Search results for "drones"
"drones" entries in albums descriptions
| Artist |
Album |
Format |
Description |
Year |
Price (incl. 19% VAT) |
|
| 300 BASSES |
Sei Ritornelli |
CD |
highly recommended project formed by A.C.MONTEIRO, JONAS KOCHER and LUCA VENITUCCI (ex ZEITKRATZER), all performing on accordion & objects, using special playing techniques to catch the vibrations, etc.. => breathing & gloomy bass-drones, scraping metallic noises & feedbacks, six very varied tracks between noise & near-silence, between instrumental & electronic sounds...
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
 |
| A CASA |
Escaleras abajo de los Arboles |
LP |
behind A CASA we find the Argentinian artist JOSE DE DIEGO, who opens up the first volume in the new "Synesthetic Alchemy" series by the French label 213 Records dedicated to free music and improvisation => sinus-tone drones, voices & screams, noises, an "industrial" form of meditative and minimal music... to discover ! lim. 213 copies with silk-screen insert
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| A.G. (AGHIS GIANNOULIS) |
Colours in Black & White : 2017-2018 |
DVD |
artist from Athens (Greece) with five very meditative, monochromatic and minimalistic films (full playing time 127 min.!), black & white patterns and textures slowly shift and merge in synthesis with contemplative ambience drones... he calls this "Digital Visual Music", the perfect "ambient" video, see for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhf0LEUunfU === comes in DVD box with 2 postcards
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
LONEA : MM - MMVIII / MMXII - MMXVI |
do-LP |
this interesting Greek artist created 25 deeply melancholic, sunken piano-dronescapes, slow and repetitive, the perfect soundtrack for his video films... comparable to: ROBERT HAIGH, WILLIAM BASINSKI, ELODIE, etc.. - comes in a luxurious gatefold cover with mounted 4 page 12" x 12" booklet and diverse postcards and inlays
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF |
Kindspechleber |
LP + CD |
six years after the 7" on Drone Rec. here's the first LP for this german experimental / electro-acoustic drone project (by MIRKO UHLIG), wo loves to work with obscure / surprising / dadaistic found sounds & delicate drones, creating disturbing & dark'n'beautiful atmospheres at almost the same time; quite unique stuff, a droney mind- & earplay.... comes with bonus CD & appropriate artwork from ROBERT SCHALINSKI (COLUMN ONE)
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Mutatis Mutandis |
MC |
three long new tracks that are remixes of FREIBAND-source material = mysterious micro-drones & strange collages; MC-version limited to only 30 copies!!
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Mutatis Mutandis |
CD-R |
three long new tracks that are remixes of FREIBAND-source material = mysterious micro-drones & strange collages; CD-R version comes in transparent paper sleeve and plastic case
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| ABANDONED ASYLUM |
Derelicts of distant Hope |
CD |
debut-album of Polish dark ambient project, highly atmospheric catacomb-drones based on analogue synths & skillful designed sounds & effects; recommended to fans of CYCLIC LAW & LOKI acts, lim. 500
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ABBILDUNG |
All Demons are horned |
CD |
the Romanian (dark / mystic / philosophically inspired) ambient artist is active since 10 years by now, after few CDRs this is the first "proper" CD album => organ-like dark scapes, orientally touched ritual ambient, filed unter: metaphysical drones !
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
At the Gates of Ouln |
CD |
an invitation to a deep spiritual dark ambient dream that leads into huge catacombs and flowstone caves flooded with water, drones and slowly iridescent tones... really captivating and this could be Opus Magnum of the Romanian project so far.. "Uplifting organ sounds wrap themselves around rich, dark overtones, pulling them from out of the shadows and up in to the half light, only to let them fall away again in to the gaping abyss below.." lim. 200 copies only!!
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| ABBILDUNG / KENJI SIRATORI |
The Meaning of Word is Sound |
CD |
the Romanian deep drone project with philosophical approach in collaboration with Japanese Cyberpunk KENJI SIRATORI => abyssal amorph-drones are set into contrast with KENJI's almost disappearing voice, this music seems to exist in a different reality sphere, when decontextualized words turn into sound... to discover !
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ABDUL-RAUF, LEILA |
Diminution |
CD |
third solo-album by the ex AMBER ASYLUM and current member of IONOPHERE, the death metal band VASTUM and many others projects => harmonic, lonely instrumental ambience with much warmth and emotion.. "generally longer than previous works and feel more spacious and open, where sparse melodies and gentle textural flow meet ethereal choral vocals, distant trumpet, delicate guitar, and luminous, yet melancholy drones and warm tonal drift."
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| ACHELOO |
Cycle |
CD-R |
ambient-newcomer from Italy with excellent album (self-released), using lots of beautiful guitar sounds & drones; comes in DVD-box with handmade inlay & diverse photos, lim./numb. 100 copies
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| ADORAN |
Children of Mars |
CD |
a mixture of dark drone / doom ambient and post-rock, and it really works... drifty percussion tunes are hidden behind a big wall of doomy bass guitar drones, "super hypnotic and super heavy" [Aquarius Rec.]!! ADORAN is the project of DORIAN WILLIAMSON (NORTHUMBRIA) and AIDAN BAKER (NADJA, etc.) who plays percussion (!) and this is their second album... highly recommended if you like it dark, guitarish and droney...
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| AGLAIA |
Intangible Opacity |
CD |
early morning ambience, filled with glistening light and weightlessness, with inherent gracile movements of circling drones, multi-layered and organic... 9 tracks (63+ min) of really beautiful electronic atmospherics in the way of CELER, VIDNA OBMANA, or OÖPHOI... finally in stock this AGLAIA album from 2014
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| AJNA |
The Enigma of Sirius |
CD |
inspired by the myth of SRIUS (the highest fixed star in historic times) this AJNA album could be understood as a musical phantasy on how ancient tribes (The Dogon, The Egyptians, The Sumerians) got in touch with extraterrestrial forces.... => extremely choral-like, cinematic elevation drones, filled with awestruck sensations, when a higher being is suddenly "present"... - lim. 300 copies
|
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| ALDINUCCI, GIULIO |
Shards of Distant Times |
CD |
ALDINUCCI's extremely elevated "sacral drones" seem to come directly from the sky, high pitched voice choirs and granular particles along with melancholic and yearnful harmonies spread out, reminding on a mixture of most spheric TROUM and TIM HECKER..." explores the liminal areas of the contemporary soundscape that are characterized by the presence of human voice coming from old and timeworn recordings.." - CD version, cardboard cover
|
2020 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Shards of Distant Times |
LP |
ALDINUCCI's extremely elevated "sacral drones" seem to come directly from the sky, high pitched voice choirs and granular particles along with melancholic and yearnful harmonies spread out, reminding on a mixture of most spheric TROUM and TIM HECKER..." explores the liminal areas of the contemporary soundscape that are characterized by the presence of human voice coming from old and timeworn recordings.." - 300 copies
|
2020 |
€19.00 |
|
| ALDINUCCI, GIULIO & THE STAR PILLOW |
Hidden |
CD |
Italian ambient collaboration by two rising acts from the scene (ALDINUCCI is especially known for his praised "Borders and Ruins" album on Karlrecords)... " A very intense, intimate, minimal and mindblowing four track album, focusing on field recordings, electronic sounds and guitar drones. The mixture of those ingredients brings something very beautiful to life..." lim. 200 only !
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALEXANDERSON, MAGNUS |
Stretched in the Dark |
CD |
widely unknown composer from Sweden with three pieces (1991-2000), his style could be described as 'dark & droney electro-acoustic', especially the title-track excites us with sharp, intense dronescapes... released by the label of SEAMS, the Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in Sweden. back in stock !
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALGOL |
All these Worlds are yours |
CD |
new album (first one pressed on a proper CD) by the Siberian traveller and scientist DANIIL KAZANTSEV (who is also behind STUZHA), moving deeply into peaceful "spiritual ambience" dimensions with slightly psychedelic and "cosmic" synth-drones and harmonics... a must for fans of the GTERMA or WINTER-LIGHT labels.. "Enter now the gates to abyssal nothingness!!!" lim. 333 copies
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE |
Khen introduce Silence |
CD |
contemplative drones using sounds arising from the KHEN, a kind of mouth-organ from Thailand; back in stock
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
An Unfathomable Convergence |
CD |
studio recordings made 2011-2015 in Oulu, Finland and Italy, feat. AGLAIA, LINGUA FUNGI and ENTEN HITTI... two long tracks, sonorous yet lush hallucinogenic dream drones..."when Alio Die produces sound, any sound, a masterful amalgam of stories led by a watershed of powerful emotions is the result. Here I feel as though peacefully drifting in a haunting, yet dreamy atmosphere, provoked by mysterious sounds of past lives in a place never visited." [Brian Bourassa]
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & AGLAIA |
Opera Magnetica |
CD |
our favourite new HSL release is this ALIO DIE & AGLAIA collaboration, 72 min. of very mysterious, psychonautic deep ambience where everything seems to be dissolved and re-assembled again in cycling consciousness waves, these are highly trance-inducing dream & drug drones, for us the pendant to the genius "PASSWORD FOR ENTHEOGENIC EXPERIENCE"; lim. 300, beautiful full colour 6 panel digipak
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & LINGUA FUNGI |
Otter Songs |
CD |
the first collab of ALIO DIE with Finnish soundscaper LINGUA FUNGI, who works with handmade instruments & objects of organic nature, like 'otter skull ocarinas' and 'snail shells'; beautiful harmonic cither and sitar drones merge with subtle field recordings and object sounds for a "full ethereal / overtone drone" experience... caressing & mesmerizing
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & LORENZO MONTANA |
The Threshold of Beauty |
CD |
second ALIO DIE collaboration with electronic music producer LORENZO MONTANA, based on recordings of an ancient medieval instrument, the psaltery... "...Undeniably calming and moving, the breathing slows, the mind quiets and opens. As the introspective ambience washes over the listener, a naturalistic dronescape unfolds with alluring aural scenarios of evolving, intimate sounds..." - 500 copies pressed
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & SYLVI ALLI |
Amidst the Circling Spires |
CD |
first time collab. by the Italian organic ambience master with singer SYLVI ALLI, who adds a strong 'heavenly voices' component... . loops & drones performed on carillon, kalimba, zither, different objects and field recordings merge with a touching female voice... "a, hybrid between sonorous soundscapes and acoustic mysticism"
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & ZEIT |
A Circular Quest |
CD |
STEFANO MUSSO (ALIO DIE) and TOMMASO CIMO create 'circulating' drones again, on their fourth collaboration album; extremely meditative sacral ambience for full self-absorption, timeless & extremely subtle.... 5 tracks, 61+ minutes playtime
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE / PARALLEL WORLDS |
Circo Divino |
LP |
heavenly voices ambience, natural organic flux, entrancing ethno drones, electronic spheres - ALIO DIEs collaboration with PARALLEL WORLDS from Greece, feat. INDIA CZAJKOWSKA, lim. vinyl version (500)
|
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Circo Divino |
CD |
heavenly voices ambience, natural organic flux, entrancing ethno drones, electronic spheres - ALIO DIEs collaboration with PARALLEL WORLDS from Greece, feat. INDIA CZAJKOWSKA; lim. 500
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALONE IN THE HOLLOW GARDEN & NAM-KHAR |
same |
CD |
collaboration by the beloved anonymous project NAM KHAR with ALONE IN THE HOLLOW GARDEN (aka TANZ OHNE MUSIK), leading to eight very tribalistic ritual ambient tracks, deep choral drones merge with hypnotic percussion and ethno instrumental sounds... all very much 'handplayed', secretful, ecstatic and esoteric.. fabric pressed CD in digipack, lim. 100 copies only!!
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALTAIR TEMPLE / EXPO '70 |
split |
LP |
promising drone-duo from Bordeaux, France, with three tracks on this split LP with EXPO70; a stunning mixture of cosmic drones & psychedelia... lim. 300 white vinyl
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| ALTARMANG |
Void |
LP |
new dark ambient project consisting of PAR BOSTROM (KAMMARHEIT) and "magic plants & alchemy" specialist KENNETH HANSSON, subtle, dense, and ghostly drones...; "ALTARMANG offers uniquely intuitive and hypnotic atmospherics through reel-to-reel tape loops and analog tonalities. All infused with herbal alchemy and ceremonial surrendering." two side-long tracks, lim. 250 copies
|
2017 |
€23.00 |
|
| AMINI, SIAVASH & EUGENE THACKER |
Songs for Sad Poets |
do-LP |
"cursed poets" songs and the Song Cycle tradition served as inspiration for these eight stirring tracks, the poetry of EUGENE THACKER is not vocalized but mirrored in the vast, emotional dark drones.. - all sounds extremely amorph and melancholic, often with eerie and dramatic climaxes.. - Limited edition on clear vinyl w. 12-page booklet with the poems printed on black paper
|
2022 |
€32.50 |
|
| ANKERSMIT, THOMAS |
Figueroa Terrace |
CD |
meditative analogue drones based on the vintage 'Serge" synthesizer which was developed back in the early 70's, recorded with additional effects & processings & software to re-new & enlarge the sound... "bringing to mind swarms of locusts, distant storms and creaking machinery rather than 'synthesizer music' ", this has lots of micro-details...
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| ANTIKATECHON |
Woe is the Reward |
CD |
second full-length album by the ex ORNAMENT after the album on SILENTES, everything drowns here in melancholic archaic drones opening up amorph abysses with far away sounds like metal-clatter, vocals, guitar melodies, piano patterns and field recordings of rain and children, etc... somehow this balances between a "loss of mind" and an almost sacral, smooth melancholy.... feat. GUISEPPE VERTICCHIO aka NIMH
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARGYRE PLANITIA |
The Atomic Age |
CD |
interesting debut CD for a German post ambient industrial project, thematically based on a dystopian view on the future connected to Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Cyber Humans; analogue sounding synth drones merge with atmospheric noises and static winds, slow pulses conquer the space, swirling metallic sounds seems to ooze away into the naught... "conceived in the beginning of a new industrial age of the new machines".. lim. 300, digipak
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARTEFACTUM |
 Sub Rosa (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
wonderful esoteric beauty-drones from this female polish project, handmade covers using "decoupage"-technique, closed with pink ribbon, lim. 300 pink vinyl
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Rosarium Hermeticum |
CD |
"Are you flesh, or are you spirit?" - re-issue of ARTEFACTUMs deeply esoteric second album from 2006 (very limited / deleted CDR), now with two NEW bonus tracks rec. 2013... mystic drones, organic whispers, secret sounds, subtle & sensual atmosphere... strong album by the Polish female ambient act who also had a great EP on Drone Records (DR-94, 2008): lim. 500
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE (AMT) |
Drawing the Air |
CD-R |
a strange & surreal dance of field recording snippets & other short-timed noises & drones, unique surrounding.... CD version of a 4-track installation that happened in Ireland in 2007; prof. full colour cover, on A.M.T.s own label
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| ASHTORETH |
Rites III & IV |
CD |
the successor of "Rites I & II" from 2019 now out! - ritualistic compositions based on guitar sounds.. "
Minimal, meditative ambient drones with layers of meandering guitars and voices mixing elements of doom, drone and ambient experimentation. Rites III & IV expand on the shamanic and animistic path, an ongoing journey through flesh, sound and spirit."
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS |
Cabin Exterior |
CD |
the project of UK's PHIL TOOD (once running BETLEY WELCOMES CAREFUL DRIVERS), still a great adress for surrealistic psychedelia filled with organ like synth drones, weird guitar solos, strange electronic sounds and cosmic solar flares.. lim. 300 copies
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| AUME (SCOT JENERIK & ALEPH OMEGA) |
Agere Urendum Mentis Epode |
LP |
AUME is the NEW project of SCOT JENERIK (23Five Org., F-SPACE) and ALEPH OMEGA (CHROME, etc.), their dark and electricity filled "ambient industrial" creations build lots of tension, using pulses, whirring drones, effected percussion and found sounds (voices, oriental melodies)... there are also more sublime moments in the two-side long tracks, reminding on older ZOVIET FRANCE... excellent sonics, georgously packed: die cut linen jacket with silver foil embossing, inlay, lim. 555 copies
|
2016 |
€25.00 |
|
|
CQ CQ |
USB-stick / wood-box |
third full length album by AUME, who created a rousing surrealistic journey "through a visual wormhole" with masses of electronic pulses & percussion sounds, undecipherable vocal and white noise transmissions from the aether, elementary field recordings (wind & thunder), and dark atmospheric drones, always immershing in delays and echoes.. phantastic stuff!!! = this is the special, heavy handmade wood-box edition with audio USB-stick feat. bonus video material, plus bound insert; lim. 55 copies !!
|
2018 |
€30.00 |
|
| |
CQ CQ |
CD |
third full length album by AUME, who created a rousing surrealistic journey "through a visual wormhole" with masses of electronic pulses & percussion sounds, undecipherable vocal and white noise transmissions from the aether, elementary field recordings (wind & thunder), and dark atmospheric drones, always immershing in delays and echoes.. phantastic stuff!!! - think of BAD SECTOR or JIM HAYNES, played in a parallel dimension.. standard CD edition
|
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| AUN |
Utica (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
harmonic distortion-drones of a higher beauty; the rising drone-star from the active Montreal-scene; white vinyl, lim. 300 |
2009 |
€7.00 |
|
| AUTECHRE / HAFLER TRIO |
³oæh |
7 x LP BOX |
re-issue (now all dressed in black) of the 7 LP box from 2021 that sold out immediately, includes all three collaborations by both projects released by PHONOMETROGRAPHY and DIE STADT before (2003-2011), their explorations in drones and silent + strange sounds.. - lim. / numb. 500 copies, gloss printed black covers, comes with booklet inside a black envelope with individual number, a very artful packaging by Andrew McKenzie himself !
|
2023 |
€149.00 |
|
| AUTOPSIA |
Palladium |
CD |
early material by this pioneering post-industrial & multi-media artist from former Yugoslavia - the re-issue of 2nd album from 1991 (Hyperion), plus the more sacral / dark ambient sounding "Factory Rituals" - a set of four unreleased tracks from 1989 => very structured 'martial' industrial using neo-classic samples, dark drones and very nice atmospheric parts with choirs, etc..
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| AX |
Metal Forest |
CD |
compilation with collected material culled from long out print releases (1995-1997) by this project of ANTHONY DI FRANCO (RAMLEH, ex SKULLFLOWER, JFK, etc..); crunching post industrial soundscapes, overdriven guitar psych & doom noise drones, strange effectpedal sounds, powerful & focused,,, here everything is handplayed & analogue...
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| BABYLONE CHAOS |
Noises from the Attic |
mCD-R |
main project of French artist JULIEN CORNU-KUOCH, who also works under other names; organic sounds (wood crunching) and hissy drones develop into a complex / massive soundscape ...excellent dark walls of drone, to discover !
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| BAD SECTOR |
Chronoland |
CD |
NEW material (rec. 2010) from the Italian cult project of unique futuristic ambience !!- *Twelve beautifully crafted chapters of music segueing between morphing layers of thick drones, haunting melodies and crackling vocal transmissions.*
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN |
I fall into you |
CD |
re-issue of deleted CDR from 2002, one of our favourite "early" solo-works of him; the perfect combination of emotional drones & whispered poetry, with vocals by NAOMI OKABE and beautiful violin-loops of LISA ROSSITER-THORNTON... edition of 500 copies, better price
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Pure Drone (Drone Compendium One) |
LP |
Killer-release by the NADJA-half, two side-long transcension drones that evolve like a living organism, created entirely on guitar... first part of the "Drone Compendium-series", lim. 400, 180gr vinyl, very nice & thick sleeves!!
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
|
The Sea swells a bit |
do-LP |
the first release in the new "Mind Travels" series of this French label is a vinyl re-issue of AIDAN BAKER's stunning album from 2006 => three longs tracks about the deepsea, the ocean, dying sailors, dense & inapproachable, dark & mysterious, working with mesmerizing layers & circles of long guitar loops, arising in slow Crescendos... beginning with track 2 smooth percussion & bass-grooves are pervading the drones, the whole gets slightly psychedelic... comes with new artwork & live bonus track!
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Same River Twice |
7inch |
finally the re-edition of one of the most beautiful Drone EPs (both in sound & artwork) is out, more than 10 years after its first appearance this was the also the very first VINYL release of AIDAN BAKER => two pieces of shimmering guitar drone harmonics, with titles inspired by literature phrases; filed under: Poetic & trancy day-dream-drones ~ lim. 300, colour vinyl, new artwork by AIDAN himself !!
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
True Dreaming (to bend the World) |
CD |
"The Dreaming Things Inside My Head" - a most fragile, lyrical album inspired from the "Broken Monsters" novel by LAUREN BEUKES and "The Death of Vivek Oji" by AKWAEKE EMEZI => using solely electric & acoustic guitar and his vulnerable voice, AIDAN BAKER created the perfect soundtrack made up of touching drones, dreams and speech fragments.. - lim. 200 copies on a new Italian label
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN / N / DIRK SERRIES |
Enomeni |
do-LP |
"Enomeni" (which is Greek and means 'connected') is a document of a special live performance (Sept. 2014), held at the marriage of the MIDIRA REC. label-owner: AIDAN BAKER, N and DIRK SERRIES came together for the first time to play an improvised live session. The result is an one hour session (divided into four tracks) of guitar-based dream drones and pulsations. So nice. Gatefold-cover , black vinyl ed. lim. to 150 copies; BACK IN STOCK LAST COPIES!
|
2016 |
€27.50 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN with KEVIN MICKA |
Green Figures |
CD |
recordings from a live performance with drummer KEVIN MICKA, made in Montreal, Canada, in November 2009: three long, more song-oriented pieces with extremely subtle vocals... shimmering guitar drones meets slumbering post-rock. Edition of 300 copies, special price now!
|
2011 |
€8.00 |
|
| BALESTRAZZI, SIMON |
Ultrasonic Bathing Apparatus |
CD |
SIMON BALESTRAZZI (T.A.C, DREAM WEAPON RITUAL, KIRLIAN CAMERA, etc. and also part of the great "In Memorian J.G. BALLARD" CD project) with seven subtle but intense solo-tracks, inspired by the concept of sensorial deprivation: very deep drones with metalloid overtunes, but also with more concrete instrumental elements from strings, piano, dulcimer, idiophone (steel cello), table top guitar, and field recordings.. immersive stuff, full of tension! lim. 200
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| BARAKA[H] |
ILLUMINESCENCE |
maxi-CD |
first ever solo-release by the TROUM and ex MAEROR TRI member and special jubilee release for TAALEM, a 4 track, 5" 'minimax' EP with 'songlines' of ethereal, melancholic guitar drones... " a yearning for something that is absolutely not 'visible' or tangible. i don't know what it is, but there must be something hidden in the air, in the sounds, in the sensations..." - standard ed. of 200 copies; master: STEPHAN MATHIEU; artwork: HITOSHI KOJO
|
2020 |
€9.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE |
The sacral Member |
mCD-R |
two tracks that evoke an exotic atmosphere with effected voices & deep frequenced wave-drones... quite special & hallucinogenic again!
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Ambiwax |
CD |
lim. 250 - release on IGOR POTSUKAILO's own label - great trip into BARDO's world of surrealistic electro-drones & cyber-psychedelia.. 'transparent bubbles of consciousness collapse and dissolve in scraps of conversation from a weird movie'
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE + NOISES OF RUSSIA |
New Orthodox Line |
CD |
two Russian projects in collab; great noisy & sacral dronescapes of tremendous power! a one-tracker of 47 min
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| BASINSKI, WILLIAM |
A Shadow in Time |
LP |
two long new pieces, the title track is dedicated to DAVID ROBERT JONES (aka DAVID BOWIE), the pieces have been created with synths, tenor saxophone, tape loops and electronics => very rich & multi-layered, subharmonic ambient drones and waves full of ringing overtunes, surely among his best material! The limited vinyl version contains a special mix, only available on this format
|
2017 |
€25.00 |
|
|
A Shadow in Time |
CD |
two long new pieces, the title track is dedicated to DAVID ROBERT JONES (aka DAVID BOWIE), the pieces have been created with synths, tenor saxophone, tape loops and electronics => very rich & multi-layered, subharmonic ambient drones and waves full of ringing overtunes, surely among his best material! The CD version has an extented mix (6 min. longer) of the title track
|
2017 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
92982 |
CD |
re-issue of CD from 2009 with 4 long tracks, based on recordings dating back to 1982 => atmospheric drones of decay and nostalgia... *It is an extremely plastic and pliant piece of music, an eternally empty vessel that gets filled up from listen to listen.* [Pitchfork]
BACK IN STOCK! |
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| BASS COMMUNION |
Ghosts on Magnetic Tape |
do-LP |
luxurious vinyl re-edition of the beautiful 2004 album, re-cut from new masters, lim. 300 copies (numbered!) on clea 180gr. vinyl ! - "Sehr poetische dark ambience aus England, mit Pianohauchklängen & knisper-Sounds, eingebettet in warme Watte-Drones, sanften Chorgesängen, atmosphärische field recordings & verlangsamte Instrumentalklassik... anmutig und schön ! TIP! " [Drone Rec. info to the first release]
|
2021 |
€36.50 |
|
| BASS COMMUNION / PRECISION SURGERY |
Kurzwellen 8 |
LP |
two fabulous remixes from BASS COMMUNION of the "Hinterkaifeck" material by PRECISION SURGERY ("Kurzwellen 7"), mysterious ghost drones and sub-bass pulses, slowly sucking you in... comes in lovely 24x36 inch silkscreen poster sleeve, over 30 min. playtime, lim. 300
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| BATES, MARTYN |
I Said to Love |
CD |
MARTYN BATES always had a liking for spheric, experimental (background) sounds and drones, and they also play a big role on this new album with 15 songs, mixing his unique voice, guitar-playing and song-writing with suspended sound effects, to our great delight...this album sounds like a dream, filled with so much passion, longing and precious melodies.... the perfect mixture of folk, lyrical poetry and atmospherics ! feat. ELIZABETH S. and ALAN TRENCH (ORCHIS, CUNNAN, etc.)
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| BECUZZI, GIANLUCA |
Eternally now |
CD |
exciting new release by this Italian composer (known for his project KINETIX) using many structured metal / gong / bell-sounding elements and powerful drones, along with field recordings, polylayered voice material, etc... very interesting & versatile release, very much recommended !!
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Black Mantra |
do-CD |
after a series of compelling works "Black Mantra" is inspired by the goddess of KALI, the "Anit-Mother" , BECUZZI mixes Indian classical music with doom metal influences and post industriial - choir chants and bell sounds are confronted with heavy bass + guitar noises and drones, its a powerful, abyssal but still somehow fragile and transcendental soundworld.... really surprising and innovative arrangements, wow.. lim. 200 copies
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| BERRY, KEITH |
The Cartesian Plane |
pic-LP |
another release in this lovely series (artwork painting & sound by the same artist) - the first vinyl appearance of KEITH BERRY, creating subtle & graceful drones of timeless transcension... lim. 233 copies
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
| BERTOIA, HARRY |
Hints Of Things To Come |
CD |
four unreleased "sculpture ambience" pieces from the archive, recorded around 1970, with the over 30 min. long, deep harmonic title piece and first experiments with overdubbing... - "This CD is defined by ambient passages, long drones, gongs that sound like whales, shimmering harmonics and the feeling of an artist searching for sounds deep within his own sonic sculpture."
|
2023 |
€17.00 |
|
| BERTONCINI, MARIO |
Arpe Eolie |
LP |
ethereal noises that play themselves => wonderful sound / wind sculpture recordings from the 70's by BERTONCINIs huge Aeolian Harps and gongs (that also look phantastic, the largest was 7 metres high!), creating mysterious of drones-extensions and almost electrical sounding whisphers... a wonderful edition with extensive 4 page inlay, many photos, lim. 400, deluxe silver print cover. A must have for anyone interested in droning sound sculptures !!
|
2016 |
€26.00 |
|
| BESTIA CENTAURI |
Teratogenesis |
CD |
Bedrohlich klaustrophobische Welten beschwört "Teratogenesis" herauf, einengend nah und intensiv scheinen elektronische Drones & Sounds wie Waffen anzugreifen, wie eine Psycho-Geisterbahn der völlig derangierten, morphenden Art... kein typischer dark ambient, eher düster-industrielle Elektro-Akustik !
Aus Italien..
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & MAOR APPELBAUM |
Electrostatic Deflection |
CD |
first collab, massive industrial drones ! |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Innervation |
CD-R |
hypnotizing drones & noises connected to the world of neurochemical impulses, roaring like wind & fire; lim. 300 copies, professional full colour cover & pro-duplicated CDR
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & SAVERIO EVANGELISTA |
Micromal Sonorities |
CD & booklet |
much requested collaboration of M.B. with S. EVANGELISTA (ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO) from 2007 - now re-released with a 16 page A4 booklet feat. visual works from STEFANO GENTILE (UNDER THE SNOW) => slow moving low fi expanses, endlessly waving drones with gostly effects, fitting perfectly to the visual expressions.. 4 long tracks, 64+ minutes, most meditative / drifting.. lim. 250
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| BIBLE, JEREMY & JASON HENRY |
Vryashn |
LP |
dark atmospheric ocean ambience using "underwater piano drones" by this US-duo known known from the MYSTERY SEA CDR; very beautiful stuff, excellent cover-artwork, lim. 500
|
2011 |
€18.00 |
|
| BIG CITY ORCHESTRA |
Impetuoso |
MC |
another trip into BCO's very own dimension of enchanting ambient scapes, unbelievable weird collages & rumbling drones.. C-90, lim. 100, printed silver paper cover with extra fragile paper sleeve, very handmade..
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Probe |
CD-R |
74 minutes of unique obscurism-drones & noises by DAS & his friends (here: NINAH PIXIE, CLIFF NEIGHBOURS, JESSE BURSON, MELISSA MARGOLIS); perfect sounds for a new programming of your brain!
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
|
New Beat for Baby |
CD-R |
rare Finnish CD-R only release (BCO firming as "BIG SITI OOKESTRA) doing their uncopyable loopy organic drones; 54 min., incl. 'sounds effects library Vol. 11'; we got the remaining copies from the label! Professional cover & reproduction, printed labels
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Stanchenzza |
CD |
finally a new proper full-length CD by BCO, 'Stanchenzza' is full of dancing overtunes & subtle e-drones, a great atmospheric set with some special mind-bending moments of course.. 65+ min
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| BIZARRE UPROAR |
Cunt Animal |
LP |
This noise really hurts ! - new album by this extreme and provocating Finnish power electronics project ("the apex of anti-music"), often dealing with sadomaso / fetish / sexual transgression themes, anti-social lust and hate that bursts in all directions... two side long tracks of broken harsh noise music, repeated fragmented elements, feedbacking pierce drones, not without hypnotic effects.. - comes with gatefold cover, lim. ed.
|
2022 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Cunt Animal |
CD |
This noise really hurts ! - new album by this extreme and provocating Finnish power electronics project ("the apex of anti-music"), often dealing with sadomaso / fetish / sexual transgression themes, anti-social lust and hate that bursts in all directions... two side long tracks of broken harsh noise music, repeated fragmented elements, feedbacking pierce drones, not without hypnotic effects... CD version, 6 panel digipack
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| BJERGA / IVERSEN |
Empire of Dirt |
MC |
rare cassette-only release by the 'experimental / low-fi dronescapes' duo, recorded live in Amsterdam April 2007; lim. 100, C-41, full-colour cover, red cassette, ONE second hand copy (VG+) in stock
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| BJERGA, SINDRE & FABIO ORSI |
Faded Brown and Grey |
CD |
strong studio-collaboration (like all CDs in this series, recorded at Extrapool studios in Nijmegen, NL) by these very active experimental droners; floating guitars, tapes, contact microphones, organ like drones, crackling microsounds...moving between very mellow and more noisy moments... 5 tracks, 54+ minutes; lim. 300 special package
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| BJERGA, SINDRE & MICROMELANCOLIE |
Invisible Paths |
CD |
mail collaboration by the hyper-active Norwegian low fi experimental drone performer (& member of STAR TURBINE) and Polish MICROMELANCOLIE (they already had a CD on Aurora Borealis) => field recordings of moving scrap, strange voices in the background, pulses appearing, found sounds from radio, electro static & drones, etc.. - a pretty weird & unusual form of ambient sound collage, for the explorers.. !! Lim. 300
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| BLACK DEAL WITH SNOW & MESOPIC VISION |
Untitled |
CD-R |
the only release so far of this Sergey Suhovics (EXIT IN GREY / FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC) side-project, in collaboration with the ex POLARIS and ABGURD-label operator (here as MESOPIC VISION) => dark glowing transcendental drones, comparable to YEN POX or AMON, very good & still to discover. LAST COPY!
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| BLACK GLASS ENSEMBLE |
Arise from the Twilight |
CD |
first release of this "ambient supergroup" from U.K, initiated by MICHAEL BEGG (HUMAN GREED), feat. BEN PONTON (ZOVIET FRANCE), CLODAGH SIMONDS (FOVEA HEX), and diverse other professional musicians on Cello, French Horn, Violin, Trumpet, etc.. combining electronics and long form / harmonic / classical instrumental drones for an emotional transcension experience... - recorded live at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 13 February 2020, just before the lockdown!!
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
| BLACK TO COMM |
Seven Horses for Seven Kings |
do-LP |
the Hamburg-based project with the first new studio album after many years, going into a much more experimental and abrasive "industrial drone" direction => mighty multi-layered drones from various sources arise, noisy orchestral elements (percussion, wind instruments, sax, etc.) are present, this really sucks you into a dark maelstrom, without using structures and harmony... on 13 very versatile tracks - the best BTC album so far we think! Last copies in stock on limited green vinyl
|
2019 |
€23.50 |
|
| BLADH, MARTIN |
Dirge; The Peter Sotos Files |
CD |
"I've been dominated by an EVIL for so long.." - this is MARTIN BLADHs (IRM, SKIN AREA) tribute to PETER SOTOS (long time WHITEHOUSE member), working with lots of sound and video clips from SOTOS => vocal & found sound speech material from is layered and processed, extreme feedback noise appears, but also more subtle spoken words and ORGANUM-like feedback drones... 10 tracks, 55+ min.
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BLEEDING HEART NARRATIVE |
All that was missing we never had in the World |
CD |
re-issue of deleted debut CD from 2008, with bonus track; amazing mixture of noise & drones with folk & chamber music like stuff, recommended!
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BLOOD RHYTHMS |
Northern State |
CD-R |
ARVO ZYLO in collaboration with JASON LAZAR (aka rEEk): three long pieces of organ-like drones with sublime evolution into a more "full-bodied" waveform and resonance sound.. .- playtime around 60 min., professionally duplicated and printed CD + cover, sealed jewel-case. US-import
|
2022 |
€10.50 |
|
| |
Horror Pilation |
CD-R |
a collection of long tracks that appeared before on very limited LPs in collaboration with LESLIE KEFFER => longform drones that ebb + flow in a contemplative and haunting way, slowly covering you with atmospheric drift.. To discover ! - professionally duplicated and printed CD + cover, sealed jewel-case
|
2022 |
€10.50 |
|
| BLUME, FELIX |
Fog Horns |
LP |
awesome recordings and remixes of boat fog horns by this French composer, made at the port of Piraeus, Greece - the various types of massive drones interact in a polyphonic and almost orchestral way, on the B-side there are three remixes of the raw sounds, filled with darkness and tension... "You quickly forget you’re listening to prosaic industrial sound and interpret it as an immersive piece of neo-classical." [Chain D.L.K.] - ed. of 500 copies
|
2019 |
€21.50 |
|
| BORG, ANNEMARIE |
In Nomine Tellus |
CD |
first album (a tone poem in three parts) by this Scandinavian ambient composer for GTERMA, a kind of ambient world music (with experimental edge and dramatic / dark elements) spreading on three long waving tracks, inspired by the HOPI-nation and the process and need of re-balancing with nature and earth... A. BORG's suspended voice and instrumental emanations (piano, violin, harp, cello, singing bowls) are well combined with synth drones, whale songs, and field recordings...
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| BOURBONESE QUALK |
Hope |
CD |
re-issue of the second LP (1984) of the British cult industrialists, this first CD re-issue feat. 3 bonus tracks not on the original LP.. "Hope is full of unceasing drum machine rhythms, electro pulses, echoing samples and lo-fi synths matched with strummed guitars and dub bass. The accompanying drones and snarled vocals go beyond any early 80's industrial tag to be something more unique.." [Mannequin Rec.]
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
| BRADLEY, MARK |
The Gloaming |
mCDR |
another newcomer for the great French mCDR series: "moonlight ambience", very hazy & lighten ambient-drones
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| BRANCA, GLENN |
Symphony # 6: Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven |
CD |
re-issue of BRANCA's maybe most intense work (studio LP from 1989), feat. PAGE HAMILTON (who got famous later with HELMET); intense conglomerations of rhythms, wall of guitar drones, acoustic energy !! "the sound of the whoosh at the core of creation / the UBERMUSIK of the spheres as terrible and gorgeous as desire"
|
1993 |
€14.00 |
|
| BRANT, JACOB |
Rainmaking |
mCD-R |
highly recommended newcomer creating multi-layered, shimmering dronescapes with powerful washes of winds & harmonics - somehow guitarish, 'post rock' elements are involved, , truly elevating! For fans of TIM HECKER; TROUM; etc... filed under: energetic beauty drones & overtunes; 22 min. in mCD box
|
2013 |
€6.00 |
|
| BREAKLAB |
Reet |
12inch |
drone newcomer from Bremen with roots in the open minded / experimental techno- and art scene, this is the debut vinyl EP with 5 tracks (about 20 min. playtime) presenting very wide and sonorous sounding layered mystery drones with swinging overtones and almost orchestral tension, when metalloid object or instrumental sounds strike in, or fragmented crackles and noises appear and build chaos-structures.... highly recommended 12"!
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| BRUIL, ARNO / BROUCE TETARETTE |
Pavo / Sonofoque |
MC |
tape only release one of the most obscure labels we ever got to know, driving around with a public "bus bibliotheque" to various French cities... ARNO (ARNAULD) BRUIL creates pure analogue electronic feedback, drone & noise sounds way beyond the normal musical parameters, BROUCE TETARETTE excite us with massive, pulsing overtune drones, in flickering motion, very good! lim. 100 in jewel-case with nicely embossed cover
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| BURKE, DAN & THOMAS DIMUZIO |
Hz |
CD |
live recordings made Oct. 1997 in San Francisco => DAN BURKE (ILLUSION OF SAFETY) in collab. with THOMAS DIMUZIO, advancing from more quiet and dreamlike moods into noisy attacks, showing both fully immersed in metallic drones and strange sounds... BACK IN STOCK |
1999 |
€10.00 |
|
| BURNING STAR CORE |
Amelia |
10inch |
" I Wanna Make A Supersonic Woman Of You" - limited 3-track 10" by the project of violonist C. SPENCER YEH, known from collaborations with YELLOW SWANS, PRURIENT or HOTOTOGISU, a "unique blend of musique concrète, ambient, drone, and psychedelic music".. - special offer, last chance!! *3 Stücke mit sich überlagernden, minimalen (Synth?)-Polydrones und bizarren, auf konkreterem Material basierenden Geräuschlandschaften... sehr eigen und schön..*
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| BUT I'M NOT (PAWEL GRABOWSKI) |
DAEMON TRANCES I-VI |
CD |
Polish Drone Records artist PAWEL GRABOWSKI (DR-72) is back with a new project name and an intense work about trauma and the 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)', expressing the emotional loop that he calls 'Daemon Trance' => ghostly singings, low piano tunes and strokes, noises of scraping and ultra slow, captivating drones create a super deep, unescapable intense atmosphere... - 6 tracks, mastered by COLIN POTTER, highly recommended!
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| BÜTTNER, GREGORY |
Voll.Halb.Langsam.Halt |
CD |
contact mic audio capturings from an old ice-breaker / steamboat (built completely from metal), recorded during a trip from Rostock to Rügen (Germany) over the Baltic Sea ==> the clattering of rusty metallic parts of the ship through the vibrations of the engines, almost tender mechanical noises and scrapings, warm drones spreading in the whole body of the ship, all in different shapes and textures and put together in a sensitive way.. a mesmerising composition!!
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| B°TONG (B*TONG / B-TONG/ BTONG) |
Prostration before Infinity |
LP |
the very first full LP release for the Swiss Drone Rec. artist (MIND 01 LP) who found a remarkable own way to transform subconscious matter into audio material (or vice versa?=), here with a stronger focus on oral / voice sources... we had to think of OVRO or even NURSE WITH WOUND when these bizarre & surrealistic micro sound drones appear, exist for a moment and seep away... lim. 300
"inspired by the vast and still quite unknown space that surrounds us" |
2014 |
€17.50 |
|
| B°TONG / EMERGE / IF BWANA / GERALD FIEBIG |
Thing |
CD-R |
starting release in the new series named "THING", based on the concept of physicality and the "meeting-place" for artists - this collects the two deleted split LPs by B'TONG & EMERGE, as well as IF BWANA and G. FIEBIG - morphing & moving dronescapes from B*TONG, more slow & contemplative, eerie metallic rumblings by EMERGE; refined & almost elegant drone compositions by FIEBIG IF BWANA.. lim. 100
|
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| CAPELLE, MIREILLE |
Anello. Naga. Sunyata |
3 x CD |
epic release by this singer, actor & music professor from Belgium, constructed 'geometrically' due to a mathematical scheme based on the symbolism of numbers, all pieces can be played seperately or together to build a complete 'Sonic Architecture'; => very dense meditative music using electronic sound drops, mysterious overtune drones, whispers, percussion, instruments (strings, flute, gongs), field & object recordings (water.. ). very otherworldy, captivating, somehow esoteric! MASTERPIECE!!!
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Blue Veil |
CD |
a breathtaking, arcane "transcension drone" installation soundtrack (for the exhibition 'I Fortuny' , Venice 2019) created by legendary actor and singer MIREILLE CAPELLE and the HERMESensemble - metallic ghost strokes, whispering voices, crackles, wide spheric drones..." I wanted this piece to allow us to hear the inaudible. I wanted to enlarge what is hidden in sound. " - ed. of 350 copies, 46 min. length, our deepest recommendation !!
|
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| CASAS, CARLOS |
The Mont Aigu |
MC |
cassette only release (C-60) by the Spanish soundartist, known for the excellent "MMXX-19: 1883 (Sound Model I)" LP and "Mutia" 3 LP releases, on MONT AIGU he merges processed field recordings and radio frequencies he captured in this region in France, raw wind-like drones and abstract sounds merge with gentle harmonies, spheric and beautiful ! Lim. 90 copies, handnumbered, prof cover + DL code
|
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| CASTRUP, HANS / STEFFAN DE TURCK / BOBAN RISTEVSKI / GRODOCK |
Thing |
CD-R |
3rd release in a new series named "THING", based on the concept of physicality and the "meeting-place" for artists like in good old Germanic times ;) => THING will always feature 4 artists: HANS CASTRUP (ex POISON DWARFS) has created a nice & complex atmospheric collage, STEFFAN DE TURCK explores the physicality of sounds and field rec's, BOBAN RISTEVSKI philosophizes with vintage sounding strange electronics (great piece!), and GRODOCK deepdrones the earth... - lim. 100
|
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| CELER |
Perfectly beneath us |
CD-R |
rare Russian CDR-only release on the label of EXIT IN GREY & FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC; new material recorded by WILL LONG summer of 2012 in Tokyo => extremely smooth sensitivity-drones, like an acoustic breeze you can almost not recognize anymore... 35 min. playtime, full colour cardboard cover
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
ZigZag |
CD |
a new one-tracker piece of 48+ min lenghth, inspired by minimalistic music of the 60's and 70's and the baby's heartbeat, these extremely weightless & light shimmering harmonic drones emanate a constant slow vibrato....very nice! comes in oversized cardboard cover
|
2014 |
€16.50 |
|
| CENT ANS DE SOLITUDE |
En Concert - El Diablo, Lille, France 29.11.14 |
LP |
the French project (formed by the person behind the legendary LES NOUVELLES PROPAGANDES label) in a rare live concert from Nov. 2014, perfect old school industrial which mixes electronic drones and pulses, object noises and cinematic spoken word and other found sounds, from rough ambient to noise... - comes w. excellent "constructivists" silk-screen sleeve, on rust-coloured vinyl, lim. 270 copies
|
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| CHALK, ANDREW |
The Circle of Days |
LP |
older CHALK recordings feat. DAISUKE SUZUKI performed on / created with field recordings, keyboards, guitar, bass & slide-guitar => everyday environmentals (like in ORA with DARREN TATE) merge with subtle instrumental drones and sound drops, filed under: impressionist ambience... "A magical, captivating piece of work that functions like a sonic parallel to the way shooting stars grip our gaze in wonder" [Infinite Limits]; ed. of 325 copies
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Everyone goes Home when the Sun sets |
CD |
a collection of 19 pieces of impressionistic ambience miniatures, often based on organ and zither (?) sounds, intimate and poetic acoustic drones that give you a warm feeling, like a "koan of lost memory and forgotten landscape.." artwork: oversized gatefold cover, mini-LP style with OBI and insert
|
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
The River that flows into the Sands |
LP |
one of the nicest ANDREW CHALK solo-works now available on vinyl - extremely subtle dronescapes (probably based on guitar) that change between harmonic and disharmonic scales, thus creating a most ethereal, unreal atmosphere, ... lim. 300 w. oversized, handmade cover 'with tipped-on images', each print is unique; lim. 300 clear vinyl
|
2018 |
€30.00 |
|
| CHAOS AS SHELTER |
Dawn Syndrome |
CD |
"oriental / eastern dark ambience" at its best, mystic drones from Israel ! |
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| CHAUVEAU, SYLVAIN |
Kogetsudai |
LP |
the following release to "Singular Forms", reconstructing the classic song structure, influenced by Japanese Zen gardens.... minmimal electronics sounds and subtle drones, ghostly piano and CHAUVEAUs remarkable voice form an intimate, personal music.... feat. guest musicians as STEVEN HESS or STEPHANE GARIN and production help of ADAM WILTZIE (STARS OF THE LID, etc.)
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| CHEERLEADER 69 & .CUT |
Nagatsuki |
mCD-R |
a new French ambient Industrial connection to explore, one long track of fabulous guitar & bass drones and noises enriched with field recordings from Tokyo and Osaka, very powerful, levitating, feedbacking...
|
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| CHOMO |
C'est illimite (experimentations sonoros et poetiques) |
LP |
filed under: strangest noises, drones, vocalizations and poetry from a true hermit and "total artist" who lived in the forest near Paris for 40 years until his death in 1999 (see: chomo.fr), doing 'primitive' and archaic paintings, sculptures, objects, self-made instruments, living in a surrealistic place between trees.... the utterings remind on ETANT DONNES or other French sound poetry, low fi and authentic.. a great document - comes with full colour inlay
|
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| CHORA(S)SAN TIME-COURT MIRAGE (=CATHERINE CHRISTER HENNIX) |
Live at the Grimm Museum |
CD |
mesmerizing drone piece (one-tracker 49+ min.) based on an installation from 2005 - now performed by drone-pioneer & philosopher C.C.HENNIX live in Berlin (08/2011) with an ensemble feat. AMELIA CUNI, MICHAEL NORTHAM, WERNER DURAND, ROBIN HAYWARD.. => beautiful contemplation-drones that are truly evocative, our highest praise!!
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| CHORD |
Flora |
CD |
massive & subtle guitar-drones of a higher beauty; debut CD of experimental guitar performance group with members of PELICAN, etc.
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| CHORE IA |
Postscriptum |
do-CD |
the Polish cult label OBUH released cassettes of this project in the 90's, in the typical style for that time - instrumental ambience, sometimes weird and with psychedelic / avant rock influences, with spoken words or more expressiveness... - here are now 5 new dark tracks, plus material from two long deleted more wild OBUH cassettes - "This is a great slab of weird electronic drone that should find favour with fans of creepy atmospheric horror drones as well as fans of avant garde rock." [Musique Machine]
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| CHRYSAKIS, THANOS |
Magma |
CD |
micro-sounding / electro-acoustic dronescapes with many details, one long one-tracker by this Greek newcomer, to discover !
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
ELYTRA |
CD |
phantastic micro-sound dronescapes on this new work by the prestigious Greek sound artist , inspired by the "Elytra" (the forewings of insects used to make scraping sounds)... in a similar way these multi-layered tracks evolve in complex, organic patterns, like multitudes of whispering cicadae, a multi-dimensional and dense soundworld embraces you from the very first second.. 7 tracks 51+ min, only 150 copies pressed
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| CHUBBY WOLF |
Seasick |
CD |
wonderful watery "liquid" dronescapes, another posthumous album release by the female CELER-half, "some stirring ode to the immanence of the sea"; MYSTERY SEA decided this gem to press this as 'fabric pressed' CD, the very first in the series, lim. 250
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| CINDYTALK |
Up here in the Clouds |
CD |
follower to last years "Crackle of my Soul" with the "new" Cindytalk sound; floating dronescapes, raw & beautiful at the same time..
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
A Life is Everywhere |
LP |
six new tracks recorded in London & Japan, feat. one remix for MIMETIC; digital metallic noise is set against mellow synth-drones, storms of fizzling analogue clouds & white noise winds combined with subtle drone expanses...'a schizophrenic creation, the quieter, often acoustic moments buffering against repeated onslaughts of brutal technological noise' [Dusted Mag]; lim. vinyl version
|
2013 |
€16.50 |
|
| CISFINITUM |
O vs 0 |
CD |
re-issue of the first CISFINITUM album (rec. 1997-1998), one of the earliest Russian industrial projects => minimal ghost drones, eerie and quiet, forming strange acoustic resonances and overtunes.. feat. the legendary ROMAN SIDOROV (STARUHA MHA, DER GOLEM) on one bonus track; lim. 250
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| CLEMENT, JODA |
The Narrows |
CD |
one long hazy dronescape based on various field recordings mainly made in Canada, very complex & rich, unidentifiable & mysterious ... ninth release in this strong series by MYSTERY SEA, dealing with "spirits of specific places"; lim. 200 handnumbered copies, beautiful full colour artwork as usual by DANIEL CROKAERT
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| CLEW OF THESEUS |
The Death Urge |
LP |
muddy ethno-ambient and rough brooding drones with dark pulses & existentialist approach ; very first LP by this US american experimental project, to discover! Lim. 215 copies
|
2011 |
€17.50 |
|
| CLOAMA |
Embargoed |
CD |
exciting new album by this Finnish ambient / doom industrial act (active now since about 20 years), combining rather concrete field recordings with monumental drones, ranging from wall-of-sound guitar drones to more collagic material.. "...impressive gloomy post-industrial soundscapes from wide variation of sound sources. Eventually tracks move closer to two past albums, including eerie guitar-drone and synth oscillations as well"
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| CLOUWBECK |
Wolfrahm |
CD |
behind CLOUWBECK we find RICHARD SKELTON (also active as A BROKEN CONSORT), who spreads here beautifully poly-layered violin-drones, always shifting & waving and building organic landscapes of metallic shining acoustics.. . absolutely stunning & highly recommended if you like multi-layered drone-harmonics as TROUM, VOICE OF EYE, CISFINITUM, ULTRA MILKMAIDS, etc..
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| COBER ORD |
Le Revers Du Soleil |
MC |
promising project of YAN AREXIS (LA BREICHE, STILLE VOLK) and YANN HAGIMONT (HABSYLL) from France, creating a very doomy and grim occult ritual sound with handmade instruments, voices, steel instruments, and electronics, with ultra slow clashing percussion, whispers, noisy outbursts, screams, bass-drones.. "COBER ORD is just MASSIVE AESTHETIC BLACKNESS- raw, archaic, monolithic, but also dark, rough, ritual ... rooted in primordial natural forces." lim. 150 copies, 4 color screen printed packaging
|
2015 |
€9.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH / MURMER |
Husk |
CD |
strong collab. by the field recording specialist PATRICK Mc GINLEY (aka MURMER) and contemplative droner JONATHAN COLECLOUGH; 70 minutes of finest resonancing drones combined with concrete natural microsounds, highly meditative..
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN |
Drop |
7inch |
two intense pieces combining deep drones & concrete sounds originating from pin (and other) drops; last NEW copies in stock of this rare 7", numb. ed. 200
|
2004 |
€16.00 |
|
| COLLEY, JOE |
Deformation of Tone |
LP |
"Until Everything Miserable Disappears" - a collection of shorter pieces recorded in 2020 working with analog electronics, voice material and broken / damaged machine sounds and cut ups, not without a sense of existentialist humour.. - "machines whirring, devices beeping, blank-face rotary drones swelling and merging with unnaturally regimented hive rustlings and perfectly unpleasant high-gain squelch - all constructed with a master’s timing and sense of scale." [Seymour Glass / BANANAFISH] - BACK IN STOCK!
|
2022 |
€21.50 |
|
| |
Acting As If |
10inch |
over 30 minutes of very best new COLLEY material! => through these strangeness drones, the mind is thrown inside an unrecognizable and confusing realm of broken electricity and something like audible-made atmospheric pressure... - "His swarming masses, throttled rumbling, and smoldering tension are all encircling and folding in on themselves. Rhizomes of sound that speak poison. Drink up, if it doesn't kill you, it will only make you stronger." [Jim Haynes] - lim. 300 with artwork by MEEUW, special silver print on reverse board, out NOW 30.12.2022 !!! |
2022 |
€18.00 |
|
| COLLIN, JON |
Bridge Variations |
LP |
something lovely + obscure "ambient": the British guitarist who moved to Stockholm has recorded a "keyed fiddle" , producing drones and harmonies under different bridges in Stockholm.. - "Slowly moving and drawn-out melodies evolve into immense droning beauty, rich of texture and with the environmental sounds from the sites becoming an integral part of the recording... " - comes with 12 page booklet
|
2022 |
€20.00 |
|
| COMES, MARTIJN & GIULIO ALDINUCCI |
Crystalline Tragedies |
LP |
strong split LP with side-long pieces by dutch MARTIJN COMES (very minimal drones and pulses based on synths & guitar sounds), and G. ALDINUCCI, who created a stunning ambient collage in his typical choral / spheric way, using field recordings from a Christian procession in "rural Tuscanny"... ed. of 300 copies, comes with DL code
|
2018 |
€16.50 |
|
| CONCERN |
Truth and Distance |
CD |
first fabric pressed album by this US artist, creating wonderful drones based on acoustic sources; recommended!
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| CONJECTURE |
Nostalgia Futura |
CD |
first album for the Greek artist CONJECTURE on Cyclic Law, inspired by the psychological disorder ANTICIPATORY NOSTALGIA: a feeling of longing for something that has yet to occur or may not exist at all - *... transposed into icy noises driven by crashing drones and heavy, electronic sound blasts. We get 4 extended cuts which have been slowly built up sometimes resulting in a true Cinematic format* [Side Line] - 300 copies digipak
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| CONRAD, TONY & FAUST |
Outside the Dream Syndicate |
LP |
the meeting of minimal violin drones and Krautrock, rec. October 1972 at Wümme-studios; first vinyl re-issue of the famous LP from 1973, when TONY CONRAD (the film-maker, sound-artist and member of the THEATRE OF ETERNAL MUSIC with LA MONTE YOUNG who died April 2016) visited Germany... includes double sided insert with liner notes
|
2016 |
€24.00 |
|
| COPH'ANTAE TRYR |
Research Chronicles 2007-2009 |
do-CD |
another newcomer (for us) on the Czech label know for exceptional packaging & artworks - Russian project COPH'ANTAE TRYR mesmerize with very melancholic waves of flickering ambiences & harmonic floating structures... Highly recommended if you like emotional drones! Lim. 500, 8 panel double digipack
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| CORDIER, ERIC & JEAN-LUC GUIONNET |
De Proche en Proche |
CD |
ERIC CORDIER: amplified and effected Hurdy-Gurdy (Drehorgel), J-L. GUIONNET: amplified church organ => a live recording made in Metz, France, in Feb. 2004, 5 movements 72+ minutes => the noises from the room and the rattling instruments merge gradually with the drones and tones of the organs, this has a nice intimate impro drone quality, quite special and surprising..
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| CORTINI, ALESSANDRO |
Sonno |
do-LP |
re-issue of the 2014 album, made with a single Roland MC-202 synthesiser/sequencer... - "With its thick, crepuscular drones and tape hiss textures, Cortini draws out the sense of the uncanny, his music a soundtrack to those night time non-spaces built by but uninhabited by humanity; multi-storey car parks, office spaces, industrial parks, hotel and office corridors.." [The Quietus]
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| COTI |
Solesulsuolo |
CD |
for fans of Cello and dark / bassy string sounds and drones this is strongly recommended: enchanting 'breathing" and resonating flow- and pulse- patterns, at times very harmonic, then more abstract, full of raw 'materiality'.. all performed on the self-built "Oniscus harmonicus" by this Italian-Greek composer and sound artist (full name: Costantino Luca Rolando Kiriakos), once a member of MOHAMMAD
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| COURTIS, ANLA |
Antiguos Dolmenes del Paleolitico |
CD |
the REYNOLS master/mad-mind with a very serious album, using solely no-input feedback in different shapes from low hums to highpitched sharp sculptured drones... very nice |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| CREATION VI & UGASANIE |
Birds of Naukan |
CD |
gorgeous collaboration album of two projects from the 'New Wave of Drone Music' (from Russia, Ukraine & Belarus), dedicated to an ancient Eskimo Sanctuary built from huge whale-bones => this is pure 'modern' shamanistic music, bringing the human mind together with the gosts of nature & the ancestors.... deep drones, overtones, waving sounds.... performed on/by: percussion (shaman's drum), mouth harp, throat singing, singing bowls, synths... CD re-issue of lim. CDR from 2015
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| CRETA |
Creta |
LP |
a new ambient/experimental trio from Italy around MASSIMO PUPILLO (ZU), creating somehow improvised spheric dense drones and slow electronic pulses with acoustic guitar melodies...."As Creta, they create outlandish sonic pieces that blend sci-fi ambient atmospheres with dark bass pulses and bucolic-Mediterranean string instruments -- a unique and yet coherent mix of elements that adds consequently to the oeuvres of the three artists." 180 gr. vinyl, insert, download code
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| CRIA CUERVOS |
Des tempes qui se vitrifient ou se marbrent |
mCD-R |
otherworldy ghost drones on the Taalem-offering by this Italian artist
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| CRISTAL |
Homegoing |
CD |
second album by this project from (ex) members of LABRADFORD, SPOKANE and AIX EM KLEMM, experimental, subaquatic ambient drones comparable to BIOSPHERE, DEATHPROD or the late ZOVIET FRANCE (says the label), incl. remix by PAN AMERICAN; on the AKATOMBO label from Japan
|
2013 |
€13.50 |
|
| CRYPTIC SCENERY |
The Radar Society - a sonic dystopia - |
CD-R |
numb. ed. 150 in box w. 3 inlays; isolationistic and highly melancholic drones from this project now based in Berlin
|
2009 |
€10.50 |
|
| CUNI, AMELIA & WERNER DURAND |
Diasporagas (Ancient Trends & New Traditions In Indo-European Music) |
LP |
after the wonderful "Already awake in the Night" LP this must be the second vinyl release by "ethno-contemplation" duo from Berlin: three long tracks show them at their best, when DURANDs loops, drones and self build wind instruments meet with AMELIA CUNI's wonderful dhrupad singing, percussion, various resonaters and historical samples by Indian singers; the first side-long track HISS sound especially archaic and low-fi and was recorded live in Berlin Nov. 2013; lim. 300
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| CUPPLES, AARON |
Island of the Hungry Ghost (OST) |
LP |
wonderful Motion Picture Soundtrack for the documentary of same name = a film 'moving between the natural, human and spiritual worlds' of the "Christmas Island", located near Indonesia, with millions of red crabs moving from the jungle towards the ocean...- the score consists of many field recordings (ocean, insects, fire, Buddhist prayers) and drones created on a selfmade long-string instruments, for an ongoing powerful immersion... - incl. large 8 page booklet and postcard with link to watch the film!!
|
2021 |
€24.00 |
|
| CURD DUCA |
Waves 1 |
CD + LP box |
now to something completely different;) = 20 years after his "Elevator" series for MILLE PLATEAUX the Austrian sound artist releases a work of 28 short (some longer) pieces, a kind library between instrumental drones, noises and lounge sounds, a versatile cabinet of wonders.... comes in thick printed cardboard box with inlay and CD version of the album !!
|
2020 |
€22.50 |
|
| CURGENVEN, ROBERT |
Climata |
do-CD |
site specific recordings from 15 'Skyspaces' of the phantastic light-space sculptor JAMES TURRELL, extremely sublime, resonating drones.. "Each of the individual recordings, with their quiet & slowly changing microtonal interventions made in-situ, interrogate and offer a specific document of weather, location and duration framed by the architecture of the Skyspace." ed. of 500 copies
|
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| D'INCISE |
Arpenter |
mCDR |
known from the LP on Ini.Itu, this project from Switzerland collects field recordings & transforms them into magic breathing clouds of drones... definitely to discover !
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
(aral) |
CD |
Swiss soundartist & improviser with strong release on Belgiums finest atmospheric music series MYSTERY SEA => a one-tracker (40+ min.) of microcosmic musique concrete drones, lots of details over a humming tone, an 'architecture' of smooth sounds that slowly develops into new forms... lim. 200 full-colour cardboard sleeve with inlay
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| DAIJING & DAFELDECKER |
A Page to a Corner |
7inch |
intense collab. by the Austrian double bassist / guitarist and the Chinese performer: hypnotic drones, pulses, and strange sounds fusion with the heavenly suspended voice and demonic whisphers of PAN DAIJING; lim. 200 - white vinyl
|
2018 |
€11.00 |
|
| DANIELL, DAVID |
Coastal |
CD |
re-discovery! : the second, exquisite solo album by the RHYS CHATHAM bandleader, who shares as a guitarist a very experimental approach using analog synth drones, cymbals, percussion, field recordings, to create emotional acoustic sublimeness and hypnotic guitar-based minimalisms; 58+ min. playtime, back in stock!!
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| DAS AUDIOVISUELLE KOLLEKTIV |
Betrachtung |
CD-R |
project of EMERGE, GERHARD ZANDER, and EAZY; documents a live performance of two long improvisations from June 2011 in Augsburg - manipulated sounds of breathing, pure e-bow guitar-notes, machine-like samples, deep metal drones, processed percussion sounds... nice interactions, all in crystal clear quality; comes in DVD slimcase with colourful transculent cover
|
2011 |
€8.00 |
|
| DAUBY, YANNICK |
The Disaster Area |
CD |
dedicated to J.G. BALLARDs book of the same name YANNICK DAUBY has created two unusual, immersive tracks full of strange concrete debris sounds that could have been emerged from abandoned industrial sites or wastegrounds, slowly developing into more floating archaic drones based on metal bangs and overtunes and unknown sources, a dystopian "object-sound" symphony of the highest degree, think of JIM HAYNES, JEREMIE MATHES or TARAB; lim. 300
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| DAUBY, YANNICK / HITOSHI KOJO / MICHAEL NORTHAM |
КОРЛИГОН (Koriigon) |
CD |
spontaneous live-recordings made 2004 & 2006 (at four locations in France), combining resonating metal-objects, pre recorded field recordings like steps in the snow, and overtune-drones into beautiful suspended textures.. lim. 300
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| DE FILIPPIS, ALAIN |
Musicien Improbable |
LP |
compositions from 1983-2005 (11 pieces) by the French composer from Nantes who died in 2010 (known from the Metamkine mCD) - if "WEIRD" is not yet weird enough for you, you should listen to this LP, obscure and dadaistic pieces based on simple electronics, field recordings, poetry, tape drones, musique concrete collages... think of D.D.A.A., LAURENT PETITGAND, and other early French underground experimentalists....
|
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
| DEAD FACTORY |
Nachtmusik |
CD |
stunning new release by this Polish true industrial project, using many original sounds from the "heavy industry" surroundings in his home region Silesia; deep metallic drones & machine-sounds, extemely bleak & doomy atmosphere... lim. 200, oversized cover
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| DEAD VOICES ON AIR |
Bundle 1995-2013 |
CD |
hard to find collection and "best of" from compilations, rare & regular releases and unreleased archive stuff by the ever transforming main project of MARK SPYBEY - from heavenly spaces ambience to odd folk found sound electronics, from ritualistic / tribal pieces to strange harmonic ethno-loop drones... excellent survey, 77+ min. playtime !
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| DEAS (CAMERON) |
String Studies |
LP |
late discovery, this highly interesting object / instrument / unrecognizable sound tools - record, all kinds of short micro (+drone) noises are set together with fast changes, to be followed only with your full concentration... - hardly believable that CAM DEAS produced this live and with almost no overdubs only on a 12-string guitar (+ samples and modular system); 8 varying tracks full of electrified drones and strange sounds, very nice..
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| DEASY, JONATHAN |
Le Fletrissement |
MC + object |
collector's item on a new cassette-only label from Germany, the artwork is handmade and unique and as important as the music => JONATHAN DEASY is an Irish guitarist and improviser, he presents two contemplative "self-nourishing" drones with rich overtunes.. - "The degradation of a tape loop and the saturation of a driven tube created an idea of sustain, meditation and patience." - incredible package: translucent blue bag with a piece of a mirror on it, numbered ed. 30 copies
|
2023 |
€18.50 |
|
| DEATHPROD |
Occulting Disk |
do-LP |
DEATHPROD aka HELGE STEN (also a member of early MOTORPSYCHO and nowadays SUPERSILENT) with a new album after 15 years => most abstract and amorph, eerie dronescapes and fog horns that ebb and wave in siren-like formations, an intense trip into the naught and mysterious powers, understood as a sound ritual against hate and fear... \"it could be viewed as an amulet to ward off hate and bad energy..\" [Resident Advisor] - comes with inlay on black vinyl
|
2019 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
Occulting Disk |
CD |
DEATHPROD aka HELGE STEN (also a member of early MOTORPSYCHO and nowadays SUPERSILENT) with a new album after 15 years => most abstract and amorph, eerie dronescapes and fog horns that ebb and wave in siren-like formations, an intense trip into the naught and mysterious powers, understood as a sound ritual against hate and fear... "it could be viewed as an amulet to ward off hate and bad energy.." [Resident Advisor] - 6 panel digipack CD
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| DEISON |
Substrata |
10inch |
long playing 3 track EP by Italy's Cristiano DEISON - filed under "awesome crystalline drones", based on prepared tapes, metals, strings, wires and electronics... Sounds of elementary transformations, metamorphosis, and overcoming the usual sense of time; lim. 300 copies on transparent green vinyl
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Any Time Now |
CD-R |
very limited (100 copies) self released DEISON album from 2016 on the theme "Time", excellent instrumental source sound procession, last copies! - "the record is focused on small sounds, interferences and long slow-moving drones captured to explore the perception of time.."
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Quiet Rooms |
CD |
field recordings of EMPTY HOTEL ROOMS build the basis for the four tracks of this album, completed with electronics... this is dark isolation ambient drone at its best ! - "...these lonely urban soundtracks evoke powerful tensions between serenity and alienation.. . Drones builds to such dystopian density that the sounds of our world become science fiction" - comes with special fold out poster!
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| DEISON & LASSE MARHAUG |
33 Minutes of your Life |
maxi-CD |
[re]discovery of this rather unknown collaboration gem from 2003 - on 5 tracks (33 minutes) DEISON and LASSE MARHAUG create compositions made from humming static and hissing vinyl loops, from found sound ambient drones and shredded tones, wired voices and strange creakings... very peculiar music that always stays on the subtle and mysterious side.. - full colour paper cover with inlay
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| DEISON & MINGLE |
Innersurface |
CD |
highly recommended new DEISON collaboration, with its whizzing electronic sounds and slow rhythmic expanses it reminds on BAD SECTOR, etc.. "drones, field recordings and processed loops superimposed with disturbed rhythms, distorted beats and electronic processing. As always, the electronics are dirty and extremely evocative, sounds that we have become accustomed to."
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Everything Collapse(d) |
LP |
the first great collab. by DEISON + MINGLE, who recently released the excellent "Tiliaventum" -box: atmospheric and dense tracks merging piano sounds with electronics and subtle break beats in slow motion, everything is drowning in a deep sentiment of melancholy,..."drones, field recordings and processed loops intermingled with disturbed rhythms, melancholy harmonies and piano chimes. A gloomy and dirty electronic sound that turns into an extremely evocative score which is full of pathos."- gatefold sleeve
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Weak Life |
CD |
the following album to the great "Everything Collapse(d)" LP - 11 slow 'ambient IDM" tracks that are very focused and dense, with twisted rhythms and machine-like intensity... " Weak Life carries on the perfect union of Deison and Mingle's sounds: drones, field recordings and processed loops onto which disturbed rhythms, distorted beats and electronic treatments are inserted. As always these are dirty electronics which are extremely evocative, to which we have become accustomed." - excellent stuff again!!
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Everything Collapse(d) |
CD |
the first great collab. by DEISON + MINGLE, who recently released the excellent "Tiliaventum" -box: atmospheric and dense tracks merging piano sounds with electronics and subtle break beats in slow motion, everything is drowning in a deep sentiment of melancholy,..."drones, field recordings and processed loops intermingled with disturbed rhythms, melancholy harmonies and piano chimes. A gloomy and dirty electronic sound that turns into an extremely evocative score which is full of pathos." - CD version
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| DENT, LOREN |
Anthropology Vol. 1 |
CD |
another newcomer on the never disappointing Infraction-label; beautiful orchestral ambience, uplifting & spacious light-drones
|
2009 |
€13.50 |
|
| DET KÄTTERSKA FÖRBUND |
Lidaverken Del I: Att I Vådeld Förgås |
CD |
the Swedish death industrial project ("Hereditary Association") of HENRIK NORDVARGR BJÖRKK (MZ.412, FOLKSTORM, etc.) and THOMAS EKELUND (TREPANERINGSRITUALEN) with their first album, 5 years in the making..." Everything is set to pitch black here, the rhythms operate as jackhammers, voices crawl up from way below the surface of the earth and the drones are a myriad of intertwining branches of a 1000-year-old tree.." - a perfect mixture of 'archaic' sounds and electronic ritual industrial!!
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Lidaverken Del I: Att I Vådeld Förgås |
LP |
the Swedish death industrial project ("Hereditary Association") of HENRIK NORDVARGR BJÖRKK (MZ.412, FOLKSTORM, etc.) and THOMAS EKELUND (TREPANERINGSRITUALEN) with their first album, 5 years in the making..." Everything is set to pitch black here, the rhythms operate as jackhammers, voices crawl up from way below the surface of the earth and the drones are a myriad of intertwining branches of a 1000-year-old tree.." - a perfect mixture of 'archaic' sounds and electronic ritual industrial!! BLACK VINYL
|
2021 |
€22.00 |
|
| DIASPORA |
Ohmworld |
CD-R |
Australian experimental ambience duo creating an ocean of transcension drones, very nice!
|
2004 |
€9.00 |
|
| DIETER MÜH (DIETER MUH) |
Black Square (same) |
CD |
the very first album by the British ambient / post Industrial act, released 1997, containing six studio tracks recorded and mixed by COLIN POTTER with their addictive mixture made out of shimmering drones, hypnotic quasi-rhythms, field recordings, roaring guitars & electronics, samples and other noises, always oscillating between atmospheric soundscapes and rhythmic outbursts... last copies back in stock! (oversized cover with inlays, lim. 500)
|
1997 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Cari Saluti |
CD |
the third album by the British (post) industrialists appeared in 2000 (CD-R, EE Tapes), only two years later the TESCO sublabel Functional issued it on a proper CD; very appealing ambient noise compositions, swirling drones with lots of electronic effects mixed together in an interesting way, never too noisy, never too lush, this is quite powerful ambient Industrial! BACK IN STOCK FOR SPECIAL PRICE !
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
The Bjorn Tapes |
LP |
the series of re-issues for the great British "ambient industrial" group continues, this was once released as a rare cassette / CDR (1999/2004).... "...the Dieter Müh I remember from the live shows I witnessed where they slipped seamlessly from subtle drones into denser, harsher sound layers writhing with distended, disembodied voices, sampled percussive clatter and chasms of noise. Unsettling, unnerving and oppressive" - lim. 320 copies on white vinyl, silkscreen fold out cover
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| DIEVA, DAINA |
KAS |
CD |
finally in stock, this "emo-drone" gem by the Lithuanian sound artist and performer (closely linked to Drone Rec artists SKELDOS) => her creations are of a great suspended and ethereal melancholy, three extremely subtle and amorph dronescapes, slowly waving and filled with her beautiful chanting and voice at times.. "This haunting, psychedelic dream is filled with a sacral atmosphere, leaving its brief flashes of light to very gradually transform into a ripening darkness." [Heathen Harvest]
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| DIMUZIO, THOMAS |
Amid Zero Echo |
do-10inch |
the jubilee release, a double-10" in gatefold cover with four breathtaking drones by Californian sound-designer & multi-experimentalist THOMAS DIMUZIO, whose massive hypnotic soundscapes already released in the 90's were much ahead of the time! Comes with great gatefold-cover art by MARS WELLINK, lim. 500, clear vinyl! |
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| DINEL, KARBE |
MMXX-09: Ouroboros |
LP |
9th release in the new series that presents 20 artists from the experimental sound-art scene with very nice design / concept => dedicated to the year 2020 there will be 20 x 20 min. compositions on one-sided clear vinyl, with laser engraved artwork by the artist on the B-Side, lim. to 500 copies => KARBEL DINEL is a sound artist from Belgium, his sublime piece drones through all kinds of overtones and resonances, but also incorporates more concrete sounds, dense & slow & otherwordly...
|
2020 |
€23.00 |
|
| DISSECTING TABLE |
Decayed Gomorrah |
CD-R |
"Bullshit Composition By The Drunk And Disorderly" // "I'm sick, suffering from Hysteria" - with titles like this you can imagine where this journey might take you.. jerking and bubbling eruptions over noise drones in endless morphing formations, for the restless mind, not completely harsh, but insistent.. lim. 20 comes with handpainted inlay, numbered, in DVD sized box
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
| DODSMASKIN |
Ingenting |
CD |
\"Death Machine Industrial\" from Norway: DODSMASKINs (originally) first album (recorded already in 2015) which came out only in 2018 => noises from huge metallic objects, distorted roaring thunder drones, a true maelstrom of sluggish sounds, otherworldly and eerie.. - ed. of 300 copies
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| DRAPE, ROHAN & ANTHONY PATERAS |
Ellesmere |
CD |
two pieces for electric "interlocking vintage organs" by the composer and computer music specialist ROHAN DRAPE, performing together with ANTHONY PATERAS (Australia, 2017), exploring the microworlds of waving and flickering organ drones and harmonics... "Articulating a highly personal and deeply lush vision of microtonality and psychoacoustics.." - comes in a sky blue cardboard cover with silver print incl. fold out poster, ed. of 300 copies
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| DROMOMANE |
Abaton |
LP |
another unseen project "avatar" from BENJAMIN BEX (aka DUKHA, etc.), if you like very emotional experimental music with androgynous vocals / voice, this is very worth to check out! - Gnawing electronic drones rub shoulders with delicate arrangements of guitar arpeggios and synth loops, carrying a passionate, at times almost extatic voice. Grégory Lelay contributed field recordings from his sojourn in the Azores, as well as the stunning artwork." - numb. ed 314 copies
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| DROUIN, JAMIE |
A three Month warm up |
CD-R |
fantastic spheric drones made out of masses of single field recordings, new work by this Canadian soundartist; ed. of 250 copies, professional design, really suspended stuff !
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| DRUMM, KEVIN |
Phantom Jerk |
LP |
music for six oscillators, recorded in Chicago in 2013 (previously released as CDR).... minimal / electro-mechanic contemplation drones, similar to his \"Imperial Distortion\" album..
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
|
The Back Room |
LP |
re-issue of a CDR from 2012, one of his more noisy releases using a pulse generator where everything is drowning in variable hiss and distortion, garnished with rumbling drones, feedbacks and shrieking sinus-tones... lim. 500
|
2016 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Battering Rams |
LP |
stunning new recordings from Chicago's experimental droner, from object percussion noises into realms of organic bliss, first new vinyl release since some years we think! => *On »Battering Rams«, sinister forces interlope with sanguine glimmers of respite and contemplation, while recurring drones ceaselessly crescendo to near paralysing effect...* - lim. 350 copies
|
2023 |
€22.50 |
|
| DUBACH, PETRA & MARIO VAN HORRIK |
Church WAVES |
LP |
raw metallic pulse and wave drones created through a very special installation in a church => the dutch performance artists use small loudspeakers and piezos attached to long strings (50 metres during this installation in Eindhoven!) and catch the created feedback and vibrations, also through the moving body of PETRA DUBACH.. - comes with DVD that shows in detail the building and set up, and a video recording of the experiments and performing in the church.. . lim. 200
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN |
The Tailing |
DVD |
dark church organ drones & mysteriously moving shades & forms; "A microscopical audiovisual study on pornography"; lim. 500
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Klaar |
LP |
re-issue of this 'forgotten gem' from 1991 (CD, Extreme Records), created by DUNCAN in collaboration with ANDREW Mc.KENZIE (HAFLER TRIO) - 4 tracks of abstract / concrete field recordings, atmo drones and hummings, electric pulses and rattles, a strange journey.. "...McKenzie contributes various field recordings, with Duncan lacing those amidst long-form collages of blank static, distant signals detuned into smeared vibration and swells of electric noise."
|
2017 |
€17.50 |
|
| DURAND, SOPHIE & MANU HOLTERBACH |
Verres enharmoniques : un |
maxi-CD |
Great polyphonic glass harmonic-drones, a one-tracker of about 20 minutes. Professional cover-artwork. To discover !
|
2004 |
€10.50 |
|
| DURAND, WERNER |
Schwingende Luftsäulen 2 |
CD |
completely handplayed, waving instrumental drone ambience performed on the self invented PAN-NEY flute that create very sublime, touching, breathing sounds...- the following album to the stunning CD from 2017 feat. additional saxophone and shruti box drones, there's something 'ancient' and magic about this music full of beauty and 'Just Intonation Tuning' harmonics... comes w. oversized gatefold-cover + 8 page fold out inlay, ed. of 300
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| DURAND, WERNER & ALIO DIE |
Aqua Planing |
CD |
an exciting release for us as ALIO DIE is enlarging his sound spectrum using only acoustic sources and field recordings for this collaboration with WERNER DURAND, who delivers organic drones created from self-built ethnic wind instruments (NEY, KHEN, etc..) => five pieces of a very natural atmosphere, energetic & dynamic.. |
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| EARZUMBA |
Florece Escondido / Hermeso Movimento |
CD |
C.D. [DR-63] proofs his versatility here with his project EARZUMBA, much different from the drone EP, 19 pieces, two albums on one CD with samples from south-american music, ultra-deep drones, djungle-noises, and very nice harmonic spheres at the end..
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| EDGE EFFECT |
Only Ghosts Remain (Symphony for Shadows, First Movement) |
CD |
"do you dream of unexplored places where you and I are the first to tread?" - debut CD (after some CD-Rs) of new cosmic ambience project from UK, feat. a one-tracker 45 min build on minimal synth-drones that delevop into otherworldy areas...very soft, dark & secretful... comes with nice full-colour booklet (28 pages, A5 format) with intimate / poetic / philosophic texts & photos... to discover
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| ELEH / TARA JANE O'NEILL |
Circle Four: 100 Gongs for Arieto / Medusa Smack |
LP |
wonderful split release with highly meditative drones as a homage to HARRY BERTOIA => contains a piece from 2012 by TARA JANE O'NEILL using BERTOIAs sound-sculptures on one side, 100 gong-sounds (for 100 years of BERTOIA) performed on a 'Serge modular system" by ELEH on the other; lim. 800 letter-press cover (gold on black), looks great. BLACK VINYL
|
2015 |
€30.00 |
|
| ELLENDE |
HALLO KAPTEIN |
mCD-R |
ETERNALLY ILLUSIVE DRONESOUP - another exceptional, highly unexpectable release by ELLENDE - this has more the form of an experimental collage, with dozens of hypnotic layers of found sounds they collected in a database starting already in the early 2000's, this extreme "overdubbing" concept lead to this release which was recorded & mixed already 2010/2011... it sounds pretty musical with sounds connected that you would normally not place together.. - lim. 25 copies only, with 20 page booklet in 5" case
|
2022 |
€9.50 |
|
| ELODIE (TIMO VAN LUIJK & ANDREW CHALK) |
Echos Pastoraux |
LP |
debut album of new project by TIMO VAN LUIJK & ANDREW CHALK - 2nd pressing 2015 (300 copies)! -"Elodie's quiet drones, acoustic impression, smoke, shadow, and maudlin atmospheres are hardly anywhere near the 'freak folk' camp. This is much closer to what Akio Suzuki has done, although there are plenty of flourishes in the production that gives evidence of the hands of Andrew Chalk being at work. As a result, it's still spellbinding, like pretty much everything that Chalk has ever touched." [Aquarius Records]
|
2011 |
€19.50 |
|
| ELOY, JEAN-CLAUDE |
Etats-Limites ou les cris de Petra |
CD |
"Borderline or Petra's shouts" - new composition (epic 79+ min. long) combining concrete & synthetic electro-acoustic drones with female vocals sounds & noises (rustles, whispers, breathing, laughter, erotic sighs, shouts), based on older recordings of a special "Borderline" person named Petra, and his huge collection of cow-bells - an absolutely fantastic & intense piece, our highest recommendation!! 28p. full colour booklet with interesting interview about his fascination for the Borderline phenomena..
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Le Minuit de la Foi (The Midnight of the Faith) |
do-CD |
new work from 2014 for electronic and concrete sounds, using quotes from EDITH STEIN (recorded by German actress GISELA CLAUDIUS), 120 min. playtime, 28 pp booklet;... 'a long piece under the power of expanded sounds and sacred words...'... mesmerizing, beautifully poetic electro-acoustic drones..
|
2015 |
€21.00 |
|
| EMERGE |
Angle |
mCDR-box |
fantastic 17+ min. one-tracker using sounds of breathing as the main source for this composition; electro-acoustic drones full of tension, breaks, rumblings, and strange sounds.. undefinable stuff!! Comes in mini DVD-box!
|
2011 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Desecrate |
mCD-R |
"dreamtime musique concrete " - EMERGE is enlarging his compositional approach to reach a more organic & warm sound as usual, now based on various sound sources: church organ, guitar feedback and animal sounds... endless UR-drones moving around very SLOWLY.... one-tracker 18+ minutes in nice mCD box
|
2013 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Indulgence |
CD-R |
small CDR re-issue of great tape from 2016: two long 20+ min. pieces of EMERGE exploring the areas under the earth / surface, microsonic granular drones made out of soil, sand & sludge it seems.. at times this could be a very dark droning version of ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE.. "it will take you deep under the underground surface for your recreational, or even scientifically approved purposes.." - lim. 25 copies, oversized cover w. special design |
2021 |
€10.00 |
|
| EMERGE FEAT. DON VOMP |
Retention |
CD-R |
first collaboration between experimental violinist DON VOMP and the German 'advanced drone' researcher, recorded 2009 at the LAB.30 festival in Augsburg; all EMERGE sounds are processed live and based on the violin sounds of DON VOMB, forming a 45 min. set between clearly recognizable violin drones & samples and alien acoustics...
|
2014 |
€6.00 |
|
| EMME YA |
Beyond the Secret Flame (The Aiwass Manifesto) |
CD |
otherwordly invocations of higher powers with surrealistic / eerie dronescapes, percussive elements and subtle spoken words - when the voice becomes sound and sound becomes voice... very occult surroundings with strong atmosphere, based on the "Book of Law" by this "ritual drone" project from Colombia
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| EMPUSAE / SHINKIRO |
Organic Aural Ornaments II |
CD |
second part of their collaboration (after the first part on Ant-Zen in 2011), very spacious organic / cinematic / cosmic ambience, the CD version has a bonus track: *... poly-rhythmic landscapes and field recordings, spacious textures and deep ambient drones. Organic sequences move through the musical architecture and build long tracks of an evolving deep ruminant sea of waves.* - 300 copies
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Organic Aural Ornaments II |
LP |
second part of their collaboration (after the first part on Ant-Zen in 2011), very spacious organic / cinematic / cosmic ambience, LP version on black vinyl, only 100 copies ! *... poly-rhythmic landscapes and field recordings, spacious textures and deep ambient drones. Organic sequences move through the musical architecture and build long tracks of an evolving deep ruminant sea of waves.*
|
2022 |
€20.00 |
|
| ENO, BRIAN |
Music for Installations |
6 x CD BOX |
installation surroundings mainly from the 80's and 90's, often based on field recordings and ENO's "generative music" concept, comes with 64p. booklet-"Filled with gorgeous washes of bells and drones and unidentifiable luminous shimmers, deep vibrations moving across widescreen stereo fields, one might imagine them all as separate galleries and vestibules in a vast museum, each filled with light and sound, running constantly as night and day change outside and the seasons pass" [Pitchfork]
|
2018 |
€55.00 |
|
| ENS IMPERFECTISSIMUM |
Illuminate E Aelimitate |
CD |
dark occult ritual sounds from Italy, created to connect with the spirits of the dead, using human bones and pre-Hispanic "whistles of death".. => extremely spacious, minimal and dark, lots of invoking vocalisations and not without harmonic grounding drones , this evokes a truly captivating atmosphere... comparable to AURAL HYPNOX acts like ARKTAU EOS, PHURPA , ZERO KAMA..
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| ENTRELACS |
Underleaf |
CD |
re-issue of the one and only album (CD-R, 2002) by this project formed by YANNICK DAUBY & MICHAEL NORTHAM, who also had a 7" in the Drone Rec. series => magic concretism from whispering leaves & trees, interwoven with gong drones and metallic hissing.. very nice... comes in DVD-box, lim.
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| EQUIMANTHORN |
A Fifth Conjuration |
CD |
occult black ambience (originally formed as side project of extreme black metal band ABSU) for entering otherworlds, CD version of their 2011 album (so far only available digitally); "Synthesizers, still the main instrument, are focused drones and creepy effects, background noises recalling ancient rites of Sumeria, Babylon and Egypt, perhaps a genetic memory from the origins of civilization." [Chuck Foster]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| ERLANDSSON, MATS |
Minnesmärke |
LP |
long sustained multi-layer drones based on acoustic (trombone, tuba, violin) and electronics (double bass, electronics) plus field recordings in the back, forming slowly evolving, almost elegant aural spaces.. "...in order to evoke a psychedelic state of reflection, a dream-like elegy for the acoustic properties of the former iron ore mine Ställbergs Gruva where the music has been conceived and recorded.." - debut LP by the Swedish composer
|
2020 |
€21.50 |
|
| |
4-track Guitar Music |
do-LP |
Gorgeous transcendental guitar drones from this Stockholm based composer who works at the EMS, a re-issue of a cassette released by XKatedral, the label from KALI MALONE, + now with bonus track, 300 copies pressed - "The music is primarily composed using melodic motifs and canonical structures in which a set of pitches are transposed in octaves and delayed, creating an ever-evolving cyclical polyphony."
|
2021 |
€22.50 |
|
| EX->TENSION |
The Kiss |
CD-R |
EX->TENSION is the project of IVAN NAHEM, coming from the New York City post punk movement from the early 80's, who played in / with members of RITUAL TENSION, LIKE SKULL and SWANS, for "The Kiss" collaborating with various musicians to create a uncategorizable dark & surrealistic amalgam of noises, drones, crazy found sounds melodic arrangements, multi-layered vocals and poetry... - comes in a tiny ed. of 30 copies on Japans Meditation Records, DVD cover
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| EX-EASTER ISLAND HEAD |
Mallet Guitars Three |
LP |
third release by this guitar- & percussion trio from Liverpool, UK: four movements of purely instrumental guitar drones that sound like a bunch of violins, of clapping (hands?)- percussion, and almost orchestral tunes, very dense and energetic, elevating... "The treated guitars create a complex array of choral overtones and crystalline harmonics, sounding in unison with an array of handbells and prayer bowl percussion..."
|
2013 |
€17.50 |
|
| EXIT IN GREY |
Nowadays Warm |
CD-R |
re-edition of the first EIG-album from 2004; highly melancholic ambient drones from Russia; comes in full colour cardboard cover, compared to guitarish TROUM or AIDAN BAKER solo; BACK IN STOCK!
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| EXPO 70 (EXPO SEVENTY) |
Kinetic Tones |
LP |
four new studio tracks by the prolific JUSTIN WRIGHT with his space rock / neo psychedelia project in this nice release series, this LP is dedicated to the Flores Hawk-Eagle > "Laced with drones, heavy and leaden as cinder block bunkers, and shot through with a cosmic strain of psychedelia that unwinds as much as unravels the soul...from minimalist Drone over spooky Psychedelia to harmonic and beautiful soundscapes" ed. of 500 copies on bronze coloured vinyl
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| EXPORTION |
Phantom Line |
mCD-R |
Japanese audio-visual project consisting of YUKI IZUMI and TAKAHISA HIRAO (NATURE OF DISLOCATION), who combine in their performances soundscapes, paintings, video and photography... on their debut EP we find two tracks of undulating harmonic drones melting with daily field recordings, a very nice sublime day-dream ambience is set...
|
2018 |
€5.00 |
|
| FANUM & EXIT IN GREY |
Dust Storm |
CD |
Russian ambient collaboration inspired by the beauty of dust storms, dreamy & hazy transformative drones based mainly on guitar & analogue electronics
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| FAR BLACK FURLONG |
same |
CD / CDR |
Sehr poetischer Impro-Drone eines uns bisher unbekannten Kollektivs aus England, das meiste Material wurde im Freien auf akustischen Instrumenten eingespielt; einer limitierten Auflage von 150 Stück liegt das erste Album der Band ("HAIDD 2") in remixter Form bei, ein one-tracker Kleinod mit subtilen endlos entfernten Drones, melancholisch schimmernd...
|
2007 |
€18.00 |
|
| FAVARON, GIANLUCA & STEFANO GENTILE |
Entretien |
CD & booklet |
the combination of visuals/graphics (16 pages of STEFANO GENTILES "black" series) with music by GIANLUCA FAVARON - on the disc four surrealistscapes made out of electronic sounds, field recordings, whispering concrete crackles, machine-like sounds & drones... music like an undecipherable, alien language, excellent !! Comes with 16 page A4 booklet, lim. 230
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| FEAR FALLS BURNING |
When Mystery prevades the Well, the Promise sets Fire |
LP |
sublime drones based on guitar sounds, this release marked a change in the style of the post VIDNA OBMANA project.. - "Glacier like music in which it seems that the effects have a bigger role than the guitar. It's quite hard to recognize the guitar in this music, with moves in a minimal way. More Eno)) than Sunno)) I'd say* [Vital Weekly9 - deluxe edition gatefold-cover, 180 gr. vinyl, ed. of 500 copies on black vinyl; LAST COPIES - SPECILA OFFER !
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| FEAR KONSTRUKTOR |
Nonexistence |
7inch |
lovely two track 7" with slow & deep pulsing and crawling, metallic shimmering low fi industrial drones that could also have been released on Drone Rec. years ago - strong vinyl debut for this Moscow based project.. lim. 300
|
2011 |
€7.50 |
|
| FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM (F.T.B.P.D.) |
Ahuenna |
CD-R |
excellent new release by this "alien drone" outfit from Bremen, Germany (and formerly one half of NID); dark & weird spheric experimental dronescapes using only analog sources, record players & incredible handmade objects, one intense one-tracker 44+ min full of variations and strange sounds; professional cover & duplication lim.100, highly recommended
|
2010 |
€9.50 |
|
| |
A Bug's Life |
CD |
surprising new album from Germany's finest secret: much more "collage" and plunderphonic as before, "A Bug's Life" combines weird found sounds, backwards folk songs, vocal quotes, with processed drones & noises coming from field / Insect recordings... quite weird again, but the also impressive regarding the variety of sounds, a mixture of eerie dark droning areas & obscure collages... BIG CITY ORCHESTRA meets LUSTMORD meets RAPOON and ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE? great album!!
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| FERIAL CONFINE (=ANDREW CHALK) |
First, Second and Third Drop |
CD |
the former solo-project of ANDREW CHALK, this was the final album recorded early 1986 and stayed unreleased until 2008: metallurgic acoustic drones and wind-noises, a multi-layered dance of resonances from bowed percussion instruments and metals, not unlike some ORGANUM works, absolutely mesmerizing.... this is a re-press of the SIREN edition from 2008, with new cover and OBI strip, 500 copies
|
2016 |
€15.50 |
|
| FERRARI, BRUNHILD & CHRISTOPH HEEMANN |
Stürmische Ruhe |
LP |
their first collaboration, a half hour piece recorded in the studio of LUC FERRARI in Paris, 2011-2014 => field recordings of very concrete (slamming doors) and atmospheric elements (wind, water) collide and fuse with electronic drones and near silence, every second becomes meaningful and changes time and space..highly recommended !! - "an organic flow of cross-fades, double-exposures and abrupt cuts, a free-associative dream in which wind and water take on mythical characteristics."
|
2022 |
€28.00 |
|
| FERRARI, LUC |
Labyrinthe de Violence |
do-LP |
"To free music from the constraints of style and aesthetics; to free the arts from the abstraction to train him for comprehensible actions; to be rather a craftsman of imagination." [Luc Ferrari] - unpublished recordings from 1975, performed in Paris; ".. interweaving vast ambiences, a cornucopia of tape fragments that capture non-instrumental sounds and voices, industrial drones, hums, and buzzes, wild synths, all rattling, droning, pulsing, and simmering within a dissonant whole." - lim. 500, numbered
|
2021 |
€37.50 |
|
| FERREYRA, BEATRIZ / NATASHA BARRETT |
Souvenirs Caches / Innermost |
LP |
two new major works by these electro-acoustic / acousmatic luminaries, plus FERREYRAs "Murmureln" (2003, first time release) using tango sounds in a most original way... - "a carousel of disembodied vocal sounds, growls and susurrations, sprinkled across the stereo image, and joined intermittently by sustained drones or ethereal, melodic whines, with a hint of prepared piano.." - ed. of 300 copies
|
2021 |
€25.00 |
|
| FIEBIG, GERALD |
Pferseer Klangtrilogie |
CD-R |
highly conceptual / experimental recordings by Augsburg-based GERALD FIEBIG, who uses abstract paintings in a galery as 'scores' to perform, going from poetry / words (meaning) over noise & fragmentation to a new structure made out of tones & musical signals (using violin bow samples, sculptures by GÜNTHER POSCH & synth drones)... lim. 20 copies only
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| FINAL CUT |
Ballade de Bruits |
mCDR |
newcomer from France / Belgium with massive polymorph dronescapes, quite noisy & raw but highly hypnotic at the same time; recommended !
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| FINGER / PLOTKIN / ZABELKA |
Pleasure-Voltage |
LP |
BENJAMIN FINGER (multi media artist from Oslo, Norway), MIA ZABELKA (Austrian impro musician and curator) and experimental noise veteran JAMES PLOTKIN in a first time collab - " the trio crafts a mesmerizing sonic world that buzzes and drones, glitches and slithers, eventually careening into unexplored musical territory somewhere between ambient / drone / psychedelia." - 400 copies on black vinyl
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC |
Pictures from Sand: Boiling Line |
CD-R |
two mini-albums combined on one CDR, using the sounds of sand and boiling water; ultra-minimal & contemplative archaic hiss-drones and concrete micro-sounds for a higher awareness listening....
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
| FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC & DENIS SHAPOVALOV |
Steel Glares and Night |
CD |
the very first "fabric pressed" CD-release for this great Russian label; SERGEY SUHOVIC - man behind the label - is also FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC and a part of EXIT IN GREY; for this CD he recorded material in different industrial areas of Moscow, which are combined with SHAPOVALOVs sounds from natural materials (metal, glass, wood); foggy night-drones & overtuned machine-hummings, sensitive and lonely... great album ! Lim. 500
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| FLYING SAUCER ATTACK & ROY MONTGOMERY |
Goodbye |
mLP |
3-track EP (23+ min) by the legendary feedback/drone/rock band from Bristol in collaboration with ROY MONTGOMERY; experimental and beautiful guitar & piano-drones on red vinyl, back in stock!
|
1996 |
€12.00 |
|
| FOR KINGS AND QUEENS |
One Day I discovered a Dreamachine |
CD-R |
the Berlin-based project with a nice work (second album) about "time, relativity, fragility, changing, awareness and human consciousness" - roaring amorph dark drones & weird instrumental elements (guitar, mouth organ?), enriched with field and object recordings, backwards-voices, etc.. surrealistic, weird & otherworldly at the same time... comes in printed A5 envelope with 4p colour inlay with bizarre drawings; recommended !
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
The Living Room Series Vol. 2: Ausland |
CD-R |
second part in a new release tryptich by the ever amazing project from Berlin (just being featured on 'Drone-Mind Vol. 6' LP), exploring "the inside and outside environments": AUSLAND presents 2 long tracks of disturbing 'saw tooth' drones with lots of somehow frazzled sounds and effects, collaged voice and synth sounds support the alien atmosphere, before arrays of field recordings join in, creating a strong dreamlike atmosphere..lim. 50 in special handmade / oversized cover
|
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
| FRANCIS, RICHARD (ESO STEEL) |
Together alone, together apart |
CD |
*Tief wummernder microwave / field recording-drone des Neuseeländers RICHARD FRANCIS (aka ESO STEEL), der hier herrlich rauschig & undurchdringbar tönt, v.a. in den mittleren Frequenzbereichen offenbaren sich feinste Details, ein Genuss! Filed under: mysterious drones opening mysterious ways!* [Drone Rec.]
- edition of 300 / ex ESO STEEL
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| FRANCK, YANNICK |
Hierophany | Иерофания |
CD |
three long pieces of earthy suction-drones by this promising artist & label-maker (IDIOSYNCRATICS) from Belgium, diving deeply into Orthodox Christianity myths & sounds, with field recordings form chants & church-bells arising from somewhere... a must for any lover of contemplative drones ! Lim. 500 on Moscow's finest experimental label MONOCHROME VISION
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| FRANCK, YANNICK & PIETRO RIPARBELLI |
Whinny Muir |
CD |
fantastic one-tracker collab. that celebrates the beauty of shimmering & overtunic drones !! Melancholic majestic sounds that are sometimes near to the border to noise, sometimes move into very subtle fields, with organ-like sounds at the end. Really great, highly recommended for any Drone-lover-boy or girl !!!
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| FREIBAND |
Stainless Steel |
LP |
FREIBAND reworks Gamelan-sounds! Minimal drones, repetitive structures, metallic atmospheres... great LP, with 2 endless grooves on Side B; mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN, numbered edition of 250 copies
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Mutatis Mobilis |
CD-R |
re-workings of AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF and FREIBANDs own source-material, resulting in mysterious ambient industrial drones full of metallic overtunes & hissing cloud-mantras, ultra minimal, analogue & soft... very nice !
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Cubes |
CD-R |
on 'Cubes', FREIBAND re-works sound material by Ukrainian project DAO DE NOIZE, resulting in slowly evolving frequency-shifts and electrical storms, from soft metal/glass drones to granular, rustling sound whirls.... lim. 50 only
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| FREQUENCY CURTAIN (JOHN GRZINICH, RICK REED, JOSH RONSON) |
same |
CD |
project of JOHN GRZINICH, RICK REED and JOSH RONSEN who create swirling, buzzing, oscillating drones from analogue and digital sinustone generators, great flittering and vibrating sounds being permamently mutated and morpohed.. 4 tracks, 55 min. - back in stock !
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| FUHLER, COR |
Stengam |
CD |
fascinating sounds created with experimental means (but without any additional effects) on a prepared grand piano, using especially the strings with e-bow & super magnets... impressive work full of overtunes & sustaining drones by this Amsterdam-based composer
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| FULLMAN, ELLEN |
Body Music |
CD |
music made on the unique self-built 'Long String Instrument' (80 foot long, with 80 strings), creating rich overtune-drones full of waving vibrations... great work back in stock !
|
1993 |
€14.00 |
|
| FUNERARY CALL |
The Mirror reversed |
CD |
extremely bleak & haunting sounds for your personal nightmare, this is not the typical dark ambient....one long track (47+ min.) inspired by the 'Tree of Death' (Kabbala) , the counterpart to the divine forces of the Sephiroth; filed under: spooky ghost drones & silences...
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| FURUDATE, TETSUO |
One Day an old Phantom passed |
CD |
five pieces with relations to famous films (for example TARKOVSKYs 'Nostalgia' and COCTEAUs 'Orphee') by this Japanese composer known for his ultra intense, bombastic neo-classic noise creations; here we have massive wall of sound earthquake drones and sampled orchestral bits that interact with the film quotes in a surrealistic way... quite special & effective.. a one-tracker of 58 min, lim. 500
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR & MATT DE GENNARO |
From the Dark (South Island) |
CD |
three long live recordings from art performance gallerys where both perform with long wires up to 100 feet long... minimal overtune drones & soundsculptures..
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Long wires in dark Museums |
CD |
three long tracks recorded at two different galeries / museums in New Zealand in 1999 in total darkness, sounds made on long polished piano wires that were strung across the venue, so that the drones are coming through the vibrating walls and produce long waving overtunes; performed with additional guitar loops & violin-playing...
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| GARCIA, MIGUEL A. |
Beastiari (for Tzesne) |
MC |
the Bask artist MIGUEL A. GARCIA is known for his project XEDH and countless involvements in other projects and collaborations, here he has used source material from TZESNE to create 8 tracks full of mechanical post industrial sounds, between subtle moments and more powerful passages, subdrones hissing structures, mysterious machine tones, interesting breaks and developments, not unlike some of FRANCISCO LOPEZ works...great great great !! lim. C-60 with printed covers and full colour inlay with 6 "masks"
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| GARCIA, MIGUEL A. & MIGUEL SOUTO |
The Lurking Fear |
CD |
first CD release for a new label from Spain - here MIGUEL A. GARCIA aka XEDH collaborates with label maker MIGUEL SOUTO, creating a kind of 'industrial improvisation' with powerful, opressive sound collages - the noises aand drones seem to come in layers from everyhwere and are often hardly recognizable, which is great ; the whole is a homage to H.P. LOVECRAFT, but it's totally free from any 'gothic' elements... 4 tracks 52+ min, absolutely to discover if you like dark noise
|
2017 |
€10.00 |
|
| GARET, RICHARD |
Areal |
CD |
aether-ambient noises based on "electromagnetically disturbed" radio-sounds, using special techniques (like motors) to influence the radio-signals; filed under: mysterious radiation drones, highly recommended !
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| GAUCHISTE |
same |
LP |
debut album of this project combining otherworldy experimental apocalyptic drones with death metal influences, super dark stuff, really surpressive sounds!! Second edition of only 100 copies!! Like a mixture of atonal New Music as PENDERECKI or KAYN with minimal drone muzak like KÖNER or LOPEZ and SUNN O)))... mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD |
debut album of this US-band combining otherworldy experimental apocalyptic drones with death metal influences, super dark stuff, really surpressive sounds!! Like a mixture of atonal New Music as PENDERECKI or KAYN with minimal drone muzak like KÖNER or LOPEZ and SUNN O)))... mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN; lim. ed. in tin case, 100 copies only !
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| GEINS'T NAIT & L. PETITGAND |
Je vous dis |
CD |
music for a situationist movie? Surprising new album by this French project, active since 1986, with LAURENT PETITGAND (brother of DOMINIQUE PETITGAND) => quite poetic and higly atmospheric experimental electronic ambience with a 'weird' touch + influences from the industrial and electronic movements from the 80's, strangely effected singing, slow rhythms, instrumental drones, electronic sounds... very much worth to discover !
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Je vous dis |
LP |
music for a situationist movie? Surprising new album by this French project, active since 1986, with LAURENT PETITGAND (brother of DOMINIQUE PETITGAND) => quite poetic and higly atmospheric experimental electronic ambience with a 'weird' touch + influences from the industrial and electronic movements from the 80's, strangely effected singing, slow rhythms, instrumental drones, electronic sounds... very much worth to discover ! vinyl version comes with download code
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| GERARD, PIERRE |
ENVIRONMENT & gesture |
CD |
very minimal & concrete improvisations & environmental "silence drones" by this electro-acoustic soundartist from Belgium, using unknown objects & instruments with/in water outside... lim. 200, two (colour) inlays, cardboard cover
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| GERMAN ARMY |
Passage Through Selk'nam Hain Ceremony |
do-LP |
epic double LP album by the West Coast duo who established their very own style, percussive, hypnotic, full of unusual sounds and arrangements..- *The prolific group once again explores the freaked out fringes of the electronic world where blown out beat experiments stand beside buried guitar twangs, synth drones, and rigged textures, conjuring images of barren landscapes from forgotten far away lands. This is an album that you need to sink your mind deep into.* - comes with fold out poster!
|
2021 |
€32.00 |
|
| GERSH, GEOFF |
These Predicaments |
CD |
composer from New York creating really captivating, polyphonic spectral drones, melancholic & beautiful; based on guitar, zither, manipulated field recordings. To discover !!
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| GHEYSEN, FILIP |
Tabletop Guitar |
CD / DVD / BOOK |
discover the details of audio-visual microworlds (revealing macroworlds): debut album for this musician & audio artist from Ghent (Belgium), using solely tabletop guitar and autoharp, creating quite raw overtune-filled drones, minimally shifting in tone & colour... the music is strongly connected with his visual art, paintings, and 3 video-clips presented on the DVD and the very nice 34 page A5 booklet
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| GILBERT, B.C. |
Monad |
7inch |
new installment in the great Touch 7" vinyl-only series with strangely mutated analogue KORG synth-drones & vibrations by this legendary British artist & musician (& member of WIRE), lim. 500
|
2011 |
€8.00 |
|
| GILLIE, FLAVIEN |
Rituels Domestiques |
mCD-R |
the French (now based in Bruxelles) field recording - dronescape composer, already published on taalem before as FINAL CUT (and known from releases on UNFATHOMLESS and GRUENREKORDER) with three new tracks, 22 min, delicate woven polyphonic layers of sound... "three exquisite tracks showing his strong abilities to create deep drone tracks and field recording based soundscapes."
|
2019 |
€5.00 |
|
| GOBEIL, GILLES |
Les Iointains |
CD |
great collection of six works (2008-2012) by this Canadian electro-acoustic composer=> perfect 'Cinema for the Ear' between high tension atmospheres/drones and concrete noises, often inspired by literature (here FOLKMAR HEIN, HERMANN HESSE, VIRGIL, GUSTAV MEYRINK), on one track (the phantastic "Bol-Hydre") using an instrument by JEAN-FRANCOIS LAPORTE which produces incredible metallic sounds, another being the soundtrack for an extreme dance-theatre piece by CAMILLE MUTEL.. highly recommended!!
|
2015 |
€13.50 |
|
| GRASSOW, MATHIAS |
The Darklight Quest |
CD |
MATHIAS GRASSOW is one of Germany's deep ambient pioneers, his first releases date back to 1986; this favoured 4 track album was privately issued in 1998 as CDR and is finally released in proper form... extremely minimal and only slowly changing synth-drones with hypnotizing overtune and bass waves....- when music turns into an "agent of transformation"
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| GRASSOW, MATHIAS & JIRI MAZANEK |
Music Infinity meets Virtues |
CD |
holy contemplation muzak & psychedelic drones => documentation of a live concert held in Prague 23th May 2009 in a church; GRASSOW in collaboration with JIRI MAZANEK who does overtune singing & plays traditional instruments like sitar, zither, singing bowls, tibetan bells, etc... phantastic audio quality, incl. a live video track, and 8- page full colour booklet
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| GREY FREQUENCY |
Empyrean |
7inch |
DIETER MÜH has re-activated his small label with three great 7" releases, this U.K. project tries to reveal the hidden powers lying beneath the surfcae of our everday modern lives through music; from atmospheric drones and noise spheres to more pulsing and structured / electronic areas, two very nice pieces. - . lim. 100 copies with hand-stamped labels and two inserts
|
2022 |
€9.50 |
|
| GRODOCK |
Verwerfungen |
CD |
'Every person is just a gear in a system" - ambient Industrial newcomer from southern Germany (Freiburg) with a nice blend of loops, drones & samples, dark atmospheric noises with a political message, to discover! Replicated full colour CD (not CDR), lim. 100 only!
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| GYDJA |
Ar Var Alda (In Ancient Times) |
CD |
finally a new full length album by the recommended 'esoteric/ female dark ambient' artist from New Zealand with Icelandic roots => deep reverberation drones that reveal many details (sounds of wood + water), often with a metallic edginess, throwing up overtones and resonances like autumn leaves.. 62+ min. full of breathing, organic dark drone muzak, like a mix of LUSTMORD with ALIO DIE... lim. 200 - glossy 6 panel artwork, mastering: ROBIN STOREY (RAPOON)
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| GÜNTER, BERNHARD |
Impossible Grey |
mCD |
BERNHARD GÜNTER became well known to use sound material on the border of the audible - 'Impossible Grey' is a great example, consisting of low bass drones and rumblings and subtle granular washes, at times a louder sonic incident is appearing at the surface... back in stock, special offer !
mcd full-colour cardboard cover
|
1997 |
€3.50 |
|
| HAARE |
Destroy Fascism, Love Forever |
6 x CD BOX |
"Meditation music for insane minds"" - massive boxset with rare material from the last 20 years (culled from deleted tape and CD-R releases, compilations, + unreleased archive stuff) by the versatile Finnish "psychedelic / harsh / drone / industrial noise" project: "from lo-fi harsh noise beginnings via death industrial, primitive horror ambient, organic drones and occult metal junk rituals HAARE have built their own style of psychedelic noise." - comes in rigid cardboard box with 12 page booklet
|
2019 |
€48.00 |
|
| |
Karesansui |
CD |
ZEN FEEDBACK HARSH NOISE MEDITATION METALJUNK SATORI - this Finnish project wants to use harsh noise with the aim / approach of a total meditative immersion, sitting still inside the turbulent eye of a metallic storm... - "The main sound sources comprise metal junk, microphone feedback and electronics/fx. Be absorbed in a vortex of harsh screeching feedback, hollow resonating echoes and heavy stereo shifting of organic drones..." - lim. 200, Singapore import
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAARVÖL |
Ridge of Humming Spoils |
CD |
HAARVÖL consists of three members, a sound art project from Portugal with some fascinating works in their discography => the last part of the trilogy that started with "Bombinate" is an exploration of the deep meaningful implications of "frontiers", sophisticated drones moving over to unknown landscapes with rich details... - lim. 200 copies w. A5 cover art
|
2020 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Indite |
CD |
after the "Hebetude" CDR (2014), "Indite" is the first factory pressed CD from HAARVÖL,,the ambient experimental trio from Portugal; the title means "to formulate or to compose" in Old English, the six tracks are often built on dry analog-electronic drones and evolve to complex shapes with many concrete sounds and different levels of aural events.. an excellent "full CD" debut !! - 6 tracks, 55 min, lim. 200 cardboard sleeve
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| HAARVÖL + XOAN-XIL LOPEZ |
Unwritten Rules of a Ceaseless Journey |
CD |
HAARVÖL is 3 member collective from Portugal, who created three long experimental transcension drones with X-X LOPEZ = high class surrealistic movements, mysterious, demanding and hypnotizing.. "Blends gorgeous drones, field recordings and metallic sonic manipulations reminding of Industrial into very rich evolving musical soundscapes that welcome many repeated listens." [Sileno] - our highest recommendations, only 150 copies made!!
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAIGH, ROBERT |
The Silence of Ghosts |
CD |
the new album by ROBERT HAIGH contains 18 tracks for 'classic' solo piano, calming poetic / melancholic miniatures with very silent synth drones in the background, so fragile.. this is all you need, sometimes... 45 min. playtime, lim. 700, mini-LP cardboard cover, artwork by ANDREW CHALK
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| HAKOBUNE |
Heath Grass |
CD-R |
very light sun-drones from Japan, minimal, waving, weightless... a very peaceful & meditative three piece maxi-EP (31 minutes length)
|
2011 |
€9.00 |
|
| HAMNSKIFTE |
Födzlepijan |
CD |
the only album so far by a mysterious (black metal inspired) anonymous Swedish duo who mix medieval folk music with ambient and drone metal guitars... as a whole rather restrained compositions with a focus on acoustic folk guitar work and ethereal drones...
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| HASEGAWA, HIROSHI / MAMA BAER |
Scarlet Dream / Khmerzen |
LP |
11th part in the HJULER/MAMA BÄR split LP series (lim. 177 copies): 'Khmerzen' is an eerie horror (film?) and alienated pop music sound collage using lots of almost unbearable high-pitched voices and cryings, the split side belongs to HIROSHI HASEGAWA (of ASTRO and C.C.C.C. fame) with weighty & full reverberated dark space noise drones... nice record again in this series from PSYCH KG, numbered edition, handsticked cover...
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| HAXAN CLOAK, THE |
Excavation |
CD |
CD version of the latest, breathtaking release by the London-based project, an overwhelming tour de force about the journey after death with eerie horror ambience,tension-filled power-drones and mighty bass-pulses and rhythms, absolutely compelling, dark & visionary! "I'm absolutely terrified of death. It scares the living hell out of me. It's the unknown element that gets to me. It's the human condition to be afraid of the unknown." [Bobby Krlic aka THE HAXAN CLOAK]
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| HAYNES, JIM |
The Decline Effect |
do-LP |
Corrosion-drones! Stunning new album by this sound-artist from San Francisco with high conceptual approaches; four long tracks of mechanic, electromagnetic or field recording-based sounds with interesting "stories" behind, always on the border to mystery and wonder... lim. 350 gatefold-cover
|
2011 |
€22.50 |
|
|
The Wires cracked |
LP |
another manifestation of JIM HAYNES mysterious object-drones & reverberations, which always transport a special atmosphere of transitoriness & decay... filed under: surrealistic hiss & rust-drones; highly recommended!
|
2013 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Flammable Materials from Foreign Lands |
LP |
a full LP composed from material recorded at a residency in Estonia, taken from abandoned post Soviet-Era buildings and strange radio shortwave transmissions, leading to crackles, mechanical drones, rusty noise and cryptic speech with the typical flair of decay JIM HAYNES is known for... kind of sister-album to the 'Throttle & Calibration' tape.. "somewhat sparser than his other works, but no less fascinating, and with an additional menacing edge" [Brainwashed] lim. 300 clear vinyl
|
2016 |
€22.50 |
|
| HAYWARD, ROBIN |
Words of Paradise |
pic-LP |
the prolific British tuba player (who also plays in CHORA(S)SAN TIME-COURT MIRAGE) with a microtonal album feat. his ensemble ZINC & COPPER => tuba, horn- & trombone tones / drones, slowly interacting for focused and contemplative attention... the picture disc itself replicated the multicoloured circular scores of the piece, with liner notes on the back-cover, explaining the inspiration and concept (through Brabantic language from the Renaissance) behind it; ed. of 300 copies
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| HECKER, TIM |
Norberg |
LP |
re-issue of the EP "Norberg" (CD from 2007 ) and the rare 7inch "Apondalifa" (2010, now as one long version); ...."even though the drones drape one in the velvet of the deepest ocean depths there is contradictorily a fragile beauty, airiness and lightness evident throughout." [Heathen Harvest]
|
2015 |
€24.00 |
|
| HELM |
The Hollow Organ |
12inch |
four new studio tracks by LUKE YOUNGER aka HELM (who is also a member of BIRDS OF DLEAY) on clear vinyl, very powerful pulsing & repetitive structures again with sharp & metallic sounds & drones... the suspenseful meeting of drone & industrial..
|
2014 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Impasse |
LP |
expanded re-issue of very limited mCD from 2008 (Low Point), now with two additional pieces from the same sessions (so far unreleased); electronic suction ambience noise based on hypnotic loops & patterns and organ wave drones
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| HENNIX, CATHERINE CRISTER (THE DEONTIC MIRACLE) |
Central Palace Music (from 100 Model Subjects for Hegikan Roku) |
CD |
unreleased piece by the 'minimal drone' music pioneer, recorded at 'Moderna Museet' Festival in Stockhom 1976 - C.C. HENNIX on oboe performs as "THE DEONTIC MIRACLE" together with HANS ISGREN (on sheng) and with the use of a sine-wave generator... => contemplation-drones that are truly evocative, airy and weightless.. special cardboard / letterpress cover, a one-tracker of 46 min.
|
2016 |
€19.50 |
|
| HERAUD, JULIEN |
Hidden Parasites |
CD |
first full solo album for this French composer (also a saxophone player) working now with electronics (+ object / field rec.) to combine harsher sounds with contemplative drones and undecipherable micro sounds - "an immersive work into subtle high feedbacks, destroyed samples, bass drones and weird raw recordings"- "The element of collage guarantees that this release has an astounding amount of variations to offer. This is a most pleasurable release and a new name to watch out for." [Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| HILTON, CRAIG / TOMAS PHILLIPS |
Le gout de neant |
CD |
stunning collaboration by these two US composers (also members of praised GAUCHISTE) using the chinese zither Guzheng and electronics to create wonderful dronescapes, minimal haunting atmospheres, but also more fragmented sound-art eruptions,.... nicely printed full colour silk screen fold out 7" cover, numbered ed. 500. Highly recommended !!
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| HINSIDAN |
Nightshift |
10 |
great 4-track 10" by this insider's tip from Copenhagen, transcendental ghost drones, ecstatic pulsations, trancy rhythmic minimalism, lim. 250
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| HIROSHIMABEND |
J10C |
do-CD |
ambitious project from Vienna using original source sounds created by PETER CHRISTOPERSON and ADAM CZARNECKI that were made for ELECTRIC SEWER AGE years ago - HIROSHIMABEND started an "alchemical rendition of the possibilities" these sounds represented and produced 12 tracks=> intense & otherworldly ghost drones, pulsating electronic layers, echo voices, strangely atmospheric vibes... absolutely recommended, no COIL copy at all !!
|
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| HISS TRACTS |
Shortwave Nights |
CD |
new project consisting of guitarists DAVID BRYANT (GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR, SET FIRE TO FLAMES) and KEVIN DORIA (GROWING, TOTAL LIFE) going into a more experimental drone direction => quite heavenly, melancholic guitar drones & harmonies merge with electronic waves, found sounds, mysterious hummings... 10 tracks of carefully constructed, emotional dronescapes... CD comes w. gatefold cover and with art-print
|
2014 |
€14.50 |
|
| HITOSHIRES |
Stella |
mCDR |
another discovery from Japan on Taalem - smooth & melancholic, shimmering beauty-drones with enough variation, in the way of MIRROR, CELER, YUI ONODERA, PAUL BRADLEY... one long one-tracker, about 20 min. length
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| HLADNA & VRESNIT |
Inej Senju Kornej |
CD |
shamanic winter meditation drones, played mainly on acoustic instruments at a remoted place; lim. 383 copies and another strong release for this label from Yaroslavl, Russia
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| HOHMANN, MARTIJN |
The Hohmann Transfer |
CD |
impressive solo album by the DE FABRIEK member, centered around the theme "various forms of leaving the earth" (traveling to the cosmos, loosing consciousness, life ending..) => dense analogue drones and spirals, various field recordings of voices and found material iike the Apollo cockpit recorfdings from 1969, sea and wind sounds, "Au Claire da la Lune" (1860).... lim. to 200 copies, each copy contains a unique handnumbered signed and stamped artwork
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOLLOWAY, IAN |
Silent Spring |
CD-R |
another rather "new name" on this British label & and as usual recommended for any ambient / drone-explorer; subtle mysterious dronescapes based on analog electronics & acoustic loops, in the way of MONOS or ANDREW CHALK..
|
2011 |
€6.00 |
|
| HOLOTROP |
Dead Bird Calling |
CD |
promising debut album for this German dark electronic / ritual industrial project with an apocalyptic approach, combining sharp pulses and repetitive samples with field recordings and instrumental sources.. "In his compositions, drones mixed with ritual sounds result in tremendously powerful tracks which evoke the feeling of desolation which throws us back onto the essence of mere human existence"
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOLTERBACH, MANU & JULIA ECKHARDT |
Do-Undo (in g maze) |
CD |
the French sound-artist and RADIGUE-specialist MANU HOLTERBACH is re-working viola-drones from JULIA ECKHARDT combining them with field recordings = highly minimal drones for fans of ANDREW CHALK or PHILL NIBLOCK; lim. 300 letter press print edition
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOLZKOPF & EMERGE |
Craft |
CD |
the third "real" CD on Attenuation Circuit is a collaboration by Canadian artist HOLZKOPF (german for 'woodhead') and EMERGE, using sound sources from Y-TON-G => two long pieces that "combine seemingly concrete, referential sounds with abstract, brooding frequencies", an open stream of improvised, morphing drones...
|
2014 |
€10.00 |
|
| HOOR-PAAR-KRAAT |
The Eureka Tapes |
do-CD |
collection of pieces culled from various out of print releases; strange surrealistic drones, noises & feedbacks based on acoustic object-sounds...where the BEAUTY and the WEIRD meets; strong release by this US American painter & musician. lim. 500
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOURGLASS DROPS |
Vapours |
do-CDR |
experimental ambience from this Russian/Dutch project now located in Bremen, Germany; between beautiful drones and raw analoge / electronic experiments; comes in handmade / oversized cardboard folder with colour photo sticked on
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| HUMAN GREED |
Fortress Longing |
CD |
fourth album by the project of MICHAEL BEGG - mesmerizing poetic & acoustic ambience noir, feat. many guest-musicians as JULIA KENT or LAURA SHEERAN; creating a very filmic & melancholic atmosphere, this is nightshade-music at its best, like being lost in a dream, combining beautiful drones & poetry... still very much to discover !
|
2011 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Hivernant |
CD |
beautiful melancholic dronescaping spread on 9 tracks, impressionistic music for poetic, foggy winter landscapes, often based on handplayed & processed acoustic instruments... "His shimmering layers of sound will evolve into pure sonic forms of harmonically clashing drones only to dissolve into pools of melodic piano reminiscent of ENO's Thursday Afternoon or into a TIM HECKER-like tonal suspension of stained-glass sorrow.." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| HUMAN LARVAE |
Pure Sex |
CD |
one of the best German dark industrial / power electronics projects with an album about obsessive lust => deep roaring drones and repetitive dark noise structures are filled with whispered vocals, screams, object sounds and samples of all kinds, always with a very hypnotic touch... come back to mothers womb!
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| HURTADO, MARC & Z'EV |
Sang |
CD |
one of the ETANT DONNES brothers in collab with Z\'EV, forming an almost perfect amalgamation of what both artists are known for, and it really works in an enchanting way - the emotional voice & whispers of French poems about love, nature & transformation, the passion, the alchemistic metallic overtune-drones and drumming... surreal, intense, fathomless.. fold out paper cover, contains CD and 36 page full colour booklet
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| HYBRYDS |
Soundtrack for the Antwerp Zoo Aquarium |
CD |
re-issue of one of the best HYBRYDS-albums (originally released 1995), a soundtrack for the 150th anniversary of the Antwerp Zoo; a great underwater-dronescape using many sounds of ocean-creatures like dolphins, wales, etc..
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| I SNOR |
The Wolf Project |
LP |
'Can you fight monsters without becoming one yourself?' Soundtrack to the dance theatre choreography of the same title by KENNETH FLAK (Norway) & KÜLLI ROOSNA (Estonia), which is performed at various places around the world...=> dramatic & complex electro industrial, at times slowly rhythmic, eerie abstract ghost drones, dark instrumental zither tunes with pulses underneath, etc.. ... an intense, dynamic work by this Danish project of YANN COPPIER creating lots of tension! lim. 250
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| I.CORAX |
Kuilu |
CD |
live March 2002 in Oulu (Finland) - the first ever live performance of I.CORAX, and what a performance it was - eerie drones, all kinds of ritualistic loops (animal & human voices, percussion, etc..), otherwordly winds & breaths... lim. 500 cardboard cover with special design & 3 printed inserts cards and four panel booklet
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| IA (ALEX COPELAND) |
Peak of Anchorite |
mCDR |
IA is ALEX COPELAND, a newcomer to the drone-scene who sets here very high-pitched & whirring & hissing drones against a harmonic fundament => very sharp contrasts & special sound! Recommended advanced drones !
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| IEVA |
La cascade de la montagne de l'aube |
mCDR |
drone-ambient newcomer from France/Japan with very well arranged field recording-drones, all made in Japan, interesting sounds & dreamlike, introspective atmosphere.. one piece, 23 min.
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| IN CAMERA |
untitled |
LP |
back in stock last copies, the debut-album of the IN CAMERA project by TIMO VAN LUIJK & CHRISTOPH HEEMANN.... beautiful 'hand-carved drones', lim / numb. 500 copies
|
2005 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Frampton comes alive |
LP |
CHRISTOPH HEEMANN & TIMO VAN LUIJK (AF URSIN, NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES); third album with new studio recordings; refined acoustic drones creating a special atmosphere.. lim. 400
|
2012 |
€17.00 |
|
| IN MEDITARIUM [IN MEDITARIVM] |
Mare Internum |
7inch |
Esoteric inner-cosmic / mother-womb drones, pre-symbolic surroundings attracting your unconscious.
first ed. 300 copies / white vinyl / selfmade covers /
|
2005 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Plexus / Uterus |
do-CD |
Ukraine's IN MEDITARIVM was the project of SERGEY SVISTELNIK, who died in January 2018, and OLEGH KOLYADA (FIRST HUMAN FERRO, etc.); in 2005 they released a wonderful 7" EP on Drone Records (DR-75); this is now the remastered re-issue of the two albums "Les Fleurs Du Mal" (Soulworm 2002) and "Uterus" (OMS Rec. 2004), with three exlusive bonus tracks, a great last statement of their "Esoteric / industrialized / martial mother-womb drones" Muzak; lim. 500, special price
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| INDRA KARMUKA |
Aardster-Bovist |
LP |
the only album of Drone Records artist INDRA KARMUKA, who had an EP on DRone in 1996 (DR-21) => this trio from Amsterdam with RAYMOND DIJKSTRA combines fluid electronic drones with strange sounds, a mysterious ambience journey, very very nice ..... BACK IN STOCK last copies !!
|
1998 |
€13.00 |
|
| INFANT CYCLE & RAMUNAS YARAS / DELPHIUM |
Translation / Heart full of Soul |
do-mCDR |
last copies back in stock of this very nicely packed (4 x 8" gatefold cover, full colour) split release of two Drone Records artists from Canada & England - hypnotic, quasi-rhythmic experimental drones at its best! Lim. 100 - special offer now !
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| INGENTING KOLLEKTIVA |
Fragments of Night |
LP |
US american collective performing subtle, dusky handplayed drones on bells, tibetan bowls, cello, harmonium, guitars, etc... using also field recordings and record player, as an homage to INGMAR BERGMAN & SVEN NYKVIST - "a direct response to music recorded or released in 1969"; very nice & with energetic climax on Side B; lim. ed. gatefold-cover
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
An Anatomy of Melancholy |
LP |
finally in stock, the latest LP by this romantic drone impro collective around MATTHEW SWIEZYNSKI, who are inspired by INGMAR BERGMAN's concept of 'nothing' => six melancholic tracks evolve around guitar drones, field recordings, harmonium, bells, strings and LP feedback, creating a wonderful nostalgic atmosphere full of shining overtunes, mysterious backwards sounds and other cinematic noises... top album!! edition of 426 copies on red/black transparent vinyl
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| INNER VISION LABORATORY |
Austeros |
CD |
ice-blue drones! => the third full length CD album for this Polish project, using fragmented everyday-sounds from the surrounding reality and transforming them into a very cold ambient industrial soundtrack that lets you freeze.... lim. 300
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Continuum |
CD |
Metaphysical dark ambient! - the always impressive Polish project is asking the "last questions", taking you on a journey for a much needed sophistication, into the 'world-inner-space'... " 'Continuum' is made of deep drones and textures, melancholic, but strangely warm and soothing. Painting this aural image to the introducing words, but also giving you comfort and the feeling of detaching from this mundane world" [Santa Sangre] - lim. 300 copies
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| INSTINCT PRIMAL |
Dizzling Darkness |
CD |
SILKEN TOFU becomes the main Belgian label for new post industrial & dark noise projects: INSTINCT PRIMAL is another debuting experimental noise project, behind is a Czech photographer and sound designer finding his own musical language establishing cold atmospheres with neo-classic samples, bleak drones and acoustic strokes... lim. 300, nice A5 silkscreen cover
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| IRISARRI, RAFAEL ANTON |
The Shameless Years |
LP |
re-issue of the strong 2017 album by the ambient composer from New York, w. new artwork and on crystal clear vinyl, feat SIAVASH AMINI on two tracks... "Inspired by a troubled socio-political climate, buried melodies punch their way through a bleak cover of noisy drones, periodically veering into some of Irisarri’s most eerily pertinent music... "
|
2021 |
€21.00 |
|
| IRM |
Order⁴ |
CD |
the great IRM from Sweden stand for 'contemporary', eerie, often body & pain related post industrial and atmospheric power electronics with remarkable psychic effect, and this is no exception: 4 long tracks (60 min) of piercing drones & pulses, creepy instrumentation, and heavily processed spoken vocals that go under the skin... BACK IN STOCK last copies of this Cold Meat original !
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| IRR.APP. (ext.) |
Flux / Crayfish |
MC |
a "loose re-interpretation" of the classic ORGANUM / EDDIE PREVOST album of the same name from 1987; great powerful drones with ecstatic percussion work and amazing flute sounds on Side B, a phantastic tape!! C-40 MC-only release, professionally manufactured with full-colour cover & printed translucent shell lim. 200 BACK IN STOCK, RARE !!
|
2011 |
€11.50 |
|
|
Ozeanische Gefühle |
CD |
the 'complex surrealistic drone' masterpiece by IRR.APP(ext.), back in stock, highly recommended!
...surrealistische dronescapes, die pulsieren, mäandern, rotieren und einfach LEBEN. In der Tat scheint hier alles in Grenzenlosigkeit zu zerfliessen.... |
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Are all Things Equivalent? |
10inch |
two new tracks by the master of surrealistic, mysterious sound (and visual) worlds, whose collages and titles often reveal a cryptic and thought-provoking nature => micro- and macroscopic dimensions intermingle and oscillate, multi-layered drone expansions and deep humming drones evoke a strange organic feeling, complex noises and drones that seem to be in a circling state of endless metamorphosis.. lim. 300, clear wax, artwork by MATT WALDRON himself
|
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| ISHIGAMI, KAZUYA |
Hosshin No Kizashi [Experimental Music of Japan Vol. 5] |
CD |
most ambitious album of this long-time active composer from Osaka, Japan, oscillating between electro-underground & a "serious" composition approach => 5 excellent "acousmatic" pieces, using concrete sounds as well as purely abstract & amorph drones ... art-cover, lim. 500, 5fth in the series "Experimental Music of Japan" by the well known OMEGA POINT label (known for many YOSHI WADA & JOHN CAGE releases) / BACK IN STOCK!
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
|
Cleaner 583 |
CD |
this interesting Japanese composer (formely active as DARUIN and BILLY?) has refined his style: slowly moving and inherently swirling ambient-scapes that also use undefinable abstract soundsources (probably from field recordings), there's always a certain unrealness involved in these mainly quiet expanses, higher resonances and smooth sub bass drones....after "tuning in" into these atmospheres a very rewarding experience... to discover !
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Canceller X |
CD |
excellent ISHIGAMI release on a new Japanese label: electro-magnetic charged drones are overwhelmed by metallic shimmering reflections and other unidentifiable, more concrete phaser-noises, breaks can be sharp but the development of tracks occurs in dreamlike slow-motion, eerie and unreal... thematically based around different kinds of "memories", and their cancellation, 14 tracks 69+ minutes, comes with fold-out text inlay (on Japanese) and 4 photo-inlays; highly recommended !!
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| ISHIGAMI, KAZUYA & TAMAKO KATSUFUJI |
Electro Acoustic Fairy Tales |
CD |
collaboration by the favored Japanese sound artist with female storyteller TAMAKO KATSUFUJI - her sweet voice is treated with electronic effects, the two fairy-tale stories "The Acorns & Wildcat" and "The Telegraph Poles on a Moonlit Night" (+ one version with different ending) are accompanied by weird sounds and drones, for a surrealistic "Alice in Wonderland" atmosphere... - a kind of experimental earplay in Japanese with fascinating effect !
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| ISHIGAMI, KAZUYA / KENTARO TAKEI |
split |
CD |
split release (3 tracks each) - TAKEI's soft 'concrete field drone' sound reminds on stuff like DARREN TATE, whereas ISHIGAMI excites again with floating, refined digi-dronescapes
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| IURTA |
Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown |
CD |
dark/dystopian ambient project from Portugal, formed by WOLFKSIN and SEKTOR 304 members, inspired by J.G. BALLARD and A.TARKOVSKI, dealing with the fragmentation of identity; "a sonic diary of the verge of mental breakdown through soundscapes built upon cascading drones, harsh textures and minimal sonic oscillations. Neural dark ambient, at times punctuated by a cinematic tone exploring the limits of an inner space." ed. of 500
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| JACASZEK |
Music for Film |
LP |
a collection of 10 pieces composed for the films / series "November", "He dreams of Giants", and "Golgota Wroclawska"; dark and sacral chamber music creating highly melancholic and nostalgic atmospheres of true brilliance... (using strings, piano, harp, voices/choirs, organ, but also electronic effects, field recordings and drones..), think of MAX RICHTER, ARVO PÄRT, JOHANNSSON, etc....lim. ed. on pale blue vinyl, with DL code
|
2020 |
€20.50 |
|
| JACASZEK / ROMKE KLEEFSTRA / JAN KLEEFSTRA |
It Deel I |
LP |
The KLEEFSTRA brothers (known i.e. for their collabs with ALVARET ENSEMBLE, CELER, MACHINEFABRIEK...) were engaged in a new art project (IT DEEL) about the theme of environmental decline => in a church in Friesland (NL) they worked with gifted Polish composer M JACASZEK on new material for one week, dedicated to TREES, presenting the material live in concert afterwards => a dreamlike mixture of guitar drones, instrumental strings, electronics, poetry... magic & melancholic beauty ! - lim. 300
|
2022 |
€18.00 |
|
| JAMES, PETER |
Fade in/Burn out |
mCD-R |
first appearance for us by this Scottish ambient composer (also known from the 48CAMERAS collective), this one-tracker combines very amorph and subtle hissing / atmo noises with organic / organ drones, melting into one huge audio channel, very immersive and meditative...
|
2021 |
€5.00 |
|
| JARL |
Parallel / Collapsing |
CD |
"Sehr obertonige, fliessend-metallische industrielle Drones, ständige untergründige dunkle Pulses und lauter kontrastierende Effekte + Sounds an der Oberfläche, das sind die akustische Ingredenzien dieser weiteren, wahrhaft betörenden VÖ von JARL. This is real „Industrial Meditation“ ! Transcendental noise at its best !!* [old Drone Rec info] - BACK IN STOCK last copies
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Amygdala Colours - Hemisphere Rotation |
CD |
"For the right and left side of Amygdala" (credits) - indeed, if anything could stimulate your brain then this phantastic one-tracker (56 min.) filled with flushing & waving transcension drones, slowly enfolding you and your mind....maybe the most meditative JARL work so far, this has no quasi-rhythmic elements, only metallic sounding waves, winds & overtunes...
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Symptoms Variation / Sensory Deprivation |
3 x CD |
epic new JARL work spread on 3 CDs ( "Repitition" - "Darkness" - "Conclusion" ) with 8 movements - immediately you are immersed int these complex multi-layered and quickly moving bell/metal-like and synth-shimmer pulse drones, oscillating and waving in endless loopy cascades, meditative and hypnotic.. lim. 200 copies, 6 panel digipak
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Inner Domain |
do-CD |
the two deleted cassettes "Hypnagogic Domain" and "Hypnopompic Domain" (Autarkeia, 2016) re-issued with long (15 min.) bonus-track!! - "especially dedicated to hypnagogic states of being half awake - half asleep, also called "threshold consciousness" or "pre-dream condition": rattling analogue electronic drones merge with metallic reverberations and echoes, this is the true and raw ambient industrial trance!" [Drone Rec.] - A Must !
|
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Hyperacusis |
LP |
rare vinyl release (lim.100) by the Drone Rec. fave artist, two sind long pieces of trance-formed sonic matter... - "Drones, high frequency pulsations and oscillations work here as a intronautic vessel in which you descend into into the depths of subconscious and as much as we are aware that this is a bold statement the closest comparison that comes to mind is COIL’s Time Machines. Yes, we said it." ; CD version avaiable, too
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Misophonia Colours |
CD |
start of the new CD series from Drone Records, old and new heroes from the past and future of experimental transcension atmo noises and drones... Swedish JARL created an ultra hypnotic 60min one-tracker that slowly plays a game with your head... - ed. of 250 copies, 6 panel digipak, mastering: PETER ANDERSSON, 3D effect artwork: TILMANN BENNINGHAUS
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Isolation Colours |
CD |
similar as on the recent CLARICE JENSEN album, this connnects different COLOURS with moods and sounds, seven tracks with the known irresistible, high class electronic hypno wave drones... - *here named as Circle 1- 7 which [sic] each represents one colour and what sense and mood that colour can bring. Here focusing on isolation as the title of the album refers to..* - lim, 300 copies, excellent SUBconscious cover art too
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Isolation Colours |
MC |
similar as on the recent CLARICE JENSEN album, this connnects different COLOURS with moods and sounds, seven tracks with almost irresistible, high class electronic hypno wave drones.. -.' Big-time space music, not melodic, but created from drones, isolated tones, oscillations, and whatever connections can be made with analogue synthesis. Music with a shimmer of light, hope, and refined beauty. That's my kind of music." [FdW/Vital Weekly] - lim. cassette version only 30 copies!
|
2023 |
€10.00 |
|
| JARL / ENVENOMIST |
Tunguska Event |
CD |
impressive collaboration by ERIK JARL (JARL, IRM..) and DAVID REED (ENVENOMIST, LUASA RAELON) who created a "sonic re-enactment" of the mysterious Tunguska explosion from 1908 in Siberia; powerful analogue electronic drones. pulsating, waving, sucking you in like a sonic maelstrom....
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| JENSEN, CLARICE |
The Experience of Repetition as Death |
CD |
the second album for the Brooklyn based Cello player, creating awesome "neo classic ambience" or "advanced instrumental drones" by looping and layering her melodic and dark pulsing tunes, with elegant and timeless effect.... - "Clarice’s loops slide across one another in organically morphing structures; align and intersect at different moments, yielding a kind of aleatoric yet minimal counterpoint, with joins overlaid in ways that appear seamless and sophisticated.." - mastered by R.A. IRISARRI
|
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Drone Studies |
LP |
re-issue of CLARICE JENSENs second album from 2019 (only available as cassette so far), now with third bonus track => contemplation drones of various 'shapes & forms' (based on Cello and Electronics) mesmerize in a breathtaking, immersive way...- "Taken as a whole, 'Drone Studies' a harrowing set of deep listening that uncovers new gifts with each repeated listen" - lim. 300, mastered by R.A. IRISARRI
|
2022 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
For this from that will be filled (silver) |
LP |
recommended debut album for this Cello-player and composer, creating minimal drones with lots of resonances and 'inner' harmonic movements - "JENSEN expands and confuses the familiar sound of the cello through the use of effects pedals, multi-tracking, and tape loops recorded at variable speeds, presented in works she has written for herself as well as a piece she conceived together with Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson." - re-press of 2018 album on silver vinyl, lim. 300, metallic colour art
|
2022 |
€23.50 |
|
| JERMAN, JEPH |
Four Drivers |
CD |
long minimal / mechanized drones, ever shifting overtune clouds; created with an "upright piano harp" powered by four ventilators, lim. 250 in canvas envelope, NEW material
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Keep the Drum |
CD |
re-issue of earliest solo cassette from 1990 (Apraxia) with 14 tracks recorded in Denver 1987-1990: very raw + direct metal object recordings (hubcaps, metal sheets, junk), from percussive noises to surface drones he explores this 'alternative drumk-kit" in any possible way.. - *The sounds on this disc crackle, pop, and thud. Each tactile scrape conjures up the rusted edge of some bit of scrap-metal as the ambiance of the physical space hums in the background.* - US-import !
|
2021 |
€14.00 |
|
| JERMAN, JEPH & FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC |
Insecta |
CD-R |
subtle subterreanean drones & microsounds from processed insect field recordings - a permanent crackling, creaking & rubbing of grass & diverse organisms mixed with environmental sounds of wind, etc.. very special drones at work here, comes in full colour cover & on professionally duplicated & printed CDR
|
2011 |
€9.00 |
|
| JGRZINICH (JOHN GRZINICH) |
Surface Scripts |
CD |
magic concrete drones inspired by the "time-worn processes" of nature creating specific acoustics in specific materials...hard to describe aural atmospherics, but its very beautiful and secret; highly recommended ! CD in DVD-box, lim. 500
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| JOBIN, FRANCE |
Death Is Perfection, Everything Else Is Relative |
LP |
sound artist from Montreal with first album for E.Mego, creating extremely minimal and subtle 'mother womb' drones ("a narcotic flux") on a BUCHLA 200, based on diverse locations recordings... - "The result amalgamates perfectly with our environment when played at moderate volume... It’s sorrow-inducing, brain-quietening, and profoundly individual." [Massimo Ricchi / Touching Extremes]
|
2020 |
€19.50 |
|
| JOBIN, FRANCE & FABIO PERLETTA |
Mirror Neurons |
CD |
beautiful Canadian-Italian collaboration work of elegantly woven pulses and drones, for us it sounds like a combination of the 'essence' of ELIANE RADIGUE and ASMUS TIETCHENS, transported to even more subtle realms...."Like much of Jobin and Perletta’s recent works, Mirror Neurons explores the artists’ interest in intersection between science and art, as well as the infinitely small and invisible." ed. of 500 copies
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| JOHANNSSON, JOHANN |
Drone Mass |
LP |
first recording of this so far unreleased composition, with a very strong emphasis on droning structures.. - "Drone Mass is a profoundly atmospheric work, at times reminiscent of the meditative minimalism of composers such as PÄRT or GÖRECKI....Here, his drones have a motivic-like role, shifting and shimmering with hypnotic effect, conjuring different moods, from unsettling to uplifting.." - vinyl version available again !!
|
2022 |
€29.50 |
|
| |
Drone Mass |
CD |
first recording of this so far unreleased composition, with a very strong emphasis on droning structures.. - "Drone Mass is a profoundly atmospheric work, at times reminiscent of the meditative minimalism of composers such as PÄRT or GÖRECKI....Here, his drones have a motivic-like role, shifting and shimmering with hypnotic effect, conjuring different moods, from unsettling to uplifting.." - CD version, high price unavoidable
|
2022 |
€19.50 |
|
| JUNZO, SUZUKI |
Awake in the Wuthering Heights |
CD-R |
newcomer from Japan with minimal ambient & dronescapes, based on guitar-picking & feedbacks, creating sublime, at times more noisy & radical overtunes... recorded live in UK & Japan 2011 & 2012; 41+ min., lim. 100, to discover
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| JUPITTER-LARSEN, GX |
The Internationale |
MC |
MC-only release in the new limited Banned Prod tape series (standard jewel-cases & printed full colour covers); six versions of THE INTERNATIONALE, as obscure sound-poetry ending in harsh noise, in a jazzy brass-band version, with piano & drones, etc.. lovely insane stuff !!!
|
2011 |
€6.50 |
|
| JUPITTER-LARSEN, GX + A WEEK OF KINDNESS + RICHARD RAMIREZ |
Acognitive Culture |
CD |
three long going US American (harsh) noisers united on this album: RICHARD RAMIREZ and A WEEK OF KINDNESS aka SEAN E. MATZUS (both active also in BLACK LEATHER JESUS but also numerous other projects) and concept artist "THE HATERS" GX JUPITTER-LARSEN - they created five pieces of amorphous noise drones, heavenly feedbacks, the beautiful clanging of scrap metal, hurricane swooshes interact with effected found sounds from films.. we love this ! Lim. 200
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| KAHN, JASON |
Songs For Nicolas Ross |
CD |
different from many other Rossbin releases the focus doesn't lie here on free improvisation with instruments or electronics, but on the "free play" of various of field recordings captured around the globe, from low-fi drones over strange rumblings to voice and every day background material (+ a little child singing), this forms quite a special entirety... 26 tracks = 26 moods, 26 micro worlds to explore !!
|
2003 |
€7.50 |
|
| KANG, EYVIND |
Plainlight |
LP |
three mesmerizing acoustic tracks using traditional instruments from Korea (like the Gayageum and Geomungo) combined with shimmering, mind clearing early morning drones (violin, synths, glass harmonics, organ and guitar); this is the follower to EVVIND KANGs album from 2001, "Live Low to the Earth in the Iron Age"; lim 400
|
2017 |
€23.00 |
|
| KAPALI CARSI / NYM |
split |
MC |
split MC (C-45) by two interesting newcomers for the 'experimental drone / noise / musique concrete" underground scene => low fi noises, concrete drones, brooding rhythms, always shifting between hums and harsher attacks... lim. 30 copies only, for explorers !
|
2013 |
€7.00 |
|
| KARKOWSKI, ZBIGNIEW |
The last Man in Europe |
LP |
two extracts from KARKOWSKI's final performance (31. Oct. 2013) when he played live to the "1984-THE LAST MAN IN EUROPE" BBC TV production from GEORGE ORWELL (1954) at London's Horse Hospital, 6 weeks before his death...=> pure sinus-tones vibrations, oscillations and drones with high dynamics and often piercing quality, ebbing and flowing... "Few releases in experimental and noise arenas can really invade the mind the way The Last Man in Europe does." [Noise Beneath..]
|
2017 |
€17.50 |
|
| KASSEL JAEGER |
Toxic Cosmopolitanism |
LP |
two new side-long pieces by the rising Swiss-French composer, using for each side the same source materials (instrumental sounds from different cultures, like balafon, tremolo, gnbri, gee, tibetan gongs, pan flutes)... this sounds like music coming from another planet, mysterious drones, crackles, hums, metallic tones, melodies...very dense, thick and slow.. great immersive album again for this member of the GRM (Groupe des Recherches Muscales) from Paris !!
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
|
MMXX-13: Vol Sombre |
LP |
13th release in the new series that presents 20 artists from the experimental sound-art scene with very nice design / concept => dedicated to the year 2020 there will be 20 x 20 min. compositions on one-sided clear vinyl, with laser engraved artwork by the artist on the B-Side, lim. to 500 copies => Drone Records fave artist KASSEL JAEGER unfurls slowly pacing instrumental drones / drops, circuiting each other like in a timeless slow-motion dance, harmonic and dense..
|
2020 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Shifted in Dreams |
LP |
complex electroacoustic drones forming an intermediate state, \"when the reality of signs looses its consistency\", based on various sources (ARP 2500 synth, organ, gutars, the slamming of windows, etc.) - * Shifted in Dreams explores a wide range of instruments and techniques, going seamlessly from instrumental improvisation to field recording, via micro-editing and the use of asynchronous loops..* - masterful atmospheric and captivating again !
|
2023 |
€27.50 |
|
| KAZIMIRA, DARJA |
Monochromia |
CD |
intense ethereal ritual muzak with elegiac choir singing and a kind of very dark tuned zither, drones, and other noises, in fact these are funeral chants influenced by ancient Greek culture....- a very strong, improvised work from Latvian artist DARJA KAZIMIRA, imagine an extreme, and experimental, abyssal "drone" version of DEAD CAN DANCE at times.. - this is a re-issue of a digital only album from 2016, lim. 300 copies
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| KENNEY/ KANG/ PARK |
At Temple Gate |
LP |
after the two beautiful LP on Ideologic Organ this sees JESSIKA KENNEY and EYVIND KANG working together again, now with help of HYEONHEE PARK on percussion & electronics, containing both collab & solo pieces.... expressive vocals, focused percussion, bubbling water, contemplation drones, viola, east asian harmonics.... a celebratory / ritualistic atmosphere between silence & noisy outbursts... intense! lim. 300
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| KIRCHENKAMPF |
Island of the Dead |
CD-R |
A one-tracker (almost 43 minutes) with a very dark, almost orchestral sounding electro-acoustic journey with layers out of high-pitched /backwards-effected drones, analogue electronic sounds, eerie voice-material, field recordings, unsettling and beautiful at the same time... if you like dark trips, this is the Island to be..our favourite KIRCHENKAMPF release so far!!
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| |
Sidereal Lament |
MC |
rare cassette-only album by this US project (and permanent insiders tip), relating to the celestial body of the stars; deep bass drones and weighty reverberations appear in fragmented formations... lim. 100, C-65
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| KIRKEGAARD, JACOB |
Black Metal Square |
LP |
"Et sic in infinitum, Robert Fludd, 1617" - the philosophic sister release to "Phonurgia Metallis", based on the same basic concept (capturing the resonances and drones from three freely hanging metal plates), but with three different sized BLACK METAL plates (50 x 50 , 75 x 75 and 100 x 100 cm) - originally this was an installation refering to MALEVICHs famous painting "Black Square" - comes in a black sleeve with glittering silver print, hand-numbered ed 100 copies
|
2019 |
€39.00 |
|
| KLEISTWAHR |
This World is not my Home |
CD |
the long going solo-project of GARY MUNDY (RAMLEH) with an epic one-tracker piece (38+ min.) in 7 parts, ranging from harmonic guitar distortion drones to overwhelming noise, with occasional vocals (both sung & spoken) and percussive elements, all very blurred & and drowned in heavy emotions & distortion... lim. 300 gatefold cover
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
|
This World is not my Home |
do-LP |
limited vinyl re-issue of two albums ("Over your Head Forever", 2016; and "This World.., 2014) by GARY MUNDY's (RAMLEH) legendary solo project (starting once with a cassette on Broken Flag in 1983!).. - "..ranging from harmonic guitar distortion drones to overwhelming noise, with occasional vocals (both sung & spoken) and percussive elements, all very blurred & and drowned in heavy emotions & distortion.." [Drone Rec. info]
|
2020 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Winter |
LP |
these are the KLEISTWAHR recordings from the great 'Corrosion' 10 x cassette box! - "Solemn drones and elegiac long-form passages gird Kleistwahr’s Winter, which often chimes, glistens, and glows through a unhurried constructs for organ, synth, guitar, and electronics. Yet Mundy pivots throughout with triumphant explosions of shrill noise, redlined overload, and harrowingly anguished vocals from the great unknown. Quintessential Kleistwahr." - 300 copies pressed
|
2021 |
€18.50 |
|
| KLOOD |
Retraction |
CD-R |
handcoloured & screwed wood-cover lim. 80; great melancholia guitar drones & deep foggy humming in the way of ULTRA MILKMAIDS & more mellow MAEROR TRI! |
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
| KNEALE, CAMPBELL & ANLA COURTIS |
Several more Echos |
MC |
mail collaboration recorded 2004-2006 in New Zealand and Buenos Aires by the ex BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL & REYNOLS main/mad-heads, that finally sees the light of the day now; 4 long tracks of lovely experimental dronescapes, comes in green coloured silver paper cover, lim. 100, C-60, a must for fans of these now disbanded projects..
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| KOJI, SAITO |
Prayer |
mCD-R |
one-tracker with his great hypnotic drones
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Early Works |
CD-R |
pure meditation & contemplation guitar-drones from Japan; re-issue of three long sold out CDRs, first edition 100 copies, oversized cover
|
2011 |
€9.00 |
|
| KOJO, HITOSHI |
High Tide Mirror |
CD |
Ecstasis-Drones! Collection of live-material rec. 2012 in Switzerland & France, very psyched out & spiritual acoustic drones with a strong tendency to become weightless forms - using vocal material it reminds on C. PALESTINE or VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA, but there are also beautiful uplifting light sound expanses that are pure & calm.. lim. 200, very nice cover-design in 3 different colours (silk screened 300gr cardboard stock)
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| KOLACKI, RAFAL |
Mektoub (1001 Nocy Paula Bowlesa) |
CD |
a kind of "literary travelogue" with self made field recordings from Tanger, Morocco, following the steps and words of PAUL BOWLES.: recordings from the market place, the ocean, a prayer, a musician, etc. intermingle with atmospheric drones and short fragments of BOWLES texts... - a very special album by the member of HATI who became a field recording enthusiast, lim. 250 copies
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| KONTAKT DER JÜNGLINGE |
1 (live Bremen 17.12.1999) |
CD |
Live-Aufnahme aus Bremen, vom 17.12.1999 !!
Great spherical drones played in collaboration by these two german masters of mysterious sounds! |
2001 |
€14.00 |
|
| KOPP, HERMANN / FUSILLER |
Les Naufrages |
LP |
legendary "early 80's electronic" obscure-ist HERMANN KOPP is back with this long play 12" which he shares with DJ FUSILLER aka JO TANZ, who runs the Tanzprocesz label in France and worked with G. TAZARTES... HERMANN KOPPS side (feat. LORENZO ABATTOIR) is filled with dark organ drones,sombre electronics, chants and concrete sounds and seems to be the soundtrack to a shipwrecking, FUSILLER confronts with a weird and noisy electro collage.. 200 copies
|
2020 |
€16.50 |
|
| KOTKAVUORI, TAPIO |
Terra Hyperborea |
CD |
archaic didge-drones & ritualistic chants from this finnish author; very deep & beautiful; CD contains extra video-clip!
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOUW, MATTHIJS |
Obscurum Per Obscurius |
CD |
awesome release by the dutch experimental drone artist with philosophical approach: on 9 tracks shimmering glass-like harmonics resonate, granular micro sounds crackle gently, soft repetitive pulses appear, dense metalloid aural expanses proliferate in mysterious and multiple ways... lim. 200 and highly recommended for any lover of transcendental drones!!
|
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
The Great Image has no Form |
CD |
".. inspired by Kouw‘s visit to the Wudang Mountains in China in 2007, where he studied Chinese meditation and martial arts as a result of his long-time interest in Daoism=>'Daoism teaches us that the foundational cannot be named and identified, but rather has to be experienced firsthand' => This is perfectly captured by the five pieces on this album, ranging between 5 and 17 minutes, dwelling in the unnamed space of complex drones..." [Ambient.blog] - 5 tracks, 51 min., only 100 copies pressed
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| KRAKEN |
Aquanaut |
LP |
"He who gazed into the abyss for too long.." - getreu nach diesem Motto erschaffen KRAKEN abgrundtief düstere Soundscapes, geisterhafte Drones sorgen für Unruhe, vielerlei Effekte schaffen Gänsehaut-Atmosphäre, befremdliche Stimmung, soundtrackartig.. klasse Debut auf schwerem blauen Vinyl... last copies, sold out from the label !
|
1999 |
€16.00 |
|
| KRAUSBAUER, JOHN & R KEENAN LAWLER |
Spectre of Radiants |
CD |
LAWLER & KRAUSBAUER (instrumentalists from the States) create long form drones (with steel guitar and banjo!) in the ultra-minimalistic composer tradition (NIBLOCK, RADIGUE, TONY CONRAD), this is a one-tracker of 44+ min., oversized gatefold cover // " .. a droning, everlasting buzz of strings, gently undulating and intersecting. Unconventionally played, as usual, the resonator guitars and the banjos, builds the perfect stream of sound to accompany your longest days."
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| KRENG |
Works for Abattoir Ferme 2007-2011 |
4 x LP BOX |
the long awaited re-issue of KRENGS masterpiece, a perfect mixture of dark drones & sombre neo classic tunes! => "slow, skin-crawling cinematic ambience made for the Belgian theater group Abattoir Ferme. you are transported through the most terrifying, shadow-filled, downright bizarre moments of the subconscious.." - each LP with extra artwork, lim. 300 copies in box with silver tone print
|
2022 |
€65.00 |
|
| KREYSING / PENSCHUCK / STADLMEIER |
Re-Encypher |
CD |
this trio with S. STADLMEIER aka EMERGE did a ghostly improvisation on a dark November night in Münster, Germany, at Nocube: amorphous accordeon drones and tones, unfathomable reverberations of object and instrumental sounds (wood, guitar, a heater), occasional electronics, all loosely hung and cross-linked together with lots of space in this weave... PAULINE OLIVEROS meets the Otherworlds... very nice!
|
2018 |
€8.00 |
|
| KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK |
Tales from the Mirrored Spaces |
do-CD |
for the rich St. Petersburg experimental underground K.R. is one of the main attractors, the always multi-layered dronescapes (this time lots of acoustic instruments like mouth harp, bowed guitar, metal plate, singing bowl were in use) seem to oscillate and spread in all directions.." a dynamic sonic universe varying from ritualistic ambiental textures to heavy electronics, abstract multi-layered drones and sharp gritty noises." - this is the special ed. with one full bonus live CD, lim. 100 copies
|
2019 |
€19.50 |
|
|
To Dream Is To Destroy |
CD |
the fourth album from the Russian project (who is also behind the legendary ZHELEZOBETON label & mailorder), now being located in Amsterdam (NL), K.R. delevoped a very own experimental style based on radio sounds, drones, crackles, and multi-layered vintage electronics, a challenging ride into the reality of ether static noises with a great nostalgic flair... - lim. CD version only 103 copies !
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
To Dream is to Destroy |
MC |
the fourth album from the Russian project (who is also behind the legendary ZHELEZOBETON label & mailorder), now being located in Amsterdam (NL), K.R. delevoped a very own experimental style based on radio sounds, drones, crackles, and multi-layered vintage electronics, a challenging ride into the reality of ether static noises with a great nostalgic flair... - lim. cassette ed. 50 copies only, CD available too
|
2023 |
€8.50 |
|
| KSHATRIY |
Transforming Galaxy |
CD |
second full length album by this Russian deep ambience project, dedicated to the end of Kali-Yuga; using electronics, instrumental sources & field recordings from elemental nature-sounds (thunder, waves, etc..) creating hallucinogenic effects... filed under: breathing & whispering organic ambience & psychedelic drone emanations; excellent cosmic contemplation drones...
|
2012 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Kshatriy |
CD-R |
re-issue of the very first KSHATRIY-album from 2005. remixed & re-mastered - massive cosmic drones and sonic winds coming in endless waves, moving towards the 'Strange Attractor'... lim. 77 copies professional cover & duplication
|
2014 |
€8.50 |
|
| KTL |
The Pyre : Versions distilled to Stereo |
LP |
STEPHEN O'MALLEY and PETER REHBERG with their (originally multichannel) Score created for GISELE VIENNE's dance theatre piece "The Pyre" (2012): very atmospheric and surrealistic drones and sounds with captivating aura.. "This composition dizzyingly sculpts the space on stage and generates an impression of great spatial depth, which activates light-sculptures that in turn evoke the illusion of a tunnel, whose depth also results in a play of reflections." lim. 700 green vinyl
|
2018 |
€22.50 |
|
| KUBISCH, CHRISTINA & ANNEA LOCKWOOD |
The Secret Life of the Inaudible |
do-CD |
incredible collaboration (4 new pieces) with transformed sounds coming from normally inaudible sources such as: ultra- and infrasounds from the planet's environment (solar oscillations, troposhere, ionosphere, earth crust, trees, etc.), electromagnetic waves captured from various sites, hydrophonic recordings, earthquakes, vulcanos, etc.. the frequencies around us seen as a net of energies, a web in which we move.. fascinating drones and electro-waves, comes with 16 page booklet
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| KÖNER, THOMAS |
The Futurist Manifesto |
DVD |
37+ min. film / projection with very strong soundtrack, a kind of meditation on MARINETTI's futurism ideas.. superslow movements of rough low end drones, prepared piano, and voices create a breathtaking atmosphere... "the ultimate 4bpm masterpiece" 500 copies made, incl. 12-page booklet featuring archive photos, libretto, liner notes and credits
|
2015 |
€18.50 |
|
|
Aubrite |
do-LP |
this is the re-issue of KÖNERs fourth album (Barooni, 1995), drones coming to the endpoint of droning, reaching the "ULTRABLACK" spere.. "Whoever understands the spirit of impartiality through ten thousand million partial tones, hears Ultrablack and can no longer be measured. No measures, no enclosures, no properties are the sign of ultrablack scores." [Thomas Köner] - comes with 2 bonus tracks, about 15 min. of extra material; for the first time on vinyl !!
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
Daikan |
CD |
the re-issue series continues with DAIKAN (2002), frozen drones of a higher beauty, with bonus track "Banlieue du Vide", previously unreleased !! => "a Japanese term meaning 'the coldest' or 'the coldest part of the year'- the ear stretches until touching the depth of time that persists in the ice; a sonic drama offers the slowness thanks to which the skin of perceptions can reconstitute themselves; icequakes awaken listeners to the frozen life without scaring them..."
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| LAINHART, RICHARD |
Ten Thousand Shades of Blue |
do-CD |
Minimal- & Drone-Kompositionen 1975-1989 von diesem US-Komponisten, zwei urlange Stücke auf Disc 1 (30 & 40 min.) mit meditativen Oberton- & Feedback-Oszillationen (auf „temple bells“ und „tam tam“ mit Geigenbogen gespielt), auf Disc 2 finden sich vier lange Stücke mit dunkleren, aber ebenso fein gesponnenen Drones. Sehr zu empfehlen für Freunde aller-ruhigster Sphärenklänge!
- Great spheric ultra-minimal long overtunic and meditative drones from this US-drone-composer!
|
2001 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
White Night |
CD |
Ein wunderschön schimmernder, fast 30minütiger Drone von 1974 offenbart sich auf WHITE NIGHT, der aus vier sich umtänzelnden, schwingenden Tönen besteht. Obwohl hierzu Sinus-Töne auf einem MOOG-Synthesizer kreiert wurden, ergeben sich Obertöne und eine "wavende" Räumlichkeit, die das ganze eher nach Gitarrendrones klingen lassen, wie ihn heutzutage STARS OF THE LID oder ULTRASOUND machen... [Drone Rec. info 2007]
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| LAMI, GIOVANNI |
मेम वेर्म [mema verma] |
LP |
a fascinating "study" of a SHRUTI box (the Indian drone instrument working on a system of bellows, similar to a harmonium), capturing the silent 'side-effect' noises of the instrument as object as well ("sampling and processing the breaths, whistles and noise produced by the reeds"), very intimate and near, a perfect mixture between non electronic drones and subtle concrete sounds... in the progression of this LP the original shruti drones become more and more audible.. lim. 300 silk-screen cover
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| LAMY, PHILIPPE |
Entre Deux |
mCD-R |
hallucinatory microsounds & drones from this painter & plastic arts sculptor from Toulouse, France, derived from field recordings and (maybe) objects.. whispering, subtle dreambient, slow & hazy..... unrecognizable sources full of tiny details, really fascinating !!
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| LAND USE / MAURIZIO BIANCHI / PHARMAKUSTIK |
Spülfeld |
CD |
an epic drone-journey into the otherworld, with mysterious sounds & drones that shift, transform & mutate all the time... minimal but never static.. lim. 223 copies, comes in DVD slimcase with printed covers & inlay, numbered... already the fourth collab release by this dutch project with M.B. (and this time with help of PHARMAKUSTIK)
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LAVELLE, BRIAN |
The petrified Forest |
mCD-R |
"Brian Lavelle recently surprised us 'Supernaturalist', and the two pieces here were recorded just before that and show the best side of his: manipulating field recordings and very much altering them into microscopic detailed pieces of ambient drones. Slowly changing patterns of what seems to be rain fall, deep bass sounds in 'The Wood Turned Dark And Silent' and more synthetic in 'This Twisting Glade', which sounds like a church organ being dissected. Very nice." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
| LES HALLES |
Zephyr |
LP |
experimental dream / ethno ambience project from Lyon, France, using here samples of lots of beautiful Slovakian fujara flutes, PVC panpipes and chimes, creathing extremely sublime and meditative breathing drones and smooth delay structures, named after the Greek god (one of the Anemoi) bringing a soft westerly wind...."the music meanders a dusty trail through mystical drone and cosmic escapism." [Theletter] comes with double sided insert
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| LEVANDER, ERIK |
Jökel |
CD |
transcendental glacier drones made from field recordings (a visit if Iceland's Mýrdalsjökull, a glacier that still hold an active volcano), analog and digital sounds, very sensual and earthy... - " sounds like experiencing an earthquake while on the bottom of a mine, lights go out, everything is thrembling, structures in the deep creak and twist.." [Hærleif] - highly recommended album by this Swedish artist
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| LEWIS, E.G. |
All Under |
CD |
the sister album to "All Over" shows LEWIS experimental and sound art passion, with four very varified tracks from 'pure sound' dronescapes over an earplay like narrative to a very long & wonderful harmonic ambient piece at the end; excellent album reminding on the great DOME works from the past
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| LIGHTBORNE, MICHAEL |
Ring Road Ring |
LP |
mysterious sounds and drones, derived from the "Coventry Ring Road", a 'brutalist megastructure' of roads surrounding the city of Coventry, captured through contact microphones attached to the pylons of it... these different kind of raw field recordings sound like the Unconscious of machines and pure concrete and reveal hissing structures, breaths, tones... "I was immediately surprised by how melancholy the ring-road sounds" [M. Lightborne] - lim. 300 with printed inner sleeve + inlay; highly recommended!
|
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| LILJEDAHL, JONATAN & DANIEL KARLSSON |
Even while the Earth sleeps we travel beneath frozen Rivers |
CD |
single & collaboration tracks by these two Swedish composers with "advanced experimental / electronic drones", massive milling-sounds, very abstract & sharp noise attacks, quite radical & powerful & recommended !
|
2008 |
€12.50 |
|
| LINDSTRÖM, MATS & SÖREN RUNOLF |
A Wonder of Beauty and Efficiency |
CD |
14 tracks of highly abstract & unrecognizable rough dronescapes between microsound and noise, by these two Swedish live-electronic musicians; recorded "live in the studio", quite radical stuff, produced by CM VON HAUSSWOLFF; still very much worth to discover !!
|
1995 |
€12.50 |
|
| LINGUA FUNGI |
Azure Beyond |
MC-BOX |
the Finnish project on a limited C-20 cassette EP with shimmering drones that caress you, created on zither, harmonium and bells; beauiful & mesmerizing structures... comes in oversized cardboard box, silk-screened printed with five inlay cards and a 'pack of incense' (15 gr.) inside, lim. 133 copies
|
2014 |
€12.50 |
|
| LLYN Y CWN |
Dinorwic |
CD |
dreamy, monumental dark ambient using field recordings from a gigantic former quarry in North Wales, the drones are ultra deep and slowly drifting, as you become part (unconsciously) of the subterranean stone landscape... "Each track is named after an area of the quarry, descending ever deeper through each rock gallery, with their acoustically unique echoes and sounds.." - second full length CD by the Welsh geomorphic ambient project
|
2020 |
€12.50 |
|
| LOCRIAN & MAMIFFER |
Bless them that curse you |
do-LP |
rare vinyl version of this much attention-drawing collab by Chicagos ambient noise heros LOCRIAN with MAMIFFER (project of FAITH COLOCCIA and AARON TURNER and guest musicians) = 7 musicians in total creating a great album between dark cinematic chamber-like music & high tension-dronescapes... lim. 550 copies, colour vinyl
|
2012 |
€29.50 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO |
Untitled # 115 |
7inch |
Deep, nearly unrecognizable frequencies, nearly smooth drones & vibes .. lim. ed. on white vinyl |
2002 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Untitled single piece 1 (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
music like being underwater, deepest possible drones, an experiment for your mind & body!
|
1996 |
€ |
|
|
Anima Ardens |
CD |
ANIMA ARDENS is the soundtrack for a dance choreography by THIERRY SMITS, performed by his company THOR in Brussels.. (years ago he created CORPS(E)-with music by NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES!!) => the 73 min. soundtrack develops slowly into realms of abstract drones, extreme frequencies, field recordings and silence, to support the trance-like practises of the 11 naked (male) dancers, reaching an altered state of their bodies & releasing a liberating space... phantastic stuff!!
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Untitled #370 |
CD |
there's no real press release for this exactly one hour long composition, but the following note exists: "contains substantial low frequencies, ultra-subtle materials, virtual sonic space, and other aural delicacies that are inaudible via laptop or smartphone speakers. Please use decent headphones or speakers." => awesome piece which uses lots of mysterious, somehow organic scrape and and scratch sounds and drones, mechanical repetitions on various sonic levels, etc.,. - outstanding again !
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
1987 |
CD |
superb 60 min. one-tracker that has been created already in 1987, only in 2022 the piece was re-edited and re-mastered to its final version => a maelstrom of vibrant drones and noises with almost intoxicating effect, probably based on wind, ocean and weather recordings, full of swirls and spiraling sounds... - lim. 150 copies only, blue folder cover w. special paper, signed and numbered by hand !!
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & DANIEL MENCHE |
Sacrificed Phloem (Zannec Line) |
CD |
For the first time both long active artists from the experimental / post industrial / field recording scene have collaborated, creating a mesmerizing one-tracker (56+ min.) with many breathtaking moments and passages from the very beginning... an incredible intense new sonic reality arises, full of surrealistic (almost psychoactive) drones capturing your whole body, taking you on a journey to the microworlds of the "more than human" lifeforms... a "Phloem" is the part of plants that transports organic compounds = photosynthates.
Lim. 250 copies
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & NOVI_SAD |
Titans |
CD |
both artists used the same field recordings (made in the Ancient Olympia region of Greece) for two 30+ min. long compositions, presented for the first time during the International Olympia Festival in June 2010; very good experimental 'transcension drones' from two different artistic perspectives... lim. 500
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & XABIER ERKIZIA |
Elektra Bidasoa |
CD |
four long pieces based on recordings from POWER PLANTS made in the Basque County - a fascinating microcosmos of machine-drones & overtunes; comes with full colour booklet, lim. 500
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, SUSANA (AKA SUSAN DRONE) |
Cronica de un Secuestro |
CD |
recommended first proper album for this Spanish sound artist (aka SUSAN DRONE) => spiraling ambience drones in the way of ZOVIET FRANCE, etc..- to discover!! "López's interest lies in the building of immersive experiences. The sounds found within "Crónica de un secuestro" then aim to act as a catalyst for the focusing of consciousness (and the altering of perception). The end result belongs to a kind of magical realism, potentially allowing the listener to escape into a new dimension..." - lim. 150 copies
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| LORIS |
The Cat from Cat Hill |
CD |
PATRICK FARMER (objects, snare, tapes), SARAH HUGHES (zither, piano, e-bow) and DANIEL JONES (turntable, piezo discs, electronics) doing improvised dronescapes, deeply layered & with lots of crackling microdetails..
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| LUCIER, ALVIN |
Dark Matter |
LP |
highly minimal / droning works merging electronics, tapes and flute drones: 'Still and moving lines of Silence in families of hyperbolas' (1984), '13 degrees of darkness' (2013), 'Double Himalaya' (2012); "I use the pure sound of the instruments, with alterations in tuning to make audible [acoustic] beating"
|
2015 |
€20.50 |
|
| LULL |
Moments |
do-LP |
expanded vinyl re-issue of MICK HARRIS ambient classic from 1998, which had 99 track indexes, now there are 100 "Moments" of humming drones that slowly chang into other, pretty otherworldly, forms... - " Staggeringly beautiful, glacial sub-bass sounds, deep ambient and thunderous tones, with subtle shifts" - gatefold sleeve with spot varnishing, ed. of 500 copies on BROWN vinyl
|
2021 |
€29.50 |
|
| LULL & BETA CLOUD & ANDREW LILES |
Circadian Rhythm Disturbance Reconfigured |
CD |
re-issue of the great / rare mCDR from 2008 (LULL & BETA-CLOUD) with a stunning subterranean drone composition (20 min one-tracker); comes now with a new remix by ANDREW LILES who adds microsound / cut up details and powerful industrial effects; very much recommended if you like mysterious drones with an industrial edge... BACK IN STOCK, better price !
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS + OGNI VIDENIJ |
Mohalociya Eroja |
CD-R |
hyper organic ghost ambience with surprising elements (a one-tracker of 47+ min.) - another collab of LADO with OGNI VIDENIJ; only 33 copies made in artful handpainted cardboard sleeve (greenish), numbered ed.... "String drones and bell chimes turn into atomized analogue crackles and rustles, sometimes pink noise and timbral waves blend in multi-layered cocoon of moss"...
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS / VANUM |
Ulm-Gra / Pelena Sna |
CD |
3 new tracks from LUNAR ABYSS (ethereal voice drones, mysterious harmonics not from this world, really sublime) and 4 tracks from VANUM based on old Soviet analog synth-sounds and psychedelic micro effects with a great droning drive, too...handmade gatefold cover (thick cardboard with stamp colour) , 3 stickers, super nice and enchanting.... lim. 222, almost 70 min. playtime
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM |
Tsagan |
CD-R |
more sound-oriented tracks in the vein of the Brusnika 7", "Lullaby and bathing songs decorated by drones and pipes, bells, breath of dawn"; numbered / lim. 108 copies in nicely printed handmade sleeve
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Uzor |
CD |
BACK IN STOCK this rare album by the shamanistic drone project from St. Petersburg, collecting chronologically rare material from the period 2002-2004 (all re-mastered), sounding like one long floating organic wave of percussive drones & hypnotic transcension-vibes, with strong East-European touch, pointing to the origins of Eurasian cultures... feat. also the two tracks from the deleted BRUSNIKA 7" from Drone Records (DR-77). Lim. 323 copies, handmade cardboard sleeve, HIGHLY REOMMENDED!!
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM / BOEVYE CIKADY / PUSTOTA |
Vetry Pamyati (Winds of Memory) |
CD-R |
three live fragments collected in various years by the three alter-ego projects of EVGENY SAVENKO who is behind LUNAR ABYSS; feat. fantastic ritualistic otherworld-drones rec. 2005 (a 25 minute piece by L.A.D.O), and ocean field recordings mixed with strange sounds...great stuff ! lim. 52 handmade / painted covers
|
2010 |
€11.00 |
|
| LUNAR MIASMA |
Crystal Covered |
CD |
psychedelic ambient-drones, debut CD album, lim. 300
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| M.B. & SOSTRAH TINNITUS |
Peripherycal Minimaltronics |
CD |
everyone who knows their first fine collab album "Concredrones" (CD, Korm Plastics 2013), will be delighted to see this 2nd cooperation - [MB: minimalwaves, electroloops and periphetronics; Sostrah Tinnitus: black magnetic tapes, old electronics,clocks, strange forgotten objects] - again we enter realms of 'nostalgic' ambient noise with far away and forgotten melodies, humming echoes, low-fi found sounds, also field recordings and instrumental sounds (piano) can appear in this dream-drone stream... great!
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| M.B. (MAURIZIO BIANCHI) |
Hibernum |
CD |
new material (three long tracks) recorded 1955/1977 ("Primaveram/Aestatem"), 1978/1999 ("Autumnum"), and 2000/2022 ("Hibernum") - there's no doubt, M.B. lives in a different space & time continuum; alien low fi drones at its best! lim. 300
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| M.B. / DEDALI |
Electro Tones |
CD |
M.B. in long-time (4 years!) collaboration with Italian project DEDALI => melancholic loopy drones with shades of acoustic sounds (piano, voice) shining through, resonating in ethereal metallic overtunes... lim. 400 in soft CD case box with Obi
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| M.B. / FRAG |
Psychation |
CD |
the dark noise project of S. R. BURROUGHS [TUNNELS OF AH] that started already in the 90's, now in excellent collab with M.B => three long tracks (76+ min. playtime) that range from organ like, complex fragment-drones to claustrophobic, grim post industrial, always dense and structured.. - " A cascade of electronic shapes that fluctuate and shift in a metamorphosis of Musique Concrete tonal expressionism... The sound of humanity as it is drowned beneath the post human neo liberal order."; lim. 300
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| M.B.(MAURIZIO BIANCHI) / LAND USE |
Neural Frequencies |
mCD |
their third collaboration, very nice ghost-drones; three track EP in fullcolour fold out 5"-cover; edition of 500 copies, BACK IN STOCK!
|
2007 |
€8.50 |
|
| MACHINEFABRIEK |
Vloed |
CD |
4 long extracts of live-recordings played 2006-2008: melancholic waves of airy soundclouds, soft immersive dronescapes, excellent stuff & recording quality, recommended !
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Daas |
CD |
collection of material coming mainly from rare / deleted releases, feat. RICHARD SKELTONs material on the previously unreleased title-track & GREG HAINES as violin-player performing. Very slow & beautiful melancholich dronescapes, recommended !
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Stroomtoon |
CD |
dense new work creating a "electrically supercharged" ambient atmosphere using glissando-drones, sinus-tones, crackles as basis..
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Stillness Soundtracks |
CD |
film-soundtracks for a series of "cinematic landscapes" filmed in the Arctic & Antarctic by ESTHER KOKMEIJER; an execution of almost elegant quietness, drones & electronics combined with classical instruments... "Instead of the original first thought of making dark, cold soundscapes, the bleak mountains of ice are now colored by lush arrangements and even quite romantic theme.." [Rutger Zuydervelt]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| MACHINERY DIRECTIVE / HYPNOSKULL |
Lobotomy Springs / Vier Geschichten |
CD |
split release by the well known Belgian rhythmic industrial project with another newcomer from Belgium, MACHINERY DIRECTIVE => the perfect combination of very loud and raw analog synth/machine drones, soggy loops, distorted rhythms that produce a real maelstrom, and hypnotic sequences that push you in a trancy state... - fabric pressed CD, lim. 100 copies only, oversized full colour cover + 2 x A5 inserts
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Lobotomy Springs / Vier Geschichten |
MC |
split release by the well known Belgian rhythmic industrial project with another newcomer from Belgium, MACHINERY DIRECTIVE => it's the perfect combination of very loud & raw analog synth/machine drones, soggy loops, distorted rhythms that produce a real maelstrom, and hypnotic sequences that push you in a trancy state... Prof. printed cassette w. oversized full colour cover + 2 A5 inserts, sticker, lim. 100
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| MACHINIST |
Viens avec moi dans le Vide |
CD-R |
melancholia / dark drone newcomer from the Netherlands; icy machine-drones combined with guitar clouds & electronic sounds, excellent !!
|
2010 |
€10.50 |
|
| MAEDER, MARCUS |
Annex |
mCD |
excellent mini-CD by this Swiss artist with a strange sound-world of minimal & micro-sounding drones... so tranquil & dense
|
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| MAEROR TRI |
The Singles |
CD |
special priced collection of all M.T vinyl. 7"es and one 10", recorded 1993-1996, re-issue as 6 panel digipak with new cover, 500 copies... "Traversing raw post-industrial noise and sublime guitar-generated dronescapes, this is essential stuff for fans of MAEROR TRI's dream-drift. and remains some of the best drone music ever made.." [Crucial Blast]
|
2020 |
€10.00 |
|
| MAGRINI, MASSIMO (BAD SECTOR) |
Vrachnas |
CD |
this is the very first solo album for MASSIMO MAGRINI aka BAD SECTOR, who impressively steps into new directions here, without loosing the typical B.S. sound completely... "inspired by hypnagogic hallucinations and presents one long track full of drones, noises, distant voices, surrealistic soundscapes, fragmented sounds..., for a real journey into the obscure side of mind." digipak edition of 400 copies
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| MAIN |
Ablation |
CD |
the return of ROBERT HAMPSONs project, known for beautiful guitar-dronescapes, now as a collaboration with STEPHAN MATHIEU => working with concrete objects (of unknown source), instruments (guitar, piano, 'ebowed phonoharp'), percussion, analog synth & Farfisa organ, they create somnambulant experimental sound-figures, slowly moving through imaginable spaces... really intoxicating! great comeback !
|
2013 |
€14.00 |
|
| MANIFESTO |
Rust |
CD |
dark catacomb-drones from Sweden with a metallic-rusty sound, slow bass pulses, overtunes, transformed field recordings... excellent, highly recommended for any dark drone / ambient industrial fan !!
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Exit |
CD |
the first album for this Swedish "monolithic drone industrial" project on Reverse Alignment, spreading very sinister rumblings, sluggish analogue drones, far away wafting melodies, slow machine-like beats and pulses, sudden noisy outbursts, roaring guitar sounds and cold tribalistic drumming, along with decaying vintage records....on 5 tracks; a must for any fan of classic COLD MEAT INDUSTRY acts.. lim. 300
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| MANINKARI |
Phantasmes |
LP |
39min. soundtrack to a film by THOMAS PANTALACCI, the adequate music for experimental visuals => visionary / surrealistic drones & instrumental fragments, very dark... 'A sensory experience between dream and reality, fantasy and eroticism, awakening and sleep'; great release by the French duo again !
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
|
L'Océan Rêve dans sa Loisiveté |
CD |
it seems the two French twin brothers can only get better and better with every release - their newest album is based on the theme "ocean", reflecting the subconscious, the oriental harmonic influence is strong and merges with repetitive drones, all acoustic; using bodhran, cymbalon, santoor, zurna, percussion... "the combination of repetition and oriental tones create a heady sound continuum providing the 10 nameless tracks with a mantra-like resonance"
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
L'Océan Rêve dans sa Loisiveté - second session |
CD |
second part! the great French duo with subtle improvisations on the theme 'ocean', reflecting the subconscious.. the oriental harmonic influence is strong and merges with repetitive drones, all acoustic; using bodhran, cymbalon, santoor, zurna, percussion; "This album with the subjective title transports us in a frenetic universe where the sea mother of idleness reigns in all power, land and sea form a vibrant balance"; beautiful cover art, ed. of 300 copies
|
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
| MARANHA, DAVID & HELENA ESPVALL |
Sombras Incendiadas |
LP |
massive minimalistic figurations, walls of string drones & vibrato distortion by the members of OSSO EXOTICO and ESPERS, created on amplified cello, electric organ, amplified violin... reminiscent of the old handmade distortion drone performers as TONY CONRAD or JOHN CALE in their most experimental moments, but this is more refined, multi-layered, a dance of string-based resonances...
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| MARANHA, DAVID & Z'EV |
Obsidiana |
CD |
live recording made in Lisbon, June 2010: DAVID MARANHA (OSSO EXOTICO) on hammon organ, Z'EV plays stainless steel discs, bass drum & maracas; hypnotic, ritualistic drones, moving to an underterminable climax
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| MAROS, MIKLOS |
Maros at EMS. 1970-1979 |
Fylkingen Records FYCD 1025 |
eight electroacoustic compositions realized at the EMS (Stockholm Electronic Music Studio) from 1970-1979 by this Hungarian-Swedish pioneer; evocative stuff combining weird analog electronic sounds & instruments, drones and vocal work...sounds still fresh & unusual, to discover
|
2012 |
€12.50 |
|
| MARTIENSGOHOME |
MGH plays Ulver |
10inch |
performance group from Brussels being active since a long time, doing ultra-dark, haunting & threatening ambience-noise, minimally reduced to its core.. slow bassy waves & sparse object effects.. filed under: otherworldly ghost-drones; comes in black sleeves with nice gloss-print
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| MARTYRIA |
Martyria |
CD |
debut album of a male/female Greek duo, diving deep into ancient religious / Byzantine atmospheres with a focus on spheric chants, amorph drones and slow percussion, but also didgeridoo and wind instruments are used... you might have the impression to take part in a religious ritual inside huge catacombs or a dome, many years ago... for fans of gothic and ethno ambience filled ritual industrial! (somewhere between HALO MANASH and DEAD CAN DANCE)
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| MARUTTI, ANDREA & FAUSTO BALBO |
Detrimental Dialogue |
CD |
first collaborative release by these long active Italian arists (ANDREA MARUTTI = AMON; FAUSTO BALBO = ex DER TOD); vivid analog drones & experimental glitch audio architecture
|
2010 |
€13.50 |
|
| MATHES, JEREMIE |
Oiarzun |
mCD-R |
the fourth published work by this promising French 'new experimental drone' artist, who uses mysterious field recordings taken from "vibrant matters of acoustic origins" and musical instruments for his long stretched transcension-drones that spread out like wind flurries in many directions, with slowly elevating overtunes like living creatures.. beautiful stuff, highly recommended !!
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| MATTIN & RICHARD FRANCIS |
Lisa Says |
LP |
transcontinental collaboration between Drone Rec.-artist RICHARD FRANCIS (also known ESO STEEL) from NZ and Basque noise improviser MATTIN, creating highly minimal & reduced drones of hissing, crackling, rasping & scraping... a very special subtle sound, somehow anorganic... numbered ed. 300 copies on clear vinyl, with inlay..
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| MAZZON, ENNIO |
Dimenticanza |
CD-R |
absolute last copies found of this first (?) rare release (it's even not listed on Discogs yet) by the Italian ambient composer, nowadays also active as ZBEEN with GIANLUCA FAVARON: floating ambient-scapes are interspersed with subtle digital interferences and noises, using field recordings and organ-like drones, still to discover! comes in handmade cover; numb. ed. 50, 5 tracks ca. 45 min
|
2009 |
€7.00 |
|
| MB / BAD SECTOR / SIGILLUM S |
Endometrio / Endometrio De-Composto |
do-CD |
re-issue of one of the true masterpieces by M.B.(originally LP from 1982 = recycling of his own material which he called "bionic music") - especially we love the 2nd long track with piercing drones and strange harmonies underneath, one of our favourite MB tracks; as as bonus you get a CD with two AWESOME 2016 remixes by two other already "classic" Italian post industrial groups: BAD SECTOR and SIGILLUM S
|
2016 |
€17.00 |
|
| MECHA / ORGA |
56:24 |
CD |
polyphonic power drones from Greece, extremly dense one-tracker, really massive at the end! |
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MEDERY, LUDOVIC |
Les Pierres Seches |
CD |
this sound artist from Belgium made recordings with different tools over a period of 6 months in a disused factory in Liege (the area was filled with life from about 1950-1980), forming three classes of recordings (he also collected objects in site and used them), and added later own electronics and effects.. the result is a complex, dreamy one-tracker (37+ min.) where field recordings, small object sounds and subtle drones merge, this creates a quite unique dimension, INTERMEDIATE REALM music..
|
2020 |
€14.00 |
|
| MELANCHOHOLICS |
Masking My Monkeys |
7" |
the german trio working on dark guitarish & very filmic sound-drones, "thick atmospheric darkness" at its best. dark blue vinyl, different coloured silk-screen covers, lim. 300
|
2009 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Solar Cafe |
LP |
the third and last, so far unpublished album by this German "cinematic post-rock drone" and Drone Rec. artist (DR-98, 2009) trio who had to disband sadly after the passing of one member => desolated 'desert' guitar-chords, deep bass drones, voice samples, flickering electronic effects, field recordings... rough & melancholic at the same time - a great legacy of this impressive band, with many beautiful emotional moments; comes on coloured vinyl (180 gr.) + download code, lim. 400
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Solar Cafe |
CD |
the third and last, so far unpublished album by this German "cinematic post-rock drone" and Drone Rec. artist (DR-98, 2009) trio who had to disband sadly after the passing of one member => desolated 'desert' guitar-chords, deep bass drones, voice samples, flickering electronic effects, field recordings... rough & melancholic at the same time - a great legacy of this impressive band, with many beautiful emotional moments
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| MENACE RUINE |
Venus Armata |
CD |
the sixth album of our most favourite "medieval harmonies & vocals vs. transcension guitar doom drones" male/female duo from Montreal, more song-oriented as before.... "If Nostradamus had spoken through NICO, the result might have resembled Venus Armata" [Pitchfork]
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| MENCHE, DANIEL |
Jugularis |
CD |
first in a series of "blood" themed releases (also the first Substantia 10" RADIANT BLOOD belongs to this), the soundtrack to a pulsing ride: the two JUGULARIS venes are two blood vessels that go from the neck to the skull )> low tuned tribal drumming and cymbal sounds with higher glass & bell drones, with a strong ritualistic / shamanistic component; a forgotten / overlooked D. MENCHE release of great hypnotic power. BACK IN STOCK for lower price !!
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Wings on Fire |
CD |
lim. 555 cardboard cover; two epic tracks of energetic Ur-drones, flickering like an acoustic Dream-Machine!
*In MENCHE’s Musik scheinen archaische Urkräfte entfesselt zu werden, die eine sehr direkte Wirkung auf den Körper haben, denn immer hat die Musik etwas extrem physisches, fast unausweichliches.. * (Drone Rec.) |
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Melting Gravity |
LP |
addictive new MENCHE release with two side-long multi layered transcension drones, completely lulling you in warm suspended, but dynamic figurations that start to radiate after a while in all directions.. just awesome!! - "The title of Melting Gravity refers to an allegory on the human pursuit of transcendence with all of its connotations to weightlessness, ascension, flight, out-of-body experiences, and just getting high." - lim. 300
|
2019 |
€21.50 |
|
|
Sleeper |
3 x CD |
a monumental three hour work made to fall asleep to, mirroring the strange condition between waking and sleeping: deep sub bass pulses and waves, organ-like harmonic layers, rough edged "chainsaw" drones with hypnotic effect, metal object clatter, all drenched in overtune resonances... NOT an ambient record to lull you in: "The ghostly frequencies that flare out of from his drones almost always evolve into sharp and blinding coronas of sound, embruing the album with an unnerving tension." lim. 500
|
2017 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
The Soaring |
CD |
THE SOARING is based mainly on the voices of JOE PRESTON (THRONES, etc.) and FAITH COLOCCIA (MAMIFFER), with additional cello sounds, a most meditative and elevating experience (a one tracker of endless 62+ min.)... - "The Soaring is a sensory experience of nitrous-grade drones and helium-weight ambience." - 300 copies, metallic colour print
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| MENCHE, DANIEL & MAMIFFER |
Crater |
CD |
first full length collab. between 'UR-energy-droner' D. MENCHE and FAITH COLOCCIA's & AARON TURNERs project: "Glacial harmonic drones expand from field recordings, church organs, abraded stone & steel, and guitars only to be disrupted by heavily hammered piano melodies that in turn are gristlized by the collective noise strategies, machines, and snowstorms. Alternately, meditative and explosive, imposing and rapturous. Brilliant through and through." [AQ]
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| MENS, RADBOUD & MATTHIJS KOUW |
2 |
LP |
second "pure drone" collab by these Dutch artists, starting from almost nothing both long dronescapes evolve very nicely into a dance of pleasant micro-waves..."..continue their exploration of long-form drone. By using precisely tuned analogue synthesis, Mens and Kouw create a rich tapestry of drones and slowly changing environments. To the careless listener, nothing much seems to happen. However, an attentive ear will reveal a rich variety of resonances and sonic artefacts." - lim. 300, DL code
|
2019 |
€16.50 |
|
| MENUCK, EFRIM MANUEL & KEVIN DORIA |
Are Sing Sinck, Sing |
LP |
first collaboration album by E.M.MENUCK (GYBE, SILVER MOUNT ZION) with KEVIN DORIA (GROWING), a must for fans of both bands! => "an antifascist poetics of sound that unspools across five crushing, keening tracks driven by thick sweeping drones and ostinatos, battered by inscrutably searching, ricocheting vocals. Anguish, yearning, and desperate conviction combine in these saturated survivalist electro-hymns, for as long as the power stays on to overload the amplifiers..." - incl. DL card
|
2019 |
€21.00 |
|
| MERZBOW + DEDALI |
L'Age d'Or |
LP |
new collaboration by the Italian project DEDALI (= ALESSANDRO BOSELLO who also runs MENSTRUAL Recordings) and MERZBOW, two side long tracks with surprisingly dark droning ambience passages...."an album that builds up at different junctures the calming ambient drones, to the interweaving of apocalyptic and tormenting soundscape of claustrophobic resonating frenzy" - numbered ed. 250 copies
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| MERZBOW / M.B |
Merzbow meets M.B. |
LP + 7inch |
first ever album collaboration by two of the most important and well known industrial and harsh noise artists => "Dissonant Abstractions" and "Surreal Distortions" are characterizing the music quite aptly, these are wall of sound drones with lots of subtle distortion and distant harmonies appearing... comes on multi-coloured vinyl and with a bonus split 7", only 267 copies were pressed in total !!
|
2013 |
€26.50 |
|
| MEURSAULT, PALI |
Stridulations |
LP |
non-ordinary noises based on: 1) recordings of insects, birds and bats made in different countries; 2) electromagnetic field sounds of prepared fluorescent tubes sonified with pick-up coils.. => obscure mixture of electronic and organic drones, lumbering mechanics, sizzling atmospherics.... very special stuff dedicated only for the advanced connaisseur of sound art !!
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| MILITIA |
The Face of God |
CD |
"God is a Dictator!" - re-issue of the deleted box-set (2015), a strong concept album with pugnacious industrial fighting against western religion, absorbing some elements of christianity (church bells, choirs) into these hypnotic noise-scapes filled with the typical MILITIA sounds of self-played percussion, vocal attacks, distorted drones, war samples, electronics... the fight is always on, resistance is always needed! Lim. 300 nice 6 panel digipack
|
2019 |
€14.00 |
|
| MIRRORRING (LIZ HARRIS & JESY FORTINO) |
Foreign Body |
LP |
drones & tears! - project of LIZ HARRIS (GROUPER) with JESY FORTINO, breathy songwriter-drone with oceanic & deeply melancholic undertones.. dark & mesmerizing, simply wonderful ! Their first album..
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| MIYATA, RYOSUKE |
In a Drainage Outlet |
mCDR |
violet drones! - composer from Tokyo who stands in the tradition of poetic or nostalgic ambience with classical / instrumental influences... four beautiful "endless moments" movements, waving, caressing, suspended, but with enough droning energy.. somewhere between W. BASINSKI and TIM HECKER, to discover !
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| MNEM |
For Delta Relics |
CD |
debut full length of the Finnish true analogue droners (known from DR-54), on their voyage again to abysmal archaic drone textures.. "Finest sonic massives emitting complex syntheses of post industrial, electro-acoustics and harsh ambience; intensive layers of drones and abrasive loops laying foundation to diverse analog sound sculptures.." - lim. 500, artwork STEPHEN O'MALLEY, BACK IN STOCK LAST COPIES!
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Engrama |
LP |
re-release of the early 10" from 2000 plus one long (13+ min) unreleased track.. "Undoubtedly calmer than the 'Golyma' LP yet still intensive experimental industrial with post-electroacoustic undertones. Organically flowing drones and hypnotic, grinding loop sounds of vintage analog sound processing via old reel-to-reel tape recorders and treatments.."lim. 270, black sleeves with cut n'pasted front and back covers; BACK IN STOCK
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| MNORTHAM (=MICHAEL NORTHAM) |
Automnal 2003 |
CD |
masterful field recording drones, our highest recommendation !! |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| MODELBAU |
Neither Nor |
CD-R |
another rare release (lim. 50 copies!) of FRANS DE WAARDS latest solo-project, analogue drones & loops and strange field recordings merge in a pretty subliminal way, with a very 'direct' approach... "These days Modelbau uses pre-recorded cassettes, iPad apps, sound effects, laptop, shortwave radio, small synthesizers, ancient 2bit sampling device; everything is recorded on the spot, as is, and without multi-tracking and very minimal editing."
|
2017 |
€6.00 |
|
| MOGARD, ABUL |
Kimberlin (Original Soundtrack) |
LP |
soundtrack to the short film KIMBERLIN by DUNCAN WHITLEY, using field recordings from the Isle of Portland (UK) = > four extremely subtle, but slowly swelling and dramatically evolving dronescapes, less raw and even more meditative as before.. once you've sunken in, it's difficult to resist these absorbing drones... the track titles are taken from the poetry of CECIL 'SKYLARK' DURSTON (1910-1996); this is the CLEAR vinyl version, lim. 500 copies
|
2019 |
€23.00 |
|
| MOGARD, ABUL / MAURIZIO BIANCHI |
Nervous Hydra / All this has passed forever |
LP |
split release of MB with hyped Serbian 'synthesist' ABUL MOGARD: amorphous, metallic low-fi drones with strange mechanical sounds shining through by MB, more harmonic synth-scapes on the B-side by MOGARD: " For 16 blissed minutes, Mogard spells out a nostalgic fantasy in creamy strokes of Farfisa organ and Serge modular.." Two side long tracks, black vinyl lim. 300
|
2017 |
€22.00 |
|
| MOHAMMAD (MMMD) |
Som Sakrifis |
CD |
Greek chamber music trio feat. ILIOS, harmonic low end cello/contrabass/oscillator-dronescape compositions with occasional chants, very heavy, deep bassy & slow... we love it! Cd re-issue of the LP from 2013, comes with unreleased bonus track, lim. 300 !
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Roto Vildblomma |
CD |
re-issue of the first CD from 2010, only 111 copies pressed!! => the Greek trio (Coti K.: double bass, ILIOS: oscillators, Nikos Veliotis: cello) started their drone journey on these 5 tracks, between the now well known deep bassy harmonic cello- & bass-drones and pure low end frequency hums and pulses, a reduction to basic vibrations that is captivating and contemplative... + at the end a surprising musical, obscure slo-mo Jazz "song", but in the MOHAMMAD style..
|
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| MOHNE, ACHIM |
Accelerated Standstill |
LP |
two side long compositions made entirely of carefully assembled 'locked grooves' (caused by dirt, etc.) found on various mainstream vinyl records - a curious LP full of rhythmic structures and musique concrete drones that are constantly shifting by this German multimedia artist, playable at any speed - a must for fans of PHILIP JECK and Plunderphonics; lim. 300 / Nr. 7 in Touchs white label series; excellent record !
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| MOHR (aka MØHR) |
Eine Form abstrakter Eleganz |
CD-R |
one of the now hard to find albums of Drone Records artist MOHR (DR-02), noisy staccato-dronescapes with fast pumping loops & strange effects, very powerful, desolated, machine-like! If you like VIVENZA or TAM QUAM TABULA RASA, this is a must! Lim. 250 in white box!
|
1999 |
€9.00 |
|
| MOLJEBKA PVLSE |
Sadalsuud |
CD |
back in stock this phantastic multi-layered multi-drone one tracker (69+ min.) CD of the Swedish project, created with diverse guest musicians and sound sources => smooth / earthy dronescapes, whispering voices as coming from an intermediate dimension, surrealistic, microdynamic and complex... a true drone masterpiece !!
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| MONNIER, THIERRY |
Temps Espace |
LP |
a very abstract and 'a-musical' work of noises, resonances, tones, hums and silences, feedbacking drones in layers, mechanical sounds, reminding on CRAWL UNIT, SMALL CRUEL PARTY, etc.. "DIY musique concrete existing outside of any academism" - first LP for this French composer, member of LA MORTE YOUNG and man behind the DOUBTFUL SOUNDS label ; comes with two postcards
|
2017 |
€17.00 |
|
| MONOCUBE |
The Rituals |
CD |
2nd proper album by the Ukrainian project => unreal, haunting desert guitar drones collide with eerie, rumbling winds, pulses and strange organic entities as coming from another dimension...9 pieces that apear like 9 different ritual spheres.. "While too many dark ambient albums sounds like echoed wind noises with an occasional bell ring, The Rituals offers something else: a full journey in the desolate wastelands of darkness. Perfection." [Heathen Harvest]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Substratum |
CD |
awesome fourth album by the now Berlin-based "transcension drone" ambience artist, whose creations appear like direct transformation of unconscious matter, the radiating slow motion expanses have an almost uncanny suction into otherworlds, filled with reverberation drones, amorph low fi winds and sparse harmonic arrangements.. "The outcome is considered as a reflection of non-verbal communication - An alchemy of mysterious spirit."; ed. of 500 copies
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| MONTEIRO, ALFREDO COSTA & BEN OWEN |
Frêle À Vide |
CD-R |
four untitled tracks of very 'brittle' minimal drones, first collaboration by the US / Spanish improvisers & soundartists = > "pure sonic matter without any harmonic or melodic consideration"', made out of walkman feedbacks, short wave radio, microphone... lim. 150 copies, six-panel cover printed utilizing archival pigment ink on strathmore paper
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| MONTGOMERIE, JO |
From Industry Home |
MC |
cassette-only release by this sound artist from Manchester, UK, creating fascinating, complex, emotionally stirring dronescapes out of audio debris, field recordings, instrumental and body sounds... "Montgomerie has a fascinating strategy to her long-form smears of blackened mascara ambient and smoldered noise.... an elegant decay amassed from the sounds of detritus" - lim. 125 prof. printed cover
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| MONTSEGUR, JEANNE / NATURE MORTE |
Restes d'une chose brisee |
10inch |
collaboration between French writer JEANNE MONTSEGUR using thirteen of her short texts in combination with the ghostly drones of NATURE MORTE - a perfect combination for a dark inner-mind trip, very well executed! Lim./numb. 191 copies, 12 different cover versions, very nice edition!
|
2012 |
€18.00 |
|
| MOORE, ANTHONY & THE MISSING PRESENT BAND |
The Present is missing |
LP |
live recordings made in Cologne 2015 by this project of the SLAPP HAPPY founder ANTHONY MOORE (who became an important figure for the Cologne music scene) with the MISSING PRESENT BAND (a kind of predecessor of the THERAPEUTISCHE HÖRGRUPPE KÖLN) => backwards piano drones, melancholic / experimental songwriting, organic / object sounds, spoken words, vibrant electronic waves... - a great mixture of contemplative drones and philosophic tones!
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| MOSER, MICHAEL |
Antiphon |
do-LP |
recordings of a site-specific sound-installation that happened at the choir of a church in Krems/Stein (Austria) in 2011, where MICHAEL MOSER used large glass sheets and metal plates that were set into vibration, creating shimmering, enormously reverberating drones... ; based on the ideas about "Atmosphere" of German philosoph GERNOT BÖHME, the sounds and the special architecture merge into a resonating organism; gatefold cover with lots of background info, a masterpiece!!
|
2016 |
€30.00 |
|
| MUELLER, JON |
Metals |
CD |
Beeindruckendes Album desPerkussionisten JON MUELLER, der das Spektrum der gängigen Drum-Sounds erweitert und auch die Vibrationen und Drones von grossen Gongs & Bass-Trommeln einsetzt. Von der Intensität und Herangehensweise erinnert "Metals" an DANIEL MENCHE, nur dass hier alles "handgespielt" ist , v.a. Dingen geprägt durch Trommelwirbel-artige Wellen, die sich mit Obertönen vermählen; genial minimal & trancig, von grosser Kraft & Intensität... - mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN - last copy!
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| MUELLER, JON & JAMES PLOTKIN |
Terminal Velocity |
do-LP |
absolutey awesome collaboration recordings by these two masters of experimental sound-transformation (drums, guitar, electronics), subtle & mysterious spatial drones, slowly developing... ; recorded summer 2011, comes with luxus-cover (gatefold), numbered ed. 500 copies. Highly recommended!!
|
2012 |
€31.00 |
|
| MUELLER, JON & Z'EV |
HYDratioN |
LP |
great collaboration by these two idiosyncratic percussionists; three long pieces of airy drones & strange metallic sounds... lim. 300 silk-screen cover
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
| MUENNICH / ESPOSITO / JUPITTER-LARSEN |
The Wraiths of Flying A |
CD |
MICHAEL ESPOSITOs "ghost" sounds (EVPs) received at the American film studios in Santa Barbara, CA, serve as basis for diverse single tracks and collaboration pieces by all three artists => intense musique concrete made out of hissing voices, crackles, rumbling sounds and drones.. lim. 300 only
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| MULTER |
Neskt |
10inch |
subliminale drones & vibrations, great 10" EP with 4 tracks, the band with HELLMUT NEIDHARDT aka "N"... |
2000 |
€9.50 |
|
| |
Basisrealität/Armutsgewöhnungszuschlag/Wolkenkuckucksheim |
3 x LP |
MULTER from Dortmund (see Drone Records DR-50) are back and what an epic and special release it is! => their first studio material in 10 years, spread on 3 albums with their own titles: minimal electronic structures, very personal spoken words, smooth / meditative feedbacking guitar drones, field recordings, object noises, deep philosophical / existential insights into the own strange reality, dreams, perceptions, addiction, depression... - lim. 100 copies only, incl. inlay with lyrics in german/english
|
2021 |
€46.50 |
|
| MUNDAL, ARE |
Nocturnal Discombobulation |
7inch |
the death ambient project from Norway with two new tracks that even reveal an extremely doomy and slowed down "Jazz atmosphere", all enriched with ghostly voices and drones this is truly gloomy and cinematic, mesmerizing stuff!! lim. / numb. 100 copies, inkl. 2 postcards, last copies
|
2022 |
€10.00 |
|
| MURMER |
In their Homes and in their Heads |
7inch |
field- & object recordings (from a garden in London, an old computer, a broken necklace) form two amazing "concrete drone" pieces: "... they take you on a trip into an other world of low drones and high-pitched noises, crunching and gritting microsounds, surprising cut-ups, all very near and clear..." - lim. 300 copies on clear vinyl, handmade cover art |
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
|
We share a Shadow |
CD |
two masterpieces of processed field recordings, almost poetic 'concrete' drones, shimmering & emotional...
lim. ed. of 300 with hand water-coloured artwork & letter-press
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Specular Reflection (Liquid Solid Redux 2000-2010) |
mCDR |
interesting concept: this is the "digital version" (digitally re-worked sound sources) of a piece from 2000 that used the same sound sources processed in an analogue (4-track machine) way... mysterious metallic drones & concrete drops, wonderful..
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Songs for Forgetting |
LP |
almost 10 years in the works, this is the first vinyl album by MURMER, culled together from various field / object recordings and his own explorations of little instruments, alone or with others... " The resulting harmonics and pastorally minimalist drones are drop-dead gorgeous, as richly sonorous as anything Pauline Oliveros and Charlemagne Palestine would compose through more conventional means." [Stranded Rec.] lim. 300 with embossed "skeleton leaf" paper cover, a wonderful edition
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| MURRAY, BRENDAN |
Wonders never cease |
CD |
powerful minimal harmonica-drones, waving & vibrating & with lots of "dirt" underneath... five recommended tracks of "advanced drones" by this US-composer on this album!
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| MURRAY, BRENDAN / PERISPIRIT |
split |
LP |
Long play split album of two U.S.-sound artists / projects: BRENDAN MURRAY works with the processed voice of NOELL DORSEY and creates spooky drones combined with dehumanized voice-sounds; PERISPIRIT move between noise collages & distorted guitar drones with excellence; a totally amazing, challenging, mysterious record, very much recommended ! Lim. 250 white vinyl, great cover artwork, too !
|
2010 |
€21.50 |
|
| MUSIC OF TRANSPARENT MEANS |
Chord from the Second Delphic Hymn |
LP |
small re-press (50 copies, numbered) of the first LP by the Australian project MOTM => awesome shimmering transcendental drones and suspended ambience, based on sampled piano, synths, cymbals and various instruments from various performers, this is really elevating... two side-long pieces "sound in and of itself, independent of cultural conditioning, sound as experienced by the child who does not yet know what ‘sound’ is" - Australia import!!
|
2023 |
€28.00 |
|
| MUSLIMGAUZE |
UZI |
LP |
first time re-issue of LP from 1989 (Parade Amoureuse) - "Muslimgauze's gem from the late 80s. Cinematic, minimal, noisy, hypnotic, and gloomy. Probably not so overtly Middle Eastern as his later works, though definitely bearing an influence. Backed by electric drones percussion forms a living, breathing atmosphere of impending menace." - lim. 400 copies on GREY vinyl with fold-out (12" x 24") poster
|
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| MVK (MATTHIJS KOUW) |
ER-1 |
CD-R |
this rising drone/minimal artist from Utrecht, Netherlands, has deconstructed source sounds from the KORG Electribe ER-1 Analog Drum Machine for this album (10 tracks, 49+ min.), with stunning result: strangely morphed and somehow 'organic' drones, granular sounds, almost bubbling quasi rhythms and metalloid overtones appear.. sounds like nothing else, absolutely to discover ! Lim. 100 copies, prof. digipak ed.
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| MYSTIFIED |
Reduced |
CD-R |
"Neues US-Projekt mit sehr konkretem field recording-Fokus, viele Sprach-Elemente, mechanische Geräusche, seltsames Rauschen & Drones werden zu Collagen verarbeitet... auf 16 Stücken extrem variantenreich, Anklänge an DARREN TATE, ORA, ERIC LA CASA..... to discover for field recording lovers!" [Drone Rec]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| N & BU.D.D.A. |
untitled |
LP |
FULL ethereal DRONE improvisation by this undergrond "supergroup", BUND DES DRITTEN AUGES are EMERGE and B*TONG, together with N they recorded a completely hazy and thick as fog session, where multi-layered low fi drones, strange sounds and pulses float together very well.. (with post-production arrangements added later); lim. 300, great cover artwork
|
2023 |
€19.50 |
|
| N [49] [HELLMUT NEIDHARDT] & SIMULACRA |
Birka |
LP |
collaboration of "N" with SIMULACRA from Belgium: much different from the raw diamonds on "Anklam", on BIRKA synthesizer spheres merge with ultra dark guitar drones in a most subtle, sublime way, 4 tracks...."slowly shifting frequencies through endless caverns, reverberating from the black walls..." lim. 100, thick cardboard covers & inner sleeves, 180gr. black vinyl
|
2016 |
€27.50 |
|
| N [XX] (HELLMUT NEIDHARDT) |
Rote Fuhr [N41] |
LP |
recorded live in Dortmund, Germany, in May 2014, 'Rote Fuhr' raises quite massive multi-layered Ur-Drones, moving from pure resonances & overtunes to endless noise-drone fields... "a symphony of brutal beauty".. lim. 100
|
2015 |
€27.50 |
|
| |
Tremonia |
LP |
TREMONIA is a place under the row of 17 railway bridges in Dortmund, Germany, the hometown of HELLMUT NEIDHARDT aka *N* : => using field recordings from this site ("those bridges are played by the trains..") and transmitting them through an amp, he simultaneously adds his typcical mind-expanding guitar drones.. great concept, three tracks, lim. 100 copies only !!
|
2023 |
€33.50 |
|
| N(36)[HELLMUT NEIDHARDT] |
Heven |
LP |
a different direction for N is established on HEVEN, gone are the deep low end drones, replaced by high pitched distortion guitar tones, still with magnetic effects... extremely minimal, ethereal, otherworldly UR drones.. lim. 100
|
2015 |
€26.50 |
|
| NAMENLOSIGKEIT |
1 |
12inch |
first 12" EP for this Dutch project (translates as "namelessness") coming originally from the experimental techno scene (also active as THE UNTITLED), diving here into totally amorph bleakness drones, where no structures exist... all sounds based on modular synths and completely analogue technology... think of SEETYCA, OÖPHOI, NORTHAUNT, etc.. EP length of 22+ minutes, only 100 copies have been pressed it seems!
|
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| NEGRU PVLSE |
Fervere |
CD |
project of MATHIAS JOSEFSON / MOLJEBKA PVLSE and ex-MEGAPTERA / PETER NYSTRÖM, their second album after 'Madeira' (2002) => dark post industrial meets atmospheric electro-acoustic drones with unusual sounds derived from field recordings (e.g. animal sounds); lim. 400
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEHIL, SETH |
Amnemonic Site |
CD |
first complete solo-album from SETH NEHIL after 5 years... secretful soundworlds derived from objects and environmental recordings, somehow a meeting of microsounds, field recordings and drones, multi-layered and not easy to decipher.. phantastic stuff again, BACK IN STOCK !!
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEHIL, SETH & JGRZINICH |
Stria |
CD |
"Fast schon beängstigend schöne Drones & 'archaic surroundings' von den beiden konkreten Klangsphärikern aus den USA.. zwischen stehenden, sich stets modulierenden Klangwolken und konkret-fliessenden Sounds...[Drone Rec. info 2002]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| NEZNAMO |
Molva |
CD |
six years after the great "Aiwyâstô" (still available) a new album by this project from Moscow: extremely suggestive "transcendental drone" muzak for the inner core self, multi-layered and most organic archaic dronescapes... - "Conceptual like before, the album consists of three sonic canvases, woven from lingering drones, rustles, resonances and cryptic spells, interlaced into a single sonic ritual." - 200 hand-numbered copies in matte 6-panel digisleeve
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| NIBLOCK, PHILL |
Four Full Flutes |
CD |
massive flute drones, great album of the US drone master back in stock !
|
1990 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Music for Cello |
CD |
3 pieces performed on cello from the 70's/80's: "3 To 7 - 196" (1974, 24 min.); "Descent Plus" (1978/1995, 22 min.); Summing II (1981, 32 min.);
as usual for Niblock drones: play it loud! comes with 16 page booklet feat. unpublished interview |
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Exploratory II |
LP |
a new multi-dimensional drone piece, written / performed by ENSEMBLE PHOENIX from Basel (Switzerland) on 11 instruments - it toook 22 rehearsals before the enlarged piece of 30 min. could be recorded in the studio (spread on two vinyl sides) => awesome deep and spectralized drones, with subtle changes appaering in waves or 'blocks', this is a true masterpiece of powerful expanses!!! - lim. 300 copies on clear vinyl with full colour inlay and DL card
|
2021 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
Exploratory I - II |
CD |
CD version that holds the complete three EXPLORATORY versions, written / performed by ENSEMBLE PHOENIX from Basel (Switzerland)=> one 30 min. studio version by E.P (using 11 instruments), one version performed on Scottish bagpipes by DAVID WATSON, and one version performed on viola / violin / violoncells by the ARDITTI STRING QUARTET => awesome deep and spectralized drones, with subtle changes appaering in waves or 'blocks', this is a true masterpiece of powerful expanses!!! lim. 300
|
2021 |
€18.00 |
|
| NIBLOCK, PHILL / ANNA CLEMENTI / THOMAS STERN |
Zound Delta 2 |
LP |
A new piece by minimalist / experimental composer PHILL NIBLOCK (1933 - 2024), co-composed and performed by ANNA CLEMENTI & THOMAS STERN. Intense, menacing layers of thick drones and alien sounds. |
2024 |
€20.00 |
|
| NICHOLS, PASCAL |
Nihilist Chakai House |
LP |
excellent album of most unusual & vivid 'solo percussion' music => PASCAL NICHOLS surprises with all kinds of drum sounds, using various percussion instruments (also made from metal), creating membran-drones, bell-like layers, or furious distorted clatter... comes on frosted clear vinyl with, full colour insert , lim. 250 on a highly interesting North-East UK based record label that "specialises in alien sounds"
|
2014 |
€18.00 |
|
| NILSEN, BJ & STILLUPPSTEYPA |
Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna |
CD |
ultra desolate hallucination drones, not from this world.. |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Big Shadow Montana |
LP |
spectral surrealism-drones, dusty ambience, almost amorphous sounds with hidden melodies & hardly recognizable structures & a somehow melancholic / nostalgic / hallucinogenic flair, always pouring out of your consciousness... already the sixth album by this fruitful collaboration-unit... limited vinyl edition incl. download code
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| NIMH |
Beyond the Crying Era |
CD |
collection of rare pieces covering a 10 year period => "Detailed with many different elements, field recordings, drones, dusty sound chunks, electronic brush strokes, all these are forming a complex, layered and deep music. The listener gets a unique descent and lift in a most peculiar acoustic roller coaster ride, inside a rather mysterious world of contradictions, in a rich and full sonic soil, watered with Nimh’s beauty and imagination; a multitude of thoughts and patterns." [Toneshift] lim. 300
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| NIMH & RAPOON |
Post-Folk Lore Vol. 1 |
CD |
first collaboration by these two (fake) "ethno"-ambience acts from Italy and U.K.=>- this album (4 tracks 62+) drifts wonderfully away in subtle echo pulses and sublime drones with emerging and ebbing sonic 'figures' and repetitive samples, truly hypnotic.... this album seems to distill and re-assemble only the best of both projects; comes in 4 panel digipak, 300 copies made
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| NO FESTIVAL OF LIGHT |
Tautologia |
CD |
the return of this Swedish post-industrial project, (known as a performer & collaborator of DEUTSCH NEPAL, MORTIIS or ORDO ROSARIUS EQUILIBRIO) - cryptic 'non-music' that creates a bleak, otherworldy atmosphere...at times pure droney, then more collage-based with vocal material, pulses, unusual rhythms & strange found sounds & samples,... excellent, real dark & opressive stuff, filed under: GHOST-drones!
Back in stock, special priced now |
2013 |
€6.00 |
|
| NO XIVIC |
Uneksija |
CD |
last copies back in stock of the first great album by the Finnish Drone Records-artist; surrealistic dronescapes
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| NOBLE, LEE |
Darker Half |
LP |
reissue of the first LEE NOBLE album from 2010 (limited MC) - four tracks of suspended low fi synth-ambient and amorph dronescapes with a loopy & repetitive touch.... lim. 300
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| NORDVARGR |
Untitled Navigations I |
CD |
Long one-tracker that clocks at almost 50 minutes length. Excellent eerie dark drones with a very floating movement & processing of sounds... one of his definite masterpieces !!- lim. 300, in folded oversized silver print cardboard package
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| NORDVARGR BJÖRK, HENRIK / MARGAUX RENAUDIN |
Anima Nostra |
CD |
collaboration by the MZ.412 & NORDVARGR mastermind with MARGAUX RENAUDIN: ritualistic percussion, mighty dark drones, shamanistic vocalizations and invocations, orchestral / sampled sounds = a powerful doomy journey unfolds on 8 tracks, inspired by alchemical and mythological ideas and principles; comes with stunning (metallic print) 6 panel cover + 8 page booklet
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| NORTHAUNT / SVARTSINN |
The Borrowed World |
LP & CD |
split album by two of the main Scandinavian dark synth & drone ambient acts, inspired by the novel 'The Road' by CORMAC Mc CARTHY, purest isolationism sounds for a post-apocalyptic hopeless world, with a special focus on sad harmonic tunes & melodies, ultra slow & endless, with a stream of deep pulses and drones underneath... the LP version lim. 300 comes with CD copy of the same album
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
The Borrowed World |
CD |
split album by two of the main Scandinavian dark synth & drone ambient acts, inspired by the novel 'The Road' by CORMAC Mc CARTHY, purest isolationism sounds for a post-apocalyptic hopeless world, with a special focus on sad harmonic tunes & melodies, ultra slow & endless, with a stream of deep pulses and drones underneath...
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| NOVAK, YANN |
Relocation. Reconstruction |
CD |
melancholic immersion drones, recordings of 'pure, moving atmosphere'; very recommended work (one long piece), back in stock ! "Novak explored the multitude of emotional states experienced during and after the relocation of one's life... Textures, tones and faint melodies drift in and out of audible perception, never standing still, always in a state of becoming and disintegration.." - ed. of 500 copies, last copies
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Paradise & Winchester |
CD |
masterful airy deep microsound-drones (one-tracker) with enough variation & intensity - basic material for this has been recorded in LAS VEGAS (!) - great new release in the series by MYSTERY SEA, dealing with "spirits of specific places", by this sound- & installation artist from L.A. ! Numbered ed. 200 copies
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Hollow.River |
mCD-R |
Drone Records artist (Drone-Mind 2 LP) with a ghostly one-tracker of highly minimal & quiet, immersive nature-drones; the processed material is based on field recordings made from a thawing river in Wyoming, USA: pure & somehow magic contemplation sounds !
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Ornamentation |
CD |
YANN NOVAK from L.A. appeared on Drone-Mind Vol. 2 LP with his slowly winding and highly resonating minimal drones, ORNAMENTATION is a beautiful one-tracker of 49 min. length, incorporating field recordings made in USA & Canada in the last 10 years... a high class experimental soundscape transforming natural and synthetic drones..
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| NOVAK, YANN / JAMIE DROUIN |
+ROOM-ROOM |
CD |
minimal soundart that sparkles from beauty -
soft minimal drones from an installation that happened early 2009 in the "Henry Art Gallery" in Seattle, WA; two long, very different atmospheric pieces (63+ min.) that also change the perception of the physical surroundings; BAKC IN STOCK !
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| NOX |
Abyssal Codex |
CD |
"Dead Archetype" = Ghostly dark ambient from Croatia (also known as AEGRI SOMNIA with releases on Cryo Chamber), the 2nd album as NOX => the processed field recordings give this an extremely mysterious and uncanny atmosphere, there's always "something going on" within these foggy dronescapes, for the perfect "cinema between your ears"... - lim. 200 in a 4 panel"digifile", 10 tracks 66+ minutes of finest black hole muzak..
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| NULL, K.K. / Z'EV |
Artificial Life |
CD |
strong mixture of surging metallic gong / percussion-drones with electronic analogue-noises.. some material is quite mellow, some has outbursting movements... no boring moments... definitely recommended for friends of both projects, but also for newcomers to discover these legends of noise and experimenation... ! BACK IN STOCK
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| NURSE WITH WOUND / OCTAVE MIRBEAU |
Alienation / Un Homme Sensible |
mCD + book |
the French mini book+mcd series continues with an NWW extract from a sleep concert, you can play it endlessly with great effect (seductive drones and female voice)... the book offers a rare text of French writer and anarchist OCTAVE MIRBEAU (1848-1917), French language only
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
| N[27] / TZESNE |
theBelt |
LP |
second collaboration by the Spanish Drone Rec. artist TZESNE with German epic droner HELLMUT NEIDHARDT (from MULTER) aka N => four absolute stunning pieces of rough & super contemplative transcension drones, combining location recordings and guitar surge waves in a great way; we love this album!! - "Expect something more dark, more heavy but also very alluring... Making you enter the old dark plant, even if you should know better... "- BACK IN STOCK last copies, lim. 100 copies !!
|
2014 |
€28.00 |
|
| O'MALLEY, STEPHEN |
Keep an Eye out |
LP |
back in stock this great one-sided LP on FIRE-RED vinyl in the GUITAR SERIES of Table of the Elements with etching on one side... "quicksilver-like" drones [Hellmut Neidhardt aka N]
|
2008 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
End Ground |
LP |
third and last part of the series with improvised / experimental solo guitar O'MALLEY drones... "End Ground" was recorded live in Paris on 18th October 2013 => "His durational meditations absorb and consume with steady- handed wave after wave of charred, sustained, and sub-harmonised chords casting the mesmerising minimalist practice of La Monte Young into the physicality of Black Sabbath’s original, heavy metal die." 2nd pressing, 250 copies
|
2017 |
€21.00 |
|
| OFFTHESKY / PLEQ |
A Thousand Fields |
do-LP & 7inch |
the highly praised ambient collaboration by the two projects from USA & Poland, finally in stock - "From the opening restrained "Ashes of America" with intermittant ominous strings through the industrial landscape of "drown under..." with it's glittering glass and harmonious drones breaking through, this work of ambient tapestry sees each artist pulling the best work from one another"; lim. 500 heavy gatefold-cover, OBI-strip, the first 300 have a bonus 7" with two tracks
|
2015 |
€32.00 |
|
| |
A Thousand Fields |
CD |
the highly praised ambient collaboration by the two projects from USA & Poland, finally in stock - "From the opening restrained "Ashes of America" with intermittant ominous strings through the industrial landscape of "drown under..." with it's glittering glass and harmonious drones breaking through, this work of ambient tapestry sees each artist pulling the best work from one another"... "A unique emotional experience in a genre usually given over to mere atmospherics." lim. 300 mini-LP style sleeve
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| OGNI VIDENIY |
Sounding Emptiness |
CD-R |
experimental electronic ambience from the very north of Russia (Archangelsk), dedicated to the notion of emptiness in the Buddhist meaning, as an endless potential manifestation of all that exists.... pulsing drones made up from pulsing / creaking / smacking analogue electronics, and pure acoustic instruments (singing bowls, bells, pipes)... comparable to LUNAR ABYSS, not really dark but psychedelic in a special way.. lim. 77 copies, great colourful psychonautic artwork!
|
2014 |
€8.50 |
|
| OGNI VIDENIY & SVETLO111 |
Synapse |
CD-R |
OGNI VIDENIY, the Russian project from Archangelsk, teams up with St. Petersburg's SVETLO111 for a phaser-swirling electro-droning ride, inspired by neuro-physiological microworlds it seems... "Three long psychoactive tracks filled with gritty analogue noise, farced with scraps of electronic signals and soaked in a syrup of harmonious drones. Despite the abrasive texture of sound and use of rather sharp effects, the atmosphere of the album is quite contemplative." numb. ed. 77 copies
|
2015 |
€8.00 |
|
| OJERUM (øJERUM) |
7 Sjaele |
LP |
seven tracks "Sjaele" (souls) with a side-long B-side of extremely calm & melancholic drift, synths drops like gong sounds, waving drones, loops and circling tones... very lonely and moody, and completely soothing... lim. 100 copies on clear vinyl (total edition 200), comes in a nice design with die-cut cover and with inlay
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| OKAGAWA, LEO |
Zapping (Station To Station) |
MC |
Japanese "raw field recording minimalist" known from two CDs on Unfahtomless, who gathered field recordings from various metro stations during the quarantine.. => "Japanese city portrait driven by metal drones and human touches and presences lurking, ghost like, beneath the delicious clatter. Carefully constructed and meticulously crafted, the sounds, like all city sounds, constantly shapeshifting and overlapping, a living collage." [MikeHoolBoom] ; lim. 90 numbered copies
|
2021 |
€9.00 |
|
| ON (SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU & STEVEN HESS) |
Something that has Form and Something that does not |
CD |
third album by this project by SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU & STEVEN HESS, this time with guest musician FENNESZ; wonderful mellow dronescapes based on guitars & drums
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Something that has Form and Something that does not |
LP |
third album by this project by SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU & STEVEN HESS, this time with guest musician FENNESZ; wonderful mellow dronescapes based on guitars & drums; limited vinyl version !!
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
| ONODERA, YUI & CELER |
Generic City |
CD |
collaboration recorded 2007-2009 using lots of different field recordings from Japan and Los Angeles - creating 4 long tracks of highly minimal, contemplative but also more concrete & rough daydream-drones for a different state of mind; first release on Will Longs (CELER) new label !
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| ONODERA, YUI & STEPHEN VITIELLO |
Quiver |
CD |
first time collab by the Japanese and US American artists, who worked with e-violin, guitars, toy piano, field rec. and synths to create quite unusual "micro-sound layer"- drones with lots of fast changing and sometimes quite melodic elements... "They built music rich with textures, loops, strange structures blurring the lines between foreground and background sounds thus making a complex and mysterious, generous and surprising music." ed. of 300
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| OPIUM |
Algorithms |
CD |
latest work by the promising italian "experimental ambient"-project of TEO ZINI. Featuring STEFANO MUSSO (ALIO DIE), great dense pulsing ether-drones.. ' "Track positions are given as 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and track titles end on a semicolon or a dot so that it looks like an algorithm in BASIC." Artwork by AUBE
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The Reborn of the Rebel Angel |
CD |
overlooked debut CD by this Italian experimental and cosmic ambience project, combining sequencer electronics with organic ethno drones and field recordings... behind OPIUM is MATTEO ZINI who was also in SOLA TRANSLATIO with STEFANO MUSSO (ALIO DIE)
|
2000 |
€13.00 |
|
| OPIUM / SOSTRAH TINNITUS |
Stain |
CD |
two of the best (dark) drone-ambient project from Italy in collaboration: deep melancholic emotion-drones, flowing & sensitive, music like melting teardrops... we think its great, deeply moving stuff !!
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORCHARD [AIDAN BAKER, GASPAR CLAUS, FRANCK LAURINO] |
Serendipity |
do-LP |
like THIS IMMORTAL COIL before, this is a project brought together by ICI D'AILLEURS to unite the talents of experienced musicians, ORCHARD consists of 4 artists performing on Cello, Clarinet, Drums and Guitar (incl. AIDAN BAKER from NADJA and FRANCK LAURINO from BÄSTARD and DEITY GUNS) who met for the first time => delicate atmospheric post-rock and drones with an oriental, ornamental flair, comes in a gatefold cover with phantastic artwork again (as known for this series)
|
2017 |
€22.50 |
|
| ORGANUM / Z'EV |
Temporal |
CD |
lim. 600 / 3rd release of collaboration series with fantastic, subtle 'transcendental drones'!
- "...hier wird man quasi in eine imaginäre Rothko Chapel teleportiert, magisch ‚beleuchtet‘ und ‚bemalt‘ mit Lichtstrahlen und Farbwolken aus Klang. Es gibt da durchaus ein Moment des ‚Kampfes um die Seelen‘, nur dass Organum & Z‘ev nichts verdammen und nichts versprechen und ihr Angebot in nichts besteht außer einer Anmutung von Intensität, die wie ein schwarzer Monolith, wie ein dunkler Spiegel da steht, auf dem, wenn man ihn behaucht, Wörter auftauchen - PERL - ATOM - POEM - MORAL - PORTAL - TREMOR." [Bad Alchemy]
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| ORGANUM ELECTRONICS |
Darcknes |
CD |
one of seven O.E. releases in a new series by DIE STADT, the sister album to "Quietude", monolithic metalllurgic walls of drones to wash your mind away... - "Think of this as being locked up in a factory, with sounds buzzing everywhere, and reminding me of the early harshness of Organum, sans electronics: dense, minimal and dark.." - lim.500
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| ORIGAMI ARKTIKA |
aBSOLuT GEHöR |
LP |
magic and charmful "ambient folk" from Norway (7 tracks), mainly based on subtle tribal rhythms and poly-layered drones along with e-bass, all handplayed and at times with male vocals, slowly gaining gracious power... "Certainly the most successful experimental folk album I've heard in a while." [Edward Trethowan, Chain D.L.K.] lim. 107 copies only , large silk-screen cover & inlay
|
2014 |
€22.50 |
|
| ORIGAMI GALAKTIKA |
One |
CD |
after many years a full new album by the man who formed the ORIGAMI-network in Norway and played hundreds of shows around the globe, mainly as ORIGAMI GALAKTIKA, => "One" consists of material from 2006 & 2014, refined deep & ethno ambient where everything drowns in long archaic drones, echoes and metallic/acoustic sounds, reminding on projects as HYBRYDS or RAPOON.....great comeback! mastered by RAYMOND STEEG (ex LEGENDARY PINK DOTS)
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORO!ORO! |
Sastingis |
CD |
magic melancholia ambience from Lithuania, softly shimmering, dedicated to the eternal winter... emotional, meditative drones using beautiful female vocal material... lim. 200
|
2013 |
€12.50 |
|
| ORPHAX |
De Tragedie van een Liedjesschrijver zonder Woorden |
CD |
first proper ("fabric pressed") CD by this underrated dutch ambient/drone/experimental project, six tracks of rough oceanic drones with cracking particles above, very minimal & hypnotic, drowning in overtune walls.. highly recommended! Edition of 300 copies
|
2013 |
€11.50 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO |
Find Electronica |
CD |
FABIO ORSI is another artist using long endless-delays / loops, like AIDAN BAKER or FEAR FALLS BURNING, but his drones are "lighter", more electronica-like so to say, the atmosphere evoked is less dark, more peaceful and calming. FIND ELECTRONICA presents 3 pieces that are maybe his most meditative & and sweet ones, perfect as background-ambience in the truest sense, using much more synth-elements as before..
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Memory of a safe Place / La Forest a non fa pura |
LP + mag |
this new series from the Italian ambient label combines acoustic & visual art: a lim. LP + large A4 booklet (16 pages) with b/w photographs of the same artist; FABIO ORSI starts the series with time-suspending dense transcension drones & beautiful forest pictures; lim. 250 copies, white vinyl
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Late Afternoon Tapes |
CD-R |
first in a new series with 7" cover by A.C. and Grubenwehr Freiburg is this new album from FABIO ORSI, who uses guitar sounds again for his ("big A") Ambientscapes: "The music is slow, with minimal changes. A few notes are hanging in the air thick of cloudy drones. The result is fuzzy and hazy music" [Vital Weekly] - "Prächtig geflammte, dröhnende Wellen und metallisch getönte Kaskaden ziehen zum Horizont, in berauschtem Taumel, seliger Drift, erfüllter Fülle..." [B.A.] - lim. 100, factory prod. CDR
|
2022 |
€8.50 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO / ALESSANDRA GUTTAGLIERE |
Giardino Forico N.1 - Napoli |
do-CD & BOOK |
a 60 page art book (17 x 24 cm) with photos by ALESSANDRA GUTTAGLIERE, all made in NAPOLI and altered with a special technique by her; the two CDs contain field recordings from the town (people sounds, airplanes, water,etc.) by FABIO ORSI with additional 'hand organ', guitar and synth-drones... "The city has passed through us like a big wave of dust carried by the wind... we found ourselves covered by debris, passing skeletons " lim. 100 copies only !
|
2018 |
€34.00 |
|
| OUTLIER |
The Top Tent |
CD |
first CD by this female/male experimental duo from Toronto, Canada, all recorded as "live room improvisations" with no overdubs: the "Top Tent" is meant as a dreamlike location where you can meditate in peace and develop new sounds & ideas... - subtle electronic patterns and drones, spheric vocals, smooth and intimate ambience with full handmade touch... reminds on some KRANKY or INFRACTION releases - lim. 100 copies, handmade cardboard cover, numbered
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| OVERTONE ENSEMBLE |
same |
CD |
Australian drone ensemble formed by TIM CATLIN, based on the sounds of his self-made VIBRISSA instruments (metal/aluminium rod instruments that are longitudinally stroked by hand to produce ethereal "singing" tones) => on four tracks subtle and microtonal, very high pitched, metallic drones are build, varified through the use of additional singing bowls, wine-glasses, scuba gongs, e-bowed guitars, etc... a very special form of drone experimentation, beautiful and demanding!
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| OVRO |
Horizontal / Vertical (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
the finnish wonder-girl of surrealistic dronescapes with her first vinyl release! lim. 300, handmade covers, white vinyl . SOLD OUT !!
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| OWWL |
Tree speaks to Stone; Stone speaks to Water |
CD-R |
rough & rusty overtune-drones based on harmonium / reed organ and subtle guitar-feedbacks - first release with four long atmospheric tracks by a promising new duo from Bonn, Germany feat. STEFAN OTTO (NEBELUNG); lim./numb. 70 copies handmade cardboard cover w. inlay
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| OÖPHOI (OOPHOI) |
Potala |
10inch |
first ever vinyl by the italian deep ambient master! Two long contemplative tracks into the center of holy places (may it be physically or mentally), opening endless spaces with low humming & reverberating meditation-drones! Edition of 500 copies pressed on luminous green vinyl, full-colour artwork by 1000SCHOEN aka ex-MAEROR TRI-member HELGE SIEHL !
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE |
Bells Studies |
LP |
five recordings / "compositions" from PALESTINE's legendary bell / carillon playing in the tower of a church in New York City, on which he performed almost daily from 1963-1970! Lovely metallic /harmonic drones & overtones; lim. 400
|
2015 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Godbear |
LP |
vinyl re-press of the BAROONI CD from 1998 (with recordings already made in 1987) which became a classic, with 3 solo piano recordings demonstrating his minimal ecstatic overtune-drones... (contains a version of his famous 'Strumming Music' piece) "an ideal introduction to Palestine's ecstatic and mysterious sound world"
|
2016 |
€16.00 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE & RHYS CHATHAM |
Youuu - Mee = Weee |
3 x CD |
the very first recorded collaboration between these two legendary minimal musicians and composers - the full 166 minutes!! - C. PALESTINE: voice, piano, yamaha organ - CHATHAM: trumpet, loop pedal, electric guitar => floating minimal drones with great effect on the mind, all handplayed and sung and slowly shifting, these are acoustically painted Drone-Mandalas !
|
2014 |
€18.50 |
|
| |
Youuu - Mee = Weee (First) |
LP |
lim. LP version of the first CD (two side long pieces) from their epic collaboration; PALESTINE: voice, piano, yamaha organ CHATHAM: trumpet, loop pedal, electric guitar => floating minimal drones with great effect on the mind, all handplayed and sung and slowly shifting, these are acoustically painted Drone-Mandalas.... comes on translucent red vinyl
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE & SIMONE FORTI |
Meditative Sound Environments |
LP |
unreleased recordings from 1971, created in improvisation at the same time when the performance for "Illuminations" happened.. shimmering drones, female voice, ethereal atmosphere, a nostalgic low fi flair.. verr nice ! *all of a sudden they were doing a new kind of jamming together. everybody in the audience loved it because it was so dreamy and they found amazing how a man and a woman can act in that strange, very dreamlike oriental way as in trance..* - lim. 365 copies
|
2021 |
€21.50 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE & Z'EV |
Rubhitbangklanghear Rubhitbangklangear |
LP |
first ever published collaboration, PALESTINE playing bells, Z'EV on drums (both rhythmic and just sounds) => very minimal, subtle contemplation drones, simple but great ! black vinyl
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Rubhitbangklanghear Rubhitbangklangear |
do-CD |
first ever published collaboration, PALESTINE playing bells, Z'EV on drums (both rhythmic and just sounds) => very minimal, subtle contemplation drones, simple but great! the CD version has two extra tracks
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| PANHUYSEN, PAUL |
Long String Installations |
3 x LP |
various recordings of PANHUYSENs "long string installations", made between 1982-2017 => not the expectable overtone drones, but quite noisy, low-fi, distorted and otherwise curious raw sounds are pelted to you, using all kinds of eleveted objects... featured are 17 so far unreleased recordings, from huge galleries and performance spaces around the world; comes in 3-panel gatefold-sleeve with printed covers and liner notes, lim. 250 copies
|
2018 |
€55.00 |
|
| PANIS, RAPHAEL |
Meta |
CD |
'Pieces pour Polivisions & Metamorphoses - Elements 1-4' and 'META - Strates 1-6' are the titles of two highly interesting compositions by the French electronic composer, consisting of 20 shorter pieces, originally created for an exhibition in Cachan (France); => highly abstract pure electronic sounds, drones, white noises, suspenseful arranged for carefully listening... recommended if you like pure experimental electronics with much variation and details!!
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| PARSICK & REUTER |
Lament |
CD |
collaboration between MARKUS REUTER and STEPHEN PARSICK going more into the classic 70's ambient direction using synths & suspended / psychedelic e-bow guitars, creating ultra spacious, ultra endless spheric drones like foggy veils, reminds on VIDNA OBMANA, etc..
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| PBK & MODELBAU |
The Dead Time |
CD |
two of the longest standing "veterans" of the noise / experimental / electronic underworld have created six fine balanced pieces made out of drones, subtle harmonics and uncategorizable amorph noises, with many details revealing during immersive listening.. - "The 'miniatures' sound like deep, personal, little moments of awakening, fermented by time, but then again appearing to be free from it:.." [Martijn Comes / Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€13.50 |
|
| PBK & ZANSTONES |
Mantis Fog Desert |
CD |
collaboration by ZAN HOFFMAN aka ZANSTONES and PBK, resulting in amazing rich & colourful psychedelic/electronic space drones, using acoustic instruments too.. lim. 500
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| PEAL GRIM |
same |
CD |
side project of Russian artist DMITRY SHILOV (maybe better known as NEZNAMO) with overwhelming, nicely distorted guitar drones, hyper minimal & full of orchestral overtunes and layered guitar melodies expressing an endless yearning... think of NADJA, 'N', or TROUM... lim. 100
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| PENDULUM NISUM |
same |
LP |
debut album of Swiss project formed by RETO MÄDER (URAL UMBO, RM74... ) and MIKE REBER (HERPES Ö DELUXE) with very dark atmospheric "gothic" drones, based on electronics and instruments like horns, organ & piano, using many field recordings from rain & thunder..
|
2011 |
€17.00 |
|
| PERISTALITH |
same |
CD |
the label from Essen, Germany, became a great place to discover new names of the international drone scene, who often use guitars as their priority instrument.. - PERISTALITH from San Franccisco performs on various (self build) objects and instruments with bows, creating at times massive, at times very harmonic and beautifully resonating "full drones", think of MUHAMMAD, TROUM, FENNESZ or DANIEL MENCHE's best drone works.. - lim. 250, highly recommended !!
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| PETERS, STEVE |
Airforms (Chamber Music 10) |
CD |
for "Airforms", 2 hours of "silent tones" from the empty house of STEVE RODEN have been used as source material, following the concept creating 'Chamber Music' made entirely from a single recording of the empty space in which they are presented => dancing bell- and chime like tones, in a marriage with lower frequency drones, permanently fluctuating and resonating like living entitites.. a one-tracker of 61 minutes from the still too unknown US composer STEVE PETERS, highly recommended !!
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
| PETERS, STEVE & STEVE RODEN |
Not a Leaf remains as it was |
CD |
a voice-based album project forms the first ever collaboration by PETERS & RODEN, with a highly interesting concept: instead of singing lyrics, they decided to use phrases from the Japanese book of JISEI (poems written by monks on their death bed), selecting them with a special method, the result: four highly intimate, emotional, improvised tracks with shimmering drones, spheric vocalizations and tiny concrete sounds from instruments and objects... no electronics used!!
|
2012 |
€15.50 |
|
| PETROGRAD DRONE GATHERING / MOSCOW NOISE MANUFACTORY |
PoluDrema 26.11.2021 |
MC |
C-90 split cassette with a condensation of two improvised "experimental/drone/ambient" concerts that happened at the "PuluDrema" ("semi slumber") event in November 2011 in Moscow with 8 hour performances: PETROGRAD DRONE GATHERING (incl. members of LUNAR ABYSS, UHUSHUHU, etc.) and MOSCOW NOISE MANUFACTORY perform the most dreamy, somniferous, vision producing multi layered dronescapes... - lim. 150 copies, fold out cover, DL card, RUS import!
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| PHALLUS DEI |
Black Dawn |
CD |
the 7th album for this German industrial band (existing since 1988) showing a wide spectrum of different approaches from rumbling earthquake noise over distorted guitar ur-drones to massive electronic industrial soundscapes with hypnotic classic or jazzy touch, feat. guest musicians NIELS VAN HOORN (LPD), PETER BRÖTZMANN (!) and MERZBOW (!), as well as JACQUELINE HAMELINK on Cello... CD version with one long exclusive track "Stigmata"
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Black Dawn |
do-LP |
the 7th album for this German industrial band (existing since 1988) showing a wide spectrum of different approaches from rumbling earthquake noise over distorted guitar ur-drones to massive electronic industrial soundscapes with hypnotic classic or jazzy touch, feat. guest musicians NIELS VAN HOORN (LPD), PETER BRÖTZMANN (!) and MERZBOW (!), as well as JACQUELINE HAMELINK on Cello... vinyl version lim. 250 with 16 min. bonus track not on the CD
|
2017 |
€22.50 |
|
| PHARMAKUSTIK |
Neurochemie |
LP |
new project by SIEGMAR FRICKE (ex D.S.I.P., etc.)=> a mysterious trip into strangely electrified futuristic drones, with lots of completely morphed & alienated sounds... recommended !! lim. 333 copies
|
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
| PHELIOS |
At the Mountains of Madness |
LP |
the 5th PHELIOS album, vinyl (+ digital online) only, standard ed. 300 copies- "...majestic atmosphere, complex dronesaceping and deep cushions of textural shamanic percussions...This is channeling the unimaginable and connects with the cubes and subterranean caverns of echoing, vaporous, wormily honey-combed mountains of madness." |
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| PHILLIPS, TOMAS |
Chuchoter pas de Mots |
CD |
newest work by this composer and novelist from the US known for his early CDs on trente oiseaux and LINE; "Chuchoter pas de Mots" is a fascinating piece using very dense and focused drones, whispers, sudden instrumental sounds and emerging sharper frequencies, creating lots of tension and always requesting your full attention and mindfulness... lim. 250 copies, comes with 12p. 8" booklet with paintings by RICHARD DI SANTO, photos by STEFANO GENTILE and an essay by T. PHILLIPS
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHILLIPS, TOMAS / JASON BIVINS |
Blau |
CD-R |
first collaboration release by these two US-composers; strange minimal "advanced drones" and strong "concrete" atmospheres inspired by the work of painter BARNETT NEWMAN and the philosopy of SPINOZA; ed. of 250 copies, professional design, another very good release by this label from Los Angeles
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| PILEWICZ, ANNA & RAFAL IWANSKI (X-NAVI:ET) |
Aqualuna - Alchemical Transformation through Vision and Sound |
CD + DVD |
very nice collaboration between the HATI-member RAFAL IWANSKI (aka X-NAVI:ET) and Polish visual artist ANNA PILEWICZ, who transforms the organic / electronic drones into dreamlike organic visions connected to water & the Moon (DVD playtime: 40+ minutes), visuals like moving & colourful RORSCHACH-tests, a face of a girl under water, dissolving organic structures... to discover !!
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| PILIA, STEFANO |
The Suncrows Fall and Tree |
LP |
The Italian musician, known from 3/4HADBEENELIMINATED (with VALERIO TRICOLI and CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI ) and other projects, with his splendid "experimental drone" solo album from 2006 (CD on Sedimental), interweaving electronic & instrumental drones & field recordings...- "Pilia’s subsonic drones are a thing of beauty; pulling in and pushing the listener away simultaneously, keeping him or her in a constant state of limbo." {Foxy Digitalis] - lim. ed. 300 copies
|
2020 |
€27.50 |
|
| PINK VENOM |
Waste of the World |
CD-R |
dark & massive guitar drones from this member of SYRINX; very minimal & absorbing, excellent stuff! lim. 80
|
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| PITRE, DUANE |
Live at the Stone. ED09 for String Ensemble |
LP |
a 'long-tone' composition for at least 12 performers (strings / woodwind players) & bowed e-guitar, working out micro-changing harmonic drones, composed and arranged by US minimal composer DUANE PITRE => "The result is a piece of music that is focused, yet fluid, minimal, yet dense - yielding a sound that is not unlike slow-motion chamber music"; lim. 350 copies, BACK IN STOCK
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| PLAYING WITH NUNS |
Frolicking through the Meadow |
CD-R |
repetitive mechanized "breathing" noise-ambient structures with great effect & more quiet bassy dronescapes; another recommended disc on DARK MEADOW by this very active Argentinian artist
from Buenos Aires |
2011 |
€6.00 |
|
| POTTER, COLIN & PHIL MOULDYCLIFF |
Grey Skies on Asphalt |
CD |
warehouse found: for this collaboration, COLIN POTTER used the audio field recording sources from PHIL MOULDYCLIFF (street scenes, church bells,etc.) to create 7 movements of mysteriously droning bliss, exploring the nice contrasts between pure concrete material and slowly waving drones... we can listen to this in endless repeat modus, true ambience... 52+ min, playtime, lim./numb. 300, special cover, very last copies !!
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| POTTER, COLIN & THE HAFLER TRIO |
A pressed on Sandwich |
CD |
the only collaboration work by the two pioneers of experimental drones from UK! => COLIN POTTER reworks H30 sounds into a 53 min one-tracker, a glittering, oscillating overtone soundstreams inviting for full contemplation, a morphing glass-drone that takes your mind away.... special cardboard cover & booklet / one-tracker 53 min / lim. 1010 copies
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| PRIME, MICHAEL |
Requiem |
LP |
highly recommended album by MICHAEL PRIME, creating ghostly, otherworldy drown-drones with rich details and an unbelievable width and absorbing atmosphere; feat. GEERT FEYTONS (NOISE-MAKER's FIFES) and LEN LYE; back in stock the only LP of MICHAEL PRIME, lim. 700 gatefold-cover with insert
|
2002 |
€15.00 |
|
| PROCER VENEFICUS |
How the Heather Moonlit Shivers |
do-LP |
this is the first epic vinyl release by this US American dark folk / dark poetic ambient project => acoustic guitars, amorph drones & whispers, melancholic tunes, but this also has a very sensual, erotic, night-shade coloured side... incl.a cover version of an AMBER ASYLUM song; comes in a stunning gatefold cover on RED vinyl, lim. 406 copies
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| PROXENUS / GLOWING PIXIE |
Elapidae |
maxi-CDR |
GLOWING PIXIE (member of SYRINX) remixes PROXENUS material for an almost 30min one-tracker of mysterious dark dronescapes, subtle & mesmerizing; as everything from this label, very much recommended for drone-lovers!! Lim. 80 copies full colour cover
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| PUHBAH BABA |
same |
MC |
debut tape for a promising experimental drone / sound / noise project from Southern Germany (Allgäu), electronic low end bass drones and pulses appearing in very slow movements and fragments, gradually some kind of structures and harmonic levels are build, found vocal sounds, slow motion beats and other processed (ethnic?) noises join into the low fi muzak, always subtle and mysterious... a very nice tape, to discover!
|
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| PURE & ULTRA MILKMAIDS |
s[E]nd |
CD |
re-stock of this nice collaboration by ULTRA MILKMAIDS with Austrian DJ & electro droner PURE (aka PETER VOTAVA), with warm, harmonic & atmospheric digital dronescapes with concrete elements, meditative & strange at the same time.. 7 splendid tracks, special offer !
|
2000 |
€8.00 |
|
| QUELLET, ISRAEL |
Sounds from there |
CD |
already the 4th album for the Swiss composer (* 1972) on Sub Rosa - a complex and dynamic work in 5 parts for "symphonic bass drum, symphonic tympanies, organ, tibetan horn, homemade horn, triangle, tubular bells, shocks inside the church, anvil metal tank and church bells"; these acoustic instrumental sounds are arranged in a very structured and often rhythmic way, with heavy orchestral drones and almost ritualistic / martial power...
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| QUEST |
(an) Exterior |
MC |
rare cassette (C-60) by FRANS DE WAARD's channel for "vintage analogue" ambience, think of early 80's dark synth music (COLIN POTTER, etc.) - "Deep synths passages, small shimmering melodies, vast drones, mildly processed field recordings, it is all one long, spacious journey of one of the unique voices in experimental music..." - lim. 50 copies with full colour fold out cover; CD version on request !
|
2021 |
€9.50 |
|
| RADIGUE, ELIANE |
Transamorem Transmortem |
CD |
back in stock this previously almost unknown work from 1973, performed at \"The Kitchen\" in New York City in 1974 => a 67 min. one-tracker with very minimal meditation drones using the ARP synthesizer, slowly changing pure contemplation sounds! Comes with archival pics & images & liner notes by RADIGUE specialist EMMANUEL HOLTERBACH
re-press 2018!
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Occam Ocean 3 |
CD |
three more compositions in the series of collaboration pieces, here performed by the three string players DEBORAH WALKER, SILVIA TAROZZI and JULIA ECKHARDT, these drones arise from a very special creative concept (almost no written notes, using water-based forms, etc..) and were recorded at a monastery in the mountains of Italy; comes in special package with 32 p. booklet - "This is music that resists remembering.... only an indelible atmosphere of sonic transformation."
|
2021 |
€25.00 |
|
| RAGLE GUMM |
2nd |
mCDR |
experimental dronescapes from an anonymous project, a very good one-tracker with surprising cut-ups & powerful polyphonic waves..
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| RAPOON |
Messianicghosts |
CD |
amorph dronescapes coming from alien dimensions & hypersphere loops; re-issue of much requested Klanggalerie CD from 2002 (contains the rare & great CDR of same title (Syntactic 1997), plus the "Birethen" 7" (1995, Syntactic) and two previously unreleased tracks); lim. 430 copies only, comes with two full colour postcards
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Messianicghosts (special edition) |
CD |
amorph dronescapes coming from alien dimensions & hypersphere loops - SPECIAL EDITION in closeable linen bag, numbered ed. 70 copies only, comes with 5 original photos and Nepalese incense sticks! very few in stock!
|
2011 |
€25.00 |
|
|
Moon and Cups Series # 1 |
7inch |
rare 7" (lim. 100 in total) on this label from Hongkong, two tracks filled with hallucinogenic ethno-drones, exotic flute-sounds & rhythms, strange voices... gives you the full "early ZOVIET FRANCE" feeling; great but expensive EP! clear vinyl & two colour postcards included
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Blue Days |
CD |
RAPOON is productive as ever so this is already the fourth album with new studio material for the Polish label in 4 years: on 60 minutes 14 tracks spread with 'sketches and ideas' that form a wholeness together, relying on the typical sound ingredients (sampled choirs, percussion, exotic drones) but sounding here much more melancholic, slow, and less floating and shimmering, and we also hear Mr. STOREY singing... a winter album that slowly enfolds... lim. 500 oversized gatefold-cover
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Wanderlust |
CD |
10 appealing tracks feat. Russian folk singer TATYANA STEPCHENKO who was already present on "The Library of the Dead" => enchanting loops, drones, beats and vocal echo-rooms.. ".. the endless yearning, the search for questions and for answers, the horizon ever drawing onward with the lure of what lies beyond. The pull of the mountains and the deserts and the infinitive light of the stars, shining from the distant past. We travel.." 70 min. playtime, 400 copies digipack
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Vernal Crossing |
do-LP |
first vinyl re-issue of RAPOON's third (or fourth?) album from 1993, masterful rhythmic & tribalistic, with endless tabla-drummings, chants, echoes, oriental harmonies & drones, defining the typical hypnotic RAPOON sound... the re-mastering for vinyl was done by COLIN POTTER, who also edited the new bonus track / remix included here; lim. 500 copies
|
2020 |
€26.00 |
|
| RAPOON & LORDS OF INFINITY |
split |
CD |
on this split CD (67+ min.) ROBIN STOREY returns to a very ritualistic and shamanistic approach, loopy & hypnotic and using guitar sounds... the five RAPOON tracks fit perfectly to the two long pieces from newcomers LORDS OF INFIINITY, a male-female duo who create wonderful multi-layered drones with extreme transcendental flow and instrumental sound sources, on two long pieces.... "We believe that music incarnates pan-unity" - ed. of 500 copies
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| REFORMED FACTION |
Vota |
CD |
"We are like Angels falling down" - the very first album of the project that was first called REFORMED FACTION OF ZOVIET FRANCE (formed by ROBIN STOREY, MARK SPYBEY and ANDY EARDLEY), which had to be re-named later, now fully re-mastered: "fliessende ethno-drones, Stimmenverfemdungen, Kaskaden von Effektprozessorklängen, eine trancig-transzendentale Atmosphäre, die zum versinken einlädt, aber stets von einem Geheimnis durchdrungen scheint...." [Drone Rec.]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| REJECTIONS |
Clone EP |
MC |
recommended newcomer from UK (?) doing electro pulse-drones in the way of AUTECHRE or MIKA VAINIO; lim. 100 in nice oversized (double) MC box
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| RESGESTAE |
Etat d'Urgence |
CD |
debut CD album for this society-critical / intellectual post-industral project from Athens, Greece, influenced by the works of BURROUGHS, NIETZSCHE, A. HUXLEY, etc..: low distortion drones, rhythmic elements & lots of speech and voice samples form a cinematic industrial soundscape reminding on PROPERGOL or POST-SCRIPTUM; dealing with "media control, the deep state, technoscience and biotechnology"; lim. 500
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| REYNOLS |
Fire Music Reloaded |
CD |
FIRE MUSIC appeared in 2003 as a maxi-CD and could be seen as a sister-release to the famous "10.000 Chickens' Symphony" 7", we wrote: "Neben der Erschaffung eher psychedelisch-obskurer Improvisationen betätigen sich REYNOLS auch als Sound-Konstruktivisten erster Güte.. " - this re-issue contains the FULL version of the recordings and re-workings, pure fire sounds, ranging from whispering hisses to deep monumental drones... lim. 200
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| RHUCLE |
Beautiful Fragments |
mCD-R |
this artist from Tokyo combines peaceful electronic drones with smooth field recordings, the whole moves over you in gentle, ultra-slow washes of sound... the calmness that is spread reminds on acts like CELER, or MIRROR.. 3 tracks, 22+ minutes
|
2018 |
€5.00 |
|
| RICCI, MASSIMO |
Tracey Feels Worse |
CD |
known for his high quality review blog ("composing with words") TOUCHING EXTREMES, Italian MASSIMO RICCI publishes his very first release, based on original recordings made in 1984 (!), that were transformed again and again, to end in a dark and ominous one-tracker with sounds that seem to come from the deepest abysses, shaped in endless spirals and circles... minimal but endlessly morphing and moving, a mysterious stream of drones.. - lim. 150 copies
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| RIPARBELLI, PIETRO / K11 |
Three Days of Silence. The Mountain of the Stigmata |
CD |
processed field recordings made in the monastery of La Verna in Arezzo, Italy, radiating a magic atmosphere of dreamlike contemplation: monks, organ-sounds, mumbling voices, nature-sounds, all drifting from far away... psychogeographic fog-drones of a higher beauty! the original field recordings for the album plus diary notes are to be found on the label website
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| RLW |
Agnostic Diaries |
CD |
highly abstract, unwieldy 'audio mind-scapes' full of demanding breaks and cuts, drones and weirdest sounds, voice processings, etc... extremely dynamic ! - RALF WEHOWSKY aka RLW proves he is still very capable of creating the most adventurous tunes and moods, MIRABILE DICTU! - "Upon repeated listening, there is every time something new to be found in this." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Satanic Inventions |
CD |
This album is the result of Ralf Wehowsky’s (aka rlw) critical examination of COVID-19 as a cultural phenomenon and a comparison to the black plague of the Middle Ages: "Denial of reality, conspiracy theories, searching for scapegoats, etc." = a true festival or irrationalism, telling us more about the human mental state than about the pandemic. Condensed by rlw into 15 tracks, a challenging journey of heavy de-constructions, trans-morphed drones, and treated source sounds = surrealistic musique concrete!
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROIGK, STEFAN |
The Rising of Matteo |
CD |
"Bus Stop At The Dream Passage" - like an acoustic theater piece, STEFAN ROIGK connects field recordings with sounds from his installation works to a very intimate, droney collage...- "The hypnotic swarms of organic chants; cascades of rustles, rattles, and drones; short cracklings and scratches; and moments of exhausting compression or restful silence generate a rousing maelstrom of fragmented narrations with expressive gestures." = enchanting goose bumbs music, highly recommended!!
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROIGK, STEFAN / FROMBERG, DANIELA / CLAUDIA HINSCH / PIT NOACK |
Habitat |
CD + leporello |
these four (sound) artists built a wondrous installation in Hannover at Galerie Kubus (Nov. 2018) with four sculptural "positions" in a large hall that were interconnected in many ways - also soundwise - like in a biological system a complex entanglement was produced, without centre...the obscure sculptures made from paper, foam, wood, ceramic, silicon, etc. build this soundtrack of drones and tiny ASMR micro-sonics.. comes w. large fold out cover w. many pictures and infos, very nice!!
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROSENQVIST, DAG & RUTGER ZUYDERVELT |
Vintermusik |
CD |
re-issue of this stunning (mail)-collaboration from 2006 by the artists known as MACHINEFABRIEK and JASPER TX, who create a subtle, introverted 'breathing ambience' based on guitar drones, organ like sounds, piano, field recordings; lim. 400, comes with 23+ min. bonus track (the rare mCDR 'Feberdröm' from 2007)
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| ROSS, LESLIE |
Drop By Drop, Suddenly |
do-CD |
if you're into the ultra minimal drones of E RADIGUE or P. OLIVEROS, it's high time to discover LESLIE ROSS! => this is the very first release of works from this Bassoon (Fagott!) player, starting with shorter tracks that are very dry & concrete, followed by longer, multi-layered, smooth & contemplative ones..."An instrument builder, inventor and skilled player who lives surrounded by canaries and cats, and produces valhallas of tones, microtones and illusory tones from a single source." [Massimo Ricchi]
|
2018 |
€17.50 |
|
| RUHLMANN, MATHIEU |
Somne |
mCD-R |
Sehr sparsam “instrumentiert”, aber mit Sinn für jedes Detail, dieser neue „Ether-Core“-one-tracker des Kanadiers auf TAALEM...Add drones, subtle sounds and here's the result : a 20min long track, very calm, ambient, dark but luminous in the same time, cold and refreshing. Perfect for the winter !” [label info]
- new ed. without jewel-case!
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
This Star teaches Bending |
CD-R |
extraordinary conceptual field recording album made from sounds of the human body of MATHIEU RUHLMANNS mother (!) (with additionals from medical equipment & location recordings) who was diagnosed a rare malicious lung desease; astonishing micro-sounds, very reduced and concrete...forming slow granular drones after a while.. think of JOHN HUDAK, DALE LLOYD, JGRZINICH.. lim. 200
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| RV PAINTINGS |
Samoa Highway |
LP |
second album for this Canadian Psych-Ambient duo (feat. one member of STARVING WEIRDOS), vast atmospheric "magic moment"- dream drones for fans of LABRADFORD or STARS OF THE LID, etc. ; lim. 500 incl. download code
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| RÖNNQUIST, ANDREAS |
Paracusia |
MC |
this Swedish newcomer produces ultra minimal drones (based on processed guitars, but you can barely hear that), creating the impression of complete timelessness, of an everlasting atmosphere.... like a bath in cotton wool, gentle and a bit raw at the same time, full of comfortable hissing and resonances... "Paracusia" denotes a form of auditory hallucination (=perceiving sound without auditory stimulus), a very fitting characterization! - C-40, lim. numb. 50 copies only!
|
2021 |
€8.00 |
|
| S.E.T.I. |
The Geometry of Night |
do-CD |
re-issue of the second S.E.T.I. album from 1996 with its classic rhythmic sci-fi ambient sound, comes re-mastered and with additional sister album 'Companion' with over 60 min. of new material, with deep space transmission drones, digital glitch noises and crackles from the far beyond, not too far away from the typical BAD SECTOR sound...
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| SAKELLARIOU, YIORGIS |
Nympholepsy |
maxi-CD |
the Greek composer and field recording artist, known also as MECHA:ORGA, with a piece using captured sounds from the ancient ruins of Messene in Greece, combined with the voice of singer SAVINA YANNETOU => the result is a challening sound art collage (23 min length) made out of vocalisations, drones, and strange object recordings, made for captivated listening! (think of HAFLER TRIO,etc.)
|
2019 |
€8.00 |
|
| SALAKAPAKKA SOUND SYSTEM |
Barbed Wire Boogie |
MC |
the Finnish project with a powerful, crude release, where industrial drones & pulses are set against aggressive voice samples, baby screams, an Icelanding poem found somewhere, a shitty folksong, etc.. very varyfied and inspired stuff, this isn't the usual industrial noise! C-40, lim. 50 copies
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| SALOMAN, GABRIEL |
Movement Building |
do-CD |
a double CD containing all three volumes of "Movement Building" released on LP before, a wonderful suggestive work for dance by the ex YELLOW SWANS, incl. bonus material ; "Saloman has taken the sweeping drones and fried electricity of his former band and embedded them within an expanding pallette of bowed strings, martial percussion and resonant piano."
|
2017 |
€17.00 |
|
| SANSON, GIL & BRUNO DUPLANT |
Blank |
CD |
a French-Venezuela connection arises on "blank" when distant site specific ghost drones merge with breathing instrumental sounds and local field recordings.... lim. 200 with additional postcard on 300 gr. satin paper
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| SANTOS SILVA, SUSANA / HAMPUS LINDWALL / TORBJORN ZETTERBERG |
Hi! Who are you? |
LP |
high class improvisation, kind of "jazzy post industrial / avantgarde" soundscapes by these there players: SUSANA SANTOS SILVA: trumpet ; T. ZETTERBERG: double bass, electric noise ; HAMPUS LINDWALL: pipe organ / live electronics; their second encounter after the "If Nothing Else" CD from 2015, with a full step forwards including electronic drones and sounds.. lim. 300 - ORANGE vinyl
|
2019 |
€23.00 |
|
| SASAJIMA, HIROKI |
Bells |
CD-R |
nice new work (one-tracker) by this drone-minimalist from Tokyo: dark metallic drones, hyper-minimal and overtune-radiating.. on a new label from Buenos Aires ! To discover !!
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| SASAJIMA, HIROKI & TAKAHISA HIRAO |
Hidden Bird's Nest |
CD |
processed field recordings of "the living things and the feeble vibrations" made in the mythical Togakushi mountains in Japan; subtle drones & animal sounds, atmospheric hiss & the crunching of footsteps... all very pure & clear, for the most conscious contemplative listening... lim. 300
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| SATO, MINORU (M/S, SASW) + ASUNA |
Tottering Steps |
7inch |
MINORU SATO (aka "m/s", known from releases on Senufo and SPEKK) and ASUNA (who had a 7" on Meeuw with the sound of 100 toy keyboards at the same time) in collaboration again, creating multiple layered drones with a cryptic technical concept through casio-synths, AIR COLUMN RESONATOR und HELMHOLTZ resonator... "and there is some great interaction between all those resonances produced, keys of keyboards taped and motor being picked." [Vital Weekly]
|
2019 |
€7.00 |
|
| SAVY, PASCAL |
Simulacra |
CD |
first album on Cyclic Law for this French artist living in London, UK - "Simulacra" excites with very powerful drones, multi-layered and intense, additional pulses, strokes and noises.... there's a very eerie and violent undertone present.... the 7 tracks are influenced by JEAN BAUDRILLARD'S idea of "simulacra + simulation", and pressured through the desolation living in a "period echoed by ideas of political, social and cultural disintegration" - lim. 300
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| SCATTERWOUND |
T.L. (Trilogy Live) |
3 x CD set |
HELLMUT "N" NEIDHARDT and DIRK SERRIES in full length concert collaborations, three performances from three festivals 2017-2019 (Platzhirsch, Roadburn, Moving Noises), slow moving guitar drones as sculpturals, psycho-active figurations... lim. 150 copies only - reverse board printed sleeve / 6 panel digisleeve
|
2023 |
€26.00 |
|
| SCHAEFER, JANEK |
Unfolding Luxury beyond the City of Dreams |
LP |
seven new very atmospheric tracks by the British composer who originally studied Architecture, majestic drones & ambient vinyl loops slowly unfolding with ocassional field recordings or 'concrete' additions, often created with a concept for an installation or exhibition... very nice cover-artwork too; mastered by STEPHAN MATHIEU
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| SCHICKERT, GÜNTER & PETER UNSICKER |
Mauerharfe |
LP + CD |
historic art & audio-installation document for the 30th anniversery of the fall of the Berlin Wall => cathartic recordings from 1990 made in Berlin, where SCHICKERT & UNSICKER used a part of the Berlin Wall as a "harp" (with piano wires), performing on the scrap metal parts, creating metallic drones, bass tones, circling noises & rhythmic clusters, to tell the "story" and basic tone of the Wall that stood there... comes with extensive 4 page 12" booklet, + bonus CD with extra 30 min track, lim. 200
|
2019 |
€22.50 |
|
| SCHWARZ, ROBERT |
The Scale of Things |
LP |
"Die Natur ist das einzige immerwährende Menschenunmögliche" - multilayered 'musique concrete' drones created from nature recordings, following only the compositorial settings of nature / chaos, with a special focus on unheard hidden details.. great LP with phantastic floating yet 'concrete' sound layers by this soundartist from Vienna, lim. 300
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| SCORN / SEEFEEL / TIMOTHY LEARY / YANOMAMI |
Ancient Lights and the black Core |
LP |
vinyl re-issue of the ground-breaking compilation from 1995, linking the post-industrial tribal electronica beats and drones with ritual chants of the famous Amazonian tribe (Yanomami), and words of the "neuropolitics" pope TIMOTHY LEARY (with DJ CHEB I SABBAH)=> everything seemed possible, the unification of post modern culture with ancient knowledge and rites.. inc. inlay with an essay by British music ethnologist DAVID TOOP, comes on clear/black marbled vinyl
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
| SCOTT-BUCCLEUCH, RUSS / SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSSON / ANDREW SHARPLEY |
Mask of Cheerful |
CD |
highly experimental nine collage works (55 min) = all kinds of field recordings, object sounds, instrumental / voice sounds (+ reaktor synths) were collected and at the end mixed by ANDREW SHARPLEY, the long active British experimentalist once in STOCK HAUSEN & WALKMAN; it's fascinating how very concrete snippets collide with electronic sounds and micro-drones, always in search for the truly anomalous arrangement; very much recommended for discoverers of the non-ordinary!!
digipack with weird collage pictures, probably pretty limited
|
2021 |
€14.00 |
|
| SEETYCA |
Bleakscapes |
CD |
finally a proper CD-album by this German dark / deep / cosmic ambient artist known from the Drone Records 7"; extreme vast spaces, emotional drones, interesting sounds, perfectly arranged! Recommended for any dark ambient lover ! Lim. 300 copies!
|
2011 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Dühringa Aorta |
CD-R |
wonderful SEETYCA-album from 2005 now available in a "handmade" CDR-edition: sounds as being inside a blood-circle, mysterious pulsations & drones..
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Klangschafft I: Weite |
CD-R |
71+ min. one-tracker with amorph fog-drones that makes you feel elevated thousands metres high above the surface of the earth...
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Zwischenwelten |
CD |
this release shows SEETYCA further exploring and enhancing romantic 'intermediate worlds', for the nine compositions diverse guest-musicians (THOM YEESLAND, JULIAN ECKSTEIN, KRIS CAELIS) helped and many 'real' instruments were used (ocarina, zither, acoustic guitar, trombone), forming gracious, deeply multi-layered drones full of beauty and width, with tiny sounds and micro harmonies appearing.... definitely one of his masterpieces, 79+ min. playtime
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Remnants of Silurian Beauty |
CD-R (MP3!) |
extended MP3 - edition (108+ min. playtime) of this long, dark meditative piece setting the listener into a pre-historic aeon, using lots of animal samples and metallic drones, bell sounds and coirs; a wondrous, mysterious piece and atmosphere... this extended edition has 30 min. bonus material (two pretty experimental pieces with studies of the same basic material) not on the first edition; comes with laminated colour cover & hand-labeled CD-bodies
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Dühringa Aorta 3 |
CD-R |
five years after pt. 2 this is the third part in the favored "Dühringa Aorta" series, again all seven tracks are based entirely on voices (by seetyca himself, MARI SOLARIS, and the OPEN VOICES CHOIR, Hamburg) - ultra spheric voice drones and walls merge with digital sounds and arrangements.... comes with laminated colour cover & hand-labeled CD-bodies
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| SELAXON LUTBERG |
Cold House of Love |
CD |
highly emotional & melancholic dronescapes from this Italian project - slow & sad nostalgia ambience.... debut CD !
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Simboli Accidentali |
LP |
third full album by this ultra spheric melancholiac from Italy, these nostalgia drones are made from effected guitar, organ and self-made loops, creates a wonderful mellow & sad atmosphere ... reminds on LABRADFORD, STARS OF THE LID, WILLIAM BASINSKI.... lim. vinyl version
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| SERRIES, DIRK |
Microphonics XXI-XXV |
do-10inch & CD |
subtitled: "mounting among the waves, there's a light in vein, the burden of hope across thousands of rivers" = 4 new long tracks of multi-layered guitar ambience & drones, very refined, orchestral & beautiful; lim. vinyl version w. gatefold-cover & CD of the same album; numbered edition (300 on black vinyl)
|
2013 |
€27.50 |
|
| SERRIES, DIRK / RUTGER ZUYDERVELT |
Buoyant Live |
LP |
live version (semi improvised) of their "Buoyant" album, performed live at the Incubate Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands, Sept. 2015; this was also the very first time both artists (also known as MACHINEFABRIEK and FEAR FALLS BURNING) were together as a duo on stage.... exquisit guitar drone waves, subtle microsounds, layers of loops = 2 experienced artists knowing how to create organic, shimmering drones and swirling electro-clouds.. numb./lim. 300 copies with huge poster-cover
|
2016 |
€19.50 |
|
| SHIBALBA / BLACK SEAS OF INFINITY |
Mahakala |
CD |
another split album which contains one long SHIBALBA track (dark drones and evocations with ritual drumming, very nice), plus three pieces by the ex black metal band from the U.S. who turned into ritual ambience... the whole album is meant as a glorification to the godness Kali; lim. 300
|
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
| SHINE ON ME / KAZUYA ISHIGAMI |
It happened one Night |
CD |
split release, each 4 tracks by ISHIGAMI & SHINE ON ME / refined digital ambience & loops that reminded us on ASMUS TIETCHENS or more digital ULTRA MILKMAIDS... SHINE ON ME (also from Japan) do very peaceful meditation-drones... to discover !
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHIROTSUBAKI, HIROTAKA + SLEEPLAND |
Etude 3 |
mCD-R |
spacious guitar-drones in subtle clouds, in the way of CHIHEI HATAKEYAMA, MIRROR or ULTRA MILKMAIDS... nice collab by these two ambient artists from Japan |
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| SHOCK FRONTIER |
Mancuerda Confessions |
CD |
promising debut album of a new cold electro drone / apocalyptic industrial duo from the U.S. (one member is also a part of PSYCHOMANTEUM) => inspired by a cruel torture-technic of the Spanish Inquisition, very intense technical and 'clinical' atmospheres of a decayed culture are aroused, using piercing walls of drones, spoken word passages, machine like sounds...
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| SHOEMAKER, MATT |
Spots in the Sun |
CD |
third album by this field recording artist from USA, creating trancy, massive dronescapes, extremely atmospheric; lim. 400
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Soundtrack for Dislocation |
CD |
beautiful & at times very massive dronescapes from this US-artist (who died in 2017), using field recordings, electronics & instrumental sound sources in an non-recognizable way; totally amorph & all-absorbing stuff, 3 long tracks, ; lim. 509 copies; matte 6-panel digipak feat. Shoemakers photography; BACK IN STOCK one of his best releases, still very much to discover for "contemplation" drone-heads!!!
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIDHARTA, OTTO |
Kajang |
LP |
highly recommended LP with four newer works (2015-2020) by the Indonesian composer, a great organic and contemplative mixture of processed field and object recordings, multi-layered drones, traditional instrument recordings (gongs, etc.)...- *deeply inspired by Indonesia's multifarious styles of traditional music, that he tries to preserve, as in some remote places, they keep their own tradition very strongly.* Lim. ed. WHITE vinyl
|
2022 |
€17.00 |
|
| SIGMARSSON, SIGTRYGGUR (BERG) |
So Long |
CD |
"this is foamy music" - extremely minimal & often silent drones, with daydream-soundbubbles appearing....3 long tracks (65+ min.) by the Iceland soundartist, feat. BENNY NILSEN and ANLA COURTIS, as usually garnished with a bit of weird humour... "polar impressionism flecked with hallucinatory ambience" the label calls it adequately
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIGUR ROS |
Von |
CD |
first rare album from 1997, darker & more experimental than nowadays => hyper-spheric & free floating dronescapes (instrumental sounds, field recordings) with multi-layered elfin-vocals + tracks that sound already song-oriented like a raw version of the typical later SIGUR ROS sound.... great album, available again !
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| SIJ & SERGEY GABBASOV |
Zhang Zhung |
CD |
collaboration of SiJ with the Russian ethnomusicologist, SERGEY GABBASOV who dive together deeply into the Tibetan & Eastern Ritual Music tradition of the BÖN (the archaic religion of the Tibetan Himalaya), combining sounds from the original instruments (also from Armenia, Moldavia, Tuva, etc..) with foggy transcension drones and chants... two epic tracks, 79 min. & full colour booklet with pictures from the region of the old ZHANG-ZHUNG in Tibet
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Perseides |
CD |
these gifted Russian ambient musicians/ethnologists created an almost 80 min. long "world/ethno ambience" soundtrack full of floating flute sounds, tribal percussion, evolving synths, humming drones, field recordings from water streams, birds, etc. and deep throat singing.. a guide 'through the dusty backwater trails of the Mongol steppe..' - comes with full colour booklet
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| SILVERMAN |
Finisterre |
CD-R |
three long new tracks showing the PINK DOTS ur-member SILVERMAN in a very surreal & experimental mode, alien drones with some folk-tune sideways.. edition of 399 copies, self-released by LPD !!
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| SISTER IODINE |
Blame |
LP |
this mighty experimental trio from France (somewhere between bruitiste impro, heavy industrial & low fi noise rock) existing already since early 90's is finally back with 10 tracks of crushing industrial rock noise und roaring low fi drones, pressed into overwhelming powerful forms, really violent & insane.. think of WOLF EYES, BÄSTARD, HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA, etc..
|
2013 |
€17.50 |
|
| SIYANIE |
Homo Multidimensional |
CD |
glittering Sun drones! ~~ spiritual 'human transformation' ambience, deeply influenced by transpersonal psychology theories; 2nd full length album by this Russian project (ex VETVEI), these uplifting & completely floating ether-drones seem to be derived from effected instruments (flutes, etc.), voices and electronics... omewhere between VOICE OF EYE and OÖPHOI maybe; comes in fluorescent 6-panel cardboard cover. BACK IN STOCK !
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| SKALPELL |
Nothing important to tell so far |
CD |
the last overlooked album from this underrated Swiss duo, known for albums on DEAFBORN and ART KONKRET, blending electronic ambient drones and (found) sounds and samples, dark harmonic and boiling underneath, with more noisy & rhythmic / tribal influences... pretty eerie and opressive, well produced and designed, very recommended + now for special price !
|
2010 |
€7.00 |
|
| SKIN AREA / JARL |
La Petite Mort |
LP |
strong collaboration LP by Drone Rec. artist JARL (see MIND-01 LP) and the always impressing psycho-industrialists SKIN AREA both from Sweden => 4 tracks of eerie, minimal, pulsative industrial dronescapes with alienated/fragile voice, analysing the deepest drives, fears and guilt complexes of our unconsciousness.. really disturbing stuff! Lim. 220, comes with 13 thick/oversized colour artwork cards by MARTIN BLADH of IRM /SKIN AREA. Masterpiece!
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY |
Stealth |
do-CD |
after a long release-break a breathtaking new album by this popular Scottish deep ambient project, based on location recordings made "inside the hanger environs of a Northrop-Grumman B-2 Stealth Bomber" - cold, mysterious & threatening drones with electronic & voice scraps in the mix; first 1000 copies have the original unedited audio source recordings as a bonus !
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY/LLYN Y CWN |
Sargo / Posidonia |
LP |
nautical dark / deep ambient on this awesome split LP, centered on the themes deap sea, ocean field recordings, subconscious perception => waves crushing against rocks, the sound of an acoustic sonar instrument, forms without structure, space as opposed to narrative... *music can reside in the very fabric of sound itself..* - first new material of SRF since 2012, most sublime drones from LLYN Y CWN, great cover art from ABBY HELASDOTTIR (GYDJA)
|
2023 |
€23.50 |
|
| SLIM VIC |
Personliga Artiklar |
LP |
coming from the Swedish techno and DJ culture, SLIM VIC creates deep ambient drones combined with strange electronic tones and slow hypnotic pulses; like techno tunes stuck in a hundredfold slow motion dream.... the psychedelic / colourful artwork was created especially for this music by ROLFCARLWERNER, a prominent spraypainter in Sweden... an excellent long play 12" crossing the genre borders between electronica and dark ambient industrial
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| SLITHER |
Alien Column |
LP |
debut full-length LP of Michigan based duo, a stunning mixture of rumbling dark drones, low-fi industrial & jazz-elements, very creepy & dark & well structured; lim. 240
|
2009 |
€17.00 |
|
| SMALL CRUEL PARTY |
Islands of Sleep |
CD |
re-issue of the first LP from 1998 - a great example of SCP's "micro-morphing" object sounds, frictional acoustics from stones, wood, metal, glass, etc. are combined with subtle drones... "Concrete music based on glass, wood and water manipulation : rubbing, tinkling, lisping, resonance, sharp & bass tones confrontation. Raw calm"; edition of 300 copies
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Cervorum Simulacra |
CD |
this CD collects two enchanting live recordings: The title track was performed in Paris, April 2008 (and released as very limited lathe cut LP), "Pour Eric S.W." was performed at Radio KSER, in Everett, Washington, back in April 1992 and has never been published before..:- "Feeding small sounds, manually controlled and manipulated, through a few sound devices, so that drones occur, growing slowly in intensity. Think of this as ants crawling in a giant anthill, very busy... " [Vital Weekly] - lim. 200
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Ancien des Jours |
7inch |
NEW SCP material, two pieces that only KEY RANSONE can create like this, based on half-musical / half-concrete loops and low fi drones, and electro-spiraling clatters, a strange beauty, and it sounds somehow archaic; lim. 250 copies w. mysterious letterpress printing, label art by JOHN HUBBARD
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| SOLAR SKELETONS |
Frozen Jail of reversed Demons |
LP |
French experimental project with "post black metal fuzzcapes", combining ambient industrial drones and roaring atmospheres... 'lim./numb.ed. 200, to discover !
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| SOLO ANDATA |
Ritual |
LP |
third album (first on vinyl) by the Australian duo; otherwordly organic ambiences at its best, performed entirely on acoustic instruments, wildlife or environmental recordings; recommended for explorers of dense mysterious dronescapes...
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
| SONOLOGYST |
Silencers |
CD |
eerie resonances, electro-magnetic interferences, dark matter and ether recordings, the Italian experimental drone project created an album about the "Silencers" conspiracy theory (also called "Men in Black"), that slowly captures you with it's repetitive and pure electric structures, clattering echo-effects and voltage filled air.. comes with 8 p. booklet with text from the author about the phenomenon; 10 track, 50+ min. of excellent dark radiance mystery drones..
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| SONS OF GOD & MATS GUSTAFSSON |
Reception |
CD |
recording of a live-show during an installation at a gallery in Stockholm March 2006; THE SONS OF GOD: 32 amplified iron plates; MATS GUSTAFSSON: live electronics => spacious monumental noise-drones with a meditative center inside..
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| SORIAH |
Chao Organica in A Minor |
CD |
heavy cardboard / gatefold-cover / comes with numbered insert, lim. 50 ! "Kontemplation pur von diesem obskuren Künstler! Orgel-Oberton-Drones und gutturale Gesänge, esoterisch & spirituell, aufgenommen in einer Kirche in Portland." |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| SOULCRUSH |
same |
CD |
monumental dark drones & soundtrackish noises from this ex-VEDISNI project; feat. MONSTRARE;
first album, to discover !
special offer ! |
2001 |
€8.00 |
|
| SPECTRAL ARMIES |
The Vanished People |
LP |
another group with former VOLCANO THE BEAR member NICK MOTT - recorded outdoors at a disused quarry & at two farms in Cornwall, this music is made up by environmental sounds, acoustic instruments & electronics... experimental drones, deranged folk, 'weird' is the 'normal' here... difficult to categorize, the label calls it "Psychedelic Concrete Folk Noise"; lim. 250 copies only
|
2010 |
€17.50 |
|
| SPHERULEUS |
The late Surge of Gold |
CD-R |
beautiful "Indian summer" drones, vey airy & acoustic, by this droney newcomer from UK; a highly sensitive, wavy organic ambience is created... reminds on STEVEN R. SMITH, AIDAN BAKER, ULTRA MILKMAIDS even.. lim. 100, Japan import, to discover
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| SPIRACLE |
Ananta |
do-CD |
drones for dreamless sleep; the drone-project of HITOSHI KOJO; expanded version of the Mystery Sea CDR from 2006; lim. 300
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| STADLMEIER, SASCHA / EMERGE / ANJA KREYSING |
same |
MC |
two live recordings (Münster + Offenbach, 2018) of SASCHA STADLMEIER aka EMERGE with accordeonist ANJA KREYSING, a kind of sister-release to the recommended "Re-Encypher" CD (Attenuation Circuit) => subtle accordeon harmonics and micro-sounds from it, dark mysterious loops, noises and drones.. a very nice tape! Lim. 70, C-65, printed cover
|
2019 |
€8.00 |
|
| STAPLERFAHRER & SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSON |
Two Lost Souls |
CD |
studio collab by STILLUPPSTEYPAs Sigtryggur with dutch 'broken equipment' artist STAPLERFAHRER - begins with a lovely bizarre & surealistic collage before it evolves more and more into a droney affair and becomes more and more beautiful.... great unreal mixture of dark drones with completely weird field recording arrangements..
|
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| STAR TURBINE |
Sandwich Music |
CD-R |
STAR TURBINE (aka CLAUS POULSEN of SMALL THINGS ON SUNDAYS and the manic live performer & drone-improviser SINDRE BJERGA from Norway) are back with their 2nd release on A.C. => amplified objects, handplayed drones, + transformed material of MARTIN KLAPPER; they create a kind of 'musique concrete' drone stream, a manifold floating sound entity, too good to be missed! lim. 50
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| STELZER, HOWARD & FRANS DE WAARD |
Pink Pearl |
CD |
drones & bones! The new collab. between these two long going sound researchers forms a highly interesting mix of multi-layered drones and concrete (micro) sounds, all within a lovely "mechanized / industrial" atmosphere and garnished with some obscure voice / field rec. / whatever drops, a very flowing album with excellent "movements" inside... great new work !
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| STONEHOUSE, JEFF |
Ghosts |
mCDR |
a homage to the beauty of New Zealand, JEFF STONEHOUSE (aka LISTENING MIRROR) encharms with three gracious ambient pieces, clouds of choir-like drones and slowly repetitive harmonic phrases... heavenly stuff !! 23:23 min long
|
2015 |
€5.00 |
|
| STROM NOIR |
October Reversed |
mCD-R |
three new tracks by the awesome Slovakian guitar-drone/ambient project, pure gracious beauty-drones in the way of EXIT IN GREY or ULTRASOUND; edition of 86 copies, numbered
|
2011 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Analog Venus |
MC |
magic early morning drones from Slovakia... C-37, lim.100, very few in stock..
|
2012 |
€7.50 |
|
| SUDA, NOBUTO |
Twilight Garden |
mCDR |
newcomer from Japan with very minimal, waving, overtune-drones, ZEN ambience for overcoming the time
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| SUDARIA |
The Syncretic Labyrinth |
MC |
extremely doomy / black metal influenced esoteric ambience, low-fi pulsating drones, suspended synth tones, eerie voices appearing, cryptic words, otherworldly atmosphere.. "9 mantras to break the illusion, 9 keys to open the holographic seals of Maya." for fans of AURAL HYPNOX, LOKI Foundation, Cold Spring Rec, CYCLIC LAW... lim. 100 prof. cover & duplication
|
2017 |
€8.00 |
|
| SULIDAE, PHILIP |
Barnish |
CD-R |
Australian composer creating very dream-like, lush & mysterious sea-drones full of width & depth; full-colour inkjetprint cover lim. /numbered ed. 100 copies
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
History of Violence |
CD |
after the nice Mystery Sea CDR another release by P. SULIDAE - these are floating but mysterious drone-noises of unrecognizable origin, everything is lost in a big aural haze and lulls you in....all sound material was collected in the Belanglo State forest, an isolated place where years ago a serial killer was active.... filed under: hallucinogenic psychogeographic drones ! Excellent album, lim. 200
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| SUM OF R |
Orga |
CD |
the Swiss project by RETO MÄDER (URAL UMBO, RM 74) with an impressive album, merging dark instrumental ambience with melodramatic song elements, reminding us on BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE or HUMAN GREED: "The album is a hybrid of ritual drums and eerie percussions, atmospheric analog electronics and epic drones forming a drifting orchestral wall of sound. Darkness, light and its reflections is what emerges from this mysterious aural mist."
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| SUMMONS OF SHINING RUINS |
Masami Ssi, Dangsin Ui Him E Su Eobs-eoseo Mian Haeyo. Naneun Dangsin Eul Ij-ji Anhseubnida. Gamsahabnida. |
mCDR |
nostalgic ambience by a Japanese composer who is very active since 2008; constructed with guitar, synths and tape recorder, this 23+ min. one-tracker is filled with harmonic drones and waves..
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| SUNN O))) |
White2 |
CD |
the following album to White1 goes even further into new directions, using more light suspended guitar drones and also concrete noises, as well as Indian chants... a terrific album, our favourite SUNN O))) at that time, BACK IN STOCK! |
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Kannon |
CD |
three new studio tracks by the drone metal gurus, coming back to their main characteristics: the massive guitar-bass work of STEPHEN O'MALLEY and GREG ANDERSON, continuing the path of the "classic" SUNN O))) sound.. "Abyssic atmospheres of vast grinding drones. Layered, liturgic cavernous ritual. Gorgeously sculpted feedback flowmotion" [AQ Rec.]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Pyroclasts |
LP |
a kind of sister-album to "Life Metal", the four tracks were recorded at the same sessions (Chicago, July 2018) as "early morning improvisation" contemplation practises... and here SUNN O))) do what they can maybe do best: creating mighty drones that swirl and circle, full of vibrations, resonances, overtunes, feedbacks, overwhelming with the full spectrum of frequencies, with the gradual crystallization of certain structures and forms.. feat. stunning full colour sleeves & inlays, PURPLE IN ORANGE vinyl
|
2019 |
€23.50 |
|
| |
Flight of the Behemoth |
do-LP |
first ever vinyl re-press of the 3rd album from 2002, feat. MASAMI AKITA....slow moving lava guitar drones of a subterreanean beauty...contains the vinyl only bonus track "Grimm & Bear It" - luxurious design: case-wrapped gatefold jacket with full color 24" x 36" folded poster, printed inner sleeves, metallic print; BLACK vinyl edition
|
2020 |
€33.00 |
|
| SUNN O))) & ULVER |
Terrestrials |
CD |
studio collaboration of SUNN O))) with Norwegians ULVER => three stunning tracks of almost elegant & melodramatic drone with additional jazzy and orchestral elements (trumpet, violin, vibraphone, piano & synths), really captivating & surprising, recorded in Oslo 2008; an "unlikely rendezvous of Miles Davis’ electric jazz surrealism and Sunn O)))’s fathom-deep drones" [Pitchfork]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| SUNSLIDE |
Mechanisme |
CD-R |
"Field recordings, light electronics & accordeon drones" - very mellow & warm ambience on DRONAEMENTS new label; lovely edition w. handmade cover & full-colour inlay & disc; numbered
|
2010 |
€7.50 |
|
| SUSTAINED DEVELOPMENT |
same |
CD-R & object |
microtonal layers of drones based on organ, harmonium & voice sounds intertwine with various at times obscure field recordings & found sounds, inspired by PHILL NIBLOCK and using sounds from JOHN CAGES organ piece performed in Halberstadt (the world slowest & longest piece, being performed since 2001); first in a series of limited object releases on this label from Augsburg, Germany; numb. ed 50 copies coming in handpainted CD/cloth-case with diverse inlays
|
2011 |
€11.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD-R |
microtonal layers of drones based on organ, harmonium & voice sounds intertwine with various at times obscure field recordings & found sounds, inspired by PHILL NIBLOCK and using sounds from JOHN CAGES organ piece performed in Halberstadt (the world slowest & longest piece, being performed since 2001); unlimited standard edition |
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| SYLVAIN VAN INIITU / DAVID LEUTKART |
The Moon |
MC |
recommended split tape (C-40) by the man behind the GRUBENWEHR label and SYLVAIN VAN INIITU who runs the "Ini.Itu" label in Brussels, and has also released material as BLINDHEAD... => a very nice "oneiric amorph drone" one-tracker with many mysterious voices and hiss sounds (probably field recordings from an air voyage) by LEUTKART, three more abstract pieces with "concrete poetry", harmonies, noises and drones by SYLVAIN... - printed cover, standard case
|
2020 |
€7.00 |
|
| SYSSELMANN |
Ritual of the Aurora Noir |
CD |
Norwegian dark ambient newcomer with first album for Winter-Light, born on elementary experiences on a tiny island in the North of Norway, as 'a tribute to the collective consciousness of the northern parts of Norway... A celebration of the magical coastal landscape and those who came before us." - quite powerful blowing drones and mightly pulses, creates lots of suction... lim. 200 long play E.P.
