Cerca:nino

Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople is the first collaborative album from poet/vocalist Saul Williams and percussionist/producer Carlos Niño. The album was recorded live underneath black oak and walnut trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, Los Angeles, on December 18, 2024. The performance, which was organized by Noah Klein of Living Earth on the grounds of longstanding conservationist organization TreePeople, was the first of its kind for Williams and Niño, who have been friends since the late 1990s.

"Born in Poti, near Lake Paliastomi in Georgia, Nino Gvilia is a singer-songwriter whose lyrics offer up meditations on what it is to be human in the 21st Century, and aim to carry us beyond into ecology and the politics of the non-human world.

Her songs are influenced by folk and minimalism and make use of magnetic tapes, field recordings, vocal samples of contemporary thinkers and philosophers, and an array of strange instruments and vintage textures, drawing for us an intense dreamlike atmosphere.

Now I should tell you that Nino Gvilia does not exist. She is a purely fictional character invented in order to help us reflect on the place of the songwriter in times of global crisis."


Nino Gvili: songs & lyrics, vocals, toy guitar, harmonium, field recordings.
Zevi Bordovach: arrangements, synth, hammond, harmonium, vocals.
Pietro Caramelli: arrangements, electric guitar, electronics, vocals.
Giulia Pecora: violin.
Clarissa Marino: cello.
Recorded by Paul Beauchamp at O.F.F. Studio, Turin, March 2023.
Mixed by Paul Beauchamp and Pietro Caramelli.

Free, Dancing . . . is the first release by a new trio with percussionist and producer Carlos Niño, luminary multi-instrumentalist Idris Ackamoor (of The Pyramids) and wizard guitarist, producer Nate Mercereau. They have been playing concerts together in California since June 2022, sharing a unique vibrant sound, findings and energetics... Including download code for the full album.

Artwork by Nep Sidhu.

Opaque Pink Version

Bubble Bath for Giants is an ode, a Tribute, a reverence for Oceans, for the Mighty Magnificent Power of Fairies, to the energy that we are all everything, whole, well, but in different sized and shaped vessels at times . . . It is a Celebration of Gentleness and of incredible Force, and Charge . . . These, I sea as the same. The Yang Springs from the Yin and together they ever reflect, dance, and express themselves . . .

Many Bells, Bowls, Ceramics, Chimes, Cymbals, Drums (Bass, Sakara, Surdo, Tom, and many more,) Gongs (Chao, Cup, Indonesian, Sun, and Symphonic,) Keyboards (Metal, Synthesizer, and Wooden,) Percussion, Plant Leaf Bundles and Fronds (Bamboo, Eucalyptus, and Palm,) Ratlles, Shakers, Voice, Whistles, and Sound Design by Carlos Niño.

Featuring:
Luis ​Pérez Ixoneztli, Bernard Xolotl, ​Aaron ​Shaw, Surya ​Botofasina, Nate Mercereau, Laraaji, Darius ​Jones, Sheila Govindarajan, ​Idris Ackamoor, Deantoni ​Parks, André 3000, ​Marshall Allen, Sam ​Gendel, Sibusile ​Xaba, Mia ​Doi Todd, ​Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams, Jojo Abot, Jowee ​Omicil, Aztlan ​Unearthed

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Cover Photo by Carlos, from in the Maui Waters
Art Direction, Design and Original Art by Nep Sidhu
Layout Production by Jonny O'Hara

Recorded by Carlos Niño in Topanga, California, and by some of the Artists named above, from their Homes . . .

Mastered by David Allen

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Panama meets Havana on this new 7" from Nino Augustine & AfroQbano on Future Rootz. Both artists are Atlanta and Chicago-based, respectively but they brilliantly channel their Afro-diasporic roots into a sound that's equal parts street heat and global groove. The record is anchored by rich Afro-Caribbean rhythm with slick modern production and the kind of cross-border energy that this label is now well known for. It's music for the dancefloor and the diaspora that merges soulful vibes with kinetic grooves that make you feel alive. A great snapshot of what Afrolatino futurism sounds like right now.

Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople is the first collaborative album from poet/vocalist Saul Williams and percussionist/producer Carlos Niño. The album was recorded live underneath black oak and walnut trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, Los Angeles, on December 18, 2024. The performance, which was organized by Noah Klein of Living Earth on the grounds of longstanding conservationist organization TreePeople, was the first of its kind for Williams and Niño, who have been friends since the late 1990s.

Devendra Banhart's 3rd and 4th albums, originally released yb Young God, together as a 2xLP

The 2018 live performance captured on Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s Chicago Waves marked another beautiful turning point for International Anthem. The set was recorded at our then HQ, Co-Prosperity, the day after Niño and Ferguson performed as part of Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings ensemble to celebrate the release of his album by the same name and recreate their contributions to the music on the record’s “LA Side”.

The release of the recording as the Chicago Waves album at the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic drove home the unmistakable sound of togetherness audible in its grooves in a way that only a society trapped in their houses for a year can truly understand. But as that year fades further into the rearview mirror, Chicago Waves still maintains its power. It’s not a mystery—this is what togetherness sounds like.
The IA11 Edition LP features our IARC 2025 obi strip, plus a new 16-page 11x11" insert booklet with additional photos and extensive new liner notes by IARC co-founder Scott McNiece.

Placenta is the fourth collection of broadly imaginative and highly collaborative Carlos Niño & Friends music released on International Anthem since 2021. But perhaps more notably for the zeitgeist of today, it is the first new music to be released by Carlos Niño & Friends following the November 2023 release of André 3000’s New Blue Sun – an album which Carlos produced alongside André, while co-writing, performing, and co-mixing every song. The announcement of Placenta also comes while Carlos is in the middle of tours with André to support New Blue Sun, where Carlos wields an immense presence as music director, bandleader, and percussionist, and performs alongside many of the same musicians that are present on his recent & Friends albums, including this new one.

Placenta is announced on the 1st solar return of Moss Niño, of whom Carlos and his partner Annelise are Earth parents. Their experience of pregnancy, labor and delivery were all profoundly impactful for Carlos. Becoming a father again (a whole 25 years after the birth of Azul Niño, who has become a regular artistic collaborator for Carlos) he felt total Inspiration for this set of recordings, and hence it is perhaps the most conceptually-grounded Carlos Niño & Friends album we've yet to present–fully connected to the spirit of family, birth, and "how we get here."

In Niño’s words, Placenta is “dedicated to Mothers, Children, Babies, Aunties, Doulas, Midwives, Birthworkers...,” and a short list of track titles includes: "Love to all Doulas!," "Some Rest for the Midwives," "Real Vital Organs," and "Generous Pelvis." The centerpiece of the album, the sprawling "Placenta, Nourishment, New Home, The Galaxy," is an unbelievably vivid immersion in the sonic architecture of Niño's memory-scape...like being present in his energy field...or being present in a birthing room, or maybe even being born yourself. And it just might be the most powerful, unique piece of music Niño has ever created.

Featured artists on Placenta, in order of their entry on the album, include: Nate Mercereau, Jamire Williams, Sam Gendel, Jamael Dean, Dexter Story, Brandon Eugene Owens, Maia, André 3000, Jesse Peterson, Ariel Kalma, Surya Botofasina, Annelise, Haize Hawke, Aaron Shaw, Devin Daniels, Tiffany de Leon, Michael Bolger, Michael Alvidrez, Moss, Iasos, Photay, Deantoni Parks, Adam Rudolph, Andres Renteria, and Cavana Lee.

The Future of Latin / The Gun is a seminal EP from Nino was originally a slow burn upon its release on Production House back in the early 90's, but over the years it has become a much sought after classic.

This repress is lovingly remastered from DAT and available again for the first time since the original run

This brand new EP from Nino contains two incredible remixes of the classic, The Gun.

Both Pete Cannon and Ant To Be bring their game, and both remixes showcase the remixers particular skills. Petes Remix is in your face Jungle, pure fire form start to finish. Ant To be's remix is a little more subtle, but makes up for it with sheer verve and weight...

