Beautifully meditative music from Alabaster DePlume – a set that brings together work from a variety of recorded projects from the past decade or so – finally getting full exposure in this Transatlantic collaboration between Chicago's International Anthem label and London's Total Refreshment Centre! The sound is a great illustration of the genre-crossing modes that have been going on in both scenes – as Alabaster's music is definitely beyond easy description or definition, and comes across in a way that's as personal as it is collaborative – since DePlume works with a whole host of different musicians on the recordings, mixing flute, percussion, strings, keyboards, and other elements together in a way that follows a spiritual legacy from the more spacey side of Alice Coltrane, to the west coast experiments of Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, to the changes taking place on the planet at present. Alabaster plays tenor and guitar, and vocalizes slightly – but never really sings – and titles include "Why Buzzardman Why", "Not My Ask", "Whisky Story Time", "If You're Sure You Want To", "What's Missing", and "Song Of The Foundling". (Jazz, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A real oddity from George Harrison – a record of abstract electronics, cut right around the same time as his bigger mainstream solo hits! The record is a highly experimental one – a session that has Harrison working with Bernie Krause, and exploring territory that's much more in the late 60s Limelight Records mode than it is that of Apple – which is quite possibly why the label is listed as "Zapple", not "Apple"! Each tune takes up a full side of the album – and builds slowly out of soundshapes and textures, very much in the manner of some of the best work from the academic electronic music centers in the US at the time. And while the album may be a bit loose and unfocused overall, it's actually got a really appealing quality that we love a lot – a sense of free and naive exploration that's pretty great. Titles include "Under The Mersey Wall" and "No Time Or Space". (Rock, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Very cool work from the Irish avant garde of the early 70s – served up here by a key member of what must have been a pretty small scene! Roger Doyle is a drummer, with experience in jazz – but here, he's working in this huge variety of experimental sounds – leading a Moondog-like combo on one track, directing a trio of ancient instruments on another, playing solo piano with effects, and even creating some tape experiments too! There's a very freewheeling sound to the whole album – stepping between instrumental modes and styles in this way that we might dub as playful, but which has such a compelling quality, it's way deeper than you might expect. True genius from an overlooked talent – with titles that include "Why Is Kilkenny So Good", "Oizzo No", "Theme From Emptigon", "Extra Bit", "Obstinato", and "Bitter Sweet Suite". LP, Vinyl record album

Very early work from this legendary Ethiopian musician – a very haunting blend of voice and piano, often recorded with a very echoey tone – in a style that's completely unique! Emahoy Tsege Marian Gebru comes across in a very intimate mode here – on songs that have a deeply personal vibe, and which really go beyond the boundaries of language because of that – communicating these moments of fragile beauty and subtle spirituality with the way that Emahoy's vocals rise, float, and drift along with her spare, watery lines on piano! Titles include "Don't Forget Your Country", "Ethiopia MY Motherland", "Tenkou Why Feel Sorry", "Clouds Moving On The Sky", "Ready To Leave", and "Is It Sunny Or Cloudy In The Land You Live". (Global Grooves, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

Very early work from this legendary Ethiopian musician – a very haunting blend of voice and piano, often recorded with a very echoey tone – in a style that's completely unique! Emahoy Tsege Marian Gebru comes across in a very intimate mode here – on songs that have a deeply personal vibe, and which really go beyond the boundaries of language because of that – communicating these moments of fragile beauty and subtle spirituality with the way that Emahoy's vocals rise, float, and drift along with her spare, watery lines on piano! Titles include "Don't Forget Your Country", "Ethiopia MY Motherland", "Tenkou Why Feel Sorry", "Clouds Moving On The Sky", "Ready To Leave", and "Is It Sunny Or Cloudy In The Land You Live". (Global Grooves, Out Sound) LP, Vinyl record album

A long-overdue tribute to the legendary Moondog – one of the true visionaries of American music in the 20th Century! Moondog got his starts as a blind musician working the streets of New York at the end of the 40s, but he did so (as you'll note on the cover photo) with a range of unusual instruments of his own invention, and in a minimal, rhythmic style that linked together primitivism with higher musical ideals. Moondog's often been called "the father of minimalism" – and while his experiments of the 50s prefaced the work of Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and others, his work was also much more personal, and had an earthy intensity that's still tremendously powerful even decades later! This collection is one of the first to dip into the earliest of Moondog's recordings – his recordings for the Mars, SRC, Brunswick, and Moondog labels – which are presented here alongside selected tracks from his albums for Epic and Prestige, also of similar vintage. Nearly all the tracks here offer a very primitive blend of percussion that's sometimes mixed with unusual woodwind or stringed instruments – nearly all of Moondog's own invention – and the package also features some great notes on his long career, plus some photos that are as gripping as the music itself! Titles include "Down Is Up", "Big Cat", "Bumbo", "Rimshot", "Rabbit Hop", "Instrumental Round", "Be A Hobo", "Dog Trot", "Oasis", "2 W 46th Street", and "Why Spend The Dark Night With You". CD

Maybe one of the most beautiful records we've ever heard from the mesmerizing Zeena Parkins – a set of solo work, mostly done on her electric harp – an instrument that she hasn't used in awhile, but which is wonderfully reawakened here! There's a sonic sensitivity to the record that really brings us back to why we first fell in love with Parkins so many years ago – and the electric harp sounds hardly like you might guess from an instrument of such a name – as Zeena turns it into a conveyor of all sorts of sounds and tones, with extra help from percussion, assorted pedals,a nd some found objects! The album features ten tracks, all really beautiful – making this one of the real standouts in this Black Cross series. (Jazz, Out Sound) CD