the control group

In advance of their upcoming Danish reunion shows, Figurines will mark the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album “Skeleton”—an album that kicked off an international career for the band.

Rave reviews in The New York Times, Pitchfork, KEXP, AV Club, Drowned In Sound and more were followed by intense touring in the EU and US, and gave the band a cult following. When the album was released in 2005, it was without “Time Will Tell” which will now see its release digitally, and is included as a bonus 7” with the deluxe anniversary vinyl edition.

“Skeleton delivers gigantic pop hooks in stride, with charm to boot.” - 8.3 / Pitchfork.

The Control Group has imported a small quantity for sale exclusively on Bandcamp.

Masma Dream World has releasesd her new album, PLEASE COME TO ME, due out February 21 and shared the record's title track. The experimental project led by Devi Mambouka, Masma Dream World turned heads with her 2020 debut Play at Night, a record that established the multi-instrumentalist as a singular voice, combining field recordings, throttling bass, skittering electronics and traditional Gabonese rhythms. “PLEASE COME TO ME” is an invitation to a private ritual of healing, an invocation to the mother of the universe and a communion with the unseen world.

Buy / listen at Bandcamp

Featuring William Hooker (drums), David S. Ware (tenor saxophone), and Alan Braufman (alto saxophone), this recording captures a rare and electrifying moment in time. Recorded live at the New York Jazz Museum on January 14, 1977, the album has been newly mastered by Joe Lambert and released for the first time on March 28, 2025.

Buy / listen at Bandcamp

Today, Devi Mambouka has shared her latest single as Masma Dream World, the thunderous and ceremonial “Ancient DNA,” The song is Mambouka’s first release since her 2020 album Play at Night, a record that established the multi-instrumentalist as a singular voice, combining field recordings, throttling bass, skittering electronics and traditional Gabonese rhythms for an awe inspiring, transportative sound. 

Buy / listen at Bandcamp

Alan Braufman has announced his new album “Infinite Love Infinite Tears” via Valley of Search. The LP, CD and digital album will be released on May 17, 2024.

“Infinite Love Infinite Tears” is a surprisingly catchy program of free jazz, richly detailed and forthright, embodying a range of emotions and circumstances that convey individuality, collectivity and hope. There is much history and love in this band, and in Alan Braufman’s art overall. Fifty-odd years after debuting on record, his sound-world is as vital and inviting as ever.

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Bad Brains’ fifth album Rise is reissued on vinyl for the first time ever via The Control Group. Originally released by Epic Records on August 17, 1993, Rise is Bad Brains’ major label debut, and the follow-up to their 1989 album Quickness.

A limited pressing of 300 copies on black/green split vinyl is available exclusively via Bandcamp. Standard black vinyl will be available everywhere vinyl is sold worldwide

Order HERE

Alan Braufman has announced “Live in New York City, February 8, 1975.” The triple LP, double CD, and digital album will be released on April 8, 2022. This recently unearthed recording captures Alan Braufman with his five-piece band in an early 1975 live radio session soon after recording his debut album Valley of Search for the India Navigation label. This was the first meeting for William Parker and Cooper-Moore, whose musical partnership has flourished ever since. The 94-minute performance is spread over 5 album sides on 3 LPs, or a gatefold double CD set. Newly mastered with new liner notes by the host Susan Mannheimer.

Buy / listen to the album at Bandcamp

Valley of Search founder Nabil Ayers has announced his memoir, My Life in the Sunshine, published June 7, 2022 via Viking/Penguin.

Order from Viking/Penguin

Click for book tour dates

Ayers says about his memoir, “My Life in the Sunshine is about my struggle to connect with my father, Roy Ayers, whom I've never known. There are plenty of fun stories about growing up with my uncle, Alan Braufman, in New York City and Amherst in the seventies, being the only non-white person at a Tony Williams concert in Salt Lake City in the eighties, living in Seattle and touring in rock bands in the nineties, and my time in NYC running the record label, 4AD. But it’s mostly about the influence my father has had over me despite his absence, and the blurring of lines that define family and race.”