Placenta is the fourth collection of broadly imaginative and highly collaborative Carlos Niño & Friends music released on International Anthem since 2021. But perhaps more notably for the zeitgeist of today, it is the first new music to be released by Carlos Niño & Friends following the November 2023 release of André 3000’s New Blue Sun – an album which Carlos produced alongside André, while co-writing, performing, and co-mixing every song. The announcement of Placenta also comes while Carlos is in the middle of tours with André to support New Blue Sun, where Carlos wields an immense presence as music director, bandleader, and percussionist, and performs alongside many of the same musicians that are present on his recent & Friends albums, including this new one.

Placenta is announced on the 1st solar return of Moss Niño, of whom Carlos and his partner Annelise are Earth parents. Their experience of pregnancy, labor and delivery were all profoundly impactful for Carlos. Becoming a father again (a whole 25 years after the birth of Azul Niño, who has become a regular artistic collaborator for Carlos) he felt total Inspiration for this set of recordings, and hence it is perhaps the most conceptually-grounded Carlos Niño & Friends album we've yet to present–fully connected to the spirit of family, birth, and "how we get here."

In Niño’s words, Placenta is “dedicated to Mothers, Children, Babies, Aunties, Doulas, Midwives, Birthworkers...,” and a short list of track titles includes: "Love to all Doulas!," "Some Rest for the Midwives," "Real Vital Organs," and "Generous Pelvis." The centerpiece of the album, the sprawling "Placenta, Nourishment, New Home, The Galaxy," is an unbelievably vivid immersion in the sonic architecture of Niño's memory-scape...like being present in his energy field...or being present in a birthing room, or maybe even being born yourself. And it just might be the most powerful, unique piece of music Niño has ever created.

Featured artists on Placenta, in order of their entry on the album, include: Nate Mercereau, Jamire Williams, Sam Gendel, Jamael Dean, Dexter Story, Brandon Eugene Owens, Maia, André 3000, Jesse Peterson, Ariel Kalma, Surya Botofasina, Annelise, Haize Hawke, Aaron Shaw, Devin Daniels, Tiffany de Leon, Michael Bolger, Michael Alvidrez, Moss, Iasos, Photay, Deantoni Parks, Adam Rudolph, Andres Renteria, and Cavana Lee.

"Es war ein langes Jahr, weil ich so langsam war" lautet der Einstieg zum neuen Album "endlich Wienerlieder". (Release 15.03.2024, Medienmanufaktur Wien). Das Album ist Ninos Großvater Rudolf Mandl gewidmet, einem Wienerlied-Sänger. Für Nino eine "Hommage an meine familiäre Verbindung zur Wiener Musiktradition." Ob Nino nun von Heurigen zu Heurigen ziehen wird, um den lustigen Gesellschaften seine Liedkunst zu schenken, kann man nicht versprechen. Was man definitiv bekommt, ist eine tiefe Auseinandersetzung des Künstlers mit seinem Lebensmittelpunkt, aus verschiedenen Lebensepochen. Damit besteht eine gewisse Verwandtschaft zu Ninos "Kochbuch Take 16". Spezialgäste sind mit dabei am Album. So singt er gemeinsam mit Ernst Molden bei seiner Version von "La Paloma" eine Ode an die Wiener und Wienerinnen.

Free, Dancing . . . is the first release by a new trio with percussionist and producer Carlos Niño, luminary multi-instrumentalist Idris Ackamoor (of The Pyramids) and wizard guitarist, producer Nate Mercereau. They have been playing concerts together in California since June 2022, sharing a unique vibrant sound, findings and energetics... Including download code for the full album.

Artwork by Nep Sidhu.

