Basement Echo is the historical meeting point of two generations of the Japanese underground. Kawabata Makoto, leader of The Acid Mothers Temple, and Michishita Shinsuke, leader of LSD March, are together here for the first time in a guitar duo.
...... (more)

This is the companion release to the Tom Carter LP titled Shots At Infinity 2 being release on Important simultaneously.
Shots At Infinity 1(the CD) is comprised of recordings from various basements in the northeastern USA from late 2007...... (more)

Dolphin Sonar is Merzbow's full length protest album against the annual brutal slaughtering of some 2,500 dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture Japan. This is an angry album full of beats, blasts and broken glass. Clattering smashes are pursued by pulsing analog whirls like the heart of a dolphin being chased through the bloodied waters of Taiji. .. (more)

The Echo From The Purple Dawn is a brand new full length from C.C.C.C. member Hiroshi Hasegawa's solo project Astro. Using a battery of oscillators, ring modulators and field recordings Hasegawa has created an engaging and versitile album that masterfully drifts between spaced out analog dream drone and a more extreme form of harsher droning.. (more)

Larsen w/ David Tibet (Current 93), Julia Kent (Antony & the Johnsons), Baby Dee (Current 93) & Johann Johannsson. This CD/DVD set captures Larsen & Friends live at a sold out performance in an ancient Italian theater paying tribute with music, words, dance & text to the brilliant Czech typographer and founder of Devestil Karel Teige.
Packaged in a deluxe custom die cut slip cover with a full color 20 page glued in booklet this entire package, inside and out, is one of the finest pieces Important Records has ever helped bring to life..... (more)

Berlin 2007 was a monumental performance for Cluster as it marked the first time that they had peformed live in Berlin since their 12 hour concert in the Galerie Hammer in the Europacenter in 1969. The performance was a massive success as a sold out crowd cheered loudly for Cluster to return to the stage. Fortunately, the concert was.......(more)

Though Conifer has received quite a bit of critical praise they've somehow managed to live off the grid for the past six years. With Crown Fire Conifer is finally getting the exposure they deserve. Mixing post-rock, kraut-rock, metal and pschychedlia they have created this relentlessly driving and hypnotic masterpiece. Featuring Eugene Robinson of Oxbow.
...... (more)

Heavy drone/heavy meditation. Be inside the sounds.
Formed in 2004, Tecumseh creates drone metal of the heaviest variety although with more forward movement than some of their peers and with the addition of cold electronic hiss. Using 2 basses, electronics, percussion and guitar Tecumseh wrap themselves and...... (more)

Zak Riles is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in the Important band Grails. His creative contributions to the group are immeasurable and can be heard clearly on this self titled debut solo outing. In fact some of the pieces on this solo record have been reinterpreted into Grails favorites...... (more)

The Mill Pond was originally released in 1997 as a double 7" that went immediately out of print. For it's 10th aniversary we're issuing it on compact disc housed in a deluxe letterpressed jacket and including an extensive booklet collecting John Fahey's paintings for the very first time. Limited edition...(more)

After the by now usual gap of some two years, Beequeen is
ready to present their latest album, further maturing their sound from The Bodyshop (also on Important Records). More song based, this album features now vocals by......(more)

Holy McGrail: Moog Taurus II, Sunn Mustang, Clatter
Howard Marsden: Korg MS10 & Korg MS20, Hiss
Julian Cope: Poem
The Bog is the 2nd full-length release from Slomo, honing down the ritual clatter of their first album, The Creep (2005), into a more cumbersome and laden affair, ever heading downwards into the Northern Underworld upon slurries of unsignposted mung.... (more)

Aidan Baker's I Wish Too, To Be Absorbed is a 2 disc compilation of tracks from various out-of-print, limited edition releases spanning the last 10 years of Baker's output, ranging from his very first release to material that was featured on the soundtrack to a book of his poetry..... (more)

Following their acclaimed breakthrough debut album that caught the ears of critics and fans worldwide, and became Important's highest selling album, Ocean has returned with their forward thinking, brutally heavy and purely minimalist sophomore album Pantheon Of The Lesser. Everything in it's own time. Simply profound. Heavy like Schoenberg.(more)