Sarah Assbring, the Swedish artist and musician behind the pseudonym El Perro del Mar, is releasing her first album RIPTIDE under her real name together with longtime partner and collaborator Jacob Haage. The album is a commissioned work written for the Icealandic choreographer Hlín Hjálmarsdóttir's dance piece with the same name premiering on the Royal Swedish Opera’s digital stage Operan Play on June 12.

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Tomas Nordmark’s music operates on multiple, equally thrilling planes. Having cultivated a deep appreciation for conceptual art and the phase-shifting minimalism pioneered by the downtown avant-garde community of NYC in the ‘60s, Nordmark set out to blend that with his pop-oriented upbringing and unique perspective on electronic music. The Swedish-born, London-based composer's new album pulses with an unrelenting energy, waving and cresting around ambient tension and gorgeously realized melodies.

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Angel Bat Dawid has remixed Alan Braufman’s “Sunrise.” The announcement comes alongside new pressings of “Valley of Search” on CD and a limited vinyl pressing of “Live at WKCR”

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Patricia Brennan has released her debut album “Maquishti” on gatefold double LP, CD & digital. The WIRE says the album is composed of “exquisitely sculpted spontaneous compositions,” and the New York Times says, “Brennan has recently started to make her presence known on the New York avant garde.”

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El Perro del Mar has released the FREE LAND EP, which includes a guest appearance by Blood Orange. The EP is available exclusively from Bandcamp on a limited pressing of 300 vinyl copies worldwide, hand-numbered by Sarah, and as a digital release.

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El Perro del Mar has released the new single and video “Dreamers change the world.” Watch the video HERE. She has also announced the “Free Land” EP for release on November 20. Pre-order the vinyl below (limited edition of 300 worldwide).

Listen/pre-order

Watch “Dreamers change the world” video

El Perro del Mar has released her new single “The Bells” on all platforms.

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Nouela’s cover of Soundargen’s “Black Hole Sun” soundtracks the new trailer for the video game Call of Duty - Haunting of Verdansk. Watch the trailer HERE.

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Mexican born, Brooklyn based vibraphonist Patricia Brennan has announced “Maquishti” to be released 15 January, 2021 via our sister label, Valley of Search.

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Jazz saxophonist Alan Braufman has announced “The Fire Still Burns” to be released 28 August, 2020 via our sister label, Valley of Search. The album is his first since 1975’s “Valley of Search.” Learn more at Alan’s website.

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Golden Days is Alexander von Mehren's first release in five years, bridging the gap between his debut album Aéropop and his sophomore album to come. The track is a complete rework of British band Caramel's single Golden Ways.

von Mehren has the following to say about working on the remix:

“Remixing Caramel was a real fun and challenging experience for me. When I first started working on the track in July, I felt very attached to their original song and found it hard to try and create something too close to what I thought was already so great. I quickly realized that I had to take the track in an entirely different direction, so I started writing a new composition by playing around with their arrangements and found additional inspiration in dreamy Italian soundtracks of the 60s and 70s.”

BUY / LISTEN to El Perro Del Mar

Sweden’s El Perro del Mar (née Sarah Assbring) has released a cover of “Please stay,” a Burt Bacharach original that’s been canonized in musical history by acclaimed covers from an array of artists such as The Drifters, Elvis Costello, and The Cryin' Shames. “Please stay” previews a new El Perro del Mar record on the horizon, and will also be a part of a new dance performance piece by El Perro del Mar debuting at Stockholm’s famed Royal Dramatic Theatre in November and December.

LISTEN to El Perro Del Mar on Spotify

"'Please stay' by Burt Bacharach has been made in different versions but my favorite by far is the one produced by pioneer producer Joe Meek with The Cryin’ Shames from 1966. This version is complete magic,” Sarah explains. “It’s been on my mind for some time and when working on this album that’s all on dark matters I came to think about what would happen to the song if its original meaning of love and heartbreak was to be about death and the pleadings of having someone not die or return from the dead.”

