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Omni Opera are one of the original UK festival bands, a term given to bands who combined space rock ala Hawkwind/Gong with a certain amount of 'jam band' esthetic. The best known proponent of the sound is Ozric Tentacles, but back in their day, it was...

Alex Ojea - Drums & percussion
Jordi Amela - Keyboards & piano
Jordi Prats - Guitars & acoustic guitars
Pep Espasa - Tenor, alto, soprano saxophones & flutes
Toni Sànchez - Electric bass & fretless
with
Cristina Falcinella - Voices
Samuel Garcia - Trumpet & violin

On The Raw are Spanish jazz/rock band who employ a lot of the Mediterranean touches that made the Spanish fusion scene stand out in its original guise in the 70s and still makes this really nice s

“The One is a bandproject by the dutch musician/producer Timothy van der Holst. Growing up in the 80's listening to the records of Yes, King Crimson & Genesis he was infected by the magic of these prog bands. He described his music as atmospheric prog in the spirit of the great bands of the 70's with a good melodic and rhythmic sensibility. Together with the British musician/lyricist Frank 'Fish' Ayers he started writing new music in his studio for his first album. Playing most instruments by himself...

O.R.Z. are the duo of Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp, who between them play everything heard on this CD; accordion, theremin, claviola, guitar, banjo, organ, piano, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion. Their sound is definitely comparable to Hamster The...

O.R.Z. are the duo of Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp, who between them play; accordion, theremin, claviola, guitar, banjo, organ, piano, keyboards, bass, drums, percussion. Their sound is definitely comparable to Hamster Theatre - mostly short little...

Janne Eraker tap dance
Vegar Vårdal fiddle, vocal
Roger Arntzen double bass

"Here it finally is, the debut album of this unique Norwegian improv trio One Small Step, with tap dancer Janne Eraker (Rhythm is a Dancer, Øy), fiddle player Vegar Vårdal (Breibeint, Rusk) and Clean Feed bass player Roger Arntzen (Chrome Hill, Ballrogg). They started out as a tap / double bass duo when Janne was based in Rotterdam back in 2011, and Roger provided the harmonic base of the duo. When Vegar came...

A great electric jazz/fusion band consisting of soprano/tenor sax & organ, electric guitar, trumpet, bass & drums. Excellent improvised fusion with an edge, ala 70s Miles & especially John Stevens Away, but with their own sound.

"Oneohtrix Point Never's Age Of is an album of new music from the renowned musician. It’s Daniel Lopatin’s most cohesive and richly composed work to date weaving a tapestry of disparate musical histories — early music, country and folk balladry, melodic pop, computer music and much, much more — demonstrating both the complexity and range of the artist's repertoire. With sounds that are unsettlingly familiar and uniquely his own Age Of guides us through an unclassifiable new world."

This 1998 release was – iirc – the last release by Only A Mother, before Frank Pahl just reverted to using his name.
The general mashup esthetic of avant/pop/experimental/toy instruments remains in Frank’s work to this day (witness IKP!).
With a wonderful Dennis Palmer sleeve!


“Recorded concurrently with John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album, Yoko's features the same musicians, namely John, Ringo Starr, and Klaus Voormann along with the Ornette Coleman Quartet on one cut.
Unlike John's record, however, Yoko's is much more a "jam"-sounding record. And while there are definite songs, lyrics are mainly vocal improvisations. Still, if avant-garde is your cup of tea, then check this one out. It's good, if only to hear John Lennon really get the guitar cranking on the opening...

Vitay Borodin - violin (2,6)
Markus Breuss - trumpet (8)
John Falcone - bassoon (3,4,7,10), clarinet (1,10), tenor sax (5,9,10)
Víctor Rodríguez - keyboards
Ivan Fedotov - drums, percussion
Ángel Ontalva - guitar, bass

Another fine release from this guitarist and composer!

