RARE RECORDS CATALOGUE
Ethnic Recordings
Q-R Ethnic Recordings U-V S-T O-P W-X K-L M-N V.A. I-J Y-Z G=H E-F C-D Compact Disk A-B

1. AFGHANISTAN MINZOKU ONGAKU DAIKEI: “Music of Afghanistan” (Columbia - PO-7258~62N) (5 LP's: Mint/ Hard Cover Box set: Mint/ 60 Pages Large Sized Booklet: Mint/ Obi: Mint). Complete with rare OBI!!! Massive rarity alert is this totally awe-inspiring and spellbinding ominous deluxe 5 LP set and accompanying 60 pages gloriously designed book that document the extinct music of the Afghanistan people. Released only in Japan on November 1975. All the material on this set was recorded in the field between 1970 and 1974 and upon immersing yourself into its intoxicating realms you will become bewitched by its enchanting beauty. The whole set is divided in various recorded sections, categorized in ethnic regions and minority groups such as the Islamic recordings from Kabul/ Sunnite Muslim morning prayers; music of the Pashtoon people (sedentary and nomadic) and the Tajiks, the Hazaras, Mazarishariff, Pathaks, etc. Every pre-Taliban era ethno-linguistic groups with its own ritualistic music is represented in this box. The same goes for recordings documenting the various religious groups, prayers and songs the country put on display before first the Soviets, then the Taliban and finally the US obliterating occupations swept the area into a maelstrom of violence and annihilation. Before its lands were crushed, its people scattered, and its music silenced by chaos and decree, Afghanistan overflowed with musical treasures, its lyrical instruments and haunting melodies as astonishing in their variety and uniqueness as the ethnically dense country itself. These extraordinary untouched field recordings--raw and immediate, made on the spot in bazaars and teahouses, mosques, street corners, squares and hotel lobbies--captured the voices and rhythms of Afghanistan in its last years of relative peace. A part of the set focused extensively on ethnic groups in northern Afghanistan. For the second part of the set, he gathered music from southern ethnic groups (including urban music from Kabul and Herat), whose music has a Pakistani and Indian flair, as well as Kazakh and Turkmen groups dispersed across the country. Capturing the differences and connections between these groups, one gets a sense of the sheer vastness of Afghan culture, the diversity and fragility of language itself. These landmark recordings reveal to western audiences an Afghanistan teeming with life behind the images of remote empty landscapes and urban tumult one often sees on the news: a land as rich in culture as it is poor in resources. Just astonishing set and 1st time I can offer a near mint copy. Best set on the list and extremely hard to come by 5 LP set!! Highest possible recommendation 5 LP Box Set complete with book. Price: 250 Euro
2. AISHU SUGA JINKU: “Aishu Suga Jinku & Shonan Suga Jinku” (Fuji Recording Co. Ltd – a-5599) (8-Inch Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Insert: Near Mint). Brutally rare Minyo private press head banger from the late 1970s, privately released by the Kanagawa Hiratsuka-Shi town’s Mishima Jinja shrine. This slide burns like someone just sets your nuts on fire and you are suppressing a silent scream down your throat! This one moves around like the most primitive cannonball, a whiplash assault that breathes out deep rural aspirational surges and occasional haunting echoes out of the concealed depths of the VU bucolic take on deep agricultural matsuri vibes. This is the shit, primitive to the bone, only built up out of clapping and bewitching entranced voices, leading up to an ethnic smash ‘n’ grab that floats on the sheer lust for anthropoid sounds. Deceptively intense vibes that are casual in its feel yet meticulous in its musical detail create this archaic and hypnotic flow of austere intimacy of the whole community that resonates with an impetuous roar like the foaming surges of waves breaking on the rocks. One of the best utterly primitive Minyo recordings I have ever stumbled upon. Stupidly rare and insanely intoxicating listening experience. Killer!!! Price: 175 Euro
3. AKASAKA KOUME: “Minyo Ohako Shu” (Columbia – ALS-4172) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Original pressing from 1966 in pristine condition. La grande dame de Minyo...Akasaka was a force to be reckoned with. A voice like a bell, a power like a freight train and a deep repertoire that goes back decades into time, she had all the right ingredients to have an impact upon all who fell under her sonic spell. This LP is a killer set brought forth by her, pristine condition and with obi. This shit ain't gonna get better than this. Enka Minyo that puts all the rest to shame. Absolutely killer with no filler. Price: 100 Euro
4. ALI AKBAR KHAN: “The 80 Minute Raga Rag Kanara Prakaar” (Philips – FDX-7507~8) (2 LP Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Top condition Japan only 2 LP set release that came out in the mid-seventies. This is one of the disc that has been blasting through the house while we have been cursed/ blessed with a sticky rainy season making its entry here, so Ali’s music brings a whiff of hot desert air to our rained out days. Ali Akbar Khan’s music brought some Indian heat straight from the oasis into our home, hauntingly beautiful ragas that helped to lift the sake drenched veil of the preceding evening and striding wide-faced into the oncoming dawn. The disc kicks of with side long ever evolving and entwining raga onto which he gets assisted by Mahapurush Misra (tabla), underscoring the delicate sarod, accentuating the ascending and descending movement of the piece, mixing in notes that fill it with the cheerful spirit of release as if a weight had been lifted from one’s shoulders. This 80-minute rage is a beast, hypnotic in its execution and trance-a-delic in its effect it propels upon all who get intoxicated by it. He performs Hindustani classical music at its best and the discs on the Connoisseur Society series are considered amongst the finest ever to have been put down on wax. Although much of Ali Akbar Khan’s music is played in a traditional framework, the emphasis is still heavily on improvisation. The musical fabric is created at the moment of performance as especially becomes clear when immersing oneself in this raga when it spins further and further into devotional territory. This is music of the spheres that will even make la Monte Young blush with envy. Highest possible recommendation. Price: 60 Euro

5. ANTHOLOGIE DE LA MUSIQUE CLASSIQUE DE L’INDE: “S/T” (Ducretet – Thomson – 320 C 096-7-8) (3 LP Set: Excellent/ Booklet: Near Mint/ Outer Box Set: Excellent). Legendary box set that came out somewhere in the very early 1960s. An exquisite compilation put together in honor of the cultural philanthropist Alain Danielou. When I first heard this album, my hair stood on end. I’m fairly familiar with the Indian Classical genre, but this was a whole new experience. The majority of the instrumental pieces are performed in the northern Indian style, which has taken some of its influence from the Mughal Empire and therefore has a more Middle Eastern flavor. The vocal performances are sung in the South Indian style, which was never touched by the Mughal Empire, and therefore draws more influence from Dravidian folk music. The effect of these vocal pieces is positively spine chilling. Being accustomed to the North Indian vocal style, I’m used to, (and reasonably fond of) the somewhat grandiose, melodramatic delivery of North Indian Ragas, especially when dealing with pieces which are designed to be a lament, or a dirge. The South Indian Ragas, by contrast, are performed cold. Surprisingly, having been stripped of the roller coaster vibrato, and overacted presentation of the Northern style, these songs come across as even more desolate. I can’t be sure if these Ragas were actually meant to be laments, because I don’t understand the language, (most of them are sung in Kannada, the regional language of Karnataka) but the loneliness, and haunting quality of the melodies is palpable, even though some of them are sung at a relatively fast tempo. I suspect some people may find the style a little disturbing. Price: 250 Euro

6. AOMORI-KEN MINYO: “Tsugaru Oharabushi b/w Ajigasawajinku” (Victor – MV-753-S) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Mint). Real cool tsugaru Minyo belter from the high north of Japan. Typical hash Aomori sound that brings the snowy blizzard right to your front room. Killer sounds!!! Price: 50 Euro
7. ATRIUM MUSICAE DE MADRID: “Musique Arabo-Andalouse” (Harmonia Mundi – HM-389) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Pristine condition, original French pressing. Originally recorded in 1976, this disc of Arab-Andalusian music was well ahead of its time in the varied sound palette with which the musicians re-created an old musical genre. It has been perennially popular, and it took decades before it appeared in Harmonia Mundi's budget Musique d'Abord line. The Arab music of medieval Spain went largely unnotated, but, like other contemporary performers who have taken up this repertory, the ensemble Atrium Musicae Madrid relied on North African oral traditions with direct historical links to the Spanish Golden Age. These traditions preserve suites of two or three instrumental pieces (the suite is called a nouba), perhaps beginning with an unmeasured improvisation called a taqsim and proceeding with melodies that increase in speed. The real variety is in the instrumental treatments, with each of the ensemble's seven members playing at least three instruments in a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of sound that includes all of the major instruments of the Arab classical tradition and quite a few that will be unfamiliar to most Western listeners. Part of the disc's appeal is that it brings home the much greater sophistication of Arab music of the period as compared with European traditions. Brief notes in the booklet appear in English, French, and German; they give only a general historical introduction to the music. Harmonia's new minimal packaging promises more extensive notes on the Musique d'Abord website, but those turn out to be only a slightly expanded version of the ones appearing on the disc itself. This release will whet the listener's appetite for later releases, including those by ensemble leader Gregorio Paniagua himself, that treat the Arab contribution to Iberian culture in greater detail.” (All Music Guide). Price: 50 Euro
8. ATRIUM MUSICAE DE MADRID: “Musique de la Grece Antique” (Harmonia Mundi – VIC-28067) (Record: Mint/ Jacket: Mint/ Obi: Mint/ Insert: Mint). Totally mint copy of this austere, obscure, acid folk-like and stone death cold avant-garde sounding gem of a record. I spare you all too long explanations and attach here the review the guys of Aquarius records penned down about this disc, which is spot-on to the point. “Unlike any Greek music we'd heard before, sounding more like a soundtrack to a film featuring pagan rites, very ceremonial and mysterious in nature. Unlike any "real" recording of Greek music I could imagine. What we now know is that the concept of this recording is that it's a partially-imaginary reconstruction by an unusual Spanish world-music ensemble of what the music of ancient Greece MIGHT have sounded like, based on what little historical documentation is available regarding musical practices of the period. Each track references some papyrii or other (so the spoken and sung texts are supposedly historically accurate) and the music is played on what are assumed to be authentic types of instrumentation (including a reproduction of an hydraulic organ!). As we said, much of the music is ritual-sounding, with chanting and bells. It has quite an occult vibe. There are also tracks of beautiful, folky female vocals backed by plucks of the lyre. Add to that stirring horns, droning flutes, percussive crashes, eccentric vocal flourishes, and much more. This disc is sometimes creepy, often lovely, always fascinating. A "lost treasure" vibe (as if some ancient Greek philosopher had invented some sort of anachronistic "marble cylinder" recording technology, recently unearthed by archeologists!) it's still totally amazing!” (Aquarius Records). Over the top great mind bending soundscapes. Can’t recommend this on enough. Japanese audiophile pressing. Price: 40 Euro
9. AZUMAYA URATARO: “Nogitsune Sanji” (Teichiku – NL-2163) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Insert: Near Mint). Wailing rasping voice storytelling singer Azumaya gets backed up by sparse koto and shamisen and at times get reinforced at crucial moments by a responding team female vocals that drift off into the void. Great rokyoku performance where Azumaya’s narrative singing takes on a variety of nasal forms without missing a beat throughout. The dynamic on this recording here is especially of interest, a live atmosphere created by the interaction of Azumaya and the Shamisen player that at times reminds me of an experimental jazz session. Great record, first time ever I encounter a copy, original late 1960s pressing. Top condition. Price: 75 Euro
10. BALI – GAMELAN MUSIC FROM SEBATU: “S/T” (Archiv Production – 2565 015 ~017) (3 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Gatefold Book Like Jacket: Excellent/ Attached Book – Fully Illustrated Pages: Near Mint). Here are three albums of gamelan music recorded in the open air with two Neumann KM 74 microphones. The Gong Kebyar orchestra rehearsed each piece prior to recording until it was absolutely ready and bristling with energy. The set is a project of Jacques Brunet who has worked extensively with the music of Southeast Asia since the early '60s. Brunet explains what the outdoor recording process did to the sound, making bass frequencies more elusive while emphasizing higher tones, something that certainly works to the advantage of the heavily clanging metallic sounds that march in with the force of an invading army as "Surja Kanta" begins the second side of the first disc. The weaving melodic lines hovering between the blown bamboo flutes (suling) -- always slightly in the background -- and the ten-key pemugal metallophone in the lead role, is really captured perfectly. The recording lacks artificial ambient sound or any of the kind of distracting extraneous noise that often mars outdoor recordings, meaning it is something of a small wonder in that there is constantly the illusion of studio quality recording. As for recording outside, there is definitely a difference in sound between indoor and outdoor recordings of instruments associated with certain musics that have the mystical qualities of gamelan, so the producer was wise in his approach. The three discs feature mostly religious music, with three pieces from the dance music repertoire at the end. At the time of its release it was considered the top end of recorded gamelan productions, and many listeners feel it hasn't been surpassed yet.” (Eugene Chadbourne). Price: 100 Euro
11. The BALINESE GAMELAN: “Music From The Morning Of The World – Recorded in Bali by David Lewiston” (Nonesuch Records – H-72015) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). Original US 1st pressing in great condition. Among the best known of the Nonesuch Explorer series, this album recorded in Bali introduced to the world at large the magnificent machine-gun ferocity of the Ramayana Monkey Chant of the Ketjak Dance, a piece which has found its way into car adverts and Kenneth Anger films alike, and which may have become the Pachelbel’s Canon In D of World Music. Compared with the original vinyl pressings, the CD reissues of Explorer titles allow for vastly improved tone color and imaging (the gamelan orchestras featured here were among David Lewiston’s first stereo recordings) Music From The Morning Of The World samples several formats and tunings of gamelan playing; Balinese gamelan, compared to its more sedate and meditative form in neighboring Java, jumps like Duke Ellington. While on the island, Lewiston ferreted out a rarely heard Angklung (bamboo tube, as opposed to the better known metallophone) gamelan, also included here. The recordist acknowledged that this collection, the first as an Explorer set devoted to Balinese culture, has become a cult favorite over the years. “Having the recordings be as good as the music makes all the difference.” (the Wire). Price: 50 Euro
12. BON SHO: “Bon Sho – Temple Bells of Japan” (Denon – GX-7051-ND) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Insert: Near Mint/ Obi: Excellent). Minimal music gallore with only temple bells and their resonating power to engulf the airspace and floating in and out of the dusty canyons of your vacated mind. Just stellar and play at full volume!!!! Price: 40 Euro

13. BUNGOKEI NO JOURURI: “Jou” (Victor Records – SJ-3011~3) (3 LP Record: Near Mint/ 3 Individual LP Sleeves: Near Mint/ 42-Paged Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint/ Cloth Bound & Covered Outer Box: Near Mint). Rare 1964 first and only original press issue. The first volume of a 2 x 3 LP box set. Bungokei or Bungo-system is a musical style in which the Joururi (or Shinnai Bushi) was a narrative musical style that was popular in Kabuki plays performed in Edo and Nagoya during the years 1780 and onwards. The style was first established by Tsuruga Wakasa Joruri [1717-86] around the years 1751-64. It is characterized by lyrical narratives and themes that depict human emotional plays related to the love between men and women. The musical accompaniment was provided by the shamisen in a sparse and stripped-down manner, an austere and minimal affair that is quite compelling when getting immersed into it. Floating upon the tiniest gestures emanating out of the shamisen, the instrumental setting provides the perfect backbone for sole vocals and choral vocal workouts that wail away with poetic resonance, evoking a shamanistic sense of beauty with a gift for unexpected impact. This is deceptively intense music, meticulous in its musical detail and lyrical economy and stripped down of all superfluous elements and influences. And you thought that La Monte Young was minimal? Price: 200 Euro

14. BUNGOKEI NO JOURURI: “Ge” (Victor Records – SJ-3012~3) (3 LP Record: Near Mint/ 3 Individual LP Sleeves: Near Mint/ 42-Paged Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint/ Cloth Bound & Covered Outer Box: Near Mint). Rare 1964 first and only original press issue. The 2nd and final volume of a 2 x 3 LP box set which follows the one listed above and completing the whole set. Again housed in a beautiful designed cloth covered box and with booklet. Music is otherworldly, beautiful in its lyrical detail and deceptively minimalistic approach. A music drenched in the past, with voices that seem to span epochs within a single syllable, a curious howl against the moon with vicious shamisen strummings bringing out occasional haunting echoes out of the concealed depths that would feel familiar to suicidal novelists. Bone-chilling great stuff but sadly quite difficult to track down. Highest recommendation! Price: 200 Euro

15. La BUSCA DE LA MUSICA MAYA: “Maya No Ongaku O Tazunete” (King Records – GXH(K)5001~3) (3 LP Record Set: Mint/ Outer Box Set: Mint/ Obi: Excellent/ 113 thick fully Illustrated & annotated book: Mint/ Insert: Mint/ 3 Individual Imprinted Record Jackets: Mint). WHITE label PROMO issue. Haven’t seen a copy for over a decade of this highly acclaimed and sought-after ethnographic box set. Japan only issue, killer box set that was released in 1976. Recorded wild in the field, on the spot-on fields and in forests while cicadas and birds are singing out aloud. Killer field recording extravaganza that far removed from the shopping mall Peruvian flute blowers you are all familiar with. This is the deep stuff, wide range of vocal excursions, set against an ever-evolving natural setting that puts the whole listening experience into a different realm. Killer set that was only released in Japan and comes with thick detailed and fully illustrated booklet. Massive indeed!!! Price: 300 Euro
16. CAMBODGE: “Musique Instrumentale” (CBS – CBS65522) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Excellent). Original 1973 pressing. Stunning recordings of traditional Cambodian traditional music made and recorded in 1972 in Phnom-Penh. It gives a beautiful selection that captures the percussive, hypnotic sounds of Cambodia during those turbulent years in the 1970s but bringing forth sounds from a long history. Lots of zither like instruments, strange strings and things, wind instruments and percussive rattles. Beautiful. Price: 25 Euro
17. LE CHANT DU MONDE – BERBERES DU MAROC: “Ahwach” (Le Chant Du Monde – LDX-74705) (Record: Mint/ Triple Gatefold Jacket: Mint). Stunning tribal Berber desert music. Ahwash is a Moroccan music style of art, the ahwach art consists of several people playing on the same rhythm while chanting, this is a famous style mainly in the south of Morocco and the mountain regions. Price: 50 Euro
18. LE CHANT DU MONDE – INDE MUSIQUE TRIBALE: “Musique Tribale du Bastar” (Le Chant Du Monde – LDX-74736) (Record: Mint/ Triple Gatefold Jacket: Mint). This set focuses on the music of the Muria and the Maria. In essence it is vocal and collective music with at times numerous and various instruments to back the vocalists up but with the sole function to give a rhythmic undertone and it is mainly the music of youths. The songs which are generally monodical vary in their melodic material, their formal structure (responsorial, antiphonal, strophical with asymmetrical division), as well as in the use of other techniques; head voices of the boys, higher than the girls' register, whistling, the distribution of interventions in alternating song. As for rhythm, its most striking characteristic can be found in some of the dances for both boys and girls; it is a superimposition of different rhythmic systems, which do not depend on a shared time unit. The musical instruments are used primarily to set the rhythm, which accounts for great diversity of membrane drums. There are also wind instruments to spice up the sonic palette even more and rendering this recording in something out of this world. Just stunning. Price: 40 Euro
19. LE CHANT DU MONDE – LADAKH: “Musique de Monastere” (Le Chant Du Monde – LDX-74705) (Record: Mint/ Triple Gatefold Jacket: Mint). “Flanked by the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges, Ladakh nowadays is a district in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Although politically part of India, culturally it is defiantly within the Tibetan sphere of influence. Many Buddhist orders established themselves in Ladakh after the Chinese annexation of Tibet. Ladakhis and Tibetans share the same culture, religion and ancestry. The Chinese invaded Ladakh in 1962 and stole a third of its territory. Ironically, although diminishing territorially this reinforced Ladakhi-ness. India closed the region to outsiders until 1974 while India fought off incursions from Pakistan and China. Routine border skirmishes between Pakistan and India continue to the present day. These field recordings were made in 1976. Much of Chant du Monde's album consists of ritual music from the monasteries. Rarefied music from a land, which has preserved the traditional Tibetan courtesies and customs, religious practices and learning.” (Ken Hunt, All Music Guide). Price: 50 Euro
20. LE CHANT DU MONDE – Les Percussions Africaines par Guem: “S/T” (Chant du Monde – FM107LP) (Record: Excellent/ gatefold Jacket: Excellent). Price: 20 Euro
21. Le CHANT DU MONDE – INDIENS D'AMAZONIE: “S/T” (Le Chant du Monde – LDX-74501) (Record: Mint/ Triple Gatefold Jacket: Mint). Recorded by Richard Chapelle. First original pressing. The whole affair was recorded deep in the Amazonian jungle during 1971 ~ 1972 and captures the primitive sounds of 6 different Indian tribes as well as sounds from the jungle coming to life. Just stunning and one of the best recordings to capture lost tribes in South America. Price: 50 Euro
22. ECHIGO NO GOZE UTA: “S/T” (CBS Sony – CODZ-1~3) (3 LP Set: Near Mint/ Box: Near Mint/ Fully Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint/ OBI: Mint). TOP COPY & ALL COMPLETE!!!! Massively important and jaw droppingly great 3 LP set that documents the music and culture of the Goze. Goze are these days all become extinct due to the 21-century catching up with their rural lifestyle, tradition, and handicap. Goze were blind, itinerant female singers and shamisen players mainly active and traveling from one rural village to the next weather-beaten hamlet. They were mostly active in the Niigata Prefecture. These blind women from Niigata were due to their handicap excluded from regular society and had to struggle to survive and the sole option they had in order to scrape some money together to get through the day was giving door-to-door performances of songs with shamisen accompaniment. (the rural blind were desperately poor and accorded few rights or privileges). The reason why these women limited their activities to mainly Niigata and not further north was that Tsugaru and Akita were poorer regions and more inhospitable than their home turf. These traveling blind women mainly made a living by singing songs known as kudoki bushi, which were basically long narratives cast in a repetitive seven-syllabic meter. These songs often recounted melodramatic plots of double love-suicides or vendettas, mostly sung in a short strophic melody, punctuated by interludes on the shamisen and sometimes by comic lines spoken in a rapid-fire manner. However, as time went by audiences grew tired of these long songs and Naniwa Bushi drifted into the repertoire, including a large variety of vocal styles ranging from lyrical singing to speech-like recitation. This stunning collection here captures the last of the Goze in action while roaming the countryside, focusing on the two last surviving groups of three women at that time, documenting a tradition that was dying out. The first group was named Takada Goze and consisted out of Sugimoto Kikue, Igarashi Shizu and Namba Kotomi. The second roaming group was called Nagaoka Goze and its members were Nakashizu Mise, Kaneko Seki and Kato Ise. The whole was recorded on the rood while they roamed from village to village and performed from door to door during July and November of 1971. The result is bone crushing and heart shriveling performances recorded in the field, wailing itinerant blind female performers armed with battered down and strummed out shamisens, riffing away and wailing songs into being in return for a cheap meal and a place to rest. This is some of the best music I have ever heard and since discovering them the Goze have ruled my waking hours and dreaming days. Now finally I can present one spare of this hard to track down box set. The whole affair was supported by Akira Aida, who also wrote the liner notes. Like you may know he was the one who managed Takayanagi, Abe and brought Bailey and Lacy to Japan. But here he is shouldering a disappearing tradition, trying in vain to keep modernity at hold and record the then last surviving performing Goze. Best disc in this time’s list, once you have heard this, the whole of your record collection will become utterly redundant. Fan-fucking-tastic!! Price: 250 Euro

23. EDO NO KAGURA TO MATSURIBAYASHI: “S/T” (Victor – SJ-3004~1~3) (3 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Individual Jackets: Near Mint/ 50-Paged Booklet: Near Mint/ Cloth & Silk Covered Outer Box: Near Mint). Damned rare 1962 sole issue of this jaw-dropping set. Amazing 3 LP monster box set documenting various fertility rites, harvest songs, etc. recorded by the Victor Musical Industries record company in order to preserve the variety Matsuri (festivity) styles in order to document their living musical tradition dating back to the Edo period. The end result is a beautiful 3 LP box set giving a crystal-clear picture of traditional styles that up to the time of the recording were still performed unchanged and dating back to the Edo period. Lots of eerie flute excursions, wild percussion playing, nasal ghost-like vocal chants, battered down shamisen playing, etc which were mainly performed on temple grounds and exhibiting quite a rural religious feel. Due to the recording in the studio, this set is one of the most crystal clear old skool and traditionally preserved Matsuri recordings to appear till that moment. It is a pleasure to be able to hear such ancient festival rites so well recorded and flogging their colors in all their brightness. Amazing set, heavy in weight and in music. Comes with all the individual 3 LP’s housed in their own individual jackets + a detailed thick booklet to accompany each of the recordings on display here. Highly recommended set!!!! A real treasure throve of ethnic Japanese music to keep you quite for over a week in order to absorb this one in full! Never seen a copy of this one before, damned hard one to unearth, especially in such condition as this one here. Price: 450 Euro

