LP - The Crystal Hum is the debut vinyl release by Taiwan-based artist Yuching Huang and her first release for Night School.

1. Fly! Little Black Thing
2. Love
3. Confessions From A Soul
4. Thoughts
5. Thunder In Heaven
6. In My Room
7. The Song Of Summer
8. JohnJohn
9. Alright
10. You, An Illusion


The Crystal Hum is the debut vinyl release by Taiwan-based artist Yuching Huang and her first release for Night School.
A beguiling dreamscape of crackles, spluttering, love-struck Casios presided over by the the spectral vocal and guitar
work of Huang, Yuching sings love songs at the end of this world and the beginning of the next. Recorded during a
hiatus from her group Aemong (a duo with artist Henrique Uba) in Berlin, these songs elevate Huang’s unique vocal
style and grasp of atmospherics. The Crystal Hum deconstructs balladry, Garage, guitar music and reforms it into a
unified ghostly otherworld version of these languages.

The Crystal Hum thrums with buried desire, trails of nocturnal reverb seeping out of apartment windows, diaristic vocal
performances and deeply emotive, evocative Western-style strings. Formulated by Yuching Huang after periods of frustration
and experimentation, the album is an exercise in minimalism and paring back, with some tracks like JohnJohn featuring little
else than an elastic bass, spring reverb trails, an interjecting vocal and swelling, dislocated synths. The effect is spellbinding,
the soundtrack to getting lost in the labyrinthine, closed streets of Venice, Taipei, Hong Kong, or mirror versions of them in the
imagination.

On opener Fly! Little Black Thing, a subterranean funk bassline roots Huang’s singing, a rudimentary, unreliable beat
floundering in whimsy underneath. Demure, dream Dance music, Huang references classic lo fi experimenters Suicide and
Arthur Russell as well as Night School label mates The Space Lady and Ela Orleans. In fact, after the release of Aemong’s
third album Crimson, Huang credits the direction of The Crystal Hum to being enchanted by The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits,
the landmark lo-fi recording made by Susan Dietrich Schneider in 1990. The new, minimalist approach to her sound world
reveals and shrouds in equal measure. On the heart-melter Love, a sultry mid-tempo Casio + bass backing drops into the ether
with Huang’s vocal swimming in preternatural void before emerging anew, in awe at the world. Every chord change heralds new
perspectives, every guitar flurry swells and drips emotion, nothing is wasted and space billows out from between the grooves.
Huang never reveals more than necessary, making this an in-between love album: the right amount of mystery and darkened
mirror shines wanely on The Crystal Hum while remaining fragile and vulnerable in the sweet spots. Turning over in pillowing
smoke and night in the dark corners, Huang sings in both Mandarin and English. The songs speak of earthly matters seemingly
at the edge of dissipating into nothing. Distorted, beguiling Sambas warble like sweating dancehalls in an imagined Lynchian
60s, as on Thoughts. Closer You, An Illusion warps a classic 60s Girlgroup bassline beloved of the likes of Les Rallizes

Denudes into a slight ballad on the edge of the void, held back by the teary-eyed, wistful and enveloping vocal cooed by
Huang. Each song feels like a love song dedicated to the bits between worlds, between beats, the negative space between
people where desires, feelings and loss hangs in the air, resolute and unresolved.

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Ltd Black Vinyl Gatefold edition + 32 Page Booklet + Download Code

The LP contains original compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pascal Comelade, Laurie Spiegel, Lyra Pramuk, Chassol, Nicolas Godin and Pierre Rousseau, Pedro Vian and Pierre Bastien, Visible Cloaks, Kelman Duran, Raul Refree, Lucrecia Dalt, Lafawndah.