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| TAINNOS |
Kierto |
mCD-R |
TAINNOS is the new project of HENKKA KYLLÖNEN, who once had as NO XIVIC a wonderful 7" on Drone Rec. years ago, "Kierto" (=Circulation) is meant as "an audio journey through the evolution of life on this planet: from nothingness to beasts of the wild. from early humans to civilizations controlled by artificial intelligence....in the end there are only swarms of flies left and the circle of life and death starts again." => sophisticated approach, and a most captivating, evolving dronescape (22 min)
|
2018 |
€5.00 |
|
| TAKASHI, SEKI |
Smog Moon |
mCD-R |
Ambient newcomer from Japan with two introspective tracks, based on spheric organ-like drones and acoustic guitar sounds, very peaceful.... "A drone is there to guide it and it is quite a beautiful shimmering piece of music." [Vital Weekly]
|
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| TALVIHORROS |
And it was so |
LP |
4th full length album by this London-based composer, nostalgic & very harmonic / filmic dronescapes with lots of handplayed guitars and a neo-classic touch, feat. many guest-musicians from FIELD ROTATION, PETRELS, and others... described as a meeting of TIM HECKER with BARN OWL or SUN ARAW; vinyl version lim. 500 copies
|
2012 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
And it was so |
CD |
4th full length album by this London-based composer, nostalgic & very harmonic / filmic dronescapes with lots of handplayed guitars and a neo-classic touch, feat. many guest-musicians from FIELD ROTATION, PETRELS, and others... described as a meeting of TIM HECKER with BARN OWL or SUN ARAW
|
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| TANKRED, KENT |
There is Nothing to Attain |
do-CD |
ten years after the original release (same title) a full reworking by the Swedish master of 'massive electroacoustic dronescapes' => different from the source material these are often shorter and more noisy / attacking pieces, like wild droning and jerking (sound) machines, liberated from any human input, but there are also more silent tracks.. - "The music is naked, or rather unclothed, inhuman, at the first encounter reminding you of everything you would prefer to avoid." - ed. of 200 copies
|
2021 |
€17.50 |
|
| TAPAGE |
Recursive Behaviors |
LP |
stunning first full length LP (as far as we know) from this dutch IDM / electro acoustic composer living in Bergen (Norway), who uses the interaction of acoustic (violin) tones and drones with algorithms and machines, in order to create a "self-balancing and self-generating chaotic system", the three tracks here move from dense 'breathing' drones into underlinings with unusual electronic repetitions and patterns.. - lim. 100 with excellent die-cut cover and thick inlay
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| TAPAGE & GARETH DAVIS |
STATES |
LP |
this album started with TAPAGEs creation of a *self-balancing and self-generating chaotic system, capable of producing deep, melodic and textured soundscape* (analog feedback vs. digital manipulation), later GARETH DAVIS joined in with his bass clarinet, resulting in a new set-p / system of balanced drones, feedback, instrumental utterings and resonances, and a good portion of noise and sub basses.. a very strong project! - lim. 300 copies
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| TAPE DEKAY (BJ NILSEN) |
Decadimento Del Nastro - Decadenza Di Tutto |
CD |
7 tracks from BJ NILSENs (HAZARD, MORTHOUND) almost unknown noise project, created through the use of special techniques by transforming emotional (distress) signals through an Electro-cardiograph... rumbling, somehow groaning mechanical noises and drones, really strange stuff and hardly comparable to anything else.... "These 7 recordings reveal harsh and fragmented soundscapes tainted by disembodied voices, squelch and hyper charged feedback.." 300 copies
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAPE LOOP ORCHESTRA |
Interiors Two |
LP + CD + BOOK |
a meditation on empty rooms once inhabitated by humans, extremely nostalgic, melancholic and contemplative tones, drones and drifting fields, nicely combined with the impressionistic sepia coloured photos in the 16 page booklet.. the bonus CD feat. a live recording captured in Manchester in a historic building in Nov.2018... for fans of: ANDREW CHALK, W. BASINSKI, ROBERT HAIGH:.. ed. of 300 copies
|
2019 |
€34.00 |
|
| TAPE MEASURE KID [N + JIM CAMPBELL] |
Zero is an Even Number |
LP + CD |
last copies of the 2nd collaboration release between archaic guitar droner "N" (HELLMUT NEIDHARDT) and JIM CAMPBELL (aka RRILL BELL), different material on the CD, 5 long tracks: merging guitar drones, low fi synths, tapes.. "as if N's sustained guitar had been mangled through a computer by some strange wizard. but in fact all you can hear happened in real time..." - lim. 100 copies only !!
|
2013 |
€32.00 |
|
| |
Ours is a Stubborn Monster |
LP + CD |
last copies of the first collaboration release between archaic guitar droner "N" (HELLMUT NEIDHARDT) and JIM CAMPBELL (aka RRILL BELL), with one long live track from 2008 on the CD, merging guitar drones, low fi synths, tapes.. "as if N's sustained guitar had been mangled through a computer by some strange wizard. but in fact all you can hear happened in real time..." - lim. 100 copies only !!
|
2013 |
€32.00 |
|
| TAPHEPHOBIA |
Taphephobia |
CD |
super sad & desolate guitar drones (enriched with electronics, whisphered vocals and environmental recordings), dark ambience with a deep emotional gesture, all slowed down & sounding as coming through shadows... 2nd album by this Norwegian project
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Blue Hour |
CD |
'Humming drones meet shimmering atmospheric soundscapes, the whole thing luring the listener in one extra-sensory slow motion immersion. This new album guarantees static musical excursions and textured oceanic experiences of crystal purity and chilling beauty....All in all Blue Hour is a quiet, charming, soothing and spacious ambient release with moments of forlorn stillness.' - [Philippe Blache /IGLOO] - lim. 300
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAPHEPHOBIA / KAVE |
Monuments |
CD |
split CD with two long tracks by both projects who were featured already before on CYCLIC LAW, wonderful wide and calm soundscapes form a dark landscape, like massage-drones for over-excited synapses... "from a different perspective, a single human, standing atop a beautiful vista gazing at the world beneath, both wishing to be a part of it, and content in solitude, at one with nature." [This Is Darkness] lim. to only 300 copies
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| TARKATAK |
I II III IIII |
CD |
finally after a long break a new album from TARKATAK. shaping gorgeous drone-landscapes, with clouds of ethereal piano shimmers, often the drones move so slow that the time seems to freeze.. - "Diese vier langen, organisch wirkenden Tracks loten aus, was der Drone alles kann. Sehr schöne, auf 200 Exemplare limitierte Veröffentlichung mit einem zum Poster ausfaltbaren Siebdruckcover." [MG / African Paper]
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| TATE AND LILES |
Without Season |
CD-R |
small re-edition (90 copies only) of this long deleted collaboration album from 2005 (originally on Twenty Hertz): field recordings by DARREN TATE (wood-crunching, water, ether sounds, animals..) are contrasted by silent piano & accordeon drones... quite dark at times, and a bit of strange surrealism is evoked... but also lovely subtleness.. comes in standard jewel-case with full colour cover, professionally duplicated
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| TBC & SEEMANN |
Mechanische Organisation |
CD-R |
this must be the very first solo collaboration between the two veterans from the autonomous Hamburg experimental scene, and for both it's a quite unusual work, like an exploration into subtle, mechanical realms, where analog drones meet with guitar / instrumental loops in a most structured way... - like an electronic, droning, industrialized 'weaving loom' . - very good & still to discover!! - handmade paper cover, two long tracks
|
2018 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Glashaus |
CD-R |
The Hamburg based true undeground icons came together again for a longform ambient / drone session, based only on analogue synths and heavenly melancholic, piano sounds, bubbling electronic waves and shimmering washes of drones that sound like a zither or harp = cleansing music for the mind !! - the only downside: this one-tracke is too short ! - " Von Saiten, die wie mit bebenden Lippen 'singen'. [Bad Alchemy]
|
2023 |
€8.00 |
|
| TBC_CZEPOKS |
Korridore |
CD-R |
great new album by the impro noise & drone project with SEEMANN, TBC and others - using unusual sounds from Saz, Tankdrum, Violin harp, bowed bass and musical box they create captivating dronescapes with many 'concrete' improv details...- "It's a release about the transition, I think; What happens if we travel from one mental state into another, what do we see, and how do we influence each other..." [BW, Vital Weekly] - prof design handmade glossy full colour cover
|
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| TBC_CZEPOKS_SIGD |
Radio Gagarin Allsound Orchestra |
CD |
excellent four person collaboration recordings made a FSK Studios in Hamburg, by Swiss experimental veteran CHRIS SIGDELL aka B*TONG (once a member of NID, etc.) together with two members of TUMORCHESTER (aka CZEPOKS) and TBC (who worked with BRUME, TIETCHENS, etc. and had a 7" on Drone Rec. in 2002 => complex multi-layered ambient industrial, strange loops and dark drones, micro noises, waves, strong atmosphere... digipack with handmade artwork
|
2020 |
€10.00 |
|
| TECH RIDERS |
In the Sky |
CD |
the project of FRANS DE WAARD and SINDRE BJERGA, these are live recordings from various places taken from their tour early 2016, when they performed a pretty versatile programme of 8 tracks... " On tour Frans mixed all of these materials live, while Bjerga added his synth noise, radio/Walkman cut-ups and microphone abuse. All of this resulting in a wild ride of rhythm ' n noise and drones." - the live situation is really recognizable, very nice! lim. 200, co-released by GOLD SOUNDZ and KORM PLASTICS
|
2016 |
€8.00 |
|
| TEGH |
Unusual Path |
LP |
rare 12" with a side-long piece by the Teheran based composer, on Side 2 two we find remixes by SIAVASH AMINI and ZENJUNGLE => as with the precursor "Downfall" (CD on Midira), this is a melodramatic, but raw/distorted and organ-like ambience dronescape of a "higher" transcendental beauty,not to be missed! - lim. 100 copies only, blue vinyl, heavy cardboards sleeve and DL code
|
2019 |
€23.00 |
|
| TEHOM |
Phobos |
CD |
this ritual was recorded live at the Phobos festival in Wuppertal, March 2019, and it sounds like the resurrection of a long-forgotten pagan demon, with dark chants and tones, susurration of invocations, powerful deep strokes and eerie drones... excellent recording quality (captured both from the mixing desk and from the whole church) and artwork, a must for fans of LUSTMORD, INADE, HALO MANOSH... 350 copies / 6 panel digipak
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| TEICHER, ELSE |
Whored |
CD |
first album by this US-artist (known to some as one half of ROMULUS & REMUS) with obscure & uncategorizable puresounds & drones, "between ZOVIET FRANCE & SEVERED HEADS" says the label.. recommended for explorers! Lim. 300
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| TEMPLE MUSIC |
Soon you will die and your lives will have been as nothing |
CD |
the project of ALAN TRENCH (ORCHIS, 12000 DAYS) and STEPHEN ROBINSON from UK, spiritual, psychedelic folk drone ... - * a wide range of acoustic and electronic instruments, field recordings and drones with spoken word, rhythm and chaos, resulting into one long avant-garde soundscape. The vocals are both comforting and unsettling and contribute to an overall magical atmosphere...* - lim. 300 copies in very oversized thick cardboard sleeve, SPECIAL OFFER now
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| TENHORNEDBEAST |
The Sacred Truth |
CD |
clichee-free esoteric & raw dark drones & massive overtunes from ex-ENDVRA; digipack
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| TENHORNEDBEAST / MARZURAAN |
split |
CD |
mighty doom-drones from these two UK-projects, MARZURAAN is the band with Drone Rec-artist RYN !
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| TESTCARD |
# 14 : DISCOVER AMERICA |
BOOK |
Drones und Minimalismus (!), Bands against Bush, Detroit-Techno, Fanzine-Szene USA, Beat Generation, Queercore, etc etc.
SPECIAL OFFER NOW !!
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| THALASSA |
Bonds of Prosperity |
LP |
stunning first release of a new project formed by the never sleeping AARON TURNER (HYDRA HEAD, ISIS, LOTUS EATERS, MAMIFFER, etc.) with WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS, spreading highly contemplative and elemental acoustic drone muzak on 4 LP sides, creating subtle resonances, ethereal sirenes, noise dissolvements..." The ocean, blood, rain, sand, the desert, heat, fog -- all of these elemental / environmental forces are at play in the heavily sedimental drones and crumbled noise " lim. 300
|
2017 |
€27.50 |
|
| THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC |
Musicamorosa |
CD |
shimmering melancholic drones, beautiful & fragile, based on the poetry of MARCEL PROUST, incl. one remix by COLLEEN
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| THE BRAIN |
Experiments for Guitar + Machines |
LP |
debut album for a newcomer from Portland (OR), with a dark version of 60's / 70's German / French Kraut & Progressive Music, created purely on analogue gear (synths, guitar, drums, effects, reminding on HELDON, early KLAUS SCHULZE, CONRAD SCHITZLER... "Mesmerizing analog synthesizer drones collide with abrasive guitar textures to create dense sound collages that blur the distinction between industrial mayhem and ambient calm.." - lim. 100 copies only, US-import !!
|
2022 |
€23.00 |
|
| THE LORD & PETRA HADEN |
Devotional |
LP |
the second solo effort by GREG ANDERSONs (SUNN O))) solo project comes as a true surprise, as he's collaborating with expressive singer PETRA HADEN (known from OO VOID and GOATSNAKE), they create ornamental multi-layered vocal-guitar-vinyl heavyness.. - "Through a haze of incense, flowing robes, and secret mantras, Haden's voice rings out over constant drones in ecstatic chants throughout this musical investigation into the myriad of ways in which worship can lure and intoxicate.." - lim. 500 WHITE vinyl
|
2022 |
€26.00 |
|
| THE NORTH SEA |
Bloodlines |
CD |
dark experimental electronics from BRAD ROSE with help from MIKE WEIS (drummer of ZELIENOPLE) - "... the record is a gloriously spacious excursion, with the fizzing Radiophonic blips, drones and tones set against gongs, scrapes and clanks."/ special priced now
|
2010 |
€6.00 |
|
| THE STONE TAPES (PINK DOTS, BIG CITY ORCHESTRA & FRANS DE WAARD) |
Revolutions in the Head |
CD |
a unique experimental ensemble "live in the studio" recording by members of BIG CITY ORCHESTRA (DAS and NINAH PIXIE), LEGENDARY PINK DOTS (EDWARD KA-SPEL and PHILIP KNIGHT) and FRANS DE WAARD (BEEQUEEN, KAPUTTE MUZIEK, FREIBAND, MODELBAU, QUEST and countless other projects..), improvised at LPD-studios in Nijmegen 10/2018; 7 pieces between daring experiments and trance-inducing strange drones.. ed. of 300 copies
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE & CINEMA PERDU |
Invocation |
CD |
strong split & collaboration album by the dutch projects, inspired by the theme of lost friendships (that never really ended officially), expressing this with dense and bleak, somehow soulless drones, forming emotions of emptiness and paralysis... "The CD whirrs its death throes and I feel a little more alive." [Norman Rec.]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| THEOLOGIAN |
A Means by which to break the Surface of the Real |
LP |
four new tracks, improvised in the studio with diverse guest musicians... "Tortured screams reach out over the tumbling industrial workings below. Low register whispered meanderings slowly rise to meet those screams. Machines’ rhythmic drones fold in on the voices. Sirens invite and warn. Sink into the synthetic abyss." lim. 500
|
2015 |
€18.50 |
|
| THIRTEEN HURTS |
UVB-76 |
CD-R |
stunning noise album from this rather unknown US project, using lots of interesting crackling and feedbacking radio and shortwave sounds over loops and drones and raw booming noise... "This one is a real tickler! It has lots of noise squirts and kisses that almost sound like a lead saxophone in a free jazz jam. It also sources a mysterious crunchy Russian radio transmission. There is a ton of variety here to never sound boring. " [Nuclear Distortion] - jewelcase, prof. cover & duplication
|
2016 |
€8.00 |
|
| THO-SO-AA |
Dying Reveal (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Dark hypnotic noise drones which suck you into “something”..
first ed. 300 copies / red vinyl / handmade covers |
2005 |
€6.50 |
|
| THORSTEN SOLTAU & COMRADES |
Roman Feast & a Grape from Thor Heyerdahl's Table |
do-MC BOX |
a collection of various works by German composer THORSTEN SOLTAU, using diverse sources from other artists such as MAX KUIPER, DEAD MAURIACS or MARINA STEWART, with nice organ-like multi-layered drones.."whipping noise layers and piercing feedback drones combined with amplified objects, to field recordings, repeating piano rhythms and hidden voice fragments to spoken word storytelling!" Spread on two MCs in big double case box with many inlays/cards, lim. 76 copies
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| THUJA |
Hills |
LP |
the 'dreamtone' improvisation/acoustic drone/folk-ensemble with LOREN CHASSE, GLENN DONALDSON, STEVEN R.SMITH and others with a rare work from 2002 (CD-R on Last Visible Dog), now re-issued on vinyl... "a misty fold of keyboard drones, tinkling piano, clusters of percussives, shuttling and scrabbling strings and other things - often asks for metaphor from the natural world" - ed. of 500 copies on a new sublabel of BLACKEST EVER BLACK
|
2019 |
€20.50 |
|
| TIETCHENS, ASMUS |
Fast ohne Titel, Korrosion |
CD |
eight different stages of "Ernste Musik" (serious music) on this new TIETCHENS work, the title-names filled with the typical irony but the sounds build a wonderful journey into unorganic micro-sound drones and a kind of electro-acoustic minimalism, with a development from the 'serious' to the absurd &surrealistic...
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| TILLY, THOMAS (TO) & JEAN-LUC GUIONNET |
Stones Air Axioms |
CD |
"architectural drones" - collaboration by these two French composers working on / with the architecture of the St. Pierre's Cathedral in Poitiers, France - very abstract, amorph, at times fathomless experimental drones, using many unidentifiable sound sources & variations. great mysterious drone-muzak !! on a new label from Lille
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO |
Ura itam taala' momojmuj löwajamuj cooconaja |
mCD |
fascinating dronescape derived from field recordings made on a mountain in Italy, using a 3 m cross & bell sounds; nice full-colour mini-gatefold cover / ed. of 500
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO & ANDREW CHALK |
Tahta Tarla |
LP |
beautiful designed release from 1993 on TONIUTTIs label => long organic drones combined with nature sounds und more concrete material.. comes w. nice art-booklet (28 pages, 23 x 16cm), explaining the concept of the "Geographical Totem"; a timeless record, we could grab some more !! - a true rarity now, BACK IN STOCK few copies !!!
|
1993 |
€22.00 |
|
| TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO / JAMES WYNESS |
Batlahatli |
CD |
the successor to last years excellent "Drookitarlup", using the same source sounds ("non-standard string, wind, friction and percussion instruments"), resulting in two new "concrete abstractism" pieces from both composers (both around 30 min long), from fragmented small sounds to wonderful floating "breathing" drones, especially the WYNESS is a true emotional masterpiece we think ! - digipak + 16p booklet
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| TONTON MACOUTE |
Mureedil |
LP |
French trio with EMMANUEL HOLTERBACH producing a kind of hypnotic art-/noise-(kraut)"rock", instrumental &spacey with long floating/droning passages, very low-fi... "motorik soundscapes, psychedelic drones, electric hypnosis and timeless storms"; lim. 300 copies only
|
2011 |
€19.50 |
|
| TORN FROM BEYOND |
If the View Freezes |
CD |
overlooked dark ambient gem, this is the second project of MORTAJA from the same label and the first album for this project, like a more ritualized version of RAISON D'ETRE or INADE this mixes dark mysterious drones with religious chants, percussion, ritual blowers and winds.. to discover !
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| TOY BIZARRE |
kdi dctb 122 [f] |
mCD-R |
one of the highlights in the TOY BIZARRE discography is this E.P. with a "Nature-sound-Dream-melange" with rising metallic drones and long clanging crescendo, all based on field recordings made of the sound environment made in the village of La Pommerie (St. Setiers) in France..... a one-tracker of 19+ minutes length, BACK IN STOCK, new non-jewel-case edition
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| TOY BIZARRE / EMERGE |
untitled |
LP |
split album dedicated to the 'acoustics of mines': Side A uses original field recordings from TOY BIZARRE recorded in abandoned French mines (already 1995), which were later re-arranged & processed to form one fantastic side-long collage of various subteranean drones and ominous concrete sounds.... ; Side B shows EMERGE re-mixing the sources in a much different, dark musique concrete / ambient industrial way... a real masterpiece by these two Drone Rec. artists (DR-31, DR-64)!!! lim./numb. 300 copies
|
2015 |
€16.00 |
|
| TREPANERINGSRITUALEN |
Algir; Eller Algir I Merkstave |
LP |
T x R x P surprise with this cryptic, album-long ritual work, minimal and mysterious, reminding on recordings from the Finnish AURAL HYPNOX clan.. - "a collection of unsettling sounds, sparsely placed chimes, whispers, horns, something resembling a waterphone, and deep bassy drones carried out in two ordeals" [The Covenant] - black vinyl ed. 500 copies
|
2019 |
€22.50 |
|
| |
Algir; Eller Algir I Merkstave |
CD |
T x R x P surprise with this cryptic, album-long ritual work, minimal and mysterious, reminding on recordings from the Finnish AURAL HYPNOX clan.. - "a collection of unsettling sounds, sparsely placed chimes, whispers, horns, something resembling a waterphone, and deep bassy drones carried out in two ordeals" [The Covenant] - CD in 6 panel digipak
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| TRICOLI, VALERIO |
Clonic Earth |
do-LP |
after his great "Misery Lares" do-LP on the same label VALERIO TRICOLI is back with five long new compositions => experimental transcension drones with breathtaking streams of mind-absorbing microsounds flowing magnetically through the space, often voice material is processed, and there also weird collages with field recordings and silent interruptions... so abstract, surrealistic, mysterious and unique!
|
2016 |
€27.50 |
|
| TROUM |
Syzygie |
CD |
a collection of nine rare tracks from lost & deleted compilations, recorded 1999-2002, the follower to 'Symballein' (2010) => "unbearably beautiful drones, multi-layered transcendental noise, and highly atmospheric dream-muzak"; stunning cover-artwork by ABBY HELASDOTTIR (GYDJA), re-mastering by MARTIN BOWES (ATTRITION); edition of 1000 copies
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
ACOUASME |
CD |
new studio album with six long tracks of pestering transrational drones that sound like an aural psychiatric symptom, a humming hallucination leaving the stable reality - the surrounding acoustic world as perceived through the mind of a mentally disordered person, 'Acouasme' sets you deep into a world of strange and eerie aural occurences... "At the end of 'Acouasme', I can only walk away stating that I have experienced something that I do not fully understand as of yet." [Brutal Resonance]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
|
AIWS |
LP |
vinyl version of album from 2007; re-mastered by THOMAS DIMUZIO - the last Troum album that was recorded entirely analogue, on 8-track tape recorder; BLACK VINYL edition, 300 copies, stunning new artwork by PIERRE-YVES GIRARD "composed with guitar-drones and harmonic phrases that are processed in various ways creating an atmosphere of the sublime and emotional meditative states that transcend listener to immerse within themselves.."
|
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Autopoiesis / Nahtscato (re-press w. different artwork) |
CD |
re-press with slightly different cover (glossy spiral on backside) of about 300 copies: the re-issue of the two vinyl-only releases AUTOPOIESIS (pic-LP from 2004) and NAHTSCATO (12" from 2005); plus two unreleased versions / bonus-tracks recorded 2003;.."When suspending their drones as lugubrious slabs of sound, Troum emerge as a brooding doppleganger of the shoegazer ethos." [Jim Haynes /The Wire]
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| TROUM & AIDAN BAKER |
Nihtes Niht |
CD |
alien drones of DIS-orientation - a soundtrack for the endless NOTHING, for suspended ice landscapes, very dark & lonely & grim - maybe the darkest AIDAN BAKER has ever done! Lim. 500 in very special fold-out cover, comes with 11 additional full-colour inlay cards showing paintings of STAS MUKLINOV, released on a new Russian label from Moscow... LAST COPY !
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
| TUNNELS OF ĀH (TUNNELS OF AH) |
Lost Corridors |
CD |
new project of former HEAD OF DAVID singer STEPHEN BURROUGHS with debut release, amorph metallic overtone ghost-drones and 'industrial esoterica' filled with mysterious vocal material... "a marriage between LUSTMORD and Z'EV" [Compulsion Online]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Thus Avici |
CD |
second album by this project of STEPHEN BURROUGHS (ex HEAD OF DAVID) who dives deeply into the esoteric traditions of Tantric Buddism as a homage to 'Kshitigarbha' => dark ambient industrial tunes with male / female vocals and spoken words intertwined.. " Shards of distorted noise, ritual drums, caustic drones and haunted vocals make ‘Thus Avici’ a dark hallucinatory swoon into the hinterland of the Tunnels Of Ah."
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Charnel Transmissions |
CD |
along with SHE SPREAD SORROW, TUNNELS OF AH is another dark project that is heavily promoted by the legendary British industrial label, presenting already the 4th album, and this could be the strongest, a powerful and eerie trip into otherworlds, earthquake-drones and strange tones and voices appear, everything seems electrified and spiraling you downwards into the abyss.. one of the most sinister and eerie albums we know!!
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| TURNER, AARON & DANIEL MENCHE |
NOX |
LP |
drifting transcension drones based on the voice of AARON TURNER (ISIS, LOTUS EATERS, SUMAC, etc..) with additional percussion, field recordings and electronic treatment by DANIEL MENCHE - this first single collaboration by two of the main U.S. drone- & rock noisers comes as a (wonderful) surprise, the 31 min. piece - stretched over 2 LP sides - reminds on classical contemporary choir pieces or otherwordly drone ambient art... lim. 400 on clear & black vinyl, letterpress cover
|
2017 |
€23.00 |
|
| TZESNE |
Asimilacionismo |
LP |
12 years after the "Huffduff" 7" on our own label (DR-74) the first LP by the favored Basque project: field recordings and vintage synth drones+tones+pulses+sequences serve as basis for the mysterious, somehow drone-based compositions, which use lots of unrecognizable sounds, there are flickering passages, synthetic scrawls and glittering environmentals, all carefully constructed for a wonderfully inspiring brain-ride... lim. 200 copies only, on white vinyl, finally BACK IN STOCK !
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| TZESNE & CARLOS VILLENA |
A Coded Message |
CD-R |
Spanish Drone Rec. artist TZESNE is back with a split & collaboration album done together with the rising field recording composer CARLOS VILLENA => - 3 pieces solo & in co-operation around the theme "decoding", exquisite mixture of pulses, hissing drones & field recordings...
|
2013 |
€9.00 |
|
| UHLIG, MIRKO |
The Strings that heal the Orchestra |
mCD-R |
a wonderful new piece of warm ambience & extension drones from the ex AALFANG WITH PFERDEKOPF, using lots of backwards sounds, a fabulous one-tracker !!
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| UHUSHUHU (Ухушуху) |
Onega |
MC |
re-issue of the second album by the organic ambience project from Russia > these are full scale transcension-drones, slowly expanding, waving and humming in a natural way with great layers of various sounds and overtunes in the mix...feat. CREATION VI on one track; C-84, edition of 55 copies with extra cardboard folder & bonus remix compared to the original CDR version
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| UMPIO & IRR.APP.(EXT.) |
Observation affects the Outcome |
CD |
first collab by MATT WALDRONS surrealistic aural vehicle with the (for us) unknown Finnish UMPIO (who calls his style 'Junkyard Elektroautistix') - and again the outcome is a kind of brooding "mystery-noise", quite massive hiss- & dronescapes parfumed with unrealness... very different from other IRR.APP.(ext) works, and highly recommendable! Lim. 500 - BACK IN STOCK!
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| UNDER THE SNOW |
The Background Noise |
LP |
collector's item, lim. 86 only - the project of Italians STEFANO GENTILE & GIANLUCA FAVARON on a one-sided (grey marbled) LP with intimate / concrete micro-sounds, raw single guitar tones & subtle drones.. nice fold out cover & postcard
|
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| UNKNOWN ARTIST |
VOLAKAS, Moments from the Festival |
CD-R + object |
we got very few copies of this field recording album with art-object cover = a live recording of an obscure, ecstatic, pagan folk celebration ("ritual of the bell-bearers") with most extraordinary costumes that is held every year between Jan 6-8 in Northern Greece at the village of Volakas, chants, percussion, massive bell drones... - lim. 100 packed in handmade cloth bag with mounted small bell and 5 double sided postcards from the ritual
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| UR |
Trieb |
CD |
strong album from this impro/drone/industrial trio from Italy: Die italienische Drone/Noise-Band mit der ersten 'fabriggepressten' CD... ihr bassiger Impro-Drone Sound erinnert an SILVESTER ANFANG oder alte MAEROR TRI, mit vielen recht weirden sounds im sumpfigen Drone-Morast.. gefällt uns super!! Teils ausuferend-ekstatisch aber auch mit ruhigen, schwelenden parts... rauhe aber nicht unsensible dunkle Dronescapes... lim. 300 oversized cover
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| USENBENZ, ANDREAS & PETER SCHUBERT |
Plaque |
CD |
a field recording 'sound art sculpture' that was produced for the 200th birthday event of DANIEL STRAUB, an important economic and culturual figure in the region of the composers => quite masterful ambience elevations and mechanical abstract drones, multi-layered and evolutive.. "It is an independent piece of sound art, which deserves the same form of attention and appreciation as a painting or a sculpture." lim. 200 copies
|
2017 |
€10.00 |
|
| UTON |
The Source has its rare Beauty |
MC |
UTON is a Finnish "bizarre psychedelia / ambient / noise" project, active for over more than 20 years now (remember 3 LPs on DEKORDER) - thisC-49 (lim. 55 copies) is out on Canadians OULTIER and based on acoustic guitar performed with an electronic massager to create resonating minimal drones...- "That noise penetrates from and into the depths; from and into The Source - to our life and form - and continues this loop eternally. It's an esoteric energy bank, a power charger for the inner batteries"
|
2022 |
€9.00 |
|
| V.A. (VARIOUS ARTISTS) (COMPILATIONS) |
MUZYKA VOLN |
CD |
back in stock, this fabulous "Russian drone" compilation with only Russian acts, could be the sister release to the 'EVOLVED AS ONE' CD a great collection of transcension drones.. with EXIT IN GREY, CLOSING THE ETERNITY, HUM, CISFINITUM, LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM, BARDOSENETICCUBE, POLARIS, KSHATRIY, NECROPOLIS, ANTHESTERIA feat.KAJ?, INSTANT MOVIE COMBINATIONS, REMOTEBAND. Numbered edition of 500, digipack, highly recommended!
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Zelphabet Vol. A |
CD |
a weird vibraphone piece by WOLLSCHEID, crackling plunderphonics that can only made by AMK, a great ARCANE DEVICE analog piece from the archive, and more lubricious drones from TIETCHENS; nice start of a new comp. series supposed to go from A-Z ; special offer now! |
2008 |
€6.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 1 : HALO MANASH, UBEBOET, JARL, B*TONG (SOLD OUT) |
LP |
the NEW LP-series from Drone Records, dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. Each LP features four artists from the international drone-scene and is limited to 500 copies, pressed on four different vinyl-colours. Volume 1: UBEBOET (Spain), HALO MANASH (Finland), B°TONG (Suisse), JARL (Sweden). Stunning artwork paintings by British artist PETE GREENING, design by NINA KERNICKE (ALL SIDES). RELEASE-DATE: 5. DECEMBER 2011 !!
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 5 |
LP |
echanting female drones by GYDJA (New Zealand), focused 'magic of the moment' drones by CLADE, (Scotland/USA), transcendental drones by MONOCUBE (Ukraine), cryptic drones by YRSEL (France): again filled with exiting experimental drone acts from the whole planet, we can finally present you Vol. 5 in our ongoing series; lim. 400 coloured vinyl, full colour artwork paintings by PETE GREENING. OUT NOW & SHIPPING !!
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Anthology of Contemporary Music from Middle East |
CD |
the most interesting compilations for experimental "Exotica" at the moment come from Italian's EIGTH TOWER REC./UNEXPLAINED SOUNDS GROUP-label => this new collection is the follower of the "Africa" comp. and features 14 widely unknown artists from 12 countries, from Egypt to Afghanistan!! - "The tunes wander from ambiance to hypnotic drones to heady collages, combining into a fascinating if sometimes divergent whole." [Q-Burns] - 200 copies only!
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Drone Islands : Stellar |
CD |
next in the fine series of "Experimental Drone" Compilations (# 3), 12 artists / pieces from the expanded world of drones (with a focus on astronomical phenomena), lots of new spheres to discover: KLOOB, NIHIL IMPVLSE, TITO+ (India!), INFINEXHUMA, VERONICA MOSER (Greece), BLACK WEALD (Hungary), TARME TIL ALE (Mexico!), GREY FREQUENCY, SIMON McCORRY, PLUHM, MLS, THOMAS GRENZEBACH... lim. 200 copies, digipak
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| VAINIO, MIKA & RYOJI IKEDA |
Live 2002 |
CD |
last copies of this rare CD with a recording from Sept., 2002, made in Baltic (Gateshead), UK, at the Baltic Center of Contemporary Art, featuring ALVA NOTO...digital pulses and micro sounds, low bass drones and glitches in finest outbalanced patterns, some call it MUSIC :: - "In memory of Mika Vainio (1963-2017)" ; comes w. oversized gatefold cover + download coupon to access all material as "digital data"
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| VAINIO, MIKA / PAN SONIC |
Lydspor One & Two |
LP |
the last studio recordings of MIKA VAINIO before his tragic death in April 2017 were made in a special MOOG studio in UK, the "Moog Sound Lab UK", containing the legendary 'System 55' from the sixties, which formed the basis for these two side long tracks... spectral bubbles, urging drones, pulsing aural muscles, assembled and connected in a great way..
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Lydspor One & Two |
CD |
the last studio recordings of MIKA VAINIO before his tragic death in April 2017 were made in a special MOOG studio in UK, the "Moog Sound Lab UK", containing the legendary 'System 55' from the sixties, which formed the basis for these two side long tracks... spectral bubbles, urging drones, pulsing aural muscles, assembled and connected in a great way.. CD version now available
|
2018 |
€14.00 |
|
| VALANX |
Ouroboros |
CD |
one of the best labels for drone-newcomers or discoveries at the moment is REVERSE ALIGNMENT in Sweden! => VALANX is the experimental / droning project of the experienced musician ARNE WEINBERG from Glasgow (Scotland), who also runs CROMLECH Records: on "Ouroboros", organic dark ambient industrial drones merge with rumbling loops and ultra-slow beats of unknown origins, which gives this an obscure pulsing.. to discover! lim. 100
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| VALERA HIP |
Mountain of Fugitives |
do-CD |
something special from a man who lives since 30 years as recluse in the ALTAI mountains and builds his own instruments (pipes, harsps, flutes); he creates soft ambient drones in combination with field recordings from the region and verses / poetry from ancient Chinese and Japanese sources as well as his own.. - "The serenity of nature, the simple tranquility of a secluded lifestyle, the purity of a self-contained existence and the tension of daily physical labor, all here in these sounds.."
|
2020 |
€17.50 |
|
| VAN GULICK, JASON |
Concrete |
LP |
the Brussels based label is a great place to discover new names & artists: JASON VAN GULICK is a drummer who presents recordings entirely made on / from his drumkit, creating atmospheric drones with a bow or other unusual tones and noises with sticks and objects..."Quite a bit of work went into balancing the various recordings and Van Gulick delivers a beautiful record. Loud and dark, light and quiet; he knows how to built excellent soundscapes in space.." [Vital Weekly] /lim. 100 first screen printed ed.
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| VAN VELDHOVEN, WOUTER |
Four simple Songs for five dead Bumblebees |
CD |
lim. 300 / handmade cloth cover / 4 track CD with intimate microsounds & digidrones, to discover !
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| VANCE ORCHESTRA |
No more Boleros |
CD |
early release (second album) by the Dutch duo & Drone Rec. artist (one half is now active as (AD)VANCED)), with their mixture of obscure loops from old records with spacey drones and field recordings, some seems to be quite crazed out, but it has also a deeper beauty always,.. which means: nearly genius! Not too far from old BIG CITY ORCHESTRA, etc.. very last copies back in stock!
|
2000 |
€13.00 |
|
| VAZHES |
Urja |
mCD-R |
3-track EP with truly primitive & archaic epxerimental sounds, made with flutes, percussion, vocal-hums, drones & noise, recorded outdoors (?) in the mythical village of URJA (Perm region), feat. VRESNIT and AKPAN... from ecstasis to contemplation.. lim. 117 copies, handmade cardboard cover with three colour photos
|
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| VELEZ, DAVID |
Sonido Descompuesto |
CD |
DAVID VELEZ captures the "psychogeography" of a certain countryside landscape in Columbia, with an interesting mix of hazy slow-drones & more concrete elemental sounds, melting daydreamlike acoustics from natural, human and animal sources... fabric-pressed CD, numbered ed. 200 copies, in the typical artwork-style (beautiful patterns from nature & natural objects) of Daniel Crokaert
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
El Pajaro que Escucha |
CD-R |
deep drones & weird animal sounds - a long one-tracker (60+ min.), based on field recordings made in the Palomino region of Columbia (rainforest & jungle), especially focused on wildlife sounds... "a cultural approximation to the natural" lim. 200, full-colour cover
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| VELGENATURLIG |
Kundalini |
CD |
a highlight on WINTER-LIGHT is this album by the Portugesian drone project, these lulling figurations meander between harmony and mystery, deep sub basses and beautiful resonances dance slowly around... this is rather an exploration of uplifting / esoteric drones than a typical dark ambient album...for fans of ALIO DIE, VOICE OF EYE, etc.. - 75 min. full immersion! digipack ed. of 300 copies
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| VERGARA, JESUS A. |
R Derive Aplysia |
MC |
another newcomer from the wide world of DRONES, J.A.VERGARA collected found sounds from TV shows and transformed them into something orchestral and distorted, full of resonances, with only short glimpes of the original source material.. (think of: TZESNE, GIULIO ALDINUCCI..) - the long title track on Side A has a remix on Side B by TEGH from Iran. Excellent Tape, amorph and mysterious! C-50, lim. 50 copies, cardboard holder, blue shell tape with white print, looks great !!
|
2022 |
€11.00 |
|
| VERNUSKY, MIKE |
Aatma |
LP |
interesting first LP by this sound artist from Austin, TX, who "works with archetypal symbolism and found sound ' - the album meanders slowly between pure field recordings of Mumbai / India, and re-worked material shaping multi-formal drones... "Aatma is a tribute to Mumbai’s wonderful people and culture, and in the hope of representing different and altered states of listening, living, and celebrating.." - lim. 150 copies only, to discover !
|
2021 |
€18.00 |
|
| VERTONEN |
Blood Shift |
MC |
MC-only release in the new limited Banned Prod tape series (standard jewel-cases & printed full colour covers); filed under: powerful hypnotic / multi-layered sound-drones & loops building complex stuctures, and more dense fluids on Side B; highly recommended release from this long going Chicago-based project ! C-20
|
2011 |
€7.00 |
|
| VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA |
My Gate's open, tremble by my Side |
CD |
"A CD reissue of VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA's My Gate's Open, Tremble By My Side album originally released in 1999 as an LP by Roaratorio in an edition of 250 copies. Includes all the monolithic sheets of organic, repetitive drones and subtle rhythm and groove explorations of the original along with three bonus tracks recorded during the same sessions. Australian import." [label info] - LAST COPY; SEALED
|
2004 |
€18.00 |
|
| VIDNA OBMANA |
The Trilogy |
3 x CD |
the three albums of Vidna Obmana from the early 90's that defined "Ambient" at that time: "Passage in Beauty" (1991, the first CD on DIRK SERRIES own label Decade Collection), "Shadowing in Sorrow" (1992) , and "Ending Mirage" (1993, on the legendary ND label) => timeless non-rhythmic ambient-drones, enlightening and elevating everything around you; for us, true ambience classics ! Lim. 400, re-mastered by the artist himself
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| VIGROUX, FRANCK |
Totem |
do-LP |
CYCLIC LAW build a new sub-label for more experimental works and this first release in the series by the long active French guitarist, improviser and composer FRANCK VIGROUX knocks you over with it's overridden and pitched multi-layered drones, forward-pestering and full of suspense.. "tectonic tension, pulsating rhythms and abrasive analog textures like few can produce.." / "Totem features some of the most uncompromising and colossal electronic music you will hear this year" [The Quietus] - lim. 500
|
2019 |
€28.50 |
|
| |
Totem |
CD |
CYCLIC LAW build a new sub-label for more experimental works and this first release in the series by the long active French guitarist, improviser and composer FRANCK VIGROUX knocks you over with it's overridden and pitched multi-layered drones, forward-pestering and full of suspense.. "tectonic tension, pulsating rhythms and abrasive analog textures like few can produce.." / "Totem features some of the most uncompromising and colossal electronic music you will hear this year" [The Quietus]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| VILLENA, CARLOS |
Anomalia |
mCD-R |
powerful monumental drones, the more experimental & noisy side by CARLOS VILLENA, we think its great! 20+ min. one-tracker, comes in a oversized mCD box
|
2008 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
Els Humans Tambe Som Carn |
CD-R |
three long tracks by the Spanish "pure sound" newcomer, very deep / hazy / extramundane drones & near-silence atmospheres... for fans of FRANSCISCO LOPEZ a must ! lim. 100
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| VIPCANCRO |
Xax |
LP |
avant drone noise outfit from Italy: Bass / Percussion / Tapes / Electronics / Voice / Metal, feat. ANDREA BORGHi ; You can feel that this Italian quartet tries to sound like no one else, these are raw and suspenseful dronescapes with occasional outbursts, full of overtunes & small feedbacks, evoking quite a mysterious atmosphere... numbered edition of 150 copies, oversized cover with revits; special offer last copies !!
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Tropico |
CD |
second album (after the XAX LP) by this Italian drone-noise / ambient collective; very low fi & flowing feedbackin' stuff that morphs & shifts, based on guitar-sounds, synths, voices, etc... raw drones with a touch of mystery, drifting more and more into otherworlds... recommended !
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| VISIONS |
Temples |
CD |
after the awesome 2018 collaboration with PHURPA Frederic Arbour presents this new work named "Temples", seven pieces of haunting and beautiful, dark harmonic drones and ambiences, less "cosmic minimal" as on earlier releases, but with a great intuition for deep floating transcension sounds.. " “Temples” also serves as an hymn to lost civilisations, and a gratitude for what can still be found and discovered from our predecessors..." ed. of 500 copies
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| VIVENZA |
Fondements bruitistes 2 |
LP |
the best pure machine noise you can find!! The complete sessions from 1984 with many unreleased bonus tracks, spread on two single LPs - sounds still incredible!! lim. 200, red vinyl version, filed under: bruitism drones
|
2014 |
€22.00 |
|
| |
Fondements bruitistes 1 |
LP |
the best pure machine noise you can find!! The complete sessions from 1984 with many unreleased bonus tracks, spread on two single LPs - sounds still incredible!! lim. 200, red vinyl version, filed under: bruitism drones
|
2014 |
€22.00 |
|
| VOGEL, MICHEL |
Ronde Matutinale a Amilis / Berenice |
LP |
second LP by this French painter and sound-sculpturist; two long tracks using prepared gongs and self built metal-instruments without any further processing = pure resonances, overtunes, metal-drones, highly meditative & pure... lim. 270 copies
|
2011 |
€19.50 |
|
| VOGEL, MICHEL / PHILIP CORNER / PHOEBE NEVILLE |
Musiques des Ailes / Winged Music |
LP |
listen to the gongs of MICHEL VOGEL, played by him, PHILIP CORNER and PHOEBE NEVILLE, recorded at "Archipel" (l'atelier of Polska), Paris, Oct. 3, 1999; 4 pieces of improsived gong-drone muzak, performed on gongs, bells and sound sculptures, so far unpublished recordings, lim. 300 on black vinyl with full colour cover w. inlay. nice document of improvised contemplation-drones
|
2012 |
€17.00 |
|
| VOICE OF EYE |
Primaera |
mCD-R |
PRIMAERA is a 18 min. one-tracker especially recorded for this series and belongs to the last releases during the second active phase of the US duo => echo wind instruments, soothing dark drones, little alien sounds everywhere, evolving slowly into something more rough, noisy and completely otherworldy! - this is the true hand-played experimental "psychedelic ambience", transporting you to unknown places beyond knowledge.. BACK IN STOCK, now a new non-jewel-case ed.
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| VOICES OF THE COSMOS |
IV |
CD |
ambitious Polish project formed by Drone Rec. artist RAFAL IWANSKI (HATI, X-NAVI:ET) - together with WOJCIECH ZIEBA (ELECTRIC URANUS), and astronomer SEBASTIAN SOBERSKI - they use extraterrestrial sounds and signals from radio telescopes, and combine it with electronic instruments and objects.. "noises, vibrations, pulsations, shreds of melody, grunts, as well as chaotic and mysterious sounds, often difficult to determine.." - CD version of the "Interstellar" LP + 3 bonus tracks! Great cosmic pulse drones!
|
2021 |
€10.00 |
|
| VON EULER-DONNERSPERG, DITTERICH |
Knüllungen, Wulstungen, Klumpungen |
LP |
seven unpublished studio pieces, recorded already 1980-1982 with some re-workings & additions from 2012 => abstract and experimental dronescapes with processed found sounds, alien voices, strange micro sounds, with slight collage & earplay character and a dark touch (but no spoken words included), excellent Ambient Industrial from the WERBKUND-advocater and genius author that doesn't sound antiquated at all... numbered edition of 300 copies
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| VON HAUSSWOLFF, C.M. (CARL MICHAEL) |
Squared |
CD |
two new pieces: "Circulating Over Square Waters" (recorded at ZKM Kubus in Karlsruhe, won the Karl Sczuka Prizes for Radio Arts), and "Cementerio del Norte", a film soundtrack with original material recorded at a Cemetery in Montevideo ( Uruguay), extracting frequencies from the ground with a technique called 'Emission Spectroscopy'.. minimal 'radiating drones' & slowly moving sound sculputures, perfect for concentrated / contemplative listening..
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
|
A Lecture on Disturbances in Architecture |
CD |
"Illustration of high Ceilings inhabited by Angels" - first listing of this awarded (Ars Electronica 2002) album by the Stockholm based sound artist with a collection of nine pieces (created 1997-2002): various forms of static drones that differ a lot from each other and appear almost as illustrations, all connected to architecture... some fascinating material included!
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Cut Down and Re-Order |
10inch |
collector's item - lim. 100 w. gatefold cover, feat. two pieces of mysterious hum tones and fizzing drones, based on field recordings from the Swedenborg Chapel in Cambridge, USA, plus other unusual 'esoteric' sources as it's so typical for VON HAUSSWOLFF; the piece on Side B is dedicated to Z. KARKOWSKI
|
2020 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
INSNITT |
CD |
booming sub-bass drones and low-fi hissings together with mechanic / metallurgic sounds and shortwave overtones like coming from another dimension, captured live in Gothenburg in Sept. 2018 at the opening of his solo exhibition, feat. illustrious guests (JOHN DUNCAN, LEIF ELGGREN; JOACHIM NORDWALL, etc.)... maximal paranormal minimalism ! - 200 numbered copies existing !
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| VROMB |
Chorégraphie. Electro-Bruits et Tonalites Low-Fi |
CD |
'the choreographer of imaginary sounds' - the return for the Canadian project after many years, deepening the specific hypnotic VROMB minimalism (based on always pulsating, 'flittering' multi-layered analogue electronics) with great success: "subliminal trance-inducing beats, mighty pulsating sub basses and repetitive sequencer textures enriched with surrealistic ambient dronescapes"; a must for fans of BAD SECTOR, ORPHX, SEETYCA, XABEC, etc..
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| W>A>S>P>S / NACHT UND NEBEL |
split |
7inch |
lovely abrasive drones and 'harsh ambience' in the way of SMALL CRUEL PARTY or CRAWL UNIT based on Cello sounds and other sources; from these two U.K. based projects (one is connected with SCKE//)
|
2013 |
€7.00 |
|
| WALLACE, ZACH |
Glass Armonica |
CD |
three pieces of lovely glass harmonics, very overtunig & waving drones; based loosely on a design by Benjamin Franklin, for multiple players
|
2009 |
€15.50 |
|
| WATSON, DAVID & TONY BUCK |
Ask the Axes |
LP |
first ever collab. by bagpiper DAVID WATSON (remember his great "Fingering an Idea" do-CD [2007] ) and percussionist TONY BUCK from THE NECKS, who created two intense side-long pieces evolving from minimal drones to ecstatic ritualistic tunes and dynamic noises.. - "..from the droning choir of reeds, phantasmic overtones suddenly surface and are submerged in a fizzing backdrop like aural phosphenes.."
|
2019 |
€24.00 |
|
| WEHOWSKY, RALF & KEVIN DRUMM |
Cases |
CD |
"Aufnahmen von 1999 & 2000, RLW : electronics, edits & composition, KEVIN DRUMM: guitar & devices. Zu hören gibt es hier Musique Concrete der abstraktesten Sorte die wohl möglich ist, elektronisches Sirren vermengt mit guitar-pick-up Sounds, Brummtöne vereinigen sich mit malträtierten Saiten..." [old Drone Rec. info] ; back in stock this challenging Selektion CD with most experimental guitar & feedback drones and noises...
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| WELBURN, JAMES |
Hold |
LP |
JAMES WELBURNS debut-album presents six long & massive, hypnotic drone tracks with TONY BUCK (THE NECKS) on drums, a must if you like "wall of sound" guitar drones with monotone & repetitve bass & percussion grounds... powerful & heavy, but also suspended & elevating, 'somewhere between shoegaze & black metal' as the label info says.. lim. 500 with download code
|
2015 |
€16.50 |
|
| WESTBERG, NORMAN |
The All most quiet |
LP + CD |
the SWANS guitarist (since 1983!) with his first widely available solo-LP, spreadening hypnotic, subtle guitar drones which slowly change... "The introduction of new layers, textures and tones, shifts in the scale and pace of oscillations change the mood, subtly, inconspicuously, but no less definitely..." [Aural Aggravation] contains CD copy of the same material
|
2016 |
€22.50 |
|
| WETTERLÄUTEN (WETTERLAEUTEN) |
same |
LP |
excellent debut LP for this South German trio, creating evocative and visionary dronescapes with great suction and width, using electro-Cinese Guqin zither, guitars, electronics, synths, organs, gongs... "from dreamy sunset drones to heavy pre-storm electricity to apocalyptic orchestral deluge"; lim. 272 copies, comes with lovely full colour fold out sleeve and 6 full colour postcards showing landscapes, geological forms, plants and animals in a surrealistic way
|
2014 |
€7.50 |
|
| WHARTON, DONATO |
A white Rainbow spanning the Dark |
10inch |
experimental ambience between amorphous drones and near guitar-folk influences by this London-based composer for stage and theatre-plays, creating a very own & remarkable style; second 10" release (edition of 500) for this nice label from Wales
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| WHETHAM, SIMON |
Velvet |
mCD-R |
24min piece from this very active British soundartist often working with processed field recordings - here he re-workes recordings made in South Wales for a subtle sound-journey that developes from completely amorph hiss-drones to a revelation of more and more concrete details..
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
|
Hydrostatic |
CD |
archaic & monumental sounding roaring water-dronescapes full of strange soughs and metallic scrunchings - HYDROSTATIC is a multi-channel performance using sounds from an old Pumping Station - this the true industrial sound massive, mysterious, ghostly..; lim. 300, much recommended !
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Never so Alone |
CD |
during an extended stay in Lisbon, Portugal, the British artist captured sounds from the city with various (contact) microphones and hydrophones, to especially record vibrating and droning sources that build the basis for the 7 compositions here => a very different kind of city portrait, dense and ghostly drones are mixed with "small sounds", resonances, hisses... " Very delicate, very refined indeed. Maybe the best thing I heard from him so far." [FdW /Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| WICKED MESSENGER |
Officium Nocturnum |
do-CD |
FOURTH album by the German project with dark monolithic otherworldy dronescapes, visionary & dense
|
2010 |
€18.00 |
|
| WIEMAN |
Cryptonesia |
LP |
using 'exotic' Indonesian tape sources from the 80's, the re-arranged (&re-named) project of FRANS DE WAARD (BEEQUEEN, TOBACCONISTS, etc.) and ROEL MEELKOP creates a pretty unusual sound, the meeting of Asian ethno / gamelan sounds with experimental Pop, technoid rhythms and drones... " the unexpected meltpop child of dangdut and krautrock, filtered through electronica and post - exotica lenses." lim. 250
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| WINTER FAMILY |
Red Sugar |
CD |
re-discovered early album by the male-female duo from Brooklyn, NY => using organ drones and sparse instrumental sounds (piano) etc. plus spoken word lyrics, they create a pretty unique atmosphere, between complete tenderness and deepest melancholy.. BACK IN STOCK
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| WOJTAS, DARIUSZ & Z'EV |
Pro Pagan Da |
CD |
ex HATI member DARIUSZ WOJTAS in collaboration with the master of the ritual gong drones, Z'EV, who processes & mixes WOJTAS sounds based on Tibetan Bowls, Drums, field recordings & effects.. the result are amorph clouds of metallic & blustering noises, movements of mysterious droning sounds that are always changing like natural processes, with no real beginning or ending.. great stuff, undefinable! comes in oversized art-cover, lim. 350 copies
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| WOOLEY, NATE |
The Almond |
CD |
one long minimal drone-piece (72 min) based on unprocessed trumpet sounds & voice only; great & completely suspended acoustic spheres with slow inner movements, reminds on PHILL NIBLOCK, etc.. highly recommended if you like handplayed /non-electronic drones!
|
2011 |
€13.50 |
|
| WRIGHT, PETER |
Let's hide under the House until they're gone |
LP |
excellent experimental drones based on bass & guitar sounds, mesmerizing stuff with great contemplative power again from this New Zealand Drone Records-artist! Comes on 180gr. vinyl in an edition of just 300 copies
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| WYRM |
Live on KSER.org The Tunnel 90.7 MFR 12.12.2008 |
CD-R |
WYRM is the project of ALLAN ZANE & LIZ LANG; flickering & pulsating dronescapes, somewhere between ZOVIET FRANCE and BIG CITY ORCHESTRA, complex & breathing drone-structures, lim./numb. 111 copies in amazing handmade art-package (silver-foam stuff)
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| XEREX |
Xerex meets Dracula |
CD-R |
anonymous German project with first release, 14 tracks of miniimal, often organlike, fluffy drones... *They\'re conjoined twins who also happened to have been grown in a petri dish as elderly mathematicians in 1972. \"XEREX Meets Dracula\" is their first \"invisible story\" in the spirit of \"choose your own adventure\"-style novels..* - professionally duplicated and printed CD + cover, sealed jewel-case
|
2022 |
€10.50 |
|
| YEN POX |
Between the Horizon and the Abyss |
CD |
the glorious new opus by this outstanding transcendental / cosmic dark ambient / ritual duo from the USA, many years in the making => trance inducing sinister drones of a higher beauty, with enough variation between the tracks and great spatial quality... music for your deepest mind! .... "with the full force of a black hole, slowing down time and stretching it infinitely over an unimaginably monstrous mass, ripping metallic atoms apart with the pulsing black heart of the cosmos" [Heathen Harvest]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Between the Horizon and the Abyss |
do-LP |
the glorious opus by this outstanding transcendental / cosmic dark ambient / ritual duo from the USA, many years in the making => trance inducing sinister drones of a higher beauty, with enough variation between the tracks and great spatial quality... music for your deepest mind! .... VINYL version now available - lim. 500 copies w. gatefold sleeve
|
2016 |
€20.00 |
|
| Z'EV |
Eleven Mirrors to the Light |
CD |
third part in a series that started with 'Sum Things' on the same label; this new work is inspired by the intersection of light and dark and concentrates again on the droning side of his soundart, a very dynamic form of ambience, in continuous re-shaping and strange morphing process... great! "Z'EV's trademark percussion transforms into glistening soundscapes and drones, one part subterranean and another subatomic"..all 11 tracks are exactly 7 min long = 77 min. full playtime!
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Heart Beat Ear Drum |
DVD |
"Music as a form of incantation" - most impressive film by ELLEN ZWEIG about the great 'shamanic' musician, sound poet, and performance artist who died in 2017, dedicating his whole life to art and the love relationship to his "industrial objects": archival concert footage starting in the 70's,interviews, etc. show his evolvement through the years, from his wild beginnings over sound poetry to the trance-inducing drones of the later period, comes with full-colour inlay and postcard, 75 min.
|
2020 |
€17.50 |
|
| Z'EV & HATI |
Heart of a Wolf |
do-CD |
recordings from two live performances (May 2011, Torun & Gdansk) by these soulmates, whirring metaldronescapes with an ethnic touch, at times powerful and percussive, at times slow & contemplative, but always full of vital energy.. everything completely pure & without effect-processing; lim. 423 copies. two CDs for the price of one !
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| Z'EV & RAMONA PONZINI |
Ankoku |
CD |
...eine filigrane, düstere Reise zwischen flirrenden Feedback-Drones, den für Z'EV typischen, aber sehr zurückgenommenen Stahlpercussions und der traumwandlerischen Stimme Ponzinis, die klingt, als ob es sich dabei um eine Geisterbeschwörung einer japanischen Yurei oder um mit Schattenwesen aus der Zwischenwelt bevölkerte Filmsequenzen handeln würde: Wenn schon Magick, dann so etwas wie »Ankoku«, dessen spirituelle Kraft an COIL erinnert und auf der die italienische Sängerin ihr Debüt gibt."[Skug]- BACK IN
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| Z1// |
Drone Works # 1 |
maxi-CD-R |
CD-EP with very minimal, contrasting / high-pitched synth & sinus-tone drones; first maxi-CD in a new series of this Berlin-based label, comes with handmade/stamped kraft paper cover
|
2013 |
€5.00 |
|
| ZANNI, ADRIANO & ENRICO CONIGLIO |
A Corte |
CD + BOOK |
a masterpiece of suggestive dronescapes, based on a photographic exploration of "Corte di Cadore" in the Italian mountains, combining field- and object recordings of architectural spaces, nature, etc. with electronics... the result in interaction with the beautiufl 24 page book (full colour, oversized) is truly mesmerizing! *...explores folds of the soul of a place, overstepping realilty to become a dream. A total immersion in an "other" dimension amongst woods, etc.." - lim. 200
|
2022 |
€18.00 |
|
| ZEITKRATZER |
Serbian War Songs |
LP |
in collaboration with three Serbian singers / players ZEITKRATZER have interpreted traditional Serbian War Songs from / about the 1st. World War, recorded at Haus der Kulturen in Berlin in January 2016: the very powerful East-European chanting and singing is underlined with different kinds of acoustic instrumentation, from noise to structured phrases to atmospheric poly-drones, the emphasis lies on the lyrics which give deep insight to the people's emotions and fears... lim. 300 with inlay & translations
|
2017 |
€18.00 |
|
| ZIMIAMVIAN NIGHT |
Zimiamvian Night 3 |
do-CD |
this mysterious experimental drone ambience project from the U.S. produced only three albums in 14 years - here's the third one based on 'dead / lost files' of piano phrases and foggy, evolving hiss drones and evolving pulses, very minimal and contemplative... the second CD is only available "physically" with this editon, with luxus gatefold-cover, 300 copies
|
2018 |
€17.50 |
|
| ZOVIET FRANCE |
Look into Me |
do-LP |
first vinyl re-issue of this album from 1990 (with recordings made 1987 + 1988), probably the last one with MARK SPYBEY in the line-up... "Zoviet France cycle and recycle abstract noises into a constantly changing texture, composed of sonorous drones, grindings, scrapings, squeakings and so on. It's atmospheric without conjuring up any obvious imagery at all, thanks to the unreality of most of the sounds used.." - lim. 300 (outside of the Chasse II box)
|
2020 |
€31.50 |
|
| |
A Long Walk |
do-LP |
a completely unreleased recording from 2011 - now available as part of the 'Chasse 3' box and also in a limited amount of "stand-alone" copies (300x) => "A Long Walk" was recorded live in performance at the excellent INCUBATE festival in Tilburg, Netherlands, in September 2011; it features subtle shimmering instrumental drones, backwards harmonics, quirky electronic effects and lots of field recordings = a beautiful soundtrack for internal and external voyages...
|
2022 |
€31.50 |
|
| ZOVIET FRANCE & FOSSIL AEROSOL MINING PROJECT [ZFAMP] |
Flexible Pooling |
7inch flexi |
the additional release to "Patina Pooling" (from a heavy steel cover now to a hyper fragile paperbag artwork) - comes on a lovely WHITE flexi disc with two tracks, inlay and bonus download = together a 29 min. "mini-LP"; archaic shimmering low fi drones with mysterious voices & backward sounds that fit perfectly to this strange artefact
|
2015 |
€18.00 |
|
| ZUCCHERI, MARINO |
Parete '67 |
LP |
electronic piece created by ZUCCHERI (who was sound eng. for RAI) for the Italian Pavillion at the Montreal Expo 1967, re-found and first time published by DIE SCHACHTEL in 2005, this was installation music for the glass slide sculpture / painting of EMILIO VEDOVA..."a spectacular and intense 30-minutes loop of pure and intense electronics, a magmatic cascade of harsh sounds and deep drones, and a fantastic counterpart to the harsh and expressionistic painting of Vedova."
|
2018 |
€25.00 |
|
| ZYLO, ARVO |
333 |
CD |
*..A cyber punk thrill ride* - updated version of an older ARVO ZYLO album with broken electronic synth and noise tones in strange arrangements, sequences, loops, quasi rhythmics, spiral drones, very dry, loud and direct into the face... .- "totally assaulting music without actually relinquishing the conventional rules of what music should be." - three long tracks with countless changes and twists, about 60 min. playtime; lim. 300, 6 panel digipak with nice collages, special low priced !!
|
2023 |
€5.55 |
|
| [AD]VANCE[D] |
Flushing the Veins |
DVD |
the second release for the "post"-VANCE ORCHESTRA project is a DVD with four films & new music, combining colourful vivid & floating shapes with field recordings and electronic sounds & drones... lovely stuff, contemplative & little bit bizarrre as always...
Comes in nicely designed handmade DVD-box, with colour-booklet, lim. 300
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE, THE |
Field of View |
CD |
the latest album by the dutch "experimental drone" project comes as a surprise, incorporating female singing & spoken voice & slow minimal rhythmic elements with the typical atmospheric drones...
|
2012 |
€13.50 |
|
| 15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO |
Between Checks and Artillery. Between Work and Image |
10inch |
Exzellente 2-track 10" dieses US-Trios, die sich hier weniger "industriell-elektronisch" als eher minimal Gitarren-dronig mit Hang zum Monumentalen zeigen.... anschwellende Gitarren-Anschläge, tiefe Drones, Rausch-Effekte, allmächtige Crescendi, erhabene Weiten
& wuchtige Pulses auf Seite auf Seite B..
"A trio from San Francisco composed of Daniel Blomquist, Mark Wilson and Michael Addison Mersereau, 15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO, with previous releases in CD or CDR format on the FORCE OF NATURE and CRUNCH POD labels, brings us their first production in vinyl format. It is comprised of 2 exclusive tracks, on 10’’ vinyl, released on the Montreal based label .ANGLE.REC., still fond of the vinyl disc. 2 tracks which suggest an even more brilliant and exploded future for this exploratory vehicle born on the ashes of the famous IMPERIAL FLORAL ASSAULT UNIT project. The trio’s most recent CD, ‘’Under A Morphine Sky’’, offered a well-balanced perspective between improvisation and composition, a sound alchemy that is realized without any pretension under a purple and…of course… morphined sky. Power-Electronics in symbiosis with Dark-ambient in symbiosis with Guitar-Noise in symbiosis with various layered and shifting acoustic and electronic elements …The result and the overall feel were stunning. This 10incher is the log ical follow-up to the madness. 2 face(t)s, 2 slices of life. A side, ‘’KRONOS’’, proposes us a guitar-based canvas with multiples effects and spacious microworlds, with an accelerating insanity and intensity, an 8-9 minute segment which flies like the wind. It can also be considered as an extrapolation on the last minutes of ‘’THE RETURNING’’, found on B Side; ‘’THE RETURNING’’ begins with an epic lo-fi martial/neoclassical/doom segment but rather soon, haunting post-rock/shoegaze guitar-based structures come to occupy the main stage, and the power electronics segment also turns up very quickly following that, the whole being accomplished with a constant mastery and concern for texture. It is chaotic, foggy buy damned melodic and moving …and it does not stop gaining in intensity. Towards the final segment, we have samples and then a melodic guitar-based motif with a healthy dose of echo, which reverberates while consuming itself, till the end … 15DBZ has crazy surprises in store for us. Discover why, now. Many ambiences and textures on this 10’’ remind us of the reasons why we got interested, in the first place, in various ‘’nocturnal’’ and/or ‘’subterranean’’ musical universes. The beauty of it all is that here, everything is presented in condensed fashion. 2 tracks which fly too fast despite their relative length. Another welcome add to the .ANGLE.REC. vinyl series." [label info]
www.angle-rec.net
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| 3/4HADBEENELIMINATED |
Theology |
CD |
Die Band mit STEFANO PILIA & CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI, filed under: seltsame atmosphärisch-melancholische Improvisationen im (entfernten) Post-Rock-Gewand [mit späterer effektvoller Nachbearbeitung im Studio ohne das improvisatorische Feeling zu zerstören]; zwei lange Stücke füllen THEOLOGY, schwebend und unfokussiert aber stets im Wandel, unter Einsatz von vielen "echten" Instrumenten (Gesang, Drums, Gitarren, Piano), mitunter blitzen Ähnlichkeiten gar mit A SILVER MT. ZION auf... die ist der "Schwester-Release" zur LP "Religious Experience".
"Soleilmoon Recordings is proud to announce the simultaneous release of 3/4HadBeenEliminated’s new CD and LP, titled “Theology” and “The Religious Experience”, respectively. 3/4HadBeenEliminated was founded in 2002 in Bologna, Italy as a trio, with Stefano Pilia, Claudio Rocchetti and Valerio Tricoli. An eponymous album was released in 2003 by Bowindo. In 2004 the group welcomed Tony Arrabito and became a quartet. The next year Hapna put out their second album “A Year of the Aural Gauge Operation”, and in 2006 the band self-released a 7 inch single “DimethylAtonalCalcine”. The group straddles the line between live improvisation and studio experimentation, blending and shaping raw sounds into living pieces, then gently dissecting the delicately structured songs into disruptive sonic excursions more evocative of moving shadows and swirling leaves than recognizable tunes. Stasis and stability are nowhere to be found here. Instead, an ever-changing dialogue between structure and chaos shifts from one performer to the next, never resting long before launching again into shuddering flight. Accoustic instruments and vocals form a familiar reference point, but studio treatments take the music into psychedelic and cinematic realms. In their words , “Improvisation is a way to experiment without thinking. When our improvisations ‘work’, the music just happens on its own. It reveals itself as if guided by its own logic, its own desire. In fact we don’t even feel like we are actually playing the music. It’s more like a stream that moves and changes autonomously. With composition (editing, overdubs, etc. etc.) we then remodel this stream, trying to make it more complex, ‘forever lasting, forever changing’, in the sense that every hearing will reveal a new perspective of the music. As a live band, we improvise 100%, and it's really risky, but when it ‘happens’, it’s the greatest satisfaction.” “Theology” is presented in a wooden box with a hinged cover decorated with layers of hand-painted tracing paper, and is limited to 450 copies on CD. The companion vinyl LP “The Religious Experience” is a reinterpretation of the recordings made for the CD. The LP is limited to 225 copies. The two albums – and their music – should be considered as mirror opposites. Where theology is a completely artificial system of belief, a religious experience is the immediate experience of the thing itself. Likewise, the music on “Theology” is complex and elaborate, while “The Religious Experience” is much simpler, going directly to the heart of the material comprising “Theology”. Thus, the two works are independent, yet relate to each other as mother and daughter." [press release]
"....and with some imagination you could say that they are a rock band. Well, an expanded rock band that crosses many lines: post rock, singer songwriter, improvisation and above all musique concrete collage techniques. Maybe the stage isn't their place but they should be safely stuck in the studio, where they can freely experiment with sound. Each member plays a wide variety of instruments, except Arrabito, who is just credited for drums. Inside the studio they find a safe place to improvise their music, but not as an end, but as a start. Recordings are separated, deconstructed and rebuilt into something. These two new releases, both lavishly packed with all sorts of nice paper, are best heard together, as mirrors of each other. The CD (limited to 450 copies) and the LP (limited to 225 copies) have however their differences, but the provide a nice view in the kitchen of 3/4HadBeenEliminated. The CD is perhaps more complex in approach. We hear lots of processed guitars, percussive sounds, organ like drones but also contact microphones scratching the surface alongside humming vocals. Not really rock by any rock standard, even when things seems to hint that way. Seemingly things move from atmosphere to atmosphere, gradually, slow, but without doubt moving.." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"...you'll know to expect fractured and mysterious soundscapes, a densely textured drone-zone constructed from field recordings, record crackle, improvised acoustic instruments, radio static, fragments of piano melody, electronic treatments, whispered Italian voices, turntable scratchings, reel-to-reel tape manipulation, synthesizer sinewaves, scattered percussion, and more. That's a zone we LOVE to visit. There's two long tracks, lots to explore, all manner of curious creakings and cracklings, shifting rhythms and rumblings abounding within 3/4hadbeeneliminated's carefully crafted and/or improvised music. At times quiet and meditative, at others noisier and distorted, but always (to our ears) utterly gorgeous and compelling. Aligns quite nicely with the likes of the Jewelled Antler collective, the Finnish forest foraging of Kemialliset Ystavat, and of course others in the experimental underground Italian scene of which the members of 3/4hadbeeneliminated are a part." [Aquarius Records review]
www.soleilmoon.com
|
2007 |
€19.50 |
|
| 400 LONELY THINGS |
Mother Moon |
CD |
The new album from 400 LONELY THINGS, produced by WILLIAM BASINSKI, is a dark ambient, sample-based séance to the Banning Mill - a real-life decaying \"mansion\" and haven for artists, freaks and misfits in the backwoods of the American Deep South in the 1970s-1990s - and an extraordinary piece of art that lived there.
An archaeological excursion in found sound - wandering through the art and memory of a real place, \"Mother Moon\" is an origin story for 400 Lonely Things. In the 1990\'s, Craig Varian was fortunate enough to frequent the Mill in the years before it closed. It was here that he was exposed to the artwork of Richard Scott Hill. The impact is hard to overstate.
Built on the Snake River in the early 1800\'s as a textile mill, it operated until the late 1960\'s and when its doors closed on that era, and reopened on another. In 1971, the Mill was purchased by a young wealthy \"eccentric\" (to use the vernacular of the time). He was openly gay in the deeply bigoted Old South, a collector of fantastic and surreal art, a drug enthusiast, an owner of at least one mental illness, and a self-described entrepreneur with a vision. In the years that followed, he turned this sprawling, mildewed structure into a private hippie art collective, music venue and refuge for Southern misfits - gays and gender-benders, visual artists, musicians, mystics, ghost-hunters, wizards, pagans, intellectuals, poets, nerds and psychedelic explorers by the dozens drifted in and out, creating their own alternate universe in its hundreds of rooms.
One of these artists was Richard Scott Hill. Hill\'s work stood apart from everything else at the Mill. It was all black and white or hand-coloured photography - typically stark portraits of people - almost always wearing masks. These photos were disturbing and disarming, hilarious and crazed, unsettling and aggressively surreal in their confrontational simplicity. His work both captured and fed into the Mill\'s sinister yet playful undercurrents of mania and depression. By the conservative 1980\'s, the Mill became a very different place. A dark and quiet ectoplasmic hangover haunted its rooms with just a handful of tenants, remaining so until its doors closed for good in the late 90\'s.
Varian had friends that lived there, and after hearing quiet legends of the Banning Mill since the late 80\'s, was finally able to visit. While the Mill itself was transformative enough, turning down a disused hallway, Varian encountered the image on the cover of this album and quite simply became a different person. A lifetime spent as a Southern misfit had led to fruitless artistic, philosophical, spiritual and psychedelic pursuits as relief. At this time, an obsession with visual collage and audio sampling had been brewing and upon seeing this image, boiled over. He realized that the sounds and images he\'d been seeking had been sought by many others and that for a time, these seekers had lived here in the secret winding halls of Banning Mill in the wilds of the Deep South. In particular, this nude cow-faced woman was the Minotauress who sat at the heart of that maze.
Since the days of the Mill (and Varian\'s subsequent purchase of Hill\'s \"Minotauress\" shortly before the Mill closed), Varian, along with best friend and musical partner Jonathan McCall, found a thread of music they\'d been consistently making yet had previously failed to notice - melancholic instrumentals with weathered sampling at its core - going back to their earliest recordings in the late 1980\'s. Eventually, this music was called 400 Lonely Things, and eventually an album would be attempted to honor both the Mill and Richard\'s \"Minotauress\".
The Mill has been closed for about 25 years now and all that remains of it is a gutted skeleton covered in yellow caution tape. After a dozen albums, Jonathan McCall has since passed on to the next realm. But this album, born out of that first visit to the Mill, is finally here - an imaginary soundtrack to the many years of solitude the Minotauress spent hanging in that musty hallway.
For this album, Varian reached out to Mr. Hill and a friendship and artistic relationship has developed. Richard - now in his 80\'s and an established figure in the established art world - still creates fantastically bizarre works daily from his home studio, just a mile from the remains of the Mill. He says that the music of 400 Lonely Things is from another dimension and he hopes you enjoy it and his previously unpublished art gracing the cover.
Presented in a 6-panel spot-varnished digipak.
credits
released April 11, 2023
Produced by William Basinski
Additional Mixing and Mastering by Preston Wendel
Covert art by Richard Scott Hill
\"Mother Moon is a cypher that saves an important hidden fragment of cultural history from erasure.\" Ben Ponton, Zoviet France.
\"Mother Moon is darkness calling. It will take you to the outer limits and leave you there. Guaranteed to twist your mind.\" Andrew Hulme, O Yuki Conjugate.
\"A wistful, burrowing, beautiful nightmare.\" Daniel Kraus, NY Times Best Selling Author of The Living Dead with George A. Romero, and The Shape Of Water with Guillermo Del Toro.
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/mother-moon-csr319cd
"It's one of those weeks... Being a former ginger/redhead, I have problems handling the moist 25-30 Celcius) heat in the Netherlands. So I hardly get to do anything, and I get distracted all the time, like work and such. So I have been trying to start a review of "Mother Moon" by 400 Lonely Things several times, and each time I end up just listening and floating away, Drifting on the waves ... And I didn't even feel bad about listening to it over and over and over ...
Produced by William Basinski, 400 Lonely Things is a project by Craig Varian inspired by recordings around, based in, or related to an old mill. A beautiful PDF was sent to us, and it might well be part of the Bandcamp download, but how you get your hands on it when you get the CD: I don't know. The 400 Lonely Things concept focuses on the arrangement of lost and found sounds, and the melancholia is certainly audible in the release. Also, the journey aspect is very well set in this release, the journey being the descriptive part of environments through sound as a medium. So in many areas where the boxes should be ticked to make a release interesting, those boxes are actually ticked.
Musicwise, "Mother Moon" is an absolute beauty. Almost 80 minutes, with deep drones, minimal melodic lines, scarce structural sounds (no rhythms), ambience and, on occasion, a mesmerizing voice preaching solitude and melancholia. And here and there, an ever so slight 'touch of Coil' (for example, in "In Darkness"). So
at this point, I would say: Get the album and don't worry too much about everything else. But the booklet and combined conceptual approach is a bit of a downer for me, as it turns out. I mean: Concepts make many releases I know/heard/have enjoyable, and I know all about it as an artist myself. But in a weird way the conceptual approach is so elaborate and massive that it almost forces me to think about it. And all I want to do is just enjoy the flow, as a psychonaut, ride the waves and not be bothered too much with all that mumbo jumbo. But that's just me. I think... I hope... Other than that: Go Flow, Go Dream, Go Listen, Just 'Be' ..." [BW / Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| A WAKE A WEEK |
Through line |
mCD-R |
"Perhaps more known for his more rhythmic stuff under the DETRITUS alias, david dando-moore also creates beautiful soundscapes under the A WAKE A WEEK alias where he mixes low key noisy drones with piano melodies. "through line" gathers four rather short tracks with a strong sad and melancholic feel... this 3"cdr/FLAC is the follow-up to the excellent self-produced digital-only release "abandon" still available from dando-moore's bandcamp." [label info]
www.taalem.org
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF |
Fragment 36 (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Hinter dem Projekt mit dem seltsamen Namen steckt MIRKO UHLIG aus Bonn, der sich auf seiner Drone-7“ auf HERAKLITs „alles fliesst“ bezieht und entsprechende Dronescapes mit hoher Dynamik erschaffen hat.....zerfliessende-handbemalte Covers & multi-colour Vinyl !
“You never cross the same river twice! PANTA RHEI!” Behind this project with the strange name (german for “eel-catch with horse-head”) is one Mirko Uhlig from Germany, who had few CDR-releases so far, most of them standing out through their weird surrealistic coloration. In the meantime he also build his own label EX OVO. “Fragment 36” relates to a quote from Heraclites showing that ‘everything deliquesces” at any moment and can never be the same as one moment before. According to that, AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPFs first and last ever 7” creates two drone-minimal pieces with very high dynamics, using water-sounds and Glockenspiel, drenched into overtune-feedback-resonances & dark deep drones... Filed under: fleetingmelting drones
LIGHT GREEN / YELLOW SPRINKLED VINYL. HANDPAINTED COVERS USING WATER-COLOURS IN GREEN, RED, VIOLET.” [press release] RELEASE DATE: 30. April 2006 !
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| AARKTICA |
Pure Tone Audiometry |
CD |
Himmelwärts strebender Dream-Post-Rock mit ätherischen Vocals und Chören, Gitarrendronewänden, gezupften Echo-Gitarren, Streichern... ein absolut schönes, melancholisches, warm schimmerndes Album. Anklänge an ULTRASOUND, ruhigen GODSPEED YBE...
“... Pure Tone Audiometry is Aarktica’s most involved work yet, approaching the balance between “drone” and “song.” Although the overall tone of the album is consistent and dreamlike, the content within is as varied as DeRosa’s personality, combining gentle lullabies with jagged atonalism, string trios with white noise guitars, and feverish percussion overtop sedate drones. Unlike the sleepy pace of much of Aarktica’s back catalog, Pure Tone Audiometry indulges in some moments of pure upbeat indie rock, resting seamlessly against the album’s ambient backdrop. ” [from the press release]
www.silbermedia.com
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| ACTION & TENSION & SPACE |
Skaredalen Funhouse |
LP |
Action & Tension & Space is a spaced out instrumental lo-fi lounge outfit from Norway, consisting of members from bands like The Low Frequency in Stereo, Lumen Drones, Electric Eye, Soft Ride, Ape Club, Undergrünnen and the European backing band for Ryley Walker.
The band released their self titled debut album on Made in Haugesund way back in 2012 and are now ready with their second album called Skåredal Funhouse.
The music on Skåredal Funhouse is based on groovy basslines, chilling combo organs, smooth drums, crispy guitars and a surfing lap-steel. If you combine the ambience from The Necks, the lounge feel of The Friends of Dean Martinez, and the travelling spirit of Neu mixed together in an apocalyptic The Doors vibe - then you get ATS!
The new album Skåredalen Funhouse is inspired by an actual house by the same name. The notorious house is somewhere outside of downtown Haugesund (south-west coast of Norway), without anyone knowing for sure exactly where it is. The mystery continues.
https://kapitaenplatte.bandcamp.com/album/action-tension-space-sk-redalen-funhouse
|
2018 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Explosive Meditations |
LP |
"Action & Tension and Space, the spaced out instrumental outfit from Norway, consisting of members from The Low Frequency in Stereo, Electric Eye, Soft Ride, Ape Club and Lumen Drones are out with their third album Explosive Meditations 5th of October on Kapitän Platte. Free improvised and travelling up-right bass, chill-out combo organ, smooth drums, crispy guitars and a surfing lap-steel. If you combine the ambience from the Necks and the doomsday revelations of Pink Floyd's - a saucerful of secrets - you can get to where Action & Tension & Space are on this album. The album was recorded on the island Karmoy on the west coast of Norway during two days with heavy rain showers and storm rumbling outside the studio windows which influenced the band towards a sonic, impulsive and dynamic mood... and resulted in three tracks and 40 minutes of abstract yet groovy music."
https://kapitaenplatte.bandcamp.com/album/action-tension-space-explosive-meditations |
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| AD LUX TENEBRAE |
Ghanood |
CD |
"Dark Ambient | Drone | Ritual. Ghanood is new album of Ad Lux Tenebrae played in collaboration with 121 of Closing the Eternity. One more then half of hour long track. 100% organic & synth-free ambient somnolent meditation with strings, bells, drones, bowls, chimes & rainsticks." [label info]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| ADMIN DADA |
The Hypnagogic Traveller |
LP |
"First of all, you should know that the hypnagogic state characterizes a phase between wakefulness and sleep: that of falling asleep. So, as an insomniac who has trouble falling asleep, I was curious to see how Admin Dada would put all this to music. On a purely sonic level, we sail aboard rather spatial electronic drones, sometimes disturbed by more abrasive sound frequencies. It is true that when listening to this opus, one enters a form of psychedelic trip, as if the brain was following the modulations of the music, which becomes almost meditative and brings us closer to a shamanic trance state. It's a bit of a sound illustration of this particular moment when we leave the state of pure awakening to become more cottony, to feel the sensations of our body evolve, the noises gradually fade away, the breathing slow down.
Although generally calm, this work can become darker at times ("Vouivr") and approach a form of dark ambient rather psychedelic. I am well aware of Sheitan's creativity and his talent for handling atmospheres and melodies, even in quasi-atonal moments, but I find that he has surpassed himself here: this album settles in itself as a great pleasure that one immediately wishes to repeat. In addition to the digital version, the album is also available on vinyl, which will allow you to appreciate the very nice artwork.
With this album, Admin Dada has established itself among the references of modern ambient/experimental music, and one would have to be an idiot to miss it!"
[Le Scribe Du Rock]
https://hammersteinwaldteufel.bandcamp.com/album/the-
hypnagogic-traveller
review: https://www.webzinelescribedurock.com/2021/04/review-admin-dada-hypnagogic-traveller.html |
2021 |
€20.00 |
|
| AEMAE |
Maw |
CD |
AEMAE die zweite: Abstraktere Geräuschmusik gibt es zur Zeit wohl kaum, "irgendwie elektronisch und undurchdringlich" könnte man die oftmals in polyhochfrequenten Spitzen ausufernde Musik in einem ersten Eindruck bezeichnen. Harsche Cut-ups setzen starke Kontrapunkte in dem sonst eher kaum krachenden Universum aus zischenden, pfeifenden, quietschenden, elektronisch sirrenden Mikro-Klängen. Manchmal erinnert das an ASMUS TIETCHENS experimentellste Werke. In ihrer Unzugänglichkeit eine höchst kuriose & stimulierende Musik, jede Sekunde tun sich neue Klang-Rhizome auf.
"Second full length full length from East Bay sound technician (and AQ customer) Brandon Nickell, who spent the last year painstakingly assembling the sounds that would eventually become this here disc.
His previous full length, a big AQ fave was a blissed out collage of deep drones and thick soundscapes of high end skree, soft focus whispery minimalism and dense squalls of swirling noise. Even some shuffling skittering rhythms found there way into the mix.
On Maw, Nickell's approach is similar, although the first track threw us for a loop. A strange spacious slab of music concrete, the focal point being a strange grunting gasping reverb drenched animal sound. Like some mysterious electronic beast, confined to a tiny pen and registering his displeasure as it ruts and calls out to others of its kind. Creepy but pretty dang cool. The second track returns to more familiar waters, a super tranquil drift of burbling barely there rumble and subtle electronic pulses. A slow lugubrious crawl beneath and within the tiny sounds that make up a mysteriously indistinct low end world. After that it's another visit to the strange electronic zoo, to observe the insect enclosure, where some seriously angry winged creatures buzz wildly as they careen back and forth in front of the glass.
We move on into another long form stretch of abstract ambience, sparkling and glimmering like the glassy surface of a pond in the late afternoon, and then it's one more quick glimpse into the final enclosure, the beasts within are much more calm, lazing in the fading sunlight, their cooing and snorting, like some sort of shortwave radio static, interrupted by electronic birdcalls and the manufactured whoosh of a warm electronic breeze. So weird but strangely compelling and beautiful.
There's some definite Nurse With Wound worship here, as well as nods to Coleclough, Hafler Trio, and the like, but Nickell knows enough than to just ape his heroes, instead he takes what he needs and does some serious exploring on his own... and we like it.
Packaged in a super simple and striking white on white sleeve." [Aquarius Records]
www.isounderscore.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| AEOGA |
Coav |
CD |
Erstes Album eines neuen finnischen Projekts mit organischer Ritualmusik, die uns hervorragend gefällt....... stehende, teils rückwärtige Klangmassen, voller ätherischer Schwere. surrealistisch & hypnotisch loopig, dunkel und von sakraler Tiefe, irgendwo zwischen VOICE OF EYE, TROUM & URE THRALL vielleicht.. Das ganze im 8eckigen Spezialcover.
Very recommend debut – album of this finnish project with organic ritualistic dronemusic !
“ The debut album of Aeoga, titled as 'COAV ', presents very original and haunting material based on spiralling dark drones, eerie guitar feedback textures, archaic drum and cymbal patterns, atonal / tonal vocalizations and distant / peculiar sample layers. The 8 tracks of the album offer material from organic dark ambient / archaic & ascetic horizons to dark and haunting tribal/ritual atmospheres. "To exhaust mind and body in order to obtain a condition of non-consciousness and thus receive, realize and create material based on both primal and absent vision". (total time: 65:52). Comes in a special octagon shaped cardboard covers including an 6 panel textured cardboard sleeve. Limited to 1000 copies.”[label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Triangle of Nebula-Devourers & Palace for Vultunales |
CD |
After a decade of unavailability we are proud to release ‘Triangle of Nebula-Devourers’ and ‘Palace for Vultunales’ by Aeoga on a CD through our Stellar Mansion series. Both of these were previously released in 2005 simultaneously with the ‘Zenith Beyond the Helix-Locus’ album; ‘ToND’ was limited to 100 CD-r copies and ‘PfV’ came exclusively as a part of ‘ZBtH-L’ deluxe box set that was limited to only 40 copies.
‘Triangle of Nebula-Devourers’ presents three electro-acoustic pieces that will take you through the hazy desert toward the non-spatial zero time. Tempesting, obscure and flowing archaic ambience where meditative rhythms, transcendental resonances and abstract passages blend together – sonic alchemy that will permute the sub-/ non-conscious patterns of the Self. This album is an incomparable outcome in the field of experimental and abstract ambience.
‘Palace for Vultunales’ presents two dronumental tracks varying from backwards flowing acoustical drones, eerie sample textures and harmonic sound clouds to archaic rhythm patterns. A voyage through the Coprophagik Cycle into the heart of absolute being – an opus between old school drone ambience and experimental ritual music.
The album is enclosed inside a silk-screen printed Stellar Mansion cardboard covers including four, two-sided insert cards. Limited to 500 copies.
www.auralhypnox.com
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| AERE AETERNUS |
Humanity needs no Funeral |
CD |
From the new wave of 'apocalyptic' or 'doom/death industrial' bands surely one of most interesting and impressive projects, AERE AETERNUS build a de-humanized soundtrack full of dark drones, over-expressive tortured voices, and devastating sounds. There is no light in this hellish Miasma, imagine SLEEP CHAMBER meeting LUSTMORD meeting dark HYBRYDS... The CD Version has video-track as bonus !
"Humanity Needs No Funeral", the first full-length album from AERE AETERNUS, was released on the French label Kaosthetik. With a multi-national and eclectic lineup, the band comprises Alex (MACABRE OMEN, THE ONE, RAZOR OF OCCAM), Claudio Alcara (FROSTMOON ECLIPSE, STROSZEK), Cyr (DARK SANCTUARY, ELKTRONIK SCIETY) and Radu. Drawing on the wide range and considerable musical experience of its members, AERE AETERNUS creates a dark, disturbing atmosphere that probably best fits within the ambient and minimalist genres, and which the band themselves describe as "half misanthropic ritual and half sex ritual." The dominant atmosphere combines a sense of impending insanity with sexual deviancy and a large dollop of occultism, creating a dark and troubling misanthropic sojourn that is relatively unique. The final track is probably the most musical, as it is centred on a guitar arpeggio, but no such concessions to convention are present elsewhere on this deeply troubling disk. The accompanying video (CD version ONLY) of "Invocation" shows a Satanic ritual in all its kitchsy glory. Recommended for those looking for something a darker than the usual entities. "When Dark Ambient meets Industrial Deviance" [label info] |
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| AETHENOR |
Betimes Black Cloudmasses |
LP |
Zweites Album dieses Projektes mit ihrem instrumentell-improvisierten "Psychedelic Noir", überwiegend ruhig & dronig & minimal, durchbrochen von vielerlei konkreten Objekt- und Instrumenten-Geräuschen, sowie ekstatisch-perkussiven Zwischenparts... hat was verwunschenes, fabulöses, bannendes...
"Betimes Black Cloudmasses is the highly-anticipated second album from Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (SUNN0))), KTL), and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). Like their genre- and audience-confounding debut Deep In Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light, Betimes is an atmospheric, constantly changing piece that encompasses a mind-boggling array of different performance and processing techniques. The deeply psychedelic and moving results present a soundstage that is continually evolving, with new elements entering and leaving the fray every couple of seconds.
Betimes includes significant contributions from free percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, who sprinkle the sound field with an almost FMP-style rush of splattering drum sound, raising the intensity of the music (without resorting to bashing). The album also features a brief but affecting vocal from Ulver mastermind Kristoffer Rygg, who made his first live appearance in over a decade when Aethenor played the Roadburn Festival in April 2008. Aethenor's third LP, featuring vocals and lyrics by David Tibet, will be released in Autumn 2008.
'Musically, Aethenor summon the most somnolent examples of Bernard Parmegiani, Organum, Nurse with Wound, Klaus Schulze, Igor Wakhevitch, Coil, Iancu Dumitrescu, and Charlemagne Palestine. Acousmatic drones ebb and flow into crackling and bubbling sonic clusters. Lulling piano motifs and lamenting chants shimmer into distant lunar horizons while oscillators spin and drove serenely into unchartered audial regions. Sometimes as calm as a silvery sea, so that every gentle cat's-paw and lapping wave is deafening. Sometimes as tempestuous as a fuming lava beach, spitting and popping at the surface.' -Daniel O'Sullivan " [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
Faking Gold and Murder |
LP |
"... Diese drei Urprinzipien, das sind hier gleichermaßen STEPHEN O'MALLEY (SUNN O))), KTL), DANIEL O'SULLIVAN (GUAPO) und VINCENT DE ROGUIN (SHORA), die sich mit ihrem neuen Werk nun ein drittes Mal im Æthenor zusammenfinden und mit “Faking Gold And Murder” ein dunkles Manifest alchemistischer Transmutationen niederlegen. Begleitet wird das Trio von den beiden Perkussionisten NICOLAS FIELD und ALEX BABEL, dem Gitarristen ALEXANDER TUCKER und dem hier bereits als ANOK PE auftretenden DAVID TIBET. Was immer sich aus dieser Zusammensetzung bereits herleiten ließe, nichts bereitet einen wirklich auf diese von okkulter Ritualistik geprägten Kompositionen vor, durchsetzt von Tibets apokalyptischen Inkantationen. Tosend setzt in dem ersten der vier übergangslosen und unbenannten Kapitel ein Schlagwerkgewitter ein, umbrodelt von den unterirdisch anmutenden Klängen des Keyboards und der Gitarre, während Tibet zu sphärischen Klängen des Beckens und des Glockenspiels seine mitunter zweistimmig intonierten albtraumhaften Visionen in die Komposition hineinwebt, nur um nach einigen Minuten wieder vom zeremoniell anmutenden Lärmen der Perkussionisten übertönt zu werden. Selbst in seinen leisesten Momenten ist das Ganze so komplex und durchdacht arrangiert, dass es an keiner Stelle seine hypnotisierende Wirkung einbüßt. Längst hat vollkommen unbemerkt das zweite Stück begonnen, traumhaft übergleitend in minimal intonierten Ambient, der nach und nach mit dem Einsatz der regengleichen Klänge des Rhodes und eines anhaltenden Drones an Intensität weiter zunimmt, bis Tibet das Stück mit einer wie aus weiter Ferne gesprochenen Passage zu einem von tiefen Bassfrequenzen dominierten düsteren Ende führt. Spätestens mit dem Beginn des dritten Kapitels wird man gewahr, dass dies alles unaufhörlich in einem stärker werdenden Sog in eine Tiefe zieht, deren Boden unabsehbar geworden ist und in der man längst die Orientierung verloren hat. Eine durch wellenartig geschlagene Handtrommeln aufgebaute Spannung liefert hier die Grundstimmung für die Verstörendste von Tibets Inkantationen, unterstützt und bald überrollt vom infernalischen Rumpeln und Brausen des Schlagwerks und der anderen Instrumente, sich verdichtend zu einem vor apokalyptischer Brachialgewalt starrendem Ende. Wie in einem Nachwort endet mit dem vierten Kapitel das Album im erdigen Drone des Harmoniums und sphärisch darüber flirrenden Keyboardklängen, die den Hörer, zu Tibets fast schon gesprochenem Epilog, auf eine beruhigende Weise erden und das erste Mal nach 35 Minuten wieder frei durchatmen lassen. “Faking Gold And Murder” ist ein für den aufmerksamen Zuhörer ungemein lohnenswertes Machwerk. Wer sich darauf einlässt, dem offenbaren sich die komplexen Kompositionen in einer an Greifbarkeit grenzenden Dimensionalität, der hat Teil an einem archaischen Ritual von schauderhafter Schönheit, gekonnt in Szene gesetzt durch das mal fragile, mal tosende Zusammenspiel der Musiker und intoniert von Tibets geisterhaften Deklamationen. Letztere sind es auch, die “Faking Gold And Murder” eine Dimension verleihen, die die beiden Vorgänger nicht aufweisen konnten und das Album so zum eingängigsten und wertvollsten aller bisherigen Æthenor-Alben machen." [Stefan O. / NONPOP]
"Third earth shattering outing for Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn0))), KTL) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). For Faking Gold and Murder, the core trio is joined by percussionists Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, as well as renown guitarist Alexander Tucker and the inimitable David Tibet. Faking Gold is Æ’s heaviest outing, driven by a weighty low end and the full fury of Babel and Field’s free-wheeling drums. The trio’s electronics, guitar, Rhodes, and organ ride the waves of sound in a tightly-controlled blare, leaving plenty of space for Tibet’s declarations of the mystical and supernatural. Tibet is on top form here, rising out of the tempest at just the right moment, almost plain-spoken in places – grounding the squall at times, voicing the apocalypse at others.
“Brooding, primeval, dark alchemical epics are full of a ferocious intensity, sounding more like a starlit night being ripped open by lightning than a musical group. Intelligent and primal, like a dæmonic workshop, battering up Pandemoniums and dreaming of gold and murder, Æthenor are spectacular.”- David Tibet
Cover design by Nicola Todeschini and Vincent De Roguin. CD is in a tri-fold letterpress folio, printed on heavy black art paper by Stumptown. Deluxe LP is 180 gram, pressed at RTI, in letterpress cover on heavy black art stock by Stumptown, with custom gold on black inner. Cut by John Golden. A fantastic sounding and looking item." [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2009 |
€20.50 |
|
| AGLAIA |
Sacred Waters |
CD |
Neben Solo- und Kollaborationen seines eigenen Projekts ALIO DIE erscheinen auf Stefano Mussos Label auch weitere italienische Musiken aus dem „natural dream ambience“-Feld. Das Duo AGLAIA ist auch so ein Fall, SACRED WATERS ist ihr zweites Album .... Musik die wie flüchtige visuelle Eindrücke funktioniert, die langsam verblassen & neu aufscheinen, in der alles auf sehr sanfte Art und Weise verschmilzt..... down-oktavierte Flöten, Guitars, Synth-Drops & drones, vorbei-huschende field recordings, Wassersounds, lange Echos ....
die Musik ist „nach aussen“ bewegungslos, „nach innen“ jedoch erscheint sie in ständiger Schwingung & Zeitlupen-Oszillation....ein Tag-Traum aus Klang !
“The textural ambient project Aglaia have finally released their second album. After a very good feedback from the first CD "Three Organic Experiences", "Sacred Waters" is the new offertoires to introduce more and more in the amniotic sound dimension, of their music. The layers's quality become more deep here.. in breathing circles where processed voices and acoustic instruments, appear to be evocative and fragmented like in a dream, or just like what an echo can play with sounds in an open landscape, coming from far distances with the wind. The electronics/analog sounds are waves of flowing energy with a powerful relaxing quality, and behind them you can hear sometimes an indian flavour like an incense stick burning. By the way it's not possible at all to explain and describe the originality of this music, his poetry and his psychoacoustic properties, but if you start to listen, it invites you to stay inside yourself, in the motionless, and timeless space that induce, bathing in the Sacred Waters of the infinite ocean of peace and inspiration. Cover paints by Alessandro Savelli, graphics by Hic Sunt Leones.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| AGNIVOLOK |
Sculptor |
LP |
Wirklich Genre-übergreifend, was das in Israel beheimatete Projekt (aus dem CHAOS AS SHELTER-Umfeld bzw. dürfte Vadim Gusis aka CAS hier auch mitspielen) hier fabriziert hat: Leidenschaftlicher, ost-europäisch geprägter Folk mit klagendem weiblichen russischen Gesang vermischt mit industriellen drones & samples & konkreten Geräuschen, Pianotunes, das alles sehr sehr schwermütig zerbrechlich schön. Auf Seite B lange düstere Streichersounds und drones.. dazu ein großformatiges, sehr ästhetisches Cover mit kirillischen liner-notes. Absolutes Highlight!
Israel based Folk-Industrial project with very passionate & melancholic tunes, very much recommended, one of our highlights!
“ Like all Stateart releases, a highly demanding album. Agnivolok compells us to discover a new world of musical meltdown and takes traditional music into new dimensions. It is not folk - although the traditional fire will project ancient Caucasian gatherings into your mind. It is not ambient - although it makes you dream, and these dreams ache. Agnivolok is near life experience - music for spiritual travellers and the listener's V.I.T.R.I.O.L. This heavy vinyl LP comes in a supreme white cardboard folder with silver print.” [label description]
|
2002 |
€12.50 |
|
| AGUIRRE, MARCELO |
Contes d'Etonnement |
LP |
Voices, percussion, drums, and rather spooky electronic processing. A minimal structure onto which uncanny atmospheres become kind of interwoven. A sort of heterophony, in the manner of Japanese Gagaku or Indonesian Gamelan. An intriguing inversion seems to unfold, when the drum set takes the lead in the composition's development. We could even say the drums court the shadow of a melody, whilst the voice delivers a litany, enhancing atmospheres that are, to my ears, less sinister than they are elegiac: the longing for a primitive age, a meaningful world now lost and irrecoverable in its healthful entirety. This invocation works by way of an overlapping of sounds, always finding their source in the percussion set and in the vocal intonations.
It becomes apparent that time is the very question here, a time that is intangible and yet ‘absolute’ (if I may incur in this oxymoron), giving up any stringent historical temporality in favor of a sort of sedimentation in geological layers. Just listen to "Malaria C", a post-industrial landscape in the style of Lustmørd that brings to mind images of a universe in stasis, forever frozen in an ancient phase, while the voice underlines this ominous scenery, and the sound of tiny bells towards the end conjures a unique form of consolation as an ephemeral corollary.
In "Krakatoa", an extensive and vast sense of time lingers morosely in aural repetition, varying only slightly in intensity before the layered singing voices invoke an unlikely fulfillment. Those unmistakable chants may also resound in "Only A Mother", sort of a psalmody framed by a vehement and rhythmic acceleration which emphasizes how exacting and unavoidable is time's call.
Yet elusive, ungraspable time, resists being dissected into discrete and symmetrical units, escaping the prison of human perception; the drums go on and on, scanning their disparate metrics in an integral, unrestrained use of every component in the drum kit.
'I will follow the Time' could be guessed within "In Eternal Life". It is the only song which foregoes the drums. However, gongs recorded by close-miking bring to mind and ears the rumble of a synthesizer, coalescing with a jeremiad sung in a somber dialect that is cryptic, never discernible as intelligible language. The voice is merely another instrument, overlapping in disparate layers and warping polyphonic textures as its frequencies collide and clash, one against each other. While a voice recites an eerie mass, an incantation from another world, then punctuated by chants which resound like undulating drones.
It is difficult not to acknowledge the overall effect of some healthy dispossession, of a deliberate shedding of fineries, aimed at reducing everything to minimal expression. It is as if Marcelo Aguirre turns a cold shoulder to the weight of tradition and to the classification of musical experience with definite labels and overwrought categorization, as if he wanted to go beyond any accepted distinction of rhythm and melody, prose and poetry, or noise and harmony. Is his an appeal which knows of no precedent, a longing for an unheard form of music? A music able to transcend time and place while not relinquishing its human and historical fate? I cannot help taking note of a certain kinship that this musical inquiry of Aguirre's crisscrosses the time-honored obsession with Time, held by European philosophers from the late XIXth and early XXth Century. For instance, William James and his brother Henry's 'stream of consciousness', the 'durée' of Henri Bergson, and the transcendental subjectivity understood as an absolute by Edmund Husserl. What Aguirre may share with this company is the search for a language adept to communicate the indefinable, the flow of a temporality that does not allow itself to be captured in any given moment, instead it is music at the service of a primordial intuition. Therefore recovering an original order, harmonizing in a fullness of sense the flow of sounds. An attitude which positions itself at the antipodes of some developments in current electronic music, with its disassembling of the sound reality into beats (or bits and bytes), and an everlasting reiteration of artificial rhythmic structures, always monotonous and symmetrical even in their angularity. It is in this context of predominant musical tendencies nowadays, which blesses in a paradoxical marriage the once hostile fields of pop and experimentation, that these 'Contes d'Étonnement' reinvent a fresh appeal to the liberal imagination; a force as ancient (and eternal?) as the human species is.
[from the inlay, text by NORBERTO CAMBIASSO]
https://marceloaguirre.bandcamp.com/releases
|
2018 |
€17.00 |
|
| AKIYAMA, MITCHELL |
Mort aux vaches |
CD |
Wieder ein kleines Verpackungswunder in der MORT AUX VACHES-Serie: glänzendes, 2fach gefaltetes Kupferblech mit Prägung, sieht einfach genial aus! Und auch musikalisch ist dies ein Schmuckstück: Ein one-tracker (43+ min.) mit äusserst zarten, stimmungsvollen Gitarren-Drones, die digital aufbereitet tänzeln und feinste innerliche Resonanzen spürbar werden lassen....
“Packaging comes in embossed copper (no printing). Akiyama's contribution to the Mort Aux Vaches series is an unedited improvisation recorded for VPRO radio in April, 2004. Consisting of guitar washes and digital interruptions, the set was recorded without any use of samples or prepared material. In keeping with Akiyama's ethic of spontaneous composition this recording is a document of a moment. Akiyama's music is a study in fiction and texture. He records compositions and improvisations for piano, strings, and other instruments, and restructures them in his studio in a post-facto montage. Playing on the distortions in causality that recording technology can effect, Akiyama creates music that lays claim to a moment of creation that never happened. Imperfections - fingers scraping strings, breaths and other signs of humanity - are underscored resulting in a digital simulacrum of performance. Located somewhere in the interstices of classical, electronic composition and post-rock, his works vacillate between delicate melodies and confrontational bursts of noise.” [press release]
www.staalplaat.com
|
2004 |
€14.50 |
|
| AL-QASAR |
Wo are we? |
LP |
Middle Eastern psych-rock collective Al-Qasar"s debut album is an explosive mix of heavy Arabian grooves, global psychedelia and North African trance music. The band calls it "Arabian fuzz." Brazenly electric yet deeply connected to their roots, guests include Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) and Alsarah (Alsarah & The Nubatones). Mixed by Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey). Al-Qasar was born in the Barbès neighbourhood of Paris," explains band leader Thomas Attar Bellier. "I"ve lived in Los Angeles, Paris, New York, Lisbon... I wanted to start a project that was in tune with the daily life of people living in these international cities, something diverse, radically colourful, with a fresh, contemporary outlook on what societies really look like today". The musicians came together from France, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, and the United States. Shows followed, first in France, then in Europe and the Middle East. They put out an EP, the widely-lauded Miraj, recorded in Cairo. In the same time frame, Attar Bellier collaborated with the likes of Emel Mathlouthi and Dina El Wedidi, two of the most exciting names in contemporary Arab music. Drawing on years of experience working in Los Angeles studios, Attar Bellier produced the album. Who Are We? translates the sound that inhabited his head into something physical that stirs spirit, heart and feet. It is relentless and insistent, like a psychedelic celebration on the dancefloor, bristling with the kind of deep energy that makes Al-Qasar sound like the world"s most dangerous wedding band. During those years spent behind the control board, Attar Bellier made some good friends in the US, and they"ve been eager to help out on the project. Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey) mixed the record, and Grammy-winner Dave Collins mastered it. The Dead Kennedys" Jello Biafra was a natural addition to "Ya Malak," his inimitable voice reciting a translation of Egyptian revolutionary poet Ahmed Fouad Negm, elevating the record"s social critique while showcasing the first-ever English recording of Negm"s work. Jello Biafra is not the only punk hero to appear on Who Are We? Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth layers textured, brooding guitar over the first two cuts, "Awtar Al Sharq" and "Awal." The sweeping drones embrace the Moroccan bendir groove to magical results. "Lee sent me upwards of eighteen guitar tracks," says Attar Bellier in amazement. "It was enough for an entire EP, and all so good. The hard part was deciding what not to use. Lee"s vibe just fit perfectly with what I was trying to do with the track." Who Are We? is an exhilarating album. Its intensity never wavers, music that pulls from the hypnotic roots of North African trance and threads it into a fabric with the elaborate beauty of Arabic scales and the shock and thrill of rock"n"roll. It is modern folklore, a reflection of the cross-cultural societies we"ve become.
https://alqasar.bandcamp.com/album/who-are-we
|
2022 |
€22.50 |
|
| ALDEA, ERIC |
Saturno o Cipolla |
CD |
Erinnert sich noch jemand an die hervorragende französische “Rock”-Band (Rock im Geiste von THIS HEAT wohlgemerkt) namens BÄSTARD? Dies ist das äußerst empfehlenswerte erste Solo-Album des ehemaligen BÄSTARD-Mitglieds ERIC ALDEA, der sich hier in drone-ambiente Gefilde begibt und ein meisterliche Atmosphären & Sounds erzeugt, betörende Drones mit orientalen Blasinstrumenten, Resonanz-Loop-Schichten verschmelzen mit field recordings, glitchig-fremdartige Frequenzfelder tauchen auf, getaucht in warme Klangfarben ... bester deep Ambient & atmospheric Electronic! BIOSPHERE meets ZOVIET FRANCE meets GLITCH.?
“Eric Aldéa was a member of Lyons based post rockers Bästard, whose collaborators included Chicago luminaries Bundy Brown and Casey Rice, and was previously in industrial hardcore merchants Deity Guns. His first solo record betrays few of those influences though; compiled from various pieces written for dance company La Baraka, Saturno o Cipolla ? delivers a warm, organic take on experimental ambient electronics. Aldéas approach is informed more by the lo-fi layering of industrial types like Zoviet France or the tapeloop outings of Fripp & Eno than by the cut 'n paste glitchscapes beloved by the average bald bloke with a Powerbook, though we do get a bit of digital snap crackle n blip on a couple of pieces. Elsewhere Aldéa delicately weaves together shortwave transmissions, field recordings and acoustic instrumentation with rarely heard skill. While countless TV advertised ambient compilations may promise to, er, take the listener on a journey, Aldéas gradual unfolding of his pieces seems to do just that. The thirteen minutes of "02" are especially seductive; opening with a chatter of shortwave crackles and bleeps, an opressive string figure repeats itself to be swept away by a held, suspended chord flecked with bowed double bass harmonics and gurgling synthetics. A phone goes off somewhere; footsteps are briefly heard. A gentle synth loop fires up eventually to be overrun by glassy digital tones and telex bleeps which swarm and multiply before abruptly fading. Here Aldéa's manipulation of acoustic space recalls David Toop and Max Eastleys classic Buried Dreams, though is less likely to give you nightmares. Less successfully, "03" and "04" stray into more conventional electronica territory, with looped sinewave drones, clicks and metallic synthbursts piling up and receding in typical minimal art techno fashion. The closing trio of pieces save the day though; revolving around mournful, muted strings, alternately decorated with bubbling analogue synth, dolorous cello and distant xylophone figures, they evoke a calm tinted with a vague sense of unease, like seeing a single black cloud in a summer sky.Immersive, often beautiful and with a slightly ungraspable quality that makes you want to stick it on again as soon as its finished, Saturno o Cipolla ? may well turn out to be one of the records of the year...” [Peter Mash, BBC website]
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALDINUCCI, GIULIO / MATTEO UGGERI |
Bureau |
CD |
Matteo Uggeri : Field Recordings and Beats
Giulio Aldinucci : Field Recordings and Drones
In 2016 Matteo Uggeri took hundreds of pictures during his working days in 70’s building aimed at training and desk work located in the surroundings of Milan
Later that winter the photographs served as inspiration for this album themed on alienation of offices working life. Tracks are based on outdoor field recordings
looped, treated and re-shaped in order to be transformed into beats,rhythms, (Matteo) drones and melodies (Giulio)
https://adnrecords.com/album/giulio-aldinucci-matteo-uggeri-bureau/
"An emotionally absorbing, vibrant and sensitive personal voyage
Matteo Uggeri is one multifaceted and emblematic sound/noise designer artist from Italy—also one founder member of the chamber post-rock collective Sparkle in Grey. His usual signature can be described as composite ambient sceneries where sonic textures meet story-telling minimal sketches and expanding downtempo vibes.
In this new release he collaborates with Giulio Aldinucci, who is a seducing and creative electroacoustic soundscaper whose production (in solo or in collaboration, notably with Francesco Giannico) is largely recognized in the DIY indie community with a fancy for mesmeric, chilled-out then discreet electronic ambient music.
Bureau is an emotionally absorbing, vibrant and sensitive personal voyage through a vast array of emotions, tone colors, flexible tones and kinetic electronic impulses. This is mostly one electronic and ambient-centered atmospheric album with a stylistic inclination for hypnotic organic textures (as in the ravishing “Fire Dome”) and minimal-tinged chilled out soundscapes with more abstract sounds and airy clicks and cuts (in “Inceneritore” “Ghiaccio”), even flirting with glitch-esque vibes (“Ghiaccio”) and hauntology (in the eerie and weirdly “Zoo”).
An easily recommended listening and catchy electronic effort to consider if you are into post-minimal techno, IDM and syncretic ambient waves. Somewhere between Christian Fennesz, Microstoria, Oval, Hecq, and Beequeen."
[Philippe Blache (Igloo Magazine) August 23, 2020]
"Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had already registered the return of ADN Records, erstwhile a cassette label with some great releases (New 7th music, Amok, Pascal Comelade, Bourbonese Qualk etc) in the 80s. They were called (not by me) the Italian version of Recommended Records. They have come back, already some time ago and picked up on a generation of ‘younger’ musicians. Matteo Uggeri took hundreds of photos of his workplace in a ’70s building and that became the inspiration for this work with Giulio Aldinucci. They both use field recordings, but Aldinucci melts the re-processed field recordings into drones and Uggeri into beats. These beats should not be understood as a bunch of big 4/4 rhythms, but minimalist drum patterns of a dark nature. It fits the ditto dark drones as produced by Aldinucci, that are sometimes pretty straight forward sustaining clouds of sound, but most of the time also add a small melodic touch to them. I have no idea where these field recordings were made, only recognizing the fanfare on the street in ‘Chinese New Year‘ and some wind/rain/water sounds in other pieces, or vast empty parking space. Sometimes the beats produced by Uggeri seem almost absent, such as in ‘Inceneritore‘, but maybe they are even more spaced out here. I think it is quite a clever move to work with field recordings in the way these gentlemen do; just treating them into big chunks of abstract ambient music has been done quite enough, but adding minimalist rhythms and re-shaping field recordings into lovely chunks of melodic ambient is also perhaps not unique, but it is not done to death yet (at least, not that I know) and as such, this is a great album." Frans De Waard (Vital Weekly n. 1246)
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE |
Hora Aurea |
10inch |
Zwei neue ALIO DIE – Stücke auf dieser 10”, wie sie entrückt meditativer kaum sein könnten... ganz sanft und doch mit vielen interessanten Sounds gespickt, breiten sich magische Drones repetitiv aus, betäubend wie schweres Perfüm...
“SmallVoices proudly presents the new ALIO DIE work entitled "AUREA HORA". Two exclusive tracks of evocative magmatic soundscapes in the typical atemporal Alio Die aim. The two completely new recordings (with drones, loops, zither and integrated radionoises from an old Valvular model) are similar to early Alio Die experiments or one of his best albums "Sol Niger". Catching atmospheres will bring you in Stefano's magic world, which is an oneiric, dreaming journey to the inner self satisfaction...” [label description]
|
2006 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Le Stanze della Trascendenza |
CD |
Dritter Teil der Trilogie, die mit "Hidden Spring" begann und aus Bearbeitungen von altem Material besteht. ("reworked with modern technologies"), Soundquellen sind ausschließlich akustisch, Drones, Voice (Choräle), Flute, Field Recordings...Mit dem wunderbaren 24minütigen "Melancholic Roots"
label: www.aliodie.com
|
1999 |
€14.00 |
|
|
Aura Seminalis |
CD |
Auf AURA SEMINALIS verwendet ALIO DIE vokales und chorales Material, welches elektronisch verfremdet oder mit elektronischen Effekten angereichert wird. Dabei entstehen zwei lange Stücke von unglaublicher Emotionalität und Tiefe, frei fliessend & sanft wirbelnd um imaginäre Zentren....Die sakralen Choräle verschmelzen auf eine einmalige Art und Weise mit akustisch-elektronischen Sound,
vielleicht das beste ALIO DIE -Album bisher, auf jeden Fall aufregend anders als vorherige Arbeiten !
"The new work by Alio Die it is part of the Castle's sonorisation series, titled AURA SEMINALIS. The first track 'Sine Tempore part I-III' it's an epicentre of mystic music carachterized by a gold cathedral's atmosphere, while 'Aura Seminalis part I-II' displays an ascensional soundworld of arcane purity and rare beauty. One of the best works by Alio die so far. CD packaged in an elegant three sides digipack!! HSL 045" [label info]
"This latest release in a recent outpouring of creativity from Italy's master of organic drones is possibly the most unique in this artist's long career as a sound sculptor. While most of his recent releases on his own Hic Sunt Leones label have been collaborations, this is his first solo effort since the release of the 10 inch vinyl Aurea Hora. As the elaborate Renaissance style artwork on the cover suggests, this music points in the direction of a more "classical" sound insofar as the utilization of Gregorian style chants. These are successfully incorporated into Musso's customary drones comprised of field recordings, acoustic instruments, and electronic processing, giving this disc a particularly reverent ambience. Don't think Enigma or Delerium, because as one listens to this they may be inclined to bow their head and meditate or pray rather than nod or chill. I imagine that if today's sound recording abilities were available during those times evoked by the artwork or chants, they too would have then added the organic elements that Alio Die does, creating a balance of both the heavenly and the earthbound. Fans of his music may or may not find this approach a departure from what they are accustomed to, but it is certain that this artist is going beyond his previous huge body of work to encompass a broader sonic pallette." [Pauldient / Discogs.com]
www.aliodie.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Tempus Rei |
CD |
Two new long pieces, based around a very beautiful subtle "classic instrumental" loop & field recordings of ocean, air & waves. The second piece is very similar but differently structured and uses also zither sounds. At the end everything seems to dissolve into shimmering lights of drone... So simple but so truly ambient-magic, ALIO DIE recently develops into very high levels of ZEN Ambience! Beautiful artwork, too!
"Celebrated by Stefano Musso in 2008 - 2008 at Temple Studio, Milan.
Alio Die: drones and loops, zither, field recordings. Cover photos by Edoardo Caputo. Artwork by Hic Sunt Leones. Tempus Rei is the second chapter of Castles Sonorisation's Series" [label info]
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
|
The Way of Fire (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Stefano Musso alias ALIO DIE lives in a small village in the mountains of Lunigiana, where he is inspired by pure nature –surroundings. There he is also running a CD-label for new ambient dream music named HIC SUNT LEONES. ALIO DIE gives the perfect soundtrack to a journey into the realms of untouched nature; listen to animal voices, flutes, long dark drones, drummings, metallic sounds, small feedbacks and thunderous explosions...
a kind of psychoactive illuminative music, the two long tracks here are in a darker vein as on recent ALIO DIE releases..
Ideal Sounds for your psychognostic daydreams!
MINT-GREEN VINYL, VERY HANDMADE COVER-ARTWORK WITH LOTS OF PAINT, STAMPS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, PIECES OF NEWSPAPERS, PIECES OF PLANTS & FEATHERS. EACH ONE DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE!
"Two spacious new E.P.s for entheogenic minds
- out on Drone in December 1998"
|
1998 |
€ |
|
|
Deconsecrated and Pure |
CD |
"Deconsecrated and Pure is an evocative liturgy from the realm where electronic music meets acoustic drones, found objects, sacral voices and field recordings.
Italian ambient-acoustic sonic sculptor Stefano Musso returns for his first solo Alio Die release on Projekt in 20 years. Don't get the idea he's been on vacation, however! Since 1992 he has released 37 collaborative CDs and 19 solo CDs; this makes Deconsecrated and Pure Alio Die's 20th solo release! Welcome back!
The processed traditional instruments and natural textures float alongside rich electro-organic drones, creating a perfect introspective soundtrack with a medieval and sacral atmosphere. Serene and meditative textures combine in a chorus of circular and interwoven sounds, reflecting the harmony of the cosmos as an opus of inner stillness.
Processed and layered into the mix are vocal pieces by Claudio Merulo. The work of this 16th century Venetian Renaissance composer was performed by Paolo Tognon and Quoniam Ensemble di Dulciane and De Labyrintho Ensemble Della Rinascenza, creating the essence of a historical religious feel. The gradual evolution of the arrangements create a strong impression that the listener has been carried across time and space. Elements such as sonically-tampered Middle East horns (The dulciana, a sort of early basoon/oboe), solemn atmospheres of the courts of the Italian Renaissance, and evocative soundscapes cosmic and ethereal combine for holiness and trascendence.
To create this work, Stefano selected fragments of sessions recorded with the acoustic instruments, modifying them through multi-layered loops. Pitch and frequencies changed, effects were added, other sound objects were played and processed into the mix. This was further augmented with the electronics and field recordings adding more layers metamorphosizing the whole atmosphere into a deep trance mood. What makes Alio Die's compositions glow is the attention to detail and fluidity; something from the background floats to the foreground as it is slowly modified, or perhaps it's the gentle addition of a bagpipe or stringed instruments. It all intertwines through constant modulation, addition of atmospheric sounds, and re-contextualization.
Marvelously floating and hauntingly expressive, Deconsecrated and Pure feels like a liturgical poem within an archaic mausoleum distorted by time." [label info]
www.projekt.com
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Standing in a Place |
CD |
"released December 5, 2015
Composed and performed by Stefano Musso (bmi)
Recorded at Lunae Studio, Lunigiana between march 2013 & November 2015
Alio Die: Psaltery, zither, drones & loops, field recordings
Lorenzo Montanà: Additional electronics and effects
Photos by Linda Serra - Artwork by Hic Sunt Leones
A masterpiece of mystical wonder painted with the medium of music. I've seen him do this often in his music....but never better than this. Rsfx-amb/Bandcamp
there is only one Alio Die and the beautifully constructed listens he creates for us are such a special part of the experience of planet Earth. So expressive and emotive and spontaneously deep, we're blessed to have his music accompany our lives and reflections. thank you. Duff Egan/Bandcamp
Such exquisite complexity in this drone world by Stefano Musso (ALIO DIE). But, then again, they always are.
What an experience it would be to follow Stefano on one of his creations, and watch him meticulously stitch together such intricate works. Until that time, however, we'll have to appreciate this drone master from his finished work.
Beautifully done! Brian Bourassa/Bandcamp" [band website info]
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Seamlessly Bliss |
CD |
"Composed and performed by Stefano Musso (bmi)
Recorded at Oulu, Finland & Lunae Studio, Italy
Between july 2011 and november 2015.
Alio Die: Zither, Drones and Loops, Field Recordings.
Lingua Fungi: Kantele, Organ, Treatments.
Aglaia: Electronics and effects.
Artwork by Hic Sunt Leones.
It is always a pleasure to experience new works by ALIO DIE, mindfully absorbing the multitude of minute phrases that make up, in the end, an intricate tapestry of textural wonder.
Seamlessly bliss is no exception to the rule and exemplifies this magical process that only one such as ALIO DIE can create.
Brian Bourassa/Bandcamp" [band website info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Imaginal Symmetry |
CD |
Composed and performed by Stefano Musso (BMI)
Recorded in Oulu (Finland) and Lunae Studio (Tuscany)
between july 2011 and december 2015
Alio Die: zither, drones & loops, field recordings
with:
Lingua Fungi: kantele, organ, treatments
Aglaia: electronics and effects.
https://aliodie.bandcamp.com
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
They grow Layers of Life within |
CD |
Alio Die knows the sound and this album is an acoustic cathedral, but it could also be the sound of an ancient forest or what is more pure has survived or escaped the implacable vortices of space-time.
A pure, charming, superlative album, where Alio Die opens passages, planing, flying through. There is no uncertainty, no swelling, no cracking, the sounds emerge, appear and disappear within a solid soundtrack.
Thanks to such dilated sounds the listener sees in the distance. It looks like through a crystal sphere, the trained ear reads messages that Alio Die has received from other worlds thanks to an accustomed sensitivity now capturing in every sound event the sacred and essential.
released June 21, 2017
Alio Die: Zither, Drones and Loops,
Bells, Voice, Field Recordings
Composed and Performed by Stefano Musso (bmi)
Recorded at Lunae Studio,Italy
Between January and December 2016
Photo Processing by Arianna Tondo ~ Artwork by Hic Sunt Leones
aliodie.bandcamp.com/album/they-grow-layers-of-life-within |
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & AGLAIA |
Private History of the Clouds |
CD |
Dies dürfte die erste echte Zusammenarbeit der italienischen Projekte sein, scheinbar geht es hier um Vertonungen des Himmels, genauer: verschiedener Wolkenformationen (CIRRUS = reine Eiswolke in großer Höhe / auch Federwolke genannt; PERLUCIDUS = "durchsichtige" Fleckenwolke; NIMBUS = Regenwolke; RADIATUS = Wolken die parallele Bänder aufweisen; STRATUS = niedere Schichtwolke; CUMULS CONGESTUS = mächtige Quellwolke). Entsprechend "luftig" und ätherisch sind diese hellen Drones geraten, in die sanfte Field Recordings (Wasser, Insekten) sowie die typischen Zither-Klänge von ALIO DIE gemischt wurden... das ist "Ambient" pur, hat klanglich vielleicht nicht das allergrösste Innovationspotenzial, aber wer ALIO DIE & AGLAIA bereits kennt wie meisterhaft & einmalig sie organische Klang-Meditationen umsetzen können... Musik wie Wellenreflektionen.
"Infraction Records curates this new entry to the already considerable body of collaborations involving Alio Die. There have already been communings with the likes of Robert Rich, Mathias Grassow, and Vidna Obmana. Here, though, Stefano Musso's fellow-travellers are lesser known but closer to home. Aglaia is an Italian duo with a trio of albums on his Hic Sunt Leones label; Gino Fioravanti and Gianluigi Toso come trailing credentials in therapy, writing, painting, and teaching, to say nothing of alchemy and ortho-bionomy. In contrast with Musso, who has fully two decades of musical endeavors behind him, they're comparative novices. But you wouldn't have thought it. Theirs is a music whose apparent stasis enfolds within it endless subtle micro-variations. They bring with them from previous HSL releases an appealing aquatic/amniotic sound dimension, characterized by a combination of electronic sounds (analogies as the sleeve notes would have it) and processed acoustica moving as if in virtual circular breathing. Slow waves of soundflow suggestive of psycho-acoustic energy (if you're a believer, otherwise just go with the flow) come with peripheral fragments of sonorities, carried on the wind, drifting as if at the edges of sleep, recalling the way echo plays in open landscapes. That's part of the method of this animist collective's historical unfolding of its subjects' textures and trajectories, yielding a series of luminous aerated tracts. Animists see a spiritual force residing in every element of the physical world. Nature is believed to be alive, imputing an inner life to leaves, lakes and the like. Dwelling on Private History Of The Clouds brings this to mind before even entering its audio world, particularly in light of Alio Die's predilection for 'passion, nature and awakening' and Aglaia's for worlds of feeling ('mondi sensibili,' as a previous album was called). But, lest this kind of talk scare off those averse to nature-hugging, note that the musical Grace inspiring this project is more a familiar of Pandit Prath Nan and Brian Eno than of Wyndham Hill and Hearts of Space." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
| ALIO DIE & DIRK SERRIES |
The Chapters of the Eclipse |
CD |
THE CHAPTERS OF THE ECLIPSE reveals layers of eternity in each phase like a moon bath vitalizing luminous patches in expanded and contemplative dronescapes. The meditative and minimalist electronic ambient sky is suspended at the interval for liberation from the shadows of becoming: life in its most essential orientation.
THE CHAPTERS OF THE ECLIPSE is the new musical union of Italy’s Alio Die (Stefano Musso) and Belgium’s Dirk Serries (vidnaObmana) which, more than twenty years after their previous collaboration (ECHO PASSAGE, Projekt 1999), contains three compositions in a suspended airy, majestic succession. These liquid soundscapes create an elegy of pure sonic beauty.
“It offers no possibility of interpretation,” writes Musso, “because the involvement is complete, and immersion presupposes nothing more than being immediately part of the floating of the cosmos in the glow of its impersonal nature. Eight years in the making, this new creation radiates the wave that accompanies the explored space; it’s a telescope on eternity in a contemplative offering which is an impulse towards the very essence of the inner light.”
THE CHAPTERS OF THE ECLIPSE imparts passage to a realm of transcendence, a reflection on life while absorbing the beautiful harmonics of these essential dronescapes originating from electric guitar, zither and processing.
BIO
Alio Die is the name of Stefano Musso’s shimmering, expansive dronescaping solo-project. Musso began work under the name in 1989 and has released over 70 albums including fruitful collaborations with artists such as Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, and Amelia Cuni. His personal musical signature is a hybrid between sonorous soundscapes and acoustic mysticism: a shadowy, cavernous, intensely detailed fusion of acoustical elements, sample treatments, sparse, echoing percussion, and deep, atmospheric sound design.
Dirk Serries is an experimentalist and foremost guitarist active since 1984, known for his vidnaObmana project and now extremely prolific in the free improvisation/free jazz scene with his own label and many different collaborations. The comings and goings of the sounds embrace and involve rather than describe; it develops sensations which we no longer hold back, while the sound textures flow continuously in the sensitive moments.
https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-chapters-of-the-eclipse |
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & MARIOLINA ZITTA |
La Sala dei Cristalli |
CD |
"Using selected sound materials from Sonorous stones, Stalactites, Bat calls, Flutes, Field recordings collected by Mariolina Zitta in different caves in Liguria a Sardinia, Italy, processed and edited by Alio Die.
In "Lithos" the drones are played by the authors on a set of long stones that goes in resonance, caressed by a bathed hand, by the same principle of the crystal's glasses.
A very immersive and obscure traveling, an underground meditation with a ritual touch, in accord with the "natural sound", despite the sampling and multieffect techniques used here.
A deep listening experience." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2010 |
€15.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE & MARTINA GALVAGNI |
Eleusian Lullaby |
CD |
"Oasen-Ambient" auf dieser Zusammenarbeit von ALIO DIE mit der italienischen Sängerin MARTINA GALVAGNI, hell klingend & klar, eine paradiesische Schönheit und Geborgenheit heraufbeschwörend, zärtlich, warm & sinnlich. ALIO DIE benutzt wieder diverse Instrumente wie Zither & Sitar und field recordings, die er auf seine typische Art und Weise verwebt...
"Eleusian Lullaby is a sensual ethereal-ambient collaboration between Italian soundsculptor Stefano Musso (aka Alio Die) and Italian singer Martina Galvagni. It is the third release in Projekt's series of Alio Die's vocal collaborations following 2001's Apsaras (with Amelia Cuni) and 2005's Mei-Jyu (with Jack or Jive). Eleusian Lullaby blends the natural, warm and earthy ambient compositions of Alio Die with the elegant, neo-classical voice of Martina, merging notes and silence into an expanded dreamscape. This is lullaby music like an aural caress from darkness into the light. The combination of the vocal melodies with the abstract qualities of the loops and instruments creates a suspended near-dream space, intimate and sensual at the same time.
The opening track, 'The Oniroid Sleep,' displays a foggy atmosphere where the voices wash beneath the acoustic layers of the cithara, sitar, kalimba and field recordings. On the second track, 'A Drone Song for Alienor,' the voice is clearer and more upfront with all its powerful beauty apparent creating an intense and fragile song with a neo-classical approach. The third song, 'Eleusian Lullaby,' was created as a totally free improvisation of psaltery and voice; the text is sung in a dialect of the Engadina language (Switzerland). Drones and loops were added later from the original recordings.
60 minutes of music, composed by acoustical improvisations with voice, psaltery, zither, cithara, bells, metals and field recordings. The original recordings were made in locations in the woods and in ancient medieval places then processed and layered by Alio Die at Temple Studio in 2005-2006.
Listen to this trance music in the dark and be lead to a tranquil earthly garden. Like in the best lullabies, you are caressed as you are transported to a mysterious parallel soundworld of peace and harmony." [label notes]
"Three elongated tracks making up a full length album of arty, filmic experimental soundscaping. Delicate and subtle, yet slightly discordant, melodies from archaic stringed instruments interweave with ambient drones, tinkling bells, and wordless vocals with Middle Eastern, medieval and folk touches, as well as sophisticated and evocative neoclassical vocals that are used as more of a focus of the track rather than the other styles that put in briefer appearances. Less song-oriented than many Projekt releases, but its ethereal nature, coupled with the slightly dark take on folk/world/classical music, fits right in with much of the label's other output. Combining elements familiar from the ambient/drone/experimental genre with creative, intellectual ideas of their own, the album is relaxing yet slightly unsettling at times, and goes beyond music and into the realms of aural art." [Bliss / Aquamarine]
www.projekt.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| ALIO DIE & SAFFRON WOOD |
The Sleep of Seeds |
CD |
Sehr entspannte Drone-Improvisationen praktisch ohne elektronische Sounds.. eine weitere neue VÖ von ALIO DIE, hier in Zusammenarbeit mit SAFFRON WOOD.
“ The title is also the opening track of this macroscopic journey into a world which spontaneously engages us when we travel through it. A link between life and earth, a passageway between time and change. A melodius itinerary in which a time hourglass often makes no sense but only the sound of articulated and fragmentary notes...50 minutes between a seed and a grain of soil to wander into an infinite space while listening to a far away earth longing sound. Recorded in Savona Italy august 2002, with different flutes, tubes, accordion, various objects, rattles, shells, bells... Drones and loops, effects, editing and mastering on Pro-tools, at Temple studio Milano spring 2003. All the Cds comes in a special artwork compositions with tissues leaves, seeds...” [label description]
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| ALIO DIE / M. GRASSOW |
Praha Meditations |
CD |
"After the concert in Prague last year in may, we followed the proposal of friends to play some acoustic instruments spontaneously on top of the hill, in Troja, into a circle of stones installations.
Zithers, Tubes, Bells, Rattle and Shells, Flutes..the sessions were inspired from the special place and the spring's vibes in the wind. The recordings that are a blueprint of the spirit of that day, were edited in studio by Alio Die, then Mathias Grassow added his electronic drones to expand the point of view and enrich the flow and layers of the compositions. The result in eight tracks, show how mostly static and repetitive balanced sounds can interact with our perception during the listening time, bringing us into an active and intimate quiet mood, softly absorbing us into some dreams-like and time-opening experience." [label info]
www.aliodie.com
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| ALTIERI / BALESTRAZZI / BECUZZI |
In Memoriam J.G.BALLARD |
CD |
"James G. Ballard (1930-2009) was one of the most important and brilliant contemporary writers and his death has left a big cultural void. The influence of Ballard’s aesthetics has produced on millennium-end generations a true cult, inspiring artists and art-works in all disciplines. Yet nobody, until now, has decided to dedicate an entire work to his memory.
Thus, by mutual agreement, Corrado Altieri (Candor Chasma, Monosonik, TH26 ..), Simon Balestrazzi (TAC, Kino Glaz, Candor Chasma, Dream Weapon Ritual ..) and Gianluca Becuzzi (Limbo, Pankow, Kinetix ..), have decided to dedicate this album to the master of post modern literature and his work.
The nine tracks of that album take their titles from so many Ballard novels, trying to recreate his special visionary mood into music.
A universe ruled by free dreaming associations: eroticism, technology, consumerism and cruelty mingle together to create a new perception of reality.
A constant dialectic between micro-events and macro-rumorism, between digital pointillism and white noise, in between static drones, fluctuations, shifts and sudden changes of scenery.
The changing environment is producing sound architectures where the organic and the inorganic are no longer self-conscious, casting vague on each other.
The Marilyn Monroe hologram projected on the wall of a motel near an airport is sexier
Than the original.
James Ballard is dead, long live James Ballard.
This is best Italian Industrial in good old-school mood !
Tracklist :
1. Running Wild
2. Crash
3. Interlude One
4. The Drowned World
5. The Atrocity Exhibition
6. The Crystal World
7. Interlude Two
8. Concrete Island
9. High Rise " [label info]
www.oldeuropacafe.com
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| ALTIERI, CORRADO / GIANLUCA FAVARON |
The System of Objects |
CD |
"Silentes presents a new collaborative effort between two prominent artists of Italy's electronic and experimental scene, Corrado Altieri (Candor Chasma, Monosonik, Uncodified) and Gianluca Favaron (ab'she, Under The Snow, Z'been). Inspired by Jean Baudrillard's essay of the same name, "The System of Objects" offers seven compositions combining field recordings, analogue textures, computer music and concrète sounds. Altieri e Favaron dig deep in the unconscious of the french philosopher, devising a hypothetical music score of his manifesto on the relations between objects universe and consumer society ideologies: drones and digital pulses, processed tapes and multi-layered frequencies make for a voyage to the borders of ambient, noise and radical experiments." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"Releases on Silentes are getting a bit more sparse these days, perhaps because of the economic tide etc, but I am also happy to note that they do more and more LPs. However the first new one is a CD with Gianluca Favaron on computer and one Corrado Altieri, who gets credit for electronics and tapes. Favaron is a man whose work appeared a lot on Silentes (as we'll see here too), and I never heard of Altieri. The eight tracks on 'The System Of Objects' are relatively short: the whole album doesn't last more than thirty-five minutes and it's inspired by the book of the same name by Jean Baudrillard. In much of Favaron's work ambient and drones play an important role, even when they are created with the use of the computer. In this particular work however we find him in a somewhat more noisy role, owing more to musique concrete than to ambience. The whole thing has some heavily treated acoustic feel to it, creating seven quite densely knitted pieces of electronic music. Be this field recordings, be this acoustic sounds created with contact microphones, or whatever else, it's treated into great monolithic blocks of sound. In only a few pieces this kind of minimalism is left behind and more things happen at the same time, such as in the opening piece 'Objects And Time 1'. An excellent release of highly vibrant electronic music. Quite raw and intense, exactly the kind of noise I like. Not meaningless and pointless carrying on forever, but seven sharp, contrasting blasts." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ALVA NOTO |
Xerrox Vol. 4 |
do-LP |
"Alva Noto returns to his much awaited Xerrox project with Vol. 4, the fourth installment of the five-piece intended series based on the concept of digital replication of source material.
Using the process of copying as a basis, the Xerrox series deals with the manipulation of data by means of endless reproduction. Due to the inherent fallacy of the procedure involving the making of copies made from other copies, everyday’s sounds become so altered that they can be hardly associated with the source material. As a result, entirely new sounds are created: copies of originals become originals themselves.
Following Xerrox Vol. 1 (2007), Vol. 2 (2009), Vol. 3 (2015), Carsten Nicolai continues the pentalogy eluding the accuracy and precise sound design for which he’s renowned, and turning to a more harmony-driven composition technique.
Unlike the previous Xerrox albums, whose starting point is a set of samples extracted from external sources and fragments of recordings, Vol. 4 compounds under a unified cinematic soundscape, warm chords, thrumming digital ambiences, liquified electronics, drones, and noise sustained by floods of strings. The tension between the organic warmth and static curves, broads tones into distant roars and electronic cascade of sounds.
While Alva Noto's oeuvre is predominantly affiliated with pristine sound design, Xerrox holds more intimate gestures and emotional sensibility. This fourth volume shuns further from the conceptualism and orderliness of prior musical outputs, ranging from heart-warming elegies to mind-bending sci-fi projections in extrasolar territories." [label info]
"It took five years for Carsten Nicolai to release the third volume to his five-part series Xerrox, and it took five more to release the fourth. At this rate, it will be 2025 when we will see the final chapter. Although there are rumblings on the intarwebs that the fourth instalment, which should be depicting the letter 'X' again of the typeface 'XERROX', is actually the first one, with the same image on the cover. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, one of the reasons for an interval in between the volumes can be attributed to the split between the Raster and Noton labels, which occurred in 2017, after the Raster-Noton's 20th anniversary. So, although a keen eye may notice that this particular entry in the series appears on another label, the continuity between the music, artwork, layout, packaging, and pretty much everything else, is still intact. For that we thank thee. Whereas Volume 1 was attributed to the "Old World", Volume 2 "To The New World", and Vol. 3 was "Towards Space", this fourth instalment is subtitled as "Transit Extrasolar Territories And Inner Worlds". So the trajectory is further and out, and so are the sounds, depicted within.
This fourth instalment is even more 'ambient', if one may call it that. Gone are the digital structures, copied with all of the artefacts of the process, and replaced with warm swells of organic-sounding strings, which breathe with the punctuating deep bass. I would have almost expected the opposite, as we flew into the extrasolar regions of our universe - something darker, colder, and void. But upon another reflection, fundamental sonic expressions within the fourteen pieces of the album totally make sense, since it is the human world, of the old and new worlds, that occupies within the digital domain. The rest of the creation is beyond the numbers. And yet... if digital emerged from minds and will of humans, is it not part of the organic? This, and many other questions, can be but glimpsed by travelling onboard with Alva Noto, who intricately weaves an aural frame which is by far his best in series.
Of course, I've got all of the four instalments on CD, and have aligned them all to spell out "XERRO..." but at this point, I'm leaning towards grabbing a 2x12" edition of the album, since its vibrations and pure chime must be experienced through surface listening. It's also worth noting, that this album was originally finished in February, just as the pandemic began to unfold across the globe. And, as my dear friend Peter van Cooten notes on his ambientblog writeup, "this means that the emotional impact of this music is different now than it would have been without the COVID-19 crisis," with which I wholeheartedly agree. Xerrox Vol.4 is an album worth listening to on numerous continuous repeats, and if you prefer, you can lie down and turn off the lights. And as you float out of these outer worlds and through your inner, I hope to see you on the other side." [Headphone Commute]
|
2020 |
€23.00 |
|
| |
Xerrox Vol. 4 |
CD |
"Alva Noto returns to his much awaited Xerrox project with Vol. 4, the fourth installment of the five-piece intended series based on the concept of digital replication of source material.
Using the process of copying as a basis, the Xerrox series deals with the manipulation of data by means of endless reproduction. Due to the inherent fallacy of the procedure involving the making of copies made from other copies, everyday’s sounds become so altered that they can be hardly associated with the source material. As a result, entirely new sounds are created: copies of originals become originals themselves.
Following Xerrox Vol. 1 (2007), Vol. 2 (2009), Vol. 3 (2015), Carsten Nicolai continues the pentalogy eluding the accuracy and precise sound design for which he’s renowned, and turning to a more harmony-driven composition technique.
Unlike the previous Xerrox albums, whose starting point is a set of samples extracted from external sources and fragments of recordings, Vol. 4 compounds under a unified cinematic soundscape, warm chords, thrumming digital ambiences, liquified electronics, drones, and noise sustained by floods of strings. The tension between the organic warmth and static curves, broads tones into distant roars and electronic cascade of sounds.
While Alva Noto's oeuvre is predominantly affiliated with pristine sound design, Xerrox holds more intimate gestures and emotional sensibility. This fourth volume shuns further from the conceptualism and orderliness of prior musical outputs, ranging from heart-warming elegies to mind-bending sci-fi projections in extrasolar territories." [label info]
"It took five years for Carsten Nicolai to release the third volume to his five-part series Xerrox, and it took five more to release the fourth. At this rate, it will be 2025 when we will see the final chapter. Although there are rumblings on the intarwebs that the fourth instalment, which should be depicting the letter 'X' again of the typeface 'XERROX', is actually the first one, with the same image on the cover. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, one of the reasons for an interval in between the volumes can be attributed to the split between the Raster and Noton labels, which occurred in 2017, after the Raster-Noton's 20th anniversary. So, although a keen eye may notice that this particular entry in the series appears on another label, the continuity between the music, artwork, layout, packaging, and pretty much everything else, is still intact. For that we thank thee. Whereas Volume 1 was attributed to the "Old World", Volume 2 "To The New World", and Vol. 3 was "Towards Space", this fourth instalment is subtitled as "Transit Extrasolar Territories And Inner Worlds". So the trajectory is further and out, and so are the sounds, depicted within.
This fourth instalment is even more 'ambient', if one may call it that. Gone are the digital structures, copied with all of the artefacts of the process, and replaced with warm swells of organic-sounding strings, which breathe with the punctuating deep bass. I would have almost expected the opposite, as we flew into the extrasolar regions of our universe - something darker, colder, and void. But upon another reflection, fundamental sonic expressions within the fourteen pieces of the album totally make sense, since it is the human world, of the old and new worlds, that occupies within the digital domain. The rest of the creation is beyond the numbers. And yet... if digital emerged from minds and will of humans, is it not part of the organic? This, and many other questions, can be but glimpsed by travelling onboard with Alva Noto, who intricately weaves an aural frame which is by far his best in series.
Of course, I've got all of the four instalments on CD, and have aligned them all to spell out "XERRO..." but at this point, I'm leaning towards grabbing a 2x12" edition of the album, since its vibrations and pure chime must be experienced through surface listening. It's also worth noting, that this album was originally finished in February, just as the pandemic began to unfold across the globe. And, as my dear friend Peter van Cooten notes on his ambientblog writeup, "this means that the emotional impact of this music is different now than it would have been without the COVID-19 crisis," with which I wholeheartedly agree. Xerrox Vol.4 is an album worth listening to on numerous continuous repeats, and if you prefer, you can lie down and turn off the lights. And as you float out of these outer worlds and through your inner, I hope to see you on the other side." [Headphone Commute]
|
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
| AMBARCHI, OREN |
A Final Kiss on Poisoned Cheeks |
LP |
OREN AMBARCHI's Beitrag für die neue "guitar series" auf TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS: vielschichtige Poly-Drones, bestehend nicht nur aus Gitarren-Tönen sondern auch aus elektronischen Kontakt- und Störgeräuschen & sich windenden Feedbacks; ein sehr komplexes Stück, lebendig und elektronisch ausstrahlend in 1000 verschiedene Richtungen. Wunderbar auch, wie es dann allmählich mit glockenhellen Klängen versetzt ausklingt.. AMBARCHI in Höchstform. Himmelblaues Vinyl.
"There is a vivid breadth to the guitar deconstructions of Australian Oren Ambarchi. Sometimes his work takes a delicate lilt; it can also dive into dark and deep pools of sound when he joins cowl-core ensembles Sunn O))) (with Stephen O'Malley) and Burial Chamber Trio (with Greg Anderson). Whether with those bands, solo, or in collaboration with luminaries ranging from Mike Patton and John Zorn to Christian Fennesz, he consistently reroutes his instrument into zones of arch, alien abstraction. A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks offers a dizzying gaze straight into a chasm of extreme frequencies -- paint-peelingly high and bowel-churningly low -- all set atop a sub-strata of menace, angst, and contemplative beauty." Pressed on light-blue marbled, etched vinyl. B-side etching artwork by Savage Pencil." [label info]
"...Still essentially a dronescape, A Final Kiss is rife with sonic activity, so much so that in lesser hands it would be more of a mess, a sort of pretty-ish noise record, but Ambarchi, takes all manner of buzz and glitch, of scrape and hum, and weaves it into a strangely lyrical arrangement. The core of the piece is a thick, undulating low end drone, a muted Niblockian shimmer, that seems not to change so much as shift, reflecting different colors and sounds depending on the angle. Over this nearly constant thrum, exist a veritable universe of strange sounds, streaks of feedback, cricket like electronic chitter,
moaning throbbing swells of guitar rumble, brief blurs of warm soft focus fuzz, layers of crumbling distortion, all of the various
elements constantly shifting and blossoming, collapsing and then blooming again, creating a super organic flow, another instance of
leaving the instruments on the stage, guitars against amps. amps cranked, although here it seems the instruments have come to life, and
we are glimpsing their secret lives, as the communicate musically, telling some sort of story, exchanging mysterious messages, which
while indecipherable to human ears, still manage to sound magical. Guitardrone freaks will, well, freak! Subtly heavy, darkly
drone-y, slightly noisy, rich and dense and textural. Really gorgeous. And totally recommended.
Pressed on swirled turquoise vinyl. One sided, the other side with a super bad ass etching, housed in a thick vinyl sleeve, and of course, as always LIMITED!" [Aquarius Records review]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
|
| AMON / NIMH |
Sator |
CD |
Nach langer Zeit endlich neues Material des vielleicht besten italienischen dark ambient -Projekts AMON, der hier mit Giuseppe Verticchio aka NIMH zusammengearbeit hat. Fünf lange Stücke sind hier enthalten, die sehr erdig, fast steinig-staubig klingen, man fühlt sich in endlos-einsame Felslandschaften versetzt....die tiefen Drones wurden mit teils harmonischen e-bow Gitarren und field recordings etwas aufgelockert..
"Composed, performed and recorded by Andrea Marutti and Giuseppe Verticchio between June 2005 and January 2006 in Milan, Rome and Casaline (AQ), Italy." [credits]
"The mystery of the ancient and puzzling magic SATOR square is evoked again in present time through five dark tracks entitled like the five palindromes that form its fascinating structure: SATOR / AREPO / TENET / OPERA / ROTAS.
AMON (Andrea Marutti), the most important and estabilished italian Dark-Ambient project, and NIMH (Giuseppe Verticchio), a well-known and eclectic alchemist of electronic-ethnic–acoustic-ambient sound mixtures, gathered together and worked side by side for some weeks to create their first collaborative effort.
SATOR is a granitic and majestic work, a musical journey in time and history that leads the listeners to the deepest and remote abysses of Earth through archaic and magmatic sounds, confusing them along the way with the technologic and synthetic vibrations of oscillating sinewaves, and with frosty isolationist timbres programmed through fluxes of information written in binary code...
Echoes of breathless and confused human activities falling into decay, the dark and deep Sound of Earth’s abysses, scoriae of electric buzzes and synthetic microsounds, the warmth of subliminal melodies submerged and overwhelmed by menacing and distorted agglomerates of sounds, buried fragments of an abused guitar in decomposition faded by the unstoppable march of time..." [press release]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| ANAKRID |
Banishment Rituals of the Disenlightened |
CD |
Tolles Album dieser Neuentdeckung auf Beta-Lactam: sehr dichte, dunkle, geräuschhäft-mysteriöse Klänge, elektronisch unterfüttert & stets in dynamischer Bewegung, ein weites Spektrum auf den 11 Stücken austestend... sehr eigener Stil!
"..A very dark, often unsettling and intense album of electronic experimentation." [Side-Line]
"First ed. of 500 copies in a book bound CD case. Anakrid a day keeps the doctor slurred in a trove of fish-tallowed sling slong. This is what it sounds like when doves cry because the mother ship crashes into their nest in the 6th dimension. With this symphony of sickness comprised of scraped palpitations, pitched whooshes, roaring cathodes and syncopated metallics, Anakrid have another breakthrough chart topper on their bruised hands! These avant-garde hit-makers have real crossover potential, combining the best, most dynamic experimental noise with the very latest drones. This exciting NOW sound is OUT OF THIS WORLD! The long awaited fusion of ritualistic tribalism with the tweaked electro-tech of ancient alien cultures is finally here. Hey kids! If you love Nurse With Wound, Genocide Organ, Hafler Trio, Muslimgauze, Pierre Henry, Nadja and Harry Bertoia and confusing your parents, then you’ll want to get in on the Anakrid craze before it’s too late. They’ve got a whole new way of kickin’ it old school. With electronics AND home-made instruments, Anakrid CREATES an exploratory atmosphere WITHOUT all those boring, go-nowhere improvisational hang-ups. Everything sounds fresh, progressive and weird!!! It’s just that good. Let’s face it; outsider music has gotten plain boring. Anakrid is just the electrodes to the testicles that left field music has been weeping for since, like, forever. Ex-punks hang up their Mohawks and make good mayhem." [press release]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Banishment Rituals of the Disenlightened |
LP |
Tolles Album dieser Neuentdeckung auf Beta-Lactam: sehr dichte, dunkle, geräuschhäft-mysteriöse Klänge, elektronisch unterfüttert & stets in dynamischer Bewegung, ein weites Spektrum auf den 11 Stücken austestend... sehr eigener Stil! Dies ist die superlimitierte Vinyl-Version, wie immer wie bei Beta-lactam speziell verpackt!
"..A very dark, often unsettling and intense album of electronic experimentation." [Side-Line]
"LP edition of 100 copies in a hand printed heavy gatefold sleeve. The inside gatefold sleeve is hand painted by Anakrid (each unique). Anakrid a day keeps the doctor slurred in a trove of fish-tallowed sling slong. This is what it sounds like when doves cry because the mother ship crashes into their nest in the 6th dimension. With this symphony of sickness comprised of scraped palpitations, pitched whooshes, roaring cathodes and syncopated metallics, Anakrid have another breakthrough chart topper on their bruised hands! These avant-garde hit-makers have real crossover potential, combining the best, most dynamic experimental noise with the very latest drones. This exciting NOW sound is OUT OF THIS WORLD! The long awaited fusion of ritualistic tribalism with the tweaked electro-tech of ancient alien cultures is finally here. Hey kids! If you love Nurse With Wound, Genocide Organ, Hafler Trio, Muslimgauze, Pierre Henry, Nadja and Harry Bertoia and confusing your parents, then you’ll want to get in on the Anakrid craze before it’s too late. They’ve got a whole new way of kickin’ it old school. With electronics AND home-made instruments, Anakrid CREATES an exploratory atmosphere WITHOUT all those boring, go-nowhere improvisational hang-ups. Everything sounds fresh, progressive and weird!!! It’s just that good. Let’s face it; outsider music has gotten plain boring. Anakrid is just the electrodes to the testicles that left field music has been weeping for since, like, forever. Ex-punks hang up their Mohawks and make good mayhem." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€26.00 |
|
| ANEMONE TUBE |
Death over China |
CD |
"One year after the highly acclaimed "Dream Landscape" CD ANEMONE TUBE returns with the new concept album "Death over China".
No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take, if at all possible, decades to undo. China`s rise as an economic power has no clear parallel in history; thus, its pollution problem has shattered all precedent developments.
"Death over China" is a retaliation of nature against humankind. In the same moment it is a dedication to our untamed curiosity for the essence of death and our (inherent in our collective action) secret death wish. In China`s uncompromising economical and social development we see demonstrated, how we - even with the immolation of our health, environment and tradition - are the servants to material progress. Though we are aware of the approaching ecological disaster, we hazard the consequences. Sustainability is sacrificed on the altar of egoist quest for happiness. We consume, we destroy, we thrive, we conjure: "Deathly kingdom of desire, you sustain the life in me, Black death rise!"
Using field recordings, collected in Nanjing and Shanghai in 2007, ANEMONE TUBE creates an unsettling yet intriguing, apocalyptic soundtrack with a sinister atmosphere and a depressive undertone - a unique blend of dark ambient, post industrial and power electronics in the tradition of European industrial music.
"Death over China" is the second part of "The Suicide Series", for which field recordings provide a conceptional basis. In a poetic way ANEMONE TUBE combines analytical realism of the phenomenal world with buddhist psychology and nihilist rhetoric influenced by the works of Michael Haneke, Hayao Miyazaki, H.P. Lovecraft and Yukio Mishima.All music recorded between July 2007 and December 2009.
Mastered by JAMES PLOTKIN 2010. Definitely ANEMONE TUBE`s best and most mature album yet." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
"Anomene Tube is a noise-project formed in the Southern part of Germany in 1996. Strong influences to the compositional approach of the project is the nihilistic rhetoric works of Michael Haneke, Hayoao Miayazaki and H.P. Lovecraft combined with buddhist psychology and concrete sounds from the real world. All tracks of this album titled "Death over China", are exclusively developed from the use of field recordings. The piece "I shall forever invoke" is the only piece where there are integrations of synthesizer. For this particular piece the synthesizers adds a nice atmospheric soundscape on the background of field recordings. The piece "Prayer walk" is an abrasive beast where the noise drones makes a pure impact on the listener. Screeching noise drills into the ears with additions of distant voices adding a great apocalyptic atmosphere to the piece. Also the piece titled "Brooding haze" drills a deep impression into the listener thanks to the monotonous high frequency noise-sounds
operating on top of crushing power electronics and concrete metal sounds. "Death over China" is a part of the so-called "Suicide Series" - a series that aims to express the self-destructive tendency by the modern population due to the social and highly industrialized global development. The album comes in a beautiful art-work in dvd-sized format with early photographs and paintings from early 20th century. Excellent work of noise art." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
:existence |
CD |
"
A U F A B W E G E N RELEASE INFO
cd-audio
releaae date: 25.05.2001
artist: ANEMONE TUBE
title: :EXISTENCE:
order no.: aatp09
time: 50:12 min
jewel case / 500 handnumbered copies / fold out colour insert
:existence: as a great mix between rumbling noise and floating ambience. four hasrh tracks and three more dense and collage like works make this a varied and thrilling listen!
tracklisting:
Flesh & Bombs (10:13)
Secondary Master (4:43)
Choke Down (5:41)
Existence (11:10)
Red Waves (5:56)
Continuity (4:08)
The Encounter III (8:19)
Anemone Tube was founded in Summer of 1996 by Stefan Hanser who felt the urge to express deeper personal feelings and dreams. The audioworks from Anemone Tube vary a lot along with the different means Stefan Hanser uses as
sound source and for manipulation and could easiest be described as industrial-, ambient- and noisescapes of organic and synthetic sounds. The use of constantly shifting and altering sounds and moods is possibly one of
the most intruiging things about the audio creations of Anemone Tube with the purpose of trying to put the listener into a delirious mental state, to irritate, torment and caress him no matter if in a positive or negative way:
to cause emotional reaction!
Over the years plenty of releases, several participations on compilations, split and
collaborational releases on tape, vinyl, cd and video have been realised by different labels worldwide such as Transfixional Entertainment/Ravensburg, AufAbwegen/Köln, Solipsism/USA, Loud!/Italy, Napalmed/Czech, Inner Space Records/USA and many more.
www.transformed.de/anemone.html" [original press release by AUF ABWEGEN]
"German ambient-industrial project Anemone Tube was formed in 1996, and has explored a variety of heavy noisescapes and rhythmic blocks of sound; the Tube's modus operandi has always seemed to focus on putting the listener into a state of delirium caused by constantly shifting sounds and tones sourced from assorted organic and synthetic sounds, and this approach has resulted in a stylistically diverse body of work over the years. On the debut full length Existence, a nearly hour-long disc released in a hand-numbered limited edition of 500 copies, Anemone Tube is at it's heaviest, constructing seven bulky tracks that move from gorgeous ambient dronescapes to crushing, loop-heavy walls of distortion and menacing melodic tracers undulating over grinding rhythmic throb, sort of like what I'd expect a collaboration between Wolf Eyes and Maurizio Bianchi to sound like, although you can also draw lines to Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and violent early UK power electronics when tracks like 'Choke Down' and 'The Encounter III" get into full swing and start obliterating speakers with ferocious torrents of factory distortion. I really dig the way that Existence manages to balance the haunting, atmospheric drones and buried deconstructed rhythms with the louder, brutal passages of rumbling machine filth, making this much easier to digest than many of Anemone Tube's peers. Packaged in an elegant jewel case with a large 10-panel booklet glowing in fiery, fractaled reds and oranges, imprinted with mysterious pictograms." [Crucial Blast] |
2001 |
€12.50 |
|
| ANKERSMIT, THOMAS / JIM O'ROURKE |
split |
LP |
Der Niederländer THOMAS ANKERSMIT beeindruckt auf der A-Seite mit einem spannenden mikrotonal vielfältigen Stück, welches auf Computer, EMS Synth & Saxhophon basiert, sehr ruhig anfängt und ungeahnte dronige Brisanz entwickelt, am Ende werden Kaskaden von hochfrequent-dynamischen Klangwellen auf den Hörer geworfen....
auf der B-Seite ein älteres Stück von JIM O’ROURKE von 1992 aus seiner „dronigen“ Phase, ein low-fi-fuzz-drone Leckerbissen, wo verzerrte Gitarrendrones auf Oszillatorenwellen treffen - und wie!
Beide Stücke sind so um die 18 Minuten lang...
“Finally! Side one features 'Weerzin' by Thomas Ankersmit, composed & recorded in 2004 (Computer, Serge & EMS Synthesizer). Side two composed & recorded by Jim O'Rourke in 1992 (Oscillators & Guitars). Edition of 750 copies.” [label info]
“Limited edition split LP from two of the most regularly interrogating modern avantists. Ankersmit’s side is a fuzz-encrusted investigation of non-linear routes through the solo saxophone, with wildly dislocated sounds modulated by computer, serge and EMS synths. O’Rourke’s side is an absolute beauty, a monolithic 1992 recording that matches massive cycles of minimally-repeating fuzz guitar with the brain-bombing chatter of rapid-firing oscillators. Sounds somewhere between Sunroof, Folke Rabe and Faust. Edition of 750 copies, recommended.” [Volcanic Tongue]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| APALUSA |
Obadiah |
CD |
"Following on from his warmly received cdr releases of 2007, ‘Obadiah’ is the second full length album by Apalusa, aka Nottingham based musician Dan Layton.
Over the course of 50 minutes, these three long-form tracks focus on darker territory than previous releases, with sub-bass rumbles and minor-key chord progressions augmenting the multiple layers of Apalusa’s trademark processed guitar drones and field recordings to form an all-encompassing listening environment.
With Layton’s use of raw sounds and processing techniques now forging an identity for himself which is very much his own, the end result is the most focused and realised Apalusa release to date." [label info]
www.low-point.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| ARABELLA'S PARADE |
Static infinite |
CD-R |
Very early release on UK’s Evelyn Records, a label with a similar approach as Drone Records. ARABELLA’S PARADISE works with radio-waves and creates a kind of low-fi shredder-ambience, very pure and bony noises… absolutely last copies !
“pure, untreated radio waves recorded between 1995 and 1999 in various parts around england. forms a brief document to the infinite range of harmonics that exist in the atmosphere, and includes dense white noise, blank drones, minimal ethereal static and morse messaging.” [label info]
www.evelynrecords.cjb.net |
2000 |
€7.00 |
|
| ARC |
13th |
mCDR |
ARC ist die 3köpfige “Band” von AIDAN BAKER, der ja schon mit einigen fantastischen solo-releases auf sich aufmerksam machte. Bei ARC vermischen sich ethno-Einflüsse mit ambient-drones, alles live eingespielt. Sanft schwingend & pulsierend, melancholisch-schön..
Schon die Nr. 10 in der schönen low-priced Serie das Pariser Label (ex Harmonies) !
“ Arc is a Canadian trio comprised of Aidan Baler, his brother Richard and Christopher Kukiel. It was formed spontaneously in 1999. Arc's music is based on drones and melodic loops created by Aidan's heavily-treated guitar. Add Richard and Chrisopher's tribalish rhtyhms made with various percussive instruments and you get the picture. When we, at taâlem, first heard Arc, we couldn't help thinking of Life Garden and Voice of Eye, those great US tribal ambient bands from the 90's. But Arc is no copycat !”
[label info]
http://taalem.free.fr/ |
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| ARKTAU EOS |
Mirrorion |
CD |
After a long period of unavailability we are proud to release the debut album of Arktau Eos 'Mirrorion - Telegnostic Edition' through our Stellar Mansion series.
Presented in seventeen chapters that can be approached as singular gateways or a slowly unfolding journey of epic proportions, the debut album of ARKTAU EOS is a challenging, complex work. Born of intense private musico-magical sessions held in places abandoned by man and further refined in the temple-laboratory of the duo, it is the distillation of seven arduous months of work.
As the title suggests, 'Mirrorion' is the music of stellar light thrown down from the Heaven's zenith and its eldritch reflections in the depths below, uniting atavistic elemental noise with serene passages of crystalline, spectral ambience. Ultimately, 'Mirrorion' seeks to surpass such earthly definitions in favour of a non-dual vision of reality, hopefully transforming the listener in the process.
For this recording ARKTAU EOS have favoured an organic approach with majority of instrumentation being of acoustic variety, including the unearthly choral of the kanglings, piercings blasts of windbones, accelerating steel-plate rolls, singing bowl and various kinds of stringed instruments.
The album is enclosed in an oversized screen printed cardboard covers including an 8-panel booklet with historical and other additional notes and eight full-colour insert cards within a stamped envelope. Limited to 493 copies.
www.auralhypnox.com
"Das fantastische AURAL HYPNOX-Label aus Nordfinnland mit einem neuen Projekt, das wie HALO MANASH und AOEGA mit dem Labelgründer ANTTI HAAPAPURO verbunden ist. Diese Aufnahmen entstanden (man glaubt es beim Hören kaum) ohne elekronische Soundquellen, sondern nur auf archaischen Instrumenten in spontaner Improvisation & an abgelegenen Plätzen... fliessendes Wässer wie aus tiefen Grotten, Gong-Drones, gutturale Gesänge & Anrufungen, Sounds aus Holz- Wind & Metall, das alles in finsterster, ritueller Katakomben-Stimmung, mal sehr mächtig, dämonisch, mal sanfter & dark ambienter.... dazwischen schälen sich als Auflockerung mitunter instrumentelle dark-Folk-artige Arrangements hervor, aber stets im Rahmen der schamanistischen Noises...
Der perfekte Soundtrack um mit der "Andernwelt", die auch in uns ist, in Kontakt zu treten..." [Drone Rec. info to the first ed]
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| ASHTORETH |
Rites I & II |
CD |
We’re glad to welcome Belgian artist Peter Verwimp and his shamanistic guitar driven soundscapes. The first instalment for the Rites series touches on the importance of ceremony and ritual in our daily lives. It deals with our interconnectedness with nature as a whole and the necessity to acknowledge and use this connection as an amplifier of thoughts, ideas and emotions. Minimal, meditative ambient drones with layers of meandering guitars and voices mixing elements of doom, drone and ambient experimentation. Rites I & II take a shamanic and animistic approach to our surroundings, unveiling inner and outer visual landscapes, a journey through flesh, sound and spirit.
CD Edition of 500 copies in 6 panels Digisleeve. 2 Tracks. Running Time 37:51
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/rites-i-ii
"Slowly but certainly, Peter Verwimp is becoming the forerunner for the new wave of Antwerp ambient. Throughout the years I have seen him perform his enigmatic guitar drones and soundscapes numerous times. From petite venues and living rooms to forests and stages everywhere, Ashtoreth manages to turn everything into a place for rituals and meditation.
I think it was only a matter of time before a quality label like Cyclic Law would become interested in this shamanic approach to ambient. With 'Rites I & II', the first installment of a series, Ashtoreth delivers a long ceremony and a deep meditation.
'Rite I: Earth' opens with heavy guitars and powerful vocals. When I heard these for the first time, I wasn't sure if I was listening to Ashtoreth or to an intro for a Conan album. This is a somewhat different approach from the slowly in-fading soundscapes. But mostly, it immediately grabs the listener's attention for its brutalist approach. Gradually, however, the track evolves. The distortion fades away and other soundscapes appear. They sound like the breathing of the earth. Then, hints of melody appear, in perfect Ashtoreth tradition. In a way, this first track feels like a journey from something bad and scary to a feeling of piece of serenity.
'Rite II: Fire' is somewhat shorter but still long enough to be a narrative drone ambient highlight. It drives on gloomy drones and shamanic voices, a bit like we're used from Peter Verwimp by now, but let that not be a turn-off. This track is downright eerie, a perfect addition to the heaps of dark ambient masterpieces released by Cyclic Law. So yes, this is a stunning piece of work and it comes with equally stunning artwork by GootSlaper. I don't think this needs much more explanation. 'Rites I & II' is one of those albums that deserve a spot in your ever widening and mind-altering collection." [Merchants of Air]
"Here’s an interesting story. There was an amazing Belgian progressive, experimental hardcore band from Antwerp and their name was Maya. Until now, I consider their debut album as the epitome of hardcore progression, an utterly unrecognized gem and one of the most important hardcore albums in the history of the genre! In 2013, I uploaded Maya’s debut via Youtube, as I believed that such a gem deserves the utmost recognition. Not much time passed and I received a message from a fine gent, Peter Verwimp (Building Transmissions, Haunted Places, Station Grey, Stifled Cries) thanking me for that upload and telling me that he played in… Maya! Shocked as I was, he added that he has a new (at the time) project, named Ashtoreth! Much time have passed, people and I’m extremely pleased to review Peter’s new creation.
Ashtoreth – as I read – is in search of a shamanistic perspective, channeling at times: minimal, meditative drones with layers of meandering guitars and at others, a catharsis of doom, drone, ambient, folk, metal, noise and experimentation, always in a free and improvised form. Intriguing, right?
Rites I & II is a two-piece album, clocking at almost 38 minutes. Being heavily based on drones and ambient, it creates a certain space and a holistic appropriation of darkness, a ritual and introverted expedition into a spiritual and organic vastness. Ashtoreth’s sound is penetrating in every aspect: shamanic chanting, energy razor-blades in the form of minimal guitar, a huge embrace of bass driven currents, cathartic and certain. An aesthetic procreation and the well-perceived certainty of exquisite ambient music, that leaves a feeling of void thereafter. Music that delivers plentifully giving one climax after the other! Serene soundscapes with such power and punch!
It’s amazing to hear in this recording elements of Peter’s early works, even before Ashtoreth. The listener faces a recognizable and fine-tuned sound, with very sincere and solid continuance as developed over the years. In Ashtoreth’s case, ambient that – I dare to say – includes in it’s core, amazingly concealed, but present hardcore (!) elements. In fact, many different but related elements merged together, quite skillfully. And the album is presented as a beautifully packaged vinyl and equally beautiful, six-panel CD released by the Berlin based label, Cyclic Law.
Peter Verwimp has become an artist of his very own kind; a self-proclaimed sonic shaman and very well deserving of this attribute. Let us witness and be merry for his wonderful incantations." [Toneshift]
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Rites I & II |
LP |
We’re glad to welcome Belgian artist Peter Verwimp and his shamanistic guitar driven soundscapes. The first instalment for the Rites series touches on the importance of ceremony and ritual in our daily lives. It deals with our interconnectedness with nature as a whole and the necessity to acknowledge and use this connection as an amplifier of thoughts, ideas and emotions. Minimal, meditative ambient drones with layers of meandering guitars and voices mixing elements of doom, drone and ambient experimentation. Rites I & II take a shamanic and animistic approach to our surroundings, unveiling inner and outer visual landscapes, a journey through flesh, sound and spirit.
CD Edition of 500 copies in 6 panels Digisleeve. 2 Tracks. Running Time 37:51
LP Edition of 300 copies on Black Vinyl. Matt Lamination and black Paper Sleeve. 2 Tracks. Running Time 37:51
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/rites-i-ii
|
2019 |
€20.00 |
|
| ASUNTA |
Landscapes |
CD |
"Landscapes enthält Klarinettenkompostionen von Slawomir Golaszewski, Begründer und Mastermind von Asunta, der hier von Wojciech Karwacki auf dem Harmonium begleitet wird. Aufgenommen und produziert wurden die faszinierende Mischung von Ethno drones, Ambient-Psychedelia und slawischer New Age in Warschau von Alik Dziki (http://dziki.net), dem ehemaligen Bassisten der polnischen Reggae-Legenden Kultura und Izrael sowie in der Frühphase Mitglied bei den Mystik-Punks von Armia. Die Erstveröffentlichung in Polen war 1996 lediglich eine Kassette-Edition beim Label "Fly Music", der 2001 eine limitierte Cdr-Version beim polnischen "Nefryt"-Label folgte. Diese Wiederveröffentlichung auf Lollipoppe Shoppe stellt insofern die erste internationale Würdigung des außergewöhnlichen Asunta-Sounds von Landscapesdar.
Slawomir Golaszewski ist eine legendäre Figur der polnischen Off-Kultur: Er gehörte 1985 zu den Mitbegründern der mit transzendentaler Wucht und mystischer Poesie agierenden Hardcore Punk- Institution "Armia", auf deren Platten er mehrfach unter dem Pseudonym Merlin mitwirkte, und war zu dieser Zeit zugleich aktiv im Umfeld des sich auflösenden "Teatr Laboratorium" (http://www.grotowski.net) des großen Theatererneuerers Jerzy Grotowskis in Wroc³aw/Breslau (zu seinen Lehrern zählten hier Zbigniew Cynkutis, Zygmunt Molik und Ludwik Flaszen). Grotkowskis Forschungen zum psychophysiologischen Einfluß ritueller Gesänge und die Anwendung auf die experimentlle Theaterarbeit haben Go³aszewskis Arbeit geprägt.
Seit den frühen 1980er Jahren ist Go³aszewski außerdem als Radiomoderator, Journalist und Autor tätig; er hat unter anderem früh die Verbreitung von Reggae- und Rastafari-Kultur in Polen betrieben und mehrere Generation des polski Reggae geprägt. Darüberhinaus war der "musizierende Philosoph" (Alexander Pehlemann, "Zonic" http://www.zonic-online.de) selber künstlerisch in der Szene aktiv. Die Liste seiner Kollaborationen wie auch seiner publizistischen Beiträge ist unüberschaubar.
Über Go³aszewskis künstlerische und esoterische Interessen erklärt sich letztlich auch die Zusammenarbeit mit den ebenso legendären "Atman", einer seit den Mitt-Siebzigern aktive Gruppe von Musikern, die erfolgreich die Integration von Klangkunst und Ökologie betrieben und deren Label "Fly Music" das Album Landscapes 1996 als Kassette veröffenlichte und Asunta im folgenden Jahr auf ihrem "Festival in der Landschaft" (Muzyka w krajobrazie http://pathman.republika.pl) im mittelpolnischen Inow³ódz präsentierten. Mit diesem völlig akustischem Konzert in einer romanischen Kapelle manifestierte sich endgültig die Reputation des Projekts in der alternativen Musikszene Polens.
Nach einer lebensbedrohlichen Gehirnoperation 2010 und Rekonvaleszenz meldet sich Go³aszewski nun zurück: 2012 wurde seine Graphic Novel "Moja Terapia" (mit Zeichnung von Szawe³ P³óciennik, Central Europe Comics Art, http://centrala.org.pl) veröffentlicht und eine erweiterte, 400 Seiten starke und um ein Audiobook ergänzte Neuauflage von Go³aszewskis Schriften zu Reggae und seiner spezifischen Rezeption in Polen von dem Label und Verlag "Manufaktura Legenda" besorgt, das federführend ist bei der Aufarbeitung von polnischer Subkultur ("Reggae Rastafarie - Regementarz" http://manufaktura-legenda.pl).
This release contains clarinet compositions by S³awomir Go³aszewski, founder and master-mind of the project, and harmonium works by Wojciech "Kaktus" Karwacki. Landscapes was recorded and produced by Alik Dziki, former bass player of the Polish Reggae legends Izrael and Kultura, as well as an early member of the mystic punk group Armia. The album was released on tape in Poland in 1996 under project name Asunta on the "Fly Music" label and in 2001 released in a limited edition on Cdr by the "Nefryt" label. Landscapes features a fascinating blend of ritual ethno drones, ambient psychedelia and Slavonic New Age. The cover painting by Lithuanian artist Linas Domarackas was designed for the original release.
S³awomir Go³aszewski is a legendary figure of Polish off- and counter culture. In 1984/85 he co-founded the seminal punk rock group Armia and contributed to their albums under pseudonym Merlin. At the same time he was active in the shadow of Jerzy Grotowskis's dissolving "Teatr Laboratorium" in Wroclaw/Breslau (Zbigniew Cynkutis, Zygmunt Molik, and Ludwik Flaszen being his teachers). Grotowskis's research on rituals, its psychophysiological impact, and his expanded concept of theater has coined Go³aszewski's artistic work.
Since the late 1980's, Go³aszewski is active as a radio presenter, journalist and author; among other things he was crucial for the early popularisation of Reggae music and Rastafarian culture in Poland and thus influencing an entire generation of fans and musicians alike. His contributions both artistic and publicistical to the Polish alternative music scene are numerous. His artistic and esoteric quest also lead to the collaboration with the legendary Atman group, a collective of musicians dealing with the integration of sound and ecology. The group's self-managed label "Fly Music" released Landscapes in 1996 on cassette. In the following year, Atman also invited Go³aszewski to present his project at their Music in the Landscape Festival [Muzyka w krajobrazie] in Inow³ódz, a small medieval village in central Poland. This entirely acoustic performance in the Romanesque St. Giles church in Inow³ódz in July 1997 brought Asunta lasting reputation among Poland's alternative music circuit.
After a life-threatening brain surgery in 2010 and a period of convalescence Go³aszewski is back and active again: 2012 saw the publication of his graphic novel "Moja Terapia" (with drawings by Szawe³ P³óciennik, Central Europe Comics Art) as well as a 400-page volume of his collected writings on Reggae music and Rastafari culture published by "Manufaktura Legenda", the leading label and publisher for the reappraisal of the legacy of Polish subculture." [label info]
www.lollipopshop.de
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ATKINSON, FELICIA |
Hand in Hand |
do-LP |
Félicia Atkinson's new full length album ‘Hand In Hand’ is an expanded development of her musical compositions started with the highly-acclaimed 'A Readymade Ceremony' released on Shelter Press in 2015, and follows her collaborative effort with Jefre Cantu-Ledesma 'Comme Un Seul Narcisse' (Shelter Press, 2016).
Composed over the year of 2016 at EMS during a snow storm and at home in Brittany, Hand in Hand could be considered as the most ambitious body of work recorded by the French musician and artist.
Doubt and Optimism are the two sides of a same coin. Hand in Hand is arid and warm in its whole synchrony and opposition. Days are burning and nights are made of ice. Coyotes are exchanging sounds with rattles snakes while bunnies are hiding. Strident modular sounds are tearing apart minimal beats and drones. The stories told by A Voice to the auditor are no longer fictions and become slowly reality.
Electric waves transmitted by living creatures and machines seem to deliver special sounds and frequencies that only non-human can hear. They grow and vibrate despite of the walls and interdictions. Therefore, the human who is listening to this record might find in it a particular kind of emotion a way to take space in silence, and frame a certain vision of thinking while losing a certain notion of time, acknowledging step by step its universal environment. Plants, galaxies, animals, machines, Hand in Hand.
This record is meant to be a moment of common thinking and listening in its diversity and abstraction. In the same way a sci-fi novel by Philip K. Dick or a sculpture by Guy Mees can be percieved: trivial, sensitive and mysterious at the same time.
The opening track, I’m Following You is a bleached romantic ballad for Fender Rhodes that could be the ending title of a Martian love story, whereas Visnaga praises the resources of a desert plant through asmr voices, field recordings and evasive chords. A House A Dance A Poem is a feminist hymn composed as a pyramidal structure, referring in the same time to the A-frame houses, the yoga position of the triangle, the first letter of the roman alphabet and the feminine sex. In the closing song, No Fear But Anticipation, Atkinson offers an open hearted plea about the existentialist necessity of finding desire even when the times seem too dark to think about it. A telepathic and non-scholastic anthem for Don Delillo, Joan Didion and Jean Paul Sartre. The final Buchla sounds that close the record seem to deliver an unspeakable message that only birds and aliens could transcript.
The echo of the 80’s sci-fi anxious aethetics resonates with today’s transparency of digital sounds in the whole record. The cohabitation of simple midi textures and historical Serge and Buchla signals are convoked and confronted together by A Voice. The human instrument appears here as the epicenter of the recordings, giving to the others instruments a gravitational point.
Joan La Barbara, Robert Ashley or Delia Derbyshire are the main influences of Atkinson in their own way of inviting fiction, composition and abstraction as the essential materials of composition. For Hand In Hand, Félicia Atkinson used different sources for the lyrics and scores of her tracks: house plant instruction books, Desert Magazine old issues, architecture manuals, JG Ballard and K. Dick’s books, as well as her own poetry.
https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/hand-in-hand
|
2017 |
€25.00 |
|
| ATKINSON, FELICIA & JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA |
Limpid as the Solitudes |
LP |
When is one plus one not two? When two paths converge and a new one appears. But what is this newly activated neural pathway? A Third Mind? In the 1960s, multimedia artist Brion Gysin cut through the words of a newspaper and rearranged them to reveal a new kind of truth contained within the words but not freed until his knife cut it loose. He described this as part of the Third Mind. Likewise, «Limpid As The Solitudes» cuts through sound-making techniques to enter a new zone of sonic revelations.
If you had to look for musical precedents, you might say the record recalls the turn-of-the-century Mille Plateaux glitch era, the warmth of La Monte Young’s raga-inspired microtonal electronic «dream house» drones, a sense of adventure evident in the acousmatic non-space recordings made by GRM artists in the 1960s/ 1970s, 4AD’s floor gazing guitar sound circa Cocteau Twins peak, and blissfully diverse field recordings. But you could equally equate it with entirely different recording sources. «Limpid As The Solitudes» has a widescreen sound that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Warm, comforting and also unsettling in unpredictable ways. Deliberate yet exploratory. It’s a record composed of opposites and contrasts. Following historical guidelines yet also throwing them out of the window. It’s hard to tell if the process of creating it was more akin to abstract painting but it might possibly be easier to understand if it was a large museum painting (to steal a thought from David Stubbs). To describe the album as ambient would indicate a much too passive engagement with the sound – leave it to play in the background and you’ll miss a lot of the joy.
Felicia Atkinson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma describe the record as a series of postcards - «things and sounds that happen vertically as a slow ascension, vessels communicating in dreams.» In this collaborative recording, there is a feeling of «becoming» - things metamorphose - a concrete sound turns into a electronic sound that turns into a spiral-like melody which then furls / unfurls at the same time.
The title of the album - «Limpid As The Solitudes» - as well as track titles, are all verses stolen from Sylvia Plath’s poems – Atkinson notes «like dropped pearls from a lost collar.» Trying further to capture the records poetic impulses she notes it’s reflects «Empathy to objects and nature’s elements, meteorological states, seasons that answer to your heart, granular etchings carved and sustained to create a blurred sentimental landscape.» But notes with a sharpness that «the finale is more optimistic than Plath’s poetry. Love and lyricism win, the music soaring from deep water to interstellar galaxies.»
If you look at the cover, you’ll find another key clue - you’ll see an image created by photographer Julien Carreyn of a young women wearing destroyed jeans, playing with bubble wrap. The image is intended to give the viewer an eerie 1990’s feeling that echoes the recording. They note - «think films such as by «Trust» (Hal Hartley, 1990) or «Chuncking Express» (Wong Kar Wai, 1994).» They add «it’s the «ultra modern solitude» of characters lost in an early-digital urban vacuum, looking for a more time to wonder, a soul mate or just some compassion in the grey sky.»
Among the many other references for this album is how Google Maps have created new digital perceptions of space, Gilles Deleuze’s examination of Alice In Wonderland, Andre Bretons poems and more films including the classics «Sacrifice» (Tarkovsky), «Passenger» (Antonioni) and «Last Year In Marienbad» (Resnais). To dig into the more of the ideas and sources behind this record you’ll simply have to talk to the duo. We simply cannot give you the full depth here.
Be sure to come back to this record more than once - it’s then that it’s power will work - you’ll recall the sound of a lover, a garden you once walked through, an echo of a record you once loved. To be appreciated, «Limpid As The Solitudes» requires you to immerse yourself as if in a hot spring, letting the sounds float over you and alter your perceptions and memories.
|
2018 |
€18.50 |
|
| ATUM |
Legendy Miejskie |
CD |
" "Legendy Miejskie / Urban Legends" the latest album by ATUM, has just arrived! "Urban Legends", arguably one of the strongest titles of the Beast of Prey label, is an extraordinary album, composed mostly of field recordings registered in Jaworzno, the home town of ATUM. It is an attempt at reconstructing the surroundings in order to distill something that eludes the every-day experience. Despite its private character, the message of the Legends is universal as well. Everyone of us passes dozens of places we think are "tamed", places seemingly devoid of meaning. Just a little effort is what it takes to dispel this illusion.
Musically, the album is rather varied. It's a combination of field recordings, drones, whispers, and sounds of different acoustic instruments. The purpose is to reveal the oneiric dark side of the surrounding world. Guests such as Infamis (acoustic guitar), Tomasz K, Rafał Pach, and Piotr U (the author's friends from Jaworzno) contributed to the making of the album." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| AUBE |
Reworks Stefano Gentile II |
CD |
"Second part of the Collaboration between AUBE and the SILENTES & (ex-AMPLEXUS)-runner STEFANO GENTILE, with 4 long movements (almost 70 minutes). Let us describe only the first track in detail, a long movement of beautiful waving drones which change their tone & colour from time to time, the waves begin to overlap more and more and slowly from new textures and overtunes appear out of nothing, also in waves... the other 3 movements use different sounds and textures, but have the similar hypnotic character of pure drone-streaming shimmers. One of the most meditative AUBE-works we know, highly recommended!" [Drone Rec.]
www.silentes.net
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAD SECTOR |
Storage Disk 2 |
CD |
Zweiter Teil der Anthologie mit raren Tracks vom italienischen Kult-Projekt, die beweisen dass Massimo Magrini auch auf Compilations und "kleinen" Releases nur hochwertiges veröffentlicht hat; inklusive 4 unveröffentlichen Stücke von 2002, und wieder im besonderen WAYSTYX-Design!
"2nd part of rare tracks anthology. Contains material from: "Planar Energy" picture 7" (Smallvoices), "Scrignum Vitae" box with CD and objects (Old Europa Cafe), "Ten Years Of Madness" 2 CD (Achtung Baby!), "Land:[Schaft]" 2x10" (Cold Lands), "Hover" CDr (Bastet Rec.), "L'Ame Electrique Presents Old Europa Cafe" (Ame Electrique) + 4 previously unreleased tracks recorded in 2002." [Zhelezobeton]
"...The Waystyx label focuses on Industrial based music, drones and field recordings. Behind the Bad Sector-project you find the Tuscanny-born artist Massimo Maggrini who has been active under the Bad Sector flag since 1994 with the debut cassette release "Ze" on the Slaughter Productions label followed by the CD-release "Ampos" on Dutch label God Factory in 1995. Since then it has resulted in an extensive number of releases on various labels with quite a few on the Waystyx label. Present album titled "Storage disk 2" is a compilation of later materials of Bad Sector from the period 2002-2005. The overall expression is quite dramatic combining industrial sound spheres with more downbeat ambient. Despite the downbeat expression approaching the tranquilizing sound of melancholic ambient, there are masses of industrial elements combined with interesting noisy and state of the art electronics added elements of manipulated guitars and processed human voices. The music of Bad Sector is intense and very atmospheric. Thus a pleasant overview of earlier materials from a talented Italian artist calling himself Bad Sector. Intense!" [NM, Vital Weekly]
www.waystyx.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAD SECTOR & ASTRO |
Idioblast |
CD |
"In 2005 a small Russian label, Insofar Vapour Bulk, proposed to Massimo Magrini to work on a recording made by Hiroshi Hasegawa (Astro). It was a "drone-like" sound of a few minutes, Despite the difficult nature of the assignment, Massimo loved the very static and cryptic structure of the original. So, starting from this basic recording (without using additional sounds) he developed a 45 minutes long suite: it was like using a magic audio lens which revealed a myriad of hidden details in a microscopic world. The original Astro sound can
still be heard at the beginning and at the end of the suite. The re-edition comes in beautiful cardboard case with silver-embossed printing." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"... IDIO BLAST verzaubert mit drones und regelrecht glitzernden Klängen, kristallin-klar und glasig-summend und mit seltsame Zwischentöne versehen..." [Drone Rec. 2006]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAD SECTOR / CONTAGIOUS ORGASM |
Vacuum Pulse |
CD |
Re-Release des vergriffenen Tapes von 1996 (OEC 083), zu dem wir damals bemerkten: "Wer beide Gruppen kennt, hat mit solch einer Kollaboration sicher nicht gerechnet! Was dabei herauskommt (kein Split-Tape, sondern gegenseitige Bearbeitung von Basic-material), liegt fernab der für beide Gruppen typischen Sounds: mystische Sphärenmusik durchmischt mit konkretem Material, Samples, etc..die eine Seite CONTAGIOUS ORGASM beeinhaltet Contagious'sches Material bearbeitet von Bad Sector, während auf der BAD ORGASM - Seite genau umgekehrt vorgegangen wurde..." klasssse..
Re-released now, back in stock for a SPECIAL price !
“....From a mere description, this could end up sounding like every other drone and ambient noise release you own, but the fact is that nothing can account for the sheer depth and richness of the sounds on offer here. Everything has an almost organic quality to it, the drones sounding so liquid and deep that they take on a life of their own, both separate and a part of their generative technology – an otherworldly symbiosis of life and machine that stems directly from science fiction. It is hard to distinguish the two different artists’ efforts from one another, as their approaches to sound and composition are so alike, especially when focussed towards this common theme. It is, then, almost the perfect collaboration, each artists’ talents serving to enhance the other’s and producing a work that is not far removed from their usual output, but that has that elusive X-factor of genius and serendipity that quickly ranks this as a classic of modern music. Nearly indescribable, highly recommended. [Gavin Lees, Immanence Records]
label: www.oldeuropacafe.com |
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| BAD SECTOR / SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS |
Neurotransmitter Actions |
CD |
"Originally released in 2000 this long sold out collaboration work is now available again and brings back some fine piece of well crafted deep sounding electronica from Italy. The BAD SECTOR tracks of Massimo Magrini building up again a sonic cathedral of sub-harmonic drones and rhythms while Paolo Bandera of SSHE RETINA STIMULANTS/SIGILLUM S dissects precisely the frequency oscillation and adds an intense and contemplative manifest of digital noise to the second part of this split-work. This is an outstanding example in sound research by two of the most important masterminds of the Italian electronic music scene.
The CD is presented in a beautiful cardboard package with bronze-foil print." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"If you have been reading these pages closely over the past few years, you may know I have a soft, as yet unexplained, spot for the music of Bad Sector. One could find this odd, as I may not be known as someone who likes this dark, slightly gothic electronic music. But it seems there is always an element of computer treatments, sci-fi and humour in this, which makes that I enjoy it. In 2000 Bad Sector released this split CD with Sshe Retina Stimulants, also from Italy, and the music project of Paolo Bandera (and I have no opinion on his music, simply because I don't know it very well), and now it's been re-issued. Here we have one-track silence (why?) at the beginning, four pieces by Bad Sector, five by Sshe Retina Stimulants and one, in the middle, of them together. The Bad Sector pieces are trademark for him (the band is a solo project of Massimo Magrini): heavy slabs of electronics, ditto dark rhythms, and lots of treated vocals. This entire here more forceful, it seems, than on the more recent releases. Quite nice, again, music in the realm of industrial music. Sshe Retina Stimulants, whom I didn't know that well, seem to be more about singular synthesizer strokes in quite a noisy manner. There is something about these tracks, which may make them sound alike. Maybe its all more loop like with some sound effect treatments? Either way, it works quite well, even when it's perhaps not something I would play everyday. In the middle ground, their collaborative piece both ends are tied together and operated with a tour de force. Altogether this is fine manifestation of industrial music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN |
Same River Twice (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
“We never find enough artists where the phenomena of being writers as well musicians intersect but the Canadian AIDAN BAKER is one of them. Since he began to release music (solo or with his band-project ARC) he has shown poetic sensibility and many emotional levels while creating this elegant & beautiful guitarish drone harmonics. The two pieces here on his very first vinyl-release are thus inspired by literature titles plunged us into the sound-waves of some of the most mysterious shimmering daydreaming episodes. Dare diving in these warm-colourful travelling fluids... Each cover comes with an handwritten piece of poetry by the artist.”
Filed under: Poetic & trancy day-dream-drones ~
CLEAR WATER-COLOURED VINYL WITH YELLOW SPOTS
BLUE & GREEN HANDPAINTED COVERS. EACH COPY HAS A UNIQUE HANDWRITTEN POETRY BY THE ARTIST.” [press release] LAST COPIES !
|
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Scalpel |
CD |
SCALPEL beinhaltet vier Stücke, auf denen sich AIDAN BAKER neben seinen beliebten Endloos-Loop-Drones dem Songformat (mit sehr zurückhaltendem Gesang) annähert... das ist höchst feingliedrig, introspektiv, ausgefeilt: Akustische Magie zwischen Drone & Folk.
" ... Baker has tried his hand in many different areas of music and it’s always amazing to here the outcome, as more often than not the results are excellent. There have been records that dabble more in psych, kraut, ambient, drone, and so on. However here on Scalpel, Baker has combined a familiar ambiance within his body of work with folk music for something that is loosely being dubbed as his “folk/drone” album. I really didn’t know what to make of that at first. I suppose a description like that shouldn’t be too hard to really figure out, but still it was intriguing.
The album opens with the track “K” and greets the listener with the simple plucking of an acoustic guitar that as the song moves forward begins to merge into a dreamy backdrop of sound. Everything seems so incredibly delicate, which is only enhanced by the overall sparseness throughout the recording. One of the many things that I really enjoy about Scalpel however is the increased focus on Baker’s vocals, which have gradually become a part of Baker’s sound but not so much to the amount of attention that they receive here. Granted, his vocals are still very subdued, and like the music are softly spoken amongst the strumming of his guitar. The last three tracks on the album are where it really begins to take shape however, in the form of otherworldly drones, strings, and shimmering backdrops that gradually consume Baker’s vocals and guitar into many layers of beautiful sounds. And while drifting and sparse as it may be, there is still a certain feeling of warmth within it all that for me is what makes Scalpel worth many repeated listens. It couldn’t come at a better time either as winter begins to settle itself in here in the Midwest." [Built on a weak spot]
www.thekorarecords.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Green & Cold |
CD-R |
Hier zeigt AIDAN BAKER seine Songwriter-Seele: er singt, sehr sanft, flüstert manchmal eher, dazu spielt er "richtige" Stücke, die aber durchaus experimentelle Anwandlungen und "Dronifizierungen" erfahren... ultra-sanfter dream'n'drone songwriter-Pop mit viel Emotion, auch das gelingt AIDAN wieder traumwandlerlisch & sicher...
"The innovative master of ambient guitar returns with a breakthrough album. At its core 'Green & Cold' is a a mix of drone, post-rock, and what the artist calls appropriately "deconstructive dream-pop." Memorable hooks combine with Baker's trademark huge wall of guitar constituted atmospherics. Baker's shoegazey croon floats among the stuttering clicks and cuts permeating the layers of catchy riffs and slow, intoxicating beats. As 'Green & Cold' unfolds the listener is coaxed familarly inward only to be washed over in waves of wispy, warming drones: An album of uncommon intelligence and artistry." [label info]
"Aidan Baker is back, still vying for the most prolific man in show business award (well, at least underground, free drone show business) with a double shot of washed out dreamy droniness. There's the latest from Nadja, reflecting his more metal side, and then there's this, the follow up to last year's Pendulum, which was a fantastic slab of glistening disembodied dronemusic. Green & Gold follows suit but with an interesting twist. Vocals. Lots of 'em. Baker is no stranger to singing, his whispery croon has graced more than a few of his releases, but on G & G, the vocals are a big part of the songs, and the songs are actual songs, with drums, and verses and choruses and everything. Well, sort of.
Some tracks, like the untitled opener, are indeed still just wispy slow shifting expanses of fuzzy dreamlike sound, which we can NEVER get enough of, but others, like "Chainsaw", are actual lowercase, slow motion, dark and dolorous slowcore pop songs. Simple murky guitar riffs, wreathed of course in all manner of reverb and soft focus fuzz, hovering over stripped down shuffling rhythms, while Baker croons softly over the top, a hushed almost whisper, sounding not entirely unlike Iron & Wine's Sam Beam actually. Even the music sounds a little like a blissier tarpit version of Iron & Wine. There is some definite twang there, subtle, but it's there, nestled amidst the delicate folky strum and the glistening sonic glimmer. Imagine an
even more somnambulant Low, or Spacemen 3 at 16 rpm, a ultra druggy
(druggier?) Galaxie 500, each track a pop song mumbled and murky, a moonlit crawl through a hazy landscape of shuffle and shimmer, of strum and twang, all wrapped up in soft swirls of shimmer. Essential for fans of all things Jeck and Tim Hecker and Jasper TX and Machinefabriek and Grouper and Troum and Main and the like, but also worth a listen for more adventurous fans of Iron & Wine, Spacemen 3, Galaxie 500, Low and other slowcore drugrock dreaminess..." [Aquarius Records]
label: www.gearsofsand.net
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Exoskeleton Heart |
CD-R |
"Following up his amazing Periodic disc that was issued through Crucial Bliss two years ago, acclaimed Toronto drone-guitarist Aidan Baker is back with Exoskeleton Heart, his newest entry into our ongoing Crucial Bliss series. And this 2-track, hour long excursion into deep feedback bliss is stunningly beautiful. Split into two halves, "Interior" and "Anterior", Baker once again taps into his visions of the bodycage using only his electric guitar, performed and recorded live; the result is an evocative feedback-heavy dronescape drifting with the gritty hum of the amplifier, layers of shimmering, chiming feedback, crushing distorted ambient dirge that borders on Sunn O)))-levels of sonic weight, and shafts of elegiac melody breaking through the stormclouds of Baker's cavernous rumbling like rays of sunlight. Aidan Baker is without question the North American counterpart to the Teutonic guitar drones of Troum, and Exoskeleton Heart delivers some of his most massive, meditative, crushing, and beautiful subterranean drift yet. Hell, the final 10 minutes of "Anterior" is without questions one of the most beautiful things we have ever presented through this label, an angelic glacial melody that builds inexorably into a wall of blissed out fuzz a la something you'd expect from Aidan's dronesludge band Nadja. Essential. The disc comes in a full-color signature Crucial Bliss foldover sleeve with the disc affixed to a plastic hub on the interior of the sleeve, and has been pressed in a limited edition of 300 copies" [label info]
label: www.crucialblast.net
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Gathering Blue |
do-LP |
Doppel-LP im Gatefold-Cover, edelst designed von ALAN McCLELLAND. Eine Sammlung von neuem (erste LP) und in Kleinauflagen bereits erschienenem Material (zweite LP), die beiden mCDRs "Cicatrice" (Dreamland, 2003, vier Stücke die alle mit CI beginnen) und "The Taste of Summer on your Skin" (Taalem, 2004), zwei Remixe von BAKER-Stücken von der "Remixes"-CDR (Arcolepsy, 2005) von BUILDING CASTLES OUT OF MATCHSTICKS und TROUM, sowie eine JOY DIVISION-Coverversion von "24 Hours" !!
Die Auflage von 444 Stück kommt in insgesamt drei Vinylfarben!!
"A work of blissful delight. Aidan Baker provides 4 sides of enchantment in this long-in-the-making 2xLP set. Gathering Blue provides new original material plus a stunning cover of the Joy Division track "24 Hours" as well as an extended work-out of the amazing remix of "The Cicada Sings Our Love Song" by Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks which was originally released in 2005 on the ultra-limited and long-deleted Arcolepsy Records CD "Remixes". This really is Aidan Baker at his very best and a record that is sure to charm. Comes in a gatefold sleeve, numbered card insert and pressed on heavy 180g virgin vinyl in 3 editions (55 copies on black vinyl, 95 on sky blkue vinyl [with white blend] and 294 copies on mottled peacock blue vinyl)." [label info]
"It's been a (little) while since we've had some brand new Aidan Baker / Nadja for the store, thankfully this week heralds two new
releases. To be reviewed next time, there's long awaited Nadja all- covers disc (which we'll tell you right now is great), and then
there's this, a brand new, limited double lp from Baker solo, and as always it's a doozy, sprawling and shimmery and expansive, that sort of blissed out ambient dronemusic he does so well. But it's far from more of the same. The first track we threw on was almost jungle, with skittery beats buried beneath softly undulating layers of warm whir and deep drifts of soft swirling sound. There's also a bit of Spacemen
3 like processed psych guitar, which gives way to some buzzing raga like blur, draped over still more dreamlike dronescapes, although
here, it's laced with chunks of processed alien crunch, and weird little bits of scrape and fragmented riffage. Long stretches of underwater Oval-like wooziness, shot through
with streaks of space-y effects and muted bits of glitch and buzz, some of the most washed out and wondrous space (not quite) rock ever! Warped warbly organs are stretched and smeared into warped Philip Jeck like doomy drifts, one of which is apparently a cover of Joy
Division's "Twenty Four Hours", although we could only tell by the vocals, and even then, they're so hushed and barely there, that any
sense of the original seems to melt into a gorgeously oozing expanse of thrum and shimmer and softly warped rumble. Another fantastic and gorgeous and of course WAY too limited
chunk of droney dreaminess from Mr. Baker. Released on the always amazing Equation Records, who really go all out with the packaging as well. Thick swirled/splattered blue vinyl, thick full color gatefold jacket, and a printed full color postcard, each of which is hand numbered, LIMITED TO 444 COPIES!" [Aquarius Records review]
www.chronoglide.com/equation.html
|
2009 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
Liminoid / Lifeforms |
CD |
"While Alien8 Recordings has had the pleasure of releasing three full-length albums by Aidan Baker's ambient doom project Nadja, as well as his collaborative effort Fantasma Parastasie with Tim Hecker, this marks our first solo release with the artist. Although we consider Liminoid/Lifeforms to be a solo effort, there are in fact no less than eight guest musicians helping out on the recording. These include Canadian noise legend Knurl (a.k.a. Alan Bloor) who has been released three times on Alien8 Recordings prior to this recording, as well as members of Arc, Picastro, Forest City Lovers and Whisper Room. Liminoid is a composition for large ensemble exploring sonic immersion in drones and textures, rhythms and pulsations. Incorporating composed and improvised segments, the piece uses elongation of sound and layered polyph- ony in an attempt to create a liminal and/or numinous state. This recording of Liminoid is from its premier at The Music Gallery's X-Avant Festival in Toronto, October 25, 2008. The piece features a powerful vocal performance with every member sharing the vocal duties. The lyrics have been adapted from 5th-8th century Coptic Christian texts and inspired by the book Ancient Christian Magic by Marvin W. Meyer & Richard Smith. The ensemble members for this performance were: Aidan Baker (guitar/ voice), Clara Engel (guitar/voice), Nick Storring (cello/voice), Jakob Thiesen (drums/voice), Richard Baker (drums/voice), Tillman Lewis (cello/voice), Laura Bates (violin/voice) and Jonathan Demers (guitar/voice). Lifeforms is a composition for strings, prepared/effected guitar, and amplified metal works. Likewise incorporating written and improvised material, the piece was originally commissioned and performed by The Penderecki Quartet in 2003. This recording was made in August 2008 at Commonwealth Studios in Toronto. The performers were: Aidan Baker (guitar), Nick Storring (cello), Mika Posen (violin) and Alan Bloor (metal works). This recording has been both skillfully mixed from multiple recordings and mastered by James Plotkin." [label info]
www.alien8recordings.com
"The latest from the always impressive, and always prolific Aidan Baker, who creates thick wall of sound doomgaze in the duo Nadja, and much more personal, hushed drone music under his own name, but more and more has been expanding his scope with various collaborations and large ensembles. This might be the biggest ensemble he's worked with, 8 players, all contributing vocals, three guitars, two drummers, violin and two cellos. And it does sound like what you might imagine, a sort of Aidan Baker drone record / chamber music
hybrid, long languid tones, plenty of cymbal shimmer, the strings moan and sing, the sounds ebb and flow, swelling ominously, building to
swirling crescendos, before slipping back into something more minimal and contemplative, "Liminoid" is split into 4 movements, and is about as close to classical music as Baker has come, at least in the first part, the second part shifts gears dramatically, transforming into something more jazzy and propulsive, a sort of krautrock thing, but with a jazzy slow shifting Necks vibe, eventually building to a dense tribal workout, before slipping into part 3, all shimmery blissy drift, soft focus and sun dappled, the drums an understated slowcore
shuffle, leading up to the 15 minute final movement, where the vocalists team up for a haunting bit of choral drama, which explodes
into full on free jazz freakout wall of sound, finishing off with a long form spaced out drone jam, that definitely reminds us of a super
stripped down White Hills, psychedelic and washed out and very hypnotic.
The second piece, the nearly 30 minute "Lifeforms" is a smaller ensemble, Baker on guitar, with violin, cello and 'amplified metal works', the metal works had us expecting something clangy and bombastic, but instead, it's almost all warm whirling ambient shimmer,
much more in keeping with Baker's solo sounds, near the end, the sounds shift, and the strings move to the fore, weaving dramatic melodies over the slow burning drone underneath, the result very cinematic. Quite nice." [Aquarius Rec.]
"One of my favorite noise albums, "Frequency LSD" by Japanoise artist Masonna was released on Alien8 Recordings in the mid-90's. With this in mind, and in combination with the release of present two albums, there shouldn't be any questions about the the great span of styles released by Alien8 Recordings - Canada's probably most interesting label of the underground. Aidan Baker is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and sound artist that creates music in the field from post-rock across drone ambient to modern classical. His latest release "Limonoid / Lifeforms" roughly comes across all aforementioned styles. On the album Aidan Baker has allied with concrete noise artist Alan Bloor alias Knurl / Pholde, Richard Baker on drums plus a number of other acoustic members on instruments such as cello, violin and guitars. As the title suggest the album is divided into two main sections: A section called "Limonoid" consisting of four intersections and the long and final piece titled "Lifeforms".
"Limonoid" is as mentioned earlier an interesting crossover between neo-classical chamber music, noise-rock, post-rock with associations of earlier Krautrock (first of all Amon Düül I + II) and neo-folk with elements of middle-age expressions. Quite interesting and very trippy psychedelia with vocals from Clara Engel is what the first four chapters of the albums presents. But in my opinion, the true gift is the second main section of the album titled "Lifeforms". "Lifeforms" is a lengthy piece clocking approximately 30 minutes. Where the aforementioned section was a crossover of a number of styles "Lifeforms" mainly focus on ambient-expressions but with clear interventions of classical instruments such as violin and cello meanwhile aforementioned noise artist Alan Bloor controls his usual ultra-aggressive sound equipments being amplified steel and metal as sound sources into more subtle and very attractive noise drones. The piece is quite repetitive with a long hissing drone of amplified strings but with organic interventions of concrete sounds of aforementioned instruments. Halfway though the track, hissing drone fades away giving way to more plain acoustic ambience until another drone appears. The atmosphere is hypnotic and very intense through out the running time of the piece. Very interesting album showing the wide span of Aidan Baker." [NM / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN & THE INFANT CYCLE |
Rural Sprawl |
CD-R |
Eine der ganz frühen Releases (CDR auf Blade Records von 2002) von AIDAN BAKER war diese Zusammenarbeit mit dem damals schon seit langer Zeit in der experimentellen Szene aktiven JIM DE JONG aka THE INFANT CYCLE. Inzwischen gehört AIDAN als eine Hälfte von NADJA zu einem der bekanntesten "Drone"-Musiker der heutigen Zeit, während INFANT CYCLE immer noch einen absoluten Geheimtip darstellt. Hiess die Original-CDR noch "Rural" und enthielt nur 2 Stücke, so wurde "Rural Sprawl" durch 2 weitere Stücke ergänzt, um die Idee eines jahreszeitlichen Zyklus zu untermauern. Hier ergänzen sich die etwas herben loops & samples mit sanften Gitarrenklängen & bassigen Pulsen, schon damals waren wir begeistert und notierten: "Gerade erst entdeckt, schon gibt es eine kanadische Zusammenarbeit von AIDAN BAKER mit den langjährig bestehenden INFANT CYCLE auf Blade Records. Statische, „stehende“ Drones verbergen darunterliegende perkussiv-basslastige Strukturen (das erinnert an DRONAEMENTsches Schaffen), zwei lange Stücke, die Atmosphären einfangen und vermitteln sollen („Summer“) („Temperature Drop“)...zarte, subtile, emotionale Klänge: Musik die die Welt braucht! Very emotional Canadian collaboration, subtle drones conceal percussive-bassy structures underneath, two long pieces of shimmering and soft dreamscape-sounds: music that this world needs!"
"Canadian musicians Aidan Baker and Jim DeJong (aka The Infant Cycle) have used the "gentleman's kit" of modern experimenters for creating the compositions of this disk: guitar, bass, tapes, samples, feedback generator, playouts and thumb piano. Four album tracks correspond with four seasons, four states of the soul...
Summer - repetitive loops become overgrown with the juicy flesh of atonal sound and transform into sampled rhythms flown over by a soft guitar tune. Autumn - the rhythm is reduced to a hardly evident monotonous shroud, the atmosphere becomes more melodic and melancholic and in the end turns into a heart-piercing guitar solo. Winter - time for sleep and detachment: icy ringing, the slow breath of bass impulses, the rustling of electronics and sluggish drones painting vast snowy soundscapes. And finally spring - the drone ambient nature unfolds large as life, majestic sonic waves sweep accompanied by a swarm of tiny sounds awoken to life again.
The first two tracks were recorded in 2001 (and released on CD-R by the Italian label Blade Records in 2002 in a very limited edition), two others were recorded in 2005 and thus completed the natural cycle of this album." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN & TIM HECKER |
Fantasma Parastasie |
CD |
Die beiden ungekrönten Könige des kanadischen Drone-Ambients in Kollaboration! Trotz ihres sehr unterschiedlichen Backgrounds (der eine v.a. analog mit Gitarre arbeitend aus der Jazz & Impro-Szene stammend, der andere mit rein elektronischem Hintergrund eher aus Techno & Noise-Gefilden) treffen sie sich in einer fast undefinierbaren "Mitte", wobei unklar bleibt wer wessen Material bearbeitet hat oder ob es zu real-time Zusammenspielen kam. Frei flottierende Gitarren-Drones, teils ultra-sperrig verfremdet, teils subtil & beruhigend, dann wieder ausserweltlich und überbordend. Sehr variantenreich und ausufernd. Ungewöhnlich auch die Indexierung auf der CD: Die 7 Stücke verteilen sich auf ganze 66 Indexe!
"Fantasma Parastasie sees the pairing of Aidan Baker, of the ambient doom band Nadja, and Tim Hecker, two of Canada's brightest musicians in the world of abstract electronic music. Tim Hecker has been enjoying the rewards of a stellar career and discography, devoid of filler, due to his incredibly high quality control. His full-length Harmony In Ultra Violet was viewed as a major release in the genre of experimental electronic music. Aidan Baker, on the other hand, works under very different circumstances, releasing material both as a solo artist and as a member of the duo Nadja. His prolificacy is on par with that of Merzbow and the late Muslimgauze. Thankfully, Aidan Baker is one of those musicians with the ability to record and write new music quickly and without sacrificing the quality of his art. Anyone familiar with both Aidan Baker and Tim Hecker is more than likely familiar with Alien8 Recordings as the two musicians have collectively released seven records for our label thus far. While Baker has collaborated with the likes of John Duncan, Black Boned Angel and Fear Falls Burning, among others, this marks the first collaboration to be released by Hecker. This release, divided in eight movements, blends together to form a fluid example of a collaboration that works. Unlike one of those collaborations where artists throw some sound files back and forth via the internet, this release is the fruit of various real-time recording and mixing sessions the two artists worked on in Tim Hecker's Montreal studio. The pieces on the record blend seamlessly into one another, creating a deeper listening experience, as is the case on a number of Tim Hecker's solo outings. While Baker and Hecker share a penchant for creating a powerful blend of ambient noise, Fantasma Parastasie finds the more dissonant elements tempered by an emphasis on ambience and even occasional melody. This release is available on CD in a digipak packaging." [label info]
"... But somehow, the sounds on Fantasma Parastasie manage to transcend, allowing glimpses of familiar sounds, hints of each
artist's own work, but woven into a whole that is unto itself, a gloriously abstract swirl of sound, longform landscapes of bliss and blur, of buzz and even roar, extended movements, in which the various elements drift and shimmer, overlap and intertwine, melodies and songcraft meet texture and soundscapery, guitars unfurl tangled melodies one second, bleary eyed chordal blurs the next, harmonics glisten and hover amidst deep soft swells, distortion and buzz build into fierce walls of blown out psychedelia, the sounds crumbling and
decaying before our ears, threatening to collapse, and in this fragile state lies the beauty of those sounds, effulgent, incandescent, but at the same time, blackening, beginning some unnamable process of inevitable decay. And eventually it does decay, those thick roiling sounds dissipate, leaving something soft and shimmery, glistening on a
bed of shed buzz and crumbled crush, floating heavenward, its notes and melodies catching the sunlight, and offering up prismatic reflections.
The strange thing about this record is that each song is separated into super short pieces, eleven in most cases, each part between 15 and 45 seconds (it's obviously much more noticeable on the cd). We tried listening to it on shuffle, presuming that was perhaps the intention, and while it still sounds cool, it was a bit too and took too much away from the overall effect. Instead, the various parts, played in order, slip seamlessly into one another, so much so that if you weren't watching the tracks tick by on player, you
wouldn't even notice.
The two work amazingly well together, bits of guitar, fragments of riffs, looped and repeated, swathed in thick smears of digital
crunch, of buzzing rumble, much of the record sounds like a heavier William Basinski, as if the two were experimenting with they own
Disintegration Loops. A few of the tracks are quite tranquil, abstract and minimal, but for the most part, Baker and Hecker seem more
interested in distressed sounds, in distortion, in pushing the limits, composing in the red, needles pegged, but taking what in other hands
could be harsh and abrasive, and crafting those sounds into something simultaneously soft and dreamlike. Even the various movements, drift
smoothly into one another the entire record almost like a single piece, expansive and varied and sprawling, epic and majestic, but
inward looking, introspective, melancholy, imbuing the crumbling crunch and blown out minimalism, with emotion, with distinctive mood, at once dark and mysterious, but also strangely hopeful.
The album closer and title track, is the only one not split up into movements, and is easily the most abstract, the most minimal, a
stretch of lugubrious low end, so soft, so weightless, a hushed musical murmur, no distortion, no buzz, just a simple swell and sway, drifting fading, and finally disappearing.
Absolutely breathtaking."" [Aquarius Records review]
www.alien8recordings.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BAKER, AIDAN (WITH RICHARD BAKER) |
Smudging |
LP |
"Backwards proudly presents a new Aidan Baker vinyl LP, issued in a edition of 450 copies. For this release AIDAN BAKER, co-founder of Nadja and member of Arc, is aided by his brother, Richard Baker, at drums. Recorded variously in Toronto and Berlin, 'Smudging' includes six songs comprised in two long epic tracks, with guitar textures and hypnotic rhythm structures to create a beautiful and dreamy listening experience. In the wake of his most experimental and characterized by dilated atmospheres works, as it happened for example in "The Sea Swells A Bit...", Aidan Baker is back to exercise his hypnotic power on the listener. The guitar drones succeed one another, alternating with more rhythmic and structured brackets, thanks to the involvement of Richard, who divides his time between more consistent raids, which almost tend to evolutions near to improvisation (as in "Sweetgrass 1"), and softer and occasional interventions which leave full space to the landscape drifts created by Aidan with his guitar effects and enveloping electronic sound-carpets (as in "White Desert Cedar").
"Smudging" is a work that, both in the execution and in the structure of the six tracks that comprise it, represents another confirmation of the stylistic code reached by the eclectic Canadian musician, who's determined in his aim to drag the listener, with extreme elegance, into the multiple parallel worlds created by his unlimited sounds. Another excellent album from this marvelous artist!
"Smudging" is released as a limited edition of 400 copies in a beautiful designed sleeve. First 45 copies come with an original painting done by Aidan Baker; each one is unique." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| BALDRUIN |
Relikte aus der Zukunft |
LP |
Relikte aus der Zukunft (Relics from the Future) is a new album by experimental German artist Baldruin. Growing up in a small Bavarian village rectory around 10 meters beside the church and serving as an altar boy; organ music, church bells, and spiritual chanting were very much present in Johannes Schebler's ears during his childhood years. This experience was probably the basis for his ongoing interest in transcendental and mysterious atmospheres, he recalls. Schebler started making music as Baldruin back in 2009 with DIY experimentations which were first released on tape, a CD-R 3" and later on several LPs all over Europe (Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Finland, Netherlands, Slovakia), as well as in the USA and Japan. While in the beginning Baldruin's tracks were mostly created with acoustic instruments, later synthesizers and other electronic sound sources joined, expanding the sound palette and letting primordial and futuristic worlds merge organically into each other. Although Relikte aus der Zukunft feels like a journey to the unknown, with constantly changing moods, all of the recordings were done in a small and improvised home studio in Schebler's living room in Wiesbaden, Germany, using mostly a single MIDI-keyboard for recording. The tracks are full of color and amazement, detailed and thorough when evoking the setting and conjuring the experience. They can be playful and bright, or suspenseful and ominous, until bursting into ritual and hallucination. The gloomiest soundscapes can jump into a ship fueled by retro sci-fi arpeggios, the solemn can turn to rejoice, and a star can shrink into a fireplace. Mastered by Alberto Cendra at Garden Lab Audio. Cover art by Johannes Schebler. Edition of 300.
https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/relikte-aus-der-zukunft
"Vor gerade einmal acht Monaten brachte Johannes Schebler alias Baldruin mit “Kleine Freuden” ein Album heraus, das trotz seiner Opulenz und vor allem wegen der geschlossenen Kompaktheit der einzelnen Stücke ganz im Zeichen der fast schon intim anmutenden Miniatur stand. Seit einigen Wochen steht mit “Relikte aus der Zukunft” nun ein neuer Longplayer in den Regalen, der im Vergleich dazu wie ein Gegenzoom wirkt und die Aufmerksamkeit auf die großen und breiten Zusammenhänge richtet. Schon der Titel könnte zu einem handlungsreichen Film passen, und zu Tracks wie “Hintenherum”, “Wurzeltrank” oder “Ritt auf der Silberechse” könnte man sich fantastische Science Fiction-Stoffe der surrealen Art ausdenken.
Die ersten Minuten des Albums verbreiten eine erwartungsvolle Stimmung: Es klappert und rumpelt, und über einem Sound, der nach Syntie klingt, erklingt das Trillern verschiedener Klangquellen, die Flöten, Klarinetten und ein Saxophon sein könnten, im Zusammenspiel mit flatternden Flügelschlägen aber sofort an verfremdete Vogelstimmen denken lassen. Halbversteckte Glockenschläge im Hintergrund leiten über in ein sakraler anmutendes Setting mit tiefen Tastentönen und etwas, das an Choräle erinnert, und man wundert sich, dass all dies – laut Begleittext – überwiegend einem Midi-Keyboard entstammen soll.
Sanft bimmelnde Glöckchen, spannungsvolle Cellodrones, quirlige Sounddetails, die wie Gummi quietschen; ein vermutlich asiatisches Saiteninstrument, dass mit seinen kreisenden Bewegungen eine entsprechende Melodie anstimmt und weitere folkig eingefärbte Klänge; alarmierende Hochtöner über dunklen, aus der Ferne hörbaren Paukenschlägen; desolate Sounds, die für kurze Momente an Industrial erinnern; sogar eine vervielfachte menschliche Stimme vor einer Kulisse aus Gebimmel und rauschenden Motoren – die klanglichen Details und motivischen Ideen sind in diesem Album beinahe Legion und im ständigen Wandel begriffen. Ist man erstmal vollends in diese Welt eingetaucht, dann halluziniert man vielleicht noch einige dazu. Wenn man also so etwas wie einen roten Faden sucht, dann findet man ihn woanders, z.B. in der aufgeweckten Neugier, die in der Reise durch die verschiedenen Klangwelten spürbar ist. Da scheint man dem Entdecken einer Kultur beizuwohnen, deren Zeichen man wie ein Schwamm aufsaugt, während die eigentliche Erforschung und Kartografierung noch ansteht. Die einzelnen Szenarien wirken wie Momentaufnahmen im Stadium des ersten faszinierten Eindrucks.
Neben “Insel der Hoffnung”, dass in all seiner Verträumtheit und mit gebrochenen Rhythmen so etwas wie der “Hit” des Albums sein könnte, gibt es weitere Wegmarken. Das wäre z.B “Wilde Reise”, eine von rumpelnden Trommelwirbeln und entrückten Flötensounds begleitete Fahrt über Stock und Stein. Außerdem “Vorherbestimmt”, das mit seinen pulsierenden Orchestralsounds wie ein dramatischer Stummfilmscore klingt, der von allerlei destruktivem Klirren begleitet wird und in seiner ganz eigenen Schönheit doch unangetastet bleibt. Vielleicht findet sich auch in dieser Tendenz zur Zerfleddertheit, an deren Grenze sich fast alle Stücke bewegen, und die immer durch eine solide Grundsubstanz eingehegt und zusammengehalten wird, ein Schlüssel zur klanglichen Grund-DNA dieses beeindruckenden Albums." [African Paper]
|
2023 |
€27.50 |
|
| BALL, DAVE & JON SAVAGE |
Photosynthesis |
CD |
“We started composing some quasi pop/classical pieces that gradually morphed and evolved into one, hour-long piece. Via digital recording and processing of vintage analogue sound sources (i.e. mini Moog, Sequential Circuits, Prophet 5 synthesizers etc.) the piece gradually took shape.
The title ‘Photosynthesis' was re-appropriated from the botanical process. Sitting in the garden surrounded by trees and plants on a sunny day, the idea of organisms using sunlight to synthesise nutrients from CO2 and water became an inspiration to us. This idea, juxtaposed with mankind's destruction of the planet through pollution and war gave us the inspiration to compose this soundscape”.
Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) and Jon Savage.
Comes in a beautiful 6-panel digipak, cloaked in exquisite flora art."
www.coldspring.co.uk
"One of the most wonderful things about artistic creation is that you never really know where it will take you. Even though Photosynthesis started out as an attempt to write some quasi pop/classic pieces, you’d never know that from the finished product. What the duo of Dave Ball and Jon Savage have created instead is a haunting, delightfully organic album of ambient and experimental electronica. This is a record to sink in to, letting it take you on its journey to some other place, and it has a refreshing, almost cleansing feel to its retro soundscapes.
There’s a warmth to Photosynthesis that many other albums of this sort lack, aided by the use of analogue sources, and it’s this warmth that gives the album such a special feel. Even if there are moments when it verges upon the haunting and unsettling, as during “ATM#2” with its ominous bass drone and piercing, warbling frequencies, it never feels like a dark ambient album; rather, these are moments of contrast that fit in well with the organic nature of the album. After all, nature is often a violent, destructive force, and that is captured in tracks such as this one, and that side of humanity is demonstrated here too, as it is in song titles such as “One Night In Helmand Province”.
Photosynthesis is also an album that makes clever use of space. “Passing Cloud Factory” and “The Process” are relatively sparse tracks, with elements drifting in and out over a foundation of subtle drones and strings, and the space created is just as effective as any individual sound or other element. And the way one track flows in to another creates a sense of narrative, not necessarily in the sense of a linear story, but of a cohesive whole; it feels as if the album has something to say, raising it above being a simple collection of tracks and giving it an extra sense of importance and weight. When a more obvious melody or movement does come to the fore, as on closer “Dead Neon”, the effect is all the stronger for how well it contrasts with the more sparse, ambient sections.
Not that any of this may be readily apparent. Photosynthesis is an album that requires multiple listens and proper attention to fully appreciate, but the rewards are more than worth it. It is an album full of depth, with an engaging character and atmosphere that is more than worth losing several evenings exploring." [The Sound Not The Word-blog]
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| BARBARELLA PLÜSCH |
d_b |
7inch |
Experimenteller, ruhiger Post-Rock aus Österreich, sehr schön die B-Seite mit schillernden Drones aus denen sich ungewöhnlich punktuierte Drums herausschälen....
"Musikalisch ist die 7" eine Offenbarung; und ich bin mir nicht einmal im Klaren, warum. Wenn ich nun ‚Postrock’ schreibe, ist das im Grunde wohl gar nicht falsch, aber: ist es ausreichend? Ich denke nicht. Hier geht es vor allem um Konzentration und damit einhergehend: Reduktion, vielleicht auch Vereinfachung. Um das Wesentliche. Ich könnte mit diesen beiden Tracks locker den Sommer verbringen."
[Quietnoise, August 2005]
“Barbarella Plüsch stunned the audience when they opened the live sets on our anniversary party last year. These tracks on vinyl are the band's first ever release. Our first post-rock record, beautifully constructed guitar/bass/drum pieces in the style of Trans Am, David Grubbs or quiet Sonic Youth. Featuring Alexander Wallner of Das Fax Mattinger.“ [label info]
"Descended from the Austrian trio Das Fax Mattinger, a new outfit called Barbarella Plüsch has a very nice single in d_b/Mono. Jazzy rolled drums plus e-bowed guitar and bass create a quiet instrumental space." [The Wire, January 2006]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| BARCHAN |
Soliton |
CD |
"BARCHAN is James Welburn (Miasmah, Tony Buck, Transmit and more) on drones and Tomas Järmyr (of Zu, Yodok, The Void of Expansion and more) on drums. Both musicians share a fascination with testing musical boundaries. Together, they create a uniquely thick tapestry of sound engendered by both organic and chaotic drums in unison with ambient landscapes of noisy bass-drones, spiraling between searing intensity and delirious waves of calm. This is percussion-driven industrial drone music that is generated entirely in live performance. Shards of electric bass noise enhanced by real time software processing provide a harsh electronic element, which combined with the hypnotic free drumming, is reminiscent of intense guitar music." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE |
Blood of Green Colour |
CD-R |
Neues Material der St. Petersburger Formation, die eine eigenständige musikalische Sprache entwickelt haben: eine trance-artig beschwörende ambient-noise-Klangalchemie mit dichten loops & hypnotischen Schichtungen, hier getragen von Mantra-ähnlichem Sprachgemurmel und pulsierenden Elementen im Untergrund, sehr intensiv und wohl mit ihr bester Release bisher!!
“Cult Russian act on the cult Italian label! 2005 release from this veteran St Petersburg Dark Ambient project. Eight tracks of rumbling drones, soaring oscillations and corroded melodic patterns. Oversized packaging.“ [Punch Rec.]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Teologic |
CD-R |
Gerade auf Drone gefeiert, erscheint dieser neuer long-player des russischen Duos in einem großformatigen & dicken Hartgummi-Cover. Enthalten sind 8 Aufnahmen von 2001, die ins dunkle Herz des sphärisch-irrealen vorstoßen.. statisch-minimale drones mit viel Obertönen, z.T. auch sehr tieffrequenter ambient-noise a la MENCHE.
Just after their great release on Drone Records this new longplayer appears in an unbelievable, large hard-gum package. We find here 8 tracks that push us into the dark heart of the spheric-irreal - static minimal drones with many overtunes, also deep-frequent ambient noise. Very well done, maybe their best release yet !!
[Drone Rec. 2003]
|
2003 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Telloram |
CD-R |
Auf TELLORAM operiert St. Petersburgs vielseitigstes Experimental-Projekt noisiger als zuletzt; mit Radiofrequenz-Blubbern und durchdringenden Drones, runtergeslowten Stimmen & Sinuston- Feedbacks, Vibrato-Rauschen & Quietschen in allen Varianten walzt sich der 'Telloram' durch dick & massiv scheinenden Äther...
Die CDR ist verpackt in einem fetten silberfarbenen Schaumstoff-Cover, der Trip dauert 50 Minuten.
"New album from the most blazing Russian ambient project. Dehumanized technogenic desolate space noise-ambient with high concentration of radionoise. Your ticket beyond the bounds of galaxy. 156 copies in handmade package from polypheme." [press-release]
www.operatorprod.narod.ru
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| BARDOSENETICCUBE & VRESNIT & KSHATRIY |
Creation |
CD |
"A new CD release is presented on the Vetvei label. It is a split of three already well-known projects: Bardoseneticcube (St.-Petersburg), Vresnit (Yaroslavl) and Kshatriy (Vsevolozhsk). Being active and variously cooperating in studios and at concerts, the authors have got a vision of joint release: this split is inspired by a condition of direct experience, transformation, sensation of a new life arrival, display and realization of nature, creativity comprehension as a natural form of being. Some tracks from each project are presented on the disk as a seven acts of creation. BARDOSENETICCUBE: Igor Potsukajlo together with Alla Ryzhenkovoj (traditional Russian vocal) and Edward Dragunov (overtone singing) have presented light Ambient with colorific electronic patterns. Songs "Za verhom" and "Golymba", opening this disk, brightly show a female, mother nature. Further the space reveals as an active man nature. VRESNIT: As a initiator of the release concept, Ilchuk Sergey has presented multilayered psychedelic Drone Ambient with a plentiful use of the field and found records, guitar and cassete drones, analog electronics. "Time is Art "," Anahata "," Creation "... two of this tracks are written down together with a spiritually close project Kshatriy. Becoming even more professional mastering engineer with each his work, Sergey Uak-Kib (KSHATRIY) in the traditional key has presented two powerful space Drone Ambient tracks, " Well of Soul " and " Intention ", showing in music an author’s experience of beauty, harmony and a resonance. A unification of the interweaving beginnings in the solemn act of the world creation. A new act of the initiating resonance and contemplation of the universal art and boundless self-similarity with open hearts. Mastering - Kshatriy. Design presented by six-panel full-colored envelope and card Vresnit & Vevei Art." [label info]
www.vetvei.ohms.ru
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| BASINSKI, WILLIAM |
Vivian & Ondine |
CD |
"In May of 2008 I was in my studio in NY preparing for a concert at Issue Project Room. I realized I had been touring for a year and was still touring the same piece I had performed there the year before. I was interrupted by a call from my youngest brother, Patrick. As we chatted, he told me that his wife, Andrea was overdue with their daughter, Vivian. I replied in sympathy that 'Vivian' was a movie-star name and that I imagined with a name like that, she would have people waiting on her for her entire life. I got back to work and found yet another lunchbox of ancient tape-loops to go through for possible inclusion in the new piece. I came across the main theme and thought... well, this is gorgeous; let's see if we can use this to coax Viv to come out. I went through the rest of them and found another dozen or so that mixed well used randomly, just under the threshold. The next night I performed the piece at Issue with their 16 channel hemispherical speaker system set to move the sounds randomly around the room as if waves in a pool. We all had a really good time. It was mesmerizing. The next day I got word that Vivian had been born and my cousin, Terence's first granddaughter, Ondine had been born as well. I couldn't think of a more beautiful title for this piece than to name it after these two beautiful girls. This version was recorded with microphones and two Norelco tape decks live in my studio in Los Angeles in one take in September 2008. A version of this piece was commissioned by Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio of Los Angeles for her extraordinary project, Strawberry Flag, at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles. It has been an honor to be a part of this wonderful project." [William Basinski]
www.mmlxii.com
"By now, if you're a regular reader of the aQ list, you no doubt know all about William Basinski, and the Disintegration Loops that introduced us to his music. And if you're anything like us, you were immediately smitten by his gorgeous slowly decaying dronescapes. The power of a simple loop, played over and over, in various states of decay, hearing the sounds literally crumble before your very ears, like getting a glimpse inside music, behind the notes, within the chords, observing the magnetic particles as they drop like flakes of soot after a fire, music transformed into inert object, and the glorious sound of that transition, from light to dark, life to death, sound to silence.
Basinski's music is rife with meaning, representational for sure, but can easily be appreciated from a purely sonic standpoint, the sounds, his loops, are blurred and indistinct and so lovely, washed out, hazy, sepia toned, they sound like they were snatched from another time, lifted from an audial scrapbook, the sounds curled up at the edges, lightly blackened, the images contained within smeared and unclear, beneath a patina of age, the chemicals reacting over time, changing the color, the texture, the emotion even, of each of those sounds.
Vivian & Ondine is a more recent work, but sounds like it could have come from the same treasure trove that produced the Disintegration Loops, dreamlike and otherworldly, hushed, intimate, and so beautiful." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
The Disintegration Loops IV |
CD |
"Teil IV der hypnotischen alten tape-loops, die in endlos-symphonischer Wiederholung wie nostalgische Erinnerungen an vergangene Zeiten wirken.. sehr ruhig & meditativ." [Drone Rec.]
“..And somehow, that personal grief comes through in these reworked 20 year old recordings. Basinski had discovered a handful of old tape loops that were oxidizing and essentially disintegrating, and transferred them digitally, capturing the strangely decaying melodies, making for an expansive suite (almost three hundred minutes) of haunting otherworldy looping drones. Muzak like melodies crumble into barely melodic throbbing pulses, swathed in reverb, allowing the already obscured snatches of music, to fade into wispy smears of sound. So beautiful.” [Aquarius Records]
"For those who missed out on the now-legendary, highly sought-after (and highly sold-out) box sets, we are now offering the four volumes of The Disintegration Loops suite as separate, individually packaged albums. The audio was remastered in 2012 from the original master tapes, and the artwork is packaged in deluxe old-style tip-on gatefold jackets. For a collection of music built around the poignant inevitability of decay, there has been a great many hopeful and inspired words devoted to William Basinski's The Disintegration Loops: stunning, ethereal, majestic, transfixing, life-affirming… and for good reason. From its 20-year gestation period to its infamously fateful completion, The Disintegration Loops is one of the most powerful manifestations of the inevitable cycle of life ever committed to tape, even as it documents the inevitable decay of all that is committed to tape. The very passage of time is its most effective instrument. Not only lauded by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Pitchfork, NPR and dozens more, The Disintegration Loops have become considered by many to be “one of the most pre-eminent American artistic statements of the 21st Century.” [press release]
https://williambasinski.bandcamp.com/album/the-disintegration-loops-iv
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| BASINSKI, WILLIAM / ANDREAS MARTIN / CHRISTOPH HEEMANN |
Cloes |
do-7inch |
Auf Single 1 nebulöse Drones von BASINSKI, und eines der schönen, glasklaren Akustik-Gitarren-Stücke von MARTIN, auf Single 2 werden beide Stücke von HEEMANN in gekonnter Art und Weise remixed. Auf schmuckem klaren Vinyl, mit durchsichtigem, bedrucktem Beiblatt, lim. 400 copies.
“ the occasion of the January 25th, 2003 concert appearances in Austin, Texas at Ceremony Hall. Includes an amazing new recording for solo guitar by Andreas Martin along with an early composition for tape and electronics by William Basinski. Three sides feature remixes by Christoph Heemann. Both records pressed on clear vinyl with full color labels. Includes a clear acetate insert all packaged in a transparent sleeve. An edition of 400 copies." - label description.
|
2003 |
€16.50 |
|
| BASS COMMUNION |
The Itself of Itself |
CD |
Steven Wilson is no stranger to composing music that appears to counter everything else before it in his catalogue. Bass Communion, his long running solo electronic project, is no exception to this perverse streak that apparently likes to turn all expectations upside down. The Itself of Itself, Bass Communion’s first album for 12 years, skillfully pays testament to this.
Long established as a purveyor of mostly atmospheric or ambient textures, the seven cuts that represent The Itself of Itself take detours from this approach in order draw as much from musique concrete, noise music, abstract electronics and uneasy listening. Whilst still rippled with the same shades of light and dark that can be found throughout all of Bass Communion’s work, The Itself of Itself reveals a fascination with analogue sounds and, more importantly perhaps, ‘unwanted’ analogue artefacts like tape hiss, wow and flutter, static noise, and sonic break-up, taking the music into a space at once different yet familiar. ‘Apparition 3’ presents a stark nod to Wilson's established command of shifting textures steeped in penumbral gauze, while ‘Bruise’ is akin to a space probe adrift and headed towards a white dwarf as all communication is reduced to a disturbing and indecipherable crackle.
Between the other five cuts we witness fragmented, garbled and buried voices, vast vacillating banks of grainy hum, what sounds like the dying gasps of an oboe, spooky swirls from an indiscernible source, swathes of tape hiss, moody drones, and spiralling slivers of noise. Meanwhile on the title track, a mellotron flute rusts and collapses in on itself in a way that renders it the very antithesis of the one deployed on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.
Everything adds up to a dynamic listening experience where unease, dread and comparatively claustrophobic torrents of sound make (un)natural bedfellows to moments of enchantment and serenity.
Above all, The Itself of Itself sees Steven Wilson cutting his teeth on an album that’s at once cinematic and moody whilst proving him to be a master in electronic music craftsmanship. It’s an album that might surprise some of those who have thus far been paying attention to his work as Bass Communion, but setting out to please everyone was never part of his raison ‘etre. 'The Itself of Itself' catches Bass Communion spreading its weatherbeaten wings to embrace new strategies and a strong desire to journey elsewhere.
Arriving in a wonderful Carl Glover designed cover also comprising a 24pp. booklet of his photographs and an obi strip, The Itself of Itself arrives in late May 2024 on Lumberton Trading Company as a CD pressed in an initial run of 1000 copies.
NOTE: An exclusive new Bass Communion track also appears on the When Worlds Collide 2LP compilation also due in May and available to pre-order in the shop (see link below). Other artists on this limited edition 2LP include Alternative TV, Final, Sion Orgon, Edward Ka-Spel, Splintered, Kleistwahr, Ashtray Navigations and more.
THE ITSELF OF ITSELF TRACKLIST
1. Unperson 10:34
2. Apparition 3 6:04
3. Bruise 13:19
4. Blackmail 7:24
5. The Itself of Itself 10:24
6. Study for Tape Hiss and Other Audio Artefacts 11.58
7. Apparition 5 02:46
"...This new album has some interesting changes. On one hand, there are sounds of vinyl and tape hiss, heavily processed yet to be recognised as such, and there is the addition of real instruments, such as a mellotron (well, maybe not 'real', but a distinctly different kind of instrument than you'll find on your usual dark ambient record. Also, there are some shimmering chords played on a keyboard (in 'Apparition 3', for instance), crippled voices in the very creepy title track, along with more mellotron (I think). Using tape hiss in 'Tape Hiss Study'
is quite a daring and risky movement. One could all too easily think, 'tape hiss, that we've heard enough of by now', but Bass Communion gives it an elegant twirl and creates an excellent collage, using various stages of the process. Throughout these seven pieces, there is quite a bit of variation so that there is no repeating of stale ideas of worn-out dark ambient. In 'Blackmail', Wilson ventures out to noise music and is more Merzbow (around 1990) than anything you would label as ambient music. Quite the accomplishment!" [FdW / Vital Weekly}
|
2024 |
€14.00 |
|
| BATES, MARTYN |
Mystery Seas (Letters written # 2) |
CD |
Re-Release dieses Albums von 1995 (Ambivalent Scale 018), nach dem sich das Brüsseler Unterwasser-Ambient CD-R Label MYSTERY SEAS von Daniel Crokaert benannt hat! MYSTERY SEAS enthält 15 Stücke mit wallenden E-Orgel-Polyphonien & Drones, einsamen Melodika-Melodien, alles handgespielt und authentisch, und Martyns intim naher & hochexpressiver Stimme.....alles angetrieben von grosser, den Himmel anrufender SEHNSUCHT, die einen die Tränen in die Augen treibt....
“How can one describe in words such emotional cascades as ’Mystery Seas’. Once again without fail Martyn Bates creates flawless mirages and barren landscapes of explicit consciousness. Riddled throughout with the sort of incoherence and fragility which made Eyeless In Gaza such an immense encounter, at times the guy could be reciting his shopping list for all we know, or care really, for the magic conjured up by a single gasp expresses a magnitude of explanations. This is stark and lonely, yet warm and touching collection of songs drifts over your nerve ends and gently massages your soul. Truly enchanting, beautiful.“ [Music from the Empty Quarter ]
“Martyn Bates’ (ex-Eyeless in Gaza) long announced re-release of his most beautiful album is entering now its final production stage, and Shayo is proud to announce its release date for early January! A second life for this poetic album coming now as a digipack with a brand new layout and booklet. Shayo and Martyn Bates are planning to re-issue "Mystery Seas" twin album "Imagination feels like poison" during the year 2006.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| BC [BRIAN CONNIFFE] |
The Day and the Night of the Body |
CD |
New two track album from Ireland's Brian Conniffe, previously known for his work with Nurse With Wound and a MLP released on LTCo at the very end of 2013. One of these lengthy pieces features the late Simon Morris (Ceramic Hobs) providing spoken word he wrote exclusively for it. The CD also arrives in Dolorosa De la Cruz artwork and includes a 4pp. booklet.
Brian Conniffe is a cross-genre musician who has worked with a long list of collaborators covering a diverse stylistic range. Although perhaps most active as a member of a variety of synth-pop acts in his native Ireland, his most interesting work is that of far less conventional - deliberately uncommerical and even intentionally esoteric - experimental projects, characterised by a fusion of the darkest psychedelia with disquieting ambience. The most noteworthy of these possibly being the limited edition collaboration of Nurse With Wound’s 'Musique Pour Faits Divers' (2016).
This album was recorded from 2007 to 2009, and consists of two expansive pieces, which - as the title suggests - are characterised respectively by bright and nocturnal atmospheres, and retain an intense physicality undiminished by the occasionally abstract nature of the wide-ranging sound pallet utilised. The first piece is symphonic tapestry of colourful noise and alien-sounding drones, constantly shifting and avoiding monotony, reminiscent in places of the work of Labradford, The Hafler Trio, John Duncan, and Aube at their best. The second piece is altogether darker and more defiant of description and comparison, based around a long text written and spoken by the late Simon Morris (author and frontman of the Ceramic Hobs), which moves from its surreal yet possibly familiar beginning into an astonishingly breathless and tumultuous confessional, a true voice of the lost. The disquieting use of samples provided by Morris provides an intense sense of the uncanny.
Brian Conniffe says of the album's collaboration, "I got into contact with Simon Morris through collecting the most obscure music from the fringes of industrial music. We quickly developed a regular correspondence, exchanging cassettes, CDs and records of rare music, eventually meeting in person. He was a naturally entertaining writer, as the readers of his books will know. These and the very strange music his band produced also offered an often astonishing and sometimes shocking insight into the life of the mental health service user: a perspective which, combined with that of this highly active participant in the most extreme forms of underground music, to create a truly unique voice.
"At the time this album was recorded, I spent almost all of whatever free time I had creating very experimental and mostly improvised music, working with anyone around me who would participate. There was essentially no commercial aspect to what was being created, I was simply making music for myself, that I personally wanted to hear. At one point, Simon recorded his spoken vocals for me, and contributed them along with a handful of mysterious samples. And so, this album was created. It remained unreleased as shortly after its recording, I began to work with bands who were producing more conventional music, who were very active live and had established audiences in my native Ireland. Now, for a number of reasons, it feels like the right time for this to be heard."
https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/product/bc-featuring-simon-morris-the-day-and-the-night-of-the-body-cd-lumberton-trading-company |
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| BEARS |
I was a good Hunter until that Day |
MC |
"The new noise/ambient/field recording/drone and electro-acoustic tape-label "Voluntary Whores" presents its first C60-cassette "bears." coming in a heavy limitation of 40 copies. The artwork consists of a big sized photo, a big inlay card and a "surprisingly authentic gimmick".
No re-release ever! The journey leads us to a strange place where a legend about missing adventurers reveals traces of aggressive bears, not from this world. A tape full of Heavy noise, strange conversations, live footage, deep drones and soundtrack-ish ambient for dark nights and bad dreams." [label info]
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| BEAUCHAMP, PAUL |
Needs Must when the Devil drives |
CD |
After the critically acclaimed "Pondfire" (Boring Machines, 2015) and "Grey Mornings" (Boring Machines, 2017), Paul Beauchamp has taken a new direction with his third album, "Needs Must When the Devil Drives". With this work, a single track lasting a little over half an hour comprising several movements, Beauchamp has moved away from the use of acoustic instruments as sound sources and has instead followed the mantra of Brian Eno of "the recording studio is an instrument in itself". Included in this new direction of using solely synthesized and sampled sounds sources, Beauchamp has also begun to explore new territory by using elementary beats and percussion while still remaining connected to his minimal roots through his dedication to drones and ambient. "Needs Must When the Devil Drives" marks a turning point in Beauchamp's solo career as a natural evolution in his unique approach to research and sound design as a creative tool.
store.silentes.it/catalogue/standa2135.htm
"Needs Must When the Devil Drives: Drittes Soloalbum von Paul Beauchamp
Paul Beauchamp, der neben seiner Arbeit mit Combos wie Blind Cave Salamander und Almaghest! bereits zwei Alben im Alleingang produziert und über Boring Machines heraus gebracht hatte, veröffentlicht in Kürze seinen dritten Longplayer “Needs Must When the Devil Drives”. Das aus einem rund halbstündigen Track bestehende Album teilt mit seinen Vorgängern die ambiente Soundscape-Struktur. Neu ist Beauchamps momentane Abkehr von teilweise akustischen Klangquellen und seine Konzentration auf Elektronik. Ein weiteres Novum ist der Einbezug rhythmischer Elemente. Beauchamp, dessen Name entgegen der verbreiteten Gewohnheit nicht in der französischen Phonetik ausgesprochen wird, stammt aus dem Südosten der USA und zog vor Jahren nach Turin, wo er schnell Kontakte zur rührigen lokalen Musikszene knüpfte. Mittlerweile zählt er zu den renommiertesten Vertretern elektroakustischer Musik. Das Album erscheint auf zweihundert CDs bei Bare Teeth Records und Standa, dem Zwilling von Silentes Distribution." [African Paper]
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| BECUZZI, GIANLUCA |
Nothing is what it seems |
CD |
"Almost 70 minutes of music, nine pieces of a sonic mosaic full of ideas and inventions? More structured compositions places side by side with more abstract numbers, built with a wide range of sounds, extremely variegated both in timbre and origin. Elaborated electronic treatments applied to sounds and noises of a concrete nature, field-recordings, drones, electronic hisses, shaked metals, cracklings, human and animal guttural cries, synthetic pads, ethereal and undecipherable voices, mechanical loops, noises from the everyday life? An incredibile and unpredictable sound universe without borders and without time..." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"Gianluca Becuzzi already established himself as the man behind Kinetix, before leaving that name behind and started again under his own name. Its not easy to note the differences between the two projects. Maybe the name change was just to establish himself as a more serious composer, without wanting to change his music very much. A lot of what Becuzzi does is from the world of computers, electronics and, perhaps, analogue synthesizers, along with a bit of field recordings and electro-acoustics. If a change took place then its most likely in that his recent work is less cold and clinical, perhaps also less calculated and more musical, explanatory in a way. If we take the title in mind, are we then sure about those train sounds in 'Portraits Of Indifference'? Maybe its not? That might be more or less the narrative aspect of this release - nothing is what it seems and somehow it might be that this is explained track by track (a leftover from the more conceptual days?): to have a few sounds which may transport the listener to a particular setting which he can relate to (actually train stations is the one I was thinking of in various pieces, but also the zoo), but you never know if it is really sounds from trains (or any such like, whatever the listener imagines, I guess). Becuzzi cleverly processed his sounds to sound like something which may or may not be related. Quite drone like obviously, and the effect of a drum machine in 'In A Filthy Nursery' may destroy that (and also seems a bit out of place, I think), but through this is quite an interesting release of imaginary soundtracks for the ears." [Vital Weekly] |
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
(B)Haunted |
CD |
"Following his collaborations with Fabio Orsi and Luigi Turra published in 2012-2013, it’s time for another Gianluca Becuzzi solo album on Silentes. This electronic / electro-acoustic composer and sound-artist boast an enviable curriculum: active since the first half of the ‘80s as founder of the historic Darkwave / Industrial project Limbo, since 1999 his artistic production is characterized by a strong experimental imprint and by a clear tendency toward abstract aesthetic forms and micro/macro noises/sounds. Among his other recent artistic production - in addition to what he has published under his own name - we should at least remember his projects Kinetix, Noise Trade Company and Grey History, and his many collaborations in duo with the already mentioned Fabio Orsi. “(B)Haunted” collects materials recorded in 2010-2011 that were previously released on cassette/CD-R in two extremely limited editions, entitled “Haunted” and “B”, respectively by Cérebro Morto in Portugal and Silentes Tapestry in Italy. Although composed for two different projects, the eight numbers on the album show some cohesiveness as the listener is treated with a tracklist that cleverly interchanges the tracks from both of them instead than offering the two complete works separately. Most of the music on “(B)Haunted” has an Industrial feel and seems to originate from live sessions that were enriched with electronic sounds and treatments at a later date. During the listening we confront ourselves with various sounds of a metallic nature and indistinct percussions, found sounds and gear, mechanisms and bells, scraped material and drones. Everything contributes to the creation of a soundscape that is always fascinating and arouse a lot of curiosity and attention on the evolution and direction that the music will take. Coming in a beautiful black’n’white artwork that aptly describes the industriousness of the author and the continuous musical metamorphosis herein contained, this is a very interesting album that will please fans of the old Industrial school and those devoted to sound-art and experimentation." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"Of an entirely different nature is the release by Gianluca Becuzzi, which is surely longer, seventy-three minutes and basically a re-issue of a 'Haunted', a cassette/CD on Cerebro Morto and 'B', a cassette on Silentes Tapestry. The latter was reviewed in Vital Weekly 789: "Gianluca Becuzzi has had various releases of his own and usually in a more ambient/drone/microsound field. Its good to see him move away from that, with a somewhat more experimental release. Lots of this seems to be revolving around elements from the world of percussion on steel, which reminded me of some of Z'EVs earlier records, in which he used both studio techniques and percussion. This too is a somewhat more noise based release, or at least less ambient and more experimental, but Becuzzi knows how to capture both a fine mood as well as some captivating sounds, and mould that into a fine composition." The four pieces from 'Haunted' are tracks 1, 3, 6 and 8, whereas 'B' is 2, 4, 5 and 7, which I thought was a
bit odd (but it has to do with the times of these pieces, which now act as a mirror to each other). Not that this 'wrong' sequence messes up the release, perhaps it even makes it more varied. 'Haunted', which I didn't hear before, also seems to be using an amount of steel percussion/plates as well as electronics of some kind. It's all sturdy experimental music here, serious, dark, moody, and even noisy at times, but it's never over the top loud and abstract. Maybe a bit long but as far as I can judge these two older releases certainly belong together and as such work very well on one CD." [FdW / Vital WEekly] |
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| BECUZZI, GIANLUCA & FABIO ORSI |
Muddy speaking Ghosts through my machines |
CD |
Zweite VÖ dieses Jahr für das italienische Duo, experimentelle electronica-ambience die mit Blues & Folk-Versatzstücken sowie field recordings angereichert ist, was zu erstaunlich stimmigen Ergebnissen führt.
"Muddy Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines' is the brand new album released together by Fabio Orsi and Gianluca Becuzzi. This album will be certainly followed by other cooperations, considering the big friendly artistic sodality between them. Fabio e Gianluca are a strange duo, considering the big differences of their artistic back-ground. Fabio Orsi is a young and unexpected talent. After his first album, "Osci" (LP, SmallVoices 2005), produced by Gianluca Becuzzi, he got a lot of positive feedbacks, worldwide, by the most important international media, confirmed by his second official release "For Alan Lomax" (CD, A Silent Place 2006) splitted with cosmical Italian duo My Cat is an Alien. Gianluca Becuzzi is a very well known character of the Italian experimental scene since from the 80s, under many different alias. Recently known as Kinetix, Gianluca latest release is the very well appreciated "Memory Makes Noise" (CD, SmallVoices 2006) a great electroacoustic pearl. The unexpected uncounter between different forces, experiences and visions of this two artists is prefectly melted in this album: strong and tied, an imaginary place where folkway and research, past and present, distance and closeness, mud and clouds, ghosts and machines meets. Shreds of ballads, guitars and old keyboards floating on the vibrant surface of this faery river and disappear, towed off by drones and rumors, pouring between distant voices and centenary blues songs from the Alan Lomax archive. Raptur and sweet lostness: this is the main sensation. It could be listed as Avant-Folk, or Experimental-Blues, Ambient- Roots or contemporary aesthetics and aching nostalgia..." [label press release]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Soundpostcards |
CD |
Das Cover dieser CD sieht wirklich wie eine "Klangpostkarte" aus, mit verschiedenen atmosphärischen Klangfeldern der Natur darauf. Das melancholische Duo entwirft auf 11 Stücken äusserst fragile, nostalgische, minimal instrumentierte Soundlandschaften, meist auf analogen Synth/Keyboard basierend, aber auch mit sanften field recordings durchsetzt. "Soundpostcards" ist ihre erste Zusammenarbeit von 2004 & 2005, die bisher nur als MP3 erschien...
"Sound Postcards is a sound representation of determinated time-space, of its moods and atmospheres, it's a sort of soundpostcard in which the artists portray a familiar and hypothetical landscape. The listener is induced to ''identify'' the represented subjects through interpretative processes which directly compare sound suggestions with subjective/collective imagination. A semanthic game of mirrors reflecting forms in perpetual transition between auditive dimension and symbolic/mnemonic one. "Soundpostcards" is the first collaboration of this two artist, originally releasesd (2004) in two different mp3 work, now reissue for the first time in CD after a been REWORKED and added with an unreleased track. The Sounds is really inmost and peacefully melancholy. Lost and naked melodies (some times near to the feeling of the most dilatated post rock other time much more near to the aesthetics sounds of the avant folk music) on a soft background of field recordings and drones.] *** Since 2004 the italian compositors Gianluca Becuzzi and Fabio Orsi are a strong and stable duo. Gianluca Becuzzi is a very well known character of the Italian experimental scene since the '80s, under many different alias. Fabio Orsi is a young and unexpected talent. After his first album, "Osci", produced by Gianluca Becuzzi, he got a lot of positive feedbacks, worldwide, by the most important international media. The unexpected uncounter between different forces, experiences and visions of this two artists is prefectly melted in their intense and fascinating productions made of guitars, old keyboards, field recordings and sound objects. Compositions where everything plays with big emotions: visionary soundscapes, deep drones and sudden noises." [label info]
www.centreofwood.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| BEEQUEEN |
Aughton |
LP |
“The queen of all honeys nourishes its hive with a sweet sustenance of archival sweetness. Aughton represents a cadre of organic drone/concrete pieces. Softly cavernous and compact compositions that occasionally become musical by suggestion only. It's a bit like being underwater while someone is playing loud church music out a car window as a train screeches by. It's that fugue state induced by the ever more apparent overtones of a nearby engine. It is quiet and disquieting. The several pieces together add up to something of a subtonal symphony, though the parts are quite distinct. A great, steely and dark space-out, whose horse runs happily astride 80's Zoviet France or in some respects, Harry Bertoia." [press release]
www.blrrecords.com
"This new LP on Beta-Lactam makes an interesting companion piece to Beequeen's recent Important Records album. Where The Bodyshop was a milestone for the work of Freek Kinkelaar and Frans de Waard with its unexpected emphasis on melody, structure and songcraft, Aughton—The Patient Books is much more familiar Beequeen territory—organic drones, submerged loops and moody atmospherics. This seemed like an unexpected return to form until I checked the liner notes and discovered that these pieces were, in fact, recorded from 1993 to 1995. To anyone familiar with the work of the duo from this period, the sounds on this LP will be very familiar. Beequeen have always been extraordinarily good at creating dusty, low-fidelity machine drones that have a grainy, organic resonance in which one can hear all manner of buried and obscured melodies. Their textures have a distinctly antiquated feel to them, like the penetrating buzz of a sodium streetlamp on an Amsterdam street corner in the late-1800s. On many of these pieces, Freek and Frans take advantage of the substance of tape itself, building pieces from the rhythms produced by a slowly queuing cassette tape, or using the fundamental technical limitations of magnetic tape to intensify the lived-in, archival feel of much of this material. Even the name of the album conjured images of a long-neglected psychiatric hospital archive, full of disintegrating reel-to-reel tapes of long-forgotten significance. "I'm Searching For Field Character" is the perfect soundtrack to an Orwellian Room 101: a distorted voice with the weighty tone of a Soviet social engineer reads aloud a block of text meant to reprogram us with revolutionary propaganda. All the while the clock ticks loudly and distant air raid sirens blare. It has the effect of a frightening Cold War radio drama pulled into near-total abstraction. With interest I've tuned into the current wave of heavily hyped New Weird American drone artists like Double Leopards and Dredd Foole, but this brief LP by Beequeen comprised of material more than a decade old seems fresher and more adventurous by far. Beequeen are careful not to stray too far from theme, mood and substance, so their work is always enriched by the myriad symbolic associations that each listener brings to the experience. The same cannot be said of the aforementioned artists, who often prefer to just play the same tone as loud as they can for over an hour, as if endurance alone could prove the merit of their work. Aughton is a refreshing antidote to this kind of amateurish noodling, and I highly recommend it to any who have found themselves disappointed by this sort of thing in the past." [Jonathan Dean / Brainwashed]
|
2004 |
€17.00 |
|
|
Music for the head ballet |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung dieser vergriffenen BEE QUEEN CD von 1996, die vier sehr ruhig schwingende Drones enthält.. (ein zuvor nicht enthaltener Bonustrack!)
" Die Musik greift in das Environment ein, formt es um und verändert die Sichtweise des Hörers auf so subtile Weise, daß die Veränderungen erst Stunden später erkennbar werden." [Zipo, Auf Abwegen # 20]. Die neue BEE QUEEN - CD ist im Gegensatz zum Vorgänger wesentlich ruhiger, meditativer und monotoner und enthält 3 lange Atmo-Tracks. Sehr schön!“ [Drone Records info 1997]
„Always a lonesome recording with it's distant organ drones quietly amassed, Music for the Head Ballet was first bestowed upon us in 1996. The now defunct Isomorphic records had the privilege of issuing these 3 pieces of lulling resonating ambience. Music for the Head Ballet has had an elusive history. There is little information about the music listed anywhere. The reviews are scarce, and those few that do make a mention are consistent in their praise of this alluring work. The original 936 numbered copies seem to be carefully tucked away on coveted shelves as it is rarely seen making an appearance in any market platform. Even the names of the tracks support it's ambiguous nature ("Days that never were", "White feathers on a dish,used to erect the pyramids" and "These foolish things"). Now after so many years of myth making, this gorgeous work has been made available again by Infraction. This reissue features new artwork as well as a previously unreleased 13 minute additional track from the original sessions. It is quite possibly the most blissful track Beequeen have committed to disc. Buy it now and hold your peace forever. Edition of 500.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Bodyshop |
CD |
Was sich zuletzt schon abzeichnete, wird auf THE BODYSHOP weiter verfeinert: experimentelle (Drone)-Sounds liegen eher im Hintergrund bzw. vermischen sich mit handgespielten Stücken,
kreiert mit gezupften E-Gitarren, Synths & Orgel / Harmonium –Sounds., zarten Gastnymphengesang, leichter Percussion: eine leicht melancholische, aber luftig-leichte Psych/Folk – Stimmung entsteht dabei, die aber durch die Drones & Effekte eine besondere Färbung bekommt....
"It took Frans de Waard and Freek Kinkelaar two years to complete the recordings for The Bodyshop, the successor to their much-acclaimed CD Ownliness from 2002. The Bodyshop continues where Ownliness left off. Ownliness marked a distinct break with Beequeen's past. The ambient-industrial drone music of yesteryear was said goodbye and the Beequeen's love of pop music returned. The instruments changed from organs, synthesizers and sound effects to guitars, drums, bass and guest musicians on cello and even vocals (a distinctive first for Beequeen). The Bodyshop features two of these remarkable vocals tracks; a cover of Nick Drake's 'Black Eyed Dog' (sung by Antenne's Marie-Louise Munck) and the indeed very sad track 'Sad Sheep'. Although Beequeen never cites influences, it's easy spot their interest in the Beatles' psychedelic period and latter day Talk Talk in combination with a love for krautrock and microsound -- not the most likely of combinations, but somehow it all makes sense on The Bodyshop." [press release]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| BEGG, MICHAEL |
Titan : A Crane is a Bridge |
CD |
TITAN - WINNER of the New Music Scotland 2018 Award for New Electroacoustic / Sound Art Work.
This original commission, for Cryptic Glasgow, premiered at the Sonica '17 Festival in Glasgow.
Begg’s extraordinary electronic sound installation... with huge, swelling harmonies, occasionally building to moments of ecstatic beauty... its slow-burn, cumulative effect is one of uncompromising power and inevitable decay, both a celebration of enduring strength and a memorial to its demise
The Scotsman
Begg’s installation is perhaps the standout at Glasgow’s Sonica… The wheelhouse becomes the humming dark heart of the crane as Begg’s electronic enfolding and eroding of the raw sonic materials sets a rich and taut piece in perpetual motion… turning the iconic structure into a gently haunted compound of wind and noise.
The Wire
With Michael Begg’s instrumentation, the Titan Crane feels like a living creature. One that tells us an important story.. if only we listen.
Ambient Blog
Michael Begg makes architecture sing like no one before him.
Stephen Fruitman, Igloo
https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/titan-a-crane-is-a-bridge
"For TITAN: A Crane is a Bridge, sound artist Michael Begg enlists the gigantic, titular Titan crane of Clydebank in Scotland both as a performance space and as an instrument. In the windy, beefy lattice frames and oily joints of the towering device, Begg teases out all sorts of metallic resonances and ironclad drones. Over these, he layers his own gentle instrumental additions - to great effect. At times, it resembles ‘dark ambient’ music. Only actually good. A Sonica Festival 2017 commission, the work is available on CD through Omnempathy in a glossy Japanese digipak." [Norman Rec.]
"By now there is quite a bunch of Michael Begg releases, twelve it seems, under his own name and as Human Creed and also from the group he’s a member of, Fovea Hex. A busy man, but he also finds time to create audio-visual installations and one of those was in the wheelhouse on to the Clydebank Titan, as part of the 2017 Sonic-a festival. That was quadrophonic, reduced to stereo (obviously) for the CD release. The music is made from field recordings in the area, as well as Aeolian harps Begg build over the years. The wind around the wheelhouse playing those harps is also at the foundation of the music. All of this is very ambient and as such it may seem odd (or at least I thought so) that the eight pieces are not very long; from a mere one-and half minute to six, but around four is the most usual.
It’s good to see someone who believes less is more and not plays out his ideas too much and thus spreading it thin. In all of these pieces there is an endless amount of drone material, but of a lighter nature. Delicate and sparse, rather than full and dense. I had the impression that some of these pieces consisted of just a few sounds, rather than a multitude of sources. Begg’s music may be ambient and quiet, but it is not always very gentle, which is exactly how I love these things. He knows how to add a sharp edge to his sounds, almost as if he’s aware of the hole that he can fall into, the dangerous shady world of new age music. Begg stays safely away from that world with his ringing and singing overtones, like singing wine glasses and loops of obscured field recordings (in ‘It’s All Triangles’ for instance), topped with a fine spice of dark reverb and, as easy as that may sound, that’s all you need for great album by Michael Begg." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
A Moon that Lights Itself |
CD |
During the 1870s, Charles François Daubigny, in the last years of his life, took increasingly to painting nocturnal scenes en plain air from his boat studio, Le Bottin. This was a period in time when the idea of the musical nocturne had progressed from being an indication of what point during the evening a particular piece of music should be played, towards becoming an articulation of the unique atmosphere and emotion occasioned by moonlight.
Elsewhere in France, Edouard-Lean Scott de Martinville conceived and produced the phonautogragh. This device, appearing years before Edison’s phonograph, enabled sound, for the first time, to be captured. Unlike Edison, however, de Martinville neglected - or saw no need - to provide the means to playback the recording. Rather, a visual representation was captured on a lamp black cylinder.
It wasn’t until 2008 when researchers at Berkley University used digital technology to recover the audio. The recording, the first ever made, was of a human voice singing Au Clair De La Lune.
Written and produced by Michael Begg
Mixed and mastered at Captains Quarters, East Lothian
A Moon That Lights Itself was premiered at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh on September 16th 2016, with cello accompaniment from Clea Friend
The work was commissioned by National Galleries Scotland, in conjunction with the major exhibition, Inspiring Impressionism: Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh, and was completed with the generous support of the Hope Scott Trust.
https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/a-moon-that-lights-itself
REVIEW:
"A Moon That Lights Itself was commissioned by the Scottish National Galleries as part of the Inspiring Impressionism exhibition, focussing on the works of Charles François Daubigny, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh. On September 16th 2016, Michael Begg (of Human Greed / Fovea Hex) performed the work, amidst the exhibition space, in the auspicious surroundings of the Royal Scottish Academy situated on the Mound in Edinburgh.
Drawing on the works of French landscape artist Charles François Daubigny, Begg's commission was described as a "work for electronics, strings and moonlight". I must confess that of the three artists featured in the exhibition I wasn't at all familiar with Daubigny. Consider Begg's work with Human Greed where their first release Consolation featured a moonface in Deryk Thomas's artwork on the cover; Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star, the title of a later album which included 'Dalkeith Night' speaks for itself; and even Dirt On Earth featured a blackened nightscape on the cover it's perhaps particularly apt that Begg focusses on Daubigny's later work and specifically the twilight and nocturnal scenes of his later years, from which he painted while ensconced on a studio boat on the Oise. A Moon That Lights Itself is set in the context of mid to late 19th century France, and the cusp of impressionism, modernism, together with the earliest known sound recordings by Edouard-Lean Scott de Martinville and his phonautograph invention.
A Moon That Lights Itself moves from dusk to dawn in the course of its 9 tracks. From tranquil drones overlaid with tumbling piano notes and solemn cello movements the opening track 'Le Crepuscule' moves into drifting drones before 'Moonrise' which like many of the tracks on A Moon That Lights Itself blends location recordings into the compositions. Here water in the form of lapping waves and crashing waves, bird chatter and the quack of ducks - ducks were a recurring motif within Daubigny's impressionist landscapes - are found amidst passages of glistening drone and moments of sombre piano and cello swell. Still and serene, glinting flourishes merge with stirring movements, its lapping waves resembling the tidal pull, and backward spinning electronics. 'Moonlight' bathes in the glow of light glistening sound textures set against deep reverberating rumbles and piercing glassy shrieks. Bells ring out before it moves into quieter echoed atmospherics.
Daubigny often painted from his floating studio on a boat on the River Oise, and 'Le Bottin' aptly illustrates this with watery ripples dappled with tender piano notes and broader sound shudders, flowing into an end section comprising elegiac strings and melancholic synths.
With its rippling metallic sounds, harsher noise elements and sluggish voice recordings 'The Birth Of Modernism' is much more abstract in composition. Those voices, taken from the 1860 phonautograms of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, like modernism are almost blown in on a wind like drone. Scott de Martinville's recordings, sensitively mixed as another layer of sound here, were never intended for playback but recent research managed to transform these into playable sound files, discovering a male voice, probably of Scott de Martinville, singing a partial segment of the French folk song 'Au clair de la lune', which fits nicely here as in English it translates to 'In the Moonlight'. Elsewhere on 'The Birth Of Modernism' voices and bird calls are rendered as electronic squiggles, reflecting the movement away from realism to abstraction, perhaps.
Begg returns to his palette of location sounds on 'Daubigny's Reverie' where lapping water and duck quack augment the shimmering sound spans. The drone filled atmospherics create a sense of melancholy; a captivating dreamspace only broken by the call and sing of birds in flight. Those flying birds could be seen as sound metaphor for the transition from Daubigny's impressionism to a new world of abstract representations, something furthered on 'Between Two Movements' which unfurls to a two pronged approach where undulating drones and glassy shrill frequencies are cast against evocative classical strings. It could even be electronics, Begg has an uncanny ability to sidestep the listener with his use of instrumentation that sound like something else.
'A Last Dance Under The Moon' moves to doleful cello sweeps and forlorn nocturnal electronics, achieving a graceful and mournful presence, largely due to the Clea Friend's cello score. A Moon That Lights Itself closes with the arrival of 'Dawn', a classy ensemble piece of piano score and cello, contrasting sombre cello movements with more optimistic and joyful piano notes, and as the sounds coalesce it seems to herald the new whilst paying homage to the past.
Begg referred to this in a blog for his performance at the Royal Scottish Academy as being a "pochade", a sketch, "for Daubigny, for the moon, and for an extraordinary time in the development of European culture, when our sense of capturing the world around us and within us took extraordinarily bold, though markedly sensitive, steps forward." Recorded immediately after the performance, Begg once again proves himself to be a superlative composer, with a suite of evocative atmospherics using electronics, classical strings and location recordings to evoke the nocturnal workings of Daubigny. A Moon That Lights Itself is bathed in a liminal essence; a quality that defines all his work. From the Human Greed releases Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star, Fortress Longing, World Fair to the Fragile Pitches collaboration with Colin Potter, Michael Begg has been behind a number of great releases. A Moon That Lights Itself now sits alongside those titles as one of his finest solo offerings in a release that is sombre, inventive and utterly captivating." [Compulsion Online] |
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| BEGG, MICHAEL / HUMAN GREED |
Let the cold Stove sing |
CD |
"These recordings comprise work conceived for theatre, gallery and installation contexts. They are concerned with defined and definite spaces, places and absences. These places arise both from nature and through construction. In turn, the construction may be natural or virtual.
They are informed by the great divorce of music and context occasioned by the birth of recording, and by the 20 year fermata occurring after the invention of recording and before the discovery of the means of affecting playback. This was, by definition, the period where we began to conceive of the need to listen repeatedly, in the way an archaeologist brushes repeatedly at the desert, for clues, details, and, possibly, reason." [label info]
www.omnempathy.com
"East Lothian based composer Michael Begg has quietly but steadfastly released (in this listener's humble opinion) some of the finest and most affecting albums of the last decade, such as 2008's dark and yearning 'Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star', 2011's melancholic masterpiece 'Fortress Longing' and 2014's career best 'World Fair'. Along the way many noted and esteemed collaborators have added their voice or presence to proceedings such as Julia Kent (Antony And The Johnsons), David Tibet (Current 93), Chris Connelly (Ministry) and Clodagh Simonds (Mellow Candle, Fovea Hex). Working in the realm of drones, electronica and modern experimental composition to create vast, atmospheric and hugely evocative pieces of sound and melody, Begg has little in the way of contemporaries although aficionados of the windswept work of Richard Skelton, 'On Land'-era Eno, the dark soundscapes of Andrew Lilies and the classic recordings of Reich, Glass and Popol Vuh will find much to fall in love with here. Referencing both, according to Begg, 'gallery, theatre and installation works, as well as my preoccupation with defining space, place and time with sound' this is an essential and crucial work that needs to be heard and experienced.
The album begins with 'Hopetoun Tower Before The Harvest', named after a forbidding and lonely construction that stands defiantly on a hill near Begg's Captain's Quarters recording studio. As befits its namesake, the track rumbles with exposure to some building and growing winds as snakelike electronics creep and wisp into view. A beautiful and tentative string section enters, trembling emotively as bowed strings and bowls resonate. It feels sacred, like a storm has suddenly and dramatically silenced leaving a hushed and perceptible sense of being in the universe. The title track follows, piano and droned strings echoing out into darkness, both tangibly lonely and filled with a gorgeous sadness. There is something deeply existential about this work, one feels small in the face of the space and sounds that evoke the surrounding skies and landscape. 'The Children Will Wet The Academy Floor' adds some truly lovely chamber strings that reverberate and haunt, a spectral symphony of lamentation and grief whilst 'Paris is Closing' is a field recording of chatter and metro sounds that are pleasingly though disturbingly disorientating. Next, 'Pendrachin Wood: Pollen And Frost' is a frozen and glacial layered piece of orchestral electronica, reminiscent of Bowie's Berlin experiments; this literally lifts the hairs of one's arms and neck as it swells and recedes with visions of snow covered pines in the darkening Scottish winter afternoons. Human Greed are no simple drone or electronic act; these are carefully wrought and constructed compositions that evoke and emote in an almost avant classical sense. They are almost unique in working in this field and are creating pieces of heartbreaking genius that this listener implores you to discover and fall in love with; it is criminal that Begg is not more revered outside of the underground as the pioneer and composer that he is.
'Francis Bacon; A Room' is as complex and unsettling as the British artist himself, a corrosive drone and buzz hovering over the mutter of voices whist a sister song 'Louise Bourgeois: A Cell' allows chimes and electronic hums to flutter and slither malevolently throughout. 'Leisure In F' glides majestically into being, epic and choral strings ebbing and flowing until ominous notes and birdsong float into focus; reminiscent of charcoal skies passing by overhead with the threat of snowfall as nature and animal life reacts accordingly this is an incredibly moving and transportive piece. 'Made And Unmade In Europe' rasps and buzzes as a bird's lonesome call cries out against the imperious landscape, an unforgiving wind suddenly giving way to a soprano song and weeping strings in a genuinely breathtaking moment. 'Cunny For Thine Mountain Penne' almost silently emerges on delicate notes and drone sounds, distant percussion and mournful brass reminding this listener of Gorecki's 'Sorrowful Songs'. Stately, graceful and melancholic this regal and funereal piece stays with the listener long after the album has finished playing. Next, 'Intermission For Blisters And Russian Weddings' is driven along on wary and eerie violin bursts, a solar echo resonating and unfurling slowly and perceptibly whilst gentle bass notes hold anchor. This is music to play when the sky is huge, dark and forbidding, to watch the stars blink on and off with cosmic indifference to us watching.
'Studies In Space And Density' is equally massive in scale and suggestion; a cold, sad throb through the universe that becomes increasingly distorted and growling before returning to an icy, repeating refrain of solar wind. A sudden warmth enters with 'Let The Cold Stove Sing Within Reason' as a bass throb and beautiful melody grows and layers over a distant electronic howl and circling strings. Hugely affecting, there is an integral human component at the heart of everything Human Greed or Begg does, this is music about the human condition, about what it is to be in this casually cruel and beautiful universe. 'Whiteadder Water After The Harvest' brings us full circle and close the album with the burble of streams and rivers, metallic and windswept notes sweeping overhead.
I cannot recommend this album highly enough. There is more detail, more arresting and heart-rending moments, more creativity on this album than there is in some other artist's entire oeuvres. One for those lonely, late night listens or for accompaniment of solitary walks and dérives, 'Let The Cold Stove Sing' is a heartbreakingly beautiful and important album, perhaps quite easily already my album of the year. The cold stove is singing, now one must listen." [Grey Malkin/The Active Listener blogspot]
active-listener.blogspot.de/2016/06/michael-begg-human-greed-let-cold-stove.html
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| BELFI, ANDREA & MACHINEFABRIEK |
Pulses & Places |
CD |
"Manche Releases enthalten neben der auralen Qualität auch etwas hübsch haptisches, etwas aus der guten :zoviet-france:-Zeit: ein gediegenes Cover zum fühlen, riechen oder auch mal etwas verquer-komisches mit Kunst- bzw. Antikunstcharakter. BromBron ist das Sublabel von Frans De Waard’s Korm Plastics, eine Serie feiner klanglicher Kostbarkeiten in zwei Sorten Karton eingeschlagen, mit Papierfahne zum Herausziehen und dem Gefühl einer kleinen gezähmten Origamisensation. Machinefabriek und Belfi kommen hier über die bizarre Haptik des Releases hinaus, passend zum geprägten Cover in Form einer alten Landkarte gibt es schnarrige Mikrophonien einsamer Studioklänge, der Stuhl vorm Mischpult darf knarzen und sein kleckeriges Scherflein zum Klang dazugeben, während Belfi Messingschüsseln schrubbt und Zuydervelt alias Machinefabriek seine fein austarierten Klangbeigaben dazurührt. Die vier Titel überspannen sämtliche Zustände im Studio, von gelöster Mikroakribie bis hin zu glacialen Droneschichten, welche so luftig leicht erscheinen, dass es einen fast selbst aus dem Ohrensessel erhebt. Dabei gehen beide Künstler vorsichtig genug um, um dieses lockere Klangsoufflee nicht platzen zu lassen. »Pulses & Places«, Puls und Platz, all das ist ein wahrer Klangbogen voller Kuriositäten, dem Ach!-Gefühl wenn ein wohlvertrauter elektroakustischer Regen aus den Boxen quillt und einem das Gefühl gibt, einfach noch nicht alles gehört zu haben. So muss Musik klingen, die zum Erscheinen der abgedruckten Coverlandkarte noch nicht existiert hat." [Thorsten Soltau, AEMAG]
"Korm Plastics is proud to present the ninth release in the Brombron series. Originally a co-production between Staalplaat and Extrapool, it is now hosted by co-curator Frans de Waard. In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn't have the time or the equipment to realize.
Andrea Belfi (born 1979) is an Italian electro-acoustic musician and composer. He began playing drums at the age of 14, and studied art in Milan, before becoming involved in experimental music in 2000. Belfi is also a member of electronic outfit Medves. In 2002 Belfi began a project titled Between Neck & Stomach, in which he attempted to turn a whole house into a musical instrument, by using sound vibrations to shake various items, such as pots, plates, and cupboards. This project resulted in a CD of the same name, released on the Häpna label in 2006.
Rutger Zuydervelt, better known as Machinefabriek, lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Started as Machinefabriek in 2004, he released 40+ small run home-made cdr's as well as work for Type Records, Lampse, Digitalis, Staalplaat (Mort Aux Vaches) and now 12K. A double remix cd was released in 2007, with interpetations by Alva Noto, Pita, Mitchell Akiyama, Xela, Gert-Jan Prins and many more. Collaborations (live or recording) include Steinbrüchel, Jasper TX, Wouter van Veldhoven, Simon Nabatov, Frans de Waard, Aaron Martin and Peter Broderick.
A striking collaboration took place between Belfi on drums and assorted small percussion and Zuydervelt on guitar and organ. Together they produce the 'pulses' and 'places' mentioned in the title. Organic yet partially improvised, it resembles a kind of sonic geography. The listener is taken away for a journey of mild drones, soft yet outspoken percussion. A strong release. Design by Gerco Hiddink" [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BEX |
Rosegger |
LP |
"Third opus by Berlin-based one-man project Bex. Originally from France, Bex has released two CDs on the French label “Le Dernier Cri” and played a great many concerts throughout Europe since his first live gig back in 2006. “Rosegger” is his first vinyl appearance, his most luminous and most intense work to date. As if emerging through some hermetic transformation from the harshness and anger of the previous albums, “Rosegger” is ablaze with a radiant, almost ecstatic mixture of joy and grief, drenched in light even in its darkest moments. Melodic guitarscapes and distant shoegaze vocals between lament and incantations pour over the listener, filling every pore, vein and cell with a warm, brittle, spellbinding emotion, taking him adrift on luminous waters which progressively darken on side B, finally drowning the incandescence into deep pools of doom drones like a glorious, achingly beautiful sunset." [label info]
www.tutrur.com
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE (B.S.E.) |
Faint |
CD |
"With their new full-length album "Faint" Beyond Sensory Experience are back revisiting ghosts of the past to create memories of the future. Eleven divergent studies of transformation elements result in BSE’s most complete and intriguing album to date; full of liquid dark ambient soundscapes, salient samples and entrancing melodies. Hold your breath and close your eyes, when winter turns to water, day turns to Faint.
Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel digi sleeve with 12 page booklet. 11 Tracks. Running Time 60:00" [label info]
"They didn’t make us wait very long for a “Modern Day Diabolists” follow-up. Along with “Faint”, we have the opportunity once again to move away from the senses under the watchful eye of Drakh and K. Meizter. And because they’re fully fledged professionals, in this case also the trip on the edge of and even beyond the human self turns out to be very fruitful.
Fruitful, but somehow familiar. Our fellow Swedes have defined their specific path for quite a while, they have their own unique style and sound and are sticking to it, leaving the battering down of this already open door to younger and more hot-headed travelers. It’s an experienced project, their aforementioned style is usually recognizable after only a few sounds – “Faint” isn’t at all different. I think even woken up in the middle of the night it would take me maybe a few seconds to pinpoint whose creations are filtering from the speakers.
I never meant what those two nice Swedes do as dark ambient does. Certainly, the genre’s characteristics have always been to a larger or lesser extent present on previous albums, but they were never incorporating a typical, textbook darkness with particular relish. And with each consecutive release its amount becomes lesser and lesser. On “Faint” you practically won’t find the typical background-filling drones. This role is ascribed to either a stretched echo single guitar or piano tones (just listen to “Blank”), or simply silence which operates here on the same basis as the specific sounds, instruments, field recordings or samples. I always appreciated musicians who can play with silence.
As for the album’s atmosphere, I could actually copy-paste here what I wrote about “Modern Day Diabolists”. Ethereal, dreamy parts, mesmerizing in a way, sometimes serene (“Bystanders”), sometimes pulsating with a distant, uncertain threat (such as in my favorite piece, “Legacy”). Sometimes it feels as if the Swedes deliberately want to lull the listener, so that all external protective barriers are down and then hit with horror, war or apocalypse. But it never happens, though you never know what lies beyond the horizon.
Calm down, you can safely turn off for those few minutes. Beyond Sensory Experience doesn’t interfere with the bliss. It only gently wags its finger at us at times, saying that “next time there’s going to be a nightmare” (“Exhausted”), and we don’t have to believe the Swedes anyway. Probably in a year or two they’ll release another album, and again we’ll allow ourselves to be seduced by those ambient spaces, a pinch of post-rock atmosphere. We’ll smoke another cigarette, listening to the yearning, aching samples spoken in different languages… Another successful, very solid release by Beyond Sensory Experience and another – which one is it already – strong position in the Cyclic Law roster." [Stark/Santa Sangre] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI |
Alienation |
CD-R |
5 tracks, professionally printed. Exciting tension-bath, deranged synth sounds, rough drones, pulses, microwaves, this is how ambient industrial should sound today. For a BIANCHI release this is highly chaotic and versatile, raw & dark!
"Estranging sounds complex in five unusual recordings, edited and assembled in an alienor period of two years. Fantastic collaborative work; file under: experimental, concrete music, deep dark noise ambient.Limited to 700 copies only. Format: special professional silver CDr (= same quality and “look” of a CD) in beautiful digi-sleeve package.
Maurizio Bianchi: tapes, radio waves, electronics, samples.
Claudio Rocchetti: dusty analog devices.
Mastered by Valerio Tricoli.
Preface:
A DANGEROUS TERMINAL DRAMA UNDER THE ACTUAL IMPROPER REVENUE OF ALIENATION WASTE, OF SOCIAL-CULTURAL SPHERISTERION, WHEN THE MAIN ELECTRONIC TOPICS IN THE VAN OF SHIFTLESS ACCESSORIES WAS PLANNED AS RESTRICTIVE SCULPTURES. THE VIOLATED ACTIVITIES, GRINDED OF THE EMBRYONIC INGREDIENTS REMAINED BETWEEN EXISTENTIAL INDIVIDUALISM AND TRANSFORMATION OF PARASITES WORTH, VISITING A RECREATIONAL ESTRANGEMENT. THE GRAVITATIONAL PEOPLE REMAIN INTERESTED WITH ELEMENTS OF PICTURED INTERIORS INSIDE A REFINED CRUELTY... THE BEST RESULTS ARE A DETERIORATION OF EDUCATION SYSTEM, THE ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS RETICULATED METROPOLIS, IN FRONT OF THE IMPURE HUMANIZATION OF INNOVATOR PROCESSES. THE PARTICULAR USE OF FANCIFUL CONCRETE-TONES LEAVE YOU WITH A GREAT IMPRESSION OF CHROMATIC CONSISTENCY, FAR AWAY FROM BUREAUCRATIC AND COMMERCIAL MORBIDITY." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & MAOR APPELBAUM |
Mene Teqel Farsin |
CD |
"Storms of cosmic energy, boiling and gurgling electronic fluxes, sonic masses made of monolithic and impenetrable drones, visions of smoky afterdeath landscapes, scorching and infernal… A neverending tunnel with no way out, a sense of deep anguish, of desolation and resigned impotence that lead the dark journey from the beginning to the end of this hallucinatory path. The sound quality and the sharpness of details are absolutely insuperable, they will offer you a “wrapping” and emotionally all-involving listening experience." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO (M.B.) |
Menstruum Regles |
CD |
"This album is decomposition instead of composition. De-structured music instead structured music. Not to complex and articulated technologies for recording, mixing of the parts and mastering; not to one sophisticated production and maniacal and defined participations correct in post-production... This the new "challenge" capacity to the extreme limit from Maurizio Bianchi, a new musical effort, "directed", "raw", immediate, absolutely uncompromising new, to outside of every law and from every pre-constituted rule...
Fragments of music, short fragments of sonorous material of varied extraction, now short, now long, placed in sequence one behind the other, in a "dry" way, following absolutely unforeseeable times and dynamics.
Continuous loops, raw unexpected cuts, noise alternated to musical parts, single sounds, drones, notes of piano, buzzes, soft pads, electric current workers... Two long traces, 75 minutes, a listening experience over any edge and reliable definition. A old work for the first time on CD." [label notes]
www.silentes.net
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Ludium |
CD |
"A long and almost “solemn” track built with reverberated piano notes, a slow and rhythmical flow leaned on a background made of clashing hisses and vague, distant, rustling ambient noises… A brief interval based on obscure drones moving in circles, inexorably entangled on themselves… Therefore another long piano-based track, this time more dilated, confused, ethereal and prim, so much that it takes the distinguishing features of an indecipherable sonic mass, abstract and booming, estranging, deep and psychedelic…A few and minimal elments, “directed” in a masterly fahion and assembled in an absolutely fundamental work, from the brightest mind of Italian experimental scene and of all the music “without compromises” of the last thirty years… One of the last contributes to the History of Music from an artists that, even in a phase of extraordinarily and unstoppable creative mood, has recently choose and officially announced to quit his long artistic activity. Simply essential." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIANCHI, MAURIZIO (M.B.) & CRIA CUERVOS |
Azazel |
CD |
"Three long and “majestic” tracks where Maurizio Bianchi’s typical deep and reverberated sonorities, full of crepuscular melodies and subtle dissonances, get enriched by more electronic elements and fascinating elaborations, sophisticated manipulations and strong dynamic interventions operated by Crìa Cuervos… Three touching compositions built on progressive “crescendos” and a raging of slow sonic stratifications that lead to real “explosions” of sounds, drones, pulsations, frequencies, vibrations… A new, magnificent and very successful collaborative experience." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| BIBLO |
On Ugliness |
LP |
"pop music had been an intensity-thing once, as to follow the legend, but as time passed it just started to quote and copy the erstwhile forms in a void way. the latter has never been exactly accurate, especially regarding the developments in the less noted niches. one example for that is provided by the amalgamations of folk-traditions, vanguard experiments, improvisation and outsider art, as they have boomed in the last years with acts like inca ore, pocahaunted and kuupuu. also in the music of the composer, singer, bass-guitarist and laptop-musician pinar üzeltüzenci aka biblo from istanbul - a sister in mind of all the acts mentioned above - you feel the intensity again and again in an almost painful way when it peeps through the curtain of drones and noise. her lost in reverie vocals leave you irritated and in love. we are proud to present the new biblo-lp "on ugliness" in a limited edition of 200 pieces as the first ever record on quetzi records." (label info)
"No, the ever-prolific Bibio hasn’t snuck out yet another new album as a limited vinyl release on an obscure label. This is actually an LP by a Turkish woman going under the name Biblo, who refers to her music as “ambient thrash”. Not sure what’s so thrash about it (or even what the proper definition of thrash really is), but regardless, this sounds a lot closer to ambient than any type of metal. Not much is provided in the way of liner notes, but it sounds like plenty of static loops, some toy instruments, some found sounds, and some delay-heavy girlish vocals. The dozen tracks on here progress slightly, but it doesn’t feel so much like traveling from one place to another as it feels like standing in the middle of a darkened room and watching things float around you. Even though it’s late at night, your eyes are wide open at all the illuminated objects circling you. In some sense, the “ambient thrash” tag does fit, as this is not ambient to ignore or lay back and fall asleep to, but ambient that’s active and commands attention.
While most of the tracks on this album are miniatures that only last a few minutes, the centerpiece of the album is side 2′s opener “Son Super Tembel”, which begins looping some chopped up ghostly piano, adding some more vinyl-sourced loops until they sound like a skipping record, then adding some more subtle blips, whispery vocals and small-sounding instruments. “Earth” also stands out for coating its drifting vocals in a thick layer of droning distorted guitar feedback; perhaps the song is a tribute to the band Earth. “The Eyeballs Of Truth” ends the album with its thickest layer of hiss and crackle, featuring distant piano and vocals that suggest some of the spectres in The Caretaker’s ballroom stepping up to the mic.
It’s easy to overuse the word “haunting” to describe anything that’s dark yet otherworldly beautiful, but it’s hard to think of the sounds on this album as being created by anything other than possessed beings. As dreamlike as it seems, though, it feels completely real. The whole album is an incredibly moving experience." [Paul Simpson / FOXY DIGITALIS]
www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/?p=17357
|
2011 |
€18.00 |
|
| BIG CITY ORCHESTRA |
Kapellmeister |
CD-R |
HalTapes presents
BIG CITY ORCHESTRA
KAPELLMEISTER
oneiric collage confusion with keyboardisms infiltrated with radio hum and vinyl itch
original cover art by Rafael González
BCO STAFF WAS:
ROB WORTMAN, UNIVAC, NINAH PIXIE, CHERYL LEONARD, DAS
BCO contact:
das at ubuibi dot org
credits
released 20 May 2015
https://halmcgee.bandcamp.com/album/kapellmeister
"Big City Orchestra is a prolific (over 160 releases since 1985) group many would likely recognize as part of the 80s experimental cassette scene. From various readings and conversations with older friends, I gather they were enjoyed as a favorite by many. I get the impression that they have many tricks in their bag, and that is what makes them so impressive and special.
Please enjoy Big City Orchestra’s Discogs bio:
“One of the most idiosyncratic and original groups of the past two decades, BCO is not your standard Orchestra. Situated in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the band has released an enormous catalog of recorded material over the past two decades. Formed in the late 1970’s the ensemble continues to maintain a free-flowing roster of artists from around the world that collaborate on specific projects. Categorizing the Orchestra into any given genre can be a task, as releases continue to surprise even the most devout listener. There is never any way to precisely classify the next BCO release. An album of authentic sea-shanties? A wall of noise? A shimmering downpour of lullabies whispered to the wind? A humorous or thought-provoking album of Sound Collages? Vocal excursions set to make Rod McKuen blush? We press play, leaning forward with slight apprehension. We await the first wave of blissful deception. We are perpetually rewarded.”
This CDR was released by Hal McGee, who was involved in distributing & releasing their music in the early / mid 80s. I assume this release results in part from that years-old positive connection.
Hal(“Ear Tampons” – poignantly preposterous?)
My first exposure, of two total exposures, to Big City Orchestra was a CDR called Beatlerape, consisting of a bizarre collection of alternate takes on and / or cut-up-collagery of Beatles songs and recordings. I don’t know if it’s ‘rape’, but what they do to Beatles music on this album is quacked out and could by many be called “wrong”. Demented looping, demented voices, demented juxtapositions of sounds. I very much enjoyed it off and on for several months in the car’s cd player. I know I’ve heard another Big City Orchestra recording, but I don’t recall which one. This matters because I remember thinking the second Big City Orchestra album I heard was pointedly different from Beatlerape, as is the present specimen, Kapellmeister.
Kapellmeister is a great mixed bag of lo-fi collage, psych, plunder, field recordings, found recordings, electronic junk bits, eclectic instrumentation / approach -but cleanly sectioned into the 10 segments they list on Side A and Side B. Track 8, “OOOOH JACK”, is a cutup of cleanly recorded, quietly speaking christian television preachers set against an ominous early-80s-industrial-mechanical-plodding backdrop. The clips of christian people are cut and assembled in such a way as to slather, playfully and mockingly, the christians’ pretensions of purity with humorous sexual innuendo. It’s simultaneously hilarious and darkly hope-crushing? This piece is on par with all of the other pieces for level of interest, pacing, composition, content, etc. Every track has its own intriguing qualities. Wonderfully surreal yet entertaining and non-tedious. Simple yet engaging and surprising. These things are hard to do with abstract sound work. I dare call it sophisticated, prodigious, genuine. The rawness of the black & white artwork is pleasant, with strangely bleak torn paper collage and digitally manipulated images by Rafael Gonzalez. There’s a cerebral surreality to the haloed white blob (photoshop air brushing likely) over the faces of an idealized couple from the..1930s? This roughness is tied together nicely with the text and with the two pillars of the repeated collage item showing two half-faces close together, reflecting their similarities and differences. These considerations tie the cover together with symmetry and an even distribution of dark and light. In comparison to a number of Hal’s other releases, this HalTapes specimen nicely balances pragmatic non-aestheticism and a tight sense of design. I enjoy the non-aesthetically charged design of the information side of the slim jewel case’s insert.
In his description for his album B12, Hal McGee -designer of this disc’s insert- tells a story about packaging design for audio recordings:
“After my three year hiatus from recording (92-95) I noticed that a lot of noise artists were doing special deluxe package releases. It seemed like every fuckin’ release by Aube had like a dead fish attached to it or a pubic hair or a bag of sewage water or some such shit with deluxe printed sleeve, etc etc etc. I purposely made the cover of my “B12” cassette as shitty and amateurish-looking as possible and I fit four of them onto one sheet of paper so that at Kinko’s each cover would end up costing me like 2.5 cents.
HalB12
I sent a copy of “B12” to Aube as a trade and told him here is my “anti-deluxe two and a half cent cover”. He was not amused and told me he would not trade with me again. This is the same young upstart who had told me previously that I had been one of his influences from the 1980s. Hahahaha. Uppity bastard!”
I presume to an extent Hal’s current design tendencies align with the thinking embodied in this frank, funny outburst. The emphasis is on what you’re doing and less on the capturing or distillation of some grand wizardly vision into an even more grand wizardly package that sells at inflated prices. This is the dichotomy of process vs. product, or maybe something less clear cut than that. I greatly enjoy both approaches (super-art-packaging and more straight forward packaging) depending on the specific example. It’s unfortunate, but for now I’m dreaming of a future time when I can support more artists putting out special deluxe products. I’m not able to spend so much money any more on music, so I don’t often acquire music releases with special (expensive) packages. Right now I can only get the occasional regular old ordinary issue releases; no fancy boxes, no extra inserts, no 3-D glasses, no diesel-soaked papyrus, no vials of blood, no hand-made folded special-stock paper delicacies. Many DIY artists and label-people have simple aesthetics based around their financial limitations; a lower budget usually costs a bit in impressiveness of appearance, but the money saved by simplifying package design can be used to release music more frequently, or for other projects. I have an interest in understanding different approaches to creative work. As long as the work comes from a genuine and specific place I’ll probably find it at least worth examining.
This CDR/tape/download is a truly excellent recording demonstrating all sorts of creative and technical prowess. That being said, it’s also presented in a remarkably unpretentious way. It’s adventurous and consistently engaging, while still being quite abstract and not the least bit catchy, unless you find certain tonal drones catchy. I rarely put in a recording and find it so impressive on a first listen. When this happens, the recording’s charm usually grows over time rather than fading." [Petriblog]
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| BIG CITY ORCHESTRA / CTEPHIN |
MiZture #2 |
CD-R |
Recht ausufernder bis ziemlich wahnsinnig tönender Split-Release der beiden kultigen US-Projekte - die fünf Stücke von BCO bewegen sich zwischen fülligen Drones und eher chaotisch infantilen Arrangements mit Gedröhn, Gitarrengeklimper, Beat-Box & highpitched Gesang; CTEPHIN sind viel massiver, beschwörend & agitativ, pulsierend, okkult, ekstatisch dronend... Langeweile kommt garantiert nicht auf bei dieser MIZTURE !