“This new album explores the path started in the previous albums under my name (Mundo Flotante, Tierra Quemada, Angel on a tower) sometimes in new ramifications, sometimes indecisively at a

Ángel Ontalva – guitar
Yuri Turov – guitar
Wadim Dicke – bass
Ilya Shekk – drums

Some of you know Angel Ontalva as the leader of the very fine, Spanish, 'modern R.I.O.' band October Equus.
In addition to his more composerly rock' work with O.E., he also works in electric jazz and improvised music.
This new one is an electric jazz album featuring 3 musicians from Siberia. This is very composerly jazz/rock, with an emphasis on the angular tunes and interesting (not show-offy)

Excellent, contemporary Japanese art-punk sounds. It’s simultaneously kind of basic while being musically tricky and is a bit of a small classic of its kind, I think!

“Nijimusi is the 8th release from OOIOO. Led by YoshimiO, they're a band that has stayed relevant long past many of their contemporaries thru constant re-inventions & explorations. It's recorded with a more traditional rock set up of two guitars, bass & drums, but thanks to an improvisational recording process and technical prowess...


''A multi-ethnic project that joins together musicians from Apulia, Bosnia & Albania: melodies of ancient Bosnian & Albanian songs, the sound of the typical Southern Italian brass bands & flavors of jazz improvisation.''

"One of the best-loved British psychedelic albums of all time, The Open Mind is a hard-rocking collection that sank without trace on its original release in 1969. Produced with the band's full co-operation, this definitive reissue comes complete with a...

This late 60s album was one of the earliest sightings of Peter Schickele aka P.D.Q. Bach!

“Perhaps the original avant progressive album. Despite featuring a psych album cover, the group clearly has an academic pedigree, while the music is rooted in both classical and jazz. Basically a trio of three keyboardists, with organ (some wonderfully fuzzed out and compressed), electric piano, acoustic piano, electric harpsichord and clarinet. There are some oddly placed vocals, that give it a offbeat...


“The Acid Lands, created by the Prague-based Opening Performance Orchestra, was first heard in public in 2014 at the Movement-Sound-Space festival in Ostrava, to mark the centenary of William S. Burroughs's birth. The piece was performed live by Opening Performance Orchestra and their guests, the theremin player Martina Potucková, and the poet, musician, and performer Pavel Z as the narrator. The studio version of The Acid Lands was made in late 2019/early 2020 in collaboration with Bill Laswell and...

"You should play the music very loud. If the neighbors don't complain, it's probably not loud enough."-Phill Niblock

“Four Walls Full of Sound is an electronic interpretation of the works of Phill Niblock by the Prague-based group Opening Performance Orchestra. This studio version, recorded at the re-set studio, was preceded by a live performance at the 2017 Ostrava Days Festival of New and Experimental Music.”

“The Early Years collection has been released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the music-theater company, Operating Theatre, by composer Roger Doyle and performer Olwen Fouere. Operating Theatre has been active in two phases: the first from 1981 to 1988, and the second from 1998 to 2008. This double-CD set celebrates the first phase, during which the company operated as both a theatre company, integrating music as an equal partner in the theatrical environment, and as a band releasing...

Really excellent debut album from this young Seattle band playing adventurous, instrumental rock music; I'd say 'progressive rock', but they are young band and they play 'progressive' rock music, but if you think 'progressive rock' like Afuche, then...

New mid-line pricing on this very fine progressive rock-styled album by these major metal talents. If you've ever been curious as to what all the hullaballoo about this album was about, you can find out now. And speaking of hullaballoo: "HOLY MOTHER OF...

This is the limited edition, double CD version with extra studio and live material!
Opeth are a long-lived Swedish metal band who have gone through many, many personnel changes and who have essentially over the last decade ended up as a sort of a progressive rock band with heavy elements.
You'll hear a lot of influence from 'progressive hard rock' sounds of the 70s; think Deep Purple, Atomic Rooster, etc.
There's lots of heavy stuff and also lots of acoustic guitars and mellotrons...

Opik-3 are from Madrid, Spain and they are a trio of Álvaro Pérez-alto saxophone, Álvaro Domene-electric guitar, Daniel García Bruno-drums.

"Öpik-3 is a genre defying sax-guitar-drums trio from Madrid, who seamlessly mix elements of avant-jazz...

The Opium Cartel is a side project by Jacob Lupo-Holm, the leader of White Willow. Like the equally excellent new album by Rhys Marsh, The Fragile State of Inbetween, another WW associate, this is a bit more contemporary sounding and also more direct...