+ a booklet with writings by contemporary thinkers like Shumon Basar, François J. Bonnet, and pictures by, Araki, Juergen Teller, Elizaveta Porodina, Dani Pujalte, P Jack Davison, Zhong Lin, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Adrià Cañameras, Javier Tles among others. Lacquer cut by Josh Bonati & Mastered by Rashad Becker

'PRSNT' is a unique global artistic project combining the input of artists across the worlds of music, video and written word which acts as a statement on how we, as consumers, engage with music in the 21st century. Vital electronic musicians including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lafawndah, Lyra Pramuk, Lucrecia Dalt and Visible Cloaks have each contributed tracks, which are approximately 32 seconds long.

The concept was devised by Created By Us and the Barcelona-based label Modern Obscure Music. They read a study which identified that the overwhelming volume of instantly accessible information online is shortening attention spans and altering how audiences engage with music digitally. Their curiosity about the state of online consumption developed further on discovering that around a third of all listeners using digital platforms skip to the next track, within the first 30 seconds of playing.

Each musician was given a fascinating challenge to create engaging compositions with real artistic merit, inside the confines of this shortened span. Akin to Brian Eno's famous Windows 95 start-up music, the time constraints are crucial, and the compositions are deceptively complex and more substantial than expectations of their nano nature would suggest.

'PRSNT' acts as a critique of flighty feed culture, but is simultaneously constructive, providing something which is either proposed solution, or "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" resignation. Every artist has interpreted the brief differently, resulting in an intriguing blueprint for the potential future of digital music. Could abbreviated micro compositions satisfy, inspire and nourish like their longer counterparts? They certainly take up much less of listeners' busy lives, which are often spent tackling ever-increasing workloads.

Tracklist:
1. Laurie Spiegel - 'Fly By'
2. Pedro Vian & Pierre Bastien - 'Memory'
3. Lyra Pramuk - 'Cage'
4. Chassol - 'ya!'
5. Nicolas Godin & Pierre Rousseau - 'Page Turner'
6. Pascal Comelade - 'Segons com'
7. Visible Cloaks - 'Lifeworld'
8. Raül Refree - 'Vid2020'
9. Lucrecia Dalt - 'cosa'
10. Kelman Duran - 'Dead Cat'
11. Lafawndah - 'The Super Lady From Nameless-Town´
12. Ryuichi Sakamoto - 'silence'


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Mini LP, LTD 500 , Clear Vinyl - RSD 2024, No sales to UK,USA,FR, Benelux

1. All Shook Up
2. Slapback Boomerang
3. Puttin’ On The Ritz
4. Radar Love
5. 20th Century Fox
6. Shakin’ All Over


Since her re-discovery in 2013 via cult favourite The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits, The Space Lady’s mission of galactic
peace and celestial harmony has grown into a world-wide underground phenomenon. Recorded in 1990, The Space
Lady’s original repertoire is a parallel universe greatest hits: songs familiar are transmogrified into shimmering bliss
while new compositions amplify the message. The Space Lady’s Other Hits, released on April 20th for Record Store Day
2024, constitutes the songs recorded by Susan “The Space Lady” Dietrich Schneider as part of that repertoire that
never made the original Greatest Hits, save for a limited bonus CD on the first CD pressing. Remastered by Mikey Love
for vinyl, The Space Lady’s Other Hits completes the picture.

The Space Lady began her odyssey on the streets of Boston in the late 70s, then San Francisco ten years later, playing
versions of contemporary pop music with an accordion and dressed flamboyantly. Following the theft and destruction of her
accordion , The Space Lady invested in a then-new Casio keyboard, complete with a phase shifter, delay pedal and headset
mic, birthing an otherworldly new dimension to popular song that has captured the imaginations of the underground and its
leading exponents ever since.

The Space Lady’s Other Hits were recorded as they were played on the street, live, one-take, with Schneider playing, singing
and simultaneously manipulating the various effects. Beginning with Elvis Presley’s iconic All Shook Up, the walking bassline
underpinning the vocal, phasing in and out of this dimension, providing a fragile, extraterrestrial shadow to Presley’s original
lust-driven performance. Slapback Boomerang is an original composition, written by Schneider’s then-husband Joel Dunsany
a Rock ’n’ Roll pounder that could have been performed by The Cramps, its tale of relationship turmoil changed into a
meditation on the nature of echo and feedback. There are moments where Schneider performs vocal caesuras, swimming in
delay and phase for the pleasure of it, a pantomime drama performance that rings out. Closing Side B, Puttin’ On The Ritz is
Irving Berlin’s 20s smash hit manipulated into a sombre ballad with its latent class struggle narrative brought to the fore.