Divino Nino's new album Foam feels like catching up with a lifelong friend. There's undeniable songwriting chemistry between guitarist Camilo Medina and bassist Javier Forero, who met as kids in Bogota, Colombia and years later reconnected by sheer happenstance after their families had both moved to Miami. Both studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where they met guitarist Guillermo Rodriguez and eventually Drummer Pierce Codina. Now Chicagoans, their rhythmic, soulful - and at times bilingual - Latinx punk songs are a reflection of their continent-spanning bond and proof that Divino Nino couldn't have formed without unlikely but happy coincidences.The ten tracks on Foam feature wistfully romantic lyrics like the yearning plea on the title track ("I really wanna run away with you"), and sunny, honeyed arrangements. Songs like "Quiero" trade-off between English and Spanish with woozy guitars and harmonies anchoring the sweetness of the lyrics. The quartet's Latin American roots seep in throughout the LP's silky psychedelic flourishes but especially on single "Maria," which is sung entirely in Spanish. Inspired in equal parts by Argentine punk and the narratives of Mexican telenovelas, the personality-filled track is one of the most memorable on the record.

An evolved, ecosystemic love expression of Carlos Niño"s self-described "Spiritual, Improvisational, Space, Collage" expression - (I"m just) Chillin", on Fire is the prolific percussionist/producer"s most singular, intentional work ever, featuring a vibrant and abundant gathering of his "friends" (i.e. the highly skilled and accomplished musicians and improvisers that make up Niño"s extensive network of collaborators)

South African pianist Thandi Ntuli traveled to Los Angeles in 2019, where she recorded this album of bare, explorative piano and voice pieces at a Venice Beach studio with International Anthem artist Carlos Niño in the producer chair. An absolutely stunning, intimate listen, with Ntuli"s prowess as a pianist and singularity as a vocalist on vivid display as much as her fearlessness, vulnerability and adventurousness during occasional experiments with synthesizers and percussion. Niño colors open minimalist soundscapes with overdubbed percussion, cymbals and plants.

South African pianist Thandi Ntuli traveled to Los Angeles in 2019, where she recorded this album of bare, explorative piano and voice pieces at a Venice Beach studio with International Anthem artist Carlos Niño in the producer chair. An absolutely stunning, intimate listen, with Ntuli"s prowess as a pianist and singularity as a vocalist on vivid display as much as her fearlessness, vulnerability and adventurousness during occasional experiments with synthesizers and percussion. Niño colors open minimalist soundscapes with overdubbed percussion, cymbals and plants.

An evolved, ecosystemic love expression of Carlos Niño"s self-described "Spiritual, Improvisational, Space, Collage" expression - (I"m just) Chillin", on Fire is the prolific percussionist/producer"s most singular, intentional work ever, featuring a vibrant and abundant gathering of his "friends" (i.e. the highly skilled and accomplished musicians and improvisers that make up Niño"s extensive network of collaborators)

Im Zuge der Produktion "Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald" von Gintersdorfer/Klaßen mit der Musik von Natalie Ofenböck / Der Nino aus Wien ist eine Vinylplatte mit 2 von jenen Songs entstanden, die exklusiv für das Stück geschrieben wurden. Gemeinsam mit den Darsteller*innen von Gintersdorfer/Klaßen präsentieren Natalie Ofenböck und Der Nino aus Wien erstmalig diese und auch weitere Songs vor Publikum!

During the 60s and 70s, three distinguished old gentlemen who had built their careers playing "made in France" exotic jazz - Roger Roger, Nino Nardini and Eddie Warner - met every evening in the Ganaro recording studio, playing like kids with their new toys: souped-up keyboards that looked more like prototypes of spaceships to explore the Milky Way. Flying high on whimsical and joyful inspiration, the improbable trio used their strange instruments to sketch out the beginnings of something that, at that time, resembled the future of music. Let's take a trip with them toward a pop, light-hearted and electronic future.

The original soundtrack for “Il Casanova di Federico Fellini” (1976) sees Nino Rota putting into music Federico Fellini’s opus on the legendary Venetian icon and “tombeur des femmes” Giacomo Casanova.
Winner of an Oscar for Best Costumes in 1977, the film is one of Fellini's finest, a grotesque and hyperbolic take on the life of Casanova that is matched by Rota’s compositions.
“Il Casanova di Federico Fellini” possibly is one of Rota’s most eerie and enigmatic scores, as if the Maestro had finally poured into a soundtrack all of his love for esotericism.
The music wraps you up like the Venetian mist. The compositions are constantly on the edge of classical music with playful nuances and the use of instruments like viola and cello. Vocals become a cornerstone, echoing the tradition of 18th century Italian opera. However, Rota also leaves room for more experimental and estranging vibes that make the soundtrack a one-of-a-kind voyage into the creativity of the Maestro.