“The Opium Cartel is songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jacob Holm-Lupo’s vehicle for songs that exist somewhere between sophisti-pop, art-rock and synth pop. Holm-Lupo is otherwise known for his progressive rock band White Willow and more recently his instrumental giallo-rock project Telepath.
The Opium Cartel’s 3rd album, Valor, is a record about naïve but brave dreams. These are songs about the hubris and optimism of childhood and youth. That period of life where everything seems sure to happen just..

"Oprachina is a neologism made up of the two words opra (opera) and china (bowed), meaning alienating, back-breaking work. Coined in the first half of the 20th century, the term features in the Italian version of the "Internationale" as well as other...

“The Optimystik Visionaries was born from the idea of Greg Morgan and Nick Steed back in 2012.
They were joined by good friends John Sandham and Nick Waddecar, writing and performing music in the ‘jazz-fusion’ style of which they are big fans with influences from all the great fusion musicians of the 1970s and 80s.
The band’s debut album, ‘Optimistic Vision’ received great feedback and various gigs and supports ensued, but with commitments from other projects the band decided to take a break...

Somewhat surprisingly, Yugoslavia had a pretty good progressive rock scene in the 70s, perhaps second only to Czechoslovakia or certainly third after Poland in terms of Eastern bloc countries!

As my pal Ken notes, possibly because the...

"OPUS 5 were a 5 Piece ensemble from Quebec Canada who released IMHO one of Canada's finest pieces of 70's prog rock with "Contre-Courant" in 1976.
The line up included Olivier Duplessis (claviers, vocals) , Luc Gauthier (guitars, vocals), Serge Nolet (flute vocals), Christian Leon Racine (bass, vocals) and Jean-Pierre Racicot (percussion, vocals).
OPUS 5 were essentially a mix of lighter fusion / jazz prog with folk leanings at times and somewhat reminiscent of the Canterbury school of prog...

"Daphne Oram is best-known for the design of her Oramics system, and also for co-founding the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1957, but until the release of this material, the only easily-available piece of music by her on CD was the 8-minute long "Four Aspects." There was also a 7" EP from 1962 on HMV, released as part of the Listen, Move and Dance series that was specifically designed to help children dance. Although the short pieces on this record are very basic, it could be argued that this is the...,

"Free jazz group Orange's one and only release In The Midst Of Chaos was recorded in 1978 and became renowned saxophonist Paul Flaherty's first record. It's also the first and only release of legendary 'out' guitarist Barry Greika, who along with Bob...

Burn – drums
Derek Cotter – bass, vocals
Tom Hunt – synthesiser, vocals
Lee Jones – samples, synth, fx
Dan Merrils – guitar
Stuart Paterson – guitar

“Expanding the sound from their widely acclaimed ‘reinterpretation’ of Seventies’ supergroup Klementine Uhren’s soundtrack for Tope’s Sphere, Metamorphic sees the Clocks in fine form, with wigged-out guitars, swirling synths and a pounding rhythm section combining in seven perfectly crafted space rock anthems which will delight

"Genoa’s Orchestra Bailam are back with a new CD that’s full of surprises, as rich in novelty as it is in rock-solid tradition. Active since 1989 (itself no mean achievement) the group came together through a series of concerts, encoounters and...

Matt London - tenor saxophone, director
Georgia Cooke - alto flute
Tom Ward - bass clarinet
Seb Silas - baritone saxophone
Sarah Gail Brand - trombone
Rebecca Raimondi - violin
Benedict Taylor - viola
Seth Bennett - double bass
Moss Freed - electric guitar
Mark Sanders - drums

“Orchestra Entropy is the large ensemble edition of Matt London’s Ensemble Entropy, a dynamic new music ensemble / group / band exploring the space between compo

O.P. is a duo of guitar and keyboards plus some guests that give some tracks a full band sound and other tracks that are much more spacious. They are an offshoot of the (now disbanded) Zita Ensemble. This has a very live sound but also a very...

The ONJazz is the French National Jazz Orchestra – which varies in size, but is always a big band - who have a revolving cast of artistic directors.
Since they have a revolving cast of directors, the only thing that you can count on is that they will present great players playing frighteningly good, stunningly complex music of electric jazz. That’s a pretty good and safe bet for going in blind, even if you don’t know them.

