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Phil Yost
Bent City
Uno Loop - Cat No: ULR01
- updated:2026-05-24
Originally released in 1967 on the Tacoma Label by John Fahey and Ed Denson, the mysterious and enigmatic musician and DIY recording pioneer Phil Yost created this ethereal psychedelic folkloric jazz album, "Bent City Folklore Jazz," using the "sound in sound" technique of layering his own performances on 1/4 tapes at his home. The album is a one-of-a-kind, ethereal psychedelic folkloric jazz album that seems to be inhabited by the spirits of the past!
Track List
-
A1. Ellipse For Bluejay
03:44 -
A2. Solace Stone Somewhere
06:11 -
A3. Bent City I
03:14 -
A4. Ethan Dreams Two People
04:37 -
A5. Ever Surprised Blue Eyes
04:09 -
B1. Bent City II
03:13 -
B2. Vision At 1000 Centigrade
11:46 -
B3. Lizard-Watcher's Theme
03:46 -
B4. Wave Your Moonlight Hat For The Snowfall Train
03:09
Uno Loop presents the first-ever licensed reissue of Phil Yost's Bent City (1967), a rare Takoma Records title and a landmark of jazz-folk-psych experimentation. Long out of print and previously unavailable digitally, Bent City has gained strong early support with airplay on BBC Radio, Worldwide FM, KCRW, and WFMU, alongside praise from Bandcamp Daily and Aquarium Drunkard. Yost's cult following - particularly within spiritual jazz, American Primitive, and experimental ambient and folk communities -positions this reissue as a high-interest archival title with strong cross-genre appeal.
This edition is fully authorized by the Phil Yost Estate and Concord Records and pressed in a limited run, packaged with an 8-page archival booklet featuring previously unseen photographs, biographical notes, and original research on the enigmatic Bay Area musician. Bent City is the first release in a broader, multi-title restoration of Yost's catalog, with three additional albums to follow (at minimum), including Fog-Hat Ramble (1968), Touchwood's Dream (1970) and Yost's unreleased Sunflower Sojourn - creating a sustained narrative for continued retail engagement. With growing press attention, renewed visibility among collectors, and its unique place in Takoma and outsider jazz-adjacent history, Bent City is a standout catalog builder for stores specializing in jazz, experimental, ambient, and private-press reissues.
“Long before “ambient jazz” had a name, Yost quietly created one of the genre’s most distinctive works. At a time when spiritual jazz was finding its voice in the towering figures of Coltrane and Sanders, Bent City took a different path by turning inward. Rather than trying to summon the cosmos or channel divinity, it tunes into sounds far more ephemeral and terrestrial: birdsong, distant clatter, and vocalizations evoking the feeling of being lost in a city on an empty, hazy night.”
Julianne Wilson — Bandcamp
“Bent City is a spectral album unfolding a multi-tracked mirror house of sonic fantasias, with each wondrously bizarre corridor becoming an entire dimension unto itself. It’s a mesmerizing work of “sound-on-sound” composition, Yost’s intricate method of weaving home-recorded tape loops together, which allowed him a canvas for improvisation á la Sandy Bull, using “various combinations of soprano saxophone, flute, electric guitar, bass, maracas and tambourine.””
Jarrod Annis — Aquarium Drunkard
This edition is fully authorized by the Phil Yost Estate and Concord Records and pressed in a limited run, packaged with an 8-page archival booklet featuring previously unseen photographs, biographical notes, and original research on the enigmatic Bay Area musician. Bent City is the first release in a broader, multi-title restoration of Yost's catalog, with three additional albums to follow (at minimum), including Fog-Hat Ramble (1968), Touchwood's Dream (1970) and Yost's unreleased Sunflower Sojourn - creating a sustained narrative for continued retail engagement. With growing press attention, renewed visibility among collectors, and its unique place in Takoma and outsider jazz-adjacent history, Bent City is a standout catalog builder for stores specializing in jazz, experimental, ambient, and private-press reissues.
“Long before “ambient jazz” had a name, Yost quietly created one of the genre’s most distinctive works. At a time when spiritual jazz was finding its voice in the towering figures of Coltrane and Sanders, Bent City took a different path by turning inward. Rather than trying to summon the cosmos or channel divinity, it tunes into sounds far more ephemeral and terrestrial: birdsong, distant clatter, and vocalizations evoking the feeling of being lost in a city on an empty, hazy night.”
Julianne Wilson — Bandcamp
“Bent City is a spectral album unfolding a multi-tracked mirror house of sonic fantasias, with each wondrously bizarre corridor becoming an entire dimension unto itself. It’s a mesmerizing work of “sound-on-sound” composition, Yost’s intricate method of weaving home-recorded tape loops together, which allowed him a canvas for improvisation á la Sandy Bull, using “various combinations of soprano saxophone, flute, electric guitar, bass, maracas and tambourine.””
Jarrod Annis — Aquarium Drunkard
Phil Yost plays various instruments such as soprano saxophone, flute, electric guitar, bass, maracas, tambourine, etc. alone, recording and layering sounds one by one, pursuing his own craziness, opening and exploring the frontier of creativity for new sound realms, and completing a spiritual The psychic improvised psychedelic experimental folkloric jazz/free jazz sound collage, the one and only unique sound world and gem of a monster debut album "Bent City" is finally reissued on analog LP. The original vinyl is extremely rare and expensive, so this reissue is a joy.
This reissue includes an 8-page, 12" booklet with detailed liner notes, never-before-seen photos, and rare documents. (Original Japanese text by COMPUMA)