Brethren of the Free Spirit are guitarist/composer James Blackshaw and lutenist/composer Jozef van Wissem. Named after a cult of 13th-century Northern European religious heretics this duo play with an appropriately zealous
intensity. ...... (more)

.Admira (1971) is sourced from original master recordings discovered by Kluster member, and Tangerine Dream engineer, Klaus Freudigmann.......(more)

.Vulcano (1971) is sourced from original master recordings discovered by Kluster member, and Tangerine Dream engineer, Klaus Freudigmann.. .......(more)

John Fahey and Ayal Senior layed down the tracks for Three Day Band in Fahey's Woodburn Hotel room at some point in 1999. These tracks show an undocumented improvisational side of Fahey. It's certainly not early period Fahey but not TOTE era either. At night after the recording sessions commenced Ayal would record Fahey reading selected excerpts from his writing. Fifteen tracks of Fahey reading are included here. ......(more)

Heaviest Acid Mothers record ever. . Kawabata went as far as to, half jokingly, compare this album to Sunn O)))). Our last Acid Mothers Temple full length quickly became many people's favorite and this one is sure to give it some serious competition. Just check out the mp3......(more)

Glass Forest is a highly listenable starting point for any
newcomers curious about Daniel Menche's vast discography. It is also, according to Menche, the last cd he will release. (more)

Travellers Two is a full length recording from the duo of Tara Burke (Fursaxa) and Sharron Kraus. Togerther Kraus & Burke create an ethereal record of dark-folk magic.
Tara Burke and Sharron Kraus were due to travel to Finland together for a week but missed the flight (more)

AcidMothersGuruGuru features Mani Neumeier from the legendary and influential German Krautrock group Guru Guru as well as Kawabata Makoto and Atsushi Tsuyama from Japan's holy Acid Mothers Temple. The result is a trans-generational psych blowout!.... (more)

Julia Kent is a member of the Mercury Prize winning Antony & The Johnsons. Her debut solo effort, Delay, is a cd of multitracked cello and found sounds. It was inspired by airports, by transitoriness, and by the private emotional worlds that we create amid the disorientations and disjunctions of travel..... (more)

Organized Pitches Occurring in Time consists of two 25 minute pieces of music, both spawned from the same conceptual composition/score by Duane Pitre, titled Ensemble Drones. With their form reminiscent of works by La Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music and their tonality touching on the floating works of Terry Riley....(more)

Ghost Town is the first full-length solo release from Parts & Labor singer/electrician Dan Friel. Characterized by its anthemic melodies, complex electronic arrangements and
huge distorted beats, Ghost Town has massive universal appeal.
"Music-box melody shoved through the speaker cone of a subwoofer salvaged from the trunk of a totaled Jeep" Pitchfork.......(more)

Mani Neumeier has been at the helm of Germany's legendary Krautrock group Guru Guru for over 35 years and for 20 of those years he's been working on Sketches, his first solo album.l (more)

Constellation Of Tragedy is the sixth full length album from Japan's LSD March. Apt comparisons are often made of LSD March being a cross between the Velvet Underground and Les Rallizes Denudes. (more)

Heavy lyrical emotion transcends linguistic barriers and Pirako's blown out fuzzy free-dream guitar work is an alternate universe heavy Japanese shoegaze. They are a forest at night drenched in echoing reverb and soaked with deeply spiritual/emotional melodies. . (more)

This all-star trio features William Hooker on drums, Eyvind Kang on violin and guitar and Bill Horist on guitar. Sync'd up like they've been playing together for eternity these recordings represent a dramatic paradigm shift in the art of improvisation. These three thoroughly modern artists scan jazz, new music and noise – stretching it all out and putting it back together within the expansive boundaries of these tremendously compelling high energy recordings....(more)

Sky City features Tom Carter (Charalambides), Robert Horton, Lisa Cameron & Lee Ann Cameron. Sky City is psychedelic space music with all the atoms of surfaces freed to inter and counter react. Noise in the outer dimension. Horton’s homemade inventions, Carter’s lyrical ebow guitar lines. The walking on the moon vocals of Lee Ann Cameron. The vibration of material planes by Lisa Cameron... (more)

