Full title: My lord Music, I most humbly beg your indulgence in the hope that you will do me the honour of permitting this seed called Keiji Haino to be planted within you. For over 25 years, Keiji Haino has used the hurdy gurdy to channel dark dimensions — creating music that bridges the centuries between distant medieval eras and a future awash in densely layered sounds that grind and float in an otherworldly atmosphere. My lord Music… is a suite of nine pieces that reveals the startlingly distinctive and wide range of Haino’s approach to the instrument. The music is at once dissonant and hypnotic, rich with unfurling drones that dynamically ebb and flow — Haino’s musical sensibility and physicality, always present and unmistakable. Keiji Haino – Hurdy Gurdy. Recorded April 7, 2019 at Zebulon, Los Angeles, California. Recorded and mixed by Toshi Kasai. Mastering by Elysian Masters. Photographs by Kazuyuki Funaki. Design by Takuya Kitamura. Translation by Alan Cummings. Performance produced by Black Editions and Blum & Poe Gallery as part of Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s curated by Mika Yoshitake.

My lord Music… is the first release in Haino’s newly relaunched Purple Trap imprint, produced in collaboration with Black Editions and personally supervised by the artist himself. Purple Trap will present the full breadth of Keiji Haino’s works through both archival recordings and newly recorded pieces, all made available in small one-time physical editions as well as on digital platforms. Double vinyl housed in pure black paper gatefold with metallic silver printing and black paper inner sleeves. More limited than God intended when he invented the word “limited”, unfortunately…