A staple of The Space Lady’s performances to this day, Golden Earring’s 70s global hit Radar Love retains something of the
original’s driving gallop but in The Space Lady’s telling it is shorn of the tight-trousered, taut machismo. The Space Lady coos
and reaches up into the heavens away from the road, the phaser waves drenching the composition with transcendence.
Schneider’s falsetto performances in the choruses do nothing but lift the spirits ever-arching upwards. Next, The Space Lady
emasculated Jim Morrison’s performance in The Doors’ 20th Century Fox. Faithfully playing Ray Manzarek’s keyboard parts on
her Casio, Schneider disintegrates Morrison’s lust into waves of echo and delay, creating a Dubbed out version of the song,
sounding eroded and decayed in all its ghostly glory. Pioneering Rock ’n’ Roll outfit Pete & The Pirates’ 1960 hot Shakin’ All
Over, something of a response to Elvis’ All Shook Up, is blown out in warm fuzz and the celestial hug of The Space Lady’s
spirit.

The Space Lady’s Other Hits is released on April 20th 2024 on clear vinyl 12”, limited to 500.

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Non Exclsuive, CD

Tracklist:

1. Sixteen Ways
2. Anything
3. Had It Wrong
4. Saltwater Girl
5. Feel Light
6. DOA
7. Sleeping Night And Day
8. Molotov In Stereo
9. Come Back
10. Song For A Horse

"This album is about having to focus our collective energies on the small things around that we
can control to find joy. A distraction from the the larger systemic problems that feel so
overwhelming and are so very out of our collective hands… for now…”
Love As Projection is the new album by Frankie Rose, her fifth studio LP and second for Night
School following the reissue of her interpretation of The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds. Frankie Rose
has forged an enviable musical legacy, from playing with bands like Crystal Stilts and The Vivian Girls
but on Love As Projection she takes a bold step into electronic pop production. A sumptuous recorded
statement, it dances in ecstasy and broods on the tumult of the western world’s decay in equal
proportion. At the heart of the album is glowing, confident songwriting, resplendent in hooks and
choruses but still touched with an optimism undimmed.
After spending nearly two decades establishing herself across New York and Los Angeles independent
music circles, Rose re-emerges after six years with a fresh form, aesthetic, and ethos. Celebrated over
the years for her expansive approach to songwriting, lush atmospherics, and transcendent vocal
melodies and harmonies, Love As Projection is a reintroduction of her established style through the lens
of contemporary electronic pop. Recorded with producer Brandt Gassman and mixed with long-term
collaborator Jorge Elbrecht this is the album Frankie Rose has been building up to her entire career.
More than a rebirth, a refinement, a resurgence, Love As Projection boasts a widescreen scope: a longform project heavily considered for half of a decade, culminating in the most personal and accessible
collection of art-pop that Frankie has ever written. When Rose aims for the pop jugular as in first lead
track Anything, the result is unstoppable. A majestic pop song built for radio, it erupts into an irresistible
chorus that marries classic epic 80s American pop with the cult effervescence of Strawberry
Switchblade “It’s like a prom scene in a John Hughes movie. It’s a hopeful song about abandoning
fear even if the world is quite literally on fire.. In the end, at least we have each other,” says Rose.
Sixteen Ways further boasts a propulsive, massive chorus, though tempered by a cynicism built in
global post-truth, global malaise. “It’s about getting your hopes up, but simultaneously making lists in
your head about how it will never work out in your favour.”
The big anthems don’t let up there. On DOA some massive, rolling drums lathered in big mid-80s gated
reverb dovetail with a syncopated baseline for the ages as Rose’s vocal sails effortlessly above. The
effect isn’t unlike ethereal vocalists Clannad circa Howard’s Way or Enya jamming with Simple Minds
in their stadium-conquering heyday. Rose tempers the adrenalin with heart-tugging bittersweet tones
and there are plenty of them. Sleeping Night And Day takes its time with an off-the-cuff chorus,
swirling around in harmony and chorus-bass. Saltwater Girl picks up the balladeering baton with
another nod to album track-mode Switchblade, deep space opening up in the mid-tempo drum track
and soupy, digital atmospherics. Album closer Song For A Horse, reimagines modern Pop production
a-la-PC Music but shorn of the meta-atmosphere. Pianos, swelling synths, minor keys cut through with
major. These moments, also seen in Feel Light offer ballast to the soaring pop choruses. Moments like
these are big oceans of emotion to fall into before being led out by Rose into a bright new day.
Love As Projection is released in the USA by Slumberland.
Press: fra