Organized Pitches Occurring in Time consists of two 25 minute pieces of music, both spawned from the same conceptual composition/score by Duane Pitre, titled Ensemble Drones. With their form reminiscent of works by La Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music and their tonality touching on the floating works of Terry Riley....(more)

Brand new full length, 2nd for Important, from Larsen/XXL member Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo's brilliant ( r ) project. Highly recommended.... (more)

Neon Pibroch is a brand new full length cd from the Astral Social Club. Also available at the same time is a limited edition Astral Social Club LP on Important titled Super Grease. ..... (more)

Black Magic Disco is the new all-star band featuring Tom Greenwood (JOMF), Maurizio & Roberto Opalio (My Cat Is An Alien) and Ramona Ponzini (Painting Petals On Planet Ghost, Praxinoscope)...... (more)

Spicchiology? is the sophomore release from the supergroup XXL comprising all members of Xiu Xiu and Larsen. Recorded in late 2006 in Torino Italy Spicchiologi? is the result of a profoundly creative friendship translated into music and spanning the globe.. (more)

Over 60 minutes of total analog destruction by noise king Merzbow and Brooklyn noise boss Carlos Giffoni, This live collaboration was recorded during Giffoni's Synth Destruction Japan Tour in September of 2006. This is Sound Totalism..... (more)

Featuring an allstar cast including Mark Ribot & Leo Abrahams, Stefana creates a dreamy world of instrumental perfection and beauty. Inspired by the work of Ennio Morricone, Ry Cooder, Simon Jeffes, Steve Reich and Brian Eno, he has created a thoroughly modern Western world.(more)

Jessica Rylan (you may know her better as Can't) is finally releasing her first officially published instrumental work for synthesizer. Titled Interior Designs, these compositions are more “classic” in nature than her work as Can't. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, Iannis Xenakis and especially Thomas Lehn, Rylan......(more)

Musm has long been out of print on both cd and lp. Originally released as a tour only cd this extremely expanded edition is titled Musm II and it includes all the non-album tracks that Larsen have released since their first full length as well as the original tracks from Musm. ......(more)

Author, activist, painter and sound artist Masami Akita had been at the foreground of experimental music for over 25 years. Inspired by psycedelic rock, free jazz, early electronic composition as well the physical arts, especial Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau, Masami Akita has created a musical language all his own. ......(more)

While Wooden Wand and Satya Sai jammed with the Sky High Band in beautiful California, the Vanishing Voice dug in deep in the frozen northeast. Snowed in with utopian texts and mounting paranoia, Steven The Harvester, Heidi White Diamond Diehl, and Pete Wolfy Nolan joined Nonhorse ......(more)

Memory Theater is an absolutely essential collection of the best of Axolotl's out of print cdrs and vinyl only releases.
Karl Bauer spent quite a bit of time collaborating with Black Dice, Mouthus, Double Leopards.........(more)

Total Can-style audacity from Brooklyn drone stew Edward Goreyian broken house sufic wanderers the
Vanishing Voice......(more)

Baikal is a new burner from Bardo Pond brothers John & Michael Gibbons along with fellow Bardo Pond members Clint Takeda and Jason Kourkonis. (more)

Rameses III are architects of the most beautiful swathes of blissful ambience whose releases have previously found homes on labels like Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Music Fellowship, Scarcelight, MYMWLY, Barl Fire and Type......(more)

Leave Me In The Black No-Thing is MCIAA's response to their last album for Important titled Cosmic Light Of The Third Milennium. Where Cosmic Light celebrated infinite light, Leave Me hovers in a particular sort of cosmic darkness
.... (more)

Roberto Opalio is 1/2 of My Cat Is An Alien. Chants From Isolated Ghosts is his debut solo recording and it was originally released in a tiny private pressing on cdr which sold out immediately and has since become one of MCIAA's most sought after releases...... (more)

The piano is certainly an instrument with which Conrad Schnitzler is not often associated. However, his compositions on Klavierhelm exhibit his highly expressive and free approach to the piano. Calling to mind Erik Satie and Cage, Cecil Taylor and even Carl Stalling. (more)

