanced chiaroscuro enriched by friend and musical partner Stefano “S-Tone Inc.” Tirone’s production.

Anticipated by a series of singles that outlined its various facets and musical influences, Toco’s new album “Riviera” is finally released on 19 April 2024; ten years have passed since “Memoria”, filled with various collaborations and dedicated to this record itself, carefully curated in production and arrangements down to the smallest detail; this has been made possible thanks also to the presence of a large lineup of guests, including Toco’s labelmate Gianluca Petrella for the first time ever. The album’s title is a tribute to two places very dear to Toco: Riviera is the neighborhood in São Paulo where he spent his childhood, while Riviera Ligure is where he lived for a long time in Italy: two opposite shores and cultures that turned out to be fundamental in the artist’s formation. “Riviera” is the aesthetic synthesis of Toco’s varied songwriting, able to create true musical mosaics that mix pop lightness, poetic lyricism, desire, joy and pain. Mainly inspired by the tradition of samba and bossa nova, and contaminated with jazz, funk, pop and rock, the al¬bum alternates light and shadow in a balanced chiaroscuro enriched by friend and musical partner Stefano “S-Tone Inc.” Tirone’s production. This collaboration further consolidates the duo’s fellowship that brush¬es magical sonorities on the different themes delivered. An excellent comeback!

Edizioni Ishtar and Schema Records proudly celebrate the 15th anniversary of one of their most successful releases and artists (more than 30 million streams and 300 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify) with the first ever vinyl edition of Toco’s Outro Lugar. Produced by S-Tone Inc., this record includes fanfavourite tracks “Outro Lugar”, “Samba Noir" and most of all “Guarapiranga”, which was chosen for the soundtrack of “Silver Linings Playbook”, a film that awarded Jennifer Lawrence an Academy Award prize as best actress in a leading role in 2013. The strings at the beginning of the title-track have also been sampled by PinkPantheress for her song “Nineteen”, out of her latest album “To Hell With It”. Outro Lugar hasn’t aged a bit during all these years, for various reasons; first of all it benefits from the outstanding contribution of bossa nova pioneer and inspiration source Roberto Menescal, who played guitar in every track. Most of the album was recorded in Rio De Janeiro at Menescal’s studio, with the participation of some of the best ‘carioca’ musicians, especially double-bass player Adriano Giffoni and pianist Adriano Souza. All these elements gave the album exactly the taste requested by the artist and the producer: inspired from the past yet, through thorough attention, aimed at a sound at the same time fresh and modern, slightly electronic, filled with grooves perfectly blending into acoustic instruments. The second part of the recording was carried out in Milan, with some of the best musicians in the Milanese jazz scene. The album also sees the contribution of Rosalia De Souza, singing in several tracks and standing out in “Bom Motivo” especially. French chanteuse Coralie Clément appears in “Contradição”, her own piece here re-interpreted by Toco. Outro Lugar is an album for any kinds of Brazilian music lovers that showed the world what Toco was capable of: a refined and cultured musician, a gifted performer of a warm and smooth voice able to awaken the emotions of the most sensitive listeners.

Heralded by the “Soul Drum” 12” EP (scep507, 2022), Gerardo Frisina’s new double record “Joyful Sound” represents another step forward on his ongoing travel towards new musical paths. Joyful sounds narrate a journey made of wisely distilled notes, bright and sometimes mysterious atmospheres, harmonies that wander through shadows, silences, and lights. A chameleonic Gerardo enchants with every release, mixing jazz, Latin, Afro-Cuban sounds, oriental fragrances, electronic beats, tribal percussions, funky variations and, to summarize, elegant symphonic arrangements with refined mastery. “Joyful Sound” once again sees the participation of the late Enzo Frassi (double bass), Fabrizio Bernasconi (piano, Rhodes), Gendrickson Mena (trumpet, piano), Alfonso Deidda (sax, flute) and Ernesto Lopez (drums, percussion), with the addition of Piero Perelli on drums and Giovanni Guerretti on piano, Hammond and Rhodes. This new record, carefully orchestrated and produced by Gerardo, required over a year of intense work, however it is worth every second of its 75 minutes of music. As the great Charles Mingus once said, “Play it in the key of your soul”. Without a doubt, Gerardo always gives his soul in full!