"MiZture (disambiguation). A suspension of noise in water, a heterogeneous miZture... miZture an noise made from the miZture of two metals. Just about everything that you can think of is probably a miZture and then showed a curious miZture of eagerness and terror.
10 tracks - running time 1 hour 16 minutes - inkjet printed 5" CDr w/ insert in a large 6 mil vinyl sleeve." [label info]
http://roilnoise.com
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
| BIOSPHERE |
Shenzhou |
3 x LP |
Paul Cooper, Pitchfork: ""Shenzhou", aside from being the name of the Chinese manned-spaceflight vehicles, means "magic vessel", and I can't imagine a more apt description for Geir Jenssen's latest excursion into ambient deep listening. After following an Aphexian trajectory with his releases on Apollo, the ambient sublabel of Belgium's R&S; Records, Jenssen veered from the padded sci-fi-inspired techno of Microgravity and Patashnik with 1997's Substrata, a genre-defining exploration of drifting soundscapes. Substrata remains for many the album that perfectly expresses the serenity and intensity of Arctic wildernesses, a landscape Jenssen knows intimately, having spent much of his life in the Norwegian Arctic Circle.
In 2000, Jenssen nearly eclipsed the success of Substrata with Cirque, a frequently frosty submerging of excerpted conversations and found environmental sounds that rivals Wolfgang Voigt's Gas project in its rumbling, gauzy beauty. Jenssen again relies on found sound as source material for Shenzhou, but this time, the found sound is old vinyl recordings of the orchestral works of French Impressionist composer and ambient precursor, Claude Debussy. Jenssen lifts fragments of these scratched records in a similar manner as he did for Cirque's "Black Lamb Grey Falcon" and "Iberia Eterea".
The ten tracks (out of the dozen on the album) that follow this model all begin as a barely audible hum, like a small electrical transformer, out of which the dust-dappled loops of Debussy's woodwind, brass, and strings emerge, condense, and fade out into pink noise rustles. Unlike Steve Reich's phase pieces or Brian Eno's Discreet Music, though, Jenssen doesn't set his loops against each other to produce juxtapositions and piquant dissonance; he uses them to describe imagined terrain, at first glance monotonously flat and barren, but on concentration, replete with minute detailing. The overall effect of these pieces is a sense of immensity. The orchestral loops sound distant, abandoned in a vast wilderness, and strenuously battling against Arctic winds. Jenssen sets the listener down in this wilderness as an aloof observer, a witness to the music's futile struggles against entropic forces.
The two tracks not derived from Debussy share the same hypnotic aesthetic. The brief interlude "Bose-Einstein Condension" is a loop of piano chords lolloping in search of coherence, while "Gravity Assist" is a longer voyage into woofer-quaking low-frequency manipulation, bell-like drones, and contrails of subdued noise. I can't help but feel that these tracks fit awkwardly and break up the conceptual flow of the album. This, however, is a minor quibble given the power of this music. Shenzhou is unquestionably a magic vessel, but one that reveals its enchantment only to those who pay close attention."
|
2017 |
€36.00 |
|
| |
N-Plants |
do-LP |
"Geir Jenssen writes: Early February 2011: Decided to make an album inspired by the Japanese post-war economic miracle. While searching for more information I found an old photo of the Mihama nuclear plant. The fact that this futuristic-looking plant was situated in such a beautiful spot so close to the sea made me curious. Are they safe when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis? Further reading revealed that many of these plants are situated in earthquake-prone areas, some of them are even located next to shores that had been hit in the past by tsunamis. A photo of Mihama made me narrow down my focus only to Japanese nuclear plants. I wanted to make a soundtrack to some of them, concentrating on the architecture, design and localizations, but also questioning the potential radiation danger (a cooling system being destroyed by a landslide or earthquake, etc). As the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said: the plants were so well designed that 'such a situation is practically impossible'. The album was finished on February 13th. On March 17th I received the following message from a Facebook friend: 'Geir, some time ago you asked people for a photo of a Japanese nuclear powerplant. Is this going to be the sleeve of your new coming album? But more importantly: how did you actually predict the future? Kind regards, David." [label info]
"Obviously we have to believe Geir Jenssen when he writes that in February he decided to make an album about Japanese post-war economic miracle, found a picture of a nuclear power plant, and wondered why so many are close to the sea, and what would happen if a tsunami would sweep the land? We know the answer by now. I assume Jenssen didn't make this story up as good line to sell a CD. Its been a while since we last heard Biosphere, a new work that is, as 'Patashnik' is still an ipod favorite here, and a work that breaks away, it seems, with the more recent ambient works. 'N-Plants' sees a return to the world of rhythm and that makes this quite a remarkable work. Biosphere going back to the world of dance music, although its hard to imagine people actually dancing to this. But if my crystal ball gazing is right, ambient house is soon to be on a revival trip, following the recent explosion in cosmic music, and then Biosphere can't do wrong. He plays here with the elements of cosmic music and adds nice minimalist beats to it. Loops of keyboard sounds, spiced with 4/4 minimal beats (more Cologne than Berlin) as well as layered drones of what might be more keyboards, or heavily processed field recordings, make up some great music, returning to his earlier music, but expanding it. Out are the voice samples, the beats are reduced to the bare minimum, the ambience is more to the foreground, making this another essential Biosphere record." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2020 |
€32.00 |
|
| BIRDS OF PASSAGE |
This kindly Slumber |
CD |
"Nach den beiden Alben 'Without the World' und 'Winter Lady' im Frühjahr bzw. Winter 2011, kehrt die Neuseeländerin Alicia Merz - besser bekannt als Birds of Passage - mit ihrem dritten Album 'This Kindly Slumber' endlich zurück. Wie ein Kokon umhüllen die vielen feingearbeiteten Schichten dieses Album den Hörer. Leise Klangstürme tragen eine Ambient Atmosphäre heran, gefolgt von dicht auf dicht übereinander gelagerten chorischen Drones und Alice Merzvertraut fragilen Vocals. Der schroffe Nachhall ihrer unverwechselbaren Stimme kontrastiert sanft dahin schwelgenden Träumereien, getragen von poetisch philosophischen Texten. Zusammen schaffen sie ein Klima von Glück und Zuversicht, das so unwirklich und sanft wie es gekommen ist, auch wieder abklingt. Mit Anspielungen auf Dark Pop und klassischem Broken-Folk, erinnern uns Alicias Kompositionen - die jederzeit konsequent den musikalischen Klimax oder etwaige Annäherungen aussparen - daran, dass sie eine Singer-Songwriterin ist für Hörer, die sich eigentlich genau jener Form von Musikern nicht verschrieben haben. Es ist Zeit in den Kokon zu klettern und 'This Kindly Slumber' zu erfahren. Dieser Ort der Zuflucht wird dich finden, wenn du ihn am meisten brauchst und dich in seine Welt aufnehmen. Für Hörer von SLOWDIVE, GROUPER, ZOLA JESUS, COCTEAU TWINS, SIGUR ROS." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| BJERGA / IVERSEN |
(Go with the Flow) like a Twig on the Shoulders on a mighty stream |
CD |
* BJERGA / IVERSEN - (Go with the Flow) like a Twig on the Shoulders of a mighty Stream CD (TIBProd 100, 2008) € 12.00
Zusammenstellung von 12 Stücken von dem norwegischen drone/noise/impro-Duo, die in den letzten Jahren mit ZIG CDR releases präsent waren. Ihre Drones sind nicht edel, harmonisch, oder grossartig strukturiert, sondern low-fi, dreckig, feedbackend, obertönend,
als Klangquellen kommen allerlei Instrumente, Objekte und Effektpedals zum Einsatz... das erinnert an ähnliche Sachen von MY CAT IS AN ALIEN oder BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL... als komprimierte Compilation ein kurzweiliger Überblick im Booklet ausführliche liner notes von Tobias Fischer (Tokafi).
".... A fine introduction into four years of hyper activity from two minds from the Nor-scene. Lots of guitars, lo-fi electronics, mild distortion, waving minimalism and lengthy drones, this is what their world is made off. Their selection is very fine, I'm pretty sure I would have picked similar pieces from their catalogue - the more quite lengthy drone pieces of buzzing electronics and fine guitars. I can imagine you can't collect all fifty previous releases, but if you need one, then why not this one?" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.tibprod.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| BLACK TO COMM |
Rückwärts Backwards |
CD |
“Black To Comm is an alias for Dekorder label owner Marc Richter's audio excursions. "Rückwärts Backwards" is his debut full-length album recorded between 2003 and 2005 in his adopted hometown Hamburg and his childhood home in the Black Forest located in the south of Germany. With a background in many musical styles (from Psychedelia to pure Computer Music) BTC's music is never easy to pin down.
This album is essentially created from scratchy shellac and vinyl loops merged with ambience field recordings (with some voice manipulations and kitchen gamelan thrown in for good measure). The warm hiss of analogue recording techniques combined with the apparently antique sounds of vintage organs, acoustic & electric guitars, pianos, glockenspiel and mbira used on these tracks generate a kind of hyperreal, fake nostalgia playing with one's perception of a pseudo-recollection. The layering and hypnotic repetition of short loops extracted from old Psychedelia, Free Jazz, Vaudeville and Traditional records reveal a haunting melodic quality sometimes not distinguishable within the original source material, evoking a hovering feeling of bittersweet melancholy with an omnipresent, slightly disturbing atmosphere hidden beneath the surface.The 8 songs constantly sway back and forth between simple, almost naive arrangements and dense surreal drones with rare, yet intense distorted climaxes making this album one constantly absorbing listening experience.” [label info]
“First of all this CD is beautifully packaged with a tri-fold disc holder. Each picture bears its own character (blurry forest with handscrawled text, a sleeping cat, and what appears to be an old wallpaper pattern) But on to the music. Black to Comm (aka Marc Richter who also runs Dekorder) knows how to keep it short and sweet with 8 songs clocking in at under 37 minutes. Ruckwarts Backwards opens with the aptly titled 'Bees' some gentle buzzing of said insect is later accompanied by some child-like hums, this gives way to the second song 'Levitation' which is a gentle soundscape of rising and falling organ tones backed by a field recording. 'Lucifer Lacca' ushers in an operatic vocal loop that reaches crescendo and ends with another bit of children's singing. The feel is still subdued and continues throughout the record, I'm reminded at times of Tape, not so much in sound but in how I feel while listening to them. The title track is a series of interlocking vibraphone melodies that
are augmented by computer processing. The computer treatments are more of an enhancement rather than something that would radically alter the source sounds. Track 5 is my personal favorite with a minimalist and slightly buzzing drone that cross-fades with a quieter drone. The remainder of the album hits just the right drone spot! Minimal loops with a somber feel, that guides you right to the end. The credits list microphones, voice, and kitchen gamelan, and Marc is good at assembling seemingly unrelated segments into gently blurred landscapes that roll by with an ease and comfort. In a few words..... simple, and elegant. Ruckwarts Backwards follows a self titled 10" also on Dekorder. Very curious to hear to more from this project” [CJ / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Fractal Hair Geometry |
CD |
"Black To Comm is the solo venture of Dekorder label boss Marc Richter. Having released two and a half albums on his own label he is slowly establishing himself as one of the more prolific drone artists out there with a forthcoming album on the American Digitalis label, a collaborative CD with Datashock on Ikuisuus, a 7" on the Irish Trensmat label and a collaboration with Xela in the works.
"Fractal Hair Geometry" is Richter's most refined and original work to date, picking up where the electrifying drone works of his monumental Double-LP left off. Like the last records this album is centered around recordings of a variety of vintage organs. While "Wir können leider..." often featured pure harmonium sounds and spacious recordings of chuch organ and mellotron, the new album opts for a more electronic, effects-laden sound, sending an old Farfisa Compact Deluxe and Casio SK-5 through an armada of analogue & digital effects pedals. The results are massive one-chord drones layered into dense & ecstatic, flickering & pulsating clusters of psychedelic electronic sound. Additional wordless vocal effects, hyperventilating & sizzling drum machines and hypnotic violin and guitar noises make for a hyperactive sound that never stands still even though most of the music is pure drones (sometimes consisting of more than 50 recording layers). Decidedly simple but gorgeous melodies shine through the mist from time to time, making a Black To Comm record always much more accessible than your average drone album.
There's even a heavy 4/4 bass drum smuggled into a track dedicated to the late Leigh Bowery, one of the most enigmatic creative figures of the mid-80's UK club scene (and singer of Minty).
Guests include Jonna Karanka (aka Kuupuu) on piano, Guido Möbius on trumpet and current Black To Comm (live) band members Renate Nikolaus on violin and Ulf Schütte (of Datashock, Aosuke, etc.) adding electronic sounds.
Along the lines of the music, seminal German artist Oliver Ross has created a massive multi-layered neon-coloured collage artwork which is printed on special ultra-heavy cardboard stock." [label info]
"..Chanted vocals, whirring organs, mysterious shimmers, squiggly melodies, buzzing Theremins, electronic glitches, analog synths, wheezing harmoniums, and those are just guesses, cuz just like that museum exhibit, it's difficult to tell what the source sounds are. We also didn't try that hard. It's like trying to peek under the table to see how a magician does a trick. We don't want to know. It's more fun
to get lost in these mysterious sounds. One track even introduces a muted techno throb, and for a brief second it sounds like the weirdest
record Kompakt never released. It's really hard to describe this stuff, which is probably why we like it so much, check out the sound
samples, and hear for yourself!" [Aquarius Records review]
www.dekorder.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Alphabet 1968 |
CD |
"Marc Richter alias Black To Comm ist kein Newcomer auf dem Feld der elektronischen Musik. Als Kopf des in Hamburg ansässigen Labels Dekorder hat der Musiker und Designer die Musikfans schon mit zahllosen Kuriositäten beglückt, mit seinen eigenen Kompositionen machte er allerdings am meisten Furore. Richter ist ein Pionier auf seinem Gebiet: Mit Bandschleifen, alten Orgeln und einer Flut zufällig gefundener Sounds schuf er einen ganz eigenen, organischen Drone-Sound. Mit "Alphabet 1968" indes bewegt sich Richter eher hin zu klassischen Mustern, hin zu Songs (in Ermangelung eines besseren Begriffs). Kurze Stücke, die für ihn Meilensteine repräsentieren, die ihn wiederum an seine Lieblingsplatten erinnern. So entstanden zehn
atemberaubende Songs, die über 45 Minuten Weltmusik, Techno, Noise, Avantgarde, Ambient und sogar Exotica streifen, die Reverenzen reichen dabei von Moondog über Basic Channel bis zum Soundtrackkomponisten Bernard Herrmann. Jedes Stück ist mit elektrostatischem Radiorauschen unterlegt, das einen durch das Album wie auf einer alten Senderskala wandern lässt. // A sprawling epic of a record from Hamburg's omnipresent Marc Richter.
Marc Richter (aka Black to Comm) is no newcomer to the experimental music scene. As the figurehead of the Hamburg-based Dekorder label, the musician and designer has brought countless oddities to the attention of rabid music fans in the last few years, but it is with his own compositions that he has made the biggest splash. Releasing for a plethora of labels including Digitalis, Trensmat and of course his own imprint, he has pioneered a new, organic drone sub-genre using tape loops, vintage organs and an inexhaustible swamp of found sounds. With this latest album however, it was Richter’s intention to move away from the epic drones he had made his own and into something more ‘classic’.
The mission statement for ‘Alphabet 1968’ was to write an album of ‘songs’ for want of a better word. Short tracks which represented genre points, the milestones which stuck in Richter’s mind when he thought back to his favourite records. What we arrive at is an breathtaking ten track album which, over the course of forty-five minutes, explores world music, techno, noise, avant-garde, ambient music and even exotica. Each track is linked with a loose thread of radio static or environmental sound, dragging you through the album as if tuning in to a stray broadcast or a particularly adventurous mix.
Richter has pieced the album together from hours of recordings made at his studio with home made gamelan, small instruments and loops gathered from a collection of ancient vinyl and 78 records. The scope of the album is admirable but ignoring this it is simply a shockingly arresting collection of experimental oddities, with references ranging from Moondog to Basic Channel by way of the Bernard Herrmann. It’s not hard to fall in love with ‘Alphabet 1968’, far harder would be to place exactly where the record should fit into your collection." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Wave UFO |
do-7" |
"Following his latest album "Alphabet 1968" on Type Records and several releases for Digitalis, Trensmat and his own Dekorder label Marc Richter (aka Black To Comm) has recorded another amazing yet unexpected collection of brand new tracks. Always hard to pinpoint, on these two vinyl singles Richter's music oscillates between cosmic drones, dub, lo-fi pop anthems, musique concrete and high-pitched free jazz rhythms. Strictly limited edition of 200 copies in a large full-colour collage poster cover.
Limited edition of 200 copies!" [label info]
www.dekorder.com
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
| BLACKSHAW, JAMES |
Litany of Echoes |
CD |
"Initially inspired by the guitarists of the '60s Takoma label to teach himself fingerpicking, London-based musician James Blackshaw writes pieces primarily for solo 12-string guitar that share more in common with the minimalist works of composers such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine, as well as French composers Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, than the blues/raga influence of his peers. Using drones, overtones and repeating patterns alongside a strong inclination for melody, Blackshaw creates instrumental music that is both intelligent, hypnotic and unashamedly sentimental. Litany of Echoes, Blackshaw's sixth studio album in five years, shows a more mature, focused and, on the whole, accessible approach to composition. While the album often feels darker and more introspective in nature than on previous releases, many of the songs have a huge-sounding, classical quality to them. With Blackshaw adding some glistening piano work for the first time and Fran Bury returning to play swarms of sweeping string parts for violin and viola, Litany of Echoes is a truly original, affecting and timeless album from a guitarist/composer coming into his own." [press release]
"With each new James Blackshaw release, we're always amazed at how someone who works within such a small musical framework can continuously exceed our expectations. Definitely a favorite among favorites of solo guitarists, Blackshaw has bulked up his arsenal of compositional approaches by introducing for the first time the use of piano as a key element. Bookending the album are two long form pieces of solo piano in a minimalist style that remind us of Charlemagne Palestine or Lubomyr Melnyk. When the twelve string is first heard on the second track, it's not before we're set up with a foundation of resonant timbres of violin and viola (played by Fran Bury) that give
weight to the airy modal improvisations of the guitar. Adding subtle layers of richness and dynamics, the strings ground and support the ringing overtones of the 12 string creating complex harmonies to the pulsating melodies. We can't imagine we'll ever tire of hearing Blackshaw's shimmering textural pieces. Amazing how sound so deep, dark, damp and resonant can be so transcendentally uplifting." [Aquarius Records review]
www.tompkinssquare.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| BLAKK HARBOR |
Madares |
do-LP |
Debut double LP album from Blakk Harbor the Greek Berlin based artist and sound designer behing Native Instruments, Angelos Liaros. Soaring drones, dark ambiences and expertly crafted sound design. ‘Madares‘ title derives from the actual dune mountains of Crete. This moonlike landscape a sacred land of ancient ceremonies and the main inspiration for the album concept, cover and artwork. Percussive samples and drones are created from traditional custom Cretan instruments (lute, skin drums, lyra, tsabouna) & world instruments (Tibetan bowls, gongs, dungchen horns) granulized to death drones through modular synths and hardware samplers.
A black hole soundtrack that sucks you in tearing the fabric of space and time. Enter a ritualistic occult trip to the unknown.
https://blakkharbor.bandcamp.com/releases |
2018 |
€26.00 |
|
| BLOOD RHYTHMS |
Civil War |
LP + BOOK |
BLOOD RHYTHMS is an ongoing and constantly morphing collective spearheaded by veteran experimental artist and Chicago native Arvo Zylo. The unit's new LP, CIVIL WAR began its conceptual impetus before its vinyl debut, 2014's ASSEMBLY, which was a layered whale song / locomotive stomp of brass & wind instruments recorded in a meat locker, released in collaboration with RRRECORDS. In 2010, after a few years of makeshift group performances delivering noisy, loop-based industrial drones as a brass ensemble, and inevitably growing to incorporate a series of damaged synth/junk metal outings, the group's official debut was met with live accompaniment from legendary Chicago avant/industrial/gospel giants ONO. With that, the very beginnings of BLOOD RHYTHMS' new LP, CIVIL WAR, were set into motion.
From 2010 to 2016, Zylo exhibited either with BLOOD RHYTHMS or solo, at noise fests, radio stations, or various venues around the country, themes which evolved exponentially. Some of these pieces have been performed live close to fifty times, occasionally with as many as four drummers and a five piece brass section. Words like “cathartic” and “intense” were regularly used to describe the often blisteringly loud affairs-- with contact mic'ed heartbeats, aluminum mic'ed masks, sheet metal, belt sanders, amplified packing tape, and visceral, feedback-laden howls. CIVIL WAR is a studio culmination of nearly ten years of ongoing work; A synthesis of Zylo's main focus, and what has come to be referred to by some as outsider power electronics. The result is something that retains the meticulousness, nuance, and visionary drive of a reclusive studio rat, but without relinquishing the rawness and fortitude of a full group sonic assault.
CIVIL WAR features contributions from Bruce Lamont (Yakuza, Bloodiest, Corrections House), Mike Weis (Zelienople, Kwaidan), Wyatt Howland (Skin Graft, Blackfire, Nevari Butchers), B. Zimimay (T.O.M.B., Dreadlords), Dave Phillips (Schimpfluch Gruppe, Fear of God), Michael Krause (Death Factory), Daniel Burke (Illusion of Safety), and Richard Syska (Secret Means of Escape, Dummy Antenna). It comes on 180 gram vinyl, and there are standard editions in black, or special editions both with opaque red vinyl or metallic silver ripple vinyl. It is housed in a thick gatefold jacket with a full varnish finish, and special editions come with a 44 page art booklet which includes collaborative contributions from collage artist Bradley Kokay, and rogue taxidermist Sarina Brewer. Recorded mainly (initially) at Minbal, Chicago by Brian Sulpizio (Health & Beauty), and mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Khlyst, NAMANAX). Seven tracks, 38 minutes. Track A3 not for airplay. Edition of 500 copies: 350 black vinyl (180g), 100 opaque red vinyl (180g), 50 silver ripple vinyl (140g). Silver copies come with a unique piece of art.
No download code. No digital version available
Comes on 180 gram vinyl, in a high quality, glossy gatefold jacket with 44 page (mostly color) art booklet.
https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/civil-war |
2019 |
€35.00 |
|
| BODIN, LARS-GUNNAR |
Clouds |
LP |
Letzte Original-Kopien dieses Klassikers der schwedischen elektronischen Musik! "CLOUDS" wurde erst kürzlich auf CD wiederveröffentlicht; eine Art multimediales Drama aus Musik, Gesang, Tanz-Performance, Dia- und Filmprojektion. Eine komprimierte Fassung (ca. 45 Minuten) wurde als LP veröffentlicht, mit auffallend schönen Synth-Drones & vokalpoetischen Elementen & Gesängen, mit absolut visionärer Qualität.
"Lars-Gunnar Bodin, Swedish composer and graphic artist, was one of those who during the first half of the 60's tried to integrate elements of different fields of art in his works: instrumental music, tapes, texts, actions, projections etc.
In 'Clouds' (1972-76) he developed an advanced form of musical drama involving electronic music in 8 channels, singers, dancers and slide and film projections on five screens. The music on this record is a shortened version of Clouds, especially created for this medium." [label info]
www.fylkingen.se
|
1977 |
€15.00 |
|
| BOE, TORE HONORE |
Melatonin |
mCD |
Komplexer Konkreter Minimalismus vom norwegischen ORIGAMI-Netzwerk Begründer, der sich inzwischen in Gran Canaria niedergelassen hat. Hier mischen sich konkrete Geräusche, Stille, rumpelnde Drones und Feedbacks zu einem spannenden Ganzen für das Kino im Kopf.
Complex concrete Minimalism from this norwegian artist and builder of the ORIGAMI-Network, who lives now on the Canarian Isles.
|
2002 |
€3.00 |
|
| BOGHOSSIAN, HERVE |
RVB |
CD |
Minimal drones, high frequenced & soft, superminimal & dense, a bit unsettling, done with guitar feedbacks, sinewaves, piano, bassclarinett...very interesting and moody minimal music..
“Hervé Boghossian, who also records under the name Sol, here presents a trio of pieces under his own name, focusing on minimal drones and carefully composed music that is, characteristically, quiet and reflective. At first, the music seems to be exploring the harmonic combinations and tensions of sine waves, although interacting with these sine waves are other instruments: guitar feedback and two bass clarinets (the clarinets are performed by Matthieu Saladin and Ivan Solano). The combinations carry with them an austere quality, a muted tension; not always the stuff of calm, easy ambience, but pushing things in a slightly uneasy, tense direction. The second piece, too, speaks of this quiet tension, here working exclusively with sine waves, and focusing on the lower end of the frequency scale. It is with the third piece that things
seem to converge with quiet wonder. Joining the subtle bed of electronic textures are the two bass clarinets and guitar, as before, but also a beautiful section for solo piano, performed by David Grubbs. This slow movement is simply something that must be heard; it will stop all motion in the room, it will even hold your breathing nearly to a point of standstill. Taken together, these three pieces, each with its own unique, arresting presence, makes for a truly compelling new release, an excellent addition to List's growing catalogue”. [Richard di Santo / Incursion ]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE |
Dolores |
do-LP |
"Dolores. Das ist die Frau, die den Schmerz schon im Namen trägt. Frau + Schmerz = Süßer Schmerz, also. Dolores. Wenn das kein passender Titel für eine Bohren & Der Club Of Gore-Platte ist, weiß ich auch nicht. Nachdem die letzte Bohrenscheibe "Geisterfaust" noch einmal so deutlich ruhiger, langsamer und entweltlichter geriet, als deren Vorgängerin "Black Earth", werden sie doch nicht etwa nochmals ... noch langsamer? Quasi im Stillstand? Gegen die Zeit? Ein Ton über 14 Minuten? Und dann die Erlösung: Nein, sie werden nicht. Kein billiges unreflektiertes Fortschreiten in dieselbe Richtung. Wie früher eine Weile bei Speedmetalbands und anderweitigen Grind-oder-sonst-wie-Core-Kapellen üblich: immer schneller, alles andere ist egal.
Nein. Immer noch sehr getragen, verbindet "Dolores" Elemente aus "Geisterfaust'" und "Black Earth" und fügt ein paar neue, sehr feine Ingredienzien hinzu. Nach wie vor bleiben die schwebenden düsteren Flächen, die wie radioaktiver, dunkelgrün leuchtender Nebel aus den Boxen kriechen und dein Schlafzimmer in einen mystischen Ort verwandeln, allgegenwärtig. Akzentuiert durch sparsam eingesetzte Drums führen sie den Hörer sanft durch die erste, drei Stücke währende Passage mitten in "Dolores"' Kern.
Dort wartet dann erstmals das Saxophon. Auch diesmal bedient sich der Club des schon bei "Geisterfaust" angewandten Tricks, dieses Instrument erst nach einer gefühlten Ewigkeit, bei "Unkerich", ins Spiel zu bringen. Wenn es dann einsetzt, so warm und scheu und sehnsuchtsvoll, gefriert dem Hörer geradezu das Blut in den Adern. Heiß und kalt, hoffnungsvoll und hoffnungslos, das dunkle und helle Flimmern liegen für einen Moment so nahe beieinander, dass sie fast dasselbe sind. Oder zu sein scheinen.
Doch die Erlösung währt nur kurz. Schon bei "Welk" nimmt uns der Club das sanfte Gebläs wieder weg und führt uns in die unendlichen Tiefen des Bohrenuniversums hinab. Dort erscheint dann ab und an ein E-Piano aus den Kriechnebeln, das mit verhalten angedeuteten Melodien den Pfad weist. Bei "Faul" kehrt die Schöne zurück - "Dolores" erscheint im Schimmer der nächsten Saxophonlinie und leuchtet von innen heraus. Bohren At Its Best, kann man da nur sagen.
Die Titel der Stücke wurden dementsprechend mit spitzen Fingern gewählt: "Staub", "Welk", "Still Am Tresen" und "Unkerich" deuten nochmal deutlich an, was hier gespielt wird. Ein Gesamtkunstwerk sozusagen. Das alles bietet dem Durchschnittsbürger nicht unbedingt Gudelaune- oder Feierei-Musike. Eher handelt es sich um eine filigrane und doch ausdrucksstarke Art, die Höhen und Tiefen des Lebens auf individuelle Weise musikalisch zu abstrahieren. Dennoch keine reine Kunstmusik, sondern mit großem Genuss hörbar. Vielleicht eher bei Rotwein, als bei Bier. Aber ich bin ohnehin Weintrinker, zumindest im Winter." [laut.de]
"Imagine a blackened, funereal dooooooom band like Skepticism or Nortt morphed into the jazz idiom (after having kissed a frog, or some fairytale scenario like that), playing their slow, sad music in a smoky Berlin jazz club. The sound is jazz (electric piano, organ, vibes, sax, double bass, trap kit...) but the feeling is doom. That's our usual shorthand for describing the unique music made by longtime AQ fave, Germany's Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. Here at last is their eagerly anticipated 5th album, Dolores (not named after the San Francisco street near us, presumably). If you're fans like we are, you know what to expect, it's just as ponderously "heavy" as a "jazz" band can be. No, not loud, not harsh, not noisy. The opposite of all that. Rather, whisper-quiet, glacially slow, and spacious, with sparse snare hits keeping time like a wound-down clock ticking off the eternity between 2 minutes to midnight and the witching hour itself. Doomsday so slowly arrives on a velvety bed of somnolent deep bass notes, and the cool slinky tones of vintage Fender Rhodes. Cymbals shiver in a
dark haze of ambient drones near to silence. Several of the songs are infused with the warmth of tenor or baritone sax breathes gorgeous expiring breaths. It's all so sad and woeful and achingly beautiful, Bohren nodding off, their fragile melodies trickling like tears, and by the end you may find you have shed a few too.
This newest Bohren differs mainly from their previous Ipecac outing Geisterfaust by being composed of somewhat shorter, sweeter
tracks, ten in all, in about an hour. But it is, again, an-ever-more- perfected example of why Bohren is one of our all time favorite bands, especially at twilight and late at night..." [Aquarius Records review]
www.pias.com
|
2014 |
€23.00 |
|
| BOKANOWSKI, MICHELE |
Three rooms of unrest (trois chambres d'inquietude) |
maxi-CD |
Ein dreiteiliges Stück von 1976 von der französischen Komponistin (bekannt wohl den meisten von der metamkine mCD), welches auf vielen fieldrecordings basiert (Glocken- undKinderstimmensounds, Schaben, Klackern und Rausch-Drones) ...
“Concrete music recorded, edited and mixed in the composer's studio (Paris). Final mix: GMEB Studios (Bourges). First performance: June 5th, 1976, Bourges, Palais Jacques Coeur, 6th
International Festival of Experimental Music. Title taken from the Danish engraver Lars Bo (1924-1999). Michèle Bokanowski studied harmony, fugue, counterpoint and analysis with Michel Puig from 1965 to 1969. In September 1970, she began a two-year internship at the Research Department of the French National Office of Broadcasting (ORTF) under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer. At the same time she participated in a sound synthesis research group, studied computer music at the University of Vincennes and electronic music with Eliane Radigue. Between 1972 and 1984 she composed essentially music to be performed in concert - POUR UN PIANISTE (For a Pianist), TROIS CHAMBRES D'INQUIETUDE (Three Rooms of Unrest), TABOU (Taboo) - and for film - score for Patrick Bokanowski's short films as well as his feature-length film L'ANGE (The Angel). Since 1985, she has also composed for television, for theater - with director Catherine Dasté - and for dance - with choreographers Hideyuki Yano, Marceline Lartigue and Bernardo Montet. Michèle has released two previous compact discs on Metamkine and Empreintes Digitales. Compact disc issued in an edition of 1000 copies. Packaged in beautiful full-color (inner and outer) jackets -- featuring photography from the composer's husband, filmmaker Patrick Bokanowski.” [label description]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2001 |
€9.00 |
|
| BORGA, ASCANIO |
Bad Ground (soundscapes of utter desolation) |
CD-R |
Great dark drone / isolationism-ambience newcomer from Italy !
"Disquieting homemade isolationism by Ascanio Borga of Rome. "Bad ground" sounds like a biologist´s characterization of what is left behind to rot in the soil by industrial pollution, or confines where something terribly evil has happened, like a death camp. Either way, Borga´s "soundscapes of utter desolation" are no tourist sites. Released last year, this is apparently Borga´s first album in four years, but if a gestation period of that length is necessary for him to conjure up such spine-tingling "untertainment", then I´ll gladly wait until 2010 for the next one. For Bad Ground is a minor masterpiece of hopelessness.
The CDR is comprised of two suites. "The Boundary" would have made a highly serviceable alternative soundtrack to Andrei Tarkovsky´s seminal film "Stalker". As in the movie, one should heed the guide´s warning about crossing into this zone - what lays beyond is frightening, inhuman, and beyond reclamation. The scariest thing is that, despite the environment´s utter lack of fecundity, there does seem to be "life" of some sort dwelling inside the drones - but not life as we know it, or would voluntarily choose to acquaint ourselves with.
That eleven-and-a-half minute piece segues seamlessly into the thirty-five minute title track. Nothing but hostility here, either, both from above and below. With electric guitars, synthesizers and samples, Borga succeeds in turning the very earth we walk upon and the skies that vault above us into a single, leaden, threatening habitat. Almost disconcertingly, the final ten minutes feature soaring guitar chords over a bed of cozy, deeper note clusters, almost a pick-me-up; perhaps there is some kind of redemption, some sanctuary to be found here after all.
An excellent accomplishment and a worthy example of the genre." [Stephen Fruitman / Sonomu]
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Altered States |
do-CD |
disc 1: recorded in january 2010
disc 2: recorded in february 2011
remastered in v2k studio
ab - treated electric guitar
the music contained in this album was recorded in two single live improvisations in studio - no overdubs or additional effects were successively added in the recording
artwork and layout by ab
portrait of ab by erika bonanni
thanks: giuseppe verticchio
© sonic boundaries sb001
https://ascanioborga.bandcamp.com/album/altered-states
"Like listening to a painter attack the canvas while drinking absinthe in the other room, Altered States is a two-disc, ninety-minute collection of solo guitar vignettes by Ascanio Borga, his first on new label Sonic Boundaries. Track titles hang off the same, great chain of roiling, evolving being – “Magma”, “Acid Landscape”, “Harsh Ground”, “Raw Science Loops” – and Borga works quickly but methodically. Altered States is formalist in the sense that no heed is paid historic, political and cultural context, all attention instead focused on the materiality of the art.
Disc one was recorded one day in January 2010, disc two also a single day, one year and one month later. Dark green outside, vital-organ pink inside. Played and treated live, no additional fiddling or overdubbing, a dozen states of mind (even grace) passionately expressed. The cumulative effect is volcanic, droning, sputtering worlds being formed, others being pulverized down to cellular level, ancient in gut feel, ablating all other thoughts. You can´t help but concentrate. Raw indulgence, visceral gratification."
[Stephen Fruitman - avantmusicnews.com/2015]
"It's hard to believe but it seems that I wrote about Ascanio Borga three times in Vital Weekly, in issue 550, 600 and 657, but not after that. I have no idea why there is such a long gap in producing some new music (and I surely would have believed it wasn't that long ago), but he manages now to release a double CD of recent works. Like before Borga's main instrument is the guitar but unlike before it's just the guitar and no percussion, wind chimes, Japanese carillon, frog guiro, samples, found sounds and objects as on the last release. He writes that 'Altered States' is an album of 'guitar solos' and that they were all recorded live in the
studio, with no additional overdubs. That still is something that leaves many options open, and Borga certainly explores a few roads here. Drones are, obviously, an important part of these twelve pieces (close to ninety minutes in total), with some of these being viciously loud and noisy, or, as in 'Magma' or 'Radiance' with an orchestral touch. Sometimes there is a more rock like approach to his guitar sound and Borga layers many of these on top of each other: effects such as loopers, delay and reverb play an important role, as well amplification. In 'Harsh Ground'
the resemblance with guitar sound is virtually gone in favour of a more abstract, controlled feedback. A minority of the pieces consist of more open ended strumming of the six strings, which I think is a pity; the release could have used a little more variation I think. The balance is now in favour of the noisy nightmares of burning distortion boxes, wandering off in the endless void of reverb and feedback. I think a stricter selection of pieces, ultimately fitting on a single disc, would have made a much stronger release. But now, spread out over two discs, this is just a 'great' one as well." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Raw Science |
CD |
"The common ground beneath these pieces is an experimental approach to the music production process. In a classic situation, recording, mixing and mastering have a mere technical role as they are employed to capture instruments and sounds, add auxiliary effects, balance tracks, to exploit and correct sound problems. The main focus is usually on the first steps: in theory, with an ideal quality recording, subsequent phases (especially mastering) should be reduced to a minimum to preserve the original sounds with maximum fidelity. This implicitly makes the assumption that the creative part of the music (i.e. the one where lies the musical language) is oustide the whole process of music recording and production.
The last assumption does not hold for concrete and other forms of experimental music, including this one. Here, effects and sound manipulation play a primary role, mixing and mastering are part of the composition, active creative phases in which crucial modifications and ideas can be inserted, driving the recording towards completely new and unexpected directions. Every phase of music production is not separate from the others, as the whole process can be repeated several times, in any order, following a non-linear pattern. Creative elements can live in any moment between the initial conception of music until the final master. The composer has an extended palette of tools, including those of the sound engineer, to take deeper control on the sound itself. [from the liner notes]
credits
released September 1, 2016
Recording, mixing & mastering: v2k alchemical laboratory, Rome, 2013-2016
(except some parts of track 1 which were recorded in Berlin)
Ascanio Borga - electric guitar, synthesizers, samples, noises, treatments
Artwork and layout by AB
Cover painting: “Cutting The Stone” by Hieronymus Bosch
Other images: a reproduction of the Alchemical Door (Rome)
© sonic boundaries sb002
"Ascanio Borga is one discreet but continuously creative sound artist coming from Rome and whose objective is to cross various fields of electronic experimentation, from retro-ish cosmic synth excursion to vaporous space ambient and dark droning vibes. Over the years he mainly published self-releases as limited editions now available on his online Bandcamp store. One interesting fact, in 2008 he published one release on Afe Records (founded by pioneering dark ambient artist Andrea Marutti).
As stated in the press release and compared to his early materials Raw Science deliberately embraces a more sonic and claustrophobic sound universe where crackling industrial noises are melted with tripped out and freezing black noise textures. The whole concept and the visual aesthetic brought to the fore are based on antique knowledge, alchemical then hidden sources of sciences, apparently taken from medieval esoterism and the mystical kabbalistic wisdom.
The pieces gathered on this album sound quite hermetic, not easy to approach at first step but with required attention we can appreciate a tremendous gallery of fuzzed out and metallic drone rituals as in the rather industrial “Porta Alchemica” or as in the sonically grimy “Azoth.” Those kind of obsessional and textured noise ambient sequences admit comparison with the corrosive experimental assaults of Constrate or Sigillum S and the buzzing minimalism of Keith Fullerton Whitman. All in all Raw Science is a pleasant curiosity to discover in the noise / harsh psych drone territory."
[Philippe Blache - igloomag]
"With more than three years in the making, Raw Science is one of the most convoluted Borga's works. It contains four extended tracks crafted with careful stratifications, noise manipulations and other heavy sound treatment of various sources. With its unique mixture of dark electronics, guitar drones and concrete/noise elements, Raw Science occupies a musical niche similar to that of Bad Ground and Xenomorphic."
[Sonic Boundaries]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS3iuxyZndQ
|
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| BOWLINE |
same |
CD |
Neues Projekt von DAVID MARANHA (OSSO EXOTICO) und einem FRANCISCO DILLON am Cello - oszillierende Streicher-Drones in dynamischer Veränderung kontrastieren mit den eigentlich hoch-minimalen Arrangements. Subtil & sparsam, aber von ungeheurer Wirkung.
"Behind Bowline we find the more and more present musician David Maranha, who was once best known as Osso Exotico, and these days also works as a solo musician and one Francesco Dillon. He is from Italy and studied the cello. These days he is a member of Alter-Ego (see Vital Weekly 602 for their work with Gavin Bryars) as well as playing with people like Matmos, Pan Sonic and Scanner. A man of many talents. Here too Dillon plays cello, whereas Maranha gets credit for 'hammond organ, violin, vox amplifier (with Francesco cello signal), glass harmonica, tremolo and distortion pedals'. Of the four tracks, the first is the most silent one, taking several minutes to get started. Like with so many other projects of David Maranha, in which ever form it takes, this is a work of minimalism. Of sheer, utter minimalism and what beauty, once again. The careful strumming of various string instruments, the drones added, sparsely of course, from the other instruments. Three short tracks which eventually culminate in the fourth track, which takes up about two-third of the CD and in which the three previous excursions return but glorified. Everything comes together here. If you love Osso Exotico or any of the works Maranha did after that, this is will be a most welcome addition. Also fans of traditional minimal music, especially Lamonte Young will find this a great release, I'm sure of that." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.sonoris.org
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| BRADLEY, PAUL |
Sirens |
CD-R |
SIRENS fasst die vergriffenen mCDRs "Cede" (Waterscape Rec.) und "Searching for the way" (Locus of Assemblage) zusammen, sowie
das bisher nur als digitalen Download erhältliche Stücke "Horizon".
Das sind warme, melancholische Dronescapes wie sie für BRADLEY typisch sind, hochsensibel & verzaubernd..
‘sirens’collects together the out of print releases ‘cede’ and ‘searching for the way’ along with the download release ‘horizon’. ‘cede’ was originally released as a 3 inch cdr on the German label Waterscape Records in an edition of 50. ‘searching for the way’ was issued through the UK label ‘The Locus Of’ in an edition of 100 3 inch cdr’s. ‘horizon’ is also available as a download from Twenty Hertz Digital.
‘sirens’ comes in a plastic sleeve with full colour 4 panel insert and the first 50 copies also include two photograph inserts (the ‘sirens’ and ‘searching for the way’ covers) and a numbered and signed obi. Tracks one and three were lightly re-touched in February 2008 at IC Studio." [label info]
www.twentyhertz.co.uk
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| BRADLEY, PAUL & CRIA CUERVOS |
Moraines II |
CD |
Auf dem langen one-tracker "Moraines II" verschmilzt die feinsinnige Ambient-Kunst des Briten PAUL BRADLEY mit den eher rauhen & archaischen Feldaufnahmen-Drones von CRIA CUERVOS - ein wunderbares Stück voller mysteriöser Sounds und mit sehr einnehmender, dichter Atmosphäre; es gibt Brüche und sehr "konkrete" Passagen, Wind- & Äther-artige Klangflüsse, und zusätzlich zum fast einstündigen Stück noch einen 16+ min. Remix von ANDREW LILES, welches verwunschene Piano-Klänge & Sphären-wabern verbindet...
"About two years ago we reviewed 'Morainos', a collaboration between Paul Bradley and Eugenio Maggi, aka Cria Cuervos from Italy (see Vital 516). Since they have been working on 'Moraines II', or rather re-working the first one. Such can be the world of drone music. One drone - endless possibilities. The original recordings have been used, highly processed field recordings that is, and together they created quite a dark album of drone music. Rather than moving about in one single drone, this new piece moves along various paths, clearly divided into separate parts, each with it's own build up and changes, before moving to the next piece. Some clear field recordings punctuate the music, such as rain sounds, birds and footsteps. Perhaps nothing new, but the minor changes, such as the various parts approach, make this however quite a nice disc. Plus more treatments arrive through the work of Andrew Liles, who was given all the material and made a remix (a phrase we should not use for the first track). Liles has a distinct sound (well, as far as I know, as his output is vast and incomplete here) that is somewhat close to the more eerie Nurse With Wound sound. Here via the reverse sound approach, like a single wave washing ashore and a metallic drone rumble make up a creepy soundtrack to a perfect nightmare. Sounds arise from previous, and make this a more singleminded piece. Quite a nice one at that." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.smallvoices.it
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| BRAND, STEVE |
Looking into the other |
CD-R |
STEVE BRAND (also known before as AUGUR) mixes electronics, field recordings and sounds from "real" instruments for a very mellow deep ambient journey, similar to ALIO DIE or ROBERT RICH... but he also has parts of very "pure" concrete sounds, that are more challenging...
Great full-colour artwork / cover, showing nature, symbols, stones.
"Steve Brand has been creating sound art and visual art since the mid-80's. From 1995 to 2003 he was active as Augur, creating obscure and organic music which was released on many labels worldwide, including The Foundry, Manifold, Alluvial, Self-Abuse and others.
During the years he had the chance to collaborate with artists such as Jeph Jerman (Hands To, Animist Orchestra), Rick Kitch (I Am Umbrella, Lucky Cricket), PBK, James P. Keeler (Wilt), Brooke Oates (Birds of Tin), etc.
His atmospheres, alarmingly austere, with varying shades of gray, are drenched in allusion and a heightened sense of cinematic noir for the listener. According to his own words, "emotional aspects of a recording always come first".
Consisting of six long tracks, "Looking Into the Other" takes up where "Awakensong" (...released on Afe in April 2006...) left off, expanding the exploration of twilight worlds.
The album utilizes bells, synthesizers, voice, various flutes, medicine drums, cymbals, fiddle, rattles, prayer bowls, etc.
"Looking Into the Other" begins with the ritual horns introduction of "The Flower of Life", a piece full of pathos which is subsequently filled with morbid sythesizers lines and insects sounds provided by Johnathan Benham.
"Where Two Rivers Meet" starts as a percussive number and then proceeds with keyboards and flute intertwining each other before percussions re-emerge towards the end of the track.
Clocking at more than thirteen minutes, "Djehuti, the Architect" is one of the longest and most complex tracks on the album. Its structure keeps on changing as different percussions, cymbal, voices and synthesizers flow in and out of the mix. Listening to this track is quite an experience.
"Columns of Light" it's a quieter and dreamy piece constructed on floating keyboards sequences and background rattles, bells, chimes and other small objects / hand-held percussions.
"Looking Into the Other", the title-track, was already featured on our 10th year celebrative on-line compilation in late 2005, the one on this album is an improved version. With its flutes, voices, phased drones and repetitive drumming, this track has a strong introspective quality.
The fourteen minutes long "Wrapped in Leaves" closes the album with a mocking laugh. A shorter version of this track previously appeared on the "Things Asunder" compilation released by The Foundry.
Once again, with this work Steve Brand has created an high quality and excellent album of deeply emotional music, and proved himself as one of the most inspired authors in contemporary Ritual Ambient.
"I am reaching into the interior realities, the meaning behind the symbols we accept as everyday reality, into the dream of the abundant natural self that knows no boundaries or limitations." [label description]
www.aferecords.com
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| BRIDLE WIRE |
Damper String |
mCD-R |
Einer unserer Favouriten von den vielen neuen Namen auf SCARCELIGHT ist diese kleine mCD mit einem fabulösen One-Tracker, der sich aus sphärischen Drones in monumentale, später in noisig-collagenhafte Höhen aufschwingt. TIP !
“One monolithic drone piece built entirely from samples of pianos. Who the hell knows what is really going behind the music with this one. What we do know is that Thaniel Lee (who is Bridle Wire) is a talented visual artist from New Albany, IN. who has crafted a devastingly beautiful noise track. Like Glenn Branca dipped in a digital fire.“ [label info]
“...[N]ew to me is Bridle Wire, aka Thaniel Lee, from New Albany, IN. His work was entirely constructed from using piano sounds samples. You surely heard that tune before, but Bridle Wire is a man who loves to layer his sounds ad infinitum. At various speeds these sounds drop in and out and maybe there is a moment when you hear just a few layers, overall it's a densely layered drone noise piece with classical references, especially related to the New York scene around Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth's side projects. Quite scary but nice indeed.”
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| BRUME |
Two Characters |
10inch |
"Through more than 25 years of existence, the French composer CHRISTIAN RENOU, aka BRUME, has developed a unique 'handwriting' style within the experimental underground, something one may call "atmospheric Musique concrète". It is the marriage of many concrete sounds, hand-played acoustic instruments and electronic drones / noises that are arranged in a manner somewhat akin to a "narrative" - highly emotive and often evolving in a dramatic way. We are delighted to have received two tracks for the Substantia Innominata series that are simply extraordinary: expressing the wordless, indescribable oscillations arising from mental states, the qualia and conditions of two fictional 'souls', the aura of a personality.
Compounded by electronics (synths), field recordings (door jarring, water), alto sax, gramophone, tapes, various processed voices, percussion, bass, home-made instruments, both 'characters' start as a rather smooth ambient pieces that develop & expand into orchestral, mysterious post-industrial entities, showing a compelling process of densification.
Lim. 500 copies on lovely coloured vinyl (mixed blue, white & black), artwork by Mal Hoeschen (MULTER)." [label info]
www.substantia-innominata.de
"One of the things I like about Drone Records sub-division Substantia Innominata is that it doesn't exclusively deals with the darker than dark drone/ambient music which one would maybe expect from a series of 'works inspired by or related to "the unknown" around or within us. There is also room for sound collage, such as with RLW, Column One and perhaps to a lesser extent Illusion Of Safety. Not always the most obvious names and Brume is another one of those less obvious names, I would think. Christian Renou has been active since close to thirty years and in his early years was active with releasing cassettes, in the early 90s a bunch of CDs and in the last decade or so a bit more sparse with releases (or perhaps it has moved out of my sight?). In the old days his sound theory seemed 'no silence please', and using electronics in a very raw sort of musique concrete manner. On his new record, he uses "electronics (synths), field recordings (door jarring, water), alto sax, gramophone,
tapes, various processed voices, discreet percussion, discreet bass and home made instruments. He paints portraits of two characters, as indicated by the title of the record, and the two pieces, 'Zaklasta-re the beautiful' and 'Glazüük, the dreamer'. In the first the beautiful is unveiled through some dark drones, which move dark and majestically, whereas on top we hear occasionally the alto-saxophone, wailing about, in and out of the mix. This is a fine piece, more ambient and drone like perhaps then you'd expect from Brume, but the saxophone and the occasional electronic sounds add a certain weirdness to the piece. The other side is perhaps less dreamy than it would suggest, and moves in various places, maybe an uneasy night rest? It's in the second half of the piece that we land into a dreamy world via controlled feedback and reverb, and before that, perhaps more the uneasy REM sleep? Here we find voices slipping in and out of the mix; another sign of musique concrete past. An excellent record. It made me lean towards my CD collection and pick some older works of Brume to play in the more quiet hours of the evening." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"One of many characters in the whole post-industrial diaspora who we have not really carried in part due to the difficulty in getting a hold of many of Brume's releases on small European imprints and in part due to not knowing where to start, especially with a catalog that tracks somewhere around 100 releases over 25 years. So, we'll take our cue from Drone Records and their Subtantia Innominata series of 10"s for this introduction into the woolly musique concrete and viral electronics from the French artist Christian Renou. His is a very creepy type of sound design with B-side backmasking, nightmarish vocals all laced throughout atonal, sci-fi tension, squiggled radiophonic explorations, and dark ambient swells, it's almost a cross between the incidental moments of the Logan's Run soundtrack and Coil's Musick To Play In The Dark. The A-side situates a low-end thrumming that's all brooding and ominous in the Svarte Greiner and Deathprod means of shadow-sound manipulation; but out of nowhere comes a crushed horn that's probably a saxophone, but sounds way more like a Tibetan horn with an unkempt scratchiness and apocalyptic fervor made all the more evident through a slow and heavy mechanical iron-on-stone hammering that brings this track to its definitive end." [Aquarius Records]
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| BRUME & TBC |
House Unwillently |
CD-R |
CDR-Version der vergriffenen LP !! Finally out, the CDR version of the sold out LP !!
“This Lp is a collaboration between Brume, aka Christian Renou and Tbc, aka Thomas Beck. I have sent musical material to Brume and he has made five typical Brume tracks out of it. I think I don`t have to introduce him, because over 70 Releases speak his own language.This is the second lp for him and me too. On " House Unwillity" you find all this: a complex texture of soundstructure using drones and enviromental soundscapes from Tbc and abrutlly cuts, "primitiv" percussion and the usual absuse of traditional instruments from the musical talents of Brume. The enviromental recordings was made in a old house near the habour in Hamburg. This house is a part in spectulating with money around this area in Hamburg to get a new architectonic face of happy capitalism. It`s near the wellknow "Hafenstraße", a squat with places for concerts, bars, food on a low profit d.i.y. culture.” [label info on original LP release]
|
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| BRUME / OUBLIER ET MOURIR |
A Year to live |
LP |
" ‘A Year To Live’ is the 2nd collaboration between the German dark ambient/noise sound artist ANEMONE TUBE (OUBLIER ET MOURIR) and the French sound experimentalist CHRISTIAN RENOU (BRUME). ‘A Year To Live’ ties in with the highly acclaimed ‘Transference’ collaboration CD (released by Auf Abwegen, 2003), which radiated a subtle (dis)quieting melancholy, but goes beyond it.
‘A Year To Live’ refers to the same-titled book by Stephen Levine, which deals about preparing for or ‘practicing’ death to remind oneself of the beauty of life. On his deathbed, Socrates exhorted his followers to practice dying as the highest form of wisdom. Levine teaches us to live each moment mindfully and created the so-called ‘year to live’, a program of intensely practical strategies and powerful guided meditations, which helps us to live our lives with more awareness before we die. Both artists approach this theme with notably different points of view, but complement one another’s vision, in such a precise and dedicated manner, that one can truly not exist without the other.
BRUME is the experimental music project by CHRISTIAN RENOU, a particularly prolific sound artist, active since 1985. With recordings on Elsie And Jack, Drone, Old Europa Café, Relapse, Staalplaat and his own Brume Rec., Christian Renou has built quite a name for himself over the years and can be considered a legend in the field. On ‘A Year To Live’ BRUME creates environments ranging from the completely abstract to the vaguely specific, using elements such as voice, loops, wide-ranging drones, ghostly ambiences, noise, various electronics and even percussions. The loops and voice samples roam throughout the track list like persistent ghosts wandering in a transcendental, shapeless purgatory, reciting their obsessions like a mantra.
www.elsieandjack.com/brume
ANEMONE TUBE has aroused much attention with his two consecutive releases ‘Dream Landscape’ (2010) and ‘Death over China’ (2011), which embody hell’s darkest nightmares to give a good, hard glimpse of Death’s reign over matter and human existence. Now a new form of expression is born and in a sense it is the cathartic aftermath of the unbearable pain caused by the previous realisations. Such an expression required a different vehicle, which is OUBLIER ET MOURIR (‘to forget and to die’). A name perfectly suited to the peaceful,
meditative, but also deeply emotional and atmospheric character of the music, which is a unique mix of melancholic ambient soundscapes & melodramatic pop sometimes reminding of TOR LUNDVALL and (early) SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU.
www.anemonetube.de " [label info]
www.silkentofu.bigcartel.com
|
2012 |
€17.50 |
|
| BU.D.D.A. |
All Der Guten Dinge Drei |
CD |
by BU.D.D.A.
Bu.d.d.A. - „Bund des dritten Auges“ is a fairly new project involving experimental musicians Sascha Stadlmeier (EMERGE, attenuation circuit Records) and Chris Sigdell (Leaden Fumes (ex-Phased), b°tong) and which plays meditative ambient drones. Sometimes they play with a guest musician, and sometimes not. For those who need names, it may sound like Troum meets Earth together with Eno… but in reality Bu.d.d.A. builds on the legacy of German industrial band NID (1995-2005), who Chris was a member of, and which released a post-humous CD on Auf Abwegen (Asmus Tietchens, etc.).
---
Chris Sigdell aka B°tong (electronics, samples, guitar) and Sascha Stadlmeier aka EMERGE (electronics, samples, voice), two of the most prolific exponents of the European post-industrial underground scene, have teamed up to form a new project which is destined to include varying guests. The punning project name, which pokes fun at the more esoteric tendencies in the scene (“Bund des dritten Auges” translates as “League of the third eye”), already hints at the fact that there is a third party involved. On this first release, which came out of a 2018 recording session at Màgia Roja in Barcelona, the third member is Dieter Mauson (electronics).
Both Sigdell and Stadlmeier have long been known as exponents of “dark” ambient, and in this collaborative project, they are both at the height of their game as far as deep, brooding textures and reverberating metallic clangs are concerned. The immersive soundscapes, abstract yet cinematic in their ominously sustained (dis-) harmonies, are punctuated, however, by subliminally throbbing microrhythms. Analogue and digital sounds interweave, and while the oceanic drones clearly pay tribute to the “industrial” legacy of acts such as Lustmord and Zoviet France, the occasional digital glitch connects the sound to the present era, where even “industrial” production is no longer only about “metal on metal,” but has become increasingly digital in itself. However, Bu.d.d.A. are clearly less interested in social commentary or the rhetoric of transgression that underpins so much “industrial music,” but rather in the fascination of the sound-in-itself. This is made pretty clear not only by the jokey project name, but also by the mock-provocative, absurdist track titles strongly reminiscent of their peers Feine Trinker bei Pinkels daheim (with members of which Sigdell used to play in Ni?): “Trommelfellatio” (phonetic pun, something like “Ear-drum-sticky blow job”), “Magischer Rochentanz” (Magic [Manta] Ray Dance), and “Menopausenmassaker” (Menopausal massacre).
www.attenuationcircuit.de/releases/36/bu.d.d.a.-all-der-guten-dinge-drei
|
2019 |
€10.00 |
|
| BURIAL CHAMBER TRIO |
Wvrm |
pic-10 |
ONLY VINYL IS REAL! Erst einmal fällt die beeindruckende Cover-Artwork von SELDON HUNT auf, zusätzlich zum SPLATTER-igen picture-vinyl gibt es noch gold & schwarz bedruckte klare Inlays, sehr passend zum dem unglaublichen tief-morastigen Sumpf-Bass-Drones die hier erzeugt werden, man meint die hohe Lautstärke mit denen hier die Verstärker in Schwingung versetzt wurden immer noch zu spüren, alles steht kurz vor dem ZERBERSTEN, und irgendwo da drin in diesen tiefen Feedbacks ist eine menschlichähnliche Gestalt die ächzt & stöhnt, ein sterbendes Monster... DIE BESTIE IST LOS! Selten einen so tiefgrunzend-abartigen Sound vernommen...
In der Tat, auf 33 klingts noch besser als auf 45, und es dröhnt länger.... so LIEBLICH!
"The Burial Chamber Trio is: Oren Ambarchi (Guitar, Analog Electronics), Greg Anderson (BASS/subsonics) & Attila Csihar (Vokills, invokations). Live recordings from the groups performance in Rotterdam, Holland in Jan. 2007 at club: Wurm. 10"Picture disc // with original art and packaging design by Seldon Hunt. Two transparencies with gold ink/printing on them." [label info]
"....For this outing, Ambarchi and Anderson are credited with sub bass death throb, while Attila is responsible for undead voices. And that's pretty much what it sounds like, sub bass throbs with haunting undead vocals woven into the heaving roiling mass. There seem to be some guitars in there too, maybe some electronics, but it's hard to tell, it's all smeared into a single swirling blackened mass. When we first listened to it, we played it at 33 (which we're assuming now is NOT the right speed, so hard to tell sometimes), and we thought, wow, this is even slower and sludgier than ever, but once we figured out it was meant to be 45, the sound reverted back, closer to the sound of SUNNO))) or the older records of their forbears Earth. Slow motion riffage, glacial and thick, massive and blown out and super distorted, muffled and murky, a sluggish sprawl of caustic crumbling guitars, the vocals barely audible, a haunting raspy growl way down in the mix, often just sounding like another buzzing bassline, hum and fuzz, dense and intense, all melted down into a viscous black crawl. Occasionally, the random bits of riffage and low end rumble coalesce into truly gorgeous harmonies, lovely and chordal, like some blackened church organ, but for the most part, this is the sound of guitar tones allowed to ring out forever and beat against each other, the air filled with oscillating overtones and strange tonal colorations, all beneath a patina of thick black buzz.
Amazing cover art as well, a gross out gutted worm picture disc, with a transparent skull and bugs insert on one side, and another sick silkscreened artwork overlay on the thick plastic sleeve, all courtesy of Mr. Seldon Hunt. Recorded live, in January of this year, in Holland. And of course, you had to know this part was coming: LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES!! And if it's anything like the other Burial Chamber record, it will sell out FAST." [Aquarius Records]
label: www.southernlord.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| BURNES, ANDREW |
Telescope |
LP |
Siebter Teil in der neuen "Gitarren-Serie" mit kunstvollem, farbigen Gravur-Vinyl. ANDREW BURNES aus dem LOREN MAZZANE CONNERS-Umfeld schafft konzentrierte Aufmerksamkeit in seinem innovativen Umgang mit seiner "steel guitar", wenn polytonale, metallisch schimmernde und sehr lebendige Drones erstönen..
"7th installment in the Guitar Series Vols. 3 & 4. Burnes is a founding member of the ethereal, post-blues ensemble SAN AGUSTIN & is also member of HAUNTED HOUSE, alongside Loren Mazzacan Connors. Telescope is a glittering chunk of sound, as Burnes transforms that particular emblem of Americana, the steel guitar, into one vast, slowly undulating drone." [label info]
"Here, Burnes, credited with just lap steel guitar, totally reinvents the instrument, subverting any idea of Appalachia or traditional steel string guitar music, instead creating a warm sidelong soundscape of muted buzz and slowly shimmering soft focus drift. The main component here is most definitely the drone, a whirring buzzy, shimmering metallic whir, that is by no means static, instead shifting colors and subtly changing shape, almost like holding your ear against an excited string as its overtones take on a life of their own. But in and around the buzz, little flecks of melody surface, almost like sparks being produced by the constant incessant vibrating steel, but these sparks are soft and sweet, like the surviving fragments of what was once some sort of Appalachia, drifting to the surface, and fluttering to the ground through Burnes' ever
expanding cloud of warm metallic shimmer. Super subtle and minimal and gorgeous. Drone music fanatics will definitely need to keep an eye on Burnes, and folks who like their country disembodied and blurred into warm fuzzy blissy drones, well then Telescope seems like it was custom created just for you! Pressed on super thick, swirled milky green black and white vinyl. One sided, the other side with a beautiful etching courtesy of the mighty Savage Pencil, housed in a thick PVC sleeve, and again like most good things in life, or so it seems, VERY VERY LIMITED!" [Aquarius Records review]
|
2008 |
€17.00 |
|
| BURNING STAR CORE |
Blood Lightning 2007 |
CD |
"Creeping drones, strange mutilated vocal incursions, and compositions full of unidentifiable sounds both acoustic and electronic. Another classic in sound exploration from the mind of Mr. C. Spencer Yeh. This is the sound of humanity looking into the depth of their soul searching for a reason to continue fighting the daily maze of homo sapien life. The three sisters on the front cover of this album all have the "mark of the devil. Like all No Fun Productions cd's comes in the deluxe classic mini-gatefold style no fun CD case." [label notes]
www.nofunfest.com/nofunprod.html
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| BUTTIGIEG, KURT |
Sun Recordings |
CD-R BOX |
Konzeptionell so ziemlich das obskurste und originellste was hier in letzter Zeit ankam, von diesem inzwischen in Luxemburg (!) ansässigen Malteser (!) Künstler... „das Ergebnis von fast vier Jahren Nichts-Tun“... nur die gnadenlose Sonne brezelte auf einsame Tapes hinab und veränderte deren elektro-magnetisch aufgezeichneten Informationen.
3 Extrakte mit dumpfen Pulsationen und leicht sägende Summ-Drones, Staubsauger-Sounds, unterbrochen von Kratz- & Rauschattacken. 47 min n schöner Box mit sonniger Artwork.
“ „Sun Recordings" is a result of almost four years of doing nothing. I wanted to literally record the sound of the sun-in the same way that people want to feel a smell, look at a sound, or hear a vison. For these recordings, I took previously composed (very static) semi-electroacoustic pieces and transferred them to pre-recorded tapes that had been sitting in my desk drawer for ten years. I then left these out in the scorching Maltese sun for a duration of four years... When I got round to actually playing the sun-baked tapes, I had serious doubts that the sun would have had any noticable effect upon them---but to my amazement the sun's exposure had indeed produced a great effect on the tapes, decaying the sound and reforming harsh noises into violent bangs.” [artist info]
|
0000 |
€15.00 |
|
| BVDUB & IAN HAWGOOD |
The Truth hurts |
CD |
"Brock and Ian were introduced to each other through Mike, who ran a small but perfectly formed record label and shop called Smallfish Records. Mike had this crazy idea that Brock and Ian were like two musical peas in a pod and that they should work together. Mike wasn't wrong, and the first musical product of this 'poddom' was Brock's own bvdub release 'Tribes at the Temple of Silence ' on Ian's label - Home Normal. The second is a musical collaboration between the two titled
'The Truth Hurts.' 'The Truth Hurts' was put together and created in their current respective homes of China and Japan.
The album is a reflection on not only loneliness, but the stark reality – and hidden beauty - with which it is forever entwined. Ian poured over old recordings, recent recordings and even recorded new work as a sketchpad for Brock to work from, and in the end, Brock wove Ian!s recordings from 1999-2011 together with his own, forming his own oceans of drones, walls of emotional abstractions, field
recordings, and even live recordings that would see the initial sketches become complete narratives, each with a very different story to tell. The result is a raw and unbridled experience – one that pays homage not only to the eternal and often crushing beauty of loneliness, but also the days when music only worried about speaking from the heart.
'The Truth Hurts' is a labour of love, a reflection on isolation, and a message of strength through innocence undimmed.
NOTE: All profits from this release will go to relief funds in Japan, directly used by Ian's wife who is currently working with both the Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support organisation (JEARS) in Sendai and surrounding areas, as well as the Direct Help for Victims and Animals Rejected from Shelters in Japan group who are going up to areas which are not receiving government support for food, water, basic supplies, as well as rebuilding and cleaning up. Thank you." [label info]
www.nomadickids.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| B°TONG (B*TONG / B-TONG/ BTONG) |
Ov ELF and HAARP |
CD-R & object |
"ACL 1003: Limited edition of 50 in hand-painted unique packaging
AC 1003: Unlimited edition in plastic sleeve
A concept album by Swiss dark ambient/drone industrial legend B°tong which uses the conspiracy theory on the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research project (HAARP) as its basis while simultaneously infusing it with subtle and highly sophisticated artistic irony. Deep electronic drones invoking the echo of enormous rooms and sound collages oscillating between the crackle of polar snow and echo location devices pinging through secret command bases combine to form a soundtrack of subliminally brooding horror while sometimes allowing for surprising lighter moments.
These lighter moments include the almost meditative, tonal marimba sound in “Pagan Field Trip” (track 6), which is however replaced by “Stars Right Be Wrong” (track 7) taking the listener straight back into the dark with reverberating whispers and bat-like delay screeches. This album is “cinema for the ears” without the cliché, because reading the liner notes about HAARP, an attempt by the US Navy to turn the aurora borealis in a giant antenna for broadcasting in the ELF (Extremely Low Frequencies), conjures up images from a conspiracy/horror thriller on the subject, which makes it possible to listen to this album as a sort of radio drama (almost) without words. After the respective oeuvres of film composers Graeme Revell (formerly of SPK) and Brian Williams (Lustmord), this album is further testimony to the common ground between good industrial and atmospheric soundtracks." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"The Attenuation Circuit label started out with the release of music by Emerge, and now expands to other artists, and the first one is B*tong, the Swiss artist who has already produced a fine body of atmospheric and ambient music. This new one is more or less a concept album about the conspiracy theory 'on the High Frequency Active Auroral Research project', which, according to Wiki, is 'its purpose is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance purposes', set up by the US government, so you know for a fact there is a hidden agenda (not me). This sort of conspiracy theory/lunacy about such matters fits the music really of B*Tong, who is known to use radio signals, sound effects and electronics to create chilly, eerie, atmospheric music. Sometimes there are voice bits, whispering, not singing, adding a radioplay like texture to the music, which is otherwise quite inspired by the work of Lustmord: lots of reverb, but used in an effective way and not over the top. Excellent work." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€11.00 |
|
| |
Hostile Environments |
CD |
"B°TONG is Chris Sigdell, former member of the German experimental industrial group NID (1995 – 2005).
With B°TONG he reaches for the nether regions of experimental electronic sound and has established himself as an acknowledged and known professional soundscape artist. His music is a choice of dark, brooding layers of sound, high-pitched tones and weird electronic sounds that give birth to images of darkness and tranquillity, the solitude of an icy polar night or the equivalent of an underwater journey into a bottomless pit. To create these soundscapes, he uses found samples and self-made recordings and processes these on the computer together with recordings of his own voice and other vocal samples. There are no traditional instruments involved. In a live-situation Chris Sigdell relies on playing metal-sheets, electric toys and various kitchen utensils. The sounds thus generated are put through various effect-pedals giving him that trademark sound.
.
B°TONG has played over 200 concerts all around Europe and in Russia, Canada and the U.S.A. He has shared stages with Aun, Batur Sönmez, Column One, Dave Phillips, Frontline Assembly, Michael Northam, Origami Galaktika, Sudden Infant, The (Law) Rah Collective, To Live And Shave In LA, Troum, Zbigniew Karkowski.
.
Sometimes B°TONG collaborates with other artists, as he has done with: Alain Courtis, Batur Sönmez, Diskrepant, Origami Galaktika, PS Stamps Back, TBC, and Tamagawa. Two new project are Tongdisklaktika, a together with Benny Braaten (Origami Galaktika) and Per Åhlund (Diskrepant) and Thee Secret Society with Jürgen Eberhard (F.T.PB.P.D.), Helge Moune (1000schoen) and Melvin Neumann (Vibrae). B°TONG has also been part of installations (“Polarkreis” & “95°“ by Brigitte Gierlich & Camilla Schuler) and video-projects (“Images” by Ulrich Fischer). He video-clips have been shown at the 2007 Miami Art Fair as part of the Urban Nomad film-festival, and in Beijing. His videos are made in collaboration with video artist Silvia Bergmann." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
"We first discovered Chris Sigdell, aka B-Tong (which, by the way, is usually written with a little circle, you know, the degrees sign, not a dash, but our website doesn't like it, so hence the hyphen), via a four way split called One Man Drone, which as you may have surmised, was a collection of one man drone-groups, and our favorite of the bunch happened to be B-Tong, whose sound was weirdly cinematic, and fantastically and psychedelically noisy and chaotic. We compared the sound to Philip Jeck mixing Goblin and Wolf Eyes! We later discovered that Sigdell played in NID, another group who utilized drones, but wove those drones into something much more cacophonous, and expansive and lushly layered. But still, ultimately, it was all about the drone.
We had always hankered for more B-Tong, and while apparently there have been a bunch of full lengths, this is the first we've managed to get our hands on, and it's just as good as we remember; and yeah, if there was ever any doubt, Sigdell firmly establishes himself as an aQ-pantheon-worthy dronelord.
The opener, is ominous and cavernous, laced with weird crackles and gritty crunch, kindred spirits with our own Jim Haynes for sure. The sounds oozing a sort of sonic decay, and some deft and subtle sample placement, makes the opener even more chilling. It's almost like some industrial doom, stripped down to its skeletal core. A moody, muted melody, playing out like foghorns in the distance, echo drenched chimes, and tinkling percussion, buried under grey washes of softly undulating thrum, lots of constantly shifting textures, and some seriously harrowing sound design reminiscent of Ben Frost. And the sound continues to drift southward as the record progresses, a virtual journey through dark caverns, toward whatever lurks below, fields of deep resonant rumbles, dripping water, distant billows of thunder, stretched out into weird glossolallic shimmers, thick chordal blurs that ooze and bleed ominously, splashing water doused in FX and transformed into a sort of garbled alien language. Plenty of barely there lowercase ambience, but also super active sprawls of electro static gristle, ultra creepy moans and gasps, sonar pings that disappear into the abyss, short wave broadcasts from beyond, lumbering behemoth beats, dulled into barely perceptible pulsations, smears of almost dub like throb, and keening high end tones dulled into bleary shimmery sonic ripples, all locked in a sort of hazy stasis, while all around, billowing clouds of black hum drift malevolently, and beneath this black soundworld, hushed melodies, and dreamlike sonic coloration, shift constantly creating an ethereally prismatic sonic backdrop. Fantastic. Essential dronemusic for sure!!" [Aquarius Records] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE |
Love is a Stream |
CD |
"As a member of San Francisco legends Tarentel and Type’s premier astral travellers The Alps, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is hardly a new addition to the label, so it’s hard to believe that ‘Love Is A Stream’ is his first Type solo album. Previously releasing on Arbor, Spekk and his own Root Strata imprint, this latest album marks his journey into the beautifully cacophonous world of dream pop.
Shoegaze music has been much maligned in recent years, probably due to its rebirth and subsequent explosion of popularity (which gave rise to hundreds of young bands aping the over twenty-year-old sound). However it was only a fragment of the genre that these bands attempted to re-create, and on ‘Love Is A Stream’ Cantu, instead of focusing on tired weeping melancholy ballads, focuses solely on expansive, almost noise-ridden hopefulness. This is the kind of noise we fell in love with when My Bloody Valentine blew our ear drums performing ‘Loveless’, or the kind of harmonic excess we heard on hundredth listen to Catherine Wheel’s ‘Ferment’, but taken into deeper, more abstract realms.
‘Love Is A Stream’ is dedicated to love itself, and the dreamy, shimmering blown-out textures might at first sound like white noise before they ultimately give way to blissful harmony and hidden melody. Underneath the grit and growl are hidden guitar parts, synthesizer drones and even vocals (provided by Lisa McGee, John Twells and Maxwell August Croy) that succeed in swelling the dense, tape-saturated songs to heady new heights and belie any influences they might have. On each listen the mind strips away another layer of dust and bones to reveal haunting and deeply moving beauty.
The world might be spiralling into despair, but Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has brought us a record that isn’t afraid to share the love. All that’s left to do is drown in it." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
| CARRINGTON, BLAKE |
Cathedral Scan |
CD-R |
"Cathedral Scan translates the architectural plans of Gothic cathedrals into open-ended musical scores via custom software. Treating the plans as a kind of map, in the live performance Carrington navigates through them to create diverse rhythms, drones and textures. The album is edited from a live concert in a large church space, and combines the direct signal created in software with the immense natural reverberation of the performance space." [label info]
www.dragonseyerecordings.com
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| CELER |
All at once is what Eternity is |
mCD-R |
"celer is the sound, visual, literary, and artistic endeavor of the husband and wife duo of will long and danielle baquet-long (she sadly passed in july '09). celer fastly gained a big name in the ambient/experimental world thanks to exquisite self-releases and soon was approached by numerous international renowned labels such as infraction, and/oar, mystery sea, smallfish or spekk (a collaboration with mathieu ruhlmann). based upon strings, samples and field recordings, this 22min is another example of the simple beauty celer was able to create..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"What Drone Records does with 7"s, does Taalem with 3"CDR releases. Quite a success and getting more and more great names added to the series. People that we know otherwise from the real CD releases, which aren't afraid to put something out on a 3"CDR. Celer for instance gained quite a reputation in a short time span. What I didn't know about Celer is that Danielle Baquet-Long, one half of Celer, passed away in July 2009 of heart failure. Since then no new works are created, and all works that are released now, are from the duo of Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long, recorded before that. 'All At Once Is What Eternity Is' is a very fine piece, a signature Celer piece. Meandering drones, with some acoustic sounds in the early parts of the piece. Maybe the sound of crop fields in the wind, along with some bells and chimes. An excellent piece of music." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/all-at-once-is-what-eternity-is-alm-64
|
2010 |
€5.50 |
|
| CHALK, ANDREW |
East of the Sun |
CD |
"...These recordings originally came out in 1994 as a cassette, released through Ora's in-house label, Ora being an early collective that revolved around Chalk, Colin Potter, and Darren Tate with occasional assistance from Jonathan Coleclough, mnortham, Lol Coxhill, and a handful of like-minded British drone enthusiasts. A few years later, the Italian label Hic Sunt Leones convinced Chalk to reissue the cassette in digital form. That CD version of East Of The Sun compressed the two sides of the cassette into a single 50 minute piece and was flushed out with some complementary dronescaping. Chalk was never happy with the Hic Sunt Leones version; and thus his reissue of the album returns to the original version found on the cassette, now gloriously remastered in its entirety. For those persnickety types, the 17 minutes or so which concluded the Hic Sunt Leones version is not here; but that is a minor loss compared to the pinnacle of drone-based minimalism found here.
Sure, Eno's ambient records On Land and Thursday Afternoon were milestones in the realm of ambient music, setting an impressionist context through which any number of the images, thoughts, and ideals could be imagined; but that strategy was perfected by Andrew Chalk on a couple of records. There was his ephemeral album Sumac in collaboration with Jonathan Coleclough, there was the first Mirror album Eye Of The Storm, and there's East Of The Sun. Very dark without becoming unbearably cold, East Of The Sun is a constant bloom of nocturnal frequencies, whose origins may be thoroughly blurred bass guitar or possibly some resonant artifact from Chalk's acoustic work in Organum. Regardless, the resultant drones drift with no beginning and no end, merely rippling, reflecting, and turning upon themselves in a perpetual, very slow motion turbulence. Leaves tumbling in autumnal twilight. Fog spilling over coastal hills. Moonlight tickling the agitated surface of a pond. Any of these organic references for meditation on simplicity to reach the sublime and the profound could easily apply to Chalk's East Of The Sun. Not just recommended, this is required listening." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€17.50 |
|
| CHAOS AS SHELTER |
Dead Air Broadcasts |
CD |
Dunkler Radiowellenäthernoise, der ein faszinierendes Dickicht von blubbernden, verrauschten Radiosinustönen offenbart, in denen sich mitunter verzerrte Stimmen wiederfinden, wie Botschaften aus einer fremden Galaxie. Very succesful new CAS release, totally different from other works but still so dark and menacing..
„This release combines drones with distorted overtones and hints of blip and glitch. Grinding mechanical sounds also add to the mix assaulting the ears with brutal yet melodic power electronic compositions. In addition the album harbors a few tracks that lend themselves more to the dark ambient side of experimental music with the same source materials as the above only with less aggression.” [press release]
|
2002 |
€11.00 |
|
| CHAOTALION |
Tannenholzrauch |
CD |
"Dark fir woods and weird pentagram-esque runes on the cover: How can the contents of this album not be a clichéd, possibly black-metal influenced rendition of the idiotic “stay true to the soil” creed? Well, Alexander Marco has succeeded in tricking us all. His music on this album under the Chaotalion moniker is a vast expanse of breathing, pulsating ambient dreamscapes, cleverly evoking certain black metal genre elements, but totally eliding its ideology.
Marco uses guitar and electronics to create the music on this album, but his textural approach owes a good deal to his work with not-so-musical sounds. A regular participant in the Noise Factory sessions hosted by Y-Ton-G, Marco is also schooled in musique concrète and assemblage of found sounds, and this rather constructivist approach gives this release a refreshingly sober, clear, kitsch-free touch. Actually, the album, with all its packaging and teutonic titles, might well be a conceptual ‘joke’ on certain ‘black’ aesthetics, but the music is too well-crafted to allow for an easy interpretation as a simple parody.
File under: ambient" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"Attenuation Circuit Records have been rumbling around for a while. It’s mindblowing how much effort Sascha puts up into his releases, shows, tours, and his activism on the contemporary avant-garde scene skyrocketed the label to the top. It’s no wonder why this is the case considering the number of releases Attenuation Circuit has managed to publish in previous years. The numbers speak for themselves. Tannenholdrauch by Chaotalion is just a tiny particle in the label’s vast universe, but the significant gear on the modern dark ambient scene. The album comprises of nine cleverly layered dark ambient numbers that burst with eerie atmospherics. These eerie atmospherics consist of a wide array of spacey sounds, subtle synthetic drones, occasional guitar experimentations, and delicate non-organic noises. Chaotalion uses calm tones as overtures for his compositions, perpetuated by simplistic ambient keys. The situation becomes complex when the artist includes the mentioned elements to enhance the overall listening experience. The transitions between monotone and polytone sequences are nicely composed, so Tannenholdrauch keeps attention thought complete sessions. There’s a certain accentuation of composite darkness showcased through loads of assorted half-tones. However, Chaotalion maintains a dosage of melody that sounds intentionally odd, but pleasant to the listening apparatus. The artist has also included pulsing sequences at some points to retain listeners’ attention during the exhausting monotone segments. Still, these monotone segments are incorporated to maintain a dark, depressive, obscure ambiance that lurks around throughout the complete album. If that was the intention of the Chaotalion, than the artist unquestionably nailed in his intent to depict macabre imagery through Tannenholdrauch. The album comes with minimalistic photography of the woods, characteristic for depressive black metal bands, and it includes stylized pentagram logo, which serves as a Chaotalion’s symbol. Tannenholdrauch carries the dosage of depressiveness characteristic for the vast majority of dark ambient works, but this particular one provides a more eerie atmosphere than the other artists. Tannenholdrauch has come as a compact disc, and it can be purchased at the Attenuation Circuit Bandcamp page." [Thoughts Words Action] |
2015 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Asabjaris |
CD |
Chaotalion is perhaps the most eccentric spawn and the actual main project of musician and sound artist Alexander Marco who has been in the spotlight for quite a while with the more danceable sound of his Industrial Fusion project SaturmZlide. Chaotalion on the other hand, a project that was born in 1997, transgresses conventional structures of electronic music; rhythm and melody are only a minor issue on Marco's electroacoustic playground.
With experimental dark drones and ritual scapes he creates hypnotic, surreal atmospheres that transfer the inclined listener to completely different realities. The collage-like soundscapes of Chaotalion are always arranged with great detail; with an enormous archive of field recordings, his typical analogue sound and unique references to the occult, Marco gives his works a distinctive and personal character.
We now welcome Chaotalion with his new full time album on Krater Recordings. (Krater Recordings, KR05-008)
https://audiophob.bandcamp.com/album/asabjaris |
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| CHARTIER, RICHARD |
Decisive Forms |
CD |
"Der uns bisher unbekannte RICHARD CHARTIER verbindet hier frizzelige Sounds und Drones im ruhigen Bereich, Stereoeffekte und wellenförmige Subbässe, für die Kontemplation in absoluter Ruhe und Entspannung." [Drone Rec. 2001]
“Decisive Forms is a very subtle, abstract work of great detail, a perfect object for contemplation that requires the listener's full attention. I find it extremely captivating to follow as it unfolds over time, to adapt my breathing to its slow pulse, and to be completely absorbed by the act of perception itself without thinking in form of interior comments, descriptions, or associations.
Decisive Forms is another step forward Richard is taking from his fine work 'series' that has just received one of the twelve Honorable Mentions of PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA 2001. I will not try to further describe Decisive Forms, but rather encourage you to
go ahead and experience it yourself - the attention it requires is generously rewarded.” [bernhard günter, May 2001]
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Continue |
CD |
With his new album “Continue” Richard Chartier presents four minimalist compositions with a focus on deep drones and apparent silences. The music is subtle, delicate and at moments fragile. Full, with details, like delicate patterns that unfold like ripples on water.
With a keen eye on details the compositions reflect Chartier’s earlier work, but also asks new questions.
When is the creative process done? Is art ever finished or does it continue to develop? And how does the listener participate in this? Will they give it full attention using a headphone to hear the smallest detail, or will it be played in the background? How will they perceive the work?
Richard Chartier’s words on Continue:
Over the past few years I’ve been revisiting materials for several long form works: recomposing, restructuring, re-editing, re-evaluating…until they started to break down into separate pieces and segments.
All the while I wonder for each, “Is this done? Is this complete? Why can I not allow this to be finished?” and what is it that draws me back into them.
What determines the completion of sound, of composition, of experience? What determines when it fades—when it’s pressed onto a substrate?
One of the most constant forces in our lives, the sun, is always shifting, undulating, sending forth energy. To us on the ground, it might look basically the same every day, but we don’t notice the subtle changes to its surface. It has no true completion of form.
Upon release, I wonder if these are completed forms. I already feel I need to rework them. Aren’t we unfinished forms, too? Even the forms of recorded aural experience continue to shift as the listener re-interprets and re-contextualizes them in their environments and playback.
The four movements on ‘Continue’ present four variations on the idea of completion.
https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/continue
|
2020 |
€12.50 |
|
| CHASSE, LOREN & MICHAEL NORTHAM |
The Otolith |
CD |
58 Minuten voller Wunder und Geheimnis! Mehrere Jahre haben LOREN CHASSE (THUJA, etc.) und MICHAEL NORTHAM eine unglaubliche Fülle von Klängen zusammengetragen (Field Recordings, Aussen-Objekt-Aufnahmen, Instrumentalsounds) und daraus auf acht Stücken Räume voller konkreter Details und dröhnender Sphären erschaffen, es tönt so soft und obertonreich und doch nie beliebig, Originalsounds bleiben oft im dunkeln aber betören stets in höchstem Maße. Das ist "organischer Ambient" oder "Microsound Musique Concrete" in Vollendung!
"The recordings of Loren Chasse and Michael Northam begin and end with the great outdoors. Yet, the well-documented wanderlust of these two kindred sound artists is only part of the equation. Field recordings of wind, water, and stone intertwine and hybridize within private rituals of droning psychedelic ragas that return as a folklore reiterating the mystery of the natural world around us. Through his numerous contributions to the multi-faceted Jewelled Antler as well his solo work, Chasse has long postulated the microphone as an extension of his ear, which magnifies and probes the surface of the earth for a tactile grit that permeates all of the sounds that he generates. Northam claims his inspiration from vast geographies, microscopic detail, and severe weather, which he compacts through various techniques to explore what is between improvisation and acousmatic composition. Both Chasse and Northam entertain such notions through an alchemy of arcane instruments: autoharps, ouds, flutes, bells, gongs, bowed wires, harmonium, and Northam's magnetic table harp. The Otolith is the result of several years of work, with sounds gathered collectively in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout Europe. The album speaks as a bramble of fence wire and chaparral scrub oak, acquiring an unkempt collection of rubbish, cobwebs, insects, and soil within its tangle. As the wind pushes in one direction, this mass emits a quite if scratchy melody as if the ghost from a forgotten song; but when the wind changes directions, it bellows a rasping din of metal and vine cracking against itself. This sodden calliope tumbles into a miasma of droning atmospheres, softly rasped distortion, and very subtly rendered lulabies lurking deep within the overgrowth." [label info]
" Throughout the Marin Headlands just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, the coastal mountains are dotted with countless bunkers which were built during World War II in anticipation of the Japanese invasion that never came. Nearly 70 years later, these bunkers have been weathered by wind, fog, rain, and of course the sodden folks who tromp through the Headlands on a daily basis. These concrete structures with small portals facing the Pacific all have amazing reverberant qualities; and it shouldn't be a surprise that the more frequented bunkers and passageways inevitably echo with the sound of children dying to hear their own voices tossed back to them. The Headlands have been a favored destinations for Loren Chasse, who has sought many of the lesser known and lesser travelled environs for field recordings and jam sessions that would eventually work their way
into all things Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Franciscan Hobbies, The Blithe Sons, Of, Ov, etc.). In his recordings, Chasse extracts a profound mystery and grand sense of wonder from that echo, the bunker's grit, the soft recurrence of surf bleeding through those walls, and the distant bleat of a foghorn.
Back in 2005, Chasse took his fellow globetrotting wanderer Michael Northam to the Battery Townsley where the two set up long
string wires and various handheld instruments to begin a series of recordings which took a few years to complete after Northam left
California. The two did manage to meet up once again in Estonia, there exploring the Soviet industrial ruins that pock the Estonian landscape with similar intentions. Out of the bramble of overgrown weeds, rebar, concrete, dirt, rock, wind, and water, Chasse and Northam straddle those psychedelic leanings of Jewelled Antler and the more studied aspects of minimalism.
The Otolith begins with an acoustic clamor, as if billions of iron filings were brushing against each other under the direction of a
couple of hefty magnets, before shifting into a harmonium blur of sustained tones hinting at a melody well beneath these clouds of tousled energy. Softer drones and Aeolian fragments flutter forth out of bowed strings and gently tapped gongs amidst a golden hue of opiated atmospherics. Scrabblings across the surfaces of leaves, rocks, mud, and metal fuse with field recordings of wind and water, as a continuing demonstration of Chasse's alchemy with naturalist sound to bring forth stately ragas and dreamtime psychedelic lullabies.
Chasse and Northam work amazingly well together, having produced this thoroughly amazing album. Think Popul Vuh, Parson Sound, Pandit Pran Nath, Harry Bertoia, and Eric La Casa. Totally beautiful and mesmerizing." [Aquarius Records review]
www.helenscarsdale.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| CHRYSTAL BELLE SCRODD |
Belle de Jour |
CD |
"While this is the reissue of the second Chrystal Belle Scrodd record which was originally released in 1986, Belle De Jour features some of the earliest recordings that Diana Rogerson produced with her husband Steven Stapleton (aka Nurse With Wound). Belle De Jour opens with three short pieces of bowed cymbal scrapes and metallic screeches bathed in variable layers of reverb sounding not too far off from the early Nurse With Wound album Homotopie For Marie. However, things get really going later on in the disc when Rogerson and Stapleton present "Deadroads / A Gothic Western," which gets off to a groovy start with an infinitely looped '60s go-go rock riff twisted into something that Brainticket would have been proud to have birthed, complete with hallucinogenic guitar freak-outs and Diana ranting in a cavalcade of voices through an impossible to follow stream of consciousness narrative. The thunderous "Riding The Red Rag" follows this piece with Diana's cold-stare vocals haunting above a thick atmosphere of drones and heavily reverbed cracks from a kick drum. Unfortunately, this reissue confuses some of the names of the tracks, as "Riding The Red Rag" is misnamed as "The Demon Flower," and the equally impressive creepfest "Black Mother Mountain" is listed as "Riding The Red Rag." This may probably only upset the die-hard NWW completists; but it certainly does not distract from this amazing reissue of damaged art-rock / post-industrial mantras. Recommended." [Aquarius Records]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| CINDYTALK |
In this World |
CD |
Nach "Camouflage Heart" von 1984 verschwanden CINDYTALK für vier Jahre in der Versenkung, die sie allerdings damit verbrachten, das epische Nachfolgewerk "In This World" zu schreiben und aufzunehmen. "In This World" erschien als zwei separate Vinyl LPs, die beide "In This World" betitelt, aber mit verschiedenem Cover Artwork ausgestattet waren. Die Neuauflage erscheint als Doppel-Vinyl oder einfache CD.
"In This World" is a noble venture. It's every inaccessible racket you could imagine but creeps gently in on the delectable title instrumental before kicking you in the navel with a hybrid broth of Motorslug, Swans, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and generally alienating cacophonies." [Chris Roberts (Melody Maker)]
" So the rumor goes that Gordon Sharp was invited to join Duran Duran after Sharp dissolved his Edinburgh glam-punk band The Freeze in the late '70s. He turned them down. Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie also put out the request for Sharp to join the Cocteau Twins. After a brief stint accompanying the Cocteau Twins for a Peel Session in 1982 and a guest spot on This Mortal Coil's It'll End In Tears, he opted for his own project -- the obscure, yet majestic Cindytalk.
In This World is an opus in every sense of the word. Originally, In This World came out in 1988 as two separate albums under the same name, each with slightly different artwork. One album, a masterpiece of abject post-punk that in all honesty is the closest parallel to Swans' Children Of God; the other, a delicate ambient construct of melancholy piano scarred with surface noice prognosticating pretty much everything that Type Records has released (e.g Machinefabriek, Jasper TX, etc.). It's very good thing that both of these albums have been repackaged into one self-contained object, as the only half of In This World that seemed to be floating around was the piano-laced ambient one. As good as that half is, you need the grit and dirge of its companion album to complete Cindytalk's ideas of grand dualities: heaven / hell, pleasure / pain, holiness / transgression, etc.
While billed by Sharp as the 'disgusting' part of the In This World diptych, the first half begins with a lovely tonefloat of scratched violin drones and painterly piano notes. Yet, with the crushing rhythm and noise attack of "Janey's Love," Sharp does not disappoint with his disgusting tag. This is a monstrous industrial dirge with huge monotone slabs of distortion and atonal drones counterpointing Sharp's soaring falsetto. The punk poet Kathy Acker supplies a brief spoken word interlude as the coda to this incendiary number. Immediately hereafter, Cindytalk continue their turgid rhythmic marches with an angular distorted rhythm, slippery bassline mired in audio rust, and twin guitars spitting acid, fire, and brimstone on such tracks as "Gift Of A Knife" and "Circle Of Shit." As the first half of the album progresses, the songs steadily disintegrate as rhythm, song structure, and noise all collapse into a blur of smeared grey that is eerily reflective of William Basinski's Disintegration Loops. The piano which opened In This World becomes
the dominant sound in Cindytalk's soundscapes, also marking the delineation between the two halves of In This World. Yes, this is the
beautiful side of Cindytalk, coated in ash, snow, bruises, and rust. Gordon Sharp's piano playing comes from Brian Eno's Thursday
Afternoon, which in turn came from Erik Satie; and that impressionist sentiment continues forward amidst subterranean drones and field
recordings of barren spaces. Sharp's voice is mostly absent from these tracks, although the eponymous finale to the album showcases
one of Sharp's most emotive croons. They really don't make albums like this any more, with such attention to detail and dynamics between rage and beauty.
Fortunately, both of these records were concise enough that they could both fit onto one CD; and if you've not had the opportunity to hear Cindytalk, please do not let this album and its predecessor Camouflage Heart pass you by!" [Aquarius Records review]
|
2007 |
€14.00 |
|
| CINDYTALK / ROBERT HAMPSON |
Five Mountains of Fire |
10inch |
"Cindytalk - Five Mountains Of Fire: Gordon Sharp (electronics), Paul Middleton (drums), Dan Knowler (Guitar), Gary Jeff (Percussion) and Sherrill Crosby (Electronics). Pre-mixed and re-played by GS at Roi Vert, Okamoto, Japan, March 2009. Robert Hampson - Antarctica Ends Here: Dedicated to John Cale. Recorded and Mixed at Thirst 2007Ð2009 in London and Paris. Design: Dave Coppenhall. Cindytalk's Gordon Sharp and Robert Hampson (Loop. Main...) are 2 characters of legend circulating on the periphery of London (and beyond) underground music over the last 2 plus decades. It may come as a surprise then that this stunning split 10 is the first meeting of these two singular minds. 'Five Mountains Of Fire' by Cindytalk is a cracking track taking their recent brittle electronic experiments and charging them with firecracker like percussion to create a pleasantly disorienting soundscape. Flip it over and Hampson delivers the practical polar opposite with Antarctica Ends Here. An exceptionally beautiful piece utilizing piano and carefully placed electronics so as not to break the ice, a tribute to John Cale's 'Antarctica Starts Here' (from 'Paris, 1919' album). Limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Eine eher unlikely Split, die aber zwei schöne aktuelle Entwürfe des Experimentellen zeigt. Die entzündeten Berglandschaften von Cindytalk klingen wie aus einem Jodorowsky-Film entsprungen: erdig, ekstatisch und irgendwie religiös. Die sirrend-dronige Klangfläche wird in einem Bandkonstrukt mit Gitarre und Schlagzeug erarbeitet und dann in der Nachbearbeitung zerlegt. Besonders die rukelnden Percussion, die sich in der zweiten Hälfte des Tracks in den Mix schiebt, läßt neue Hoffnung für die Kombination von Elektronik und Instrumentarium aufkommen. Der eher scheue Robert Hampson (Main, Loop) hat sich mit seinem konzentrierten Beitrag, nicht wie es scheinen will auf den Eternal Music Cale berufen, sondern sich wohl explizit vor John Cale’s ‘Antarctica Starts Here’ (aus Paris, 1919) verneigt. Der Track klingt wie eine traurig-zerfleischte Geigenmelodie im Lockgroove, angereichert mit Mikropartikeln und schwüler Atmosphäre. Eine unbedingt lohnenswerte Veröffentlichung!" [Zipo, Auf Abwegen]
"Cindytalk is back, thanks to Editions Mego. The CD released last year (see Vital Weekly 702) was mainly the solo effort of Gordon Sharp, and saw him move towards the computerized music, say that of microsound, ambient, drones and such like, so much to my surprise its a band line up here again. Besides Sharp, who gets the credit for electronics, there is also drums, percussion, more electronics and guitar. The pieces was recorded in Japan last year (in concert?) and consists largely of sustaining notes played with bows on the cymbals, drones created from the guitar and electronics having quite an obscure role in this. Great mood music. Which is exactly what can be said of Robert Hampson on the other side. Great mood music. Just like Cindytalk, Hampson has been active in the underground of the UK music life since more than twenty-five years, as Loop and as Main, and since the last decade mainly under his own name, working in that obscure niche where popmusic meets musique concrete.
Popmusic? Things with guitars, more likely. His piece is dedicated to John Cale, another such character on the crossroad of many musical styles. Followings Cindytalk's full sound spectrum approach, Hampson goes out with just a few sounds on his hands. A bowed guitar, some far away crackles and maybe the odd field recording. Carefully constructed as opposed to the somewhat 'live in concert' approach on the other side, but both pieces are complimentary to eachother. An excellent record. I have no idea if Cindytalk now returns as a full band, or that it will continue to confuse us. I hope the latter." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| CIRCULAR |
Radiating Perpetual Light |
CD |
"The evolving, dense nature of Circular's sound world is unfolding again with this new work - the first since 2009. Pulsating and deep, reverberant drones, slowly moving guitar lines and rhythms, combined with ambient layers of rich tonal colours were created with an extensive set of analogue and acoustic devices. With his third album Johannes Riedel has entered a region of higher density that produces deeper echoes of sombre oscillation. Radiating Perpetual Light emerges from the desire to sculpt an organic, meditative and deeply ambient environment of mysterious and shapeshifting soundscapes. This is the perfect soundtrack for a dark and glowing sunset." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| CISFINITUM |
Devotio |
10inch |
Das Projekt CISFINITUM von Evgueny Voronovsky gehört für uns zu den momentan besten russischen experimentell-atmosphärischen / Drone / Post-Industrial - Acts, weshalb die Einladung zur neuen SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA–Reihe nach dem phänomenalen Konzert im Bremer Dom (November 2005) sich fast zwangsläufig ergab.
Bereits im Namen CISFINITUM steckt die Auseindersetzung mit dem Nicht-Mehr-Erfassbaren, DEVOTIO verweist klanglich mit monumentalen Kirchenglocken-Drones auf sakrale Sphären des Transzendenten, nicht mehr Hinterfragbaren.... kommt auf weissem Vinyl und eine fantastische Artwork des Berliner Artworkers TILMANN BENNINGHAUS . “Hinter CISFINITUM steckt Evgueny Voronovsky, ein ausgebildeter Violinist, der neben konkreten und instrumentellen Klangquellen auch alte sowjetische Synthesizer in neuem Kontext benutzt (wie auf der letzten CD-Veröffentlichung „BEZDNA“ [Monochrome Vision]), z.B. den legendären ANS. CISFINITUM (=„Jenseits des Endlichen“) ist ein Text (1930) & Begriff des russischen Dichters Daniil Charms, der für die „Logik der unendlichen Nicht-Existenz“steht: das was hinter dem Verstandesmässigem liegt. Die Endlichkeit der logischen Welt wird durch die Logik selbst nachgewiesen. ’ Das Cisfinitum zerstört die Postulate eines nach dem anderen. Das entzieht jeder Grundlage ihren Halt. Das zweifelt alles an. Das raubt einem sein Vermögen. Das hat kein Heiligtum, keine Moral, keine Tugenden. Das Cisfinitum ist brutal.’ [Michail Demidov]“ [Drone Records / REM-info 2005]
The fourth volume in our new series comes from one of the currently best projects of the russian experimental-atmospheric / drone / post-industrial-scene. Main force behind CISFINITUM we find Evgueny Voronovsky, an educated violinist from Moscow.
CISFINITUM is a notion by russian poet & writer DANIIL CHARMS, meaning the „logic of the infinite non-existence“, that „something“ that is beyond all rational things.
DEVOTIO uses monumental bell-sounds that build complex overlappings & hypnotic drone-waves in various layers, dissolving into pure vibrations. To us It sounds like a journey into the heart of the sacral, pointing at a sphere of transcendence where all questions end. Or begin again. Comes on white vinyl and with great artwork by Berlin-based artworker TILMANN BENNINGHAUS.
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
|
VS (Curve/Curse) (SOLD OUT) |
7" |
From the strong post-industrial scene of Moscow, the duo CISFINITUM is a well
known name since many years but unfortunately had very few releases so far...
We are proud to offer “VS” which presents them at their most refined & intense point of their career. Two thunderous & emotionally stirring tracks; post-apocalyptic landscapes of sounds like watching an eerie painting consisting of earthquakes cracking out fierce drones. Disoriented even more with background voices, metal-banging and more concrete mechanical sounds of unknown origin. Absolutely intense and mind-blowing! This EP is one of the most impressive handmade cover-artwork ever seen in the Drone-series: a nearly 2 inch thick hand-sewed black & grey stripped wool-cover; each one is numbered and comes with a
CISFINITUM cardboard-sign on it.
~ Filed under: post-apocalyptic drones ~
BLACK VINYL WITH WHITE & GREY STRIPES.
ULTRA-HANDMADE WOOL-COVERS, NUMBERED.
|
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Tactio |
CD |
Mitschnitt des denkwürdigen CISFINITUM-Konzerts im Bremer St. Petri-Dom vom 24. November 2005, welches v.a. durch die Verwendung monumentaler Kirchenglocken-Drones besticht (Aufnahmen einer russischen Kirche basieren); es fand statt im Rahmen der REIHE ELEKTRONISCHER MUSIK ("Rapid Ear Movement"), kuratiert von CHRISTOPH OGIERMANN.
"CISFINITUM ist eines der am längsten bestehenden Moskauer Industrial / Experimental/ Elektronik - Projekte (Gründung 1989) und steht für die russische Variante des sogenannten „ambient Industrial“, „drone“ oder „dark ambient“. Als „dark ambient“ bezeichnet man in der neueren elektronischen Musik seit einigen Jahren die „dunkle“ Seite der atmosphärisch-experimentellen Musik, bei der es oft weniger um den explizit Ablauf der Komposition geht, als vielmehr um die Schaffung „bewusstseinsverändernder“ Atmosphären mit Hilfe von Klang. Hinter CISFINITUM steckt Evgueny Voronovsky, ein ausgebildeter Violinist, der neben konkreten und instrumentellen Klangquellen auch alte sowjetische Synthesizer in neuem Kontext benutzt (wie auf der letzten CD-Veröffentlichung „BEZDNA“ [Monochrome Vision]), z.B. den legendären ANS. CISFINITUM (=„Jenseits des Endlichen“) ist ein Text & Begriff des russischen Dichters Daniil Charms, der für die „Logik der unendlichen Nicht-Existenz“steht: das was hinter dem Verstandesmässigem liegt. Die Endlichkeit der logischen Welt wird durch die Logik selbst nachgewiesen." [Konzertankündigungs-Info Drone Records]
"With a parsimonious discography mostly released on seasoned Russian labels such as Waystyx, Ewers Tonkunst and Monochrome Vision, Evgeny Voronovsky has established himself as an uniquely engaging artist in the country's current ambient scene. Under the name of Cisfinitum, he has taken a syncretic approach to an often codified genre, uniting his formal training as a violinist at the Moscow State University with his affinity for concrete sounds and experimental structures. Past releases have shown a capacity to synthesize these factors at times while emphasizing the contrasts between them at others, sometimes over the course of a single track. In this aspect, this album follows the tradition faithfully.
Tactio is the live recording of a Cisfinitum concert at the St. Petri Dom (St. Peter's Cathedral) in Bremen, on November 24, 2005. The particular (and as expected highly favorable) acoustics of this environment were consistently used not only as an enhancing effect but as an integral foundation for the performance, making it unmistakeably tied to its context. Presented in the form of six continuous tracks, the album is a contemplative composition of vibrant drones, reverberating bells and synthesized resonance, gracefully evolving from the celestial tones of its start to the tellurian pulses of its climax. This is a piece of work that is elaborate in its simplicity, and it's with much appreciation that it is presented here today. The beautiful iconic artwork by Evgeny Kuprienko further emphasizes the relic-like qualities of this recording."
[label description]
www.mechanoise-labs.com
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| CISFINITUM & THE [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE |
[ANS]werk |
CD |
"Russian one-man outfit Cisfinitum and Dutch duo The [Law-Rah] Collective are both dark ambient masters. They dedicated this split and common work to one of the very first synthesizers in the world, the ANS. The ANS, created by Russian engineer E. Murzin from 1937 to 1957, is an incredible response to the synesthesia theories (the letters ANS stand for Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin who linked tones to colours). The ANS synthesizer (only one copy exists and is kept in Moscow) generates special frequencies from drawings ("it plays what you have drawn") and in the opposite it can also create a visible image of a sound frequency. Artists such as Coil, Edward Artemiev (for Tarkovsky's Solaris soundtrack) and Alfred Schnittke used the ANS in their compositions.
For this album, The [Law-Rah] Collective and Cisfinitum based their music on original sounds from the ANS as well as additional recordings of various analog synths, fractal and granular synthesis, voice, violin, field recordings.
They give birth to an intense cold and grey music upon which fly ghosts of melodies, archaic or yet to come...
* Track listing :
* 1. the [law-rah] collective - broken gl[A]ss (9:12)
* 2. the [law-rah] collective - broke[N] mirrors (7:38)
* 3. the [law-rah] collective - broken dream[S] (9:08)
* 4. cisfinitum - tr[ANS] (22:52)
* 5. cisfinitum / the [law-rah] collective - [ANS]werk (7:02)" [label info]
www.feardrop.net/fario
"Fario is not quick with releasing their series of split/collaborative works, but they are usually something to watch out for. There are original tracks by each of the two groups involved and a collaborative piece. At the core of this new release stands the ANS synthesizer, of which only one exist, in Moscow. It was developed by E. Murzin from 1937 to 1957 stands for Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, the crazy composer with synesthesia problems. The synth translates drawings into sound, and was used by the likes of Coil, Edward Artemiev (in the 'Solaris' soundtrack) and Alfred Schnittke. I am not sure, but I don't think that Eugene Voronovsky, a.k.a. Cisfinitum and the Dutch duo The [Law-Rah] Collective actually used the ANS, but they use sounds from the machine, as well as voices, polivoks, violin, field recordings (in Cisfinitum's case) and analog synthesizers and electronics (in the Collective case). Cisfinitum's piece lasts almost twenty-three minutes of utter dark textured ambient
bliss. Dark haunting, like a couple of mad monks chanting in the desolated abyss, before going out on a murder spree. Excellent dark trip. In their collaborative piece things sound slightly less dark and more conventional, in a sort of serious avant-garde way, the sort of Planet Of The Apes soundtrack. In the three pieces by The [Law-Rah] Collective things go under again, into the undercurrent of the styx with dazzling sizzling buzzing and ringing sounds of the analogue domain. Though their pieces are less of monolithic block of drones than Cisfinitum, The [Law-Rah] Collective have a somewhat more open sound, grey rather than black. Not really the type of music to be played alone in the dark. Keep candles burning until the end. An excellent display of the darker world of sonic depth." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| CIULLINI, DANIELE |
Cosmetic for Mannequins |
CD |
All tracks written and produced by Daniele Ciullini
Manipulated field recordings, toy instruments, noises from radio, turntable, tape deck, automatic voices
https://lucesia.bandcamp.com/album/095-daniele-ciullini-cosmetics-for-mannequins
"From former Trax (famous Italian label) member Danielle Ciullini, I reviewed a previous release, ‘Great Events Are Coming’ in Vital Weekly 1254, and now he returns with another album, a short one; eight pieces in thirty-one minutes. As before, the credits are for “manipulated field recordings, toy instruments, noises from radio, turntable, tape deck, automatic voices”, and the result is a wackadoodle mash-up of styles, ideas, concepts and sounds. Try and imagine what it would sound like if you had a bit of noise, some plunderphonics, some click n-cut, cut-up, some drones, lots of voices (not sung, no sound poetry), computer technology and all of that went into a blender, and twisted at high speed. If that makes any sense, then you may have an idea. None of this takes control, so it’s never too noisy, plunderphonics, or such a thing (not wanting to repeat the whole list). Keeping his pieces short, between three and five minutes, and adding quite some variation within each of these pieces, using a massive pile of sounds, means there is some great speed on this album. Yet, Ciullini knows how to keep fine pacing in his music. It never becomes an amorphous mass of sound, as he cleverly adds breaks and changes in his songs, such as in the best of the lot, ‘Mass Loneliness’, which has the markings of a pop song, for the lack of a better word. Overall a great album and one that could have been longer, say, the length of an old-fashioned LP. Maybe next time!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| CLAVICVLA |
Sepulchral Blessing |
CD |
"Black Ambient at its finest. Italy’s Clavicvla channels the cosmic void, the source and finality of all things manifest. A true sonic force that reverberates through the core, allowing to escape one’s physical form and delve deep without, where logic and comprehensions are null... Diabolical black ambient/death industrial demon Claviclva returns with his blood-chilling sophomore LP "Sepulchral Blessing", unravelling another forty minutes of tyrannical nightmare fuel that will leave the listener catatonic and agonising in horror. With "Sepulchral Blessing" this time Clavicvla constructs a sonic tomb of immense evocative force that inters the listener into a lucid nightmare and transports them straight into the kingdom of the dead, acting as an abominable sonic vessel to the underworld. Unbelievably repulsive, blood-chillingly horrific and unyieldingly evil, on this astonishing new work sole mastermind Ittiel has harnessed the quintessence of malignity and created a cinematic soundtrack to a ghastly decent into the underworld, where diabolical atmospheres drenched in the stench of death, nightmarish soundscapes, and monstrous drones and sub-bass frequencies are masterfully interwoven and manipulated to envelop, entrance, and entomb the listener into the nethermost pits of hell."
CD Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel Digisleeve. 6 Tracks. Running Time 37:30
LP Edition of 300 copies on Black Vinyl with printed inner sleeve. 6 Tracks. Running Time 37:30 (Co-Released with Sentient Ruin)
Conceived and recorded by Ittiel
Mastered by James Plotkin
Layout/design by Ittiel
Photography by MA
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/sepulchral-blessing |
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Sepulchral Blessing |
LP |
"Black Ambient at its finest. Italy’s Clavicvla channels the cosmic void, the source and finality of all things manifest. A true sonic force that reverberates through the core, allowing to escape one’s physical form and delve deep without, where logic and comprehensions are null... Diabolical black ambient/death industrial demon Claviclva returns with his blood-chilling sophomore LP "Sepulchral Blessing", unravelling another forty minutes of tyrannical nightmare fuel that will leave the listener catatonic and agonising in horror. With "Sepulchral Blessing" this time Clavicvla constructs a sonic tomb of immense evocative force that inters the listener into a lucid nightmare and transports them straight into the kingdom of the dead, acting as an abominable sonic vessel to the underworld. Unbelievably repulsive, blood-chillingly horrific and unyieldingly evil, on this astonishing new work sole mastermind Ittiel has harnessed the quintessence of malignity and created a cinematic soundtrack to a ghastly decent into the underworld, where diabolical atmospheres drenched in the stench of death, nightmarish soundscapes, and monstrous drones and sub-bass frequencies are masterfully interwoven and manipulated to envelop, entrance, and entomb the listener into the nethermost pits of hell."
CD Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel Digisleeve. 6 Tracks. Running Time 37:30
LP Edition of 300 copies on Black Vinyl with printed inner sleeve. 6 Tracks. Running Time 37:30 (Co-Released with Sentient Ruin)
Conceived and recorded by Ittiel
Mastered by James Plotkin
Layout/design by Ittiel
Photography by MA
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/sepulchral-blessing
|
2019 |
€21.00 |
|
| CLEW OF THESEUS |
Meridian |
CD |
"This album shows a projection and further maturity in Clew Of Theseus’ sound. Meridian is a dark and esoteric album, very focused, full of sounds at once harsh and ambient, with forceful drones and rich textures. Sounds were created with acoustic winds, electric guitar, analog and junk synthesizers and gritty electronics, mixed to create a foreboding atmosphere. The album was mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering, best known for his work on dozens of Daniel Menche albums. Meridian was recorded in two weeks during the monsoon season of 2008. A careful study into the symbols inside the album show an obsession with elemental force and eternal power. Clew Of Theseus evokes images of furious storms, wiping the landscape of blight, bringing beautiful darkness in its wake. CD packaged in standard jewel case with full-color artwork." [label info]
www.catharticprocess.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| CLOSING THE ETERNITY |
Northern Lights Ambience (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Das Projekt aus Sibirien mit einer Single auf Drone, auf der Sounds von Nordlichtern benutzt werden, „kosmischer“ Noise mit einem inhärenten Drang ins Objetklose.... jedes Cover mit aufgeklebtem, handgeschnittenen Metal-Logo („CTI-Key“) !
“CLOSING THE ETERNITY is a siberian “cosmic drone”-project from Ekaterinburg, with only few released CD-Rs so far it gained already kind of cult-status for lovers of bleak drone-minimalism. The first vinyl-release shows CTI using original ‘northern lights soundings’ together with synths, implementing very cosmic soundwaves with electronic whirs & sinus-tones and small raspy craters inside. There’s a drift into objectlessness and dissolution in these sounds, and urgo into non-existence or transformation into a higher existence-form? This is the perfect soundtrack to the ‘red dawn of the north’ !
Filed under: Aurora Borealis-Drones
DARK BLUE VINYL, BLACK COVERS; EACH COVER COMES WITH HANDMADE / LASER-CUT CTI - METAL-LOGO / KEY STICKED ON IT !!!” [press release] RELEASE DATE: 30. April 2006 !
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| CODE INCONNU |
Abgesang |
CD-R |
Eher in „rockilde“ Gefilde geht es bei diesem Newcomer auf Tonto.....treibend-wuchtiger Instrumental-Rock, mit wunderbaren ruhig-melancholischen Passagen, düstere THIS HEAT treffen auf AIDAN BAKER-Drones....
A trio from Graz, Austria, with minimal experimental drone-rock between THIS HEAT and AIDAN BAKER maybe.
„Benannt nach dem Film "Code Inconnu" von Michael Haneke, welcher Verständnisprobleme zwischen den Menschen thematisiert, behandelt die dreiköpfige Grazer Band mit "Abgesang" ähnliche Themen: Das Erleben von gesellschaftlichen Zwängen und die Auseinandersetzung des Einzelnen damit bzw. die Banalität des Alltags, die zum Auslöser seelischer Konflikte und innerer Zerrissenheit wird. Die Musik ist zu verstehen als Abfolge von "Schnappschüssen"(kurzen Geschichten), die den "Kampf" des Einzelnen mit sich selbst und seiner Umwelt
darstellen sollen. Daraus resultieren Gefühle wie Zerissenheit, Wut und Resignation, die musikalisch ausgedeutet werden. Wichtiger Träger der Emotionalität ist die Klangfarbe (der Sound), welche daher als Ausdrucksmittel im Vordergrund steht. In den minimalistisch angelegten Arrangements mischen sich "brachialer Lärm" und "romantische Zurückhaltung", wobei der oft unvermittelte Wechsel zwischen den Kontrasten als Umschlagen der Stimmung verstanden werden kann. Zu einfachen Drumgrooves kommen tiefe Synth-Bässe und eine extrem effektierte Gitarre sowie computergenerierte Samples. Realisation: akustisches Schlagzeug (Markus Sworcik), effektierte Gitarre (Gottfried Krienzer), Synthesizer (Christoph Uhlmann), Samples." [label info]
www.tonto.at
|
2002 |
€11.00 |
|
| COELACANTH & KEITH EVANS |
Wrack Light in Copper Ruin |
CD & DVD |
Audio CD von COELACANTH, Video-DVD von KEITH EVANS. Ein Geräuschnetz aus field recordings, leicht feedbackenden drones, vereinzelten instrumentellen Sounds & eher konkreten Objekt-Klängen macht sich breit, welches mysteriös und dynamisch zugleich wirkt, ein low-fi dröhnend-wallendes Etwas. Sowas wie pfeifende Windhosen, zischender Sand, rieselndes Granulargeknirsche...schwer zu fassen, alles scheint permanent zu flackern, flirren, schwanken, dicht dran am konkreten Material, & doch so sphärisch & Räume öffnend.
“Jim Haynes and Loren Chasse have collaborated with Keith Evans to create Coelacanth's fourth and most complex record. Culled from two
performances -- a five-hour recording session during Matmos's 96 hours of performances at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and an
audio/visual performance with Keith Evans -- Wrack Light in Copper Ruin explores the the symbiosis of materiality and sound, and its
infinite network of metaphors and allegories.
Like an abandoned aquarium in which an accidental and incongruous microcosm takes shape, Coelacanth's sound illustrates a constant evolution of decay, encroachment, and repossession of the border space between the natural and the man-made.
With Wrack Light in Copper Ruin, Coelacanth also meditates on the space of performance, the tactile nature of the creation of sound,
and its ephemeral, elusive and entirely subjective character. The visuals of Keith Evans further the exploration with their organic, nocturnal, energy. Comparatively, Wrack Light is more delicate than Coelacanth's previous recordings, inhabiting a space where artists such as Jonathan Coleclough, Andrew Chalk, Mirror, and MNortham can be found, yet it maintains the mysterious, oceanic nature its name implies.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| COIL |
Time Machines |
CD |
"Coil's four legit drone pieces, released under the moniker 'Time Machines' in 1998, recorded one year earlier, using single takes with minimal post production. What has become one of the most treasured and revered pieces of COIL history ever released, is now for the first time available on vinyl.
"4 Tones to facilitate travel through time." So begins the listeners’ journey into what has become one of the most treasured and revered pieces of COIL history ever released.
Each of the four pieces on Time Machines is named after the chemical compound of the hallucinogenic drug that they were composed for, and the album was meticulously crafted to enable what John Balance referred to as "temporal slips" in time and space, allowing both the artist and audience to figuratively "dissolve time".
Inspired by long form ceremonial music of Tibet and other religions, where the intent is to lose oneself in the music – to meditate or achieve a trance state – Time Machines became Drew McDowall, John Balance, and Peter Christopherson’s “electronic punk-primitive” answer to this tribal concept.
Starting as a rough demo tape recorded solely by Coil member Drew McDowall, Time Machines started to take full form when McDowall enthusiastically delivered these demo recordings to Balance and Christopherson as sketches for a new Coil project with the primary goal of shifting Coil’s sound further into a more conceptually abstract direction. Largely recorded in 1997 using single takes with minimal post production, these four drones contain every intended fluctuation and tone, along with every glitch of the original – “Artifacts generated by your listening environment are an intrinsic part of the experience.”
Dais Records announces the official remastered reissues of Time Machines on both LP and CD. The reissued CD edition includes reproductions of the 6 original vinyl stickers and comes in a double-pocketed brown board digipack. The reissued double vinyl LP will feature deluxe double pocket gatefold, matte with gloss overlay with printed eurosleeves inserts. The European LP edition is limited to 1000 on transcent orange vinyl."
"The art of Coil involves a confluence of the surreal, the deviant, the magical and the psychedelic, all stemming from their inception within Industrial culture in the early '80s. Time Machines was conceived by Coil's John Balance, Peter Christopherson and Drew MacDowall back in 1998 as a series of audio hallucinogens, constructed by means of method acting. The zeitgeist of Time Machines is the very same as Spacemen 3's early compendium Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To, while the compositional sensibility travels down a very different path. For Balance, the concept to the album reflected the notion of hallucinogens as means of time travel, as he posited, "they can conjure up histories of yourself and/or act as predictors of the future. In any case, they can remove you from 'temporal reality.'" The four tracks are named after four powerful chemical compounds with hallucinogenic properties, with each track presumably engineered both for and through those exact chemicals. Such is deeply rooted in the tradition of kosmische electronica and psychonaut minimalism. La Monte Young, early Tangerine Dream, Nurse With Wound and certainly Coil stand at the pinnacle of a tradition for lysergic music that transcends the need for drug-taking to embrace the full experience.
Time Machines remains one of the few truly successful pieces of electronic music in this liminal oeuvre. Slow oscillating tones gird vibrating patterns, and black-hole echoes of rhythm slither in the distance behind slightly dissonant saw-tooth drones. This simple structural sensibility belies the investigative and imaginative prowess that Coil have long mastered. You can't just turn on a synthesizer and have these sounds spill from the circuitry. In Coil's calibration of electricity with chemistry, this immersive pool of sound is a stark document of their power in dissolving time." [Stranded Rec.]
"Vier Klangreisen zu halluzinogenen Verbindungen. Meditation in post-spiritueller
Versuchsanordnung.
Vier Töne, um eine Reise durch die Zeit zu erleben. So beginnt der Trip zu einer der geheimnisvollsten Veröffentlichungen in der langen Geschichte von Coil. Jedes der vier Stücke von "Time Machines" ist nach
der chemischen Verbindung einer halluzinogenen Substanz benannt. Das Album wurde konzipiert, um zu ermöglichen, was John Balance als eine Art "Fehltritt" in Zeit und Raum bezeichnet; die Möglichkeit für Künstler wie Publikum, sich im übertragenen Sinne in der Zeit aufzulösen, eine Art Gegenstück zu spiritueller Musik. Die drei Musiker verstehen dieses Werk als eine elektronische und von der Primitivität des Punks
inspirierte Antwort auf die lange Tradition zeremonieller Musik und Stammeskonzepte verschiedener Religionen, denen es darum geht, zu meditieren und sich in der Musik zu verlieren. Das Projekt begann als Demo-Tape, das ausschließlich von Drew McDowall aufgenommen wurde, und formte sich voll und ganz aus,
als er es Balance und Peter Christopherson vorstellte. Es entstanden vier Klanggebilde, die 1997 als First Takes aufgenommen und nur minimal nachproduziert wurden." [label info]
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| COIL WITH BLACK SUN PRODUCTIONS |
The Plastic Spider Thing |
CD + DVD |
"This album, featuring Coil’s music literally remixed and re-arranged in ritual form to serve as the soundtrack to the Black Sun Productions extreme performance art spectacle entitled Plastic Spider Things, following the performers’ (among who was counted John Balance himself) every move. Synths, drones, and psychedelic textures lead us on mystical tour of sex and magic, serving as a testament to the undeniable connection between Coil’s music, ritual magic, and performance art.
Included with the CD is a collection of Black Sun Productions videos documenting the history of Black Sun Productions and it’s strong ties with Coil. The DVD features rare clips and backstage footage (Coil Live Gigs) with both Peter Christopherson and John Balance, as well as video manipulations.
A release that all hardcore Coil and Black Sun Productions fans have long been waiting for. Limited 500 copies Not to be missed!"
"Tolle Wiederveröffentlichung des legendären COIL-Albums von 2002. Das Album entstand
in Zusammenarbeit mit der Performance „The Plastic Spider Thing“ von BLACK SUN
PRODUCTIONS. CD und LP kommen jeweils mit DVD und erscheinen auf RUSTBLADE.
2002 veröffentlichte THRESHOLD HOUSE bereits dieses legendäre und kontrovers
diskutierte Album von COIL. Es war im Prinzip der Soundtrack zu der künstlerisch inszenierten
Extremperformance „The Plastic Spider Thing“ in Kollaboration mit dem Schweizer Kollektiv
BLACK SUN PRODUCTIONS. COIL, bzw. JOHN BALANCE war selbst Teil dieser Performance
und der Soundtrack perfekt auf ihn abgestimmt. Das Projekt tourte damals durch verschiedene
Städte in Europa und führte ein anstößiges und nicht überall akzeptiertes Konzept auf, bei dem
es um sexuelle Neigungen, Nacktheit aber auch um spirituelle und rituelle Praktiken wie „Chaos
Magick“ und „Spirituel Sex Magick“ ging. 2003 wurden BLACK SUN PRODUCTIONS in der
Schweiz für die Perfomance sogar vor Gericht gestellt, weil sie in ihrer Kompromisslosigkeit gegen nationale Gesetze verstieß. Das vorliegende Re-Release enthält das Album, welches sich musikalisch zwischen Industrial, Drone und Psych-Noise bewegt, wie auch eine
Videodokumentation der „Plastic Spider Thing“-Tour, exklusiven Backstagematerial und weiteren (Live-)Videos." [Broken Silence]
|
2017 |
€23.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH, J. & LETHE |
Long Heat |
CD |
Collaboration von JONATHAN COLECLOUGH mit dem japanischen Cellisten & Impro-Droner LETHE ! Far-away drones, die man kaum fassen kann, dicht & subliminal, unwirklich & undurchdringlich, zeitweise sehr kraftvoll & konkreter werden in Mikrosound-Bereiche hinein, alles andere als statisch, mit überraschenden Wendungen.
“It's a pity that there is not much information on the cover of this CD, since it would be interesting to know what is going on here. Lethe is the Japanese Kuwayama Kiyoharu, who has released a CD on Trente Oiseaux of his cello/drone music aswell as a couple of releases on his on own label (and a collaboration with Kapotte Muziek is forthcoming on Intransitive). The reader who has been paying attention knows the name Jonathan Coleclough as being on this reviewer's favourite drone artists. Now, why would it be nice to know just a little bit more? Is it Lethe sending sound material to Coleclough? Perhaps. It seems to me the most logical thing upon hearing this CD - well, two actually. If you want you can order a copy and order an extra bonus CD with 'Long Heat - Second Part'. It has the majestic sounds that is the trademark of Coleclough. These long drone sounds that slowly change shape, change colour. But that's only one part of the game. Coleclough adds another layer of heavily reverbed sounds of falling objects. An additional third layer is used for utter dry sounds – scratching the surface. Three distinct layers of sounds that over the course of each disc start to intermingle with eachother, they slowly merge together, but it's not that a blurr arises, not at all. From these slowly merging masses a new distinct and powerful drone arises above the field which slowly moves on and follows it's own course. Once this course is gone, the material falls apart like small particles, suddenly, without warning.
But like said: is this what is done, or is it the work of Lethe producing this work with the use of Coleclough soundmaterial? Something says here, this is not the case. Hard to tell why, so it remains mere guessing. But is it important, all this guessing? Perhaps not, I am sure it is not important at all. Isn't this were the result counts? I am sure it does. And sure it does count. This is a beautiful work of drone music. Majestic stuff, moving slowly forward. Great stuff, but maybe I'm a little biased here.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN & ANDREW LILES |
Torch Songs |
do-LP |
"Liles Reworking injiziert sublimen Feinklang in Colecloughs Improvisationen, etwas Subliminales, ein ständig morphendes, mäanderndes Sirren und Dröhnen, fernen Glockenklang, knispeliges undefinierbares Hantieren. Die Sinne werden in einen träumerischen Zustand versenkt, der sie offen macht für Halluzinationen, die die rechte Hirnhälfte der linken einflößt und zusummt. Die Flamme dieser ‚Torch Songs‘ ohne Worte brennt für keine verlorene Liebe, keinen unbekannten Soldaten, sondern vielleicht für das Unbekannte selbst." [Bad Alchemy]
"'Torch Songs' is a collaboration between Jonathan Coleclough and Andrew Liles. They met in October 2004 when they both performed at Intergration 3 in Preston, UK. Liles subsequently reworked the recording of Coleclough's solo performance from that evening. He went on to add, subtract, multiply and divide further live recordings supplied by Coleclough, and the eventual result was this double LP. 'Torch Songs' is packaged in a gatefold sleeve featuring 'I dreamt I was a river,' a poem composed and painted by Geoff Sawers during a performance with Coleclough in Geneva in March 2005. The sound of Geoff's brush painting this lettering can be heard on side B of 'Torch Songs'. The album comes in a beautiful full colour gatefold sleeve with full colour inner sleeves in a limited edition of 500 copies. 180gr. Vinyl !" [press release]
"Much like the entire back catalogue of John Duncan, British avant-drone artist Jonathan Coleclough has often buttressed his work
through an ongoing set of collaborations, each of which push his work into interesting territories while maintaining that essence of Coleclough that makes all of his albums so enthralling. His 2006 collaboration with Murmer was easily one of the best drone albums of that year, twisting field recordings and quiet sessions with electric objects into a gauzy, crepuscular blur that even made those at Artforum perk up their ears and listen. Torch Songs came to fruition when both Coleclough and Liles performed in Preston (probably at the request of the ever-charming Colin Potter) in 2005. In fact, much of the source material for Torch Songs originated from Coleclough's performance to which Liles went on to "add, subtract, multiply, and divide" further. The fundamentals of Torch Songs are primarily Coleclough's signature moves: swelling, resonant drones manipulated from acoustic sources and distilled into tonally vibrant beams of pure sound. Yet, Liles (who in and of himself is a fine technician of sonic alchemy to the point where he has often graced the stage alongside Steve Stapleton, Colin Potter, and Matt Waldron in Nurse With Wound) interjects his own sidereal gestures with wooden creaks, digital time stretching, radiant eruptions of dissonant couplings with Coleclough's drones, and occasional jaunts of heavily filtered tin-can and rubber-band rhythms that parallel much of the output from Liles' recent 12 part Vortex series. Yet for all of Liles' baroque flares for the sonically surreal, it is Coleclough who authors the
strongest material on Torch Songs through his sublime use of the drone. The first 300 copies of Torch Songs comes with a bonus CD that
documents Coleclough's aforementioned Preston performance back in 2005." [Aquarius Records]
|
2007 |
€22.50 |
|
| COLLINS, TIM / REIKO GOTO / CHRIS MALCOLM |
Plein Air / Silva Datum Musica |
LP |
"Plein Air the album presents recordings from a plant-driven synthesizer. A custom built instrument that uses scientific sensors and software programming to generate real-time tree leaf data. Light, photosynthesis and transpiration modifies sound: the rhythm, melody, texture, tempo and harmony shift with atmospheric conditions and tree response – electronically.
The sounds of each leaf of regional deciduous trees by scientifically sensored data-sonification are much more musical than one could imagine. Their timbre and volume always depend on light and temperature, number of audience. It varies from site to site and from country to country. We can hear loops of rhythmic sequences, groups of tiny computer generated signals, long drones which change constantly and are hard to describe.
Side 1 includes four short recordings, in total twenty-six minutes, of one leaf from Scottish Elder, Oak, Elderberry and Birch, recorded in one of Glasgow’s historical green houses, June 2017. Due to dramatic light and temperature changes that occur as sunshine and cloud formation changes in proximity to the north Atlantic; the computer generated music is highly dynamic, an intense hearing experience at times as I would imagine a tornado.
Side 2, is one recording, in total twenty-five minutes, of a regional heritage pear tree leaf that sounds more like Minimal Music. During the Cologne Tree Sound Study, we made the recording in a small office room in 2015, we had less dramatic weather changes. A warm summer, smooth light changes, generating a more gentle soundscape to deeply plunge into music. (Georg Dietzler)
Plein Air the album is based on a ten-year artist-led project. In simplest terms our intention is to provide a ‘mind/body experience’ of trees by attending to the sound of physiological reaction (photosynthesis and transpiration) as one leaf adjusts to the day to day changes (rush hour traffic, crowds of people) in ground level atmospheric chemistry in venues and cities. Physiological data is transposed into sound through computer software. We have chosen sound for its aesthetic purity with the goal to hear the trees more clearly as they react to changes in CO2, temperature and humidity. This system is called ‘Plein Air’, a stable single platform system that embraces the portable easel, as a metaphor for the historic practice of open air painting. Where Millet extended the idea of landscape to peasants working in the fields and the impressionists examined the phenomenological exchange between light and material. At the same time, recent work with the system raises questions about what we expect to ‘hear’ when we listen to nature, as it reacts to intense inputs of carbon dioxide?"
(Tim Collins)
https://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=17206
|
2019 |
€17.50 |
|
| COLORLIST |
The fastest Way to become the Ocean |
10inch |
"The Chicago based Colorlist is comprised of crossover jazz duo Charles Rumback and Charles Gorczynski. Both multi-instrumentalists, Rumback mans percussion, bells and melodica, while Gorczynski plays saxophone, numerous woodwind instruments, synthesizers and harmonium.
'The Fastest Way To Become The Ocean' is a four track EP recorded especially for Serein. Once again joined by collaborators, the EP features guitarist Jeff Parker of Tortoise on 'Nine Lives' (A2), while Liz Payne lends vocals and melodica to the closing track, 'What We Have Left' (B2). The tracks were mixed by long-time Colorlist cohort, Josh Eustis.
This work finds Colorlist at their very best - during the twenty-six minutes of run-time we are led through a kaleidoscopic ocean of sounds and ideas. Opening track 'Light Conditions' begins on an optimistic note, all feather-light woodwinds and gently brushed snares, the mood is open and care-free. But, like mist rising on a clear day, punch-drunk harmonium drones and haunted sax phrases permeate the air and hint at something darker, more sinister at play. In the end, balance is restored, and we are led into the second piece, 'Nine Lives' feeling a sense of resolution.
'Nine Lives' is a beast of a track. At just under ten minutes in length, it builds from a growl of low bass and drums like waves crashing on the shore. This tumultuous opening is slowly organised into a labyrinthine but perfectly organised series of repeating phrases, steadily falling in and out of phase with one another. Parker's improvised electric guitar playing contrasts with the purposeful repetition of the other instruments. The track continues to build as more and more elements are added to the mix, until, as if reaching some kind of critical mass, tension is broken and the piece resolves with wave upon wave of blissful melody. It's fitting that this epic track closes the first side of the record - many will doubtless feel the benefit of a prolonged period of silence in order to reflect on this breathtaking piece of music.
The perfect antidote to the sheer impact of the pieces preceding it, 'Coming Into Sight' opens side B with an almost hymn-like solemnity. Harmonium is accompanied only by the distant roll of drums and the quiet chatter of birds, it's not difficult to imagine a boat roll in off the ocean bearing a loved one home to shore. The piece, which also falls just short of the ten minute mark, builds until the moment feet hit dry land again, the homecoming heralded by hoarse screams from Gorczynski's saxophone and flurries of thunderous percussion from Rumback.
'The Fastest Way To Become The Ocean' ends on a high with the short, upbeat closing track, 'What We Have Left'. This piece sits slightly apart from the others due to the presence of vocals from Liz Payne – a first for Colorlist and a welcome addition." [label info]
www.serein.co.uk
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
| COMBATIVE ALIGNMENT |
The ritez of higher communication |
LP |
Erstes vollständiges Album des AVATAR-Projekts, die hier ein wahrhaft illuminiertes Debut-Werk vorlegen – eine erhabene Atmosphäre aus Klang und Ritus tut sich hier auf. Trancig-rituelle Klänge, die an tibetanische Gebirgslandschaften denken lassen, undurchdringliche soundscapes voller Geheimnis: Perkussive Strukturen, flutes, choirs, deep voices, drones.
First album of this german AVATAR-project and a real masterpiece of ritual-trance Illumination-sounds !
"The ritez of higher communication" celebrates the first step of COMBATIVE ALIGNMENT into a new area of recordings for first time on a long play vinyl album. Dreamlike soundscapes rising out of the rain and creating a deep symphonic atmosphere where flutes and Tibetic mantras are mixed with drums in order to build ritual music in the finest form. Circles of visionary dark voices are introducing brooding anthems on the climax with multiple layered drones, illuminating a weeping red sky. TROFHC is an invocation of consciousness corresponding to individual fears banned in sound. The journey of Combative Alignment through several media formats on different labels finds it´s manifestation in an outstanding release. Limited edition of 523 copies” [press release]
|
2003 |
€12.50 |
|
|
... and outside glows the red dawn |
CD & CD-R |
Nach einigen Veröffentlichungen auf deutschen Labels jetzt die erste volle CD, und das auf dem profilierten MALIGNANT – Label aus den Staaten! AND OUTSIDE GLOWS THE RED DAWN ist eine einzige Manifestation von archaisch-mythisch anmutenden Klängen, die von unentzifferbaren Hieroglyphen zu berichten scheinen. Eine undurchdringliche, dickflüssige, dunkle aurale Glut wird hier in Szene gesetzt, die von auftauchender Perkussion & harmonischen Sprengseln begleitet werden.... ein grandioses archaic-ambience Album !
“After several releases, including full length vinyl releases on LOKI and their own label Avatar, and a 7" on Eternal Soul, it is with great honor and pride that we present 'And Outside Glows the Red Dawn', the first full length CD from this powerful and visionary German project. And Outside Glows the Red Dawn can perhaps be seen as Combative Alignments benchmark, offering 6 tracks that work as a virtual musical thoroughfare to a more dreamlike, illusory state. Deeply brooding atmospheres, where omniscient layers of drones and reverberating sound currents meet measured, ritual percussion as performed under the glowing, gloomy haze of a primordial sunrise. And Outside Glows the Red Dawn shines a dim light on a world of obscure origin, full of dark permanic mysticism and unearthly sonic terrain. On a whole, this is a more focused, deeper, and fluid recording than you've heard before, yet triumphantly carrying on the tradition laid down by previous releases.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
....and outside glows the red dawn |
CD |
Nach einigen Veröffentlichungen auf deutschen Labels jetzt die erste volle CD, und das auf dem profilierten MALIGNANT – Label aus den Staaten! AND OUTSIDE GLOWS THE RED DAWN ist eine einzige Manifestation von archaisch-mythisch anmutenden Klängen, die von unentzifferbaren Hieroglyphen zu berichten scheinen. Eine undurchdringliche, dickflüssige, dunkle aurale Glut wird hier in Szene gesetzt, die von auftauchender Perkussion & harmonischen Sprengseln begleitet werden.... ein grandioses archaic-ambience Album !
“After several releases, including full length vinyl releases on LOKI and their own label Avatar, and a 7" on Eternal Soul, it is with great honor and pride that we present 'And Outside Glows the Red Dawn', the first full length CD from this powerful and visionary German project. And Outside Glows the Red Dawn can perhaps be seen as Combative Alignments benchmark, offering 6 tracks that work as a virtual musical thoroughfare to a more dreamlike, illusory state. Deeply brooding atmospheres, where omniscient layers of drones and reverberating sound currents meet measured, ritual percussion as performed under the glowing, gloomy haze of a primordial sunrise. And Outside Glows the Red Dawn shines a dim light on a world of obscure origin, full of dark permanic mysticism and unearthly sonic terrain. On a whole, this is a more focused, deeper, and fluid recording than you've heard before, yet triumphantly carrying on the tradition laid down by previous releases.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| COMPEST |
Danach |
CD-R |
Compest is German composer and producer Martin Steinebach, offering up a seamless 40-minute suite of lavishly orchestrated pieces that combines strings with ominous metallic percussion. Unlike other composers versed in noisy musics who decide to turn “neo-classical” and all too often produce kitschy ersatz 19th-century symphonies, Compest manages to fuse all his influences into a consistent whole with a high degree of immersiveness.
“Soon everything is post,” says the sleeve note, and true to this creed, this album is confidently postmodern in combining minimalist drones with ritualistic post-industrial accents and lush, indulgent tonal chords that would make every self-respecting New Music composer squirm with self-loathing. And that is a good thing, because this total disregard for narrow-minded pigeonholes both in and outside the underground scene is what gives this album its particular quality.
File under: Ambient
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2014 |
€6.00 |
|
| CONCERN |
Cæsarean |
CD |
" "Cæsarean," the new album by solo artist Concern, is primarily composed of piano, banjo and extensive tape manipulation. Rejecting the heavily electronic/synthesizer foundations of modern ambient music, "Cæsarean" is a uniquely beautiful and organic album; mournful collages of decaying tape loops, swelling acoustic tones, and harmonious, shimmering banjo drones. Included in the CD version released by Slow Flow Recs are two earlier Concern pieces, previously released in a very limited edition by Students of Decay in 2007. Concern (aka Gordon Ashworth) resides in Oregon, USA, and will be touring extensively in Japan in Europe in Autumn, 2010." [label info]
http://slowflowrec.web.fc2.com/index.html
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| CONIGLIO, ENRICO |
Sea Cathedrals |
CD |
"Five superb tracks of deep and evocative ambient music, enriched with echoes of ancient ritual suggestions. The immense spaces and the abyssal deepness of the sea, but also the sound of the bowels of the Earth, the colour of the sand of the desert, the energy of the wind, the strenght of all the Elements, the infinite cycle of day and night, of life and death… A long circular journey through interchanging atmospheres that shake and capture, dragging with energy, then leave room for more quiet and soothing introspective “stasis”, and again become dramatic and overwhelming, A great, unmissable album of “classic” ritual ambient music." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"Enrico Congilio already worked with Oophoi on a CD for Glacial Movements (see Vital Weekly 683) and here works with his drones, field recordings, bells, programming with two musicians (not on every track together) Manuel P. Cecchinato (arc-angel synthesizer, treatments, crystals) and Massimo Liverani (guitars, loops, treatments). The five pieces, ranging from six to twenty minutes, are excellent examples of ambient drone music. Dark, atmospheric, spacious, all those keywords of what ambient and drone music is, apply to this music. Much of this kind of music has been said and done before, but Coniglio does a mighty fine job here. Excellent wonderful production." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| CONIGLIO, ENRICO / UNDER THE SNOW |
Dialogue One |
CD |
"This is the first split work between UNDER THE SNOW and various artists/friends. Nearly an hour of suggestive "border" music, equally divided between the relaxing and ambient atmospheres contaminated with experimental elements created by Enrico Coniglio, and the low-fi/rough sounds and atmopheres crafted by Under the Snow (Stefano Gentile and Gianluca Favaron) - not so different but with a more dramatic, tense and hypnotic doom - built on deep drones stratifications, often hard and cutting, with a wide collection of noises, electronic hassles, ununderstandable wispherings, concrete moments... A perfect join-venture, a mix among two different music projects that gather coherence and inspiration to "sustain" a split album that showcases a not to be missed fusion of styles among the involved artists, oriented on parallel patterns, clearly increasing the value of their own personal and somehow different sonic directions." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| CONTAGIOUS ORGASM |
Spill Drop |
CD / object |
Es gibt wohl kein anderes Projekt aus der früheren Japan-Noise Fraktion, das inzwischen einen so eigenartigen & eigenständigen Experimental-Stil entwickelt hat, der meilenweit vom harsh noise früher Tage entfernt ist, und schlicht nicht einem bestimmte Genre zuzuordnen ist. Hiroshi Hashimoto lädt wieder zu 11 mutierten Musik-Rätseln ein: elektronisches & found sounds & field recordings, ruhige electro-pulses, dunkle Stimmungen, aber auch recht „durchgeknallte elektronik“, manchmal eher wie ein Hörspiel mit Sprach- und anderen Samples, nimmt dann aber auch „ethnischen“ Charakter an, auch strukturiertere Sachen mit richtigen Rock-Gitarren gibt es, immer ungewöhnlich, insgesamt hier eher ruhig und dunkel elektronisch. Die CD ist passend dazu verpackt in einer rot bedruckten Gummi-Banderole, auch das passt wie die Faust aufs Auge...
„....ein weiteres Eintaucen von CONTAGIOUS ORGASM in das ‚aqua soma’, das Halb- und Unterbewusstsein eines Japaners, seine versteckten sexuellen Obsessionen, den absorbierten Feinstaub unter der medialen und kulturellen Käseglocke..[..]..Telefonische Zeitansagen auf Deutsch, ein Interview mit einem Elektronikveteran auf Englisch, ein afrikanischer Mädchenchorus, ein Esoterikguru, der einem die Seele einseift, werden als Treibgut mitgewirbelt auf einem elektronischen Fluss aus Beats, zischenden Drones und einem pathetischen March of Godzilla, bei dem man das Totemtier der japanischen Trashculture schwerfällig heranstapfen hört.“ [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy # 47, 2005]
“New step on the way of Hiroshi Hashimoto creative evolution, one of the most controversive japanese musician, presenting a dense stream of sound,explosing by traditional for Contagious Orgasm flashes of sexual obsession, ritualism and culture permeate. Mature and complicated work. Its a mirror in which crystall depths everyone of us will see his real matter-purest drop of human prejudices, fears and drawbacks essence. On one hand you can find microglitches, clicks, subtle melodies and controlled rhythmic clicks n cuts. And on the other hand more experimental sounds: from rough field recordings, noisy frequencies and distorted voices to sinewaves and continuous glitches. As always for Waystyx Records, exclusive design,consisting of
transparent heavy polyethelen and strip of technical ribbon with red landmark.” [label description]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| CONTAGIOUS ORGASM + KADAVER |
A Tragedy without a Border Line |
CD |
"Collaboration between Hiroshi Hashimoto from already legendary Contagious Orgasm and Michael Zolotov from Israeli power electronics and noise band Kadaver. "A tragedy without a border line" is a mixture of ambient, PE and noisy sounds. Consists of 3 long pieces of musick without frontiers... Bubbling drones, sampled voices, crashes and hums. All packed in a 6 panel digipack. Format: CD digipack. Total time: 55:21"
www.wrotycz.com
"Just so is stated up front, I will admit that I am not intimately familiar with the musical outputs of either of these contributing projects. However I am at least aware that the Israeli project Kadaver works within a broad power electronics and death industrial sound, whilst the long active Contagious Orgasm from Japan has traversed many sounds across experimental, noise, industrial and ambient spheres over the last 25 years.
For this collaborative album, three lengthy tracks are presented spanning between 17 and 21 minutes each. However in actuality the three tracks give the impression of being part of a singular and much larger album length piece, which spans aspects of experimental industrial, noise, and ambient. Given the sprawling nature of the tracks the relatively loose and freeform nature of the compositions is openly displayed, which flow and evolve through multiple segments, rather than adhering to a more focused and composed structure. As such some diverse sonic elements are utilised, ranging from flaying noise, micro-tonal field recordings, humming synth textures, spoken vocals samples, sampled and treated string quartet/ piano samples, pulsing distortion, hazy ambience and droning soundscapes etc. Likewise with the loose combination elements it achieves a hallucinogenic aspect to the bizarrely tinged atmospheres. Effectively the album’s success is in its ability to evokes a dreamlike state, where tracks veer from the intensively nightmarish to the outright weird without being jarring or disjointed.
With my lack of familiarity with both projects I can’t really say which aspects of this may lean towards each individual project, however this may be a moot point as this album has certainly been a surprising and unexpectedly challenging listen. Given the ‘out there’ aspects, clearly this would be an album suited for the more sonically adventurous, rather than for those wanting their fix of a particular genre." [Noise Receptor]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| CONTE, MARIO |
Overtunes |
CD-R |
The subtitle “Electronic Research in Natural Harmonics” sounds far more academic than the actual music. In fact, this short album does work with overtone drone layers, but it combines these harmonic fields with classic TR-808 beats. The result is experimental, yet partly danceable music, cleverly constructed yet very soulful. A masterpiece that will open up the pathway into experimental sound creation for listeners whose tastes are shaped by electronic dance music.
Using various synthesizers, all meticulously specified on the sleeve, but also a wide array of sound sources such as “fake guitar” and “live vocal tape scratching over Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment cassette”, Mario Conte and his co-conspirators create multi-faceted dronescapes with a high degree of melodic potential. "Overtones" is co-released with the Berlin and Italy-based label Zoff82, which publishes the tape version of the album.
File under: Drone, techno
emerge.bandcamp.com/album/overtones
Conte works with synthetic or otherwise scarcely identifiable emissions and a Roland TR-808 to generate a brand of unlawful techno-drone (with industrial hues in “Modern Country Side”) with several attention-getting attributes. I might be growing old and creaky-boned, but feel no shame in declaring that this short album was a considerable surprise in its utter respectability, not a given when I tackle genres where a proper instrumental training is not a requirement. Sometimes, though, all it takes is the right frame of mind and a personal predisposition to the enchantment provided by a particular constitution to relish a product; in the case of Overtones, that’s exactly what happened. Sonorities and rhythms that sound, generally speaking, very natural in their relative amorphousness; hints of subterraneous melodies; a vague similitude with chosen episodes by the late, and ever great Muslimgauze (especially in the two “Harmonic Field” slices). The electronics are fleshy yet not invasive to a fault. The profusion of amassed frequencies and misrepresented colors furnishes the record with an essential animation, in spite of the occasional appearance of spectral vocals (including unneeded spoken snippets in “Organic Wave 1 & 2”). Basically, the tissue of the propulsive structures would be thick enough alone, that’s what we mean. The press release boldly states what follows: “A masterpiece that will open up the pathway into experimental sound creation for listeners whose tastes are shaped by electronic dance music”. Hype, I concur. Still, this stuff eats Burial and the likes for breakfast.
touchingextremes.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/mario-conte-overtones/
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| CONTRASTATE |
A live Coal under the Ashes |
CD |
"1992 saw the release of "A live coal under the ashes" which was inspired by the events leading up to the changes across Eastern and Central Europe during 1989. This release marked the change conceptually in which the group's ideas became more specific and more focused on contemporary political issues. "A live coal…" was critically acclaimed not just for the music, but also for the artwork and packaging: - a CD placed in the middle of a 12 inch clear vinyl record. After many years of unavailabity Tesco can finally present a rerelease with remastered tracks and a new yet unreleased track called: "Death follows the one eyed cow." An album full of ambient atmospheres, drones, percussion, suitable dark narrations and some steady muted rhythms. These are intense, highly charged recordings with a powerful mystic and ritual feeling. A masterpiece of sound poetry. Comes in nice Digipak. Total Playing time 50:30. Contrastate were formed in 1987 and disbanded in 2000. Ever since the demise of Contrastate there has been a void in the experimental music scene that no other act has managed to fill. Their diverse creative output, manifested as sweeping electronics and sound manipulation together with theatrical spoken word, was nothing less than mind blowing in its complexity and originality." [press release]
www.tesco-germany.com
"A peculiar start with tribal smatterings of drums, deep resonating black drones broken up with light orchestral patches, attention halting splatters and further sparse drones, pulling on rather obscure nightmarish elements. Contrastate surprisingly draw on a hell of a lot of quietness that just rarely breaks up into beats that dissolve no sooner than they start.
After an interesting if not completely inspiring start its time for this trio to get down to business and actually show us what they are made of. Pleasant film like ambience sets this off with low-end straight vocal lines gathering the backdrop together and you begin to believe this album may actually be going somewhere, especially when the ambience is allowed to build dramatically onward.
Its a little hard to pigeon hole this lot and that’s where their appeal lies for me. There is a deep sense of ritualism within their folds, but it’s not as obvious as you might expect; another plus point being that they simply do not remind me of anyone else, no matter how hard I try to fathom it out.
There is an odd sense of mania whilst listening to ‘A Live Coal…’ strange whistling, off key guitar strings and trance like paranoia. I can’t help but applaud them for pulling something off that simply shouldn’t work on paper. The use of vocals, although male in origin are used much in the same way, as say Diamanda Gallas probably would with full on croaking used as a backdrop. Even if this isn’t your cup of tea it doesn’t take much to grasp just how much thought has gone into this.
Completely out there…somewhere, but relevant; refreshingly original, scoring highly on sheer thought process and effort alone." [Blackaudio]
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| CONTROL |
Blood will rain |
CD |
" 'the pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it vague, enormous and menacing.'
with his new album 'blood will rain' thomas garrison a.k.a. control presents a release which is a status report of a journey into an artist's saturnine inner self. the sound shows a slight shift in direction from control's power electronics basics towards death industrial whereat deep, dark soundscapes play a decisive foundational role. enduring pulses of apparent and sometimes concealed rhythms overlaid with resonant metallic drones and tortured voice treatments evoke a dramatic atmosphere of maleficant trance. an electronically generated ritual music caused by the combination of hypnotic, cavernous and perpetual aggressive elements.
this most sable release in control's history is a soundtrack for incantations of many kinds: chaos, suffering, enlightenment. able to establish fraternal bonds between artist and listener, 'blood will rain' might be used to open up as yet closed, or even hidden doors. be prepared."
https://ant-zen.bandcamp.com/album/blood-will-rain
|
2018 |
€13.50 |
|
| CONTROLLED DEATH (MASONNA) / MAYUKO HINO |
Split |
pic-LP |
Two giants of the Japanese Noise scene present exclusive material on a special limited vinyl release.
Controlled Death is the nom de plume of Maso Yamazaki (MASONNA), who unleashed his claustrophobic Death Industrial / Blackened Electronics debut for Cold Spring last autumn (the sold out split LP with Rudolf Eb.er). "Devil's Sacrifice" (in 6 parts) continues Maso's obsession with heavy, Korg MS-20 drones. Deranged vocals choked under impenetrable, blood-soaked atmospheres of doom, death and decay, saturated with washes of anxiety, paranoia and alienation.
Mayuko Hino, 'Queen Of Japanese Noise', delivers two lengthy tracks. While the first track is filled with feverish, dense noise and swathes of savage electronics, the second, mind-melting electronic piece (reminiscent of her debut album 'Lunisolar' for Cold Spring) descends into a diseased, suffocating maelstrom, finishing on the verge of psychosis. In addition to self-made instruments, Mayuko plays noise with her six-theremin oscillators (in bright pink) - the one and only in the world, specially made by Ryo Araishi (a.k.a. ichion). Mayuko is most well-known for forming C.C.C.C. (Cosmic Coincidence Control Center) in 1990, together with Hiroshi Hasegawa, Fumio Kosakai and Ryuichi Nagakubo.
Picture disc LP. Ltd x 400 copies in a heavy PVC archive sleeve. |
2021 |
€26.00 |
|
| CONTROLLED DEATH / RUDOLF EB.ER |
Death Ceremonies |
LP |
"Death Ceremonies" is the darkest, most primitive death industrial record, soaked throughout with the smell of rotting corpses and burning bodies.
Controlled Death (MASONNA) features Yamazaki's most compulsive Korg MS-20 drones and obsessive, disturbing vocals, drenched with anxiety and alienation. Dense atmospheres of doom, death and decay build up just to break away in deep paranoia. Rudolf Eb.er (SCHIMPFLUCH) scratches a near-dead violin over horrifying synth tones, celebrating obscure forest rituals, unearthing an archaic actionism and long forgotten witchery - decomposing his raw sounds on dusty magnetic tape.
Maso Yamazaki (best known for his extreme Japanoise project Masonna) and Rudolf Eb.er (Swiss noise-actionists of the legendary Schimpfluch circle) collaborated live and in the studio multiple times during the mid and late 90's. Both based in Osaka, Japan, a spontaneous meeting brought up their mutual interest in degraded and primitive black metal. Discussing their own latest black brews of sinister side projects gave birth to the idea of the "Death Ceremonies" LP.
Ltd x 400 copies on 180gm vinyl in a 350gsm sleeve.
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/death-ceremonies-csr283lp
|
2020 |
€25.00 |
|
| CORDIER, ERIC |
Digitalis Purpurea |
CD |
„Music for sound environments“ betitelt, breiten sich hier äusserst merkwürdig-surreale, aber angenehm leise & sensibel tönende Dronescapes aus; die Originalsounds basieren ursprünglich auf Kirchenorgelpfeifen und Dulcimers... feines Werk des Franzosen.
“The title track begins as a barely audible background tone is interrupted by sudden tape-mangled explosions. The piece develops and builds into a deep shimmering drone- I found myself captivated by Cordier's subtle layering of hurdy gurdy and church organ sound textures bathed in thick reverb and transformed into floating helicopter-like sounds fading in and out of the stereo field. At around the 12 minute mark the piece shifts gear and throws in some crazed variable speed tape games and Doppler effects that sound like a fleet of hurdy gurdys storming through a raceway. Things begin to slow down and fade away into silence as the piece comes to a somewhat sudden close. Track two, "dactyle aglomeree" uses a dulcimer as its sound source and features an opening of crazed multi-tracked string sawing and some nice stereo effects. The sounds grow higher in pitch, into something that resembles feedback squeals. Slowly the sounds begin to morph into a swarming mass of hiss that builds in volume and intensity until the string sounds are inaudible. This hiss begins to oscillate wildly as the composition's pace slows down and fades to end. Sound source is field recordings on the third piece, "les os longs"- This piece appears to be very digitally transformed. Spacey and grainy, high pitched noises with some deep bass tones floating in the background. Around the 4-minute mark some creaks and stretched out horn-like tones appear which might be location recordings. The piece remains mysterious and impenetrable throughout. Sounds slow down for the piece's second half, foghorns in the distance, slowly wavering tones that rise and fall slowly in pitch. This portion on the track might be the best thing on here. The disc ending "postface" is made up of church organ sounds- a note in the booklet says: "no tape manipulation". This beautiful piece plays almost like a cross between thoughtful improv and a field recording of someone tuning a church organ- complete with glacially paced awkward pauses and randomly placed, gentle slivers of sound. All of these tape pieces were originally performed as sound environments through multiple speakers at venues ranging from a gallery to a factory tower. The idea of sitting through just one of those events is mouth-watering, but since that is not an option this recording is the next best thing.” [Angbase]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| CORTINI, ALESSANDRO |
Risveglio |
do-LP |
"Much needed new vinyl edition of Nine Inch Nails' synthesist, Alessandro Cortini's much sought-after second album for Hospital productions, originally released in 2015 and out of print since. On 'Risveglio' Cortini animates an enveloping shadowplay of Roland 202 and TB303, here enhanced by the intangible quality provided by ambient room recordings that lend proceedings a mysterious and unquantifiable dimension. It’s easily our favourite Cortini.
'Risveglio' is the 'Awakening' to 'Sonno''s 'Sleep'. Like its predecessor, it was also written and recorded while on tour but, unlike 'Sonno', it syncs his favoured 202 with the unique integers of a TB303, eliding the two via a delay unit to expand his sound without ever losing sight of the crushing harmonic noise romance at its core. It's fair to say that we've never really heard the 303 used quite like this, eviscerated of its usual characteristics and instead used as an electro-acoustic component to convey a ghostly sense of momentum and underlying tension in some of the albums strongest passages.
Ultimately, however, it's the perpetually claggy, electro-acoustic atmosphere and desiccated timbre of Cortini's spectres that we find ourselves so enchanted by, operating at liminal levels of ambient biting points similar to his label mate, Kevin Drumm, but guided by a grander, innate sense of gothic emotion. Cortini is a genuine anomaly by today's synth music standards, and 'Risveglio' is a perfect case in point.
Classic." [Boomkat]
"One of the most unlikely moments of musical philosophy surely comes from the mouth of Peep Show's Super Hans when, while pressing a bass synth note, he utters the immortal line, "remember, the longer the note, the more dread." And of course he's right. Ambient music has long utilised the idea of drones and sustained notes to invoke such feelings. Like the musical equivalent of the Deleuzeian time-image, the long drone highlights the breakdown of sound that's organised by rhythms and movement, creating in its place a sense of memory and history, with the pitch and timbres of the sound opening and unfolding to our ears.
Alessandro Cortini is a musician who's fast being recognised as a master at manipulating sound and time. A long-time connoisseur of analogue and modular synths, when he's not performing as a member of Nine Inch Nails, he is more likely to be seen on YouTube videos tinkering and messing around with huge modular synth racks. His solo discography of synth music, in particular the album Sonno he released last year on Hospital Records, shows a musician capable of creating ambient music of eerie and physical uneasiness. With its thick, crepuscular drones and tape hiss textures, Cortini draws out the sense of the uncanny, his music a soundtrack to those night time non-spaces built by but uninhabited by humanity; multi-storey car parks, office spaces, industrial parks, hotel and office corridors.
Cortini now brings us Risveglio, a follow-up and continuation to Sonno. Like Sonno, Risveglio is an album created under severe restrictions and economy, composed while Cortini was on tour with NiN, with the tracks recorded in hotel rooms with a portable studio recorder. The capturing of fleeting moments of music on the hoof can be heard in instances on 'Dormiveglia,' which inexplicably stops less than 30 seconds in, while 'Ricadere' has fluctuating recording levels and the sound of cables being unplugged during the song.
While Sonno was made with a single Roland MC-202 synthesiser/sequencer, Cortini, with Risveglio, adds a synched TB-303 bass synth. In terms of self-imposed limits, Cortini's setup is a closed system on starvation rations, with only Andreas Tilliander's TM-404 alter ego (where he uses combinations of nine pieces of classic Roland equipment) coming close to such levels of creative austerity. The inclusion of a TR-606 drum machine on the final track, 'La Sveglia (Drum Version)', feels gaudy and ostentatious in comparison.
Despite such minimal and spartan conditions, Cortini makes his two machines sing to each other on Risveglio, creating remarkably dense soundscapes that bubble and oscillate in their own world. The opening two tracks, 'Stambecco' and 'La Sveglia', highlight how the TB-303, if not adding distinct rhythm, introduces a sense of movement to Risveglio’s sonic space imbibing a purpose of action to Cortini's music. While the bass purrs and burbles in the background, Cortini inflicts queasy pitch-shifting notes reminiscent of Boards Of Canada at their most hypnagogic. These two elements or movement and sound, reach their highpoint on 'Rispetto', a track with crumpled clicks and pings that echo through darkened zones.
Despite the introduction of movement to Cortini's music, Risveglio still contains huge monolithic surges of synthwash drones. 'Lotta' consists of a simple repeating melody structure whose sounds gradually increase in mass until the notes distort and lose their stability, bleeding and dissipating into each other until they become a single mass. 'La Guardia' is one of Risveglio's highlights; a pulsating bass line strafed by single note pulsars and shrieking atmospherics that come to a crushing, noisy conclusion. Risveglio is an album that, while a continuation of Cortini's increasingly esoteric and hermetic journeys to the edges of the analogue synth frontier, actually turns away from the idea that ambient music should be passive and pastoral. Its use of frayed tones and frequencies as the organising basis for movement and propulsion allows the music to seep into the cracks and pores of the space around you, extracting the anxiety and dread inherent hidden in our world around us. Embrace the abyss and enjoy." [The Quietus]
|
2019 |
€25.00 |
|
| COURTIS / MARHAUG |
North and South Neutrino |
CD |
Two performers in collaboration rather known for their harsher or more chaotic works (Anla Courtis was a member of REYNOLS) create a very elegant and softly developing composition... this 45 piece begins very soft, with high & nearly inaudible frequencies, uses crackles & hisses and slowly develops into something LOPEZian, but with more changes and strange sounds in the cold ultra-spheric & far-away drones. great stuff !!
“ This much expected collaboration (recordings started 5 years ago in Buenos Aires and Oslo), is released by Antifrost on February 1st.
Lasse Marhaug, known from his solo works but also as half of US/Norwegian group Jazzkammer has been around for a long time and has collaborated before with artists such as: Maja S.K. Ratkje, Tore H. B e, Merzbow, Aube, Ronnie Sundin, Kevin Drumm, TV Pow, Francisco L pez, Leif Elggren,, Mats Gustafsson, Fe-Mail, Andreas Berthling, Otomo Yoshihide, Sachiko M, Taku Sugimoto, Mark Wastell, Matt Davis, Reynols, SPUNK, Kim Cascone, and many others. The other creative half of this collaboration work is Anla Courtis, the guitarist and main composer behind the famous Argentinian group Reynols. The cover illustration/ artwork of the CD is done by the prestigious Swedish artist Leif Elggren (of Elgaland/Vargaland - Fireworks Editons).” [press release]
”The Antifrost label has put out some of the most challenging records of recent times, and this collaboration between Lasse Marhaug, one half of Norwegian noise thugs Jazzkammer and Anla Courtis, the musical mastermind behind the unruly Argentinians reynols, is as forbidding as they come. For the opening half hour it is a minimalist exercise in the slow motion deployment of a small clutch of extreme frequencies.
Then a richer metallic texture emerges from the brittle digital atmosphere recalling the isolationist going pieces of Thomas Koener. This darker, more brooding sound is submerged once more into the digital realm, as if we are viewing the same vast, immobile object from above and below the waterline. Or perhaps it is the subatomic particle referenced in the album title under two different magnifications. It's certainly not an easy listen, but submit yourself to its cold, dramatic logic and you will be rewarded.” [THE WIRE/ Keith Moline]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| COURTIS, ANLA |
Greatest Hits |
CD-R |
Wenn der ehemalige REYNOLS – Mastermind von “Greatest Hits” spricht, dann sind das ätherische Schwingungen feinster Güte, halluzinogene Shortwave-Kaskaden, verzerrte backwards Gitarren-Drones & irgendwo tauchen auch Stimmen auf....
When the former REYNOLS-masterminds speaks of „greatest hits“, it means finest ethereal vibrations, hallucinogenic shortwave-cascades and distorted backwards guitar-drones... cheap cover, but great music !
|
0000 |
€10.00 |
|
| COURTIS_MATSUNAGA |
same |
CD |
Die argentinisch-japanische Zusammenarbeit vom ex-REYNOLS-Mann und KOUHEI beschert uns 9 drone-basierte Stücke, vom hyper-tiefen Kontemplativ-Drone bis hin zu komplexen, eher experimentellen Konkret-Material-Drones mit vielen Details. Low-fi, organisch, rauh und mit genügend akustischer Schubkraft und Bizarrheit um immer wieder aufs neue zu überraschen... inkl. einem crazed-out track mit RUDOLF EB.ER.
“9 tracks of solos, remixes, telepathy collaboration and real collaborations. 62min58sec landscape of flying drones, electronics, guitar, unidentified objects, uncertain clarinet, voice, distanced meeting and the memories of co-habitation. Intervention of RudolfEb.er for 8th track” [label info]
“The disc contains nine tracks of widely varying lengths and collaboration methods. To name a couple: remix of the other's material, telepathic collaboration and real collaboration. Most tracks are of a certain ambient nature, but with enough things going on to definitely go beyond that (strange cuts, sudden outbursts of seemingly random noise, etc.). The overall quality is pretty lo-fi, which is very good, because it is combined with very typical computer sounds. This works very well and adds a warm quality to the sound. For me the most interesting piece is actually the longest one: the telepathic collaboration. Somehow Courtis and Matsunaga seem very well in tune and have created a very good track with so many kilometers between them. Somehow this track is almost a condensation of the whole CD. It will be interesting to see what the Prele label has to offer in the future.” [MR / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| CTEPHIN |
DUAD |
7 |
"For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union". CTEPHIN is a curious "drone-family" built around the main couple StF & Aedria Hughes who create atmospheric & noisy soundscapes, with various friends and their 7 children. Calling themselves "Umbrella Noize Collective", they live to the: "Law of Liberty as laid out in Liber AL vel Legis". DUAD is their first vinyl release and uses pumping drones, field recordings (rain), guitars, metallic effects and a kind of very harmonic cembalo instrument. The two tracks develop in a lovely way; from pure ambience to noise and back. The same use of beautiful harmonics & noise-drones creates quite a special atmosphere, from NOISE LIGHT to LIGHT NOISE.
Filed under: THELEMIC LIGHT DRONES AND DRONE LIGHTS / www.myspace.com/ctephin
GOLDEN VINYL WITH LOVELY MARBLE EFFECT & SILVER-GOLD LABELS
BLACK COVERS WITH THICK WHITE PAINT STAMPED ON. RED INLAY WITH GOLDEN PRINT
|
2009 |
€7.00 |
|
| CULPIS |
Situation Vacant Columns |
CD |
Extreme electronic concrete-noise improvisations with enough room for more silent parts & suspension, turning everything into beautiful drones at times, very vital & dynamic stuff........ amazing album from this japanese trio.
Michi Nagata: electric guitar, pedals. Daizo Nishimura: harmonium, junk. Takuji Naka: reeds. Recorded in Kyoto, November 2002.
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| CUNI, AMELIA |
... sings Dhrupad |
CD |
"Was ganz besonderes auf dem ALIO DIE-Label Hic Sunt Leones: original indische RAGA-Musik, gesungen von AMELIA CUNI, aufgenommen in Bombay 1995. A.CUNI singt über Sitar-Drones und Tablas ihren eigenartig harmonischen, in Trance versetzenden Gesang, auch für "westlich" sozialisierte Ohren ein Genuß! Im 20seitigen Booklet ausführliche Erklärungen (englisch/italienisch) über Dhrupad, Cuni's Gesang, den Ablauf einer Performance, und das RAGA-System... " [Drone Records info 2000]
see also: www.aliodie.com |
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| CURRENT 93 |
If a City is set upon a Hill [coloured vinyl] |
LP |
"Das neue Current 93-Album verweist mit dem auf den ersten Blick untypischen Fliesen-Artwork, auf denen der Mord Kains an Abel dargestellt ist, auf Current 93s „Rockalbum“ „Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain“, auf dem es hieß: „In the beginning was the murderer“. Musikalisch-personell knüpft es stark an das 2018 erschienene Album „The Light Is Leaving Us All“ an, wurde „If A City Is Set Upon A Hill“ doch in fast der gleichen Besetzung aufgenommen – im direkten Vergleich ist „If A City“ vielleicht etwas elegischer und mit seinen sieben Stücken und 37 Minuten Laufzeit recht kurz, dabei allerdings nicht weniger gehaltvoll.
Schaut man in die Entwicklung Current 93s, dann ist es sicher kein Zufall, dass viele der als Referenzwerke gesehenen Alben aus den 90ern, die nicht unerheblich zum Kultstatus des Projekts um David Tibet beigetragen haben, durch eine relativ stabile Kernbesetzung eingespielt wurden und darüberhinaus eine Vielzahl starker – solch ein Begriff mag bezogen auf Current 93 vielleicht etwas profan anmuten – Songs enthielten. Die Qualität der einzelnen Stücke trug dann auch sicher nicht unerheblich dazu bei, dass das 2018 erschienene „The Light Is Leaving Us All“ das vielleicht stärkste Album seit “Black Ships Ate The Sky” war.
Seit “The Light…” erschienen die weitgehend instrumentalen, von Soundscapes durchzogenen Alben „Invocations Of Almost“, „If A Star Turns Into Ashes“ sowie die beiden Soloalben Tibets („Ferelith“ und „Fontelautus“), die in ihrer somnambulen (Alp-)Traumatmosphäre und atmosphärischen Dichte zumindest zum Teil an das Verstörende und Irritierende des Frühwerks anknüpften.
Das schon vorab veröffentlichte das Album eröffnende „If A City…“ legt den Ton, die Stimmung fest: Im Zusammenspiel von Drones, Klavier und Geige entsteht ein elegisch-melancholisches Stück und Tibet, der hier – wie schon auf seinen Soloalben – nur noch unter seinem Vornamen firmiert, intoniert: „If under G+D’s Wing/By the JawBone and HeeHaw/The donkey creeps silently/Through the door in the hall/Then plague and mice/And the woodlice stream…“. Wenn man einem Instrument eine tragende und zentrale Rolle zusprechen will, so dann sicher der von Aloma Ruis Boada gespielten Geige, die das gesamte Album prägt. Auf „There Is No Zodiac“ setzt der dezente Einsatz von E-Gitarre leicht dissonate Akzente. Auf dem dann folgenden „Joke Moon“ gibt es ein fantastisches Zusammenspiel von Alisdair Roberts wunderschön gezupfter Gitarre und der Violine. Auch auf „A Column Of Dust“ erzeugen Gitarre und Geige und der dramatische Gesang Tibets eine beeindruckende Atmosphäre – man möchte dem von ihm besungenen “Final Express Train” nicht unbedingt begegnen. „The Child, And Fire” erinnert mit seinen Pianopassagen entfernt an „Soft Black Stars“.
Textlich finden sich die thematischen Obsessionen, die das Werk Current 93s seit Jahr(zehnt)en prägen: Apokalyptische Szenarien werden entworfen: „It it rains razors, and murders, and slaughters“, „The Moon is dead now—Joke Moon!“, „A castle or Moloch“, „And the noise in your eyes/Has the rumours of wings/And the fly and the hornet/From the Scorpion RainBow“, „In the walls the colourful cartoons/Are covered with sores“), das Zusammenspiel von Profanem und Erhabenem („In time for tea, in time for end“), Nursery Rhymes („By the butcher, and the baker, /And the candlestick maker“, “Just memories stretched out/From nursery rhymes or spectres”), (der) Gott in all seiner Ambivalenz: „Vengence in His Eye/I AM THE LORD! – THE KILLER AND THE CREATOR“.
Muss man beim Titel des Albums vielleicht unweigerlich an die von John Winthrops aus der Bergpredigt (“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden“) entlehnte Fortmulierung denken, der so eine zentrale Rolle beim Selbstverständnis der amerikanischen Nation zukommt, denken, erfährt man im Booklet, dass die Inspiration für das Album ein akkadischer Text namens „If A City Is Set Upon A Height“ ist. Passenderweise dankt Tibet im Booklet seinen Hebräisch-, Akkadisch-, Koptisch- und Ugaritischlehrern, erneut sein Interesse an (ur-)alten Sprachen, am logos betonend, der ja “im Anfang” war.
Letztlich ist es so erfreulich wie erstaunlich, dass nach dem fast 40-jährigen Bestehen Current 93s, “your favourite hallucinatory skipping-rope”, wie es auf dem Albumcover heißt, noch immer Alben entstehen, die beeindrucken können und beeindruckend sind und ein Spätwerk einläuten, das viel verspricht." [MG, African Paper] |
2022 |
€37.50 |
|
| |
If a City is set upon a Hill |
CD |
"Das neue Current 93-Album verweist mit dem auf den ersten Blick untypischen Fliesen-Artwork, auf denen der Mord Kains an Abel dargestellt ist, auf Current 93s „Rockalbum“ „Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain“, auf dem es hieß: „In the beginning was the murderer“. Musikalisch-personell knüpft es stark an das 2018 erschienene Album „The Light Is Leaving Us All“ an, wurde „If A City Is Set Upon A Hill“ doch in fast der gleichen Besetzung aufgenommen – im direkten Vergleich ist „If A City“ vielleicht etwas elegischer und mit seinen sieben Stücken und 37 Minuten Laufzeit recht kurz, dabei allerdings nicht weniger gehaltvoll.
Schaut man in die Entwicklung Current 93s, dann ist es sicher kein Zufall, dass viele der als Referenzwerke gesehenen Alben aus den 90ern, die nicht unerheblich zum Kultstatus des Projekts um David Tibet beigetragen haben, durch eine relativ stabile Kernbesetzung eingespielt wurden und darüberhinaus eine Vielzahl starker – solch ein Begriff mag bezogen auf Current 93 vielleicht etwas profan anmuten – Songs enthielten. Die Qualität der einzelnen Stücke trug dann auch sicher nicht unerheblich dazu bei, dass das 2018 erschienene „The Light Is Leaving Us All“ das vielleicht stärkste Album seit “Black Ships Ate The Sky” war.
Seit “The Light…” erschienen die weitgehend instrumentalen, von Soundscapes durchzogenen Alben „Invocations Of Almost“, „If A Star Turns Into Ashes“ sowie die beiden Soloalben Tibets („Ferelith“ und „Fontelautus“), die in ihrer somnambulen (Alp-)Traumatmosphäre und atmosphärischen Dichte zumindest zum Teil an das Verstörende und Irritierende des Frühwerks anknüpften.
Das schon vorab veröffentlichte das Album eröffnende „If A City…“ legt den Ton, die Stimmung fest: Im Zusammenspiel von Drones, Klavier und Geige entsteht ein elegisch-melancholisches Stück und Tibet, der hier – wie schon auf seinen Soloalben – nur noch unter seinem Vornamen firmiert, intoniert: „If under G+D’s Wing/By the JawBone and HeeHaw/The donkey creeps silently/Through the door in the hall/Then plague and mice/And the woodlice stream…“. Wenn man einem Instrument eine tragende und zentrale Rolle zusprechen will, so dann sicher der von Aloma Ruis Boada gespielten Geige, die das gesamte Album prägt. Auf „There Is No Zodiac“ setzt der dezente Einsatz von E-Gitarre leicht dissonate Akzente. Auf dem dann folgenden „Joke Moon“ gibt es ein fantastisches Zusammenspiel von Alisdair Roberts wunderschön gezupfter Gitarre und der Violine. Auch auf „A Column Of Dust“ erzeugen Gitarre und Geige und der dramatische Gesang Tibets eine beeindruckende Atmosphäre – man möchte dem von ihm besungenen “Final Express Train” nicht unbedingt begegnen. „The Child, And Fire” erinnert mit seinen Pianopassagen entfernt an „Soft Black Stars“.
Textlich finden sich die thematischen Obsessionen, die das Werk Current 93s seit Jahr(zehnt)en prägen: Apokalyptische Szenarien werden entworfen: „It it rains razors, and murders, and slaughters“, „The Moon is dead now—Joke Moon!“, „A castle or Moloch“, „And the noise in your eyes/Has the rumours of wings/And the fly and the hornet/From the Scorpion RainBow“, „In the walls the colourful cartoons/Are covered with sores“), das Zusammenspiel von Profanem und Erhabenem („In time for tea, in time for end“), Nursery Rhymes („By the butcher, and the baker, /And the candlestick maker“, “Just memories stretched out/From nursery rhymes or spectres”), (der) Gott in all seiner Ambivalenz: „Vengence in His Eye/I AM THE LORD! – THE KILLER AND THE CREATOR“.
Muss man beim Titel des Albums vielleicht unweigerlich an die von John Winthrops aus der Bergpredigt (“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden“) entlehnte Fortmulierung denken, der so eine zentrale Rolle beim Selbstverständnis der amerikanischen Nation zukommt, denken, erfährt man im Booklet, dass die Inspiration für das Album ein akkadischer Text namens „If A City Is Set Upon A Height“ ist. Passenderweise dankt Tibet im Booklet seinen Hebräisch-, Akkadisch-, Koptisch- und Ugaritischlehrern, erneut sein Interesse an (ur-)alten Sprachen, am logos betonend, der ja “im Anfang” war.
Letztlich ist es so erfreulich wie erstaunlich, dass nach dem fast 40-jährigen Bestehen Current 93s, “your favourite hallucinatory skipping-rope”, wie es auf dem Albumcover heißt, noch immer Alben entstehen, die beeindrucken können und beeindruckend sind und ein Spätwerk einläuten, das viel verspricht." [MG / African Paper]
|
2022 |
€18.50 |
|
| CUTLER, CHRIS & THOMAS DIMUZIO |
Dust |
CD |
Mitschnitt eines Konzertes der Avantgarde-Koryphäe und des Drone-Sample Königs aus New Mexico: die typischen DIMUZIO – Elemente sind immer noch vorhanden (Drones and rumbling noises, atmospheric overkill), aber hier weitaus zersplitterter, fragmentierter, in tausend Partikel zerfallen.. daneben gibt es noch Studiomaterial..
“The first of two tracks is a long Requiem which for me turned out to be a very serious piece of work - and unrepeatable, captured at a concert in New Mexico. Whatever were we thinking? It's followed by a studio piece, mixing raw binaural sound with sophisticated and radical secondary processing. I use my extended electrified kit and Tom his state of the art sample and real-time processing rig and we try work as a single, highly complex and sophisticated instrument, with two brains and a mind of its own.” (ReR site)
www.rermegacorp.com |
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Quake |
CD |
Live-Aufnahmen von 1999 aus Portland und Lowell, MA, die die ganze Klasse der ungewöhnlichen Geräuschmusik-Collab/Improvisation zeigen. Neben mächtigen Drones & Samples gibt es perkussive, manchmal fast rituell anmutende Strukturen, aber auch feinste konkrete Mikro-Detail-Geräuschmusik, ein Clash von handgespielter & elektronisch erzeugter Klangblase.... eine Musiklandschaft, die einen auf seltsame Art und Weise innerlich vitalisiert, die voller Energie steckt, dynamisch und lebendig..
“Last year we saw the welcome reissue on ReR of Headlock (1989), the debut solo album by US electroacoustic composer Thomas Dimuzio, which is hallmarked by his sure handling of an expansive, yet detailed, sonic architecture crafted in the studio. However, Quake finds his samplers and processors feeding off Chris Cutler's percussion ('electrified' and otherwise) and sundry objects in two live improvised performances from March this year. Both events have been subdivided into numerous short, titled tracks, though in many cases the music appears to be continuous. Given the vampiric nature of the process, authorship of sounds is not always easily attributable, but the general impressions of Cutler's abrasive percussives, and gritty electronics supplying the microsonic detail, with Dimuzio expanding these textures and unleashing his own ominous stormcloud drones. The result is intelligently paced, decidedly atmospheric noise mongering.” [Chris Blackford, THE WIRE, 1999]
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| D'INCISE |
Assemblee, Relache, Rejouissance, Parade |
CD |
A collaborative release between Moving Furniture Records and INSUB.records. For Swiss customers we recommend to order from their shop insub.org
"Assemblée, relâche, réjouissance, parade" or another long, unspeakable, French, title (that would somehow translate as " Assembly, pause, rejoicing, parade").
Words that conjure ideas of music used in public, and social rituals.
The two distinct pieces experiment with the "bringing back" (re-injection?) of music into the experimental area. Do not see anything pretentious about it, it is rather a very personal path,
in the sense, among others, to not forbid certain aspects of music to make appearances, making bridges between conceptuality, and simplicity.
The first part, "L'Anglard de St-Donat", is constructed around a mazurka tune, a traditional dance from Central-France, played by Alfred Mouret, after his father François "L'Anglard".
But the four short "songs" are not to be seen as a reinterpretation (they're certainly not danceable), rather as a basis for d'incise's own research.
Solid drones and recurrent structures are built with recordings of bowed and struck metal objects and (sounds of various) instruments make counterpoints and quasi-melodic lines.
Then in "Le désir" the strategy is mirrored, electronics (detuned organs) make the rigid, and slightly awkward, context for the bowed metal sticks, tuned in relation to the electronics, to be played semi-improvised, and take a sort of soloist position, instabilities of both the objects and the gestures suddenly become open to interpretations and expressions. This piece is one of d'incise's actual solo live performances.
Composed, recorded and mixed by d'incise at Insub.studio, Geneva, 2017.
L'Anglard de St-Donat, assembled from recordings of bowed metallic objects, electric organ, harmonium, banjo & double bass
Le désir, bowed metallic sticks, performed live, over detuned/retuned organ backgrounds.
https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/assemble-e-rela-che-re-jouissance-parade |
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| DANIELL, DAVID |
I-IV-V-I |
LP |
Ein kleines Meisterk der dronigen Gitarrenkunst ist die achte 12" in der Guitar Series von TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS geworden! Auf gleich vier Stücken schafft DAVID DANIELL (ehemaliges Mitglied von SAN AUGUSTIN) symphonisch-betörende Flächenpolydrones, mal ganz subtil mit tollen Echo-Effekten, mal mit geschichteten Akustik-Gitarren, dann unter Einsatz von E-bows oder Steel Guitars.. vier sehr verschiedene Stücke, alle mit den gleichen Soundquellen geschaffen.
"...The opening track is a monstrous slab of tectonic buzz, layers of rumbling and crumbling distorted guitar, blurred into a Niblockian drift, warm and wavery, smeared and dreamy, but suitably tense and dramatic. Which is followed by a sort of looped Appalachia, steel string guitar, locked into a mantra like progression, the main figure locked into endless repetition, while in the background, a second (and maybe third) guitar offer up pretty little counterpoint and extra steel string buzz, texture and melody that seems to swirl beneath that hypnotic main riff.
"V" is all new age-y drift, another bit of soft dronemusic, laced with subtle layers of hiss and crackle, the melody a distant swell, which all gives way to a sweet melancholy guitar line that is processed into a layer of warm buzzing dreaminess, and finally the record finishes with a mournful, almost funereal sounding steel string buzzscape, that sounds almost like bluegrass, if it was stretched way out into long streaks of metallic shimmer, but Daniell drapes some playful major key melodies over the top, and the two, while seemingly at odds, mesh into something both haunting and mysterious, soft and weirdly pretty. Pressed on super thick, swirled green, yellow and white vinyl. One sided, the other side features an etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a thick PVC sleeve, and as always, VERY LIMITED!" [Aquarius Records review]
"8th installment in the Guitar Series Vols. 3 & 4. Daniell leads the troops in RHYS CHATHAM's guitar armies; he was a member of Jonathan Kane's rollicking band FEBRUARY; he performs regularly in a duo with Tortoise's Doug McCombs; & his guitar work with his own band SAN AGUSTIN, is the stuff of which fleeting blues-drone dreams are made. With influences rooted in blues, American minimalism, & post-punk ideologies, his guitar playing is always inspired, when fused with his intricate electro-acoustic compositions, the results are breathtaking." [label info]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€17.00 |
|
| DAVIS, GARETH & DUANE PITRE |
Nott |
CD |
Nótt is a 34minutes long collaboration album, consisting of one epic slowly evolving drone, named after the personification of the night, the grandmother of Thor, taken from the norse mythology.
Nótt is a beautiful gathering of two musicians. On the one hand you have the electronic drones of Duane Pitre and on the other hand you have the bass clarinet soundscapes of Gareth Davis. The musicians managed to record something very minimal but also very powerful.
limited CD (200 copies) available here:
Gareth Davis - bass clarinet
Duane Pitre - electronics
https://midirarecords.bandcamp.com/album/n-tt
|
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| DAVIS, GARETH & MERZBOW |
Broken Landscapes |
LP |
Following on from their 2016 Moving Furniture release, Atsusaku, Broken Landscapes is a new collaboration between Gareth Davis (Oiseaux Tempete, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, Machinefabriek) and Merzbow, Japanese noise mastermind Masami Akita.
The theme of mechanical compression explored in the first album is taken further this time, being looked at in the context of the fears of mechanisation in the environment. A torrent of noise reimagines the North Sea wind farms, the industrialisation in Southern California and the fight for the survival of animals in their overrun habitats. Through three tracks, the sounds of these spaces are crushed and distorted, the sense of air being saturated by the shifting low-end drones and hum of machines, howling reeds and dense white noise pushing away the breathing space.
The acoustic sound almost suffocated beneath the dense mechanical sweep of furiously abusive digital cross-fire and unrelenting production line intensity. Hints of recognition as a voice from the environment shines through before moving abruptly back into the mechanical barrage of looping textures. Broken Landscapes is built on impenetrably thick walls of manipulated field recordings while the bass clarinet saturates the midrange, the massive swirling mesh of analogue and digital material painting pictures of the magnified terrain that surrounds us.
credits
released January 10, 2020
Bass clarinet and Electronics: Gareth Davis
Electronics: Masami Akita
Mastered by Jos Smolders at EARLabs
Lacquer cut by Andreas Lubich at LUPO
Sleeve by Rutger Zuydervelt
https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/broken-landscapes
|
2020 |
€18.00 |
|
| DEAD PIANO (ANDREA BELLUCCI + DEISON) |
Dead Piano |
CD |
"The idea of "DEAD PIANO" was born from the intention of using the sound of the piano in a different context, compared to what we are used to listen. Can this instrument become a different 'sound generator'? Beyond what has been done in the past, when many composers used a 'prepared piano', where they placed microphones near the strings, or pieces of metal that generated particular sounds resonating with the strings, the most recent technology offers many tools to manipulate that same sound, so well-known and unmistakable, and transform it into something quite different. Therefore it is possible for the piano to become a generator of percussive sounds, pads and drones, creating a sound palette that is reconciled with other sound sources becoming a cohesive and intriguing whole. The piano sounds manipulated by ANDREA BELLUCCI, are perfectly integrated with the atmospheres generated by CRISTIANO DEISON's machines, creating 'sonic landscapes' which complement each other. Not only melody then, where the piano can be considered 'the instrument' par excellence, but also the search for atmospheres and environments that can involve the listener, perhaps giving unexpected emotions. DEAD PIANO is a project by ANDREA BELLUCCI and DEISON.
Available here : store.silentes.it/catalogue/standa1806.htm "
https://soundcloud.com/silentes-13/dead-piano-dead-piano |
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| DEADVERSE MASSIVE |
Son of Concrete |
pic-LP |
Starke 4-track long-play EP einer Art Supergroup des US-amerikanischen Experimental-Dub & Hip-Hop Undergrounds, mit erstaunlichem Ergebnis zwischen melancholischer slow-Dub Ambience und frei flottierenden Experimenten, viel vokales Material & halluzinogene Atmo...und auch ruhig-harmonische parts tauchen auf. Leute von DÄLEK, DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS, ODDATEE sind beteiligt. Erschien auf dem wahrhaft grenzüberschreitendem Label PUBLIC GUILT aus Baltimore, MD.
"The Deadverse Massive 12" picture disc brings together three intense forces in music-- avant hip-hop unit, Dälek, ambient guitarist, Destructo Swarmbots and hip-hop madman, Oddateee. Spontaneity, open-mindedness to the recording process and a collective cohesiveness sprung forth an album that none of them would have every created alone and none of them would have imagined before the moment of creation. Easily, the strangest record any of these artists have ever touched. Artwork from the amazing Paul Romano rounds out the release." [label info]
"When hip-hop gets weird, it gets "Deadverse Massive". Mescaline dreams from the deep unconscious rise through psych-ambient guitar drones to meet street socially-conscious poetry and spoken-word in a no less than stellar collision... 8/10 "[Foxy Digitalis]
"A stunning mashup of heavy beatscapes, surrealist avant hip hop, and spacey drones from beyond the wall of sleep... a surreal and drifting collage of beats and psychedelic drones, powerful rhymes and voice transmissions, as informed by classic krautrock and cassette experiments as it is by actual hip hop." [Crucial Blast]
www.publicguilt.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| DEATH KNEEL |
Adaptive Emotional Use |
LP |
"Max Klebanoff’s (Tomb Mold) industrial noise unit thrives on buried rhythmic nodes under walls of crackling distortion and blistering sonic disfigurement. Nascent hums blossom into spectral ambient drones. Gnarled electronic pulses waver in grand fields of dissonance. Granulated tones crumble and reform as the tracking adjusts on Death Kneel's harsh noise synthesized into meditative soundscape creation." [concert info]
Limited edition black vinyl LP, edition of 250. Housed in 350gsm sleeve with full color center labels.
"Death hides the angels it makes in blue skies"
Mastered by Grant Richardson.
Additional processing by Moss Harvest.
Thanks to Rita Mikhael, Brett Wagg, and Matt Harrison.
https://totalblack.bandcamp.com/album/adaptive-emotional-use
"This album is my formal introduction to the works of Death Kneel, the project of Max Klebanoff. Seemingly active since 2014, 13 cassette releases have been issued in that time, but Adaptive Emotional Use is the first release on vinyl.
Stripped to the Ivory Core opens the album with detailed micro-tonal scrap metal and field recording tones, but ample depth in the mix and the separation of sounds makes for detailed and engaging listening. A brooding atonal synth rumble and looped conveyor belt provide slight momentum and structure, but mid-track the whole mood shifts into wondrously minimalist and melancholic synth melodies. The title track follows and continues with shimmering melodious synth elements, yet these are force-fed through sonic filters which changes their tonal quality to scattered and fractured. Later in the track a pounding industrial undercurrent appears while the sweeping maudlin sub-orchestral textures gain focus and prominence. In clear contrast to the controlled and moody elements which precede it, Trauma Martyr opts for a more direct expression, consisting of choppy cut-up static and chaotic junk metal noise, with a rumbling bass distortion undercurrent. Would Anyone Die For Me? features a moody piano melody, minimalist scrabbling textures, and fractured mid-toned synth elements, generating a mood of melancholy and restraint. For the final track Redemption Angel (Corpse Criteria) the harsh and choppy cascade of noise returns, sitting at the mid to lower tonal range and clearly based on layered and processed scrap metal abuse – yet midway in it coalesces into a mangled mass of sub-orchestral synths and shimmering, fragmented, mid-toned noise.
With its wildly divergent sound, but one which is clearly the result of detailed attention to the structure and composition of sonic elements, Adaptive Emotional Use could be filed alongside the likes of Puce Mary or Damien Dubrovnik, without necessarily sounding like either of those. With its clear attention to detail and the careful juxtaposing of harsh sounds against melodious elements, Death Kneel have delivered an evocative and artistic take on experimental industrial noise." {Noise Receptor} |
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| DECONDITION |
Sukellan Tuntemattomiin Syvyyksiin |
CD |
"Sukellan tuntemattomiin syvyyksiin" ("I dive into unknown depths" FOR english) is Decondition's debut ALBUM after a tape released in 2006 on Freak Animal, The Universal Nothingness". The new album contains thirteen tracks recorded before and after the "Universal Nothingness" sessions. Using electronics, sampler, effects, field-recording, processed vocals, tape-voices, DECONDITION creates hypnotic, repetitive pieces of noise, mixing power or rhythmic electronics with real industrial sounds. The atmosphere is obscure, weird and very personal, most of the tracks dealing with death and the resurrection of the ego. Nordik P/E, Noise & Dark-Ambient
"Decondition are a Finnish project previously unknown to these ears, although a prior cassette ‘The Universal Nothingness’ was released by Freak Animal back in 2006. Evidently the 13 tracks featured here were recorded during various sessions both prior to and after ‘The Universal Nothingness’ sessions, and with the title translating to ‘I Dive into Unknown Depths’ it appears a hefty dose of nihilism is the conceptual underpinning of the album. To provide a quick overview of their approach, Decondition inhabit a sonic realm which is an amalgam of overblown distortion, off kilter factory clatter, clanging junk metal arrhythmia and occasional segments of respite.
From the opening passages of the album the crumbling waves of distortion and squalling static articulate the sonic timbre of harsh noise, yet there is a semblance of structure due to cyclic loops, imbedded samples and occasional barrage of unintelligible aggressive vocals which provides an industrial verging on power electronics angle to the sound. The third track functions to prove this point, where when ‘Dark Clouds Over My Inner Landscape’ arrives it demonstrates a focused, loosely rhythmic and pulsing power electronics track. Despite it clattering intensity mid album piece ‘Disease Within’ manages a partially meditative quality, which is mostly due to its grinding cement mixer rhythmic loops (…as agonised vocals yell a sermon of angst and inner turmoil). ‘Wheel of Change/ Passage of Time’ is another standout due to it pulling back on the heady distortion of preceding material, instead utilising a rhythmic militant industrial approach. Late album track ‘Aistiharhojen Luoma Todellisuus [ Sukellan Tuntemattomiin Syvyyksiin ]’ is another example of restraint (and one of the longer album tracks at just six and a half minutes), with a subdued soundscape of cavernous industrial drones and slowly manipulating textures. This paring back of intensity bleeds into to the final album track ‘Deep Sleep In My Dreams’, but on this piece accommodates a more suitably drugged and hazy atmosphere to match its title.
On a cursory level this album appears rather punishing and admittedly Decondition do deliver a strong set of industrial/ noise/ power electronics for the underground genre fanatic (which is further complimented with suitable decaying factory images). Yet there is also clear variation to be discovered within its general harsh abrasiveness. In effect this is a solid, hour’s length album of noisy, distorted, arrhythmic to rhythmic industrial noise abuse, mixed with elements of power electronics aggression and offset by moments of restraint." [Noise Receptor]
|
2014 |
€6.50 |
|
| DEEP |
If you drive a Traktor |
CD-R |
"With a line-up consisting basically of two bass guitars and effects, Deep have been extending the textural and compositional vocabulary of the rock bass guitar for the past 15 years. In the two instrumental tracks (30 and 15 minutes) of this album, they are at the height of the powers. They manage to combine driving indie-rock flavoured riffs with walls of sound reminiscent of Earth or Sunn O))) to create ambient atmospheres but still retaining a sense of groove.
Although Deep sometimes use distorted power chords and bowed drones in some places to pile up static walls of sound, for the most part the album has a definite mid to uptempo groove. However, through quasi-mantric repetition of the chords and layering of the two bass parts, the feel conveyed by the music is not “speed,” but rather a soothing, trance-like quality that is always based on subtle melodic lines indicative of the fact that earlier Deep releases, mainly featured on the band’s own Dhyana Records label, have proven them capable of writing compelling indie rock songs (complete with vocals) in the vein of Dinosaur Jr or Notwist. This album is co-released on Attenuation Circuit and Dhyana Records in tribute to the ground-breaking work of Dhyana Records for the formation of the experimental music network that now supports Attenuation Circuit." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"Another trio of releases on Attenuation Circuit, although the first one is a co-release with Dhyana Records - hence a somewhat different package. Deep is a duo and consists of two bass players, Stefan Vetter and Bernd Spring. No doubt there is a string of sound effects attached to the bass guitars. One long, thirty minute track and one that lasts half of that. Now with a band name such as Deep and with two bass guitars and effects, you could expect that this is all about deep ambient music, but that's not the primary interest of Deep. At times, many of them, Deep is more interested in playing rock like structures, less drums, not as much melody, but also with a certain groove going round. But the length of the pieces adds a long duration to both pieces and one could say that this adds to a more drone like character of the pieces. Think of a more mellow version of Earth and you have Deep. Minimalist avant-rock. Very nice." [FdW/VitalWeekly]
|
2011 |
€11.00 |
|
| DEISON |
Night Sessions |
CD |
"A collection of fascinating and obscure "nocturnal sessions” alternated with more "classic" electronic parts based on sequencers and synthesizers, more abstract and minimal sonic sketches, involving and tense deep drones musical mixtures, distorted and dilated electric guitars, deformed human voices, more static and fluctuating typical ambient movements, cold inserts of pulsating and "techno oriented" sounds, suggestive atmospheres built on bizarre loops, flat organ backgrounds and low guitar notes, and then again arpeggios, piano clusters, field recordings, more typical "glitch" inserts and hisses... A wide range of original and catching solutions created with the help of many guests, the album includes contributions by Teho Teardo, Philippe Petit, Under the Snow, Jim Coleman, Franck Vigroux, Testing Vault and Annen Berg." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| DEISON + GIANLUCA FAVARON |
Nearly Invisible |
CD |
"Cristiano Deison and Gianluca Favaron met in 2011 when the latter was a guest on Deison's "Night Sessions" album on Silentes. Both involved in many projects and music collaborations - Favaron with Lasik Surgery, Maribor, Zbeen and Under The Snow, and Deison with Mingle, Matteo Uggeri and Maurizio Bianchi - during the summer of 2015, at last free from previous engagements, they finally decide to mix their sound attitudes and give life to "Nearly Invisible", an album where they process concrete sounds, field-recordings, digital impulses and analog tapes. A sort of "rational improvisation" where the two artists have a conversation talking through the sounds of their surrounding realities. A slow overlapping of contaminated drones, embedded with manipulated noises describes "nearly invisible" environments visually captured by the companion pictures taken by Stefano Gentile. Rough images, textured, dirty; details that open windows onto landscapes where you can recognize panoramas, shadows and structures. All of this is presented in a high quality package, also available as a limited "art edition".
DEISON
Deison is involved in the experimental electronic area since more than 20 years (he played in Meathead during '90s) and he approached the world of sounds doing his own tape collages with tape recorders, turntables and objects mainly in the field of experimental noise; he runs a small label (Loud!) and collaborates with artist like Lasse Marhaug, KK Null, Teho Teardo, Thurston Moore, Scanner, etc... Influenced by the experimental music, ambient minimal electronic as well as a great interest into digital music and sound design, he operates with loops, field-recordings and drones to develop swirling electronic sounds of enormous range and complex musicality. Waves of looping deep ambient scapes, penetrated with sample fragments and light additional noise-ambient textures form Deison’s silent, minimal frame-set. His records have been released on various labels in Japan, Usa, UK, Italy and Germany. Latest collaborations include works with Maurizio Bianchi, Uggeri and Mingle.
Gianluca FAVARON
An electroacoustic musician, his work focuses on the processing of concrete sounds using software made on purpose. Field-recordings, drones: an approach that uses different music languages, to elaborate, merge or transform the sounds made by everyday objects into something different, both taking them out of context and/or processing and modifying them with various effects. He currently collaborates with Corrado Altieri in the "Altieri | Favaron" project and with Stefano Gentile (Silentes) as "Under the Snow". In 2015 he has released the CD albums "Entretien" on 13/Silentes and "Forget About Any Non-Gray" on MFU /Concrete; the Ab'SHE / Uncodified (Corrado Altieri) split album "Applied Misinformation for People Control" was also released by Naked Lunch Records.
"Nearly Invisible" is released in two different editions:
- a standard edition of 230 copies (CD + Book);
- a limited "art" edition of 13 copies housed in a 12" gatefold handpainted cover that also include one original photo (size 26x26 cm) + CD + Book" [label info]
13.silentes.it
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| DEISON / GALAN |
Cayendo |
CD-R |
“One meeting, one recording: 8 tracks. A cello mixed with dirty electronics”
In summer 2012 Deison meets in Spain Sara Galan, a cello artist based in Valencia.
In this meeting they decided to record some stuff together: some cello ambient drones
have been mixed with filed recordings, tapes and electronic sounds.
This improvised material was first inspired by the sentence repeated in loop for days:
“Earth swallow me” (”Tierra tragame).
And then the concept leads to internal sounds, sound from stomach, sounds from the throat. Visceral sounds also connected with earth, sand, mud and desert.
Audio material has been manipulated and assembled in winter for a release on Loud! label, Deison’s personal record label re-activated after a long silence.
Francesca Mele provided the perfect visual imagery for the cover artwork with her b&w photography and Gianluca Becuzzi (Limbo,Noise Trade Company) mastered the album with his perfect touch.
https://deison.bandcamp.com/album/cayendo |
2013 |
€10.00 |
|
| DEISON / MATTEO UGGERI |
In the other House |
CD-R |
"It was not born as a concept album, but as it was slowly becoming like the music inside it the sound work of Cristiano Deison and Matthew Uggeri ended up finding itself, step by step, enclosed between the narrow walls of an exceptional home. Arriving there from different places and positions, and never actually meeting, Friulian and Milan found themselves, perhaps in spite of themselves, together in uncomfortable rooms which were populated by dark invisible presences. It is not the scenario of a horror movie, there is no tradegy or fear, just the knowledge that somewhere else or the escape itself may be less reassuring than one has hoped. Therefore Francesca Mele's photos, both a seal of the work and source of inspiration for the music seem to further cloak the place in t that sense of quiet desperation that daily life often implies."
https://matteouggeri.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-other-house
Zwei jüngere italienische Soundbastler treffen sich hier. Beide haben schon vielfach ein Händchen für atmosphärische Landschaften bewiesen; DEISON (komplett: CRISTIANO DEISON) unter anderem hier auf NONPOP mit "Quiet Rooms", einem Album über die Stimmung in leeren Hotelzimmern. Auch UGGERI (komplett: MATTEO UGGERI) hat sein sicheres Gespür für beeindruckende Klangwolken schon aufgezeigt, unter anderem in Zusammenarbeiten mit DE FABRIEK oder MAURIZIO BIANCHI. Beiden Künstlern gemein ist die wohltuende Zurückhaltung bei Veröffentlichungen, man hat nie den Eindruck, dass sie den ohnehin übersättigten Markt der entsprechenden Genres fluten würden. Ihr erstes gemeinsames Album erscheint nun auf FINAL MUZIK (in Kooperation mit OLD BICYCLE RECORDS und OAK EDITIONS), wobei sich die Musiker kein einziges Mal persönlich gesehen haben – Arbeiten im digitalen Zeitalter. Der Titel des Albums sowie die Namen der einzelnen Tracks geben natürlich eine ganz klare Idee vor, aber – und dies ist das erste Kompliment für ein gelungenes Album – es geht auch ohne.
"Fessure" (01) fühlt sich an wie das Hinabsteigen in eine pilzige, fluoreszierende Höhle. Warme, aber gleichzeitig aufschreckende und unruhige Sounds umwabern den Hörer, es ploppt und droned. Sehr atmosphärisch und, außer zu einer Höhle, auch passend zu der wohl toten Frau auf Vorder- und Rückseite des Covers, die ich eben entdeckt habe – Film noir-Feeling. Ein bassiger und unregelmäßiger Beat kommt langsam dazu, ebenso ein schräger Streicher. Und immer kurz vor einer Melodie nimmt die Komposition die nächste Abzweigung. Das äußerst filmische Ambiente bleibt in "So Detached" (02) bestehen. Türen quietschen, Schritte rascheln – hier wird eine Story erzählt, ein ganzer Storyteppich voll von organischen Klängen ausgerollt. Ich höre aufmerksam und angespannt zu, weil jederzeit etwas passieren könnte. Zunehmend freunde ich mich mit der titelgebenden Idee eines fremden Hauses an, durch das wir als Hörer schleichen. Das "Micro Drama" (03) spielt sich in der Küche ab, melodiös liegen gezupfte Piano-Teilchen auf dem Tisch, ein dickes Brummen und Summen zeugt von Insektenleben, und die Streicher quietschen immer wieder dramatisch. Passend zum Besuch im Bad ("Stasis", 04) plätschert Wasser, die Sounds wechseln in noisiges Quietschen und Rauschen, und insbesondere die Cluster aus Blasinstrumenten beeindrucken mich. Menschen räumen Möbel in "Worried Stagnation" (05), verursachen dabei lange, ewige Drones. Und mein Lieblingssound des gesamten Albums erklingt auf der Treppe und im Keller ("Prelude, Largo", 06) – ein Tuba-ähnliches Brummen, welches die sich abwechselnden Passagen zum einen aus ruhigen Ambientflächen, zum anderen aus mächtigen, majestätischen Drones inklusive Piepen und Klingeln umrahmt, wobei sich alle Ebenen mehr und mehr übereinander schieben.
"In The Other House" ist ein wirklich beeindruckender Hörfilm, der mich an andere starke filmische Werke wie zum Beispiel die LAND-Trilogie ("Praha | Wien | Budapest", NONPOP-Besprechung) erinnert. Schleichen durch ein fremdes Haus, Erkunden einer dunklen Höhle, Hauptrolle in einem Film noir – das Album ist fast unabhängig vom möglichen Thema eine fesselnde Reise, und zwar von der ersten bis zur letzten Sekunde. Eine der bisher schönsten, weil stimmungsvollsten Basteleien des Jahres.
Michael We. für nonpop.de |
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| DELPHIUM |
Snowhill X (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
a strange and unique blend of ambient Industrial with sometimes even dub-rhytmical-tunes; low-fi and very deeply frequenced... reminds on SCORN or early COIL sometimes! A very own style...
first edition
250 copies, clear vinyl,
handmade cover art with printed
linoleum finishing/center piece
released May 1997
"This outfit from berkshire, uk, has gained some attention through the releases of several self-produced 7"es in the past few years, which showed a great variety and mixture of influences, all combined in an experimental
manner to reach unknown fields of musical creation. One can find elements of industrial, techno & ambient & even rock in the songs of Delphium, that are mixed and varied into a kind of "low-fi" homerecording-style that is sometimes dark & melancholic, sometimes rhythmically pulsating and even danceable. As this is really hard to describe we recommend this 7" to everyone who is able to confront him/herself with a musical style that can't be sticked into a musical drawer, that is always surprising and shifting (some people even
compared it with early-coil!). This e.p. contains 4 tracks of a darker nature,
spheric electronics, noises and guitars with a very cineastic character... [label info]]
"This group proceeds from the british school of guitar-noise groups (such as their friends and colleagues Splintered), combining experimental
music elements within the rock format. However Delphium are strangely different from this. Having appeared near 4 years back and having written currently a variety of works on the small independent labels (mainly 7" singles;
the long awaited CD "How Can You Hide from What Never Goes Away?" has seen the light of day only recently through Outsider), they continue dubbed bass studies in combinations with sampled technological rhythms and guitar.
Their sounding is a strange and unique mixture of ambient-industrial, dub-rhythmic tonality, low- and exceedingly deeply frequencies of low-fi-darkness, harmonics, repetitive noise-feedbacks, industrial drones and voices, riffs
and gloomy electronic depths, melancholies and more active rhythmic beat-pulsations,
reminding a strange dance on the edge of trance and claustrophobia, freely based on the firm foundation of their creative ideas. Written in the style of homerecording, their work reminds Scorn or even early Coil in places, but their own style is individual.
The recording of four compositions for "Snowhill-X" was made in 1995, but mixed only recently, having present getting dark sullen fall in tones of spherical electronics play "Unforgiven", polished extremities with thick
striking sounding of title composition, finishing with massive wall of guitar sounding, oppressive drone-philosophies of internal sample cogitations of "Stringsong 1" and strange keyboard canto with knocking time and again on background gloomy spheres of "Lie to Me". Manual design on the linoleum, best work."
[Achtung Baby!]
SELECTED WORKS:
Delphium/Lull (7", split, Aquese, 1994)
Delphium/Husk (7", split, Aquese, 1994)
Delphium/Sheephead (7", split, Alleysweeper, 1995)
Breeding Bad Blood (7", Outsider, 1996)
Delphium/Big City Orchestra (7", split, Aquese, 1997)
How Can You Hide from What Never Goes Away? (CD, Outsider, 1997)
|
1997 |
€ |
|
| DEMOULIN, JULIEN & IA |
The Bay |
CD |
"A tribute to both a great friendship and the mist-mantled San Francisco Bay Area, “The Bay” is a sprawling forty-minute drone piece recorded and produced in 2009 and 2010 over the course of several journeys between Oakland, California and Brussels, Belgium.
Guitar and vocal drones, environmental recordings and flute merge to form an emotional travelogue at the grey boundaries of the dreaming and waking worlds…in celebration of reminiscence, before a darkling dawn, deep under the skies of water…" [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
"These two new releases on Basses Frequences see further exploration of the theme of ambient music, but are worked out differently. On the soft(er) edge we have a collaboration between Julien Demoulin and IA, recorded in Brussels and Oakland. The thematic approach here is about the Bay Area of California, but it could have been anything else really. Demoulin and IA use, apparently, guitars, voices, environmental recordings and flute in these two pieces which exactly last twenty minutes. Perhaps they intended this to do be a LP? Compared to other CDs I was listening to, around this, this is very soft music. I am not sure why that is, but I'm glad its not on vinyl; who knows what would have been left? Maybe its an artist statement to do it this soft, but it could have been easily a bit louder and still sounding great - I know someone who can a great mastering job, guys. Its not easy to spot those water recordings, or chimes, and certainly in the first part things move away below the surface of audibility. Its music you hear from a distance, maybe just like overlooking the bay area (a view to a kill?) from some distance. The music acts like fog horns in the night, far away, shining through the mist and haze of the night. The second piece is a bit 'louder', and comes across like boats passing in the night. Its also the somewhat more abstract piece of the two, dwelling more on sustaining tones, whereas the first part has nicely shimmering melodies. Excellent stuff." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| DERGARABEDIAN, CHRISTIAN (C.D.) |
Un piano en la garganta (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
Der Argentinier C.D. beeindruckt mit 6 kurzen, monumentalen Digital-Drone-Sphären, dicht und dynamisch..
“Another newcomer on DRONE Records is C.D. (aka CHRISTIAN DERGARABEDIAN) originally born in Buenos Aires and now residing in Barcelona. Christian once played with REYNOLS and is now currently working solo. Here we can enjoy a six tracks album that shows us the fascinating universe of C.D. A dimension where static slow sound waves, disturbing noise-entities and meditative storm-breezes with sound effects are guaranteed to make you shiver! Imagine THE HAFLER TRIO meeting the dynamics of BRUME…endless thick waves of overwhelming drones shaping up to this digital ambience that sounds purely organic...
Filed under: monumental slow-wave-drones.
RED TRANSPARENT VINYL. WHITE COVERS WITH HANDMADE DRAWING AND STAMP.” [press release]
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
| DERGARABEDIAN, CHRISTIAN (C.D.) y MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT |
Lamentamos informar al Universo |
CD-R |
"der stuhl an der wand ist leer ich
lebe" / "nadien ocupa la silla delante de la pared yo
vivo" / " the chair next to the wall is empty I
am living "
[from the credits]
Lovely collaboration of these two Drone Records-artists (MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT being a part of LICHT-UNG). Mysterious drones & ominous sounds all over the place, rumbling & resonancing in polymorph ways, arrays of highly effected stuff...quite rough but beautiful, recommended! Exists in two editions of 28 / 27 copies, of both we got few copies..
"...Statt harschem Krach erklingt sogar
akkordeonartig Melodiöses (‚No more demoras‘) oder transparente Fieldrecordings aus Alien Landscapes, die das Ambiente verlassener (‚Celestialmente divino part 9‘) oder vollautomatisch rumorender Weltraumbahnhöfe suggerieren (‚Ensombrecido por sol‘).Immer wieder deuten die Klänge eine industriale Hohlwelt an, ohne dabei morlockhaft finstere Züge anzunehmen. ‚Si superia how!!‘ ähnelt stottrig verstümmelten Morsezeichen und vererbt seine Cut-up-Technik an das sampladelische Finale, ‚Energía adulterada‘, bei dem auch das ‚Akkordeon‘ wieder auftaucht, wie Klangfetzen von einem Rummelplatz." [Bad Alchemy]
www.licht-ung.de
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| DEUTERROR |
Le Gueule de Guerre |
CD |
After the two amazing Agrippen and Cortharis Lex, available for download on his website, Deuterror offers his new realisation, and first release on CD, "Le Gueule De Guerre". A fable on the faith that animates man and keeps him standing, getting beyond the limits of a minimalist dark ambient or the violence of an extravagant noise.
Deuterror develops his theme with drones in turn overwhelming and disturbing, vindicative frequencies, making of Le Gueule De Guerre a severe statement bittered with desillusion. The album, presented in a beautiful matt digipack and limited at 1000 copies, also includes a cd-rom track which allows the listener to appreciate even more Deuterror's universe to its true value. |
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| DIALING IN |
Cows in Lye |
CD |
Sehr interessantes Drone-Projekt aus Seattle, absolut undurchdringliche low-fi drones, die aber voller verdeckter Harmonien stecken, die kaum noch erahnbar sind. Basierend auf v.a. indische field recordings, wird hier mit der klassischen LUCIER-Methode immer weiter verfremdet...
"DIALING IN is the ecstatic roaring psychedelic drone project of Seattle based sound artist REITA PIECUCH. Utilizing the natural acoustics of a series of reverberant spaces she weaves together super saturated soundscapes by recording in one environment, playing back in another, and then re-recording this recording playing back in yet another environment (etc.). On Cows in Lye, the original sound sources range from loops of field recordings from a trip to India, piano, and the shifting drones of a "Shruti Box" (electronic Tamboura). One track also features a long stream of consciousness vocal performance from avant-crooner HERB DIAMANTE! After a trek with recording gear through the caves, cathedrals and bunkers of Seattle these ingredients are transformed into huge and sublimely distorted quasi-melodic dreamscapes. The album lifts off with an ecstatic roar and the intensity doesn't let up until one is released exultant in the green flash of a setting sun." [label info]
www.pseudoarcana.com
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| DIDKOVSKY, NICK |
Tube Mouth Bow String |
CD |
Fünf Stücke des Impro-Gitarristen & Komponisten NICK DIDKOVSKY (bekannt von DOCTOR NERVE & Zusammenarbeiten mit FRED FRITH, er spielte aber auch mit KEITH ROWE, ERHART HIRT, etc..), der mit einem Streicherquartett zusammenarbeitet und konzeptuell auch Computersoftware einsetzt. Fette Drones, Violinen, recht abseitig und rauh, Polydrones mit noisigen Ausbrüchen, sehr intensiv & klasse arrangiert, definitiver Drone-Tip !
"....These pieces are about the details of musical evolution that emerge from rule-based compositional systems. Using electric guitar, string quartet, electronics, and computer software, we explored territories held together by systems of agreements, forms specified in software, real-time musical choices, and notation.
Two of the compositions here, She Closes Her Sister With Heavy Bones and What Sheep Herd, are process pieces whose scores fit very economically on one page. Each score specifies melodic material and a short set of rules. The music precipitates from the interaction between the score¹s specifications and the decisions that the musicians make during performance. By contrast, Tube Mouth Bow String is a through-composed piece which notates foot pedal movements, vocal behavior, and bowed string performance, overflowing very uneconomically onto many pages which we pasted onto large poster boards and set before each player. Though this piece leaves no real-time performance decisions to the ensemble, Tube Mouth is a process piece in a very real sense, as the process was first specified, executed, and auditioned in software, and finally transcribed to common music notation for live performers. Improvisation (simultaneously the easiest and the most difficult of all real-time process pieces to perform) is included here as well, with a solo MachineCore performance providing a bridge between She Closes and Tube Mouth. Closing the CD, Just a Voice That Bothered Him sounds like it could have been composed systematically but evades rules instead, being composed intuitively by ear. The piece emerged in opposition to one vividly frustrating weekend of fruitless systematic composition, and for that, gets the last word." [credit notes]
www.pogus.com
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| DIMMER (JOSEPH HAMMER & THOMAS DIMUZIO) |
Remissions |
do-LP |
Nach "Shining Path" das zweite Album für das kalifornische Duo (die Langzeit-Aktiven THOMAS DIMUZIO & THOMAS HAMMER), absolut meisterhafte & spannende Dronescapes, die einen gleich gefangennehmen... unheimlich bannend, metallisch-irisierend, mit Obertönen wie von rostigem Metall... vier lange Stücke aufgenommen auf verschiedenen Konzerten 2006-2007. Aussergewöhnlich schön!
"Dimmer's Remissions is the second full-length album from longtime sonic architects of interactive feedback circuits, Thomas Dimuzio and Joseph Hammer. This 2xLP effectively represents four side-long pieces from their live shows throughout California taken place between 2006 and 2007. Essentially a follow-up to their 2007 album on Los Angeles' Melon Expander, Remissions expands upon the immense recursive tape looping and resampling that is found inherent in their work but achieves a weight and time displacement that greatly overshadows their dark preceding full-length. All four pieces were recorded at: Norcal Noisefest in Sacramento (2006, 'Sky Wire'), The Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco (2006, 'Sun Dog'), The Smell in Los Angeles (2006, 'Gases That Emit Light'), and ArtSF's Noise Pancakes Series (2007, 'Giant Eagle'). Live sampling, processing, feedback, looping by Thomas Dimuzio. Tape manipulation and processing by Joseph Hammer. Design and layout by Thomas Dimuzio, Joseph Hammer and Brandon Nickell. Limited to 500 copies on full-color sleeves with cover photography by John Dalton."
[label info]
"... Hammer's instrument of choice is the reel-to-reel tape deck, through which he can muster an uncanny palette of sound, noise, and drone. The two have worked together off and on for a good part of the last decade, with a handful of performances throughout California and a couple of releases - Remissions being their second and collecting some of the best moments from those live gigs. "Sky Wire" builds insectoid buzzes and creepily harmonic drones out of the interplay between Hammer's rough-hewn tape manipulation and Dimuzio's deftly rendered swells, somewhere between Machinefabriek and Christoph Heemann. "Sun Dog" grafts blackened noise onto an electrocutioner's hum, with Hammer's start 'n' stop tapes popping into view like a detached Burroughs cut-up. Both "Gases That Emit Light" and "Giant Eagle" continue along these same strategies with eerie clouds of drones that fold and collapse between harmonic resonance and dissonance with unsettled bursts of soft focus noise. This is really exceptional stuff, and certainly some of the best that we've encountered from either artists individually." [Aquarius Records review]
"It may sound like a new name, and half of it also is. Dimmer is a duo of Thomas Dimuzio and one Joseph Hammer. This double LP set is the follow up to a CD on Melon Expander which I didn't hear. Each of the four sides has a live recording, three from 2006 and one from 2007. Dimmer uses live sampling, processing, feedback, looping (Dimuzio) and tape manipulation and processing (Hammer). This is pretty interesting music. All four pieces show something that could be labeled as 'band sound'. The careful tape manipulations of Hammer, making the tape go 'wobbly' against the heads, set against a scary set of subdued electronics. A record to turn up the volume as things seem rather 'low' here, but once a bit louder reveal a lot of hidden detail. Scary, spooky stuff, with dark atmospheric undercurrent. Of the four pieces 'Giant Eagle' is my favorite here with its somewhat more clear tape sounds, and scraping, feedback like rusty metal sound, whereas the other three seem to be moving more along side one specific idea and are throughout more minimal. Excellent sci-fi soundtrack stuff at work here, save then perhaps for the piece I like which works really fine by itself. An excellent record. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.isounderscore.com
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
| DISFATUM |
Death Instinct |
CD |
"Death Instinct is the debut album of DisFatum and delights us with dark ambient and black atmospherics ambience spiraling us towards an absolute pureness - there where nothing is needed nor nothing remains.
Taking the inspiration from the Freudian psychology, this album suppresses the equilibrium of being by combining the formless ambient drones and quietly sung vocals, harsher guitar and industrial ritualistic bits.
The album takes us on a delightful dark journey within the confines of the psyche, which is trying to survive a world ablaze. It conveys a mirror reflection of the outside into the inside and a natural wish to escape from the material - non material to a super position. A state from which there is no desire to return…ever.
Written, Performed by Ksenya Sirin."
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| DISSECTING TABLE |
Rancid Smell |
CD |
ICHIRO TSUJI is back and he still likes powerful noise ! Harsh drones and his nagging voice, cheeping analogue tunes, weird sounds…
4 tracks, ca. 47 minutes playtime, special fold out cardboard-cover with diverse inlays, lim. & numbered 100 copies, fabric pressed edition!!!
www.waystyx.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| DISSECTING TABLE / MATTHIAS GRASSOW & TOMAS WEISS |
split |
LP |
" 2 Track 12” , mehr als 40 Minuten Musikgenuss, Mathias Grassow & Tomas Weiss mit einem New Age / Ambient Track, der seinesgleichen sucht, die Ruhe pur, mit sehr ruhiger Bewegung, ein Track zum meditieren, relaxen, bevor man aus allen schönen Träumen gerissen wird und Dissecting Table (Ichiro Tsuji) uns an den Alltagswahn erinnert, meines Erachtens die komplexeste Noise Granate, die je Dissecting Table hervorgebracht hat, brachial und kompromisslos.
Diese LP ist nun der lang erwartete Zweite Teil, der „A-Childs-Color-Play Serie, diesmal limitiert auf 100 Exemplare mit Insert und kommt im handbemalten Coversleeve heraus, gemalt haben Kinder und Jugendlich mit
einer Geistigen Behinderung, an den Covern kann man erkennen, das es Ihnen Spaß gemacht haben muss, viele sehr schöne Motive, verständliches und unverständliches, aber mit viel Phantasie wird man auch das eine oder andere verstehen können.
Wie auch bei dem ersten Teil, geht ein Teil des Preises der LP an die Cover-Künstler." [label info]
www.psych-kg.de
" 'Plus - Minus' is the title of the composition by Mathias Grassow and Tomas Weiss on this record. It might have been the title of the entire record, as things are very opposite. I have a certain weakness for the music of Dissecting Table, simply because one of the first CDs I ever bought as a young man was by Dissecting Table. It was a time when it was hard to get 'my kind of music' on CD. Not that I kept up with subsequent releases very much, of which some of the more recent is a bit too noisy (or ordinary noise) for my taste, but on 'Sky' it seems that Dissecting Table pulls back gear a bit, and not just works with noise, but glides back down and let sound effects run their course and die out, before starting up again. Its actually quite a nice piece of solid noise. The piece on the other side is something else. Both Mathias Grassow and Tomas Weiss are known to be players from the world of drone music, and that's exactly what they set out to do here. What ties in noise and drone, is that both ends of the musical spectrum don't seem to have many new developments in recent years. Just as noise is perhaps so much as it is, drone is no different. What Grassow and Weiss do here is what they have been doing for years. That again is no problem, and knowing myself to love drones more than noise - these days - I think this a wonderful side, in which time doesn't seem to be moving. Excellent. The cover of these records, which come in an edition of 100 copies, are 'designed' (drawn is perhaps the word) by a child with a mental handicap. I have no idea what the bigger idea behind that is." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€20.00 |
|
| DOYLE, ROGER |
The Ninth Set |
CD |
Noch aus UNITED DAIRIES-Anfängen bekannt ist ROGER DOYLE - sein 66 minütiges prämiertes Werk "The Ninth Set" überzeugt mit raumfüllenden atonalen Sphären-Drones, so rauh und symphonisch wie einige KAYN-Stücke! Durchsetzt von elektro-akustischer Spannung
schaffen "stehende" Wellen von Klang tiefe suggestive Räume, harmonische Wechsel geschehen unerwartet und zirkulär, Lautstärkelevel verändern sich dynamisch. Mitreissend!
"Irish composer Roger Doyle's first release on Die Stadt is his prize-winning work The Ninth Set, a 67 minute masterpiece in 5 parts. He was awarded the Magisterium Prize at this years's Bourges International Electro-acoustic Music Competition in France for parts 4 and 5. The award, which is one of the most important prizes in the world for electronic music, is open to composers having at least 25 years of professional experience in the field, and its objective is 'the promotion and diffusion of works that might become milestones in the history of electroacoustic music'. Previous works of Doyle include a 5-CD set Babel which took ten years to compose, where each track corresponds to a room or place within an imagined tower city; and the 3 hour Passades, music made from software that freezes sounds like a freeze-frame in DVD. He's also known for his project OPERATING THEATRE which released the classic "Rapid Eye Movements' album - consisting of 4 works composed between 1968 - 1980 - on Steven Stapleton's (Nurse With Wound) own United Dairies label in 1980. Furthermore he guested on Fovea Hex's 'neither speak nor remain silent' EP number 2 'Huge', alongside among others Clodagh Simonds, Brian Eno, Percy Jones and Colin Potter. More at http://www.rogerdoyle.com.
The CD comes in a color digipack in a first edition of 600 copies. Total playing time: 66:29 min." [press -release]
"...Through the five lengthy pieces of The Ninth Set, Roger Doyle cycles through rumbling episodes of recontextualized tumult and industrial heft, with every sound recorded and presented with impeccable digital clarity. At times, his work mangles Ligetti-esque vocal chorale through timestretching DSP tricks and thick digitally swabbed crescendos of grey noise; at others plucked cords, wires, and strings congregate into an unsettled mass with opaque rumblings and seasick swells. Throughout each movement, there's plenty of pregnant
interludes of relative quiet with punctations of rapidly approaching noise that halt at its peak with a razor cut to silence. Uncool, it
may be; but The Ninth Set is a brilliant record." [Aquarius Records review]
label-website: www.diestadtmusik.de
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| DRAFTED BY MINOTAURS |
Aversion Therapy |
do-LP |
"Drafted by Minotaurs mainstays are guitarist Ryan Wilson and Ian Fulcher, who contributes trumpet and glockenspiel. Meanwhile members of a floating cast chip in with added textures from cello and violin. Opener "Blueprints for Sunbuilding" spools out a hail of plucked and bowed strings, webs of sound solidifying then melting into steely flow, stall set out somewhere around cultivated Constellation post-rockeries, a mood and sound that may feel familiar to those acquainted with the new backwoods chamberisms and neo-folk drone of UK cottage industrialites such as Richard Skelton (aka A Broken Consort/Clouwbeck) and Seasons (Pre-din). "Sault Locks" proposes cyclical patterns of stringed things that seem to hover shyly apart, before swarming to swell and billow over the listener - not so much a Storm of Drones as a squall of tones. "Skin the Night and Fog," a more veiled sister of the previous pluckings and bowings, plays out a psych-infused dream sequence. These three tracks forming Side A work with their own distinct harmonic and textural patterns, while seeming like movements of something overarching. Miasmic minor chord tidal flow abounds, the music's motion determined by languorous bow-strokes, its textures by warm-prickly needles of guitar pizzicatos. Side B's single extended track, "Sunday's Morning Ghost," is wrought from similar materials, but aspires to more transcendant levels, led by the celestial harmonics of Fulcher's treated trumpet. It takes on atavistic echoes redolent of some distant Miles Davis or Jon Hassell blowback, as if viewing In a Silent Way through a post-Kosmische kaleidoscope, or channeled through Eno/Budd cathedrals to meet today's psych-drone and ambient trajectories. Overall, Aversion Therapy thrives on such productive tensions between genres and eras, as it does between live and recorded, spontaneous and pre-structured, making for engaging, at times thrillingly psychotropic, listening." - alan lockett " [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
"A duo is Drafted By Minotaurs, being guitarist Ryan Wilson and trumpet and glockenspiel (an unlikely combination me thinks) Ian Fulcher, whose 'Aversion Therapy' is their first LP. A great package with a gate fold sleeve - no costs are spared here. Their ambient is much more open and gentle then say Dent, and miles and miles away from the music of Malignant Records. The guitar is clearly to be recognized, even with some folk strumming in 'Sault Locks'. Whatever glockenspiel and trumpet are doing is however a bit unclear. My best guess would be is that are looped through a variety of sound devices and which form the ambient backdrop in which the guitar seems to move so freely. Side A has three tracks, under which the aforementioned 'Sault Locks', which is quite short, which are nice, but the best piece is the side long b-side 'Sunday's Morning Ghost', in which the trumpet plays a more dominant role (or at least can be recognized more), in long sustaining tones, meandering together, merging gently with the guitar sounds, which now are close to the trumpet. The glockenspiel? It plays its own spiel somewhere, like shimmering metallic sounds pushed towards the end of the spectrum, but they haven't disappeared altogether. Great cinematic beauty. Top class ambient album." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€26.00 |
|
| DRAPE |
An Idea and its Map |
LP |
"Drape is an ambient duo comprised of Ryan Gracey and Spencer Williams. They have been crafting soundscapes since 2004. Their debut, 'dream words' (Gears of Sand) saw a limited CDR release in 2009. It was well received and garnered comparisons to Stars of the Lid, early 70's Tangerine Dream as well as late 80's space ambient. Their follow-up was an interesting pairing on cassette - a split w/ experimental artist Odd Nosdam.
'An Idea And Its Map' marks a refined leap forward in Drape's sound. While less space music, there is certainly more expansion. It is a smudged and blended orchestra of drones on the opener 'Solo in High Dreary' and those drones are split apart in slow-motion - eventually revealing a single guitar tone.
Moments of sublime resonance as on 'The Visible The Untrue' anchored by piano, and notes that float, seemingly carried in on a breeze. All is not as it seems with an undercurrent of ground swelling, oscillating air - somewhere in the distance there is a storm assembling. Ebb and flow between light and dark - silver lined black clouds converge on the B side opener 'fanfare for lake flies'. The strings, guitar, siren calls are assembled and plastered to one another. A thick blanket of overwhelming beautiful cacophony results.
The album's close is as much filtered white noise as it is heavenly chords. The dual slow-motion treated guitar present thoroughout 'An Idea...' diverges between pools of dissonant feedback, howls of wind, and melodic drones.
'An Idea...' is a study in contrasts - and Drape find effective employment of the disparity as well as the combination of the reticent and the reserved turbulence. There is an atmosphere of tension, in a sense with resplendent tones enveloping a barely concealed fury just under the surface.
Edition of 400 copies. Black vinyl, 180 Gram pressing. Gatefold sleeve + OBI strip. Purchase of LP will include a download code of the album (FLAC, MP3, etc. - your choice).
After a tumultuous pathway to being pressed on vinyl, be it natural phenomena, pressing issues, manufacturer issues, broken plates, and so on - Infraction is relieved to present finally the first vinyl full-length LP by Drape." [label info]
www.infractionrecords.com
"Graduating from extended synthesizer jams of their earlier output to symphonic, string-based ambience, the duo of Drape provide a soundtrack for frigid early mornings and star-laden late nights. The seven tracks that comprise "An Idea and Its Map" glisten and glide over slow arcs of swelling strings and luxurious textures that bring to mind the oft-referenced figureheads of the genre, Stars of the Lid. Drape, in both structure and execution, clearly aim for this comparison. Yet they do it better than most and while they can't approximate Stars of the Lid's natural emotion and grasp of melody, Drape smartly overlay their drones with guitar distortion and amplifier feedback to give the surroundings a patina of worn textures. The end result illuminates "An Idea and Its Map" with both a vulnerable and hard-edged feel and is all the better for it." [Ryan Potts, Experimedia]
"Its been a while since I last from Drape, the duo of Ryan Gracey and Spencer Williams - see Vital Weekly 722 - but I believe they didn't release much beyond that point, other than a split cassette with Odd Nosdam. With this release we return to the more introspective ambience which we also encountered with Eluder. Yet there are differences also. Whereas Eluder is certainly grey towards black, Drape is more grey towards white. It would seem to me that all of this music is created with guitars, and it's not difficult to see a strong influence from Stars Of The Lid. The long form, sustaining guitars, cascading slowly, like majestic waves, rolling ashore, has a strong orchestral to it. Ringing string music, on an endless, perpetual slow motion roller coaster. If that is at all possible. Its been a while since we last heard something from Stars Of The Lid, and for all I know they might no longer exist, but Drape, on this particular record, would win easily the chance of successor to their throne. A fine example, textbook drone music. Forty years of mood music pass by, from the German cosmos, Eno's living room and a bit of neo-classical music - Arvo for my part. Highly refined journey on the wings of musical history." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€25.00 |
|
| DRIVE TO UQBAR |
First Station |
CD-R |
"First Station is a seven-track album featuring ambient, dark-ambient, and experimental minimal music comprised of electronically manipulated field recordings fused with guitar noise and drones developed by Keith Rose. Based on seven paintings by late abstract expressionist artist Barnett Newman, the album’s individual tracks structurally mimic (though not contrived) Newman’s minimalist, single-stroke technique, which he called his “Zip.” In addition, when translated sonically, Newman’s use of a single color for his paintings’ fields afforded a great deal of creative freedom when designing each track’s overall soundscape. Additional textures include female vocals by Rebecca Reis-Miller and cello performed by Yamilet Trujillo." [label info]
www.essentiamundi.com
|
2012 |
€9.00 |
|
| DROPP ENSEMBLE |
Play: THE EMPIRE BUILDERS (music for theatrical performance) |
CD |
“Die Musik dieser 3-Track CD (51:42 min.) entstand als Auftragsarbeit für ein Theaterstück des französischen Autors Boris Vian: „The Empire Building“. Die Stücke beginnen jeweils sehr ruhig. Langsam erkundet das Ensemble den Klangraum mittels konstanten Einsatzes lang anhaltender Drones und minimal gesetzten perkussiven Elementen, wie z.B. Gongs. Mit tiefdröhnenden Soundscapes rufen sie Eindrücke unausgesprochener Ängste und sublimer Paranoia hervor, die den Plot des Theaterstückes unterstreichen. Diesen sehr kontemplativen Soundtrack spielen: Sam Dellaria, Wolfgang Fuchs, Steven Hess, Eric la Casa, Aram Shelton, Adam Sonderberg, Brendan Walls and Alexander Wallner. //
This 3-track CD (51:42 min.) features music commissioned for the play „The Empire Building“ by the french author Boris Vian. The tracks are starting very quiet and slowly the ensemble explores the soundspace with a constantly use of of long during drones and minimal staid percussive elements like gongs. They create deep droning soundscapes evoking an impression of unspoken fear and subliminal paranoia in relation to the plot of the stage play. This very contemplative soundtrack is played by: Sam Dellaria, Wolfgang Fuchs, Steven Hess, Eric la Casa, Aram Shelton, Adam Sonderberg, Brendan Walls and Alexander Wallner.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
|
2003 |
€14.50 |
|
| DRUMM, KEVIN |
Humid Weather |
LP |
"Microphone, electronics, field recordings. Initialy published by Kevin Drumm himself in a very limited CDR edition. A mixture of field recordings and microtonal drones with intercepted voices." [label info]
www.bocianrecords.com
"A Bocian Records regular, Kevin Drumm, with another new LP of his work, which he recorded in July and August 2012, and perhaps there was humid weather in Chicago back then? There is not a lot of information on the cover, with regards to instruments and such like. The title piece spans side A, and on side B we find 'Heat Stress' and 'Humidity Can Suck It'. To start with side B is to start from an obvious point of entry. We know and love Kevin Drumm as a noise maker and these two pieces are very much like you would expect him to do. You could wonder if that's a good thing, but I quite enjoyed these two massive slabs of noise. Maybe there is some field recording in there, but there are effectively transformed by the use of effects and analogue synthesizers. It's what he does best, and Drumm isn't exactly of the Wall of noise school guys, but he's certainly one heavy composer. Chaotic it bounces around, like the finest Merzbow piece. It's great, but it's what you expect. The big surprise is to be found on the other side. Here we have a piece which is build from field recordings, lots of rain and thunder sounds, but also bits of street sounds. That's about one-third of the piece, the rest is made up from a very low ambient sound, mostly electronic I'd say, of a few loops howling around in the far distance, and nothing much else. This is great piece, unlike much, if not all, you may have heard from Drumm. A fine piece of ambient music, humming away in the background, almost like a very quiet Brian Eno piece. That perhaps is the biggest surprise - well, at least for me it is." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Trouble |
CD |
"Recorded Winter 2013-2014 at Frostbite, Chicago, IL. Mastered by Russell Haswell. 'Trouble' is the brand new dispatch from the assorted output of Kevin Drumm and sits as one of the quietest in his entire catalogue. A single continuous 54 minute excursion into the netherworld of the audio spectrum, 'Trouble' is neither ambient nor drone but a more complex investigation into the deep recesses of sound. One which discreetly works itself into the mind of a listener willing to invest in the path laid out in this extremely subtle, beautiful and exceptional release." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Kevin Drumm has been known to wield an iron fist on his recordings—records like Sheer Hellish Miasma, Impish Tyrant, and Electronic Harassment are titled that way for a reason—but Trouble may punish you in different, and sneakier, ways. This is the quietest record I've heard since Bernhard Günter and Francisco Lopez's hushed microsound works from the turn of the millennium. It is so quiet that you'll need to turn the volume up very, very loud to hear it well, or indeed, at all. In my case, that involves several steps—one volume control on the laptop, one on the audio interface, and one on the DJ mixer that it all runs through on the way to a pair of studio monitors—as well as closing the window in order to shield Drumm's filament-like drones from the rumble of traffic outside. Suffice to say, this is an album that requires some effort, and part of that effort might involve just sitting still.
I thought I might get some multi-tasking done—file maintenance, email cleanup, general absent-minded mousing around—while I sat and zoned out to a first run-through of what might be the Chicago noise musician's most ethereal recording since 2009's Imperial Horizon. But I had forgotten about the computer's default alert sounds, and when I went to delete a document, I was startled by the noise that suddenly tore through my speakers—a sound like boots crunching through snow, almost painfully loud. The sound, of course, came not from Drumm's Worse than Burning Offal studios, but from a lab in Cupertino. But it was tempting to imagine that moment of sonic violence as a part of the piece, in a way. Kevin Drumm wants your full attention, and he has mastered Trouble in such a way to practically guarantee it.
Another, perhaps better, option is just to leave the album on in the background at a natural, almost inaudible volume, and let it sink in like incense. That's the same line of thinking behind Imperial Horizon's lone, hour-long track "Just Lay Down and Forget It", presumably. I can think of few passive listens that might be less taxing than this shimmering, 54-minute piece, divided into two halves and separated by a minute or two of actual, total silence. As far as wallpaper music goes, Brian Eno's Music for Airports scans as a clash of gaudy op-art prints compared to Drumm's almost invisible layer of atmosphere. Still, per the title, Drumm's disappearing act amounts to a kind of uneasy listening, even at an almost imperceptible volume. This is the sound of fingertips slowly tracing crystal rims; of whale song heard from the opposite end of the ocean; of ghost trains braking in the dead of night. It is the sound of mountains slumping and mist settling. Its deathless peal is a dead ringer for the music of the spheres—all that friction, all that reverb, nothing but shivering frequencies, from here to the ends of the known universe. It's the ghostly microwaves of cosmic background radiation.
Despite Drumm's noisy reputation, his music can be overwhelmingly sensual even at its loudest. Sheer Hellish Miasma's "Hitting the Pavement", for instance, is a full-body rubdown of distortion—part airplane engine, part power sander, yet still, above all, a welcoming embrace. And that goes a thousand-fold for the sublime Trouble, an album that invites you to dive into its clutches with the promise of never hitting bottom. The noise floor is a very, very long way down." [Philip Sherburne/Pitchfork]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| DUAL |
Keimar Sty |
CD |
Die zweite CD der Engländer ist das erhoffte MEISTERWERK geworden! Wieder wieder Gitarren-, Bass- und Perkussions-Klänge benutzt und bearbeitet, um visionäre & subtile Soundscapes zu kreieren, die in tiefsten Tiefen des Unterbewußsteins für Unruhe zu sorgen scheinen. Atemberaubend atmosphärisch und betäubend schön!! The second CD for the english project is a real masterpiece! Again they used guitar, bass and percussion-origins and processed them to create visionary and subtile soundscapes that seem to move into deepest regions of the unconscious. Breathtaking atmospheric and beautiful ! Deeply recommended !
“ As always all the sounds on this release are from the guitar and this second full CD release features Dual exploring rhythms and percussion coaxed from the guitar while applying various
treatments and manipulation. Although some traditional methods of playing the guitar have been employed on the recordings of this
album the finished mixes show no real sign of a plucked guitar string. Drones and textures are interwoven with clicks, pops and buzz from the electronics with subtle bass rhythm to create a
soundbed of drifting melancholic ambience. This album features new collaborators George Richardson (Coombe Records / Cassette41) and Alice Kemp (Germ Seed).” [press release]
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Klanik |
7inch |
Nahezu weiss in weiss ist die dezente Gestaltung für die Klanik / 4tH-EP.... DUAL gehören für uns definitiv zu einer der besten wirklich experimentellen "ambient-guitar“-Bands ...Wiederveröffentlichung der EP von 1999!
"DUAL hail from Doncaster, now based in London, England and have so far released two cassettes and a 7" on Dirter Promotions. Their music is a mixture of mighty guitar-drones with massive sub bass undertones & slight rhythmic structures that evoke feelings of total transcendence and grandeur. On Side A (KLANIK) there seem to be cascades of tuneful layered guitars that speak a special language of their own, on Side B (4tH) more concrete elements (rumbling and squealing) and unpleasent feedback arising, added by strange backwards sounds creating a rather eerie and challenging feel to it. This is highly demanding incremental experimental guitar-music with a very individual style!” [original label info August 1999]
|
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Klanik / 4tH (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
"DUAL hail from Doncaster, now based in London, England and have so far released two cassettes and a 7" on Dirter Promotions. Their music is a mixture of mighty guitar-drones with massive sub bass undertones & slight rhythmic structures that evoke feelings of total transcendence and grandeur. On Side A (KLANIK) there seem to be cascades of tuneful layered guitars that speak a special language of their own, on Side B (4tH) more concrete elements (rumbling and squealing) and unpleasent feedback arising, added by strange backwards sounds creating a rather eerie and challenging feel to it. This is highly demanding incremental experimental guitar-music with a very individual style!
BLACK VINYL, WHITE PRINTED INLAYS, HANDMADE WHITE COVERS BY DUAL." [press release]
|
1999 |
€ |
|
| DUHKHA |
Mariyammal |
LP |
"Ambient-Puzzle aus Frankreich. Zahlreiche Soundlandschaften von Musikern werden zu einer Fläche verbaut. Organisch und handfest. mit einer ganz besonderen, kränklichen, geheimnisvollen Stimmung und irren Vocals. Achtung Sogwirkung!
Vor vier Jahren veröffentlichte der in Berlin lebende Franzose BENJAMIN BEX mit "Rosegger" ein Album auf TREUE UM TREUE / REUE UM REUE. Für seine neue Projektarbeit, zusammen mit befreundeten Musikern als DUHKHA auf IDÉOBLASTE erschienen, übernimmt das Label zwar 'nur' den Vertrieb. "Mariyammal" klingt aber so stark nach der mysteriösen Ambientwelt von TUT / RUR, dass das Album perfekt in die Labelwelt gepasst hätte. (Wer mit der entsprechenden Musik vertraut ist, kann sich den Rest des Artikels theoretisch sparen und blind zugreifen.)
Für mich stellt sich die Arbeit von DUHKHA wie ein großes, schönes Puzzle dar, mit BENJAMIN BEX als Chef am Tisch. Er hat sich von befreundeten Musikern Klänge, Töne, improvisierte Tonfolgen, Geräusche et cetera einspielen lassen und diese auf sehr kunstvolle, magische Weise zusammengebaut. Ergänzt durch eigene Beiträge, insbesondere durch bemerkenswerte Gesangsparts. PIERRE GORDEEFF zum Beispiel hat Aufnahmen seiner verrückten Maschinen beigesteuert. Das Turntablism-Projekt VINYL -TERROR & -HORROR lieferte einige Klanglandschaften. Andere Freunde spielten Cello-Improvisationen oder Echtzeit-Soundbasteleien ein. Der ganze Prozess, inklusive des Verwebens der Bestandteile, dauerte rund zwei Jahre.
Das ansteigende, dröhnende Rauschen im Opener "Mariyammal" (A1) lässt sich viel Zeit, bevor sich Streicher mit sirenenartigen Sounds einmischen. Eine eigenartige und recht bedrohliche Atmosphäre, die plötzlich umschwingt: Als würden Wolken weggeblasen, taucht der Gesang auf. Verletzlich, hoch, fast Falsett, und dazu ein Kratzen – als ob die Singstimme gleich wieder weggewischt werden sollte. Weitere Zutaten: Arienansätze im Hintergrund und improvisierte Streichertöne. Sehr filmisch und sehr, sehr intensiv. In "Whidama" (A2) stammen die ersten Töne zwar von einer Akustikgitarre (nicht von Streichern), ansonsten bleibt vieles gleich. Die knarzenden, fordernden Sounds, der hohe Gesang (kurze Momente lang erinnert er mich an DAVID TIBET), und später quietscht auch das Cello wieder, zu- und abnehmend. "Teufelssee" (A3) bleibt instrumental, mit bearbeitetem Piano und einem Potpourri aus bisherigen Klängen, etwas enervierend mutet dabei das heftige Vinylknacken an.
Die B-Seite startet ("Dans La Nuit Et L'Oubli", B1) mit Gitarrendrones, dem Klirren von Münzen und extrem hingebungsvollem, mystischem und beschwörendem Gesang. Durch längere Instrumentalparts, repetitive Geräusche mit Streicherimprovisation und später wieder dem verrückt machenden Plattenknistern und -knacken ist das Stück zerhackter, collagenartiger als die Tracks auf der ersten Seite. In "De La Lumière Et De La Mémoire" (B2) übt ein ganzes Orchester, mit fanfarenartigen, sägenden Tönen im Vordergrund. Der Gesang: noch höher, lyrisch und manisch, dagegen geschnitten sind ängstliche, fliehende Frauengeräusche und schräge Engelschöre.
"Mariyammal" ist ein organisches, handfestes Werk zum Anfassen. Gleichzeitig scheint es mir durchzogen von Vergangenem, Morbidem und erinnert phasenweise an unsaubere, entfernte Schellackaufnahmen. Erstaunlich, dass sich die ungeheure Vielfalt stets zu dieser ganz besonderen, kränklichen, geheimnisvollen Stimmung mischt. Sorgfältig geschichtete Ambientmusik, bei der vor allem die Stimme – im Vergleich zu vielen sonstigen Basteleien auf dem Markt – den Unterschied macht. Achtung Sogwirkung."
[Michael We. für nonpop.de ]
https://vimeo.com/116551690 |
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| DUKE, ANDREW / AKUMU |
Organic |
CD-R |
Two new unknown names for us on John Gore's (KIRCHENKAMPF) label: ANDREW DUKE has 10 shorter pieces with delayed object-noises, nicely effected roaring drone-waves, weird electronic sounds, and glitchy rumbling granulation-fields, many details & ideas here, every piece is different... AKUMU presents three permeating sonorous drones with lots of micro-sounds... great CDR, much recommended!
"two Canadian sound artists: Andrew Duke of Cognition Audioworks of Nova Scotia presenting his cutup glitch compositions and Akumu (aka Deane Hughes) three tracks of deep drone - limited to 100 copies"
"I always appreciate Cohort’s will to present non-commercial electronic music from all over the world, even at the price of a few minor releases. But the good ones are REALLY good, and this is one of them. Andrew Duke, who is a renowned composer active in many different media, is here represented by a series of relatively dark tracks which feature quite a lot of spontaneous instrumental generation, in addition to Andrew’s obvious technical skills. Deceitful patterns and clashing reverberations release inexhaustible, mind-dislocating clouds of frequencies that contrast – or get married to – hypnotic vicious circles in an unpredictable kinship with hypothetical altered states of mind. Headphones are recommended to catch every minute detail, as Duke works at the margins of the audio spectrum to deliver his brand of electronica from any preconceived interpretation, virtualizing events with the equidistant calm of a neutral observer. Dean Hughes (Akumu) is even more obscure, entrancing and – contrarily to what the titles might suggest – organic. His three tracks are long explorations of the psyche through a mass of extremely resonant low drones that suggest no other behavior than a total relinquishment of our will to penetrate their structure (no pun intended). For my own taste, this is the best half of this split album, bringing memories of current masters of the genre (Frans De Waard’s Shifts and Freiband projects come to mind) through a masterful modulation of our sensitive apparata. But the whole CD is excellent, and it would be unjust on my behalf dividing the artists’ merits." [Touching Extremes]
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN |
Da sich die Machtgier... |
CD |
DUNCAN macht sich hier über einen CIORAN-rezitierenden ASMUS TIETCHENS her, dessen Vokalisationen (v.a. Silben) zerschnitten, de-fragmentiert und wieder zusammengesetzt werden zu höchst kuriosen Ergebnissen. Neben der Kreation dieser neuen Sprachlichkeit entwirft DUNCAN auch wieder die so beliebten, ins Infinite schwelgenden Monumental-Drones, und schreckt auch vor harschen Prozeduren nicht zurück. Das alles basiert auf den Stimmbändern unseres alten Lehrmeisters ASMUS T.
New work with DUNCAN working on TIETCHENS voice recititing CIORAN. His words are cut, de-fragmented and put together again to build a highly obscure new language.. also DUNCAN creates his beloved monumental-drones that spread into infiniteness, and even harsher procedures are to find on this very nice work !!
„ John Duncan about 'Da sich die Machtgier...': ASMUS TIETCHENS proposed that he and I work together years ago -- many years ago. For a variety of reasons it didn't happen , and at this point I don't remember any of them. Finally we agreed to start: I asked him to send a recording of his voice and said I'd work with it, send him the result and continue from there -- figuring that he would add to my gestures, then I'd add to his, ect., until we were both satisfied. Asmus sent recordings of him reading two excerpts from texts by E.M. CIORAN. Asmus had already processed his voice on both tracks, which are left more or less intact here on track 3.
After eighteen more months I started working on them, and a couple of weeks afterward send him the results. Asmus liked what he heard, said he felt it was already finished -- and since he hadn't participated directly in the composing process, he couldn't accept credit for involvement in it. We still disagree on this, but it's useless to insist that someone accept what he doesn't feel he's earned. So although I remain convinced that Asmus deserves to be acknowledged as an equal, we've agreed that this project would be credited to me alone.”
And here’s the CIORAN QUOTE:
"For thousands of years, the appetite for power being dispersed in countles tyrannies, great and small, which have raged here and there, the moment seems at hand when that appetite must finally collect and concentrate in order to culminate in a single power, expression of that thirst which has devoured, and still devours the globe, last word of all our dreams of mastery, the consummmation of our hopes and abberations. The sattered human herd will be united under the guardianship of one pitiless shepherd, a kind of planetary monster before whom the nations will prostrate temselves in an
alarm bordering on ecstasy. The universe brought to its knees, an important chapter of history will be closed. Then will begin the disintegration of this new reign and the return to the primal disorder, to the old anarchy; the smothered hates and vices will reappear and with them the minor tyrants of the bygone cycles. After the Great Slavery, mediocre ones. But as they emerge from their monumental servitudes, the survivors will be proud of their shame and, incomparable victims, will celebrate its memory.” -- E.M. Cioran, 'Learning from the Tyrants' [press release]
|
2003 |
€15.00 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN & GIULIANA STEFANI |
Palace of Mind |
CD |
"... a really mind-blowing journey into pure sounds - same concert as he played during his small tour in Germany December 2000. Needs to be played loud. Our favourite DUNCAN-album so far. Mysterious, powerful, organic. A real experience." [Drone Rec. 2001]
label: www.allquestions.net
"Palace Of Mind is the 2000 recording collaboration between John
Duncan and Giuliana Stefani. Mr. Duncan has long been one of AQ's
favorite experimentalists, having started things out back in the '70s
LA performance art community only to quit the US to pursue his own
intense psychological research into sound, projection, installation,
photography, and the like. Stefani is a mathematician by training and
became acquainted with Duncan through a collaborative project they
began in Amsterdam in 1996. For this album, the two sifted through
digital treatments of shortwave transmissions, wire-tapped data
streams, and voice. In turn, they work the album into labyrinthine
composition that can hold any number of potent metaphors: the neural
synapses of the human brain, the schematics of a computer, or simply
an architectural set of overlapping resonant spaces. Rareified tones
set with motoric vibrations transition through the fluttering of (or
rather the lack there of, as this sounds like the empty spaces between
the bands marked by a mechanoid oily hiss) and onto slashing digital
drone. Here, one can think to Duncan's exceptional field recordings
made at the Stanford Linear Accelerator in the early '90s. Within the
movement from an irritable data-stream purity to the gossamer haze of
shortwave distortion to gaping drones of treated vocal vibrato, Duncan
and Stefani have set a trajectory deep into the heart of their sonic
architecture, with each 'room' saturated with an anxiousness for what
may be on the other side of the door. You won't find Duncan firing a
gun at your head (seriously, he did that as performance piece called
Scare back in the late '70s, using blanks mind you), but Palace Of
Mind revels in an interlocking network of chambers that resonate and
breathe with a profound beauty. Highly recommended!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2000 |
€15.50 |
|
| DUNCAN, JOHN & PETER FLEUR |
The Scattering |
CD |
Die Zusammenarbeit des MEISTERS mit dem ex L.O.S.D. PETER FLEUR beschert uns elektronisches Schnarren & Pulsieren,
gleissende elektromagnetische Muster, und lange geisterhafte drones, mit überraschenden cuts. Solo- und Collaborationtracks von beiden.
“ This CD is a collaboration album of sorts: the first track (of three) was done by both Duncan and Fleur, the second pece is by Fleur solo, the third by Duncan solo. For those who don't know: Fleur was part of the duo L.O.S.D. with Radboud Mens and later released a very DIY ambient kit in the form of a double 5" (one CD, the other vinyl, beautiful!). The tracks on this disc all stem from 2001 and seem to be based on data files and shortwave sounds. This could be true, but it could just as well not be. Most of the sounds are heavily stretched, so they could have originated anywhere. But of course, that is also unimportant in the end, because what ultimately counts is the music itself. And after an initial slight repulsion on my behalf by so much stretching (this is strictly personal!), things begin to find their place and flow. The track sounds ambient at first, but escapes this by having way too much composition and build up. The tension stays good throughout the piece and after some time
the sound actually stops, which is highly surprising in a work like this, but it's a very nice surprise indeed. We are now more than
halfway through, still 13 minutes to go and then: bang! another stretch blasts in and puts everything on edge again. This one lasts
the whole last 13 minutes, although it fades out very slowly and somewhere a bass sound is added, that slowly gets richer. This is the title track by the way. Well done. Track two is a 15 minute piece by Peter Fleur, starting with a low resonating ambient bass sound, into which a cluster of higher frequencies is slowly mixed. This movement is repeated, but each time more sounds are added, which does a lot for tightening the tension. And here again, halfway through: a sudden break, a completely distorted sound taking over, fading out and digital rain is left. The track ends with long glissando's of all kinds and a surprise. Defenitely not your everyday ambient drone stuff from Fleur. Something way more interesting instead! Duncan's track is the one stemming from the shortwave sounds. The piece seems to be edited together from several recordings, but then again, it could also be a direct to disc mix. The sounds are familiar for anyone who has ever turned a radio dial and the track itself doesn't do much to enhance that experience, except for layering these sounds. To be very honest: I have heard it done better. Still, the CD as a whole is a success, as far as I am concerned." [MR, Vital Weekly] Address:
http://editionellipsis.hypermart.net
|
2003 |
€14.00 |
|
| DURAND, WERNER |
Remnants from Paradise |
CD |
Drei sehr schöne "organic drones" vom Berliner WERNER DURAND, alle basierend auf effektierten Blasinstrumenten. Sehr minimal, eher ätherisch-fein gesponnen als symphonisch, für die Schaffung einer kontemplativen Atmosphäre aber auch zum Detail-hören sehr gut geeignet. Tip !
"The name Werner Durand might not be very well-known, which is a great pity. His claim to fame has nothing to do with his real music: he played flute on Muslimgauze' 'Mort Aux Vaches' release. But Durand's background is with improvisation and wind instruments. As far as I can remember there is only solo release by him, 'The Art Of Buzzing' on X-TRact/Edition RZ (see Vital Weekly 305), where he plays PVC pipes with saxophone mouthpieces or flower pots and tin foil plates as resonators. His great power lies in multi-tracking his playing, obscuring the original sounds through very simple means of layering many on top of each other. After all these years it's still his favorite method of composing music. The cover lists the instruments such as bamboo and metal mouthharps, tanpura, sliding pvc-ney and sliding pvc clarinets with prepared resonators, electronics and delays. The end result is a highly minimalist pattern which he gently waves together, going to small changes all the time, thus avoiding leaping into pure minimal music. One could say that this is drone music, but like before I like to draw a parallel to the work of Phill Niblock, even when Durand's music is a bit more clouded and less detailed. Overall however it's a highly atmospheric set of sounds Durand is playing here. Hopefully more music will be made available and not in another seven years, as this is really nice stuff." [FdW / Vital Weekly] |
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| DURAND, WERNER & AMELIA CUNI & ULI HOHMANN |
Clearing |
LP |
"In addition to the unique musical proposals and the large body of work that they have developed separately, Amelia Cuni and Werner Durand have been performing together as a duo as well as in collaborations (Tonaliens, Born of Six) for more than 20 years. Fusing her Indian Raga singing in the Dhrupad style with his minimalist and experimental approach, they have expanded the reach of their soundworlds as well as proposed new paths for contemporary music. In this occasion, Uli Hohmann joins them in a range of hand drums from the Middle East and North Africa, plus a dulcimer-sounding hammered guitar. Durand's various self-made wind instruments, soprano sax, and blown kalimba shine along with Cuni's astounding vocals, which are sometimes sung through a mirliton (a medieval type of kazoo). Clearing is the trio's first published recording. With a condensing sound going from Buddhist morning chants down to Indian festive traditional music, the title track, which closes the album, is the most vibrant of all, permeating a bit of commotion through buzzing drones and galloping percussion. Without disorder, yet without measure. Clearing is therefore this shuttle into the distance, this space that weaves, unites, and tenses the different cords that we are made up of. When the clouds advance silently, gray, until they become dark in a few minutes, it means that the monsoon is coming. It reaches us without apparent noise, but then resounds in its images, leaving behind lightness, freshness, clarity, and a tremendous luminosity that comes from so far away: from the Himalayas, from so ancient, from Sanskrit, from a sound where the darkness and the divine, where the concrete and the landscape, where the rock and the humidity leave a mark that brings together and ties a sky loaded with new clouds."
|
2023 |
€24.00 |
|
| EARTH |
Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light |
CD |
"Earth recently unveiled a beautiful collection of early recordings ("A Bureaucratic Desire for Extra Capsular Extraction") to which many agree marked the band as pioneers of a new sound that has continued to metamorphose ever since. True that with each brand new studio album, they evolve, and it is this willingness to experiment with different sounds and different musicians that has enabled Earth to remain consistently interesting and undoubtedly always unique.
Following the Extra Capsular reissues, Earth's next offering is a brand new studio album, "Angels Of Darkness, Demons of Light 1", a fine testament to the fact that they have come a long way since 1989. Drawing on inspiration from both British Folk-Rock bands the Pentangle and Fairport Convention and the North African Tuareg band Tinariwen, the new material, while still "heavy" is much more fluid and melodically oriented, less dense and more textured and nuanced. It contains greater improvisatory interplay between the musicians.
On one hand the new album acknowledges previous recordings, sonically it cultivates the jazz infused Americana presented on The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull and as a further nod to the past, Earth returned to Avast studios to work with producer Stuart Hallerman (Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Built To Spill, and Earth2!) again. On the other hand, there have been some significant changes which have given birth to yet another new sound, the main change being the line up and so joining Dylan and Adrienne on the album is cellist Lori Goldston (Nirvana, David Byrne, Black Cat Orchestra, Laura Veirs) and Karl Blau (K Records, Laura Veirs, Microphones) on electric bass. The touring band will feature Dylan Carlson, Adreinne Davies, Lori Goldston, and Angelina Baldoz on bass.
Songs "Father Midnight" and Hell's Winter" definitely retain some of their former glory on the Bees Made Honey... whilst the cello, though subtle at times, adds a more haunting tone to songs "Old Black" and "Descent to the Zenith" which are so powerful that they have the ability to move one to tears. It is the album's closer and title track which is the boldest step in a new direction for Earth, utilizing the complimentary tones of cello, electric bass and Dylan's guitar, leaving the notes to hang contemplatively in the air before Adrienne's drum beats finally emerge. The repetition throughout the song is seemingly simplistic, though as we all know by now, there is absolutely nothing simple about holding a note or beat for as long as Earth do.
There are many breaths of fresh air in this new record, many hopeful tones and drones as well as more eerie ones. One thing is for sure, this incarnation of Earth excels all expectations." [label info]
www.southernlord.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| EASTLEY, MAX |
Installation Recordings (1973-2008) |
do-CD |
"This 2CD is essentially a retrospective of Eastley’s installation work. As such, it updates and adds many new examples to the 1975 release “New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments”, which was released as a split LP with David Toop on Brian Eno’s Obscure Records.
This is Eastley’s first solo CD. Of the 35 tracks, only the last 2 have any guests or ‘playing’ (the most virtuosic moment being George Lewis playing a grass blade). All the other pieces are either powered by the natural forces of wind and water, or else are motor driven gallery installations.
The ethereal sounds of the aoelian harp, the haunting aeolian flutes, and the violent tension of his aerophone installations are hallmark Eastley sounds. These sounds, and many others, sit amidst a wide range of acoustic settings, from windy hill tops to quiet brooks, residential street scenes to coastal shores. The indoor recordings are no less varied, ranging across a rich variety of acoustics and gallery spaces from tiny micro sounds to large scale amplification. Wood, metal and stone are brought to life with electricity. Although there are many photos in the 20 page booklet, much is left to the imagination to work out how the sounds are made. With this limited access to the visual, the focus is pulled towards the musicality of the sounds themselves. This musicality is reinforced by the slow crossfades of most of the pieces from indoors to outdoors to form a series of suites.
The recordings mostly date from the mid 70s, but there are pieces from later decades. Nearly everything was recorded either to Revox or Uher and occasionally cassette, using what microphones were available at the time. Recent recordings are digital. The varying quality of the recording set-ups across this 2CD adds yet another dimension to the shifting sound fabric of this anthology." [label info]
www.stalk.net/paradigm
"Max Eastley begann 1972 damit Skulpturen mit Klang zu verbinden, indem er Bewegung und Materialien seiner Skulpturen mit den Grundprinzipien des Instrumentenbaus verband. Dies führt für die vorliegende Retrospektive, die Aufnahmen aus den Jahren 1973 – 2008 auf 2 CDs enthält, notwendig dazu, dass nur Klang dokumentiert wird, doch die ihn erzeugenden Installationen trotz der zahlreichen Fotos nicht adäquat abgebildet werden können. Immerhin kann man auf ihnen die verschiedenen
Instrumente zumindest sehen. Die Aerophone sind teilweise sehr schlanke Kreuze, deren Arme im rechten Winkel außen mit Saiten verbunden sind, die im Wind schwingen, und erinnern beinahe an Antennen, in deren Zentrum noch ein Stück bunter Stoff geknotet wurde. Auch an den schmalen dünnen aufrechten Kästen der Aeolian Flutes finden sich diese bunten Bänder wieder, so dass sie an abstrakte Figuren erinnern, deren Schals im Winde wehen. An den Hydrophonen fällt ihre Schlichtheit auf, wie sie als verschieden lange dünne Rohre aus dem sie antreibenden Wasser ragen. Klanglich erinnern die Skulpturen überwiegend an vom Wind betriebene Klangspiele und – meist archaische – Drones sowie verfremdete Tierstimmen und seltener an präparierte Saiteninstrumente. Da bei den Innenraum-Installationen die natürlichen Kräfte fehlen, um sie erklingen zu lassen, wurde auf mechanische Antriebe zurückgegriffen, die jedoch die unregelmäßigen Strukturen natürlicher Ereignisse nachahmen sollen. Nichts desto trotz erinnern einige ihrer Aufnahmen eher an Loops als an Klangereignisse, denen jedes Muster fehlt. Für diese Retrospektive wurden alle Aufnahmen auf „radiotaugliche“ Ausschnitte von oft nur zwei bis fünf Minuten gekürzt. Doch da die kinetischen Installationen keinen kompositorischen Aufbau haben, der einen bestimmten Anfang und Ende „erfordert“, lassen die als einzelne Tracks dokumentierten Ausschnitte fragen, ob eine einzelne Installation auf einer eigenen – dann wohl leider weitgehend unverkäuflichen – CD nicht besser repräsentiert worden wäre, da dies dem fortdauernden Klang einer Installation angemessener wäre. Ohnehin sind die Mehrzahl der Aufnahmen durch Ein- und Ausfaden zu collagenartigen kleinen Suiten arrangiert, was dem Material eine dem bloßen Hören angemessene neue Form gibt. Da die Ebene eines Dokuments, das den für Eastley gleichberechtigten visuellen Teil ausspart, verlassen wird und etwas Neues entsteht. Damit wird ebenfalls deutlich, dass auch eine kinetische Kunst letztlich das Werk eines – oder mehrer – Künstler ist und damit einen sozialen Charakter hat. Leider findet sich dazu nichts in dem 20seitigen Beiheft, das keine konzeptionellen Überlegungen enthält. Mit dieser Eastley-Retrospektive macht Paradigm Disc einmal mehr Musik zugänglich, die sonst kaum auf Tonträgern zu bekommen ist. Denn nach der 1975 auf Brian Enos Obscure Records Label erschienen Split-LP New And Rediscovered Musical Instruments mit David Toop, ist diese Doppel-CD erst die zweite Veröffentlichung, die Eastleys Klanginstallationen dokumentiert. Wer sich für Musik jenseits chromatischer Tonleitern, in der Zufall eine zentrale Rolle spielt, interessiert,
dem ist diese Doppel-CD sehr zu empfehlen."
[Ingo Techmeier / Bad Alchemy]
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| EINHEIT, ESCH & MUR |
Terre Haute |
LP |
"Limited 299 copies Colored vinyl just for record store day 2015
The album “Terre Haute” is the first body of work from the industrial legends FM Einheit (Einstürzende Neubauten) En Esch (formerly of KMFDM) and Postpunk Diva Mona Mur.
EINHEIT, ESCH & MUR call their music a GERMAN ANGST RIDDEN ART CORE EXPERIENCE. The main sounds that I see coming out of this album are post industrial to minimal electronics, with some classy guitar.
The voices of Mona Mur and En Esch meet the tribal percussion of FM in a visceral trip of electro loops noisy guitars and electronic drones. An Amazing Experience.
Limited 299 copies Colored vinyl just for record store day 2015" [label info]
" “Terre Haute” ist Name des Ergebnisses der spannenden Kollaboration von NEUBAUTEN Percussionist FM EINHEIT, EN ESCH und MONA MUR. Erscheint als streng limitierte LP (299Stück, rotes Vinyl) auf RUSTBLADE.
Wahrlich ein bemerkenswerter Zusammenschluss zwischen drei Altmeistern und Legenden: EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN-Schlagwerker FM EINHEIT sowie die Industrial-Legende EN ESCH (KMFDM) und Postpunk-Diva MONA MUR machen für dieses spannende Projekt gemeinsame Sache. Die Wege der drei Ausnahmekünstler kreuzten sich schon öfter in der vergangenen Musikgeschichte. So gehörte EINHEIT in den 80ern zur Band von MONA MUR. Mit EN ESCH arbeitet MUR seit 2007 zusammen und veröffentlichte mit ihm mehrere Alben. Beide traten zusammen bei wichtigen Festivals des Genres weltweit auf. Bereits 2013 traf sich das Trio, um an einem gemeinsamen Projekt zu arbeiten. Das Ergebnis heißt “Terre Haute” und ist genau, was man aus dem Background der Musiker erwartet. Zwischen Avantgarde, Wave, Post-Punk und Industrial wandert die Musik. Die Band selber nennt dies “German Angst Ridden Art Core”. Insgesamt sieben Songs (Sechs Eigenkompositionen und das BERTHOLT BRECHT Cover “Salomon Song”) mit 41 Minuten Spielzeit gepresst auf streng limitiertem rotem Vinyl." [Broken Silence]
|
2015 |
€22.00 |
|
| EITR |
Trees have Cancer too |
LP |
"Pedro Sousa, saxophones, electronics. Pedro Lopes, turntables, electronics. Recorded between 2008-2011. 150 gr vinyl, 350 gr carton cover, 150-copies limited edition.
Liquid, high viscosity, between amber (Pedro Sousa) and gas (Pedro Lopes). Music is always dual and eternally renewed, at the present time (recorded live), the first person singular.
"Duo of Pedro Sousa and Pedro Lopes, two portuguese young musicians, and some of the most exciting in the plastic, tonal and energic exploration of sound in a long time. Using sax (Sousa), turntables (Lopes) and a communal use of electronics, their music is admittedly nervous, obsessively bent over the following moment.” (Outfest press release, 2011)
"The pieces on this grimly titled record were recorded between 2008 and 2011, in Portugal and Berlin. Improvised music no doubt, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is some careful planning ahead of recording. The music of Eitr is closed off: everything seems to be together, in the same dynamic frame, somewhat below the level of mid-range frequencies. In 'Forth Twice', the first piece on the b-side they use some Russian instruction record, and a bumping rhythm, whereas the saxophone plays a melancholic tune, and the whole things gets a surprising musical touch. That is less apparent in the second (and last) piece on this side and the side long piece on the other side. There is an odd sense of acoustic drones on this release, very austere and dark, with the saxophone being with held, with drawn, bathing in this sea of repressed sounds. It never bursts out, this music, it never wails about, but instead has a lot of tension, perhaps due to the fact that much of this hoovers around the edge of feedback, but never bursts out into this. You wait for this enormous blast to happen, but it never comes around to do so. I thought this was a great release. Very intense for the players - probably - and for the listeners - surely for me. Every time I play this I hear something new, which made me think 'oh, no, its much more electro-acoustic than I thought', 'damn, it's much more composed' or 'what a refined way of improvising'. Excellent record all around." [FdW in Vital] |
2013 |
€18.50 |
|
| ELECTRIC SEWER AGE |
Contemplating Nothingness |
CD |
ELECTRIC SEWER AGE was born as an “anonymous / secret and aural experiment” in 2006.
In fact this project was a collaboration between PETER “SLEAZY” CHRISTOPHERSON (legendary former member of TG / COIL / PTV) and long time friend and collaborator DANNY HYDE (Dan might be better known for being the Sound-Maestro behind many COIL albums…).
Following the unexpected passing of SLEAZY in 2010 and after the publication of first posthumous ELECTRIC SEWER AGE album, ESA became a solo project by DANNY HYDE.
Well, after 5 years from the release of second ESA album here finally comes the awaited third chapter in the ESA saga.
Very elegant, first-class electronic muzak.
Dan was the sound-engineer for a number of COIL albums, e.g. “Love Secret Domain” which clearly bears his mark, similarly doped sounds & muzak can be deeply heard also on this new release.
.... just like the previous release, this CD will come in a limited numbered edition of 750 copies."
"In den letzten Jahren hat Danny Hyde durch seinen – und hier setze jeder das ihm passende Adjektiv ein – Umgang mit Coil-Material für Kontroversen gesorgt. Ich habe schon an anderer Stelle geschrieben, dass die gegenwärtige Situation des Coil-Nachlasses zu den traurigsten Kapiteln der Industrial Culture gehört. Vor etlichen Jahren debütierte Hyde nach langen Jahren als Studiomann als Solokünstler unter dem Projektnamen Aural Rage mit rhythmischen Tracks und auf dem bislang einzigen Album überarbeitete er auch Stücke, die er mit/für Coil geschrieben hatte. Mit „FJ Nettlefold“ konnte man dort das letzte von Balance eingesungene Stück hören.
Das Projekt Electric Sewer Age hat eine schwierige Genese, Hyde hat das hier dargelegt. Die erste Veröffentlichung “In Final Phase” knüpfte an Coils „Equinoxe/Solstice“-Singles an. “Contemplating Nothingness”, ursprünglich 2019 auf Old Europa Café als CD und nun von Hallow Ground auf LP veröffentlicht, erinntert durchaus etwas an den Vorgänger “Bad White Corpuscle”. Von Labelseite wird das neue Album beschrieben als “a lysergic tapestry culled from the deep end of the collective pop cultural unconscious”.
Der Einfluss Coils wird thematisch und musikalisch mehr als virulent. “Still Too Far To Go” ist ein atmosphärischer Beginn: Orgelartige Drones, Beats, die wie Überbleibsel aus den “Backwards”-Sessions klingen, dunkle Streicher und pastorale Flöten untermalen, wie jemand von seinem ersten Pilztrip berichtet („My first mushroom trip. It was so profound”). Das Cover des Gnarls Barkley-Stücks “Who’se Gonna Save My Soul” (hier leider ziemlich sicher unbeabsichtigt als “Whose Gonna Save My Soul” tituliert), kombiniert orientalische Flöten, Akustikgitarre und choralartige Passagen, wobei die leicht mit Effekten unterlegten spoken words nicht ganz überzeugen. Auf „Chebo” wird der gesamplete Gesang auf eine Weise bearbeitet, die an das erinnert, was Peter Christopherson mit seinem Threshold Houseboys Choir gemacht hat. „Surrender To The Crags“ besteht aus Sprachsamples (zum Thema Alkoholismus), orientalischen Flöten und Perkussion, die an Muslimgauze denken lässt. Eine Assoziation, die nicht nur ich hatte. „Self Doubting Trip”und „Dekotur“ mit ihren sphärischen, flächigen Passagen haben eine dezent melancholische Atmosphäre und schließen das durchaus stimmige und stimmungsvolle “Contempating Nothingsness” angemessen ab." (MG/African Paper} |
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Moon's Milk (in four phases) (lim. clear vinyl) |
3 x LP BOX |
About "Moon's Milk (In Four Phases)"
First compiled as a double CD in 2002, Moon’s Milk (In Four Phases) is a suite of four EPs that Coil released seasonally via their in-house Eskaton imprint across 1998. The line-up for these sessions were John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, Drew McDowall, and William Breeze. Recorded primarily at their home studio in Chiswick, London on the eve of a permanent relocation to the small seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare, the collection has long loomed as a pivotal and pinnacle work in the group's discography, but has never been officially reissued, or repressed on vinyl. Time has only ripened its tapestry of regal strangeness.
Arranged sequentially in tribute to the equinoxes and solstices, Moon's Milk captures Coil at a revelatory crossroads, leaning deeper into improvisation, spontaneity, and sound design. "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull" initiates the proceedings on Spring Equinox, a two-part netherworld organ séance woven from vocal drones, cathedral keys, seasick strings, and opiated undertow. From there, Summer Solstice skews lighter but no less incantational, with Balance embracing his voice-as-instrument across lucid dream torch songs ("Bee Stings"), purgatorial spoken word ("Glowworms/Waveforms"), sultry chamber pieces ("Summer Substructures"), and falsetto ravings ("A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz)").
Autumn Equinox exudes more of a pensive and twilit mood, from the Rose McDowall-sung folk ballad "Rosa Decidua" ("I hear your voice sing near to me / I've put away the poisoned chalice (for now) / And lie down amongst the flowerbeds") to hall-of-lords hallucination "The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant” to the liminal string-plucked classic "Amethyst Deceivers," featuring excellent alien guitar by Breeze layered with Balance’s oft-quoted couplet: "Pay your respects to the vultures / For they are your future."
The album’s final chapter, Winter Solstice, is its most swooning, remote, and ceremonial. Opener "A White Rainbow" stirs strings, layered choral vocals, and shivering rhythm into an imploding burial hymn. "North" oscillates bleakly, a ghost in the machine murmuring opaque prophecy ("This black dog has no owner / This black dog has no odour"), while "Magnetic North" is its inverse, a guided meditation of gently flickering software and surreal chakra poetics ("Red rose filling the skull / Yellow cube in the lower pelvis / Silver moon crescent below the navel"). The suite fades to grey with a traditional English carol ("Christmas Is Now Drawing Near"), rendered like an executioner's song by Rose McDowall’s doomed, beautiful voice.
The Dais box set includes the entirety of the rare Moon's Milk Bonus Disc CD-R / 2019 Threshold Archives Copal CD, which includes three collaborations with Thighpaulsandra. This material is as rich and intoxicating as the previous four phases, ranging from electro-acoustic singing bowl rituals ("Copal") to dissonant electronic recitations of visionary Angus MacLise poetry ("The Coppice Meat") to ominous classical melancholia ("Bankside"). Once again, Coil confirm the vastness of their confounding, infinite alchemy, explored and refined across decades of experimentation – both sonic and bodily. From post-industrial to post-everything, theirs is an art untethered, in the wilds of its own desig
|
2024 |
€63.50 |
|
| ELEKTRONAVN / EXQUISITE RUSSIAN BRIDES |
Cosmic Depth / A Sense of Coherence // Golden Rain over Facist Europe |
7inch |
Great little 7" from Denmark, ELEKTRONAVN create choral poly-drones, very organic & emotional clouds of waving sound with harmonies going on underneath (created with Voice, Zurna, Bansuri Flute). EXQUISITE RUSSIAN BRIDES work with Cello, Guitar, loops, Bells & Xylophone and their track sounds a bit more ghostly, but also massively droney... Very much recommended if you like organic / transcendental drone muzak ! Comes in lino-cut printed white cover.
www.bsbta.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| ELIZABETH S. |
Gather Love |
CD |
Elizabeth S., long time contributor/performer with duo Eyeless In Gaza is about to release her first solo album. Happy in the past to remain on the sidelines with her collaborations she is now ready to reveal some of her story. These songs are her personal journey through many stormy years and the development of this work was many years in the making. All the songs were written, performed and produced by her with the only additional contributions being made by Martyn Bates and Alan Trench. In a recent review (www.bigbeautifulnoise.com) Lee Henderson wrote that her work extends from an almost mournful reminiscence to ethereal portraits and symbolic aural illustrations. Elizabeth S. has an approach that combines electronic treatments while having a tight grasp on her early British folk beginnings: this in-depth collection is a beacon on dark and intensely stormy years and yet it still offers a warm invitation to inspire hope and goodness to the human race. Consisting of twelve tracks of such an intimate autobiographical diary this body of work leaves the listener with no doubt that we have been allowed into a very private space inhabited by most of us at some point in our lives - with Elizabeth’s music gently moving from the tender to the abstract, all the while staying firmly rooted within a range of sparse musical arrangements. Elizabeth S. has been likened to a curious hybrid of Dolly Collins, June Tabor, Laurie Anderson and Kate Westbrook – but, it is truly difficult to label her music, and this is a task that we leave to the listener. Full tracklist: 1. Misborn 2. Will Your Love 3. The Carer 4. The Carter Girl 5. Weathered Life 6. Measured Greed 7. The Hill 8. The Long Farewell 9. Wanderlove 10. Gather Love 11. No Rain 12. To.
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg384
"Warum Elizabeth S., langjährige Mitwirkende bei der Band Eyeless in Gaza, erst nach Jahrzehnten ein Album im Alleingang produziert hat, ist nicht weiter bekannt. Schon die ersten beiden Tracks ihres vor kurzem erschienenen Debüts “Gather Love” geben jedoch bereits eine Vorstellung von der enorm aufwühlenden Emotionalität, die sich in unterschiedlichen Facetten durch das ganze Werk zieht. Ein solches Album braucht nicht nur eine Weile, um fertig gestellt zu werden, sondern noch mehr Zeit, um überhaupt als Idee heranzureifen.
Ein solches Album ist, so will es die Redensart, keine leichte Geburt, und so beginnt “Gather Love” wie ein Donnerschlag mit dem heftigen “Misborn”, bei dem die Sängerin inmitten einer lärmenden Karambolage aus Drums, Noiserockgitarren und anderen Instrumenten beschwörende Verse anstimmt, während kleine Melodiefragmente auch hier bereits die Sanftheit ahnen lassen, die im weiteren Verlauf immer deutlicher in den Vordergrund treten wird. Alles dreht sich um den titelgebenden Begriff, und es scheint, als wollten Gesang und Lärm durch eine unsichtbare Wand dringen. Hinter der verbirgt sich vielleicht die gelöste, sehnsuchtsvolle Trauer, in die das darauffolgende “Will Your Love” getaucht ist – dieser vielleicht eingängigste Song des Albums, dessen eindringliches Gitarrenspiel und feuriger Gesang die Energie des Folkrevivals der 70er channelt, stellt die Frage nach einer Liebe, die den Tod überdauert. Alles in diesem Stück scheint dem Schmerz abgerungen und ist dabei frei von jeder lieblichen Romantik.
Die zwölf Stücke, in denen die oftmals verschwimmenden Klänge von Gitarre, Piano, Melodica, dezenter Elektronik und Streichern den Sound prägen, drehen sich immer wieder um Themen des Verlusts und des Vermissens und strahlen dabei eine große Zärtlichkeit aus, die mehr als alles andere die Wertschätzung des Verlorenen deutlich macht. Der Journalist Lee Henderson, der einiges über die persönlichen Hintergründe des Albums weiß, erwähnt den Bezug einiger der Songs auf die Familie der Sängerin. So enthält das verweht dröhnende “The Carter Girl” eine Tape-Aufnahme, die Elizabeth als Kind von ihrer Mutter, einer Opernsängerin, machte, die später an Alzheimer erkrankte. Andere Songs wie das so entrückte wie exaltierte “Weathered Life” erzählen in ihren Texten von den Herausforderungen, mit denen der Sängerin nahestehende Personen leben und kämpfen mussten.
Was die Opulenz der Stücke betrifft, die in ihrem unklaren Ort zwischen dunklen Folkballaden und abstrakteren Soundscapes immer wieder auch an Elizabeths Stammband erinnern, könnte “Gather Love” durchaus das Werk einer Band sein. Und doch bleibt stets der Eindruck einer persönlichen, autobiografischen Stimme, wie sie nur in wirklichen Soloarbeiten sprechen kann – ganz gleich, ob die Sängerin sich dabei wie in dem schleppenden, fast an No Wave erinnernden “No Rain” oder im gemächlich rauschenden “The Long Farewell” eher zurücknimmt und den Instrumenten den vorderen Platz überlässt, oder ob sie auch gesanglich wie in “The Hill” oder dem monumentalen “Measured Greed” alle Barrieren durchbricht und sich in fast wahnhafter Ekstatik Ausdruck verschafft.
Zu den gemächlicheren Stücken zählt auch das Mason Williams-Cover “Wanderlove”, bei dem mit Alan Trench (Temple Music, 12 Thousand Days u.v.a.) und Ehemann Martyn Bates auch Gäste mit Drones und begleitendem Gesang zu Wort kommen. In das sanfte Dröhnen mischt sich etwas unruhig drängendes, das sich durch die emotionale Grund-DNA des ganzen Albums zieht, eine sich heftig aufbäumende Eruption, die gleichermaßen rastlos und konzentriert, magisch und kathartisch ist. Erst im kurzen Abspann von “To” glätten sich die Wogen – wie auf der letzten, versöhnlichen Seite einer autobiografischen Erzählung. Zweifelsohne ein mehr als gelungenes Debüt." [U.S./African Paper]
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| ELLEN FULLMAN & THERESA WONG |
Harbors |
LP |
"Harbors is a collaboration of composers Ellen Fullman (Long String Instrument) and Theresa Wong (cello), which draws inspiration from the soundscapes, stories and atmospheres that manifest around bodies of water that propagate exchange. Structured around the extended harmonics of the open strings of the cello, Wong and Fullman utilize subsets of these tonal areas to create distinct sonic environments within the piece.
Fullman’s Long String Instrument, a stunning installation of over forty strings spanning seventy feet in length, places the performers and audience inside the actual resonating body, transforming the architecture itself into the musical instrument. Wong has developed techniques that take the cello beyond tradition into a vocabulary more closely rooted in the sounds of the natural world. She captures material electronically, layering textures amplified throughout the space which form an immersive field where figure and ground are in constant flux.
The piece reveals an orchestration of shifting drones, aberrant melodies and glistening atmospheres. Harbors has reverberated many spaces around the world, including: Click Festival, Helsingør, Denmark; Transformer Station, Cleveland; MONA FOMA, Tasmania; Centennial Hall, Sydney Festival; The Lab, San Francisco; and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
Harbors was inspired by the foggy San Francisco bay during our residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts. Special thanks to all of the curators and producers who presented this work as we developed it through performance: Georg Rasmussen, Click Festival, Elsinore, Denmark (2015); Tom Welsh, Cleveland Museum of Art, Transformer Station (2015); Dena Beard, The Lab, San Francisco (2016); Shelly De Vito and James Porter, Les Moulins de Paillard, Poncé-sur-le-Loir (2016); Wendy Coutau and Anny Serrati, Dampfzentral, Bern, and ARCOOP, Geneva (2016); Kerry O’Brien, Nief-Norf Summer Festival, Knoxville (2017); Lawrence English, Australia tour, Sydney Festival, MONA FOMA, and the Substation Melbourne (2017). Special thanks to Perrin Meyer and Meyer Sound for the loan of a sound system for our recording session in Berkeley (2018)."
https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/harbors
"Harbors is an entity on which Ellen Fullman (long string instrument) and Theresa Wong (cello) worked for years in varying live settings before putting it on record. It requires nothing but being genuinely involved, joining the experience in psychophysical completeness. It’s not the kind of recording where one elects to “list” the unfolding events, although this is feasible. Rather, a tangible illustration of the potential of vibrating strings to remove what is superfluous, possibly harmful, from a brain overburdened with illusions and anxieties engendered by the grandiloquence of the self.
The first and longest segment immediately discloses the impressive cohesion of the elements. Fullman and Wong find answers to the questions posed by the room they’re playing in without any preconception, just confident in the propagating reverberation filling the rational gap in the best possible way. Certain traits are remotely reminiscent of Stephen Scott’s exploitation of piano innards (circa Minerva’s Web), the duo’s consciousness hovering over continuous harmonic shifts and fluctuating dimensionalities. The alliance between the upper partials of Wong’s cello and Fullman’s extended drones creates an impossible-to-detail polyphony, partly nourished by the poco cantabile linearity of some of its components. In the end we hear the whole oscillating in peculiar fashion, sort of an alien lullaby vanishing into nothingness.
As the second movement begins, the cello greets us with distinct glissandi in the lower regions of the tone gamut; imagine the skin of a large drum artfully pressed when hit in order to alter intensity and pitch. Diverse dynamics are produced by plucking the strings and, in Wong’s case, using the bow for brief arpeggiated outbursts. The mood is somewhat uncertain but there is never any doubt about the persistence of an insightful reciprocation inside the sympathetic environment. The third part confirms and synthesizes the nuances of previously investigated acoustic spaces: the might of strident pseudo-staticity, the parallelism of auricular reactions and absolute calmness, the spontaneous blossoming of outstanding contrapuntal flowers. Having reached this point, experienced listeners no longer need to ask what is going on. They have already understood, quivering cores acknowledging the Sound." [Touching Extremes]
|
2020 |
€26.00 |
|
| ELLENDE |
Odyssey, A Sentimental Journey |
BOOK + 2 x 10inch |
Odyssey, a sentimental journey: Ellende’s latest release sees the band bringing together an album based on a trip Wim took to Japan to visit his cousin in the early 1990’s. Most of the music in the records was recorded live at The Plantation in 2018, with a few minor overdubs added at various locations (Tokyo and London). The music might sound a bit nostalgic, the ambience of warm February nights in Cape Town while the sounds of old French movies seep through a badly tuned piano. Sometimes the doors are shut and large metal sheets are heard processed through guitar pedals. A modular synthesiser, analogue synths (Roland SH-101, Juno 6, ARP Solus, Solina) and guitar have been used as well throughout the album.
Dave “Slave” Mbambi: Guitar, Drones, Synths
Lodewikus Pretorius: Piano, Modular, String Synths
John John: Synths, Bows, Percussion,
Martinus Antonius: Recording, Mix, Tapes, Phasers
Rafael Anton Irisarri: Mastering
Richard Hart: Design and Art Direction
https://ellende1.bandcamp.com/album/odyssey-a-sentimental-journey
"For quite a few reasons this release is a big surprise. First of all, I had not heard of Ellende in many years. The last time was back in Vital Weekly 772 when I reviewed a live cassette from the group. That was after some hiatus, but between Vital Weekly 346 and 444, there were no less than ten different releases reviewed in these pages (I even wrote “by now Ellende seems to appear in every new Vital Weekly”) including the all-revealing 'Kut Met Peren' 3"CDR. So that is Dutch and so is the word Ellende, which stands for 'misery'. That is one surprise. The next one is that this release doesn't fit the previous somewhat lo-fi aesthetic of the old work, but this a lovely, beautiful release. The records are packed inside the front cover of a hardcover book (actually an oversized dust-cover, and some thirty-six pages of text and images, all in beautiful black and white. The third surprise is that Ellende is still around and still very little is known about them. Wim Bontjes and his cousin Martinus Antonius start it out with tape experiments. Bontjes committed suicide in 1995 and the group continued with his "conceptual ideas", even when these ideas remain unnamed. Over the years many people have been a member, all in steady flux. This new record was recorded in South Africa, as, mystery solved, they are from there and not The Netherlands, with Dave "Slave" Mbambi on guitars, drones and synth, Lodewikus Pretorius on piano, modular, string synths and John John on synths, bows, percussion while Antonius is responsible for recording, mix, tapes and phasers. Bandcamp is a bit more specific: "Sometimes the doors are shut and large metal sheets are heard processed through guitar pedals. A modular synthesiser, analogue synths (Roland SH-101, Juno 6, ARP Solus, Solina) and guitar have been used as well throughout the album. "The release is about a trip Wim made to Japan to visit his cousin (I assume Antonius) and the stories are about a "pitiful chase of sex', portrayed by "women's death-masks-like faces", as such by Richard Hart in the book. I mist admit that I re-read some of the old reviews to remind myself what Ellende was all about; I forgot after all those/despite all those releases. I must say I very much enjoyed this new release. There is an excellent dark mood depicted here, fitting the likewise dark images of the book and the tales of sordid sex. An endless stream of synthesizers mingles very pleasantly with sustaining guitar sounds and sound effects used to place accents in strategic places. Sometimes the guitar is strummed in a more traditional way, such as in 'Girlfriend Experience' but against a doomy backdrop of much reverb. Throughout this album carries on the torch of Ellende's previous work with fuzzy and busy drones, beautifully colliding. This is one damn fine release; one that is just perfect, both in music and packaging. It is almost like a pre-programmed collector's item. I am very curious if Ellende will slip back into another period of hibernation. I hope that is not the case." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2019 |
€38.00 |
|
| ELOY, JEAN-CLAUDE |
Shanti |
do-CD |
" “Shânti” (1972-73) for electronic and concrete sounds. Electronic music studio, WDR, Cologne, Germany, 1972-73. Digitalized and revised version from 2001.
“The term “meditation music” triggered many conflicting comments including positive ones (“... let us say that Shânti belongs to those very rare works that change you after listening to them. You are not exactly the same before and after.” - Gérard Mannoni, Le Quotidien de Paris, 1974). Others, wondering at the strong sound presence of the piece, consider such aspect as hardly helpful to their own meditation... Let us be clear: “what meditates” here (”that” who meditates) is the composer. He is the one who takes you on his journey and guides you through his work like in a classic or romantic symphony. As a listener you are invited to follow “his” meditation... The composition is the meditation.” " [label info]
"Was I recently 'complaining' about 3CD sets with music of people I never heard of, I wasn't perhaps thinking of Jean-Claude Eloy. First time around the mailman decided to keep the CDs, but the second time delivered them duly. I hope he likes them as much as I do. I may have heard the name Eloy before, but not his music, or where to place him, these two sets, six discs in total will set the record straight (pun intended). Eloy was born in 1938 and studied with Darius Milhaud. I believe he composes all sorts of work, but his main line of business is electronic music. I review them in order of composition. 'Shanti', which means 'peace', was composed after 'Kamakala' for three orchestra ensembles, five choir ensembles with three conductors, so it was perhaps 'necessary' to compose an electro-acoustic work at the WDR studios in Cologne, Germany. A work of meditation, or so Eloy tells us. Now this is not a work of pure and solitary drone music, as one would perhaps expect from 'meditative music'. They are here, that's for sure, but there is also an interview with Aurobindo and Mao, as well as a small piece called 'Soldats', with soldiers speaking and 'Vagues Lentes, Boucles De Feux', which takes their singing into an electronic landscape. This is of course an album about 'Peace', but rather then just produce a drone or two, Eloy brings in a political element, the soldiers. However the majority are those various drones, played on those ancient machines (great pictures in the booklet here), the mystical oscillators, wave generators and such like - which defy any laptop, I'd say. Excellent music, although not always exactly as meditative as promised, but that, I thought, was hardly a problem. Unsettling meditation, which is better than just go with the flow." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
| EMERGE |
Relativity (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
Ein neues Experimentalprojekt wird mit der DR-64 gewürdigt, EMERGE aus Augsburg schafft mit tiefen, schweren Sounds eine Atmosphäre wie unter Tage oder in einer Katakombe...alle Klänge basieren dabei auf field recordings..