International Anthem is proud to present this expanded double LP edition of an album that Carlos Niño released exclusively via his Bandcamp page in 2020. Featuring a whole LP worth of entirely new, additional material, the remastered and expanded Extra Presence features Niño alongside an incredibly high profile slate of collaborators including: Jamael Dean, Nate Mercereau, Shabazz Palaces, Deantoni Parks, Sam Gendel, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Jamire Williams, Iasos, and more.

An Offering is a new work by Photay, under the influence of a special creative partnership with International Anthem recording artist Carlos Niño. IARC followers should know Niño, or at least one of his 3 albums we"ve released in the last 2 years (Chicago Waves, More Energy Fields, Current, and/or EXTRA PRESENCE). A simple introduction to Photay (née Evan Shornstein) would be to say: he"s made some of the best "ambient" music of the last five years.

This album records a mystic standoff between Shahzad Ismaily on drums and Niño Lento es Fuego on electric guitar, featuring hypnotic synth storms and spiritual beats brewed into a heavy healing trance. “It was like having that conversation that we never really had,” says Niño Lento es Fuego (a.k.a guitarist Camilo Rodriguez), “‘cause he’s shy, and me too.” Niño Lento and Shahzad Ismaily – multi-instrumentalist, producer and studio owner – have been circling each other for years. They are both legendary players and leaders in their own right who have built many musical worlds in Brooklyn. Ismaily records and performs with artists such as Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, Laura Veirs, Sam Amidon, Ceramic Dog, Secret Chiefs 3, John Zorn, Will Oldham and Nels Cline. Rodriguez is a NY-based guitarist and percussionist who co-founded Combo Chimbita, M.A.K.U Soundsystem, Bulla en el Barrio, and Carolina Oliveros y la Nación along with fellow Colombians in New York. He also performs with La Cumbiamba eNeYé, where he first met Ismaily. On September 22, 2022, Figure & Ground releases Ahora Contra el Resto de los Tiempos, Vol. 1, an exploratory and improvisational project comprising six original tracks composed in real time by Shahzad Ali Ismaily (drums) and Niño Lento es Fuego (electric guitar). Produced, recorded and mixed by Lily Wen, the duo recorded guitar and drums live in the room at Figure 8 Recording.

Divino Niño are no strangers to bold reinvention. When Camilo Medina and Javier Forero_friends whose bond dates back to their childhoods in Bogotá, Colombia_moved to Chicago and recruited guitarist Guillermo Rodriguez to form a band, they were psych-pop outsiders playing live shows with a drum machine. With the addition of drummer Pierce Codina, their 2019 breakthrough and debut LP for Winspear, Foam, solidified their place as local indie rock mainstays. Soon after, multi-instrumentalist Justin Vittori joined to round out their lineup. Once again, with their masterful, unpredictable, and eminently danceable new album, the band has done something radical: They totally upended the way they write songs, eschewing practice room jams for unrelentingly collaborative beats, implied grooves for immersive dance floor heaters, and mellow vibes for frenetic doses of reggaeton, electropop, and trap on their most adventurous and ambitious work to date. Welcome to the Last Spa on Earth. Written and recorded over the past two years, Last Spa on Earth deals in release and catharsis: confronting your darkest moments and coming out better for it. The album artwork, done by Medina, a longstanding visual artist, depicts a dreamy, yet graffiti-tagged spa, void of physical bodies so listeners can envision themselves in this unique environment. It represents the yin and yang approach Divino Niño took while creating the album: the serenity of the spa and the chaos of the party. Ultimately, the band's desire is to provide healing in the same way one feels after sweating, shivering, stretching, and resting at the spa against the backdrop of the world's darkness. Last Spa on Earth is the cathartic product of Divino Niño letting go of their musical preconceptions, past traumas, and future anxieties to embrace change, chaos, and each other's contributions both to these songs and to each other.

