{"title":"Sonorama","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSonorama is a German based and worldwide distributed independent label run by Ekkehart Fleischhammer. The label focuses on releasing impossible to find or previously unreleased recordings from the sought after vaults of jazz, funk, soul or latin music history. With a dedication to preserving and sharing rare musical gems, Sonorama brings to light hidden treasures that would otherwise remain undiscovered. From lost classics to forgotten masterpieces, the label's releases are a testament to their commitment in unearthing and showcasing exceptional talent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith an extensive catalog spanning various genres, Sonorama has become a go-to destination for music enthusiasts seeking unique and extraordinary sounds. Whether you're a dedicated collector or simply someone looking for something new and exciting, Sonorama offers an unparalleled selection of *jazz*, *funk*, *soul* and *latin* music that will captivate your ears.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs an authoritative voice in the industry, Sonorama's influence extends far beyond its German roots. Their worldwide distribution ensures that these rare recordings reach audiences around the globe, allowing fans from all corners of the world to experience the magic of these long-lost musical treasures. With their commitment to quality and attention to detail, it's no wonder why Sonorama has earned its reputation as one of the leading labels in uncovering hidden musical gems.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"soundmusication","title":"Soundmusication","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSoundmusication\u003c\/i\u003e is the third and final album by Jamaican born tenorist Fitz Gore, another rare and beautiful spiritual jazz LP from the late 1970s. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Fitz had a very deeputopian faith in the right music, which could change the world and develop a real condition of peace, because it was supposed to move people's feelings and actions to spiritual truth. He was convinced that music owned the healing power of the world\" (Ulrich Kurth). \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOther players include Lukoki Mampasi on electric piano, Obama Ngomo on bass, Emmanuel Dipanda on drums or Gil Nguema on guitar. They really open the door to let the leader do such amazing things on his horn. First reissue remastered in 2022, comes with original artworks and the bonus track \"Gisela (Lion Rock)\".\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sonorama","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50435779789131,"sku":"1158089","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/f278e36a-0a4f-46bd-a498-30f0121db386_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726907701"},{"product_id":"maskerade","title":"Maskerade","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Maskerade\" is among the most fascinating fusion and spiritual jazz LPs from West Germany. The sought after album was originally released in 1974 on the tiny label \"Creative Music Records\" ,with only a few hundred copies known to exist. Leader Dieter Bihlmaier stands out as a fantastic flute player, recalling some of the best moments of icons like Eric Dolphy, Sahib Shihab or Jeremy Steig. Bassist Jan Jankeje, percussionist Gerhart Ziegler and vibraphonist Gerhard Dietz form his magnificent rhythm section, that fosters exploration of the group's highly polyphonic compositions with a light touch of free jazz. This is the first reissue, lovingly remastered in 2022. Comes with original cover artwork and sleeve notes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the mid-70s, the \"Dieter Bihlmaier Selection\" is one of the most highly regarded jazz ensembles on the West German scene. As representatives of a \"new\" jazz style, the quartet plays at the most important progressive meetings in the country, the German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt, the Jazz-Ost-West Festival in Nuremberg, at Balver Höhle and many other events. The musicians also play recording sessions for the most important radio stations. They record two albums with different line-ups, \"Maskerade\" (1974 on Creative Music Records) and \"Manipulsation\" (1977 on Pläne Records). Their artistic goal is to find ways to a new jazz repertoire with an own musical expressiveness, finally enabling them to emancipate themselves from American role models.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the unconventional instrumentation of various flutes, bass, drums and vibraphone, the polyphonic compositions on \"Maskerade\" cannot be pressed into the cliché of a certain jazz style. Rather, they are based on the roots of Afro-American music in combination with European and Asian influences. Different elements and musical styles flow into each other, sometimes imperceptibly. The musical arrangements vary between lyrical passages and explosive collective performances. Improvisation comes first, representing the \"moment\" and the \"spiritual innerness\" of the performers. This is complemented by a classic free jazz style, that merges the smallest rhythmic and melodic patterns as a sort of \"raw material\" to rebuild a large musical form.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this way, the musicians create arcs of tension and tremendous intensity. The spiritual character of the music is determined by Dieter Bihlmaier's playing on different flutes, bamboo flutes and piccolo, with enchanting harmonies that usually sound clear and simple despite all their complexity. He studied music in Stuttgart and Berlin, most recently with the flutist Aurèle Nicolet. His flutes, a total of six, have both a melodic and rhythmic function. By using different blowing techniques, Bihlmaier reaches a wide variety of uncommon sounds. Often his compositions are interspersed with motifs of Asian, especially oriental, music (\"Arco Oriental\") and his flute sound is alienated by overblowing effects or even reverberation (\"Roulette\" or \"Echoes\").\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a spontaneous dialogue with the musicians, Bihlmaier's ideas are taken up for further development. Gerhart Ziegler is unique in his field. Since he lost his right arm in an accident, he plays the drums and percussion instruments with one arm. If you don't see him playing, you don't notice it. His performance is complex and subtle, rhythmically dense and with precise timing. Ziegler's most important contribution to the music is pulsation, playing around and moving away from the main beats of the bar with 16th notes, triplets or even strong syncopations. He energizes the band with powerful breakbeats (\"Maskerade\" or \"Echoes\"), but also intersperses floating, almost trance-like, pads and solos (\"Polyp's Lullaby\"). The man is also responsible for the unusual graphic design of the album cover.