“ EMERGE is a new project from Augsburg in South-Germany. After two self-released tapes & CDrs, DRONE Records is very pleased to officially present this great audio-work to a wider audience. The two tracks here (‘Relativity’ and ‘Profundity’) carries the listeners into very deep & low sound-regions throughout mysterious low rumblings & mechanized loops added by various distorted voices arising from beyond. This atmospheric feeling is like being under the earth or even underwater. It’s something that sounds like deep breathings coming from an invisible abyss that would create a psychic room inside it where the darkness is without any boundaries; no time or logic whatsoever: it’s the primal state of being. Filed under: amorph catacomb-drones YELLOW - BLACK SPRINKLED VINYL. HANDMADE COVERS WITH EXTREME PROCEDURES: PARTLY PAINTED & BURNED !!! “ [press release]
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
|
Canvas |
mCDR-box |
"This live performance by EMERGE was given in the context of a painting exhibition and creates a dynamic set ranging from metallic percussion, rumbling drones, and sometimes sursprisingly groovy loops. All sounds are created from sampled noises made by paintbrushes and other painting tools.
The live performance was recorded on the finishing night of the exhibition „hörbar in Farbe“ (‚audible in colour’). The CD accompanying the exhibition, also released by Attenuation Circuit (ACS 1001), contains a studio version of “Canvas”. Although the live improvisation uses sounds from the same source as the studio recording – sounds created by one of the exhibiting painters using brushes, glasses, canvas, cardboard, and other materials –, the two versions are very different in terms of their compositional structure and sonic textures because the samples were treated to a wide range of live manipulations in performance." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"A few weeks ago we had three limited CDs by Attenuation Circuit with handpainted CD bags, now we have a trio of 3"CDR from the label. The first is by Emerge and has a live recording from earlier this year. It was part of an exhibition in which Emerge also took part, and for which they created a studio version of 'Canvas'. On the last night of the exhibition they used the sound sources from 'Canvas' to create a live version. All of the sounds 'are created from sampled noises made by paintbrushes and other painting tools', which is very nice, since I would have never guessed this. It sounds rather like metallic objects being tossed around and played with, almost percussive. Sometimes a bit stuck in a loop, sometimes seemingly more improvised. Nice sort of organic ambient like ritual music but also a bit too long I guess and perhaps that works best only in a live context." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Contrition |
mCDR-box |
"On the two 10-minute pieces that make up this release, EMERGE uses samples from bass guitar (track 1) and prepared electric guitar (track 2) to create reverberating sonic environments that combine his characteristic dark drones with chords and melodic fragments that lend these compositions an unusually warm, acoustic sound.
EMERGE aka Sascha Stadlmeier is the founder and curator of the Attenuation Circuit label. Underlining the label’s collaborative spirit, EMERGE has invited label artists Eazy and Gerhard Zander, with whom he also collaborates in live improvisations (see “Betrachtung”, ACC 1001), to contribute snippets of their playing the bass guitar and prepared electric guitar. While most of EMERGE’s earlier works process their source materials way beyond any possibility of recognition, the two compositions on this disc are markedly different. Not only does the processing sometimes enhance the acoustic, analogue, and rather delicate feel of the source instruments, instead of sculpting the source materials into massive, bass-heavy blocks of sound. What also adds a new dimension to EMERGE’s catalogue of austere, abstract dronescapes is the fact that the two pieces, especially track 2, use a varied palette of seemingly rather referential sounds, conjuring up associations that range from the zoomorphic to the oriental." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"The final release is by Emerge, the project of Sascha Stadlmeier, who is also the man behind the Attentuation Circuit label. Knowing his previous releases, its not a surprise that on this new one he explores the edges of sampling
through the use of a single sound source, in this case the bass guitar (track one) and prepared electric guitar (track two). These new pieces see him move away from his earlier work, going more into a collage like style of sounds,
pieced together into compositions stemming from the world of musique concrete and making connections to the world of people like Marc Behrens or Roel Meelkop. Moving away from the more densely layered works with less variation, into a much richer field of music, at least that's what I think. A major leap forward for
Emerge." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Oneirism |
10inch |
"Two untitled tracks of 12 minutes each make up EMERGE’s first release in the 10” format. Both showcase the “dark ambient” aspects of EMERGE’s work in its purest form to date. “Oneirism” hints to the world of dreams, and while one side can be considered a cinematic rendering of a nightmare set in dark and glacial surroundings, the other is replete with immersive drones that are mysterious yet beautiful in an otherworldly way, literally making this release the dream of every dark ambient fan.
This release is a new departure in EMERGE’s work in various ways. While deep, dark drones have always been an important feature of his compositions, they have always been contrasted with other timbres. Here, EMERGE goes more minimal and more bass-heavy at the same time and lets the deep microtones do all the work of enveloping the listener and sucking him or her into the dream world of the music. The lack of any information on the sound sources used, otherwise meticulously supplied with every EMERGE release, heightens the sense of mystery evoked by the sound itself. Listeners are invited to create their own associations inside their own heads. An intense and beautiful listening experience, not only for dark ambient buffs, but for anyone who is interested in spaced-out, psychedelic kinds of ambient and other electronic music. For EMERGE fans this release is a must, as it is the artist’s third vinyl outing after a 7” on Drone Records, long sold out, and the hand-painted split LP with B°tong on attenuation circuit." [label info]
www.attenuation-circuit.de
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Narcoses |
CD |
Starting with an almost imperceptibly slow pulsation in the deepest depths of the subsonic, this 40-minute composition works its way through rhythmic parts texturised by glitches and crackles. This release, which brings together the various musical approaches EMERGE has developed over the last few years, at times feels like an unlikely hybrid between sound sculpting in the vein of Bernard Parmegiani’s musique concrète and ‘hauntological’ dubstep atmospheres.
This live recording is perhaps the most rhythm-based release by Sascha Stadlmeier (aka EMERGE) since his earliest musical outings under his Dependenz moniker around the year 2000. Rhythm here not only means that abstract sounds are looped into beats, in various registers from the treble to the really deep bass. The whole macrostructure of the piece is rhythmic because it is punctuated by (sometimes rather long) silences. This is markedly different from many of EMERGE’s more textural, “dark ambient” pieces of the past, which were based on layered and ever-shifting drones. It literally gives the listener pause to think and follow their own train of thoughts while never losing the focus on the sounds themselves. This results in an atmospheric quality that is both dream-like and lucid, unhurried and full of suspense. In the excellent sense of timing and dramaturgy of “narcoses”, one feels the wide experience in free improvisation that Stadlmeier has acquired since his last full-length EMERGE release by playing in all sorts of improv formations.
File under: Musique concrète, electroacoustic music, dark ambient
emerge.bandcamp.com/album/narcoses
|
2017 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Materia |
CD |
Attention, folks, you're in for a paradigm shift. EMERGE has become a household name in the international experimental music community as a composer mainly associated with drone and musique concrète. This album is bound to change your perception of EMERGE quite a bit. This is probably the most rhythmic release by Sascha Stadlmeier since he shelved his early project Dependenz and started to record and perform as EMERGE. And with its transparent sound and very direct compositional approach, it is both accessible and challenging at the same time.
The album, which manages to pack a variety of ideas and dramatic tension into its crisp 31 minutes, was recorded live in Poznan, Poland, in January 2018. EMERGE improvised with prepared samples and amplified objects made of various materials – hence the title – , namely wood, stone, and plastic. While the use of such basic, scratchy, even harsh sound sources is nothing new in EMERGE's work, the way in which he uses them here certainly is. They are often used to generate rhythmic loops that create downright beats, moving the piece to the brink of IDM or minimal music structures, but then collapsing such expectations by falling silent and moving into another direction altogether. While on the one hand silence is often used as a structuring medium, the drones so familiar in EMERGE only come into play as sound-effects that add colour to an otherwise monochrome palette. But this sparseness makes the compositional structure easy to hear and understand and certainly makes this album a perfect introduction for interested, yet inexperienced listeners who want to get into electroacoustic improvisation. More surprising than the rhythms, perhaps, is the direct, almost in-your-face way in which distorted voice like samples are used as a counterpoint to the live-generated sounds. They are used in dramatic gestures that almost resemble pop or rock dramaturgy, yet still are used sparingly enough so as not to become clichéd. This masterfully balanced mix of stylistic elements makes “materia” an important addition to EMERGE's large body of work, if not a milestone.
File under: Free improvisation, Real-time composition, electroacoustic music
www.attenuationcircuit.de/releases/33/emerge-materia
|
2019 |
€10.00 |
|
| EMERGE + GERALD FIEBIG |
Flöten / Kinder |
CD-R |
"For a concert supporting DUO RECORDRONIK, who combine recorders with electronics, EMERGE and Gerald Fiebig composed several pieces that are also based on the sounds of recorders. The instruments were played by elementary school children at a workshop conducted by Elisabeth Haselberger, who forms DUO RECORDRONIK with Petra Wurz.
Gerald Fiebig's three-part piece "Recorder Recorders" is a collage of sequences played by the children (from classes 2b, 4a, and 4b of Grundschule Vor dem Roten Tor elementary school in Augsburg - hence the album title). No treatments were used - the composition showcases the experimental playing techniques the young recorderists learned during the workshop. EMERGE's piece "chuckle" tackles the workshop recordings in a different way: using no recorder sounds, but everything else recorded in the classroom - speech, laughter, giggling, and chuckles (!) -, he creates a voice/noise collage highly reminiscent of radiophonic Ars Acustica. A collaborative piece by EMERGE and Gerald Fiebig concludes the album. Here, both their tracks are processed to form a dense dronescape that makes the connection to other aspects of the work of both artists.
File under: drone, musique concrete"
[label info] |
2015 |
€8.00 |
|
| EMERGE + RE-DRUM |
Persecutory Delusion |
CD-R |
"Although recorded at a concert series titled “NoiseAngriff” (noise attack) in Berlin, this live collaboration is actually a lot less harsh than one might expect. The paranoia suggested by the title might be felt in the dark ambient dronescapes, though.
In this slowly evolving set, the two performers connect to their roots in drone ambient, combining harmonic, yet vaguely ominous electronic textures with small concrete sounds. Over the course of some 45 minutes, Russian artist Re-Drum and his German colleague EMERGE create a vast expanse of sound through which they navigate with tentative movements, like ships in dark uncharted waters in the night."
"Zusammenarbeit von Emerge mit Re-drum: und zunächst ist da ein geradezu ambientes Abtasten; Noise und Nicht-Ton als feingliedrige Bestandteile eines sehr luftigen Gewebes, das die beiden wie fast nicht spürbar im Laufe dieses One-Trackers verdichten, immer enger werden lassen. Durch dynamische Interventionen genau so wie durch ein zunehmendes Herausdrängen der Stille als zunächst noch gleich bedeutendes Element der Musik. Re-drum + Emerge verzichten aber (mit Blick auf den im positiven Sinne fragilen Gesamteindruck von „Persecutory Delusion“ dankenswerterweise) darauf, das Stück in irgendwelche vordergründigen Rechteckwellen-Verdichtungen zu schieben. Statt dessen tauchen zwischendurch überaschenderweise auch tonale Fragmente auf, wie verwehte Flächen, ein Anriss tatsächlicher Harmonie. Und ganz am Ende so etwas wie ein Fall in einen Sog… Wie ein aus der Inspiration des Moments entwickeltes Gesamtes; gemacht aus Zutaten, die, einzeln betrachtet, eigentlich nicht zusammenpassen können. Zusammen aber wird aus Zufall Werk. Wie bisher in dem endlosen Strom aus dem Hause Emerge auf Fake-Vinyl-CDr, jetzt neu in bedruckter Stecktasche." [N/Black Magazin]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2016 |
€7.00 |
|
| ENCOMIAST |
Havens |
CD-R |
Dreamlike and dark, waving & shifting flowing of sounds, rather soft & with unusual handplayed instrumentation, another well done release from ENCOMIAST, check it out if you like dreamdrones.....!!
“Let's start with Encomiast, the duo of Ross Hagen and Megan Garland (as opposed to the previous release which was made just Ross Hagen), who play a wide variety of instruments (including violin, voice, flute, guitar, gamelan and shakuhachi besides the usual field recordings), but they create quite dense clouds of ambient drones. Three long pieces here of slowly developing, but highly organic music. It's not demanding music at all, gently flowing. More Mirror than Maeror Tri, I'd say. Certainly a different release than the previous, and one that truely enjoyable from beginning to end.” [FdW]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Malpais |
mCDR |
"founded in 1999, encomiast is now the solo project of us sound artist ross hagen. a handful of beautiful releases were issued through various labels such as lens records, gears of sand, mystery sea or crucial bliss. "malpais" is a single long piece derived from an old folk song from an archival collection ross was working with a few years ago. it uses a lot of other pieces from that collection as source material throughout. expect layers of slowly evolving drones..." [label info]
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| ENGLISH, LAWRENCE |
Observation of Breath |
LP |
Do you remember the last time you were breathing consciously? Either way, you are likely doing it now. On his new album »Observation of Breath« for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground label, Lawrence English worked exclusively with an organ for four compositions that are exercises in »maximal minimalism,« as their creator himself notes in a nod to Charlemagne Palestine, who coined this term. While it seems somewhat fitting that those four pieces based on a steady flow of air were conceived and recorded in a situation of accelerated standstill caused by a respiratory disease, the Room40 founder is not so much concerned with capturing the zeitgeist than rather incorporating the spirit of time itself. »It is a record about presence and patience,« he explains. Exploring the unique sonic affordances of a singular instrument, »Observation of Breath« is not only devoted to the durability of sound but also to its density. That it marks his debut on Hallow Ground after having shaped its sound by mastering most of the label’s releases in recent years is just as fitting then as its release following albums by Kali Malone and FUJI|||||||||||TA, whose innovative work with organ instruments have facilitated a rediscovery of their possibilities.
English’s compositions however are neither directly indebted nor responding to these musicians. His exploration of the organ’s many facets started a decade ago when the composer was given access to an instrument built in 1889 that is presently housed at The Old Museum in Brisbane. After it had already played a crucial role on his seminal albums »Wilderness Of Mirrors« and »Cruel Optimism,« last year’s self-released »Lassitude« was the first record that English entirely composed and recorded with that instrument. »During the soft lockdowns, I spent many days playing to an empty concert hall, recording the pieces that became ›Lassitude‹ and then, this album,« says English in regards to an unfortunate situation that fortunately provided him with time and space—two major themes but also key qualities of the four new compositions. In this sense, he goes on, »Observation of Breath« resolves a number of the questions originally raised by »Lassitude.«
»The organ is an exercise in the observation of breath,« English explains the album’s title. »It is a physical breath, one that manifests both audible and inaudible waves of vibrations. The sheer scale of the instrument, its weight and the physical length of the pipes involved in producing the sounds we experience is nothing short of mind-boggling.« More importantly, the sound artist is fascinated by the organ’s ability to produce frequencies that exist at the sensory limits of human awareness—it’s at the edges of these limits that fascination can be found, he argues. »The particular organ that I work with comprises four manuals and 45 speaking stops and it has a tubular-pneumatic action,« he explains. »It’s the stops that are the focus of my interest. They are very specific and when manipulated in certain ways and in certain combinations, create a unique set of unsteady timbres that make it a remarkably intoxicating instrument to collaborate with.«
Collaboration is indeed the key word here. The pieces of »Observation of Breath« were recorded in one take in recognition of the co-existence and co-dependence of the human body and mind when brought in unison while working with such a complex instrument. The end results are thus not only marked by longevity but also gripping dynamics. While the six minute-long »A Binding« and the album’s title track explore the sonic qualities of different frequency spectra with long sustained drones, opener »A Torso« and the aptly titled »And a Twist,« only two minutes and 42 seconds long, work with rhythmic elements that create intense moments of structural instability. »The music's power lies in its density, in the stacking of exhales all breathing in unison and then, at some point, failing to breathe further,« says English. »In these moments a wavering unsteadiness of tone arrives with an elegant uncertainty.« It is precisely this quality that makes »Observation of Breath« such a masterful exploration of the multifold relationships between space and time as well as the body and the mind—it’s a conscious meditation on unconscious processes.
https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/lawrence-english-observation-of-breath
|
2021 |
€21.50 |
|
| |
Viento |
CD + BOOK |
In 2010, Lawrence English made field recordings in Patagonia. You can hear abandoned buildings, lone trees folded over in fields of tundra-like grasses, quivering road signs, wailing fences and other objects shaken into life by the wind. In the booklet, the sounds are accompanied by pictures.
Artist statement: "In the summer of 2010 I had the opportunity to visit Antarctica through an invitation extended by the Argentine Antarctic Division. It was nothing short of life-altering, as I am sure anyone would suspect. Upon departing from Buenos Aires for the iced continent the Hercules transport aircraft, under direction of the Argentine military, made a routine stop at an airbase outside Rio Gallegos.
What was meant to be a few hours layover turned into several days as, on landing, a strong wind storm blew in unexpectedly. Conditions exceeded expectations, and before long it was clear the transport could not take off. The situation was only compounded by adverse weather along the Antarctic Peninsula.
Whilst the scientists and military personnel we were travelling with bunkered down in their quarters, I found myself drawn outside into the howling air. The wind in Patagonia is, well, breathtaking. Literally, there were moments where it was so physical, that it was difficult to catch my breath. Across three days I recorded abandoned buildings, lone trees folded over in fields of tundra-like grasses, quivering road signs, wailing fences and other objects shaken into life by the wind. It wasn't a comfortable experience by any means, but the multiplicity of sounds I was able to capture, I hope, speak for themselves.
The Antarctic recordings were made during two blizzards at Marambio and Esperanza bases. During the blizzard in Marambio, the temperature dropped to -40 degrees centigrade (with wind chill) which made recording particularly challenging. The wind battered the base’s structures and telecommunications equipment, making a range of unsettling, phasing choral drones and deep low frequency vibrations that resonated inside the base itself. The blizzard at Esperanza was mild by comparison, but still strong enough to coat penguins in layer of snow as they huddled together during the worst of the storm.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of completing these compositions and since that time, I have had the pleasure to diffuse them on numerous occasions. With those experiences in mind, as well as the format on which these works are now being made available, I have revisited them and completely remixed and remastered the pieces.
Listening back to these recordings I am struck by the sheer physicality of the wind. It's rare that you feel physically reduced by the motion of air, but in both Patagonia and Antarctica that is just how I felt. A small speck of organic dust in a howling storm."
https://lawrenceenglish.bandcamp.com/album/viento
|
2022 |
€23.00 |
|
| ENTRELACS |
Cynorrodhon (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
ENTRELACS ist das neue Projekt von YANNICK DAUBY und MICHAEL NORTHAM, auf dieser Single präsentieren sie detailreiche, hochfrequente mikro-drones..
“Originally our label wanted to present YANNICK DAUBY’s solo work, knowing him from some fabulous field-recordings (unfortunately most of them are still unreleased), he came up with a new project he has put together with “organic-drone-master ” MICHAEL NORTHAM, known from several beautiful installations and field-recording releases. Both are present in their new project going under the name of ENTRELACS. Here they enchant us with live improvisation of high-frequency drones & overtones, some concrete microscopic sound-objects as well as a rumbling appearing from time to time. It’s like millions of small sounds condensed together here... very rich in details. The B-Side is more challenging with a much stranger and darker atmosphere using sharp & sawing clear sounds. Somehow this music seems to reveal no “outer” or “objective” rhythm but rather the ‘inner-essence’ of nature itself. The title of this record ‘Cynorrodhon’ is the name of a plant also named "Rosier des chiens" in French. It develops “delicate flowers in spring time, red fruit in autumn and bears spines the whole year.” (Yannick Dauby) Filed under: organic micro/macro-drones.
CLEAR VINYL. BEAUTIFUL PRINTED COVERS WITH PICTURE OF CYNORRODHON. EACH COPY HAS A STAMPED DRONE SUN & AN HANDWRITTEN CATALOGUE-NUMBER.” [press release]
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
| ERIK M (eRikm) |
Sixperiodes |
CD |
Kollektion von sechs sehr unterschiedlichen Stücken für Tanz, Theater und Kino (2001-2004) von dem aussergewöhnlichen französischen Komponisten & Klangkünstler, der mit Computern, Turntables, Objekten & was auch immer arbeitet. Feinste konkrete Mikro-Sounds wirbeln hier herum und bilden doch kohärente Klangmuster, ob Drones, Pianotupfer, elektronische Sounds, konkrete cut-ups, ERIK M erschafft eine musikalische Sprache für die es noch keinen Namen gibt, die dynamisch-aggressiv aber auch sehr poetisch und surreal-zart sein kann. Für Sound-Explorer !
"sixpériodes departs from composed and improvised fragments of different media from dance or theatre performances, silent films or dance-conferences. far from standard soundtrack music, each creation here is accomplished using diverse approaches and techniques that demonstrate the most personal skills of erikm in combining different material - digital and acoustic sounds, field recordings and vinyl manipulations - in a unique way. his primary aim is no longer simply to quote his system of references but to create for himself a bank of singular material to compose without referring to other works, thus approaching a subtle abstraction and a sense of pause within contemporary sonic agitation. erikm has collaborated with the likes of fennesz, otomo yoshihide, musique concrète composer luc ferrari and avant turntablist christian marclay. he has released on such labels as hathut, for4ear, asphodel, metamkine, sonoris and others." (label info)
“Described as a "display of ErikM compositions for dance, theatre and cinema between 2001 and 2004", this album is a charming alternative in the congested field of laptop/acousmatics, being imbued with a determined research for a sonic biology whose purpose goes far beyond the "soundtrack" definition. ErikM's target appears to be the action of freezing what moves into aural snapshots: he reduces his perceptions to the bare minimum, using fragments of intuition and sampled snippets to find a connection with the functions of the body, which most of this music seems to represent in an almost graphic manner. It feels like there is a strong correlation with the automatic reactions of our nervous system, most sounds zapping around like a stimulated grasshopper, therefore effectively fulfilling their scope of demarcating choreographic schemes and underlining images. This music is indeed extremely visual, yet absolutely suggestive when taken as pure electroacoustic circumstance, completely original and honestly transcendental but at the same time very substantial.” [Massimo Richi / Touching Extremes]
“....It's hard to tell what is on those records and tapes, but throughout everything jumps and skips around like crazy, creating things to be very vibrant and lively. Most of the times rhythmical in a sort of non-linear way (even when it's a dance record!), combined with elements of noise and musique concrete, this also jumps stylistically all over the place, moving from strict improvised parts, such as the opening 'Les Paesines' to the more straight forward, almost industrialized rhythms
'Paris Qui Dort'. But that keeps the adrenaline of this disc going round and round. I enjoyed many of his collaborative works already, but as a first introduction to his solo work, I am even more impressed. Very good material...” [Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| ESSEIVA, KIKO C. |
Sous les Etoiles |
CD |
Für Klang-Abenteurer genau das richtige, das zweite Album dieses uns bisher unbekannten Soundtüftlers auf dem Schweizer Label. ESSEIVA kreiert hochdynamische Geräuschmusik mit vielen breaks & cut-ups und meist instrumentellen & konkreten Klängen, en detail quasi unbeschreibbar da zu komplex (zum Glück aber gibt es Rigobert Dittmann), von der Machart an alte NWW oder spannende Elektro-Akustik erinnernd. Empfehlung !
"Sous Les Etoiles (HINT04) ist nach Musiques pour haut-parleurs (Music For Loudspeakers) und Improvisations / Bricolages I-IV im Split mit Eric Boros (1000+1 Tilt) eine weitere Manifestation der Kreativität von KIKO C. ESSEIVA in Lausanne. Es ist ein komplexes Werk, in Szene gesetzt als experimentelles Cinema pour l‘oreille, mit einem ‚Prélude‘, 8 Episoden und einer ‚Fanfare de fin‘. Hervorstechend ist dabei die Plastizität der Klänge, ob knackiger Apfelbiss, knurrige Drones oder windspielerisches Klimpern. Das erinnert an Hanna Hartmanns Bildprägnanz, geht aber eigene, geräuschhaftere Wege. Ein weiteres auffälliges Ingredienz sind Stimmen, als gutturale Vokalisation, dann ein Frauenmund, der den Titel ansagt. Aber auch andere Klänge scheinen per Mund erzeugt zu sein, wenn auch verfremdet bis zur Unkenntlichkeit zu perkussivem Rippeln, zu Knarren oder Fauchen. ‚En rêve‘ wirkt wie alte Streichmusik, wobei der Geigenbogen jede Rauheit der Saite übertrieben ausreizt. Aus vielen Fugen flattert, knarrt und knarzt es, ein Metalldeckel eiert, Wasser gluckert, Dulcimersaiten flickern. Keine Landschaft tut sich auf, alles ist hier konkreter, detaillierter, informeller, in plastischer Nahsicht vor das Tagtraumauge gerückt. ‚Sous les étoiles toujours‘ überrascht mit einem Piano, dumpfen Glockendongs, wooshenden Drones, fragilem Klingklang. Zum Finale erklingt keine Fanfare, sondern kaskadierendes Tamtam, Cymbalschläge, Scherenschnippen, eine quäkende Hupe, Posaunengeblubber, alles Teil eines surrealen Orchesters der Dinge. Ich drücke gleich mal auf repeat." [Bad Alchemy]
"We are proud to release - four years after his first longplayer on Canadian imprint 'Manufracture' - Kiko C. Esseiva's second album 'Sous les étoiles'. The electro-acoustic-musique conrète compositions he has constructed during the past years are brilliant soundpieces that remind sometimes on Luc Ferraris electro-acoustic works but also the very narrative nature of some older Nurse With Wound albums. The way he mixes (almost) melodic elements into a complex structure of well arranged sounds and noises is simply beautiful. 'Sous Les Etoiles' goes even a step further than Esseiva's debut 'Musiques pour haut-parleurs', the tracks being audibly held together by leitmotifs, making it one big opus instead of being just a collection of tracks." [label info]
www.hinterzimmer-records.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| ETIENNE, YVAN |
Feu |
CD |
"On Feu (APOSIOPÈSE apo10) there is a very striking long suite called ‘De La Charge’ which is like having your head inserted in the centre of a lengthy electrical discharge, making your hair stand on end with its wild tendrils of direct current, and threatening to clean out your pores once and for all with its vibrant force."
[The sound projector]
"Yvan Etienne is active as a sound experimenter interested in issues surrounding site-specific audio installations and as a composer proposing weighty reflections on perception and the physicality of sounds in space.
Etienne has not been lacking for collaborative work in recent years, undertaking projects and performance with the likes of Phill Niblock, Yann Gourdon, Richard Glover, Brice Jeannin, Patrice Grente, Julien Ottavi, Robert Poss, Paul Panhuysen, Marie and Verry Joachim Montessuis, to name a few, as well as acting as curator and director of the Ohcetecho aux Presses Du Réel collection. For the three tracks of his first solo album Etienne manipulates various field recordings, a Serge modular synthesizer and a hurdy-gurdy (whether ancient or modern is not known). The result is a sound simultaneously fluffy yet stinging, replete with ambient noise, drones and sparse sequences that feel grainy and menacing, hovering somewhere between organic and inorganic. The impressive scores are very dense and layered, building to a crescendo that is harmonious and addictive, despite the fixity of the narration. Strongly iterative, immersive and resonant, the work reflects a keen sense of spatiality and dynamics. The listening is pleasant but never too conciliatory, favoring moods that are rather spacey and sidereal, infused with vintage synths, tools made popular in the mid-seventies by artists such as Frank Zappa, Jon Hassell, Sonic Boom, Richie Hawtin and Vince Clarke that have now achieved “cult” status among fans of modular analogue gear." [Neural]
Composed, recorded and mixed by Yvan Etienne :
Serge Modular, Electronics, Field recordings, Hurdy gurdy.
Recorded at "2 princesses" & EMS/Stockholm.
Produced by Aposiopèse, 2014. Cd. Aposiopèse_10.
Artwork by Claire Willemann.
Layout + Lettering by Nicolas Bardey.
Release page : www.aposiopese.com/pages/feu_y_e.html
Artist website : wyy.free.fr
https://yvanetienne.bandcamp.com/album/feu
https://label-aposiopese.bandcamp.com/album/feu
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| EVAPORI |
Rehearsals for Objects |
CD |
"1000füsslers industriell gefertigte Releases erreichen einen neuen Maßstab. Neben Tietchens und der sehr schön angelegten Heizungs-CD ist Evaporis Beitrag zum CD-Labelkatalog ein weiteres ungewohnt klingendes Zeugnis Neuer Musik. Völlig losgelöst vom Digitalkrach oder jedweder PlugIn-Klangmasse erscheinen die hier versammelten Stücke wie alte Schneidetischexzesse eines digital aufgemöbelten Walter Ruttmanns. Die raumklangtechnisch ausgesteuerten Klänge und Geräusche werden mittels ihrer Aufnahmeposition verfremdet und steuern damit gegen den sonst allgegenwärtigen digitalen Verfremdungsprozess. Klanglich angesiedelt zwischen einer ausziselierten Kapotte Muziek Komposition und einer Esseiva Etude passiert im zeitlichen Rahmen dieser CD anfangs eine Menge: feine Schleifklänge wechseln teils in rapiden Wechseln ihre Soundzustände, lösen sich auf und bilden feine Schnittkanten, an deren teils gratfreien Oberflächen allerlei konkretes Material sich ansammelt, ehe es mit einem schnellen Schnitt in andere Ebenen gehoben wird. Der zweite Satz zeigt die stärkste Dekonstruktion mittels Audioschnitt und Collaging, weicht doch der geschickte Einsatz der Stille teilweise radikalen Rückwärtsrichtungen des Quellmaterials, ehe der letzte Akt der CD in teilweise recht droniges Basisbrummen gleitet und etwas schlüpfrig den Weg aus der Komposition weist. Evaporis Ansatz einer völlig raumklangbezogenen Kompositionsweise macht vor allem dann Sinn, wenn die ohnehin sehr liquiden und scharf gestellten (Rest)geräusche in teilweise verzweifelt wirkender Flucht ihre Plätze suchen. Die in endloser Rotation wiederholten Brummschleifen unter den gestreuten Sounds macht es fast schon wieder interessant, mal selber die Lautsprecher um einige Zoll im Raum zu verschieben und den damit verbundenen Akustiksituationen zu lauschen. Ganz schön interaktives Material." [Thorsten Soltau, AEMAG]
"The aim while composing was to create a sound landscape that is exclusively made up of recordings which are not processed by computer effects (so-called plug-ins). The sounds are influenced by the way they are recorded, e.g. by the positions of the microphone and the sound source in a room. The resulting sonic situations are the basis of the the composition. The sounds – most of them of an everyday nature – were transformed using computer editing only, in order to leave the recognizability of the sounds untouched, create tension and to arouse the listener‘s curiosity through different atmospheric cadences.
Recordings were made at Rauchhaus / Berlin, Fundbureau and Christianskirche / Hamburg
Mastering by Guy Saldanha
Artwork by Nicolas Wiese
Thanks to Celia Herrero and Christoph Lohse"
[label info / credits]
www.tausend-fuessler.de
"Das nenn ich doch mal eine Produktinformation: „Die größtenteils aus dem Alltag stammenden Klänge wurden am Computer ausschließlich durch Schnitttechnik verfremdet, um die Erkennbarkeit der Klangquellen offen zu halten, Spannung aufzubauen und durch verschiedene Stimmungsbögen bei dem Hörer Neugier zu wecken.“ Das hat man nicht oft, dass ein Geräuschkunstmacher auch mal an seine (potentiellen) Hörer denkt und dass er das Ziel seiner Bemühungen angibt - Stimmung, Spannung, Neugier. Oliver Peters ist in BA schon bekannt als AIC-Macher und, obwohl in Berlin aktiv, für seine guten Verbindungen zur Hamburger Szene, zur Hörbar, zu Guy Saldanha (Knistern), der hier das Mastering besorgte, zu Uli Rehbergs Walter Ulbricht Schallfolien, wo zuletzt seine LP Fumes (2007) herauskam, zu Gregory Büttner, der ihm auf 1000füssler bereits zum zweiten Mal ein Forum bietet. Was hier die Neugier weckt, sind Übungen, Turn- oder Tanzübungen von Gegenständen in einem menschenleeren Raum. Nur die vermeintliche Abwesenheit von Beobachtern oder Lauschern ermöglicht diese leicht gespenstischen, zumindest ominösen und odradekhaften Verspieltheiten. Es huscht, trappelt, kullert, von ganz feinen Drones umspielt. Vielgliedrig tockt, ratscht, schabt und klickt Holz an Holz, Metall an Metall, Was? an Was? -kreuz und quer durch den Raum, an Wänden und an der Decke. Odradek-Hockey? Odradek-Mikado oder -Kampfsport? Ein ‚interlude‘ zwischen ‚rehearsal I & II‘ lässt keine Atempause, sondern verdichtet sogar die Aktionen, mit fast menschlichen Zischlauten. Das hat nichts ‚Ambientes‘, sondern eine spielerische Dramaturgie, die allerdings ihr Geheimnis - wer sind die Spieler und was proben sie? - nicht Preis gibt, denn wir sehen nichts, wir können nur lauschen und rätseln." [Bad Alchemy]
"Oliver Peters, the man behind the AIC label and the musical project Evapori, likes his sounds to be free of computer plug ins. Take an object, place a microphone and record the object. The placing of the microphone is essential as it alters the sound. Take a whole bunch of objects, record them and then make a CD out of these recordings. The computer is merely a recording device, where, in good musique concrete tradition, cuts can be made, stereo adjustment and balancing the various sounds. That is most commendable, I think, as most computer plug ins do tend to sound too similar. What Peters does here, is not done a lot. Using natural space to create reverb, he carefully touches his objects and makes a very intense sound collage out of it. One that requires full attention. At times I was reminded of the live sound of Kapotte Muziek, but then multi-layered and with more concentration - but then of course the computer here can cut out all the unwanted sounds, which live is more difficult. By adding machine hum towards the end of 'Rehearsal 1', he manages to sound like drone music too. I think this is a great CD, but there is one thing I don't understand: why call this rehearsals? Rehearsal for what? It gives the impression that this is unfinished business, unless Peters wants us to cut further in this material, but somehow I don't think that this the case here. Why not go full on and state that these are 'compositions'? " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| EXPERIMENTALIEN |
Nine Triads |
CD-R |
"Slovakian-based artist I.v.Martinez is active in a variety of projects with different styles, but ExperiMENTALien is one of the more psychedelic ones. The nine tracks on this album fuse morphing digital dronescapes with subsonic pulsations that would make a great addition to the soundtrack of any remake of “Solaris”.
The shapeshifting nature of the sounds that drift in and out of harmonic fields is mirrored in the titles of the pieces, which – like the project name ExperiMENTALien – fuse several words. Trainput, Universelection, and Noiserenity are perhaps the most programmatic. The album constantly oscillates between associations with biomorphous and psychic images, which is why the “Solaris” reference immediately comes to mind: Couldn’t this be the sound of a thinking, living planet? You could think of this as the “Kosmische Musik” of Krautrock revisited through a post-industrial sensibility, but most importantly, the results sound convincing.
File under: drone, ambient, psychedelic" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"From Slovakia hails L.V. Martinez, who works with a variety of (unnamed) projects with different styles and one of these is ExperiMENTALien, as the spelling should be. There are nine pieces on this CD, hence the title, I guess, and I have no idea what he does, but my best guess is that Martinez uses a lot of sampling of sounds, lots of effects (boxes, digital, who knows) and effectively melts down his sources into nine nightmarish pieces of detailed nuclear meltdown. Quite noise based, very industrial, but without any of the images that may come along such a ride. ExperiMENTALien keeps matters relatively abstract; more like the soundtrack to a movie that deals with such matters as apocalypse, zombies, mad max, robotic slavery and what else have you in the department of blackness. Even when he keeps things at a more limited volume, such as 'Electrip', it's still forceful and alien (indeed). Long pieces, clocking in at six to eight minutes and sometimes that seems a bit long for the amount of sonic information it has to offer in a piece, but on a more mind penetrating level, the psychedelic side of all of this, I must admit this worked rather well. Nothing for the weak of heart or mind or both."
[FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| FANUM |
Kerpg |
CD-R |
First album of this Russian project from Moscow, also active as DASEIN. Very deep & low rumbling dark drones, two long pieces, recommended for lovers of the extreme isolationist low frequency drones as created by AMON or CLOSING THE ETERNITY. Comes with handmade inlay, packed in large black fabric cloth sack, 68 copies made and sold out at the label.
http://kerpg.ohms.ru
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| FAUST |
Punkt |
LP |
After the overwhelming success of the 1971-1974 box set release (BB 374CD/LP), containing the first four studio albums and for the first time ever this lost "last" album recording, Punkt gets a deserved and necessary standalone release.
"The band called it 5½, fans referred to it as the 'Munich album' and for almost fifty years it's been the missing chapter in Faustian mythology. Now for the first time, the German iconoclasts' previously unreleased fifth album sees the light of day as Punkt . . . Punkt is Faust at their most unhindered, untethered and unstoppable. Returning to Germany after a loss-making U.K. tour and after their manager Uwe Nettelbeck had split with them, the group dusted themselves down and planned their next project, what would have been their second for Richard Branson's Virgin. Joined as always by their engineering genius Kurt Graupner, the band took residence in the Arabella High Rise Building, the luxury hotel which housed Giorgio Moroder's Musicland Studio in its basement . . . Faust spent their nights below ground, creating the sublime cacophony which courses through these seven tracks. Driven by Diermaier's primitive repetition and Péron's rabid low-end growl, 'Morning Land' stomps its way through almost ten minutes of heavy psychedelia . . . A Luciferian spirit courses through the beatless 'Crapolino', a tumult of scorched guitar chords, strident FXs and disembodied vocals which bares all the hallmarks of a black mass. And just like that, the group summon some demonic hunting party for 'Knochentanz' (bone dance), arguably their most immersive creation . . . The storm clears for a second to allow a celestial chord progression to emerge from the darkness before the heavens open and Sosna's snarling, sawing guitar rains down from above, carrying 'Knochentanz' through its final iteration, a collision of muscular fretwork, percussion freakout and bleeping organ which completes the most psychedelic recording you've never heard. The frazzled optimism of 'Fernlicht' buzzes away like an acid Beethoven bathed in neons, before the breathless 'Juggernaut' stretches the definition of blues rock to its limit as squirming sine waves, clattering cymbals and corrosive guitars pan, reverse and overlap, each following its own unhinged rhythm. Then for a time the sound and the fury abate, making space for the frankly sublime 'Schön Rund', a piano-led diversion into the soul-swelling realms of ECM jazz and fin de siècle impressionism, which rivals anything else in their catalogue for pure beauty. And in case you thought they'd gone soft, Faust sign off with the guttural groans and course drones of 'Prends Ton Temps'..." --Patrick Ryder
https://faust.bandcamp.com/album/punkt
|
2022 |
€22.50 |
|
| |
Punkt |
CD |
After the overwhelming success of the 1971-1974 box set release (BB 374CD/LP), containing the first four studio albums and for the first time ever this lost "last" album recording, Punkt gets a deserved and necessary standalone release.
"The band called it 5½, fans referred to it as the 'Munich album' and for almost fifty years it's been the missing chapter in Faustian mythology. Now for the first time, the German iconoclasts' previously unreleased fifth album sees the light of day as Punkt . . . Punkt is Faust at their most unhindered, untethered and unstoppable. Returning to Germany after a loss-making U.K. tour and after their manager Uwe Nettelbeck had split with them, the group dusted themselves down and planned their next project, what would have been their second for Richard Branson's Virgin. Joined as always by their engineering genius Kurt Graupner, the band took residence in the Arabella High Rise Building, the luxury hotel which housed Giorgio Moroder's Musicland Studio in its basement . . . Faust spent their nights below ground, creating the sublime cacophony which courses through these seven tracks. Driven by Diermaier's primitive repetition and Péron's rabid low-end growl, 'Morning Land' stomps its way through almost ten minutes of heavy psychedelia . . . A Luciferian spirit courses through the beatless 'Crapolino', a tumult of scorched guitar chords, strident FXs and disembodied vocals which bares all the hallmarks of a black mass. And just like that, the group summon some demonic hunting party for 'Knochentanz' (bone dance), arguably their most immersive creation . . . The storm clears for a second to allow a celestial chord progression to emerge from the darkness before the heavens open and Sosna's snarling, sawing guitar rains down from above, carrying 'Knochentanz' through its final iteration, a collision of muscular fretwork, percussion freakout and bleeping organ which completes the most psychedelic recording you've never heard. The frazzled optimism of 'Fernlicht' buzzes away like an acid Beethoven bathed in neons, before the breathless 'Juggernaut' stretches the definition of blues rock to its limit as squirming sine waves, clattering cymbals and corrosive guitars pan, reverse and overlap, each following its own unhinged rhythm. Then for a time the sound and the fury abate, making space for the frankly sublime 'Schön Rund', a piano-led diversion into the soul-swelling realms of ECM jazz and fin de siècle impressionism, which rivals anything else in their catalogue for pure beauty. And in case you thought they'd gone soft, Faust sign off with the guttural groans and course drones of 'Prends Ton Temps'..." --Patrick Ryder
www.bureau-b.com/faust71-74.php
https://faust.bandcamp.com/album/punkt
|
2022 |
€16.00 |
|
| FAVARON, GIANLUCA / ANACLETO VITOLO |
Zolfo |
CD |
"Zolfo" is born by the collaboration between Gianluca Favaron and Anacleto Vitolo. Both involved in many projects and music collaborations - Favaron with Corrado Altieri, Deison and in groups like Lasik Surgery, Maribor, Zbeen and Under The Snow; Vitolo with Doublebass player Francesco Galatro, Viola player Michela Coppola, Domenico Stellavatecascio (Internos) and many other.
The album was composed, recorded, and mixed between January and May 2016 and is a mix of several music elements and techniques, such as tape loops, cymbals, microphonic works and live electronic processing. The result is a combination of musique concrète, noise and drone music.
Gianluca Favaron:
As electroacoustic musician, his work focuses on the processing of concrete sounds using software made on purpose. Field-recordings, drones: an approach that uses different music languages, to elaborate, merge or transform sounds made by everyday objects into something different, both taking them out of context and/or processing and modifying them with various effects. .
In 2015 he has released the CD albums "Entretien" on 13/Silentes and "Forget About Any Non-Gray" on MFU /Concrete
Anacleto Vitolo:
Anacleto Vitolo A.K.A. AV-K / K.lust / Kletus.K part of several collectives such as X(i)NEON, Internos and Algebra del Bisogno, born August 2, 1985 in Battipaglia (SA), Italy.In 2010 and 2014 took part in “FLUSSI” festival sharing the same stage with some of the most important musicians of the contemporary electronic scene as Murcof, Thomas Fehlmann, Vladislav Delay, Retina.it, Emanuele Errante, Mokira, Mount Kimbie, etc. In 2013 signs a contract as Publishing Artist with FatCat. In 2015 takes part to MiRA festival in Barcelona with Andy Stott, Ben Frost, Richard Devine, Prefuse 73, Nosaj Thing and many others. He's the CO-Director of Manyfeetunder label, alongside with Vincenzo Nava ( dramavinile, UHVA) and Cogwheel Press Rec. Active with a lot of collaborations and releases.
credits
mfu/c 010 | sps1616
Gianluca Favaron : tapes, objects, microphones, analog and digital effects
Anacleto Vitolo: live electronics, cymbals, laptop, objects
"Crispy, crunchy, and crackly ~ these are the sounds of Zolfo. In real life, we hear such sounds in crumpling paper and leaves underfoot. In the electronic realm, they surface in cellphones, computers and amplifier feedback. Blend organic and electronic, as Gianluca Favaron and Anacleto Vitolo have done, and one will hear a padded melange, thicker than the timbres one is accustomed to hearing outside of a factory setting. So yes, that may be a church bell in the title track, stuttered and looped ~ but it may be the imitation of a church bell, the mind struggling to define and categorize what it is hearing.
To prepare this album, the artists used a wide variety of sources, from cymbals to laptops, along with the vague term “objects”. Favaron in particular is enamored with decontextualization. Just because something sounds like a singing bowl (“Infrasound”) doesn’t mean it is a singing bowl; and if it is, Favaron and Vitolo have found a new purpose for its thrum. And all the while, drones and hums intrude, eager to colonize the sonic field, while glitches and pops decorate the drones like sparkling debris in a raging river.
This is the thicker, busier end of the electroacoustic spectrum, a genre that lacks distinguishing tags, simply because there is so little of it. I call it particle accelerator music (PAM), as it sounds like agitated atoms. “Oblivion” highlights a scuttling sound, like that of the crablike creature racing across the floor in the medical lab of Aliens. Because the sonic field is constantly in motion, it’s hard to get a handle on the heart of these compositions; one drinks them like carbonation. On “Fold-in”, a welcome warmth is added by bells and horns, although the title makes one think of an egg dropped in batter. Thankfully, the metaphor fits. “Reflection” seems to contain power tools, sirens and broken glass, intimating a shattered mirror, or by extension, a shattered sense of self. Only in the album’s closing seconds does humanity make an appearance: pleasant banter and laughter, the lab coats packed away, the atoms free to collide, no longer performing under watchful eyes." [Richard Allen/A closer listen]
https://manyfeetunderconcrete.bandcamp.com/album/zolfo |
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| FAVARON, GIANLUCA / STEFANO GENTILE / CARL MICHAEL VON HAUSSWOLFF / ROD MODELL |
LANDSLIDE (For Fields Recordings and Sine Waves) |
do-LP |
2x12" LP + 12" 4-page insert, ltd. 300 copies
Side A - Landslide (17’58”) by Gianluca Favaron and Stefano Gentile
Side B - Landslide reworked (18’07”) by Rod Modell
Side C - Landslide (remix) (17’57”) by Carl Michael von Hausswolf
Side D - Landslide (remix) reworked (18’01”) by Rod Modell
On October 9, 1963, 260 million cubic meters of rock broke off from the top of Monte Toc. It fell into the reservoir of the Vajont dam, producing an enormous wave of at least 50 million cubic meters of water. The dam, completed in 1959 and one of the biggest in the world at the time, did not suffer any serious damage. However, flooding destroyed several villages in the valley and killed almost 2,000 people. In some ways, it is as if the landslide swept away the past and the future of an entire community. An apocalypse lasting just a few minutes left scars and stigmata for decades to follow.
Time is crystallised in an eternal present.
Around the Vajont area, you often hear small landslides.
Landslide: a natural downwards movement, more or less rapid, of large masses of earth and rock; also the hole created by this movement, and the accumulation of material from this release.
Movement and accumulation are two keywords that guided the search for the sounds hidden in the silence of the Vajont landscape. In quiet moments today, the landscape reveals reverberations of it’s past... the movements of downward sliding, crystallized substances, and ghosts of its previous inhabitants. Frozen in time.
Exploring the area, one wonders if anything remains under the surface. The original version of Landslide, and the Carl Michael Von Hausswolf version, re-construct nature in a unique and unusual way. Sewn with the smallest amount of sonic fabric. Resulting not in a verbatim recreation of an event, or emotional responses of that event, but rather.... a more intangible interpretation. Impulses that trigger feelings of the fall, the movement of land, and detachment. Expressed with a new code of sound. Mixed together, overlapped, collided, reaccumulated, and merged together again. While the Modell versions offer a more organic approach. Sounds of the valley at night, layered with psychotropic drones and other hovering noises. Echoes of present combined with echoes of the past.
CALAMITA/À (2013-ongoing) is a tool for investigating the contemporary Vajont and the topic of catastrophes in general. The project is curated by Gianpaolo Arena and Marina Caneve.
“0” is a collaboration between CALAMITA/À and Silentes where visual arts join sound.
13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2142_favaron_gentile_von_hausswolff_modell_landslide.htm
|
2022 |
€36.00 |
|
| FEAR FALLS BURNING |
Woes of the desolate mourner |
7inch |
"it's probably one of the most eerie and atmospheric drones i performed live but one i'm very satisfied with". soweit fear falls burnings selbsteinschätzung zu diesem neuen werk; als 7" auf tonefloat und ein (oder teile eines) konzert(s) im extrapool in nijmegen auf die heimanlage transportierend. und man muss der selbsteinschätzung unbedingt recht geben: sind andere ffb-veröffentlichungen durch eine dichte und extreme schichtung geprägt, so stehen bei der "woes" über lange zeit einzelne bögen im raum, denen sogar die zeit gegeben wird, langsam zu verklingen, ohne das sie (wie sonst) loopartig immer wiederkehren und als grundgerüst des weiteren aufbaus dienen. freigelassen und im sound fast (gitarren-)synth-artig werden erst auf der zweiten seite der 7" die einzelteile zu einem teppich verwebt, der das für fear falls burning so typische dreidimensionale fließen im sound zeigt und sich schließlich in einer tremolo/vibratofläche fängt. unbedingt empfehlenswertes kleinod und in seiner verpackung aus packpapierfarbenem umschlag mit einer typografie in klarlack auch noch extrem hübsch anzuschauen." [Unruhr] |
2006 |
€7.50 |
|
| |
Woes of the desolate Mourner |
CD |
"Ursprünglich als kleine durchsichtige 7″ auf gleichem Label erschienen gibt es Woes Of The Desolate Mourner nun in voller Länge mit Bonusmaterial auf CD. Der Titeltrack, hier nur mit seiner Gesamtspieldauer betitelt und gegenüber der Single eben uneditiert und deshalb um gute fünf Minuten länger rieselt wie feiner Staub von der Decke. Die Drones sind äußerst fein und kaum greifbar: wie aus einer ultrafein eingestellten Spritzdrüse. Sie setzen immer mit einem Sirren ein, einen Anschlag oder einen klar gegriffenen Akkord kann man hier nicht erkennen. Wie eine Farbe wirken die zarten Gitarrenklänge auf ihre Umwelt ein. Sie überziehen alles und verändern den Charakter der materiellen Welt. Litany In A Time Of Plague setzt dem Ganzen die Krone auf. In wahrhaftigen, seufzenden fast schon orgelartigen Klängen schraubt sich eine Spirale empor. Die beklemmende Atmosphäre erinnert an die ersten Synthakkorde auf Coils Astral Disaster Album. Jauchzend, isoliert, düster. Passend zum etwas pathetischen Titel des Tracks. Großartiger Reissue!" [Zipo / Auf Abwegen]
www.tonefloat.com
|
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| FEARTHAINNE |
same |
do-CD |
FEARTHAINNE ist ein Band-Projekt mit den zwei Leuten von FAUNA, die mir ihrem Debut-Album kürzlich beeindrucken konnten. Auch hier sind ihre tracks episch angelegt und minimal instrumentiert, und nicht minder emotional wirkungsvoll. Nach einem fantastischen Poly-Drone Intro setzt sich ihr erhaben trauriger Akustik-Gitarren Folk (der an ruhigere NEUROSIS bzw. STEVE ON TILL oder MICHAEL GIRA erinnert) in Szene, der von Sehnsucht nur so durchdrungen zu sein scheint, begleitet von sparsamer Perkussion; auch Zither & Violine werden sehr schön integeriert. FEARTHAINNE entwerfen hier auf ihren urlangen Tracks die stets mehrere Teile haben, eine Art ambienten "Ritual Drone Folk" mit starkem Naturbezug, der einen nicht kalt lässt.. und wieder glänzt GLASS THROAT mit so einem wunderschönen grossformatigen Doppel-Klappcover aus speziellem Karton..
"I have the tremendous honor of announcing, what is to be our Winter Solstice 2008 release. From Cascadian soil, FEARTHAINNE will bless us with a pure nostalgia for being. A debut full length 2xCD, embracing four deeply potent healing crafts of acoustic mourning & regeneration. Featuring the two spirits of Cascadia's Ritual Black Metal atavism FAUNA.
Fearthainne's first release represents the nadir of a journey into earth. Conceptualized and written in wild environments in the West, this collection of songs is a picture of the labyrinth traveled by a human organism, seeking life outside the long shadows of unremitting gray. The seekers masquerading as musicians who have created this document have used these sounds as a conduit for the reconnection with being, and have chosen to make it available to those who might hear the voice of the Others speaking to them from within. Exclusively utilizing acoustic instrumentation, Fearthainne is the unending rain that calls forth the blossom, the harbinger of the organic future we inevitably face. A sonic expression of green in all its capacities, this project is a document of the search for Home, a declaration that we will never settle for existence in the meaningless maze of history.
As beings we have struggled for many years to imbue our lives with depth, bending our ears towards the chorus of elders that the natural world is. Brought to fruition in a culture whose theme is loss, we recognize the wisdom of Earth in the various shifts that will unravel these ten millennia of aberration, and celebrate the dawning of day for what is truly human. As participants in this calamity, we call forth those spirits of the land, sea and sky who have always borne witness to our cyclical lives, the deep mind of which we are only a part, to see us and hear our voices as we proclaim our allegiance to Life. May this blood that flows from us cleanse the land of its wounds. May our animal bodies shield our battered hearts as we break the hands of Time. May this be the end..." [label info]
"... But in Fearthainne, all of the buzz and lbuster have been replaced by delicate crystalline guitar, gruff emotive vocals, deep ominous drones, all woven into a slow, drifting, meditative mountain folk. On the same label that in the past has brought us mysterious sounds from At The Head Of The Woods, The Elemental Chrysalis, Ruhr Hunter, Alethese and Beneath The Lake, Fearthainne sound right at home, blending dense whirring minimal soundscapes, with gentle meditative folk rituals. Long long tracks that slowly blossom, smoldering, clouded in warm browns and cool greys, strings weep and moan, effects gently cradle the various elements, adding texture more than changing the sound. Mesmerizing, trancelike ruminations on nature, on death, on the beyond. Simple percussion demarcates sprawling folk strum and fields of lilting shimmer and and delicate flutter. The vocals are a strange contrast, almost atonal, moaned more than sung, reminding us of solo records by either of the Neurosis frontmen, giving the proceedings a much more ominous vibe, ritualistic and hauntingly spiritual. Gorgeous in its simplicity, mysterious in its minimalism, Fearthainne is the soundtrack to a land outside of time, of trees towering over a world unspoilt, clouds drifting across empty skies, night turning into day, the cycle of life continuing on, the world and the universe around it gradually moving into a new, more magical existence. Beautifully sublime. Incredible packaging, full color 6 panel oversized sleeve, amazing images of ancient forests, late night rituals, and the band gathered beneath a mighty tree, cradling a baby, dressed like witches, and looking like a band of bearded forest dwellers (which they may very well be!)." [Aquarius Records review]
www.glassthroatrecordings.com
|
2009 |
€18.50 |
|
| FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM (F.T.B.P.D.) / DER BEKANNTE POST-INDUSTRIELLE TROMPETER (D.B.P.I.T.) |
Stille Nacht / Dark King |
7inch |
Als Schwester-Release zur doppel-mini-CD erschien diese split 7“ der beiden Projekte mit den wahnwitzigen (und sehr ähnlich aussehenden) Kürzeln! Ähnlich wahnwitzig ist die völlig durchgeknallte & wirklich abgespacete Cover-Version von STILLE NACHT, die DER BEKANNTE POST-INDUSTRIELLE TROMPETER hier beigesteuert hat, während das Stück DARK KING von FEINE TRINKERS eher einen melancholisch-verstörenden Charakter hat... Nummerierte Auflage.
“White Rabbit Records is proud to announce this joint release by two of the most intriguing names in the world of music; the Der Bekannte Post-Industrielle Trompeter (the famous post-industrial trumpetplayer) and the Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim (fine drinkers at snobs home). This single features tracks, such as DBPIT’s Silent Night and FTBPD’s dark king, which were particularly for this Christmas season, and will absolutely introduce new fire to this winter’s candlelight.
Silent Night, a particularly outstanding piece, has all the eerie atmosphere of a David Lynch Noel; while the music of "Der Bekannte" emerges as a brilliant lesson in the proper use of a trumpet! dark king is an experience in gazing through the eclectic eyepiece of an industrial kaleidoscope: a multi-layered sound-collage resounding with textured drones and penetrating rhythms, fused together in a unique (x)MASterpiece. A single you shouldn’t miss for this Xmas season, and a taste of what the New Year promises to bring! "Frohes Fest!" with bugs and toads under the christmas tree. numbered 299 piece (WRR06)” [press release]
|
2005 |
€7.50 |
|
| FELIX KUBIN & ENSEMBLE INTEGRALES |
Echohaus |
do-LP |
"This latest project by the Hamburg-based musician, composer, and futurist, Felix Kubin, (his second release on Dekorder) is a collaboration with the contemporary music chamber group, ensemble Intégrales, and the reknowned German underground pop producer and sound engineer, Tobias Levin.
Echohaus was recorded in and around Levin's Electric Avenue studio in the basement of WESTWERK, a former squat and cultural centre for non-commercial art and music in Hamburg. A special recording technique was developed for the project whereby the musicians played simultaneously in separate rooms, connected to one and other only by headphones. This was done in order to achieve a lively,“cinematic" sound that made use of the particular dynamics of the rooms and amplified mechanical details. The rooms, each of which had a different acoustic character, were used as natural echo chambers. Kubin and the composer Burkhard Friedrich, former member of ensemble Intégrales, provided the musicians with simple graphic scores or basic descriptions of the compositions; all subsequent material was developed on the fly. Kubin was in the mixing room giving instructions and suggestions, while the musicians played and improvised, adding their own ideas to the project.
No artificial reverb or effects were added to the recordings. The different types of rooms and microphones, noises inside and outside of the studio, as well as the unusual interrelationship between the physically isolated players became part of the process. All the tracks were recorded in one take without any additional layers or track-by-track recordings. After a five-day recording session Kubin and Levin created various mixes which Kubin then edited over a period of several months.
The final results mark yet another radical departure from Kubin's trademark Sci-Fi Pop sound, blending the aesthetics of academic contemporary music, film soundtracks and improvised music with a strong focus on room-specific natural acoustics." [label info]
www.dekorder.com
"Branching out into conceptual composition with Ensemble Intégrales, Felix Kubin acted as a sort of central engineer/conductor for this piece, with each instrument recorded live with no overdubs in separate rooms at the Westwerk cultural centre in Hamburg under Kubin’s supervision, and the results edited by him down into the resulting album. As a result, each room sound is almost as important as the tones recorded for the instruments concerned, and the results certainly resonate with the nuances of each space in the final mix, especially when listened to on headphones – which is probably the best way to appreciate the textures of the recording.
It’s also perhaps inevitable that the terms electro-acoustic and musique concrète will crop as reference points when describing both the techniques and sounds of Echohaus – and justifiably too. There’s plenty of scraping, creaking, twisting and plinking, honking, squittering electronics and keening breaths, mournful drones and pizzicato strings among the synthesized interventions, in between the electro-mechanical susurrus and thumping among gentler ripples on piano and violin, with vaporous electronic reflections trickling subtly or otherwise across the dissociated (but not disembodied) studio space. The improv is strong here, quite happy to let rip into spine-tingling moments very close indeed to the fingernail/blackboard interface.
So drumkits give their best falling down the stairs impressions (though it frequently does seem like that baskets full of household good are being given a good thrashing ), and there are moments where stereo-panned strings rise in counterpointed waves which could quite possibly drag the listener into a state of panicked delirium. What is particularly enjoyable are those moments where the music moves through space as Kubin manipulates the mix, with deep bass throbs and high-pitched whines circling the clatter of percussive motion across the soundscape he creates with the Ensemble’s sounds. Is that the sound of one room bleeding and/or receding into another, or is it just the natural echo? Who can tell, and does it matter too much?
To keep calling this sort of music avantgarde is perhaps to hang onto a term which sometimes seems to be almost backward-looking, given the decades in which this modernist form has developed (or otherwise) – but even so, the recording technique is, if not at the advance guard, at least experimental in some form or other. But so much for labels – this is largely a fine piece of work where dissonance and discordance, horripilation and disconcerted listening teeter into sometimes quavering moments of reflexive beauty. Echohaus engages the senses fully, and the way in which it was recorded and produced being ultimately secondary to the results, which, while often difficult – or flat-out challenging – listening, are certainly none the worse for that." [Freq.org] |
2010 |
€18.50 |
|
| FENNESZ |
Mahler Remix |
do-LP |
"In any other hands, the very idea of remixing Mahler might not only be preposterous but abhorrent; but Christian Fennesz is far from the average electronic musician. After all, he beautifully fragmented the fun-fun-fun-in-sun pop of the Beach Boys for his iconic Endless Summer album; and he's more reverential of the original Mahler material than on he was of the source material for Endless Summer. It is but a sliver of the Mahler oeuvre that Fennesz extracts, the yearning harmonies and lush orchestral swells (as opposed to Mahler's counterpointing brass marches of bombast and discord); yet Fennesz deftly layers elongations and dilations of tone into impressionist pools of reflective sound, flecked with his rasping buzz of tricked out digital noise and a couple of Philip Jeck style intrusions of antique turntable surface noise with a haunted melody struggling to peer outward. Fennesz further injects his aesthetic into that of Mahler's by reprising the guitar melody he penned on "Liminality" from his 2014 Becs album. This languid strum settles into the bed of electrical hums and soft-moss orchestral drones, though it is dramatic leap from the 19th century into the 21st from one Austrian legend to another." [Aquarius Rec] |
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| FENNESZ / DANIELL / BUCK |
Knoxville |
LP |
"Christian Fennesz, David Daniell and Tony Buck (The Necks) are three of the most recognized and respected players in experimental music from around the globe. In 2009 the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN brought the three together and encouraged them to collaborate at the festival. The aptly named Knoxville documents the results of that first collaboration. Recorded on February 7th, 2009, Fennesz (guitar and electronics), Daniell (guitar) and Buck (drums) channel their collective energies into a darkly atmospheric piece of music that ebbs and flows with remarkable cohesion. Minimalist drum passages scatter over the top of textured layers of guitar and subsumed melodic sequences, eventually giving way to warm beds of evolving, tactile drones. Sonic rain showers roll into full-blown thunderstorms of effected guitar and pounding drums only to yield a field of shattered electronic and percussive debris. The three retain a remarkable sense of unity for never having played together (aside from a brief soundcheck) while allowing plenty of room for each to express his individual personality." [label info]
www.thrilljockey.com
|
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
| FERRARI, LUC |
Photophonie (Bandes magnétiques inédites (1973 - 1992) |
LP |
In 2019, to mark the 90th anniversary of his birth, Transversales Disques is very glad to announce the release of « Photophonie » unpublished archives, spanning 1973-1992, revelatory collection of commercial, commission and secret music by electroacoustic music pioneer Luc Ferrari.
- « Photophonie » (1989) / Music for the photographic exhibition of Alain Willaume.
- « Il était une fois » (1973) / Commissioned by the G.M.E.B.
- « Trans-Voices » (1992) / Curated by the American Center, Paris.
- « Tu m'écoutes » - (1975).
« Affiliated with French Radio’s Groupe de Musique Concrète, co-founder of the GRM with Pierre Schaeffer in 1958 Luc Ferrari (1929-2005) major figure of musique concrète and electroacoustic music broke away to pave his own path of individualistic expressions of minimalist music, musical theatre, field recordings, orchestral music and soundtracks…»
https://transversales.bandcamp.com/album/photophonie
"Four staggering, previously unreleased Luc Ferrari works c.1973-1992 are cued up for the first time, marking what would have been the late, great electro-acoustic pioneer’s 90th birthday.
As co-founder of the GRM in 1958 with Pierre Schaeffer, and behind dozens of singular LPs during the 2nd half of the 20th century, Luc Ferrari (1929-2005) is by any measure one of the legends of musique electro-acoustique. As his treasured archive continues to turn out gems on the Recollection GRM series, Ferrari’s precious, poetic work now joins that of peers such as Bernard Parmegiani and François Bayle on Transversales Disques, the label run by GRM’s audio restoration engineer, Jonathan Fitoussi, with four pieces spanning psychedelic surrealism thru to a sort of late ‘80s sci-fi romance.
Known as the poet of the GRM and concrète disciplines, Ferrari’s exceptional recordings leant away from academic exercises to inventively express a synthesis of styles that simultaneously intersected minimalism, musical theatre, field recordings, orchestral music and soundtracks. The four pieces of ‘Photophonie’ beautifully and thrillingly speak to Ferrari’s grasp of the sonosphere and its omnipresent plurality with a deftness of arrangement and overarching vision that that sounds both of its era and also within its own parallel dream dimension.
Written for a photographic exhibition by Alain Willhaume, the opening, 25’ long first piece ‘Photophonie’ (1989) emerges like an MTV ident, and continues like some hypermodern deco-dance work, all fractured shrapnel and acres of negative space, but soon flows out into a remarkable tract of vast ambient space conveying the sensation of exploring an abandoned space station, only to find some whispering French and German characters surviving in its bowels. If weren’t told otherwise, this work could have easily been the modern day soundtrack to something like ‘Beyond the Black Rainbow.’
The other side scrolls back to 1973 with ‘Il état une fois’, a 17’ piece spanning field recordings thru to queasy drones and cartoonish honks which perhaps sounds more of its time, but then again recalls Rashad Becker’s music for notional species gone to an alien fairground, while an all too brief snippet of ‘Trans Voices’ (1992) gives way to a lather of sampled voices, choral drones and pulsating rhythm in ’Tu m’écoutes’ (1975) that holds among the darkest and proto-acidic/technoid works we’ve heard from Ferrari, at the least.
Whether you’re an expert or novice to Ferrari’s oeuvre, trust this one’s definitely worth your time." [Boomkat]
|
2019 |
€24.00 |
|
| FHIEVEL |
Vetri di carta |
CD-R |
Die S’AGITA CDR-Serie entwickelt sich zu einem feinen Überblick über den derzeitigen italienischen Experimental / Drone / field recording – Underground. Auch Nr. 15 beschert uns einen neuen Namen, hinter FHIEVEL steckt ein gewisser Luca Bergero, der sich in ganz minimal-magische Gefilde begibt. Aus dem Nichts tauchen seltsame Geräusche und kurze Drones auf, um wieder zu verschwinden, das alles gibt ein auf und ab von sanfter Atmosphäre... Nr. 15 in the S’AGITA-series, which developes to a great survey over the current italian experimental underground-scene... FHIEVEL creates minimal magic-area music, short strange noises and drones appear out of nothing and disappear, building a movement in a smooth atmosphere.., “sounds like silent elves gesturing inexplicably. lowercase psychedelia by luca bergero” [label description]
|
2003 |
€9.00 |
|
| FIBO-TRESPO |
Askel oikeaan suuntaan |
CD-R |
low-fi as low-fi can! Vergriffenes Vinyl (1997 & 98) des Inbegriffes oder absolutesten Steigerung des low-fi-drones aus Norwegen, auf dieser CDR versammelt... Im handgezwirbelten Tapetencover zu einem gar lächerlichen Preis.
“ Excellent droning lo-fi ambient improvisation - or nor-wave - from this highly acclaimed Norwegian duo. This CD-R features their sold out 10" and 7" lathe cuts and two extremely rare compilation tracks from a few years back.” [press release]
|
2002 |
€6.00 |
|
| FIEBIG, GERALD / BRUNO KLIEGL / EMERGE |
Hörbar in Farbe |
CD-R |
"Released to accompany a painting exhibition, this CD presents three ways of translating painting into music. Gerald Fiebig plays the colours as tones on a synthesizer and the shapes as gestures on the Kaoss Pad, Bruno Kliegl improvises on the glass harmonica, and EMERGE composes musique concrète from digitally processed noises of painting tools.
In February 2011, the exhibition „hörbar in Farbe“ („audible in colour“) by painters Linda Bennani, Claudia Guldenschuh, and Tine Klink presented abstract paintings inspired by music. The musical live events that accompanied the exhibition took their cue from this shared interest in music and presented different attempts of translating the pictures on display back into sound. This compilation CD was released to coincide with the opening and contains studio versions of the projects performed live during the exhibition. Gerald Fiebig plays the colour values of the three paintings depicted on the back cover of the CD; Bruno Kliegl is one of the few performers in Europe capable of playing the 18th century glass harmonica with its extremely atmospheric and hypnotic sound; EMERGE presents a very clear and transparent composition very different from his earlier work dominated by deep drones." [label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"Fiebig returns on the third disc, which is a three way compilation with Emerge and Bruno Kliegl. The title translates as 'audible in color'. Fiebig uses a synthesizer, Kliegl the glass harmonica and Emerge, ever the sample man, samples painting tools. Paintings by Linda Bennani, Claudia Guldenschuh and Tine Klink are used as 'scores' and were shown when the music was performed. Each player plays one painting. Fiebig has three pieces, the others one. Fiebig's synthesizer piece weren't that interesting, quite a noisy and messy rumble of sounds. Kliegl glass harmonium piece was very nice, almost with a mediaeval sound, mediaeval and meditative. Emerge is also very much on top of things here, with what I think is the best piece I heard from him. Very silent, with only sparse sound elements being played, which sound like footprints in snow: lots of white and the irregular shaping of the print at times. An excellent piece." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
| FIRST HUMAN FERRO |
Stardust |
CD |
"Dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the manned flight into space a Russian label Nitkie presents a new recording by a Ukrainian project First Human Ferro. "Stardust" is an ambient anthem tribute to the scientists, engineers and space pilots who contributed to the remarkable date. Their earthly dust is drifting like particles of god in the infinite space now, endlessly multiplying through the minds eye of the enthusiasts to come and carry the banner of scientific and technological revolution further. The album was recorded in 2004-2010 and featured by collaborations with Claustrum, Oda Relicta, and Louisa John-Krol. Designed by Marcin Lojek the release is limited to 500 copies in a digisleeve." [label info]
www.nitkie.ru
"Vor einiger Zeit hat OLEGH KOLYADA im NONPOP-Interview Bedenken geäußert, dass ihn sein Studium wohl zukünftig von musikalischen Aktivitäten abhalten würde. Dies scheint nicht der Fall zu sein, denn die Dichte an Veröffentlichungen, die auf den Ukrainer zurückgehen, hat eher noch zugenommen. Immerhin kümmert sich OLEGH mit seinem zweiten Hauptprojekt FIRST HUMAN FERRO nun schon zum zweiten Mal innerhalb kurzer Zeit um eines seiner Lieblingsthemen, den Weltraum. Erst vor wenigen Monaten erschien mit "Homo Shargey" (NONPOP-Besprechung) die Hommage an den ukrainischen Raumfahrtvordenker YURI KONDRATYUK, nun folgt mit "Stardust" eine allgemeine Reminiszenz an die bemannte Raumfahrt, die am 12. April 2011 ihren 50sten Jahrestag feierte; JURI GAGARIN umkreiste 1961 als erster Mensch in einem Raumschiff die Erde.
Von der Anlage her ist "Stardust" ähnlich wie "Homo Shargey": OLEGH hat Stücke zusammengestellt, an denen er schon seit einigen Jahren arbeitet und die klanglich gut zusammen passen. Die zehn neuen Tracks sind in den Jahren 2004 bis 2010 entstanden, und wie auch auf dem Vorgänger merkt man dem Album diese Zeitspanne nicht an, es klingt wie aus einem Guss. Neu sind dagegen die Gäste: OLEGH KOLYADA war ja schon immer ein Bastler, hat mit seinem anderen Großprojekt ODA RELICTA mehrfach bewiesen, wie er ganz unterschiedliche Puzzleteile zusammenfügen kann. Diese Eigenschaft schlägt nun auch bei FIRST HUMAN FERRO durch, denn "Stardust" ist eine wohldosierte Mischung aus Dark Ambient, majestätisch-sakralen Klängen und einigen weiteren Einflüssen von CLAUSTRUM und LOUISA JOHN-KROL, die – neben dem eigenen Projekt ODA RELICTA – auf dem Cover genannt werden. Mit dem Dark Ambient-Projekt CLAUSTRUM aus Lettland ist es nicht die erste Zusammenarbeit, wohl aber mit der australischen Folk Pop-Nymphe LOUISA JOHN-KROL, die das hier schon häufiger besprochene PRIKOSNOVÉNIE-Programm ziert.
Mit den ersten Tönen fängt die Reise an, alles klingt und riecht nach kühlen, fremden Welten und Sternenstaub. Flirrende Synthieklänge werden ab und an unterbrochen von Morsezeichen, später setzen auch bedrohlichere Klänge ein, dröhnend navigiert das Sonar durch unbekannte Sonnensysteme. Überraschend, aber nicht unpassend sind die sich langsam einschleichenden, klassischen Klänge, militärische Bläserfanfaren wie aus einem Filmsoundtrack mit Verweis auf das erste (Marsch)Album von ODA RELICTA (NONPOP-Besprechung). Die Stimmung wechselt im weiteren Verlauf, hinter bedrohlichen Drones lauert ein Knistern und Kratzen, der eingespielte Funkverkehr eines Weltraumspaziergangs mit dem Klassiker "one small step for man" klingt wie ein Original, und die zahlreichen Geräusche symbolisieren perfekt die Zerbrechlichkeit und Gefährlichkeit des Unterfangens.
Über klassischen, höhligen und grollenden Dark Ambient arbeitet sich OLEGH in geheimnisvollere Gefilde vor, russischer Funkverkehr kratzt zwischen militärischen Trommeln und weichen, gleitenden Drones, dann dringt "Stardust" endgültig in die unendlichen Weiten vor. Einzelne Signale verschwinden im All, hinterlassen trommelnde Schallwellen. Eines der beeindruckendsten Stücke des Albums ist "Spectra Of Sferics" (08), Weltraumgefühl mit wenigen Mitteln: nur ein leises Knistern, dazu fremde, schöne und schwerelose Töne. Die Feenstimme macht "Of Earth Pristine" (09) zum ätherischsten Stück auf "Stardust"; wenige Keyboarddrones, auf die die Stimme von LOUISA JOHN-KROL vor sich hinsummt. Erinnert ein wenig an JACK OR JIVE. Das eindeutig ergreifendste Stück ist das letzte und längste, "Stars Scattered Pain" (10) zusammen mit CLAUSTRUM. Wunderschön und glänzend wird der Moment im Spacefilm vertont, an dem in der Einsamkeit ein Planet sichtbar wird und die Crew ahnt, dass sie doch nicht den Kältetod sterben muss. Eine langsame und majestätische Melodie, viele Klänge und Geräusche dazugepackt, wie ein 'Best Of' des ganzen Albums.
OLEGH kann es halt, so einfach ist das. Seine All-Epen verkörpern immer die richtige Mischung aus Erhabenheit, Melancholie und düsteren Gedanken. "Stardust" sticht dabei noch einmal besonders hervor, weil zusätzliche Elemente beigemischt wurden, die einzelnen Songs – vor allem den drei letzten – ein besonderes Gesicht geben. Feines Album!" [Michael We. für nonpop.de]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| FIRST LAW |
Terrorforming |
CD |
"The 6th full-length album of FIRST LAW is setting real moments of artificial and creative substance. Intermittent bass and percussive elements as well as thrilling sound structures arrange a wide aural spectrum from ambient to drones through analogue modulations to complex compositions with outstanding vocals on top. Conceptually don't get it wrong, this album is not about religious airheads getting their way. This is not about the threat terrorist attacks impose on any of us, nor has it the intention to proliferate violence as a viable way to change the status quo. At the least, as long your opinion stands against the opinion of the majority, you are pretty much out of luck. No, this album is about leverage; it is about deception and opportunity, by accident or by design; it is about resignation and self-delusion; but most of all, this album is about fear." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC |
Six acts of Saprofields |
CD-R |
Pure field recordings from this russian act, the solo-project of one EXIST IN GREY-member, lots of wind & water & animal-sounds of all kinds, somehow mixed with soft electronic drones (we think), very intimate & near, a pleasure for all field-recording lovers !
Comes in a beautiful full-colour & handmade cardboard cover.
"Five Elements Music is a conceprual project of Sergey [S] (Exit In Grey, Sister Loolomie), based on using natural sounds. Drone ambient with lots of field recordings: earth, water, sand, fire, salt..." [web info]
|
2006 |
€9.50 |
|
|
VarunaGhat |
CD-R |
"To the food industry, water is increasingly turning into a lifestyle product. For Russian artist Sergey, it is source of great purity which should be treated thoughtfully and with respect. On “Nameless Droplet”, his recently released and already all but sold-out Mystery Sea debut with his main project Exit in Grey, the metaphors were still covered by dark clouds and hidden in musical metaphors. The album represented a shoreless sea slowly being sucked down a vast and increasingly vociferous vortex. Under his “Five Elements Music” disguise, however, the metaphors are facing themselves in a Kirlian mirror, their souls exposed and their true nature revealed.
Samples of various water recordings, therefore, are at the heart of “VarunaGhat”. For an artist who holds the traditional drone ethos even higher in his solo work than in his collaborational activities (which, on “Nameless Droplet” allowed for diversifications such as sombre guitar figures), this can hardly come as a surprise.
With its complexly vivid inner pulsation and a constant outward frequency, after all, the sound of water is essentially a drone itself and compliments the suspended harmonies of the genre perfectly. On the other hand, Sergey is not content travelling to the same places others have already visited. Just like Exit in Grey caused minor erruptions by fluently shaping their intangible compositions into very concrete textures, Five Elements Music finds a niche between a traditional and a progressive use of its field recordings.
Rhythm especially plays a vital role in this concept. There is a very simple logic behind this thought, as water in itself is silent and only becomes audible through movement. Whether it isparkles from a fountain, rushes through a ravine, gallops like fugitive horses or murmurs peacefully, Sergey concentrates on its pulse as well as its irregular gravitational centre. He doesn’t need all too many exterior extrapolations to achieve this effect and instead choses to leave most of the natural emmissions intact. His work lies rather in developping the samples through timbre and by allowing different sources to overlap and form new patterns.
Simultaneously, he contrasts these waterscapes with the expansions of his drones. The vast, twentytwo minute long opening track takes this to extremes, as a single recording is awarded emotions ranging from aggression to tranquil zeal, while the sky is increasingly covered by black cumuli and distant lightning flashes.
On the second untitled track, a sinus tone is softly stretched, forming a tender, wooly surface. Here, the basic technique is most apparent, as organic and surgically dissected material are brought together, while immobile frequencies clash with the underlying stillness.
One has to see this as a decided step against the arbitrary use of water in electronic music. Many recent releases have both shown the great effect it can still have, as well as the danger of ending up a cliche. On “VarunaGhat”, no drop of water is carelessly spilt. It relies on the beauty of its path through nature, yet changes its course whenever this offers a chance for creating new sensations. You need to listen closely to this album to actually become aware of this seemingly insignificant but really quite important shift. If you do, however, there are great rewards lurking underneath its surface." [ By Tobias Fischer / Tokafi ]
"Russian project Five Elements Music is a shoot coming from exit in grey's rich compost of sound experiments, and also Sergey's solo highly organic vehicle... the name comes from a vedic concept of "Five Elements" (ETHER, Air, Fire, Water, Earth) needed to have a global approach of reality, one that goes beyond appearances, words and consciousness for an enhanced experience of Life both on an emotional, physical & spiritual level... ETHER is the central element of this bouquet, holding all forms & colors, and the human body is the perceptual tool...
Five Elements Music paints a sound canvas, trying to reach a sort of supra-awareness through the manipulation of chosen sensible sonic fragments coming from some essential elemental sources...
-
On "VarunaGhat" we share a common mystery
with a pool of trembling water,
being both in a dormant state,
waiting to bloom while listening to its nocturnal flow...
an imperturbable stream
in phase with the world
we speak as a river,
our voices among stones, singing into the liquid
like a choral of fluctuating micro-energies...
In all those elements lies a detailed universe
Drink its traces, slip into its convolutions, sense its immanent drift
till your awakening..." [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Kapotte Muziek by... |
CD-R |
A re-working of a KAPOTTE MUZIEK concert that happened on May 26, 2008, in St. Petersburg. Though we are not sure how the original recording sounded, this is a fine example of FEMs ability to create ghostly drones with additives of more concrete & metallic elements, probably of KAPOTTE MUZIEK origin. Playtime around 35 minutes, one-tracker, on the label of dutch soundmaker ORPHAX !
"Only a few week's back the album titled "The black and white album" by the project Zebra was reviewed in Vital Weekly (#649). Behind the project was Roel Meelkop and Frans De Waard. The album was a very crossover-based experience with a nice balance between catchy expressions and avantgarde electronics. Present CD find the the two sound explorers back in one of their legendary projects. Kapotte Muziek was established back in 1984. Since then, the trio consisting of Roel Meelkop and Frans De Waard together with Peter Duimelinks has specialized in electroacoustic music. Present CDR is a recording from a live show in St. Petersburg in May 26th 2008. It is one lengthy piece of electroacoustic music combining field recordings with processed and manipulated found sounds and its recycled/remixed by [s], the man behind Five Elements Music, also from Russia. Despite its starting point in found sounds the expression is quite often alienated and otherworldly, with buzzing drones and crackling noises resulting in an intriguing hypnotic piece of sound art. Five Elements Music manage to create soundscapes that function both as "music" and "abstract sound art". Thus the album will appeal to a wide range of listeners from ambient listeners across Noise-heads to listeners of conceptual sound art thanks to the atmospheric drones offered on this album." [NM, Vital Weekly]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Isolation and Echoscopy |
CD-R |
Echte "human drones" gibt es auf diesem feinen Release von FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC zu hören - alle Klänge stammen von Originalaufnahmen des menschlichen Körpers ab, die weiter bearbeitet wurden. Anders als bei z.B. DANIEL MENCHE ensteht hier kein Noise, sondern pulsierende (Herzschlag?-) Dronescapes, die mit fein granulierten Mikrosounds versehen sind, dann aber auch mit unheimlichem Vokalmaterial und blubbernden, schmatzenden Sounds..
z.T. ist nicht mehr erkennbar, welche Körperteile oder Organe hier tätig waren, aber ein organisches Fluidum ist immer präsent. Faszinierend!
"One more exploration of elements by FEM this time is based on prepared sounds produced by human body. All kinds of crunches, gurglings and wheezes are plaited in sophisticated sound tracery with FEM's trademark sound. An interesting phisiological experiment - listen to what your body can make in the hands of the artist." [label info]
www.myspace.com/fiveelementsmusic
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Nexus |
CD-R |
"Electroacoustic ambient made from field recordings. The album consists of two long tracks. The first one, unlike many F.E.M. recordings, has dense and saturated sounding. The second one is more smooth and calm in atmosphere, but not less in density of sound - several sonic layers collide and create multifarious wave pattern drawing inside like a swirl in which you can notice every tiny detail while drowning..." [label info]
"Nexus is an earlier album from the ever prolific [S], the same Russian sound artist who recently blew our minds with his zombified tape smoldering noise under the name Radioson, and continues to work with the drone based projects Five Elements Music and Exit In Grey. While there clearly a difference from the operations of [S] as Radioson, the boundaries between Five Elements Music and Exit In Grey are far more porous. Environmental recordings, found object manipulation, and electronics are all common within these two bodies of work, accreting into hypnogogic drones and pools of deep ambience. Nexus dates back to 2008, but is one that we've not had the pleasure to delve into until now; and it like so much of the work by [S], is a gem. Here we have an almost literal transubstantiation of five elements (presumably earth, water, fire, air, and ether) into sound itself. There's an incredibly rich tactility that ebbs and flows throughout these two longform pieces, which seamlessly melds brittle fracturings of ice, infernal rumblings of burning embers, and murky clumps of sodden earth. Out of these textures, resonant and mesmerizing drones emerge. While not quite as intense as Small Cruel Party, Nexus easily parallels the luminous, environmental soundscaping of early BJ Nilsen, Jonathan Coleclough, and John Grzinich. Hard to say how many of these cd-rs are left in the world. Our guess, probably not many." [Aquarius Rec] |
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
CTOK |
CD-R |
"The album with Russian title "Stock" ("drainage") contains two tracks with soundscapes, based on the sounds of water. Unhurried laminating clear and processed field recordings create comfortable atmosphere, filled with drawling drones and resonances, and great number of small details (hissing sand, rivulets, stones and other artificially amplified natural sounds) carry away listener's attention, leaving him in a numb contemplation of the tangled sound flow." [label info]
http://www.ss.semperflorens.net/index.php/ss-line
|
2008 |
€9.00 |
|
| FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC / JIM HAYNES / ANDREA MARUTTI |
Tri-Ton |
CD |
"Three drone-centric artists from three different parts of the world... Five Elements Music is a Russian isolationist / ambient project spawned by one of the members of the similarly minded Exit In Grey; Andrea Marutti is an Italian dark ambient practitioner with a number of occultish recordings under the moniker Amon; and Jim Haynes is a Bay Area artist who "rusts things" and also happens to work here at aQuarius. Both Marutti's and Haynes' compositions are responses to the piece made by Five Elements Music. A massive tectonic rumble emerges from the onset of the Russian track, as if the resonant echo from a meteor striking the heart of Siberia were captured through the felling of a million trees. Out of these frequencies, Five Elements Music evolves this sound into a growling dissonance more dialed into those rasping drones that Oren Ambarchi or Birchville Cat Motel might broadcast from time to time. Over the 23 minutes, this track becomes steadily more placid and inviting, eschewing the desolate horror at the beginning for something beautifully introspective. Marutti builds from the bleak horror where Five Elements Music began, producing cavernous hues of black and grey on amorphous clouds of mist and fog. Marutti's work parallels those blackened static movements of Yen Pox and Inade. For Haynes' part, the theatrical cloak and dagger of Thomas Koner's isolationism comes to mind in his response to the Five Elements Music track, albeit constructed from his distressed textures and fluttering shortwave radio manipulation. Easily the most dynamic piece of this triptych, Haynes deftly transitions pools of nocturnal drones into snarling crescendos of volatile motors, turbines, and Kevin Drumm-esque guitar dissonance which morph into an evocative movement of super-slow-motion heartbeat rhythm and radio frequencies detuned into sweeping, ghostly sinewaves, captured from within one of those WWII era bunkers that dot the California coast. Haynes presented a version of this at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in a collaborative, expanded cinema piece involving a massive diorama, lots of old scientific gear, a couple of surveillance cameras, and a toy train. Alas, there's little video documentation of that performance, but the audio here works amazingly well on its own." [label info]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| FIVE THOUSAND SPIRITS |
Schwarzschild Radius |
CD |
Nach "Quantum Consciousness" Teil 2 der Serie "Prepare to have your reality shattered", ein "kosmisch"-ambientes Klangefüge mit gleichen Anteilen von Elektronik und field recordings oder instrumental-handgemachten Sounds.... feine illumination-drones vom ALIO DIE-Seitenprojekt. 6 tracks, 54+ Minuten.
"The return by FIVE THOUSAND SPIRITS 'Schwarzschild Radius' CD, second part of a series, it is an unbroken journey of great intensity that Raffaele Serra ed Alio Die have characterized with an electronic refine touch and a flood vitality, always at the threshold of a mystery's whirlpool, an electronic mantra that in these lands have already given some kind of dependance. Great second chapter after the great 'Quantum Consciousness'. Out on Sempiterna Mutatio/Hic Sunt Leones. SM 009 CD" [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| FLORES, RAFAEL |
Nubes, Cometas, Rumores y Orugas: selected works 1994-2004 |
CD |
Einer der ganz aktiven frühen Industrial-“Cassettentäter” aus den 80ern war RAFAEL FLORES, der unter dem Namen COMANDO BRUNO arbeitete. Das Moskauer Label MONOCHROME VISION hat nun neueres Material zusammengetragen, welches nur in mini-CDR-Auflagen erhältlich war. FLORES Musik besticht durch die Verwendung mechanischer loops & „industrieller“ Geräusche, metallischer Drones & merkwürdiger verzerrter elektronischer Strukturen.....alles sehr hypnotisch, minimal & repetitiv, und manchmal recht abgründig....
das ist der 80er Jahre Noise-Minimalismus, wie man ihn von M.B., S-CORE oder TAM QUAM TABULA RASA geschätzt hat...
“First official CD album of Rafael Flores who hails from the depth of spanish noise underground scene, known for his early works released under Comando Bruno moniker. This compilation presents the latest decade of his sound experimentation, and shows quite diverse sides of his creative efforts, which ranges from collaged field recordings to noise ambient loops, from rhythmic structures to hypnotic electronic passages.“ [label info]
“....Rafael Flores first came to my attention in 1984 or 1985 when he worked as Comando Bruno, and was featured on many cassette compilations around the world. I even released a cassette of his, I think in 1986. Despite me xeroxing the cover, it had all sorts of stamps made by Comando Bruno, as he was also heavily into mailart. But my contact with Flores was rather small, and in the later half of the eighties we were no longer in contact and when people started to release LPs and CDs, he seemed to have disappeared. His cassette was re-issued on CDR (and sold really few copies, not that I was surprised), and suddenly Flores knocked on my door asking for a few copies. Since then we are not in contact, but it's good to know he's back. From the lost years, 1994-2004 he now releases a CD - his first in twenty-five years. It's great to hear this music without the hiss and static of a cassette. Flores plays industrial music, but one that strictly along the 'old' rules. He takes he sounds from rather primitive sources (such as the radio depicted on the cover), feeding them through electronics, chopping them into small rhythm particles (such as in 'Boucher 2' which sounds alike Esplendor Geometrico), but never the material dissolves into a mass of noise sound. Crisp clear, layers of electronic sounds, processed field recordings (in 'Para'), this is music that reminded me of the late eighties Asmus Tietchens. Forceful, yet intelligent industrial music. A major step forward and hopefully much more to come.” [Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| FLUTWACHT |
Blut Lounge Vol. 2 |
CD-R |
Pounding rhythms, metal-sounds, vocals bathed in delays, power-drones & loops... raw & powerful & fresh Industrial-release on this new label from Romania, reminds on GENOCIDE ORGAN for example, but FLUTWACHT speaks clearly with an own voice...
”76 minutes of power electronics/harsh noise with distorted vocals and dark ambiental touches from the wellknown german projekt. Brilliant sound, one of the best Flutwacht release. CD-r in DVD case with pro-cover, limited to 100 copies.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
Chain |
CD |
"A brilliant and pure industrial album by this German noise artist. Perfect sequencing and programming with a lot of analogue equipment. From dark drones to pure early Esplendor Geometrico-like rhythm-noise tracks; with fine voices and samples." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| FLYING SAUCER ATTACK |
Further |
CD |
„F.S.A. gelten schon seit Jahren als die Vorzeige Drone-Rocker, die feedbackende Hallwände mit psychedelischen Strukturen zu verbinden wissen... Dieses Album erschien 1994 und vereint zarte Akustik-Gitarren & Gesang mit himmelwärts strebenden sphärischen Gitarrenwänden, was sich mitunter in noisigere Gefilde steigert..
Old Album of the guitar-drone-rock-band from England, who create very sensible, emotional, at times noisy guitar-drones. Gatefold cover.” [old Drone Rec. info]
"Wish pulses and wish structure. Make the time to take the time to get stoned on reality." [label info]
www.dragcity.com |
1995 |
€14.50 |
|
| FOETUSDREAMS |
Brouillard |
CD-R |
"Winter-Light is extremely proud and happy to announce its very first release on the Winter-Light label by the Dutch dark ambient producer, FoetusDreams. "Brouillard" is the first full length dark ambient album produced by FoetusDreams, who has previously contributed music to compilations.
From start to finish "Brouillard" is a real ambient journey; sometimes an introspective one, sometimes a glance from the inside looking out and far beyond the reach of the human eye. The tracks are beautifully sculpted pieces of ambient excellence and from the opening moments of the first you are transported into the world of "FoetusDreams". Rich drones resonate across starkly crafted, ice-cold landscapes where your only companions are the sounds that flow around you. Vibrant musical layers, occasionally punctuated with a clever use of samples, draw the listener ever further away from reality towards a deeper, more meaningful sense of self. You could easily be standing on the edge of the universe looking out, or traversing the caverns of your own mind in a search for that place of inner peace. The title track "Brouillard" is a master class in drone ambient with its ever present trance inducing hum that lowers a mist over the eyes and takes you to a very dark place indeed.
If you are looking to go on a journey then it begins right here. The tracks have been mastered by Frederic Arbour from Cyclic Law.
"There is only one God and that God is man himself."
1. Way Of Be
2. Abandoned Planet
3. Winter Light
4. Cavern
5. Travel Within
6. Slowly Approaching A Dead Star
7. Brouillard
8. Interference
9. Molecular Cloud
10. Endless Horizon
Professionally manufactured CD-r comes in a beautifully produced 6-panel digipack. 10 tracks, total running time 62:51. Edition is limited to 150 copies." [label info]
www.winter-light.nl
"The dutch label Winter Light comes out with its first full-length release, composed by the Dutch project Foetusdreams. Beginning with the first song, ‘Way Of Be’, we are given a hint to what this opus stands for: sacral, atheistic dark ambient, as suggested by the recitation ‘There is only one God and that God is man himself”, repeated on the droning fluid of a choral-tinged musical line.
‘Abandoned Planet’ is a cinematic picture of an irremediable future, a play on indefinite and elusive notes, as if covered by the very dust that will whip out everything we now observe in such a careful manner. This same absence of light that the music suggests here will immerse into darkness those who once were saints and murderers alike…
‘Winter Light’ contains even more grave accents and sullen notes, a saturnine sense of despondency, as if this light, diffused somewhere in the distance, could be the only real thing between the worthless earth and a sky that simply does not exist. And those piano chords, so naive and worldly, are written like an irrelevant epitaph on the tombstone that spares you from another daylight.
From here, a place of eternal farewell, the piece ‘Cavern’ ressembles an invitation to a voluptuous meeting within the caves of the earth and what, by an anatomical reading, should represent traces of the earth’s disease; holes and gangrenas in its crust come now to be the only place still safe and pure. In parallel, the following track, ‘Travel Within’, moves more fluidly: blood here and there, coagulated and bubbling, in response to a personal prophilaxy directed to the external world. This return to the womb imprints a suggestive movement to the music’s metabolism and therefore the drones are let loose to encircle the mind in a hypnotic and quite perverse attitude.
Someone said that the dream is the music of the soul. ‘Slowly Approaching A Dead Star’ corresponds to such a dreaming of the impossible. A song built on a catatonic development of dazzling cosmic drones. Out of this dream, from which one should never wake up if they want the dream to really materialize, we are taken to the next song, ‘Brouillard’. Here the sculpture is different, adopting a more industrial style. The pulsating drones reside on flashes of undertones and the musical line is completed by an Amerindian poem interrupted at intervals by a French nihilistic monologue. It should be the album’s pièce de résistance, because it’s simply sublime in its cynical shrewdness of the text, maintained along with that gloomy Dalinian melody, a pure postmodern folk song.
I have avoided giving references, but ‘Interference’ reminded me so much of one of the liturgies from MZ 412’s ‘Infernal Affairs’. The crushing feeling of religiousness and demonic energy, which actually translates in meta-nihilism, pervades this song all along. At the hearing of the escalating drones, the great spaces of hollow matter receive a new personality. On ‘Molecular Cloud’ the Dutch artist seems to paint his drones on the very air around him with gentle brushes, in tones of grey that no soon are dried up, remain imprinted solely on the listener’s mind.
The massive 63-minute long album closes with ‘Endless Horizons’. This journey between vivid drone sculptures has been a passage between the world as one sees it and the world as one feels it, a walk through this multifaceted corridor that we can take only in dreams, or music, or mist." [Santa Sangre] |
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| FOSSIL AEROSOL MINING PROJECT [FAMP] |
The Unlistening Place |
CD |
"Fossil Aerosol Mining Project are an enigmatic lot, comprised of sonic archeologists residing the American Midwest. Their work spans several decades and is almost always in flux through the variable states of contextual re-investigation and technological degradation. Aesthetically, FAMP align with the post-industrial research of :zoviet*france:, Cranioclast and Robert Turman. Bacteria damaged tape loops, ghostly time-lag accumulation and the excavation of mediated sound from suburbia’s failures are key components to the Fossil Aerosol’s working process.
The core tracks of The Unlistening Place were recorded in 2015, and at the time were intended to be part of what was to be the final Fossil Aerosol album, scheduled for a distant release. But history circled back on itself, and the result was a reworking of future tracks, alongside more new material. Historiography eating its own tail." [label info]
"Fossil Aerosol Mining Project are an American experimental music legend. They’ve been making and releasing music and soundart since before I was even conceived, so to have my hands on their brand new release is quite the occasion—especially considering the fact that, at some point, the project was meant to be put to an end after over two decades of existence. According to the liner notes for The Unlistening Place, some of the music on it may have actually been a part of this goodbye material, which was recorded to celebrate the demise of the project.
And if you can name a better label than the Helen Scarsdale Agency for a style of music created from various sources of damaged media, decaying film and long-forgotten tape, and coming from a project anticipating its termination, well… I’ll help you: You can’t.
The Unlistening Place is an emotional and musical rollercoaster. The sound is warm, textural, and obscure. Fossil Aerosol Mining Project don’t appear to enjoy staying in the same space musically. Each and every song is like a separate realm, a separate artifact, and I guess this is due to the different source material which was (ab)used for the different tracks. The Unlistening Place can sometimes be dreamy (‘Traditional String Invocation’, ‘Silent Time’, ‘Traditional Referent’) or mechanic (‘Tar Prodigy 2’); however, it mostly gravitates toward building sparse soundscapes (‘The Unlistening Place 1’, as well as its second and third chapters) with their rumbling subs, analog decomposition, and waves of transparent drones.
The tape sometimes feels like a sonic cage for all of the sounds it was able to capture. It’s like a prison or a collection of dead and long-forgotten living beings whose voices you’re not really sure if you’re actually hearing or if they exist only in your head. Due to its obscurity, The Unlistening Place sometimes reminds me of a lighter and more friendlier version of People-eaters and their mixtapes on Aetheric Records. With The Unlistening Place, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project creates realms which exist to oppress and exhibit everything we’re often blind to or tend to just leave behind. Luckily, we have humans who are still keen on unearthing such artifacts, thus transforming them into other ones so we learn to chew for a bit longer before shoving another piece of what’s new and hot in our consumerist mouths. |
2017 |
€14.50 |
|
| FOVEA HEX |
Here is where we used to sing |
CD |
"Fovea Hex are one of the mostintriguing phenomena in contemporary music. Despite the seemingly wilful nonchalance that has kept them under the radar so far (only 3 ep releases in 5 years, a mere fistful of appearances in France, Spain, Italy and Ireland, and their preference for elliptical, minimal design) the group have nevertheless developed an enviable cult status both in Europe and the United States, have performed at the personal invitation of David Lynch in the gardens of the Cartier Foundation in Paris and have attracted the free and willing participation of a genre and generation hopping rollcall of A-list luminaries including Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Carter Burwell, Donal Lunny, and Steven Wilson, as well as a who's
who of the electronic avant-garde including Roger Doyle, the Hafler Trio, Colin Potter and Michael Begg. Clodagh Simonds, the group's reclusive leader (if they can be called a
group, and indeed, if she can be called a leader) has recently emerged to announce the eagerlyanticipated first full-length album from Fovea Hex, Here Is Where We Used To Sing, which will be released on CD and digital formats on April 18th 2011. The album comrises 8 beautifully crafted songs and 3 short instrumentals that build on the fusion of formal composition, cutting edge ambient sound
art, incomparable song writing skill, and Simonds's emotionally rich and evocative vocals ("A voice that one could happily drown in for hours" remarked Pitchfork) that made their ep trilogy, Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent, so extraordinary. These "songs that don't go where you think" are immediately seductive, inhabiting a curiously elusive, many-layered
otherworld. They manage to sound both powerful and delicate, sophisticated and elemental, resonating with an understated emotional intensity so rare these days that it comes slightly as a shock. The balancing act is fragile, and nothing is quite what it seems, yet the group themselves are unlikely to
explain their methods or reasons. That task falls to fans and friends such as Matmos's Drew Daniels: "The starlit nocturnes of Fovea Hex bind electronics, drones and voices into song spells. Their intimacy and raw emotional power feel centuries old, but the experimental sound design can be shockingly modern. There is an intense focus to this music ¬ no clutter, no
cliches ¬ which is both ravishing and rare"
Simonds has gathered about her a now familiar troupe of collaborators for this album. A core ensemble of Simonds (vocals, keyboards, harmonium, psaltery, lyre, kalimba), Laura Sheeran (vocals, saw), Cora Venus Lunny
(violin, viola), Michael Begg (electronics, keyboards) and Colin Potter (electronics) are variously joined, replaced, augmented and superimposed by visitations from Brian Eno, Julia Kent (of Antony and the Johnsons), John
Contreras, Kate Ellis, members of Italy's Larsen, and, in keeping with the mystery that seems to veil the heart of the enterprise, further "friends who would prefer to remain nameless." True to their oblique nature, they even manage to credit an abstract contribution to the 10,000 year project; The Long Now Foundation (http://longnow.org/) "Three Beams", a limited edition bonus disk of 3 extended remixes allows full and free rein to the palette of ambient / experimental electronica at Fovea Hex's disposal. Works by Colin
Potter, Michael Begg and William Basinski perfectly counterpoint the highly crafted songs on the album with generously proportioned and sonically mesmerizing soundscapes.
One has to wonder how Simonds really feels now that the appearance of this singular album seems likely to tear apart forever the fabric of anonymity in which this extraordinary ensemble has until now been concealed." [label info]
"Certainly a project covered in mystery, Fovea Hex. In the last five years, they released three CD-EPs, all on Die Stadt, all with bonus remix CDs. A mystery in as far that we obviously know who is behind it. Clodagh Simonds is the 'leader' of the pack. She sings, plays piano, harmonium, keyboards, kalimba and lyre. Around her she has gathered a whole bunch of musicians, such as Michael Begg, Kate Ellis, Cora Venus Lunny, Brian Eno and Colin Potter. They add such instruments as cello, violin, treated bells, sonics and starry keyboards. If you thought that Fovea Hex would have moved on after their last EP, you're wrong. They still operate in that very same field of ambient music and folk tunes. The voice of Simonds is as heavenly as before and the music as sparse and to the point as before. Very fragile music, maybe even a pathetic (although I like to stress I hardly mean this in a negative way), highly emotional. Even without paying attention to the lyrics, one can easily feel the high
emotional level which is used here. I can imagine that playing this music when depressed is not going to help to lift that depression. Or perhaps it does. Very sad and yet very beautiful music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
|
The Salt Garden III |
10inch + CD |
Janet Records, in association with Headphone Dust and Die Stadt present
Fovea Hex The Salt Garden III
Cat No HDFH1034 (vinyl) / HDFHCD32 (CD)
(Bonus CD Cat. No: HDFHCD33)
Shipping Date - 26/11/2019
Ltd Edition - 10" vinyl + CD + bonus remix CD
Standard Editions - 10" vinyl + CD / CD / DL
"The starlit nocturnes of Fovea Hex bind electronics, drones and voices into song-spells that are untimely in the best possible sense; their intimacy and raw emotional power feel centuries old, but the experimental sound-design can be shockingly modern." Drew Daniels (Matmos)
The new EP from Fovea Hex THE SALT GARDEN 3 will be released on November 26th 2019 on Steven Wilson's Headphone Dust label.
The Salt Garden 3 is the final word, and the concluding instalment to the critically lauded The Salt Garden Trilogy. Issued in 3 standard editions; 10 inch vinyl + CD, CD only, and Digital Download. There will also be a limited edition release featuring a bonus remix CD by Steven Wilson. The pre-sale for this limited edition, featuring 4 remixes by Steven, presented in individual and combination treatments, will only be available online via Janet Records.
The core ensemble of Clodagh Simonds, Michael Begg, Colin Potter, Cora Venus Lunny and Kate Ellis is joined by special guests Guido Zen, and the Medazza and Dote Moss choirs.
Critical Reaction to The Salt Garden 1 and 2
5 Against 4 (UK)
"Whenever Irish experimental electronic folk group Fovea Hex put out something new, it's not just a cause to rejoice but a guarantee of something unique and indescribably wonderful..."
The Wire (UK)
"...fragile baroque instruments and synthy atmospheres surround Simonds's singing and songwriting, both on better and less predictable form than ever... A Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom for the 21st Century: emotionally deepens with extra listens"
Brainwashed (US)
(Readers Poll Winner: Single of the Year, 2016 for Salt Garden 1)
"Another beautiful piece in a flawless catalog..."
Igloo (US)
"The superlatives left to describe this unique chamber ensemble are fast running out..."
Dusted (US)
"... a blending of acoustic and electronic that attains a kind of smooth, vatic timelessness. Every element feels precisely placed and oddly haunting... Spellbinding".
Subjectivisten (NL)
"...an almost indefinable sound...the music is a hybrid of (dark) ambient, experimental music, neoclassical and ethereal folk and yet no label feels completely comfortable. . It is of an unearthly beauty!"
Touching Extremes (IT)
"no actual comparison is conceivable - sonic poetry"
Gonzo Circus (NL)
"if you like unique sirens like Nico, Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil, you will also unconditionally embrace Fovea Hex."
Fovea Hex Background
Having first emerged at the tender age of 15 as the main writer behind 70s cult Irish psych-folk band Mellow Candle, and with sessions for both Thin Lizzy and Mike Oldfield under her belt by the age of 21, Irish singer Clodagh Simonds relocated to New York and subsequently "went quiet" for almost two decades, before re- emerging in 2005 with Fovea Hex, supported by an extraordinary assembly of friends and colleagues, including Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Carter Burwell, Donal Lunny, Roger Doyle, and Steven Wilson. Their first trilogy of eps, NEITHER SPEAK NOR REMAIN SILENT, was, upon its release, greeted by a growing momentum of critical acclaim. Their nascent cult reputation was further affirmed by a personal invitation from David Lynch to perform live in Paris at the Cartier Foundation in Paris as part of his THE AIR IS ON FIRE exhibition.
In 2008 a full length album, HERE IS WHERE WE USED TO SING, was released, to yet more glowing reviews. The album made several end-of-year lists and was awarded album of the year in periodicals in the UK, North America and Italy.
THE SALT GARDEN 1 was released in 2016 and THE SALT GARDEN 2 in 2017, consolidating and deepening the high esteem and critical regard in which this most beguiling of ensembles continues to be held.
The frequently claimed "impossible to categorise" tag applies well to Fovea Hex. The songs are dominated by a voice that's too strong to be deigned ethereal, but remains too otherworldly to file alongside more conventional female singer-songwriters. The pace tends to be languid, the arrangements intricate and fragile. Comparisons have been made to This Mortal Coil, Emily Dickinson, Nico, Dead Can Dance, and even Schubert, but really this music is quite unique, a mix of electronic and acoustic sounds from a palette which ranges from state-of-art to ancient and arcane.
"If Emily Dickinson had ever been allowed to make a record, this is probably what it would have sounded like" (The Wire)
janetrecords.com/SG3/press-release.html
"2019 findet die “The Salt Garden”-Trilogie mehr als zwei Jahre nach Veröffentlichung des zweiten Teils ihren Abschluss. Das Projekt von Clodagh Simonds – die (u.a. mit Mellow Candle) schon in den 60er Jahren Musik machte – kehrt mit „The Salt Garden“ wieder zur kleine(re)n Form der EPs zurück, mit der Fovea Hex in der zweiten Hälfte der 00er Jahre debütierte. Erneut beeindruckend ist die Konsistenz und Kohärenz dieser drei EPs.
Anlässlich des ersten Teils der Trilogie wurde Fovea Hex hier attestiert: “[Die] Musik, die Begriffe wie Ambient, Folk oder experimentelle Musik überflüssig erscheinen lässt, ist erdverhaftet und zugleich entrückt, ist ebenso traumwandlerisch wie meditativ. Die meisten der getragenen Stücke haben starke Songqualitäten und sind doch von der verschwimmenden Struktur abstrakter Kompositionen. Und was in dieser Musik emotional passiert, lässt sich besser empfinden als rational erfassen.” Über das 2011 erschienene Langzeitdebüt “Here Is Where We Used To Sing” schrieben wir: „[T]rotz aller hypnagogischen, traumhaften Momente [...] verlier[t] sich [Simonds] nie im Unterholz und inmitten aller getragenen Momente gibt es auch immer die Gewissheit des Gelingens” und diese zumindest vom Rezensenten so wahrgenommene „Gewissheit des Gelingens“ trifft die auf dem dritten Teil von “The Salt Garden” evozierte Stimmung gut. Denn obwohl die Musik wieder getragen und elegisch ist, sollte man die vier Stücke nicht als Soundtrack zu einer Reise in den Untergang verstehen. Sucht man nach (eigentlich unnötigen) Vergleichen, so kommen einem manche Soundtrackarbeiten Hilmar Örn Hilmarssons oder aber (geographisch vielleicht etwas naheliegender) Richard Skeltons immer wieder von Orten und Plätzen geprägten Streicherdrones in den Sinn.
Eröffnet wird die EP von „The Land’s Alight“, einem von Keyboarddrones geprägtem Stück, auf dem Simonds singt: “I dreamed I flew, the whole night long…./Ah but the light is on the land/and the hand upon the heart/and the open road is a real thing”. Diese Haltung erinnert an Coils “Bee Stings”, auf dem es heißt: “Don’t believe A.E./See for yourself the summer fields”. Wenn Simonds dann intoniert, “The land’s alight/And this vital eye/and the view…”, dann bekommt ihr Gesang etwas Hymnenhaftes. “Trisamma” ist ein instrumentales Stück, auf dem dezente Klavierpassagen mit Streichern kombiniert werden. „A Million Fires“ ist das vielleicht beeindruckendste Stück: Simonds’ Gesang wird von Harmoniumdrones und den Stimmen des The Date Moss Choir untermalt. Wenn sie singt “glory be upon the hapless writer/ glory be upon the spotless page/to call the woman with the fire inside her/to bring the luminous from age to age”, dann kann man das fast schon programmatisch lesen. Beendet wird diese Veröffentlichung und damit die Trilogie mit “The Given Heat”, auf der traurige Streicher zu hören sind, wobei es am Ende heißt: “suddenly there it is –/ the molten gold on the city street”.
Wie auch schon bei allen anderen EPs liegt einer limitierte Version eine Remix-CD bei. Steven Wilson hat unter dem Titel “Is Lanza Light & Given” die vier Stücke zu einem Track verschmelzen lassen und gerade zu Anfang gibt seine Neuinterpretation den Stücken einen leicht entrückteren Charakter." [MG/African Paper] |
2019 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
The Salt Garden III |
CD-EP |
Janet Records, in association with Headphone Dust and Die Stadt present
Fovea Hex The Salt Garden III
Cat No HDFH1034 (vinyl) / HDFHCD32 (CD)
(Bonus CD Cat. No: HDFHCD33)
Shipping Date - 26/11/2019
Ltd Edition - 10" vinyl + CD + bonus remix CD
Standard Editions - 10" vinyl + CD / CD / DL
"The starlit nocturnes of Fovea Hex bind electronics, drones and voices into song-spells that are untimely in the best possible sense; their intimacy and raw emotional power feel centuries old, but the experimental sound-design can be shockingly modern." Drew Daniels (Matmos)
The new EP from Fovea Hex THE SALT GARDEN 3 will be released on November 26th 2019 on Steven Wilson's Headphone Dust label.
The Salt Garden 3 is the final word, and the concluding instalment to the critically lauded The Salt Garden Trilogy. Issued in 3 standard editions; 10 inch vinyl + CD, CD only, and Digital Download. There will also be a limited edition release featuring a bonus remix CD by Steven Wilson. The pre-sale for this limited edition, featuring 4 remixes by Steven, presented in individual and combination treatments, will only be available online via Janet Records.
The core ensemble of Clodagh Simonds, Michael Begg, Colin Potter, Cora Venus Lunny and Kate Ellis is joined by special guests Guido Zen, and the Medazza and Dote Moss choirs.
Critical Reaction to The Salt Garden 1 and 2
5 Against 4 (UK)
"Whenever Irish experimental electronic folk group Fovea Hex put out something new, it's not just a cause to rejoice but a guarantee of something unique and indescribably wonderful..."
The Wire (UK)
"...fragile baroque instruments and synthy atmospheres surround Simonds's singing and songwriting, both on better and less predictable form than ever... A Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom for the 21st Century: emotionally deepens with extra listens"
Brainwashed (US)
(Readers Poll Winner: Single of the Year, 2016 for Salt Garden 1)
"Another beautiful piece in a flawless catalog..."
Igloo (US)
"The superlatives left to describe this unique chamber ensemble are fast running out..."
Dusted (US)
"... a blending of acoustic and electronic that attains a kind of smooth, vatic timelessness. Every element feels precisely placed and oddly haunting... Spellbinding".
Subjectivisten (NL)
"...an almost indefinable sound...the music is a hybrid of (dark) ambient, experimental music, neoclassical and ethereal folk and yet no label feels completely comfortable. . It is of an unearthly beauty!"
Touching Extremes (IT)
"no actual comparison is conceivable - sonic poetry"
Gonzo Circus (NL)
"if you like unique sirens like Nico, Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil, you will also unconditionally embrace Fovea Hex."
Fovea Hex Background
Having first emerged at the tender age of 15 as the main writer behind 70s cult Irish psych-folk band Mellow Candle, and with sessions for both Thin Lizzy and Mike Oldfield under her belt by the age of 21, Irish singer Clodagh Simonds relocated to New York and subsequently "went quiet" for almost two decades, before re- emerging in 2005 with Fovea Hex, supported by an extraordinary assembly of friends and colleagues, including Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Carter Burwell, Donal Lunny, Roger Doyle, and Steven Wilson. Their first trilogy of eps, NEITHER SPEAK NOR REMAIN SILENT, was, upon its release, greeted by a growing momentum of critical acclaim. Their nascent cult reputation was further affirmed by a personal invitation from David Lynch to perform live in Paris at the Cartier Foundation in Paris as part of his THE AIR IS ON FIRE exhibition.
In 2008 a full length album, HERE IS WHERE WE USED TO SING, was released, to yet more glowing reviews. The album made several end-of-year lists and was awarded album of the year in periodicals in the UK, North America and Italy.
THE SALT GARDEN 1 was released in 2016 and THE SALT GARDEN 2 in 2017, consolidating and deepening the high esteem and critical regard in which this most beguiling of ensembles continues to be held.
The frequently claimed "impossible to categorise" tag applies well to Fovea Hex. The songs are dominated by a voice that's too strong to be deigned ethereal, but remains too otherworldly to file alongside more conventional female singer-songwriters. The pace tends to be languid, the arrangements intricate and fragile. Comparisons have been made to This Mortal Coil, Emily Dickinson, Nico, Dead Can Dance, and even Schubert, but really this music is quite unique, a mix of electronic and acoustic sounds from a palette which ranges from state-of-art to ancient and arcane.
"If Emily Dickinson had ever been allowed to make a record, this is probably what it would have sounded like" (The Wire)
janetrecords.com/SG3/press-release.html
"2019 findet die “The Salt Garden”-Trilogie mehr als zwei Jahre nach Veröffentlichung des zweiten Teils ihren Abschluss. Das Projekt von Clodagh Simonds – die (u.a. mit Mellow Candle) schon in den 60er Jahren Musik machte – kehrt mit „The Salt Garden“ wieder zur kleine(re)n Form der EPs zurück, mit der Fovea Hex in der zweiten Hälfte der 00er Jahre debütierte. Erneut beeindruckend ist die Konsistenz und Kohärenz dieser drei EPs.
Anlässlich des ersten Teils der Trilogie wurde Fovea Hex hier attestiert: “[Die] Musik, die Begriffe wie Ambient, Folk oder experimentelle Musik überflüssig erscheinen lässt, ist erdverhaftet und zugleich entrückt, ist ebenso traumwandlerisch wie meditativ. Die meisten der getragenen Stücke haben starke Songqualitäten und sind doch von der verschwimmenden Struktur abstrakter Kompositionen. Und was in dieser Musik emotional passiert, lässt sich besser empfinden als rational erfassen.” Über das 2011 erschienene Langzeitdebüt “Here Is Where We Used To Sing” schrieben wir: „[T]rotz aller hypnagogischen, traumhaften Momente [...] verlier[t] sich [Simonds] nie im Unterholz und inmitten aller getragenen Momente gibt es auch immer die Gewissheit des Gelingens” und diese zumindest vom Rezensenten so wahrgenommene „Gewissheit des Gelingens“ trifft die auf dem dritten Teil von “The Salt Garden” evozierte Stimmung gut. Denn obwohl die Musik wieder getragen und elegisch ist, sollte man die vier Stücke nicht als Soundtrack zu einer Reise in den Untergang verstehen. Sucht man nach (eigentlich unnötigen) Vergleichen, so kommen einem manche Soundtrackarbeiten Hilmar Örn Hilmarssons oder aber (geographisch vielleicht etwas naheliegender) Richard Skeltons immer wieder von Orten und Plätzen geprägten Streicherdrones in den Sinn.
Eröffnet wird die EP von „The Land’s Alight“, einem von Keyboarddrones geprägtem Stück, auf dem Simonds singt: “I dreamed I flew, the whole night long…./Ah but the light is on the land/and the hand upon the heart/and the open road is a real thing”. Diese Haltung erinnert an Coils “Bee Stings”, auf dem es heißt: “Don’t believe A.E./See for yourself the summer fields”. Wenn Simonds dann intoniert, “The land’s alight/And this vital eye/and the view…”, dann bekommt ihr Gesang etwas Hymnenhaftes. “Trisamma” ist ein instrumentales Stück, auf dem dezente Klavierpassagen mit Streichern kombiniert werden. „A Million Fires“ ist das vielleicht beeindruckendste Stück: Simonds’ Gesang wird von Harmoniumdrones und den Stimmen des The Date Moss Choir untermalt. Wenn sie singt “glory be upon the hapless writer/ glory be upon the spotless page/to call the woman with the fire inside her/to bring the luminous from age to age”, dann kann man das fast schon programmatisch lesen. Beendet wird diese Veröffentlichung und damit die Trilogie mit “The Given Heat”, auf der traurige Streicher zu hören sind, wobei es am Ende heißt: “suddenly there it is –/ the molten gold on the city street”.
Wie auch schon bei allen anderen EPs liegt einer limitierte Version eine Remix-CD bei. Steven Wilson hat unter dem Titel “Is Lanza Light & Given” die vier Stücke zu einem Track verschmelzen lassen und gerade zu Anfang gibt seine Neuinterpretation den Stücken einen leicht entrückteren Charakter." [MG/African Paper]
|
2019 |
€10.00 |
|
| FRANCIS, RICHARD & CLINTON WATKINS // ADAM WILLETS |
split |
7 |
Neuseeländische Mikro-Auflage von einer 7" mit "ESO STEEL" Richard Francis. Seite A zeigt ihn mit CLINTON WATKINS und das ist wirklich paradoxer "sanfter harsh noise" was die beiden machen.. es ist Noise auf einer anderen Ebene ! ADAM WILLETS noised anders, knarzend-flatterig und seltsam ätherisch abgehoben. Zwei super Noise-Drones !
"Emulsified dunes and slowmo mistrals committed to 7 inches of confinement somewhere in I Zwicky 18 by the antipodal trinity of the
mind-fucking club: CMR zone-clerk Richard Francis, Whitebass' Clinton Watkins and Saturn's Adam Willetts. Probably written in
1610¬11. First side blasts in with the sand-drinking mug-shot Francis/Watkins Hydrahead, conducting light-year syncopations,
cryptozoological moshpits and gale enemy forces through the doorway of your featherweight stucco homes. Flipside captures the carbonated
mind of Adam Willetts in the same place Anakin Skywalker must have been in just before he waltzed over to the shadier side of synapse- shredding psychedelic pop music. Deep-as-Hell Rotella decollages from made-up worlds where this stuff grows everywhere. On Earth it's
cryptobotanical. Hydrophonic Dagobah loops, bottom-end data obliteration, and general all-round friendship termination.
7" Vinyl. 150 Copies." [label info]
|
2009 |
€8.00 |
|
| FRANKLIN, MARTIN & MICHAEL NORTHAM |
An Opening of the Earth : recovered |
CD |
Remasterte Wiederveröffentlichung dieser Zusammenarbeit von MNORTHAM mit dem TUU-Mitglied MARTIN FRANKLIN, erschien bereits 1991 als MC auf dem legendären SOUNDS FOR CONSCIOUSNESS RAPE, dann 1993 als CD auf SDV Tonträger.
Das ganze ist eine improvisierte Aufnahme vom September 1991, die erstaunlich rauh und fast schon ungestüm ausfällt, wenn Drone-Loops auf knirschend-feedbackende Objekt-Sounds stossen, oder obskure Diktaphon- & Cassetten Recorder-Versatzstücke auftauchen..
von der Original 3 Stunden-Session hat FRANKLIN nun die besten Passagen erneut re-mastered, es sind dabei auch vorher ungehörte Sektionen auf diesem Re-Release gelandet, der zudem in typischer FARIA-Manier in einem Hochglanz Klappcover mit 3 Postkarten / Inlays angeboten wird.
"...excavating the sonic crust with heavy synthesised drones, trebly buzzes and popping bursts of sound……eerie as hell.”
Darren Bergstein, I/E (from review of original release). "An Opening Of The Earth: Recovered" revisits a spontaneous collaboration between the two musicians, captured in the early 90's. Recorded in an obsolete format, no longer playable with today's technology. The old playback device, recovered from dusty storage for one last use, and the recording of this event brought back into the present - recovered once again.At once a sonic artifact of the recent past and a touchstone for contemporary developments in lo-fi electronic sound.
Franklin and Northam's original meeting saw them both on the cusp of developments in their own careers. Franklin's seminal Ambient trio, TUU shortly after embarked on an enduring series of CD releases and performances across Europe. Michael Northam's nomadic life as a travelling sound artist continued from this point onward, leaving a trail of recorded evidence from projects in 25 countries.
Mythic imagery of man descending into the mysteries of the Inner Earth is conjured in this intense recorded performance.Using lo-fi sampling, eerie drones, percussive metal instruments and effects, the players trace an intuitive path through a midnight electronic improvisation. Snippets of sound from other projects of that time slip in and out of the mix, roughly recorded Theatre rehearsals, and audio of UK street life appear from dictaphone tapes. Like an unearthed archeological find, the recordings of this ritualistic performance tie the pieces to their location, as well as the events of their time.
After unearthing the original tapes, Martin Franklin has created all new mixes for this Faria Records release, including previous unheard sections, re-interpreted and enhanced for the 21st Century listener." [label info]
"Martin Franklin and Michael Northam began communicating in the early '90s, both engrossed with the realm of possibilities extant in the laboratory that was the experimental cassette culture. At the time, Northam was beginning a career of sound-art globetrotting by way of festivals, residencies, and the generosity of others, having emerged from the Austin, Texas sound community that spawned the likes of John Grzinich, Olivia Block, Rick Reed, and Seth Nehil. Martin Franklin had gone on to form the British ambient ensemble Tuu, with releases through Beyond, Hic Sunt Leones, and Amplexus. It seems that Franklin and Martin enjoyed a single three hour session back in 1991, and out of that session came the original set of recordings which made their way on to a cassette, released by Sounds For Consciousness Rape, and later onto cd by SDV Tontrager. As both the cd and the tape have been long out of print, we can't comment on the differences between the original recording and this 'recovered' remix of the original source material.
Franklin and Northam settle organic textures from metal, dirt, and wood clattering against each other and building softened drones amidst the aggregated sounds. It makes perfect sense that Northam would later work with Darren Tate in one of the final Ora recordings, as these sodden ambient passages and quietly gritty noises share plenty of similarities. Northam had also brought to the session a cassette deck rewired to generate feedback systems, and Franklin had a handheld dictaphone with static and white noise broadcasting through the hypercompressed speakers. These elements give the recordings a rough hewn edge which counterpoint Franklin's sinewy ambience and ghostly half-melodies which are evidence of the contemporary remix work. Altogether, this redux has a darkly ritualized feel of isolationist drones divining something tactile out of the void, much like one would expect from the occluded sounds of the recent Drone Records catalogue." [Aquarius Records review]
www.faria.ru
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| FROM THE WHITE CHIMNEYS |
Nautilus with Wings |
CD-R |
Amorph-Drones, Ätherischer Ambient, Transzendental-Muzak! Ein neues Projekt von BEN FLEURY-STEINER (PALLADIN, LIGHT OF SHIPWRECK) und dem Dänen DANNY KREUTZFELDT. Einzelne Field-Recording Elemente sind auszumachen, ansonsten ist der amorphe Gehalt sehr hoch, lädt zum "Verschmelzen" mit dem Klang ein und zum Einnehmen einer "Binnenperspektive", in der die vielen Mikrodetails "sichtbar" werden.. NAUTILUS WITH WINGS nimmt am Ende nochmal gut "Fahrt auf", wird geräuschhafter und druckvoller, den Drones wachsen Flügel !
"Behind From the White Chimneys' curtains, we have a duet of inventive, vibrant experimental-ambient shapers, as it's actually an original collab of Ben Fleury-Steiner & Danny Kreutzfeldt... Wimington, Delaware based Ben Fleury-Steiner is the instigator of the fertile Gears Of Sand label, but also a craftsmusician & meddlesome passionate sound artist... present on many fronts, he has already a solid bunch of works to his credit, and that under versatile aliases (Eneg, Light Of Shipwreck, Paradin...) on GOS, Dissonance, Mystery Sea, Umbra, Taâlem, just to name but a few...
Danny Kreutzfeldt is Danish and equally productive, both in terms of creations (for Databloem, Tibprod, Practising Nature, etc...) and aliases...with early influences coming from a certain electronic scene (Basic Channel, Biosphere...), he quickly veered off to nurture his very own brand of detailed engrossing ambient...
Here on "Nautilus with wings", they join forces, and undertake a journey of discovery mainly stemming from a recent fascination with the hydrothermal vents of the Mariana Trench...
The resulting work is highly evocative... a compelling, almost physical dive with all senses wide awake...
Above, a ceiling of heavy waters
as only witness to a rusted sinking shell,
a compressed hull in streams of scoria...
Preliminary to an irrepressible descent, further below
an osmotic slow drowning in primeval liquid
till the hazy bottom...
There, bowels spit long columns of dust,
floating straps pointing to something else,
& silent yearnings...
"Nautilus with wings" is our inner ship,
and its elemental drift a cleansing gate
where our passing make us feel in peace with the world...
MS49 cd-r ltd to 100 copies and numbered
sleeve design and artwork by Chalkdc." [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| FROZEN FACES |
They who became Enemies to their Ancestors |
CD |
The sound is Primitive and more Agressive than Deutsch Nepal. Tapeloops, Feedback and Distorted Vocals becomming Sonic Walls, Simple Ambient Drones swaying through the room and other tracks turn into morbid cryonic ballads...
https://deutschnepal.bandcamp.com/album/they-who-became-enemies-to-their-ancestors
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| FUKUOKA, RINJI / MICHEL HENRITZI / LUCA MASSOLIN |
Weather Report |
LP |
"BACKWARDS is proud to announce a mind-blowing album of cosmic improvisation by the trio of musician / producer Luca Massolin (Golden Cup, Golden Jooklo Age), French avant-garde guitarist Michel Henritzi and Rinji Fukuoka, formely member of Overhang Party and currently of Majutsu No Niwa.
Recorded in November 2011, eight months after the Fukushima disaster, ‘Weather Report’ is an onirical yet political soundpiece, developed in two long movements, ‘A Chuva Obrigado’ and ‘Radioactive Arigato’.
The first side is a cornucopia of ghostly shapes and haunted tones, with Massolin’s dreamy organ and heavenly electronics blessed by Fukuoka’s elegiac violin lines. The piece evolves soon into an improvised blues for flamenco-like guitar (!!!), percussions and abstract electronics, building up tension until Henritzi’s lapsteel joins with waves of ectoplasmic electricity, and finally exploding into a blast of cathartic free noise.
The other side is when the piece starts vibrating, with Massolin’s electric bass pushing the whole thing into full-on shoegaze mode, Henritzi combining long, doomy drones and Fukuoka playing the most emotionally violin ragas you got to hear in an improvised studio album. There will be room for more ghosts until the end of this side, taking us to a landscape of wintry trees, empty streets, an abandoned city devoid of human presence.
This is the soundtrack of an echological disaster, a picture taken right after it happened, a warn about the risks of pushing the limits of human technology against nature. Images translated into sounds by improvised free music in its purest form: evocative, political, magical. How can you not be affected?
Limited edition of 260 copies of which 50 are on BLUE vinyl, and the remaining on standard black wax." [label info]
www.backwards.it
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| FULLMAN, ELLEN |
Staggered Stasis |
CD |
Einer der letzten Veröffentlichungen des Seattler Labels ANOMALOUS war diese CD von ELLEN FULLMAN, die hier mit ihrem “long string instrument” wunderbar metalloide Oberton-Drones erzeugt, die tönen, als wenn man auf einem “Klangbett” liegt. Unglaublich volle, vielfältig sirrende, in allen Farben flackernde Drone-Strahlen, zwei Stücke die bereits in den 80ern entstanden sind. Still to discover !
“Over the last two decades, Ellen Fullman has been perfecting her Long String Instrument. This unique instrument of her own design is some 80 feet in length and played by literally walking through it. The resulting sounds are beautiful gliding tones with a rich harmonic content. The CD presents two works from her time in Austin, Texas in the late 1980's which beautifully display a sound you can get inside of. These long tracks envelope you in their cascading overtones. Even though she has performed widely in the United States and Europe, this is only Ellen's third solo CD, following previous releases on XI Records and New Albion. So hearing these gorgeous and important pieces from her archive is cause for celebration.
Staggered Stasis (1989) was commissioned by the Deborah Hay Dance Company for part 1, The Navigator in Hay's trilogy, The Man Who Grew Common In Wisdom. Microtonal shifts in the coloring occur in a staggered fashion, traveling on an axis of Pythagorean intervals, (the circle of fifths). Chords created by stacking 3/2s, or fifths, are referred to as suspended chords. There is a flatness in this drama, what I imagine it must be like in the middle of an ocean, continually moving yet appearing the same. The four part score was plotted on a timeline. Each track was recorded and performed by myself. An excerpt of Staggered Stasis was released on the Arial CD series.
Duration (1986) was composed as a 13-limit study for the Long String Instrument, in the key of C. The fundamental tone is continually sounded, under chords constructed with pitches from the overtone series. The intention of the piece was to listen to the variations within each chord, as it is sounded continually while the performer walked the length of the instrument. As the performer's position changes, one clearly hears a cascade of overtones. Duration was never previously released.
The original recordings were made direct to a PCM digital processor using a vintage AKG C24 stereo tube condenser microphone placed about 15 feet from the resonators.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
| G.A.M.S. (GUIDO MÖBIUS & ANDI STECHER) |
G.A.M.S. |
LP |
The first album of the new duo G.A.M.S. (ANDI STECHER / drums and GUIDO MÖBIUS / feedback) with special appearances by MICK HARRIS (EX NAPALM DEATH, PAINKILLER, SCORN a.o.) and YUKO MATSUYAMA (HULA HUT & THE SEVEN SEAS).
Feedback leads a life of it’s own. It is an uncontrollable sonic accident, usually ear-numbingly loud but sometimes also delicately ethereal. The essence of feedback is being released from bonds, its path is always one of intensification and escape. Its a physical phenomenon and hard to predict.
The duo G.A.M.S. makes music on the edge of losing control. A restless drummer works his way through waves of feedback, which span the full spectrum of frequencies from pumping bass to the highest tones. With the pulse of the feedback ANDI STECHER's drumming, at times feverish and driven, then distanced and abstract, creates polyrhythmic structures. What comes into being is a maelstrom of sound and rhythm - music beyond every style, the power of which lies in its rawness.
STECHER and MÖBIUS switch the roles of desired and undesired sound and thereby create pieces like archaic sculptures. Their music is raw and powerful, but can also be soft and etheric. Sometimes it feels like a delicate organic painting. But here's one thing that G.A.M.S. music certainly isn't - predictable. The duo uses freely improvised spaces and reacts to unplanned sonic events. And despite all it's seeming randomness, G.A.M.S. still manage to compose clearly structured pieces and to reconstruct these in their live program.
Through a cut-up technique patterns of feedback sound fragments are juxtaposed and interlocked in varied combinations. These hypnotic loops move between rhythm and melodies, a web that is carried along by a driving drum set, accents of sub-bass and layers of feedback drones.
The playful drum style of ANDI STECHER is far from conventional rock drumming. Instead he experiments with various materials - for instance by preparing his cymbals with chains or putting different objects on the skin of his drums. He makes offbeat meters and complicated grooves sound easy and light. The same goes for changes in timing or dense textures comprising ghost notes. On the other hand he plays straight forward beats dynamically and with power.
STECHER’s partner in G.A.M.S. is GUIDO MÖBIUS who (with the help of a guitar amp, a microphone and effects) creates live feedbacks which can be massive and noisy but also fragile and gentle. Fleeting and concrete sounds join into dense textures. Feedback is never static rather always in a process of change.
Musical guests on the album are ex-NAPALM DEATH drummer and eletronic producer MICK HARRIS (SCORN, FRET) contributing drones and field recordings and the versatile singer YUKO MATSUYAMA (HULA HUT & THE SEVEN SEAS).
https://karlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/g-a-m-s
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
| GAL & MAURIN |
Daila live |
CD-R |
"A documentation of a live show from July 2006. The duo influenced by the latest middle east conflict, the result is two dark and deep meditative drones with a slow harmony movement that become dense and thicker till everything collapses back again." [label description ]
www.tedermusic.com |
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| GALBRAITH / NEILSON / YOUNGS |
Belsayer Time |
LP |
Folk-Drone at its best, ätherisch-erhabener Gesang von RICHARD YOUNGS und organische Drone-pulses, rollende Glas-Drones und sowas wie elektrisch aufgeladene wandernde Kugelblitze, am Ende ekstatische Entladung...
Grosses Vollfarb-Cover inkl. Einlageblatt mit eingeprägten Credits & einzeln geprägter Nummer !
"Fully mind-blowing dream collaboration from Alastair Galbraith, Alex Neilson & Richard Youngs. All serious international underground sound weavers in their own right, this trio collaboration lifts things ever higher... for the last 20 years or so Alastair Galbraith has quietly been releasing some of the most stunning outsider/psych/folk/drone work to ever come out of his New Zealand homeland, and we couldn't be more thrilled to have him back on the scene. Richard Youngs makes a nice UK parallel with a vast and equally impressive catalog of sub-underground avant/drone/folk wonderment to his name. And while Alex Neilson's name might be a bit new, he's been bending many a mind under his directing hand solo guise, as well as collaboration with MV & EE, Taurpis Tula and others. Oh yeah, and that small fact that Alex & Richard backed Jandek at his first ever live performance is pretty cool too... musically, things are way fucking deep in the zone here folks. Side one glides along in slo-mo dream state, hovering with Richard's beautiful and unmistakable vocals soaring and refracting into echoes, quietly fluttering and droning electronics, otherworldly sounding synth melodies, rolling splashes of free percussion, backwards effects, and syrupy sound pools of acoustic strings. Beautifully lulling and deeply psychedelic... but the second you flip the LP, the bottom drops right out with a real electro jammer, blasted with throbbingly heavy free drumming, vibrating walls of synth, and yowling bird-of-prey electronic squeal... and things just get more abstract from there... really amazing stuff for those who dig a headspinningly deep listen... packaged in a stark but beautiful full color offset printed & debossed heavy art board cover, with debossed insert. 180 gram virgin vinyl. Numbered edition of 900 copies." [press release]
|
2006 |
€22.50 |
|
| GENOCIDE ORGAN |
DEATH ZONES |
do-LP |
First Video Teaser:
NoSuicideUnit
Released as limited 2LP in gatefold cover with two inserts & numbered card.
2CD Version. Gatefold and Digipak shows the typical GO debossed and spotvarnished layout.
Will be not available via bandcamp.
ATTENTION: The vinyl version will only be produced according to the number of orders we get prior to 9.11.23. After this date it may prove difficult to obtain a copies.
Somewhere out there they were controlling the streets to ensure that rules were followed. They were smuggling themselves from one continent to another, guarding borders training rebels, breaching doors, steering drones, and following the path of the War-Orchestra.
The seventh year anniversary of the release of :OBITUARY OF THE AMERICAS: sees Genocide Organ returning with a release full of cynical survivalism in a world of havoc!
While those celebrate the new world - we prepare ourselves for :DEATH ZONES:.
What started with the :TIPPING POINT: 3MC Set in 2020 has now turned into :DEATH ZONES:
Stand fast, mark your target , when it comes.
No more sounds - Just moving ground!
TRACKLIST:
Conditioned War Sheep
Appropriate Action
Identity Politics
NoSuicideUnit
Loitering Munition
When our Terror comes
Pure Evil
Affirmative Action
Abbey Gate
Virtue Signaling
Migrant Soldiers
Kommando Found Dead
Stack the Bodies
Malicous Purity
FU6 - Waiting for Hell
Trial by Combat
Fake Emotions
Small Boys Unit
TESCO 160
|
2023 |
€39.00 |
|
| GHOSTS ON WATER |
same |
CD |
Mini-Album welches es eine sehr introvertierte und zarte Stimmung ausstrahlt: Pianotupfer, ätherische Gesänge, Flötenbrisen, sanfte drones.. dahinter stecken NAOKU und DAISUKE SUZUKI und ANDREW CHALK.
"The second full release of recordings by Naoko & Daisuke Suzuki with Andrew Chalk, now titled as Ghosts on Water." Naoko Suzuki (vocals), Daisuke Suzuki (vocals, flute, percussion, field recordings), Andrew Chalk (keyboards, kantele). "'Pale shadow" whispers its intentions to the wind amidst gentle melodies (courtesy of Chalk's keyboards and kantele) whose East-tinged imperturbability attribute a deep thrust to something that, coming from other hands, could even have been classified as an outtake. Both 'Fall and flow' and 'In October skies' are heavily typified by Naoko and Daisuke Suzuki's voices, first through uncertain lines on a field recording-based, extremely subtle background, then in a dissonant prayer made of intersecting improvised chants that depict strange colours and shapes for about three minutes. 'Snowy fields sparkle aglow' is the record's top as far as sheer beauty is concerned, a mix of melancholically tranquil piano figures over murmuring layers of uncertain origin, moving between remembrance and pastel-like sadness with the right touch of naïveté. 'Wings of day' ends this (unfortunately) short CD with the same atmospheres, keyboards and vocals informing a barely seamed tapestry whose levity is directly proportional to its soulful substance." [Massimo Ricci]
www.farawaypress.net
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| GIFFONI, CARLOS |
Eternal Noise |
CD |
Vier Stücke mit hyper-minimalen Analog-Drones, zwischen rauh-knarzigen Texturen und sanften Wellen a la ELEH.
"Carlos Giffoni knows no mercy. Of all the noise terrorists on the loose today, Giffoni causes the most upheaval. We know he specialises in brutal and invincible noise collages, but there is so much more to it than that. There is always a glimmer of hope that shines through the dense clouds of noise. His noise lives, broods and swings. His latest album for Bottrop-Boy is a true revelation in this respect, not just for the listener, but also for the artist himself. After all, the Venezuelan artist, who is based in New York, has conceded that this is a new style for him. With Eternal Noise Carlos Giffoni enters the holiest of holies, his noise nirvana. Even though Giffoni’s earlier works already sounded impressively organic, with Eternal Noise he is heading for new heights. His customary thick layers of noise sound more subtle than ever before. The four-part suite maintains physical impact, but all faces are turned to heaven, towards eternity. Rather than a noise exercise that sounds like a wrestling match in the dirt, this recording represents ascension towards the sun and open heavens. At times you will find yourself almost drowning in the feedback splashing against you, at other times you will find yourself breathlessly captivated by the peregrinations, whirls and swells of sinus tones. Giffoni is genuinely inspired by the avant-garde music of the 20th century and the results are miraculous.
How Giffoni creates his compositions is of no importance. This is all about their effect on your mood, the spectacle of your ravished soul. You find yourself asking how it is possible that such loud and intense music can be so tranquil and meditative at the same time.
Eternal Noise reconfirms Giffoni’s status as the uncrowned king of contemporary noise. Bottrop-Boy is proud to release this key work in Giffoni’s oeuvre." [label info]
".... The eternal is the easier word to parse. Giffoni here deals exclusively with shape-shifting drones, mostly around the lower partials of the overtone series. Each of the four tracks doesn’t evolve so much as amorphously change emphasis at a geologic or tectonic pace, almost a history of the Earth heard from the inside or the sound of individual molecules vibrating, a kind of nano-counterpoint. Even where there is a pulse within the drone, it serves not as a driving teleological force but rather as a mere marker of the passing time, alluding to the stasis of the most ambient of krautrock tracks. On top of that, Giffoni seems to be evoking a kind of throat singing where the vocal chords have been replaced by charged wires that crackle, buzz, and distort as they vibrate. Each overtone has its own individual color of noise, so the composite is like the gradual color shifts of oil on water or of a dissolving Gobstopper.
Were those flavors of noise not so harsh around the edges, this album could almost be meditative. It is fitting that the liner notes are mostly pictures of Japanese temples, since their serenity is clearly behind almost every sound here, even the harsh ones. And when each track cuts off suddenly, it feels as if you're being unwillingly wrested back into reality." [Dan Rucchia / Dusted Mag]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2008 |
€12.50 |
|
| GINNUNGAGAP |
Return to Nothing / Nothing to Return |
mLP |
Teure aber sehr schön gestaltete Vinyl-Edition (nachdem die CD schon lange vergriffen ist) von diesen Aufnahmen von 2004 von STEPHEN O'MALLEYS vielleicht experimentellsten Seitenprojekt...
"Stephen O’Malley (SUNN O))), KHANATE) on guitar in live- improvisation with two others (GERRIT & T.WYSKIDA) working on electronics and gong & tympani, creating a strange atmosphere between floating soundwaves, dark drones & concrete detailed microsounds. Two long tracks that got more filled & dense & beautiful over the timeperiod.... Recorded March 10th, 2004, at the Flux Factory in Queens." [Drone Records]
"... Ginnungagap is a term from Norse mythology that means something like "seeming emptiness" and that's a great name for this project, which sounds like it emanates from some abyssal void or abandoned cave or something. Ambient sinister drone improv, reminding us a little bit of House of Low Culture or even Thuja, if they were more creepy and liquid-sounding. Ginnungagap is a trio consisting of Khanate / SUNNO))) dude Stephen O'Malley on guitar, Khanate's Tim Wyskida on gong and tympani, and Gerritt Wittmer (who runs the Misanthropic Agenda label, and records solo as Gerritt) on computer. Packaged in a gold-printed, flat oversized cardstock sleeve, this disc consists of two tracks: "Return To Nothing" being a live recording about a half-hour in length, followed by Gerritt's remix "Nothing To Return" for about 20 minutes more. Like so much Khanate / SUNNO))) related stuff, it's of course a limited edition release... " [Aquarius Records review]
"A live recording and alternate mix of a collaboration between GERRITT (GERRITT, Misanthropic Agenda), STEPHEN O'MALLEY (KHANATE, SUNN O))), LOTUS EATERS, BURNING WITCH, THORR'S HAMMER), and TIM WYSKIDA (KHANATE, BLIND IDIOT GOD). Recorded March 10, 2004 at the Flux Factory in Queens. Limited edition of 500, pressed on color vinyl." [label info]
www.misantropicagenda.com
|
2009 |
€23.50 |
|
| GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR! [GYBE] |
Lift your skinny fists like antennas to heaven |
do-LP |
\"Das neue, phänomenale Album der innovativen Post-Rock-Band ! Vier lange, ausufernde Stücke die nur noch manchmal entfernt an gängige „Rock“-Strukturen erinnern, vielmehr entwickeln sich zarte Anfänge aus z.B. Guitars, Streichern, Bläsern & Bass hin zu monumentalen Instrumental-Stücken; voller Harmonien und unterschwelliger Kraft, die manchmal fast explodiert.. es gibt auch atmosphärische Zwischenparts mit piano, field recordings, etc.. hier treffen sich GLENN BRANCA, RACHEL’S, und LABRADFORD. Intense !\" [Drone Records info 2000]
\"...like Antennas to Heaven After two years of constant touring and near-unanimous critical acclaim, Godspeed You Black Emperor! assembled a collection of new recordings that charted the creative evolution of the band as well as its literal physical movement on the road, criss-crossing North America and Europe.
Five expansive full-band compositions are framed by various field recordings, tape manipulations and ensemble pieces in a return to the narrative sonic collage techniques that marked their 1997 debut (F#A#8).
Four seamless sides of vinyl unfold a world of aching sadness and beauty, with musical quotes ranging from heartland americana to mitteleuropa folkways, all distilled through the unique sonic filters of Godspeed\'s pedal-crazy orchestral rock instrumentation.
Harrowing guitars, plaintive strings, pulsing basses and explosive drums combine with glockenspiels, horns and tape drones to form an overwhelming palette of sounds, always driven by fierce melodic momentum and intense emotional resonance.
GYBE! continued to paint on an impossibly large canvas, with an uncanny blend of world-weariness and naive exuberance that spoke volumes about the conflicts and contradictions permeating our political and cultural life.
The tension between humility and hubris conjured an epic scope and a raw hope that such sweeping gestures might survive with some semblance of substance.\" [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2000 |
€26.00 |
|
|
Allelujah! Don't bend! Ascend! |
LP + 7inch |
"We are proud to announce the first new recordings by Godspeed You! Black Emperor in a decade. Featuring two twenty-minute slabs of epic instrumental rock music and two six-and-a-half minute drones, ‘ALLELUJAH! DON’T BEND! ASCEND! provides soaring, shining proof of the band’s powerful return to form.
Having emerged from hiatus at the end of 2010, GYBE picked up right where they left off, immediately re-capturing the sound and material that had fallen dormant in 2003 and driving it forward with every show of their extensive touring over the last 18 months. The new album presents the fruits of that labour: evolved and definitive versions of two huge compositions previously known to fans as “Albanian” and “Gamelan”, now properly titled as “MLADIC” and “WE DRIFT LIKE WORRIED FIRE” respectively. Accompanied by the new drones (stitched into the album sequence on CD; cut separately on their own 7″ for the LP version), GYBE have offered up a fifth album that we feel is as absolutely vital, virulent, honest and heavy as anything in their discography.
We don’t have much time for mythology, but we’d be lying if we said the return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 2010 didn’t signify a whole lot to us as a marker from which to look back on the past decade, to reflect on what’s been gained or lost within the confines of independent music culture and what’s been gained or lost in the socio-political landscape writ large. Godspeed’s music will do that to you. It is music that bears witness to, channels and transforms this predominantly terrible, infuriating, venal and nihilistically sad story we’re all living, sharing, resisting, protesting, deconstructing and trying to change for the better. We think GYBE has once again provided a uniquely moving and compelling soundtrack for these acts of analysis, defiance and ascension.
* * *
Hard to believe a full decade has passed since the release of Yanqui U.X.O., the last album by GYBE. Never a band to care for conventional industry wisdom, Yanqui was released shortly before xmas 2003 with little publicity and no press availability, no marketing plans or cross-promotions or brand synergies, with back cover artwork tracing the inextricable links between major music labels and the military-industrial complex. Driven by word-of-mouth from a passionate and committed fanbase galvanized by the group's sonic vision and its dedication to unmediated, unsullied musical communication, the album found it's rightful audience.
To suggest that such simple principles and goals have become harder to maintain and enact a decade later is an understatement. For all the contents and discontents – for all the "content" – of our present cultural moment, the idea of circumventing the glare of exposure, the massaging of media cycles and the calculus of identity management appears quaint, if not futile.
But Godspeed is looking to try all the same. The band wants people to care about this new album, without telling people they should or talking about themselves. They want to hold on to some part of that energy that comes with the thrill of anonymous discovery and unmediated transmission, knowing full well that these days, anti-strategy risks being tagged as a strategy, non-marketing framed as its opposite, and deeply held principles they consider fundamental to health as likely to be interpreted as just another form of stealth.
Truly, thanks for being open to hearing it.
Release date: 15 October 2012 (Europe), 16 October 2012 (rest of world)
Running time: 53:09
LP is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a tipped-on heavyweight gatefold jacket printed in full-colour process plus a spot metallic ink and spot matte varnish. LP dust sleeve is also 4-colour print. Package includes a 7 inch in printed dust sleeve (same audio appears in a different sequence on the CD) and a 12"x48" pull-out poster (printed full colour on both sides) featuring a collage of film stills specially-photographed and captured from the GYBE live 16mm projections." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com
"Viel ist passiert in den letzten 10 Jahren und für Mythologien bleibt weder Zeit noch Kapazität, aber eines ist doch offenbar: wir würden lügen, wenn wir nicht zugeben würden, dass die Rückkehr von GY!BE im Jahre 2010 eine Zäsur, ein Punkt der Rückschau gewesen ist. Wie kaum eine andere Band haben die Kanadier uns in den letzten Jahren begleitet, und das ohne musikalisch wirklich sichtbar zu sein. Ihre Geschichte ist eng mit dem Label Constellation verknüpft und die gesamte Attitüde, der Kontext, in dem sich Constellation und damit auch GY!BE bewegen, haben einen nicht zu unterschätzenden Einfluss auf die Independent Musikkultur weltweit ausgeübt. Und so regt dieses neue Album von GY!BE eine Rückschau an, eine Auseinandersetzung, was Independentkultur und Selbstverständnis heute noch bedeuten und wohin sich die soziokulturellen Komponenten unserer Gesellschaft entwickelt haben und noch weiter entwickeln werden. Auf diese Weise wird ,'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" mit einer Bedeutung aufgeladen, wie sie schwerer kaum wiegen kann - und auf die weder Band noch Album direkt einen Einfluss haben - eine künstlerische Äußerung, die Bedeutung durch ihre bloße Existenz erlangt - da haben wir ihn doch, den Mythos, ohne dass wir es wollten. Und wir können es nur akzeptieren - dass dieses wunderbare Stück Musik (und das ist sie wahrlich, diese Platte - musikalisch ein Meisterwerk) schon jetzt ein Begleiter unseres Selbstverständnisses geworden ist, ein Moment des Innehaltens, des Reflektierens und damit Zeuge unserer eigenen Transformation, in der wir versuchen, das Kapitel unserer eigenen Biographie in diesem Buch aus überwiegend furchtbaren, korrupten, komplizierten und nihilistischen Geschichten neu zu schreiben und irgendwie in Hoffnung zu verwandeln. GY!BE haben es wieder einmal geschafft, einen Soundtrack für dieses Wechselspiel aus Analyse, Trotz und Befreiung zu liefern. Die Vinylversion von ,'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" besteht aus einer LP und einer 7". Die 7" enthält zwei Drones, die auf der CD in den Album-Kontext eingebunden sind, auf Vinyl aber separat vorliegen, um eine gute Qualität der Pressung zu erreichen. Die beiden Songs ,Mladic" und ,We Drift Like Worried Fire" sind final ausformulierte Versionen der beiden von den den Konzerten der Band bereits bekannten Tracks ,Albanian" und ,Gamelan". Die beiden Tracks wurden von Howard Bilerman im legendären Hotel2Tango Studio aufgenommen, während die Drones von der Band selbst aufgenommen und gemixt wurden. Alle wurden gemastert von Harris Newman/ Greymarket. Musikalisch knüpft ,'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" an das ziemlich exakt vor 10 Jahren im Herbst 2002 veröffentlichte, letzte Album ,Yanqui U.X.O." an und greift seine klangliche Ästhetik ebenso auf wie seinen Kontext.
Die Vinylversion von ,'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" besteht aus einer LP und einer 7". Die 7" enthält zwei Drones, die auf der CD in den Album-Kontext eingebunden sind, auf Vinyl aber separat vorliegen, um eine gute Qualität der Pressung zu erreichen. 180gLP IN TIPPED-ON GATEFOLD JACKET. INCLUDES 7" VINYL + 12"x 48" PULL-OUT POSTER!" [label info- Cargo translation]
|
2012 |
€25.00 |
|
| |
Allelujah! Don't bend! Ascend! |
CD |
"We are proud to announce the first new recordings by Godspeed You! Black Emperor in a decade. Featuring two twenty-minute slabs of epic instrumental rock music and two six-and-a-half minute drones, ‘ALLELUJAH! DON’T BEND! ASCEND! provides soaring, shining proof of the band’s powerful return to form.
Having emerged from hiatus at the end of 2010, GYBE picked up right where they left off, immediately re-capturing the sound and material that had fallen dormant in 2003 and driving it forward with every show of their extensive touring over the last 18 months. The new album presents the fruits of that labour: evolved and definitive versions of two huge compositions previously known to fans as “Albanian” and “Gamelan”, now properly titled as “MLADIC” and “WE DRIFT LIKE WORRIED FIRE” respectively. Accompanied by the new drones (stitched into the album sequence on CD; cut separately on their own 7″ for the LP version), GYBE have offered up a fifth album that we feel is as absolutely vital, virulent, honest and heavy as anything in their discography.
We don’t have much time for mythology, but we’d be lying if we said the return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 2010 didn’t signify a whole lot to us as a marker from which to look back on the past decade, to reflect on what’s been gained or lost within the confines of independent music culture and what’s been gained or lost in the socio-political landscape writ large. Godspeed’s music will do that to you. It is music that bears witness to, channels and transforms this predominantly terrible, infuriating, venal and nihilistically sad story we’re all living, sharing, resisting, protesting, deconstructing and trying to change for the better. We think GYBE has once again provided a uniquely moving and compelling soundtrack for these acts of analysis, defiance and ascension.
* * *
Hard to believe a full decade has passed since the release of Yanqui U.X.O., the last album by GYBE. Never a band to care for conventional industry wisdom, Yanqui was released shortly before xmas 2003 with little publicity and no press availability, no marketing plans or cross-promotions or brand synergies, with back cover artwork tracing the inextricable links between major music labels and the military-industrial complex. Driven by word-of-mouth from a passionate and committed fanbase galvanized by the group's sonic vision and its dedication to unmediated, unsullied musical communication, the album found it's rightful audience.
To suggest that such simple principles and goals have become harder to maintain and enact a decade later is an understatement. For all the contents and discontents – for all the "content" – of our present cultural moment, the idea of circumventing the glare of exposure, the massaging of media cycles and the calculus of identity management appears quaint, if not futile.
But Godspeed is looking to try all the same. The band wants people to care about this new album, without telling people they should or talking about themselves. They want to hold on to some part of that energy that comes with the thrill of anonymous discovery and unmediated transmission, knowing full well that these days, anti-strategy risks being tagged as a strategy, non-marketing framed as its opposite, and deeply held principles they consider fundamental to health as likely to be interpreted as just another form of stealth.
Truly, thanks for being open to hearing it.
Release date: 15 October 2012 (Europe), 16 October 2012 (rest of world)
Running time: 53:09
LP is pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a tipped-on heavyweight gatefold jacket printed in full-colour process plus a spot metallic ink and spot matte varnish. LP dust sleeve is also 4-colour print. Package includes a 7 inch in printed dust sleeve (same audio appears in a different sequence on the CD) and a 12"x48" pull-out poster (printed full colour on both sides) featuring a collage of film stills specially-photographed and captured from the GYBE live 16mm projections." [label info]
www.cstrecords.com |
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| GOLYSHEV, NIKITA |
Solaris |
CD |
Auf dem Moskauer Label MONOCHROME VISION erscheinen nicht nur Fundstücke aus der Experimental-Historie, sondern auch Newcomer der russischen Szene. NIKITA GLOYSHEV spinnt feinste microwave-drones, die sich sachte verwandeln, mit leicht mechanischem Touch und untergründigem Brodeln versehen.
Ultra-minimal & wahrnehmungsverändernd...
"The debut CD album of one of the most promising russian underground musician, presenting his own unique vision of ambient music. Combining the deep layers of machine-like hum and minimal melodic keys, Nikita creates highly emotional and dramatic journey to the netherworld. Two parts of this one hour long suite are the partly presented in the program of Add Noise II festival on May 15th, 2007.
Beginning in 2003 as the part of duo aptly titled CD-R, Nikita Golyshev quickly became the one of the most promising electronic musicians on the russian underground scene. His output progressed from rhythmic noise mayhem to diverse and heterogeneous experiments, ranging from machine improvisation through bleak drones to pure processed acoustic minimalism. He released some CD-Rs and published many works online, as well as on his own Musica Excentrica, Electrosound and Share My Wings imprints. He finally recorded the debut CD album under his real name." [label notes]
".... 'Solaris' is his debut solo CD and it's hard not to see this as a soundtrack to the Tarkovsky movie, even when there is no such reference on the cover. The music spread out over two pieces of around thirty minutes could have been alternative soundtracks to that movie. Golyshev's plays some interesting under water and under world like drone music of a great kind. Golyshev keeps things minimal but too such an extent that changes appear at the right moment - the true power of drone music, I guess. Don't be a bore, don't let changes come to quickly, everything on the right moment. This version of 'Solaris' is great and surely the name Golyshev is worth keeping an ear open for. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.monochromevision.ru
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| GOOSE |
Isabel |
mCD-R |
Klangschalen, Becken- & Glockensounds vermischen sich mit dem tiefen (genial effektierten) Rumpeln eines Hurrikans! Ein sehr kraftvolles & hypnotisches Stück, auch wenn (fast)-Stille eine grosse Rolle spielt.
"Also known for his Stolen Light noise project and his annual xmas compilations on his Zaftig Research label, Goose is Brett Lunceford's alias for his drone & dark ambient sounds. this track was quite an experience/experiment for him: "i recorded part of that track while hurricane isabel was coming through pennsylvania, hence the title of the track. all we got was a lot of wind and rain and not a lot of damage, but it was nice to record. i had just bought a tibetan singing bowl and i have played drums for about 20 years now, so i love percussion sounds. i was just hoping that the people downstairs from me would not be too annoyed as i was playing the cymbals and bells! this was a bit of a departure from my typical long form drones that i generally do as Goose, but i like it a lot." so here is this hypnotic & acoustic droney track. to make it yet more hypnotic, it's been carefully mastered by our beloved italian master andrea marutti. let yourself carry along by isabel..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| GOREHALLREIDER |
A Blow to the Head |
CD-R |
Collaboration von JOHN GORE (KIRCHENKAMPF), STEVE HALL (YEN POX-Hälfte und VEIL OF SECRECY) und C. REIDER (auch solo aktiv), 7 Stücke zwischen elektronischem dark ambient, minimaler Elektronik mit bedrohlichen / fremdartigen Untertönen, und puren backwards-drone-Sphären. Die Stimmung ändert sich mit jedem der sieben Stücke, sehr gut ! Handpainted coversleeves...
“It seems to me that Cohort Records is becoming more and more active these days, and so are the musical activities of their boss, John Gore, aka Kirchenkampf, aka The Oratory Of Divine Love and aka >wirewall<. Here he teams up with Steve Hall, aka Yen Pox and aka Veil Of Secrecy and the more unknown C. Reider, who runs the Vuzh Music label. All three delivered sound material for this release, which was then 'arranged, effected and mixed' by John Gore. He calls this 'psychedelic ambient', which is an appropriate tag. 'Violent Drone' might also be appropriate, as in all seven tracks drones of whatever nature (radio static, analogue synth and perhaps even field recordings) play an important role, but a likewise important role is played by all the applied effects that Gore adds to this. This gives this drone music a top heavy character, sounds bursting in and out everywhere, from the depths of the earth and stardust from the sky. A sizzling mix of static sounds that never sounds static. Everything seems to be moving around all the time, with small changes of color and texture, like a Yves Klein painting or a Steve Reich piano piece, ever so apparent in 'I Hear Voices'. Powerful drone music, along the lines of Troum, but more musical... by which ever definition music of course.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
http://cohortrecords.0catch.com
|
2005 |
€9.00 |
|
| GRABOWSKI, PAWEL |
Cirr's Songs |
7inch |
Einigen bekannt vielleicht durch die wunderbare 7” auf Laub Records oder die MIASTO NIE SPALO – CD (OBUH).... zwei Stücke mit bearbeiteten, dichten, melancholischen field recordings, die von Trauer und der „Stimme im Kopf“ berichten.....
"PAWEL GRABOWSKI is a polish musician. He has been active with MIASTO NIE SPALO (CD on OBUH Records) and solo.....CIRR’S SONGS are about drowning. At that time i had this dream in which i was drowning in deep waters , every night over and over again. The dream lasted for about a month, then disappeared completely, but that feeling remained...
Filed under: Melancholic Field-Drones
BLACK VINYL. BLACK COVERS WITH PHOTO."
[press release]
„...Der in Insiderkreisen durch einige Veröffentlichungen in Mini-Auflagen schon etwas bekanntere Pole kreiert einmal mehr düstere Ambientsoundscapes, die aber keinesfalls brachial-okkult wie MZ412, Raison D'Etre oder Brighter Death Now, sondern stiller, beim ersten Hören fast unscheinbar klingen - Für Industrial-Addicts, die nach jahrelangem Konsum von besagten typischen Cold Meat-Acts genug von deren zwar stimmungsvollen, aber doch ewig gleichen monumentalen Streichersounds und Chören haben, fast so etwas wie ein Pflichtkauf. Eine grandiose, irgendwie geheimnisvolle Single also, die auch inhaltlich Interessantes zu bieten hat..“ [Uwe Marx / Etoile]
“PAWEL GRABOWSKI is a polish musician. He has been active with MIASTO NIE SPALO (CD on OBUH Records) and solo.....CIRR’S SONGS are about drowning. At that time i had this dream in which i was drowning in deep waters , every night over and over again. The dream lasted for about a month, then disappeared completely, but that feeling remained... filed under: Melancholic Field-Drones. BLACK VINYL. BLACK COVERS WITH PHOTO. “ [press release]
|
2005 |
€7.00 |
|
| GRABOWSKI, PAWEL / THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC / JAMES ECK RIPPIE + PAULO RAPOSO |
Product |
CD |
Das fast 20minütige geisterhafte, auf rückwärtigen Sounds basierende “But I’m not” von PAWEL GRABOWSKI eröffnet den (Drone)-Reigen auf dieser Zusammenstellung; Jorge Mantas aka THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC hat danach ein höchst kurioses 10teiliges Stück mit dem Titel “Love Songs for a Psychoacoustic Girl” beigesteuert, bei der er Frauenstimmen von verschiedensten Quellen zu sinnlichen Dronescapes verarbeitet hat, schliesslich JAMES ECK RIPPIE & PAULO RAPOSO, die ihr Stück experimentell cut-up / turntable-mässig beginnen, es dann aber schnell in konkret-flächige Gefilde mit mysteriöser Atmosphäre führen, inkl. found-sound Sprengseln von alten Platten wie es scheint... Insgesamt eine überzeugende Compilation, dieser 6.te Teil der PRODUCT-Serie auf Cronica !
Dazu gibts noch ein Quicktime von Video-track von THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC!
"elegantly packed with casey reas superb artwork arrives the sixth installment in the crónica's product series. this split opens with a long haunting composition from pawel grabowski, it settles with some ghostlike pieces with even a medieval feeling from the beautiful schizophonic and reaches its closure with natureza morta, a stunning piece teaming up paulo raposo and james eck rippie." [label info]
www.cronicaelectronica.org
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| GRASSOW, MATHIAS |
Sky |
CD |
\"The longtime gterma favourite \"Sky\" was originally released by Mathias as a double album in the year 2000 available through the then Klaus Wiese website. The Sky sessions are longform drones with an enormously uplifting character. For the new edition we condensed the best moments of the original release into a single mix and combined it with more recent drones produced in 2010 and everything was then remastered. The album comes in a jewelcase with a 12-page booklet.\" [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| GRAVETEMPLE |
Impassable Fears |
LP |
Milky clear vinyl. Limited to 400. Guitarist Stephen O'Malley conjures distorted chords, controlled by a bank of effects pedals; vocalist Attila Csihar, famous for his time as singer for notorious and controversial black metal band Mayhem, ritualistically intones invented syllables that echo monastic chants; experimental musician Oren Ambarchi extracts strange sounds from his own looped guitar before moving to a drumkit to propel a scattered, urgent rhythm. Momentum overtaking him, a drumstick slips from Ambarchi's hand, he breaks free of the drum kit, grabs for a beater, turns, and smashes the gong at the centre of the stage. For two long seconds the all-encompassing rumble that has amassed throughout the performance drones on with a kind of relentless inertia, still without a sonic acknowledgement of the visual climax. Finally, the pulsating wave from the heavily amplified gong reverberates through the corporate body of the audience, felt in physical vibration more than heard as sound. The musicians leave the stage, their abandoned instruments still expelling squalling sounds which gradually begin to dissipate. Listeners breathe out, perhaps open their eyes, raise their heads, shift their feet and awaken enough to clap and shout appreciation, before turning to friends or strangers, reaching for phrases and gestures, often in a vocabulary of ritual, mysticism and transcendence, which might become touchstones for recollection and communication of their individual and shared experience."
|
2017 |
€23.00 |
|
| GROWING |
Lateral EP |
12 |
Vinyl-Version der neusten EP dieses New Yorker Ambient/Drone-Duos, deren Analog & Guitar-Sounds mal wieder höchst schwingend & vibrato-schwanger klingen... full fuzzy guitars, extreme Vibrato-Melodien, analogue blurbs überall, leiernde Sounds wanken umher...eine sehr eigene Version von psychedelischem Drone-Sound...
" Brooklyn-based ambient-drone duo Growing never fails to please the devoted. It could also easily be said that the duo has failed to
truly diverge from their original starting point. Although, part of the charm of this sort of music is indulging in a process of creation that celebrates the difference and repetition within a given theme or concept; expanding or investigating a specific idea over a length of
time. Thus, if you like Growing, you'll love this EP. All of the usual landmarks are here: a Nadja on opium meets some sort of Windy &
Carl and Labradford hybrid, heavy filter manipulations, masked, aquatic tremolo and chorus leads, and full-on auto-pan attacks that completely embrace stereo dynamics. We've read that -- specifically within the ambient-drone scene -- Growing has been particularly
reluctant to utilize computers, preferring to employ pedals and more organic looping techniques. Still, a quick listen to this release unearths enough digital-sounding distortion to make the listener wonder whether or not these two dronesters have finally caved in or not. Fans of long, drawn-out melodic landscapes or psychedelic explorations won't want to miss out on this one. Definitely recommended." [Aquarius Rec]
www.socialregistry.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Color Wheel |
CD |
"Color Wheel amazes, with a sonic dexterity unmatched in drone-metal or any other music for that matter. On their 4th proper full-length, GROWING have gallantly ventured into uncharted territory, where sheets of noise meld with metallic noodling and blissfully numbing drones, displaying their penchant for exploratory electronic manipulations that move at the speed of the sun. If you're planning a trip to space, it’d be smart to throw this in with your protein-pack." [Saheer Umar (Tokion Magazine)]
www.rock-action.co.uk
|
2006 |
€12.50 |
|
| GUTHRIE, ANNE |
Gyropedie |
LP |
“Gyropedie,” Anne Guthrie’s third record for Students of Decay, takes us further into her hermetic practice, wherein expertly captured field recordings, French horn, and electronics are woven into potent and richly imagined electroacoustic environments. In Guthrie’s own words, “Quite literally a record of pilgrimage from East to West. Remnants of Midwest and East Coast soundmarks, instruments sold to lighten the travel load, sketched out and then buried under the new. Winter birds and crunching snow, frozen playgrounds, broken synths - I spent a year decoupaging over this, but of course it's still there. A second moon appears occasionally in the daytime, and there are frequent, murky transmissions. California has something alien about it I'm still trying to grasp. Primarily vintage, unabashed, corny, I find myself becoming an impressionist.”
Anne Guthrie is an acoustician, composer, and French horn player. She studied music composition and english at the University of Iowa and architectural acoustics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she completed her Ph.D in 2014. Her music combines her knowledge of acoustics and contemporary composition/improvisation. Her electronic music has focused on exploiting the natural acoustic phenomena of unique architectural spaces through minimal processing of field recordings. Her composition has focused on the orchestration of non-musical sounds, speech in particular. Her French horn playing has focused on electronic processing and extended techniques used in improvisatory settings, as a soloist and with Fraufraulein and Delicate Sen, among others. Her acoustics research has focused on the use of ambisonics for stage acoustics.
https://anneguthrie.bandcamp.com
"Anne Guthrie's third album for Students of Decay continues her trend of significantly transforming her vision with each new release, though the arc of her albums does consistently suggest an increasing aversion to conventional structure and musicality. In practical terms, that means that Gyropedie was primarily assembled from field recordings, though Guthrie's French horn does make a few ghostly and well-timed appearances. Notably, the sounds that Guthrie collected are entirely diaristic in nature ("quite literally a record of pilgrimage from East to West"), as she recorded and collaged a host of ephemeral and meaningful moments from her move from New York to California (birds, crunching snow, instruments that she had to sell, etc.). As Guthrie wryly notes in the album description, she found herself "becoming an impressionist." I heartily concur and believe that approach suits her work remarkably well. Given the deliberately abstract and elusive nature of the material, it took me a bit longer to become drawn into Gyropedie than it did for Guthrie's previous releases, but the album's second half contains some of the most tender, distinctive, and quietly beautiful work that she has yet recorded.
The opening "Threading A Closed Loop" is a bold and interesting way to introduce the album, as it slowly rolls in like a mysterious fog of ambient outdoor sounds, plinking strings, distant woodpeckers, murmured voices, bees, and an occasional strangled sound from Guthrie's French horn. It is frankly about as understated and impressionistic as an album can get, but it does gradually cohere into something quite intriguing and evocative (I especially like the part where it sounds like the bees bought a distortion pedal). The following "Hill, Mountain" undergoes a similar trajectory, initially sounding like someone fumbling with a microphone while a woman recites poetry over a distorted radio, but eventually it blossoms into an enigmatic scene that seems to capture the time-stretched sounds of a train passing through a gently hallucinatory landscape of singing birds and metallic drones. I believe the "broken synth" mentioned in the album description makes an appearance as well. Both it and its predecessor are subtly beautiful in their own ways, yet my favorite pieces are the ones that follow. In "Variation on Coral," Guthrie paints a lovely seaside scene, as a slow, lovely French horn melody lazily unfolds over a backdrop of gently gurgling and lapping waves, lysergically smeared chimes, cooing vocals, and a host of other curious sounds. The closing "The Goldbeater’s Skin," on the other hand, sounds like a duet between a quietly plinking and fitfully operational music box and a lovelorn French horn player in a particularly bittersweet mood, but it is further enlivened by an evocative array of breath-like textures and wounded-sounding squeaks and warbles. To my ears, it is unquestionably Gyropedie's most lovely and memorable piece, as the unexpectedly poignant horn melody feels like the beating heart of the album finally being revealed, yet it would not make nearly the same impact without the languorous and dreamlike journey beforehand. Granted, Gyropedie is an album that demands some patience and attentive listening to reveal its full beauty, but its fragile and tender fantasia of memory fragments is well served by that steadily deepening immersion." [Brainwashed]
"Threshold-dwelling lower case elisions of field recording and barely-there instrumental gestures by the wonderful Anne Guthrie, an occasional and prized presence on these pages.
Guthrie’s solo work has previously snagged our ears with the gorgeous ‘Codiaeum Variegatum’ album and ‘Brass Orchids’, both for Students of Decay over the past decade. She returns to the label three years after her previous, and collabs with the GRM’s François Bonnet and Seymour Wright, to offer her most sublime sort of sonic mulch and vapours in ‘Gyropedie’, where she appears to quiesce the enduring air of Satie’s proto-ambient music into a more natural, elusive ecology of cherry-picked small sounds that amount to a lushly absorbing whole primed for pastoral sound bathing in the comfort of your own home." [Boomkat]
|
2021 |
€18.50 |
|
| HABEEB |
Il cancello della morte |
CD-R |
Neues dark ambient noise-Projekt auf SOMNABULANT, einer der zur Zeit besten Adressen für elektronischen Abgrunds-Industrial. Meist wuchtige analoge Flächen & amorphe Soundeffekte.....dann wieder schwelend & paralisierend, monumentale Rausch- & Dröhnflächen....
lim. 200 und beim Label schon weg !
“Habeeb seems such an odd sounding name for this sinister dark ambient project from L. Kerr of Steel Hook Prostheses. This massive disc is definitely stronger and more focused than what little I've heard from the project in the past, building often lengthy tracks around smoothly flowing low-end hums and drones with subtle melodic undercurrents seeping in at times. "Creeping Death" gets a bit louder with biting high-end swells that peak out to faint distortion over rumbling bass and slightly more prominent "notes" in the middleground, whereas a few other tracks are much quieter and more subdued. "Rigor Mortis" is very delicately rhythmic with its repetitive low-end loop throbbing away, followed by "Tapping the Spine with Razorwire", which adds in very lightweight wisps of distortion against the brooding ambience of the core soundscape – certainly a bit more ominous. "Descension Into the Blackness" is a monolithic 19 minutes (nearly half of the disc's the entire running time), building up slowly with hugely resonant bass and distant percussive sounds reverberating in the background – getting slightly thicker/louder, but maintaining a very stripped down aesthetic that never sways too far from the course. Closer "Keepers of the Death Gate" is the only track I dislike, and I find it to be terribly distracting in contrast to the other tracks, opening with a sample of some sort of country-ish music with pitch-shifted speaking before giving way to a barely distorted loop with a few harsher spurts of thick distorted noise layering in to add to the industrial percussiveness. Even without the strange intro it would've been uncharacteristic of the release as a whole, but that first segment of the track really kills it for me. The CD-R comes in a slim DVD case with minimal artwork that's basically black and white and depicts some illegible text and a woodcut image of demons shoveling people into the mouth of hell. It's a simple presentation but as is usually the case with work from this label it looks quite clean and tasteful. A solid release pound for pound. I'm still a bit confused as to what that last track is all about, but the preceding 55 minutes is a consistent slab of damn promising dark ambient noise.” [Aversionline.com]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| HAERETICI 7O74 |
Haeretici, Schismatici, Excommunicati |
maxi-CD-R |
Document of a live show which took place in Tampere, Finland, January 2006, by this project of OVRO and NIKO SKORPIO: Loops, dark drones, strange digi-noises, deformed voices, all strange & surreal… infiltrating & sinking in your subsconsciousness…. Hard to say what it really is…
“Hæretici 7o74 is a duo of Ovro and Niko Skorpio. Joining forces, the artists bring together the more meditative and ritualistic elements of their solo works, blending it to something completely new. Recognizable, but distinct. Hæretici 7o74 concentrates on live performances, enjoying the organic and interactive feel of playing live, with its often surprising turns and twists.
Haeretici, Schismatici, Excommunicati is the band's first release, and contains the recording of the group's live performance at club Syntesia in Tampere, Finland in January 2006. Here, deep dark ambient soundscapes meet creeping rhythms and ecstatic oriental vibes. This is musical heresy, where the alchemical potential of not playing by the rules or expectations comes abloom. Purists, clinging on to their cherished dogmas in the dust of their crumbling temples, will be itching to burn these heretics alive.” [label info]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| HANSEN, LARS LUNDEHAVE |
Terminal Velocity |
LP |
"Lars Lundehave Hansen has for many years distinguished himself as one of the most visionary Danish sound artists. Not least, he has been a key name on the Danish scene of noise and drone as part of Noisejihad and as part of the duo Wäldchengarten. He has also distinguished himself through a series of solo releases and sound-installations, both in Denmark and internationally.This time "Terminal Velocity" shows his excellent ability to build a sonic space which is both dreamy yet physical.
Work on the album took place at the legendary EMS / Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm and resulted in no less than 21 vignettes that are included on the vinyl record.
"During my stay I tried to rethink the ways to reate atmospheric ambient and tried to incorporate this genre into a classic pop rock format, which, if anything, can be said to be in stark contrast to elongated ambient. The result is a series of electronic drones that without sacrificing the formal structures such as lead-in, motif, ascension/descension and climax, will be conducted in 3 minutes or less. The songs hold melodic scales, the noise is in tune and some of it can even be considered a kind of compositional style exercises disguised as music."
Over the years, the musical work of Lars Lundehave Hansen has focused on challenging compositions and an exploration of the spaces between tone and noise running parallel to music in the usual sense.
It may be a peculiar niche but has until now been extremely rewarding in terms of recognition, awards and prices at home and abroad, including the Danish Arts Foundation and Honorary Mention in 'Digital Music and Arts' category at Ars Electronica in 2011.
Lars Lundehave Hansen has performed worldwide, from Brazil, Japan and China to India and all across Europe. Recent Danish performance was as supporting act to the legendary William Basinski in front of a sold-out hall at Jazzhouse." [credits]
www.larslundehavehansen.dk
www.larslundehavehansen.dk |
2016 |
€18.00 |
|
| HAPSBURG BRAGANZA |
Hatchling |
CD |
"Phil Begg is a young british improviser and composer based in Newcastle. He became known in Belgium for the improvisation sessions that he was playing in every corner of the country during the summer of 2006. Armed with a few effect pedals, loopers and microphones, various objects and his mobile mono soundsystem, Phil amazed us with his intense improvisations. Whether brutal and powerful, whether quiet, flirting with some lowercase and minimal electronics influences.
Since we invited Phil to play at idioLABOAT festival in 2006 under the name of Chalfont, where he brought us his instant dives into abyssal psycho-active soundscapes and lightful envolées, we absolutely wanted to release one of his works on Idiosyncratics.
Hatchling is a slow-burning electroacoustic piece, integrating dense atmospheric collage of field recordings and concrete sound source
with highly textural drones and warm subtle harmonics. A very personal and breathtaking piece, both in the heritage of Francisco López and Charlemagne Palestine.
Artwork by Yannick Franck." [label info]
www.idiosyncratics.net
"Behind the strangely named Hapsburg Braganza we find one Phil Begg from Newcastle, who ended up on Belgiums Idiosyncratics, because 'he was playing in every corner of the country during the summer of 2006', armed with effect pedals, loopers, microphones, various objects and a mobile mono soundsystem'. I don't think I came across his name before, but the forty minute piece 'Hatchling' is indeed a very fine piece. The cover lists such instruments as Indian Harmonium, cymbals, acoustic guitar, piano, acoustic/concrete sounds and field recordings, which are specified on the cover). Somewhere there is mighty rainfall to be spotted, but otherwise the listed instruments aren't that easy to spot in this piece. The piece falls apart in three separate parts, which all flow into each other. The first part deals with electro-acoustic sounds, the second with the aforementioned water sounds and then finally a drone piece for overtones. The label calls this 'the heritage of Francisco Lopez and Charlemagne Palestine', which is quite understandable, especially when it comes to the drone piece that sounds like Palestine at his organs. The rain sounds are perhaps too obvious to be Lopez like I think. Overall, Begg does quite a fine job, and his piece, though not 'new', is one with a remarkable beauty. Moving and morphing into various genres, musique concrete, field recordings, minimalist music, this is one solid sound experience. Very nice work!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| HATI |
Die Mechanik, Die! |
CD |
Auf DIE MECHANIK, DIE! erweitern HATI ihr Spektrum und reichern ihre archaischen Gong- & Ethno-Drones mit elektronischen Gerätschaften an (v.a. dark ambiente Synths), sehr trancig & rhythmisch, ein Mitschnitt eines live-Konzerts in sehr guter Qualität.
"Trance dark electroacoustic sounds with excellent electronic machines! The album of the group from Torun - this time under the banner of Beast of Prey. A characteristic trance-gong-drone-music in the release "Die Mechanik, Die!" has been saturated with electronic sounds. Such HATI will suprise many of you! More than 45 minutes long album perfectly recorded during the performance in "the Mechanik" club in Gdansk. This time HATI famous for its acoustic sounds - made propably the darkest CD in its discography, the CD enriched with dark ambient tones. Tarry and heavy backgrounds perfectly harmonized with trance and mechanical instrumental variations of musicians move the imagination and bring nearer the world of the dying mechanics. From one side - harmonic and perfectly interrelated pieces of music, from the other side - increasing and intensifying athmosphere of the darkness which - like a rust - conquers more and more parts of urban areas. The title of this release speaks for itself." [label info]
www.beastofprey.com
HATI has got already few albums released in Poland and Europe, also from the concert aspect is one of the most recognizable projects in our country and HATI's live performances take many people breath away. The group has been performing in many cities in Poland and also abroad: in Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands. HATI is a music group founded on sounds of acoustic instuments - traditional ones with the industrial instrumentarium. |
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| HATTIFNATTER |
Barometrizm |
CD |
"Hattifnatter is a collaboration project by Evgeniy Savenko (Lunar Abyss, etc.) and M.M. (Kryptogen Rundfunk) formed in 2007 for free-form exploration of the psychoactive electroacoustic ambience and only now matured enough for this first full-length studio album. The material has been recorded in 2007-2013, infused and distilled, redefined and again sent to distillation and transformation to finally form into six compositions full of weird oneiric images.
Through the clouds of omnifarious rustles, hisses and crackles one can see the landscape built by analogue pulsations and multiplied echoed acoustic percussion clatter. Swarming in the bush of field recordings and random sound combinations are the little voices of the unknown creatures. The air of atonal guitar drones is soaked in melodic tunes, feedbacks and colourful multi-layered effects... Just like the doctor prescribed... Soulful mastering by Kshatriy (http://kshatriy.pro).
The physical manifestation of this release is made as a CD in a 4-panel cardboard digisleeve and as an audio cassette. The digital version can be bought on bandcamp, CDBaby and iTunes." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
| HAYLECK, ANDY |
The Disappearing Floor |
CD |
Interessanter US-composer mit erster CD! Die 10 Stücke hier basieren auf Field Recordings und mit Bogen gespielten grossen Becken oder Gongs. Bei seinen Feldaufnahmen nimmt er verschiedene Plätze auf oder versucht die physische Vibration von Gasen, Flüssigkeiten und Gegenständen akustisch abzubilden... das klingt meist nach ruhigen, metallischen Drones, irgendwo zwischen HARRI BERTOIA und T. TSUNODA....
Interesting US-composer with first CD ! 10 tracks based field recordings and gongs & cymbals played with a bow, he also tries to record the physical vibration of gases, liquids or solid objects...
[Drone Records info]
"Andy Hayleck has lived in Baltimore, Maryland since 1998. 'The Disappearing Floor' is Hayleck's first factory-made solo disc, gathers two years of patient and purposeful field recording in combination with bowed metal performance and carefully structured editing. The results are an exceptional series of pieces that breathe in short sips and massive whale-gasps through your speakers." [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| HAYNES, JIM |
Inauspicious |
LP |
In a recent interview, the California artist Jim Haynes was asked to name his top five noise albums. In quick fashion, he listed off Kill The King, Send, Desnos, Persona, and Carcinosi. Since then, he's equivocated on which albums to choose, but the artists behind such works remain as the adjacent signposts and landmarks to his own constructions of industrial noise. How those records connect to the output from Haynes is found in their unique combination of smoldering dynamism and psychological inquest. For over twenty five years, Haynes has been an autodidactic clinician into the processes of corrosion, decay, and rust, turning his attention away from visual practices and more to the metaphoric crucible of noise and sound. By now, it seems like a cliche that the pandemic changed everything; but since that viral encroachment, there is a noticeable shift in Haynes' work post 2020. It's more aggressive and yet more controlled: a rarification and telescoping of the research into decay for more potent noise and more potent metaphor.
The tools for Haynes' work remain limited: motors, electronics, shortwave radio, found objects, all applied with considerable pressure. Compositionally, Inauspicious is a very rough moire pattern from overlapping elliptical structures that can negate and obfuscate just as easily as they can compound and aggregate. The album surges and collapses upon the two twenty minute chunks of controlled noise that follow an internal logic that snakes from brooding power drones, spectral radio transmission, and an aktionist demolition cast upon metal, glass, and unfortunate wooden objects. Rupture and release. Purge and pulse.
|
2023 |
€22.50 |
|
| HECKER, TIM |
Harmony in Ultraviolet |
CD |
Klang, schimmernd wie helles Licht! TIM HECKER ist nun auf Kranky gelandet, was seinem recht einmaligen Drone-Sound keinen Abbruch tut, im Gegenteil, HARMONY IN VIOLET erscheint uns wie der vorläufige Höhepunkt seines Schaffens: HECKER schafft es, seine digital-sphärischen Drones fast gleichzeitig wie einen monumentalen Noise-Sturm und doch höchst emotional harmonisch & zärtlich-melancholisch erklingen zu lassen....
"Hecker geht den auf seinen letzten Alben eingeschlagenen Weg weiter, baut ihn aus, erweitert ihn. Vielleicht ist "Harmony In Ultraviolet" nicht so hart wie das letzte Album "Mirages", aber Stücke wie "Chimeras" sind nicht weniger eindrucksvoll. Sie berauschen und entziehen den Hörer der Realität. Epische, weite und hocheindrucksvolle sphärische Momente brillieren da. Sie zeigen Heckers grosses Talent für Klangforschungen im Bereich der "spektralen" Musik. Überhaupt, Tim Heckers Klangkompositionen bewegen sich wie auf einem Farbspektrum: immer wieder werden neue Facetten und Färbungen abgetastet und herauspoliert. Feinfühlig, sensibel ebenso wie kalt, dunkel und zerfahren. Doch einerseits klingen die 15 neuen Stücke auf "Harmony In Ultraviolet" so bedeutungsvoll und geladen, andererseits aber so leicht zugänglich, durchschaubar... und bedeutungslos? Wie steckt man den Rahmen ab wenn man Heckers Musik beschreiben soll? Tim Hecker bewegt sich auf einem Feld von Ambient, Drone, elektronischer Musik, Noise und einem gefühlsmässigen Metal. "Harmony In Ultraviolet" ist ein Herbstalbum und erscheint genau zur richtigen Zeit. Denn zusammengefasst klingt es einfach wie der Herbstwind in all seinen Daseinsformen." [Creative-Eclipse]
"Call Canadian Tim Hecker's fourth full-length release (and first for drone-oriented American label Kranky) "ambient for bombardiers." Like onetime-tourmates Isis, Hecker's focus is on the molten core of metal—the drones, distortions, compressed crunching, and industrial noises that course underneath its notes and riffs. Not surprisingly, one of his earliest releases deconstructed and distended Van Halen's "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love" to more ambient ends. The display of WWII-era portraiture on Harmony in Ultraviolet's cover suggests a cenotaph to downed pilots (in actuality it's an anti-fascist memorial), while the overhead shot of Bologna, Italy, on the interior forebodes the imminent firebombing. Hecker's focus, though, is on the interior of that flying fortress, a blurry suite of movements rife with churns and buzzes. At these stratospheric heights, the guitar's distinct qualities are made fuzzy and uncertain via laptop and digital effects. If you melted off the pop structure from My Bloody Valentine's Loveless with some molten magma, you'd have a good idea of Hecker's sound.
Flow is maintained throughout, as Tim Hecker apparently understands that ever-tricky notion of fluid dynamics. He breaks up motifs (see "Palimpsest") with churning ebbs and digressions but keeps together the pinnacle suite, "Whitecaps of White Noise." And while Hecker has always been an adept craftsman, Harmony reveals his mastery of the idiom. Washes now feel oceanic, as epic and evocative ripples take shape out of unplumbed depths of feedback and distorted peals." [Andy Beta]
"....Harmony is, paradoxically, Hecker's most dramatic and most oceanic record. The former implies twists, arc, and carefully planned change intended to evoke specific effects; the latter suggests stasis, immersion, and a state of dreamy contemplation. Harmony manages to be both these things by surprising as it mesmerizes, with Hecker reigning in or tempering any jarring effects just enough to keep the self-obliterating sense of endless drone intact. One key is that the tension never really dissipates, varying only in degree and quality. The opening "Rainbow Blood" sets the scene with a screeching and trebly drone, like an orchestra tuning up in the darkened theater where Rebecca del Rio performed in Mulholland Drive, and for the next 48 minutes, Harmony keeps the pulse elevated..." [Mark Richardson / Pitchforkmedia]
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Norberg |
maxi-CD |
"....Imagine if you will sitting on the sand of some enchanted beach somewhere, precisely at the intersection between land and ocean, where the waters break upon the shore. This is like an endlessly crashing wave of drones and rumbles, the sound swirling around one’s ears, initially breaking into myriads of liquid cut-diamond arpeggios glinting in the pure sunlight and submerging the body in womb-like warmth; and then slowly and infinitesimally receding, the music clinging longingly, almost reluctant to let go. Paradoxically, one doesn’t feel stifled or as if grasping for breath; instead, there’s a feeling of timelessness and limitless freedom, as if one could be absorbed by the waters and somehow find oneself a part of every single drop of water in the oceans and seas. Also paradoxically, even though the drones drape one in the velvet of the deepest ocean depths there is contradictorily a fragile beauty, airiness and lightness evident throughout." [S:M:J63, Heathen Harvest]
"Recorded at the Norberg Festival (Sweden) amidst the mineshafts and cluttered buildings strewn throughout parts the city, this 21 minute live piece summarises much of what makes Tim Hecker’s music so vital and compelling. Adept at counter-pointing the most ferocious of distorted platters with smooth beds of ambient sound and potent melodic overtones, Tim Hecker creates music with a vast depth. On Norberg, this depth seems almost endless, as layer upon layer of sound are compiled into a swelling and all together visceral oceanic sound wave.
Recently touring Australia and New Zealand and performing at ROOM40’S annual festival Open Frame, this CD comes on the back of some incredible live performances in the Southern Hemisphere." [label info]
label-website: www.room40.org
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| HEIRS |
Fowl |
CD |
"Upon returning to Melbourne after 67 shows across Europe and Japan, Heirs commenced work on their second album, Fowl. With the baton of core song-writing being handed from drummer Damian Coward to guitarist, Brent Stegeman, Heirs turned their attention toward their electronic underbelly, honing in on the industrial vapour and blackened ambience that
permeated their debut, Alchera, distilling the underlying sense of melody with an arresting sense of dread. Fowl displays a deliberate shift towards a broader sonic palette, enabling the band to incorporate disparate inuences and approaches to create a sound that is uniquely their own.
Fowl deals with the human processing of the ornery – the filth we feed upon to entertain us, to sate our hunger, to gratify our sexual desires, to escape our reality or simply to facilitate our survival. Fowl is an exploration of the consumption of filth, the nourishment it provides and the way we excrete it back into the world, calling into question the notion of morality and its place in an increasingly faithless populace.
From wheezing blasts of industrial steam to weeping passages of gothic suspense, Fowl is a fully realised analysis of the repugnant. Its pugilistic rhythmic foundation, reverb soaked guitars, crackling electronics and deadpan dark-wave meditation create an abstract dronescape of industrial dirge and metallic ambience coalesced into an ambitious whole.
Recorded and mixed by Neil Thomason at Head Gap in June/July 2010, and produced by Brent Stegeman and Damian Coward, Fowl is a 45-minute journey inside the proverbial machine and represents a band confronting the visual and aural atrocities of the quotidian.
The VINYL VERSION comes with a fantastic design in three different colors (white with yellow, Black/Yellow - A Side / B Side, Black) in a heavy gatefold sleeves with thick printed inner sleeves and on 180g. The CD is available as a limited card pack. For fans of Swans, Controlled Bleeding, HTRK, Pelican, Godflesh & Nadja." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2010 |
€14.50 |
|
| HELICE PIED |
Conduit No. 2 |
7 |
Debut-Release von HELICE PIED, nach einer Namensumwandlung aus NIXILX.NIJILX hervorgegangen. "Intelligent Drone" aus nicht-elektronischen Quellen gesponnen, die Cover-Artwork verwendet vielfältige aufeinanderbezogene Symbole und versteckte Bedeutungen... weisses Vinyl, gold-farben bemalte schwarze Cover.
"HELICE PIED is a newcomer from Athens, Greece, who had a few outstanding releases before under the nom de plume NIXILX.NIJILX, but for this very first vinyl release a new project-name was chosen. #Conduit No.2# is a perfect example of sensibly spun experimental drone, floating waves with metallic tinkling-sounds slowly approaching and disappearing again, soft white noise-swooshes circulating widely around an invisible center... sound-sources are hardly recognizable (coming from concrete sounds of churchbells and e-guitar), the atmosphere rising is one of quietness & meditation, able to transcend your mind. All words & symbols HELICE PIED uses (see inlay & cover-structure & endgroove) have a strong structural and inter-related meaning...Filed under: hologram-drones. BLACK COVERS WITH HANDPAINTED GOLDEN COCK & CHURCH BELLS ON IT"
[press release]
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
| HENNIES, NICK |
Work |
CD |
"Nick Hennies makes music from work - and work into music. Simply put, work is process and one of Hennies' goals as a composer is to shape the possibilities of a given instrument as well as its sonic imprint. The result is austere, lyrical solo percussion music that focuses on resonance, natural overtones, room acoustics and slowly developing structure. As Hennies' art matures, it has become clearer and more refined, whether appearing to be finely tuned adjustments to previous approaches or something altogether unheard. Hennies now lives in Ithaca, New York, though he was based in Austin, Texas for many years, where he was a member of the Austin New Music Co-Op and played drums in doom-folk outfit The Weird Weeds. Work is Hennies' latest release and first for the revamped Quakebasket label and it consists of two pieces. The first is a ten-minute solo vibraphone piece called 'Settle,' which as it evolves, brings out electrifying resonances that evoke the early piano music of Charlemagne Palestine or even the lush dogma of Brian Eno and Michael Nyman. Hennies has famously explored the shapely vibrational properties of woodblocks, making them truly sing in a way that few Western percussionist-composers have, so it should be no surprise that his coaxing of metal lamellae, cylinders and sustain pedal would result in a panoply of interlocking and unfolding shapes. These shapes are patently the result of refined action - striking, damping, and measuring intervals - but reducing their behavior to stimulus and response oversimplifies the comely beauty that his instrument produces. The bulk of Work is made up of the forty minute 'Expenditures,' which shows a side of Hennies' compositional strategy for ensemble (something that's been emerging gradually on recent releases). His vibraphone is joined by several Austin new music regulars, including bassists Ingebrigt HŒker Flaten (The Thing, The Young Mothers, Scorch Trio) and Brent Fariss, drummer Chris Cogburn, clarinetist Jon Doyle, trombonist Steve Parker, and violinist Travis Weller, with the horns and strings also doubling on percussion in the piece's closing minutes. As Hennies puts it, 'the goal of the piece is for the musicians to play sustained tones on the same pitches as the vibraphone and then eventually to play 'work music,' where the players each come up with their own phrase to be repeated until the end of the piece. 'Though the first fifteen minutes are rooted in gently nattering repetition and the ghostly shapes that emerge from ringing sustained drones, the ensemble's whispers at first seem to follow suit before their weight vis-à-vis personality emerges rather quickly. Thus, while initially this music might seem to espouse the arid mathematics of minimalism (albeit with rare poiesis), the individualism of each player as an improviser within a surprisingly unruly collective vision emerges. The effect is something like Gunter Hampel's Galaxie Dream Band playing Terry Riley's In C. Though far from a traditional avant-garde improviser and avowedly distant from free jazz, it's entirely fair to place Hennies' piece within the pantheon of conducted/directed improvisation from such minds as Laurie Scott Baker, John Stevens, Gavin Bryars and Radu Malfatti. As Hennies said in a 2011 interview with online journal Ni Kantu, 'What I really want to do is harness my natural inclinations rather than decide to 'do' certain things, and that's why there's a wide variety of music that I've put out recently. I'm a little self conscious that I have music that doesn't sound like it was made by the same person, but I would like to think that over several years there would be a palpable connection between these things. I would like to create a body of work that gives one an example of where I was at certain points, and this is one of the biggest influences I got from John Duncan, where he says that 'all of my work is about self-discovery and trying to learn about [himself].' As singular as Work may appear, it is a fascinating outgrowth from a decade-strong book of generative themes and processes, all reflecting on a committed, physical engagement with the implements of sound production." [label info]
"Percussion player Hennies belongs currently to one of my favoured minimalist composers. His pieces are deceivingly simple and highly hypnotic. So far, I think, the pieces I heard from him where solo pieces, for such instruments as snare drum and vibraphone, but here we have two pieces, one for solo instrument and one for small ensemble. In the solo piece 'Settle' Hennies has a multi-track recording of him playing the vibraphone in his 'usual' style. Stead fast with overtones ringing through. Maybe there is some sort of post-production in this music? Like out of phase placing of the various layers? Maybe, but I doubt that. It sounds more like an exercise in controlling the instrument and various ways to play the same thing over and over. Over the course of the ten pieces the piece gradually dies out, and reaches no particular place in nowhere land.
The small ensemble piece is called 'Expenditures' and is for percussion, sine waves, clarinet, contrabass, vibraphone, trombone and violin, in which Hennies himself plays the vibraphone. This piece starts out, for a long time, to be a piece for vibraphone solo again, or so it seems, but the sine waves play very nicely along and gradually the piece seems to be falling apart - like in 'Settle', dying out - and the ensemble takes over. A very spacious piece of music then evolves - seemingly out of nowhere, seemingly going nowhere. But it keeps unfolding. One could think this was improvised rather than composed but what do I know? Maybe it's somewhere in between? The instruments bending forever, making small gestures, plucking strings, maybe with objects and all such like. It has that jazz like feel, like that recent release by The Necks, but also electro-acoustic and modern classical. It's perhaps not something I would expect from him, but it sounds no less great!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| HERBST9 |
:Enenylyn: (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
“Probably the most well-known band of the new Drone Records 7”-releases. This is the first non-LOKI release by the German dark/transcendental ambient-duo from Leipzig, who already gained cult-status. The two pieces on this EP are filled with roaring feedbacks & amorphic sounds. Deep reverberations evoke impressions of endless vaults, halls & tunnels way down deep below this Earth. In addition to this music whereabouts, there’s an intense emotional imprinting, like being in the middle of a sacrificial or shamanic ritual. This music has the psychedelic drug power to evoke ancient gods.
~ Filed under: sacrificial / shamanic drones ~
WHITE VINYL. BLACK COVERS WITH HAND-PRINTED BANDEROLE.” [press-release]
|
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
| HIGASHI, YOKO & LIONEL MARCHETTI |
Okura 73°N-42°E |
CD |
“Musica Genera presents another album from French musique concrète composer Lionel Marchetti (in 2005 MG had released the CD “Docteur Kramer (you are not you)” by Lionel Marchetti and Emmanuel Petit), this time realised together with his artistic partner Yôko Higashi, Japanese performer, dancer and vocalist. The album contains three compositions of musique concrète, one by Marchetti, one by Higashi and a collaborative work by both artists. Each of the tracks is an elaborate sound construction of individual characteristics and unique sound aura. “Pétrole 73” is the artistic fruit of Marchetti’s stay at the “Stubnitz” trawler, the one of a kind ship rebuilt as a floating cultural centre. Analogue drones, radio voices and mechanical sounds of working hull create the atmosphere that contrasts with next composition. “Okura” was realised by Higashi basing on the sound material gathered in Mozambique. Field recordings of African nature and surprising electronic interventions interweave with fragments of ethnic music, leading the listener towards the final, collaborative track. “Pétrole 42” captivates with it’s sonic depth and uncanny, ethereal aura created by delicate synthesiser passages, distant, unearthly voices, chants, breaths, punctuated with disturbing, aggressive concrète sounds.”
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| HIROSHIMABEND |
Vekks |
CD |
Since 1998, American producer puppy38 has been recording under the project name hiroshimabend. With a range varying from found sounds, field recordings and industrial rhythms to long, dark drones and ambient/avant-noise, listening to the music of hiroshimabend has been likened to the experience of swimming in a milky lake of black ink. Over the course of 19 years based in Austin, Texas, to the last few years residing in Vienna, Austria, hiroshimabend has released a significant body of work on self-run independent label opiumdenpluto. In recent years, the project has released several items in stunning hand-made packaging, for example a CD in a book with artwork by puppy38 or an 11 CD set based on recordings made at the clock tower in Prague's main square. Recent music has included archival sounds by the legendary band Coil, or vocal contributions by Zoe DeWitt of Zero Kama and Korpses Katatonik fame. Live At Vekks was recorded on a freezing cold night at Vekks Club, Vienna, in October 2021. The first installment of a series of limited edition CDs presenting recordings of live shows in Vienna. Full tracklist: 1. Benedictus Fornicatus 2. E4RK 3. Blobbl 4. Syllabarimau 5. A Priori.
https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg397
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| HIS DIVINE GRACE |
Le Grand Secret |
CD |
Auf dem Schwesterlabel von TREUE UM TREUE erscheint dieses hochmelancholische und philosophische Werk des französisches Projekts, dass uns in seiner "sad ambient" - Melodiosität an frühe REUTOFF erinnert hat...
"Inspired by the works of the Traditionalists and the lives and deaths of Sekens Murdock and Leontin V. Abilgaard, Moonchild Erik’s fourth CD album “Le Grand Secret” (The Great Secret) takes the shape of a metaphysical reflection on the deceptions of human language, in which Murdock and Abilgaard saw the main cause for the world of confusion we live in. Musically more accessible than “Eurydice” or “Reverse Aleph”, this very diverse new opus is the worthy successor of “Die Schlangenkönigin”, hovering from emotional soundscapes and spacey dub rhythms into gloomy, awe-inspiring drones with even noisy elements. An initiation through pure sound." [label info]
"...Tackling literary philosophical surrealism is a rather daunting task yet His Divine Grace has successfully extracted the subtle nuances of this newest muse and has distilled the rudimentary literary aesthetic into a long audio voyage filled with mystery and esoteric darkness. The album explores a wide array of carefully constructed dark ambient and experimental soundscapes as it leads the listener through imaginative and stimulating sonic worlds that shimmer like mirages. Dark ambient drones and electronic sounds are contorted into breathtaking monuments of sound that lay long shadows across barren wastelands of uninhabitable terrain. Like titans fighting battles long forgotten each track makes a definitive and powerful statement as His Divine Grace unfolds contemplative compositions that inspire and demand reflection.
The CD is spilt into three definitive chapters. Chapter one titled “These – Sekens Murdock” showcases the musical tribute to Murdock and establishes the musical introduction. Track one tilted “Les chevaux de feu” begins the album with an epic dark ambient anthem that combines churning industrial strength noise with interlacing drones and thunderous industrial sounds. Elusive samples of organ and choir enhance the experience lending a humanist emotional depth to the somber apocalyptic decimation established the industrial side of the music. Track two titled “Les gardiens du grand secret” features a shift in sound as His Divine Grace sheds the tormented confines of dark ambient music and steers the listner into ethereal ambience. Using a simple collection of finely articulated electronic sounds His Divine Grace sculpts a luminous song that elevates the spirit as it transports the listner into a sonic domain of alternating tones of purity. Track four titled “Verbum, lux et vita” unfolds with an element of suspense and an unknown presence dominating the tentative atmosphere as if invisible dwellers rove beyond the perimeter of the senses. Track four titled “Le voile levé” concludes the first chapter of the CD with a lonely and lengthy composition that combines delicate sonorous tones with tamed industrial rhythms and tuba like notes that resonate from the depths. “Le voile levé” is reminiscent of the organic ambient flow once achieved by O Yuki Conjugate though slightly darker and freed from the constrains of any ethnic influence.
Chapter two titled “Antithèse - Leontin Voigt Abilgaard” features five compositions themed around Abilgaard. The chapter begins with song five titled “De la nécessité de se taire.” “De la nécessité de se taire” leads the listner once again into yet another independent composition whose identity is only tenuously connected to its peers. The song begins with ominous drone music that is paired with voice samples and recorded sounds of water. As the song progresses the atmosphere darkens significantly as a threatening tone is established. Feelings of loneliness and isolation begin to creep up on the listner as His Divine Grace conjures forth an experimental ambient ballad that breathes with an uneasy rasp as it guides you through reflections of emotional carnage and fragility. Track six titled “Frayeurs initiatiques” continues the journey of isolation though the subterranean depths of the previous song seem somewhat further away. Using simple electronic tones and drones His Divine Grace subdues the listner with a hypnotic assault of suffering ambience. Track seven titled “Pourquoi... toujours pourquoi” sees light beginning to pierce the darkness as a slowly churning palate of voice samples dances with steadily growing waves of electronic sounds that drift awash in a delicate tapestry of sound. Like hope rising from the ashes of defeat the music gently stirs the listeners spirit to remember what has been lost and to react and reclaim. “L’opposition tacite” retreats once again into another suspenseful ambient narrative filled with dark ambience and ritualistic overtones that combine to offer a song filled with primal elements and an esoteric darkness that is tangible. “Le quatre-heure de crystal” ends the Abilgaard chapter of the CD on an experimental note as His Divine Grace abandons the listner to musical surrealism with a strong mind bending psychedelic tinge. Like witnessing events from the perspective of a heavily tranquilized yet conscious person the music washes across the listner like fragmented waves of conscious thought disarrayed and decaying.
Synthese et Syncretisme is the third and final chapter of the Le Grand Secret CD and it features a single song titled “Le Principe immuable.” ‘Le Principe immuable” is the most contemplative of all the tracks on the album and it lasts for more than sixteen minutes allowing for total submersion in the music. The finale does not end with a bang but rather on a very gentle note as His Divine Grace coaxes an incredible amount of sentiment, reflection and emotion from some of the simplest musical elements ever applied. Oscillating notes tepidly induce a spell that closes the album with brilliance and delicacy.
His Divine Grace is the type of electronic music that I covet. Grounded in industrial and ambient music His Divine Grace expertly melds his industrial musicl foundation with the openness of experimental composition. Each song is like a living entity, some transcendent and others primal and raw. Le Grand Secret sees His Divine Grace come to full fruition as he seizes upon literary figures deserving of his creativity. Le Grand Secret is an awesome display of imagination and musical surrealism and I highly recommend the album to those seeking to revel in previously undiscovered musical domains. Those who like bands like Propergol, Tordoih, Dusk Of Hope, and other promising dark filmic ambient music are encouraged to check out Le Grand Secret." [Malahki Thorn / Heathen Harvest]
|
2006 |
€6.00 |
|
| HODELL, AKE & DAVID GRUBBS |
Igevär / Yellow Sky |
LP |
Rare Scheibe mit zwei unveröffentlichten Stücken des legendären schwedischen Sound-Poetikers AKE HODELL (unglaubliche Stimmen-Drones, von 1963 und 1965, extrem!), dazu hat HODELL-Fan DAVID GRUBBS eine theatralisches Hörspiel-artiges Stück komponiert! Weisses Vinyl, Klappcover, ausführliche liner notes.
"The first release by Kning Disk is a 12 vinyl, consisting of two legendary works (one previously unreleased) by Swedish text-sound pioneer Ake Hodell; Igevr (1965) and General Bussig (1963), coupled with a specially composed piece by the north American pop-experimental musician David Grubbs; Yellow Sky (2004). The cover is created by Swedish artist Elis E. Eriksson." [label info]
|
2004 |
€20.00 |
|
| HOLLOWING + MAOR APPELBAUM |
Collaborating Torture |
CD |
"Collaborating Torture is one of the last known recordings made by Matt Gibney AKA Hollowing, who died in January 2006. Gibney, a member of SOIHADTOSHOOTHIM who was also running the important Rectrix label and mail-order, was joined here by the prolific Maor Appelbaum (Grave in the Sky, Poochaltz and Maurizio Bianchi, to name a few) to create a brooding and massive 54 minutes track of dark pitch-black ambient of hypnagogic swirls and industrialized drones. Sometimes subtle, yet mostly haunted and delirious, this is highly recommended if you like Wilt, Murderous Vision, Brighter Death Now, Aidan Baker, Z'ev, Daniel Menche, The Caretaker and John Duncan.
1 track, 54 min long." [label info]
www.HCBrecords.com, www.topheth.org
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| HOLLYWOOD DREAM TRIP |
Second Album |
CD |
listen:
https://christophheemann.bandcamp.com/album/second-album
"As much as I try to 'follow' some musicians' actions, I don't always keep up. I am pretty sure I knew that Christoph Heemann (once of HNAS, Mimir, Mirror, but mostly of himself) had teamed up with Will Long (mostly of Celer fame, but also doing other ambient music projects, but also works with minimal dance music as
Long Trax). From the small discography of Hollywood Dream Trip, I understand that they work together whenever Will Long is in Europe—three albums in 2013 and two (digital) ones in 2021. One of the three from 2013 is 'Would You Like To Know More', a line from the Paul Verhoeven movie 'Starship Troopers'. They also recorded 'Second Album' in 2013 (no release is called 'First Album'), which they released as a CDR in an edition of 50 copies for the tour they did that year—now finding its way to a broader audience and quite rightfully so. Armed with a Moog Rogue, Roland MC-202, Lexicon PCM90, Electro Harmonix Random Tone Generator and tapes, they set out to record this forty-two-minute piece of slow-moving drones. There seem to be some field recordings in this piece, but they are hard to find here. In the beginning, there is a slow bump, like a heartbeat during sleep, which slowly alters as the piece evolves and the sound opens up. Becoming a tad lighter and brighter, maybe the heartbeat is the same, but it feels different because of the changing synthesiser sounds. It's not the kind of music I recommend when sleeping (in fact, I would never recommend any music during sleep, but that's my occasional insomnia speaking), as the overall tone remains dark. Especially around the thirty-minute mark, things roughen and could create a nightmarish scenario. It's not as relaxing as it could have been, which is good. This has all the markings of a live-in-the-studio recording, not trying to smooth things out too much. I enjoyed this work a lot, especially for that direct, in-your-face quality; nothing all too fancy, yet never anywhere close to being a full-on noise thing (far from it); just the sort of drone improvisation I love. (FdW)
"Stephen Meixner hat neben seiner Arbeit mit Contrastate und Soloaufnahmen auf seinem kleinen Label Black Rose Recordings in den letzten Jahren eine Reihe von Alben anderer Künstler aus dem weiten Feld der Geräuschmusik veröffentlicht – zuletzt wurden bei uns noch hervorragende Alben von rlw und Asmus Tietchens besprochen.
Nun wiederveröffentlicht er das zweite Album von Hollywood Dream Trip, einem aus Christoph Heemann und Will Long bestehenden Duo, das um 2013 aktiv war (und insgesamt drei Alben veröffentlichte), dem Jahr, in dem auch das lapidar „Second Album“ betitelte Zweitwerk in Aachen aufgenommen wurde. Ursprünglich war „Second Album“ nur als auf 50 Exemplare limitierte CD-R während einer Tour von Heemann und Long erhältlich.
Eingespielt u.a. mit Moog Rogue und einem Roland MC-202 beginnt „Second Album“ mit dunklem, reduziertem Dröhnen und Pulsieren, zu dem nach und nach melodische flächige Sounds hinzukommen, die anfangs im Hintergrund bleiben. In weiteren Verlauf der 40 Minuten zu einem lauter werdenden, an- und abschwellenden Drone steigern. Als vor etlichen Jahren auf diesen Seiten Hollywood Dream Trips „Would You Like To Know More?“ besprochen wurde, konnte man lesen, man könne den Namen des Projekts „aber auch als Hinweis auf das Unterbewussste, Somnambule sehen – auf das, was dem Verstand oft nur indirekt zugänglich ist. Letzteres kommt einem beim Hören der zwei etwa 20-minütigen Tracks dann auch schnell in den Sinn.“
Letztlich passen diese Überlegungen auch zu dieser Veröffentlichung. Das ist nämlich, um auf das zweite Substantiv im Projektnamen zu kommen, tatsächlich eine im wahrsten und beiderlei Wortsinne „traumhafte“ Musik“ und es ist ein interessanter Kontrast zwischen dem doch recht prosaischen Titel des Albums und dieser Musik, der fortwährend ein Moment des Ver- und Entrücktseins innewohnt. Man kann sich problemlos eine nächtliche Fahrt durch die Hollywood Hills vorstellen, während man die CD hört und an David Lynchs Haus vorbeifährt. Zu dieser durchgängig somnambulen Atmosphäre passt dann auch das von Christoph Heemann gezeichnete Cover." [MG/African Paper]
|
2023 |
€13.00 |
|
| HOLOTROP |
Manifestation de l'Antinatalisme |
LP |
"dark ambient activist holotrop returns to raubbau after his 2017 offering „dead bird calling“ - and again he fathoms the darkest and doomiest realms of his art. his nihilism seems almost prophetic considering the course of the world, a world which is literally in flames! replete with philosophical references, „manifeste de l’antinatalisme“ conjures up a truly dystopian vision of the world. this lp is a sinister swan song to consumerism, eternal growth and progress, a eulogy for humanity as such.
and yet, there’s a sense of irony in the fact that holotrop puts across his message in the most refined musical way, a subtly complex approach he has developed in recent years, a versatility that enables him to make his statement as simple and concise at it is: immersive synth drones lure the listener to the edge of the abyss, pounding beats send him into the vortex of despair.
better to never have been born!"
https://raubbau.bandcamp.com/album/manifestation-de-lantinatalisme
|
2020 |
€20.00 |
|
| HOLTKAMP, KOEN |
Field Rituals |
CD |
" 'Field Rituals' is the first solo album to come from Koen Holtkamp, an artist probably better known as one half of ambient duo Mountains. Based in Brooklyn, Koen created the album slowly and as a love letter of sorts, taking in delicate field recordings and using them like faded photos representing his distinct memories of the people and places he chanced upon. Some may have heard the incredible ‚Make Haste’ which appeared on limited edition vinyl earlier in the year, but this was only a taste of what Koen has to offer on ’Field Rituals’.
Taking cues from the classic ambience of Brian Eno and fusing it with the instrumental subtlety of Sweden’s Tape, Koen has come up with an aural book on his subject matter. Each track feels entwined in the next and feels like a part of something much bigger. Sure we’ve heard field recordings, synthesizers and guitars before but rarely have these instruments been injected with such a lightness of touch and with such a delicate open ear. Each listen reveals more, like peeling back layers of onion skin – take the album’s epic centrepiece ’Sky Flowers’ for example, which blends slow-moving synthesizers with good-natured environmental recordings and shimmering strings. The result is explosive somehow, with the grandeur more usually exploited by Arvo Part being framed with a distant electronic ambience.
The slow-burning pace is probably the single most important facet and reveals an artist at ease with his musical choices, something unusual in a genre brimming with young hopefuls. A good comparison might be Stars of the Lid, but Koen’s music is more organic and more humble somewhat than the ex-Texan duo. In the end we are just proud that Koen has allowed us a look into this most personal of works." [label info]
"Here be the first full length album from Mountains-man Koen Holtkamp. You may recall we got in (and sold out) his contribution to
the A Room Forever series of LPs commissioning artists to match a field recording on one side with a sympathetic composition on the other. Where his offering there was a dark-hued, ominous crescendo of crackled drone sourced from acoustic guitar, Field Rituals has its
head in the clouds. Holtkamp begins the album with a lovely round of brightly rendered acoustic guitar finger picking with some tricked out ring modulation effects giving each of the tones a sun-flecked glow and funhouse mirror curvature. Sustained drones from loops of melodica and harmonica mutate into an ersatz harmonium with the soaring overtones and sweeping fluctuations of tonalities gently crashing into each other. The loops every once in a while coalesce into a rhythmic underbelly, but mostly they settle as a effervescent bubbling of overlapping delay patterns and softly shimmered ambience. On top of all of this, Holtkamp dapples everything with his shimmered guitar and occasional crackles of tactile objects (he mentions water, seeds, ice, and paper) as well as field recordings of giggly children romping in a playground. The effect is somewhere between the immaculate pieces from Keith Fullerton Whitman's recordings and the bright-eyed naturalist
wonder of the Jewelled Antler camp. Really gorgeous stuff from the ever impressive Type label." [Aquarius Records review]
www.typerecords.com
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| HUM |
Flesh of the Soul |
CD |
Nach vielen selbstveröffentlichten CDRs hier endlich die erste "grössere" Veröffentlichung von HUM, "Flesh of the Soul" besteht aus neun mantrischen Drone-Meditationen, die einen sehr sanft und fast unmerklich umschlingen....Musik wie das geheimnisvolle Wispern der Natur, wie der hörbar gemachte Gesang des Äthers. Klänge die das Mysterium der Existenz ausdrücken & wiederspiegeln, dunkel aber überhaupt nicht depressiv...
HUM schafft es immer wieder, die Drones nicht "banal" klingen zu lassen, sondern voller emotionaler Tiefe... und höchst authentisch!
"Being well-known to the inner circles of russian industrialists for his long-time work under different names, Hum didn’t have such an attention that he deserves until now, when Quag decides to change the situation and to offer the first CD of this brilliant russian talent. His mystical cold ambient explores the nature of soul and the soul of nature, the mysteries hidden in the sky, the earth, the water, the forest. Simple and minimalistic musically, Hum is very complex in its influence on a listener’s perception. Quiet unconstrained sound sorcery opens the higher realms of the unseen. Being far from dark and depression Hum is even more far from New-Age-like garbage. Recommended for those who wants to have a rest from darkness without dipping in syrup. The first edition of 300 copies in a special “Quag-pack” printed silver-on-black. IST 024 CD" [label info]
"Finally, after the numerous CDRs and one 7” on Drone Records, this is the first factory-pressed CD of this brilliant drone-ambient project. “Flesh Of The Soul”, which is definitely one of the best works Dmitry Chistov has ever done, is a real masterpiece of cold transcendental soundscapes. The album is filled with majestic melancholy, it is clear and soothing, there’s a plenty of veiled melodies and celestial harmonies hidden inside its simple sound structures. It sounds a bit nostalgic cause Dmitry uses only old-fashioned tape-technique and analogue synth loops, utilizing digital devices just for the final mastering, but the atmosphere is very special, reminding of early Zoviet France, Maeror Tri, Tesendalo or Aidan Baker. It could seem very peaceful and calm, but beyond this bright and peaceful surface the sorrow and darkness is hidden. The beauty of this music is enchanting and it is hard to resist its magical spells, so it might be difficult to fight the desire to play this album over and over in yearning to experience again the tender touch of this unearthly Flesh Of The Soul. The album is limited to 300 copies and comes in special package printed silver on black. Very recommended!" [press release / Indiestate]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ether Rider (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
“Drone Records is proud to present HUM, another newcomer from the growing russian experimental scene, who had out before a few most promising self-released CDrs on his own label. HUM (originally a reduction from “hum-an”) sees his work as a representation of emptiness and sound, derived from tantric tradition. The basic intention is the “restoration of mythological time”. This release, being dedicated to “magic flight”, enlights on the first track with full vibrating “cosmic” drones, sounding like a swarm of low-pitched insects. The second piece CRUCIBLE is more loop-structured & noisy, with low-fi mechanized rumblings, filled with organic substances... two fantastic sound-samples that show the ability of drone-sound to lead your inner mind into the center of nothingness. Filed under: magic-flight drones. BLACK VINYL. MINIMAL DESIGNED WHITE COVERS WITH B/W PHOTO” [press release] |
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Landmarks in Mistcape |
CD-R |
"Extended reissue of Hum material previously available as a very limited edition split-cassette with Misery. Minimalistic drones with wavy rolls of reworked field recordings, glimmer of resonant loops, slow whirling of sonic shadows..." [Zhelezobeton] |
2010 |
€11.00 |
|
| HUM / SMALL TOWN ZOMBIE |
Stupefactions |
CD-R |
65 min / 9 tracks collaboration work of these two Russian projects, ultra-slow & deep abstract & ethereal drone-ambience, like listening to the air 10 km above the earth. Strange & mysterious, softly roaring sounds, in no way monosonic as there’s enough variation between the tracks...
“...this work is dedicated to stupor state, contains pieces recorded between june 2003 and january 2005. (except last part, recorded in august 2001). Some parts was taken from tapes recorded as Small Town Zombie (real-time processed street noise), others - hum stuff ( various-sources drones and processed tapes & field recordings)” [HUM]
“....How aptly this is named, a soundtrack as an ode to those moments when we become amazed, jaw dropped and paralyzed due to the subsequent emotion...a state of short catatonia where reality ends up distorted, twisted, blurred, revealing something new and unknown along the process... really excellent (will end up in my end of the year list of fave albums !)...” [Daniel Crokaert/Mystery Sea]
|
2005 |
€9.50 |
|
| HUMAN GREED |
Black Hill: Midnight at the Blighted Star |
CD |
Drittes Album dieser Band aus Edingburgh, die sehr melancholische instrumentelle Sounds (z.B. von Cello, Piano) mit ambienten synth- drones verbinden... für "Black Hill" konnten sie zudem namhafte Leute (u.a. DAVID TIBET und CLODAGH SIMONDS) zu Gastauftritten bewegen, aber auch so wäre dies ein äussert lohnenswertes Album für Freunde der ruhig-atmosphärischen, fast schon cinematischen Musik. Ein mitunter wunderschönes, mitunter verstörendes Werk, wie ein Eintritt in einen seltsamen fremden Traum..
"Maybe a release with the help of David Tibet, Clodagh Simonds, Fabrizio Palumbo and Julia Kent might not be the sort of thing I would want to sort out, but I only found that out after I heard Human Greed's third album 'Black Hill: Midnight At The Blighted Star'. Human Greed is a duo of Michael Begg and Deryk Thomas, and instruments are not given for them. The guests however contribute cello, voice, treatments and piano. I assume both Begg and Thomas are responsible for the electronics part of this project. The voices used are merely pushed to the background and seem to be reciting a small text every now and then. The piano and cello form nice counterparts in the ambient mass of sound, and warm interludes. This music, despite the occasional use of voices, is mainly instrumental music. Lots of sound effects, lots of atmospherics are captured here and as such resemble everything from Brian Eno to any and none in particular movement in the world of ambient music. Sometimes too forceful to be truly spacious, and sometimes with a sudden stop or change, but that adds, I think, to the quality of the album. Though not entirely new in approach, it takes the best from various directions in ambient music and makes a very nice hybrid form of it. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"The third album by Edinburgh's finest exponents of often haunting, yet always touching, ebb and flow. Includes very special guest appearances by Julia Kent (Antony & the Johnsons, Blind Cave Salamander), Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Blind Cave Salamander, Larsen), David Tibet (Current 93) and Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex). Gathering together material quite possibly amounting to their most accomplished yet, 'Black Hill...' is akin to being caught in the trail of a shooting star heading to the very place where dreams, fears, hopes and an overwhelming sense of helpless abandonment teeter over the periphery of yet another rather enticing void. At once beautiful, melancholic, slightly bruised and foreboding, the music here never fails to captivate. Also features fantastic exclusive artwork from Deryk Thomas and Alan McGowan. Released November 2008." [label info]
www.lumbertontrading.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
World Fair |
CD |
"Michael Begg: This is my 5th record as Human Greed, 7th if you include the non-ensemble pieces Dirt on Earth and the OMEGA soundtrack I released last year for Moscow’s blackSKYwhite theatre company. This one has been cooking for two years and has seen me attempt to up my game with regards to formal musical theory and composition. There is a lot going on in there and I don’t know how to begin marking out its foundations for you. Possibly best just to remain relatively quiet on the matter and hope it can speak for itself over a few listens. However, the songcraft has its roots partly in the 16th century – from where also arises the preoccupation with melancholy and mortality- and there is much to be owed to the second law of thermodynamics, entropy, the singularity and heat death of the observable universe. That is all touched upon lightly, though I was keen to explore the potential for that science to be represented in a devotional mode more associated with faith.
The ensemble this time is notable particularly for the number of voices that come into the recording. This, in itself, is unusual for someone like me so closely associated with ambient drifts and drones.
So, aside from my long time partner, Deryk Thomas, Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks, Ministry) gives a stylish reading of a traditional Scottish folk song, Scottish Jazz institution Sophie Bancroft joins the fold (I worked with her in the late 1990s running music and memory recovery workshops in dementia wards) and Sukie Smith from London’s Madam is also here. Nicole M. Boitos, sleeve artist for Swans, and James Blackstock, as well as my own Fortress Longing album shows that she, too, can hold a note. And I love her spoken word reading of the central World Far text on Waiting In A Car.
Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound, Monos) being a long time collaborator both through Fovea Hex and Fragile Pitches is once again on hand to contribute to the treatments and I am so thrilled to have worked with Steven R. Smith (Ulaan Khol, Hala Strana) on a composition called Chrysler. Steven’s work always, to me, sounds like an advancing desert storm and my vision of such a storm tearing down a city really came to life here. The sound of his home made spike fiddle! Wow!
Two gifted kids from the village helped out on the strings, and Pietro Riperbelli allowed me to plunder his archive of field recordings of cathedral interiors." [label info]
www.omnempathy.com
World Fair, album of the year : "There used to be a trinity of Nurse With Wound, Current 93 and Coil. Now the sonic gate keepers are a quartet; Nurse, Current, Cyclobe and Human Greed.” Was Ist Das (UK)
www.omnempathy.com
"This is the fifth album by Human Greed (or Michael Begg's seventh if you count the other ones under his own name) and he worked for the last two years on this, and that's something that shows here. While Human Greed is mainly himself and Deryk Thomas, there is a whole bunch of musicians helping them out, on cello and violin but mainly in the vocal department, such as Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks, Ministry), Sukie Smith and Sophie Bancroft. If I understand well the album is about exploring 'the potential for that science to be represented in a devotional mode more associated by faith', and Human Greed harks back to the 16th century, both for that and the song craft here. It's not that easy to detect I must say, but then: I am no expert on 16th century music either. In the past I compared the music of Human Greed with Fovea Hex, and it's still on a similar line. The mood is a bit dark, with string instruments playing minor chords, aided by dark and moody soundscapes, field recordings, spoken words, and sweet sung melodies, although Human Greed is less folky than the music of Fovea Hex. There are also links to the musical world of Current 93, especially when things are a spookier and more textured here, Colin Potter and Andrew Liles may be inspirations here, and the whole thing has no doubt something very English about it. The creepy country castle atmosphere, the mechanics of a broken doll perhaps. Human Greed moves between the soundscape textures and the more song based structures of some of these pieces, and with pieces fading into each other, this sounds like one long trip, a journey if you will, moving through this fine, yet somewhat dark landscape. In good Fovea Hex tradition there is also a bonus CDR available, in which Begg and Thomas take the whole music of the CD apart and make an entirely new studio construction out of that. You hear little bits of the original in here, sometimes you may recognize a cello, or a violin, some voices but it's otherwise heavy on the use of sound effects to create even denser atmospheres; the cloud on the CD is perhaps more grey; here's it's more black. More abstract perhaps too, and less with a story to tell us. This is an excellent form of sound recycling - to avoid the word 'remix'. An excellent release, all around." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA |
Means without ends |
CD |
Für Fans des ultra-langsamen Noise-Rocks a la SWANS, GODFLESH, etc. kommen HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA genau richtig! Ihr Slow-Drone-Noise aus herrlich verzerrten & scheppernden Snare-Drums, entmenschlichtem Schreigesang & dunkel Noise-Flächen klingt unfassbar abgründig & visionär, wie ein letzter Aufschrei vor dem Untergang.
"Various permutations of this disc have been floating around for a while, each in various states of completeness, but every one we'd heard sounded even better than the last. But this is the one, the final, finished product. The long in the works Human Quena Orchestra, the work of Ryan Unks, formerly of techgrind combo Creation Is Crucifixion, but don't be expecting grind, or even technicality, this all the way on the other side of the spectrum. Abject, filthy, pummeling, slow motion noise drenched doom. A plodding sonic monster, guitars, not just distorted, but treated and twisted into harsh, skin scraping, caustic slabs of sinister sound, a low end so thick, it's like dunking your head in a cement mixer, insane sounding drums, each snare crack like the recording of a million breaking windows, each kick drum the sound of a slowed down car wreck. And beneath it all, thick swells of black ambience, drifting and slithering, pulsing and swelling. A lurching, stumbling
blackened doom dirge behemoth.
Think Swans, Godflesh, Pitchshifter, that sort of machinelike apocalyptic industrial pound, mixed with some funereal ultra doom a
la Moss, Bunkur, etc., but filtered through a druggy psychedelia, with a minimal shimmery drone bent, that ends up sounding like a way
more brutal, way more harsh, tripped out, psychedelic, industrial version of Jesu, that sort of blissed out sun baked vibe, but as if
played by some misanthropic black metal horde, harsh blackened vocals, shrieking hysterically and growling demonically over the relentless amp melting metallic trudge. Every track is rife with layer after layer of undulating low end. Like being tossed about on a stormy sea, but instead of water, it's an endless expanse of roiling black sound waves, rumbling drones, and thick snarled streaks of throbbing bass.
The magic Of Unks' Human Quena Orchestra though is that this hellish harshness is balanced with a nearly equal amount of
meditative ambience, long stretches of deep shimmer, and even some of the harshest tracks are tempered by the swirling low end drift
lurking beneath. So brutally gorgeous.
Definitely essential listening for fans of all the above mentioned outfits, as well as Monarch, Nadja, the Angelic Process, Fear Falls Burning, Skullflower, Abruptum, Monument Of Urns, Trollmann, Khanate, The Body and all our favorite purveyors of crumbling downtuned beauty and dreamy damaged doom.
Packaged in a gorgeous hand screened multiple panel fold over sleeve with super striking ADD style microscopic super detailed artwork." [Aquarius Records]
label-website: www.daftalliance.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The Politics of the Irredeemable |
CD |
Instrumental Apocalyptic Doom Ambience! Musik von erdrückender Intensität & urwüchsiger Kraft! Heftige Gitarren-Drones, wuchtige ultralangsame Pulses, Schreie, Noise... So brutal wie wunderschön. Gehört mit zum intensivsten, was es im Bereich "Industrial-Rock" der schleppend-zermahlenden Sorte zur Zeit gibt, natürlich muss man an alte SWANS denken, aktuell fällt uns sonst nur noch TRANSITIONAL, KHANATE oder BUNKUR ein. Das zweite Album!
"Ein bisschen Fantasie vorausgesetzt, stelle man sich folgendes Szenario vor: NAPALM DEATH wären keine Grindcore-, sondern eine Black-Metal-Band, und als Justin Broadrick sie 1986 verließ, um dann GODFLESH zu gründen, hätte er neben Industrial, Noise und Ambient eben auch einen Teil Black Metal in sein Projekt gebracht, aber mit dem Wissen, wie sich so etwas eben 2009 anhören müsste. Ein alberner Vergleich vielleicht, aber das aus Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stammende Duo HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA schafft es mit seinem zweiten Album, eine ähnlich bedrückende Atmosphäre aufzubauen, wie es einst GODFLESH konnten und das eben mit ganz ähnlichen, aber noch heftigeren Mitteln, denn auf einen nachvollziehbaren Rhythmus und eine Songstruktur muss man verzichten. Eine den Songs als Fundament dienende Geräuschkulisse, darüber Schreie, Noisefetzen und ein sich ständig wiederholendes brutales Riff, das nur alle zehn Sekunden zusammen mit einem Drumschlag auftaucht: „The Politics Of The Irredeemable" ist statisch und undynamisch, wie eine massive, undurchdringliche Wand, die so dunkel, hoch und breit ist, dass du ihre Dimensionen nicht abschätzen kannst." [André Bohnensack, OX-Fanzine]
"Human Quena Orchestra first took shape as a solo project from Ryan Unks, who had previously played guitar in the final lineup of the Pittsburgh metal band Creation Is Crucifixion. After moving from CIC, Unks began to work on a new project that would incorporate elements of black metal, crushing drone music, extreme psychotropic noise and psychedelic/krautrock influences into a sound that would be much heavier any of his previous projects. The first album from Human Quena Orchestra was released in 2007 on Daft Alliance; Means Without Ends was a disturbing, introspective slab of blackened industrial doom that stood out in stark contrast from the rest of the slow n' low extreme doom scene, utilizing layers of harsh textured distortion and electronics to create a caustic form of monstrous doom that shared as much of industrial music's cold, machine-like aesthetic as it did the ultra-slow riffage of the most extreme variants of doom metal. At the same time that the bands debut was taking shape, Unks was joined by another former member of Creation Is Crucifixion, Nathan Berlinguette (who was also a member of the dark ambient project M.Kourie and the deathdrone duo 5/5/2000). With the addition of Berlinguette's skilled application of dark ambience and expansive soundscapes, Human Quena Orchestra began to move into even more textured territory which has culminated with the second HQO full-length, The Politics of the Irredeemable, a series of apocalyptic visions and epiphanies of endtime realization, prophetic screeds that look to a future rendered pustulent and war-stricken by the failed machinations of the human race, presented as six chapters that enter your consciousness through a delivery system of extreme industrial dread. The Politics of the Irredeemable is crushing and oppressive, a crawl through abstract fields of low-end sound that move from punishing blasts of ultra-heavy machine-doom and earth-shaking tectonic riffs, to thick fogs of black electronic ambience that shimmer with subsonic pulses and celestial drones, the presence of malevolent electricity crackling in the air around the lumbering, nightmarish electro-sludge monstrosity of the Human Quena Orchestra. And at the same time, there are passages of immense beauty on this album that lurk at the peripheries of HQO's malevolent crush; the track "Aspirations" for instance, where pummeling slow-motion industrial percussions grinds in an infinite loop beneath a swirling nightsky of kosmiche synthesizers and heavenly, blissed-out ambience, the drums becoming like distant mortar blasts heard over the horizon as terrified screams ring out and stars fall dead from the skies. Total deathmachine grind ambience. The CD is packaged in a heavy gatefold jacket with murky, dismal images of blasted city streets and torched monuments, with lyrics and quotations relevant to the apocalyptic themes on the album printed on the inside jacket. Comes with three 1" color buttons featuring artwork from the album." [label info]
www.Crucialblast.net
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| HYBRYDS |
Music for Rituals |
do-CD |
"Sandy Nys says about the album: "'Music For Rituals' was first released in a hand-made pouch, on the German label ARTWARE. The music was like the first tape release, made in different places with different people on a 4-track Tascam cassette recorder. I also started making mail art music with musicians from far away in the world (no internet back then) sending basic music on cassette which I used in the compositions. In this music, Yasnaia and her cello and voice became prominent as we started working together." CD 2 contains rarities and unreleased tracks: 1: Hybryds & Alpha project (previously unreleased)
2: From 3RIOTAPES cassette compilation 3 & 4: sax by Barry Edgar Pilcher, from 3RIOTAPES cassette release: Saxapulation 1984 5: Koto build by Michel. Played by Michel and Magthea. Soundsamples from 'Dabide No Hoshi: Bishôjo-Gari' ('Star Of David: Beautiful Girl Hunter' a strange S/M movie from Japan 1979) (previously unreleased). This 2CD album is packaged in a digipak and limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Belgian electronic-ritualists The Hybryds began producing their exotic, sensual mesmerism and ethnographic forgeries in the mid '80s, after ringleader Sandy Nys (aka Magthea) transitioned from the minimalist EBM of The Klinik into the far more supple forms of tape loops and ritualized performance. Their iconography was one that was very much a precursor to the modern primitive bacchanal of Burning Man and paralleled the philosophical fascination with Crowley that came out of the whole Psychic TV and Current 93 circle. As such, Hybryds were a project with one foot very clearly in the ancient and the other firmly adhering to the technological advances. The slow, gyrating rhythms interlace the patter from hand-drummed percussion on wood, skin, bone, and metal with the electronic structures from MIDI-driven samples draped with reverberantly sustained synth drones. Nys along with co-conspirator Leen Smets (aka Yasnaia) also wove this tapestry with wordless vocals, processed violin, phasing tape loops, and the sublimely eerie buzzing of Egyptian reeds. Music For Rituals was the band's first album beyond a couple of limited cassette releases, featuring input from fellow Belgian transcendentalist Vidna Obmana who like Nys had shifted from a hard-bodied industrialist into a liquid melange of ritualized ambience and gnostic mysticism. This album originally came out on the seminal German label Artware in 1992, has been remastered from the 4-track tapes, and is now fleshed out with an extra cd's worth of bonus material. Zoviet France, O Yuki Conjugate, Zero Kama, and even the more introspective albums from Coil would all be worthy comrades in arms with Hybryds." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| HYIOS |
Consuetudines |
CD |
"The alluring debut from Leipzig Germany’s Hyios, Consuetudines offers 7 lengthy compositions of cold ritual drones, arching trajectories, and visceral descents into subterranean caverns, where rich, kinetic textures and deep resonant tones move and morph in a fluid, serpentine fashion, sprinkled with the debris of an ancient culture and something more otherworldly and primordial. Leipzig has historically proven to be fertile ground for dark ambient and Consquetudines continues in the fine tradition set forth by such notable acts as Inade and Herbst9. In 6 panel digipak, mastered by Secret Lab. A great new discovery." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| I.CORAX |
From gOLDem flesh to silverb ONE |
CD |
"After a long period of unavailability we are proud to release the third official release of I.corax ‘from gOLDem flesh to silverb ONE' through our Stellar Mansion series. The album was originally released by Blue Sector in 2003 and presents material created exclusively for a live performance, taking place at KMY's 5th year anniversary on 27th of September in Turku, Finland.
The album was recorded live in studio while rehearsing for the performance, and presents a natural combination of surreal synthetic noises and drones, analogue synthesizers, hypnotically looping samples and heavily manipulated field recordings spiced up with various horns made of animal bones, bowed instruments and occasional human whispers and words. This is a monolithic, hypnotic and all-encompassing work in a field of abstract and experimental Finnish dark ambience; transformative aural alchemy that will spiral deep within.
The album is enclosed inside a newly designed and silk-screen printed cardboard covers including three offset printed insert cards and a four panel booklet. Limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.auralhypnox.com
"Der neue Geheimtip für Freunde ausserweltlich dunkler Musik: Dies ist extrem visionärer und tranciger dark ambient Industrial aus Finnland, vielerlei Schichten repetitiver Muster und Flächen werden aufgetürmt und zu einem umschlingenden Waberkorpus geformt... okkult und unheimlich...schon der dritte release auf BLUE SECTOR." [Drone Rec. 2004]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| I:WOUND |
Punish the Guilty |
do-CDR |
"outside is india's inside is india's outside is india's inside is india's outside is india's inside". Pure field recordings from India mixed with some harmonic dark drones underneath & other additional micro-sounds. You listen to lots of people talking, singing, chanting, radio-jingles, bells & tablas playing, daily environmental noises & a live brass band. A work that needs some time to sink on you, but can then have an amazing effect.
" 'The Other Within' uses soundscapes of Indian field recordings 01/02 based on the writings of Ashis Nandy. 'Fire - A Meditation On Impermanence' is one long drone using recordings from the burning ghats in Varanasi and the brass band of the security police of greater Mumbai. Release comes as a double CD (non-silver) limited to 200 hand numbered copies." [label info]
www.thelocusof.blogspot.com |
2002 |
€15.00 |
|
| IF THOUSANDS |
I have nothing |
CD |
Das US-amerikanische Duos benutzt laut einer Rezension Instrumente, die es möglichst NICHT gut beherrscht, wie Akkordeon, Banjo, Gitarren, Synths, Horns, und improvisiert dann darauf, irgendwo zwischen drone und konkretem Fliessen... entstanden sind hier auf ihrem vierten Album 15 minimale tracks, meist ruhig und atmosphärisch, von einer friedlichen Melancholie & weiten Einsamkeit durchzogen mit Ausflügen in folkrientierte Zonen....Anklänge an Kranky-Acts wie Stars of the Lid, Labradford, Charalambides, Loren Mazzacane Conners...
“Slow, sorrowful, and lush dronescapes that unfold calmly and thoughtfully. This album is like the quiet before the storm - every track seems ready to explode with energy but manages to contain itself all the way through. I Have Nothing is confident and methodical - easily absorbed and brimming with emotion and conviction.” [Everything is Fire]
“Whilst shopping from Silber you might also want to check out If Thousands’ I Have Nothing, which also resides in the drone stratosphere but which offers something a whole lot less aggressive and more varied. Finely textured cloths of warm drones a la Stars of the Lid meet up with Indian ragas and dense clusters of sound dust that has me thinking about Flying Saucer Attack at their most abrasive. Nice.” [Mats Gustafson, The Broken Face]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Lullaby |
CD |
Stehende Klangwellen, Poesie, impressionistische & leicht fuzzige Gitarrendrones, ominöse Effekte und Geräusche.. best guitar-drones on SILBER von diesem US-Duo...
“If Thousands present a beautiful blanket of sound recorded as a soundtrack for falling asleep. Quite beautiful & soothing. Fans of Godspeed You Black Emperor & Stars of the Lid should like this one. File under: Experimental, drone, post-rock, sleep aids” [label info]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| IF, BWANA / GERALD FIEBIG |
split |
LP |
"ACV 1002: Marbled white vinyl 12” LP in unique hand-painted sleeve, limited edition of 100
File under: Drone, Ambient, Experimental
The second release in attenuation circuit’s Vinyl Series of split LPs in unique hand-painted covers brings together US experimental music icon and long-term label activist Al Margolis aka If, Bwana and German audio artist Gerald Fiebig. Their shared method of arranging recorded acoustic sounds into digital compositions led them to also share some of the sound material used on the respective sides of this album, which offers a richness of textures from quirky improv-style passages to calm drones and processed field recordings.
If, Bwana interweaves two tracks based on the sounds of very different wind instruments: Recorders, played by himself, and sounds of a church organ played by Fiebig at Mecklenburgisches Orgelmuseum, a former church turned organ museum in the North German town of Malchow. “Recorders in Augsburg” is a complex layering of several short melodic phrases played on the recorders, exploiting their higher registers in a way that makes them sound almost like lo-fi electronics although the sounds are not heavily processed. A very rhythmic, mercurial piece which eludes any attempt on the listener’s part to settle onto one continuous ‘beat,’ “Recorders” fades into “Fie’s Big Organ.” This piece layers pitch-shifted excerpts from the original organ session to create a rather tranquil, drone-ambient feel in the spirit of If, Bwana’s recent releases on his own Pogus label as well as Mutable Music and the live album “crossgrained” on attenuation circuit.
http://attenuationcircuit.wix.com/attenuation-circuit#!__crossgrained
Gerald Fiebig’s piece “Sustained Development” combines other excerpts from the acoustic organ and recorder material and combines it with both acoustic and electric guitar samples, provided by Mathias Huber and Jesus Jackson, Fiebig’s colleagues from his pop trio Jesus Jackson und die grenzlandreiter and processed by labelmate EMERGE. Other ingredients are electric organ sounds and field recordings made with an “electric recorder.” Fiebig’s subtle, quiet drone/ambient piece is mainly based on slow loops fading in and out, like breath or groundswell. Even more than the If, Bwana tracks, the sound processing on this side of the LP constantly plays tricks on the listener who wants to pinpoint whether any particular sound is ‘acoustic’ or ‘electric’ in origin." [label info]
"Although best known for their CDR and online releases, Attenuation started to release vinyl too, and this is their second release. Like the previous release this is split release, here with If, Bwana and Gerald Fiebig. Both of them have had a number of releases on this label. They use each other sound sources, but which leads to different results. On the If, Bwana side we find the sound of recorders as taped by Al Margolis, mister Bwana himself, and organ recordings by Fiebig. Apparently, according to the info, we have two pieces here, one of each instrument. In the 'usual' methods applied by If, Bwana all of these sounds are layered together, not unlike Phill Niblock would (with whom If, Bwana tours every now and then). Chopped into small loops, on a constant repeat mission, but never starting at the same time, forms a rather dense mass of sound. Many layers should be understand many, maybe even 1,000 or so. The recorder piece is slightly dissonant it seems and has an edginess which I don't think I heard before in If, Bwana's music. It just as easily moves over into the organ piece, which applies a similar technique, but which is slightly more 'melodic' and less dissonant and maybe more what you would expect of such drone like sounds. It's something I rather enjoy, very much. This is maybe the lo-fi version of Niblock, but it's one that works quite well.
Now Fiebig, on the other side, may use the same recorder and organ sounds, he also adds the acoustic guitar of Jesus Jackson (processed by Emerge), the electric guitar of Mathias Huber and an electric recorder which he played himself. Here more is indeed less. You could expect a lot more sounds, and even more density than If, Bwana does, but it's not something like that at all. Fiebig distributes the sounds quite sparsely over the course of his side. It moves very slowly, back and forth between the different sources and just sometimes you recognize the acoustic guitar, or the recorder. Sometimes playing together, but it seems that a lot of the times they are on their own, like stars at night - moving solely in the firmament. That seems to be the case here, with very occasional interaction. If that happens, in what seems to be the middle of the record, small melodies are formed around carefully placed crackles, slowly moving a gentle drone in to fade out in the end. Nice, gentle music
. Perhaps the most gentle music I encountered on this label. Pressed on white vinyl, which is perhaps not the most optimum for this delicate music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€23.00 |
|
| IF, BWANA / SUSTAINED DEVELOPMENT / ELEKTROJUDAS / EMERGE |
Crossgrained |
do-CDR |
"ACC 1009: 2 x CD-R in DVD-case
The three solo tracks performed by If, Bwana on this live recording are based on sounds played on the bassoon, flute, and guitar and make a wonderful introduction to his work with layered, pitch-shifted acoustic instruments. This stuff is among the best you can get in contemporary drone music – rich in texture, sensuous, emotional, and still abstract enough to “clear the mind.” On another two tracks, If, Bwana is joined by his local support group at this July 2012 gig in Germany for an unlikely but happy marriage of his layered sound textures, 50 Hz hum, and lots of electroacoustic sound gadgetry.
Supporting If, Bwana at his concert in Augsburg, Germany on 4 July 2012, local artists Sustained Development, elektrojudas, and EMERGE teamed up for a free improvised set using sampled bass guitars, miked-up wave drums and induction coils, monotrons, and smartphone apps, also documented on this 2 CD set. Another two tracks resulted from the trio joining If, Bwana for a demonstration of the possibilities of experimental music, which are endless provided they are approached in an open-minded way. In this case, two very distinct idioms – calm, contemplative drones and fidgety, highly interactive glitch/noise improvisation – fuse perfectly thanks to the alertness of the players." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| ILLUSION OF SAFETY |
Time remaining |
CD |
“WARNING: use extreme caution when playing contents through headphones or inferior speakers”. IOS (inzwischen studiomäßig meist DAN BURKE alleine) loten hier in jeder Beziehung Extreme aus – radikale elektronische Experimente breiten sich hier auf 8 Stücken aus, jedes bietet einen eigene Mikrokosmos von fremdartigem Klang – zwischen schneidenden Elektroniklärm und ruhigen Collagen. 20 Jahre gibt es diese Industrial-Pioniere jetzt schon, und mit jedem neuen Werk scheint eine weitere Wandlung und Erneuerung einzutreten..
Great new IOS-Work where they plumb the very extreme poles of noise and calmness...
“....Somehow it reminds me of 'Historical', compact disc number one. Drones, noise and sound collage - each seems to have it's own place on this CD. Whereas a lot of other CDs were in one direction, this CD is in more places, sometimes even within one track. I was thinking that despite the various tracks (each having their own title), this is more a continious work, just one long piece of music, each track flowing in the other. With this CD one can hear the experience of Dan Burke, both as a studio musician and a live one - the sheer elegance with which is this is made. Unlike many others, Illusion Of Safety changes all the time, and comes up with something new, based on twenty years of experience. Let's hope there is a lot of remaining time, for lots more. [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2003 |
€15.00 |
|
|
In Session |
CD |
Neues Material des Projektes von DAN BURKE - als eher elektronisch arbeitende Industrial-Band fing man an, aber die verschiedenen Metamorphosen in der nunmehr 25jährigen Geschichte führten über Geräuschobjekt-Improvisationen und eher collagigen musique concrete Werken bis hin zum dark ambient und drone-basierender Musik.
IN SESSION führt einiges davon zusammen, besitzt Anteile von verschiedenen Stilen, spannungeladen & sirrend, wellig, dronig, dicht, wieder ein kleines Meisterwerk.
Geräuschmusik wie sie intensiver kaum vorstellbar ist.
"Illusion Of Safety is one of the oldest post-industrial acts in the Americal musical underground, and in my opinion, of the most interesting projects ever. During 25 years of existence IOS have recorded a lot of various albums and their music has been changing a lot. Having passed through all the circles of industrial hell, Dan Burke has lost almost all his companions and remained alone. He hasn't released too many albums recently, and "In Session" released in 2008 has become a real surprise for me. I mean of course the fact of the release, because the highest quality of musical material and huge amount of pleasure while listening to it is guaranteed by any of IOS albums. "In Session" was recorded in 2007, the mastering was made by Thomas Dimuzio at Gench Music Studio. This is a very thorough and delicate work, an abstract performance in which synthetic and natural sounds mix in the most unusual combinations, when you really hold your breath to wait what's gonna be further. In 6 tracks of the album there are a lot of quiet microscopic sounds which whirl in front of the eyes like thoughts without rational content. They change into the smooth waves of melodic ambient, then to insane sampled collages which don't make you feeling relaxed keeping the constant tension. This shortening of the distance between contemplativeness and neural spasms has always been the trademark of IOS - it's interesting to watch how the musical structure transforms under the emotional passion hiding after each second of the track time, but not always going out. Separate compliments should be given to the artwork designer - you can observe the cover for a really long time being astounded by it's beauty. [Dmitry Vasilyev, Monochrome Vision]
"One of my favorite post industrial bands ever. Period. Since more than twenty years I am a fan and every new release is awaited with eager anticipation. This highly limited release from Russia, in a gorgeous package, is no different. These days, since many years actually, Illusion Of Safety is reduced one person, following a free floating membership that included Thyme Jones and Jim O'Rourke to mention just two, which is Dan Burke. He plays 'sound generating devices and random objects that deliberately provoke, mesmerize and even affront listeners'. I deliberately use the term 'post industrial' and not say 'electro-acoustic' or 'musique concrete', which could also easily be applied to the music of Illusion Of Safety. When they started they were firmly rooted in the world of industrial music, and later on elements of musique concrete came along, but if you listen to 'In Session' the elements of industrial music are still there. Heavy, steel walls of drone music pierce your ears and are as easily replaced by soft drones, crackling sounds of hand held objects and contact microphones. I wouldn't be surprised if Burke plays all of this 'in session', live at home so to speak. I saw him a lot of times playing concerts which capture the equal beauty that is captured here. Ranging from sheer noise to near silence and there is always an element of surprise lurking around the corner. An abrupt, full stop or start and it bring the piece in a new territory. Illusion Of Safety's music can be compared with the likes of Roel Meelkop or Toy Bizarre, but is less bound to rules of composition and more free and joyous (well, that's probably not the right away) than those of the microsound/musique concrete posse that inhabits the world of Vital Weekly so frequently. That alone makes a great band and another great CD. Very fine concentrated bursts of sound." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"The first proper record from Illusion Of Safety in well over 5 years emerges from the Russian label Waystyx, meaning that this will
not be around for long and will not be easy for us to track down once these are gone. Just a caveat before we launch into the, um, virtues
of this exercise in muscular electronics and brainmelting dronescaping. Illusion Of Safety began well over two decades ago, firmly embracing the death factory imagery and psychological tension that came through the work of Throbbing Gristle, John Duncan, and The Hafler Trio. While the grizzly subjects of torture and sexual violence have dissolved over time, Illusion Of Safety's interest in unsettled soundscapes, collages, and electronic walls of noise remain as powerful as ever. Illusion Of Safety has always been a revolving door project centered around Chicago's Dan Burke; and In Session finds Burke alone at the helms of Illusion Of Safety, concocting a dizzying series of arcing electroshock compositions filled with intense dynamics and rapid crescendos of incremental noise quickly nosediving into subharmonic tones and microtonal squiggles, with plenty of slow
building elements in between. The piercing drones that dominate the Illusion Of Safety palette are matched with crumbled textures from electronic circuits on the verge of collapse (see Wolf Eyes, Carlos Giffoni) and contact microphone agitation (see Tarab, Eric La Casa,
Loren Chasse, etc.). There's one track of grim psychedelic arpeggiations which sounds as if Prurient were attempting a Terry Riley piece, with bad intentions running through the phase shifting loops. Totally fantastic, if not totally disquieting!" [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Probe |
CD |
"This is the first re-issue OF ILLUSION OF SAFETY's PROBE since its only appearance in 1992. In a limited edition of 500 copies, Perdition Plastics is proud to reintroduce this notable work of contemporary composition. Veteran provocateurs, ILLUSION OF SAFETY, examine an audio landscape found between youth and innocence, manufactured entertainment, and suburban complacency. Using a pastiche of field recordings and suggestively composed elements, Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke strikingly capture ambivalence and their own personal interactions within this environment. PROBE was one of several early, pinnacle works to foreshadow the unique and prolific audio fingerprint of renowned producer/player, Jim O'Rourke, when still a compositional student in Chicago. This release fits neatly into O'Rourke's recent issuing OF forgotten and initial recordings. As the constant center OF ILLUSION OF SAFETY since 1983, Dan Burke has consistently edited and evolved more than 20 CDs from ambience to electronica, from sound collage to post-industrial noise. The complexity and restraint found within PROBE marked a compelling new direction for Burke and a great many others influenced by his music. ILLUSION OF SAFETY has been released by such labels as Die Stadt, Experimedia, Silent, Soleilmoon, Staalplaat, Tesco, and Waystyx among others. Collaborations include Cheer-Accident, Thomas Demuzio, Kevin Drumm, Ben Vida, and others. PROBE will be of interest to those who enjoy Hafler Trio, Throbbing Gristle, Luc Ferrari, etc." [label info]
www.perditionplastics.com
"This is not a review but merely a historical, personal ramble. In 1992 I started working for Staalplaat, buying and selling stuff, and helping out getting those strange packages done. One of the bands that already had a great package, before my time, was Illusion Of Safety, whose 'Historical' was packed in a leather pouch with a real bullet. Both Staalplaat and Korm Plastics, my own small venture, were in contact with Illusion Of Safety's main man Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke, who was then a main collaborator with Burke. This resulted in 'Disengage', still one of the top 10 releases by Staalplaat, along with 'Probe' by Illusion Of Safety. The first 500 were packed in a wooden box with a real Italian coin and toy money from former Eastern Germany (an additional 500 were sold in the same wooden box, but without the monies). Illusion Of Safety were on a peak with that CD, or perhaps a watershed mark (otherwise you may think they never reached another peak again) is a better word. Before that Illusion Of Safety was, perhaps, 'another' fine band of harsh and less harsh industrial music as a bigger outfit with a varying line up. Towards the end of the era of releasing cassettes, which culminated in the fine but highly obscure 'RVE' tape, Jim O'Rourke became a member, bringing a love of composed music to the table, not just musique concrete but also the like of Scelsi. The music of Illusion Of Safety changed and on 'Probe', as said being here just Dan Burke & Jim O'Rourke, this culminated in that first highlight. All of the influences from before and new ones, melted together in this great disc of musique concrete. Many field recordings are used, along with piercing electronics at times, bowed guitars at others. Sometimes stretching out seemingly ad infinitum, but then sometimes abruptly changing color, speed, intensity, mood, texture and/or atmospherics. An absolute great work of sound collage, bridging musique concrete, electro-acoustics, improvisation, industrial music and ambient. Still a highlight of a career, and great to see back in print - even when the cover is not on par with the original. [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Arguably the finest Illusion Of Safety record ever made, Probe
was the 1992 recording composed by Dan Burke and Jim O'Rourke. The
former began Illusion Of Safety a decade earlier with a revolving door
personnel policy involving a handful of Chicago malcontents. O'Rourke
began working with Burke's project around 1989 or so, when he was
still a teenager and studying composition in college. Where many of
the Illusion Of Safety albums are full-frontal assaults on the psyche
of the listener (especially the groundbreaking album Historical with
its raw use of narration from torture documentaries), Probe is a far
more subtle and thus effective album marked by the extended use of
disturbed silences, predating such sound design techniques that David
Lynch mastered in Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway. This use of space
is definitely coming from the O'Rourke side of the equation (which
according to Burke was 50/50 on Probe), as O'Rourke's early solo album
Scend was released at about the same time as Probe with profound
similarities. Throughout the subsonic frequencies and unsettled spooky
drones, there are numerous punctures of analogue sourced micro- bleeping, errata from shortwave, scrabbling of tactile objects, field
recordings of traffic jams, children at play, carnival rides, etc. and
jittery digitally sculpted loops. As all of these elements slowly
unfurl over several lengthy chapters, Probe truly synthesizes the
aesthetics of both Burke and O'Rourke into a cohesive body of work,
with Burke's research into the dark and transgressive balanced with
O'Rourke's studies into the musique concrete of Luc Ferrari and Michel
Chion.
Staalplaat first released Probe in a wooden slipcase in an
edition of 500 copies. Those quickly went out of print; but
fortunately, Perdition Plastics has just reissued this brilliant
album, albeit in more conventional packaging..."[Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Bridges Intact |
CD |
"New album of Illusion Of Safety was recorded preliminary with piano, guitar, electronics and sound processing devices. Abstract tonal and atonal improvisations share the sonic continuum with background drones, rasps and gentle noises, and they do it in highly unpredictable surreal way: mild "melodies" turn into energetic uneasy passages being interrupted by "concrete" sonic romp evolving into spatial drone and electronic landscapes... and all this whirl continues during the whole CD increasing the degree of abstractness and psychedelia as it moves towards the end, which is presented in a form of beautiful harmonic composition." [Zhelezobeton]
"Its is hardly a secret: since about twenty-five years I am a big fan of Illusion Of Safety, following them since their cassette releases, through vinyl, CDs and now, oddly perhaps, cassettes again. But there are still CDs, such as the lovely packed 'Bridges Intact' on Russia's Waystyx Records, who certainly have a reputation to keep up in the packaging department. It surely beats me why the website seems to be in Russian only, perhaps its some conceptual stance? Illusion Of Safety's core member is Dan(iel) Burke since the start, but has included fifteen other people, of which Jim O'Rourke is no doubt the best known one. Here, on this new CD, old member Thymme Jones appears on three tracks as well as guitar player Ben Vida on one. Musically Illusion Of Safety can be all over the place, although the most recent work is usually quite a bit based in the realms of improvised music. That is evident on 'Bridges Intact'. The pieces recorded with Jones show this love of improvisation, with
duets for guitar and piano, as well as a fine mixture of acoustic and synthetic sounds. At first one might think this is all an improvised record, but when the third piece, 'Special Passing', kicks in we know we arrived in the field of music we know and love Illusion Of Safety for: a delicate combination of musique concrete, electro-acoustics, improvisations for instruments, ambient passages, field recordings and electronic music. All put together in a great way. Sometimes all in one piece, and sometimes one piece is just one thing, such as the ambient crackling of static charges in 'Forgotten Baggage', with bits of field recordings at the start. Again an excellent release by one of the greatest talents for this kind of music. This isn't as high up on my list of favorites as say 'Probe', but its not far away." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€15.50 |
|
|
Fin de Siecle |
CD |
"Long overdue re-issue of this long out of print LP on Korm Plastics (kp 5495), and perhaps its fits the format of CD even better. Illusion Of Safety is Dan Burke, here with Kurt Greisch.
Since 1983 Illusion Of Safety has been the ongoing project of Daniel Burke, working alone and with various collaborators. They have released over 20 CDs on labels such as Complacency, Die Stadt, Experimedia, Odd Size, Silent, Soleilmoon, Staalplaat, Tesco, and Waystyx, and played over three hundred concerts in Europe and North America. IOS' work has been called ambient, post-industrial, electro-acoustic, noise, sound collage, improvisation, and power electronics, but they are unwilling to limit their work to any given style or method. The sonic character and affective substance of the music will often shift abruptly within each recording and live performance.
'Fin de Siecle' was part of the 'ambient series' of Korm Plastics and has some highly subtle music to offer, based on field recordings and quiet electronics. Part One and Part Three, the original sides of the LP, were recorded for a tour in 1995 and edited to release on vinyl. The CD version has an extended 'prologue' and 'epilogue' as bonus tracks, making the total CD 66 minutes long." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
"Behind the legendary project Illusion Of Safety, you find the two sound artists, Daniel Burke and Kurt Griesch. The two main pieces of present album "Fin de siecle", was created for an American tour back in 1995. Due to the time-limit of the vinyl-media which was the original release format, the pieces were cut and revised to fit the time-span of the vinyl. Now sixteen years later, the two pieces have returned from the historical archives to be presented on this re-issue on Dutch label Korm Plastics. The twosome has for this particular occasion composed two smaller pieces - an epilogue and prologue for the original album. After the abrasive "Epilogue"-piece, we move into first piece of the original "Fin de siecle"-release, simply titled "Part one". A 22-minutes running piece of ambient tranquility built on repetitive sound-drones until the closing moment where the piece culminates in a harsh grande finale. Second piece of the original vinyl is a lengthy work combining field recordings and trippy sound drones - a subtle piece of an almost inaudible character. Stepping to the last piece of the album, the "Prologue"-track is another recent created work for this re-issue. As was the case with the epilogue, this is a piece of a more upfront nature with long-stretched monotonous tone that because of its repetitive nature create a nice hypnotic atmosphere stretched over the 22 minutes run-time." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Sweet Dreams |
10inch |
ILLUSION OF SAFETY started in Chicago almost 30 years ago with their vision of dark & morbid atmospheric industrial music and soon became one of the inventors of what was then called 'Ambient Industrial', the marriage of these two very different styles & approaches. Since then, IOS never failed to surprise their listeners, going through many musical changes with various live members using elements of improvisation, electro-acoustic music, sound collages, sublime drones (especially in the 90's before it became a well-known notion) and noise (and only imagine that JIM O'ROURKE started his career as the 19-year old live guitarist of ILLUSION OF SAFETY!).
We are very happy IOS (at this time mastermind DANIEL BURKE only) recorded pieces for our special concept 10" series that again mark a very unexpected change: SWEET DREAMS is an almost 'psychedelic' record, using many incredible acousmatic sounds deriving from field recordings, instrumental sources (such as acoustic guitars) and synths, which build together repetitive pulsing patterns & hypno-loops that suck you in. But IOS wouldn't be IOS if it weren't for surprising breaks, cut-ups, crackling sounds and other interferences.... To us, this sounds like 70's psych-space tunes transformed by today's experimental & compositional consciousness..
Three pieces, 22+ mins, mastered by THOMAS DIMUZIO, 500 copies pressed on beautiful & unique 3-colour (green, blue & white) vinyl & with artwork by Berlin-based designer TILMANN BENNINGHAUS. Release date: Oct 25, 2012.
www.substantia-innominata.de
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Organ Choir Drone |
MC |
https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/organ-choir-drone
"It's no big secret that I enjoy Illusion Of Safety's music and have been doing it for years. While there are very few albums that are don't favour, there are also a few that are easily in my top 100 best albums ever - and no, I don't have a list. Last week I played 'Cancer', a CD from the early 1990s, and I mumbled what a great record that was. Each new work
is welcomed with much anticipation, and 'Organ Choir Drone' is no different. It's an album of recent music, and it's unclear if it contains organs and choirs. Maybe there are heavily processed parts of the music. Drones, on the other hand, are definitely a part of this. All usual Illusion Of Safety elements appear on this album. Longform drone sounds, modular synthesis, small acoustic sounds, radio waves, and lots of obscured sounds result in moody and textured music. Dystopian perhaps, as shining also in the titles, 'Children Of The Fear Of Light', 'Black Helicopters', or 'Waste Of Civiliation'. Some of these could be the title of a Stephen King novel. Dark and atmospheric as the music may seem, the overall goal isn't to produce grim music; at least, that's not how I perceive the music. I find these ominous dark soundscapes a true pleasure to hear, despite the grim undercurrent; another excellent addition to an otherwise already great catalogue." [FdW /Vital Weekly] |
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Pastoral |
CD |
Illusion Of Safety - Pastoral
CD only, 200 copies, Korm Plastics
While Korm Plastics publishes books these days, this is a surprise CD only release. We sent him this demo in 2011 & we all forgot about it. Pastoral is a welcome edition to the catalog showcasing a less aggressive stance from the project, a more organic subdued presentation, sounds to make a clearing, & open space. The recordings history is a bit blurred now but it is very likely tracks 1, 2, 3, & 5 are Kurt Griesch and Daniel Burke, post 1995 tour work. Track four uses an instance of Reaktor 5 VCS-3 software emulation.
Illusion of Safety
Since 1983, Daniel Burke and his many conspirators under the Illusion Of Safety banner have over the course of 40+ full length releases traversed most every facet of the avant sound plane, from early industrial pop deconstruction to blindingly minimal sound art to densely surreal found-sound collage, each unique approach bending and reconstituting the expectations and possibilities of each realm, creating uneasy music that is dense and dystopian and yet also beautiful. Performing over 300 live concerts throughout Europe and the states included No Fun 2008, the Wroclaw Industrial Music Festival 2009, Sonic Circuits in 2010, with Shen Wei Dance Arts in 2011 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, and at the Crisis Data Transfer Pre-Party October 2023. Outside of IOS Burke has collaborated with Jim O’Rourke, Jon Mueller, Randy Greif, Darin Gray, Z’EV, Cheer-Accident, Thomas Dimuzio, Kevin Drumm, Bill Horist, and others.
https://kormdigitaal.bandcamp.com/album/pastoral
"I don't think it's a surprise that here at VWHQ, there is a person that likes Dan Burke's aka Illusion of Safety's output. Earlier this year, Korm Plastics (who said they'd never release music again) broke
the dry spell of releasing music by co-releasing the IoS/Z'ev collaboration on vinyl. Now they have a CD by Illusion of Safety. Combine that with a few other releases like Muziekkamer and the BOH Sampler, and those first words on the Korm website raise questions: 'Korm Plastics was a record label. These days, we publish books. About music.' Maybe Frans will explain it to me at some point.
But, back to what it is all about. Illusion of Safety / Dan Burke. It's a blind spot in my collection. I've seen him perform once in Aachen, but since that was something like 25 years ago, I really can't remember the details. So, it's Dan's recent output that I started to know and respect. And with this new album, "Pastoral", the concern is only getting stronger. Though I must say, it took me several listening sessions before it struck me at the right spots.
The five tracks with a total playing time of 58 minutes are hidden in serene packaging. Pictures of a morning or evening stroll in the countryside and the first sounds of "Invulnerable" are concrete staccato sounds. There was something wrong with the combination of those in my head. Still, as the track continued, field recordings started building a backing drone, and additional sounds formed the actual composition with a massive piano/guitar intermezzo, which has to be mentioned. All kinds of manipulated musical instruments create a flawless transition towards the second track entitled "Neolithic", and from here, it only gets better. Tracks 3 to 5 are droney soundscapes with a perfect balance between layers of minimal noise and drones and additional sounds projected on top of it. In total, 40 minutes of absolute poetic sounds. And there it struck me how I see Dan's music, in this release at least. Looking at the picture on the cover, you get an emotion, but zooming in on the picture, you can extrude air, sun, grass, sand, and a little forest in the back. And zooming in on the woods, you can see trees and then
branches... But zooming out, you get a 'walk in nature'... But what if you zoom out from there... "Thermogenesis", "Ground", and "Compelling" all cover a particular aspect of switching perspectives like this. At least, that's what I think.
Pastoral (noun): a work of literature portraying an idealized version of country life. For me, the first tracks are about escaping what's terrible, and the last three are about embracing what's good. The illusion of Safety presents in one album that you can't make just one of those choices (escape/embrace) and that the result is great if you follow your heart. (BW)
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| IN MEDITARIUM [IN MEDITARIVM] |
Uterus |
CD-R |
Willkommen zum Intra-Uterin-Industrial ! IN MEDITARIUM ist ein weiteres Projekt von Sergey Svistelnik (aka LORD GORGOROTH), der Ikone der ukrainischen dark ambient-Szene, der auch das kleine Label UKRAINIAN DARK SYNDICATE betreibt und hinter FIRST HUMAN FERRO steckt. IN MEDITARIUM klingt nach handgemachtem Ritual-Industrial, mit beschwörenden Katakombensounds & -gesängen, dumpf & dunkel & wummernd & höhlenartig.
„There is a lot of good music that comes from that country called Ukraine. Think Andrey Kiritchenko as just one example of an artist that made it bigtime. In Meditarium is maybe lesser known at the moment, but if you ask me, this is a project that has a lot of potential in the darkambient scene. This album contains of 4 long tracks (with the shortest being 9:17). The tracks are all very dark, very atmospheric. It will completely take you away into another dimension of this world. The dark dimension of Uterus. Beautiful sounds, dark and atmospheric, are combined with low chanting, tinkling bells, and long drones. This disc is the perfect music to listen to on a dark winternight, with the lights out, and either a very very good soundsystem or your headphones on your head. You will be instantly taken away into this beautiful world.” [Stefan / Electronic Music World
|
2004 |
€9.00 |
|
| INADE |
The Nine Colours of the Threshold |
CD |
"With the all new album after 9 years, Inade return with another work that indicates a codifying of their sound world full of mysterious design, unspoken secrets and dreams of ancient origin.
The immersive arrangements and haunting voices supported by crackling electronics painting a dark and earthly picture. Infinite eons have passed through the labyrinthine hierarchy of deep fusing drones, tectonic soundscapes, percussions and ritual instruments - sonically sculpturing of that which lies deeper than matter, time and space.
The intriguing tone colour on 'The Nine Colours Of The Threshold‘ is generally one of heroic majesty, a kind of epic intimacy, with light and sparkling fragments. It is the narrow, hidden tracks that lead back to our lost homeland, what contains the solution to the last mysteries is not the ugly scar that life´s rasp leaves on us, but the fine, almost invisible writing that is engraved on our body."
loki-found.bandcamp.com/album/the-nine-colours-of-the-threshold |
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
The Nine Colours of the Threshold |
LP |
200x red vinyl
200x black vinyl
With the all new album after 9 years, Inade return with another work that indicates a codifying of their sound world full of mysterious design, unspoken secrets and dreams of ancient origin.
The immersive arrangements and haunting voices supported by crackling electronics painting a dark and earthly picture. Infinite eons have passed through the labyrinthine hierarchy of deep fusing drones, tectonic soundscapes, percussions and ritual instruments - sonically sculpturing of that which lies deeper than matter, time and space.
The intriguing tone colour on 'The Nine Colours Of The Threshold‘ is generally one of heroic majesty, a kind of epic intimacy, with light and sparkling fragments. It is the narrow, hidden tracks that lead back to our lost homeland, what contains the solution to the last mysteries is not the ugly scar that life´s rasp leaves on us, but the fine, almost invisible writing that is engraved on our body.
Red vinyl edition edition with printed inner sleeve.
Tracklist
01. Noumenon
02. Beyond all Thoughts and Entities
03. The Nine Colours of the Threshold
04.A Midnight Profound
05. Über-dem-All
06. The Nethermost Chambers of Night
07. The Pineons of the Sacred Time
08. The Lost Homeland
09. Hoel Dhat
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| INDO |
Rupa Loka |
CD |
"The Rupa Loka, one of the hidden planes of existence beyond our own is the focus for this album, a serene world populated by beings more refined and evolved than ourselves. The album is a journey through this nature kingdom and incorporates soundscapes rich in flavour and diversity. The recordings were originally produced in 2009 and rediscovered and carefully reassembled and remastered in the process. The album comes in a jewelcase with a 12-page booklet depicting the realm of the Rupa Loka." [label info]
http://gterma.blogspot.se
"Indo‘s ‘Rupa Loka’ brings us back in 2011, actually it was recorded in 2009 so I guess this makes the record already pretty ancient in the context of our current times, when daily you are given access to countless records, either old or new. However, in your daily routine I hardly advise you to find your way to the first ever record, that the Swedish ambient label gterma has ever released. At first the record is striking you with its picturesque artwork, especially the amazing photographs in the inlay (which has actually already became signature for all gterma production). The whole art direction and the general concept of the record leaves a strong feeling for an Eastern cultural influence, but still this artistic decision is not over-imposed on the listener by any means.
What we have here is one very powerful and beautiful ambient record. Rupa Loka is soaked with meditative, slow and immense drones which are additionally embraced by fragile and delicate soundscapes. However, what makes this record truly special are the field recordings. The Hungarian musician Andras Kiss, who’s actually the person behind the ambient act Indo (as this is quite an overused monicker in music of all genres) didn’t capture anything you haven’t heard. His sounds are natural, familiar, not probably but certainly surrounding all of us in our daily lives, but he incorporated them with such a skill, that would surely make you a bit envious if you’re also producing music yourself. What is more important it will surely make you consider how much life, emotion and potential there is in the sound and ambiance of our everyday surrounding, but due to our mental simplicity we’ve accepted all of this perfection and endlessness for granted.
Rupa Loka is anything but a record for the simple minds, just like its Buddhist concept suggests its aim is to recreate a dimension, a form of existence inhabited by higher results of evolution. Quite a pretentious and tough aim, but so subtly approached that it leaves you smiling with satisfaction, when you realise the record really serves its purpose. This album is so alive and so organic, that at a certain point you forget that a human hand and mind initiated this impressive sound sculpture. I don’t need an artwork for this, neither track titles or a band project. I just need the CD carrying this art piece, which is interacting on way too too many levels with my personality, so by no means I can accept it as just another ambient record I got for the day. What a great start for a label! What a great artist statement!" [Angel S / Heathen Harvest]
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| INFANT CYCLE |
Secret Hidden Message |
7inch |
"...oszillierend zart und schwirrend, bis ein auslaufgroove für unerwartete erdung sorgt; der sich der windende drone nicht unterwerfen will, statt dessen sich sammelt und ins reverb flüchtet (inklusive delay-feedback-stop). stück 2 auf der A-seite dagegen ein wolkig-voluminöser drone mit nervösen einsprengseln, durch die flüchtigkeit von wolke + sprengseln genau so wenig statisch wie der erste track „secret hidden mistake", bis urplötzlich die wolke hinter sich gelassen wird und der nackte ton bleibt. das stück auf der zweiten seite heisst dann nicht nur „trombone", sondern ist nach angabe auf dem inlay (alle instrumentalen zutaten werden gelistet) auch allein mit einer posaune gespielt. nun denn, wenn auch die instrumente genannt werden, über die produktion herrscht stillschweigen; so ist die posaune auch in keiner weise erhörbar... ...wie sie als fragmentiert lautmalerischer impuls wächst und wächst und schließlich in einem wind untergeht. höhepunkt!" [N, Unruhr.de]
"THE INFANT CYCLE is a long operating experimental project from Ontario (Canada), active since 1992 with many releases on MC & CDR on different labels and the home imprint THE CEILING.
The three pieces on this EP were created using sounds from various instruments as Trombone, guitar, windchimes, marimba, birdcage, etc.. The result sounds rather electronic & hypnotic, with bright shining drones & repetitive rhythmic patterns & loops moving into more amorphous & multilayered sounding electro-acoustics. In spite of the rather experimental working-methods the outcome is very compact & condensed. THE INFANT CYCLEs approach to sound is based on the belief that words and explanations can only fail to describe or explain it, what is needed is a non-verbal, intuitive understanding of the work: "The artist's ego must not inhibit the piece's effect. It is the sound you are hearing, not the artist." Is the artist playing the sound or the sound playing the artist?
Filed under: Multilayered Drone-Hypnotism
more info: www.myspace.com/the_ceiling
FOGGY VINYL; BLACK COVERS WITH DIFFERENT SIZED BLACK SPOTS ON IT & TRANSPARENT COVERAGE USING INFANT CYCLE-LOGO" [label info]
"This is the first release from drone records and the infant cycle that I am listening to and it is a happy surprise. I have to admit that drone music is not exactly my mug of coffee mostly because most of the times I find it different to concentrate to it due to the lack of information. This doesn’t apply here cause there is an interesting mix with electro-acoustic elements. Infant cycles is Jim DeJong active sinve 1992 in (from the infant cycle’s last fm page) “…exploring the relationship between sounds and their origins, as well as that which proceeds it”. Both sides of the 7” are very carefully structured. Side A has two tracks that could easily been understood as one, “secret hidden message” and “(and then the dog replied)”, both characterized by the persistence of DeJong in what I understand as detailed abstract linear narration, all sounds are collaged beautifully in medium durations that produce beautiful kind of loop effects though there is complete absence of repetition. As I read that some of these sounds come from a bird cage, wind chimes and cookery I can only suppose that they were time and pitch stretched. The second side is the most impressive though. “Trombone” is based on recordings of a trombone (obviously) that were manipulated and treated in a manner that brings to my mind of oval. There is a minimal techno element , at least in the first part, that is followed by an abrupt change in the composition. Despite of that the result is very cohesive. I have to admit that I have this feeling that I should know what the infant cycle do. This is very well-crafted, well thought and interesting 7”. Bull’s eye." [Fervent, Randeom E-Zine]
www.dronerecords.de
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| INFANT CYCLE / ANTMANUV |
Unrelated Work Tapes / Beyond the Garden |
mCD-R |
"The second installment of the Periodical series. The Infant Cycle continues exploring the tense and fluctuating relationships between
crackles, hisses and acoustic generated drones, while Antmanuv (who has created a number of audio and visual works for labels such as Mutek, Crionica Electronica, Squrt and his own AntmanuvMICRO) supplies a haunting environmental piece based around discreet loops). More uneasy listening. Like the first edition, this is a "budget" release, limited to 80 copies." [label info]
http://theceiling.ca
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
| INFINITE LIGHT LTD |
same |
LP |
"INFINITE LIGHT LTD ist das neue Projekt von Aidan Baker (NADJA), Nathan Amundson (RIVULETS) und Mat Sweet (BODUF SONGS). Das Trio erforscht die Parallelen und Unterschiede ihrer jeweiligen musikalischen Projekte und erschafft dabei Musik, die Minimal Folk, abstrakten Post-Rock, Glitches und Drones verbindet. Ihr selbstbetiteltes Debüt wurde unabhängig in den Studios der einzelnen Mitglieder über den Winter 2010 aufgenommen; Songskelette und Fragmente wurden digital ausgetauscht, um schließlich ein Album aufzubauen. Die Instrumentierung reicht von elektrischen und akustischen Gitarren über Klavier und Schlagzeug bis Harmonica und Flöte. Die Songs erstrecken sich von wehmütigem Folk bis zu schrägem Blues und kombinieren digitalen Noise und süße Melodien. Wer bereits andere Projekte dieser Herren kennt, kann sich vorstellen, wie gut die Qualität dieses Debüt ist."
"Infinite Light Ltd. is a collaborative project between Nathan Amundson (aka Rivulets), Aidan Baker (of Nadja, Whisper Room, ARC), and Mat Sweet (aka Boduf Songs). The trio explores the similarities and the disparities of their respective musical projects, creating music which combines minimal folk, abstract post-rock, glitching noise, and ambient drones. Their debut, self-titled album with Denovali Records was recorded remotely in each members’ respective studios over the winter months of 2010, digitally trading skeletal songs and fragmentary sounds to collectively build an album. Instrumentation ranges from electric and acoustic guitars to piano and drums to melodica and flute. Songs range from wistful folk to off-kilter blues, combining digitally manipulated noise and sweet melodies. If you know the other projects of these guys you already can imagine the quality of this debut."
https://denovali.com/digitalstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=895&s=infinite light
|
2011 |
€16.00 |
|
| INTERNAL FUSION |
Waissad |
mCD-R |
"fifteen years after his first 3"cd-r on taâlem ("NedenBahe", still available at taalem.bandcamp.com/album/nedenbahe-alm-3 ), what we said at the time is still relevant. internal fusion is still a rare artist even if he's more productive than ever these days (two digital self-released productions last year) and his music is still full of captivating atmospheres... deep sounds, strange voces, haunting atmospheres. let yourself dive into "waïssad"..." [label info]
"Belgium’s taâlem label continues to breathe new life into one of our favorite formats, the CD3″. Each season they release a new trio, representing a wide swath of sounds. The latest batch delves into tribalism, abrasion and haunted ballroom; listening to the releases in order is like walking through exhibits in a terrifying circus.
Internal Fusion hearkens back to a time when the lines between dark ambient and industrial were blurred. The 22-minute single-track Waïssad twists and turns like an injured acrobat, sounding at first like a joyous call from deepest Africa, delving into drums reminiscent of Skull Island, then descending into the mist, where monsters dwell. The voices are holy and hooded, like those of medieval monks. Slowly the fugue builds, marked by static rustlings and speaker-wandering percussion. The cover may be green and lush, but don’t be fooled; these lands are dangerous. Waïssad’s narcotic center may represent the time spent drugged, the victim of a blow dart; the slow awakening to tribal drums is lulling until it disappears, replaced by snakelike hisses and fractured drones. There’s no escaping; all fates were sealed long ago. [...]
These releases take different paths, but arrive at the same bleak destination. This is autumn, after all, and darkness is drawing near. Play these releases while reading your favorite dark horror tales; the ghosts will enjoy reading over your shoulder and listening with invisible ears." (Richard Allen)
acloserlisten.com/2017/09/30/a-taalem-trio-2/
" [...] As I was searching the old weeklies for previous reviews of Internal Fusion, as that is sometimes indeed done (usually after being sure there are actually some!), I found very few (Vital Weekly 348, 426 and 677), but also a few times as a point of reference, which I guess for a band that never released a lot music is quite something. It usually was done in combination with the words ‘pseudo ethnic’ and ‘drumming’, and other names never far away were Internal Fusion and Muslimgauze. In that sense this new one is a bit of a different batch of music. It starts out with something familiar, ethnic voices, lotsa reverb, but the tribalistic drumming doesn’t become part of this. Deep pounding drums are there at one point in the middle, but in the second half of the piece things become much more abstract; Internal Fusion discovering granular synthesis and feeding their own sounds into the machine, perhaps even the first ten minutes of ‘Waïssad’ to it, and let computer gremlins eat the whole piece and slowly we enter the belly of the monster. If this is something that Internal Fusion would explore further and incorporate in their usual brand of ambient drumming and deep moods, then it could blossom into a very rich new sound approach. [FdW, Vital Weekly]
www.vitalweekly.net/1098.html
www.taalem.com
|
2017 |
€5.00 |
|
| IONOSPHERE |
Nightscape |
CD |
"Eight years since the last release in 2007, Ionosphere has now returned with its third full length album. It follows the path of previous works focusing on deep, shivering, cosmic sound waves and moves further with the inclusion of an emotional core. Expansive drones, drifting melodic soundscapes, ominous sonic undertones and vocal transmissions intersect with densely concentrated rhythmic pulsations that emphasize the sculptural nature and deep atmospheric scope of the 11 tracks.’Nightscape’ is a soundtrack that transports the listener on an epic journey far away into spaces and environments where lights and noises move and circulate slowly while the night embraces everything.
Comes in elegant 6-panel digi-sleeve." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"Schon in meiner Besprechung zu Sawakos „Nu.it“-Album schrieb ich, dass es wenig Musikarten gibt, die das Phänomen der Nacht so unmittelbar und quasi impressionistisch einzufangen wissen wie Ambient. Während die Japanerin die Nacht als ein verspieltes Abenteuerreich darstellte, in dem sich wohlige und unheimliche Stimmungen gegenüberstehen, bis alles wie in einem Film zum beruhigenden Finale kommt, erscheint die Nacht in „Nightscape“, dem dritten Longplayer des deutschen Projektes Ionosphere, wie ein unendlicher Raum, der nicht nur den Schlafenden scheinbar für immer in seine Dunkelheit zieht. „Watch the world fall into the endless night“ lautet das aus den Titeln des eröffnenden und des abschließenden Tracks zusammengesetzte Motto des Albums. Doch auch hier ist die Nacht kein Gleichmacher, der alles in einem monochronen Schwarz zu ersticken droht.
Ionosphere versteht es, sein Paket an Klängen in dichte, ausladende Dronehüllen von soghafter Schwere zu packen, die über weite Strecken eine molllastige Wärme aufweisen. Mal körnig, mal vibrierend, mal so glatt wie eine Skulptur und dann wieder so kantig wie das Gebirgsmassiv auf dem Cover ist die Beschaffenheit dieses Rahmens so wechselvoll, dass die epische Reise schon deshalb episodisch anmuten muss. Noch interessanter ist allerdings das, was sich unter dieser Hülle abspielt. Das können kleine, wie im Zeitraffer vorbeischnellende Klangschnipsel sein, die in „Vast Winds from Beyond“ gegen den Strom der Dröhnung anschwimmen, oder auch die kleinen Leerstellen und Hohlräume im ganz bezeichnend „The Silence Underneath“ betitelten Stück. Oft geht es jedoch merklich konkreter zu, und es ist eine der reizvollen Paradoxien des Albums, dass man über gerade diese konkreteren Sounds letztlich doch nur mutmaßen kann – ist es das Stöhnen eines Liebespaares, das in „Watch the World“ von der Nacht verschluckt wird, was sagt die grummelige Männerstimme in „Polarized Light“, woher kommt wohl das hintergründige Pfeifen in „Radio Altitude“, bevor es von einem bedrohlichen Pochen übertönt und endgültig im analogen Klangstrudel verschuckt wird? All dies und weitere Dinge verdanken ihre Faszination der Vagheit, mit der sie nur schemenhaft durchs Klangbild huschen oder wie von sehr weitem, aus der Ionosphäre, betrachtet anmuten.
„Nightscape“ ist seinem Thema entsprechend ein düsteres Album geworden, doch es wäre falsch, es darauf und auf die Wucht der hereinbrechenden Düsternis zu reduzieren. Mit gestalterischem Feingefühl ist hier ein v.a. eine Hommage an die ins Dunkel gehüllte Vielgestalltigkeit einer verwandelten und verzauberten Welt gelungen." [Uwe Schneider / African Paper]
africanpaper.com/2015/06/20/ionosphere-nightscape/#more-10344
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| IRISARRI, RAFAEL ANTON |
Sirimiri |
MC |
"The NY-based producer returns to Umor Rex with a new album, in which the musical discourse and the physical form of the release have an equal, crucial importance. Sirimiri is made of four long and mid-length pieces, each composed of different perspectives, processes and identities. However, Rafael seeks to blend subjective time with the listening experience. A sort of loop and repetition, sub-sequence-based sound. Following Eno, nothing happens in the same way twice, perception is constantly shifting, nothing stays in one place for long. The sum of the four pieces is 36 minutes; the cassette edition lasts 72 minutes in total, since both sides have the same four songs joined together. Physically, the format allows us at least two automatic repetitions. In the digital version the songs are independent, but we also include a bonus track made of the 36-minute loop. The desolation and despair (in a sort of positive way) that we got to hear in The Shameless Years (Umor Rex 2017) is present in Sirimiri, but the impression is concrete, with cruder, less rhetorical landscapes. If The Shameless Years was located between beauty and active tragedy, Sirimiri travels inside the beauty and melancholy of an observing eye, a quiet rebel insurrection. Another substantial difference is the distance from general and globalized concepts; in these unfortunate times, Sirimiri looks for personal sorrows, and places its focus on the particular. Even the names of the songs evoke this in small ways, like in "Sonder", the feeling of realizing that everyone, even a complete stranger, has a life as complex as one's own. Rafael has two guests in this album; Taylor Jordan in "Mountain Strem", and Rafael's hero Carl Hultgren (from Windy & Carl) in "Sonder". Sirimiri means 'drizzle' in Basque, and we cannot find a better word to describe its content." [label info]
umorrex.bandcamp.com/album/sirimiri
"Even though the sound expanses traversed by ambient music often evoke feelings of horizontality, layered planeness and volatile textures tranquilly billowing out, it is also true that the greater representatives of the genre and its sub-branches – like mountaineers – mostly seek for sky-scraping verticality. Ranking high in the pantheon of atmosphere architects, Rafael Anton Irisarri certainly has nothing left to prove. Since his beginnings over ten years ago, his output has gained a density that very few can boast having reached, establishing a sound that has the power to haunt your nights and the crucial energy to bring your most buried existential dreams out of mothballs.
Shrouded in melancholic vapours and forlorn harmonics, Irisarri’s new album for Umor Rex presents four majestic extended cuts as so many viewpoints on an untouched phantasmal valley. Drawing its name from the Basque word for ‘drizzle‘ – which makes absolute sense given the fine-grained, caressingly fresh nature of its sound design, ‘Sirimiri‘ offers sensations in their purest essence, primitively symbolic yet actively contemplative. Where his previous full-length ‘The Shameless Years‘ had more of a demiurgic dramatic tension going through it, which gave it a further “composed” approach, ‘Sirimiri‘ feels less refined and more abruptly sculptural.
The opening track, ‘Downfall‘, kicks things off on a particularly bleak and austere note, submerging its listener in a sort of faded high-altitude euphoria. Minimal drones cloud the skyline as Irisarri deftly orchestrates his wonderful ballet of understated modulations and darkened timbres. Smoothly fading in, the album’s highlight ‘Sonder‘ expands the radius to further high-level elegiac spheres, astoundingly poignant and overwhelming, each bar weightlessly elevating upon fantasized mountain scapes, rife with craggy peaks and steep hogbacks, as it fully absorbs you in its restful tide of slow-scudding pads and guitar riffs.
To label Irisarri’s music mourning or pining would equate to ignore the boundary-pushing fortitude of his art. The soothing ‘Vasastan‘ and ‘Mountain Stream‘ leave behind the weatherbeaten force of the previous numbers, instead flourishing in the quieter, ethereal heights of the spectrum. Here again, Irisarri demonstrates his unmatched capability at crafting constantly changing organic soundscapes, juggling with overly complex textural interplays but making it all look so easy and seamless. Showing off a crucial, frontal, universal quality that’s nothing easy to achieve, Irisarri bewitches and transports, confirming once and for all he’s one of the most singular and vibrant voices in contemporary music, and ‘Sirimiri‘ one of his most accomplished records to date." [Baptiste Girou / Inverted Audio]
|
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| IRR.APP. (ext.) |
Kreiselwelle |
CD |
"Das ist nun - nach Ozeanische Gefühle und Cosmic Superimposition - der abschließende Teil von M. S. Waldrons Trilogie über den Freudo-Marxisten, Faschismusund Orgontheoretiker und Parawissenschaftler Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957). Reich war der Auffassung, dass der von ihm postulierte ‚Orgonenergie-Ozean‘ 'Lebensenergie‘ in Form von ‚Kreiselwellen‘ ausstrahlt, die sich visuell, thermisch, elektroskopisch und mit Hilfe des Geiger-Müller-Zählers nachweisen lassen. Waldron spielt entsprechend mit ‚Spiral-Klängen‘, Spiralfedern, dem Geräusch anbrandender, ‚lappender‘ Wellen, Luftwirbeln, aufziehbarem
Spielzeug etc. Rasselnde, pulsierende, blubbrig unkende, wie Whirlies sirrende und automatisch klappernde Geräusche mischen sich mit
elementaren zu einem unruhigen Gedröhn. Die an- und abflauenden Erregungszustände sind Teil eines Kontinuums von gut einer Dreiviertelstunde. Schritte zu Beginn und zwischendurch vage Stimmfetzen im Hintergrund deuten an, dass der Mensch in diesem Energiefluss, diesem Kontinuum von Wirbeln mitschwingt." [Bad Alchemy]
" irr. app. (ext.) is the sound-engineering project of Californian M.S. Waldron, whose liminal slippages and detourned croons have been spotted recently on stage in Nurse With Wound. Yet for all of the antics that are required for the NWW spectacle, Mr. Waldron still dedicates himself in the parallel pursuits of irr. app. (ext.) with a discography that reads more like a wunderkammer of uncanny investigations into futility declared as its reverse.