24. ETHIOPIA: “Vol. 2 Music of the Desert Nomads” (Tangent – TGM-102) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Excellent). Second volume of the total of 3 that sheds some light on the tribal music of Ethiopia. released on the fantastic Tangent imprint, it focuses on religious singing filled with bewitching chorus, nomadic hoedaowns, sword dances, and much more eargasmatic sounds. Amazing collection and totally addictive. Price: 30 Euro
25. ETHIOPIA: “Vol. 3 Music of Eritrea” (Tangent – TGM-103) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Excellent). This survey of the many musical traditions existing in the19. northernmost province of Ethiopia being Eritrea. Funeral laments, dances, work songs, tribal gatherings, genealogical and praise songs, lyre and flute tunes and trance songs are all featured in this panoramic musical documentary, drawn from field recordings by the musicologist Jean Jenkins. Original pressing on the always-stellar Tangent Records imprint. Price: 30 Euro
26. EVERYDAY USE: “Ethnographic Recordings, Varied Sources, Origins and Timeframes” (Private Press – CMPD-002) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint). Rare private press issue only handed out to friends, collaborators, teachers and family of the compiler – issue of only a handful of copies. Privately compiled from a variety of obscure ethnic recordings that are or were only available on digital format and have been culled and assembled on this LP. Wide range of styles, ranging from East to West and from South to North, crisscrossing continents, evesdropping on jungle tribes before ascending on isolated island folk and witnessing dead chants and rural initiation rites, brought together with a keen ear for quality. Price: 150 Euro
27. FABRIZIO CASSANO: “Per Le Strade Dell’ India – Fotografie Sonore Di Fabrizio Cassano” (Universo Musica Ducale – FD-344) (Record: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Totally obscure 1978 Italian small quantity private vanity pressing by ex-Aktuala member Fabrizio Cassano. “Music, like drugs, alters the fabric of time” is a credo that fits this collection like a warm glove. Filled with voices, small bells, big cymbals, sarangi and drums, street musicians, buskers – it are the layers of this puzzling collage of a journey made in 1976 on the roads of North India by Aktuala's sitar player Fabrizio Cassano, rendering it into a hypnotizing threat for armchair travelers and opening the way to a state of trance. It takes you deep into city streets awash in sights, sounds and hopefully smells, unique chants of the city’s street vendors, and so much more. Whether the tempos are fast with polyrhythmic precision or slow in the form of a lonesome ballad, once one gets familiar with the raw unfiltered sounds, it can never be mistaken again for something else. The musicians and people on this album are storytellers and much of their craft is improvised and has a strong foundation of expertise in their respective cultural traditions. These field recordings are a musical journey across endless landscapes of Northern India with some movements having the qualities of a start and finish and yet no apparent end… Seeking, recording, and sharing the intangible experience, the best of all of this, is to catch a ghost. In all, a hypnotic selection of rare field recordings from Cassano. A set of incredibly strange and mystic sounds recorded in 1976, resulting in a fascinating collection that brings together another way to discover the several faces of Indian music. Fabulous!!! Packaging is also salivatingly gorgeous. Price: 175 Euro
28. FOLKWAYS - FOLK MUSIC U.S.A: “Volume One – Folkways Ethnic Library – Compiled by Harold Courlander” (Folways Records – FE-4530) (2 LP Record: Near Mint/ Outer Box Set: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original US pressing. This wide-ranging anthology of American folk music was compiled by noted folklorist Harold Courlander from recordings, many of them field recordings, made in the 1940s and ’50s. Almost all the performers on the collection—who include Cisco Houston, Elizabeth Cotten, and Snooks Eaglin—learned their music from oral tradition. Selections represent a broad spectrum of American folk music, from Puerto Rico to the north coast of Alaska. Extensive liner notes, written by Charles Edward Smith, delve into the characteristics of American folk music and provide detailed information, with lyrics, for each of the 25 selections. Price: 45 Euro
29. FOLKWAYS – AFRICAN & AFRO-AMERICAN DRUMS: “S/T” (Folkways – FE-4502) (2 LP Set: Near Mint/ Box Set: Near Mint/ 2 Booklets: Near Mint). African and Afro-American Drums is an examination of African drumming and its influence on the music of the Americas. Representing eight countries in the American continents, Harold Courlander has compiled an anthology of drum music from three continents and explores its various uses as well as chronicles the evolution of drum music. Extensive liner notes accompany this album and include a transcription of Haitian Juba Dance drums by George Herzog. African & Afro-American Drums is an anthology of various field recordings from points in and around Africa and the African Diaspora. Many amazing percussion performances are presented on this two-record set. They include such diverse examples as Yoruban drumming ensembles from Nigeria, sacred rhythms from the Afro-Brazilian tradition, and a tasty drum solo by the innovative jazzer Baby Dodds. A variety of instruments -- including the double-sided bata drum, the kettle-shaped gudugudu drum, and the talking dundun or gangan -- are also featured on this album's many cuts. The album itself starts out with a burst of percussion from a Watutsi ensemble. Complex polyrhythmic phrases ebb and flow with the progression of their piece. With the third example, a dance piece played by the Baya people, high-energy drumming is structured around the call and response vocals of a singer and chorus. The fifth band on the record features the music from a Yoruban harvest festival. Vocal chants, metallic percussion, and various shakers are heard in this breakneck tempo piece. Considering the age of the album and the portable recording technology that was available to ethnomusicologists at the time, the sound quality of the recordings on African and Afro-American Drums is surprisingly good. As is always the case with Folkways releases, the notes that accompany this recording are detailed. Though the names of the performers on this release are missing, Harold Courlander is credited with writing these notes.” (John Vallier) The recordings took place in 1954. First issue which was a 2 LP box set, immaculate condition. Price: 75 Euro
30. FOLKWAYS – ISLAMIC LITURGY: “Songs and Dance at a Meeting of Dervishes” (Folkways – FR-8943) (Record: VG++/ Jacket: VG++/ Insert: Near Mint). Original 1st edition Folkways pressing. Record has some visual wear but plays great all way through. “These recordings are considered to be unique sound documents, musically, culturally and historically. John Levy, who recorded the Islamic liturgy on this CD, was a pioneering recordist who tapped into the expertise of the leading scholars of his day. His recordings were mostly of complete performances in natural situations. The Dervish musicians and chants he recorded were among the very best at the time, and for reasons of privileged access and/or historical circumstance, several of Levy's recordings are the sole extant documents of musical genres or styles which have disappeared or been radically transformed. Side I of this Islamic Liturgy CD involves recitations invoking Blessings of Muhammad and Side II involves sacred dance, which is performed to induce a state of contemplation. Different aspects of the mystic path are concentrated into simple dance movements. The phases of dance are preceded by a Mawlid, or a song of praise for the Prophet followed by a chant of welcome.” (Hartley Film Foundation). Price: 15 Euro
31. FOLKWAYS – ANTOLOGY OF BRAZILIAN INDIAN MUSIC: “Kraja/ Javahe/ Kraho/ Tukuna/ Juruna/ Suya/ Trumai Shukarramae” (Ethnic Folkways Library – FE-4311) (Record: Near Mint, catalogue number on Label/ Jacket: Excellent, catalogue number on back & Lower Middle split seam/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1962 pressing. “This Folkways Records compilation from the early '60s presents songs from eight indigenous Brazilian culture groups: the Karaja, Javahe, Kraho, Tukuna, Juruna, Suyá, Trumai, and Shukarramae peoples. Since their numbers have been dwindling rapidly, this Anthology of Brazilian Indian Music stands as an important archival document. These are the musics of peoples who have been marginalized by a dominant Brazilian society, often to the point of extinction.” (John Vallier, All Music Guide). Price: 40 Euro
32. FOLKWAYS – BEDUIN MUSIC OF SOUTHERN SINAI: “S/T” (Ethnic Folkways Records – FE-4204) (Record: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Jacket: Excellent/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1978 pressing. Hudjaini (caravan song)--Water drawing song.--Hafla (A Bedouin evening)--Flute solo.-- Makruna.--Yamania song.--Three Simsimiyya tunes.--Fisherman son.--Ya khazarane (Love Song)--Ala dal'una (Palestine folk song)--Here is the gazelle.--The rich and the poor.--Complaint-epic song.--Fishermen dance. Price: 40 Euro
33. FOLKWAYS – FOLK AND CLASSICAL MUSIC OF KOREA: “S/T” (Ethnic Folkways Records – FE-4424) (Record: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1951 pressing. These offerings provide a view of Korean music ranging from the folk music of farmers' songs and ballads to classical court music, featuring the genre of formal ah ahk. Influences from Korea's relationship with China over the centuries are reflected in Korea's music and can be heard here, not only in the texts but also in the style and instrumentation. Price: 40 Euro
34. FOLKWAYS – FOLK MUSIC OF HUNGARY: “S/T ~ Recorded In Hungary Under The Supervision of Bela Bartok” (Folkways Records – FM-4000) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1961 pressing. Produced by Henry Cowell; Produced by Béla Bartók ; Recorded by Béla Bartók Price: 50 Euro
35. FOLKWAYS – FOLK MUSIC OF PAKISTAN: “S/T” (Ethnic Folkways – FE-4425) (Record: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original pressing. Price: 40 Euro
36. FOLKWAYS – FOLK MUSIC OF THE WESTERN CONGO: “S/T” (Ethnic Folkways – FE-4427) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). First edition, tracks recorded in the Belgian Congo when king Leopold was still busy slaughtering innocent civilians by the truckload. Music is bone-chilling awesome, Leopold probably has never heard it I guess. Price: 50 Euro
37. FOLKWAYS – FOLK SONGS AND DANCES OF IRAN: “S/T” (Folkways Records – FW-8856) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1960 pressing. Price: 45 Euro
38. FOLKWAYS - GAYATHRI RAJAPUR; HARIHAR RAO & DOROTHY MOSKOWITZ: “Vocal and Instrumental Ragas From South India” (Folkways – FW-8854) (Record: Excellent/ Jacket: Near Mint/ 6 Paged Liner Notes: Excellent). Here is a disc that will plug a little side note like hole in your collection, that is if the name of Dorothy Moskowitz rings any bells. And it should as a matter of fact trigger alarm bells, that is if you dig the United States of America . No? Well they were much more than a one-track band. Formed and master-minded by experimental composer Joe Byrd, in Dorothy Moskowitz the United States of America featured one of the most captivating vocalists in rock, and together they penned some truly memorable songs – ‘The American Metaphysical Circus', ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights' and ‘Coming Down' to name but a few personal favorites. Well now that I have your attention and you are going through this “Aha-erlebnis” about recalling Moskowitz, it is funny to know that she also appeared on a splendid Folkways album dedicated to Indian ragas, one side of the LP is dedicated to vocal induced ragas there where the second side is all instrumental. If you are looking for a heavy psych injection, stop reading here but if this sound awesome to you anyhow like it does to me, then here is what Moskowitz had to say on the recording of this fantastic slice of musical history. “There were Japanese, Balinese, and African teachers at UCLA, but the most compelling were the Indian musicians. There was Harihar Rao, who taught North Indian music and Gayathri Rajapur, a remarkable singer /Gottuvadyam virtuoso from South India. Joseph was officially enrolled in the department. I was officially enrolled in another department altogether, but I managed to sneak in on the ethnomusicology classes. Joe and I became quite close to Gayathri and in fact the three of us shared an apartment together for a period. We studied both North and South Indian music and Joseph became reasonably adept at South Indian drumming. I think it must have been his idea to do a recording with Gayathri and Harihar. He asked me in to play Tambura, wrote some scholarly liner notes, and shipped the whole package off to Folkways I'm sure it's still available. Gayathri has since gotten her Doctorate and teaches and performs in Hawaii.” (Dorothy Moskowitz shedding some light on the creation of this album for Ptolomeic Terrascope magazine, 2003). Fantastic LP and a though one these day to unearth. Highly recommended. Price: 75 Euro
39. FOLKWAYS – MUSIC OF THE BAHAMAS: “S/T” (Folkways Records – FS-3845) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Booklet: Mint) made up of Sacred Music & Launching Songs and Ballads. Original 1958 pressing. Price: 30 Euro
40. FOLKWAYS – MUSIC FROM AN EQUATORIAL MICROCOSM: “Fang Bwiti Music” (Ethnic Folkways Records – FE-4214) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original Folkways pressing. Price: 40 Euro
41. FOLKWAYS - Lappish Joik Songs From Northern Norway: “S/T” (Folkways Records – FE-4007) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original US pressing. Price: 40 Euro
42. FOLKWAYS – NEGRO PRISON CAMP WORKSONGS: “S/T” (Ethnic Folkways – FE-4475) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Price: 50 Euro
43. FOLKWAYS – MAORI SONGS OF NEW ZEALAND: “S/T” (Ethnic Folkways – FE-4433) (Record: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1952 pressing. Price: 40 Euro
44. MUSHROOM CEREMONY OF THE MAZATEC INDIANS OF MEXICO: “S/T” (Folkways – FR-8975) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Very first original 1956 Folkways issue with blue cover. Later issues have blue cover art. Amazing condition with booklet present. This recording, made by Gordon Wasson in 1956, attempts to chronicle a religious ceremony involving the ingestion of psychedelic mushrooms by Indians who are attempting to communicate with the Divine Spirit. “This field recording is of substantial historical interest, both as the earliest known vinyl document of people under the influence of hallucinogens, and as part of the Wasson couples legendary forays into remote Mexican mountains on the trail of an obscure mushroom cult. Wasson’s exploits became the subject of a Life magazine article which is a watershed event in the history of psychedelics, and the psilocybin shrooms would attract interest from the whole academic/literary/ethno-botanic hallucinogen set in the late 1950s. Although the Mazatec mushroom culture has been well documented over the years, this particular LP has drawn less attention than Wasson’s works and the many subsequent essays and books published, but is obviously worth attention. The actual contents feature curandera Maria Sabina (who would later become famous, as part of the Wasson effect) eating the mushrooms and setting out on a transcendental journey to invoke the mushroom spirit, reporting with a steady flow of words her experiences. The reports are spoken in her native Mazatec dialect, but an ambitious translation/transcription attempt by a linguistic expert can be found on the accompanying booklet. The mushroom cult is eclectic, combining elements of Catholicism with a pantheistic strain, in a way typical for many surviving plant cults around the world. Her voice is an old woman’s, often tired, sometimes venturing into sing-songy nursery rhyme structures, and during the beginning of side 2 (where she’s peaking, bro) moving into a very rapid, unbroken flow of words. Rather remarkable, and according to those who have tripped with it, an efficient guide despite not being a successful invocation of the mushroom spirit (see booklet scans for explanation). Sounds of nature, night birds, barking dogs, and frequent mutterings from Sabina’s fellow Mazatec traveler are also audible.” (Acid Archives). Stunning document and a record that rarely surfaces. Amazing condition and psychedelic as hell. Price: 350 Euro
45. MUSHROOM CEREMONY OF THE MAZATEC INDIANS OF MEXICO: “S/T” (Folkways – FR-8975) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Second cover variation original from 1966 Folkways issue with blue cover. Amazing condition with booklet present. This recording, made by Gordon Wasson in 1966, attempts to chronicle a religious ceremony involving the ingestation of psychedelic mushrooms by Indians who are attempting to communicate with the Divine Spirit. Stunning document and a record that rarely surfaces. Amazing condition and psychedelic as hell. Price: 275 Euro
46. FOLKWAYS – MUSIC OF MOROCCO: “S/T” (Ethnic Folkways – FE-4339) (Record: Mint/ Jacket: Mint/ Booklet: Mint). Original pressing. Price: 40 Euro
47. FOLKWAYS – MUSIC OF THE SUDAN: “Burial Hymns and War Songs – The Role of Song and Dance in Dinka Society” (Ethnic Folkways Records – FE-4303) (Record: Excellent/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1976 pressing. Price: 45 Euro
48. FOLKWAYS – RITUAL MUSIC OF MANIPUR: “S/T” (Ethnic Folkways – FE-4479) (Record: Excellent/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1960 pressing. Price: 40 Euro
49. FOLKWAYS – ROOTS OF BLACK MUSIC IN AMERICA: “Some Correspondences Between The Music Of The Slave Areas Of West Africa And The Music Of the United States And The Caribbean” (Folkways – FA-2694) (2 LP Set: Near Mint/ Box Set: Near Mint/ Near Mint). This two volume-collection, is a survey of instrumental and vocal music from African cultures as well as from African American musicians in the southern United States. Producer Samuel Charters created the album with the intent to provide musical examples from "two worlds" through traditional offerings of African tribal music, cultural roots that were forcefully suppressed during the period of slavery in America, and African American music evocative of the influence of its predecessors. 41 songs, 1.3 hours, with liner notes featuring an introduction by Samuel Charters, descriptions of songs, and examples of archival documents describing early African music and black music in the southern United States. Price: 75 euro
50. FOLKWAYS – TRADITIONAL SONGS OF THE WESTERN TORRES STRAITS ~ SOUTH PACIFIC: “S/T” (Ethnic Folkways Records – FE-4025) (Record: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1977 pressing. Price: 45 Euro
51. FOLKWAYS – Traditional Music of the Garifuna (Black Carib) Of Belize: “S/T” (Folkways Records – FE-4031) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). US original pressing. Price: 45 Euro
52. FOLKWAYS – TUNISIA: “Volume 2: Religious Songs and Cantillations” Folkways Records – FW-8862) (Record: Excellent/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1962 pressing. Price: 40 Euro
53. FOLKWAYS – SOUNDS OF THE GRAND PRIX OF WATKINS GLEN.N.Y.: “S/T” (Folkways – Folkways Records – FPX-140) (Record: VG++, has some marks but plays EX, with little to no surface noise/ Jacket: Excellent). Original 1956 pressing. Astonishing recording filled with the glorious sounds of roaring 1950s racecars, super hero drivers and the addictive fumes of gasoline, burning rubber and scorned tailpipes. Price: 50 Euro
54. FUJI KENKO: “Tsugaru Minyo Nagare Uta” (Victor Records – SJV-2049) (Record: Excellent - a few non-sounding scuffs/ Jacket: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint/ Insert: Near Mint). Ok, strap yourselfs in because this is the shit!!! I do kid you not. First of all, this one was damned hard to track down, finally found one of two records she did. Some seriously deep stuff by blind Tsugaru Minyo singer & player Fuji Kenko. Recorded during the mid 1970s and finally released in 1978, Fuji Kenko’s meager recorded output is something to drool over. She heralded out of the most northern prefecture of Aomori, a weather beaten and rural backwater that time has forgotten all about. This enabled that for a long time the local Tsugaru Minyo could flourish without too much interference or influence from neighboring prefectures until the mid 1970s when finally the 20th century caught up with the backwater region and local cultural oddities that had stood the winds of time became rapidly extinct. On this rare recording, Fuji’s nasal and raspy vocal excursions gets backed up by stripped won and sparse taiko percussion, shakuhachi flute and shamisen strummings. It gives the musical a sense of shamanistic beauty, endowed with a rural poetic gift of intuitively resonance. Deceptively intense and casual in feel, Fuji Kenko’s austere intimacy that oozes out of her exploratory vocal sound is nothing short of astonishing. Her voice seems to span epoch within a single syllable and her curious yowl sends shivers down your spine. She is the heroin no one has heard of. One of the best records to grace my humble collection. The handful of ep’s she did turn up but her two LP’s are tough to unearth. Here is one of them, the first time I can offer a copy up for grabs. Highest recommendation. Price: 200 Euro
55. FUJIMATSU KAMEMI & NEGI KOSUZU: “Sushiya No Osato b/w Shirabiya” (Toshiba Records – TH-3248) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ 6 Paged Gatefold Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). Out of Toshiba’s 33RPM Kouta series, austere and stripped down performance of Kouta – epic stories set against a background of minimal koto strummings, eerie flutes and graced with beautiful female vocals. Epic minimalist excursions into mere songs. Price: 50 Euro
56. FUKUSHI RITSU with YAMADA CHISATO: “Nesshou – Shin Tsugaru Yama Uta” (King Records – K20G – 5026) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint/ Insert: Mint). Second time only I see a copy of this killer Fukushi Ritsu LP. Fukushi Ritsu only recorded a few albums, a couple of privately released cassettes and a handful of singles under her own name and very renowned – albeit only locally – as the sole purveyor of the dying art form/ musical style known as “Tsugaru Minyo”, an ethnic weather-beaten singing style where the chanteuse is accompanied by pungent, rough and anarcho-bashi slashed shamisen strummings. As far as Tsugaru shamisen is concerned, Fukushi’s late husband Yamada Chisato was the unrivaled master and had a very unique and abrasive style that has yet to be rivaled with. However, Fukushi is at the moment a very elderly lady, balancing on the brink of the grave and once she has passed over into Valhalla, she will also taken with her the last of the Tsugaru Minyo singers. She is the last living relic of this amazing vocal style and this here record – that was released in 1982 – sees her at the peak of her powers and proves once again that she is one of the greatest – yet totally unknown singers – ever to have roamed this earth. The LP opens with a sidelong track that is almost minimal in its execution with Ritsu’s voice wailing in silent unison with shamisen and shakuhachi, giving La Monte Young a run for its money. Blood curling amazing music that will set your hairs on fire and make you a walking sonic time bomb while spinning this killer slide. All time highest recommendation and one of the best discs on this list. Price: 175 Euro
57. FUKUSHI RITSUKO; Fukuda Hideo; Yamada Yoriko; Nakamura Kiyomi; Asari Miki; Harata Eijiro: “Tsugaru Aiya Bushi – Kyoen Taikai” (Teichiku Records – NL-2544) (Record: Excellent/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Little Insert: Mint). First time ever I see a copy of this killer Fukushi Ritsu LP. Fukushi Ritsu only recorded a few albums, a couple of privately released cassettes and a handful of singles under her own name and very renowned – albeit only locally – as the sole purveyor of the dying art form/ musical style known as “Tsugaru Minyo”, an ethnic weather beaten singing style where the chanteuse is accompanied by pungent, rough and anarcho-bashi slashed shamisen strummings. As far as Tsugaru shamisen is concerned, Fukushi’s late husband Yamada Chisato was the unrivaled master and had a very unique and abrasive style that has yet to be rivaled with. However, Fukushi is at the moment a very elderly lady, balancing on the brink of the grave and once she has passed over into Valhalla, she will also taken with her the last of the Tsugaru Minyo singers. She is the last living relic of this amazing vocal style and this here record – that was released in the late 1960s- early 1970s – sees her at the peak of her powers and proves once again that she is one of the greatest – yet totally unknown singers – ever to have roamed this earth. She also opens up the way for other Tsugaru singers to pass the revue on this record, great vocal performances but Fukushi really spans the crown. Although the whole affair and the various songs that are on display here are almost minimal in their execution with Ritsu’s and the other practitioners’ voices wailing in silent unison with shamisen and shakuhachi, giving La Monte Young a run for its money. Blood curling amazing music that will set your hairs on fire and make you a walking sonic time bomb while spinning this killer slide. Never had or seen a copy of this incendiary slide, really this one is like burning oil on your legs!!! Amazing but sadly quite rare. Price: 250 Euro
58. FUKUSHI RITSUKO; YAMADA CHISATO and others: “Tsugaru Minyo Dai Kettei Ban” (Toshiba Records – TR-6122) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Absolutely fantastic Tsugaru Minyo record compiled and strung together by Yamada Chisato and with a large portion devoted to Tsugaru Minyo chanteuse par excellence, his wife Fukushi Ritsuko. Depressingly obscure and ear-bleedingly amazing LP that brings together a string of Tsugaru minyo vocalists including the gerat Fukushi Ritsu. The interplay between the rural improvisations on shamisen and sparse percussion improvisations Fukushi’s vocalizations evoke a similar spiritual quality that also lay embedded within black sermon-like songs. The genre crossing activities Yamada hurdled himself into came from a conviction that Tsugaru shamisen can be combined with jazz and other musical genres. “not just because Tsugaru shamisen is an excellent resource that has good melodies but also because it is a music that smells of the earth.” In other words, when listening to the sound of the Tsugaru shamisen, the listener should be able to hear a sound that has the scent of Tsugaru attached to it, an eternal and mystical element that fuses neatly with other deeply rooted sounds. However, amidst Yamada’s genre crossing activities and the urge to take the traditional Tsugaru shamisen style into the following century so that it can be preserved for future generations to come, cannot prevail the doom of extinction that hovers over this exquisite musical expression form. Especially the future prospects of Tsugaru minyo – as on display here- are bleak to say the least. What is known today as Tsugaru shamisen is based on Tsugaru minyo and consists out of shamisen accompaniment to Tsugaru minyo, solo shamisen versions of these folk songs and improvisation on its themes. The songs aspect herein consists out of difficult and highly diverse vocal styles, as distinguished by Groemer, that include un-metered inflected speech, uninflected rhythmical speech, chanting on one tone, song-like chanting and highly contoured melodic lines. Yamada commented the following on this scary evolution in 1995: “From now on, we are facing a problem. To say it honestly, there are hardly any young people that are into it. Most or almost all of the famous performers have passed away and my spouse, Fukushi Ritsu, may be the last of these great ones that performs the Tsugaru minyo. So I think that after a span of thirty years the genuine Tsugaru minyo may be completely vanished. This is quite saddening…Also, young people these days seem very fond of karaoke and indulge themselves completely herein, so they won’t become any good at singing minyo. It is a suffering trend of the times…. Another fact that fastens the corrosion of the Tsugaru minyo is the present day attitude towards art forms. In the old days, performers and entertainers were often found saying that art comes before money – it is unheard for artists to think about money. Maybe it was that in the old days everybody was poverty struck and this attitude may have been supportable. But now, this attitude is not compliable anymore. Parents do not want to subject their offspring to poverty. Performing minyo does not bring food on the table anymore.” All killer and no filler. Comes with rare obi and a true ear-waxing great slide. Price: 175 Euro
59. FURUSATO NO UTA: “Kanto Hen (ni)” (Columbia Records – DLS-4111) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Excellent/ Attached Insert: Excellent). Original 1968 pressing. Slowly the recordings in this series work their way southward and now focus on the greater Kanto region, located still on Japan's main island Honshu. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kanto Plain. The rest consists of the hills and mountains that form the land borders. The music is by now more lively as life in this region is easier as opposed to the high north and this also translates itself in these recordings. Nevertheless, these records were all still a rural affair, recorded in hillside villages and festivals. There is again a big inclusion of female performers, forming the largest bulk of the material presented here. Stunning material that demands a wider appeal. Stunning music. Price: 25 Euro
60. FURUSATO NO UTA: “Kinki Hen” (Columbia – DLS-4114) (Record: Excellent/ Gatefold Jacket: Excellent/ Attached Booklet: Mint). Original 1968 pressing. By now we have arrived within the Kinki Region, also commonly known as Kansai, consists of seven prefectures. It used to be the political and cultural center of Japan for many centuries. The cities of Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Kobe are all part of the Kinki Region. Price: 25 Euro
61. FURUSATO NO UTA: “Chuukoku – Shikoku Hen” (Columbia Records – DLS-4115) (Record: Excellent has a hairline/ Gatefold Jacket: Excellent/ Attached Insert: Excellent). Shikoku is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshu and east of the island of Kyushu. Price: 25 Euro
62. FURUSATO NO UTA: “Kyushu Hen” (Columbia Records – DLS-4116) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Excellent/ Attached Insert: Excellent). Kyushu is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Price: 25 Euro
63. FURUSATO NO UTA – YAMAGATA HEN: “S/T” (Columbia – DLS-4105) (Record: Mint/ gatefold Jacket: Mint/ Obi: Mint). Top copy. Price: 40 Euro

64. GAGAKU: “S/T” (Minoruphone Records – HC-7001~3) (3 LP Set: Near Mint/ 20 paged fully illustrated book: Mint/ Outer Box: Near Mint/ Obi: Mint). First complete copy I ever come across with obi. Rarely seen 3 LP Box set that came out in 1974, documenting and shedding some aural quality upon the oldest living music form. This is definitely one of the best Gagaku records that ever resurfaced. This one was recorded in 1970 in front of the Kashiko-dokoro. The performance takes place in the Imperial palace from the evening of every December 15th and lasts until the early morning of the next day. From the year 1002, this music was performed every other year and from about the year 1074 it has been performed every year to this day. Japan is the only country that has a classical religious song performed every year for about 1000 years in a row. If you are into minimal music, this sucker is definitely for you. Gagaku is the most ancient still living music form on earth and remained unchanged for 2 centuries long. Gagaku or Court Music, is performed mainly on Imperial ceremonies and is extremely mind lifting music that will take you farther than the best La Monte Young record ever will. The origins of Gagaku go back to ancient Chinese court music, which absorbed influences of Indian, Persian, Korean, Manchurian and Indo-Chinese music. However, today the music, in addition to its function as sacred music, is also being pursued as a highly refined art form itself. The instruments employed consist out of wind instruments (fukimono; ex. Sho, Hichiriki, Komabue, Ryuteki, Kagurabue), string instruments (or hikimono such as So, Biwa and Wagon) and percussion instruments (or uchimono, ex. San no Tuzumi, Kokko, Taiko, Shoko), creating an otherworldly atmosphere, unlike any other musical style. Superb. Excellent condition and very old recording. This is hardcore minimal music that even makes La Monte Young look like a rookie when being compared. If minimal music is your thing, then it will never get as deep and far as Gagaku. Price: 250 Euro