Divino Niño are no strangers to bold reinvention. When Camilo Medina and Javier Forero_friends whose bond dates back to their childhoods in Bogotá, Colombia_moved to Chicago and recruited guitarist Guillermo Rodriguez to form a band, they were psych-pop outsiders playing live shows with a drum machine. With the addition of drummer Pierce Codina, their 2019 breakthrough and debut LP for Winspear, Foam, solidified their place as local indie rock mainstays. Soon after, multi-instrumentalist Justin Vittori joined to round out their lineup. Once again, with their masterful, unpredictable, and eminently danceable new album, the band has done something radical: They totally upended the way they write songs, eschewing practice room jams for unrelentingly collaborative beats, implied grooves for immersive dance floor heaters, and mellow vibes for frenetic doses of reggaeton, electropop, and trap on their most adventurous and ambitious work to date. Welcome to the Last Spa on Earth. Written and recorded over the past two years, Last Spa on Earth deals in release and catharsis: confronting your darkest moments and coming out better for it. The album artwork, done by Medina, a longstanding visual artist, depicts a dreamy, yet graffiti-tagged spa, void of physical bodies so listeners can envision themselves in this unique environment. It represents the yin and yang approach Divino Niño took while creating the album: the serenity of the spa and the chaos of the party. Ultimately, the band's desire is to provide healing in the same way one feels after sweating, shivering, stretching, and resting at the spa against the backdrop of the world's darkness. Last Spa on Earth is the cathartic product of Divino Niño letting go of their musical preconceptions, past traumas, and future anxieties to embrace change, chaos, and each other's contributions both to these songs and to each other.

Divino Niño are no strangers to bold reinvention. When Camilo Medina and Javier Forero_friends whose bond dates back to their childhoods in Bogotá, Colombia_moved to Chicago and recruited guitarist Guillermo Rodriguez to form a band, they were psych-pop outsiders playing live shows with a drum machine. With the addition of drummer Pierce Codina, their 2019 breakthrough and debut LP for Winspear, Foam, solidified their place as local indie rock mainstays. Soon after, multi-instrumentalist Justin Vittori joined to round out their lineup. Once again, with their masterful, unpredictable, and eminently danceable new album, the band has done something radical: They totally upended the way they write songs, eschewing practice room jams for unrelentingly collaborative beats, implied grooves for immersive dance floor heaters, and mellow vibes for frenetic doses of reggaeton, electropop, and trap on their most adventurous and ambitious work to date. Welcome to the Last Spa on Earth. Written and recorded over the past two years, Last Spa on Earth deals in release and catharsis: confronting your darkest moments and coming out better for it. The album artwork, done by Medina, a longstanding visual artist, depicts a dreamy, yet graffiti-tagged spa, void of physical bodies so listeners can envision themselves in this unique environment. It represents the yin and yang approach Divino Niño took while creating the album: the serenity of the spa and the chaos of the party. Ultimately, the band's desire is to provide healing in the same way one feels after sweating, shivering, stretching, and resting at the spa against the backdrop of the world's darkness. Last Spa on Earth is the cathartic product of Divino Niño letting go of their musical preconceptions, past traumas, and future anxieties to embrace change, chaos, and each other's contributions both to these songs and to each other.

CAM Sugar launches its new HERITAGE collection dedicated to the most celebrated soundtracks that made the history of Italian cinema. The opening title is Federico Fellini’s milestone AMARCORD, which is here presented for the first time ever as a 180gr gatefold double LP, carefully restored and remastered from the original master tapes. AMARCORD won an Academy Award in 1974 as Best Foreign Film, besides receiving two nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay. The sweet and evocative music by Nino Rota takes the listener on a journey through the places of Fellini’s boyhood in Rimini, creating a combination of music and images that is absolutely perfect and still internationally appreciated today. This edition includes a 30x75cm illustrated poster, with a reproduction of the original Nino Rota music sheets. This very special re-release of this classic by Nino Rota is in honor of what would have been his 110th birthday.