Initially planned as a trilogy, given the success of this project, the series of 12” EPs featuring reinterpretations of tracks from the album “People Need People” - the brilliant work by Nicola Conte and Gianluca Petrella released in 2021 - closes with this fourth chapter, with the excellent contribution of Fred P. and his Interpretations. Artist, DJ, Producer, Remixer and A/V Designer - born in New York and now living in Berlin - Fred P. has encompassed what it truly means to be an artist in the 21st century. With a discography growing exponentially year after year, he continues to push forward in his sound and his mind. These two new interpretations of his constitute a little jewel in which Fred P. offers us a skilful blend where afro, jazz and house music create a cosmic spiritual journey at times nocturnal, suitable for the most sophisticated dance floors - in both cases with different rhythmic patterns, broken-afro for “African Spirits” and cosmic-house for “Tribes”, Fred creates here an open space, deep and simply at the centre of the music!

The last one of Luigi Scattini’s trilogy, which started with “La ragazza dalla pelle di luna” (1972) and then continued with “La ragazza fuoristrada” (1973). Umiliani’s music privileges jazz and funky moods, dominated by the Hammond organ and wah wah, alternated with languid and almost “sleazy” instrumental ballads. This soundtrack finds its strength in melancholy, but also in drama and tension.

The album has been released in different versions and on two different occasions. The first, in 2004, saw the original release of “Other Directions” as a 2-lp set, while a single CD version had been licensed to Blue Note Records. In 2011, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Edizioni Ishtar, Schema Records has published a 2-cd version with an extra CD featuring the tracks previously released on vinyl, plus some unreleased ones.

Always in balance between Jazz and Bossa Nova, “Other Directions” reveals Nicola Conte’s compositive soul bound, furthermore the composer’s intention is to communicate not only through the music but through the lyrics too, showing a talented and learned songwriter. Inspired both by the beat literature (The Dharma Bums is a true homage to Jack Kerouac) and the English one (Wanin’ Moon is inspired by a Percy Shelley’s poem), also the cinema and dramaturgy influenced the composer: “Le Depart” is a reassessment of the piece written in ’67 by Krzysztof Komeda for the namesake Jerzy Skolimovsky’s movie, and “All Gone” is a homage to Joseph Losey’s “Il Servo,” a ’60s black-and-white movie directed by Harold Pinter.

Includes a line-up of Italian and international artists such as Gianluca Petrella, Daniele Scannapieco, Pietro Lussu, Lorenzo Tucci, Fabrizio Bosso, Nicola Stilo, Till Brönner, Nicola traces with great skill the sensuality of the dialogue between the winds and the piano, he beats and emphasizes its rhythms, and adds some extremely elastic voices, the most remarkable of which belongs to Cristina Zavalloni.

“Leão Leonardo” and “Guajiru”, here gathered in an exclusive 7-inch record, represent the first two steps in a journey that will lead to the Spring 2024 release of the new album by Toco, a Brazilian singer-songwriter with a unique sensibility and taste. “Leão Leonardo” is a very heartfelt and engaging song that constitutes a homage to a childhood friend, a tribute to a deep and everlasting bond, as well as a return to a place very dear to Toco: the Guarapiranga water reservoir near São Paulo in Brazil; it is mainly inspired by two great samba jazz masters, Jorge Ben and João Donato. “Guajiru”, a classic sambarock track inspired by Orlandivo’s swing and Jorge Ben’s sensuality, explores the more romantic side of Toco’s multifaceted style and tells of a fleeting summer love in northeastern Brazil, where the indigenous fishing village of Guajiru, on the coast of the state of Ceará, is located. As the whole new album, both “Leão Leonardo” and “Guajiru” have been recorded at Schema Records’ Blue Spirit studios and produced by Stefano “S-Tone Inc.” Tirone, who skillfully captured the spirit of these tracks and elaborated the essence and energy of their songwriting. Both of them see Toco’s alluring voice masterfully surrounded by an ensemble of exceptional musicians: Donatinho (keyboards), Tuca Milan (percussion), Ramiro Levy (guitars), Edu Hebling (bass), Mauro Martins (drums), Priscila Ribas (vocals), Gianluca Petrella (trombone), Mirco Rubegni (trumpet) and Marquinho Baboo (percussion). This 45rpm is therefore a tasty appetiser for an album that we expect to be unique, just like Toco’s style!