Kosmista Noisea is a brand new full length from Japanese legend KK Null (ANP/Zeni Geva). Packaged in a jewel box with a metallic print on a vellum tray card, this was lavishly designed by Stephen O'Malley (Sunn 0)))/Khanate). (more)

Metacompound is the first full length studio album from ANP in 19 years. Lavish metallic ink on vellum packaging by ANP fan and Sunn O))) member Stephen O'Malley. (more)

Northern Stains is the result of a collaboration between experimental phenomenon Carlos Giffoni and Spunk/Fe-Mail members Maja Ratkje & Hild Tafjord. This trio finally met when Giffoni booked Fe-Mail to headline the sunday night of his genere defining Brooklyn based 3 day No Fun Festival in 2005. Early in 2006 Giffoni boarded a flight to Norway and Northern Stains was born in Spunk's Oslo studio.(more)

Brand new collaboration between Pete Swanson and Gabe Saloman of Yellow Swans, Tom Carter of Charalambides and Robert Horton. This time it's a landslide of swamp-noise-drone with feedback layered like mud atop the skeleton of a buried song structure

Much different than the lumbering jams of Alasehir are the drenched ethno-drones of Alumbrados. Featuring Bardo Pond's John & Michael Gibbons on guitar, sitar, cumbas and various percussive instruments as well as Michael Zanghi and Aaron Igler with additional electronics and percussion. Alumbrados is a beautiful, rhythmic and tremendously arranged psychedelic experience.

Together Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty have re-written the concept of modern free-jazz with their post-hardcore punk style approach of euphoric togetherness. Ferocious, spontaneous, explosive and aggressively lyric they've established their groundbreaking duo with loads of shows and a host of tremendous recordings. Now, with violinist/vocalist C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core) they've expanded their sound even further. Great liner notes by John Olson

Imagine yourself riding on cells coasting through your body's veins. The sound of the heart grows stronger like a beating drum as you're pulled closer. Suddenly, you're embraced by this giant pulsating muscle and when you're finally released back into the veins you can hear it's sound fading slowly, but still growling with the same intensity that it has beat with for eternity. Jugularis is the soundtrack to this ride and like your heart it's packaged in blood: the ultimate symbol of life and intensity.

Minazo is Merzbow's tribute to the beloved male elephant seal who lived life in captivity at a Tokyo aquarium. Masami Akita often visited the seal at the aquarium and was allowed to access Minazo behind the scenes. Minazo includes many phototographsand an essay by Masami Akita as well as illustrations by Jenny Akita.

Let's get this straight immediately. Anoice is not another instumental group with strong rock tendencies and an armchair association with classical music. Unlike numerous contemporaries which they will undoubtedly be compared to, their goal is not to follow the trends and make the soft/loud/soft/loud juxtapositions in every song, but to carefully craft each song with a strong attention to melody, solid accompaniment, and courteous counterpoint. Six panel digipack design by Non-Format

Prepare yourself for this gem of free-improvised-found-sound-collage enriched with dark pagan folky vibes and supernatural horror noise dedicated to HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Austin Osman Spare!
Pestrepeller consists of long-celebrated illustrator and Wire journalist Savage Pencil, Evan Parker student and ex-Medicine Head member Peter Hope-Evans, comic artist Ed Pinsent, cartoonist Harley Richardson and Rob Brown.

What did you listen to last summer? Masami Akita, otherwise know as Merzbow, spent most of his summer listening to Horace Andy, Studio One, Dennis Bovel, Keith Hudson and a whole pipe full of other dub mavericks. That's probably why this brand new full length, with cover art by Jenny Akita, is dripping with deep bass riffage and a whole lot of electronic dub vibes and beats.

Debut solo album from Larsen's Fabrizio Modonese Polumbo.
"...surprisingly gentle inflections, combining low voices, groung hugging mists of keyboards, genial electronic hucklebuck and even acoustic guitar to create small vistas of delightful otherness..."
The Wire

Mojo Magazine Underground Album Of The Month July 05'

“This record is by my favorite singer-songwriter in all of New York City. I'm so happy to be alive at the same time she is because i get to see her perform. It's her and guitar or her and piano or her and harmonium. Her lyrics are so good, when i play this for people they stop doing everything and are quiet for hours after." Devendra Banhart

Sirocco by Daniel Menche is the first recording by him created by utilizing sound sources from several other sound artists. Andrew Lagowski, Asmus Tietchens, Main, John Duncan, Scanner, Illusion Of Safety, Merzbow, ErikM, B. Labelle and AMT submitted one minute sections of sound for Daniel Menche to work with.
Much like Steve Reich's Phase Patterns or Phillip Glass' Music In 12 Parts, this is a lenghty single piece that evolves and and changes shape slowly over the course of the composition.

