Habu Distant Thunder

Following the sell-out success of our landmark compilation, J Jazz: deep modern jazz from Japan 1969-1984, BBE Records is thrilled to present another exploration into the very finest Japanese modern jazz.

Henry Kaiser has the gift. Whether it's the gift of empathy, of friendship, or simply a more pragmatic gift for creative collaboration isn't clear, but I think it's one of the first two. These guitar duos go all the way back to 1977, and "Wheels Right and Left" with the saintly Davey Williams, coming right up to date with "Infinitum Ad-Infinitum" with the currently omnipresent Ian Brighton. The set starts, properly enough, with "Chrysanthemums", a 1993 meeting with Derek Bailey, just a minute and a half in length, but it ends, even more appropriately with a much longer piece with John Russell called "Split the Difference". In between, you'll find warm, sometimes hilarious selfies with Nels Cline, Fred Frith, Jim O'Rourke, Elliott Sharp, Eugene Chadbourne, Bill Frisell, but also a few less familiar names like Debashish Bhattacharya, Sandy Ewen, Chris Muir and Roberto Zorzi; all this just laboured enough to suggest the range and warmth of Kaiser's creative relationships. These are, as he explains in a minimal sleevenote, friends who became heroes who became friends.

Following the sell-out success of our landmark compilation, J Jazz: deep modern jazz from Japan 1969-1984, BBE Records is thrilled to present another exploration into the very finest Japanese modern jazz.

Encounter is state of the art spacemusic by a master of the genre. It extends the style of Michael Stearns early classic, Planetary Unfolding, and deepens the direction of his other early works, Chronos, and Floating Whispers.

The masters of progressive rock return for their darkest and possibly most thrilling album to date! 13 haunting original tracks featuring the likes of Billy Idol axeman Steve Stevens, Deep Purple legend Steve Morse, King Crimson violinist David Cross, GnR guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, and The Moody Blues's Patrick Moraz plus members of Weather Report, Utopia, Angel, Soft Machine, Gong and more! Once again, famed Yes bassist and producer Billy Sherwood leads this supergroup, writing all of the songs and directing the superb performances from each contributor!