Pantaleon Perez Prado is the younger brother of the “King Of The Manbo” who came in Europe in the 50s and recorded some albums with Unifunk. Taken from “Escandalo” (sceb919lp) “Circle” was written by Mario Rusca and has been performed by some amazing musicians such has Tullio De Piscopo, Hugo Heredia and Pino Presti. “Circle” is a strong track with a killer groove – on the B side we have an unique version edited by Gerardo Frisina

8 tracks

With seven releases - including this one - on Schema Records and three - considering also the Cosmorama project - on Milano 2000, Stefano Tirone has tightened his collaboration with the Edizioni Ishtar group. He is today one of the label’s most popular artists, with more than 300.000 monthly listeners and millions of plays of his acclaimed hits on Spotify – more than 3 million overall for his recent digital singles “Blow My Mind” and “No Meio Do Samba”. His previous full-length Body & Soul shows influences from the early ’90s British acid jazz scene and his deep love for the ’70s soul, Brazilian and jazz music that constitute the basic foundations of S-Tone Inc. Here, instead of asking other artists to remix his tracks, Stefano has decided to do that himself, reworking in a nu-disco key the entire “Body & Soul” record, herein named “The Disco Experience”. The title and the graphic layout take us to a period in time between late ’70s and early ’80s when the artist as a teenager, completely absorbed by the sound of disco music, used to go to clubs and discotheques to listen and dance to those unmistakable sonic frequencies. In those years the American DJ Larry Levan and the Italian Mozart and Baldelli used to play their music in front of crowded disco halls, while record labels such as Prelude and Solar set the standards with artists such as D-Train, Sharon Redd, Whispers, Shalamar and their soulful vocals combined to strong basslines, funky guitars and uptempo rhythms. This is how “Body & Soul - The Disco Experience” was born, as an homage to the music that Stefano used to immerse in during those adventurous years, with a few exceptions: “No Meio Do Samba”, a tribute to the house sound of Frankie Knuckles in the early ’90s, and the two downbeat tracks “Flying Away”, with its essential R&B arrangement, and “Midnight Sun”, that keeps its cinematic mood but with a more funky attitude. “Odoya” is the only track remixed by The Invisible Session in a minimal spacey disco arrangement that fits perfectly with the overall sound of the album.

Third album and first one on Schema Records by the cinematic Milanese duo The Dining Rooms. 12 tracks that redefine TDR music style, drawing inspiration from Jazz, Africanism, Hip-Hop, House and Soul with true eclectism.

The circle is now complete: after three EP's in a row released under this project, Nicola Conte and Gianluca Petrella have finally joined forces to finalize a full-length record. From Africa to Detroit, from jazz to electronica, an endless voyage with one of the most sophisticated and ambitious albums of the international club scene.

As the album title suggests, this work represents a big step forward for Gerardo Frisina, an artist that has always been open to any influence and whose unstoppable creativity has given birth to a 2-LP’s worth of new material! Nu-latin, Afro and electronic beats merge with Afro-Cuban rhythm into a massive dancefloor groove!

Conceived, as its predecessors, as the ideal musical accompaniment to a packed dance hall, “Blue Latin” reinterprets a musical genre – jazz, of course! - which even decades ago was considered the dance music ‘par excellence’, and delivers it, extremely modernized, to the present day, contaminated by Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and Latin-jazz elements, all made fluid, compelling and above all… danceable! The almost-meditative “Incanto” combines spiritual jazz influences and African atmospheres.

The third release in the series of 12” EPs featuring reinterpretations of tracks from the album “People Need People” - the brilliant album by Nicola Conte and Gianluca Petrella released in 2021 - features the excellent collaboration of two American artists from the Detroit scene Tall Black Guy and Andrès. Terrel Wallace AKA Tall Black Guy, raised on bread, Motown, jazz and early hip hop... he has become a standard bearer of the current hip hop beat scene. With a steady stream of sample-filled productions and clever flips, he has won fans all over the world. His production skills are showcased in his own rendition of “Nigeria”, where he calls on Broken Keys AKA Tommy Sheridan DJ, producer, vocalist and multi-Instrumentalist from Cleveland, Ohio. On side AA instead, DJ Andrés, now a revered figure of the Detroit scene praised by the eclectic Moodyman and Carl Graig among others, delivers a house version of “African Tribes” worthy of the most important dancefloors, in which he mixes soul-jazz parts with fragments of vocal samples and spoken words, all sublimated into a musical mixture with a strong deep house impact, with rhythm and mood typical of the black culture. Originally conceived as a trilogy, this successful reworking series will eventually embrace a further fourth chapter including two new Fred P. interpretations of the tracks “African Spirits” and “Tribes

/ this is what you are

For a prolific artist as Gerardo Frisina, almost two years without a new release from him seems like an eternity: this brand new 12" EP entitled 'Soul Drum' breaks the silence, giving us three new works composed by Gerardo, made up of four recordings if we consider the two versions of the title track.

