My NTS
Live now

NTS Guide to: ESP-Disk - The Early Years

New York, 06.02.24

Existing at the intersection of free jazz, acid folk, spoken word and avant garage rock, ESP-Disk opened for business in New York City at the zenith of 60's counter culture.

The label's first release was an Esperanto album, giving it the name ESP-Disk, and then released a number of free jazz albums that we would now consider classics. It soon came to champion other similarly less-commercial genres, always giving free reign to the artists.

This Guide To includes music from Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, William Burroughs, The Fugs and more.

Tracklist

  • 0:20:22
    Pearls Before Swine 
    Translucent Carriages
  • 0:24:20
    Ed Askew 
    Ask The Unicorn
  • 0:29:24
    Erica 
    To Leonard From The Hospital
  • Dr. Timothy Leary 
    Epilogue (Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out)
  • Gilbert Shelton Ensemble 
    If I Was A Hell's Angel
  • The Levitts
    The Saints Off My City Are Children
  • Jerry Moore 
    Life Is A Constant Journey Home
  • Emerson's Old Timey Custard Suckin' Band
    Vestibule Billy
  • The Fugs 
    Kill For Peace
  • Cromagnon 
    First World Of Bronze
  • The Fugs 
    C.I.A. Man
  • The Godz 
    Lay In The Sun
  • William Burroughs 
    Bradley The Buyer
  • The New York Art Quartet
    Sweet--Black Dada Nihilismus
  • The Marion Brown Quartet
    Fortunato
  • Pharaoh Sanders 
    Bethera
  • The Velvet Underground 
    Noise
  • Har-You Percussion Group 
    Feed Me Good
  • Nedly Elstak Trio + Voice 
    Love You So
  • Sun Ra 
    Next Stop Mars
  • Alan Sondheim / Ritual All 770
    The Songs Part 2
  • Sonny Simmons 
    A Distant Voice
  • Karel Velebny, SHQ 
    The Uhu Sleeps Only During The Day
  • Sun Ra & His Myth Science Arkestra 
    We Travel The Space Ways
  • Patty Waters 
    Song Of Clifford
  • Paul Bley 
    Closer
  • Henry Grimes Trio 
    For Django
  • Tufi Kupferberg And Viki Pollon With Peter Rawson On Guitar
    Love And Ashes
  • Bob James Trio 
    Explosions
  • Sun Ra 
    The Cosmos
  • Lowell Davidson Trio
    L
  • Andy Warhol
    Silence
  • Byron Allen Trio
    Three Steps In The Right Direction
  • Albert Ayler Trio 
    Spirits