65. GAGAKU: “Japon 3” (Ocora – 558.551) (Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). First original Ocora pressing. "Japan: Gagaku: a collection of high-quality gagaku works courtesy of the Ono Gagaku Kai Society, one of the better private organizations dedicated to the preservation of an old art (the society dates back to the end of the 19th century, but the art is one of the older surviving musics known to man). Two of the three major divisions of gagaku are represented here, as kangen and bugaku forms are displayed to their fullest (instrumental and dance forms, as vocal/uta-mono is excluded from the album). The album opens with the standard piece of gagaku, "Etenraku." This gives the group some room to stretch out on the tuning-up period a bit and then move into the full instrumental glory of the work. A dance piece stemming from the Rg Veda follows, with a vaguely related longer one from western Asia following it. "Gakkaen" stands as one of the oldest pieces of music, recorded to be in use as early as 702 A.D., and is an interesting instrumental take on an old dance movement. "Bairo" is another work stemming from the Vedic culture, surrounding a prince Vairo-dhaka. The album closes with a dance work of Korean provenance, making even heavier use of the sho than the majority of the tracks (which is saying something in a gagaku ensemble)." (All Music Guide). Most famed Gagaku recording but far from the best. Might be a good introduction for newcomers scratching the surface but if your hunger runs deeper, then tha Japanese issues are the ones to go for. That aside, Top condition. Price: 50 Euro

66. GENCHI ROKUON – TOHOKU MINYO DAIZENSHU: “S/T” (Columbia Records – DLS-4201 ~ 4210) (10 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ 10 Individual LP Record Jackets: Near Mint/ Thick 140 Paged & Fully Illustrated Booklet: Excellent/ Outer Cloth Covered & Bound Box: Excellent). Damned rare 1970 sole issue of Tohoku’s motherlode of on the spot recordings of deep rural guttering howls and songs. The backwaters of Aomori, Iwate, Yamagata, Miyagi, Fukushima and Akita, located in the high north of Japan’s main island Honshu, are generally regarded as god forsaken, isolated and economically underdeveloped regions, deprived from natural resources and cultural stimuli. However, seclusion had its beneficial effects that allowed the people of Tsugaru to develop cultural expression forms uniquely their own. A highly idiosyncratic string of artists occupying various fields of the cultural spectrum have emerged from its weather-beaten rural landscape, creative forces such as the Butoh instigator Hijikata Tatsumi, playwright – novelist and enfant terrible of the arts Terayama Shuji, novelist Dazai Osamu, shamisen virtuosos Yamada Chisato and Takahashi Chikusan and folk singers Tomokawa Kazuki and Mikami Kan to name but a few. They all proofed to be gifted with a highly unique voice, asserting that Tsugaru & the Tohoku region in general was an area to be reckoned with. What ties these artists together is that all of them conjure up images filled with a “scent” of the Tsugaru region, a distinctive fragrance that is unmistakably also omnipresent on this all-encompassing document, drawing together a clutch of field recordings by ethereal female howlers, phantomic male singers – all blessed with voices bruised beyond repair, shamisen abusers, koto slashers and other rural artists blessed with that raw northern quality, all recorded during the early and mid-1960s when the still surviving cultural instigators were at the height of their powers, before vanishing into the shadow of history again. A vital recording that aimed at preserving, re-evaluating and revitalizing the beauty of an all too often discarded rural area and its rural tongue, an idiom that even till this day is regarded by many Japanese as a dirty, raw and uncivilized mode of expression. While casual in feel, the Tohoku/ Tsugaru vernacular lingo is meticulous in its lyrical economy and musical detail, indicating a punctilious attention to sound. The dark phonemes enhance the desolate atmosphere that is so much part of the Tsugaru area accentuated by the desolate, yet almost panegyrical strummings. You get hit here with weather-beaten shamisen batterings from the high north, harvest and fishing songs, meditative festival workouts, the reverberations of complex sounds, memorable vocal weaves surging in and out of focus displaying various singing styles depending on the region where the music was recorded, and so much more. The ingenuity and unearthly beauty of Japanese traditional rural folk dwellings is undeniable and rife with alluring contradictions. Massive set, complete with thick book (complete with even the dance moves to accompany these harvest and rural songs), all housed on a thick cloth covered box. Wild, raw and pure, upon jamming this I feel my balls contract violently each time again, crawling straight up into my belly. You have been warned! Price: 450 Euro

67. GEORGIAN FOLK MUSIC FROM TURKEY: “S/T” (Ethnosound – EST-8002) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). The Indiana University put out some of the finest ethnic recordings on their inhouse Ethnosound label and released only a handful of titles, all beautifully packed in heavy-ass laminated gatefold sleeves with attached illustrative & comprehensive booklet. Released in 1972, this set presents some in-the-field recordings all put down to tape during the late 1960s. At the northeastern reaches of present-day Turkey lies a region politically Turkish, yet its inhabitants are in many respects closer culturally to the Caucasus, which lies directly to the north. Known by some as “Turkish Georgia” or the “Turkish Caucasus”, its population consists of Laz, Georgians and mixed ethnic groups found in such regional towns as Artvin. Each group demonstrates in its music the heritage from the Caucasus as well as marks left by contact with the major social and political cultures in the area, particularly Turkish and the Russian. Beautiful sounds filled with bagpipes, choruses, button accordions and percussive rattles and shakes. Killer from start to finish! Price: 75 Euro

68. HAMADA ASAKO: “Soran Bushi b/w Hokkai Bonuta” (Teichiku Records – CS-528) (7-inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Heavy Cardboard Gatefold Picture Sleeve Jacket: Excellent). Great Minyo two-tracker heralding out of Japan’s most northern prefecture, Hokkaido. Price: 50 Euro

69. HARADA EIJIRO – ASARI MIKI: “Tsugaru Kohara Mangei b/w Shintanto Bushi” (Teichiku – CS-523) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Hard Cover Jacket: Near Mint). Two killer tracks out of the Aomori region. Wow, killer 45 out of the Tohoku region containing two brain-freezing awesome tracks, filled with beached-like whale voices set against weather-beaten shamisen slashing. Ear-shredding vocals are so out-of-this-world, they could easily strip the paint of your walls. The shamisen accompaniment is sharp as razorblades, perfect for your wrist-cutting adventures. Damned rare single, never saw another copy. Just awesome!!! Price: 125 Euro

70. HATAYAMA KOICHI: “Sansa Odori b/w Shichi No Tsukebushi” (Victor Records – MV-863-S) (7-Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Picture Sleeve with Booklet: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Excellent). Awesome Minyo rural stomper that emanated out of the Iwate Prefecture and was recorded and released in 1971. Floating on primitive percussion and eerie flute lines to underscore a call and response of a female chorus and a nasal male vocalist. Deep grooves out of the hinterland. The B-side goes further but adds shamisen strummings to the mix of wailing female vocals to interlock with a male protagonist. This is the good stuff, agronomical grooves that create a hypnotic vibe to dance the night away on. Price: 75 Euro
71. Abbess HILDEGARD of BINGEN: “A Feather On The Breath Of God” (Hyperion – A66039) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Mint) Original 1982 press issue. Top condition. Hymns and sequences by the remarkable Abbess Hildegard of Bingen are recorded under the direction of Christopher Page, with Emma Kirby and others. Two of the eight pieces are solos while most are choral and a few have the support of a symphony as well. This recording draws upon Hildegard’s large collection of music and poetry, the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum – ‘The Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations’ – which she continued to enlarge and enrich throughout her life. It contains some of the finest songs ever written in the Middle Ages, and a number of the most elaborate, the Sequences, are recorded here for the first time. They are so profoundly motivated by Hildegard’s devotional life that it is hard to tell whether she is exploring music and poetry through spirituality or vice versa. The songs are conceived on a large – sometimes a massive – scale; it is in superabundance that Hildegard found herself both as poetess and composer. Profligacy of imagination relieved the intensity of her impressions whilst validating her as a visionary in the eyes of her contemporaries. The corresponding musical resources are immense, ranging from the most tranquil melody to an almost obsessive declamation at high pitch. Everywhere we sense a movement of the mind in music. This is the work of deeply engaged artistry: in Hildegard’s words, of ‘writing, seeing, hearing and knowing all in one manner’. The title is indeed appropriate for this sacred vocal music. Price: 50 Euro

72. HIRAI SUMIKO: “Uta To Katari” (Teichiku Records – GM-6002~4) (3 LP Record: Near Mint/ 3 Individual Jackets: Near Mint/ 100-Paged Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint/ Attached Ribbon: Mint/ Outer Box Set: Excellent/ Obi: Excellent). Promo issue, released in 1978. Hirai Sumiko was born in 1913 in a family versed in Yamada-style koto. At the age of 16, she studied under Miyagi Michio and upon entering University she versed herself into Hosho-style Noh. After graduating she became the first ever female Noh performer in the Hosho tradition. However, she continued to immerse herself in the varied world of koto and from 1954 on she began to train herself in Shinnai Bushi and Tomimoto-Bushi, eventually developing her own idiosyncratic style, based upon the true essence of traditional Japanese music. This set give a detailed look into her musical legacy, ranging from short instrumental tracks up to long, spun-out jams complete with vocals and Noh interactions. Comes with beautiful booklet and obi. One of my favorite koto performers, displaying a highly unique style balancing the razor’s edge between traditional musings and modernity lurking behind the corner. Highest recommendation! Price: 175 Euro

73. HOUGAKU – MEIJIN NO SHIGEI: “S/T” (Victor – JV-1036~47) (12 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Individual LP Sleeves: Near Mint/ 38-page Booklet: Excellent/ Outer Cloth Bound Box: Near Mint). Hideously rare 1961 released box set. To summarize this eargasmatic collection of lost turn of the century/ pre-war recordings would be that it is the best collection ever of Japanese pre-war 78-rpm recordings of rural Biwa strummers, shamisen batterers, koto-glissandi excursions and guttural minyo howlers. The source material was all taken from the few surviving 78-rpm recordings that still exist and compiled into this massive box set in 1961 and the recordings date from 1930 up to 1939. Never have seen another copy of this one before. Filled with ghostly quivering rural recordings of a vanish world, which the easiest way to compare it would be the US pre-war blues recordings. Still, these recordings here are hair-rising impressive, mostly male singers pass the revue, heavy bachi slashing on the strings, beached-whale like vocals pop up out of the mists of time, biwa’s get beaten into submission while eerie, ghost-like and ethereal vocals drift in and out of the fogs of living memory. Stripped down to the bone shamisen accompanied by raw vocals bemoaning songs where a seclusion of modernism creates a more direct desire for simplicity. The whole set is disarmingly lyrical and the music’s attractiveness adds another layer to a music existing on its own plane, rooted deep in local culture and history and giving it – while spinning it now – gives it a deep feeling resonating out vibrant traditional rural feel that succeeded in holding back contemporary conditions. This huge set is crammed to bursting with pre-War & rice field blues music, sound snippets that breathe out mold particles covered in fairy dust. All is gloriously recorded in mono and the music has a ghostly bone-chilling reverb splashed all over it grooves. Music and sound from a long-gone era, beautiful mostly male vocal tracks, blessed with a crackly and dusty sound coming from the original 78 RPM master recordings, resembling in a vague way the Folkways set Harry Smith compiled for the label, but then this set can be seen as the Japanese counterpart of it. It dwells in the same audio verité/ documentary regions taking the listener back to a musical treasure throve that was largely erased from our collective memory. Alarmingly beautiful is a word that can be applied here if you are into the arcane field of obscure sounds from before the war. From dusty and ghost-like 78 RPM recordings dating back to the late 1920’s up until the beginning of WOII up to obscure vocal madness, this is a glorious set of long-lost Japanese pre-war music. Beautiful!! Most impressive collection of pre-war recordings I have heard so far, emanating from out of a lost world. One of the few discs in the list that deserve the term awesome and rare. Highest recommendation. Price: Offers!!!!

74. HUNAKOSHI KIYO with ITOKAZU KAME: “Okinawan Folksongs” (Marutaka Records – TJ-38) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Picture Sleeve: near Mint). Stunning slide, Totally weird and out-there on the fringes of Minyo song and wailed out avant-garde is this obscure slide, released in tiny numbers on Okinawa private press label. This one will make jaws hit the concrete and make your ears sizzle after getting frostbite from being glued to your speakers. Killer from start to finish and largely unknown. With legendary Itokazu Kame guesting on vocals.. Price: 60 Euro

75. ICCHUSETSU KOTEN MEISAKUSHU: “S/T” (Teichiku Records – GM-6019~24) (6 LP Set: Near Mint/ Booklet: Mint/ Outer Cloth Covered & Embroided Box Set: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). 1983 original pressing, all complete with rare OBI and book. Well this is some seriously rare shit, it was ranked quite high on my mental want list for eons, but I never could encounter a copy, nor did I ever see one. That is until now and what a sight for soar eyes it is - as well as upon spinning it, coming over as a massage of liquid honey for your membranes. This is a massive 6 LP box set with thick annotated book and housed in cloth bound box with relief print and obi. The music embedded inside the records’ grooves bring to hear a musical tradition going back 350 years and transports the listener to some stripped down and bare-butt naked aural soundscapes that defy all categorization and transcendent fleeting fashionable styles and musical cultural gutter crap we get bombarded with on a daily basis. This is high art executed in esoteric deep subterranean manner, creating an arresting experience. Austere koto strummings gel seamlessly together with deep wailing female vocals, creating an atmosphere where the tiniest gestures could trigger minimal apocalyptic waves of sound. It is a mesmerizing experience, trance-inducing to the listener maybe where diminutive fingerpicking leads to exploratory sonic worlds. The Spartan & unornamented female vocalizations have a bewitching effect, existing on their own plane, both impervious to and not responsible for trends as we know it of any kind. Blessed with a poetic resonance, the barren setting creates some defining moments into a shamanistic sense of poetry through sound. These enhancements give the already skeletal music undercurrents of undefinable depth that is deceptively intense, yet casual in its feel and meticulous in its musical detail and lyrical economy. Listening to this, it sends shivers down your spine, making you gasp in disbelief about a musical world you did not know existed but yet will bring you an unbound stream of pleasure. This is the shit! Some serious deep sonic marvels to get completely lost in. Rare and obscure to say the least, all complete copy with thick annotated book, lavishly packaged and illustrated cloth box and obi. One of the musical highlights of the past years, deep, uncompromised, unhip and ear-gasmatic when subdued to it. This is the point of no-return real deep listeners eventually get to … although many are called, few actually reach this point of utter bliss. Best musical experience ever! Price: 500 Euro

76. ICHIMARU: “Hatsu Idemi Yotote b/w Hourai” (Victor Records – OV-727) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Sturdy gatefold Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ Attached 12-Paged Booklet: Near Mint). Goosebump alert – stunning old skool female vocal burner set against a stripped down background of koto, shamisen, the sparsest of percussive rattles and faintly blowing ghostlike flutes. Deliriously eye-popping package that comes in thick gatefold sleeve with booklet. Pristine original press copy. Price: 50 Euro

77. IMAMICHI FUJI - Various Singers & Howlers: "S/T Dai Kyuu Shu" (Teichiku Records - NC-39) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ 2 Inserts/ Near Mint). Bloody rare but oh so awesome recorded artifact. Rare 1970 first original pressing complete with always-missing obi. Another elusive title out of the series that also coughed up the previous listed one. Next to impossible to find these days but if there was ever a series in Japan that would rival and come close to documenting pre and post war Appalachian singers, then this series would fit the bill just perfectly. Filled to bursting by totally obscure rural old folks, clinging on to a vanishing culture that is already on the threshold of total extinction but nevertheless gushing out a wealth of rural bone-chilling and hair-raising material. This is a music from beyond the grave, call it Japan Blues from next to the Arakawa River if you like, but this shit burns as heavy as burning oil on your legs. Your head will split open and feel like you just dived into a pool that got emptied only yesterday. Raw, brutal, yet emotionally moving and totally dislocated. And just when you thought you had heard everything; someone slabs this sucker in your face and life is never ever the same again. This is a piece of rare and fragile beauty and upon diving into this vanishing world, one comes face to face with once own miserable life until now and feels like a totally humbling experience. So great, yet so unknow and so hard to track down...KILLER!!!! Price: 175 Euro

78. INDIENS ET ANIMAUX SAUVAGES D’AMERIQUE DU SUD: “Enregistre Realises par Richard Chapelle” (Unidisc – UD-30.1293) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Liner Notes: Near Mint). The whole affair was recorded deep in the Amazonian jungle during 1971 ~ 1972 and captures the primitive sounds of 6 different Indian tribes as well as sounds from the jungle coming to life. Just stunning and one of the best recordings to capture lost tribes in South America. Especially his attention for recording the atmosphere of the surrounding jungle sounds on this LP makes this slide such a devestating affair with the defening roar of insect activity spiralling out of control at times. Just amazing recording, attesting again that Chapelle was the key ethno-recording kingpin as far as jungle sounds are concerned. A killer on all fronts!!! Price: 45 Euro
79. INOUE KAZUKO & SUDOU KUMOEI: “Nambu Yoshare Bushi b/w Tsugaru Yosare Bushi” (Victor – MV-3096) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ 4 paged Insert: Excellent – has annotations for dance instructions/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). Rare 1985 issue – coupling of two stellar female Tohoku singers – Inoue hailing out of the Iwate Prefecture and Sudou representing the cold high battered north of Aomori Prefecture. Killer harsh Minyo that only the high north seems to produce, belsled with fierce shamisen strummings, austere taiko batterings and out-of-this world wailing female vocals that will sent shivers down your spine. Incendiary stuff and damned scare single. One of the best to seep out of the high north!!! Price: 100 Euro
80. IUE YUMITO; SHIRAKAWA RYUU: “Tsugaru Shamisen – Tsugaru Jangara Bushi” (Mercury – ML-501) (Record: Excellent/ Jacket: Excellent – small tear on back cover/ Obi: Excellent). Minor Tsugaru Shamisen teacher with student group, released on tiny private press label. Beautifully executed unison shamisen group action from the early 1970s. It is always a pleasure to sit through a well-performed group action of various shamisen players interlocking with each other. Rarely seen private press issue with obi. Price: 75 Euro

81. JAVA – GAMELANS FROM THE SULTAN’S PALACE IN JOGJAKARTA: “S/T” (Archiv Production – 2723 017 〜018) (2 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Gatefold Book Like Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Book – Fully Illustrated Pages: Near Mint). “Musicologist Jacques Brunet followed up his masterful Bali triple set with this double album of gamelan music from Java. This time around he chose to document a selection of orchestras, focusing more on the variety of different approaches to Javanese gamelan than on the documentation of a particular repertoire by a single gamelan orchestra. Gamelan fiends, and there are many, most often jump to the Bali side of things where there is a tendency toward extremist musical maneuvers, including frantic tempos, wildly clanging metallophones, and the ghostly (perhaps ghastly) illusion of moving forward and backward simultaneously. So why go to Java? Each group documented here provides vivid musical reasons. Gamelan Sekati Kangdjeng Kyahi Naha Wilaga, whose name means "The venerable fighting serpent," creates a sense of total stillness as "Gending Andong Andong" unfolds, and any listener desiring a wondrous lack of movement should listen to this piece, it is the musical equivalent of a tropical fish tank. Following such an illusion to nature, not off the mark considering the style of music, there are other pieces here that contain a fathomless sense of organization and cosmic logic that brings to mind an evening spent with the neighborhood cicadas. The "Gendang Gambir Sawit" includes both choral and vocal singing and is markedly different sounding than most Indonesian recordings. Wonderful use of handclapping is made in this piece.” (All Music Guide). Price: 80 Euro

82. JAVANESE GAMELAN – Sonic Batik Of Yogyakarta: “Sources – Field Recordings Made in 1977 From Osaka University World Music Archives” (Philips – PH-8527〜8530) (4 LP Set: Near Mint 〜 Mint/ 90 Paged fully annotated book – complete with pictures and text in Japanese and English: Mint/ Cloth Covered Heavy Outer Box Set: Mint/ OBI: Mint). A monster of a set and only issued in Japan in 1977 for the Osaka University. All complete copy with book and mega rare OBI! First time I see an all-complete copy. Copies are very few but the set offers you one of the most detailed aural studies into the rich and dense world of the Javanese gamelan. Top condition and impossible to ever upgrade upon this one. That aside, the sound quality is just mesmerizingly great!!! Price: 275 Euro

83. KABUKI GEZA ONGAKU SHUSEI: “S/T” (Victor – SJL-2010~12) (3 LP Record: Near Mint/ Outer Box Set: Near Mint/ 75-Paged Booklet: Near Mint). Beautifully released 1961 original pressing. Original 1961 pressing of a highly renowned Kabuki performance, here mainly focusing in the instrumental pieces! Stunning sound quality. The musicians appearing on this recording include the leading figures of the previous generation of Kabuki instrumentalists. Their vocalizations and singing by the actors popping up alongside the musical performances of Nagauta is spell braking great. Eerie flutes, percussive rattles and shakes, koto glissandi, taiko, etc it is all here, displaying a highly unique musical format that works as addictive as a blast of summer lightning jacked into your veins. The brilliant recording certainly enhances the magic on this document. One of the greatest and most beautiful kabuki recordings out there. Comes housed in a heavy outer box set and with detailed & fully illustrated booklet. KILLER. Price: 200 Euro

84. KABUKI MEIBUTAI SHU: “S/T” (Victor – JL-105) (Record: Near Mint/ Thick Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached 6-Paged Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1967 pressing. Two classic Kabuki pieces. Old and crackly recording of long time ago performance, giving the whole affair a beautiful ghost-like feel. Austere and bone-chilling impressive. Highest possible recommendation!!!! Price: 150 Euro

85. KANKOKU NO KOTEN ONGAKU: “S/T” (Columbia Records – JX-27) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint/ Attached Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint). Rarely seen 1971 original pressing. early & stellar recording of Korean Court Music. Although in style vaguely similar to Japanese gagaku, Korean Court Music is however much rougher in its sonic texture, unpolished in its final refinement and blessed with weird vocals that pop up at the most unexpected times. This rough edge makes this music so much more compelling than its Japanese counter part, so to say it bluntly, this is the free jazz of the Gagaku world if you like. Just dynamite stuff!!! Price: 150 Euro
86. KAWADA ASAKO: “Hamachidori b/w Umi No Chindori” (Victor Records – MV-856-S) (7-Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Picture Sleeve with Booklet: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). Killer 1972 Okinawa Minyo slide. Laidback Sanshin strummings to create the optimal island vibe from the far Southern end of Japan, primitive in its execution, a microcosm of a such larger island society that has created its own genre or style. Male and female lead vocals, call and response surges, this one breathes out that much loved unspoilt Okinawan vibe of the early 1970s, recorded on the spot. Much in demand and hard to get, this one is in pristine condition. Price: 75 Euro
87. KAWADA FUJIE: “Tachamebushi b/w Kunigami Jindouyou” (Victor Records – MV-794-S) (7-Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Picture Sleeve with Booklet: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). Okinawa Minyo field recording from 1972, up-tempo groover of a music that is drenched in the past yet so of the moment. Female wailing vocals that seem to span epochs within a single syllable, blessed with a curios yowl recalling unspoiled rites from times long gone. Another hard to track down but highly acclaimed Okinawa slide to enlighten the southern island aural landscape. Price: 75 Euro
88. KIMURA WAKAE: “Tenpo Rokkasen – Kouchiyamagenkansaki” (Teichiku Records – NL-2140) (Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint). Legendary recording by this Roukyoku performer who was active as a minor Roukyoku singer who recorded most of his material in between 1950 and 1960s. On this recording here, Kimura accompanies himself on a roughly strung rural Tsugaru shamisen, bringing forth highly agitated Roukyoku or Naniwa Bushi as it is also called. Naniwa Bushi was basically short and lively songs accompanied by recitation that developed out of long and monotonous bosama performances of kudoki during the early decades of the 20th century. Naniwa Bushi or Roukyoku thus developed out of a variety of popular sung narrative styles that were popular during the Edo period, especially those known as chongare and saimon. Up until the late 19th century these styles were almost solely performed by quasi-religious beggars known as gannin bozu (or petitioned monks) and yamabushi (mountain ascetics). These monk-like performers toured the cities and countryside, spreading the chongare and saimon styles wherever they went, whose narratives in time merged into and became Naniwa Bushi. The effect of Naniwa Bushi on itinerant performers during those early days was tremendous and the new genre included a large variety of vocal styles, ranging from speech-like recitation to lyrical singing, all accompanied by harsh weather-beaten Tsugaru shamisen strummings (the use of Tsugaru shamisen in Naniwa Bushi is solely confined to the high north region of Japan following the Naniwa Bushi craze to hit the Tsugaru region around the 1910’s and lasting for several decades). For this particular recording, Tomogawa opens up with an agitated wailing recitation for which she accompanies himself on a heavily bashi-slashed shamisen, wailing away like a beached seal during mating season. While his nasal vocal tone keeps on beating down your ears like a harsh northern wind unleashing its full force on the snow covered barren landscape, his shamisen slapping hits you unrelentingly in the face like a soar cracked whip, viciously and violently. The whole record consists out of two side long tracks, which form one long epic tale filled with wailing vocals and spoken narrations, never too long because always Kimura turns up in between them whacking you back, forth and sideways with his beached whale like nasal vocals. His voice reverberates and resonates all over this recordings, a deep gravel voice unlike anything you have ever heard. It is bewitchingly transcendent, witch-like intoxicating and above all she delivers a ear-bleedingly awesome, captivating and tantalizing experience that it is hard to keep a focus on what really is going on. In short, this is EPIC…a Spartan and almost skeleton experience that can only emanate out of an underdog operation. EPIC on all fronts. Original early 1960s pressing. Price: 75 Euro
89. KIYOMOTO HATSUEI DAYU & KIYOMOTO KOJURO: "Yamagae - Onna Kuruma Biki" (Toshiba Records - TM-5061) (Red Wax 10 Inch LP Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Mint). Rare early 1960s pressing all complete with rare obi. Amazing slide, rattling percussion, minimal flute waves, shamisen strumming are the setting against which wailing vocals are set loose, meandering over two sidelong tracks. Recording quality is top notch, the pressing is pristine, allowing for the listener to be transported back to a feudal Japan, Edo period back in full swing with you sitting in a tatami room and getting served by beautiful geishas all while enjoying the musical performance right in front of you. Amazing slab of history. Price: 100 Euro
90. KIYOMOTO SHIKODAYU: "Kisen" (Victor Records - LR-558) (10 Inch Lp Record: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Flipback Jacket: Excellent ~ Near Mint). Rare 1961 first original pressing of beautiful slide, centered around shamisen, flute and sparse percussion, setting the pace for an epic female wailing vocal serenade that yet has to meet its equal. Bone-chilling and hair-raising bewitchingly beautiful. I live for this shit, hardcore minimalism in action! Top copy. Price: 50 Euro
91. KIYOMOTO SHIZUDAYU: “Kanda Matsuri – Hana Gatami” (Columbia – CL-27) (10 Inch LP – Excellent/ Flip Back Jacket: Excellent). Original 1958 pressing. Stripped down to the bare essentials and bare-knuckled female chanteuse Kiyomoto Shizudayu accompanies herself on shamisen/ koto for a brutally honest session. She wails away in a high pitched elderly voice, bridging epochs within a single syllable. Pretty deep rural stuff, hardcore inaka hardness that is impervious to any trend and style and excelling in an austere intimacy. Gives me the chills every time I blast this one at full throttle through the speakers. Price: 40 Euro
92. KOMATSU MIDORI: “Akita Funagatabushi b/w Akita Obako” (Victor – MVK-47) (EP Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Picture Sleeve with Insert: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). Original 1962 pressing of great jiving minyo ball buster. straight out of the snow-beating high northen prefecture of Akita. If this does not freeze your nuts of in bewildrement, nothing will do it for you then... Price: 30 Euro