Kreiselwelle is the third and final installment to a body of works that irr. app. (ext.) has composed under the influence of Wilhelm Reich, the unorthodox 20th Century psychologist who proposed amongst many hypotheses, an interconnectivity between energy, organisms, and the entire cosmos. The title to this album translates as ‘spiral wave,’ a structuralist form which Reich had observed throughout nature within numerous systems, whether that be the grand arcs of galaxies down to the radial symmetries of micro-organisms. For Kreiselwelle, Mr. Waldron returns to the same collection of field recordings which began this trilogy that includes Ozeanische Gefühle and Cosmic Superimposition; however, he restricted himself to those sounds with spiralling origins: resonating springs, the sounds of the ocean cyclically churning over pebbles on the beach, the wafting of air around various objects, or simply a lamp-shade spinning in place.
The resulting recording develops as an organic sublimation of one sound transforming from one state into another and then another. Motorized sounds of mechanical toys set askew settle into a tremolo phase pattern of electrical vibrations. These in turn morph into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. Many of the sounds seem to have origins in objects that are broken, obsolete, or just plain wrong; but through Waldron’s deft alchemy, these sounds are allowed to flourish in this richly dark and oddly serene amalgamation." [label info]
"...[as] for the ultra-fantastic soundwork of Irr. App. (Ext.), this Californian composer has been baffling and perplexing the ears of international listeners for not a few years now, and his new Kreiselwelle, a single 45-minute work of strange process music, is a slow voyage into the unknown. Within minutes, we're taken far beyond the relatively familiar world of "dark ambient" and enter a murky field of immersive and twisted shapes, where possible danger lurks at every corner. Conceptually rooted in an interpretation of the works of Wilhelm Reich, Kreiselwelle is the third part of a trilogy and connect with the "spiral waves" of the title, derived all of its sounds from things shaped like spirals (such as metal springs, or the circular movement of the ocean). In like manner, M. S. Waldron's composition will probably suck you into a whirlpool of doubt and ambiguity."
[Ed Pinsent / The Sound Projector]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Kreiselwelle is the conclusion to a superb trilogy from irr. app. (ext.) who used the words, philosophies, and eccentricities of Wilhelm Reich as the springboard into a realm of post-Surrealist, post-industrialist, post-drone arena of sound design. While a prominent European psychoanalyst, whose ideas could be seen as an occasional counterpoint to those of Freud, Reich may be best known for his parascientific research into Orgone energy, which he claimed was central and unifying force of life throughout the universe. Much of this latter research has been discredited and unfortunately shed a cloud of incredulity upon his psychoanalytic work. While Reich's claims of cloud-busting and orgone therapy offer particularly strong metaphors, M.S. Waldron - the principle architect to irr. app. (ext.) - has looked more to the psychological aspects of Reich's work. Kreiselwelle translates from the German as spiral wave or gyroscopic wave, and points to the similarities which Reich had noted in the structures of microscopic organisms, turbulent wave patterns, and spiral-arm galaxies.
Through this trilogy (which also includes Ozeanische Gefuhle and Cosmic Superimposition), Waldron mirrors Reich's early cosmology through a compositional fluidity that alludes to contemporary drone fascination, constructed through overlapping collages, occluded field recordings, sustained tones from atypical instruments, and crosshatched synthetic noises. All three of these albums were sourced from the same set of field recordings, but each detours into its own particular wandering. Kreiselwelle begins with a very slow hypnotic strum across a detuned guitar with liquid tactility and a warped distance buzz filling in the gaps. Grand sweeps of slashing drones that could originate from an echoing chainsaw deep in the woods forms an unlikely crescendo with sympathetic tones, only to collapse into the softened white noise of cars passing by. Soon after, a rhythmic tapping of agitated electronics forms a motorik rhythm against the tapestry of audio fluidity, with all of the electro-shock bursts of a tesla coil. This in turn morphs into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. For fans of any of work of Nurse With Wound (after all Mr. Waldron is in the NWW touring ensemble!), H.N.A.S., and the more esoteric recordings of Organum; and certainly of note for those of you taken by Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Xela, Svarte Greiner, Expo '70, Emeralds, or any of the darker, weirder, more fucked-up drone ensembles of recent days. Very highly recommended!" [Aquarius Rec.] |
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| ISHIGAMI, KAZUYA |
[A-Z-B-MEN] |
CD |
This work of Kazuya Ishigami contains 3 elongated electro-acoustic drones and ambient pieces including a new version of two 30-minute drone 2 works, originally released on the American cassette label Onmyodo Cassette in 2016. Presented in a foldout sleeve with plain card inner. |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| JACKMAN, DAVID (=ORGANUM) |
SEKIHI OIDORI |
CD |
"Organum ‘RAVEN’ CD, which was released by Siren Records in 2018 was the last piece that Jackman released under the name Organum. He changed the name Organum to Organum Electronics in 2019 and has released five volumes of the albums on Siren Records since then.
‘SEKIHI OIDORI’ is a development of the quiet nature of earlier Organum works and Jackman decided to release the album under his own name because of a very personal essence.
‘SEKIHI OIDORI’ is composed of low-key church organ drones, airy tanpura sounds, occasional church bell chimes and chirping birds. It is the most minimal, the most quiet and the most powerful composition Jackman has ever created. The drones continue uninterrupted and you may feel little change in partial listening, but you’ll appreciate the increasing internal dynamic energy that Jackman infused with mindful listening.
‘SEKIHI OIDORI’ means ‘Stone Tomb Old Bird’ in English translation but the piece is neither an elegy nor a lamentation.
Artist name: DAVID JACKMAN
Title: SEKIHI OIDORI
Label / Cat#: Siren Records / Siren 33
Format: CD Digisleeve
Edition size: 500 copies
Release date: 5th October 2023
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| JARL |
Out of balance |
CD |
MALIGNANT RECORDS bringt als Label nicht besonders viel heraus, aber wenn dann handelt es sich oft um äusserst hochkaratige Newcomer aus dem Bereich apocalyptic doom oder noise ambient. JARL ist auch so ein Fall: Die IRM-Hälfte brilliert mit dunkel-dröhnend-monumentalem noise-ambient, angefüllt mit repetitiv-hypnotischen Soundmustern, ein schwarzer Moloch aus Klang und Hitze! Anklänge an YEN POX, INADE oder GRUNTSPLATTER.
“Side project of Erik Jarl, member of the revered and immensely powerful heavy electronics outfit IRM. Jarl doesn't come with the aggression of that project, but it does evoke similar feelings of instability and dementia via more atmospheric means. The disc consists of 17 tracks in total, each flowing into each other, with the early pieces having an almost cosmic heaviness (a la Inade) - pulsing and weighty, the sounds of winds sweeping across a barren and distant orb. As it progresses however, the seeds of profound sickness and decay are planted and begin to blossom;the tones and textures becoming more surreal and unsettling, the drones a bit more persistent and penetrating, abandoning listeners in a white walled room to confront their inner demons and degenerating psyche.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Spectrum Confusion |
CD |
Spectrum Confusion is Jarl’s fifth album on Reverse Alignment, following on from 2019’s massive triple CD release Symptoms Variation/ Sensory Deprivation. And once again Karolina Urbaniak has masterfully created the cover artwork, as she’s done for the four earlier Jarl releases, also released by RA.
Spectrum Confusion consists of three long-form pieces showcasing his trademark psychedelic, hypnotic approach, but this time the presence of bubbling and pulsating sounds makes the music sound closer to the electronic experiments of Northern European avant-garde composers in conjunction with more melodic passages harmonically coexisting alongside the abstract elements. Jarl’s music has entered its more mature stage here, and Spectrum Confusion consolidates his reputation as one of the most interesting and original European electronic music composers.
Swedish musician Erik Jarl has been active since the Fall of 1999, principally as Jarl. He was also a member of post-industrial act IRM, of which Erik was one of the founding members. Jarl’s music has been released on several labels through the years, and he has collaborated with acts like Anemone Tube, Envenomist, and Skin Area. Erik Jarl composes his music through a total analogue approach with the use of synthesisers, analogue sequencers, waveform generators, and oscillators, as well as several echo/reverb and delay units.
https://reversealignment.bandcamp.com/album/spectrum-confusion
"More and more, the territory for Vital Weekly is that of modern classical music, improvised music and such; the last resort of physical releases, perhaps? I am glad that there is also music from Erik Jarl dropping on my doorstep now and then. Just for the sake of hearing something else, also because I have been quite a fan of his music over the years. After all these years of reviewing his music, I still have not a clear picture of what Jarl does. Maybe I believed he was a man of computer technology for a while, but I think that the modular synthesiser is his instrument of choice in recent times. When I was playing this CD, I used some more volume to drown out the clarinet rehearsals taking place upstairs, and it occurs to me that there is a slightly more cosmic streak to his music this time around. I doubt the volume is a contributing factor to that thought. I had this realisation, and I thought there was a straight line from Conrad Schnitzler's 'non-keyboard electronics' to the world of industrial music. Jarl's sonic paintings are dark and bleak; they are slow and minimal. Yet, it is also music of hope and light. This music is not the dystopian cosmic journey of a spaceship returning to the destroyed earth, but rather, well, such as I hear this, a celebratory trip back home. The spacecraft is in slow motion returning from whatever it was doing in space anyway. The additional reverb sets some of the moods here. It bursts and bubbles along the edges of the massive drones. Maybe because Jarl adds a melodic touch to his electronics, it made me think of that. I took a peek at Vangelis' recent tribute to Juno (the Jupiter moon, not the synthesiser), hailed in the daily, but I feel NASA missed out on Jarl's music for this occasion. His soundtrack would fit Juno much better than Vangelis' orchestral brushes. Alright, next time, Nasa, go to Sweden and talk to Jarl!" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| JASCH |
Shimmer |
CD |
Knistern, vibratorisch wummernde & hell zerfliessende Streicher-Drones, in der Tat „schimmernd“ wie Licht; sehr schön wie sich hier Flächen überlagern, vermengen & gegenseitig auslöschen zu scheinen, ab und zu kommen „konkretere“ Streicher-Klänge an die Oberfläche... 8 Stücke sehr gelungene experimental drones von diesem uns bisher unbekannten Schweizer.
“SHIMMER from the swiss artist JASCH (catalogue number 6) marks a new step in the development of dOc as it is the first release without any involvement of label owner Pure (besides dOc8 "Die Instabilität der Symmetrie" which was a cooperation with Cologne based label Grob). It therefore stands for the label's conceptual shift from a platform for documenting solo and collaborative live works to a release possibility for like minded sound and video artists. SHIMMER features a mixture of organic and synthetic characters that build crystalline shimmering layered sonic spaces. A constant flow of steadily evolving palettes of rich sound drifts from standstill to hectic, from recognisable instrumental timbre to digital fragments, constantly changing spatial perspectives and acoustic appearance. the most notable sound source for these eight tracks are recordings of string instruments, even though echoes of voices and traces of field recordings evoke an intimate exchange with the sonic materials used for this work. All eight tracks were recorded during a 4 month time span in spring and summer of 2003. Most of the pieces are direct-to-disk live-recordings, a few were recorded in the studio. all pieces were improvised using custom made soft- and hardware and no edits were applied in postproduction. the main tools use process-based algorithms and open dynamic systems geared towards intuitive and instantaneous interaction.
JASCH is an active musician coming from the fields of improvisation with a background in jazz and electroacoustic music. He holds a degree in jazz doublebass and a masters in digital arts. He has been performing improvised, electroacoustic and audio/visual electronic works in a variety of settings in festivals and clubs all over europe and north america.
Beside his solo works he is member of DYAD, the critically acclaimed live project with american video artist Johnny Dekam, whose collaboration DVD with dOc label owner Pure is released just a the same time.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| JENSEN, CLARICE |
Esthesis |
LP |
Cellist/composer Clarice Jensen returns on 130701 with her third album, ‘Esthesis’, a deep and gorgeous new work conceptually structured around the emotional and harmonic spectrum and the phenomenon of chromesthesia – a condition whereby sound involuntarily evokes an experience of color, shape and movement. Following up her critically-acclaimed 2020 LP ‘The experience of repetition as death’ (a record almost presciently timed to arrive as Covid first hit), 'Esthesis’ sees Jensen expanding her oeuvre, introducing a wider instrumental range, and reflecting on the effects of isolation. Recorded by Jensen in upstate NY and expertly mixed by Francesco Donadello, the record was mastered by Matthew Agoglia and is released on October 21st, ahead of a UK/EU tour supporting 130701 alumni Dustin O’Halloran.
From its opening piano notes, 'Esthesis’ gently upends expectations built up over previous albums. Shifting and extending Jensen’s sound in line with the adventurousness of the ‘Drone Studies’ and ‘Platonic Solids’ EPs, the album is less reliant on her trademark razor-sharp, processed cello drone. Performed heavily on synth, as well as her more usual cello and electronics, it also features the piano playing of Timo Andres (tracks 1, 4 and 5) and the voices of Laura Lutzke, Francesca Federico and Emma Broughton (on tracks 3 and 6). Whilst the drone is never far away, there’s a sense of more light and space across the album.
'Esthesis’ was originally conceived in pre-pandemic times as a concert experience, structured to comprise a series of long drones, each centred on a single key/pitch and cycling sequentially through the circle of fifths from C to F. These drones would be punctuated by shorter “songs”, each depicting one of the seven principle emotions defined in the Chinese Book of Rites. As an audio-visual experience, Jensen imagined the audience being bathed in coloured lights that corresponded to each drone, with those colours combined or oscillating during the songs in an effort to mimic or induce chromesthesia: a (gentle, not jarring) trip through the complete spectrum of colour, (Western) pitch and emotion.
With the pandemic dashing these plans and ushering in a period where it was even difficult to imagine live performance anymore, Jensen instead set out to realise the concept as an album palpably created in enforced solitude and isolation. “I expanded my usual palette of layered and treated cellos without the effect of a more grandiose or large-scale feeling of timbre; I wished to employ additional media in an effort to further portray the idea of isolation and containment.” Foregoing the longer drone structures she’d planned in favour of a more succinct whole, each track on ‘Esthesis’ evokes a different principal emotion using seemingly one-dimensional titles, with Jensen’s intention being to juxtapose the depths of these emotions with the reality-overlay of solitude. “It also calls to question how sensation can be rudimentary. Imposed isolation and the fear of viral exposure led many to seek sensation by streaming television, circulating memes, and sharing delayed laughs with loved ones across computer screens – all of this done alone and somewhat removed through various media, and set against a backdrop of very real fear.” While the \"removed\" nature of each track/emotion remains deliberate, so also exists the very realness of the emotion itself. “\'Joy\' evokes vernal lightness and promise, and came to me as I was falling asleep and realised I was still smiling thinking about someone I love. \'Sadness\' is a setting of Purcell\'s \'Dido\'s Lament’. \'Liking\' begins with tentative hope and then blossoms, using an additive compositional process, whereas \'Disliking\' is subtractive. ‘Anger\' uses text taken from Simone de Beauvoir\'s letters to Nelson Algren (the entirety is pasted below). \'Fear\' attempts to simply portray breathing and absence. The organs used on \'Love\' suggest hallowed spaces, employing only a short progression that always returns to the same but becomes layered, out-of-sync and lost, but simplest at its end.”
Thursday, 3 Juillet 1947
“I led a very quiet life since my last letter: no cave, no party, no wit. There was a wonderful storm in the country, it was really beautiful. The whole day had been so hot, you really wanted to die, love or work or happiness did not mean anything more. And then came a huge black smoke in the sky, and strange phantasms went by in the dim light, and soon you could not see the sky nor the landscape any more, just a cherry tree beaten by the wind while the rain fell crazily, and thunder shaked the sky. Many trees were broken, flowers killed, the landscape was a battle field… Afterwards, everything was strangely peaceful. Friends came and we had a dinner and long evening: the woman who has swallowed a pin, her husband, the old lady I like so much, and Sartre. But I was not very quiet myself; the storm had gone on my nerves, and I drank much, and, dearest, when I drink much I am no longer sensible at all; when the other friends left I became a storm myself, and poor Sartre was very bored with me who spoke about life and death and everything in a rather mad way. When I am drunk everything seems very tragic and pathetic and terrifying to me – so dreadfully important, and yet without importance since death is at the end; I should knock my head against the walls. I did not knock my head but I spoke and raved late in the night on the peaceful little country roads, and I decided not to drink any more for some time. You see, it has never been very easy for me to live, though I am always very happy – maybe because I want so much to be happy. I like so much to live and I hate the idea of dying one day. And then I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life, I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, and to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish…You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger…” [Simone de Beauvoir, Letters to Nelson Algren]
Across the album’s seven pieces, Jensen shows great restraint and an incredible compositional talent in spinning a series of beautiful, complex interweavings of texture, tone, rhythm and melody. There is a serious depth in her sensibility, that rewards repeated listening.
https://claricejensen.bandcamp.com/album/esthesis
|
2022 |
€32.50 |
|
| JGRZINICH (JOHN GRZINICH) |
Phase Inversion |
CD-R |
"... A bunch of acoustic objects, bells, wood, metal, stones, are being played manually and then the sound gets processed with various electronics and layered into thick swirling drone pieces. Jgrzinich never stands 'still', its always on the move. Small crackles from field recordings, majestic drones from electronics, with always something new happening. This is a Jgrzinich as we would have expected. Perhaps a bit like the release by Steve Roden reviewed elsewhere, one could say that Jgrzinich doesn't change his mode of operation very much, which might be necessary by now. But without that one could easily say this is another damn fine disc. Perhaps not as aquatic as many of the other releases on Mystery Sea." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Currently involved in workshops, and coordinator for MoKS - Center For Arts and Social Practice, an artist-run international residency center and project space in Southeast Estonia, John Grzinich is a nomadic mixed-media explorer whose main tool of expression is sound composition declined in various forms : manipulation of acoustic, environmental sounds & found objects, phonographies, construction of original instrument devices, site-specific installations & performances, collaborative sound actions...
Active since the early 1990s, he has collaborated with many artists & famous names in this sphere such as michael northam, Seth Nehil, Olivia Block... he travelled also intensively through Europe, and published CDs on a plethora of labels, namely for instance : Intransitive Recordings, Elevator Bath, Orogenetics (US), Cloud Of Statics, Cut (CH), Edition Sonoro (UK), Sirr (PT), CMR (NZ), Erewhon (BE), Prele, Tâalem (FR)...
For Mystery Sea, John Grzinich has plunged deep into its own creative process to come back with "phase inversion", an haunting & soothing thorough sound litany...
Sinking slowly within,
oscillating slightly,
in a continuous imperturbable movement
at the heart of an unseen core
lies a point of entry,
a source of multiple diffractions...
-
Rubbings, vesperal sighs,
microcollisions, metallic asperities,
elemental debris,
tiny fragments recombine in a wordless score...
-
"phase inversion" turns things upside down,
makes Below becoming the Above,
draws a precise, refined outline
where each detail is like the echo of a new path...
a cognitive retraction..."
[label notes]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| JULIUS, ROLF |
Für einen kleinen See |
CD |
Very carefully created Drone / Microsound-album from this german sound-artist, who combines his beautiful acoustics (mainly derived from field recordings) with "the gaze" of colours, objects, etc. - for many of his exhibited sound-sculptures the visual quality plays an important role too. For example, colours can fill in the gaps of a musical composition. So he also creates pieces for certain "objects" of the nature, like a small lake or a certain landscape. The music consists of drones and tiny bits & pieces of sound....
"Rolf Julius' works are always catalyzers for increasing attention to the things surrounding us. This has secured Julius an unmistakable place in the spectrum of contemporary art. He for himself is more influenced by people like Wittgenstein or John Cage...In a world meanwhile overflowing with artworks in energetic brush strokes and equipment playing fortissimo, his works murmur visually and acoustically as if they had always been present. The small sounds can originate in musical instruments, they can be natural sounds, and Julius often works with simple things such as buzzers. For Julius music is everywhere. It isn't important which sound-producing devices he uses. Julius often uses them in contradiction to the normal method..." [label info]
|
2003 |
€14.50 |
|
| JÜPPALA KÄÄPIÖ |
Rainbow Mask |
LP |
"Rainbow Mask" is a 12" record which contains a long piece on each side. The sound was originally taken from our first session in Geneva in Autumn 2006. Hitoshi processed Carole's viola and voice thorough various effectors in realtime. And we kept playing until the studio space was totally filled with our harmony and noises. Although the sound was quite rough, the experience in the space was strong enough to impress ourselves. ("Lunastus" in "Sporing Promenade" is also taken from a part of the session in the same day.)
We have listened, edited and forgotten the recording, again and again. Then finally the brewed results were contained in this record.
The process often happens during Hitoshi’s sound work. He seriously considers the effect as 'sound fermentation', that increases the astringency and richness of the sound, even if it's in decaying process.
Side A is a noisy psychedelic drone music which is closer to the original session. It may remind you some of Hitoshi's work, as "Spiracle" (if you know the name). Side B is a quiet work, like an ambient music. We played piano together while listening to the original session, and Carole acoustically overdubbed viola tracks afterwards. Then, the sound of the original session was mostly removed.
This side sounds nice by 45 rpm as well.
The mask on the cover was made by Carole, when she was 12 years old. The titles of each piece were also borrowed from this innocent craziness.
How about our "rainbow fermentation technique" which comes from the country of cheese and wine 'Switzerland', and the country of natto (fermented soybeans) and sake 'Japan'?" [label info]
www.omnimemento.com
"A swarmingly beautiful, miasmic piece of psychedelic drone folk! Juppala Kaaplo is the husband & wife duo of Carole and Hitoshi Kojo, the latter of whom had released a number of spectacular drone-smear constructions under the moniker Spiracle. Minimalism is certainly a key component to the Juppala Kaaplo sound, but it's the kaleidoscopic trills that you'll get from Terry Riley rather than the steely suspension from Organum or Phill Niblock. Certainly, Spiracle's last affair - the daydreaming ambient record Ananta - was a much friendlier form of minimalism, but we were still not entirely expecting the shimmering, prism-shot psychedelia of this album. A hypnotizing mass immediately emerges from the lp with lengthy repetitions of Carole's vocal that is equal parts Liz Harris and Tara Burke, haunting the forest-dwelling drones from various bowed instruments that Hitoshi stacks into sinewy passages. Throughout, long breathy gasps of aerated noises push to the foreground alongside a revolving set of church organ trills and arpeggiations that faithfully play homage to Terry Riley's classic Rainbow In Curved Air. The second side is a slightly more somber affair with violin and piano gliding out of an aggregate drone from those two instruments. Like the A-side, it's a wonderful bliss-out number albeit sodden from a rainy night out in the Finnish wilderness. Limited to 450 copies and highly recommended!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2010 |
€19.50 |
|
| |
Alpen Ocean |
LP |
"ALPEN OCEAN is the final recording of Carole Kojo (Swiss) and Hitoshi Kojo (Japanese) that they left behind as Jüppala Kääpiö, whilst resident in Switzerland.
The sound sources are rather familiar instruments and materials for us such as voices, handmade instruments, viola, organic materials and field recordings. However, the style has evolved to a hybrid of our early style: an intense harmonic drone music that has appeared in RAINBOW MASK, and another phase which might be termed as a cosmopolitan ethnic music, that has been archived in later recordings such as OWLORA MUSKARIA and ANIMALIA COROLLA.
The overlaid harmonies of a murmuring of trees, howling skies, roarings of the ocean and the gradual transformation that is accompanied by melodies may remind you of migratory birds travelling across the sky on a lost ancient continent, or the dream of sea animals that are in eternal slumber in a ridge of mountains.
This piece would be one of a high-water mark by Jüppala Kääpiö who have looked for sound which resonates throughout time and space, whilst regarding a life-size reality that is rooted on the earth.
This release is a limited edition of 250 copies. 30 copies of the special edition in a stencil design box includes an extra cd-r that contains same tracks with the LP and two unreleased tracks from our early period.
Since the move to Belgium where is a foreign county for both of us in 2011, we are investigating a passage to our next chapter in the new environment." [label info]
"So lovely is the work of Juppala Kaapio! That said, we must sadly report that the Japanese / Swiss, husband-and-wife duo have stated that Alpen Ocean will be their final album under the guise of Juppala Kaapio. Another project is in the works, and they are planning to unveil whatever this may be sometime in 2014. Many of the drone-clad works we champion hedge their bets with the power of the darkside; but there are plenty of choice examples of rapturous, celestial tones and holy minimalism that seek to enlighten rather than darken the consumers' mind. Juppala Kaapio's small catalogue of lovingly crafted minimalism figures somewhere between the summer solstice nature jams of the Finnish freak-folk types and the twinkling harmonics of Terry Riley and LaMonte Young. As for Alpen Ocean, a brightly hued psychedelia of a sunburst and snowblind tableau is rendered through the wide-eyed sense of awe and wonder after calmly sipping a cup of psilocybin mushroom tea. Carole Kojo's delicate falsettos waver into a meditative chorale through tape loops and delay amidst the slow kaleidoscopic arrangements of chiming bells, bowed gongs, glassy electronics, and a few pastoral field recordings thrown in for good measure. It all comes together into bright, rapturous drones that Juppala Kaapio's Hitoshi Kojo describes as "overlaid harmonies of a murmuring of trees, howling skies, roarings of the ocean and the gradual transformation that are accompanied by melodies which may remind you of migratory birds travelling across the sky on a lost ancient continent, or the dream of sea animals that are in eternal slumber in a ridge of mountains." Limited to a mere 300 copies!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2013 |
€19.50 |
|
| KAFFE MATTHEWS & ANDY MOOR (THE EX) |
Locks |
CD |
Sehr ungewöhnliche Zusammenarbeit: die englische Avantgardistin mit dem Gitarristen ANDY MOOR von THE EX ! Alle Stücke sind „live in the studio“-Improvisationen: weirde loops, ungewöhnliches Gitarrenspiel, überraschende breaks, wild und ungestüm, aber auch mit dronig-schwelenden Passagen !
“Live convertor Kaffe Matthews and sonic guitarist Andy Moor first performed together as an improvised duo in London in 1998. The combination of Andys energetic guitar work and Kaffes serene, highly focused live sampling technique worked well... they produce a dark, textural sound with extremes in dynamics from barely audible blips and squeaks to massive walls of joyful noise often backed by bizarre rhythmic patterns and melancholic drones.
Their live performance is totally improvised, Kaffe sampling and processing Andys guitar sounds in real time and together building tension, with a restless energy that never allows the form to collapse.” [label description]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| KAHN, JASON |
Miramar |
CD |
Vier super-minimale und recht “trockene” drones dieses inzwischen in der Schweiz ansässigen Klangkünstlers, der wie z.B. ALVIN LUCIER den Raum als Instrument benutzt...
“ 'miramar' features new pieces recorded live in studio using analogue synthesizer, floor tom and small cymbals. Recorded with eight different room microphones, the room being extremely large, with 20-meter high ceilings. Each room microphone picked up a different frequency range, depending on its placement and how the room's resonant frequency mixed with what I was playing. In addition to analogue synthesizer and percussion, the room itself was thus the third «instrument» Jason Kahn used on this recording. Jason Kahn was born in New York, grew up in Los Angeles, moved to Berlin in 1990. He now lives in Zürich. His audio work is a mix of electronic and acoustic sound sources, produced with minimal percussion, laptop or analogue synthesizer. In recent years he has also created several sound installations. He started the cd label «cut» in 1998” [label description]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| KALLABRIS |
81° n.Br., 178° ö.L. (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
"Since many years, this is the first release of an anonymous project from Germany which is linked with the CoC/Cranioclast –family. This record describes a very cold place, with high frequenced & feedbacked effects, accordeon, long & deep gong-drones, and strange voices coming from underneath. We think this is as brilliant as their legendary "Hafalgar" 10" from 1990. Welcome to this magical mystery tour! Beautiful golden vinyl, handprinted covers on raw paper, contains extra-inlay with a strange explorer-story..."
Drone Records info August 1998
"Three mysterious new E.P.s for holographic minds" |
1998 |
€ |
|
| KARINI / PALADINO / SIMON FISHER TURNER |
Ghosts of Industrial Sunday |
CD + DVD |
"Here comes a new welcome entry in the ‘private sounds’ series of the now growing 13 catalogue. "Ghosts of Industrial Sunday" is a short film by Maria Assunta Karini and Francesco Paolo Paladino, whose music were composed by Simon Fisher Turner. This release consists of a video DVD, which contains the film, and a audio CD that features the original soundtrack and other compositions inspired by this project that Turner created on purpose; they are accompanied by an oversize 20 pages booklet that offers some images taken from the film and delves more into the concept behind it.
As a film, “Ghosts of Industrial Sunday” portrays those places attended by human beings in order to carry out their profession, while they are empty, for a limited period of time, during a break, on a Saturday or Sunday. These are places where the human presence, fatigue, pain, hope are palpable presences, where silence seizes the humble labor objects almost by magic and where things talk and expose without having to necessarily utter any words. The path chosen by the directors relates to a sort of secular “via crucis”, it is an objective progress through the human work’s granted moment of interruption in order to analyze it, to describe it and to underscore its dramatic sense, through the exclusive aid of inanimate objects.
The music created by Turner as a soundtrack to the film expresses a delicate tranquillity through notes of piano which are just mottled by the electronic elements in the background, while an unspoken sense of drama hovers in the air and the circular motion of the composition gradually absorbs the listener. Among the remaining tracks, is worth mentioning the evocative and intense soliloquy of "Piano For Double Lesson" and the hanging drones of the first part of "Some Lost Music".
Maria Assunta Karini, sculptor, photographer, writer and director, has shown her works in several major Museums, in Korea, Brazil and the United States. She has produced several short and medium length films, that have participated in the Cannes Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, MACBA Museum of Contemporary art Barcelona, MADC Costa Rica, and has been awarded numerous prizes at art and cinema festivals.
Francesco Paolo Paladino, script writer, musician and director, has received an award by F.E.D:I:C: at the 66th Festival of Venice. He has participated more than once in the Cannes Film Festival (Short Corner) and he has won the Houston’s World Film Festival and the New York Independent Film Festival.
Simon Fisher Turner has composed music for Derek Jerman, David Lynch, Mike Hodges, Michael Almareyda and several others authors. His recent soundtrack for “The Epic of Everest”, a film made in 1924, was nominated “Soundtrack of the Year” for 2013 by Mojo magazine. His CDs have been published all over the world." [label info]
http://13.silentes.it
www.silentes.net
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| KARL BÖSMANN |
Euphoria Mitte |
CD |
"With the whole bunch of very limited edition releases on such labels as Tosom, Domestic Violence Recordings, Verato Project and the luxurious LP made by Youdonthavetocallitmusic, the name of German musician Karl Bösmann is emerging since 2003. This is his second real CD after Unton (2005, Badbeatz Records) and includes several new compositions, showing the maturity and intensity of his prolific talent. Karl Bösmann irritates. His name alone, which reminds of Kafka's wayfarer to America, Karl Roßmann, is ambiguous. A mixture of sinister and typical german, where you can think of one of Alexander Kluge's Lebenslufe, which show in protocolar dryness the deceitfulness of fate. In fact did his debut Das Kind in der Küche (2004) exactly met this impression. The soundscapes between programmed music and abstraction - in more prosaic words, Bösmann constructs, in the good old tradition of electroacoustic music, with instruments played by himself, and completely without the fashionable chic of a laptop: minimal repetitive passages, especially drones that vibrate in themselves, that flash, shimmer and take a character and 3D-quality of its own. Phill Niblock and Ligeti could come to the back of your mind, a resonance that is an honour to both sides. Other musical influences ranges from AMM and Aube through Nurse With Wound and Organum to Ghédalia Tazartès and Xenakis and so sets his ambitions way over eye-level." [label info]
www.monochromevision.ru
"Karl Bosmann is a German post-industrial / electro-acoustic tactician who seems to from the Conrad Schnitzler mold of continuous
experimentation with his equipment in pushing it to expressive means, no matter how atemporal or atonal the resulting sounds might be. Our
previous experience with Bosmann had been through monolith drone- fields that swelled from electronics and possibly cymbals into
discordant dissonant crescendos somewhere between SUNNO))) and Sunroof! Here, Bosmann showcases a wide array of electronic circuity,
whose home-built, tone-bent aesthetics take after the sound poems of early electronic music coupled with the nondestructive strategies from the likes of Nautical Almanac. His electronic insectoid blips, click, and blorps percolate through live-wire electrical fields and the
humming cycles akin to fluorescent bulbs. Many of these tracks begin rather charmingly similar to something by Dan Deacon or Black Dice,
but Bosmann twists the demeanor of his electronics through anxiety- riddled tones that glow as if a background radiation, with all of the clicks then standing in for Geiger counter pulses to allude to the neutrino bath that he's unleashed through his electronics. The pierced
feedback mantra "Around The Sun" is a great recapitulation of what Arcane Device and Nurse With Wound have done with similar material.
Dotted through the experiments, Bosmann interjects collages of industrial-space field recordings coupled with overlapping male /
female spoken word bits, whose content and context are smeared to the point of abstraction following the Hafler Trio's many demonstrations of information overload." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| KATCHMARE |
Frieda Harris |
CD-R |
"An algid five tracks Occult homage to Lady Frieda Harris (mostly known as the artist behind Aleister Crowley's Thoth tarot deck) is the case with this new creation by Nick Hoffman aka Katchmare.
"Frieda Harris" Represents both progression and realization Hoffman explored on previous Katchmare albums that he recorded during winter time, as it substantiates in the 25 minutes album opener "Winterreise"- A gesture to the renowned Schubert winter piece in the shape of saturnine and freezing drones that shifts to "Unseen Chariot", a picturesque track that offers noise washes alongside silent intervals and sensory drones gliding in idiosyncratic space heaven. "Wind Canticle" comes next as a methodical winter hymn with bitter ceremonial qualities, whilst "Shifting Snow" is a short and intimidating segment before "Ulrikke" rigorously end this album with an evident observation: Destruction implies creation. Death implies life. Winter is Death." [label info]
www.hcbrecords.com
|
2011 |
€9.00 |
|
| KEMIALLISET YSTÄVÄT |
Alkuhärkä |
LP + 7inch |
In der Version mit 7" soll es nur 150 Stück geben, das neue Werk der finnischen Geräusch-Folker, mit ihrem dadaistisch kreatürlichen Chaos-Primitivism Drone-Psych.. (oh was für ein Wortgebilde, die Musik scheint zu wirken..)
"One of our favorite slabs of freaky Finnish forest folk, now available on lp!! Pressed on thick vinyl in a deluxe jacket with a printed inner sleeve and all new artwork! The 18 tracks found here are a riotous festival of Finnish folk-psych. A pagan parade in a forest glade. Abstract, druggy, dark, delightful... We're always entranced by Kemialliset Ystavat's damaged improv folk mystery, and Alkuharka is yet another reason for us to keep saving our pennies in order to afford a trip to Finland (lucky Andee's been there once already). Anyone into anything along the lines of Tower Recordings, Thuja, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Six Organs Of Admittance, the whole Broken Face 'zine scene (to whom Kemialliset mainman Jan Anderzen used to contribute much art) will want/need this. Horns flutes guitars drones bells tapes voices feedback.
Wheezing buzzing bliss. With contributions from honorary Finns Dylan Nyoukis (Prick Decay) and Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel), Jan
and company are the true underground krautrock heirs, making music so long haired that it's furrier than any Animal Collective. Music from
the soundtrack to The Wickermoomin, perhaps?" [Aquarius Records]
|
2007 |
€25.00 |
|
| KINETIX |
Gestaltsystem 01: Possible Forms |
do-CD |
Interessanter Installations- / Konzeptkunst-Release dieses italienischen SoundArt-Projekts auf dem russischen Monochrome Vision-Label, in dessen äussere Audioform man interaktiv eingreifen kann GESTALTSYSTEM 01: POSSIBLE FORMS besteht aus 2 CDs mit exakt gleicher Länge (42:42 min) und exakt gleichlangen 8 Tracks (5:20 min). Beide sollen gleichzeitig abgespielt werden, wobei Lautstärke und Reihenfolge variiert werden können. Die schwarze CD enthält „metrische“ Ton-Elemente, die weisse CD „noise drones“, es entstehen fliessende digitalelektronisch-mathematische Soundscapes, die z.B. an IKEDA denken lassen... perfekt für die eigene Home-KlangInstallation.
“This release is a totally reworked version of "Possible Forms" previously produced as CDR in edition of 100 copies by Nova Ars Digitandi, and it's a part of "Gestaltsystem" installation.
It has unique conception of everchanging soundsculpture, composed by randomly juxtaposed audio fragments of the specially designed structure. This is the best digital sound art piece we ever heard, and it should appeal to all minimal electronic music admirers.” [label info]
"POSSIBLE FORMS is not a double-CD album, but it’s an audio-set composed by two CDs planned to be played simultaneously. It includes sixteen electronic compositions of identical length (5’ 20”) for a total time of 42’ 42” for each CD.
This work is conceived in order that every track of each record could play as second layer on every track of the other one. For this reason, the tracks hasn’t neither title nor a pre-arranged sequential order.
Macrostructure: the Black CD includes 8 tracks with metrical-tonal elements, while the White CD contains 8 tracks of only noise drones. Both CDs have the same peak level (0dB), so the listener can choose the respective volume of each CD. These recordings contain ultra/sub sonic frequencies; for this reason the author advices the listener not to play the CDs at high volume.
Microstructure: all the tracks are obtained from a special combination of forty different audio fragments, previously selected and extracted from various digital sources. The minimal form of the entire work was specifically created to facilitate the listening in combined modality, establishing this way a precise relationship between sign and function.
Vertical audio system: using two CD players (or CD-ROM/DVD players) in Random / Shuffle and Repeat modes, both players have to be started simultaneously. So, the two records can be played together ad libitum, generating sounds and sequences in continuous movement.
POSSIBLE FORMS uses sound strategies based on the calculation of auditive times and spaces in order to create a different kind of audio-logic design. In this sense this work can be intended as a device able to expand the ordinary possibilities of domestic listening." - liner notes
Composed 2001-2002.
Originally released as Kinetix (2) - Possible Forms on CDrs and limited to 100 copies.
Re-worked 2004-2005. This edition is limited to 500 copies.
|
2006 |
€8.50 |
|
| |
White Rooms |
do-CD |
„Hinter Kinetix steckt seit 1999 der Komponist elektronischer Musik und Klangkünstler Gianluca Becuzzi. Er schreibt: “The artistic production of KINETIX is characterised by a strong experimental imprint, by the interest into the expressive possibilities offered by the digital technologies and by a clear aesthetic inclination towards minimalist forms and micro noises/sounds.” Und tatsächlich klingt die Musik, als würden Kunstwerke der minimal art vertont werden. In den 9 Stücken der CD 1 wird die Beziehung zwischen physischen und akustischen Raumverhalten durch die Aspekte Klangvolumen, Zeit und Häufigkeit klanglich hervorgehoben. Klare digitale Signale von Summen und Sirren, die sich im Wechselbad mit großräumlich hallenden drones befinden, rufen flächige Klänge und dreidimensionale Eindrücke hervor. Auf der zweiten CD sind sehr reduzierte Sounds zu hören, die für eine Klanginstallation entwickelt wurden. Hier ist lediglich der Raum der Interpret. Hochfrequente Geräusche, ein wallendes Brummen und beinernes Knirschen umschmeicheln die Stille.
Since 1999, KINETIX is Gianluca Becuzzi, electronic composer and sound artist active since the first half of the 80’s. He writes: “The artistic production of KINETIX is characterised by a strong experimental imprint, by the interest into the expressive possibilities offered by the digital technologies and by a clear aesthetic inclination towards minimalist forms and micro noises/sounds.” (from the website) Really, the music sounds like a study about a representational work of minimal art. The first CD includes 9 pieces dealing with volume of sound, time and frequencies to underline the relationship between physical space and acoustic space. Clear digital signal-buzz changes with wide open resounding drones evoking superficial sounds and three-dimensionally impressions. The 2. CD shows very reduced sounds conceived for a sound installation. Only the room is the interpreter. High frequencies circle abstract noises, playing with silence.” [Peter Schlewinski for Drone Records]
“...Carefully constructed soundscapes of sine-waves gently moving in and out, with occasional crackles and soft whispering voices, certainly in the first part. It reminded me of some of Jos Smolders' older work in this direction (but much better recorded by Kinetix, but in Smolders' defense, he work with hissy tapes in his early days). In the second and third part Kinetix uses the voice of Alvin Lucier with his well-known ramble about rooms that he is in and you are not, but Kinetix uses it quite nicely. The fourth part is a stretched out drone piece with off and on rumbles and it moves all quite slowly. The previous works by Kinetix were nice, but couldn't convince me that much, but here it surely does. Not so much in terms of presenting something new, but it's a well-thought out disc, excellently produced, good concept and presented well. Thumbs up!” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
labelwebsite: www.smallvoices.it
|
2005 |
€7.77 |
|
| KIRCHENKAMPF |
Transmissions |
CD-R |
Schwelender Katakomben-Ambient-Industrial vom inzwischen wieder aktiver gewordenen US-Projekt. Es grummelt & bebt wie aus riesiger Entfernung, knatternde Sounds drängen nach vorne, mitunter hat man das Gefühl in einem mit schrägen Tieren bevölkerten Dschungel zu stehen, geisterhafte Stimmen und Drones tauchen aus dem Off auf... Sehr kraftvoll und dunkel... vielleicht der bisher beste Release von KIRCHENKAMPF, leider wurden nur 100 Stück hergestellt...
"Diophantine Discs is pleased to announce the release of 'kirchenkampf' - Transmissions. 'kirchenkampf' is the work of John Gore (Cohort Records, >wirewall<, The Oratory of Divine Love) and has existed since 1986. With his 6th and latest CD, "Transmissions," he presents us six tracks (over 50 minutes) of stunning experimental dark ambient soundscapes. This release is limited to 100 numbered copies and is housed in a blue slimline jewel-case with color cover." [label info]
http://discs.diophantine.net
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| KIRCHENKAMPF & THE IMPLICIT ORDER |
M103 (a cosmic Peregrination in four parts) |
CD-R |
A one-tracker of around 55 minutes with ghostly wind-ambience and vocal invocations, ultra-dark, floating and re-sounding endlessly, loopy & repetitive structures are omnipresent, but it doesn't sound artificial... this is a split CDR where the different parts are linked together
(parts 1 & 3 by KIRCHENKAMPF, parts 2 & 4 by THE IMPLICIT ORDER), the material fits together quite well...
Recommended for lovers of the spheric dark drones...
|
1999 |
€9.00 |
|
| KLINE, PHIL |
Glow in the dark |
CD |
Fünf grossartige Stücke (entstanden 1992 bis 1997) von diesem amerikanischen Komponisten, der wohl nur wenigen bekannt sein dürfte. KLINE schichtet hier Drone auf Drone (z.B. 25 Cassettenrecorder, 10 tape loops) und kreiert so monumental-sphärische, sehr eindringliche & befremdliche, aber auch eher ruhige Dronescapes, die in ihrer Massivität an KAYN, HAFLER TRIO, THOMAS DIMUZIO erinnern.
“pieces for 25 tape players; voice and 10 tape loops; 8 electric guitars and basso continuo; and harmonica and 12 tape loops. beautifully bizarre drones and masses of sound, swelling into clouds at times reminiscent of Roland Kayn.” [Anomalous Records]
|
1998 |
€14.00 |
|
| KLOFT RETARDER |
Stolperfallen im zerebralen Subraum |
CD-R |
This ex-KRACHGAU project from Darmstadt, Germany, produces noise-energy in the good old handmade way, using tribal drumming, spacey noise-guitars, analogue base- and highfrequency-drones and distorted feedbacks. Reminds on SKULLFLOWER and early Industrial-tunes. More “primitive” , raw and emotional.. Comes in a cloth cover.
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
| KLOOB |
Parallel States |
CD |
A welcome return to Winter-Light for Kloob with new work 'Parallel States'; his third solo album on our label.
‘Drifting helplessly in unchartered space. Gripped by fear and an inherent dread; the mind becomes wracked with feverish blurred visions. Intermittently slipping in to dreamlike sequences, spliced with harsh realities and the surreal. A sudden pulse courses throughout the body, triggering a magnificent view of the quantum limits. At once comprehending and understanding even the most intricate of macrocosmic notions.
Once the whole structure of mind, body and soul has undergone significant changes, the known boundaries of existence cease to impose such limitations.’
Ethereal soundscapes, deep-low drones, subtle-faint dub chords and gloomy atmospheres slowly slide in to assemble nebulous structures.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/parallel-states
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| KLOOD |
Gag-Hamin (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
"KLOOD is a one man (sometimes two men) - project from France originally based in MACEY (now in LILLE), with so far only two full-length tapes out (one self-released, one on Rendevouz Radikal). KLOOD creates a kind of emotional space with guitar-like drones added by some drops of analogue synth, the sound itself is somber and we find earthy endless delays on the B-Side, like being in a charming garden of resounding crystals. References could be TESENDALO, ULTRA MILKMAIDS and MAEROR TRI. Listen to this wonderful enchanting synaesthetic drone music on the two tracks "EAGLA" and "JUSTE DE PASSAGE".
PINK VINYL, HANDCOLOURED, DRAWN & BURNT COVERS BY THE ARTIST." [press release]
|
1999 |
€ |
|
| KLUCEVSEK, GUY |
Flying Vegetables of the Apocalypse |
CD |
Neun Stücke mit folkloristisch-melancholisch geprägter Akkordeon-Tanz-Musik, v.a. Polka- und Walzer-Bearbeitungen mit experimenteller Note und slovenischen Wurzeln. Mitspieler z.B. TOM CORA. Beschwingte Wehmut voller Virtuosität.
“ Composer and accordion virtuoso Guy Klucevsek is teaching his instrument to whoop and wheeze in strange new ways. He plays deconstructed, reconstructed art songs and dance tunes, translated into a metalanguage of his own making. His is a musical Esperanto fashioned from hocketed melodies, giddy arabesques; tone clusters; eerie difference tones; hypnotic phasing and locomotive ostinatos; low register drones punctuated by high register yips; and a rollicking, roisterous energy borrowed from dance forms and folk music the world over. Ensemble pieces for strings, percussion, guitars, and woodwinds, feature Bobby Previte, Tom Cora, David Hofstra, John King, Laura Seaton, and more.” [label description]
|
1991 |
€13.00 |
|
| KOCHAN, RAFAL |
ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF INDUSTRIAL MUSIC : VOLUME 2 |
BOOK / CD |
"The second part of "ENYCLOPAEDIA OF INDUSTRIAL MUSIC", printed in full-colour, over 100 pages. over 270 names (letters D-I), articles and discographies. This part has got CD compilation. 300 copies" [label info]
"Back in Vital Weekly 721 I was very pleasantly surprised by the first volume of the Encyclopedia Of Industrial Music, and now we have the second volume, spanning 'D' to 'I' and has 'just' one CDR to go alone. A while ago someone said I was living in the past, with me liking physical objects such as records, CDs and books, and he is right: I prefer a book like this, to sit back in my chair, and flip throughout. I know I mustn't complain about age but I very much doubt wether I will ever get used to an e-reader and I would not be sitting behind my computer to browse a website that would have the same contents as this book. And yes, I am aware that books are outdated the minute they are printed. But that's the whole charm of it (oh I wrote that before on Volume 1 too). The Encyclopedia of Industrial Music is a book on an extended field of musical interest, from Brian Eno to Dachau Lustknaben to Luc Ferrari to Ryoji Ikeda. Short bits of what seems to me highly accurate information. The
CDR doesn't have Ikeda, Eno or Bruce Gilbert, but instead Dachau Lustknaben, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Yannick Dauby, Dieter Müh, The Digitariat, Jürgen Eckloff, Emil Beaulieau, Enema Syringe, Galerie Schallschutz, Gastric Female Reflex, Gerechtigkeits Liga, Grunt, GX Jupitter-Larsen and Idea Fire Company, which if these names mean anything to you, you know its all of the place: from brutal noise of the Lustknaben, The Digitariat, Beaulieu, Enema Syringe and Grunt to the softer end of musique concrete of Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, Dauby, Eckloff, the drones from Dieter Muh, Galerie Schallschutz or the very eighties tribalistic drumming of the Liga. Closed down with the piano and boat music of Idea Fire Company, this compilation is as diverse as the book itself. On the risk of repeating myself: Excellent. Can't hardly wait for the next volume. (and oh: many pictures of boys behind laptops or performing, but are The Grey Wolves really posing inside The Hacienda?)" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| KONTAKT DER JÜNGLINGE |
Makrophonie 1 |
CD |
"The first album by Kontakt der Jünglinge since the release of their CD n (DS63) on Die Stadt back in 2003, »Makrophonie 1« is also their very first studio album. It's the result of various scores which were developed before and during miscellaneous live performances. These worked out structures were then taken to the studio, where they were concentrated and received their final finish. »Makrophonie 1« can be described as KDJ music in highly-concentrated form.
The album was recorded at Audiplex Studios, Hamburg in 2013 and produced by Okko Bekker.
Limited edition of 500 copies in Digipack cover." [label info]
www.diestadtmusik.de
"It has been quiet for some years for Kontakt der Jünglinge, the duo of Thomas Köner and Asmus Tietchens. But after a bit of music on a compilation CD in 2007 it was all silent, and their main bulk of releases was already from 2001-2003. I don't assume there has been a band fight, but as these things go: people meet up, do something and do something with much interest for a while, but then get torn apart for whatever reason, usually other work somewhere else. I am sure that's what happened here, as nor herr Tietchens, nor herr Köner are persons to put up a band fight. Two of gentlest, kindest Germans I know. And two of the best in their respective fields. Closely linked perhaps, but also a bit different. Tietchens is the man who brings out musique concrete into the field of the unacademic composers, self-trained, and explorer of the terra incognita of the studio. It can take many forms. Köner does the same but much of his work is more spaced out, more drone like; the arch
father of Isolationist music - to some. Their duo is named after a pun on two works of Karlheinz Stockhausen, and so is the title of their latest work, 'Makrophonie 1'. That may all seem rather playful, but the music isn't that playful, and actually more serious. These thirty-seven minutes are filled by the darkest of drones, but not 'long fade in, and stay there for a long time, short fade out' (the cigar shape, as some one once noted), but we are transported through various moods and textures, ranging from the very soft, and not so outspoken ones, to the more louder passages of unearthy low drone sounds (Köner) and high clicks and beeps (Tietchens). At one point, around twenty-five minutes, I had the impression that this was live recording, as the feedback beeps that sound here are of a varying length and interval. Maybe it's intentional, I am not sure - the press text says this is a studio recording. They don't seem to be men who who make 'mistakes'. The balance moves like a ticking clock between these two opposites, the dark drone rumble of Köner and the more precise tinkling sounds of Tietchens, best exampled at the very end of this release. A work of powerful beauty of a very dark nature. Soundtrack music which is no need of a movie. I think it's a great work, but I am the first to admit I'm very biased. Recently I was going through lots and lots of CDs I have, and I decided to keep all of Tietchens works, including the previous releases by Kontakt der Jünglinge, and that means something to me. Not a single release I didn't like, and I can proudly add 'Makrophone 1' to my collection. As dark as the cover it comes in, but what a beauty." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€14.00 |
|
| KRAKEN |
Amore |
do-CD |
Nach FÖRLISA ein Doppelalbum des belgischen Duos, die wieder die dunkle Seite der Musik und des Lebens an sich ausloten, dabei aber zwei sehr gegensätzliche CDs vorlegen... auf der einen klingt das sehr minimal & elektronisch mit dunklen Flächen & hallenden Industrieanlagengeräuschen, wo später medizinische-kalte Spracheingaben auftauchen und die Spannungskurve allmählich geschickt nach oben wandert; auf der anderen gibt es mehr field recordings, strange Sprachbearbeitungen und Einspielungen und dunke Pulsationen & Beats & Bläser-Echos, die sich mit dunklen Klangmassen verbinden.....äusserst sorgfältig wurden hier Sounds ausgesucht und Stücke zusammengesetzt.... dark ambient der explorativen Sorte !
"...Amore" is a recording full of contrasts. The first CD requires an active attention span to fully appreciate the artistry involved. Although steeped in black ambience and drones the occasional slight experimental feel could be off putting for lesser souls. Whilst the second CD is more easily accessible to those into the darker side of music and life. All in all though the release is deceptively awe inspiring and is different enough to be a viable purchase for ambient / drone collectors.” [AuralPressure]
“With almost two hours of deeply absorbing soundscapes, latest album by Belgian project Kraken delivers an experience of abstraction similar to the aforementioned experience at the movie theatre. The album titled "Amore" first of all operates in the spheres of dark ambient built on low frequency drones, deep rumbling horns and mixtures of concrete and artificial sounds. The music is subtle and dreamy thanks to the drones of hypnotism and the distantly echoed voices as well as a clever use of field recordings. Even with the occurrence of the great amount of samples from real life accompanying you as you float through the tunnels of eerie ambientscapes the atmosphere on the album first of all delivers a sense of isolationism. Imagine the impression of being conscious enough to sense the dialogues of the surgical team as you lay on the operating table: The voices surround you, but they sound distant and you are not part of the dialogue. First CD has been divided into five works of art meanwhile second disc only consists of two tracks: Where the first track runs approx. 70 minutes, the closing track with its short duration of 49 seconds, first of all functions as a transformation between the sonic darkness of "Amore" and the outside world. Built on beautifully processed harpsichords the track, titled "de hoorn in je hoed", lightens up the atmosphere before the listener soon once again will have to face the real world. Despite the title there is absolutely no sign of romanticism on this remarkable exploration into the dark lands of Kraken.” [NMP / Vital Weekly]
www.spectre.be |
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Drift |
CD |
"Trilogies always come in three parts, that is why they're called trilogies. And just like the latest two Kraken releases, the new album 'Drift' also comes in a minimal designed black and white cardboard cover. Which brings us to the conclusion that together with 'Amore' and 'Chagrin', the Kraken trilogy on Spectre has been completed.
Amongst the multiple meanings of the Dutch 'Drift' there is 'Temper' and 'Impulse' which are the emotional layers on this CD, but it also reflects to a ship being uncontrolable. As all tracks are related to oceans and oceanlife (amongst them are 'Fighting with cachalot', 'Whalebones are not umbrella's' and 'Sushi is murder') we can see what upsets Kraken . And the music fits their anger perfectly; A layering of dark ambience and deep opressive drones, spoken word in various languages and a pinch of noise.
Three emotions were Kraken's guideline while writing the trilogy and 'Drift' definitly is the most inhospitable and threatning of them. This third journey through the deepest caverns of their minds revealed a truth, more gross and repulsive than anyone can imagine. It's a small black hole which swallows everything, including hope. Let us find it and burn it ..."
[label notes]
Spectre label website: www.spectre.be
|
2007 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Untitled |
CD |
"kraken is back and pulls us down into the abyss - a dark, cold and desolate place that is filled with the droning of oscillators. authentic field recordings mingle with evolving rhythms, and the underlying tension created by the poignant confessions of human beings adds to the unique flavor of kraken: equally fascinating, enchanting and disturbing, the sounds cut right through our souls. for fifty minutes, kraken keeps us in its tight grip and we all cannot resist but realize our own fugacity. fifteen years past the first kraken release, its epitaph is more actual than ever before: when gazing into the abyss for too long, one tardy realizes that he is part of it. from within the vast depths, raubbau brings to you the latest album, unnamed." [label info]
www.raubbau.org
"Lange Jahre haben wir die beiden Belgier auf NONPOP begleitet. Insbesondere ab Mitte der so genannten Nullerjahre waren JORIS VERMOST und RICARDO GOMEZ Y DE BUCK sehr aktiv, brachten regelmäßig ihre klaustrophobischen Tiefsee-Soundtracks zwischen Dark Ambient, Noise und Collage unter die Leute. (Ein Interview zur Arbeit von KRAKEN findet Ihr hier.) Mit "Strop" auf RAUBBAU (Besprechung) schien sich dann zu bewahrheiten, was KRAKEN aus Spaß bis dahin zu jedem Album sagten: Es sei ihr finales. Vier Jahre Funkstille ohne jedwede Ankündigung neuer Aktivitäten. Umso erfreuter war ich über die Nachricht von RAUBBAU, dass nun tatsächlich ein weiteres Album erscheint, passend zur Zurückhaltung einfach ohne Titel – "Untitled". "A dark, cold and desolate place" verspricht das Label, "equally fascinating, enchanting and disturbing" – diese Beschreibung deckt sich mit meiner bisherigen Wahrnehmung von KRAKEN. Und auch die gleichzeitig ästhetischen, aber sehr trostlosen Alltagsfotos, mit denen das Duo seit jeher seine Alben schmückt, deuten auf Kontinuität hin. Tatsächlich hat auch das aktuelle Werk eine hohe Wiedererkennbarkeit und liefert mit dem ersten Track einen der besten der Bandgeschichte.
"Untitled 1" beginnt überraschend mit einem deutschen Text: Eine furchtsame und angewiderte, rezitierende Frauenstimme (mit Akzent) berichtet von einem "schwarzen Loch, das alles verschlingt". Sie flüstert von Verfall, Drogen, Tot und Unrat – also vom ganz normalen Leben. Harsche, knirschende, aber nicht unschöne Sounds fügen sich darunter zu einem Ambientteppich, der wiederum abrupt von Billigbeats, von Surren und Knattern unterbrochen wird. Es folgt eine melodiösere Strecke mit Gitarrentönen, die weiterhin den Gegensatz des gesamten Albums aufrecht hält: schön vs. hässlich, Freundlichkeit vs. Verderben. Das Flüstern und allerlei mystische Geräusche spielen eine Rolle, manchmal erinnert das Stück gar an geknurrten Urfolk, um am Ende wieder von flächiger Trostlosigkeit eingeholt zu werden. "Untitled 2" wirkt als Collage aus diversen, organischen Sounds. Zwischen Field Redordings und Vocals schiebt sich ein Drone und bringt einige rituell anmutende Komponenten wie Stammesgeheul oder Kampfesrufe mit. "Untitled 3" besteht im Wesentlichen aus dem rhythmischen Peitschen von Frequenzen, ebenfalls mit entfernt unterlegten, menschlichen Geräuschen. Hypnotischer Dauerbeschuss wie intensives Hubschrauberdröhnen. In "Untitled 4" spielt erneut eine Frauenstimme – spanisch? – die tragende Rolle, spricht verzweifelt zu höhligen Sounds. Das Stück geht dann über in ambienthafte Drones und verströmt die das Album durchziehende, unheimliche Atmosphäre. "Untitled 5" schließt sich nahtlos an, als düstere Soundhöhle mit weiteren Vocals, hier kommt sehr deutlich das typische KRAKEN-Flair zum Tragen, der Bezug zur See mit Geräuschen wie knarzenden Schiffsbalken. "Untitled 6" schließlich ist überwiegend ein noisiges, ansteigendes Kreischen, das Abheben eines Düsenjets oder platzende Lungen bei Sauerstoffmangel im Wasser. Am Ende läuten die Totenglocken, mit denen die rund 55 Minuten auch begonnen haben.
Belgien steht ja bei der Fußball-WM hoch im Kurs. Musikalisch fällt mir in der Regel wenig zu diesem Land ein. KRAKEN allerdings sind ein Aushängeschild, und ich bin froh, dass sie sich wieder zeigen. Diese Mischung aus Trostlosigkeit und Eleganz, die Reduzierung auf menschliche Ängste und Triebe in Kombination mit der sich manchmal einschleichenden Unterwassersymbolik – das ist einmalig. 'Human Dark Ambient', vor allem im ersten Stück auf ganz hohem Niveau." [Michael We. / NON-POP]
|
2014 |
€6.00 |
|
| KREJCI, MARTIN / SEBASTIAN GIUSSANI / KEIKO UENISHI |
Counting Sheep won't cause you to encounter a Dream of a stray Dog (or will it?) |
CD-R |
"Don’t be fooled by the Zen-Dadaist title: what these three laptop artists from Munich, Augsburg, and Vienna/New York serve up is neither nihilist noise nor tongue-in-cheek collage, but a dense, yet transparent trip from monochrome lowercase static through lusciously harmonic territory into near-cosmic seas of drone.
Both sound and visual artists, Krejci and Giussani, both based in the South of Germany, have been collaborating on many occasions over the last decade or so. This has included full-on digital noise mayhem as well as conceptual performance art pieces, but this 30-minute trio with Keiko Uenishi, a sound artist from New York currently based in Vienna, is something else again. Recorded live in June 2011, the set has a thoroughly composed feel, both in the sense of “structured” and “calm and reassured”, yet full of excitement. Extraordinarily beautiful digital music – experimental laptop drones with soul.
File under: Drone, ambient" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2014 |
€8.00 |
|
| KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK + HLADNA |
Rokton - Formanta |
mCD-R |
Auch HLADNA gehören zur unübersichtlich grossen Drone / Ambient / Experimental-Szene Russlands, hier im Verbund mit den ebenfalls aus St. Petersburg stammenden KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK live im Juli 2004. Beide benutzen uralte sowjetische Orignal-Synths bzw. Klang-Generatoren, die sich hervorragend ergänzen und knarzend-pulsiererende Drones produzieren, deren "historisch-futuristischer" Sound wohl einmalig ist... Professionelles Vollfarb-Cover.
"Hladna and Kryptogen Rundfunk - behind these names stand two St. Petersburg-based musicians playing experimental noise music. They both nourish a tender passion for old electronic instruments and often use them at their concerts and on recordings. One warm sunny day they gathered and decided to play on two analogue rhythm synthesizers "Rokton" and "Formanta". These are actually two identical instruments which were produced in the Soviet Union by two different factories. Each of them is the "brain" for electronic drum-kit, but can also be used separately - as a multi-channel tone-noise-generator or rhytm-machine. Kryptogen Rundfunk used his device smoothly, evenly and calmly while Hladna expelled from his more sharp and unpredictable sounds. Worth mentioning are Hladna's non-standard ways of making sound - on the last two tracks he opened the back plate of his synth and played not only using knobs but also getting inside and abridging contacts with his own hands (for which he was incidentally struck by the current a couple of times). Live recording without any processing, with all it's natural crackles and tasty overloads. Abstract electronics, minimalism and a little noise." [label info] |
2007 |
€5.50 |
|
| KSHATRIY |
Slepok Soznaniya |
CD |
"The project Kshatriy appeared on the Russian post-industrial scene in 2004 and up to present has participated in several compilations, as well as released some solo and collaboration recordings on limited edition CDRs. Muzyka Voln presents the project’s first "professional" compact disk with the album "Slepok Sonzaniya" (meaning "a mould of consciousness" in Russian).
This work is based on the concept of consciousness of a warrior, a galactic warrior of light, bringing to world pure knowledge, infinite silence, perfect balance, a moment of power and might, a flight of freedom, love, serenity, joy, light, unified time, eternal life, simplicity and bliss.
The music of the project can be described as fractal dark drone ambient with lots of patterns, woven from various sonic fibres: synthesized drones, processed field recordings, acoustic echoes and rhythmic loops. Calm and profound, filled with resilience and hidden power, like an endless ocean of tranquility, energy and beauty." [label info]
http://zhb.radionoise.ru/
"Kshatriy is the project by musician from Vsevolozhsk not far from St. Petersburg. Earlier his records were released on CDr, and album Slepok Soznaniya became the first work released on CD, before it I didn't know anything about this creative unit. With his music Kshatriy creates space dark and dull as well as beautiful and interesting. In anxiously boiling sound lava there merge deep electronic drone, processed field records and also unobtrusive hissing, crack and other noise effects. Musician himself writes that his creativity "is based on the conception of warrior consciousness... galaxy warrior of light, bringing to the world clear consciousness, unlimited silence, absolute balance, a moment of force and power, a flight of freedom, love, serenity, gladness, light, common time, eternal life, simplicity and bliss...". These words sound as nothing else but an unequivocal hint at trips "inside yourself" and the state of trans provoked by music. And it is so.
Slepok Soznaniya is a huge mental reactor with boiling up fragments of dark recollections, fused and crumpled into one heavy lump which dissolved all around in impenetrable swamp of its body. Rusty, smelling with dust and dampness postindustrial spirit spreads together with these sounds to colossal spaces around. Huge volume of theses spaces is one of the main special features of this music ruining all barriers inside the dark universe, and Slepok Soznaniya became a ticket to it. You peer into the darkness and don't see any limits, as if you have fallen under ground and found an alternative cosmos there. Beautiful, charming and sometimes even epic sound design making you hold your breath in long intriguing moments and make your heart beat quickly with resounding rumble and voluminous, heavy drone. It's worth to be heard." [Pi Micron, The Sound Proector]
http://www.soundproector.com/?cat=reviews&id=259
"Heaving, psychonaut droning from this Russian project, Kshatriy. The name of Sergey Uak-Kib's project is actually Sanskrit, as a now deracinated caste of warriors from ancient India. Uak-Kib posits something of a balance between the spiritual and the physical in the beliefs for this class of enlightened fighters. The holistic fortitude found in that statement seems to be furthered in the glowingly psychedelic artwork that has graced some of Kshatriy's other recordings. So much for first impressions, as this is fucking bleak. Anenzephalia bleak. Thomas Koner bleak. Lustmord bleak. Thrumming drones of Vulcan intensity and Promethean scale gird the entire album of Slepok Soznaniya. The thunderous cracks that introduce "Lights" are cataclysmic in nature, tumbling from deep space and smashing into the Siberian forest, unleashing shockwaves across the curved surface of Russian's landmass and creating elegantly harmonic ripples across the swampy taiga. Iron wheels grind on long-train tracks which lead to destinations unknown on the "Hymn To Kali," which is more of a dirge than a hymn through the slow, militant pound and evolving reverberant chord shifts for an ashen, musical negativity. The almost self-evidently named "Space Travel" surfs the solar winds with echoes of distant pulsars and glowing nebula clouds flickering through the endless expanses of nothingness.
We were awestruck by the work that Kshatriy produced for the 2014 Drone-Mind / Mind-Drone III compilation; and so we're delving into his catalogue. Slepok Soznaniya was originally released in 2009 on the bracingly good Russian imprint Muzyka Voln. Not all that much in the way of distribution west of the former Iron Curtain; so this one makes for a new favorite in the radiant black dronemusik camp." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| KTL |
same |
CD |
"... erste VÖ des neuen Projekts von STEPHEN O'MALLEY und PITA. Sanfte Drones und geheimnisvolle Gitarrensounds, aber auch mächtige Sub-Bass-Walzen & Akkorde die eher nach SUNN O))) klingen, elektronisches Sirren & Rauschen.. die Synthese aus Laptop-Glitch & Drone Metal Doom..." [Drone Rec. info]
"Stephen O'Malley (strings, fx, amps) and Peter Rehber (goscs, apps, drives). Written, recorded & mixed by Stephen O'Malley & Peter Rehberg at Fort du Murier & Vienne Wintergarden, Grenoble July 2006. Mastered at Piethopraxis, Köln, August 2006. 'Threatening new collaboration taking in parallel worlds of Extreme Computer Music and Black Metal. KTL is Stephen O'Malley (SUNNO))), Khanate) and Peter Rehberg (PITA).A six part collision amongst the increasingly fading prescences between the light and the dark. This work came about as the two were composing sound and music for a piece by Gisèle Vienne and Dennis Cooper, entitled 'Kindertotenlieder'. It must be stated that this CD is NOT the soundtrack to said piece, but a separate project. However, elements may appear in the finished piece which is to be premiered in Brest, France, March 2007. Pieces were recorded in a resistance fortress in southern France during a thunderstorm. Others in a wintergarden drenched in the sunlight.' Cover by SOMA." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| KUBISCH, CHRISTINA |
Mono Fluido |
CD |
"Mono Fluido collects two major compositions from Christina Kubisch which, until now, have been unreleased. Extensive liner notes and photographs detail the origins of the work. Heavy drones and deep emotions run through these newly discovered pieces."
"In 1980 I had the possibility to make some professional recordings on an eight track tape in an Italian sound studio for the sound track of the film Liquid Movie by Fabrizio Plessi. Some months after having finished the sound track I listened to the material again and suddenly felt the desire to make a new piece out of the material, which would be free of the limitations of a cinematic sound track. I made several new downmixes of the eight track tape and treated some of the sounds with a speed control device, one of the few tools which I had available in my own studio at that time. The sound sources are flute (alto and bass flute) played by myself, the sounds of swinging plastic tubes in the air, the recordings of the windscreen wiper ('tergicristallo') of my old car, the sampled sounds of glass and of my own breathing. Just pure instrumental sounds and some 'field recordings,' no electronics. The piece is a quiet piece of ambient music, an acoustic landscape, unspectacular and yet intense. I called it 'fluido,' which is the Italian word for liquid or fluid. Then I forgot about it. The tape was in my archive all these years with the remark Mono Fluido on the spine. Only recently I decided to digitize it, despite the mono tag, and I listened to it again. Eventually I thought the piece deserved to be published after almost 30 years. Although mono is kind of a dinosaur in the world of multichannel fiction I like the simplicity and clarity of it and I hope the listener might share this experience." -- Christina Kubisch, December 2010" [press release]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Magnetic Flights |
CD |
"Two brand new pieces from one of the most exciting, active & relevant members of the first generation sound artists. Magnetic Flights is a perfect follow up to Five Electrical Walks (IMPREC167) and it is being released at the same time as a collection of two of Kubisch's unreleased archival pieces, also on Important.
Magnetic Flights is entirely made of electromagnetic field recordings of international airports and inside airplanes. The recordings of this piece were made by Christina Kubisch on her travels in 2007 from and to the airports of Bukarest, Manchester, Chicago, Seoul, Munich, Amsterdam,
Zurich, Frankfort, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin, Pisa, Milan and London.
The sounds were not altered electronically nor changed in any other way. The only tool ,which
was used for a part of it, was a filtering program (DINR)
All recordings were made with the help of special sensitive wireless headphones, by which the aboveground and underground electromagnetic fields are detected, amplified and made audible. The headphones are custom made and have been develeoped by myself and constructed by the engineer Manfred Fox, Berlin. The sounds are much more musical than one could expect. There are complex layers of high and low frequencies, loops of rhythmic sequences, groups of tiny signals, long drones and many things which change constantly and
are hard to describe.
Magnetic Flights consists of three parts with a short special sound at the beginning and another one at the end. The piece starts with an electromagnetic sound recorded just before departure and continues with the material of flight radiations recorded inside different airplanes. These electromagnetic fields slightly change pitch during departure and arrival, but remain quite constant during the flight itself. The relatively high and compact sounds gradually build up a dense layer of vibrations with continuous minimal variations.
In the second part some of the previous flight radiations gradually become filtered. The single signals mingle into a mix of small, short, nervous and very rhythmic signals. Their origin might be radio waves, communication signals with the tower , internet and atmospheric disturbances., but this is only a guess. The third part, the situation of arrival or transition, is a mix of typical electromagnetic sounds in the waiting areas of airports such as the deep vibrations of the screens of monitors which slowly fade in and out.
The piece ends with the electrical flickering of an electromagnetic field of unknown origin.
Christina Kubisch belongs to the first generation of sound artists. Trained as a composer, she studied painting, music (flute and composition) and electronics in Hamburg, Graz, Zürich and Milano, where she graduated. Her work can be described as the “synthesis of arts” - the discovery of acoustic space and the dimension of time in the visual arts on the one hand, and a redefinition of relationships between material and form on the other. Kubisch is best known for artistically and innovatively using techniques such as magnetic induction and ultraviolet light to create and realise her work.Since the 1970’s Kubisch has been experimenting with electromagnetic induction and was one of the first to use this method for creating sound installations. Some of her most well know works include the Electrical Walks series, where audience wear magnetic headphones, specially designed by Kubisch, with built-in coils that respond to electrical fields in the environment. Tapping into the electrical fields that result from light systems, anti-theft security devices, surveillance cameras, cell phones, computers, antennae, automated teller machines and other electric devices, she uses these visible sources to create unique and new sensory environmental experiences.
In the mid-1980s, Kubisch began to incorporate light as a compositional tool in many works, for example in the installation Skylines at the documenta 8, Kassel; the underground installation Klang Fluß Licht Quelle on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin and more recently Licht Himmel a permanent light sound installation at Gasometer Oberhausen, Germany. Since 2003 Kubisch has begun to work again as a performer and collaborates with various musicians and dancers, one of whom is Lotta Melin, with whom she will be co-facilitating the Lisbon workshop. An internationally recognised artist, Kubisch has shown work at major international exhibitions and festivals (Venice Benniale, documenta 8, Kassel, Ars Electronica, Linz, Sydney Benniale, Sonar, Barcelona and Sonic Boom, London) performing around the world she has received numerous grants and awards and her music has been realised on various labels such as Cramps Records and Edition RZ. Kubisch has been visiting professor in Maastricht, Paris and Berlin and since 1994, is currently the professor for sound art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Saarbrücken, Germany." [label info]
|
2011 |
€15.00 |
|
| KÖNER, THOMAS |
Novaya Zemlya |
CD |
"The artwork includes an essay by Thierry Charollais, "Thomas Köner's Novaya Zemlya: towards a metaphysical geography"... "Of course we find the unique Koneresque glowing drones that we know from his previous works. But we will also be touched by an unrevealed, barely perceptible sense of melody and harmony that Köner gradually developed since Kaamos (1998) and Nuuk (2004)."
Novaya Zemlya (Russian: Но́вая Земля́; IPA: [ˈnovəjə zʲɪmˈlʲæ], lit. New Land), also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as Gåselandet (lit. the Goose Land), is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe, lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island." [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
|
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| KÖRPERWELTEN |
Avatars of Rape and Rage |
CD |
Ein gemeinsames Projekt von NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES und NORDVARGR welches mehrere Jahre in Arbeit war und die extremen Grenzgebiete von sexuellem Begehren & Ohnmacht, Sadismus & Perversion bis hin zur Todessehnsucht & Mord thematisiert. Pulsierende Noisescapes werden langsam aufgebaut und explodieren im richtigen Moment, unheimliche rasselnde, atmende Geräusche sind präsent sowie schleppende untergründige Pulses, Einsatz von gepeinigten Stimmen, Geschrei in einer Lärmwand, Sirenensounds, etc.. mit das Unheimlichste was es im Bereich "Industrial" in der letzten Zeit gab, das unangenehme Gefühl schleicht sich quasi von hinten an, da hier lange Spannungsbögen erzeugt werden. Es entsteht ein wahrer Trip in die Abgründe der menschlichen Seele, ein Album dass einen nicht kält lässt, das (in Verbindung mit der Artwork) tatsächlich noch schockieren kann, wie das Psychogramm eines Triebtäters, erdrückend intensiv!
"Having started the process way back in 2002, this collaborative project between Swedish powerhouse Nordvargr and US apocalyptic
industrialists Navicon Torture Technoloies finally sees the light (so to speak) in 2008, having been re-worked and re-structured as a
perilous 40 minute plunge into a black hole of sound. Waves of grim, doom filled atmospheric sludge crossbred with buzzing black drones,
grinding distortion, and a seething underbelly of rhythmic pulsations, ultimately delivering everything you might expect from these two acts. In 6 panel digipak, with extreme and controversial, Jonathan Canady (http://art.malsonus.com/) designed artwork sure to be banned if it falls into the wrong hands." [label notes]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| LA CASA, ERIC |
Zone Sensible 2 / Dundee 2 |
CD |
Wer jemals selbst versucht hat, brauchbare 'field recordings' zu hervorzubringen, dürfte wissen wie schwer es ist, Störgeräusche auszuschalten, die gewünschte Klangquelle laut genug hörbar zu machen und überhaupt den "richtigen Moment" zu treffen... denn der Zufall spielt hierbei eine gewichtige Rolle, die Unkontrollierbarkeit der Klänge macht demütig...
Einer der absoluten Meister des Fieldrecording und deren Verarbeitung ist ERIC LA CASA, von dem hier 2 Stücke präsentiert werden, die sowohl gekonnteste Feldaufnahmen zeigen als auch die brilliante Transformation in eine Art naturale musique concrete:
ZONE SENSIBLE 2 benutzt Aufnahmen von Bienen, deren summender Chor oft gewaltig anschwellt und sich mit sirrenden, elektronisch wirkenden mechano-Drones vermischt, ein Stück voller Dynamik und Brüchen, welches am Ende wie ein einziger atmender Klangorganismus wirkt, epische 26:30 min lang.
Auf DUNDEE 2 dagegen entwirft er aus 30 verschiedenen Orts-Aufnahmen eine Art unterbewussten Klangspiegel der schottischen Stadt Dundee, wobei v.a. die stets vorhandenen, aber kaum jemals bewusst wahrgenommenen Sounds von Maschinen (Ventilatoren, Aufzüge, Sirenen, Kühlschränke) eine grosse Rolle spielen..
das soghafte Rauschen einer Stadt verläuft hier in langen auf- und abschwellenden Bahnen.
Fazit: Zwei geniale Kompositionen für das Kino im Kopf !
"For the best part of a decade, Éric La Casa's attention to sonic phenomena has resulted in some of the finest contemporary Musique Concréte to come out of France. A listener of the highest order, La Casa's methodology for sound recording allows for a versatile examination of both urban and natural environments and it is these interests which are captured on this new edition for Room40. With an ability to find unique perspectives on his sound subjects La Casa's site specific works 'Zone Sensible' and 'Dundee' seek to draw a detailed focus and expose unfamiliar, incidental and previously unheard sound worlds. Zone Sensible, exclusively composed from recordings of bees in the Olivier Darné's hives, located in the Saint Denis suburb of Paris, reveals a chaotic, frenetic microcosm that speaks to the density of the real, whilst hinting at our ears to experience a dance of oscillations - wings beating with boundless energy. As a contrast to this microcosm, Dundee, composed with recordings of Dundee city (during a 10 days residency at DCA museum), sees La Casa turn his microphones outward. Rendering a captivating sound map of sorts, Dundee' was developed in collaboration with USA Film experimentalist Ken Jacobs' 'nervous magic lantern', on a 6 channels device. From these recordings La Casa composed variations and movements in interaction with Ken Jacobs' processing - a contemplation from the real to abstracted life." [label info]
www.room40.org
"Two new works by Eric LaCasa, the active composer of musique concrete. By now he has a long list of releases under his belt, and on this CD he presents two new works. 'Dundee 2' is in three parts, while 'Zone Sensible 2' is one work. That one was commissioned by Les Instants Chavires (France) for a festival and uses solely the sounds of bees, recorded in a beehive. It starts out with the sound of bees, but soon starts to move about in some electronic after life. Or so it seems. Until now I always thought, but perhaps wrongly, that LaCasa only works with pure sound, always recorded in the fields (agricultural and urban), and never used that much sound processing, but perhaps I was wrong. Here its a much more electronic work that depicts the chaos of the beehive very well. Buzzing with life, sounds crawl about and its hard to figure out what is going on - except of course if you are a bee yourself. A work full of life.
'Dundee' was commissioned by Arika for 'Kill Your Timid Notion in 2007 and uses sounds of that Scottish city, which was played back on a six channel system, devised along with Ken Jacobs, an American film maker. Here we have the 'empty' spaces that resonates, sometimes interrupted by voices ('what are you doing in the parking, recording spaces'?, or station announcements) or by events we can longer trace back to its origin. Here it seems to me LaCasa uses no electronic processing, but the pure sound phenomena as captured on tape. A powerful work, even if you don't know the city of Dundee (at least I don't). What sets LaCasa aside from his colleagues in the same field, is that he composes with the material, rather than presenting them (for instance works like this on the German Gruenrekorder label), and that makes them all the more engaging to hear. I am not sure why 'Dundee 2' has been cut into three separate pieces, but like 'Zone Sensible 2', these are excellent pieces. LaCasa is
one of the true masters of working with field recordings." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| LA STPO (La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux) |
Les Explositionnistes |
CD |
"The ‘Shy peoples society at the parade of the birds’ (STPO) have been around since 1984 and I have had the pleasure to write about their intriguing music previously. It has been a while though, as La STPO’s last album ‘Les Liquidateurs’ was released three years ago. This album, ‘Les Explositionnistes’, note a trend in titles, was in fact recorded between 1993 and 1995 and first released in 1995. This
new release is a re-mastered version of the 1995 edition. Unfortunately I cannot compare the sound to the original version, but the new version on Exklageto sounds clear and direct. The shy people number (around) six and to me have always formed an intriguing link between say the archaic beauty of Déficit Des Annees Anterieures (with whom they share a home country, in this instance France, as well as a
love of four letter abbreviations - DDAA) and Magma (who also hail from France – let’s face it; where else would you find a big band playing prog-jazz mixed with avant-garde?). This album adds to their catalogue of unpredictable, eclectic, high-energy music. ‘Les Explositionnistes’ listens like an art
manifesto; several tracks are dedicated to/inspired by artists such as Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Barnett Newman, Asger Jorn and Lyonel Feiniger. The last name was a new one to me; Feiniger being a turn-of-the-century (we’re talking 1900 here) representative of Expressionism, which makes perfect sense in
the world of les explositionnistes. The cover is clear on the subject; depicted are a number of people (shy people?) who have just attached a bomb to a painting, ready to blow up the art world – ‘les explositionnistes’ indeed! Blowing up the art world is one thing, in fact the artists mentioned earlier certainly did, but what about blowing up the music world? Is La STPO the musical ‘explositionnistes’?
You could argue that La STPO plays expressionistic music: it bounces all over the place, energetic and devoid of basic musical ‘rules’ such as ‘try to keep one tempo per song’ or ‘do not create any complex breaks’. Good. Their songs are played on traditional instruments, such as guitar, bass, drums,
woodwind etcetera. There are no soundscapes or drones to be found, which in a sense is refreshing. As said, the music, especially when the tempo slows down, reminds me of DDAA, a group of artists I dearly love and on whose label, Illusion Production, La STPO released an EP in the 80s. But to be honest, La STPO (which my auto correct annoyingly keeps auto changing to STOP) rarely slow down. The music keeps a nervous, jumpy and unnerving edge throughout its ten songs. It reminds me at times of the
organized chaos of say The Mothers of Invention. Les Explositionnistes is exactly that: an explosive mix of instruments, structure and sound, aurally exhausting (to me), but rewarding – blowing up the world of music is something La STPO is more than capable of." [FK/Vital Weekly] |
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| LABFIELD |
Fishforms |
CD |
Ein neuer Name für die Impro-Drone-Szene, dieses skandinavische Duo, die mit indischen "Sruti" und "Saranghi"-Boxen wunderbar füllige Drones erzeugen (klingt nach Harmonium oder endlosen Sitar-Loops), die sich in endlosen Wellen und Obertönen fortbewegen, dabei aber sehr nah und konkret erscheinen. Subtile Bass-Dumm Percussion wird eingesetzt, (was meist auch einen low-freq Drone ergibt, der aber unruhiger schwingt ) und in Stück 2 ist eine Folk-artige Akustikgitarre zu hören, ... sehr schönes Debut (von zwei etablierten Leuten aus der Impro-/Jazz Szene)!
" 'Phanta Rhei’ - everything flows. Whatever else might happen, life hurtles on and everything follows its natural course. Music is also subject to these ineluctable laws. While often breaking the mould, when everything is in its right place, the music follows its own course. As it does in the little experimental cabins of Laboratory Field, or LabField for short. This Scandinavian monster collective consisting of David Stackenäs (guitars, electronics) and Ingar Zach (percussion) knows exactly how to manipulate sound. At the same time, Ingar Zach is also creating a big stir with three-piece kindred spirits Huntsville.
Not fussed about getting their hands dirty, Stackenäs and Zach dig for sounds of gold with successful results. Sound waves emanate from their instruments slowly. This unstoppable flood of sound is not distinguished by brute force but rather by its boundless subtlety and inventiveness. The listener will completely find themselves submerged by an overwhelming stream. Bottrop-Boy is proud to release LabField’s first sound experiments onto the world.
Swedish guitarist Stackenäs and Norwegian percussionist Zach are known names in the European improvisation scene. They previously worked together in three-piece TRI DIM, together with saxophonist Håkon Kornstad. Two years later, Stackenäs and Zach decided to work as a duo, deciding on a radically different course. Improvisation, sound art, minimal music and drones are fused to form a completely unique style of performing. Zach plays, among other instruments, the unique electronic sruti and saranghi boxes. This is music that evolves quietly and often refers to the dronescapes of free improv pioneers such as AMM. The sounds which Stackenäs manages to conjure up from his guitars are unprecedented: softly humming, viciously rattling and intensely meditative. Zach answers these sounds with the hypnotic pulse of his bass drum and electronic sruti box. This is improvisational music replete with sounds branching in unpredictable directions and slowly smouldering drones. An aural rite of passage fit for these modern times." [label info]
"....The 24 minute opener “Gin” is built around the sustained presence of Zachs sruti and saranghi boxes – electronic facsimiles of Indian harmonium and fiddle, respectively. With these blissed out vibrations, augmented by bells and the sparse isolated booms of a bass drum, it has the feel of a slowly unfolding devotional ritual, but it’s saved from descending into ersatz spiritual tourism by Stäckenas’s jarring embellishments. Even without seeing him at work, it’s probably safe to assume Stäckenas is operating out of the Keith Rowe school of unconventionally manipulated tabletop electric guitar, producing grating textures resembling the hum and drill of an overworked air conditioning unit or the piercing whine of a wineglass rim.
For “Rin”, he switches to acoustic, with simple strumming phasing in and out of sync in left and right channels and a three note melody picked out on slide guitar – creating a satisfying mash of Country, raga and contemporary music that recalls Zach’s other trio, Huntsville. But, with the throbbing, sruti-drenched “Showa”, the album returns to its core mission to explore the bottomless reaches of drone, discovering dark, euphoric realms along the way." [Daniel Spicer / THE WIRE]
"... On the risk of being accused (again) that I heard this only once, I must say that the work he produced as LabField with Stackenäs is great. Absolutely great. Zach plays bass drum, percussion, electronic scruti-box and electronic saranghi-box and Stackenäs plays acoustic guitars, resonator guitar, preparations and low budget electronics. With a background in improvisation you would expect careful, quiet, intimate playing - and in a way they do that. But it's not tender, soft or hardly outspoken. I suggest putting the volume up and get immersed by their wall of machine sounds. They play their instruments using all sorts of motors, fans or other mechanized instruments to create a natural resonating yet acoustic sound. Especially in 'Gin', the opening track which spans two-third of the entire CD this works wonderfully well. Dense to bone (mm, that's no expression)... dense like clouds, like being in a factory and one hears all the machines humming at once. Not deafening loud, but well constructed, balanced, varied, not from one point of the factory, but one has the feeling of walking about, hearing new aspects of the machines or new combination of the machines. By contrast 'Gin', the shortest piece, is a like bridge between that and 'Showa', soft tinkling guitars and percussive sounds, until things start to heat up again for the final piece. Hardly improvised sounding at all, this is sophisticated drone music of an outstanding order." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| LAND:FIRE |
Gone |
LP |
Eines der Highlights der Neuzugänge dieses Katalogs, dieses neue anonyme Projekt auf LOKI mit brodelnd-massivem dark ambient, archaic music at its best, eine dichte und alles verschlingende Atmosphäre wird heraufbeschworen, mit sakralen und melancholischen Untertönen.
Highly recommended massive & dense dark ambient archaic noise.. sacral and melancholic.. there are rumours this could be a HERBST9-sideproject.
[old Drone Rec info 2002]
„With it´s first release this new project from Germany has sculptured a sombre, frightening and illusionary soundtrack that creates an imagination about devastated landscapes and scorched areas where traces of human existence are to be found only on remaining fragments from noted radio transmissions. Massive drones and sinister melodies rise out from the inside of a dark and bleak ground while crushing rhythms and unreal vocal shreds echoing through a wide spectrum of sounds and effects. Limited edition of 555 copies!” [press-release]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| LANDING |
Third Sight |
LP |
Connecticut's Landing have specialized in a mild and rural kind of psychedelia over the course of nearly two decades. Recent releases have seen them closer to post-punk and shoegaze territory than ever, but Third Sight – recorded specifically for El Paraiso Records’ Impetus series – builds on the hallucinatory soundscapes of the band's earliest days.
There's a unique sense of motoric drift to these four long pieces, and an organic blend of rock instrumentation and analog electronics that brings to mind Eno's best collaborations in the 1970s. But the group's flair for fuzzy drones and new weirdsy commune-folk also betrays their affiliation with the experimental American east coast scene –these guys have played shows with their friends in Bardo Pond, releasing a split EP with Windy & Carl and playing numerous Terrastocks throughout their existence.
And despite releasing one brilliant album after another the band remains appalingly under-appreciated. Perhaps because the tryyps Landing take are rooted in self-exploration. As trends in krautrock, drone, folk, and psychedelia ebb and flow, Landing remain unfazed. The door to Landing’s world is open, but there isn’t a flashing neon sign above it. These guys are far removed from the hustle and bustle of geographic cultural bubbles, both physically and spiritually.
Listening through this LP is likely to stimulate mental images of rural winds blowing across vast American fields of grass, bonfires, blue rivers and power lines sailing through rolling hills. Landing's psychedelia possesses a rare timelessness. We are proud to present this offering from the band in the El Paraiso catalog!
”the whipper snappers these days, trafficking in similar sounds, have NOTHING on their sonic elders. Dreamy, droney, poppy, psychedelic, electronic perfection!”
-Aqaurius Records
”Connecticut's Landing inhabits that amorphous space where time itself expands and contracts according to a delay pedal setting, and dream pop blurs into dream proper. Groups like Stars of the Lid and E.A.R. have wandered this same misty plane in search of the perfect drone, but Landing incorporates Bardo Pond's jam aesthetic into the journey, imparting a welcome communal feel to their lengthy, meandering compositions.”
-Mark Richardson, Pitchfork
"They’ve got integrity to spare and their career, though already spanning more than a decade already, seems to be just getting started."
-Grant Purdum, Tinymixtapes
"Some of the best avant-prog and lo-fi space rock around"
-Mojo
"If you're not yet familiar with Landing, I encourage you to fill up the peace pipe and figure it the fuck out." -Kenny Bloggins, Adhoc
landing.bandcamp.com/album/third-sight |
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| LAPORTE, JEAN-FRANCOIS |
Soundmatters |
CD |
Fünf starke Kompositionen (entstanden 1997-2005) des Kanadiers, die unter Verwendung von Natur-, Umgebungs- und Objektgeräuschen grossflächige Spannungsbögen & Dynamiken aufbauen. So wurden bei "Electro-Prana" nur Wind- bzw. Sturm-Sounds verwendet, während das majestätische "Dans le ventre du dragon" auf Original-Bläserklängen basiert, die in einer riesigen Frachthalle (mit 15 Sekunden natürlichem Hall) aus dem Hafengebiet Montreals stammen.
Laut LAPORTEs Theorie sind wir im post-industriellen Zeitalter permanent von "Mantren" umgeben, womit er v.a. Maschinengeräusche meint, die zyklisch wiederkehren und sich doch in allmählicher Weiter-Entwicklung befinden. Beeindruckend führt er dies exemplarisch in seinem 26minütigen Stück "Mantra" anhand der wunderbaren Vibrationen & Obertöne eines Kompressors von einem Eisstadion vor...
Hier kommen elektro-akustische Klang-Finesse, field-recording Glück & und erhabene Drone-Atmosphären zusammen.
Bei Aquarius Records "Record of the week" im März 2007 ! TIP !!
"....The opening track "Electro-Prana" is a pristine set of field recordings of a wind that ripped through Montreal, when the city was silenced by a winter time blackout. It's a pure, chilling sound of whistling wind overtaking the urban landscape. The next piece is the only digitally rendered composition on Soundmatters, yet Laporte brings his intuitive expressionism to a series of spiraling drones that easily rival those of your favorite minimalist (e.g. Niblock, Chalk, Hafler Trio, Xenakis, etc.). For those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing Laporte's live concerts, the third piece will certainly be familiar. He's built an instrument with a series of car horns and elongated trumpet bells attached to an air compressor with each of the valves controlled by foot pedals. This instrument can generate infinitely sustainable, blaring drones from each of the horns; and Laporte craftily layers these sounds for incredible, dynamic results. Well, for this recording, Laporte lugged this instrument into the hull of a giant cargo ship and recorded this composition using the massive reverb of that space and the results are simply jaw-dropping. Imagine the most Nordic bellow from a Wagner symphony stretched out into its melancholic, raw sound and allowed to decay in space and time. Wow!
Following this is the aforementioned Mantra; and then Soundmatters' final piece which explores a quiet, yet thoroughly rich
harmonic tapestry produced by a quartet of saxophones that could be Laporte's imagined summit between Evan Parker and Morton Feldman with rasping breaths of sound breaking across a silent event horizon with the ghostly energy of subatomic particles flickering and dissolving
in a cloud chamber before amassing into a delirious swarm of Tony Conrad-esque acoustic dissonance. It's all utterly magnificent and
one of finest collections of 'serious' composition that we've come across." [Aquarius Records]
www.23five.org
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| LARVA 108 |
99.09 / Inside the Stones |
CD |
" ”99.09 Inside the stones” is a collection of the most significant tracks made by LARVA 108 during the first 10 years. 12 songs for 60 minutes. A soundtrack for walking alone through a winter snowstorm or between the trees during a grey day of november. Experimental, electronica, drones creates organic gloomy atmospheres." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| LASIK SURGERY |
Cyclo |
CD + DVD |
"Tense electronic plots, calm ambiental stasis, inserts of sharp and harsh metallic sonorities, distorsions, filaments of subliminal melodies, masses of dark and penetrating low frequency drones. The journey of Lasik Surgery starts with a whirlwind of atmospheres and perpetually prismatic sonorities that have a big impact on the listener. This project was born from the minds of Pierpaolo Zoppo/Mauthausen Orchestra, the memorable noise-power electronic author who firmly came back to the fore in the recent years, and Gianluca Favaron, a skilled master controller and sound assembler with a long experience, already active under other aliases (Ab'she, Under the Snow, Metal Music Machine). The first exciting chapter of Lasik Surgery - a name that will surprise us again in the future for sure - comes with a free DVD that includes two videclips created by ENRICO BRESSAN." [label info]
www.silentes.net
|
2010 |
€12.50 |
|
| LASWELL, BILL & PETE NAMLOOK |
Outland |
6 x CD BOX |
The 'Outland' album series was a collaborative endeavour by the visionary US bassist-producer Bill Laswell and the late German musician Peter Namlook that pushed the boundaries of dark ambient and electronic music. Spanning five albums released over a thirteen year period from 1994, this new boxset serves as a testament to the creative synergy between the two masterminds.
At the time the duo joined forces, the New York-based Laswell was already a famous producer with a massive client list that included cutting-edge rock, pop, funk, jazz and electronic artists, but he had also founded the Axiom label in 1989 and been responsible for groundbreaking work in genres that included ambient, dub and world music. Namlook was recognised as a pioneering figure in the ambient techno scene, having founded the label FAX +49-69/450464 in his native Frankfurt in 1992.
'Outland' became a fusion of their individual musical sensibilities that resulted in a unique set of releases. At the heart of the series is an exploration of sound as a vehicle for emotion and contemplation, with Laswell's signature basslines and experimental soundscapes interweaving seamlessly with Namlook's ethereal textures and intricate sonic layering. Each album is characterised by a sense of expansiveness, taking listeners on a voyage through rarely charted sonic dimensions. All have the ability to evoke a wide range of emotions and have their own distinctive sonic palette, ranging from ambient tranquility to cosmic intensity.
'Outland' has endured as an influential touchstone, its impact felt not only in its captivating soundscapes but also in its invitation to engage in deep introspection and cosmic contemplation. With each album, the duo beckoned listeners to transcend the mundane and embark on a sonic voyage into the extraordinary, where sound becomes a conduit for spiritual and artistic expression.
The lavish matte-finish boxset opens to the 5 "Outland" albums in separate matte sleeves, with all-new designs, and all audio completely remastered. This box also contains a new addition to the OUTLAND series - an album of dense, bass space drone by Bill Laswell, entitled "Blackland". The boxset also contains an exclusive card with an essay about the project written by BIll Laswell, July 2023.
........................................
Their collaboration actually began after Namlook discovered that several samples from early Fax releases had been utilised for Laswell's own projects, prompting an initial forthright exchange that quickly turned into a deep mutual admiration. "We started to send music back and forth, Frankfurt to Brooklyn and back again," explains Laswell. "There were so many recordings and different collaborations that several of them turned into a series. In addition to 'Outland', there was 'Psychonavigation', 'The Dark Side Of The Moog' and more."
For 'Outland', he recalls that "I had done an Asian tour with my friend Akira Sakata where I managed to record a lot of traditional music in Mongolia, which is heavy drone singing and the ultimate ambient. When I was in Europe, I brought these recordings to Pete and we worked on them in Frankfurt. That was the start of 'Outland', which then continued for another four releases."
He also reveals that Namlook told him about the very start of his career. "He was playing guitar and working in a bank. Every day, on his way home with his guitar, he would pass a river and stop and play with the river flowing. I think that's where his ambient obsession began. I recorded a piece with Bernie Worrell entitled 'By A River (for Peter)', which is the first track of the box set compilation 'Die Welt ist Klang: A Tribute to Pete Namlook', which was released in 2013, a year after his death."
CD1: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Mongolian voices and instruments by Nicky Skopelitis & Oz Fritz.
CD2: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Ethnic sounds recorded in West Africa by Oz Fritz. Recorded at Klanglabor, Frankfurt.
CD3: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Recorded at Klanglabor, Frankfurt & Traben-Trarbach.
CD4: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Recorded at Klanglabor, Frankfurt & Traben-Trarbach.
CD5: Produced by Peter Kuhlmann. Written by Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. Recorded at Orange Music, West Orange,NJ, and Klanglabor Hödeshof.
CD6: Bill Laswell: Bass, effects. Engineering: James Dellatacoma. Recorded at Orange Music, West Orange,NJ (Bassmatter, BMI).
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/outland
"Quite a catch and a very pleasantly surprising one. I would not have imagined that Cold Spring Records, known for all their darkness, would dip into ambient electronic pioneer Pete Namlook's (1960-2012) work, particularly his piece with Bill Laswell. The latter is a bass player and producer with a massive body of work, mainly outside Vital Weekly (Herbie Hancock's 'Rockit' is a VW HQ favourite, sometimes), both on bass and production duties. Pete Namlook played electronic ambient music, usually without too many rhythms, but he wasn't too shy to put a full set on. Namlook's catalogue is massive, as at one point, he released a CD every month on his FAX +49-69/450464 label. He had a line of collaborators with whom he worked a lot (Klaus Schulze, Tetsu Inoue, and Richie Hawtin, for instance). With Bill Laswell he recorded five parts of 'Outland', which are now re-issued with a bonus disc of a new work, 'Blackland', by Laswell. There was more work by the two, 'Psychonavigation', which also spanned various CDs (and maybe something to come in the future?), which is one I really enjoyed. I could call myself a Namlook fan, yet I also know I heard maybe 50% of his work. Back in the day, I couldn't afford to buy everything I wanted, and Namlook's output was, as said, massive. From the original 'Outland' albums, I only heard two. It is interesting to play these six works as they provide an excellent picture of the diversity of ambient house music, at least in the approach of Namlook and Laswell. There isn't one kind of ambient house. The word 'house', as in 'house music', is a loose term anyway in this respect, indicating dance music. Ambient House never relies too much on strict dance beats but uses more complex rhythms, such as on 'Outland Two - African Virus', which is more exotic, wilder and sometimes indeed more African. 'Outland Three' (no subtitle) has rhythms that are a bit more straightforward and minimal, but it's not something for the dance floor. On 'Outland Four', the beats are more dub-like in some of the pieces (as with all of these pieces, it moves through various ideas and textures per album), another interest of many ambient house musicians. On the other side of the musical spectrum, we find music devoid of rhythm, spacious synthesizers, minimalist drones, and perhaps something ambient in the truest sense. As with many Namlook releases, there is a certain directness about the music, indicating that the music is one long session, a live-in-studio approach, with mixing and editing afterwards. There is not much extra information in this release explaining methods. The whole live-in-studio approach might be something that is only in my mind. Each album is a trip, and so is the whole five-plus hours of this. I played this for the first time in one row on a lazy Sunday, sipping tea after a long night. Ambient music is the preferred waking-up music for me. Maybe with the idea that my living room is a sort of chill-out place today, as some of this music is clearly the intended soundtrack for such a place." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€47.50 |
|
| LAU, PAK YAN |
Bakunawa |
LP |
More hands. More possibilities. More ethereal drones. More poly shifting rhythms. More fun.
That was the starting point and the idea of ‘Bakunawa’: the album Pak Yan Lau recorded with her freshly started ensemble, consisting of the marvellous musicians Vera Cavallin, Giovanni Di Domenico, João Lobo and Mathieu Calleja.
On ‘Bakunawa’ Pak Yan and her ensemble are delving and digging deep into the sound spectrum of detuned toy piano’s, second hand gong rods, prepared harp, metal tubes and ring modulators.
Instruments were searched, collected and bought worldwide: on Japanese street markets, in second hand stores in Brussels, from dedicated American Ebay-sellers and the cellar of the Musica centre in Neerpelt.
The result is a record split up in two compositions of 20 minutes: on Part I the Bakunawa ensemble let the overtones of the gong rods, prepared harp and metal tubes slowly resonate into a deep listening ambient state of mind.
Rich harmonic textures of rather unconventional instruments shaping an immersive piece of spellbinding sonic details.
On Part II the quintet craft their own ritual ceremony music with distorted toy piano’s and hypnotic percussion. Echoing the frequencies of a gamelan orchestra. Rhythms shifting in
haunted patterns recalling the Philippine mythology where the moon swallowing sea dragon Bakunawa was scared away by drumming loudly on pots and pans.
Pak Yan Lau: composition, gong rods, toy piano, metal tubes, ring modulators
Vera Cavallin: gong rods, prepared harp
Giovanni Di Domenico: gong rods, toy piano
João Lobo: gong rods, toy piano, tom
Mathieu Calleja: gong rods, toy piano, bass drum, metal tubes
Recorded at STUK in Leuven and Kunstencentrum nona in Mechelen in 2020
Recorded and mixed by Christophe Albertijn
Mastered by Gert Van Hoof & Jimmy Van Rietvelde at Cochlea Mastering
Cut by Dubplates & Mastering Berlin
Cover pictures by Juhyun Choi
Pictures insert by Laurent Orseau
Layout design by Jef Cuypers
Executive production by Philippe Cortens
https://cortizona.bandcamp.com/album/bakunawa
|
2021 |
€23.00 |
|
| LAVELLE, BRIAN |
Supernaturalist |
CD |
Der Ambient-Geheimtip BRIAN LAVELLE schafft behutsame Klangfigurationen, die wie Schatten im Raum liegen; verträumt bis mysteriös schimmern seine akustischen Gebilde aus "electronics, field recordings, synth, piano & bass guitar", alles driftet wie in Trance dahin...
"Exclusive new output from this ambient/electronic artist from Scotland, UK. On ‘Supernaturalist’, Brian Lavelle presents 4 long brilliant compositions (70 minutes), minimal at first hearing, but with full maximum impact: bare to multi-layered drones, gentle to hallucinogating field recordings with natural elements, ambient noises and real instruments (piano, bass…). A classic album with style, hauntingly beautiful!! Full metallised CD housed in the usual 7” folder cover, ‘pâle bleu’ (pale blue), in an edition of 300 copies only. Mastering, photography and design by Brian Lavelle." [label info]
EE Tapes website: www.eetapes.be
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| LEITMOTIV LIMBO |
Spiritual Disturbance |
CD |
De la Catessen Records presents Spiritual Disturbance from Elijah Värttö's project Leitmotiv Limbo. Currently based in Port Adelaide, Australia, Leitmotiv Limbo has developed, slowly but surely, over the past few decades, through international travel and relocation, including five years in Estonia (2008-2012), where Värttö set up the Servataguse Muusika concert series. Spiritual Disturbance was recorded in 2020 and released privately as a small run of recycled cassettes -- this CD version is the first widely available Leitmotiv Limbo release since their 2018 split cassette with RNPno2 on Finnish label Hyster Tapes. Central to the Leitmotiv Limbo ethos are Värttö's self-made instruments, built from discarded, repurposed, and found objects, such as loose springs and other metallic implements. Affixed to wood sourced from a disused and dismantled piano frame, their deep resonance, both percussive and timbral, positions Värttö's approach within a trajectory of instrument builders/creators -- you can hear echoes of the music of artists like Z'ev, Hal Rammel, and Rod Cooper in the shattered textures and industrial drones of tracks like "Submersive", for example. There's also a tactility to the performances here, a haptic resonance, and a strange, viscous sensuality to the material. Värttö recorded Spiritual Disturbance in a church hall in Adelaide, on a four-track, using room mics and direct line input, and it's made up largely of one-take performances on Värttö's self-made instruments, with minimal intervention, at times, from analog filters and a drum synth. The combination of the evacuated tonalities of the instruments, plus the cavernous reverb of the recording space, gives Spiritual Disturbance a distinctly ritualistic sensibility; poetic and primitive, but eloquent in its exploration. It also brings to mind mysterious projects like Organum, Morphogenesis, Metgumbnerbone, perhaps even an acoustic Voice Crack, where conceptual rigor meets unpredictability via real-time improvisation. Spectral and haunted, Leitmotiv Limbo's Spiritual Disturbance is a compelling collection of oneiric expression, and an eloquent articulation of a unique, invented universe. Includes four-page booklet; edition of 300.
https://leitmotivlimbo.bandcamp.com/album/spiritual-disturbance
|
2022 |
€15.00 |
|
| LETHE |
Catastrophe Point #5 |
CD |
"The latest in Kuwayama Kiyoharu's signature series of compositions that explore the charged, mysterious atmosphere of disused industrial sites. For this album, LETHE turns his attention to an abandoned warehouse by a pier in his hometown of Nagoya, Japan, using objects discovered in situ to perform a ritual of sonic resurrection. He brings a dead space back to life, giving it a voice and allowing it to speak. Metal chains, sheet metal, broken machinery, and factory debris are bowed, struck, and dragged across the concrete floors of the massive hall, reverberating and responding as Kuwayama and his microphones scuttle across the desolate terrain. Growling cello and unstable horns underscore the torrents of percussive clatter. Catastrophe Point #5 is a haunting album of volatile, malevolent ambience. For fans of Christoph Heemann, Surface of the Earth, The New Blockaders, Z'ev, or Organum." [label info]
www.intransitiverecordings.com
"Metgumbnerbone is not a reference that pops up all that much, nor is it one that would mean much to anyone who isn't a complete dork
about British esoteric experimental musics. But that's where we'll start for this review because that's the reference that one such dork had to make here at Aquarius (it was Jim if you must know). Metgumbnerbone was a shadowy collection of dour Brits (including Richard Rupenus of The New Blockaders) who took up residence in an abandoned factory somewhere in Newcastle and constructed a bleak ritualist music out of the refuse found within. Scraping metal and atonal horns crafted out of plumbing material abound in the Metgumbnerbone vocabulary. Such is the case for Lethe as well, the found-space project of Japanese improviser Kuwayama Kiyoharu. However, as Metgumbernone's post-electrical scrabblings were the result of a collective effort, Lethe's spatializations emerge from an orchestra of one. It seems impossible that he did not overdub many of these sounds, but the production so fully embraces the cavernous space of his choosing that Lethe's pieces sound as if they were constructed in a single take.
For Catastrophe Point #5, Lethe used an abandoned grain warehouse located on the outskirts of Nagoya, Japan. Much more than an
ambivalent shuffling or wandering scattering of clunky sounds, Lethe amasses sympathetic scrapings from pieces of metal, large and small, as they are dragged, bowed, and beaten throughout the space. Long form drones emerge throughout the performance as if he's triggering a resonant frequency of the space, echoing against itself. It's true that many of these sounds resemble those found on the impossible to find Metgumberbone records, but other references would be Organum's Vacant Lights album, Z'ev's finer moments, the recent John Grzinich constructions, and even Yoshi Wada's bellowing recordings of his Earth
Horns. Excellent!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Catastrophe Point #7 & #8 |
do-CD |
"* standard edition includes:
* 3-panel letterpress sleeve by ben owen, assembled by invisible birds
* liner notes by giancarlo toniutti, letterpress printing by ben owen
* all compositions by lethe
* photos by kuwayama kiyoharu
* sleeve design by invisible birds & kuwayama kiyoharu
* letterpress printing by ben owen at middle press, brooklyn
* liner notes written and designed by giancarlo toniutti
invisible birds continues lethe's catastrophe point series with a 2cd set which includes 2 recordings in his series, one recorded in switzerland in 2004 and the other recorded in scotland in 2006. lethe's series take place in abandoned industrial sites, using drones, chains, an occasional instrument, objects
found in the space, but most importantly the resonant qualities of the space. the wire magazine explained this series "the music sounds like it's taking place in a vast, pitch black aircraft hangar of the soul".
yannick dauby said "these are kiyoharu's obsessive abstractions dealing with physical substance and volume".
the packaging for this release was done in collaboration with kiyoharu kuwayama and letterpress printer ben owen
with the hope of achieving something that reflects the beauty and intensity of the work.
lethe: [l. lēthē, a use of gr. ληθη forgetfulness, f. ληθ, ablaut-var. of λαθ, root of λανθαυεσθας to forget. in gr. ληθη is not the name of the river, though it occurs
as a personification; the river is ληθης 'water of lethe']. 1. gr. myth. a river in hades, the water of which produced, in those who drank it, forgetfullnes of the past. hence, the 'waters of oblivion', or forgetfullness of the past.
2. [?influenced by l. lēt(h)um.] death. rare.
3. atrib. and comb., as lethe-flood, lake, wharf; lethe-wards adv. (oed definition)" [label info]
http://invisiblebirds.org/
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
| LICHT-UNG |
Kristall |
7 |
LICHT-UNG ist ein Label, Lyrik- und Soundprojekt für experimentelle Kunst aus Leverkusen mit etwas exzentrischem Anspruch. Auf 'Kristall' findet sich eine spannungsgeladene A-Seite basierend auf Feedback-Sounds, sowie ein wirklich kristallklarer microsound-drone auf der Rückseite.
"LICHT-UNG (German for "glade") is the name of a label, art- (publishing lyrics, pictures, etc.) and sound project from the western part of Gemany with a very peculiar and rather dadaistic approach. The two pieces on "kristall" seem to be based mainly on feedback- and metal or glass sounds that are carefully put together for a queer-sounding trip. Side A ("Listen to the music playing in your head") consists of humming, growling drones, low siren-like sounds and high-frequency feedbacks, powerful and absorbing and very abstract, while never turning into sheer noise. Side B (with the odd title "Heute war ich bei den weißen Elefantens") delivers a crystal-clear noise chant and metallic overtones processed with obscure effects. File under: high-tension & crystal Drones
BLUE VINYL WITH BLACK STRIAE. COVERS WITH SILKSCREEN-PRINTED TEXT & VISUAL, SILVER-PRINTED BLACK INLAY"
[press release]
"Ein beigelegter Pin, eine liebevoll bedruckte Rückseite und ein gespraytes Cover schaffen auf
Anhieb Sympathie, die Musik nicht weniger. Licht-ung ist Fakt- und infobezogen recht
schweigsam, zwar sehr betriebsam und eher in der unorthodox-verzettelten Ecke der
experimentellen Musik tätig, hier allerdings geradezu lieblich und freigeistig, wofür die Namen der beiden Stücke geradezu bürgen.
»Listen To The Music Playing In Your Head« ist analoge Feedbackverdrahtung a la David Lee
Myers mit ordentlich Rauschen drauf, ein wenig Mikroakribie im Stile von V/VM und last but
not least so differenziert fern, dass man meint, einem zeitlich langgezogenen Bremsvorgang
der Untergrundbahn in Hamburg zu lauschen. Charmant und reicht allemal für einen kurzen
Sprung ins Unterbewusstsein, hingegen die B-Seite trägt dem Namen des Releases eher
Rechnung: »Heute War Ich Bei Den Weißen Elefanten« ist ein in der Tat kristallklarer elektroakustischer Drone auf der Grundlage eines transponierten Glockenspiels. Die Tonspur ist dabei genauso aberwitzig halluzinogen wie der Titel des Stückes, aber augenzwinkernd hintergründig. Es schlingert und scheppert auf den Frequenzen und letztlich fällt doch alles in die große Stille. Eines der etwas obskureren Werke auf Drone Records, aber sehr fein aufbereitet und mysteriös wie der Musiker dahinter." [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| LICHT-UNG / IRIS GARRELFS |
split |
10inch |
Split 10" in a tiny edition of this excentric german art-project with the british soundartist IRIS GARRELS. Two pieces with ominous dronescapes, strange clouds of rather dull moaning sounds, pulses, crackles, resonance-bubbles, quite exciting in their indeterminableness.
Great record, very much recommended. Comes with colour-photo sticked on, and inlay. Numbered ed.
Background to IRIS GARRELFS recordings: "(Talking) Space to Space is an ongoing radio project. Using captured natural radio emissions from celestial objects, Iris reshapes these sounds into an audio composition and flings them back to the stars in a radio broadcast. A poetic gesture, a sensual fiction which takes the past, re-shapes it in real-time and travels with it into the future. The piece was originally performed on Resonance FM in June 04 and as part of Radio Art Riot during the Frieze Art Fair, October 04. An extract was also featured as part of Radio Day of European Cultures in October 05. An extended version was listed for the PRS New Musci Award in 05. An extract wil be released on 10" vinyl by German art label lich-tung in spring 06." [website info]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| LIFE GARDEN |
Plutonian Dub (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
unbelievable intense and mesmerizing two tracks of yearnful ethereal ambience with mighty rhythmical parts, monumental and melancholic at the same time...
"LIMITED+NUMBERED FIRST EDITION OF 250 COPIES
GREY VINYL; HANDCOLOURED PE-SLEEVES
LIFE GARDEN FROM PHOENIX, ARIZONA, ARE THE REMAINS OF THE LEGENDARY GROUP MAYBE MENTAL, WHO HAVE BEEN AROUND IN THE 80's IN THE EXPERIMENTALLY ORIENTATED GLOBAL CASSETTE-UNDERGROUND AND RELEASED 7 TAPES (THAT ARE HARD TO FIND NOW), AND ONE SPLIT-LP WITH CONTROLLED BLEEDING.
LIFE GARDEN CREATE A UNIQUE STYLE OF THEIR OWN BY COMBINING AMBIENT ATMOSPHERES WITH EASTERN INFLUENCES, MAKING IT INTENSE AND MAGNIFICENT COMPOSITIONS.
DRONE RECORDS HAVE NOW RELEASED THE VERY FIRST PIECE OF VINYL BY THIS GROUP, WHICH CONTAINS THE TRACKS 'PLUTONIAN DUB' AND 'CHAOS LULLABY' - WITH THE YEARNING SINGING OF SU LING, THE SURREAL DRONES AND THE POWERFUL RITUAL DRUMMING THIS APPEARS TO BE A TIMELESS AND WISE AURAL MONUMENT.
AFTER HAVING HAD 4 BAD PRESSINGS WE ARE MOST HAPPY TO PRESENT THIS
UNIQUE 7". FINALLY WE'D LIKE TO SAY 'SORRY' TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAD TO WAIT THAT LONG!
" an exploration into a wide range of sound, emotion, wonderment and intensity "
DRONE RECORDS DR-20/APRIL 1997 |
1997 |
€ |
|
| LIGHT OF SHIPWRECK |
From the idle Cylinders |
CD-R |
Kraftvoller Guitar-Drone mit wummernder & stampfender Drum-machine und heftigen Gitarren-Loops, ekstatisch, geisterhaft, nicht von dieser Welt... erinnert an NADJA, klingt für unsere Ohren aber zum Teil auch wie eine Metal-Version von RAPOON !
LIGHT OF SHIPWRECK ist das Solo-Projekt von BEN FLEURY-STEINER, der auch hinter PARADIN und dem GEARS OF SAND-Label steckt, eine echte Überrraschung!
"Light Of Shipwreck is a one-man band operated by Ben Fleury-Steiner, a Deleware-based drone artist and owner of the excellent Gears of Sand Recordings imprint, which has released discs from some of our favorite ambient/drone/drift artists including Encomiast, Cordell Klier, and Aidan Baker. It was actually through Aidan Baker that we found out about Ben's Light Of Shipwreck project; knowing that we're fanatics for "heavy ambient" sound, Light Of Shipwreck was recommended as something we should check out. At first expecting something more along the lines of the kind of floating ambient rumble that marks so much of my favorite Baker solo stuff, I was pleasantly surprised by how percussive the tracks I heard online from LOS were, the dense, ominous feedback drones and heavy rumbling ur-riffs floating freely over a mechanistic tribal-rhythm freakout. We ended up getting in touch with Ben from Light Of Shipwreck and it turned out that he had a nearly hour-long disc that he wanted to have released through our Crucial Bliss imprint, and here we are: a three-track full length of rich, crushing power-ambient, titled From The Idle Cylinders, a reference to the American Objectivist poet George Oppen whose work is a consistent influence on Light Of Shipwreck's imagery, with huge slabs of resonant sheet metal shimmering in an ocean of heavenly feedback and reverberating guitar drone, and surges of droning tribal Krautrock percussion floating along with distorted ambient doom powerchords and washed out vocal cord bliss, each track running upwards of 20 minutes in length. A totally breathtaking piece of music, like Steve Reich, Brian Eno, Can, and Earth swirled together into an austere, hypnotizing heavy-trance masterpiece. This limited edition CD-R of From The Idle Cylinders comes packaged in the signature Crucial Bliss foldover card sleeve with the disc itself attached to the sleeve on a plastic hub and featuring striking photo design, in a print run of 200 copies." [label info]
"Haunting super rhythmic industrial soundscapes laced with a propulsive locomotive shuffle of programmed percussion, keening high end and hissing whirs of smeared almost jazziness, looped and cyclical, some sort of disembodied krautrock/spacerock like a more mechanical Necks jamming in a thick cloud of Birchville Cat Motel fug. A groaning creaking percussive framework beneath a sky full of shimmering black clouds.
All three tracks begin all abstract and drifty, the first "I Rode And Am Riding On An Ocean Of Violent Lights", quickly explodes into a fog of jagged edges and swirling squalls of chaotic percussion and overlapping drones, while the second, "I Watched And Am Watching
A Cold Dead Sun Rise Then Explode" coalesces into a serious chunk of glorious Ur-kraut, a simple stripped down rhythm spread out over a
massive expanse of low end whir and phantom drone drift, gorgeous and mesmerizing, with a dark dreamy melody, both ominous and lovely, think a super mellow druggy Circle, or a slightly more noise rock Necks...
The final track begins with subtle Eastern sounding percussion, before giving way to some Fear Falls Burning massive glacial guitar drone, eventually splintering into glimmering harmonics, the rest of the twenty minute track, a tangle of the two, shuffling skittering rhythms wrapped around slow burning solar flare guitar. So good.
As with all Crucial Bliss releases, the packaging is gorgeous, a dvd sized fold over thick cardstock sleeve, full color inside and
out, the cd attached to a plastic hub affixed to the sleeve... and LIMITED TO ONLY 200 COPIES!!" [{Aquarius ]
www.crucialblast.net
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| LILES, ANDREW |
All Closed Doors |
CD |
New work of this British bizarre-ambience composer, who is still to discover! This evokes an eerie darkness, with melancholic piano tunes, as a whole a surrealistic, day-dreamy atmosphere..
“With a title such as ‘Largactil and Dilaudin for the Soul’ this newest release from British composer Andrew Liles should give an indication of the eccentricies from where this recording is coming from. One track of stark resonating piano followed by the slow warming of the orchestra that draws you in. Once there, it tip toes, echoes and dissolves with each track re-emerging more fractured than the next. Intricacies of creaks, dull thuds, traditional instrumentation and then subtle ambient drones. ‘All Closed Doors’ could be the aural equivalent of living in a disused cupboard; dusty and empty - dark and damp. Perhaps the definitive song on the album, 'What Never Will Be' is a bizarre ghostly version of the 'que sera sera'. Edition of 500 copies.“ [label info]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
My long accumulating Discontent |
CD |
LILES ist Meister im Spinnen surrealer, diskomfortabler Ambient-Atmosphären und deren Verquickung mit menschlichen Stimmen, konkreten Elementen, und irgendwie „nostalgisch“ gefärbten found sounds & Quellen. Fremdartige Dimensionen ala NURSE WITH WOUND sind hier nicht weit, aber auch eine bizarre DAVID LYNCH-artige Stimmung verbreitet sich dadurch... und am Ende ein melancholischer Folk-Song....
‘My Long Accumulating Discontent’ is the fourth and certainly the strangest recording from Andrew Liles. This CD is in places more ‘melodic’ than Liles’ previous output and its 17 tracks cover a wide musical territory. Some songs are short and harmonious, other pieces are longer, subtle and contemplative with drifting delicate drones. In places the CD is truly bizarre and defies all conventions. The album doesn’t fit easily into any definable bracket and we feel this oddity belongs in a class all of its own. Traditional English vernacular culture connoisseur Andrew King joins Andrew Liles for one track and Aaron Moore and Nick Mott of Volcano the Bear contribute to several other songs. ‘My Long Accumulating Discontent’ is a distinct and peculiar excursion from the norm.” [press release]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Somnambulance to Dream General |
CD |
Bevor Mr. LILES v.a. durch die Beteiligung an NURSE WITH WOUND einem grösseren Hörerkreis bekannt wurde, werkelte er jahrelang recht versteckt an seiner bizarr-surrealistischen Soundwelt herum, hier bestehend aus Synth-Drones & sperrigen Elektronoises, Pianosequenzen, Sprachmaterial, traditionelles englischsprachiges Gesangsmaterial (wie Kinderlieder und Abzählreime, die ein nostalgisches Flair verbreiten), melanchronische Instrumentalquellen, wirre found sounds und Versatzstücke aus Jazz, etc. etc.
SOMNAMBULANCE ist eine Neubearbeitung einer CDR-Compilation mit frühem Material - gleich 21 Stücke fanden den Weg auf dieses äusserst kurzweilige Album, schwankend zwischen Düsternis und anregender Exzentrizität. Als Einstieg in LILES recht einzigartige, verschrobene Klangwelt wohl ideal !!
"Somnambulance" is a reworking of an album of odd and obscure tracks that was released in a microscopic edition on CD-R before. For this CD, Mr. Liles has provided his funniest and possibly most controversial artwork as of yet. You get an hour of music of many different styles: Andrew Liles' trademark of eerie and spooky sounds is there; also electronics and a whole range of instruments are placed in between sketches and longer tracks. And if all this weren't enough, you get three bonus tracks that didn't appear on the CDR at all. After a long line of collaborations, finally a new album by Current 93 and Nurse With Wound man Liles himself!" [label info]
www.klanggalerie.com
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| LOCKWELD |
Industrial Requiem |
CD |
"Very dark & raw atmospheric noise from a new US project from Ohio. Recommended for all who like harsher drones (like GRUNTSPLATTER, RUHRHUNTER, MEGAPTERA, ..). The label calls it “dark power electroinics”." [old Drone info]
“.. using such elements as power sanders, electric saws and other devices of limited destruction, only matched by tortured vocals and droning analog sounds..” [from the press release].
|
2001 |
€10.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO |
A sudden pest of droning pseudoinsects |
4 x 7inch |
SOUNDART pur! Sehr ästhetisch-kunstvolle Veröffentlichung eines neuen spanischen Labels in winziger Auflage von 100 Stück: Vier 7"-Singles in edlem weissem Vinyl in weissem Klappcover - die Aufnahmen wurden von LOPEZ für eine Rotterdamer Klanginstallation bereits 1994 gemacht, zur vollen Entfaltung kommen die Klänge bei gleichzeitigem Einsatz und Mix mit vier Plattenspielern. Auch einzeln abgespielt verschaffen sich mächtig-minimale Microsound-Dronescapes in vier verschiedenen Frequenzbetonungen & Klangfärbungen Raum.
"4x7 set, new release from F.L on Spanish label EOZOÖN editions. 4x7s to be played alone or mixed and re-eq'd with four turntables (highly recommended!!) Sounds cover a large frequency range for maxim effect!! Stunning all white folder with 4 x white vinyl 7s. 'A sudden pest of droning pseudoinsects' was presented as a sound installation in the event '220v Klankpark' at the Museum Park of Rotterdam (Summer 1994), organized by v2_Organisatie. Composed and recorded at Messor Studios (Madrid) in 1994, remastered at Mobile Messor in 2002." [label info]
|
2006 |
€38.00 |
|
|
El dia anterior a la emergencia de los adultos de magicicada |
mCD |
Ähnlich wie auf der legendären Drone Records-Single “Untitled Single Piece 1”, welche infrasonische Sub-Drones enthielt, die man eher spüren als hören konnte, hat LOPEZ auf „El dia“ wieder Infrasound- „Klänge“ geschaffen, die „schwer“ vibrierend in der Luft liegen, ohne dass ein besonderer Eindruck von „Lautstärke“ geschaffen wird.
Alles vibriert. Lebendige Psychophysik. Experiment with your senses !
“The music is there but only your house's walls and selected parts of your auditive system respond to the connection. The piece lasts only a little more than 15 minutes, yet it is a masterpiece; a single subsonic drift comes out a little, then withdraws, then again returns to occupy the corners of the ceiling, slowly taking possession of your essence. Moving around the room, the sound becomes more intense or is almost completely cancelled in a sort of illusory phase whose gradual consumption is completed just when the body recognizes this throbbing code as familiar. Impossible not to be impressed by this game of contrasts between tension and comfort, which confirms Lopez's current state of grace. The "repeat" button is absolutely recommended.” [Touching Extremes]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| |
Untitled Single Piece # 5 |
7 |
Nr. 5 in der Serie, die mit der Drone-Single (DR-22) begann.. hier zwei vollmundige, rauschige, alles vergessende Drones..
“ Number 5 in this ongoing series & F.López walks the untitled single path consistent. All the sonic power & intensity that Francisco López is wellknown for, compressed into 2 short & intense pieces of sound, Limited edition of 500 copies.” [press release]. comes on white vinyl!
www.90-prozent-wasser.de
|
2002 |
€6.00 |
|
| LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / ANDREY KIRITCHENKO |
Mavje |
CD |
Verpackt in dicken, seltsam geschnittenen Karton, kommt diese bemerkenswerte Collaboration auf KIRITCHENKO’s NEXSOUND-Label heraus. Schichten aus „organisch“ rauschenden Flächen wühlen sich wie Insekten durch den Äther, im Sub-Bass Bereich bewegen sich tänzelnde Helikopter-Drones vorbei, nach plötzlichem break aber kommen auch dumpf konkret-knirschende Akusmen zum Einsatz, aus denen sich neue bedrohliche metallo-dreamscapes schälen....
= Der LOPEZsche Klangkosmos wird hier angenehm erweitert !
“Spanish 'absolute concrete music' artist Francisco Lopez known for his releases, performances and installations world-wide joined together with Ukrainian cross-genre experimental sound artist Andrey Kiritchenko on this CD. Lopez decomposed and reworked field and furnishings recordings made and processed by Kiritchenko in his living space. Over the last twenty years Francisco Lopez has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss
of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion.,,,,” [press release]
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| LOSCIL // LAWRENCE ENGLISH |
Colours Of Air |
CD |
"The union of composers Lawrence English and loscil aka Scott Morgan is seamless, sublime, and long overdue. Born of a conversation centered on the notion of "rich sources" as a forge for electronic music, Colours Of Air is a collection of recordings of a century old pipe organ housed at the historic Old Museum in Brisbane, Australia, which were then processed, transformed, and elevated into eight majestic electro-acoustic threshold devotionals. The timbre of the instrument and spatial fluctuations of room tone infuse the music with a subdued, sacred feel, like vaulted light in a nave of stained glass. They describe the album as 'an iterative project, a reduction and eventual expansion,' sifting the swells and drones of the organ for every shivering shade of radiance. The tracks are named for the hue each piece suggests -- from the gauzy levitational miasma of 'Yellow' to the pulsing melancholic mirage of 'Violet' to the seething twilit sandstorm of 'Magenta.' Morgan and English are both adept at conjuring moods of muted grandeur, like landscapes veiled in dusk, still looming and luminous. Here their combined powers open pathways to heightened realms of deep listening and bewitching restraint, finding flickering infinities in ancient configurations of wind, brass, stone, and dust."
https://loscil.bandcamp.com/album/colours-of-air
|
2022 |
€16.00 |
|
| LOTUS EATERS |
same (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
“The LOTUS EATERS is a kind of droning trio of known musicians from the States, in which we find STEPHEN O’MALLEY [(SUNN O)): , BURNING WITCH, KHANATE], AARON TURNER [label founder of HydraHead-Records in Boston, member of ISIS], and JAMES PLOTKIN [one of the most creative & experimental underground – guitarists around, being member of O.L.D., SCORN, TRIFID PROJECT, and now ATOMSMASHER, and working currently in many solo- and collaboration projects] with only one 12” vinyl-release and few concerts to date. The two untitled pieces of this, their first 7” E.P. consists of concrete rumblings & ambience, something like accordeon–drones in the background, a voice/singing appears from the distance, and acoustic guitar-elements, added by some strange effects going on in the background.. the atmosphere is one of a melancholic, but in a way also mellowed “different state of mind”, a very unique melting plot of characters & music !” [press release July 2002]
WHITE VINYL WITH YELLOW SPOTS. PRINTED FULL-COLOUR COVERS DESIGNED BY SELDON HUNT. INNER-COVER IS YELLOW PRINTED. SECOND EDITION OF 300 COPIES.
|
2004 |
€6.00 |
|
| LUASA RAELON |
The Poison City |
CD |
Willkommen unter Tage. Extrem hallender, donnernder, metallisch sirrender Kontemplativ-Ambient, tausend Echos von analog-elektronische Sounds, aber auch elegische Synths sind auszumachen... doom-drone Industrial aus US.
“Welcome to the poison city. A place where nuclear radiations colour the sky with green clouds, mutating vegetation suffocates the
sun and asphyxiating miasms coming from abandoned toxic wastes endanger life.........
LUASA RAELON is definitely one of the most interesting realities of US dark ambient/death industrial scene, combining low-rumbling
drones with extemporaneous noise bursts to create a pretty personal & recognizable sound. This poison city IS a terrible place, trust me..” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| LUMINOUS |
Links |
CD |
Neues Drone-Projekt aus UK - amorphe & transzendentale Klang-Figurationen, fliessend & zeitlos..... to discover !
"After a decade of activity, the first official CD by Tim Chaplin's electronic/experimental project Luminous. Links consists of two thirty minute pieces. For fans of drone, dark ambience and experimentalism. All CDs are housed in red clam shell cases and feature on body artwork by Thumbprint Press's WT Nelson." [myspace]
"Time for some sub-aquatic bubbling abstract electronics and dark ambient sound worlds from Links. 'Luminous' Two 30 minute tracks take you on a sonic journey and really give you the sense that your lost in a different space and time, like floating around in some liquid metal dreamscape. With the sound of drones creating a feeling of amnesia. Very absorbing stuff. I'd like to listen to this whilst locked in a cupboard and become a total void. Housed in a red clamshell case on Tara Records." [Norman Records review]
www.myspace.com/timchaplinluminous
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM |
Brusnika (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
„....Die slawisch-melancholische Seele feiert auf dem roten Vinyl von "Brusnika" wahre Feste der Schwermut und neben den organischen Ethno-Drones basieren einige Sounds auf alten baltischen Schlafliedern. LUNAR ABYSS klingen für mich neben REUTOFF am typischsten für das große Land und ich mag diese Russen, die aus nur wenigen Zutaten eine absolut fesselnde Atmosphäre zu schaffen wissen und sich dies selbst noch nicht einmal bewußt sind - einfach großartig!“ [Marco Fiebag, BLACK]
“LUNAR ABYSS (ext.) is the child of Evgueny Savenko from St. Petersburg who did some excellent releases (Vinyl, CDR, CD) over the past years with his own peculiar touch of doing this hypnotic-ethno-ambient industrial music mostly under the name LUNAR ABYSS QUARTET. This very first 7 EP for L.A.D.O. is a pure aural-shamanistic-journey where heard and felt are Earths elements and life itself such as fire, voice-murmurs, strange animals noises, winds force and whistles, the enchanting voice of a woman singing, various softly looped voices are perceptible throughout this sound journey. All these natural sound-ingredients are merged into a deeply etched vibrating rhythm of raw and deepest rumbling analogue sounds. These are the kind of electro-acoustic drone-pieces that breathes spiritual strength and build shamanistic atmospheres full of intensity. Each cover is hand-painted with very colourful Mandala-like forms!!! Filed under: ethno-organic otherworld-drones RED VINYL. COLOURFUL HANDPAINTED COVERS, EACH ONE UNIQUE!” [press release]
|
2005 |
€6.50 |
|
|
Atanimonni Aitnatsbus |
10inch |
"Behind LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM (= also known as LUNAR ABYSS QUARTET or just LUNAR ABYSS) we find Russian artist EVGENY [Biosonar] SAVENKO from the vivid St. Petersburg experimental & post-industrial scene. Since more than a decade he's producing a unique style of music combining elements of droning ambient industrial, traditional folklore and electronic, tribal/trancy psychedelism, adding pure sound-experiments often based on field recordings. A strong DIY-attitude (self-released albums usually have handmade covers with ornamental drawings & paintings) is connected with a shamanistic and pan-religious philosophy. Meditation, Trance, the wish to explore the own unconscious areas by ecstatic experiences and a deep connection with nature are his main characteristics.
The two pieces "Atanimonni" and "Aitnatsbus" were especially recorded for our 10"-series and give a wonderful example of the typical L.A.D.O.-style: two long tracks (total 23+ min.) of stunning multi-layered compositions, using lots of detail-sounds from domestic and wild animals, mountain winds and brooks, forest shelters and a destroyed missile garrison, soviet analog synths, north saami female voices / singings, subtle (neo) classic harmonies, bells & gongs... hyper-dense & fluid at the same time! Both tracks end up in endless grooves (water & fire) to symbolize the connection to timeless energies. Lim. 500 with artwork by ARTYOM OSTAPCHUK (KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK / ZHELEZOBETON label), comes on sky-blue, crystal & white mixed vinyl.
"Recordings of field recordind sounds were made in the summer of 2009 in the Carpathian mountains and the land of lakes in Karelia, during a miraculous journey, full of joyful inspiration. Party of analog synthesizers recorded by sound-poet Lesnaya Pogan during a cold winter 2010 in Moscow." [Evgeny Savenko]
[label info]
www.substantia-innominata.de
"lunar abyss deus organum hat mit „brusnika“ auf der dr-77 in der früheren 7“ serie von drone-records einen der teile herausgebracht, der mir von allen 100 beiträgen der serie am besten gefällt. nun ist das projekt mit „atanimonni / aitnatsbus“ als sub-16 auch auf der substantia innominata 10“ serie vertreten.
lunar abyss deus organum ist dabei alles andere als ein projekt, das auf lang durchlaufende schichtungen, melodiebögen oder ähnliches setzt oder im gegenzug (bearbeitete) fieldrecordings oder konkretere musikschnipsel in den eindeutigen vordergrund der arbeit stellt. im ersten eindruck sind viele der arbeiten von lunar abyss deus organum vielmehr eine zunächst undurchschaubare collage aus all diesen elementen; eine collage, die aber nie übervoll erscheint, der es sogar gelingt, trotz manchmal fast wie brüche wirkender betonungen nie die stimmung und atmosphäre zu gefährden und so drones aufzubauen, die durch fast überraschende wendungen immer wieder neue bilder aufbauen können.
auch „atanimonni“ folgt dieser tradition und wiegt die hörer dabei über sehr lange zeit in der trügerischen sicherheit, der schaukelnde, wellenartige bassdrone mit dem das stück auch beginnt, könnte, wenn schon nicht ewig, dann aber zumindest für die dauer der seite begleiter bleiben. und natürlich, gerade, wenn man vergessen hat, dass es jemals anders sein könnte, wachsen dessen rauere begleiter über sich selbst und den bassdrone hinaus, bauen eine geräuschhafte kakophonie auf, brechen wie urplötzlich ab und münden in einem nur ganz leise hörbaren, durch die rille auf analoge art geloopten wassersample. zumindest hier dann also das erhören derer, die sich eine derartige musik mit noch viel längeren laufzeiten wünschen...
„aitnatsbus“ geht, in gewissen sinne, einen umgekehrten weg: die geräuschhaften komponenten stehen hier zu beginn fast ganz frei (wenn auch nicht so laut wie kurz vor ende von „atanimonni“) und fangen sich erst allmählich über zunächst bassigen dann knurrenden drones und fast unhörbar schleicht sich eine weibliche stimme hinein, die, auf ähnlich verführerischer art wie schon auf der „brusnika“ 7“, einen schnipsel aus einer dieser typischen melancholischen osteuropäischen volksmusikmelodien immer und immer wieder wiederholt. perfekter dynamischer aufbau und eigentlich unmöglich erscheinender kontrast zwischen den wälzenden drones mit ihren geräuschhüllen und der sehnsuchtsvollen stimme. eigentlich. und am ende verweht nur noch der gesang und was bleibt ist das (wiederum analog geloopte) feuer..." [Hellmut Neidhardt / N]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Khara-Khoto |
CD |
We gladly present the new Lunar Abyss Deus Organum full-length album "Khara-Khoto"! In fact, this is the first big studio work of the project after "Atimudra" (2012, BioSonar^Labyrint) and a long series of split-releases, collaborations, live recordings and various small editions... Khara-Khoto was the name of a Tangut city with Buddhist culture which existed in the XI-XIV centuries before it was captured by the troops of the Chinese Ming dynasty (nowadays it's geographically located in the Chinese Inner Mongolia). The idea of creating this album appeared after visiting a special exhibition at the Hermitage, which presented a lot of original artifacts from this ancient settlement buried in the sands. Special inspiration came from a deep understanding of the ephemeral and impermanent nature of existence – even prosperous cultures can die in one moment because of the blind greed of invaders... From the musical point of view, here one can hear the full sound palette typical for Lunar Abyss. This includes multilayered ambiental sketches with flowing chains of samples, voice loops and acoustic instruments; rhythmic percussive tracks with vigorous pulsating energy; abstract collages made of analogue electronics, radio noises and fragments of television programs; semi-static enveloping drones spiced up with field recordings. The psychedelic kaleidoscope of aural images continues its work – the fans of the albums "Snovidenie", "Tuntury" and "Atimudra" won't be disappointed! The CD-version is limited to 300 copies and comes in a 4-panel matte foldout digisleeve.
https://lunarabyss.bandcamp.com/album/khara-khoto |
2019 |
€13.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS DEUS ORGANUM VS. NEZNAMO |
Dendralepsya |
CD-R |
"Dendralepsya - ability to suddenly turn into a tree. Assume you're sitting home, having a dinner with relatives and all of a sudden you're all covered with branches, most often coniferous - this is it! This disk presents dendraleptic soundscapes, i.e. the sound you hear while being a tree. Dense shroud of tender drones, like a mist. Images and visions create light gaps between the trees. Delicate tuning of your heart chakra - melodic layers in ultimately remote background. Music for strain listening and recognizing. The sound is based on voices and live instruments, ocarina and pipes, but all drown in fog, in mist, in solute. Handmade cardboard sleeve." [press-release] |
2010 |
€10.00 |
|
| LUNAR ABYSS QUARTET |
Cosmologamma |
CD |
CD re-release of this great album from 2000, which appeared only as a lim. 100 CDR on 8th Moon! We wrote: “Last copies of this limited CD-R release documenting live-concerts from this Russian project – they create here alien atmospheres with classic/surrealistic female singing & bruitistic concrete effects and drones. Recommended.” [original Drone Records description]
“Second CD from this Saint-Petersburg outfit. Dark ritual, mysterious and sombre ritualistic stuff, more gloomy than their 10” on Der Angriff or 1st CD “Zheleznaya Voda”. Something in a way of early Ain Soph, Sigillum S and industrial-era Current 93. Ethereal female voice chanting eerie tunes in the crushing collapsing realm of ambient soundscapes, ceremonial bells and metallic crashes. Recommended. The first edition of 300 copies in a digipak printed bronse-on-darkgreen.”[press release]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Zeleznaya Voda |
CD |
"Die neue mystic Industrial-Hoffnung aus Russland mit ihrer ersten (?) „echten“ CD, wahrhaft archaische Klänge aus Loops & konkreten Instrumenten- & Geräuschquellen erfüllen den Raum.. zwischen monumental-ambient Noise und eher dunkel-erhabenenen Sphären...
First „real“ CD from this great mystic Industrial project from Russia.. deeply archaic sounds between monumental ambient Noise and more dark-elationed spheres.." [Drone Rec.info 2003]
”Brilliant archival live recordings from this Russian ritualistic droning ambient act, here presenting recordings from live performances and sessions made during 1998-2002. Wonderfully evolving soundscapes of sonorous drones and echoes blending together with ritualistic rhythms and voices as well as some more industrial elements. Stylish special silver/black digipak sleeve with real photos included.” [kaos kontrol]
|
2002 |
€13.00 |
|
| LURK |
Furking |
CD-R |
A new name for us on Blade, which is in fact an older swedish side-project with the MOLJEKBA PVLSE main-man MATHIAS JOSEFSON. As a trio LURK creates rhythm-based low-fi spherics, sometimes with a powerful urge, sometimes more relaxed, sometimes pure dronescaping, quite well done. 7 tracks, 58 minutes.
"Lurk is a side-project of Moljebka Pvlse. Furking contains 5 tracks that were released on tape in mid-90s plus two tracks recorded in 2006. Improvised in the studio with little or no overdubs, Lurk is definitely more Industrial than Moljebka Pvlse - noisy and somewhat rhythmic. Limited edition of 100 copies, hand-numbered." [Some Place Else]
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
| LUSTMORD |
Much Unseen is also here (col. vinyl) |
do-LP |
Der Dark-Ambient-Pionier, die stygische Drone-Legende und das fast schon mythische Wesen LUSTMORD durchstößt mit "Much Unseen Is Also Here" einmal mehr den Schleier - die neueste Solo-Veröffentlichung des Künstlers in einer beeindruckenden, 40-jährigen kreativen Karriere an der Spitze der Industrial-Musik. Auf Drängen von Cosey Fanni Tutti und Chris Carter von Throbbing Gristle, Musik zu machen, die seine unverwechselbare Aura einfängt, übernahm Brian Williams 1980 Lustmord und begann mit Sounds zu arbeiten, weil die Musik, die er hören wollte, einfach nicht existierte. Lustmord veröffentlichte 1989 sein drittes Album "Heresy", das zu einem Meilenstein in der Industrial-Szene wurde und heute allgemein als Ursprung des Dark-Ambient-Genres gilt. 35 Jahre später führt Much Unseen Is Also Here" das Vermächtnis von Heresy" fort und knüpft an dessen fesselnden Erzählbogen an. "Much Unseen Is Also Here" besteht aus drei verschiedenen Teilen und ist dazu gedacht, in einer einzigen, ununterbrochenen Durchgang angehört zu werden; es entführt den Hörer in eine kompromisslose Parallelwelt, die nur in der Musik existiert, bevor es ihn am Ende für immer verändert wieder hinauswirft. Lustmord, der seit 1994 in L.A. lebt, hat auch als Komponist und Sounddesigner an der Musik für ikonische Film- und Fernsehproduktionen mitgewirkt, darunter "The Crow", "Strange Days", "From Dusk Till Dawn", "Underworld" und in jüngerer Zeit die FX-Serien "Fear The Walking Dead" und "First Reformed"von "Taxi Driver"-Autor Paul Schrader aus dem Jahr 2017. Immer noch entschlossen, die Grenzen von Sound, Genre und Medien zu erweitern, hat Lustmord auch zu den Soundlandschaften von Videospielen wie Assassin's Creed, League of Legends und, passenderweise, dem von H.R. Geiger inspirierten Survival-Horror-Spiel Scorn von 2022 beigetragen. Other Woes Are Yet To Come Edition (single colored (pink) vinyl, ltd to 220 copies ww)
"Im Vorfeld der Veröffentlichung des neuen Abums von Brian Williams wurde ein Vergleich zu dem 1989 erschienenen Album „Heresy“ gezogen: „[Much Unseen Is Also Here“] continues the legacy established by ‘Heresy’ and echoes its enthralling narrative arc“. Das ist natürlich eine ziemliche Ansage, ist doch „Heresy“ der Höhepunkt der prädigitalen Ära Lustmords. Dabei trugen zur (mehr als berechtigten) Auratisierung des Werks sicher auch das apokalyptische das Cover zierende John Martin-Gemälde (das sich jeder Londonbesucher einmal in der Tate ansehen sollte) und vor allem auch die Aufnahmeorte bei: So hieß es doch auf der Rückseite, das Album „utilises subterranean location recordings originated within crypts, caverns, mines, deep shelters and catacombs together with meterial of a seismic and volcanic origin“. Diese Art des Aufnehmens ist lange vorbei und Brian Williams zeigte kurz noch auf seiner Instagramseite ein Bild seiner Soundbibliothek, das deutlich machte, dass für die nächsten Jahrzehnte mehr als genug zu bearbeitendes Material vorhanden ist.
In den letzten Jahren gab es das 2016 bei Touch veröffentlichte „Dark Matter“, ein überaus reduziertes Album, “70 Minuten tiefster Schwärzer“ aus den Tiefen des Alls, es erschien mit dem leider nur als Download verfügbaren „Trinity“ Williams’ Auseinandersetzung mit der Atombombe, es gab seinen Soundtrack zu Paul Schraders „First Reformed“ sowie die Kollaborationen mit Karin Park („Alter“) und mit dem Pianisten Nicolas Horvath (das recht atypische „The Fall“). Zuletzt konnte man ihn als Komponisten für das von den Bildern H. R. Gigers inspirierte Horroradventure “Scorn” erleben und hören, wie auf “The Others [Lustmord Deconstructed]” zahlreiche Künstler sich des Albums “[Other]” annahmen.
Verglichen mit „Dark Matter“ ist „Much Unseen Is Also Here“ wesentlich opulenter ausgefallen. Der Opener „Behold The Voice Of Thunder“ ist durchzogen von diesem so typischen tiefschwarzen Brummen, dunke, „donnernde“ Schläge sind zu hören. Dann entwickeln sich nach und nach melodische Passagen, die entfernt an Momente auf „The Monstrous Soul“ erinnern. Hier ist fortwährend die Antizipation der (Be-)Drohung, die dann kommen mag. Ein wenig erinnert mich das Ende des Stücks an Simon Boswells Score zu Richard Stanleys „Hardware“. „An Angel Dissected“ ist eine dunkel-melancholische Klage mit einem wellenartigen An- und Abschwellen, vielleicht in etwa so, als habe Williams Steven Stapletons Dronemeisterwerk „Salt Marie Celeste“ geremixt. Auf „A Shadow Cast Upon The Deep“ meint man, die dunklen Drones habe Williams aus Stimmen geschmiedet. „Invocation Of The Nameless One“ beginnt mit melodischen, an ein Blasinstrument erinnernen Sounds, auf „Their Souls Asunder“ meint man, dunkel singende Stimmen zu hören, die dem Stück einen fast sakralen Charakter geben. Die Sounds am Ende lassen dann an „Heresy“ denken. „Hence Shall They Be Devoured All Of Them“ wird mit Glockenläuten eingeleitet, dann klingt es so, als habe ein Cello als Soundquelle gedient. Schließlich lässt „Other Woes Are Yet To Come“ das Album mit einem mehr als wahren Titel enden.
Das ist vielleicht das melodischste Lustmord-Album seit langem. Wer aufgrund der Titelgebung und Covergestaltung mit dem aus Wayne Barlowes „Hell“-Serie stammenden Bild „Saragatanas Before The Behemoths“ meint, hier sei ein dunkler Metaphysiker am Werk, dem sei gesagt, dass im Innern des Albums eines der berühmtesten Zitate Epikurs zu finden ist, in dem das Epikureische Paradoxon formuliert wird, das die berühmte Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Güte und Allmächtigkeit von Göttern stellt. Auf einem vor etlichen Jahren erschienen Lustmord-T-Shirt hieß es dann auch passenderweise „The only good god is a dead god“." [MG/African Paper]
|
2024 |
€37.50 |
|
| LUTZ SCHRIDDE |
Troum Dreams |
consiliis animum fatigas? |
Troum dreams
quid aeternis minorem
consiliis animum fatigas?
Cur non sub alta vel platano, vel hac
pinu iacentes ....
(Horatius, carm. 2,11,13)
Why lying on dying, never we'll be
with eternity,
Hear no evil, no bad under this tree,
Lay, see and be, here, no worry
with me.
About Horatius we read in Nietzsche's "Götzen-Dämmerung" that in his poetry we find 'sound', 'position', 'term', what is with the words (Klang, Ort, Begriff) . This German romantic appreciated the artistry and effectivity, and he considered his own wording equal. Today, I feel free to take 'sound, position, term' to put compositions of Troum into the context of romanisation of German language what informed the romantic metaphor of music as a language. The challenge of translating Horatius into other languages, as Nietzsche had accentuated, is not to fail such artistry and effectivity. What I want to say is that compositions of Troum are more than romantic translations, beyond music as a language. Troum is sound, yes, and then listening is navigating, and listening then is without translation.
The German romantics claimed art to be not of purpose, no, art were autonomous and a value in itself, so were a genius. Does that mean the compositions of Troum – when not dubbing it romantic – have a purpose? Troum's navigations are taking the listener beyond such question. It is not about purpose or autonomy, Troum is two composers together, Stefan Knappe and Martin Gitschel. Their collaborative compositions is band-work, there is no solo. Like technical stereo-navigation of pilots in early airplanes, their navigations are even not communicating questions or answers. Following and listening here is about sharing their state of navigation, their state of mind.
Stefan contacted me in 1997 and told me about the end of Maeror Tri and a new project he had no name for at the time. I had collected most of Maeror Tri and contributed liner notes once. Moreover, Stefan was irritated how I could identify his hidden solo compositions on my own. Actually, after my time as a connoisseur of music I entered the sphere of musique concrete and drones for sort of cultivating my mind. I had already learned about the righthandedness of European music, had even read Wolfgang Scherer's dissertation "Babellogik" on the matter. Maeror Tri always seemed a soundtrack to my search for a new vantage point. Stefan liked my approach to revaluate the implicit morale of music, himself a lefthanded. When he told me Maeror Tri was disbanding and the new project needed a name, that occured right in time to jump to the new vantage point.
Musique concrete and post-punk creativity had affected me, and Maeror Tri all that time reminded me of the restrictions of surreal or psychogeograhic composition some people like to dub the French and British accomplishments. Maeror Tri - cassette by cassette since 1988 - shed some sound on that fashion, sometimes ambient, sometimes industrial, sometimes drone. To me, the fascination came through a sense of game and improvisation, often leaving any boundaries of the genres behind. Some of their early cassettes seemed informed even by the very wish to stay beyond boundaries, an approach to go for a change of any game before. Reading the reviews in Vital Weekly, I find a similar appreciation with the editor. Such exploration of composition may have resulted in new awareness and reflection then in 1997, disbanding Maeror Tri and a new project may explain itself. And as I see it today, the new project went on to explore and navigate beyond any boundaries of genres.
Changing games is a skill of the lefthanded. And again, Stefan was surprised watching me identifying his hidden solo compositions. I am righthanded, touched by surreal music and post-punk creativity, I am not a composer. And I will not out his solo compositions here, no. Nietzsche was a lefthanded, his skills surfaced in writing, and he was seemingly not selfaware of this natural skill and tending to curious vanity. His opinion about Horatius shows that in particular. Nietzsche never learned about the giveness of his skill when running his revaluation of all values. He was with the German romantic tradition all the time. And he had a certain selectivity who he liked to value, all were lefthanded (Goethe, Ceasar, Bismarck, Napoleon), all game changers, very skilled. In romantic music, Beethoven and Mozart were skilled brilliantly as such. In visual art, we may call Paul Klee an example. When Stefan needed a name for the new project, I was ready to try.
I said "Traum". In English, dream. By 1997, my search for a new way of composition beyond the genres of 'improvised', 'free jazz', 'world music', 'industrial', 'ambient', 'noise', 'drone', 'musique concrete' and else had already ended in sort of disappointment. I was sure, that the romantic tradition and its relative surrealism encompassed my search well, but at the time I had little in hand. My short essay "Noise Culture" in Vital Weekly Supplement in 1996 was a result of my search. Then talking with Stefan, and by intuition I avoided consideration of material or procedure what is behind the genre division. During that talk I threw myself out of that and looked for the location in musical anthropology. I looked for the essence of the genres and opened gain. So it became "Traum".
Stefan liked that immediately. He made it "Troum", just as if he knew the game change behind. To be clear, Troum is no music for Nietzscheans. And I am not a Nietzschean, although I have mastered in philosophy and know about him. His approach is restricted to values and valuation, in his case furthermore to the 'game' the values are framed by. That spoke to his nature and his romantic vanity. It happened, that I decided to leave Germany and I am teaching in China for eight years now. Here, musical anthropology is still a vantage point, and I am listening to Troum in Xian at the eastern end of the Silk Road.
Troum had done great things, I like the long-trackers "Sen" and "Mare Idiophonica". The Tjukurrpa-trilogy is also with me here, and allow me to highlight the collaboration with Martyn Bates and raison d'être. My current favorite of Troum is "Acouasme".
And if you know Horatius, yes, then you may be the right one to try Troum. It is sound, navigation and prior to translation. Here is abroad.
Lutz Schridde, Xian, China, April 1st 2018
Horatius in German:
Wozu, da er doch nicht gewachsen ist Ewigkeitsgedanken,
willst du deinen Geist damit plagen?
Warum wollen wir nicht unter der hohen Platane oder
unter dieser Pinie liegen sorgenlos, ....
This German translation is taken from Bernhard Kytzler, Horaz. Eine Einführung, Stuttgart 1996, page 176, on Nietzsche and Horatius see same page.
The English version above is mine.
|
2018 |
€ |
|
| M.B.(MAURIZIO BIANCHI) / LAND USE |
Psychoneurose |
CD |
Collaboration der wiedererstarkten Industrial-Legende mit LAND USE, einem neuen Projekt aus NL.... zu hören gibt es hier rauhe, ratternde Klang-Emanationen, die sich in immer neuen Verformungen in den Äther wälzen.... Licht-verschluckend und zähflüssig wie schwarzer Teer....unser definitiver Favorit unter den neuen MB-Veröffentlichungen der letzten Zeit !
“Italian Avant-Noise legend M.B. and Land Use collaborate on dramatic, subterranean wall-of-noise constructions and swirling textural storms, dense and complex arrangements, shifting and shimmering tones barely under control, streaming toward some distant and indefineable precipice. Not noisy, but way too tense and corrosive to be called ambient. These vibrant monoliths of sound shift the listeners pysche into a restless sort of zen, a blissful chaos - truly mind and mood-altering. Bianchi released early records on Whitehouse's Come Org. label and has been active since the 1970's. And a recent and conspicuous absence from the experimental music world has been broken by several recent releases of surprising freshness and relevance. It is unclear where MB leaves off and Land Use begins but Psychoneurose is definitely a clear and brilliant return to early MB techniques with several refinements in delivery and focus. Psychoneurose will be the clear weapon of choice for those who prefer their ambience with teeth and their Power-Electronics with more of the deep, vaster textures than violence.” [label description]
“....Thank God, we gave Psychoneurose a listen, as this record is so spectacular that perhaps we will be searching out some of those other records to see if they are as good as they were claimed to be! .....in returning to the all-encompassing, utterly blackened, subterraneanly frigid, nightmarishly grim, soul-crushingly bleak, death-shroud ambience that Bianchi had produced back in the day. Expansive, Frankensteinian drones constanly broadcast a black energy, marred with tactile corrosive noises and synthetic twitches which could only be made by the same anaglog technology of Bianchi's classic recordings. So until those aforementioned albums come back in print yet again, Psychoneurose holds its own as a worthy substitute.” [Aquarius]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| MAATH |
Darkness, Void and Silence |
CD |
Only in the Darkness. Only in the Void. Only in the Silence. Only there MAATH can create and mold their ominous worlds of drones. Black & bleak ambiences resounding in places where all humanity is extinct. CD comes in a matte-varnished digisleeve.
https://maath.bandcamp.com/album/darkness-void-and-silence
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| MACHINEFABRIEK |
Drum Solos |
LP |
"Drums (played with sticks, mallets, bow and tuning forks) and processing by Rutger Zuydervelt. "Driven by my love for solo albums by drummers and percussionists like Jon Mueller, Wil Guthrie, Nick Hennies and Burkhard Beins, I've made 'Drum Solos'. It's my take on a solo drum record, despite the fact that I lack the talent to hit a steady beat or a play a drum roll. Instead, I used the sounds of a drum kit as a sounce for further processing. I booked a rehearsel room with a drum kit, and recorded as much sounds as I could in one afternoon. Hitting, bowing, stroking, whatever ways I could find to create sounds, I recorded. And these soundfiles were chopped and screwed til it sounded like what you hear on the album. Each track focusses on one part of the drum kit. I like to think that purposefully employed limitations like that make me more creative, and my work more focussed. It's part of the aim to make my music as minimalistic and 'pure' (whatever that may be) as possible. In this case it resulted in a short but varied and at times meditative album that might not have any virtuoso drum acrobatics on it, but shows its quality on a more subtle level." ~RZ. Another great experimental and droning Machinefabriek album. Sleeve printed in metallic pantone gold ink. Limited edition of 300 copies on black vinyl." [label info]
www.backwards.it
"It shouldn't be a surprise that the ever prolific Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) hasn't found the time to do everything that's he wanted to do in his artistic career. With his hundreds of recordings that have poured fourth in mostly tiny editions as well as his collaborations, he's rarefied the sounds from guitars and electronics into cracked crescendos of half-melodic smears of drone and noise full of doleful cavernous swells and dark-star explosions. Yes, we've long been smitten by his work; but we'll admit that we were a little skeptical of an album entitled Drum Solos that began with the preamble that Zuydervelt had long wanted to study the art of percussion but never found the time. Fortunately, this is not a half-assed first attempt at trying to make avant-garde percussive tumble like Will Guthrie or Eddie Prevost; rather, it's perfectly beautiful Machinefabriek album using the drumkit as the source material. With much filtering and signal processing, Zuydervelt broadcasts echoing tones of slow-unfurling sonar pulses across a bed of soft shimmering ambience and rumbling atmosphere. The cymbals seem to be the only part of the kit that he's left mostly free of processing; but even so, he's bowing the cymbals to create those same textured drones that Organum produced many moons ago. Rhythm is mostly shed in lieu of weightless tone-float and spiralling, ghostlike re-appearances of his reconfigured drum sounds. It's hardly what anyone would ever consider when thinking of a drum solo record, but in the context of a Machinefabriek album, it's pretty damn majestic." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2014 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Wendingen |
CD |
"A selection of my favorite remixes made between 2005 and 2015. Great to have these copmiled on one disc!
Most of these reworking have been released elsewhere, but used here with kind permission."
www.zoharum.com
"Mit „Wendingen“, wobei ich einmal vermute, dass sich der Name auf das Kunst-Magazin bezieht, das von 1918 bis 1932 in den Niederlanden erschienen ist, veröffentlicht RUTGER ZUYDERVELT unter seinem Projektnamen MACHINEFABRIEK eine Zusammenstellung von Remixen, die er zwischen 2005 und 2015 aus dem Material anderer Künstler angefertigt hat. Die vorgelegte Sammlung macht dabei vor allem auch deshalb Sinn, weil die einzelnen Remixe teilweise nur als Download oder auf Tape oder CD-R veröffentlicht wurden. Die ge-remixten Künstler entstammen zumeist dem experimentellen Musikspektrum, wobei einige Künstler dabei sind, mit denen ZUYDERVELT auch bereits direkt zusammengearbeitet hat, wie DAG ROSENQVIST von DE LA MANCHA oder GARETH HARDWICK. Bekanntere Namen dürften zudem noch AMON TOBIN und DJIVAN GASPARYAN, der an einigen bekannten Soundtracks (u.a. „Gladiator“ und „The Last Temptation Of Christ“) mitgearbeitet hat, sein.
Deutlicher Pluspunkt der Zusammenstellung ist die Homogenität des dargereichten Ergebnisses, so dass „Wendingen“ glatt als reguläres Album des Niederländers durchgehen könnte. Gegenüber einem gewöhnlichen MACHINEFABRIEK-Album, das in der Regel stark durchkonzeptioniert ist, zeigen sich hier allerdings größere Spielräume, was den Klang und die jeweilige Herangehensweise an ein Stück betreffen. Von knackiger Elektronik, melodischer Electronica, über schwebende, surrende Drones bis hin zu akustischen Momenten zieht sich dieses Klangbild und doch verbindet ZUYDERVELT diese Elemente atmosphärisch zu einem Gesamtbild, das in sich überraschend stimmig ist und dennoch angenehm abwechslungsreich erscheint. Dabei verzichtet man vor allem auch auf die übliche Sitte, bei einem Remix möglichst alles unter Dance-Beats zu begraben und eine Tanzflächenkompatibilität herzustellen. Lediglich bei dem Remix des AMON TOBIN-Materials sind industrielle Rhythmuselemente vorhanden, die aber auch schon so ähnlich im Original zu finden sind. Somit ist „Wendingen“ ein recht rundes und soundtechnisch spannendes Album, das den originären MACHIENFABRIEK-Veröffentlichungen in nichts nachsteht." [Tony F. für nonpop.de]
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| MACHINIST |
Of what once was |
CD |
"Machinist is the musical project of Dutch artist Zeno van den Broek. On Of What Once Was, his first real cd after several CD-R releases, shows two sides of the man. With a background in architecture he creates music with a clear focus on the urban environment and the immersive experience of space. In Mono tone in d he creates a minimal piece of guitar drones inspired by the work of Yves Klein and in the piece Of what once was we hear an improvised piece of guitar combined with field recordings. A dense emotional piece which is a closing of a chapter in his career, and an opening to a new one." [label info]
www.movingfurniturerecords.com
"From The Netherlands hails Machinist, and when
reviewing his previous CD 'Viens Avec Moi Dans Le Vide', I closed the review with "Its about time he moved to doing real CDs, I'd say", which may or may not have been heard by Moving Furniture Records. Zeno van den Broek from Rotterdam is Machinist and this new album has two pieces of music, of which the first one is inspired by 'Monotone Symphony' by Yves Klein, a painter who painted monochrome one-color paintings, but who also scored some music. In 'Monotone Symphony' "a chamber orchestra plays only one note for twenty minutes, followed by an equal measure of silence". Machinist, being one man, uses a guitar, tuned in D and the variation is in the length of tones and different shapes of resonance. I thought this was a wonderful, open piece of music. A piece that reminded me very much of Machinefabriek (nowadays also from Rotterdam), with looping guitar tones, in various stages. From high end peeps to low end bouncing rhythms, this piece has a great quality, even when it perhaps sounds a bit Machienfabriek like. The other piece is 'Of What Once Was', an improvised piece which he played in various concerts in which he presented the more fixed piece 'Viens Avec Moi Dans Le Vide'. This is a more louder piece of music, also build around the guitar, but with more distortion and small howls of feedback. Apparently there is also field recordings in this piece, as well as computer generated tones, but they were harder to detect. In this piece, the influence of Machinefabriek is less apparent. Maybe 'Of What Once Was' is a bit long and it could have been edited a bit down, although, in his defense, I could say the longitude is also a necessary ingredient of this kind of music (and what cause some people to hate 'drone' music). Although, perhaps an extended bonus to the first piece." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| MACIUNAS ENSEMBLE |
Yoplaboum |
do-LP/ CD |
Third release by the Maciunas Ensemble on Edition Telemark after 1976 (2015) and the self-titled 50th anniversary LP from 2018. The group had been founded in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1968 with the aim of realizing the score "Music for Everyman" by Fluxus initiator George Maciunas, which they interpreted as allowing total freedom in the sounds being produced. The group met regularly, usually once a week during their heyday, and improvised on instruments that were at hand. Every session was recorded to be played back and discussed before the next session. This method meant that small changes and subtle new ideas could be integrated from one session to the next, eventually leading into completely new directions over a longer course. Paul Panhuysen linked this approach to the oral traditions of folk music.
One of their most productive periods were the early 1980s where, after settling on a stable line-up of Paul Panhuysen, Jan van Riet, Leon van Noorden and Mario van Horrik, the group developed their own brand of minimalist rhythmic music, inspired in equal parts by rock, post-punk, drone and minimal music of the time. A selection of named pieces had crystallized from the improvised sessions that were worked on and refined, many of them having long durations and featuring wordless vocals by Paul Panhuysen that added another unique rhythmic layer to the music. Phill Niblock, while visiting the ensemble's home base Het Apollohuis in Eindhoven, called some of these pieces "rhythmic drones", drones produced by repetitive rhythmic strokes, simultaneously on various instruments. Some recordings from this period can be heard on the LP "Music for Everyman 861" (released in 1986 on Apollo Records) and the above-mentioned self-titled LP.
Virtually unknown until now have been five more pieces that were released by the band in 1983 and 1984 on two cassettes named "YoplaBoum" and "Permanent Wave", in editions of 25 and 30 copies, respectively. They are re-released here for the first time, with a double LP featuring the whole "YoplaBoum" cassette – the 43-minute title piece split across the first two sides, the two others on sides C and D – and a CD including the two tracks from "Permanent Wave".
The double LP is housed in a single sleeve with two printed inner sleeves featuring liner notes by Leon van Noorden and Mario van Horrik, and a selection of photos and artwork from the period. The CD comes in its own cardboard sleeve and is attached to the outer LP sleeve with a removable glue dot. Edition of 300.
www.edition-telemark.de/923.08.html |
2021 |
€30.00 |
|
| MAEROR TRI |
Mort Aux Vaches: Hypnos/Transe |
CD |
"tracklist: 1 (mind) - initiation, 2 (mind) - alternation, 3 (mind) - expansion
upc 821272307822. photographs by salt. release date: 31october2k12
15 years after its original release, 17 years after its recording, raubbau is delighted to present the highly anticipated reissue of this classic maeror tri album.
history lesson part 1 - the band: maeror tri were a three-headed band from bremen who stemmed from the german diy tape scene of the 1980s. with their unique brand of music, which they performed on 'real' instruments but made it sound purely electronic, they stirred the attention of a wider audience and accomplished considerable crossover success. praised by the critics, their disbandment in 1996 was much bemoaned. nevertheless, ever since a number of archive and re-releases have compensated the fans for their loss, as well as the output of the maeror tri successors troum (still a major attraction in the drone/experimental ambient genre) and the audio & visual & paintings project 1000schoen.
history lesson part 2 - mort aux vaches: a long-running series of specially-packaged albums released by cult label staalplaat, all of them recorded as live sessions for a dutch radio station. mort aux vaches has so far featured around 70 artists, among them many big name acts such as merzbow, zoviet france, roger rotor and many others.
history lesson part 3 - the album: the aptly subtitled hypnos/transe (spelling deliberately chosen) was considered a magnificent legacy when it was posthumously released, combining all the elements that had made maeror tri special: their tracks sound strangely different anytime you listen to them, the elements never clearly reveal themselves but retain a fascinating secrecy, beautiful and demanding at the same time.
the track titles of hypnos/transe reveal the concept of music affecting and altering the mental state of the listener. the 'initiation' accordingly uses a long build-up structure, starting with soothing ambient sounds, but continually integrating more and more layers of drones and culminating in an entrancing shamanic rhythm. 'alternation' is in a darker mood, with low-end rumbling and sonorous mock chants appealing to the deeper realms of the psyche. 'expansion' is easily the noisiest track of the three, with eerie scraping thumps and squealing sounds (wind? whales? bombs?). the psychogenic trip comes to its conclusion after 55 minutes, and one thing is for sure: after this listening session, you won’t be the same person as you had been before. this fine reissue comes well right for a new generation of listeners to discover a musical gem which has long been a sought-after, high-priced collectors item - and also one may with good cause say that the new artwork is much easier on the eyes than the original’s bright pink." [label info]
www.raubbau.org
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Meditamentum (I & II) |
do-CD |
After a successful reissue of a long-lost classic "Emotional Engramm", MAEROR TRI returns to Zoharum and New Nihilism with another album. This time it is a double, deluxe reissue of both volumes of "Meditamentum" (released previously on Holonom and Manifold respectively).
Unavailable for many years, "Meditamentum" is a collection of tracks culled from tape releases and rarities hidden on many compilations. It spans the whole existence of Maeror Tri, starting with 2 tracks from 1989 ending with 3 tracks from 1996. It is a sort of "best of" Maeror Tri, as it tells the story of the bands progress. From rough edges of "Peak Experience" to dreamy soundscapes of "The Beauty of Sadness".
"Meditamentum" is also a document of the underground tape scene of the 1980s and 1990s, and of a genius of MAEROR TRI as purveyors of mind-altering sonic experience. It's "Music for the Brain" at its best.
The release is presented in a lavish gatefold Japanese vinyl replica designed by Marcin Łojek (Ibsendesign, responsible also for the cover for Zoharum's reissue of "Emotional Engramm"). Each volume is extended with a bonus track making the whole collection 155 minutes long and comprising of 23 tracks. The sound is greatly enhanced by our remastering wizard Łukasz Miernik. "Meditamentum" is co-released by Zoharum and New Nihilism to give you the maximum sonic experience. This double CD is strictly limited to 500 copies." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"Whenever there is no new music to digest, I return to my collection and see what I have - I guess a pretty normal activity if you love music. I tend to play music label or group-wise, so a while ago I pulled out all the Maeror Tri CDs I have - which I guess is pretty much all of them in their original released form - and had that on play for a couple of days. Not much later it was the turn for Troum, Maeror Tri successor - and I decided that I liked Maeror Tri better, even when the differences are pretty small. Just a matter of highly private opinion, but I am bringing this up, since today I got this double pack of the two 'Meditamentum' releases. The first volume was released by Holonom and then re-issued by Manifold, who also released a second volume of it. Both of these releases compile tracks that were scattered on compilation cassettes in the very early Maeror Tri, the years of inexpexerience and lots of experiment. It's years that I have close to my heart and very early on I was in contact with the band and liked their music straight away. I reminded me of Zoviet*France and was regarded back then as ambient industrial. Through all these twenty-three tracks (two are new bonus pieces, also from compilations, but on the previous volumes) you can follow their early steps from Maeror Tri on CD one which spans 1989-1992 and their more refined sound on CD two, 1992-1996, when their music gained more and more depth. Still all highly ambient, right from 'The Threat' (1989) to 'Res Magnifica' (1996) with endless sustaining sounds, drones, processed field recordings and harmonium/guitar/percussion sounds and sometimes bringing the sound back, deep into the earth. Tons of effects have been used, but all with the right amount. If you are a Maeror Tri fan you may have the original releases, but worth here for the bonus tracks and the excellent remaster. Or if you are curious what the hell all the fuzz is about this obscure band in it's day worth all these re-issues, then this is also your place to start." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€18.00 |
|
| |
Hypnobasia |
CD |
"Musicians of the now-defunct Maeror Tri have already had many opportunities to work with Zoharum on both releasing their new recordings and reissues of their older material. Our catalog contains titles by Troum ("Autopoiesis / Nahtscato", "Seeing-Ear Gods" and "Dreaming Muzak"), 1000Schoen (double split with Polish Ab Intra), and also their original project Maeror Tri ("Emotional Engramm" and "Meditamentum"). Together with musicians we remove blank spots in their discography by restoring their older recordings.
Maeror Tri was a project operating since the mid-80s until 1997, when they released their last album entitled "Emotional Engramm." In their works they penetrated such genres as minimalism, ambient and industrial music, and borrowed drone aesthetic from classical music. In addition to seven regular albums on CD and LP, they released a number of cassettes. They contained much rawer recordings compared to those from the trio's regular albums.
One of these two tape albums is "Hypnobasia" originally released in 1992 by the Italian label Old Europa Cafe. It was the fifth tape in the discography of Maeror Tri. The following rerelease is expanded with 3 additional tracks lifted from various artists compilations from 1989-1992. All the recordings have been remastered for this release.
The album is released in a 2-panel ecopak in a strictly limited edition of 350 copies. The cover is designed by Marcin Łojek (rozpad.com). It is mastered by Łukasz Miernik. The whole production process is overseen by Michał Porwet." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
"MAEROR TRI war ein Trio, das vom Ende der 80er-Jahre bis zum Jahr 1997 aktiv war. Nach einer Reihe von Veröffentlichungen, die sich in dem Rahmen Dark-Ambient, Industrial, Drone, Experimental einordnen lassen, war mit dem 1997er-Album „Emotional Engramm“ jedenfalls Schluss. Zwei Mitglieder, MARTIN GITSCHEL und STEFAN KNAPPE, machten danach mit TROUM weiter; HELGE SIEHL veröffentlichte in den Folgejahren als 1000SCHOEN.
Gerade zu Beginn der Existenz von MAEROR TRI wurden eine Reihe von Tapes veröffentlicht, von denen einige bereits auf CD wiederveröffentlicht wurden. Die noch vorhandenen Lücken möchte nun das polnische ZOHARUM-Label schließen, indem es zum einen „Sensuum Mendacia / Somnia“ und zum anderen „Hypnobasia“ wiederveröffentlicht. „Sensuum Mendacia / Somnia“ umfasst dabei das „Sensuum Mendacia“ Tape und die MAEROR TRI-Stücke des „Somnia Et Expergisci“ Split-Tapes, das damals zusammen mit NOSTALGIE ÉTERNELLE veröffentlicht wurde. „Hypnobasia“ wurde noch um drei Tape-Compilation-Stücke aus der Zeit ergänzt.
Gemeinsam ist beiden Veröffentlichungen, dass die Gitarre prägendes aber nicht wahrnehmbar dominierendes Element ist, wobei das Klangspektrum von Drones und Noise bis hin zu Akkorden und melancholischem Einzelanschlag der Saiten reicht. Die zupackendere, Richtung Industrial und Noise tendierende Seite von MAEROR TRI deckt hier definitiv „Hypnobasia“ ab, hier wird mit rhythmischen Elementen, Noise und bearbeiteten Stimmen gearbeitet. Ruhiger, flächiger, klanglich weitläufiger und auch melancholischer erscheint dagegen „Sensuum Mendacia / Somnia“. Der Klang erscheint bei beiden Veröffentlichungen als organisches, mit vielen Unebenheiten und Wendungen ausgestattetes Gebilde. Hochgezüchtete, digitale Soundwälle oder gar symphonische Elemente sucht man hier jedenfalls vergeblich. Im Klangbild mag man hier und da vielleicht den Staub der 90er-Jahre und die vielleicht noch nicht ganz ausgereifte technische Ausstattung erkennen; dennoch haftet dem Sound eine gewisse Zeitlosigkeit an, die das Wirken von MAEROR TRI auch aus heutiger Sicht als spannend erscheinen lassen kann." [Tony F. für nonpop.de]
|
2016 |
€12.50 |
|
| MAES, LAURA & KRISTOF LAUWERS |
Kitch'n Glitch |
CD |
"Cling Film –Mitbetreiberin LAURA MAES hat hier zusammen mit KRISTOF LAUWERS Küchengeräte, die Küchengeräusche von sich geben, akusmatisch verwurstet, und eine hochspannend tönende subtile Soundwelt ins Leben gerufen...zwischen elektronisch anmutenden Drones und ganz trockenden Geräuschen, ein Küchenkontext ist kaum noch zu erahnen... TIP !" [Drone Rec. 2003]
“All kinds of kitchensounds were blended for your exquisite taste. Don't expect loud mixers or banging on kettles, but rather subtle manipulated and cut-up sounds, sometimes creamy and soft, sometimes crispy and cold. caffeine free.” [label info]
“ A first release on her own label by Laura Maes, who runs Cling Film together with Kevin van Volcem (aside from all the organisational work they do in their surroundings). As the title of this disc already suggests, all the raw material was recorded in a kitchen
(Laura's) and later manipulated in the studio. With a total duration of just over 37 minutes, this is a dense work, that requires close
attention from the listener. There is a lot happening here and more often than not, it is pretty subtle. One of the most interesting
phenomena for me is the way Maes and Lauwers move with their sound from sheer electronic to acoustic and back again. From raw material to its manipulation or vice versa. The seven tracks are well placed and spaced, so one can listen to the whole CD as one work without a problem (this has defenitely got my preference). All tracks have strong compositions and very good timing and, most importantly: it's very juicy (and I mean this in the most positive sense!). Another one that is highly recommended. [MR for Vital Weely] Adress: www.clingfilm.org
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| MAGGI, PHIL |
Blue Fields in Paramount |
CD |
Nach der schönen IDIOSCAPES-Compilation die zweite Veröffentlichung für das belgische Label aus Gent. PHIL MAGGI ist Mitglied diverser Bands (z.B. ULTRAPHALLUS) und legt nach zwei CDRs seine erste "fabrikgepresste" CD vor. Seine subtilen wie ätherischen Drones werden mit field recordings aus Zagreb angereichert (Akkordeon-Folk eines Strassenmusikers, Sounds in einer Kirche), immer wieder sind im weiteren Verlauf effektierte Echo-Gitarren oder Rückwarts-Harmonien eingesetzt, die dem ganzen einen verträumt-sehnsüchtigen Anstrich geben... sehr schön, to discover !
"Blue Fields in Paramount is a very personal and fascinating opus, a beautiful introduction to the style of this talented artist, that could be qualified as 'dark psychedelia for daydream believers'. It has been mastered by James Plotkin (Khlyst, Khanate, Old, Phantom) and is out now as a limited to 300 copies ekopack release with a fantastic artwork by czech artist Jan Karpisek." [label info]
"The album contains a 39 minutes track that is formed by totally different mini suites made with loops, fields recordings (he did his sessions in a church and in the streets of Zagreb) and sampled contemporary classical music. The track starts with a dark ambient drone mood with tones inserts and follows with Zagreb sounds mixed with backward classical music. Suddenly anxious atmospheres take a hold thanks to synth sounds coupled with an orchestration of sampled/treated breaths. The tracks changes skins different times and each one is renewing like a phoenix born from its ashes and Phil succeeds into keeping the listener's attention high thanks to interesting sounds, light melodies and tension. I liked it..."" [Maurizio Pustianaz, CHAIN D.L.K.]
www.idiosyncratics.net
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| MAGICICADA |
Everyone is Everyone |
CD |
Klasse Debut eines neuen US-Projekts: MAGICICIDA steht für eigenwillige und variantenreiche „intelligente“ Experimentalmusik jenseits jeder Schublade, da gibt es höchst sphärische und hallumtoste Stücke die aus einem ganzen Arsenal an verschiedensten Soundquellen basieren, seltsame folkartige Ethno-Gesänge und Handgespieltes, Loops & andere Endlos-Effekte, manchmal steigert sich das in harsh noise – Bereiche rein, alles sehr druckvoll & abenteuerlich. TIP für Explorer !
“Magicicada is the musical life of Atlanta musician/sound designer/photographer, Christopher White. “Everyone is Everyone” is an organic, experimental work that blends traditional, as well as folk and eastern, instruments with found objects, samplers and field recordings to create a work that varies from delicate, cinematic soundscapes to harsh electronic environments. The instrumentation includes (but is not limited to): pump organ, voice, contact mics on faulty electrical lines, melodica, toys, iron balls rolling on wooden floors, accordion, cellophane, air cans, tape decks for the blind, guitar, shruti box, MARTA (Atlanta’s public transit), synths, oven door (percussion,) cellos, zurna, paper, frogs in the backyard, and the remains of Hurricane Denis shaking the roof. The Arigato-Pak style covers are beautifully printed by Stumptown Printers on (peacepunk approved!) 100% recycled , Environment 120# cover.” [label info]
"As many people as possible should experience his single-mindedly self-willed experimental-ambient sounds." - laut.de (Germany)
"Everyone is Everyone" is variegated, brisk and well crafted, a teapot of deviated psychedelia, rancid electronica and sounds coming from forgotten offshoots of Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from outer space", all of the above floating in a broth of Biota and Zoviet France with exhausted batteries. White lets us share some of his fun - and the drones of "Cause" are blood-icing in their beauty." - Touching Extremes (Italy)
"With an organic approach to creation, these eastern and folk influenced experimental works rival some of the strangest electronic ambient out there - from drifting soundscapes to meditative trances."-Just Add Noise
“....Every track on the CD is noted with long lists of recording notes, and if you read them, they give the impression of someone who is also frantically moving about. Not caring about how or why, this is best described as 'outsider' music. It moves along lines of improvised music, eastern and western folk music, lo-fi singer songwriter stuff and minimalist patterns on the cello, but never going to be anything close to being accessible: there is a strong element of experimental music to it, but at the same time things remain highly listenable. Again, great stuff.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.publicguilt.com
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| MAGWHEELS / STONE GLASS STEEL |
Pane |
CD |
MAGHWEELS, bekannt durch eine CD auf Ad Noiseam, teilt sich dieses Album mit den schon länger aktiven Sample-Meistern STONE GLASS STEEL. MAGWEELS: majestätische Drones, rückwärtige Sounds, mysteriöse Klangwände, die Geheimnisse verbergen zu scheinen. Exzellent !!
STONE GLASS STEEL: Überraschend ruhig, hochkomplexe ambience-Strukturen voller Details.
Excellent split album with majestic guitar wall-of-sounds, backwards noises, mysterious ambience - structures.. RECOMMENDED for monumental drone-lovers !!!
“One full album by Magwheels and 40 minutes of reconstruction by Stone Glass Steel (first material on CD since 1993). Post rock guitars meets noise meets sampling” [label descr.]
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
| MANDELBROT SET |
All our Actions are constantly... |
CD |
Irgendwo zwischen GODFLESH YOU BLACK EMPOROR, MOGWAI, SLOWDIVE und MY BLOODY VALENTINE liegt der epische Sphären-Instrumental-Rock von MANDELBROT SET....
"MANDELBROT SET sind eine laute Band, sie lieben dröhnende Bässe, benutzen Samples und wechseln die Instrumente während der Songs, hauptsächlich sind sie aber gerne einfach nur laut. Gegründet von Ex-HENTAI Keung, komplettiert von Drummer Simon und Multiinstrumentalistin Melisa, vereinigen die drei ihre Liebe zum Constellation Label mit elektronischem Equipment, Live Sampling und Effekten, mit einer aggressiven Rhythmik im Stile von SHELLAC und mit melodischem, epischem Krach (der sogar Kevin Shields neidisch machen könnte), zu einer gewaltigen, kreativen Energie, die man auf "All Our Actions Are Constantly..." um die Ohren geschleudert bekommt." [Cargo / press release]
“Mandelbrot Set are a loud band. They like their drones and their converse-gazing, they like to use sample pedals and to change instruments during sets, but mainly they like to be loud, and they like to do it differently. Formed by Keung, from the ashes of his previous band, Hentai, of whom Drowned In Sound remarked "It's a relief to know that not all angsty teenagers listen to Radiohead and spend the rest of their adolescence trying to emulate Muse. Some of them stick Boards Of Canada stickers on their guitars, acquire DD-5 sample pedals and violin bows, and proceed to work the Mogwai-esque quiet / loud / louder / apocalyptic dynamic till their ears bleed." Mandelbrot Set take their love of all things on the Constellation label, their penchant for electronics, effects pedals and live sampling, their Shellac-esque rhythmic aggression, and combine it all into a wall of noise, melody and epic structure that would make Kevin Shields envious. Joined by Simon on drums and multi-instrumentalist Melisa, the disparate influences and creative energies of the three combine to create a inspired palette of sound and texture, a dense cloud of harmonic resonance, yet timed with enough space and clarity for all the individual elements to shine through.” [press release]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| MANDIBLE CHATTER |
The Drone EP (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
"This duo from San Francisco likes to play on different levels, on different scales, and in different areas – all at the same time and even on the same release. Rarely, if ever, has a CD covered a broader range of musical styles than their latest masterpiece, Food for the Moon. From the truly experimental to real pop tunes; from dark atmospheres to harsh outbursts; from ritualistic percussion to melancholic folk – it's all present in the acoustical world of MANDIBLE CHATTER. So, clearly this 4-track-EP is far from "standard". Here we find strange reverberating rhythmical patterns, rather meditative drones, strange singings and environmental recordings... All reaching its peak with a short fragmentary "pop" song that leaves the listener unsure whether to laugh or cry - or both! This is modern pluralism.
VIOLET VINYL, B/W DREW & PRINTED COVERS BY THE ARTISTS." [press release]
|
1999 |
€ |
|
| MANINKARI |
Continuum Sonore |
CD |
"You'll get in "Continuum Sonore" in well-known territories: deep alto with ethnic percussions. You're in a Maninkari record, no doubts.
But that's where the french duo will left the obviousness. After a handfull of critically acclaimed records on labels such as Conspiracy, Three:Four and Neuropa to name a few, Maninkari offered to Basses Frequences the chance to release something different: a drone album. If the band already used deep, continuous sounds in its previous works it never handle them with such extended, pure approach. They didn't used drums nor percussions apart on the intro, but their usual kind of traditional instruments (cymbalom, alto, bodhran) and manipulated fields recordings, to create solar or nightmarish drones. The band totally reached its goal and offered us a majestic piece of drone that I'm really proud of." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| MANKOWSKI, ADAM |
Dzwieki z Offu |
CD |
Music, word, murmur - stratified and contrasted with the sound naturalism obligatory in Polish cinema, gave rise to a completely new path of film acoustics development, which ceased to be only a sincere mirror and became a conscious element in the creation of psychic reality. The musical material contained in the album is an attempt to subjectively interpret the huge wealth of experience brought by the film debut of Grzegorz Królikiewicz - the movie Na Wylot. Movie has never belonged to the favorites of critics, and all analyzes and reviews - which took place after the premiere and for the next decades - focused almost on the problems of the moral work. The artistic layer of the film remains underestimated and still overlooked, as well as the potential of the techniques used to assemble and execute the sound, which allowed to significantly extend the psychological portrait of the main characters of the drama. The overriding aim of the process of creating this musical material was the desire to evoke the creative spirit accompanying the director and his composers - Henryk Kuzniak and Jerzy Hajdun. The creators responsible for the sound layer, dared to break with the contemporary tradition and departing from naturalism, created a sound space that is a kind of deformation of reality in which the lost and deformed sound often reaches us from outside the frame.
The basic assumption of the project "Dzwieki z Offu" is to bring the audience to the figure of Grzegorz Królikiewicz - director, screenwriter and professor of film arts associated with Lodz. The film debut of the author, made at the WFDiF Film Laboratory in Lodz, was an absolute sensation at the time of the premiere on the background of Polish cinematography. This was due to the use of innovative techniques for the implementation and assembly of sound, as well as artistic experiments in combining the sound layer with the image.
Adam Mankowski - born in 1985, lives and works in Lodz. A sound artist, improviser, independent music journalist and photography enthusiast. An insightful observer of newly emerging music phenomena of an avant-garde character. Since 2006 he has been continuing his solo music activity under the name - Limited Liability Sounds. He moves in the genere of improvised, experimental and intermedia music. He co-founded the experimental duo Scindite (2014-2015) and the ambient project Insomnia (2005-2012). Winner of this year's artistic scholarship, Mayor of the City of Lodz.
llsnoise@gmail.com
www.llsnoise.pl
www.facebook.com/llsnoise
"ADAM MANKOWSKI in Lódz ist in den Kreisen, in denen er sich seit 2006 bewegt, besser bekannt als Limited Liability Sounds oder auch mit Scindite. Als LLS hat er zwischen Re-Drum und Emerge auch schon bei Attenuation Circuit angedockt, mit genug Anspruch und Courage, sich an "An Hommage to Luciano Berio" (2017) und gar an "Music for Philosophers" (2018) zu wagen. Dzwieki z Offu [Klänge aus dem Off] (ACU 1013) dreht sich nun lokalpatriotisch um Grzegorz Królikiewicz (1939-2017), den durch etwa "Wieczne pretensje" [Ewige Nörgelei] (1974), "Zabicie ciotki" [Die Tante erschlagen] (1984), "Der Fall Pekosinski" (1993) oder "Sasiady - Neighborhooders" (2014) bekannten Altmeister der polnischen Filmkunst in Lódz. Und insbesondere um dessen preisgekröntes und kontroverses Debut "Na wylot" (dt. Durch und durch, 1972) und die Filmmusik dazu von Henryk Kuzniak & Janusz Hajdun. Mankowski nähert sich dem an durch nicht unharmonische Drones und perkussive Geräusche und Ansätze von Rhythmik, durchsetzt mit Samples. Als Metasoundscape, durch den Alltagsgeräusche und Instrumentalklänge geistern, Fetzen eines Kinderchors. eine Handvoll Pianonoten, angerührte Strings, von allem nur Tupfer, Schlieren, ein Anhauch, wie ein melancholisch eingetrübter Schleier, gewebt aus Erinnerungen und durchhuscht von Mäusen, die im Oberstübchen daran nagen, betropft von Tropfen und müden Schlägen, mit vagen oder klimpernden Griffen in die Tasten, von Glocken bebimmelt, von Vögeln bezwitschert. Dumpf verzerrte Klänge kehren wieder, Geräusche kreisen und malen unrund und schleifend, das knarzende Gefüge scheint zu träumen. So vieles ist wie im Traum und durch den Lauf der Dinge unscharf geworden: die Festung Przemysl von "Fort 13" (1984) nicht weniger als der Totschlag und die "Na wylot"-Liebe von Jan & Maria oder "Die Kostbarkeit des freien Gewissens", wie Królikiewicz 1981 seine Mahnung vor dem religiösen (ideologischen) Bürgerkrieg überschrieb, und wie es in Polen weitergeht, nachdem wieder das Messer gezückt wurde." [Bad Alchemy] |
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| MANNING, ROSS |
Te t on on ti computer |
MC |
Ross Manning is a contemporary new media artist from Brisbane, Australia. He focus on alive instrument practises, kinetic and sound composition. He is using mainly recordings of his own percussion instruments made by steel, aluminium and scrap metals. Ross Manning is an obsessive creator of systems that are driven by their own logic, exploring the rhythm and the recycling energy of them. His sound works has published on moremars, Room40, vitrine, Chemical Imbalance and Greedy Ventilator.
In both sides of his “te t on on ti computer” release, he present us two different aspects of his musical direction. The first side is a montage, with a big variety of distorted sounds and pure tones, that reproduced by his custom-made instruments and electronic sources. Noisy parts mixed with chaotic metal percussions and drones, are constructing a sonic sculpture that even if the individual elements have a complex structure, the final result sounds simple and mysterious.
On the second side, there is a long composition made by his self-made string panels, that they produce rhythmic patterns, that are changing form through the kinetic energy. Sonically, there is a sense of gamelan music, with melodic motifs that gradually change to a more complex form, with the composition to get more busy, constructing an extremely dense amalgamation of sounds.
www.moremars.org/store/products/ross-manning-te-t-on-on-ti-computer-cassette/
"Greece's More Mars released a cassette by Ross Manning before (see Vital Weekly 1062). This
Australian musician is not particularly fond of much information on his covers, so I still have no idea what he does, but last time I wrote: "Manning creates his own instruments since a very early age and on this cassette we find four of his pieces using these DIY electronics and "shelf-made string pannel" [sic]", so perhaps it is fair to say he is still doing that. The chaotic approach of before is now gone and there is much more control to be noted in these pieces, which works very much for the benefit of the music. Of course, he is doing a similar instrument here, which is something I am
not sure of. It is a most enjoyable release here, in which Manning carefully explores the sounds he produces with his devices. On the first side, there is a beautiful drone-like exploration of this, somewhere in the middle of the tape, whereas on the second side there is a more percussive element in the music. Then it sounds like a bit nervous yet regular tapping of violin strings. Throughout there is a rough element in the music like it has been taped in a space, using an amplifier and space plays a small but not insignificant role here. It is a mighty step forward, I thought." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2019 |
€9.00 |
|
| MARANHA, DAVID |
Piano Suspenso |
CD |
"OSSO EXOTICO-Mitglied DAVID MARANHA auf Solopfaden: a single piece of beauty for about 71 minutes! Piano strings excited by four motors and violin, recorded in N.Y. at the electronic arts performance series. In allen Frequenzen ausschweifende, majestätische Drones, mit ständigen Interferenzen & Überlagerungen & Obertönen, ein Meer von Drones sozusagen, in das man hinabtauchen kann!!!" [old Drone Rec. info] BACK IN STOCK !!
"Reissue of this 1999 release and out of print since a long time. Some reviews at the time of release : ' After a tentative opening consisting of damp harmonic scrapes, the piece takes off like a single-engined light aircraft when maranha kickstarts his four-motored piano effect and then starts to tease single notes from the bubbling background with his bow. This is a great and physically affecting slab of sound, where the slightest minimal shift causes tectonic plates to groan. It's gravy train stuff for fans of Maryanne Amacher, Arnold Dreyblatt and Ð perhaps maranha's major influence Ð Phill Niblock. ' david Keenan - The wire (aug. 99) ' david maranha, one third of Osso Exotico, recorded a hauntingely beautiful piece in New York, using four motors and a violin bow to play the grandpiano. The motors create rich textures of overtones that slowly go in and out of phase and make unknown harmonies audible. The bow plays something like the melody off and on. There is a very special thanks to Phill Niblock and if you know his music, then you know what to expect as it fits his tradition of minimal music very well." ' Frans de Waard - Vital weekly " [press release]
|
1999 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Noe's Lullaby |
CD |
OSSO EXOTICO member with solo-album:
Not much info about this release you can find on the ROSSBIN-site, except the proposal: "To play Loud." So we did. And reached a great effect! NOE'S LULLABY is a one-tracker that is very different from the known OSSO EXOTICO-material: very creepy, slow-down percussive-pulses, dark & droney, lots of cymbal-sounds, distorted basses, almost a post-rock dark-drone mixture...
www.rossbin.com
"Noe's Lullaby is a mysterious recording in several senses of the word. Portuguese composer David Maranha has chosen to be obscure regarding instrumentation, listing the performers (a septet) but not what they're using to produce the sounds. From the aural evidence and what one can discern from past projects of his, it appears that such devices as stroked metal strings, wine glasses, harmoniums, guitars, and percussion (all with perhaps some electronic modulation) are among them. The music itself also has an air of mystery, even ritual. Difficult to pinpoint, it has something of Arnold Dreyblatt, but without the fast, intricate rhythms, staying entirely in a steady, slow tempo. On the other hand, there's more than a taste of Tony Conrad but much more rhythmically active. Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening Band comes to mind, but there's not a shred of new agey fuzziness here. The beats are sometimes hammered on metallic surfaces, buttressed by crashing cymbals, other times implied in a throbbing pulse possibly generated by string overtones, but never entirely lost. This rhythmic motif, as viscous and syrupy as it is, makes Noe's Lullaby quite approachable for ears attuned to more rock-like bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor!. The drone aspect of the single, lengthy piece could get suffocating were it not for the care lavished on all the accompanying details, the subtle embellishments floating alongside the drones. Indeed, as the work goes on those ornaments take on an independent (though adjacent) life of their own, every bit as solid and imaginative as the underlying throb. This interplay, even tension, helps make Maranha's piece as fascinating on an intellectual level as it is luxurious on a purely sensual one." [Allmusic.com]
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
| MARCLAY, CHRISTIAN & OKKYUNG LEE / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN |
From the Earth to the Spheres Vol. 6 |
CD |
"This is the re-release of the split ART-LP (Opax Records - special SPACE ART ltd ed of 100/ original 31x31 cm painting on wooden support by Roberto Opalio as cover). Last release in the "From the earth to the Spheres" split series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio aka My Cat Is An Alien on their own Opax Records imprint, sees the Italian cosmic duo splitting the media with well-known audio visual artist, performer and turntable-art innovator Christian Marclay together with cello improviser Okkyung Lee, ubiquitous figure of downtown NY avant-garde scene.
Their track "Rubbings" is the result of a live performance recorded at Tonic NYC in December 2003. Christian Marclay's trademarked technique of mixing several ranges of Lps on his multiple turntables, manipulating, fragmenting and altering the phonograph records' sonic nature in accordance with his "theater of found sound" esthetics meets the uncompromising and passionate playing of Korean-born performer Lee, whose powerful cello's stabs interact with Marclay's waves of screaming sounds creating a unique, stunning scenario.
My Cat Is An Alien's piece "Beyond the limits of the stars/ Beyond the limits of the grooves" was recorded in 2003 at their Space Room studio in Torino, and has been kept safely in their archive 'till September 2005, when it's been completely remixed and edited appositely for this release. One of their heaviest conceptions to date, the piece is built on electric guitars' strings moaning onto walls of space drones and electronics like ectoplasmic presences emerging from the brillliance of the Void. The initial minimal and claustrophobic guitar chords become more and more an ocean of howling moduled feedbacks combined with fragmented and distorted real-time inserts of post-romantic classical music from old 78rpm shellac records, sounding like radio frequencies transmitted via ether from the furthest reaches of the Cosmos.
As the title suggests, MCIAA's need of a non-finite "space music & art" aesthetics research has led them to etch a ghost track (instead of the final lock-groove you can find on the original vinyl) to un-seal the sounds from their actual support; a purpose expressed throughout the whole "From the earth to the Spheres" series' conception." [label info]
|
2006 |
€6.66 |
|
| MARGOLIS, AL / IF, BWANA |
REX XHU PING |
CD |
Mehr Musik aus AL MARGOLIS Genre-losen experimentellen Zwischenreich, hier auf sechs Stücken in verschiedensten Besetzungen solo oder in Interaktion, meist in ruhigen, fast meditativen Sphären, z.B. das wunderbare zweite Stück FROG FIELD, das auf klangvollen Xylophon-Loops basiert. Aber eine gewisse Bizarrheit (Instrumentierung, Sprache) ist immer präsent... vielleicht das bisher ausgereifteste und zugänglichste Werk des legendären Cassetten-Täters (SOUND OF PIG)......
“New Al Margolis release features Margolis¹s compositions for tapes, electronics, voice, drones. Rex Xhu Ping (pronounced rex shoe ping) features Margolis (tapes, electronics, clarinet, and sundries), Laura Biagi (vocals), Dan Andreana (speaker, tapes), Detta Andreana (tapes, bowed cymbals), and Orchestre de Fou.
A recent review of Margolis¹s work says: "Let it be declared that Al Margolis/If, Bwana is some sort of evil genius working with raw materials which are never adapted to a genre or a context, because they create one in that very moment. Those sources are radically altered up to an utterly unrecognizable state, anarchic manifestations moving in compact determination." (Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes)
[label description]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| MARHAUG, LASSE |
Carnival of Souls |
maxi-CD |
Amazing release from this norwegian noise-composer, using sounds from a short film by TOM LOBERG - silence, objectless drones, then overwhelming pure noise, but always good listenable, this sounds very “composed”...
"Carnival of Souls" - a 20 minute track CD made out the soundworks from "The Letter" - a short film directed by Tom Løberg which I scored last year. Not a soundtrack to the film, but a piece made to stand on its own. It has a strong cinematic quality to it, coloured by the surreal and creepy images of the film. Scary stuff.“ [Lasse Marhaug]
|
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| MARSPITER |
Vigila |
CD-R |
Wagner auf Valium in einem “desolated landscape”! Slowmotion Orchester-Arrangements treffen auf Wüsten-Drones, das ganze hat einen sehr martialischen, düsteren Anstrich....
“Mars is an ancient Deity with many faces and many names. Resurrected here in a twilight gloom hovering over a mythical battlefield. The idol cracks and the voice of Ares reverberates through a mountain-valley. Operatic ritual warfare.” [label info]
“Promising debut release from an up-and-coming U.S. artist working in the field of dark ambient incorporating orchestral elements. Deep and massive soundscapes of twisted echoes, subterranean drones, barely audible voices and wind sounds combine with subtle orchestrations adding to the dramatic nature of the sounds. Pro-duplicated disc and beautiful full colour sleeve in standard jewel case.” [KAOS KONTROL]
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| MATHES, JEREMIE |
Arkhaios |
10inch |
"These two new 10" releases (of LP length) lead to an area where words and rational thinking are suspended, and a connection with deeper parts of your mind begins...
JEREMIE MATHES is a French field recording artist (known for some excellent CDs on Unfathomless) living in Cambodia since some years. For "Arkhaios" he combined cavernous object drones (recorded at an abandoned factory site) with various instrumental sounds from ancient Khmer instruments (Tro u, Khim), all highly processed. You get the impression as being under the earth in a place populated by metallic amoeba or other smallest creatures, inside sewerage ducts or an deserted mine, exposed to the circulation of air...
This is the spirituality of the underworlds! "Dissolving time, space, mangling sounds collected into a simulacrum of altered realities. A oneiric junction between the concrete world and other unknown
territories." [J. Mathes]
ed. of 300 copies, black vinyl, Artwork by Stijn Deprez, based solely on pictures realised by Jérémie Mathes." [press release]
https://soundcloud.com/drone-records/jeremie-mathes-tomleiki
############################################
"The two pieces are based on same materials s "Uunartoq Qeqertoq" for the Drone Mind Serie LP [vol 04] on Drone records, and on my album "Fallow Memory" on Unfathomless label: A coalescence of acoustic sound sources recorded in an industrial complex of abandoned factories in South of France between 2010 to 2015.
In-situ improvisations inside reverberant metal tanks, deserted warehouses that I had the possibility to infiltrate during my exploration of the site. Generating sound in these empty spaces mainly by using found objects, combined with instruments that I've brought as a Tibetan bowl, small bells, percussions, cymbal, a bow, and a violin. Capturing the inner substance, the hidden vibrant matter of various types of metallic structures, machinery, tubes, and pipes o extended my sonorous palette.
All of these elements were used exclusively in the composition of my pieces. Dissolving time, space, mangling sounds collected into a simulacrum of altered realities. A oneiric junction between the concrete world and other unknown territories. Recorded, edited and composed by Jérémie Mathes [2017/ 2018].
Artwork by Stijn Deprez, based solely on pictures realised by Jérémie Mathes." [artist info]
www.substantia-innominata.de/SUB-27.html
|
2020 |
€15.00 |
|
| MCDOUGALL, JAMES |
Between no Ground and the Bay Leaf Tree |
mCD-R |
"after a bunch of releases under the entia non alias on respected labels like u-cover, dataobscura, test tube, resting bell or sentient recognition archive, australian sound artist james mcdougall has recently decided to use his real name for his musical output, maybe to denote a small departure from his first releases who were a bit more on the glitch side. more focused on field recordings, these two tracks are a perfect example of the captivating soundscapes mcdougall creates..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"James McDougall used to work as Entia Non and had releases on U-Cover, Dataobscura, Test Tube, Resting Bell and Sentient Recognition Archive but since some time he works under his own name. Here he has two lengthy pieces made from 'process bowed bass guitar and field recordings'. He moves out of the more collage like works of field recordings into more stretched out fields of mood music. Highly drone based - say the territory formerly inhabited by Uhlig - where the bass provides the drones - en masse - and where the field recordings seems to be a bit buried beneath and below. Slight crackles of leaves, that kind of work. Quite pleasant stuff really, if nothing really new under this particular drone sun. Crafted with some intelligence and with great care, that's for sure." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€5.00 |
|
| MCDOWALL, DREW |
A THREAD, SILVERED AND TREMBLING |
LP |
Scottish experimental/electronic musician Drew McDowall's lifelong interest in an elegiac solo bagpipe style called pibroch (ceòl mòr in Gaelic) has been an inspiration for much of his previous work (including Coil's legendary Time Machines). This form, often traditionally used for laments and for tributes to the dead, fuses modal drones with flickering dissonance and plaintive melody evoking an ancient, solemn mood. His latest work, A Thread, Silvered and Trembling, both incorporates and transforms these elements via exploratory electronic processing, weaving an electro-acoustic tapestry of strings, shudders, voids, and voices, alternately disembodied and displaced. Co-produced with engineer Randall Dunn at Circular Ruin Studios in Brooklyn, the collection's four pieces capture McDowall at his most elevated and elusive, in thrall to "the ineffable - that which refuses to be spoken." McDowall's palette here is unusually eclectic, sourced from a dynamic orchestral ensemble arranged by Brent Arnold and comprised of cello, viola, violin, harp (Marilu Donovan of LEYA), and french horn. Ebbing between shrouded electronics and enigmatic, sometimes spectralist orchestration, the album moves with a seething, simmering energy, surging into elegant, uneasy crescendos. The first two pieces are inspired by a liberatory hijacking and inversion of a grim biblical story (and by a cryptic and strange UK simple syrup branding). Opener "Out of Strength Comes Sweetness" shivers with short echo and resonant pads, before shifting into the album's centerpiece: the 14-minute saga "And Lions Will Sing with Joy." A murmuring electrical storm of keening strings and disorienting drones gradually grows darker and denser, until suddenly there's a crack in the clouds, revealing mutated choral voices and sparkling harp. McDowall describes the track as "an incantation to help usher in a break, and a new beginning." The record's latter half evokes a deep untamed animism shot through with spiraling radiance. "In Wound and Water" sways with harp, plucked strings and eerie cello undertows while lush layers of disorientated electronics hang in the dusk. There is no resolution, only a faint gradient of fragile dissipation, leading into the album's harrowing and climactic closer, "A Dream of a Cartographic Membrane Dissolves." Processed voices (credited on the liner notes to "The Ghosts Who Refuse to Rest") contort, whisper, and gather as the rest of the ensemble sharpens, poising to strike. Then it does - grand, tragic stabs of strings and horns lashing the sky, storming heaven by force. The fallout is poetic and inevitable, raining embers into a dark sea. But the journey and catharsis of A Thread linger long after it goes silent. Like so much of McDowall's multifaceted catalog, this is music of immanence and alchemy, attuned equally to the sacred and the profane, to the tile and the mosaic. |
2024 |
€25.00 |
|
| MEERKAT |
Kapnos |
CD |
"In 2003 Maurizio Bianchi and Matteo Uggeri / Hue met through Afe Records; three years later Maurizio asked Matteo for a musical collaboration, which grew up quickly under the design of a long term project called "Between the Elements", a sort of music transposition of concepts that lies in the empty spaces between the natural elements, which are over-abused terms in the New Age music scene.
Two albums were published in 2008: one about the concept of "clouds" ("Nefelodhis", by MB and the post-rock band Sparkle in Grey) and one about the concept of "desert" ("Erimos", by MB with Hue and Luca Bergero / Fhievel).
One year later, the third chapter entitled "Kapnos" – Greek for "smoke" - is finally available. The industrial master contributes to back notes and concept, but keeps his hands far from the musical matter, leaving it to the expertise of ten of the most interesting experimental musicians of the Italian scene, united under the cryptic name of Meerkat.
The Meerkat ensemble is formed by a group of musicians working in the field of experimental music, drones, microsounds and field recordings: Adriano Zanni / Punck, Matteo Uggeri / Hue, Luca Sigurtà, Luca Bergero / Fhievel, Davide Valecchi / Aal, Andrea Ferraris / Ics, Fabio Selvafiorita, Paolo Ippoliti (Logoplasm), Laura Lovreglio (Logoplasm) and Andrea Marutti / Amon / Never Known.
The tracks on "Kapnos" present a surprising homogeneity in spite of the different attitudes of the artists, which mixed their experiences in each track creating new unforeseen connections, working in pairs or in threesome on each track.
The Meerkat members also joint their efforts releasing the CD, which is in fact published by Afe (Andrea Marutti), Grey Sparkle (Matteo Uggeri), Nighthawks Tapes (Paolo Ippoliti) and Ctrl+Alt+Canc (Adriano Zanni).
Under these premises, "Kapnos" represents an unique effort in the swarming Italian music scene of the '00s." [label info]
"...The music is excellent - a fine mixture of styles and interests from these guys. All the elements one would expect are there, the field recordings, drones, ambience, microscopic detailed sounds. Great stuff here." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.aferecords.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| MEGAPTERA |
Near Death |
LP |
Urashima's vinyl reissue captures the essence of "Near Death" in its purest form. The tactile experience of placing the needle on the vinyl and allowing the album to unfold as intended by the artists adds a new dimension to the sonic journey. The haunting melodies and unsettling textures resonate even more powerfully, making this reissue not just a reproduction but a revival of the album's visceral impact.
Immerse yourself in the mysterious and haunting world of "Megaptera," a captivating music project that pushes the boundaries of industrial and dark ambient genres. Initiated by Peter Nyström alongside Mikael Svensson, with the participation of Magnus Åslund, "Megaptera" embarked on a sonic journey into the heart of darkness, where atmospheric textures and chilling soundscapes intertwine.
"Megaptera" is a project that defies conventional classification. The trio's early collaboration set the groundwork for soundscapes that delve into the darkest corners of the psyche, inviting listeners to confront their fears and delve into the unknown.
At the core of "Megaptera" lies an intricate fusion of industrial rhythms, unsettling textures, and atmospheric layers. Each composition is a sonic voyage, transporting the audience to realms where the borders between reality and imagination blur. The music possesses an uncanny ability to evoke emotions that are rarely explored, creating an intense and immersive experience for those who dare to listen.
Prepare to be transported to the edge of consciousness with the Urashima's vinyl reissue of "Megaptera - Near Death." Originally released on Sound Source .1917. cassette in 1991, this pivotal album not only marked the inception of the "Megaptera" project but also carved a niche for itself in the annals of dark ambient and industrial music.
"Near Death" is a journey into the depths of the human psyche, a descent into the unknown territories of the mind. With the collaborative efforts of Peter Nyström, Mikael Svensson, and the participation of Magnus Åslund, the album takes on an even more profound resonance. The combined creativity of these minds birthed a sonic masterpiece that fuses haunting atmospheres, experimental soundscapes, and industrial rhythms into a symphony of darkness.
From the first notes, "Near Death" envelops the listener in an uncanny aura, a sense of foreboding that guides you through its enigmatic passages. The album is a testament to the trio's ability to manipulate sound, sculpting it into a chilling narrative that unfolds across its tracks. The atmospheric textures evoke a sense of unease, while the pulsating rhythms create a hypnotic rhythm that carries you along the journey. Throughout the album, there's a palpable tension, a feeling of being suspended between reality and a realm of shadows. The layers of sound intertwine, creating an intricate web that seems to echo the labyrinthine corridors of the subconscious. The distant whispers, eerie drones, and subtle shifts in dynamics pull the listener deeper, inviting introspection and exploration.
In a world that often shies away from the darker corners of human experience, "Near Death" is a fearless exploration. It is an invitation to confront the shadows that dwell within us, a reflection of the mysteries that lie beneath the surface. As the vinyl spins and the sounds envelop you, you'll find yourself embarking on a sonic odyssey that is equal parts unsettling and transformative. "Megaptera" is not for the faint of heart; it is an invitation to confront the shadows that reside within us all. Through its intense sonic explorations, the project beckons listeners to embrace the darkness and embark on a journey that delves into the most primal aspects of human experience.
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/near-death
|
2023 |
€25.00 |
|
| MEISSNER / SLAVIN / SACHS |
Into the Void |
CD |
Eine Art "Hör-Film" dreier Audio & Video-Künstler aus Israel & Österreich basierend auf einer Spurensuche im jüdischen Viertel in Krakau... besonders das 11teilige "Into the Void" von SEBASTIAN MEISSNER ist sehr hörenswert: field recordings & Erzählungen werden verwebt mit dunklen Drones, Piano-tunes, Klezmer-Fragmenten, teils in langen sphärischen Stücken, teils cut-up mässig...
RAN SLAVINS "Segments from the Snow" klingt Electronica-lastiger, aber auch bedrückend atmosphärisch & voller interessanter Sound-Arrangements & stakkatohaft-mechanischer Samples & Volksmusikverfremdungen...
ERAN SACHS (u.a. Mitglied bei LIETTERSCHPICH) schafft mit "Memory Gaps" einen geräuschaft-melancholischen Raum, basierend auf zwei traditionellen jüdischen Klarinetten-Stücken, field recordings & Interviewfetzen...
kommt mit Booklet und ausführlichen Liner-Notes....
"presence/absence:::into the void is a reflection upon the history and the recent changes in the krakovian neighbourhood of Kazimierz. The center of this meditation is the seemingly contradictory development of the last few years, which is showing that the attempts to re-animate jewish culture. The piece is working on the basis of an attempt of reversing the seasons: from summer to winter the 700-year-old Jewish district of Krakow. What struck Meissner at first sight, was the glaring contrast between the rich though often neglected presence of the material culture and the dreadful absence of the community exterminated during the Nazi days.
Four months later, on 26 June 2003, at Krowoderska52 club in Krakow, Sebastian Meissner, Ran Slavin and Eran Sachs offered the final effects of their research in the form of series of pieces. They carefully crafted crunchy steps, freezing wind, cracking ice and conversations into a mesmerising film for ears’. The imaginative power of the music was reinforced by Slavin's video impressions — equally apt in conjuring up desolate though meaningful a digital environment referring
to Nowa Huta —the empty large defunct metal industry zone....
Sebastian Meissner: works as music composer, sound designer and photographer in Vienna. Over the years his audio-visual works has been presented by curators of prestigious festivals and exhibited in international galleries
such as Transmediale, Sonic Square, Podewil, Portikus Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Goethe Institute Buenos Aires, Kulturhuset Stockholm and Forsythe Ballet. His music and sound compositions -
as Random Inc. - are released on music labels Mille Plateaux, Ritornell, Kompakt, Crónica and Beta Bodega.
Ran Slavin: Works as film-maker and as audio-visual artist from Tel Aviv. His last opus in video is one of the most brilliant films that came from Israel during the last years : INSOMNIAC CITY. Premiering with the first part at the Venice Biennial of Architecture in 2004 and continuing with part 3 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and international venues. Working with experimental cinema, digital and acoustic music, video art and live video/sound performances. Operating between contemporary art and new music, his visual work has been described as intense urban surrealism. His audio visual work is a culmination of balanced relations between sound and video, their interconnections. His work has been shown at the Pompidou, Jeu De Paum, Transmediale, Istanbul Biennial, Cinematheques in Israel and Paris, festivals in Berlin, Slovenia, Amsterdam, Austria, New York, China, Israel, London, Ukraine. His music and videos released on the music-media labels Mille Plateaux, Cronica, Sub Rosa. www.ranslavin.com
Eran Sachs: works as composer, improviser, sound-artist and curator in Jerusalem. He plays this machine regularily in the Doom-Dub-Noise outfit Lietterschpich and John Zorn's "Cobra" improvising ensemble in Israel. His works have been released on Mille Plateaux and various labels in Israel. As a sound-artist his works tend fuse the sonic with the political, as in the case of "Yannun Yannun", which portrays the harrasment of Palestinian villagers by fanatic settlers. He founded and managed the Yad-Vashem bookstore - the only holocaust dedicated bookstore in Israel." [press release]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| MEIXNER, STEPHEN |
Between the Lines |
CD |
The CONTRASTATE – Mastermind is back ! Inspiriert von Daniel Libeskinds Symbolik in der Architektur des neuen Berliner Jüdischen Museums, hat STEPHEN MEIXNER vier beeindruckende, dunkel-mitreissende neue Kompositionen geschaffen, die sich zwischen dark ambient und Elektro-Akustik bewegen.. hinabziehende, schwirrende drones, field recordings, Piano-tunes, Zitate von George Clares „Das waren die Klaars“, eine sehr emotionale und ambitionierte Arbeit, musikalisch wie thematisch höchst empfehlenswert!
The ex-CONTRASTATE Stephen Meixner from London with his first solo-album, a very ambitious work between dark ambient and electro-acoustic, highly recommended!!
“ The inspiration for this release came from the ideas behind the design of Daniel Liebeskind's Jewish museum in Berlin. Liebeskind called his project "Between the lines" and at its foundation is its relevance and representation of the political, social and cultural history of the Jews in Berlin. The music on this CD is not a soundtrack to the museum or its contents. Instead, it takes its inspiration from some of the ideas behind the original project and creates a new "Between the lines" project” [release info]
www.dirter.co.uk
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| MELANCHOHOLICS |
A single Act of Carelessness |
CD |
Zweites Album der dunklen Gitarren-Sphäriker - hier ausgefeilter & experimenteller als beim Debut, mit Gitarren, Drones, Electronics, stimmlichen Klangmaterial, Akkordeon & Cello werden angerauhte, einsame melancholische Weiten geschaffen, wobei das improvisatorische Element unüberhörbar ist…
Anklänge an z.B. DWELLING LACUNA und manchmal fast schon alte STARS OF THE LID oder LABRADFORD….
“Without wanting to place Deafborn Records in one particular corner of the musical spectrum, 'dark' and 'atmospheric' are certainly two key-words. I never heard of Melanchoholics, which is a three piece group of Benedikt on guitars, Philip on bass and Lutz on electronics. Their previous interests lie in Death/Grind/Heavy metal and industrial and noise, but none of these influences are shown on 'A Single Act Of Carelessness', which is their second CD, after the self-titled, self-released CD from 2003. In 2001 they got together, discussing 'dark and solitudous sound atmospheres' and started jamming around. They probably do that a lot, since this CD shows a mature sound. The alienated, desolated soundscape of a post nuclear landscape is what is unfolded before our very eyes. Empty industrial sites, dark clouds, a thunder - the fine ingredients of a good nightmare or perhaps the storyboard of a b-movie entitled 'the last man on earth and his wanderings' (sorry that didn't sound very hollywood like). The guitar is plucked, a dark wall of synths and feedback hoover in the background and we hear the sound of highly polluted water running down the drainpipes. The album doesn't very hopeful, nor any where near melancholic. What would they long for? The cross-over between ambient and industrial has been made before, by many (Illusion Of Safety's during the late 80s period spring to mind here), but Melanchoholics translate the sound pretty well to a new millennium.” [FdW/ Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| MENCHE, DANIEL |
Furious Eclipse |
12inch |
We got some last copies of this very first vinyl in the SOLEILMOON–vinyl-series (which was stopped too early), two tracks of awesome monumental & rumbling low-frequency-scratch & heartbeat-drones, press on clear vinyl, with special cover, numbered edition.
"Soleilmoon's first vinyl release is from our resident noise monster. It's his first 12 inch record, and it's a numbered limited virgin clear vinyl edition of 693 packaged in hand made Japanese art paper." [label info]
|
1996 |
€14.00 |
|
|
The Face of Vehemence |
CD |
"Neues Werk von MENCHE, 67½ Minuten sehr abwechslungsreiche, z.T. für ihn ungewöhnliche Klänge... er klingt elektronischer, beginnt sehr dronend-soft (und erinnert fast an MNORTHAM), bevor er sich in expressivere Bereiche fortbewegt und auch tiefe Subbasse & sirrende Sounds einsetzt und konkreter wird (wir denken an JOHN DUNCAN, F. LOPEZ..).
Wieder genial. Sounds die süchtig machen.
Outer space monumental drones at its best, with many development & breaks, but always with a tendency to overwhelm you with pure sonic vehemence.. 4 tracks on 67½ minutes." [Drone Records info 2002]
“ vehemence (ve'he*mence)
1. Characterized by intensity or forcefulness of expression or intensity of emotion or conviction; impetuous force; impetuosity; violence; fury; violent ardor; fervid: a vehement denial.
2. Marked by or full of vigor or energy; strong: a vehement storm.” [press-release]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Bleeding Heavens |
CD |
Liest man sich das Konzept von GIANCINTO SCELSI durch mit seiner Herausarbeitung von Klangfarben und Atmosphären, Mikrobewegungen einzelner Tonhöhen, der intuitiven Arbeitsweise, etc., so erscheint ein "Drone-Monumentalist" aus der nicht-akademischen Noise-Szene wie DANIEL MENCHE fast wie ein später Jünger des italienischen Klangmystikers. Auch MENCHE's neuere Stücke basieren gewöhnlich letztlich auf einzelnen Tönen oder Geräusch-Drones, bei denen eine ungeheure Fülle von feinen Details "sichtbar" werden, die sich in einem Klangstrom bewegen in den man komplett eintauchen kann. BLEEDING HEAVENS basiert auf "Orgel- und Trompeten-Destruktion", welche MENCHE in 4 lange 'movements' presst, die oftmals eine vibrierend-vibratohafte, flackernde Form annehmen. Filed under: Süchtigmachende Strudelmusik ! Wer MENCHE noch nicht kennt: Die ultimative Empfehlung und Einstiegsmöglichkeit !
"Brand new studio compositions from Portland's corporal sound purveyor, Daniel Menche. Comprised of deconstructed organ and trumpets. Recorded from 2006 to 2007 at House of Menche." [credits]
www.blossomingnoise.com
|
2007 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Dirge |
CD |
Daniel Menche : Bowed Grand Piano and Noise
Recorded at the Hallowed Halls studio in Portland Oregon.
Great gratitude to Peter Drake who assisted me wit hthe creative recording process of the grand piano.
Recorded throughout January 2021
Mastered at the Stereophonic Mastering.
www.stereopho.com
https://fernsrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/dirge
"Daniel Menche has yet again utilized a piano to create a vast and immense storm of noise and drones. In 2011 he created a piano noise album titled “Guts” that was the sound of a piano being violently attacked and then electronically treated. Ten years later Daniel Menche worked with a grand piano that was in tune and located in a very acoustically sound studio. With carful elegance and care Daniel Menche wove long horse hairs in between the longest strings of this grand piano and bowed the strings for several hour to create massive amounts of overtones, drones and noise. Edited, mixed and subtly treated, “Dirge” is presented in a rather raw manner. The bowing acoustic movements was the main focus to the music rather than the electronic making this a unique recording in the ever growing discography of Daniel Menche. “Rawest Dirge” is a bonus track only on this CD release that is the raw recording of several objects placed on the strings with tone generators resonating the strings. “Rawest Dirge” is presented raw without any edits or treatments. “Dirge” was a very physical recording to make and therefore an album that truly needs to be heard physically loud and deep as possible."
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| MENS, RADBOUD & MATTHIJS KOUW |
1 |
LP |
Radboud Mens and Matthijs Kouw have collaborated since 2001, when they started working on an album firmly rooted in the ‘clicks ’n cuts’ movement of way back when. After collecting source material using only feedback produced with a mixer and minidisc recorder that was broadcasted live on Amsterdam’s Radio 100 to unsuspecting listeners, they started working on their album ‘Mens/Kouw’ (2002), which features both rhythmic pieces and more abstract elements. With the passing of time, they found themselves working more and more in the realm of tonal and timbral long-form pieces. Their use of software, recordings of acoustic instruments and a modular synthesizer, leads to what can perhaps be described as 'electro-acoustic drone' that nods to the American minimalists of the last century.
This record is the first of a two-part album and is recorded live in the studio in december 2014.
If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all
[John Cage]
Whenever we hear sounds, we are changed, we are no longer the same, and this is more the case when we hear organised sounds; music.
[Karlheinz Stockhausen]
The highest point of music for me is to become in a place where there is no desire, no craving, wanting to do anything else. It is the best place you have ever been, and yet there is nothing there.
[Terry Riley]
Drones that are heard constantly (fluorescent tubes, mechanical ventilation, refrigerating equipment, high voltage lines in the countryside) are all aligned on the frequency (and harmonics) of the electrical network (50Hz in Europe, 60Hz in North America). When we ask someone to sing a note spontaneously, the pitch often corresponds to a harmonic of the electrical network frequency. The evolution of lighting techniques, the amelioration of the quality (notably acoustic) of household appliances, and the wider use of low voltage rather than high voltage leads us to believe that this phenomenon will diminish with time. Some drones are so integrated into our perspective habits that any modification of their characteristics results in confusion. For instance, the replacement of the burner in a central heating boiler can result in complaints if its sound spectrum is different, even if it is actually less noisy in terms of dB. When a listener becomes accustomed to a sound of a certain spectrum, this sound will be easier to ignore than a sound of the same type that may be even quieter. This new sound requires a listening adaptation before it is integrated into the familiar soundscape. In the physiological domain, there is tinnitus - a drone or ringing sound that originates within the ear. Both children and adults use a form of linguistic drone: grumbling and mumbling. The general intent of mumbling is to mask the intelligibility of a message in the low frequencies when the speaker does not want to be understood. Mumbling is the oral expression of an intense introverted activity. (Napoleon's grumbling was famous and frightened new secretaries for correspondence!)
[Jean-François Augoyard And Henry Torgue]
|
2017 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
3/4 |
do-CD |
On October 22, 2018, ERS Records released ‘3/4’ – a double CD featuring new work of Radboud Mens and Matthijs Kouw. On their new album, Mens and Kouw use a 12-meter magnetic string instrument and a modular synthesizer to create 6 carefully tuned pieces. With a total playing time of over 2 hours, ‘3/4’ continues the long-form drone explorations first released on the LP ‘1’ on Moving Furniture Records in February 2017. ‘3/4’ was recorded live in the studio in February 2016 and is released in a limited edition of 300 and packaged in a 3-panel carton sleeve.
In its use of specific tunings and the long string instrument to create long-form drone compositions, ‘3/4’ continues and pays homage to the work of American minimalists Ellen Fullman, La Monte Young, and Alvin Lucier. Within the constraint of a tuning in a specific key, each track on ‘3/4’ immerses the listener in frequencies that change very gradually. Starting with a deep hum with warm frequencies, the pieces gradually build up to a collage of textures and frequencies that are carefully moving in and out of the drone. Each track slowly reveals different sides and details of a sonic sculpture and brings about a loss of the awareness of time. In this rich tapestry of drones, nothing much seems to happen to the careless listener. However, an attentive ear will reveal a complex variety of resonances, phase-differences and emergent sonic artefacts.
https://clinamen.bandcamp.com/album/3-4 |
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| MENUCK, EFRIM MANUEL |
Pissing Stars |
LP |
"Constellation Records beginnt das Jahr 2018 mit dem zweiten Soloalbum des GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR und THEE SILVER MT. ZION Gründers EFRIM MANUEL MENUCK. „Pissing Stars“ ist der großartig intensive Nachfolger von „Plays High Gospel“ und das erste neue Material mit EFRIM als zentralem Songwriter und Sänger seit „Fuck Off Get Free We Pout Light On Everything“ seiner Chamber-Punk Band THEE SILVER MT. ZION von 2014. MENUCK genießt unter den Fans politischen Punks, Post-Rock und Avant-Noise-Anhängern Kultstatus und feiert mit „Pissing Stars“ ein Vierteljahrhundert musikalischen Ausdrucks ohne Kompromisse. Auf „Pissing Stars“ verschleudert MENUCK Giftpfeile, leidenschaftliche Salven und zerbrechliche Blüten und formt das Ganze zu noiselastigen Songs, die sich um maximalistische Electronics und Drones ranken, die von Synthie oder Gitarre umgesetzt und von klagendem, oft verfremdeten Gesang durchzogen werden. Das passende Narrativ kann nur jemand wie MENUCK liefern: „‘Pissing Stars‘ gründet sich auf die kurze Affäre der amerikanischen TV-Moderatorin Mary Hart mit Mohammed Khashoggy, dem Sohn eines saudischen Waffenhändlers. Ich weiß nicht, wie lange sie zusammen waren, ich erinnere mich daran, wie ich als verzweifelter Teenager darüber las. Ich wohnte zusammen mit zwei anderen verwahrlosten Kids und einem Haufen wilder Kätzchen in einem überfluteten Keller und hatte nichts zu essen. Diese seltsame Union – die blonde Frau aus dem Fernsehen und der reiche Saudi-Sohn mit seinem mörderischen Vater – blieb bei mir und beschäftigte mich drei Jahrzehnte lang. Diese Sprösslinge aus Tod und Selbstentfremdung – und Liebe. Dieses Album beschäftigt sich mit dem Ende ihrer Beziehung und der Art und Weise, wie bestimmte eigensinnige Lichter einfach weiterleuchten. Das Album wurde in den dunklen Ecken zwischen 2016 und 2017 aufgenommen, in verschiedenen Stadien der Ungemütlichkeit, mit einem porösen Herzen und einer klaren Mission. So, als würde man mit zwei Messern in den Händen auf einen Abgrund zulaufen und manisch lachen. Besiegt und voller Freude zugleich. Hier geht es um das Ende der Liebe und den Anfang der Liebe. Um das Ende des Staates und wie wir alle darunter gefangen sind."
This is an audiophile 180gram pressing in midnight ultra-black vinyl from Optimal (Germany) that comes in a 350gsm jacket with printed inner dust sleeve and 12"x19" art poster, all printed on uncoated matte papers and boards, all artwork by Menuc
efrimmanuelmenuck.bandcamp.com/album/pissing-stars
PISSING STARS is inspired by the brief romance of american television presenter MARY HART and MOHAMMED KHASHOGGI, the son of a saudi arms dealer. i don’t know how long their union endured, but i remember reading about them when i was a desperate teenager – there was something about their pairing that got caught in my head. i was living in a flooded basement with two other lost kids and a litter of feral kittens. we were all unfed. this strange intersection – the televisual blonde and the rich saudi kid with the murderous father; it got stuck in me like a mystery, like an illumination- this vulgar pairing that was also love. these privileged scions of death and self-alienation, but also love. i’ve carried it in me for 3 decades now, this obscure memory, and i return to it often, tracing its edges like a worn talisman. this record is about the dissolution of their relationship, and the way that certain stubborn lights endure. this record was made in dark corners between 2016 and 2017. a very rough pair of years, shot thru with fatigue, depression, despair, and too many cigarettes and too much booze. but also = the giddiness of enervation, and the strange liberation of being emptied – borne aloft and carried by the drift. the world continues its eternal collapsing, fires everywhere and everything drained of meaning. this record was made in various states of unease, with a brittle heart and a clear intent. like running towards a cliff with 2 swinging knives, roaring with an idiot grin. overcome and overjoyed. this record is about the end of love and the beginning of love. this record is about the dissolution of the state, and all of us trapped beneath, and the way that certain stubborn lights endure. – ExMxMx
|
2018 |
€23.00 |
|
| MERRELL, TODD / AIDAN BAKER / PATRICK JORDAN |
Nagual |
CD |
Verzaubernde Rausch-Drones und subtile Gitarren-Loops und Tupfer, ganz zart & betörend sensibel ist dieses Trio bei einer Aufnahme in HARTFORD, CT vorgegangen, die Teilnahme AIDAN BAKERs (NADJA) ist unüberhörbar. 600 Stück wurden aufgelegt und mit dem besonderen ARCHIVE-Artwork von SELDON HUNT ausgestattet.
"long playing ambient dronescape focusing the combined efforts of Todd Merrell on shortwave radio and electronics, Patrick Jordan on shortwave radio and processing and Aidan Baker (Nadja) on guitar. Recorded live in 04 in Hartford. Comes packed in heavy stock center open sleeve with environmental mirror image landscape artwork courtesy of Seldon Hunt. Pressing of 600 copies." [label info]
"... This live set finds Baker handling guitar duties, but you’d never know it from the sound, augmented by short wave radios, electronics, and various bits of processing, the sound here is deep and dark, a crumbling and epic expanse of rumbling shimmering low end. Roiling clouds of murky melodic fragments, distant swells, throbbing low end pulses, barely audible bits of static and washed out glitch. Very cinematic, if you were watching a film that was almost entirely dark, with just barely visible shifts in the various shades of black and grey. Lovely though, minimal and haunting. Think Coleclough, Chalk, Lustmord, that sort of ambient darkness.
But the second track is an entirely different beast. Simple guitar strums, minimal melodies, the strings struck softly, the metallic buzz and clang ringing out into the ether, some sort of underwater slow motion Fahey, smeared and soft and dark and dreamy.
The final half of the track, the guitar disappears completely, leaving streaks of feedback that sound like the cries of gulls, grinding slow motion slabs of shifting low end, whirling windlike whirs, almost like a manufactured nature recording.
The guitar returns for the third track, drifting gently, while the background noise builds into a slow motion wash of sound, the track culminating in a cloud of chimes and reverbed percussion, seasick swirls and struck steel strings, before slipping languidly into the final track, a lugubrious underwater crawl, all of the sounds muddy and indistinct, a sonar like ping buried way down in the mix, underneath it all a thick blanket of constant whirring drones, quite lovely.
Packaged in one of those cool, 6 panel, gatefold aRCHIVE
sleeves, glossy paper, super striking image of forest and clouds,
LIMITED TO 600 COPIES!!" [Aquarius Records]
www.archivecd.com
|
2007 |
€13.50 |
|
| MERZBOW |
Offering |
CD |
MERZBOW auf TANTRIC HARMONIES? Aber es ist mal wieder ein “anderer MERZBOW”, der Noise fügt sich als ein Element in fast gemächliche, rhythmisch-pulsierende Strukturen ein, die trotzdem vor Energie nur so strotzen. Meditativer Noise !
„material originally made for Masami Akita's MERZBOW concert in Tokyo. It is inspired by the novels of Juran Hisao, especially his dark detective story called 'Kinro' (Golden Wolf). Opening with dark ambient drones "Offering" moving through massively dense frequencies mixed with killer beats to the wall of pure noise. A hypnotic journey to the dark core of subconsious.“[label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Hybrid Noisebloom |
do-LP |
Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The moniker of Japanese artist Masami Akita was born in Tokyo in 1979. Inspired by dadaism and surrealism, Akita took the name for his project from German artist Kurt Schwitters's pre-war architectural assemblage The Cathedral of Erotic Misery or Merzbau. Working in his home, he quickly gained notoriety as a purveyor of a musical genre composed solely of pure, unadulterated noise. Embracing technology and the machine, first in an absolutely analog way and then welcoming digital innovation, Merzbow broke boundaries and pushed toward new territories of the extreme, arriving at a sonic space of uncontaminated, straight noise that, from its base in Tokyo, has continued, now for over 40 years, to set the pace for the entire genre of noise.
When it comes to Japanese noise, few projects have pushed boundaries or risen to a more iconic status than Merzbow.
Hybrid Noisebloom, originally issued by Vinyl Communications on CD in 1997, is the latest in this trilling bread crumb trail. It is also the first time that this seminal document from Merzbow’s '90s period has ever appeared on vinyl.
Composed and performed on EMS and Moog Synthesizers, Theremin, Metal Devices, Noise Electronics, and Voice, all recorded at extreme volumes, Hybrid Noisebloom’s five tracks present a fascinating sonic assault, heavily driven by the presence of electronic sounds, played against the sparse interjections of Akita’s heavily processed vocals, that push toward new territories of the extreme, while subtly nodding toward historical gestures from the early years of the avant-garde.
A side opens with Plasma Birds comprising a series of banner that investigate timbral relationships, the fragmentation of melody, and abrasive, provocative noise - shifting from the sparse, airy, and restrained, to dance clusters of interplay and back again. Follows enclosed in just over ten minutes, Minotaurus, finding a strange middle ground between the intuitive logics of their instruments; synth and electronics taking on decidedly percussive approaches, while metal device’s fractured polyrhythms and beats often veer toward the presence of a notable tonality. B side is filled with a single long track, Mouse Of Superconcetion, formed by screeches and from swinging and chugging to stepped back and sparse combinations of rhythm and tone - moving from the lingering sensibilities of straight-ahead synth to radically out hard blow fire. Launching from a total wall of sound, C side track Neuro Electric Butterfly takes the listening on an endlessly surprising journey through its devices’ inner world, shifting between airy open passages that feature endless combinations of one or more effects, to furious moments of sonorous lashings where the sound falls in together in brilliant dialogical periods of conversant texture and psychedelic intervention. Closes The Imaginary Coversation Of Blue embedding bristling fragments, percolating tones, and poignant dissonances within a sweeping field of echoes rumbles and drones, taking sonic abstraction to startling heights.
All composed & performed by Masami Akita using EMS & Moog Synthesizer, Theremin, Metal Devices, Noise Electronics, Voice
Recorded & mixed at ZSF Produkt Studio, January - February 1997
Remastered by MA at Munemihouse Tokyo, 21 February 2021
Artworks by Masami Akita
https://urashima.bandcamp.com/album/hybrid-noisebloom
|
2022 |
€32.50 |
|
| MERZBOW & Z'EV |
Spiral Right / Spiral Left |
CD |
"In the planning (and many faxes, emails and discussions in person) for 20 years, finally this stunning collaborative release for Cold Spring from Japanese Noise king Merzbow and legendary elemental sound artist Z'EV is here. The tracks were created in London and Tokyo, with each artist remixing the other's original sounds. Two tracks weighing in at 22 minutes and 28 minutes respectively! Dark Ambient Noise in a special textured card digisleeve." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Two of present world's most border searching sound experimentalists join forces on this one. The result is nothing short of mindblowing! Japanese king of harsh noise, Masami Akita alias Merzbow manipulates and (mis)treats modern machinery into a sick but hypnotic world of aural machismo. The ear shattering noise-expressions from Merzbow is combined by one of the true legends of early pioneering industrial Z'EV. The album sounds like a blend between contemporary sound art of the extreme kind and electronic psychedelia circa early Pink Floyd. The combination of concrete steel percussions and ultra-aggressive drones of noise extremity works very well and pulls the listener into an opposite kind of listening trance in comparison to the folk world of "We bring you a king with a head of gold : Dark Brittanica II". Two excellent albums from Cold Spring." [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| MERZBOW / RAVEN / DAO DE NOIZE |
Animal Liberation |
CD |
"Animal Liberation features 3 characteristically powerful tracks of varying harshness and noise intensities with it’s theme strongly centered on animal rights and its firm stand against animal abuse.
The journey into the audio slaughterhouse begins with 2 harsh noise tracks presented by prolific Japanese noise artist Masami Akita, otherwise famously known as Merzbow and Serbia’s harsh noise artist Raven (or Djordje Miladinovic), who is highly recognisable in the harsh noise circuit as anti-war as well as a strong supporter of animal and human rights and conscious environmentalist. These two violently painful tracks are complex with a high level of hypnotic and sonic energy. The message of what these artists stand for are uniquely expressed by heavy layers of organic sounds, high frequency screeches and low level drones that almost sound like animal screams and grunts in the abattoir. This journey of butchery finally comes to an end with a closing ambient track from Ukraine’s noise/ambient artist Dao De Noize (Artem Pismenetskii). The tranquil hums overlapped by murmuring soundscapes with the background beating of hearts and animal bellows, bleats and cackles complement and complete the album. These 3 highly emotive tracks successfully propagate the intended message through a unique display of artistic sonic expression that is now one of the greatest social change movement around the world."
https://4ibrecords.com
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| MIEVILLE, EMMANUEL |
Magnetic fields and shrouded flux |
mCD-R |
Harsh field recording ambience? All sounds here seem to be derived from field recordings, but were then processed heavily.. this resulted into two quite intense pieces, with lots of details & great effects...rarely water sounded that harsh!
"french composer/phonographer mixing musique concrete, field recordings and drones for two haunting pieces. full-colour printed 3"
cd-r with artwork by delphine ancelle-b." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| MIGHTY ACTS OF GOD |
Joy of the Mountain |
CD-R |
Obscure & haunted Drone-Folk? No problem! If you like VERY weird & improvised somehow "folky" music then this is a perfect album for you, with strings & stringed instruments, female singing, organ-like drones, flutes, scratchings & whatever, this project or band (we have no info who or what it is) creates their own specific sound-universe, a beautiful low fi chaos at times... Comes in a handmade wallpaper-cover with organic plant-material included, and a full-colour mini-poster with 6 drawings.
"Goddess of a lost art, Niwi's painted 11 musical and organic stories. that joy links together the images of creation of a narrative path where fragility is the ground. Celebrate the divinity that descends from the mount, burn your offerings, praise the secret beauty, crown her..... An imperial work" [Tomentosa]
www.myspace.com/ruralfaunelovesyou
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| MILLIS, ROBERT |
Relief |
LP |
"Our man Millis is a Climax Golden Twin and a noted curator of globe trotting / time traveling esoterica, amongst other accolades. In the former category, Millis and Jeffery Taylor steadily release some of the most headscratching amalgamations of avant-rock, decontextualized temple music, heightened-state minimalism, and collaged field recordings this side of the Sun City Girls (including the soundtrack to the cult film Session Nine); and in the latter, Millis has published a number of acclaimed anthologies for Sublime Frequencies (Scattered Melodies, This World is Unreal Like a Snake in a Rope, Phi Ta Khon, The Crying Princess, etc.) and Dust-To-Digital (our personal favorite, aptly titled Victrola Favorites). With his fingers in so many jars of jam, it can seem like an uncommon occurrence for Millis to release solo work although he is one to smear his sticky hands all over himself in performance, installation, and collaboration. Thus, The Helen Scarsdale Agency is delighted in presenting his latest opus, Relief.
A fever dream of blurred harmonics and ethnomusicological spelunking, Relief repeatedly returns to variations on a peculiar yet beautifully serpentine drone, whose twinkling acoustic properties meld the hallucinatory mouth-music of the Bangladeshi Murung people and the curved air hypnosis of Terry Riley. Millis bookends and interrupts his mysterious miasma with comedic interludes snatched from his lauded collection of antique 78s, maudlin piano tone-clusters, and teleported crescendos of spectral ballroom waltzes. More Nurse With Wound than The Caretaker, this polyglot raga-drone of daytime somnambulism and psychedelic slipperiness speaks to the uneasy borders at psychological, cultural, and geophysical states of being. Oh, to be a human on this planet." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Polyglot might be just the right word to describe what Robert Millis and his Climax Golden Twins have been up to for the past two decades or so. An album might be a ramshackle collage of blisterfuck noise-rock, another might be a graceful set of murder ballads, and yet another might hypnotize the listener through an alpha-state minimalism. And then, there's Millis' acclaimed collections of olde-timey '78s and raw field recordings of indigenous folk songs, much of which has been released through those tasty labels Sublime Frequencies and Dust-To-Digital. The solo work from Millis tends more toward the dronemuzik and hallucinatory collage axis of CGT's multi-headed agenda, although he has been known to strum out a sadsack blues number that might straddle the worlds of Alan Bishop and Roscoe Holcomb; but here on the impeccable new album Relief, Millis tunes in and drops out with a blearily psychedelic album of forgotten sounds, ghostly fragments, and Pacific Ocean drones. The album begins with a comedic outburst from one of Millis' 78s with a helpful direction to "hear the secret sentence played out on the talking typewriter" followed by a jaunty clatter of a manual typewriter all wrapped in scratchy-vinyl, crackling goodness. Immediately, the album delves into a swarming tone-float of harmonic overtones pecked with trilling glissandos. The source for this sound has got to be a plung - a Bangladeshi mouth-organ used specifically by the Murung peoples living deep in the rainforest, as this sound is uniquely atonal and wrigglingly eerie in its wavering notes. Millis furthers this wooziness by rarifying these sounds into the holy minimalism conjured by LaMonte Young, Angus Maclise, and company. After swimming here in these golden pools for a good five or six minutes, Millis drops the needle on a dramatic orchestral swell that would be the envy of the Caretaker's sunken ballroom recordings. A couple of hip-swaying recombinations of temple music rhythms and Les Baxter exotica glide in and out of Millis' glassy-eyed shimmeriness and post-Eno piano constellations. The album's finale is an impressionistic driftscape of languid, temple bell & gong tones stretched into a gorgeous, expansive cloud of lush harmonics giving way to a metronomic wooden rhythm that leads to a set of solitary piano notes suspended over Mariana trench diving-bell ambience. Limited to 400 copies, and comes with the requisite download code. So fucking good." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2013 |
€16.00 |
|
| MINADEO, JOSEPH & CURT BROWN |
Wood Land |
CD+ booklet |
Wood Land is a story of a nameless worker caught in the mundanity of placid bureaucracy. Wood Land is a story of buried towers and subtle rebellion. Wood Land is a story of unsubtle rebellion and totalitarian overthrow. Wood Land is a story of deep space awakening and astronaut spiders. Wood Land is a story of return and reconciliation. Wood Land is a story.
Scored by Joseph Minadeo and written by Curt Brown with imagery by both.
Sonically, 'Wood Land' was an extension of Joseph Minadeo's first foray into
ambient - 'sounds from a photograph', a 'Pearl'-esque LP of Lanois affected piano and placid
drones. 'Wood Land' extends that premise and gives a hazy nod towards Noto and Sakamoto's
collaborative soft digital clicks and sustained piano.
Airy atmospheres are constructed with multiple piano layering plus guitars dissolving into despondant
organ, synth sequencing and minimal drum padding. Slow cadences of hope and light
are countered with ominous sonatas. Indescernible Vocals, courtesy of Gabriela Kropf,
are mixed into the mellotron choirs.
'Wood Land' features deluxe packaging with a perfect bound booklet of 28 pages, matte digipak, housed
in a slipcase.
Joseph Minadeo is a composer behind the former Akron, Ohio (now Los Angeles) based Patternbased label.
He is also a member of the post-rock outfit Low in the Sky. He recently moved to California
to dig deeper into art and music.
Curt Brown is an Akron, Ohio based artist and is a co-founder of Rubber City Noise, a collective
that runs a record label and arts space in Akron. Current projects include Black Unicorn and
Cane Swords among others.
Several tracks from 'Wood Land' were used in the global collaborative documentary film 'One Day on Earth' (along w/ Sigur Ros, Beirut, Cut Chemist and Mum).
Design by Kevin Carr and Charlie Wagers.
https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/wood-land |
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| MINIT |
Now right here |
LP |
"Endlich was neues von einer unserer Lieblings-Drone-Bands, die inzwischen von Australien nach Berlin gezogen sind....wir hören hier auf drei Stücken kontemplative, extrem hypnotische Drone-Schichten, regelrecht leuchtende Klangteppiche, die sanft an Volumen und Dichte gewinnen und aus denen sich dann harmonische Strukturen herausschälen.. EMPFEHLUNG!!" [Drone Rec. info 2004]
“A long awaited release from Sydney's Minit culminates in a masterpiece collection of spectral drone music. With their unhierarchical approach to the use of 'found' sound, a fuzzed out electric bass line sits neatly alongside field recordings of atmospheric hum - their individual sound qualities overriding their semiotic value, so that each sound, representing a layer, shimmers and swells within Minit's evolving, sonic habitat. Now Right Here, the title track as well as the album, is about being caught in the moment. From fragile harmonic and melodic intonations to towering, ecstatic drones and electrical disturbances this album captures a balance betwen noise and harmony, excitation and calmness, distance and intimacy - drawing you into a hypnotic, psychedelic sound-world that belongs uniquely to Minit. Now Right Here is a fragile, immersive and emotional album.Minit is JASMINE GUFFOND and TORBEN TILLY. They are currently living and working in Berlin.”[press release]
“Overall the sound has become more detailled and more rich since my first encounter with them. Music with a highly trance like atmosphere, maybe even psychedelic. Quite nice indeed.” [fdw/Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| MITRE |
Sympathy for Agamemnon |
mCD-R |
DREAMLAND RECORDINGS ist ein neues ambient/drone-Label aus Australien, die mit einer hochkarätige mini-CDR-Reihe auf sich aufmerksam machen! Die zweite VÖ kommt von MITRE, in einem frischen Chicagoer (?) Projekt, die reine Gitarrenriff-Vibrationen erzeugen, verzerrt, mit e-bow, gezupft, mit gewissen Psychedelic-Flair..und einer wahrhaft verträumten Atmo... "Deep resonant drones, walls of feedback guitar hovering on the horizon of a distant storm" [label info] |
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| MIZUTANI, KIYOSHI & KIYOHARU KUWAYAMA |
Interlude |
CD |
"Kiyoshi Mizutani: feedback. Kiyoharu Kuwayama: handmade electronics, contact mic & mix. and/OAR (via either/OAR) is very pleased to present what is without a doubt among the very best of both artist's electronic-based work. Throughout much of this highly charged release, brooding clouds of swarming tones and drones envelope the listener, either inducing a hypnotic trance or a deep contemplative listening state. This work is the result of a mail exchange. At first, Kiyoshi created the feedback sound in the studio using a suspended microphone, mixer and some effects. Sometimes drum sticks, steel and wooden chair were used to influence the sound. Kiyoshi's recorded sound was sent to Kiyoharu who then processed the materials and edited and mixed the sound with his own materials. Kiyoshi Mizutani started his sound career with the noise project Merzbow until the late 1980s, After leaving Merzbow, Kiyoshi started releasing solo work under his own name - gradually shifting away from noise to mostly recording and releasing straight environmental sound documents. Apart from Kiyoharu Kuwayama and Masami Akita (Merzbow), Kiyoshi has also collaborated with Daniel Menche and Hideaki Shimada. Apart from and/OAR, Kiyoshi has had his work released by such labels as Ground Fault, CMR, Monochrome Vision, Auscultare Research, E(r)ostrate, Artware Production, Engraved Glass, Flenix, among others. Kiyoharu Kuwayama (aka Lethe) is known for creating and recording work in highly resonant spaces or charged atmospheres (abandoned warehouses, Shinto temples, etc). Kiyoharu is also known for his involvement with the duo Kuwayama - Kijima (Kiyoharu Kuwayama : cello, and Rina Kijima : violin) who are formidable players, so well attuned to each other that their improvisations cannot be distinguished from highly complex compositions. With a particular interest in ambient sound and locations that inspire improvisation, they take advantage of the natural reverb of each location (under a bridge at night, an abandoned warehouse), and even change their position while playing to create beautiful and charged performances." [label info]
www.and-oar.org
"There is, like with most releases by Kiyoharu Kuwayama not a lot of information on the cover (or websites) with details about the recording, but more than some other times. Kiyoharu Kuwayama plays "handmade electronics, contact mic & mix" and Kiyoshi Mizutani just gets credit for feedback. Mizutani was in the 80s a member of Merzbow, and after leaving Merzbow he did a couple of releases, ranging from the heavy noise field to field recordings, including collaborations with Daniel Menche and Hideaki Shimada. Kuwayama is perhaps best known as Lethe and has created a bunch of releases that deal with large spaces in which he plays cello, metal objects and electronics. This release with Mizutani is one that was generated through mail, which I think is a rarity in his catalogue. Mizutani recorded feedback using a suspended microphone, mixer and effects, influencing the sound with drum sticks, steel and wooden chair. Kuwayama then processed this material and did further editing. The result is excellent. The feedback produced by Mizutani is never 'loud and dirty' as one could easily think these things would be (think harsh noise walls), but refined and varied. The sustained sounds move through your home space in an excellent way, and Kuwayama treats them with great care. The ten pieces flow into each other and form a great unified wholeness, which reminded me of the best of Arcane Device. A highly varied disc of music, excellent treatments and fine composition." [FdW/Vital Weekly] |
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| MLEHST |
An old broom knows all the dirty corners |
CD |
Das MLEHST-Comeback nun auch auf CD; diese Klänge sind wirklich unangenehm und regen auf, ohne harsch noisig zu sein, ein schräger Tanz von Radiosinustönen, low-fi-Geräuschen und Rauschen, fast jegliche musikalische Grundkonzepte und Bestimmungsparameter sind hier ausser Kraft gesetzt!
"Mlehst returns after years of silence, along with his unique (and prolific) experimental noise. As a bonus this digipak album has some alternate mixes of material from two recent LPs, but they fit well here and will seem like part of the whole work to most listeners. Commencing with noisy drones and reverberating percussive noises, the album takes a really varied journey through all kinds of noisy experimental, weird electronic, feedback, and droney sounds. There is a really unsettling and disturbing element to the music throughout the CD, which seems more controlled and natural than I had remembered in previous works. As intense as the sounds on CD can get, it is by no means a typical static harsh noise release. Everything has it's place and is totally under control, being precisely manipulated. Just how I like my noise... An incredibly solid and enjoyable release, through and through." [Diophantine Discs Top Releases of 2006]
"Whether or not its because I am in the process of giving up smoking I don't know, but this album leaves me anxious and on-edge. Fantastic! So many recordings just leave you cold. An emotional conduit!" [METAMORPHIC JOURNEYMAN]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
|
I am, I was, I will always be |
LP |
More silent & ambient material, nice "concrete drones" which reminds on SMALL CRUEL PARTY, etc..
very good mysterious dronescapes !!
www.freewebs.com/mlehst
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Vilification of the english peasant class |
LP |
Eigentlich müsste MLEHST Preise gewinnen für die ausser-gewöhnlichste & einfallsreichste Titelgebung. Der Titel dieser LP heisst übersetzt etwa "die Herabwürdigung der englischen Bauernklasse".... klanglich ist das wieder äusserst herausfordernde, zermürbende Musik, mit eher hochfrequenten, Sinuston-artigen Drones, Cut-Ups, Feedbacks, insgesamt weniger krachig und "auskomponierter" als auf den Tapes der 90er, obgleich es auf der B-Seite harsche Rauschfelder gibt . Exzellent !
"Diophantine Discs is pleased to announce the release of a new LP... Mlehst - Vilification of the English Peasant Class.
After an extremely active period of recording between 1992 and 1998, Mlehst returned in 2005 to bring back his unique experimental noise music in a fashion as focused and intriguing as ever. "Vilification of the English Peasant Class" is a 3-track LP composed of invigorating and often unsettling music replete with drones, feedback, and cut-ups. The first side is very structured and precise, whereas the second side presents a more improvised and intense variation on the themes presented in the former. This is sure to appeal to fans of noise, drone, and experimental music in general.
Releasing an extensive number of recordings since 1992, England's Mlehst has always managed to capture the more experimental regions of noise music. His own Bandaged Hand Produce label was rather prolific in this realm as well. With his return in 2005 (and the establishment of Belief Recordings) we can only hope this trend will continue. Mlehst has released on a variety of labels over the years, including Self Abuse, Mother Savage, Absurd, Drahtfunk, Nihilist, and The Locus Of Assemblage. Additionally he has collaborated with or been released on splits with Runzelsturn & Gurgelstock, Brume, Smell & Quim, Crack Fierce, and Macronympha.
Pressed on clear vinyl and housed in a clear sleeve with sticker affixed to the front. Limited to 300 copies." [label info]
http://discs.diophantine.net
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| MNORTHAM / BRUME & TBC |
Steps towards the hairy night / Strandwasser Ozean Remix |
CD-R |
Nice release on the TBC-Label WACHSENDER PROZESS from Hamburg which comes with an archaic looking handmade papyros-paper artwork. MICHAEL NORTHAM has a long piece here mixing long drones with sounds from the Zion National Park. BRUME & TBC collaborate on different pieces and sound like being just under the surface of water, hissy and mushy... |
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| MODELL, ROD / MARIT WOLTERS |
Cocoon |
do-LP |
Marit Wolters is a Viennese artist who creates sculptures that speak. They generate their own world of micro-sounds. Rod Modell is a sound designer operating primarily from Detroit (with an EU home-base in Amsterdam). Here, he moulded the sounds of Marit's works in the same way that she works her materials, creating a generative soundscape designed for museum playback during Marit’s exhibitions, constructed with sounds of Marit’s sculptures, drones, field recordings, and cosmic sounds. The result of this collaboration is COCOON, a 74 minute CD of music by Rod and Marit, with a 24-page 8" square booklet featuring Marit’s work. The package also Includes a poster that reproduces the original playbill from the debut exhibition of COCOON in Linz, Austria. A collector's item, limited and numbered to only 300 pieces.
"The Ethereal Substance of Matter" by Mirco Salvadori
It takes adaptation to begin this journey. We need to increase our perceptual sensors by adapting the transmission of touch to the apparently inert matter. Sight too must increase its visionary capacity, and hearing has the obligation to pick up even the most microscopic movement. Gradually, we levitate upon appearing in front of the substance. As protected in a transparent cocoon that allows contact, we penetrate through the undefined throbbing of a heart that is constantly springing into action, witness to a life that uses field recordings capable of recalling past glitches. Absorbed in the liquidity of sound we slowly immerse ourselves in the majesty of the deep dronic breath, driven by the power of the ambient wave that iterates its eternal oscillation. We are in, here where everything is an unlimited reverberation, almost a song of seductive ethereal substance.
13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2037_rod_modell_marit_wolters_cocoon.htm
|
2021 |
€36.00 |
|
| MOHAMMAD (MMMD) |
Pèkisyon Funebri |
3 x 10inch BOX |
"Leaving behind their folk based trilogy, Mohammad return to their own original material. Heavy and concentrated, majestic and dark, ethereal and subtle, Pèkisyon Funebri marks a new era in Mohammad's existence, unfolding earthly murmurs and ghostly chants over their distinctive seismic diapasons. An exhilarating procession through highly charged sonic plateaus, from the burning core to the silent skies." [label info] www.antifrost.gr
"The PAN label's premier purveyors of “chamber doom” return with a new cycle for longtime alibis, Antifrost, following their acclaimed folk trilogy of LPs between 2014-15, and the still-resonating tones of Som Sakrifis (2013) for PAN.
If you’ve encountered any of the aforementioned, you will have a very good idea of what to hope for in the 3-part Pèkisyon Funebri; namely a majestic sense of struggle against the flattening feeling of despair and fatigue that haunts our times.
This is music which appears to carry the weight of the world on its shoulders whilst wielding a cello and bow in its heavy limbs, dredging the psyche for signs of life which are found and coaxed from their holes to emerge as churning low-end gestures who reinforce their dual resonant frequencies in slow, wide vortices aimed at centring and quaking your thorax.
Subterranean in their prostration but sidereal in hope against the frustrations that we can only imagine must be felt in Greece right now, Pèkisyon Funebri is a masterful reminder that even at the lowest ebbs there is solace and resilience to be found if one remains faithful to the search.
Huge recommendation." [Boomkat]
"Is “all-encompassing” a cop-out term? Greek trio MMMD, a.k.a. Mohammad, have been eating us alive since 2013’s Som Sakrifis, and as someone following underground music back then, reading various interpretations of its sonic power was enthralling because its uncompromising, sensory-depraving tones assured that our reflections came out of our own visceral reactions rather than out of our interactions with any sort of external text. Our own Birkut began his immersive review of Som Sakrifis with an image of being alone on an island off of Cambodia with nothing but a winking, far-off light for assurance. Som Sakrifis in this allegory was both enveloping darkness and faint, hopeful light. What, then, is Pèkisyon Funebri? And what kind of status quo does its long-form drones conjure? What kind of hope, if any, does it offer a listener?
MMMD’s music has always reminded me of Howard Shore’s scores for The Lord of the Rings films, and as such, my listening has always been guided by that association. For me, Som Sakrifis was heroic music, war music, music by which pastoral hobbits fought against evil wizards and abominable orcs and glowing eyeballs, when outcomes of such battles meant everything to every thing, big or small, dwarf or elf, human or tree. Its overwhelming oppressiveness brought me into a breaking world, vied over by many, but plagued by absolutes. With Pèkisyon Funebri, MMMD has signified a formic return after a brief cartographical break from its regularly scheduled programming. It’s a quiet return at first, as opener “Az álmok itt érnek véget (rész 1)” culls an open landscape, a place where blood has been shed by neighbors who have found themselves equal under a force more terrible than God. “Qoxra” follows, a tremor-inducing dirge for everything that has been lost since “Liberig Min.” What follows is as nerve-wracking as it is steadying, and while my complete ignorance of Greek language obscures my semiotic reading of Pèkisyon Funebri as a multi-movement piece, my feeling is that its slow, plodding drones are of great human import somehow.
Unlike its stylistic predecessor, Pèkisyon Funebri is broken down into many long form movements. There are hiccups here, moments of letting up that are later infiltrated by solid, unyielding sound. “Sorsa” is punctuated by muted pulses, for instance, offering real moments of reprieve from this conjured world’s constant gravity while amplifying more sinuous, time-defying stretches of obligatory crying out like on “Malproksime” and closer “Erdia Da.” Whereas Som Sakrifis felt like that riddle about what has four legs by morning, two by afternoon, and three by evening, Pèkisyon Funebri asks “What’s in my pockets?” Its massiveness, sustained by a bold confidence in potentially liberating non sequiturs, signals a subtle change in trajectory toward a shadowy asymptote; this may not be MMMD’s magnum opus, but its power is great and its cohesion as a work is palpable. And like Som Sakrifis, its reach is absolute. Uniquely, its staying power suggests that MMMD’s reach can transcend time, bridging a Middle Earth and a dying one.
A function of drone as a form is that it grabs and sustains our attention in its steadfastness. It slows us down. It directs our attention. It soundtracks our movements, placing new and unusual stresses on our actions in time. As an electroacoustic genre, its affectiveness relies on subjectivity, while its deliberateness is a sign that begs some kind of reflection. Is Pèkisyon Funebri all-encompassing then? I’m not sure. Its reaches in reality are relatively short as its audience is limited by dedication and access, but its potential, I think, is a unifying one, even if it unifies primarily by pressing down on everything equally. Much like Barry Lyndon’s Epilogue, Pèkisyon Funebri reminds us of our fundamental equality amidst violent inequity: “It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarrelled. Good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor. They are all equal now.” So what do we do from here while we are alive? Well, as TMTer Mukqs once said, “Just sit and listen.” Let it all sink in. Let it make your bones shake. Let it change how you walk. Let it bring you down when you feel too proud. Let it pull you up when you feel too small. Let it be and let yourself be changed by its unrelenting resonance. If even for a moment, let it make you feel something so that you have proof of your own dignity when forces of evil threaten it. Let it play. And let it outlive its own dark cloud." [Jackson Scott, Tinymixtapes]
|
2016 |
€58.00 |
|
| MOLJEBKA PVLSE |
lode lvx (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
" Hinter MOLJEBKA PVLSE steckt Mathias Josefson in Stockholm. Lodelvx (DR-91, 7“ EP, schwarzes Vinyl) mischt dröhnende mit klackernden und dongenden Klängen zu ‚atmenden‘ Schwingungen. Mein Traumauge sieht bei ‚lode‘ die sonore Welle als sich in Zeitlupe windenden Körper und die perkussiven Tupfen als Zeichnungen im Schuppenkleid einer Riesenschlange. ‚lvx‘ summt sich einfach nur selbst, eine Noir-Schönheit, die sich auf schwarzem Samt räkelt." [Bad Alchemy]
"For some years now Stockholm based artist MATHIAS JOSEFSON has delighted the drone scene with his highly minimal excursions into drone territory. From harsh noise to soft & gentle ambience
the aim is to reach a basic level of sound conscience. In doing so the "human mind" and the "sound mind" interact to build a symbiotic entity. MOLJEBKA PVLSE is Josefson’s sound art project where he often collaborates with KARIN JACOBSON. The two pieces "lode" and "lvx" are great examples of breathing drone structures which seem to be derived from real string or wind instruments.
Harmonic & mysterious, dense & aspiring.... this is indeed music like a lode of illuminations...
Filed under: BREATHING DRONES
more info: www.moljebka.com
BLACK VINYL, BLACK SILKSCREENED BLACK COVER, WITH EXTRA EMBOSSED WHITE INLAY" [label info]
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| MOLJEBKA PVLSE & HOROLOGIUM |
Kaukasus |
CD |
Die Kaukasus-Region dient auf dieser Zusammenarbeit des schwedischen Projekts MOLJEBKA PVLSE mit den uns bisher unbekannten HOROLOGIUM als inhaltliche Inspirationsquelle.
Trancige Mantra-Drones, hypnotische perkussionsartige Strukturen, überwiegend sehr dronig-rauschig-minimalistisch, spirituelle Atmo. SEHR schöne Verpackung: Gefaltete / Bedruckte Papphülle in Leinen, mit Siegellack verschlossen. [Drone Rec info 2006]
“The highest mountains in Europe have been a place of constant national conflicts ever since. 'Kaukasus' by Moljebka Pvlse and Horologium is an album devoted to this magical and spellbound region, known for its natural beauty and cultural variety. 45 minutes of experimental ambient music on a limited to 555 copies CD edition, which as always comes in a splendid packaging: 260 x 360 cm poster folded in two (13 x 18 cm). A linen clothing is added for your aesthetical pleasure.“ [label info]
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| MOLJEBKA PVLSE / SEVENTEEN MIGS OF SPRING |
Ravha / Electricity Gardens |
CD |
Split & Collaboration vom beliebten schwedischen "Experimental Drone"-Projekt mit den uns bisher unbekannten 17 MIGS OF SPRING aus Tel Aviv. Eröffnet wird das Album durch ein sehr langes, ungewöhnliches Stück von M.P. mit vielen eher konkreten field recordings, welches wieder dessen grosse Variabilität aufzeigt; es folgen ein echtes Collaboration-Stück beider Projekte und 5 Stücke von 17 MIGS OF SPRING, die sich zwischen dunklem drone-ambient und aggressiven Analog-Industrial bewegen.
"It is not every day you find reviews of albums released by Israeli labels in Vital Weekly. Topheth Prophet is an independent Israeli label formed in summer 2002 whose aim is to spread the knowledge of the Israeli noise scene to the outside world. The label focuses on styles ranging from harsh noise across power electronics to dark ambient. This 13th release from the label deals with drone-based ambient music. On this particular release one of the presented projects has its origin in Sweden. It is a split album between Israeli project SEVENTEEN MIGS OF SPRING and Swedish project MOLJEBKA PULSE. The album opens with the 27 minute long track titled "Ravha" from the latter mentioned project. The brain behind Moljebka Pvlse is the Swedish sound artist Mathias Josefson who explores the sounds of both acoustic and electronic origins, quite often with the starting point taken in found sounds and field recordings. The "Ravha"-track is a nice example of Mr. Josefson's ability to transform the sounds of reality into a world of drone-based minimalism. Opening with a mixture of concrete natural sounds and buzzing drones the expression slowly turns more and more harsh as the field recordings develops into noisy drones including spoken words. At a point the concrete sounds fades away or turns into sonic abstraction. The track moves into pure drone ambient minimalism. Nice work.
Seventeen Migs Of Spring is an Israeli project consisting of three members, Gurfa, K-76 and B-74. As was the case with aforementioned Swedish project the conceptual approach of this Israeli project is sonic drones based on concrete sounds. Compared to the Swedish project the Israeli projects goes further to the extremes with sounds of a rather noisy kind. Especially four or the five tracks get quite harsh with the use of an on-going mixture of static noise and radio-based shortwave frequencies. Inbetween the two projects comes a collaborative track that successfully combines the style of the two projects. Everyone interested in drone based ambient with focus on concrete sounds should definitely check out this album. " [NM, Vital Weekly]
label-website: www.tophet.org
|
2007 |
€13.50 |
|
| MOMMUR CHASMA |
Parelspanner |
CD |
A new promising ambient-project from Amsterdam / The Netherlands rising from the ashes of drone-band INDRA KARMUKA is MOMMUR CHASMA, doing a kind of obscure ambient-electronics where analogue drones and bizarre collageous samples meet, somewhere between NURSE WITH WOUND and VANCE ORCHESTRA maybe.. worth to check out !
“The Dutch group Mommur Chasma is a group that creates sounds based on improvisation and itself-creating structures. Using synthesizers, microphones, all kind of electronica and environmental sounds they create a sometimes dreamy, sometimes estranging atmosphere in which the sounds and rhythms lead their own existence. The music varies from low drones to more clearly noisy soundstructures. It's two members played before in Indra Karmuka.” [label description]
|
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| MONOCUBE & TROUM // TROUM & MONOCUBE |
Contemplator Caeli |
LP |
"CONTEMPLATOR CAELI denotes the antique notion and skill of immersing into the (night-) sky, in order to feel connected to the immeasureable dimensions of the universe and the unearthly powers. The celestial spheres and objects are interpretated as living entities, building a shelter for the earth and the humans, reflecting an eternal cosmic order and it's principles. The sky is being watched with deep humbleness, amazement and praise.
Inspired by this old notion TROUM & MONOCUBE wanted to capture it's emotional bearing, understanding the sky also as our 'psychic firmament', the universe that is linked with every single cell in our bodies.
Ukraine's transcension guitar drone project MONOCUBE and German dream atmospherics TROUM collaborated on four long tracks, working with each other's basic material, using acoustic guitars, melodica, accordeon, voice and electronic effects.
The result is this very first vinyl release on TRANSGREDIENT, the initial edition is limited and numbered to 200 copies and comes on multi-"sky"-coloured vinyl and with inlay, feat. a phantastic artwork done by sukkeret.og.pepper studio (Berlin).
Side 1:
A1 CIRCULARIS ET PERPETUA
A2 PRECESSIO ÆQUINOCTIORUM
Side 2:
B1 STELLAE ERRANTIS
B2 DIGRESSIO
digital version:
https://troum.bandcamp.com/album/contemplator-caeli-collab-with-monocube
###########################################
"Although being familiar with both projects, the first thing that drew me to this album was the stunning gothic and celestial-tinged artwork. Upon investigation the visuals specifically tie in with the album’s theme which ‘denotes the antique notion and skill of immersing into the (night-) sky, in order to feel connected to the immeasurable dimensions of the universe and the unearthly powers. The celestial spheres and objects are interpreted as living entities, building a shelter for the earth and the humans, reflecting an eternal cosmic order and its principles. The sky is being watched with deep humbleness, amazement and praise’.
Circularis Et Perpetua opens the album, blending mournful drones and what appear to be treated choirs sitting in the middle to the back of the mix. Hitting its stride early, the tone swells in a cyclic rising and falling manner and hints at grandiose night-time vistas; this maintains consistency over the eight-minute span. In contrast to the ethereal mood that the choirs provide on the first track, a more earthbound perspective is articulated on Precessio Aequinoctiorum via the use of a lone male singing (courtesy of Monocube?), blended with widescreen enveloping drones. Stellae Errantis opens Side B, and is slightly less flowing than the preceding material as the caustic and tensile atmosphere sounds to be constructed around treated field recordings and layered foghorn drones. But the absolute highlight track is the final one, Digressio: an amazing piece of melancholy minimalism, based around reverb-drenched and catatonically plucked strings (acoustic guitar?), blended with widescreen melodious bass drones that rise and recede over an extended length.
If you enjoy the output of either or both projects, you will clearly find much to like with this release. While the first three tracks are enjoyably good, it is the fourth that is the absolute standout. Pressed in 200 copies in clear coloured vinyl, a full colour cover and insert rounds out the exquisite presentation."
[Noise Receptor]
|
2020 |
€20.00 |
|
| MONOS (DARREN TATE & COLIN POTTER) |
Above the Sky |
CD |
"Finally the ‘new’ album from Monos sees the light of day. Spanning a period of almost four years and involving their one and only public performance, the trio of Darren Tate, Colin Potter and Paul Bradley finally agree that everything is where it should be and the CD is released. Two long contrasting tracks; the familiar and unfamiliar, the context changed, the final result very different, yet at the same time completely natural and cohesive." [label info]
www.icrdistribution.com
"Over the past few years, Darren Tate has been wandering into
some wildly weird electronics, broadening the scope of his aesthetic
beyond the seminal recordings he made with Andrew Chalk (amongst
others) as Ora, and more recently through Monos. For the most part,
Monos has been a collaborative project between Tate and Nurse With
Wound engineer extrordinaire Colin Potter, but at other times, we're
pretty sure that Tate is the only one behind the wheel. For Above The
Sky, the Monos line-up includes Tate, Potter, and fellow British
dronescraper Paul Bradley; and this record is a top notch, vintage
sounding Monos disc for sure.
The extended pieces found on this album were culled from the
one and only live Monos gig in 2006, the handful of recordings from
that gig were processed, recreated, forgotten about, rediscovered, and
processed again throughout various starts and stops over the next four
years. The resulting album is surprisingly coherent, presenting itself
as a sinewy mass of undulating drones dappled with various textures,
shadowy events, field recordings, subtle instrumentation, and then
some. The ghostly ambience that introduces this album is sublimely
beautiful, like the druggy drones of Nurse With Wound (e.g. Soliloquy
For Lilith) or the permafrost laden expanses of Thomas Koner or even a
darker version of Leyland Kirby's much-lauded hauntological ambience.
Distant sound elements of scraped metal echo to the foreground, as the
latent sounds from some occluded ritual in some forgotten place.
Shimmering acoustic clouds of resonance peel away into field
recordings of numerous birds flitting about. Later on, semi-melodic
phrases hover near the event horizon dominated by ominous electrical
vibrations and dilated drone fields. Seriously, this is fantastic stuff!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| MOORE, AARON |
The Accidental |
CD |
Erste Solo-CD des VOLCANO THE BEAR – Mitglieds, 7 Stücke mit betörenden Drone-Texturen, Piano-Minimalismen, Keyboard-Drones, Vibraphon & Becken-Tupfer, alles sehr “privat”, intim und ruhig... perfekte Mitternachts-Musik.
".. as a founding member of the english experimental group volcano the bear, aaron moore has been a part of creating some of the most stimulating and diverse music of the last 10 years with releases on nurse with wound’s united dairies label, and the american label, beta-lactam ring records, to name but two.
‘the accidental’ is moore’s first solo release and is in stark contrast to his drumming and vocal work with volcano the bear.
using such instrumentation as bowed and beaten vibraphone, cymbal, chord organ, thumb piano and keyboard, mainly concentrating with one instrument per track, moore has created an album of mesmerizing beauty.
shifting, woozy soundscapes, blurred drones, soft conjuring, and deep meditations - perfect for late night headphone trips.
on ‘three guineas’, a keyboard is used to create a new lullaby in which we are reminded of years past.
the majority of these recordings, made at his home in leicester on a digital 8 track and one microphone in 2003 were intended for an aborted collaboration with oren ambarchi. they then sat on his machine for a year or so until, with the nagging of friends, he set about doing something with them.
some of the tracks, he felt, needed the hand of another so he sent some tracks to friends andrew liles, luke fowler and alex neilson to collaborate on. they in turn sent the finished tracks back to moore where he set about editing them for inclusion on ‘the accidental’.
the title, ‘the accidental’ comes from the fact that were it not for the original aborted collaboration attempt with ambarchi, moore would not have recorded this music.
moore is continuing his work with volcano the bear and his new duo, dragon or emperor, as well as planning several collaborations in the coming months. if a follow up to ‘the accidental’ is to happen, then maybe it will be on purpose next time?!" [label info]
www.elsieandjack.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| MOUTHUS |
No Canal |
CD |
"Guitar, drums and electronics. There are no further requirements for turning the world on its head. Since their inception in 2002, Mouthus from Brooklyn have delighted and enraptured their audience. Thundering noise eruptions, mail-fisted guitar drones, infernal drumbeats and an indomitable drive are these devilish duos hallmarks. This is undiluted rock ‘n’ rock for noise junkies. When it comes to live performances, Mouthus are unbeatable. Nevertheless, in order to nourish the other parts of the soul, Mouthus alternate their teeth-grindingly loud shows with recordings into which rage and energy are consummately channelled. No Canal follows a different path altogether. Guitarist Brian Sullivan and drummer Nate Nelson lead the listener on a journey of exploration. Past bricked-up walls of sound and through a swamp of drones the duo descries a terra incognita, a dark world of sound in which innocent idylls of nature are soon subjected to the destructive forces of industrialisation.
Initially, pastoral guitar parts are heard, pursued by drums in the distance. This is ethereal music in the tradition of bands like Popol Vuh. The promised land is hidden behind low mist and impenetrable green. But all hope proves idle: torturing guitar feedback and tribal drums soon tear the dream apart. The industrial torrent of sound seems unstoppable. This is music that reveals itself as a tired, technological beast with a slow heartbeat and creaking limbs. The subliminal menace and naked demise remain audible and tangible. This is a story that has to be told. Mouthus cannot be silenced.
No Canal is packed in the beautiful 'envelope' packaging, designed and hand printed by Jason Dodg" [label info]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2008 |
€13.50 |
|
| MUELLER, JON |
Strung |
LP |
JON MUELLER auf Abwegen: Für seinen Beitrag in der Guitar-Series von TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS muss der Perkussionist auch an die Gitarre - und begeistert mit einem kraftvollen, loopig-hypnotischen Track... klares Vinyl !
"Peripatetic composer, performer, improviser, and designer Jon Mueller is a busy guy, and both the rock and experimental music scenes are the richer for it. As a drummer, he propels the ecstatic whorl of Collections of Colonies of Bees and the occasional guitar army of Rhys Chatham; alternately his solo project, Metals, is the most harrowingly intense percussive barrage you'll ever encounter. He also finds time to collaborate with artists ranging from Wilco's Glenn Kotche to Swans' Jarboe. Whether it's minimalist bombast, free-improv interplay, or electro-acoustic finesse, Mueller's got it covered. But what can he do with a guitar? In Strung, Mueller doesn't play the guitar; he scrambles its molecules. Laying down a photon-blast of sound, he initiates a relentless, rapid-pulse attack signal that summons wave upon wave of white noise. Think inexorable alien invasion -- The Day The Earth Stood Still, with Lou Reed as Klaatu and Metal Machine Music as the message. Earth doesn't stand a chance." Pressed on clear vinyl with great Savage Pencil etching on the b-side." [label info]
"Already noted before: Table Of The Elements love Jon Mueller, and who doesn't? Here he leaves the drum kit for what it is and plays guitar, as an addition to the labels Guitar Series Vol. 3, an one-sided LP (the other side has an etching, which is a bit hard to see in transparent vinyl) of Mueller playing the guitar as if it was a mechanical beast. Perhaps with rotating blades? A ventilator? Mueller cuts out, in a rhythmical manner, sounds and thus one strum arises, repeated, until the full guitar orchestra falls in, with full blown drones. A very consistent idea that is worked out well, and makes this sound like a great album, coming from a great tradition: from Lou Reed to Glenn Branca to Earth. At the same time it also sounds like a Mueller record, with amplified hums. Perhaps a bit too short, as this seems over before it has properly started, it seems. The built-up takes some time because it keeps shifting back and forth, adding a strange movement to the piece. This is a great record, showing a new side for Mueller I think." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.tableoftheelements.com
|
2008 |
€16.50 |
|
| |
Alphabet of Movements |
LP |
"With the music of Milwaukee-native Jon Mueller, patience is the key. His radical snare workouts are meditative master-classes in drumming, but require a distinct offering of time and attention to truly enjoy the dense clouds of sound his music creates. After crafting 2010's critically-acclaimed The Whole, Mueller decided to put together a live set that, while not reflecting the over-dubbed nature of the album itself, reflected the philosophy held within. The result was "I Almost Expect To Be Remembered As A Chair," and Mueller proceeded to perform this piece at various venues across the USA. Utilizing a unique snare drum set-up, which finds the drums mounted on small amplifiers, Mueller's enviable focus is put center-stage and his resolve transferred absolutely into this dense, moving 20-minute piece. Here, the composition has been recorded to tape with a tireless attention to detail by Greg Norman at Steve Albini's legendary Electrical Audio studio. The haunting, resonant drones spring to life with a surprising clarity, and the silo's natural reverb gives the percussion a deeply human quality. On the first piece, Mueller sticks to his chosen snare, slowly ramping the buzzing rhythm into near-cacophony. By the time the piece is fully formed, you barely notice the change you have witnessed, but are surrounded by a cloud of thick, resonant, cavernous drones. The second rendition moves the composition to gongs and sees the dense resonance enhanced by the instruments' singular plethora of harmonics. It is hard these days to emerge with music that could honestly be described as original, but Alphabet Of Movements is a truly singular piece of work. The focus that Mueller injects into his composition is unmatched, and his interpretation of drone and noise is absolutely on its own. Listen, absorb, and let the sounds permeate; you'll be coming back for more in no time at all. Cut at Berlin's Dubplates and Mastering." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2011 |
€16.50 |
|
| MULTER |
Däghallmy |
LP |
Neue Gruppe aus Dortmund mit ihrer ersten LP. Feinste Guitar-Drones, Glöckchen, gepitchte Sounds, Obertöne, absolut ruhig-entspannte & dunkle Atmo...auf der B-Seite das 21minütige Stück DÄGHALLMY, lediglich das Stück PRAE-/LOOP fällt mit etwas heftigeren Gitarren-Feedbacks aus dem ambientösen Rahmen... trotzdem ein sehr vielversprechendes Debut.. [Drone Rec info 1998]
www.genesungswerk.de |
1998 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Wenn Schauzeichen erscheint, sind die SYSTEME gekuppelt! |
10inch |
MULTER tauchen einen hier in ein Bad aus sirrend-rhythmischen Electronics und gleissenden Gitarren-tunes – sehr trocken und eindringlich, auf den Punkt gespielt, hell erleuchet irgendwie. MULTER drown you here into a bath made of high-pitched rhythmic electronics and shining guitartunes, very dry and intense, illuminated somehow...
“ 3 tracks of sliding beautiy: electronic beats plus guitar drones and shrieking synth noise, ca. 20 min. hand stamped cover, lim. 500” [label info]
www.aufabwegen.de
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Berge im Bunker |
CD |
"The two tracks on this release are based on the music that was originally composed for the Berge im Bunker exhibition by Barbara Meisner that ran from August 2008 to May 2009 in Dortmund. The collage is a repeating, light melodic environmental soundscape that creates an unheimlich feel, while incorporating all [multer] elements: loops, electronica , drones... Still it is not a typical release for the German duo as it is their most minimal effort up to date. The music will get the best out of your imagination.
CD (NO CD-R) limited to 200 copies." [label info]
www.consouling.be
"Zwei Stücke mit auditiv ähnlich gelagerter Faktur. Der Soundtrack zu einer Installation rückt [multer] von der gegenwärtigen Theorie einer Konzeptband in den unheilvollen Kunstbetrieb. Dabei sind die Klänge von [multer] unter dem Corrige von N seit jeher Träger von Stimmungen und emotionalen Miasmen, deren Inhalte sich durch das Goutieren im
klanglichen Zusammenspiel noch mehr aufzuladen scheinen. »Berge Im Bunker« klingt aber so
wenig kunstaffin als nach einem gewagten Experiment in Zeit und Raum. Die Musik ist
defizitär sparsam, die Verwendung hochauflösender Echoschleifen geradezu gewollt
zeitbrechend. Was sich nach einer minimalen Tapete für stehendes Kunstgut ausnimmt,
funktioniert auf der Hörebene ohne visuelle Kontrapunkte ebenso. Das Album wirkt in den
zwei Titeln gekonnt zerbrechlich, die Gitarre surrt melodramatische Arpeggien ab während
der Raum sich durch sanfte Gongklänge in eine mantraartige Struktur verdickt, die sich nur
durch den immerwährend wiederholenden Absatz markiert. Wiederholung, das sah selbst
Cage als wichtig und nötig an denn nur so kann sich Veränderung einschleichen. Hier brechen [multer] mit dem gewohnten Bild einer rhythmisch veräderten Musik, die sich auf
»Berge Im Bunker« mit einem Male in ein Zerrbild ihrer selbst verwandelt. Nicht für jeden ein Gewinn, aber ein grandioses Zusammenspiel von Kunst und Konzeption.
5/5 " [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| MURMER |
What are the Roots that clutch |
CD |
"It was a cavernous tone that broadcast from a ventilator duct that inspired Patrick McGinley to begin collecting field recordings and working them into his slow-arc compositions. At the time when he heard that particular tone in that particular city at that particular time, he had no gear to recording device on hand. Over the next fifteen years (and counting) McGinley has eased into a peripatetic lifestyle, wandering the European countryside and forests (but never straying too far from the thrum and spark of civilization) in search of the same epiphany with his head rattled to the sound of a cavernous air duct.
Around 1996, McGinley adopted the moniker Murmer for his compositional work; and though his work often steps into the quieter realm of sound construction, much of his field recordings and resultant compositions privilege interference and disturbances that occur within any given sound ecology. Those sounds could be the elusive tone from that ventilator, the polyrhythmic chorus of chirping frogs, the abstracted roar from an Arctic wind tearing across the Black Sea, or the metallic skree from a bowed antenna perched atop a Soviet-era observatory. What Are The Roots That Clutch marks McGinley's first full album in nearly 5 years, but it marks an elegant continuation of his previous album We Share A Shadow. The five chapters of this album can't easily be associated with any specific location; instead McGinley overlaps and crosshatches his field recordings and abstractions into acousmatic passages with ghostly, half-melodic qualities. Even the two unprocessed recordings of the album are impossibly complex in their accretions of sound. McGinley's composed pieces embrace lithe, mysterious drones whose mossy, damp atmosphere perfectly situate with tactile crunches, tactile events, and signal noise generation. Eels and leaches would not be out of place in such an environment; but the subaquatic murk snaps into a hallowed manifestation of ritualized minimalism at the album's finale -- one that LaMonte Young and Angus Maclise might have conjured in 1968 with clattering percussive elements and a hypnotic blur of harmonic drone.
What Are The Roots That Clutch is limited to 400 copies and comes housed with letterpress artwork." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"Patrick McGinley just carries on. Working as Murmer since 1996 he has a strong love for the world of field recordings and electronics. Since quite some time now he lives in Estonia and walks the woods to tape his sounds, takes them home and then transforms them in whatever mysterious way. Five long pieces, from mere six minutes to eighteen minutes. The two pieces that stay under ten minutes are 'unmanipulated found sounds', the other three are 'composed from found sounds, found objects and live room feedback'. Its easy to tell the difference between one and the other. The 'pure' pieces are indeed pure pieces in which we hear the obscure sounds of motors, ventilators, or otherwise objects moved by say wind, while in the other three, McGinely chooses for a slow built up of events. A simple, single sound starts up and then slowly more and more sounds are added, sine wave like sounds leap slowly in and then at one point you'll notice that the entire piece seem to have changed and you
have a full on, minimal yet maximum output sound, such as for instance in the fifth (untitled) piece when the pots and pans in the kitchen start to vibrate and we have an interesting minimalist clutter piece, that is halfway between a drone piece and a Velvet Underground jam. Maybe that's where the real surprise of this release is, in that development of field recordings towards very interesting (and very good) minimalist, electronic music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"In looking at his discography alone, Patrick McGinley (aka Murmer) might not seem to be such a prolific artist; although he's certainly dedicated his entire existence to the pursuit of the field recording, its use in composition, and avant-garde sound practices in general. Each week, McGinley produces the ever enlightening Framework radio series dedicated to those very topics, starting out of Resonance FM in London with syndication now reaching several dozen adventurous radio stations across the globe. He's also active in curating a quarterly series of small cd-r editions of sound ecology, phonography, and field recording based sound art; and he also is an active participant in the Estonian avant-garde, as he's currently planted himself in the university city of Tartu. What Are The Roots That Clutch is his first full album in nearly seven years. Has it really been that long? That said, McGinley did work on a brilliant collaborative project with John Grzinich and Yannick Dauby, and he released a 3"cd-r for Taalem, both of which came out earlier this year in 2012. McGinley quips that he put the recordings aside to this record for well over a year, which may account in part for the delay; but ultimately, all of the recordings from Murmer are timeless. What Are The Roots That Clutch is no exception.
The field recordings that McGinley collects hedge towards disturbances in any given sound ecology, as found in the abrasive textures from a busted exhaust vent comingling with the Aeolian harmonics from the sustained gusts streaming down from the North Sea. McGinley does include two relatively unaltered field recordings (probably some minor filtering, but that's all) within the thoroughly abstracted and droned out compositions. One of these features a very eerie fundamental harmonic drone, obviously being activated by the wind and coupled with a glistening rattle and an unfurled flapping. The three elements here make for a surprisingly musical, if totally alien sounding piece that's akin to the Alan Lamb wire recordings. The album's 17 minute centerpiece is a slow building blur of industrial resonance and densely layered aquatic filigree that melts into chunks of clattering ice (it could be wood or glass... but ice is just so much more poetic to consider given the context); but the album's finale is where McGinley really gives us something to sink our teeth into. A comparatively harsh stutter of electrical abrasion builds up to a crescendo through water-tank rumblings and fire and / or water textures. At the peak, McGinley snaps to a downright psychedelic raga of back-masked belltones, harmonium drones, and percussive clatter that all comes together in a minimalist chorale on par with anything that Angus Maclise mustered in his dervishes and mantras.
As great as McGinley's last record was, What Are The Roots That Clutch might be even better. Handsomely packaged in letterpress artwork whose ochre-yellow hue matches the color of an Estonian farm house he's quite fond of. Limited to 400 copies." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| MURRAY, BRENDAN |
Commonwealth |
CD |
Dröhnminimalismus pur! Poly-Drones die sich in endlosen Wellen umeinander legen, regelrecht anfangen zu schlingern. Aufs "erste Hören": Statik. Beim genaueren Hinhören: Eine unendliche Klangfülle, tänzelnde Obertöne, schwingende Frequenzen in multiplen Schichten, stetige Veränderungen und Verschiebungen. Der Drone-Gott steckt in den Details! Eine sehr feine Aufnahme des Bostoner Klangkünstlers BRENDAN MURRAY!
"Nie wurden Sehnen mehr gedehnt als über Murrays 49 Minuten Commonwealth. Nur Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue oder Jean-Francois Laporte erzeugen solch sture Dronegebilde, in denen schüchterne Obertöne zu gigantischen Kolossen mutieren und Langatmigkeit den klaren Ton angibt. Harmonieansätze tauchen in diesem Wall aus Gitarre und analogen/digitalen Soundmanipulationen nur ganz spärlich auf und entblößen sich rasch als hilflose Wegweiser vergangener Genres. Nostalgie spielt allerdings keine Rolle, Commonnwealth schabt nach vorne, dezentriert Zeit und vermag sogar den Bewegungsapparat zu blockieren. Liest sich eventuell zu statisch, wirkt unter der Oberfläche aber äußerst drastisch. " [Ed Benndorf / DE BUG]
"Brendan Murray has become a central figure in Boston’s sound art vanguard through a reputation of exceptional live performances and a growing catalogue of slow-shifting compositions for rarified drones. A single crescendo terminating at the end of 49 minutes, Commonwealth is an epic investigation into subtle harmonics and overtones expressed through layered slippages of pure sound. Conceived through guitar, analog synthesis, and plenty of digital manipulation, Commonwealth expresses a rare confidence in Murray's finely tuned detailing of sinewy tonalities and sculpted megalithic surfaces. Murray himself has qualified this album as a "sincere bow to 'classic' minimalism," and Commonwealth is a worthy parallel to the work of Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue, and Iannis Xenakis." [label info]
"We've ballyhooed Brendan Murray's exceptional, yet perennially overlooked drone & din work in the past; but nothing could have prepared us for Commonwealth. Damn, this guy is good. No, wait; he's fucking great! After a handful of cd-r productions, a Twonicorn cassette, and a fine cd release on Intransitive of processed shimmer, shifting frequencies, and some low-end girth rumblings for our bligatory SUNNO))) reference, Brendan Murray has produced his best work to date with Commonwealth. Compositionally, it's incredibly simple: a drone goes up, and it goes down. It lasts a little under 50 minutes. But buried with this single minded composition, there are thick spun rumbles, reflective vibrations, sympathetic sub-harmonics, and rich tonal frequencies. Out of the constant tectonic whir that introduces Commonwealth, shimmering clusters sound like a battery of reed organs or hurdy-gurdies, slowly modulating into heavier, deeper drones. We've been told that the source material for these sounds is guitar, although you'd be hard pressed to hear anything guitar-shaped anywhere on the disc. It's far more like the hallowed minimalist sound of Charlemagne Palestine and La Monte Young. Dare we say, it's better? Yes, Murray's drone hums like a perfectly tuned machine, with multiple pistons purring in a steady progress along Commonwealth's compositional arc. When Murray shifts the focus of the album downward, which begins not even halfway through the piece, the descent is noticeable; but it actually becomes Murray's most fertile work within Commonwealth. Here, low rhythmic thrumbs crawl beneath
the surface of the slowly collapsing drone, precluding its inevitable terminus. Perfect trance-enducing dronemuzik. Fans of Aidan Baker, Andrew Chalk, and Phill Niblock should definitely take note!" [Aquarius Records ]
"... Much louder and less subtle, this is loud drone music, one of the kind that Niblock plays live. Although playing music on headphones is not something I usually recommend, this piece sounds pretty fine on headphones, pressing air against your ears, making a thunderous storm, which shoots right in your brain. Towards the end the volume drops a bit in favor of more heavy weight bass sounds, forming the natural ending to a heavy work. Murray delivers, once again, a mighty fine album that will be another step forward in recognizing him as a true master of the genre. Fans of classical drone music be aware - this is the classic of the future." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.23five.org
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| MUSLIMGAUZE |
Zuriff Moussa |
CD |
Eine der eher “poppigen”, fast schon tanzbaren releases von 1997, jetzt wiederaufgelegt im edlen Design. Limited Edition of 800, comes in new cover and special paper.