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Slovakian bassist Jan Jankeje adds further rhythmic variations. He changes between walking bass, free improvisations and spiritual jazz grooves (\"Gertouschka\" or \"Ovation\"). Jankeje had emigrated to West Germany at the time of the Prague Spring and played with famous musicians like Benny Goodman or Jaco Pastorius before Bihlmaier brought him into the band. Little known, on the other hand, is Gerhard Dietz, who plays vibraphone on three tracks of the album. It was right after the recordings for \"Maskerade\" when he suddenly ended his career as a musician. His free playing is deeply pleasing. Listening to his performance, in which staccato chords compete with floating, pearly sounds, one would have wished that Dietz had continued playing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the time of production at Tonstudio Bauer, the great sound engineer Carlos Albrecht sat behind the mixing desk. This is another reason why the virtuoso recordings of \"Maskerade\" are impressively homogeneous. Later he became president of the \"Verband Deutscher Tonmeister\" (VDT\/ Association of German Sound Engineers). Then Jan Jankeje and Gerhard Dietz leave the band. Dietz leaves for health reasons, while Jankeje founds his own label \"Jazz Point\". The band is joined by bassist Wolfgang Lauer and vibraphonist Wolfgang Lackerschmid. They continue extensive touring as a quintet with Albert Mangelsdorff. The following album \"Manipulsation\" remains the last by the Bihlmaier Selection before the band goes their separate ways. Already in 1978 Bihlmaier and Ziegler play in a new quartet, with Heinz Sauer and Buschi Niebergall.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sonorama","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50452349747531,"sku":"2004533","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Maskerade_1b8ff8a2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727148503"},{"product_id":"african-rhythms-and-blues","title":"African Rhythms and Blues","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a classic and sought after afro funk LP. One of the best recordings in the genre: Pulsating african rhythms with funk bass and heavy brass sounds: Essential and ultra hard to find album with tons of true killer afro funk breaks. A sure killer set for collectors and DJs! Some also call it \"a stripped down Fela Kuti sound\". Original producer H. Manfred Schmitz with his memories from September 2006: I started working as an artist promoter at german Electrola in 1970, responsible for radio\/ tv promotion and later as a freelancer at WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk). Rudy Petri has been te boss of Edition Accord, a publishing department of EMI. In Rudy's office, I met Lou Blackburn, a middle aged afro american with an exceptional headgear that I had not seen before. When he held out his hand to welcome me, I was feeling an unknown calmness and sovereignty from this tall man. His eyes were lookingat me through metal-rimmed glasses in a friendly way. They looked so warm and I felt that he was looking at me with his heart. \"My band Mombasa and I, we are looking for somebody to produce an album with us. We wanna go on a european tour soon and would like to sell our music after the concerts. We also know what we want to achieve in the studio, everything is well rehearsed and we will not need much time for the recordings. We mainly need support for the logistic aspects and a good connection to a suitable distributor.\" We already started our common work after 10 days: Edition Accord and my publishing company Many Music shared the cost and work for the production and we decided to record Mombasa in the Cornet Studio\/ Cologne, that was equipped with a small but fine 8-track machine. We needed two hours for the preliminaries of the recording process and focussed on the best adjustments for the rhythm group. From the beginning Lou had a very good connection to the sound engineer W. Sorger. While some of the musicians checked their instruments, others were decorating the recording room with african cloths, candles and even added incense cones to the prevailing mood. The band drew up like they did on stage, with the drums in the very back but with a visual contact to every band member. There was no real break within the recording session, only the ones for changing instruments and tuning them again. I got the impression they were giving one of their concerts! We immediately felt a bubbling enthusiam. After the recording - there was only one! - Lou Blackburn came to the control desk and listened to everything that was recorded. We had only worked for three hours then. There was nothing to improve and so we began discussions about the final mix that was done with Lou alone. All in all the whole production only lasted one day. The first approach for a record label was successful too: From the first moment, Peter Springer of Intercord loved the product and wanted to release it on the german Intercord label \"Spiegelei\" (\"Fried Egg\"). Lou also confirmed to buy a few thousand records for their european tour so that the contract was signed early. Finally I can tell you that I was never carried away by such a positive energy before. I felt so much happiness with Mombasa, especially with Lou Blackburn, without being able to appreciate it properly. But I owe Lou and his fellows a debt of gratitude until today! I hesitated for a long time before releasing this claim from the geography of my recently discovered soul. But with this re-release of the first Mombasa recordings, we are on a way, that Lou would have gone with us. From original liner notes 1975: In describing the music of Mombasa which is a mixture of rhythm, jazz, folklore, blues, spirituals and worksongs, Lou Blackburn would prefer not to use the word jazz. \"Many people ask us\", he says, \"how one describes our type of music. To this I can only answer that I leave it to the audience because i don't want to give it a label, for me it is simply ours, Mombasa's music\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sonorama","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50530732474699,"sku":"385613","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/b8752f29-1271-41a4-b994-c27c12cf0f98_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728083741"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_6c37b2e7_thumbnail_4096_fc9b1679-0749-4097-894a-7963b9ecff75.jpg?v=1726907681","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/sonorama.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}