93. KOMORI KIYOMOTO with Kiyomoto Shizudayu & Kiyomoto Eiji:Kiyomoto Komori” (Columbia – CL-9) (Record: Excellent 〜 Near Mint/ Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint). Original 1957 pressing. Price: 100 Euro

94. KORA, BALAFON & PERCUSSIONS DU SENEGAL: “S/T” (Arion – ARN-33602) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint). Price: 30 Euro
95. KOSUGI MAKIKO & SUZUKI MASAO: “Hachinohe Kouta b/w Nambu Tawara Tsumi Uta” (Victor – MV-2106) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Flipback Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ 6-Page Insert: Near Mint). Awesome Matsuri-style groover out of the high north of the Aomori Prefecture. A bit more professionally executed, aimed at a larger locals-only audience for their festival pleasures. Swings nicely and gives another look at another side of northern hip shakers. The B-side is a great female – children all and response styled song again aimed for your matsuri sake drenched pleasures. Killer tune with signature on label!!!! Price: 45 Euro
96. KYOGEN: “Jou” (Victor – SJ-3009 1~3) (3 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ 54-Paged Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint/ Outer Box: Near Mint). Noh play recorded and released in 1964. Being a stage art that shares Noh's roots in Sangaku, Kyogen has had deep links with Noh since early times. The main difference between the two forms is that Kyōgen is connected with laughter, which is an emotional state not usually expressed within Noh. Because Sangaku was characterized by comedy, one can argue that it was Kyōgen that inherited and carried on Sangaku’s original form. Kyōgen apparently first emerged as an independent art form during the Warring States period (1467-1568), when it already began appearing on performance programs alongside Noh plays. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of Kyōgen: Hon-Kyōgen, which are discreet plays performed between Noh plays; and Ai-Kyōgen, or simply Ai, which is performed during the interludes within Noh plays and is thus integral to the Noh performance themselves. The term “Kyōgen” used by itself usually refers to Hon-Kyōgen, as is the case with these recordings here. Hon-Kyōgen generally involve two or three actors who lead the audience to gentle laughter through dialogue performed in a conversational style, and through carefully honed gestures. The music to accompany this all is carried by flutes, sparce percussive instruments and minimal string accompaniments at times, making it an austere, yet upbeat affair. Voices pop up over the over and underneath the musical accompaniment, making it deceptively casual but yet it is extremely meticulous in its execution. Striking music, minimalistic in its appearance but utterly exciting when listening to it as the tracks are long and elaborate. Rare first pressing box set! Price: 150 Euro
97. LYRICHORD – FOLK MUSIC OF AFGHANISTAN: “S/T” (Lyrichord – LLST-7230) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Insert: Mint). First pressing housed in thick jacket, different from later issues. Price: 20 Euro
98. LYRICHORD – MOROCCAN FOLK MUSIC: “S/T” (Lyrichord – LLST-7229) (Record: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Jacket: Excellent). First pressing housed in thick jacket, different from later issues. Price: 45 Euro
99. LYRICHORD – MUSIC OF THE NILE VALLEY: “S/T” (Lyrichord – LLST-7355) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint). Price: 45 Euro
100. LYRICHORD – MUSIC OF THE RAIN FOREST PYGMIES: “S/T” (Lyrichord – LLST-7157) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint). Price: 50 Euro
101. LYRICHORD – VOODOO TRANCE MUSIC ~ RITUAL DRUMS OF HAITI: “S/T” (Lyrichord – LLST-7279) (Record: Mint/ Jacket: Mint). Price: 45 Euro
102. MAEDA KUNIO: "Roei Ogura Hyaku Ninisshu" (CBS Sony - SOJH-1) (Record: Near Mint ~ Mint/ gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Maeda Kunio was a kind of a living treasure, beholding the 8-Dan degree in reading/ reciting and singing into life the deep traditional but highly difficult Japanese card game. On this rare recording he is reciting and singing into life the transcriptions that come on these old Edo Period card, turning the whole affair into a mind boggling vocal only minimal head trip. His nasal voice resonates beyond the empty canyons of your mind, making it a very meditatative & blissful listening experience. Recordings of this kind are a true bitch to unearth as no living soul was ever interested in them. Now times are changing and one dusts of these recordings only to discover a sonic universe that is head-splittingly awesome. Never saw a copy of this one before, finally could find one in absolutely top condition & with obi. Minimalistic masterpiece!!! Price: 75 Euro
103. MINYO – FURUSATO MEGURI: “Hokkaido Hen” (First Record Ind. – FCM-12) (Record: Near Mint/ jacket: Near Mint). Rare private press issue on small label that tried to cut into the market of the big boys but sadly folded up pretty quickly. Still they succeeded in churning out a string of excellent releases, documenting minor local artists. Sadly, their releases are very hard to find these days. This one here focuses on the northern island of Hokkaido and it delivers! Amazing male and female belching wailers delivering some blood churning awesome local minyo and soran bushi favorites. Absolutely killer but damned hard to dig up. Top condition issue! Price: 75 Euro
104. MINYO TOKORO DOKORO: “Kanto - Koshin Hen” (Toshiba Records – TF-5026) (Record: Excellent 〜 Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint but has some very mild foxing due to age visible within the gatefold/ Obi: Near Mint). Original late 1960s first original pressing that comes housed in stunning gatefold jacket art and all complete with first issue obi. Another vital slab of Japanese rural recording splendor, this time focusing on the Niigata, Nagao, Kanagawa, Yamagata, Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, Gunma and Ibaraki areas. These field recording represent a wide variety of traditional Japanese dances with ranging subject matters such as draught, famine, harvest etc. The recording captures both the music and the noises, which adds additional energy and depth to the music and draws the listener in further. Recordings of a decaying culture that slowly gets eaten up and spit out by the 21st century. Beautiful and vibrant. Price: 50 Euro
105. MISHIMA REIKO:Aki No Irokusa b/w Sagi Musume" (Columbia Records - SA-3096) (EP Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). Original 1963 pressing of again another "less is more" and "stripped down to the bare essentials" recording of beached whale like howling female vocals set against a backing of shamisen, the sparest of percussive rattles and cold as ice primitive flute blowing. Jaw-dropping astonishing, can't get enough of this stuff. Essential. Price: 40 Euro
106. MISHIMA YUKIO: “Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki” (Columbia Records: CLS-5112) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet Inside Gatefold: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Damned obscure and rare 1969 Rokyoku/ Noh recordings staged by celebrated novelist and writer Mishima and adorned by the killer artwork by the hand of Yooko Tadanori. A white whale amongst Japanese records and also a quite obscure one to boot. Fantastic Rokyoku/ Noh Gaku inspired masterpiece, Mishima Yukio shines throughout, with his nasal wailing vocal style, backed up by an equally background call-and-response female vocal counter actor while all the time he gets backed up by some minimalistic shamisen strummings, giving the already skeleton performance more undercurrents of depth. Here, Mishima performs a collection of narratives, songs and rites with biwa and shamisen, not unlike embodying a twentieth-century apparition of the medieval biwa/ shamisen hoshi. The recording presented here documents a rare performance and while listening you get a sense of the strength of Mishima’s voice that he retained as well as illustrating the variety of vocal types and delivery styles. The LP is comprised out of two sidelong epical pieces, making this set a valuable addition to your collection if interested in field recordings, sounds from times long gone and extinct. Recordings were made in 1969 and document a hollow-eyed musical legacy that is balancing on the brink of total extinction. This comes with the highest possible recommendation. This is the deep stuff, emanating out of the cultural underbelly of a dying tradition and makes the hairs on my neck stand straight up. Ghostly almost and so stunning…. Original 1st pressing in pristine condition. Comes complete with hideously rare obi present!!! Price: Offers!!!!
107. MIYAGI MICHIO: “Miyagi Michio Tesaku Hen Dai 4 Shu” (Victor Records – LR-523) (10 Inch LP Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint/ Insert: Excellent). Scare 1958 original very first press issue. Legendary recording by koto master Miyagi Michio with shakuhachi flute accompaniment. Stuff of legends by legendary performer. Top shape. Price: 75 Euro
108. MURATA HIDEO: “Roukyoku – Kutsukake Tokijiro” (Columbia Records – DL-61) (10 Inch Lp Record: Excellent/ Flip Back Jacket: Excellent). Rare 1961 original pressing of reknowed Rokyoku performance of famed story that even had its cinematographic version. Here performed by the master Murata, gifted singer, set against an Showa-era orchestrated background against which the story unfolds itself…pathos flows freely. Awesome, a motion picture old skool for your ears and vivid hallucinations. Price: 50 Euro
109. MUSIC FROM THE TAUSUG OF SULU: “Moslems Of The Southern Philippines – Vol. 1 Instrumental Music & Vol. 2 Vocal Music” (Ethnosound – EST-8000/1) (2 LP Set: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ 12 Paged Fully Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint). Original 1970 press. and a very rare privately released 2 LP set. This label and only 3 releases - all of which are extremely hard to come by - and this 2 LP set is so killer that it will leave you baffled for days on end. originally released in 1970 as a small univerity pressed release, this 2 LP set is devided over one LP devoted to instrumental music and one LP focussing its attention to vocal music. The whole affair is filled with austere drumsd and primitive gongs, creating a sonic world that stands out on its own. The vocal slide is sparce and rescued from any instrumental ornamentation and sets vocal renditions against background noises and sounds of rurarl village life of insects and crying babies. In short, this is one of my all time favorite ethnografic recordings. bewitchingly beautiful and filled with haunting poetic beauty, panoramic sound clusters floating througha a shamanistic sense of microcosmic exploratory sound. This recordings has a gift for unexpected impact, busy folding and manipulating space, endowed with so much beauty that gives this skeletal music undercurrents of depth that is deceprively intense, causla in feel, yet meticulous in its musical detail and lyrical economy. Very rare and small pressing, but so amazing. Price: 175 Euro

110. MUSIC OF MINORITIES IN THE NORTHWESTERN THAILAND: “S/T” (Victor Records – SJ-1010~2) (3 LP Record: Near Mint/ Outer Box: Excellent/ Obi: VG++ - lower side wear/ 38-Paged Illustrated book: Near Mint). Stunning Japan only 3LP box issue that came out in 1980 and compiles field recordings put down to take during the period of 1974 up until 1980 from Thailand’s hill tribes. The whole affair was undertaken by Japanese anthropologists and ethno-musicologists and released by Victor as an audio verité document. The end result is a compelling and stunning crystal-clear aural voyage into Thailand’s ethnic minority tribes hiding out in the mountainous hinterland. The music spread over 3 LP’s is extremely varied and highly unique, so far removed from your daily Thailand tourist trap musical outings. Instead you get immersed into a sonic world that has remained largely hidden and unspoiled from outside influences. Male and female solo vocal excursions that come over like some ghostly sounds drifting on a dense fog hovering above the panoply of trees. Eerie and devoid of any time, it is bewitchingly beautiful. Other recordings bring a range of instruments into the mix such as Idiophones, cymbals, Aerophones, goblet-shaped drums, Membranophones and other animated devices that hurtle in and out of focus. An exploratory trip into a music brimming over with a shamanistic sense of kaleidoscopic beauty! So on display here are a wide arrange of folk songs, sung in various languages, and folk music of various peoples of northwestern Thailand. Recorded in northwestern Thailand, 1975-1980. Program notes and free translations of song texts by Uchida in Japanese with English translation. Highest possible recommendation. Price: 175 Euro

111. MUSICA INDIGENA ALTOS DE CHIAPAS: “S/T” (Museo Nacional De Antropologia – MNA-04) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Excellent). Rare Mexican university pressing from 1968 documenting ethnic sounds from the country. Original 1968 issue. Not your usual mexican tourist fare but instead you get soaked into a vortex of highly original rural sounds that at times sweat out heavy vibes. University/ museum pressing of days long gone. Price: 50 Euro
112. MUSIQUE TRADITIONELLE ARABE Sur Bousoq: “Par Matar Mohamed” (Disques Alvares – C.468) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Price: 30 Euro

113. NAGAUTA: “Fuji – Musume” (Columbia – CL-2) (10 Inch Record: Mint/ Jacket: Mint). Original 1957 Japan 1st original pressing. Nagauta is kabuki theater music born in Edo (former Tokyo) in the late 17th century at the era of Tsunayoshi Tokugawa, the 5th Edo shogun whose term of office was 1680 – 1709. Originally, nagauta played the role of background music to express various sound effects: expressing the feelings to go with spoken lines of kabuki actors by songs and shamisens, the sound of rain and wind by accompanied drums, haunted sound when a ghost is appearing, and so on. This here is a classic piece and one of the earliest recordings of it. Price: 75 Euro

114. NAGAUTA: “Renshishi” (Columbia Records – CLS-5005) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint). Original 1961 first press issue in top condition. Classic and vintage Nagauta recording that to these ears is one of the more bewitchingly beautiful ones to sit through, more eerie sounding and blessed with that dusted sound one comes to love when it comes to old recordings. The execution is flawless, the tension is spell binding. Utterly devastatingly great. Original press. Price: 75 Euro

115. NAGAUTA: “Kanjincho” (Columbia – CLS-5001) (Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint). Original 1960 first original pressing of legendary Nagauta recording. First performed in 1840 by Ichikawa Danjuro VII (1791 - 1859), this is not only one of the most popular plays in the Kabuki repertory, but the music of Nagauta is also extremely famous as well. Like the Noh orchestra, which always appears on stage, the Nagauta ensemble also appears sitting along the back of the stage, which is an imitation of the stage of the classical Noh theater with its painting of a pine on the back wall. The play is set after the wars between the Genji and Heike clans. Although Yoritomo, the head of the Genji clan, is now shogun in Kamakura, he suspects his brother Yoshitsune of treason, even though Yoshitsune is the general that made this military victory possible. Now Yoshitsune and his small band of followers, including the warrior-priest Benkei, are trying to escape to the northeastern country. Benkei has had the entire party disguised as mountain priests collecting funds to rebuild Todaiji temple, burned down in the battles between the Genji and Heike. Yoshitsune is disguised unobtrusively as their porter. However, to stop them, Yoritomo has set up new barriers on every highway, including one at Ataka, near the city of Kanazawa, with express orders to stop mountain priests. Togashi is the keeper of the barrier at Ataka. When Yoshitsune and his party appear, he strictly refuses to let them through. Benkei tells the others to prepare for their final prayers and death. Togashi relents a bit, and says that if they are collecting funds for a temple, they must have a "Kanjincho," or "subscription list," an imperial document in extremely difficult language. Benkei takes out a blank scroll and reads from it, making up the ornate text as he goes along. Togashi then questions Benkei on several points of Buddhist theology and he passes. Togashi allows them to go, but one of his followers notices that the porter looks like Yoshitsune. Benkei has no choice but to treat his lord Yoshitsune as a mere porter, beating him and offering to beat him to death if necessary. This is in an age when it was unthinkable for a retainer to resist his lord in any way. Although he knows that this is Yoshitsune, Togashi allows them to go, knowing that this also probably means that he will have to commit ritual suicide for his failure in duty. When the party is alone, Benkei is heartbroken for having beaten his master, but Yoshitsune holds out his hand in forgiveness. For the first time in his life, Benkei weeps, then, in dance, recounts the many episodes of the difficulties he and Yoshitsune have faced together. At this point, Togashi appears again and offers wine to them. Benkei drinks an enormous amount and then dances. At the height of the dance, he quietly motions the others to leave and they continue on their road of escape. As the play ends, alone on the hanamichi runway, Benkei gives thanks to the heavens and the earth for protecting his master. Then he follows them with the special Kabuki step called a flying roppo. The recording features the Nagauta music used at the moment Benkei and Yoshitsune are reconciled after the happenings at the barrier, then there is the livelier music that describes the many battles they have gone through together. Price: 75 Euro

116. NAGAUTA: “Aki No Iro Kusa” (Columbia – CLS-7) (10 Inch LP Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint) Original September 1961 pressing in top condition. This piece was written in 1845 to celebrate the rebuilding of the mansion of the Nambu clan in the Azabu district of Edo. The lord himself wrote the text and the music composed by Kineya Rokuzaemon X (1800 - 1858). It is a famous example of a piece that was always intended to be performed as pure concert music with no relationship to the Kabuki theater. The section in the recording includes a description of the garden of the mansion in autumn and there is a lengthy instrumental interlude that is supposed to evoke the sounds of insects in the garden. Price: 75 Euro

117. NAGAUTA: “Eichigo Kushiko / Kurama Yama” (Victor Records – JL-11) (Record: Near Mint/ jacket: Near Mint). Very rare and obscure Nagauta recording, this one was released back in 1959. Recording quality is stellar. The essence of the poetical evoking power of nagauta (kabuki theatre accompaniment music), played by the Kineya Ensemble, one of the best Japanese chamber orchestras, which includes voice, shamisen lutes, fue flute, and kotsuzumi, otsuzumi and taiko drums. The Japanese nagauta style of singing is used to accompany the well-known Japanese dance theater of kabuki. The songs are mainly accompanied by a shamisen player, as well as two percussionists and two flutists. At the beginning, the shamisen was used to accompanied singers, in a style called jiuta. In the 17th century, in Edo (today's Tokyo), musicians started to use it to sing long dramatic narratives called Edo nagauta. At that time, kabuki theater started to use a shamisen ensemble to accompany dances and developed the nagauta style of singing, which quickly became the typical style of kabuki singing. These recordings here from 1956 and released in 1959 are nothing short but electrifying. Hardly surfaces at all. Top condition. Price: 80 Euro
118. NAGAUTA:Asazumabune / Shihogumi” (Victor – LR-524) (Record: Excellent/ Jacket: Excellent). Original and bloody rare 1958 pressing of absolutely stunning Nagauta performance. Object wise it is getting extremely hard to unearth records from that age. Most of them that were released in the 1950s got discarded when people moved house and thrown out so it is a small wonder finding this one. That aside, the music and the mruky old recording are spellbinding. Price: 75 Euro
119. NAGAUTA: "Yoshimura Ijiro plays Sagi Musume" (Columbia Records - CL-71) (10 Inch LP Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint). Damned scare 1959 first original pressing, an early rendition and recording of well-know Nagauta classic, Sagi Musume. First time I have a copy of this early recording. Awesome. Price: 50 Euro
120. NAKAYAMA KOJUUROU: “Kouta Sakuhinshuu” (Victor Records – JL-208〜9-S) (2 LP Record: VG++ ~ Excellent/ Gatefold Jacket: Excellent). 1973 original press of brutally spartan 2 LP recording. Austere female singing set against a minimal backing of shamisen and desolate flute tones, bringing sadness on a cold windy breeze. Listening to this, makes the hairs on your neck stand up. Bone-chilling honest and initmate music, graced with a loneliness that is not of this planet. The backing is Spartan, almost skeleton and resembles an underdog artistic operation going to hell. The whole affair is jangled with defiance and despair, embryonic and graced with sheer lust for unpolished raw sounds. This is pre-war Japanese blues if you like, sweating out heavy rural vibes. Awesome. Price: 75 Euro
121. NATSUZAKA KIKUO: “Tochu Umagata Bushi b/w nanbu Umagata Mitsu Kudori” (Toshiba – TP-11409) (7-Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Triple gatefold Picture Sleeve: Excellent/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). Austere Minyo belter out of Aomori’s Hachinohe! Strong bachi-slashed shamisen attacks underscore wailing male vocals, belting without an end in sight. Deep northern Minyo vibes that could have only originated out of the cold weather beaten Aomori region. Price: 60 Euro
122. NI HON MAI ODORI ONGAKU: “Keifu To Kosei - Dai Ni Shuu Koseihen Dai Isshu (Victor Records – SJ-3013 13) (3 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Cloth Bound Heavy Box Set: Mint/ Thick Fully illustrated & Annotated Booklet: Mint/ OBI: Mint). Killer 3 LP box set, that was released way back in 1965. This is the 1st original pressing. It documents some minimal Japanese traditional music that was mainly used for Noh and Kabuki plays. The music on this set focuses on Japanese dance movements that featured in those plays, bringing forth minimalistic sounds, sparse instrumentation and highly well-balanced and executed at precision point playing style. Totally mesmerizing set. First time I have a copy to spare of this one – this is the first one of the series and the only one that came with obi – so here you have an all-complete copy in top condition. Price: 250 Euro
123. NI HON MAI ODORI ONGAKU: “Keifu To Kosei - Dai Ni Shuu Koseihen (Victor Records – SJ-3014 1〜3) (3 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Cloth Bound Heavy Box Set: Mint/ Thick Fully illustrated & Annotated Booklet: Mint). Follow-up set from the one here above. Killer 3 LP box set, that was released way back in 1965. This is the 1st original pressing. It documents some minimal Japanese traditional music that was mainly used for Noh and Kabuki plays. The music on this set focuses on Japanese dance movements that featured in those plays, bringing forth minimalistic sounds, sparse instrumentation and highly well-balanced and executed at precision point playing style. Totally mesmerizing set. First time I have a copy to spare of this one. Price: 150 Euro

124 NI HON KOTEN ONGAKU TAIKEI: “Nagauta” (Victor – 8 LP Set). (8 LP Records: Near Mint/ 8 Individual Record Sleeves: Near Mint/ Outer Box: VG++). Booklet is missing so comes damned cheap. Original early 1970s Japan 1st original pressing. Nagauta is kabuki theater music born in Edo (former Tokyo) in the late 17th century at the era of Tsunayoshi Tokugawa, the 5th Edo shogun whose term of office was 1680 – 1709. Originally, nagauta played the role of background music to express various sound effects: expressing the feelings to go with spoken lines of kabuki actors by songs and shamisens, the sound of rain and wind by accompanied drums, haunted sound when a ghost is appearing, and so on. This here is a classic set and give a glimpse into classic pieces such as Musume Dojoji: Godairiki; Shushaku-Jishi; Ecgigo-Jishi; Kishi-No-Yanagi; Yoshiwara-Suzume; Sankyoku-Ito-No-Shirabe; Ninin-Wankyu; Chikumagawa; Kanjincho; Aki-No-Irokusa; Kishu-Dojoji; Shinkyoku-Urashima; Kibun-Daijin; Tsunayakata; Kokaji and others. Price: 50 Euro

125. V.A. – NI HON MINYO MEGURI: “Chuugoku – Shikoku Hen” (Nippon Columbia – DL-4018) (Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Laminated Jacket: Excellent 〜 Near Mint/ Insert: Near Mint/ OBI: Near Mint). Original 1966 first original pressing all complete with damned rare obi. This is hands down easily one of my all-time fave rural minyo hoedown recordings of the Chuugoku & Shikoku areas. It is filled with stupendous agrarian male and female call-and-response jammers, with high-pitched female vox spiking your brain while being subdued to it. The backing instrumentations of sparse koto & shamisen pluckings, at times augmented with desolate shakuhachi blow outs only add to the eerie nature of the music. At other times barren biwa strummings underscore mournful female lamenting that literally gives you goose bumps, it is just bone-chillingly awesome. This is the music of the Japanese people. Nothing else in their history speaks more eloquently or with more immediacy to the subject of their domestic experience. This early Japanese rural music has infused and defined all their popular music of the last 200 years, and in a vicious circle the two have constantly fed off each other on various occasions. This is a music without peer, being at one and the same time joyous, plaintive, sensual and transcendent. It's unbridles power paradoxically forms an irresistible tandem with it's touching warmth, and the rhythms are of such a delightful nature as to animate the spirit as well as the legs. This grand music is also, unfortunately, a thing of the past — dwindling slowly out of modern civilization and in time it will likely not be seen again. Stunning collection but sadly enough also damned rare all complete with obi, only took me 7 years to track down this copy. Price: 100 Euro

126. NI HON MINYO NO SUBETE: “S/T - Jou” (Victor Records – JV-1064~5-S) (2 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Heavy Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). First time I can find a copy all complete with obi of this wonderful 2 LP` set. First volume of a 2 x 2 LP set documenting killer Rural Japan Minyo & Matsuri in-the-field happenings, recorded during the mid and late 1960s and covering a fast area ranging from the high northern prefecture of Hokkaido, Niigata, Aomori, Yamagata etc. and slowing moving southwards heading into Iwate, Miyazaki, Fukushima, Chiba, Tottori, Ishikawa, Kumamoto, Okayama and Fukuoka. Deliriously great rural recordings filled with wailing voices, primitive percussive rattles, etc. Comes housed in stunning gatefold psychedelic artwork. One of the highlight recordings on this scene. Highly recommended!!!!! Price: 75 Euro

127. NI HON MINYO NO SUBETE: “S/T - Ge” (Victor Records – JV-1066〜7-S) (2 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Heavy Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). First time ever I can find a copy all complete with obi for this glorious set! The follow-up and equally stunning rural Japan Minyo & Matsuri recordings, taped during the mid and late 1960s and covering a fast area ranging from the high northern prefecture of Hokkaido, Niigata, Aomori, Yamagata etc and slowing moving southwards heading into Iwate, Miyazaki, Fukushima, Chiba, Tottori, Ishikawa, Kumamoto, Okayama and Fukuoka. Deliriously great rural recordings filled with wailing voices, primitive percussive rattles, etc. Comes housed in stunning gatefold psychedelic artwork. One of the highlight recordings on this scene. Highly recommended!!!!! Price: 75 Euro
128. NI HON NO GAKKI TO ONGAKU: “S/T” (Prince – Private press) (2 LP Set: Near Mint/ gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Bloody rare and obscure Japanese ethnics compilation private pressing that was released as an educational record way back in 1961. Top condition. Price: 60 Euro
129. NI HON RYYOKYOKU ZENSHU: “S/T” (Columbia Records – AL-4018~20) (3 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Heavy gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). Hardly ever surfaces, this massive 3 LP set, released in 1961. Classic Rokyoky madness, epic tales set against minimal backing, listening to this feels like sitting bare-chested in a snowstorm. Price: 50 Euro
130. NI HON MINYO TOKUSENSHU: “S/T” (Teichiku – NL-2025) (Record: Excellent/ Tip Back Jacket: Excellent) Bloody rare original 1st pressing from 1962. This is one of the single-greatest Japanese ethnic recordings ever, filled with wailing female singers, austere instrumentation to celebrate harvest and other rural traditions from times long gone. First copy I have to spare in 8 years time. This one never fails to rock my world beyond infinity. Price: 75 Euro
131. NI HON MINYO SHU: “Koshin Etsu Hen” (Kodama – KS-154 – 1~4) (4 Flexi Records: Near Mint/ Book Jacket with 14 fully illustrated pages: Near Mint). Released in the late 1960 as a set of 4 flexi discs, this set focuses on rural Minyo recordings out of the high north of Niigata and Nagano prefectures. Beautiful issued set and ridiculously rare as most of these flexi releases were briefly enjoined and then cast away. It is a small miracle that this one survived in such pristine condition. All the flexi’s are pressed on red wax. Price: 75 Euro
132. NI HON MINYO SHU: “Kyushu Hen Dai Isshu” (Kodoma – KS-16 1~4) (4 Flexi Records: Near Mint/ Book Jacket with 14 fully illustrated pages: Near Mint). Released in the late 1960 as a set of 4 flexi discs, this set focuses on rural Minyo recordings out of the Kyushu Island region. Beautiful issued set and ridiculously rare as most of these flexi releases were briefly enjoined and then cast away. It is a small miracle that this one survived in such pristine condition. All the flexi’s are pressed on azure blue colored wax. Price: 75 Euro