This EP anticipates the full album already in the works, scheduled for release at the end of 2022.

Without losing his Latin trademark, Gerardo continues his research into hypnotic and pulsating rhythmic patterns in both acoustic and electronic form, which are now a fundamental stylistic element of his. As on his previous album 'Moving Ahead', the rhythmic style blends naturally with echoes of tribal voices, piano keys and wind instruments (trumpet, saxophone, flute), creating the 'Joyful Sound' (title of the forthcoming album) that reverberates on the surface. With an artist as meticulous as Gerardo Frisina, it is to be expected that even the simplest beat has been deeply thought out and chosen from a potentially infinite sound palette, and this can be heard perfectly in the depth of sound of the four tracks of this release. "Soul Drum" is dedicated to the loving memory of bassist Enzo Frassi, who contributed to this EP - along with 'usual guests' Fabrizio Bernasconi, Gendrickson Mena, Alfonso Deidda and Ernesto Lopez.

Conceived and produced by Luciano Cantone, co-founder of Schema Records, and written by Alex Puddu, The Afro Soul Prophecy is a musical project that stands out of time and trends and that finally releases a full-length after some 2017 singles/Ep’s. “Heat in the City” is an almost completely instrumental black funk music-based album, that often indulges in afrobeat, latin, disco and urban blaxploitation music. The multi-ethnic nature of this project ensures a multifaceted work, where the music language has been able to unite musicians from all over the world.

8 tracks

“Body & Soul” marks S-Tone Inc.’s return after three years, diving deep into the soul / disco / funk sound from the late ‘70s. Along with the presence of longtime collaborators Toco and Laura Fedele on vocals and their own distinctive signature, we have two new international collaborations: Afra Kane, a Nigerian singer who gives a black shade to the album songs, and legendary João Donato’s son Donatinho on Rhodes and Moog. “Midnight Sun”, a cinematic-flavoured instrumental track that pays homage to The Maestro Ennio Morricone, closes a beautiful record captivating and precious in every note.

For those who love digging into the dancefloor world but haven’t discovered the pleasure of Detroit Nu-Disco and Afro Spiritual Funk yet, the duo Conte/Petrella has just delivered their brand new 12-inch EP “Sun Song / Nigeria”, just a few months the previous
Conte&Petrella EP “African Spirits / New World Shuffle” (SCEP 480). A release that brings to the fore the value of new musical encounters and expr esses the artists’ desire to constantly dig, discover and share their endless love for mu sic.

Considering the incredibly wide range of styles adopted by Piero Umiliani during his career, it will come as no surprise for you to know that he also produced disco. At that time in Italy disco had still an exotic appeal and was considered apt to accompany a genre of movies that was at once erotic and comic. “Discomusic” is some sort of a white version of a sound that is inherently black, a unique record within Umiliani‘s discography. The track “Discomania” became popular as the closing theme of 90° Minuto, a famous Italian football TV show.

Fabio Fabor is a mysterious composer and musician who wrote mostly operas, symphonies and chamber music,but also experimental and electronic library music, the latter being the case of this release: short tracks aiming to accompany radio and TV shows, orchestral Pop à la Bacharach, space age pop, hints of bossa and beat from the previous decade. Originally published by the legendary Serie Usignolo, a sub-label of Fonit, this hard-to-find title is finally available again thanks to Schema Records.

Recorded at Umiliani’s personal Sound Work Shop Studio in Rome, this double album spreads
its four sides over percussive experiments and other more abstract ones, with excellent results
in both cases. The first disc includes also beat and swing elements, while the sixteen tracks
from “Effetti speciali”, though less immediate, are equally fascinating. A perhaps less known
Umiliani, but this is just one more reason for a deserved and fast rediscovery.