"Instead of the drones and mostly beatless atmospheres of many previous Muslimgauze recordings, Zuriff Moussa presents quite a danceable switch for Bryn Jones. Dedicated to a Palestinian martyr, the album sounds like a cleaner version of Techno Animal, with Eastern influences instead of dub. "Turkquoize Label" and "Brazil Marijuana" are surprisingly infectious, with distorted breakbeats and the patented Muslimgauze phased-channel drone. There are 24 tracks spread across more than an hour, so there isn't a large amount of time for each track, though several are presented in suites, like "Anti Arab America." For messed-up beat fans who are able to find it, Zuriff Moussa is close to a crucial purchase." [John Bush, All Music Guide]
|
2004 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Muhammadunize |
do-LP |
Listeners who know much of anything about Bryn Jones' work as Muslimgauze know that he was prolific in both his work and Muhammadunize, has what could be called a classic feel to it, with a very familiar blend of drones, string instruments, and synths, and varying percussion/break-beat patterns, in turn mixed with a number of hard-to-catch vocal samples. It's a formula used many times in the past by Jones, yet somehow he still manages to keep things just fresh enough, investing songs like the first and second "Khalifate" and especially both slamming versions of "Imad Akel" with enough unexpected touches. He incorporates the basic power of his work in the tracks as well, with both beauty and a nervy, hard-to-define tension as the songs progress. The sound palette of Muhammadunize is very similar to his ambient-techno albums such as Mullah Said and Gun Aramaic, down to the rhythms and the trademark tanpura drones and keys in C minor. The difference is that it's a bit more aggressive and faster-paced than the aforementioned albums, thus utilizing a similar dark atmosphere to a more immediate and in-your-face effect, especially as noted by the drum-kit urban-sounding pulse of "Imad Akel", one of the high points on this album. However, a favorite track here is the closer "Fatah Guerrilla" (also title track of the whole triple album), featuring a rapid echoed rhythm along with a barrage of percussion popping up and echoing every so often, sounding like they're flying through the room at a quick pace; the piece also features a beautiful flute melody which combines with the busy rhythm section in an interesting way.
|
2022 |
€32.00 |
|
|
Lo-Fi India Abuse |
LP |
India Lo-Fi Abuse was recorded in 1998, some tracks are "pure" Muslimgauze and some are re-mixs of tracks from Systemwide's "Sirius" CD (see also Systemwide meets Muslimgauze "at the City of the Dead" 12"). Nearly all of the tracks have hand percussion in varying tempos and intensities and at least 1/2 make use of electronic noise surges. The sound is very crisp and clean, extremely well produced, recorded and nicely varied throughout the length of the disc. Some track by track comments: "Antalya" is obviously from the same sessions as "Fakir Sind" seeing as it shares the same hand percussion sound, whistles, vocal wailing, cut-ups and delays. "Valencia Flames" sounds like a Systemwide remix. A dub bass line, hi-hat and background vocal of some sort are all obliterated by numerous delays, starts, stops and re-starts with an unpredictable nature in these cut-up tracks. "Al Souk Dub" injects background voices, market sounds and drones into the cut-up mix of slow hand percussion playing. "Catacomb Dub" and the final two tracks make use of twinkling synth waves, presumably a Systemwide sound source. "Dust of Saqqara" has a heavy pulsating electronic sound wave over an old beat box rhythm. "Android Cleaver" is brutal (as is "Nommos' Afterburn") hand percussion, jabs of noise and an oft repeated, unintelligible vocal sample. Yes, India Lo-Fi Abuse is yet another great Muslimgauze release, grab it! - Brainwashed.com
All tracks recorded by Muslimgauze 1998
Some tracks are re-mixes from Systemwide’s “Sirius” album
Re-mastered by Višeslav Laboš
Sleeve by Oleg Galay
Originally released in 1999 via BSI Records (BSI 1999-3).
An Other Voices Records / Kontakt Audio Co-operation Release
https://kontaktaudio.bandcamp.com/album/lo-fi-india-abuse |
2023 |
€24.00 |
|
| |
Lo-Fi India Abuse |
pic-LP |
12" Picture Disc LP
• Remastered
• Special Die-Cut Sleeve
• Limited to 500 copies
India Lo-Fi Abuse was recorded in 1998, some tracks are "pure" Muslimgauze and some are re-mixs of tracks from Systemwide's "Sirius" CD (see also Systemwide meets Muslimgauze "at the City of the Dead" 12"). Nearly all of the tracks have hand percussion in varying tempos and intensities and at least 1/2 make use of electronic noise surges. The sound is very crisp and clean, extremely well produced, recorded and nicely varied throughout the length of the disc. Some track by track comments: "Antalya" is obviously from the same sessions as "Fakir Sind" seeing as it shares the same hand percussion sound, whistles, vocal wailing, cut-ups and delays. "Valencia Flames" sounds like a Systemwide remix. A dub bass line, hi-hat and background vocal of some sort are all obliterated by numerous delays, starts, stops and re-starts with an unpredictable nature in these cut-up tracks. "Al Souk Dub" injects background voices, market sounds and drones into the cut-up mix of slow hand percussion playing. "Catacomb Dub" and the final two tracks make use of twinkling synth waves, presumably a Systemwide sound source. "Dust of Saqqara" has a heavy pulsating electronic sound wave over an old beat box rhythm. "Android Cleaver" is brutal (as is "Nommos' Afterburn") hand percussion, jabs of noise and an oft repeated, unintelligible vocal sample. Yes, India Lo-Fi Abuse is yet another great Muslimgauze release, grab it! - Brainwashed.com
All tracks recorded by Muslimgauze 1998
Some tracks are re-mixes from Systemwide’s “Sirius” album
Re-mastered by Višeslav Laboš
Sleeve by Oleg Galay
Originally released in 1999 via BSI Records (BSI 1999-3).
An Other Voices Records / Kontakt Audio Co-operation Release
|
2023 |
€29.00 |
|
| MUSTERION |
The Black Lodge |
CD |
Uns bisher unbekanntes Projekt auf HORUS, mit erster (?) Veröffentlichung unter diesem Namen. THE BLACK LODGE ist keine einfache Zusammenstellung von Musikstücken, sondern eher ein theatralisch-szenischer Soundtrack zu einer dunklen Geschichte oder Vision, mit Bezug zu LOVECRAFT, BURROUGHS, KEROUAC, GINSBERG. Das klingt sehr neoklassisch & dunkel instrumental, ist aber auch in elektro-akustischer Weise mit Stimmen & allen möglichen Geräuschen versehen, liegt also zwischen Neo-Klassik / Filmsoundtrack und Elektro-Akustik. Das ganze Werk wirkt wie in einem Traum oder einer Halluzination gehört… Grossformatige Hülle & Kunstdruck-Booklet, nummerierte Auflage von 500 Stück !
"The Black Lodge", a world beyond, is the place were Agent Dale Cooper is trapped. He travers through memories, dreams, Tibet, the works of H. P. Lovecraft and more. The Agent possesses the body of the late Jerzy Grotowski as he do his last journey among the walking dead. The visions of Cooper are seen, heard and felt in this avant-garde and exquisitely dark ambient album from Musterion, Simon AA Kölle (Za Frûmi, Abnocto). The Black Lodge is a place of murder, dreams, mystery, darkness, ancient machines, old memories and horror. A shrieking violin swells into a chaotic babel of sound; a pandemonium that would have lead most men to doubt their own shaking sanity. Inarticulate cries that only mutes can utter, and that rises only in moments of the most terrible fear or anguish.
With extreme attention to details this profound opus of the mind leads the listener away from the normal world and into the world of the Black Lodge. Garmonbozia!“ [label description]
“....In order to induce such a hallucinatory listening experience Musterion creates music using a wide array of instrumentation ranging from traditional and classical acoustic instruments to purely electronic based sounds. Though many songs are shadowed by dark ominous drones the music in each song reaches way beyond the range and habit of standard dark ambient music. Musterion has striven to bring experimentalism to dark ambient music and has successfully created a cinematic environment previously only pursued by too few capable musicians. Musterion “The Black Lodge” is definitely the most powerful full length album I have heard Simon AA Kölle participate upon. Fans of Simon’s previous work as Za Frumi will find the cinematic quality of the music familiar though be informed that the scope and intricateness of the songs far exceed Simon’s work with Za Frumi. I highly encourage dark ambient fans that like music that reaches beyond standard drone music to check out Musterion as well. Anyone with a fetish for H. P. Lovecraft or other dark occult inspired narratives is also encouraged to discover Musterion. Musterion is an invitation to close your eyes and be led into a world of shifting shadows, intrigue, and horror. This excellent release is limited to 500 hand signed copies so collectors be aware of the limited nature of this release.” [Heathen Harvest]
www.horus.cz
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / STEVE RODEN |
Cosmic Debris Volume 2 |
CD |
Interesting collab of two artists / projects that work in totally differents fields of sound-art creation...
"CD re-issue of the second installment in the "Cosmic Debris" split ART-LP series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka My Cat Is An Alien, on their own Opax Records. The Vol.II sees the two space brothers from Torino, Italy, alongside Californian visual and sound artist Steve Roden. What makes this collaborative release so peculiar is the natural interactive exchange occurred between the artists, and that came out from the concept behind the experience itself. Roden's contribution thus represents the unique experience of hearing him literally 'playing' guitar chords. His first track, "E-bows and Rainbows", developes through the minimal and reiterated sound architecture of Roden's so-called 'possible landscapes', where singular source materials such as objects and field recordings are abstracted through electronic processes to generate new audio spaces, characterizing the artist's aesthetic in sound works; the following "My dog is a Yufo" is so far a pretty unheard aspect of Roden's ability to shape a fascinating intimate piece only with an old electric guitar and his own fingers, and it also demonstrates how a true artist can re-create his own personal universe, no matter what kind of source utilized. On their side, MCIAA deliver another piece of 'cosmic debris', centered on multilayered echoes of voice, toy piano, space drones raising from a distant horizon, and their own physical gestures performed during the recording, which reproduce themselves through the air, re-play and give birth to echoes of real time that overcomes its own essence, becoming field recording itself, mirror and spectre of its immutability. Their track entitled "Everything waves like cosmic debris" also features Ramona Ponzini's Japanese bells contribution." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2007 |
€6.66 |
|
| MYSTERY SCHOOL |
Triangle of the Sun |
CD |
"Triangle of the Sun" is an instrumental work that references the male/sun energy - the morning star. It is a land where drones and drum beats live in harmony while creating a vibratory trip through these energies. The three pieces represent the phases of the sun from morning to twilight. Through the use of specific musical frequencies the music allows the listener a meditative journey through the intellectual/logical with hints of South American mythology and magic.”[label info]
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| MYSTIFIED & MARTYN SCHMIDT |
An Effort of Memory |
CD-R |
"ACE 1002: CD-R in folded cardboard sleeve
Many albums in the Attenuation Circuit Eco Series are split releases, but this hour-long composition is a true collaboration with 50 per cent input from both US-based drone artist Mystified and German poet and sound artist Martyn Schmidt. Starting with a poem, Schmidt’s voice morphs into pure vocal improvisation and breathing, both processed to amalgamate with Mystified’s acoustic drones. The result sounds at times like La Monte Young meeting Morton Feldman or like Norwegian experimental jazz singer Sidsel Endresen imitating deep bass strings with her voice.
Using feedback loops, the sound of whale bones played as percussion instruments on a Danish island, and jackhammers from local building sites, Schmidt „encoded, stored and retrieved“ (as the back cover says) lots of samples along with the music by Mystified he was reacting to - encoding, storing, retrieving being the three steps of memory as conceptualised by psychology. Connecting psychoacoustics back to his poetic roots, Schmidt also quotes (on the cover-artwork) the poem “Andenken” (Memory, or Remembrance) by Hölderlin. Memorising, forgetting, and recreating sounds and words turn out to be different sides of the artistic process, and the drone as a music that forever seems to dissolve and congeal, to ebb and flow, to move and stand still, seems a perfect sonic metaphor for this." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
"A collaboration by Thomas Park's project Mystified and Martyn Schmidt, a German poet and sound artist. There is a short spoken word prologue, a sixty-two minute piece of music, and short epilogue. In the main piece, 'An Effort Of Memory', uses, according to the information, 'feedback loops, the sound of whale bones as percussion instruments on a Danish island and jackhammers from local building sites', of which Schmidt made the samples which he combined with the music of Mystified, resulting in this hour long sound collage of all things atmospheric. Forget the word jackhammers (or building site), as there is nothing 'industrial' or loud about this. The music here is all atmospheric, dark in the full moon night, and everything flows into each other. The music may seem an amorphous mass of sounds mixed together, without real beginning or end, and perhaps (I might be wrong) without much compositional planning. More like a go with the flow kind of music, which is nothing strange in this particular musical underworld. None of the sound sources are easily recognized here, if at all, but all is transformed into a long, sustaining mass of atmospherics, and works very well. A cold day today, autumn has arrived it seems and this is the soundtrack for such seasonal weather. Nothing new, but it works very well." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| MYTRIP |
Keeper |
LP |
"The new Mytrip full-length album “Keeper” is a work of progress and growth, of pushing oneself out of comfort zones while managing to stay true to a carefully nurtured and developed aesthetic. A continuation of the sound hinted at in “Filament” (Amek, 2016) and Angel Simitchiev’s recent work with other projects, “Keeper” is a more rhythmic and loop-based work that explores and juxtaposes a plethora of atmospheres and moods, thus resulting in a sonically and emotionally complex and mature piece of music that manages to communicate its author’s singular vision.
The backbone of “Keeper” was originally written for a live performance at the Bulgarian National Radio in October 2018. Self-recorded with the intention to be preserved as a live album, most of the music retains the original structure, feeling, and intensity of this first performance but was further explored and expanded during recording sessions and selected live shows throughout the next year. Some ideas were dismissed while others were expanded on. As a result, “Keeper” has become a record that is polished and meticulous, while sounding and feeling utterly real, raw, and immediate."
https://amekcollective.bandcamp.com/album/keeper
"It has been a couple of years since I last checked in with the activities of Mytrip, but their 2016 album Filament was an excellent release which has received occasional spins over the years. In my review from 2017 I noted it: ‘operates at the border regions between dark ambient, drone, (modern) industrial and (abstracted) experimental techno, therefore encompassing a sound that defies easy categorisation’ (full review here). Keeper is the brand-new six tracks album and while continues also substantially builds on the earlier sonic framework by blending its elements in more varied yet unified way. Also, according to the promo blurb, the core of the album has its basis in a 2018 live performance at the Bulgarian National Radio, which has been further expanded and reworked.
Eyepiece opens the album with amorphous and ethereal drones blended with jittery programming and functions to immediately draw focused attention, before the mid-track it twists off in a different direction with sustained synth melodies. We Are All Shadow People follows and has a sense of stationary motionlessness resulting a series of duelling looped textures and abstracted synth lines. In then arcing away from this stasis, Unsealing Colossus divergently features widescreen vistas with sweeping ‘wind textured’ drones, muted melodious pulses and other semi-fractured rhythmic elements. Blood Black Like Water is then as brooding as the title suggests, based around a murky aquatic churn and throbbing base pulse, while a slow bass kick edges the track forwards. Upheaval shifts the mood again and is extremely filmic in tone, given its driving / throbbing techno pulse and maudlin cinematic synths, while the album’s concluding piece Warmth Patterns, is perhaps the most melodious track of all, with interweaving ‘glimmering’ textures (and perhaps draws a fleeting compassion to the likes of Fennesz).
Each of the six album tracks sits at around the five-minute mark, meaning the total run time is around 30 or so minutes, yet given its compositional variation it nebulously feels to be much longer than this. Equally the abstracted line-work found within nature as illustrated on the the cover is a suitable visual metaphor for the flowing complexity of the music. More varied, freeform and self-assured than Filament, Keeper is equally immediate as it complex in sonic construction, meaning it draws attention on first listen and maintains it on repeated rotations. Recommended." [Noise Receptor]
"Angel Simitchiev is the man behind Mytrip and also acting as the label boss here and as such we know him as a man who loves mood music of the somewhat darker variety. It has been a while since I last heard a full-length work by Mytrip (Vital Weekly 1059 I believe) and I wrote that he "no doubt plays guitar, electronics and field recordings", but that was based on nothing, to be honest. There is a picture of Mytrip on the insert, just second before he starts performing and there is no guitar in sight. A laptop, some 'gear' and that's all. Maybe there has been a shift towards different instruments in recent years that I am not aware of. In the music, this shift is quite clear. The music was written for a show in Studio 1 of the Bulgarian National Radio and later on, some fragments were dropped and others expanded upon. The dark mood from field recordings tuned and turned in drones is a still a presence but rhythm also plays a role now. Not stomping around, but carefully placed when needed, and omitted on other occasions. In 'Upheavel' the "rhythm" sounded like a Muslimgauze sample from the 'Azzazin' era. There is a warm glitch effect to most of the music here, which makes a nice effect for a change. It is perhaps a reminder of the warm days of laptop glitch from a long time ago, but Mytrip cleverly combines this with the best of processed drones and spacious dark ambient music, stringing together another hybrid of what ambient can be. Not something that is entirely new but with the addition of rhythm samples coming up with six fine slabs of dark mood music, which, strange as it may seem, never is the sound of despair, but of light and hope. Maybe I am all wrong but that's how it all sounded to me. Great record, all together." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2020 |
€16.00 |
|
| MZ.412 |
In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi |
CD |
"First of 5 albums in the MZ. 412 reissue series, with a new album planned for next year. 1995 bore witness to the resurrection of nefarious Swedish horde MZ. 412 (previously manifest as Maschinenzimmer 412) - Nordvargr, Drakh, Ulvtharm and Shaitan. This ground-breaking, genre-defining album saw the inventors of "Black Industrial" blur the boundaries between Black Metal, Ritual Industrial, Dark Ambient and Power Noise. "In Nomine..." captures the darkest sides of Satanism, death and ritual sacrifice. An enduring, blasphemous statement of True Swedish Black Industrial. This remastered version features two previously unreleased tracks, alternate versions and all new artwork. Housed in a matt digipak with spot varnishing." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Swedish label Cold Meat Industry was one of the leading labels to release industrial-based ambient-albums that was often termed black ambient or death ambient. One of the true legends from the label was Swedish artist known as MZ. 412 who together with compatriot artists Deutsch Nepal and Brighter Death Now was a leading artist to form the style of Cold Meat Industry. Now more than one decade later British label Cold Spring has taken the trip back to the past to the early days of MZ. 412 and now releases all five albums from the master of black magic. Mz. 412 was originally born as Maschinenzimmer 412. Brain-man behind was Henrik "Nordvargr" Bjorkk who has also released solo-albums under the name Nordvargr with among others collaborations with noise artist Merzbow. Mz 412 circulates in-between spheres of industrial, power electronics and dark ambient with a black metal edge. Maschinenzimmer 412 was developed in 1989, where the shortage MZ. 412 became actual from 1994 forward. All five re-issues have been remastered and comes in a neat package: A black designed digipacinner sleeve with minimalist front-design and early satanic artwork painting on the inner sleeve. First two releases "In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi" (1994) and "Burning the temple of god" (1995) is ritual works of martial rhythm textures and subtle drones of crushing power electronics. What is remarkable by these two is the elements of black metal expressions that suits well into the black atmospheres. On the next album "Nordik battle signs" from 1998 the expression seems darker and more heavy. Elements of black metal has disappeared. Instead the expression is more brutal with crushing power electronics. The album among others contains the absolutely astonishing pieces of ritual brutality "Satan Jugend II : Global conqueering" and "In hoc signo vinces". As we move to next album "Domine Rex Inferum" the expressions turns more subdued with focus on black ambient expressions until the final tracks where hell breaks loose with destructible power electronics. Last album in the box originally was released five years after the aforementioned previous album "Domine Rex Inferum". The album titled "Infernal affairs" moves away from the subtle textures of "Domine Rex Inferum" and thus takes the listener in to more upfront and bombastic textures of Industrial with elements of utterly dark ambient and cynic black noise. Hordes of samples from humans whispering, conversing and sometimes screaming in pain saturates the album meanwhile black whooshing drones creates a cinematic atmosphere. An absolutely astonishing boxset demonstrating why MZ 412 is considered one of the true kings of the Swedish black industrial-scene launched from Cold Meat Industry. A true milestone!" [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| N / MOLOCH / E H E |
Live at N51 21064 ° E6 783782 ° (28 11 2015) |
LP |
"With this collaboration, my ongoing search for musical challenge has led my into the territories of harsh noise; something I never did before... It happened after Moloch + E.H.E. and me shared the stage during some festivals, respectively I listened to them during Moloch + E.H.E. shows. I immediately liked how they manage to use noise in a very dynamic way, not always full blast, but really being able to tell a story with more than just one facette... And: they are not using laptop only as a source; the main part of their sound is created using a really difficult to see through bunch of effect-boxes with a labyrinth of wiring. So the cacophony (NOT meant negative in this case) in sound and the visual cacophony of wiring and pedals really comes together when you have a look on the tables on stage, spread all over with their tools... Besides the pure sound, the visual aspect is significant anyway: At least one part of Moloch + E.H.E. is concentrating on visuals during a show; using millions of frames for a visual improvisation in direct relation to the sound.
At some point we decided to just prove if it would work joining Moloch + E.H.E. with N drones and instead of trying that at the studio we directly did our first live-show. Luckily Andreas Brinke of [ B O L T ] was there that evening and did a fine recording directly from the mixing-board. And now you can hear this very first and fully succesful melting of our different aestethics in sound: With the first part of the show I added micro-sounds to the noise, mainly emphasizing the moves of Moloch + E.H.E., for the second part I choosed drones, somehow earthening the sound.
As with the music, we made it with this record: it is completely D.I.Y.; the records have been pressed on natural-clear vinyl, the sleeves are printes by ourselves, using different film-stills from the original visuals. Any cover now is made of two sheets of printed transparent paper put into a transparent plastic bag. With the record being transparent also, you have a very nice see-through / three dimensional effect... Look at it while you crank up the volume!
The records are available from us directly. And please come to our release show at AZ Muehlheim / Ruhr on January 4th; with a lot of other artists on stage also..." [Hellmut Neidhardt]
|
2019 |
€16.00 |
|
| NADJA |
Skin Turns to Glass |
CD |
So ziemlich alles was NADJA in ihre Frühphase jemals herausgebracht haben, wird dieser Tage wiederveröffentlicht, so auch SKIN TURNS TO GLASS; die drei Stücke erschienen 2003 als CDR auf Nothingness Records und präsentiere NADJAs unnachahmlichen "Ambient Metal"-Sound, vom emotionalen Charakter her betrachtet sind das Drone-Stücke mit Hang zum Unendlichen und Dunkel-Kosmischen, als stilistische Mittel werden Metal-Elemente benutzt..
Als besonderes Schmankerl gibt es hier noch einen wunderbaren vierten, unbetitelten Track (fast 30 min lang), der NADJA von ihrer ambient-experimentellen Seite zeigt, mit endlosen Wellen von an- und abschwellenden Soundflächen......
"Dirge-like metal riffs & heavy, minimal percussion w/ ethereal melodicism & something of a shoegazer asthetic, creating a swirling amorphous wall of sound that strives to be both obliterating & uplifting. 3 tracks with a running time of 80 minutes." [label info]
"....So why buy this one? Or the two forthcoming releases? Or the 30 or 40 past releases? Well, if you're like us, we can't get enough of the sound of Nadja. And like we mentioned above, we HAVE figured out a way to make this sound go on forever. Each record, takes the dense blissed out buzz, the lurching doomic trudge, the gloriously effulgent majesty of Nadja, and stretches it out just a little bit further. Each time adding something crucial that wasn't there before. On Skin Turns to Glass, the songs are evenmore meditative and repetitive, looped endlessly, the riffs churning mantra-like, a buzzing slow motion hynorock, separated by spaced out stretches of glimmering ambience, and deep cavernous drones. Every Nadja record we're tempted to declare it the best yet, but we'd bet you if we went back to one of the first releases, we'd immediately think that it was in fact the best one. Such is the magic of Nadja, the sound they've created, the soundworld, each piece is as important as any other, the sound wouldn't be complete, in fact can naver be truly complete, until there are no more records, no more songs, no more pieces to add to the ever expanding puzzle. Hopefully that will never happen.
Includes an unlisted bonus track, nearly thirty minutes of shimmering doomic minimalism, droning dark bliss, that explodes in
the last minute or so, in a flurry of incendiary white noise, a drum damaged blown out psychguitar metallic meltdown, that ends quite abruptly, leaving us to wait patiently for the next movement, coming soon..." [Aquarius Records review]
label-website: www.theendrecords.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Corrasion |
do-LP |
Vinyl-Version des Albums / CD von 2007. Kommt mit neuer Version des Titelstücks und Bonus-Track. 400 Stück gibt es nur, feines Klappcover, schweres Vinyl, und die Musik? "das vielleicht bisher eingängigste NADJA-Album, himmlische Melodien & wuchtige Arrangements, wundersame Drone-Sphären und geisterhaft gehauchter Gesang, im Spannungsfeld & Treffpunkt von Metal, Post-Rock und Sphären-Drone... Wiederveröffentlichung / Neu-Arrangements der Stücke einer CDR von 2003." [Drone Rec info]
"Basses Frequences is damn proud to finally give the vinyl treatment to what is certainly Nadja's finest full-length recording. "Corrasion" has Nadja in full doom mode; it is an extraordinary mix of slow, heavy, and layered guitar riffs and the ultra-dense-yet-melodic-drones that have become Nadja's trademark. "Corrasion" has been re-mastered for the vinyl release and includes an exclusive, extended version of the title track as well as the outstanding "numb" to expand on the 2007 CD release. Strictly limited to 400 copies on 180 gram black vinyl ( and 100 on 180 gram blue vinyl - sold out ) packaged in a full-color gatefold sleeve." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
https://bassesfrequences.bandcamp.com/album/corrasion
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
| NADJA & OVO |
The Life and Death of a Wasp |
LP |
"Over the last few dogs days of summer 2008, Italys OvO and Canadas Nadja got together in their adoptive city of Berlin at Einstürzende Neubauten's "andereBaustelle" Studio. With engineer Boris Wilsdorf at the board, each duo began two songs and had the other duo finish them, Bruno and Stefania adding heavy, pounding rhythms and harsh, eerie vocals to Aidan and Leah's ambient textures and bass-heavy drones.
The album, while still heavy and still retaining signature sounds of both groups, turned out groovier and mellower than either band expected. But this mellowness gives the songs a greater sense of presence and allows for the intricacies and nuances of each individual's contributions to be properly heard. With a final mastering by James Plotkin, this album sounds simultaneously harsh and lush, aggressive and warm.
Having coffee after the sessions in the back garden, a wasp drugged on sugar flew into Leah's coffee cup and drowned itself, traumatizing everyone at the table." [Aidan Baker]
www.vendettarecords.de
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| NADJA & TROUM |
Dominium Visurgis |
CD |
"TRANSGREDIENT RECORDS TR-07
RELEASE DATE : 15. May 2010
8-PANEL DIGIPACK w. METALLIC COPPER PRINT
FORMAT: FULL-LENGTH CD PLAYTIME: 49:30 min
FILED UNDER: DRONE
NADJA & TROUM "Dominium Visurgis"
This is something you could call a "dreamlike liaison". When the Canadian "avant metal / drone doom"-duo NADJA (who name TROUM as one of their early influences) and the German post-industrial / experimental drone pioneers TROUM (years ago active as MAEROR TRI who are still discovered by many drone-fans these days) combine their exceptional styles, they form something even vaster as usually known from them. These three long collaboration tracks were recorded as a result of a spontaneous improvisation in April 2008 "live in the studio" near the Weser-river in Bremen, Germany, and suck you in with their powerful & emotional drone melancholy that works in many micro-& macrocosmic ways, using electric & acoustic guitars, bass, accordeon, drum-machine & voice." [label info / press release]
"In dieser ersten Zusammenarbeit von Troum (Baraka[H] + Glit[s]ch) aus Deutschland und Nadja (Leah Buckareff + Aidan Baker) aus Kanada schaffen beide Bands etwas, dass vielen derartigen Kollaborationen eben nicht gelingt: den eigenen Stil beizubehalten und gleichzeitig offen zu sein, zentrale Elemente des musikalischen Partners gleichberechtigt einzubinden und eine echte Mischung entstehen zu lassen. Sei es aus dem Wissen darum, dass dies nur in einer direkten Konfrontation geht, sei es aus anderen Gründen und allein der glückliche Zufall hat es bewirkt, Troum und Nadja haben mit „Dominium Visurgis“ keine e-mail Zusammenarbeit auf CD gebannt, sondern sich tatsächlich im Studio getroffen und die vorliegenden drei Stücke in enger Zusammenarbeit komponiert und aufgenommen. Denn nur die dann entstehende derartig intensive Interaktion (und eigentlich: die daraus resultierende gegenseitige Inspiration) lässt eine Atmosphäre entstehen, die noch über die eigentliche Musik hinauszustrahlen scheint, den Wirkungskreis der Musik erweitert. Bei aller Qualität, die die VÖs beider Bands sonst haben, „Dominium Visurgis“ ist etwas besonderes. [Hellmut Neidhardt aka "N", Unruhr]
"...Ein dröhnender, träumender Urozean, ein Fluss ohne Ufer, brandet, brodelnd
und pfeifend, an Urgestade, die erst noch im Werden sind. Das Pfeifen lässt
einen für einen Moment das Schreien von Phantommöven über der summenden,
wogenden, atmenden Panthalassa halluzinieren. Der ‚atmende‘ Blasebalg erklingt
nun auch als webendes Akkordeon neben klingelnden Gitarren. Die beiden Duos
sind komplett zu einem Quartett verschmolzen. Man starrt gebannt auf, ach was,
durch seine Schuhe hindurch beinahe bis zum Nabel der Welt." [R. Dittmann, Bad Alchemy]
"To some these two names represent the absolute top of the drone music, and who am I to disagree? Troum, the follow-up to Maeror Tri and Nadja, the duo of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker, have both presented themselves through a line of releases, displaying the finer sense of drone music, through the use of guitars, accordeon, voice, rhythm machine effects and such like. In April 2008 they did a spontaneous improvisation in the Troum studio, which now is released on CD. This is indeed the top of their scene: guitars are set to play drones, through the use of e-bows, through lots of sound effects, loop stations and all such like. They do the usual slow built up towards a mighty crescendo, fly through air, and then land safely through a long decrescendo. Headspace music. Perhaps not the kind of music for a sunny day like it is today, but more for grey, rainy days. They are mood musicians and one has to be open to these particular dark moods, but if you open up then they are more than
willing to transport you through these dark woods. An excellent work, hardly to believe one of some afternoon improvisation." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"... On albums like this, one again realizes just how many shades Troum’s self-repeating, subtly changing structures contain. When joined to parts provided by other talented artists, they shine with incredible power and enchantment, which one has to admire, totally captivated. This is precisely what happens on Dominium Visurgis." [Jiituomas, kuolleenmusiikinyhdistys.net]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| NADJA / AIDAN BAKER / LEAH BUCKAREFF |
Trinity |
CD |
Als NADJA zusammen mit ALLSEITS in der "Friese" in Bremen auftraten, gab DIE STADT diese CD heraus, mit dem wohl ersten veröffentlichten Solo-Track von der weiblichen NADJA-Hälfte LEAH BUCKAREFF! Dieser erscheint tatsächlich wie ein Gegenpart zu AIDAN BAKERS Musik-Kunst, ist aber bassiger & abgründiger, pulsierend & gefährlich ... allein dieses Stück "Socorro" wäre das Geld wert! Ansonsten gewohnte Klasse !
"A special NADJA CD also feat. one solo track by both members Aidan Baker & Leah Buckareff. Released in conjunction with a live performance on 20. April 2008 in Bremen. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies in full color sleeve. Total playing time: 38:35 min.
Track listing:
1. Aidan Baker 'Carrizozo' 10'31
2. Leah Buckareff 'Socorro' 10'42
3. Nadja 'Jornada del Muerto' 17'22 " [label info]
"Die Stadt always takes great care of their artists. Once you belong to the label, the label will carry all your releases, and when in Bremen, Stadt of Die Stadt, the artists will play and there is a CD for the occasion. This trinity of a matter of one plus one is three. Nadja is the duo of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker, so they can do three things on the same night. On April 20th (a day with historic significance... Bebe Barron died that day this year for instance) they visited Bremen and on 'Trinity' there are two solo pieces and one duo piece. It's interesting to see how things add up, or perhaps don't. Nadja is in full form here, with a loud rocking piece: the drum machine hammers time away, while guitar and bass play distorted, meanwhile looping their sound. A strong 'hole' in the sound adds an odd angle to the piece. A far cry away from Baker's solo piece, made of carefully strummed guitars which are looped around. Drones are faded in over the course of ten minutes and things remain subtle. In the middle, literally, is Buckareff solo for bass. Also starting out quiet things are unmistakably but the distortion pedal is already lurking underneath and adds a more noisy tone to the music. If these names don't mean anything to you, but see their music all around, then this is absolutely a fine place to start. Trademark pieces everywhere." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
label-website: www.diestadtmusik.de
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| NAHR |
Vargtimmen |
CD-R |
First release for a new Leipzig-based label – a german town with a quite vivid scene for experimental & post-industrial music. NAHR is the project of the label-owner Patrick Franke, and the whole release (which comes in a nice silkscreen printed sleeve) is inspired by the film from Ingmar Berman. He presents here very much recommended & sophisticated ghost ambient, far away drones & metallic effects, a fantastic debut ! Contains one track of around 40 min.
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| NALLE |
The Sirens Wave |
LP |
180 gram deluxe gatefold vinyl version.
"Imagine for a moment the Wicker Man manned by the late Teiji Ito -- resident avant composer for Harry Smith & Maya Deren -- with psych-folk giants Comus sitting in for good measure and you've got some idea of what Glasgow avant folk trio Nalle have put together on their mesmerizing sophomore effort, The Siren's Wave. Centered around Hanna Tuulikki's rich and expansive vocals, with a heady, kaleidoscopic mix of vintage whirling oscillators, Moog synths and buzzing harmonium, alongside the intrepid string explorations of Chris Hladowski and Aby Vulliamy, these six pieces continue the long trek through other worlds of sound to form a dense, cohesive suite that meshes everything from Japanese gagaku, European plainsong, Near Eastern modal drones and more. With Siren's Wave, Nalle have procured a special place where folk conventions are curiously uprooted & seamlessly meshed with otherworldly avant tendencies. Features members of The Family Elan, Scatter & the One Ensemble of Daniel Padden." [label info]
www.locustmusic.com
|
2008 |
€18.00 |
|
| NAM-KHAR |
Secret Essence*Sangwa Dupa |
CD |
"Nam-Khar is a Ritual/Drone collective that utilises various ethnic instruments and synthesised material within its works. What Nam-Khar offers up here are nine very different pieces of ritualistic music, each with the common thread of bringing you to a place of both focus and isolation. The subtle use of traditional instrumentation creates small vacuous pockets for the listener to move into, which are then juxta-positioned with slightly harsher, more industrial sounds. These are then all neatly sewn together with ice cold drones, warm bass sounds and synth sweeps.
With its short stabs and metallic sounds, the music can sometimes feel cold, unsettling and edgy. Tracks such as Shidak (re-shaped) could easily soundtrack the nightmare segment from a film, where the drones pull you stumbling through dark corridors, treading uncertain footsteps with a feeling of anxiety, never knowing what shapes are hiding out in the shadows, or what lies just around the corner. But the other side to the music from Nam-Khar lies in the warm, rich textured sounds and the drones that slowly build in density. Each aspect complimenting one other to bring a rich varied sound to the whole album and drawing all the tracks together.
"Secret Essence/“Sangwa Dupa is a sonic journey to the archaic energies/powers in Tibetan culture, which in the end, are not to be seen as being separated from one’s own mind."
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Sur Chöd |
CD |
The Ritual/Drone collective Nam-Khar return to our Winter-Light label with their latest inner outing entitled 'Sur Chöd'.
This is Nam-Khar's second release with Winter-Light, after the very successful and well received 'Secret Essence/Sangwa Dupa' album in 2018. The music has evolved ....
"Sur Chöd" is composed of 6 long-form pieces, each piece transforming and morphing in to a musical entity within it's own right. The traditional percussive elements are still there in the music, deployed in full force alongside more subtle uses of these instruments. It is the use of the drone and bass elements that have changed on this release. The small vacuous pockets which Nam-Khar use so well are soon filled with warm, thick drones, synthesised sweeps and enlightening cosmic sounds. It once again creates that space for the listener to move into for contemplation and reflection, to energise and focus through the welcome isolation space created by Nam-Khar's atmospherics. Pushing the inner-traveller ever further onwards, along different trodden paths.
Ritual ambient, dark ambient, drone, industrial and subtle tinges of dark-jazz await the listener on this deep and diverse release from Nam-Khar.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/sur-ch-d
"Two years after its first album on Winter-Light label, Nam-Khar is back with the “Sur Chöd” full length, which seems as a natural evolution of the project, yet while keeping its specific style of Eastern aural mysticism, the project is infusing a handful of fresh spicy ingredients to their music.
Already on the first track based on the sounds and echoes of horns and gongs you may notice a subtle yet quite atmospheric layer of the shade and colour I cannot recall it was present on “Secret Essence/Sangwa Dupa”. But it is with the second piece, “aDre” that all the fun begins. Of course the word “fun” should be filtrated by sensitivity of an introversive dark ambient supporter, like me for that matter. How the drones flow, blend and morph one into another… It is made with all the principles of the genre, takes you far above the Himalayan peaks and lets you float blissfully. If you know me a little, you know that I’m not so fond of the pitch-black side of the genre. There always should be at least a faint glimpse of light, an atmospheric or oneiric foothold, so to speak. On “Sur Chöd”, Nam-Khar finds a perfect balance while maintaining this “tibetan” spirit from the previous releases they managed to create a veil of still mystic, yet a more universal aura. Something that cannot be limited by the monikers related to a certain culture. It is as profound as the Nature itself. It still can be overwhelmingly dark, like “Dregs Pa”, yet I feel this time it is a facade, an opening gate for the unknown, vast realms of the world beyond.
How the drones intermingle one with another forming these beautifully esoteric structures may at some points recall the darker works by Klaus Wiese or Mathias Grassow and since I’m a die-hard fan of both German artists, I can’t be more happy of that fact. “gNod sybyin” is evidently the best example. Along with these specific eastern drums and a silky glacial background it results with possibly the most sublime composition of the whole album.
On this album Nam-Khar has evolved into a five person ensemble. I’m not sure exactly how the personal constellations looked in the past (most of the time I was convinced that it is a one-man project, to be honest), but I suspect there’s some fresh blood on the board this time and this different perspective is noticeable, yet it doesn’t conceal what Nam-Khar is about. Nice example of stimulating diversity in favor of the project’s coherent style is “Gangs chen mdzod lnga”. Atmospheric scapes, reverbed tinkles, ritual sequences and silence being a crucial part of the whole composition. No single unwanted sound.
The final track has been made in collaboration with Akoustik Timbre Frequency, the project by Priapus23, who’s also known as a CEO of a ritual dark ambient label Sombre Soniks. And this is another “Sur Chöd” highlight, an unconditionally stunning fusion of divine drones, unrushed beats and a handful of tiny ornamentations. This one may not be exceedingly intricate, but in this case the artists prove that simplicity is a virtue and I found myself listening to “T’ew Rang” several times in a row, on repeat.
I would say it’s Nam-Khar’s best work up-to-date. I still appreciate “Secret Essence/Sangwa Dupa”, as I wrote in a review that album was more than decent, but I have to admit that I find some moments too “straightforward dark” to me, so I have to be in a proper mood to play that CD. “Sur Chöd”‘s palette of emotions is far more broad and giving even more possibilities for your own inner journeys. Where will it take you? Check for yourself." [Santa Sangre mag] |
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| NAMBLARD, MARC |
F. Guyana |
CD |
"The field recordings of « F.Guyana » have been realized in the forests and the costal regions of French Guiana between the dry season and the « little rainy season » (November/December 2014, 2015 and 2016).
1. Awala
—
Plage des Hattes, Awala-Yalimapo. Softness of the setting sun with a greenbrown sea tainted with red as a backdrop. Waves hemmed with foam and a hot breeze blurring the sound of palm trees and crickets make a répétitive music.
2. Crique Popote, Rhinella marina
—
Crique Popote, east of Saül. Beginning of the night. Cane toads (Rhinella marina) come out of the forest and cautiously step into the world of a creek which is still sleepy at the end of the dry season. Their powerful sonorous trills intermittently punctuate the silky humming of nocturnal insects.
3. Crique Popote, Cacicus cela
—
Same location, at daybreak. The first rays of the sun spray gold dust on emerging treetops. A colony of Yellow-rumped Caciques caw their wacky repertoire in the crystalline air. Guianan Red Howler Monkeys and cicadas – among other early risers – also make their way through thèse dream-like surroundings.
4. Pics et Colibris, Woodpeckers and hummingbirds
—
On the dirt road to Saint-Élie, near Sinnamary. On either side of the road, a confused, impenetrable forest edge where even the whirring sound of hummingbirds and high-pitched droning of cicadas appear to be held back. Yet, here also, the forest offers a remarkable sensation to ears who like to listen, where each call, song or drummed sound seems like a cleverly written note on a timeless musical score. Above our heads, a woodpecker hammers at a piece of bark, tears it away and abandons it before flying away.
5. Boeuf Mort, Dark night
—
On a path called ‘Boeuf Mort’, near Saül. The dark night shivers. In the foreground, a tiny tree frog, Pristimantis inguinalis, pulses its brief resounding note, alternating with the trisyllabic call of Vitreorana oyampiensis, a Small glass frog. A Variegated Tinamou (Crypturellus variegatus) finally betrays its presence with its characteristic whistling.
6. Kaw Mountain, Manucus manucus
—
Kaw mountain, late morning, in the jumble of a secondary forest. Several White-bearded Manakins (Manacus manacus) have gathered in a courtship display area and fly about at prodigious speed, disseminating sparks of sound produced by their vibrating wings. Several doves (probably Leptotila rufaxilla) as well as a Northern Slaty Antshrike (Thamnophilus punctatus) can be heard in the background.
7. Petit Saut, Ara chlroropterus
—
Late afternoon, south of lake Petit Saut. A magical moment after a short but generous shower. In just a few minutes, and as the forest has finished shaking off the rain, a composite whisper builds up. Voices appear, rise, multiply themselves and at times whirl around. Perched on tall candle-like dead trees, Red-and-green Macaw (Ara chloropterus) converse and enjoy the sound of their vocal explosions propagating over the vast space.
8. Forest drones
—
Hypnotic summary of the throbbing sound of the primary forest early in the morning with Black Spider Monkeys (Ateles paniscus), Guianan Red Howler Monkeys (Alouatta maconelli), Stingless bees (Melipona sp.), cicadas and crickets taking the lead roles.
9. Kaw Mountain, Post-explosive breeding
—
Kaw mountain, late December. Close to a temporary forest pool. The intense downpours of the previous days have triggered the first mass amphibian breedings, accompanied by a cumulative chorus so powerful it represents a real danger for the unprotected human ear. Today, early in the night, the activity is moderately intense and enables us to appreciate the phenomenon. Two species of Leptodactylus (Leptodactylus cf. knudseni, Leptodactylus aff. mystaceus), displaying varying degrees of depth and quaver, and Dendropsophus (Dendropsophus leucophyllatus, Dendropsophus aff. minutus), with sharp high-pitched sounds, take the lead role in this hallucinogenic soundscape heralding the beginning of the rainy season.
10. Crique Douille, Arada
—
Chemin gros arbres, south of Saül. Typical soundscape, near a small creek, transmuted by the steady and hesitant arrival of a Musician Wren (Cyphorhinus arada).
11. Caribbean inspiration
—
Back to the ocean, near Cayenne, at dusk. Wanderings amongst fireflies, between a stretch of fallow land illuminated by a choir of Johnstone’s Robber Frogs (Eleutherodactylus johnstonei) – a small amphibian originally from the Caribbean – and the edge of a marshy forest, alive with groups of Snouted Treefrogs (Scinax boesemanni, Scinax ruber) and Crested Forest Toads (probably Rhinella cf. margaritifera). Accompanied by the muffled and haunting rhythm of waves crashing on the beach and beating the reefs…
11 Tracks (72′22″)
CD (500 copies) |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| NECKS, THE |
Silverwater |
CD |
"Their first studio CD for three years - named for an industrial suburb in Sydney, famous for its correctional facility - Silverwater ranges further and wider than the Necks' earlier releases, exploring a more sectional structure that counterposes more extremes and contrasts, and has a greater sense of forward motion, than usual, though still retaining the long, hypnotic single-track iterative form for which the band has become famous. Layers and skeins of overdubs and textures give way in places to almost empty stretches, and there is much play with asynchronous time. Paradoxically, for a band famous for its slow, cycling, repetition, the Necks show again that they work hard not to repeat themselves." [label info]
www.rermegacorp.com
"Hot damn. A new Necks album. They're one of our favorite bands EVER, and this is (one of the many reasons) why. Silverwater provides 67 minutes of the Necks' unique, hypnotic, keys/bass/drums bliss, all one track of course as is their wont. Over the course of those 67
minutes, though, the music made by this Australian trio varies quite a bit. Their trademark tranceiness is present, always, but at the same time this new album (their first studio record in, like, 3 years) seems more programmatic and propulsive than we're used to from these guys, taking off in directions we haven't necessarily heard from them before, but still sounding more like the Necks than anything else.
Yet, parts could be mistaken for an underground ambient psychedelic jam from the likes of Sylvester Anfang, almost. And we'd say this is
the Necks record to get Bohren & Der Club Of Gore fans into 'em. Other comparisons we've perhaps made before would be to Circle (in their non- metallic Miljard mode), Supersilent, Alice Coltrane, and AMM... anything that can elicit references to the likes of those is,
obviously, amazing.
Eerie wavering drones delicately unfurl near the start, quiet and pretty... that gives way to a section that's almost ceremonial, like some percussive ritual. Sparse and deliberate, drums-only for a stretch, to be joined by deep, plucked bass notes... it could be some kinda krautrock jazz... and it does get "jazzier", sort of, with electric organ coloration, and cyclic piano plinkings, but also electronic-y gritty glitchiness overdubbed... Silverwater's shimmering textures and minimalist pulsations are simply beautiful, enthralling. It's a glorious 67 minutes, all right.
If you know the Necks, you know you need this. If you're new to the Necks, please do yourself a favor and check this out. Next to seeing them live (which some of us have been lucky enough to do, oh my god they were good), this will demonstrate quite effectively why we hold them in such high regard." [Aquarius Records]
"67:15, ein Track. Der Einstieg in den
Necks-Sog geschieht diesmal über Hammondorgel,
Electronics, flickernde Percussion. Dann ein ultrarepetitives, trillerndes Pianomotiv von
Chris Abrahams, ganz sparsam der Kontrabass
von Lloyd Swanton, knatternd rollendes
Drumming in immer wieder wiederholtem Muster.
Lange spielt Tony Buck das allein, bis der
Bass wieder mit langsamen Schritten sich anschließt. Dann auch zarte, gleichmäßige Cymbalschläge und die Wiederkehr von Hammond
und Piano zugleich. So gleitet man in den nun
wieder vollen Klang hinein. Alles an The Necks
ist gleitend, fließend, repetitiv, hypnotisch.
Mandalas aus Schwebklang und Puls. Buck klappert mit Muschelschalen, Abrahams schlägt immer nur ein, zwei Noten an. Die Electronics
kommen wie ‚from nowhere‘, dazu das nun schon bekannte perkussive Klackern, wohl nicht von Hand. Die schlägt die Sekunden auf der Cymbal zu dröhnender Orgel und Pianomonotonie. Was macht Swanton? Lässt er einen Ventilator die Basssaiten beklackern? Jetzt steigt der Bass als Bass wieder ein, das Klackern geht aber weiter, dazu kommt jetzt - wenn die Uhr nicht geschmolzen wäre, würde sie 30 verstrichene Minuten anzeigen - eine Gitarre. Buck macht mit einem Drumriff dem mäandernden Dröhnfluss Beine, Abrahams hält mit einem Pianoloop schritt, dazu Walking Bass und der klackernde Automat. Und die Gitarre, jetzt deutlich. Dann dünnt der Klang aus auf das Klackern und zwei Klavierspuren, eine davon hell und verzerrt, dann übermenschlich trillernd. Dann doch auch wieder Bass und schnelle Cymbalschläge, aber nur kurz, als eine nicht realisierte Möglichkeit des Fortgangs.
Es spielen nur die Automaten, trillernd,
klackernd. Jetzt der zweite Anlauf von Bass
und Drums, auch das Piano, dann nur das Piano.
Es hat die Ausdauer, gegen die Automaten die Wende einzuläuten. Bass und Drums verhungern
aber ein drittes Mal, die Orgel hält als einzige, monoton pulsierend, den letzten Lebensfaden. Ganz im Hintergrund tauchen
Drums und Keyboards als weitere Lebenszeichen
auf. Jetzt weitere Orgelschwaden, wieder
und wieder, bis der Puls endlich von einer
Rhythmusgitarre verstärkt wird und kräftig genug, den Bass wiederzubeleben für einen simplen Vierklang. Dazu das Geschrammel über
sonorem Orgelfond und, für die finalen drei Minuten, tickende Cymbal, Pianonoten und Arcostriche, die diese vier Noten gemeinsam anstimmen. Bis zuletzt nur Cymbal und helle Pianotropfen bleiben. Was für ein Spannungsbogen, mit einer herausfordernd schmalen Brücke von Hier nach Da." [Rigobert Dittmann / Bad Alchemy]
|
2009 |
€14.00 |
|
| NEHIL, SETH |
Furl |
CD |
" 'Furl is the sequel to Seth Nehil's critically acclaimed 2009 release Flock & Tumble, also on Sonoris. Continuing his exploration of physically charged, acousmatic sound, these compositions whip, crash, swoop, glide and burble. Clusters of bell-like tones pierce hazy, corroded atmospheres. Animalistic yelps, distant pings, percussive bursts and glassy swells all merge in this unique sound-world. These five pieces are both rigorously-assembled and gracefully sparse. Furl will be a welcome addition to the expanding catalogue in Nehil's futuristic organic paradox. What others had to say about Flock & Tumble : Extraordinary a wonderful sense of confidence in the material, an ability to go somewhere quite new.' - Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear). 'Not too often you come across something that just sounds like little else.' - Brian Olewnick (Just Outside). 'An important demonstration of Nehil's abilities, this is a classic sleeper which deserves immediate exposure, well beyond the small circle of experts to which music like this is usually addressed.' - Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes). Biography : Seth Nehil is an artist, performance-maker, and composer with a practice that crosses between sound, performance-events and the visual arts. In recent years he has created large-scale sound performances, collaborated with choreographers including Liz Gerring (NYC) and Linda Austin (Portland, Ore), and has published music on various international labels, including Sonoris (France) and Senufo Editions (Italy). Seth Nehil has also been an editor of arts publications, an organizer of performance festivals and a curator of exhibitions. He currently teaches sound, video and art theory at WSU Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest College of Art." [label press release]
www.sonoris.org
" 'Furl' is already the follow-up to last years 'Flock & Tumble' (see Vital Weekly 684) and continues his shift away from the field of drone music. Like it says on the press release 'these compositions whip, crash, swoop, glide and burble'. The music of Seth Nehil has moved into the field of acousmatica. More than on the previous it seems to me that Nehil is working with real instruments (played by himself or others), which are transformed, thanks to the computer no doubt, but he cleverly stays away from the regular type processing that the schooled composers use. Instead he creates quite vibrant pieces of music that bounces off into various directions and moods. Even a quiet piece like 'Hiss' has this vibrancy, with slow changes in sound and volume. As said its not easy to recognize the instruments he uses (piano? guitar? percussion?), but he works with them in a great way. He's now entirely away from the field recordings and drones and works in a modern classical approach. A piece
like 'Swarm' sounds a stage piece with various voices from behind and slaps and bangs on the piano and percussion, with the addition of electronics making glissandi. Yet he has sprinkled the thing with his own magic - the sort of obscuring the sounds and that gives his music something of its own. Its hard to say what that is exactly, but it doesn't sound like anything else, which is the best compliment a composer can get, I guess. Its by far the best Nehil CD I heard and a fine career move." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| NEHIL, SETH & MATT MARBLE |
Ecllipses |
CD |
Mysteriöse Geräuschmusik pur! Tolle Zusammenarbeit der beiden Herausgeber des exzellenten FO A RM - Magazins. Materialien und Objekte werden so bearbeitet, das lebendige fliessend-konkrete Klänge entstehen, deren Herkunft man nur erahnen kann. Alles ist in ständiger Bewegung, die Stücke nehmen z.T. dramatische, dronige Formen an, um dann wieder in Mikrosound-artige Fragmentsounds zu fallen, mal klingt es nach schwingenden selbst-gebauten Instrumenten, dann nach rauschenden field recordings... geniales Zeug zum genauen Zuhören & Sich-Versenken !
"First collaboration release between two American 'sound composters', Seth Nehil and Matt Marble. A dynamic whirlwind tour through states of ellipsis and eclipses, abrupt ruptures, reuniting and igniting. Where nothing is static for too long. Through an invigorating admixture of instruments, field recordings and various found matter, a compelling and mysterious world comes alive to spark the imagination." [label notes]
"Naturalist aktionism? Sure, let's call it that. We can't really
say that the Hermann Nitsch and Gunter Brus bloodletting as grand
allegory is applicable to this collaboration between Portland based
sound artists Seth Nehil and Matt Marble; but a rigorous body of work
is definitely at hand. These two are the editors of the sound art
journal FO A RM, and have both generated impressive bodies of
conceptually minded compositions through field recordings, found
objects, the almighty drone, and hand-built instruments. Here, Nehil
and Marble wax poetic about the overlay of tactile sounds to emphasize the ruptures, holes, and negative spaces which may have been present on each layer of sound. So, instead of a gaping piece of unbroken ambience, Ecllipses is a tense and discordant album of rollicking textures which bristle and scrape against each other. Nehil and Marble revel in tumbles and scrabbles of what could be a revolving metal drum filled with various pine cones, twigs, and pebbles. Elsewhere, they focus upon churning bowed steel-strings, which offer buzzing clouds of softly rendered acoustic noise; and then soft pluckings of what sound like softened dulcimers drift into prolonged echo, hinting at avant- folk drones of Jewelled Antler (especially the Ov recordings) and Kemialliset Ystavat. Barring a minimal amount of signal processing and ring modulation, the album flourishes in the sodden palette of natural objects: wood, grass, leaves, soil, and rock."" [Aquarius Records review]
www.and-oar.org
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| NEZNAMO / SIYANIE |
Sonans |
CD-R |
"Live improvisation from Dmitry Shilov (NEZNAMO) and Sergei Ilchuk (SIYANIE) with guest appearance of Pavel Kuzmin. Recorded in Otgoloski Festival 11/25/2011. The weave of soft soundstreams, chants, overtones, ritual drones and recitations.
Triune Sound of Universum that long even after you stop the record. Lo-fi Drone Ambient.
CD-R, 111 copies, 6-panel envelope.." [label info]
www.moonsun.info
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| NIBLOCK, PHILL |
Touch Three |
3 x CD |
Grossartiges, monumentales Werk des New Yorker Drone-Minimalisten, z.T. fürs Deutschland Radio Köln produziert.. Neun lange Drone-Stücke auf 3 Cds verteilt, die auf von verschiedenen Musikern eingespielten Instrumentalsounds beruhen. NIBLOCK hat daraus 24 - 32 Spuren-Stücke gemacht, die elektronisch nicht weiter verfremdet wurden. Reine Klänge, Wellen, Frequenzen, Fliessen, Obertöne - Statik die sich bewegt, wie sie einnehmender kaum sein könnte… mal sehr nah, dicht und konkret, mal orchestral vielschichtig und polyphon....benutzte Instrumente: Cello, Akustikgitarre, Saxophon, Trompete, Viola..
"Touch Three is minimalism in the classic sense of the word, if that makes sense. Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones, and the result is sound without melody or rhythm. Movement is slow, geologically slow. Changes are almost imperceptible, and his music has a tendency of creeping up on you. The vocal pieces are like some of Ligeti's choral works, but a little more phased. He says: "What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly." These nine pieces were made from March 2003 to January 2005. They were all made (except "Sax Mix") by recording a single instrument with a single microphone. The recordings were direct to the computer/hard disk, most of them using a Powerbook G4, Pro Tools, an M-box and an external firewire drive. The resulting mono sound files were edited to remove breathing spaces, leaving the natural decay of the tone, and the attack of the subsequent iteration of the same tone. Each note was represented by several repetitions, perhaps ten for each tone, of about 15 seconds duration each. Each piece uses a few tones. A simple chord, perhaps. Additional microtonal intervals were produced in Pro Tools using pitch shift. The pieces were assembled in multitracks, usually either 24 or 32 tracks. The recording environment varied from a simple apartment in Berlin (Ulrich Krieger's) to a very large hall used for symphony orchestra performances and recordings, with a sizable audience space. The recordings were generally done quite closely miked. One hears only the sound of the instrument. There is no electronic manipulation in the recording, the editing of the tones, or in the mix. The only changes to the recorded tones are the pitch shifts to create microtones...the microtones are doing the work." [press release]
" Ever since I am a keen follower of his work, and this new 3CD set is just an overwhelming release. The idea is very simple, for each of the pieces on this CD. Recorded a few tones of one instrument, remove the breathing, leaving the decay and then change the pitch on some of the sounds. Then Niblock starts to layer these tracks, usually somewhere between 24 and 32 tracks. No other electronic processing was done to these recordings. Among the instruments used here we find cello, acoustic guitar with e-bow, recorders, alto/soprano/baritone saxophones, trumpet and viola. A typical Niblock piece lasts between 20 and 22 minutes. All clear, neat and simple? Then why release three CDs, nine tracks in total? They probably all sound the same anyway? Well, of course it less simple and of course it sounds different. The CD open with 'Sethwork' (check out Phill's website for the correct order of the tracks on CD one!), which is almost classical Phill Niblock: sustained tones, with hardly a pause and apparently played on 'acoustic, unamplified guitars with e-bow'. A continuos deep hissing (for the lack of a better word) sound. This is how Niblock sounded when I first heard his music, almost twenty-five years ago. Compared that with 'Harm', also on the first CD, which is a work for cello (which is one of Niblock's beloved instruments). Now here the sounds are highly sustained too, but in stead of one mighty block of sound, it almost sounds orchestral, with the sounds coming in and out of the mix. Two totally different approaches to the same technique. With a slight adjustment, leaving some space at the beginning and end of each sound, Niblock adds on 'Parker's Altered Mood, aka, Owed To Bird', the sound of inhaling breath (in order to play the alto saxophone), which add yet another dimension to this music. Maybe playing all three CDs in this set is a bit much, but I did it, and I must say time disappeared as this overwhelming unfolded little by little. Simply the best Niblock statement thus far, the most complete one.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€22.50 |
|
|
Six Films (1966-1969) |
DVD |
"Deluxe tri-fold Limited Edition of 500 copies. NTSC, PAL, All Region DVD, Stereo, run time: 86 minutes, 4:3 format. Die Schachtel in collaboration with O'artspace is proud to present a deluxe DVD featuring Six experimental Films by Phill Niblock from the late Sixties. Anybody familiar with the name of Phill Niblock would probably characterise his work by the sound of long sonorous drones producing rich overtones, usually combined with a visual element, as Niblock before moving into composition was an active photographer and filmmaker. While he usually is known for his Films from the movement of people working series alongside performances of his music, Niblock's early works stand apart as unique objects. The integrity and consistency of his style is fully on display in these seldomly seen screened 16mm sound Films wonders, that are: MORNING (1966-69) from an idea by Phill Niblock and Jean Claude Van Itallie, filmed by PN, text by Lee Worley and Michael Corner, with members of the Open Theater Group.Black and White 16mm film. THE MAGIC SUN (1966 - 68) with members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, music by Sun Ra and the Arkestra. Filmed with a high contrast Black and White 16mm film. DOG TRACK (1969) A film by Phill Niblock, with a found text read by Barbara Porte. Color 16mm film. ANNIE (1968) A portrait of the dancer Ann Danoff, with a sound collage sound track. Color 16mm film. MAX (1966 - 68) An image collage film-portrait of Max Neuhaus, with a collage sound track by Max Neuhaus. Black and White 16mm film. RAOUL (1968 - 69) A portrait of the painter Raoul Middleman, with extensive use of time-lapse film technique. The sound track is improvised by Raoul Middleman and Phill Niblock. Color 16mm film." [label info]
www.die-schachtel.com
|
2009 |
€22.00 |
|
|
Brazil 84 |
DVD |
"Brazil 84
16mm film & music by Phill Niblock (77 minutes)
“Three Orchids” for 3 orchestras (2002-03)
Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble, conducted by Petr Kotik
“Two by Tom,” for 2 orchestras (2005)
Trio Scordatura (Amsterdam) and the Nelly Boyd Ensemble (Hamburg)
“Three Orchids” (2002-03)
Trio Scordatura
Phill Niblock (b.1933) is an intermedia artist using music, film, photography, video and computers. He makes thick, loud drones of music, filled with microtones of instrumental timbres which generate many other tones in the performance space. Simultaneously, he presents films / videos which look at the movement of people working, or computer driven abstract images floating through time.
Brazil 84 is from Niblock’s series “The Movement of People Working.” 16mm, unedited long shots, carefully framed to compress single movements, shot in rural and urban settings, capturing people in their working environments, men and women using their hands and body to an eternal working choreography that seems tuned to the microtonal universe of Niblock’s music.
All these images are timeless, they could have been shot today, in the ‘60s or even earlier in the century. All these images have a perfect timing, a perfect framing, captured not as a document but more as a choreographic gesture, as visual music. The images are raw, the colors are saturated and the sound seems to happen in your head.
Phill Niblock says: “In 1984, I returned to Brazil, deciding to travel the coast, closest to the ocean, from Salvador, Bahia, to as far north as I could get in the time I had. That turned out to be Natal, 1000km away. I was the sole film crew, carrying the camera bag and tripod, loading the film, reading the light and occasionally applying sun screen. The film from that trip is the material on this DVD. And it was beautiful to see that country and those people.”
Originally silent, Niblock chose to add his music as the soundtrack, as he often does during screenings of his films. These works, specially compiled for this release, are presented in both stereo and surround mixes.
For this DVD, a new transfer was made of the original 16mm film, which was then restored under Niblock’s supervision.
The Digipak package contains an 8-page booklet of essays by Niblock, Bob Gilmore (music), Carlos Casas (film) and Johan Vandermaelen (the recordings)." [label info]
www.moderecords.com
|
2014 |
€24.00 |
|
|
Niblock for Celli / Celli Plays Niblock |
LP |
Composer, filmmaker and photographer Phill Niblock is a true pillar of the New York avant-garde. In the past 50 years, he has curated over 1,000 performances at his Centre Street loft and steadfastly built a massive, multidisciplinary body of work. While his earliest musical compositions date back to 1968, Niblock waited until the early '80s to release any recordings. Nothin To Look At Just A Record, a powerful debut with densely layered trombones, would be the first to unfurl his unique approach to sound.
The second album and perhaps the most rare in Niblock's vast catalogue, 1984's Niblock For Celli / Celli Plays Niblock is a meeting of two great minds. Working with reed player Joseph Celli (a composer in his own right, who has collaborated with John Cage, Pauline Oliveros and Ornette Coleman), Niblock nimbly removes the breathing pauses from Celli's oboe and English horn to create seamless, enchanting drones.
Niblock insists that his music be played loud: only in this way can one experience the visceral ringing of these long instrumental tones through the speakers and their natural overtones generated by the room. Niblock For Celli remains deeply absorbing.
This first-time reissue is recommended for fans of Alvin Lucier, Yoshi Wada and Dome.
|
2018 |
€21.50 |
|
| |
Boston/Tenor/Index |
LP |
Boston/Tenor/Index, presents for the first time some of the earliest works by the American composer Phill Niblock, including three never before released pieces: "Index" (1969), "Tenor," and "Boston III" (both from 1972). Until now, it's been impossible to encounter Niblock's compositions from earlier than the 1960s, a reality thankfully rectified by the long overdue publication of this Boston/Tenor/Index LP on Alga Marghen. "Tenor" (1972) represents the first evolution of Niblock's musical thought towards the aesthetics of microtones, overtones, and drones which the composer would develop in following decades. The piece was recorded by the photographer Martin Bough on tenor saxophone and gradually dubbed back and forth by the composer in his New York studio. "Boston III" (1972) was recorded at the Intermedia Sound studio in Boston with Rhys Chatham (flute, voice), Martin Bough (tenor saxophone), and Gregory Reeve (viola, voice); the composer himself also contributed with his voice. The LP also includes "Index" (1969), an improvised sound performance by the composer himself. Guitar (both its body and strings), fingers and fingering fuse in a vehement action around which barely listenable sounds and resonances vibrate. Considering the extended pulsation as an organic blend of impulse, rhythm, drive, strength, vitality and passion, the end of this sole solo in Niblock's complete oeuvre is not defined by the fixed duration of the piece but as the consequence of the tiredness of the performer. The music changes according to the loudness of playback. The interaction of the upper harmonics changes especially, with much richer overtone patterns being produced at louder levels. Edition of 450 copies, including an insert with liner notes and photo.
[press release]
#########
"Alga Marghen returns with what might just be their most historically significant release to date, “Boston Tenor Index”, comprising three, never before released compositions - “Index”, from 1969; and “Tenor” and “Boston III”, both from 1972 - by Phill Niblock, that represent some the earliest works in his catalogue to have ever appeared.
Truly stunning in audio terms, and an absolute revelation toward understanding how Niblock arrived where he did a few short years down the road, it’s easily one of the best things we’ve heard all year.
Over the course of nearly three decades of activity, the Italian imprint, Alga Marghen, has continuously cast light into the shadows of historical sound practice, offering particular focus to underappreciated artefacts at the juncture of visual art, sound-art, experimental music, and sound-poetry. With each subsequent release, the label has helped to reform our understanding of the 20th century, and the voices that made it what it was. Over the years, they’ve brought forth an unprecedented range of early and archival material by seminal composers like Charlemagne Palestine, Walter Marchetti, Philip Corner, Henri Chopin, Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Max Neuhaus, Eliane Radigue, and numerous others. While surprising to think, until now they have yet to touch upon the towering legacy of Phill Niblock. Their latest LP, “Boston Tenor Index”, takes a deep dive into some of the earliest work ever released by the American composer, comprising never before released works three works in his catalogue, “Index”, from 1969; and “Tenor” and “Boston III”, both from 1972. Creatively striking, while casting crucial light on Niblock’s beginnings as a composer, it’s a truly remarkable body of sound and easily among the most important archival releases that we’ve encountered so far this year.
After roughly a decade of working as a filmmaker and photographer, during the late 1960s, while collaborating with the Judson Dance Theater in New York, Phill Niblock embarked upon a new career as a composer. Over the coming decade, he would begin to slowly assemble a singular body of works that layered microtonal drones - meticulously recorded from acoustic instrument - that culminated as some of the most remarkable gestures of tape collage and musical minimalism to appear during the second half of the 20th century. With a small number of exceptions, the earliest of these to appear as albums - “A Trombone Piece”, “A Third Trombone” (“Nothin To Look At Just A Record”, 1982); “Second Two Octaves And A Fifth”, “First Performance” (“Niblock For Celli / Celli Plays Niblock”, 1984), "P K", "S L S", "P K & S L S", "Winterbloom Too" (Four Full Flutes, 1990) - were composed and recorded during the late 1970s. Until now, it’s been almost impossible to encounter Niblock’s compositions from earlier than that period, a reality thankfully rectified by the long overdue appearance of the works that comprise “Boston Tenor Index”.
We jumped for joy when we saw this one announced, and are still overjoyed, numerous listens in. Alga Marghen has done us a great service with this one, bringing some of the earliest known pieces by Phill Niblock to our ears. As far as archival releases go, "Boston Tenor Index” is as good as it gets and as essential as they come. A revelation of the highest order." [Soundohm]
|
2023 |
€22.50 |
|
| NID |
Plate Tectonics |
CD |
Aufnahmen eines Konzertes aus Arnheim, Niederlande, vom Dezember 2002, in Studio-Qualität. Allertiefste dumpfe Dronescapes & verlangsamte Stimmen, Klassik-found sounds, glockige Klänge, obskure Vinyl-loops, immer dunkel & ominös & in einem dynamischen Feld voller unerwarteter Sounds. Eine recht einmalige Verbindung von Vinylloop-Plunderphonics, tiefbassigen Dronescapes und Geräuschen von selbstgebauten, oft ober-obskursten Gerätschaften und Objekten.
"Crawling back into the wound: NID 1995 – 2007. NID is an experimental group whose aim it is to challenge conventional concepts and structures of electronic music by experimenting with the source of sounds. The music is created on the spot, making each performance a genuine and unrepeatable event. It has been described as moving sound-objects, improvised electronic noise, or broodng ambient music. It has been compared to an underwater-journey, a pathway to the inner self. Given enough volume, it certainly affects the body as well as the mind. In which way remains open to the listener’s psyche. NID was formed in 1995. Over the years the core-members have performed in art-galleries, rock-clubs, bars, water-reservoirs, cinemas, as well as at industrial and electronic festivals and in record shops. In 1998 they were invited to play onboard the MS Stubnitz when it was anchored in the harbour of Stockholm as part of the “European Culture Capital” activities. They were also involved in the 2001 Six And More & R:IP jubilees, improvising with 30 other electronic free-jazz musicians. As for the group name… A “nid” is a curse or insult with homosexual connotation that was frequently in use in the Viking age. It brought a depth to the concept of honour and shame. It could be used as a challenge or simply to ridicule another (which was a challenge per se). It could reveal anyone else to be no better than he was, and it undermined social structures. NID disbanded in 2006. Chris Sidgell continues in various projects, most notably his solo project B-Tong. Jürgen Eberhard releases music under the name Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim. This is NID’s one and only proper CD release. The sound on this work may appeal to fans of Lustmord, New Blockaders or collage post-industrial in general/experimental ambient. The music on this CD was recorded live in Arnheim by Mars Wellink
(Vance Orchestra). The cover was done by Katja Wahl..." [band info & press release]
"While not new, we only just discovered NID, and our discovery came about in a very random manner, considering various related works were right under our nose. We listed a killer 4 way split 12" a while back called One Man Drone, and our favorite track from the spit was a piece by a group called B(degree)Tong. We later discovered that the man behind B(degree)Tong was previously a member of German experimental sound-collective NID. But what we did not know was that NID was sometimes also known as Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim, a group who had various releases on the Drone Records label, one of which is included on the recent tUMULt collection of out of print Drone singles. So now it's sort of come full circle and we have this, the only proper full length recording (as far as we know) from the group NID, aka Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim and it's pretty amazing. Pretty bizarre too, but then with a (sometime) name like Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim, what else would you expect?
Three looooooooong tracks. Each an epic, incredibly varied soundworld, blending found sounds and field recordings with drones and intense blasts of layered sound. The opener begins with a muted cacophony of birds and crickets, before disappearing into a roiling
black cloud of rumbling low end and distant droning guitar buzz. It almost sounds like sticking your head out of a speeding car, the wind whipping by and causing all sorts of distortions, but blurred into an impressively massive wall of sound. Within all this whipping sonic wind and rumbling whirs, are strange bits of percussion, the clang and bang of metal on metal, shakers and simple rhythms, they drift
briefly in the eye of the storm, before the drone drops again, even more furious than before, until it fades out amidst the dreamy
shimmer of female vocals and haunting minor key melodic buzz. Really intense and strangely beautiful.
The second track is another deep cavernous roar. A bit smoother than the previous number, but not for long, bit of metallic buzz surface amidst the undulating rumbles, with some serious dynamic spikes, some of which sound like brief bursts of SUNNO 0))), and others are even lower and more aggressive bits of low end exploration. There are bits of static and random buzz here and there, but mostly it's black and dark, a massive growling beast, slowly uncoiling into a monster that blocks out the sun. Near the end of the track, the darkness abates and in its place is a strange skipping stuttering snippet of music, wrapped in hazy distortion and looped into a mesmerizing rhythm, repeated over and over and over, gradually crumbling and becoming more and more distorted before erupting into a final burst of chest rattling low end, finally slowing down and sputtering to a halt.
The final track is over twenty minutes and is the most melodic of the bunch. Beginning with a looped cycle of xylophone melody, over
a throbbing low end pulse and streaks of keening distant guitar and bits of operatic female vocals. Very ominous and mysterious sounding. When suddenly everything stops, and there's a guy with a British accent ranting over someone ransacking a kitchen, breaking glass, clanging cutlery, and suddenly it's gone, and we're back in some new dronescape, a mumbled voice looped into a haunting mantra, beneath distant thunder like rumbles, and little blurs of high end melody, indistinct, but gradually building in intensity. The drones drift away leaving birds and voices, and some strange bits of hiss and skree, before transforming into a plodding doomdrone beast. A simple stretched out rhythm over cavernous thrums and the sound of subway cars, everything pulsing and throbbing, a bizarre bit of dark
collage, that manages to be strangely musical and completely hypnotic.
An amazingly weird record, and absolutely essential listening for the drone obsessed, which we would assume should be most of you..." [Aquarius Records]
"Posthumous release by this Swiss-German trio dedicated to mostly drone-bound sounds, noise manipulation, foggy samples and dialogue snatches. Here, three lengthy pieces encircle some fantastic voyages through muted hum, looped voices, gentle vibrations and the stench of noxious ooze. The last one, ‘35000 Feet Below the Ocean Surface’, clocks in at almost 22 minutes and hints at a leather-clad NWW surveying a desert of black ash. Which works a treat for me." [RJ, Adverse Effect]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| NILSEN, BJ [BJ NILSEN] |
Focus Intensity Power |
LP |
For his inaugural LP for Moving Furniture Records the Amsterdam based Swedish sound artist BJ Nilsen turns his intense aural focus and compelling narrative power away from his well-known and much lauded predilection for field recordings of organic nature or the urban built environment. The five pieces presented on this record capture Nilsen during a short residency he did in the Fall of 2017 at Willem Twee Electronic Music Studio in Den Bosch, The Netherlands – five documents these are of improvised sessions using modular synthesizers, tone generators and test and measurement instruments.
Nilsen, ever the exploratory sound experimenter, de facto exchanged his wax rain coat for the white laboratory mantle. On Focus Intensity Power he lets the machines rule supreme. Although BJ says there's no underlying major concept to the record, the quintet of recordings is tied together to form a sturdy sonic package, tied with a red thread of analog pulse, droning waves and subtle and surprising noise interventions. Washes of natural wind or condensed bustle of London traffic as we have come to know and highly appreciate from his previous works have found their machine-counterparts in sessions that retain the flâneur's touch of slowly moving, roaming open ears with keen interest in texture and timbre. And at the same time these indoor improvisations yield a tremendous poetic freedom for both artist and listener; boundless walking through layers of pure sound – freed from time and place and space.
Sven Schlijper-Karssenberg, July 2018
credits
released August 24, 2018
Music by BJNilsen recorded at Toonzaal, 's-Hertogenbosch, NL. engineerd at Odd Phasting and Echoes, Amsterdam, NL.
Mastered by Jos Smolders at EARLabs.
Published by Touch Fairwood Music.
Artwork by Zeno van den Broek.
https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/focus-intensity-power
"From his first dark ambient project Morthound which had releases on Cold Meat Industry during the early 1990s, BJNilsen moved over to the Hazard moniker in the late 1990s, and from around 2004 onwards opted to record under his own name. Generally speaking, over the last 15 years BJ’s approach has been characterized by an experimental approach to sonically processing various natural and urban-based field recordings. However with Focus Intensity Power being the solo new album, it marks a decided shift away from the use of field recordings as it is a purely studio-based album, which according to the promo notes provides: ‘documents of improvised sessions using modular synthesizers, tone generators and test and measurement instruments’. Sonically this album has greater alignment with early Hazard albums than recent solo output and is certainly welcomed from these quarters. The 15-minute album opener Beam Finder is an elongated exploration of minimalist unceasing mid to lower range bass tones, coupled with micro-tonal static and machine idling drones which appear late in the track. This approach continues with The Sound Of Two Hands, although this is slightly more forceful and varied with the introduction of a ‘ticking clock’ element and other minimalist scattered electronics. The relatively short Flattened Space embodies a muted sub-orchestral tone blended with mechanical menace, while Table of Hours fits cleanly within a dark ambient drone frame of reference. The final of the five tracks, The Limits of Function, starts slow but gradually elevates with layered machine drones, and the second half of the track is driven forwards by a central rhythmic loop. In essence Focus Intensity Power is an effective celebration of sustained tonal atmospheres, which amounts to evocative sounds in their purest form. Sublime." [Noise Receptor] |
2018 |
€16.50 |
|
| NILSEN, BJ & STILLUPPSTEYPA |
Vikinga Brennivin |
CD |
"Nordische Drone-Collaboration von BENNY NILSEN (ex HAZARD, MORTHOUND) und STILLUPPSTEYPA: 5 Stücke, durchdrungen von schwelenden, geheimnisvollen Drones und etwas konkreteren Soundabdrücken, sehr spannend, hypnotisierend, betäubend..... „schöne Klaustrophobie“ meint Frans de Waard.......
“...Focusing the perception of natural sounds through a reconstruction of time and space, Nilsen has rendered the commonplace sounds of wind, rain, and snow as stealthfully seductive and quietly menacing drifts of frozen sound. Their resultant collaboration is an existentialist allegory in which the three drunkenly stumble out in a Scandinavian winter night and spiral toward the inevitable point in which they blackout. Lest this be construed as a derelict piece of method acting, the craft that Nilsen, Sigmarsson, and Thorsson brought to Vikinga Brennivin is impeccable, as the extended soundfields breath with the majesty of distant fog horns and sparkle with the delicate light of countless stars cast down from the black heavens onto the frozen tundra below. Frightening and barren, yet hauntingly compelling, Vikinga Brennivin is an isolationist masterpiece....” [from the label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
“Drinkers out there: pay attention, because our favourite drunks are here and they celebrate their favourite drink: brennivin. Never heard of? No problem. It's an Icelandic liquor made of potato and flavored with cumin, which burns down your throat - and I know: the only two
times I was really sick of alcohol in the last 10 years was of brennivin. The first time I got this poison served was at Stillupsteypa's house - no wonder, they are from Iceland and like everybody from there they drink. A lot. An insane lot. These days Stilluppsteypa is Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson and they team up with BJ Nilsen - our man in Sweden (and known from Touch releases, more than his drinking habits, at least here). Of course it's hard to tell wether one would think of the booze if it didn't have that title, nor is it easy to relate the music to the drink. The five lengthy pieces here all deal with a hermetically closed sound. Processings of field recordings perhaps, but no longer recognizable
as such. Some ten or so years ago, someone invented the term 'isolationism' for this kind of music, but basically it was what everyone else called 'ambient industrial', but somehow 'isolationism' sounded better. It's certainly an appropiate term for this CD. It's either music you hear when you try to make it home after a night of heavy brennivin intake and if that didn't do the trick it's music you hear in your head when you wake up. It's almost claustrophobic music, but beautiful claustrophobia. Lovers of Nilsen's other work, or Thomas Köner's old work, should keep an eye open for a CD packed in copper-plates inside a jewel case.” [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"The cold winter nights stuck above the Arctic Circle have become the perfect climate for extended bouts of intoxication for many a Scandinavian. As a result, the capacity for the Icelandic duo Stilluppsteypa to consume alcohol is the stuff of legend. Alcohol has soaked into every fiber of their being; but its manifestation in their music (and their personalities for that matter) is closer to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde allegory, as a raging alcoholic squirms just beneath the surface of a stoic Scandinavian temperment. Of course, where these two personalities come into conflict is where the art of Stilluppsteypa is realized. A schizoid tension runs throughout Stilluppsteypa's impressive catalogue of terminal drones, sputtered rhythms, and atomic fractures; and often this tension is dished out with a smug dollop of black humour and Dadaist absurdity. So, it's hardly unusual to come across Stilluppsteypa celebrating Vikinga Brennivin, the stringent Icelandic alcohol that has undoubtably killed some of their collective brain cells. Yet it was the stoic BJ Nilsen -- the Swedish electron wrangler whose best known for his work as Hazard -- who invited Stilluppsteypa to collaborate on Vikinga Brennivin. Their resultant collaboration is an existentialist allegory in which the three drunkenly stumble out in a Scandinavian winter night and spiral toward the inevitable point in which they blackout. Lest this be construed as a derelict piece of method acting, the craft that Nilsen and Stilluppsteypa brought to Vikinga Brennivin is impeccable, as the extended dronescapes breath with the majesty of distant fog horns and sparkle with the delicate light of countless stars cast down from the black heavens onto the frozen tundra below. Frightening and barren, yet hauntingly compelling, Vikinga Brennivin is an isolationist masterpiece." [Aquarius Records]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Passing Out |
CD |
Dritter Teil der nordischen "Drone & Alkohol-Intoxikation"-Trilogie, die den Zustand des Wegtretens zwischen Wachheit und Dämmerzustand klanglich adäquat wiederspiegelt; im tiefen Drone-Morast erscheinen Traumbilder, -gedanken & akustische Sequenzen der Realität auf. In paradoxer Weise ist man dann in der Lage, sowohl unbewusste wie bewusste Geistes-Inhalte zur gleichen Zeit wahrzunehmen...(sagen die Erzeuger dieses Albums). PASSING OUT ist ein One-Tracker von fast 70 Minuten, tiefgrummelnd-bassig und sonor und von mysteriösen, atmend-ächzenden Sounds durchzogen....
"The first chapter found the drink. The second came after a night of intoxicated shouting. The third chapter is inevitable: Passing Out.
The Nordic sound artists BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa have authored the last component to a trilogy of isolationist compositions for barren field recordings and lumbering electric drones, thematically linked in the psychotropic effects of alcohol. In doing so, they have issued a brief statement in defense of their research: "It's been four years and three studies, Passing Out being the final. Even in its most general, colloquial usage, Passing Out indicates the occurrence of a state that is incompatible with active behavior. It is possible that the individual could experience both consciousness and unconsciousness at the same time while encountering Passing Out."
Yes, Passing Out is a crepuscular recording, with the flickering of twilight further dimmed by the distant Arctic sun in wintertime and the blackened numbness of too much drink. With one singular track that spans 60 minutes, a nearly constant thrum and rumble of monochromatic low frequencies casts a grim pall upon the precisely dialed-in modulations and vibrations. Spectral guitars, maudlin tunes from haunted radios, angrily growling voices, and field recordings of wind-whipped snow and ice bury themselves deep amidst these subharmonic drones. All of these tease at the edge of perception, sculpting the narrative of the drone into a vehicle for unhinged expressionism of varying degrees of horror, melancholy, beauty, and oblivion.
The Swedish born BJ Nilsen defines his work as "focused upon the sound of nature and its effects on humans, and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound." He has numerous recordings on Touch and has collaborated with the likes of Chris Watson, Christian Fennesz, and Z'ev. The Icelandic citizens Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson are Stilluppsteypa, whose electronic abstractions engage absurd theatrics that mar the pristine surface of minimalism..." [label info]
"....The complete and total isolation of the music, the long passages of seemingly no action (there is just one piece, clocking it at 68 minutes), with then a sudden break, a melody filters in, the radio starts humming and field recordings - that backbone of so much in Vital Weekly and certainly here - make this an album of not just pure drones or just processed field recordings, but the strange elements thrown in, give this album a stranger, almost alien feel to it. If it's the equivalent of passing out is a bit hard to say: the act of passing out on alcohol prevents you from remembering anything. This is however their best album to date and makes a strong trilogy." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"...Deep resonant vibrations abound, with some creepy breathing in your ear whisperings that may be those Leif Elggren vocals that Benny
was talking about. Gradually, all of these deep drones and shadowy overtures glide into a slumbering descent. But the Icelandic weirdoes
in Stilluppsteypa couldn't just let the album drift away without their absurdism forcing through the door, as they blurt with a clinical repetition of blooping electronics smashed and grabbed from Raymond Scott circa Manhattan Research. It's an unsettling climax to the album, but one that works brilliantly through Stilluppsteypa's expert use of electro-acoustic black humor. But it's drone that dominates the album, as angelic wash and devilish rumble collude to end this magnificent album. Oblivion never sounded so good. Passing Out is beautifully packaged with letterpressed and silkscreened artwork. Very nice." [Aquarius Records review]
www.helenscarsdale.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| NILSEN, BJ & STILLUPPSTEYPA / MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT |
SOV GOTT / Oskar Kastaniens Sterne am Tag |
LP |
Ein Fliesen-Cover auf LICHT-UNG! Und die Musik ist auch seltsam & betörend !
Collector’s item with thick glazed tile sticked on cover (especially burned for this release) ! On one side we find a great collaborative piece by BENNY NILSEN (aka HAZARD) and STILLUPPSTEYPA with thick massive drones, on the other abstract soundscapes of crackles & strange electronic low-fi lumberings from MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT, who is one half of LICHT-UNG and also running the label of the same name.
|
2006 |
€17.50 |
|
| NIMH |
Ianna Memories |
mCD-R |
"HIGHLIGHT auf taalem, zoviet france-artige surreal-drones und pulses mit orientalischem Touch, absolute Empfehlung! Newcomer aus Italien.." [Drone Rec. 2002]
“Nimh is Giuseppe Verticchio, an italian composer who has self-released a bunch of CD-Rs since 1999. Here at taâlem, we've immediately fallen in love with his music at the first listening. Using exclusively traditional Thai instruments for this release, Nimh creates an incredibly rich music, full of haunting percussions and trumpets, background sounds, harmonic frequencies, effects and noises present in the recording. His best work ever and truly a
masterpiece for the dark ritual ambient music lovers.” [press release]
www.taalem.com
|
2002 |
€5.00 |
|
|
The Missing Tapes |
CD |
"After the extraordinary 4CD box-set, "Together' s Symphony" (with MAURIZIO BIANCHI), Silentes Minimal Editions is proud to present the incredible new solo effort by NIMH. Stratospheric sounds from another dimension, where multi-cultural sound-worlds collide. Processed electronic emulations of traditional Thai (and other indigenous) instruments, esoteric percussion, breathing, drones, feedback, shortwave radio, disembodied voices floating in air, and hazy field recordings all combine is a most intoxicating manner. With THE MISSING TAPES, NIMH returns to a more adventurous style, pushing the boundaries of sonic innovation past anything that we've heard before. An amazing 50+ minute sonic-travelogue of electroacoustic experiments. Ambiguous music for those who want something completely unique." [label info]
label: www.silentes.net
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
The Unkept Secrets |
CD |
"After few months of distance from the escape of "The Missing Tapes" and the relative "Rework" by Aube, Nimh (Giuseppe Verticchio) sets aside the ethnic-lysergic visions that have characterized the previous album and continues along the distance of sonorous search and fascinating experimentation electronic, already undertaken with works which "The Impossible Days" and "Subterranean Thoughts", ulteriorly expanding just the range of sounds and instruments set, revealing the own "secrets" through new, dark but stylistically a unclassifiable CD, in which it arranges with extraordinary originality and in an absolutely personal and unknown elements of drone music, dark ambient, electronics, ritual, ethnic, field recordings, and enriching in particular every track with the recurrent presence of evocative sounds of electric guitar in varied filtered and elaborated way. The search goes on..." [label info]
"This is an other perfect Nimh record, a world of magnetic, somnanbulic, fuzzing, moving electronic textures and drones covered by glacially melancholic guitar parts. These recent years there have been many descent projects published under the dark ambient - prog electronic label, but The Unkept Secrets is exceptional, reaching a degree of composition and complexity rarely obtained in this specific genre. Meridians opens the album with an intimate, colourful, extatic droning minimalist guitar composition with lot of reverbs and reasonances. A majestic, almost hallucinatory electronic piece. Narrative voices & mysterious abstract noises also come into the mix. As suggested by the title, Visions in Black is a haunted, gorgeously dark piece with abundant guitar's fuzzed out static notes, ghostly dark noises. The composition ends up with an almost funeral electronic choir. Strangely beautiful, the sound of the apocalypse or forgotten memories. The call reaches the listener into a parapsychological world made of echoing guitar tricks, floating electronic waves. A more dreamy-like composition, perfectly executed and really vibrant emotionally and physically speaking. Linga is just fantastic, a real buzzing drone trip with tribal-ethnic elements. An immersive medley of acoustic / electronic elements, it makes me think about shamanic sermons & ceremonials. The title track opens the way to a really sinister, dark musical ritual that turns into a shimmering, suspensful incantation dominated by harsh guitars and doom-like epic drones. The ending nightmare is a claustrophobic, intoxicated electronic piece for loud guitars, creepy noises and acoustic exoticism. The last tune is a more relaxed, tranquil affair after an intense musica ride throw lost deep memories. A totally absorbing electronic mantra, a real pleasure for the ears. Clearly among my all time favourite experimental electronic records with a things from Maurizio Bianchi, Maeror Tri and Aeolian String Ensemble. So recommended."
[Prog Archives]
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| NINTH DESERT |
Collision h |
mCD-R |
The project of CYRIL HERRY, who also works as a film-maker (in example for TROUM). COLLISION H is a fabulous one-tracker using many layers of cloudy sounds & subdrones, evoking a haunting atmosphere. Comers in a nice oversized cardboard-cover, numbered ed. of 60.
"Collision h is made of various types of handled, stretched, retracted, skinned sound matters… Sequences extracted from sacred chants are confronted here with electronic frequencies and field recordings which collide and injure themselves but are forced to cohabit inside the same time and of the same space, similar to conflicting data assimilated by one and only memory." [label info]
" 'Collision H' enthält eine lange, 20 minütige Soundcollage die ziemlich dunkel und tief erscheint. Feld-Aufnahmen, rabenschwarze Ambiancen und schwere elektronische Frequenzen wabern und brodeln irgendwo ganz weit unten im Berg herum. Nur ein leichtes Drönen erinnert immer wieder an diesen Klangkanal, der so dunkel und trostlos ist, dass man, wenn man ihn entdeckt hat, auf keinen Fall hinuntersteigen möchte. Die Aufmachung hingegen ist hell und simpel. Die kleine 3 Zoll CD-R ist in eine schöne Kartonhülle zum aufklappen eingefasst. Eine gelungene Veröffentlichung." [Creative-Eclipse] |
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| NIXILX.NIJILX |
Aputi |
mCD-R |
Probably the last release of this greek musician under the name "NIXILX NIJILX" before he changed the project-name to HELICE PIED and the Drone Rec-EP was released. APUTI is a dense work dealing with (near)-silences and drones, using earthy pulses from time to time and very far away drones, all created in an organic way.
"A highly atmospheric, "close listening" microsonic work created using processed electric guitar, voice, toy drums and field recordings." [label info]
|
2006 |
€7.50 |
|
| NO XIVIC |
I do blame you |
mCD-R |
Noisiger & apokalyptisch wummernder als auf der Drone 7”, tönt es bei diesem One-Tracker des finnischen Projekts. Metallische Sirenen & knisternde Lava-Massen von Sound in diesem
Gänsehaut-Drone-Sumpf ! Ein einziges Knirschen, Dehnen & Ächzen. Grosses Hörkino !
“no Xivic is Henkka Kyllönen, a finnish artist you may have discovered thanks to his untitled 7" released last year by Drone Records, described by the label as "underground 'dronish' experimental sounds, based on long & moving metallic drones mixed with higher, near-distorted frequencies and low rumblings. this results in pure & elegant floating dronescapes that never stands still, giving you nothing to fix upon from your completely immersed mind.". "i do blame you" might be harsher & noisier than this previous piece of vinyl. here, no Xivic proposes us a near 24min long track, perfect blend of noise and dark ambience, piercing frequencies and rumbling drones. "try this in supermarket or some place filled with people ! (works everytime)" [label info]
|
2004 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
same 7 (SOLD OUT) |
7" |
Drei Stücke von einem neuen finnischen Projekt, der sich hier in metallisch klingenden Drone-Sphären mit magischer Anziehungskraft verliert..
“ DRONE Records is proud to present NO XIVIC, a newcomer from the growing Finnish drone era. His very first release consists of underground ‘dronish’ experimental sounds. The three pieces on this EP are based on long & moving metallic drones (as if coming from BERTOIA) mixed with higher, near-distorted frequencies and low rumblings. This results in pure & elegant floating dronescapes that never stands still, giving you nothing to fix upon from your completely immersed mind. An atmosphere which is as much haunting as it its otherworldly. These three Finnish titles: ‘Rauhattomuus’ , ‘Kemikaaleja’ and ‘Sieni’ translate as ‘Restlessness’ , ‘Chemicals’ and ‘Mushrooms’. These tracks are pointing to an inherent tension and have a brilliant intoxicating quality to them.
Filed under: hallucinogenic drones CLEAR VINYL. WHITE COVERS WITH HANDPAINTED 3-DIMENSIONAL GEOMETRIC FORM / DESIGN ON BOTH SIDES.” [press release]
|
2003 |
€7.00 |
|
| NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS |
Stoneface |
LP |
Accumulation and assembly in the Derbyshire Dales in the Caroline K studios.
Digital mastery achieved in Silver Octopus studios Buxton, Derbyshire, England, 29th July 1989.
Mastering : Paul Lavigne March 2023
Layout : Pole Ka
Dedicated to the new active listener.
https://fernsrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/stoneface
Nigel Ayers’ most accessible emission? The glut of his ‘band’s prolific history has generally been a full-scale assault upon the senses, via either dingy slabs of noise or near-pretty industrial musique concrete. Stoneface operates on many levels, a set of gruelling, scraping, yet strangely attractive organic sounds that reveal numerously coloured layers with successive listens.
Recorded in 1988, these sonic morsels play with near-baroque tendencies, devolved factory rhythms, spiritual solemnity and lucid minimalism, sometimes gripping, sometimes forgettable, but never uninvolving. And, as has been the case with the recent wealth of Emissions releases, it’s best to observe Stoneface’s sacred experiments in one complete sitting, where Ayers can effectively work his art on you with your complete, undivided and willing immersion.
Darren Bergstein
I/E
"The 1980s were particularly fruitful for The Nocturnal Emissions, later dropping 'the'. Starting in the early second wave of industrial music, they quickly began experimenting with different styles. Electronic pop, for lack of a better or the industrial electro breakbeats of 'Viral Shedding' (a personal favourite of mine) and then,
for a somewhat more extended period, coming ambient soundscapes with the residue of industrial cling clang. Around this time, 1986, the group, now effectively a solo project of Nigel Ayers (and in 2023 still going strong), the interest in magick, stone circles, techno–shamanism, neo-paganism, animism and Fortean research (I am quoting Wiki here) was added to the situationist interests. 'Stoneface' is from 1989, when the style was developed at its best, and the Emissions did some of their best work in this direction (along with 'Spiritflesh' and 'Invocation Of The Beast Gods'). However, it's all a bit in the no-longer-distant past. I wish I could say I play all of these records once a year; I don't, although 'Viral Shedding' is on my phone, so those tracks I hear on every random play the thing is on.
As I played these nine pieces, I realized that what attracted me at the time and still does is the relatively straightforward approach to technology. I remember seeing Nocturnal Emissions a couple of times in those years. If I'm not mistaken, there were a couple of those early sampling devices, the Casio SK1 or SK5, with a 1,2 (or so) second memory, but when played through a bunch of stomp boxes, you could do a lot with relatively easy sounds. I always suspected Ayers to have altered his machines, but I am unsure. His sound palette includes animal sounds, kitchen utensils, voices, and whatever makes noise. I guess Ayers had access to some decent multi-track machine, and using many tracks gives these lo-fi samples some great depth. There are some great drones, some rusty percussion, some good use of reverb and excellent quality around here. Some phase shifting (play similar loops with minor intervals, so they never overlap in the same way) is used to significant effect here so that most of the time, you have no idea you hear
only short loops. Yet, there is always movement, thanks to those very same loops being brief and to the point. An excellent record that has aged quite well and is a fine reminder to play some of the old ones again. Time is what I want, more time! [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€21.00 |
|
| NOCTURNE |
Vers le Vide |
CD |
" “Vers le vide” (Towards the void)a new album by Nocturne. A patient work, careful over the smallest detail, perfectionnist in a word, made it possible for Saphi, (the man machine behind Nocturne) to gradually prune the elements hindering his musical singularity.
I would describe the latter by evoking its subterranean nature, choked, as though it was refrained, and in which everything seems to have nearly difficulties to break through the surface of sound, requiring thus a deep, comtemplative listening. As a paradox, the universe we are in isn't for all that welcoming, nor even less alleviating.
This is at first a music of rumbling, explosion, deflagration, muted threat, creating a feeling of tension that can't get to be solved, an atmosphere of imminent disaster constantly renewed. And yet, from this magma that bubbles with saturation, telluric electronic shocks and full drones, soon come to emerge more aerial forms _ sometimes sharper ones, mostly suggested rather than really asserted, arising and moving in evanescent ways. This orientates the tracks, in a measured yet indeniable way, to a new direction as the music evolves. With harshness and roughness, or in the contrary, overwhelming wideness as directing forces, then rise to the surface some more distinctly elegiac colors, which are very curiously melancholic and bear anyway some feeling of abandon ; hence, maybe, the general title given to this set of sixteen new tracks.
A music thus embodying the unity of opposites, giving us to perceive a struggle between what's burrowed and what arises, between annihilation and the revelation of a hidden light, existing perhaps after all, beyond the void..."
[By Eric Duboys, 2009 May]
www.finalmuzik.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| NOISE DREAMS MACHINA |
IN / OUT (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Für OSCAR MARTIN aka NOISEDREAMSMACHINA eröffnen sich durch digitales Soundprocessing von Umwelt- und Objektaufnahmen neue Wege, die peripheren Zonen von Klang zu erkunden. Seine kraftvoll geräuschhafte 7" für Drone Records verbindet Elektro-Akustik und Power-Drone in beeindruckender Weise.
"NOISE DREAMS MACHINA is the project of Spanish artist OSCAR MARTIN. Now living & studying in Berlin & Barcelona, he is currently exploring the possibilities of homemade software with free tools for sound deconstrucion and realtime performance.
IN & OUT is his first vinyl release and uses a wide range of environmental recordings which are processed digitally in more "electro-acoustic" ways. This leads to a balance between "Drone" and "Electro-Acoustic" where the acoustic potential of conventional reality is enlarged via digital processing. In his own words: "It brings attention to the peripheral zones of the sound phenomenon". Through intense mutation & deconstruction of acoustic materials a new or previously hidden meaning can be revealed for the blind spot of our perception.
Filed under: ADVANCED ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC DRONES
more info: www.noisedreamsmachina.blogspot.com
MILKY VINYL, WHITE COVER WITH BLACK SILK-SCREENED PRINT" [press release]
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES |
Monomania of Instinct (live June 1998) |
CD-R |
"Endlich was neues vom Brüsseler Geräuschmusikkollektiv um GEERT FEYTONS. D.h. leider keine neuen Studioaufnahmen, sondern ein Mitschnitt einer theatralischen Multimedia/Sound-Performance von 1998 aus Stockholm. Zu hören gibt es knirschend-dronige Klänge kreiert auf ihrer selbstgemachten Instrumenten und Soundsculptures, theatralisch-verzerrte Rezitationen, das ganze klingt sehr dynamisch & bedrohlich. One track, > 65 minutes." [Drone Records info 2004]
"Bachelard's animalistic aggression theory and what not - some scary shit going on here - one long throughly indigestible and stomach-churning track (65 minutes), but this is all the better for its uncompromising and unnerving severity. Noise-Maker's Fifes were unique and its founder Geert Feytons (RIP) will be sadly missed. Edition of 250 copies in fold-out slipcase cover. Co-released with Gold Soundz label." [label info]
"..a frightening miasma of non-musical elements. A succession of shrieks, shouts and
screamed words appear and disappear as clouds of rampant drones, electronic and concrete
sounds make their surreptitious appearance?." - Jose Marmeleira, Foxy Digitalis
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Zona Incerta |
10inch |
Die Nummer 3 der S.I.-Serie kommt von der Brüsseler Performance-Gruppe NOISE-MAKER’S FIFES! Verschiedene Aufnahmen der Choreographie „Dyonisos’ Last Day“ und Feldaufnahmen afrikanischer Insekten dienten als Basis für zwei komplexe Geräuschsoundscapes. Höre mit neuen Ohren, mit anderen Hirnzellen als bisher !
“NOISE-MAKER’S FIFES is an experimental performance group from Brussels who do impressive shows with many selfbuild instruments and surrealistic sound-theatre-choreographies. The first side on “Zona Incerta” is based on the choreography “Dyonisos’ Last Day” from 2003 and uses various live-material from this and other different performances. The second side is created from insects field recordings made in Kenya. ZONA INCERTA builds a very dimension of its own, totally hazy and foggy sounds ebb and flow in and out...water and metal-sounds are recognizable in the sound-field, high insect-frequencies intertwine with all kinds of strange noises and animal sounds... The Unknown is also the world of other creatures who perceive a totally different world. Listen with new ears, with different neurons.” [press release]
RELEASE DATE: 28. APRIL 2006 !!
GENERAL LABEL CONEPT: “Substantia Innominata” is the brand new release-series from Drone Records. We are proud to present this as a 10” VINYL series along with subsequent re-releases on CD. This new series doesn’t focus on a special concept or ideology regarding the music, but on a certain theme. The theme for this 10” series is based on “The Un-known, The Un-nameable, The Un-speakable, The Un-thinkable, etc.: Various aspects related to “The Unknown”. Basically the grey matter (psychic or physical, which are bound to result the same) surrounding us / within us, but can’t be understood or recognized through the normal senses (though some may perceive it on a subconscious level). We could name it “The Unconscious”. The chosen name for this series, “Substantia Innominata”, was inspired to the fact that this Latin name represents a certain region of the brain which has unknown functions and remains a mystery for its role and existence. Therefore this name reflects well the intense fascination for this impalpable concept of “the unknown”.
The invited artists for this series were asked to work around this theme, to let themselves be inspired by its abstraction. The artwork for this series will be created by the various visual & graphic artists. All in full-colour or silkscreen covers. The 10” vinyl pressings will come in an edition of 500 copies for each title.
“...now the Belgian collective has developed a totally unique style where the successions of electroacoustic events are organized according to a logic which fuses a highly skilled compositional ability and the exploration of psychic dimensions where anguish and fear dominate.” [Massimo Richi / Touching Extremes]
"Ähnlich einer Kette von Plunderphonictrickserei und schamanistischem Tranceinschlag bereiten NMF auf der 10“ sorgfältig zwei Stücke naturalem Ambientes und Feldaufnahme vor dem Hörer aus. Beide Seiten beginnen relativ leise und zögernd, ehe eine Mischung aus synthetischer Grundbetonung und relativ uneffektierter Klangmaterie auf dem Stereofeld erscheint.
Die A-Seite geht dabei stärker in die dunklere Seite des Releases ein, vereinigen sich hier Synthesizerspuren und dekonstruierte Feldaufnahmen zu einer Klangmasse, die den Hörer unerwartet einlullt und dabei ein Gefühl erzeugt, den einzig wahren State Of Trance zu erreichen. Der Klang wirkt weder schwer noch betont Räucherstäbchenambiente-betont, sondern wirkt wie eine intelligente Schnittmenge aus Felddokumentation und improvisatorischer Klangkaskade. Die ganzseitige B-Seite (tatsächlich finden sich auf der 10“ zwei lange Stücke) erzeugt ein ähnliches Szenario, allerdings tritt die vormals vornehm zurückgehaltene Effektierung der Klänge stärker zutage. Ab der Plattenmitte entstehen seltsam mantrische Muster, dem Klang einer Orgel nicht unähnlich, ergänzt um zahllose weitere Elemente, die sich aus Feldaufnahme, Drones und leicht angezerrten Obertönen zusammensetzen.
Eine sehr schöne Platte, die ohne den nötigen Pomp einer überschminkten Musikerwartung daherkommt. Neben der RLW von Substantia Innominata mein derzeit favorisiertes Release." [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| NORMAL MUSIC |
A short exhibition of Normal Music |
CD |
Experimenteller minimal-Techno / IDM mit Drone-Elementen, sehr dicht, fliessend und saugend....
“Rhythmic explorations on the edge of madness. Micro field recordings and drones with a beat. Like Pole before he sucked, and Pan Sonic but more surreal. "Normal Music uses dubby, clicky rhythms from the best clicks and cuts tradition in combination with the best ambient sections from labels as such as Chain Reaction...If this was on ~scape, these boys would be on the cover of The Wire and playing the big festivals." - Vital Weekly "Minimal beats, gentle atmospherics and acoustic instrumentation all combined nicely...the kind of music one can listen to while making drunken love to your neighbor. Buy two and share." - Urb
|
2003 |
€12.00 |
|
| NORTHAM, MICHAEL |
Memory of A |
mCD-R |
Ungefähr zur gleichen Zeit wie die SUHINA 10" in unserer SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA-Reihe erschien diese mini-CDR bei TAALEM. Enthalten ist ein ca. 21minütiger one-tracker mit röhrenden, fast mechanischen Drones, die er auf einem "tubular zylophone" einspielt; die Statik des Beginns ist aber nur eine scheinbare, wenn sehr schön schwingende metallische Obertöne dazukommen, wallende organ-drones und sich fast auflösende rauschender Regenklänge... ein sehr feines Stück!!
"Micheal Northam travels a lot and presents here a work that was recorded in India in december 2007, with his microtuned tubular zylophone along with winter rain. Its unclear what (or if at all) he has done with the recordings, but its a pretty neat work. Maybe a bit more rougher than usual, but the various shifting tones of the metallic object he is playing, along with the processed field recordings make this a slow yet always evolving piece of work. A classic Northam piece of drone like acoustic sounds and field recordings. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"artwork: delphine ancelle-b. based on cassette recordings on a microtuned tubular zylophone while under an unusual winter rain at the adishakti center, vazhakulam, pondicherry, india (december 2007). mixed at the hobbit hole, kreuzberg, berlin (july/aug 2008.
michael northam could be considered as much as a sound artist as a world traveller... his work is the continuation of more than fifteen years of visiting, working with and learning from over ninety artists (jgrzinich, yannick dauby, loren chasse, martin franklin, francisco lopez or hitoshi kojo/spiracle to name a few) over fifty locations in twenty-five countries!
a perfect example is this piece recorded in india then mixed in germany, probably rawer and rougher than some of his other works..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| |
Suhina |
10inch |
Brilliant new recordings by the prolific cosmopolitan (currently residing in Berlin) MICHAEL NORTHAM. "Suhina" is a notion for the sound of the wind moving through the trees. Instead of doing field recordings of wind MICHAEL NORTHAM tried to capture this feeling & the essence of this process through instrumental recordings from Indonesian flute & keyboard. Nature phenomena seen as the true manifestation of the Unknown. Stunning full colour artwork by Indian artist ROHINI DEVASHER. White vinyl, edition of 500 copies, incl. inlay with text by M. NORTHAM.
"Das Thema der Platte hätte auch von der K Foundation stammen können. Michael Northam vertont hier den Wind zwischen den Bäumen, auf finnisch suhina genannt. Was sich als schöngeistiges Ambientexperiment versteigen möchte, ist in der Endsumme erstaunlich unesotherisch geworden. Northam zieht alle Register seines musikalischen Könnens und scheint zu den wenigen zu gehören , die eine Komposition über den Zeitraum mehrerer Jahre gedeihen lassen können ohne der Verlegenheit zu verfallen, nach wenigen Wochen den Abschluss herbeizuzerren.
Beide Vinylseiten wirken dabei sehr transluzent und klar abgegrenzt. Bisweilen hat man das Gefühl, die leisen Zwischentöne der Feedbacks und trudelnden Dronecluster reichern sich mit dem Knistern des Vinyls an, so fragil erscheinen die Zwischenbrücken der jeweiligen Komposition. Wie GAS ohne Beats, wohl aber um das 10fache am Pitchregler hochgeschraubt und mit einer majestätischen Würde, die man sonst nur in den leiseren Backgroundklangarien der frühen Tortoise und ihren »Millions Now…« wieder findet. Orgelähnliche Töne wechseln in malströmartigen Verschiebungen ihren Standort und verwischen auf diese Art und Weise Gefühl für Zeit und Raum, bilden auf diese Art und Weise den Soundtrack für den einsamen Spaziergänger im Wald ohne ein Klischee zu bedienen.
Das Northam sein Stück im Sommer für das Vinyl editierte kommt auch tiefenpsychologisch dem Material zugute. Selten hat eine so ausufernde Komposition eine so hohe Ereignisdichte aufgewiesen, ohne dabei zum Sturm zu mutieren. Auf diese Weise hört man den Wind weniger im Gebälk, dafür mehr im Gemüt." [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
"Every once in a while you bump into a masterpiece, Suhina is one of those times.
The cover has amazing artwork by the Indian artist: Rohini Devasher. Bizarre beautiful flower lifeforms in full color on the front, and in black and white on the back. The vinyl itself is white and nice sturdy and thick.
The 10” is a Drone Records release and is part of the substantia-innominata series.
A concept that deals with concepts like” unknown / unthinkable / unidentifiable / unspeakable etc.
The story behind this record is very interesting. Michael Northam was camping in Finland in 2005 and a friend told him that the sound of the wind moving through the trees was called “suhina” in their language. From that moment Michael wanted to capture that feeling in sound.
Starting with field recordings what was difficult to do, and then moving to blowing on Indian flutes and the use of keyboards. While working on these two tracks Michael has been traveling through Belgium, Slovenia, India and France through 2006 and 2007. The final result was constructed in Berlin in the summer of 2008.
The record has two tracks, called “Through” and “Within”. Both are beautiful very carefully constructed pieces that run over ten minutes of playing time. Side A“Through” is distorted and blissful, full of harmony and truly uplifting and carrying you away with the wind, through forests and plains. It feels like there is lots of wind, gray skies and rain, but also lots of sun rays and rainbows. And total melancholic euphoria. The B side “Within” is a nice continuation. All i can say is that this release is a beautiful, carefully constructed emotional masterpiece." [Nil Pavlov / Hourglass Drops]
"These two tracks of hypnotizing dronemusik from the wandering sound artist Michael Northam originated from a night camping in the Finnish hinterlands, where he became fascinated with the sound of wind whipping through the trees. Field recordings have long been central to
Northam's work dating back to his tactile compositions of corroded ambience and titanic drone arcing; and even the aspects of wind had
featured heavily in work through the Aeolian harps he built in a bunker on a desolate Finnish island. Where those recordings were
attempting to harness to power of wind as something of an intersection between technology and the landscape, these two beautiful recordings of brightly shimmering ambience are more of a poetic response to the dynamics of wind. So those whispings and scatterings of summertime arctic winds introduce the first side of this 10" and quickly subside amidst Northam's billowing drones from his Indonesian flute and an overblown Casio keyboard. The resulting waving tones flicker with the
lingering glow of the sun arching toward the horizon at twilight, with golds, oranges, and reds radiating through each timbre. So striking are the colors that Northam gets through these tones, it can almost distract from his conceptual anchor. No matter, as he's creating one of his finest pieces in a long time. Nice!" [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| NORTHERN VALENTINE |
The Distance brings us closer |
CD |
Band aus Philadelphia mit drei (!) Gitarristen (sowie Synths & Streicher), die sehr subtilen & warmen, fast "flüssigen" Gitarren-Drone-Ambient machen mit leichter experimenteller & geräuschhafter Note, Anklänge an LABRADFORD, ULTRASOUND, ULTRA MILKMAIDS, WINDY & CARL..
"Northern Valentine is husband & wife Robert & Amy Brown along with friends who join them from time to time. They have been writing & recording music since 1997 & have released material previously on acclaimed label Gears of Sand as well as on their own label Baresound. We are glad to have them added to the Silber roster. They are from Philadephia, Pennsylvania & they love to play live shows. Depending on the performers, live shows can range from quiet and meditative drones to loud & fuzzy instrumental post rock, often within the same set. Recommended if you like: Labradford, Windy & Carl, Ennio Morricone, Eluvium, Mogwai, Seefeel, Earth, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Spacemen 3" [label info]
"So this is one of those records where the cover totally gives away what’s hiding inside. These Philadelphia drift-heads sent us this disc a few weeks ago, and we were totally blown away. The music so nicely reflects the cover photograph: beautiful, expansive oceanic horizons, almost glowing with a looming grayness. With keyboards, violin, three electric guitars and a bass, this five piece really hone in on a super liquidity, an organic, fluid type of drone composition. Their third album out of four, The Distance Brings Us Closer resonates with long, lush tones and delicate melodies that seem to blend and form chords in mid air. Always moving and turning like fog creeping along the forest floor, Northern Valentine has a distinct sound that kinda reminds us of a more darkened and coastal Windy and Carl playing with Rameses III in some giant cathedral. Very dark and mysterious, the record travels through blissed out walls of trance inducing drones and into more textural noisy Fennesz-like atmospheres. Though they call themselves a post-rock band, the guitars and instruments used are so dripping with reverb and delay that it might be more accurate to describe Northern Valentine as a dark and drifting ambient group. At least that’s how they sound on this particular record, as word on the street is their other albums have drums and are more propulsive and less drifty. Either way we dig what they’re doing A LOT, and couldn’t wait to share it with all of you! If you like anything Type records related or that recently reviewed Elegi, you’ll love this too! Completely and utterly recommended!! " [Aquarius Records review]
www.silbermedia.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| NOS PHILLIPE |
same |
CD |
"Nos Phillipé is the debut full-length album by the east London duo of the same name.
Nos Phillipé (Jonathan Webb and Robert Hopps) construct highly immersive compositions by combining processed raw material, sound collage and electroacoustic improvisations around a cohesive and focused sonic narrative.
Throughout the three pieces on the album, Nos Phillipé interweave an array of carefully crafted drones, tones, heavily distorted effects and detailed layered textures to create an intensely claustrophobic and tangible aural environment. These three pieces act as the constituent parts of the duo’s definitive sound to date.
Formed in late 2004 the pair’s recorded output consists of one self released limited edition CD-R and a CD (’Shh… Camille’) released on Mark Wastell’s Confront Collector’s Series label in January 2008. They have also shared live billing with the likes of Oren Ambarchi, Evan Parker, Sudden Infant, Henrik Rylander, Max Eastley, Jason Kahn, Eddie Prevost, Charles Hayward and Lol Coxhill amongst others." [label info]
www.blackatlas.org
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| NOVI_SAD |
Jailbirds |
CD |
Das zweite Album für dieses griechische Minimal / Drone-Projekt, der gerade auch in der MORT AUX VACHES-Reihe zu Ehren kam; verschiedenste hyper-minimale Drone-Felder und Field Recording-Sprengsel formen, teils sehr wuchtig & bassig wummernd. Anklänge an ILIOS, FRANCISCO LOPEZ, etc..
"Limited to 500 copies and housed in our plastic-free gatefold sleeves with spine. art design by cs08. Novi_Sad's work came to our attention via our good friend Susanna Bolle (Non-Event and Rare Frequency) in Boston. A superbly keen ear, Bolle felt that his work and our label should connect. Though Nov-Sad's has only a few years of practice behind him, the quality and maturity of all of his efforts is striking. The proposed Jailbirds material for Sedimental was totally complete and not only of the highest quality but also of a truly unique vision. What is significant in his work is the multiplicity of its action on the listener. It is a density of sound, acting in three-dimensions, not as auditory 'sound effect' but as music with depth both physically and in functionality. Its intensity and purposefulness based in specific conceptual foundations and enhanced by a mastery (and transcendence) of technical means collapses amplified environmental recordings, drone manipulations, structured ambient soundscapes, microtones and overtones into unified whole. Sedimental is truly excited to be an early anchor of this young composer and sound artist's serious oeuvre. Novi_Sad (Thanasis Kaproulias, b. 1980) is a graduate student from the Economic University of Piraues. He lives and works in Athens, Greece where he began generating sounds in 2005. His debut album Misguided heart pulses, a hammer, she and the clock received worldwide critical acclaim. Recently, Novi_Sad did a recording session at the prestigious VPRO studios in Amsterdam, for the Dutch National Radio which will be released by Staalplaat [NL] in the Mort Aux Vaches series. A recent piece called Dramazon is available on TouchRadio from the publishing house Touch [U.K]. He is currently working on a project based on various methods of audio analysis called Sirens in which he explores the aesthetics of information on sound by using quantitative data from major stock market crashes in history." [label info]
www.sedimental.com
"...The attraction of his music lies, I think, in the combination of microsound and dark ambient music. There are the cracks and hisses of micro world, but also the thunderous deep ambient drones which can be top heavy, like in the opening ‘Komdu! Hvert?’. Field recordings, the call of the birds, leak through here, as the deep bass dies out very slowly for the rest of duration of the song. ‘Torched Estates’ starts out with some nasty high pitched sounds, but throughout the pieces moves into various heights and depths, and it strikes me that this is the more complex piece of the two on this release. Many heavily processed field recordings are present, but then also sometimes naked and pure.
Whereas the first is built around one theme, is the second piece more a collage of various moods and textures. Quite loud microsound altogether, and thus a strong break with tradition. Great one." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| NULL, K.K. / Z'EV |
Brombron 17: Extra Space, Extra Time |
CD |
"Korm Plastics is proud to present the seventeenth release in the Brombron series. Originally a co-production between Staalplaat and Extrapool, it is now hosted by co-curator Frans de Waard. In the year 2000 Frans de Waard and Extrapool started the Brombron project. Two or more musicians become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with a fully equipped sound recording studio. These artists can work in a certain amount of time on a collaborative project; a project they always wished to do, but didn't have the time or the equipment to realize.
Since almost forty years Z'ev belongs to the absolute fore front of experimental music. Playing percussive music he gained a lot of attention, but in more recent years he returned to working with electronic tape manipulation. One aspect is working with other people, such as Francisco Lopez or Kasper Toeplitz. In his collaboration with KK Null he plays electronic drums.
KK Null (born Kazuyuki Kishino in Tokyo) is a Japanese experimental multi-instrumentalist. He began as a guitarist, but soon added composer, singer, electronic musician and drummer to his list of talents, and also studied with the Butoh workshop.
Null joined the noise/progressive rock band Ybo2 in 1984, issuing several albums and EPs throughout the remainder of the decade. Later he founded more bands, such as Absolute Null Punkt (aka ANP) and his most well known one, the self-described "progressive hardcore trio" Zeni Geva. From that point he also produced albums for other artists, created his own record label (Nux Organization), played live and collaborated on albums with many other musicians, including John Zorn, Yona-Kit, Steve Albini, Boredoms, Seiichi Yamamoto, Jim O'Rourke, Merzbow, Fred Frith, James Plotkin, Keiji Haino, Otomo Yoshihide, Jon Rose, Atau Tanaka, Zbigniew Karkowski, Z'EV, Alexei Borisov, Earth. Noisegate and Philip Samartzis, as well as supporting such artists as Sonic Youth and Mike Patton on tour." [label info]
www.kormplastics.nl
"Next and 17th album in the Brombron-series is an interesting collaboration between two legends of the noise and industrial-scene. Z'EV (aka Stefan Joel Weisser) has been around in the experimental music scene for a long time already. His brand of scrap-metal and found object percussion originates back to the early seventies. Creating his own instruments from various metals and plastics, he has placed himself at the forefront of the movement that became known as "industrial". He was among others one of the described forefront industrial pioneers in the legendary "Industrial Culture Handbook" (1983). In the more recent years, he has returned to working with electro-acoustic manipulations. Fellow artist at the extrapool studios is one of the top composer's of Japanese noise scene. Starting his career in the early 80's by performing guitar improvisations in the clubs and streets of Tokyo, Kazuyuki Kishino a.k.a. K.K. Null continued by collaborating with among others Merzbow and others from the extreme noise scene of Tokyo. The two quite different noise artists has come out with a very interesting album as the result of their studio-days at the Extrapool. The expression on the album "Extra space, extra time" seems like a very nice combination of the style of both artists. Percussion patterns derived from metal materials and other sorts of acoustic banging circulates hand in hand with rumbling noises changing between full throttle and subtle. What makes this release certainly interesting is the way that the twosome manage to blend noisy textures with handmade percussive patterns. Hordes of noise drones and pulses moves alongside the intense tribal drum patterns of Z'EV. The main parts of the six works of the album carrying the title "Extra space, extra time", opens slowly with distant sounds that builds over time until powerful drum patterns set in to create a trancelike atmosphere. Thus despite the abrasive nature of the album, the works has a great appeal thanks to the excellent rhythm textures created by one of Industrial music most steady-going percussion artists, Z'EV. A masterful collaboration on this one!" [NM/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| NURSE WITH WOUND |
Alice the Goon |
CD |
"June 2009, new reissue. United Jnana are pleased to announce the next installment in our ongoing Nurse With Wound reissue series, 'Alice the goon'. Originally released in a limited vinyl edition in 1995, it was expanded for its CD debut in 2000. This version replicates the 2000 reissue With a 4 panel digipak. Tracks: (I Don't Want to Have) Easy Listening Nightmares (9:28) ¥ Prelude to Alice the goon (12:51) ¥ Untitled (7:24)." [label info]
"Alice the Goon was previously a vinyl-only issue of 500 pieces, available to a lucky few at the Nevers Festival in France. It was hard to come by and selling for high prices on auction websites. Fortunately, for the Nurse With Wound fans not so lucky to be in France, Stephen Stapleton has agreed to allow everyone a chance to hear this music again. The CD features the two songs from the original release plus an additional, untitled piece which many call simply 'Alice the Goon.' The first track sounds like it would fit right in on the Sylvie and Babs release; imagine an old phonograph player belting out a brass-laden instrumental. The second track is a little less involved. The third track, however, sounds right out of A Missing Sense. There is little movement and many drones in this song that could certainly lull you to sleep."
[Paul Kustos]
www.durtro.com
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Lumb's Sister |
CD |
"Newly remastered from the original analogue tapes by Denis Blackham. "This music was originally conceived as raw material for the film project 'Lumb's Sister' by Chris Wallis. During the long evolution of his movie, Chris decided to use alternative source sounds and subsequently none of these pieces ever made it onto the completed film." [label info]
"Back in 1990, Nurse With Wound, Current 93, and Sol Invictus issued a 3lp set of their works, all of which was suitably occult and suitably dark. By the middle of the decade, both C93 and Sol Invictus had reissued their own material on individual discs, but Steven Stapleton / Nurse With Wound never did until some 25 years later. As such, that boxset became quite a prize possession for NWW aficionados; and it was originally composed to be the soundtrack to a film by Chris Wallis, an occasional contributor to Nurse With Wound and Current 93 in the late '80s. The film itself had been notoriously unfinished for decades, with cans of film getting lost over the years; and when Wallis finally got around to completing a cut of the film, the original soundtrack was unused, instead Wallis picked over various bits from the Nurse With Wound catalog as the score. So, Lumb's Sister the Nurse With Wound album has nothing anymore to do with Lumb's Sister the film by Chris Wallis. Stapleton's response? "Aw, shucks." A quintessentially obscurant recording of quintessential Nurse With Wound strategies, Lumb's Sister laces eerie vocalizations that are often sped up conversations on tape machines amongst distended drones from various bowed metals, elongated vocal utterances, and stringed instruments that all amass into a bellowing darkly illumined thrum. Its closest companion in the Nurse With Wound catalogue would be the elegant piece of minimalism found on Soliloquy For Lilith and the Tibet / Stapleton drone-chant epic The Sadness Of Things. This cd version contains much more material than the original lp, also including Nurse With Wound's subtle variation of Coil's "How To Destroy Angels." As with anything that Stapleton touches, this is a work of genius." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€19.00 |
|
|
Salt Marie Celeste - Salt |
do-CD |
"A welcome re-release, as an expanded version, of one of Nurse With Wound's most notable albums. Originally recorded in 2002 by Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter, the piece "Salt" was a limited-edition release to accompany an exhibition of Stapleton's artwork at The Horse Hospital in London. The following year Salt Marie Celeste was released as a single 61-minute-long piece of droning atmospheric sound that manages to be both minimal and maximal at the same time. A parade of strange, often unlikely, sounds appear and disappear during the voyage from Z to A. Described by many as being one of the most unsettling and/or engaging NWW recordings, it went on to feature in many "albums of the year" lists of 2003. This new edition comes in a six-panel digipack with stunning all-new artwork by Babs Santini." [label info]
"A visionary product of Steven Stapleton's mind under the guise of Nurse With Wound, the UK based imprint, Dirter, delivers a brand new, deluxe, expanded double CD, comprising two of the project's most sought after albums, “Salt” and “Salt Marie Celeste”. Created around the same time near the turn of the new millennium, each represents a radical rethinking of the terms of ambient music, responding to an ever-darkening world.
This new, expanded double CD edition makes two crucial artifacts from the project’s rare back catalog available for a new generation of listeners, after being out of print for years, making it an absolute must for every NWW fan.
Sprawling across more than 40 years of activity, few musical endeavours have been as influential and uncategorizable as Nurse With Wound. Founded as a trio in 1978 by Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak, by the early '80s the band had morphed into a solo vehicle for Stapleton’s maverick and creative mind, remaining so over the decades since and producing well over a hundred full lengths and EPs. The vast majority of these, issued in relatively small editions, have remained long out of print, highly collectable, and difficult to find. Thankfully, the last few years have witnessed a steady stream of reissues, finally bringing them back into our hands and allowing them to be approached, appreciated, and understood for what they are. The latest of these, issued by the UK based imprint, Dirter, gathers two rare artefacts from NNW’s output in the new millennium, “Salt”, issued as a very limited LP in 2011, an “Salt Marie Celeste”, issued as a rare CD edition in 2003. Released together as a deluxe, expanded double CD, these albums represents a radical rethinking of the terms of ambient music, responding to, and catapulting the listener into, an ever-darkening world.
Nurse with Wound was easily one of the most singular projects to emerge during the late '70s in Britain; a moment that witnessed the ashes of punk’s first generation morph into radical new forms, often embracing the strategies of experimental music. Rooted in a surrealist ethos, while constantly pushing forward across a vast range of creative territory, the project utilised the approaches and attitudes of both punk and avant-garde, in new forms of music that incorporates a countless number of influences that crossed their paths; cabaret, nursery rhymes, pop music, and krautrock, not to mention the wild and wonderful touchstones that made it onto the sprawling NNW List.
In its original incarnation of Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak, Nurse with Wound only made two albums, 1979’s “Chance Meeting On a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella”, and 1980’s “To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl”. In the aftermath, it became effectively a solo project for Stapleton, within which he allowed himself a remarkable amount of creative freedom and breadth, while involving the collaborations of numerous ambitious fellow travellers in the sonic realms. One of these was Colin Potter, an experimental musician and sound engineer known for his particularly playful approach to sound that emerged in solo ventures across the 1980s, as well as within regular collaboration with luminaries in the experimental underground, including NNW, Current 93, and Organum.
Potters' collaborations with Stapleton under the guise of NNW begin during the early 1990s, and are present across a significant number of the project’s output over the coming decades. Among the most striking and significant of these is the 2003 album, “Salt Marie Celeste”, a visionary excursion into texture and ambience that has been described by many as being one of the most unsettling and/or engaging of all of the project's recordings. Once heard, there’s little question of why it went on to feature in many ‘albums of the year’ lists when it initially dropped.
Recorded in 2002 by Stapleton and Potter and stretching to more than an hour in length, “Salt Marie Celeste” is an immersive gesture of droning atmospheric sound, riding the razors edge between the minimal and maximal; its remarkable density producing a glistening effect. Deploying a vast range of sound sources - instrumental and non-instrumental alike - across the album’s gloomy journey haunting images emerge. Orchestral-like chords flutter against the sounds of passing cars, boat horns, and creaking doors, almost transforming the listener’s reality into the impression of being in a film. This may not be accidental. The piece was originally intended to provide aural ambience to an exhibit by Stapleton at London's Horse Hospital.
Encountering NNW in one of the project’s most prolific and creatively enthralling periods, continuously pushing the boundaries of experimental sound into new and unexpected territories, “Salt Marie Celeste” is unquestionably a high water mark in its output that has remained sinfully out of print for nearly two decades, making Dirter’s reissue a partially noteworthy event.
Standing as a counterpoint to “Salt Marie Celeste” is “Salt”, which was created during the same rough moment in 2002 by Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter. Issued nine years later as a limited edition LP to accompany an exhibition of Stapleton’s artwork at The Horse Hospital in London, it is cited as the source material of “Salt Marie Celeste”, and as such, in this new pairing, offers incredible illuminating effects.
“Salt” is effectively “Salt Marie Celeste” stripped back to its core; a brooding ambient expanse that wraps the listener in a sense of existential tension. A sea of sound drones under restraint, without the more tangible worldly elements - field recordings, etc. - allowing a deeper sense of abstraction and bodily loss, allowing texture and ambience to take on an orchestral bearing of scope.
Regarded as one of the key actors in the inception of industrial music, Nurse With Wound has always managed to defy its own history. As crucial documents of the project’s restless journey at the outset of the new millennium, hear just that: the rebellious child of punk and the post-war avant-garde, joined in conversation with the seminal ambient works of Brian Eno, as well as the more contemporary efforts of artists like Gas / Wolfgang Voigt.
Absolutely incredible to start to finish, Dirter's deluxe, expanded double CD of “Salt” and “Salt Marie Celeste” brings two of NNW’s most engaging and sought after releases back into print, after being virtually unavailable for year. Not to be missed." [Soundohm]
|
2022 |
€17.00 |
|
| |
Bar Maldoror |
do-LP |
The long-running and infamous project known as Nurse With Wound -- essentially Steven Stapleton joined by a rotating cast of characters -- mixes the overly serious chin-scratching of the contemporary avant-garde with a healthy dose of absurdist humor and wit. Often unfortunately branded with the industrial's tag, Stapleton's music actually reflects elements of musique concrète, ambient, and free improvisation juxtaposed against more traditional forms. No one pigeonhole can adequately describe this diverse and immense catalogue: only by diving in can one truly appreciate the varied sonic possibilities of Stapleton's unfettered imagination. He's that weird, and he's that good. In the mid-1980s, Nurse With Wound existed as a live band for only eight shows, of which only five were in front of an actual audience. Live at Bar Maldoror, released in 1991, documents these various live incarnations. Having been remastered by Andrew Liles, the diverse and lengthy pieces (which were actually recorded in disparate locales, none of which are named "Bar Maldoror") sound rather contemporary. Sparse percussion, tape manipulation, loops, noise, dark drones, improvised semi-musical instrumentation and strangled glossolalia all expose the many facets of Stapleton's oeuvre. In 2023, as part of the silver editions, Rotorelief Records released Bar Maldoror as a double vinyl album, in a luxurious gatefold with four panels of artwork by Babs Santini.
|
2023 |
€40.00 |
|
| O'MALLEY / PATERAS |
Sept Duos pour Guitare Acoustique & Piano prepare |
do-LP |
Sept duos pour guitar acoustique et piano préparé is the second duo recording from Stephen O'Malley and Anthony Pateras. Their first together, Rêve Noir (2018), took an electro-acoustic scalpel to a 2011 duo concert for electric guitar and piano, using Revox and digital treatments to twist and smear gig documentation into ghostly echoes and fractured drones. Here, in contrast, the music is entirely acoustic and presented as it was performed, without overdubs. Both players’ choices of instruments are notable: this is O'Malley’s most extensive recording on steel string acoustic guitar (playing an instrument whose previous owners include Marissa Nadler and Glenn Jones) and Pateras return to the prepared piano, which he has rarely employed in recent years, after spending much of the first decade of the 21st century exploring its possibilities.
Recorded during O'Malley’s residency at La Becque on Lake Geneva in the summer of 2021, from the first moments of the opening ‘déjà revé’ the music immediately establishes the distinctive landscape of chiming tones and hovering clouds of resonance explored throughout its one-hour running time. Pateras’ preparations create tolling bell-like tones alive with complex overtones, alongside which O'Malley’s open strings and natural harmonics add a sparkling clarity. While Pateras’ music often uses a densely chromatic harmonic language, these duos are remarkable for their modal simplicity. However, the interaction between the pure intervals of O'Malley’s just-intoned strings and the unstable harmonies created by the piano preparations suspends the music in an oneiric state of hazy ambiguity. Without obvious reference to tempo or meter, the music floats in what the composer Ernstalbrecht Stiebler has called a ‘bottomless sound space’, the temporal placement of events determined by bodily rhythms and the performers’ own listening to (and enjoyment of) the sounds being made.
Heard one way, this music can seem striking in its consistency, almost environmental. Attending more carefully, the listener hears the pitch sets and tunings changing throughout the album’s length. Each piece has its own character, subtly distinguished from the others through mood, pacing, and timbre. On ‘déjà voulu’, for instance, O'Malley makes prominent use of slide, the woozy, bending pitches weaving through a series of lush arpeggiated chords from the piano. ‘Déjà senti’, on the other hand, is particularly spare, the gestures spaced out to the extent that they often float in isolation against the background of fading resonance. Much of ‘déjà su’ is built around a slowly pulsing single prepared piano tone, creating an almost ominous tension, whereas the sparkling guitar harmonics and arpeggios of the closing ‘déjà raconté’ have a gently triumphal air. While the music’s calm, rippling surface is immediately entrancing, these seven duos – in the tradition of the best improvised music – also reward close listening, which reveals sonic details and focuses the listener’s attention on how the music unfolds spontaneously from decision to decision, from gesture to gesture.
Recorded during a period when O'Malley and Pateras were grieving the loss of recently departed friends and collaborators, these seven duos possess a reflective, at times almost mournful quality. More importantly, though, they are imbued with other qualities that can arise from personal loss: a clarity that allows one to clear away the inessential, to begin again, to renew one’s faith in friendship and music.
https://shelterpress.bandcamp.com/album/sept-duos-pour-guitare-acoustique-piano-pr-par
|
2023 |
€30.50 |
|
| O'MALLEY, STEPHEN & Z'EV |
Magistral |
CD |
"Not content with fronting Sunn 0))), who are currently one of the most influential metal bands on the planet, the prolific drone guitarist Stephen O’Malley (a.k.a. Soma) has participated in a bewilderingly vast number of subsidiary projects, including Thorr’s Hammer, Khanate, Lotus Eaters, Sarin, Burning Witch, Fungal Hex, Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine, Ginnungagap, etcetera, Æthenor, Altar, KTL and Grave Temple. This time around, he’s teamed up with veteran industrial percussionist and all-round soundsmith Z’EV, and the result is Magistral.
Stephen O’Malley sent Z’EV a recording of a guitar solo lasting eight minutes and 42 seconds, which Z’EV proceeded to stretch out like Hubba Bubba, remix, add percussion to, and generally fuck about with. Those eight minutes and 42 seconds of guitar are thus transmogrified into five tracks and 49 minutes of instrumental industrial ambient music. The über-geeky track titles offer the listener few clues as to how to interpret the music – ‘6m 59s From Last 42s Left Channel Only - 26 Track Submix’, ‘13m 48s From 34s From 5m - 5m 34s - 20 Track Submix’ and so on. The fifth and final track is the most listener-friendly and accessible, featuring pounding tribal beats, lashings of feedback and recognisable guitar tones – elsewhere on Magistral, the sounds on offer run the gamut from shimmering metallic drones and abysmally deep bass rumbles to abrasive, scraping industrial noise, inviting comparison to blackened ambient acts like Archon Satani and Sistrenatus, as well as to Z’EV’s similar collaborative album with Polish drone act Hati.
An absorbing and intricate piece of work that repays repeated listenings, Magistral was mixed by Randall Dunn, noted for his work with Earth and Sunn 0)). The album is lavishly packaged in an oversized gatefold sleeve with artwork by one Stephen O'Malley. Does this man never sleep?" [Judas Kiss webzine]
www.southernlord.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| OBJEKT4 |
Space Jungle Slums |
CD |
Das letzte reguläre Album von OBJEKT4, welches am Ende einen sehr eigenen Stil ausgebildet hatte.. klarer kalter Glitch, Licht-Drones, maschinelle Loops, schleppende Bewegungen & fragmentarischer Aufbau..
"Objekt4 was formed in 2003, to explore the fields of ambient music. The sound of Objekt4 ranges from bleak industrial ambient to downbeat chillout tracks. Hovering around the fine line between music and ambience, the fine line between reality and fiction.
Experimenting with and re-arranging sounds of everyday life, creating shape-shifting forms of unknown dimensions. The "Space Jungle Slums" cd consists of two sessions recorded between 2005-2006, rooted in the realms of experimental chilled downbeat music. The title consists of one word from which each session was built upon.
All music composed, recorded and mastered by Anders Peterson." [label info]
www.ajana-records.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| OBLIVION ENSEMBLE |
Seraphim Hallucino |
CD |
Nach langer Wartezeit endlich ein neues Album für das US-amerikanische Projekt um BRANNON HUNGNESS und JOHN BERGSTROM, die vor Jahren auch eine EP für Drone Records eingespielt haben. SERAPHIM HALLUCINO ist ein erdrückend intensives, dunkles Werk basierend auf Instrumental-Improvisationen, die später im Studio ausufernd bearbeitet wurden... mit elektro-akustischer Finesse ausgestatteten Dronescapes, die geheimnisvoll & geräuschhaft tönen, man scheint wie in einem surrealen (Alp?)-Traum gefangen zu sein, immer wieder schlittern diese Sounds am Bewusstsein vorbei, um dann in überraschenden Arrangements wiederzuerstarken... eine einzigartige, filmische Atmosphäre wird erschaffen. Grossartiges Album!
"The music of Oblivion Ensemble remains as elusive and surreal as the ever-shifting cast of musicians and performerswho participate, knowingly, or unknowingly in their work. Founding members are John Bergstrom and Brannon Hungness (aka Figure). Hungness is a virtuoso experimentalguitarist and composer and a former member of the Glenn Branca Ensemble. Bergstrom is a computer-musicgearhead and a film composer with a classical music pedigree, and mastermind behind the industrial-noise assembly Torse. Seraphim Hallucino is Oblivion Ensemble’s fifth full-length release, the first since the virtual opera “Nightmare:Sinistrotorse” (Complacency, 1995). At Seraphim Hallucino’s source are strange, electro-acoustic improvisations of percussion, trumpet, voice, synthesizers and guitar. These improvisations are sculpted and sampled, twisted and turned, shaped into building and diminishing moments, and, at times appearing alone, pure and unmodified. Deeply imbedded in the music and fragmented lyrics are secrets, intertwining themes, voices, and imprinted messages. All come together to create an enormously complex, mercurial mix of surreal, dynamic and dark sounds. To fully appreciate the scope and intricacies of Seraphim Hallucino, headphones in a darkened room are highly recommended.
"The band most likely to compose a fitting soundtrack for the end of the world. ” [Sorted magAZine]
“Visionary gothic psychedelia. [The Wire]
"the most undefinable gorgeous musical anything that I have ever witnessed ... a beyond great performance, chilling and anxious.
[Best of Times]. In superb digipak, with artwork by Matt Vickerstaff of darkwaveart.co.uk." [press release]
"... Eerie textures are easily combined with chaotic and hectic movements. I am not sure wether we should see all twenty-two pieces as part of the total, or wether they are all separate, I rather believe the first, since some parts do flow nicely into each other, thus making the greater picture. There is a darker undercurrent on this CD, which doesn't make it easy to grasp, but it unfolds great beauty when explored in depth (and in dark, I presume)." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| OFF THE CUFF |
Part.Heaven |
CD-R |
Projekt von HUM und MYSERY - soll der Re-release eines alten Tapes sein (Erstveröffentlichungsdatum unbekannt). Low-fi drones & rauhe verzerrte Bass-Sounds, röhrend einbrechende Feedbacks, irgendwo tauchen verdeckte found sounds von Populärmusik / alten Schlagern? auf ... hat was sehr schlammig-dumpfes, träge schwere Winde & Drones wälzen sich langsam voran.. 2 tracks, 55 minutes.
"First edition of collaboration project between Dmitry Chistov (Hum, Maw) and Andrey Ivanov (Misery). Lo-fi old school ambient, archaic psychedelic sound, smooth drones, rattles and noises, like a leisurely walk irreparably lost in primeval forest." [Zhelezobeton]
|
0000 |
€8.00 |
|
| OLHON |
Underwater Passage |
CD |
Unterwasser-Drone-Elektromagnetismus! OLHON haben sich wieder aufgemacht, Feldaufnahmen von wirklich abgelegenen Orten zu machen - für dieses Projekt nahmen sie 40 Meter unter Wasser Sounds an einem alten Telefonkabel auf, und transferierten das ganze durch spezielle technische Bearbeitung schliesslich ins Hörbare. Wieder entsteht hier eine fremdartige Klangwelt, mit faszinierenden spiralartigen Sounds & sirrend-körnigen Überbau. "Natural Drone" der besonderen Art, absolut herausragend!
"Field-recordings maestros OLHON are back with a new stunning album. "Underwater passage" is based upon underwater recordings taken in 2006 by Zairo (WHERE), then treated by Massimo Magrini (of BAD SECTOR fame). These recordings were taken using special sensing microphones attached to an abandoned telephone cable running on the sea bottom at -40 m.; they were then processed with particular demodulating treatments, resulting in a complex and rich ambiental monument. Strange clicks, impulses, a load of movements. Definitely far from the usual concept of dark ambient = low-rumbling drones only, "Underwater passage" shimmers with cutting mid/high frequencies bursts. A very challenging listening, trust me." [label info]
label-website: www.eibonrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| OLSSON, KRISTIAN |
Ligranorex |
CD |
"Dark ritualistic post mortem works from Kristian Olsson (Alfarmania / Survival Unit) made in 2012. Originally released as private cassette in small circulation. Here released with one additional track from same period." [label info]
"Kristian Olsson – of Alfarmania and Survival Unit infamy – should really need no introduction. Ligranorex is a solo recording, but not a new one. Originally issued on cassette in 2012, it has been reissued here with an additional track added for good measure.
In a general sense, Kristian’s solo recordings are not light years away from those of Alfarmania; however, a clear differentiator is that his solo recordings are far less aggressive and more ritualized in scope. The opening 22-minute title track, despite its ritualized undercurrent, is overall quite noisy and tonally blustery, begging comparison to Alfarmania works. But from second track Sippurator, the catacombic and esoteric depths at the core of this album are revealed. Here a track of dank cavernous ritualized atmospheres is fully realized, where shuddering darkness comes to life and seems to articulate the psychic membrane separating the real from the unreal and the waking state from the dream. Floating subdued male chants allude to human form, but equally these could be from a netherworld beyond the edges of waking perception. Later, cyclic bass drones provide greater movement to the composition, but the general mood is of drawing you into its fold. Haruspex announces itself with the wailing of a thighbone trumpet, dank and slow-paced ritual percussion, and sparse ceremonial chimes. These sit at the forefront of sound that articulates cavernous archaic depths sonically receding far off into the distance. Spanning 21 minutes, the mood and pacing is slow and drawling, whereas throughout the middle and later sections the percussive pulse becomes more urgent, coupled with a prominent ascending/descending drone loop. Although lerul is noted to be a bonus track, it fits perfectly with the flow, mood, and balance of the album. Grey-hued and tonally stark soundscapes are releveled and further infused with archaic ritual atmospheres. Yet with its incessant bass throb and wavering sustained drones, it at times begins to resemble a slightly more ritualized version of Anenzephalia’s subdued heavy electronics offerings.
Packaging wise, the six-panel digi-pack is exquisitely presented with a selection of Kristian’s artwork, including the same artwork used for the cover of Issue No.3 of Noise Receptor Journal." [Noise Receptor] |
2019 |
€12.50 |
|
| OMENYA |
Ancient Rites |
CD |
Wonderful OMENYA-work with their mystic ethno-ambient soundscapes, slowly percussive structures, floating drones, guttural voices, deep vibes.... somewhere between or similar to RAPOON, ALIO DIE, URE THRALL / ASIA NOVA..... comes on a new czech label, with beautiful fold-out design showing archaic stone-paintings.... a fabulous one-tracker, very much recommended !!
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| ONODERA, YUI |
Synergetics |
7inch |
Zwei Stücke mit feinsten ozeanischen Drones, basierend auf Piano und Gitarre. YUI ONODERA ist ein Musiker, Filmemacher und Konzert-organisator aus Tokio, und auch mit eigenen Label "Critical Path" aktiv!
"YUI ONODERA is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Tokyo, who runs his own label 'Critical Path' to find "new ways to listen to sound" and who is also active in organizing concerts, composing soundtracks for experimental films and in designing sounds for contemporary dance & Butoh.
On "Synergetics", he presents two tracks of very minimal and quiet oceanic drones, based on guitar and piano. The music shimmers like light-reflections on water in extreme slow motion, when single recognizable tunes appear. Music for full concentration and contemplation, almost feathery and warm.
File under: Silence-Drones. BLUE-WHITE VINYL. MINIMALLY SELF-MADE PRINTED COVERS WITH INLAY." [press release]
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Le Jardin |
mCD-R |
Es gibt wohl zur Zeit nur wenig ambient / drone Musik, die subtiler, zarter und fragiler daherkommt als die Kompositionen des Japaners YUI ONODERA. Auf "Le Jardin" werden weich wallende Klänge von Gitarre & Violine und tieffrequent pulsierende Synths verwendet, aber auch solche die durch "electroanalysis sound of water" entstanden sind (was immer das genau sein mag). 4 Stücke die eine besondere Atmosphäre hervorzaubern, die im Kern auf die totale Stille & Ruhe zu veweisen scheint..
So viel authentische Schönheit & Transzendenz verträgt man kaum...
"minimal & melodic drones composed by this japanese artist who's just released a 7" in the Drone Records series. full-colour printed 3" cd-r with artwork by cyril herry." [label info]
label: www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| OPEN TO THE SEA |
Another Year is over, let's wait for Springtime |
CD |
"Open To The Sea is the collaboration project of Matteo Uggeri and Enrico Coniglio and “Another Year Is Over, Let´s Wait For Springtime” is their second album. While Coniglio focusses on guitar, synths and other instruments, Uggeri adds samples and field recordings to create a soundcosmos full of tiny melodies and themes with appereance by some guest musicians on drums, trumpet and cello. That would make a perfect experimental ambient album with jazzy moments, but Uggeri & Coniglio push this release further by adding some vocals to most of the tracks by inviting guest singers like Dominic Appleton (This Mortal Coil) or Lau Nau from Finland.
“Another Year Is Over, Let´s Wait For Springtime” comes in an edition of 200 copies, housed in a full coloured digisleeve featuring an 8page booklet including more art by Graham Crowley, lyrics and credits.
Enrico Coniglio: guitar, piano, duduk, synths, tapes and drones
Matteo Uggeri: laptop, drones, rhythms, samples and field recordings; lyrics on “Uninvited Ghost”
Dominic Appleton: vocal and lyrics on “Facing the Waves”
Alberto Carozzi: bass on “Particles”
Alessandro Sesana: trumpet on “Tapes and Cows” and “Crystal Dog Barks”
John Guilor: vocal performance on “Uninvited Ghost”
Yan Jun: vocals on “Crystal Dog Barks”
Romina Kalsi/Animor: vocals and lyrics on “Particles”
Gaia Margutti: lyrics and vocals on “Another Year Is Over”
Lau Nau: vocals and lyrics on “Heavy Like a Falling Leaf” and “Tapes and Cows”
Simone Riva: drums on “Facing the Waves”
Andrea Serrapiglio: cello on “Uninvited Ghost”, “Duduk Confessions”, “Tapes and Cows PT.1”,
and “Another Year is Over”; backing vocals on “Uninvited Ghost”
Olivia Uggeri: lyrics on “Another Year Is Over”
Nora Uggeri: presence on “Another Year Is Over”
Luo Wanxiang: lyrics on “Crystal Dog Barks”
https://enricoconiglio.bandcamp.com/album/another-year-is-over
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| OPION SOMNIUM |
As they fly into darkness, only black feathers remain to wipe away our tears (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
“OPION SOMNIUM is a one-man project from Santa Fe, New Mexico, being fascinated with birds as “divine creatures” and focusing on themes of eternity and death. The breath-taking drones of OPION SOMNIUM spread a sad, melancholic atmosphere, which is at the same time full of beauty. The compositions are based on in real time played instruments, like viola, accordeon and piano, but also floating electronics are used. Both tracks on this EP sound ethereal and spacey, soft feedbacking & overtunic, and intensively emotional. Maybe this music exists in this small area beneath despair, where you can find beauty and grandeur. Filed under: deep melancholic beauty-drones. VIOLET / BLUE VINYL. HAND EMBOSSED COVERS WITH METALLIC LETTERS AND PAINTED STENCIL MOTIVES ON FRONT & BACK, EACH BACKSIDE ALSO HAS A SEGMENT OF A LARGER, HANDWRITTEN POEM. NUMBERED ED.” [press release] |
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
| ORCHESTRAMAXFIELDPARRISH PRESENTS AERA |
To the last man / Index of Dreaming |
do-CD |
"... The two halves of this album are individually named possibly as an indication of content or possibly as a thematic device for Mike’s overarching driving concept. Either way they encompass a sumptuous and engrossing set of ambient music. Utilising, slow snowfalls of drones, showers of micro-tones and some well chosen field recordings Mike has created a set that fills a room with a cushion of sound
It’s difficult to give you a straight and easy description of the music. It is, by turn, the purest of ambient - like Eno at his best - before morphing into the most uncomfortable of atmospheres - dripping with discomfort and trepidation. His music is as slow and stark as the winter months and as lush and vibrant as the summer ones. Always recommended." [Wonderfulwoodenreasons]
"Faith Strange Recordings has just issued it's first double cd as of January, 2009. This is a new electronic excursion filling two full cds of recordings from orchestramaxfieldparrish and issued under the project name of orchestramaxfieldparrish presents ÆRA.
A beautifully detailed and rich sonic palette exploring the fleeting aspects of memory and dreams. These recordings manage to strike an artistic balance between adventurousness and a neo-classical sensibility, combined with a keen perception of aural sculpture. In a genre that brims with derivations, To The Last Man / Index Of Dreaming is something way ahead of the curve.
Issued in a limited edition 2xCD package in a Japanese style double mini lp gatefold sleeve. Two hours of wide open vistas and introspective private rooms." [label info]
www.faithstrange.com
|
2009 |
€18.00 |
|
| ORGANUM |
Die letzte Musik vor dem Krieg |
7inch |
Schöne geräuschhafte NEUE Stücke von ORGANUM, scheppernd-schrottige Konkret-Noises wie sie wir lieben vermischen sich mit ruhigem Klavier und Horn-Attacken...
“Two brand new pieces from 2003. Piano on side A and tibetan horns on side B add new sound colours to the classic Organum drones. Edition of 500 copies in picture cover.. Playing time: 6.39 min.” [label info]
|
2003 |
€8.50 |
|
| |
Omega |
CD |
"...Sitardrones evozieren buddhistische Untertöne, Dröhncluster schlagen die Stunden, die Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 wie eine Litanei aufzählt: A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; eine Zeit zu suchen und eine Zeit zu verlieren; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. Omega ist selbst in sich wieder dreigeteilt und erfüllt in der finalen von drei nahezu gleichen Viertelstunden den ganzen Raum mit pantheistischer Erhabenheit. Jackman nannte (im Interview mit Kevin Spencer) für das,
was ihm vorschwebte, big slow shape in time, Kegelschnitte und die minimalistischen Lichtinstallationen von Dan Flavin. Kühle,
symmetrische Struktur, warmer Klang, keine Psychologie, keine höhere Bedeutung. A piece of time, a time of peace." [Bad Alchemy]
Third part of this great ORGANUM comeback trilogy, more floating again, endless repetitions of the same sounds lead to an experience of timelessness... brilliant sounds & a highly contemplative effect...
"Collecting music for the sake of collecting is not something I am very keen. Music hearing for the sake of hearing music, that is what I like. There are a few artists whose new works I usually try to get, and Organum is one of them. Although I must admit, I sometimes (or perhaps more often than not) am clueless what it is about. If it's about something at all. The music by Organum is a mystery that comes in clusters. The cover of 'Omega' looks like 'Sanctus' and 'Amen', so no doubt there is a relation in the music, which comes to form in the use of a church organ like sound, some highly processed chime like sound and a deep drone of rusty metal in the background. Just as on 'Sanctus' and 'Amen' - and much true to the form of Organum mystery, there are three pieces here, which all sound quite similar - or perhaps they are similar? You can't tell, and that's probably the whole point. After some fifteen minutes, another track of fifteen minutes that sound similar, is that then also
similar? It's a question Organum asks himself, or rather, just raises for us to find an answer too. I am afraid I have no answer myself. I sit back and listen and wondering what this means, 'Omega', 'Sanctus' and 'Amen' - a holy trilogy? Better would be, perhaps, not to ponder too much about this and just enjoy that crazy genius Organum. I am long converted to his belief." (FdW / Vital Weekly)
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| ORGANUM ELECTRONICS |
Quietude |
CD |
"Organum Electronics ‘Quietude’ is another intense aural experience. A dense work, consisting of buzzing washes of electronic sounds, reminiscent of the very first Organum recordings. In common with other recent works, the piece uses a carefully chosen set of sound sources, overlaid and structured to form a tapestry of shifting textures. Recorded in 2021 and edited by Alan Jones at RMS Studios South London, the CD comes in a 4-panel Digisleeve with graphic artwork by Jonathan Coleclough. UK-based composer and visual artist David Jackman began his career in the late 1960s in the experimental group Scratch Orchestra, co-founded by Cornelius Cardew. He started recording solo work in the late 1970s, mostly on self-released cassettes in very small numbers. In the early 1980s he established his main project, Organum, which evolved into a new version under the name Organum Electronics in 2019. Five OE albums have been released by Japanese imprint Siren Records. ‘Quietude’ (DS128) is the first OE release on Die Stadt.. This is the second of seven albums scheduled for release on Die Stadt up until the end of 2024. As well as several albums under the OE moniker these will include works under David Jackman’s own name." [press release]
"David Jackman sprach einmal bzgl. seiner sogenanten „Holy“-Trilogie davon, diese Arbeiten seien geprägt von „a lot of repetition; more accurately, near repetition. It is a quality which I find most elegant.“ Dieses Motiv der (Fast-)Wiederholung zeigte sich auch auf Alben wie dem 2018 erscheinenen Organum-Album „Raven“ oder auf den unter eigenem Namen erschienenen Alben „Herbstsonne“ und „Silence In That Time“. Die dort zu hörenden verhallenden Klavierakkorde, manchmal mit Glockenläuten, Orgeldrones oder dem Krähen von Vögeln, waren eine fast schon zirkuläre, vielleicht auch meditative Musik.
Dann erschien plötzlich mit Organum Electronics 2019 ein Album, das dieses Zurückhaltende, Meditative rabiat beendete. Über den Nachfolger „Stilness“ aus dem Jahr 2020 konnte man hier lesen: „Frühere Organumaufnahmen (z.B. die auf L.A.Y.L.A.H.) waren geprägt von einer Unruhe, die neuen Aufnahmen sind auf gewisse Weise etwas statischer, ganz so, als wolle Jackman seine eigene Interpretation von Wall Noise spielen. Auf 35 Minuten wird der Hörende von einem massiven Drone umgeben.“ Hier klang Jackman plötzlich wieder, wenn auch unter „elektronischer“ Fokussierung, so „noisy“, wie auf seinen frühe(re)n Aufnahmen.
Nach insgesamt fünf Alben unter diesem Projektnamen auf Siren Records kündigte Die Stadt aus Bremen vor einiger Zeit eine umfangreiche Reihe mit weiteren Veröffentlichungen an: Im Abstand von drei bis vier Monaten werden bis 2024/2025 insgesamt sieben Jackman/Organum-Alben (von denen zwei Doppel-CDs sind) veröffentlicht werden.
Gerade erschienen sind die ersten zwei Alben dieser Reihe: Die Tradition der (manchmal kurios geschriebenen) Einworttitel fortführend, sind „Quietude“ und „Darcknes“ – natürlich, möchte man sagen – von Ästhetik wie auch vom Klang sehr eng miteinander verbunden: Auf „Quietude“ gibt es einen langen Track (hier 40 Minuten lang), der den Hörer unter sich zu begraben droht (ganz im Gegensatz zu der im Titel angesprochenen „Ruhe“). Es gibt immer wieder leichte (Ver-)Änderungen, kaum wahrnehmbare Verschiebungen in der Textur, so dass diese Lärmwand –
das Label spricht nicht unzutreffend von „buzzing washes of electronic sounds“ – sich durchaus (ver-)ändert. Was im Gegensatz zu den fünf vorhergegangenen Alben auffällt, ist, dass tatsächliche neue (bzw. alte) Elemente hinzukommen. Plötzlich tauchen auf „Quietude“ nämlich inmitten des Surrens und Dröhnens Glocken auf, die auf früheren Aufnahmen zu finden waren.
Das gleichzeitig veröffentlichte Album „Darcknes“ besteht aus einem 48 Minuten langen Track, auf dem neben dem Läuten von Glocken auch noch das Krähen von Raben zu hören ist.
Es ist mit Hinblick auf David Jackmans Zurückhaltung hinsichtlich öffentlicher Äußerungen letztlich müßig, herauszulesen zu wollen, was seine Konzeption hinter diesen Aufnahmen ist, aber letztlich spielt das auch keine Rolle, schließlich sagte er selbst einmal vor vielen Jahren in einem Interview mit Paul Lemos: “Really, there’s no mystery to the music; I just make it because I want those sounds to exist. There’s no other reason.” Ich habe in einer früheren Besprechung von Jackmans Arbeit einmal – in Anlehnung an eine Studie zum literarischen Expressionismus, in der u.a. die Prosa Benns dieses Attribut bekam – diese als “absolut” bezeichnet. Man kann gespannt sein, was die nächsten Veröffentlichungen bringen werden." [MG / African Paper]
"It's never easy to review music by David Jackman, not work under his own name, or work as Organum, or as it is these days, Organum Electronics. He used the latter on five releases by Siren Records, and when they announced the fifth would be the last, I assumed (for no particular reason) that would be the end of that name. Maybe because Die Stadts hasn't been too active with new releases, I didn't realise they could release more work, as basically it's the other go-to place for Jackman to release his music. They announced a series of seven works by Jackman, and their announcement didn't say whether they'll all be by Organum Electronics. The first two are. I didn't return to the five previous albums, partly out of the usual lack of time and maybe because I thought of this as
making a fresh start. Listening to these two new releases, I remember what the previous ones sounded like. Here also comes what I find 'difficult' about reviewing Jackman's work, and that's a lot of it is very similar, but then, if you see the cover, four panels with the band name and the title, and nothing else, you know the man likes repetition. And yet, most curious indeed, one is never too sure if the repeat is a one-on-one copy or a slight variation thereof. These two works may sound the same, but they aren't. In 'Darckness', some field recordings pop up, church bells, among the dense mass of electronic sound, whereas 'Quietude' seems all electronic throughout. Both seem to have been cut from more extensive work, ending quite abruptly. The overall sound design is quite similar in both pieces, and they share a general grimness about these works, as with many of his works. Think of this as being locked up in a factory, with sounds buzzing everywhere, and reminding me of the early harshness of Organum, sans electronics: dense, minimal and dark. Can I finish with 'another excellent work'? It's most likely I have used that before in connection with Jackman's work, and I will probably repeat that in the future." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| ORIGAMI GALAKTIKA & I:WOUND |
We are Column One |
CD-R |
Whirring ORIGAMI-Drones and I:WOUNDstyled ethnic field recordings melt into a highly inspiring soundscape. Live Recording made at the legendary club DIE SIBIRISCHE ZELLE in Berlin, which was run by COLUMN ONE. A very strong norwegian–german collaboration which happened on that evening in east-Berlin....
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| ORIGAMI GALAKTIKA / I:WOUND / INDERST ELIA |
Monolake |
CD |
OOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM.....ethnische Elemente & field recordings, sanfte harmonische drones, Glöckchen, Samples von alten weisen Frauen (so scheint es), ultra langsame dumpfe hypno-percussion... geisterhaft durch den Äther wehende softe Loops, dunkel aber nicht depressiv....eher eine „heilige“ Atmo ausstrahlend...
insgesamt eine sehr ansprechende dronige Landschaft, in die man vollständig versinken kann.....
Live-Collab. dieser drei Projekte in äusserst ansprechender Qualität auf dem vielversprechenden neuen Prager Label PURLPE SOIL....
“One very subtle long ambient track (clocking in at just under 70 minutes) resulting from a live collaboration between these three acts in Mir, Oslo, 2000. An excellent quality live document. Originally released on CDR by Amber Music For The Tattooed Frog, this CD edition is presented in a stunning 6-panel matt digipak with inserts.” [Cold Spring]
|
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| ORNAMENT |
Unicorn Lullaby |
CD-R |
Wiederveröffentlichung dieser schönen ORNAMENT-CDR mit recht einfach gestricktem, aber sehr wirkungsvoll-hypnotischen loop-ambient/drones, warm und dunkel, zwischen TAM QUAM TABULA RASA und AMON? Feine Fullcolour-Cover-Artwork auch ...
sehr zu empfehlen!
„Unicorn Lullaby" was self-released by Ornament in a few copies back in 2000 and is now published by Afe in a fully remastered and repackaged version that showcases the author's visionary attitude. Due to the poor distribution of the original version, this is probably Ornament's less know work, but it's probably his best attempt at Dark Ambient music contaminated with Industrial elements. If we look for some kind of internal reference wondering through the whole Afe catalogue, this can easily be found in Never Known's "Dawn of an Era", but "Unicorn Lullaby" has of course a personality of his own. According to his author, "Unicorn Lullaby" is an oniric / visionary concept in sounds, a travel to and back from an imaginary collapsing world where the "Unicorn Shaped Labyrinth" is the entrance / exit. "Noctifer" is the star shining above this imaginary world, while the gear-sounding "High Density of Grief" is a representation of the slave-citizens forced to work in a consuming production-chain and "From Concealed Gardens" tries to describe its mysterious flora and fauna. After entering the imaginary world, the protagonist wakes up ("I Opened My Eyes in the Liquid Room") and fight against his "Fiendish Ego" as the world begins to collapse ("Under Shivering Columns") as predicted by ancient priests who were charged with heresy ("The Heretics' Heritage"). This heritage is the only key that allows the protagonist to survive the ordeal and return to the place where he belongs as only a few traces of past life surround him ("Only Life Remains"). The distinctive overall sound of the album is subtly achieved with a rich shady substratum of distant sounds that are intentionally and elegantly kept in the background and are fully appreciable at a mid volume level.” [label description]
www.aferecords.com
|
2005 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORPHANAGE COMMITTEE |
Continuities Vol. 1 |
CD |
EE Tapes proudly present the new brainchild of Orphan S.C. Wallace from our hometown Sin City, Belgium.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, his debut LP from 2021 - A Significant Change - has still been delayed at the pressing plant....maybe this year?
Instead, we present his different face first: ambient / drone constructions created spontaneously as homage to EE Tapes' 35 years of electronic obscurities!
All sound and vision by Orphan S.C. Wallace. His floating drones are like a film between the ears. 3-2-1....relax now and let the earplays take off!
CD in standard jewel case limited to 100 (only 65 for sale).
First 35 cps (only 20 for sale) come in a coloured box (yellow, blue, green or red).
Available as physical CD + DL.
Video:
youtu.be/7TbbxLxzy_E
https://eetapes.bandcamp.com/album/continuities-vol-i
|
2022 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO |
Picture myself in a cloud (speaking through thought) |
CD-R |
FABIO ORSI ist der neue italienische Meister trancig-verträumter Ambient - & Dronesphären, auf dieser limitierten RURALFAUNE CDR finden sich zwei lange Stücke voller dichter Drone-Layers und Gitarrenloops, das zweite Stück kreszendiert in einen absoluten LICHT-DRONE hinein! Anklänge an FEAR FALLS BURNING, EXIT IN GREY, AIDAN BAKER, aber insgesamt noch sanfter & subtiler, und stärker Electronica-verwandt.... TIP for dream-droners !
"Another journey over Italy in a sky full of drone meditations and floating melodies. An impressive work by one of the new master of drone music - psych butterflies artwork by George Parsons of Dream Magazine - " [label info]
http://www.myspace.com/ruralfaunelovesyou
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Random Shades of Day |
3 x CD |
"Fabio Orsi has been winning the hearts of many listeners over the past few years with both his solo and collaboration releases. It's not often I find a new artist that interests me, and since my first listen to 'before long, before anyone, the stars will be walls in my mind' I've been hooked.
This set includes two CDs of previously unreleased and out-of-print material spanning Fabio Orsi's career. Drones, keyboard, guitar, distant vocals and field recordings can be found over the first two discs. Included are Fabio Orsi's first EP (I'm Here), 1000 Days Red, Faded on the Blowing of Winter, six previously unreleased tracks and more.
CD3 is a brand new full length record entitled 'Random Shades of Day'. This new full length continues on from 'Wild Light of the Moon' with beautiful drones and relaxing ambience. This is easily some of my favourite work that Fabio has ever done, and Part III is also some of his darkest. Easily the finest release to date." [label info]
www.privilegedtofail.com
|
2010 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Light was the Day |
mCD-R |
"Known for his elegant and melodic drones based upon field recordings and guitar, "light was the day" is a perfect example of ORSI's skills!" [label info]
www.taalem.org
|
2011 |
€5.00 |
|
|
The new Year is over |
3 x CD |
"Nine long and extraordinary tracks collected in a triple CD, among fluctuating ambient atmospheres, hypnotic rhythmic progressions, circular and motionless stasis, acid psychedelic escapes, evocative electronic reflections... Slow suites of "classic" ambient music suspended and dilated, soft and wrapping sonorities alternated with evocative and dramatic crescendos, through progressive sounds layerings, drones, pulses, distant echoes of human voices and subliminal perceptions of ethnical vibrations... A long and absorbing journey through distant sounds and universes, a timeless music without boundaries...
Monumental opus by one of the most brillant italian artist. Simply a milestone.
Limited edition of 300 copies in cartonsleeve." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"One of things I wondered about when listening and looking at 'The New Year Is Over' is why a set of three CDs? Track titles don't show evidence that these belong to each other per se, but of course music wise it does. Nine lengthy cuts of what Fabio Orsi does best, playing ambient soundscapes, highly atmospheric. He employs synth, effects and guitar according to the cover. That's easy. The outcome however isn't as homogenic as one should expect. I thought it would be along those lines where we have nine similar approaches to the same idea, but that's not the case. A piece like 'Endlisch' on the first disc is almost noise ambient, with a touch of rhythm buried underneath and marks the end of a CD that seems anyway a lot louder than we are used to. Its a diametrical opposite piece to 'Dust In One Hand, Love In The Other' (track two, disc two), which is a very soft floating sailboat, the last track of a more silent CD. These two works could have fitted one disc, but I can see why it's decided not to do that. The third disc has three pieces which have a slightly more rhythmic, looping feel about it, and bridges I guess the two previous CDs in an effort to go from very quiet, introspective material to more loud movements in 'The Lonesome Era (part 3)'. This CD is a showcase of the various aspects of atmospheric music that Orsi is familiar with and as such he does a great job in displaying that. You could argue wether three is a crowd and such a showcase could have been one CD, but I think its better to have it over the course of three separate discs and show the smaller variations in there." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Qui Vicino |
CD & booklet |
"Born in the province of Taranto, in southern Italy, after many years spent in Naples and now based in Berlin, Fabio Orsi sits among the most interesting names of the European electronic and experimental scene. Following his early output on A Silent Place and Smallvoices, his music works have been published by many other labels worldwide, including Last visible Dog, Porter Records, Boring Machines and Silentes. His talent has become an estabilished reality thanks to his abilities in finding a nice balance between experimentation and melody, sounding intimate and abstract at the same time, using drones of a concrète and electronic nature, acoustic instruments, field recordings, synthesizers and computer treatments for his compositions. In addition to his solo work, we would also like to mention his many collaborations with Italian saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Valerio Cosi and Gianluca Becuzzi a.k.a. Kinetix, and ex-Limbo, that projected their visions into a different perspective.
"Qui vicino " does not contain any note or credit, just a touching dedication from which we deduce the intimate nature of the composition. Ideally divided into two parts of roughly equal duration, the track offers a dark evolving guitar drone that slowly take shape and then dissolve to recreate itself in a more placid and radiant way.
"Qui vicino " is released in a limited edition of 250 copies that comes with 16-pages A4 booklet containing stunning pictures taken by Orsi himself." [label info]
13.silentes.it
"Also on the short size, length-wise, is the release by Fabio Orsi: thirty-three minutes but it comes with a great A4 sized folder (16 pages) of his photography, which is something I really like. Earlier this year his father died and this package is dedicated to him. Orsi is from Italy but now lives in Berlin, for quite some time now, and has had many releases on such labels as A Silent Place, Small Voices, Last Visible Dog, Porter Records, Boring Machines and Silentes. His primary instrument is the guitar, which he uses to create drone sounds, along with field recordings and electronics. Sometimes he also uses synthesizers, acoustic instruments and computer treatments. On this new release there are no credits and we don't know what he does, but my best guess would be that he uses just his guitar and electronics. The piece is divided in two parts, both going from very silent to mildly loud, in one long crescendo per part. This is the kind of music we know Silentes best for, and perhaps also Orsi himself. A damn fine gorgeous drone piece, dark, melancholic, waving, meandering about, over empty deserts, windy plains on part clouded day, or just launched into deep space like a spacecraft onto the destination unknown. This is not a release in which Orsi shows us a new direction in his music, but which further carves out his niche of ambient tunesmith of longitude pieces. No surprises here, but a wonderful release and beautifully packed." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Uncharted Waters |
CD |
With more than 30 albums under his belt, Fabio Orsi has been one of the leading figures of the Italian electronic scene for over 10 years now. In his work he experimented with folktronica, drones, field recordings, minimalism, and sampling. As the title itself indicates, his latest album (and the first one released on Zoharum) is a journey into previously unknown areas. "Uncharted Waters" is a pulsating, multi-layered, multi-coloured 36-minute composition that can surprise current fans of the artist. It proves you can expect the unexpected from Fabio Orsi. At the same time, the melancholy hovering over the melodies and the atmosphere of this album links "Uncharted Waters" with previous releases of this Italian artist.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/uncharted-waters
"Background/Info: In a bit more than years Italian artist Fabio Orsi has released an impressive number of productions. “Uncharted Waters” is his first work released by Zoharum Records.
Content: “Uncharted Waters” is an invitation to dream away. The work takes off a pure space-style. The track is progressively evolving towards darker passages. After more or less 20 minutes you’ll notice electro sequences accentuating the electro-ambient approach of the composition. “Uncharted Waters” features one single cut of more than 35 minutes.
+ + + : I like this typical space-like atmosphere hanging over the composition. It’s a relaxing experience, which progressively moves into a darker sound. The second half of the song is the most fascinating one. There’s a kind of exciting space-dub touch leading the listener into a transcendental journey.
– – – : When listening to a single piece with such a long during time it’s nearly impossible to remain fascinated from start till the end. The first half of the composition is relaxing, but not exactly exciting
Conclusion: Music can be synonym of travelling and that’s precisely what this album is all about! Put the disc in the CD player, close your eyes and dream away throughout unknown, imaginary places." [Side-Line]
|
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO & CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI |
Cascando |
LP |
"The work of both Fabio Orsi and Claudio Rocchetti has long been a varied study in internal dynamics. Through an array of instruments and sound sources, Orsi and Rocchetti have made an album that both feels very internal, and yet firmly roots observation on the external; that which is indeed beyond view. The very 'falling' of Cascando is at play across the work. Typically, of course, one associates the act of falling as a negative; something which is accidental and brings pain. Yet as the album begins with its harsh insect-like frequencies, so it ends in a similar vein as the fall implied is complete. Quite beyond that which one would expect however, the end result of said fall is one that is considered, calm, and ultimately, biotic. The slowing down of everything gives us time to see beyond life's noise, with its diversions and tracts. It helps us to absorb but to also look deeper, further, and onward, to a place we can call our own, to a place we can call home." [Ian Hawgood]
www.backwards.it
"The psychedelic drone traveler Fabio Orsi has dotted the globe appearing on an impressive array of labels with his slippery dronescaping and nocturnal impressionism. Time Released Sound, Home Normal, Digitalis, Students Of Decay, and Korm Plastics have all released his recordings, and here; he finds himself on the Italian imprint Backwards working with fellow countryman Claudio Rocchetti, who both happen to be residing in Berlin. The twin guitars of these audio alchemists surface through dense layers of time-delay effects of shimmer and blur, resulting in some lovely overtones and harmonics washed amidst the field recordings of rural chimes and cathedral incantation. While it's hard to discern the exact division of labor, Rocchetti seems to be the one with more of the rough-hewn Tom Carter-styled bent to his guitar figures and drones, where Orsi might be the one who wraps his instrument in a deep cosmic hypnosis. Together, they are formidable pairing making a gauzy yet earthen mesmerism, in conjuring these mirage-like recordings. Think a more shambolic Stars Of The Lid or a less shoegazing doppleganger of Simon Scott, and you'll probably be pretty close to what this Cascando falls. Gorgeous stuff." [Aquarius Rec.] |
2014 |
€12.50 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO & MAMUTHONES |
The First Born |
CD |
Der neue italienische Ambient-Star FABIO ORSI wieder in Kollaboration, und zwar mit MAMUTHONES aka ALESSIO GASTALDELLO, Mitglied von JENNIFER GENTLE. Es fängt harmonisch & recht harmlos an mit Synth/Organ-wellen und Vogelgezwitscher, dann aber setzt Perkussion ein, die Drones werden prägnanter, fuzziger, das ganze bekommt einen hypnotisch-trancigen Sog, der einen langsam immer mehr gefangennimmt... Super !
"... Dunkle Soundlayers verweben sich mit atavistischer Percussion, ins Endlose schlingernde Feedback-Schleifen von beklemmender Dichte wälzen sich wie höllisches Miasma durch die Lautsprecher, irgendwo blitzen weit aus der Ferne erhellende Keyboard-Tupfer auf, um sich später zu treibenden Rhythmussektionen zu verfestigen." [SKUG]
"THE FIRST BORN is (quite aptly) the first collaboration between Fabio Orsi (more than a recurring name in the In A Silent Place catalogue) and Mamuthones - better known to friends and family as Alessio Gastaldello and founding member and drummer of Jennifer Gentle, the Italian psych band signed to Sub Pop Records. After six years with the Jennifers, Alessio split amicably in late 2006 and reinvented himself as Mamuthones, a one-man project delving into primitive percussive jamming and equally primitive one-finger astral keyboard-playing. After a telematic chance meeting with Fabio Orsi, now the crowned prince of the Italian experimental noise, this album slowly started taking shape via e-mails and file-sharing. Built around a series of percussion-cum-keyboard sonic landscapes performed by Mamuthones and enriched by deep, droney electronic layers later added by Orsi, THE FIRST BORN contains four long tracks of dark, brooding modern psychedelia. From the splashing cymbals and martial beat of the title track to the hypnotic surge of "The infinity within" or the ritualistic feast of "The battle", the whole album feels like an ancient sea ebbing and flowing on some distant alien shore, making for a curiously disjointed listening experience, at the same time peaceful and menacing. The ever-shifting sonic textures evoke both the starchildren krautrockers of old and more recent outer-world explorers but always keep a strong personal identity, firmly rooted in the current weird Italian take on space rock. Released in extra heavy and luxurious package!" [label notes]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO & VALENTINA BESEGHER |
Hunt me Tender |
DVD |
" 'I put a hand over roots and leafs of trees and threaded my stare in between the openings of nature, i found you and felt the beauty sliping between my fingers, why did you ask me to go? Why did you leave me alone?'
“Hunt me tender" is an audiovideo project by Fabio Orsi and Valentina Besegher. The work explores with super8 and sound recordings the slow steady flow of the events, lights and shadows in everyone's life as well as a "crystallization of life", a kind of captivity of the soul into an embalmed body.
The super8 films have been taken from the family archive of the musician Fabio Orsi and edited by the visual artist Valentina Besegher, who shooted the original movies of the embalmed animals in their natural habitat, the plants and the woods. Fabio Orsi uses field recording, instruments and environmental drones." [label info]
www.silentes.net
"More music by Fabio Orsi can be found on the DVD he did with Valentine Besegher. A private document, since the original footage hails from the family archive of Orsi and were shot on 8mm. She did a slight treatment to the films, but it shows us plants, animals and family life. Orsi provides a sound track of field recordings, environmental drones and instruments. It sounds like an organ drone being treated in the beginning, but switches over to the most percussive bit I have yet encountered from Orsi after ten or minutes in order to move back into more atmospheric drones as the piece evolves. Altogether its quite a diverse piece of music, of nice atmospheric music and likewise filmic material. Pretty dark at that too. Nice one." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO & VALERIO COSI |
We could for Hours |
CD |
FABIO ORSIs organ-& harmonium-like drones are contrasted here by Saxophon-tunes, the sound is very polyphonic & broad, with a slight ethno-feel to it, somehow static and in motion at the same time..
four tracks with about 40 minutes of length, but you will definitely touch the repeat button after its finished.... and if you take heavy hallucinogenic drugs to this music, you will probably end up writing a label text as this:
"We Could For Hours is instability. It represents the will to open the gates of unknown. It is the dark, whispered sounds and hidden truths. Chaos. And now here it starts, everything takes form, sensations rise, objects acquire colours, distorted vision but still a vision of reality. Everything dances and follows the rhythm of music, an unknown tribal dance. Silence. Sounds follow themselves but always hidden in a veil of mistery, words are mute, everything is listening attentively to the enchanting melody of nature. Mind, free from human limits, goes straight towards a long journey and meets the supernatural and then sinks into the knowledge oblivion. Everything is nothing. Nothing is the time. Time becomes memory and memory brings us to happy thoughts that rise first, then fall in the end. Hallucinations. The precariousness feeling is overwhelming us, tollings of a clock without hands are molesting our ears and they scan the slow and endless flowing of life. Too late to be back. There's no possibility. We have to live desolate countrysides burnt by an August sun. Lysergic vision. Void." [label notes]
www.asilentplace.it
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| ORSI, FABIO / TEZ |
Otto |
CD |
13/Silentes presents the fruitful first collaboration between FABIO ORSI and the Italian interdisciplinary artist and independent researcher MAURIZIO MARTINUCCI (aka TeZ), mostly knownfor his collaboration with ADI NEWTON in CLOCK DVA.
Together they have created a work as dense as it is intense, with cosmic traits that are aptly depicted in the images featured on the artwork. A work in which the experience of its two authors reaches a unique climax where you can only let yourself loose without placing any limits on your senses.
“Two liquid minds that meet in a truly surprising creative partnership, devoted to the alchemy of electronic weavings that pulse, dig, transform, dare, reinvent. The artists in question are Fabio Orsi and TeZ, talented musicians who need no introduction other than to point out that we find ourselves in the presence of two veterans of avant-garde experimentation and ambient noise that drives out hidden horizons by intercepting them in the space-time folds of the sound dimension. The plastic breath of OT / TO's 'optophonic' compositions denotes elements of visionary writing out of the ordinary, like prismatic figures in the odour of quantum mechanics, or like chiselled tonal profiles that refer to the synaesthetic idea of a music susceptible to becoming a vehicle for sublimating multi-sensory experiences. If Fabio Orsi shows off his knowledge as an imaginative creator of mental-oneiric atmospheres through the hallucinogenic, deeply immersive registers of his instrumental apparatuses based on electronic patterns, field recordings and variable frequency drones, TeZ is the synthesist of post-science and of the kinematic algorithm that triggers highly pervasive vibrational dynamics, the strategist of the mathematical pulsation that forges cycles of gravitational currents and vortexes of telematic sounds with innovative pronunciation. It is no wonder that Adi Newton wanted him permanently at the court of Clock DVA and that he has also distinguished himself in comparative research into the interrelational potential of sound, light and space. It is from this molecular fusion that the genesis-synergy of a work full of magnetic properties and captivating waveforms is triggered. Eight tracks, each of which is marked by a specific numbering (from one to eight), according to a numerical sequence aimed at the 'philological' purposes of the authors. What comes to life is a phenomenon of tensional factors and sinusoidal events in continuous movement, like atoms of fluid crystals that change shape and volume, perspective angle and tactile sensation, regenerating between one loop-scan and another, while the harmonics float, dart, throb and dance on the mesmeric granular stratifications of the drones. A fine elaboration of phono-particle complexions for a four-handed challenge that we can consider decisively won.” - Aldo Chimenti
CD in 6-panel digisleeve, ltd. 200 copies
13.silentes.it/private_sounds/sps2247_orsi_tez.htm
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| OSSASERPIA |
Mvsic for Solve et Coagvla |
CD & book |
"Vladimir Igoshin (Ossaserpia) has created Opus alchymicum, spectacular account of the »work« of the musickal alchemists who developed a symbolic kind of psychochemistry, aimed at producing the gold of mystical illumination through celestial musick. See theories by Robert Fludd (Robertus Fluctibus) and Rosicrucian theories of the monochord. Very unique drone chamber musick with some strange industrial elements. Vladimir Igoshin is known for his contributions to HCD compilations such as Lust From The Underworld and/or AL: 100th Anniversary. Special art-work for an oversized hard-bound book (A5) designed by fantastic Madeline von Foerster! Special limited edition consists of 500 hand-numbered copies in hand-made box covered with rustish top-notch embossed Quilt 120g paper. The oversized embossed hard-bound book (A5) printed on Gmund Kaschmir cream 170g and embossed CD sleeve-jacket again on Quilt 120g paper. Very rare print for all fans of occult & alchemy! Special limited box on request only!" label notes]
"Genre: Dark Ambient / Drone / Neo-Classical (Chamber) / Industrial.
In today’s climate where record labels seem intent on cheaply mass produced releases to make a few quick bucks it comes as a relief to find a record label that actually cares about the presentation to match the music they release. Stepping into the, highly deserved, limelight is the Czech HORUS CyclicDaemon record label founded by Martin Mrskos. All their releases, well the ones I’ve been lucky enough to track down, have been impeccable in every respect. What went before though has been overshadowed by this latest release by the artist Vladimir Igoshin recording as Ossaserpia. I doubt many labels would have the balls to put out a recording housed in an actual hard bound book, A5 sized, in quality 120g paper and beautifully illustrated by the artwork of Madeline von Foerster. My eyes still can’t take it all in. I’m not by any means up on Art by any stretch of the imagination but I knows what I like and I like what I see set before me. The illustrations saying more than any amount of words can possibly describe. Which they need to as there are no words to accompany the pictures. A wise decision as it leaves the listener to use their own creative imaginations to make of it what they will as they listen to the music. For this book is best used in conjunction with the recording. Which I suspect was the way it was meant to be. Separated both are superb stand alone products. Together they open up undiscovered realms that feeds the senses. The touch, smell and sights of the book complimented by the aural grandeur that Vladimir has composed.
Based on the theories of Robert Fludd (Robertus Fluctibus), 1574-1637, a Kentish Anglican alchemist, mathematician, astronomer, cosmologist who wrote thirteen published works in his lifetime and the Rosicrucian theories of the monochord. Please Google these for I have not the time, nor the intellect required, to go into great detail here, the music expands on the theory that alchemists developed a symbolic kind of chemistry aimed at producing the gold of mystical illumination through celestial music. Clear as muck then. The concept may well be shrouded in unintelligible mystery to a Neanderthal knuckle scraper like myself but even I could see what the artist has tried to envision through his music. Featuring, what I can only call, a Medieval vibe mixed in with modern Industrial noise and drone sensibilities the twelve tracks are a treat for the ears. Though you will need to give it a couple of spins to really get inside every nuance that Vladimir has created.
From the off perceptions are challenged by the dirge drones and assorted muted ‘noise’ effects that spread like wildfire from the speakers. The bass tones are heavy duty and tinted with a dark apparel. Move past this introduction and the speckles of Neo-Classical / Chamber music begins to shine forth and suddenly the music takes the semblance of form as Vladimir throws all manner of different black musical combinations into the cauldron that bubbles with an intensity you never realised possible. You are treated to a music born of fire and brimstone from an age past brought to life in the present day. As your eyes scan and feast on the pictures of storm clouds, dragons and entwined couples the music conjures them in the minds eye. At its heart the music is surprisingly downbeat and steeped in dark oppressive moods where tranquillity appears smashed to a pulp. For all the unsettling swings the music takes, and it takes a lot, it ends on a note of triumph. A glimpse of fortitude winning against all odds.
Unlike many recordings that have tried to re-create the whole ‘magical’ dark ambient experience ‘Mvsic For Solve Et Coagvla’ is the only one I’ve encountered that has actually got under the skin of its subject matter. I’ll not pretend that it is by any means an easy recording to get into and many of you may be put off by the way Vladimir has tackled the subject in such an uncompromising way. This might have been the Achilles heal for a lesser experienced musician but Vladimir’s music is created in such a way that through repeated plays you become more accustomed to the sounds until finally the clouds break and the full visionary aspects opens up before your ears. If there was such a thing as a perfect 10 for both presentation and music working in harmony and tandem with each other then ‘Mvsic For Solve Et Coagvla’ would be it. I tell you now that it will be one of the most sought after recordings for music lovers and collectors alike this year. With only 500 numbered copies you’ll need to act fast…or live to regret it." [Alan Milne / Heathen Harvest]
label-website: www.horus.cz
|
2006 |
€26.00 |
|
| OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD |
Polished Glass Autobahn |
7 |
BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL gibt es nicht mehr. Es lebe OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD! Während wir noch über die Bedeutung des Bandnamens nachdenken, ertönen auf der ersten Single überraschend abgehackte Beats und eine Vibrato-Gitarre wird über Akustigitarren malträtiert (sehr seltsam das alles), während die B-Seite "Galactic Masada" mit herrlichen tänzelnden Backwards-Gitarren, Organ-Drones und Rauschwellen auftrumpft. Das ist wirklich mal ein starker Kontrast zwischen A-und B-Seite..
"Debut single of the new project by Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel / Black Boned Angel). Campbell says “Shoot. The goddamn funkiest noise record ever? Like a bop-off between Rudolph Grey and Terminator X. Grinding psychedirgecore plastered over ghastly electrosplatter and ambivalent fake-americana strummage. And that’s just side one! Side two grovels in halls of gravel, blurring the line between this world and the next... like Aldous Huxley writing a book about how he lost his marbles whilst listening to Hawkwind. Like, like, like...EVERYBODYDANCENOW!)” Sure to pack the dance floors in Hades." [label info]
www.myspace.com/dirtyknobbyindustries
|
2009 |
€6.50 |
|
| OVRO |
Revisited |
CD |
Auf "Revisited" benutzt OVRO Feldaufnahmen aus St. Petersburg und Moskau, die sie von einer Reise mitbrachte. Die wallend-raunigen Drones der Metro, obskure TV-Schnipsel, Kirchenglocken, der Besuch eines "Eis-Tempels" und die Benutzung von Metallflöten, Kaffee-Bar Geräusche, Altai-Folklore in einem Museum... aus all diesen Soundquellen schafft sie eine faszinierende "zweite Reise" für den Headspace, so dunkel, dicht und traumverwebt spannend, dass hier quasi Genre-freie Musik ensteht, zwischen drone ambience, Geräuschmusik und atmosphärisch-experimentellen Hörspiel.
"The wondergirl of Finnish dark ambient soundscapes is back with a new album. Revisited is based on field recordings made during Ovro’s tour in Russia in 2006, subsequently processed and treated in the studio. Revisited is a powerful aural travelogue. It will lull the listener to a state of receptive trance, and then starts working on the subconscious mind. Let yourself go, lose yourself in the sound, expect lucid dreams, out-of-body experiences, alien apparitions and a shower of sound massaging your body throughout. Revisited is loosely related to Estraier, a 2006 EP of which only a handful of copies were given out. Compared to Estraier, Revisited is extended, mutated and more elaborate throughout. While the beginning is similar, the paths taken turn out somewhat different and thus the outcome is all new. CD is packed in beautiful 4-panel digisleeve. Edition of 1000 copies." [label info]
www.someplaceelse.net
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| OVUM |
Eld |
CD-R |
Ein one-tracker (51 Minuten) vom schwedischen dark ambient-Projekt, Zeitlupen-drones und leicht sirrende elektronische Effekte, die ganz langsam niedersinken.... windartige, verhallte Filterrauschsounds verstärken eine Atmosphäre des Unendlichen und Transzendentalen. Sehr schönes Artwork (2-fach Vollfarb-Pappklappcover mit GLUT darauf), insgesamt ein exzellenter dark-drone-ambience Release! TIP !!
“OVUM is the main project of Karl Midholm from Sweden, his style may be best described as a mixture of Industrial-Ambient and Drone Music. "Eld" was created in 1999 using recordings of fire as the only sound source. Such recordings were subsequently run through filter banks and effect units, resulting in one fifty minutes long track of evolving beautiful drones. The album was originally intended as part of a various artists set dealing with the four elements that unfortunately was never released. After five years from its creation, it finally see the light of day as another Blade Records / Afe Records co-production.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| OÖPHOI (OOPHOI) |
Hymns to a silent sky |
CD |
Neues Werk, dem “Himmel” gewidmet...pure Meditations-drones, langsam kreisende Frequenzverschiebungen, sanfte verhallte aurale Schlagschatten..... die “beste Kunst”, sowohl visuell als auch akustisch, produziert immer noch und täglich neu, die Natur... diese Natur-verbundenheit scheint OÖPHOI mit seiner Musik ausdrücken zu wollen....
“A silent, impassive sky is watching us. An impending sky full of signals that we should learn to read and perceive. A sky which reflects our moods, hopes and fears. A sky which can recall our deepest memories.
I want to dedicate these hymns to all the people who feel attracted by the beauty and the mysteries of the Sky.” [Oophoi, 2005]
"An album of epic, deep, evocative space music that stretches out in front of you in its own infinite universe of sounds. The music is deeply connected with the mysteries of the sky: clouds moving slowly, delicate and dramatic colors merging together beyond the horizon line, winds carrying voices and sounds from distant times. A remarkable work full of poetry. According to general reactions - Oophoi's best album so far. Total Time: 60:21 “ [label info]
www.nextera.cz
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Mare Tranquilitas |
CD |
One of the best OÖPHOI-CDRs, recorded in 2001, now re-released by czech label NEXTERA!
"The most mysterious Sea of the Moon inspired this monumental work of Italian droning artist Oophoi. The music leads us through different levels of space ambient music, from vast and resonant alien soundscapes to mystic and solitary drones for bass flute and electronics. At times reminiscing of Robert Rich's first works, with sustained and undulating chords. Mare Tranquillitatis is a masterpiece of slow atmospheric space music!" [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| P16.D4 |
Kühe in 1/2 Trauer |
CD |
P16.D4 was a German electronic noise music collective, active primarily from 1980 to 1988. P16.D4 embraced tape cut-ups, musique concrète, endless recycling and transformation of previously published material, and many long-distance collaborations with like-minded artists such as DDAA, Vortex Campaign, Nurse With Wound, and Merzbow. Their active participation in the international industrial tape scene yielded collaborative output such as their release Distruct, where bands such as Nurse with Wound, Nocturnal Emissions, Die Tödliche Doris, and The Haters provided the source material. The longest-term collaboration was with the installation and conceptual artist Achim Wollscheid, who used P16.D4 sounds as the basis for LPs he recorded under the name SBOTHI. Ralf Wehowsky, the only constant member of the group, later released solo material under the alias RLW.
Members of P16.D4 were also involved with Selektion, a collective of people involved with sound as well as the visual arts. Selektion published LPs, CDs, books, visual art and design.
The collective worked in a strongly improvised, spontaneous and anti-professional way, using acoustic and electronic instruments, using existing sound fragments, duplicating and alienating them, using repetition, distortion, changes in speed and playing direction. For this they used not only sounds of other artists but also their own material from earlier productions. Late works of the collective are associated with musique concrete.
https://www.sonoris.org/product/p16-d4-kuhe-in-12-trauer-lp/
##########################################
“This music is staggeringly original and innovative, and while it’s possible to locate it in a chain of circumstance that links it to ‘Industrial’ music, P16.D4 indulged in none of the empty cliches associated with the genre, worked incredibly hard, and seem to have been aiming at a form of sound art that was much more profound, varied, subversive, and potentially dangerous. Kuhe In 1/2 Trauer’s accompanying credits indicate their radical approach to making music: lots of improvisation, lots of live electronics, extensive use of tape-loops, some conventional instrumentation, and much that isn’t – like the milk churn on ‘Paris, Morgue’ or the use of baking tray and washing machine elsewhere. Even when guitars, drums or keyboards are used, they’re played very weirdly. It’s not even made clear who was doing what; the main credit is ‘Concept,’ which I assume means that one of the three devised the framework in which the noise would operate itself, and while RLW gets the lion’s share of these credits, a lot of the cuts are evenly divided among the team and I have no doubt that the group operated in a very democratic or libertarian manner. None of this prepares you for the insane and troubling sounds that reach your ears, composed with scant regard for conventional logic and following an exciting, absurdist path, especially in the matter of tape edits and juxtapositions of recordings.”
Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector.
“Though this German group started out as a the new wave band P.D., by the time of Kuhe in 1/2 Trauer, their first LP under the P16.D4 name from 1984, they had developed far beyond into extremely experimental music similar to other post-industrial artists working with abstract avant-garde soundscapes. There’s a bleak industrial feel to the gritty, lo-fi electronics and tape loops, while the group throws in enough curve balls to keep it interesting. On some pieces, strange, looped choirs bubble out of throbbing pulses and drones of feedback, while others have clanging and clattering, and elements of musique concrète and improvisation blur the boundaries even further. The opening track, “Default Value,” is one of those disorienting pieces with noises flying everywhere, while “Paris Morgue” takes excerpts from one of their old P.D. tracks and messes it up with additional instruments, while the ungainly titled fourth track throws in a heavy texture of percussive noises to create an edgy ambience about to teeter off the edge, and the even darker and more ambient title track takes the tension even further. Arrhythmic and amorphous and capable at moments of becoming quite noisy and abrasive, while at others far more somber and quiet, Kuhe in 1/2 Trauer is quite a fascinating release.”
Rolf Semprebon / AMG
|
2022 |
€13.00 |
|
| PACIFIC 231 |
Stif(f)le |
CD-R |
Drei Mitschnitte von den P231-Konzerten 2007 in Russland sind hier dokumentiert, wesentlich minimaler und droniger als man es gewohnt ist, frequenzmodulierte analog-synth drones in spiralenförmigen Drehungen erfüllen den Raum...
"Pierre Jolivet has been producing music since 1981. His most recent CD Palestine has been released in 2007 in collaboration with Rapoon. This album is based on the performances will take place in the Moscow, St.-Petersburg and Yaroslavl, during the russian tour organized by Monochrome Vision label. The concept of Stif(f)le is to encompass a space by creating a virtual world based on the use of digital technology. Since first performance, nearly 25 years ago, progress has been made in creating and controlling the performance in a real time environment. The equipment consists of a single laptop, connected through MIDI to an upper torso
exoskeleton and a data projector displaying the visual in sync with the sound feed. Abolishing the instrument liberates the performer as motion sensors on the body facilitate gesture found in dance or in sculpture. The minimalist aspect of the performance makes the spectator closer to an altered state of consciousness, a format used since the early sixties repetitive school of music to include the public as part of the event as a cerebral feedback loop." [label notes]
|
2008 |
€10.00 |
|
| PACIFIC 231 & BARDOSENETICCUBE |
The Traditions of Changes |
CD |
"PACIFIC 231 is the brainchild of French multimedia artist Pierre Jolivet, currently residing in Dublin, Ireland. While Pacific 231 has its roots in the 1980’s industrial noise underground, Pierre Jolivet has since then consistently sought out and found new sounds and new compositional themes, venturing into unfamiliar aesthetics but always maintaining the rare quality of a steady evolutionary path.
BARDOSENETICCUBE was formed by Russian artist Igor Potsukaylo in 1998. In his work, surrealism is key: “pure psychic automatism willing to express the real functioning of the reflection orally, written or in any other form. Dictation of mind without any control from the intellect, outside of any aesthetic of moral considerations.” (André Breton)
One of Russia’s leading experimental drone acts, Bardoseneticcube has a quite extensive discography, having released on labels such as Drone Records, Aquarellist and Monochrome Vision.
This collaborative composition consists of 6 movements, leading the listener through a utopian sonic maelstrom in a modern re-interpretation of some sections of ‘New Atlantis’ (Francis Bacon, 1624-27). Psychedelica, field recordings and abstract electronics create a ‘New Language’ with a slippering affect from quietness and by dint of colliding utter chaos.
NOTE: Preferably listened to in total for coherence and surreal storytelling projection.
Limited to 300 copies
Packaged in a 6-panel A5 folder with soft-touch finishing and UV spot varnish." [label info]
www.silkentofu.org
"Wenn zwei Musiker einen völlig konträren Ansatz verfolgen, kann eine Kollaboration zu ungewöhnlichen Ergebnissen führen oder grandios scheitern. Nur eines ist sie niemals: vorhersehbar. Igor Potsukaylo alias Bardoseneticcube ist nach eigener Einschätzung der geborene Surrealist, der sich von seinen Ideen und Assoziationen eher treiben lässt, vergleichbar einem Schreiber der ecriture automatique, der seiner Feder und den Worten freien Lauf lässt. Pierre Jolivet alias Pacific 231 ist Komponist, der dem Soundmaterial begegnet wie ein Bildhauer seinem Steinblock, wenn er schon längst die Idee des künftigen Werks vor Augen hat. Einer fürs kreative Chaos also und ein anderer, um ebendies in eine verdauliche Form zu bringen.
„The Traditions of Changes“ beginnt mit diesem reizvollen Knack- und Frickelsound, die auch der versierteste Noisefan zunächst an einen Defekt denken lässt, zumal das erste der vier Stücke auch noch sehr leise anklingt und Hochfrequentes enthält. Interessant, wie ein dünner Hochtöner diesem minimalistichen Szenario Struktur gibt. Bis zum Ende des ausgiebigen Auftaktes und zum Übergang in etwas heterogeneres Material, wäre der unkonzentrierte Gelegenheitshörer längst in Tiefschlaf verfallen, denn es braucht einen gewissen Grad an Involviertheit, um in den chaotisch vor sich hin mäandernden Soundfetzen aller Coleur, die sich in alle Richtungen im Raum verteilen und gelegentlich in menschliches Geschnatter münden, die durchaus vorhandenen Kompositionsmuster zu erkennen. Im Verlauf erweist sich das auf zahlreichen Feldaufnahmen basierende Soundpanorama allerdings als ausgesprochen vielschichtig und reich an Überraschungen und Variationen.
Laut Eigenangabe ist „The Traditions of Changes“ von einem Klassiker der utopischen Literatur, nämlich Francis Bacons „New Atlantis“ inspiriert und von der Idee, eine neue Sprache zu erfinden. Nun ist die Idee, die verbale Sprache durch Sound zu ersetzen, nicht neu und hat die Menschen immer wieder beflügelt. Was die beiden Musiker hier absolvieren ist jedoch weniger eine solche Sprache selbst, als der Versuch eine solche zu entwickeln – ein work in progress mit einem noch offenen Ende, dass durch surreale Komik und originelle Soundideen überzeugt." [Uwe Schneider / African Paper]
africanpaper.com/2015/05/16/pacific-231-bardoseneticcube-the-traditions-of-changes/
"It seems that Pacific 231 has been around forever, but maybe there was a hiatus for some time. I remember Pierre Jolivet from France, but living in Dublin for quite some time now, as an active participant in the eighties underground cassette scene, and on lots of compilations with his own, not always unique brand of industrial noise, but back in Vital Weekly 888 I got the updated Pacific 231 sound, which I enjoyed very much: minimal electronics, psychedelic and intense. Here he has a collaboration with Igor Potsukaylo, who works as Bardoseneticcube, a name we have seen before a few times; he is a man of atmospherics, drones and the louder edges (outer edges?) of ambient. Jolivet supplied the 'field recordings and analog structures', while Potsukaylo takes credit for 'electronic construction'. Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis” inspires the music, or as they call 'an utopian sonic maelstrom'; a maelstrom it surely is. No sound effects have been spared in this work. Everything and
everyone, or every possible level, there seems to be something happening. You get distracted, follow the loops, but then on a different level something else seem to be happening. A lot of it stays in the same place, yet a lot of it seems to be moving all the time. Yes, that is confusing, but then such is the nature of this music: very confusing, but pleasant at the same time. Music that is one large head trip for you, providing of course you are open to such buzzing activities. I can easily imagine or even agree if someone would say: but, look; now this is all way too much. If you don't let this in, you might easily be annoyed by the mass attack of sound. So, open your mind, and flow the waves, the ever-cascading waves of this massive music, then you'll be in for onehellofa trip to the backside of the moon. That, or maybe a rollercoaster to New Atlantis." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| PACIONE, ADAM |
Dobranoc |
pic-LP |
"Dobranoc contains more than 40 minutes of new music utilizing field recordings, guitars, shortwave radio, analog keyboards & Moog filters. Haunting and yet serene, overflowing with contemplative and melodic tones, these are mostly long-form pieces: 'Always' builds slowly into a monolithic block of sound, while in the title track, layer after layer of warm atmosphere appears and then unravels into a sea of tranquility. This is three-dimensional music, strikingly elegant, from a modern master of the art. This picture disc LP is adorned with Pacione's lovely full-color macro photography circa 1995. The colorful sounds and images are bound together into a unified abstraction, dreamlike in its beauty. Adam Pacione has been a fixture in the upper echelon of ambient drone for the last five years with releases on Elevator Bath, Infraction, and his own Bee Eater Recordings imprint. Pacione is also a highly skilled photographer with solo exhibitions and nearly a lifetime of experience under his belt. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas. This picture disc LP has been released in an edition of 268 copies." [label info]
"Adam Pacione's blissed ambience has quietly enthralled us over many years now; and he continues his relationship with the exceptional Elevator Bath label, who has issued this wondrous album through an ongoing series of picture discs that previously included work by Rick Reed, our own Jim Haynes, and Dale Lloyd (reviewed elsewhere on this list). Pacione claims a bunch of sources for Dobranoc, including guitar, field recordings, analogue synth, Moog filters, and shortwave radio. He seems intent on extracting particular, harmonious colors from each of those materials and working them into a monochromatic blur of softened dronescaping and hushed ambience. The faintest of half-melodies work through Pacione's stately compositions; and it's
easy to become lost in these extended moments on Dobranoc. Throughout, Pacione streams a series of delicate textures that could be snow
coming through the radio, or it could be a light shower of rain that settles behind much of Pacione's sustained tonal flutterings. No
matter the source, the slight abrasions of these sounds act as a ghostly counterpoint to the purity that Pacione gets out of his drones. The resulting wanderings through his radiant soundfields have much of the sense of mystery that Zoviet France managed on Shadow Thief Of The Sun or that emerged from the more minimal explorations of Stars Of The Lid. The picture disc features two blurred macro-lens images sporting oversaturated colors abstracted through the lens; and these are suitable visuals to accompany Pacione's ethereal work.
Limited to 268 copies." [Aquarius Rec]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2009 |
€17.50 |
|
| PADDEN, DANIEL |
Pause for the Jet |
LP |
"DANIEL PADDEN kannte ich bisher als einen der Volcano-The-Bear-Bären. Nach Glasgow umgezogen, ging er auf Solopfade, erst als The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden und mit Pause for the Jet (Dekorder 026) zum zweiten Mal unter dem bloßen Familiennamen. Seine Vorlieben für schräge Sounds aus fernen Ländern, für seltsamen Kraut- und wagemutigen Artrock sind darauf collagiert zu Songs und Instrumentals mit surrealen Haupt- und Nebenwirkungen. ‚Crow Crow Growth‘ mischt das Timbre von Charles Hayward mit Saitengezupfe und Ethnopercussion zu einem wehmütigen Folksong. ‚Sponge Shipwreck‘ lässt 33 Sekunden lang den Geist von Harry Partch erscheinen, ‚The Ghostly Whole‘ nur den Geist einer alten Kirchturmuhr, während Ratten pizzikato Kontrabass knabbern. Die Residents und Nurse With Wound haben ähnliche Seancen abgehalten, ähnlich von Recording Angels behütete Träume geträumt. ‚Three Farewells‘ mischt Posaune, Bassklarinette und Cello und loopt dazu einen elegischen Gesangsfetzen, bevor mit ‚The Liar Inbetween‘ wieder ein fast straighter Song erklingt, auch wenn die Begleitung erst nur seltsam verzupft und verschrappelt daher kommt und sich dann doch elektrisch verdichtet. Auf ‚The Shadow Of Lunch‘ tutet eine asthmatische Harmonika, die Kopfstimme dazu wackelt auf hölzernen Stelzen. Auf rostig schnarrenden Twangs schwimmt ‚Narwhal‘ dahin, um auf morbiden Trommelschlägen zu stranden. Katzenjämmerliche Salonmusik quietscht in allen Scharnieren, bevor Padden nach ‚Arc Fankle‘ mit seiner stotternder Percussion und ‚Bustle‘ mit seinem Bassklarinettengebrummel a capella ‚English Again‘ anstimmt. Seltsam, aber seltsam schön." [Bad Alchemy]
"Since 1995 Daniel Padden has been a member of Volcano The Bear, with several highly regarded album releases on Nurse With Wound's United Diaries label, Textile and Beta-Lactam Ring Records. After his move to Glasgow he started The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden as an outlet for his solo recordings with releases on Catsup Plate, Secret Eye and Textile. When The One Ensemble slowly metamorphosed into a band of its own, Padden started to record his solo output under his birth name, with last year's "The Isaac Storm" on the Ultra Exzema label being the first seminal result.
Over the years Padden has developed a strong fascination for obscure musics from all over the world (re his recent "Epiphanies" article for The Wire magazine): mouth organ love-songs from Thailand, The Ramayana Monkey Chant from Bali, Khene pieces from Laos; so-called world music from Burundi to Bulgaria.
Combining these interests with his love for British Folk and Art Rock (This Heat, Robert Wyatt), Kraut Rock (Faust), Free Jazz, the surreal collage techniques of Nurse With Wound and the odd humour of The Residents, he has developed a totally unique and highly personal musical vision without ever sounding overambitious or directionless. Gorgeous song-writing is seamlessly transformed into pure fuzz or string drones, suddenly interrupted by some improvised reeds or collapsing percussion, all within the blink of an eye, and never losing its natural flow, "Pause for the Jet" is already an auspicious aspirant for our "Record of the Year"."[label info]
www.dekorder.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| PALESTINE / COULTER / MATHOUL |
Maximin |
CD |
Diverse recordings of entrancing drone-scapes, enriched with electronic rhythms & plainchants, these are basically studio- & live-recordings by PALESTINE-pieces that were re-worked later by DAVID COULTER & JEAN MARIE MATHOUL... great stuff!
"Young God Records is proud to announce the release of the music of the seminal early Minimalist composer Charlemagne Palestine, as re-configured/re-iterated by David Coulter and Jean Marie Mathoul, in co-operation/ collaboration with Mr. Palestine. Coulter and Mathoul have taken previously recorded works of Mr. Palestine and - with the full respect due these often transcendent and sacred works - interwoven new sounds/found-sounds, drones, and unexpected textures into an ever-shifting flow that brings new light to these deeply soulful, sonic-sculptural emanations. Re-contextualizing the pure and spiritual force of nature that Mr. Palestine’s music represents could be a risky musical undertaking, but in my opinion Coulter and Mathoul have pulled it off beautifully, inspired solely by their love and respect of the original works themselves. The mixes have an authentic, hand made sensibility, and even when electronics are occasionally introduced, retain an organic feel. The music on this CD has given me hours of listening pleasure, and I hope it provides you with a similar experience. It’s also our hope that the release of this CD will serve as a portal to the work of Mr. Palestine for those who might not already be aware of his substantial catalog of music." [Michael Gira]
www.younggodrecords.com
|
2002 |
€14.50 |
|
| PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE |
Strumming Music |
3 x CD |
"These unpublished pieces are probably his most contemporary music work, build on the same principle with other instruments of what he discovered on piano with Strumming mid-70.
This is an unique variation of the way to compose. A perpetual rise in a continuum of sound.
In the beginning were the Bells
All of the Strumming Music manifestations seem to have originated from Charlemagne's physical relationship with the colossal carillon bells in the tower of St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York. I met Charlemagne Palestine in 1968. The intensity of his listening impressed me as the intensity of his playing would later, when I heard him play on the carillon and the bells to "his church". I realized later, when Charlemagne had started to develop his series of piano pieces called Strumming, that he was assaulting that concrete ceiling and literally pushing through its three feet to release the sonic energy in the piano, much as he had with the carillon. Charlemagne's interest and work in electronic music increased in the late 60's and in 1970 he decamped to southern California where he became a graduate student working with Morton Subotnick. It was during this year at CalArts (1970-71) that Charlemagne developed an approach to the piano that was not only extremely repetitive and physical but predicated on the theory that, given the right stimulus, the instrument had a voice of its own and could produce a whole array of high overtones that seem to jump out on their own as if by magic. Over the next few years he developed and polished the music that came to be known simply as "Strumming."
The rapid alternation between single notes and chords and different registers became a technique that he seemed to own, and it really only worked with this magic piano. "Strumming" was the physical technique; the melodies and harmonies that resulted made the music breathe and feel alive. After a while, the ear doesn't distinguish between notes that are sounded by hammers and those which are harmonics, generated by the natural resonance of the piano and just appear because of the acoustical situation. extract from liner notes by Ingram Marshall
Charlemagne Palestine wrote intense, ritualistic music in the 1970s, intended by the composer to rub against audiences' expectations of what is beautiful and meaningful in music. A composer-performer, he always performed his own works as soloist. His earliest works were compositions for carillon and electronic drones, and he is best known for his intensely performed piano works." [label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
GesammttkkunnsttMeshuggahhLaandtttt |
BOOK |
"Edited by Luca Lo Pinto and Samuel Saelemakers. Text by Jay Sanders, interview with Charlemagne Palestine by Luca Lo Pinto. Graphic design: Izet Sheshivari.
Published with Witte de With Publishers, published in June 2016. English edition. 25 x 32,5 cm (hardcover, cloth binding), 80 pages (75 color ill.).
This catalogue documents Charlemagne Palestine's eponymous solo exhibition, including his early video works, sculptures, paintings, installations, and sound scores.
Charlemagne Palestine works form a highly personal universe of rituals, intoxication, and shamanism. In the last four decades, the artist has created an extensive body of experimental musical compositions, bodily performances, and, in later years, visual art works that are inhabited by stuffed animals. To Palestine, teddy bears figure as powerful shamanic totems, which he fondly calls Divinities.
Central to his exhibition are a grand piano, as the sounding heart of the show, and a new large-scale version of the so-called God-Bear Museum Model, a proposal for a new kind of museum where music and performance find a home just as easily as a painting would. Also part of the exhibition are Palestine's extraordinary music or sound annotations, a vast collection of works on paper, which aim to translate sound into image.
This new catalogue documents “GesammttkkunnsttMeshuggahhLaandtttt” and includes an interview between Charlemagne Palestine and Luca Lo Pinto, curator at the Kunsthalle Wien, as well as an essay by Jay Sanders, Curator of Performance at the Whitney Museum of American Art, reflecting on Palestine’s work. The publication is co-published by Witte de With Publishers and Sternberg Press on behalf of Kunsthalle Wien.
Published following the double eponymous exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien, from September 18 to November 8, 2015, and at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, from January 29 to May 8, 2016.
Charlemagne Palestine wrote intense, ritualistic music in the 1970s, intended by the composer to rub against audiences’ expectations of what is beautiful and meaningful in music. A composer-performer, he always performed his own works as soloist. His earliest works were compositions for carillon and electronic drones, and he is best known for his intensely performed piano works. He also performs as a vocalist. Palestine’s performance style is ritualistic; he generally surrounds himself (and his piano) with stuffed animals, smokes large numbers of kretek (Indonesian clove cigarettes) and drinks cognac."
|
2016 |
€26.00 |
|
| PAN AMERICAN |
White Bird Release |
LP |
"... Die große Frage bei so reduzierten Klängen (trotz ein wenig Gesang) lautet natürlich: Wie halte ich so was gleichbleibend spannend? Nelson gelingt das erneut durch unterschwellige Einflüsse von Dub, wobei man kaum von wirklicher Rhythmik sprechen kann, eher von einem gut spürbaren Pulsieren, das den Stücken aber die nötigen Konturen verleiht. Hinzu kommen verfremdete Gitarrensounds - wie sie sich auch auf Robert Fripps Ambientplatten finden lassen -, was ausreicht, um „White Bird Release" zu einer äußerst atmosphärischen, überraschend emotionalen Vertonung von Stille werden zu lassen, entspannend, aber nicht unaufregend und vor allem niemals austauschbar. Ein ästhetischer Hochgenuss und beseelt von einer abstrakten Form von Schönheit, die man nur auf ganz wenigen Ambientplatten in dieser Güte zu hören bekommt. [Thomas Kerpen, OX-Fanzine]
"The sixth album from Mark Nelson's longtime solo project follows his Quiet City album on Kranky, and more recently the For Waiting, For Chasing release on the Mosz label." [label info]
"Labradford had long been the American precursor to the lugubrious noir that Bohren & Der Club Of Gore had masterfully grafted with doom. But now that Labradford has quietly ceased activities, guitarist Mark Nelson has fully embraced his solo project Pan American, which had been running concurrently with Labradford for the past seven or eight years. Without Bobby Donne's lonesome bass as a foundation to work with, Nelson's Pan American has relied heavily upon glitchy electronic rhythms and dub-injected studio tricks with varying degrees of success. Perhaps now that Labradford is no more, the Pan American project has taken on a greater sense of purpose as White Bird Release is easily the most accomplished Pan American record to date. There's much less of that dubby electronica to be found on this album; but when employed, Nelson's skeletal pulses enjoy a rich noir ethos resembling those scarce moments of darkened prog-rock dirge for organ and drums offered up on that Deathprod boxset a few years back. But for the most part, Nelson seems comfortable with the Fripp & Eno style streams of pastoral guitar ambience dotted with softened static, smokey vibes, and gracefully arcing drones. The album is based on a letter from Dr. Robert Goddard to H.G. Wells written in 1932 and concerned with the possibility of space flight. While many of the obvious references to White Bird Release harken to the deep space cosmology from the '70s (e.g. Fripp & Eno, Cluster, Schulze, etc.), Nelson's work is not a departure from this rock travelling around the sun, but rather a glance upward to the heavens, while remaining firmly grounded below. The cd has one extra track not to be found on the vinyl." [Aquarius Records review]
www.brainwashed.com/kranky
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| PANHUYSEN, PAUL |
Partitas for long strings |
CD |
Sehr schöne Drones von diesem Klang- und Installationskünstler, der mit langen aufgespannten Drähten / Saiten arbeitet...
“ Partitas for Long Strings is the first album in 12 years¬ and the first CD ever¬ to document Paul Panhuysen¹s work with long string installations. Since 1982 Panhuysen has created over 200 such installations. For the partitas on this album there were two aspects of central interest to him: different tunings and density of sound. He made an installation in the large space of Het Apollohuis, stretching four strings lengthwise and attaching them to the wooden wall on the far end, which served as a resonator. He did not use automatons or electric amplification. He played the strings by brushing them, walking back and forth at an even pace. His aim was to make
his playing as continuous and even as possible. For each partita he recorded his playing four times, superimposing these recordings over each other and listening to the earlier recordings over headphones whilst playing. The total sound of each partita is produced by sixteen strings. The three partitas differ in the systems according to which the strings are tuned. These tunings can be regarded as the score for each piece.” [label info]
|
1998 |
€14.00 |
|
| PANTALEIMON |
Under the Water |
7 |
Sammlerstück ! Einseitig bespielte Single auf klarem Vinyl, mit kunstvollem Siebdruck auf der B-Seite. Instrumental-akustische Folk-Ambience mit Gesang, nicht unähnlich z.B. FOVEA HEX..
"Here's a gorgeous one-sided single. 'Under The Water' is an alternate version of a song scheduled for release on an upcoming solo LP, and it's a brilliant, mystical breath of air of pure longing. The lyrics are simply structured and circular, the music is a mix of accoustic plucks and drones, and the mood is wonderfully doleful. Nice package too." [BYRON COLEY, WIRE]
"BLUESANCT is very pleased to announce that the next release in our ART SINGLES series will be by PANTALEIMON. Like the MOUNT EERIE 7", it will be a beautiful single, with an exclusive recording on one side, and a screenprinted image of the song on the other side.
For those not familiar with PANTALEIMON's work, it is essentially the work of ANDRIA DEGENS. She creates gorgeous acoustic soundscapes of droning ambience accompanying beautiful folk melodies. Besides her work as PANTALEIMON, Andria is also a frequent guest on the recordings and in the live emsemble of one of my favourite all time projects, CURRENT 93 and her music will be featured in the upcoming GUS VAN SANT film." [label info]
www.bluesanct.com
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
| PARLANE, ROSY |
Jessamine |
CD |
"Wie schon am ebenfalls bei Touch verlegten Vorgänger »Iris« finden sich auf »Jessamine« lediglich drei Tracks, nach der Betitelung wohl als Teile eines großen Ganzen zu hören, die vom Umfang her wieder eine Spieldauer von fast fünfzig Minuten erreichen. Dabei weisen deren durchwegs von Rhythmus und Melodie befreite Konturen recht eindeutige Züge klassischer Drones auf, die in den entscheidenden Momenten von monolithischem Dröhnen weg in Richtung konzentriert geschichteter Textur-Overloads tendieren und großzügig angelegte Spannungsbögen vornehmlich aus gekonnt inszenierten Intensitätsverläufen zwischen Loslassen und Verdichtung rekrutieren. Das dazu notwendige Instrumentarium ist zum Großteil akustisch und reicht von Gitarre und Piano bis hin zu Field Recordings, Radios oder verschiedenen Haushaltsobjekten. So bleibt auch nach dem digitalen Reißwolf eine, durch die glasklare Produktion eigenartig verstärkte, organische Grundstimmung erhalten, die durchaus im Widerstreit zur fokussierten, geradlinigen Ausrichtung der Tracks steht. Da gibt es kein Ausfransen, kein flächiges Abschweifen; Parlane entwirft einen beeindruckend konsequenten, fast schon ökonomischen Flow, zurrt die unruhigen Kleinstbestandteile, knackend, knisternd und Obertonfunken schlagend, zu drei hypnotischen HighTech-Ambient-Monstern zusammen und setzt auf die Dramaturgie der Dynamik. Oder umgekehrt? Während jedenfalls der erste Track noch vor dem Klimax ein trotzdem versöhnliches Ende findet und die große Erlösung im folgenden lediglich spärlich angedeutet wird, eigentlich nicht mehr als ein digitales Bäuerchen darstellt, explodiert das beinahe zwanzigminütige Schlussstück aus mittels Kaminfeuerknistern geerdetem, euphorisch verstrichenen Klanglayern zu einer wahrhaft infernalischen Wall of Sound, aufgezogen mit Hilfe von acht Gastmusikern, die ihre elektronisch verstärkten Streich- und Saiteninstrumente hier zu einem Crescendo auflaufen lassen, das seines gleichen sucht. Die Sicherheit und Konsequenz, mit der Parlane seine Soundskulpturen bearbeitet, sowie eine herbe, oft schwer fassbare Schönheit, die sich gleichermaßen durch harsche Noisewälle und entschlackte Ambientpassagen streckt, machen »Jessamine« zu einer enorm intensiven Erfahrung und darüber hinaus zu einem der besten Alben an den Outskirts elektronischer Avantgarde des vergangenen Jahres." [Tobias Bolt / Quietnoise]
"This is New Zealand-based (and former Thela member) Rosy Parlane's second full-length release on Touch. His previous album, Iris (2004), was hailed by Jim Haynes in The Wire who wrote: "Jon Wozencroft's impeccable photography and design packages Rosy Parlane's Iris inside a predominantly blue package, inextricably linking the music to the emotional resonance of the color... He flushes his soundfields with cascades of digital fragments which he separates into two distinct compositional categories. On the one hand, Parlane stretches sounds from guitar, piano and organ into unrecognizable drones that swell into dense layerings, every once in a while coalescing into fluttering half-melodies. On the other, he emphasizes the textural qualities of those digital fragments, simulating the natural acoustics of ice crackling from trees in winter or the gentle patter of rain on a windowsill. When fusing these together by placing the textures against the backdrop of the drone, Parlane effectively builds pointillist sound environments with a profoundly human melancholia." With Jessamine, Rosy develops these themes, and continues to incorporate new musical elements from unconventional as well as orchestral instrumentation. To him, everything is an instrument: from household objects to nature sounds. But it is the human element which gives his work such a distinctive sound. Ranging from ambient to noise, he gives full rein to textures of living; to start, languid and mournful; later harsh and assertive. Jessamine is a magnificent follow-up to a classic Touch debut. Rosy Parlane: electric and acoustic guitars, piano, melodica, accordion, violin, trombone, snare drum, shimsaw, amplified sawblade, bowed metal, household objects, contact microphones, field recordings, radio, computer. Additional contributions by Marcel Bear, Tetuzi Akiyama, Lasse Marhaug, Anthony Guerra, Michael Morley, Donald McPherson, Matthew Hyland, David Mitchell, Stefan Neville and Campbell Kneale." [press release]
"A little over two years ago, Rosy Parlane, made his debut on Touch with 'Iris', following solo releases on Sigma, and a membership of such bands as Thela and Parmetier. Three tracks back then, and on 'Jessamine' again three tracks. Rosy plays here electric and acoustic guitars, piano, melodica, accordion, violin, trombone, snare drum, shimsaw (an instrument designed by Marcel Bear), bowed metal, household objects, field recordings, radio, computer and contact microphone, and if that isn't enough there is also help from a whole bunch of people who played guitar. The first track starts out in common territory: ambient glitch made with bowed guitars, violins, but Parlane's music is more angular. It has a sharper edge, already in this first piece. Even a bit of old Organum could be traced in these scraping and bowing sounds. It's hard to say if all the instruments mentioned on the cover are also there, but guitars are definitely there. In the loudest part, 'Part Three' things become orgasmic loud, almost in a Merzbow manner, but Parlane keeps things nicely under control. Overall, Parlane has a richer sound than on 'Iris', there is more happening and he is stepping out of the more safer microsound glitch. Quite a leap forward!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2006 |
€14.50 |
|
| PARMERUD, AKE |
Necropolis |
CD |
“Dreaming in Darkness” (2005), “Crystal Counterpoint” (2009), “ReVoiced” (2009), “Necropolis - City of the Dead” (2011).
“Dreaming in Darkness is forged primarily from small sounds, spaced apart from one another. A chime, a chink or a clunk, and then silence before a scrape or a click or a bump. It’s fragmentary, the origins of the sounds unclear. Taking the question of what a person who cannot see dreams about, Parmerud explains that the piece is an attempt to create surrealistic fragments of a blind person’s dreams. As the piece progresses, the sounds become increasingly densely packed, and with longer durations and overlaid, building sinister abstract scenes: in fact, not so much scenes as shifting shadows and variations in light.
The bubble of conversation marks the opening moments of Crystal Counterpoint: a recording which sounds like a restaurant or party, the chinking of classes and general hubbub of people grows and stops abruptly with the chime of a glass. Inspired by the sounds of the parties Åke’s parents used to host, and which he would hear from upstairs, the piece uses the very same glasses to create a wealth of sounds, from long, low drones to higher hums, elongated undulations and quick, bright glissandos. Grand swells of sound rise and cease suddenly, replaced by strange, quiet drifts of sound: it’s very easy to forget exactly what you’re listening to. But if anything, awareness of the origin of the sounds only heightens the experience, as you’re likely to marvel and wonder just how glasses could sound like an oboe or high winds across mountain tops. In his notes, Parmerud notes that there already exist a large number of recordings which explore glass sounds, and it is, indeed, an interesting piece to place alongside Miguel Frasconi’s Standing Breakage (for Stan Brakhage) (clang records, 2016).
ReVoiced moves away from musical abstraction and instead uses the voice as its instrument. A single voice is layered up on top of itself exponentially until a whole crowd of one voice is speaking. It’s actually quite a disconcerting experience. Voices are subject to all kinds of manipulation: sped up, slowed down, pitch adjusted, stretched, overlaid, echoed and delayed, in myriad permutations. Chants and dialogue and ululations, crowds and multiple languages meld together, and gradually, extraneous sounds — hard, heavy slabs of sound — crash in, while sharp-edged sounds slash for create a dull, percussive element to the slow-building torture of the familiar becoming twisted, distorted, abstracted and unfamiliar.
The final track, Necropolis — City of the Dead, is a musical tour through the catacombs of an imaginary city which contain the remains of some of the greatest music of all time. ‘But the condition of the musical bodies that rest in the crypts is unfortunately in various states of decomposition’. As such, in combining a well-worn joke (which is usually about Mozart when I’ve heard it) with a project to assimilate and deconstruct fragments of existing works, Necropolis is a sort of a collage. Classical, jazz, film soundtracks, many renowned and bordering on recognisable, at least in essence, all fade in and out and collide against one another.
While the title track may pick over the bones of musical history, it equally breathes new life, and the same is very much true of the work as a whole: the parts are disparate, fragmentary, scattered in origin from around the globe and individually amount to not very much at all. But the sum is spectacular, an experience which is thought-provoking and which has the capacity to be quite unexpectedly affecting.” By Christopher Nosnibor in Aural Aggravation, May 3, 2016
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| PARSONS, DAVID |
Puja |
CD |
"Perhaps mainly known for his panoramic and almost cinematic Himalayan soundworlds, on Puja David continues his more recent tradition of travelling the inner horizon. And in so doing, he also invites us listeners to undertake similar journeys of our own. Puja is a mysterious and magic constellation, fuelled by the spirit and discipline of the age old Asian cultures and philosophies."
https://gterma.bandcamp.com/album/puja
"This is one of those albums where it’s difficult to single out one track, or even one moment that will stay with you longer that the other ones. It’s rather something that you absorb in its entirety and don’t really want it to end, even if you don’t listen to it carefully and attentively for the whole seventy four minutes. David Parsons (do not confuse with Alan Parsons) returns with his second offering for the gterma label.
The first recordings of this composer from New Zealand date back to the early eighties. He released some albums for the legendary Fortuna Records and its sister-label Celestial Harmonies. Well, honestly speaking, I wasn’t in a rush to get familiar with this one. I was rather expecting some New Age mumbo-jumbo with an Eastern touch and perhaps a few ambient incrustations here and there. And you know what? I wasn’t that wrong, except for the fact that the ambient layers are more intense and cover the New Age frames, so they do not dominate the work that is called “Puja” (in Sanskrit it means “ritual prayer”).
What surprised me the most were the occasional darker trips, like in “Offerings 3” where the deep drones having something in common with aliquot singing are merged with ritual bells and sequences that even Lustmord would be proud of. It’s a peculiar combination that introduces a feeling of anxiety into this sublime communion with the gods. A fear of them perhaps?
The artist is juggling with moods from track to track, as another “Offering” is a peaceful and ethereal composition with samples of female chanting, but not in the way you’d expect – it’s intermittent, delayed and reverbed, but still nicely fitting into the calming textures. You can meet these contrasts more often within the space of the whole album, but you don’t feel confused, as it’s all gives the impression of a very coherent and thought out work.
That is also why I discussed distinguishing certain tracks or fragments. Because of the sound and the mood that is a derivative of the concept, it all sounds quite monolithic and dense. Focused like a ritual that requires patience, stillness and self-meditation. Of course, you can use “Puja” as muzak as well, and I doubt David Parsons would be particularly disappointed with such a treatment – but it works both ways. Consciously or unconsciously you can feel that something has changed in the environment. That a touch of mystique has penetrated into your regular day like any other day.
Since it’s a gterma release you know what to expect from a technical point of view. A CD only, no digital version. And, as always, a booklet with some beautiful photos completing the musical side." [Santa Sangre]
" “Puja” (started by the composer with nothing particular in mind) is David Parsons’ first album using software synths only, as he decided purchasing a fine collection of soft-synths in years previously eventually making his studio now reside in a Mac Mini. The depth and versatility of a lot of current software quite astonished him, as did the ability to manipulate samples and oscillators in completely surreal ways, which all proved quite inspirational (as also happened for “Stupa”). David spent about a year programming the software with hundreds of sound patches and from this new library “Puja” is the first to emerge.
The name of the album only suggested itself after the project was completed. The track names, simply “Offerings” 1 thru 7, are offerings in the sense of a Hindu/Buddhist puja (prayer ceremony) and feel most descriptive of the 73-minute most subtle constructed and captivating sonic content. In the mesmerizing, gradually evolving, elevating and rather hypnotizing textural waves/drone tapestries, many enchanting sounds pass by such as those of praying monks, sampled sitar and a few refined, subtle rhythmic elements.
Soon, a sense of mystery and spiritually simply reveals itself to and washed over the listener. There actually are many sounds buried fairly deeply in the mix of this inward journey so that with repeated listening new things will be discovered depending on where the listener’s attention is centered at any given moment. As David let me know, the mix itself is very much biased towards headphone listening.
The Gterma label refers to “Puja” as a charming piece of work, something I can only fully agree upon." [Sonic Immersion]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| PBK |
Descent |
CD-R |
"Among the artists from the late-80s experimental tape underground who inspired the music of EMERGE and the founding of Attenuation Circuit, PBK is one of the most important. Therefore, we are extremely proud to present in a digital format for the first time his first solo release “Descent” from 1988, which the artist aptly describes as “dramatic atmospheric space-drone with plenty of analog synthesizer, via Dave Prescott, who once ran the Generations Unlimited label, releasing works by Conrad Schnitzler, Morphogenesis, etc. Prescott owned one of the largest modular synths ever assembled and puts it to striking use on this tape. Combined with PBK's Moogs, loops and drones, and howls of anguish provided by the irrepressible Minóy, all echoing around in the strange space of a Radio Shack mixer's spring reverb.”
“Minoy’s bedroom isolationist approach produced something that seemed otherworldly, spiritual and more like paintings, which was my own background. I took Minoy’s approach as my own model,” PBK says about their late-80s collaborations. This eminently emotional yet perfectly poised masterpiece of “noise ambient”, as PBK came to call his approach to music, is stunning proof that the international tape underground brought forth truly new sounds in electronics that are second to nothing but the most revered academic work by the likes of Stockhausen or Xenakis, and certainly opened up these ways of exploration to larger numbers of people. As fellow composer and Sound of Pigs tape label activist Al Margolis/If, Bwana says about the late Minòy (1951 – 2010): “i heard Minoy’s work before i had ever heard Stockhausen’s Hymnen – so that my take on hearing Hymnen was that it fit in this continuum …not the other way around!!!”
[label info]
www.wix.com/attenuationcircuit/attenuation-circuit
"Phillip B Klingler: that's what PBK stands for. No secret but just in case you didn't know this and that might happen, since PBK might not be a household name these days. Unlike the late 80s when he rose to small fame in the underworld of home-brew cassette releases. He never went 'away' or in hibernation, but perhaps was not always as visible in this twenty-five year career. I am not sure if this re-issue of one of his earliest cassette releases is part of a longer campaign to re-issue earlier works, or perhaps part of an anniversary of some kind, but its great to hear it again after so many years. 'Descent' is perhaps his first true solo release, and sees him take inspiration from Minoy and David Prescott, rather than Stockhausen of Xenakis (I am using the press text, thank you). At David Prescott's he taped a whole bunch of synth sounds and spread these out over the four tracks of his machine and then started to mix them, adding more synthesizer sounds, tape loops and such like, and the result is one of the earliest instances of 'ambient' meeting 'industrial'. It has that spacious character of ambient music, like being in a stream of sounds (as in a stream of consciousness) but at the same time has an angular character, a certain aspect of being nasty, that remote, desolate, empty industrial waste land image that makes it 'industrial'. Composing is perhaps not the sort of thing that applies here, but rather a surrealist take on mixing odd tracks of sounds together in two long form pieces of music. Intuitive playing and mixing, a surrealist approach to the art of composing, that is what PBK is best known for and here he does a great job at it. An early work, but what a fine piece." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€8.00 |
|
| PENJAGA INSAF |
Sarna Sadja |
CD |
"For several years Ingo Sauerbrey made extensive travels through Indonesia, always carrying recording equipment to collect sounds as an audio diary. During periodic return trips to Germany, he started to work on the recordings with electronic devices. Some sounds were edited, cut and transformed, while others were kept completely intact. To name a few sound sources only recordings from Water Puppet and Shadow Theatres, Gamelan and various welcoming and fighting dances like Kecak, Jegog and the Tarian Caci were used for this album. Some of those impressive performances were made of 60 to 90 men chanting and dancing while a bamboo orchestra used 4 meter long bamboo sticks playing bass drums on it. SAMA SADJA is waving together the sounds of living traditions, religions and languages with spherical ambient pads and electronically edited drones from the field recordings. This is an contemplative and intimate soundtrack from the deepest heart of South East Asia." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
"Brussels' label Ini.itu specializes in music that deals one way or the other with Indonesia, the land, the people, the nature. They should be paying attention to this release by Ingo Sauerbrey, who plays music as Penjaga Insaf. For years now he has been traveling to Indonesia armed with a recorder to tape original Indonesian music from puppet theatres, gamelan and such like, but also from countries such as Vietnam which he uses in his compositions. I didn't study the booklet very hard when I started to play this and I thought at the beginning this was some kind of ambient act using lots of digital synthesizers and a bit of percussion and some heavily processed voices, but as the album progresses the field recordings become clearer and clearer. Sauerbrey reworks the recordings pretty neatly, not beyond recognition, so you always have a clear picture of what is going on. He mixes these together with a fine blend of digital synthesizers, borrowed from the world of ambient dance music.
The whole thing is pretty densely layered and it seems like is something going on all levels at the same time. Probably just as colorful as traditional puppet play. An excellent release of highly imaginative music." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| PERNICE, LAURENT |
Humus |
CD |
Nice Solo-CD from this NOX-member with all kinds of different minimal drones & pure atmospherics, from electro-piercing vibrations to ultra-slow & smooth dark space-sounds. Very good sounds, suspenseful arranged and nicely developing!! Recommended !
“We are proud to present new album of Laurent Pernice, providing fresh views for academic avantgarde, from the different sides of microtonal music, reductive minimalism and other methods of digital decomposition. Release date is 15 May 2004. Limited edition of 500 copies in jewelcase.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| PETERS, STEVE |
The Webster Cycles |
maxi-CD |
Sehr ruhige, verhallte Trombonen-Drones und Harmonien, zum Teil polyphon überlagert - ein One-Tracker von fast 30 Minuten, der an PAULINE OLIVEROS Endlos-Hall Einspielungen mit Akkorden erinnert. Beeindruckende Weite wird geschaffen, so entspannt und doch kraftvoll...
"The Webster Cycles, a somewhat open-ended piece for any combination of wind instruments and/or voices, allows for a good bit of decision-making and improvisation on the part of the performer(s). In the present recorded version, six trombone parts were performed (via overdubbing) by noted composer/performer J.A. Deane. The result is a beautifully coherent yet ever-changing music that slowly shifts its texture and harmonic focus as if its individual parts were refractions of a giant aural prism. The wonderful, subtle inflections and tonal shadings that Deane brings to each phrase imbue the piece with a vibrant, palpable sense of energy and motion. The piece's score is constructed from a selection of words drawn from a Webster's dictionary. The words become pitch sequences or melodic phrases that are to be played within the duration of a long breath. These sequences are grouped into seven sections, which the performer(s) may perform in any order they wish while maintaining the internal order of phrases within each section."
"Deane is a soulfully expressive musician and, despite the calm and coolness of Peters's music, his interpretation has immediate emotional appeal as well as seductive depth." [Julian Cowley, The Wire]
www.coldbluemusic.com
|
2008 |
€9.50 |
|
| PETIT, PHILIPPE |
Henry: The Iron Man |
CD |
"One lost lemonish night sleepwalking on a lost country road I dreamt that Shinya Tsukamoto was working on a blurred remake of "Eraserhead", and I was to soundtrack the grotesque mutation of Henry into an "Iron Man". I decided to manipulate and take advantage of the vinyl material to fondle crackles and released noises, to process textures and their resonances into vertiginous travellings of sound ; conjuring up flashes of disturbing black & white grainy sounds, behind-the-scenes close-ups, rapid nightmarish stop-motion effects.
I embarked on a visceral musical voyage, an intricate and imaginative soundtrack gathering both organic and sonic elements and giving life to a noisy magma where unexpected clicks stumbled over interferences, where digital accidents happened and drones and acoustic resonances filled the spaces in time. The music sprang on me and got caught in my eye.
A few years ago BiP_HOp had started a series called "Reciprocess", thus to celebrate 10 years since the inception of the label + my 25 years of activism/DJing I composed a 70+ minute soundtrack, cut it into pieces which were sent to friends to add their spices to. The Wire magazine liked the idea and agreed to give it away with their issue # 301, in March 2009.
AIDAN BAKER & Philippe Petit
CHAPTER 24 & Philippe Petit
COSEY FANNI TUTTI & Philippe Petit
SIMON FISHER TURNER & Philippe Petit
KLANGWART & Philippe Petit
DOUGLAS BENFORD & Philippe Petit
MARKOVO & Philippe Petit
BELA EMERSON (feat. vocals from RANDALL FRAZIER) & Philippe Petit
KUMO & Philippe Petit
EUGENE S. ROBINSON & Philippe Petit
SEVERIN 24 (feat. vocals from KATHY COMPTON) & Philippe Petit
JASON FORREST & Philippe Petit
LYDIA LUNCH & Philippe Petit
JEAN-HERV� PERON (art-Errorist/Faust) & Philippe Petit
STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Hervé Vincenti & Philippe Petit)
SYBARITE & Philippe Petit
JESU & Philippe Petit
dDAMAGE & Philippe Petit
Born in Marseille, South of France, where I started Djing, animating radio shows and editing zines in the 80s. In the 90s I contributed articles (under the pseudonym Candy Apple Grey and Filth Simpson ) for such magazines as Ruta 66 (Spain), Merlin’s Music Box (Greece), Maximum R&R (USA), What Wave, Cryptic Tymes (Canada), and French-written Taktik, Rage, Rocksound, Best, 491, Abus Dangereux, and many many more that no one will remember of… In those days, I had some fun and interviews w/ such bands as Nirvana, Fugazi, L7, Neurosis, Fuzztones, Babes In Toyland, Mudhoney, Pixies, Cynics, Dum Dum Boys, Alice Donut, Brood, Grotus, Fleshtones, Buzzcocks, Nick Cave, Sting Rays, Poison Idea, Jon Spencer, Soft Machine, Lydia Lunch, No Means No, Godflesh, Steve Albini, Gallon Drunk, Melvins, New Bomb Turks, and many other “noisy-rock” luminaries. In 1991, I started Kinetic Vibes Music, a Garage Punk zine and label releasing music by: Willie Loco Alexander, Pleasure Fuckers, Dead Moon, Bevis Frond, Lust-o-Rama, Ultra 5, Overcoat, Cryptones, Devil Dogs, La Secta, Dirteez, Tommyknockers and some other… Still available the mythical compilation “Electric Carnival” gathering 23 bands from 10 countries. In 1993 I founded the experimental label Pandemonium Rdz. Working with the likes of Guapo, Zeni Geva, Ground Zero, Condense, Cows, Headcleaner, Drive Blind, Double Nelson, Alboth!, Melt Banana, God Is My Co-Pilot, Samiam, Burning Heads, Cerberus Shoal, Flying Luttenbachers, Unsane, Bästard, Kepone, Ron Anderson, Ruins, Hint, Andy's Car Crash, Spaceheads… That is well documented there and many releases are still in print: www.pandemoniumrecords.com 41 records later, I needed to rejuvenate and started a new label: BiP_HOp was physically born in 2000 and will document avant electro for the century to come... A webzine, a radio show, organizing live events, and above all a label documenting the state of electronic art and sound design, unconventional sound adventures, modern ambient, contemporary alliances between acoustica vs. digitalia... Musics challenging the ears and the mind. www.bip-hop.com In 2000 Philippe Petit became Dj/ip@bip-hop.com chosing to use my e-mail address to keep contact with the listeners… Under this moniker I have been invited to play festivals and some of the best venues in Europe, Northern america, and even recently Mexico. According to me a DJ is not only an instrument for dancing but as a living musical library I should also take the audience to a new cultural trip / discovery. I want to entertain listeners and to open new "doors of perception", to create a virtual world to enable them to forget about their own existence for a short while. Sometimes I feel an urge not to be solo onstage which led me to start the duo Ear_Thrillerz. ; the now defunct group Deviationists ; and most actively these days the international collective : Strings Of Consciousness. www.stringsofconsciousness.info Today I still animate a radio show for Radio Grenouille which is the biggest non-commercial local radio www.grenouille888.org/dyn/ I still write in Noise Magazine. A bi-monthly mag, printing 25 000 which can be found in newstand all around France and is the best one dealing with Rock, indie rock, metal, post rock, punk, stoner doom, industrial, experimental, prog, Noisy music. Also a website (3000-3500 unique visitors/day) http://www.noisemag.net/ " [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| PHAENON |
Submerged |
CD |
Debut-Album eines neues polnischen Dark Ambient-Projekts, extrem kosmisch, spacig und dunkel, rauschend & unendlich weitläufig hallend... ein one-tracker von über 65 Minuten, Anklänge an YEN POX, INADE, AMON... absolut kontemplativer Space-Sound...
"With the debut release from Phaenon, it is immediately evident a heavyweight has arrived. The brainchild of Polish born, but current Maryland resident, Szymon Tankiewicz, Submerged is a dark ambient tour de force. Visually and sonically enveloping, this is an album of space and texture, slowly revealing a psychoactive soundscape of majestic, arcing timbres, circadian buzzes, and expansive drones. Heavy, and cosmically weighty in the beginning, Submerged evolves into something more minimalist and serene, radiating a celestial beauty, yet becoming even more bleak and suffocating as it progresses over it‘s 66 minute time frame. Experienced from start to finished, there’s a palpable sense of drifting and drowning, of being carried away into an endless, interstellar vacuum. An exciting new project, and a must for dark ambient purists. Check out Phaenon‘s myspace page for excerpts of new works at www.myspace.com/szymontankiewicz, as well as the Malignant myspace page for an excerpt of Submerged at www.myspace.com/malignantrecords. In stylish 6 panel digipak, artwork by K. Enderlein (LOKI), mastered by Thomas Garrison..." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHELIOS |
Human Stasis Habitat |
CD |
"After two outstanding CDs on Malignant Records, Martin Stürtzer returns with his new PHELIOS album ´Human Stasis Habitat´. Its predecessors opened the gates to a transcendent journey with huge sound walls of cosmic doom and ritualistic percussion; the new album moves deeper to the core from which the monolithic audio sculptures of PHELIOS rise. ´Human Stasis Habitat´ is a constant maelstrom of sound waves utilising majestic and ominous dronescaping, underlaid by intense bass tones and loaded with echoes. These add a vast emptiness to the textural darkness, enlarging its stoically cosmic aura in the most splendid way. It is the perfect soundtrack for an aural journey far beyond the Earth and our imagination, into the deepest spaces where the dark is light enough." [label info]
www.loki-found.de
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| PHILLIPS, DAVE |
Should A Seeker Not Find A Companion Who Is Better Or Equal, Let Him Resolutely Pursue A Solitary Course; There Is No Fellowship With The Fool / Cicada Trance |
do-CD |
"should a seeker not find a companion who is better or equal, let him resolutely pursue a solitary course; there is no fellowship with the fool"
dave phillips' trajectory as an experimental recording artist began in the mid-80s, with a punk background that expanded to wilder and more nuanced territories as a solo artist.
having utilized field recordings, both raw and arranged, for over 20 years, not to mention his well-established work with bombastic body sounds, surrealist strings, and tribal percussion, phillips has honed his use of source material in a way that comes off more as a soldier's sense of duty than anything resembling a hobby. with "should a seeker... / cicada trance", he returns with two badly needed physical issues of integral field recording-based pieces that were previously only available for digital download.
"should a seeker..." was initially published as a digital release on the radical matters label in 2008. it is a structured arrangement of sounds with reptilian, amphibian, and insectan origin, remastered for physical release in 2023. for over 56 minutes, gurgles, primal roars, and screams from creatures of the night swirl in and out of the stereo spectrum in complex, yet somewhat rhythmic patterns, for an almost hyperreal effect.
from dave phillips about cicada trance:
the main insect featured here is the first one that drew me to another world, through its sound. a piercing high ringing frequency that seems to go on and on, often alternating with a slower, winding kind of motion, until the sound rises, peaks and drones again. some of these cycles are short, a minute or two a round, others seem to go for an hour, their winding down phase often partly silent; many play in 10 to 20 minute cycles. their song can differ from one region to the other, like dialects. their sound can be heard for miles. it’s ear-splitting loud when you’re close.
i’ve been wanting to do this piece for a long time, maybe since i returned from my first half year in thailand, early 1995. one recording herein is from then.
mostly i don’t see these musicians. many locals all over south east asia told me that these are cicadas. a few others gave other names. i never verified any further. i hear individuals and tribes, not really species. besides, there are all sorts of sonic individuals in these recordings, and i don’t think they care much about what we call them.
recorded in thailand, vietnam, indonesia and south africa, most of these are daytime sonic activities, one is nocturnal. all play in hot climates, frequently during the hottest time of day. two are desert inhabitants (kgalagadi), the others live in the humid heat of tropical rainforests.
i often wonder what goes on in these creatures when they’re playing. when they sing or stridulate, or whatever you want to call it, it’s vibration, it’s ongoing, repetitive. it’s being in the very immediate here and now. the common scientific explanation is “mating call” (another scientific favourite is “territorial call”). this may explain one of many reasons, but reasons apart from “functional” ones seem excluded.
i could imagine these singing ringing cicadas create trance states. like being high on life, ultimately immersed in the present moment and their immediate surroundings and celebrating it. maybe their sound creates altered states of consciousness also in other beings.
immersion - to be part of something
assembled jun ’21 - jan ’22 in zug and brugg, switzerland
dedicated to the most important beings on this planet - insects
alternate headphone listening is recommended
www.davephillips.ch
https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/should-a-seeker-not-find-a-companion-who-is-better-or-equal-let-him-resolutely-pursue-a-solitary-course-there-is-no-fellowship-with-the-fool-cicada-trance
"As we all know, you can easily find noise music in nature. I am not a biologist, but I think cicadas exist in many countries, warm countries or just during the summer in some others. They are fascinating creatures, and many musicians have used recordings of them. Dave Phillips is the latest, and we know him as give or take, a man of noise music. In 1995 he spent six months in Thailand, and ever since, he has wanted to do a piece of music using recordings of cicadas. This now comes as 'Cicada Trance' and a work with a very long title, 'Should A Seeker Not Find A Companion Who Is Better Or Equal, Let Him Resolutely Pursue A Solitary Course; There Is No Fellowship With The Fool'. That piece was originally released in digital form by Radical Matters and used sounds of reptilian, amphibian, and insectan origin. Let's start here, as this is the first piece in the box. I think that the insects make up the backbone of the piece via long-form sustaining sounds, and on top of that, there are animal sounds, roaring and screaming, sometimes rhythmic, but I am unsure to what extent Phillips uses sound effects. There are none (so I believe, at least), and it's all a matter of overlaying sounds until a musical dialogue arises. This is quite a long piece at fifty-six minutes, but it's a great excursion. Strangely, I thought that this was indeed very much a Dave Phillips piece. It's loud but dynamic, and in some of his work, Phillips uses similar sounds but then of a different origin, such as his mouth or body.
Dynamics are not part of the other six, six minutes longer. Here Phillips uses just recordings of cicadas from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and South Africa and places these together. Whereas 'Should' rocks back and forth, and sounds repeat, disappear but also return, no such thing happens here. It's piercingly high frequencies going on and on, just like they do in nature. It is almost like a harsh noise wall, but one realizes that this is all nature's (true!) forces. If you listen closely, and I did as I found this very compelling music, one notes minimalist changes or even melodic singing, especially in the second half. Here too, I can easily see this as a piece of music by Dave Phillips, but this time using only field recordings, and at that from various recordings from one animal. It is recommended to be heard by headphones, which I tried, but I must admit I thought it was too much at least the cicada piece. The other one worked great with headphones. What a blast!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€16.00 |
|
| PHOLDE |
In the subset of all elements |
mCD-R |
Es klingelt glas- und metallartig über wellenden dark drones, Hallräume öffnen und schliessen sich, dumpfe Grotten-Pulsationen schaffen eine schamanistisch-rituelle Atmosphäre... drei neue Stücke vom kanadischen Projekt in der essentiellen mCDR Reihe des französischen Labels!
„pholde had various releases before, including one on our belgian friend Mystery Sea. deep scrapey metallic drones, simply beautiful...full-couloured printed 3"cd-r in a slim crystal box.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€5.00 |
|
| PHURPA |
LTA ZOR |
LP |
Zoharum is proud to present another ritual recording by Phurpa brought to you on beautiful 180g vinyl. After Rituals Of Bon I & II, “Lta Zor” is the third installment of mysterious Russian duo on Zoharum.
If you ever had the opportunity to experience Phurpa live you know how overwhelming experience this is as this is not a gig. This is a ceremony in purest sense of word. Overtone singing piercing through your mind and soul creating vibration that penetrates every cell of your body, occasionally accompanied by traditional Buddhist instruments (some of them made of human bones) all veiled with dense smoke of incense. This is what “Lta Zor” is like. It’s a spiritual transfer enclosed in an album format. This is the power of human voice. This is the power of sound.
Album mastered with care by Natt comes on 180g LP limited to 300 copies
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/lta-zor
"And so, Phurpa are back. Like Russian Cenobites stepping slowly from the shadows and wreathed in a thick fug of juniper smoke, they are here once more to bathe us in their power and resonate our chakras in sympathy with the universal vibration.
For those not already familiar with Phurpa’s low-end majesty, they are a “roving monastic choir” from Moscow, led by the enigmatic Alexey Tegin and comprising a slowly-revolving cast of participants. Importantly, they are also devotees of a schismatic form of Bön, the ancient shamanistic spirituality of Bactria, in Central Asia.
Their music is a reflection, or probably more accurately an expression, of these beliefs, a transfer of spiritual energy and meaning shaped in sound and given form through a style of overtone singing called rgyud-skad, or “tantric voice”, all supported by an array of traditional Tibetan instruments: the dungkar (a horn made out of an enormous conch), the dungchen (a three-metre-long horn / trumpet), the silnuyen (flat cymbals), the nga (a double-sided drum), the damaru (a drum made from human skulls), the kangling (a human thighbone trumpet), the shang (a Bön tambourine) and an assortment of other cymbals such as the rolmo.
Powered by their physical and mental commitment both to Bön and to its musical embodiment, Phurpa are a band who do not dabble in half measures. Not only is their musical practice intense, but their life and lifestyles, their whole approach to physicality and mentality, are all tailored towards supporting the essential performance of the rites of Bön. This extends right down to the exercise and diet regime, Tegin once stating that:
There is power in food. If you want to feel wild like a tiger or shark you need raw meat, maybe a little salt and pepper. I like horse meat, in Moscow this is possible. When you eat it, there is fire inside you. Sometimes your body says ‘stop fire’, then you drink yoghurt. This is for PHURPA, action aspect – if you instead want information from space you drink only water and eat vegetables.
And so, like their namesake Phurpa Drugse Chempa, the God of resolved action, Phurpa’s live shows are more ceremony than gig per se, combining the hypnotic and transformative power of the music, with ritual, darkness, costume and smell. This is very much a Gesamtkunstwerk designed to overcome and still the restless conscious mind and allow the body to open up and receive the liturgy unmediated. In the correct setting and with the right approach, as Tegin explains, “if doctrines are powerful enough, they’re universal and can settle in other cultures”.
LTA ZOR captures one such ritual, spread across two dense, intense twenty-minute slabs of performance. And as with all such live moments transferred into the recorded medium, it pays dividends to approach it in the right way: put on some headphones, turn off the lights, lie on the floor. If you want to burn some heavy, musky incense whilst you’re about it, I think Tegin would probably approve. And a horse meat dinner beforehand? Well, that’s at your discretion.
Part I is almost entirely vocal driven, the mesmeric tones of aural energy pulsing with power, battering themselves slowly against your consciousness like a siege engine. When listening to this, I closed my eyes and decided to ponder the illustration given to explain the duration of the kappa, the Buddhist eon: “Suppose there were a city of iron walls one yojana (about 15km) in length, one in width, one yojana high, filled up with mustard seed. Therefrom a man were to take out at the end of every hundred years a mustard seed. That pile of mustard seed would in this way be sooner done away with and ended than an eon.” That is scale on which it seems fitting to imagine Phurpa’s resonances and messages.
Part II begins with a startling flurry of horn before giving way to an eerie passage of low drones and deep drum hits – for some reason redolent to me of the quiet yet foreboding shots of the Nostromo travelling in deep space at the beginning of Alien – and thence a collision of voices. This really is Phurpa at their absolute best, organic, acoustic, yet with such controlled power, operating at frequencies to which the body, however swaddled under the vestments of the modern world, cannot help but respond.
The voice and the drum are the primal instruments; they were our modes of musical expression before we even had language or the written word, and thus, when we attune ourselves to them, we can travel back into our own deep time. This is, I think, more than anything Phurpa’s message.
Given that none of us are likely to be getting back into a live venue again any time soon, LTA ZOR is the closest anyone will get to seeing Phurpa’s incredible ritual in the flesh for now. With our enforced focus inwards during these times, turn that from a necessity into an opportunity and embrace the power of Bön."
[David Solomons / FREQ] |
2020 |
€20.00 |
|
| PICK-UP |
Mouthless |
LP |
"... So hat FdW neuerdings mit Martin Luiten, der vorher mit Girlfriends aktiv war, einen neuen Partner für ein weiteres Projekt namens PICK-UP, von dem nun gleich zwei Tonträger Kunde geben. Das Debut Mouthless (imprec 123, LP) erschien bei Important Records in
Newburyport, MA, einem Label, das mit seinem Faible für Psychedelic, Noise, Avantness und Orginalität Daniel Johnston, Jad Fair, Kimya Dawson, Diane Cluck, Merzbow, Acid Mothers Temple, Fe-Mail, Larsen, Angels Of Light, Kluster, Pauline Oliveros, Grails und Conrad Schnitzler zu Bettgenossen machte und auch schon einiges von Beequeen herausgebracht hat. Luiten spielt Gitarre & Electronics, so dass FdW, der diese Klänge, ein Fahey‘eskes Twanging und Picking, an seinen Laptop verfüttert, um gitarristische Loops und elektronische Drones mit zusätzlicher Modulation und Ornamentierung aufzumischen, quasi an sein Gitarrenprojekt Shifts anknüpft. Bei ‚Klemmend‘ vibrieren Stimmengewirr und Beifallklatschen als klickernder Rauschvorhang hinter Luitens countrybluesigem Strumming." [Bad Alchemy]
"Pick-up is a new duo of Frans de Waard (Beequeen) on laptop and Martin Luiten (Girlfriends, Uw Hypotheek Advies) on guitar. Limited edition of 300. Hand made cover artwork. This is the 9th release in our Arts & Crafts series which pairs music with handmade artwork by the artists responsible for the recordings." [label info]
"Hot on the heels of their first album comes this bright orange-colored vinyl follow up. 'Mouthless' however was recorded prior to their first release, so this is really - with some delay - Pick Up's debut. The concept of Pick Up is simple; the music is based upon the (resonator) guitar playing by Martin Luijten, which is reworked via Frans de Waard's laptop. At times field recordings are added. 'Mouthless' contains 4 long tracks. The title tracks opens the proceedings with gentle John Fahey-ish picking. Luiten uses a resonator guitar (also known as a Dobro) on this album. The body of this guitar contains one or more metal cones, instead of wood, which makes the sound louder and gives the guitar a distinctive blues-grass sound. The style of Luiten's fingerpicking is friendly and traditional, using the occasional slide. After a while looping and gentle feedback sets in, which makes 'Mouthless' a wonderful, restrained track. In contrast, the second track 'Klemmend' is far more chaotic with dominant field recordings of what sounds like a kindergarten. In the background the guitar is fighting to be heard. Side two opens with 'Magnifying Glasses', which features reflective guitar playing by Luiten only, showing his versatile skills. Very nice. If you like this sort of guitar picking I can highly recommend any of the early Takoma LP's by John Fahey. On the second track, 'Tracing', the electronics set in again with looping. A mirror image of side two, here too the sound is less structured. As a whole, this is a very fine album (with an original combination of electronics and resonator guitar), even though you could argue that it would have been an idea to put the two more quiet tracks on one side and the more chaotic tracks on the other. But that is just a thought. Packed in two heavy cardboard sheets (like the previous Pick Up album) with a hand-colored paste-on sheet, this looks very sturdy indeed. And, if you're lucky, you will find the album in luminous orange vinyl (the first 100 of a total of 300 copies) inside." [FK, Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| PIPELINE ALPHA |
Evocation of Seth |
CD |
Erstes (?) Album eines deutschen Projektes mit dunkel-tribale Sounds & ethnischen Gesängen, was eine rituelle Atmosphäre heraufbeschwört; viele Sprachzitate / verzerrte Lyrics tauchen auf, wodurch das Werk mitunter einen Hörspielartigen Charakter bekommt und wie ein verwunschener, hitziger Fieber-Traum wirkt. Titel wie "Tanzende Skorpione", "Pesthauch in der Oase" oder "Wüstendämonen" verweisen auf oriental-okkulte Phantasien. Hörenswert und eigenständig, dabei aufwendig aufgemacht im Pappschuber mit Postkarten, etc.
"PSYCHEDELIC SUSPIRIA DRONE. comes in a lavish and handmade style. Limited Edition 222 / 8 TRACK 69:44min.CD. Label: Triage Industries. Pipeline Alpha gives you sophisticated pychedelic Drones originated in psychotic ethnic Ritual-Livesessions with analog effectmaschines, his voice and primitive synthesizers. His unique Low-Fi sound is his organic vision of music, which try to combine archaic dreams of natur with the synthetic world of matrix. For him every session is a evocation. Pipeline Alpha aka the mighty alpha-whale is also a filmmaker and poet, who likes to tell you storys about men living in bardo dealing with sinister old gods to free their beloved or to ruin fiends and natur." [label info]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| PITRE, DUANE / PILOTRAM ENSEMBLE |
Organized Pitches Occuring in Time |
CD |
Klassischer Instrumental- & "Tone Generator"-Drone, minimal und zart, wenig abgründig oder dark ambientig, hat eher etwas "chamber-music"- artiges, mit vielen tonal gleichschwingenden Mitspielern auf Klarinette, Saxophon und Violine, die Stücke sind durchkomponiert.
"Organized Pitches Occurring in Time consists of two 25 minute pieces of music, both spawned from the same conceptual composition/score by Duane Pitre, titled Ensemble Drones. With their form reminiscent of works by La Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music and their tonality touching on the floating works of Terry Riley, The Ensemble Chord in Eb with a Minor 7th and a Pump Organ Base & The Ensemble Chord in C with a Major 7th and a Guitar Base are aural tapestries based on a minimal tonal palette with their instrumentation consisting of guitars, alto saxophones, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, tone generator, and pump organ.
The Ensemble Drones composition varies from the traditional sort as it is rule-based with the score consisting of a set tonic, set pitch classes, playing methods, technique restrictions, and spontaneous conduction. The score is a structure for the performing ensemble to improvise on—order spawning chaos producing order that is different on each occasion of a performance or recording. Ensemble Drones is discipline and freedom, both within each other, the first major focus of the work. Variance is the second major focus of the composition; with instrumentation, ensemble performers, tonic, pitch classes, and the physical space varying from performance to performance, the results can never be the same.
One way to view Ensemble Drones is like a compositional “body,” as in the composition taking human form. The score is the skeletal structure that gives the "body" its general shape and feel. The pump organ, for instance, could serve as the circulatory system, the bass clarinet as the muscles, cello and saxophones as the internal organs, the electrically generated tones as the nervous system, guitars as the flesh, viola as the skin, violin as strands of hair, and the listener—the listener acts as the eyes. Not in the sense of vision, though—each listener will "view" the same compositional body differently, and, in return, the body will view itself differently with each new set of eyes. This helps to analogize the last major focus of the Ensemble Drones score/composition, which is perception." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| PLEQ |
Ballet Mechanic |
CD |
"Preceded by the acclaimed Good Night CD single released last october, Pleq‘s Ballet Mechanic arrives in January on Basses Frequences. Described by Bartosz himself as “(…) the most personal, abstract and intellectual work to date. Ballet Mechanic is never to be repeated.”, this new offering invites the listener to travel through crackle, screech, squeak, sizzle and subtle drones. Melodies also appear throughout the electric atmospheres, as dark and heavy as in First to Fall or That Is Reallly The End, as feathery and celeste as in Good Night (glitch) or Once Upon A Time. Surely one of Pleq’s most accomplished and homogeneous work to date." [label info]
www.bassesfrequences.org
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| PLEQ & PHILIPPE LAMY |
Gravitation |
mCDR |
"these two artists have already been on taâlem before: pleq for hiscollaborative disc with japanese artist hiroki sasajima ("witch-hunt", may 2012, alm 86) and philippe lamy for his solo disc ("entre deux", june 2013, alm 91). they have already worked together several times since 2011. here they propose us an excellent track with a rather raw and industrial feeling, yet full of strange textures..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
"...I started out with Pleq and Philippe Lamy's work 'Gravitation'. They both had works before on Taalem, Pleq with his collaborative disc with Hiroki Sasajima (see Vital Weekly 839) and Lamy's 'Entre Deux' (Vital Weekly 890). They work together since 2011, and their twenty-plus minute piece is very nice, and hardly be part of the world of spacious drones, which we more commonly find on Taalem. These two inhabit a world of computer processing along the lines of acousmatic music, musique concrete, feeding field recordings to the zeroes and ones of the computer and cook up a nice, vibrant piece of music. In a constant drift this moves about and may have ambient qualities - especially in the constant flow that is part of this and perhaps in the treated field recordings, it's also
very much a work of musique concrete. Spacious collage music, very energetic and one of the best in the Taalem catalogue." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€5.00 |
|
| PLEQ + HIROKI SASAJIMA |
Witch-Hunt |
mCDR |
" "witch-hunt" is a wonderful collaborative track between pleq, the polish busy bee (past productions were released by several international labels like basses frequences, u-cover, dataobscura, somehow, audio gourmet, rural colours or ephre imprint) known for his ambient/glitch productions and the japanese field recordist hiroki sasajima we already know on taâlem thanks to the nature of dislocation 3" we released a few years ago (see here). his previous release were out on mystery sea, unfathomless, impulsive habitat or semper florens. this 24min long track is a beautiful blend of the two artists' skills, perfect mix of drones, field recordings and a few glitches..." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| PLOTKIN, JAMES & BRENT GUTZEIT |
Mosquito Dream |
CD |
"Überraschung: der ex-OLD und SCORN-Mitstreiter JAMES PLOTKIN (bekannt auch von der Suggestion do-7") zusammen mit BRENT GUTZEIT... mit einem extrem meditativen und fremdartig schönen Album. Geisterhafte Dronesounds. Stehendes Wasser. Far-Away-Landscapes. Alles Sounds wurden laut liner-notes mit Gitarren erzeugt, was kaum heraushörbar ist. Fantastisch!" [Drone Rec. info 1999]
|
1999 |
€13.00 |
|
| PLURALS |
TriTone |
LP |
"Tri Tone is Plurals' first studio recording as a trio following the most recent releases which feature live or session material. The last studio release was 2014's Bugenès Melissae - two tracks of calmer, more reflective music, standing aside from the bulk of the group's output which tends towards noise as the ultimate splitting-point after a period of collected density.
On Tri Tone that density is an end in itself. It is slow music that maps out its space carefully in coming together. It may be the gentlest and most patient of Plurals' albums, though it required the longest and most detailed sonic wrangling to complete. Two pieces were chosen from three hours of recorded music, and were contracted and expanded again by turns until eventually the finished versions took shape.
Plurals' studio improvisations typically expel a significant amount of aggression and intensity in their early stages, holding closer resemblance to live performances. With such force expunged however, the following material sees them exploring lengthy passages of audio cogitation rarely delivered live.
Mastered & cut by Frederic Alstadt at Ångström Mastering, Brussels." [label info]
"Silken Tofu seems to be taken by the music of Plurals; as a follow-up to a double CD
'Atlantikwall' (see Vital Weekly 1076), they now release a LP. This LP is the first studio recording of them as a trio, and the first studio recording to be released since 2014. This trio of improvisers (Daniel Mackenzie, Michael Neaves and David Hamilton-Smith) use a variety of tools (guitar, synthesizers, keyboards, vocals, tape machines, radio and reed and string instruments) and then go about to do their improvised work. For this record they recorded some three hours of music and extracted forty-eight minutes spread out over the two sidelong pieces. I can't judge if that is a lot or not. The music on both pieces is quite dense, rich with sound and also mostly not too loud. That seems to me a bit of break with what I know from them so far, which was always bit more towards the noise of lo-fi drone music. Like
always the changes within the pieces is quite minimal; Plurals take their time to slow go from one point in their piece to the next. In 'Sun Lock' for instance a simple drone starts out and little by little they add more and more sound, while the original drone lingers on, and towards the end it is very much changed and no longer recognizable. It ends as quiet as it started. Hard to say how much post-production and
editing took place here. Surely something, I would think, but for all we know, it is released as it was played back then. ‘Bas Fond' on the other side is more from the drone rock side of Plurals with mildly distorted guitars played long form drones. A record with two sides, obviously, showing two different sides of Plurals, not as obvious. From what I heard from them, this is the most refined work." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2018 |
€16.00 |
|
| POLIO |
Soyuz |
CD-R |
“ Polio was originally intended to be a studio-only project dealing with the dregs of home-recorded detritus and recycling it all inside droning digital straitjackets. However, 2002 saw Polio out in front of audiences of at least 15 people on a couple of occasions which presented new challenges and resulted in a swag of new recordings awaiting their moment on a CD plonked inside a wrapping of cheap manilla paper with a neat schematic of a spacecraft on the front. Any excuse for pictures of space vehicles...
Soyuz presents the bulk of a live Polio performance at Lyttelton's appropriately off-kilter Wunderbar recorded to digital hard disc by the omnipresent David Khan, and one unlisted piece of studio deconstruction to finish the disc. Polio live is a mix of pre-processed drones, live loop & sine-wave manipulation & general knob-twiddling on the effects units. Sort of like those energy drinks you can get with extra crap thrown in to what is essentially sugar & water, Soyuz is like Gemini, but with extra minerals (?!)... ahh, hell, it's a hard thing to write blurbs with a hangover, but you get the picture hopefully...! The bottom line is if you loved Gemini, you'll definately like this disc. A further installment in the Polio saga will appear shortly on Norwegian imprint Humbug, but for starters why not sink your teeth into this beauty...” [label info]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| POLMO POLPO |
Like Hearts Swelling |
CD |
New Canadian project on Constellation, encharming us with quite relaxed & a bit melancholic half-electronic / half-acoustic instrumentals... develops his very own style.. first release on Constellation after a CD on Alien8 with re-released vinyl-tracks.
“New signing to Constellation! Toronto-based artist creates genre-busting album full of electronic wavefields, full-on dronescapes and a fully realized conceptual thread. Tune in.“ [Southern Records]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2003 |
€16.00 |
|
| |
Like Hearts Swelling |
LP |
New Canadian project on Constellation, encharming us with quite relaxed & a bit melancholic half-electronic / half-acoustic instrumentals... develops his very own style.. first release on Constellation after a CD on Alien8 with re-released vinyl-tracks.
“ New signing to Constellation! Toronto-based artist creates genre-busting album full of electronic wavefields, full-on dronescapes and a fully realized conceptual thread. Tune in.“ [Southern Records]
www.cstrecords.com
|
2003 |
€16.00 |
|
| POST SCRIPTVM |
Gauze |
LP |
"LP reissue of the first full-length album by Post Scriptvm, recorded in late 2001 and originally released as CD-r. Unlike the project's later works that are characterized by subtlety and meticulous production, Gauze is an unvarnished, gritty 4-track recording of lo-fi death ambient from the wasteland of southern Brooklyn, NYC, enshrouded in the lingering haze of razed buildings and burnt human remains. The boundary between what is considered normal everyday life and sheer insanity, carnage, personal and social collapse-true horrible face of humanity-is but an ephemeral layer of gauze that can be torn in a heartbeat, throwing reality out of balance, violently and irrevocably. "This game is prompted by a rip in the fabric of life." [Gauze] has the same hypnotic and overwhelming power as a strong fever dream. It hauls you into a contorted world of loose association, an industrial landscape in which humans lose their form and randomly merge with animals and bizarre machinery, where perception is warped and hours flicker by in an instant. -Nulll Oppressive drones and bleak atmospheres, interjected with twisted samples and cavernous, haunted basement noises. [Gauze] has a very cool old school feel to it that's been sadly missing within the 'death industrial' genre. -Jason Mantis/Malignant Records "Gauze" is a hazy swirl of dark ambient, subtle ritual elements, esoteric samples and mild death industrial textures. The deep tones and the cryptic vocals samples and chants combine to make some truly eerie atmospheres. -Scott Candey/Worm Gear "Gauze" sounds quite a bit like a live recording, like being immersed in a real-time psychosis simulation. -Industrial.org Post Scriptum construct their pieces from a varied mixture of drones, analogue sounds, post-industrial samples, strongly maintaining a claustrophobic atmosphere at the same time...thick with an uneasy sense of a catastrophe about to happen. -Corridor of Cells Ragged dark ambience full of trepidation and strangeness, as scratched into the flesh of weird, dimly lit corners of aural resonance. -SEVEN Tracklist: Cunctator Trepan On the brink Pore The Binding Vox Calamantis Gentle Diversions."
www.tesco-germany.com
"Gerade hat Kollege ENDSAL die aktuelle Live-Werkschau "Séance" (Besprechung) des russischen Industrial-Duos POST SCRIPTVM gewürdigt. Nun möchte ich noch ein paar Infos zu "Gauze" nachschieben, um die Diskografie komplett zu machen. Es handelt sich um die allerersten Aufnahmen von POST SCRIPTVM, die ursprünglich im Jahr 2001 auf CDR erschienen sind. TESCO ARCHAIC DOCUMENTS, eine Serie des Mannheimer Industrial-Labels TESCO, presst hier ältere – teils auch unveröffentliche oder live entstandene – Werke auf Vinyl, und so ist auch "Gauze" als nicht mehr erhältlicher Baustein des Gesamtwerkes nun als LP wieder zugänglich. Womit wir auch wirklich alle Veröffentlichungen der in den USA lebenden Russen auf NONPOP geehrt hätten.
"Cunctator" (01) startet mit einem höhligen, gefährlichen und vibrierenden Drone. Dumpf klingende Sprachsamples und ein kratziges Geräusch ergänzen den Track, ab der Mitte tauchen sporadisch sakrale Mönchsgesänge auf; eher Atmosphäre als Musik, sehr stimmungsvoller Dark Ambient. Das Frickeln und Bratzeln in "Trepan" (02) formt sich nach und nach zu Frequenzdonner. Auch hier tönt eine Sprech- und später schamanische Singstimme aus der Gruft. Mit metallenem Scheppern ergibt sich auch ein erster Ansatz von Rhythmus, der in "On The Brink" (03) weiter verfolgt wird. Gelooptes Kratzen hält Drones zusammen, später übernimmt diese Funktion ein Herzschlag – das Stück ein geisterhaftes Schweben. "Pore" (04) besteht aus weitem, maschinellem Rumpeln und Dröhnen, dezent von noisigen Sounds unterstützt, die in "The Binding" (05) zunehmen: Zwischen Weltuntergangs-Blitzen ruft eine russische Frauenstimme ganz sicher den Notfall aus. Wasserplätschern, Wind und schwimmende Drones lassen "Vox Calamantis" (06) ruhiger wirken, in wiederholende Loops fügt sich eine nachdenkliche, mahnende russische Stimme ein. Und zum Schluss besteht "Gentle Diversions" (07), ganz klassisch, überwiegend aus rotierendem Dröhnen zwischen Noise und Industrial.
Für mich sind POST SCRIPTVM einer der besten und intelligentesten Industrial-Acts auf dem Markt. "Gauze" hat bereits alle Grundbausteine für die spätere Entwicklung. Klanglich noch recht roh und rau, man könnte auch sagen 'old school', wirkt das Album fast wie eine Liveaufnahme. So unmittelbar und direkt. Ich habe permanent das Gefühl, mich in einem dunklen Schiffsbauch zu befinden, schwankend, zwischen stampfenden Maschinen. Diese LP gehört natürlich, wie alle anderen Veröffentlichungen von POST SCRIPTVM auch, in den Plattenschrank. Nicht nur als abzuhakendes Frühwerk, sondern als spannender Ausgangspunkt für folgende Meilensteine." [Michael We. für nonpop.de]
|
2016 |
€23.00 |
|
| POTTER, COLIN |
And then |
CD |
Der legendäre englische Producer COLIN POTTER (NWW, C93 , ORGANUM, Mitglied bei ORA, etc..) mit seiner ersten CD ! Auf fünf feinen Stücken zaubert er hier atmosphärischen Ambient, schwingende & pulsierende Drones, in die sich mitunter sanfte field recordings mischen wie bei ORA; true analogue bliss mit einer geheimnisvollen, aber sanften Komponente versehen – mitunter entstehen repetitive Strukturen mit monumentalen Überbau.
First CD of the legendary english producer, who encharms with atmospheric ambient and pulsating drones, sometimes mixed with field recordings. back in stock, now the second pressing available!
www.icrdistribution.com
|
2000 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
The Sights of the Drowned Fable |
CD-R |
Jessas! Ungewöhnlich noisig-rhythmische Klänge am Anfang dieses Mitschnitts (eines Konzertes vom July 2007 in Preston UK), dessen Klangstrom dann immer droniger & geisterhafter wird, wo tiefergestellte Stimmen durch den Äther zischeln, Frequenzmodulationen aus dem Nichts erscheinen, meditative Gongs auftauchen und field recordings von Regen & Donner....
"The first couple of minutes of this live recording seemed to have been designed to get the blood boiling and the heart pumping. Colin Potter (the technical foil to Steve Stapleton's macabre psychedelia in Nurse With Wound) opens with an agitated set of electro-bleep rhythms which double upon each other into a squiggling dervish. After these few minutes though, the sidereal ambience and barren dronescapes which Potter has brought to the recent NWW productions slip into focus. Ghostly fragments of echo and reverberation glide around chiming drones from harmonium, gongs, field recordings, and bowed strings, all displaying Potter's polychromatic, oil-slick production which has such a peculiar, funhouse warble modulating each and every sound, ever so slightly. Some 15 minutes into the piece, there are a series of metallic bangs and ominous metallic clicks, puncturing a bed of low-end frequencies. One of these repeating bangs is quite similar to the ones used on John Duncan's River In Flames. Along with the signposts of Duncan and the NWW Shipwrecked Radio series, Potter's live set from the 2007 Resonator Festival in Preston, England also resembles the late period Zoviet France albums InVersion and Digilogue. Limited to just 100 copies, and certainly will not last for very long!" [Aquarius]
www.icrdistribution.com
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| PROPELLER |
Oro |
CD |
Zweites Album dieses Solo-Projekts von Mark Spybey (ex-Zoviet France) – sehr unterschiedliches Material, insgesamt nicht so noisy wie der Vorgänger "Rame " ('96) - "processed electric and acoustic guitars, pulsed beats from acoustic sources, drones from electric objects, chants and vocal improvisations from Eric Pounder (ex-Lab Report)." Zwischen Surreal Ambient und bizarren atmosphärischen Experimentalsounds, viele recht kurze Stücke, kurzweilig und gut! Speziell geschnittenes Pappcover mit Golddruck.
www.scratchrecords.com |
1998 |
€13.00 |
|
| PROPERGOL |
Paradise Land |
CD |
"new propergol...spec.pack. - incl. 3 postacrds ...A deaf & sepulchral sound // The door suddenly opens A voice announces : it's ongoing // Preparations in silence There will be no good bye // Defective electrical installations direction : airport // Anxiety-provoking situation Flight-plan : Direction> PN - (48° 52' 36'' S 123° 23' 36'' W) Feverous take-off then cruising phase // Engine shutdown... Silence... Fly over & scope of the disaster // In top view, mankind tears away A rupture, a break with civilization // Separation / isolation - arrival Final approach phase - Stabilization - Ejection... .. . What happens now? ----------------------------------------------------------------- end of transmission." [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
"Allein, dass PROPERGOL ein neues Album veröffentlicht, geht fast schon als Überraschung durch. Liegt das letzte offiziell gelistete doch schon sechs Jahre zurück. Zwischendurch hat sich JÉRÔME NOUGAILLON mal um die Klänge von Kollegen (wie zum Beispiel POST SCRIPTVM aus Russland) gekümmert, aber ansonsten musikalisch recht zurückgezogen gelebt, 2012 immerhin ein Stück zu einem Sampler beigesteuert und den 25sten Geburtstag von TESCO – siehe Video unten – mit einem Liveauftritt gewürdigt. Nun ist eben "Paradise Land" erschienen, das aktuelle Werk des Ein-Mann-Projektes, schön verpackt im Din A5-Format, quer, edel und mit drei ästhetischen Postkarten.
Die eigentliche Sensation ist aber der radikale Stilwechsel. Weder Power Electronics noch aggressive Noiseorgien, sondern überwiegend angenehmer und warmer Ambient!
Stimmsamples, die nach Quietschen und animalischem Knurren einsetzen, spielen eine wichtige Rolle auf "Paradise Land" und tauchen deshalb gleich zum Beginn im Opener "Running Scored" (01) auf. Wehende Geräusch-Drones sorgen – hier wie auf dem gesamten Album – für eine sehr räumliche Atmosphäre, die Collagen – vor allem aus vielen Stimmen – und andere, meist natürliche Elemente wie zum Beispiel Uhrticken sorgen für Bezug zur Realität. "911 Dispatche" (02) verstärkt den Eindruck von Ambient; die wabernden, angenehmen, synthetischen Drones haben etwas Strahlendes, Kosmisches. Dazu stoßen weitere Stimmsamples, die für mich stets wie Bahnhofs- oder Flughafendurchsagen tönen, sowohl vom Klang als auch vom Stimmduktus her. In "Ymene" (03) steht längere Zeit eine Art Unterhaltung mit hallenden Stimmen im Raum, durchbrochen nur von wenigen Sounds, und geht über in eine lange Ambientfläche. Etwas bedrohlicher nun liegen wie Insekten vibrierende Drones über einem Grundbrummen. Regen und gewitterähnliche Klänge ("Torquenada", 04) bilden den Übergang zu sehr maschinellen, kurzatmigeren Gebilden aus Tönen.
Es folgen mal mehr geräuschorientierte, mal mehr flächige Ambientstrukturen, zwischendurch auch (wenige) noisige Elemente wie Pfeifen und Fiepen mit entsprechenden Verzerrungen. Rhythmische Strukturen hat sich PROPERGOL für "Bushman" (08) und "Impossible Landing" (09) aufgehoben, dann aber richtig losgelegt. Diese beiden Tracks sind als 'Songs' zu bezeichnen, haben etwas Technoides, bilden das Vorspiel zu einem nie einsetzenden Rhythmusgewitter mit tuckerndem Beat – groovender Minimal-Techno! Das längste Stück am Ende ("Bleu Nuit", 10) mischt noch einmal Vieles: eine verfremdete Stimme (die an Sprachausgaben alter Computer erinnert), Geräusche wie schweres Atmen (der Monolog eines Sterbenden?), weitere Solostimmen und Bahnhofsatmosphäre, um dann in angenehme und erneut rhythmische, federnde Ambientmusik überzugehen.
Es fehlen zwar inhaltliche Infos zum Album, woher zum Beispiel die Stimmen kommen und was genau die Thematik ist. Macht aber nichts. Die Klangmalerei funktioniert so gut, dass jeder Track ein Gemälde ist und eine Reihe von Assoziationen zulässt. Ich stelle mir ein Kontrollzentrum vor, und zwar in allen Facetten, mit Kommunikation, dem Raum selbst und den Informationen, die durch Leitungen übertragen werden. Einige dezente Hinweise (durch Titel und die knappe Labelinfo) könnten auch so verstanden werden, dass sich der Hörer an Bord eines 9/11-Fluges befindet. Dafür ist "Paradise Land" aber musikalisch fast zu gut verdaulich. Streckenweise könnten auch die Belgier von KRAKEN mit ihren Unterwasserthematiken Pate gestanden haben.
Sehr elegante, kluge und erzählende Ambientmusik mit vielen Stimmen und Field Recordings. Sticht in diesem Genre deutlich aus der Masse der Veröffentlichungen heraus. Fans älterer Alben sollten nur wissen, dass dieses ganz anders, viel weniger brutal klingt." [Michael We., NON-POP]
|
2012 |
€14.50 |
|
| PRURIENT |
Casablanca Flamethrower |
do-LP |
Casablanca - A hiding place and escape route. Flamethrower - A weapon designed to drive people out of hiding places.
Casablanca Flamethrower is Prurient's first proper full length for Tesco Organization. Thirteen tracks of doom electronics crowded by voices of industrial cynicism focused on four theatres (corridors of violence):
Ural tracers, Guadalcanal Necrophilia, Normandy Reaper, Casablanca Flamethrower…
Casablanca Flamethrower deals with alternative histories. About hidden allied war crimes. The wild and ferocious airborne divisions once they passed the beachhead and their fateful encounters with civilians. About forgotten victims and known memorials. We deal here with the memorials we see that were created after the fact. By ’hiding what is known’ we see another history, another past... a past without a future!
Additional atmospheres:
Paratroopers mutilations as psychological warfare
Unspoken necrophilic activities in the Pacific
Human ‘trophies’ sent home to loved ones before atom day
Memories of the black raven under Uncle Joe
Human smuggling, fatalistic hedonism and triple-crossing in Morocco’s propaganda establishments
These are the songs from torture chambers across hateful american shores.
TRACK LIST:
A
Black Iceberg
Peace and Bread Humilation
D-Day Rape
Normandy Reaper - Snow on the Atlantic
B
Fucked by Tracers
Beneath the Wheels of the black Raven
Most Cannibals were Women
C
Dead you are already
Corn Cop Pipe Butcher
Guadalcanal Necrophilia
D
The Thrust of the Spear
Sphere from Christ´s side
Directionless World
Tesco 140
credits
released March 31, 2020
https://tescogermany.bandcamp.com/album/casablanca-flamethrower
"As Dominick Fernow’s main project, Prurient is somewhat of a sonic chameleon which has explored a myriad of underground noise and industrial styles over a huge number of releases and span of years. While Prurient have also had a close association with Tesco Organisation for some time, Casablanca Flamethrower is the formal debut album for Tesco given other releases to date have been reissues on Tesco’s sub-labels. To quickly mention those reissues*, each were within an industrial/power electronic/heavy electronics frame of reference, therefore closely aligned with the Tesco’s prevailing style and sound. In a similar context Casablanca Flamethrower follows suit and is very much a Prurient album, and with its broader thematic focus on the hidden stories and forgotten victims of war, it definitely feels at home on Tesco.
In terms of the arc of Prurient’s main/core albums, Casablanca Flamethrower follows the massive seven LP Rainbow Mirror (self-described as ‘doom electronics’). Casablanca Flamethrower is notable by the fact that although not too far removed from the sprawling and mellow tone of Rainbow Mirror set, that sound has also been repurposed with a focused attention on a European heavy electronics/industrial sound. This may then be partially explained by the involvement of Kris Lapke of Alberich (who is credited as providing loops, percussion and synths), whose own project takes clear influence from a European heavy electronics sound, which has perhaps further cemented the sound and direction of Casablanca Flamethrower.
Black Iceberg open the album with a squelching bass throb, distant scrap metal tones and angst-ridden rasped vocals, while Peace and Bread Humiliation is a short track of hollow radio scanning static, whistling noise and semi-buried radio broadcast announcements. The following D-Day Rape is then an early album highlight, featuring bulldozing bass, mid-toned insectile noise squalls, while the spoken vocals are featured upfront but rendered undecipherable due to the treatment with an off-kilter warbling effected. Marvelous stuff. Fucked By Traces maintains momentum with static squalls, thick bass drones, vague rhythmic backing and charred echo chamber vocal barrage. Beneath The Wheels of the Black Raven is also an excellent track of stalking menace, where the tone is one of militaristic death industrial involving droning bass, slow shuddering rhythm, and vocals delivered as agonized chants and treated spoken fragments. Late album track The Thrust of the Spear is another highlight. Opening as a low droning and treated vocal piece it soon evolves into a minimalist yet highly hypnotic track of militaristic tinged rhythmic loops and swirling rotor blades. The track title then obviously then cross references the collage image of the Spear of Longinus shown on the back cover (contributed by The Grey Wolves). Yet when the spear collage is considered in context of the adjacent phrase: ‘the risen Christ holds the spear of destiny in his side’, it shrouds the intended meaning, which is at least consistent with Dominick’s established approach to abstracted thematic presentation. Sphere From Christ’s Side also uses similar militaristic rhythmic loops for brooding result, while the close to ten minute Directionless World rounds out the album in subdued fashion with minimalist tonal rumbles and radio scanning static (but perhaps could have been half as long without foregoing ideas or loosing impact).
From my own perspective Casablanca Flamethrower is an an intense yet brooding take on a heavy electronics/industrial sound, and is inherently more listenable, engaging and digestible than the sprawling Rainbow Mirror set. Yet even so, not all tracks reach the same peak level as the album’s standouts, meaning if it were paired down to a single rather than double LP, it would have increased immediacy and impact, and duly elevated the album from being good to great. Regardless, that is really quite a minor observation and is hardly a reason to not seek out this album, which is stunningly presented in a full colour gate-fold sleeve." [Noise Receptor] |
2020 |
€33.00 |
|
| PURE |
Ification |
CD |
"Mir ist PURE durch seine Releases auf Mego, Feld und dOc Recordings ein Begriff, andere kennen Peter Votava schon aus Ilsa-Gold-Zeiten, als Loop- und Sub/Version-Macher und Electronica-Veranstalter. Auf Ification (Crónica 038) schafft der Ex-Wiener und jetzige Berliner erneut mit dröhnminimalistischen Mitteln sieben Soundscapes. Die lassen einen eintauchen in dark-ambiente Dunkelwolken (‚Blind Flight‘) oder lethargisch und wie unter einem Bann dahin driften durch eine Nacht, die kein gutes Ende verspricht (‚End‘). ‚Iron Sky‘ ringt mit zähen und drückenden Verstrickungen wie Laokoon mit den Schlangen, die fatalen Beats schlägt - wie auch bei ‚After the Bomb‘ - Martin Brandlmayr, die Stimme ist die der Bolzn-Screamerin Alexandra. Die hatte auch schon in der Geisterbahn von ‚Sonomatopoeia‘ gestöhnt, zu giftigem Sirren, Theaterdonner und Gewummer, während die krachig verzerrten und gewellten Impulse des Auftakts ‚Fire‘ auf der Gitarre von C. de Babalon basieren. Die dystopische Melancholie von ‚After the Bomb‘ entsteht durch gedämpfte Drones, silbrig durchfunkelt, voller sirrender Frequenzen und mit dem fernen Nachhall von Sirenen und Gefechtslärm, den Brandlmayr mit Besenschlägen und Cymbalbeats andeutet. ‚Approximation‘ nähert sich mit dunklem Stöhnen - wie von den Sirenen der Titanic oder Tubas des Jüngsten Gerichts - und diskant schrillenden Strings, spärlich durchsetzt mit perkussiven Akzenten, dem Bereich der Klassik, mit offenbar ungescheutem pathetischen Effekt. Wer in Pures Elevator
Noir einsteigt, muss sich auf einen Trip ans dunkle Ende der Gefühlsskala gefasst machen." [Bad Alchemy]
"After more than ten CDs and several vinyls under different aliases, projects or collaborations that ranged a multitude of musical styles over the last 15 years, Pure's newest release is now proudly presented by Crónica. Three and a half years later than scheduled, and six years after his previous studio CD release “Noonbugs” on Mego, Pure returns with his fourth solo full-length album — “Ification” — the outcome of a long period of live work (documented in the first two volumes of the “Home Is Where My Harddisk is” series), residencies — in France, with Johnny Dekam, where the “Reqoil Displaced Peaceoff” DVD was produced — and collaborations — the “Heart Chamber Orchestra” with Erich Berger, an audiovisual performance based on the heart-beats of an orchestra of 12 musicians. “Ification” presents a collection of seven highly diverse tracks that revolve around dense, filmic and eerie atmospheres, without ever drifting into obvious or simple harmonies. As in his previous work, Pure takes from music history whatever serves his narrative needs and appropriates it through his." [label info]
"Something entirely different is the latest album by Pure, from Vienna. He works under various guises, and this is fourth Pure CD, following 'Noonbugs' on Mego for four years ago. Seven pieces of electronic music, six of them recorded with the help of others, like Christoph de Babalon on guitar samples, Martin Brandlmayr on drums, the screams of Alexandra von Bolzn and Anke Eckardt on bass guitar. What Aubrey lacks in variation is made up here by Pure. The heavy start of 'Fire', into to post nuclear war zone with no survivors of 'After The Bomb' (an appropriate title), Pure takes the listener on a ride that ranges from subtleness to the utter crude, which ends with the nightmares of 'Iron Sky'. Excellent music for b-movies that deserve a-music. Certainly not always 'pleasant' in terms of nice background music for your living room, but unpleasant music to make your life a bit easier and less painful." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
www.cronicaelectronica.org
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| QUEST |
(A)Quarter |
mCD-R |
here's another dutch artist: QUEST (the beatless ambient alias of Frans de Waard). he has proposed us something quite uncommon in the taâlem catalogue: a rather cosmic track! have a listen!
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/a-quarter-alm-130
"This EP under the Quest banner is the most classically “ambient” of the Taâlem batch, 22 minutes of arpeggiating synth flourishes and ear-friendly electronic drones. As with much of de Waard’s current mode, “(A) Quarter)” has a very deliberate pace, gliding patiently across it’s three sections. It opens with some cosmic bloops, drifts into a center section of darker distant feedback peels and an arhythmic thrum, then returns triumphantly to a Berlin-School-flavored finale of blissful analog filigree. If Modelbau is too noisy for you and QST too pop, Quest’s “(A) Quarter” is a nicely accessible entry into Frans de Waard’s music." [HS/VITAL WEEKLY] |
2019 |
€5.50 |
|
| R.O.T. |
L'Ecurie |
LP |
Eine wunderbare, sehr mysteriös und seltsame tönende Platte! Auch nach mehrmaligem Hören weiss man noch nicht so recht, was hier eigentlich passiert. Sehr dronig und ambientös und vielschichtig "folkig-organisch"; etwas low-fi & fliessend improvisiert erscheinen die Dronescapes, dick & undurchdringlich und auch psychedelisch...erinnert an ruhigere VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA z.B...