CAM Sugar launches its new HERITAGE collection dedicated to the most celebrated soundtracks that made the history of Italian cinema. The opening title is Federico Fellini’s milestone AMARCORD, which is here presented for the first time ever as a 180gr gatefold double LP, carefully restored and remastered from the original master tapes. AMARCORD won an Academy Award in 1974 as Best Foreign Film, besides receiving two nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay. The sweet and evocative music by Nino Rota takes the listener on a journey through the places of Fellini’s boyhood in Rimini, creating a combination of music and images that is absolutely perfect and still internationally appreciated today. This edition includes a 30x75cm illustrated poster, with a reproduction of the original Nino Rota music sheets. This very special re-release of this classic by Nino Rota is in honor of what would have been his 110th birthday.

The original soundtrack from the 1960 comedy-drama, La Dolce Vita, directed and co-written by Federico Fellini.

Indie Retail Exclusive Water Spirits color vinyl LP More Energy Fields, Current is a definitive new peak in the recorded continuum of prolific producer/percussionist Carlos Niño. Featuring contributions from more than a dozen exciting voices in the creative music constellation of Los Angeles (of which Niño's has been a central force for over 2 decades), including Sam Gendel, Nate Mercereau, Jamael Dean, and Jamire Williams, the album collects 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique "Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage" style. The album is ripe with "ambient" passages that function like open portals between moments of consonance and clarity, and epic post-hip hop opuses like the heavy/heady "Thanking the Earth." But even in the occasional absence of drums, there is a powerful pulse implicit in the program's frequency of consciousness. It's a testament to Niño's foundations as a DJ. His distinct ability to craft a kinetic, cinematic sonic experience from dozens of independent, often rhythmically-ambiguous improvisational memories is more fluently displayed on More Energy Fields, Current than anything we've heard from him to date. It resonates, lucidly, with the way Niño's mentor Iasos - who is known to the world as an original founder of New Age music - has described his work: "Real Time Interactive Imagination, Flow Texturization." On More Energy Fields, Current, Niño immerses us in the watery depths of his world, spiriting us like a submarine through exotic nether-leagues of untouched sound. And when we arrive at the final, bookending piece "Please, Wake Up." (an extended version of the opening theme, featuring saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings), it's like a return, safely to shore.

Nino Lepore hails from South Italy, and is best known for his self-titled LP from 1986, as well as for his uncredited work on Dancer Record. The 'Chok Musik' 12" from Best Record Italy focuses on two productions from his sole LP, and in the titular track, sexualized funk basslines join a disco drum strut, as guitar riffs shimmer and brass and string orchestrations swirl deliriously between filmic romance and symphonic madness. And after a breakdown into percussive chaos, smooth piano solos alternate with passages of sizzling sax. As for "Bad Time," an introduction of decaying gongs leads to a broken beat groove, with strings evoking atmospheres of exotic noir and horns soloing softly over subdued funk bass motions and distant flashes of guitar. There are jazz rock breakdowns into liquid riffing and flamboyant brass, and during handclap climaxes, horns swell towards the sky.

Nino Šebelic, The Serbian Producer And Longtime Vienna Resident, Is A Man Who Lives And Breathes Techno. On His Premier Pomelo Release, 'jupiter Ep', He Channels True School Detroit Electro, Upgraded With His Energetic And Unique Touch. The Ep Starts Off With this Is For My Hood', A Peak-time Bass Monster Reminiscent Of Aux88's Most Intense Productions. It's Followed Up By church Of Tasmania', A More Stripped Down Affair That Is Destined To Unfold Its Magic On The Dance Floor. On The Flip Side baltimore' Explores The Space Between Electro And Techno, Oscillating Between Moody Synth Workouts And Pumping Ebm Patterns. 14357.977km' Equals Roughly The Distance Between Detroit And Vienna And Back, And For The Eponymous Track Šebelic Appears To Have Indeed Been Visiting The D For Its Glorious Chord Pads And Subaquatic Moods. Lastly get Brate' Closes The Ep With A No-holds-barred, Straight To The Point Electro Bass Banger In Best Electric Soul Style.