Another excellent soundtrack by Piero Umiliani, maybe his famous one ever,
this time composed for Luigi Scattini’s film “SVEZIA, INFERNO E PARADISO”
(Sweden, Heaven and Hell), a so-called ‘mondo movie’ entirely shot in the scandinavian
country which the title refers to. Umiliani’s music is able to emphasize the different moods
of the movie: at times dramatic, on other occasions ironic or peaceful.

Funky and abstract atmospheres, dark and dramatic moments, exotic solutions and soul
drifts - everything contributes to create a unique music soundscape - 70s library music by
the Italian soundtrack composer Paolo Renosto, who released his library music
compositions under the alias "Lesiman".

Quarta Pagina (Poliziesco) is an unique obscure recording by The Braen's Machine Now available for all music library lovers." - Despite a long series of reissues and rediscoveries that are throwing the ultimate light on one of the most fascinating and enigmatic periods of Italian music history - that of sonifications - the project that goes by the name Braen's Machine continues to evade categorization, and positive information. If you are among the many who got their hands on the beautiful "Underground", republished by Schema a few months ago, you will already know of the involvement of, among others, Piero Umiliani, Alessandro Alessandroni - the name Braen seems to be his alias - and Oronzo (Rino) De Filippi, real name of the other credited author, the mysterious Gisleri. For this new chapter from Braen's Machine, the beautiful and hard to come by "Quarta Pagina (Poliziesco)", published apparently in 300 copies, there are few available pieces of information, pointing to an involvement of Giuliano Sorgini, hidden under the name of Raskovich, and author of five out of the eleven tracks on the release.

The lack of reliable information and the enigmatic flavor surrounding the project Braen's Machine, as opposed to the ease with which the music allows us instant identification, are among the secrets that make their records unique. Unlike "Underground", "Quarta pagina" portrays with great skill some possible - who knows if they ever have been realized - crime scenes, with hard-boiled and dark atmospheres, alternating with the psych funk rides that have always characterized many of the projects related to the Italian cinematic genre. All this without excluding, however, avant-garde attitudes and atonal passages that makes "Quarta pagina (Poliziesco)" comparable to the best pages of the Gruppo d'Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.

The track titles, fascinating as usual, tell of "Fraud", "Shadowing", "Remorse", "Soliciting", and emphasize decisive moments as in the case of "The Victim", "On the Run" or "In Prison", while the indications that accompany the pieces will be a treat for fanatical collectors of sonifications. It's not that hard to imagine situations of "exotic full moon, preparation for a violent action, spiritualism, facing fear, sexual freedom, preparation for a revolt" while listening to these precious eleven tracks, which alternate between "slow and animated". And, believe it, you don't even need a dose of LSD (as per the advice of "The Den") in order to travel back to 1971, the year of the album's first release. A page 4 ("Quarta pagina") crime story perhaps, but a legacy of sound that largely deserves a nine-column headline on the front page ...

“Songs to Make Love To” is the 10th studio album by The Dining Rooms (Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare Malfatti), extending the Milanese duo’s classic sound legacy among psychedelic folk, cinematic atmospheres and hip hop-inspired downtempo rhythms. As always divided into instrumental and vocal tracks, it is entirely played and produced by Stefano and Cesare and features guest appearances on vocals by Chiara Castello (I’m Not a Blonde), Egeeno (of the Roman collective Tropicantesimo) and labelmate Tomaz Di Cunto aka Toco. “Songs To Make Love To” talks about love and relationship dynamics in every aspect, but also explores anthropological and ethnomusicological themes by making use of field recordings. “Songs To Make Love To” talks about love and relationship dynamics in every aspect, but also explores anthropological and ethnomusicological themes by making use of field recordings.

“Songs To Make Love To”, whose artwork was made with works by artist Tatjana Zonca, talks about love and the explicit act of loving each other, but also and especially about the construction of love, the dynamics of love relationships inside and outside the couple, free and liberated love, without constraints and outside the concept of possession. A further peculiarity that contributes to the uniqueness of “Songs To...” is the in-depth exploration of anthropological and ethnomusicological themes, particularly dear to Alan Lomax: the classic TDR sound therefore blends, especially in the instrumental tracks, with classic field recordings of sounds from the Genoese carruggi, the Milanese dockyard, the Spanish quarters of Naples and cities such as Istanbul and São Paulo.