"r.o.t. has gained a quality reputation in the underground scene during their six years of existence. this led to a splendid cdr- and tape discography. "l'écurie" is their first long player. each side contains two jams that sound like calm and fluently movements through sound at one time, then like a somewhat more brutal treatment at another point. the album shows nicely how r.o.t. works as a (live) band. it's not about well-thought sound poetry here, but about spontaneous improvisation where random incidents are considered as an extra band member. a slow bass that wanders gently through the acoustic droning, when suddenly an alarm clock starts to ring, followed by new almost-quietness and laidback noise. r.o.t. stands for an original approach of sound sources and a continuously seeking for the "moment". side a was recorded in an abandoned administration building in jette, a small town near brussels. the space was run by young students for six months and renamed the place "l'écurie", the french for stable. r.o.t. improvised in the dusty kitchen during three long days, mostly during the nights as well. the tracks on the b side are takes from improvisations in an horse stable. there again the album's title refers to l'écurie. this time at an old farm which is called ferme du biereau (louvain la neuve). the farm is also known as a nice venue and spot for artists en musicians." [label info]
www.kraak.net |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| RACHEL'S |
The Sea and the Bells |
do-LP |
"Ihr '96er Album, klassisch angehauchte Instrumentalmusik von warmer Melancholie & Nostalgie, mitunter mit exprimentellen Drones angereichert... in Vinyl gegossene Schönheit! Wäre auch perfekte Filmmusik..." [old Drone Rec. info]
"Rachel's is a collective of musicians based in Louisville, KY. Since releasing their first Quarterstick Records cd in 1995, the group has performed in libraries, churches, rock dungeons, ballrooms, gardens, bowling alleys, and movie theaters across North America and Europe. They have often worked with filmmakers, dance companies, stage productions, printmakers, and photographers. Their recordings and shows have elicited numerous descriptions including "subversives with a cello”, “classical post-rock," "post-classical”, and "lo-fi Louisville loafers." [label info]
www.quarterstickrecords.com
|
1996 |
€21.00 |
|
| RADIGUE, ELIANE |
Feedback Works 1969-1970 |
LP |
Feedback Works 1969-1970
However mesmerizing they may be, the works of Éliane Radigue which could be found on record were quite rare when I met her in 1998: “Trilogie de la Mort”, “Biogenesis”, impressive pieces composed on the ARP 2500 synthesizer between 1970 and 1990. There was also the very rare double 7" “Σ=a=b=a+b”, edited by the author and then brought out by the Yvon Lambert Gallery in 1969, which seemed to unveil a turbulent side of the composer’s youth. This work was intended to be presented as a sonic environment and had been composed with nothing but feedback effects on magnetic tape… a relatively crude piece compared with those for synthesizer, difficult for me to relate to. I hastily concluded that Éliane had dabbled with feedback for its hot-tempered quality, a bit like her colleagues Robert Ashley or Alvin Lucier, before passing on to something calmer (in her case, the rounded and peaceable harmonics of the synthesizer)… my mistake. “Σ=a=b=a+b” was but a small part of the group of works based on feedback, just one of the more rough nuances from that so-rich period.
When I visited her in her Paris apartment for the first time, what made an impression on me were the immense shelves taking up the entire entryway, filled from floor to ceiling with tapes. All those sounds… the whole life story of an electronic composer. Immediately I became overcome with curiosity as to the beauties hidden within those boxes, no way not to find treasures within. I did not know anything as yet.
Éliane lives in an eternal present, one could almost say. I had never met someone who at her age was not busy digging around in their past. She, on the other hand, simply considered that she always had “her whole life in front of her”.
Éliane, always inhabited by music, usually lives with a new project in mind. Even if not at all stingy in responding to questions about her rich past, one would not say that she tried to evoque times gone by.
I quickly proposed to convert her magnetic tapes to digital. Not only to create an archive but also and especially to search out all the details, the secrets of this unique body of work. For years all I got were polite but firm refusals. She wanted to convince me that there was nothing but never-ending dust, and babbling, risky if not primitive… Things only changed suddenly after a return from Chicago in 2002 for the release of “L'Île re-sonante”. Delighted with the experience, she described the evening of the concert. She had been overwhelmed by the presence of very young people who came up for a signature on the boxset of “Adnos” trilogy (realised between 1974 and 1982 and published in 2002 by Table of the Elements. This time when I said that these works of the past were in effect full of passion and so it might be the time to put in order the archive, she said laconically, but with enthusiasm: “Oh, alright! But you do it, you know where everything is”.
The big job could begin; I was enchanted and am still. I expected to find other works on the rough side, like “Σ=a=b=a+b”, but with surprise quite another thing came forth.
The digital versions were all done in Lyon, at Lionel Marchetti’s. His interest in and knowledge of Éliane’s music, along with his detailed work, made for a most enjoyable activity. I recall the silence in the studio when we uncovered works surely never listened to after their first public performance, not to say ever presented... Sounds older than I was, for sure. Certain of these works had something of the traumatic about them: my goodness, she made these magnificent sounds with only three pieces of string!
Thus were the works of the feedback period of Éliane Radigue revealed, as we gradually got them digitized, extending over five years approximately: “Omnht” with its broad tectonic vibrations, the celestial voices of “Usral”, the dense silences of “Jouet électronique”, “Stress Osaka” massive chant, the horizon moving in “Vice-versa, etc.”, the magnetic bewitchments of “Opus 17”… each one brought its load of surprises and burst a well filled time bubble. So did we rewind the thread of her biography, discovering obvious connections even in the texture of the sounds themselves, which joined that period to the synthesizer one.
There is nothing anecdotal in the feedback period of Éliane Radigue. A good dozen pieces were composed between 1967 and 1970 in which most of the characteristic originality of her works had their beginnings. It is moreover continually amazing that she could build such formidably organic sonic edifices with the primitive machines which were hers: three tape recorders, a mixing board, an amplifier, two loudspeakers and a microphone. A home studio certainly primitive, but there were not any home studios to speak of in the sixties, the cost of materials being too high. To compose electronic music, or “concrete” or “experimental” (what distinctions!) you had to have access to an institutional studio (At the time usually located in the large radio studios, or certain universities). Indeed, a large part of Éliane’s possessions came from Pierre Henry.
She met him at the “Studio d'Essai” of the R.T.F. in the middle of the 50s, after having met Pierre Schaeffer almost by chance (if such a chance does exist) who invited her to learn the techniques of musique concrète. In fact, from 1955 to 1957 she learned all about these techniques there, “in the shadow of the masters” she says. Éliane emphasizes that she could be there as a “quiet little mouse”, because she cast no shadow on the masters of the place. She learned, as she says, that she was only there as a student. During the 50s no avant-garde musician could imagine a woman seriously competing with them… Jokes erupted: “At least when Éliane comes to the studio it smells good!” etc. Nevertheless Pierre Henry liked one of Éliane’s montages and wanted to use it in a piece he was working on, “L'Occident est Bleu” (1957). From 1957 to 1967 she no longer had access to a studio. During these ten years she will be travelling, taking care of her family, and composing a few graphic scores which will never be published, or even played: “Asymptote Versatile” in 1960, or yet “Chess Game” (based on a chess match between Marcel Duchamp and her then husband, Arman). She was biding her time.
She was to once again assist Pierre Henry from 1967 to 1969, and there she made her first tape compositions. During the last stage of mixing “L'Apocalypse de Jean”, in 1968, Pierre Henry brought to her some of the materials which would become her studio, so that she could continue working on some parts of the “Apocalypse” he asked her to work on, while he continued working at Studio Apsome. These things remained in Éliane’s house and she bought what was lacking to work autonomously: one more tape recorder, a microphone, and then, in 1971, the ARP 2500 synthesizer. Even if these first compositions date from the end of the 60s it seems evident the entire creative process in Éliane Radigue’s work had begun in the Studio d’Essai in 1955.
What I always find striking when I listen to the first piece “Jouet électronique” (realized in 1967 at the Apsome Studio and published in 2010 by Alga Marghen) is the maturity and expressive force in this short composition. There is already a tension and poetry proper to her own. Similarly, “Jouet électronique” seems to contain the germ of all which is to come. Or at least it opens all the paths which she will follow indefatigably. It is as if her musical work in some way contained a martial arts discipline on which she meditated for 10 years before striking the first blow, with an impressive precision… Right away her music separates from the explorations of musique concrète, from any academism, or whatever style then in vogue. Her adventure is intuitively going towards flux, towards contemplative stasis. A music of continuous sounds, of apparently simple structures, which permits the revelations and expansion of rich acoustic phenomena. One could say that in one sense it is the very texture of the sounds which leads the form in her compositions. At the same time this approach favors an intense sensuality in the listening. The fluidity of form in Éliane Radigue’s music has more to do with certain world music traditions, composed of drones, resonances, pulsations (although I cannot be sure that this was really the inspiration). A music in which time is suspended, but not stopped, rather unfolding with an intoxicating slowness, engendering fascination rather than boredom.
Between 1969 and 1970 Éliane Radigue gave up measured durations and composed works which flirted with eternity: “Usral” (1969), “Labyrinthe Sonore” (1970). and “Omnht” (1970). They are generally made of several tape loops of clearly different duration read simultaneously. In this arrangement, simple and ingenious (close to the usage of Steve Reich in his youthful pieces), the fixed sounds go slowly out of synch, in a play of perpetual mutation. From this appears a sonic landscape whose temporality, as well as its materiality, could be described by these verses by Paul Verlaine:
“…who, each time, is never quite the same, nor completely another…”
The terms “Sound Art” and “Sound Installation” are in vogue at this moment. There was nothing like it at the time. A way of describing this new approach had to be developed. So she presented her works under the description “Propos Sonores” (Sonic propositions) or sometimes “Music without End”. These works were unveiled to the public both in the places consecrated to music as well as museums and galleries (Yvon Lambert, Lara Vincy, etc.). Nothing surprising in the fact that these “Music without End” at times, like a halo of the infinite, accompanied works of such visual artists as Marc Halpern or Tania Mouraud. For all that, without minimizing the interest of these collaborations, it seems important to add that the sounds she used have in themselves a completely “plastic” quality.
This is the context in which Éliane composed “Omnht” in 1970 for one of the architectonic spaces of the visual artist Tania Mouraud, “One More Night”, presented at the Gallery of the Rive Gauche in Paris. With Jean Heuzé, one of Pierre Henry’s co-workers who helped out on this project, Éliane had the idea of screwing the speakers into the partitions so that they would be invisible with respect to the immaculate exhibition space. Due to this the sounds could vibrate within walls which become resonant surfaces. This description caused me to “leap up to the ceiling” because it is a technique that I used myself in my sound installation work… only twenty years later. I quickly felt it necessary to present this piece anew. In 2006, thanks to an active competition by the Consortium Art Center and the association “Cumulus” in Dijon (organizers of the contemporary music festival “Why Note”), it was possible to do a version among the old industrial buildings of “L'Usine”. Large plaster partitions were already in place and formed an ideal group of surfaces for the installation of loudspeakers. Resounding in these grand rooms, “Omnht” seemed to shake the entire building, thus creating a sonic architecture of time and space… A vast edifice of vibrations, built like a mirror of frequencies in which were reflected our inner worlds. It was admirable to see how much this work had resisted time; the fascinated reception by the public left no doubt as to its poetic force. After this public presentation I set up a stereophonic synthesis of that installation in my studio, by combining the original sounds with those taken at “L'Usine”. I felt a lively need to hear those magnificent sounds again. I realized moreover that the sonorities of “Omnht” survived the reduction quite well, and I found once more with happiness the unique intensity of this spatial composition.
Some time later, Éliane offered me one of the 10 copies of “Vice-versa, etc.”: a small handmade box, signed and numbered, realized as a multiple on the occasion of a show at Lara Vincy’s gallery in 1970, which contained a reel of magnetic tape and the instructions for use. It indicates that all playback speeds are possible, forwards or backwards, as well as any combination of two channels, on several recorders, “ad libitum”… A present which touched me profoundly. I took up the game and rapidly made mixings following the indications to the letter, respecting the composition methods of Éliane Radigue. Need I say that to work with such lovely sounds was a real pleasure?
Then I decided to do the same with all her sound installation works: slices of time from those sonic environments dedicated to space and infinity. There are so few spaces devoted to Sound Art, so the occasions for presenting such work to the public are rare. It seems evident to me that if we waited for that to happen very few people would have access to that part of Éliane’s work. Fundamentally, these stereophonic syntheses should have been made and published a long time ago because this compilation offers a simple way into the home of this passionate time.
Therefore, I proposed that we listen to them together, because of course the idea should seem legitimate to her. Knowing her to be extremely critical towards her past work, and ready to renounce certain aspects of it, I confess to being a bit anxious as to her reaction. Neither did I know how she would react to my taking the initiative in making such syntheses. Contrary to my apprehensions we passed a marvelous day. Éliane had forgotten practically everything of the sonic textures she made then, and discovered evident links with the sounds she realized later on with the synthesizer.
In her compositional work Éliane Radigue developed her own characteristic “footprint”: an art of imperceptible transition from one kind of movement to another. It is very difficult to know at what moment things change, because they are continually changing without one’s really being aware of it… a little like a natural phenomenon in perpetual mutation. This is doubtless one of the magical constituents of her music and it engenders the loss of any temporal reference point. If you look over the whole from her first compositions to the most recent ones for acoustic instruments, passing through the imposing electronic period, it seems evident that this way of gentle transition is a characteristic of her entire work. Not only within the compositions but also from one composition to another. We do not confront a collection of isolated experiences but rather embark on a patient and minute exploration of a vast poetic territory.
At the end of the day it was clear to her, just as it had been for me, that these syntheses had to be complied and published. This certainly does not replace the necessity of in-situ presentations; all of the music of Éliane Radigue is destined to vibrate spatiously and this is all-the-more so for the installations. And in any case, this collection gives a good overview of the intense beauty of these “Propos Sonores” composed so long ago with such reduced means.
By her original approach, Éliane Radigue held herself, as she still does, outside the dogmas of her epoch and therefore had to sometimes face some lack of understanding. Intuition is however her force, and she has known how to continue until today composing in full independence of spirit; her aesthetic gives forth a body of work unique in its genre, honorably recognized and appreciated today.
We are among the many who see her as a pioneer capable of revealing a precious territory of sounds, one that she seems alone to occupy. To us to enjoy this publication of the first remarkable steps of a figure who holds the music of our time in her spell.
Emmanuel Holterbach
https://elianeradigue.bandcamp.com/album/feedback-works-1969-1970
|
2022 |
€24.50 |
|
| RAGAMATIC |
Umbilicus |
CD-R |
"Don’t be fooled by the Latin titles, Ragamatic is all about Indian sitar music, played by Reiner Heidorn and fused with his electronic drones and beats.This is a powerful, deeply hypnotic mix that avoids all “ethnic” clichés. Although Heidorn quotes it, you do not necessarily have to be into classical Indian music to enjoy this music. The atmospheres created here are equally related to trip hop and drone ambient music." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| RAISON D'ETRE |
Mise en Abyme |
CD |
"TRANSGREDIENT RECORDS TR-10
6-PANEL DIGIPACK using photos of Roberto Conte
FORMAT: FULL-LENGTH CD PLAYTIME: 58:50 min
FILED UNDER: DARK AMBIENT, SOUNDTRACKISH POST-INDUSTRIAL
Transgredient Records is very proud to release the newest studio-work by this well known Swedish ambient industrial project, continually re-newing the dark ambient genre since 1992.
"Mise en Abyme" is the first raison d'être studio album in over 4 years, following a very special "initation concept" with an emphasis on the experience of sequential psychological states with cathartic effects - diving into the deepest regions of the subsonscious in order to return with a fresh and 'empty' mind. All the previously beloved elements of raison d'êtres music are here: spacious deep drones, touching sacral choirs, ritualistic sounds from gongs and bells and other awesome integrated field / object recordings - all impressively enhanced to reach a new level of masterful atmospheric composition. Moving from dramatic tension and threatening uproar to meditative beauty, this near hour long album reveals various changes and details, while always sounding monolithic (all of one piece), expressing almost unbearable sensations of melancholy, vastness and contemplation. The idea behind this album, in the words of the artist: " 'Mise en Abyme' is an inner journey down to the most hidden and dark parts of the Self. 'Mise en Abyme' literally means 'placed into the abyss' and conceptually the album contains ingredients from 'The Divine Comedy' by Dante or any similar stories/myths around the katabasis theme. Instead of being linked to religion, history or morality, it is purely a psychological and therapeutic trip to the underworld, investigating the subconscious. But even in the darkest and chaotic places in the depths, there are small shades of light, hope and understanding; one can be enlightened and purified upon returning to the conscious world."
TRACKLISTING :
1. ABYSSOS
2. INFERNOS
3. KATHAROS
4. AGRAPHOS
video teaser: http://youtu.be/pmnvden-DBo
www.raison-detre.info // www.facebook.com/raisondetreofficial" [label info]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| RAISON D'ETRE & TROUM |
De Aeris In Sublunaria Influxu |
do-LP |
First time on Vinyl, presented in Gatefold Sleeve on Double LP. Originally released in 2015 and carefully forged between 2011 and 2014, "De Aeris In Sublunaria Influxu" showcases a magically crafted alchemical wedding between these two titans of drone ambient. The 2LP features an exclusive bonus track.
Troum navigates through cavernous, subterranean spaces where cyclical sounds reverberate towards impressive crescendos of icy noise, luminous drones and dramatic, guitar-driven ghostly melodies. Their truly unique soundscapes shine in a perfect symbiotic movement with the Swedish dark ambient maestro Peter Andersson. Engulfed in a hauntingly beautiful kaleidoscope of grey-ish melancholia, raison d’être comfortably walks deeply into Troum’s vast territory, delivering his very own trademark of eerie tones, ominous sacral ambience and crystal clear constructions. Airy lush enigmatic atmospheres live together with dark breathing, reverberant transformative drones. Rich and gorgeously layered.
All sounds assembled and recorded by raison d'être (Peter Andersson) and Troum (Stefan Knappe, Martin Gitschel) between 2011-2014. All sounds processed, manipulated and structured by Peter Andersson 2011-2014. K-14 level mastering by Peter Andersson 2014. Artwork by Ritxi Ostáriz.
2LP Vinyl Edition of 300 copies, Gatefold Sleeve, Matt Lamination, black Paper Innersleeves. 8 Tracks. Running Time 76:785
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/de-aeris-in-sublunaria-influxu |
2023 |
€28.00 |
|
| RAJKOWSKI, MIROSLAV |
The primary principle |
10" |
"Immer wieder tauchen aus dem Underground-Schlund neue Namen auf – oft Künstler, die seit Jahren aktiv sind, und in allerkleinsten Nischen ihre marginalisierte Musik pflegen. So auch MIROSLAW RAJKOWSKI, der als reiner Vokal-Künstler rauhe und erdige Obertongesänge vollführt und mit dada-esker Stimmakrobatik glänzt. Hat eine durchaus (pseudo?)-wahnsinnige Komponente und ist wohl einer der abgefahrensten Scheiben dieser Liste!"
[Drone Records 2002]
“Hooked on multiphonics! This stalwart vocalist turns groaning into a sublime artform. From the ringing drones of Tuvan throat singing to the whimsy of Meredith Monk (see Dolmen Music) influenced rounds and canons, Mr Rajkowski's soliloquys display a brilliant and playful love for the human vox. Miroslaw explores a wide range of vocal stylings, carefully sidestepping any semblance of the common nuissance known as words. The deliverys lean more towards sparse atmospherics (ala early Henri Chopin) than machine gun bombast, save for the occasional Schwitters-isms that inevitably twist across his tongue. Miroslaw clears his throat that you may clear your head. This 10"record release is as far as Beta-lactam is aware, one of the longest ever cut, running in at almost 50 minutes of music! part 5 in the 10" series.” [press release]
|
2002 |
€12.50 |
|
| RAPOON |
Rhiz |
CD |
"We would like to present another album in Rapoon reissue series. And this is an unusual album. Released in 2002, "Rhiz" is an album with ... dance music. Robin Storey continued to use distinctive elements for his work, such as blurry vocal samples and drones sound passages, but rhythm is in the forefront in six "Rhiz" tracks. A good ear will find here elements from leftfield electronica, IDM and even acid house. But this is a difficult album, despite these surprising rhythms, especially for those accustomed to ambient spaces usually created by Robin Storey. The new album was slightly remastered, while the cover was designed from scratch and expanded with additional photos from the same session.
The CD is housed in a digipak sleeve and the album is strictly limited to 500 copies. The cover is designed by Maciej Mehring based on Mark Crumby's paintings. The album is mastered by Łukasz Miernik. The whole production process is overseen by Michał Porwet."
zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/rhiz |
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Ten Four: Centred Horizons (lim. blue vinyl) |
LP |
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Rapoon, the solo project of Robin Storey. Rapoon is no stranger to our Winter-Light label, as followers of his music will know all too well.
On Ten Four: Centred Horizons, we invited Robin to create 4 ambient pieces, each one ten minutes in length.
The resulting tracks are a mix of long form drones and processed sounds blended with Robin\'s instruments and percussive elements. Whilst each piece stands alone in it\'s own right, a common thread and feel that is ever present in each track, draws them together as a whole, setting the listener adrift .....
The ghost line between sea and sky
Falling sideways
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/ten-four-centred-horizons |
2022 |
€28.50 |
|
| |
Ten Four: Centred Horizons |
CD |
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Rapoon, the solo project of Robin Storey. Rapoon is no stranger to our Winter-Light label, as followers of his music will know all too well.
On Ten Four: Centred Horizons, we invited Robin to create 4 ambient pieces, each one ten minutes in length.
The resulting tracks are a mix of long form drones and processed sounds blended with Robin's instruments and percussive elements. Whilst each piece stands alone in it's own right, a common thread and feel that is ever present in each track, draws them together as a whole, setting the listener adrift .....
The ghost line between sea and sky Falling sideways
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/ten-four-centred-horizons
|
2022 |
€14.00 |
|
| RATS WITH WINGS |
Aide-Memoire |
do-LP |
A collection of material taken from diverse CDR-releases from this die-hard experimentalism project from Australia. Always disturbing, always challenging, always low-fi & mysterious, always unsettling, strange & alien in an almost absurd way. You could compare it to MLEHST or LICHT-UNG maybe, speaking of the approach....electronic micro & macrosounds, crackles, hums, squakings, sounds from objects, field recordings, drones... do not try to understand or analyse this, just let it in. This is one of the not-understandable records that will be searched for in maybe 20 years. Or maybe not. We think its great stuff ! Import from Australia in a tiny edition, handmade cover with broken CD on it.
"double LP of material taken from CD-R releases: The Fish Rots From The Head (unreleased), Southern Oscillation Index (HoLR) CDR-RWW (MIR), Ratified Loopholes (AEN), Ashtray Cabbage (Fiend), Get And Put (Deadline), Out Vile Jelly! (Gold Soundz), Night Science and Underground Australia compilations (Cipher Productions). [package has a damaged CD glued to the cover]" [label info]
|
2006 |
€20.00 |
|
| RAUMERKUNDUNG |
Flug 4-5-6 |
mCDR |
RAUMERKUNDUNG ist das langjährige Projekt von Lutz Pruditsch (TARKATAK, TRÜMMER), und Robert Steinberger (Labelboss von DISASTER AREA), bisher sind sie nur durch live-Auftritte aufgefallen. FLUG 4-5-6 verbindet analoge soft-Schwingungen mit untergründigen Drones, field recordings und wall of sound-Gitarrren zu einer dunkel-psychedelischen Irrfahrt..
“ raumerkundung is lutz "tarkatak" pruditsch (guitar, sampler, tapes, contact microphones) and robert steinberger (guitar, metal, radio, contact microphones). existing since 1990, the duo has only released one tape on the trümmer kassetten label and contributed to some compilation tapes. they have played live on many occasions with, amongst others, illusion of safety, stillupstyppa or kapotte muziek. this 3" is their first "digital" release. "raumerkundung is an offshoot project of tarkatak ambient-droners concerned with trying to materialize the radiance of a specific space or location, offering an aural environmental reading of it... they are essentially a live
exploring unit using two guitars and various effect devices, applying the spirit of art-installations... and as such, their recordings remain sparse till now... the three pieces of the this 3" start with a short soft fluid quasi dub phase that quickly gets disembodied to become a patch of fragile emanations, wall breathings, and air susurrations... like a cloud of glimmering particles... of a very volatile nature, the sounds expand and seem to reveal more along their inherent decaying process... filigree echoes, underlying organic interferences and undercurrents blend symbiotically leading us in a perceptual exchange with the outside, while we step in..." (chalkdc/mystery sea)
|
2003 |
€5.00 |
|
| RE-DRUM |
Eclipse |
CD-R |
"ACR 1030: CD-R in plastic case and transparent paper sleeve
Re-Drum aka Russian artist Pavel Aleshin claims that his music sounds like “a broken AM radio in the heart of a ghost city,” and this album goes a long way to substantiating this claim. The sound quality is not at all broken, but very clear. Yet the slow drift of long, sustained electronic sounds reverberating in what could be imagined as empty passageways, certainly invokes a deserted nocturnal cityscape or, as one title claims, “night in a dead Lunapark.”
Contrary to what might be expected from these statements and also from Re-Drum’s earlier releases of deep drone/noise soundscapes, the music on “eclipse” does not have a particularly scary edge. It may convey a certain sense of yearning and melancholy, but the overall feel is one of warmth and calm contemplation. And there is indeed quite a lot to contemplate in these four compositions, all about 10 to 15 minutes long. While the music makes full use of the psychedelic potential of repetitive microtonal drones, in other layers of the composition there is also a lot of interplay going on between sampled acoustic instruments and undecipherable ambient noises. Great music for a state of wide-awake trance." [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| RE-DRUM / B°TONG |
Hush! / Ascending in the Light of an alien Sun |
CD |
"The split album between Russian RE-DRUM and Swiss B°TONG. Each project has prepared 30 minutes for this special release.
Avid Zoharum observers already know Pavel Aleshin's project called Re-DrUm. 5 years ago we released his album "S" and it was our 7th release. In the meantime, he has been touring extensively plus released one full album, a digital EP and offered his music on a split release with Rovar17. Now Pavel returns to Zoharum with 3 new tracks of contemplative nature. They are full of slow acoustic sounds and field recordings. His sound on "Hush!" is less droney than on "S", but much more organic and laid-back.
The second part of this release belongs to Chris Sigdell and his renowned project b°tong. In contrast to Re-DrUm, "Ascending in the Light of an Alien Sun" is a different affair - a dark, brooding affair full of oily drones and treated sounds. Again, composed of 3 songs, it takes you on a trip to the desolate factory inhabited with ghosts of its previous owners.
This special project is released in a mini-vinyl sleeve and is strictly limited to 400 copies worldwide." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2014 |
€12.00 |
|
| RECHE, PABLO |
Paredes |
mCD-R |
Two pieces of very massive, otherworldy drones from this Argentinian artist. PAREDES means "walls" and these sounds appear indeed acoustic concrete blocks of energy. Recommended for lovers of monumental drones! Comes in nice little photo-cover design. |
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| REED, RICK |
Music for the Rothko Chapel |
10 |
Die zweite in der Beta-Lactam 10”-Serie kommt von dem uns unbekannten Komposer RICK REED, der sich hier von einem Mark Rothko Gemälde hat insprieren lassen... herausgekommen sind dabei extrem schleichend-hochfrequente Drones, deren Textur sich langsam verändert, Musik wie gemalt (?) ... eindringlich und etwas unheimlich...
Nr. 2 in the “Lactamase”-series of 12 records. RICK REEDS compositions are high-pitched, eerie drones that crawl into the room...inspired by a large Rothko-painting located in a chapel in Houston, TX. Highly recommended! “The music like the paintings, is almost totally monochromatic. Starting with a single bit of guitar feedback, recorded, then played back into the room with additional bits of feedback added each time, recorded layer by layer until "all the brush strokes were rendered nearly invisible". The end result is not at all like feedback, but more like a huge dark cloud of electronic sound, like a totally bent orchestra with a way out string and flute section hell bent on exploring the nether regions.
|
2001 |
€12.50 |
|
|
Dreamz / Blue Polz |
pic-LP |
Rauschig-repetitive Analog- & Mechano-drones, füllig & dicht auf Seite 1, ruhiger & ätherischer auf Seite 2, kreiert mit Analog-Synth, Sinustone-Generator und Kurzwellen-Radio. Das sind quasi die Soundtracks für 2 von RICK REEDS abstrakten Gemälden, die auf dieser picture-disc abgebildet sind. Schöne Arbeit des Texaners mit starkem 70er Jahre Drone & Minimalismus-Touch.
"Beautiful picture disc LP featuring two full-color reproductions of visual works by Rick Reed and two new side-long solo compositions. Reed's fascinating, highly evolved world is represented well by these two new pieces, each of which offers up the kind of droning intensity and unsettling beauty that this veteran noisemaker has come to be known for. Reed's work is very obviously that of an experienced craftsman - one whose sound is a reverent nod to early electronic music underscored by an enduring sensibility for atmosphere and ethereality.
Dreamz began life as the soundtrack for a live visual display by filmmaker Ken Jacobs, which was performed live by Jacobs and Reed at the 2007 New York Film Festival. The record’s flipside, Blue Polz, was also inspired by the work of a filmmaker (originally conceived as a kind of alternate soundtrack to a piece by Fred Worden). All of the music was created using an EMS Synthi A, plus 2 sine wave generators and a shortwave radio. The artwork comes from two original paintings. Reed has been active in the visual arts for more than 20 years; his work is utterly abstract, beautifully enigmatic. These images are the perfect accompaniment to Reed’s otherworldly audio counterparts.
In addition to his solo work, Rick Reed has participated in a number of productive collaborations over the years with Keith Rowe, Jgrzinich (in Frequency Curtain), the Abrasion Ensemble, and SIRSIT. He currently resides in Austin. This picture disc LP has been released in an edition of 260 copies." [label info]
"From the improvisation world of Texas comes Rick Reed, who has been around for quite some time, playing with Keith Rowe (it's this Rick from that AMM title), the Abrasion Ensemble and Sirsit, of whom I never heard. He has had various solo releases on Elevator Bath before. These two pieces here were part of something bigger: one as a 'live visual display by filmmaker Ken Jacobs', and the other one could be an alternative soundtrack to a piece by one Fred Worden. Reed uses a EMS Synthi A, two sine wave generators and a shortwave radio. The first side, if I detected that alright, is a very minimal piece of soft flowing, high pitched tones. Like far away insects chirping whilst the dawn sets in. Over the course of the side dawn gets dark and insects quiet out. The other side start out in the middle of the dark night but it stays night: dark humming organ like drones, which are filtered out over the course of the piece, until some chorus like sounds drop. Of these four sides, this is the most single minded, and for me the least interesting, even when it's not bad either. Two fine to great records, lovely picture disc and highly limited. Yummy." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.elevatorbath.com
|
2008 |
€17.50 |
|
| |
The Way Things go |
do-LP |
"Here, finally, is the gorgeous presentation that astronomy domine Rick Reeds music so richly deserves: Two black vinyl LPs, pressed on
180-gram virgin vinyl, with full-color labels, inside black poly-lined sleeves, housed in a matte-finish full-color gatefold jacket adorned
with Reeds vibrant and fantastically evocative paintings. Included with each copy of this set is a full-color download card featuring
access to high-quality MP3s of the complete contents of the vinyl records. This package has been issued in an edition of 515 copies.
- - - -
Welcome to an atmospheric realm of blurred synth drones, textural shortwave radio, and vivid sine waves. Welcome to the highly
individual sonic world of Rick Reed. For around 25 years now Reed has been toiling away, composing, performing, and fine-tuning his craft of very personal and powerful electronic meditation. And his expertise is plainly evident. His is incredibly engaging music with an almost physical presence. Reeds level of mastery is virtually unparalleled - it seems that no one else can combine these elements with quite the same finesse, with the same ear for arrangement, or with the same sense of purpose.
If Rick Reed is not yet a household name it is likely due to his relatively slim body of work. 'The Way Things Go,' then, is an attempt at resolving this issue, for here are 83 worthy minutes of top-shelf electronic tonalities. 'The Way Things Go' covers a span of eight
years of work, and yet the material flows very naturally from one piece to the next. Yes, the evolution of technique is on display here,
but Reed found his voice some years ago and his stylistic development has therefore been suitably subtle and deliberate. This is the work of a composer who is extraordinarily familiar with the sounds at his disposal and whose editorial skills are equally honed.
Massimo Ricci, inspired by one of the pieces in this set (Hidden Voices, has noted:
I can't stress enough the importance of composers like Reed, who thrive in semi-obscurity and without the praises given to people [worth] less than half their value, continuously finding alternative interpretations of the word 'emotion.'
The observation is astute and the idea of an emotional presence is crucial to understanding Reeds work. His music is sometimes noisy,
sometimes tranquil. Harsh frequencies give way to beautifully sustained tones. Jarring textures and lilting melodies are both to be
found in this sphere. Above all, though, Rick Reeds work is challenging. There is no easy classification for music of this complexity. The curious listener is best advised to investigate personally.
In addition to his solo work, Rick Reed has participated in a number of productive collaborations over the years with Keith Rowe, Jgrzinich (in Frequency Curtain), the Abrasion Ensemble, and SIRSIT, among others. Reed's music has previously been released by labels such as Ecstatic Peace, Beta-lactam Ring Records, and Elevator Bath. He currently resides in Austin." [label info]
www.elevatorbath.com
"Over the years Rick Reed has played with Keith Rowe, Jgrzinich (as Frequency Curtain), Abrasion Ensemble and Sirsit but also explored the world of drone music as a solo artist. Hard to say what he does to create his drone moves. One could easily think of a bunch of analogue synthesizers, or perhaps heavily treated field recordings. Maybe its all computer work? One look at the cover though and its revealed: moog and EMS synthesizers, sine wave generators, shortwave radio, found radio sounds and voices. The pieces on this double album are from anywhere between 2001 and 2010 - the title piece. Its both an excellent overview of his work and a very coherent body of work. One could easily argue that in those ten years Reed didn't progress at all, and that his approach to composing stayed rather the same. That's one way of looking at it. One could as easily argue that it all makes up for a very consistent approach that reveals a fine craftsmanship in creating dense electronic landscapes. In
those ten years Reed never released much work, so its hard to say that he is overproductive and that 'it is always the same'. I thought this was all excellent music, a fine cross road of musique concrete and electronic music.Taking the best out of cosmic music, drone and experiment and put that into all immersive music. Music that sucks you totally into in it, like a hot bath, especially when you play it loud. Very refined." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€25.00 |
|
| REIDER, C. |
Some things I did when I lost my mind |
CD-R |
Der Titel ist durchaus ernstzunehmen: Ein sehr authentisches experimentell-atmosphärisches Album von C. REIDER aus Colorado, aufgenommen in einer depressiv-psychotischen Phase, wo sich die Wahrnehmung seiner Aussenwelt radikal veränderte... aus dieser Zeit stammen die hier dokumentierten Aufnahmen aus knarzigen Drones, fremdartigen Stimmensamples, ständig steigen störende Sound-Effekte an die Oberfläche, eine fremd-organische Bedrohung ist direkt spürbar in dieser Musik... ein surrealistisch-klaustrophobischer Trip !
“Towards the beginning of the year 2001 I was suffering in the depths of the longest, worst depression of my life. This depression had become indescribably severe, my life had completely crumbled. Things got so bad that what I'd now call 'reality' began to kinda slip. Severe depression with psychotic features, I guess you'd call it.
All that I clearly remember from that time is that I spent most of my time weeping fitfully. I was generally still aware of what was going on around me, I went to work, came home and ate and stuff... like normal, but things were not normal. Truthfully, I don't directly remember much of what happened or much of the effect of the sickness. In fact, with every passing day, some part of me tries to convince myself a little more that it didn't really happen, that I made the whole thing up for attention. maybe that's true.
I remember the psychotic effects secondarily, from the writings about it that I did at the time. I could not discern color. People were very difficult to make out with any of my senses, their shapes were blurry and garbled, into what I described in my writing as squiggly, echoing lines. My interpretation of speech was messed up as well. I was able to understand most of what was said to me, but the nature of the sound was different... I described the sound of speech in writing of the time as "murmers, buzzes and crackles."
I almost describe this here as though it were a "cool trip," but there was nothing fun about this experience. It was THE WORST time of my life. I cut myself a lot. I thought about driving into frozen-over Lake Estes -- I thought about that a lot.
I'm better now, I promise, I'm better.
For whatever reason, I decided then to spend my lonely evenings putting sounds together, I guess I fell back on something that had always given my pleasure as a kind of therapy... because conventional therapy had gotten me nowhere.
At the time, a romantic idea had occurred to me of making a whole cd of very plain, stripped-down drones, so I started making drones through my various methods.
In one of my famous digressions (I digress a lot), I also became very involved in making electronic buzzes and crackles, and so I ended up making a very strange sounding, noisy, yet ambient set of recordings.
It was probably the only good thing that happened to me while I was sick. I am proud of it, and a little afraid of it. Sometimes it makes me cry. These recordings represent what I thought sounded right while I was waiting out the bio-chemical storm. They are queezy, non-melodic drone-loops with glitching electronic buzzes, murmers and crackles at the foreground. very zoned-out, yet difficult experimental, electronic-abstract sound works intersecting noise and ambient. Unsettling atmospheres, surreal electronic crackle, flitting shadows of voices. A difficult suite of music from a disturbed state of mind." [C.Reider]
“A new collection of instrumental and experimental soundscrapes (yes, you read that correctly) from this Colorado-based writer/musician. 'Some Things I Did...' begins on a relatively harsh note and continues much in that fashion, carving out it's own language of dense, claustrophobic electronic passages and deeply mysterious textures. Distant rhythms and playful, almost innocent patterns emerge from the seeming chaos, only to be swallowed up by larger, more sinister demons (the kind that inhabit the farthest reaches of consciousness). This is the soundtrack to a perfectly surreal nightmare, where nothing is as it seems and walls evaporate into viscous plumes of toxic fumes. reider's ever-evolving walls of post-industrial sounds are abstracted and fogged, yet they never get tedious or monotonous. He has a keen ear for creating cinematic moods and hallucinogenic collisions of sound. Fine work here.“[Godsend-online]
|
2002 |
€8.00 |
|
| RENOU, CHRISTIAN |
Gone with the Wound |
mCD-R |
Finally, new material from RENOU, very eerie & threatening stuff with rising drones & alienated voice-material. So good & intense..
"Years and years ago, Christian Renou was known as Brume, but already since six or so years he works under his name, and changed his sound a little bit. As Brume the sound collage was his main interest, but under his own name, he seems to have developed a love of sustaining and droning sounds. 'Gone With The Wound', in two parts is no different. Elements of collating sounds are still there, but throughout the pieces, the long journey is the central theme. Still quite powerful stuff. Part one is loud and clear present, whilst the second part uses more covered up sounds." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"it's a great pleasure for us to welcome Christian Renou in the taâlem series. active for more than 20 years, first under the Brume alias, he has released many discs (and countless tapes in the old days) on many international labels like Staalplaat, Release, Ground Fault, Drone Records, Old Europa Cafe and more recently Fario or Waystyx.
this in two parts is a highly evocative journey with constantly evolutive sounds between experimental, ambient and drone... processed recordings from various different sources for a captivating & fascinating result." [label info]
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| REUTOFF |
Deprivatio |
CD |
Ganze fünf Jahre nach "Gute Nacht, Berlin" endlich das neue Album der Moskauer Ambient Industrial / Elektronik Band, die es wie wenig andere verstehen eine wirklich hoffnungslose Atmosphäre zwischen Misantrophie und trister Melancholie aufzubauen...
"... Reutov ist eine von Moskaus kleinen Satellitenstädten, die haupt-sächlich aus Industrieanlagen besteht. Ihr wird von den Band-mitgliedern, die alle in der Nähe leben, eine ganz besondere Atmosphäre zugeschrieben, die man beim Hören der Musik als trübe Industriemelancholie zwischen Zerfall und Science Fiction begreifen könnte; eine Stimmung, wie sie in Deutschland manche alte Häfen oder Güterbahnhöfe ausstrahlen. Ein Faible für den Klang der deutschen Sprache, das sich auch in vielen deutschen Songtiteln ausdrückt, hat aus dem 'v' am Ende der Stadt das doppelte 'f' für den Bandnamen werden lassen.
Wie immer ist auch dieses REUTOFF-Album eine Antwort auf die Frage, wozu eigentlich Dark Ambient erfunden wurde. Die fantastisch-düstere Stimmung erwächst stets aus der Musik der Russen selbst, und nicht – wie bei vielen Genrekollegen – aus den großen Worten, die begleitend zur Musik gemacht werden. Aber – endlich eine Veränderung – "Deprivatio" ist nicht mehr so durchweg archaisch wie noch die ersten Arbeiten, es ist ebenfalls nicht mehr so homogen industriell wie die beiden letzten Alben "Unseen Rituals" (2002) und "Gute Nacht, Berlin!" (2003). Die neue CD ist die bislang dynamischste, abwechslungsreichste, aufregendste und futuristischste Veröffentlichung von REUTOFF.
Hypnotisch ist der Beginn. Zum Dauerloop eines Kindersummens gibt eine rauchige, weibliche Sprechstimme auf Englisch Anweisungen, was zu tun ist: "Stellen Sie Sich vor, Sie sitzen in einem riesigen Theater mit schwarzen Sitzen und können nur eine einzige Sache sehen..." So düster und geheimnisvoll die ersten Sounds, so beruhigend sind die Worte. Später passt sich die Musik an und entspannt sich Richtung Downbeat, garniert mit verhuschten Männerstimmen und noisigen Geräuschen. Der Opener bereitet die futuristische Atmosphäre, die das ganze Album durchzieht. Noch häufiger im Verlauf der knapp 73 Minuten kommt sich der Hörer vor, als würde er durch einen von STANISLAW LEM entworfenen Park lebender Maschinen wandern. Auch das intelligente Songwriting – wenn man bei einem zehnminütigen Dark Ambient-Track davon überhaupt sprechen kann – offenbart sich gleich zu Beginn. Überraschungen wie eine eingeflochtene und beinahe folkige Akustikgitarre sowie versteckte und vertrackte Melodien und Rhythmen machen aus einem langen auch einen sehr abwechslungs-reichen Soundteppich. Es folgt ein eher klassisches Dark Ambient/Noise-Stück, dessen Drones in Verwandtschaft zu SAL SOLARIS gleißen und schimmern wie Sonnen im Weltall. Großes Kino, im wahrsten Sinn des Wortes, denn REUTOFF-Alben werden immer gerne mit der Stimmung von Filmmusiken oder Filmen – unter anderem "Stalker" von TARKOWSKIJ – verglichen. Und selten traf dieser Vergleich so zu wie bei "Deprivatio", auch bedingt durch die technisch hervorragende, satte Produktion.
"American Whores" geht dann wieder einen gänzlich anderen Weg. Die Collage bringt zu einem Bass, der auch MASSIVE ATTACK oder MOBY alle Ehre machen würde, ganz unterschiedliche Samples zusammen. Musik der 1920er-Jahre, fast eine Minute lang solo. Dazu verdichten sich die Trainerin eines Fitnesskurses und ein Kirchenprediger mit Chor – in Kombination mit dem Namen des Songs – zu einer infernalischen Amerikakritik. Nie wirken solche Samples belanglos, sie unterstützen bei REUTOFF immer die Atmosphäre des Tracks.
Auch der einzige deutsch betitelte Song, "In Die Leere Gehen", ist eines der Highlights: Hier ein strahlendes Universum mit synthetischen Engelschören, dort düstere Gewittercluster, die glauben machen, dass sich die Hölle öffnet – fehlt nur noch ein Sample von Luzifer persönlich. "Sun Of Sleepless" ist mit seinen knallenden und knirschenden Beats eine weitere Empfehlung für die Macher des nächsten Endzeit-Streifens; mit laut wehenden Fahnen geht die Welt unter. Und zum Abspann verglüht "25-th Hour" wie die letzte Moll-Hoffnung eines im futuristischen Kerker eingesperrten VANGELIS. Für so viele Höhepunkte übersieht man gerne die wenigen schwächeren Momente, etwa die Mischung aus Ethno und Dark Ambient mit piepsigen Loops menschlicher Geräusche ("Nemesis").
Alles an "Deprivatio" atmet russische "Metropolis"-Atmosphäre. Das Individuum zwischen Experiment, größenwahnsinniger Industrie, Verlassenheit und Zerfall. Damit ist die neue REUTOFF-Veröffentlichung längst nicht mehr nur ein Stimmungsbericht aus Reutov, sondern ein Abbild des neuen, modernen Russlands. Genreuntypische Experimente, die gekonnte Verknüpfung diverser Samples und Abwechslung in Tempo und Klangbild sorgen dafür, dass "Deprivatio" eines der besten und ausdrucksstärksten Dark Ambient-Alben der vergangenen Jahre ist. Es macht außerdem sehr neugierig auf die angekündigten Kollaborationen im Herbst." [Michael We. für nonpop.de]
"Finally, since five years after their 2003 “Gute Nacht Berlin” on Albin Julius HauRuck!, here is the long-awaited full-length solo CD from this most well-known Russian industrial project worldwide. “Deprivatio” is a sad story of a person surrender to the enemy environment, it’s about idle struggle with time and fatigue, about constant withering of passions and imminent vitality deprivation. Being maybe the most hopeless and sad work for the band, this album is paradoxically their most rhythmic and dynamic. There are more noisy drum loops and electro sounds here than martial drum patterns and old school noise, but their unique deep and profound melodic main themes are still remain as the basement for the brilliant new tracks of despair and downfall. The ascetic b&w artwork was done by Murad Ibatullin known for the recent “Iznutri” compilation. The release comes as a jewel box with 6 panel booklet, the first 100 copies come with 33x21 two sided poster." [label info]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| RLW |
Contours Imaginaires |
10inch |
RLWs Beitrag für unsere Reihe über das 'Unsagbare' benutzt als Klangquelle nur ein kurzes Piano-Extrakt mit Stimme, aus welchem dann drei Stücke sozusagen re-fragmentiert werden, die intensive und hochspannende Trips in RLWs "Imaginäre Konturen" ermöglichen...
Titel & Klangmaterial stehen dabei in komplexen Inter-Relationen, sehr emotional & tief gehende Sounds und ein ausgefeiltes Konzept stehen hier wieder in einer perfekten Balance. Das ganze auf gelb-orangenem Vinyl mit ungewöhnlicher Textur, das Cover kommt vom Oldenburger Artworker OLIVER JAKOBI.
"After a break SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA is back with a terrific 3-track 10" by the prolific german composer RLW (who started his activities back in the early 80's and was the main member of the legendary german experimental outfit P16.D4). The full title is: CONTOURS IMAGINAIRES. The whole composition is based on only few seconds of piano-sounds and vocals (the rest is "imagination") and the track-titles & pieces offer strong inter-relations in a complex way.
The used sounds develop through imagination & decay ("denaturing transformations") and appear in the pieces with different emphases. The "classical" piano-sounds and its highly processed permutations are set in contrast with the highly emotional voice-material, like entering a convoluted labyrinth of voice-frazzles, drones & fragmented strange sounds......
Being on a microlevel ("phantasized cell"), judging the decay of shadows. Are these the memories of single cells? The shadow of abrasion-processes? The slow decay of imaginations? A fantastic work where conceptual thoughts and emotionally driven acoustics merge in a perfect way.
500 copies, colour-vinyl, full colour artwork by Oliver Jakobi" [label description]
"Drone Records, best known for a long line of drone 7"s, started already a while ago with a new series: Substantia Innominata, in which artists deal with the unknown, in whatever way they feel ('unnameable, unspeakable etc). For someone who likes his imagination go wild, Drone Records made a fine decision in choosing RLW to be part of the series. On the cover it says 'built from a few seconds of piano and vocals. Everything else: imagination'. Quite right. Good music is like a good movie: you create images that might not be what they seem to be. And musique concrete, since this is what is primarily the concern of RLW, is always a good way of imaging. You hear music, which could be voice, which could be piano, but then it could also be something else. Deceiving music. That is what RLW does best. In none of the three pieces it's easy to determine what the original sound is, or how it was treated. No doubt inside the bits and bytes these days (unlike the good old days of four track and reel to reel, where RLW learned the trick of the trade) things are transformed to such an extent that your imagination is free to run wild. It makes a movie in your head. For me an abstract movie, of squares and circles, using only a few colors and they spiral around, bounce off screen and back in. And no doubt it might be something entirely different for someone else. A great record. One that leaves more space to guess than some of the work RLW has recorded in the past, usually with others. His solo work goes out to no man's land more, which is great." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Die A-Seite dieser 10″ wird beherrscht von kontemplativen Stromwerken, besinnnlich hin- und herlappend, bis am Ende Wut auszubrechen scheint und seltsame semantiklose Verzerrungen dem Schrei irgendeine Weisheit versagen. ‘Ombre d’érosion’ heißt der Track passend. Die B-Seite beredet sich während ‘Cellule Imaginaire’ weitaus angestrengter, wenn auch unbehaglicher. Stetiges Zellteilung mag nicht immer erwünscht sein und kann offensichtlich höllisch wehtun. Das abschließende ‘Erosion d’imagnaire’ zerbröselt Vorstellungskraft in Hilfeseufzer, schwärmende Painosaiten, Radiofehler bei minimalen Rauschzuständen. Fantastisches Vinyl ! Übrigens: RLW ist Ralf Wehowsky aus Mainz, ohne Frage einer der wichtigsten zeitgenössischen Elektroniker." [Ed / De:Bug]
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
| ROCCHETTI, CLAUDIO |
But speak fair words |
CD-R |
Der uns unbekannte ROCCHETTI mischt hier drones, field recordings, found sounds, etc. zu einer sehr eleganten Atmosphären-Collage... leider recht kurz.
“The for me unknown Claudio Rocchetti is a live improviser, working with electro-acoustic sounds. This is second release, after one on
Wallace Records. He plays around with his sounds (which also include electric and acoustic guitars) by means of sampling and fiddling about with laptop techniques. At times one is reminded of Fennesz and the likes, and sometimes to more traditional improvising and electro-acoustic musics....” [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2003 |
€9.00 |
|
| ROIGK, STEFAN |
Sprachmusik |
CD |
"new electro-acoustic text-sound composition by berlin based fine artist stefan roigk. the radio play like combination of poetic lectures, vocals treatments, concrete sounds and deep vocal drones is based on several live recordings and performances made between 2012 and 2015."
www.tochnit-aleph.com
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| ROMULUS & REMUS |
Zalmosis |
10inch |
Collector’s item – trilogy part 2 ! Excellent tribal / ethno – percussive trance-pieces with edges on this sec. part of the trilogy, silkscreened / woodcut covers & inlays.
“Ed. of 111 numbered copies with a bonus coupon. Collect all 3 coupons and send them to R/R and receive a handmade object to hold all 3 releases. Audiophile vinyl packed in a tri-fold cover, signed and numbered. Part 3 of this trilogy will feature Markus Wolff (Crash Worship, Waldteufel). Romulus And Remus are no longer just for Rome. They have become modern dark facilitators for all. Where previously the whiley brothers paid homage to the moon goddess through last year's "Hekate" 10" (B-lRR mt039), they now make worshiping at the alter of the Death God easier and more affordable than ever. Rather than having to defer to the sticky mess of tossing some poor bloke on spear point to appease the ancient Thracian God-O-Death, Zalmosis, all you now need is a turntable and a copy of the new 10" and, by turns, the tides will be turned in your favour without the cleanup. While it certainly can be said that, like its predecessor "Hekate," "Zalmosis" has its bloody scythe lightly dipped in the halotosis of Muslimgauze, the unmistakable "Z" factor of this latest opus reeks of an absolutely distinct Romulus & Remus-ness. The hand percussion breaks are expertly woven into a sonic miasma that often sounds like the record player is on the fritz. Syrupy raga drones become beds for the rhythms to lie in and decay or sometimes be smashed to bits (and, yes, that scraping noise IS supposed to be there, you ninny). There may even be a little one-upmanship over the "Hekate" 10" because, after all, what is the moon goddess going to do in protest? Moon? Nonetheless, both 10"'s are beautifully rendered, extremely limited and indispensable companion pieces with a third on the way. Which is to say that your Zollection is not Zomplete without Zalmosis!” [press release]
|
2003 |
€22.00 |
|
| ROSTAMI, ARIA & DANIEL BLOMQUIST |
Still |
CD |
Five years have passed since Glacial Movements published the wonderful "Wandering Eye" album by the duo Aria Rostami and Daniel Blomquist, whose themes focused on a description of the best places to observe space from the Antarctic Plateau. A further step forward is represented by "Still", whose purpose is to describe how time can change its motion in case of cold weather.
" "Still" consists of a few recordings done within our first year of collaborating (2015-2016) - the opening track was our first studio recording, everything we had done prior to that was strictly live. Throughout this project, we've tried a lot of different approaches and made a special effort for each record and each live show to make it feel different from the last. In that first year, we primarily aimed to make songs that were built over long periods of time - usually getting noisier and/or more intense - and this was how we had envisioned "our sound" at the time. This also means that songs that were more on the traditional ambient side didn't make the cut of our first record, "Wandering Eye". When Glacial Movements approached us about a second release, we went with a different direction and the songs we chose for "Still" captured a new spirit in our work that was originally left on the cutting room floor. As time went on, we started venturing into new ideas like experimental techno, noise, and more traditional compositions while the songs on "Still" sat like a time capsule. We released more music, expanding our sound, and "Still", which was originally slated for a 2018 release, got pushed back further as conflicts on release schedules came up. We could never have predicted what the world would have looked like in 2021 when this record will finally be released. Somehow, through elements of chance, "Still" is finally being released in a world that feels like it is on pause in so many ways. Most of the songs on "Still" change over time. They do not sound the same when they end as they did when they started. This change is subtle rather than grand and over time the songs become completely new. For the song and album titles, we were thinking about time slowing or stopping in cold weather - how life is on pause and how movement is difficult. The stillness feels more like a cocoon rather than a hibernation - there is something changing over time - and although we had no idea what a global pandemic or politics of today would look like when making this work, the world today completely recontextualizes the music and the delay in the release now feels appropriate. "
https://glacialmovements.bandcamp.com/album/still
"When I was little I used to go on holiday to Austria with my parents. Sometimes we’d go in the winter and other times in the summer. One thing we always did was take a cable car to the top of one of the Tyrolean mountains. It was a weird feeling being carried up a mountain in a tinbox by metal cables. When we got to the top the views were incredible. Even as a child I knew that the views were impressive. One holiday in the winter we went up to a glacier. I didn’t know what it was but was excited to see one. Little did I know that the glacier was just a load of ice. At the time I was disappointed as I wanted to see something impressive. Like a stadium, church, another massive mountain on top of a massive mountain, but it was just a load of ice. As I listen to Still by Aria Rostami and Daniel Blomquist I’m reminded of this trip.
The album opens with ‘-2 °C’. Airy synths swirl out of the speakers while a deep drone slowly grinds its way towards me. This opening salvo works not only as an introduction to the track but to the album itself. Everything that follows is of the small ilk. ‘Undercooled’ is a bit busier but generally it’s the same thing. Here, though, the melodies are crisper, giving the ‘Uncooled’ an edge that the opener was missing. The standout track is ‘Hoarfrost’. Here Rostami and Blomquist add some sounds of birds and running water to the mix. These elements take us out of the serene drones and plant us in the real world. The field recordings also give the song a sense of urgency that is missing from the rest of the album.
Still lives up to its name. Rostami and Blomquist aren’t rushing anything here. They are taking their time and delivering some exquisite drones that do enough to keep your attention whilst keeping it, well, still. Mostly the album works. A lot of the heavy lifting is done by the huge, slab like, synths. As they move forward, one drone at a time, you do get the impression of glaciers. Gradually turning mountains to rumble and cutting out valleys where there wasn’t one before. The downside to the album is that the slightly light, faster, melodies aren’t quite as engaging as I hoped, so my attention was lost from time to time. It always came back to the music, but after a few moments it was lost again. This is an album to play while concentrating on another task. That sounds harsh, and slightly belittles the richness of the music, but there wasn’t enough variation to keep me engaged for the full 55-minutes.
While listen to Still, I’m back up the mountain looking down at the valleys and gorges, the glacier violently cut through the landscape. Despite the tourists everything is quiet and still. It might snow later, but it probably won’t. Ultimately it doesn’t matter as the glacier will still be here tomorrow. As will the album. Perhaps then I’ll find its inner secrets, but if I don’t, I know it’ll be an enjoyable experience finding out." [God is in the TV]
|
2021 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
Wandering Eye |
CD |
"Aria Rostami and Daniel Blomquist's debut album "Wandering Eye" was recorded over the span of a year and a half. "Dome A" and "Dome B" were recorded inside of a planetarium dome to no audience and it was the second time Rostami and Blomquist played together. "Ridge A" is the latest song recorded and it was performed live in Blomquist's basement. These live tracks use source material ranging from samples from the internet, to live field recordings, to synthesizers. "Dome C" and "Dome F" were compiled by sending material back and forth over and over again and then rearranged into coherent songs. These studio recordings mostly consist of processed piano originally recorded by Rostami. "Ridge B" originated as a cover of the Persian pop song "Do Panjereh" by Googoosh that Rostami had created but was manipulated and distorted in the process of sending the material back and forth. The song titles come from a paper published by Saunders et al. titled "Where is the best site on Earth?" which highlights the best places to observe space from the Antarctic Plateau. Antarctica is the coldest, driest and calmest place on earth. The astronomical sights there yield images of the heavens that are sharper and have more clarity than any other sight on earth. It is a gateway to observe other worlds.
Aria Rostami and Daniel Blomquist are from San Francisco, CA. Rostami and Blomquist's work occurs at two stages, the gathering/preparation of source material and the live performance. Primarily, Rostami and Blomquist's source material focuses on, digital information and the exchange of that information, repetition and decay, and non-involvement or surrendering aspects of creative control. Some of the piano recordings were created by answering a simple questionnaire Rostami made that uses letters, colors, numbers, major verse minor, and picking between flat, natural and sharp to create a framework for a composition. After the framework is created, Rostami creates a song on the piano, records and sends it to Blomquist who in turn manipulates it. In some cases, Rostami recorded the material using the audio recording option for the app Viber. Rostami used Viber to communicate with a friend who was visiting Iran. Since he had asked her to fill out the survey through the app, he also recorded the material through the low quality recording interface. Sometimes this material is thrown back and forth and sometimes it's processed only once or barely touched. The recording is then turned into a loop and recorded to tape. This system was developed to surrender control and allow the origin of the composition to come from somewhere else much like field recordings or sampling does (two other ways Rostami and Blomquist gather source material.).Time, entropy, and decay are central factors in Rostami and Blomquist's work. For live performances Blomquist works with samples gathered and manipulated digitally and then dubbed to analog tape, reconstituting the quality and predictability of the digital source material. By using loops, Blomquist can take a short audio clip and concentrate on processing it live and allow for improvised changes to that recording over long periods of time. Rostami adds in an extra layer of drones, fuzz, melodic ambience and crescendos with his synthesizer. Their compositions explore dynamic relations between digital and analog sound creating quiet transitions and soaring peaks."
https://glacialmovements.bandcamp.com/album/wandering-eye
|
2016 |
€15.00 |
|
| RUCHALSKI, EDWARD |
Refined localities part one |
mCD-R |
Nr. 16 in der feinen Taalem-Reihe mit betörenden field-recording drones eines Newcomers..
“ Edward Ruchalski is an American soundartist who had some releases on Humbug before and also contributed to some Phonography.org compilations, together with people like Toy Bizarre, Eric La Casa or MNortham."Refined Localities Part One" is a 20min long track using field recordings and samples of string and percussion motor instruments Edward builds himself. You could compare this piece to some tracks of his previous CDR "Moveable Sites", maybe more focused on the droney side, like "a densely layered cake of droning sounds, carefully layered upon each other" as Frans de Waard wrote about "Moveable Sites" in Vital Weekly...” [press release]
|
2004 |
€5.00 |
|
| RUTMAN, ROBERT |
1939 |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung der vergriffenen Pogus-LP von 1989, sowie ein Bonus-Track "live in Berlin". Mit Tablas, "Buzz chimes", Rutmans "Single String Steel Cello", "Bow chime", Rutmans gurgelnder tiefer Mönchsstimme und einem tibetanischen Horn werden hier ethno-dronige & rhythmische Stücke improvisiert, die einen speziellen Zauber ausstrahlen!
“ This release reissues Robert Rutman's Pogus lp (P201-1) and includes an additional track. Rutman (b. 1930) has been building and performing on his homemade metallic instruments for many years. This recording features his buzz chime, steel cello, and bow chime, along with tabla, Tibetan horn, and Rutman's vocal chants. Rutman caresses the metal, drawing out eerie drones and overtones that buzz and trumpet. The music in turn can be as fragile as glass or reach the depths of resonance, as if one has just come upon singing whales at sea. Beautiful music and long overdue on cd.“ [label description]
|
1998 |
€13.00 |
|
| RYN (or R.Y.N.) |
Whistle and I'll come to you (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Britisches “Power-Drone”-Duo mit erstem Vinyl! Metallisch-rauhe Fliess- & Vibrierkräfte schwemmen die Ratio hinweg und schaffen eine willkommene Leere im Hirn! Cover kommt in 2 Ausführungen: Mit Vollfarb-LaserArt oder s/w eissem Siebdruck!
“RYN is a quite new british duo (with members also active as MARZURAAN) and this is after few CDR-outputs their first vinyl release. Their drone-style could be described as “power-drone”, using solely field recordings (here: electric shaver vibration on bits of metal & refrigerator hum) for these two pieces presented here. These energetic sound-sources build masses of heavy clouds in movement that flood your mind away, pure metallic flood-noises that brings a most welcomed VOID into your head. Filed under: Power-Void-Drones
PURPLE VINYL. HAND-PRINTED FULL-COLOUR ART SHEETS & SILKSCREENED COVERS” [press release]
|
2006 |
€6.50 |
|
| S.E.T.I. |
Final Trajectory |
CD |
"The new album of Andrew Lagowski’s S.E.T.I. begins as a colossal sound wall, like a massive electrical transformer, out of which analogue and digital synthesizer sounds and samples emerge, condense, and crossfade into a deep ambient symphony. The recordings and textures produced over 30 years from 1983-2013 converge in ‚Final Trajectory‘ to produce a collection of monolithic sounds. Invoking a sense of immensity with warm and dark atmospheric loops sounding distant and abandoned in a vast wilderness, battling against galactic winds. S.E.T.I. sets the listener down in this wilderness as an isolated observer; a witness to long intertwining drones, shattered dialogue and broken transmissions, with superior effects chains and a gentle rising dramaturgy forcing the complete album to an astonishing pure data vortex.
As the Voyager spacecraft reaches the outer edge of our Solar System it is a fitting time to imagine the exodus from Earth of the last human being on their final trajectory towards an unknown future. There has been little effort made to prepare psychologically for this one way trip and hallucinatory voices and sounds flit around the traveller, mingling with those of the craft’s entertainment, propulsion and life support systems. Life memories, encounters and events break through the cracks of rational thought like dream fragments, in bursts of barely unrecognisable data. As the craft passes through the mid point of our planetary system on its way out, the occupant thinks they hear a message being transmitted from Earth on the permanently scanning radio receiver.….
Will this be real in our lifetimes? Is the craft being built already in the knowledge that we have little time left on this planet?
If so, where to next?
Released in 6-panel digifile." [label info]
wp.loki-found.de |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| S.Q.E. |
Wahid (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Zwei fantastische, orientalisch-esoterisch anmutende Stücke vom URE THRALL-Mitspieler J.GRECO aka S.Q.E., der optimaler Begleit-Release zur neuen CD „The Abyss Stares Back“ !
“S.Q.E. is the solo-project of J.GRECO now residing in New York City, who has worked with URE THRALL, KRIS FORCE, ALAN TRENCH, and others and released three full albums so far, now pointing into a more ‘song-oriented’-direction than before ... The title of this EP WAHID means something like “independent” (also “alone” or “solo”) in arabic language. The title-track on Side A is build on powerful oriental percussion, mixed with mesmerizing floating flute, drone- and e-bow-guitar-sounds, forming layers of harmonic overlapping... EPITAPH 3, the B-side, is less rhythmically structured and creates enormous space with backwards-sounds from cymbals and voices, deep drones and synth-layers at the base... two deeply mesmerizing tracks....
Filed under: Oriental & Esoteric Drones
BLACK & WHITE MARBLE - VINYL. WHITE COVERS WITH WONDERFUL CALLIGRAPHED “WAHID”-SYMBOL. “ [press release]
|
2005 |
€7.00 |
|
| SAKELLARIOU, YIORGIS |
Klaipeda |
CD |
"Klaipėda is located in the west of Lithuania, right on the shores of the Baltic Sea. I lived there from September 2011 until July 2012 and during those months I was regularly recording in the city and the surrounding rural areas. I got very fond of these locations and all the sounds I recorded are very significant and dear in my memory. Throughout the changes of the seasons, varying between human-made and industrial to “natural” sounds caused by birds, water, wind or plants, the acoustic environment never ceased to inspire me.
Klaipėda offered an amazing diversity of sonic material, from echoing train whistles, factory machines’ drones and hammering sounds, to the far hiss sound of the sea, the thumps of thunders and the rustling of the leaves on the trees. The album, however, is not a documentation of Klaipėda’s soundscape nor does it intend to realistically reconstruct my acoustic experiences. As a two part composition, it aims to engage the listener with a profound sonic world in which each one can connect with its own memories and create new subconscious thoughts.
(Yiorgis Sakellariou, December 2013)" [label info]
www.unfathomless.net
"More and more Yiorgis Sakellariou works under his own name and no longer as Mecha/orga: a development we see with more serious composers coming from the 'industrial' music end (a term to be regarded in the broadest sense possible). Sakellariou is from Greece, but lived in Klaipeda (Lithuania) for some time, a few years ago, and now is residing in London. Between September 2011 and July 2012 he recorded sounds in and around Klaipeda and these are used in the two pieces that are on this CD. I have not been to Klaipeda, but to Lithuania and some of that cold, rural, wood country is something that is easily seen in these pieces, along with the harbor/sea side of the city. Sakellariou taped some motorized events (ships no doubt, but maybe also chainsaws in the forest?) so that he can add a fine drone-like layer to the music, especially in the second piece/part. One of the fine powers of Sakellariou's music is that one never knows what he does, exactly, to his sound material. Is it just a collage of sound? Does he layer all his sounds in some way? Is there any sort of treatment that he applies to this? It's not for me to say what he does: I really don't know (never asked him, I guess). I do know it results in some excellent music that is entirely based on field recordings; imaginative music that opens up a fine sound world and shows us the somewhat desolate world of Lithuanian woods and seaside. Maybe a bit cold, but perhaps that's just an illusion." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| SALIKAPALIKAU |
Calligraphy |
CD-R |
Experimental music from Latvia ! SALIkaPALIKAU create a very own kind of bizarre ambient music, using lots of strange electronic and non-electronic sounds (water, voices, electro-drones and loops, floating guitars..)... reminded us on VANCE ORCHESTRA, ID BATTERY, etc.. very interesting and well executed ! Comes in a green-yellow painted wood-cover with handwritten letters & patterns on it. |
2004 |
€15.00 |
|
| SALOMAN, GABRIEL |
Movement Building Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Over the past few years Gabriel Saloman has developed a reputation for releasing penetrating works of haunting beauty in his new role as a solo performer and composer. Known for his part in the seminal electronic-noise duo Yellow Swans (alongside Pete Swanson), Saloman has taken the sweeping drones and fried electricity of his former band and embedded them within an expanding pallette of bowed strings, martial percussion and resonant piano. The majority of his work to date has been developed as music for contemporary dance, exemplified by two recent solo albums with Miasmah, 2012's melancholic Adhere and last years celebrated ode to mud and decay Soldier's Requiem. As he continues to prolifically produce music for dance, Saloman has developed a new series with Shelter Press to make these works available: Movement Building.
The first of two volumes to be released individually on vinyl and together on CD, The Disciplined Body is a 34 minute work that moves through ghostly minimalist drones, poly-vocal drumming and culminates in an aching climb through sheets of shimmering guitar chords before erupting in a violent spurt of harsh noise. While at its climax it may be evocative of transcendental string manglers ranging from My Bloody Valentine to Godspeed You Black Emperor, in its more subtle moments it wades through the kind of blackened water that suggests the outer boundaries of ambient metal, or the ghostly remnants of a cassette dub of beatless electronics. Composed for Daisy Karen Thompson's 'Re-Marks on Source Material', the music shares that dance's Foucault influenced questioning of the limits imposed on our bodies by technology and labor, reaching for an ecstatic escape from discipline and control. Listeners may want to reach for the same - to do so we suggest they play this recording very very loud.
Mastered and cut by Elmut Herler at D+M (Berlin) and pressed in a limited edition of 500 copies worldwide." [label info]
www.shelter-press.com
|
2014 |
€17.00 |
|
| SANKT OTTEN |
Morgen wieder lustig |
CD |
"Sankt Otten’s fourth album sees the duo’s sound evolving once again, while retaining the undeniable hallmarks of atmosphere, melodic dexterity and depth. Morgen Wieder Lustig employs stacks of luscious synthesizers, with knowing nods to fellow Germans Kraftwerk and Klaus Schulze, alongside Oliver Klemm’s hallmark soaring guitar drones and Stephan Otten’s unmistakable rhythms. The album presents a musical vision that is both epic and personal – a kind of internal cinema. Single ‘Lustig, lustig demain encore lustig’ is a prime example of Sankt Otten’s glorious new direction. The track acts like a magnet, irresistibly drawing the listener along with its hypnotic drums. Elsewhere the album is soaked in majestic refrains, demonstrating Sankt Otten’s control of rhythm and texture. While their early sonic experiments explored the brooding and frayed edges of ambient, post-rock and jazz, these new songs push this relationship to a new level. Morgen Wieder Lustig shifts from the head-rush ambience of ‘Das bezahlte Lob’ to the dark and twisted post-jazz of ‘Fromme Lügen’. Just when you think you have the album pegged, ‘X für U’ drags you on a melancholic, Klaus Schulze-inspired sc-fi odyssey." [label info]
www.denovali.com
|
2009 |
€10.00 |
|
| SARANG |
The Dream of the Earth |
CD |
After a long and meticulous preparation, Sarang – a new creature by Simon Balestrazzi and Enrico Marani – debuts on Silentes with "The Dream of Earth". Balestrazzi is best known as the founding member of the historical Industrial / Experimental group T.A.C. and also for having been part of another very important formation of the international electronic/EBM scene, Kirlian Camera. Marani was also a member of the first T.A.C. formation: along with Vittore Baroni and the mysterious Manitù Rossi he then gave birth to the experimental collective Le Forbici di Manitù. In "The Dream of Earth" Marani mainly utilizes flutes, didgeridoo and percussion, while Balestrazzi takes care of a prepared ukulele and a VCS3, a semi-modular synthesizer that deserve its place in history for having characterized the sound of "The Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd. Accompanied by Alessandra Giura on bass flute, Clara Murtas on voice and Paolo Sanna on various ethnic instruments, the duo offers oriental sonorities and tribal atmospheres, following the coordinates of a primitive universe, where each sequence gets into our minds and dilates boundaries. Reinventing the structures and enriching them with a disturbing emotional tension, Sarang reclaims the "trance & drones" parameters by combining them with ethnic influences into a skillfully balanced screenplay.
https://soundcloud.com/sarang-sarang
|
2012 |
€10.00 |
|
| SASHASH ULZ |
Karelian Balsam |
MC |
"Karelian Balsam is a herbal liqueuer from the Baltic, which may or may not have been the inspiration for the music on this album. That the five tracks are titled “100 ml” to “500 ml” is saying something, but you can be sure to enjoy the music without the booze, too.
Sashash Ulz has released a number of very intense drone-ambient works on attenuation circuit, and this one is no exception. Yet it’s still different. This is not minimalist drone work, instead there are lots and lots of layered loops that create the overall dronescape. Embedded within the flow of the whole are many playful details, such as effects being used to create little giggles, bleeps and chirps not usually found in Ulz’s music. These sounds contribute a great deal to creating a certain light-headedness that might well be similar to that induced by Karelian Balsam.
File under: Drone, ambient, psychedelic" [label info]
www.attenuationcircuit.de
|
2015 |
€7.50 |
|
| SATORI |
Contemptus Mundi |
CD |
"Neben der Wiederveröffentlichung der "Kanashibari"-LP auf CD, gibt es vom englischen Duo Satori auch noch etwas Neues zu hören. Es handelt sich zwar lediglich um einen Song namens "Contemptus Mundi", aber der bringt es zusammen mit einem Remix auf Albumlänge. Neil Chaney von Pessary und Cold Spring Label-Chef Justin Mitchell nehmen einen gesprochenen Auszug aus einem von Magus Peter H Gilmore, Hohepriester der Church of Satan, verfassten Essay und lassen um diesen von Peter H Gilmore selbst gesprochenen Text herum eine dunkle Schattenwelt entstehen. Gilmore richtet seine überbetonten Worte gegen den Kontrollwahn in der modernen Welt, gegen die Versuche, die Menschen vor allem Übel zu bewahren und sie damit einzusperren und ihrer eigenen Meinung zu berauben. Eine Sichtweise, deren darwinistische Ausrichtung in den heutigen Zeiten wieder Anhänger finden dürfte.
Satori lassen Posaunen erklingen, Chöre und Pauken. Tiefste Drones, immer wieder auftretende, kleine Unterbrechungen und metallische Geräusche geben dem Song etwas abgrundtief Schwarzes und Unheimliches, auch wenn bei über 20 Minuten Spielzeit etwas die Abwechslung fehlt. Die bringt dann der "Nameless Wrath Mix", der ohne Gilmores Pamphlet auskommen muss und etwas industrieller ausgerichtet ist. Die Posaunen sind durch Rauschen ersetzt worden, die Pauken durch dumpfe Schläge. Der Mix rumpelt mehr, wirkt bedrohlicher, erreicht aber nicht die atmosphärische Dichte des Originals. Schön düsterer Drone Ambient, der darauf hoffen lässt, dass Satori bald mehr veröffentlichen." [Medienkonverter]
"Brand new CD from UK dark ambient/Fortean electronics act Satori - Neil Chaney (Pessary) and Justin Mitchell (Cold Spring boss). This is a collaboration between Satori and Magus Peter H. Gilmore, High Priest of the Church Of Satan. Satori provide their trademark deep, underground, pounding electronics, here with a ritualistic dark soundtrack atmosphere, while Gilmore bestows a seething tirade against the weakness of the modern world! Two 20+ minute tracks, the 2nd being a deeper, instrumental mix of the title track." [label info]
"... "Contemptus mundi" is another very dark effort from the two british composers, this time in collaboration with the high priest of the church of Satan, Magus Peter H. Gilmore. While the joint venture behind Satori create dark ambient of low end rumbles added processed choir, bells and ochestral brass, Magus Peter H. Gilmore accompanies with spoken words focusing on the weakness of modern world. Underneath the multilayered dark ambient some slow and heavy rhythms creates a ritualistic atmosphere on the album. After the lengthy track "Contemptus mundi" running 26 minutes, comes a remix with an exclusive focus on the instrumental side and with more concentration on noisy elements. Where the opening track belongs to the dark ambient-style this so-called "Nameless wrath mix" is more towards the ambient-noise-style. Never the less two interesting ambient-based works from Satori that will appeal to listeners of projects such as Inade, Brighter Death Now and Lustmord." [NM, Vital Weekly]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| SAVAGE REPUBLIC |
Sword Fighter / Taranto!!! (RED vinyl) |
7" |
Limited edition including an insert.
Very special package with die-cut cover with silk-screened printings designed by Andrea Scarfone (Skarfo/Julie's Haircut).
First 200 hand-numbered copies comes is solid RED vinyl.
Hailing from the Los Angeles underground of the 1980s, Savage Republic forged an astonishing reputation for themselves with their legendary performances. Their brand of ritualistically tribal exhibitions blurred the boundaries of Post-Punk and Industrial music. Their music incorporates minimalist bass rumbles, exotic and/or militaristic drumming, Arabic melodies, primal chants and even a bit of surf guitar.
Now A Silent Place is honoured to release a limited vinyl 7" single with two amazing exclusive tracks recorded expressly for this release after '1938' cd album release on Neurot Recordings!
Both tracks are with SR distinguishing elements: tribal drumming, hypnotic and raga-like guitar lines with pulsating bass, Post-Punk and Industrial music with a sort of exotic atmosphere." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
SR Biography:
Figures of considerable repute within the Los Angeles post-punk community of the 1980s, Savage Republic grafted tribal percussion, industrial drones, and raga-like guitar lines together to craft an idiosyncratically moody sound with flashes of both desolation and eloquent grandeur. Capable of both harsh dissonance and shimmering textures, the band's guiding force was guitarist Bruce Licher, a founder and constant presence in their shuffling lineups. Alternating between cyclic instrumentals and quasi-industrial assaults with gruff, chanted vocals, their records were unavoidably inconsistent, but most contain some enduring highlights.
Savage Republic was founded by former UCLA students Licher and drummer Mark Erskine in the early '80s. Adding new members, the group originally called themselves Africa Corps, changing the name to Savage Republic just before releasing their first record in 1982. Exotic percussion would always play a big role in Savage Republic -- even in the early days they were using oil cans, metal pipes, and 55-gallon drums. Their early singles, and their debut LP Tragic Figures (1982), show the group at their least accessible, though there are hints of the more mysterious and melodic elements to come.
After some personnel changes (some members went off to form 17 Pygmies), Savage Republic regrouped with new elements (Thom Fuhrmann and Ethan Port) and a more guitar-oriented sound. On Ceremonial (1985), the band shifted their focus to mostly instrumental material, usually piloted by oddly tuned guitars (the group sometimes used guitars with six identically tuned strings). They'd never wholly abandon those droning, angst-driven chants, though. Combined with the fact that their instrumental material wouldn't break much new ground over the course of the decade, that can make their studio albums uneven listening. In any case, the band was best experienced live, where they would burn trash cans of pampas leaves, play on Los Angeles' Skid Row, and use all sorts of unexpected objects for percussion in their quest to make each concert a unique event.
Savage Republic's albums, which were individually hand-letterpressed and numbered by Licher himself, received as much attention for their packaging as their music. Licher would perform the same services for other bands on his Independent Project label, even getting a Grammy nomination for his work on the first Camper Van Beethoven LP. Savage Republic was not destined to become nearly as big as Camper (not that this was ever their intent), and disbanded around 1990. A small reunion tour brought the band back in the fall of 2002, but the band only played a few random dates. After relocating to Arizona, Licher continues to run the Independent Project label, and design sleeves (his most famous work in that department has been for an R.E.M. Christmas fan club single). Musically, he resurfaced with the trio Scenic, which plays entirely instrumental material that blends the exotic flavor of Savage Republic with influences from Ennio Morricone and southwest border music. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
|
2009 |
€12.50 |
|
| |
Sword Fighter / Taranto!!! |
7inch |
"Limited edition including an insert.
Very special package with die-cut cover with silk-screened printings designed by Andrea Scarfone (Skarfo/Julie's Haircut).
Hailing from the Los Angeles underground of the 1980s, Savage Republic forged an astonishing reputation for themselves with their legendary performances. Their brand of ritualistically tribal exhibitions blurred the boundaries of Post-Punk and Industrial music. Their music incorporates minimalist bass rumbles, exotic and/or militaristic drumming, Arabic melodies, primal chants and even a bit of surf guitar.
Now A Silent Place is honoured to release a limited vinyl 7" single with two amazing exclusive tracks recorded expressly for this release after '1938' cd album release on Neurot Recordings!
Both tracks are with SR distinguishing elements: tribal drumming, hypnotic and raga-like guitar lines with pulsating bass, Post-Punk and Industrial music with a sort of exotic atmosphere." [label info]
www.asilentplace.it
SR Biography:
Figures of considerable repute within the Los Angeles post-punk community of the 1980s, Savage Republic grafted tribal percussion, industrial drones, and raga-like guitar lines together to craft an idiosyncratically moody sound with flashes of both desolation and eloquent grandeur. Capable of both harsh dissonance and shimmering textures, the band's guiding force was guitarist Bruce Licher, a founder and constant presence in their shuffling lineups. Alternating between cyclic instrumentals and quasi-industrial assaults with gruff, chanted vocals, their records were unavoidably inconsistent, but most contain some enduring highlights.
Savage Republic was founded by former UCLA students Licher and drummer Mark Erskine in the early '80s. Adding new members, the group originally called themselves Africa Corps, changing the name to Savage Republic just before releasing their first record in 1982. Exotic percussion would always play a big role in Savage Republic -- even in the early days they were using oil cans, metal pipes, and 55-gallon drums. Their early singles, and their debut LP Tragic Figures (1982), show the group at their least accessible, though there are hints of the more mysterious and melodic elements to come.
After some personnel changes (some members went off to form 17 Pygmies), Savage Republic regrouped with new elements (Thom Fuhrmann and Ethan Port) and a more guitar-oriented sound. On Ceremonial (1985), the band shifted their focus to mostly instrumental material, usually piloted by oddly tuned guitars (the group sometimes used guitars with six identically tuned strings). They'd never wholly abandon those droning, angst-driven chants, though. Combined with the fact that their instrumental material wouldn't break much new ground over the course of the decade, that can make their studio albums uneven listening. In any case, the band was best experienced live, where they would burn trash cans of pampas leaves, play on Los Angeles' Skid Row, and use all sorts of unexpected objects for percussion in their quest to make each concert a unique event.
Savage Republic's albums, which were individually hand-letterpressed and numbered by Licher himself, received as much attention for their packaging as their music. Licher would perform the same services for other bands on his Independent Project label, even getting a Grammy nomination for his work on the first Camper Van Beethoven LP. Savage Republic was not destined to become nearly as big as Camper (not that this was ever their intent), and disbanded around 1990. A small reunion tour brought the band back in the fall of 2002, but the band only played a few random dates. After relocating to Arizona, Licher continues to run the Independent Project label, and design sleeves (his most famous work in that department has been for an R.E.M. Christmas fan club single). Musically, he resurfaced with the trio Scenic, which plays entirely instrumental material that blends the exotic flavor of Savage Republic with influences from Ennio Morricone and southwest border music. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
www.asilentplace.it
|
2009 |
€5.00 |
|
| SAWAKO |
Bitter Sweet |
CD |
"Die Musik der Japanerin wurde in BA 49 als „Gänseblümchenikebana“ und in BA 56 als „sonntäglich versonnener Nachmittag eines kulleräugigen Manga-Mädchens, das mit dem Laptop wie mit Puppen spielt“ in die niedliche Ecke gestellt. Sie bleibt sich treu und würzt ihre dröhnminimalistischen Tagträumereien erneut mit Zimt und Zucker. Akustische Gitarren (von Radiosonde bzw. Ryan Francesconi, die bei ‚April - From Sea Shell‘ bzw. ‚Utouto‘ auch als Co-Autoren genannt werden) oder das Cello von Jacob Kirkegaard blinken und summen Licht- und Schattenspiele für Sawakos ‚Deep Under‘- und ‚Ex.o.tico‘-Dreamscapes. Katzen träumen von Vögeln, Mädchen von ‚Hugbugs‘, die sie kitzeln, Fische singen ihren Nachtgesang, Sawako haucht ‚A Last Next‘. Sagte ich ‚niedlich‘? Seit der Entdeckung des Kindchenschemas hat das Niedliche seinen Zauber verloren (Herodes)." [Bad Alchemy]
"New York/Tokyo-based Sawako is a musician, software designer, and multimedia artist whose multi-disciplinary works intermix and pollenate her music with inspiration ranging from nature, science, academia and poetic motion. Following releases on Anticipate and And/Oar, Bitter Sweet is Sawako's 2nd release on 12k after the critically-acclaimed Hum in 2005. Her music is fragile and intimate, delicate, ephemeral and resonant. Bitter Sweet is unmistakably Sawako but finds itself moving into much, much deeper territory than her previous works. Building on her past forays into experimental pop, she uses low and mid-frequency drones and soft, melodic highlights to shape beds of stripped-down, hypnotic and very linear tracks that fill the space in which they exist. Bitter Sweet is more drone and tonal-based than Sawako's previous works. However, these gentle movements are punctuated by field recordings and acoustic instrumentation with cello provided by Jacob Kirkegaard and guitar by Radiosonde and Ryan Francesconi who also co-write two of the pieces on the album. In what has become a bit of a signature, Sawako lends her own voice to the ending lullaby, 'A Last Next.' These combinations produce rich results. Bitter Sweet's diffuse and hazy soundscaping is Sawako's most mature work to date, relying less on her previous child-like melodies while remaining feminine and tender. She has come into her own after having established herself for a number of years as a New Yorker where she has tirelessly performed, studied and created as an important member of the city's electronic music community. Bitter Sweet is packaged in a 6-panel digipack with photography throughout by Brooklyn-based artist and photographer Maki Kaoru." [label info]
www.12k.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| SCHMICKLER, MARCUS |
Param |
do-LP |
...ein “drone”-album par excellence auf Seite 1, 3 & 4 die himmlisch-höllischen, vielschichtigen dunklen und mitunter disharmonisch-noisigen Drones erinnern an ROLAND KAYN oder andere „classical“ composer und graben sich wie tiefe Furchen ins Gemüt... unheimlich und doch wunderschön ! Andere Stücke (v.a. Seite 2) sind eher klassisch abstrakt gehalten und brechen mitunter aus, aber der düstere Unterton ist stets vorhanden...sehr sehr intensiv !!
“The new release on Cologne based label A-Musik contains compositions by Marcus Schmickler that were performed and recorded over the last four years with many various musicians and ensembles. These recordings document Schmickler's interest in a confrontation with modern classical composers, they are a return of "the livingd dead." According to Schmickler innovations
are only possible by including the old.Schmickler has been known also for his different approaches with Pluramon, MIMEO, his collaborations with Thomas Brinkmann or the improviser Thomas Lehn. "Param" continues his series of releases on A-Musik although it presents itself less electronic and less bulky than "Wabi Sabi" or "Sator Rotas". The original recordings of the compositions are newly edited for this release..” [press-release]
|
2001 |
€17.00 |
|
| SCISS |
Achronie |
Video-CDR |
30 minutes of various visual & acoustical extracts, a combination of lights, flashes, sparks & shimmering drones with more concrete sound effects, environmental filming in a special way, nice colourful waving water-effects, at parts hyperabstract amorph drones, shifting geometrical shapes & patterns with hallucinogenic effects, etc etc., not really psychedelic, this is more subtle and refined. A very recommended work.
“ Achronie - the inability to perceive the phenomenon of passing time - started in 2001 as an experimental audio/video collaboration between Cem Akkan and Sciss. Completed in August 2002, the work consists of eleven short clips and three interludes that explore the interaction between floating and vibrating visual shapes and synchronized sound scapes. While in most cases sound creation followed video, finally a careful balance was found in which the question of stimulus and response or causality arises. The way we look at the images influences the way we hear the noises and vice versa.
More specifically, the clips deal with paradox situations of speed and time perception. A dynamic system in which the recipient can synchronize himself/herself to the stream and, on a different point on the time line, divorce from it. The moment when speed exceeds a threshold and gets mapped back to a state of calmness.” [Sciss-info]
for more info / sound-examples check: www.sciss.de
Music By – Sciss
Video Editor – Cem Akkan
|
2002 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Crosshatch |
mCD-R |
Another new label rising from Berlin with its first output, a damn fine release by german project SCISS, combining digitally processed drones and found sounds.. kind of ambience with musique concrete influences... comes in special white printed cardboard box !
“ apostrov starts its release programme with «crosshatch» by the berlin based composer and musician sciss. the 18-minute mini-cd appears to be a crystallization of the artist's live performances. during the recent years through many concerts, sciss has created a kind of alter ego. it has an individual independence and freedom distinct from his studio works like «stamina» or «residual». it is the well-prepared but equally improvising live situation of asynchronous tape tracks being mixed, filtered, alienated and sampled, where the meditative and the spontaneous elements meet. «crosshatch» is a rearranged and intensified version of the dienstbar concert in october 2003 in the church of the holy cross – the concert as a space inside a space, earthly headquarter inside the celestial. no coincidences: alike the initial mover, the piece begins with a soft stroke which unfolds a unidirectional 'dynamic' energy throughout the first part. the dancing figure arises from a ducked position, heads straight forward but turns out to be a vulnerable object. maximally reduced but nevertheless exploring the properties of tortuousity, the listener is thrown into a panopticum comprised of shattered items. a visual presentation of synchronous, different viewpoints, phrases which revolve, counterparts that are not contradictory. a concealed pompe des nuages is operating and produces castings and spew outs as a new landscape. what is a poetic affection? distant sound traces cautiously underline the barren foreground like sheet lightning. and right in the middle of it a short melodic fragment, like an obelisk standing on a grey deserted square, its skin made of oil. a distressingly premature return of the oreille from its embryonic separation to the real, yet echoing world.” [label description]
|
2004 |
€7.00 |
|
| SCOTT, SIMON (SIMON SCOTT) |
Navigare |
LP |
"This is the debut full-length release by the UK's Simon Scott. Scott has had a notable musical past: in the early '90s he was the drummer for the renowned shoegaze band Slowdive. Upon leaving Slowdive, he formed the more electronic-based group Televise. He also set up his own label, Kesh Recordings, and has so far released titles by the likes of Hannu, Sebastian Roux, Aus and Mark Templeton. More recently, Scott has been involved in several diverse projects, including his work as a member of Seavault (with Antony Ryan from Isan), and collaborations with Machinefabriek, Jasper TX and Emmanuele Errante. With Navigare, there are shades of Scott's previous output and musical interests, but as a whole, the album marks a bold new direction. Navigare opens with "Introduction Of Cambridge," a shimmering wall of sound, its ethereal tones and slow-burning drones gradually drawing closer and closer, creating gorgeous uplifting melodies and textures. The processed guitar combined with gentle swathes of interference and underlying rhythms echoes the processes of Chain Reaction's productions as much as it does the screeching, arcing feedback lines of Kevin Shield's guitar work. Navigare shares an affinity with the melodic content of Fennesz's work, the dark beauty of Tim Hecker's sound, and houses elements of the restraint found in Andrew Chalk's drone compositions. What really devastates here is Scott's ability to merge ambient passages with such memorable melodic cycles, taking the simplest of ideas and building on them, generating murky hooks and submerged "riffs." Scott explores textures using a variety of instruments including sitar, violin, cello, and flute, merging them with excerpts from field recordings; it all sounds so effortless. The looping rhythms and slow guitars rise and grow, at times approaching something oppressive; select pieces such as "Flood Inn" house an underlying weight, comparable to Justin K. Broderick's Jesu and Final projects. Perhaps the hazy drums, bass and guitar drift of "The ACC" presents the most recognizable of stylistic qualities from Scott's back catalog; a groove that recalls the Souvlaki-era sound in all its glory, re-imagined in a new, darker and more expansive form. Additionally, a guest appearance from label mate Jasper TX, a vocal contribution from Moskitoo, and a track co-written with Rafael Anton Irisarri, adds even more depth to Scott's already ambitious vision." [label info]
www.myspace.com/o3o3o
"Ah, Miasmah! After the likes of Elegi, Jacazek, and Kreng, we're pretty much automatically interested in any new release on
Norway's Miasmah label. Like this one. Add in some bits of trivia, like that Scott was once the drummer for shoegazers Slowdive, and that
this disc features a guest cameo from another Miasmah artist we love, Jasper TX, and we're already pretty intrigued. We also weren't at all surprised, but certainly pleased, by the gentle swells of ambient sonics that seep sleepily from the speakers when one hits play. The first two tracks, "Introduction Of Cambridge" and "Under Crumbling Skies", are blissfully replete with quiet hum and shimmering textures, forming into and out of drifting diaphanous melodies, blurry and
melancholic. Some sparse, slowed down drum skitter adds a touch of Bohren to the proceedings in the first track, while the second employs a glorious chorus of angelic drones, that graces one's ears again and
again throughout the disc.
Then, suddenly upping the volume, the third track "Flood Inn" seemingly enters into a subterranean realm full of soft fuzzy distortion. Quasi-industrially rhythmic, with a distant tolling bell heard amidst the crackle, this is ambience of the heavier (but not
harsh) variety, almost like something from a Nadja or Jesu album.
Having given warning of a more sinister side, the disc continues on, with seven tracks more, being a beautiful blend of dreaminess, drone and distortion. There are almost pop songs hidden here, with buried rhythms and barely-there vocals (in one instance
contributed by 12K's Sanae Yamasaki, aka Moskitoo), electronic treatments rendering the sound sources (guitar, sitar, violin, cello,
flute, field recordings, voice, ???) all one lush, hushed, beautifully bleary, gorgeous warm bath of song-like drone...
It's a moodier, shoegazier take on Pop Ambient perhaps, certainly something that fans of Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Final, Jasper
TX, and of course those other Miasmah wonders should check out!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€18.00 |
|
| SEASONS (PRE-DIN) |
Your Eyes The Stars and Your Hands The Sea |
CD-R |
"UK sibylline sound artist Seasons (pre-din) is a self-effacing miracle... when I heard for the first time his debut ("Above the tides fold"), an indescribable thrill took hold of me... the elementality degree of his music, and the density of its distilled emotions seemed just unreal... a total experience, and a most precious encounter for sure...
Thoroughly passionate about his creations, terribly human, Seasons (pre-din) exists in the permanent instant of "giving"...
Most of his lovely & ultra ltd elaborate hand-made releases came out via his own imprint THY-REC ("Above the tides fold", "Har Habayit Be Yadeinu", "The Canopy Falls", "By the banks go through"...)...meticulously assembling the quintessence of crepuscular forest-tinted field recordings with dissolved instrumental passages (dulcimer, singing bowl...), he reaches for a mesmeric & unique potent brew, a constant flowing dronescape opening a multitude of new channels...
What started as a discreet audio-journey for initiates has slowly turned into a small hype, mainly due to high interest shown by the Boomkat mail-order, and the Type label, which both praised copiously Seasons (pre-din)'s galvanic works, and also via some stimulating performances... Recent developments saw his sound getting sparser and more vivid, as it is now centred on piano and guitar infused orchestral loops with environmental sounds still percolating, but more subsidiary...
a festival of sensitivity...
For MS, Seasons (pre-din) remained faithful to his first emotions, outlining a flow of profuse & petrifying droning ramifications...
Closed eyes
Pale glowing firmament
Your voice babbling through the stream
Scattered leaves, cold humus, receding stones
Your smile perched on the shadow of tangled trees
A wind of rupture...
Without a word, walking wild and astray
Looking into your astral veins,
a river within you...
"Your Eyes the Stars and Your Hands the Sea"
cries out an intimate loss, an aborted love
transformed into an harrowing moment of exhilaration...
an improbable symbolist landscape
oozing mysteries of unspeakable beauty
nestling in the ruts of silence,
the folds of a lucid dream..." [label info]
www.mysterysea.net
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| SEAWORTHY + MATT RÖSNER |
Two Lakes |
CD |
"In April 2010, 12k recording artist Seaworthy (the recording project of Cameron Webb) and Matt Rösner traveled to the south coast of New South Wales to undertake a detailed field recording study of two coastal lake ecosystems at the Lakes Meroo and Termeil. The aim of the project was to explore the sounds of a fragile coastal Australian environment and to build from those sounds unique musical pieces that provide a place for listener contemplation and reflection. Field recordings were taken from the lakes and surrounding beaches, forests and streams at different times of the day. Various equipment including a hydrophone, a shotgun and stereo microphones were used to capture the natural sounds of each lake. During breaks in field recording, the artists set up recording equipment in a nearby lakeside cabin. Using acoustic and electric guitars, a ukulele, and electronics, a series of improvised performances were documented. On the last day of the trip, with the experience of the recording process still fresh in mind, rough arrangements were created from the field recordings and improvised sets. Matt Rösner then took these arrangements back to his studio in Myalup -- a small coastal town on the opposite side of the Australian continent -- to mix and finalize the production. Both Rösner and Webb have been active in the Australian experimental music scene for over ten years, with a plethora of releases on local and international labels sharing a similar vision of molding found sounds and field recordings with traditional instrumentation and electronics. Aside from shared musical interest, both artists grew up in close connection with the Australian coastline, albeit on opposite sides of the continent. This connection with their landscape as a remote and diverse place is evident in the pieces created by the artists during their collaboration on the South Coast. Two Lakes marks the third full-length appearance for Seaworthy on 12k following 2006's Map In Hand and 2009's 1897 and blends his signature guitar style with the beautifully arranged field recordings and electronics of Matt Rösner. Two Lakes is a strikingly stark and lonely album undeniably influenced by the remote recording cabin and delicate Australian ecosystem. The blend of instrumentation comes off more like a natural, live duet between artist and nature than a modern-day layered recording. Webb's finger-picked acoustic guitar and ukelele play off of the sounds of wind, reeds and insects in perfect harmony, supported by soft beds of eBowed drones and careful electronic tones. Despite their human presence, Rösner and Webb manage to create music that resonates on another level, as if composed by the lakes themselves." [label info]
www.12k.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| SECONDS IN FORMALDEHYDE |
Construct |
m-CDR |
"Construct offers a 22 min journey through nice shimmering drones that have a quiet romantic glitch appeal. Euphoric but at the same time fragile. This release marks the highlight of SiF's quiet young career" [label info]
www.waterscape.de
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Inaudible |
CD-R |
"Auch "Inaudible" besticht wiederum durch die angenehm- zurückhaltende Art des Künstlers, musikalisch, wie auch im persönlichen Auftreten. "Inaudible" beginnt mit sanften Drones die irgendwo da zuhause sind, wo die Grenze zwischen Himmel und Ozean am Horizont verschwimmt. Grenzgang wie Naturerfahrung gleichermassen. Lange Akkorde tragen den Hörer durch weite, spärliche Klangfelder. Die wohl grösste Neuerung diesmal sind die minimalen, auf leichten Füssen daherkommenden Beats, sowie die Percussion Loops, die an minimalistische Elektronische Musik erinnern. Ich mag es, wenn sich Künstler, die sich einem bestimmten Genre zugehörig fühlen, trotzdem den Mut haben, neue Schritte zu gehen, andere Wege zu beschreiten. Wer würde bei Fear Falls Burning, Aidan Baker und Konsorten damit rechnen, dass eine Platte plötzlich Beats aufweist? Wohl eher niemand. Um so interessanter dies nun bei Seconds In Formaldehyde verfolgen zu können. Die Beats sind sehr dezent und gekonnt zurückhaltend gestreut, was den typischen ruhigen Drone-Klangforschungen keinerlei Abbruch tut. Dennoch, es ist hier Vorsicht geboten, denn die Beats haben leicht die Tendenz, zu artifiziell und generiert zu klingen. Etwas mehr erdig-lebendiges ist hier gefragt, um die eben oben genannten Naturerfahrungen im Geiste entstehen zu lassen und weniger das Gefühl von, auf die Schnelle, ganz pauschal: "Computermusik. "Inaudible" erscheint in einer Kleinstauflage von 60 handgemachten Digipacks auf dem Suggestion Underlabel Verato Project." [Creative-Eclipse]
"Inaudible" features 3 new tracks that will show a new side of SiF. Guitar drones mixed with some minimal beats and tribal percussion. Fans of Aidan Baker and Fear Falls Burning should like this tunes. First edition will be released in a handmade digipack artwork!" [label info]
www.verato-project.de
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| SEETYCA |
The Lake (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Erstes Vinyl für dieses ostdeutsche Projekt, welches fast lyrisch zu nennende akustische Stimmungslandschaften erschafft, organisch und geheimnisvoll, von dunkler expressiver Kraft....
"Another German project dealing with language, poetry and sound is SEETYCA. They use their own orthography and publish lyrics and prose on their projects website. Seetyca’s musical interest lies more in creating "acoustic landscapes" or moods than in telling stories. They’re especially interested in unconscious archaic states of the mind. The two pieces on "The Lake" relate to a sacral approach of experiencing nature. When beautiful (classic?) samples are set into a sphere of extremely wide spaces and reverbation, when these clouds of sounds spread out in infinite refulgence, moving like slow surging billows, a point of utmost inner calmness can be reached.....
File under: mysterious organic drones
BLACK MARBLED DARK GREEN VINYL, HANDSPRAYED COVERS WITH COLOUR PHOTO, INLAY" [press release]
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Winterlicht |
CD |
'Winterlicht' is Seetyca's third full length album to be released on the Winter-Light label.
As the album title indicates the theme is that of the winter's light and comprises of 12 new tracks, combining deep drones and sparse musical pieces to create a vast wintry landscape. The opening track 'cold morning' invokes images of sunlight playing across fields steeped in deep white snow while your cold breath disappears in to the morning air. The title track 'winterlicht' is a slowly evolving darker, deeper 13 minute drone piece. Here the heavy mantle of winter steadily envelopes the listener, drawing the darkness of the nights ever nearer, as the cold winds howl and the ice begins to form, locking the landscape in to a frozen tundra.
The play between light and dark, the subtle use of environmental sounds and carefully chosen instruments, played by a stellar array of Seetyca's friends, is what makes this album truly engaging.
'Winterlicht' was conceived, played and recorded over three summers between 2014 - 2016.
credits
released October 13, 2017
Seetyca uses e-maschinen, samplers, glass harmonica, air voice and harmonica. Technical assistance by dr. dipl.-ing. johann e. mildenberg.
Some friends gave a hand....
artin mucht: additional synths.
umanosuke yumeji: electro harmonix.
thom yeesland: environmental sounds.
madeleine madeiras: ice piano on track I.
ralf behrendt: additional atmospherics on tracks VIII & XII.
string samples on track IX by the oregon origo chamber orchestra, conducted & recorded by etheocles stevens.
gowlan roberts: bass on track XI.
the newschubert: additional sequencing on track XII.
The album was mixed by Artin Mucht and mastered by Seetyca.
The cover design and layout has been created by Midnight Sun Studio.
winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/winterlicht
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Trances |
CD |
'Trances' is the new album from Germany's master of the drone Seetyca, which is a sequel to the album 'Zwischenwelten', previously released on our Winter-Light label in September, 2016.
On 'Zwischenwelten' the listener was pulled between worlds, switching from one to the other through dense ambient drone pieces. On 'Trances', one is drawn into different states of mind, slight shifts in sanity and mental disturbances.
This is not only evident in the music and some of the track titles but in the musical transitions also. There are subtle changes and shifts used in the cross overs between the tracks. What the artist refers to as experimenting with different "disturbed transitions'.
As the album title suggests, the music is very hypnotic and in keeping with Seetyca's signature drone style. But there are other elements at work here, layered between the drones, or inter-woven between each track which also makes 'Trances' a stand alone album in it's own right. Here, Seetyca gives the listener the space to maneuver between sounds, not filling the whole space up, to the point that you feel suffocated. Patient and careful attention to detail. Enjoy.
credits
released March 28, 2019
All music written and recorded by Seetyca.
Seetyca uses e-maschinen & samplers, flutes, duduk, rich. lipp & sohn piano, self-built percussion and voice.
Mixed by Artin Mucht.
Mastered by Seetyca.
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/trances
Here’s one for those who dig long, continuous strings of soundscapes as expansive, inspired and deep drone worlds are on the menu on Seetyca’s “Trances”, a kind of follow-up of “Zwischenwelten”.
The 60-minute organic-spiced aural space is long and continuous flow of sound a blend of electronics, wind instruments and acoustic elements immersing into an alienating, profound mysterious and dark netherworld with an occasional abstract/experimental edge. Lovely echoes of Schulze’s “Mirage” surface beautifully but briefly on “Huge Globes of Glass passing by” while the sonic fingerprint of Robert Rich comes to mind as well as haunting/gothic-ish ambiences at other passages as it travels into the beyond. The two-part “Stratospheres” found at the end of the release is a special treat due to the very nicely rendered elevating impact.
Despite the sometimes obscure sound treatments, few strange aural corridors and twists, “Trances” is an appropriate companion to descend into a deeper, hypnotizing state- without things becoming gloomy or feeling lost.
Website: http://www.seetyca.bandcamp.com
[Sonic Immersion] |
2019 |
€12.00 |
|
| SEKTOR 304 |
Soul Cleansing |
CD |
"In three decades, Industrial music, due to its tangible form, has given birth to numerous interpretations and splintered factions.
What’s indisputable, is that most of what is actually defined as “industrial” has ultimately become more about entertainment than
confrontation and far removed from the original intent. This is the context in which Sektor 304 has appeared. Equipped with a frightening
and impressive array of primitive instrumentation pulled from junkyards and scrap metal heaps, this Portuguese outfit has delivered an astounding formal debut ¬ a heady mixture of truly old school industrial in the vein of Einsturzende Neubauten, Test Dept , and S.P.K, and the grinding, bass heavy dirge of vintage Swans and Godflesh. These are anthems to the past, but geared towards an apocalyptic and bleak future… a form of counter-culture using what is most evident in modern western society: the debris, the abandoned objects, the waste, the noise, and the interference.
With a solid foundation of rusty, oil drenched percussion, Sektor 304 adds layer upon layer of squalling industrial clangor, hammering metallic noise, grimy atmospheres, heaving masses of haunted factory drones, and threatening tribal batter, with a strong and commanding vocal presence. The sound here is almost physical in nature - provocative, persistent, and demanding. An organic impulse filled with shamanic drifts in which the noise barrage allies itself with metallic rhythmics and the use of concrete elements in the compositions. Junk, plastics, amplified objects. A change of scale. A manipulation of
non-musical sounds in search of visual inductions trying to bring forward
the sequences of Tsukamoto or situations invoked by J.G. Ballard. The conflict between man and machine as a metaphor of the struggle of man against himself. A mix and weight of three decades of sonic subversion.
It can be said that to find the future of music, one must look to the past, drawing influence from prior achievements, yet forging a new identity, and sculpting something completely unique and distinct. With Sektor 304, the future is now, and it’s not entertaining. In 6 panel digipak, mastered by Steel Hook Audio." [Malignant Records]
"Epic crushing metallic industrial heaviness, the kind of thing
we thought they just didn't make anymore, but this is total Swans /
Godflesh / Cop Shoot Cop worship, pounding metallic percussion,
soundscapes of whirring drills, blown out low slung bass, howled
distorted vox, the whole thing so repetitive and mantric, thick slabs
of distorted rumble wrapped around tons of damaged electronics,
bleating horns buried beneath reverb drenched beats, some songs are
full on walls of twisted electronic crunch, others are brooding,
droning skeletal sprawls, laid over deep blurred basslines, and tribal
rhythms, some are dense whorls of deeeeeep sinister black ambience,
all darkly drifting layers, and distant bits of clang and shimmer. For
a few moments here and there, the sound gets downright poppy, like
some sort of washed out post industrial deathrock, but even then, it's
shot through with a seriously menacing sonic undercurrent that seeps
into every beat, and every note. Filthy, crusty, heavy, haunting,
crushing and brutal, the perfect mix of old school industrial pound,
and more modern bleak blackness. Fucking fierce and frightening, grim
and punishing, and we're digging it like crazy." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| SELAXON LUTBERG |
Cold House of Love |
LP |
"Very emotional & melancholic dronescapes from this italian project - slow & sad, many instruments are used, a bit mysterioius & strange... this is quite a revelation for us !! Definitely worth to discover!!" [Drone Rec. 2006]
"Pages of a diary under the form of ten minimal soundscapes based upon emotional
sounds made with guitars, piano and heavily processed field recordings. Hard to say if
this is dark ambient or minimal post-rock. 'Cold house of love' is all of this and a lot
more. Subtly disquieting ambience music - a journey through the cold rooms of the house
of love....." [Eibon]
"....Based primarily within the ambient genre Andrea mixes dynamic electronic soundscapes with the occasional use of samples and simple piano refrains. For the most part though the electronics dominate creating this phenomenal piece of work. You could rightly call this dark ambient music in many ways. There is a dense
creepy edge to the sonics that would match that description. That though is open purely
to the individuals interpretation. You hear dark. I hear glorious light. You say full of
remorse. I say full of hope. You say barren. I say lush and full of life. What we hear and
how we build associations with that information is what makes us each unique in our own
little ways [...] A remarkable recording that dreamers the world over should get hold of
immediately." [Alan Milne / Heathen Harvest]
SELAXON LUTBERG debut album for the
first time on vinyl (no repress) - thick printed covers and inner sleeves
www.denovali.com
|
2011 |
€19.50 |
|
| SEMPERVIRENS |
Dirge of the dying Year |
CD-R |
"Few individuals have mastered the art of soundscaping to a similar degree to the Estonian ambient artist Margus Mets, aka Sempervirens. His, largely unreleased, output of 6 full length albums and numerous other uncompiled material has been an exemplary effort to create soundworlds where boundaries are only set by the imagination of the artist, and where field recordings, deep drones, distant transmissions of some classical music broadcast, or even acoustic guitar breakdowns are found under precise multi-layering , flowing seemlessly as if they were never separate in the first place. "Dirge Of The Dying Year" uncovers eight realms filled with unfettered beauty and pure thought, eight worlds stretching out as the eight fatal directions of the compass, all engulfed under an insatiable fog. Somewhere between Biosphere's "Substrata", Northaunt's "Barren Land" and the early recordings of Brian Eno, "Dirge..." is the last and most mature recording of the Sempervirens catalogue, and a promise to far greater things in the future." [label info]
www.newagedawn.co.uk
|
2008 |
€8.00 |
|
| SHASTA CULTS |
Shasta Cults |
LP |
"Shasta Cults is the musical project of Canadian electronics technician Richard Smith. For almost two decades, Smith was the official Buchla & Associates go-to repair person for studios, collectors, and musicians around the world, having worked with artists like Aphex Twin, Suzanne Ciani, Mort Subotnick and institutions like NYU, The Library of Congress and Mills College in Oakland, Ca.
Recording demonstrations of the rare equipment that found its way on to his workbench is how Smith describes the origins of Shasta Cults. Although sounds have been trickling out for decades via Soundcloud and other outlets, it wasn’t until 2017 that Smith recorded his first album using one of these rare instruments – the Buchla 700. Configurations, released this past September by Important Records, features eight tracks of heavily-modulated, wave-shaped explorations drenched in effects, and was the catalyst for his latest releases.
Recorded over the span of 3 months in the fall of 2018, this album was programmed solely on the only fully-functional Buchla Touché. Developed in the early 1980s with hardware by Don Buchla and software programmed by musician David Rosenboom, the Touché features waveforms generated internally by twenty-four digital oscillators using frequency modulation and sophisticated digital and analog signal processing for timbre and output assignment, all of this controlled via a six-octave black and white keyboard, unusual for a Buchla instrument.
This LP is a continuation on themes first heard on Configurations, with more consideration given to the generation and capturing of the pieces. This album is less dark than previous releases, showcasing the incredible fidelity of the hardware used and Smiths evolution as an audio engineer. Put on some headphones, find a comfortable chair, and let this LP transport you to the mystifying southern cascades of Siskiyou County." [label info]
"To the uninitiated, the complexities of electronic synthesis can seem daunting and foreign. Even for those well versed, complete mastery over those systems seems like a lifelong task given the seemingly infinite nature of their design. Richard Smith, the synthesist behind Shasta Cults, has worked as an official technician for Buchla gear for nearly 20 years, and has an intimate mechanical knowledge of the company's many machines, which have achieved near-fetishistic status over the past decade. On Shasta Cults' self-titled album, Smith demonstrates a rare virtuosity of the Buchla Touché (of which there were only four made) that illustrates not only the power of the machine to sculpt uncanny textures but also Smith's singular compositional style.
Smith's work is compact and economical, a contrast to the protracted compositions that define the remaining core of Important Records' contemporary synth roster, including Eleh, Caterina Barbieri, Alessandro Cortini and Jessica Ekomane. Drones and arhythmic swells comprise the basis of most of the six pieces on Shasta Cults, but rather than letting them marinate he focuses on dynamic layering and timbral juxtapositions. Shasta Cults originated from Smith's desire to demonstrate the range and abilities of the various Buchla models he was repairing and restoring, and this approach seems directly derived from those roots. Within each track, he's able to cover a surprising amount of ground. If you didn't know the music was created all on one machine, you'd be forgiven for assuming these tracks were realized using a much more diverse arsenal.
The album begins peacefully, and with restraint. "Prologue" hovers with a sense of placid melancholy, bass tones cycling in and out of the mix. Its clean tones sound glass-like, smooth and nearly transparent as they fade in and out of the audible field. Other moments have more bite. "DA3" features coarse waves of sound that resemble aural quicksand, gulping the listener up in successive, oozing surges. This buzzing intensity is overlaid with dramatic, organ-like stabs that appear triumphant in the face of the pulsing chaos below. On the drone track "Incline," Terry Riley-esque tones swirl back and forth over an increasingly resonant bass hum. The closer, "Chinook," with its apprehensive melodic fragments that open up into a yawning, fuzzed-out climax, leaves the album feeling unresolved in a way that feels entirely purposeful.
Gear worship for its own sake can be tiring, but the music on Shasta Cults is too expressive to be pigeonholed simply as exercises in technological know-how. The recent Buchla boom has led to many different approaches over the past few years, but Smith's Shasta Cults project stands apart not just because he has access to the rarest models or has such an intimate knowledge of their notoriously unpredictable, generative circuitry. He uses this knowledge to create music that is richly textured without becoming dense, and like all masters of their instrument he knows how to dance elegantly between complexity and simplicity. It is that dance that makes Shasta Cults feel special." [Resident Advisor]
|
2019 |
€26.50 |
|
| |
Configurations |
CD |
"A ship sinks beneath the silver mirror of the sea-top, temple gongs ring through an empty valley, industrial machinery sputters, heaves, lurches forward, stops, falls apart… These sound events may be the most acute musical referents of Shasta Cults, the music project of Canadian synthesizer technician Richard Smith. Using obsolete electronics, Shasta Cults pursues the true sound of the instrument, freed from the tyranny of emulation, no strings/woodwinds/piano presets. Shasta Cults’ compositions seek out unchartered territories where sustained drones may swell, build, or evaporate; where timbres collide, amplitudes fluctuate, sounds emerge, raw, primeval, new hybrids form from the collisions of electricity and frequency. There may be stretches of silence punctuated by bell-ish tones from futures unheard; a sequence of notes may verge upon melody before mutating into ugly moans, the sonic equivalent of funhouse mirrors. But the end result is far more than chance operation, sporadic sound fields, or indeterminate academic exercise. Instead, Shasta Cults brings us back to nature, back to the possibilities inherent in nature, to the truth of evolution, stitching both musical tones, and the sounds of 21st century living into a form which is as real, as imponderable, and as ungovernable as our own memories.
Recorded in 2017, employing the processes of non-linear waveshaping, frequency modulation and feedback, Configurations consists of eight programs captured live to multitrack using a rare, fully functional Buchla 700 digital-hybrid instrument designed in the late 1980s. Whereas previously released works made with the 700 almost always consist in simple manipulations of the single factory preset, this album delves deep into the instrument’s rich sonic vocabulary to offer the listener a more elaborate demonstration of the system’s capabilities.
Presented here in limited quantities this release is intended as a high fidelity audio archive of this obscure musical artifact."
https://shastacults.bandcamp.com/album/configurations |
2019 |
€15.00 |
|
| SHEFFIELD, COLIN ANDREW |
Signatures |
CD |
Mit einer etwas andere Art von "Plunderphonics" sticht C.A. SHEFFIELD auf "Signatures" hervor; seine vier Stücke sind feinst gesponnene Drones, die aus Extrakten von alten Grammophon-Platten gewonnen wurden. Auf diesen befanden sich, dem Labelkonzept von INVISIBLE BIRDS gemäss, Vogelgesänge und weitere Natursounds (was man den stark transformierten Drones allenfalls noch als subtile organische Aura anmerkt). Sehr sanft und kontemplativ auf den Punkt gedroned, beim letzten Stück epische Ausmaße annehmend...
"these pieces were composed without the use of a computer, only a turntable, old sampler and a portable 64-track digital workstation.
each track is a distillation of commercially available recordings with the essential qualities remaining, only very brief sections are selected and the raw components then contracted into gradually shifting and unfolding atmospheres, offering subtle nuances
and quiet restraint. fragments from these tracks include sounds from birds or water, some being partially obscured while others are veiled references to those elements. in "broken light," the low rumbling that appears at the beginning and for the first few minutes is the sound of birds' wings flapping upon takeoff)." [label info]
"this is the second release by a new label called invisible birds. their first release was m. swizynski's 'films 2007' we reviewed in vital weekly 625, although it didn't mention this as a label. the label focuses itself on releasing 'limited edition cds and dvds evocative of birds and the landscapes they inhabit', which i think is a very nice selection method for incoming demo's. colin andrew sheffield might better known from the releases on his own label, elevator bath, for which he released cdrs and a cd. his 'signatures' cd has its official release december 10th 2008, the 100th birthday of olivier messiaen, another lover of birds and music (probably in that order). sheffield uses a turntable, old sampler and a 'portable 64-track digital workstation' and no computer on these recordings. on the turntable lies records of nature sounds, birds and water, of which sheffield carefully selects fragments to sample and layer on his ancient workstation. if you staple enough sounds on top of eachother, then have them slightly out of sync, one can create beautiful drone music, and that's exactly what sheffield does here. the first three tracks are nice, but it will turn out they are exercises for what is to come: 'breath of day', the fourth and final epic of this, with gramophone hiss and organ like sounds, being stretched out over the course of the twenty-seven minutes this lasts. a true beauty, in all its simplicity. sometimes the simplest things is enough to get things done. the previous tracks, which lay out what sheffield wants, eventually, are great too, but aren't of the same beauty as the last one. if it would have been just the first three i would have been equally enthusiastic about this, now i'm probably ecstatic. great cd." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
www.invisiblebirds.org
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHENTOV, IVAN / ANGEL SIMITCHIEV / MARTIN LUKANOV |
Palimpsest |
MC |
The source material for “Palimpsest” was recorded over several fairly different sessions. Some of them took place in the live setting, others happened in the confinement of the Kontingent Records studio. These recordings were then carefully examined, subtly (re)arranged, and barely overdubbed. Four long-form pieces were shaped in the end. Despite having collaborated on many different occasions and in varying formats, “Palimpsest” is the first full-length recording in which the different approaches by Shentov, Simitchiev, Lukanov are utilized in pursuit of a unified musical direction.
The result is an album that explores minimalist drone territories through a purposely limited toolset and in a recording environment that relies heavily on intuition, spontaneity and patience. The record also carries delicate traces of raw ambient, found sounds and field recordings, processed guitar and electroacoustic improvisation. While the first three tracks are slightly more condensed in both length and substance, the closing piece, which spans over the whole B-side of the album, is where this collaboration peaks. During its almost thirty minutes, it majestically unfolds its textures and synthetic artifacts, which are layered over a subtly shape-shifting backbone of guitar drones, melodic fragments and loops.
https://amekcollective.bandcamp.com/album/palimpsest
|
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| SHIFTS |
Vertonen 10 |
CD-R |
Sehr schönes neues Material von diesem Projekt des immer noch hyperaktiven FRANS DE WAARD, der bei SHIFTS nur Saiteninstrumente einsetzt.. ein fast 60minütiger, mikrosound-artiger multipler Drone ertönt hier, der sich vom knisternden Anfang zu dunkel-bedächtige Flächen mit infiniten Effekten in verschiedenen Phasen und Ebenen bewegt. Grossartig !! Das ganze kommt in einer kunstvoll gefalteten blauen Hülle, lim. & nummeriert 60 Exemplare.
“Exquisitely packed comes this new work by Frans de Waard's string based project Shifts. And the question that immediately rises upon listening is: where are the strings? But as said before, Shifts is based on strings, so one may assume that the origins of these wide, drony and shimmering sounds are indeed strings. This short rant is meant only to mark a shift in Shift's appraoch to sound: this is definitely digitalised material, whereas his earlier works were obviously analog. OK, having said that, the work on this disc is an almost one hour piece of drony arctic sound, with small rattlesnakes moving about in the snow. I know this doesn't make sense but that's exactly the point: these sounds have the same incongruity and don't seem to belong together, but they go together very well. Further into the piece we are taken away from the desert snowfields and seem to be hovering at some height above them. And at a certain altitude the winds are taking over the sound scenery, adding resonance to the original drones. This is basically how the piece develops. A classic ambient drone piece that makes the mind go on its own trip and makes time seem to originate from another universe.” (MR, Vital Weekly) Address: http://www.verato-project.de
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
| SHINKIRO |
Archive: Volumes I-III |
do-CD |
Shinkiro is a dark ambient project from Japan, formed in 2003 by Manabu Hiramoto who dwells in organic isolation full of pulsating drones and elegiac solaris ambiances. Based on the old recording sessions in 2003 - 2007 this release captures the darkest and most beautiful moments of Shinkiro’s music: low-key synth textures merged with rhythmic cadences and slight distortions gradually unfolding roaming melodies, magnetic and cold undercurrents, ethereal epiphanies and ever present longing for the unattainable abyss. Three early unreleased albums assembled for the first time together manifest thrilling, oneiric and existentialist nature of Shinkiro’s nature exposed in its dark and cinematic mosaic: Japanese voice samples blended with strained piano parts, machinery industrial noises, ominous drones, ritual percussion, hypnotic hardware pads leading to the event horizon. Dissolve in the myriad of mysterious emanations towards colossal eschatological pleroma. Recommended for those who follow Lustmord, Apoptose. Amazing music is accompanied with an exquisite layout executed by Mauro Berchi (Eibon Records) and produced as a 2CD edition in a 4-panel gloss-laminated Digipak limited to 250.
|
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| SHIVER |
The Light within has turned into Darkness |
MC |
"Distorted percussions and tape loops manipulation. Throbbing drones and field recordings.Pissed off lyrics/vocals." [label info]
http://dzpm.blogspot.com
|
2012 |
€6.00 |
|
| SHOEMAKER, MATT |
Erosion of the Analogous Eye |
CD |
"As said in the review of the new CD by Jim Haynes there is a small school of drone musicians, mainly from the USA who deliver some of the more darker outing in the scene. There are of course minor differences to be spotted. According to the cover of Schoemaker's new CD 'environmental phenomena' where recorded in Indonesia, Cambodia and USA, but its hard to spot these on the actual music, as he feeds them through a whole bunch of analogue synthesizers, guitar stomp boxes, reverb and such like. Only in the last piece 'The Analogous Eye' bird calls and wind sounds rise out of the mass, but even here things seems electrified. This makes that Schoemaker's music is altogether more 'electronic' in nature than that of Haynes or Irr.App.(ext.) and also a bit more 'louder', industrial perhaps. In his music he depicts empty industrial sites of long sustaining, rusty sounds of rusty object on even more rusty surfaces. The two parts of 'Erosion' are highly minimalist affairs of long sustained sounds. Not to be confused with the current wave of 'cosmic' sound artists, this goes further and deeper. An excellent work, sadly perhaps limited to 300 copies only." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"The studio of Matt Shoemaker is alive with electricity. Impossibly complex wirings channel signal in and out of analog synth modules, an array of curious aluminums boxes with unmarked knobs, slinkies strung from ceiling to floor creating a set of giant spring reverb units, accelerometers attached to consumer electronic errata, and even a few conventional tools like guitar stomp boxes and a bruised computer. For all of the convoluted engineering that goes into Shoemaker's equipment, the resulting mesmerism in sound appears effortless and strangely organic. Shoemaker has enjoyed a semi-obscure career through his polymath activities that bridge such electronic experiments with a choice library of globe-trotted field recordings and a broad knowledge of avant-garde cinema. For Erosion of the Analogous Eye, Shoemaker waves his hands about his laboratory to construct an ever-evolving album for mutant dronemuzik. His electrical seas of synthetic bristling undulate with placid regularity, only to find Shoemaker contorting these brain-melting psychedelics into cancerous, atonal bellows. Out of his allotropic shifts, one can find swells of irradiated static transform into the graceful chime of temple bells; and electrical phase patterns slip into deep forest murmurings dotted with narcoleptic birds calls. On one hand, this album is prescient of the revival for progressive electronics currently underway in the flood of US post-noise projects; it's easy to triangulate this between Emeralds and Heldon. But on the other hand, Erosion of the Analogous Eye is the continuation of where Shoemaker had begun with his early work on Trente Oiseaux with its grotesques exaggerations of field recording into this beguiling piece of art. The artwork on Erosion of the Analogous Eye features unique hand-dyed abstractions mounted onto letterpressed paper. This has warranted a very small pressing of 300 copies." [label info]
www.helenscarsdale.com
"A very prescient, and very good, record by the sound-artist / field recordist Matt Shoemaker, Erosion Of The Analogous Eye pushes his work of tonal exploration and exaggerated found sounds into the neighborhood of many of the post-noise cosmic explorers who have been blossoming in every corner of the US it seems. At the same time, this is very much a Matt Shoemaker record, following a trajectory set forth through his acclaimed work on the once-mighty Trente Oiseaux label.
An ur-drone of analog synthesis opens the album, obviously harkening to '70s kosmische activities certainly a muscular revisitation of Schulze or even an extraction from Richard Pinhas. Such a lazerbeam of a drone has a lysergic sunrise feel to it, with the light and shadow brought into sharp relief, the colors shifted and separating into spectral bursts of yellow, red, pink, and orange. Yet, slowly, Shoemaker introduces atonal drones which clash with that introductory suspension. At first, the metallic slashes have almost an Andrew Chalk and Jonathan Coleclough feel, but Shoemaker quickly dispels those notions with a layer of field recordings of insects ravenously scurrying about. That introductory tone, which still continues through this first track, bends like a divebombing plane with Doppler tones trailing behind, descending in a series of bell tones. All of this in a seamless 17 minutes. A steady rhythm of gamelan bell tones opens the second track with accumulated complimentary drones shimmering and vibrating while harmonic dissonance abounds, collapsing into a quiet stream of percolating textures. Spread across 24 minutes, this track seems ancient and sounds beguilingly beautiful. Bellowing rumbles amplify out of recordings of rain, mud, and water and steadily arching through a metallic rattling of various pipes and gongs for the final track, which eventually gives way to an uneasy set of recordings of birds in a rainforest whose calls echo through the trees.
As with all Helen Scarsdale releases the packaging is stellar. Letterpressed text with hand-dyed paper. Each are different, each are quite special. Oh yeah, limited to a mere 300 copies!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| SHRINE |
Distorted Legends, Pt. 1 (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
Ein neuer Drone-Senkrechtstarter ist für uns SHRINE aus Bulgarien. Der Drone-Beitrag kombiniert rauhe verzerrte Synths mit versteckten Melodien und allerlei Effekt-Geräuschen, Vergleiche mit z.B. BAD SECTOR sind möglich... die Verzerrung der alltäglichen "Realität" (mit Hilfe von Kunst & Musik) als ein Weg das dahinterliegende "Wahrhaftige" zu erkennen?
"Behind SHRINE we find a fresh experimental drone project from Bulgaria (currently residing in England) combining the melancholia of distorted synths with odd micro noises & effects. The fusion of rough and thunderous drones with hidden melodies evokes a strong emotional impact, like the feeling of being stuck in a confusing dream. SHRINE's philosophy shows a way to realize that what we call “reality” is to be mistrusted based upon our usual perceptions. The distortion of this reality opens up a chance to better understand its true essence and confront the things that lie behind the surface.
Filed under: DREAM & DISTORTION DRONES
more info: www.shrine.me.uk
BLACK VINYL. OVERSIZED FULL-COLOUR GATEFOLD SLEEVE" [press release]
|
2008 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Ordeal 26.04.86 |
CD |
"The new full length by Dark Ambient / Drone act Shrine is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster on 26th April 1986. Composed during a post-operative convalescence period in 2015, Hristo Gospodinov says of the process: "To me the Chernobyl theme has always been very special not only because I witnessed the nuclear sunburn effects myself back in 1986 when I was a kid, but also because I find it to be the closest glimpse of a pending apocalypse we have seen so far. I find it terrifying not only because of the devastating effect of the ionizing radiation itself, but also because it was a man-made event. To me, the parallel with the biblical book of Revelation is inescapable." Laced with emotional distress and Shrine's superbly crafted soundscapes and notable sound design skills, "Ordeal 26.04.86" serves as a tribute to those that suffered, and still suffer from the irreparable. Events like this have happened again since - the most recent being in Japan's Fukushima - and there's definite signs that in the future we'll unfortunately witness more of these manmade catastrophes. "Ordeal" will serve as the perfect soundtrack. Ltd x 500 copies in a digipak." [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
"Das Dark Ambient-Projekt SHRINE haben wir auf NONPOP regelmäßig begleitet. Und dabei immer wieder festgestellt, dass gerade in einem so überlaufenen Genre die Qualität der Musik sehr hoch einzuschätzen ist. Die thematischen Arbeiten des Bulgaren HRISTO GOSPODINOV wirkten stets überzeugend und durchdacht, wie aus einem Guss. Mir war deshalb auch nicht bange, als ich vor einigen Monaten die Ankündigung zu einem neuen Album las, welches sich thematisch mit der Nuklearkatastrophe von Tschernobyl am 26. April 1986 beschäftigen sollte. Solche ganz großen Themen sind ja entweder schon häufig bearbeitet worden oder führen schnell zu enttäuschten Erwartungen. Aber, ganz im Gegenteil: Auch wenn HRISTO im Pressetext etwas dick aufträgt und biblische Endzeit-Prophezeiungen bemüht, liefert er hier musikalisch sein bislang vielfältigstes und stimmigstes Werk ab, so viel schon einmal vorweg.
"Atomgrad" (01) startet mit Vogelgezwitscher und einem bereits leicht bedrohlichen Drone, wie ein schwarzer Windhauch. Mehrere Drones verdichten sich schnell zu einem schillernden, strahlenden Geflecht mit mechanisch britzelnden Geräuschen sowie industriellen Schlägen dazwischen, das Unheil kündigt sich an. Insgesamt ist die Atmosphäre zwar (noch) nicht unwohl, aber es knirscht und knackt wie vor einer Explosion in einer bis dahin heilen, natürlichen Umwelt. "Radiant Skyline" (02) ist wahrlich beeindruckend mit seinen gleißenden, leuchtenden Sounds, die – unterlegt von einem stetigen Bratzeln – permanent mächtiger werdend und tatsächlich klingend wie radioaktive Wolken, sehr filmisch das Ganze. Die Dramatik der Synthielinien mit verwehten, choralen Elemente geht auch als Neoklassik durch, die acht Minuten durchlaufen eine ungeheure Steigerung zu einem mächtigen, flehenden, atomaren Schrei. "The Silent Apocalypse" (03) ändert die Szenerie, wechselt in höhliges, verregnetes Ambiente, durch das ein dunkles, fanfarenartiges Tröten nach unten absteigend, untermalt vom Ticken eines Geigerzählers. "The Night That Hell Broke Loose" (04) nimmt den Titel beim Wort: bedrohliches, maschinelles Hämmern, eher kreischende Töne und rezitierende Vocals im Hintergrund, was mich nicht zum ersten Mal an die etwas Dark Ambient-lastigere Variante von DER BLAUE REITER (siehe auch "Nuclear Sun" – Besprechung zum selben Thema) erinnert. Wehmütiger, schmerzlicher Regen mit klagenden Drones fällt in "Under The Graphite Clouds" (05). Und "The Burden Of Knowledge" (06) ist in Gänze eine radioaktive Soundlandschaft, bedrückend wie eine Beerdigung mit Sounds von Instrumenten und Messgeräten vor blasigen, nach oben steigenden Drones. Alles eindrucksvoll unterlegt von martialischem Dröhnen und russischem Flüstern.
Während dieser monumentalen 50 Minuten verliert HRISTO GOSPODINOV zu keiner Sekunde die Struktur, das Gleichgewicht der Elemente aus den Augen. Ein überwältigend dichtes Werk vor dem thematischen Hintergrund der atomaren Bedrohung, oft außerhalb der Genregrenzen von Dark Ambient. Wie gesagt, das beste SHRINE-Album bisher."
[Michael We. für nonpop.de]
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIGILLUM S |
23/20 |
do-LP |
Seit über 20 Jahren gibt es das italienische Industrial- & Elektronik-Trio SIGILLUM S, um die es in den letzten Jahren sehr ruhig wurde. Diese do-LP ist eine Kollektion mit vielen Remixen und Kollaborationen in fantastischer Aufmachung und deckt eine unglaubliche Bandbreite ab zwischen pumpenden "old school" rhythmic Industrial Sounds, dunklem death & ambient Industrial und abenteuerlichen eher am Song-format orientierten Stücken mit Vocals & Gitarreinsatz und gar dubbigen Einflüssen.... ein mächtiger Bastard, hervorragend produziert!
Das Vinyl hat z.T. andere Tracks als die CD-Version!
"More than ever, fringe culture methods and cutting edge acoustic science mate for the generations of endless layers and bursts of sonic pleasure - voices and drones clans across plans and peaks, fishing for universal tremors and sensorial catastrophes. iconic translations of lost symbols flow like pathogenic lava into temporal sequence and weather forecasts become performances for alien audiences.\ The 20th anniversary album from post-industrial noise alchemists SIGILLUM S, \ 23/20\ , features (together with the original line up of Eraldo Bernocchi, P.NG5361.Bandera and Luca Di Giorgio) sound contributions from long time collaborators and friends, such as Bill Laswell, Toshinori Kondo, Professor Shebab, SH Fernando / WordSound, Martino Nicoletti, Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari, ZU, Xabier Iriondo, Ephel Duath, Karyn Crisis and various members of the same band , Mark Solotroff, Thomas Fehlmann, Gudrun Gut, Andrea
Marutti, Claudio Agostoni and many others.\
23/20\ is available as two radically different and complementary formats, a digipack CD and a limited edition gatefold double vinyl, with different track lists and sequences for each format - nine tracks are on both formats, while others (seven per format) can only be found either on CD or vinyl (sixteen tracks per format, twenty three in total)." [label press release]
www.sigillum-s.com
|
2007 |
€28.00 |
|
| SIGMARSSON, SIGTRYGGUR (BERG) |
A little lost |
CD |
Zarteste Massagen-Drones auf dieser dritten solo-Arbeit des Isländers..
“solo cd from this stilluppsteypa after successful albums on trente oiseaux, ers and fire inc. his new cd features 3 new tracks that show the diverse possibilities of his talent” [label info]
www.bottrop-boy.com
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIJ & ITEM CALIGO |
Queer Reminiscence |
CD |
"Since 2015's album "The Lost World" Vladislav Sikach ambient project SiJ released "Reflections Under the Sky" in February 2016. This time together with Textere Oris and under the banner of the Cryo Chamber label.
With "Queer Reminiscence" SiJ returns to Reverse Alignment, teaming up with Item Caligo.
As you can expect, "Queer Reminiscence" deliver drifting ambient to get carried away with.
Limited edition of 200 copies in 6-panel digipack." [label info]
ralignment.tictail.com
"This new collaboration is an excellent example of dark ambient/neo-classical collaborations gone right. SiJ and Item Caligo are both known for their sounds that often float from ambient, to dark ambient, to neo-classical, and then back again. As is to be expected of these two artists, we have a nice combination of drone, piano, and various other lesser elements. SiJ and Item Caligo combine to craft a sound that is undeniably listenable. There is nothing harsh here, at many times its not even particularly dark.
Tracks like “It Was Good To Destroy Once Again” showcase a lot of the diversity presented. There are moments when the track is peaceful, with gently sweeping drone-work. Yet, as it progresses it moves into areas of looping and a faint but steady percussion. Reminding of something which generally falls into more experimental and ambient musical outings. It can be something almost akin to the sounds of some artists on the Ultimae or Glacial Movements labels, with their minimalistic yet structured usage of percussion and drones. The cold feeling Queer Reminiscence evokes is another reason to make this connection to Glacial Movements.
The pervading themes throughout Queer Reminiscence are melancholia and frigid temperatures. One can easily find themselves imagining a winter spent in some cold and isolated region, sitting beside the hearth in a tiny log cabin. This feeling of isolation will bring on a sense of longing for the past or some idealistic yet unwritten future. The sadness of Queer Reminiscence is woven into the music. There are no blatant cues to direct one’s emotions in any certain direction nor are their any noticeable field recordings.
This hypnotic suggestion stems from the pure minimalism on Queer Reminiscence. There certainly are some active elements here, as already mentioned about the percussive sections peppered through the album. Yet, this variety of styles and instrumentation still hold a stripped down and minimal feel because of the sparing use and perfect placement of the various sounds. Unlike so many collaborative albums in the ambient realm, Queer Reminiscence makes it extremely hard to label any specific sounds to the musician responsible for the sample. There is never the moment where one thinks, “oh, this is certainly done by SiJ and not Item Caligo“. This is a testament to their individual skills and their years of experience writing music. But it is, even more so, a sign of their natural connection. They don’t seem to be fighting one another for the lead. They manage to give listeners the sense that Queer Reminiscence was created by one mind channeling its concepts into reality.
Queer Reminiscence is an album that should be pleasing to many diverse musical appetites. There is something here for the ambient fans, something for the dark ambient fans, and something else that naturally makes it accessible beyond these boundaries. Having fully focused their attention on concept over stylistic execution, SiJ and Item Caligo bring forth something beautiful and serene. It should be able to evoke a sense of longing from each listener, in their own personal way. This all leads to my suggestion that Queer Reminiscence is one of the strongest releases on Reverse Alignment since its revival. An album which could be recommended to almost anyone."
[Michael Barnett/This is Darkness]
|
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
| SIL MUIR (ANDREA MARUTTI / ANDREA FERRARIS) |
same |
CD |
"Diophantine Discs is pleased to announce the release of a new CD...
Sil Muir - Sil Muir.
Italy's Sil Muir presents to us here their first full-length work. It is a beautiful, yet melancholy, hour-long recording carrying us along that sleepless journey from dusk 'til dawn. Powerful and gentle drones shudder and shimmer through these four dense and amazing tracks. Sil Muir is the collaboration between Andrea Marutti (Amon, Never Known, Afe Records) and Andrea "Ics" Ferraris (Ur, Airchamber3, Ulna). Their only previous appearances are a lengthy compilation track on Transf.Order and a collaboration with Horchata on taâlem.
Housed in a custom printed color wallet. Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
http://discs.diophantine.net
"A mighty fine disc of dark drones, ambient and a totally isolated feel." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| SILENCE & STRENGTH |
Das Haus zur letzten Latern. A Tribute to Gustav Meyrink |
CD |
"Das ganze Sein ist flammend Leid". Exzellenter esoterischer dark ambient mit gewissen folkigen Elementen aus Israel, mit einem Tribut an GUSTAV MEYRINK (Verfasser von DER GOLEM und DER ENGEL VOM WESTLICHEN FENSTER). Dreizehn Stücke mit hinunterziehender Sog-Wirkung, unheimlich & entrückt. Grundlage bilden Synth-Drones & flächige Gitarren, aber auch diverse Instrumente kommen gekonnt zum Einsatz. Vokales Material erscheint als rückwärtiges Geflüster & Gewisper, subtile Ethno-Perkussion taucht auf, und irritierende Geräuscheffekte verbreiten eine klaustrophobische Stimmung. Dazu kommen v.a. zum Ende hin einige Überraschungen,
z.B. ekstatische Klezmer Folk Stück mit Gesang... die gespenstische Atmosphäre der Bücher wurde hier hervorragend herausgearbeitet, das ganze sehr professionell produziert, kein Klang sitzt hier an der falschen Stelle.. für dark ambient & Soundtrack-Hörer ein echte Entdeckung !! Kommt wie immer bei HORUS aufwendig verpackt, im Kunstpapier-A5 Umschlag & mit 2 Booklets !
"Silence & Strength is a project created by a talented Israeli musician Stephan Friedman. Interfusing noise, drone, glitch and experimental dark ambient he creates soundscapes in a highly structured and ritualistic way. Secret musical spaces of Silence & Strength will enchant those who feel that there is too little sounds around them and who want to know them all.
Silence & Strength joined HORUS CyclicDaemon in 2004 on "100th Anniversary of Liber AL" compilation with the track "Secret Name". Since then Stephan has been working on a special album to be published at HORUS CyclicDaemon. The album will be a tribute to the works of an extraordinary writer Gustav Meyrink.
Gustav Meyrink has long attracted readers for his masterful stories, examining the supernatural, the macabre, the spiritual, and the occult. With complex and ambitious novels, such as "The Golem", "The Green Face", "The Angel of the West Window", and "The White Dominican" Meyrink intertwines past and present, dreams and visions, myth and reality in a world of the occult, culminating in the transmutation of physical reality into a higher spiritual existence." [label info]
"The sound is great and it is composed by hundreds of different layers
that keep the listener's attention always awake. With a crisp production this album is a great "movie for your ears"..." [Chain DLK]
www.horus.cz
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| SILVERMAN |
Blank for your own Message |
CD |
"Available late Feb. 2008. First ed. of 500 copies in a full color book bound case. Silverman should be given a degree in bio-melodics. This most recent body of collaged constructions pulsates with aspects of a living system. Slurred drones rush sonic corpuscles through electronic capillaries, imparting breath to each track. An obscured, parenthetical heart beat occasionally comes through as an unexpectedly metallic panging in the background, mostly drowned out by the fluid dynamics of localized subsystems playing out their various vital functions. Perhaps each one of us DOES sound a little like a Javanese gamelan orchestra inside if you hit the right spot. Cutting to find out is not advocated. Silverman’s fantastic voyage sounds like a spiritual dissertation on degrees of scale. The musical camera obscura sometimes finds purchase on an atomic level, aurally zooming into the humming orbits of individual atoms and even creeping up on the sounds of the electrons, protons and neutrons themselves. With this beautifully ambient series of orchestral maneuvers in the dark, Silverman may have found a tonal replacement for Gray’s Anatomy." [label info]
"The Silverman aka Phil Knight is one of my favorite musicians in the experimental ambient/drone scene. Over the past decennium he has been responsible for some of the most beautiful ambient/meditative music I've ever heard. His previous LP/CD for BLRR Nature Of Illusion is one of the best albums in this genre I have heard in many-a-year. The Silverman's solo albums have always been slightly overshadowed by his work for the Legendary Pink Dots. This is a shame, as his solo work deserves a place of its own. Perhaps this new CD Blank For Your Own Message will do the trick. Starting off life as a "zen-opera" in seven parts, the music here is more varied than Nature Of Illusion. BLRR drops the term "bio-melodics". For once I have to agree. This actually fits the music and the world of The Silverman. Although the music has seven parts, the 43 minutes that make up this album are programmed into one track. It is hard to tell the origin of some of the sounds; there are traffic tapes and acoustic sounds (percussion, cow bells) of a more ethnical nature, all mixed up with synthetic sounds. These combined make up a very strong album. Packed in one of those typical BLRR deluxe hard-carton sleeves, this is a great addition to the already great discography of The Silverman." [FK / Vital Weekly]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| SIZZLE |
Muermotivo |
CD-R |
SIZZLE is a french electronic industrial / experimental project from France, one member is LE K who is also the man behind the label FACTHEDRAL’S HALL. This is rhythm-based & vital break-beat / breakcore / sometimes minimal influenced stuff, which has a dark & hypnotic atmosphere and often develops into more droney fields, sometimes it goes into quite bizarre areas..... suspensefully and straightly created, this is a versatile and interesting release. To discover.
« On se rappelle Sizzle, l'un des projets de M.Reina, alias Le K., manager du label Facthedral's Hall, comme un territoire bouillonnant, où les drones en mouvements n'en finissaient pas de régurgiter d'épais fantômes mélodiques, issues de gestes ambiants souvent éprouvés. Aujourd'hui, si la texture est toujours visitée, il s'agit d'une contrepartie rythmique, aussi sèche que les premiers CDR's étaient arrosés, mais également vivante. Au long des morceaux, plusieurs modèles rythmiques sont convoqués, depuis certaines conventions éléctro-industrielles élégantes, récemment héritées de musiciens comme Delta Files, ou Orphx, jusqu'à des éffondrements en écho, ou plus loin des claudications éclairées par des harmoniques ondulants. Grain, ponçage, caisse claire franche, crécelle saturées, beats vissés, autant de matières dures visitées par Sizzle, discrètement augmentées de sons périphériques malléables, festons discrets. » [Fear Drop]
|
2004 |
€5.00 |
|
| SKARE |
Solstice City |
CD |
Fünfte Veröffentlichung auf dem Label welches sich den "eisigen Landschaften" verschrieben hat. SKARE ist ein schwedisches Trio mit MATHIAS JOSEFSON (besser bekannt als MOLJEBKA PVLSE), die ihre Dronescapes unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Kreislaufs der Aggregatzustände von Wasser (zu Gas & Eis & Schnee) erstellt haben. Dementsprechende field recordings werden verarbeitet, leichter Instrumenteneinsatz (Piano) sticht hervor, aber auch der Schnittpunkt von Natur & Stadtleben gerät in den Fokus... die narrative Komponente wirkt sich aber nie störend auf die "deep drones" aus, sondern wurde geschickt verwebt... für Fans von THOMAS KÖNER, TOY BIZARRE, MICHAEL NORTHAM, etc..
"Skare is the collaboration of Mathias Josefson (Moljebka Pvlse), Fredrik Olofsson and Per Åhlund. The members of Skare are all fascinated by the circulation of water, snow and ice. The metamorphosis from gas to floating liquid to snow to solid ice through freezing, the light reflecting from the snow and filtered through the ice as a prisma and - most of all - the sound of this ever ongoing circle.
Skare's first album, Solstice City, is an interpretation of a journey through a shifting landscape where the city meets nature. Departing from a distant and foreign shore, the traveller embarks a ship, uncertain of his destination. This prelude, introduced vividly in "To the other shore", releases this pilgrim to further explore yet unchartered territories. Leaving all man-made conventions, the second track "Through Wind and Broken Ice" takes us where the city imitates nature. Finally, a factory appears in the whiteout; a place where angels are manufactured as presented in the final track "The Snow Angel Factory"...The vehicles used by Skare on this journey are field recordings, found sounds and treated and manipulated instruments." [label info]
www.glacialmovements.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| SKIN AREA |
Rothko Field |
CD |
"3rd full length release from this acclaimed Martin Bladh (IRM) project(in conjunction with Magnus Lindh), following 2002's New Skin
CD and 2006's double CD Journal Noir/Lithium Path, both on Cold Meat Industry.
Like previous works, Rothko Field is a visceral auditory experience...mind bending and turbulent sonic explorations that are grainy, abstract, and tense, where uneasy frequencies intersect with caustic drones, insectile buzz, swelling drifts, and slow motion, percussion driven sludgery. Further comparison reveals Rothko Field to be less schizophrenic, less challenging, and more structured than in the past, coming off as both spacious and yet suffocatingly claustrophobic, suggestive of a spiral downwards into mental decay and
degradation, and further enhanced by Martin's uniquely distressed and provocative vocalizations. 9 tracks total, broken into two "mirrored parts", with track 5, "Void"acting as the actual mirror itself. In digipak, with full color 24page booklet." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| SKORPIO, NIKO |
To give Light to that which is without |
CD-R |
NIKO SKORPIO (who also runs the SMALL PLACE ELSE-Label) with a very occult sounding release, repetitive voice-murmers, transcendental drones, all kinds of dark sounds.... excellent esoteric ambience
“Live, studio and location recordings from spring & summer 2005. Meditative dark ambient and electro-acoustic soundscapes. CDR comes in hand-printed carton sleeve, magickally charged with sacred/secret ingredients. Limited, numbered edition of 93 copies.“ [label description]
|
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| SKOZEY FETISCH |
Spectral freight |
CD |
16 tracks mit weirdo Collagen-Experimenten wurden hier verewigt von einem schon seit grauen Vorzeiten aktivem Noise-Explorer, in wahrhaft abseitige Soundgebiete (meist auf Analog-Sounds basierend) wird man hier entführt, sehr bizarr und eigen und etwas verstörend und leider nicht hinreichend gut mit verbaler Sprache beschreibbar...another mind-trip for your space-mind.
„His first major release in over ten years, skozey fetisch's "spectral freight" utilizes a wide array of sound sources (analog synth, radio interference, feedback, deconstructed computer test tones, field recordings, even a reworked acapella performance) to create this recording. An interesting aspect of "spectral freight" is the diversity of sounds actually created from the same source--skozey (Mark C. Jackman) favors analog synth for more than half the tracks on the disc, with a handful actually being reworkings and processing of other tracks on the disc. Isolated, these tracks explore the vast possibilities of the instrument: intense yet subtle drones, sharp, brittle attacks of noise, whimsical snippets of electronic chaos, pulsating battles between frequencies. However, all tracks are equally at home on the disc; whether it's a field recording of a subway trip in Japan that blossoms into an electronic wash of sound before reaching its destination, or treated computer tones that make you feel like mechanical ferrets are playing tag in your inner ear, "spectral freight" is a cohesive and diverse display Jackman's talent, and a welcome release after a long silence.” [label description] |
2002 |
€12.00 |
|
| SKULL DEFEKTS |
The Drone Drug |
LP |
Endlich sprichts mal jemand aus: DRONES haben Drogenwirkung! Die schwedische Band SKULL DEFEKTS ist eigentlich nicht unbedingt für lupenreine Drone-Musik bekannt, aber hier sind sie ganz auf der "Analog Synth Drone"-Schiene, sehr trocken, sehr vibrierend und kratzend und knarzend, mit inhärenten wellen- und vibratohaften Bewegungen, keine endlosen hallenden Räume sondern spürbare Reibung und Vibration sind das Thema...
"In their own words, Sweden's Skull Defekts are "all about rhythm, repetition, and all energies in sound." The concept manifests itself in two distinctly different forms. On 2007's Blood Spirits and Drums Are Singing, the band showcased their more "rock"-based sound described by Julian Cope as an amalgamation of Chairs Missing-period Wire, Audionom, and '70s German proto-metallers Tiger B. Smith. However, the DFX, as they're sometimes known, also have an alter-ego under which their sound becomes a harsh wall of droning noise and psychedelic industrial bowel churn. It is that persona that is embodied on The Drone Drug.
Drone is often associated with music that is essentially ambient in nature. While The Skull Defekts do create an ambient aura, The Drone Drug has more in common with the terrifying atmospheres created by noisier cohorts like Prurient then the minimalism of Tomas Koner. The sound is grim, black, and abrasive; mechanical, filthy, and unnerving. This limited-edition LP is the first of two by the DFX to be released by Actual Noise, with the second, Skull, coming in the near future.
A recent appearance at No Fun Fest, an Eastern US tour in October, an upcoming split with Prurient, and a new release on Important Records, all make 2008 a very productive and successful year for The Skull Defekts." [label info]
" NOW ON VINYL!! Limited to 500 silkscreened copies. With a coupon for free digital download of the album, with an extra track, one we're pretty sure was included on the prior cd version of this on Release The Bats, which we reviewed thusly: Holy drone!! This is not at all what we expected from these guys, but then, most Skull Defekts records tend to confuse or confound. Which is pretty much why we love them so. And who are we to turn up our noses art a sonic surprise, especially when that surprise is DRONES. Big thick buzzy snarling crumbling blown out low end buzzing writhing brain melting, ear drum crushing, rib cage rattling, speaker destroying drones. Skull Defekts are no stranger to the drone, and the fact that they called this record Drone Drug, should have been a clue, but the band, who in the past have been heavily rhythmic, have discarded pretty much everything except for the drone. No beats, no riffs, no recognizable instruments, nothing but deep dark drones. This is a seriously heavy record. Dense and brutal, four extended tracks, each an exercise in tension, long form extended tones, but within these, stretched out sounds, much like dronelord Phill Niblock, the various layers are surprisingly active, throbbing and pulsing, and twisting and slithering and buzzing and whirring and shimmering, the sounds rough and raw, bits crumbling and emitting grit, slipping into fuzzy drift and then slipping back into a solid endless throb. The power of the drone is divine, and when harnessed, like this, with volume, and texture, and timbre, the music is a physical presence. Headphones come to life and encase your head in an organic black cocoon of sound, speakers unfurl thick flows of sonic tar, laying supine, eyes closed, you're soon buried alive, beneath layers and layers of resonant rumbling sound. And it is divine.This is powerful, earth shifting, massive minimal music. Not sure if these sounds come from synths or guitars, electronics or sine wave generators, malfunctioning effects pedals or a microphone lowered into the center of the Earth (we're leaning toward the latter), the result is something so primal and organic, so primeval and timeless, the act of listening seems to alter the listener's molecular structure, transporting the listener to an alternate universe, made entirely of sound, where our bodies are transformed into sound waves, our souls escape their mortal shackles and reveal themselves to be pure, deep drones. So awesome." [Aquarius Records review]
www.actualnoise.net
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| SKULLFLOWER |
Tribulation |
CD |
Ekstatische Noise-Meditation pur, die keineswegs statisch erscheint, sondern im Feedback-Lärm erstaunlich vielfältige Muster & Klänge bereithält... SKULLFLOWER bleiben auch 2006 SKULLFLOWER, aber der Trash-Faktor weicht allmählich vor dem ZEN-Faktor zurück: eine Moloch-artige Klangblase umschliesst einen und haucht donnernd & mit stinkendem Odem "OM".
[Drone Rec]
"Richten wir uns nur nach der Übersetzung des Albumtitels so erwarten uns Not, Leiden, Bedrückung, Qual oder kurz Drangsal und das in musikalischer Form. Dass zwischen Albumtitel und den musikalischen Absonderungen des legendären Matthew Bower nicht viel Raum ist, wird jeder wissen, der Skullflower oder zumindest die letzte Platte "Orange Canyon Mind" kennt. Bower geht den auf "Orange Canyon Mind" eingeschlagenen Weg konsequent weiter und sorgt für ein Klanginferno,das nun wirklich so was von zerstörend, trostlos und niederschmetternd ist, dass man nach über einer Stunde lauten Hörens von "Tribulation" nicht unbedingt beschwingter durch den Tag marschiert. Wirkte das Vorgängeralbum viel zu abgehackt und jedes Stück stand eher für sich alleine, so schafft es "Tribulation" deutlich besser den Bogen zu schlagen und bis auf wenige Aussetzer (z.B. das Ende des Albums) gerundeter, homogener zu erscheinen. "Tribulation" weckt etwas im Hörer, auch wenn es nur die totale Verweigerung ist oder der dringliche Wunsch sich aus dieser klaustrophobischen Klangwelt schnell wieder zu befreien. Rückkopplung um Rückkopplung . White Noise. Dieser total berstende, nervende Klang, meist monoton über Minuten und die vielen repetitiven Elemente, wecken zeitlose Ureindrücke. Bis ins kleinste zerfahrene Power- Drones, Feedbacks wohin das Ohr reicht und eine herrlich schwarzes Aufressen der Verstärker. "Tribulation" ist eine dynamische, wie weltverschobene Meditation mit Melodieansätzen wie Rasierklingen. Musik für Lumpensammler, und ich gebe gerne zu, ich bin ein hingebungsvoller beim Hören von "Tribulation"." [Creative-Eclipse]
www.crucialblast.net
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| SKY BURIAL |
Of the First Light |
CD-R |
"Combining electronics, ethnographic instrumentation and field recordings, Of The First Light juxtaposes minimalist industrial dirge with cold, dark ambience and resonant drones. “Of the first light” is a reference to the Wampanoag tribe (meaning “people of the first light”), the original indigenous inhabitants of Sky Burial’s locale, Cape Cod, one of the first
places in the U.S. to experience sunrise each day. This release is limited to 200 copies with letterpress covers by Thumbprint Press." [label info]
www.collectivexxiii.com/sky
|
2006 |
€8.00 |
|
|
Threnody for Collapsing Suns |
CD |
"Michael Page’s (Fire in the Head) Sky Burial project has been exploring the dark ambient side of industrial music since 2006, evolving into a unique and steadfast in the genre. Threnody for Collapsing Suns is a triptych clocking in at over 50 minutes - thoughtfully composed; incorporating deep drones, shimmering synth work, and lamenting melodic lines. The disparate layers come together to form a surpisingly organic, well-crafted narrative. Threnody continues Sky Burial’s journey into the nebulous dusk of “Kosmische Musik”, and forms part of a loose trilogy with the preceding Kiehtan and forthcoming Aegri Somnia." [label info]
www.small-doses.com
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Corranach |
CD |
"As a means of giving music an expression unbound to narrowly defined genres, Michael Page created Sky Burial in 2006. Mainly dealing with noisy power electronics with project Fire in the Head, Sky Burial entered the realms of dark ambient and sonic experimentalism. Since it's start this outfit has released several albums and we're proud to have the opportunity to release it's new opus "Corranach". The three mesmerizing tracks which comprise "Corranach" play a dichotomous dirge both grounded and ethereal. Sky Burial takes us unto a journey through internal structures and outer spaces, immersed in the Kosmische ethos. With "Corranach" Michael presents his most focused and refined work so far with a unique blend of industrial and ambient elements."
ralignment.tictail.com
"Sometimes you know something is going to be painful to listen to but you know that somehow it will be worth it. I often feel that way with industrial ambient. I’m very much a nature guy so when I listen to something that is essentially the complete opposite I get antsy. I’ve learned, though, that if I just sit and listen, allow myself to be immersed in the story and the effects, rather than the sounds themselves, that the experience is a very unique one. When I first listened to Sky Burial’s 2016 opus “Corranach” I knew that I was in for a listen like no other.
I can honestly say that the “music” of Sky Burial is the most unique, strange, and outlandish that I have ever had the privilege of listening to. That being said it was one of the craziest, exhilarating journeys I’ve ever taken when listening to dark ambient. Have you ever had that dream where you were flying high enough you never saw the land? Corranach was the soundtrack to that dream. As I listened I could close my eyes and feel the ground give way. I could feel myself drifting through the air, and completely unaware of time passing.
Upon first pushing play, I immediately felt myself getting swept up in the drone, not the soft, dulcet drone that fills the air with a lot of dark ambient vibes, but piercing, unsettling drones that made me want to turn the sound down (I listen to my music at a very high volume). I knew that if I gave in I’d lose the experience so I kept faith. I could quite literally feel the soundscape in my bones. It was a crazy esoteric experience that I will not soon forget. The songs, despite not really having “music” had a very classical, orchestral dynamic. They progress with certain themes that are primitive at the beginning and by the end have fully matured, with added production, field recordings, and loops. The production itself is very clear, allowing many of the nuances and quirks in the sound to have full range and exposure.
This was a wild lucid dreaming experience, one that I would recommend. It’s vibrant and mechanical yet, at the same time, it has an organic quality transcending the industrial nature of the music. It’s not esoteric but it’s definitely surreal. Well worth adding to the collection!" [Resounding Footsteps]
|
2016 |
€12.00 |
|
| SLEEPING BABIES |
Arrow in the Earth |
CD-R |
Another real undergroundish act on the french label: SLEEPING BABIES create ecstatic low fi drone-noise/folk, as "primitive" as inspiring. Handmade cover with little coloured wood-pieces.
"Buried under the hills of Love, the Sleeping Babies' music is transpierced by an arrow of emotions. This patchwork of drones, carried by ethereal voices, dances among bells, flutes and percussions. It is a wonderful and shamanic trip to the holy Mantra. Featuring member of Quilts, Grateful Dregs, and head of American Grizzly. More Info : www.myspace.com/sleepingbabies." [label notes]
www.myspace.com/ruralfaunelovesyou
|
2007 |
€8.00 |
|
| SLEEPWALKER |
Monument From The Void |
CD |
https://sleepwalkerambient.bandcamp.com/album/monument-from-the-void
Enigmatic guitar soundscapes and ambient drone walls from Russia's Sleepwalker, with themes ranging from the mysteries of space to Eastern philosophy, using shamanic and analogue instruments, sound effects and custom pedals for guitar and synths. "Landing squarely between dark ambient and post-rock, Sleepwalker's guitar and percussion soundscapes are both haunting and majestic. The album's four tracks begin with the self-titled opener, featuring cosmic layered guitar drones. The second track, Le Cercle Rouge, couples undistorted guitar melodies with harmonies made up of long-held notes, as well as semi-martial percussion. The percussion becomes more involved, almost tribal, on Dream Cycle, as the guitars produce waves of textures. All of this culminates in Neverending Journey Through the Void, a 29-minute excursion with slow but heavy chording and stark synth melodies. Quieter passages are introspective and reminiscent of dark ambient, while aggressive percussion and guitar, as well as a hint of chanted vocals, drive the more assertive movements to crescendo" (Avant Music News). Features a joint track with Liholesie. Digipak.
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| SLOAN, JASON |
Deluge |
CD |
If we have any StillStream fanatics here chances are you might remember this performance, which originally streamed live on the Sadayatana show back in 2011. Although then presented without title, Jason intended for this piece to capture the aftermath of our world after having suffered through a grand deluge. gterma are very happy to bring back to life again this emotional recording. Jason has also kindly composed for us a brand new epilogue which now closes the album. Comes in jewel case with 16-page booklet.
gterma021to040.blogspot.com/p/gterma039-jason-sloan-deluge.html
"Jason Sloan is a US-based new media & sound artist, electronic musician, composer whose sonic creations explores immateriality and its connection in memory, systems and the virtual world.
“Deluge” contains his performance, which was originally streamed live on Stillstream’s Sadayatana program August 2011, which intended to capture the aftermath of our world after having suffered through a grand deluge.
For the cd-release, the 60-minute dark-ambient recording though has been extended by a brand new epilogue which now closes the album.
The continuous live-set is an inner world ambient affair drifting into ethereal lands as it smoothly changes shape and reveals intrinsic motion along the way. Headphones are essential to discover the many fine details and hypnotic realm embedded in the carefully molded, overtly minimalist atmospherics, which all received the balanced, delicate and refined mastering touch of Anders Peterson.
The epilogue is a soft and warm soundscape wandering, opening up melancholic farscapes as it drifts and evolves onward.
All in all, “Deluge” makes an impressive and imaginary ambient listen. Recommended.
Website: www.jasonsloan.com" [Sonic Immersion]
"In the case of “Deluge” by Jason Sloan we’re dealing with a recording of a live performance on StillStream Radio on the 5th of August 2011. From what I read in the booklet, the broadcast was transmitted in a non-legal (let’s not beat about the bush, just pirate) way in Baltimore and the surrounding area. Guerilla ambient – I like it.
For many years, Jason Sloan has been bouncing on the edges of the ambient scene releasing several albums, most of them in his own label SloBor Media. Perhaps his contact with gterma will cause that he’ll reach this fifty or hundred people more – as for a minimalist ambient it’s quite much anyway, and the material contained on “Deluge” or rather “Live On Sadayatana – Deluge” indicates that the musician definitely deserves it.
“Blue Star” is a long, slowly developing set of drones, bathed in soft sound haze. Torn from the impression of space-time and drifting aimlessly in the night sky. Although I may be wrong with this “space” term as it has a specific American taste. In my mind’s eye I see strange lights flashing in the sky over the Arizona desert, and in the back of my head the name of Steve Roach begins to form. At the beginning and at the end (not only in this piece) there are some pieces of radio transmission somewhere in the background, which further enhances the sense of non-existence and emptiness, where past, present and future meet.
“ElevenEleven” continues this minimalist journey, where it ‘s difficult to talk about a destination. Although it seems like the music has taken a bit darker direction. As if somewhere in the distance a vortex of unknown provenance appears, absorbing everything it encounters on its way, no matter whether it is a material being or not. Oh, this music fits to my taste, oh it fits. Teetering on the verge of dark ambient but not throwing itself into the dark void, so that I should have advised Jason to send the music to Cyclic Law or Malignant.
Low drones can be found in “The Fifth World”, but at the same time there is more contrast between them and the fetching synth melodies, so I have the impression that this track has the richest sound in the whole CD. “Deluge” is somehow the closest to “The Fifth World”; it’s added to extend the album’s length, but it is not a bad track, on the contrary. It sounds a bit better than the other ones, but not different enough that the album can’t be treated as a homogeneous journey into the unknown.
As always in gterma releases, the booklet contains several atmospheric photographs, which in my opinion this time not entirely correspond to the images projected by my mind. But in fact this is a little thing that cannot affect my overall positive opinion. I would take such trips more often." [Santa Sangre]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| SMALLWOOD, SCOTT |
Electrotherapy |
CD |
Neues Werk von SCOTT SMALLWOOD, kein field recordings im strengen Sinne diesmal, sondern Objekt-Microsound.
.... Aufnahmen von Maschinen eines PETE BARVOET.....
....bis in die Mikrostruktur elektrischer Prozesse hinein...
....elektromechanische Sounds....
.... gemeinnisvolle drones & knister- und klopf-sounds...
.... outer-spheres-music....
.....dann sogar elektro-sirr-rhythmik......
„Electrotherapy is a collection of sound pieces based on studio recordings of early 20th-century electrical devices, including induction coils, a diathermy machine, an ultra violet ray oscillator, and a sectorless wimshurst machine. These devices were recorded at close range, and form the basic source material for all tracks on the CD. Thanks to Pete Barvoets, who kindly allowed me to record the devices that are part of his private collection.” [Scott Smallwood]
|
2004 |
€14.00 |
|
| SMOOTH QUALITY EXCREMENT |
Bird and Truck Collision |
CD |
"Experimentell-atmosphärische Gruppe aus San Francisco von "The Fruitless Hand", Paul Locasta und Ure Thrall (ASIA NOVA), ähnlich wie bei VOICE OF EYE werden hier "live to DAT"-Stücke improvisiert, mächtige Drones mit vielerlei polydimensionalen Effekten erschaffen... Psychonautische Strudel-Musik, sehr zu empfehlen für ambient noise –Liebhaber oder VOICE OF EYE-Fans!" [Drone Rec. info 2000]
|
2000 |
€13.00 |
|
|
My name is William Wayne |
CD-R |
Eerie drones flavoured with odd humour, using speech excerpts. A quite undescribable trip by URE THRALL, THE FRUITLESS HAND AND and J.P.LOCASTA. Recorded live but it's not clear when & where... 7 tracks, 74+ minutes.
"What would the DUKE have done if he had been president? The Shitesters want YOU to know. The saga of a REAL man stranded in a petty pseudo culture put to a very difficult soundtrack by them sinister Shite-sters." [label info]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| |
Plastic Perpendicular Crevice |
CD-R |
12 tracks, almost 76 minutes. All live-material except one track. Very melancholic / isolationistic stuff, but also a cosmic-chaos otherworld appears, and great pure mysterious sound-scapes with hallucinative percussion, eerie dronescapes that suck you in - maybe forever... everything can happen after you entered this excremental world!
"The NEWEST material from Ure Thrall, The Fruitless Hand and even our old pal Paul Locasta. Features special personal outtakes and cut-ups!" [label info]
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| SOLA TRANSLATIO |
Ad Infinitum |
CD |
Erste Veröffentlichung einer Zusammenarbeit von OPIUM und ALIO DIE unter dem Projektnamen SOLA TRANSLATIO ! Noch besinnlicher und ruhiger als man es von ALIO DIE gewohnt ist... Wasser- & Wellen, Glöckchen und Gongs, helle Drones, distant melodies, entfernte Vibrationen, insgesamt eine ozeanische Atmosphäre, zurück in den Mutterleib?
A new collaboration project of ALIO DIE and OPIUM. Very calm and meditative electronics, with nature recordings, most professionally done, the high-end-point of natural ambient? Digipack.
|
2001 |
€13.00 |
|
| SOLEILKRAAST |
Choresonic Preludes to a Dark Cycle (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
“This is the very first release of this new exciting French one-man-project from Nantes who is dealing his music with an existentialist and metaphysical approach. The first piece ‘Zoyd Kraast’ is felt like this dark overwhelming dense ocean of monumentalised drones; a real droning explosive storm in which “something alien” must be existing…whereas the second piece is based on the works of flickering piano-dots, drowning into this surrealistic atmosphere.
~ Filed under: metaphysic / monumental drones ~
BLACK VINYL WITH ORANGE & YELLOW SPECKLES.
PLAIN BLACK COVERS WITH HANDMADE INLAY BY THE ARTIST” [press release]
|
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
| SOLO ANDATA |
same |
CD |
"12k presents Australian duo Solo Andata along with their second album, self-titled. Translated literally from the Italian as 'one way,' Solo Andata portrays the theme of a one-way journey that moves from (and represents a thread between) water and land, fluid/stasis, cold/hot. Following Solo Andata's debut album Fyris Swan (Hefty, 2006) and their 12k inception on Live in Melbourne, Solo Andata presents us with an ambient affair, with dark drones coupled with ethereal sonic environments. It could be said that Solo Andata is carefully sequenced to a narrative structure: beginning on boat in the cold, arctic night of 'Ablation,' and then ending on foot in the hot wilderness of 'Woods, Flesh, Bone.' However, concepts and narratives that seem clear to the artists are often left oblique to the listeners. This is perhaps why Solo Andata represented this narrative in a strict sense by recording what the titles literally refer to. For example, 'Woods Flesh, Bone' presents us with sweltering woodlands, the sound of a fresh carcass being torn apart and the clattering of bones. The same can be said of 'Hydraulic Fluctuations,' 'Canal Rocks,' 'Ablation' and 'In the Light Storming.' These organic sources, then, help tie music and concept together. Solo Andata utilizes very little, if any, electronic instruments. Acoustic guitar, piano, cello and the natural resonances of organic materials (usually by way of a violin bow, pluck, or home-made contraption) become their main instruments, and as their live shows often attest to, Solo Andata can turn almost any object into an instrument capable of producing beautiful, other-worldly music." Includes a 12-page booklet with photographs by Taylor Deupree." [label info]
|
2009 |
€14.50 |
|
| SONOLOGYST |
Ancient Death Cults & Beliefs |
CD |
"Profound, ritual dark ambient and apocalyptic drones from Italy’s Sonologyst.
The veneration of the dead plays an important role in mythology and (nature) religions. It is inspired by fear for wrath of the deceased, and by obtaining their council and favours. A large part of the religious life concentrated therefore around the death cults. This led to the erection of huge monuments (mastabas, pyramids, grave-temples, and rock-graves) in Egypt… but in ancient China, Mesopotamia, and India the dead were also honoured by impressive monuments and elaborate rituals.
Although the death cults and burial rituals may be different among the nature religions, the reasons are the same; either affection towards the deceased or else fear for the soul wandering in the vicinity of the corpse and which must be appeased (with offerings, prayers, incantations). Common is also a form of cannibalism where the body is eaten in order to obtain some of the strength of the deceased. The mummification of the dead, which originated in the belief of life after death, was an important part of the death cults too.
This album is a deep musical investigation of those cults and beliefs in ancient times. Presented in a matt digipak with evocative, ritualistic artwork by Abby Helasdottir."
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/ancient-death-cults-and-beliefs-csr270cd
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| SPEAR |
Not two (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
"Since the appearance of their first tape, self-titled tape in 1994, SPEAR (from Lodz in Poland) have been exploring the area of "alchemistic sound-creation". The group searches for hidden treasures in the stream of the unconsciousness much like alchemists centuries ago searched for hidden gold in common metals. Through their music SPEAR seek to find the other side of reality, the spiritual side of the world which is linked with the material world. Having released two CDs, this is their first vinyl offering. The music consists of faraway bells, windy drones, flutes, strange harmonies and singings eminating from outer-space; a new kind of ethno-experimental-industrial release. Mesmerizing & magnetizing magique ...
This is today's alchemistic music!
CLEAR VINYL, SILVER PRINTED COVERS DONE BY SPEAR." [press release]
|
1999 |
€ |
|
| SPHYXION |
2 |
CD |
https://sphyxion.bandcamp.com/album/2-2
Sphyxion is the second project of the Maninkari band. This new album is an exploration of minimal electronic music and rhythmic, dark wave in the vein of minimal wave.
The structure of the pieces evolves in a repetitive way where the drum machine remains predominant and leads to sounds of minor nostalgia, melancholy and dark. On some tracks, the sounds of drones appear and mix with the atmosphere of the song.
Samples of voices appear regularly and present as haunted memories that linger in memory. This album is the continuation of the first album, which is a sort of retro futuristic music that explores the themes of the tension between the past and the future.
It's a kind of fiction about events that did not happen but that could have been.
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
| SPIRACLE |
Evestrum |
7inch |
"SPIRACLE is the original project of Japanese artist HITOSHI KOJO (currently residing in Switzerland), known to some for his label OCTPIA & some solo-releases (recently also part of JÜPPALA KÄÄPIÖ).
On this, the first SPIRACLE vinyl release, two pieces of sublime Drone-Muzak are placed, mesmerizing and mind-expanding sonic clouds. The two tracks EVESTRUM and EXUSIAI are "focused on the physicality and the osmosis of the sound" as HITOSHI describes it. The acoustic basis-material comes from a glass harp, resonated trumpets, metal sheets & electronics. A kind of sonographical report of a process that a "subtle spiritual existence merges into a physical body and becomes tangible through the senses." The unbelievable cover-artwork as an object is paradoxically representing an invisible world.
Filed under: ASTRAL BODY DRONES
TRANSPARENT VINYL, SILVER LABELS. EXTREME HANDMADE (& COMPLETELY WHITE) COVER USING COTTON WOOL, GAUZE BANDAGE, THREAD & SPECIAL PAPER. SILVER PRINTED INLAY.
THE FINAL STATEMENT OF DRONE RECORDS AND THE LAST RELEASE OF SPIRACLE!" [label info]
"The final one is by Hitoshi Kojo, also known as Spiracle. He's from Japan, but currently lives in Switzerland and who has had various releases before. For this 7" (his first vinyl actually) he uses a variety of acoustic objects, such as a glass harp, resonating trumpets and metal sheets, as well as electronics. The sound here reminded me of the very first Organum record, 'In Extremis'. Slowed down metal scraping, which occasionally folds into electronic overtones and makes a very beautiful vibrating and resonating sound. Like the Wyrm 7", this is not exactly the type of drone music that lulls the listener into a deep sleep, but has a great unsettling character. An excellent work, topped with a great handmade, cloth cover. And apparently this is also the final record by Spiracle. That's two very sad occasions, I should think." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€7.00 |
|
| SRH |
Telomer[e] |
LP |
listen: https://klanggold.bandcamp.com/album/telomer-e
Sascha Rosemarie Höfer — telomer[e]
Höfer uses different sound sources and recording processes. One of his focus points is the collection of sounds and noises, which he predominantly records analogue and very rudimentary on tape, various voice recorders and microphones he holds dear. Höfer is collecting sounds indoors or in the field. Usually en passant.
“I like to listen if something interesting catches my ear, but not obsessively. I collect sounds, when I feel like it, not because a certain sound may be extraordinarily exquisite, making me want to trace it. I would regard that as a disruption of the moment, something I generally want to avoid.” says Höfer.
Sascha Rosemarie Höfer’s album telomere[e] breaks with his works of previous years. It took longer to complete, is devoid of conceptual and artistically developed ideas. Rather, it presents the process of metamorphosis: dieback, segmentation, recombination, exploration, ageing and rejuvenation, thus mimicking the language of biology.
telomer[e] took three years to complete, a time during which the different pieces underwent various ecdyses, during which ideas developed and unravelled, explored different stylistic directions and once again dissolved, until first fusions emerged. Fusions Höfer picked up to shape the musical segments into something larger than themselves, finally developing pieces for piano he later merged with the different sounds. The result: telomer[e] as presented on this album.
“It is important for me to create a musical representation of the space where I am recording the music. Not least because it carries a central momentum, which I consider as a fundamental element that may not be excluded. The result often sounds rough and lo-fi-esque.” says Höfer.
telomer[e] is captivating due to its contrasts, it is playful, harmonic and atonal, creating a glamorous homogeneity, despite — or because of — these musically antagonistic efforts. Höfer brings the sounds to life, he nudges them into a conversation until they are fusing, but without losing their immediacy. If you are expecting it to be easy on your ears, you’re out of luck.
Written and produced by srh. Recorded, arranged and mixed by srh.
Instruments: piano, modulated guitars, drones, fieldrecordings, dictaphones, glockenspiel, analogue synths, digital and analogue processing.
Trumpet on “TTACCC” arranged by srh, played by Marco Stubbemann; voicesample on “TAAACC” and clattering on various tracks by Mathilde Schoenmakers.
Cover photography by Melanie Schoenmakers; design: Andreas Usenbenz; mastered by Fabian Tormin [plätlin mastering].
translated by www.tommibrem.de
|
2018 |
€15.00 |
|
| SRMEIXNER (STEPHEN MEIXNER) |
A Silent War |
CD |
Artist: srmeixner
Product Title: A silent war
Format: CD
Cat no: BRCD 21-1018 / CDROT097
Release Date: October 2021
Style: Abstract, Experimental Electronics, Ambient
Black Rose Recordings and Oxidisation present the new album from Stephen Meixner (Contrastate). Initial inspiration for this project came from the 1980s recycling projects such as “Captured Music” and “Destruct”, both released on the Selektion label who described recycling as “a procedure concentrating on materials already existing on their own or as separate sources as a practical base for further reworkings”. As the project was progressing news was sent across the world of the death of George Floyd whilst in police custody. Sadly, not a new phenomenon, but a repeat of past events highlighting the unfinished business of needing to change the future. I decided to incorporate the events into the initial theme using words and specific references to carry on a dialogue that interacts with the re-interpretations of previous sound sources. It has been said that we cannot tackle the past by re-writing it. Maybe we can.
This releases features contributions from Ralf Wehowsky (rlw/P16 D4), Steve Pittis (Band of Pain), Jonathan Grieve and Stephen J Pomeroy (Contrastate), Leyden Jars, Adrian Morris, Lee Pomeroy and Simon Wray.
"There must be something in the air. Two weeks ago, I reviewed three releases from Howard Stelzer. He worked with sound material fellow musicians mailed him, which in return was based on Stelzer's primary sound material. I mentioned P16.D4's 'Distruct' (Vital Weekly 863), from 1984, which worked along similar lines. The same record is mentioned on the cover here (though misspelt as 'Destruct'), along with 'Captured Music', which also worked with the recycling of sound, more specific live recordings from a festival of the same name. Stephen Meixner, one-third of Contrastate, does have a similar approach here. He received sound material from his Contrastate buddies
Jonathan Grieve and Stephen J Pomeroy and also from Ralf Wehowsky (one of the leading players of P16.D4), Steve Pittis (Band Of Pain), Leyden Jars, Adrian Morris, Lee Pomeroy and Simon Wray. I don't know these last four. Meixner added the death of George Floyd as part of the narrative in the music, something that P16.D4 would not have done, staying away from overtly political messages. The message is not really in your face (whether good or bad, I leave it up to you). There is vocals/text in only a few pieces here, such as in a 'cover' of Nina Simone's 'Singing About Revolution'. Musicwise, Meixner doesn't copy the musique concrète approach of P16.D4 too much, even when the studio-as-instrument' method is present here. The results are pretty different for Meixner. The sounds are part of the overall composition, working from one idea and making it a 'song' rather than a cut-up or collage. Some sounds are used as guiding lights for a piece via sample/loop, and then Meixner spins the
rest around. In 'Unfinished Business', this is indeed a more collage-like form, but n 'We Demand Tomorrow (Or Business A Usual)', the percussion is the glue that holds drones and electronics together. Meixner has an excellent ear to make the right connections between this disparate sound material. It makes a fine homogenous album with subtle variations. Most of the time, I had no idea this was from various unrelated sources, which I would think is a great thing. This is quite different from the recent Stelzer albums, with both of them using friends' sounds as starting points." (FdW)
––– Address: blackroserecordings@yahoo.co.uk
"This is the work of Stephen Meixner, who is also a member of Contrastate as well as the man behind Black Rose Recordings. This disk was a direct response to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. As the artist states, “Sadly, not a new phenomenon, but a repeat of past events highlighting the unfinished business of needing to change the future. I decided to incorporate the events into the initial theme using words and specific references to carry on a dialogue that interacts with the re-interpretations of previous sound sources.” That said, let’s dive into the music and see what this sounds like.
This is kind of an odd album. The opening track, A Silent War,” features heavily processed vocals and synth drone with snippets of beat and other random noises thrown about. You can only make out bits and pieces of the vocals, such as “the police were called” that give this track a disconcerting feeling. It's ominous without being heavy-handed. Next up is “Breathe,” which is particularly unsettling with its constant incantation of “I can't breathe” and “please let me up, I can't breathe.” The subject of this track is unmistakable with its origin in Eric Garner’s murder, which then led to “I can't breathe” becoming a rallying cry within the Black Lives Matter movement. What makes it interesting is the almost mechanical way that he keeps intoning “I can't breathe,” almost as if you're listening to a public service announcement or something in an airport where they're saying that you must stay to the right. The disconnect makes this track work particularly well. “Virtue Signaling” is a synth drone composition with bits of beat drum beats thrown in randomly. It's noisy, but never quite descends into noise. One thing that makes this fun is that you can tell this intentional. This isn't a “stick a brick on a synthesizer and make drone music” composition. This is composed and well put together. “Unfinished Business” is some peaceful, mellow drone, but even here there are bits of grinding metal noise. “We Demand Tomorrow (Or Business As Usual)” keeps this feeling going with additional bits of sound that sounds like a growing mixed with metal xylophone or pipes and heavily distorted voice like listening to a radio station between stations.
Finally, we have a short piece, “Singing About Revolution,” with lyrics by Nina Simone. But in this version, imagine that someone watched 27 hours of Schoolhouse Rock, smoked a ton of hash, and then decided that they were going to recreate one of the videos, but a little different with hallucinogenic vocals. Solid.
Overall, this is an interesting disc and well worth checking out." [Chain DLK]
"Stephen Meixner of Contrastate has been recording and releasing music under this solo guise for many years now and generally speaking it involves a more abstract and darkly experimental sound than that of the main project (yet some indirectly similar sonic threads too can be noted too). With reference to this latest work the liner notes highlight A Silent War had its nexus in 2020 UK Covid lockdowns and was intended as a working basis for further recordings, but obviously evolved into this standalone work. Likewise, the liner notes provide further detail on the working methodology, which was inspired by 1980’s recycling projects and involved recontextualising sound sources contributed by close associates. Six tracks make up A Silent War which includes an element of social commentary but is which is also not overtly emphasised. This is weaved within the crisply refined electronics which slot neatly under a ‘dark ambient / experimental / post-industrial soundscape’ descriptor.
The title track opens the album exudes a performance art angle, which is mostly due to the tone provided by manipulated spoken word vocals, while the minimal shimmering soundscape is occasionally interrupted with moments of melodic percussive strikes. Breathe continues and is framed around multiple electric to semi-orchestral drones coupled with a centrally placed jittery tonal texture, while further vocal cuts up referencing the track title and its thematic aspect. The instrumental track Virtue Signalling brings more interweaving melancholic drones but also includes a wonky pitch-shifting tonal framework blended with vague mechanical rhythmic elements and other manipulated tones (piano note stabs perhaps?). In maintaining the prevailing sonic theme the minimalist but incessant plodding pulse of Unfinished Business characterises the first segments before shifting off into melancholic drone territory with fragile tonal respite. We Demand Tomorrow (or business as usual) slightly differs, given it contains some forceful electricity-toned textures, while late in the track it morphs into musically playful and percussive-driven elements. As for the final track Singing About Revolution, it is a short two-minute cut and the oddest and surreal offering of the lot, to the point of being quite jarring against the tone of the balance of the album (and therefore well-positioned at the album’s conclusion). Here there is a clear nod to Contrastrate thanks to vocals provided by Jonathan Grieve, and notable the lyrics are credited to Nina Simone to close the thematic loop.
A six-panel double gatefold cover with extensive liner notes rounds out the packaging of an expertly crafted yet equally understated album of experimental ambient & post-industrial sonics." [Noise Receptor] |
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| SRMEIXNER / BAND OF PAIN |
Texture. Montage. Sequence / Tripping in Q |
7inch |
Filigrane Split-Single des CONTRASTATE Mitglieds (der summende Drones & subliminale Harmonien mit einer Reihe von feinen Natur field recordings verbindet), und BAND OF PAIN (ruhige Synths werden behutsam bearbeitet) auf weissem Vinyl.
"A split single release on white vinyl, limited to 250, with black and white artwork printed on 120 gram tracing paper from these two well known and respected projects. This is a cinematic and inspiring musical journey which combines beautiful ambience interspersed with haunting atmospheres with each artist creating a distinctive, yet complimentary, electro-acoustic soundscape." [label info]
"This little beast I played at least ten times before even starting to think about the review. Was it that great? Well, no, not because of that, but rather the format of a 7" with 'difficult' music is hard to capture. Both SRMeixner and Band Of Pain are known for a long time inside the world of experimental music. On side A we fin Meixner, former member of Contrastate, with a piece that involves sea washes and processed bird/insect/frog sounds, along with sparse music (piano? guitar?), heavily layered. Quite an intimate piece of music.
Steve Pittis, also known as Band Of Pain, on the other side, has a likewise intimate piece of music. Sparse, drone like sounds and tape/vinyl-manipulation interjecting the music. Quite a musique concrete like piece, one that we haven't seen him doing before. More peaceful than before. For both of these pieces goes, that they are too short to give a solid opinion about, and both cry for more. Great, but way too short." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€7.00 |
|
| SRVTR I INTERNAL FUSION I DARDIS I A.MAIAH |
Thing |
CD-R |
n 2022, attenuation circuit starts a new series of four-way split albums called THING. The aim is to provide a medium for exchange and presentation of a great variety of artists. As each artist spreads the copies to their network, listeners also get to know the other artists featured on the same disc. The title references the fact that the CDs are physical objects – things! – but also refers to the 'thing' or 'ding' in old Norse and other Germanic languages, which designates the place of a popular assembly or the assembly itself and thus alludes to the 'meeting-place' character of the albums on (or around) which the four artists and their audiences meet, if only virtually.
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/thing-4
With the fourth issue of the THING series, attenuation circuit unites newcomers to the label roster – sound artist and poet Dardis from Northern Ireland and post-psychedelic guitar experimenter A.Maiah from Spain – with the French-based acts SRVTR and Internal Fusion, who were previously featured on the label. The four tracks of the album could be considered a study in how loops/rhythms can evolve into drones and the other way around. Whenever a 'beat' appears, however, it's not a programmed drum-machine sound, but always loops created from found sounds. This makes a compelling case for repetitive rhythms as a method for experimental music, or experimental hearing: if you hear a sound repeated often enough, sometimes it takes on an aspect that would remain unnoticed at first hearing.
File under: electroacoustic, ambient
|
2022 |
€8.00 |
|
| STABAT MORS |
Ich bin so wild nach deinem Erdbeermund (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
“STABAT MORS is the name of an amazing noise-project from Germany, which always works grounded on certain thematical concepts or philosophical ideas. The name of the group is derived from “Stabat Mater” – Passion Music. This EP uses an autobiographic text from Klaus Kinski, the legendary “daemonic” actor, as inspiration, “to transform his greed for life musically”. We find here two pieces (named “Die Frau des Direktors” and “Krepiert”) with minimal elements. Piercing, low feedback functions as main drone-source, other elements are: repeated metal-feedback-sounds, low analogue noise-drones below, a female voice in the background citing Kinski, and a totally distorted accordeon....
The whole creates a fragmented atmosphere, not really loud, but attacking the nerves, sounding like a wild animal shortly before he explodes.... Filed under: grinding love-drones. RED VINYL. HANDPAINTED COVERS WITH GLARING RED/WHITE DESIGN” [press release]
|
2004 |
€6.50 |
|
| STELZER, HOWARD |
How To |
CD |
New material from the master cassette manipulator Howard Stelzer. "How To" is 46 minutes of collage ranging from drones to harsh noise. Not to be missed for any fan of Stelzers work.
Mastered by James Plotkin and art by Lasse Marhaug.
If your not familiar with Mr. Stelzer here is what TinyMixTapes.com has to say about him.
"Don’t let the disappearance of his label Intransitive Recordings fool you; Howard Stelzer has kept himself as busy as ever. The New York-born tape manipulator may no longer have an outlet of his own, but even before closing Intransitive Recordings down back in 2012, he had been releasing albums pretty much everywhere. He has recently announced a new album on Phage Tapes, How To, which follows the still-fresh Narrow Escape and At Ease, a collaboration with Joe Bastardo.
Active since the mid-90s, Stelzer has made cassette tapes his trademark platform to craft complex collages of noise, found sounds, and synthetic textures. Yet he is best known as an all-around devotee of tape as a medium, collecting hundreds of cassettes, writing about sound art and tape culture, and curating an amazingly ambitious catalog of experimental music for Intransitive Recordings. Based in Boston and active for over a decade, the label released music by Jason Lescalleet, Nerve Net Noise, Jason Talbot, C. Spencer Yeh, and Brume, among many others. Nevertheless, it would be unforgivable to overlook 1998’s Bond Inlets, Stelzer’s crowning achievement; an album where he was able to pick the inherent limitations of consumer-grade tapes apart, laying out a foreboding work of rare emotional power."
https://phagetapes.miiduu.com/howard-stelzer-quothow-toquot-cd
|
2015 |
€10.00 |
|
| STORMHAT |
Addicted to Disaster |
CD |
Erste "echte" CD für dieses dänische Projekt. Schwer zu sagen was hier genau passiert, zu komplex und überlagernd sind die vielfältigen (Arbeits?)-geräusche die hier in den Raum dringen, eine chaotisch-hallend-konkrete vielflächige Geräuschsymphonie, es rumpelt und zischt und klingt an jeder Ecke. Zum Teil werden die Ursprungsaufnahmen leicht effektiert, oft werden Sounds von Glocken, Klangschalen und/oder Metallteilen verwendet. Sehr sehr spannend und ungewöhnlich.
"The work of Denmark's Stormhat melds a variety of elements of experimental music, from ambient/drone to field recordings and feedback. With his first pressed CD, Peter Bach Nicolaisen gives us a wonderful hour-long journey though field recordings, reverberating & scraped percussion, and drones. An excellent recording, sure to appeal to fans of all related genres, "Addicted to Diaster" provides a wonderful and engaging listen. Stormhat's work has previously been released on Cohort and A Beard Of Snails. Housed in a custom printed color wallet. Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
"....Stormhat is the Danish word for one of the European continent's most poisonous plants; a few grams consumption of the Stormhat-plant marks the end of a human life. Its also the name chosen by Peter Bach Nicolaisen to work around with sound and music that entirely is based on processed field recordings. That may sound like old news to anyone, but I must say that if you expect some microsound, ambient glitch than 'Addicted To Disaster' will be a small disappointment, and that's exactly what I like it. No disappointment here for me. This is a pretty strong disc of multiple layered field recordings that never slip under the threshold of hearing, but owe much more to world of 'noise' and 'industrial', even when it has as such nothing to do with that world. This music is there, it's present and a truly great pleasure to hear. Its hard to say what these field recordings originally were, except for the occasional thunder storm passing and some crackle of leaves, but otherwise things are too abstract to be recognized. This breaks away from the traditional field recordings cum microsound ground and moves into something different. That's a great thing and Stormhat delivered a fine CD." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
http://discs.diophantine.net
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS |
same |
LP |
"A collaboration between ANGEL (Ilpo Väisäinen (Pan Sonic), Dirk Dresselhaus (SchneiderTM), Hildur Dudnadottir (Mum/Stilluppsteypa etc.) and STRINGS OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Philippe Petit (BiP_HOp etc.), Mark Beazly (Rothko), Raphaelle Rinaudo ( Pierre Yves Mace Ensemble), Nicholas Dick (Kill The Thrill)). The whole sound project redesigns with fluidity a certain form of contemporary noise. It is quite both warm and delicate, away from the traditional noisy tempest attached to this musical genre. However, you have to embark on a musical voyage to allow this noisy delicacy slowly make its way into your body instead of violently exploding onto your face. The more attention you'll bestow on that record, the more unsuspected new paths you'll be invited to wander about. An intricacte and imaginative soundtrack with several layers of sound, gathering both organic and sonic elements to assemble a post-industrial sound structure. The latter will give life to a noisy magma where unexpected clicks stumble over interferences, where digital accidents happen and where drones, acoustic resonance fill the space in time. A multitude of digital notes will slowly stretch to reach a dark-grey chaos, a pure and clean big bang echoing and calling lost sound memories." [label info]
"... On both pieces, the rough coating on the sound forms is very reminiscent of Pan Sonic’s own experimentations, but the context is somewhat different here, and the resulting work draws upon very different resources. With this album, SoC and Angel have created an incredibly dense and vibrant soundtrack, which is ultimately much bigger than the sum of its parts." [The Milk Factory]
www.conspiracyrecords.com
|
2008 |
€16.00 |
|
| STROM NOIR |
Famadihana |
mCDR |
"STROM NOIR is the project of emil mat'ko who lives in bratislavia, slovakia. since 2007 he has released several records on various labels like hibernate, rural colours, u-cover or resting bell.
the tracks for "famadihana" were recorded after finishing the "dni stratili svoju farbu" cd (hibernate, march 2011) with aim to create quite minimal guitar drones.
"famadihana" refers to a funeray tradition of the malagasy people in madagascar known as "the turning of the bones", people bring forth the bodies of their ancestors from the family crypts and rewrap them in fresh cloth, then dance with the corpses around the tomb to live music." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| SUBTERRANEAN SOURCE |
Ellipsis |
CD |
Italian artist Subterranean Source presents us with 5 collaborative pieces on his new album, 'Ellipsis'. The title references cyclical themes or events in life and how we face these situations in a similar way.
For this release, Andrea Bellucci (Subterranean Source) has joined forces with Paolo L. Bandera, Nimh, Lunar Abyss Deus Organum, New Risen Throne and Exit In Grey.
Paolo L Bandera: Electronics
Nimh: Guitars and synthesizers
Lunar Abyss Deus Organum: Chain of electronic devices
New Risen Throne: Samples and Drones
Exit in Grey: Electronics and drones
Mastered by Robin Store
https://winter-light.bandcamp.com/album/ellipsis
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| SUNCHARIOT |
Fictio |
CD-R |
Another new project from Russia, creepy drones and slow-motion pulses, mechanic & cold sounds, little harmonies appear in the acoustic dust... intense dark & visionary stuff, on Moscow's ABGURD-Label.
"A project of a sculptor and an ethnographer Denis Shapovalov from the city of Rostov-on-Don, who is also the one and the only member of ADRIVA, ENMERKAR and MATTER. "Fictio" calls to self-dependent comprehension of forms by sublimation of clods of clay and granite monoliths with alchemy of archaic Drone Ambient, giving birth to resonances and fluctuations of Time. As deep stone strata that move by one millimetre in a thousand years, humming and drifting drones spread over the body, moving away all the vanity and fuss.
The release consists of two 35+ minutes parts, one of which was released as the same-named CDr on Observatory records in an edition of 40 copies." [label info]
label website: www.abgurd.com
|
2007 |
€9.00 |
|
| SUNEATERS |
Cosmic Insight, Baby (Part 1) |
10inch |
"The electronics of the legendary 70s "Berliner Schule" are coming back to life again! Tobias Fischer (Feu Follet/Naarmann und Neiteler) and Mirko Uhlig (solo/Aalfang mit Pferdekopf) are openly displaying their love for floating pads, pulsating sequencers, dynamic melodies and freely breathing soundscapes. The duo combines the warmth and deepness of analogue "cosmic music" with emotional drones and contemporary electronics. References are plentiful, ranging from the great pioneers Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze as well as Kluster and Eno to the magical musical territories of Coil, Robert Fripp and Mirror. Featuring the guest appearance of renowned ambient and classical composer Steve Jolliffe (founding member of Supertramp and Tangerine Dream) on flute." [label info]
http://eys.online.fr/tutrur
|
2007 |
€7.50 |
|
| SUNN O))) |
Black One |
CD |
Das BLACK ONE – Album bedeutet für SUNN O))) nicht nur den Einzug in die Feuilletons der grossen Tageszeitungen (New York Times: „art metal“, Die Zeit: „Laute Mönche“), es ist auch das bisher experimentellste und ausgefeilteste Dokument ihres Schaffens, reine Geräuschmusik-Stücke wechseln mit den typischen sub-bass-metal-drones, gequälter Zombie-Gesang taucht auf, aber auch ganz ruhige Zen-Klänge von OREN AMBARCHI, der bei vielen Stücken mitgewirkt hat.... Definitiv das beste SUNN O)))—Album bisher, mit dem sie in neue Bereiche vordringen anstatt den etablierten Stil endlos zu wiederholen.
„...Im Idealzustand (live!) erreicht dieses Schichten von Sounds und Feedbacks eine Intensität, die mit dem Phänomen der Singularität aus der Astrophysik vergleichbar ist. Masse nimmt exponentiell zu, bis ihre Dichte nicht mehr messbar ist. Ihr Zusammenbruch ist Ende und zugleich Neubeginn. Der Punkt, an dem bei Sunno))) die Gesetze der Physik und Empirie versagen, neue Kategorien entwickelt werden müssen, ist der Moment, in dem der Zeuge dieses subsonischen Spektakels ins schwarze Nichts hinaustritt und von dort seinen leeren Körper betrachtet. Sunno))) machen ultimative Höhlenmusik. Grottenrock. Und wäre diese Welt eine bessere, Steve O'Malley und Greg Anderson wären die neuen Sly & Robbie: eine runtergebrochene Rhythmussektion, geeicht auf den metronomischen Pendelschlag des Weltalls....“ [Andreas Busche / Spex]
“The anticipated new album from sonic-doom powerhouse SUNN O))), and the band's darkest, most obliterating album to date. Seven bleak and crushing tracks of aural asphyxiation, delivered with tonal magma explosions, subsonic ferocity, and the blackest atmospheres known to man (or beast). Includes guest contributions from OREN AMBARCHI, WREST (LEVIATHAN, LURKER OF CHALICE, TWILIGHT), JOHN WIESE (BASTARD NOISE), and MALEFIC (XASTHUR, TWILIGHT), who armed with a microphone and severe claustrophobia, recorded vocals from inside a casket, loaded in the back of a Cadillac hearse.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
White1 |
CD |
"Der wohl doomigste, metalligste & monumentalste Guitar-Drone den man sich vorstellen kann, wird von SUNN O))) produziert, dessen Mitspieler STEPHEN O’MALLEY ja auch bei unserer beloved drone-folk combo LOTUS EASTERS dabei ist. Bei WHITE 1 tauchen auch ultra-langsame Rhythmen auf und am obskursten ist, daß JULIAN COPE beim ersten Stück ein Gedicht vorträgt..... laut hören !! Und am besten live anschauen !!!!
The most doomey, metallic and monumental guitar-drone imaginable comes from SUNN O))), which is another project of LOTUS EATERS Stephen O’Malley. WHITE1 offers not just heavy guitar drones, but also slowed down rhythms and we found it more than obscure that JULIAN COPE as a fan of the group reads a poem in one of the tracks." [Drone Rec. info 2003]
“.. Rumbing distortion. Doom. Drone. The vibrations have begun, another SUNNO))) disc is upon us! As you probably know, the shorthand description for this band is that they're the SUNN that orbits Earth (the band). But actually this release from Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson's heavier-than-thou SUNNO))) proves that (as we knew all along) they exert their own gravity in the universe of dark heavy drone musicks.. “ [Aquarius Records]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| SVARTE GREINER |
Kappe |
CD |
"Wer dachte, dass das Debüt von Erik K. Skodvin alias Svarte Greiner schon eine ziemlich düstere Angelegenheit war, sollte Kappe besser nicht im Dunklen hören. Denn die vier Tracks gehören zum verstörtesten und düstersten Dark-Ambient, das ich seit langem gehört habe. Vier Kompositionen in unterschiedlicher Länge, von denen der fast schon ironisch betitelte Opener Tunnel of Love noch das kürzeste Stück darstellt, auch wenn es den anderen in Sachen Intensivität in Nichts nachsteht: angetrieben von einem permanenten, metallenem Geräusch von rasselnden Ketten, braut sich im Hintergrund langsam ein kolossaler Sturm zusammen, ehe man in tiefe Drones und undurchdringendes Rauschen abdriftet. Dagegen wirkt der Anfang von Where Am I geradezu friedlich, doch auch hier setzt bald klaustrophobische Enge ein, weicht auch der letzte Kerzenschimmer totaler Dunkelheit. Immer wieder brechen Fragmente durch, die entfernt Stimmen und Schreie sein könnten, dekonstruierte Instrumente, Gitarrenfetzen und vermummte Saxophonklänge quellen aus der hallenden Weite hervor und verlieren sich wieder. Der fast schon sakrale Unterton wirkt zunehmend wie der Soundtrack des letzten Gerichts. Und doch ist Kappe keine willkürliche Ansammlung verstörender Sounds, sondern erstaunlich gut durchkonzipiert. Trotz der scheinbaren Monotonie, die die 16 Minuten von Candle Light Dinner Actress durchzieht, schafft es Skodvin, trotzdem die Aufmerksamkeit hoch zu halten, auch oder gerade wenn sich einem zuweilen die Nackenhaare aufstellen. Kappe ist ein 45-minütiger Horrortrip, und damit auch ein Album, das an den Nerven und der Ausdauer der Hörer zehrt. Ein Album, das aus den tiefsten Wäldern Norwegens zu kommen scheint, und genau dorthin auch wieder verschwindet, ohne dass man genau weiß, was einen getroffen hat. Eine Unheimliche und vor allem unheimlich dichte Angelegenheit. Wahnsinnig, im doppelten Sinne." [Eikman, The Last Beat]
"This is Erik Skodvin's (one-half of Deaf Center) second full-length release for the Type label as Svarte Greiner. His debut Knive was a milestone in doom music. Taking a surprisingly acoustic route, he kick-started a sub-genre as he used cello, violin and rattling miscellanies to conjure up blood-curdling soundscapes. Kappe continues Skodvin's blackened underworld cruise, furthering his mysterious, cinematic sound. Through incessant touring, Skodvin has built up a distinctive live technique since the release of Knive and it is this which works as a spirit guide on Kappe. Travelling the dark corners of the world, Skodvin has explored every shadowed alleyway in his grasp, built up a collection of broken glove-puppets and potion-filled medicine bottles and trapped many a stifled scream in the process. Some of these disparate adventures were captured to cassette tape (Penpals Forever, Digitalis Limited) and wax disc (Til Seters, A Room Forever), but the most evil moments were set aside for this full-length record; four fated psalms in honor of the dark Northern lords. The album's opener "Tunnel Of Love" may be the noisiest piece Skodvin has produced to date with a death-rattle of chains accompanying his patented maritime bass drone. It sounds something like Death's gondola gliding through purgatory, gradually building into a dense, chattering cloud of torment before dropping into bleak stillness. Skodvin is joined by Ultralyd saxophonist Kjetil Møster who adds a disarmingly terrifying squeal to the horrifying detuned strings on "Candle Light Dinner Actress." The most startling change here is his incorporation of the electric guitar -- "Mystery Man" sees Skodvin harness the feedback into loops of distressing, pained melancholy, bringing to mind Skullflower or a slow-motion Sonic Youth at times. Kappe, however, is very much its own beast, and followers will already know that nothing sounds quite like Svarte Greiner. You won't find a more unsettling record this winter." [label info]
"... another mysterious missive, broadcast as always from some dark sonic underworld, courtesy of the man known as Svarte Greiner (Erik Skodvin to his mother), following the equally haunting and mysterious Man Beard Dress lp from the end of last year. As we've mentioned before, this is doom. But not doom as you know it. Not heavy and crushing and downtuned and distorted, instead, spectral and ghostlike, abstract and ambient, doom in vibe, intention, spirit, as much as in sound. It's not about riffs or beats, it's about mood and space and soul, and taking a cold hard look through the cracks into the crumbling wasteland that lies inside all of us... " [Aquarius Rec]
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| SVARTSINN |
Mørkets Variabler |
CD |
Now 8 years since the last full length for Cyclic Law, Norway’s SVARTSINN returns with a new opus, reaffirming his place as one of the world’s premiere Dark Ambient acts. For this album Jan Roger Pettersen is accompanied on some tracks by fellow Norwegian Amund Ulvestad on Cello, providing new elements to Svartsinn’s distinct ominous drones. Mørkets Variabler translates to "Variables Of Darkness" and it is a certain combination of such variables that fuels the urges and need to create the atmospheres translating as Svartsinn. Darkness comes in various shapes and forms and through these new pieces we are plunged into this vast and singular subject, left to our senses to explore it’s subtle meanings and impressions left within ourselves. Presented in a unique Limited Edition Hardcover Digibook as well as a Limited Gatefold Double vinyl. The vinyl version includes an exclusive remix of the track “Echoes Of Silent Cries” by Sweden’s KAMMARHEIT. Artwork by Dehn Sora.
CD Digibook Edition of 500 Copies. Hardcover, 4 panels sleeve with 16 pages Booklet. 7 Tracks. Running Time 63:51
Double Vinyl Edition of 300 Copies. Gatefold Sleeve with printed Inner Sleeves on Black Vinyl. 8 Tracks. Running Time 72:00
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/m-rkets-variabler
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
|
Morkets Variabler |
do-LP |
Now 8 years since the last full length for Cyclic Law, Norway’s SVARTSINN returns with a new opus, reaffirming his place as one of the world’s premiere Dark Ambient acts. For this album Jan Roger Pettersen is accompanied on some tracks by fellow Norwegian Amund Ulvestad on Cello, providing new elements to Svartsinn’s distinct ominous drones. Mørkets Variabler translates to "Variables Of Darkness" and it is a certain combination of such variables that fuels the urges and need to create the atmospheres translating as Svartsinn. Darkness comes in various shapes and forms and through these new pieces we are plunged into this vast and singular subject, left to our senses to explore it’s subtle meanings and impressions left within ourselves. Presented in a unique Limited Edition Hardcover Digibook as well as a Limited Gatefold Double vinyl. The vinyl version includes an exclusive remix of the track “Echoes Of Silent Cries” by Sweden’s KAMMARHEIT. Artwork by Dehn Sora.
CD Digibook Edition of 500 Copies. Hardcover, 4 panels sleeve with 16 pages Booklet. 7 Tracks. Running Time 63:51
Double Vinyl Edition of 300 Copies. Gatefold Sleeve with printed Inner Sleeves on Black Vinyl. 8 Tracks. Running Time 72:00
cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/m-rkets-variabler
|
2017 |
€26.00 |
|
| |
Traces of Nothingness |
CD |
Reissue, for the first time on vinyl as a double LP in Matt Laminated Gatefold Sleeve, in standard Black as well as Grey in Black Marble Special Edition, and also available as a limited Digipak. Both formats include 4 bonus remixes by Lamia Vox, Triarii, Letum and Gydja. Also features all new artwork by Dehn Sora.
The 3rd offering from Norway's Svartsinn could be acknowledged as the end of a trilogy, the first opus "Devouring Consciousness" was an album containing stories made during what the artist explains as being some difficult and rough times. The second offering, "Of Darkness And Re-Creation", was the process of trying to deal with these struggles and reflect on them. "Traces Of Nothingness" is simply the reaction, result and the path ahead in this ongoing, seemingly endless darkness. A slightly more melodic, sad and obscure side of Svartsinn that still keeps the cold and dark atmosphere that defines his sound.
CD Edition of 300 copies in 4 panel Digipak, Matt Lamination. 12 Tracks. Running time; 74:56
https://cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/traces-of-nothingness
“....Beatless, desolate dark ambient soundscapes. Traces of Nothingness opens with the words "It lives ... in the dark ... something in the dark" - an appropriate introduction to this collection of brooding thunderclouds. Whale-like groans and distorted, distant impacts populate this world of shadow and bubbling ooze - there is at times the sound of a colossal drum pounding a broken beat, there are huge air movements and amorphous disturbances. On a number of tracks tonal material bleeds in briefly toward the end - drones, strings, humming textures - strikingly beautiful against the vast bleakness of the background atmospheres....” [Morpheusmusic]
|
2021 |
€13.00 |
|
| SVASTI-AYANAM |
Sanklesa |
CD |
Wer sich schon immer eine Melange aus tibetischer Ritual-Musik und perkussiver ambient Industrial-Trance und dunklen Maschinen-Drones gewünscht hat, liegt bei SVASTI-AYANAM genau richtig ! Dies ist die Wiederveröffentlichung eines lange vergriffenen Albums von 1998 vom RAISON D'ETRE-Seitenprojekt, enthält 2 Bonus-Tracks!
"Svasti-ayanam is Peter Andersson's foray into dark, Tibetan-Nepalese ambience. Andersson is well known for his work as Raison D'etre, Atomine Elektrine etc. In this incarnation, his signature Raison D'etre sound has been modified in an incredibly pronounced, and effective way. Sanklesa is marked by strong tribal rhythms that draw the listener into distant, foreign, ritual soundscapes. Andersson has released a prolific catalogue of music, that includes many CD's, limited vinyl and countless compilation appearances. Album incl. 2 exlusive bonus-tracks." [label info]
www.eternalpride.ru
|
2007 |
€13.00 |
|
| SYNCHRE |
Requiem |
CD |
All instruments and compositions _ Luca Canciello & Lorenzo Brusci
Vocals _ Movement 2, The Zimbabwebird; Movement 1 and 3, Sosta Palmizi
Text, Movement 2 (by Zimbabwebird, in Zulu and Shona, 2015): "Thuma mina, mweya mutsvene.
Unditumeo" [Send me, pure spirit. And then send me.]
Lorenzo Brusci, 1966, co-founder of MUSSTDESIGN.com, managing partner at the music robot start up MUSICFIT (musicfit.ch).
He launched over the last 20 years prestigious adventures in the audio and sound space design field as the sound and interactive design studio GIARDINO SONORO (giardinosonoro.com) and the architectural speakers manufacturer ARCHITETTURA SONORA. He has been composing music for various ensembles, theatre, television and radio since the early ’90s (He founded TIMET.org in 1993).
Lives between Berlin, Tuscany and Krakow.
www.lorenzobrusci.com
www.soundcloud.com/lorenzo-brusci
Luca Canciello, Italian born, Berlin based.
Multi-instrumentalist, composer, sound designer, he performs experimenting with live electronics, instruments and sounds.
www.soundcloud.com/climnoizer
His musical journey and inspiration have brought him into various fields and art disciplines, working solo or collaborating with other artists and bands.
His interest for other art forms, in particular dancing, leads him composing musical pieces for theatre, dance companies, experimenting the various natures of rhythm in music .
On sound design, he’s been involved on projects linked to international cultural heritage and architectural media mapping.
The mechanism of individual and collective memory and its rituals, are the central inspiration of our Requiem. It’s not a formal Mass; our intention was to harvest and express the community’s need of sharing and binding its ties while facing the experience of death.
A deep sense of community - religo in latin, binding in english - inspired our structural research. Requiem becomes then the concerting moment that asks for “holding back”, a desperate request of time suspension, the ultimate demand for re-living, re-experiencing, re-loading, re-gaining, now, in this very ritual and public moment what will be lost forever.
Through a free attitude in music composition and expression - our syncretism - we designed a process of electroacoustic layering, consolidating in 3 compositional areas the process and destiny of organic life.
- Living Elegy - the enchantment for life and its many endangering gates: the movement is subdivided in (living) Articulation, (ritual)Transition and (pathological) Abandon;
- Nostalgia - the seeking for the integral time suspension and life preservation;
- Transfiguration - where we depict the organic reaction to danger and biological faith, subdivided in (furious and ultrabiological) detachment, (regenerating) intimate power, (coding the) extended mind, (persuing a new form of) immanency.
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/requiem
"Lorenzo Brusci (Timet, Climnoizer, Giardino Sonoro) & Luca Canciello gestalten als SYNCHRE mit ihrem Requiem (ACU 1009, CD) aus Drones, Breakbeats und dunkel grollenden Blechbläsern (oder Orgelpfeifen) einen Dreisatz aus 'Living Energy', 'Nostalgia' und 'Transfiguration'. Als einen Übergangsritus, mit einer zart flehenden Gesangseinlage von Tozim Madzima aka Zimbabwe Bird, zu plonkenden Lauten aus dem Innenklavier. Danach wieder rauschend sich wälzende, zittrig verzerrte und knarrende Synthie- und Gitarrensounds, mit Vogelgezwitscher durchsetzt und erst zeitlupig gedehnten, dann wieder zuckenden Beats. Und zuletzt auch wieder der dunklen Bläserpracht, zu der sich diese grandiose Musik der brausenden Verwandlung entgegen stürzt. Wer braucht noch eine Leitkultur, nach so einem Durchgang ins weiße Licht?" [Bad Alchemy] |
2016 |
€10.00 |
|
| SYNDROME |
Now and Forever |
LP |
"Mathieu Vandekerckhove, mostly known for his work with Amenra. For years the self-taught musician learned and studied his craft of songwriting and sound scaping, mainly as a means to self exploration, meditation and attempts at channelling negative into positive energy, this while staying below the surface at all times.
Now 2012 marks a turning point for Mathieu Vandekerckhove and Syndrome as he steps forward, with the epic 28 minute long “Now And Forever”. Dedicated to his son Wolf, this track offers words of guidance and will grant you a look into the heart and soul of the artist. Close your eyes and hear the beating heart of pure artistic freedom.
First 75 orders will get an extra booklet with photography by Mathieu Vandekerkhove."
hypertensionrecords.com
"Gent in Ostflandern, Heimat AMENRAs und somit auch die von Mathieu Vandekerckhove. Der AMENRA-Gitarrist ist ebenso wie seine Kollegen ein Vielbeschäftigter. Die belgische Ausnahmekapelle und ihr ganzheitlicher Ansatz wussten im letzten Jahr gemeinsam mit NEUROSIS live dergestalt zu überzeugen, dass der amerikanische “Headliner“ an jedem Abend Vollgas geben musste, wollte die Band nicht von Vandekerckhove und den Seinen in den Schatten gestellt werden. Wer NEUROSIS kennt, weiß, dass sie diese Form der Herausforderung suchen und lieben.
Dass Eindruck zum Ausdruck wird, ist ein Wesenszug kreativen Wirkens. Die Belgier indes verzahnen künstlerischen Ausdruck und das eigene Leben eng. Nicht umsonst wird bei keiner Veröffentlichung auch nur ein Aspekt dem Zufall überlassen. Gleiches gilt für alle Projekte der in Gent Beheimateten – gleiches gilt somit auch für SYNDROME. Es geht die Geschichte, dass Vandekerckhoves Projekt einem Zuhause Experimentieren entsprungen sei, vor ca. sieben Jahren. Mit “Now And Forever“ liegt die mittlerweile dritte Veröffentlichung vor, ein Track mit einer Spielzeit von 28 Minuten. Das Stück bildet den Wandel ab, der sich in SYNDROME eingeschrieben hat und setzt sich aus Ambient, Drone, Doom und ja – Folkelementen zusammen. Unterstützung erfährt der Belgier von Bandkollegen Colin H. van Eeckhout und Josh Graham. Letzterer sollte als NEUROSIS-Mitglied und A STORM OF LIGHT-Kopf keiner weiteren Vorstellung bedürfen.
“Now And Forever“ startet mit einer eindringlichen Akkordfolge, die sanft von einem Drum durchklopft wird. Der vormals erwähnte Wandel drückt sich immer wieder in einer hohen Verdichtung der einzelnen Sounds aus, schnappt Versätze beinahe beiläufig und schichtet diese sorgsam auf, bereitet so auf das Hervorbrechende und Anstürmende vor, besänftigt diese und überführt sie kurz darauf wieder in mindestens zweimalige, versetzte Wiederholungen desselben Motivs. Die Intervalle des Motivs ändern sich stetig und befördern so den rauschhaften Charakter. Ab Minute neun gesellen sich Vandekerckhoves Brummvocal hinzu, um schließlich durch Colins helle Gesangsparts abgelöst zu werden. Immer bleibt die Gitarre leitend und gleicht dabei aber auch einem Katalysator. Sie senkt nicht nur die Aktivierungsenergie, sie überführt auch Dunkles in Klingendes, Tönendes. Reaktant dabei ist das Niederringende des Alltags, dass in das Ergebnis namens “Now And Forever“ expediert wird. Im Vergleich zu AMENRAs Wirkweise des “Hervorbrechens“ steht bei SYNDROME eher das Aufbrechen im Vordergrund. Wo dort die Ausdehnung, das Treiben und das Herauskommen definiert werden, geht es hier eher um ein Öffnen, ein Aufschließen und Durchstoßen. Das Ein- und Aufweichen von Strukturen geschieht entlang des beschriebenen Wandels.
Dabei findet der Hörer AMENRAs die anderen Projekte der Mitglieder in die Wertvorstellungen der Hauptband gut verfugt. Nicht umsonst haben die Belgier mit der CHURCH OF RA eine Form der Herangehensweise gewählt, die in Glaubenssystemen wurzelt. Ernsthaftigkeit ist dabei das Credo, fernab von Dogmen und Hierarchien der Entstehungsgrundlage, sondern vielmehr Basis für eine bedingungslose Hingabe, die Ergebnisse erschließt wie das vorliegende. Dort, wo eine Deckungsgleichheit von Handlungen erzeugt wird, entsteht eine Überzeugungsgemeinschaft, eine, die gemeinsam einen Pfad beschreitet, der an den wenig begangenen Weg Robert Frosts erinnert. Das, was dabei betreten wird, ist gesäumt von einem Streben nach Ganzheitlichkeit in Bild und Ton. Das dort im Verborgenen Schlummernde wird Stück um Stück freigelegt, hoch ist der Aufwand für dieses Abringen, jetzt und für immer." [S.L./Black Magazine]
"Nearly a decade ago, Syndrome came into the world through the Belgian mind of one Mathieu Vandekerckhove due to his need for a meditative vehicle through which he could release the negative energy in his life and transform it into something more constructive. This vehicle obviously existed in obscurity, laying dormant in silence for many years before taking on the attributes of droning post-rock and finding a home in 2011 with Belgian label ConSouling Sounds where Vandekerckhove has spent his entire career under this moniker to this point. Life was officially given to Syndrome when “Floating Veins” was released last June, finding availability in both a 12″ and a CD limited to 500 copies, of which the first 100 came with a bonus DVD-R of material. Other than that and “Now and Forever” here, the only other existing official Syndrome release is a three-way split with Monotonos and Sequences entitled “Fall of Man”. Outside of Syndrome, Vandekerckhove is otherwise known for his work as guitarist for sludge doom bands Kingdom and, more importantly, Amenra whom found a decisive home in Neurot Recordings a year ago. Unfortunately it seems that, despite a promised release of the new studio album “Mass V” a few months after signing, nothing has yet been unleashed.
This slow pace on Neurot may be what has freed Vandekerckhove to pursue his solo project in such depth, and that depth has found him constructing a one-track, 28 minute opus in dedication to his son, Wolf, for this release. What few words are present here exist as a guiding light for his son towards finding himself, finding strength, helping others, and knowing no matter how distant the expanse, be it physical or ethereal, his father is there in spirit. It’s an intimate portrait of the proverbial handing of the torch in blood, primal if not tribal in spirit. A tribal nature is in fact how this album opens, with a subtle light percussive notion — the only place on the entire album where you’ll find any hint of bombast behind the epic, weaving feedback drones that shimmer harmoniously before washing away in tides of a deeper, less tenuous drone that is textured lightly by gentle noise and guitar tones. These moments will eventually give way to the heart of the track that contains the lyrical content and the most desolate production within the release to give space for the vocals to express their stern, yet inert fragility. The deep performance here, both literally and emotionally, immediately reminds of efforts from several artists including Steve von Till and later Ulver, and whose building ethereal guitar nature is uncannily reminiscent of the gut-wrenching dreamy style that Love Spirals Downwards once achieved.
Other than the obvious emotions associated with succeeding at bringing a child into this world, there has to be something incredibly special on an entirely different, subconscious level about implementing those emotions into a dedication through music. It was a decade ago, this year, that Green Carnation released their acclaimed “Light of Day, Day of Darkness” album which was inspired by, at least in part, by the birth of Tchort’s son and the death of his daughter. Obviously there is a greater sense of melancholy in that record, but there is a very distinct yet undefinable emotion that accompanied that album — an emotion that is also present in full force here. It certainly isn’t melancholy, but it is reserved all the same — focused and incontrovertibly sincere. That said, it’s difficult to place the particular portion of the painting by Matthieu Ronsse, “Bateau”, that as used as the album cover, in regards to it’s significance to the subject matter at hand. It certainly fits in with the ethereal music of “Now and Forever”, and there are certainly ties in sound to the sea, but it is certainly cryptic at best in relation. The figure pictured has a ship’s flags linked to the inside corners of the eyes, almost representing tears, while the sail itself covers the mouth. The ship itself is on fire. There are many obvious lines of thought, but they seem to contradict one another once their paths cross.
Perhaps this is an explanation best saved for another article at another time. Regardless of the cryptic artwork though, it’s hard to imagine an album of this style achieving a level of perfection that rises above this. There’s simply such an incredible amount of intensity, love, and musical prowess at work in “Now and Forever” to find any kind of negative attributes within." [Sage/Heathen Harvest]
|
2013 |
€20.50 |
|
| SYRINX |
Hunted: Without Tears in their Eyes |
CD-R |
"2 Track 70min, Harsh Ambient / Drone CDr... Syrinx is Glowingpixie, Ghoul Detail and Pink Venom, the 4th album Hunted: has dark drones, tons of texture and ambience. Artwork by Glowingpixie." [label info]
www.darkmeadowrecordings.com
|
2010 |
€8.00 |
|
| SZKIEVE |
Chants et Danses Folkloriques des Hauts Plateaux |
CD-R |
Nach der "Ekranoplanes" mCD auf Ant-Zen was neues vom Belgo-Kanadier SZKIEVE, er verwendet auf den neun Stücken analog-synth sounds, schillernde organ drones & haufenweise field recordings, die mit bestimmten Plätzen & Geschichten Ekuadors verbunden sind.
Abwechslungsreiche Soundgemälde...
"Experimental sound composer from Belgium, actually he is living in Canada. Dimitri Della Faille the man behind Szkieve started with his project at 1998 also, he founded on this year Hushush label. Szkieve has performed some concerts in Europe, America, Japan & China, previous records were released at Hushush label, Ant-Zen, Ad Noiseman and others. This new record enclose an amazing mixture of deep sounds with some short ambient parts on 9 tracks. Each track title has a reference about old Ecuadorian stories of different places. Limited edition of 300 copies, full color art works & packaged in PVC sleeve." [label info]
www.rapeartprods.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| TABOR RADOSTI |
Lamat |
CD |
Filed under: occult / gothic dark ambient industrial. Long existing project from Czech Republic (translates as "Joy Camp" - who seem to play live only with masks) with their version of eerie & bleak electronic / technoid horror-ambience....digitalized drones & sounds, neo-classic elements, at part rhythms appear, a dishumanized voice speaks in an (unknown?) language. Very bombastic, soundtrackish & dramatic as a whole, but there are also melancholic parts (which sounds a bit like a softporno soundtrack) in between...
For fans of: AH CAMA SOTZ, LAIBACH, COIL, SCHLOSS TEGAL (someone of them had his hands in the mix too).
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| TAM QUAM TABULA RASA |
Cotidie Morimur (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
A legendary and very original italian post industrial group from the cassette-underground culture of the late 80’s/ early 90’s, who had their one and only vinyl release on Drone in 1995. They were at the forefront of what one could call “archaic drone-noise”... TQTR are active again these days so we decided to put this early Drone EP back into existence..
“WHILE STILL RELATIVELY UNKNOWN, THIS ITALIAN GROUP HAS BEEN ACTIVE SINCE 1988 AND MANAGED TO RELEASE SOME OUTSTANDING UNIQUE SOUNDING TAPES IN THE INTERNATIONAL/ EXPERIMENTAL TAPE-SCENE. DRONE RECORDS IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE VERY FIRST VINYL RELEASE OF T.Q.T.R., A 7" EP FEATURING THE TRACKS 'DYSKRASIA' AND 'ATAXIA'.
THEIR MYSTERIOUS AND MONOTONIC MUSIC CAN IN OUR OPINION BE TRULY CLASSIFIED AS REAL ARCHAIC MUSIC, EVOKING EMOTIONS OF AN ANCIENT AND FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTER. FOCUSING DEEP INTO THE GROUND OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, THEIR MUSIC IS A KIND OF ARCHETYPICAL EXPRESSION THAT IS TIMELESS AND AESTHETIC. PERHAPS TO UNDERSCORE THE QUALITY OF THEIR MUSIC AS ITS OWN SECRET LANGUAGE, THE BAND INSISTS ON USING LATINS FOR THEIR TITLES. THIS EP SHOWS THE GROUP WORKING ON A MORE RHYTHMIC MODE, WITH URGENT DRONES AND STRANGE HARMONIES CREATING AND ATMOSPHERE OF NATURAL MYSTICISM – MIRRORING THE NEVER UNDERSTOOD FORCES WITHIN ONESELF. Cotidie morimur. Cotidie demitur aliqua pars vitae.”
[from the original press release 1995]
300 COPIES ON BLUE–YELLOW VINYL. FULL COLOUR PRINTED COVERS
"Auf 45rpm gerade siechender Spielmannszugabstraktion, auf 33rpm eine Mischung aus ovalesker Lockedgroovemontage und geradezu schläfrig-suggestiver Langsamkeit inmitten der parallel ablaufenden Klangereignisse. Charmant ist das sanft industrielle Outfit der Titel, besonders die geradezu mantrische B-Seite mit dem elegischen Namen »Ataxía« spiegelt einen geradezu einfühlsam ablaufenden Klangprozess wieder, in dessen Cage’scher Maschinenwiederholung so etwas wie ein chakrisches Bewusstsein für Klänge widerhallt. Die A-Seite hingegen pervertiert Organums Chaoskompositionen via sanfter Repetition und nahtloser Aneinanderreihung industrieller Klänge sowie abgenudelter Softjazzplatten im ausgewaschenen Hintergrund. Nicht gerade was für den Weihrauchgarten, aber definitiv etwas zum Staunen." [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
|
2003 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Cotidie Morimur (SOLD OUT) |
7inch |
released March 1995
lim./numbered first edition of 250 copies. Individually symboled P.E. sleeves & printed covers; dark blue vinyl
“WHILE STILL RELATIVELY UNKNOWN, THIS ITALIAN GROUP HAS BEEN ACTIVE SINCE 1988 AND MANAGED TO RELEASE SOME OUTSTANDING UNIQUE SOUNDING TAPES IN THE INTERNATIONAL/ EXPERIMENTAL TAPE-SCENE. DRONE RECORDS IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE VERY FIRST VINYL RELEASE OF T.Q.T.R., A 7" EP FEATURING THE TRACKS 'DYSKRASIA' AND 'ATAXIA'.
THEIR MYSTERIOUS AND MONOTONIC MUSIC CAN IN OUR OPINION BE TRULY CLASSIFIED AS REAL ARCHAIC MUSIC, EVOKING EMOTIONS OF AN ANCIENT AND FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTER. FOCUSING DEEP INTO THE GROUND OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, THEIR MUSIC IS A KIND OF ARCHETYPICAL EXPRESSION THAT IS TIMELESS AND AESTHETIC. PERHAPS TO UNDERSCORE THE QUALITY OF THEIR MUSIC AS ITS OWN SECRET LANGUAGE, THE BAND INSISTS ON USING LATINS FOR THEIR TITLES. THIS EP SHOWS THE GROUP WORKING ON A MORE RHYTHMIC MODE, WITH URGENT DRONES AND STRANGE HARMONIES CREATING AND ATMOSPHERE OF NATURAL MYSTICISM – MIRRORING THE NEVER UNDERSTOOD FORCES WITHIN ONESELF. Cotidie morimur. Cotidie demitur aliqua pars vitae.”
[label info]
|
1995 |
€6.00 |
|
| TAMING POWER |
Twelve Pieces |
10" |
Der wohl auflagenstärkste Release bisher von dem norwegischen Geheimtip TAMING POWER - und wieder eine 10" ! Der Nachfolger von THREE PIECES und SIX PIECES beginnt mit kleinen Minimalismen jeweils für eine Solostimme, in Form von Gitarre, Casio-Synth & Zither... Auf Seite B aber finden sich weitaus komplexere & dronigere Stücke, wo Instrumentalflächen-Sounds übereinander geschichtet werden - das erinnert dann mehr an die schönen "three pieces" und "six pieces"- 10"es...
Die Coverartwork (handgeschriebene Labels & Credits, etc.), die Musik - all das strahlt einen sehr persönlichen DO IT YOURSELF - Geist aus, abseits von jeglichen Trends kreiert hier jemand sein eigenen kleinen Kosmos.
"Until now releases by Taming Power, and there has been quite a few, were highly limited editions of around 150 copies, but this new one is released in an edition of 525 copies: the pressing plant don't do any less anymore. A pity since Taming Power has to 'sell out' before making anything new, so this might be one of the last before some time. Taming Power, the musical project of Askild Haugland from Oslo, Norway, is a man who loves drones, but as you can tell by the title these don't have to be long. Twelve pieces on a 10". The seven pieces on side one are short, sketch like pieces, played on the guitar, zither and keyboards. Haugland feeds the sound through a little bit of reverb, fortunate not enough to drown the sound, but to make the whole thing a bit 'rounder'. The pieces are simple melodies, effective and work best when played on the guitar. The keyboard pieces are bit less in quality I thought. The five pieces here are more complex, layered sounds, more sound effects, and effectively more drone related in the way people associate this with drones. Layered sounds, with the usual analogue means of Taming Power (who works with tape recorders rather than computers), these pieces are more along the lines of his recent works. Complex, drone based, this is some damn fine music going on. It would be a pity not see any new thing from him in a while, but maybe he should consider doing CDs? So I recommend any serious lover of drone music to get a copy (or two) and keep Early Morning Records alive." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
| TAPHEPHOBIA |
Black City Skyline |
CD-R |
"3rd album from Taphephobia. Deep, dense guitar drones."
reversealignment.bandcamp.com
|
2009 |
€9.00 |
|
| TARAB |
Material Studies |
mCD-R |
"tarab is the alias of eamon sprod, an australian sound artist whose motto is "careful arrangements of sonic rubbish". that says it all!
his past works were released on various international labels such as 23five, crónica, unfathomless or kaon.
"material studies #2 is the continuation of a small series of explorations of working with simple materials, started with 2019’s ms#1 released on hemisphäreの空虚. this work pares back and further refines this process, with the use of minimal discarded everyday materials introduced to the artificial movement of air, via an air-conditioning unit. this work is not intended as a document of this interaction, but is the result of working with this situation and the resulting recordings as material, to see and hear what might emerge from that process." (tarab)
recorded 2019. arranged 2020-21
this work is the result of working with simple materials and process
master: yvan etienne
merci beaucoup: jean-marc and yvan
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/material-studies-2-alm-140
"Tarab was already present with a new release last week, and now Eamon Sprod returns with another work, part of his "small series of explorations of working with simple materials, started with 2019’s ms#1 released on hemisphäreの空虚" (see Vital Weekly 1222). He also writes that "this work pares back and further refines this process, using minimal discarded everyday materials introduced to the artificial movement of air, via an air-conditioning unit. This work is not intended as a document of this interaction. Still, it is the result of working with this situation and the resulting recordings as material, to see and hear what might emerge from that process". This release is another proof of how far and wide Taalem's interpretation was of the word ambient music. No fat drones, no carefully constructed collage of field recordings, or lush computer-processed sounds, but rubbing of objects near the microphone. You don't recognize any of these materials, and if you didn't know better, one could think someone is rummaging through his tool shed. Upon closer listening, one hears the minor differences in the work, at one point in the middle, almost disappearing again. Towards the end, there is a dramatic build-up until it cuts out at the end. Again, this is not a work that uses a lot of computer processing or electronics, but there has been a fair amount of editing to make it a composition, rather than going through the toolbox with a handheld microphone." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€5.00 |
|
| TATE AND LILES |
Without Season |
CD |
Feine Collaboration der ORA-Hälfte DARREN TATE mit dem aufsteigenden Brightoner ANDREW LILES. TATE hat wieder field recordings beigesteuert (z.B. Holz- oder Bootknirschen, leises Bachrauschen, Äthersounds, Vögel & andere Tiere, Laufgeräusche, Unterholz-knispern), die unverarbeitet im Mix auftauchen, während ruhige drones und Instrumentalklänge (Piano, Akkordeon) das ganze konstrastieren... WITHOUT SEASON klingt überwiegend getragen, dunkel und etwas bedrohlich & ist von einer gewissen surrealistischen Bizarrheit, irgendwas „stimmt hier nicht“ oder lauert im Geäst...
“There is a playful madness, an eccentricity running through the veins of this recording. Disembodied sounds flit around the margins of our consciousness, barely recognisable, separated from obvious meaning, snatches of the almost familiar. We’re nearly home, but not quite. It’s more dreamlike, a perverse version of home, where something isn’t quite right, something is out of place. Our sanity perhaps?
‘In that direction,’ the Cat said, waving its right paw round, ‘lives a Hatter: and in that direction,’ waving the other paw, ‘lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.’
‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.
‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’
Quote from Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Sonically flawless and wrapped in superb visuals, this is some of the strongest work from either artist.” [press release]
|
2005 |
€14.50 |
|
| TATE, DARREN |
Reveal |
CD-R |
4 pieces, 62+ minutes of new material: soft synth- & siren-drones, delicated noises are merged within, slow analogue tremolo-effects & organ-melodies.... at times it feels like being on a ferry on the water, or... acoustic nutrition for your imagination ! |
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| TAU CETI |
Todstimmung |
CD-R |
Excellent hazy night-drones, gong-like, overtunic, pulses underneath. Three long pieces of fantastic transcendental ambience.
Numbered edition.
|
2004 |
€12.00 |
|
| TELEPHERIQUE VS. S-CORE |
Past-Art |
mCD-R |
Neben der Wiederveröffentlichung der alten mail-art collab MC (Kokeshidisk) gibt es auf Taalem auch zwei neue Remixe von TELEPHERIQUE mit rauhen, unwirklichen, grottigen Granular-Dronescapes... dunkel, verstörend, aufregend arrangiert...
"telepherique remixed/reworked a s•core 7" released in 1995 for a unique result, perfect mix of weird sounds & atmospheres. full-colour printed 3" cd-r with artwork by delphine ancelle-b." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2007 |
€5.00 |
|
| TEMPLUM N.R. |
T.o.V. Improvisations XCII-XCIII |
CD |
The musical improvisations of T.o.V. derive from Umbra-visitation sessions held in the Temple of Mercurial Orgies and Room Luna Lake between 2014 and 2015. The concept of the album has been evolving within the minds of the Templum N.R. members for the past twenty years, so perhaps it is not proper to talk of this as their latest release. Linear time and Templum N.R. do not walk hand in hand and their rituals cannot be measured in hours but in years.
Compared to their previous release ‘Spectrum CCCXC: Transitio’, this album is based on a more analog-organic approach than an analog-digital-synthetic. The four echoing Hymns of Otherness are here to awake the ghosts dwelling within; join the Stagnant Dance and meet the Carcass of Formations – the shrieks are heard from beyond.
This CD version includes a ‘Grave Gravitation: Transitio XCV’ ep which came earlier exclusively as a part of ‘T.o.V. Improvisations XCII-XCIII’ special edition. Two tracks of pure oscillating power – minimalistic, wrathful modular drones, where multitude of hidden harmonics meets a choral of transforming frequencies.
The album is enclosed in a customised and screen printed Sublunar series cardboard covers, including six two-sided insert cards. Limited to 300 copies.
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| TENNEY, JAMES |
Melody, Ergodicity and Indeterminacy |
CD |
Für Freunde früher elektronischer Musik sind auf dieser CD v.a. die beiden Computermusik-Stücke ERGODOS I & II interessant (1963 + 1964), die mit unglaublichen Sounds gefüttert sind und als Vorläufer späterer Minimal & Drone-Musik gelten. Daneben sind hier 4 Solo-Instrumentalstücke für Flöte & Klarinette enthalten (darunter seine frühesten Werke POEM (1955) und MONODY (1959). Äusserst obskur wird es, wenn moderne Kompositionstechniken Computerklänge & Instrumente verbinden, was auf drei längeren Stücken von 1964 passiert. Eine schöne Zusammenstellung, welche die Vielseitigkeit dieses US-amerikanischen Komponisten demonstriert, inkl. Booklet mit Begleittext auf Englisch, Deutsch, Französisch!
"Poem" (1955). Jos Zwaanenburg, flute. "Ergodos I" (1963) computer music. "Monody" (1959). John Anderson, clarinet. "Ergodos II" (1964) computer music. "Seegersong #1" (1999). John Anderson, clarinet. "String Complement (with Ergodos II)" (1964) computer music with violin, viola, cello, bass. "Seegersong #2" (1999). Jos Zwaanenburg, flute. "Instrumental Responses (with Ergodos I)" (1964) computer music with flute, bass clarinet, trombone, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, bass, percussion, baritone. "Ergodos III" (1994). Frank Denyer and Nora Mulder, pianos. "Percussion Response" (with Ergodos I) (1964) computer music with Tobias Liebezeit, percussion.
Barton Workshop. James Fulkerson & Frank Denyer, directors. First Recordings. “James Tenney (1934-2006) was probably the first composer to develop an aesthetic for computer music, realizing that electronic music almost forced the composer to accept noise as music and to abandon the idea of absolute control over a composition. He came to accept Cage’s passion for randomness, but from a different angle: computer music can be “unpredictable” (rather than “random”). This CD looks at how Tenney persistently asked two questions: “What if?” and “How does it work?” Entitled Melody, Ergodicity and Indeterminacy, it brings an understanding of Tenney's exploration of the act of listening and the factors of composition, of how materials can be assembled, how a composer creates musical continuity. It contains four solos for flute and clarinet which are taken both from some of his earliest works, Poem (1955) and Monody (1959) and from relatively late in his career, Seegersong #1 & 2 (1999). The cd features Tenney’s Ergodos compositions (forerunners of minimal music or drones) - instead of a fixed object, the listener hears a process and assembles his own experience from the sounds which have enveloped him. The reel-to-reel source tapes for Ergodos I and II are unique in that they may be played in either direction, beginning and ending at any point and-or with any number of super-impositions of parts (channels). On this cd, both Ergodos tape pieces are presented along with the tape and its String complement, Instrumental responses (10 performers) and also with a percussion soloist (Percussion responses). Like so many of Tenney’s pieces, these works walk a line between the composers input and the choices of the performers in order to come to fruition. Tenney’s conscious inclusion of the performer's input is a consistent characteristic of his music and remains a factor which distinguishes him from many other composers.”
www.moderecords.com
|
2007 |
€15.00 |
|
| TERRA SANCTA |
Disintegration |
CD |
Nur selten hört man etwas vom australischen dark ambient Projekt TERRA SANCTA, aber wenn dann gehört es zum besten & massivsten was es im extrem dunkel-dronigen Bereich gibt. Ähnlich wie bei YEN POX bauen sich auf vier langen Stücke tiefbassige Gebilde auf, die allmählich komplexe und poly-dimensional wellende & obertönende Strukturen ausbilden, wie gigantische organische Materie im Weltenraum... eine Organik, die wie ein schwarzes Loch jede Energie schluckt und alles umhüllt in ihrer Umgebung.
"Four years after the release of the highly acclaimed Aeon CD, Disintegration finds Australias Terra Sancta in fine form, having
delivered another sweeping, dark ambient epic. Expanding on the sounds explored on his previous releases, Disintegration pushes the levels of intensity to new heights, featuring four long and texturally turbulent emissions of formidable power and depth. With its enormous washes of stormy drones and billowing, multi-layered atmospheres,
these are tracks that grow and build to such a degree they seem to collapse and erode under their own weight, strewing particles into a
vast horizon and creating a broad panorama of ever changing desert colored hues. A completely enveloping and engulfing release, this is
dark ambient on a massive scale, something Terra Sancta seems to have a knack for creating and something few do so well. Jewel box with 6
panel booklet, designed by Vestigial." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| TESENDALO |
Entwurf (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
released in July 1994 in an edition of 200 copies on white vinyl. Nice and always different patterns of colours on each Coverside.
Press-Information: "The open ambient project TESENDALO of Peter Schuster, founder of the long-existing tape-label PRION TAPES, charms you with magical ambience you will possibly drown into and forget your selves in. The two tracks "Entwurf I + II" work with similar elements (drones, guitars, effects + nature-recordings) to create slightly different dreamy soundscapes that will dip you and your environment into emotional atmos-spheres. This is in our opinion a perfect example what ambience is able to express... We'd also like to recommend the wonderful debut-LP of TESENDALO which cam out on Marginal Talent (a sub-label of Empty Records) recently."
|
1994 |
€ |
|
| THE FLOATING WORLD |
The Wood beyond the World |
CD |
"The Japanese term ‘ukiyo,’ translated as ‘the floating world,’ was used to describe the pleasure seeking urban culture of Edo Japan. When alternately rendered as ‘sorrowful world’ the term took on Buddhist connotations, indicating the transitory nature of human experience, the ephemerality of existence. These two seemingly opposed yet sympathetic concepts have always heavily informed the music of The Floating World and each album has been created with these as central themes. Named for a novel by William Morris, The Wood Beyond the World is The Floating World’s latest album and an attempt to capture the journey from the mundane to the illusory made by the novel’s protagonist – a journey that reflects the hunt for the temporal and intangible the band’s name intimates. With the addition of Neddal Ayad (guitar; Desolation Singers/Great Attractor) and Grey Malkin (drones, bells, piano; The Hare and the Moon), as full members who have brought additional nuance to the music, this ambition is more fully realized. Amanda’s delicate, melancholy flute parts now weave in and out of Neddal’s hazy guitar and Grey’s eerie and dissonant accompaniments – the whole underpinned by various rough field recordings used to compliment and counterpoint the music. Roy Felps (Korperschwache) also guests on the album, adding drifting acoustic guitar to a song. Amanda has also collaborated with Lacus Somniorum, New Risen Throne, Far Black Furlong, Dodson and Fog, The Joy of Nature and The Hare and the Moon. She and Neddal have another band together, Secrets to the Sea, as well. Released as part of our Eclipse Series.
Edition of 500 copies in 4 panel digi sleeve. 8 Tracks. Running Time 54:00" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
"The Floating World‘s The Wood Beyond the World is the brightest of Cyclic Law’s three October releases, apparent from the very first seconds. The chimes of Vortex and the waves of Taphephobia are joined by the flute of Amanda Votta. This convergence of sounds is not the only factor that ties these releases together. As with all of Votta’s work, The Wood Beyond the World is steeped in Buddhist concepts. The band’s name was inspired by the Japanese ukiyo, which can refer to either a pleasure-seeking culture or the ephemeral nature of existence. Votta’s project exists in tension, as do the preceding projects; and while all may possess different timbres, all approach the same subject: the overload of the modern era. The press release even echoes that of Tapephobia: “a journey from the mundane”. Yet Votta and her new bandmates exude no animosity, only holy contemplation. If nothing is permanent, should one turn a blind eye to suffering? Or might one seek the lessons of a higher plane? The protagonist of William Morris’ 1894 adventure novel of the same name leaves home to avoid trouble, only to find it elsewhere. We carry our potentials within us – good and evil, dead and alive – as if each of us were Schrödinger’s cat. The album sounds like the choice before it is made, the promise before it is spoken, the mandala before it is disturbed. The fuller cast of guitar, piano and field recordings enriches the wood like children among the trees." [A Closer Listen]
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| THE HUMAN VOICE |
Exit Lines |
CD |
"Harleif Langas better known as the mastermind behind Northaunt has found a new way to exorcize his ambient creativity. The Human Voice brings a rather different style from what we've been used to hearing from this man. It's definitely more into pure soundtrack music or soundscape experiments. There are records from which there's less to say, but only experience it yourself. 'Exit Lines' will bring the listener into a mysterious sonic voyage with fewer sounds mainly composed by guitar treatments. It increases some of the imaginary visions this kind of music can occur, but it's not necessary fascinating during the entire ride. I for sure like the wayguitar sounds can be used and transposed to create such an ambient trip. Exit Lines is the kind of album that needs a visual part this way creating a 'total concept'. Definitely for lovers of minimal experiences!" [Side-Line]
"NORTHAUNT mastermind Harleif Langas gives voice to a less dark and oppressive journey with "Exit lines", and explores the thin boundary between ambient (not necessarily dark....) music and spacious post-rock. Deep drones and sparse melodic guitar lines, "skeletal" structures and subtle noises. Appealing to both the Constellation-freaks and the courageous (and open minded) dark ambient travellers. Digisleeve." [label info] |
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| THE NORTH SEA |
Bloodlines |
LP |
"Brad Rose is an artist who is notoriously hard to pigeonhole. He might spend his days running the esteemed Digitalis imprint (sidelining the wonderful Foxy Digitalis webzine) but his nights are wiled away chiselling at the petrified corpse of experimental music. Donating sounds to Ajilvsga, Altar Eagle, Sea Zombies and Ossining (among many, many others) he has somehow found time to fashion a new solo work for Type and it could hardly be further removed from his last outing.
‘Bloodlines’ is an album rooted in synthesis – the kind of busted power electronics that emerged in the early 80s with Ramleh, Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse. This is not however simply a noise album – Brad has anchored his sound in this explorative mode, but uses his expertise to take it far beyond murk, grit and fractured teeth. With the help of Zelienople drummer Mike Weis (who accompanies the entire record on percussion) the record is a gloriously spacious excursion, with the fizzing Radiophonic blips, drones and tones set against gongs, scrapes and clanks. The sounds are dark and often punishing – torturous and occasionally frightening, but Brad somehow manages to offset it with an occasional flourish of beauty or calm.
The record is cut into two distinct acts (split lovingly for vinyl listening) and each ‘song’ blends into the next giving a true album experience. ‘Bloodlines’ is not a simple collection of pieces but a distinct narrative from beginning to end. As it tumbles from 50s sci fi synth tones into haunting off-world terror there is a sense of purpose and most of all, place. Brad has created a record that might not be an easy listening experience, but is one which grows on every successive play. It is truly deep and intensely troubling music." [label info]
www.typerecords.com
|
2010 |
€16.50 |
|
| THE SAND RAYS |
Remembered Vol. 1 (EPs gathered together) |
CD |
After the dissolution of The Infant Cycle, Jim DeJong went on a hiatus from production, and disappeared into seclusion. However, after a few months, an offer to score a feature film appeared, which spurred him back into production. A lot of flexible basic tracks were produced during this time, that could be fitted together for different scenes. Unfortunately, the film production ground to a halt, but being active again caused DeJong to begin his new project, The Sand Rays, and adapt some of the film score ideas into something that could be released and heard. A number of EPs were released on DeJong's label The Ceiling in tiny editions, under a number of similar names (The Sand Rays, Ray Sands, Sandra Y.), which are hard to find. The sounds emanate from an assortment of instruments and sound makers including carved runout grooves, bass guitar, bird cages, shortwave radio, and more, cooked into a choppy stew of drones and mood.
The cover photo reflects its contents. Up close, a pretty photo of sumac, but pulls back to reveal a more troubled location. This location was outside DeJong's old studio, a brownsfield too toxic for people, but a safe place for the vegetation to flourish.
The material could be considered an extension of the final inclinations of The Infant Cycle, such as the "Drop-out Center" album (2012, Zhelezobeton): zhelezobeton.bandcamp.com/album/drop-out-center A new chapter in the same book? Now we bring together the rare first four EPs in an easier to find and digest package, with full colour sleeve artwork. Eight interlocking tracks. Play it straight through, or random, or repeat.
zhb.radionoise.ru/eng/zhb-lxx.html
zhelezobeton.bandcamp.com/album/remembered-vol-1-eps-gathered-together
|
2017 |
€12.00 |
|
| THELXINOE |
Inner Subspace |
MC |
The first full-length album by Thelxinoe is re-released now for the first time on audio cassette.
This release continues developing a distinct Thelxinoe approach of creating high-quality drone ambient with the stringed and wind instruments involved. There are some slightly Maeror Tri/Troum-influenced moments such as light and a bit psychedelic, sometimes reversed guitar chords – especially in the shorter odd tracks which look like introductions or transitions to much longer even tracks. But the essence of Thelxinoe’s creativity is in the second track full of straight multilayered canvases of meditative drone ambient and particularly in the fourth 33-minutes track. This marvelous piece is called "Corona Borealis Void" and offers dark texture made of overwhelmingly long-resonating brain-blowing drones which goes as perfect background for sometimes melancholic and relaxing, sometimes psychedelic saxophone inclusions.
"Inner Subspace" was released digitally in 2012 on DNA Production.
Alexey Zakharov: alt-saxophone, baritone-saxophone
Peter L.: guitar, bass, sound processing
Kol Belov: cover art
https://thelxinoe-avalancheorganization.bandcamp.com/album/inner-subspace
|
2021 |
€9.00 |
|
| THEME |
Our Angels dislocated |
CD |
RICHO JOHNSON (HUSK, SPLINTERED) is back! Das Trio THEME besteht aus mindestens zwei Leuten der ursprünglichen SPLINTERED-Besetzung, tönt aber weit experimenteller & ambienter als man es von den eher rockigen SPLINTERED gewohnt war..... hier werden lichte Loop-Drones, Sitarklänge & indisch anmutende Meditations-Gesänge zu pulsierend-trancigen, organischen Soundscapes vermengt.. ihre zweite CD.
”The second album from this UK/Poland-based trio, following several years since their warmly received 'On Parallel Shores Removed' CD (Fourth Dimension/Tremor Recordings), offering a rich, organic and atmospheric tapestry of ideas that serves as a revitalised statement of intent. Combining sitars, violin drones, guitar strums, mutterings from an otherwise deserted midnight subway, electronic swirl, piano and all manner of otherworldly textures, 'Our Angels Dislocated' remains both focused and complex enough to cast new shadows with every listen. Complete with exclusive artwork by British sculptor, Mo Jupp, it fits perfectly into Lumberton Trading Company's erratic and often changeable grand design. NB: If you have already purchased the original version of this album, with the manufacturing fault (a 'jump' between tracks 2 and 3), please do not hesitate to return it to wherever you purchased it from in order to arrange our replacing it with the repressed version.” [label description]
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
| |
Valentine (Lost) Forever |
CD |
"The third album from Theme, a band comprised of Stuart Carter, Jeanne Boyer and Richard Johnson (from'90s influential industrial-experimental band Splintered and head of the Lumberton Trading Company label), is a hallucinogenic intersection, where the exploration of twilight spaces, dreams, bitter reflections and hopes collide with a sense of escape (to better places?) or an abandoned 'self', either lost or searching for much needed identity.
More 'song'-based than their previous album, on Valentine (Lost) Forever Theme often witnesses barbed yet oblique words cut-up and formed into mantras over a mesh of cascading drones, textures, blissed-out guitar strums, submerged tamboura, metallic sheets of electronic frah, occasional drum pounds and chilling swells 'n' flecks of musique concrete. Overall, it catches the group exploring their environment, in more senses than one, with renewed vigour and nothing but questions left either open-ended or vying for interpretation. It's a world of rubble, dust and sprawling collapse, psychological or otherwise, screaming for meaning and purpose in a world gone mad where inner conflicts, vulnerability and regret are drowned in vast existential pools...
With an additional remix by ex-Siouxsie & the Banshees bass player Steven Severin, this genuine album offers an apocalyptic sound mirage that recalls the experimental and post industrial works of :Zoviet*France, Throbbing Gristle and Coil, as well as the occult-like numbness of Current 93, the bleak avant-electronica of Andrew Liles and the psychedelic drones furrowed by the group's own previous work in both Splintered and Theme. In that sense, Valentine (Lost) Forever is a definite masterpiece in the ever-evolving legacy of the U.K. industrial scene, and if this is the end, then it's time to burn the truth." [label info]
www.HCBrecords.com
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
| THIS HEAT |
Out of Cold Storage |
6 x CD-Box |
Monumentale Box mit ALLEN offiziellen Releases & dickem Booklet sowie einer CD mit bisher unveröffentlichten Aufnahmen von der legendären britischen Band um CHARLES HAYWARD, die aus verschiedensten Einflüssen von Industrial bis Jazz in genialer Weise einen ganz neuen, eigenen Stil kreierten, der bis heute absolut einmalig geblieben ist!
“Where do you start with something like this? With a history lesson and a 9.0 review up at Pitchfork this week I suppose... Born out of the UK crucible that existed in the period immediately post punk (before it earned capitals and morphed into genre all of its own...), This Heat formed through the restless response of three twenty-somethings who felt impelled to document their corner of 1970's London. Already faces at the more severe end of the prog-rock scene, Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward were joined by non-musician Gareth Williams - a catalyst that would see them recording vast quantities of work then editing the results down into consumable chunks of aural fortitude. Spread over a massive six discs and further bolstered by a pretty darn exhaustive book that interviews the surviving members (Williams passed away in 2001), 'Out Of Cold Storage' is testament to the unbridled virility of This Heat - with all the music very much rooted in its era, yet also utterly timeless. Comprised of their five studio albums ('This Heat', 'Deceit', 'Health and Efficiency', 'Made Available' and 'Repeat') plus an incendiary set of live action culled from their 1980/81 heyday, 'Out Of Cold Storage' allows everyone to get hold of these classic recordings in pristine form - a real treat given the eroded bootlegs and mp3s that have been doing the rounds for years. Ranging in style from the avant-rock of their eponymous debut, through to the political polemic of 'Deceit', This Heat are spiky without the need to resort to high-kicking comparisons with the likes of Orange Juice et al., with their output always a couple of steps removed from their retrospective peers. Unafraid to disrupt their reputation through creative right-angles, the likes of 'Repeat' and it's central 20 minutes of looped drones and rhythms (think Can in a chiller cabinet) are seemingly at odds with 'Health And Efficiencies' melody etched high - yet rather than cause tension, these juxtapositions merely heighten the band's appeal and allow you a glimpse into moments of creative perfection. Vast, comprehensive and thoroughly indispensable, 'Out Of Cold Storage' is the kind of collection that reasserts your faith in the music and proves that the endless vault combing perpetrated by labels can sometimes come good. Six shades of fantastic....“ [Boomkat]
|
2006 |
€75.00 |
|
| |
same |
LP |
"Second pressing of vinyl re-issue. First official vinyl re-issue in collaboration with original band members Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward. 24 bit/96 kHz re-master from original analog tapes. Includes booklet with track notes and archival photos. Isn't it so often the case that the most innovative works of art -- the ones that break the ground where others follow -- are the ones that seem to reach only the ears of those who take those ideas and run with them? So it is with This Heat and their eponymous debut album frequently referred to as 'blue and yellow' for its ultra-minimal jacket. Within its 48 minute run time, the seeds of post-punk, avant rock, noise rock and post-rock can be found. Formed in Brixton, a multicultural, and -- at the time -- down-at-heel part of south London, This Heat were born into a music scene in rapid flux, first thanks to the punk explosion and then via new wave and its myriad offshoots into pop, rock and art-rock. But while many sought to apply punk attitude to chart-friendly sounds, This Heat were concocting some of the most experimental ideas ever committed to tape, taking influence from musique concrète, krautrock, the burgeoning industrial scene and even the dub reggae blasting out in their home borough. Their debut album had -- for the time and for the DIY scene -- an unusually long gestation, recorded in sessions between February 1976 and September 1978 in a variety of studios including their own Cold Storage, a converted cold storage room in the Acme Studios complex. Innovating throughout, they combined loops and tape manipulation with live performance and haunting vocals to a complex, dissonant whole. The band recorded everything they ever did -- including gigs -- and tracks such as 'Water' were entirely improvised in the studio. Given the difficult, abrasive, and involved nature of their sound, This Heat never found anything approaching mainstream success, but patronage by the influential Radio 1 DJ John Peel meant they reached a national audience -- whether that audience was ready for them or not. Celebrating This Heat's 40th anniversary in 2016, Modern Classics Recordings will re-issue the band's catalog -- 1979's This Heat, 1980's Health and Efficiency, and 1981's Deceit -- with full co-operation of surviving members Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward. Four decades on, the tireless efforts of This Heat's process can once again be a revelation for new audiences." [label info]
www.lightintheattic.net
„Was diese so Band so ausnehmend macht und selbst unter heutigen Maßstäben so ungemindert bestechend, ist in meinen Ohren der Thrill zwischen schwebenden Momenten, in denen die Musik die Luft anzuhalten oder garottiert zu werden scheint und sich enorme Energie aufstaut, und den unglaublich intensiven Eruptionen in Gestalt des ostinaten Drummings und sich ins Gehirn fressender Loops. Dazu kommt dann noch an besonders sublimen Momenten HAYWARDs Gesang mit einem Timbre, das einem die Kehle zuschnürt durch den wehen Ton und mit heißkalter Dringlichkeit die Schädeldecke aufstemmt....“ [Bad Alchemy #51]
“A landmark recording by one of most important British bands, full stop. this, their first release, tore up the book and laid new rules for band composition and performance. First, the music: without precedent, then, the musicians: all extraordinary, all uncompromisingly radical, then the way it was all put together: endlessly surprising, hammeringly intense, and the sound: hard, radical, crafted, rich, with complete control of the frequency range. Beautifully recorded, radically mixed, this was breathtakingly present. Stripped back to the bone but never simplified. And it hasn't aged. this is deep, complex work that creates its own world, anticipating much that was to follow in the next 15 years. A luminous release out of print (for almost a decade?). Re-mastered by the group for this re release.“ [label info]
"Earlier this year, a few months back, we made the 40th anniversary This Heat vinyl reissues our Records Of The Week. More like Records Of All Time, really. The two full-lengths (This Heat and Deceit) quickly sold out, and have been sadly absent from our racks for the past little while - but now they both have been repressed, and are available again at a slightly lower price than before (thanks to no longer being in gatefold jackets). If somehow you missed out before, we urge you to get 'em now! Our review of this one...
Oooh, at last nicely reissued on vinyl, automatic Records Of The Week!!! What more is there to say that we haven't already said (at length, below, you'll see) about these This Heat records?
Trying to explain why this record is so good is sort of like trying to explain why ice cream is so delicious.
Or maybe it's kind of like writing an introduction for the new Pynchon novel. Or telling a few jokes before Richard Pryor comes on stage. Or throwing a couple quick passes before Joe Montana comes on the field. It's that daunting, that overwhelming, that impossible.
The trio of Charles Hayward, Charles Bullen, and Gareth Williams known collectively as This Heat were one of the few bands that literally changed people's lives. Changed the way folks thought about music. I (Andee) couldn't believe music like this actually existed. It was everything I wanted to listen to before I knew that THIS was exactly what I wanted to listen to. Hit It Or Quit It publisher / rock critic / indie scenstress Jessica Hopper once wrote that she literally pee'd her pants the first time she heard This Heat. And it's not hard to see why. Without This Heat, modern, alternative, avant garde music as we know it would be a whole different beast. Post rock, math rock, avant rock are hugely indebted to the genre shattering experimentalism of This Heat. Tortoise, You Fantastic, Yona Kit, Brise Glace, Psychic Paramount, Laddio Bolocko, Radian, Village Of Savoonga, Larsen, Starfuckers, Circle, Salvatore, I Am Spoonbender - none of those bands would even exist if it weren't for This Heat, or if they still did you can bet they would sound a whole lot different. And that's just off the top of our heads, AND that's -just- bands whose sound directly reflects the influence of This Heat. Imagine how many performers and artists were influenced by This Heat but who let that influence manifest itself in not so obvious ways.
We once described This Heat as "Krautrock-ish hyper rhythmic tape-looped prog." Which comes close to succinctly describing the magical musical alchemy of This Heat, but still only scratches the surface. This is their self titled debut, originally released in 1979, which manages over the course of about 50 minutes to redefine almost all music that has come before.
The sound of This Heat is rhythm and texture and dynamics. The recording studio as instrument. Every sound and every song is based on rhythm and texture. There are hooks, and melodies, but they exist to serve the rhythm and are often born from the deft manipulation of sound and tempo. Even the most static and repetitive parts manage to sound -musical-. There are vocals, but they are minimal and otherworldly, weary and sing songy and completely mesmerizing. A droning musical accompaniment to the haunting whirs and clanging percussion in the background. This record is such a totally immersive and strangely lovely musical environment. From the machinelike Krautrock of "Horizontal Hold" to the dreamy contemplative "Twilight Furniture" with its simple chiming guitars, muted tribal percussion and keening vocals, to the bizarre affected drum workout of "24 Track Loop", it's like wandering through some alien musical world. As sky full of greys and blues, smeary drones floating gently by, haunting quavering vocals drifting below, like tendrils of smoke, the barren landscape littered with all manner of rhythmic outcroppings, harsh jagged crashes and booms, as well as low rolling thumps and stutters, off in the distance simple spare melodies float and hover, each note a glowing spot on the horizon. Absolutely and utterly overwhelmingly brilliant.
There are plenty of places on the web and in magazines to read more about the history of the band, the band members, the various releases and reissues (see elsewhere on the AQ website for reviews of past editions of various TH recordings) but none of that ultimately matters as much as the sound. And oh the glorious sound. Just take a listen to the sound samples and no words will be necessary." [Aquarius Records]
|
2016 |
€26.50 |
|
| THO-SO-AA |
Identify |
CD |
"We are proud to announce the long awaited ambient-masterpiece identify by Tho-So-Aa. After 7 years of development Tho-So-aa was finally ready to present this release. This is the german outfit most complex and dense album. Some of the tracks may show you with threatening collages and experimental loops, how close the difference between freedom and prison is. Other tracks are surrounded by melancholic soundscapes and dark bass-drones inspired by desperation and totally sadness. In the past years Lutz Rach spent working with sounds to create this thick layers and drones that have never surfaced in his music before. This is no longer pure dark ambient music, it is enriched by industrial sounds experimental use of classical instruments voice samples and an overall laying cry against isolation. The dark soundscapes expose a very cynical point of view on our sick society, it decribes the unknown pressure to identify with yourself! The wait was worth it, with this THO-SO-AA delivers his to date masterpiece. After 49 minutes, Identify lets you alone in your silly live, with the cognition: You are 75% dead. IDENTIFY NOW!" [label info]
www.tesco-germany.com
|
2010 |
€14.00 |
|
| TIBETAN RED / THE OVAL LANGUAGE / DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE |
The Breath of the Hydra |
CD |
A three way collaboration between the Germany based THE OVAL LANGUAGE, the Catalan TIBETAN RED and DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE living in Rennes, France. In an on and off exchange since end of 2016, a continuous exchange of audio material, ideas and suggestions. Salvador Francesch and Guido Hübner meet again after long years at the occasion of a concert of the latter one at the LEM festival in Barcelona. Since then working together became evident as was the choice of including Klaus-Peter John with whom several collaborations had already seen the light of day through the years, most notably the homage to the late Carlfriedrich Claus ‘sprechzimmern’ with RLW as well as a 2x CD collection of collaborations on the notorious Monochrome Vison label in Moscow.
The association of their different sound worlds and even more specifically their extremely particular fashions of creating them was meant to merge and melt in a whole able to blur clear distinctions with only an occasional sneaking out of a head and a hissing tongue amongst many that takes the scent and direction respectively in the brooding heat that forges shape and carves direction.
TIBETAN RED Salvador Francesch is a catalan-canadian painter, sculptor and sound explorer who lives in La Garrotxa, Girona. He has released 5 CDs in his Tibetan Red project. His work pursues experimentation with sounds that seek to convey some aspects of his interest in Eastern rituals and ceremonial art.
THE OVAL LANGUAGE Klaus-Peter John is from Leipzig, the project started as a trio in the early 80’s working to turn into his solo project with sound, noise works in open spaces, photography, installations and land-art informed projects in which mainly the voice is put center stage.
DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE started in the early 80’s in Berlin with cassette production and performative concerts, exhibitions and installations to which a D.I.Y. approach of a lot of customized equipment became inherent accompanying an interest in several areas of science and technology. Moved to Barcelona then France, producing many recordings and performance works.
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/the-breath-of-the-hydra
"The Breath of the Hydra (ACU 1029), da weißt man ja, es sind drei Köpfe. So auch hier: TIBETAN RED + THE OVAL LANGUAGE + DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE. Ersterer, Salvador Francesch in La Garrotxa in den katalonischen Pyrenäen, hat dem mit Todo entretenimiento es una anticipación del infierno auch das Motto vorangestellt. Der Dichter José Bergamin soll das gesagt haben, als Vorstand der Alianza de Intelectuales Antifascistas der kulturelle Kopf der Spanischen Republik, der Picasso den Auftrag zu "Guernica" gegeben hat. Francesch teilt mit Bergamins Rechtfertigung des 'Roten Terrors' allemal die Vorliebe für Rot und offenbar auch die Vorfreude auf die Hölle. Blödsinn, natürlich die Abneigung gegen Amusement. Er ist mit seinem Debut 1985 auf Freedom in a Vacuum nicht ganz so lange dabei wie Guido Hübner, der ab 1981 sich der Cassette- & Soundculture einschrieb. Bei "Sprechzimmern" (2015), einer Hommage an den konkreten Lautpoeten Carlfriedrich Claus, und zehn Jahre zuvor bei 'Papillon Schizophone' war er dabei auch schon mit Peter John zusammengekommen. Der Leipziger, der in den 80ern als Sänger bei Neu Rot (!) anfing, hat sich nach "Hibernation" & "Waldkonzerte" auf Edition Telemark zuletzt mit "Hexen Hexer" gegen Denunziation und Hexenjagden positioniert, auch wenn heute dabei, anders als im Spanischen Bürgerkrieg und beim Hydraschlachten, seltener Blut fließt. Ich kann mir eine 'Melancholie des Widerstands', wie sie Hübner von László Krasznahorkai aufgegriffen hat, als das Verbindende zwischen den dreien vorstellen bei ihrem alchemistischen Procedere mit brodeligem Köcheln und Sieden, das einher geht mit kratzigen und schleifenden Impulsen und hohleren, quasi perkussiven Anmutungen, die das überwölben. Dazu vexieren zirpige, halbwegs natürliche Klänge mit einem leisen, hauchzarten 'Schreiben' mit metallischem Griffel, über das motorische, zischende, sirrend oszillierende Attacken hinweggehen und einen industrialen Dominator installieren, der impulsiv oder gedämpft rumort und infernalische Stimmen nur ahnen lässt. Der Griffel schreibt weiter in einer opaken Nichtstille und hat dabei etwas von einem Keuchen oder Röcheln an sich. Martialische Wellen mischen das auf, und zischende Ventile machen das zu einem Tauchgang in die Schinderwerkstätten der Schlotbarone. Trappeliges Toben, abgerissene Kürzel und tatsächlich der Kehle entrissene Laute verunklaren dabei die Differenz von Mensch-Maschine, Organisch-Anorganisch, Außen-Innen, Hart-Weich, Makro-Mikro. Immer wieder leise als bruitistische Audiographie aus winzigen, halb wie gehauchten Krakeln vor einer nun dröhnend bebenden Klangwand. Wenn nur das Schreien nicht wäre, das infernalische, kaum zu hören, aber doch nicht zu leugnen. Ganz in der Nähe - Folterkeller, Höllen. Die satanischen Mühlen mahlen als zerrende Tonbandspuren, weiß der Teufel, was sich hinter verschlossenen Türen alles abspielt. Scharrt da wer an Metall? Was sind das für unheimliche Heimlichkeiten?" [Bad Alchemy]
"German Attenuation Circuit label run by Sascha aka EMERGE, has released a new album in which three sound artists of electronic experimental music collaborate: German artist The Oval Language, Catalan Tibetan Red and Das Synthetische Mischgewebe who lives in Rennes, France.
"The Breath of the Hydra" is the result of exchanging audio files since the end of 2016.
Salvador Francesch is a Catalan-Canadian painter, sculptor and sound explorer who lives in La Garrotxa, Girona. He has published five CD's with his Tibetan Red project.
Klaus-Peter John aka The Oval Language is from Leipzig and works in noise, open space, photography, installations and informed land-art projects where the voice takes center stage. Guido Hübner aka Das Synthetische Mischgewebe started in the early 80's in Berlin with the production of cassettes and performance concerts, exhibitions and installations.
This album consists of a single track of almost 52 minutes long which unfurls two faces. One, the sound is almost imperceptible and silence plays a relevant role. In the other, drones and noises are the background of a proposal with a strong organic character and consequently, gasping and buried voices are barely heard and spit out an indecipherable language. The clicks near the middle of the track look like whips that are followed by screams which are in the distance. All this takes place in a dark ambience that well represents the history of the Hydra." [Guillermo Escudero/LOOP]
https://emerge.bandcamp.com/album/the-breath-of-the-hydra, http://www.attenuationcircuit.de/
|
2021 |
€12.00 |
|
| TIDAL / CHAOS AS SHELTER / IGOR KRUTOGOLOV |
Ingathering of exiles |
CD |
Sehr fruchtbare Zusammenarbeit des US-Minimal-Drone-Projekts TIDAL mit den apokalyptisch-sakralen CHAOS AS SHELTER und dem ebenfalls aus Israel stammenden Experimentalmusiker IGOR KRUTOGOLOW, die hier eine unheilvolle und schwermütige Atmosphäre heraufbeschwören: bedrohlich–symphonische Drones, pathetische Klagegesänge, tief-eruptive Soundschwälle, schwelende feedbacks, elektronische Sounds und akustische Instrumente oder Soundquellen... ein bedrückend intensiverTrip ins sakrale Herz der Dunkelheit, der sich hier symbolisch auf das biblisch-messianische Heilsversprechen bezieht..
„Tidal is David Brownstead, previously known for his harsh noise project 666 Volt Battery Noise. Now focusing on minimal ambient music, David has released CDs under the name Tidal on Alluvial Recordings and just recently on Manifold Records. "The Four Rivers" on Alluvial, is the first installment in what is to be a trilogy dedicated to and inspired by Mishima. "Golem And Man" on A Pyrrhic Victory/Manifold is his latest release which was released in October 2002. The second installment of the Mishima trilogy is in the works as well as other releases and collaborations.
Conceived in 1999, Vadim Gusis (Chaos as Shelter) is Israel's premier solo composer of Soundscape, Neo-Folk, Ambient Drone music...He currently has three CDr releases, one 3" CDr, 2 CDs, a double CD and a 7" record in his discography. He works out of New Jerusalem Studio.
Igor Krutogolov is an experimental multi-instrumentalist (including cello, piano and throat singing) based in Jaffa, Israel. He is a frequent contributor to Chaos As Shelter as well as various other projects in genres ranging from ambient to improvisation to harsh noise. His solo work has appeared on various compilations and he is currently working on upcoming solo and collaborative releases. Historically "The Ingathering of Exiles" is when, in the Messianic age, all Jewish people, including the Ten Lost Tribes, would gather from their exile around the world to Israel. The Ground Fault Recordings CD, "Ingathering of Exiles" is an idea that explores the shared
heritage of the three collaborators.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€7.00 |
|
| TOEPLITZ, KASPER T. |
Capture |
CD |
Epischer one-tracker (76 min) für Tanztheater, sehr hochfrequent rauschig-mikrotonal, erinnert z.B. an KARKOWSKI und LOPEZ, nach einiger Zeit wird man völlig absorbiert von diesem sirenenhaften weissen Rauschen,..... so minimal wie nur vorstellbar und doch so kraftvoll und hypnotisierend, erzeugt das Gehirn von ganz alleine Veränderungen im KlangMaelstrom... am Ende so metallisch durchdringend dass es kaum noch hörbar ist...
“A very micro-tonal score, played by 3 dancers/musicians whose infinitesimally slow movements are "captured" by web-cams and "mapped" to all the parameters of a real-time digital synthesis engine - frequency, amplitude, ambitus…. No samples, no pre-recorded sounds, the sole sound source is a white noise generator, sculpted by filters, producing a polyphony of drones, oscillations, movements of electricity - a long electronic ascension”. [label info]
|
2005 |
€13.50 |
|
| TOMKINS, KEVIN |
Her Favourite Distance Was That Between A Cough... |
CD |
"Kevin Tomkins is best known for his work in Whitehouse and his own group Sutcliffe Jugend, now called Sutcliffe No More. He also worked with Bodychoke, Inertia, and Patient K. Most of his music has its background in the power electronics scene that evolved in Great Britain around the label Come Organisation and the group Whitehouse. Power electronics is a style of noise music that typically consists of static, screeching waves of feedback, analogue synthesizers making sub-bass pulses or high frequency squealing sounds; with screamed and distorted vocals. The genre is noted for its influence from industrial. It is generally atonal, like most noise music and also features a lack of conventional melodies or rhythms. To match its sonic excess, power electronics relies heavily upon extreme thematic and visual content: whether in lyrics, album art, or live performance actions. For his solo work, Kevin sometimes uses a very different style to his group work. An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. In summer 2023, Kevin played a rare solo show in Vienna at Klanggalerie's 30th birthday bash. It was based on his autoharp album using that very instrument plus voice and an arrangement of gimmicks and tools. A week later, he created an album based on the performance and his time in Vienna."
Dokument eines der sehr raren Liveauftritte von Whitehouse- und Sutcliffe Jugend-Mastermind Kevin Tomkins (2023, 30 Jahre Klanggalerie Festival Wien) als CD im Digipack auf Klanggalerie. Am bekanntesten durch seine Arbeit mit der Power Electronics-Legende
Whitehouse oder mit Sutcliffe Jugend, steht Kevin Tomkins vor allem für atonale und schroffe Musik, die durch pulsierende Analogsynthesizer rhythmisiert wird - extrem bis hin zu den visuellen Aspekten wie Artworks
oder Bühnenshow. Doch mit seinen Soloprojekten folgt der Brite schon lange einem freiern und avantgardistischen Ansatz. Mit seinem aktuellen Studiowerk "Music For An Unprepared Autoharp" widmete sich Tomkins der
obskuren Kastenzither Autoharp, auf der sich per Tastatur ganze Akkorde bilden lassen. Genau wie auf dem Album entlockte er beim Wiener Auftritt zum 30. Geburtstag seines Labels dem Instrument mit unkonventioneller Spielweise Drones, Melodien und Obertöne. Seine Stimme du weitere Hilfsmittel und Effekte ergänzten die Aufführung. Aus deren Audiomitschnitt und Eindrücken seines Aufenthalts in Wien entstanden die hier vorliegenden
experimentell-ambientesken fünf Tracks.
|
2023 |
€15.00 |
|
| TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO & TIZIANO DOMINIGHINI |
Counterchronology |
CD |
"Unreleased very first recordings from 1979 by Giancarlo Toniutti together with Tiziano Dominighini. His very first approach on electric and acoustic instruments and noises. Recovered and mixed by Giancarlo Toniutti 2014. Limited to 300 copies." [label info]
www.finalmuzik.com
"The only straightforward statement found on Counterchronology's densely worded liner notes is downright blunt: "Tiziano is dead." Aside from that one somber fact, the archeological ruminations of this recording are laboriously complex; but here's what we can gather. In September of 1993, the Italian vanguardist Giancarlo Toniutti came across two cassettes that contained material dating as far back as 1979, marking some of his earliest recording then in concert with a character named Tiziano Dominighini. He shelved them once again for another decade when he rediscovered the material to hold a number of open-ended / freeform recordings of Giancarlo and Tiziano clamoring about the glassworks shop run by Dominghini's father along with various environmental recordings, sparse yet maltreated guitar splutter, automatic writings, art brut actions, and long-form chord organ drones. In repurposing the musical interludes and provisional collages from those tapes, Toniutti sought to aggregate the sounds in such a manner as to maintain the something of an integrity from the originals while configuring the more naive gestures with the hand of a mature electroacoustic composer. On the near 34-minute first track, Toniutti weaves haptic events in varying degrees of density upon a bed of those long-form organ chords, with unhinged filter sweeps diving deep into cascading deep low-end rumblings. There's an extemporaneous psychedelic quality to much of the percussive burblings that hold aesthetic similarities to Angus MacLise, AMM, Z'ev, certain facets to the early Nurse With Wound continuum, and the most shambolic / abstract participants of the global freakfolk explosion from a couple years back. The shorter 10-minute second piece slowly blossoms from a deep bellowing thrum with desolated sibilance into a frenzied clamor on junked metal accompanied by distant flutes and strange utterances, both detouring from and complementing the first piece quite nicely. As rewarding as he is challenging, Giancarlo Toniutti continues to impress." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| TOOP, DAVID |
Entities Inertias Faint Beings |
LP |
From David Toop:
The music existed already, spores maybe or dormant clusters of digital files. Out of three periods of solitude the germination began. The first was in Queensland, on Tamborine Mountain (an aboriginal name), so silent at night that I listened to recorded music – Japanese gagaku, Buddhist ritual from Bhutan, Korean Confucian music – as if drifting into cavernous black space. Stepping into sleep I saw a hypnagogic image - a transparent swimming pool suspended over the mouth of a volcano. I read Stephen Mansfield’s book on Japanese stone gardens – “Successful stone arrangements seem almost alive, the elements conversing among themselves with an occult vitality, the call and response that has been noted between well-placed rocks resembling the chanting of Buddhist sutras” ; Daylight listening in chill air, hearing whip birds, butcher birds, noisy mynahs, kookaburra chatter, rainbow lorikeets; catapult elastic, I wrote, radio waves in a kettle, electric buzzers. On Queensland’s Gold Coast I gazed at a distant humpback whale breaching out to sea, watched Yasujiro Ozu’s 1934 silent version of A Story of Floating Weeds, listened to cicadas burst into life as a helicopter flew overhead.
Back into society and driving with Lawrence English I asked him, why would anybody release music in the 21st century? He laid out his philosophy; I was convinced. Then in St Ives, Cornwall, solitary again, drawing, reading Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects and Clarice Lispector’s Agua Viva (her beautiful sentence: “dry keys echo in the dark and humid early hours”), gazing at ocean flux, music trembling into life from secreted audio files, music becoming living entities. Phantoms rose up out of sea mist, images of black light and blistered skin from photographers (Takuma Nakahira and Tomatsu Shomei), the fermenting of sounds. From a distance I heard voices – the extraordinary painter Mariko Sugano reciting ancient Japanese garden texts on the taboos associated with stone setting; Emi Watanabe’s flute as if a ghost from the Noh; the sounds of underwater creatures in my pond; Sylvia Hallett’s sarangi crying (in cavernous black space); the fervent drumming of Rie Nakajima’s small mechanical beings (like cooking with paper, wire and batteries); John Butcher’s reeds, music as a scientific exploration of the body, the instrument. Rie talked about the properties of objects, soft or hard. In the Noh play Aoi no Ue, the spirit is compelled with drum and plucked string (the catalpa bow).
In solitude I contemplated death, decay, the gush of life. Back in the car, Lawrence told me, when you die you’ll leave many projects unfinished. I laughed. Unspeakable truths, notes for a language to come, maybe not this world.
room40.bandcamp.com/album/entities-inertias-faint-beings
"Composer/performer/improviser David Toop’s latest release traces the seam between sound and music, paying attention to the hidden sounds that surround us and turning silence inside out.
In a lot of ways I’ve come to dislike music,” David Toop told The Wire in 2003. “I love sound, I love silence, but music as a whole I don’t like anymore.” You might assume that would have troubled him, given that Toop, then 54, had been deeply involved with music for most of his life, in virtually every role imaginable: performer, improviser, composer, critic, theorist, archivist, curator, and label owner. But if it represented any sort of crisis for him—six years before, burnout and “indifference to contemporary music” had led Toop to hang up his hat as a music journalist—it didn’t hold back his output. Since making the statement, Toop has continued to perform and lecture, released a half-dozen albums, and written two books, including the recently published Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation, and the Dream of Freedom.
But Toop’s turn away from music, that complicated category of organized sound, has been crucial in one very important aspect: It has allowed him to ask probing questions about the nature of listening. Those questions come to a head on Entities Inertias Faint Beings, his first studio album since 2007’s Sound Body. Offering a vibrant array of rustle and hum, the new album traces the seam between sound and music, between the intentional and the incidental, between expression and mute abstraction. A partial index of its sounds would include the whine of rubbed wineglass rims; shortwave radios on the fritz; the electric buzz of the forest canopy at night; the languid click of fingernails across guitar strings; the whirr and flap of a 16mm film projector’s take-up reel. It is an album about paying attention to the hidden sounds that surround us, about turning silence inside out. And it is an album about using sound to find one's own bearings.
Entities Inertias Faint Beings got its start as an autobiography—or, more precisely, it is the result of what turned out to be an abortive case of writer’s block. Its genesis lies in three periods of solitude: first a stay on Tamborine Mountain in subtropical Queensland, Australia (“so silent at night that I listened to recorded music—Japanese gagaku, Buddhist ritual from Bhutan, Korean Confucian music—as if drifting into cavernous black space,” Toop writes in his introduction to the album), and then on Queensland’s Gold Coast, where cicadas harmonized with helicopters. Back in Cornwall, trying and failing to write his life’s story, he began sifting through several years' worth of personal recordings he had stored on his computer: small, percussive thunks; filament-like drones; the crinkling of paper. Shuffling, layering, and arranging—not so much composing as feeling his way through the material, as if improvising—he added new sounds to the mix, like a quiet passage of acoustic guitar from one of his daily practice sessions, and a hydrophone recording from his garden pond. And in London, he fleshed out the pieces with the help of musician friends. The improvising saxophonist John Butcher lends trilling, bird-like sounds to two tracks; Rie Nakajima's battery-powered motorized objects rattle and whirr, suggesting insect colonies in upheaval.
The overall result—thematically, anyway—is something like one of W.G. Sebald’s literary peregrinations: a palimpsest of place, memory, and accident, although its precise route is unknown to all but its creator. There is little to tell us what any of these clicks and pings might actually be. Several of the album’s track titles suggest cryptic headings scrawled on notecards in dusty filing cabinets: “dry keys echo in the dark and humid early hours”; “pieces of wood and iron, phials of odours”; “sea slug.” They function as indices of possible experiences, and if they explain little—do the bassy gurgles of “sea slug” really come from a gastropod mollusk?—they offer unusual and inviting travelogues consisting of little more than white noise and feral throb.
But Toop can’t quite resist sneaking music—that most elegantly ordered aspect of organized noise—back into the equation. Again and again, understated wisps of melody, harmony, and rhythm surface briefly and disappear just as quickly, sending out ripples that supercharge every corner of this lovely, engrossing album. In the album’s centerpiece, “ancestral beings, sightless by their own dust,” Sylvia Hallett’s sarangi, a bowed string instrument from Hindustani classical music, weaves an eerie, mournful air over slow, methodical pulses. Then, at the track’s end, a jungle’s worth of growling, chirping, buzzing sounds swells and is swallowed in turn by the steady gush of a tropical rainstorm. Toop has compared his compositional processes to traditional Japanese stone gardens—one track, “setting stones,” quotes a thousand-year-old passage on the subject—and at its most engrossing, Entities captures the uncanny qualities of inanimate objects in conversation with one another. It is a way of suggesting that the music exists independently even of its creator; it is a product of the act of listening itself. By the act of focusing our ears, we bring it to life—and vice versa." [Pitchfork]
|
2016 |
€23.50 |
|
| TOPOGRAFIA |
Genius Loci |
CD |
"Genius Loci uses deep drones, acoustic instruments’ sounds and field recordings registered near the author’s place of living (Jaworzno). The project was inspired by the author’s personal fascination with the diversity of nature and the philosophy of Schopenhauer, who considered nature to be one of the most primaeval manifestations of a blind and aimless will, a will which we too are a part of." [label info]
www.greytone.eu
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| TORAL, RAFAEL |
Space Elements Vol. 1 |
CD |
"Bis Ende der 90er hatte sich der portugiesische Musiker mit Gitarren-Drones auseinandergesetzt. Mittlerweile hat Toral um den für ihn paradigmatischen Begriff »Space« ein ganzes post-Free-Jazz-in-Elektronik-Universum kreiert und dies auf zahlreichen VÖs dokumentiert. Als einer der wesentlichen Gitarristen der 90er angesehen, arbeitete er u.a. mit J. Zorn, J. O'Rouke, Sonic Youth, MIMEO oder Alvin Lucier. Auf dieser CD entschlackt Toral Musik soweit, bis nur noch arrangierte Sounds übrig bleiben. Sein Vorteil ist es, dass dabei keine eklektische Futzelelectronica herauskommt, sondern ein durchaus abgefeimtes Setting, in dem Reste von Jazz und - mit etwas gutem Willen - auch Swing auszumachen sind. Klarerweise auf heutige Verhältnisse gemünzt. Mit dabei: Rute Praça (Cello), Margarida Garcia (b.), César Burago (dr.) und Torals Langzeitkumpel, der Taschentrompeter Sei Miguel. »Ernste« Musik mit hohem Spaßfaktor." [Heinrich Deisl / SKUG]
"The Space Program is Rafael Toral's long-term research launched in 2004, through which he has unearthed an innovative approach and a complete re-thinking of how electronic music is conceived and experienced. Using custom experimental instruments, Toral performs electronic music concerned with "phrasing and swing", shaping strange melodies with physicality, movement and gesture in flux. The result is a kind of alien electronic jazz. After the acclaimed, orchestral "Space" (Staubgold 2006) and the following "Space Solo 1" (Quecksilber 2007), this is the first volume of the Space Elements series, each release being focused on one kind of instruments, on small settings and including collaborations. "Space Elements Vol. I" features Rute Praca (cello), Margarida Garcia (electric double-bass), Sei Miguel's amazing percussionist César Burago, and David Toop (flute), besides a short appearance by Sei Miguel (pocket trumpet) himself." [label info]
www.staubgold.com
|
2008 |
€14.50 |
|
| |
Space Elements Vol. 1 |
LP |
"Bis Ende der 90er hatte sich der portugiesische Musiker mit Gitarren-Drones auseinandergesetzt. Mittlerweile hat Toral um den für ihn paradigmatischen Begriff »Space« ein ganzes post-Free-Jazz-in-Elektronik-Universum kreiert und dies auf zahlreichen VÖs dokumentiert. Als einer der wesentlichen Gitarristen der 90er angesehen, arbeitete er u.a. mit J. Zorn, J. O'Rouke, Sonic Youth, MIMEO oder Alvin Lucier. Auf dieser CD entschlackt Toral Musik soweit, bis nur noch arrangierte Sounds übrig bleiben. Sein Vorteil ist es, dass dabei keine eklektische Futzelelectronica herauskommt, sondern ein durchaus abgefeimtes Setting, in dem Reste von Jazz und - mit etwas gutem Willen - auch Swing auszumachen sind. Klarerweise auf heutige Verhältnisse gemünzt. Mit dabei: Rute Praça (Cello), Margarida Garcia (b.), César Burago (dr.) und Torals Langzeitkumpel, der Taschentrompeter Sei Miguel. »Ernste« Musik mit hohem Spaßfaktor." [Heinrich Deisl / SKUG]
"The Space Program is Rafael Toral’s long-term research project launched in 2004, through which he has unearthed an innovative approach and a complete re-thinking of how electronic music is conceived and experienced. Using custom experimental instruments, Toral performs electronic music concerned with “phrasing and swing” and performing strange melodies with physicality, movement and gesture in flux. The result is something you’re unlikely to have heard before, a kind of alien electronic jazz. After the acclaimed, orchestral Space and the following Space Solo 1, this is the first volume of the Space Elements series, each release being focused on one kind of instrument, on small settings and including collaborations. Space Elements Vol. I features Rute Praça (cello), Margarida Garcia (electric double-bass), Sei Miguel’s amazing percussionist César Burago, and David Toop (flute), besides a short appearance by Sei Miguel himself. From Toral’s liner notes: “Having found that jazz is the field of musical knowledge where disciplined decision-making is most developed, this music is more informed by jazz than by any other. The Space Program emphasizes articulating silence and sound, by structuring musical discourse on experimental instruments with a simple and clear sonic identity. To my surprise I found no historical precedents to this practice, being that it draws practically no information from electronic music history (which is grounded on different thinking patterns), and it draws very little from jazz history as well, since the instruments I use are inadequate to play any music based on the Western system. I regard this approach to jazz (meaning a system of individual decision-making from the standpoint of free-spectrum live electronics) as a new and exciting field of creative possibilities. I called it “post-free jazz electronic music.”
Space Elements Vol. I was mastered direct to metal and pressed on clear 200gram virgin-vinyl in a limited edition of 500 copies. The jacket was designed by Helder Luis at NOTYPE and features a collage by contemporary artist Joao Paulo Feliciano. CD Version available on Staubgold." [label notes]
|
2008 |
€14.00 |
|
| TOTSTELLEN / LOW.FILE |
Boys like girls |
MC (C-30) |
Neuer Post-Industrial aus Hamburg & Berlin! TOTSTELLEN: schwelende Drones, metallisches Summen, kurz auftauchende verzerrte rhythms, verfremdete Stimmen und found sounds. Sehr dichte und intensive, taumelnde Atmosphäre...
LOW.FILE: rauschige Drones, Pianofetzen, harsche glitch-noise-DATA-Attacken und lange spannende Unheimlichkeitswolken..
Ein Exzellentes Tape !
“Exceptional noise/ambient music dealing with gender questions. programmatically low fi, but nevertheless sharp and precise. TOTSTELLEN from hamburg, known to some for ‘neo-industrial’ noise and creepy dark things, introducing an introverted notion here, quite similar to minimalist low.file from berlin, whose main topic in audio and visual art is image – identity construction and marketing. these pieces consist of elements like broken rhythm signals, text and image data tranformed into audio data, field recordings, hijacked adn reorganized cage piano and a sample of a young girl’s voice, wondering why girls in boy’s clothes are said to be cute while boys in girl’s clothes are considered embarassing.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€4.50 |
|
| TOY BIZARRE |
kdi dctb 039 |
mCD |
"Der Code kdi dctb ist bei Cédric Peyronnets Fieldrecordings so obligatorisch wie in gewissen Parallelwelten das BWV oder dergl. ‚kdi dctb 039‘ speziell ist der Mittelteil einer Trilogie, die mit ’kdi dctb 151’ auf dem Split mit Dale Lloyd auf Bremsstrahlung in San Diego begann. Dass Peyronnet auf puren Naturklang (keine Synthesizer, Sampler etc.) pocht, wurde schon als bewusste Abkehr aufgefasst von der erzfranzösischen Pariser Musique- Concrète-Schule. Aber die Lauschangriffe auf die akustische Umwelt, hier nur deklariert mit ‚made in various places from 1994 to 2007‘, sind nicht weniger ‚typisch
französisch‘. Oben propellert ein Flieger, unten knistern Laub und Ästchen, dazwischen ein Hüsteln, Klackern und Knurschen, ein Zwitschern, Bitzeln und Zirpen, wie ein Glas prall gefüllt mit ‚Wald & Wiese‘. Duchamp hat 1919 in einer Apothekenambulle ‚Pariser Luft‘ als Readymade-Gastgeschenk mit in die USA genommen. Peyronnet könnte entsprechend 20 Minuten ‚Heimatklang‘ verschenken, so komprimiert, dass er explosiv verpufft, dass es wie ein Percussionorchester aufrauscht und dann minutenlang nachbebt, als synästhetisches Konzentrat von ‚Natur‘, über die hinweg erneut
Flugzeuge ihre Bahn ziehen" [Bad Alchemy]
"kdi dctb 039 is a part of a trilogy made up of 'kdi dctb 151' (See bremsstrahlung recordings), 'kdi dctb 039' & 'kdi dctb 180' (TBR).
Another piece about childhood memories composed only with field recordings made in various places visited from 1994 to 2007 : acoustic spaces, sound objects, sound auscultations, bits of soundscapes... Microphone and recorder as the primary tools. It's sometimes good to make a pause, seat and take a look at the
past - then, some sound fragments may appear... our sound memory. toy.bizarre (Cédric Peyronnet / ingeos) - sometimes qualified as "rural headphone electro(acoustro)nic music" - works on field recordings, phonography, soundscapes, sound art, since 1985. He has released more than 40 works on CDs, tapes, videos, compilations...Contact : http://www.ingeos.org" [label info]
"Throughout the '90s, Cedric Peyronnet would boldy announce that none of his Toy Bizarre recordings were made with synthesizers
or samplers, instead with field recordings and collage techniques as his twin media. It has been speculated that this notion comes from a
punk attitude against France's institutional avant-garde which evolved out of the work of Pierre Schaefer and Pierre Henri; but at the same time, Peyronnet's recordings focus on the specificity of sound locations, and the technology of samplers and synthesizers didn't have the ability to reflect the unpredictability that Peyronnet witnessed in environmental sound. While Peyronnet doesn't
mentioned his aversion to technology on this 3" from Ferns, he's retained the same adventurous sensibility for dynamic edits coupled with nocturnal, slippery ambience. From the jump-start opening of crackling twigs and grasses with an airplane's Doppler-effected
engine roaring in the distance, Peyronnet's 20 minute composition dissolves into elegantly fluid timbres weaving out of tactile sounds
from sand, grit, gravel, and other bits of detritus. Once all of the sounds have all settled into a drift of stasis, a quick jump to another set of textures and abrasions begins with a corresponding set of sympathetic drones. Fans of Loren Chasse's field recording work,
Tarab, and Steve Roden should all take note of this exceptional release." [Aquarius Records]
|
2007 |
€6.50 |
|
|
kdi dctb 180 |
10inch |
"It’s all about a place. An unknown place. An hidden place. Hidden? Well, you have to be very familiar with the country to get there. Few human traces. Few signs that there is something there. On the limit / border of places. But nethermind, it’s a real place. I can point it on a map. But it will look as a blank space. It’s a place where you can feel there is something. There is a path deep in the woods, where, as a child, I used to run - walking was really too frightening there. Spent a lot of time there, trying to track down the essence of the place, trying to catch the unknow." [Cedric Peyronnet]
"A stellar year continues for Cedric Peyronnet (toy bizarre) on our site, as he continues to score reviews through careful attention to detail and drama. kdi dctb 180 is yet another in a run of compelling sound works, this one available on clear 10″ vinyl as part of Drone Records’ Substantia Innominata series. While this means that the release is shorter than usual, these tracks benefit from their relatively compact nature.