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-NO SALES TO JAPAN-

CD

Tracklisting CD
01. Hot House (Charlie Parker)
02. All The Things Your Are (Jerome Kern)
03. Red Carpet (Duke Ellington)
04. Bouncing With Bud (Bud Powell)
05. Embraceable You (George Gershwin)
06. Just One of Those Things (Cole Porter)
07. Mellow Dream (Ryo Fukui)

Info

We Release Jazz is so happy to announce the official reissue of Ryo Fukui’s New York sessions with Lisle Atkinson and Leroy Williams, the aptly titled album Ryo Fukui in New York, sourced from the original masters and available on limited edition 180 gram vinyl mastered at half speed for full audiophile sound, as well as on digipack CD.
Recorded in February 1999 at Avatar Recording Studios in New York and inspired by Ryo Fukui’s idol and mentor Barry Harris, the fourth album from the famed Sapporo pianist captures memorable ses-sions with seasoned American jazz musicians (and frequent Barry Harris collaborators) Lisle Arthur Atkinson on bass and Leroy Williams on drums.

Ryo Fukui in New York is pure bop heaven, glowing with poetic takes on classics by Charlie Parker, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Bud Powell, plus a supreme remake of Fukui’s very own "Mellow Dream". It’s expressive, soulful, and vibrating with a bouncing swing feel all the way through; every note falls exactly where it should, undeniable brilliance. Much like the other albums by the genius from Hokkaido, it’s got that "special something", hard to grasp, hard to describe, but 100% felt. Skills and heart, the Ryo Fukui way.

Following his New York adventures, Ryo Fukui headed back to Sapporo, and more precisely to his jazz club Slowboat, where his newly acquired experience inspired numerous jam sessions and a full dedication to perfecting his craft. He sadly passed away in 2016, leaving behind a legacy of works that is sure to captivate jazz lovers for generations to come, and Slowboat, where the magic still hap-pens to this day.

This is reissued in conjunction with Ryo Fukui’s A Letter from Slowboat (2016), also available via We Release Jazz.


Points of interests

- For fans of jazz, soul jazz, modal, hard bop, piano, Japanese jazz, Barry Harris, Scenery, jazz clubs and New York nights.

- Official reissue of Ryo Fukui’s New York sessions with Lisle Atkinson and Leroy Williams.

- 9th release from We Release Jazz, following Ryo Fukui’s Scenery, Mellow Dream, and A Letter from Slowboat, the soundtrack of Le Cercle Rouge by Eric Demarsan, Stuff Combe 5 + Percussion, Marc Moulin’s Placebo Live 1971 and Boillat Thérace Quintet albums. We Release Jazz is the sister-label of Geneva-based WRWTFWW Records (Midori Takada’s Through The Looking Glass and Lunar Cruise with Masahiko Sato, MKWAJU ensemble’s KI-Motion, Jun Fukamachi’s Nicole, Bruno Spoer-ri’s Voice of Taurus and The Sound of the UFOs, Piero Umiliani’s Tra Scienza e Fantascienza and Il Mondo Dei Romani…)




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