133. NI HON NO MINZOKU ONGAKU DAI 1 KAN: “Kagura” (Victor – SJL-2166~8-M) (3 LP Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Box: Near Mint ~ Mint/ 16 paged Booklet with cover imprinted gold ink on black heavy textured paper: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Obi: Excellent). Splendid 3 LP box set lifting the veil on Kagura – a special type of Shinto ceremonial dance. Literally, Kagura means entertaining the gods. It is a sacred Japanese dance and music ritual dedicated to the gods of Shinto. Since ancient times, it has been performed at regional festivals as a ceremony to pray for a good harvest and to ward off natural disasters. The origin of kagura is not accurately known but it is believed to originate in the Amano-Iwato story, which is one of the myths described in Japan's oldest historical record, Kojiki (written approximately 1,300 years ago). The kind of music and ritual used exclusively in the imperial palace grounds is called mi-kagura; that in large Shintō shrines, o-kagura; and Shintō music for local shrines, sato-kagura. The suzu bell tree used is among the earliest-known Japanese instruments and can be found in all such events; and the equally ancient wagon zither can be heard in the palace rituals and sometimes in the larger shrines. General Shintō chanting (norito) is rather straightforward, whereas the surviving music of mi-kagura is more complex. Male choruses singing in unison (all at the same pitch) are accompanied by the hichiriki double-reed, a kagura-bue flute, the wagon zither, and the periodic rhythmic markings of a pair of long, thin shaku byōshi clappers. The music for mi-kagura ceremonies is divided into two types: one to praise the spirits or seek their aid (torimono), the other to entertain the gods (saibari) in the tradition of the mythological amusements given before the Sun Goddess. Perhaps the most-famous surviving dance suite from the Shintō tradition is Azuma asobi (The Entertainment of Eastern Japan), which can be seen as a courtly reflection of the agricultural base of Japan in its annual performances during the spring equinox and the summer solstice. The work is said to be an imitation of the dance of a heavenly maiden who performed on the beach of Suruga in the 6th century. Azuma asobi, along with bugaku dances, may be seen at many other imperial, national, and shrine occasions—dim but nevertheless impressive reflections of the colorful courtly life of the Japan of centuries ago. Mi-kagura is exclusively a male event, but Shintō female dancers (miko) are found in other shrines. Historical documents show that the Heian court appreciated the value of female dancers and their music. In later times the Heian-originated shirabyōshi female dancer-musicians became important elements in the transfer of courtly and religious traditions into later theatrical forms. Although the influence of Shintō music in the Japanese music traditions is evident, the major source of religious musical influence is found elsewhere, in the Buddhist temples. Price: 250 Euro

134. NI HON NO MINZOKU ONGAKU DAI 4 KAN: “Dengaku – Furyuu” (Victor – SJL-2175~7-M) (3 LP Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Box: Near Mint ~ Mint/ 16 paged Booklet with cover imprinted gold ink on black heavy textured paper: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Obi: Mint). Dengaku or “field drama” comes from when hayashi or songs were performed during the planting of fields in ancient times. It used to be a ritual performed by the common people to pray to the gods of the field for a rich harvest and developed into an art form by the middle half of the Heian era. Also from the Kamakura era through the Muromachi era, dengaku odori, or “Dengaku dance” was popular as a performance art to dedicate shrines and temples, and this was also known as Dengaku. Dengaku Odori is a vibrant instrumental dance, in which both sangaku acrobatics coming from China in the Nara era and comedic arts are performed, and there are thought to have been many different plays. Through the middle part of the Kamakura era, Dengaku and Sarugaku were deeply related and competed in performing Noh, with both having a great effect on the other. From the second half of the Muromachi era, Dengaku went into decline with the flourishing of Japanese Sarugaku but still exists today as a folk art. With Furyuu, the series kicks off in a wide variety of Japanese flute music and spread this over several boxes that follow.  Bamboo flutes, hichiriku and others all pass the revue, emanating diverse styles and sounds depending on which area or prefecture they are originating from. Compelling music. Price: 250 Euro

135. NI HON NO MINZOKU ONGAKU DAI 5 KAN: “Furyuu” (Victor – SJL-217880-M) (3 LP Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Box: Near Mint ~ Mint/ 16 paged Booklet with cover imprinted gold ink on black heavy textured paper: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Obi: Mint). Another in depth box set, documenting various types of rural wind instruments, flutes and its accompanying song and percussive rattles and shakes. A wide range of styles pass along, as used in various festivity settings, rural festivals, fertility rites, harvest songs and so much more. Ear-bleedingly great. Price: 250 Euro

136. NI HON NO MINZOKU ONGAKU DAI 6 KAN: “Furyuu” (Victor – SJL-218183-M) (3 LP Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Box: Near Mint ~ Mint/ 16 paged Booklet with cover imprinted gold ink on black heavy textured paper: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Obi: Mint). Another in depth box set – follow-up volume to the one listed above, documenting various types of rural wind instruments, flutes and its accompanying song and percussive rattles and shakes. A wide range of styles pass along, as used in various festivity settings, rural festivals, fertility rites, harvest songs and so much more. Era-bleedingly great. The wide range of styles is astonishing, making that multiple sets were necessary to document it all. Top shape, hallucinatory great! Price: 250 Euro

137. NI HON NO MINZOKU ONGAKU DAI 7 KAN: “Furyuu” (Victor – SJL-2184~6-M) (3 LP Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Box: Near Mint ~ Mint/ 16 paged Booklet with cover imprinted gold ink on black heavy textured paper: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Obi: Mint). Another in depth box set, documenting various types of rural wind instruments, flutes and its accompanying song and percussive rattles and shakes. A wide range of styles pass along, as used in various festivity settings, rural festivals, fertility rites, harvest songs and so much more. Filled with eerie wind instruments, primitive percussive rattles and shakes, chorus like vocals and shouts, another essential set shedding more clarity on Japanese rural music from out of another era. Killer. Price: 250 Euro

138. NI HON NO MINZOKU ONGAKU DAI 9 KAN: “Katarimono – Bugaku - Ennen” (Victor – SJL-2190~2-M) (3 LP Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Box: Near Mint ~ Mint/ 16 paged Booklet with cover imprinted gold ink on black heavy textured paper: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Obi: Mint). Extremely beautifully packaged and illustrated box set documenting and shedding some light upon rural folk music and dances of Japan, recorded all in remote villages, the music on display was and is on the brink of extinction due to the 20th century making vast progress in order to bring modernity to the far outback and dragging along in its wake the demise of century old native expression forms. This set forms one in a series of 13 sets that Victor Records released in 1975. Each set came out in an edition of 1000 copies but I am afraid that about 50% was taken out of circulation and melted down due to depressive sales. Hell, who would even want to buy such “Japanese primitive howlers and shamanistic song and dances” when the bubble economy is in full swing. Still, the music it beholds is just breathtakingly great. All recorded in mono of course, the sound, rituals and dances give a glimpse upon rural traditions, such as songs to secure a good harvest, sword yielding songs/ dances/ eerie vocal excursions, loads of wind instruments, various field recording snippets, primitive taiko and percussive rattles, and so much more. An awesome set. The box is filled with rural oddities, shamanistic induced music recordings, spoken word intersections, filed recordings and so much more. This was the real underground Japan, a sonic slab of historical recordings that you didn’t even knew existed in the first place. This box (one in a series of 13) was released in 1975. It hardly had any commercial potential whatsoever so it is not surprising that copies are scarce these days. Here you have an excellent copy of such a set, a 3 LP box filled with voices from a distant and long gone past. Hard to come by, especially in such pristine condition. Price: 250 Euro

139. NI HON NO MINZOKU ONGAKU DAI 10 KAN: “Bugaku – Ennen” (Victor – SJL-2193〜5-M) (3 LP Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Box: Near Mint ~ Mint/ 16 paged Booklet with cover imprinted gold ink on black heavy textured paper: Near Mint/ Obi: Mint). One of the greatest and hard to find series depicting Japanese rural & traditional weird sonics!!! Lavishly illustrated and high fidelity recording box set that focuses this time round on Japanese traditional, rural and imperial Court dance and Court music. Extremely beautifully packaged and illustrated box set that sheds some light upon rural folk music and dances of Japan, recorded all in remote villages, the music on display was and is on the brink of extinction due to the 20th century making vast progress in order to bring modernity to the far outback and dragging along in its wake the demise of century old native expression forms. This set forms one in a series of 13 sets that Victor Records released in 1975. Each set came out in an edition of 1000 copies but I am afraid that about 50% was taken out of circulation and melted down due to depressive sales. The music it beholds is just breathtakingly great. All recorded in mono of course, the sound, rituals and dances give a glimpse upon rural traditions held in temples, courts and palaces scattered over the archipelago, this time all focused on ritualistic music in favor of the Emperor and his household. It contains snippets of Gagaku music, minimal percussive excursions, eerie vocal exclamations, loads of wind instruments, various field recording snippets, primitive taiko and percussive rattles, and so much more. An awesome set.  The box is filled with rural oddities, shamanistic induced music recordings, spoken word intersections, filed recordings and so much more. This was the real underground Japan, a sonic slab of historical recordings that you didn't even knew existed in the first place. This box (one in a series of 13) was released in 1975. It hardly had any commercial potential whatsoever so it is not surprising that copies are scarce these days. Here you have an excellent copy of such a set, a 3 LP box filled with voices from a distant and long gone past. Hard to come by, especially in such pristine condition. Price: 250 Euro

140. NI HON NO MINZOKU ONGAKU DAI 12 KAN: “Okinawa Satsunanshoto” (Victor – SJL-2190~2-M) (3 LP Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Box: Near Mint ~ Mint/ 16 paged Booklet with cover imprinted gold ink on black heavy textured paper: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Obi: Mint). A complete set focusing on the rich vein in Japanese music coming out of the southern tip, Okinawa and more specifically the Satsunanshoto Islands, which belong to the Kagoshima prefecture tends to have music that is somewhere in between Japanese and traditional Okinawan, leaning more towards an Okinawan singing style. Okinawan music includes many old work songs, heartrending ballads and lively kachaashii dance tunes as well as more modern experiments which are often the result of overseas influences. The songs also vary greatly from island to island. In addition to Okinawa itself, the outer island groups of Miyako and Yaeyama as well as Amami to the north all have their own distinctive songs and individual sounds. Extremely beautifully packaged and illustrated box set that sheds some light upon rural folk music and dances of Japan, recorded all in remote villages, the music on display was and is on the brink of extinction due to the 20th century making vast progress in order to bring modernity to the far outback and dragging along in its wake the demise of century old native expression forms. This set forms one in a series of 13 sets that Victor Records released in 1975. Each set came out in an edition of 1000 copies but I am afraid that about 50% was taken out of circulation and melted down due to depressive sales. The music it beholds is just breathtakingly great. All recorded in mono of course, the sound, rituals and dances give a glimpse upon rural traditions held in temples, courts and palaces scattered over the archipelago, this time all focused on ritualistic music in favor of the Emperor and his household. An awesome set. The box is filled with rural oddities, shamanistic induced music recordings, spoken word intersections, field recordings and so much more. This was the real underground Japan, a sonic slab of historical recordings that you didn't even knew existed in the first place. This box (one in a series of 13) was released in 1975. It hardly had any commercial potential whatsoever so it is not surprising that copies are scarce these days. Here you have an excellent copy of such a set, a 3 LP box filled with voices from a distant and long gone past. Hard to come by, especially in such pristine condition. Price: 250 Euro

141. NI HON MINYO NO TABI: “Tohoku Hen – 1” (Victor – FS-5203~6) (4 Flexi Records: Near Mint/ Book Jacket with 14 fully illustrated pages: Excellent ~ Near Mint) Released in the late 1960 as a set of 4 flexi discs, this set focuses on rural Minyo recordings out of the high cold north of Japan, the Tohoku region. Beautiful issued set and ridiculously rare as most of these flexi releases were briefly enjoined and then cast away. It is a small miracle that this one survived in such pristine condition. All the flexi’s are pressed on milky white colored wax. Price: 75 Euro
142. NIIGATA KEN MINYO: “Aikawa Ondo b/w Nagaoka Jinku” (Victor Records – MV-630-S) (7-Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Heavy Cardboard gatefold Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ Attached 4 Paged Insert: near Mint). High tension female vocal Minyo out of the cold of the Niigata prefecture. Classic matsuri vibes from up north, infectious stuff that keeps the cold at bay. The flipside is a more down to earth lethargic vibe, wailing male vocals recalling a beached whale while a stripped own chorus of old women bring in the punctuating effect. The shamisen playing is beautifully rudimentary and the flute accompaniment is stripped down to the bare minimum. Again, this one runs deep, essential Minyo groover for those cold nights. Price: 75 Euro
143. NIPPON MINYO DAISENSHU: “S/T” (Sono Records – SR-16) (Set of 8 Flexi Discs on Red wax: Mint – unplayed/ Hard Cover Book: Mint/ Attached 36-Paged Illustrated Booklet: Mint/ Individually Attached 8 Flexi Record Sleeves: Mint). Stupidly rare but amazing set of 8 flexi slides that come housed in great book-style sleeve, fully illustrated. Must be released around the early 1960s. Copies if they surface at all are mostly trashed due to the fragile nature of the discs but this one here in untouched!!! Awesome collection of Minyo recordings stretching all over japan from the high northern island of Hokkaido down to the far region of Okinawa. Such an eye-popping issue, one of a kind item which behold a vast array of killer ethnic recordings put down to tape during the late 1950 up to the early 1960s. Price: 250 Euro

144. NIPPON NO KOMORI UTA: “S/T” (Victor Records – SJX-2121~4) (4 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Illustrated & Annotated Booklet: Near Mint/ Cloth Covered Outer Box: Near Mint/ Slip Case Catron Wrap Around Obi: Near Mint). Freakingly rare & obscure set that has haunted me for the past decade until I could finally unearth a copy – all complete with booklet and OBI. Released in 1976, this massive4 LP box set offers the most complete audiophile study into the almost completely extinct and wonderful deep rural world of Japanese Komori Uta or nursery rhymes, a sonic world ruled by old ladies living on the fringes of society, taking care of someone else’s kids and masking a deep sorrow and pain that simmers underneath this now dying song form – it is the first time ever I can offer a copy of this ear bleeding beauty. Stunning collection of raw field recordings put down on tape in various rural places spanning the whole of Japan, from the bleak high north of Aomori and Hokkaido and down to the desolated hamlets of Hokkaido and small and sparsely inhabited little islands dotting the sea and back to the bleak and cold high northern prefecture of Japan’s main island. With insertions and reminiscences by luminaries such as Terayama Shuji, the listener gets guided back towards a long forgotten and largely annihilated musical and cultural tradition of forgotten and long extinct bleak rural traditions. The end result is a snapshot of a decaying world that no longer exists except for buried deep into the memories of Alzheimer patients. The collection is mainly erected around bone-chilling recordings of caretakers singing, old women wailing away in desperation with the cold wind blowing away outside, all set in a sparse setting, sometimes not backed up at all but at all times breathing out a bleakness that is omnipresent throughout the high north. It shows the listener at times through these bare sonic pearls, which seems to be a large influence upon the upbringing of children from previous generations. A stunning aural document that could only have been fruited in the desolated rural places, the last frontier where such aural traditions until not so long ago could withstand the change of the times. Never had a copy of this gem before, here is an all complete copy, all complete with thick slipcase OBI and thick fully illustrated booklet. Absolutely hair-raisingly awesome but sadly insanely rare!!!!! Price: Offers!!!

145. NIPPON KINKAKOU: “Namimakura Hakata Tankai” (URC Records – URZ-9002) (Record: Excellent/ gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Insert: Near Mint). The follow-up volume to the above-mentioned first set and the final to see the light of day. Agan crammed with utterly weird and totally wicked rural outsider ramblings that were recorded in the mid 1960s, straight of the the Japanese hinterland and rice paddies. Seriously obscure and totally obsolete recordings of beyond the-bottom-of-the-well rural ramblings. This is the real underground that no one knew about. Seriously wicked and filled with a healthy dose of agricultural superstition, unfound beliefs in omens, charms and prognostics set to minimal musical outings. Unvarnished agronomic & deep hinterland sounds that yet have to be rivaled with. Bone-chillingly awesome!!!!! Price: 125 Euro

146. NOH GAKU BAYASHI HIKYOKUSHU: “Dai Isshu” (Nippon Victor – SLR-501) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Very rare and obscure 1960 first original pressing. One of the musical highlights for me as of recent is this stunning recording from 1960, unfortunately it never made it on CD or any other format which is a shame since the music is so ear-bleedingly stunning, it hurts. The music of this Noh Musical Ensemble (Noh Gaku Bayashi) is similar to an orchestra, consisting of four instruments: the Fue, Ko-tuzumi, Oo-tuzumi and Taiko. The Fue is a transverse flute. The Ko-tuzumi is a small shoulder drum. The Oo-tuzumi is a large drum played on one's knee. The Taiko is a drum played with sticks. There is also a background chorus consisting of 8 or 10 people that make up the group of actors. Beautiful recording filled with intricate rhythms and stunning vocalizations. Late 1950s recording that seldom surfaces. Stunning condition and complete with obi. Price: 100 Euro