A Note To Listeners From Piano Magic:

I should input that this is, hands down, thee most purely electronic record Piano Magic have ever made - a brash stylistically pendulum swing from the most recent album, The Troubled Sleep Of Piano Magic........

Following the success of Forbidden Planet Explored, Jack's soundtrack for the legendary sci-fi film Forbidden Planet, Jack has brought us a brand new Meat Beat style manifestation and a collection of 10 years worth of his electro-acoustic musique concrete.
Loudness Clarifies/Music From Tapelab brings forth both sides of Jack Dangers multi-dimensional audio personality into one single commercial package neatly designed by Almighty. From the distant, careful, experimentalism found in Music From Tapelab to the dance floor oriented Loudness Clarifies we experience Jack as a whole musical entity.

Top Ten of 2004 according to the editors of Igloo Magazine

Imagine Kurt Weill chewing sausages with the Residents underneath the Williamsburg Bridge while watching a Russian wedding dance and you have some approximation of Barbez, Brooklyn's one-of-a-kind post-cabaret punk chamber ensemble. Provoked by such musics as Slavic folksong, Argentine tango, post-war classical and pre-mtv punk, Barbez wrings these disparate worlds into the band's own unique soundscape.

In this rare one on one interview, brought to you by Important Records and Alternative Radio, David Barsamian hold a remarkably in depth interview with Noam Chomsky on the subject of War Crimes And Imperial Fantasies.

In the duration of this two hour interview Noam Chomsky, a leading linguist, political scholar and activist for peace and justice, places George Bush and his war in Iraq into historical perspective while discussing the United States pursual of Imperialism and the crimes commited against humanity along the way

This double cd release contains Jack's now famous soundtrack for the legendary sci-fi film Forbidden Planet. This recording was performed live accompanying a screening of the film at the I.D.E.A.L. Music Festival in Nantes, France. Since the performance the legend has built as Jack's legions of fans have searched far and wide for this recording. As a special bonus, Forbidden Planet Explored contains a second cd full of sci-fi sound effects inspired by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

"...These ethereal sound effects are captured in twenty-three thematic tracks that illustrate the quirky film, and at the same time give it a fully timeless quality..." Igloo Magazine

O Si Amos A Essere Duas Umbras? is comprised of two epic, deeply meditative, spiritual and transcendental compositions. Track one, titled "Ses Aintro ‘e mene finzas Si Ses In S'Atter'Ala E Su Mundu" is the very first solo track Kawabata has ever recorded on an acoustic guitar. Filtered through 3 reverb units and a single delay this epic acoustic track starts off droning but quickly builds with reverb drenched and finger picked momentum light years away from any of Kawabata's solo guitar work.

"...Weaving shimmering phrases and drones, Makoto
brings to mind the soundscapes of Robert Fripp's more
recent solo releases, especially Fripp's collaboration
with Jeffrey Fayman, A Temple in the Clouds..." -Igloo

Surprise full length from Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV founder Genesis P-Orridge, and produced by Astrid Monroe, has been slowly coming to fruition and it arrives with perfect timing. The true identity of Astrid Monroe has been kept a secret from all parties involved in the release of this CD.

"ANP (Absolut Null Punkt) was originally formed in 1984 by KK.Null (before he started his progressive hardcore rock trio Zeni Geva) and Seijiro Murayama (founding drummer of Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha). Live In Japan was recorded at dates between December and February 2003 in Osaka as well as Tokyo. The live setting is a perfect showcase for ANP's diverse inspirations and unique approach to creating music. An echoing chamber of stark,pummeling fusion is created by combining strong elements of free jazz, heavy rock, industrial noise, glitch and free improvisation dynamics.