The series’ stated theme is that of “the unknown”, and Peyronnet writes in response, “There is a path deep in the woods, where, as a child, I used to run – walking was really too frightening there. Spent a lot of time there, trying to track down the essence of the place, trying to catch the unknown.” He recently returned there to make this recording (which we assume was not done while running). The opening minutes capture this sense of impending danger, of movement in the woods and unidentifiable cries. At first we only hear a drain pipe, but then advancing drones and metallic rubs provide an impression of predatory creatures. But something changes midway, and one can clearly identify the dividing line in the Soundcloud map below. The music stops, giving way to the sound of pure flowing water. The nightmares have been dispelled, and finally the artist is free to walk, not run, even to sit for a while. Even as water is added unto water, a sense of safety remains.
The second side takes similar turns, beginning with the crunch of underbrush ~ we can hear his clear footsteps laid atop a bed of what may be cicadas and mourning doves. Darker whirls enter midway, as if to say, “we’re not done with you yet, Peyronnet.” But the trick is on them, as the artist is in control this time. He’s the one in the studio, taming the tones. If the sounds remain frightening at this point, it’s only by his design. By flipping fear on its head, the artist has produced a triumphant document, a sonic flashlight in the woods. [Richard Allen/ A Closer Listen]
acloserlisten.com/2015/12/02/toy-bizarre-kdi-dctb-180/
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
kdi dctb 278 |
CD |
" “kdi dctb 278” is what I call a sound film. Its shape entirely and solely based on the sound recording of places – as in all of my pieces – fits my refusal to make a choice of abstraction or narration and willingness to stay in an in-between, to maintain a dialogue between abstraction / narrative, which would be close to the daydream.
“kdi dctb 278” was recorded 1994~2013 @ various locations; sequences built for various projects.
Some parts appeared first in the kdi dct 216 “garden / square meter” series (Melbourne), thanks to Jude Anderson, Jacques Soddell.
Tested live (parts) @ Instants Chavirés, L’Audible Festival, Paris, 2012/09, thanks to Jérôme Noetinger.
Tested live (fully) @ Sonikas, Madrid, 2013/12 – thanks to Juan Carlos Blancas, Alfonso Pomeda & the man-who-saw-codex-but-lost-the-way.
This version, mixed 2015/06 @ TBS
Release date: 09.2015
Label : Semperflorens
Time: 41:43 mins
Format: CD in DVDBOX
Limited to 500 copies" [toy bizarre info]
www.ingeos.org/en/kdi-dctb-278/
"After all these years, we are still not all that clear what the acronym that Cedric Peyronnet (aka Toy Bizarre) has used for the bulk of his album titles. It's definitely some sort of cataloging system as his titles are in sequential fashion, now reaching 278, though there are some sizable jumps between the various numbers. Peyronnet may have explained what this may mean somewhere and at sometime, but enlightenment eludes us. So, we'll collectively shrug and move onto this vivid collection of manipulated field recordings and phonographic compositions that are found on this impressive album. Since the late '80s or thereabouts, Peyronnet has used natural sounds as his primary source material, working in parallel to Eric La Casa, Small Cruel Party, Tarab, and some of the more obtuse practitioners of contemporary musique concrete. Peyronnet's uneasy dislocations never settle on the notions of purely objective / narrative descriptions of sound, nor could they be defined as abstraction. So one can hear jolting splashes of water and mud along with Luc Ferrari like snippets of human voice well-removed from context alongside filter-heavy drones of liquid miasma and mercurial drones dappled with found object texture and splattered detritus. Peyronnet has quite a knack for rendering all of the components of his compositions with an incredible sharpness of detail - the purity of his dilated frequencies and an exactness to environmental elements work into his slippery compositions punctured with bursts of energy that Peyronnet allows to wane into solemn pools of contemplation." [Aquarius Rec.]
|
2015 |
€13.00 |
|
| TOY BIZARRE & PIERRE REDON |
Saisons |
CD |
Die field recording drones von TOY BIZARRE im Zusammenspiel mit PIERRE REDONs feiner Gitarrenarbeit! Auf vier Stücken (zweimal beide zusammen, je eines beide solo) vermischen sich kunstvoll schwelend flächigen Klänge, immer wieder durchbrochen von elektro-akustischen Momenten, fein & subtil verwoben.
"This collaborative effort brings us some of the most beautiful and atmospheric instances of composition with nature. the four tracks, some
solitary works, some creatied by using field sourcings of the opponent, feature subtle wildlife field recordings, detailed electro-acoustic passages, swelling metallic drones and amplified silences." [label info]
"...Toy Bizarre is perhaps one of the last 'old' guys to use his band name rather than his own name, Cedric Peyronnet, which is good. Pierre Redon is a much younger guy and never used a band name, which is also good. They have been playing music together since 2002. Peyronnet is in fine electro-acoustic mood and Redon's main instrument is the guitar and electronics. They both play two pieces, Redon springtime and autumn (first and last piece), Toy Bizarre summer and winter (the two pieces in the middle). Listened closely to the music, one can spot the differences, even when Redon uses field recordings and Toy Bizarre makes his field recordings sound like drones. The result should appeal to all lovers of drone related music with a good, sturdy look at the world of field recordings. Subtle music goes loud, noise music goes subtle. Mind you, this is not a work of microsound. There is much more happening than just a few static crackles built from a ten second rain sample. This is quite vivid, imaginative electro-acoustic music. Great stuff." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
| TREPANERINGSRITUALEN |
Perfection & Permanence |
LP |
"Trepaneringsritualen explores themes of religion, magick and the hidden realms of consciousness, taking its musical cues from the old school of ritual ambient & death industrial. Rhythmic and seething at times, and oozing forward with a creeping sense of desolation at others, Trepaneringsritualen conjures forth bleak but mesmerizing visions of the end-times.
“Perfection & Permanence”: a hymn to Isis; a further exploration of the duality of the holy harlot, the black skinned Magdalen, mother and concert of the Christ; Yeshua Ben Yosef, son of MAN; the shameful dead, those who sold their brothers, condemned to forever roam the earth; to transgress the abyss, to mortify flesh, towards cosmic renovation. It is lonely, it is awful; on the verge of physical death, but still unable to understand; absolute perfection may be attained through WILL. A conversation with angels, in archaic tongues; Eiríkr inn Sigrsæli sold his blood and kin to desert rats for corporeal power. Eirikr, we spit on you.; from across the abyss, it rises. Ceaseless, blood-churning, terrible; an incoherent accusation by the mirror image, he who’s blood was shed to atone another man’s sins. Without bloodshed there can be no salvation." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Next in line is Trepaneringsritualen - a project also driven by Swedish forces. Behind the project you find Thomas Ekelund who like his aforementioned compatriot artist swirls in spheres of extreme aggression. That Thomas Ekelund a.k.a. Trepaneringsritualen often do concerts with black metal bands in Sweden isn't surprising as you listen to the brutal and violent expressions of his latest album titled "Perfection and permanence". Raw vocals move alongside the hyperbrutal soundscapes of crushing drones. Stylishly Trepaneringsritualen drifts in the borderline between power electronics and death industrial so be prepared!" [NM/Vital Weekly] |
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
| TRIANGULAR ASCENSION |
Leviathan Device |
CD |
"Triangular Ascension is the debut album by Venezuela's Federico Agreda and a much welcomed addition to the Cyclic Law Roster. Taking inspiration from Thomas Hobbes book "Leviathan", the album aims to depict the inner nightmare of the reality of mankind, ever dwelling in fear and self-destruction. Upon activation of the "Device", the water once used by the Elohim to create life, rages over the lands cleansing the planet from every living creature that crawls the soil, concluding in a post-apocalyptic requiem sung by the leviathans themselves. The music translates into a carefully crafted work full of cinematic drones of ruthless atmospheric power, destined to make Triangular Ascension a name to be reckoned with.
Edition of 1000 copies in 4 panel Digipack.
9 Tracks. Running Time 59:40" [label info]
www.cycliclaw.com
www.cycliclaw.com
|
2011 |
€13.00 |
|
| TROUM |
Tjukurrpa (part three: rhythms and pulsations) |
CD |
“ Dronecore. This is the third part in TROUMs Tjukurrpa-trilogy, following part 1 (harmonies) and part 2 (drones). This final part is dedicated to “rhythms” and “pulsations”, with a focus on rhythmic, pounding, looping & repetitive elements and structures.
With TJUKURRPA 3, TROUM shows a not so well known side, using the trance-power of repetitive textures. In every of the seven extensive tracks (playtime 66+ min) rhythms in various moods build the basis: from smooth ambience-pulsations over ritualistic surroundings up to ecstatic pounding harshness, from underneath & soft pulsative patterns up to evolving harsh & overwhelming rhythmic loops. The music on Tjukurrpa III is made by raw & processed loops & handplayed percussion, along with electric guitar & bass, balalaika, mouth organ, male & female human voice, flute, and accordeon. No samplers, synths or computers used.” [press release]
“...The global rhythm of the album is just like a biorhythm, it becomes the final shape depending on the many individual elements. Devouring or emphasizing each other, they develop inside the organism and join insensibly to our attitude, becoming habitual part of it like breathing or palpitation. The standard rhythmical structures can just diversify the physical course of time sensation - unlike that, Troum music embraces all association models control in the human brain, so it will enchant you and not let you go... despite your frame of mind and inclination.” [Dmitry Vasilyev, IEM Magazine]
“Their trilogy is a true masterpiece in the genre.” [Fdw, Vital Weekly]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Ryna |
CD |
Wiederveröffentlichung des Debut-Albums von 1998, mit neuer Artwork von TILMANN BENNINGHAUS (Berlin). Re-release of Troum's long sold out first album from 1998 with new artwork by Tilmann Benninghaus. Digipack.
"...Die acht Stuecke greifen sehr gekonnt ineinander, steigern sich von Minute zu Minute. Praesentieren sich die ersten Tracks sehr einheitlich, ambient, setzen dann leichte Rhythmusstrukturen ein, um im Finale Riurja" ihren Hoehepunkt zu finden. Alle, die sich mit auditiven Aphrodisiaka berauschen, sollten diesen Edelstein besitzen: Ein begeisterndes Noise-Ambient-Werk!" [Der Schrei]
"Vielmehr versetzen sie Gitarrensaiten in harmonische Schwingungen, um damit sinnlich erfahrbar zu machen, dass Begriffe und Ideen Herrn & Damen ohne Unterleib bleiben müssen, wenn sie sich nicht entpuppen zu Flügelwesen, Tänzern und Sängern. TROUMS Dröhnwellen singen von der Einheit von Pneuma, Psyche & Soma. Eine Einheit, die ständiger Modulation ausgesetzt ist. Beispielhaft für einen Modulator steht bei TROUM der ‚Thalamus‘, der wörtlich ‚Schlafzimmer‘ genannte Teil des Zwischenhirns, der die ein- und ausgehenden informativen Erregungen des Großhirns moduliert. Muss man das wissen? Es kann zumindest nicht schaden, sich dessen bewusst zu sein, dass TROUM im Klang & Fleisch gewordenen Wort ‚Traum‘ die psycho-physischen und environmentalen Fundamente vibrieren lässt." [Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy]
"...The general feel of the sounds here is reminiscent of the earth moving, tectonic plates in constant shuffle, the tracks building and then either shifting or worn away via attrition. Its as if Maeror Tri learned to fly through ingenuity, smoke and mirrors, while Troum has taken the ingenuity, smoke and mirrors and, somehow, grown wings. Amazing stuff!" [JC Smith]
"I believe it was 1997 when a small posting came my way stating that Maeror Tri had dissolved. At the time, this German trio had
become one of my (Jim's) favorite ensembles alongside the likes of Organum, Skullflower, and :zoviet*france:. Maeror Tri's dedication to grimly focused atmospheric music harbored all of the things that succeeded in the campaigns of industrial and ambient music; and the
Maeror Tri anonymity (or at least a mysteriousness about the group that lead to such a reading of their collective persona) certainly enhanced their charm. Albums such as Emotional Engramm and Multiple Personality Disorder had achieved heavy rotation status on my stereo (and still get pulled from the shelves quite often in this day and age); so the news that Maeror Tri was no more was met with sadness. Fortunately, two thirds of the Maeror Tri ensemble had decided to continue on but under the moniker Troum. While the name of this duo was an archaic German word for dream, Troum's pursuit of unconscious symbolism through their heavily processed guitar drones still maintained the ashen darkness that Maeror Tri perpetuated, as was evident on their first CD release Ryna, which originally came out in
1998 on the Belgian label Myotis. It should be noted that Ryna is not the first Troum recording; that honor is held by a cassette called Dreaming Muzak that came housed in a tiny pillow. Ryna quickly went out of print, along with much of the Maeror Tri back catalogue; but thankfully, Troum have repressed this early gem through their own Transgredient imprint. An album of constantly billowing black clouds, Ryna achieves the same dark ambient / dronescape signature that had marked so many great Maeror Tri / Troum releases. On occasion, cracked / decayed loops of rhythmic surging emerged from beyond the horizon of Troum's guitar suites, alluding to a Norse mythological bellow of impending doom and apocalyptic battle. While I've not done the side-by-side taste test of the two albums, the 2007 redux of Ryna appears to much louder and cleaner. Regardless, it's a pleasure to hear this record once again!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2006 |
€12.00 |
|
|
AIWS |
CD |
"AIWS is the first full-length cd release from Troum since 2003. It covers studio-recordings composed from 2002-2005. These musicians have compiled some of their most favorable pieces through the years to be placed on this release. Presenting nine analogue (4&8 track) recorded compositions that lead the listener through vast feelings of beautifully deep melancholic and hypnotic states of mind. Composed with guitar-drones and harmonic phrases that are processed in various ways creating an atmosphere of the sublime and emotional meditative states that transcend listener to immerse within themselves.
Ingredients: Sufi-songs, old vinyl-crackles, acoustic & e-guitars, e-bow, e-bass, voice & whisperings, accordion & flute. Stunning photography & design work by Alan McClelland(Eye.lyft). One of the most emotional and profound Troum releases to date now available on Transgredient Records. Dedicated to Eternity.
TRACK LISTING of AIWS [* and meaning of titles & phrases]
1. AHMATEINS
2. AGGILUS
3. SPIRARE
4. PER SONUM
5. PANTAH
6. [GA] PLAIAN
7. PENTHOS
8. NEHEH
9. PELETÄ
total length: 49:30 min
[* AIWS=Eternity (gothic language), also shortcut for "Alice-In-Wonderland-Syndrome". 1. "Inspiration" (gothic) 2. "Angel - Carrier" (gothic) 3. "breathing - aspirating - sighing - smelling " (latin) 4. "through sound" (latin) 5. "way - path - line" (old indian) 6. "supplication" (persian) 7. "the sorrow of mourning - lament" (greek - also a greek god), 8. "Eternity" (egypt) 9. "escape - flight, also: rescue - salvation" (hebrew) " [label info]
"... nach einigen 12“s und Kollaborationen die 7. CD des TROUM-Duos. GLIT[S]CH & BARAKA[H]
sind dafür bekannt, dass sie sich zu Nietzsches „Die Welt ist tief, viel tiefer als der Tag gedacht“ tief in die Augen blicken und dann ihren Fliegenden Teppich starten. ‚Ahmateins‘ ist, bewusst analog und lo-fi, gewebt aus engen Gitarrenwellen und sämigen Drones von E-Bow und E-Bass. Flug und Flucht, Atmen und Seufzen sind dabei eins. Sound ist der Weg und das Ziel. AIWS ist nicht nur das gotische Wort für Ewigkeit, es steht auch für das Alice in Wonderland Syndrom. Prosaisch ist das eine mit Kopfschmerzen verbundene Sehstörung, metaphorisch aber heißt das doch: Die Welt mit Alicens Augen als Wunderland sehen können.
Troums Zauberteppich schwebt auf harmonischen Strömen durch Rauch und Licht dahin, auf einem spiraligen Kurs ins Sublime. ‚Pantah‘ lässt den Saitenklang deutlicher erkennen, in [Ga]plaian‘ ist Sufigesang verdichtet, in ‚Penthos‘ scheint ein Akkordeon zu pumpen, in ‚Neheh‘ Licht nicht bloß zu schimmern, sondern zu singen. Tiefenmusic Reaching Our Unconscious Minds."
[Bad Alchemy]
"....The pieces on this new CD were recorded from 2002-2005 on Troum's own analogue equipment, all live to four-eight track recorders, without the involvement of computers. Troum, a duo (be it hard to believe), is best a live band, even when working in the studio. Their instruments are guitars, e-bow, bass, voices, accordion & flute, old vinyl. And oh, sound effects. Lots of those are involved in the music of Troum, but they never stand in the way of the end result. Spacious head music. Loud at times, quiet when necessary, but there is a certain roughness about the band, which is an element I really like. Even when things are quiet, they never really are quiet. 'Neheh' is just an example of some sparse organ like loops, feeding through some delay and bouncing gentle forward, but with a certain grittiness. Highly atmospheric even when experienced without the help of any chemicals or other illegal substances and the best but perhaps more frightful experience when played in the dark and with the headphones tied to your head. You are bound to play it again, if not only because it might be too scary to leave the room... Of all things experimental, ambient and industrial (Menche, Zoviet*France, Lustmord), Troum can easily stand the test and be the best of the lot." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Nargis |
7inch |
Sehr rauhes, etwas älteres Material, basierend auf verzerrten e-bow Gitarren & extrem verlangsamten Gesang... majestätisch & unheimlich zugleich... die "heavy" Artwork stammt von MARS WELLINK (VANCE ORCHESTRA), fullcolour cover & inlay.
"Latest slab of guitar based whir and drift from these masters of the drone (they do in fact run the DRONE record label after all).
Formerly Maeror Tri, Troum embody the drone, they live, breathe, eat and sleep drones. And it shows. Their records are gorgeous and epic,
but seem so effortless, as if the sounds they create are simply channeled through their corporeal forms, but have been created in
some fiery forge at the center of an alien planet.
The first half of this single still sounds like Troum, but is unlike anything we've heard from them, strange looped high end guitar, what sounds like backwards chords, almost choral vocals, dramatic and haunting and cinematic, very much like some super stylized horror movie music almost, warbled and wavery, over a distant grinding low end tone drifting way off in the background, washed over by epic sweeping swells..
The other side is a bit more raw and intense, a seriously corrosive guitarscape, distorted and crumbling chordal buzz, looped
and layered into a strange glacial riff, strewn over deep dark swirls of slow shifting sound and haunting minor key melodies. It manages to
be intense and fierce but also gloriously washed out and blissful.
Super swank, full color covers, full color inserts, and pressed on nice thick vinyl. And of course limited, just not sure - how- limited..." [Aquarius Records]
www.vivahaterecords.com
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
|
Symballein |
CD |
Sechs Stücke aus der Frühphase von TROUM, erschienen auf obskuren & raren Compilations im Zeitraum 1997 - 1999; dunkel, dronig-morastig, tieffrequent, von massiver Konsistenz, post-industriell, jenseitig ...am ehesten zu vergleichen mit der ebenfalls damals erschienenen Debut-CD RYNA.
"...alle sechs sind gute beispiele für die "kl_F/B-S/comp-Theorie", bilden trotzdem ein fast perfektes gesamtwerk und zeigen troum durchweg von ihrer düsteren seite; kavernenartig, rhythmen durch meterdicke wände gefiltert, stimmen aus der zwischenwelt. ein stärkerer kontrast zur aktuellen, dagegen fast leichten A.I.W.S. erscheint kaum möglich......
ps: die "kl_F/B-S/comp-Theorie", deren erste erwähnung hier nicht mehr eruiert werden kann, stellt die (unbewiesene) vermutung in den raum, dass bands kleinere Formate/B-Seiten/compilation-Beiträge gerne dafür nutzen, ein wenig abseitigere tracks zu platzieren. neben dem wunsch, auch mal über die eigenen stränge schlagen zu können, der experimentierlust zu frönen, wird vermutet, dass zum teil auch stücke dergestalt eine heimat finden, die aufgrund von laufzeitbeschränkungen der veröffentlichungsmedien in vorhergehenden releases gekippt werden mussten.
psps: und des wird zeit, endlich einmal small voices aus italien zu loben; allgemein + besonders und jetzt besonders wegen der coverartworks: hier strukturpappe-aufklapper mit schlitz zur cd-aufnahme: eine weitere perfekte annäherung an das lp-cover als die sowieso perfekte verpackung." [n, Unruhr.de]
"Symballein" is the second TROUM releases on SmallVoices label after the well ... "Autopoiesis" LP picture disc (SVV001) actually SOLD OUT. This album is a collection of very rare material, from the very beginning of Troum (period: 1997 - 1999). As Troum meaning the music is dreamy... The concept of the ‘Dream’ is the common thread running through Troum; the name, the music and the philosophy. For not only is TROUM the old German word for "DREAM" but, according to their website, ‘the dream, seen as a central manifestation of the unconscious, symbolizes the aim of TROUM to lead the listener into a hypnotizing dream-state of mind, a pre-verbal and primal consciousness sphere. TROUM uses music as the direct path to the Unconscious, pointing to the archaic "essence" of the human’s inner psyche. TROUM tries to create music that works like a direct transformation of unconscious matter’.
In Symballein dreams are obscure and indecipherable..., in one word nightmares; the music is archaic and droney, with multi-layered guitar drones..., oneiric ambient industrial nearly to Maeror Tri best releases. The disc in packaged in a elegant and luxurious embossed cardboard digi-sleeve. Symballein: "perceivable & non-perceivable things fall into one" [label press release]
|
2007 |
€10.00 |
|
|
SIGQAN |
CD |
"...„Sigqan" von 2003, remastered und in neuem cover auf neuem label, diesmal dem eigenen. und gerade bei so verbesserungen ist das ergebnis ja oft zwiespältig; das re-master hier dagegen subtil lebendiger, körper- und räumlicher, die (für troum verhältnisse) fast minimalistische, auf gebündelte sounds setzende klangästhetik unterstützend bzw. eben einfach besser ans ohr bringend: dunkel, fast glazial, gegeneinander verschiebende ebenen rund um den hauptstrom der einzelnen teile der sigqan-trilogie, im „part 3" mit ergänzender, eher subtiler rhythmustextur; bis zum ende nur noch ein feedback zwischen cello- und trompetenästetik den beginn widerspiegelt. unter den troum alben vielleicht eines der focussiertesten, vielleicht immer ein wenig versteckt zwischen der grossen tjukurrpa-trilogie; in jedem fall: schwer empfohlen. das neue cover, wieder ein digipack, diesmal in farbe, textur und besonders typografie irgendwie nicht einem bestimmten grafischen (zeit)geschmack verpflichtet wie damals die erste auflage." [N, Unruhr.de]
"Deep beneath the ocean is a world of mystery, wonder, darkness, and danger. Even if it weren't for the cover art of this German duo's brilliant new album, there is unmistakably no other place in the universe that has influenced the sounds and movement of what is represented within. These drones are not passive in the least. The depth and volume are all encompassing, and moving slowly but steadily like an ancient and lonely large whale through the graveyards of shipwrecks, at the very beginning of the food chain in which all living creatures depend. Recorded live in the studio without overdubs, the first two parts are based on live performances the band was touring around with in 2001, the first being a dark blue rumble, heavy on the low end and marked by patient melodic movement, the second with swirling guitar strums and leads like the sun coming through in bended bands of beams: flickering, reflected, and refracted. The intangible overwhelming feeling of weight and pressure is unavoidable and inescapable, like being frozen in a dream, unable to move, but calm and comforting all the same. Around the half-way mark, it dips back into the darker regions as pitch and pace slow down deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper yet into the cold, black unknown. The third part was recorded as an afterthought, and is described as a new ending. Its brightness and chugging backwards-sounding guitars brilliantly accent the feel that it is a journey which is reaching its end. At this point, it feels that the central figure in the journey seems to be a vessyl of some sort, and the 16-minute Part 3 is thematic of a glorious resurfacing, reintroduction to the bright light of day, and returning to solid ground. But, as the brightness comes, so does an ominous sense that all might not be right. The world looks different than before, the places are familiar but everything's seemed to have changed. The credits may roll but this is certainly not the end." [Jon Whitney / Brainwashed]
“Finally, the first Troum record to be widely available in the United States, released through Relapse subsidiary Desolation House, and we're pleased to say it's maybe their best yet. Troum are the ambient-drone ensemble that emerged from the dissolution of proto-industrial dronesters Maeror Tri. Unlike the primarily guitar based whir and rumble of Maeror Tri, Troum obfuscate their sound sources, laptops, found sounds, accordians, guitars too maybe, and the results are timeless, mysterious, haunting, ethereal and utterly breathtaking dronescapes. Sigqan is a lengthy three part epic, beginning with rich sonorous foghorn like swells, that ebb and flow, separated by near silence, and slowly building in intensity from warm crescendos to huge doomy pulses. Eventually, these roaring rumbles joined by complementary shimmers of high end, that sound out, and then dissipate like sonic ripples, fading into blackness. The swells slowly grow closer and closer until the edges begin to blur and a subtly more continuous melodic framework begins to emerge and so begins the second movement, a creepy and slightly ominous, slowly fluctuating slow-motion-melody, whose lazily shifting notes keep the sonic landscape dense and rich, and keeps the sounds from flatlining into monochromatic drones. As the piece winds down, the dynamics and melody start to smear together into a warm, diffused fuzzy hum, with the subtle traces of melody sinking deeper and deeper into the dark warmth. The third and final movement was a sonic afterthought, added/recorded later than the first two, but is a pleasantly dreamy coda, with a slightly sunnier tone, a keening upper register melody, stretched out into subtly slithering iridescence with a shuffling, staticky rhythm just below the surface. So nice.“ [Aquarius Records, 2003]
"Beauty and profundity are the evident merits of the album - like the unity of oceanic and atmospheric elements, and namely the ocean is most frequently mentioned association used by critics and musicians. When you are at a depth of thousands metres, even the storm on the surface is impossible to hear." [Dmitry Vasilyev, IEM]
|
2009 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Autopoiesis / Nahtscato |
CD |
"Two elder vinyls first time on CD. These vinyls materials aren't available + bonus tracks.
Packaged in exclusive 3-panel digipack.
'Autopoiesis' was originally released as picture LP on Small Voices in October 2004 in limited edition of 567 copies 'Nahtscato' was originally released as a 12"EP on Paranoise Records in July 2005 in an edition of 300 copies. The bonus tracks were recorded in 2003." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
TROUM – Autopoiesis pic-LP : Small Voices :
In 2003, the German post-industrial duo Troum completed their celebrated Tjukurrpa-trilogy. Each of the three records concentrated on the aesthetic fundamentals of their work: harmonies, drones, and rhythms. At the same time, the trilogy was inscribed with the metaphorical themes relating to Aboriginal dreamtime. If this mighty body of work had one flaw, it was the way the formalist agenda of this series trumped Troum’s ongoing investigations into hypnogogic states and the psychological impact of sound. Troum have been at their best when the sonic elements of their work play off each other and run in parallel with their conceptual ideas. The vinyl-only picture disc Autopoiesis finds Troum at the top of their game, as their guitars and bass, heavily fortified with effects, drift through miasmic washes. When suspending their drones as lugubrious slabs of sound, Troum emerge as a brooding doppleganger of the shoegazer ethos. And throughout Autopoiesis, they vulcanise their drone into chugging riff and darkly majestic melodies. [Jim Haynes, THE WIRE]
|
2010 |
€12.00 |
|
| |
Mare morphosis |
CD |
"'Mare morphosis' forms the third & final part of TROUMs so called 'Power Romantic' trilogy that started with 'Mare Idiophonika' in 2010. The basic materials & arrangements for this one long epic piece were created from 2009-2013 (partly based on the recordings for the 'Bach Eingeschaltet, Dritter Band' 7" dealing with experimental reworkings of J.S.BACH pieces) & to some extent used live in different live-programmes: A piece like an 'Ocean of Transformations', morphing through various stages of intensity. 'Mare morphosis' stands out in the history of TROUM studio-albums as their most symphonic, refined and orchestral effort so far. Cover photography by Paul Takahashi, graphic design by Tilmann Benninghaus (8 panel fold out digipack). First edition: 1000 copies.
'Mare morphosis definitely gives Troum’s music a new dimension, reflecting ancient waves, amplifying the power of Sehnsucht, drumming the drowning heart." [Denis Boyer / Fear Drop]
"Mare morphosis" ist eines der stimmungsvollsten und abwechslungsreichsten Werke von TROUM, die ich kenne. Die einzelnen Abschnitte wirken tatsächlich wie Sätze einer Sinfonie, ohne dass die Gesamtanmutung vernachlässigt wird: Es geht hörbar um die mächtigste aller Naturgewalten, das Wasser, in seinen unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen. Von ästhetisch über melancholisch bis düster und bedrohlich; vermutlich sind die 'Veränderungen' im Titel so zu deuten. Wunderschön und mit vielen Details zum Mehrfach-Hören gespickt.' [Michael We / nonpop.de]" [label info]
"What comes with the Power Romantic trilogy (which pt. 1 and 2 are: Mare Idiophonika, Grote Mandrenke) is brooding from the core of Troum’s universe. Relating Troum with strong Romantic tropisms is like sewing an endless canvas. In every musical piece they work, the two musicians BarakaH and Glit[s]ch navigate a vast sea of sound, recalling the Romantic feeling in front of deep landscapes that reflect the very soul, threatening in a voluptuous appeal the observer to dissolve in the totality. Troum’s attraction to the notion of Dissolution is felt every time that the sound waves inflate to shape a luminous drone, every time that the pulsation melts into a magmatic rumbling. And what about the beauty of sadness, celebrated since the days of Maeror Tri…
That sea of sound, of profound melancholic drones and waves gets its monument with the Power Romantic trilogy in which Troum show their skill in harmony, but not only. Drones and harmony still reign but a clear way is designed for melody and rhythms (as it already was in Tjukurrpa pt. 3). The oceanic feeling is fueled by new movements, like a storm upon and under the fluid. Mare morphosis, pt. 3 of the Power Romantic trilogy, opens as the very building of a Sunken Cathedral, with heavy rhythms like stone columns gently embraced by subtle sharpened melodic phrases. The whole soundscape navigates then by the tide and lets the strong motion of sound rumbling and driving to surface the heavy layers of undercurrents, bringing up to light their deep melancholic germ of melody. Mare morphosis definitely gives Troum’s music a new dimension, reflecting ancient waves, amplifying the power of Sehnsucht, drumming the drowning heart." [Denis Boyer / Fear Drop]
listen: http://troum.bandcamp.com/album/mare-morphosis-cd-2013
www.troum.com
|
2013 |
€12.00 |
|
| TROUM & RAISON D'ETRE |
De Aeris In Sublunaria Influxu |
CD |
"...Troum und Raison dêtre, das Yin und das Yang des Unbewussten." [Sibylle Bölling]
"Ever wondered how a mix of Troum and raison d’être would sound like? Here is the long awaited answer.
Four years in the making – carefully forged between 2011 and 2014 -, De Aeris In Sublunaria Influxu showcases a magically crafted alchemy between these two titans of the drone and ambient realms.
Troum navigate through cavernous, subterranean spaces where cyclical sounds reverberate towards impressive crescendos of icy noise, luminous drones and dramatic, guitar-driven ghostly melodies. Their truly unique gorgeous soundscapes shine in a perfect symbiotic movement with the Swedish dark ambient maestro Peter Andersson. Engulfed in a hauntingly beautiful kaleidoscope of grey-ish melancholia, raison d’être comfortably walks deeply into Troum’s vast territory, delivering his very own trademark of eerie tones, ominous sacral ambience and crystal clear constructions.
Airy lush enigmatic atmospheres live together with dark breathing, reverberant transformative drones. Rich and gorgeously layered.
Mastered using the K-14 level standard, the album comes lavishly assembled in a custom, sturdy 6-panel digisleeve packaging with amazing minimal artwork by the award-winning Spanish designer Ritxi Ostáriz. Limited to 700 copies." [label info]
www.essence-music.com
"Schön, wenn vorab kaum Worte nötig sind, weil allein die Tatsache der Zusammenarbeit zweier namhafter Künstler oder Bands für sich steht. Das deutsche Duo TROUM trifft auf den Schweden PETER ANDERSSON. Meine persönlichen Drone-Helden, die wie kaum eine andere Gruppe den Begriff 'Drone' mit Leben füllen, treffen einen der wichtigsten Dark Ambient-Workaholics mit seinem Hauptprojekt RAISON D'ÊTRE. Obwohl 'aufeinander treffen' eigentlich nicht das richtige Wording ist. Viel eher passt zum Beispiel 'aneinander schmiegen', denn entsprechend verwoben und organisch ist die über vier Jahre sorgfältig vorbereitete Zusammenarbeit ausgefallen.
"Folia" (01), der Opener und eines der zwei kurzen Stücke, beginnt mit schwebenden Drones, die ich sofort TROUM zuordnen würde. Das Knistern und Knastern wiederum, welches unterschwellig für Unruhe und Grautöne sorgt, gehört zu RAISON D'ÊTRE. Diese Zuordnung lässt sich über weite Teile des Albums vornehmen. Nach dem dezenten Vorspiel entsteht mit "Alio Tempore" (02) das Bild einer riesigen Kathedrale: abwechselnd tönen schwere und leichte Gongs, Soundcluster im Stile eines Chores schieben sich langsam nach vorne. Im Untergrund ergänzt ein Klirren die Szenerie. Über spacige, flirrende (Gitarren?)Sounds ergibt sich ein ruhiger, gleitender Ausklang. Auch "Oculum Mundi" (03) arbeitet mit Kirchenglocken-ähnlichen Loops, wie überhaupt die Stücke oft sakral wirken. Hier folgt allerdings eine hektischere Wendung, mit Dramatik durch mehr Geschwindigkeit inklusive eines mächtigen Trötens. "Atmosphaera" (04) ist warm und weich, sehr dronig eben, mit diesem kleinen Maschinen-Rattern anbei. In "Meditationum" (05), dem längsten Track, bilden atmende, singende Drones eine chorale Fläche, sorgen für weites und gelöstes Ambiente. Konkretere, schnarrende Klänge schieben sich nach einigen Minuten hinein, und die im Verlauf zunehmend längeren, gleißenden Drones erinnern mich an Musik für (oder von) Eisberge(n), untermalt von an dieser Stelle sehr organischen Sounds wie Grillenzirpen. "Flammae" (06) ist mit seinen drei Minuten für mich das schönste und auch wehmütigste Stück des Albums, die Drones formen eine betörende Melodie. Und "Ad Infinitum" (07) wirkt zum Abschluss auf mich besonders mächtig, fast bedrohlich oder unheimlich. Der Track hat was von einer Verabschiedung, von Dahinfloaten, insbesondere am Ende mit eisigem Krächzen und Schieben, mit fast menschlichen, stöhnenden Drones.
Als hätten TROUM und RAISON D'ÊTRE schon immer miteinander gearbeitet, klingt "De Aeris In Sublunaria Influxu" in der Summe seiner Bestandteile äußerst harmonisch. Die angesprochene Aufteilung der Sounds in deutsch und schwedisch, in flächige Drones und Dark Ambient-Geräusche ist zwar möglich, beides ergänzt sich aber durchweg hervorragend und ist so sauber aufeinander abgestimmt und gut produziert, dass die Atmosphäre dadurch gewinnt. Hypnotisierende Soundlandschaften, oder lyrischer: Ein Schweben in warmen Grautönen für dunkle Novemberabende.
Das Album kommt auch in einer limitierten Box mit zusätzlichen Tracks auf den Markt..."
[Michael We. für nonpop.de]
|
2015 |
€14.00 |
|
| TRUE COLOUR OF BLOOD |
[absence] |
CD |
Endlich was neues von diesem italienischen experimental drone-Projekt nach dem sehr guten Erstling (CDR) “The Significance of Secrecy“. Endlos wallend-wattige dreamscapes auf Gitarren-Basis, entspannend und kontemplativ, dunkel und harmonisch zugleich, die mitunter auch von Zeitlupen-Pulsationen durchflossen werden...
“ When we think about "guitar players", we are misled by the very traditional concept of the "rock" guitarist playing riffs and solos..... WRONG !! There is a parallel universe where talented musicians like Eric Kesner use guitars (and nothing else.....) to build dense and flowing streams of sound. Dark ambient of the finest kind, where monstrously dark drones meet touching melodies.... In white-trayed jewel box.” [press release]
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| TSITSIGIAS, ALEX |
Contractions |
mCD-R |
A new micro-label from Hamburg for experimental / atmospheric soundworks, the first release comes from the label-owner (who is also the member of a quite well known german indie-rockband) himself with a 23+ minutes one-tracker, combining raw hissy wind-drones and noisy-harmonic distortion-expanses with cut-up effects & field recordings , quite powerful at the beginning and more beautiful at the end.... great harsh ambience...
Designed similar as the great TAALEM-mCD-series, numbered ed. of just 60 copies.
|
2006 |
€5.00 |
|
| TUNNELS OF ĀH (TUNNELS OF AH) |
Surgical Fires |
CD |
Following the sulphureous sting of 2015's 'Thus Avici', Tunnels Of Ah's third album, 'Surgical Fires' is a dense, fermentative working.
Asemic vocals are sunk beneath an alienated electronic landscape of seismic drones and paranormal frequencies. Loss, gain, conflict, resolution, decay and transformation as an initiatory path is the current running through 'Surgical Fires'; the surgery alluded to in the title being psychic surgery.
With original album artwork by Stephen Ah Burroughs (HEAD OF DAVID) and a vocal contribution from London-based ritual artist Soror Anji Cheung, 'Surgical Fires' is another singular Tunnels Of Ah release evasive of categorisation.
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2016 |
€13.00 |
|
| TZESNE |
HuffDuff (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
TZESNE is quite a new project from Spain, who has only two brilliant CDR-releases out to date. On HuffDuff’s two tracks “Enviar Ayuda Ahora” and “La Voz Flamante” one dives deep into mysterious sounds derived solely from radio-receivers, creating a droney and eerie imaginary soundtrack to the communication between Submarines in the Second World War. “Something” is there in the sub-ether, but it can’t be identified. Very thick & foggy subliminal sound-waves, the time is standing still...
"The communication becomes simple propaganda due to the saturation, the freedom of the person
is restricted to the field of the selection and not to the one of the creation". [Tzesne]
Filed under: Secret-Listening Radiowave-Drones
BLACK VINYL. HANDMADE COVERS USING SILK-SCREEN, GLUE, PHOTOCOPIES, EACH ONE UNIQUE!
|
2005 |
€6.50 |
|
| UBEBOET |
Haereo |
CD |
"Madrid (and Cologne) based Miguel Angel Tolosa has a solid musical background both in electroacoustic & contemporary composition, and he’s also quite versed into sound engineering and producing techniques.
Most of all, he’s the long operating figurehead behind the highly respectable Con-V label.
His area of expertise is drones & field recordings tinted, and he has published works on many labels such as among others : Winds Measure Recordings, Non Visual Objects, Twenty Hertz, Drone Records…
As a dedicated listener/explorer, his music displays a large textural palette, and is infused with that underlying beauty all around us…
This album has been saved from loss and was initially to be released on Asher Tuil’s now defunct & missed Sourdine label.
“haereo” speaks forlorn rainy tales
or exhales morning urban springs…
a sea of untranquility
where small streams abound,
like so many darker veins and obscure skin maps…
Faint echoes exude from exhausted machinery,
a mass of dying waves,
a trail of stars pointing to nowhere, closed doors, and nocturnal flames in the distance,
dead intrepid plants swaying in the wind…
“haereo” is a flux of broken memories,
something reached out for, brushed,
something singularly mighty,
which takes us beyond, deep at heart "
[label info]
www.mysterysea.net
"Miguel Angel Tolosa works as Ubeboet since quite some time and has as such a number of releases, although the word 'overproduction' certainly doesn't apply to him. The cover says he worked on this from 2008 until 2012 and that he takes credit for electronics and field recordings; the latter being taped in Prague, Madrid, Lozoya valley area (Spain), Aguilar de Campoo area (Spain) and Serra San Bruno (Italy), while Ingar Zach plays bowed singing bowls on one piece. What's interesting to note is that in the first piece, 'Eaden', there are indeed quite some field recordings, but all of birds and insects, rather than what we are used to with this label, which is all things aquatic. In 'Umbrae' the microphone is thrown into the deep end and picks up signal below sea-level, along with Zach's bowed singing bowls. Below and above sea-level is where we find 'Sanatorium Rose', the final and longest piece on this release (which is about thirty-six minutes in total length), but there is also the motor-hum from a boat passing as drone music. In all three pieces we find Ubeboet's strong love of all things very dark. Much of the way he processes his sounds is to melt these field recordings by computer means and maybe all things analogue (either, or) and filter out much of the mid-high end until the darker rumble remains. In that way, Ubeboet surely has a strong own voice compared to his peers, which is a great thing and he shows it best in a release like this." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2014 |
€13.00 |
|
| UHUSHUHU (Ухушуху) |
Long Songs pleasant for Hearing |
MC |
" "U'hu! Shu'hu!" - hoot owls in a forest, as told by Daniil Kharms, and in the sky, above a rainbow, long songs pleasant for hearing are sung to a cherubim. Uhushuhu is a name of a project run by members of the creative group "Utrovortu" and their "Long Songs…" is the first studio record made after a few interesting performances at small underground city clubs and forest open-air festivals in the Leningrad region.
Following these songs we set off on a journey through structures and surfaces in a shell of experimental drone ambient. We will face sonic anomalies, random wanderings in unstable and unpredictable spheres, vague rustles and semblant echoes, spaces of various densities, mood and nature, hidden dead-ends, spontaneous phonations and labyrinths enclosed in themselves.
Second edition - 55 copies on white cassettes with stickers, two-sided full-colour cover." [label info]
"Reissued on cassette, but not for long! The Uhushuhu collective have been known to perform and produce their work under the canopy of the Russian forests outside of St. Petersburg, making them something of a Russian reincarnation of Jewelled Antler. There's much more of an electronic underbelly to Uhushuhu than Jewelled Antler, while retaining the pine-cone drone ethos of luminously radiant psychedelic dronescaping. The first track actually holds a number of aesthetic similarities to the long form works of Motion Sickness Of Time Travel - sinewy, seductive, and slippery passages of intertwining synth melodies softened through reverb and spaciousness, furthered along by watery field recordings and damp ruminations on subterranean lairs, wormholes, and caves. Each of the album's three tracks clock well past the 15 minute mark, leading towards deeper, more shambolic explorations of sublime atmosphere. Quite a lovely piece of work, with the cassette limited to 55 copies." [Aquarius Records]
|
2015 |
€8.50 |
|
| ULTRA MILKMAIDS |
AMR |
lathe-cut LP |
"the milkies are back on ant-zen, ready to do good and to excite both old and new fans alike with 'amr', where they present two continuous works of unmistakable quality. during the nearly sixteen minutes of the title track you will be carried onto a strange but not unsettling place by electronic tone floats with underlying twelve string drones. the second track 'lira & morphine' is a well-balanced post-psychedelic blend of distant cymbals, swirling synths and oscillating soundscapes interspersed with a subtle rhythmic interlude - contemporary electric music for mind and body. those who wish to get 'amr' on vinyl are heartily recommended to hurry up, due to the strict limitation of 92 copies. however of course an unlimited number of listeners will have the opportunity to acquire this album in digital format. the saga of the legendary ultra milkmaids continues...
available: 14february2k13 " [label info]
|
2013 |
€20.00 |
|
| ULTRA UNITED |
Research 1 (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
"This is the very first release of a new composer from Basle, Switzerland, who has created an amazing 6-track-disc of captivating, organic and strengthful sounds. After a strange effected chanson-entry we find ourselves in a world of long bassy drones, squeezing effects, earthquake- and siren-like sounds, and synthetic tunes. The whole holds an extreme tension during the tracks, and ends up with rather spacey and relaxing track a la BAD SECTOR.This is a real physical- & psycho-acoustical journey from the first to the last second! ULTRA UNITED means "Music that combines extreme opposite and ambiguous emotions in every respect". GOLDEN VINYL, BLACK ON BLACK PRINTED COVERS." [press release]
"THESE THREE EPs ARE PERFECT EXAMPLES THAT "DRONES" ARE NOT JUST "DRONES", BUT THAT THEY CAN BE USED TO CREATE INTENSE AND EXCITING COMPOSITIONS TO EFFECT DIFFERENTLY ON OUR MIND AND EMOTIONS. ALL 7"es APPEAR IN A LIMITED & NUMBERED EDITION OF 250 COPIES." [additional info on DR-38-40]
|
1999 |
€ |
|
| ULTRASOUND |
Death comes from the left |
7inch |
Endlich wieder erhältlich, die feine Single des US-“handplayed deep ambience” – Projekts in der zweien Auflage ! Klares Vinyl, klare Hülle...
„Eine pulsierende Wolke aus Gitarrenschwingungen in typischer Ultrasoundwärme. Kirk Laktas & Robert F. Ovetz an Gitarren & Bass, hier verstärkt zum Quartett mit Natalie Hill (guitar) & Tiana Hux (percussion), lassen wieder ihren dröhnenden Drachen steigen, mäandernde Waves als healing force, ein sonores Om aus allen Klangfarben des Regenbogens zusammengesetzt...“ [Bad Alchemy]
“Coming originally from Texas, the trio ultrasound (partly ex-STARS OF THE LID) are now located in Den Haag, Netherlands, and Austin, Texas, USA. They did a couple of fantastic guitar-drone-releases in the 90s, climaxing in their so far latest CD-album Hamesh, that went into new musical territory combining melodic songs with drones. With this, their first ever 7 EP, they present two unbelievable emotional touching pieces of guitar & bass-drone-music, where long echoes of overtone guitar-sounds melt in one stream of pure sensible acoustics... ultrasound submerges the listener into a deep salty sea to float on the frail border between air and water, light and reflection, perception and knowing. This is pure yearning transformed into sounds.“ [original info August 2001 ]
|
2005 |
€6.00 |
|
| |
Death comes from the left (SOLD OUT) |
7 |
“Coming originally from Texas, the trio ultrasound (partly ex-STARS OF THE LID) are now located in Den Haag, Netherlands, and Austin, Texas, USA. They did a couple of fantastic guitar-drone-releases in the 90s, climaxing in their so far latest CD-album Hamesh, that went into new musical territory combining melodic songs with drones. With this, their first ever 7 EP, they present two unbelievable emotional touching pieces of guitar & bass-drone-music, where long echoes of overtone guitar-sounds melt in one stream of pure sensible acoustics... ultrasound submerges the listener into a deep salty sea to float on the frail border between air and water, light and reflection, perception and knowing. This is pure yearning transformed into sounds.“ [press release] |
2001 |
€ |
|
| UNDECISIVE GOD |
Offering |
CD-R |
Noch eine gute CDR auf dem kleinen australischen Label SHAME FILE. UNDECISIVE GOD produzieren hier sphärische Gitarren-Drones, nicht unähnlich z.B. STARS OF THE LID oder ULTRASOUND, sehr fein und fragil....
“The concept behind most of the recordings on this full-length CD is the combination of guitar drones of varying tones and textures into a series of canon-based arrangements, exploring the dynamics resulting from the interplay of multiple layers of sound, both through composition and pure chance. This is also the first major Undecisive God release using mostly digital recording methods.” [label description]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| UNDERJORDISKA / SPECTRAL LORE |
split |
CD-R |
Zweimal qualitativ hochwertige "dark harmonic ambience" von Projekten aus dem Black Metal-Bereich...
"Two experimental black metal one-man bands venturing into new and undiscovered territories: this split is a collaboration far different from your typical "let's throw some left-outs from our previous records, make a intro or two and off to the printing plant" mentality, instead being a concept split album which should be heard as one, rather than two albums on the same cd. It is a journey from the surface of the sea to the very depths of the ocean, and then back towards the surface again. Each musician undertakes one part of the journey; two compositions over 30 minutes, featuring actual underwater recordings, aquatic drones, unique instruments (from a mandolin to a duduk) and even melodic post rockish moments. There is a continual flow of movement to the music, as the listener, embodied within this audial environment, descents and ascends through the ocean, towards a deepest point that seems to bear a particular significance: but is it the goal, or the journey itself that matters more?" [label info]
"... Hailing from the small but gradually growing group of Ambient Black Metal projects, Spectral Lore's Ayloss and Underjordiska's Dawid Dahl place consumptive Guitar- and Mandolin patterns alongside the foreboding electronic tapestry, integrating field recordings of lazy days at the beach into angelically ringing drones. And whenever they return into the oblivious void, the aforementioned bipolarity shines through even clearer. The overall impression of these two independently realised but astoundingly complimentary thirty-something-minute tracks is therefore timbrally rich and thematically diverse. While Dahl builds his piece modularly, taking it through a string of musical passages, the Spectral Lore contribution is rather shaped like a curve, slowly oscillating between anthemic noise and vaporous darkness. The stoic refusal of many genre-related releases to take their ostrich-like head from the sands of sadness is counterpointed by an approach which never rests on its laurels while placing seminal importance on ambient coherency: Diversity and darkness, they teach us, need not be a contradiction." [Tokafi] |
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
| UNGER, JON |
Memory Indicator |
mCD-R |
active for a few years as half of woodbender (together with martijn pieck aka cinema perdu) who has released a few cassettes, dutch sound artist jon unger proposes here his very first solo release. his musical interests lie in the field of experimentation, atmosphere i.e drones, field recording and loose improvisation based around the guitar (plus effects). graininess and imperfections he is particularly fond of... enjoy!
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/memory-indicator-alm-126 |
2019 |
€5.00 |
|
| UNKNOWN ARTIST |
Anastenaria |
do-LP |
"Excavated from the bottomless vaults of the Greek musical heritage, the new KEMA/\ label reissues a timeless piece of Hellenic ritualism: the folk dance of ANASTENARIA. Closely affiliated to the Berceuse Heroique imprint, KEMA/\ will focus its attention to the unearthing of ageless recordings, from pagan, cult-like hymns to forgotten electronic deviations...brutally backed with a fitting series of contemporary remixes. The sounds of ANASTENARIA are hypnotic and terrifying at their most docile moments, spinning you through ten segments of circular improvisation while transporting you to those sun-beaten hills and back again - the voices of the musicians and participators themselves creating enough energy to form a captivating pull towards this compelling segment of music. On the second slab of vinyl, Hospital Recordings boss, Vatican Shadow takes the essence of the entire cut and morphs it into a ten-minute cyclone of granular drones and thorny percussion, leaving the original's prophetic instruments to wail wildly beneath the mounds of hardware mutation - a strikingly apt fit to a recording made decades before... Over on the flip, it's up to Pete Swanson to definitively derange ANASTENARIA to its fullest, leaving behind a faint glow of the original's powerful air of mysticism. Fuzzy kick drums, grainy hi-hats and an ocean of organised noise culminate into total sonic destruction, spewing out the exhausted remnants of the dance to the Gods. Beautifully packaged by Will Bankhead, this first KEMA/\ is full of rebooted sounds that will appeal to the more daring spinners out there." [label info]
|
2014 |
€18.50 |
|
| URE THRALL |
Premonition 9/11 |
7inch |
"URE THRALL is an American artist from Houston, TX (living since years in the Bay Area) who is long active in the more atmospheric- transcendental experimental US-scene – in former days he was a member of the pre-VOICE OF EYE project CRUOR and later with ASIA NOVA, and he also participated in the two first V.O.E. – CDs as a guest musician. Now, apart from being a member of SMOOTH QUALITY EXCREMENT, he works solo and creates most impressive soundscapish depth-drones with an incredible emotional quality, harmony & sadness melting together into beautiful aural visions.
This 7”, his first vinyl-release as URE THRALL, contains two long tracks (> 8 min.) with an organic, filmic & sublime quality, using echo-flutes, bass, e-bowed guitar & restrained percussion underneath. THE TRAVELER with all its majestic harmony seems to be like an endless travel through emotional fields of melancholia - expressing the endless search for something once known which is lost forever and you can’t even remember what is was, but you feel that you need it back existentially ! Perfect music for endless drives on highways (both physically and spiritually) ... The title track PREMONITION 9/11 is less relaxed and more of a threatening quality, using faster percussion and strange bass-patterns with oriental sounding flutes & swirling sound-effects. This track also uses field-recordings from the tragical events happened on 11. Sept. 2001 in NYC and must be also seen as a treatment of traumatic experiences. The whole 7” is a personal statement about the politics of the USA after this tragic day, which is expressed also in the cover-artwork and the liner-notes: “THE COVER ART is an effigy of the American Flag in decay and is composed of an extreme close-up shot of the World Trade Center moments before its collapse, its occupants leaning out the windows fully aware of their impending transition to the next plane of existence.”
[original press release January 2003]
|
2007 |
€6.00 |
|
| URUS MARTAN / ALEX TSITSIGIAS |
Rare Animals and Fruits |
MC |
First release on a new tape-label from Hamburg! This tape (C-20) features quite droney & atmospheric x-scapes with a raw edge, bubbling analogue-synths, pulses, harsh breaks, concrete outlets... (by URUS MARTAN); more intense & advanced dronescapes with metallic / machine like sounds within on Side B by label-owner ALEX TSITISGIAS, really powerful. A damn good tape for people who like challenging atmospheric sound collages! Comes in paper envelope with inlay, all handmade. |
2008 |
€5.00 |
|
| V.A. (VARIOUS ARTISTS) (COMPILATIONS) |
ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE presents: Interpretations |
CD-R |
Interpretations of graphical works from AMT by: MAISON_MEDICALE, DALE LLOYD, KARKOWSKI, SECRET SOCIETY MUSIC, DAVID MC CARTHY, JEAN LUC GUIONNET, AIOFE MC GOVERN, NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES, and additional tracks by AMT, TBC, SKWI + Y.BUCHHEIM. Quite radical in approach & sounding, between extreme concrete microcospic field / soundobject recordings & instrumental use, electronic noises & drones, everything is possible...
On Hamburgs "Wachsender Prozess"-Label !
|
2006 |
€9.50 |
|
|
Dissolution Tapes: The Musique Concrete Ensemble remixed |
CD |
Eine Compilation auf dem US-Label ZEROMOON, die das ganze mögliche Spektrum experimentellen Soundrecyclings aufzeigt ! Remixed wird nämlich das (sehr ruhige & schöne) Album “Disonancias..” von MUSIQUE CONCRETE ENSEMBLE in einem extrem weiten Spektrum, von atmosphärisch-organischen Dronescapes bis hin zu digital-concrete noise... wirklich hervorragendes Material, definitiv zu empfehlen !
“ Lets face it, most compilations suck, are filled with half-assed throw away tracks by name artists and filler by unknowns reinventing the wheel for the umpteenth time. This is were Dissolution Tapes differs. In order to maintain a stylistic consistency of music and challenge the contributors, musical themes recorded by Normal Music's secret alter ego, The MCE, were given to every participant. Its sort of a remix CD but beyond that in how attention was paid to the overall disk in terms of flow and composition creating a unified release of new and challenging music. Artists include: Cornucopia, Alexei Borisov, Anton Nikkila, Freiband, Ultra Milkmaids, Violet, Jacob Kirkegaard, Maja Ratkje, Kotra, Dead Letters, Andrey Kiritchenko, Das Torpedoes, Michael Gendreau, R.R. Habarc, Francisco Lopez, Rechord, Fe-Mail.” [label info] "Dissolution Tapes requires effort but rewards accordingly. Still, it should not be approached as the companion disc to Disonancias y Repeticiones Ambiguas, unless you plan on seriously expanding your horizons." - François Couture, All-Music Guide "listen to this compilation whole in one breath, it's worth it." - Vital Weekly
|
2003 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Instruments |
CD |
MICROMUSIC! Atmospheric digital music at its best, between ambient-drones and more poppy sounds... on this compilation of a new french label ! JANEK SCHAEFER, STEINBRUCHEL, MOU, LIPS!, HERVE BOGHOSSIAN, and many more.. Second compilation for this fine french label..
: : _t r a c k l i s t
. .1. werner dafeldecker & martin siewert -stendec-
. .2. janek schaefer -sans la vue-
. .3. steinbrüchel -tint/e-
. .4. mou, lips! -che ti amerà per sempre-
. .5. sébastien roux -farnsworth house-
. .6. matthieu saladin & ivan solano -syn-
. .7. hervé boghossian -points d'orgue-
. .8. günter müller -momentary cymbalized-
. .9. mitchell akiyama -capsized sigh and a highjacked smile-
. .10.julien tardieu & cylens -retilh-
. .11.colleen -slow flower-
|
2004 |
€10.00 |
|
|
Oscotarach |
do-LP |
Industrial-Compilation with four projects, each on one side, inspired by LEONARD COHENS
“Beautiful Losers”-novel. Special cover.
“Noise is probably the purest form of industrial music. The use of manipulated field recordings and machines to create otherworldly environments is what four experimental electronic composers create in this wonderful limited edition vinyl pressing. The four tracks offered by Mirko Hentrich's Spherical Disrupted project range from dark walls of all encompassing noise, shown in 'Phantom' and 'Daunt', to the minimal field recordings of 'SPH 265 HII' and 'Com Verbot'. Elsewhere, Skalpell, a project from Zurich, offer two outstanding minimal dark ambient dance pieces that come across like a more upbeat Biosphere.
The second disc obliterates the senses with six uncompromising tracks from Carsten Vollmer. Like listening to a stuck record, Carsten layers electronic blips and blops to create cold tones of industrial modernity. This is rounded off with four experimental ambient tracks from Hidden Technology, best described as the sound of the subconscious if it were audible. Their incorporation of synthetic drones with spoken word and ambience gives the compilation further variance. All in all this makes for a thouroughly unique and immersive listening experience.” [Will Stone /Terrorizer Magazine]
www.deafborn.de
|
2005 |
€16.50 |
|
|
SPIRE (ORGAN WORKS PAST PRESENT & FUTURE) |
do-CD |
Wer auf erhabende und experimentelle Orgel-Klänge steht, muss hier einfach zugreifen ! Orgeln dienten hier in verschiedenster Weise als Inspiration oder Klangquellen für die Stücke...zu hören gibt es fulminante oder monumentale Orgel-Drones, leise Sphärensounds, eher knarzige field recordings, etc.. ...inkl. ausführliche Linernotes im Booklet.
„ CDOne: Leif Elggren Z'EV Philip Jeck Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson Charles Matthews Marcus Davidson Scott Minor/Fennesz Finnbogi PŽtursson Biosphere Toshiya Tsunoda Tom Recchion Lary 7/Jeff Peterson
CDTwo: BJNilsen Scott Taylor Jacob Kirkegaard Oren Ambarchi/Tom Recchion Chris Watson and on the web: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk/spire/stillupsteypa.mp3
The story: The thought of producing a compilation where the tracks were all either inspired by or more directly influenced by the organ had been frequently aired over the years. The conversations were always animated and expansive. The organ works of Arvo Pärt, those performed by Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, a pupil of Richard Rodney Bennett at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and others, have reached a wider non-classical audience. Eventually Benny Nilsen arranged to visit St. Mary's Church, Warwick and work with one of England's finest, Charles Matthews. Crawling around inside the instrument, positioning microphones most appropriately in the Church, or 'capturing' the psalms composed by Marcus Davidson, Nilsen explored the possibilities with all the familiar lust of the avant-garde.
As the brief widened, so did the responses... some contributors referred to earlier versions of the organ and its often highly political usage, others explored aged instruments themselves. Some studied the effects of the sounds produced on the physique and the psyche, others conceptualised the brief and either built their own or recorded natural or man-made phenomena which utilised the same basic process, wind through pipes.
The organ represents the marriage between acoustic complexity and ritualised space. It is impossible not to be drawn upward, towards the spire of the church or cathedral, or to the huge and daunting forest of pipes themselves. The organ dwarfs all comers, and unlike other instruments, it is this non-musical element which makes the organ stand apart.“ [press release]
|
2003 |
€19.50 |
|
|
Variations 2 |
CD |
"Teil 2 der Variations-Serie, für die wir eine Riesen-Lanze brechen möchten!: fast durchweg empfehlenswertes Material von größtenteils unbekannten: AKEMI ISHIJIMA (unglaubliche Sounds!!) , MICHAEL ORMISTON (multidimensional violins), TOM WALLACE (subliminal sounds with an unbelievebal outburst), HUGH DAVIS (drones with scrapes) , BOB COBBING AND LAWRENCE UPTON (einfacb nur abartig) , JOHN GRIEVE (a real sound-storm!) , CLIVE GRAHAM (Paradigm-Disc-Betreiber und MORPHOGENESIS-Mitglied mit seinem bisher einzigen Solostück, einem fantastischen Ambient-Water-Stück!), ROLF GEHLHAAR, meist aus der Kunst-/ Installations-Szene, Ambient, Noise & Minimal-Kompositionen mit großer Variationsbreite und extremer Spannung!!!" [Drone Rec. info 1998]
|
1998 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Sur-Terre.Net |
CD |
Geräuschmusik- & "Experimental Drone"- Soundtrack für einen Film von GREGORY CHATONSKY, der für ARTE TV produziert wurde. Die Highlights kommen unserer Ansicht nach von FRANCISCO LOPEZ, PITA & HAZARD, die mit tiefbassigen knirschenden Drones und wahren Rauschbomben begeistern, insgesamt eine sehr abwechslungsreiche Compilation zwischen digitaler Electronica & field-recording Geräuschkunst..
Soundtrack for an ARTE-film by GREGORY CHATONSKY, with tracks by: SCANNER, FENNESZ, ATAU TANAKA / FRANCISCO LOPEZ, STEVE RODEN, VLADISLAV DELAY, TIM HECKER, HAZARD, PURE, PITA, CHRISTOPHE CHARLES, HELLER, ABSTRACKT KEAL AGRAM, ROBERT BABICZ, GENERAL MAGIC...
|
2006 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Dark Ambient Radio Volume 1 |
CD |
Das Hamburger Internet-Radio "Dark-Ambient-Radio" steht seit einigen Jahren für ein anspruchsvolles Programm und bietet den Hörern zudem eine Plattform für Austausch & Kommunikation. Auf der ersten CD-Compilation des Independent-Senders finden sich einige bekanntere Acts, aber überwiegend gibt es wohl für die meisten was neues zu entdecken. Im Dark Ambient Genre mischen sich der Sinn für Geräuschhaftes und Soundeffekte mit der Sehnsuchtsweite der Drones, wobei harmonische Elemente oft ein minimales Gerüst bilden.
Dabei sollen dunkle, kosmische, melancholische Atmosphären entstehen... Die "Dark-Ambient-Radio" Zusammenstellung führt das sehr schön vor, unsere persönlichen Highlights kommen von: SVARTSINN & ALLSEITS (die "andere Seite" von ALL SIDES), NAGUAL ART, PHELIOS...
"At eleven the track-count stops and another marvelous sampler will have played on your stereo. With the title Dark-Ambient-Radio, Vol. 1, there is not much to guess about the content of this album.
The collected artists on this sampler are in between completely new and world-famous (within the genre that is). The absolute most well-known on here is Ah Cama-Sotz, but also Svartsinn and Phelios have earned their place in the dark ambient genre already.
For Evoke Scurvee, Nihil Communication, Mytrip, and Nagual Art this is the first occurence on a CD. All others on this album have had releases before, so depending on how much you like dark ambient, you might have stumbled upon tracks or releases already.
So the balance of "something old, something new" slightly tilts towards the "new" and that is always good. Getting to know new names and finding the well hidden pearl in the oyster gives you the feeling there is still stuff to explore in an at times slow developing genre.
But does this album contain dark ambient? Well, yes and no. Partially there is definitly some references toward the definition, but at times there is also a lot of experimentation with fieldrecordings, samples, drones, and emotion. A purist would call file those tracks under drones or experimental. But let's just f*ck purism this time. :-)
A must-have for explorers and those dark of mind ..." [Bauke van der Wal / Gothtronic]
& live-stream at: www.darkambientradio.de
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
SPIRE LIVE FUNDAMENTALIS |
do-LP |
Der dritte Teil in der SPIRE LIVE-Serie, lange Stücke mit "modernem" Orgelbezug & -einsatz von PHILIP JECK, CHARLES MATTHEWS, MARCUS DAVIDSON, BJ NILSEN und FENNESZ, - Aufnahmen von den zwei SPIRE - Konzerten auas Göteborg und Brüssel. Ganz wunderbar tönen wieder BJ NILSEN und FENNESZ, der eine löst die Orgel-Töne in rostig-rauhen Resonanzen auf, der andere klingt ("rein ORGANisch") höchst melancholisch und polyphon... aber auch die anderen Stücke (u.a. eine Version eines SCELSI-Stückes) sind die Anschaffung wert.
"Spire Live - Fundamentalis is a double LP-only collection of exclusive live tracks recorded at various Spire events held throughout 2005 and 2006. Released in association with U.S. label, Autofact, Touch presents a selection of tracks performed by the main performers of Spire: Fennesz, Philip Jeck, BJNilsen, Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson. Improvised pieces from Fennesz, BJNilsen and Philip Jeck contrast with a performance by Charles Matthews of a scored composition by Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, "In Nomine Lucis," and Marcus Davidson's self-penned "Standing Wave," which ends side two with a locked groove. Cut to preserve and enhance the bottom end frequencies, Fundamentalis is not merely a document; the tension between and within the individual pieces is palpable. As the Touch label places it, Fennesz's set "...evokes the rolling centuries in all their pain and beauty, leaving us at once becalmed and energized, but never oppressed under the weight of time." Electronics breathe new life not only into the organ, but also into the setting. But a new technological successor does not mean replacement. Ultimately, it's the majestic sound of the organ, so steeped in centuries of tradition that one remembers above all else. Spire is one of the most innovative projects around, drawing on the full canon of organ works, from the very first annotation in the Robertsbridge Codex from the 14th century, to Max MSP patches and software sampling. With two CD releases and nine performances in cathedrals and churches throughout Europe, Spire remains a potent live force in harnessing the sounds of the ages. Art direction and design by Jon Wozencroft." [label info]
".... Jeck's side is everything we could hope for, long lazy loops, slathered in record static, hiss, crack and pop, dreamy melodies skipped into haunting rhythms, everything washed out and blurred, a worn weary sonic drift, organs and voices, soaring and whirring, very mechanical and machinelike, but simultaneously, warm and emotional.
Serene, hypnotic, mesmerizing, what else can we say about the magic of Jeck's music that we haven't said before??
Matthews' half of side two is super minimal and hushed, mostly organs, allowed to wheeze and whir, slightly dissonant, but dense and layered, the tones hovering in a suspension of rumbles and shimmers, very dramatic and cinematic, understated and reverent, almost like some strange religious musical ritual. The second half, ostensibly Davidson's, although he is credited with a locked groove, is a dark
drone-y flow, keyboards blurred into warm streaks, also slightly atonal, ominous, intense, the muted rumble builds to an almost cacophonous organ-ic frenzy, that heard at full volume must have stirred the soul for sure.
The second disc is split evenly between Nilsen and Fennesz. Nilsen's side, recorded in a church in Sweden, is a dark, harrowing,
rumbling, post industrial dronescape, the tones rough around the edges, the melodies lugubrious and caustic, building up into a serious din, metallic washes of sound, thick shards of pulsing buzz, very brittle and sharp, before slipping into something a little more serene, but no less intense, more muted metallic tones, drifting in a churning sea of hissing static and electronic grit, a barely noticeable rhythm, more of a pulse or swell, finishing off in a deep grinding low end blur, like a much more minimal 20th century SUNNO))).
The Fennesz track is all organ, the root of all of these pieces, but here, the organ is unaltered, barely unadulterated, allowed to warmly wheeze, strange tangled melodies, glistening and glimmering, the tones beginning to change shape, the melodies allowed to elongate and blur slightly until they're swallowed up by a warm cloud of static and hiss before fading out completely. The second half of Fennesz' side is a more murky underwater reading of the first half, not as much grit and gristle as we usually expect, instead, the sound is whirling and muted, reminding us of Oval, but with the glitching skips smoother out, leaving just warm shimmering sonic swells, sun dappled melodies, and rich layered high end drones, drifting serenely, pastorally.
Gorgeously packaged, super thick full color gatefold sleeve, super striking Wozencroft photos, pressed on thick vinyl. And as if you even need to be told, quite limited indeed." [Aquarius Records review]
www.a-fact.com
|
2008 |
€18.50 |
|
|
DIY CANONS |
do-CD |
Compilation mit Stücken die sich alle auf die Kompositionsideen von LARRY POLANSKY beziehen, kuratiert von SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH. Einiges witziges und verstörendes (z.B. das Schrei-Stück von RUVIARO), einiges belangloses (MIKE SWNICHLSKI), einiges erstklassig (MIKE WINTER), einiges eher nervtötend (WICKHAM-SMITH), schöne sirr-drones (STEVEN M MILLER), handgespielt schönes (GEORGE ZELENZ), etc. etc., ein Riesenspektrum von Interpretationen von meist unbekannteren US-Komponisten gibt es hier zu entdecken....
"Okay. Really cool, kind of fun, double cd compilation based on a work of Larry Polansky's. Pieces are constructed from the sounds of cats, screams, MIDI instruments, computer, Barbie Phone, samples, wooden flutes, piano, bass clarinet, Ringtones, Metro Cards, contrabass, and more. I have some of my favorites - which keep changing each time I listen to the discs. Perhaps you will too. Read on too get a "real" description from the curator of this project. [label info]
"The pieces on this CD are all based on the ideas in Larry Polansky's four voice canons, a series of pieces he began in 1975. These canons are usually "mensuration canons," which means that the tempi of successive voices is proportional to their start times, so that the voices end together. They also use simple ideas of moving through a list of permutations, and applying the elements of those permutations to various musical parameters. A set of Polansky's canons was produced on Cold Blue Records as four voice canons (CB0011).
Polansky described these ideas in Four Voice Canon #13 ("DIY Canon"), a kind of open-source meta-canon score. He distributed this at talks and on the web as an open invitation to others who wanted to make four voice canons of their own. Composers responded with a wide variety of variations on the basic idea; a selection of these works is presented here." [Simon Wickham-Smith, curator]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
|
SACRAL SYMPHONY |
CD |
"Steht der Name EVGENY VORONOVSKI auf einem Produkt, kann sich dahinter eigentlich nur Qualität verbergen; das hat der Russe in den vergangenen Jahren oft genug bewiesen. Zum einen ist er Bestandteil von NEUTRAL, der momentan zum Duo geschrumpften, akustischen Neofolk-Vorzeigeband aus Russland. Dort geht er seinem gelernten Handwerk nach und spielt – als studierter Geiger – die Violine. Zum anderen ist er der Kopf hinter CISFINITUM, einem Projekt, das außerordentlich atmosphärischen Dark Ambient produziert. Gerade mit der elektronischen Musik war VORONOVSKI auf zahllosen Samplern vertreten: "Iznutri" (Besprechung), "Energia" (Besprechung) oder der "Heilige Feuer"-Serie. Nun hat er den Spieß umgedreht und Material von anderen Bands eingesammelt, ist mit CISFINITUM allerdings auch selbst vertreten. Die insgesamt fünf Projekte aus Russland, Deutschland, Großbritannien und der Ukraine steuern jeweils rund 15 Minuten lange, exklusive Stücke bei, die auf meditativen Drones basieren. Zusammen gehalten werden sie von der losen, titelgebenden Vorgabe 'sakral'. Ein Versuch also, etwas Heiliges, Religiöses einzufangen, eine 'höhere Sphäre', was allen Beteiligten auf ihre Art und Weise gelingt.
Die Herangehensweise von 1000SCHOEN, einem Ein-Mann-Ambientprojekt aus Bremen, ist die – und das ist nicht negativ gemeint – naivste von allen. Nichts klingt 'dark', die puren Ambientflächen warten mit Windspiel und Sitar auf. Wuchtige Geigendrones im Mittelteil und später auch eine E-Gitarre verleihen die nötige Intensität. "Dageraad" ist warme, freundliche Entspannungsmusik, deren urige, natürliche Stimmung manchmal an den Balkanfolk von SVARROGH erinnert, an einen Guru auf dem Hügel, der einsam sein Instrument bearbeitet.
TROUM, ebenfalls aus Bremen, sind sehr viel düsterer. Das Projekt um STEFAN KNAPPE von DRONE RECORDS arbeitet mit dicht aneinander gedrängten Drones, die klingen, als ob Wind durch unterschiedliche Metallröhren weht. Wie durch eine Nebelwand tauchen dazu an- und abschwellende, geloopte Chor-Versatzstücke auf. Ab der Mitte des Songs erwecken die verfremdeten Vocals den Anschein einer rituellen Beschwörung. Die Synthesizerflächen von TROUM decken die ganze Bandbreite nach der Einnahme von halluzinogenen Drogen ab: Mal ist es ein Gleiten durch Licht, mal stiert ein Alp durch dunkle Wolken. Streckenweise klingt "Palas Tyn" wie ein frühes, sehr abgedrehtes Instrumental von PINK FLOYD.
EVGENY VORONOVSKI beweist vor allem dadurch Klasse, dass er mit CISFINITUM nur wenig Material braucht, um große Welten zu erschaffen. In "Autumn Ritual" mäandern ausladende, träge und warme Synthesizer-Drones durch das All, eine – wie es so schön heißt – 'Reise durch Raum und Zeit'. Sollte die Menschheit einmal schockgefrostet werden müssen, um im Tiefschlaf auf einen anderen Planeten zu fliegen, ist diese elektronische Kammermusik in Superzeitlupe perfekt für den Kopfhörer im Kryogentank.
ROBIN STOREY alias RAPOON steuert mit "One Last Breath" den experimentellsten Track der Zusammenstellung bei. Der Mitbegründer von ZOVIET FRANCE arbeitet hauptsächlich mit Stimmeffekten. Dazu hat er sich sowohl beim KIEV CHAMBER CHOIR bedient und dessen Gesänge bearbeitet als auch die eigene Stimme aufgenommen und verfremdet. Alles zusammen ergibt Himmelschor-Drones, die allerdings verzischt und verzerrt sind. Die Tür in eine andere Welt steht zwar offen, ist aber unerreichbar. Im letzten Drittel des längsten Songs dieses Samplers (19:43) gehen die Gesangsloops in ebenfalls scheppernde Posaunenklänge über, die nach und nach immer klarer werden, so dass ganz zum Schluss ein winziges Stückchen Engel erhascht werden kann.
Den Schlusspunkt setzt der Ukrainer OLEGH KOLYADA, der unter vielen Namen aktiv ist. (Ein NONPOP-Interview mit ihm gibt es hier.) Als FIRST HUMAN FERRO zeigt er in der Regel ein etwas härteres, post-industrielles Gesicht, das sich nun aber der sakralen Gesamtstimmung anpasst: Wir dürfen bei der Entstehung eines Universums zuhören. Leuchtende, helle Wolken aus Synthie-Tönen ploppen wie zukünftige Planeten in eine noch nicht vorhandene Atmosphäre. Später untermalt ein Sample mit wunderbarer, irdischer Klaviermusik das Szenario. Dieses Vermischen zweier unterschiedlicher (Atmo)Sphären hat viel vom 'geistigen' Sound des Zwillingsprojekts ODA RELICTA.
Es gilt, was schon eingangs erwähnt wurde: Der Macher bürgt für Qualität. Das ist in diesem Fall nicht anders und umfasst selbstverständlich alle beteiligten Projekte, nicht nur CISFINITUM. Allerdings muss sich der Hörer über die meditative Anlage des Samplers im Klaren sein, damit es keine Überraschungen gibt. Bis auf einige TROUM-Passagen ist die Musik wesentlich mehr Ambient als 'Dark', die Drones sind beruhigend und viele von ihnen nicht von dieser Welt, das heißt typisch 'spacig'. Spaß macht ganz nebenbei auch die Interpretationsfreiheit, die "Sacral Symphony" bietet. Hinter den sphärischen Tracks können sich Weltraumabenteuer, religiöse Erfahrungen oder einfach – wie EVGENY VORONOVSKI das vorschlägt – 'russischer Spirit' verbergen. Guter Sound für die restfeierliche Stimmung der Nach-Weihnachtszeit." [Michael We. für nonpop.de]
"You don't have to be a religious fanatic to hear the quality in this latest effort from Belgium label EE Tapes. The album titled "Sacral symphony" presents five grandiose pieces of drone-based electronics from five well-known and acclaimed composers of drifting ambience. The compilation is compiled by Russian composer Eugeny Voronovski who also contributes under his artist alias Cisfinitum. German composer 1000Schøen opens the symphonic extravaganza with a hypnotic piece titled "Dageraad" that includes acoustic sounds of guitars and flutes to create lush piece of ambience. Next artist is also German. Troum
contributes with the piece titled "Palas tyn" consisting of church bell-sounding drone accompanied by warm drones moving in deeper sound levels. Eugeny Voronovski alias Cisfinitum contributes with the beautiful piece "Autumn ritual" based on ochestral ambience reminding me of works from Angelo Badalamenti. Things get even more grandiose with the otherworldly piece from Rapoon, "One last breath", a dark and beautiful piece of processed choir samples. Final piece comes from the artist titled First Human Ferro, a remarkable piece of spacey ambient based on church organ samples with echoed acoustic sound like in a church. An excellent piece to end this otherworldy ambient compilation from EE Tapes." [NM / Vital Weekly]
label website: www.eetapes.be
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Table for Six: All Quiet? # 3 |
CD |
Das wohl am längsten bestehende belgische Label für elektronisch-experimentelle, post-industrielle und dronig-ambiente Klänge geht mit seiner TABLE FOR SIX-Reihe in die dritte Runde (sechs lange Beiträge)! Wieder präsentiert sich eine gelungene Mischung aus Altbekannten oder älteren Acts (FRANS DE WAARD, ANEMONE TUBE (nach langer Pause wieder aktiv wie's scheint) und (AD)VANCE(D) (ex VANCE ORCHESTRA), und den Newcomern NEUESTRASSE (mächtig atmosphärische dark ambient Drone aus Italien), STORMHAT (post-industrieller drone-industrial mit ungewöhnlicher Komplexität im Microsound-Bereich, sehr genial! Dänemark), und BRUNE DE ANGELIS (elektro-akustisch beeinflusste dunkel-symphonische Musik, nicht so weit entfernt von alten TIETCHENS-Sachen). Insgesamt sehr dunkel-atmosphärisch geprägt, Spezial 7"-Siebdruck-Cover, keine Ausfälle, was will man mehr !
"EE Tapes was originally a tape-exclusive label established in Belgium back 1987, but during the years the media forms released from the label has changed, to the present state of being a CD-only label. Present release is another shot from the "Table For Six"-series, that celebrates different forms of ambient with contributions from interesting composers of the scene. On this third chapter contributions comes from newcomers as well as from more established artists. Despite the focus on ambient the approaches to the style is quite different with everything from concrete sounds to abstracts noise. Opening piece titled "Bulo omega" is twelve minute work of buzzing drones from Italian artist Neuestrasse. Washes of noise waves creates a quite organic edge to the expressions of noise. Organic is also the word to describe the following contribution from Danish artists Stormhat that specializes in ambient-scapes exclusively based on field recordings. His piece "Substanser" nicely mixes abstract concrete sounds with recognizable found sounds. German project Anemone Tube continues with a minimalist piece of beautiful ambient based on processed choir-samples and grandiose soundscapes. With its warm atmosphere, the work titled "Projected cataclysm" from Anemone Tube stand in extreme contrast to the following icy drone work from Dutch sound artist Frans De Waard. His piece titled "Wortel (root)" is another minimalist work based on buzzing drones operating in subconscious levels with a very interesting result. Once in a while the drones fades away giving space for swarms of high frequency noises and crackling electronics wiping out any sign of buzzing tranquility. Dutch artist (Ad)vance(d) closes the compilation with another great piece of ambience based on field recordings with subtle melodies moving in deeper layers. Excellent compilation that also presents some quite bizarre and beautiful jazz-like ambient-noise-spheres based on acoustic instruments such as horns and string instruments from Italian artist Bruno De Angelis. Thus a great span in the contributing expressions. Good work." [NM, Vital Weekly]
" 1 | Neuestrasse (Italy): atmospheric ambient noise aka Matteo Roncari | newcomer in the dark ambient scene, although he had a first CD out already on polish War Office Propaganda label in 2006 neuestrasse@tiscali.it
2 | Stormhat (Denmark): obsessive experimental sonics aka Peter Bach Nicholaisen | climbing up fast on today's ladder of field recording-fame with CDreleases out on US-labels Cohort Records & Diophantine Discs www.stormhat.dk
3 | Anemone Tube (Germany/Netherlands): contemplative digital synths - aka Stefan Hanser, (harsh) noise artist returning after a long silence & now residing in the Netherlands, showcasing a very unusual piece for his doing in the best 80s prog synth tradition, but
with modern tools www.myspace.com/anemonetube
4 | Bruno De Angelis (Italy/UK): modern classical improvisation - former member of Influenza Prods (80s) and still active with Mana Erg (90s - now), always doing a kind of cinematographic stuff so far, here presenting a most special solo outing bruno.deangelis@yahoo.co. uk
5 | Frans de Waard (Netherlands): noise collage of tape-hiss only, back to the root(s) -
it all started with the cassette....
pioneer with Korm Plastics, (ex-)Staalplaat, Kapotte Muziek, Beequeen, Freiband, Shifts, etc etc.... www.fransdewaard.blogspot.com
6 | (ad)vance(d) (Netherlands) : floating space sounds built up with field recordings & a lot of
imagination - aka Mars F. Wellink (ex-Vance Orchestra) who teams up with Jan Dekker for this exclusive contribution: a well-balanced composition between dream, sleep & reality maybe..... mars.f.wellink@xmsnet.nl"
[label info]
|
2008 |
€13.00 |
|
|
An Anthology of Chinese Experimental Music (1992-2008) |
4 x CD |
Diese Compilation hat definitiv hat das Zeug zum Klassiker, handelt es sich doch um den allerersten umfassenden Überblick über die wachsende chinesische & asiatische Experimental & Elektronik & Noise-Szene, die hier in ihrer ganzen Vielfalt präsentiert wird. Ein guter Teil dieses Mammutswerks (48 Stücke!) bewegt sich im experimentellen Drone & Ambient-Bereich, aber es gibt auch einige Extrem-Noise Beiträge, Rhythmisches, hyper-abstraktes, Musique Concrete, Microsound. vier CDs mit für uns fast nur unbekannten Acts, eine wahre akustische Entdeckungsfahrt!! Anspieltips: DAJUIN YAO, STRINGRAYS, WANG FAN, LOGA, von denen mal hoffentlich wieder hören wird ! Mega-Digipack mit 2 Booklets, inklusive Text von Z. KARKOWSKI & YAN JUN "An Overview of Experimental and Non-Academic Music in China". SONDERPREIS!!
"Bis zur letzten Minute interessant bleibt dieser viereinhalb-Stunden-Rundumschlag durch experimentelle Musik aus China, zusammengestellt vom Aktivisten Dickson Dee, der dieses Feld seit zwanzig Jahren von Hongkong aus bestellt. Anders als der Titel suggerieren mag, konzentrieren sich die vier CDs dieser Box auf eine ganz junge Szene, die experimentellen Rock der 90er hinter sich gelassen hat und stattdessen (meist elektronisch) auf abstrakterer Stufe mit Klang experimentiert, für uns grob umrissen durch Noise, Ambient, Soundscape, in China selbst unter Sound Art zusammengefasst. Knapp die Hälfte der Stücke sind von 2007, ein weiteres Viertel von 2006; der Rest bleibt für eher punktuell scheinende Pionierarbeiten. Neben einem Booklet mit kurzen Texten zur Selbstvorstellung fast aller Künstler gibt es ein weiteres mit einem sehr erhellenden Text vor allem zur Genese experimenteller Musik in der VR China von Zbigniew Karkowski und Yan Jun, die drei Fünftel der Beiträge ausmachen (dazu kommen je ein Fünftel aus Hongkong und Taipei, plus ein Beitrag je aus Singapur und Malaysia). Dieser Text zeichnet die Linie nach von Kulturrevolution über Recycling und Piraterie westlicher Medien und klärt etwa über die besondere Ausgangslage der traditionslosen, wertungsfrei offenen Rezeptionssituation auf. Wie gesagt, das ist spannend, dennoch bemerkt man beim Durchhören eine gewisse Schieflage der Bandbreite, von der nicht klar wird, wie subjektiv sie geprägt ist. So einige Arbeiten konzentrieren sich auf Feedback und Distortion, von hier und heute aus besehen die schwächsten Glieder (Torturing Nurse verschwenden leider ihre Viertelstunde); besser gefallen mir die Sound- und Dronescapes, die oft Fieldrecordings verwenden und nicht unbedingt bahnbrechender, aber konzentrierter und eindrücklicher sind, und grade auch (aber nicht nur) von den Pionieren kommen: Dickson Dee selbst, Wang Fan, Dajuin Yao. Bemerkenswert aber auch Hong Qiles krasser, modemartiger Schreddernoise aus Fuzhou wie auch mein Favorit Loga, einer der ganz wenigen, die mit Rhythmus arbeiten, der sich bei ihm ganz unmerklich aus einer Klanglangschaft entwickelt. Dazwischen verstecken sich immer wieder isolierte Preziosen – Stimmauslotungen (Alice Hui-Sheng Chang), verträumte Popelektronika, die auch auf Noble stattfinden könnte (Nara), ein Beatstück mit Matmos-Funk (Sun Dawei), 50er-Jahre-WDR-Elektronik (Circadian), manch uneinsortierbares und offenbar folgenlos gebliebenes aus den 90ern, und man fragt sich ein wenig: gibt es da so wenig dazwischen? Beatexperimente? Oder Plunderphonics, im weitesten Sinne, wenn doch die Kultur auf Trash und Piraterie gewachsen ist? Aber das ist einfach Potential für die nächsten vier CDs, die genauso willkommen wären, wie diese hier, die natürlich ein Standardwerk ist." [multipara / de:bug]
"FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME, AN EXCEPTIONAL AND
VERY COMPLETE PANORAMA (MORE THAN 5 HOURS / 4 CDs)
SINCE ORIGINS (1992) OF ALL EXPERIMENTAL AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN CHINA, HONG KONG, TAIWAN, SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA.
4 CD SET DIGIPACK
+ 2 x 16 PAGE BOOKLETS
AN ANTHOLOGY OF CHINESE ELECTRONIC MUSIC (1992-2008) from Mainland China (Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guilin, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanxi, Harbin) Hong Kong - Taiwan - Singapore - Malaysia.
This anthology features 48 artists from within the Chinese area of influence. It is designed
as a journey through what is currently happening underground, under extremely diverse forms.
It also looks at the recent past and the key role of pioneers like Wang Fan, Dajuin Yao,
and also Hong Kong-based Li Chin Sung aka Dickson Dee who, for almost two decades, has been spreading the word about Experimental music in Mainland China. This album was curated by Dickson Dee on Guy Marc Hinant's invitation. It includes an enlightening presentation on the
short yet intense advent and history of the Chinese noise explosion,co-written by Zbigniew
Karkowski and Yan Jun.
________________________________________
The Sound of the Underground: An Overview of Experimental and Non-Academic Music in China
The Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76) in one way or another eradicated most of the
existing culture in China. At the same time as intellectuals were sent to rural labor camps,
countless ancient buildings, antiques, books, paintings and various artifacts were just
destroyed. This period created an enormous intellectual, cultural and artistic vacuum in
China - destruction that in a sense, time is still healing.
So tradition of music culture and especially non-academic, purely experimental music,
started from 'point blank' scratch sometime in the 80ies. With the market economy introduced in that decade and further media developments in the 90ies, there was a kind of an explosion in youth culture that had been held back for decades. Movements and music scenes that previously never reached China - like for instance psychedelic music, punk or neo-dada started to appear and expanded at astonishing pace.
The birth of these alternative rock and punk music scenes that later developed into even
more experimental trends is a direct result of global capitalism and profound change in China's position within the World Order. It however did not develop the same way as it
usually does in the West - with one eye looking forward and the other one always glancing
at history. It started with 'dakou' and with piracy.
tracklisting
4 x CD
CD1
01. Li Chin Sung aka Dickson Dee (Hong Kong) / Somewhere (1994) / 10'33
02. Zenlu (Shenzhen) / Zen (2007) / 9'19
03. Bai Tian (Chengdu) / Wet (2007) / 4'05
04. Cheewei (Singapore) / Evening has arrived (2006) / 8'02
05. Lim Giang (Taipei) / "???" (2006) / 8'41
06. Ang Song Ming aka Circadian (Singapore) / Book radio mixer (2007) / 3'02
07. Chung-Han Yao (Taipei) / Untitled (2005) / 5'02
08. Goh Lee Kwang (Malaysia) / Frong spraying (2007) / 3'42
09. Wu Quan (Beijing) / Weather forest (2006) / 5'04
10. Me:Mo (Beijing) / pro.a (2007) / 4'30
11. Wang Jong-Kuen (Taipei) / Leaving (2006) / 5'40
12. Dajuin Yao (Zuoying) / Psycho Realm (2006) / 5'29
CD2
01. Sun Dawei (Beijing) / Crawing state (2007) / 4'14
02. Nara (Beijing) / Dream a little dream (2007) / 6'54
03. WFDD / Wang Fan + Dickson Dee (Beijing/Hong Kong) / Sin (2007) / 8'36
04. Stingrays (Singapore) / 061020 (2006) / 5'18
05. Dennis Wong aka Wong Chung-Fai (Hong Kong) / para_dot (2006) / 5'12
06. Fathmount aka Wilson Lee (Hong Kong) / A yoke of oxen (2007) / 4'56
07. PNF (Hong Kong) / Chi (1994) / 3'11
08. Li Wen Tai aka Vince Li (Hong Kong) / Eat (2007) / 4'57
09. Shenggy (Beijing) / Junggy 's decay (2007) / 3'05
10. Ronez aka Zhou Pei (Guilin) / Kikusui Back (2006) / 4'57
11. Zhou Ri Sheng (Shanxi) / Noise God (2006) / 7'22
12. Fish (Taipei) / Rusty Crane Keelong (2007) / 4'46
CD3
01.Torturing Nurse (Shanghai) / Fugitive (2006) / 14'46
02. Wang Fan (Beijing) / Zero (2006) / 6'28
03. Wuwei + Ulrich Morits (Shanghai/Berlin) / Toy Ships (2003) / 2'48
04. Xper. Xr. & The Orphic Orchestra (Hong Kong) Hickory Dickory Dock (1992) / 1'01
05. Hong Qile (Fuzhou) / j gmc (2007) / 8'00
06. Ying Fan (Taipei) / L2255 mix (2007) / 3'58
07. Dead J aka Shao Yanpeng (Beijing) / untitled (2007) / 3'49
08. Z.S.L.O (Taipei) / 422189 (1997) / 3'09
09. Jedung Kying / Edging + Junky (Guangzhou/Shanghai) Dabao (2007) / 3'01
10. Tats Lau (Hong Kong) / Face The Antagonish (1992) / 2'53
11. Li Jianhong (Hangzhou) / Sod (2007) / 5'32
12. Dino (Taipei) / untitled (2005) / 6'45
CD4
01. Wang Changcun (Harbin) Through the tide of faces (2007) / 4'59
02. D!O!D!O!D! / Li Jianhong + Huangjin (Hangzhou) A dark knife (2006) / 5'36
03. Yan Jun (Beijing) / Its more than enough (2006) / 5'35
04. Loga (Fuzhou) / 620 (2007) / 9'22
05. Pei aka Liu Pei-Wen (Taipei) / Bird lady (2007) / 7'43
06. Eric Lin aka Lin Chi-Wei (Taipei) / untitled (2007) / 3'10
07. Alice Hui-Sheng Chang (Taiwan) There she is, standing and walking on her own (2007) / 3'59
08. Ching Shen Ching (Taiwan) / V-zone (1997) / Fuji Wang + Anes: electronics / 7'25
09. Dancing Stone (Hong Kong) / Two (1995) / Nelson Hui: flute + Ling Lee: voice / 2'13
10. Illuminated 6.6.6. (Hong Kong) / Enjoy the silence (1992) / 6'06
11. Juno aka Timmy Lok (Hong Kong) / Possiblilities (1995) / 3'18
12. Simon Ho (Hong Kong) / 5 (2005) / 6'53 "
[full label info]
www.subrosa.net
|
2009 |
€25.00 |
|
|
Ya Ji |
CD |
Das dürfte die erste in China veröffentlichte CD sein, die wir anbieten. Eine Compilation mit Collaboration-parts von BAI TIAN (auch auf der SUB ROSA Anthologie enthalten), SHIZI (auch aus China), sowie ANDERS PETERSON (aka OBJEKT4 und RELAPXYCH) und die legendären LOOP ORCHESTRA! Glitchig ambientes, drones, plunderphonics.. inkl. inlay mit liner notes über alle Stücke auf englisch und chinesisch!
"Ya Ji (Elegant Meeting):
A truly International sound project between China, Sweden and Australia. Proving that experimental music is very much acultural. The artists involved are Bai Tian from and currently lives in Chengdu (Sichuan province) and Shizi from Lanzhou (now lives in Beijing) in China, Anders Peterson from Stockholm and The Loop Orchestra from Sydney. The Artists have remixed each other’s work and these remixes are joined together to make up the 16 minute collaborative first track. Sound files were exchanged through the Internet. So it is a real cross-cultural/international sound project and in that respect it is unique. The other tracks on the CD are pieces by each of the artists.
The CD is released on the Chinese label KwanYin Records which is under the Sub Jam (www.subjam.org) collective from Beijing . All of the Artwork, CD production and final mastering was done in China.
The music ranges from the sound journey of the first collaborative track , Ya Ji, through to the beautiful final slowly unfolding piece by Shizi . The 16 minute collaboration is in four separate chapters. The first is a collaboration between Bai Tian and Anders Peterson. The second is a remix by The Loop Orchestra of the collaboration. The Loop Orchestra remix is then remixed by Shizi. The piece is really like a sound journey from minimal beats which become buried by dronal loops and finally slowly collapsing into the abyss.
The second track , In , by Bai Tian is a bright crisp digital electronic piece which references the heyday of European digital electronica of the late 90s.
Track three, insomniactivity is by relapxych.0 (Anders Peterson from Stockholm, Sweden). It is a marriage of instrumentation and electronica.
The next piece (track four), Vibraloops, by The Loop Orchestra is a colourful and humourous tape-loop rendition of a 1940s/50s vibraphone orchestra. Full of kitsch and colour it is beautifully percussive and opposite to the previous piece is very much low technology or as they like to say a category called No Tech. Purely tape loops played on reel-to-reel tape machines.
Track five, Background Shadows is a radio studio remix of the CD Her Face Amongst the Shadows by Objekt4 (the previous sound project of Anders Peterson). The remix is by John Blades and Richard Fielding who co-present the experimental radio program Background Noise on 2 mbs FM in Sydney. For this they used the radio studio as an instrument. Listen at www.anonradio.net .
The final track, track six is by Shizi and is a layered drone piece which is like being consumed by a thick fog. A very appropriate closing to the elegant meeting.
The whole CD can really be described as a sound journey with a beginning, a middle and an end.
THE ARTISTS:
Anders Peterson (relapxych.0)
After working for many years with sound design, film music, sound recording, mastering / remastering, acoustic design and also as a musician (guitars / bass) I eventually found the most rewarding personal experience from the sounds of nature (water, wind, fire, earth), with its endless variation and amazing organic qualities, constantly evolving, and by capturing (recording) ambience from certain places I finally obtained sounds that had massive potential to be truly *original* and *unique* to myself. The next step was to combine these recordings with musical instruments and “approaches”, combining harmonics and “body” from musical instruments with the organic flow and constantly varying rhythms of for example dripping water, gusts of wind or cracking ice, through digitally coded cross-synthesis, hybrid sounds carefully sculptured by hand. Creating musical ambience instead of ambient music.
www.ghostsounds.net
Bai Tian (aka Bai+ian) is a emerging sound artist, flute player and organizer of independent music based in Chengdu, China. He plays in a wide range of styles such as ambient, cut’n'paste and electronic music etc. He has performed with Chinese and international artists such as Huan Qing, Zafka, Zbignew Karkowski and Li Chin Sung. He has participated in exhibitions such as 156M Contemporary Art Exhibition (Chengdu), Getitlouder (Chengdu) and China Power Station (London).
www.myspace.com/baiii
Shizi was born in Lanzhou, China in 1984. He is a drummer, and improvised music player. As member of “Noise Association of Lanzhou” he started his underground music career in the late 1990’s. He has worked with more than 10 bands/projects with different styles. Once he moved to Beijing for university in 2003, he started to work in the palm of electronic/experimental and improv music. Now he is studying sound design at Beijing Film Academy.
www.myspace.com/shiziofnoise
The Loop Orchestra was formed in 1982 by Richard Fielding and John Blades. It is a collective of reel-to-reel tape machines which are approximately 30 to 35 years old. The reel-to-reel tape machines play lengths of quarter inch tape joined into loops of varying size onto which sound is recorded from various sources. This methodology is historically significant in the history of electronic music from the 1950s. The loops are mixed together to create a layered and slowly evolving soundscape. They have had CD and record releases in Australia and Europe since their first release (the LP record Suspense) in 1991. There are currently five members: John Blades, Richard Fielding, Manny Gasparinatos, Hamish Mackenzie and Juke Wyatt. The Members for this recording were John Blades, Richard Fielding, Manny Gasparinatos and Patrick Gibson. For information and a full list of performances and releases visit. www.thelooprchestra.com."
[press release]
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 2 (SOLD OUT) |
LP |
DRONE-MIND // MIND DRONE - Volume 2 -
This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series but on a more user-friendly format. Each LP features four artists from the international drone-scene and is limited to 500 copies and pressed on four different vinyl-colours. Each LP artwork will feature paintings by British painter PETE GREENING. This series shows the various sides of todays experimental drone-music. The title symbolizes the interaction between sound of the Eternal and our psyche and raises questions: Can Drones (or sound per se) be regarded as "intelligent"? Does every mind produce a Drone? Isn't it possible that any organic or non-organic entity produces a Drone? Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive & understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe. The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self. Four "Drones" on one record! The second Volume (MIND-02) ist OUT NOW ! (December 2012) and features:
YANN NOVAK / STROM NOIR / EMMA YA / KARL BÖSMANN
YANN NOVAK (U.S.A.): minimal transcension drones
The records starts with a fabulous - silent but dense - drone piece by Californian sound & installation artist YANN NOVAK (coming from L.A.), the first in a series of compositions using the 'silence" of vinyl endgrooves, indeed a perfectly sublime start for a a vinyl release dedicated to drones.
STROM NOIR (SLOVAKIA): shimmering elation drones
STROM NOIR encharms with two stunning 'elation" drones based on guitar harmonics, beautifully shimmering like light radiances - this Slovakian artist is also active with his true DIY-label Black Orchid Productions.
EMME YA (COLOMBIA): sigil dissolution drones
EMME YA is, after the EPs by REYNOLS (DR-42) and C.D. (DR-63) the third ever artist from South America on Drone Records. These 'esoteric' suction sounds are created as 'sigil dissolutions', meaning the unification of sonic sigils with our deeper minds. Mysterious, intense, haunting...
KARL BÖSMANN (GERMANY): post industrial / electronic drones
Behind this project with the odd name we find a german sculptor who attracted lots of attention with some remarkable releases of very unusual & daring drone-based collages - his track for MIND-02 named 'Die Verwandlung' is inspired by Kafkas short story of the same name and stands out as a powerful & threatening & even rhythmic tour de force undergoing dramatic changes from the beginning to the end.
= four projects that differ considerably from each other, but united through the idea of the power of the Drone.
~ ~ The drones of their minds "materialized" ~ ~ The "intelligence" of drones materialized ~ ~
4 Vinyl-colours: RED & BLACK MIXED // SOLID SILVER MIXED WITH BLACK // WHITE, SOLID BLUE & TRANSPARENT GREEN MIXED // CHRYSTAL CLEAR WITH BLUE AND BLACK
Mastered by Sergey Uak-Kib http://kshatriy.pro/
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 3 (SOLD OUT) |
LP |
the NEW LP-series from Drone Records, dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series on a more user-friendly format. Each LP features four artists from the international drone-scene and is limited to 500 copies, pressed on four different vinyl-colours. Vol. 3: JIM HAYNES (USA), MANINKARI (France), KSHATRIY (Russia), EXIT IN GREY (Russia). stunning artwork paintings by British artist PETE GREENING, design by TILMANN BENNINGHAUS.
JIM HAYNES: psychogeographical drones of rust and decay.
This highly interesting sound-artist from San Francisco (also active as painter, label-manager, & writer) is focused on the unpredictable processes of rust & decay in connection with the perception of time. For his contribution "He stopped at a picture..." to the re-newed Drone Rec-series he is using field recordings from a world war 2 era radar outpost (located near the Golden Gate Bridge), combined with shortwave, motors, wire-tapping microphones, analogue electric sounds.. => a breathtaking experimental & raw drone-collage, full of tension & almost dramatic suction, sound of " psychic loss & american paranoia" (JIM HAYNES).
EXIT IN GREY: timeless natural drones.
The main project of Russian Sergey [S] from the Moscow-area (who is also active as FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC & SISTER LOOLOMIE) is mesmerizing the listeners since years with small & handmade editions of emotional daydream-drones, intuitively woven together with guitar, field recordings & analog synths. The long piece "Drawn by Memory/The Wind 2012" is a perfect example of his skills and creates with minimal instrumental & natural sound-sources an atmosphere of timelessness and nostalgia..
KSHATRIY : dark psychedelic (higher?) consciousness drones
KSHATRIY means 'warrior' in Sanskrit and expresses the artists believe in the universal power of sound. Hailing from the fascinating St. Petersburg scene in Russia comes this "fractal dark drone ambient' project, especially focused on cosmic/transpersonal consciousness themes - these "Shifting Waves" sound secretful & mysterious with a phantastic spatial sound-quality (open to both digital & analogue sound sources) for the perfect cosmic mind-movie.
MANINKARI : handplayed / instrumental trance drones.
This French duo (consisting of two twin-brothers from Paris) has blown us away with their captivating "handplayed" instrumental drone music, with influences from various styles like Jazz, Art Rock and Classical Music, combining improvisation and composition. Often based on percussion & strings, they look at their sound as a spiritual tool causing a disorder of the mind, a 'visible' transformation of the uncontrollable dreams & their own subsconscious. The two pieces "Enstase 1 & 2" sound at the same time subtle, airy and dense using a suprising instrumentation, and show impressively one of the possible new directions of drone music.
= four projects that differ considerably from each other, but united through the idea of the power of the Drone.
~ ~ The drones of their minds "materialized" ~ ~ The "intelligence" of drones materialized ~ ~
four vinyl-colours, each 125 x: WHITE & GREEN MIXED // BLACK // MIXED YELLOW RED // CHRYSTAL CLEAR & WHITE MIXED. design by Tilmann Benninghaus (Berlin) using bronce-colour & UV gloss
Mastered by Sergey Uak-Kib http://kshatriy.pro/
|
2013 |
€15.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 4 (VERY LAST COPIES!) |
LP |
DRONE-MIND // MIND DRONE - Volume 4 :
"travelling with Drone Records around the world to the MINDs of artists creating drones... "
This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the (almost legendary) Drone 7"-series, with artwork based on huge paintings by British artist PETE GREENING.
The series shows the various sides of todays experimental drone-music.
Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive & understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe. The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self.
Four "Drones" on one record! Volume Four (MIND-04) is OUT NOW (May 2015) and features: KIRILL PLATONKIN / JEREMIE MATHES
ILIOU PERSIS / ROMAN KHARKOVSKY
KIRILL PLATONKIN : emotional power drones of a higher beauty
This artist from Blagoveshchensk (the very east Amur region of Russia) excites with two Guitar-Drone pieces showing a very 'direct' mixing (no fading), revealing a highly energetic, yet completely elevating character...."a free interpretation of a magic flight on some air or space transport" (the artist's description about one of the tracks).
JEREMIE MATHES: cavernous metal tank drones
A drone newcomer from France (who is currently living in Cambodia) with so far three great releases on Mystery Sea / Basses Freq. - using field recordings as a basis... on "Uunartoq Qeqertop", his contribution for MIND-04, we hear raw materials that were collected in an reverberant metal tank, reaching out for "density, emptiness, accumulation, disintegration, evolving with altered collages and processed sound from the original material " [Jeremie Mathes]
ILIOU PERSIS: surrealistic drones inspired by the psychology of masks
"... an enormous amount of power appears to explode from some silent part of my brain and I look at myself behaving more animalistic than an animal, less human than a walking god." [quote from the artist]
A highly interesting musician and anthropologist from Portugal is behind this project who is fascinated with the culturual & psychological implications of MASKS, which can transform the carriers consciousness in a strong way. The long track for MIND-04 is a journey into fascinating subconscious areas transformed into sound.
ROMAN KHARKOVSKY: melancholic nightshade drones
With this pseudonym we welcome the very first artist from South Asia (Pakistan) on Drone Records, who is closing the new Drone-MIND circle with two wonderful melancholic drift & dreamscapes, phantasizing about the nightly atmosphere at the bank of a certain river in the Ukraine..."Roman Kharkovsky is an entity of higher spiritual intelligence that belongs to Kharkov, city of Ukraine, and keeps playing music through the winds of Kharkov to Dnieper river to carpathian mountains and all the way to the black sea." [quote from the artist]
FOUR VINYL COLOURS - each 100 x: TRANSP.GREEN & SOLID YELLOW MIXED // SOLID BLUE & BLACK MIXED // BLUE AND YELLOW MIXED // TRANSP. GREEN & BLACK MIXED
Graphic Design by Tilmann Benninghaus with UV gloss cover using two paintings by PETE GREENING
A limited edition of 400 copies - // listen: soundcloud.com/drone-records
order: www.dronerecords.de
vinyl colours:
Transparent green & solid yellow mixed
SOLID BLUE & BLACK mixed
TRANSPARENT GREEN & BLACK mixed
Blue and Yellow mixed
see here:
www.recordindustry.com/vinyl/colored-vinyl
|
2015 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Wieza Cisnien II |
CD |
" „Wieża Ciśnień 2” is a continuation of the first volume of the same title, which was released in 2010 under the auspices of CKiS Gallery "Tower". In a sense these two albums summarize nearly ten years of activity of the Gallery associated with the presentation of works of sound artists / musicians looking for innovative forms of creative articulation (individual performances, auditory part of three edition of Permutacje festival – curator: Roman Bromboszcz, three editions of Restytucje retrospective - curator Marcin Olejniczak) .
The common denominator for both sets of tracks is the space where we held meetings of creators, recipients and sounds. The difference between these records refers to the aesthetic coherence of the recordings: in the first case repertoire diversity (or even eclecticism) was shown; in the second case, the selection of recordings belongs with the idea of Restytucje related to the accentuation and rehabilitation of sounds that are not typically treated as music.
An additional advantage of the compilation is the fact that all the tracks on the album (both live and studio) have not been previously released.
The compilation includes tracks by the following artists: Zenial, Sumpf, Demonszy, Monopium, Sambar, Bachorze, KaLeka, X-NAVI:ET, TER, Micromelancolié i Mirt.
The album is released in a 2-panel ecopak with a 4-page booklet in a strictly limited edition of 500 copies. The cover is by Tomek Mirt. It is mastered by Robert Skrzyński (Micromelancolié/ForrrestDrones)." [label info]
www.zoharum.com
|
2015 |
€12.00 |
|
|
'... that first Season' - A Winter-Light Compilation |
do-CD |
We invited 16 specific artists from all corners of the globe to contribute exclusive tracks for “…that first season”. Many of the artists are favourite listens of ours, as well as the addition of one or two new and interesting ones. The resulting compilation of tracks offers the listener a unique perspective from each artist based upon the one common theme - the winter light.
It was always an interesting idea to us to see how this theme would play out from different parts of the world, across both hemispheres and on different continents, with different styles of ambient and artistic approaches. All of the submitted tracks have been included on this double compilation and our expectations have been exceeded with the quality, the variety of rich sounds and depth of the music. Spanning across two discs, Heavy Snow and Long Shadows, Winter-Light and the participating artists are pleased to offer over 140 minutes of exclusive music, brought together for the first time on this, our first compilation.
The artwork has been produced by Midnight Sun Studio and all tracks have been mastered by Simon Heath. All music recorded in 2016.
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everybody who has contributed to making this release possible. Dedicated to our Ezzy.
The DCD comes in a 8-panel full colour digi-pack and is also available as a digital download. Strictly limited to 500 copies.
CD1: Heavy Snow
1.1 Seetyca - The Stars
1.2 Gydja - Krapadrífa ok snáka sótt
1.3 Phantom Ship - Entanglement (version)
1.4 Foetusdreams - Ignis Fatuum
1.5 Nexus Sun - Estive
1.6 ABBILDUNG - Om Ter Om
1.7 Charadriiform & Filivs Macrocosmi - Drifting Stations
1.8 VelgeNaturlig - Golden
1.9 Rapoon - Tal-Gel Isolde
CD2: Long Shadows
2.1 Jeff Stonehouse
2.2 Havdis - Borea
2.3 Apocryphos - Sesam In Winter Lights
2.4 Strom Noir - Not Everything Dies
2.5 Kloob - A Special Glow
2.6 Michael Brückner & Mathias Grassow - ,,The Fall Of Leaves''
2.7 Hakobune - Shimoyo
www.winter-light.nl
"Apart from the high quality of the music itself, this compilation is very special for at least two different reasons. One, the cohesive character of the whole thing which sounds, well, maybe not as if it has been composed by a single artist, but rather as a group of musicians from various parts of the world, gathered under one idea, understood 100% by each and every one of them. And two, the diversity of the projects presenting different approaches within the ambient framework. Where else would you find purely dark ambient outputs like Abbildung or Apocryphos going hand in hand with Hakobune or Strom Noir, which are not affiliated with the dark scene, plus the emotional drone masters like Havdis and Mathias Grassow on top of that.
Most of them have been present on Santa Sangre with their full albums in the past. I don’t know if there’s a point in detailed descriptions of the tracks one by one, because here it’s all about nuances; nuances that sometimes are more significant, sometimes less, sometimes are very tiny, but it is they which make each project unique. Let’s try to point out these nuances then – just bear in mind that the atmospheric basis is the same for all of them. Organic drones by Seetyca that make you feel like you’re deep under water, warm microglitches and delicate synths by Gydja that make me like this composition more than her darker or more ritual offerings. Vast cosmic howls by Phantom Ship, that don’t have the most original feeling in the world, but they swallow your body and soul and take you straight into the void. The monolithic blackness of Foetusdreams which reminds me of the familiar monument from ‘2001: Space Odyssey’ hovering over the surface of the moon. The gloomy majesty of Nexus Sun which is reminiscent of the image of mountain summits touching the grey sky. The disturbing field recordings and dense bass backgrounds by Abbildung, sounding like a perfect aural illustration of the “Hell” segment of “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch. Slow synth melodies and surreal samples from some Russian radio broadcast by Charadriiform & Filivs Macrocosmi, which are like lost signals and transmissions floating over the Siberian nowhere. Semiacoustic solace by Velge Naturlig that reminds you that there’s a day after each night, and the sun will always appear after the harshest snowstorm. The Middle Eastern mystery of Rapoon which in five minutes tells the story of the thousands of uneasy years of that region.
This is how “Heavy Snow”, the first half of this double CD ends, while the second half, entitled “Long Shadows”, begins with Jeff Stonehouse who has something in common with Seetyca: organic, influenced by the sea, though less dark. And even more minimal. After that, the sad beauty of ‘Arctic Nature’ by Havdis, who is probably the most underappreciated ambient artist on this planet. The longest and most beautiful piece on “…That First Season”. Apocryphos comes from the USA, but continues in the path taken by Havdis in the preceding track. The artist’s emotional, slowly forming melodies keep you frozen and in awe. Trance guitar drones by Strom Noir make me long for Autumn. Spatious and windy textures with subtle oldschool synth sequences by Kloob may recall some of Atomine Elektrine’s works. Combining ethereal drones with classic, space (quite Schulze-esque) electronica by Michael Brückner & Mathias Grassow prove that Mathias is simply the best in this spiritual ambient business, and that inviting his more Berlin school-oriented colleague to collaborate on this track wasn’t a misguided idea at all. Calming serenity by Hakobune, which makes “Shimoyo” an accurate ending of this almost two-and-a-half-hour long compilation.
Nature, sadness, the interchange of seasons and weather conditions: this is why I like ambient music the most, and this is what I get here in excess. Surely one of the best compilations released over the past few years. And I consider it as a crowning of the first cycle of the Winter Light label’s activity. Why am I sure that only great things are to come from the Netherlands?" [Stark/Santa Sangre]
|
2017 |
€16.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 6 : NAM-KHAR, FOR KINGS AND QUEENS, MARKIAN VOLKOV, KEVIN DURR |
LP |
Four "Drones" on one record! Volume SIX (MIND-06) is OUT NOW (Nov. 2017) and features:
NAM-KHAR ҉ MARKIAN VOLKOV
FOR KINGS AND QUEENS ҉ KEVIN DURR
NAM-KHAR: (Germany): A German collective being influenced by Tibetan philosophy, working in the 'old school' way using analogue electronics and original instruments from the Far East, for the first time on vinyl. The two conjoined tracks consist of dense analogue expanses that wave and move minimally, sparse metallic object sounds and wheezing winds, plus delicate percussion. Very best ethno ambient drone!
MARKIAN VOLKOV (Italy): This completely anonymous project from Italy excites with hypno-percussive, tribalesque and droning ritual industrial, repetitive structures and samples immersing into echoes and electronic noises with great effect. The two tracks presented share a most captivating tension and power.
FOR KINGS AND QUEENS (Germany): After some very promising self-released CD-R's the long track 'Grenzland' (borderland) is the first vinyl appearance for this Berlin-based project [a couple with a professional opera singer], - a deeply surrealistic soundscape with layers of high-pitched sinus tone drones and waves, unreal female voices appear and slowly metallic drones burst in and whirring shortwave radio sounds.
Welcome to the borderlands of reality...
KEVIN DURR: (USA): Field recordings of water (streams, rain and environment) and vocal whispers seem to be the only sound sources for two highly suggestive, almost caressing nature drone pieces, transformed through clever processing. KEVIN DURR hails originally from Alaska and has been active in various musical project and genres before, before he started the 'water drone' project with a series of of tracks using especialy water sounds combined with binaural recordings techniques and ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) = two most subtle and fascinating acoustic landscapes.
Amazing cover-art by TILMANN BENNINGHAUS with true 3D effect (using extra golden pantone colour), comes on BLUE-VIOLET TRANSPARENT VINYL, as usual two existent paintings by British artist PETE GREENING have been used (www.redbubble.com/people/petegreening); lim. 400 copies.
listen: soundcloud.com/drone-records
www.dronerecords.de
artworkers:
www.redbubble.com/people/petegreening
www.benninghaus.org
artists:
www.facebook.com/Nam-khar-115680475169685/
https://soundcloud.com/arkianolkov
https://forkingsandqueens.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/evinurr-ieldecordings
|
2017 |
€15.00 |
|
|
TROUM TRANSFORMATION TAPES: The 20th Anniversary Celebration (1997-2017) |
do-CD |
with: ALLSEITS, CONTRASTATE, V.O.S.(YEN POX), VANCE ORCHESTRA, TARKATAK, RAISON D'ETRE, NADJA, MARTYN BATES w. TROUM, MULTER, QST (Frans de Waard/KAPOTTE MUZIEK), URE THRALL, MYRRMAN (SAL SOLARIS), INADE, DUAL, BAD SECTOR, CISFINITUM, REUTOFF, MOLJEBKA PVLSE, and MARKOW C.
ORIGINAL INVITATION:
"Dear Friends and Dreamers,
Troum did the very first performance under this name (after the demise of Maeror Tri) in March 1997, so this year we reach our 20th anniversary. We have never done any anniversary "celebration" or "remix" projects of Troum material before, so we thought maybe it's the time now!
You can choose any existing Troum material (also taken from multiple tracks) to cover, re-interpretate, re-work/process/arrange or collage it. You can also add your own sounds, create a new track-title, watever comes to your mind! (We are certainly NOT looking for a standard "remix", so we don't send out any specific material to everyone!).
This invitation goes out to various musicians that have worked with us over the 20 years, which became friends or important for our evolution as a band." TROUM, March 2017
2. TRACKLIST:
CD 1
1. ALLSEITS - Times
2. CONTRASTATE - The Silent Fish
3. INADE - The innermost Sun
4. VANCE ORCHESTRA - Giascei
5. TARKATAK - vs. Brinnan
6. RAISON D'ETRE - Ananke
7. NADJA - Mirrored in You
8. MARTYN BATES w. TROUM - An Untitled Protest
9. [MULTER] - Sela Saiwala MNX
CD 2
1. QST - Kapotte Muziek by Troum (QST remix 2017)
2. URE THRALL - Krypte
3. 016 vs. MYRRMAN - Sen №350 (Psychic Automaton Rework)
4. V.O.S. (Steve Hall/YEN POX) - Breath Again
5. DUAL - TTN (Ursprung)
6. BAD SECTOR - Signedumiroir
7. MARKOW C. - Chaneism
8. CISFINITUM - Skaun[ei]s
9. REUTOFF - Hypoxia (Troum Spirare Cover)
10. MOLJEBKA PVLSE - Ennoia
Liner Notes from JIM HAYNES:
It was 1996 when the German industrial project Maeror Tri disbanded, and I recall being deeply saddened by the news. A few years earlier, I had discovered the project while working at a now-defunct distribution company in San Francisco. Fittingly released through Korm Plastics 'Introductions' series, Maeror Tri's Multiple Personality Disorder reflected an interested in psychological pathology as channeled through raw sound. Industrial culture has long used the metaphors of disease as a mirror to shine a light on any number of ills in contemporary society. This particular album addresses four aspects of the titular disorder, itself the most extreme form of schizophrenia which fractures the discrete personalities, which Maeror Tri identified in the general dissociative characteristics: The Administrator, The Anaesthetizer, The Revenger, The Protector. With each of these tracks, Maeror Tri orchestrated dense layers of heavily effected, sustained noise, back-masked growlings, and shimmering drones as emotionally resonant portraits to those four personality traits. With Industrial culture's penchant for sensationalized horror of autopsy and abbatoir footage, Maeror Tri's constructs were uniquely sympathetic to those who suffered from this debilitating disease.
With the posthumous release of Emotional Engramm in 1997, Maeror Tri's compositional complexity began to blossom, relying less on the hypnogogic dislocation of time-lag effects and more on the poetics and the portent of the underlying melodies that rippled through their ghostly accretions for drone and noise. Right as they called it quits, the ideas of Maeror Tri had expressed a maturity that had much more to say through the collapse of sound into an crushed, all-encompassing, cathartic tsunami.
What was to emerge in the wake of Maeror Tri's dissolution did not immediately seem clear. Founding member Stefan Knappe had already established his impeccably curated Drone Records, which initially focused on the improbable medium of the 7" single to release long-form works of dark ambient, heavy drone, and industrial din. Many of these artists that landed on Drone were unknown or under-appreciated projects, but without fail, these proved to be impressive documents and demanded that they be acquired upon sight with or without any idea of who exactly was behind the project. In this series, Knappe did commisson work from a number of highly acclaimed musicians including Inade, Francisco Lopez, Cranioclast, Aidan Baker, The Lotus Eaters, etc. but there were the lesser known acts such as the Hungarian experimental project Hideg Roncs, Holland's esoteric ambient outfit Indra Karmuka, and the hermetic tape machinist Abner Malaty. Drone released exactly 100 singles between 1993 and 2010, at which time the format switched to a four-way split LP format under the Drone-Mind // Mind-Drone banner, in addition to the 10" Substantia Innominata series, both of which maintain high calibre curation to this day.
In 1998, Knappe reconvened with fellow Maeror Tri member Martin Gitschel to form Troum. The name for this new project was taken from an archaic German word for dream and provides clear insight into their investigations manifesting universal archetypes and symbols from a collective unconsciousness into an overwhelming flood of sound. The first recordings for Troum were published on a small cassette housed in a small pillow, ascribed with the title Dreaming Muzak. As with Maeror Tri, Troum sculpt their dronescapes mostly through heavily processed guitars along with an assortment of other instruments. If the intent of Troum was to put the listener to sleep, the lulling vibrating patterns certainly have the capacity; but the overall darkness of these sounds will never inspire the most pleasant of dreams. These are shadowy, bleak, and cold sounds which permeate the album, and lend themselves to images of desolate factories spewing a constant stream of black soot in some wintery post-Soviet country.
At the turn of the millennium, Troum embarked on their ambitious Tjukurrpa trilogy, the title of which has its origin in the physical, spiritual, and psychological state of dreamtime for the Australian Aboriginals, symbolizing Troum's intention to divine transcendence through their hypnogogic compositions. They applied these ideas to the three compositional foundations to their music, in Harmonies, Drones, and Rhythms & Pulsations each of which are highlighted on the trilogies component albums. Harmonies for Troum relate to the cold ambient swirls of resonant timbres from Troum's interlocked guitars that cycle through minor-key chords bathed in a resplendent wash of effects and melancholy atmospheres. Troum's signature drones are heavy, lumbering propositions of earth-shaking rumbles and subterranean minimalism. The use of rhythm appears in Troum's work as percussive mantras with a ritualist approach to metal-bashed patterns and looped sequences.
These fundamental tools - harmonies, drones, and rhythms - represent a set of pre-linguistic symbols that Troum employs to articulate to the primal emotional responses of various psychological states. More often than not, Troum turn towards ashen, sublime, nocturnal, and grim metaphors through their work, even though rapturously golden crescendos flourish on the rare occasion in their body of work. Sigqan (2003) is a harrowing album that plunges deep into an overwhelming gloom through sustained tones and drones. Like the project's name, the title harkens to a pre-medieval dialect of the Goths that roughly translates as the setting or sinking of the sun. Here, Troum addresses the Dark Ages fear that the sun might not rise again, leaving the world in permanent darkness. The Power Romantic trilogy (which include the albums Mare Idiophonika, Grote Mandrenke, Mare Morphosis released from 2010 - 2013) finds the duo embracing the oceanic metaphors that undulate upon the cycles of the tides through billowing shadows of mournful melody and subharmonic rumble. These too are drawn towards hostile metaphors, with Grote Mandrenke referring directly to a massive storm surge that devastated Northern Europe and the Britsh Isles in 1362, sweeping some 25,000 people out to sea and to their deaths.
Through the Drone Records productions and ancillary distribution company, Troum have maintained a very healthy network of connections all across the globe. In doing so, they have also engaged in a select number of ongoing collaborations. Their first was with the occult American project Yen Pox whose collective low-frequency thumming stand at the pinnacle of the dark ambient genre. An enduring presence from the once mighty Cold Meat Industries, Raison D'etre has worked with Troum in transforming raw material through the existential lens of a vacant cathedral. Architectural reverberation and ghostly chorales flutter with a solemn, ethereal impressionism. The baroque post-punk singer-songwriter Martyn Bates of Eyeless In Gaza had long been an inspiration for Knappe and Gitschel in both Troum and Maeror Tri. In fact a dedication to Bates was ascribed to a track from the Tjukurrpa series. In 2006, Bates joined Troum for their collaborative album To a Child Dancing in the Wind, which girds Bates' beatific, lyrical vocalizations to a luminous, shimmering facet to Troum's aesthetic.
This compilation with its remixes, deconstructions, and reconstitutions of Troum's back catalogue and raw material is a celebration not only to Troum's impressive body of work but also to their ongoing and active participation in the broader communities of the avant-garde, minimalism, drone-rock, and industrial culture with unflagging dedication. These propositions respectfully build upon the fluid dynamics of Troum's sound as well as the wordless symbolism of pre-lingusitic conditions that are fundamental to Troum's work. It should be noted that both Dual and Vance Orchestra reunited specifically for this project.
Sibilant. Subaquatic. Serpentine. Ominous. Thunderous. Billowing. Haunted. Hypnogogic. Blossomed with sadness. Best Drones.
JIM HAYNES
|
2018 |
€12.00 |
|
|
National Crime History |
2 x MC |
“Belgium is a swamp, a boggy yet fertile ground in which new emergences are never clearly shaped but subtle, drifting just below the land’s muddy surface. They often remain hidden in the midst of a complex ensemble that is often made of chaos and opposition rather than order and harmony.” (Yannick Franck)
From the North to the South of Belgium, a new generation of artists are connecting the dots between classic Belgian Industrial/EBM and the contemporary electronic scenes that have emerged worldwide these last years. A ‘New Belgian Industrialist Movement’ that freely combines elements such as distorted atmospheres, analog pulsations or mantric rhythms, lingering in the grey area between experimental techno and post-industrial music.
National Crime History is a compilation curated by Belgian labels Silken Tofu and Idiosyncratics, both known for crossing borders and disregarding genre limitationsIt features Icon Template, Ripit, Onrust and Orphan Swords. The fact that these entities are now joining forces should come as no surprise. They have a long history together on many levels and now emerge as a collective that has been taking shape over the years.
Double tape edition of 150 copies (incl download).
Digital release available via https://silkentofu.bandcamp.com/album/national-crime-history" target
--
ONRUST's electronic mindfuck is influenced by 80's rhythmic industrial, 90's underground techno and 00's psyched out drones & mantras. Active for now two years she has quicky become one of the most remarkable acts in the new Belgian industrial techno scene. After several releases on some notable Belgian labels, her first 12” vinyl ‘Luthuli/Tagore‘ was released in 2015 on Silken Tofu.
ORPHAN SWORDS focus on massive beatmaking, throbbing industrial soundscapes and wild live action. Their music has been released on Instruments Of Discipline, Desire Records, Clan Destine, Idiosyncratics and +Nurse+.
ICON TEMPLATE provides raw industrial hypnotism and mindblowing techno rhythms. It expresses a rebellion against the established order by instilling chaos and feed the conscious perceptions of its dark sides. After its first release on An Der Grenze in 2015, Icon template has performed in venues and festivals such as Bozar Electronic Art Festival (BEAF) or FUSE.
RIPIT began his music career as a black metal guitar player. Yet he has quickly developed into a radical electronics act, unveiling noisy and psychedelic rhhythms based on primitive synthesizer use. Nowadays his music has complexified, tending to beat micro-surgery and orchestral bombast. He extensively uses modular synths, ol’time drum machines and no-input mixers to create dancy acid music, plunging the crowd into a magma of electric textures.
--
Mastering by Nicolas Esterle at Ångström Mastering, Brussels
Photography by Yannick Franck
Design by Silken Tofu
-- |
2017 |
€13.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 7: OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCHESTRA, MYTRIP, SKELDOS, SPECIMENS |
LP & CD |
...finally a new issue in our "drone-explorers" LP-series, for the first time with full bonus CD!
Featuring: SKELDOS (the new drone-melancholia phenomenon from Lithuania), OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCHESTRA (Prague - incredible dense and tight drone waves with scientific approach - full length/different version of their piece on the bonus CD), enchanting guitar/field recording drones from London based SPECIMENS, and MYTRIP from Bulgaria continues his mission to create timeless expanses of pulsing, spectral synth drones..
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE - Volume 7 LP + CD
The series shows the various sides of todays experimental drone-music.
This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds.
A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series, with artwork based on paintings by British artist PETE GREENING.
Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive and understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe. The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self.
Four "Drones" on one record! Volume SEVEN (MIND-07), for the first time with full bonus CD, is OUT NOW (05/2019) feat.:
SPECIMENS ҉ SKELDOS ҉ MYTRIP
OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCHESTRA
Behind SPECIMENS we find the London based ambient/drone artist Alex Ives. His productions pull together delicately arranged but often highly driven cassette loops, synth layers and field recordings as well as often employing wider instrumentation such as organ drones, guitar swells & saxophone hidden beneath the noise. Two excellent LPs have been released so far on his own label First Terrace Records and SVS Records.
Alex Ives also co-hosts a monthly experimental radio show on Resonance Extra.
For MIND-07 we present three shorter SPECIMENS pieces: these raw, somehow perforated drones with lots of atmospheric noise remind on PETER WRIGHT or early TIM HECKER, creating a truly absorbing mood.
SKELDOS: This "drone-melancholia" phenomenon (active since 2011) doing "abstract, longing, flowing soundscapes with tender touch of a distant melody" from Lithuania breathed out one long track that befogs everything in sadnesss and emotion, built on waving sounds from accordeon, voice and other instrumental sources, slowly unfolding into multiple layers. The title of the track "Byra" means 'falling' or 'crumbling' and is encrypted through this fragmented sentence: "...or listening to the things you have barely touched falling... (sls.III)", coming from a never-ending sentence which was started with the first SKELDOS album.
MYTRIP from Bulgaria has been characterized by Tiny Mix Tapes with the phrase "ambient music as a weapon" and is surely standing at the forefront of the vivid electronic/ambient/drone scene there, active since about 10 years with the AMEK label. Two tracks of swirling and pulsing spectral synth drones show the newest development of the project, founded on "more melody-driven and textural soundscapes, where blurry rhythmic patterns meet with organic field recordings, found sounds and deconstructed instrumentation."
OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCHESTRA: Something very special is also the last act on MIND-07, O.P.O. from Prague, with a 12min. 'especially mastered for vinyl'-version of 'Creeping Waves', the FULL version (70 min.) of this piece is placed on the bonus CD. An incredible dense and steadily fluctuating drone expansion, based on the Creeping Wave theory, applied to acoustic phenomena: "According to the principle of diffraction, when a wave front passes an obstruction, it spreads out into the shadowed space. A creeping wave in electromagnetism or acoustics is the wave that is diffracted around the shadowed surface of a smooth body such as a sphere. Creeping waves greatly extend the ground wave propagation of long wavelength (low frequency) radio. They also cause both of a person's ears to hear a sound, rather than only the ear on the side of the head facing the origin of the sound. In radar ranging, the creeping wave return appears to come from behind the target."
cover-art by TILMANN BENNINGHAUS using two paintings by British artist PETE GREENING
Edition of 400 copies on TURQUOISE coloured VINYL. Mastering by PETER ANDERSSON
listen: soundcloud.com/drone-records order: www.dronerecords.de
Title: DRONE-MIND//MIND-DRONE Vol. 7
Track title Track time
Track 1 SPECIMENS - Broken Beams 5:16
Track 2 SPECIMENS - First Flight 3:58
Track 3 SPECIMENS - Over the Great Island 3:35
Track 4 SKELDOS - Byra 10:42
______________________________________________________________
Side B
Track title Track time
Track 1 MYTRIP - Death is my Heaven 4:24
Track 2 MYTRIP - I stood still 6:59
Track 3 OPENING PERFORMANCE ORCH. - Creeping Waves III 12:00
|
2019 |
€18.00 |
|
|
Hour of the Wolf |
CD |
"Hour Of The Wolf consist nearly 20 minutes work per four artists. Martin Bladh (IRM). Kristian Olsson (Survival Unit. Alfarmania). Kevin Tomkins (Sutcliffe Jugend) and Joel Danielsson. Decayed tape manipulations. field recordings. gloomy ambient drones. monumental experimental soundscapes. For nocturnal solitary listening. Comes with 16 pages full color A5 size booklet including artwork and text by each artist. Freak Animal Records."
|
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
|
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE Vol. 8: AUME, K. ISHIGAMI, HIROSHIMABEND, BALDRUIN |
LP |
Four "Drones" on one record! Volume EIGHT (MIND-08) is OUT NOW (11/2021) feat.:
KAZUYA ISHIGAMI ҉ AUME ҉
HIROSHIMABEND ҉ BALDRUIN
Drone on! We're finally back with a more 'pulsative' and post industrial-influenced issue, presenting the following artists: KAZUYA ISHIGAMI (*1972 / Osaka / Japan) is a prolific composer, engineer, sound designer and performer active for many years (also under the name DARUIN), with broadcasts of his works around the globe. His track 'Clean2020' works on the theme of 'memories" and is based on the idea to accept and acknowledge even the painful memories to reach a state of ease and to transform the subjective past...
AUME is the duo of SCOT JENERIK (23five Inc. / Mobilization Records) and ALEPH OMEGA (ex CHROME), from the US west coast, both also active in F-SPACE before, creating stunning audio-visual 'immersion dark ambience" with true archaic energy..
HIROSHIMABEND (aka 'puppy38') hails from Austin, Texas but has been based in Vienna for many years now, and has impressed with many long-form works in the field of electronic / esoteric emanations, mostly self-released via Opiumdenpluto. He is also active as a visual and mastering artist...- "Listening to the music of hiroshimabend has been likened to swimming in a milky lake of black ink."
BALDRUIN is a German project with a very electronic and musical edge. His pieces appear to be like excursions into a (bad) fairy-tale world.. - "well constructed cosmic ambient-scapes with a dark psychedelic / cinematic / surrealistic touch; when strange voices, subtle percussion and whistling noises enter the scenery.."
Let your MIND be surrounded by adventurous sonic landscapes - organic repetitions as coming from a ghostly otherworld, oriental field recordings, layers of pipe organ-like drones, mysterious electric ether-potentials etc..- "Vier feine Synapsenputzer machen einem mal wieder so manches klar.." [Bad Alchemy}
cover-art & mastering by puppy38 using two paintings by British artist PETE GREENING
https://www.saatchiart.com/Pete_G
Edition of 400 copies on VELVET PURPLE (solid purple and solid red mixed) coloured VINYL.
listen: soundcloud.com/drone-records order: www.dronerecords.de
basic concept:
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE - Volume 8 LP
The series shows the various sides of today's experimental drone-music
This LP-series from Drone Records is dedicated to the Drones of the World, and the Drones of our Minds. A kind of continuation of the Drone 7"-series, with artwork based on paintings by British artist PETE GREENING.
Drone Music is seen as more than a mere 'music style', it expresses an approach to perceive and understand the world. DRONE-MIND and MIND-DRONE build a circle of diverse inter-relations. The Drone as a metaphor for everything that vibrates, that releases energy - from atoms and elementary particles to the hum of the earth and the universe. The Drone as an entity that connects everthing that exists within our own "mind-space", perception and self.
#########################################
"Würden Drone Records den Begriff, der von Beginn an so etwas wie ihr Motto werden sollte, enger fassen, dann wäre ihre Reihe “Drone-Mind // Mind-Drone” wahrscheinlich auf viel weniger Interesse gestoßen und vielleicht sogar eine kurzweilige Angelegenheit geblieben. Stattdessen setzte das Bremer Label von Beginn an auf eine Idee des Drone, die, wie es in einer früheren Besprechung bereits zitiert wurde, pars-pro-toto für verschiedene Arten der Vibration und der Freisetzung von Energie im buchstäblichen wie im übertragenen Sinne stand. Und so sind auch auf dem gerade erschienenen achten Teil der Reihe wieder vier Geheimtipps aus drei Kontinenten vertreten, die die Dröhnung als eine Art verbindendes Element gemeinsam haben, diese jedoch in ganz unterschiedlichem Maß und auf unterschiedliche Art mit anderen Aspekten verknüpfen.
Bereits in der Ankündigung hieß es, dass die neue LP pulsierender ausfallen und Einflüsse des Post-Industrial aufweisen sollte, und den Opener “Clean2020″ des aus Osaka stammenden Sound Designers Kazuya Ishigami kann man da bereits exemplarisch anführen. Der Track, der sich mit dem Thema (auch schmerzhafter) Erinnerugen und ihrer Akzeptanz befasst, entwift ein über zwölf Minuten langes, ansatzweise episodisches Narrativ, das mit Samples und zahlreichen Effekten ein veränderliches Stimmungsbild entwirft. Das an Zikaden (vielleicht nicht nur) erinnernde Zirpen zu Beginn zieht sich durch weite Teile des Stücks, lässt ein durchaus angenehmes Alltagskolorit entstehen, doch ein zwiespältiges Gemisch anderer Sounds – mechanisch anmutendes Klappern, beklemmende Hochtöner, Vögel, das Dudeln einer versteckten Melodie – kommt hinzu, und da die eizelnen Sequenzen in ihrer Dauer und Veränderlichkeit kaum vorhersehbar wirken, ist eine der zentralen Stimmungskomponenten Spannung.
Ein ähnlich veränderliches Soundpanorama entwirft das amerikanische Duo Aume – namentlich Scot Jenerik und Aleph Omega aus dem F-Space-Umfeld. Ihr Beitrag wirft die auditiven Antennen mit rauem Knarren in die Mitte eines Geschehens, dessen Richtung man in den Sprachsamples und dem industriellen Hantieren zunächst noch nicht ausmachen kann. Während es unablässig reibt und schabt und knackt und ein unterschwelliges Dröhnen immer mehr anschwillt und irgendwann den ganzen Raum ausfüllt, treiben die Stimmen einen merkwürdigen Schabernack, scheinen wie Schafe zu blöken, bis alles in Kriegsgeschrei mündet. Doch in der zweiten Hälfte bekommt der Track noch einmal eine überraschende Wendung und prescht mit monoton-rhythmischer Perkussion dem Horizont entgegen.
Insgesamt ist die zweite Seite um einiges “schöngeistiger”. “Puppy38″ des in Wien lebenden Amerikaners Hiroshimabend beginnt mit entrückten Orgelsounds, in die sich ein undefinierbares Summen mischt. Just wenn sich eine hypnotische Wirkung einstellt, setzt eine eindringliche Melodie ein und entführt den entsprechend angefixten auf einen Trip durch einen imaginären Raum voll mit plastischen, knisternden, vibrierenden Sounds und etwas, das wie menschlicher Atem klingt. Hier scheint jede Raumwahrnehmung (bzw. Projektion) so unsicher, das sich kaum sagen lässt, ob die so entrückt anmutenden Sounds nicht doch der Sog eines abgründigen Höllenschlundes sein könnte. Rituelles Pochen holt den Hörer zurück auf vertrauten Boden, wo ein beruhigender Abspann erfolgt.
Baldruin ist das Projekt des deutschen Künstlers Johannes Schebler, der auch musikalisch – sowohl solo als auch mit seiner Band Diamantener Oberhof – sehr umtriebig ist. Seine drei etwas kürzeren Track offenbaren eine Schlagseite in Richtung Psychedelic und World Music eine weitere Facette offenbaren. Fast wie eine perfekte Miniatur führt das mit mollastigen Bläsersounds (einer Duduk?) beginnende “Die Katakomben von Tesco Libra” mit entspannten Handdrums zu einem kleinen Höhepunkt hin, kein Ton ist hier zu viel. Elektronischer und von einer gefahrvollen Spannung durchzogen mutet “Verstecken” an. Die schöne Loungemelodie, die einen mit Lärm, basslastigem Knarren, fiesen Hochtönern und Stimmen gefüllten Raum in einen Traum aus Plastik verwandelt, reizt fast zu einem NWW-Vergleich. Das abschließende “Klima und Psyche” dagegen zeigt Baldruin hier von seiner folkigsten Seite und lässt die Sammlung mit tremolierenden Bläsern, Saitenpicking und klapperden Handdrums in wehmütiger Heiterkeit – falls es so etwas gibt – ausklingen.
Es scheint, als würde dem Phänomen Drone vielerorts eine große Ausschließlichkeit angedichtet: Musik ist entweder Drone oder nicht, und wenn, dann ist sie nur dies. Tatsächlich aber kann Drone sehr unterschiedliches bedeuten und in sehr unterschiedlicher Musik eine Rolle spielen – eine Rolle, die keineswegs an Bedeutung einbüßt, wenn sie ein Aspekt unter mehreren ist. Drone kann den Aufbau einer Musik gestalten, ihre Materialität prägen, eine Musik hypnotischer machen und ihr Rückgrad verleihen, und immer besteht eine starke Wechselbeziehung zwischen dem Dröhnen und dem suchenden, repziperenden und interpretierenden Geist. Dies unter der Formel “Drone-Mind // Mind-Drone” zu vereinen, ist auch beim achten Teil ein starkes Argument gegen alle, die behaupten, Drone hätte sich über die Jahre totgedröhnt." [U.S. / African Paper]
|
2021 |
€16.00 |
|
|
TIME ENDS - A Tribute to J.G. Ballard's Tetralogy of Transformation (special ed.) |
do-LP / CD |
Desiderii Marginis, Troum, Martin Bladh & Karolina Urbaniak and Anemone Tube have gathered to pay homage to the first four novels of British writer J.G. Ballard: The Wind From Nowhere, The Drowned World, The Drought and The Crystal World, which are often seen as disaster novels. Each of the four projects presents a very unique take on the chosen work, using the respective text as a starting point to offer sonic representations of and (further) perspectives on these books, using drones, field recordings, words and much more to create evocative and richly layered soundscapes.
Adorned by a painting of German artist Alex Tennigkeit depicting a sphinx-like hybrid creature, a phoenix rising from the ashes of our civilization, the double album also includes an in-depth essay by Michael Göttert (African Paper) on Ballard's works in which he argues that the novels can best be understood as texts of transformation, as well as texts by the sound artists.
The double album starts with Desiderii Marginis' track “The Wind From Nowhere”, on which field recordings and intense drones suck the listener into a stormy vortex. Troum interpret The Drowned World, and their two dynamic tracks illustrate both the changes happening to the (outer) landscape and the (inner) world of the protagonists. Martin Bladh & Karolina Urbaniak make use of sound and words on “The Poisoned Well”, their interpretation of The Drought, referring to Shakespeare, the Bible and scorched earth policy amongst other points of reference. The album closes with Anemone Tube's take on The Crystal World, using field recordings made in Japan’s Mount Fuji forest. “Sea Of Trees” aims to show a devolutionary process, in which man gains access to his actual spiritual home – a primordial wisdom, which lets him discover an internal non-dual space, allowing to ultimately becoming one with the earth as body-being consciousness – the ‘perfect dream’ landscape.
Format CD | Double LP & download | Playtime: 79:27 min
CD Edition CD in oversize 148x148mm sleeve including postcards & foldout poster, limited to 140 copies.
Regular Edition Regular edition double LP in sci-fi neon yellow vinyl limited to 250 copies.
Special Edition Special edition double LP & CD set limited to 150 copies including A2 poster signed and hand-numbered by artist Alex Tennigkeit.
|
2022 |
€36.00 |
|
|
TIME ENDS - A Tribute to J.G. Ballard's Tetralogy of Transformation |
do-LP |
Desiderii Marginis, Troum, Martin Bladh & Karolina Urbaniak and Anemone Tube have gathered to pay homage to the first four novels of British writer J.G. Ballard: The Wind From Nowhere, The Drowned World, The Drought and The Crystal World, which are often seen as disaster novels. Each of the four projects presents a very unique take on the chosen work, using the respective text as a starting point to offer sonic representations of and (further) perspectives on these books, using drones, field recordings, words and much more to create evocative and richly layered soundscapes.
Adorned by a painting of German artist Alex Tennigkeit depicting a sphinx-like hybrid creature, a phoenix rising from the ashes of our civilization, the double album also includes an in-depth essay by Michael Göttert (African Paper) on Ballard's works in which he argues that the novels can best be understood as texts of transformation, as well as texts by the sound artists.
The double album starts with Desiderii Marginis' track “The Wind From Nowhere”, on which field recordings and intense drones suck the listener into a stormy vortex. Troum interpret The Drowned World, and their two dynamic tracks illustrate both the changes happening to the (outer) landscape and the (inner) world of the protagonists. Martin Bladh & Karolina Urbaniak make use of sound and words on “The Poisoned Well”, their interpretation of The Drought, referring to Shakespeare, the Bible and scorched earth policy amongst other points of reference. The album closes with Anemone Tube's take on The Crystal World, using field recordings made in Japan’s Mount Fuji forest. “Sea Of Trees” aims to show a devolutionary process, in which man gains access to his actual spiritual home – a primordial wisdom, which lets him discover an internal non-dual space, allowing to ultimately becoming one with the earth as body-being consciousness – the ‘perfect dream’ landscape.
Regular Edition Regular edition double LP in sci-fi neon yellow vinyl limited to 250 copies.
|
2022 |
€27.50 |
|
| |
Struppig Schweben (LES MARQUISES / TROUM / KILLER+LICHT-UNG / ANDREW LILES) |
CD |
https://licht-ung.bandcamp.com/album/struppig-schweben
"About once or twice a year you can head out to Leverkusen in Germany, where the Licht-ung labels puts on a small festival, which always results into a CD release. Each festival has the word ‘struppig’, meaning ‘shaggy’, followed by another word, such as ‘Mahlen’ (painting, Vital Weekly 1405) and ‘Droehnen’ (droning, Vital Weekly 1323). November 26, 2022 it was time for ‘schweben’, floating. It’s unclear to what extent the musicians keep the title in mind. Every night has four or five artists/groups, meaning they have quite some space to fill on the CD. Only in the vase of Killer + Licht-ung (also a musical concern, next to the label), we deal with a live recording; or, perhaps, we don’t hear it with the other pieces. The CD starts with the for me unknown quantatity of Les Marquises, of which Discogs says “Les Marquises is a French experimental pop band founded by Jean-Sébastien Nouveau in 2010”, yet Nouveau is the only member. He has a lovely piece of slow drones, presumably recorded with guitars, loopers and effects and the whole thing is a beautiful gorgoeus, slow-evolving piece of drone music, with, surprisingly, also percussion. Very atmospheric, and also very musical, a great piece and certainly a band to hear more work from. Troum is next up and one could say the big stars of the evening, along with Andrew Liles. Their piece might also be more of a microphone recording, judging by the quality, and shows them doing what they do best, playing moody and spacious music, which could maybe use a bit more definition, but is a damn fine piece. Killer + Licht-ung’s piece is called ‘Jeans Beast (irgendwo & unvermittelt), which may have something to do with the musician Jeans Beast, also known as Julian Flemming, but I have no idea what. Their piece is also based around drones, but contains a most curious form of percussion, sounding like moving around objects (chairs?) in the performance space. The drones are generated by guitars and feedback and grow in intensity. Andrew Liles is the only that doesn’t play the pure drone card but has four quite different sections. Opening with piano music, hard strums rather than gently playing, and some obscured samples, slowly morphing into a drone/organ piece with more schwung. More synthesisers in the third part, ending with a pulse beat and voice from TV/film. It’s the sort of thing we’d expect from Liles; soundtrack-like, collage, a bit of a cut-up and an altogether different kind of atmospheres, delivering the goods as expected." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2023 |
€12.00 |
|
| V.O.S. (VEIL OF SECRECY) |
Deadtech |
CD-R |
The YEN POX–Sideproject of STEVE HALL, with live-recordings made in Chicago March 2001 at the DEADTECH-Galery. Great haunting dark drones and abrasive sounds in between, made with distorted e-bow-bass and tapes. Beautiful apocalyptic ambient industrial with interwoven harmonic fields at its best ! Excellent recording-quality, only 50 copies made, in DVD-slipcase. RECOMMENDED ! |
2004 |
€11.00 |
|
| VAINIO, MIKA & KOUHEI MATSUNAGA |
split |
LP |
"This is Important's first release in a four-record feature on the work of the enigmatic Japanese artist KOUHEI MATSUNAGA. MIKA VAINIO (PAN SONIC) has contributed a side of lengthy work for harsh electronic drones while Kouhei's side consists of experimental breakbeats and modern electronica. Mika Vainio is acclaimed as half of Pan Sonic and for his solo work as well. Kouhei Matsunaga's first record was released on the Mille Plateaux label in 1998. Since then he has kept busy with numerous collaborations as well as his work with NHK (Raster Noton)." [label info]
www.importantrecords.com
|
2010 |
€20.00 |
|
| VAN HOEN, MARK |
The Revenant Diary |
CD |
" "Don't look back," repeats one of several voices within Mark Van Hoen's The Revenant Diary, his fifth solo album and first release on Editions Mego. Surrounded by weighted beats, analog synthesizer drones and granular dirt, the unidentified, siren-like female voice's advice is as much seduction as warning. Tellingly so, for as well as being both Van Hoen's most ambitious and his most accessible work, The Revenant Diary is an eloquent meditation on the allures and dangers of memory, regret and nostalgia. The album's foundation was shaped by a memory and a chance encounter. While remastering some of his early '90s releases and Peel Session tracks, Van Hoen -- a founding member of Seefeel, who also worked as Locust and in Seefeel offshoot Scala and has collaborated with Slowdive, Robert Fripp, Edison Woods and Esben And The Witch, amongst others -- happened upon a track he had recorded in 1982. Attracted by its simplicity, he was inspired to record the basis of The Revenant Diary on 4-track tape, using a minimal set-up, reminiscent of his first early '80s musical adventures as a young teenager. The recollection of one of these -- a 13 year-old Van Hoen's experiment in reel-to-reel tape recording of an ineffectual pop song playing on the radio, which spuriously transformed it into a spooky amalgam of backwards church organ and unintelligible voices -- provided an evocative inspiration. The Revenant Diary pivots on this combination of complex reflection and simplified technology. A determinedly analog affair, it brims over with Van Hoen's signature sounds: immersively-decayed drones, almost broken ambient surfaces and lulling rhythms, with granular crackle providing spectral grit. Fragments of female vocals pepper the album, and notably dominate the 10-minute epic "Holy Me," one of Van Hoen's most complex compositions, in which non-verbal sounds rub delicately against each other in an otherworldly choral composition. Less song-based than his last solo work, the well-received Where Is The Truth (CCO 046CD/LP), its palette and structure are more descendants of the 1995 album Truth Is Born Of Arguments, which utilized a similar combination of decayed atmosphere against a granular/glitch rhythmic structure. Tracks like "Laughing Stars At Night" and "Unknown Host" exude a powerful emotional undertow, as alluringly woozy as they are intensely contemplative. But this is no exercise in Instagram-style disposable nostalgia. Van Hoen's adroit juxtapositions of gauzy textures evoke the blurred luminescence of 16mm film and the rich, color-saturated hues of rediscovered Polaroid photos, as the cover artwork, designed by Stephen O'Malley, acknowledges. The Revenant Diary expertly renders displaced memory daze in lushly melodic, gently delirious electronic sound. All titles composed by Mark Van Hoen. Recorded in Brooklyn & Woodstock, NY, 2011. All instruments & processing by Mark Van Hoen with additional vocals by Georgia Belmont." [label info]
www.editionsmego.com
"Over the years I didn't keep up with Mark van Hoen's solo work. I remember Aurobindo to be a nice work but haven't heard that in a long time, and also 'The Last Flowers From The Darkness' has faded from my memory, but then no less than fifteen years have passed. Van Hoen, once a member of of Seefeel, Scala and collaborator with Slowdive, discovered some old tracks which brought him in the a teenage mood again: why not use that old four track tape machine again with a minimal set up? When hearing this, I reminded of his older works again. Van Hoen plays, at least for me, pop like music, with rhythm, broken down guitar sounds, samples and occasionally a female voice dropping into the music. Grainy, down-sampled voices going back to the 2-bit sampling mood add a certain raw texture to the album. Hazy stuff, a bit blurry. Its a clash of the modern versus the old, new and ancient technology meet up in a very nice way. A well entertaining record, filled with melancholy, ambience, choir
like sounds and glitched up rhythms. I am told this is all a bit more abstract than his previous work, but I think this is some very nice alternative popmusic. Certainly the kind of popmusic I like." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"The Revenant Diary (eMEGO 136) bringt ein Wiederhören mit MARK VAN HOEN, den ich seit den Tagen mit Seefeel und Scala oder als Locust lange nicht mehr auf dem Radar hatte. Maßgebend für die 11 neuen Tracks war, so heißt es hier,
die Erinnerung an sein jüngeres Selbst als tonbandelnder Teenager Anfang der 80er. 'Don't Look Back' und 'I Remember' halten das Motiv der Rückkehr fest, das ihn dazu bewegte, sich diesmal doch wieder althergebrachter technischer
Mittel zu bedienen. Entscheidender ist jedoch das emotionale Moment, ein Schwanken zwischen Nostalgie und Trauer. Da herrschen anziehende und abstoßende Kräfte, die auch in 'Why Hide From Me' und 'No Distance (Except the
one between you and me)' reflektiert werden. Downtempo-Triphopbeats transportieren orchestrale Samples und eine verwehte Frauenstimme (die vokalisierende Georgia Belmont). Orchestral? Vielleicht sind es schimmernde Gitarren, Klanggewölk aus Streichern? Van Hoen inszeniert da eine mehrspurige Unschärfe aus flackernden, kaskadierenden Klangfetzen. Auch Belmonts Gesang
wird dabei zu einem phantastischen Folklorechor. 'Ambient' ist wohl auch ein irreführendes Wort, Van Hoen macht phantastische Musik, durchsetzt mit tierischen Lauten ('Garabndl x'). Das poppige 'Don't Look Back' ist insofern eine schwache Nummer. 'I Remember' hat danach mit seinem verschleppten Beat einen Steampunk-Touch, der Gesang ist nur ein Schatten seiner selbst. 'No Distance' tickert wie ein elektronisches Spinett, über Synthienebelstreifen schimmert ein Knabensopran auf ü. Wieder mädchenhaft, schliert die zerhackte Stimme über das motorische Tuckern und Synthiegeflöte von '37/3d'. Die 80er und 90er im Reißwolf der Erinnerung? "Wo warst Du?" lautet die wehmütige Frage, die Van Hoen aber über krumme Beats stolpern lässt. 'Unknown Host' überbrückt als halbe Samba die Zeit bis zu 'Laughing Stars At Night' mit seinem Baritongitarrenloop über Breakbeats und Lyrics, die hier mehr sind als nur eine Catchphrase. 'Holy Me' multipliziert Belmont für ein verzerrtes Replikantenmadrigal a capella in der Kirche der verlorenen Zeit. Da darf man dann schon mal Einkehr halten." [Bad Alchemy]
|
2012 |
€14.00 |
|
| VASILISK |
Whirling Dervishes |
LP |
"Reissue of Japanese tribal/industrial pioneers, released back in 1987 on Eskimo Records. Originally recorded and mixed in Tokyo from December '86 to March '87 now remastered with additional bonus track. Comes on transparent purple vinyl, limited to 150 copies." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
"An eccentric proposition, Vasilisk's Whirling Dervishes (1987) was the group's first album after Tomo Kuwahara and Jun Konagaya dissolved their politically charged noise/punk unit White Hospital. Konagaya kept screaming against the sky with his aptly named industrial project Grim; and Kuyahara turned inward with the ritual-industrial outfit Vasilisk. Through the connections back to White Hospital, Vasilisk had often been associated with the Japanese noise community even as their aesthetic steered clear of the aktionist bloodletting, dada nihilism, and junkyard brutalism found in every other Japanese noise outfit. Swaddled in lush reverberation and acoustic drones, Vasilisk's hypnotic, tribal percussion and occasional psych-folk jams offer a direct link to the holy minimalism of the Taj Mahal Travellers, Angus Maclise, and John Cale through the magickal liturgies of the British industrial practitioners (e.g. PTV's Themes, 23 Skidoo, Masstishaddhu, etc.) and looking forward to the pine-cone drones of the more shambolic artists from the Y2K freak-folkers (e.g. Avarus, Sunroof!, Toho Sara, etc.). The album's title track is a 22 minute excursion built up from a fundamental drone with interlocking hand-drummed rhythms punctuated by lysergically bellowed Kecak-like vocalizations, low-key Kosmische guitar work, and circular breathing chants. The shorter program pieces which flesh out the album operate mostly along those lines with the power-tool blur and militant staccato of "Bricks" and the cagey, whispered rendition of Suzanne Vega's "Cracking" (sounding more like Current 93, mind you) as the furthest axis points for Vasilisk's sensibility for miasma drone and opiated psychedelia. This reissue on Steinklang is completed with Vasilisk's contribution to RRRecord's Noise And Junk Omnibus overview of late '80s / early '90s Japanese noise - a track called "The Ritual Mask." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
|
Mkwaju |
LP |
"Reissue of Japanese tribal/industrial pioneers, released back in 1988 on Eskimo Records. Originally recorded and mixed in Tokyo from December '87 to May '88, now remastered with additional bonus track. Comes on transparent blue vinyl, limited to 150 copies." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
"Probably the most fully realized of the Vasilisk records, Mkwaju was originally released via Eskimo Records in 1988 with a xerox of a xerox of a xerox of a Diane Arbus print as the cover. This portrait of patients in a mental hospital, masked in their Halloween garb from what they could gather from the dustbins and forgotten closets is a potent metaphor for the autodidactic / outsider temple music that Vasilisk began creating in the mid-'80s. Unfortunately, the cd reissue campaign neglected to reproduce the original liner notes for Mkwaju, which stated: "Vasilisk's musick, as an expression of human consciousness and will, is an attempt to break through the cycle of determinacy and establish an independent existence for man... Ritual, based on the principle of gradual intensification, with ecstatic, cathartic climax, promotes the solidarity of life. Man acts as the responsible center of the rite." These rituals for Vasilisk are hypnotic in nature, with fundamental architectural drones, throat singing harmonics, and blurred miasmas of synths, tape loops, & guitars woven throughout Vasilisk's signature tribal percussive patterns. The somber, arcane atmospherics of Mkwaju align Vasilisk most closely with the ritual industrial practitioners that spawned from the early '80s metal bashing of Einsturzende Neubauten, Test Dept., and Dissecting Table, with all of that aggression tempered in favor of a ritualized solemnity cloaked in buzzing mesmer and transcendent aspirations." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Acqua |
LP |
"Reissue of Japanese tribal/industrial pioneers, released back in 1989 on Musica Maxima Magnetica. Originally recorded and mixed in London, Napoli and Tokyo 1988, now remastered with additional bonus track. Comes on transparent green vinyl, limited to 150 copies." [label info]
www.steinklang-records.at
"Akin to William Bennett's Cut Hands or perhaps to the acoustic-leaning facets of Muslimgauze or to the slightly more obscure British project O Yuki Conjugate, Vasilisk were a well-regarded Japanese outfit of ritual-industrial musicians who released a handful of albums in the late '80s. Now, they've undergone a necessary reissue campaign thanks to the Austrian imprint Steinklang. Acqua (1989) was the third and final album from the band's first incarnation. And while they's since reformed, with a couple of albums that's we've not yet heard including one with the nihilist industrial project Dissecting Table, Vasilisk have long been lumped into the continuum of industrial culture (mostly since two members of Vasilisk started out in the brutalist punk-noise trio White Hospital with Jun Konagaya later christening himself Grim), but the music of Vasilisk falls more on the hypnogogic, dreamy side of tribal esoterica. Synths, organs, flutes, and guitars float through Acqua's processional tracks. This is especially true for the lengthy title cut which has much more of the kosmische atmospherics of a Popul Vuh or even a Motion Sickness Of Time Travel, before an ominous clamor from hand-drums turns the vibe in a completely different but wholly cinematic direction. The shorter tracks follow Vasilisk's mantra-based hypnosis through acoustic rhythms, moody flute drone, and suspended ambience; but the longest piece marks one of the earliest appearances from long-standing aQ-favorite Tatsuya Yoshida, aka the ringleader of the Ruins. This is a live session recorded with Yoshida behind a drum-kit and pushing the velocity at a considerably greater speed than what Vasilisk had typically performed. Around Yoshida's Charles Hayward / Jaki Leibezeit timekeeping, the rest of Vasilisk punctuates with tumbled percussion, time-warp electric drones and more of those ghostly flutes." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€20.00 |
|
| VELEZ, DAVID |
Alku |
mCDR |
"DAVID VELEZ is a colombian sound artist who creates soundscapes mainly based on field recordings. this piece was composed as a soundtrack for a painting exhibition named "homenaje al planeta" ("tribute to the planet") by liliana duran. here, DAVID tried to combine field recordings with more musical elements such as deep drones and more piercing sines.
co-curator of the excellent IMPULSIVE HABITAT netlabel devoted to field recordings, DAVID VELEZ past works were published on many international labels like test tube, ripples recordings (a collaboration with james mcdougall), semperflorens (with juan josé calarco), mystery sea, siridisc, conv or audio gourmet." [label info]
www.taalem.com
|
2012 |
€5.00 |
|
| VERTONEN |
The ocean is gone, the ship is next |
CD |
VERTONEN aus Chicago vertont hier seine Turntable-Experimente und betört den willigen Hörer mit knisternd-knarzigen Rauschdrones, bizarren Vinyl–loops, noisigen Pulsations-mustern und ganz konkreten Metall-Geräuschtupfern.
* Vertonen is Chicago experimental music veteran Blake Edwards and this CD continues an ongoing exploration of turntable-fueled drones. The opening track's title is self-explanatory: "untitled for air organ and turntable motor". Recorded live on the radio in Chicago, this piece is a fourteen minute long deep and dense mix of beautiful bass tones and thick breathy hums playing endless phase games with each other. On the second piece, a very heavy speaker-rattling bass tone loops through the beginning as metal-percussion sounds slowly cycle in the background. Scratchy vinyl sounds and dense ambient tones continue throughout as some recognizable vinyl-sourced sounds emerge- like a looped horn-line perhaps. the regular sound of the loop disturbs the drone atmosphere a little, adding some humor to a track that doesn't seem to need any. The next piece, "Four chambers plus their various fluids" kicks out the noise from the get go- fast and loud cycling noise whirring and flanging endlessly. Hissy field recorded sounds predominate as the track fades out to silence. "Soma Trio Study (2)" is the shortest cut one here at 5 minutes and could have used a little more time to develop. The sounds at play are delicate and melodic slowly evolving loops drifting in and out of phase- a bit like Philip Jeck, perhaps and much more romantic than the claustrophobic sounds on the previous pieces. Final track begins with warbly locked groove piano sounds eventually overtaken by a darker, machine loop that slowly fades in as the piano plays on. The mix of endless drone frequencies and more loopish vinyl sounds works wonderfully throughout this disc.” [Angbase]
|
2003 |
€8.00 |
|
| VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA |
Tuning to the Rooster |
CD |
Die Meister des instrumentellen impro-psych-drones mit neuem Material, dass zum ersten Mal durch ein 24-Spur Mischpult gewandert sein soll (und nicht wie sonst aus simplen 2-Spur Aufnahmen besteht).
Nicht nur alte Acid Heads wie JULIAN COPE halten diese in quasi-rituellen Gruppen-Performances entstandende Musik für zeitgemässes Schamanentum, mit der bewussteinsverändernde Exkursionen möglich werden.....hier trifft die Kraft des Ur-Klangs, des Ur-Drones auf archaisch-menschliche Ekstasewünsche, und das macht das VIBRA-ORCHESTRA so besonders....
"This is music as a shamanic aid, made as much for the players themselves as for the listeners. But as I'm writing from the listening perspective, I have to inform y'all that this is music to get you there. Every track sounds as though it has always just 'been there,' it's just you ain't quite tuned into its peculiar frequency until now. The 12-and-a-half minute 'Wearing Clothes of Ash' is like a piano-led 'Paradieswarts Duul-period drone-a-thon with John Cale and Terry Riley guesting on viola and keys. Following this, the sublime 'Baptism Bar Blues' is proof positive that they can rock the riot house with pure adrenaline rush when the decision is made. Indeed, this track is magnificent and should be available to the masses free or in pill form." [Julian Cope]
“Vibracathedral Orchestra are one of those rare groups with a completely singular sound and a seemingly endless reserve of psych rock free drone inspiration with which to explore it. For us, they are one of the only bands who we could literally listen to forever, an everlasting endless jam, unfurling over the course of the next 50 years, each riff unfolding every month or so, each drum hit an entire day, melodies stretching for weeks and weeks. Our eyes close and we drift off to the next world while the music plays on...
That's exactly how it feels listening to Tuning To The Rooster. The songs are long, and they do feel gloriously and deliriously long, but they're never quite long enough. Not for us anyway. VCO have been masters of the drone, of the slowly shifting soundscape since their inception, but much like Skullflower discovering their inner Hawkwind on recent records, VCO seem to also have rediscovered the RIFF this time around. The opening track is like an Allman Brothers track gone totally apeshit. Or maybe Skullflower jamming with the Outlaws. Or something! There's a jangly sort of Southern rock riff, over chaotic propulsive drumming, a serious jam for sure, but the whole thing is wrapped in a thick cloak of droning shimmering distorted guitar noise, a continual psychedelic freakout SO continual that it becomes a static psych rock drone, with the original riff eventually repeating mantra like until it meshes with the background drone and it all becomes a brain melting divine psychedelic jam of the highest order. Woah, everyone who freaked out over Skullflower's Exquisite Fucking Boredom needs to check this out! The second track is back to that classic VCO sound we can never get enough of. A primal primitive space jam, all drones and rumbles and whirs and shimmers, a glorious pagan ritual that makes us want to lay naked in the middle of the forest and sink into the wet leaves as our eyes sparkle with reflections of shooting stars. Drifting and dreaming... The last two tracks again focus on the riff, hypnotic and repetitive, like Steve Reich composing for Hawkwind. A glorious minimal psychedelic jam, wreathed in a haze of swirling feedback and wild melodies, minor key pianos, and all manner of swoosh and swoop. So utterly and fantastically divine!“ [Aquarius]
|
2005 |
€15.00 |
|
|
Versatile Arab Chord Chart |
CD |
Zweite CD der drownig-dronigen Impro-Combo aus UK...
"Versatile Arab Chord Chart is the second full-length outing by the quintet of Neil Campbell, Michael Flower, Julian Bradley, Bridget Hayden, and Adam Davenport. Like their UK cousins and fellow VHF recording artists Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra usually works from a base of modal improvisation. Led by Campbell's sawing violin, tracks like 'Wearing Quid Frock' and the epic 'Japan Banjo' build up arcs of lingering overtones beneath an undercurrent of melody. They cut the drones in their life with extremely effective bursts of near rock, in a style reminiscient of the pre-Nico Velvet Underground (circa 1966 or so). The band's combination of clattering percussion, droning strings, and considerable sense of where to put the 'groove' on tracks like 'Catching Loners With Blank Arms' makes them unique among their peers. Versatile Arab Chord Chart follows the band's previous Lino Hi outing on Giardia and a series of intriguing and extremely limited self-released titles, including the currently available Filling Sacks With Leaves 10-inch. New work for VHF and live work around the UK are planned for the near future, if there is one." - label press release.
www.vhfrecords.com
|
2000 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Joka Baya |
LP |
"The ever-mysterious Vibracathedral Orchestra returns from another relatively quiet period with an uncompromising set of outre jams on a trio of limited-edition LPs. Slightly reorganized around a line-up of stalwarts Mick Flower and Adam Davenport with frequent collaborators John Godbert (Total) and John Moloney (Sunburned Hand of the Man), the band here stretches way, way out over these six sides. Joka Baya offers up a set of shorter pieces on the A-side in a high-fidelity style that contrasts the dark, smoky sound of the rest of the tracks. The percussive grooves are overlaid with Sunroof!-like shimmer, stabbing electric leads, gentle acoustic rain, and droning organ peeking through at opportune moments. The roaring side-long epic on the flip is a droning, phasing slice of psychedelia with Moloney's drums battering the tape in between long stretches of humming stasis." [label info]
www.vhfrecords.com
" It's been a while since we've heard from UK ur-drone spacelords
Vibracathedral Orchestra, founder Neil Campbell took off on his own a
while back, and now kicks up a ruckus as Astral Social Club, but the
Orchestra is still going strong, fronted by long time members Mick
Flower and Adam Davenport, who for this new set of THREE (!!) full
length releases, is joined by John Moloney of Sunburned Hand Of The
Man and the mighty John Godbert of the legendary Total.
Each of the three, Joka Baya, The Secret Base and Smoke Song,
function on their own as fully formed proper albums, but the three
also seem to fit together into one expansive whole, a sweeping
sprawling songsuite, that seems to drift from one lp to the next, and
in fact, although we didn't try it, we imagine you could probably play
these records simultaneously in various combinations and the results
would be even trippier.
Needless to say, most folks will most likely want all three,
but no harm done in starting with one, and then grabbing the others
later, unless they sell out that is, which seems very likely
considering that these are quite limited.
Up first is Joka Baya (in the black cover) beginning with a bit
of African drumming, which gives way to some gorgeously glimmering and
glistening prismatic dronemusic, swirling effects, all dreamlike and
bleary eyed, with what sounds like birdsong mixed into the chiming
notes and extended tones. The record shifts gears after that into
something much heavier and more blown out, a full on psychedelic post
Hawkwind spacejam, a heavy krautrock rhythm beneath a flurry of
tangled psych guitars. The African drums return briefly before the
band lock into a throbbing processed minimal looped dronescape, murky
and washed out, dark and hypnotic.
The flipside is a single side long epic, a slow burning cloud
of processed guitars, cymbal shimmer, glitched out FX, building to a
pounding psychedelic crescendo before slipping into a propulsive muted
buzzdrone raga outro.
The second lp is called The Secret Base (in the white and red
cover) and begins immediately with a total Spacemen 3 / Loop styled
drug rock jam, repetitive, mesmerizing, super hypnotic, the guitars
smoldering and incendiary. The next track is an Eastern tinged
spacekraut groove, strangely Southern sounding as well, a bit twang
flecked, a little dubby even, melodic, and major key and surprisingly
playful. Like the first record, The Secret Base also fills its second
side with a single extended track, this time, it's all clattery and
ritualistic and tribal, shakers, bells, hand drums, moaned and chanted
vocals, very reminiscent of Avarus, NNCK, Sunburned Hand, eventually
the sound locks into a skeletal groove, hypnotic and propulsive, but
still abstract and way loose.
Finally, the third art in the trilogy, Smoke Song (in the
Orange cover), which begins with a sprawling bit of Clattery, twangy
tribal free drift, fluttery flutes, lots of percussion, a sort of wild
and wooly drum circle, laced with woodwinds and swirling effects,
before slipping into a muted spacey jam, all subtle drumming, wheezing
chords, little bits of guitar jangle, warm whirring keyboards, druggy,
psychedelic, and just a bit Doors-y (or Wooden Shjips-y, for a more
contemporary reference).
Smoke Song too offers up a side long closer, this one ending
the whole trilogy, and it's a doozy, full on droned out drug rock,
cyclical, mesmerizing, sitar-like buzz wrapped around a simple, but
pounding motorik beat, while all around it a swirling cloud of hiss
and buzz and shimmer.
Needless to say, all three are recommended, and again, not sure
how limited these are, or how long they'll be around..." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| VIDNA OBMANA |
Spore |
CD |
Die DANTE'S INFERNO Trilogie markiert einen starken Bruch mit den Jahren des "Transzendental-Ambients" und ist einer der letzten Arbeiten von DIRK SERRIES unter dem Namen VIDNA OBMANA. Basierend auf der dunklen Poetik der Dante'schen Verse setzt er hier schon Gitarren, metallische Obertoneffekte, elektronische Rhythmen & diverse handgespielte Perkussion ein, aber auch Ethno-artige Flötensounds und die typischen ultra-sphärischen OBMANA-Drones... auf LEGACY gibt es Gastauftritte von STEVE VON TILL (NEUROSIS), STEVEN WILSON (BASS COMMUNION) und anderen.. - das ist weit mehr als der vorher so perfekt ausgeprägte aber vorhersehbare Ambient-Stil, das ist post-industrieller, abgründiger dark ambient mit überraschenden Stilmerkmalen..
Sonderpreis: die ganze Trilogie (3 CDs) zusammen für Euro 33.00!
"Atmospheric music that induces trance states in listeners who understand the language of sound. The first Vidna Obmana recording in what will be a trilogy of albums drawing inspiration from the classic Dante poem // The second chapter in renowned ethno-ambient/electronic artist vidnaObmana's Dante trilogy, and follow-up to his critically acclaimed Tremor release, Spore is the apotheosis of vidna's fascination for Dante's Inferno poem. References to vidna's industrial past of the early 80's remain strongly present, while the fusion of his ambient soundscapes with bolder and less spatial combinations of harmonics, dynamics and experimentation is even more accentuated. // Legendary dark ambient sound sculptor vidnaObmana unveils Legacy, the haunting third chapter in the artist's Dante trilogy. The much anticipated Legacy supersedes vidna's critically acclaimed Tremor and Spore albums, interlocking with the two, while delivering a resounding communique all its own. Legacy bleeds other-worldly atmospherics, ghostlike industrial ambience and spiraling electrical waves, ushering the listener forever downward." [label info for the three chapters]
www.releaseentertainment.com
|
2003 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Dante Trilogy |
3 x CD |
An almost his 25 year existency as VIDNA OBMANA Dirk Serries never shied away from challenges, sometimes to the regret of many of his fans, but it’s when he was offered a record deal with the renowned metal label RELAPSE RECORDS/RELEASE ENTERTAINMENT Vidna Obmana took his boldest step ever. With his DANTE TRILOGY he created his most ambitious, daring and unique set of albums which, for good, made him to be one of the most unique voices in the ambient and experimental scene.
Not only brought he VIDNA OBMANA to a definite conclusion but executed for him that perfect fusion of everything his project stood for since the first release in 1984.
His industrialism, the minimal ambience, the fourth world explorations and his electronic processing experiments went into blender. Utterly surreal, intense and expansive, the 3 albums TREMOR, SPORE and LEGACY showcase VIDNA OBMANA at his creative peak while conceptually the trilogy expresses Dirk Serries’ frustration, disappointment and creative turmoil as his role as VIDNA OBMANA in the ambient scene. This trilogy became that end of the road for probably his most critically-acclaimed and world-wide appreciated project but a change was necessary.
Having these 3 albums out on RELAPSE RECORDS/RELEASE ENTERTAINMENT solidified his connection to the metal and heavier guitar scene and the next chapter in DIRK SERRIES’ obsessive quest for that sublime in sound and mood was born: FEAR FALLS BURNING.
Now fully remastered, making every complex detail stand out even more, ZOHARUM is releasing the trilogy as a 3CD set with the related breathtaking photography by MARTINA VERHOEVEN. Music that according to VIDNA OBMANA was especially recorded to experience on a qualitive set of headphones.
https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/album/dante-trilogy-tremor-spore-legacy
"Die DANTE'S INFERNO Trilogie markiert einen starken Bruch mit den Jahren des "Transzendental-Ambients" und ist einer der letzten Arbeiten von DIRK SERRIES unter dem Namen VIDNA OBMANA. Basierend auf der dunklen Poetik der Dante'schen Verse setzt er hier schon Gitarren, metallische Obertoneffekte, elektronische Rhythmen & diverse handgespielte Perkussion ein, aber auch Ethno-artige Flötensounds und die typischen ultra-sphärischen OBMANA-Drones... auf LEGACY gibt es Gastauftritte von STEVE VON TILL (NEUROSIS), STEVEN WILSON (BASS COMMUNION) und anderen.. - das ist weit mehr als der vorher so perfekt ausgeprägte aber vorhersehbare Ambient-Stil, das ist post-industrieller, abgründiger dark ambient mit überraschenden Stilmerkmalen.." [Drone Rec. info]
|
2023 |
€20.00 |
|
| VIDNA OBMANA / ALIO DIE |
Echo Passage |
CD |
"Die beiden Ambient-Master aus Belgien und Italien in lang angekündigter Zusammenarbeit.. ECHO PASSAGE enthält ein 68 minütiges, soft dahinschwebendes Stück.. music for overcoming the time.. " [old Drone Rec. info]
"While running as a single 68.5-minute piece, Echo Passage is divided into three sections, Echoes of Light, A slip of darkness and The Passage; but there are no signposts to clearly delineate the pathways through these fantastic territories.Vidna Obmana and Alio Die have explored this realm and we're hereby invited to share its sonic bounty though each listener will have to discover their own aural trail. Flutey bursts, whispy shimmers, and the organic glistenings of trickling sands mark the entryway. It doesn't take long amongst these unusual textures to realize the previous world is now gone, and who needed it anyway...it's much more lovely here. A long, long stretch of rich multi-layered drones with no interruptions or percussive effects is eventually visited upon by sparse instances of faraway birdlike hoots and chatter as the sound waves become more subdued and darker. More organics emerge as a fizzy/bubbly current flows through these parts, and a powerful surging entity begins to periodically pulse in long,low tones. Everything returns to an airier, calmer state... for the time being at least. At the halfway point, those sonic molecules begin to shadow and thicken, becoming more ominous, like a mechanical wind, though still suffused with choir like threads of unearthly beauty. The turbulence grows; faint,unidentifiable ripples are heard through the chasmic howl. Cyclonic murk surrounds with distant vocal mutations and thin chimes occasionally lighting the way, leading into a realm of almost-silence. A thin drone blows in to be joined by mutedly brassy blares. Sporadic bird chirps add an Earthly touch to the otherwise unnatural atmospheres. A radiant haze begins to coalesce, swirling with gossamer strands, delicate yet powerful, gaining accompaniment from a two-tone counterpoint which temporarily fades away. Magical swells convolve around each other in strangely symphonic patterns, dancing like celestial auroras, wondrous to behold. All dissipates in the end, vanishing like the enchanting dreamworld it was... Echo Passage contains all the audio awe-inspiration you would expect from a musical meeting between Vidna Obmana and Alio Die. The extended length and expertly rendered atmospheres are perfectly suited for long, deep immersions into abstract time and place. Go there!" [from the Alio Die website]
www.projekt.com |
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| VIOLET |
Violet Ray Gas & The Playback Singers |
CD |
VIOLET gibt es schon seit geraumer Zeit (in der Cassetten-Szene bereits als "1348" und NEW CARROLLTON aktiv!), ist aber leider bislang im Drone-Katalog kaum in Erscheinung getreten... Dieses Album auf dem eigenen ZEROMOON-Label präsentiert rauhe, grobkörnige, experimentelle low-fi drones inkl. Einsatz von Schallplatten-Loops, Stimmzitaten & Feedbacks, zum Ende hin aber weniger noisige polyphone Sphären-Schichten, die schon fast an PHILL NIBLOCK gemahnen... ein weites Spektrum öffnet sich hier mit eigener Handschrift...
"Quite an intriguing burst of dark electronic and sample noise from Violet, whose Violet Ray Gas and The Playback Singers (ZEROMOON zero008 / SENTIENT RECOGNITION ARCHIVE SRA 10) is released in a digipack covered with Futurist-inspired monochrome images full of harsh diagonals and fuzzy dreams of the machine age. Jeff Surak arrives here from Washington DC, a hero of the 1980s cassette tape scene when he used to release music under his 1348 alias and ran his Watergate Tapes label. Consequently we can hear much stern authority and grainy power in these grim process-works. My fave so far is the opener ‘All Records Collapse’, with its implacable radio voice plucked from an indeterminate Eastern European zone, but ‘Snakehead Lapping’, ‘Plague Numbers’ and ‘Marionetki’ all communicate the requisite doses of futility. Two long tracks at the end, ‘Violet Ray Gas’ and ‘Interior Ghosts’, are somewhat more musical than atmospheric, shaped from queasy long-form drones tempered with alien sounds. Surak strives to offer ‘near-silence’ and ‘full-on tonal Brutalism’, with all shades in between." [The Sound Projector]
"... Dark and mysterious, mixing in bits of Jeck and Tim Hecker, Wolf Eyes, blending them into Violet's ominous world of sound. There's feedback all over the place, but it's far from harsh or jagged, instead it's used like color, to paint greyed out landscapes burnished reds, and melted oranges, thick tones, reverberating chimes, bits of buzz and crunch, disembodied voices, intercepted broadcasts, clouds of hiss, chugging machinery, industrial sonic detritus, warped strings, woozy synths, all wound up into dense walls of sound one second, blurred into delicate crystalline lattices the next. "Plague Numbers" is total Jeck, a skipping scratched record smeared into a gauzy washed out living portrait of sound, indistinct figures, flitting shadows, mysterious shapes, all moving as if through a thick field of static, not even four minutes, but we found ourselves wishing it would never end. Elsewhere the sound of lapping water is swallowed up by a crackling crumbling fog of burnt melodies, and slowed down riffs, a sort of sun dappled lysergic sonic swirl. The title track is a tuning up orchestra stretched out into a softly chaotic symphony of angular tones and fractured melodies, of sine waves and groaning creaking low end rumbles, augmented by curious crackles and strands of distortion arranged in patterns resembling speech, but rendered in impressionistic shards, finishing off with a gorgeous high end ur- drone, a softer Sunroof!, a field of static bagpipes, their overtones creating otherworldly patterns in the ether. Gorgeous." [Aquarius Records review]
www.zeromoon.com
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| VIOSAC (VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED) |
Dawning Luminosity |
CD |
"53 minutes of peaceful, channeled, ambient drone. Layers of analogue processing culminating in Frippertronics.." [label info]
www.viosac.net
"Back in Vital Weekly 656 we were re-introduced to Violence And The Sacred performing as Viosac, the new name of what was once known as just Violence And The Sacred. Still I have no idea why they hold on to the addition 'Performing As Viosac', and not just simply return to the old name. 'Rusty Pile' wasn't a convincing come-back album I thought. Perhaps a bit too much of an unedited jam-session. The CD after that 'You Are PLanning To Enjoy The Apocalypse' wasn't received here. The new work 'Dawing Luminosity' is however a great work. Viosac move into a more ambient territory here, which not necessarily adds much to the world of ambient and drones, but the quality is great. Its one piece in three parts and I'm told its all analogue synthesizers and analogue processing. Very slow moves around here, this an almost perfect piece of surround sound, ambient in the very most true sense of the word. An excellent disc of some heavenly music. As said, it doesn't add much, if anything at all, to what we already know about this kind of music, but its very rare that it unfolds into such a beauty." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2010 |
€13.00 |
|
| VISIONS & PHURPA |
Monad |
LP |
Celebrating its 100th release, Cyclic Law presents an exclusive collaboration between label head Frederic Arbour’s long standing project VISIONS and Russia’s most enigmatic ritual formation, lead by Alexey Tegin, PHURPA. Merging PHURPA’s penetrating organic meditational chants and shamanic percussive elements with the slow-shifting, multi-layered textural drones of VISIONS, this unique joining of forces resulted in a vastly expansive and time bending opus. Channeled throughout are primordial sonorities to alter ones deeper psyche, a spiritual ascent unifying with the whole, the elemental cosmic life force that transpierces us, to the monad of creation.
CD Edition of 500 copies in 4 panels Digisleeve. 4 tracks. 40:37
LP Edition of 200 Copies in Standard LP sleeve with black paper inner sleeve. 4 tracks. 40:37
credits
released April 25, 2018
cycliclaw.bandcamp.com/album/monad
|
2018 |
€20.00 |
|
| |
Monad |
CD |
Celebrating its 100th release, Cyclic Law presents an exclusive collaboration between label head Frederic Arbour’s long standing project VISIONS and Russia’s most enigmatic ritual formation, lead by Alexey Tegin, PHURPA. Merging PHURPA’s penetrating organic meditational chants and shamanic percussive elements with the slow-shifting, multi-layered textural drones of VISIONS, this unique joining of forces resulted in a vastly expansive and time bending opus. Channeled throughout are primordial sonorities to alter ones deeper psyche, a spiritual ascent unifying with the whole, the elemental cosmic life force that transpierces us, to the monad of creation.
CD Edition of 500 copies in 4 panels Digisleeve. 4 tracks. 40:37
LP Edition of 200 Copies in Standard LP sleeve with black paper inner sleeve. 4 tracks. 40:37
credits
released April 25, 2018
Channeled by VISIONS & PHURPA 2017
Produced, Mixed & Mastered by Frederic Arbour
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| VITRIOL |
I-VII |
CD |
Wow! Leider erst spät entdeckt, dieses alchemistische Gebräu von ex-GODFLESH BC GREEN. Rückwärtige Gitarrensounds & drones, eine dumpf-beschwörende Stimme aus dem Untergrund, sich wellenartige ergiessende Chords....
“Ben Green (Godflesh) takes us on a haunting and elemental journey of the soul. Recorded in the mountains of Wales in order to document alchemical pursuits....’ In 1995 I moved to a remote cottage in the Ystwyth valley, to escape the noise of the city in order to listen, without distraction to the sounds within, sounds that I had been feeling for a long time. I spent 12 months here in virtual total isolation, focusing not only inwards, but also allowing myself to be an elemental "sponge", initially at nature’s mercy, but eventually learning to coexist with all natural elements, becoming completely aware of the natural order and flow of things. One of the ways in which I explored this was using sound, for as a musician I was very aware of the strength of sounds, particularly in a pure state, and the effect they have on our psyche, and therefore our fundamental state of being.’ [Ben Green 2001] “ [label info]
|
2001 |
€14.00 |
|
| VOLCANO THE BEAR |
The Mountains among us |
CD |
Die bereits 200ste Katalognummer des Portlander Labels ist für VOLCANO THE BEAR reserviert, und diese präsentieren hier ganz besonderes Material, 2 urlange Stücke mit sehr geräuschhaften Instrumental- Drones & field recording-Quellen, sehr frei & voller überraschender Wendungen und wunderbarer dunkler Parts. Das Album weist mitunter fast schon neo-klassische Qualitäten auf, ist
überraschend atmosphärisch, dabei aber von unheimlicher Stringenz. Unser definitiver Lieblingsrelease der britischen Band! Anklänge an NOISE MAKERS FIFES, ZEITKRATZER, MORPHOGENESIS.... erschien übrigens vor einigen Jahren bereits auf Beta-Lactam als LP in einer Auflage von nur 100 Stück!
"Die wohl beste Band des CTM Festivals 2006 mit zwei über 20 Minuten langen Tracks in oberdickem und teurem Pappcover. Natürlich werden VTB in keinem Weird Folk Artikel erwähnt, dafür sind sie viel zu weit draußen, zu windig, hölzern, befremdlich und abseits von allem. Es blasen alte, nach Gauklerfest klingende Tröten, aber nur selten zum Tanz oder Marsch. Streicher werden gekappt und geschnitten, Vögel und ein anonymes Publikum schauen teilnahmslos zu, an der Harfe wird semi-improvisiert, Gesang in die Länge gezogen etc etc. Trotz aller Experimentierfreude an den Instrumenten steht deutlich VTBs famose Studioarbeit im Vordergrund. Alle Spuren sind meisterhaft abgemischt, so dass klar der Eindruck des steten Machens über dem der fertigen Arbeit steht. Unheimlich, mysteriös und spitzengut." [Ed Benndorf / DE BUG]
"First edition of 500 numbered copies in a full color book bound cd case. This year sees the eruption of the Volcano with a myriad of releases leaving the town folk covered in a fine and mysterious silt of musical entropy. The limited release of "Mountains" finds our boy’s spelunking the creepiest of dream spawned caves, excavating crystalline fragments along the way, which are then set in beautiful mental jewelry appropriate for any formal occasion. Arpeggiated blurs and disinterred voices snap, crackle and pop as an unnamed rusted hulk is slowly pushed across an ever morphing open landscape. More accurately still, it's like that weird wind harp record from the 70's with a mid period NWW and Mauve Sideshow marching up opposite sides of the hill to claim the giant harp. And that's just in the first 19 minutes!. Afterwards, there is a slo-mo interlude battle between rarified VTB brand chamber music and the sounds of...things. As promised, the denouement is a brief, dare I say, pretty little whisper of pizzicato and drone. So pretty and little, in fact, that it caught the attention of my otherwise weirdness deaf partner. A real symphony of the spheres that showcases this Volcano's ability to blow its top and rain sweet tweeky kittens on the valley below." [label info]
www.blrrecords.com
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| VON HAUSSWOLFF, C.M. (CARL MICHAEL) |
The wonderful World of male Intuition |
CD |
Wieder ein herrlich absonderliches Werk des schwedischen Parapsycho-Soundwerkers: Sinuston-drones & -tunes in verschiedenen Ausprägungen und verdeckte & verzerrte Zitate diverser berühmter Leute, die wie aus einer Geisterwelt zu uns sprechen, sind die Ingredienzen dieses Albums... VON HAUSSWOLFF ist wieder so weit vom Alltäglichen das es eine wahre Freude ist !
'The wonderful world of male intuition is an astounding masterpiece dedicated to male intuition : all a program. It will be followed by a second opus later this year dealing with the Horrible sides of male intuition...' [label info]
"Probably the name Carl Micheal von Hauswolff doesn't need much introduction. His conceptually edged releases on labels as Sub Rosa, Touch and Raster Noton deal with such subjects as architecture and voices from beyond. Here 'The Wonderful World Of Male Intuition' is the subject. To shed some light on it, he uses sine wave oscillators, field recordings (sea, land, outer space) but also the voices of persons important as 'positive energies in a world that obviously is feasting on itself without knowing how to go to the toilet', being the Dalai Lama, Willem de Ridder, Gregory Bateson, Alvin Lucier, John C. Lilly, Albert Hofmann, Friedrich Jürgenon and Brion Gysin. Many of these voices are processed through the use of the sine waves, in some way or another, which makes the voices hard to understand, but of course that is not the intent anyway. Throughout the forty some minutes, I learned nothing much about the male intuition (if that exists at all), but purely as a work of sine waves and field recordings I must say that this is a particular strong work by Hausswolff. Not too overtly minimal, leaning on his sine waves, but it's the combination of all three components works quite well, the sine waves, field recordings and voices. It might perhaps even the best Hausswolff I ever heard (despite not having heard all, he admitted straight away)." (FdW / Vital Weekly]
Address: http://www.oral.qc.ca
|
2006 |
€15.00 |
|
| |
800000 Seconds in Harar |
CD |
" CD digipak. CM von Hausswolff says: 'I was approached by my old friend and Radium 226.05 colleague Ulrich Hillebrand, now director of Angered Theatre in Göteborg. He informed me that there was a new play in the process of being written by author and theorist Michael Azar called 'Jag r en annan' (I is another) stemming form the famous letter written by Arthur Rimbaud in his youth. The play uses Rimbaud's life from being a young poet in Charleville ending with him being the trader in Harar, Ethiopia. Hillebrand asked me if I was willing to compose the music to this play. I accepted. I told Hillebrand that I needed to use material that had something to do with Rimbaud's life and as he had connections in Ethiopia and in the small city of Harar he said: why don't you go to Harar for 10 days and see what you can find ? So I went to Addis Ababa where a guy was waiting for me and drove me the 10 hours beautiful ride to Harar. I made recordings and looked for other useful material. There are 2 tracks. On the first track, which consists of three 'parts' I have used material from Harar. The long dronic sounds are taken form an instrument that I, after searching for days, bought in Harar - it's called a 'krar' and is a string instruments (it's quite clear that I have used a string instrument- also if you study Ethiopian music you came across the name of Saint Yared and he was the first to construct a notation system for music... much earlier than the Europeans). As I could not really master the actual playing of this instrument, I bought a bow for a violin and some rosin and with this I got one good tone out from this krar. Then the computer helped me to sort the modes and pitches out. On this piece there also two location recordings: the first one you hear is a recording I did outside Harar on a hill where there are next to no car sounds or other machine sounds - just the wind, insects, some kids and that (I wanted this recording to be more or less timeless or at least 19th century and forward...). The second location recording was done in the night in my hotel, where I woke up one night and became fascinated by the leaking taps in my bathroom so I decided to records this. On the second there are only oscillators used... several of them... And using one low pitch oscillator I ran a sound filtered through. This sound is the low 'rhythm' you can hear, and it's a low pitched morse code signal... and the text is the famous poem Rimbaud wrote in his youth called Le Dormeur Du Val (The Sleeper in the Valley). This poem is a beautiful text starting off in the nature, where a person is sleeping in the grass. Slowly Rimbaud zooms in and we read that it's a soldier and at the very end we are told he has two red wounds on his chest - the guy is dead!'
Arthur Rimbaud lived in Harar from 1884 until shortly before his death in 1891. This is Carl Michael von Hausswolff's first album for Touch, but the connection goes back many years, of course. Carl Michael von Hausswolff was born in 1956 in Linköping, Sweden. He lives and works in Stockholm. Since the end of the 1970s, Hausswolff has worked as a composer using the tape recorder as his main instrument and as a conceptual visual artist working with performance art, light and sound installations and photography.' [label info]
www.touchmusic.org.uk
"Dem Minimalismus wird definitiv in der heutigen Zeit viel Raum gewährt. Vergleichbar dem graphischen Design einer Designer Republic wird Weniger zum Mehr, ist die Leerstelle längst
Ausdrucksmittel für den mondänen Zeitgeist. Hausswolff fährt diese Schiene seit Jahren
erfolgreich, verlässt sie aber nur für kurze konkrete Zwischenhalte (siehe das Triptych für das Laton-Label) um dann wieder drei Alben mit konsequent kurzgeschnittener Konzeption und
Kuration zu veröffentlichen, deren Sinn sich in stehenden Tönen auf Viertelstundenbasis und
kraftvollen Feldaufnahmen äußert. Die Vergangenheit die Hausswolff hier besingt, schleicht sich auch in Künstlerreichweite, denn die Kuration aus alter skandinavischer Galeristenarbeit wirkt auch Jahrzehnte später bei Hausswolff nach. Sicherlich ist »800 000 Seconds in Harar« ein im heutigen Sinne weitaus ausgewogeneres Werk, auch wenn die spärlichen
Akkordwechsel der Drones eher lange auf sich warten lassen. Geduld muss vorhanden sein,
das Goutieren der Musik wird schlagartig zum Spiel mit Zeit und Raum. Erst im dritten Stück
entfalten sich orgelartige Strukturen, auf die John Cage angesichts seines Jahrtausendwerkes
ORGAN2 stolz sein dürfte. Ähnlich verlangsamt, aber mit präsenten Bassschwingungen hallen
die organischen Zutaten eines Besuchs in Harar umso mehr am Hörknochen noch. Nichtsdestotrotz ist Hausswolff auf dünnem Eis. Das sorgfältige Konstrukt aus Schwebungssummern und genau präzisierter Hertzzahl gerät angesichts der emotionalen Verortung in der Musik bisweilen ins Wanken. Dann muss man Geduld aufbringen, um dieses Werk in seiner vollen Länge zu würdigen.
4/5 " [Thorsten Soltau / AEMAG]
"Selbst wenn man die Hintergrundinfos zu dieser CD nicht kennt, ist es immer wieder ein Vergnügen dem "Meister des Drones" zu lauschen. - Nun, auf CD ist das bei CM von Hausswolff immer so eine Sache, da seine meisten Tracks sehr lang und auch abhängig sind von der Qualität der Stereoanlage, denn der Herr hier bevorzugt extrem tieftönendes Klänge. Live und direkt ein unglaubliches Erlebnis, wenn er die Filter zum glühen bringt, man in den Sitz gepresst wird und die Kleidung wie Folie sich um den ganzen Körper spannt und das nur durch einen herrvoragend aufeinander abgestimmten Drone. Für diese Veröffentlichung, die gleichzeitig Musik für eine Theaterstück über die letzten Lebensjahre von Arthur Rimbaud in Harhar ist, wurde CM kurzer Hand in ein Flugzeug verfrachtet und zehn Tage nach Äthopien geschickt und das nur, weil er sagte, er bräuchte Basicmaterial für seine Kompositionen. Also hört man hier die bearbeiteten Klänge der Originalschauplätze, Reiseeindrücke und Aufnahmen auf der Grundlage traditionellen äthiopischen Musikinstrumenten. Wunderbare und meditative fließende Drones umschmeicheln den Hörer und nehmen ihn mit auf diese (Traum)Reise!" [Carsten Vollmer / OX]
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| VORTEX |
Phanopoeia |
CD |
"... Phanopoeia erschafft so einen dunklen, atmosphärischen Spannungsbogen, der einen immer wieder in die Finsternis führen kann, ohne dass man dort verharren müsste. Alles in allem keine Musik die sich anbiedert, und ganz gewiss kein Album, das es einem sehr leicht macht, es zu erschliessen, aber eines, dessen Erschliessung sich lohnt." [KMF, BLACK Magazin]
"The German ritual drone project Vortex is dedicated to the British art movement of Vorticism of the early Twentieth Century (1913-1920). Founded as an own vision of Futurism by Wyndham Lewis and expressed in the legendary magazine Blast (1914) Vorticism defined the artist as someone gaining creative power and inspiration out of the chaotic vortex of creative energy. The name was introduced by the Vorticist protagonist Ezra Pound who also coined the phrase 'phanopoeia': the idea of creating poetry for all senses. The music of Vortex pays audiovisual homage to the great Vorticist art. Psychedelic drones, ritual drums, processed sounds, glimpses of acoustic harmony, and original sound documents are blended to grant a holistic sensory experience. Vortex, the solo-project of a :Golgatha: -member, transcends the limits of dark ambient soundtracks on a quest for the unknown. Vortex is pure psychoactive energy. (TESCO) Tesco 074 http://www.myspace.com/vortexphanopoeia"
[label info]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| VROMB |
Jeux de Terre |
CD |
Das erste VROMB – Album erschien 1993 auf Tesco und wird inzwischen zurecht als Klassiker betrachtet – irgendwo in der Grauzone zwischen dunklem ambient Industrial und rhythmisch-futuristischer Elektronik siedelte VROMB seinen ureigenen Stil an..
"until 1993, hugo girard's only appearance on record had been on a canadian compilation cd (adolphe présente), but these new ambient industrial sounds caused enthusiastic reactions in europe and canada. the first full length release was a canadian / german label collaboration: 'jeux de terre' . this cd was beautifully packaged in a 7"x10" cover and the disc was in a hand numbered paper sleeve. also included was a postcard and several large prints of nicely drawn insects - the text was in both french and english. the original 'jeux de terre' has been deleted for years. now there is the opportunity for vromb addicts to get it again. this re-release is in celebration of the ten year anniversary of vromb. the concept behind 'jeux de terre' (earth plays) was of a journey through an imaginary world of
insects. insects that had not been identified yet - as you can now read in english for the first time. 'insects, go for food or discovery, warzone, life purpose at the insect dimension' as girard explains it. the sound on this disc is less beat oriented than later vromb releases, but nevertheless it is partly rhythmic. drones and basses create a hypnotic and sometimes threatening atmosphere. you might seem to hear natural, even sampled, insect sounds but there were no samplers used. just 'strictly analog and digital synthesis'. you can hear what makes vromb's music unique even on his debut.
a soundtrack to a film yet completed. the ant-zen re-release contains one unreleased extra track which was intended for the original version and an 8 page booklet which includes a modified version of the original artwork."
[label info]
|
2003 |
€13.50 |
|
| WADA, YOSHI |
Earth Horns with Electronic Drone |
CD |
Bisher unveröffentlichte Aufnahmen eines Konzertes von 1974 (New York City)! Handgespielte Ritual & Transzendental-Drones at its best !!
"A world premiere from Yoshi Wada and EM Records-Omega Point: the first-ever release of Earth Horns with Electronic Drone, recorded live in 1974. Combining four of Wada's self-made pipehorns (made from plumbing materials, over three meters in length), with an electronic drone tuned to the electrical current of the performance space, this is a lost masterpiece of early minimalism, placing Wada rightfully in the pantheon with La Monte Young, Phill Niblock, Maryanne Amacher and Alvin Lucier. Recorded live in Syracuse, New York, this recording captures the room-filling complex overtones generated by the ever-shifting interplay of the breathing horns and the constant electronic drone. This is a music of ritual hypnotic power, its heavy low end mass and sense of change within constancy engendering a meditative transcendency. 'Earth Horns with Electronic Drone' is the fourth and ultimate release in our Yoshi Wada series, a must for all fans of minimalism, heavy drones, ritual, mystery and world-shaking transcendence. From an original performance of almost three hours, the CD features a 77 minute excerpt; we are especially honored to also offer the full performance as a triple LP set (sold out !). From Earth Horns to beyond the firmament: prepare to be elevated ! Composition by Yoshi Wada. Recorded at Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York on February 24, 1974. Pipehorns constructed by Yoshi Wada. Electronic equipment designed by Liz Phillips and Yoshi Wada. Electronics: Liz Phillips. Pipehorn Players: Jim Burton, Garrett List, Barbara Stewart and Yoshi Wada. Recorded by Yoshi Wada."
[label info] |
2009 |
€16.50 |
|
| WAKINYAN |
Copal Flow |
LP |
"In November 2011, after 20 years, the Italian band TERRORITMO became "WAKINYAN". "Copal Flow" is the first step in Wakinyan's exploration. Like the strong scent of copal brings ancient memories and visions, each track here depicts a scenery and involves the listener directly, totally. Introduced by the obscure night of "Notturno", like in a wood, crowded with spirits and animals, you're guided through 9 gates, each one opening on a different space and time. As if the purpose was to awake the slumbering ancestral memory of man, this record is fundamentally based on the dualism of elements strictly relating to the human being: "voice" and "iron". Whispers and screams, heartbeats and metal clashes, pulsing rhythms and voodoo drumming, ancient chants of the earth. Anything takes place all around you... and inside you.
Enjoy your journey!
Backwards released this record in a limited edition of 350 copies as gatefold sleeve. First 50 copies are in coloured vinyl with a special silkscreened insert and an additional DVD by Davide Pepe. The remaining 300 copies are in standard black wax." [label info]
about the band:
"In November 2011, after 20 years, Wakinyan became the new name for Terroritmo. Since the very beginning, in 1991, this Italian collective has explored unconventional music, using any kind of instruments, objects and tools to create its distinctive sound, with roots in industrial music and musique brut. Metal pipes and springs, glasses, Tibetan bowls, gongs, metal sheets, oil bins, knives, custom drums, rattles create hypnotic rhythms or powerful crescendos, while subtle drones made of processed voices, harmonics and noises fill up the atmosphere. Chants inflate Life in these layers of primal cadences. The industrial meets the organic. Fire and darkness.
Wakinyan's act is a modern ritual. What's below and what's above get connected. The emotional and the spiritual, the individual and the shared, they all melt into each other. Sounds perceived physically, almost unconsciously, take the listener into a mysterious place, the unknown, the hidden. Out of space and time."
|
2012 |
€15.00 |
|
| WALDRON, M.S./ STEVEN STAPLETON / S.B. SIGMARSSON / JIM HAYNES / R.K.FAULHABER |
The Sleeping Moustache |
CD |
Akustischer Surrealismus in Reinform auf dieser aufwendige Ketten-Collaboration, Drones und Collagiertes zu gleichen Teilen, Sprachexperimente, Geräuschaftes, Weirdes, abenteuerlich und schön!
Anhören und staunen !
„... Im fünfmaligen Wechsel von gut 10-minütigen mit 2- bis 3-minütigen Tracks jonglieren die Fünf mit den elektronischen Schatten von Nähmaschinen und Regenschirmen, wuchten nackte Eselskadaver auf Konzertflügel, klingen nach der Nachtschwester und lassen sich das Schamhaar neu friesieren [...].. Auch wenn sie das Pissoir nicht neu erfindet, ist sie doch Frucht einer langen Erfahrung aquis submersus.“ [Bad Alchemy #51]
“....Each with a peculiar understanding of the audio arts, these five artists came to the proverbial table and thought it a good idea to collaborate. Given the predilection for the surreal and the sidereal that each of these five employ in their many audio and visual projects, those agendas oozed from the recordings that became known as The Sleeping Moustache.
An epiphany of controlled disorder, a convulsion of beauty, a cascade of thought from delirious minds, The Sleeping Moustache is an exquisite manifestation of sound poetry scattered into a tortuous collage mired in an oblique melancholy. Magnetic tones extracted from the ether, mechanical sounds smeared into a lugubrious growls, horns trumpeting straight out of John's Book of Revelation, ululations sliced into information overload that Schwitters himself would be proud of. The Sleeping Moustache presents a psychically instable landscape, where dreams and nightmares wreak havoc upon the drudgery of daily life. The closest audible territory for The Sleeping Moustache might be the psychoactive constructions of Nurse With Wound's Homotopy To Marie, although the characters in this drama happened upon an entirely different map of that terrain.
The artwork for the first edition of The Sleeping Moustache features five letterpress prints from each of the artists with an edition of 1700.” [from the label description]
"You know it's gotta be an amazing record when we start a review by stating "we don't know where to begin with this record" and then we blather on and on for another 500 words pretty much demonstrating that while we may not where to begin, we certainly have a lot to say. And that totally applies to The Sleeping Moustache, the latest release from the enigmatic Helen Scarsdale Agency. The most well known of these five audio contortionists is Steven Stapleton who is the brains behind Nurse With Wound, who convolutedly reconstitute Surrealism, avant-garde aesthetics, and krautrock expressivity, resulting in some of the most profoundly brilliant and disturbing records we've ever heard. Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson is one of the drunken pilots of Stilluppsteypa, an Icelandic project of electro-absurdity capable of magnificent minimalism. M.S. Waldron is responsible for irr. app. (ext.), (an unwieldy moniker for sure) which has produced an amazing body of post-Surrealist expressivity in recent years. When he's not manning the fron counter here at Aquarius, Jim Haynes has developed a peculiar knack for rust-inflected dronescaping, and finally R.K. Faulhaber, who is the mystery man amongst the bunch, although we've been told his unpublished works offer a byzantine array of mutilated sonic collages. The album that these five produced is a weighty proposition to say the least, with detours a plenty within this mangled concoction of delirious dronescaping punctuated with glossalaic vocalizations. Delicate plinks and plonks sprinkled across sublime, gaping tones which transition to a convulsive beauty with mechanical spasms and nightmarish creakings. Throughout The Sleeping Moustache, ghostly reminders of each of the contributors' refined aesthetics emerge as a Gordon knot of convoluted logic, unsettling shifts between horror and comedy, psychological instability, and disquieting soundscapes. If you're even remotely a fan of Nurse With Wound or irr. app. (ext.) or Stilluppsteypa, this album is not just recommended... it's absolutely required." [Aquarius Records] |
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| WALKER, SCOTT & SUNN O))) |
Soused |
do-LP |
"Freigeister unter sich: Der US-Chansonier trifft auf die Drone-Doom-Band: Als Sunn O))) im Jahre 2009 erstmals bei Scott Walker anfragten, ob er einen Beitrag zu ihrem Album "Monoliths & Dimensions" beisteuern wolle, ahnte niemand, dass es einmal eine echte Zusammenarbeit geben würde. Vier Jahre später meldete sich Scott Walker schließlich bei der US-amerikanischen Drone-Doom-Band: Er habe neue Musik geschrieben und dabei stets eine Kollaboration mit Sunn O))) im Sinn gehabt. "Soused" ist das beeindruckend wuchtige Ergebnis einer Kooperation zweier Freigeister. Scott Walker feierte in den 60ern weltweite Erfolge mit den Walker Brothers, veröffentlichte in Folge viel beachtete Soloplatten und etablierte sich als Chansonier mit teils bitterböser Lyrik. In den 80ern erfolgte ein radikaler Stilwechsel und zudem eine Änderung seiner Arbeitsweise. Alben wie "Climate Of Hunter" (1984), "Tilt" (1996) und "The Drift" (2006) zeigten einen wandlungsfreudigen Künstler, der 2013 mit dem komplexen Meisterwerk "Bish Bosh" seinen Weg fortsetzte. Mit "Soused" folgt die logische Konsequenz Walkers künstlerischen Schaffens. Das Vinyl erscheint mit Downloadcode.
///
When Sunn O))) first approached Scott Walker about appearing on their 2009 album Monoliths & Dimensions, little did they know what it would actually lead to. Four years on, Scott was back with something even more enticing, collaborating on Soused, a body of work he was writing with them in mind.
Recorded in London in early 2014 and produced by Scott Walker and long-time ally Peter Walsh with the assistance of musical director Mark Warman, Soused is a 5-track 50-minute body of work that cements both acts’ wide-reaching and otherworldly renown." [label info]
www.4ad.com
"When we first heard about the collaboration, it sounded like a joke, like some internet meme. It did seem crazy, and on the surface, pretty hilarious, but eventually it was proven to be an actual thing. Then when we first heard a little snippet online, we weren’t entirely sold, Walker sounded even more over the top than usual, and the title Soused seems to indicate that maybe Walker was in fact completely wasted when he recorded his vocals, cuz it definitely sounded like it. But when we finally got to hear the whole thing, it suddenly all made sense, Walker’s vocals, while still insanely dramatic and over the top, were somehow perfect, and SUNNO))), instead of just doing the guitars-against-the-amps drone thing, really seem to be working way outside their comfort zone, and in fact, lots of this record sounds extremely, sonically uncomfortable. Fantastically so. We were so smitten by opener “Brando”, we had trouble digging any deeper into the record. Right from the get go, opening with Walker crooning over a whirring organ, shimmery and sun dappled, and what sounds suspiciously like the Guns ’N Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine” guitar lick, but then the thick, viscous drones creep in, accompanied by strange ticks and pulsations, as well as what sounds like a bull whip, as well as the occasional burst of distorto guitar, the combination of that low end creep, and Walker’s vocals, as well as a cool feedback/high end that seems to echo the vocal melody, it’s pretty powerful, and stunning, weird, but also weirdly beautiful. “Herod 2014” was our next obsession, with it’s weird squelchy electronic rhythm, buried in thick rumbling thrum, it’s Walker who carries the song, some sort of demented, and yeah, likely seriously soused, torch song, flecked with static, and driven by a slo-mo Sabbath riff stretched out into near static sprawl, Walker’s vocals wreathed in lots of mysterious noise, the whole track peppered with what sounds like some strange banshee wail, or pterodactyl cry, but it’s somehow so perfect, that it becomes as integral to the song as any other element.
“Bull” is downright balladic after the previous heaving monoliths, but not for long, the song exploding into some serious Swans like pummel, with Walker kicking it up a notch, some loose chaotic drum damage, some junkyard percussion, and a ‘hook’ that manages to be the catchiest bit on the whole record, the song slipping into slo-mo somnambulant creeps, before launching right back into that ‘chorus’. We have to be honest, the first three songs are so perfect, it’s not until maybe the 20th listen that we even made it to the last two, but they’re similarly broody and bombastic, “Fetish” featuring some seriously buzzed out bass (assuming that’s a bass), and like “Bull” before it, another killer ‘chorus’, that sounds like Swans gone haywire, dosed on some serious narcotics, a wild cacophony of elephant like electronic bleats, churning metallic riffing, monstrous drumming, before settling into what sounds like some sick, mutant strain of kraut-doom. And don’t even get us started on Walker’s INSANE lyrics, in this case, a refrain of “Choo Choo, Choo Choo mama”, which sounds ridiculous, but in the context of the song, it sounds mad, maniacal, and like some sort of twisted genius, which we’re assuming it is. Finally, there’s “Lullaby”, which is one, at least for a moment, until another blurt of atonal, moaning, keening, doom cabaret explodes from the murk, only to settle right back down, most of the track spent in hushed lowercase mode, finishing off super dramatically, a field of barely there guitar rumble, distant sonar like pings, ominous swells, mysterious insectoid clicking, and one final, haunting stanza from Walker. Most definitely a twisted outsider masterpiece, and considering how skeptical we were, it’s even more surprising that this might just end up being a record of the year contender for some of us!" [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€29.50 |
|
| WALLS, BRENDAN |
Cassia Fistula |
CD |
Fulminant und vollmundig schwingend, hart an der Grenze zum Feedback-Meer, aber auch soft-minimal statisch oder in tiefe Bruzzel-Fragmente zerbrechend.. abstrakt-atmosphärische Drones und Geräusche, das erste (?) Album des Australiers BRENDAN WALLS. Im Edel-Cover.
"An out-of-nowhere release from an intriguing one-man studio project, 'Cassia Fistula' is Sydney based Brendan Walls' debut solo outing. Utilizing prepared and found sound objects- Brendan uses crudely built homemade machines to create this music without the use of digital technology or effects processing. The result is a minimal static sound of rich warmth and beauty. 'Cassia Fistula' comprises of three distinctive tonal explorations that are quite hallucinatory. Tumultuous and shifting yet gargantuan and immovable, these works create a state where movement and stasis co-exist. Unfolding the monumental within the intimate, the results are beautiful, surrealist, organic blocks of sound. 'A Dark Horse drone.' Mr. Walls is now Collaborating on projects with Mirror Folks Heemann & Chalk, including a forthcoming Remix of Mirror of the Sea. A man to watch. CD in miniature gatefold jacket. Design by Tina Frank & Judith Scheikl. Mirror will Remix Cassia Fistula for a ltd ed.7"
[label info]
|
2002 |
€14.00 |
|
| WANDER |
same |
CD |
Viermal pure Drone / Minimal Music–Stücke vom BEEQUEENSeitenprojekt, warm und analog und sachte schwingend.... klingt sehr
„klassisch“ wie die Vorbilder aus den 70er Jahren.... am besten das vierte Stück wenn sich zu tiefen Drones Wassergeräusche mischen...
Dies ist die EINZIGE jemals erscheinende WANDER CD, da sie auf jeden Format nur einmal veröffentlichen!
“Wander are Freek Kinkelaar and Frans de Waard, also known as Beequeen. Since changing Beequeen's musical direction in the summer
of 2000 (drones out and 'popmusic' in). However, since they both love drone music, they founded Wander in 2001. In Wander they explore
drone music in it's widest possible form, with each new release exploring a specific concept. Wander will release their music on various
formats, but every format only once. Each release is called Wander, and there is a total absense of any information on the cover. So far they have released a 10" on their own Plinkity Plonk label, a LP for En/Of, a split 7" on Plinkity Plonk (a split single with Beequeen), a CDR on XZF and a 7" on Edition... and a forthcoming split 7" recorded in collaboration with Andrew Liles. The material was recorded in the analogue studio Geluidswerkplaats
Extrapool in late 2004 and early 2005, using a wide variety of vintage synthesizers (juno 60, korg MS20, roland SH 102 and Arp synthesizer)
and a Philicordia organ. The four long pieces breath an atmospheric, pastoral sound of slow and deep evolving drones. The CD was mastered by Raymond Steeg of The Legendary Pink Dots' fame. The images on the cover and the disc were made with the help of Elise de Waard. Released in a special cardboard package with varnished
images. Strictly limited edition of 600 copies only. Wander live performances are as rare as hen's teeth. So far two took place: providing a new soundtrack to Derek Jarman's 'In The Shadow
Of The Sun' and a gallery-show in Amsterdam (to much ignorance of a snotty and arty audience - but then we wouldn't have expected otherwise). official website at http://www.beequeen.nl/wander.htm“ [label info] |
2005 |
€8.00 |
|
| |
same |
CD |
Ähnlich wie bei FRANS DE WAARDS (leider nicht mehr aktiven) Projekt SHIFTS geht es bei WANDER um ruhigen Minimalismus und Drones, allerdings hier nicht mit Gitarren erzeugt sondern mit reinen elektronisch-analogen Frequenzen, gar nicht so unähnlich von z.B. den letzten ELEH-Sachen, aber mit mehr Entwicklung im Drone...
"Ok, so Wander promised to release only once in each possible format, but Divine Frequency insisted on doing another full length CD, and who are Wander to refuse such a request? Wander is Beequeen in drone disguise. This piece (in two parts), was recorded in the summer of 2008, with subsequent mixing afterwards. All analogue synthesizers humming away. Just in to catch the next synth revival? If only. Wander never cared about hypes, but this is a great piece." [label info]
www.divinefrequency.com
"... As ever the release itself is simply titled Wander and organ drones lay again at the foundation of this album. The CD is divided into two tracks and that does not live up to what it might suggest. It starts off with airy hiss and rumble, while a steady organ drone slowly rises up along the way; getting stronger in force and eventually slowly fading away into a more silent passage. After that a new movement in the piece shows it face: a fieldrecording of crickets guided by low end pulses that secretly take us into that second track and it's not before a louder organ sequence starts to play when you actually realize that you've reached yet another movement. And that will happen again... and again. So it's more like one long track instead of the earlier supposed two. With lots of dynamics to keep it exciting and a very pleasant listen at the same time. Oh yes, yet another fine example in that ever growing line of Wander releases." [SDT/Vital Weekly]
|
2009 |
€12.00 |
|
| WARDROBE MEMORIES |
The Mean |
MC |
"Wardrobe Memories has been around since 1999 - serving Drones and melodic dark ambient on CD-R, vinyl and Cassette. After releases on Dhyana Records, EE Tapes and several other hard-to-purchase longplayers, sparsely spread in very limited runs, a new LP on shhhh records appeared in 2011 with foggy soundtracks and subtle beats. Now after 2 years (and almost one year in the making) the new album by Wardrobe Memories appears with a green C-50 audio cassette on Voluntary Whores, strictly limited to 48 copies, serving 14 soundtrack-songs for a never released steampunk-darkfuture-movie. Release comes with a futuristic object and oversized printed artwork." [label info]
www.voluntarywhores.de
|
2013 |
€8.00 |
|
| WATKISS, THOMAS |
Ancestor Phase I : Silence |
CD |
Dark Ambient & Experimental Drone Newcomer aus Pennsylvania (USA), sein Debut-Album ist Sitting Bull gewidmet und taucht thematisch ein in die Mythen von Abstammung & Geschichte der Menschheit. Illustriert wird das von zum Teil archaischen, recht rauhen & gurgelnden Drones, aber auch sanftere Elektronik-Wallungen kommen vor und geheimnisvolles Oberton-Geflüster... das alles wurde effektvoll in Szene gesetzte mit Gitarre, Bass & Synth / Computer.
"This ambitious, hour-long dark-ambient soundscape composition is certainly one of the finest we've heard in years. The basic concept seems to be rooted in the depths of human history and experience on Earth, and this is expressed primarily through gentle washes of electronics, computer generated sounds, and very heavily processed electric guitar and bass, occasionally building to dramatic intensity. This is divided into 12 parts, each of which stands alone with its individual theme, but also works naturally with the others to form the entire composition. Comes in triple-fold digipak." [label info]
www.thomaswatkiss.net
|
2008 |
€12.50 |
|
| WATSON, DAVID |
Fingering an Idea |
do-CD |
Die perfekte Platte für den "Drone-Nerd" (wir zählen uns übrigens auch dazu) - ein Album mit experimentellen Dudelsack-Drones!!
Obwohl der Dudelsack eines DER Drone-Instrumente par excellence ist, wird er im "experimentellen" Bereichen nur äussert selten eingesetzt. Der Australier DAVID WATSON aber kreiert hier auf verschiedene komplexe Arten wunderbare Dudelsack-Drones, z.T. mit einem ganzen Ensemble live aufgenommen, so entstehen acht verschiedene "Movements" auf CD 1, polyphon & obertonreich. In verschiedensten Harmonie- und Obertonvariationen bewegen sich die hyper-organisch klingenden Dudelsäcke, manchmal sehr dynamisch & schillernd, dann mit Entwicklungen die an HAFLER TRIO's Drone-Werke denken lassen.... unsere besondere Empfehlung!
Auf der CD 2 als Bonus etwas ganz anderes, nämlich Kompositionen für elektrische & akustische Gitarre, hier werden alte Cassetten-Aufnahmen von 1987 mit zusätzlichen Tunes versehen...
"Whoever David Watson is doesn't become very clear. But he's from Australia and it seems that his two prime instruments, well at least covered on this release is bagpipes and guitar. Both have a single CD at their disposal here, and the result is quite different. 'Dexter' is the first disc and it has the bagpipes. It's been a while since I last heard that instrument, probably on a Nocturnal Emissions disc, but if you think of it, it's the perfect instrument to play drone music on. There are three recordings here, blending together in a natural way. There is an ensemble piece, a multi-tracked solo piece and one with recorded material going through an eight-channel MSP patch. Cut into eight pieces this is wonderful drone music, slowly moving and changing, almost in a Phill Niblock like manner (he's the man from the label, so go figure). Absolute great stuff and nothing outdated or old-fashioned, or whatever you think of bagpipes." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
|
2007 |
€16.00 |
|
| WESTERN, CREED, SPYBEY |
W ands |
CD |
"A posthumous collaboration between the late Phil Western (DOWNLOAD, BEEHATCH), Jesse Creed (THE PASSENGER) and Mark Spybey (DOWNLOAD, DEAD VOICES ON AIR, REFORMED FACTION, BEEHATCH).
Both Phil and Jesse shared a love for vintage analogue synthesizers such as the VCS3, and the music for "W ands" was largely created using this equipment. In the spirit of how it was created, Spybey added improvised passages using his collection of homemade and ethnic instruments and then edited the pieces.
Phil would often talk about being 'taken away' by music. Both Jesse and Mark have laboured to do this through their own music too, not as a means of escape but to transcend. This music strives to explore the desire to go beyond the ordinary everyday experience and to reach a place where the egos and the individual contributions of the players are largely inconsequential. A place where time doesn’t really matter. A place of healing and invention.
An album of expansive drones and analogue electronics, which will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Coil, Nurse With Wound, Zoviet France. Digipak.
Read the full story of this release here: www.coldspring.co.uk/csr285cd.pdf"
https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/w-ands-csr285cd
|
2020 |
€13.00 |
|
| WHETHAM, SIMON |
Mall Muzak |
CD |
"In 2009, as part of the ‘All Around You’ season of sonic events co-ordinated by Alastair Cameron at Arnolfini, Matt Davies for The Cube and myself, I was invited to produce a site-specific work for a half-derelict shopping centre called ‘The Mall’ in Bristol. I proposed exploring the space with various microphones and techniques to uncover sounds not normally heard by the shopping public.
Memories of family visits from my childhood portrayed the shopping centre as a crammed and noisy place, every shop a brightly lit shrine, drawing in it’s worshippers, enticing them to empty their pockets of coins and notes…
On returning to The Mall, it was apparent that the current recession had hit hard, with almost half the units with their shutters down, possibly never to open again. The seemingly empty drones of the various processes that keep a structure like this alive could be heard over the scattering of shoppers who had entered, wandering some distance from one active unit to another.
These lifesigns of the building became more apparent behind the scenes, in the corridors that link the units, hidden from view, in the units that were closed, in the storage areas and delivery bays. The drones become more musical and tonal, singing a lament to the financial situation and to better times. The chattering of air conditioning and escalators echoing that of now absent consumers. Coins drop in an empty space, money thrown away….(Simon Whetham)" [label info]
www.unfathomless.net
"These days it seems if Simon Whetham is everywhere, now with a release on Unfathomless. For this one he made field recordings in The Mall, Broadmead, Bristol. We see a picture of him on the insert, holding up his microphone, near the escalator. Shopping is not an activity I enjoy very much, nor shopping centers, perhaps for that reason that they always buzz with activity. People, ventilators, escalators, and above muzak. I am not sure if Whetham feels the same about malls, and calls his release 'Mall Muzak', with a sarcastic undercurrent, or perhaps even considers this to be alternative muzak for shopping malls, but somehow I think this is all not the case. His piece (lasting almost fifty minutes) is a musical survey of activity going on in malls. Exactly the ventilators, escalators, the eternal buzz. He captured the whole lot and put this into a great musical piece of buzzing and humming tones, occasionally with the obscure sounds of objects falling, pushed to the faraway background. Although I didn't hear Whetham do much beyond what he usually does, I think this was a pretty good CD, perhaps even one of the best I heard from him so far. Minimal yet always changes in smaller details and throughout making an excellent form of new muzak - now, if malls would play this I'd be around them more. Perhaps." [FdW/Vital Weekly]
|
2011 |
€14.00 |
|
| WHITE, FRANCES |
In the Library of Dreams |
CD |
"I was going to write about how this is an absolutely beautiful and disturbing record, but I think quoting from the liner notes of James Pritchett really does sum it up. 'Frances White invites us to take a walk through her Resonant Landscape. Where are we going? We are walking through the woods, marshes, and streams of New Jersey. She points out the birds and frogs that make their home there, the water that flows through it and the wind that shakes the trees. But then we turn and there is that other sound world, the one in which these woodland sounds are transformed, or in which we find sounds altogether new: spectral birds singing to us through a sparkly haze; distant colored winds, like the breath of giants; the air around us, alive, charged with long, low drones and sudden electric crashes. There is something magical about this other world, and (like most magic) there is something disturbing here as well. We move between the two worlds almost at random, bumping into one sound after another. We find ourselves rising off the path and floating, then falling abruptly into silence, reappearing in a marsh full of geese and blackbirds. This is more than a sonic postcard from Princeton: it is a journey into the inner world of Frances White. We could call it an electroacoustic dream drawn from her memories of hikes in the woods. As in a dream, real experience is placed in a surreal context, a play of inner and outer. We fill in the gaps, supplying connections among the random fragments of reality, memory, and imagination. This gets to the heart of White's music. She has made a body of work in which she takes the real, brings it into her being, transforms it there, and then brings it out again in her compositions. Technically, she works by using the computer to manipulate recorded sounds and to synthesize wholly new ones. She mixes her timbres by hand as a painter would mix colors, and she applies them lovingly and painstakingly to her canvas of silence. But the power of her work comes from her ability to take listeners on journeys through her inner sense of sound, finding something luminous, exalted, dramatic, and at times frightening there. Her music is like the work of dreams, both the pleasant ones and the nightmares. It is not by accident that Gus Van Sant set the calmly-executed bloodbath of his film Elephant to one of White's Walks through 'Resonant Landscape'. White's unsettling juxtapositions of real and imagined sound work well with Van Sant's matter-of-fact treatment of almost unwatchable violence. Frances White studied composition at the University of Maryland, Brooklyn College, and Princeton University. She has received awards, grants, commissions, and fellowships from organizations such as the Guggenheim Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Prix Ars Electronica, the International Computer Music Association, ASCAP, the Bang On A Can Festival, and the Other Minds Festival. Ms. White's music can be heard on CD on the Wergo, Centaur, Nonsequitur, Harmonia Mundi, and Bridge Records labels. A CD devoted to her chamber works, Centre Bridge, was released in August of 2007 on the Mode label. Ms. White's music was featured as part of the soundtrack of three of Gus Van Sant movies." [label info]
www.pogus.com
"This new Pogus release is a work of a composer who is completely new to me. White studied composition at the University of Maryland, Brooklyn College, and Princeton University. Some of her work has been released by labels like Mode, Bridge, Harmonia Mundi, etc. This new release gathers six compositions for very different line ups. The first one, ‘Chosi’ is for solo shakuhachi, beautifully played by Ralph Samuelson. White studied Shakuhachi herself and feels inspired by traditional music that has shakuhachi in a main role. Also she feels inspired by nature. No wonder that she often uses natural field recordings in her electronic work. Just like Jonas Braasch, White has a comparable fascination for space and environment in her musical output, like titles as ‘Walk through Resonant Landscape 5.1’and ‘Walk through Resonant Landscape 5.2’ indicate. Both titles provide a picture or metaphor that describes how one can experience these pieces: it feels like a travel through different parts of a jungle. Here birdcalls dominate, there sounds from insects. The works are built up as a series of waves of manipulated environmental sounds. The works have a fine balance of acoustical natural sounds and electronics. White builds successful imaginary landscapes and surroundings. Also I would say she is searching for some spiritual quality in sound. The title piece ‘In the Library of Dreams’ is written for viola d’amore played here by David Cerutti, against a background of electronic sounds. Only one piece is for an ensemble, ‘The Ocean Inside’ played by Eight Blackbird, an ensemble of six musicians. It is a romantic piece of work of slowly moving patterns that disappear in a background of fragile sounds. The closing piece ‘The Book of Roses and Memory’ has very sensible playing by Liuh Wen Ting on viola and Thomas Buckner as narrator. The electroacoustic music of White takes you into dreamy atmospheres, with compositions that are not extremely complicated. In fact her work is very accessible. It is also very solid work and far from some easy romantic pastiche." [DM/Vital Weekly]
|
2012 |
€13.00 |
|
| WINDY & CARL |
The Dream House |
do-CD |
„ 'The eternal Struggle', der Titel des ersten Tracks auf dieser zwei CDs umfassenden und achtzig Minuten dauernden Huldigung der Langsamkeit, beschreibt die Musik von Windy Weber und Carl Hultgren treffender und prägnanter, als dies Horden von Kritikern in Dutzenden Reviews zustande bringen könnten. Langsam und zäh entfaltet sich ein nahezu dreißig Minuten langes Stück, das trotz seiner Dauer und Viskosität genau das vollbringt, was guter Ambientmusik heutzutage oft fehlt, nämlich die Fähigkeit, den Hörer stundenlang in den bequemen Ohrensessel drücken zu können. 'I have been waiting to hear your voice' knüpft hingegen eher an älteres Windy and Carl-Material an, wie es beispielsweise auf „Antarctica“ bereits zu hören gewesen war. Hier liegt der Fokus auf lang anhaltenden Drones, die jedoch nie nach Laptop klingen, sondern so organisch wirken, als hätte man sie in einer großen Konzerthalle oder Kathedrale aufgenommen. Die zwei auf der zweiten CD „Dedications to Flea“ enthaltenen Stücke sind dem gleichnamigen, verstorbenen Hund gewidmet und bewegen sich musikalisch auf dem gleichen Niveau, das Windy and Carl mit „The Dream House“ als Maßstab ausgegeben hatten. Um den Bezug zu dem Verblichenen herzustellen, wurden jedoch einige Field Recordings integriert und die Stimmung gegen Ende der zwei Tracks etwas gedämpft. Auch mit ihrem ersten Lebenszeichen seit fünf Jahren gelingt Windy and Carl der eindrucksvolle Beleg, dass sie auf dem Gebiet der sich langsam entfaltenden Musik ein einzigartiges Gespür für den richtigen Ton zur richtigen Zeit besitzen und damit zu den Besten des Genres gehören.“ [Echoes-online.de]
"The Dream House is the first album of new material from Windy & Carl in five years. Recorded at their home studio in Dearborn, MI it consists of two tracks. The Dream House is in many ways the duo's simplest and most straight-forward release, concentrated as it is on two evolving pieces. It is also Windy & Carl's most ambitious recording, with the duo deliberating on longer forms. Windy & Carl are capable of sustaining melodic ideas and patiently apply attention to singular musical gestures. Windy Weber describes the album as being about 'death and dreams and beliefs and leaving and moving on.” [label info]
|
2005 |
€16.00 |
|
| WINER, LESLIE & VON HAUSSWOLFF, C.M |
1 |
LP |
Leslie Winer is an artist and author living and working in France. Earlier releases include Witch (recorded in 1990, released in 1993), & That Dead Horse (recorded in 1994, released in 2010), Always Already (2011), and the retrospective compilation Leslie Winer &c. (WHO 003CD, 2012). She has collaborated with Jon Hassell, Bomb the Bass, Mekon, and her words and voice were heard on a track on CI by Diamond Version (Carsten Nicolai and Olaf Bender) (2014). As of 2015, she is co-editor and co-executor for the estate of beat writer Herbert Huncke. (1), by Winer and Carl Michael von Hausswolff, is Winer's first full-length original release to be recorded since 1994. CM von Hausswolff divides his time between the worlds of music and visual art. His records, which he has been releasing since 1979, have been released by such labels as Radium 226.05, Ash International, Raster-Noton, Laton, iDEAL, and Touch. He curates Freq_Out, a collaborative sound installation shown in Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Marrakesh, and beyond, with such artists as JG Thirlwell, Finnbogi Petursson, Jana Winderen, and Christine Ödlund. He makes films with Thomas Nordanstad and music with Martin Rössel (as Gomila Park), Jean-Louis Huhta and Graham Lewis (as Ocsid), and Joachim Nordwall and Jason Lescalleet (as ENOUGH!!!). Leslie Winer and Carl Michael von Hausswolff met in 2011 in Lisbon, Portugal, via Philip Marshall, co-owner of The Tapeworm. They decided to make a vocal/electronic music collaboration just for fun, with no intentions to have it on any kind of phonogram. Time proved different! Text and vocals by Winer; music by von Hausswolff, except for "Talked to some of them," which features music by von Hausswolff and Nordanstad, from their 2009 film Electra, Texas 2008. Recorded, mixed, and treated in Vigny, France, and Stockholm, Sweden, 2012-13.
#####################################
"Leslie Winer has long been an intriguing figure to me, an eighties fashion model who while in London frequented Leigh Bowery's infamous Taboo nightclub. In New York in the seventies she lived with Jean Michael Basquiat and became acquainted with the Beats in the form of William S. Burroughs and Herbert Huncke. But it is her association with musicians connected to Adam And The Ants that really gets me. She had a short lived marriage to Kevin Mooney, and was instrumental in his post Ants projects Max and Wide Boy Awake.
This is her first proper album since Witch, a cult album with a turbulent history which first surfaced as a white label before its official release in 1993 on Transglobal Underground's own label. Its hazy atmosphere, spoken passages laced with samples and dub infused beats, has as many commentators pointed out laid down something of a blueprint to what became known as trip hop - something which Winer herself has reservations about. Witch featured a rich ensemble of artists including bassist Jah Wobble, filmmaker John Maybury, and various ex-Ants musicians including Mooney and Matthew Ashman, alongside Mooney's former Max/Wide Boy Awake associate John Keogh, as well as Karl Bonnie of Renegade Soundwave. Winer also featured on Sinead O'Connor\'s The Lion and the Cobra which in various formations also included Mooney, Marco Pirroni, and O'Connor\'s ex-husband John Reynolds, who also turns up on Witch. The interconnectedness between these players beggars belief and that\'s without bringing in John Gosling's Mekon whose releases feature many of the aforementioned, as well as Winer herself.
But that's just the backstory. In 2010 The Tapeworm released & That Dead Horse, a collection of unreleased recordings, while 2012 saw the release of & © on The Wormhole, containing material from the aforementioned Witch with other material recorded in Miami and collaborations with Vincent Gallo and Christophe Van Huffel. Van Huffel would go on to work with Winer as Purity Supreme releasing the guitar strewn atmospherics of Always Already as a 12-inch on Ash International. It was around this point The Tapeworm's Philip Marshall brought together Leslie Winer and Swedish sound artist and composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff, who agreed to collaborate on music. The results are (1).
It's easy to regard Winer's delivery as a stream of consciousness, but there's thought behind her lyrics and particularly in the emphasis found within her phrasing. Lines appear and then reappear later in another form, as she plays with reality, in a voice deeper and more lived in than the mischievous delivery of Witch. It's difficult to ascertain Winer's viewpoint in her words on (1), as they sway between the poetic and the philosophical, especially on the longer tracks found on the first side. On 'I'll Be Mother' over a discreet ringing drone, she ruminates about "the next generation" and the need for "a pharmacological method of making people love." Her husky drawl, speaks of a susceptible populace where "we are creators, yet we have also been created". "I'll Be Mother" she repeats, adopting the role of the maternal figure characterised in the ritual of making tea. Winer, as executor to the works of Herbert Huncke, has long been associated with the Beats, but it is in the following track the friendship and the education learned from William Burroughs comes to the fore. 'I'll Be Mother' may have touched upon the Control Process that Burroughs dwelt on, but 'This Discreet Organ' looks to transformative powers of interconnectedness, touching upon observation and evolutionary evidence to question "long held notions of who and what we think we are" where time, sequence, speech, language and pattern recognition play a role. This is Winer in full-on philosopher mode: "The concept of what a thing looks like takes precedence over direct observation". In measured breathless tones she reflects on human development and the need for sleep, questioning evolution, biology and gender roles when she inquires "Did women throw enough spears?" Mirroring Burroughs she asks "Who is running the show?" over Von Hausswolff's lingering drone.
More than ever on 'Can I Take Your Order' her husky, hesitant delivery apes the sardonic drawl of a Burroughs reading. The text concerning culture and patriarchy is cut-up with various sections reappearing and reformed over the powerful undulating drones of von Hausswolff. While much of von Hausswolff's score is understated and subtle it is much more prevalent here - and in all the tracks on side 2 - gently swelling around Winer's fragmented oblique text entwining biographies of an aspiring writer and isolated academic. Juddering glacial tones form a frosted layer to the treated, distant and hard to discern delivery of Winer on 'Weatherman'. The closing track 'Talked To Some Of Them', additionally features and is credited to Thomas Nordanstad. It is taken from Electra, Texas 2008, the third in a series of films by CM von Hausswolff and filmmaker Thomas Nordanstad. The music is reduced to arching electronics, rising and falling behind Winer's fragmented musings, recycling text that originally surfaced on 'I'll Be Mother'. "This seems to be the final revolution", she muses, over effects resembling distant tolling bells.
Last year, Leslie Winer, in a photographic session by Juergen Teller, became the face of Vivienne Westwood's 2014 campaign, and amidst all the Tapeworm associated releases it seems Leslie Winer, from her reclusive life in France, is making tentative steps back to into the public arena. Without downplaying von Hausswolff's contribution here my focus on (1) is in on Winer, her voice and the spoken word text giving form to her philosophy and current thinking. (1) won't garner the gushing words that surround Witch, recently reissued by Superior Viaduct, but (1) does show she still has much to say, and (1) is worth seeking out, especially if either artist is of interest. For more information go to Monotype Records" [Compulsion Online]
|
2015 |
€26.00 |
|
| WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM |
Celestite |
do-LP |
"Seit der Bandgründung 2002 haben WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM über 4 Studioalben und hunderte von Konzerten hinweg die transzendenten und mythischen Aspekte des Black Metal durch ihr ganz eigenes Prisma gebrochen und Musik erschaffen, die in direkter Beziehung zu den wilden Landschaften des pazifischen Nordwestens steht. "Celestite" bricht auf zu einer Reise, die tiefer in den kristallinen, Synthie-getriebenen Herrschaftsbereich vordringt, der WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM schon seit langem fasziniert. Mit Unterstützung des Produzenten Randall Dunn (EARTH, SUNN0))), MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE) hebt die Band eine versteckte Soundlandschaft aus, die sich nur lose an den gewohnte Sound bindet und doch jederzeit als WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM zu erkennen ist. Während sich das Album entfaltet, entwickelt sich eine meerestiefe psychedelische Soundlandschaft; Portale öffnen sich und geben den Blick auf eine Zauberwelt frei, die nur in Träumen, Visionen und Musik zu betreten ist. "Celestite" wurde in den Avast Studios in Seattle und in der bandeigenen Owl Lodge in Olympia realisiert, wo die Band ein ganzes Arsenal an Vintage Synthies und Effekten aufreihte; dazu gesellten sich ein Ensemble aus Bläsern und die klassischen API und Neve Konsolen. Kommentar der Band: "Um 'Celestite' zu machen, tauchten wir tief in die unterirdischen Sounds, die im Mix von ,Celestial Lineage verborgen lagen. Wir isolierten sie, entwickelten sie weiter und wählten die so gewonnene Soundlandschaft als Startpunkt.
Auf diesem Fundament errichteten wir das ganze neue Album. Manche Melodien von "Celestial Lineage" sind wiedererkennbar, doch diese vertrauten Sounds erscheinen als Geister, die nur lose mit den Originalkompositionen verbunden sind." "Celestite" ist der erste Release auf dem bandeigenen Artemisia Records Label." [label info]
https://artemisiarecords.bandcamp.com
"We're super into this, but avant black metallers Wolves In The Throne Room have gotten a lot of flack for this new record of theirs, which seems to be more based on them as a band, than the record itself; like Deafheaven or Liturgy, the fact that they're 'hip' and 'cool' and lots of non metalheads dig them makes them ripe for criticism from the 'troo cvlt' black metal crowd. Also that they're doing something a bit different. A LOT different, here. And we applaud it! 'Cause taken objectively, as in, if you didn't even know this was WITTR, you might find yourself pretty into it.
The deal is, there's really no black metal here, just pure spaced-out synth shimmer, completely cosmic and kinda New Agey, even. It's total Tangerine Dream worship, but with plenty of dense bombast and thick layered drones. More like Emeralds than Emperor. The sort of thing some black metal bands dabble in as "intro music", taken to the full-length extreme. And it's pretty good - the first track sounds like it could be an alternate soundtrack to Bladerunner. Haunting and ominous, lush drones and buried melodies... Elsewhere, the swaths of thick synth-iness sound almost like Salem, some beatless almost witch-housiness... There's even some Carpenter-y electro beats on "Sleeping Gold Storm". The moaning horns and other elements, in the more cacophonous crescendos, builds up the drama and edginess, but it never gets metal, nope. It's the intro to itself, instead.
Thumbs up from us! And, black metal and/or WITTR fans who aren't open-minded enough to approve of this, don't fret, it's just meant as an electronic "companion" to their last album, 2011's Celestial Lineage, not a follow-up. You still gotta keep waiting for that, but in the meantime, you could try to relax and enjoy these surprisingly spaced-out sounds. Plus, it's not like there's not precedence for stuff like this in the realms of black metal, from Neptune Towers to Alturaz... And for other folks, more into synths and drones than metal, this could easily be the first (only?) WITTR you'll ever need." [Aquarius Records]
|
2014 |
€30.00 |
|
| WRIGHT, PETER |
Air Guitar |
7inch |
Neuseeländischer Gitarren-Drone pur vom Wahl-Londoner PETER WRIGHT, Musik wie ein Tagtraum, der mit delikaten Obertönen & Resonanzräumen aromatisiert ist...
„Welcome to the Dance of Overtones! New Zealand's PETER WRIGHT (residing for some time in London, UK) has raised a reputation over the last few years with his music built mainly by guitar & field recordings. This 3-piece EP #Air Guitar# consists of little fluxion-mantras, made by waving guitar-overtones & sounds of air & water, with little additional sounds of daily room-noises. Ultra-minimal & harmonic, but with a certain raw directness & concreteness that creates a unique atmosphere, these wonderful over-tonic vibrations & sounds seem to tell little stories or daydream-phantasies... Filed under: Guitar-Mantra drones. BEAUTIFUL STENCIL-COLOURED SLEEVES (ORANGE / WHITE / BLACK). ORANGE VINYL & ORANGE INLAYS” [label description]
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
|
Red Lion |
CD |
Londoner Aufnahmen von 2004: field recordings von verschiedenen Plätzen Londons (Red Lion Square, Tate Modern, etc.), feedbackin’ hyper-effektierte Drone-Guitars, merkwürdige Obertonräume entstehen, Daydream-Akustikgitarren verschmelzen mit Environmentals, sowas wie Helikopter-Vibrationen(?), einzelne metallische Töne ziehen Resonanzen wie Schweife hinter sich her, himmlische Vibratos, die in der Luft schweben & zu schimmern scheinen, sirrend-fräsende Klangwolken mit Siren-Effekt...
Wie fast kein Zweiter ruft PETER WRIGHT aus seinen Gitarren manchmal fast aberwitzig zu nennende Obertonresonanzenschwälle hervor, schafft sirrend-schwirrenden Singsang par excellence, der nie in langweiligen tumben Noise oder Drone abgleitet, sondern immer in fein- ästhetischer Balance bleiben....
RED LION ist ein poetisch-verträumtes Werk mit vielen Facetten und sei hiermit allen die PETER WRIGHT noch nicht kennen ans Herz gelegt. 9 tracks, ca. 55 min.
“You can remove a Kiwi from New Zealand but you sure as hell can't remove New Zealand from a Kiwi. Such is the case with Christchurch transplant, Peter Wright. Over the course of a decade, Wright has etched his name in glass in the annals of drone-world superstardom. And while I'm not sure what that really means, the point is that when it comes to soaring dronescapes, few do it better than Peter Wright. He has helped pave the way with contemporaries such as Birchville Cat Motel and Double Leopards, but clearly has his own distinct voice. With his past few albums, Wright seems the logical successor to native Kiwi, sound manipulator extraordinaire, Roy Montgomery.
"Red Lion" is Wright's latest incarnation and, once again, pushes the boundaries of what he can do with his trademark 12 string Danelectro to the absolute outer limits. He pushes the limits of simplicity without ever breaking. Wright's albums are a thing of sheer, pure beauty, existing in a vacuum where nothing on the outside can tamper with their grace. Even with his lofty intentions, "Red Lion" is immediately approachable and grabs the listener from the opening notes. As always, Peter Wright offers up something wholly infectious and undebatably magnificent.
Press about Peter Wright: "The finest in underground free noise / drone...mostly from New Zealand but all around the world as well. For those of you new to the CpsiP label, imagine classic Siltbreeze (Dead C, etc.) mixed with Jewelled Antler (Thuja, Blithe Sons etc.), dark and deep listening that sometimes verges on all out noise, but more often than not remains subtle experiments in avant drone and abstract sound." - Aquarius Records
"This is easily some of the most evocative proto-drone work to reach these ears in a while, with beautiful almost folk melodies that flutter on the edge of audibility cut up with a thick soup of early-evening smog and long forgotten geographies. Somewhere between early Flying Saucer Attack, Mirror and William Basinski. Highly recommended." - David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue
"If Windy & Carl's vision of Antarctica is your idea of bliss, you will drool over this soundscape depiction of Peter Wright's home in New Zealand. Now living in London, these are what the label calls "love-drones," as Wright's memories of his home's wide open spaces inspire slowly unfolding waves of lush guitar." - Jim Steed, Fakejazz “ [label info]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
|
Yellow Horizon |
CD |
Der grossartige Neuseeländer PETER WRIGHT (auch aktiv als POLIO) liefert seit Jahren Gitarren-drone durchtränkte Traumlandschaften ab, die sich dunkel aber unpathetisch in den Äther schwingen. Seine tänzelnden Gitarren-Ozeane sind von besonderer untergründiger emotionaler Spannung und Melancholie beseelt, und wirken doch auch entspannend....keine Oberflächenmusik, sondern der „wahre“ Kern des Selbst scheint hier aufzuflackern..... Demnächst auch eine 7“ auf Drone Records !! NZ-Import.
“New Zealand guitarist and sound-artist Peter Wrights back catalogue stretches to something like 30 releases over the last dozen years. 'Yellow Horizons' is the most recent of these and follows on from 2004's 'Distant Bombs' (Last Visible Dog), and 'Desolation Beauty Violence' (Digitalis). This CD finds him relocated to dirty old London town from where he has written a series of love-drones to the wild South Island of his homeland. Described by David Keenan (of The Wire, Volcanic Tongue) as a "consistently impressive thinker", Wrights guitar craft opens vistas that are as contemplative as they are emotionally engaging. Periods of preperatory silence awaken into long slow shifting drones; layered 'folk' patterns build to an almost psychotropic intensity before being subsumed once more within the drone... These scenes are as varied as the South Island itself. There are glaciers as well as sunburnt plains. Writing about the recording of Yellow Horizons, Peter had this to say: "The nature of my reduced travelling bag of equipment has meant a more concise distillation of sounds than before with the 12 string guitar now dominating. To make things even more cohesive I tuned the guitar to an open C chord and every track on this disc uses this tuning, creating an almost seamless continuity, and an overall foundation". [press release]
“Another fucking stunner from this re-located New Zealander, Desolation Beauty Violence is mostly based around various manipulations of Danelectro 12-string guitar using minimal effects and field recordings but for the most part the source feels supremely dislocated. This is easily some of the most evocative proto-drone work to reach these ears in a while, with beautiful almost folk melodies that flutter on the edge of audibility cut up with a thick soup of early-evening smog and long forgotten geographies. Somewhere between early Flying Saucer Attack, Mirror and William Basinski. Highly recommended.“ [David Keenan/ Volcanic Tongue]
www.pseudoarcana.com
|
2005 |
€14.00 |
|
| |
Snow Blind |
do-CD |
"Peter Wright is a true veteran of the experimental scene, hailing from New Zealand with a catalogue that goes back over a full decade. We're very proud to present you with his newest offering, a mammoth double-album called Snow Blind. Anyone familiar with Peter's music will be happy to hear lots of the layered guitar drones and textural interplay that his records have been known for, however we feel this is a totally accessible record to anyone who enjoys dense drones or ambient music. Wright coaxes otherworldly harmonies out of thick slabs of rocky chords that tower nearly endlessly like cliffs overlooking a black ocean, with some pieces keeping a calm, stately mood and others bursting with hot yellow energies. Altogether this is one of the finest collections of guitar music we've heard in a very long time, and should not be missed. Presented on a limited run of 300 copies with sprawling and unique artwork by Peter himself." [label info]
www.installsound.net
|
2009 |
€16.00 |
|
| WRIGHT, PETER & BRIAN GRAINGER |
Peint Arbre |
CD-R |
https://pspsph.bandcamp.com/album/peint-arbre
Initially recorded between Summer and Autumn of 2009, then stashed away in the shade for almost nine years, my collaborative full-length album with Peter Wright is now finally issued forth into the universe. A mammoth album of drones, feedback, sub-bass harmonics and psychedelic textures, set across three different pieces, Peint Arbre is a dense and enveloping trip through the tangential and exploratory minds of two men, working almost 8,000 miles apart.
Peter Wright, if you are unaware, is an outright legend of drone music, guitar improvisation and spectacularly filmic textures, having been active in the New Zealand experimental music culture since 1992. I've long been influenced by his recordings, and in 2009 I was lucky enough to host his epic Snow Blind double-album at INSTALL, the now-defunct label I co-operated with David Tagg. We followed Snow Blind with a vinyl release of Wright's transcendent Orbit, and he also guested on my One Bleak Try album, lending many additional layers of sonic seasoning to the track "Black Rust Caress."
Since INSTALL closed its doors years ago, I've wanted to give this unreleased album we did a proper release. Since so much time had passed, Peter decided to revisit the recordings and add/subtract some things to bring it into its present form (so for those few out there who heard this album in its previous iteration, this is a different beast). Peint Arbre is an interesting cross-pollination of my distorted bass monolith drones, generated using guitar and organ in the Rolling Knoll studio, and Peter's contributions of guitars, vocals, percussion and all sorts of other instruments. Indeed, it feels very alive, and that is almost all Peter's doing - I merely provided the initiative steps. So it follows that hopefully another collaboration is due between us, and the door is of course always open for Peter to issue something of his own here at Psøma Psi Phi.
W/P by Peter Wright & Brian Grainger. Principal recording done in South Carolina at Rolling Knoll, Summer 2009. Subsequent and final pass recording done in New Zealand, 2009 and 2018. Text and design by ABM&D. This is Psøma Psi Phi number ØΨΦVII.
Packaged in a clear CPP plastic 120-micron thick sleeve with two hand-cut pastel cardstock inserts, custom hand-affixed text decals and black ink stamping, with an in-house duplicated/printed white CD-R.
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| WYRM |
Divination Bones |
pic-7 |
"We are happy to present the second ever PICTURE 7" in the Drone-series (first one was CRANIO-CLAST / DR-44) by this promising project from the United States formed by ALLAN ZANE and LIZ LANG. ALLAN has worked with JOHN MURPHY (SPK, SWORD VOLCANO COMPLEX, etc.) in the past and also released with RATS WITH WINGS, GX JUPITTER-LARSEN, NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS, IRR.APP.(EXT.), etc.. and solo works. Forthcoming CD includes the works of VAL DENHAM and PBK. LIZ is also active as AURACENE and has had a very successful CD with RIVER GUERGUERIAN.
The droning world of WYRM (an old word for "serpent") appears to be at the same time raw & inaccessible, but then also subtle and mysterious. Crackling noises, granular sounds, waving drones, and more undescribable acoustic objects form an "other dimension" of its very own. The music seems to point to existential archaic areas in our mind that are unaccessible but somehow known.
A definite must for fans of abstract drone experimentalism in the way of early HAFLER TRIO or BRUME.
Filed under: DIVINATION DRONES
PICTURE 7" DESIGNED BY ALLAN ZANE. EXTREME HANDPAINTED COVER WITH STICKER DESIGNED BY LIZ AND ALLAN ZANE. BEAUTIFUL PARCHMENT INLAYS. PLAYS ON 45 RPM !!" [label info]
|
2010 |
€8.50 |
|
| WYRM + RATS WITH WINGS |
D.I.S.C (Death Inducing Signaling Complex) |
CD-R |
Strange Sounds noch und nöcher, alles rauscht & glitzert und blitzt elektronisch... wir vermeinen Rückwärts-Klänge & Flöten herauszuhören, seltsame Loops sind sowieso omnipräsent, für jeden BIG CITY ORCHESTRA - Fan zu empfehlen!
Nice collaboration by the projects from US & Australia, hard to describe whats going on here really, everything drones & sounds & glitters & blinks... a great journey into weird sounds & noises!
label-website: www.roilnoise.com
|
2006 |
€10.00 |
|
| WÄLDCHENGARTEN |
The Leech |
7inch |
Sumpfig-schleppender noise-drone vom dänischen Duo, Musik die immer mehr von einem unsichtbaren Zentrum eines schwarzen Lochs angezogen zu werden scheint...Dunkelviolett-marmoriertes Vinyl, silberfarbene Siebdruck-Cover.
"WÄLDCHENGARTEN is a danish duo from Aarhus that could be best described as “noise ambient” or “raw / harsh drone” in what they do. After some already very promising releases (i.e. a CD in the Desolation House-series of Relapse Recs) this is their very first vinyl. Their music on #The Leech# is very raw and filled with tiny noisy outbursts, at the same time ultra-sluggish & powerful. Low whistling feedback & pure electronic whirl-tones are omnipresent, everything seems to gradually sink to an alien center of heavy gravity like an organic entity that is slowly sucking energy while everything around is pulsating and rumbling in menacing cascades... this is dark, but its a darkness of sheer beauty. Filed under: heavy-gravity drones. edition of 300 on dark violet vinyl. Black Covers with silver silk seen print." [press release]
|
2006 |
€7.00 |
|
| |
Distractions |
CD |
Trotz diverser hervorragender Releases sind die Dänen WÄLDCHENGARTEN weiterhin ein Geheimtip für Drone-Freunde. Elektronische, rauhe & majestätische Drones voller amorpher Elemente sind ihre Spezialität, Soundquellen sind kaum auszumachen, im Klang liegende Wellenbewegungen bestimmen das Bild. "Distractions" ist ihr drittes "full-length" Album.
"The senses are hit by a typhoon of charged electricity, which sends your mind into a cabinet of mirrors where darkness folds and unfolds. The sound image presents itself as an inseparable unity in which myriads of parallel sequences are constantly undergoing transformations. Transcend through ethereal radiation!" [label info]
"Since seven years Wäldchengarten exists as a lone but strong voice in the world of Danish experimental music. They have had a couple of releases (see for instance Vital Weekly 510, 465, 380, 338 or 265) which all can be noted for the strong love of noise and drones. Everything they do deals with electronics, from the samples they use to the sound effects and the analog electronics. Noise is never the end result: rather Waldchengarten use noise to create an effect that is trance inducing. Also Waldchengarten has no theme, it seems. No track titles, no obscured nazi images or any such things known to the world of noise, all they (the two brothers Hansen) care about is playing mind altering ambient industrial music, and they do a great job. They can easily be compared with the likes of Troum. Forcefully present, but twistin' the senses. With 'Distractions' they created an even finer balance in the music, moving slowly forward with their sound. Every new release is an improvement from the previous, slightly refining the music. Waldchengarten doesn't take big steps, nor are they in for a radical change, but with releases at this rather slow speed, it's quite alright. So far their best release." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
www.phisteria.com
|
2006 |
€14.00 |
|
| XEDH |
Serpents |
mCD-R |
Reverberating metall-percussion, monumentally vibrating drones & odd effects, alienated vocals at the end, real archaic “handmade” industrial.... destructive and authentic stuff, recommended ! Comes in greenly oxidated copper-sheet cover !
“Since 1995, Miguel A. Garcia, through his project "XEDH", has been developing an incessant search of new musical proposals within the more industrial and noisy side of music. More familiar to old bands, such as Throbbing Gristle or Esplendor Geometrico than current panorama which has a more conventional attitude. Garcia's sound forms are strengthened by noises and rhythms trying to create an environment that reflects simultaneously the self-destruction of the human being and the decline of a society that becomes less and less human. "Serpents" is a good example of that: obsessive rhythms that evoke in the distance the sound of the human machinery into action. Sounds are based on dissonance, manipulated voices, noise "increscendo" no exempted from influences within the most brutal noise panorama and the light fragments of most conventional music (that calles melody). The soundtrack of a world on the verge of extinction, the present time, and the mortality through the personal apocalypse of a single human being.” [label info]
|
2004 |
€7.50 |
|
| XIPHOID DEMENTIA |
Secular Hymns |
CD |
"Actively recording since 2002, Egan Budd’s Xiphoid Dementia has become known in the underground and in numerous live situations for creating meticulously crafted yet hard to define, post industrial soundscapes, navigating between textured ambience, scourging noise, junk metal , field recordings, and surreal atmospheres, sometimes all in one track. Still, there’s a hyper-focus here that ties it altogether, and makes for something that is dynamic, unpredictable, and clearly ambitious. For those that question if there’s originality left in industrial music, Xiphoid Dementia answers with a resounding yes, though not so much in the sounds themselves, but rather how they are layered and placed.
The first track, Abortion Rites, manages to capture the essence of Xiphoid right off the bat; starting calm enough with a singular drone and a rising apocalyptic choir, only to be eventually engulfed in a firestorm of brain rattling noise and straining machine vibrations, before shifting gears into sprawling cosmic drones, deep bass drops, and processed vocal squall. Subsequent tracks follow a similar path, constantly moving from the cerebral to the physical, adding structural elements, then obliterating it in a mass of debris, mechanized whir, and sharp edged clutter. Of the four tracks here, the last track is perhaps the most focused, and certainly the bleakest; a 13 + minute excursion into a dystopian society full of utterly hopeless and dark, resonating atmospherics, and ending in a cyclonic blur of destructive noise and blackened filth . It’s perfectly executed and a suitable ending to what equates to an intensely visceral and creative listen. Hard to find comparisons here, but those that appreciate the dynamics of Navicon Torture Technologies, Prurient, and Propergol will certainly find something to like." [label info]
www.malignantrecords.com
|
2012 |
€12.00 |
|
| Y CREATE |
Madadayo |
CD |
Y CREATE ist ein neuer Name auf EE TAPES, das Projekt aus NL ist aber schon seit vielen Jahren aktiv. Auf MADADAYO sind 8 lange Stücke mit perkussivem, melancholischem ambient Industrial enthalten - getragene Stimmung verbreitend mit Synths & schwermütige Samples, die nach Trennung und Trauer klingen..
“After years of silence, Hessel Veldman, main person behind the legendary 70-80ies label Exart from Holland returns with astonishing new solo work! So you probably ask: Y Create? I didn't ask this question, as I knew Y Create was the solo project by one Hessel Veldman, from IJmuiden, The Netherlands. In the days when I was a little boy, he was the main man for experimental and electronic in The Netherlands and he ran Exart Tapes, worked with Willem de Ridder in FNTC (with a release on Staalplaat) and contributed a track to the very first cassette I released (also as Y Create, but with Gert-Jan Prins on percussion. With Prins he also was in a band called Gorgonzola Legs. Somewhere in the earlyb nineties I lost contact with him and he went on to do other things. But he's back, with Y Create and his old passion for radio plays. The recordings on 'Madadayo' were recorded between 1979 and 2002 and remixed in 2002-2003 for this release. Y Create uses the full eighty minutes a CD can offer to play his music, but with only eight tracks, you can imagine they are lenghty affairs. Y Create's pieces usually start out with a piece of drones, with lots of small variations in the EQ-ing, and percussion comes in. The percussive bits move around constantly in the background, being fed through an enormous amount of delay and reverb lines and in some case even develop into a banging rhythm with hints of techno. All of these eight pieces have a great ambient feel to them, but Y Create is pushing the boundaries a little bit more and things are just a bit more adventurous here. Great come-back album.“ [Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly]
|
2004 |
€13.00 |
|
| Y.ANN |
Valytheme |
CD-R |
Wiederveröffentlichung des raren und einzigen Solo-Tapes vom ULTRA MILKMAIDS-Zwillingsbruder YANN JAFFIOL - fast 50 Minuten feinste & hauchzarte Gitarren-Echo-Drones & Verwebungen, in die sich kleine Soundeffekte mischen....
"reissue of the tape self-released in 1997 by y.ann on the u mohol label, "valytheme" is the first & only tape of one ultra milkmaids twin.
close to the early milkies sound, maybe in a more ambient approach, it contains some tracks that were in fact demos for the ultra milkmaids. everything was carefully remastered for this this reissue." [label info]
|
2006 |
€9.00 |
|
| YANAGISAWA, EISUKE |
Path of the Wind |
CD |
The Aeolian Harp (also called Wind Harp) is a string instrument that is played by natural wind. It sounds like layered feedback or drones with rich harmonic textures that will change continuously according to the wind direction, strength and consistency. One day, I bought the materials at the local DIY store and built a small Aeolian Harp. I brought the harp outside on windy days, but it made no sound at all. Through trial and error, by altering the string materials, tension, and the angle against the wind, it finally produced a sound.
The harp resonates with the surrounding environment, changing from place to place. I put two lavalier microphones into each of its two holes to clearly record the tiny resonant sounds, without too much wind interference. What is intriguing to me is that the recording will inevitably include environmental sounds from near and far which are condensed and slightly modulated by the harp. In a way, I use the harp as a kind of transducer as well as sounding body to interact with the environment through the forces of the wind. The recordings themselves are ecological, meteorological and geomorphological observations at a certain time and place.
1. Ferry Passing
Recorded on the seashore of the uninhabited island called Narugashima in the Hyogo Prefecture, where stiff winds blew intermittently. The sustained low-pitch sounds come from the ferries passing each other off the coast.
Path of the Wind | Eisuke Yanagisawa
2. Seagull
Recorded on the Kehi no Matsubara, a quiet and scenic beach with many pine trees. You can hear the seagull screaming and people chatting while strolling. The beach is located at the foot of the Tsuruga Peninsula where seven nuclear power plants are currently in operation.
Path of the Wind | Eisuke Yanagisawa
3. In a Park
Recorded at the Nodagawa Shinsui Park in Yosano-cho, Kyoto Prefecture. Yosano-cho is a rural town on the alluvial fan surrounded by the mountains; the park itself is located along the Noda River.
Path of the Wind | Eisuke Yanagisawa
4. Old Camellia Tree
Recorded near the 1,200-year-old Camellia tree (Camellia japonica, ‚Kurotsubaki‘) located deep in the valley in Yosano-cho. The height and branch spread of the tree is about 10m, presumably one of the biggest and oldest of its kind.
Path of the Wind | Eisuke Yanagisawa
5. Ridge Line
Recorded in the morning at the Kaetsu Soho Park located half way up Mt. Oeyama in Yosano-cho. Nature and objects on the mountainside fade in and out as the place where the sunlight shines gradually changes.
Path of the Wind | Eisuke Yanagisawa
6. Hegurajima
Hegurajima is a small island located in the Sea of Japan at the far north of the Ishikawa Prefecture. There are various small shrines and cairns on the island. I set up the harp near the Yasaka shrine in which the god of epidemic prevention is enshrined.
Path of the Wind | Eisuke Yanagisawa
7. Kinshozan
Kinshozan is a small mountain located in Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture. The mountain is famous for its abundance of fossils like corals, bivalves and snails which inhabited it about 250 million years ago. People started exploiting its high quality limestone and marble during the Edo period, and the mining-activities are still going on today. I set up the newly-made harp at the watchtower of the mountain where I could see the whole mining area. The intermittent sounds come from the drilling of rocks under the cliff.
Path of the Wind | Eisuke Yanagisawa
7 Tracks (41′14″)
CD (300 copies)
All the recordings are unprocessed field recordings using Aeolian Harps of our own making. Recorded in the Kyoto, Hyogo, Fukui, Ishikawa and Gifu prefecture, Japan from September 2014 to November 2017.
Recording, Edit, Texts: Eisuke Yanagisawa
Audio Mastering: Lasse-Marc Riek
Photography: Shin Tukinaga
Artwork: Takamitsu Ohta
www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=16674
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| YEN POX |
Universal Emptiness |
10inch |
Finally NEW material by the "almost legendary" US-duo, working with deep e-bass sounds to create a really isolationistic mass of darkest cosmic ambience; artwork by the great artist & photographer EYELYFT (eyelyft.blogspot.com) feat. gloss spot printing parts; comes on BLACK vinyl, lim. 500, over 30 min. playtime! **extra NOTE: the original material was so massive that it needed 3 master-plates before it could be pressed - the original tracks had to be shortened & de-equalized as they were TOO HEAVY!
www.substantia-innominata.de
"Some ten issues ago I reviewed a CD by Blood Box, the solo project of Michael J.V. Hensley, who is a member of Yen Pox, and I wondered: do they still exist? It has been a while since I last heard Yen Pox, but they still exist: here is a brand new 10" with two pieces, 'Above' and 'Below'. Apparently with some problems to get it pressed, since the music of Yen Pox deals with much low end. Despite the alchemical titles ('as above so below', remember), I think this music is otherwise free anything remotely 'occult', 'magick', 'gothick', which sometimes sips in with this kind of music. Two pieces of utter dark ambient music, reverberating drones from the underworld. Hard to say what Yen Pox are doing though. Are these highly processed field recordings? Lots of analogue synthesizers? Digital ones? Just sound effects? Or, and that is perhaps the most likely thing, a combination of all of this. Slowly moving, hypnotic, trance like. Yen Pox sound like Troum here, and that, I think, is a big compliment. Very fine record indeed. Why is there so little Yen Pox out there?" [FdW/Vital Weekly]
"Soundmassen, schwarz und zäh wie Teer, wälzen sich durch Universal Emptiness (SUB-14, 10"). Die Urschlange und Mutter allen Dröhnens hat eine derartige Konsistenz. Auf dem Vinylmaster war das Klangbeben, das YEN POX einzufangen versucht, kaum zu bändigen. Aber wer wie Michael J.V. Hensley & Steven Hall seine universale Wahrheit zu verkünden versucht, muss bis an die Grenze des Machbaren gehen.
'Above' & 'Below' heißen die beiden urig pulsierenden, dröhnenden, grollenden, rauschenden Seiten der Medaille und erinnern damit an die hermetische Weisheit der Tabula Smaragdina. Demzufolge ist auch oben ein Abgrund, denn synästhetisch erfassbar ist nichts als eine dunkle Tiefe, eine tiefe Dunkelheit, Protuberanzen einer Schwarzen Sonne, Strudel der Ursuppe. Sie hat einen metallischen Beigeschmack, den Geschmack von Fanfaren. Der Wind aus der Tiefe bringt etwas mit, das in Götterohren Musik zu sein scheint, Stöhnen, Schreie, Rufen, vielleicht Gesang. De profundis. Aber Oben ist Unten, die Götter brüllen selbst. Wir hören sie als - Gedröhn." [Rigobert Dittmann / Bad Alchemy #72]
|
2011 |
€12.00 |
|
| Z'EV |
A Handful of Elements |
CD |
"With “A Handful Of Elements” Z’EV returns to the “dense, carefully laid and deep drone works” [adnoiseam.net] of “Sum Things” (CSR101CD). However, for this release he has drawn deep from his 40 year old sonic archive (from live performances both instrumental and vocal to a range of soundscapes from around the world), producing soundtracks to accompany you to the other side of ambient, through the door between your eyes." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
"Readers who has been studying the history of Industrial music should know that Stefan Joel Weisser is a true legend of industrial sound expressions. Side by side with more well-known Industrial legends Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, Z'EV was an important part of the Industrial pioneers in the 70's. Thus Z'EV was one of the presented industrial pioneers in the ground-breaking work "The Industrial Culture Handbook" out on RE/Search back in 1983. The California-based multi-talented artist has specialised in producing concrete soundscapes using found sounds of Industrial materials. Present album titled "A handful of elements" is no exception. Having dug into the 40 year old archive of sound materials from Z'EV, Stefan Joel Weisser delivers a work of dense, carefully structured noise drones divided into five intersections. The expression belongs to the ambient scene however do not expect any kind of chill-out atmospheres on this one. That Z'EV has its roots in the industrial scene seems obvious as you wander through the territories of threatening metallic noises giving you the feeling of being trapped alone on a distant space station light-years from any kind of human contact. Turn of the light and let you drift into this sonic nightmare of seductive industrial soundscapes." [NM /Vital Weekly] |
2013 |
€13.00 |
|
| Z'EV & BOYD RICE |
untitled |
mLP |
"... This vinyl EP features two untitled tracks. One side plays at 45 rpm, and the other side plays at 33 rpm, with the two sides clocking in at around eight and 16 minutes respectively. Both sides feature vocals by Boyd and percussion by Z’EV, with the source recordings having been subjected to extensive post-production treatment by Z’EV. Although the sound sources used here are vocals and percussion, it would really be impossible to know this without being told – Z’EV’s treatments of time and pitch shifting, distortion and stretching have radically transformed the source material into a dense, churning mass of textured drones and abstract noise, with shimmering metallic tones swooping and falling, interspersed with low rumbles which could conceivably be derived from a human voice slowed down way beyond the point of comprehensibility. Anyone expecting to hear something like NON’s ‘Total War’-era works of martial rhythms and stridently declaimed rhetoric will be disappointed – this record is much more akin to NON’s earlier pure noise pieces like Pagan Muzak and Rise. In terms of Z’EV’s work, this is quite similar to his collaborative releases with Hati and Stephen O’Malley of Sunn 0))), both of which involved his collaborators creating source material which Z’EV then treated in this way." [Heathen Harvest]
"This stunning 12" brings together two long-time San Francisco friends and legends of the Industrial music scene, both active since the late 70s! Boyd Rice is well-known for his project NON and for his collaborations with Death In June, Rose McDowall, Coil and Tony Wakeford to name but a few. Z'EV is a prolific composer and conceptual artist, who utilises metal percussion and electronics to create mystical rhythmajik - and who is also known for his collaborations with hard-hitters such as Stephen O'Malley, Oren Ambarchi, Psychic TV, KK Null, Organum and many more. Two lengthy and exclusive tracks! Ltd x 1000 copies on marbled vinyl." [label info]
www.coldspring.co.uk
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| Z'EV / FRANCISCO LOPEZ |
Buzzin' fly / Dormant spores |
CD |
Zwei lange Stücke auf dieser beeindruckenden CD, die auf gemeinsam erstellten Klangquellen beruht. Das 32 minütige "buzzin fly" von Z'EV ist ein atemberaubendes Dronescape voller aufblitzender und schneidender Sounds, bei LOPEZ wird daraus eine 40minütige Versenkungsübung, wenn mächtige Eisberg-Drones auftauchen und wieder verschwinden gerinnt die Zeit, hier tun sich furiose Welten auf ..... genius stuff !!!!
"A sensational collaborative album between Z’EV, one of the forefathers of industrial music, and renowned Spanish artist Francisco Lopez, known for his releases performances and installations worldwide. Z’EV’s ‘buzzin’ fly (in loving memory of Tim Buckley)’ is a full spectrum 32 minute piece full of dynamic shifts, sonic worlds and can be described as oceanic in feel. Lopez’s ‘dormant spores’ takes 40 minutes to run it’s course, and is perhaps a more meditative piece than Z’EV’s, but no less challenging. Lopez skilfully crafts minimalist hypnotics that can be as destructive to delicate eardrums as they are captivating. Both
works complement each other and form a powerful album that Lapilli and Black Rose Recordings are happy to release." [label info]
"...Lopez more than Z'EV, but both are avid collectors of sound material from the world that surrounds us. Lopez is the man with the microphone, while Z'EV does that too, but he also is on the look out for material to play his percussive music on. Throughout Z'EV's career percussion music has played an important role, but the studio has had a likewise big role in his work. Using the studio (no doubt a harddisc these days) to its extreme, using as many tracks as possible to make subtle shifts and changing patterns throughout the piece. Perhaps the opposite of how Francisco Lopez: using sometimes just one or two sound sources and exploring them through radical equalization. Before he did this using a very low audible range for his music, but lately he has shifted towards audible material, but in cut-up/collage way. Here it is no different. The sound sources of both are presented in a strong collage form, in which loud/soft material, sometimes with smaller blocks of silence in between them. A very intense piece of music.
In the five pieces by Z'EV things stay throughout on a more equal level, in which sounds seem to shift and phase along side each other. The whole thing, rather one piece in five blocks than five separate pieces makes a highly psychedelic pattern of sounds moving in and out of phase. Two sides of the coin called field recordings and both sides, even when so different, are equally great. Powerful, intense and illusionary. Great stuff." [Fdw / Vital Weekly]
"Sadly, this is music that some would describe as “ambient”, simply because that seems to be the going term for music that doesn’t have drums or traditional style guitars. The problem with that definition is that it is considered synonymous with “nothing really happens” and there is a world of chthonic wonder to be found in the depths of the sounds herein. It’s virtually impossible that any fan of experimental or concrete music will not have happened upon the works of either Z’ev or Lopez in their travels. Each is prolific, respected and established within the community. The album is a split, rather than a collaboration (hence the divided title) with the first half, comprised of five shorter linked tracks, belongs to Z’ev, the second, a long single piece, to Lopez. The two halves are a nice match, with the almost blissful organic drift of the former leading nicely into the intense rise and fall of the latter. This release is all about the texture and progression of sound, so if you are looking for something that truly is ambient- something inoffensive that meekly fades to the background- you might want to look elsewhere. If you’d prefer to throw on headphones for something that will reveal itself more with each subsequent listen, you could do a lot worse." [KM, Adverse Effects]
|
2006 |
€13.00 |
|
| ZAMMUTO |
Solutiore of Stareau: Disc One |
CD |
Ungewöhnlicher minimal/digital-Ambient auf einem neuen Label der RIOUXS-Betreiber! Dies ist die Wiederveröffentlichung einer CD eines ursprünglich als 3 xCDR erschienenen Werkes, mit warmen Klangfarben & -flächen, die aber stark fragmentiert werden durch klicks & cuts, immer wieder gibt es kleine Veränderungen im Sound, trotzdem „fliesst es“ sehr eindringlich, und Harmonien tauchen aus dem Untergrund auf.. entspannend und beruhigend und doch nicht gewöhnlich oder langweilig..
“This disc one is a quiet atmospheric minimal soundscape. Distant radio waves floating in the night, warm drones rising and falling, punctured by a faint yet insistant pulsing rhythm. Deep listening in which surface variation is so subtle - getting lost in the recording for hours is almost inevitable IF YOU give it the time. Time well spent.” [press-release].
|
2001 |
€10.00 |
|
| ZEITKRATZER & CARSTEN NICOLAI |
Electronics |
CD |
"This cd documents the cooperation between Zeitkratzer and Carsten Nicolai, started nearly a decade ago; a cooperation between an avantgarde ensemble and a non-academic electronic musician. The electronic music of Carsten Nicolai - partly being of even aseptic clearness and quality suddenly becomes sensual and physical through Zeitkratzer's instrumental sounds. Inversely, Zeitkratzer sounds different too: in '5 min' the musicians play only electric sound generators: humming of plugs, the peeping of the synchronised Zeitkratzer-clocks, white noise, TV cheeping at 10 kHz. 'Synchron Bitwave', the latest piece is the most sensual and warmest; no other sounds than a small third and its electric derivates, finally leading to high, dabbed string spiccati. While 'c1' transfers electronically conceived asymmetrical loops into a 19-16th rhythm. A strange undertow results, partly because of the pieces' grounding with merging split sounds. Here, Carsten Nicolai virtually becomes metaphysical, perhaps even romantic...'
[label info]
".. So, when taking on a collaboration with Carsten Nicolai, who is best known for his swaggering rhythms for pure tone and minuscule glitches as Alva Noto, we had to ask how this would work. Well, essentially, Nicolai has adapted his sound for Zeitkratzer, not the other way around, which might have been a real challenge for Zeitkratzer to attempt to adopt the thud and rumble of something like the Transall series. Instead, Nicolai and Zeitkratzer pursue long-form compositions, mostly for electronics, but occasionally with the assistance of a particular instrumental coloring from say a clarinet, a cello, or a piano. Each of the three pieces here were performed live, commissioned for this sound art festival or that in Europe. The first of which swarms around static-laden drones and crackling hiss which spirals around a Niblockian drone from a sustained clarinet, eventually a rhythmic undercarriage from a softly tapped piano ebbs against the slow- building arc of sound. The second piece seems to be staged from prepared piano, amplified televisions, and tone generators, offering another skeletal rhythm to the clinical frequencies. The third piece returns to the ideas of the first with the reprise of that piano, but here a semblance of a melody encroaches the slow-motion raga drone from low-thumbing electronics and rasping sustained strings. It's not all that far from another of Nicolai's storied collaborations, with Ryuichi Sakamoto. Both Zeitkratzer and Nicolai are guilty of playing it safe on these three pieces, but the results are striking and lovely nonetheless." [Aquarius Records review]
|
2008 |
€15.00 |
|
| ZELIENOPLE |
Give it up |
CD |
"Der weite Weg zum Popsong: das Chicagoer Trio zwischen Doom und Ambient:
Das Trio Zelienople gehört zu den festen Größen der Underground-Szene Chicagos. Der Perkussionist Mike Weis spielt regelmäßig mit der Alternative-Folk-Legende Scott Tuma, zusammen mit dem Zelienople-Gitarristen und -Sänger Matt Christensen bilden sie die Band Good Stuff House. Doch trotz aller Nebenprojekte liegt das Hauptaugenmerk auf Zelienople, die mit dem Multiinstrumentalisten Brian Harding komplettiert werden. Mit "Give It Up" entstand das bis dato ausgereifteste Werk des Trios. Die Band bewegt sich weg von früheren Vergleichen mit Talk Talk, Slowdive und Bark Psychosis und entwickelt einen
wagemutigen, frischen Sound. "Give It Up" ist zudem "poppiger" als der Vorgänger "His/Hers", ist eine Sammlung sich langsam wälzender Songs. Von dem an Bohren und der Club Of Gore erinnernden Opener "Aging" über den Americana-Doom von "All I Want Is Calm" bis zum diesigen Ambient von "Water Saw" reicht
die Klangpalette. Und das perkussive und traumhafte "I Can Put All My Faith In Her" kommt dem Popgedanken des Trios am nächsten. Musik für den Abend am Kamin." [label info]
"Another fantastic disc of gauzy, shimmery otherworldly dronemusic, from the seemingly infallible Type label. Long time aQ faves, Chicago's Zelienople moved to Type, after a handful of releases on PseudoArcana, Digitalis and Root Strata, and it was a pretty perfect match. Rameses III, Alps, Goldmund, Grouper, Xela, North Sea, Helios, Svarte Greiner, Black To Comm, it's not difficult to see that maybe this was where Zelienople belonged all along.
On Give It Up, the group deftly mix light and dark, weaving softly smoldering dreamscapes, all muted and hushed, with sun dappled dronefolk, all chiming soft focus guitars, and minimal percussion, hazy and gauzy and slightly blurred, vocals surfacing here and there throughout. A sort of ethereal slowcore, pop songs pulled apart and set in amber, this record a shadow produced by the muted sunlight
shining through.
Some tracks are brooding and doomy, laced with ominous creaks and deep moaning low end tones, wheezing organs, and layered ambience, others are folky and reverbed, strummed guitars wreathed in a patina of muted thrum, spread out over some almost Neil Young sounding vox, but buried way down in the mix, still others are skeletal and barely there, voices drifting in the ether, over spare tendrils of melody, only to slowly shift, and get lost in a cloud of prismatic chordal hum. Absolutely gorgeous, the perfect blend of minimal doom folk, hushed slowcore and abstract dronemusic.
The lp version comes with a bonus cd (NOT a cd-r, an actual pressed cd), featuring Zelienople's soundtrack for a film called Gone, stunningly beautiful, even more minimal than the record proper, the first half of the disc all gauzy drones, the second half, bleary eyed
slow motion chamber music. Be careful removing the cd from the lp, it's attached by a little dollop of glue or something, but a quick
pull will take some of the lp sleeve with it..." [Aquarius Records]
|
2009 |
€15.00 |
|
| ZOVIET FRANCE |
Feedback [Mort Aux Vaches] |
do-LP |
"VOD's third batch of Zoviet France reissues focusses on recordings and albums between 1996–2013, presenting many of them on vinyl for the first time. In this era, the pioneering band expanded their production techniques, exploring new sound worlds, without giving up the mysterious momentum of their music.
»Feedback« (1998): For the first time on vinyl, this album meanders between crackling and rather noisy tracks and deep drones. It was originally released within the Mort Aux Vaches series.
"
|
2022 |
€31.50 |
|
| |
The Decriminalisation of Country Music |
do-LP |
\" * 300 copies * As Glasgow\'s Tramway building evolved from train station into arts space, Zoviet France were present recording the ambient sounds for use in their commissioned themes for the Scottish Arts Council. Though you\'d hardly believe it from the mostly non industrial nature of these very comfortable soundscapes. Five tracks range between five and twelve minutes apiece and the remaining four serve as in-between filler. In \"Something Spooked the Horses\" a constant warm drone and panning scratchiness are overlaid with yearning strands of pedal steel guitar. \"Electron Gate\" gently pulsates a bass loop as microscopic bits click and fuzz. \"Pyroclastic Flow\" is noisier with some possible power tool abrasion honed into layered drones. \"Spiiltek\" is dancing plastic chips and electronic blips which relinquish to the deep bass waves beneath.
\"Light Abrasion\" closes with a higher pitched wall of sound and occasional cricket like chirping. All in all \"Decriminalisation..\" is an engaging work of auditory art. And it\'s as suited for busy high brow art rooms as it is lonely late night bed rooms.
|
2022 |
€33.50 |
|
| ZWEITRÄUME |
Flux |
CD-R |
A new name in the german experimental-ambience scene is ZWEITRÄUME (which you can read as / translates as “another rooms” but also “two dreams”); this album spreads on six tracks minimal sinus-tunes & micro-sounds, waves of enlightening drones, silences in between, classic music / found sounds – loops & samples, more concrete snaps & crack-sounds, and more harmonic drone-expanses...quite captivating and carefully put together for a intelligent listening experience... handmade cover in DVD-Box. |
2005 |
€10.00 |
|
| [LAW-RAH] COLLECTIVE, THE |
Isolation |
CD |
Zweites Album für das niederländische Projekt, anxiety-drones im Zwischenraum von Isolationism und dark ambient Industrial...
"the ritual as a method of coping with fear" is the basic thought behind 'isolation', which is the first output by the [law-rah] collective since the release of 'incarnation' in 2001. the emotionally triggered droning soundscapes, which are the collective's trademark, have the power of confronting the listener with his or her deepest inner fears.
the 44 minute track, built from drones, ambient noise and extreme frequency modulations, was created for and performed at the new forms festival in the hague, netherlands on june 7th 2002. the performance was (and still is) a collaboration between the [law-rah] collective (music) and juxtapose (choreography and dance). to underline the collaborative effort, a 12 minute video is included on the cd which holds outtakes of the actual performance. the video was shot with four camera's and produced by videopunx in amsterdam. 'isolation' was mastered by the [law-rah] collective at studio am rhein between december 2002 and march 2003. in order to reassure the performance's nature and concept, this cd has not been stripped from extreme frequencies and its live-dynamics; therefore care should be taken when listening to it at high volume. are you ready to confront yourself?” [press release]
|
2003 |
€13.50 |
|
|
Inspiration |
CD |
"this time the [law-rah] collective is martijn pieck and bauke van der wal. bauke is the founder and original member of the collective, hence the first releases were the result of his twisted mind. during the years of law-rah's existence, he has collaborated with several people and re-evaluated the collective nature of the project. this in turn has changed a solo project with a weird name to a true collective of artists in both the audio and visual arenas. martijn and bauke have known each other since 1993 and shared many hours making music together. however, in the mid 90's both martijn and bauke went in different directions when it came to creating electronic music. in the autumn of 2007 the time was right and they once again started making music together. with this release martijn has become a full member of the collective and ideas for many future projects are already locked into their collective minds. "it's a new collective now. so a new i ... i (me) becomes us. after incarnation and isolation, now inspiration." (bauke van der wal)
compared with the collective's conceptual works like '1953', which was an earlier release by bauke and dutch writer, vocalist and member of the collective hiekelien van den herik, this album's subject is a more private and subliminal one. all track titles are related to baukes and martijns home town utrecht, and to the history they shared there over the years. a quote from a band both bauke and martijn appreciate is printed on the cover as a good example of their 'inspiration' and perfectly illustrates their thoughts about this town:
"this is the place where all roads meet, the place where all is secret. the place where time stands still in the comfort of night and love becomes will in the presence of light. i never want to leave..." (taken from 'terminus' by psychic tv)
musically, 'inspiration' can be clearly identified as a new step in the [law-rah] collective's exploration of their electronic microcosm. sub-bass lines and drones interact with beautiful idm'ish melodic lines that are complimented by pulsing beat sequences - inducing an overall majestic and sometimes melancholic impression. this music is filled with deep, haunting and phantasmagorial sounds that are expertly adapted to give one's fancy a full scope of emotion. more simply put, this is a inspired journey through two persons' past and present.
"the basics from the [law-rah] collective always was that you create your own imaginary movie and we'll take care of the soundtrack..." (bauke van der wal)
[full label info]
www.ant-zen.com
|
2008 |
€12.00 |
|
|
Solitaire |
CD |
"Like on the 2008 Ant-Zen album 'Inspiration', the duo Martijn Pieck and Bauke van der Wal upped the ante with the collective's 7th full release. Sound wise they return to the collective's origins: a combination of ambient structures and deep drones with sudden breaks in the sound spectrum. 'Solitaire's threatening and oppressive mood will leave you in a state and in a place where you haven't been before. A new reality which is more then the sum of its parts." [label info]
"Wer das Niederländische [Law-Rah] Collective auf seinem Konzert in Berlin (24.10.2009) gesehen hat und den experimentalektronisch Sound mit ätherischem Frauengesang und Spoken word-Einlagen goutierte, wird vermutlich über das aktuelle Album 'Solitaire' überrascht sein: In dem stimmungsvoll gestalteten Cover wartet ein erstklassiges Instrumentalalbum.
'Solitaire' hört man seine sorgfältig konstruierten Klangwelten deutlich an: Mit Fieldrecordings, langen Drones, gelegentlichen dumpfen Beats und filigranen Keyboard- und Piano-Melodien entadfltet sich ein geisterhafter Soundtrack, der sich großartig mit der im Artwork angelegten Bildwelt ergänzt. Melancholisch und unheimliche Passagen gehen über in wohlige Erinnerungsfetzen - 'Solitaire' ist ein großartiger Soundtrack zum Schwelgen im Persönlichsten.
Mit ihrem aktuellen Album ist dem [Law-Rah] Collective eine wunderbare impressionsitsische Komposition gelungen, die auf überdeutliche Samples und esoterische Gimmicks leicht verzichten kann. Glaklarer Ambient für das Innere Kino." [Marcus Stiglegger, Ikonen] |
2009 |
€6.00 |
|
|
Innovation |
CD |
the latest output by the [law-rah] collective is called 'innovation'. on this release the utrecht based duo consisting of martijn pieck and bauke van der wal chose to explore new methods within each of the steps it takes to create an album.
the experiments have led to an album with seven coherent yet diverse tracks with a total playing time of just under an hour. from this perspective, the story that is being told never gets boring in any way. it grabs your attention from the first tones of 'the theory of co-evolution' and it doesn't let you go until the final moments of 'diffusion of innovation'.
while they were working on 'innovation' pieck and van der wal stayed close to the sonic palette for which the collective is known and appreciated; it's still those massive drones - or if you prefer noisey soundscapes - which at moments hurt either your ears or your emotions. but the album is called 'innovation' for a reason, so how the album was created has changed in all possible ways: sound sculpting, composing, mixing, mastering and even collaborating ...
the sound sculpting part was done all with modular synthesis. all sounds have been created from scratch, which was long trajectory of pulling and patching cables and intensive listening until the sound was what it needed to be.
as for the collaborating part, with 25 years of working together it was hard for pieck and van der wal to try something new. for 'innovation' the workflow of creation was considerably different than any other album by the [law-rah] collective. the outcome could have gone two ways: either all the tracks had no relationship to each other, or the tracks would form a coherent story with matching production.
with 'innovation' the [law-rah] collective asked themselves whether it pays off to leave the beaten track; to take a step back and question yourself and your ways.
it's a proven fact: 'innovation' has become a very intense and consistent album with a clear message. it's not for your average background listing sessions. the sounds are all over the frequency spectrum and the compositions are quite demanding to the listener.
it's intense ... it's dynamic ... it's innovative ...
https://soundcloud.com/raubbau/sets/the-law-rah-collective-innovation
|
2018 |
€13.00 |
|
| |
Tess |
mCD-R |
at first a solo dark ambient project created by bauke van der wal more than 20 years ago, the [law-rah] collective has evolved through the years for more diverse sounds while more and more collaborators were added (including martijn "cinema perdu" pieck).
"tess" is a kind of special release as it's a solo droney piece made by bauke.
tess
(19:53)
forever in our hearts
this time the [law-rah] collective is bauke van der wal
www.darkambient.net
https://taalem.bandcamp.com/album/tess-alm-141
"The [Law-Rah] Collective started as the solo project of Bauke van der Wal and later became a duo, with the addition of Martijn Pieck (also known as Cinema Perdu). 'Tess', however, "is a kind of special release" by Van der Wal solo. Now, when I think of Taalem releases, over 140 of them (and not sure how many I heard, but a lot surely), this would be the sound to describe the label. The music here is dark, sad, electronic, and thoughtful. It doesn't stay in one place but is on a constant shift. These shifts are minimal, but they all happen at the right moment. I have no idea how Van der Wal works (somehow, I think I may not have seen a live concert by him/them), whether this is modular electronics or computer-generated music, but it has a great warm feeling. From the opening drone, the pieces move on, paces the drones and slowly adds a metallic percussion in the background. Metallic and mechanic, I should think, like machines at work on a construction site or a life support system in the hospital. A sombre piece, but maybe that's also because of the 'special release' and 'forever in our hearts' note that comes with this. An excellent release, this one, very moving." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
|
2021 |
€5.00 |
|
| [SIC] |
Gorilla Masking Tape |
CD-R |
Hinter [SIC] verbirgt sich die junge Nachwuchs-Elektronikern Jen Morris aus Montreal, die hier auf sechs Stücken analog-elektronischen dark ambient entwirft, der aber sehr UN-minimal ist, d.h. sich ständig verändert & neue Sounds & Färbungen aufnimmt.
Sehr subliminal & z.T. mechanisch-maschinell, sehr zu empfehlen !
“Having listened to and zoned out on this release at least half a dozen times, it should be obvious what it is that is so compelling about [sic]'s compositions of dusty long drones, deep ambient spaces and bump-in-the-night tension, but it's not. On the one hand, this is difficult listening: all uneasy sounds and dischordant timbres rubbing up against one another to create an ambiguous feeling of dread. On the other hand, for those familiar with the work of like-minded artists like those featured on the quasi-legendary "Isolationism" compilation, [sic] fits perfectly into a already-defined niche of dark, brooding ambient characterized more by its claustrophobia than by its use reflection of space as an expanse. I could tell you that Gorilla Masking Tape is a beautiful, haunting record, or that it's alpha-wave inducing at the right volume, or that it's a perfectly quiet record for people who lead unquiet lives, but none of that really captures the force that these tracks embody. Perhaps the record's most defining characteristic is that it is indeed so malleable that it can be both loud and quiet, both serene and disturbed, both beautiful and terrifying and that it does all of this effortlessly. I often wonder what more can be said about music like this that is both barely there and a force of nature all at once, depending on your volume knob. I always think that it will be impossible for someone to release yet another essential dark ambient disc in a world where artists who do this sort of thing tend to have voluminous discographies of equally affecting work already. I think that, and then I hear a record like Gorilla Masking Tape and it suddenly all sounds fresh and important and essential again and I'm left wanting more. It doesn't get much better than that.”
[Matthew Jeanes - Brainwashed Brain]
|
2004 |
€11.50 |
|
|
Your cart (0 item)