“For its 30th anniversary, the Orchester National de Jazz has...

The ONJazz is the French National Jazz Orchestra – which varies in size, but is always a big band - who have a revolving cast of artistic directors.
Since they have a revolving cast of directors, the only thing that you can count on is that they will present great players playing frighteningly good, stunningly complex music of electric jazz. That’s a pretty good and safe bet for going in blind, even if you don’t know them.

“A work as impressive as it is majestic.”-Jazz News...

This is the French National Jazz Orchestra - on this recording a 11 piece band - who have a revolving cast of artistic directors.
This is a frighteningly good, stunningly complex album of electric jazz that is on the level of complexity, especially rhythmically of someone like Albert Marcoeur or Arrigo Barnabe, if either of those two were writing 'jazz'.
Lots of great stuff going on at fairly blinding speed and those who know my enthusiasm for avant-progressive and envelope-pushing that doesn't..

This is the French National Jazz Orchestra - on this recording a 10 piece band - who have a revolving cast of artistic directors.
This is a frighteningly good, stunningly complex album of electric jazz that is on the level of complexity, especially rhythmically of someone like Albert Marcoeur or Arrigo Barnabe, if either of those two were writing 'jazz' (which this barely qualifies as, but that's a conversation for another day).
Lots of great stuff going on at fairly blinding speed and those who.

The ONJazz is the French National Jazz Orchestra – which varies in size, but is always a big band - who have a revolving cast of artistic directors.
Since they have a revolving cast of directors, the only thing that you can count on is that they will present great players playing frighteningly good, stunningly complex music of electric jazz. That’s a pretty good and safe bet for going in blind, even if you don’t know them.

“With his second program entitled Rituals, the first repertoire of...

"Subtitled: From The Vaults Of Albarika Store 1969-1979. Four years in the making, Analog Africa finally presents the highly-anticipated second volume of music from Africa's funkiest band, the mythical Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. Volume One...

"The raucously raw, Vodoun-inspired rhythms of Cotonou have confirmed Benin as a mecca of '70s Afro sounds and revived the story of its people, but the unopened vaults housing the country's catacombs of musical riches are endless. With this as a...

Really great 12 piece band from Geneva; their albums are very good, but their shows are SO much fun.

“Founded in 2006 by Vincent Bertholet (Hyperculte), the Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp is a large-scale project. Designed as a real orchestra, the size of the ensemble has varied over time. Now with 12 members, 14 in the past or 6 at the beginning, the ensemble has scoured the stages of Europe to demonstrate that the formula "the more the merrier" has never been more true than on stage...

"... raw, blues-influenced acoustic guitar, with hints of Lightnin' Hopkins, Fred McDowell, John Fahey, and Loren Connors."-Pitchfork

"Yet another essential, cracking new set of songs from Bill Orcutt, showcasing a further development of his...

"In a trajectory full of about-faces, Music for Four Guitars splices the formal innovations of Bill Orcutt's software-based music into the lobe-frying, blown-out Fender hyperdrive of his most frenetic workouts with Corsano or Hoyos. And while the guitar tone here is resolutely treble-kicked -- or, as Orcutt puts it, 'a bridge pickup rather than a neck pickup record' -- it still wades the same melodic streams as his previous LPs (yet, as Heraclitus taught us, that stream is utterly different the second...

“One hears that Oregon weren't "friends" much as they recorded this album. The brilliant jazz-folk-world quartet was having some interpersonal difficulties, which resulted in an album rather like the later Beatles albums: a collection of performances defined by the respective sounds of the individual members, rather than by the collaborative muse.
The collaborations worth noting on this disc were with musicians *outside* the group, such as conguero David Earle Johnson on Towner's Latin-inflected....

“Oregon emerged in 1970 as a splinter band from the Paul Winter Consort. Its members each had experience in jazz, classical, and a variety of non-western musical styles, and were also multi-instrumentalists.
Ralph Towner played standard acoustic and 12-string guitar, piano, a variety of electric keyboards, trumpet, and flügelhorn.
Paul McCandless' instrumental arsenal included oboe, English horn, soprano sax, bass clarinet, the musette, and tin flute.
Collin Walcott handled most of the...