Touch

V/A - There Where the Avalanche Stops

For one week in every five years, two thousand singers, dancers, and musicians along with fifty thousand spectators make their way to the small town of Gjirokastra in southern Albania for the Festivali Folkloric Kombelar. In the great castle overlooking the town, they participate in the incredible National Folk Festival of Albania, hoping to attain the highest level of interpretation and win one of the many awards available the festival... the banner, even. Considering the comparatively small size of the country (just over three million inhabitants), the range of instruments, styles, and costumes seen at the festival is exceptional, sustaining a folk tradition that dates back to ancient Illyria. The works presented here in volume one are all live recordings made at the Gjirokastra Festival, taken from six of the 26 participating districts: Vlora, Gjirokastra, and Lorca from the south, and Shkodra, Debra, and Tropoja from the north. The original compact disc, released in 1990, was a collaboration between The Institute of Popular Culture, Tirana, The Albanian Shop Ltd., and Touch. Edited from the original ¼ tapes, mastered and produced by Touch. Compiled by Mike Harding, Liam McDowall, and Jon Wozencroft. Features Drita Metushi & Pretash Nikaj, Fatmir Dandlli & Endri Fifo, Eli Fara & Luiza Míça, Sofika Babliku & Ferit Shkëmbi, Folk Orchestra Of Korca, Myfterim Kupa & Fatmir Duka, Ibrahim Muça & Islam Mustafa, and unknown artists. Notes revised by Mike Harding, May 2018. Edition of 300." - Touch.

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After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.

This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).

Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.

Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.

Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
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