147. OCORA: “Anthologie de la Musique des Pygmees Aka Centrafrique” (Ocora – 558.526/ 27/ 28) (3 LP set: Near Mint/ Box Set: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint). First original issue housed in a sturdy box set. The Aka are one of the three groups of Pygmies found in Central Africa today. They are monogamous and settle in small family encampments that comprise parents, children, sons, and daughters-in-law and offspring, groups of thirty to forty persons organized in democratic communities. Pygmy music ,in the image of all their social activities, presents very similar characteristics, that is to say, relative autonomy of each participant within implied but strict structures. The recordings of this anthology, the first to be devoted to a single African people, offer in addition the distinctiveness of having been made in a single encampment, that of the old hunter Mbonzo, a group barely larger than forty persons. Music plays a central role among the Pygmies, there is no day without music. Price: 150 Euro
148. OCORA – BRESIL: “Musiques Du Haut Xingu” (Ocora – 558.517) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Price: 45 Euro
149. OCORA – COTE D’IVOIRE: “Masques Dan” (Ocora – OCR-52) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Price: 45 Euro
150. OCORA – MUSIQUE KONGO: “Ba-Bembe – Ba-Congo – Ba-Congo-Nseke – Ba-Lari” (Ocora Records – OCR-35) (Cloth Covered Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). Recordings made in Democratic Republic of Congo by Charles Duvelle in 1966 and one of the best recordings ever out of the Congo. First press Ocora issue with disc housed in a heavy cloth bound jacket. Getting increasingly difficult these days to unearth those 1st pressings housed in gatefold cloth covered jackets. Price: 150 Euro
151. OCORA – MUSIQUE MALGACHE: “S/T” (Disques Ocora – OCR-24) (Record: Near Mint/ Cloth Bound Gatefold Jacket: Mint/ Attached Booklet: Mint). First press Ocora issue with disc housed in a heavy cloth bound jacket. “This island off the coast of Africa has attracted much attention among fans of interesting guitar music, leading to other music traditions being overlooked. Finding a copy of this excellent entry from the Ocora series will go a long way toward offsetting that problem. These recordings were sponsored by the French national radio RTF, and whatever tax money was spent seemed to go to all the right places. The sound quality of the recordings is superb and the usual fat booklet full of wonderful photos is here, all laid out like a picnic feast. A special thrill for either the professional or strictly amateur musicologist is to hear a piece of music that so directly connects the music of the African and North American continents, and this album really puts its best foot forward by providing a moment such as this on the very first track. The example of "Musique Merina" features an ensemble of flutes and drums that plays a form of intermission music at theatrical events, and the sound will raise goose bumps in its similarity to the drum and fife music of the Mississippi coast as practiced by the likes of Lum Guffin. Another Merina track featuring a group led by Ravolana Fenomanana sounds like music from a Mexican village, featuring low parade drums and several violins. The chanting over the top, however, almost sounds like something off the soundtrack of a low-budget Italian movie about exorcisms. Other highlights include the diatonic accordion as played by Letody Papa, yet another fascinating example of how this instrument keeps showing up in one culture after another. And speaking of exorcisms, the excerpt of "Antandroy Music" comes about as close to one as is comfortable to get on vinyl, featuring some of the music from a ceremony called the kokolampo, which involves putting someone into a trance. The choir here does more than just sing -- the members make sounds on their thighs and create a kind of rhythmic snoring sound, all adding up to an unbelievable track. "Vezo Music" includes a song of encouragement to those who are about to be circumcised, apparently an obscure but cutting-edge (ouch!) genre in African music. A do-it-yourself xylophone that is assembled across the player's legs is naturally known as a "leg xylophone," and is played by Masikoro women in a charming performance. Another track from this tribe includes the jejolava, made out of a long wooden stick with a metal string attached between the ends; the resonator lies flat against the player's stomach and probably helps to cure indigestion. This is played in accompaniment to an antsiva, which is made out of a defunct car horn. It is beautiful sounding stuff; so is the calliope-like "Masikoro Music," which alternates instrumental and vocal sections with a choir. Mahatranga accompanies himself with an empty petrol can, but his instrumental techniques are complex. Kids, don't try this at home: He sometimes sings with his head inside the can, which rests on his shoulders. Meanwhile, he beats the can with his hands. This example of "Antandroy-Antanosy Music" is as bizarre as it sounds. Musique Malgache gets an extremely high rating for its superb quality in just about every facet of production involved in this type of project. The music is truly enjoyable to listen to, engaging on a level that should draw in the uninitiated world music listener as well as those who live and breathe such fascination. These recordings capture life so vividly that one almost senses the dust of history swirling around the music, much of which has an intense rhythmic drive.” (Eugene Chadbourne – All Music Guide) Price: 150 Euro
152. OCORA – MUSIQUE MAURE: “Republique Islamique De Mauritanie” (Ocora Records – OCR-28) (Cloth Covered Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). The Moorish music of Mauritania has hardly been over-represented in the world music market. Although the situation improved slightly in the years since this album was released, there was a time when this Ocora project was the only stop on the bus line for listeners interested in sounds from this land. It is one of the many fine productions done by the Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise and it is a marvelous recording in which the stringed instruments have a rich, tactile sound and the vocalists are particularly intense, even by the standards of African and/or Islamic music. Downtrodden musicians throughout the world might be envious of the position of the professional musician in Mauritania, where they form an elite category or social caste known as "griots." Their music has been handed down from generation to generation as folk music is, but it is music with technical theories as complicated as any Western classical music. In fact, the music of the griots is indeed considered the classical music of this land, and if we are to believe the liner notes, there isn't a whole lot of interest in any other kinds of music. The instruments used on this album other than vocals, drums, and handclapping sounds are the four-stringed lute called a tidinit, and the ardin, an angular-framed harp with around ten strings, the number varying. As is typical with Islamic societies, there are definite rules for men and women: in this case, the man plays the tidinit and the woman plays the ardin. Wisely, the producers have focused on extended tracks featuring both soloists and ensembles rather than a bunch of chopped up little bits. Recording balance might be tilted a bit too heavily toward the drums, but this is a flaw some listeners may wind up enjoying. A great album, but it could have been more generous in playing time. This is somewhat made up for with 12 pages of liner notes, including beautiful portrait photography and quite a bit of information about griot musical theory and modes.” (Eugene Chadbourne). First press Ocora issue with disc housed in a heavy cloth bound jacket. Getting increasingly difficult these days to unearth those 1st pressings housed in gatefold cloth covered jackets. Price: 150 Euro
153. OCORA – La MUSIQUE des GRIOTS “Senegal” (Disques Ocora – OCR-15) (Record: Near Mint/ Cloth Bound Gatefold Jacket: Mint/ Attached Booklet: Mint). First press Ocora issue with disc housed in a heavy cloth bound jacket. The griots are a caste of professional musicians and their music and many researchers and ethno-musicologists state that its social milieu are comparable in many ways to the blues culture of the United States. Some of the music on display is indeed in some way reminiscent of some early blues recordings, especially those by Texas artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Texas Henry Thomas. The vocal lines are sung in a high, slightly pinched range, and the stringed instruments, which accompany them, furnish both rhythmic punctuations and a kind of loping continuity. This makes the music such a wonderful experience that sucks you in. Stunning collection of field recordings. Price: 150 Euro
154. OCORA – MUSIQUES DU GABON: “Fang, Kota, Masango, Ndjabi, Obamba, Pounou, Pygmee” (Disques Ocora – OCR-41) (Record: Near Mint/ Cloth Bound Gatefold Jacket: Mint/ Attached Booklet: Mint). First press Ocora issue with disc housed in a heavy cloth bound jacket. Impressive collection of music and songs performed and played at various festivals, rites and even seemingly monotonous pieces on this recording reveal a depth that is  utterly mind-blowing. Another consistently superb Ocora. Price: 150 Euro
155. OCORA – MUSIQUE PERSANE: “S/T” (Ocora Records – OCR-57) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). First 1971 French press issue that comes on the dark blue Ocora label imprint. Music from the culture at the root of both Arabic and Indian classical music. This release of a long gone 1971 recording consists of two contrasting suites (so to say), one in Dastgah Mahu, the other in Dastgah Segah, for a group consisting of ud, santur, tar, kamantche, nay and tumbak. (The seven Dastgah are the basic modal structures of Iranian music). Price: 40 Euro
156. OCORA – GABON: “Musique Des Pygmees Bibayak” (Ocora Records – 558.504) (Record: Near Mint/ Die-Cut Gatefold Jacket: Excellent). This volume features the polyphonic songs of the Bibayak Pygmies from the African country of Gabon. "The Pygmies or Negrillos were most likely the earliest inhabitants of Africa. The music of the Pygmies is essentially vocal. A nonlinguistic semeiology, this music erupts in broken vocalizing of pure sounds: the voices, entering successively, adjust to one another in 'canons' and 'imitations', to which the musical code lends the significance of responses by shaping them to its forms. The yodeling vocal production is characteristic, if not invariable, and gives rise to a certain contrapuntal technique." Price: 35 Euro
157. OCORA – MUSIQUE GOURO DE COTE D'IVOIRE: “S/T” (Ocora – OCR-48) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Mint/ Attached Booklet: Mint). First original pressing on dark blue label. Price: 60 Euro
158. OCORA –Musique Malagache: (Ocora Records – OCR-24) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Sleeve: Near Mint). The pictures and music on display on this vintage Ocora slide were the result from a musicological mission of 2 months in duration undertaken in Madagascar in 1963. Due to the country's rich historical legacy, the 15 tracks on display here evoke – either by means of musical style itself or by the instrumentation – the Oceanic world, Africa, Europe, Islam and perhaps even India (see track 3 on side a) which makes this record such a striking artifact. It is nevertheless evident that these various influences have mingled to produce an original style particular to Madagascar. Awesome. Price: 50 Euro
159. OCORA – MUSIQUE RITUELLE TIBETAINE: “S/T” (Ocora Records – OCR-49) (Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Sleeve: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). First original Ocora pressing out of 1969 on the dark blue label. The recordings on this album are representative of the music and rites of the various sects of the original current o Buddhism and were made in North-east Nepal. Tow of the most important monasteries in this frontier region are represented here, the monastery of Thami of the Gelugpa sect and the monastery of Tengboche of the of the Nyingmapa sect. The music is varied and consists out of big two-headed drums, providing the rhythm, 2 pairs of hollow cymbals, 2 oboes producing a nasal and tense linear sound, handbells, chanting and other esoteric rumblings. The album is filled with tantric drone-like escapades that seem to capture and magnify images of roaring of torrents, the noise of rocks splintering and sliding down the mountain, violent guts of wind, sudden storms, the tinkling of bells worn around the necks of animals and the ankles of children, etc. Again massive….original 1st pressing. Price: 50 Euro
160. OCORA – MUSIQUES DU PAYS LOBI: “S/T” (Ocora Records – OCR-51) (Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Sleeve: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). First original Ocora pressing out of 1970 on the dark blue label. The musical pieces on this record were recorded in March 1961 in the region of Gaoua in South-Wes Upper Volta. The 1st side of the record is devoted to the music of the Lobi, whose xylophone elong, with 14 keys and calabash resonators, is the principal instrument, always used in the important ceremonies of initiation or at funerals. The 2nd side of the disc presents the musics of the Gan, Dagari and Birifor peoples, who are neighbors. Again a stunning collection of bone-chilling African field recordings. Ocora rules! Price: 40 Euro
161. OCORA – NIGER – LA MUSIQUE DES GRIOTS: “S/T” (Ocora – OCR-20) (Record: Excellent/ Gatefold Jacket: Excellent/ Attached Booklet: Excellent). First pressing on dark blue label. “Back in the early sixties, when French ethnomusicologist Tolia Nikiprowetzky introduced the first commercially-issued field recordings of West African Griot music on two Ocora-label LPs, he found it appropriate to begin his liner notes for Senegal: La musique des griots (Ocora OCR 15) with a question: "What is a griot? To tell the truth," he continued, "the exact significance of the term has not been well understood in the West, where the griot is often seen as a kind of African sorcerer. He is nothing of the sort; and if the complexity of the social role played by the griot lends itself to an examination carried out with scientific rigor, it is also possible to identify the griot simply as a minstrel." Then, almost as an afterthought, Nikiprowetzky adds, "The griots have left their mark on all of Islamic West Africa." The griots are above all professionals who represent as a group, a well-defined social caste. Their role is multifaceted: as historians and genealogists, they are the chief repositories of the history of a region, its designated chroniclers. As musicians, their presence was traditionally required at all celebrations and rituals. Although the griot caste ia among the lowest in the social hierarchy...griots are nevertheless much admired for their talent, and they can make a great deal of money. Among them, one find the most virtuosic of singers and instrumentalists. Their education and training, exclusively oral, necessitates a lengthy apprenticeship under the direction of a teacher-most often the father, or an uncle. It is necessary to study for many years in order to master the technique of an instrument or to learn all the songs and histories, and master the ensemble work indispensable to the activities of the professional. Some griots are more or less sedentary, and their renown is confined to the limits of their village or territory. (In this case, the griot will also work at another job: fisherman, farmer, etc.) Other griots are itinerants, and their reputation and income can vary considerably. n Nikiprowetsky's notes to his second LP of Griot recordings, Niger: La Musique des Griots (Ocora OCR 20), he alludes to an African circumstances highly reminiscent of the American blues-and-church dynamic. "In certain regions where animism persists", he notes carefully, "certain griots are specialized in the vocation of jinn and through their songs, they attempt to obtain the blessings of these supernatural beings". Jinn, an Arabic word, is the root of our "genie" and is often translated in Islamic cultures as "devil" or "demon" or as "elemental spirit". Just as bluesmen preserved elements of an early religion, and were demonized by apologists for the dominant religion, their predecessors and present-day relatives among the Griots of West Africa have been attacked as "sorcerers" and "pagans". But when a ruler, a merchant, or just and ordinary individual wants to research the history of his people and his culture, he turns to the Griots. And bluesmen, like it or not, have been among the first and foremost African-American historians, whether it was Delta legend Charley Patton chronicling the 1927 Mississippi flood in an extended narrative, talking up two sides of a 78-rpm disc, or Sleepy John Estes etching portraits of Brownsville, Tennessee's lawyers, doctors, policemen, lawbreakers and others citizens in his dozens of blues recordings.” (Robert Palmer). Price: 40 Euro
162. OCORA – MUSIQUES POPULAIRES D'INDONESIE: “Folk Music from West-Java” (Ocora – OCR-46) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Excellent/ 8-Paged Booklet: Near Mint). Price: 50 Euro
163. OCORA – BANGLADESH: “Les Garos de la Foret de Madhupur” (Ocora – Ocora-558599) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Traditional dance, and religious music from festivals, healing ceremonies, and everyday life of the Garo people, a small ethnical minority of Bangladesh. Recordings made during the Feast of Wangala. “The Garo are one of India's oldest indigenous tribes, who resided for centuries in the Madhupur Forest in central Bangladesh. The Garo are a combination of Tibetan and Burmese people who migrated to the forest seeking farming opportunities nearly 1,000 years ago. The music on this disc represents what is left of the Garo in the forest and their ceremonial music. They have relocated by increasing population and territory wars to a southern part of the region that has both lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are used for cultivating rice and cotton and the highlands for fruits and vegetables. There are about 11,000 Garo still living in the Madhupur Forest, and another 50,000 in Bangladesh proper. The music found here, on Bangladesh: The Garo of the Madhupur Forest is highly ritualistic of both healing and harvesting festivals, as well as funeral laments. What is heard here are the expressions of the last remaining practitioners of the old Garo religion, the songsarek. Most of the Garo have been Christianized as a result of the efforts of Protestant and Catholic missionaries, beginning in the 19th century. Musical instruments are primarily primitive horns and brass gongs, and the gambari and dama drums. Gongs are thought to be of primary importance because they are expensive and the Garo have to trade for them. Quality varies, and therefore, so does prestige. The disc opens with a songsarek priest making offerings to the gods Saljong and Sushumi: spirits of the forest who provide healing to the sick. The four pieces have the priest singing praises to the spirits, blessing his offerings to them, entering the sick man's house, and driving the evil spirits away. Also included here is "the Ajia," a ceremonial song that is related to how a particular family evolves and grows over time. There are dances here, as well as wedding songs, love songs, and poems. All of them are driven with the same country feel and in a deeply reverential manner. The music is hypnotic and has much in common with both Native American and Tibetan Buddhist chant, particularly in its sonorities. While the narratives are understandably impossible to follow, their percussive structure and call-and-response architecture make it easy on the ears and even entrancing in places, despite the fact that it's a field recording. Powerful medicine.” (Thom Jurek – Allmusicguide). Price: 30 Euro
164. OCORA – CONGO: “Musique Kongo” (Ocora – OCR-35) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Mint). Second press issue. This a series of recordings made by Charles Duvelle in 1966 in the Republic of the Congo at locations not far from Brazzaville. Gabriel Bassoumba plays the 9-string sanza thumb piano while singing to himself. Beads attached to the sanza help to create a buzzing drone. Price: 30 Euro
165. OCORA – GABON: “Les Musiciens de la Foret Vol. 1” (Ocora – Ocora-5585699 (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Mint). Price: 25 Euro
166. OCORA – Musiques Du Nigeria Central: “Benue-Plateau State” (Ocora – OCR-85) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Price: 35 Euro
167. OCORA – SRI LANKA: “Musiques Rituelles et religieuses” (Ocora – 558.552) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Original first issue of 1982. “This Ocora recording characterizes some of the traditional hybridized musical forms that prosper throughout West and South East Asia, offering a sound odyssey in a distinctly sacred vein. In spite of the Buddhist devotional chants and ritualistic overtones of the recordings, it's fairly distinctive in it's amalgamation of influences, and offers a remedial cross-section of the endless musical panoply that is Southern India and the Pacific Rim. All are field recordings done in 1979, and one particular highlight is the recording of temple-side ambiance that features birds and myriad forest dwellers, establishing a lush and humid context for the different instrumentals and chants. “Because of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a maritime link between West Asia and South East Asia, and has been a center of Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times. The music of Sri Lanka originates in cultural traditions deriving from three influences: the religious practices of Buddhism, the aftereffects of Portuguese colonization, and the commercial and historical influence of Indian culture - specifically, Bollywood cinema. The Theravada sect of Buddhism has influenced Sri Lankan Music since Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka two millennia ago. Portuguese colonizers arrived centuries after the Buddha, in the mid 1400s, bringing with them cantiga ballads, ukuleles and guitars; as well as African slaves (referred to, historically, as kaffrinhas), who brought with them a style of music now referred to as baila. The people of these two regions, and the musical traditions they brought with them, served to contribute further to the diverse musical roots of modern Sri Lankan music. Today, the country is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic nation, with more than a quarter of the population following faiths other than Buddhism, most notably Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. The Sinhalese community forms the majority of the population, with Tamils, who are concentrated in the north and east of the island, forming the largest ethnic minority. Other communities include the Muslim Moors and Malays and the Burghers.” (Tonal Bride). Price: 25 Euro
168. OCORA – SYRIE Vol. 1: “Muezzins d'Alep – Chants Religieux de l'Islam” (Ocora – 558.567) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Mint). 1980s issue of originally a 1980 release. Price: 25 Euro
169. OCORA – ZAIRE: “Musiques de l'Ancien Royaume Kuba” (Ocora – OCR-61) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Mint/ Insert: Mint). Price: 30 Euro
170. OCORA– PAPOUAISE NOUVELLE-GUINEE: “Manus Bougainville” (Ocora – OCR-86) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Price: 40 Euro
171. OCORA – TIBET: “Musique Rituelle” (Ocora – OCR-49) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Price: 40 Euro
172. OKINAWA – TAMAGI YASUSADA & MINYO KENKYUUKAI: “Shichigatsu Eisa b/w Teigo Ondo” (Marufuku Records – KF-55) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). 1974 original 1sxt press issue of absolutely killer Okinawan slide filled with primitive wailing male and female vocals, and swinging like a bat drunk on shochu. One of those legendary Okinawa locally released 45’s that have gained a soaring appreciation but sadly are tough to dig up. This is an ethnic grooving beast. Two sides of unrelenting Okinawan splendor. Damned rare. Price: 200 Euro
173. OKINAWA – TOSHIKO: “Mensore Sango No Shima E b/w Miyakankou Kouta” (Okinawa Record – ORE-138) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). Another killer Okinawan 45 that saw the light in the mid-1970s and was released on the tiny but aptly named Okinawa Record label. Exiguous Sanshin playing and background whistling form the backbone for this beautiful young girl Toshiko to wail away in that typical Okinawan style. It works quite addictively, making you carve for more than just that Okinawan sunshine and pearly white beaches. The B-side sees Toshiko interacting with a female chorus, injected with male response and giving it a more Matsuri-like swinging vibe. Okinawan music was largely a singles affair, privately issued locally and in small numbers. But the sound is so unique, engulfing your metal landscape like a cinematic pan filled with austere intimacy and lyrical detail. Awesome but sadly quite rare. Price: 175 Euro

174. OKINAWA MINYO TAIKAI: “S/T” (Marfa Records – FX-21~26) (& LP Records: Near Mint/ 6 Individual Record Jackets: Near Mint/ Fully Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint/ Outer Heavy Box: Near Mint). This is seriously rare box set. Original 1970s pressing! Okinawa Minyo differs greatly from other styles of Minyo performed all over Japan. In part that is due to its location far to the south and also partly because of its warm climate, which brings out a totally different sound as opposed to the cold weather-beaten songs that emanate out of – lest say Aomori Prefecture. There were the rest of Japan makes much use of the Shamisen, Okinawans prefer the use of the Sanshin which translated into English is "three strings," or the three-stringed guitar. The sanshin is a little smaller than the shamisen and usually has a snakeskin cover. Some observers refer to it as a banjo because of its small size and the high pitch it releases when traditional Okinawan music is played on it. Okinawan music can be categorized into four main groups according to its island of origin: Okinawa-honto, Miyako, Yaeyama and Amami. Songs of Okinawa-honto tend to be sophisticated, smooth and rich with the classic tunes of the people. Miyako’s music is filled with elegant melodies and tales of the natural disasters that fill the island's history. The music of Yaeyama includes many festive songs, while Amami tends to have music that is somewhere in between Japanese and traditional Okinawan, leaning more towards an Okinawan singing style. Okinawan music includes many old work songs, heartrending ballads and lively kachaashii dance tunes as well as more modern experiments which are often the result of overseas influences. The songs also vary greatly from island to island. In addition to Okinawa itself, the outer island groups of Miyako and Yaeyama as well as Amami to the north all have their own distinctive songs and individual sounds. The music of Miyako is notable for its plaintive, beautiful melodies. Many of these variations can be found on this stunning record, filled with especially high-pitched addictive female vocals, lightly feathered percussive undertones and sunny upbeat rhythms. Okinawa Minyo is very popular in Japan, making that the records documenting the old styles are hard to get. Top copy and utterly beautiful music. Price: 475 Euro

175. OKINAWA NO MINYO: “S/T” (Victor Records – JV-1307〜S) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ OBI: Mint/ Insert: Mint). Original 1970s pressing! Okinawa Minyo differs greatly from other styles of Minyo performed all over Japan. In part that is due to its location far to the south and also partly because of its warm climate, which brings out a totally different sound as opposed to the cold weather beaten songs that emanate out of – lest say Aomori Prefecture. There were the rest of Japan makes much use of the Shamisen, Okinawans prefer the use of the Sanshin which translated into English is "three strings," or the three-stringed guitar. The sanshin is a little smaller than the shamisen and usually has a snakeskin cover. Some observers refer to it as a banjo because of its small size and the high pitch it releases when traditional Okinawan music is played on it. Okinawan music can be categorized into four main groups according to its island of origin: Okinawa-honto, Miyako, Yaeyama and Amami. Songs of Okinawa-honto tend to be sophisticated, smooth and rich with the classic tunes of the people. Miyako’s music is filled with elegant melodies and tales of the natural disasters that fill the island's history. The music of Yaeyama includes many festive songs, while Amami tends to have music that is somewhere in between Japanese and traditional Okinawan, leaning more towards an Okinawan singing style. Okinawan music includes many old work songs, heartrending ballads and lively kachaashii dance tunes as well as more modern experiments which are often the result of overseas influences. The songs also vary greatly from island to island. In addition to Okinawa itself, the outer island groups of Miyako and Yaeyama as well as Amami to the north all have their own distinctive songs and individual sounds. The music of Miyako is notable for its plaintive, beautiful melodies. Many of these variations can be found on this stunning record, filled with especially high-pitched addictive female vocals, lightly feathered percussive undertones and sunny upbeat rhythms. Okinawa Minyo is very popular in Japan, making that the records documenting the old styles are hard to get. Top copy and utterly beautiful music. Price: 70 Euro

176. PAITER MEREWA: “Cantam Os Suruis De Rodonia” (Memoria Discos E Edicoes LTDA. – 803.146) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ 4-Paged Insert: Near Mint/ 12-Paged Photograph Booklet: Near Mint). 1984 Brazilian original pressing of mind blowing ethnographic record documenting the songs of the Surui Indian tribe, hiding away in the rain forest. Wonderful and otherworldly field recordings from the Brazilian rainforest pressed in small quantities and only distributed for academic & ethnographic use in that country. The Suruí of call themselves Paiter, which means "real people, ourselves." They speak a language of the Tupi group, which is a part of the linguistic family of the Mondé. Since the first official contact in 1969, the rapprochement with non-Indians has brought profound social changes among the Paiter. These, however, did not annul their guerrilla nature and ways, which motivated the struggle of these people for recognition and integrity of their territory. They seek to maintain the vitality of their cultural traditions, in which society is understood from a division into halves, so that social segments, productive activities and ritual life are expressions of dualism between the village and the forest, the fields and the hunting, the work and the tribe – which also gets expressed in the festivals of exchange of offerings. The music is then omnipresent throughout the day and night, seemingly coming from another world as hovers over the village in an extraordinary tone, emanating out of the singing of an apprentice shaman in seclusion. From afar they can be seen, walking as if alone, accompanied by the repetitive cadence of the flutes. It enables the whole population to be blessed and blown by the shamans, receiving sacred stones and talismans against disease and other bad omens. The breath (always attached to the soul) is important at the end of each session, when everyone whistles in a circle. When the rites are coming to an end, the flutes are thrown away into the bush and broken in half so that they can no longer be touched - they are returned to their origin. It is a chillingly beautiful recordings made on the spot and against the background noises that emanate from out of the jungle, bird and insect noises float to the surface and mix eloquently with the singing and the flutes. Bewitchingly beautiful!!! Price: 150 Euro

177. PREMIERE ANTHOLOGIE DE LA MUSIQUE MALIENNE: “Fanta Damba – La Tradition Epique” (Barenreiter Musicaphon – BM-30-L-2506) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). First original 1971 pressing. Maitresse of the austere Bamana style of praise singing, Fanta Damba was a national symbol in the post-independence era. Living in central Mali, she sings in the Bamana language, which is the most commonly used one in Mali. The music is simple and unadorned, and pentatonic, steeped in the musical tradition of Mali and displaying a very stripped-down sound. Beautiful and one of the finest female singers to emerge out of Mali. Top condition, next to impossible to upgrade. Price: 75 Euro

178. ROKYOKU MEIJINKAI: “S/T” (NHK 12 LP Box Set) (12 Individual LP’s: Near Mint/ Heavy and large Box Set: Near Mint/ 4-Paged Insert: Near Mint/ 65-Paged Illustrated and annotated book: Mint). Over the top massive and deluxe edition that captures – spread over 12 LP’s – the most vital and historically potent male and female Roukyoku performers to have roamed Japan. The recordings span pre-war and post-war times and offer a glimpse at a rich and slowly vanishing epic musical tradition that still remains a closed off world to most foreigners. But once you get sucked in to it, I can guarantee you that you will be lost forever since this is some seriously deep and heavy shit. But first of all, the deluxe nature of this set is staggering, a lavishly released box set. Upon opening up this sucker you get treated to 12 individual albums and a thick book shedding light on all the musical extravaganza to unfold before your own ears. In short, only holding it in your hands, you realize this is a monster – even without having heard a single note yet. The music is all stripped to the bare minimum as the performers (both male and female) on display here get accompanied by pungent shamisen string battering, beaten biwa lutes while the main protagonists wailing away, all blessed with either raspy vocal chords, beached whale howlings or eerie from-beyond-the-grave gravel voices. Listening to this makes the hairs on your neck stand up, it is a ghostly experience you get subdued to when the music on display unfolds itself in curiously zombie like tones. The tales are all epic and most of the tracks here are all sidelong excursions into ghostly worlds, weird tales and rural superstition dramas. The backing is always Spartan, almost skeleton and resembles an underdog artistic operation going to hell. The whole affair is jangled with defiance and despair, embryonic and graced with sheer lust for unpolished raw sounds. This is pre-war Japanese blues if you like, sweating out heavy rural vibes. But this skeletal music is also deceptively intense, and the enhancements give it undercurrents of depth that are meticulous in its musical detail and lyrical singing economy. The music is obviously drenched in a distant past, yet his voice spans epochs within single syllables, a curious yowl recalling hardships, circus sideshow turn of the century weirdness but it flies aloft with an impetuous roar that pursues the foaming surges of waves breaking on rocks. In short, this set is murderous in its musical offerings, throwing open a whole new dimension of weird music and tales. Upon diving into this one, I got completely lost in this sonic archive where time has come to a standstill. Heavy, deep and bewildered it all is and I love every note of this mysterious lost world. Highest possible recommendation. Price: 250 Euro
179. SACRED FLUTE MUSIC FROM NEW GUINEA: “Madang” (!Quartz - !Quartz-001) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint). Original pressing out 1979 as released by David Toop's !Quartz label. Flute music from New Guinea is meant to evoke the cries of spirits, sacred flutes are played by adult men of the Madang region. Pairs of long bamboo male and female flutes accompany ceremonies in the coastal villages near the Ramu River. The ravoi flutes from Bak are supported by two garamut carved wooden slit gongs; the waudang flutes from Manam Island are backed up by a pair of large and small slit gongs, and six singers, and the jarvan flutes from Awar feature accompaniment by a shell rattle. The mo-mo resonating tubes were recorded in the Finisterre Range. These recordings were made in 1976 by Ragnar Johnson assisted by Jessica Mayer while conducting research in a remote village in the Eastern Highlands. Their intention was to preserve this traditional music as it is played in the villages of its origin. The music itself is clear and haunting and this collection offers a variety of flute types for occasions ranging from rites of passage to fertility rituals, births, and marriages. All of the tracks are interesting documents of New Guinean music. Truly fantastic and bewitching document. Seldom surfaces. Killer all the way. Price: 150 Euro
180. SACRED FLUTE MUSIC FROM NEW GUINEA: “Madang Vol. 2” (!Quartz - !Quartz-002) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint). Original pressing out 1979 as released by David Toop's !Quartz label. This album features the "Windim Mambu," or sacred flute music of the Madang region of New Guinea; exclusively performed by men, the music is believed to literally become the cries of the spirits for the women and children who hear it coming from the forest. Flute playing of this type is greatly respected within the tribal culture and both the making of the instruments (which are thought to improve with age, having a life span of about 10 years) and the learning of the music are time-consuming processes for which skill is gained slowly. The style itself is highly regulated -- the flutes may not be played outside of certain ceremonial occasions and must remain hidden at other times, away from those who are not allowed to play them. The flutes are also always played in pairs, and they're usually accompanied by percussion, often with slit gongs called garamuts; different pairs are used for different occasions and there is a prohibition on playing for a period of time after someone has died. The music itself is clear and haunting and this collection offers a variety of flute types for occasions ranging from rites of passage to fertility rituals, births, and marriages. All of the tracks are interesting documents of New Guinean music. The final track, however, is one of the most fascinating, featuring a style of flute called a mo-mo, which is a resonating tube into which the user yodels. This instrument had historically been used during male initiation ceremonies and the sense of mystery around that rite has remained in the music. Price: 150 Euro
181. SADO MINYO HEN: “S/T” (Ikedaya Shoten) (4 Flexi Records: Near Mint/ Book Jacket with 14 fully illustrated pages: Near Mint) Released in the late 1960 as a set of 4 flexi discs, this set focuses on rural Minyo recordings out of the Niigata Prefecture’s Sado island. It was privately released by the Ikeda bookshop that then operated on the island. Beautiful issued set and ridiculously rare as most of these flexi releases were briefly enjoined and then cast away. It is a small miracle that this one survived in such pristine condition. All the flexi’s are pressed on red colored wax. Price: 75 Euro
182. SAKAI CHIKUHO: “Suizen” (Columbia Records – KX-7001~3) (3 LP Set: Near Mint/ Embossed Outer LP Box with Silver Lettering: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint/ Obi: Mint). Bloody rare collection in mint condition, original 1974 issue. Eye-pooping collection that focuses on – like the title already suggests – at esoteric Japanese Zen oriented flute/ shakuhachi musical escapades. This set will only appeal to the most seasoned listener, if you are a hipster and you decide to get lost in this kind of music, you will get bummed out, depressed and on the brink of slashing your wrists and setting fire to yourself, which in all would be quite a spectacle I would like to bear witness to. Still, I think it would be wise that the more experienced listener would get his hands on this because it is something that most of your “rock” fiends – how heavy and far out you conceive yourself to be – will fail to get a grasp on. So if you consider yourself a Japanophile and culturally enhanced listener who frequently dabbles in the Horogei and field recording sections of this site, for those listeners this set will be a total mind shattering revelation, revealing to you some of the most exquisite sounds ever recorded. For the rest of you, this stuff will bum you out and make you utterly depressed so steer away from it. I myself I am hooked to this shit, always looking for a next fix and this set just may do it, so lovers of Watazumido and Yamada Chisato should jump into this set blindfolded because the music is insane. Next to that the packaging is too elaborate for words, 3 LP’s housed in a beautifuly designed case box set. Massive. Price: 400 Euro
183. THE SAKAI ISHINAGE ODORI PRESERVATION SOCIETY: “Sakai Ishinage Odori” (EM Records – EM1171LP) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Insert: Near Mint/ Card: Near Mint/ Sticker Sheet: Unused & Mint) Amazing modern-day Minyo slab of ass-whipping greatness. Comes complete with all inserts and stickers. “EM Records is proud to present, following “Yumi Kagura”, the second edition of the Japanese folklore music series, directed by Riyo Mountains. Japan has a long tradition of annual pre-harvest summer dance festivals, known as Bon-Odori festivals, which continues to this day. One of the longest-running of these festivals is the Sakai Ishinage Odori festival, taking place in Sakai town, Saitama, north of Tokyo. Unlike some festivals which function as tourist attractions for domestic and international visitors, this festival is resolutely local, with no professional performers, the music being passed down from generation to generation, played by local men and woman ranging in age from elementary school students to senior citizens. With percussion, massed flutes and vocals, this is a vital, living music, a sort of minimal disco born in the rice fields, agricultural “industrial” music, low-tech hard techno. This release features 1982 recordings, plus 2017 versions of the same pieces recorded and mixed by Sugai Ken.” (label description). One of the few copies that came with additional stickers and card. Price: 30 Euro
184. SAKURAGAWA SUGAWAKA: “Goushuuondo” (Columbia – PLP-1051) (10 Inch Record: Near Mint/ Fragile Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint). Ethnographic bombshell recording, totally obscure and recently attaining much deserved attention and reevaluation after a glacial reawaking following a dormant existence since its release in 1966. Hardly any copies coming up for sale and on many hardcore ethnohonkie’s want list but hardly anyone is holding or has seen a copy of this slow burning mind-shifter. Recorded in 1965 in the Shiga Prefecture, a rural area whose claim to fame is the Biwa Lake (Japan’s biggest lake) and firmly enclosed by surrounding prefectures Fukui, Kyoto, Gifu, and Mie. Although a Minyo recording, this oddball does not sound like any Minyo recording I have ever heard and I have a ton of them. Right from when the needles hits the initial groove, you get treated to a “Pictures of a gone world Gone”, a haunting reference to attrition, as an indigenous Japanese culture is surrounded, absorbed and nullified by the amoeba that is 20th century mass media. But ‘gone’, also, to describe musicians unconstrained by notions of professionalism or competitiveness, performing as though possessed, for an audience of neighbors seeking transport to another state of consciousness. Spread out over 2 sides clocking in at around 15 minutes each, the performance stretching through each side, where the majority of the piece is rendered as a cappella, with exceedingly low/ high drone – mainly female - voices stretching in a slow distinct movement acting in a sort of call and response mode to a raw-throated lead singer whose exhortations are by turns poignant and blood-chilling. The most rudimentary percussion – clacking sticks and handclaps – underscores monophonic vocal lines sung in a hocketing style. It is a mesmerizing performance that at times comes over like some African tribe wandering the desert plains but instead you are on the banks of Lake Biwa. Eventually, brittle shamisen strummings enters to propel and aid the vocalists with accelerando urgency towards some sort of coda. A limited tonal scale crates a soothingly hypnotic quality that permeates all of the recording. As Iggy said of The Stooges’ Raw Power. When you put it on, it will knock you down. Bloody killer!!!! Price: 300 Euro
185. SANYO SANIN NO MINYO: “S/T” (Victor – JV-1189-S) (Record: near Mint/ gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). Price: 30 Euro
186. SASAKAWA SHIZUE:Sasakawa Shizue Meigisen” (Victor – OVC-65) (EP Record: Near Mint/ Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ 6-paged Insert: Near Mint). Original 1967 first press issue. Tow words aptly describe this l;ittle gem. Brutal and beautiful. This one is litterally haunting my dreams and my waking hours. Stunning piece de resistance as far as left field bottom-of-the-well minyo is concerned. This one strips the paint of the wall. Killer slide. Price: 50 Euro
187. SATO KUNITAKU: “Amami No Nakiuta” (Teichiku Records – BH-1527) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Top notch copy of stupidly rare 1975 original pressing all complete with obi and booklet. Well, look no further, THIS IS THA SHIT!!!! Sato Kunitaku’s debut LP that documents his roaring singing that squeezes the throat and erupts from the back of the belly. Once he sings, the image ethnic folk songs might behold is destroyed and the orthodox island songs from his native Okinawa he brings forth are completely altered to a parallel universe where the laws of gravity and mere sound cultivation do not exist anymore. This is the Charley Patton from Japan or the Blind Willie Johnson from Amami Island. Sato was a blind itinerant musician from Amami Island, south of Kyuushuu. Born in 1919, he lost his eyesight when eight months old. His grandfather taught him to play sanshin, the southern shamisen, to ensure that Sato would be able to earn a living when he grew up. When he was 12, Sato began to play tategoto, a vertically-held koto so to speak, developing his own unique style. Upon turning 17, he began a wandering lifestyle, traveling through the Ryukyu Islands, a thousand-kilometer subtropical archipelago including Okinawa. He supported himself as a traveling musician, performing island folk songs, pre-War popular songs and his own compositions. Although he was a fine instrumentalist, Sato’s real power resides in his voice: a powerful, wailing, howling sound dredged up from the depths of his soul – a dark, intense sound-world most unlike the relatively smoother, sunny vocal styles of other Ryukyu/Okinawa singers. After World War II, Sato’s popularity spread to the U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa, and it is rumored that his wanderings took him to Hawaii. He continued his itinerant ways, traveling through the archipelago, singing, playing, living and loving (a man of rumor and mystery, he is said to have married at least eight different women during his lifetime). In the early 1970s, he came to the attention of Takenaka Ro, a writer and political activist, and through Takenaka’s enthusiastic support, Sato travelled to Tokyo in 1975 to record his first album. Sato’s fame continued to spread, and he performed at various folk festivals and made other recordings, some of which were released posthumously. Traveling and playing throughout the islands to the end, he made his last public appearance in Okinawa in 1985 and died the same year. But this is his first record, damned hard to find as copies are scarce and sold not well upon its release. But the contents are vicious gut-wrenching and soul-blackening killer, bruised beyond repair hardcore shit that will set the hairs on your neck straight up and awaiting to be scorched! Burned down blisters and open soars like on a dog’s neck, welcoming the unavoidable Gospel Apocalypse!!!!Top condition and seriously rare first press original. Price: Offers!!!
188. SATO MATSUKO: “Sansa Shigure b/w Kamaishi Hama Uta” (King Records – EB-5256) (EP Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Picture Sleeve with attached insert: Near Mint) Original bloody scare 1964 issue. This scarce EP came out in the same series as the Fukushi Ritsu EP. This is some serious next level stuff, Sato Matsuko comes over like a wicked old witch, wailing against some sparse instrumentation and koto, at times backed up by a call and answering chorus of rice picking ladies. This stuff sounds even old for 1964, and as far as I am concerned this could have come out of some outback region that time has forgotten about. Minyo crossbreeding with demented “bottom of the well” enka and spiked up with some serious outback rural moves & sparse instrumentation of koto shamisen and hand percussion, all slowed down by time and cut off from the modern world are the elements that make this EP such a stupefied listening experience. Another blood curdling musical discovery that shook my world recently. Stunning deep shit for the musical insane. Price: 50 Euro
189. SATO MIEKO: “Hakuta Nagebushi b/w Hakutabayashi” (Teichiku Records – CS-28) (Single Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Excellent). My favorite minyo chanteuse par excellence!!!! Her rare 7 inch single is a bewildering jive belcher from the deep hinterland. Price: 50 Euro
190. SHINNAI KOUTA TOKUZENSHU: “S/T” (Toshiba Records – TH-9109 ~ 9114) (Outer Slip Case Box Set: VG++ ~ Excellent/ 5 LP Record: Near Mint/ 5 Individual Gatefold Jackets: Near Mint). This is one lovely set. Housed in a thick outer slip case box, it contains 5 heavy gatefold jacket LP’s guiding you through the magical world of Kouta – or publicly known as Geisha Blues. Kouta literally means little (ko) songs (uta). It is a traditional lyric song which is orally passed down since the 19th century Edo era. Kouta are short songs which are usually accompanied by shamisen, which is a traditional Japanese musical instrument resembling a guitar. Kouta is usually associated with the geisha who also learn to master the shamisen for their performances. Kouta began to be popular starting from the mid-Meiji era and it is now one of the most popular types of traditional Japanese music. Kouta can be played solo, duo or trio. Usually there would be one singer accompanied by one or two shamisen. Kouta are usually so short that a set of two or three kouta sung in a recital would not last more than five or six minutes. Typically the length of time a kouta is sung is under a minute while longer kouta would take three or four minutes to sing at most. The Kouta has to evoke a certain atmosphere through a few carefully chosen words. Thus, in a way, it somewhat resembles haiku or tanka which are short and sweet yet meaningful. Kouta is categorized under Utaimono, which is lyrical shamisen music. The themes of kouta can range from earthy humor, refined aestheticism, sentimental, romantic or sophisticated. A really amazing set, shedding the spotlight on numerous female Kouta performers who were still active during the late 1960s and the early 1970s, this is some seriously deep shit. First original pressing and bloody rare, haven’t seen a copy in over 10 years!!! Price: 300 Euro
191. SHINNAI MEIKYOKU SEN: “S/T” (Toshiba – TH-80012~14) (3 LP Record: Near Mint/ Outer Box Set: Near Mint/ 22-Paged Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Released in 1982, essential 3 LP box set shedding some light on Shinnai, a style of narrative singing, or joruri that traces its origin to the early 1700s. What this does is make the voice into an instrument, a flute with words, which turns and ornaments the melodies of the accompanying instrument into something quite approachable and entertaining. The rich vocal sonorities echo the instrumental timbres. Shinnai-bushi is one such genre. Shinnai is a form of joruri, one of the narrative song styles which flourished in the Edo Period (1603-1868). Shinnai derived from the earlier Bungo-bushi, which was banned by Edo authorities in 1740 on the grounds that it’s sad songs were promoting a wave of double suicides. Tsuruga Wakasanojo, a student of a Bungo-bushi singer, composed new songs during the 1770s which won great popularity when performed by his talented student Tsuruga Shinnai, from whom the genre took its name. Shinnai’s fluid melodies and exciting lyrics, sensational stories of romantic and (usually) tragic love centering around the entertainment district of Yoshiwara, epitomized the “floating world” of popular culture. Shinnai lyrics also acted as a vehicle for topical commentary on society and politics, and for this reason were closely watched by the authorities. Excellent set, documenting the leading Shinnai performers that came out of the 1960s and 1970s, keeping the genre alive and trying to infect a new audience. Not an easy task in the early 1980s but it gave birth to this excellent set nevertheless. Price: 150 Euro