“Please stay” and the other new music debuting as part of the Royal Dramatic Theatre performance was produced and written by El Perro del Mar, her longtime partner and colleague Jacob Haage, and Petter Granberg—all of whom will be performing live on stage and scoring the performance of three dancers from the Royal Opera. Sarah said of the new performance: “The music to an album that will be released in 2020 has been written for the performance which is best described as a cross-fertilization between modern dance, music and performance art—something that’s been a long time dream to be doing for El Perro del Mar. Ever since I was a child. This work gives the opportunity to throw myself into a darkness so total and boundless that I hopefully won’t be needing to revisit again.”

“Please stay” follows the 2018 EP We Are History—the darker appendix to 2016's stunning KoKoro LP, which The New York Times called "airborne and determinedly positive" and earned praise from Pitchfork, Vogue, Billboard, Bust, and more. More new music from El Perro del Mar will soon be announced.

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Master tapes were recently unearthed of New York saxophonist Alan Braufman and pianist Cooper-Moore performing live as a duo on Columbia University's radio station, WKCR on May 22, 1972. The session occurred two years before Braufman, Cooper-Moore and a full band recorded Braufman's legendary 1975 debut album on India Navigation, "Valley of Search," which reissued June 29, 2018 on LP + digital (released via our sister label Valley of Search).

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Cate Le Bon has been nominated for The Mercury Prize. We’re proud to have released Cate’s excellent debut album “Me Oh My” and her second album “Cyrk.” Both are available digitally and on vinyl.

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Swedish-born, London-based electronic sound composer Tomas Nordmark has released his debut album “Eternal Words” via Valley of Search.

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We released Alice’s first EP’s and singles and we’re proud to see her debut full-length album out 17th January, 2020 via PIAS. More info here.

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In late 1974, India Navigation label owner Bob Cummins set up microphones in a New York City building’s storefront at 501 Canal Street, documenting two short sets by the band with no alternate takes or additional cuts. These recordings became Alan Braufman’s debut album Valley of Search, which captures a unique and very alive historical slice of New York’s creative improvised underground. The album, which features Cooper-Moore (piano), Cecil McBee (bass), David Lee (drums) + Ralph Williams (percussion) has been out of print and highly sought after since its original release - fetching as much as $100 online. Valley of Search has been remastered by Joe Lambert and will be reissued for the first time via Valley of Search Recordings on vinyl and digital formats.

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In the early to mid 2000s, we released music by the excellent Seattle horror-core band Schoolyard Heroes. All three of their albums and their long out-of-print holiday 7” single are now available digitally on Bandcamp.

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Nouela’s cover of “The Sound of Silence” is now available on Bandcamp and all streaming services, along with her debut album “Chants.”

In 2007, we pressed a limited run of PJ Harvey’s album “White Chalk” on white vinyl. The album is now out of print.

In 2004 we pressed a limited run of The Killers’ debut album “Hot Fuss” on blue vinyl with a foil-stamped cover. The LP is now out of print.

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One of our favorite releases is the debut and only album by The Fitness, “Call Me Together,” released in 2003.

In 2008 we released Lykke Li’s debut “Little Bit EP.”

Our first trip to Scandinavia in was to sign the excellent Danish band Figurines.

In 2013 we reissued “This Is Spinal Tap” on vinyl. The LP is now out of print.

In 2015 we reissued Giorgio Moroder’s 1978 soundtrack to the film “Midnight Express” on vinyl. The LP is now out of print.

We released three Kings of Leon albums on vinyl: “Aha Shake Heartbreak” in 2005, “Because Of The Times” in 2007, and “Only By The Night” in 2008. All pressings are now out of print.

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Grandaddy’s first three albums have been reissued on vinyl and are available in our store.

The debut album by Norway’s I Was A King features performances by Sufjan Stevens and Emil Nikolaisen of Serena-Maneesh.

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“Free Electricity,” The debut album by The Cops was released in 2007.

The Control Group has pressed limited edition vinyl versions of The Long Winters 3 albums and EP (with bonus tracks). All pressings are currently out of print.

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Sweden’s Wildbirds & Peacedrums have released two excellent albums on The control Group.

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A sampling of The Control Group’s singles released by Scandinavian artists over the years including El Perro Del Mar, Alice Boman, Figurines, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Alexander von Mehren and The Deer Tracks.