"Don't be fooled by Kimya Dawson's tiny voice and fey affect. She writes like a giant, and finds the music to put her words across. " -Robert Christgau, Dean of American Rock Critics

"Kimya Dawson has the most arresting voice since Mo Tucker of the Velvet Underground." - John F. They Might Be Giants

On break from Rough Trade and her band The Moldy Peaches, our friend Kimya finds herself at home on Important Records releasing two albums at once. Both albums are full of unique, original and beautifuly moving folk songs about Matlock, Atari 2600's, love, growing up, growing old and the Golden Girls. Kimya is one of the most unique voices in modern music and we're honored to be releasing these albums.
Both albums were recorded after her Rough Trade solo debut and both prove to be even stronger.

The Hyperjinx Tricycle is a trio consisting of Daniel Johnston, NYC painter Ron English and the ever elusive and mysterious Jack Medicine. the initial pressing of this disc sold out fast. available now.
VOTED ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2002 BY MUSIC AUSTIN!!! !(www.musicaustin.com)

Highly recommended solo recordings from Feathers/Witch member Asa Irons accompanied by his childhood friend Swaan Miller. Asa lives in a home he built from stones in the rural woods of New Hampshire and this record was constructed with the same sort of honest, real & quiet sincerity. Again, essential. (more)

For Rivulets' third album members include Jessica Baliff, Chris Brokaw and musicians from The Rachel's, Boxhead Ensemble & Mission Of Burma.
Together they tastefully smother Rivulet's soft voice and guitar with layers of wintery sounds..... (more)

The goal was to create digital music from underwater sound samples of creatures including orcas, dolphins, beluga whales, sperm whales, humpback whales, Weddell and Bearded seals, lobsters, shrimp and water. Together, Interspecies and greenmuseum.org compiled a sample cd of 350 captured sounds and sent it out to many of their favorite electronic artists. Scanner, Merzbow, Yannick Dauby, LapCore, Jayne Fenton Keane, Kim Cascone and many others answered the call merging deep sea underwater sounds with their electronic aesthetics.

"The madman who brought us such classics as "Sensitive Artist", "Wuss", "Jesus Was Way Cool" and "Detachable Penis" return. ...A pared-down King Missile III (John S. Hall, Sasha Forte and Bradford Reed) mixing up jams from outer space with unique lyrics and spoken word pieces…a template the band has spent the last two decades building their legend on." Rolling Stone

Extremely limited edition of 300. Available only from Important mailorder and from the band on tour. Two tracks - one from their 2009 album on Important and the other unreleased.... (more)

This is #8 in Important Records' ongoing Arts And Crafts series pairing music with packaging made by the musicians.
Look for the next Barbez album on John Zorn's Tzadik label.
This 7" is limited to 400 copies and was designed, signed and numbered by Barbez's Dan Kaufman. 100 are on red vinyl and 100 are on white vinyl. Please specify what color of vinyl you want...(more)

REPRESSED in expanded packaging. Thanks to the film Juno Kimya Dawson has been receiving a whole lot of deserved attention lately.
This vinyl repress includes a lyric sheet insert - something we still haven't gotten around to including in the cds. The first 100 copies we ship via mailorder will be on pink vinyl. CD version available also.

REPRESSED in expanded packaging. Thanks to the film Juno Kimya Dawson has been receiving a whole lot of deserved attention lately.
This vinyl repress includes a lyric sheet insert - something we still haven't gotten around to including in the cds. The first 100 copies we ship via mailorder will be on pink vinyl. CD version available also

black vinyl.(more)

color vinyl... (more)

black vinyl.... (more)
Check the news page for a handmade edition of the vinyl.

black vinyl...... . (more)

black vinyl... Artwork by C. Spencer Yeh. Liner notes from Wolf Eyes bro John Olson aka Johnny Coors. Last copies.

This vinyl only picture disc release is limited to only 500 copies worldwide.
Ranging from furious to tender, Stalker was recorded in Paris and at various live dates around Europe. This live material was then brought back to a studio in Norway and laboriously editited for release.
“ I play with the material and it talks back to me. It's a game between the boundaries of total control and total
anarchy. I try to include some of both.” Maja Ratkje

black vinyl.......(more)