192. SHINNAI NAKASABURO: “Shinuchi No Miryoku” (Teichiku Records – PP-6101〜2) (2 LP Set: Near Mint/ Cloth Bound Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Nakasaburo Shinnai is a renowned puppet theater shamisen player who attained the status of “Living National Treasure” in Japan. This stunning 2 LP set that was released in the mid 1970s, sheds some light on his versatile playing style that harks back to traditions reigning during the Edo period. His playing style is very meticulous in its execution, breathing out a lyrical sensitivity and embracing an almost forlorn fleeting feeling that breathes throughout his unique approach. He solely exists on its own plane, both impervious to and not responsible for trends of any kind, which makes his approach so damned unique. Unlike Western instruments which value pure, clean sounds, the shamisen offers tones reminiscent of natural forces such as water and wind and it here that Shinnai excels especially in, evoking these images while strumming along. In all a stunningly great 2 LP set, top condition. Price: 100 Euro

193. SHOWA NO RYUUKOUKA: “S/T” (Columbia Records – AZ-7081~7110) (30 LP Records Set: Near Mint/ 30 Individual Record Sleeves: Near Mint/ 3 x 10 Record Box Sets: Mint/ Outer Velvet Cloth Covered Box: Near Mint/ 2 Hard Cover Books: Mint/ OBI: Excellent – has folding crease). The mother lode of long gone and forgotten Showa era 78rpm records housed in luxurious 30 LP box set. A stupefying collection of dusty 78 RPM recordings, the oldest dating back to 1928 and the most recent one clocking off in 1962! The most comprehensive Japanese pre-war and post war 78 RMP disc collection to date. The final aural document that picks up win the years leading up to WW2 (1926) and brings out a string of dusty, ghostlike recordings of obscure singers and chanteuses up until the war ended and guiding you again through some more dusty 78 RPM’s up to the mid 1950s and the early 1960s (up until 1962) – documenting the birth of Japanese vocal singers and the golden age of pop with immortal singers back up by swinging jazz bands such as the very young Misora Hibari, Ike Mariko, Shibata Tsuruko, Anzai Aiko, Shiba Akiko, Toyama Ichiro, Watanabe Hamako, Matsuda Toshi, Kuroki Yoko, Kagurazaka Hanko, Aoki Koichi, Chiyoda Teruko, Shimakura Chiyoko, Kobayashi Akira and many more. It dwells in the same audio verite/ documentary regions taking the listener back to a musical treasure throve that was largely erased from our collective memory. Bewitchingly beautiful is a word that can be applied here if you are into the arcane field of obscure sounds. From dusty and ghost-like 78 RPM recordings dating back to the decade before WO II up to obscure 1950s swinging vocal madness and 1960s vocal star wonders, this is a glorious set of long-lost Japanese music. Highly recommended. Everything on display here originally only came out and was only previously released on the 78RPM format, but here beautifully represented in a handsome box and taking you back to a period in in time when the sun was about to shine again and raspy songs drifted into the airwaves.. Heavy set of 30 LP’s, complete with TWO hardcover books giving all the necessary background information, all housed in 3 separate box sets that again are housed in a heavy velvet cloth outer box. Comes with obi, first time ever I see a copy with OBI! Price: 500 Euro

194. SOTO-ZEN: “Tada Hitasura Ni Suwaru No Sekai” (Toshiba Records – THX-90055~60) (5 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Cloth covered and bound Outer Box with sideways opening flaps: Mint/ Obi: Mint/ Thick Illustrated 100 paged Booklet: Mint/ Individual LP Jackets: Mint). Bloody rare and obscure 5 LP box issue that comes housed in a lavish package – cloth bound outer box with obi that upon opening reveals 5 different LP’s each housed in a beautiful sleeve and a thick fully illustrated book. Released by Toshiba and compiled by professor in Japanology & Musicology at Dokkyo & Tokyo University – Hirano Kenji, it documents the Buddhist monks of the Soji-ji Temple of the Soto-sect way back in 1980. This released turned out – once I was introduced to it about 15 years ago – one of my all-time favorite hardcore field recordings ever. Unfortunately, copies were scarce and I did not manage to dig up another one until now. The gods must have been smiling after all. This totally vanished obscurity out of 1980, depicts some sonic activities taking place on the far edged fringes of Japan’s sonic landscape. I categorize the disc amongst psychedelic and devastating field recordings, with a strong emphasis on the psyched-out character of this recording and accompanying artwork. The record follows sessions carried out by some seriously “way-out-there” Buddhist monks. Interlarded by the sound of wooden getta, the wind blowing through the region, the dusty noisy insectoid chirping by hordes of descending cicadas and crickets swelling into a crescendo of all engulfing maniacal fury that collides eventually with the myriad chanting of the monks, and their almighty cacophonous percussion and other instruments make this sound document such a hardcore and bewildering listening experience that has yet to meet its rival. In short it is a mesmerizing recording, strange and beautiful. This 5 LP set is heavy with musical possibility, and is of profound musical substance, blending it easily with an overwhelming vocal onslaught, bizarre tonalities, startling vocals, inherent improvisation moves and apocalyptic shamanistic sense of poetry. Just mesmerizingly great arresting listening experience. This 5 LP box set comes with a detailed and fully illustrated thick booklet getting into detail about the maniac fury and the high tension sonics on display here. So if you are eager to dive into another totally obscure and weird esoteric pressing world, then I do not believe it comes more obscure and under documented than early 1980s elusive press records documenting the compelling sonic antics by temples and the monks it inhabits. This set is the perfect place to start but unfortunately, these recordings were released in such small quantities and only offered for sale at the time at these local temples at the time that now they virtually never turn up anymore. The music on the other hand is so out-there that no experimental group in the Western world would ever be brave enough to release this kind of music and yet these monks just acted it out while meditating at their local temple. Awesome. Price: Offers!!!!

195. SOUKYOKU TO JIUTA NO REKISHI: “S/T” (4 x 10-Inch LP Record: Near Mint/ Outer Cloth Covered Box: Near Mint/ Booklet: VG++~Excellent/ 4 Individual 10 Inch Sleeves: Near Mint). Damned rare 1961 first original press issue, released on the devil’s format – the glorious 10-inch LP record! Hideously rare 1961 released box set. To summarize this eargasmatic collection of lost mid of the century recordings would be that it is the best collection ever of Japanese old skool recordings of rural koto strummers, shamisen batterers and assorted Jiuta material. The source material was all taken from then still-living master players that were recorded by the Victor Record Company and compiled into this massive devil’s formatted box set during the early 1960s. Never have I seen another copy of this one before. Filled with ghostly quivering recordings of a vanish world, which the easiest way to compare it would be the mid-century recordings by Harry Smith or Alan Lomax. Still, these recordings here are hair-risingly impressive, shamisen and koto abusers of high esteem and high quality and pass the revue, heavy bachi slashing on the strings, beached-whale like vocals pop up out of the mist, biwa’s get beaten into submission while eerie vocals drift in and out of the fogs of time, at times interspersed by Gagaku interludes and eerie minimalistic excursions into otherworldly realms. Most impressive collection of mid-century recordings I have heard so far, emanating from out of a lost world. One of the few discs in the list that deserve the term awesome and rare. Highest recommendation. Price: 500 Euro

196. SUGIMOTO KIKUE: “Echigo Goze No Uta” (Crown – SW-5070~71) (2 LP Set: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Mint/ Attached 8 Paged Booklet: Mint). Now this is a totally obscure and rare slide, 2nd copy I ever see or can offer over all these years. Massively important and jaw droppingly great 2 LP set that documents the music and culture of the Sugimoto Kikue, the last surviving Goze, recorded for the last time in the early 1970s when she was already in her eighties. Goze are these days all become extinct due to the 21 century catching up with their rural lifestyle, tradition and handicap. Goze were blind, itinerant female singers and shamisen players mainly active and traveling from one rural village to the next weather beaten hamlet. They were mostly active in the Niigata Prefecture. These blind women from Niigata were due to their handicap excluded from regular society and had to struggle to survive and the sole option they had in order to scrape some money together to get through the day was giving door-to-door performances of songs with shamisen accompaniment. (the rural blind were desperately poor and accorded few rights or privileges). The reason why these women limited their activities to mainly Niigata and not further north was that Tsugaru and Akita were poorer regions and more inhospitable than their home turf. These traveling blind women mainly made a living by singing songs known as kudoki bushi, which were basically long narratives cast in a repetitive seven-syllabic meter. These songs often recounted melodramatic plots of double love-suicides or vendettas, mostly sung in a short strophic melody, punctuated by interludes on the shamisen and sometimes by comic lines spoken in a rapid-fire manner. However as time went by audiences grew tired of these long songs and Naniwa Bushi drifted into the repertoire, including a large variety of vocal styles ranging from lyrical singing to speech-like recitation. This stunning collection here captures the last of the Goze – Sugimoto Kikue in action, documenting a tradition that was already completely extinct. Sugimoto Kikue was recorded during one last session during July and November of 1971. The result is bone crushing and heart shriveling performance recorded, wailing itinerant blind female performer armed with battered down and strummed out shamisen, riffing away and wailing songs into being in return for a cheap meal and a place to rest. This is some of the best music I have ever heard and since discovering them the Goze have ruled my waking hours and dreaming days. Now finally I can present the rarest and most elusive of all Goze recordings, this stellar and eye-peelingly beautiful 2 LP set. A unique and oblique recording that shouldered a disappearing and now completely vanished tradition, trying in vein to keep modernity at hold and record the then last surviving performing Goze. Best disc in this time’s list, once you have heard this, the whole of your record collection will become utterly redundant. Fan-fucking-tastic!! Impossible to get and track down, just one of a kind document. Only the 2nd copy ever I see of this LP, rare forever. Price: 200 Euro

197. SUZUKI MASAO: “Kagoshima Obarabushi b/w Kagoshima hamabushi” (Victor Records – MV-650-S) (7 Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Excellent/ Gatefold Picture Sleeve: Near Mint – some minor faxing inside the gatefold). Great rural Minyo recording focusing on the aural treasures of the Kagoshima region. High octane Matsuri vibes. Wailing male vocals with call and response chorus by youngster female singers. Driving on wild percussion it provides for a intoxicating listening experience…like your summer high never went away. Suzuki’s voice is a real treat, wailing qualities that seamlessly drift over into Minyo Matsuri territories without skipping a beat. Price: 50 Euro

198. TAIWAN KANMINZOKU NO ONGAKU: “Music of the Chinese In Taiwan Island” (Victor Records – SJ-1004〜6) (3 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Outer Heavy Box/ Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint/ Book: Near Mint). Great freak-flag flying primitive Chinese jams from beyond the yonder. Gongs, rattles and shakes, weird vocals and cithers galore on this set peering through Chinese opera/ theatre jams, ritualistic hoedowns and dissonant police riot. Rare on-trhe-spot recordings of Chinese running havoc in Taiwan. Amazing ethnographic sound document of a vanished music. Price: 250 Euro
199. TAKAGI SEIGEN & ICHIOKA SEISHI: “Kunisaki No Biwa Houetsu” (CBS Sony – 22AG-202) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ 4 Paged Insert: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Rare original first press issue from 1977 of totally wicked Biwa slide. The music on this LP is a selection of recordings out of the repertory of Takagi Seigen and Ichioka Seishi, both blind musicians and ritualists of Nankan-Cho, in central Kyushu’s Kumamoto Prefecture. As some of last persons to have earned his income from performing a collection of narratives, songs and rites with biwa, they seemed to be a twentieth-century apparition of the medieval biwa hoshi – blind singers associated in Japanese popular culture with the carnage and strife that led to the start of the warrior rule in the late 12th century. Takagi and Ichioka’s identities as a musicians and individuals was far more complex, but from the mid 1970s they both became well known as the “last biwa hoshi”. They were brought to perform in Tokyo on several occasions, yet no recordings of the extensive narratives and ritual pieces at the core of his repertory were ever released commercially. The representative pieces brought together here were recorded in diverse circumstances in the 1960s through 1980s by institutions and researchers who permitted the use of the original tapes. Most of the recordings here document performances for small groups of researchers, family members and neighborhood acquaintances. These recordings give us a sense of the strength of voice that they retained as well as illustrating the variety of vocal types and delivery styles. This is a set a valuable addition to your collection if interested in field recordings, sounds from times long gone and extinct. This comes with the highest possible recommendation. Scarce record that hardly ever surfaces and first time I have a copy all complete with obi. This is killer stuff!!!! Price: 450 Euro
200. TAKEMOTO OOGIDAYU: “Kitsunebi” (Toshiba Records – TH-5001) (10 Inch Record: Mint/ Flip Back Sleeve: Near Mint/ Obi: Excellent/ Insert: Near Mint/ Card: Near Mint). 1965 original first pressing that comes on red wax. Bloody awesome slide. Shamisen, Koto and flutes make up of the sparse backing for this Hougaku Budoh perfromance, a style of obscure Japanese dance. The performance is as can be expected stripped to the bare minimum and graced with almost Noh-like incantations and vocal excursions. This is some serious and deep stuff, recordings of this are sparse but if you like Noh, than this could be even better as it focusses solely on the musical performance and the traditional dance it gets accompanied with. Top condition slide, comes pressed on red wax and is graced with rare obi. Amazing stuff. Price: 150 Euro
201. TOWASA MIDORI: “Otokozake b/w Seishun Jingi” (Minoruphone KA-2034) (7-Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint). 1981 original pressing on the minuscule Minoruphone label. High caliber and deliciously orchestrated female enka slide that will you make to hit that bottle of hard liquor hard and without a vengeance. Price: 40 Euro
202. TENCHUU KENUNGETSU: “Imodai Kangyoujouki” (Crown Records – SW-122M) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint) Rare July 1972 original first pressing. Beautiful underdog operation set against a sumire backing of raw shamisen strummings to underscore nasal male vocal recitations that embark on a long epic journey crossing tales and song like recitations that at times go totally overboard. Beautifully painful teeth-grinding frenzy. First time I see an all complete copy with obi of this sonic masterpiece. Price: 175 Euro
203. TENDAI SHINSEISHUU HOUGI KENSHUUJO: “Himitsu Tenbou Kanchou-e – Tendai Shinsei Shuushoumyou” (CBS Sony – OOAG-82~85) (4 LP Record Set: Near Mint ~ Mint/ Outer Box Set: Near Mint). WHITE label PROMO Issue. Another highly obscure and totally out-of-nowhere recording documenting austere Zen Monks released in 1976. Minimal droned out sonic bliss, spread over 4 LP’s. One of the finest Buddhist Monk recordings out there, recording quality is crystal clear, gongs, deep vocal excursions, sonic eruptions of mass alliteration dissonance, repetitive reticulation, salivating monotonous murmuring, primitive musical accompaniment and undersong whispering create a totally hypnotic listening experience. If this does not cause you to levitate spontaneously, I am afraid all hope is lost for you. Just bone-chillingly great. Price: 100 Euro
204. TENPYO - HEIAN JIDAI NO ONGAKU: “S/T” (Columbia – CLS-5023) (Record: Near Mint/ Individual LP Sleeve: Near Mint/ Quadruple Gatefold Boxset Type Jacket: Near Mint/ 45-Paged Booklet: Near Mint). Stupidly rare deluxe 1961original press issue, opening up like a clover. Like the title already suggests, this LP focuses on music out of Japan’s Tenpyo and Heian Era, which was situated 729 ~ 749 AD and 749 ~ 1185 AD respectively. It was a period when Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese influences and the power of the Imperial Court were at their height, reflecting itself also in the austere music at display. The end result is a serious head twister, minimalism avant-la-lettre, jacking straight into your subconscious mind flow and instantly elbowing La Monte Young and cohorts out and into the beginners section where they can watch and listen in pure awe!!! It even surpasses Gagaku in its hardcore minimalistic approach and it shows that Japan most certainly had a vigorous musical tradition before the advent of Chinese and Korean influence in the sixth century. This tradition persisted in part in Shinto ritual and chant—and possibly in the court music and dances that are handed down from the Nara and Heian. The Heian period is regarded as one of the great periods of artistic and cultural development in Japan. Beginning at the end of the ninth century, as the Tang dynasty collapsed and contacts with China were interrupted, Japan began to distance itself from it large mainland neighbor and develop a culture that was more uniquely Japanese and simplified and refined versions of Chinese art forms. Despite their usurpation of imperial authority, the Fujiwara presided over a period of cultural and artistic flowering at the imperial court and among the aristocracy. Recordings focusing on this period are rare, scarce and far in between. But this one is a real jaw-dropper, beautifully executed and it comes with a massively detailed and fully illustrated booklet. Price: 150 Euro
205. TIBETAN BUDDHISM: “The Ritual Orchestra and Chants” (Nonesuch Explorer Series – H-72071) (Sealed Copy). Extracts from music for three rituals were played in 1973 by the magnificent ensemble of shawms, trumpets and percussion of Khampagar Monastery. The recording opens with an invocation to Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet from India. Then follow two rites associated with Mahakala, who removes impediments to enlightenment. Music plays an integral role in Tantric Buddhism, seen as a means to transform the whole stream of being into illumined awareness. The basic musical concepts and the teachings of Tantric Buddhism originally came to Tibet from India beginning in the eighth century. Chanting, such as that heard on this recording, is recognized as a powerful medium for inward transformation, since it is a dynamic form of meditation. Price: 25 Euro
206. TIBETAN BUDDHISM: “Shedur: A Ghost Exorcism Ritual” (Nonesuch Explorer Series – H-72081) (Record: Mint/ Jacket: Mint). The ritual recorded here is known as the Shedur, or Disposing of the Agents of Death. Here, "Agent of Death" is synonymous with "ghost." This Tantrayana ritual was performed in April 1977 for a Tibetan disturbed by a dead relative and, as a result, suffering from turberculosis. The master of the ritual was Ven. Yeshe Dorje Rinponche, an incarnate lama whose lineage dates back to the 17th century. His wife and elderly monk assisted him in this ritual. This record contains excerpts from the daylong ritual. Price: 20 Euro

207. TOMIYAMA SEIKIN: “Sousaku No Sekai” (Columbia – WX-7091~6) (6 LP Record Set: Near Mint/ Fully Illustrated 45-Paged Book: Near Mint/ Cloth Covered and Cloth Bound Outer Box: Near Mint/ Obi: Excellent – has a folding crease). Damned rare 1980 released massive set by the blind shamisen player Tomiyama Seikin. I am so hooked on recordings by blind shamisen and biwa players and this one by Tomiyama is one to lick your fingers off while jamming this from dusk till dawn. Born in Osaka in 1913, his real name was Kiyoji Hatta. He was unfortunate to become blind at the age of one, which guided him towards a world of music instead of being condemned to a life of living on the fringes of society. Being introduced to Keiko Tominaga at the age of four turned out to be a decisive factor as he entered the world of shamisen and koto music. In 1926, his teacher Seikin Tomiyama died and he adopted his name, slowly becoming a force to be reckoned with within the world of traditional Japanese music and Jiuta, eventually being granted the title of Living National Treasure in 1969. A large part of his repertoire dates back to the 16th century and come from repertoires collected by Buddhist monks. Compelling stuff, Tomiyama playing both shamisen and koto, accompanied by female vocalist(s) and shakuhachi at times, most of the pieces on display are elaborate pieces clocking in at over 12 minutes and more. Recordings were put down to tape between 1978 and 1980 when he was at the height of his powers. This 6 LP set itself was released in 1980 but failed to be a commercial success, making that mainly copies were acquired by libraries and research institutes. First time ever I could dig up a copy all complete with thick booklet and OBI present. Comes housed in deluxe heavy cloth bound box. Killer stuff from start to finish if you are into blind shamisen strummers, a breed of musicians that came out of a time long gone. Deep, spiritual and heavy stuff!!! Highest recommendation! Price: 500 Euro

208. TOYAMA-KEN MINYO: “Icchu Orawabushi b/w Chikukobushi” (Victor Records – MV-632-S) (7-Inch Single Record: Near Mint/ Heavy Vardboard gatefold Picture Sleeve Jacket: Near Mint/ Attached 4 Paged Booklet: Near Mint). Awesome Minyo recording out of the Toyama Prefecture, slow moving, wailing male vocals, defunct strings and slashed shamisen vibes as if drowned out on laxatives and downers create a specific intoxicating mood that is hard to resist. Blessed with an almost shamanistic sense of beauty, this will pull you into the deep zone. The B-side is a bit more upbeat but not much, the downers are slowly wearing of but the hypnotic dozed off vibe still persists. Awesome stuff! Price: 75 Euro
209. V.A./ THE TRAVELS FOR INDIAN MUSICS AND DANCES: “S/T” (Toshiba – TA9316-8) (3 LP Record: Near Mint/ Individual Record Jackets: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint/ Outer Box Set: Excellent ‾ Near Mint). Stunning 3 LP box set complete with detailed booklet documenting a wide variety of Indian music. The records are all mint. Still an amazing set of Indian music recrded in the filed by a group of Japanese ethno-musicologists. Japan only killer box set release that saw the light of day in the early/ mid-1970s. . Price: 150 Euro
210. TSUCHIDA GAWASHIN: “Eigin To Biwa” (Columbia Records – DLS-4215) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Excellent – has little middle lower seam plit/ Obi: Near Mint). Original 1970 pressing of viciously rare Biwa jammer. Comes with rare obi. The A-side has 2 long tracks and sees Tsuchida getting accompanied by small percussive rattles, shakuhachi and a zither, giving it a sparse orchestrated feel while he embarlkes on historic tales while carressing the Biwa. The B-side is a sidelong epic jammer with Tsuchida hammering the Biwa while wailing away in desperation. His improvisatory skills on this one are impecabble. Just never surfaces!!! Price: 200 Euro

211. TSUGARU SUWAKO: “Minyo Saigo No Hougeinin” (CBS Sony – 20AG-550) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ 4-Paged Insert: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Another killer female wailing delight discovery from times long gone. Original pressing. Tsugaru Suwako heralded out of the far northern Tohoku region, a weather beaten rural backward place that has nothing else to offer except hardship and a struggle to survive, fighting against the harsh natural elements. She is a great performer and sparse percussive rattles, minimal distant flute tones and her favored Tsugaru shamisen strummings, followed by aforementioned accompaniments that parallel and support her vocal line, back up her beached whale-wailing styled vocals. Her singing and playing style is innovative and extremely energetic and her local music is a source of solace and a basis for re-establishing a sense of regional pride. It were performers like her who consciously or not instigated an Tsugaru-wide cultural identity that was briefly on the rise. Sadly enough, it was a brief boom that quickly dwindled back into oblivion but that does not alter the fact that she is a fantastic singer, her voice reverberates like a beached whale, resonating through the empty canyons of your mind on a windy day. Rural, sparse, demonic and addictive, one of the finest female vocal records to have crossed my path recently. Price: 75 Euro

212. UCHIYAMA TAKETOSHI: “Genei To Biwa” (Columbia Records – DLS-4150) (Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Jacket: Near Mint). Original 1969 original pressing of Biwa mind blowing bomb. This one shreds on some many levels. First of all Uchiyama's vocalizations are top notch, nasal, long drowned out tones that are deceptively intense, casual in its feel, yet meticulous in its musical detail and lyrical economy. That aspect fuses neatly with his bare knuckle Biwa playing style that creates an exploratory sound through his kaleidoscopic bachi slamming. Brimful of poetic resonance, Uchiyama's music is drenched in japan's past, his voice seems to span epochs within a single syllable, a curious yowl recalling an impetous roar of foaming surges of waves breaking on the rocks. Brilliant!!!! But sadly quite obscure. Price: 150 Euro
213. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ BARENREITER MUSICAPHON – AN ANTHOLOGY OF AFRICAN MUSIC: “ The Music of the Dan” (Musicaphon – BM-30-L2301) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Sleeve: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). First original Barenreiter pressing. “The Dan covers the music of a tribe that occupies territory in both the Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. For the most part, the music is highly energetic, and the selections (originally recorded by ethnomusicology legend Hugo Zemp) show the way in which music is a part of every part of life for this tribe (and indeed for most of Africa). From sowing to harvesting, from music for chieftains to music for little girls, every aspect of life is enhanced by music for the people of the Dan. The festival musics are exceptional, and the demonstration of drum rhythms (with the lead drummer actually from a different tribe) would put other drummers to shame. Luckily, there is a short example of the sanza, that African-encompassing instrument. Other highlights include the trumpet orchestra, where six trumpeters use side-blown ivory trumpets, used for speech surrogation as well as music, and the mask race music, which is fuller of excitement than most rock concerts, with more complicated rhythms and interlocking vocals than you could shake a stick at. As is the case with most of the recordings from this Barenreiter set, the music is good both in an ethnographic studies sense as well as in a purely musical enjoyment sense. Buy it whether you like African music or not.” (Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide) Price: 40 Euro
214. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ BARENREITER MUSICAPHON – AN ANTHOLOGY OF AFRICAN MUSIC: “Music From Rwanda” (Musicaphon – BM-30-L2302) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Sleeve: Mint/ Attached Booklet: Mint). First original Barenreiter pressing. “In the heart of Africa, the hills of Rwanda spread out from the waters of the Nile and the Congo divide. When these recordings were made in the field between 1954 and 1955, Rwandan society was divided in to three groups or castes: the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa. In Rwanda, vocal and instrumental music are distinct, as are the forms of musical expression found in the three social groups. Vocal music includes the pastoral, ritual, heroic, popular and hunting styles. Instrumental music uses the drums, tabla-zither, the vertical flute, the musical bow, trumpets, the 'sanza,' the horn and a kind of fiddle. All are represented in this fascinating collection.” (Denyse Hiernaux-L'hoëst). Just stunning and another example why Unesco/ Barenreiter/ Musicaphon was THE best ethnographic label ever to appear on the scene. The new ethnic smash'n'grab labels we get plagued with these days pale in comparison to these giants. Just amazing, this is the real stuff, original top condition copy!! Price: 40 Euro
215. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ BARENREITER MUSICAPHON – AN ANTHOLOGY OF AFRICAN MUSIC: “The Music of the Senufo” (Musicaphon – BM-30-L2308) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Sleeve: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Mint). First original Barenreiter pressing. The Senufo are a group of people living in northern Cote d'Ivoire and Mali. They are known as excellent farmers and are made up of a number of different groups who moved south to Mali and Cote d'Ivoire in the 15 and 16th centuries. The Senufo follow a strict caste-like system, in which the farmer is at the top and the musicians are on the bottom rung of the society. Recorded in the field in 1965, shedding some light on initiation and funeral rites. In addition to these rites the music and dancing play an important role. During funeral rites, in addition to the orchestra of the poro, groups of secular musicians whose composition varies according to the social standing of the deceased also show up but stop playing when the poro come pouring in with their xylophone orchestras. Next to all that, vocal music of the Senufo also was recorded and is monodic and most frequently takes the form of responsorial singing. Two singers alternate with one another, or else a choir singing in unison answers the verses of the solo singer. However man and woman do not sing together, the men's voices are high pitched and tense. In distinction to the singing, instrumental music is polyphonic. It only goes to show how rich and variable their musical expression forms are and they are bound to hit you with disbelief just by the sheer beauty of their sounds. So amazing!! Price: 40 Euro
216. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ BARENREITER MUSICAPHON – AN ANTHOLOGY OF NORTH INDIAN MUSIC: “Classical Music Vol. 1” (Musicaphon – BM-30-SL20511) (Record: Excellent ~ Near Mint/ Gatefold Sleeve: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). The anthology Includes an extensive and informative booklet of the combined original liner notes, which overviews the different instruments and performers, brief individual track descriptions, and guiding you through North Indian classical music. Despite the daunting task of representing this musical tradition, the LP does a good job with the space that it has. Ite focuses on vocal music and contains sections of the Raga Ahir Bhairava, the Raga Sujani Malhar, and Raga Bhairavi, with featured singers: brothers Zahiruddin and Faiyazuddin Dagar (on two tracks), Yunus Hussain Khan, and Dipali Nag. Price: 30 Euro
217. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ BARENREITER MUSICAPHON – A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT:“ TibetI” (Musicaphon – BM-30-L2009) (Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Sleeve: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). First original Barenreiter pressing. Released in August 1966, the discs focus on the Nyingmapa Sect, the Kagyupa Sect and the Gelugpa Sect. The bulk of the material present on this massive set was recorded during May and June of 1961 and represents sacred chant and instrumental music of the Buddhist liturgy and other rites, centering around the monasteries. The chants here on display, with lush abundant use of wind instruments, percussion instruments and assorted havoc creating devices, are sometimes free but more usually metrical in their build up, both symmetrical and asymmetrical measures. The voice-style, close-throated and very deep in pitch is, as the natural voices of the monks show, unnatural; it is a deliberately cultivated style. Tonally speaking, the chanting varies from an inflected monotone to a varicolored melodic pattern based on a definite mode. This is decorated in variety of ays and at time the chanting is accompanied by an ensemble which amounts to an orchestra. Just stellar music and this box ranks as one of the finest examples of Tibetan music ever recorded. Apart from that the packaging is so lavishly and carefully presented, it will hit you senseless. Just such a beautiful item.Price: 30 Euro
218. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ BARENREITER MUSICAPHON – A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT: “ Iran II” (Musicaphon – BM-30-L2005) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Sleeve: Near Mint/ Attached Booklet: Near Mint). First original Barenreiter pressing. Fabulous selection shedding some light on Iranian high cultural musics with excursions on dombak (classic Iranian drum with one face), Santur, tar, mystic chants, straight flute endeavors and much more. Just spellbindingly great, it blew my mind  and hopefully yours to before the Us decides to bomb the country back to the stone-age……the barbarians…..Iranian music is just beautiful. Price: 25 Euro
219. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ BARENREITER MUSICAPHON – A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT: “Indonesia I” (Unesco Collection/ Barenreiter Musicaphon – BM-30SL2031) (Record: Near Mint/ gatefold Sleeve w/ attached Booklet: Near Mint). Original Barenreiter record which means and stands for total quality both recording and documentation wise. This set here brings forth some galvanizing tomes out of Indonesia, which will have you, spellbound for days in a row. Getting a bitch to dig up these past couple of years. Top copy. Price: 40 Euro
220. UNESCO COLLECTION ‾ BARENREITER MUSICAPHON – A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT: “MALAYSIA” (Unesco Collection/ Barenreiter Musicaphon – BM-30L2026) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Sleeve w/ attached Booklet: Near Mint). Price: 35 Euro
221. UNESCO COLLECTION ‾ MUSICAL SOURCES: “Music From Sunda West Java” (Philips – 6586-031) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Excellent). Price: 20 Euro
222. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ MUSICAL SOURCES – Balinese Theatre and Dance Music “S/T” (Philips Japan – PC-1703) (Record: Mint/ Jacket: Mint/Obi: Mint). High quality vinyl Japanese pressing out of 1978. Stunning collection of hypnotic swirling Balinese music, long head-spinning tracks filled with bells, gongs, luceferian gamelan action and flutes & pipes running amok. Great and quality Japanese original pressing of this classic Unesco title. Price: 25 Euro
223. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ MUSICAL SOURCES – Taqasim and Layali – Cairo Tradition: “S/T” (Philips Japan – PC-1716) (Record: Mint/ Jacket: Mint/ Obi: Mint). High quality vinyl Japanese pressing out of 1979. “This entry in a UNESCO-sponsored survey of modal music and improvisation around the globe brews slowly, like a cup of Turkish coffee being brewed out in the sun. There is no doubt that the final number, "Darabukka Solo" by Muhammed El-Arabi, would bowl most listeners over, even ones who swear that sitting through a drum solo is a physical impossibility. Yet there is a possibility of nodding off before it comes around, not because the earlier pieces are boring, which they certainly never are, but because it all has such an intoxicating state of calm to it. This is despite the fact that the main job of the instrumentalists is to wind up all manner of impressive variations on the original scales. It is perfect background for relaxing with a novel by the great Egyptian author Naguib Mahfoux, especially the classy and attractive performance by the Takht Ensemble of Cairo. Stringed instrument lovers will particularly enjoy the astounding oud solo by Gomaa Muhammed Ali. The recording quality is fat, bringing out certain low tones in the oud and drum in a way that reaches right for the gut.” (Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide). Great and quality Japanese original pressing of this classic Unesco title. Price: 25 Euro
224. UNESCO COLLECTION ~ MUSICAPHON – PREMIERE ANTHOLOGIE DE LA MUSIQUE MALIENNE: “S/T” (Musicaphon – BM-30-L-2504) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Jacket with Booklet: Excellent). Price: 45 Euro
225. UNESCO COLLECTION – SYRIA: “Syria Musical Atlas” (EMI Odeon – 3C-064-17885) (Record: Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Mint/ Insert: Mint). Price: 35 Euro
226. UTA JIMAN MINYO MEGURI: “S/T” (Columbia Records – AL-265) (10 Inch LP Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint). 1961 first and only press issue of nice rural Minyo compilation spanning the Kanto; Chuubu and Hokuriku regions of Japan. Great set of old recordings taken in rural Japan. Price: 75 Euro
227. VICTOR SHONEN MINYOKAI: “Shonen Soran Bushi b/w Shonen Mamurogawa Ondo” (Victor – MV-198) (Two Track Single Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Picture Sleeve with Insert: Near Mint/ Company Inner Sleeve: Near Mint) 1964 Japan original Minyo ball buster performed by a group of young kids out of the sticks. High pitched snotty vocals combined with frantic back playing – rural ethnic groover from another lifetime and seemingly beamed down from an entirely different solar system. Awesome!!! Price: 50 Euro
228. WATAZUMIDO: “Sokuinranchou” (Philips - PH-7503) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). PROMO issue with OBI. Extremely beautiful copy of this austere rough-textured shakuhachi woodwind disc by the grand master Watazumido. Disc by Watazumido are extremely hard to come by, especially in good condition and are recently – here in Japan as far as domestic pressings are concerned – topping the 250-dollar mark. Watazumido has become a hot item, sought after by collector scum and DJ weirdoes alike. But the music is stunning, resembling in atmosphere and grandeur the Sacred Flute Music of New Guinea discs on the Quartz label. The music however is some of the most beautiful woodwind music ever to be put down on wax. Clive Bell said the following about Watazumido in his Oriental Winds primer: "Watazumi was the maverick wild man of the shakuhachi, establishing his own sect of Zen Buddhism and rising at 3am every morning to practice his personal discipline of stretching and self-pounding with a long hardwood pole. Barely regarding himself as a musician, Watazumi stressed that music was not the point, the goal was something far deeper. What makes his playing so compelling is the blend of wild abandon with feather-light delicacy, plus the impression that, far from interpreting an ancient piece, he has made the whole thing up this minute. In Watazumi's world you make your own flute, maybe from a laundry pole, split the bamboo through the sheer intensity of your playing and throw the thing away afterwards." Spot on description for a glimpse at Watazumi's outward-bound sonic excursions. Some of the most beautiful sounds ever to be put down on wax. Mint condition. Highest recommendation. Rock Bottom! Price. Price: 100 Euro
229. YAMADA CHISATO: “Yamada Chisato no Sekai” (King Records – SKD-5101) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ 4 Paged Insert: Near Mint). Original 1978 release – WHITE label PROMO. Again a Yamada Chisato release that surfaces way too infrequently and the 1st time in all these years I can offer a spare of this gem. Yamada’s improvisations on the shamisen evoke a spiritual quality similar to that of black sermon-like songs. The genre crossing activities Yamada hurdles himself into came from the conviction that Tsugaru shamisen can be combined with jazz and other musical genres “not just because Tsugaru shamisen is an excellent resource that has good melodies but also because it is a music that smells of the earth.” In other words, upon listening to the sound of the Tsugaru shamisen, the listener should be able to hear a sound that has the scent of Tsugaru attached to it, an eternal and mystical element that fuses neatly with other deeply rooted sounds. What is known today as Tsugaru shamisen is based on Tsugaru minyo and consists out of shamisen accompaniment to Tsugaru minyo, solo shamisen versions of these folk songs and improvisation on its themes. The songs aspect herein consists out of difficult and highly diverse vocal styles, as distinguished by Groemer, that include un-metered inflected speech, uninflected rhythmical speech, chanting on one tone, song-like chanting and highly contoured melodic lines. Yamada commented the following on this scary evolution in 1995: “From now on, we are facing a problem. To say it honestly, there are hardly any young people that are into it. Most or almost all of the famous performers have passed away and my spouse, Fukushi Ritsu, may be the last of these great ones that performs the Tsugaru minyo. So I think that after a span of thirty years the genuine Tsugaru minyo may be completely vanished. This is quite saddening…Also, young people these days seem very fond of karaoke and indulge themselves completely herein, so they won’t be become any good at singing minyo. It is a suffering trend of the times…. Another fact that fastens the corrosion of the Tsugaru minyo is the present day attitude towards art forms. In the old days, performers and entertainers were often found saying that art comes before money – it is unheard for artists to think about money. Maybe it was that in the old days everybody was poverty struck and may this attitude be supportable. But now, this attitude is not compliable anymore. Parents do not want to subject their offspring to poverty. Performing minyo does not bring food on the table anymore.” So here you have a piece of music that is bordering on the brink of extinction, Yamada on a solo excursion reworking some of the aforementioned minyo classics and variations to its themes. Mind-glowingly great! Price: 50 Euro

230. YAMADA CHISATO: “Yomigaeta Tsugaru Shamisen” (Canyon Records – C-4018) (Record: Near Mint/ Jacket: Near Mint/ 4-paged Insert: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mintt). PROMO issue all complete with obi of one of the hardest to track down Yamada Chisato discs. Original 1976 release. A Yamada Chisato release that surfaces way too infrequently. Yamada’s improvisations on the shamisen evoke a spiritual quality similar to that of black sermon-like songs. The genre crossing activities Yamada hurdles himself into came from the conviction that Tsugaru shamisen can be combined with jazz and other musical genres “not just because Tsugaru shamisen is an excellent resource that has good melodies but also because it is a music that smells of the earth.” In other words, upon listening to the sound of the Tsugaru shamisen, the listener should be able to hear a sound that has the scent of Tsugaru attached to it, an eternal and mystical element that fuses neatly with other deeply rooted sounds. What is known today as Tsugaru shamisen is based on Tsugaru minyo and consists out of shamisen accompaniment to Tsugaru minyo, solo shamisen versions of these folk songs and improvisation on its themes. The songs aspect herein consists out of difficult and highly diverse vocal styles, as distinguished by Groemer, that include un-metered inflected speech, uninflected rhythmical speech, chanting on one tone, song-like chanting and highly contoured melodic lines. Yamada commented the following on this scary evolution in 1995: “From now on, we are facing a problem. To say it honestly, there are hardly any young people that are into it. Most or almost all of the famous performers have passed away and my spouse, Fukushi Ritsu, may be the last of these great ones that performs the Tsugaru minyo. So I think that after a span of thirty years the genuine Tsugaru minyo may be completely vanished. This is quite saddening…Also, young people these days seem very fond of karaoke and indulge themselves completely herein, so they won’t be become any good at singing minyo. It is a suffering trend of the times…. Another fact that fastens the corrosion of the Tsugaru minyo is the present-day attitude towards art forms. In the old days, performers and entertainers were often found saying that art comes before money – it is unheard for artists to think about money. Maybe it was that in the old days everybody was poverty struck and may this attitude be supportable. But now, this attitude is not compliable anymore. Parents do not want to subject their offspring to poverty. Performing minyo does not bring food on the table anymore.” So here you have a piece of music that is bordering on the brink of extinction, Yamada on a solo excursion reworking some of the aforementioned minyo classics and variations to its themes. Mind-glowingly great! Price: 100 Euro

231. YAMADA KENGYO: “Sokyoku – Kogou No Kyoku b/w Aki No Nanakusa” (Victor Records – SLR-520) (10 Inch LP Record: Near Mint/ Textured Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint). Original and rare 1963 1st original pressing in fantastic condition. Beautiful Koto, Shakuhachi and vocal recording put down to tape in the late 1950s. The performance brings forth a story from the Heike Monogatari in which Kogou, a favorite of the Emperor Takakura was a very skillfully koto player. But for some reason she was leading a very secluded life in the suburbs of Kyoto. Nakakuni, an excellent shakuhachi flute player was told by the Emperor to find her and bring her back to him. As he had no idea as to where she lived, he only had the melodious tone of her koto to go on. One moonlight evening, he walked and stumbled upon her when he arrived at Sagano. There he heard a sweet koto tune that drifted in on a breeze, which he followed. It brought him to Kogou playing a koto in the moonlight while thinking of the Emperor. Stunning Edo era Japanese romance through music. Beautifully executed and sung. A classic. First original pressing from 1963. Price: 50 Euro

232. YAMAMOTO KINJO: “Yamamoto Kinjo Meiginsen”(Victor – OVC-63) (EP Record: Near Mint/ Picture Sleeve: Near Mint/ 4-paged Insert: Near Mint). Bloody obscure 1967 first press issue. Born in 1906, Yamamoto passed away in 1977 and was one of the greatest wailing enka singers on the scene and although her talent was unmistakable, fame always eluded her and she was confined to a peripheral existence. Still, she rocked the enka scene as no other and listening to hear makes you feel like being hit full frontal by a freight train. Baby - You Rock My World!!!!! Coolest picture sleeve ever. Price: 50 Euro
233. YONIN NO KAI: “Gendai Ni Ikiru Ni Hon Ongaku – Developments Of Japanese Traditional Music Works Interpreted By Yonin No Kai” (Toshiba Records – TA-9306~9) (4 LP Set: Near Mint/ Outer Box: Near Mint/ Thick Fat Fully Illustrated Booklet: Near Mint/ 4 Individual Record Jackets: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Original 1971 Japanese original pressing of stupidly rare masterpiece. Like the title already hints at, traditional Japanese music pieces are reexamined through the eyes and ears of 20th centried seasonaled players rooted deep in the country's tradition and without loosing a grain of respect to the original format. Bloody fucking awesome box set, this one has been glued to my stereo for weeks, less-is-more attitude prevails throughout and almost making the rest of my record collection completely redundant. Not a set for novices out there, appeals to wintered through maniacs who have a heart for this stuff, and if you do, you will be floored and there will be no way back. Comes complete with obi. Price: 400 Euro
234. YOSHIMURA IJUURO: “Yoshimura Ijuurou Dokujin” (Columbia Records – CLS-5170~79) (10 LP Record: Near Mint/ Additional Extra Bonus LP: Near Mint/ Outer Heavy Cloth Covered and Bound Box: Near Mint/ 11 Individual LP Jackets: Near Mint/ Book: Near Mint/ Obi: Near Mint). Heavier than life spell bounding 11 LP box set that was released in 1978 – a totally mesmerizing set documenting the solo of Yoshimura Ijuurou – the by then seventh descendant of a long family line of traditional Nagauta performers. a master of Nagauta and a living national treasure who has continued to walk the royal road of the Japanese music world. Born in 1901, he has been known for his beautiful voice since he was young. His voluminous and lustrous singing voice was both generous and delicate,and attracted many people during his lifetime. His research-minded performances were fresh every time and with this massive set, which selects tantalizing performances by Ijuro Yoshimura, is the most comprehensive compilation that praises Ijuro, and most of the recordings were taken from elusive 78RPM recordings. Just massive set and bound to raise the hairs on your neck. Price: 200 Euro
235. YOSHIMURA IJURO & IMAFUJI CHOJURO (Shamisen): “Nagauta Tamagawa” (Columbia – CL-80) (10 Inch LP Record: Excellent/ Flip Back Sleeve: Excellent). Scarce 1959 1st original press issue of drop dead Nagauta classic recording. Yoshimura received during his lifetime the title of Living National Treasure, so that gives you an idea of the man’s stature within the world of Kabuki and Nagauta. YOSHIMURA Ijuro took an active part in the world of nagauta from the Meiji to the Showa eras, and in days gone by also worked as the lead singer for Danjuro IX. He is a master who transmitted the early modern Edo nagauta to the modern era. One may never hear this kind of powerful nagauta ever again. YOSHIMURA Ijuro recorded "Tamagawa" with many companies, but this recording was released in 1958. Price: 50 Euro
236. YOSHIMURA IJURO & IMAFUJI CHOJURO: “Nagauta Shinkyoku Urajima” (Columbia – CL-80) (10 Inch LP Record: VG++ ~ Excellent/ Flip Back Sleeve: Excellent). Scarce 1962 1st original press issue of drop dead Nagauta classic recording, where Yoshimura gets again backed up by Imafuji on shamisen. Bone-chillingly awesome. Price: 45 Euro
237. YOSHIMURA GOROUJI & KINEYA EIJIRO (Shamisen): “Shiokumi – Tomo Yatsuto” (Toshiba Records – TM-5011) (Red Wax 10 Inch LP Record: Excellent/ Flip Back Jacket: Excellent). Original 1960s release of classic Nagauta slide. Comes pressed on red wax. Price: 50 Euro
238. YOSHIMURA GOROUJI & KINEYA EIJIRO (Shamisen): “Nagauta Sarashi Me – Nagauta Asazumabune” (Toshiba Records – THO-6023) (10 Inch LP Record: Near Mint/ Flip Back Jacket: Near Mint). First original press issue in top condition of rare Nagauta performance. Price: 50 Euro
239. ZEN: “ShoukoKyakka” (Philips – PH-7513~4) (2 LP Record: Near Mint/ Outer Box Set: Near Mint/ Booklet: Near Mint/ Obi: Mint). Original 1st pressing and rarest one in the series. Droned out sssmonks zoned out bliss that comes over like a listening experience from beyond time and space. Price: 175 Euro